Snake Creek Gap 3

After February's debacle, I thought the Snake Creek Gap had scarred me for life. The crappy conditions combined with me not being in the best shape to push a SS gear up all of those mountains put the hurt on me pretty badly.

Surprisingly, March's Snake Creek went nothing like that.

Camba race team member Rusty Brown and myself loaded up his jeep and left from Kent Thursday night. After motoring on down I-75 though the wee hours of the night, we arrived in Dalton, Georgia at about 9 am Friday morning. We passed out for a while in the hotel then woke up and took a little spin on the trails to loose up the road-weary legs, and to work as a bit of a shake down from my brand new bike.

Yes, folks, I wised up and got myself a new bike:



Yep it's got both gears (27 of em!) and a suspension fork. Thanks to Bike Authority for getting me up and running.

So moving on to race morning. It was 40 degrees or so at the start, which felt positively balmy compared to Ohio, and off we went. I think a combination of the new bike, the great weather and the work I've been doing with Sean had me feeling great.

I pretty much put the hammer down from the line, and tried to stay strong throughout the 34 mile race. This was ultimately a training race, so I tried to not go anaerobic too often, and for the most part, that worked out well.


This is me saying thanks to a little dude that was helping at a road crossing.

For once in my life, things went to plan. I was loving the ability to shift, and the fork helped avoid the dead arms that I experienced in February's race. I did fall into a giant pricker bush when hauling ass on a descent, hitting my pedal on a log, almost losing it, recovering, and then washing out on a log at low speed when I thought I saved it.

I was glad no one was around to see that as I tried to untangle myself from my bike and all the thorns that were ripping my legs up.

But back on the horse, all went well.

I rolled in with a time of 3 hours 23 minutes. Good for second place in the Men under 30 class.

This was only a 1 minute 50 seconds slower than the guy in first. I probably could have cut that time down by not stopping at the second aid station, as I was pretty okay on water and gel. Maybe I played it a little too safe, but hindsight is 20/20. I did get a pretty badass plaque for my toils:


Rusty battled through some mechanical problems, including a broken chain, and came in with a time of 4:09, good enough to put him within the top 15 in his class.

That being said, I'm super excited at how the race turned out. For riding nothing but base miles in the last few months, I'm glad to see the results in as race when I push it a little more. Hopefully this momentum will carry over to the start of the Knob series, OMBC and the Cohutta 100.

Finally talking about Snake Creek Gap

A combination of being over-stressed from work (this real job stuff is bullshit) and finally getting over the trauma that was Snake Creek Gap has me writing about it about two weeks after it happened.

Crap it was hard.

Aaron, Rusty, Mike and myself left Mike's shop in Akron at 11PM Thursday night bound for Dalton, Georgia and the Snake Creek Gap time trial.

After ten hours of driving, we finally arrived in Dalton and all promptly passed out for a few hours. After getting up, we ate some Panera, unpacked the bikes, and got all of our stuff ready for the next morning.

Waking up Saturday morning, we were greeted by rain and temperatures in the mid 30's. Woohoo.

We make the 5 minute drive from the hotel to the race registration area. After suiting up and getting the bike ready, we all hopped into buses and vans, and the organizers put our bikes on trailers and drove us to the start about 45 minutes away.


Luck had it that our van was the last to arrive, so I was pretty much the last person to start the 34 mile ride. I was warned about a creek crossing within the first 3 miles or so, but nothing could have prepared me for it. Waist high and freezing! Yikes!

Only way to beat hypothermia was to keep on moving, so on I went. The trail was absolutely beautiful, but by far the hardest mountain biking I've encountered so far. 5200 feet of climbing in 34 miles, and since I'm currently without a geared bike, I was on the singlespeed pushing 32x19 in the mud. Ouch!

After some absolutely killer climbs and equally bad descents, I was along the home stretch. Everyone warned me that it'd be hard, and my friends and I actually hiked it the day before, but after 3 and a half hours in the saddle, I didn't want to deal with these huge rocks anymore. But all good things must come to an end, so after much mental anguish, I was treated to a 40 mph road descent, and I was done!!!


I rolled in at 4 hours and 4 minutes, which was only slightly above my goal of 4 hours flat. It was good enough for 5th in Singlespeed Open behind 4 locals. I'll take it. Hell of a job to Mike and Aaron for finishing that beast. The sport class won't know what hit them this year.

Rusty and I are headed back March 6th to do it again. Should be some good stuff. I've got myself a geared bike again, just picked it up yesterday. So the read question is, do I bring it, or the SS?!

Snake Creek Gap

See ya Northeast Ohio. Snake Creek Gap this Saturday.

Doing it on the singlespeed. Should be fun. Race report and photos soon to come.

Mohican and Lumberjack 100

Got the registration in for the Mohican 100 miler. I'm beyond looking forward to this.

Here's a recap from last year. I'm doing everything in my power to not get lost, and I actually have a bit more of a clue what in the hell I'm doing. So it should be good. First peak of the year, so I'm really working up to it.

The ultimate bummer for me is that the Lumberjack 100 sold out in 12 hours. Registration opened at midnight when I was fast asleep, and I was going to wait until I got home from work to fork out the dough. Well isn't that just swell. Hopefully I can score a transfer.

Not sure how close Mohican is to filling up or anything, but might be a good idea to register sooner rather than later...

Laying Low

Not much going on in blog-land. Working a ton, putting in a shit ton of base miles, and avoiding the cold.

I'm working with Coach extraordinaire Sean Gilbert this upcoming season, and I'm really optimistic he can help me work towards my goals this year.

The 6 hour rides start soon to get the base built up nice and big. Looking forward to it.

My bike stable is getting a bit revamped too, after things settle down with that, I'll post some photos of the goodies that are coming through.

Winter Trophy Cross Finale

You know a race is tough when a solid two days later you still feel like crap.

As of 9:12 AM, Tuesday, Jan. 12, I can safely say I still feel like crap. My legs are so unbelievably sore that getting out of bed is a little bit of a task.

On with the race report: myself and some other brave souls make the trek out to the last Winter Trophy race.

The turn out wasn't too bad, considering the freezing temperatures and solid foot of snow on the ground. There were seven people in the A race, which made things fun.

On the line, people were advising us to run our bikes from the get-go. I figured they were messing with us or something, and didn't listen too closely.

I quickly learned they were serious. I took about two pedals from the start and came to a dead stop. I ended up shouldering my bike and ran like the dickens.



Thanks to Julie for the awesome photos as per usual...

I'd very quickly get used to shouldering my bike, as I had to do it a shit-ton throughout the hour. This created a pretty hilarious dilemma for me. I've got little chicken legs, and even though my leg warmers are size small, running causes them to fall down.

And fall down they did. (Sorry for subjecting you to this)



Not very pro at all.

So I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. After running my bike, I'd get out on the road section, which was a great time to put the hammer down and try to close some gaps. I really never had the opportunity to do so, as I was too concerned with riding no handed and pulling my leg warmers up. It was freezing and without them I think I would have died.

Besides that bit of hilarity, things went well enough. It was a very singlespeed unfriendly course, as the road section was good for my gearing, but I was wayyyyyyyy overgeared for the snow, hence my dead legs two days later from pushing a 42x17.

This look of agony on my face was pretty much maintained the entire race:



I ended up rolling across the line in third behind Garth Prosser, who I think had some secret to riding the snow and lapped the field twice, and Matt Weeks, who was having all sorts of mechanical problems.

I'll take it.

The race schedule should be done for me... but surprisingly it's not.

Next up is the Vulture's Knob cross series for a couple of fun races, then it's back into the base miles.

You Should Have Stayed in Bed CX

Turns out the name was right... Sorry Rody :-)

After having the Winter Trophy Cross race cancelled, I figured I'd man up and go to the Groovy Series out at the Knob.

As I went outside to start loading stuff up in my car, I realized the accuracy of the name, made a prompt 180 and went back to bed.

When I finally awoke from my slumber, I ended up realizing my mistake and regretting it all day. It was freezing, yes, but I should have still went. It was too late to pack up and get to the Knob, which is an hour away, so I was resigned to my house for the rest of the day.

Or was I?!?!?!?!?

After much bugging via text message, I somehow convinced Scott to get out of his house and go for a ride with me, -10 degree windchill be damned.

So off we were. We ended up with 30 rolling miles around Hinckley. Me on the fixed gear, Scott on his cross bike. It was cold, but actually pretty managable once you were moving. I am going to invest in some winter shoes though, as my booties don't want to fit over my shoes, and are very quickly giving up the ghost as a result.

Here are some snaps from the ride: