’14 Capitol Forest 100 Top Three

I gave self an early birthday present this year–100 miles on a mountain bike! I am trying to regain some confidence going into next months Pisgah Stage Race so I have broke away from the shop for a few late summer races hoping to prepare myself for five days of hard riding in Appalachia. Several years ago I did the NW Epic Series race in Capitol Forest, winning the first ever 50 mile race there. This time I was back for MORE–two laps of Capitol Forest awesomeness and a chance to place second in the NW Epic series! Read more »

Michelle and I basking in the glow of modest accomplishment!

After a great year in Wenatchee I wanted to at least attend one familiar race in Oregon this season so I left work early Friday and pointed my Liberty south toward Oakridge. I have blogged about this quaint little former logging town between Eugene and Bend on HWY 58. It sits in the foothills of the Cascades on the west side and began to embrace mountain biking over 20 years ago and is now home to one of the most committed cycling communities anywhere.

My objective was to race the Cascade Cream Puff, a storied race that is known world wide for its majestic single track and soul-crushing difficulty. I have had the good fortune of finishing first twice in the 100 mile version, once single-speed and most recently last year on my geared Ibis Ripley. This time I would actually only race 50 miles in what is now known as the “Fritter 50″. As I have for most of the races so far this year, I chose to test my new Ibis Tranny 29 on this seemingly endless ribbon of Oregon single track. Read more »

NW MTB Series

First of all, my apologies for not posting here this season. As they say “too many irons in the fire”! In some ways, I feel like my “iron” has been in the fire too long! Anyway, what’s been going on? Well, we opened a bike shop in Wenatchee last winter www.ridgecyclesport.com. The kids are growing up and seem to consume more and more time. After taking two months off last winter to “recover” my general health condition is good but my performance continues to be compromised and this season it is worse than ever. The good news is that I have some different Drs. taking a look and despite dealing with this for five years, I still have some hope that the puzzle can be solved! Read more »