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.