I won the 2015 Almanzo 100

This has been a blog post that has kept me from writing blog posts for a while.  The title says it all, but it wasn't easy to say or accept. Those who follow my blog know what that means to me.  It's hard to say it because of the luck I needed luck to make it happen.  I've come to terms with it now.  Perhaps two years in a row of inopportune flats in the same race meant I was "owed".  Maybe it's more likely that if you just keep trying long enough eventually something works out.  Maybe it makes no difference whatsoever.  At this point it's simpler than that stuff.  I simply rode my best race and the results were the results.  The luck aspect of it is nothing to me anymore but that doesn't mean I don't desperately want to back it up next spring.



I was beat at mile 65.  A long series of hills after the checkpoint saw the field literally exploding.  I had worked to create that explosion but by the end of the steepest of those hills it was clear that 4 riders had a little bit more climbing ability than I did right then.  Beat or not I absolutely put out everything I had between there and the line.  A group formed behind me but they were soon out of sight and forgotten.  Eventually, I would catch those 4 riders 25 miles later only to be dropped again on Oriole.  Then I would find myself ahead of them.  I don't know how far they went the wrong way.  I know that when they came back into sight behind me and I realized that I was leading that it was not something I would relinquish.    By the end the gap was very small.  I don't know if I could have done it had the line been any further way.  As it was I was taking things in small pieces the way you do when climbing a mountain pass.  The pavement is only 1 more mile....  the next turn is right there...  get to the bike path, you can't be beat if you make it to the bike path...

I doubt I'll ever finish another race and be immediately interviewed by a television camera!

Miscellaneous Spring Stuff

The week before Lakeville Milltown Lakeville I got to go up to Lutsen and watch the spring series ski race.  I snuck over to Moose Mountain on my fatbike and rode all over the place on the down low.  It was pretty amazing bombing giant slalom turns all over the closed runs (closed to to limited snow cover so late in the season) and riding on the river through the golf course.  This was just a ride, but something I had a great time doing!

Lakeville Milltown Lakeville itself was a great day too.  Not much happened early in the race, but leaving the checkpoint a small group formed that Skarpohl drove and drove.  I made a few pulls too to help keep some of our competitors out of the group, but soon regretted doing that.  In the end Skarpohl and I went in the last 25 or 30 miles as a due.  I think he kept me around so he would have someone to torture but then felt bad and let me stay with him all the way to the end and ultimately beat him in the sprint.  I've now won that race 2 of the 3 runnings.  All 3 years I've been unbelievably tired for 2 or 3 days after this thing.

I skipped Ragnarok.  I don't know why.  I want to do it next year.  I guess I felt like LML, Ragnarok, Dickie Scramble and Almanzo was just 1 too many long/early races.  Maybe I was right, but I'll never really know.




A huge benefit of not working evenings was being able to make the trip up to the Twin Cities on Tuesday nights.  The Tuesday night points races and crits became a big part of my spring this year.  I had moved up from being a 5 all the way to a 2 on the road without doing more than 10 or 12 total crits.  Obviously, that was too fast to be really comfortable/good and I wanted to work on that so  one of my goals this year was to 'learn' how to race crits a little bit.

I wound up racing every Tuesday available and a solid handful of weekend events.  I was proud to finish 6th in the MN Memorial Classsic race at the Fairgrounds (where I'm sure I had a relative advantage due to familiarity).  I was also consistently in the top 10 or so in the Tuesday races which meant a lot to me due to the nature of dealing with my health/food stuff.  10+ weeks of being "ready to go" on Tuesday night was something easy to get excited about!  My season would eventually fizzle out as the temperature and humidity soared into late June/July but not before I nearly stole the Wisconsin Cat 2 State Championships with a long move, but fell to 4th near the line.

Pugsley World Championships ;) 2015

As part of an attempt to somewhat catch up this blog with the current I'm going to hit on a few things I did this year with posts.

The PWC event down in Decorah was really just about a month after I stopped doing the Mayo job and began working just for myself.  I had taken a lot of time off after having health issues once again during the CX season (I'm still doing a lot of learning even now pertaining to my diet and health).  Then starting early February I started putting in a ton of miles at Gamehaven on the fatbike.  Not exactly as preparation for anything, but because it was nice to stay out of the wind and tons of fun.  By early March I had spent a lot of hours on snow, many of them trying to keep up with Trevor, and was as ready for a fatbike race as I have ever been.

The event itself was freaking great.  The course was tough with much of it being just barely rideable.  98% of the course was singletrack and there really were no punches pulled so far as anything that would make it easy.  The race consisted essentially of 4 loops with the last 2 being laps of the same sections.  After everyone had ridden/hiked/crashed the first time around it was absolute mayhem just staying upright.  The "fatbike birkie" took place the same day, whatever.  I would love to see that same field on a course like this (irony coming from someone many consider to be a roadie... eh?)

So far as the race itself went-  I was able to jump out to an early lead and stay away throughout.  It was always close, but I was able to find a bit more each time it tightened up etc..

Our next stop was Iowa City for one of the Iowa Spring Classic road races Sunday.  I had a decent day there and was able to get third.  What stands out in my memory though was literally putting my foot down in the sprint for 2nd.  I really left everything out there between the two days that weekend.

test

test

Roots

new beginning/taking advice from the onion

ROCHESTER, MN—In an effort to help working individuals improve their fitness and well-being, experts at the Mayo Clinic issued a new set of health guidelines Thursday recommending that Americans stand up at their desk, leave their office, and never return. “Many Americans spend a minimum of eight hours per day sitting in an office, but we observed significant physical and mental health benefits in subjects after just one instance of standing up, walking out the door, and never coming back to their place of work again,” said researcher Claudine Sparks, who explained that those who implemented the practice in their lives reported an improvement in mood and reduced stress that lasted for the remainder of the day, and which appeared to persist even into subsequent weeks. “We encourage Americans to experiment with stretching their legs by strolling across their office and leaving all their responsibilities behind forever just one time to see how much better they feel. People tend to become more productive, motivated, and happy almost immediately. We found that you can also really get the blood flowing by pairing this activity with hurling your staff ID across the parking lot.” Sparks added that Americans could maximize positive effects by using their lunch break to walk until nothing looks familiar anymore and your old life is a distant memory.

-Verbatim from the Onion (original article can be found here)

Tonight is my last full night at the Mayo Clinic.  I've fallen off on blogging recently as things have just gotten out of control time wise but that does not diminish the importance this blog has had in my life, or at least the things for which it serves as a record.  When I started blogging I had just begun to ride.  I was looking for something and had no clue what it was.  Over the years cycling has already taken me so many places.

Here

and here

and no where

 I started repairing carbon fiber parts nearly 4 years ago now.  I've been lucky enough to be able to carve out enough of a niche doing so that I am feeling great about making the leap.

I certainly never expected to work in the bike industry.  Frankly, I still don't feel like I do, even if it has been paying a decent chunk of the bills for a while.  I always had an idea what the bike industry was like and if you've followed my blog for long you know I never really liked it.  Maybe I was always wrong.  There are certainly still things going on that I don't like to see on a very macro level, but on an individual level people are seriously awesome.  It's impossible not to be grateful for that.

There are a lot of things I hope to have more time to do and tons of things I hope to be able to give my wife more time to do.  And although 40 hours a week seems like a lot of time but I'm sure it will go fast.  Totally stoked about attending group rides, the local Tuesday night bar ride, Tuesday night races in the Twin Cities etc. etc..  I'll be getting to spend a lot more time with this little person too.  Tired of having to tell her I'm going to work.  She always responds with "Daddy works hard".

Gravel Conspiracy 2014/Health

I have no pictures.  Almost not worth putting anything up with zero pictures.  Have to post something if only to tell you that you should do this event next year.  Seriously.

This was a bit different thing for me than the last couple of years.  Lots of endurance riding over the summer and these stages were looking a bit less like tests of endurance and more like tests of speed.  After studying the routes I had a good idea of my time goals/pace for each stage.  Keeping up with those timelines became a major battle with the persistent headwind over the weekend.  The only one I really 'missed' was day 1 because of a road that didn't really exist where I stopped, looked around and left a huge 'tree arrow' to help others.  The stages took me 3:48 (with approximately 20 minutes of screwing around), 6:50 and 2:58.  So, a handful of minutes faster than what my pretty aggressive goal times were (3:30, 7, 3).  Feel great about that.

I'm going to race this weekend for the first time since before the Almanzo.  Could have virtually any fitness level and a couple of CX races will certainly expose whatever that level might be.

My health continues to be less of a problem.  I still have some days where I think I've gotten it wrong, but if I stick to the foods which I know are OK things seem all positive.  I have lost 12 lbs since March primarily on mexican, BBQ, thai, steak and french fries.  CX requires a lot of power at times, but also has many punchy accelerations and climbs.  Who knows!  Regardless, I'm looking forward to having fun this fall.  Hopefully building momentum which will allow me to train much more again next year and build on the base I redeveloped over the summer while not racing.

Home to Copper Harbor

Folks were going to be at Copper Harbor for singlespeed USA.  I figured if I took Friday off and left early I would be able to ride there before noon on Sunday (11 am Eastern) then hop a ride back.