Tour de Georia TT start

Here is a link to all my pics: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8KYuWLZs2YjI

At My Age, I'm Just Happy That I Can Move the Day After.

I made the trek out to Athens, GA on sunday for the second race of the Georgia Mountian bike series. Normally i wouldn't travel to that god forsaken part of the country since it the home of the University(sic) of Georgia. I am thankful for the recirculate button on my AC in the car so i didn't have to smell the stench that rises up from that place. The race was about 20 minutes south of town at the Heritage Park. It would have been a really fun course in the dry, but with the rain and the large number of roots, it wasn't much fun. I realized after slipping and sliding over many, many, many roots, hitting a few trees, and going ass over elbows into a creek embankment,(in the first half lap) that i had the wrong tires, too much pressure and not enough skill to make it around this course without killing myself. I had serious thoughts about bailing, but i finished the first lap and stuck it out for the next two. I let a bunch of air out of my tires and the trail started to dry out a little as the ride (notice i'm not calling it a race since i was soooo far back) wore on so it started to get better. I finished 13 out of 18 (14 finishers, i think i loaned my CO2 can to the guy that finished behind me...this close to DFL)
I've realized that i need to just focus on my skills and do whatever it takes to make me more comfortable. If that means running a heavy front tire with a huge footprint, so be it. I will probably turn faster laps with it rather than a 300 gram lighter tire. I'm afraid it may be too late in life to sharpen the skills....we'll see. I've been mountain biking a lot more and i still hope that i can finish the mtn. 100 in 9 hours or so this year.

BTW: no serious wounds, a few scrapes, lumps and bruises. nothing that my childrens tylenol won't fix.

STEEL IS REAL BABY!!!

So in case you were ever wondering where I got my e-mail address....here it is. This is PAPA. Papa was my first car. My dad drove it back out to California after my grandfather (Papa) passed away. Papa bought the truck new and i'm hoping to keep it in the family for many years to come. When i turned 16 i started driving it. At that time it had the stock 352 c.i. V8 with a 2bbl carb and a set of desert dueler off road tires on steel wheels. I still managed to turn the rear tires into slicks within a year. We built a 390 with a 4bbl carb, headers and a mild cam to put in the truck. We then pulled the motor, interior, bumpers and grills and had him painted. The original color was desert tan and following a quote from Papa "it could be cat shit brown for all i care as long as it works" (at least my dad claims that as the actual quote) we stuck with a tan color. It is actually close to an 88 ford light chestnut beige. We had the grill and bumpers chromed (they were white) and bought some wheels and some new tires. (I had to buy the tires...what the???? it's not my fault 70% of the weight is on the front wheels) We haven't really played with Papa in a few years, but now that i am in Georgia one of my projects is to freshen it up and drive it on a regular basis. I'm looking forward to cruising in a vehicle that gets 10mpg with $3.00/gallon gas. I'm thinking i need some dropped front I-beams, put the rear axle on top of the leaf springs and tuck some 20's in the wheel wells. Rollin' Hard, Old Style.

Those Crickets keep sneaking back up on me!!

I know i haven't posted in over a week. It seems like all i do now is work, bike and drive home to see Sara. This weekend i'll be in GA. I've got a friend from College coming over so we can fix his mtn bike so he can start riding again. It's always good to help get people back into cycling. After we work on his bike, we'll probably go for a ride, I might drag my dad along too.

Sunday i was toying with the idea of racing at Tsali, but Mike from Cartecay Bike shop, http://www.cartecaybikes.com/ said they were going to do a grueling 35 mile ride with lots of climbing. That sounds like the ride for me.

I promise i will work on keeping my blog up to date. Although i did join Netflix again, so that may cut into my blogging time.

14th Out of 25...not bad for the first race.

I spent the night in Atlanta Saturday night to shorten the drive down to Macon for the first race of the Georgia series. The course was made up of tight twisty single track that went up and down like a roller coaster. There were only a few spots where you could get any real speed. It was kind of like Camp Hilbert, maybe slightly hillier and with many more twists and turns. The loop was 5.5 miles and the race was 5 LAPS!!! That's 27.5 miles to you and me Rus. I started the race with my typical bad start, I was middle pack until the rider in front of me hit a cone and i had to stop, then i settled into DFL 100 yards into the race. Once i finally got the diesel up to speed i started to pick off other riders. As usual, i was strong on the hills and the flats, but left a lot to be desired on the downhills. I think i had too much air in the front tire, or the tread wasn't that great cause i washed the front wheel out 3 times on the first lap. It could have been my error too, but i'd rather blame the tire. I knew it was going to be a long race, so i pushed it close to the red line, but left a little to make sure i could go the distance. My hammies cramped up on the last lap, but i just pushed through it cause i knew it was almost over.
I need to work on my fitness some more, it's been tough since i've been in GA. But thanks to daylight savings i can actually get some rides in. Another bonus is that my Parents live on top of a mountain, so every loop from home or ride from work to home ends with a 1500ft climb.

BTW: i only ran the front kenda, it worked out fine except for the pressure/tread issue. I did a warm up lap with both of them, but the rear lost 20 psi in 30 minutes. I guess i need to swish the stans around a little more to see if i can seal it.

Keep well.

First Mounatin Bike Race Coming Up!!

I'm getting fired up for the first race of the season. I'm heading down to Macon, GA on Sunday. I splurged this year and got my Norba license to go along with my Road and Cyclo-cross. I better do a few road races to make it worth while, i can race cross and mtn bikes on just the Norba. I bet ya in a few years it will be an extra 30 for a cross license too.

I'm going to give this new tire set-up a shot. This was Jeffro's idea last year, I've got a set of Kenda Karma LR3 DTC 2.0's that i mounted on tubless rims with Stan's. The tires weigh 450-480 grams a piece which should save me at least 200 grams a tire. I guess we will see how they hold up. I'd hate to DNF my first race. I guess it could be worse, i could have a little trouble like Mr. Horvath last weekend. Maybe i should bring some extra shorts and extra wheels. Do they have pits in XC mtn biking like they do in Cross????

I found the Creator!!

It turned out that Steve wasn't as hard to find as i had feared. I was able to get a phone number from Thomas at SBC, http://www.shenandoahbicycle.com/home.html, and i tried Steve's old e-mail that he still checks. I talked to him last night and he is going to see what he can do to fix the frame. The nice thing is that the frame breaks into two pieces and is easier/cheaper to ship. I'm just sending him the back half. I'll put a fork and a wheel on the front half and gallop around the basment like i'm riding a toy horse while the back is being fixed. Actually i am transfering parts to my 29er frame so it will have gears.

So all is well in GA now, hopefully i get steve's address via email today so i can ship it out.

Just for the record, the seat tube setup on my bike was something out of the norm for Steve's bikes. With the exception of this problem the bike has been great, and thanks to Steve it should be again.

p.s. I didn't eat any food at all yesterday thanks to Mr. Horvath's comment. I'm shooting for 140 lbs. (I could probably do okay with only one kidney and one lung, wonder what they weigh)