Hardwood Fall 8 Hour

Four years ago I decided to try one of the Fall 8 Hour races at hardwood just to see how many laps I could do and how I stacked up against other riders, that day I came 11th and did 11 laps, I was pretty happy with what I could accomplish. From that time until now I have come to enjoy the long endurance type races and I feel like I have come pretty far with it.

This year I focused on the 8 hour series for my training and my main goal was to complete all 3 races and try to win the overall solo standings. The spring was pretty early in the season I hadn't really started training for it and ended up 5th, which surprised me a lot. The summer I focused my training a little more on that and rode though the high heat for a second place finish, I was happy with it but there was some names that just weren't around for that race. So onto looking forward to the fall and hopefully some of those names would show up.

Checking out the conformation list before the race it looked like there would be some pretty good racers out there, I counted about 6 or 7 guys who I thought would be pretty fast and hold a good pace all day.

Now onto race day. I was a little late to the start line so I lined up along the side where I could see some of the competition I figured would be pretty fast. As usual I was feeling pretty stressed at this point, there were guys with a lot more experience racing these things plus an elite racer. My plan was just to stay on my bike and not stop for anything until at least 2:30 since I had never done that before. The gun went off, we had a kilometer and a half to sort things out before the first single track. Some how it ended up that by that first single track there were 5 solo's who found each other, 4 under 39 and one over 40. It was a nice little solo train for that whole first lap with Spak leading. Second Lap went out with the other AWI racer Jacob leading the train but the train lost two members, so it was just Jacob, Matt and myself. This continued for a few laps, the three of us riding together, I would make a small little gap going up the first hill then the AWI boys would catch up though the single track by the time we would get back to the start, I just don't know how to go up those hills slower. On about lap 4 or 5 we ran into all kinds of carnage on a particularly slippery rooty corner, Jacob was in front of me at this time and I am glad he was, somehow he found a nice little line though all the bodies, bikes, roots and trees so I just calmly followed behind him thanked him for leading me though it. At this point we had put a little gap on Matt. The next lap Paul (the over 40 solo rider) had caught up and we saw Matt a few sections of single track back, at that point I think Jacob decided that he either wanted to drop me or to put a bigger gap into Matt. I followed him as best I could until he got into a longer set of single track before a small group of riders, they wern't too slow but enough that it put my back about 10 seconds from him. I could see him for quite a while and didn't think it was too important to really push at this point in time. So I just held my pace and kept having fun on the bike.

Then the pain started, legs started to cramp up I started to get those early signs of hunger which usually lead to me pushing hard but not going fast for a lap or two. I didn't want to give into that pain so I just stood and pushed harder when it would happen and I took some extra food at the next lap and made sure I ate on every lap for a while. The 2:30 mark came and went and I was still just riding though the pit area getting gels and bottles from my team, I continued that until the end of the day.

I finished up lap 12 and I think it was Glen anouncing at the time, all I really know was that I heard that I was still in 2nd and that Jacob was still a pretty steady 1:45 in front of me, so I picked up the pace and dropped 1:30 on my next lap, I was expecting to hear that Jacob was just in front of me, but nothing, later I found out that was the time he decided to go out for a "hot" lap. I ended the day in Second 5:30 behind Jacob. With Eddy coming in 3rd behind me for a second time, but this time doing the same number of laps, I am very impressed.

It was another good day on the bike, nice sunny skys, great temperature for riding. A huge thanks to my girlfriend who fed me all day long, gave me updates on where I was and encouraged me not to stop, I couldn't have done it with out her. Also a huge thanks to my parents for making the trip down to cheer me on, the cow bell was great every time I came around.

I will send out my condolences to the family of the racer who passed away of a heart attack on the course, he was doing what he loved from what we heard. 

I Need an Air Compressor

So Today I learned that I got lucky earlier in the year when I switched over to tubeless I did it in about 5 min a tire with just an ordinary pump in the back of the shop, nothing special. I don't know if it was the tires I was putting on or if it was the rims or if the stars were aligned that day. But today when looking at the forcast into this weekend and looking at all the threads bare with no rubber on my tires I decided to switch over to some new tires. At first I decided I would try the new Ikons but after riding a short bit with those I don't feel like I have the traction I have with some of my other tires. so when I got home I mounted up my speed kings.

First the Ikons I couldn't get them to go they just wouldn't seat into the rims at all, I even tried to set one bead in with a reagular tube, take that out and proceide with only the valve, but no luck, I tried two different pumps and a CO2 still couldn't get the ikons to mount up. So whatever I put some tubes in and got to go out for a fun little ride around the 8 hour course again.

When I got home after a good meal I tried to mount up the Speed Kings, i did eventually get them to set into the rim and hold air but it was a fight. I needed to use a CO2 for one of them but the rear I actually got mounted up with only the pump, but wow was that a workout. Set up the 2nd wheel set with the ikons with tubes just in case but hopefully I won't be needing them on Saturday.

So this is it, The 8 hour is on Saturday, I have my bike ready and my day more or less planed out but with about 6 or 7 fast guys who could all podium I am not to sure how the day is going to play out. However it does it will be a fun day on the bike. According to the weather network there could be some sun, there could be some rain, it might be cold or it might be warm I love this icon meaning "we really don't know what it's going to do"

Now for the part of the plan that is not going so well, I am off to bed at way to late of an hour but hopefully I can get to bed early tomorrow night. as long as I get all my stuff packed up and ready to go for Saturday morning.

Fall Weekends

So fall time is here and seams to mean that riding is really limited to weekends, because of work and the earlier sun set. But the best part of the fall is the weather. AMAZING nice cool weather for riding, enough rain to keep the trails around here nice and hard and tacky. I had an amazing weekend of riding bikes, all kinds of bikess, all kinds of trails/roads it was fun!

Saturday was a great ride in the Copland with one of my friends, I still don't know how he goes as fast as he does on a 6" travel bike, anything flat or down he  pulls away from me but then when I get going on the ups he still seems to be right there.

Sunday was a great adventure, one that has been in the plans for quite a while. Monovan's/On the Rocks Team rode from Barrie to Creemore. It was a great day for it, there was some good food and beer in creemore all set in some great fall weather, sunny and warm with a little breeze. We headed there on the tail end of the Centurion which ran though Creemore earlier that day.

We got there with plenty of time for a little lunch before the brewery tour so we hit up a little cafe and had some excellent food. We enjoyed the tour then some beers next door at the bar. Does life get any better then biking and beer? The ride back was nice a little bit too much of a head wind for some of us but fun none the less.

Monday was looking like it was going to rain and it was my last chance to pre-ride the 8 hour course.

So off to Hardwood for a ride that would hopefully not end in being soaked. The course is really fun, it is very similar to last year's fall 8 hour, There is a good amount of single track in it, The first half being fairly tight and twisty, but then the second half of the lap seems to open up a bit more. The course suites me pretty good, one long climb at the start, and double track and single track that you can switch up going hard and relaxing on. One lap may be chill though the single track and harder on the doubles but then the next lap you can do the opposite. For me that makes the ride much more interesting. I did get a chance to ride it both in the rain and in the dry seeing as it started to rain on my 3rd lap of the course. It gets pretty slick in parts but there was no standing water on it after a good 45 min of rain. I can't wait until this Saturday, there will be some good competition this weekend with 3 other guys at least that I will hopefully be riding with and battling it out for the podium. Now I just need a good week of rest and good food so I am all ready for this one.

Provincials Course

When I first saw the schedule for O-Cups I didn't think I was going to be able to make it to this race seeing as ExpoCycle was the same weekend. But as luck would have it the bosses had a function to go to on the Saturday night as well so we wouldn't be leaving until Sunday anyway. So it was all worked out that I could go race. Josh and I went up and pre-rode the course on Saturday, which was a huge benefit because some of the lines were pretty tough and knowing what was coming up was a big benefit. We scouted some lines made some decisions on which of the hard lines were actually faster for the risk involved, it was a great afternoon of riding.

On to race day, I was super nervous, I am a pretty good climber but there was a lot of climbing, I am pretty good at single track but this was tough, a big long rock garden, some big optional drops, and some really tight corners. I was a little worried about going down somewhere during the race.
Off the start the pace was high, at the top of the first climb I looked down and my heart rate was up over 190, but into the single track it slowed down a bit because we were pretty tight after the first climb. The single track was super fun during the pre-ride, but it was a little tougher when you are trying to recover from pushing that hard up a hill. After the first lap I settled in to a good hard pace, just being able to see a few guys in front of me and hearing a few guys behind me, going into the third lap I was passed by a few guys, caught them on the climb and there was a group of 4 of us riding together one of them being the course designer/builder. Had I known that there was a course designer curse I may not have been following him into one of the single tracks. The one hard line that we had figured was the quicker line with the least risk, Scott went down right in front of me, I knew once he was down he was hurt, grabbing his ankle, I jumped off my bike, picked his bike off of him, warned riders of a rider down, and yelled back to the people in the double track there was an injured rider.

Back on the bike I just basically rode as hard as I could again and on the last time up the big climb I saw the injured rider coasting down the hill with one foot off of the pedals. I wish Scott a speedy recovery.

Not quite the result that I wanted for the day I ended up 13th (two guys went by me in the last lap). I don't think I am in as good as shape I was in about mid season, but I will try to get some of it back looking forward to the final 8 hour race coming up in a few weeks. I just came off of a couple days of rest of sorts, and now to have some fun on the bike to get ready for the big race.

Big Congratulations for Senior Expert Winner, Josh!! and for the big overall WIN!! He worked hard for it and pushed his limits as far as they could go.

The Ottawa Valley

It's been quite the busy week, all kinds of prep for next month, some visiting with the parents and a little bit of biking thrown in there. Not nearly as much biking as I wanted but there was something.
The weekend I spent at my parents up in the Ottawa valley, so I took advantage of that the best way I could and climbed to the highest populated town in Ontario. That is highest elevation. The ride up to the top of Foymount hill is quite the ride 230meters up over close to 3 km. Definitely one of the biggest climbs I have done. I also learned that a week of bad sleep and poor eating makes for an unpleasant 4 hour ride. However when I was on the road from Foymount to Quadville I remembered why I love riding my bike, the views were amazing, rolling hills and little lakes, it was great.

 

 The next day after a really good sleep and a big turkey dinner I headed out for quite the opposite ride from the day before. I headed out for some intervals on a route I figured would be relatively flat. I learned that definitely sleep and food makes a big difference as well that fresh pavement and wind at your back makes you feel like a hero. I was flying down the road towards Douglas. I also had to take a little pit stop and grab a few pics of the Bonnechere caves.

Oh ya I almost forgot coming back down Foymount hill I finally broke the 80km/h mark, it is pretty nerve racking hitting those speeds.

Love The Ride

Tuesday was an amazing day of riding! This was the Rocky preview day for dealers at Albion Hills. With the early start to the day I repeated the ride to Albion Hills that I did last week. Since I didn't really make it all the way to Albion last week I didn't realize that I had to turn left to get to the conservation area. So I had turned right and didn't recognized where I was going, it just didn't seem right. I finally turned around and made it to the demo day presentation, enjoyed some coffee and butter tarts while we waited to hear all about the new Rocky Mountain line up. On top of riding to Albion I rode bikes all day pretty much until they packed up. then enjoyed some great beers thanks to Creemore Springs.

Two big highlights of the day, first was the Vertex RSL 970 this bike just plain and simple ripped. I have never been a big fan of the wagon wheels, I find them hard to accelerate as well as I find them a bit long and sluggish in the tight turning spaces. Rocky pulled out all the stops on this bike, they went though 55 renditions of this frame to get it perfect. Highlights include a short tapered head tube, 142mm rear through Compared short chain stays and super thin seat stays, along with a 27.2 seat tube. What does all of this mean...Well it means that we get a frame that weights in at 997 grams and is super stiff competition the descended however it is still super smooth though the saddle. This bike was super nimble but stable though corners, it climbed very well, and with the added traction of the big wheels it extreamley well. What I liked most about it because of all that Rocky did with the bike the back end is not nearly as harsh a ride.

Second was a bike that just made me giggle when I rode it, I liked it soo much that I took it out twice, in different sizes just to make sure what size I felt more comfortable on. Here it is

This bike is just amazing so comfortable to ride, it climbs like nothing else I have ridden, the kashma coating on the fork definitely makes any small bumps disappear and the front wheel track though anything. This bike was so light the acceleration and handling was insane. The biggest thing I found with this bike was the suspension would stay way more active during braking compared to my 2010 element, and the ability to make the bike go exactly where I wanted it to go was effortless. If anything the steering was a little twitchy but something I could get use to. Unfortunately I don't think I will be getting this bike next year but I will definitely be getting his little brother the Element 70RSL.