First big race of the year is Sunday. WORS #3 in Wausau, WI. I'm getting pretty anxious thinking about it. I know my fitness is good and I'm more focused than I have been in 2 years. Got 100 miles in during the last 2 days. Monday rode 50 with the wife going easy. The 20mph winds made it tough at times but not too bad. Rode the TNWC ride last night and got another 50 in. Feeling good and I was able to hold some decent power up until the last 5 miles. I'm going to get 1 more ride in 45 min - 1 hour of hard stuff and call it good.
Saturday Jane and I will make the drive up in the AM. get there, probably eat a bit and then pre ride the course. Surprisingly I've never pre-ridden a MTB course the day before a race. But if I'm going all out and want to do well it's a must. We'll stay overnight and jane might do the cat 3 womens race.
New kits are in for team 360/LaX Velo. The Mt. Borah stuff is very nice and comfortable - we got hooked up.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
flying right now
La Crosse Omnium was a bust for me. In the road race 200 meters from the finish, a crash happened 5 feet in front of me. 25 mph. It hurt pretty good. Lots of rash, a busted open elbow, Rash deep enough on my knee that I could see veins. I found out they were veins because I thought it was dirt when cleaning things out and ruptured it. Blood was squirting out. Went to the ER to get my elbow stitched. I'm good now, just lots of healing wounds. The guy who started it had: Broken scapula, broken arm, broken collarbone, broken ribs, collapsed lung. He made a very stupid move and really had it coming. The second before the wreck, I thought "this doesn't look good, this guys going to crash"
My bike was destroyed. Literally. Frame broken in 2 separate pieces. Broken bars, a whole bunch of other shit. Thank god I still have a friend who own bike shops. Britton at Volker Bikes had a frame for me.
So I sat out a week while I was healing and got back going 6 days later on the MTB. I was feeling like I should take it easy, but on the Friday night MTB rides we usually let er rip. 2 minutes into the ride and I was back to normal with my riding confidence. I've just been riding the MTB all week, which is fine with me. It doesn't feel like a workout though because I'm having more and more fun on it. I don't think I've ever gone this fast on the MTB. I've been playing around with wheels, tires and air pressure and I'm having some good discoveries. A few small changes and I have been just ripping shit up. It's crazy good riding right now. So good that when you suffer up the climbs it doesn't hurt like it used to and when I would ride with too much brakes on the tech descents, I'm now letting it fly wide open and literally skipping across rocks/roots/logs that I used to pick my way through. I literally feel like yelling "yeah" and "wooooo" when I'm riding. Maybe it's because I've learned my home trails so well now, I don't know. But other people notice it too, and when you get compliments on your riding it feels good.
Regarding the wheels, I used to ride stock Stans Crest rims with their hubs. The wheels are light, but are not that stiff. I didn't notice how much they flex until I got the Specialized carbon roval control sl's. More spokes, slightly lighter than the crest's but way stiffer. Those wheels point in a direction and just flat out go. I put some heavier tires on the stock wheels that came with the bike. DT Swiss 450 SL's. I'm running these with tubes and stan's in the tubes for some extra resistance. leaving the air pressure up a bit to not pinch flat, I'm riding faster with these wheels than I was with the Crests. Stiff rim, more pressure = great feel and tracking through corners. So all along I've probably been running the pressure in the Crest's too low thinking that I was getting better traction, but probably compromising overall handling.
Tonight I'm going to ride with the rovals and play around with pressure. It's funny because I never know the actual pressure. The gauge on my pump doesn't really read the low pressures - I've always gone by the squeeze test.
First actual race in WORS #3 on June 3rd. I'm busy all of May and will just keep riding and start getting more intervals the last week of May.
I'm riding with the newly developed Team 360/LaX Velo team. We're a MTB specific team with pretty much the fastest guys in the area. Got some good sponsors, like 360 Real Estate and Mt Borah - the clothing manufactorer which is based in Coon Valley, WI - 20 minutes away. We limited the number of racers to 12 to keep us in the medium team size category. We will try and take the overall team title for that size. We will have a good shot too.
Personally, I'm getting a series number for the Comp category. I've previously raced in this group but never done spectacular. If how I'm riding is any indication of how the rest of the season goes, it will be good. My goal is to force them to make me cat up to the 1's. Which takes 5 top 10 overalls. Out of an average 100 comp racers per race it will be tough. There are plenty of fast riders in WI. Just ask anyone who has ever raced a WORS race.
My bike was destroyed. Literally. Frame broken in 2 separate pieces. Broken bars, a whole bunch of other shit. Thank god I still have a friend who own bike shops. Britton at Volker Bikes had a frame for me.
So I sat out a week while I was healing and got back going 6 days later on the MTB. I was feeling like I should take it easy, but on the Friday night MTB rides we usually let er rip. 2 minutes into the ride and I was back to normal with my riding confidence. I've just been riding the MTB all week, which is fine with me. It doesn't feel like a workout though because I'm having more and more fun on it. I don't think I've ever gone this fast on the MTB. I've been playing around with wheels, tires and air pressure and I'm having some good discoveries. A few small changes and I have been just ripping shit up. It's crazy good riding right now. So good that when you suffer up the climbs it doesn't hurt like it used to and when I would ride with too much brakes on the tech descents, I'm now letting it fly wide open and literally skipping across rocks/roots/logs that I used to pick my way through. I literally feel like yelling "yeah" and "wooooo" when I'm riding. Maybe it's because I've learned my home trails so well now, I don't know. But other people notice it too, and when you get compliments on your riding it feels good.
Regarding the wheels, I used to ride stock Stans Crest rims with their hubs. The wheels are light, but are not that stiff. I didn't notice how much they flex until I got the Specialized carbon roval control sl's. More spokes, slightly lighter than the crest's but way stiffer. Those wheels point in a direction and just flat out go. I put some heavier tires on the stock wheels that came with the bike. DT Swiss 450 SL's. I'm running these with tubes and stan's in the tubes for some extra resistance. leaving the air pressure up a bit to not pinch flat, I'm riding faster with these wheels than I was with the Crests. Stiff rim, more pressure = great feel and tracking through corners. So all along I've probably been running the pressure in the Crest's too low thinking that I was getting better traction, but probably compromising overall handling.
Tonight I'm going to ride with the rovals and play around with pressure. It's funny because I never know the actual pressure. The gauge on my pump doesn't really read the low pressures - I've always gone by the squeeze test.
First actual race in WORS #3 on June 3rd. I'm busy all of May and will just keep riding and start getting more intervals the last week of May.
I'm riding with the newly developed Team 360/LaX Velo team. We're a MTB specific team with pretty much the fastest guys in the area. Got some good sponsors, like 360 Real Estate and Mt Borah - the clothing manufactorer which is based in Coon Valley, WI - 20 minutes away. We limited the number of racers to 12 to keep us in the medium team size category. We will try and take the overall team title for that size. We will have a good shot too.
Personally, I'm getting a series number for the Comp category. I've previously raced in this group but never done spectacular. If how I'm riding is any indication of how the rest of the season goes, it will be good. My goal is to force them to make me cat up to the 1's. Which takes 5 top 10 overalls. Out of an average 100 comp racers per race it will be tough. There are plenty of fast riders in WI. Just ask anyone who has ever raced a WORS race.
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