July was one of my busiest months ever. I raced at least twice a week throughout the month and had some great experiences! Here is my report:

USAC Marathon National Championships July 4th
The trip got started perfectly with an early arival into Denver. From here on, lets just say the debacle began. First it was Hertz–never rent a car from Hertz in Denver unless you like waiting for an hour in line only to find out they screwed up your reservation. Got the car just in time for rush hour which morphed into holiday weekend traffic jam to the mountains. 4 hours later we getting close and stop at the hotel to check in. Evidently, Holiday Inn has the same forgetful computer system so some time later we get our room which involves many flights of stairs and hallways to get to (we got the room in the old building with no elevator). Back through the maze and driving to registration then to the store for some dinner fixings. Stores are sold out–completely–must be a holiday! Needless to say, dinner at 11pm is not ‘normal’ preparation. Get two winks of sleep then to the race start. Nice parade start and I am already sucking 10000ft wind. Then some bonehead decides to stack-up the group on the pavement. Close call, but nice adrenaline rush! Shortly I am getting dropped on the climb. Probably my worst race performance of the season–great, perfect timing. I pass a few guys then proceed to get a face full of Stan’s Solution as my front tire gets cut by a rock on a granny gear climb. Change the tube and now I am expecting at least a 10 minute deficit at the lap point. Instead, I am in the race lead?! No, way. So I ride a half a lap easy and finally see Dave Weins and some other guy behind me. I stop and adjust my derailleur and wait to talk to them. They can’t believe it either but all evidence shows we are the last men standing. I take off again and spend the next 10 miles convincing myself that I am going to be National Champion after having my worst race of the year. Now I am in the last single track riding super slow and conservative, and I hear a rider behind me. Uh, oh. So I get on the gas and POW–blow the rear tire in less than 10 yards. Bishop passes me then 200 yards to go, the other guy passes me. Third place… seems more like it!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2008/jul08/firecracker08

http://www.velonews.com/article/79312/jeremiah-bishop-and-sari-anderson-win-national-marathon

Cascade Classic July 11-13th
Here to finally get my CAT1 upgrade so I was racing the CAT 2 race with over 100 other crazed roadies. Nice–and dangerous! Anyway, I didn’t do so hot in the opening day TT or Crit but managed to take 6th in the mountain stage finishing at Mt Bachelor. Seemed more like a mole-hill stage after all the NUE races but I managed a decent result. Saved my stuff all day in the circuit race but got jammed up on the run in to the finish so no sprinting and no placing. Mission accomplished, though. I now have my CAT 1 license and cat race NRC events again!

Breckenridge 100 July 19th
Remember the rental car fiasco? Well, it all played out again confirming that Hertz is not my choice in Denver. Better trip and got to bed at a reasonable time with my standard pre-race meal. 6:30am start was definitely brisk in the rockies… but shivering soon gave way to gasping as we climbed OVER the top to Copper Mountain. I had a couple minute gap at the top on Josh Tostado and was enjoying myself and the great scenery. He caught up to me after I was nearly treed by some mongrel dogs halfway down the mountain. Obvously the camper wasn’t expecting to see a race going by at 8am! Josh got a little gap on some rough single track coming in for lap 2 but I still thought I was in good shape. Unfortunately that is when I came to a 3-way split in the trail with no signs. Of course I guessed wrong and rode back down into town for a mile to figure that out. More confusion at unmarked intersections meant advantage: local guy. By the end of the second lap I was mentally out of it and 12 minutes back. I tried to stoke up some ambition for the final lap but only managed to lose more time. It was an awesome course but just lacked some critical markers. So, another NUE second place finish.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2008/jul08/breckenridge100_08

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20080719/SPORTS/350026849

Oregon State Games XC July 20th
The only race this year at Mt Hood Skibowl and also the State Games. Got into PDX from Denver just in time to get up to the mountain, build my bike, and get to the start line with NO warm-up. I got a good start and hit the first steep climb–CRUNCH–rear derailleur gone. Nice should have checked out the shifting a little better… Back to the car and installed a new rear mech in about 20 minutes. Off to the races! It was kind of fun and off the hook riding. No cares, no worries, just going fast! Managed to past most of the crew and finished 4th on the day. Not bad, considering…

Galena Grinder Marathon July 26th
Back on the plane to Idaho where my TransRockies partner Keith was waiting to pick me up. Got a ride from Boise to Ketchum with Jon Gould (super stallion master racer) and did some TR planning on the way. Luckily ScottUSA had found us a nice room in town so we were all set on arrival. A trip to Globus (local fine dining) for Thai food, left us full to the gills and ready to rock. The race started nice and mellow and I was in good shape at the front. First long downhill had us traversing back and forth across a dry creek bed. I was letting the bike roll a little too much and soon I was IN the creek bed. POW–another cut-up tire and oops, I forgot my Hammer Gel for booting. No boot = no good but I was aired up and chasing. Managed to make the front again before the second lap and was building a much need buffer when the said tube blew. Amid a cloud of seriously hungry flies I got another tube and boot in place (not) and was rolling again. No chasers in sight so maybe a victory yet? PIISSSSST! Another flat–boot must have slipped so this time I was more careful and still no one caught up. Finally to the finish and a super nice victory indeed. Now I am temporarily on top of the USAC Ultra Endurance Calendar!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb/?id=2008/jul08/galenagrinder08

PIR Short Track Monday Nights
Maybe you all remember the Portland short track series I started back in June. Anyway, it continued through July with races every Monday night. 30 minute races are NOT my forte, but I did well to finish top five every week. This put me into second overall for the series. Hopefully this intensity will pay off later this year at some ‘cross races…

Now a week off and headed to TransRockies 2008. Looks like there will be some strong Canadian teams there but Keith and I like our chances anyway. We are shooting for the podium so look for us in the daily reports on CyclingNews or Velonews.

Thanks for reading

I suppose I should start with the ETC part of the report…

That happened a couple weeks ago when I traveled all the way to Eastern Oregon for the Elkhorn Classic road stage race. The first day was OK, but the CAT1-2 field was riding more like complete idiots and there were several nasty stack-ups including one at 40mph downhill–right in front of me. Luckily, I was able to lock up the back wheel and slide sideways avoiding bikes and bodies by inches. Lovely but brand new tubular was toast! Then I instigated the chase of an earlier breakaway (none of the roadies seemed willing to) and brought the gap back to 10-15 seconds on the last little hill before the finish. With only a couple miles to go the said roadies decided to play games and start trying to win the stage before they actually caught the break. That resulted in them dropping a gassed, yours-truly, but no stage victory for any of them. Dumb!

The next morning was the TT which I did not ride well and lost a couple minutes. Too short, I guess. I was excited to race the Crit that evening but then a thunderstorm passed through making the road slick and wet. Evidently, road events no longer happen in the rain so the promoters canceled the Crit and I rode around town for fun in my skinsuit looking really hot!

The big final stage loomed and after the first stage shinanigans, I decided to race with the GC leaders and wait for the final of three significant climbs on the day to race. Since it was a mountain-top finish, I figured we would still gobble up any breaks. WRONG! The GC boys let a huge break gain nearly 15 minutes and never put their boys on the front to chase. Then in the first feed zone, some moron ran into the back of me bending my derailleur/hanger and rendering me with a relatively gearless bike. Without much spirit left, I finished the race, singlespeeding the final climb. All in all, it was a supreme waste of time and money!

Now on to the important report…

I came home Sunday night and headed up to Portland for the first race of the PIR Monday night Shorttrack series. After a slow start, I picked off the local fodder and managed to finish 3rd. Not bad for endurance guy!

Last weekend was the Oregon State Championships. First up was the Shorttrack event. I started out in the lead but after waiting around in nearly 100F heat for almost two hours (mis-printed race time), I succumbed and ended up only being able to manage 3rd place. Not good and I was also not happy to have such bad vibes a week before Marathon National Championships. Hmmnnn…

That evening I raced the Super D event and wasted all the DH guys because they couldn’t go any faster on the rough areas, and I smoked them on all the little climbs. Nice–first victory of the season!

Next day was the XC event, and since it was supposed to take over three hours, I took it easy at the start. After being fourth place initially, I moved to second place when the Sobe-Cannondale boys crashed one another out temporarily. Soon, the big fireroad climb started and I moved to the front. By the top, I had around 5 minutes, so I conserved the lead and enjoyed the awesome course with seemingly endless downhills and RAD singletracks–eventually winning by nearly 10 minutes over Ben Thompson (Sobe-Cannondale), and Mark Weir (WTB). This netted me my second consecutive Oregon XC title and third in the last four years!

Back to Portland Monday night for shorttrack and another dismal start. This time I was going better and managed to chase back to second place behind local ‘cross legend Shannon Skerritt, but just ran out of time catching him. My homey Steve Carwile (Capitol Subaru) finished third so that was cool, too.

Again, thanks to all of you and next up is Marathon National Championships on July 4th. Looks like a bunch of XC specialists will try their hand at a longer race so it should be fun and interesting to see how things shake out!

Until next time,
EP

First of all, I want to thank each of you for your support again this season! I am happy to say that it has the best ever for me and without out some support I am sure it wouldn’t be happening this way.

I just got home from race three of the NUE 100 mile MTB series, the Lumberjack 100 in Michigan. Unfortunately I just missed victory–again! This time I finished 2nd overall just a minute behind the winner Jeff Shalk (Trek/VW). After an unnecessary early flat, I was able to re-join the leaders and did my best to put the pressure on. However, the frantic chase and a little residual training fatigue caught up to me with less than five miles to to. Jeff was hammering up each small climb (it was Michigan) and my legs finally just couldn’t answer the call. Anyway, I am happy with the result minus the bad luck and I am looking forward to even bigger races in July.

Unfortunately it looks like I will have to settle for 2nd overall in the NUE series. With only two races remaining (for me). It is mathmatically impossible for me to overtake the lead. Not bad, but I want you all to know I was there to win for you!

Speaking of training, I decided to do one more ‘block’ directly following the NUE race in Ohio. 10 days and 50+ hours later I took a few days off before the race. Maybe not a enough, but I think it was almost just right. Now I am in a long taper leading up to the National Marathon Championships in Breckenridge on July 4th. A race I would most dearly love to win!

In the meantime, I travel to eastern Oregon tomorrow to race the Elkhorn Classic road stage race. This should help me start finding my legs before our Oregon State Championship MTB race the following weekend.

Here is a link to a report on the NUE series event in Michigan:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2008/jun08/lumberjack100_08

I have also attached a couple pics. My apologies for not having more, but my feeder, mechanic, manager, photographer (wife) can only do so much!

Thanks again,
Evan Plews

Sorry it has been so long! May has been a big month for me as an opportunity to prepare for more important events in June and beyond. After the Cohutta 100 mile MTB race in April, I realized that I needed to take things to a new level if I wanted to obtain my goal of winning this type of event. That meant getting back to the basics with some serious hours on the bike and some local races to sharpen me up.

The first weekend of May was the Spring Thaw Classic XC race in Ashland, Oregon. This is one of the first races I ever did, so I always enjoy returning. After winning the event last year maybe there was some other obligation, too! I was coming off a training block of over 60 hours in 12 days, so evidently I was still a little ‘touched’. None the less, I set the early pace on the climb before fading slightly to finish 3rd behind Ryan Trebon (Kona) and Chris Sheppard (Santa Cruz). With no less than five other pro riders in attendence, I was reasonably stoked with that effort!

The next day, the Tablerock road race happened just up the road. I tossed my hat in the ring, but I missed the early (and winning) break. It was fun taking turns with Trebon, Carl Decker (Giant), Jason Sager (Monovie-Cannondale) breaking some legs in the group, though. Also pretty cool to have Ryan tell me I was the strongest ever. In the end, I was able to finish 4th of the bunch and 9th overall. Not bad for a training ride…

The following week began Mt Hood Stage Cycling Classic. This is an NRC road stage race so lowly category 2 riders like me don’t get to race with the PROs. No big deal since it is more fun racing for money than pride on the road any day. I animated Stage One with an early (and unsuccessful) breakaway then got boxed in at the finish, but managed 9th on the day. Stage Two was a long individual time trial, a beautiful course in the Columbia River Gorge. I gave it everything I had, but found myself lacking in this displine. After losing a couple minutes and only finishing 14th I wished for more pride! The ‘Queen’ stage on Saturday had been truncated due to record snowpack still on the course. This meant it was shorter and was missing a significant early climb. Not so good for me, but still a hard mountain-top finish at the Mt Hood Meadows ski area. Some friends of mine from Eastern Washington (Vertical Earth) had the race lead, so I gave them a hand driving the group and bringing back some breakaways. At the end, we were still all together and I managed to stay at the front until about 400 meter to go. Again I got shagged by a blown rider and missed the wheels for the sprint finish. Still came across in 5th place a few seconds down on the day.

With the final stage a criterium in downtown Hood River, Oregon, there wasn’t much more to do. This didn’t seem like much fun so I skipped it and left my GC prize money (was in 6th place) to head for Bear Springs Trap for some mountain bike racing. BST is one of the better local races and includes a lot of ‘real’ mountain biking. Unfortunately, it too had been shorted due to snow pack this year and didn’t have the same feel. Needing more of a warm-up than standing around for an hour, I got in a wad of traffic at the start. Kind of funny how all the local semi-pros and experts still want a piece of you even though you could have a shower before they finish! Anyway, I sawed through the fodder and by the middle of the race I had caught the early leader, Erik Tonkin (Kona). Thinking I had my first ever BST victory in the bag, I promptly flatted and was back to 4th place. Chasing like a maniac again, I could only manage to settle for 2nd place on the day. Bitterness for sure!

More training and then the Oregon Rehearsal road race the following weekend. Rehearsal is an annual pre-race of the State Championship event. It generally carries Oregon Cup points and serves as the Championships for some other categores so attendance and competition is generally always good. I came to ride in support of my friend, Omer Kem (Bissell Pro Cycling), as he had won an early Cup event. After many fruitless efforts trying to get him off the front, I tried to bridge up to a break including Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racing) and Evan Elken (Jittery Joes). I got hung out to dry which was too bad since this ended up being the winning move. In the end I was able to grab 3rd in the bunch finish and 6th overall. Pretty tough course and with all the ‘real’ road guys in the house, over half the field didn’t even make the finish.

Last weekend was round two of the NUE 100 mile race series. This time we journeyed all the way to Ohio for some suffering. Of course it was dry and beautiful the day before the race, but the monsoons that seem to follow me this season moved in later that night leaving the course a mess. Did I ever mention that I hate riding in the rain? I set the early pace and grabbed a $100 prime for being first up the initial climb leaving town.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtbphotos.php?id=/photos/2008/may08/mohican100_08/DSCF1570_cash_winner4x5_tite

The race pretty much deteriorated for me from that point with a stick immediately wrecking my rear shifting. After a stop at the first aid station to improve that situation, I managed to chase across to the leaders with no less than three wipe-outs in the now slimey singletrack. Just as I made contact with the front, I became aware that I had a low rear tire. Hoping the sealer was working, I rode on and eventually stopped to fill it with CO2. Of course, this didn’t work and I was flat again in a couple miles. So, I stopped again to insert a tube and then off to aid station three where I stopped yet another time for more air to top-off the tire. After all of this, I chased for 30 miles until I was blowing my lid and managed NOT to catch anyone. The last 20 miles were spent spitting mud and lamenting. Another missed opportunity, but nice to know that after a busy May, my fitness is perfect and I was undoubtably the strongest rider there. Too bad my strength was spent for only 4th place overall! Read more about it here:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb/?id=2008/may08/mohican100_08

This week there are no races so hopefully I can get some of my house hold duties taken care of. Then I am headed to Michigan for round three of the NUE series before racing a local road stage race and Oregon XC Championships. This it is the big show, July 4th Marathon National Championships in Colorado.

Thanks again and wish me better luck–I can use all the help I can right now!

Over, and thanks for reading!

EP

Thanks to all of you I am off to my best season ever! At least with regard to results…

March was a bust this year for training after I ended up with an abscessed saddle sore a week after returning home for my first race in Texas. After two weeks off the bike I was a little to hasty to get going again. Not wanting to have another problem, I had changed my saddle position a little and imanaged to pull my hamstring in the process of returning to riding!

I kitted up for the Banana Belt III road race which is part of the not-so-prestigeous Oregon Cup this year. It was of course cold and trying to rain but I felt decent and was ready to race. Unfortunately I flatted after about 20 miles and the resulting slow wheel change meant a long attempted chase back to the pack. Didn’t happen and I was losing time after another 20 miles. So I just rode home and started dreaming about warmer days to come.

Thank goodness it WAS warmer in Fontana, CA for the National Mountain Bike Series round #1. After an unscheduled business trip to San Jose earlier that week, I was again touched by some sort of bug. This time in my intestinal track. I seemed to recover and felt decent on Friday during my pre-ride of the XC course. Then Saturday morning I woke up to back pain. Once I got up and visited the toilet a few times it became apparent that my ‘back’ pain was really some abdominal cramps. Things settled down and I raced that afternoon.

I pre-registered way early in hopes of getting some respect at the start line. Not so. Typical NMBS cluster and I was in 83rd position heading out on lap one. My fitness is clearly coming on regardless of all the setbacks, though. By the end of the race I had managed to saw through the field and finish in 28th spot. Not bad considering… That equaled my best ever NMBS result, too!

After the race I was in real trouble, though. The violent effort brought back whatever was in my gut with a vengeance. I got no more than 2 hours sleep Sunday morning (yes, not Saturday night) and was stricken for the next three days. Finally just as we were getting ready to leave Thursday for NMBS #2 in Arizona things started to improve. Flew down Thursday AM and got a nice lap of the marathon course ridden.

Friday AM was the marathon start and we had a decent field. Liam Killeen, Nat Ross, Travis Brown, Tinker Juarez, fellow Scott rider Cody Peterson, my 2006 Transalp partner Ben Thompson, all in the house. So it was time to get my game on no matter what. We left the start and there seemed to be a little hesitation going into the first trail. I took the initiative and the lead since so many times I have gotten ‘gapped off’ by slower riders at the start of these races. I rode a manageable pace for about the first five miles then started looking for help at the front. When I turned around there were only 4 riders left!

Wow, that was easy… I messed around drafting Ross, Peterson, Killeen, and Juarez for the next lap plus. It was good to have company but harded to ride behind some of those guys in the desert. Just before the descent on the second lap of three, I was getting antsy. So, I stood on it over a few rollers and immediately dropped all four of them. Not wanting to ride for 30 miles alone, I sat up and waited for Killeen. Finally he re-joined me and sucked wheel back the start/finish line. As we started north again, I let him go to the front and he was riding a hard tempo. Unfortunately for me, the wind had shifted to behind us and he is a little guy. So, all the way up the false flat climb (15 miles) I slowing lost track of Liam. He was riding about a .5 mph faster but there was nothing I could do.

I resigned myself to second but withheld hope of catching up on the long downhill to the finish. Then I had a mental lapse and flew off into the cactus and stacked it, scraping my left side up pretty well. After that, I just rode it in finishing 4.5 minutes after Killeen but about 8 minutes ahead of Tinker and Nat.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2008/apr08/NORBA_2_08/NORBA_2_081

The rest of the weekend was a stage race with a time trial, short track, and regular cross country event. I took it easy for the TT and ST and gave it all I had left during the XC event. Since my decent finish at Fontant I got to start on the 3rd row in AZ. Much better and I was able to finish a very respectable (and personal best) 19th!

Last weekend was round #2 of the Oregon Cup road series near my home in Kings Valley, Oregon. The weather was finally in the 70s (for one day so far this year) so it was a great day for a training ride. An early breakaway got off early with Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racking) leading the charge. Adam Craig (Giant) and myself among others tryed to rally a chase but two of the big local teams were also represented in the break so we were all really content to race for 5th at the end. I managed 12th at the finish so I was pretty happy with that. A nice ride home to Salem and I had a 100+ mile day.

Later in the evening I visited the Blackrock Freeride park in Falls City, Oregon. Our team, Capitol Subaru Cycling is going to be taking over the annual cross-country race there beginning in 2009. This years event takes place on June 1st and I have volunteered to re-design the course. We got it all laid out on Saturday evening and it promises to be the best XC course in Oregon this year. Come on over and check it out!

This weekend is the first National Ultra Endurance race in Tennessee. Since it will only be the second time I have ever ridden my bike east of the Mississippi and over 100 miles in a day, I am not sure what to expect. I am ready to race, though, and looking forward to another chance at a great early season result!

I have attached some pictures from CA and AZ for you all to enjoy!

Thanks again,
Evan Plews

Wow! I can’t believe it is already the middle of February and we just got home from the first USA Cycling National race in Texas. We had a great time although the weather was a little sketchy until we were ready to leave. Kind of cold and windy but nothing compared to training in Oregon!

Speaking of training, I started training after the holidays with two main objectives: lose some body mass, learn to ride PowerCranks for all types of training. I also incorporated the Compex EMS unit for all my strength work rather than going to the gym and wasting time and money there. So far, I am right on track. I have lost 3 kg and feel pretty awesome. I have been able to go from <1hr on the PowerCranks to over 7 hours riding time last week! If any of you want a challenge, I suggest PowerCrank-ing! Unfortunately, I got sick on a business trip about 2 weeks ago. This didn’t hinder my training too much, but definitely bothered me when the pace picked up in the race last Saturday. Oh, well, I haven’t been sick in years so it has to happen sooner or later. On to the race… The Mas O Menos 100k event is a two lap affair contested way down in Terlingua, Texas each President’s Day weekend. Last year, I managed to set a one lap course record of 1:56 before cutting a tire and flatting twice before finishing 4th overall. I came into this years race with high expectations based on my previous performance. The race started much the same and I ended up getting gapped off the back in some singletrack shortly after the start. I didn’t think too much of it until the course turned west and north into the wind. I immediately realized that I had made a critical mistake and tried my best to reduce the deficit. Didn’t happen, and I rode solo about :30 to 1 minute behind for most of the first lap. Too bad because I was climbing well regardless of being sick and there was a $100 prime for first to the top of the climb. The wind increased as the day went on and I lost even more time in the middle part of the second lap. By the time I reached the mid-way checkpoint I was around 3 minutes behind, while working up to 5th place… not good. I was already pretty disappointed in myself, but if there is one thing that I have proven in 13 years racing bikes–I am not a quitter! I passed Nat Ross (Gary Fisher/Subaru) fixing a flat. In 4th now, I thought maybe I still had a chance. I put my head down and rode a 5 minute time trial straight north into the wind. By the time I reached the base of the climb, I had caught the third place rider and could see the leaders about 1:30 ahead. I plodded up the climb and caught a fading 2nd place Bryan Fawley near the top. Being the gentleman I am, I gave him my water bottle and wished him the best. Time had ran out to catch former winner Jason Sager, and I had to settle for 2nd place 1:15 back. All in all, it was a good race and proved my fitness despite being sick. I am still disappointed, though. It would have been nice to come home with 1st place, a nice trophy, and $300 more in my pocket to cover expenses. Here is a little article with some nice pictures: http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2008/feb08/masomenos Thanks to all of you who help me out with sponsorship. Some of you really stepped it up for me again this year and I cannot begin to express my appreciation. Some of you experienced budget cuts and consequently so did I. For your companies, I want you all to know that I am a loyal guy and I still use your product because I believe in it and because you’ve helped me in the past… Hopefully you can make it up in the future!