Gravel Drag Race to Blue Mounds

Some people would get sick to their stomach watching a few riders take their $6k road bikes on the Military Ridge trail. Well folks, eat your hearts out.

Want a good workout? Try following M. Gehling for 4 and a half hours...

New Whip

I just got a new machine for the last race weekend. I think we finally found a winner. So far, this would be the 3rd bike I've raced this year. Just like they say, third time is a charm.

Lots of X's up front.

Flying the cape

Just remember to stay rad. Like I do.

WORS #4 Kewaskum

(Photo cred: Jared Brodjeski)

Back on track finally, no mechanicals (knock on wood) and I was able to finish the race. Unfortunately, my 1x9 gearing wasn't gonna cut it for such a hilly course...with climbs that were 3+ minutes from bottom to top. Point taken and lesson learned for next time. I finished in 37th place this race, which is a little further back from my last finish, but the course was basically all slower climbs and it decimated my strength of power-climbs.

Found a groove to finally ride in after 2 or so laps and had fun. This race was definitely for the kids.

(Photo cred: Danny Marchewka)

Triple flats and loss of navigation. WORS #3

So...3 flat tires and got lost for an hour or so. The irony is that I had a Garmin on my bike, but apparently there's no "OH SHIT!" button to navigate you back.

That's about how my race went. I (almost) finished and still had a smile on my face the entire time.

Photo cred MTBGirl and VeloGrrl

See you kids next time.

Feeling good

Birthday MTB practice with the TBSM Team was rad. Lots of practice steering my bicycle this week and I'm finally learning some "english" for the bike. It also doesn't hurt that I get to ride with bike Jedi's during practice.

First time on an actual road ride in 2+ weeks. That feels both weird and good. Nothing like 2x20 min intervals to get your legs cooking.

WORS #2 Rhinelander

WORS #2 Race Report

So I did some evaluation from the first race and tried to apply that to WORS #2. I did, although I admit that I have another one to add to the list now:

#8. Don’t break your chain when you’re having the best race this year.

I broke the chain 20 minutes into the race. Bummer, huh? Well, here’s how my 20 minutes of fame went down.

3...2...1...GO! Pedal as hard as you can and jump to the front of the lead out, that’s usually where the fast guys hang out. The lead out was surprisingly easy considering the caliber of riders we had in the field, so I tried to sit in the top 10 spots into the singletrack. We climbed up a steep hill then turn right and I had enough time to look behind me and I was sitting in 7th wheel with a 100+ ft gap to the next rider behind me. So I’m thinking, “Sweet, I made the first break!”. Turns out that I did, but I pretty quickly got dropped in the singletrack and rode in no-man’s-land for a while until I was caught my by teammate Matt. We rode together for a while until I slipped in a corner and let him and 2-3 other riders pass. I kept riding and the came to a short incline, tried to shift to a smaller gear to spin and then my chain snapped. Race ended with not even a 1/2 lap finished.

The interesting part is that I hiked about 6 miles back to the expo area. Sweet workout. It’s too bad that my race ended early, but it does happen to all racers...I did get a chance to ride with some of the top riders in Wisconsin during the race, so it was a good learning experience for me.