landmine mountain bike race 2008

This course was one large 26 mile lap, super fast for the first half and super rooty and rocky for the second half.

I went all the way from hero to zero in this race. great start, led for the first 5 miles, I was caught by a rider from bikebarn (the big bike shop in the area so he knew all the good lines). We switched off for a while then he put in an attack on a technical climb and I couldn’t hang. My technical riding was good but his fitness was better than mine. Soon after he dropped me I got a flat and i had a bit of a problem fixing it. by thetime i did everyone in my category had passed me. I pretty much through in the towel right there. I tried my best to forget about being a zero and enjoy the rest of the ride.


Turns out my team mate john burns had bad luck too. he fell on one of the wood bridges breaking his handlebar (It rained very heavy the night before so they were wicked slippery)


i was cleaning out my car after getting home from the race and was getting the mud off my shoes with my fingers when I realized it wasn’t mud. It was poo. The end (true story)

kingdom trails in VT

went for a ride with John Burns. We went to kingdom trails in VT. Riding was great and the scenery was out of this world, the prettiest ride I’ve been on. Wildflowers, open meadows, especially gorgeous was this trail that followed along the side of a winding river. Called west bank trail, I think.

on a bridge of west bank trail

John and river

Hopbrook dam mountain bike race 2008

August 10th, 2008

This is a flat course, with some supper fun fast banked turns, some super rooky sections that i am pretty sure messed up just about everyone’s back. It was a fun day the weather was good and i had no mechanicals.

I went down with John Burns, we were the bikeman representation for the pro/ semi pro category. The race started off well for me , I was even leading for a bit, about 2 seconds till we hit the fist corner and I was pushed back to 5th and pushed back even a little further @ the fist climb. I slowly lost the lead group by the end of the first lap and found myself alone but I was happy to see that my team mate John made the move in the lead group. Not an easy, seeing as Mark McCormack (x national road bike champion) was pushing the pase on the fire roads.

I slowly picked off some riders and came in 4th (I think 13 started)

Rest of the results

McCormick ripping the fire roads

Mount snow nationals, 2008, mountain biking

Mount snow nationals
West dover VT
July 19th 2008
Pro xc and st

For this race I was staying with fellow Bikeman riders john burns, Sean Daley and Andrew Freye. The accommodations were very nice (thank you Andrew for setting it up). killed time with movies , chess, trivia pursuit, working on bikes, making and eating food


the awesome place

I was shocked to see the course had been changed this year. It has been a while since they changed it. It was less technical and there was a lot of newly cut sections with fresh roots .Still a lot of steep climbing and descending.

The roots weren’t a problem as long as it stayed dry. it did rain the night before so there were a few hairy root sections that were not nearly as difficult during my pre ride when everything was bone dry.

Despite my complaining about slippery roots it was still all and all easier than last year as far as the course goes. The pace of the race was just as unforgiving as it always is in these national races. My tactic during these races is to ride at my own pace and picking off riders that started too strong and exploded or those unfortunate souls that have mechanicals.

I think there were about 60 starters of that about 50 finished. I came in 42nd. Not very good but I honestly I don’t think I could do much better, so I was happy. It was nice to fished the race after last weekends double flat and dnf.

I found out I was sighed up for short track too. I didn’t try to sign up for it but I must have sighed up for a package deal or something by accident. I am not sure if I was charged or not (probably was) so I felt obligated to race. I did pretty crappy. 2nd to last.

Andrew with geeky helmet cam

more pics to come!!

Windham NY, mountain bike race

Mike Joos
Nora national series
Windham NY
July 12th 2008
Pro xc


The course @ windham mountain was a lot better than the course it replaced in the norba national series (sugar mountain). It is a ski mountain so I assumed that it would be a lot of seeps ups and downs. There were some steep down hill parts but the climbs were not as steep as I anticipated.

I appreciated the more gradual climbs (compared to mount snow) it was easier to pace my self and keep a fluent rhythm.

It was nice to see some of the riders I had been racing against in the regional Root 66 races. made me feel a bit more comfortable.

I felt good during the race. I was near last from the start but I was still in the mix. I was slowly catching riders. In the 2nd lap I climbed my way up to Greg Carpender (root 66 rider). While following him down the decant I got a flat tire. I fixed it and continued. By the time I fixed the flat i was in second to last and was more concerned about finishing the race with out getting lapped than getting a good result. As long as I didn’t have any more problems I was pretty much home free but I did have a problem, another flat on the third lap decent.

Walking my way down the mountain I was able to see the race unfold. Tulouse (spelling?) and Craig were battling it out for the win.

Tulouse won



I hung out with fellow bikeman riders John burns and Sean Daley and got some photos from their races.

John
Sean

Anna was there, ripping it

me rac'nwent to a very nice art gallery and snagged a free dinner and some champaign

got caught in a rain storm while riding with Anna, we built this shelter.

bent over like a person in a wheel chair watching the tour.
playing mini-golf (came in 2nd)
place we stayed, stayed with Anna & John.
Shepard w/ beer bottles, lush.

Kenda Klassic Mt Snow. 2008

Sunday, June 29, 2008:
Kenda Klassic @ Mt Snow mtn bike race
pro/ semi pro

steep stair stepping climbs on a ski mountain course with a technical decent

This one was tough for me . it is the kind of race that makes me wish I had trained more. I believe my worst result to date in this series( root 66) and I don’t have much for excuses. I’ve got a few but not enough to account for how poorly I did.

There were about 23 starters in my category, that I counted. . I was back and forth with John Rowe for most of the race. He was better than me @ climbing and I was better @ descending so we were bouncing back and forth through out the race. it was nice so have a buddy to keep the motivation up.

Michael Mooradian (not racing because of a road bike accident) was there offering encouragement and so were others, and it was all appreciated.

Going into the last lap, i hit a drainage ditch going mach 12 and flatted my rear wheel. It took less than 5 min to fix but it killed my motivation. Plus my riding buddy John Rowe left me in the dust.

I finished up the race, mind wondering about what possible excuse I could give in my blog for my piss poor performance. But nothing came to mind.

I think my strength to weigh ratio isn’t very good, because I always seem to do bad on climbing courses (ski mountains).

ive got a coupe of national races on the up coming scheduled. Windham NY and Mount Snow, again. both ski mtn races. based on my performance today I will be lucky if I don’t get lapped.

On a brighter side Andrew Freye (team mate). Dominated, winning the race by a lot!!!. Beat me by over 45 min, that’s the same time gap Adaim Craig had on me @ nationals last year. He is going to be turning heads @ nationals this year.

Rest of the results

about how fast i was going when i got my flat

Putney West Hill MTB race, 2008

Putney West Hill MTB race
Pro/ semi Pro
Sunday, June 22, 2008:

This race is like a rollercoaster ride. A lot of fast descents with dips and berms,



There are two good sized climbs that weren’t ski mountain big but big enough that you needed to sit down and find a good steady pace.

I started in near the rear. I was back and forth with several riders though out the race Greg Carpenter, Harry Precourt and Jeffrey Whittingham.

The race was cut short due to lighting and thunder, an official was @ the last climb to telling riders they were finishing a lap early before they finished. Greg was pretty close behind me and though he wasn’t able to catch me he was defiantly closing the gap despite my best efforts. So maybe it was beneficial for me to have the last lap cut off.



Here is how it fished

1st John Foley
2ndEthan Gilmour
3rd Nathan Ringquist
4th Bradford Perley
5th Michael Mooradian
6th Kevin Hines
7th ME
all the results

There are a lot of really fast 19 year olds in this race that have recently moved up from juniors.

Ethan won the national championships last year as a junior, Greg came in second @ the national championships, and the 4th finisher place in this race Bradford Perley is also is super fast. I saw Brad just ahead on the 3rd lap, he couldn’t have been more that 10 seconds in front of me and he fished 2.5 minutes ahead of me. he put in a retarded fast last lap, I was really impressed.

I should go around collecting autographs before these guys get too good to talk to me.

Next race is mount snow (not the national race the regional one). i wonder if there will be any big name pros @ this one getting ready for the national race?

A few would be nice.

Handlebars, Flobots

Bradbury State Park Helmet Camera

Went for a ride with team mate John Burns on Wednesday. We rode @ Maine’s Bradbury State Park. John brought along a helmet mounted camera that he was barrowing from the BIKEMAN shop. We took turns filming each other.



The footage seen is a particularly twisty trail, i knew the camera was running so I was taking corners as hard as I could (trying to make it look good). I felt like I was going a lot faster than it looks in the video. I guess that’s one of the things the camera dose to you. makes you look 15 lbs heavier and 5 mph slower).

Thanks to John for, showing me all the best trails in the park, being an awesome camera man, and doing the video editing.

channel 3, 2008

channel 3
root 66 series
pro/semi-pro
2008

I did two races last year that where super hot. On both occasions I felt like my head was going to pop and I had to slow to a crawl and came in near last . so I wasn’t feeling to confident for this race it being super hot and humid.

I decided to keep a pretty slow pace for the entire race. Every time I would push hard though a difficult section or to get around a rider I would get that feeling like my head was boiling over and it would remind me to ride slower.

This race seemed more about not over heated than it was about trying to ride fast (@ least that’s the way it seemed to me).

There were a couple of riders in my category who were in front of me that had flat tires (Greg Carpenter and Thom Parsons ) I am sure the heat claimed several victims too.

Here is how it finished ( it was raining, so they didn’t do the podium so I drew this realistic and exactly to scale drawing of what the podium would have looked like


Props to Michael Patrick for dominating the race by 5 minutes over the second place finisher. He is on great form, I imagine he is going to be taking names @ mount snow this year.

Also Greg Carpenter made up a good chunk of time after his flat. Getting back in to the thick of things and getting a respectable 6th place finish.

next race is Putney / West Hill. i remember this one being all up and down and not much in between.

super cyclist alludes the police

Super Cyclist - Watch more funny videos here
yea!

pats peak moutain bike race 2008

The course seems to stair step up the mountain in 3 good sized climbs. After the second stair step I found my self with Brent Mellen and Matt Boobar. I road with them for the first couple laps. Good riders to be with, seeing as they both did rely well @ mount snow last year and I feel like this race is pretty similar to mount snow (only smaller). @ some point in the third lap i found myself alone. I was on my own for the rest of the race. I did pass Matthew O'Keefe in the last lap but it wasn’t much of a battle He was obviously bonking or dehydrated. O'Keefe normally kicks my ass.

My parents were nice enough o show this time. they handed off water bottles and cheered (thanks). They were trying to keep track of my position. I came in 10th. Adam Snyder (fellow fort lewiser) killed it, winning the race and Andrew Freye my teammate also had a great race coming in 2nd. rest of the results

Next race is channel 3. This ones a lot of fun when its dry, there’s a few sections where you can ride hard into corners as long as it isn’t wet.

rad, send me an angle

yea!

Coyote Hill Classic 2008

A beautiful day for a race, a common theme it seems this year. So far every race in this series (root 66) has had just about perfect weather. I hope that continues.
On top of the excellent weather this race had everything going for it

Awesome Dry course ( @ least driest I’ve seen it)
A huge turn out (21 in my category)
And One of the best venues (Vermont is such a pretty state)

I personally had a lot of fun riding this course. it had fast twisty sections and just enough slow murky sections to make me appreciate the fast ones even more. A bit of a bumpy, up / down, twisty course. Other than the one fire road at the beginning of the race it was difficult to find an opportunity to reach down and grab a the water bottle. I heard some complaints about sore back and arms from all the rocks and roots.

After the dnf last race I was happy to get through this one with out any issues. good whether and not having any major mechanical problems are key to having a fun race. more important than the result.( that sounds like something a loser would say).

Here’s how it finished up

Justine Lindine 1st
Adam Snyder 2nd
Thom Parsons 3rd
Mike Meridian 4th
Me 5th

Honorable mention to Greg Carpenter who was riding well and had a mechanical in the last half of the last lap ( that sucks). Getting to see all the riders you worked so hard to stay in front of blow by so near to the finish.

I don’t know wat is worse getting a unfixable mechanical @ the end of a race (you can at least walk back and get with out getting a dnf ) or @ the beginning (where you get a dnf and loose the opportunity to get in a workout) both blow pretty bad I suppose.

Next race in the series pats peak ( kinda reminds me of a mini mount snow)

crazy European techno xc video

yea ! ! ! !

photos from sea otter! ! ! !

pictures from sea otter trip certacy of Josh kissinger
deciding weather or not to wear arm warmers. i did

with anna
stunt course

demoing spot's belt drive 29er
Josh and excellent view showing off scab, turcouse water
squirrels love apricot cliff bars
4 squirrels on one lap, I think that is a record
riding in ventura


sweet monster truck near the venue

Brialee Ramblin Rumble 2008

Sunday, May 11, 2008: Brialee Ramblin Rumble

a swampy bike destroying course. lots of souppy sections where pedaling trough sounded like my bike was being tortured. A beautiful day and a decent turn out for my category (pro semi pro) I didn’t count but it looked like about 15 or so.

the race didn’t go very well for me. bad start, followed by a flat tire in the first 5 minutes of the race. I had just put on some new bontrager dry tubeless tires (I guess they are pretty weak). I only had one co2 and that wasn’t enough to fill the 29er. The tire was rolling off to the side when I would go hot into corners. In the 3rd lap a branch wedged into my rear derailleur tearing it off my bike. that was the end of the race for me. I wasn’t alone other riders in my category had problems. Here are the ones I heard about. (excuse me if I get the facts wrong)

Thom Peterson john Foley and Andrew Freye all had bad falls

Andrew also had a flat tire

Aaron Oakes missed a sign and went way off course

I am sure the majority of riders who raced had at least a minor problem. it is just that kind of course, easy to get flat tires, easy to miss a turn, easy to fall, and easy to break something.

the top two riders were on single speeds. Sean Cavanaugh won and Thom parsons came in second. Andrew Freye came in third.

Next race in the series is coyote hill. This one is a lot of fun. One of the best in the series

bike tread conversation

if you race mountain bikes you've probably had the bike tread conversation. seem like every racer has there ideal tread pattern for every trail condition. conversations can go on for hours about what tire to use for a preticular race. the more competitive and serious the rider the longer and more heated theses conversations can get. i feel theses conversations are a bit unhealthy. they cause paranoia.

just wanted to let readers know i am aware of my unhealthy habits

Bontrager dry ust: very light compared to my maxis ignitor and rolls noticeably faster too. doesn’t handle corners as well.(still better than most 26” xc tires). The tire tends to fold over easier . I had to put a little extra pressure in to stop that from happening. first time i used this tire i got a flat ( mabey bad luck)

Panracer rampage ust: similar tread pattern to the Michelin at but knobs are closer together and not as high. Oh and the knobs have ramps on the back sides of them that help the rampage roll smother than the Michelin AT.

Maxis ignitor 29er: excellent handling tire, felt a bit wide for a 2.1 tire. good sized side knobs that grip very well in corners, tread fills with mud pretty easy, a good aggressive xc tire. A bit heavy but worth it if there is a lot of loose slippery stuff.



Michelin tubeless AT 26er: pretty high spread apart knobs. Don’t fill with mud very easy. Tended to get punctures along the rim if tire pressure was low. Pretty fast rolling considering the size of the knobs but not the best tire on dry days.

bike crash

this video reminded me of the ride i did with josh in ventura. except neither of us fell.



gives me the chills

Fat tire classic 2008

This is a fast flat race, ideal for those who maintained some fitness over the winter. The turn out was ok, about 15 riders in the semi-pro/ pro class. I had a cold this week left over from sea otter last weekend. my throat was still a little raw. Breathing cold air irritates it so I avoided riding this week.

I knew I would not be on top of my game this race but I felt better than expected. I started off slow, tord the rear and found my A game @ about 2 laps in to the 5 lap race. Just a little too late I finished less than a minute behind 3 riders. I was gaining; another lap would have been nice. I finished 6th.

I car pooled down to this race with friend/ team mate Andrew Freye. He had a great day, winning the race. he had a pretty dominate performance. Congratulations!!

I ran back my car to get a picture of him on the podium (something he could put on his frig). But I got back the podium seconds too late. Here is a nice photo of Andrew walking away from the podium.



The Next root 66 race is the Brialee Ramblin Rumble in Ashford, CT. by far my least favorite race the series. I never do well there.

sea otter classic, bike festival

Sea otter is a huge bike festival/ races that I have wanted to go to for a long time. My good friend josh recently moved to CA and proposed the idea of going. I immediately jumped on board and also managed to convince another good friend of mine Anna kelso to join the party.

The trip out was long but josh and his roommates warmly welcomed me. It was still another 3 hours from his place to the race so we saw a lot of cool scenery along the way to Monterey CA (city where sea otter happens). The first day there josh and I got registered for are races and checked out all the company tents and some of the trick shows. Ryan Leach was there doing his trails along with some bmx riders. Between stunt shows, watching bike racing and demoing bikes there was no shortage of things to do. It took over 2 hours just to walk though and look @ all the company tents collecting free junk and stickers. We finished the day off with a trying out a lap of the xc course. I didn’t realize that a one lap was 19 miles!! It took a lot out of us, we didn’t bring enough food or pace are selves very well. However, I thought the course was pretty good for the most part it had some fast and twisty sections, sandy loose descents, fire roads with stong headwinds and quite a bit of ups and downs (not many flats). We met up with Anna and had dinner together that night.

Somewhere along the line both josh and I managed to get colds (probably during the preride maybe before). Even though we felt crappy that didn’t stop us. The Second day Josh raced in the early morning. It was supper windy all day and cold but josh battled through it. Josh managed to puke his brains out get a flat tire and fished last. It didn’t sound like it was a very fun race from his description. After joshes race we watched a dual stunt bike race ( like and obstacle course head to head race.) Then we tried out a new belt drive system that worked rely well and demoed a few 08 mnt bikes. We went back to the hotel and played some tennis on the mini tennis/ basketball/ volleyball court in the hotels court yard watched a little TV then went to bed

Day 3 was the day Anna and I raced. She raced early in the morning I guess she was having a hard time staying motivated because she felt she could have done better and was disappointed with her performance. My race was later in the afternoon. A lot of big names showed up. I had some small problems. I Fell off my bike, had to stop to tighten my handle bar, and I went off course for a short bit before getting redirected by spectators. All together couldn’t have accounted for much more than 2 minutes. Instead of finishing 6th from last I would have been 7th from last. My cold wasn’t bothering me as bad as I thought it might be. And for the most part I felt pretty good I was just out classed this week end, but I enjoyed my race. that’s why I think mountain bike racing is so much more fun than road you can get your ass handed to you and still have a good time in mountain biking I don’t thin the same is possible in road racing.(not in my experience anyway).

Anna left before the race was over to visit her cousin. Josh and I had a night on the town to forget about are horrible performances during the races. we managed to find the sketchiest neighborhood in town. We played pool @ a pool hall on a street where all I could see were shut down buildings , strip clubs, liquor stores. No one we met in this area spoke English. We played pool for an hour or so before getting a little too uncomfortable. I felt like others in the pool hall were taking about us, Mexican maranga music was blasting and I heard a scream from the back room. We decide to call it an early night.

The next day On the way back to josh’s place in Ventura we took a longer more scenic route along the coast. Some of the coolest scenery I have ever seen. The road winded along steep cliffs with turquoise water @ the bottom. It was beautiful, didn’t get any pictures though. My camera ran out of battery on the first day.

Back in Ventura josh toot me on one of his favorite rides in town. We basically climbed up fast rolling semi-gradual incline for an hour and a half then bombed back down another trail in about 20 min. we got going supper fast and there was a death drop on one side of the trail in many parts. One corner was very close, I thought I was going to die for sure.
We made it down alive and are ears were all messes up from the fast change in altitude. The fact are sinuses were clogged ed made the pressure in are heads build up freely as we declined. We were both half def. we had to speak loudly to understand eachother. My ears didn’t pop back till later in the afternoon the next day.

All and all a good vacation, very memorable.

Special thanks to josh who was kind enough to give me feeds during my 39 mile race and snagging me a recovery drink after the race, driving me around, and letting me stay @ his place. Another special thanks to Anna for cheering me on and providing excellent company.

Josh's house

Josh packingMe with Sea Otter

Ryan LeechJosh taking pics of Ryan Leech





Cool Belt -Drive