Bike Peddler Spring St George Trip

Feeling less than confident in my mechanical skills I opted out of driving 300 miles on an engine that I had just finished rebuilding.  I made a call to Josh McCarrel, feeling like kind of a looser I asked if he knew if anyone who would be willing to let me tag along to St George with them for the annual Bike Peddler spring trip. Turns out he was riding down with Nick, a buddy of his from the shop, and they had room for me in the truck.  This was a good move, I am sure I would be dead on the side of the road near Scipio if I would have attempted to drive the Rabbit. 
It was really good to get to know Josh and Nick, we know a lot of the same people and had a great time trading stories back and forth.  The riding in St George was phenomenal.  Friday we rode Barrel Roll and another trail right next to it that I forget the name of.  Both trails were fun mostly smooth single track that would be great for novice riders.  Saturday morning we rode the Slickrock Swamp trail, had a great time playing around on the rock.  Around lunch time a storm blew in so we stopped by Dairy Queen loaded up on some grease and headed to the hot tub to wait it out.  After the storm blew past we headed out to ride Prospector followed up by worship services at the Zen trail on Sunday morning.  All in all it was one of the best road trips I have ever been on.  Great riding, caught up with some old friends and made lots of new friends.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Yep it Rocked

Frozen Hog Race Report 2010

Last Saturday I drove down to Alpine for the Frozen Hog Race.  My calves got completely shredded.  A full week after the event and I am still sore.  I keep having to explain to the guys at work why I am walking with a limp. 
It started out with Josh explaining the LeMans style start, he even mentioned that if you didn't want to run you could just go to the staging area and wait for a signal to go after most of the field had passed.  In hind sight that is really funny, after the LeMans start we grabbed our bikes and started running, and running and running. 

This was the highlight of the race, fifty feet in Chris Fox tempting us with a hand full of ones, (is it worth a dollar to loose a position?)  I should have grabbed a buck.

You can see me behind Chris running.... and look Stuart Goodwin can run too

                                      

The course was a 4 mile loop, to the right of the stars is the singletrack where you gain all of the elevation.  NONE OF IT WAS RIDEABLE.  40 degree temperatures turned the snow into slush, there was absolutely no chance of riding this section.  1/3 of a mile into the race I told myself I was going to do one lap and drop out.  After two miles of suffering we hit the top of the course and mounted our bikes for the downhill.  It was squirly but ridable and my riding legs were fresh so I jumped and tried to make the most of the section of the course that you could actually ride. 

As I finished the first loop I saw a familiar face standing on the side of the road spectating, Stuart Talley. By this time I was back to running with my bike and could tell that he didn't recognize me.  I ran off course directly at him and gave him a sucker punch to the gut.  I don't know why it just felt right.  Anyone that knows Stuart I am sure will understand.  Stuart and I have a bit of a history. 

The first time I met Stuart was in Moab through mutual friends.  We were going out to ride Flat Pass and on the way to the trail head Stuart informed us of exactly how fast he was, to paraphrase it went something like this, "You may beat me up the hills but I got this here new full suspension bike and I will kill you on the down hills."  He was right about the uphill part, and all I have to say is that right before I knocked my front teeth out on a rock I was in front of him on the downhill as well.  Seeing Stuart sealed the deal, there was absolutely no way I could drop with him standing there.  I kept running. 

Don't get me wrong I really like Stuart he is what I like to call a very likeable Ass Hole.  Many a good time have been had with Stuart around and since he introduced me to my wife I guess he can't be all that bad.  His son Noah had a stellar race and finished first in his class. 

I finished 4th out of 5 against a group of really fast guys.  I am happy with the finish.  

Expert Men 30-39

1 501 0:57:55 Greg “Chucky” Gibson

2 529 1:00:06 Steve Wasmund

3 520 1:03:47 Cameron Smart

4 566 1:04:19 Ryan Thompson

5 574 1:32:58 Aaron Moulton


I have to say Josh McCarrel did a great job of organizing and promoting the race everything ran very smoothly.  Mother Nature just had other plans for us on that day.

Leadville

Dear Leadville Trail 100 Family,

CONGRATULATIONS! Your entry into the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race has been accepted. Get ready to "Dig Deep" and challenge yourself to the highest and biggest mountain bike race around. Gear up to race with the world's BEST cyclists at the nation's highest quality athletic experience with the utmost degree of safety, medical care and racer support.

We would also encourage you to consider entering the awesome 50 mile "Silver Rush" on July 17. It's a tough, demanding and incredibly beautiful ride in Leadville's historic east side mining district. Also new this year is 24 Hours of Leadville on Sept. 4 & 5 - for when 100 miles isn't enough! Try it solo or grab some of your friends and sign up as a team. More information about this event and the entry process will be on our web site soon.

Last, but certainly not least, we always need and welcome volunteers to assist the mountain bike and running events. Whether you will be traveling with your own crew or plan on arriving early or staying later, it is very rewarding to help other racers achieve their goals. In addition, preference in the 2011 entry process is also given to those who fulfill the volunteer requirements for any of our 2010 races.

We are working hard to make this "Race Across the Sky," the best ever. Our good wishes to you for safe and satisfying training. See you at the start line on August 14, 2010!

Dig Deep,

Ken Chlouber Merilee Maupin
President, Leadville Trail 100 Race Director

Frozen Hog Practice

Did a little bike practice on Saturday for the Frozen Hog Race.  I decided to play around with the video function on my point and shoot and ended up with this jem.  A short little clip I call perspective, given the choice I'll take two wheels.

Snow Biking on Bonneville Shore Line Trail in Kaysville from Rocket Ryan on Vimeo.

Big Wheel Video 2

Here is a little video that we shot last fall in Boulder City Nevada followed by a couple of runs down Brian Head Canyon.  In my opinion not as good as our first video on Squaw Peak but still worth watching. 

Diamond Fork Hot Pots

Every year Kenny organizes a New Years ride to get out have a little fun and raise a bit of money for his Livestrong page. This year’s destination was the Diamond Fork Hot Pots. If you have never been there you need to go. Due to the heavy foot traffic it is more or less ride-able year round.

In the winter the Hot Pots are incredibly inviting, they are located approx six miles from where the road is closed up Diamond Fork Canyon. Trail conditions were fair for Kenny’s ride recent snow and cold weather made for semi-consolidated snow conditions on the well traveled road and trail. It was all ride-able just with considerable concentration and effort. The reward for this effort was Mother Nature’s hot tub complete with temperature control unit (old dirty pair of underwear that you could either plug or unplug a hole allowing cold water to mix in). It really was the perfect destination location for a winter time ride.

From the pictures the trail looks totally un-ride-able which is the best part of riding in the snow, I just love cleaning sections of trail that at first blush look impossible.

And my favorite picture of the day... me walking in the background with my gut hanging out.  You can also see this picture where thousands of others have seen it at fatcyclist.com  Thanks Elden.

Photo credit: Naked Dude

Magic and the Three Step Process

I feel like I have been getting away with something that I shouldn’t lately. I have been riding my bike off-road in the middle of the winter on mountain trails, both snow covered and in balmy mid 70˚ temperatures.


There’s an easy explanation for the fair weather riding and that is due to the fact that I just happened to find some spare time during a business trip to the LA area. Instead of booking a flight out in the morning, I booked one of the evening flights and rented a bike for the day. I was only able to find one shop in the area that rented bikes and it turned out to be a ’93 Diamondback with a second generation Manitou fork on it (if you thought the elastomer bumpers were bad when they came out try aging them a couple of decades). I did my best to subdue my bike snobbishness. The bike actually climbed great and we will just leave it at that. The riding was good and I will never complain about that.

The snow covered trail riding is a little more difficult and the only explanation I have is Magic. Magic keeps the tires above the crust. Magic propels you forward at a speed similar to that of summer time riding. Magic makes it possible to ride in places nobody else will venture out to (at least on two wheels). The Bonneville Shore Line Trail above Layton and Kaysville gets a fair amount of foot traffic and has had great riding conditions lately. I’ve ridden that section of trail four times in the last couple of weeks. I love getting the looks from hikers, runners, snow-shoers, and skiers as I pass them.

I generally try to be polite when making a pass, here is my routine.

Step one, Follow quietly for 30 seconds assuming they heard me come up from behind and are just looking for a spot to pull over.

If step one fails I move on to step two, “Excuse me mind if I get by here” this almost always works.

Step three although the most fun of all trail passing techniques is reserved strictly for Ipod listening oblivious to the world trail blockers. The rule for deploying step three involves completely exhausting all techniques in step one and two. Just for good measure I repeat step two three times prior to deploying step three. Here's how it goes, I start looking for an opening just wide enough that I can manage to make a pass without actually making physical contact. One extra inch is all I need. As soon as the opportunity presents itself I pounce, with gusto and flare.  The end result is always the same, I succeed in making the pass and trail blocker dude usually ends up jumping into the bushes.

I love step three.