photos from last sundays ride

training ride, moco epic, wheels

for this weeks team training ride Jeff Dickey and i did 50 miles of the Montgomery county epic loop... Dylan couldn't make it this week he was racing the monster cross race... he came in 4th!... the trail conditions and weather were great... probably the best we have seen since we stared doing these rides in Dec... i had one big mechanical that took the steam out of are high paced ride... my front wheel was tacoed... a corner snuck up on me and i hit it going too fast

i tried wacking it straight enough o ride, but no luck the tire was still rubbing on the fork... i ended up having to take the tire off and ride the rim the last 5 miles... the rim wasn't worth trying t fix so i didn't feel to bad about trashing it even more... it was super loud riding on gravel road, sketchy going through rock gardens, over logs,  and through stream crossings but way better than walking.

 good thing the Stans no tube order is coming in Tuesday... they are one of the sponsors of the team... i haven't used any of their wheelsets myself but i hear that they are really nice...i got a set of the crest 29ers for my race bike...

and a set of flow 29ers for my training bike... the flows are wide (28 mm) all mountain wheels so they should be able to hold up to all the hard corning i can throw at them...

weekly team ride, foutainhead park

i met up with Dylan on Monday to do a ride... Ian also joined us... i only did 18 miles and under 2 hours...Dylan rode from home putting in over 4 hours... we did a few laps of fountainhead tried to avoid new sections that were muddy... there are lots of short steep ups and downs... i think these trails will be 10 times better when they wear in more get bone dry mid summer... then i think it will be easier to carry speed up those hills.

my heart rate was pegged at race-pace while Ian and Dylan were riding causally and chatting in front of me.

 

next weekend we plan on doing a long team ride.

photos from last sundays ride

 me 23 degrees at start

 Dylan

  Dylan jumping

  Dylan on banked turn

 me with broken derailleur hanger

 Kevin

Ian and me

fairfax county eppic

Jeff, Dylan and i did are weekly training ride today... Ian and Kevin also joined us...  i rode for 8-9 hours and 85 miles... i believe this is the longest mountain bike ride i have done since i did a solo 24 hour mtn bike race when i was 23... Jeff and Dylan did more than me...i was the weakest guy on the roads and bike paths and was holding down the pace so i bailed out early with Ian who hurt his knee. Jeff did about 95 mile and Dylan who rode his bike from home did about 110 miles.

photos from last saturdays ride

weekly team training ride, Fairfax County Epic

this week we rode the trails in fountainhead park... lots of berms and fast rolling, short intense climbs and ladder bridges to ride on.

and we rode some of the Fairfax county cross country trails... lots of open field and fast rolling but less berms and less intense climbing than fountainhead...

we linked it all together with roads and bike paths... it was 6 hour 75 mile ride...

it was at a pretty hard pace (at least i thought so) i was dropped 3 times and the last 10 miles i was getting light headed... Jeff, Dyaln and Ian were merciful and slowed down the pace for me... and it started to rain in the last 10 miles... being wet at 38 degrees was pretty uncomfortable.