Strada Fango 2013

Strada Fango v2.0 was this past weekend. It almost was for naught as the original course was still buried in snow.  If we had been on the original course ( and the ATV trails) I would have take the Scalpel.  But since the word on the street was that this was a "gravel" thing, I took the CX bike.
Start was fast.  Lead group was whittled down to 6 pretty quick, with Swanson and Lillie (on a SS MTB!) leading the charge.  I was able to hang in until we hit the glacier road.  4 miles of riding through either snow melt or praying that you do not break through the ice crust.  the group of 6 split, Lillie, Swanson and a Ski-haus rider were gone.  I yoyo-ed with Tim from Duluth for the next 10 miles until I shifted over cassette. He got out of sight, but would miss the next turn.  So I got to ride 40 miles by myself, which is a great when you are on soft, wet sand roads that attempt to suck you down. It was a character building ride, to say the least.

My trying to avoid swampy mud was for naught, as I would find out.

I did notice the lever throw of the disc brakes grow considerably after the swampy sections, but I never ran out of braking power. The OEM brakes that Cannondale specs uses organic pads.  I was not thrilled about this, but will look for some metallic aftermarket pads.

Bar plug down!

Photo Cred Out There

Photo Cred Out There

All thing considered, it was a great day. We had awesome weather, and I got to hang with some great people afterwards.  Big thanks to the Strada crew for putting on a great event.



Lot of Character building went on.

Dairy Roubaix 2013

 So I got a wild hair this weekend to head down to southern Wisconsin for the Dairy Roubaix when I got wind that the Mammoth Gravel Classic was going to be postponed due to snow.  Drove 3 hours on Friday after work to get settled in. Awesome venue. Great people. We had a community cooler so every body got to try something new.  Plus Kevin from Red Eye Brewing in Wausau brought down a beverage cylinder of a Rye Porter that was off the hook.

Chow line in the morning. I am feeling highly caffeinated. Photo Cred Two Wheeled Maiden

Waiting to start on a beautiful WI morning.

The next morning I realized that I was the northerner amongst all the southerners. People were putting on full length tights, Jackets, fleece hats w/ ear flaps, and neoprene booties. I was in a vest, embro and arm warmers and loved every second of it. We rolled out enmass and were down the road pretty quick. The first 5 miles were pretty much down hill, as we headed for the river.  I was a little too lax and let a big gap form when bottles started flying and people started acting sketchy.  It took me a few minutes to chase it down, and I did not think I was doing that much work, but when I checked my garmin file it said I pegged my HR at 192. One match burned.

As we made the turn to come up out of the river, there were 2 guys that were already away, and up the road.  After a bit, I went to the front since it seemed like Brian Fuhrmann was doing all the work in our group of 7. By mile 17 I realized that Brian and I were the only ones doing anything. I pulled off the the side, and some club roadie actually stayed right on my wheel as I went over the the yellow line.

"you marking me, brah?"

Then it dawned on my that this guy had someone up the road. This was the first indicator of my roadie ignorance. I don't have a problem with people sitting in, but at least feign a contribution to the group. This isn't a crit, and your not Jens.

The second indication of my ignorance of roadie culture is that you can never shame a roadie into doing anything that they do not want to do. This is a mentality that I have been aware of, but have so much contempt for, that I stay away from the road scene.  In hind site, I should have just started attacking.  We were in these valleys with these long climbs, where it would have been so easy to launch a flier, OVER and OVER and OVER again.  It least then it would have been miserable for everyone, and we might have shed some dead weight. Once we hit the 27 mile mark there was a pee break stop, and guess who attacks? That ended the roadie hijinks for the day.

All of the climbs pretty much consisted of the couloirs along the Mississippi river.  It really reminded me of being back in Kentucky with all of the Karst topography and small farms. Right before we got to the finish Brian and one other guy from our group peeled off for the rest of the 107 miler (I just did 57 miles).  Then we started this gut busting climb up to the top of the river bluffs to intersect with CR X.  once we hit the top it was pretty smooth sailing. I did get jumped 100 yards from the finish line by the two guys that had just sat on my wheel for the last 6 miles. rolls eyes. I was pleased with the effort.

Average moving speed was 17.2 mph, and overall avg speed was 17.0mph.  We had about 4700 feet of climbing. I finished 5th.  It was a glorious time and many thanks go out to the folks at Wisconsin Bikes for Good. I met some great people, and finally got to see some ground that was not covered in snow.

The new bike worked awesome, and I am really impressed with what Cannondale is able to do with aluminum. The ride was never harsh, and the Ultegra worked great.  I really did not notice the brakes being good or bad. The wheels are tanks.  I bet you could knock 2 pounds off that bike with some Stans Crest wheels and some nice tires. 

Shame

The judging eyes of Brutus were upon me.
 
I could see him thinking, "you big dumb honky, how could you possibly get road rash at a indoor spin class?"

My dog has the kind of cutting wit that would drive away Mormons and girl scouts.
I also experienced the euro lament of the injustice of nutella packaging

 

There is still snow on the ground. sigh. 

On the upside, I did order my new CX bike.

Photo Cred: CX Magazine

Wanted to give disc brakes a whirl. Will see how this goes. 

Sprung

We have been on suicide watch around here.  The first winter we had in MN was supposed to be have been really bad, but this year has really sucked.  The continued cold and an especially fussy child has had me on the brink of irrational actions several time (like driving to to texas irrational). But now it looks like things are on the up swing.  It was practically tropical this afternoon, but I was unable to gather the fortitude to get out and ride before pm church.
I am reaching that strange point where I am getting ready to be in between bikes as I liquidate one to move on up to another.  last weekend was the Slick 50 and it lived up to its name.  What just aboout got me was not the icy trails that we had to navigate on our way out of town. Rather it was the fast descents that required functional brakes once we got out to Eden Prairie/Minnetonka hills.  Even really well set up cantilevers are really only useful for slowing you down, not stopping.  Up until now I have  relied on my geared CX bike to pull road duty, and it works ok.  However the consequences for not getting stopped in CX race and on the road are very different. At this point in my life stopping has become important.
That being said, I have also listened the voices and reason of numerous people and I decided that it was time to just move on to disc brakes on the CX bike. I do not believe that cantis are dead or that disc brakes will ever be better than road calipers, but rather that they offer me more utility for the things that I do on a bike. I acknowledge that there is a weight penalty with disc brakes, but the level at which I race it is really just a wash.
I have also been dinging up a lot of rims with the really crappy road conditions.  The imperative to have true wheels is much less when your are not relying on lateral and radial rim integrity for friction.
I have also been in a bit of a weight weenie haze, and that can be a bit too expensive when you start destroying 1500 gram wheel sets at a rate of more than 1 per year.
So that means that we are on to a new standard. stand by for more.

Jasper is reaching that age where his athletic ability has exceeded his level of coordination.  This morning he had a busted lip to match what was going to be a nice shiner

This has to end eventually.

Mixed disciplines

Butch and I busted out some rural road action today. I get a chuckle out of the bus stops that some of the farmers put at the end of their drives. There is bus stop down near Hastings that consists of a tractor cab. This was right next to Acton alps hence the old gondola.

Cross Worlds

Last weekend I went to CX Worlds with my Supervisor Adam. Adam will dispute the fact that he is my supervisor, but his name is on my performance evals, so as far as I am concerned he is my supervisor. It was Adam, his 5 YO son Gerit, Dave, a dentist from Zumbrota, and I in a rental car for 12 hours each way.

It was a glorious time. By the time I got to the hotel all the Kansans were there and well into some PBR. Then some random dude from the Oregon Cross Crusade just wandered into our room, and Slater proceeds to bash OBRA and give the guy crap. If the dude had not just walked into our room I would have felt bad.

Keeping the mighty Ohio river at bay

Jonathon Page put on a good show, but had a mechanical that knoked him out of the running

The course was awesome. I came away from the races thinking that our courses are simply not technical enough.

Voss just made everyone else look weak.

Dangling.

U-23 Next year!

Little Lars was really impressive. Just kept laying the power down late in the race and popped onto the podium.

Bart had a great race too. 

Poops and giggles abounded as we made fun of Brandon Bundys aversion to germs.

I was pretty bummed that I did not get to see Mod's Race, where he brought the rainbow colors back to Nebraska. It was good to see the midwest so well represented.
The snow keeps falling in Minnesota.  Somebody should have shot that groundhog.......

Fat Bike Musing and Riding St. Croix River Ice

Last week Eddie K lent me his fat bike for an entire week. I had the opportunity to ride it in several different scenarios.  The first was at the Hillside race up in Elk River.  I did not do as well as I thought I should have, but I had the distinct feeling that to milk the most out of a fatbike you really need to be realistic about your expectations.  

• If the snow is packed, its probably going to be faster on a narrow tire bike. 
• Don't expect to accelerate rapidly.  you are pushing a lot of rubber around, capitalize on your inertia.

After getting input from Grelk, I realized that it might be best to utilize the utility of the Pugsley for exploration.  Enter Barry Tungseth: who hatched a plan to ride the St. Croix River north from Stillwater to Marine on St. Croix.There was only one other person dumb enough to join us, David Meyer of the Hub, Bike Cooperative.

A little preventative medicine for my first river ice experience

I will admit that I was scared to death at first, but Barry led the way. and we only saw open water once.

Once we got north of the High Bridge we just skirted the sand bars on the WI side of the river.

It was just so amazing to be out on a perfect day, seeing what no one else will ever witness on that day.

It was incredibly unnerving to look down through the ice and see the river bottom. You also would gauge the ice thickness by looking at the ice cracks......

 We were all on fat bikes, and tried to stay on the fringe of the river where there was some snow, as the ice could be incredibly treacherous.  That being said, I only fell a few times

Certain sections looked liked there had been a lot of Snowmobile traffic. Photo: David Meyer

Post Coffee/Pre bubble gut. Photo: David Meyer

We only had one incidence of breaking through the ice, and thankfully the water was only 20 inches deep. The hole was just big enough to sink a wheel into. Photo: David Meyer

Dave and Barry were great company and I would love to ride with them any time.  I also had some time to reflect on the utility of fatbikes.  I guess that I see the most utility for fat bikes off the beaten path.  I actually did not care for it on the single track, as I was used to super steep angles and fast acceleration.

We made Jasper a sweet school bus cake for his 2nd birthday.