Ride the ridge, now with more rad.

Ride the Ridge, this Saturday, March 31 at 11 am. $25 entry fee, new machine built trails to accompany the old gnarly standards, and no prizes but the good feeling of helping out an entire, less fortunate continent.

In summary, it's cheap, dirty, and purely for the glory. Like your mom.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

If you need a little more detail, hit me with the horns Tony:
"Included Bear Hole at the beginning so everyone knows they were here.
Distance is 6.2 with 1,100 feet per lap. It will be a lot faster laps than ever before. Several miles are 4 foot
wide and crazy fast."

http://ors.cycleva.com/2012/rd/RideRidge.html

Hometown racing. Just gotta get home first.

Weekender

March rolled in like a lamb and continues to hang around, complacent, lamb-like, and soft.  It sort of reminds me of me.  Were I more like the month of January, hardened, prepared for anything, I might stuff everything I can carry into a pack and go try my luck at the Bel Monte Endurance Race this weekend.  Or, if I were more like July, joyful and lean, I'd head east, beachward, and go blazing fast around the Hilbert Track  as many times as possible. 

But, like I said, I'm a pretty half-assed March this year.  And by half-assed, I mean 1.5 asses, at the very least.  I bonked on a 30 minute lunch ride on Tuesday with Kev29er and CHam.  So clearly, I have no business 40 miles into a hard, technical effort at Sherando trying to hump my gigantic thighs up the jeep road, or blocking up the potentially significant traffic on the Hilbert loop like a greasy spot of congealed cholesterol. 

As a sort of proxy though, my awesome wife will be at the bottom of Turkey Pen if and when you finally get your weary carcass off of Torry Ridge.  She'll have, at the very least, kind words of reassurance for you that, despite your haggard appearance and whining a mere 20 miles into this race, you should try to make it back up the switchbacks and down Kennedy Ridge before, say, next Thursday.  And she might even have a tube you can borrow.  And my bro, Shawn, may very well not have abandoned his post at the bottom of Kennedy Ridge thinking that no one could possibly still be coming this late into the evening, and if he hasn't, I bet he'll have a workstand, some chain lube, and ass-cream.  You'll have to self-apply the ass cream.  And you'll have to convince yourself that climbing the jeep road just to wheel down the parkway and then promptly climb wintergreen is better than just letting some drink-driving jeeper run you over and end this malarchy. 

But, assuming all of that comes together, I bet you'll have a great time.  And even if you don't, remember, your pain and suffering is helping someone else feel better about their victory.  It's like the good doctor said, "For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled." 

Sometimes that soul is yours.

No indeed, I'll be sitting this one out.  But I still might cramp.

Pack yourself a lunch. Live in the moment. 
Up, up, up.

Ohill results

Oh hell yes, OHill in the springtime.  Stories, photos, and postrace hangovers on this slightly gloomy Monday.  And also, results. 

Toshun takes a great photo.  Also nearly made good padding. 

Perhaps the best thing about a race with that kind of steepness and gnar:  there is nowhere to hide.  You either have it or you don't.  And, not surprisingly after such a mild winter, there were plenty of folks who most definitley have it. 

I had the pleasure (by which I mean  terrible, awful pain) of riding with eventual Champion, Zach Morrey, here on the paranormal loop the day before the race.  His first time on the local goods, straight out of the car, no warm up, no problem.  Good things are ahead for that dude.  Fawley: 2nd...Somehow, Ohill victory dodges him once again.  It's a safe bet that he'll get it right someday.  Ditto that for 3rd place finisher, up and comer James Wittwer, although you probably already knew that given his pedigree.  Taylor Phinney can stuff it - give me a Wittwer in the dirt any day. 

Interesting surprise?  I don't think I saw a single person with a flat.  Used to be OHill was good for a half-dozen or so.  Granted, I was riding far enough in the caboose of the whole scene that folks may have flatted, stopped, fixed it, had a light lunch, attended church, and moved on with their day before I rolled by; but anyway, it's my perception that those bontragers tires everybody is running these days grip and don't rip. 

Anyway, I'll trail off here.  Read 'em and weep.

OHILL MELTDOWN
2012

EXPERT/PRO MEN
1.
Zack Morrey (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
24:32
50:05
1:13:46
1:38:33
2.
Ryan Fawley (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
25:18
50:16
1:15:39
1:41:00
3.
James Wittwer (Appalachian State Univ.)
26:54
52:44
1:18:33
1:44:49
4.
Mark Smith (Blue Ridge Foot & Ankle Cl.)
27:31
55:56
1:23:27
1:52:06
5.
Kyle Rodland (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
27:42
55:55
1:25:06
1:54:16
6.
Charles Snyder (Biking Baller)
28:21
56:54
1:25:38
1:54:36
7.
Andrew Atkins (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
29:43
1:00:33
1:28:49
1:56:00
8.
Dave Tevendale (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
29:54
59:38
1:29:18
2:01:10
9.
CS Coleman (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
30:17
1:00:27
1:31:49
2:04:24
DNF
Gordon Wadsworth (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
25:19
51:38
1:18:10
DNF
DNF
Jay Catlett (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
29:09
DNF
DNF
DNF


EXPERT/PRO WOMEN
1.
Sheila Scott (Bike Factory Elite)
31:47
1:03:33
1:36:12
2:07:30
2.
Dee Dee Winfield (BRC)
33:04
1:05:00
1:36:30
2:09:03

SPORT MEN
1.
Andrew Massonneau (Winchester Wheelmen)
33:00
1:02:07
2.
Tom Brookfield (Richmond Velo Sport)
33:06
1:02:23
3.
Joseph Hoskins
32:49
1:02:31
4.
Gregg Plamer (Richmond Velo Sport)
33:42
1:04:22
5.
Doug Hatch
33:27
1:05:07
6.
Jim Fisher (Design Physics)
34:24
1:06:35
7.
Tim House (C’ville Hash House Mashers)
35:54
1:08:24
8.
Robert Medlin (Richmond Velo Sport)
35:58
1:09:29
9.
John Scott (Bike Factory Elite)
36:30
1:10:04
10.
Reid Bailey
37:16
1:12:43
11.
Steven Cook (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
38:50
1:12:54
12.
Geoffrey Young
42:19
1:20:10
13.
Derek Tobler
40:59
1:20:44
14.
Johann Zimmerman
41:46
1:21:10
15.
Simon Biddle-Snead
42:25
1:24:43
16.
Angelo Vangelopoulos
44:28
1:25:32
17.
Chris Strong
44:11
1:27:25
18.
Paul Croft (JRVS/American Pride Auto)
43:33
1:28:40
DNF
James Spurk (Endurance Factor)
DNF
DNF

SPORT WOMEN


1.
Sonya Gagnon (Design Physics)
43:50
1:23:04
2.
Bev Richardson (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
44:41
1:24:21
3.
Annie Runkle
47:13
1:34:02
DNF
Lisa Stover
57:55
DNF

BEGINNER MEN
1.
Ian Critz (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
38:49
2.
Brian Purdy (MVC/Miller School of Albemarle)
40:00
3.
Dick Fontaine
1:08:59

BEGINNER WOMEN
1.
Shannon Bush (Design Physics)
48:04
2.
Mandy Baskin
49:36
3.
Rosa Waters
1:09:17

JUNIOR/HIGH SCHOOL SPORT
1.
Jonas Zimmerman (Rocktown Bicycles)
30:59
58:28
2.
Parker Brookfield (Miller School of Albemarle)
31:51
1:00:32
3.
Adam Croft (JRVS/American Pride Auto)
33:34
1:20:59
4.
Emily Croft (JRVS/American Pride Auto)
43:01
1:23:33
5.
Mason Hopkins (River City Women’s Racing)
47:57
1:37:15

SINGLE SPEED
1.
Christopher Shelley (Bike Factory Elite)
31:02
1:01:11
1:30:27
2.
Joe Perpetua
31:53
1:01:40
1:30:40
3.
Ted Gayle (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
31:52
1:02:40
1:33:10
4.
Kevin Horvath (Fat Frogs Racing)
34:16
1:06:51
1:39:05

MASTERS 45+
1.
Bob Anderson
26:52
53:07
1:19:32
1:47:11
2.
Jon Ciambotti (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
29:39
57:39
1:26:25
1:55:30
3.
John Brodie
31:48
1:01:31
1:32:39
2:05:02
4.
Richard Pence (Van Dessel Factory Team)
31:49
1:03:21
1:34:44
2:06:38
5.
Sean Graves (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
31:14
1:02:37
1:34:51
2:10:13
6.
Greg Guinther (Richmond Velo Sport)
33:56
1:08:16
1:42:52
2:17:07

Masters 35+
1.
Michael Hines (Richmond Velo Sport)
27:49
54:21
1:21:06
1:47:47
2.
Dave O’Neil
29:28
58:51
1:29:01
1:59:31
3.
Markely Anderson (Team Crank)
30:26
1:00:22
1:30:01
1:59:39
4.
Jon Thornburg
30:45
1:00:57
1:35:53
2:12:10
5.
Scott Ramsey (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
32:39
1:05:41
1:39:31
2:14:06
6.
Thomas Bouber (Blue Ridge Cyclery)
31:50
1:03:15
1:34:27
2:28:18

Beware the Ides of March

Et tu, Preddy?

10 stitches. 7 in the eyebrow, 3 in my ear, and a mildly seperated shoulder.

Thanks, Mario. I owe you a beer

OHill

Ohill, kids.  It's all happening. 
Like most races on the right hand coast in the spring, there's a race-before-the-race to see just how long you can hold out before actually signing up, make sure you don't get your pretty bike rained on and what not. And right now, I am tied for first in that category, a full day up on Catlett and as much as a week up on new fast guy around the shop, Drew Atkins.  Come get me. 

Of course, that's about the only race I stand a shot at winning.  And probably not even that, as soon I'll become too giddy to wait any longer, shimmy my credit card out of my thinning wallet, and put my money where my mouth most certainly isn't. 

Like most years, a race like OHill on a hill like OHill as early as OHill happens pretty much makes me a lock to cramp up and wail.  In years past, I had lofty goals for this thing, such as a podium finish, a top 10, etc, which, over time, have been scaled back year over year to a humble dream that, last year, I might just limp around the thing 3 times without cramping.  I failed.  So this year, I've made a real effort to set the bar at a healthy, low level, and I've put a goal in place that I feel I can manage:
Goal:  Use an excuse I've never used before. 
And, believe me, I've used some great ones to justify my mediocrity. 

In my training this week, I've been experimenting with a few that I'll try on for size here, see how it shakes out in the private publicity in this, the near-bottom of the Internet. 

#1:  Puke gummed up my rotors. 
This, I think, has probably been done before somewhere.  But not by me.  So I've been experimenting with anaerobic intervals and various food combinations this week to try to make this little dream a reality.  Meatloaf and 7-up.  PBR and Doritos.  You get the idea.  On paper, this looks easy, but I can assure you that the reality of such a thing is much harder to attain that you might think, not just self induced vomit, but self induced vomit of the sort of consistency that can jam a disc brake.  This is especially tough for someone as lazy and non-anaerobically inclined as myself.  So far, I'm batting .000.  But there's still time. 

#2:  Coach has us on a training program to peak for the Olympics mid summer. 
Not bad as far as excuses go.  But, at the start line when my chubby thighs starts leaking out from under my bibs, it will become grossly obvious that this excuse lacks various realities such as a Coach, a training program, a program of any sort for that matter, aspirations of Olympic grandeur, any sort of "us" relationship between me and my non-existent coach, and the notion of any peak besides Flattop mountain. 

Because you can never have too many pictures of Toph's luscious (yet remarkably firm) ass. 

#3 It's not that I was slow, but more than everyone else was really fast. 
Though technically an excuse I've used before, it's actually becoming a sort of reality.  Dudes are just plain fast these days.  But no, I am pretty slow. 

#4  It shocked me how steep the powerline was. 
A lame excuse, but possibly a lamer pun.  Next.

#5 I'm more of a road guy these days anyway. 
Decent, tried and true, but completely not accurate.  My road bike has more dust on it than Kansas.  But, for those in the masochistic know, Tuesday Worlds starts today, rolling at 6 PM from Earallysville in fine, 75 degree fashion. 

Anyway, I'll try to zero in on a proper excuse by Sunday, so that when passers-on-my-left ask if I'm OK, or if I need a tool, or why I'm pooping over there at a time like this, I'll have something that'll make them think "wow, that's unlucky" and forget about it quickly. 

Standing offer, however, for team members:  if you want to camp out Saturday night here at the Rancho Paranormarelaxo, you are welcome.  Facilities offered for such a camping trip:  Zero.  But you can grab yourself a Paranormal preview lap, and a quiet place to lay your head until Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. 

Ohill, gets four of em. 
Up, up, up.
Up. 

Snowmelt and the O-Hill Meltdown

Bike parking - 26ers only

9 inches of snow fell here just north of Earallysville yesterday morning.  Today, scarcely an inch remains.  The nature of spring snowstorms, I suppose, is their transience.  Not that we get a lot of them around here, but in my time in Colorado, it became normal in my perception of weather that a foot of spring snow might melt in a day. 

Which is all great news if you want to rally, Sally.  I tucked the dragon under the horsetree at lunch, tried not to pee on my fingers while wearing neoprene gloves, and took in the moment.  It all really does go by pretty fast.  My kids will be 6 months old in a couple of weeks.  What's it all about, really?  And could I ride the horsetree with a proper transition? 

C-Ham's summary "It's a safety thing." 

I think I might get this every year - this feeling of nostalgia brought on by mud season, however brief it might be in Virginia, is probably linked for me to my time in Colorado, where entire months in the high country are wasted every year because you can't ski mud and you can't ride mud either.  So you hang out a bit more, ponder it all a little.  There is always thought in stillness, and conveniently for those crazy kids that live in, say, Minturn, time to heal those ski-broken bones. 

But not here.  Private land, for one, dictates that mud is primo, and the melting itself, which happens so fast you barely have time to take pictures or make memories, can become how life feels sometimes if you let it. 

Don't let it.  That's my motto for this week anyway.  Take the time to make yourself a moment, folks.  Carve it out of the snow if you can catch it while it's still firm, push your knobbies deep into the turn, and hold on.  It will all slide out from under you before you know it. 

And speaking of making a moment, especially if you're referring to long, drawn out, painful moments, Ohill registration is up and riding. 

I'll even paste that in here for the HTML challenged.
https://www.bikereg.com/Net/15821











I'm not going to Danville this weekend, lacking the funds, stamina, fitness, and determination necessary to trek almost all the way to Raleigh to get my clock cleaned by aggressive, well-prepared, up-and-comers who spent the winter on the trainer.  Instead, I'll make them come kick my ass on my own turf, which is convenient for me.  But don't panic, I've got plenty of ass to go around these days.  There will be extra.  So form a nice, orderly line, and wait your turn.  March 18th. 


Keep looking forward. 
Keep looking up.

Terminator-Pivot

March rolled in like a lamb, as one might have guessed it would in a "winter" like the one that just passed us by.  Global warming, locust plagues, and tick populations be damned - I'm a fan.  Let's take a quick dip into the mailbag on this mighty fine Friday, because there's something I'd like to discuss:
Shainer sent me an excerpt from a recent interview with Pivot Founder, Chris Cocalis:

http://pivotcycles.com/timbh/chrismbainterview.pdf

So where are we likely to see major
leaps forward in bike design?
I think that shock technology is where
we will see huge gains. Have a look at
what they are doing with Magnetorheological
dampers on the Cadillac CTS-V
or on Corvettes and Ferraris. The damper
fluid has lots of tiny metal flakes in it and
electromagnets can completely change the
oil viscosity at a million times per second,
taking the suspension from super firm to
very plush in an instant. You could have a
device mounted to your stem to manage all
the electronic components on your bike;
gears, suspension and so on… It’s certainly
achievable and I think it would be crazy if
this technology didn’t make its way into
bicycle shocks.

The whole interview is interesting, if you want to read it. Much of it - especially the notion that tiny metal flakes in your rear shock might someday become electromagnetically charged and immediately change the viscosity of suspension oil, and thus, the performance of suspension - is interesting to me as a concept.  And I've made it my goal for sometime this weekend to use the word Magnetorheological while on a ride to appear smarter than I really am (which, let's face it, doesn't take much).   But at some point, I fear the evolution of our bicycle technology will have gone too far.  That's likely a subjective moment, which for some of us might have already happened.  And I'm no technophobe.  I love suspension.  Gears make the steep muck I like to ride possible.  The modern mountain bike is a terrific example of how much better, longer, faster, bigger, more accessible, safer (and yet more dangerous), and outright cooler a sport can become when it embraces the technology available. 

But at some point along that continuum of technology progression, you are no longer riding a mountain bike; you are riding a robot. 

And we all know where that goes. 

(Although, on the plus side, a terminator-pivot won't know fear, or remorse, it’ll just keep going. It will never stop.  And, in a masochistic sort of endurance freak way, I like the sound of that.)

Despite my deep, true man-love for Chris Cocalis, and my affinity for Pivot cycles in general, this isn't the first time I've disagreed with him.  His vehement disappoval of all things 69er is borderline fascist, in my opinion.  And it's important to keep in mind that he actually has a voice in the cycling industry, a succesful history, criteria for having an opinion, and I'm just a blogger with no real education.  But you're reading my blog, not his. 

Nonetheless, I feel compelled to reiterate that I like the point we've gotten to, as a subculture of bike freaks, that the technology available makes riding for 24 hours, or 100 miles, or up Brokenback even though I'm sort of fat these days attainable.  But when my bike starts making decisions without me because it's smarter than I am, actually knows which way the car is, would prefer to just sit tight and take the view in even thought I'd like to go hucking, etc, I start to get a little uneasy.  In a way, I think I want to retain the right to make mistakes on my own. 

Which, of course, I still have. 


I'm talking about drawing a line in the sand, dude.  At least for this weekend. 

Who's coming with me? 

Up, up, up.