Oh happy days: AKA broken hand

Some sketchball decided to cause a big pileup at Barry Roubaix and Garth and myself were among the casualties.

For me: boxer's fracture on the hand, black eye (healing nicely), chainring puncture on the arm, and a ton of roadrash.

Should be out for five more weeks. The whole issue with that being the Cohutta 100 is in a little over three. We'll see how the hand is feeling by then, or if I'm gonna have to skip it.

The good news is I'm ok to ride the roadbike and got out for some miles this weekend, so I'm pissed off and stir crazy.

Snake Creek Gap TT Number 3

Big surprise... I flatted again.



I like Kenda Karmas, but I don't think they're quite tough enough for really rocky trails. I've flatted the same way multiple times now: a pinch flat on a tubeless tire. Sounds hard to do but I guess it really isn't. I'll get a 2 mm or so cut right where the sidewall of my tire meets the hook bead / sidewall of my rim. Because that area is so stressed by sideloads, the Stans doesn't want to seal it. Anyone have tire suggestions for me?

On a more positive note. I felt pretty good. The trial was nice and muddy. Heavy as all get-out. You'd stop pedaling and come to a halt in about 5 seconds, so it was a good setup for me. I stayed on the gas the whole time, and scared the crap out of myself constantly on every downhill as I two wheel slid everything.

Besides that it was business as usual. The trail got super foggy on the backside of the mountain, which added a cool Mordor feel to it. I saw about 6 unattended dogs walking around, probably out hunting with someone, but I thought I was hallucinating for a second. I was winning the battle of attrition until my flat.

It took me about 10 minutes to get the flat fixed, and I only had 5ish rocky miles to go, so it killed my time. I rolled in at 3:30, which wasn't as fast as my February time.

When all was said and done, I was 4th fastest time in the Men Under 30 open class, and 2nd in the Trifecta, which combines your time for all three races. Could have done better in both, but this was a training race series so I'm not beating myself up too much.

Barry Roubaix in two weeks, and Cohutta in a little over a month. Whoop!

Georgia Time

Headed down to Georgia this weekend for the last Snake Creek Gap.

Legs are feeling good, mentally I'm about as all-there as I can ever be. Ready to go mental.

Um... is this thing on?

Hey blogworld long time no talk.

Wanted to save you the boring-ness of talking about riding base miles, and haven't had much else good stuff to talk about as work is turning me into a dullard. Sleep, work, ride. Repeat ad nauseum.

Now on to some actual fun stuff. Bike racing!

After the last cross race of the season (a very fun Cap City Cross in rural Columbus) I took a few weeks off.

After those few weeks off, I was back at it in early January for the first of three Snake Creek Gap time trials. A few weeks off after a tough cross season left me with legs fresher than any in recent memory. I was feeling so good, when... wait for it... a mechanical!



The course is sort of like if they dumped West Branch on a big-ass mountain. Tons of climbing and rocks everywhere.

I was boogeying along, well on my way to my best time and hopefully a win, and before you know it, the familiar hiss of Stan's flying everwhere. Rad. At about mile 29 of the 34 mile race, I get a mechanical.

After dicking around with my tire for way too long (thanks to the people who bailed me out with co2 and eventually a frame pump after I exhausted my stash), I was back on the trail 30-45 minutes later. Fuckin' a. Did I mention that while I was trying to get my Stan's to seal up, it was 30 degrees and super windy and I was on top of a mountain ridge?

Less learned: if I flat on the trail, don't screw with getting my stans to seal a cut, just throw in a tire and go.

After that I was super cold and sore and pushed through the last 5 miles pretty slowly. Finished in 3:50, which is ok, but it was a bit of a blow to go from feeling great to that. Oh well.

February saw me doing the race again. I had a semi-big week of training before, so my legs felt like trash. The weather wasn't cooperating at all. And crossing the deep and freezing creek sucked.



Yep... sucked.

It was muddy and cold and miserable, and my head wasn't in it.

Those three factors culminated into me cracking terribly the last 9 or so miles, where the race gets hard. I started getting into the negative feedback loop of "Why do I do this to myself?" and pretty much just started my deathmarch to the finish line.

I still posted up a respectable time: 3:27, which is only 4 minutes off my best time from last year. With the crappy conditions and my mental health issues, I'll take it.

March should hopefully go a little better, and I am shooting for around the 3 hour mark. We'll see.

I'll get back into this bloggin' thing a bit more soon!

My Season Ends with a Fizzle

Not much blogging lately as it seems the end of my season was one big disappointment after another. Maybe I set too high of goals for myself, or perhaps I just blew it. Oh well, as it's just bike racing: not the end of the world.



The Ohio state championship was this past weekend, and I made the drive down to Yellow Springs with the idea of being on the podium in my head.

The race started way way mellow, and I sat in and bid my time the first 2 laps. It started to gradually ramp up a bit, but nothing too out of this world.

Then I screwed myself.

The course was a bit slippery, but I knew where the problem spots were. For some reason I didn't keep this in mind as I washed out in a 180 and lost contact with the lead group.

I was still sitting in 3rd overall in Ohio, and maybe 5th or 6th in the race so I needed to stay on the gas if I wanted to stay there. As Ernie was hot on my tail.

Staying consistent is key in a cross race. Too many mistakes and you're toast. With that being said, I made the world's biggest cat 4 mistake you can. I ate shit on the double barrier.

I got a little ahead of myself and was thinking about what I needed to do to make contact with the lead group.

One thing leads to another, and I don't unclip in time. Wham! Front wheel into the barrier, me over the bars. I was fine, but 3 people got by me and were long gone.

I had to go into the big as my stem had twisted on the fork steerer, and that was pretty much all she wrote.

I duked it out with 2 Bob's Red Mill dudes for 9th place. Which I was able to get.

That left me 4th overall in the Ohio ranks.

2 more cap city races on the horizon, but after that, a few weeks off, then it's Georgia time for the first >Snake Creek Gap TT.

Iceman Bonketh

Iceman has cometh and gone. Longer writeup when I get photos.

After dealing with some pretty pitiful traffic, which was a surprise as I was supposed to go with the fastest times from last year. I moved up to where I wanted to be with about 14 of the 29 miles down.

Time to sit in for a second and refuel... I grab my waterbottle and it's frozen solid. Water handup coming too, oh sweet, my frozen hands drop 2 handups.

I blew up spectacularly. Seeing stars for pretty much the last half of the race and barely limping back in.

1:51 for 4th place in 19-24.

Longer write-up on the horizon.

Louisville USGP

Holy late blog entry.

Louisville came and went. Disappointed with my results, but can't win them all. I had an awesome time hanging out with my dudes and that's what it's all about yo.

The course was super fun. A wild sandpit, sketchy wood sections, a few short super steep climbs. The logistics for the race definitely needed improvement. The thing that pissed me off the most was the fact that they cut our (2/3 and SS) race short because they were running late. Way to cut the biggest field of the day's race short.

I got a reasonably good start. Super duper Clif Bar wunderkind attacked a bunch, I felt good and was able to keep him in site for maybe 2 laps. Then I bit it in the sandpit. Shit.

After scrambling back on, I was riding with a dude for 4th. The top 3 were just too far out of reach.

I got outsprinted at the line by a junior, again, which is pretty much the story of my season. 5th place. I'll take it.

Sunday was a bit more fun, course-wise. They added some distance, got rid of a run up, and this lead to more fun racing.

I wanted to stay out of the wind for the first few laps, so I took the start a little easier. Bad idea. Clif Bar dude took off, and I wasn't in position to chase. No one wanted to go either, as there were still a few dude that start well and then blow up later on leading the way, so they were pretty much at their limits.

I worked my way up to 3rd, and then what do you know, a buried tree stump in some moon dust dirt. I hit it super fast and was scared that I flatted. About 2 turns later I bit it super hard going into a turn very quickly. Flat front tire rolled over.

Trashed Dugast Rhino. Ouch.

After riding half a lap on my flat front to the pit, I was able to get my pit bike. Shit! i forgot to air up my tires before the race. I probably had 15 psi front and rear. I slowly picked myself some places back up for the rest of the race and ended up in 24th I think. Oh well.

As said before, I never want to race cross in 80+ degree weather again.