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14 avril Mt. Wood race reportSo me and my teammate Tim Mould head down to Mt. Wood for a day of racing and fun. The weather said rain and 45 degrees not so nice but what the hell. When we get there it is just sprinkling a little bit and I am told that the trails are in nice shape! Cool!! I feel great and am confident in my training for the race we line up for the start in a stacked field of 30 Pro's/Semi-Pro's/and Experts and off they go! They go because bang I drop my chain off my big chainring! I just replaced my chain and cassette but I rode it afterward and thought the chainrings were ok guess not! I finally got going and the entire field had a large lead on me I gave it all I had and caught them before the first doubletrack climb and picked my way through to 3rd place going into the singletack. I was happy to get there but burned a lot of matches doin it that was an all out effort. I settled in and tried to recover a little and got passed by Gunner grabbed his wheel and we were running back up to Andy and Dave when I crashed on one of the many wood bridges slick from being wet and muddy. Gunner and the boys got a little bit ahead of me but not out of sight we got into some tight single track again and I lost sight of them then the next opening they were gone! I thought holy shit they really picked it up oh well I was happy with my placing and rode my own race for the rest of the course. With about 2 miles to go I saw Ben on a switchback and thought he was running me down so I stepped it up a notch and crash I go down hard in a fast corner. That hurt! Better just finish the race! Ben wasn't as close as I thought and when I came across the finish they tell me I won? hmm I ask them what about Walker, Andy and Gunner, turns out somehow they took a wrong turn and did the prologe twice. That sucks . Well I don't know what would have happened if they didn't take that turn but I was strong till the end I think it would have been interesting. Anyway I ended up with my first OMBC 1st place and I will take it!! Tim Mould ended up 14th after having dropped his chain into his spokes lossing several minutes and fighting back to past midpack. Ben ended up 2nd and Brad was 7th hell off a showing against those super fast WV guys 10 avril Endless TrainingSo since the move to Pittsburgh I have rode every single day! I even got my first road bike a Caad 9 Cannondale it is really fast! Davis has to be so proud I even have a power tap on it to show my power output. I have to admit it is pretty neat stuff. I hit 987 watts during intervals yesterday and my average was just over 400 whatever that means I guess it is pretty good. Mt. Wood is this Sunday we will see how all this training will pan out. I also got my new 09 Canaan frame and will put it toghether as soon as I get some needed parts the new frame is anodized black and it looks great. I will post some pics when it is built. 2 avril Night Rides RuleTodd, Jake and myself went for a night ride tonight a Frick park. It was super fun the trails in Pittsburgh rock an they are legal to boot. Unbelievable!!! There is nothing like rippin up single track in the dark with a couple of good buddies. 31 mars Chickasaw Trace "Mudfest"25 mars Move to PittsburghSo I recently moved to Pittsburgh and took a job with Pittsburgh Pro Cycle. The move was kind of sudden but it seems to be a good thing for me right now. The riding here is fantastic and I have been training really hard here. We will see how it works out at Chickasaw Trace this weekend in Tenn.! 11 mars New Hardtail frame So I have a new Meteore hardtail frame on the way for the 2008 season. I will probably be using it for the courses with a lot of climbing considering that it is a sub 3 pound frame with my build up it will be around 20 pounds! I will post some pics as soon as it gets in and I will get the weight of it complete. I will also be testing an all new 09 Canaan frame in the next month both it and the Meteore are made from a new G7 tube set that is substantially lighter and stronger than the G6 on the earlier models. In the end I will have a 20 pound hardtail and a sub 23 pound, 4 inch travel Canaan Team! That is more than I could have ever asked for this season and I am looking forward to a great year! I will post pics of both bikes as soon as there are complete. Here are some pics of the new Meteore hardtail it weighed in at 21 pounds and I am going to take another pound off with tires, rotors, and a lighter saddle. So it should be right at 20 pound for race day. 10 mars Winter Storm So here in Cleveland there isn't much to write about other than the weather so that is what I am gonna do. The past week has been the worst of the entire winter and it's March, go figure our first race of the state series is in 20 days. The week started out with an ice/shit storm as I call them, it happens when the temperatures are border line freezing and it cannot decide if it's gonna rain or snow. I plowed for 15 hours on Tuesday night from that one, it was the heaviest snow I have ever pushed! Then on Friday it started snowing and didn't stop till Sunday morning. It was probably the worst storm in Ohio since the 70's I think around 20 inches in most places and more in some. I started plowing on Friday night at 2:00 am and it was the worst conditions I have ever been in hands down. Visibility was probably 100ft. and it did not let up ever not once until the storm ended early Sunday morning. I drive a F-350 four wheel drive dump truck with a salt spreader full of salt and six brand new BFG all terrain tires and it was still a chore to stay on the road and out of the ditches. Saturday morning people were blowing my mind trying to drive"WHY" there were people stuck everywhere. The radio and T.V. were not kidding when they said stay home and off the roadways, our main highway I 71 shut down, but people had to get somewhere I am not sure where too it was Saturday and everything was closed cause there was another 10 more inches supposed to fall and it sure did. I pushed and pulled out around 30 cars and trucks and got stuck myself pushing an enormous pile of snow. I sat and watched a lady try to drive her little front wheel drive honda through 15 inches of snow, she looks at me and says "I'm stuck" no shit idiot! Then proceeded to tell me I needed to due my job better! The nerve of some people, and this trend continued until the end. After I pushed her back in her spot I told her the roads are not any better and they weren't they were actually probably worse or the same. She reluctantly went back in her apartment all pissed off at us cause we were making it snow ya know!!! When it was all said and done we plowed for 30 hours with only 4 hours of sleep total, with people complaining the entire time!! People never cease to amaze me with there unbelievable expectations and there inability to understand that this was not a normal snowfall and that we did all we could with what we had. I think I heard thankyou maybe once or twice the entire time plowing, unbelievable. So now we have to wait for it all to melt and then for it to dry out before we can ride offroad. Thank God for Ray's huh. 3 mars Snake creek gap #3 I haven't blogged in a while, we had our computer die and just got a new laptop so I am back in business. Last month was really uneventful anyway. I didn't get to ride off road at all and hardly trained enough because of the super cold temps we had. I know I should man up and just ride but I just got sick of being cold and cannot stand riding a trainer for hours. It is 60 degrees today and I am gonna take full advantage of that!! So we went down to Georgia for the final Snake and it snowed and then rained the entire trip down. I was thinking as we got closer that we were in for a muddy race for sure but when we got to Dalton the rain let up to a light sprinkle and by the time we got out of dinner had just about stopped. Up in the parking lot were alot of welcoming faces camping and the Yazoo boy's were in the house with great beer. I headed for bed with clearing sky's above us. Saturday morning we woke to partly sunny sky's and warm temp's for so early in the morning. I also woke to a whole bunch of super fast competition, Harlan Price and Sam Koeber along with another one of his buddy's from Canada just for starters, it was gonna be a slug fest today. I got up to the start early to avoid having to deal with traffic and started in the first wave ahead of Thomas Turner and a bunch of fast guy's. On the first big climb they caught me and passed in a paceline so i figured there's the money I got to go for it, I jumped on board and that was a big mistake at this race with my lack of training last month. It hurt me real bad and it took me till past the halfway to recover from push I made to stay with the leaders. I was suffering and was having a real hard time just turning the pedals and Rob caught me on his single speed, he looked back and said "come on, jump on" I replied "I am hurting Rob" again he looks back at me more assertive this time "jump on Tim" so I did and Holy Shit !! He was on a mission, he was absolutely flying! I was feeding of him and he pulled me back to Dave Hall who had passed me earlier and then proceeded to disappear in the miles of rock gardens before the finish. I was felling better and did real well through the rocks but in the end I ended up with my slowest time of the series at 3:23. My time from Feb. of 3:11 keep me in the top ten in the pro money class and I was pretty happy with that in the wake of such formidable competition. Rob Krantz laid down a record single speed time of 3:16:30 nice job Rob and thanks for the moral support in the race. Lauren shaved a solid 30 minutes off hear time in Feb. and won the woman under 30 class, Tiffany Kenney won the over 30 ,34 mile class all in all Ohio took a large percent of the podium. There was great weather and great single track, a bad day on the bike is better than almost anything I can think of I was just glad to be riding sweet Georgia single track in early March instead of staring at the snow! 5 février Race report Snake creek gap #2 was on Sat. and it was 60 degrees and sunny, what a perfect day for a race! To bad it rained like hell the week prior to the race. My goal for this race was to hit 3:00 or better but that didn't happen. I hate to blame it on the conditions but it was pretty muddy in the first 17 miles and the creek crossings were deep an stripped everyone's chains of vital lubrication for the second half of the race. My Canaan Team worked flawlessly in the conditions and that was a plus, but anytime I dropped to my middle ring it felt like I tied an anchor to my bike and I could feel it through the cranks grinding so I just rode in the big ring for almost the whole second 17 miles other than the wall which I climbed for the first time ever in the middle ring, I was super stoked! All in all it was a good ride considering the conditions of the race and I beat my last time by 5 min coming in at 3:11 not to bad. Brad Wilhelm had an awesome race at 3:14 as did Christina with an 4th place ranking in the womans money class at 4:11!! My girlfriend Lauren took her first run ever at the 34 miler and finished in just over 5 hours not bad for her first time. The Spin crew all had impressive times again with Davis wiping 10 min off his time from last month at 3:24. Special thanks to Pabst Blue Ribbon for the beer for the after party it was a hit!! 29 janvier Snake Creek Gap #2http://www.nwgasorba.org/the_snake.html So the second part of the three race series is this Saturday. I am pretty sure we are gonna have the biggest group from Ohio ever and I think it is awesome! The first time I did the race was when I was living in Tenn. in the winter of 2006. I was just looking around on the internet for some close races and there it was, 32 miles point-to-point, registration for all 3 races was only $60 with a t-shirt, cool! It was going to be my first year racing as an expert and I figured that 32 miles would be a good way to test myself. My god did it test me, I finished the race in 4:20 and could barely pedal due to the insane cramps in my legs! I questioned myself after that race would I be able to compete as an expert? I was determined to due better and decided that these races would be part of my winter training. So that is what I did the second race I finished in 4:14 with all kinds of issues like a broken chain and a flat tire but he cramps were not near as bad this time. Before the last race I completely replaced my destroyed drivetrain and had a really good race and finished at 3:42, I shaved 38 minutes off my first attempt. I have become a more complete cyclist since then and this race continues to challenge me. This race will challenge your mental fortitude like no other I have raced. Since I first raced it has went to 34 miles and I think it's challenge is part to do with the time of the year too. But it could have something to do with the fact that the last 7 miles are just brutal. For anybody who has rode Mohican state forest, just add 10 miles and over double the climbing, and instead of the beginning being the hardest part the end is. The people at this race totally rock. I cannot say enough about how well this race is run or enough about how good the chili and the cobbler are after the race. For some reason I thought maybe I could catch Thomas Turner this year but he is faster than ever. Not to say I am not going to try I always do but my realistic goal for Saturday is 3:00 or less. We will see if the mountain bike gods are friendly this race. I am really glad to see this race has turned into something really big and I think it will continue to grow in the future and be the premier east coast winter race. Here are some cool old photo's from the first year I did the race. If you look close my bike still had a set of old xt cranks on it. I upgraded to full xtr for the last race. 23 janvier Mohican state forest So my teammate and good friend Jake came into town for the Mongoose demo and we decide we are going to go to Mohican on Monday. Tim Mould had a doctors appointment so we got on the bikes at about 2 pm, good thing to cause the high was only 20 degrees. The trail was in perfect shape, I think frozen ground has to be the best traction there is possible it is down right amazing! I started out with a windproof coat on but within two miles I was stopping to shed it, cold or not I can't ride with one on it cooks me. My wool jersey with a long sleeve under it was plenty for me. I had my first experience on my new smallblock eight tires on ground that wasn't muddy and I was favorably impressed with there performance, but I think I still prefer the Karma. We started out with a strong pace to get warmed up and then I didn't let up for a minute my final time was 2:20 not bad after two day's of solid riding with the Mongoose boys at Ray's. Monday night I get a call from Brad "Hey Tim, wanna go to Mohican tomorrow?" sure why not. So it is Brad, myself and Brian. We meet at like 1pm and there is about an inch or so of snow cover, cool! Were getting suited up and Brian comes up and says "got an extra helmet?" nope I forgot mine to I realize, duh. Well we decide to ride anyway, probably not smart but we were there so we did anyway. Right after the first climb Brad passes me and lays it down, I had no chance I was totally spent. I had enough to stay in front of Brian but Brad thoroughly kicked my ass. I end up just about 2:30 not bad for felling like shit. The trail was a ton of fun in the snow, smallblock eights continue to impress me with tons of traction in the snow I didn't miss one climb in the snow! 18 janvier Mongoose demo day's at Ray'sMongoose is having demo days at Ray's this weekend. You will be able to ride just about anything in the lineup from the Canaan to the ECD. Darren and Chris are here both reps for Mongoose and also Eric Carter "downhill and fourX pro" will be attending this year. So if you find some time come out and check out the scene it should be alot of fun! 13 janvier A Message To Roadies I have been training in the valley a lot lately and I am greatly disturbed with what I see happening on the multi-purpose trail I love to ride so much. Road bikers supposedly have an etiquette they live by   and that I think it is their excuse for being rude. Well that is all fine and dandy when their on the road but when they chose to ride where other people are I think it sucks! Just so everyone knows multi-purpose means exactly that, when you chose to ride it you have to deal with runners, walker, strollers, children, roller bladders, dogs leashed and unleashed, dogs with 60ft. leashes, other bikes, and mountain bikes, plus who knows what else. Since local roadies make rules governing public roadways I am making some rules over the multi-purpose trails and it doesn't ban anybody. It is really pretty simple " BE NICE" here are some examples       and try to enjoy what we have here instead of being rude to people even if it doesn't fit your so called etiquette. See ya on the trail. 7 janvier Snake Creek Gap So the Snake creek gap has been my first race for three years now! It is also one of the hardest races I do all year. The race is 34 miles and my gps showed 5000 ft. of climbing. The terrain is some of the most brutal I have ever encountered anywhere. You get to the halfway point and then that is when things start to get interesting. I went into this race with high expectations for myself. My goal was to do the race in under 3:10! Everything was going as planned at the 17 mile mark, my time was 1:17 leaving me 1:50 to finish the last 17 miles. The second half is a bit more difficult with some super tricky climbs due to all of the rocks that cludder them! With about 8 miles to go I am riding along feeling good the I-pod giving me good motivation in the techno variety, I tear a sidewall on my front tire and get a flat. Since I have converted to tubeless with stans I have only flated once before in a race. Going against my norm I went into this race prepared with a tube and air. Sweet!! Just as I finish fixing my flat Garth passes me I catch up to him and pass him but not for long. His strength is climbing and he does a great job at the end of this race to drop me and end up with a time of 3:14:30! My finishing time was my best ever 3:16 putting me into second place in the money class behind Thomas Turner(Pro Cannondale rider) his time was 2:50. That guy is an animal!!! This was my first race on the new Mongoose and my new wheelset. The new wheels are the new NoTubes ZTR race 7000 series. This wheelset weighs in at a hefty 1210 grams. To put that into perspective a xtr wheelset is 1530 grams and so is Mavics Crossmax slr, that is 320 grams lighter almost a pound! My Canaan as it sits right now is weighing in at a respectible 23.2 pounds with a full 4 inches of travel front and back. All I can say is that this bike is simply amazing. It climbs like a rocket and the new fox suspension is by far the best I have ever been on. Well all in all it was an awesome weekend with incredible weather, dry and almost 50 degrees. Ohio was representing once again Chip Meek and Rob Krantz both posted incredible times on single speeds to boot, 3:23 and 3:29 I believe first and second in single speed class! Brad Wilhelm and Dave Hall came down for there first ever run at the snake and ended up 5th and 6th in the money class with a 3:26 and a 3:29! John Davis ran his best run to with a 3:34! My girlfriend Lauren did the 17 mile race and ended up 2nd with a time of 2:44 which put her in the middle of all the men who did the 17 mile race, what a badass!! 30 décembre 2008 Canaan Team So my brand new 2008 Canaan Team arrived and boy am I excited! I went out for a 50 mile ride on it yesterday and suffered from the "new bike syndrome"! I averaged 20.2 mph for 48 miles! I am pretty confident that was the fastest time I ever turned on that training route. It is amazing how a new bike can motivate you. The new Canaan is very similar to last year with some great refinements to improve performance and it's durability. They changed the lower pivot by removing the bearings from it and placing them outboard in the frame. With this new design the gained lateral stiffness and bearing life due to a larger bearing, also access to the bearings for replacement is greatly improved. The light blue paint is gone from 07; in its place is a lighter, stronger ball burnished frame that looks amazing and feels better than ever! Helping with the great feel of the bike is the new F100 RLC fork, and the new RP23 shock. Fox has once again outdone themselves with these products! Well the bike showed up just in time for the Snake creek gap in Georgia this coming weekend, I will talk more about that later. We will see how it does in some real world racing. I am posting a couple pics so check them out! I think I am headed to Ray's to ride! 26 décembre Winter Time Well, I know I haven't wrote in a while, but our PC has been on a fritz and it finally died for good. So it's time for a new one. Not much worthy of writing about lately anyway! I have had a hard time staying motivated in the past couple weeks, but I have got out to do a couple good rides in the valley. So I have been running this winter to cross train, usually 5 miles or so. Let me tell you what running is harder than I remember in highschool! I used to run the mile in track and was an ok runner I guess, I think my best mile time was like a 4:54. We had a kid named Jim Zoldac that ran like a 4:20 mile in 10th grade so he repeatedly kicked my ass. Anyway, I give props to anyone who loves running cause they are tough a hell, it's ok but it seems like a very unnatural movement to me. Christmas has come and gone once again. My wonderful girlfriend has completely spoiled me with gifts. She got me a set of Stan's aluminum rotors, a new GIRO Zen helmet, and a bunch of cool clothes. I ate enough food to support my body for at least a month I think. There is always incredible food at Laurens parents house.Yum! 13 décembre Road Trip to AshevilleIt was a cold and snowy day in Cleveland,Oh so we packed up the Element and headed south. As we drive south the snow changes to a steady rain. yuk! We get on 26 towards Asheville and steady turns to pouring. yee haw ! So up the mountain we go, the Element by the way is the ultimate road trip vehicle it has a ton of power. You almost never have to downshift in the mountains and will cruise 80 mph no prob. Well, we get to the top of the mountain and guess what! The rain just stops like I threw a switch. Lauren's two friends from college live right next to the hospital downtown where they are both nurses. We get to their house and get out of the car to 58 degrees and a sky full of stars. Does it really get any better in December? So we head out for some grub at the local Friday's where we get ignored buy the bartender,"so much for southern hospitality". Back to John and Kelly's to get whooped on in Mario cart and several different Wii games. Wow that Wii is super cool! Anyway we get up in the morning to pouring rain, not what the weather man said was gonna happen! WTF? I decide to head for the trail anyway. When we get there we are rewarded with perfect conditions and almost 70 degree temps. We decided to ride in Pisgah on a trail called Trace ridge it was 2.5 miles and 1200ft. of vertical! Hell of a warm up, at the top we missed a turn do to the amount of leaf cover and rode up to the Blue ridge parkway instead. We did a couple miles before we realized we had gone the wrong way. We headed back and found another trail to check out and ended up doing an out and back. My garmin showed over 3000ft. in 8.5 miles. So Sunday night I give my buddy Bruce a call. He works part time at Bio-wheels and owns Pisgahworks.com. We set up a time to meet and ride on Monday and decide on an 4-5 hour ride in Pisgah. Lauren and I head to I-Hop on Monday morning for some breakfast then meet Bruce at his place in downtown Asheville. Bruce pulls out what he will be riding: a full rigid, single speed, 69'er . It's a Jamis dragon with a carbon fork and weighs like 21 pounds. Lightweight or not I think he is a nut! Well, we decide to start out on South Mills River trail and make it only about 3 miles before Bruce gets a flat. He has all the necessary stuff to fix his bike but now we don't have any more air in case something else goes wrong. I know what your thinking , Carson where is your gear? In fine Tim form I did not take anything with me so we have to go back to the car. This time I grab some CO 2 and a tube and then off we go. Back down the shortcut we took to get back to the car, thank god for good trail guides! We get back to Mullinax where Bruce flatted and continue on with our ride. The climbs on this trail system are steep and technical, with tons of big steps and a lot of big rocks to climb over and up. From Mullinax we got on to Squirrel Gap and the trail got really hairy! Steep off camber climbs and decents with roots and rocks galore! Next is Horses Gap and this one is all down hill, thank god cause it was so messed up from horses I don't think we could have rode it up. It was steep and fast and dumped us out by the river trail. The first couple miles by the river were super fun with small rideable creek crossings and rock strewn trails. The last four miles was smooth double track and a really nasty climb back out of the valley to our car. All in all we were on our bikes for about 4 hours, 14.8 miles, and did 3400 ft. of climbing. What a great day on the bike! 7 décembre Snow Tires Rule!! For all you out there that don't believe in how good snow tires work I
am here to tell you otherwise! I recently purchased a set of
Bridgestone Blizzaks and let me tell you what they are down right
amazing! We just recently had our first significant snowfall and I got
to test them on my way to work through rush hour. They have traction on
everything even on ice though it's very limited. I think the traction
in stopping is what surprised me the most it was super impressive. My
car is just front wheel drive, I can hardly imagine what they would do
on allwheel drive vehicles. Any way if you are looking for a set check
out Tirerack.com they have amazing prices on winter tires. I got all 4
tires for under 200 buck delivered to my door!! Let it snow 30 novembre valley ride So work has grinded to a halt for the most part and my day's have been free so I decided to do some mileage yesterday. I pull out of the homestead on Wyandotte and head for the valley strait into a nasty headwind, the weather said 18 degrees with the windchill. yee haw! Well the valley offers some protection so it was better when I got down there. I was pleased with how many people were out in the cold it inspired me to go as farther than I planned. Berea and back was my plan but it turned into an almost 50 mile ride. I think my power output was like 1000 watts the whole ride!!! Just kidding I have know idea what it was but I do know I was tired afterward and at the end I killed hogsback and could still peg my heartrate so thats a good thing. I did have some fun with some roadies on a tandem halfway back though. I am quite sure they thought they were gonna smoke me but I just couldn't let that happen. So much for base miles!! 26 novembre Mohican state forestSo yesterday we headed for Mohican state forest which in my opinion is one of the best trails in the flippin country! The trail totally rocks. Lauren and I meet up with Kelly & Larry and Brad & Christina for an epic sunday ride. It was a little chilly at the start but we warmed up quick. The trail was littered with leaves and lead to mutiple crashes for I think at least the majority. But all in all was a super fun late season ride! |
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