The Bakers Dozen 13 hour Mt. bike race Leesburg VA

I was running late, the race started on Sat. April 21st 11am, and I planned to be there at 9am, but didn't get there until 10am. This was fine cause Jay had brought his RV Friday, and Steve had gotten our timing Chip setup some stuff on Friday night(you can do this when the race is 10minutes from your teammate). I got there and the venue was laid out great. I had pre-ridden the course, and it was about the same, just a different entrance into the woods and the big field was split in two. So it is decided I am to start the race and do the first lap.
I usually don't like to do the first lap, cause I have a tendency to go out too fast. So we start there was a good turnout maybe like 200 people. I started kinda in the middle, which in hind site I should have gone more to the front. So we start and I am next to Sid and we are in the field, I start putting on the gas and I get in the top 20 going into the woods. I start passing people, and end up behind Kent, my fellow DCMTB\CityBikes teammate. I road behind him, and then I got in front of Kent, and I was hoping that would could team up and ride together. I should of stayed with Kent, but I burned some matches and ended up being the 5th? rider done with the first lap.
Steve, is more consistent in his lap times. So his lap times are usually the same as mine overall. We did our laps and somewhere after 2 or 3 laps I wasn't feeling too good. The Sun was out and it was close to 80. I think I was dehydrated and needed some protein or something. Then I started noticing my shock was leaking! The shock was still working just not as well as it could have. At one point we were in 2nd place around lap 6 or so. Then I had some slower lap times, and I remember the riders passing me, and thinking-I think those are the guys in my class! I wasn't feeling it, my body was blah, but my legs could still move fine, that is until I started getting cramps in my quads one lap. So around late afternoon/evening I had some regular food, I ended up eating like 4 chicken breast sandwiches with salt on them and a hard boiled egg with salt. On my next lap I started to feel more like myself. I was tired, but I wasn't having tunnel vision anymore. At some point we were down to 4th and that was where we would end up, we just needed to put in some solid final laps. I was going to do my last lap(it was now really cold, I was wearing all my fall/winter stuff) I told Steve to look at the times, and if the other team was not going to get in before 12am then he wouldn't need to do another lap(this race you could finish whenever you wanted you did not need to be on the race course at the end). Well on my last lap, most racers had decided to call it a day so there, wasn't many people out there. I had a great time on my last lap, no one in the woods and my head light was on tight(the lap before it was loose and going all over the place, making it hard to see). I passed Jay so that meant we lapped his "Darren and Steve are going Down" team! I busted my tail, and beat my previous lap by 4 minutes. I get back and Steve in not suited up, he said we were ahead. Well we looked at the sheets, and we were ahead but by 7 minutes. So we got 5th but in our hearts we got 4th. I would have cared more if it was a 3rd to 4th, but hey I finally felt better after being in a not so good place during the day. I felt so good I ended up hanging out with Kent and his teammate Pat, at the bonfire drinking some brews until 2:30am. After that sweet sleep in Jay's RV, I woke at 6:30 quickly packed and was gone by 7am.

13 Hours of Bakers Dozen, Leesburg VA (prequal)

This was my first race for the 2007 season. I had been planning on doing this race for awhile since I knew I couldn't do the 12 hours of Lodi. I am going to a wedding that day. I needed to get a partner for this race, I wanted to do 3-man, but that didn't workout so I did duo. I did the race with Steve, who I had raced with last year at the 24hours of Allamunchy in NJ. We raced together on a 4 person team called Team Tecateee! We all got Tecate jerseys and would yell Tecate! at the start and end of our laps. We got 2nd place in our division, which ended up being second place over-all. So asked if Steve was interested in doing Duo and he was so we were a go. I had us do a 80mile road ride in Front Royal with the Potomac Peddlers the weekend before, it was a good training ride, ended up riding in allot of rain. The ride had some fast folks so we ended up having a good spinning workout to get ready for the following weekend's effort. Then the week of the race, the other to guys on the Team Tecate Jay, and Sid decided to do the race. Their team name was "Darren and Steve are going Down", so that gave me the objective to beat them in the race forget the rest of the competition!

I have started my own blog!

Well, I am late to the party I guess. I am not usually a writer, so I have never had the interest to have a blog, but I am now racing mountain bikes more competitively and will use this blog to write about my rides, races, and wanderings in the world of bikes.

Giant TCR year 1999

After I wrecked the Mongoose road bike I needed a new frame and fork to replace the wrecked one. I was able to get a Giant frame from Revolutions cycles in Georgetown for pretty cheap.
I didn't know if I should get the medium or the large. The Giant bikes were one of the first to use the compact geometry. I ended up getting the medium and found out that the bike was too small. I had a 140mm stem on it and it still didn't feel right. I had the components from the Mongoose, so the bike was full Dura-Ace 9speed, with a Thomson post. I had the bike for a month enough for me to have built it up with red cables and red bar tape. The bike ended up looking pretty sweet.
The interesting thing was that the frame I got was only offered in Europe as a complete bike, but in the state you could get the frame.

1998 Mongoose RX 7.7

I bought this in 1999 because I had outgrown my Cannondale road bike by the time I got out of college and I wanted to have STI brake/shifters. I was looking around for a bike, and this was the first bike I got through the internet. I am not sure if it was ebay or just an online ad. The bike was a racer's who had a new sponsor so couldn't ride this bike. The frame was full carbon, with a big down tube. The components were full Dura Ace, with Mavic Classic Elite Wheels. I remember that I would flex the rear stays of the bike when I was out of the saddle, which my rear deraileur adjustment was critical. The bike was a little small for me, I didn't know it at the time. The other big memory of this bike was when I crashed on it going 46 mph! That has been my only big road crash. I was going down Harp Hill in Fredrick Maryland and was trying to catch up to some guys in front of me. I did two turns then the third I was too wide,(forgot the next part until later) I then locked up the brakes and hit the ditch and flew over the bars and tumbled into the woods. When I wrecked the front fork turned and that made my brake caliper go into the down tube! I also totally cracked the top tube, and tacoed the front wheel from the impact. There was a car behind me that saw it all and they gave me a ride back to my car. I was totally fine, well I did get poison Ivy really bad and had to get steroids for it. I was lucky cause even with a helmet smacking into a tree not going to feel good. After this wreck I wasn't comfortable flying down hills until almost a year later. The other thing I did was steer clear of carbon bikes cause if this bike was metal I am sure it wouldn't have cracked(might have bent it though). This bike worked well for the short time I had it, was a little too flexy but had a great sparkle paint job.

Cannondale F400 1995.5

First mountain bike with suspension. I went to college with my Atala built as some wacked out cross bike with bigger tires. It did the job but was such a frankenbike whith thumb shifters for shifting on a drop bar bike. I also went to school in Athens OH which had a pretty cool place to ride a mountain bike at Stouds Run. I got the F400 because I already had owned two Cannondale bikes and really liked them so I decided to stay with the brand. At one point in college I had little wheel, and a seat lock on it so it wouldn't get stolen. I rode it mostly to class and what not, but then would take it mountain biking from time to time. By the time I graduated college and started working in Baltimore the shocks had completely locked up! These shocks(Rock shock Quatros) were not that good, I think all they had were plastic bumbers in them. I got the shock pictured which was a Rock Shock Judy that brought the suspension from 50mm to 70mm. It was a huge improvement. I also converted the bike to clipless when I lived in Baltimore. I remember going back to Athens to ride and being amazed how much better the bike was handling compared to when I had the crapped out suspension on it. I had to replace the shifters and the crankset as well. I had the bike about 4-5 years and it did me right. It got me to the next level of mountain bikes.

1987 Cannondale SR100

This was my first "real" road bike. I road it for a bit with clip on aero bars and faux disc wheel. The bike was an American crit bike. Had a higher then normal bottom bracket 170mm cranks, and compact handle bars. I got this bike with money I had saved up, and my parents kicked in some dough. I got this bike 2 years after it came out, on a crazy sale where it was 1200 and I got it for 700. The group it came with is Sante which is now defunct, the group was above Shimano 600/Ultegra but below Dura-Ace. Had some nice details like the flush crank bolts, quick release built into the brake levers. The bike was a rocket, but the price of that speed was that it was a jack hammer to ride on. The bike was a 56cm which fit me 9/10 grade, but by the time I came back from college I realized the bike was too small. I had it for about 10 years, it did me right.

1986 Cannondale SM800

This bike was my first mountain bike, I bought the bike in 8th grade. I got it as a clearance bike since it was a 1986 model. The bike was originally $800 but I got the bike or $400 or so. I had sold my GT ProFreestyle for $200 and something. I used that money and some I saved. This bike was great fun to ride, but the index shifting would go out if you looked at it funny. I had to use friction shifting most of the time. I upgraded the bike from the original 5 speed sontour to 7 speed Shimano at some point (1990) The rear dérailleur hanger broke, and I never got the frame replaced. I went into a road bike mode for awhile after this bike broke on me. I almost bought one of these on Ebay when I saw it there. The 24 x 26 concept is great for trials riding, but the tire choices, and rear tire clearance were not Ideal.

1972 Atala Nouvo Record

This Bike is my back bone bike. I still ride this guy after all these years. I have it set up as a fixie commuter bike right now. I lost the head badge and I have been able to buy another off ebay, since I plan to restore this bike to some glory with some paint and new parts. I had gotten this bike after riding my dad's Aero Wind for a bit with my friend across the street who had gotten a Nishiki. I wanted a better bike and I was able to get this for $200 at the time. The bike had full Campy Neuvo compnents, but the brakes were Shimano 600. The bike originally came with tubulars, and was friction shifting. Great bike to learn to shift and ride on. I raced this bike twice while I was in middleschool in two time trials. This bike turned into a cros/city bike for awhile when I took it to college(lost the campy parts around this time) Then the bike was made into a Commuter with Sora componets, and now finally it is a fixed gear commuter.

1982 Huffy AeroWind

My Dad had gotten this bike in the early 80's when we lived in Michigan. I only road this bike for a couple of months, then cannabilized and put the crankset on my Spalding BMX bike to have a high geared BMX bike. When ever I road this bike and was going fast I would always sing in my head that song, "Ride like the wind" I think by Chicago? Interesting bike got me interested in road bikes. Was good to be able to test out a road bike for a bit before getting my own.

UPDATE! I was thinking of the right song, but the wrong artist. The artist is Christopher Cross.