The Road Less Travelled

After riding quite a bit over the weekend, I wasn't sure if I was going to do the St. Charles ride. Todd stopped by and said he was going to do it and the weather was perfect, so I decided to go.

I loaded up the ride and headed out. I got there a few minutes early. I saw guys that I rode with before but nobody seemed too chatty. At exactly 6:00 we rolled out. It was a pretty big group, maybe 50 or more. It was slow at first, as usual. After a mile or two it bumped up to 18-19. I came out on to the front expecting somebody to attack and nothing happened. Pushing it up to 22-23 before the turn a few guy took off but didn't get big gaps. I decided to hang out around to first five.

After the first right Todd took a flyer and Glenn and I chased him down. We spent a few minutes in rotation about 10 yards off the front. It seemed like we were going about 24-26 for a while. Finally we went back and took a break.

By the time we got to the tailwind part the usual guys started taking flyers and we chased them down. We were strung out at 29-30 some of the time. Shawn took off at one point and a few of us caught him after a long slog.

I was doing a lot of work. It wasn't a super fast ride, but I felt good about how I was doing.

We were heading north and I was leading the entire pack, taking a pull. At an intersection I heard somebody yell something. After a second I turned around to see the entire group turning.

Great! I said a few choice words. I didn't know how to get back to start so I had to turn around. Needless to say, the huge group was way ahead at that point and there was no way I was going to catch up.

After soloing in I headed back to car. I picked up a pizza on the way home watched the Tour Stage. Another experience for the record books.

Knucklehead

I did my first Knucklehead ride yesterday. Actually, I did only part of it. I thought it started at the Schnucks in Ladue, when it actually started at the Scnucks in Clayton (which isn't there anymore).

I figured this out after talking to a cyclist near Ballas where I drove trying to catch the group. I decided at that point to change out my flat tire and jump in when the group got there. It almost worked. I wound up chasing them down just past Topping. The group was taking it easy. I knew a quite a few people in the group so we all chatted.

There are two rides, a short and a long. I wanted to do the long ride because I haven't been doing any hills this year.

We headed down Clayton across Clarkson. The "short" ride went right and I kept going straight up a long hill. I started getting passed right away and wondered if I would get dropped. I finally got my motor going and as we crested the hill I caught the front three riders. I had heard that they regroup after the hills and it turned out to be true. We head down 109 and jumped on the bike path and started riding the Marquette ride route. After the turn on Pond Road we made a quick right on Rieger. There was another tough climb.

It was climb and recover. The road was wet so I held back on the descents. I recently cleaned my chain and the degreaser got on my front derailleur and dryed it out. I had trouble downshifting. At one point I felt good and was riding on the front. We hit a steep hill and I couldn't get on to the small ring in the front. I stopped for a couple of seconds and got it working again. I worked with the lady in green for a while to pace back up to the group.

The hills started to take their toll. On the long Six Flags hill I got dropped. I knew they were stopping for water at the top, so after a long slog I finally got to meet some of the other riders. It was mostly guys my age or younger. There were several very strong women riders, a medical student, a Colorado U grad, a guy named Ted who I raced with in the past. All nice people, maybe 15-20 overall.

We did the Melrose climbs backward to Rockwood and climbed Wood. I got dropped again on the climb. We regrouped and started heading back. There was a headwind, but we kept up a good pace. I was starting to cramp up a little bit. When I got to the car I was pacing with two of the women riders a couple of hundred year off of the lead group.

They had about five miles to go. I was done. I loaded up the bike and listened to the new Paul McCartney CD.

I definitely need to do more climbing. This ride is a great way to spend a Sunday morning and get a good workout.

Webster Crit

I'm excited to be announcing at the Webster Crit. I did the announcing at the ICCC Crit and it was a lot of fun. I'm collecting music and thinking about what to say all the time. I've raced in it twice, so that will be a nice perspective.

There is a lot more to be done to get ready.

St. Charles Ride

Monday was my first trip out to the St. Charles ride this year. I was hoping for a large group and I'd say we had 40 or so riders.

It was very windy as we rolled out of the soccer park parking lot. I jumped in toward the front and we took it easy for the first couple of miles. The inevitable surges hit and soon we cranked it up. Todd cruised by on his time trial bike and he and Shawn O'Neil pushed up the pace while we had a horrible cross wind. There was very little draft to get.

The group strung out on the tailwind sections. I drifted back and popped off. I found some guys to work with and we finally got back on at a stop sign. A few surges later and it was over for me.

I really wanted to get a workout so I went as hard as I could solo. There was a good sized chase group behind me and I decided to see how long I could hold them off. It took a long time for them to catch me. After the catch there were lots of attacks out of the group, so I worked on chasing them down. Everyone was going hard, so it was fun.

Eventually we started passing lots of the riders who were off of the front group. Our grupetto was great to work with, everyone knew how to ride in an echelon so we kept up the speed. People were taking huge pulls at 27-30MPH. Toward the end a guy in a red jersey zoomed by and said something like "nice pull" and that he would give me the lead out for the finish. I tried to chase him down but he was too far ahead. When we got to the finish the group was gone. We must have gotten a little gap in the last mile or so.

I found Glen and Todd and they said we were just a few minute behind to first group.

The St. Charles ride is dead flat and lots of fun. Monday night at 6:00. From the Lou take 270 > 370 > right on Elm > right on Mueller. The start is about 1/4 mile down on the right in the soccer park parking lot.

Parrots

I had to rush to get there on time. I couldn't find the right shirt to wear at first, I finally found my old pepper shirt. A couple of ladies at the bar liked it, so I guess that turned out okay. On the way there I missed the exit.

So I quickly rushed in, past three very sweet choppers. The bar was about half full, which was a lot more crowded than last time. We got a hooked into the PA and found out that Brian's monitor didn't work. Oh well.

Brian went in to "Mean Old World" to get it started. His vocal and slide sounded good. We didn't use a set list this time. Over the course of the show we hit all of our styles and it was pretty fun. Toward the end I sang my original "Emily" for the waitress and her daughter. The little girl kept grabbing my hand and asking me to sing it again.

At the end of the night, which was only 8:30 I played "Don't Let Me Be Lonely" dedicated to Pat Collier. She was the lead singer of the next band. The funny thing is I wouldn't have known who she was if she walked up and said hello.

One table of people was supposed to leave and have a party, but I wasn't in the mood. Brian was distracted so I slipped out right after we got paid.

I drove straight to Fortel and ordered a pizza. I can't believe I ate the whole thing. It was another one for the record books.

Hellbender

I did about three weeks of training to get ready for the state championship. That should foreshadow what happened, but I'll give you the whole story anyway.

I was a little late getting to the tiny starting town. I had a slow leak on my front tire so I hurried over to registration and headed back to van to change the tire. I borrowed a tire tool from another Masters racer and we struck up a little conversation. I topped everything off and got over to the starting area.

I lined up with the 40 plus Masters. At the line it was pretty relaxed. I knew a few of the guys in the race. I was talking to a guy from southern Jefferson County. He has some good stories and it sounded like he trained a lot. I'm not really like most of the Master racers. Some of the guys are truly veteran of the sports. I'm more of a new guy. I like to race Masters, the rides are much smoother than cat 4. Today was going to be 70 miles, so my goal was to stay with the front group to the end.

We rolled out right into a hill. The pace wasn't too fast. I did labor just a bit, climbing is a weakness. The first 10 miles or so were kind of boring. We were only riding about 16 or 17 MPH. I drifted up to the front and pulled for a while. I did a few pushes up in to the low 20s. We hit a hill after the main turn off of highway T and I drifted back into the pack. I thought so far, so good.

A few miles later and we were flying down a very steep descent and doing high 40s. It was fun and I knew there was a big climb coming up. Instead of pushing up toward the front trying to drift back during the climb I stupidly decided to hit it at the back of the group.

At the hill and I immediately lost contact with the group. I had them in sight, but there was a huge gap opening up. My friend from the starting line was falling back, so I started working to bridge up to him. I took a long time of chasing at 25 or so. We caught another guy but we were completely dropped and it seemed uplikely to me the we would ever catch them. About a mile or two from the end of the first 35 mile lap the front of the cat 4 race caught up to us.

We got to the feed zone around that time. A lot was going on and I couldn't see the person who had my water bottles. I ended up getting handed someone else's water bottles. It was Dave Thackery's stuff. I looked up and he was coming back for it. I offered the bottles to Dave, but he was calling it a day.

During this mess I lost contact with my fellow riders. I started up the opening climb with bad legs. I started seeing lots of guys coming down the hill who had been dropped. I decided to keep going.

The stretch of road that was so easy the first time around was now hard labor. I sat in with some GORC racers that do the Dogfish ride for a long time. Finally, they called it a day and it was me and a young guy who eventually dropped me.

I rode the last 25 miles trying not to bonk. I was seriously thinking the big climb might do me in. I soft pedaled it and rode it in from there. I tried to go fast when the terrain would allow.

Afterword I found out I was only one of two finishers from the Hub. Not that finishing a race deserves any praise, but I felt okay about it.

The next stop was for a chocolate malt in Rolla and the drive back to Kirkwood. My wife and I went to a party that night and had a good time.

Getting back in shape

After my miserable effort in Hillsboro I wanted to hide. I had a few excuses, but none that were any good. Finally after a self imposed exile I started to hit it again. I was getting dropped on the Hub ride, but finally hung on most of the way the last few times.

A little improvement, but still about 80%. I rode 225 miles in a week and didn't drop one pound. I wish I had a coach. On the bright side, the weather is good and it feels great to be out riding.

STL Biking Message Board

Over the past few years I've surfed to the message board on cycling in St. Louis. I've met lots of nice people as a result. I don't think you can really know too much about a person based a what they type on a message board, but I enjoy it.

What is really weird is when you meet someone that you know from their fake, on line persona, and they are so different from what you'd imagined. My usual thought is that the real person is totally normal, better than their made up personality. Same goes with blogs for that matter.

Plato's cave.

Actual Riding

February riding is my most out of shape time of year. I could really tell it when I did some climbing at Castlewood and the Chubb this weekend.

The trails were in great shape, very fast due to the cold. I need to bump my riding hours up to over 12 hours a week pretty soon.

Winter Blues

Winter is the worst. Work is crazy busy. The band is dormant. The only workout if at the Y. A 30 minute ride on the trainer feels like 2 hours.

The past few years I did a lot of cold weather mountain biking, but even that doesn't sound like fun. Froze Toes is just a couple of weeks away. If it's this cold, forget it.

Everybody's in the same boat, so that helps keep me going.

Berryman

It was clearing as I headed out I-44, leaving St. Louis for the Berryman trail. The trail is one of the best mountain bike rides around. I had tried to get a group together, but in the end it was just me.

Being the last the day of the year, the sun came up slowly and then headed into the sky at a shallow angle. It was slowly clearing so the blowing clouds and long shadows made for a beautiful sunrise.

I cruised past Six Flags, past Pacific. I was chugging Gatorade every few minutes. One rest stop and it was one to Bourbon. I cruised through town and headed out Highway N, then W and on to the Brazil Creek campground. I pulled in to nothing. There were no people, no cars, no trailers, just me.

After a quick change I was ready to ride. It was a little scary going solo. My friends Rich Pierce and Jim Tobias both crashed hard on the trail, Rich getting the worst of it. And now that there was nobody around to help me out I had to think twice. I thought, how bad can it be and rode on.

I cruised through the first creek crossing and headed up to the road to ride it clockwise. That way I could avoid riding it with wet feet from crossing Brazil Creek first thing. The turn off on to the trail was really steep and I stalled out on it. I got going again and started climbing and picking lines. The trail was covered with wet leaves, but was rocky and rooty and switchbacky like I remembered. On the descents I took it easy. On the switchbacks I clipped out a lot and made sure I got around okay. After a while I just started taking them high and I didn't need to clip out. It was all up and down for a long time. On one flat section I jumped a branch and a section went through my spokes.

I looked down and the back tire was just sliding on the wet leaves. I stopped and pulled it out and kept going until I heard a clicking noise. I got off and checked it out and it was a broken spoke. I thought about Sam Moore saying how strong mountain bike wheels are, and rigged the spoke out of the way and it seemed to be fine.

Up and down, lost once, up and down. I kept expecting to see the Berryman camp around the next bend. Finally, I got there and it was empty as can be. I finished off a water bottle and headed down for the last 14.5 miles.

There was lots of rough stuff down into the creek bed and I was starting to get a little tired. Short steep climb, wild switchback downhills, everthing you would want on the mountain bike ride. The next way point was the spring. When I finally got there I ate my last Powerbar and chugged some more water. I looked at a scruffy hill that I though was the trail and headed up. It was a long climb and I was very proud to ride it without stopping. When I reached the top of the hill I realised something was wrong. I went back down and found the trail a few feet over from where I went up. Great!

It was on to the mud flats. I got there and they were indeed muddy just as Paul Mueller had said. I slopped through some parts and rode up around where I could. After the mud it was a long, long slog back to the minivan. I stopped for a minute where the Ozark Trail branched off and luckily picked the right trail to follow. By now I was losing steam and the climbs were really slow. My back was tightening up and I had trouble riding very long without standing and stretching. Downhill was killing my arms. No bonking, just cooked well done.

This is what the Berryman is all about.

I finally saw the camp and tip toed across a rocky dam without soaking my feet. I looked down at my cell phone and it was 2:00. I started around 9:00, so I rode really slow. I guess my riding time not counting getting lost and taking break was probably 4+ hours. Oh well, I in the worst shape of the whole year and I rode Berryman! I can't wait to try Council Bluffs.