Adventures in Pisgah

Enduro de Nueve - The Second Annual Enduro from the Pisgah Brew Crew

2009-06-24T22:47:00.005-04:00

(what follows is the post i put up on my race teams site, Justin Mitchell and I organized this race)

The Second annual Enduro from Crow’s Next Productions consumed the lives of a few dedicated riders this past June 13^th and 14th. Known as the ED9 or Enduro De Nueve, this race awards the title - Most Bad Ass Mountain Biker in the World, to the rider that accumulates the most points over the course of the weekend. The weekend consisted of the following events:

· Cross-Country Race

· Skinnies

· Wheelies

· Speed Trials

· Night Time Pump Track Time Trial

· Dodge Ball (non-biking)

· Derby

· Uphill Race

· Downhill

· Short Track Downhill

· Lake Jump

The Enduro is really just an opportunity for a few people with mad skills to get together, show off these skills, push their skills and have an unbelievably fun time doing it. Last year it was thrown together at the last minute, on a shoe string, underground, and sketchy, and turned out amazing. And the all the same goes for how it came together this year. Points were awarded a little bit differently this year. Last year the only people scored were those that were there for pretty much the entire weekend. This year we gave anyone, even random passers by, the opportunity for points in this event. The number of people participating in any one event equaled the max points awarded and it went down from there. In addition the first, second and third place winners of each event received bonus points (3, 2, 1 respectively). The above events were 11 of the 12 events of the weekend. The 12^th event was “Winning the Party”, which is determined by, the main score keeper at the commencement of the party, which of course is when the Party Winner is done. And finally, additional participation points were awarded - the number of events participated in was added to the total (1-12 points).

It all began at a local trailhead Saturday morning. Marshall Hance pops out at the end of his ride just as people begin gather. He had just completed the course in 47:30, so that was the time to beat. Marshall came and raced before everyone since he had to work all day and miss out on many events which he would have certainly dominated in. Eventually everyone racing made it and was ready to go. Chief Volunteer Kylee Cross and Organizer Beth, lead the racers out down the road to the official start. Special guests to this ride included Adam Ray, pro road racer, hill climber extraordinaire, and Adam Engell - a totally random guy to us who had just finished riding this trail. Adam Engell was training for an up and coming race that covers the same ground and seemed pretty stoked to hop on to this little group ride, for a cool down maybe? The race began and Adam Ray kills it up the climb, dropping everyone but Adam Engell and they kill it till the end. Also on this trail were people who had never seen this technical challenging fast hard trail before. This included Eric Nicoletti, from Georgia, who arrived the day before with his pregnant wife of 8 months, her friend and their 4? year old child. Eric, who got turned around on the course, still managed to come in top 5, setting the tone for the weekend of subtlety killing it across the board.

Results for the Cross Country Race:

1. Adam Ray - 45:45
2. A. Engell - 46:52
3. Marshall - 47:30
4. Dunn - 51:03
5. Nicoletti - 51:05

From here we traveled to Industry Nine, where the afternoon events took place. Snacking on fresh pasta salad and Pisgah Brew riders spent the next few hours preparing for the Skininies, speed trials, wheelie competition, and a dirt sprint with jumps. We were sad to have to bail on the Bunny Hop and Dirt Jumping competition, but a lot had already happened and a lot still needed to happen to finish this day of events and it was a sacrifice, benefiting some in the end, hurting others.

As photographers Jeff Zimmerman and Bryan Bloebaum began to catch air on camera, Johney Massey dominated the skinny ride, Travis and Justin killed the speed trials, and Ryan Taylor showed everyone how to ride wheelies.

Skinnies

1. Massey

2. Travis

3. Jut

4. R. Taylor

5. Denny MF Stevenson

Speed Trials

1. Travis

2. Jut

3. Nicoletti

4. Winston

5. R. Taylor

Wheelie

1. R. Taylor
2. Nicoletti
3. Dunn
4. Massey
5. Gabe

Before heading out to take a break and grab dinner, we fit one more quick race in. A “dirt sprint” through part of the jumps and pump track of Industry Nine’s back yard. Our youngest rider began his participation here in this quick ride through the yard. Ian, Otto’s son, laid down an amazing time it just like his dad.

Dirt Sprint

Kevin Burkhead
Otto
Denny MF Stevenson
R. Taylor
A. Winston

While dusk set in, ferries descended upon the Kenilworth pump track and set up tea lights throughout the dirt and grass. Around 9 something it was dark enough to start the time trial, and Otto and Ian went out for the first runs so that Ian (4 yrs old) could make bed time. This event was nearly impossible to score as each “pedal stroke” was a 7 second penalty and with it being dark we had to go on the rider’s honest opinion as to how many pedal strokes they had or had not needed. I do feel confident that the top riders nailed the whole course without penalty, and therefore got the points that they deserve. Otherwise, sorry, ya know… its really just a bunch of people hanging out so it doesn’t really matter.

Jeff Moreadith (1^st) and 3^rd place Marshall Hance are two people who know every curve of this track so well they could ride blindly and then there is the out-a-towner-Eric Nicoletti, 2^nd place, never been here before, dropping jaws. We did find out later that Eric rides a lot at night.

Night Time Pump Track Time Trial

Jeff Moreadith
Nicoletti
Marshall
Callum
A. Winston

From the pump track those that were still in it to win it, cruised on to the ole flint street bike house to continue to work on the keg from Pisgah Brewing Company.

A killer party ensued and once ready we took off for the local park where we separated in to 4 teams of 5 and had a quick dodge ball tourney where we had our second major injury of the weekend – Travis seriously rolled an already bunk ankle in a heated match on the old fenced in basketball court. Again this year, Justin brought his team in to the final match and dominated to be the last man standing.

It was getting late.. was it 1.. 2..? Participant numbers were getting low but we still had to have a derby. The derby happens fast. Everyone gets on their bikes and as soon as your foot goes down you are out. Adam, the local favorite, dominated again.

Derby

Winston
Denny MF Stevenson
Troy
Jut
Nicoletti

We began to loose more and more participants to the lateness of the evening. This is when the “winning the party” competition begins. A posse of seriously ready to dance ladies and a few key dancing participants, Callum, Justin and Massey tore up the rug and bounced the bass under our roommates room (SORRY!). I battled the majority with respect to the volume. It was too hard to fight for a low volume as the Enduro is a once a year, unprecedented, history making event and this was all part of the competition. Eventually (around 4 am) I finally seized on a dancing break and killed the music. Up until this point Eric Nicoletti was still hanging out (!!!), with a 4 year old and pregnant wife sleeping above. He eventually caved as the last 4 chatted it up on the front porch. Adam, Callum, Justin and Massey and I had one last laugh and said good night and see ya in a few hours at the next trail head for the uphill/downhill battle.

Party Winning

1. (Tie) Adam, Callum, Justin, Massey
5. Nicoletti

However, I actually won the party.. its part of my job on this weekend.

Photo credits to: Bryan Bloebaum's Blue Tree Images and Jeff Zimmerman Photography
More pictures here

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Sunday Morning, just like Saturday morning, I sleepily emerged from my room around 7 am to find Eric Nicoletti beaming in the hall. Drinking coffee and hanging out with his 5 year old before another big day of events. Just another test of the Most Bad Ass Mountain Biker in the World - Who can get their ass out of bed after a late and long night of dancing, dodge ball, derby and drinking.

Arriving only a little late, we found the folks who didn’t hang the night before were at the trailhead doing laps getting ready to throw down on this uphill. This trail’s a favorite downhill ride - fast, straight and steep. As a climb it was steady, rideable and painful, yet short. At 12:26:00 riders started the climb. Finishing the climb at 12:49:03, Marshall came in just ahead of Will Black, who, word on the street has it, that either he let Marshall win, or he didn’t really know where he was going. Either way, these are the finishing times we got.

Uphill Race (start 12:26:00)
1. Marshall 12:49:03
2. Will Black 12:49:06
3. Denny MF Stevenson 12:50:27
4. Adam Winston 12:51:02
5. Ian Baldwin 12:51:41

Two bikes allowed each this year meant more bikes to carry.

Kyley and Laura had sprinted up the hill ahead of racers, to set up for timing. I cruised with first aid kit, watch and Jesse to the finish of the downhill. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, Marshall pops out of the woods to report on how intense the trail felt, “it felt like my bike was flexing all over underneath me, but it was really the trail moving.” A scary downhill, but oh so much fun! Suddenly rider number 2 pops out – Otto. Marshall knew instantly that Otto had gone faster by only a few seconds. No surprise that Justin came in third on his Maverick, he definitely wanted it enough. But then wait.. It’s Eric Nicoletti!, who had NEVER ridden this trail, EVER. Wow! It’s not an easy descent, and he really nailed it.

Downhill
1. Otto 3:52
2. Marshall 3:59
3. Jut 4:17
4. Eric Nicoletti 4:18
5. Ian Baldwin 4:19

From here we emerged from the woods and were on our way to the finale at John Caldwell’s Compound. Just days before, I.R.L. Construction Cooperative had secured the lake jump, but still more work had to be done to make it safe.

We needed to line it with shingles, test the water depth, then test the jump. Callum Robertson, of I.R.L. Construction, didn’t hesitate for a second before jumping in the algae covered lake to confirm that it was definitely safe. And before we chopped off the top foot of the jump, Callum was the first to launch off. Meanwhile, I am sucked in to a computer, compiling times and places, and converting them to scores.

It was time to get the short track downhill started, but the scene was just not safe. Friends and riders helped fix that. Lines were set up, areas cleared, and the 30+ second short track downhill formed. It ran through garden dirt jumps, huge step-downs, through a small clan of folks barbecuing, road gap, mega monster log pile, to a sprint finish by the lake where I recorded the stop time. With a crude walkie-talkie and stop watch timing mechanism, Laura and I attempted to properly record, very short times that came down to the hundredths. Everyone had two runs, and after the first run it looked like John Caldwell might take it with the home court advantage. However, seriously amazing bad ass Kevin Burkehead was clearing the road gap and saving seconds with mad skills. Otto, winner of the mornings downhill race, nabbed second, with Caldwell barley beating Mike Mooney on a Tall Bike or really, what we might call a Monster Bike.

Short Track Downhill
1. Kevin Burkhead 0:30.34
2. Otto 0:30.83
3. Caldwell 0:31.02
4. Mooney 0:31.87
5. Jut 0:31.91

It was time for the event I had been dreading the most and was the moat excited about – The Lake Jump. Knowing that it was going to be safe really eased minds and then it was just a matter of who was going to hit this thing. 7 people stepped up to the competition: Callum, Kevin Burkhead, Mooney, Winston, Denny MF Stevenson, Eric Nicoletti, and Justin. With hound dog Walter yelping his heart out with every lake jump, the crowd cheered and the judges judged, from the banks of the lake to the bass fishing boat. Three or four judges averaged their scores on a 1-10 scale based on wow factor, style, effort and other things that I don’t know at all because I wasn’t judging. I was running the downhill course over and over again, having missed out on all the spectation of this event, it was nice to at least get some runs in.

As Dunn and Massey caught fish and Bryan Bloebaum made history with his wicked shots of lake jumpers. Pictures tell many more words here.

What was likely the winning jump - #1 Callum Robertson launched off in a cork screw rotation with serious speed and awesome overall enthusiasm.

Second place lake jumper Kevin hit the top of the ramp so hard the front wheel tacoed and shot the tube out of the tire (look closely).
3rd - Mike Mooney with absolute showmanship

Adam Winton

Denny Muthafckin’ Stevenson

Eric Nicoletti

Justin Mitchell

After the last lake jump, we commenced to the lawn and enjoyed a classic southern home cooked bbq. Points were added, and the final winners were announced.

Eric Nicoletti with 119 points, stood out at the MBAMBW. A total stranger to the area, finds our totally cryptic blog post, gets in touch with us and shows up to crash on my Flint St. floor with his very pregnant wife, her friend and their kid. Wow. With full participation, his event placing broke down as follows: XC (5th), Skinnies (6th), Trials (3rd), Wheelie (2nd), Dirt Sprint (6th), Pumptrack (2nd), derby (5th), Party (4th), Uphill (7th), downhill (4th), Short Track DH (6th), Lake Jump (6th). Never winning any one event, but having so much overall talent and tenacity. If we had been as lax with passing out bonus points as we were last year, or as arbitrary with how they added up, he would have surely received serious bonus points for showing up and pulling it all off in all of the ways that he did. Thank You Eric Nicoleti. Hope we can do it all again next year.

Final Scores (number of events participated in)

1 eric nicoletti 119 (12)
2 Winston 102 (12)
3 Jut 100 (12)
4 Denny MF Stevenson 87 (12)
5 John Massey 77 (11)
6 Otto Meinert 74 (7)
7 Marshall 72 (5)
8 Greg Dunn 71 (9)
9 Kevin Burkhead 67 (6)
10 Gabe 56 (8)
11 Travis Nevill 54 (6)
12 Ryan Taylor 52 (4)
13 Callum 44 (5)
14 Matt Johnson 35 (4)
15 Mike Brown 34 (6)
16 Troy Foster 31 (11)
17 Mac 28 (6)

Major thanks to - All of the rest of the people that raced and played along.

Justin Mitchell for coming up with the whole idea, for his determination in seeing the lake jump come to fruition and for graciously passing the title.

Kyley Cross for racing to the top of trace ridge Sunday morning, dragging multiple racers around from point to point, taking pictures, record keeping, having fun and a bunch of other things.

Jeff Zimmerman and Bryan Bloebaum, Phil Shaw for catching mad air and classic bicycle shots.

John Caldwell and Nicole for hosting the afternoon’s festivities. Your place was beautiful and the bbq was unreal!

Lela Stephens and everyone else that I didn’t notice because my head was in a computer, who brought and cooked other excellent food. It was a long weekend, we were hungry.

Pisgah Brewing for providing a Keg of James Brown and Lori Diehl for her love for us at Pisgah.

Industry Nine and Jeff for letting us create a huge liability in your back yard while we do amazing things on your wheels.

Jeff Moredith for the Kenilworth Pumptrack.

Lara Lustig, Laura Goetz, and Kelly Cowan for hanging and helping and general shenanigans! And Lara you will be more in charge of scoring next year, fyi.

Chris Bennett for his incredible cookies and help at Industry Nine.

And to Ian and Melissa for not kicking us to the curb after the party.

I hope we can make it all happen again next year. The sooner you let us know that you are interested in participation, the sooner you will find out the ever so important "Save the Date". Otherwise you might not hear about it at all.

-- Beth Roberts

Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race 2009

2009-05-02T23:36:00.006-04:00

A nice long day in the woods....

at the moment I don't know how long-- definitely longer than 10 hrs... in the 11 hr range...

>65 miles, > +/- 12,000 Ft. Climbing... route finding and rerouting included.

Black Mtn --> buckhorn --> 1206 -->225 -->1206 -->pilot rock --> Laural Mtn --> Bradley Cr. Rd. --> Bradley Crk. --> South Mills --> Cantrell Crk --> Sqrl Gap --> S. Mills River --> Buckhorn -> BLACK MOUNTAIN and DONE!

Gold Bar .. later Porqupine

2009-04-19T01:30:00.000-04:00

riding and riding and riding

2009-04-17T01:06:00.006-04:00

Ok.. now in moab..
Have been riding since we flew in on Monday..
This is what we’ve ridden..

Monday
Russell’s Loop (Woooohooo! We made it to fruita! Awesome views and classic riding)

From Fruita, Colorado

Horsestheif branch (ok.. here is some gnarly shit.. and then a perfect sweet trail)

From Fruita, Colorado

Tuesday
18 Road
Prime Cut (the Single Track alternative to climbing on the road.. ok I’ll take it, just don’t hit the massive piles of poo.. or the calf in the trail)

From Fruita, Colorado

Chutes and Ladders (name says it all, wtf, ok wait.. I need to do that again..)

From Fruita, Colorado

Kessels Run (x3ish both ways) (the best slalom course you’ve ever ridden…ever)

From Fruita, Colorado

Western Zippity (nice chill climb with rad views like most things round these parts)

From Fruita, Colorado

Part of Front Side (oh woops, the switchbacks are up not down.. sorry)

From Fruita, Colorado

Joe’s ridge (holy –F my mom’s going to kill herself, this is not the place to talk about loosing one’s balance, seriously)

From Fruita, Colorado

Wednesday

Zippity Doo Da. (kicking Robbie out of his sleeping bag on to the trail, we blazed down this Trail- super exposed steep and wicked fun, look for the photo shoot he had there last week in a magazine coming soon)

From Fruita, Colorado

Thursday

Slick Rock.. (fun with mom, look closely and you'll see her twice in this stitched photo)

From Fruita, Colorado

Slick Rock.. (fun with Ken and Scott)

From Fruita, Colorado

Chili Pepper (super gnarly bad ass fun with ken and scott)

From Fruita, Colorado

Dinner at Kens

From hangin in moab

Ken (THE Ken Moody) wants some props for being on the cover of these books..so here it is:

From hangin in moab

Cool Dudes who like to ride bikes too and be goofy

From hangin in moab

more riding tomorrow....

waiting to ride...

2009-04-14T10:25:00.010-04:00

From Fruita, Colorado

While I wait to ride, as mom figures out what she wants to wear on our ride... I thought I might as well post up a few pics from our ride yesterday and our morning. A phone call woke us at 5 am and we just figured we might as well get up and check out the sunrise. We took a short drive to Colorado National Monument...

Heading to Fruita and Moab

2009-04-10T13:26:00.009-04:00

So the 6 hour of Warrior Creek didn't end up as I might have hopped. As a two woman team- my mom and I arrived at the Warrior Creek Campground ready to go. Since my new jersey hadn't arrived yet, I represented for my mom's team - Piedmont Velo Sports. The plan was for me to start and get two laps in, have Mom do a lap or two hopefully, then I'd finish up with a lap or two. After having Drew take a quick look at my new I-9 wheels that I have been riding the hell out of, I thought I was ready to go. It was a fast start and a tight trail. Once I caught up with super fast bad ass - Christine Putnam - I tried hard to stay on her wheel, which wasn't very easy... It felt like a painful nauseating XC race and then things just suddenly weren't right - my rear derailleur broke. Not too sure why yet.. I think I might have gotten into trouble again from doing too much work on my bike too soon before a race. But riding in the mud and rain had done a lot of damage to my bike in the weeks before. And I'm finding that I can't really keep up with how often I need to change my chain these days.. guess I might need to start thinking about single speeding a little bit more. ugh. Well anyway.. My rear der. broke, I walked out, borrowed a Gary Fisher Big Sur from my friend Charlie (THANKS CHARLIE!), road back to where I had departed the route, and completed the first lap.

Mom took off and returned about an hr and 20ish later.. meanwhile the super cool folks at Magic Cycles offered up an xtr rear der for me to borrow... um.. well ok! Totally worried I was about to brake a stupidly expensive derailleur, I road carefully as I started my second lap. Instantly my shifting got all funky.. so I began to ride without putting too much pressure on things.. which was tough on this course. Tight, twisty, lots of quick ups and downs that required either power or fast shifting, neither thing I could do without stressing my derailleur of course. And then before I knew it my chain broke. Without a tool on me, I figured I'd just walk out and give it up. But then a nice Single Speeder who seemed pretty happy just chillin for a few min lent me his chain tool. With no need to rush, I fixed my chain, had a nice chat and was back on my way. My shifting greatly improved and I picked up speed. As I approached the "technical rock garden", I got pretty excited as now I could hit it with my big wheels (which I was missing the first time around on the borrowed GF.) Taking a bad line, I recovered just as a dagger of a rock sliced my side wall. NOOOOOO.. Stans spewed everywhere.. deep breath. Ok. Pulled out my tube, borrowed a pump from a passing rider, pumped it up and then the friggin core of the valve stem came out. Ok. Done. Defeated, I walked out and mom and I gave it up. We were happy that neither of us became so injured that we would f-up our up and coming trip to Fruita and Moab together...

The picture to the right is Charles of Mock Orange Bikes in Winston-Salem... I really like this picture, kinetic images took some rad shots of the twisty-ness of the race.. you should check 'em out.

I would totally do this race again - Tough and interesting course, Good people, Awesome food and beer at the end, Overall very well run. They even had super cool nice'n'soft t-shirts. Lots of great people showed up and rode hard and didn't have tons of mechanicals.

Now I'm heading west to bigger sky's and bigger rocks and a week of mountain biking with my mom. If you are out there and want to ride drop me a line.. I'll be riding in Fruita 13th and 14th then Moab from the 15th to the 19th.. or something like that

too much to cover

2009-03-24T09:05:00.014-04:00

So I have really been neglecting my blog. Working has been filling up my time and unfortunately has meant not only time off the blog, but off the bike.. not good. It is March now and major racing highlights since I last wrote relate only to Snake Creek Gap. Where, after major mechanicals during the first race, I came back and got real close to my original goal of Sub-4. Loretta Simpson and I finished the second time trail tied for first. I went in to the last race a little stressed out, since I was pretty ready to win this thing. Of course I'm just talking about winning in my age group at this point. Next year I might go for the money class, but I knew I wasn't going to be ready for that this year. Good thinking on my part as Willow Koerber showed up, along with Karen Mason. Willow totally crushed it, finishing somewhere around 45 min ahead of me. I probably don't need to go advertising that but whatever. Clearly the Koerbers are rather untouchable riders.

Back to my Snake Creek experience.. The race went pretty well. I found my pace and stuck to it, slowly but surely speeding up when I could. I felt like I was in my granny gear all day, except for any little bit of downhill there was, which I would take full advantage of (as seen in the above photo - credit to Bryan Bloebaum ). The downhills were might chance to make up time. Unfortunately I think I raced with my seat too low and during the last hour in the super technical sections I finally stopped for a second to brake out a tool and bring it up a notch. Much better. Besides my initial gravel high speed wipe out trying to put a water bottle back into my untested cages - I road a pretty clean race, and finished with a time just under 4. Yeah SUB 4! I found Loretta after the race and learned that she had broken her seat post and DNFed. Before I knew it they were handing me the 1st place medal.

A few days later, however, I got word that I had not in fact won first place. Christine Jeffrey (Pro-Triathlete who finished 5th in the Xterra worlds) beat me by about 8 min. She is living in Fletcher right now, to train in better weather than Canada so I could hand off my medal in person. Oh well.... next year.

Since then, I haven't had too many chances to ride. Last weekend, in the rain, I hopped on a ride with Asheville On Bikes, for St. Patties day-- the "Bike of the Irish". It was a dreary rainy day, but a good group of supporters came out and cruised around town checking out some of the proposed locations for new greenways. We ended at the wedge and enjoyed a few tasty beers and good food.

Now it's time to focus on the up and coming 6 hours of Warrior Creek and PMBAR. Justin and I are going to be PMBAR partners. Which means he has to switch up his single speed riding style a little bit, mostly to avoid me totally throwing a fit or something worse. Our first real PMBAR training ride was this Sunday and I am not as worried as before. What a great ride this was... My big highlight was nailing the steep rock drop on top of Black Mountain. Heading (what some might describe as) the backwards way on Black Mountain, Justin got this sweet shot of me:

It really doesn't look as steep here, but also it is not too hard a drop in either. The first time I road Black mountain the right direction, I thought there must be no way to ride this trail the other way. Not true.

Another great day in Pisgah: Coon tree --> bennet --> clawhammer--> maxwell--> black mtn --> buckhorn --> s mills river -->pink beds -->477 -->bennett --> Coon tree

Icycle 2009 - XC here I come.

2009-02-05T10:02:00.016-05:00

Damn that hurt. So this past weekend I went to Fontana Village for the annual Icycle event. I had heard many a story about the fun times here and I was starting to be warned to not take it too seriously. After the Snake at the start of the year, I have had not much else to do but "train" so I had my eyes on this event, and thought it'd be a great place to try XC for a change. Snake Creek Gap, 4+ hrs, was the shortest mountain bike race I had ever competed in, and the thought of pinning it for a short distance really scared me.

We rolled out early on Friday to set up and start pedaling. After sweating profusely the whole drive down, I hopped on my bike as soon as I could, to spin the jitters out. The one lap I took seemed way shorter than I thought it would be and it turns out it was shorter than before (round 5ish miles). Although I had never raced in a XC race before I was encouraged by riding buddies to register in the Expert Class. Ok.. whatever, competition is good, and the longer the better, so 3 laps it was. Before the end of Friday night, we started running the DH (downhill) course over and over. I had to make myself stop and not get totally blown up before the Saturday race. Cruising around with Dunn was super rad, as we timed Jut, Bruce, Adam and Marshall for a few good runs, before takin' it back to the cabin for some chill time.

Saturday it was time to race. Another LeMans start, and pro - Jamie Dinkins was instantly way off the front, amazing pics here. She took off and left the field, never to be seen again by the ladies in the back. I got a good start and immediately hit that pinned pain pace and stayed there. The first climb of the course was by far the toughest and once that was over it was just a matter of staying on top of it. By the end of the first lap Kylie Krauss and Julia Tellman had passed me and it wasn't long before I couldn't see them anymore either. The first lap just hurt, and the second lap was even more uncomfortable and I had to try to get some drink mix in me quick before I totally bonked... I kept thinking to myself, "the third lap is going to feel Great!" And it did. Riding solo for most of the third lap, I was actually slightly bummed to see then number 3 chica - Juila, because this meant the race was back on for me. The good thing was I caught her just before the technical descent and since I had passed her here on the first lap for a bit, I figured this descent would give me a nice gain on her.

Yeah Third Place Finish! Finished strong, was ready to puke at the top of the hill and had destroyed lungs for the rest of the day. The strangest thing about this race was the fact that my lap times were dead on the same (only 1 sec different), as Marshall brought to my attention later that day. Strange because I felt so different during all three laps. I thought I went out too fast, thought I slowed down too much in the second.. and nailed it in the third.

I was way more excited about doing well in the downhill but had some seriously fast seasoned warriors to contend with. I saw Caroline Minicozzi millin' about during the day, and heard about how rad Johanna Tuttle is on the DH.. so I figured I was definitely not placing in the top two... Oh and I almost forgot.. my new excuse is that I was on a hard tail.. not a sweet full suspension like the one in the pic to the right (anyone know who this is?) but whatevs' it was still super fun! Downhill racing is a strange thing though. The ladies were to race first, so a crew of us loaded up in the truck and stood around for at least a half an hour at the top waiting for the rest of the ladies to show and for the clocks to get all set. Quiet times at the top, with tons of dudes a few chics standing around. Not as nerve racking as the XC thank god, but still...

We had only one run, which I was pretty bummed about. I had one major goal for this descent - not to spill at the wicked switch back at the bottom. My favorite part of the whole event was watching the expert dudes nail (or not) this steep muddy switch back. As for my run, I played it real safe. Got 4th expert. And after checking out the times, I wasn't too bummed anymore.. on my best run during the day, I think I probably did it in 1:55, still slower than number 3 - Laura Decker. Johanna and Caroline rocked it with times almost 20 sec. faster than myself. Totally looking forward to my next Down Hill race, my family is really stoked about this too (not).

PARTY ON YO! Great times hangin' out with everyone that night! Congrats to everyone that showed up and rocked it out, Esp. Kym Schifino - seen here after picking up first place awards for the Sport XC and DH! Lets go ride! Thanks to those that started a little dance party - Eli! (thanks for streaking through the crowd!) I couldn't have been happier to have a chance to bust a move on the dance floor with a bunch of rad mountain biking ladies. If only more bike races were as fun as this one.

Race pics above by BradO.

Colman Boundary Area - Big Ivy (Bear Pen, Staire Creek)

2009-01-10T20:27:00.003-05:00

Another awesome day in the woods.
Rode up to Bear Pen and down Staire Creek.

Snake Creek Gap 2009 #1

2009-01-04T11:48:00.006-05:00

Hey look: an actually decent shot of me on a mountain bike..

you might even think i'm having fun in this picture. About 2.5 hrs into my first Snake Creek Gap experience I began to have a little bit of fun. I made a few classic blunders before my race. I made a major change to my bike (new chain/cassette) and I didn't even check to see if I needed any new chainrings. So began my less than ideal mountain bike race. I had been talkin' smack with a sub-4 hour race goal... only because I had no idea what I would do and I was told I'd be a real bad ass if I pulled that kind of time in. During this ride I couldn't work towards anything but the goal of not bailing out considering my total annoyance for mechanical problems.

The race begins with racers lining up and the most that can fit across the start line at once, begin together as they note your time, since its a time trial. Bruce and Justin and I start out together and I shoot out of the start line ready to go! I had this plan to try to warm up fast or something...? Since it takes me 2 to 3 hours to feel good on a long ride, I start to play with the theory that if I go out harder, I'll get my second wind sooner than later. I don't really get to test this theory out because as soon as we hit single track where I need to begin shifting, my bike melts down. It was sugested that I ride in my granny and big ring through the race since it was probably just my middle ring that was messed up. But my granny gear sucked my chain into my frame every other pedal stroke. After the first hour I was soooooo ready to quit at the 17 mile mark where I had the understanding there might be a chance for a ride back. But then something clicked, and I kept it up after that.

After 2.5 hrs I figured out from trial and error that I could ride in my middle ring, the suck on the chain wasn't as bad as it seemed and I just needed to back pedal every 5 to 10 strokes or so.. fun fun. For the first part of the race, I got passed and passed and passed.. for the last half of the race I passed and passed and passed. Finally. A few sweet downhill sections and I pulled away from people that I never saw again. I passed and got passed by this guy - Mark - about 20 times during the beginning of the race. Then things got quiet. The trail got rocky. And the riders were humbled. I had enough energy left to work through this part, and as long as my bike cooperated, things worked. Considering the muddy day.. I was pretty ready for it all to be over. I hit the pavement descent and tried to crank it up a notch, I put it in the big ring and it slipped every time I worked the pedal stroke. I couldn't catch a break anywhere.

I noticed while I was out there, that this ride could probably be really fun. With constant focus on not braking my chain and keeping things moving along in my drive train, having scary thoughts of going single speed I couldn't appreciate the ride nearly enough. next time, next time (thats what so great about this series! I get to do it again... soon.)

4:29:55 - 3rd in my class.

I am looking forward to February. Who knows what the weather will be like then? But I do know I won't make the classic bike maintenance blunder. I will be ready. Much more ready than yesterday.

Me, less than enthusiastic after my ride:

until another great ride...

The Gobbler

2008-11-30T10:07:00.003-05:00

Saturday at the Gobbler

It was wet, muddy and cold. Some people came, some people raced, others just drank beer...
Here are some pictures of the Night Time XC race.

in my "backyard"

2008-11-17T17:42:00.006-05:00

not too many words.. pictures are enough. I sure do love mountain biking.

We saw this yesterday.. and today.
http://www.scenicnc.com/rime_ice.html
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2092/2091279625_ed6600f6c1.jpg

Art Lobe and Mountains to Sea

2008-11-14T08:16:00.004-05:00

When a friend rolls into town, it rains and things are quiet at the shop.. what is there to do? Go hiking. As odd a feeling as hiking is for me these days, as awkward an inefficient as it can be, sometimes you just can't get to the same places on a bike and you need to suck it up, put on boots and go for a walk in the woods. A few years ago, on a backpacking trip with the Arthur Morgan School, we found our way to the section of the Mountains To Sea trail that overlaps with the Art Lobe Trail. It's a bit of a drive from Asheville, so its got to be a special occasion to head up there. The foggy/misty day was perfect to go back and visit this strange land. This section of trail follows right next to the Parkway but 1000 ft above it. When the trails split, the Art Lobe continues down to Shucks Ridge, a trail I have shoved my bike up during the past two Double Dare events. Thankfully the push up Shucks Ridge does not involve going up to the MTS trail, considering how steep it is. In my slide show, I focused on the still teaming green life as winter dormancy has arrived for much of the plant life out there, the lichens were looking strong as the misty air hydrated them.. the Galax that lined the trail down to the parkway was super lush, I also tried to find some shots that would show the steep drop off we were following.. the white abyss is there but you might have to know what you are looking at to appreciate it.

Swank 65 2008

2008-11-10T08:20:00.022-05:00

After I tried and failed at Swank a few years ago, I thought I would never attempt it again, assuming the race had Farlow Gap in it, arguably the hardest trail in Pisgah. The Swank 65, this year, was just under 40 miles with roughly 7500 feet of climbing according to my National Geographic Mapping program. A few years ago, they pulled me from the course kicking and screaming as they didn't want me riding in the dark. This year they gave folks the option to carry lights and keep riding if they were prepared. I wasn't worried about finishing in the dark though. The year I got pulled from the course I had done ORAMM in 10 hrs, and hadn't been riding at all. But this year, I was ready to compete.

During these three weeks after Double Dare, I have been battling lots of negative thoughts. I wasn't feeling as strong as I did this summer when I had the best race ever. I knew one of the reasons it was the Best Race Ever(or so far), was because of where my mind was. For as much as I have ridden in Pisgah-- I have maybe only ridden Butter Gap 3 times, Farlow once, Cove Creek once, Daniels Ridge 3-4 times.. and I had only recently done half of these trails versus, training on them specifically like I did with the Off Road Assault. I was feeling stronger this summer, but I know I still have to be a better rider now than I was then, just maybe not as fit. Either way I was pretty tired after Double Dare and I wasn't letting myself bounce back enough.

Oh well, might as well give it a go. I spent the week before, changing my tone in my mind and when I would talk about it, I tried to be positive. After soliciting, from trusted friends, as many "Beth, you are a bad as on a mountain bike" comments as I could, I was ready to ride.

While some chose to party till 4 am, others, like myself, went to bed by 11 pm. The morning before, I had one of those late-for-the-race nightmares, so I made sure to be ready as I needed to be for the race to minimize stress. My ole race partner, Ian, picked me up early, pumped DnB the whole way to Cove Creek, jazzing us up. I was surprised that I wasn't as stressed as I thought I would be. Racing this race is different than just riding it, which is all I would have ever done before ORAMM this summer. After that finish I suddenly felt a bit more competitive, which can make me pretty nervous, excited and stressed, which could make things not fun anymore if the stress part goes too far. I guess making this whole competition thing more fun than not, is what I'm going after right now. Why the hell do something like this: 40 miles of potential pain and suffering, if it’s not fun right!? So, again, fun was the goal. And when I say fun I mean, the kind of fun you have after breaking past (almost cramping almost bonking) pain and suffering and are effortlessly dancing down Daniels Ridge.

We get to Cove Creek and I have one question: What’s the course? We had no idea what exactly the course was going to be. There were a few pluses and minuses to the course changes. I seriously thought there was a slight chance Farlow might not be a part of it, I don’t know why. I was wrong, and was just hoping that I didn't get too hurt walking/riding down the ridiculous trail that it is. The Kiesee creek Loop was not a part of the race, which was nice, but the initial climb out of cove creek camp ground was going to be tough.

Course Map. Rough estimate. I had to make up parts of trails/roads from map cross referencing. Some trails aren't on this map that are on your Ranger District map. Course: Cove Creek340>225>Daniels Ridge Connector?>East Side of DR105>475>Gloucester Gap>Butter Gap123>Long Branch116>475>Gloucester Gap>Pilot Mt. Rd229>Farlow Gap>106>DR105>475>Davidson River Tral650>475B>225>Cove Creek340

(Profile above, was generated from this map)

We started with a LeMans Start, where everyone leaves their bikes and runs down technical single track in mountain bike shoes and back around to the pile of 150 bikes. This is a pretty hilarious act- "runner down" I hear behind me as we enter the single track, I picture some poor dude getting trampled as I grab on to other riders/runners to prevent falling myself. During the run, I pass only one guy and no one passes me. Once we got to the single track there was not too much passing, leading me to believe that this (the run) was probably a really important place to get out in front, which I didn't really do.

I had no idea who I was racing out there, besides Shanna and Cissy, I didn't know any of the women racing, and had no idea what would happen. I passed Shanna and Cissy right at the start, Ian passed me right at the start and I passed a few more on my way up Cove Creek. Overall there was not too much passing, and any passing that happened was easy and amicable. Cove Creek was no Kistuma and there was plenty of room. As I am pretty new to mountain bike racing, this part still kinda stresses me out, but all in all it was pretty good. My only concern is getting too comfortable behind someone I should pass, when passing means revving up more than I might want to.

Cove Creek was really a nice single-ish track climb. Not only was it all rideable (minus a few creek crosings for me), you can think about how fun it will be to go down it at the end of the ride. I wanted to get too comfortable during the first climb, but it hurt. I got a headache that would wane and surface again later in the race. And although I knew I just needed to keep pushing myself hard through the top of the first climb, it was not fun, not easy and I just wasn't feeling it. I definitely didn't feel like I was racing. Like I said, 6 to 10 times yesterday, it can take me hours to warm up to feeling really good on the bike, and this was definitely the case for me yesterday.

Before the top of the first climb, I actually stopped riding to regroup for a second. Just in time for the then 5th place woman to pass me. I had no idea where we were in the line up at this time, all I knew was that I was being passed, and I didn't care too much, maybe a little bit though. She asked me if I was ok, "Yeah I'm GREAT!" I say, in all seriousness.

Soon we get to the top of the Daniels Ridge connector trail off 225. At the Daniels ridge junction, there is no sign to be seen left or right, and the group of riders in front of me start to freak out a bit. I had just been here a few months ago, and had read the course map, so I knew what was going on and directed folks to head left. Sounds like a few folks went right, which would have been a serious bummer as the turn was at the top of a steep decent. I was happy to know what I was doing. Finally some downhill to recharge me.

Didn't stop for a second at the first rest stop and began to climb up to Gloucester Gap. It's not a bad climb, and it’s a good time to refuel while riding. Here I met the guy I would ride with for most of the day; he eventually finished two behind me I believe. Generally speaking it was a solo ride out there. I saw few people. Passing through Gloucester Gap, I got some cheers from Trish Stevenson, former Swank winner and overall amazing bad ass. Her cheers helped and I was soon over the top of hill on my way to Butter Gap. I still didn't feel like I was racing. The climb to Butter was fine, but as I skidded into the sharp left turn on to Butter, I went to put a foot out and it was not moving, laying it all down on my left knee. This crash I didn't remember until hours after the race, when my knee started to finally speak up, not to mention the frame induced bruise x 3 on my inner left leg. My one and only real fall. Thank god I only got bruised up. I thought the pain in my knee was a tendinitis thing, but no... just a dumb fall at the most inopportune place. Butter, as fun as it is, is pretty technical. To take it fast, you gotta stay on top of it, and falling at the top of this decent wasn't good for my confidence. I took my time and knew the Long Branch climb was coming. Still feeling slow and tired, I kept trying to remember to sip on my food bottle (Perpetum/Heed), since that seems to be how it all works. Food = Energy.

On my way to back to Gloucester Gap, the 2nd rest stop on the course. I see Jut at the top of the hill, standing there in normal clothing. No other Rad Racing rider with me today, but it was nice to see some Pisgah team support at the rest stop. The woman who had passed me early on was there and took off right when I pulled in, Jut tells me shes number 4 and 3 is a few min up from there. I exchanged water bottles, downed the one gel I would eat all day, saw Thad and Mike (yazoo rigid single speeders) pull up, and proceeded to head on to the "fun part" -- the climb up Pilot Mnt. Road and Farlow Gap (actually the hardest part of the race). Climbing Pilot Mnt. Road was great. Last time I was here was three weeks ago, as the sun was rising, on my way to Ivestor Gap from White Pines. During that ride, I decided to find some things on this climb that would help me during this race. I found a tree, a really freaking huge tree. I decided that when I saw this tree during the Swank, I would get energized by it. I planted imaginary energy. If you think it’s going to work it will. So it did. I caught the 4th place chic way earlier than I thought would, saw my tree, got super stoked, re-energized and spun my way up the hill. Thanks to Mike and Thad for your company on this climb, way to hammer on SSs!

Who better to ride/walk down Farlow with, but a couple of guys on rigid single speeds. Mike is in a probationary period at work and would be fired if he got hurt, or something like that, so they were taking it easy on Farlow. I was trying not to die myself but managed to ride more of it than them. I even got the rare opportunity to show off a bit on this decent as Thad witnessed some of my riding, which there was actually very little of. I felt like I could have ridden a bit more of it than I did. It is very hard to get over the fact that you're almost guaranteed to get hurt on this decent. I stayed up while riding and walking and came off the bike when I wanted to instead of when the trail wanted me to. But when I started pushing my bike up the hills on Farlow- it started to get old. "Where the Hell Is Daniel's Ridge?" was all I was thinking, and actually saying to the dude I rode with.. and John Stang, who caught up to me around this time. I was very ready for Daniel's Ridge, and when I got to the stairs, I was very very happy. Time to big ring it. I love knowing what I know about this trail and using it to my advantage. Time to gain some ground.

On to Rest Stop 3. Quick stop, 1/3rd a banana, water bottle top off, although I knew I would probably not drink half of it, and I was off. Now it was time to finish strong. The Davidson River Trail (one of my favorites in pisgah going this direction.. really) juiced me up and I gave every last thing I had to the climb up 475b. It was all downhill after that and there was no reason not to keep moving away from anyone behind me. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to catch anyone at this time, but ya never know. It was nice just knowing that no one was going to pass me.

A guy in a Carmichael Training kit, who I shot past on Daniels Ridge, rode by me on this last climb and gave me some great climbing tips, just like a good coach. It was quite nice... random, but nice. It kind of felt like little angel coach had been sent down to keep me on top of things during this last climb, or a very strategically placed ad. Before I knew it, I was heading down Cove Creek. 4 hours 59 min and 52 seconds after the start. I was done. I had actually predicted 5 hrs-ish and there it was. Just under 5 hours. 4th place. I felt pretty run over after the Swank, my lungs were shot and my knee was starting to blow up a bit. It was really nice hanging out with good friends and good beer after the race. Great Race overall, I could have been more hydrated and gone out harder, but I felt like I tried hard enough during the race to feel good about what I did. Thanks to Jut and Pisgah Brewing Company for hookin’ me up with my first beer at the end of the race. And thanks to Todd for organizing this race for the 10th year in a row. Maybe I'll be out there again next year. I won't be afraid of it again. Maybe I'll train more for it and kick some serious ass.

until next time..
now what? Snake Creek?

Bikes In Asheville

2008-11-02T17:56:00.009-05:00

After a three days of guiding three lawyer's from Philly and St. Louis around the trails of pisgah forest, I headed home for more rest since rest, and "active recovery" are really the only things on the agenda this week before the Swank, another big ole mountain bike race I am going to do. At some point before the afternoon of rest got too underway, I had the great idea to go and roll around downtown with my new camera and take as many pictures of bikes in a hour to two hour period of time. It wasn't long before I had 70 or so pics of bikes and amazing fall color among other random moments. It was fun chasing down people on bikes, asking people if I could take a picture of them with their bike. Crappy bikes, cool bikes, not enough people on bikes really, but overall a great afternoon activity I will do again. A blogable afternoon if there ever was one.
Here is my slide show:

yesterday and today

2008-10-29T22:36:00.009-04:00

Images from Double Dare

2008-10-27T10:37:00.005-04:00

Pisgah Production's - Double Dare 2008

2008-10-21T12:04:00.009-04:00

Double Dare 2008.

Damn I love the Double Dare, Pisgah Productions two day mountain bike endurance challenge.

Starting at White Pines Campground, we were instructed on Saturday at 12 noon to ride to a location under Time Trail conditions, with bonus time given to time trail winners. At this point we choose the route that we would take to as many check points (up to 10+1bouns) as we wanted, returning to camp 12 hours later. Day 2 we began at 6 am with the same challenge, time trail, 10+ c.p.’s.

My first challenge of Double Dare was getting my stuff together, around 10 pm after leading another flat land bike tour all week, on the outer banks of NC. Finding my map and compass was enough of a struggle as I am still unpacking from my move to Pisgah Works Central and the most badass Bike House in the world. With gear in order, and about 6 to 7 hrs of rest, Jut, Bruce, Ivory and Ian Baldwin and I descended upon Pisgah around 10 am ready to get ready. With the most amazing fall color and weather anyone could ask for, everyone was rockin and ready to roll at 12 noon.

Time Trail to Gauging Station near Pink Beds.

Based on my 6 am experience last year, and poor planning taking the gravel climb to Yellow Gap versus 276, it was my suggestion to climb 276 to 1206, which was generally the popular vote from my view. We set a nice easy climbing pace, and we were on our way to two long days in the woods. It was my worry that Ian would want to go out a lot harder and not pace himself enough. But our start was perfect, we began to realize how lucky we were for having the opportunity be in these amazingly beautiful woods for a ridiculously long time on our bikes. Yippppeee! Yelps and other sounds reflecting our happy states became common place at this time.

We pass SSrs Jut and Bruce as Jut sheds a wig and seat heights are adjusted. The untouchable Brad Kee and Matt Fusco catch us on 1206 and we ride on their tails to where we would hear the fate of our day.

The challenge of Passport 1: Mandatory Bradley Fields, Top of Cantrell, Bent Creek Gap, Cantrell Creek Lodge, Hendersonville Reservoir, Middle Fork, Saddle Gap, Turkey Spring Gap, Yellow Gap, Bonus CP: Hike to Top of Mt. Pisgah.

I marked them on the map and wanted to think for a bit. Ian was not so much in to waiting around so I plug the CPS in my brain and we make our first decision to go to Pink Beds first, less than 2 miles of flat twisty single track. The one rule we had been given was that we couldn’t leave the gauging station area via the road we came in on, 475 off 1206. Others in the area had them clarify the rule and it then seemed clear that once we left for pink beds, this road would then be ok to leave on, it was just outta there the first time you couldn’t ride it. This, turns out, was not really true, this road should been off limits the whole time, which would have changed a lot about our day, but considering our overall non-competitive performance, it probably didn’t really matter at all.

I wanted to have a preliminary route planned out but Ian was more into going point to point, reassessing our next move at each point. We kinda had to do a bit of both each days, without an initial overall plan, things could be dramatically different. Looking at the map on day one, 6 CPs seemed VERY doable to me, up to 7 and we would surely be pushing ourselves into that place where you wonder if you are going to be able to bounce back. It was Ian’s first adventure race, and it was third time Ian and I had ridden together and we had just a few important goals.

#1 Fun First
2nd -- Completion of Event
Saftey… Third.

All goals were met.

Day 1.

Climbing to Yellow Gap 1206. Again, it was F*N BEAUTIFUL! Honking (with my Honka’hoota) at hikers blocking the road, blazing down the road. Yellow Gap to Bradley Creek. Again...seriously, I can’t stress how often Ian and I were screaming to each other about taking in the insane beauty of the forest. Really. This decent is fast, clean, flowy, young tulip poplar groves littered a section with bright yellow leaves taking me to fall Aspen grove out west in my mind.

Mandatory Bradley Creek.
We arrive at the mandatory cp first. Special Test. Weapon: BB gun. Target: picture of the man behind the race-- Eric Weaver.

Or Shotgun 3 PBRs between the two racers. Ian wanted to shoot. Go for it dude. I knew I would NOT hit the targets. He tried and he failed. We shared a beer and watched the next two riders to arrive shot gun beers, very entertaining I tell ya! Refilled. Rewatered. Ready to ride.

My plan: Bradley Creek to the base of Cantrell (cp4), climb Cantrell to Squirrel Gap (cp5), Squirrel> South Mills > Buckhorn Gap > Clawhammer > Bennent to Saddle Gap (cp6) > back to Camp.

I knew we didn’t want to do S mills 13 creek crossings, and if we left Bradley via Laurel Creek, we would have to do some serious pushing and climbing to Squirrel, do an out and back on Cantrell, back to Squirrel and on over to S Mills to Buckhorn, only to avoid the cold wetness. But we were going to have to get our feet wet, because that is just what happens. I was ready for it, for my DD partner, not so much. Our options: climbing or wet feet. That is really the toss up question for all rides in the Turkey Pen area. I figured we would do both. Get feet wet, but not too wet and climb but not too much. Cantrell was a great climb. A lot of it was quite ridable and I was ready for a little hike-a-bike to mix up the day. We got to Squirrel and felt great. We had a great freekin’ ride screaming down Squirrel. I had only ridden this part of Squirrel once before, during PMBAR earlier this year and I had loved it, esp since it’s the much more doable fast part of the trail. We skipped the part at the top that stomped/injured me last week when Bruce and I rode Squirrel to Cantrell. The sun was on us through all of squirrel gap and I stayed up right the entire time… pretty much.

The climb up to Buckhorn Gap from South Mills River is one of my favorite climbs in Pisgah. It always seems to end up closer to the end of a long day, after South Mills and Black Mountain/Turkey Pen, or Squirrel Gap. You gain elevation but you move. Lights came on once we closed in on Buckhorn Gap. I had seriously considered going over to Club Gap and ride Buckwheat to Bennett but at this point. It was a lot of technical single track, in the dark, and tired. The easier route: take claw hammer down, climb back up the road to Bennnett to Saddle Gap and on down. We decide against Club gap and I lead out down claw hammer, ripping it, trying not to get my eyes poked out with no lenses on, crying tears of wind and joy. Ian flats and after determining that the Stans wasn’t going to set in on his tubeless, he tried a tube. At this point I was just happy to be sitting back taking it all in. The stars were out and the temperature was not too cold. Some clouds had moved in enough to maintain a bit of the warmth from the day. And we had been moving and really limited our stop time. Yet it was this stop time, I was got to enjoy at the moment. Ian then figures out that he was carrying with him two flat tires. oh. hum. And of course I had two 29r tires. Good thing we had a patch kit. We continued to hammer down Clawhammer and once we passed the stables and started to approach cp 6-Sadldle Gap, Ian got another, seemingly expected, flat. The fuckin’ patch didn’t hold. With White Pines, less than a few miles away, I took off to grab him a tube. I passed the party via the road and snuck in the back way to get to my gear, as I didn’t want to waste anytime explaining to people what was happening. All downhill to White Pines I wondered.. could we still do Bennnet?… Hell yeah we could. Not too long into climbing back to him, did I understand the idea of just not worrying about it. Getting back to camp by 9ish. Chillin’ Drinkin’ Eatin’ hummmmm… I found Ian much closer to me down the road than I expected him, and we changed the tire. Time to head in.

Huge thanks to Michelle who made chili that many people enjoyed immensely. Wow! Thanks so much! Organic Pisgah Beer and Chili. Damn. By 12 pm, all but Team Dicky and partner had rolled in. Matt and Brad were killed it as expected.

From around 1 or 2? to 5:20ish, I rested.. off and on. The chilly weather and 6 am start time that I knew I couldn’t push, had me changing fast, shoving fig newtons down the ole food hole and drinking Brad and Matt’s secret special doped up coffee. Oh hell yeah, warm coffee on a morning like that, mmmmm.

I knew the TT was going to hurt. And I guess I was ready. TT to “Farlow” but not really.. only the top of the road to Farlow. Ok. Been there, done that, knew we were going to have to do this at some point. Go! Compared to others it seemed like I did pretty well generating enough body heat, only my toes were quite questionably heading towards frostbitten. Before heading up 477 to Gloucester Gap, at the unfortunately locked up fish hatchery (2300ish ft, 5 miles in), we took a break with Tomato and the Smoke Bikes crew, and suddenly my feet warmed up.

We began to climb and climb and climb (to 3300ish ft, 10 miles in) to the trail head to Farlow. At this point I thought about what I might be writing at this time. I was so moved by the beauty of the color in the forest and the light as the sun was rising and how it almost felt like it would not be as beautiful any other way. Something about the manner in which I was out there made everything that much more beautiful. I was having a great time. At Gloucester we ran in to a large crowd, didn’t stick around long, and kept climbing, and climbing and climbing to Farlow where we were instructed that we were not getting our passports yet. We had to go one way to Ivestor Gap (20 miles in at 5700ft). This suddenly became oddly familiar. Last year Clay Faine and I did this exact ride at the start of day one Double Dare. I was psyched! Good times ahead, finally a bit of hike-a-bike. For as painful as this could be, I knew it could be done and that I would be fine and when else would I do something like this? If we were lucky we would get to ride down to Laurel Creek again as well. These days, it’s hard to feel ok about driving up there. Ya might as well go by bike.

The push up to Ivestor was again, not so bad, and once there we learned that we were all in luck. This was the mandatory checkpoint, and all we had to do to “finish” the race was go home. But we were so far out, why go home just yet?

CPS to get: Black Mountain/Turkey Pen intersection, Butter Gap, Coontree Gap, Courthouse Falls, Daniel Ridge, Farlow Gap, Flat Laurel Creek, Presley Cap, Summey Cove, bonus- hike to Johns Rock.

I first looked for what we might be able to accomplish. Basically the same route from last year: Ivestor cp1>Flat Laurel Creek cp2> 215 to base of Summey cp3> climb road to Courthouse cp4> Kissie Creek to Farlow cp5> Drop to Daniels Ridge cp6 and back in. This was a high hopes kind of route, I really wanted to ride Farlow only because I never do and we might as well get some Swank training while we are out and about. Had I really done the math I would have figured that I didn’t have enough food to do all of this anyway. Putting my bag together in the middle of the night, in the cold and after a ride like that, I was not thinking clearly and just grabbed a handful of gu’s when I needed about 2 handfuls of gu’s. Ian didn’t have enough either and we began our ride to Flat Laural Creek falls with the plan of deciding as we go. I knew of a few bail outs and multiple options for extra cps here and there if we had it in us.

Descending 215 is so much fun! It’s a hill that you can’t really pedal that much on and there are few reasons to brake on it as well. Keeping leaf-looking traffic at bay we covered the ground fast and zipped in to Summey Cove, quick photo shoot and the easy way around to Courthouse Falls. Props to anyone who decided to go up Summey for the love of single track (Jut + Bruce)… I have pushed my bike up and down much of this trail once before with Clay on a DD training ride a year ago and again, figured it just wasn’t really the time. We make our way up the gravel road. Time to regroup. Ian was not confident in his food quantities and after showing him our options (5003 vs 5031), climbing over to Gloucester from here was really not too bad. I had done it a few times before, I knew it was just a short climb and once we got to the top of this little hill it was really all downhill from there. This was where we could have benefited from having completed a few more hard rides together. Our goals were to have fun and complete the race. This was going to happen at this point for sure, taking 5003. I knew we could grab courthouse and Farlow but it wasn’t going to be easy. It would have pushed us into those places you go in an event like this. But we played it safe and had a great time the entire time. We were riding fast all day considering the length of time we could have stayed out, and this might have impacted how far we ended up going. It’s good to know what you and your partner can really handle out there. I could have pushed Ian farther and we could have had less fun, who knows. I do know that afterward my body was sore top to bottom. Once we got back my vision blurred up and moving around became limited. We were the first to pull on Sunday, some time shortly after 3pm. Dry clothes, food, beer, napping, recovery drink, quality time with my good friend Ivory, and cheering in the rest of the riders made for a stellar afternoon. Dinner with Knoxvillians and the Pisgah Brew Crew hit the spot and another night around the camp fire sharing stories of the trail, was the perfect way to transition out of the experience of the weekend.

Thanks Eric! Thanks Pisgah Brewing Company! Thanks Michelle! Thanks to Shanna for being with me in spirit reminding me to smile and enjoy myself way more than most people would and special thanks to my partner, Ian who kept us moving and had a great time riding bikes for 18+ hrs, climbing 15,000 ft, riding over 100 miles.

Riding Bikes

2008-09-15T08:53:00.002-04:00

How can riding a bike feel so good?

Besides the currently rare moment where I might have the chance to dance, riding my bike in the woods makes me happier than anything else find myself doing. It is amazing how easy it is to forget this and how wonderful it is to remember. Yesterday, Ivory and I rode Canny Bottom/Cove Creek, and Daniels Ridge and I haven't felt more "on" during descents and climbs than I have in a while. The last time I rode Daniels Ridge was about a year ago during the Double Dare, and before that two years ago in the Swank. Suddenly this trail was cake. Maybe it was the big wheels, maybe it was the fact that I have been riding my mountain bike rather consistently for a year. Either way, nailing switchbacks and steep tight rocky sections of trails was blissful. The small cheerleader that sits on my shoulder appeared and helped me clean the trail smoothly. I had many epiphanies about riding that should help me ride downhill even faster. And I can't wait for my next big day in the woods.

Now it’s time to prepare for the Double Dare. From what "they" say, riding on the road is a good way to get in better shape for mountain biking so I think its time for a few more long road rides although it can be hard to get me motivated to ride on the road. Gas prices should motivate me anyway. Not to mention, the pain in my hands and knee could stand the break. I have a few week-long bike tours to lead and some more Swank training rides ahead of me as well. After the Night Train, I took a bit of a break and getting back in to riding has been harder to do than I thought, but days like yesterday remind me why I ride.

more from cali

2008-08-27T18:31:00.000-04:00

Tree Houses are fun.

2008-08-26T10:49:00.000-04:00

Single Speed Worlds 08, Napa, California

Sunday morning, race day… I found a comfortable place perched next to bacon and eggs with the Colorado Crew. It didn’t take me long to figure out what kinds of trouble I would find myself in. When YaYa told me his plan was to build a tree house, I figured that this was much to interesting to pass up. I already had a bit of an idea of what kinds of fun and adventure these folks were capable off, see Juts blog, re: freds well. Beams, ropes and later a platform were xtracycled up to the tree by Devon and YaYa. After a day of watching the race and eating far too little food, the party rocked in the trees until busted by the cops.

I went to the worlds to spectate and helped YaYa build a tree house.

Although the pictures can’t really show how unreal the dance party in the tree house was, at least you might get a bit of the idea.

SSWC 09 – Durango. Start planning the fun.

California with Friends

2008-08-23T14:50:00.000-04:00

Marin Headlands

So I made it to San Fransisco, as well as the Pisgah Works Band from NC and beyond. SSWC - The Single Speed Worlds are here in Napa, California. The party began with a reuniting of the band with Bruce and Justin arriving from the desert, on their two month tour of the west. After no sleep and many hours on the road, they met Robb and I at Annandale State Park for a good ole fashioned group mtb ride. Up and over the sandy rocky trails down into Santa Rosa, to the SyCip Headquarters. By the time we make it into Santa Rosa my knee is blowin up and I am riding with one leg here and there. Beer and tacos and good times.. but the ride back is not going to be fun, for someone like me with all of my complaints re: my knee. (Which, btw, is going to keep me from my frist 100 mile race... bummer dude. well anyway.) Whiny Jut and I manage to find a ride back to the car while Bruce and Robb head back to find a few hematomas along the way:

Here in this last picture is YaYa! who smashed his eye somewhere in the desert of Nevada.
In the middle of the desert is a bike shrine. I don't know if there is much I can say about this, mostly because I haven't been there. All I know is that I wish I had made it there, and I will hopefully make it there one day.

Thanks to Aunt Pam for hooking us all up. We are getting ready to head up to Napa to start the real Worlds party.

Night Train pic less report

2008-08-11T22:34:00.000-04:00

how boring.. no pics.. for pics go here, I'm in disguise though.

ok.. here we go.. it all starts at ORAMM (see below).
Basically, after blazing past Ian on kistuma's decent, at the end of ORAMM, He asked me to be his 12 hr duo partner. Of course I was super game and started to talk lots of shit with my soon to be coworkers - Eric Krause and Chris Kqxjfast- Who were going to be our main competitors that we knew. We didn’t really know who else would be competing against us, but we were just out to beat them no mater where we stood in the "field". We got to the race and without even realizing it we were sizing up our small field. Kylie and Alex were going to be serious challengers. Little did we really know how true this was going to be…

The week before, legs of lead all week, never really put in any good efforts, was lazy, actually got depressed and realized it was because of a lack of riding, spun out on Friday for an hourish, ate pizza and watched ROAM from THE COLLECITVE (for the 10th time), passed out and woke up at 6 to ride to Fontana Village, to the NIGHT TRAIN.

Breakfast bagel pre 7 am.. what's open? Dunkin Doughnuts! awesome. One stop shop, gas for the almost 2 hr drive, food, bathroom, we're off! Set up shop.. What a crew! Biowheels and SUS suspension Experts were set up side by side right at the start finish line.. On the freekin’ line, we were pulling kids and dogs off the course all day. or not, or we were dodging them. You didn't need to be going fast through there anyway. One was supposed to DISMOUNT and walk the transition. It would be not very interesting but somewhat interesting, to see the percentage of people who walked through and who rode through. I once, only once, saw someone pick their bike up and walk it back and forth through the transition because they were so scolded?.. not too sure about this one. ANYWAY.

Our plan was for Ian to ride the first lap because he had more XC experience than I (with none)and then, for us to switch off each hour. Correct prediction: 1 hr laps (under 10 mile laps, under 3,000 ft of climbing.. Incorrect prediction: 6 laps each. I thought taking 2 laps at a time might be better considering my tendency towards endurance and the time saved in transitions but Ian didn’t want to do it that way, at all, so that was our plan and that was what we did, until the end when it all changed. Since Ian was going first, it would mean that I should do the last leg and that, well, ... didn't work out so well. I did 5 laps and Ian 7 as he took my last leg (he offered?!) so anyway... here is the race:

A Lemond start, running across the bikes (?!?) and off, up a stupid steep long section of trail... __lots of_ elevation over _a good few miles.. it was hard to warm up near the start because the terrain was so up and down, so it was close to a cold start each time for me, although I tried to ride in circles to stay warm. Either way it was always the hardest part of every lap... this first freekin part, Turkey Shoot? I think is its name. Where people usually go DOWN this trail, we went up. The first part presents you with the opportunity to go straight up or take a switch back. In my first 3 laps I rode up the straight up part, cutting people off on the 2nd and 3rd lap each time. And on the 4th and 5th I rode the other way, slower and ending in a hike-a-bike up the steepest section of the start where.. ugh.. if you don't have energy, you're kinda screwed.

Ian was off.. I was beginning my day of not knowing how much or when to fuel up, hang out, stretch, chat, warm up, mingle, sell Tee Shirts for Pisgah Works, loose sunglasses, find food, find water, find lights, loose lights, charge lights, find sunglasses, loose sunglasses.. want to drink beer, don't drink beer, use porta-john on the hill, talk shit, stand at the transition area waiting waiting waiting.. then I was OFF!

lap 1: At this point, we might have already realized that Eric and Chris were going to kick our collective asses. Either way, Ian came in before Alex (Kylie's partner) and I took off. Hey Park! Park, participating in the 6 hr solo class he was on his second lap and I was on my first. Good times chatting with Park up Turkey Shoot. We actually talked up this climb, that I nailed all of-only on my first lap, with Park, who was soon to be getting a flat tire. I loved the first decent.. actually.. I loved MOST of the rest of the course after that first (hardest) part of the race. You get to the top, quick switch back up and left and then down, down, flat, fast, little up, little down.. on to the CLIMB.. two track where you cross paths with the competition way in front or way in back of you. Decent Gravel Climb. On to switch back steepness for not very long. I was warned by teammate Matt Johnson to “save up” some for this last pitch to the top of the climb. Good Advice Matt. Seriously. It was on this last piece of steep switchback, that I first saw Kylie, and our RACE began. She is a freekin climber.. Kylie- last years, collegiate national champion.. *cough cough* *aahemm* anyway! She is working to catch me on this climb. I see her a switchback or two below me and I start racing. Awesome.. I’ve got to be more than halfway through my lap, and.. AND, the decent (I’m a pretty fast descender) is coming up. Sweet! I take my first run on this killer fast long rocky switchbacky decent.. I never saw Kylie on this lap.

Alex and Kylie’s plan I believe was as follows: Alex #1,2 Kylie #3,4,..and so on.Or maybe A#1, K#2, A#3,4, K#5,6, A#7,8, K#9,10, A#11,12. ?(which would mean more for Alex? huh) It started this way, or someway, but like Ian and I, their plan shifted too. So.. actually I am very confused at the moment as I reenact this in my head, which lap I was with whom.. maybe I can work that out later and edit this post but in the mean time. Don’t worry about it and just pretend it makes sense.

Lap #2 for me, #4 overall, I’m racin’ Alex, who.. if my poor memory serves me correctly he finished in front of Ian? On lap 3, and I never saw him, he finished in front of me.

So Kylie and Ian started the next lap, where Ian passed Kylie. Ian pulls in to the transition, me about to begin my 3rd lap and Ian tells me he just passed Kylie.. she’s right there! So I’m off, on my worst run. Ugh. The initially killer climb: my right knee starts aching, something that started the morning after ORAMM. I try to spin in as low a gear as possible on the climbs. And I ride… and start to wreck all over the place. I am slow and hesitant on the rocky decent and I realize this slowness is making it harder on me so I let off the brakes and the sudden switch of speed screws me and I’m down! Generally unharmed just freekin annoyed at myself to the point of loud cussing, I get back on the bike as quickly as possible. Later I whack my too wide handlebar on a tree... this just shouldn’t be happening.

I kept thinking she was right behind me and pushing myself wasn’t really working. She doesn’t catch me on the climb this time, but somewhere on the final updownupdown before the long finish, I am stopped at the top of a little steep spur, and she passes, I give her props and don’t really even try to catch her as I’m clearly fkd, bonking because I don’t know how to race a 12 hr. Now I do. But anyway.

In between lap 3 and 4. I eat! And take care of myself! Yeah. It helps. I love lap 4. I start lap 4 with Ian telling Kylie that Alex has had a flat and had been riding on it, and he had to give him I his pump. So Kylie is not going to rest this lap, she is going to ride with me. I ride hard but am not stressed about Kylie catching me. And she doesn’t (if my memory serves me correctly). This was where their schedule (1:1 then 2:2) got a little off. Anywho, I felt great and remembered that consuming calories most often equals feeling stronger and less tired. It’s amazing how that whole thing works. Food = energy. Wow.

During this lap Kylie still was making time on me and then Ian, maintained our lead and came in before Alex on the following lap when I took off on my 5th lap. I figured we were up from the whole flat tire thing and I’m cruzin. Jeremy, 2nd-place-12-hr-solo-biowheels-super-fast-dude, rides behind me for a while as I “pace him out”, he eventually passes me and then when we get to the gravel rd part of the longer climb, I pass him and I am a good numbera’ yards in front of him when I realize Kylie has caught him. I hear him giving her props. I look back confirming my suspicion and I start cursing loudly because this meant the race was back ON, and a flat tire wasn’t killing it. She blazes past me and says “you’ll catch me on the decent” and I knew… I just knew, there was no way at that pace with that much hill left I was going to catch her on the decent, especially considering I was already more cautious because of my generally weakened state. And as much as I can descend kinda fast, it doesn’t make up for her stellar climbing.

When I come in, not too far behind Kylie, Ian tells me in so many words: If I want him to do 7 laps I should bring him stuff. He was offering. And I was way freekin ready to accept an offer as such so I did. But. BUT I still couldn’t relax as I ran the whole idea, of me slackin and doing 5, Ian doing 7, by everyone. I should be ready to ride, i.e. not get too comfortable, read: not drink beer.

Another reason it was easy to have Ian do the last lap was because he was running faster laps. My rough memory remembers me with around 1 hr +/- 3 min lap times… Ian around 52-56 min. If we had a chance at winning he would ride it.

Another reason it was very hard to get the motivation to do 6 was that I was getting very cold, wrapped in a towel, ate real food finally, and Chris Ivory was in the house, so I wanted to take a load off my aching knees and throw down finally. Excitingly enough, Ian and Alex came in from this final to last run at the exact same time 8:50ish? 25 min before cut off time and Kylie’s ready to ride and goes. I am not ready to ride, Ian pulls in and asks me what’s up, I hand him food and water and he takes off after Kylie. He never sees her. I wait and wait and eventually Kylie pulls into the finish. We got third. And then Alex of Team Boner (Kylie's team) made sure I knew that we got third when he first saw me after Kylie pulled in... the competition we had was awesome! They deserved 2nd and I was happy we gave them a run for their money. Back and forth all day was killing us! But even after 2 flats they managed to pull it back every time. Super fast kids.

Meanwhile, out on the course, Ian ran out of food, then water, then light. It was pitch black andhe couldn’t see anything. A rider in contention for 2nd in the 4-person class rides by and Ian tries to catch his wheel but is bonking enough that he can’t hang and eventually Tom of team 411 of Knoxville, rolls up and hooks Ian up with his second light. As the story began to unfold, I started to feel pretty bad, but then didn’t really as an Epic, as much as some of us like to throw that word around, is hard to come by and Ian got to have an Epic ride out there and my slackerness was a part of that, and, AND he didn’t make me feel bad about it.

What a hard freekin ride. I have never hurt more after a race. Thanks to Chanley- who I got a nice deep tissue massage from today, Matt Fucsco, CTR rider- who came on my last ‘shop ride’ this evening and told me all about his amazing adventures, and to Kylie, who I enjoyed a few beers with tonight as we talked racing n’ stuff, who I can’t wait to ride more with… So I can chase her up the hills and teach her something about going down on a bike.

-B Rob

The Night Train

2008-08-10T21:57:00.000-04:00

I'll be working on the full race report tomorrow, but for now I'll just say that: I'm not sure I've ever felt this rough after a race. I can't really bend my right knee very well (I need to ice it more), strained due to over exertion? maybe? I'm full and tired and ready for a serious night of sleepin' at the Crow's Nest.

Results: Ian and I came in 3rd in the duo class (2 "man" teams).. after a strong effort to beat Kylie and Alex, as we battled ALL DAY for 2nd place with them. It just didn't work, they are both strong and amazing and I was quite happy to be riding so close to them most of the day minus the pain of that closeness.. If only Alex had been prepared! and didn't get two flats we might have had a much different day.

Thanks to all of the Biowheels crew out there riding their asses off and helping me do so at the same time. Thanks to Chris Ivory who came and helped usher me into the after party and thanks espcially to Ian who took the extra lap and made the day not just fun and long, but EPIC in all respects as he sat in the woods, with a dead headlamp, out of water and energy waiting for help or death. I won't forget that I owe ya one.

Time to heal.

Off Road Assault On Mount Mitchel

2008-07-30T14:22:00.000-04:00

The Off Road assault on Mount Mitchell.. pictures from Val at offtheroad.smugmug.com

To give a thorough race report, I kinda need to give a very brief history of my riding career with respect to Endurance Events.

During the past few years of teaching middle/high school, I could not seem to find time to ride my bike at all until the summer. Then I would get ultra excited, ride a ton and then one day I knew I had ridden enough to attempt the Off Road Assault on Mount Mitchell. In 2006, I finished in 9 hrs and 50 min. I had the best time ever riding all day with suffering people, I had the hematoma of a lifetime, among other wounds that endured the relentless pounding of heartbreak. And the following year, after getting my ass handed to me by my 9-time-road- masters-national-champ mom following the Tour De France across the alps, I came back and shaved 30 min off my old time. All I did was not really stop much, and actually “race” this ride, and I ended up with a welt that kicked me off the bike for a whole week or two.

Then I quit my teaching job. Then I found lots of mountain biking friends. Mostly ridiculously strong dudes, and a couple of ladies who, week after week, kicked my ass and I had no idea that I was getting as fit as I was. I finished the Double Dare, and PMBAR, and Mohican (100K) last fall and this year.

So… during the weeks leading up to the event, I rode Heartbreak and Kitsuma, time after time, and sessioned the switchbacks with coaches Robb and Matt, figuring out which ones I could climb, which ones I could but shouldn’t bother, and which ones I just really shouldn’t bother. I had visualized how I was going to take it every climb, every switchback. Most importantly and then repeated out loud to many, was that I was going to have a freekin’ Grand Time on Curtis Creek. Because—Why not? I mean really… we are all suffering. We Know It Will END. And how awesome would it be if you could just make Curtis creek great by projecting greatness upon it prior to the race.

So, back to my official “Race Report”: Saturday Night prep. I did NOT attend the Mustache Party.

Dear lord, please DO NOT LOOK AT THESE PICTURES if you are easily upset or offended by people who want to push the envelope. My best friends. Out there, looking amazing, after watching them prep for months for this contest, I ducked out to my dads in Black Mountain/Old Fort to rest and get all of my stuff together for the race. This was the first of many good decisions -- to stay in. I measured out all of my nutrition for the race, filled goodie bags for rest stops 1/5, 2 and 3. Not 4. Station packs included: One waterbottle with ice, and one waterbottle with 2 scoops Heed, 2 Scoops Perpetum (Hammer products), 1 tube, co2, 4 accell gels, 1 sport bean -- at 3 aid stations, plus a clean pair of shorts at the top of Curtis Creek.

I got to the race before 7. Plenty of time to drop my packs, chat with many, and warm up for a quick few. I had decided to warm up only because I knew the climb up 70 was crucial. Getting ahead of the pushers was key. Not to say that I wasn’t a pusher, but if I was to be stopped by a line, I would be near the front of this line. On the way up Old 70, I felt Great! and I pass people the whole way up. A few friends pass including Charles of Mock Orange bikes in Winston-Salem. on rigid? SS and looking strong. I pass Val Naylor, amazing endurance athlete whose previous ORAMM time was the one I had a goal to beat: 8 hrs. Sub 8 was my plan. 1 hr and 30 faster than before. That’s worthy. 1^st vet woman (30-39) was also my goal. I felt strong and fast and awesome up old 70. At the gate, race organizer, Todd Branhan was there, helping people get their bikes over the gate and he tells me I’m the first woman he’s seen, turns out one had passed, but whatevs, I knew many could have passed before he got there, but I knew I was clearly ahead of the game.

Kitsuma!

Yeah! I was up there! I knew exactly what I was going to do on every part of this climb. I knew where I was going to hike and where I was going to bike. As soon as I got to the very start, the people in front of me popped off, as well as I and I ran to the top of the entry to Kitsuma. Which was fine with me, because, although I have been able to hit that switch back after a few tries, I NEVER seem to get it on the first try and it’s so steep it really knocks the wind out of you, so I figured if I didn’t bother trying, I would save up and be fine on the next 5 or so turns. After running to the top of it I hopped back on and made the next five… this is where these great Pictures come in. 2^nd woman, I think I heard at this point and this made me a bit nauseous in a totally overwhelmed nervous kind of way. Thank god I got the care for this out of my head, shortly after. And right about the time I couldn’t ride my bike up Kitsuma any more, my buddy Jut Rut finally catches me, yelling at me for walking as he is being pulled up by the only woman who beat me in this race Karen Masson. I was floored by her, mostly because we killed the decent together and I watched her nail the two left hand switchbacks that I can’t make. the first time I was behind her, the second time I pulled over in order to witness greatness roll by. It was awesome. Thanks to Karen for giving me mad props on my descending abilities. Yes I have them although a switchback here or there f*k me up sometime.

The Pavement. Karen and I chat. I find out that in previous years she completed this race in 6:45 ish. WHAT! no way! I wasn’t supposed to be riding with her. Considering how I felt, I knew I was not only going to be ok, but I was doing much much better than expected, so I might as well have fun and just ride things out like Karen suggested: “just keep a good pace and you’ll be fine!” Good pace, yeah that sounds easy. My rear wheel started this knocking sound that occurred most of the day, but was kind of sporadic which lessened the apparent severity. The next day I repaired 3 completely loose spokes and all is well.

1^ST rest stop. Me with out pack, stop and wave good by to Karen’s back as this is the last time I see her. She didn’t stop. As with all of the rest stops to follow, things here worked out amazingly. One to two to three people helped me out, grabbing and filling bottles, finding my gear bag for me… probably around a min stop or so and back on! The climb to Star Gap wasn’t half as bad as I expected it to be for me, as I had just pushed my bike up it a few days before while out doing trail work with Todd n’ Crew. Jut catches me again here, since I had passed him while he was off in the woods relieving himself. Anyway, Jut and I regroup at Star Gap and nail the decent on our way to the grassy climb/decent. This part of the route was soooo not fun a few weeks ago when Jut and I rode Curtis/Heartbreak. The road just keeps going.. in the race however it was awesome.. a great place to take in food and water and keep the pace up. In and out at rest stop 2, same story.. volunteers jump to my cause as people are reminding me all day that I’m the third lady. I’m so glad no one can tell me how close 4^th is, because that would get to me more than looking forward.

Curtis Creek. Time to put in to affect my big plan for the race: to have fun and pass people all the way up Curtis Creek. Part of this plan also involved the great fresh water spring part way up the road. My plan was to stop at the spring and chill for a second. Meanwhile every dude that passed says half out of breath “you good?” Cheeringly I said, “I’m great, This is Cold Fresh Water!” I’m totally confused at why no one wants to stop, but that’s cool. After a few min of washing and drinking. I hopped back on my bike and passed every single person that had passed me at the spring, plus Mike Kennedy inundated with cramps, who I caught just before stopping at the spring.

Climbing the creek. Not as chatty as a ride as I would have liked it to be. As the strung out field drudgingly made their way up the hill that never ever ever ends, I kept wanting to tell walkers/strugglers near the top that they were near the top, but I didn’t want to lie and a few times it was a good thing I didn’t say anything, because then it would just keep going. A car would pass and I’d wait for it.. and then yep, there it is right above my head on the next switchback which I really hoped wasn’t there. It seems like as many times as I have climbed this, which is probably close to 5, 3 in races, it's really hard to remember where you are on the climb. And then, it flattens out and you know the absolute worst is all behind you. In and out of the saddle all the way up, I don’t think I was ever passed.

Top of Curtis Creek. Biowheels station. I think I definitely had three hands on deck here, including Karo who had been driving around taking pictures all day, like this one of me at the top. I hop off and while bottles are being filled, I swap out my shorts behind a car and am soooo happy about this genius move. The first year I did this, last year I didn’t and really regretted it when I couldn’t sit on the bike for a full couple of weeks with a welt that should have been lanced. Back on the bike, heading out of the rest stop.. I see some familiar faces I don’t expect to see.. Eric Krause, co-owner of Biowheels, who at this point was definitly hurting as I should not have been that close to him in this race. I hear, some one call out “hey princess” and turn to see Dougie Fresh (a enduro de ocho contender). Yeah! Doug! Good to see him out there. But clearly no time for me to chat, I am heading down for a few minutes of recovery.

Climbing back out was definitely not as bad as Curtis Creek. There was lots of chatting with the guys around me, including Doug, who finally catches me close to the top of this climb. Eric Krause passed me closer to the middle of this climb. One mile to the top, a couple of cute older ladies inform us and we keep trudging to the top.

Another quick stop.. thanks again to all the volunteers! Yeah! almost to Heartbreak!

Chill road climb, hike a bike, not so bad. Get to the top and let go. Screaming down Heartbreak a few guys have to hop out of my way, and then the rest have flat tires. (no flats, no flats, no flats please!) At some point, I am actually looking forward to / wishing for uphill on this decent as my body is a bit worked from being pounded all the way down. I don’t know if it was the hardtail aspect or the 80mm fork. I think it was the fork. Maybe my tire pressure? I really need to go tubeless soon. Anywho… down down down.. so excited because I still feel great. I think to myself, “man, I think this race is going to end way sooner than I really want it to.” I’m used to this race being at least 9 hrs long….

Fifth station. In and out. On to Mill Creek climb! I was really excited about this climb too. Again, I knew my excitement is what gave me a big edge. But this climb I had very recent (last wed.) practice killing it up this climb. So that’s what I did.. passed people all the way up, C Ya Eric! sorry to hear that your blood is boiling! Oh man! yes! When I saw the top of that climb, I stood up and killed it and a train of guys hopped on and drafted me to Kitsuma.. come on guys, really? Still in 3rd , I meet the 1^st or 2^nd place woman’s husband -- Rick Pena, of Jacksonville, FL. I learn she was second to Trish last year and he tells me how awesome a climber I have been today, thanks! He takes off up Kitsuma, and I climb it just like I did in the beginning, probably hitting more switchbacks this time around. Then I find Rick and Anne Craig Pena, with a flat tire and sweet hubby Rick was there helpin’ out. Good luck with that ya’ll! Oh snap! I’m suddenly in second place. I think to myself, "damn I hope she catches me, because she deserves second" (which she was eventually awarded anyway) but then I remind myself that flats are just a part of it, I still might get a flat and if not, I’m just as lucky as she was unlucky. It happens. The second top of Kitsuma was defiantly the hardest part of the race. Every last bit of strength is gone and pushing through is all you can do.. ugh. Done. Screaming downhill I get to the down trees where one must dismount. Biowheels jersey in front of me, who is this: Ian Baldwin! yeah! another great riding buddy! Ian is totally shocked to see me. I inform him here “I’m in second place, get the F*k out of my way!” He is very happy to, and as he disappears behind me I hear a few awesome shout outs from him! Yeah… cruzin! Pavement.. What a great finish. The Pavement was a nice time to just savor the best ORAMM I could have ever wished for. Ah! yeah…

7:10:54 I finish and am so happy! I soon figure out that because I registered Vet woman (30-39), because I had no freekin’ clue how well I was going to ride, I was not going to be awarded second place overall.. but no matter, Anne definitely earned it and I am pretty happy with one of the most ridiculous trophies you’ve ever seen. In an effort to reduce, reuse, recycle, Todd made these trophies out of old karate trophies. Sam Koerber’s trophy was as tall as him! Mine comes to my hip, and can currently be viewed in the window at Youngblood’s Bike Shop, where I am spending my days recovering from Sundays ride.
Thanks to Matt Dinsmore, Chris Otahal, Justin Mitchell, Bruce Steinforth, Robb Kranz, Shanna Powell, Ian Baldwin, Matt Johnson, and all the other people who I have been riding with this summer.

Next up: Ian and I are going to ride the Night Train! and hopefully kick ass and have tons of fun doing it. Then the Shenandoah 100.

alrighty folks.

2008-06-29T23:09:00.000-04:00

Ok folks.
Here it is:
the official unofficial results of the enduro de ocho
now even though we had the awards ceremony and what not this evening..
bonus points are still to be had, as the party is still continuing and there are a few people left still partying.. those left include... jut rut, pisgah works, and a pisgah princess! hell yeah yall..

(*update, I won the party tonight. Jut threw in the towel and I just updated the list below and those of you that made it to the awards ceremony might notice a few shifts since more bonus points have been givin.)

if you have any issues with the points: Lara Lustig and I would be glad to meet with you over a beer and discuss the elaborate formulas we used in excell to accurately determine the points for the following events (that is assuming there are no blatant human errors which we sure as hell probably had here and there but that has NOTHING to do with the real winner, seriously):

name_______place_____ total points
Jut Rut ________1_____ 211.61
Dunn Beetle ____2_____ 200.42
matt johnson ___3_____ 185.82
alan winston ___4_____ 178.32
Pisgah Works___5 _____147.26
Marshall ______6_____ 134.13
Ivory ________7______ 119.6
Si ___________8______ 118.22
tomato _______9 _____110.56
Sharpie _______10______ 109.54
Gabe ________11_____ 81.42
Dugie Fresh ___12 ____77.77
N8 America ___13 ____77.38
Kuntz ________14_____ 58.66
Broussard _____15_____ 40.12
Beerabi _______16 _____38.62
Crunch _______17 ______25.62

Points were taken on each of the following events: Uphill race up 5000>spencer, downhill-trace ridge to wash creek, at I-9: dirt jumps, Pump Track TT1, serious skinnies, trials, bunny hop, dodge ball, winning the party, XC Race, actual pumping pump track, “The Chopper, baby” and various bonus points to be had here and there. Generally speaking (accept for bonus points), for each event you could get max 17 points (the number of participants), 16, 15 and so on.. max number of points wins the title: Most Bad Ass Mountain Biker in the World (MBAMBW) which as you can see is Jut Rut, the Visionary behind the Enduro De Ocho. You might think it's not fair, that a man win his own race.. but as the MBAMBW says “ throw your own enduro and if I show up and you beat me I won't complain”.. now without any bonus points Justin would still have won fair and square.. and you know why.. because he IS the Most Bad Ass Mountain Biker in the World..

For an individual break down on winners of specific events.. lemme show ya:

Saturday:

Uphill race up 5000>spencer – Marshall Hance
downhill-trace ridge to wash creek – Matt Johnson
at I-9: dirt jumps – Jut Rut
Pump Track TT1 – Jut Rut
serious skinnies – Jut Rut
trials – Dunn beetle
bunny hop – tie: Matt Johnson, Alan Winston
dodge ball – JUT RUTTTTTT (never got hit, winning team: mj, AW, JR!!!)
winning the party – Ivory (if you only knew all the details why he won this fair and square AND received a total of 10 lucrative bonus points for this. )

Sunday:

XC Race (rice pinicl>n.bndry>greenslick)– Marshal Hance (who hadn’t retrieved his ED8 bike from the night before and had to ride the ole fixie cross bike with flat bars?!)
Jump at the end of Greenslick Bonus points - Jut Rut
actual pumping pump track – Dunn Beetle!!!
“The Chopper, baby” - SI
Various Bonus Points – most bonus points: still working that one out as mentioned above.

Matt Johnson finishing the chopper obstacle course.. in style! just after this he pulled the rear wheel off the ground and pulled a front flip! for this he was awarded a deserved 10 bonus points. btw: he ate shit and had some physical therapy immediately performed by the most bad ass mountain biker in the world (almost!), the Dunn Beetle.

Lazoom bus.. you might guess who the first person off the bus was that night. This was when the competition for "Winner of the Party" began.

Industry 9.. soon you will see pictures of the
31" bunny hop tie btwn matt johnson and alan winston.

Alan Winston!!! again.. rocks it on the pump track.

Mr. Marshall Hance, who although got second on
the skinny's later went on to clean the whole
100 ft of 3 to 5 in wide skinny rail..

Alan Winston later awarded a first aid kit for most
carnage of the weekend. First Aid from RNR-Rachel , WFA-Matt.

Dougie Fresh's BMW motorcycle with Bike Rack!

Sunday Morning, just after the XC race, on our way to
Papa's and Beer.

"Seriously though?..."

Chris Ivory.. on his way to winning the party.

wow ...

this is the enduro de ocho:

I had a pretty good time this weekend.

Jut Rut and I pulled this thing together in a manner of a few days when it came down to it. A few scouting rides.. a few beers here and there.. the most amazing reggae concert of the century.. and it was on.

Jut: "Alright this is how the derby works"

Look closely at this one.. between Gabe and Sharpie..
there are a pair of eyes and the ever present reflector

Good times.

Pump Track Parade:

(keep your eye on extrmtao following Jut)

El Enduro bows to a Reggae Legend

2008-06-25T01:37:00.000-04:00

wow! who knew a reggae show was going to fall in the lap of a serious ED8 planning session?
I didn't know.. but what I do know is that I jumped my ass off tonight, Capleton at times made me think i was at either rage against the machine or some serious Drum&Base DJ.. or both.. wow. I moved hard.

also... ALSO! Jut and I had more awesome visions.. a vision of a team... a freekin awesome team.. more on all of this later. shoooweee.. can't wait yo!

Post Numero Uno

2008-06-24T00:44:00.000-04:00

I have officially been pulled in to the blog world with my first three references in blogs happening all with in the same week.

http://www.workandmeals.blogspot.com/
http://www.endurodeocho.blogspot.com/
http://210waynesville.blogspot.com

So I figured I might as well just start a blog since I can see a benefit that i need esp. since my journalling is crap since my handwriting is crap and blah blah blah.. ya'll blogers know why you blog.. so here I am with my new blog: pisgah princess adventures, the name comes from a reference in another blog and my own tweeking to the title, and has not much deservingness but for the fictional fun of it all.. we'll see what happens with this darn blog, since to get me to sit down and write this much takes a lot of self dicipline, i just like to get out ride and or dance my ass off all the time.