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:

End of the year part 1: The races

With the season coming to a close, I'm taking the next few days to reflect on my year, hopefully I don't become too sentimental. Today is racing, tomorrow is stuff, Thursday is people. So look out for it!

So, as a little bit of background, this was my first full year racing. I did a few cross races at the tail end of last year in the C category and that planted the seed. So, when spring rolled around, I gave the whole racing this a shot.

What do you know, it was a blast.

Being able to race with so many different people and head off to places I'd normally never set foot in (Coburn, PA, anyone!?) was an experience in itself. The bike riding was just an added perk on top of that.

A few highlights:

• Mohican 100k

This was my first experience with any sort of an enduro race, and man it was awesome. Even though the 7 am start was wayyyyy too early, tearing through downtown Loudonville was awesome. I felt pretty good for not knowing jack shit about nutrition or pacing myself or any of that mumbo-jumbo. I was scarfing down granola bars having a blast. While getting lost for an hour plus may have been a huge kick in the nuts, there's always next year when I'm going to unleash some proverbial whoop-ass on that race.

• Manitoc

331 promotions really knows there stuff. A huge thanks to them for putting on this really well-organized race. The weather looked really ominous before this race. I left my place in North Royalton (20 minutes away) to a torrential downpour, but when I got to Manitoc, the trails were dry and the rain held off. Crazy stuff.

It was also one of those races where everything seemed to click. The bike was running well, I didn't crash like crazy, and I was able to power through the entire race. A 1st place plaque and a Chipolte burrito were my reward.

It's a shame the trails aren't open year round, but hopefully my good dudes in Camba have some luck with getting the Valley opened up for bikes.

• Wilderness 101

The hardest thing I've ever done on a bike. Seriously. Next year I'm putting a suspension fork on and maybe that will help me not think about dying on some of those descents. Yikes. But besting my goal time by 40-some minutes was something for me to be really happy about. Let's see if I can drop it down another 40 next year.

• West Branch OMBC

I got my start on a mountain bike at West Branch a few years ago. So it was awesome to be able to ride my home trail in a race. Once again it was one of those days were everything clicked.

• Kirtland Park CX

Fast! It was wild to be able to hang with the front group for a bit and see how insanely fast those guys were. Riding with Twining was always good too, as I've got a lot to learn from him. My best Lake Effect result of the year too.

I could probably write something about every one of these races and how much I liked them, but man this post is getting long so I'll save you the boredom.

But here is is a long and boring list of all the races I did this year... if you're into that sort of thing.

Mountain Bike

OMBC Series:

• 1st: 3/29/09 OMBC #1 Mohican Wilderness, Loudonville


• 5th: SATURDAY 4/18/09 OMBC #2 Vultures Knob – Wooster


• 1st: 5/3/09 OMBC #3 Mountwood Challenge WV


• 1st: 5/17/09 OMBC #4 The Wilds


• 2nd: 7/12/09 OMBC #6 S&S Trails - Mt. Perry


• 2nd: 7/26/09 OMBC #7 Alum Creek – Delaware


• 2nd: 8/23/09 OMBC #9 Caesar Creek – Waynesville


• 1st: 9/27/09 OMBC #11 Westbranch – Ravenna


• 1st: 10/11/09 OMBC #12 Mohican SP – Loudonville


• 1st: 10/25/09 OMBC #13 Mohican Wilderness – Loudonville

1st overall Sport Senior (19-30) category

Other XC races

• 1st: 8/30/09 NEO Power Series Big Valley Race at Camp Manitoc, Sport class - Peninsula


• 1st: 6/13/09 Vultures Knob #3: Woo-town Singlespeed Challenge - Wooster


• 1st: 11/7/09: Iceman Cometh Challenge, Sport 19-24 - Traverse City, MI

Endurance Races



• 20th: 8/1/09 Wilderness 101: Singlespeed Open - Coburn, PA


• 12th: 5/30/09 Mohican 100k: Singlespeed Open - Loudonville

Cyclocross:

• 2nd: 9/13/09 Bike Authority CX #1: Wendy Park, B race - Cleveland


• 1st: 9/26/09 Bike Authority CX #2: KSU Stark, B race - Canton


• 1st: 10/3/09 Cap City Cross #1: Alum Creek, B race - Delaware, OH


• 9th: 10/4/09 Bike Authority CX# #3: Leroy, A race - Panesville


• 7th: 10/9/09 Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede International Cyclocross, Cat 2/3 - Covington KY


• 12th: 10/17/09 Bike Authority CX #4: Todd Field, A race - Willoughby


• 10th: 10/31/09 Bike Authority CX #5: Chagrin River CX day one, A race - Bainbridge


• 9th: 11/1/09 Bike Authority CX #6: Chagrin River CX day two, A race - Bainbridge


• 21st: 11/14/09 Bike Authority CX #7: KSU Main, A race - Kent


• 7th: 11/22/09 Bike Authority CX #8: Kirtland Park, A race - Cleveland


• 5th: 12/5/09 Cap City Cross: #6: Smith Farms, A race - Columbus


• 9th: 12/6/09 Bike Authority CX#9: Boughton Farm, A race - Copley


• 1st: 12/19/09 Cap City Cross #7: Infirmary Mound, A race - Granville


• 3rd: 12/20/09 Cyclocross Winter Trophy Series #1, A race - Akron

9th overall Bike Authority CX: A category

Keep an eye out tomorrow: I'll be posting about some of my favorite gadgets / gear of the year.