Saturday, September 30, 2006
I'm a Pirate
Ok, maybe not. But, that was the theme for last night's scavenger hunt, the Alley Cat Bicycle Scavenger race. I was really wishing I brought my camera, but now that I realize how much of a goober I would look like by posting those pictures on my site... I don't mind as much.
So it works like this, the the last friday of each month everyone meets at the town square at 8 p.m. The theme is always different. A few weeks ago was "talk like a pirate day," so this month's theme was dress like a pirate. Pretty stupid huh? Well in this context it was hilarious. The regular suspects were in attendence, as well as a whole H'Burg sub-culture of riders I had never met. Those vaugely familiar with the the courier scene would get what I am talking about. It was really cool. So Erin and I signed up as Team Bishop and went hunting clues from a location map, and man it was tough finding those clues. It was also tough because Sparky was racing between check points in a full sprint while I struggled to turn over the gear on my single speed cross bike.
It was funny because if you where honing in on a check point you could see the beacon of blinking tail lights like feeding frenz of fire flys in the distance. Sometimes it was bad to follow though because you would get side tract by other's bad assumption of what the clues meant.
We faired 4th and should I have walked the plank with a littl more panache, we may have done even better. All in all it was just like any cool cycling event and about exploring, comraderie and resourcefulness... and maybe just a little about competetion.
See ya at the next one. The theme is Halloween!
Jeremiah.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Poor Mountain Hill Climb!
Yo
This is realy the Virginia State Championships of hill climbing. I have tackled this one a few times and I can't say there is a harder hill in the state. The leaves should be on fire above 3000 ft too!
Check it out.
http://www.roanokecountyva.gov/Departments/ParksRecreationAndTourism/SpecialEvents/PoorMountainHillClimb.htm
I will see ya there. I talked to the promoter and I will have some swag to hand out after the race.
Jeremiah
Sunday, September 24, 2006
The Terror of Tea Berry MICHAUX ROCKS
Ouch.. This race was no joke. I had a great race and won. It was great to ride with Chris again. His agility on those slimy rocks is allways impresive.
This was a hard man's race but I have been the fastman as of late; avoiding the rocks in favor of the long fittness builing climbs. I had to work it on the climbs to get away but it worked I won and held off the demon's of flatting.
That was the most exciting course I have raced all year. It took total concentration and steel nerves. I even ran a 2.35 tire on the front! Now THAT is Back Country Cross Country!
Props to Harland for winning the Monsters of Michaux Mega Series.
Erin also rode 18 mile in the wicked trails as well!
Thanks for reading.
Jeremiah
Friday, September 15, 2006
Ketchup
Ok here you go.
I have been pretty busy the past few weeks and this is my attempt to catch up on the stuff that's happening, the news ect.
Monday. In a stooper of jet lag I rode with Erin for a short ride at the Trek bike demo over at Massenutten resort. Erin had a lot of fun I Rode the new Fuel Ex and despite it's long travel it felt faster than my top fuel! Sweet! We rode along with a small group and I even got to play mechanic when this guy's front derailleur wouldn't work.
Tuesday: Am Jamm session showing off our new trails at Massenutten to the Trek demo guy Jacob. We had a great ride and were just loven the woops and jumps! SBC ROCKS>
Wednesday what did I do........ I did a short jamm and caught up on my home work, paper work, sleep and of course bike work.
Thursday: Chris Scott and I did the valley hills loop or a variation of that training route to do some criss cross LT work on these 30 min cruise sessions. I felt great. Seeing as Chris was on his road bike and I was on my mountianbike! . My fast was doing the talking.. ;)
Friday: Today is the 6 PACK downhill, see at 3 at Food Cat. I better find some real tires. Yikes.
Lets see.....
GOSSIP NEWS ECT>
Rudi Van Houtes of the Trek Dolphin team had a bad accident on wendsday and at least broke his wrist. Best wished for a full recovery.
La Ruta will have drug testing for the 1st time in it's like 12 editions! Thank god!. I felt like i signed up for a 125 moto race by accident last year.!!!! It looks like super bad world marathon world cup rider Hectar Leonardo Paez is racing la ruta! This guy's going to be tough.
The dopers are comming clean i quess that' s what you would call it. Frankie say it aint so... ;( It is as bad as we thought. Oh well i guess everyone is going switch back to mountian bikes, fun loving innocent good times sounds nice dosent it?
See ya at the Middle Mountian Momma on Sunday.
Later Jeremiah
Monday, September 11, 2006
Swimming with the Dolphins and the Sharks
Woo-Hoo the season is OVER!
Well mostly. I can at least have a beer or two and not obsess over the minutiae of training that would drive most crazy! :)
I was hopeful that this trip to Austria would be nice redemption after not having much luck at the previous World Cups this year. My luck at the race was less than perfect, but I fought the good fight and wrapped up my first full World Cup season ranked 42 and with some good points.
The experiment of showing up 48 hours before the race was a good one. My legs came around, but those who traveled from the west coast found that the extra few hours may be the straw on the proverbial camel's back. Adam's bike didn't show up with him, and Jeremy seemed like he was over it before it started.
I arrived on Thursday and met up with Team Dolphin Trek (based in the Netherlands). www.teamdolphin.nl/en/
Poz had set it up with Ralf the manager so I could stay with the Dolphins for the weekend. Their team was very professional and they had a Souigner Kevin that was excellent at massage and great at keeping the team organized and well fed.
The riders, Jelmer, Rudi, Bjorn, Kevin, Zander, and Ronald where really fun to hang out with. There was a lot of time spent on the X box and joking about the Ralf Game! Ralf, the team manager was not at the race, and since they where talking about him a lot they made a game to gather money for beer after the race. If you said Ralf's name you have to put in one Euro! It was funny to see the lengths they went thru to trick each other and me into saying Ralf. Because there is a tire named the Swable Ralf and World Marathon Champion is a Ralf it was pretty funny. They would be speaking Flemish and I was like ??uhh?? for most of the conversation and then some one would say Ralf and then everyone would burst into laughter.
The race itself was crazy. I was a bit worried about the start not conforming to UCI regulations. It choked onto a 90 degree right turn onto a narrow wooden bridge after just 0.5 kilometers! Sure enough, it was like the lunch line at high school. I am serious! That happened a few more times. The next few laps seemed like a series of sprints to pass where you could but since the course was so narrow and I was around 45th on the 1st lap I did more waiting than racing.
The other crazy part was the altercation with the Russian "bike destroyer." As I used skill to ride through the steepest 180-degree switch-back of the course, he was cutting through the forest on foot. Now, It's one thing to run on the inside of the corner, but when your passed by some one who is racing less distance than you and then jumps in your way you'd get upset. So, I yelled at him "NO CHEATING" as he collided into me on his way back onto the course. Then, just as I got back to peddling and I heard the BBRRRRRRRR... BRRRRRRRRRRRR of tires rubbing tires from my back wheel. And then, before I knew, it he bent my rear derrailler! I had only dreamed of using that kind of dirty maneuver. Then my derailleur was bent for the rest of the race. I had to stop to bend the derailleur out of the spokes and then once a lap I found myself on the side of the trail getting my chain extracted from my spokes. He got his though, because when he was going for my derrailleur he took out a spoke in his front wheel and then when on to flat a lap later. Sucker!
The funny part of the late race was when Ronald said two laps to go and handed me a red bull when there was really three to go! I went full out and sprinted for the finish only to realize there was still one lap to go, and I was in 24th place. Well enough, I got the fire burning hot, and if you had given me four more laps I would have passed even more riders! I was flying. I finished 20.
It was a good feeling to finish up the season with good legs and I even had some Austrian fans to talk to and share the exciting stories from my adventurous final world cup.
Auf Wiedersehen; Jeremiah
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
8 Days 30 hours and 30 mins.
So the winner is.
Marty! by a nose.
Steve Hoover of the Trek Volkswagen east coast factory team was really close but due to technicality he lost. I was looking for # of vehicals 1st but he was closest on time. I will however give him my race jersey as a consolation prize; he supported me when few did. As a junior I rode with my first real team sponsored by Mt. Airy Bicycles and organized by Steven Hoover in 1996. I remember racing my heart out with aspirations to be a real pro one day. Pretty cool eh?
Congratulations and thanks for playing along.
Jeremiah
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