The Grind

Mountain Biking in Wyoming

I went up to WY this morning to do the Gowdy Gridner @ Curt Gowdy State Park.  Color me impressed!   They have about 16 miles of friggin awesome trails up there.  Plus camping and a reservoir that I’m guessing you can boat and fish on.  Enough about the park.

I had a pretty good race.  The weather was decent, dry and about 45.  They were calling for 38 and rain so I consider dry and about 45 decent.

We went straight up hill from the gun and I  found myself in 3rd place as we rolled out on 16 mile race, but what the hell is that noise and why are these guys riding sooooo hard.  Oh yeah, it’s a race but what the hell is that noise?  Sounds like a disc break centerlock ring. It IS a disc break centerlock ring……… crap.   The bike was braking fine but that rattle was driving me nuts and making it impossible for me to concentrate on my race.  The leading two were pulling away, and I was still making time on the rest of the field but I was wondering if  I was f’ng something up on my bike,  just then I hit a rock section, lost momentum and came to a complete stop.    Perfect time to check for damage and tighten the ring by hand.  Nothing wrong and  45 seconds later  it was finger tight, silent and I was racing again.  I wasn’t passed but it was close, 3 guys were about 10 seconds back and 5 minutes later so was the noise.  I decided that I would concentrate on reopening the gap and fix it again when I was forced to slow or stop.   So that’s what I did.  I came to a stop on a steep rock slab climb hopped off, and tighten it down  real quick like and took off again without being passed.  But they were still right there, however the noise was gone for a bit.  I did figure it would return but when it did I had a plan.    I reopened my gap, and when the clanging came back at the start of the final 8 mile lap I pulled over, pulled my full finger gloves off, got the ring finger tight, grabbed my spare tube and used the presta valve to push the ring around for a quarter turn.  In the mean time 3 riders passed me and put about 15 seconds into me, but I was back riding in silence and able to concentrate on the chase.  I caught 5th place pretty quickly, 4th place broke his chain but 3rd place was running fast.   It took awhile but I caught him on a technical climb, passed him, and pressed on to the finish.   I never saw 1st or 2nd place, I think the guy who won beat me by like ten minutes, ouch.  I hope he was a pro.  First race in the books.

Post race, a bit foggy and cool but dry

New Belgium Short Track

Rockin the helmet cam @ the New Belgium Short Track

I haven’t exactly been setting the trail on fire at the local short track races, but at least I have lots of excuses. Right? Wrong tire pressure,  I lost a contact, someone bumped me, locusts locusts………I really need to work on my preemptive start line excuse.  You know what I mean.  The guy roles up, and the first thing out of his mouth is the reason why he might not do well.  ie “I was putting in floors at my moms house all day.  Man my legs are spent.”

Race number 1-9th

Race number 2-flat

Race number 3- 10th

One more race left in the series.

I am relatively happy that I am reeling peeps in throughout the whole race and not getting passed by too many.  Just gotta remember that those races are only about 1/12th the distance I am training for.

Regardless, these races are tons of fun.

Here is some vid. I shot at the last one.

Here is the kids race, pretty fast little ankle bitters.

If the weather holds, which its not supposed to, I’ll be heading up to Cheye-town for the Goudy Grinder in the AM.

Photos from Week 1 of the NBSTS

New Belgium Short Track #1

Here is my video from the first New Belgium Short Track race of 09.  I think I finished 9th.  I’ll be out there gettin it done again this Tuesday.  Check back for more video.  I ordered my Peace 9r single speed last week.  Can’t wait until it shows up.  That bad jackson will be perfect for the short track races

Enjoy

OK, for real this time

The races at New Belgium are on for sure.

I’ll be racin the A race or Open, whatever they are calling it.

Yell at this jersey!

POSTPONED!

Well, they pulled the pin on the races on Tuesday and moved the whole shooting match back a week.  The trails were just too wet after the snow we got on Sat.  Fine by me, gave me another week to bomb around on the new ride.

Shopping List.

I plan on making a few purchases here in the near future.   I sold my old mtb to get a new TT bike and I’m selling my old TT bike to get these.

First race comin’ up

My first race of the season is coming up this Tuesday.  Its part of the New Belgium Short Track Series, not exactly an A race for me.  More of a trainning ride but I’m paying an entery fee so………….

The plan is to ride for an hour and a half before, do the race and do an hour after.   I’ll let you know how all that works out for me. 

Homework

The weather has turned on us yet again here in Colorado.  We got about 3 inches of snow last night.  Not too bad considering they were calling for 5-10.  The trails should be back open in a few days.  

Being stuck inside gave me some time to work on some  GT Dirt Coalition homework I have been meaning to do.  

Here it is.  

Its nice to actully use that photography degree from time to time. 

 

Crappy weather = Me playing in the garage with my bike and camera.

 

Now to decide, fenders on the road bike or rollers? Fenders or rollers, fenders or rollers, fenders or rollers, fenders or rollers, fenders or rollers, fenders or rollers, I’m going with rollers.  God I hate the roller, maybe I’l put the fenders on and do a 50/50.  Hour outside hour on the rollers.

Well, Its True

Apparently this whole GT Dirt Coalition is for reals and not a clever ruse being perpetrated by my friends and/or family(yes, unfortunately I do run with that kinda crowd).  When I returned from a little AZ training camp on Saturday, I found this waiting for me in my living room.  So its either true or a very elaborate gag.

2009 GT Marathon Carbon Team, GT Pop-up Tent, Kit.....................

I had been getting reports from my sister in law saying that all sorts of boxes were showing up and she was getting tired of draggin’ it into the house.  It was nice knowing that I had some fun stuff waiting for me at home, but it made the 14 hour drive seem even longer.

I had planned on videoing the bike build but it prolly wouldn’t have been a very interesting or long video.  The guys at GT had the ride pretty dialed right out of the box.  All I did was add the team issued  reflectors (not really).

I am very fortunate to live in the same town as George Parry, the designer of the Marathon, yes the designer of the bike I’m gonna be racin’ this year.  I’m gonna swing by his house and have him give me the inside,inside scoop on the bike.  More on that later.

I just found out today that my Ergon GX2s are also on the way.  They should be showing up on Friday.  Thanks Jeff!

These bad jacksons should keep me fresh long in to the night.

After they show up I’m really gonna concentrate on getting the bike set up just the way I want.  Trim the bars and stearer tube, dial in the suspension, Stans,  bottle cages………

Racing begins on April 6th with the New Belgium Short Track Series continues with the Larimie Mountain Bike Series and really gets going with  Battle the Bear Mountain Bike Challange or may be the Front Range 50, same venue, same day.

Thanks for reading, more to come soon.

Dan

My Super Sweet New Ride For ’09