It’s January 2011 already and the 2010 season went by in the blink of an eye. Previous season’s had marked racing the mountain bike in cross country and short track events. At the beginning of the year I decided I was going to race as much as possible. I started the year off racing my first two road races in the month of February, and then started the cross country series in March which lasted until late June. I then started the PIR short track series racing singlespeed and the cat 1 classes for six weeks until the Salem short track series started and continued racing two classes there as well. Cyclocross started in late September and I had planned on racing the entire season through the Nationals at Bend, but by late November my legs seemed the hard efforts that cross requires was just to much. I decided to pull the plug on the season and start getting ready for a big year in 2011.

My first two road races were fun and a great learning experience. The weather was sunny and beautiful for the month of February in Oregon. Over the last few year’s I have logged many hour’s watching the Tour, so I thought I had road racing all figured out. Looks like I didn’t. Starting at the back of the pack is not a good spot. Dropped on the first climb. I thought the pace would be a little slower since this was only the second race of the early season, but the cat four and fives were off and sprinting from the parking lot. Every time the pace picked up hard or there was an attack i was caught not paying attention or trapped in a bad spot and couldn’t go. Oh well, maybe this year I will start at the front and be ready to actually race in the first few miles.

The mountain bike season started off with a bang at the Echo Red to Red race were I improved on my previous season’s time by about half an hour in warm sunny weather. Then it was off to Horning’s Hustle were I missed the podium by one spot on yet another warm and sunny Oregon spring day. Next up was the Mudslinger were I had maybe the best day on the bike I have ever had. I climbed my way to the podium in third place. The month of May brought warm weather to Bend were I placed sixth at the Cascade Chainbreaker and at a new race on the schedule, Sister’s Stampede. After a terrible result at the Spring Thaw I finished fourth at Return on the Jedi. It was the first time I raced either of those two events.

The Test of Endurace race is one that I don’t look forward to each year. This race is held in late June, so you think it would be warm and sunny. Wrong! Every year it is fifty degree’s if your lucky and raining for the entire 50 miles and 8,000 feet of climbing. My big goal for the year was to finally beat the five hour mark at this race. I spent most of the race riding with teammate Dave Hill who always finishes under the five hour mark. We were setting a good tempo and I felt pretty strong despite the cold and rainy weather. The five hour mark was going down in 2010. Not to be had this year. I crossed the line at 5:07 on what seemed to be a harder course then year’s past. I finished the Oregon XC series in 3rd place in the cat 1 category.

The short track season was in full swing on Monday night’s at PIR. I look forward to these races every year. The weather is always hot and sunny and each class is filled with lots of racers and good action. I had a great season finishing no worse then eighth place in a stacked singlespeed class and then most evening’s doubling up racing the singlespeed in the cat 1 class as well. On an almost 100 degree day I finished third at the Short Track State Championships on a brutally hard course. Next up was the Salem short track series were I finished second overall in the singlespeed class and had some great battle’s with teammate Jeremy Warnicke on the geared bike in the cat 1 class. I thought for sure all these hard effort short track races would be great training for the upcoming cross season.

For the 2010 cross season I made the move up to the B class. I had a great start to the season finishing in the top seven at all the pre-crusade races. A 14th place finish at Alpenerose Dairy out of nearly 100 riders was a great start to the Cross Crusade season. Then the wheels started to fall off. Out of control fool’s crashing into me at Rainier sent me to the very back on the first lap. I stuck with it to finish in the top 26. The next week saw the same action, more crashes and bad luck sent me to a hard earned 34th place finish at Sherwood.

I was now out of the points chase in the B class so I decided to have some fun and race singlespeed. After a super fun and muddy race and good result at PIR the singlespeed experiment took a turn for the worse. PIR would be the last race I finished until late November. The chain simply wouldn’t stay on the bike and my body was telling me it’s time to quit putting out hard efforts. I DNF’d the next three or four races. Next up was the State Championship race were I decided to race gears in the B class again. There simply was not a gear low enough for my tired legs to pedal that day and I finished way behind a lot of people I was beating earlier in the year. So I decided to pull the plug on what had been a great year of racing bikes.

The 2010 season was a very fun year to race bikes in Oregon and I’m really excited about the new year. It’s only Janurary and I already have more miles and hours on the bike then last year. Special thanks to Evan Plews for all his training advice and team support and to all my friends and teammates for helping make training and racing so much fun!

Ryan Eisele

Today is MLK day which means yesterday was the fourth annual El Paso Puzzler 50. After two months away from racing mountain bikes I was ready for a challenge and opportunity to test out some recent changes to my equipment and position. A pineapple express had NW Oregon in its cross-hairs so it was perfect timing to escape winter for day. I boarded the Southwest Luv-Jet and traveled south. After landing, a quick shuttle ride brought me to Hyatt Place, the host hotel. They had a great bed some super authentic mexican food a few doors down and I nice big screen to watch the NFL playoffs.

I immediately ran into Bryan Fawley (Orbea) as I walked in the door. He had already been out on the course and was impressed by the techy rockiness. I assured him there would be more of that since it was the toughest 50 miles I’ve raced last year. I mindlessly assembled my bike and watched the game then grabbled some huevos y tamales for dinner and made it to bed nice and early. After some decent Z’s, I woke up in time for some Chia and vitamins and and grabbed a cup of joe for the ride to the race. Mike Rossen of The Bicycle Company in El Paso had graciously agreed to give me a lift to the race.

We arrived with an hour to spare, and picked up our packets. It was a chilly 32 degrees but the sun was already up and warming the east side of the Franklin Mountains. There a was a nice campfire at the Bowen Roundhouse (race headquarters) and bagels and coffee available for breakfast. I kept warm in Mike’s truck and got out in time for a 15 minute warm-up. A considerable field had showed up to race and after some pre-race instruction from Big Dave Wilson we were off!

Bryan set the early pace and I followed comfortably until we left the initial jeep road and entered pave sector one. Immediately I noticed that I had installed a Gravity Dropper seatpost on my bike. Actually, it was my trusted SDG Carbon I-Beam that was not tight enough and migrating down at a rapid rate! I stopped at the first aid after eight miles and re-tightened the clamp as well as my brake calipers that I had apparently overlooked while watching football. A group of six riders had separated themselves from the front so I set off to chase them. After a few more miles of rocky, twisty, thorn-infested desert knarl, I had the leaders back in sight. Just as I was about to close the final gap I missed a switchback on some slickrock and had to back track. Not a minute later, I did the same thing again–this time riding off trail for a considerable distance. By the time I was back on trail I was nearly a minute behind again.

Back on a jeep road that more resembled a dry creek bed with the innumerable round stones we began the climb to Mundy’s Gap. This is a pass over the Franklin Mountains and while it is double track, much of the time there is only one somewhat clean line. The climb from the east and the initial descent are relatively benign by Puzzler standards, but the halfway down the west side the trail enters a huge rockfall that lasts almost a mile. It basically looks like the side of the mountain fell off and covered the trail. Most of the rocks are less than a foot in diameter but there is no line just an open field of rip-rap. I had passed Cameron Brenneman (NM Bike N Sport) and another rider on the climb and knew what to expect from last year so I maintained my momentum, trying to float as much as possible. 80mm of Manitou suspension was being pushed to its limits and apparently the incessant pounding and vibration jarred loose some air in my rear brake. As we left the Mundy’s pave sector is had closed in on fourth place but my brake lever was to the bar.

After a brief paved section through the park, we hit and seemingly endless section of new pave interspersed by washes an short, punishingly climbs. I was able to move up to third through this section and again had the lead insight as we began the climb up the backside of Hit Canyon. This was the location I had consolidated my victory last year but it was 10 miles earlier in the race and while I was able to pass Bryan on the climb it was short-lived as I tipped over into a cactus on the way down and he went back by. After we left the ridiculous knarl of Hit Canyon Bryan slowed apparently breaking just chain with an errant rock bouncing off his drivetrain. In another mile I was back in sight of the leader and passing through the start/finish for the final loop.

15 miles can be seem like an eternity in the El Paso desert so despite the urging from the crowd I maintained a reasonable pass and slowly bridged to the race lead. I had a full bottle of CarboRocket and now leaned fully on my generally sturdy crutch of endurance. Manuel Solas (Mexico) had set a blistering pace over the Mundy’s and Hit Gap climbs but seemed to have tired as we hit the steep loose climb at the bottom of the loop. I pressed the pedals and sensed a gap opening. Careful not to the throttle too much, I slowed stretched the lead. By the time we reached the bottom of the Mundy’s and turned north towards the Roundhouse, Solas was out of sight in the rearview mirror. With more than five miles of hideous pave to go, I knew the race was far from over. The key to solving the Puzzler is maintaining pace and momentum. One little mistake and forward motion stops and as one tires, it gets harder and harder to be steady.

In the end, I was able to finished relatively smoothly and with a lead of over five minutes. My second straight Puzzler solved, I was again beaten and exhausted. It seemed harder than last year. Maybe it was or maybe I had just blocked all that from my memory. In any case, it looks like I will have to go back next year and see if I can do it again!

In some of the other races, Karen Rishel (NoTubes) won the womens overall and Anthony Petta hammered to a decisive victory in the Singlespeed category.

Here are my stats:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/63994323

At Sea Otter I met with Scott Peterson from CycleSoles and fitted up a new set of his custom orthotics. During the molding process he created a little support ridge under my toes. Scott told me how despite holding the foot in a static position, the added contour may allow me to push/pull the pedals more effectively across the top and bottom of the pedal rotation.

I immediately liked the idea because I am a long-time user of Powercranks and often feel my feet scoot fore and aft while pedaling with them. Motion inside the shoe means less motion outside and the new trick worked? My feet are now “locked” inside my shoes. Not in tight, uncomfortable way, but rather a supportive, powerful, glove-like fit!

Enter Injinji. I had a hunch that toe-socks would give me even more grip, stability, and even better fit inside the shoe so I purchased some Injinji toe-socks and did some rides. Sure, it takes a minute longer to put on socks and they feel funny at first, but the results were impressive to say the least. I feel like I am barefoot in the shoe and not only have more control but also more freedom. Gone are the days where my toes are all up on one another in some sweaty mess. Now I can ride for hours without my toes rubbing together or even feeling squishy when completely soaked.

Would you rather wear gloves or mittens? Our feet are the some of the most complex power transfer devices in the universe so it seems wise not to forget about maximizing performance down there. I look forward to trying Injinji’s compression socks as I have had great success on longer training rides with them. What could be better than happy toes and improved circulation?

www.injinji.com