The Triple

Mesa, to Swallow, to Palos. 5+ hours, 80 percent of that was singletrack and 75 percent of that was single we didn't have to ride twice. It was just enough to take all the sweat and salt out of ya.


Jerry, John, Brad and myself.


We hit up the new BMX park at the Mesa...


John tried to pull a Popper.


Then we spent some time trying to guess what this year's race course may bring...


One of the cool things about all these trails is that you aren't stuck riding them one-way. Two way trails mean two different trails.

A New Pre-Season

The cross bike was finally put to work on the terrain it was designed for. The DPRT World Championships are in full effect. Some training for Chequamegon, some for the upcoming cross season. Bender and The Old Man on the mountainbikes, Jerry, JT and myself on the cross bikes. Bender and Jerry thought it would rain but they failed to remember that it never rains on the goat(when I don't want it too). Now I just need to decide if I want to run a single 42 tooth chainring this season or stick with the double rings?

Trial by Fire

Gage had his first night at the track Tuesday. He got the opportunity to find out that crashing out there doesn't hurt that bad. While warming up with Nate and Mitch he jumped up to sprint and snap...the chain broke. Sent him into a pretty good tumble that could be heard all around the bowl. I guess it's pretty rare to have a track chain break like that. Must be all the raw power he's inherited from me. He was still ready to go, even with a little blood and torn jersey (my jersey BTW) so after Jay scoured the place looking for another chain he decided to forgo his night of racing and let Gage borrow his bike and shoes. Gage made it back out there and didn't the two junior events but mostly rode the back of the fields. He admitted on the way home he was nervous to stand and sprint again and who can blame him. He also asked if we could get a brand new chain and not just try to fix the old one. Definitely.

I'm also a half-pro...

...photographer now. One of my pics from Sunday made Velonews. Thanks to Claire for submitting it along with the story. I'm thinking I need a better camera soon. There are many times when I just delete a lot of the pics because the don't come out well. SLR maybe???

Did you see that WADA might recommend that cycling be removed from the Olympics because of doping problems? What a joke. Why then do they still allow baseball in the Olympics? And didn't one of track's biggest stars, Marion Jones just get sent to jail? Fine, get rid of all those events. Everyone knows Badminton is really the only legit Olympic sport anyway.

Bumpy Mowed Grass

Jerry was able to give that course a final clean cut in the morning though.



Gage Took third in his age and is in a big battle now for a top spot on the podium at the end of the year.



Myles walked away on his 29er with another win in the sport junior category...



While Nate and Mitch duked it out for second and third.



And Jerry took second in the Comp SS category.



More pics here.

Out of gas

The cobwebs are still infesting my brain. The joints, muscles, bones, and skin seem recovered but I am mentally exhausted. No riding since last Sunday but I wasn't planning on it anyway. I may get out Saturday if I feel a little more rested in the morning. Gage and the MARS juniors are racing at Sunburst this weekend. It's a great course for the kids. I can't bring myself to do that one anymore. There's no way I could possibly respect myself in the morning if I did. Monday we went and saw the latest Batman movie. It just about totally rocked. I used the Niterider TriNewt for the 24/9 on my helmet. A NR HID on the bike. Led lights are the shiz. I think next year I'll get a MiNewt for the bike that should be the perfect set-up. Bright, light, and long lasting. The training/riding for the cross season starts next week. Looks like Scoots is getting the world famous DPRT rides started up again. I'll have to go poach it on the cross bike.

MARS juniors

24/9 junior Championship division was tough once again. Our boys took third place this year against a tough Expo team. Some big problems in the day and into the night took them out of contention pretty early on but they kept plugging the laps in regardless of the situation. Jay has some pics of their race up on the flickr site. I didn't get to see them much. Saw Mitch walking out of the woods with a broken chain on Saturday. Overnight I passed Nate on a climb only to have him catch back up on Ho-Chi-Min and Myles blew me off his wheel at the start of the dawn lap. In a couple more years they will be a tough team to beat out there.

The best thing to say about our juniors and the Expo juniors is the way they ride among other people and the respect they show their fellow racers. Never a shred of doubt that they are all decent kids. Anyone associated with the two teams should be proud.

24/9 stuff

Thanks Dano!!!


Okay, I'm going to break our 24/9 Duo race for you lap by lap. JK, how horrible would that be? I can just imagine everyone hitting the back button. Before I get started though check Mitch's blog. Had me laughing good this morning.

The race was very cool. Hard to explain. Absolutely horrible at times but totally fun at the same time. We didn't do as well as we would have liked, only getting fourth. But we ran the entire race getting 10 laps in each. I could have gone out for another, Jerry made the time check with ease but there was no reason at that point. It would not have changed our placing and I was in some serious pain by that point. The competition was stiff this year and we just got beat by faster guys. Props to Jerry Long and Ryan Krayer. Those guys killed it every lap and made the end of the race fun to watch.

Lap one was the best. The run sucked but I made it through that fine. Three guys got off the front and I joined the chase group going after them. Nat Ross went down in one of the grassy turns and then we caught Ron right before the Flower Trail. I went into the singletrack pulling the group with Ross on my wheel. Got out to the long climbs and Ross took the front over and I got dropped. Lucky for me Ron came back up and pulled us back to that group. Fell off those guys again and then just spent time with another few chase groups. Crashed and banged my knee but got up quick. I would pay for that mistake later in the race though.

I pulled another group through the Red Bud singletracks and the final couple of sections before the finish. Looked back once and wondered who the Trek guy on my wheel was? Crap, that's Eatough. I must have been setting a decent pace because he just stayed there all the way to the finish. Came in 11th after the first lap. Probably went too fast a few times on that lap but it's hard not too when the racing was that fun.

Destiny, Barb, and Rocked our pits and made things so easy. Dest took care of my clothing and food. Barb kept an eye on the results and the competition, and Kevin took care of the bikes, lights, coffee and gave us the escorts to the tent to make sure we stayed motivated. I couldn't imagine trying to do that race without them.

Thoughts out on the course:

Think about this, a 24 hour duo is essentially 10 time trials in the 24 hours? One TT is tough enough. Imagine sitting for an hour and then going out to do another...

During the fourth and fifth laps I was really questioning myself and whether or not I could do the entire 24 hours. The demons were coming after me but I didn't let the pit crew know. I was glad to hear after the race that Jerry was thinking the same thing at that point.

After 10pm when we hit the 12 hour mark I was pretty stoked. My only thoughts were, "Nice, I can do this, we only got 12 hours left."

I realized I don't think I ever want to do a solo. Dude, most of them were wearing the same Chamois the entire race. Imagine what was growing down there???

After my second night lap Destiny was apologizing to me for not giving me my glassed before I left. I said, "I didn't have my glasses on? I had no idea I wasn't wearing them."

I was changing in the tent at some point during the night and she asked who I was talking to. "I wasn't talking" "yeah you were..." I had no idea I was talking at all.

Barb offered me 10 bucks to kiss Jerry right on the lips next time we made the exchange. Maybe for 15 bucks...

After most of our later laps both Jerry and I kept forgetting if we scanned out. Everytime I came back in I'd ask Barb to check to see if I did. I usually did but I sure don't remember most of them.

The rigid took a serious toll on me. That course was tough and there were a few points when I was thinking how nice it would be to have suspension.

The last 10 hours I couldn't bend the knee much or walk very easy. The crash in the first lap swelled up my knee cap and made it tough to bend. Dest said late in the race it would take me a few minutes to get on the bike when trying to leave the pits.

Okay, Jerry isn't much older than me but I sure do hope I can have his kind of endurance when I get into my 40's. He was rockin' it to the end.

I had a few goals. Don't suffer too badly, ride the entire time, not get grumpy, and try to have fun on every lap. I suffered badly, but I did ride every time I needed to. I didn't get grumpy...too much. And I at least had fun on every lap, if only for a few minutes at a time.

24/9 in photos

More pics here.

It's go time!

Here it is, the one we've been waiting for. 24/9. I packed my bike, an extra kit, Mountain Dew, Ho Ho's, and some beef jerky. I'm ready.



The MARS junior team is also ready. Myles (who killed it last week getting 3rd overall in sport) Nate, Mitch, and new to the Championship team this year is Caleb Lenss. Yeah, they'll be up against a couple of 17-18 year old teams but that didn't deter them last year. Hopefully those teams will stay cocky and the young ones will scoot right past them.

Check this link here for real time results during the event. And if I can poach the wifi connection check the blog 'cause I'll be updating throughout the event.