Tranny and I race Ireland!

My frequent flyers may remember that I won a little trip to Ireland in April by besting the field at the Whiskey Off-Road in Prescott Arizona. The trip was to contest the Single Speed World Championship in Ballyhoura Ireland. Honestly, the thrill was in the chase as I really haven’t ever had any desire to race the SSWC even when it was in here in the States. Having won the trip, I was committed to the effort and since I can talk myself up to anything excited to go.

With my on/off battle with EB and ensuing chronic fatigue exacerbated by my sleep apnea, I didn’t expect to be great in Ireland but I will say that I planned to go fast—after all it was a race! Read more »

Evan Plews, photo by Kenji Sugahara

A couple years ago, a buddy started a local summer short track series at the local fairgrounds. I’m not big for riding in circles but I pony’d up and won the overall the first go-round despite starting to feel the effects of EB and chronic fatigue in 2009. Last year I knew I had nothing for it and for the better stayed home.

With the positive treatment with CPAP and summer coming full-on I decided it was time for a revisit. This time I vowed to make it work the ride across town and signed up to race both the single speed and open races which went back to back. This meant about an hour of racing full-gas each week which would give me some good training stimulus and really test my recovery capability. Read more »

Being the year of the single speed and having never raced the category in local events, I took the challenge of competing for the OBRA title. Nothing too great, but we have had some distinguished champions over the years including yours truly in several disciplines so why not?

The race was held at Alsea Falls just southwest of Corvallis Oregon. The state has opened up a few miles of single track in that area for MTB and it was my first visit. The course consisted of a short six mile lap that included a bit of flat pavement and fireroad, a super steep gravel climb and some twisty rooted trail back down.

It wasn’t a great SS course since there was no way to gear appropriately for the climbing and be pedaling much the rest of the time. I geared low (2:1) for me and still struggled just to make the 20+ percent grade thus dashing any hope of duking it out with the geared boys for the overall. Plus the promoter only planned three laps for the single speed event which wasn’t much more than an hour.

I won that easily and continued for a bonus lap just to see where I would end up. While I wasn’t able to overtake all the geared boys, I did finish fourth overall which was pretty cool under the circumstances!