My friends at Felt www.feltbicycles.com hooked me up with a new bike to “test” just in time for a new stage race. The FRD 100 full suspension bike proved worthy of the task and quickly became one of my all time favorite bikes! I really had no idea what I was in for since I’ve never visited North Carolina before. Evidently, the weather cards weren’t in my favor as NC was stricken with unseasonably cold and wet weather for a week before the race and the entire week of the event.

Prologue
I assumed this would be a parade lap TT around the college campus—boy was I wrong! Turns out it was about a mile long course totally slick and saturated from the torrential rain storms. With only semi-slick tires I could only watch as the race went away. It was a ridiculous showing and unfortunately ended up being a very decisive time loss overall.

Stage 1
Determined to get some time back we took off in cold and drizzling conditions. The course was awesome but my riding wasn’t so and I stacked it up a couple times from catching my feet on unnoticed sticks and rocks. Between all the down leaves, rain, and water visibility of the track was next to impossible. After losing some time initially, I still managed to pick off several riders in the single tracks to finish third on the day.

Stage 2
Again we started in the rain—this time was more the downpour variety, though. My body was already hammered from the cold and wet and barely functioning. That was before we crossed a river nearly waist deep countless times before climbing to the top of a mountain in the snow. I was basically racing for survival and to get done as quickly as possible. The descent off the top was sick and likely one of the longest technical trails I have ever ridden. The numerous roots, ledge drops, and rock falls made it ridiculous with numb hands. I rode it clean but flatted near the bottom after clearing all the difficult sections. My hands were so numb I had to get help changing the flat at the next feed zone and ended up losing all the time I had gained leaving me still in fourth place overall.

Stage 3
This was supposed to be the “queen” stage but the snow and overnight freeze prompted the promoter to change the stage. It ended up being way easy compared to the other two days but was still hard on me. I have come to the conclusion that I am definitely a fair weather flyer! The sub freezing morning temps wreaked havoc on my performance and I was again unable to make up anytime on the GC. I finished the day fifth and fourth overall only able to imagine how rad this race would have been in more tolerable conditions!

Yeah baby! Cross season has already started here in Oregon–actually a week ago over Labor day weekend. I waited exactly a week to get in on the action at “Pain on the Peak” just outside Hillsboro.

The real fireworks allegedly went off at the Thrilla’ Thursday series with Page, Trebon, etc showing off over in Bend. Maybe they are “training” for Nationals–hee hee!

Anyway, Trebon and a fair contingent of the Portland crowd showed up for some late summer conditions that conjured up images of the dustbowl. After all we WERE on a farm and it was in fact the DIRTIEST I have ever been in any race sans a drop of water!

I am gonna let you in a my top-secret cyclocross training plan… goes something like this: Hang up the bike after the last race of the previous season usually around mid-december; never ride it and barely look at it for for about nine months (interesting corallary); pull it down and feverishing overhaul it the night before first race of the season; go race!

I know it sounds like I am over-prepared… maybe I could work on my bike the morning of? Anyway, I managed to ride around the driveway Friday and a lap of the parking lot pre-race so my chances were looking good until the start when I immediately went backwards. Got that part right, too!

The dust was so attrocious that I didn’t really get to “look” at the course for 4 laps. Oh, well, by that time my glasses were so dirty I still couldn’t see! Evidently most of the rest of the group was immediately dropped (and lapped) by the TALL rider from Kona and I began passing them all.

At the end I was in striking distance of third place when the officials stopped us what seemed like a lap early–two laps to go, then “you’re done”. Fifth really wasn’t a bad result under the circumstances so I was satisfied.

The sequel was called “Sufferin’ on the Summit” and happened the next day at the same venue. Billed as an MTB race, it consisted of a 15 minute lap on double-loop course. The first loop was fun and relatively mellow while the second half was basically straight down and back up with zero rest anywhere. A little moisture helped qwell the dust from the day before even as I led out the group to avoid it.

The course played on my weaknesses for sure–super steep climbs and no momentum to conserve! I struggled to say the least but still managed to collect a prize by finishing fourth on the day.

Next weekend are is some more cross action up in Hood River and then it is on to the Interbike show to work on some sponsorship for next year!

Send me luck–I am going to need all the help I can get!

VP

A little vacation and a little racin’. This is a great event and I hope the Northwest Challenge grows into a series of top notch MTB races along with all the other competitions. Check it out!

I got off to a slow start with some drivetrain issues (derailleurs don’t like sticks), but things settled down and I moved to the front of the race began to open a nice gap the first time up Mt. Bailey. The trail down is super fun so I am sure my lead increased.

The second time up/down I tried to do everything smoother and it seemed like I did since I won the race easily and averaged 14 mph doing so.

Diamond Lake is one of my favorite Oregon destinations so this event will always mark my calendar!

Sweet, mountain bike racing inside my own city limits! Totally rad idea to have summer evening races at the Oregon State Fairgrounds. Thanks to the Buy Local Team and our folks from Capitol Velo, we got this awesome opportunity!

Even though I despise short tracks and generally have to race a least two hours before I ever have a chance of winning, I decided to stamp some Plews authority on the local scene.

I crushed the first three out of four races in decisive fashion and it was in the bag. I even came and did some parade laps during the final event just because I could. Actually that was the only part I regretted since the fair was on, it was half dark, there were people (?) and objects entering the course, and the whole place generally had exhaust and greasy fair food fume over-saturation. I think was was asphyxiated several times over!

Anyway, it was fun, I won, and best of all: this blog just got postive again!

Thanks for reading…

Today is my birthday and negativity of this rant is making me feel old!

Uh-oh–more to come. Maybe it is the life of a so-called “pro” mountain bike racer. Kind of a dismally futile experience! Sorry, now I digress…

I am not really sure why I started this race. Maybe it was redemption for the Cream Puff or most likely the fact that I got a free entry. In any case, it wasn’t such a brilliant endevour–but is riding 100 miles on a mountain bike going to ever be smart?

I was also wondering why my saddle was pointed straight up. Stopped to fix that only to discover that both tires were going flat. Stopped at the first feedzone and pumped them up and started digging myself out of the hole. Or maybe that was into a hole since most of the first fifty or so miles resembled a sandbox or the beach or something similar.

Reached the second feedzone and had began to cut my losses under 10 minutes to Chris Sheppard (Santa Cruz) and was now comfortably in second place. After some more smooth riding the gap was down to 6 minutes and I thought “Wow, this might turn out alright”–WRONG. Wrong as in wrong turn and 5 miles of joyriding through central Oregon singletrack before a decided there was no way the course could possibly be this FUN!

I was right, well wrong as it were and completely off course. Proving MY navigational skills are superb, I rode back to start with only a compass!

Another busted effort but nice to know my form is returning and I can still ride a bike fast.

Thanks for standing with me!

I will preface this very short post with this: I have never raced either of these events before because I thought it would be a drag… and guess what? IT WAS!!!

I have done a few criteriums (riding in circles) before but always as part of a stage race. Under these conditions crits are generally just a waste of time and you just ride around and get a time so I thought the Championships would be harder and therefore better. Wrong.

Heres the deal, road dudes are pretty rad when you are talking continental teams and protour. However, around here they are basically a bunch of strong pedalers–not much else going on. This was evidenced by the ridiculous sprinting and subsequently ludicrous braking out of and into every turn. After a few laps of this I was near the back wonder how I would ever make it to the front with such an energy waste going on.

Then it got better–a bunch of them started wiping out due to the silly brake checking and their hypoxic mental condition and I was split off the back. Enough–time to have some dinner and relax!

The Hillclimb wasn’t a lot better. I got greedy and decided to do the masters race first which essentially only caused me to get bored and do crappy. I finished a couple seconds off winning and then proceed to totally blow off the CAT 1 race and wasn’t even in the top five. My performance was so lame it isn’t really even worth mentioning but the point is… The Hillclimb took less than a half hour and wasn’t every more much more than a five percent grade.

So, really it was a prologue TT with a net elevation gain. Not my gig!