Tag Archives: Rider Diary

Journal

Searching for My Twin in Toughness

I was pumped to see my training buddy Ben King get the most aggressive rider jersey at the Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado. He is country-tough and known as a hard man of the pro road peloton. I nearly had to pry him off the phone when we last talked about the Munga, his voice revved with curiosity and excitement at the prospect of days in the bleaching desert doing something outside the norm.

Unfortunately just got news back that the Garmin-Sharp team coaching staff think Munga is too much, even for Ben!

No worries, I thought, I’ll just catch up with plan-B: the real-life Indiana Jones, Kurt Refsnider, geology professor by day and mountain bike steamroller by night. He holds the records on both the Arizona Trail 750 and 300.

But then there was another surprise, like a scorpion in my cycling shoe!

Kurt Refsnider has decided to team up with Jay Petervary, another legend of ultra-endurance toughness. Jay is a mental juggernaut and has the record in the Iditabike—I read accounts of him making the 60-hour journey with no sleep for two nights.

Dang. What took me a few months of scouting has me back to the drawing board.

At least my training is going great. I have been pounding some serious tough-man miles; some of the hardest of my life. Like the six-hour ride the other week deep into the mountains of West Virginia followed by jogging squats and lunges until I was ready to collapse. I have also been doubling-up with some of my wicked-fast coaching clients, training in the afternoons. The work is paying off and I feel tougher than I ever have in my life.

The plan for this past weekend’s Shenandoah 100 was to ride from my house at 4 a.m. to the race, try to win, then practice my quick 4-minute Munga-style pit stop and go out for an additional 60 miles for a total of 180-200 miles for the day. Am I nervous? Yep. Excited? Hell yeah!

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Despite the fact that my training is going great right now, in The Munga you’re only as good as your weakest link. So, in Munga terms, right now I am “stuffed,” as they say in South Africa.

So, to find my Munga teammate, I have devised a plan to make two of my hardest training tests into “Mini Mungas;” that way the mountain can sort out the umpteen, emails, tweets and FB messages I have received from people who think they would be the prefect partner.  Mini Munga #1 will be in a few weeks. Stay tuned right here for details and updates. It’s going to be like American Idol with a touch more destruction and beat down.

Don’t get me wrong, I am in it to win it and the fact is: winning a race like Munga is all about persistence, persistence, persistence.  So I will train hard and keep looking for my twin.

— Jeremiah

[Editor’s Note: Dirt Rag Magazine will be running Bishop’s personal diary as he prepares to conquer The Munga. As of yet he has no teammate.]

Journal

Catalina Wine Mixer

I kept hearing the term thrown around and wasn’t sure what it meant, but then I remembered the movie scene from “Step Brothers.”

Post-adventure, it makes sense sort of. We hoped on a jet boat ferry with bikes, tool boxes and gear. It was the first time I have traveled the open ocean to ride my bike, in fact. As we approached the island, I was intrigued by the stories I had heard from the years before.

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Alex and I went on a spin, climbing one of the sickest switchback roads I have ever seen. We even had a hair-raising encounter with a 3000 lb wild animal with horns. Check it out on the Team Sho-Air Facebook page and hit the like button!

The roads and trails there are steep and scenic. The views where stunning like I have only seen on the western cape. The sound of steep cliffs and beaches being smacked by waves below us. The water was as blue as bottle of Bombay 1000, a sight not easy to forget!

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We shredded and diced, being a touch more careful than if it was a race. Alex, Tinker, Max and I made up half the lead group by the mid-way point at remote feed called two harbors. Max and I managed to ride the steepest hill I have seen since La Ruta de Los Conquistadors. It was 15-minutes long and 33% in spots; it pretty much murdered the legs. At the top we navigated a knives edge ridgeline where a mistake would send you 200 feet down into the ocean. The scene was surreal, the fall line decent was like the pictures you see in alpine climbing magazines, rideable and so sweet.

As a group we stopped at the aid zones to replenish our food and water supplies. Heading home on the final climb I took turns on the front to keep the pace up, testing myself at every chance. After some spirited hammering, it was time for a nice meal water front.

Max and I displayed some brotherhood and instead of our normal lets nuke each other race face we decided to take in the unreal cliff side ribbon of dirt that was our final decent and roll across the line together!

A Gran Fondo it was!! So not a race but a mixer that made it a lot more fun! A few drinks on the beach and a buffalo burger wrapped up the weekend. Now I understand the wine mixer, it was an unexpected great surprise.

I can’t wait for 2015!

JB

Journal

Making a Return to Big Racing, National Ultra Endurance Series: Cohutta 100

An 8-hour drive had me scrambling to get my bottles and feed options set up for my first 100-mile mountain bike race of the year: The Cohutta 100, which takes place in the steep mountains of the south end of the Appalachians. My new Team SHO-AIR van added some comfort and novelty to my journey, and I arrived in Tennessee to enjoy meeting a few fans and other racers at the venue for a Friday night autograph session and registration.

On Saturday, the start gun went off at 7 a.m. at the ‘96 Olympic Whitewater Center. The early morning fog was thick. Five hundred racers fought for the first singletrack. I used my XC skills to slot in second wheel and stay out of trouble. After a hard 30-minutes of serpentine singletrack on the Brush Creek Trail with the pace driven by tattooed tough-man Rob Spreng, the race settled down into a sustainable pace – the day would be a TOUGH one; 14,200-feet of climbing over the course of 100 miles.

My training had been very hard in the mid-week leading up to the race, with a 5-hour blaster just two days previous when I emptied my tank. To succeed over 100-miles, I knew my nutrition strategy and hydration would be essential, so I held with the lead group that was 8-man strong at the time.

Around mile 45, my motor warmed up and my power was coming on so I decided to drive the pace. The hardest part of the day was where the racecourse descended way down 2,000 feet into the neighboring state of Georgia for the Pinhoti Trail, and then took us back up a monster climb where we were greeted by… more climbing!

I punched it on the big climb and the quickness of the Cannondale F29 was apparent as I cranked out a good rhythm full-pace.  I was flying through the dark canyons of green pines and rhododendrons. The last piece of trail was an amazing singletrack: mostly downhill-thunder-rocks-express! Alternating dry southern oak forests singletrack ribbons on steep hillsides was super fun.

Feeling strong makes a big difference versus suffering through the last hour of one of these hundred-milers. They can be a suffer fest! But I cranked it out, and took the win. It was a great feeling to start my 2014 endurance season with such a good day in the saddle. I enjoyed a post-race swim with friends, celebrated the win and a return to epic racing.

Next stop is Team SHO-AIR’s own epic: The Catalina Island Gran Fondo! Check out the team’s page for more info about the big ride.

Outside Blog Links

Introducing VeloNews Diary “Go Big, or Go Bigger”

This is the first entry of Jeremiah Bishop’s regular column. As a professional mountain biker and coach he knows the tricks to get faster and more efficient — and he had to learn most of them the hard way. He will be sharing his knowledge, experience, mishaps, lessons and tips, so check back regularly for his thoughts.

“When I was asked to write a column for Singletrack.com, I knew it would be a great opportunity to share my unique experiences and some amazing stories as an adventure mountain biker and full-time paid professional racer with the Cannondale Factory Racing team. I’m living my dream-come-true: competing in legendary races and exploring some spectacular trails.”

“The following is a glimpse of where I am and where I’m going with it:”

“I came up from scratchy background as an East Coast mountain biker with little more than a borrowed bike, and I received a lot of help from a big community that loves to ride. My odds of becoming one of the top racers were pretty slim; but here I am.”

“So, this column is an exceptional chance to share some insight and sweet tricks-of-the-trade I’ve learned from some of the best in the ‘biz.’”

“My racing background is firmly rooted in UCI World Cup and national-level cross country events. I have dabbled in disciplines ranging from road to enduro, and Super-D to cyclocross; though I spent half of the past 20 years toiling in the semi-pro zone, tackling mountain bike races of every type. The long and short of it is that I’ve survived more failures than wins, but I never gave up because I’m simply crazy about racing bikes!”

To continue reading Jeremiah’s VeloNews.com Rider Diary, click here.

Coaching, Outside Blog Links

The Mountain Biker Teaching Joe Dombrowski Everything He Knows

“I guess it’s not too outlandish a thought that an accomplished mountain bike racer is coaching a rising star of road racing. Ok, maybe it’s a little different.”

“Here is a little background. Joe Dombrowski and I first met at a mountain bike clinic I put on at the Greenbrier Challenge in Maryland. He and his Dad were looking for something to do, and for them riding with me was a good way to see some good lines and get a few tips. A year later I got a message from a local racer, saying, “hey you have to ride with this kid, he’s flying!” So, as I have done many times with other budding talents, I took him on an easy spin, thinking I might give him some pointers.”

“Needless to say that was the last time I rode my mountain bike on a road ride with Joe Dombrowski!”

To continue reading from Jeremiah Bishop’s VeloNews.com Rider Diary, click here.