Fair Hill XC

Ok, so I've been slacking on the update from the Fair Hill race on Sunday. In my defense I have been working 12 hours a day for the last 10 or so days (did not work Sunday for obvious reasons).

Fair Hill was great. I think the picture says it all but if you need the details...
It was about 8:30 when Shawn and I took off to that lovely place called Fair Hill. Our goal was to get down there with time to set up and watch most of the Sport race. Check. We saw James flying past out of the start. A few minutes later, in the Single Speed category, Seth went whizzing past. It was looking like a good day for the Milkmen. Now the details for their race is still a little fuzzy but mainly James said he "went out too fast" but "was picking off people in the singletrack" and for Seth, it sounded like a lack of fitness is what got to him. His excuse would be that he is working and going to school full-time. I think we can let him off the hook. James ended up 15th our of over 40 racers and Seth well, like I said he has an excuse...32nd of 32 finishers. Believe it or not but that is something to be proud of.


The Expert/Elites were set to go off at 12:30. The skies were blue. The air warm with a slight breeze in the open fields. Joel was in the Elite field running with the big boys. Tom, Steve, and I were the sandbaggers (not really) in the Expert Senior I field. Shawn was pretty sick but decided to give it a shot in the Single Speed category.


The race from my point of view...


The Elites take off...the Trek and Scott boys were in full force...flying as usual. Two minutes later our horn sounds. The start was super fast on a utility trail (lots of gravel but fairly smooth and wide enough for a truck). I was sitting 4th wheel on the right side and noticed two riders moving up the left so I hopped in behind them. As I did this, they went to the right leaving me with a wide open road. Now I've been working on my 5, 10, and 20 minute intervals so I put the hammer down figuring this was my chance at glory. I few past everyone (even Steve who was in the lead at the time) put my head down and pedalled. When I looked back I was about 100 yards off the front just about the hit the singletrack. I never saw them again.


Results...Joel ended up in the money with a very respectable 19th in the Elite race. Shawn DNF'd due to his illness. Tom 8th, Steve 5th, and me, if you didn't notice the picture, 1st. My first win on a geared MTB in about 5 years. Woo! Woo! Not too shabby for the Fast Forward team either as they took 2nd and 3rd. Great job guys.

Rouch!

Do not try this at home. Chris is a trained professional. He is actually trying to see if a train is coming. Is one coming Chris? Just kidding.

So it's Friday and the Allied Milk Cycling Team will be officially starting the mountain bike season in Fair Hill MD on Sunday. We will have 7 riders in various categories. I sense some team points coming our way. If you want to come and do the spectating thing go here for more info. Our guys will be setting off at 10:30 and 12:30.

On a less selfish note...the folks at Isaac's have teamed up with the Central PA Food Bank in an attempt to Bag Hunger. Basically, for every dollar they receive it turns into $15 of food for hungry families. Isaac's is also donating $1 for every cup, $2 for every quart, and $4 for every gallon of soup they sell. Really you don't even need to donate money to help out. Just eat the soup!

Fun in the Crud

Yesterday was not the US Open Relay in Marysville (Mr. Kuhn does not want to be sued) and it was a blast. Going in I felt like I had a bad week of training, a general lack of power and fitness but, it turns out I'm not too far off of where I want to be.

Let's start at the beginning.

It was a downright windy day with temps in the 40's in the morning. A wee bit chilly. The course was just as I predicted. Singletrack, great. Grass fields, a wreck. Some of these fields were underwater, like 2 or 3 inches of water, and by the end of the day (4 hours and about 70 teams of 4 later) were just a soupy, sludgy mess. If you've ever seen swamp buggy competitions (like mud bogs only in swamps) that's the best I can describe it. Yum! Throw in a few brand new sections and you have yourself a nice little relay course.

Our team was made up of two Bike Line riders (Erick and Todd) and two Milkmen (Steve and I). To start the day I was either still sleeping or maybe Steve and Todd really do look alike but I was calling Todd Steve (seeing as Todd's kid called Steve "dad" at one point last year. Can you say vindication?)

Anyway...Erick was first in our order and lucky him got to do the ever-so-fun running start. He did well and was 7th or so to get to the bike. He's also a pretty fast rider so I knew we would be in good position when his lap was over. Erick set a good pace for our team with a 15 minute lap. Steve was the next to go. Another 15 minute lap. Long story short everyone on the team was pulling 15 minute laps. Each of us riding 4 laps on the course. None of us stuck around to see the final results since the pro's were turning 13.5 to 14.5 minute laps and one team had 8.5 lap handicap. We figured our chances of taking home the coveted Cup were very low.

A blast.

To Infinity and Beyond.

Tomorrow is the visitPA.com International Intergalactic Global Open Mountain Bike Team Relay Championship of the Universe Including the Anti-Matter One. (There, That Should About Cover It.) race. Due to some scheduling conflicts there will not be a complete Allied Milk team racing. Instead we will be racing with two riders from the Bike Line team making us Milk Line. Allied Line didn't sound right.

Anyway, tomorrow should be a mudfest since it seems like we got about 6 inches of rain today. I'm sure the singletrack will be in good shape but those grass fields are going to hurt a bit.

The course is a very short 3 or 4 miles which should be covered in about 15 minutes (if I remember correctly from last year). 4 person teams will rotate for 4 hours. Most points wins. Sport and beginner riders will receive a handicap to even up the field.

All week my power seemed lacking but hopefully I will be able to pull something out for my 4 or 5 laps.

Shawn will be racing Fawn Grove on Sunday. This is a road race that apparently has short punchy climbs with 7 sections of dirt/gravel road mixed in. Something like 13.5 mile laps. I hope they have a sweeper for the riders with flats. Good luck.

Props Where Props are Due

This entry as been a long time coming. It's one that I always want to write but always seem to put off. Well not this time. After all the team would not exist if it weren't for our sponsors. Please support them, as they support grassroots cycling.

First up, we'll talk about the bike people. Our team has, in my opinion, the best of the best. We have rockin' Van Dessel frames. Anything from the super light Rivet to the ever so versatile Ramble Tamble (this can be run as a single speed, full X.O grouppo, or with a Ruhloff). Not to mention the awesomeness in between.

Honey Stinger is also back again. These guys are just super easy to work with and their products are like honey. Yum! They do have a new item out this year, the organic energy chews. They are delish. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a little boost on a long ride. Easier on the stomach than gel (I think so anyway). Also, HS does not outsource the production of their peanut butter from the company that was involved in the Salmonella outbreak. ++.

Crank Bros will once again be under our feet. These pedals have always been a personal favorite for a few reasons...First they are super easy to use. No spring tension to set. Second, they shed mud on nasty days. Clip in and forget about it. Third, they are super easy to rebuild. Let's face it, if you ride as much as we do bearings wear out. CB got your back with complete rebuild kits and easy to follow instructions.

AMC will also be on Stan's No Tubes wheels again. These are cutting edge when it comes to light weight, tubeless wheels. Good people. What else could you ask for?

New to this year will be Tifosi, Schwalbe, Nuun, SRAM, and Magura.

Tifosi has been really cool to deal with. They hooked our team up with some of the nicest glasses I've ever had on my face. Lightwieght, three sets of lenses (with great optics), and a nice rubber nose piece. The model is the Tyrant. Check them out.

Schwalbe Tires gave us a deal we couldn't turn down. We feel that their tires are about as good as you can get on the road, mountain, or 'cross. Maybe the only ones better would be the ones still handmade...maybe. With Schwalbe we have a huge selection to choose from and I was like a kid in a candy store. I will say this though, I showed some restraint when I opted to not get the 295 gram Furious Fred. I did however get the 425 gram tubeless version. Ha! Look out suckers.

Nuun is a hydration company that has really just recently popped their head this way. Unless of course I just wasn't paying attention. They offer us an electrolyte tablet for our water bottles that should keep the Milk(wo)men from cramping up this summer. Again, look out suckers.

SRAM hooked us up with road grouppos on the cheap. SRAM is always at the cutting edge of technology and is the parent company of Avid and Rock Shox but...

We have Magura for brakes and forks which are awesome. They are the parent company of Syntace and Mawri. Can I get a what what?

Next we can cover the money people. Arro, Isaac's Deli, and of course Allied Milk Producers' Cooperative. Without their continued support there would not be a team at all. This milk's for you...

Farmersville

My goal at Farmersville was to keep the pace high and drop the weaker riders at the start line so at the gun I jumped into the pace line. The early races are always good for a stupid crash. I'd say 4 or 5 of us were working together pretty well. Each taking short pulls and rotating back. There were a few that just wanted to hang out in the front and we let them burn up. Then back to short pulls. I did this for the first 3 or 4 laps and then drifted back to see what was left of the group. I estimated we were down to about 40 of the 60+ starters. Not bad.

I worked my way back to the front for some more work. I was feeling strong. My power was there. My heart rate was managed. The course was easy. A little too easy but it is a long season so I will take an easy one every now and then.

I'd say on lap 6 (of 8) my heart rate started screaming. I'm not really sure why but I slowly drifted back in the pack trying to get it to calm down. I slipped behind Shawn. I let him know that I thought I was about to pop. I got all the way back to the back and it finally calmed down. I'm not really sure what happened but I recovered in time to move back up to the front half of the group.

The finish was a bit interesting. There was a 10-12% hill (very short) and a hard 90 degree turn into the finishing straight (probably a 2-3% uphill). Coming into the final turn I was in a fairly good position so I thought I might go for the sprint but as we were rounding the final turn the guys in front of me slammed the brakes. I was forced to scrub all my speed. I knew that my chances were over so I just rode the slipstreams to the finish line. Shawn and I both finished (guessing) top 20. I do know that we crossed the line at 31 or 32 mph and we weren't even sprinting. It was a fast race at over 24 mph.

I was pleased with the race since my goal was to not get caught in a stupid crash and to make the others hurt a little.

Here's to small steps.

Here We Go Again

Saturday March 14th (tomorrow) is the start of the road season in Brownstown. I know that most of the team will not be racing but Shawn and I will be there. He talked me into it. Honestly I was having fun with my training this year and hope to hit the mountain season prepared. Last year I had to race myself into shape and that was rough. My sinus infection didn't help either.

All I can say about the race tomorrow is that at least it's not going to be windy. These early season races can go either way for me. I prefer May.