JB's Adventure Blog: April 2005

Man what an Epic day of racing yesterday.

Chris and I had another epic battle at Michaux. We exchanged the lead several times but I got a gap on the final climb to seal my 5th Spring Classic.

I couldn’t believe the weekend weather forecast on Wednesday when it was 87 degrees. They where calling for snow and punishing cold in the mountains of south central PA. Home of the toughest mountain bike course know to racing and a special place that tested great riders like; Floyd Landis, Tom Danielson, Roger Bird, David Duval, Gunner Shogren, Susan Haywood, Bob Ruther, Kyle Dixon, Chris Eatough and anyone else who managed to finish this beast of a course. For us in the know, this place of honor is simply referred to in great reverence as Michaux.

The Rocks are planted in the Earth like tombstones on Graves Ridge. And like half buried cars in spots on Rattlesnake ridge. The trails are so rocky but have rhythm if you can just find the line. You surely could only ride the same line twice in your dreams and if they are good dreams you don’t flat or crash.
This place is holed ground to the mountain bike racer as Chris Eatough has called it. It has been ridden by many survived by few conquered by none.

My race was a very lucky dace with fate. The rocks gave me passage as I was not there to beat them “impossible to say the least” but rather with respect to flow around and over them with patients and subtlety.

I was rewarded with my 5th win at what has come to be THE spring classic on the East Coast; Michaux Maximus!

Ride smooth, it’s faster! ☺
Jeremiah Bishop

The following is a well-written tribute to Queen of the Spring Classics for mountain biking! By Jay DeJesus fro Dirt Rag.

Dirt Rag Articles:Of Warriors & Generals by Jay DeJesus

"...at last he got so far down, so deep into the yellow depths, that pall and roar of a dust storm appeared above him, he (pedaled) in a strange yellow twilight. And here the sun showed a darker magenta. Fine siftings of dust floated and fell around him, dry, choking, and, when they touched his face, like invisible sparks of fire... He realized that during these lonely hours he was one instant a primitive man and the next a thinking, or civilized, man. The thinking man he understood; all difficulty of the problem lay hid in this other side of him. He could watch, he could feel without thinking. That seemed to be the state of the mind of an animal. Only it was a higher state-a state of intense, feeling, waiting, watching suspension! He divined that it was the mental state of the undeveloped savage, and that it brought fleeting moments of strange emotion."

- From Zane Grey Wanderer of the Wasteland.

So it was, on 16th April 2000, three mile climb in the blinding hot sun; struggling, suffering, sucking dry lifeless wind. That day would be the last time up that particular climb for me, for so many. And like too many good ones before, this would be the 10th and final chapter of the Michaux Ironmasters Classic.

Classic indeed! 28 miles, one loop; Grave Ridge, 3 Mile Trail, Rattlesnake Ridge. Like book-ends, they now meet the legendary Plantation Trail, Lindy Run, Railroad Grade-The Original 50K, Blackwater. Two classics, one loop, neither NORBA. Both now a heartfelt memory and both of equal stature to many, both "up there"in importance and difficulty as well as their respective locations on the old race calendars. Classics; one spring and the other, the final meeting place, the last Warrior Party. Get ready, Hell's come to breakfast. As I arrived at another race, my odometer clocked 543 miles. I was tired. Slight rain splattered my windshield, a soft fog enveloped the night sky and peepers chirped loudly somewhere out there in the dark velvet forest of green. Tomorrow would be the unknown, the final battle to end all battles, waged upon the brutal hillsides of the Michaux State Forest, hallowed ground. As we awoke, stood sipping French press on the porch of the Ironmasters Mansion Youth Hostel, the slight rain still fell, but a break in the clouds peeked out above the wooded hills.

Battle. Everyone was there. Generals, old and new, warriors just the same.

The course, original as I know, in fine shape to test the backs and early season fitness. And so it began with a BANG! Spinning up the road, the hammer drops, the first crack and a split in the pack as everyone dashed for the singletrack. No recovery as you worked your way through the punishing rock section (my heart-rate never dropping below 195!), stringing out the riders as positions were established. Twisting, winding, ripping through the trees, then DOWN, flat out across Grave Ridge; a cruel twisted mass of tilted slate features, flatted riders littered everywhere, fallen warriors. Yet, chasing. Always chasing. The first break was that long exposed three mile dirt road climb- a deciding factor for many with lots of attacks waged there. For others, the realization of the piercing heat and sun, slight humidity robbing power and draining energy from tired legs. Relentless with false plateaus and no real flat, no faking it. To the top. No relief, no feed. Just 3 Mile Trail, the roughest singletrack in the race-big granite rocks, no rest nor breaks, steep ups and bone jarring downs, pounding on relentlessly rock after rock. Then a slight stretch of road, up to Rattlesnake Ridge. Huge ominous looming slabs of rock, twisting broken lines snaking through the tempest of boulders to heart stopping downhill. Almost there...

Cooked. I'd been done since 3 Mile Trail, crooked in the brain from the heat and brutally cramping legs, keeping pace with an equally spent Fergie (Greg Furgeson, Trek East Coast Factory) for the last few miles. As we limped up Log Sled Climb we chatted about this race; its toughness and grit required to finish, its original layout, the regard it has from the "old timers." Fergie summed it up best, relating this race to another tough one-day European road racing classic; the Paris-Roubaix. How many of you out there know what the Paris-Roubaix is? I'll bet if you do and if you have done this race, you would feel the same way. It is forever a classic. Thank you to Shawn Withers and MORE for so many cruel and rewarding memories. This race will not be forgotten.

Perhaps good things don't die; they live on in the memories, strange dreams and silent screams in the darkness. You remember and realize that, yes! Over the bars, twilight, my face did indeed just bounce off the ground!!! The pain sets in, the dream evaporatesÉ At the time of my writing this piece, the last race was done, the ten years a fond memory like the days of Blackwater, Davis, W.Va. Immense thanks to Jess Stith and the folks at Gettysburg Cycling for their efforts in keeping the tradition alive-it would have been a monumental loss to have to see this race end. You will get another chance at this race of epic proportions, on April 22nd. Be it known that The Battle will take place on this day. Where will you be?

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 8:55 AM 0 comments

Spring has sprung!

Yo peeps.
Have you been enjoying this weather?

Props to Floyd for kicking it into warp drive at the Tour of Georgia. I think we have a race on our hands. The tricky part in holding his lead is that the other teams are strong and will be on the attack.
Today we rode the Peaks of Otter stage of next weeks Tour of Shenandoah.
I am not sure how they got their name but the peaks are an impressive land mark. Our ride today was beautiful and we got in some good climbing. It is an adjustment riding in the heat Sim, Todd and I where all salty and dried out. I can imagine the Tour of Georgia heat is tough on riders who haven’t raced in the sunny south.

Man I love spring. Everything here is blasting alive with vibrant colors and growing overnight. The birds are singing and love is in the air.

GO RIDE.

Jeremiah

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 6:16 PM 0 comments

Battle for the prize.

Man sundays big event was tough, the 38 mile Sea Otter Classic XC. A lot of crashes, attacks and brutal dust swirling winds made the race seem even harder than I knew it was. I fought the good fight though and was rewarded. Thought I was suffering bad and losing energy on the last lap I stuck it out. After I got dropped by Frishy, Toulose and Barry Wicks I figured my GC would slip away into the teens but I held off Chris Snedon (Kona) at the line and it was just what I needed for 10th place. Not shabby. All in all it was the most fun I have had at Sea Otter yet.

Erin and I enjoyed a great team dinner at Monterey Joe's with the Trek/VW team. We had some special guests including Bontrager's own product managers and engineers including Matt Prest, Bill Miller, Tyler Philger (last years team manager), T-Brown, John Mobily from Volkswagen, ZaP and Walker Ferguson. I was really surprise to see Walker since he has been off the radar for some time. I think he is going to do some late season races. And it was allso really cool to talk tech with the product guys.

Sea Otter has so much going on I would love to be there as a spectator but even then it would still be imposible to take it all in.

Enjoy the ride.

Jeremiah

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 11:04 AM 1 comments

Short track Crash and Push. 14th, 12th GC.

Yo peeps.
I was having the best short track ever I was running like 5th and Jammin smooth at the front. Big Bird was on the attack seemingly to put Brenjens (who was behind me) in a spot of bother. Barry Wicks let a gap open up (perhaps tacktics?) and I was forced to close the gap. Gap almost closed I took the top of turn one a little too hot or maybe just hooked up with a berm wrong. Before I knew what happened I was sliding out. I sprung like a scared cat to my feet and took of now in like 15th damn. How could screw up such a good ride? I guess I’ll just have to punch it like I own it next time. I am still only like 22seconds out of the silver.

Erin Kyle and Andy Mills and I had a great home style meal in room 42 of the Lone Oak.
The debockery continues in room 15 as the margatinis are in demand and Jonny Laptop is brewing over the latest sweet race photos with Z. And Dave Medows is… Uh drunk I think.

The mood is good here and the legs feel good. I will keep you posted on the throw down of day 4 of the Sea Otter Classic.

I’m Audi 5000.

Jeremiah Bishop .com

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 10:37 PM 0 comments

Sea Otter Time trial.

Swoosh it was painfull, but over in less than 6mins.
I lost like 5 seconds just trying to find my pedal at the start. Uhhgg. I suppose you either hit it on the head or you hit you thumb. Oh well. My 15th place performance was decent for this 2mile sprint and I am riding in 11th just seconds back for the podium. The xc is 38 miles long so I should make time up there.

For todays Short track my goals is to just keep it super smooth and float at the front of the group after a swift start. I am convinced it is going to break up because Kabush needs time back from Brenjenes and this is his specialty. Maybe I can hitch a ride on the back of the rocket if I feel like Hermes today.

Later. JB

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 11:45 AM 1 comments

Sea Otters look out!

So here we are on the plane from Chicago to San Jose in the middle of a long travel day to the Sea Otter classic. Poz (the team manager) and Chris Eatough are on my flight, they almost paged the Chicago airport for me because we were the last to board. I was hiding in a seat on the other side of the room. I like people but I don’t like standing in the rectangular tube to wait to get on the plane for no reason.

The travel started smooth enough with a scramble to get ready yesterday, after noon’s Spring Classic Harris Roubiax. The course was a medley of evil serpentine gravel roads, smooth and rough pavement and a lot of punchy hills as was expected from the hollowed road riding region of little Belgium A.K.A Singers Glen. Andy Rodes poached the sprint I can’t blame him it is what I would have done if I where Tom Boonen or if I didn’t double flat. Paul (the punisher) Buchi was unstoppable except the last 200m. He pulled at like 23mph on the front the whole race! Carpenter had better work on his closing game cause he is plenty tough enough to win the tour if he could hone his game a little.
The grave` was really rough in sections and Nick (who also succumbed to flattage) and I speculated that most of the fresh stones could have been used as arrow heads!
The trip to Erin’s parents for the traditional stop over for pre travel home cookin on the Hackely farm was pleasant.

This morning we where met with heinous traffic, driving the short hop to Dulles that usually takes 40 mins took 2hrs!

Needless to say Erin missed her planned flight via LAX and is now on route to San Francisco (cool town).
Hopefully she will get to Monterey airport before midnight.

I should say my Arse (Britt for butt) is getting numbed by all this sitting. Ok maybe a little too much info. You should know you’re not reading bicycle magazine.

Any way…. I have run out of stuff to write for now. I am going to hand the computer to Poz for spell checking and color commentary.

Poz guest writing here: Jeremiah is a great travel mate on the plane. He shared his salad with me and got the loser flight attendant to bring me some headphones. Didn’t matter, our whole row seems to be the electronically handicapped one – our channel and volume \\buttons don’t work at all and JB’s overhead light keeps turning itself on and off resulting in a neat strobe-like feel to the flight. Oh well, could always be worse, no screaming babies on this one…One thing good for a chuckle was when the person in front of me leaned their seat back and JB laughed at me and made fun of the “clamshell” that I was now in – not a moment had the words left his mouth then the person in front of him leaned their seat back right onto his stuff on the fold down tray! HAHA Instant karma I think is the term for that.

Later people, thanks for reading:
Jeremiah

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 10:17 PM 0 comments

Sea Otters look out!

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 10:12 PM 0 comments

Thunder Ridge and Peaks Coaching Camp

Peaks Coaching Group is having their spring training camp down in beautiful Bedford Va. Hunter invited me to come down and join in the fun. I had a great time meeting and spending some spin time with the other athletes and coaches participating in the camp.

It sure didn’t hurt it was like 85 out and blue as a hornet’s tongue. Don’t ask me what that means.. I could think of any thing blue.

The ride was sick, we headed north for about an hour and started the beastly climb up Thunder ridge, a 13+ mile climb that ascends 3,500 ft. The views where stunning and almost as surprising was boy wonder (Nick from Lynchburg) was climbing like a goat with hemorrhoids, don’t ask. It’s late. …

Once I caught the little rascal we set a steady pace for the next 40 mins, churning our pedals like.. never mind. The top came to us at 1:03 at a brisk pace, and I mean the real top, the golf ball.

The decent was even more exiting as Hunter my Coach showed me how its done dropping me on the Peaks of Otter decent. I could feel the rubber peel off my tire as my eyes filled with tears of fear. I took his advise almost, he said, Yoda style, (assume scruffy small voice) “hhhhMMMmmm young Sky Walker, use not the brakes but for one turn and use the force for the rest.” Sure dude…

He also said you have to use the whole road and I an’t joking the WHOLE friggen thang! So we droped like human projectiles out of the sky. Oh my…. I almost craped my shammi as we dived into the apex of a banked 100 degree turn at 40+. Yikes.
I got dropped but I only just touched the brakes before one turn.

Good food and some power file review followed the epic day.

Thanks for reading, even if it’s late.

PS Nick Wait is a bum.

Just kidding, Congrats are on order for though he is bailing from tour of Shenandoah has been invited to tour of Georgia with the US u23 team. God speed.

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 8:56 PM 0 comments

Michaux rhymes with snow!

Spring has sprung!

Battle for the prize.

Short track Crash and Push. 14th, 12th GC.

Sea Otter Time trial.

Sea Otters look out!

Sea Otters look out!

Thunder Ridge and Peaks Coaching Camp

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