The Gunks

Over the weekend, I took a trip to NY. The objective was climbing at the Gunks. I awoke at 3am on Friday morning to catch a 6am flight to NY. I felt like crap. I was able to sleep on the plane, and in the hotel when I arrived. We arrived at the crag around 3pm, and were able to get two long routs in. These were pretty casual, but, I did have to back off of one, and let my dad take the sharp end. We finished climbing, and ended the day with some quality Dog Fish head IPA. Our second day of climbing included some of my dads friends. The weather was perfect, and the climbing was just as good. These routs were of the more moderate nature. The last route of the day was the shortest and the hardest. A 50 foot thin finger crack that ran the whole way. The hands and feet were there the whole way, but it was sustained. I red pointed this rout, which boosted my confidence. I was in much need of this, as I have not been climbing a lot lately. The mental game is a huge part of climbing. If your head is not with you, especially on these exposed routes, you will wither up and die on the rock. It is amazing to me how quickly the mind will crumble in the face of a challenge. That is the struggle with leading bold climbs. The strength might be there, but you also have to have a sack, and be able to march into uncertainty. Sunday was our last day on the rock. Our first route required a bold lead right off of the bat. My dad walked up to this, and fired it. It was a great pitch with several consecutive thin foot moves at the top, with run out gear. I followed up, and when I got to the ledge, I grabbed the rack, and got ready to move. This looked to be another bold pitch. We were about 150 feet off the deck. The first 45 feet of climbing were traversing to the right, on thin hands and thinner feet. I had to go out an around a roof before it let off. My head seemed to be with me, so I move over to a climb named WRIST, one that we had done before. I started off on the first pitch, and quickly realized I had done this climb before. Halfway up the pitch was a left facing corner that had a crack in it, about 4 inches wide. Last time, 5 years ago, this section took me 15 min to get the balls to move through it. This day, I fired it, just moved right thorough it. My dad moved through the final pitch, which moved up to and around a roof. This was pretty exposed, which means that there is nothing below you for several hundred feet. Our final climb of the trip was an extremely technical, sustained route that was about 85 feet long. This was truly pumpy.



This will probably be the last trip that my dad and I will take for a while. He will be moving over seas for a few years, which will make our road trips harder to do. My dad and I have been climbing together for about ten years now. Over the years, we have both grown together in our skill and rock craft. We have spent a lot of time together, going on climbing trips all over the US and the world. He has taught me a lot over the years. Lessons like, the value of a dollar, and what you have to do to earn it, and more importantly how to live the good life; pulling down hard on good rock, and drinking good beer. These are the best experiences that I have had in my 24 years on earth, and we got to share these times together. I will never forget these moments in time. They have shaped my life, and who I am.

No pictures from the weekend, I still don’t have a camera.

I rode 30 miles on the road yesterday. The legs were feeling it big time. 1:45 but it felt like twice that. The grants trail was quite busy. I take that down to the union/green park intersection, and bang a U onto green park. I am not sure about the milage, but this section of road (greenpark/Musik) shells you with consequtive rollers. It is good for a training ride.

After that we celebrated my roomies birthday with a BBQ and brew dogs. Lots of fun, but I had to shut'er down around 11:00pm so I could get up today and MTB.

I awoke a 5am, hit the snooze, and finally rolled out of bed at 6. Rolling at C-wood by 6:30am. Nice. The trails were dry and hitting hard. Roller coaster felt good. While owning the Grotepeter decent, I heard a rumble. Probably nothing. It started raining while climbing the lone wolf. Awsome. No windows on the Jeep, and the back is rolled up. Got about 45 min of riding in, and had to call it quits. The trail was wet. I almost bailed to begin with. Lack of motivation, and I feel like crap today. But decided the hard road is the way to go. The days that you feel the worst, are the days you work the hardest. I guess you pay your money and enjoy the ride.







I am headed to NY tomarrow for three days of climbing in the Gunks. The area boasts 250-300 foot cliffs. The specific area we go to (Near Trapps) is about 1.5 miles long, and has a roof running the entire length. The roof is anywhere from 5 to 15 feet long. Pretty much every route has a roof of some type on it. the picture showes me on the area mega classic "high exposure" I have just pulled the lip in this shot, and am climbing up the pumpy section. The holds are good, but there is about 200 feet of air under your ass at this point. Pretty heady.

This is a historicly signigicant area on the east coast when it comes to climbing. Jack Durrance learned to climb here when he was a college student at Dartmoth in the 1930's. The glory days, when men were men, and they climbed with hemp ropes and boots. He cut his teeth in the gunks and then went west to test himself. First person to summit Devils tower. He also had the second ascent on the same rout to rescue a stuntman that successfully parchuted onto the tower, but could not get down. Jack also put up many enjoyable day climbs in the Tetons, most notably on Symmetry Spire. These climbs are still great test pieces for anyone seeking great truly exposed adventure. When we go to the Gunks, my dad and I thumb through the guide book seek out routs that have first ascents by Jack Durrance. They are good value for money, and provide a great pucker factor. stay tuned for a full report when I return.

Still no win...but an awsome night!

I did the Tues crit last night. I tried to spend a little more time in the back, which I did for about 4 laps. I then decided to do some work up front, and found my self in a solo break off of the pack. This lasted 2 full laps, before I was caught. Time to recover. I reeled it in and began to move up with 3 to go. There was a break on the last lap from wild trax (those guys are a strong group on and off road!!) I gave chase with one in tow. At the beginning of the hill, I cracked and was popped off of the chasing wild trax rider. Christopher cranked by me, sorry for no lead out, I am not Julian Dean. Within the last corner and final straight away he closed a tremendous amount of ground. Again, I was passed my most of the pack before the line. My legs were somewhat flat from this weekend, but still felt strong. Its all about the strategy. Ill get it dialed, and hopefully will be able to put something together this summer that will represent a win. Also, I saw MJs new SL2. That thing is sick! WOW Afterwards, MJ invited me to indulge in BBQ and HOPSLAM at his home. What a great ending for the evening. Truly wonderful. Hopslam is an IPA, which is defiantly a noble brew. This particular beer is probably one of the better IPAs I have ever had. The experience was tempered with great people, and a toasty fire. Simply amazing!

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pics from WI

This is a picture of the rock garden and the ledge that immediately followed it. In the second picture, you can see the guy running his bike, after he ate it in front of me. Thats about it.

WORS Treadfest

This weekend was my first experience at a WORS race in WI. The event was held at a ski resort on lake Geneva. The course was a 5 mile loop that is depicted. This race was a painfest! The start was wide open and stayed that way as it went up a shorter hill, and pinched off into a dusty single track, no brake, white knuckle decent. This took you to a gravel road which lead to a second small climb, and another balls out decent and then to the longer climb. This was the meat of the climbing on the course. Nothing too sustained, and alot of it was on short cut grass and gravel. There was a loose switch back at the top that blew most everyones mind. Thats always fun when the adrenalin is pumping, and the competition is fierce. Once the top is reached, there was a bombing decent into the woods. This is where I got my first glimpse of WI single track. Tight, Twisty, varying conditions, varying terrain. Nothing crazy, just pure hard pack that you can pump hard while you are laying down some power on the pedals. The body English was being spread pretty thick, but the traffic was still thick at this point. The rock garden was alot of fun to go through. Mostly dry baby heads, with a good line through the middle, and some ancillary technical moves after that before you dumped out into a short double track section. The rest of the course took on this pattern, a section of single track, tight and technically demanding at speed, then a short double track seciton, which was suited well for blowing the doors off of the guy in front of you. there were probably 5 or 6 of the cycles. toward the end of the course, there was a short, loose, steep, off chamber climb that also melted alot of faces. right after this there were a set of switchbacks that slowed you down, but were not difficult. most people again crumbled under the pressure of having a rider behind them. I was able to get two completely clean laps in, with out even a foot dab, but the other two laps were not as clean. I almost mowed down a few spectators in the Rock Garden when this dude biffed it in front of me. Instead of moving out of the way, he is trying to get up and get on his bike/run in the rock garden! I swung around him and aggressively told him that I was passing, and I will get in front of him. There was a 2 second pause in my momentum that really pleased the massive crowd when I stuck it and passed this guy. The rest of the race had me going back and forth with several guys that were strong, but not technically sound. They would power by me and then make a mistake, giving me a chance to get around. I totally fried myself on the start and the first lap. I was about 8-10th into the woods, and moved up pretty well, but at the beginning of the second lap, I had to sit up and recover some. The second to last lap was beginning to fill up with negative thoughts, about pain, about weakness, about quitting, about self pity. I knew that I could hang in there. On the last lap, I rode hard. I was conservative in the few spots with downed logs, and roots, but the rest of the lap I hammered. I was spend when I crossed the line. I ended up 40th overall, and 7th in my age group. The age group timing had me as 35th, but when you look at the times, I was 40th. I consider this a pretty modest finish in this competitive series. our start was all of the under 29 groups. this was about 36 people. All in, this event was awesome!! Well planned and well executed. The trails reminded me of Binder lake in Jeff City, with the added climbing at the beginning. I am happy to have been exposed to this type of single track.

Tuesday Crit

I showed up early to the Tuesday night Crit to get some spinning in before the C race. I rode for about an hour, but was interrupted buy brief hail, and about ten minuets of rain. that made the pavement super wet for the B race, not sure if the A race was cut short. Anyways, I lined up, feeling pretty loose, a little chill due to the wet clothing. Just like last week, I did alot of work upfront, and closed two gaps. One gap was small, but the other took several laps and some team work to close. I tried as best I could to chill in the back, but the wet pavement was sucking my confidence in my tires and others. Overall, the the pack did a good job of holding their line, and being safe. I was very apprehensive about the conditions, but am happy that I participated. At the beginning of the final 3 laps, I had great position in the middle of the pack. I moved up to the front 10 or so over the next lap, and got ready to drop the hammer on the last lap. I got out in front, but did not have a great response from the legs at the hill, even when I got out of the saddle. I finished pretty much at the back of the pack by the time I crossed the line.

Brisk ride

Yesterday, the roomie and I went on a 39 mile ride at a brisk pace. Tim is riding a r1000 that has tri gearing on it. He really likes to push the big meat, hence the 18.5 avg for the ride. The legs felt good, maybe a little flat. We did a nice loop going past c-wood, and up st. Paul. The hills on this section are moderate relative to other wildwood hills. I experienced a slight burning sensation, though nothing major. We took our ride through streaker valley, and shiesterfield valley. The ride was topped off with a cruise down Conway to mason. GOOD STUFF.

I hope to ride the Tuesday night Crit tonight, this will be weather dependent of course. Evidently we picked up over an inch of rain in a 24 hour period this past weekend. Looks to be more on tap for the week. GREAT. This weather pattern is really effecting the consistency of my riding. I could be supplementing with some cross training in the basement, but who wants to do that this time of year? ohh well, if I can squeeze in a few more base rides before Friday, I will be happy. Then it is a few rest days until the WORS race.

More Pics

The last lap.

C-wood Race

Saturday morning, I awoke early to prep for the race. I washed the bike, cleaned the chain, and lubed the night before. I knew that the warm up would be key for this race. Trails looked ok with the rain from the day before. I had considered riding Friday night, but decided it would require more bike maintence. my pre ride consisted of taking lone wolf up and down, and then the love. the condidtions were good. the gravel was soft, but still pretty fast. there was just a small amount of slop on the beginning of Love trail. the line up came quickly, and with a little bit of a delay, we were off. I started crossed up in the big ring. this makes a remarkable difference. I got out of the saddle for about 4-5 strokes, and took the lead right away. This was the primary goal for me: be first in the woods, as to avoid the riff-raff, which is indicative of a sport race. I was up the hill with no one in site. I wasnt looking back much, just fucosing on adding a gap, and making zero mistakes. I really slayed my self the first lap. I begun the second lap feeling a little winded, but made it up the hill. Matt Keeven blew by me as I topped out. I tried to roll with him down lone wolf, but couldnt hack it. as I climbed the love trail, I caught a glimps of a cycle-werks rider on a lower switch back, probably about 15-20 seconds back. I got onto the connector trail and into the rollercoaster. It was big ring time from there down to the start of lone wolf. No sign of him as I began climbing. D-wayne and Mike Barro passed me at the top of Lone wolf, and were immediatly out of sight. The third climb was much more painful than the others. I didnt even want to look at the HRM. I push hard, knowing that I could recover somwhat on the decent. As I rolled over the bridge, someone told me I had 25 Seconds. I saw the same rider at about the same spot on the Love trail, and started thinking about second place. FUCK THAT!! When I got to the connector, I dropped my head and laid it down. some serious power, and good speed. I was just hoping I could hold him off until the decent on the Grotepeter. I didnt see him at all on the rollercoaster. this was about the only other are where you could look back and see who is coming up on you. I got on the Grotepeter and bottomed out the casset. on the straight away toward the bottom I could see him in the distance, and again coming out of the woods. He finished 6 seconds behind me.

This was a great race. I learned the imporntatnce of a good start, and the value of being up front, setting the pace. I really like the format of multiple laps. It gives me a chance to settle into a good rythem. This is the same format for the WORS race coming up, so I think it was a good tune-up for the real deal in Wisconson. In a long single loop race, I never feel like I get a chance to know the trail. There is somthing to be said for that. I will have more pictures later.

After the race, there were beers and good times in general at the parking lot. This is what makes bike racing awsome.

Crit Racing

Last night I rolled up to the Tuesday night Crit in Crondolet Park. This was my first hack at Crit racing, so I was a little apprehensive. I saw alot of familiar faces. I got a sub-par 20 minute warm up, and rolled up to the back of the pack at the line. The first lap was neutral, and the pace quickened shortly after that. It took me about two and one half laps to move to the front. Once I was there, I pushed the pace some. There is not alot to talk about. We did 15 min + 3 laps. During that time I did some work at the front, and also spent some time moving through the pack. I moved to the front on the last lap, and had the lead down the hill. I missed the initial acceleration up the hill, and was mid-pack coming around the last corner. My sprint is pretty much non existent, so there was not much of a chance to catch the leaders. Overall, it was an intense experience, that I thoroughly enjoyed. I will be doing more of these, especially since I paid the $20 initiation fee. I paced a few people that I will be racing against this weekend. They look strong, with good form. I look forward to the competition.

Follow up post

I found this pic of me back country skiing on the same day as my aforementioned post.

THE GOODS, PLAIN AND SIMPLE. That is the diled in Euro Tech 4 years in the making.

I rode C-wood last night with my room-mate Tim. He is fast, on account of his PRO bike handling skills. I have not gone that hard on a night ride before. I for sure was not riding my SS that fast last week when I was alone. There is something about the roller coaster that really appeals to me, especially at night. I have not hit that first S curve, and those sweeping right handers that hard before. It was a great experience. The ride was cut a little short with some Tech problems, but I will get that ironed out. I am getting anxious about this weekend. I really want to do some true bike racing.

I did a fair amount of riding over the weekend. 52 miles on Sat, and 47 on Sunday. 126 road miles for the week, and two great MTB rides mixed in. I rode with Keith Thomas. He is 50, but can still hammer on the bike, road and MTB. He used to be a competitive Tri-athlete. he has had something like 3 invitations to Kona. Keith and I have gone on several adventure trips together over the years. Lets see, Back country skiing, climbing devils tower, summiting the Grand Teton, several day trips in the mid west. I consider him my mentor. he is a vast, and in depth resource regarding training. He has taught me most of what I know about biking. I included some pictures of the time we have spent together in nature, seeking the good life. Back country skiing off of Teton Pass was a religious experience. Waist deep dry powder was on tap the whole day. The experience is difficult to explain. You are leaning forward hard, and floating/ flying through pillows of snow. The only thing you need to worry about are the trees, which are blocked by all of the snow hitting you in the face. A decently long run takes about 3 to 5 min. After that you are breathing super hard, and the quads are on fire. Big time. That is the fun part. When skiing the back country, you earn your turns. At the bottom, you skin up and ski up hill. Trust me it works. We got about 5 runs in that day before we headed back to the car for some cold brews. Keith enjoys a cold one after a hard days play just as much as I do.

This is a Pic of Devils tower. I cannot find the pictures documenting our trip, but it was spring break 2002, my senior year in High school. My friend Ryan and my father where also along on the trip. We attempted the tower in late march, nothing like the conditions illustrated in the pic. it was cold (low 30's) and snowing. Our first day had us sitting pretty at the base of the rout at a good time. 7:30am. It was cold, it was windy. It was Ryan's first larger climb, and all of the conditions wore him down quickly. We bailed with a 200ft rappell, and some casual down climbing. Keith and my dad slogged on but where turned away with 150 vertical to go. The next two days brought a foot of snow and some skiing, while we waited for the conditions to come around. The 4th day, was low 5o's and sunny. We decided to split the team into two groups with two leaders. We fired the tower in about 6 hours round trip. Keith is a good man, I look forward to more adventure with him.

That pretty much sums up the weekend. It was the first time in a while that I have layed on the couch for more than 2 hours. The weather looks like it will hold for a C-wood ride tonight. I am unsure about Tuesday night worlds, this will be weather dependent. I have built in some rest time for the rest of the week. I want to be strong for C-wood on Saturday. This will be a good test of my fitness and recovery ability. I want to do well in this race, so I can get a good lead in the series, and have a good buffer going into the fall races. I am gunning for another jersey.

C-wood

I took the stumpie out to C-wood early this morning. It was AWESOME. I have begun to prepare for the race on the 10th of may. I rode multiple laps in each direction. The grotepeter is in pristine condition. as I mentioned yesterday, it is super smooth. It has been several years since I have ridden the grotepeter CCW. the climbs are not as bad as I remember. There are rumors of the race going CCW on this section. I normally ride going clockwise, its good value for money. I believe that the grotepeter is the pinnacle of eastern Missouri riding. there are alot of new trails around here, but none of them come close to that bomber section from the end of the rollercoster to the bottom of the road. The contours of the trail, the loose over hard conditions, and the big ring potential defiantly make my face a little drippy. :-) Any who, it was a 1:45 ride, which felt great. Everything was clicking this morning, sunny, 60 degrees, no people, and the bike was whistling dixie. I rode past the bridge and along the river scene loop that goes around the by the beach. the beach is totally under water, and the trail is in bad shape. there is debries and deep sand along a majority of the sections. I bailed on the stinging nettle trail, and headed back to the gravy, in the high parts of the park. MTB is back baby!!!!