stuff

If you are going to ridicule my picture quality buy me a new camera worth more than $89... my "real" camera was stolen 2 years ago.

Put in PTO requests for a couple weeks next spring and early summer. Should be able to do a couple weeks similar to my last trip! Also took the day off before the Birkie and a set myself up for a couple long weekends to head up to Wolverine Village and ski earlier in the year... guess I'm going racing.

After skipping Red Wing I now feel rested and strong once again. It was the right call.

I won the Eastwood Tuesday Night Race last night... first time for that (at least when I wasn't the only person there). However, it was somewhat lame because the two other "fastest" guys there didn't really race. They took the start and then rode at a "conversational" pace. I wish I could have pushed myself harder despite the lead I developed, but I started getting lazy.

I picked up an m-961 XTR front derailleur for the Orbea--- Night and Day better than the X9 that was on there. No longer have to think about how/when to shift the front.

Also, switched (temporarily?) to a 10 speed dura-ace chain on the otherwise 9 speed drivetrain... any thoughts on that?

Hope you are having a good week!

Long trip Home- Porcupine Mountains, Rock Lake, Levis etc.

After the race I started home. Coming back through I took some pictures, but lost some of my motivation to do so.

Wound up hiking in the Porcupines, riding at Wolvering, riding Rock Lake/Namakegon, riding Levis etc. etc. and still coming home a couple days earlier than needed in order to ease my way back into work.

Porcupines-

My age group prize from the Chain Drive at the Town Hall-

Long ride from the Town Hall all the way out to the Rock Lake trailhead, through all of Rock Lake and back via singletrack. Here are a couple pictures-

back home!

Yes, that scaffolding is a gap drop off the end... Yes, Randy's bike is worth 40x what he paid for that truck.

Lastly, here are all the animals but the not quite so photogenic 13 year old Beagle-

Took it fairly easy these last few days after going back to work. Decided not to race today due to feeling a little bit tired. Expect to ride hard this next week, try a road race and my first crit next weekend and to head to Eau Claire feeling more prepared than I did at the same time last year. Wish me luck.

Keweenaw Chain Drive recap

This thing was tons of fun! Here's the only picture I have thus far... there were some other professional photographers out there and I'm waiting for their pictures to hit the internet. I usually don't care too much but this time I think there is probably a really cool picture of me out there; I popped a wheelie on a bridge by one of their photographers!

I rested up as well as I could Friday night and attempted to treat Saturday as any other race day. Felt decent in my warm up and was able to nab a nice second row start position.

Here is the neutral roll out- if you look carefully you can catch me wide right in the 2nd row or so.

After that we looped under the bridge and were allowed to open it up. I actually led for a while at that point. We had been warned about the gravel being washed out and I wound up all the way up front when I tried to avoid some of the wash-out stuff. It was ok as the pace was pretty comfortable until we hit the cemetery hill. Normally I would be up for a quick climb with $50 on the line, but I knew that probably wouldn't be my greatest strength at that point in my week and so I climbed at a very comfortable pace.

Over the next 6 miles or so I slowly worked my way forward through the pack until getting up with some guys who were going just as fast as I was. We all took turns out front until I was able to pull away from that group and into sole posession of 14th (or so I was told) around mile 24. I caught and passed the next two guys, but they were able to hold my wheel on a long double-track section. Soon we were down to 2.5 or so miles to go and just one last steep climb... BOOOM my chain snapped. My immediate reaction was "how do I walk out of here", but then I realized that I did have everything I needed to fix it. A few minutes later (and 6 or 7 spots further back than I had been) I was back on the trail. Soon after that is when I saw the photographer and thus the wheelie.

I finished in 18th (or was it 19th?) about 18.5 minutes behind Brian Matter. All in all it was a very good effort when judged vs. my past XC performances. I think that's the closest I've ever finished an 'expert' length race to one of the really fast guys.

A lot more importantly- I had a great time, felt solid on the trails, bike felt good etc. etc.. It really left me looking forward to more!

I hope to be back next year. This thing has a ton of great technical singletrack and plenty of climbing. Excellent race course.

Rest of the Keweenaw

When Friday rolled around I'd ridden about 32 hours over the last 7 days and it was time to get as much rest as possible prior to the Keweenaw Chain Drive.

I slept in to ten and then spent an hour prepping my bike prior to leaving Copper Harbor. The rest of the day was spent wandering.

That buoy apparently weighs some ungodly amount- I want to say 50,000 lbs! Mind blowing.

For some reason at that point I got interested in the textures of the buildings.

Found a nice little Mexican place for lunch- not what I was expecting to find.

Got a brief ride in at McLain State Park as well as a hike

Something about this reminded me of something and that's why/when I decided to switch to hiking...

Later went for a ride near the town of Gay- I understand this "beach" is actually some sort of industrial waste.

I spent the rest of the day relaxing as much as possible including watching Green Lantern and even Applebee's for dinner.

2010 Salsa Mamasita, dt240s salsa delgado race wheels and xtr crankset

Rather than the regularly scheduled additional pictures of the Keweenaw I'm throwing the information about my sale stuff up on here now...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170659436042&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

That's the ebay link to the bike sale (click on other auctions for the wheels and crankset).

It's a 2010 Mamasita in Medium. Built up with race-ready parts throughout (although if you want to go fast you'll probably want the other wheelset I'm selling to go along with it as well--- they are dt 240s hubs, salsa delgado race rims, sapim spokes from Mike C)

The crankset is an xtr m952 with what is an apparently very rare 110 bcd spider. Being sold with bottom bracket and 3 SS chainrings.

Let me know if you are interested.

Copper Harbor Mountain Biking

This place is the best. Head and shoulders above anywhere else I've gotten to ride in the Midwest, plus it's a really scenic and cool little town. This year I rode about 12 hours up there which included their Thursday night group ride. I'd recommend making it to the group ride if you can- you get free beer!

I once again stayed at the Belle Vista Motel. I ususally avoid spending money on hotels when traveling, but when up here the Motels are cheap, the camping is expensive and I want to support their trails by spending money in the town. Second photo is the view from my sliding door... I just bring all my bikes inside and use that sliding door to go in and out while I'm there.

Trail Pictures. Again, it's simply the best. All the trails are interesting to ride, all but a couple are two-way and can be reasonably climbed (I think I could climb the whole Red Trail, but I wouldn't want to get in the way of someone coming down...). No where else I've been opens up with all the possibilities that you get when you ride up there. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

There are more miles of bridges here than there are trails in Rochester.

After ride beer on my "patio"

More pics of the view from the town and surrounding area-

Generally I went pretty hard on the Orbea and didn't stop for pictures.

Shot of the guys on the group ride coming up to the look-out. I love it!

Couple last shots on my way out of town on the mountain road.

I can't wait to find time to go back. The rest of the Keweenaw will hopefully get posted tomorrow.