Over the July 4th weekend, we went tubing on the 3rd and then spent 2 days at the Lost River State Park in WV. The Park is really nice with cabins, a pool, a rec room with Ping Pong. The park also has trails for hiking, riding and horses.
Road
The ride started off a little chilly, but one I started climbing I was doing just fine. This ride has some pretty roads from Patrick Hallow a back country road to Old Route 50 which had a great surface and banking with almost no traffic. I didn't know that there would be such steep stuff on old route 50, and was kinda funny when I did a wrong turn and ended up doing part of the route over again. This ride was a hard one, had allot of climbing and some bombing descents. I was able to test the Moots on some downhill action. The main course of the ride was the Lost River Road climb. Going from 940ft to 2800 ft. I had heard of this climb from a blog on the GamJams news role. The NCVC rider talked about people having to walk, I was like what? So I wanted to see it for myself. This is a closeup of the hardest part of the climb.
It was one of the hardest climbs I have done right up there with Reddish Knob near Harrisonburg. I was riding a 36-26 and I was still going like 50rpms in some places, so I could see someone with a 39-23 or 25 dieing on it. Once I got to the Top it was some nice mountain top riding then a fun descent back to the park, only issue was that it felt like a mountain top finish with me having to climb the last bit back to the cabin.
Mountain(trails I rode in pink)
The next day I got up and went Mt. biking from the cabin on park trails. I wasn't sure how long I would ride since we were leaving that day, and there weren't too many trails to ride in the park. I get out of the cabin and go to the end of the street and bamn! I am in my 22-34 with the steepness of the climbing(I ride a 29er) I got up and on the east ridge trail which was the (mt. biking friendly trail) well some parts were big enough for a ATV to ride, but when it started going downhill you needed to be on a dual suspension, disc brake bike or have some skills. My brakes started squelling and at the bottom I put my glove on the rotor and it burned the leather! I then went up the fireroad to Big Mountain. This climb was harder then the previos day's climb but I was on a Mt. bike and had the low gears to get up it. After about 45minutes I made it to the top. 
There is a ridgeline trail that add some good mileage to the ride. I did an out and back on that with out ever getting to Millers Rock, it was starting to rain and I thought it would be good to get back. I took the Big Ridge Trail back down the mountain, and it was a horse trail, but did not say bikers couldn't use it. I wasn't worried about horses cause of the rain and crappy morning weather. Horses can really churn up a trail, this tail was sandy, and every rock unless it was a boulder was not in the ground firmly. I had some big rock kick up and hit me and my bike. The scary moment was when I came to a ravine, and the raing had made the rocks and roots slick. I slipped on a rock and then slipped on a root where I crashed and had my thigh pinched between the root and my bike. Was scary for a second, but luckly I have some big legs so a bruise not a broken bone. I then went back to the cabin via the howards lick trail and the lollipop trail. By the time I got back it was fully rainning, making me happy I got a ride in when the trails were dry. I did about 2 hours and only rode 12miles so that kinda tells how steep this place is. Would be really cool to have a Mt bike race here and have everyone campout and cabin at the race site.
7/11/09
Lost River Riding
7/6/09
12 hours of Cranky Monkey 2009
This was one of the big races I wanted to do well at this year. I was not able to race it last year, cause of my back, so this year I wanted to do well. The team I had come up with was Mike K.(who I seem to keep racing with) and Alex who I raced with at Lodi. We made the age cut-off and raced the Open Men's division. I wanted us to do well, and I had hopes for us to battle against DCMTB's Vet squad of Marc, Raul, and Chris.
I started us off and after much debate we agreed to do single laps(which was the best call) I did the run and got to pretty good position with Matty right around me. I then kicked it on the gravel doubletrack, and was off. I was sitting in like 5th place or so then we hit the powerline climb and I had some chainsuck. I lost 3 spots there, and would then be babing my drivetrain for the rest of the race. I ended up riding with Raul for like 2 miles at the end and was a great way to end the lap meaning we were tied with the Vet team. Mike, and Alex put in some really fast laps which then gave us the lead over the Vet team and the Co-Ed team of Matty, Tom, Lynne) For my 2nd lap I was fearful of Matty catching me, and after a couple of miles I heard someone gainning on me, and I said hey Matty that you? YEP So I rode with Matty for a bit, but at one point he took a hairy turn and sped up again I knew I had to let him go and go my own pace. I finished the lap a couple of minutes down on them. After that I don't think we ever saw the front again. My 3rd lap was ok, but yet again I saw the lead go away and this was that I lost 1st place in the 3 man open division when I saw the Luv team go in front of me. I wanted to stay with him which I did for a bit, but I knew that I was going too much into the red. So I stayed my own tempo. I was starting to get some cramps. Alex and Mike did some fast laps again, meanwhile the 1st place 3-man open team was losing gas and we had taken the lead from them. With my last lap coming I knew I needed to keep on the gas and not get caught by the Luv team. I was going my hardest out on the course, I had a fast SS playing cat and mouse with me. he would catch up and then fall away then catch up again. He never went in front of me, but we rode like that for about 4 miles until around mile 8 I left him. I was also determined to leave it on the trail compared to Big Bear where I still had energy in the tank, that meant riding through several bouts of cramps that wanted to take hold but I fended them off. I came back with a 2 minute faster lap time then any of my other laps. Alex went next since he needed to get home, and Mike K. finished us off with a wicked fast lap. We won the open 3-man Division and ended up 2nd place over-all. Another thanks for Sara coming out and she also helped out and did scoring at the end of the even. Check out the pics if you can't see the slide show http://picasaweb.google.com/lovedabikes/12HoursOfCrankyMonkey2009#
The whole DCMTB team really shined out there with:
1st over-all 1st co-ed(by 2 laps) 3 -person
Matty, Tom, Lynn
2nd over-all 1st 3-man open
Darren, Alex, Mike
5th over-all 2nd 3-man vet
Raul, Marc, Chris
3rd 3-man open
Vince, Leland, Kevin
3rd Co-Ed Du0 (with PVC)
Samantha and Chris
6th Co-Ed 3-person
Mike S., Jonathan, Tris
6/29/09
Wednesday at Wakefield #1 2009
Short write up about the race, I have done these races for years, they are a good scene and you get to see allot of people out there. I decided to race Single Speed, because after doing two years of expert where I raced in the bottom 1/4 of the field I wouldn't be racing anyone my 3rd and 4th laps. I wasn't sure if I had the right gear but I went with a 32x18 on a 29er with 2.55 tires. I had done the course at one point last fall on my rigid SS so I thought I would be ok.
The start of the race has the famous gravel hill, I am usually pretty good with starts of races and this was no different, I was on the wheel of my teammate Alex and I think we were in like 4/5th place. I was riding fine with him, and once we got to the doubletrack Evan Ellicot came flying up and passed us doing like 160 rmps on the cranks. I was with Alex the rest of the lap until the creek where I bobbled it and lost 2-3 spots. I then worked my way back to Larry Camp and followed him for like 1/2 a lap then got around him. The only upsetting thing for the race was bobbling the last Climb on a root and having someone pass me there to loose a spot. I did achieve my goal of a top 10 finish, and it was close with around 10seconds seperating 6-10th place. Alex did a good job getting 6th. I was thinking that I should be able to improve on this in the future W@W races. DCMTB had good showing with Alex and I, Joel got 1st Clydesdale, Lynne got first in Female expert, Kent got 2nd 35+, Chris got 2nd 45+ Brain-I mean Brian(thanks Joel) got 5th 35+ and Tom Managed a mid pack finish in the Expert class.
6/24/09
Fifty on a Fixie
I had wanted to do a big Hill fest ride on Sat. , but the rain put those plans on hold. I needed to get a ride in for my upcoming races. I was going to be down at the parents house which has nice riding, but I knew they would be upset if I was gone for too long.
Sara and I got down to my parents place around 1am after going to my friend Ann roof-deck B-day party(was fun). I got up around 6:45 and got myself on the road by 7:15 or so. The sky was nice and blue and it was really humid out so made it a hot morning. I brought an extra waterbottle and left that at the back entrance for Sara to drink on her run around the lake.
The ride was pretty peacefull, there seemed to be more traffic then normal on Rt. 522 but I think it was from people going to lake Anna. At the 25 mile mark I got off and stretched my back, since I was feeling it a little bit after a long uphill stretch. I then worked my way back to my parents place. I went through the Wilderness Battlefield on Hill Ewell Dr. which has a nice surface to it. I got back to the house and had like 48miles, so I found some more streets in their neighborhood to get my total to 50.
50miles
18.4mph(give or take)
around 2:50 ride time
- This was the longest Fixied gear ride I have everdone.
- Had a little bit of chaffing with moving my legs so much
- I thought it wasn't that bad but riding the next day my legs were shot so that spinning had really worked the legs.
