JB's Adventure Blog: March 2005

My second day of tour recon is over. The weather was beautiful and the clear skys gave me a solid look at a possible re-route of one of the stages.

I final did get in touch with Chris Beck with LSV and it looks like they want to do their own thing. There was some talk of merging our two teams but I guess they are on their own.
We have a strong group in the mountians and I think our climbing will make the race. I am going to talk to Massenutten about sponsoring the team. That would be great.

So far are line up is
Simeon Green (aka the French connection) me, Chris Eatough endurance power house, Nick Wait climber boy, Todd Helmick flatland warrior and solid climber and we are looking to fill out spot #6 If you have any ideas let me know. Tiaa Creff is going to be the there and they will be tough. Chan Mc Rey is allso a possibly showing up so we need all the hp we can get.

After Sea Otter it is showtime, where we are going to do some light motor paceing between the mountians and then let fly on the climbs to get a feel for how we work as a unit and work out all the bugs.

The training here is going great, I am on target and getting good numbers. I raced Jeff Cup for a good workout and the UVA reed's gap hill climb in the rain in tough conditions! It was like 43 and pounding rain. After the race I climbed up Winter Green to Devils Knob, ouch. It was foggy and I was surprised to see snow drifts on the side of the road still. Ascending through the fog I thought wow this is epic. On the way down I decided I had crossed the fine line between epic and stupid as I was so cold I tried to call my buddie Chardone to pick up my sorry ass. The cell phone didn't work so I just grit my teeth and made the slick foggy descent as safe as I could. I couldn't feel my hands by the bottom. Wow what a sick climb.

Happy trails or roads.

Later JB

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 8:15 PM 0 comments

The Pain Cave!

Sue is top dog! or cat I should say.

Sue is coming into rare form and put the lead on the pedal this weekend, wining her 1st Norba National. She had a crazy story after her race about a rough encouner with a Luna chick. Sue was getting the tactical-spin-cycle from the power house women’s squad as they took turns blocking her from chasing the alternating attacks by the team. As Sue said, “I just gave her the stiff arm. She made a crazy pass and started crashing into me so I stuck my arm out"

Caterina did the cactus pin ball hitting the deck. Sue felt bad about it. I happen to think that sometimes you have to protect your space if you are about to get taken out.

There was a certain shock about how the XC at NOVA started out for me.
Out of the blocks I am usually pretty lucky and can weasel my way up a few spots before we hit the hole shot. Not this time, I got boxed in and was unable to make a single move up the ladder, I actually lost spots from my 24th start to enter the cactus lined single track in 30th or so.

Ouch. I relied too much on brawn not brain to move up, charging with enormous bursts to pass only a couple of riders at a time. I even got tangled up in the big elbow of factory team rider Nick Ranno. He didn't know it was me and I had fun giving him a hard time at our team dinner that evening. For Nick Martin and Nick Ranno it was one of their 1st races in the pro class and they rose to the occasion in style.

Needless to say I suffered like a dog hopelessly lost in the darkest corner of the "pain cave" as Brian calls it.

I can’t say much more than ouch. If I wasn’t inflicting enough pain on myself, I had to crash a couple of miles from the finish and do the 3rd base slide into the abrasive desert.. Not good.

Ok you gotta just take your licks sometimes.

Go ride.

JB

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 6:43 PM 0 comments

6th in the TT by a tire.

Off the box by 2/10 second!

I had a good run. The course was all single track and wicked fast.
Guess I should have lunged for the line a little. Oh well.
Afterward I took a French shower and changed in the hotel bathroom and then we were wisked off to our shop visit at Landis Cyclery.

The short track was going well and I was actually settling in on the front group of Kabush, Liam, JHK, Trent, Sid Taberlay and Adam Craig.

I flatted along with quite a few others. Rats.

Todd's daily antics have been very amusing. We are in the land of endless Sun, nice cars, and copious amounts of silicone. Phoenix is pretty nice however I couldn't stand the heat of the summer.

The breakfast at the Pima hotel is great and we also have a hot tub that XXX Todd can't get enough of.

Wear your sun block!

Jeremiah Bishop

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 11:07 AM 0 comments

AZ. Sun and single track.

This is a little more like it.
An awesome am ride with Steve Hoover, Chris Eatough and XXX Todd. The riding alone was good enough for me to consider this a place for a winter home after I win some money at the reservation casino.

During our ride we saw people high on a butte giving Indian cries to pay homage to the vortex.

A vortex is a spiritual place of the Indians; they have since become a major tourism draw to this surreal landscape. Sedona is wedged between the high country snow and the deserts heat making it a place of good energy, I was stoked up.

We finished up our first round of photo shoots and headed for a shop visit to bike and bean. Wow what a great combo.

An early departure got our Wednesday going as we scurried to our next location Fountain Hills, site of the NOVA NMBS stage race.

We got lathered up with sunscreen and took a look at the course.
I felt stagnant and could not handle the pace that Brian Smith and Nick Martin (Trek Rocky Mountiain Team) where setting. So I backed it down a bit and met up with Sue. I started feeling a bit better and ramped it up to a stiff tempo and Sue was ripping it. I think she has a shot at the win this week.

Off to see the wizard………
So our hotel is like halfway to Tucson. A good hotel though, equipped with a ping pong table and wireless that has more than made the drive worth it though.

Yesterday I rode the course in a brisk 31:20 so I think I can pull back 3 mins from that with some sticky tires and land a top 3 we will see. It is a super twisty course with a lot of rocks and cacti so precision is everything.

Now to the TT for another pre ride to get it dialed!!

Keep your fingers crossed.

Jeremiah Bishop

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 11:30 AM 0 comments

SNOW IN SEDONA!

Hey folks,

I am feeling much better from my cold. You would love to see this it's dumb. It was snowing cats and doggies! . I'm not sure what the race weather will be like but it has got to be good.

I rode an hour on the road today with the trekies here for training camp including; Steve Hoover, Andy Mills, Todd Helmick, Chris Eatough, Jenny Smith (happy birthday), Nick Martin and Brian Smith. A really awesome group I get to hang with. I am feeling slow as a salted slug at the moment though, (usually a good omen for the weekend). Ha ha.

Me Andy Chris Zap XXX Todd and John Laptop (the photographer) went up the canyon this afternoon to scope some photos for our rider cards. So we where outside in the brief moment of sunshine with awesome red rocks in the back round, I am going to get Andy mills to send me some of his photos for my site. The shoot was mostly a wash because this black evil snow cloud blew in. Blocking the sun we were freezing. Oh well.

We are about to go out to dinner UHG. Mexican again, NO MORE BEANS. How does Wells live on this crap.

Well dinner was pretty good after all, polio burrito.

Erin is keeping industrious and working on the house. It will be fun to go to Sea Otter together. Good stuff, the world premier for Off Road to Athens, Aquarium (Jonny Mac would be proud) and the races of course.

Zap wants me to pass on the marathon and focus on the
Cross-country.

Oh well. I guess I will have some pent up energy to release on the short stages.

See ya at the races:
Jeremiah

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 8:51 PM 0 comments

Like the monkeys of Sputnick.

Yo,

Hoover called me on being deleiquent on my web entries. So here goes my first web entry of the week.

Another travel day is well under way. Erin was nice enough to drop me off witch worked out really well for Duech E Taco (our buddy who needed a ride back from NOVA). I got on the plane and prompty put my back pack on top of some ones new suit oops.

Later I rendezvoused in Chicago with Steve Hoover one of my original supporters from back in the day and my team mate Chris E.

I am now sitting in a packed SUV on our way out of the Phoenix airport en route to Sedona AZ for a team camp. A bike box next to my head and one false move and I will have a black eye. Like the monkeys of Sputnik we are packed to the hilt. Chris and Zap have the Tetris skills fortunately. Never a dull moment on these road trips.

So who knows what will happen this week. Texas was washed out by the time we left. I am just hoping for some sun and to stay clear of the Cacti!
Stay tuned boys and girls.

Hi Erin!

Peace: Jeremiah Bishop

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 9:37 PM 0 comments

A Week of Firsts

I won! I won!

Today I did my first race of '05 today and it went great!
The 100k Marathon outside of Comfort, TX was the first stop on the National Mountain Bike Series. In addition to the regular fast crew were some ass kickers from Germany, Karl Platt and Karsten Bresser (bronze medalist from the 2003 Marathon Worlds). They schooled us in the 2002 Trans Alp. This time was different because Chris Eatough and I where born for technical riding like the terrain on the Flat Rock Ranch course. Tons of slippery slime stone, rock drops, stream crossings and hundreds of turns made it the perfect fuel course.

I knew our main comp hadn't pre ridden the course so I went to the front to put the pressure on them. I didn't think that the move would stick but it did! My gap was cut down to 1 minute at the halfway point but I had some reserves and kicked it into overdrive so as not to give up my advantage.

After the Marathon I refueled, got a rub and put on a dry shamois and wet shoes for the TT. My dumb ass signed up for the Iron Grind; the best of all the weekend's competitions. Ouch... Needless to say I took my lumps in that one.

I will keep ya posted on the short track results, my goal is to not get pulled, then throttle the XC.

Peace out:

Jeremiah Bishop

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 6:37 PM 2 comments

Tour of Shenandoah reconnaissance