Mark's Blog

It is good to hear that Boonen is having such a hard time getting back into the TdF.  He didn’t learn his lesson from last year’s episode.  Last year he did something similar and was banned, personally I think that the same should be done this year.   He will never learn it seems like. The story here.

This weekend it is off for Eau Claire.  I have been training more these last two weeks and I hope that it pays off this weekend.  I like this course, it is one of the top 3 that we do in the series.

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This was an awesome ride, we averaged 18.7 for the 70 miles that we rode.  I got to go with JShoe, LJ, and little Lenss.  It was fun in the beginning it was a nice pace until the 80k turn off, from there the pace picked up a little bit.  This year they changed the route and thankfully we didn’t have to climb the “wall.”  Once we hit River Rd. JShoe decided that he wanted to push a little bit on the rollers going into Menominee.  Towards the end of the road we had managed to get a bunch of people sucking our wheels.  It went from the 4 of us to about 10 people going into the finish.  My tank was starting to get to empty as we came into Menominee and there was about another 10 miles to go.

In one of the pictures Caleb had about 10 pounds worth of food and camping supplies in his pockets.  When we took off I thought Caleb had an extra bike in his pockets in case of emergency.  JShoe and the Fastback had to lead the pack during most of the ride, I guess  he had to have the bike live up to it’s name.

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I am now getting ready for the MRC ride tomorrow.  I want to do the 120k but we will see how I feel tomorrow.  Hopefully it isn’t the same as last year and the last 40 miles is a race.  I don’t need to get dropped again.  I also hope that the rain holds out for the ride.  Last year we were lucky in that we missed the rain while on the ride.

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On Saturday I went down to Mt. Morris for some WORS racing fun.  I get down there to take some photos for the competition that WORS has going on.  I get my stuff set up in the woods and I am just drenched from sweating while waiting for the elites to roll through.  I am thinking that this race is going to be a suffer-fest.  After the leaders roll through Caleb Lens rolls through and he doesn’t look good.  On the second lap he tells me to not register because of the heat.  After that I go back to Scott’s camper and bull shit with him then it is time for me to get ready to suffer myself.

As soon as Don said, “GOOO” it was off.  I managed to get a decent start, but then on one of the easy downhill sections my front tire slides out and I go down.  That was the crash that actually hurt, I managed to strain my knee that has been giving me problems this year.  I get up and remount and take off, I tried to put the power down but the knee was sore so it was time to just finish the race.  While riding I managed to screw up another 4 times in the race.  The best one was when I tried to climb a switchback while standing.  The trail had a root that was cross ways and I got the front wheel over but the rear wheel spun out and then I managed to go over and land on my back.  After that I decided to sit for a little bit and relax, I was getting frustrated with myself and I needed to compose before I manage to kill myself in the rocks.  I still managed to get 3rd but I didn’t deserve that spot.

On Sunday it was time for the Super D and short track.  For the Super D I learned a valuable lesson, the run is the most crucial part because the position you get to the bike in is basically the position that you finish in.  I didn’t do that great on the run and was forced behind Chris Fellows and I was faster than him in the single track but with no place to pass I was forced to sit in.  I managed 4th for the clydes in that race.  I thought that the short track race was awesome, the rain that was falling meant it was going to be interesting.  On the start I managed to get behind Chris again, so I sat in for about two laps and then I got around him and then sat in front of him for a lap.  On the third lap I decided to take the lead, we had about 5 minutes left, and then I gapped Jeff and went on to continue to build a gap.  With a lap and a half to go, Jeff got around me and I tried to hold on but he was putting down some power to maintain his pace.  So I got second for that race and third overall for the stage race.  It was a great weekend of racing with some incidents but fun.

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Well on Saturday it was off to do the WEMS race at John Muir.  I packed my things up by 10 and then drove to Nate’s house for the couple hour drive to the race.  It was a good drive down there and then when we got there I find out that the trail was supposed to be slick, so I was having thoughts of last week’s race at Wausau again.

After getting changed and bull shitting with some other people it was time to go and line up for the start.  As soon as Kenny said his pathetic “GO” it was off for a parade lap around the start/finish area.  Once that was complete it was off on the actual course.  I wanted to see how Nate would do on the trails and with the mountain bike.  I looked back after about 15 minutes and he was behind me by about 30 seconds.  I thought that he was doing fairly well and then I put the hammer down and tried to go about my race then but whenever I did that the speed wasn’t there.  So I turned the race into a ride and then continued on my way.  I lap through for the first time and then proceed back out.  About half way through my left knee started to give me problems and then I decided to slow down even more.   Then I stopped to stretch out the knee and my back which was starting to get tight.  Then after stretching and some more riding I noticed the orange and white jersey of Nate creeping up on me.  So Nate caught me on the second lap with about 15 minutes left in the lap.  I rode with him for the rest of the day.  We got back to the start finish area and I told him there was no way we were going to make the cut-off point of 6.  So we went out for another “cool down” lap anyway.  So the event was fun for me. I know that I am tired when I choose to not take any photographs after the race, so that is a good thing I guess.

I was looking on the website for the WEMS series and I noticed the Pitch Black Single Track race.  I am almost positive that I am going to do that race.  Nothing like night racing to make everything better.  Here is a link to the website for the race.

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My knee is starting to act up again.  This isn’t a good thing because I need to stay off of the bike.  I still think that I am going to be doing the race tomorrow and then taking some time off of the bike next week.

It seems that we have a regular event happening.  Nate, Quentin and I usually go out and do a road ride on Tuesday night.  Tonight we left from De Pere and then headed north of Seymour for a total of about 43 miles.  I have figured out what I am good at when riding on the road bike, sprinting.  On the way back to De Pere there was a sprint sign, Quentin was leading Nate and I, then at the bottom of the hill Nate takes off and then I decided to go with him.  I figured that I was going to get my ass kicked since he is a stronger rider than me, but no I managed to pass him in about 50 yards and then pulled away for the rest of the hill.  I remember looking back when about half way up the hill and seen that I had a sizable gap going then I decided to put down the hammer a little bit more.  It is nice after a great sprint like that to get the light headed feeling once it is done, nothing like the lack of O2 when you sprint like that.  That is about it for now.

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