This weekend I did my first race since my injury and it felt really good to be back on the bike in a race!  We drove up to Moraine state park for the final Month of Mud race and it was an unbelievable fall day.  There was a really big turnout and a lot of fast guys in the expert class.  I had a bad start but it was a long double track start and went into a big climb so I made my way to the front pack.  They really were going after the first climb on those single speeds but once we hit the flat the slowed so I came around and put the hammer down and made them spin like crazy.  It was short lived and on the next climb into the single track I lost some positions.  I had some really good power for  about 30 minutes but faded after that,  the rock at this place were relentless and I think I was the only guy on 26 inch wheels.  The 29er's had the advantage for sure at this place!   All in all I ended up 5th place expert and I am pretty happy with that for now.  

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.

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. 

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!

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!!

http://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.

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!

Mongoose 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!