Liquidating

Alright, it's time to sell some stuff off. This is just the beginning of trying to clear out the unnecessary bike stuff in the basement, hopefully someone can buy some of this stuff and enjoy it! Everything is posted on craigslist as of now, trying to stave off the fees from fleabay.


Salsa Big Mama 29er Full Suspension size Large $1800
built with x9 3X10, Elixir CRs, Bontrager Rhythm wheelset
http://winstonsalem.craigslist.org/bik/2521155773.html



Pearl Izumi Pro Road Shoes size 42 Used $50.
http://winstonsalem.craigslist.org/bik/2521156884.html



New Vuelta XRP SL Wheelset with Kenda KlimaxLite Tires mounted $750 Retail $275 here.
http://winstonsalem.craigslist.org/bik/2521159721.html



New Motobecane FLY Pro 26" Frame size 20" with headset and seatpost included $300
http://winstonsalem.craigslist.org/bik/2521160579.html

Racing?

Believe it or not, Mitch was able to convince me to race my first XC race in five or so years today. It's too bad that the race wasn't today though, turns out it is next week...so all that work for naught Mitch! Since he and Duane and I had already planned on riding we decided to head to Hobby Park anyways to get in some dirt. Inevitably my bike was making some racket and I had managed to allow one of my crankarms to loosen up even after being a gorilla the last time this happened. It was definitely sweltering in the woods, so we decided to only do one lap, but it was good to get out nonetheless. Unfortunately, riding at Hobby only amplifies my desire to ride somewhere else, as in almost anywhere else. I like some of the features there, but you never quite escape the feeling of being in a tiny park in city limits which, for me, really inhibits my ability to enjoy being on the mountain bike. I have more of the mindset that when I am going on a mountain bike ride, there should be at least one point in the ride where you feel really "out there." I'm feeling some Pisgah next week before school starts back up! Pisgah!

Fun Ride, Autodrop Work

Last night I got out with a good crew based out of Rural Hall. We hit some good climbs in Stokes County along with some gravel.

Heading towards the gravel:


The ride was cut short though due to a broken spoke (and subsequent frame rubbage) and three flats.


The apres velo at Franks was a nice touch, and it was good to ride with a different crew from the norm Lewisville ride. I'll be back out on that one again soon!


I know that I have made mention of it here previously, but Erich and I are putting on a race of a different sort in October. We've been working pretty diligently on it in separate capacities. I've been out and about scouting and taking photos of various checkpoints and updating the blog, while Erich has been busy with working on all the merchandise/invites/website and not to mention a newborn now! Congrats!


If you have a second, click on over to the Autodrop Blog and check out the format. I can assure you it will be one of your most memorable days on a bike!

Rapha Rising Finale

Last night, I finished the Rapha Rising challenge by doing some repeats up Sauratown Mountain. Sauratown Mountain stands guard over the piedmont like a benevolent old man. I knew that I wanted to do something unique for the finale, and I decided on doing some climbing in the dark and enjoy a frosty adult beverage at the summit. I made my way out to the area via car so I wouldnt have to ride home the 20 miles in the dark on roads where it can be less than wise to ride even during the day. I got in a warm up and started on the way up the mountain.

Moore's Wall as the backdrop



The second go round had me ascending into the dark, but not before I saw a number of deer in some of the lower slopes. I kept a mental note of this because on this section of the descent speeds can easily reach 45-50mph...not tonight though. I got to the top and made my way through the dark woods to get an overlook to the south. Sauratown stands about 1400 feet above the Piedmont below and on clear days affords views of three cities; Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and High Point. Tonight, the only city that was visible was Winston-Salem about 25 miles away as the crow flies.



I stood alone in the dark at the top and cracked open the beer I brought along and enjoyed it thoroughly. Reignited the lights and set off down the mountain at a snail's pace so as not to have any unintended interactions with wildlife. At one point I had to let loose because I could hear a dog chasing me. This was unsettling, because I only had bar mount lights mounted so I couldnt turn to see how close it was. All I could do was release the brakes, tuck and hope that it wouldn't latch onto my ankle. After a short distance I felt safe again and sat up and descended the rest of the way in relative comfort.




When initially setting out to complete the Rapha Rising, I honestly didn't think I could accomplish it with doing some travelling. I was able to net some big days in the saddle here in North Carolina that afforded me a little breathing room heading to the midwest. Even while there I was able to find some decent hills on which to accumulate the necessary climbing. I became friends with suffering during this challenge, and also became acquanted with the chilling goodness of Biofreeze. Thanks Rapha for putting this out there, I look forward to the next challenge!

Hurt, Pain and Agony

The HPA delivered a serious helping of its namesake today. Heading into the ride I was concerned with the amount of climbing I had gotten in this week in my attempt at the Rapha Rising. On top of the mileage/climbing this week, the spousal figure came home from her internship for the weekend and didn't get in until late. Fast forward to this morning, and I'm running on five hours of sleep, having driven ten hours the previous day. I knew on my way out that I would be in rough shape for the opening climb. Off with the shotgun blast and 300 of my closest friends and I started out on our way.

The warm up consists of a 6 mile 1700ft climb right from the line, which definitely thins things out. I stayed with the lead group for the first three miles of the climb, but when things got steeper, I found myself OTB and in no mans land quickly. Topping out on rte 21, I was all alone and decided to soft pedal to wait up for someone to work in with. Four others caught on and we made our way to Mountainview. Along this stretch we caught a few riders, shed a few riders, helped a guy who had wrecked into the brush on one of the descents, and worked together well.

Once on the Parkway, I decided that after having drank through two bottles, I had to stop to refill. The group made the same decision, so we pulled in. Just after we refilled, Portier rocked past and yelled, "Barrisimo." I took that as my cue to chase down the group he was in. Just as we bridged the gap, he had taken a big pull, and found himself dangling on the climb. He anounced his reverse attack and I found myself in a small group of a couple familiar faces. Though she claimed to be out of shape, and having not ridden much lately, Diana was riding strong and was the first female out on the course. We worked together for a long ways, but I soon found myself in a tight spot about 43 miles in and fell off the back.

I was alone for the final 23 miles, the only memorable part of which was stopping to help a guy in full cramp mode in the ditch along the Parkway. I stayed with him for about ten or fifteen minutes to make sure he wasn't suffering any kind of heat related illness. He asked me to tell the people at the next sag stop that he needed a ride out, he was calling it quits. I tried to talk him into getting back on the bike to ride the next three or four miles to the sag, but his mind was made up. The heat was definitely the main contender today, it was pretty tough out there in the sunny portions of the climbs.

After the long descent down Oklahoma and Frank Parkway, I was faced with a decision. Turn right to descend into Stone Mountain State Park, only to turn around and ascend what I just dropped or turn left and head to food, sweet tea, and icy towels. Easy enough decision for me, I headed for the latter and found my day complete. I finished this years course, which was probably slightly easier, though longer than last years about ten minutes slower than last year. I count it as a victory though, with the stops I made to assist riders, riding solo for such a big portion, and having done quite a bit of climbing this week, I'm pretty pleased. Definitely an excellent ride, with plenty of climbing, and fun to be had!

Night Ride!

Brad and I were able to get together to do one last ride in Indiana before my return to the Old North State. We rode from his place to Wapehani and got in some good, super hot miles.

Hills O' Brown County

With heat indicies here in southern Indiana approaching 115-120 degrees today, I knew that it would be in my best interest to get out as early as possible. On vacation who wants to get up at 5:30 to go bury themselves climbing every hill possible? Me, absolutely me! I loaded up the supplies and some extra cash for stops and headed to Nashville. Through the state park, and up one of the bigger climbs of the day, and I was awarded with this great view to the East:


Back down the other side, and I scoffed at this sign and dropped like a rock:


I had an alterior motive to heading in this direction, I wanted to get as much of the climbing in on gravel as possible. I was awarded with a few that nearly had me dismounting at 22 percent.

Tracks left in the dust:


I stopped in at the sleepy little hamlet of Story, and decided that someday I would have to stay/eat at the inn.



I found some great roads, and had an ill conceived idea. I followed what looked like a very promising gravel road:


This road tapered to this point, then essentially disappeared onto what felt like private property.


I made a side trip to a little cemetary and became pensive about my own imminent demise. Will the cemetary I am buried in end up like this place? All but forgotten.


I found some other great roads, probably the favorite of which, Christiansburg Road brought me to Pike's Peak

How this area got its name makes little sense to me since it was in a valley 400-500 feet below the ridgelines above it.

By this point in the ride I was ready for a quick stop and needed to replenish the fluids. I stopped in at Trail's End General and Tack and bought some dr. pepper and a slim jim. Yes, a slim jim.



I headed back up and into the park and got a bit of a crazy idea of riding one of the mountain bike trails on the road bike. I did a little five-ish mile loop and got a good laugh out of another rider on the trail. Riding 25c's in a rooty forest makes for some less than agile moves.



So, after all the fun, I had to get down to the work and did some repeats on two of the 450' climbs in the park to accumulate the necessary altitude gain. After much suffering I was back out of the park through the covered bridge circa 1838, and back into Nashville.


When I got back I had to take a photo of my shins. On one of the gravel descents my bike became unruly and I nearly had an unscheduled dismount. All of the on the bike acrobatics kicked up a bunch of gravel dust. It's always a great road ride when you've ridden gravel, dirt, and accumulated a bunch of climbing


Ride totals: 110k, 1800m of climbing.

Indeeeeyana

Very little progress towards the Rapha Rising challenge has been made since my foray into the midwest. I'm looking at somewhere around 8ooo meters left to climb, and will likely have to concede defeat. It's been a fun attempt, with way more climbing than I would normally do, and has required a number of repeats on smaller hills to accumulate the climbing. Idid get out for a thoroughly enjoyable ride yesterday at Brown County State Park. Incredibly humid, like it only gets in the midwest, made for a pretty wet ride.

Enjoying the view at Hesitation Point...I still don't know why it was named this.


One of the old foundations and chimneys in the park.



One section of the new Green Valley trail.

Spy Vid

I received this video from former CLM member Scotty. The note contained within the envelope simply stated, "my friends in Spain helped me launch my music career."

Quick Way to End a Ride

In my efforts to continue towards completion of the Rapha Rising Challenge, Sidney Portier and I headed to Traphill to do the HP&A Route. With storms threatening, we decided on doing the 32 mile option which still includes about 3500 feet of climbing.

We made relatively quick work on the climb up Oklahoma Road, and were up running parallel to the Parkway.



There were threats of storm throughout the ride, but we stayed dry aside from a little bit of spray coming up from the road. After riding along the Blue Ridge Parkway for a bit, we started the plunge back into Traphill. We parted ways at the bottom of Oklahoma so I could go get more climbing in. A new addition to this year's route includes a descent down into Stone Mountain State Park as an out and back. I've driven this a number of times to either go hiking, camping, or fly fishing but had never ridden it. It's a pretty stout stair-stepping climb out with flat sections punctuated with short bursts of 14-16 percent grades. I made my way back up and out and climbed Frank Parkway a second time and headed back into the park for a second go. At about the furthest point out, I heard a loud snap and was quickly halted. A spoke in the rear Ksyrium was snapped where it meets the nipple. With such high tension on these spokes, when one breaks, the wheel is exceedingly out of true.


I loosened the brakes in the hopes that this would resolve the issue, but to no avail, the tire was rubbing the frame to the point of stopping each revolution. I let all the air out, and still no rolling. So...I sucked it up and shouldered the bike for a long walk out. With no cell reception, I knew I had no other option. After three miles of climbing with my bike on the shoulder, and 40-50 cars passing me with nary an offer of help, I declared Southern Hospitality as dead. I finally made it to the visitor's center to try to hitch a ride with a ranger, but not before the skies opened up on me. Thankfully, one of the rangers volunteered to drop me off at the X.

At the end of it all, I ended up with around 40 miles with about 5200' of climbing. A grape fanta was in order at the campground:


Garden Creek Baptist Church, in the valley between the Blue Ridge and Stone Mountain:

Quad Hump.

So, I've decided to accept the Rapha Rising Challenge. It calls for a lion's share of climbing to be done during the days of the Tour de France.



After the poseur prologue the other day, I headed into the West End to do about 15 hill repeats to net me 2500 feet of climbing. Knowing that I will be heading to Indiana in about a week, I feel as though I'm going to have to get about 90 percent of the vertical before I leave. Indiana isn't exactly conducive to racking up tons of climbing, even in the hilly southern portion I am headed to. Today, my goal was to get in about seven thousand feet, but I ended up eclipsing that number by a good margin. I tagged the local summits of Sauratown Mountain and Hanging Rock two times apiece, and logged another 45 or so miles in their shadows. All told, the mileage was around 55, with right about 8000 feet of climbing. On the way back from Hanging Rock the second time, I ran into a dog I had never seen before on Moore's Springs. He gave chase, and my legs protested heartily in my sprint away from him. No joke, he looked just like Eddy from American Flyers!



Honestly, 70,000 feet in three weeks seems a bit lofty, but I am going to give it a shot...it should put me in good form for the Hurt, Pain and Agony at the tail end of this mission. Today was a good day, tagging two category two climbs and two category threes.

Hanging Rock, and Moore's Wall as viewed from my descent of Sauratown Mountain.

Poseur Prologue 2.0

2011 Poseur Prologue went over well, though not in attendance this year was Jill's dad. Too bad, he's a nice addition on the ride, epecially with the straight block gears!!! Kristin, Erich and I had a fun time of it, getting out early this morning before the beginning of the Tour. It's great as always to ride with E, but in addition, this is usually the ONE (sadly) ride I get to do with Kristin a year. I love riding with him, and I love his mentality...pure love for cycling!


When I got home, I had to partake of some espresso and pound cake with blackberries...fantastic!