Ramble

You might get an Ore to Shore report…you might not…look to the right column and I bet you can find a good one on the blog roll from 4 of the 5 other guys I rolled into the sprint with…

Did the Reforestation Ramble, WORS race #9, this weekend at the reforestation camp in Green Bay.  This course is pretty flat with a ton of single-track, at least half, if not more of the 12 mile lap is single-track.  Lots of tight turns and cut off stumps to avoid all over the place. 

There was a 2-3 mile wide open lead out and my plan was to get to the front to share the work of pushing the pace.  I made sure I got the hole shot with a little sprint into the first section of single track.

Darrin, Matter, Tristan, Seth Lenss, Mike Anderson, and I survived the lead group into lap 2.  

For the first two laps I did most of the work, but I still have a lot to learn when it comes to racing.  Sure, I can rip it in the tight stuff, but this race taught me a lot about controlling the race at the front and how to make breaks happen.  I just kept the pace at tempo and no one really wanted to come around me in the open sections for the first 24 miles/2 laps.  Matter did make one move at the  beginning of the second lap.  He did an awesome glide to the side move into me to cut off my line as I tried to  pinch the lead into the first single-track on lap 2.  This is where he showed me how to snap the elastic correctly, by putting down a really nice acceleration into the next double track section and keeping the pace high for a minute or two.  It hurt a bit, but I figured we should keep it rolling too see if we could widdle down our numbers.  I pushed the pace as soon as Brian let up and brought it down to Tristan, Darrin, and I for a sec, then Brian quickly grabbed back on.  I tried a couple more moves in the single-track and got some good gaps, but I was always afraid of trying to ride away solo once I hit the wide open sections.  The group of three that would have been chasing have a lot of horse power to chase me down. 

Going into the last 12 miles I really began to feel all the work from the previous 24 miles, but mainly just in cramps….

CRAMPS-I really need to figure out why I am getting them.  Plenty of electrolytes and water…I did stop stretching in the last month and I cut the dairy, have read that calcium/magnesium helps, which I am probably low on and I will get back on some yoga to see what happens…

 

Last lap Tristan went to the front and pushed the pace, cramps got me on a little uphill,  rolled easy for a min and then gave chase.  I caught back on and was feeling good again. 

Being a marathon race Sport/Cat 2’s, Comp/Cat 2’s, Pro/Cat 1’s were all on the course at the same time.  We started running into the back of the Sport race at the beginning of our last lap.  With this much single-track it was a circus trying to get through all that traffic with 4 Pro’s all vying for the win.  We were coming up on them so fast I don’t think they had much time to respond.  Finding myself at the back of this 4 man stampede I was running into a lot of people who had pulled over, thought we had all gone by, and were entering the course without looking back.  After a few unintentional elbows and hip checks, lap traffic finally took me out of the race when a Woman kindly moved off course, but unknowingly blocked my vision of a 3 foot high tree stump.  I plowed into it at full-speed ahead.  Over the bars I went, as I hear a voice riding away yelling reassurances that“I MOVED OVER,  I MOVED OVER ….”  Bars backwards and stuck on frame, fix it, get back on to feel pain near the groin from the oh so familiar handlebar to the lower stomach.  My Mind wanted to chase, but the Body had enough and would not give into my Will.

 

4th place! ,  great result and I learned a ton from the company I was riding with, thanks for the competition guys.

Thanks to Don and Shawn Hauser for an awesome race!

As always, thank you to Powerbar, Mr. Tree, and Wheel and Sprocket for amazing support and thanks to Trek for hands down the fastest bike I have ever ridden!

 

 

Photo Credit: Stephanie Hanes, Danny Marchewka, Niki Frazier, Dave Reich, Rachael Jensen

Border Battle

Most of you have seen this on facebook, but I have had a few people ask about the border battle who are not on facebook.  So, here is the post race interview, pretty much sums up what happened.

Nathan Guerra (WI) - 2nd place - WORS 2010 Border Battle from Team WORS on Vimeo.

Tristan and Brendan both have a video that gives their perspective too if you follow the vimeo link at the bottom of video.

Claire did a great write up at this link, totally appreciate all the work she does!

Real Ore to Shore report up next…and I think I may take a few peeps advice and have asked for a spot in the Cheq. 40, although I have steered clear of it in the past because of school and needing a weekend off late in the season…we’ll see if the fat man hooks it up…stay tuned!

77% Cocoa and Bin Laden

If you did not know, I like Dark Chocolate way, way too much.  The darker the better, well until you hit baking chocolate grade and then YUCK! 

 

This past weekend I did this ride from some small mining town to a hockey rink next to lake superior, a few other guys came with me.  They all decided to hang out in the hockey rink parking lot, while I had forgot my car back in that mining town, so I rode another hour or so back uphill into the wind to get the car.  The point of the story is, it was really hot out and I was getting hungry after 60 some miles on the mountain bike and all that was in the car was dried figs and a pool of melted 77% cocoa dark chocolate, just barely hangin on in the wrapper…licked it clean and ate Jesus' favorite fruit of the tree.   Actually found a picture of the exact kind I had…

Went back to the hockey rink to take a shower in that oh so familiar smell when I am not riding a bike a whole lot :)…

 

So, I probably eat way too much dark chocolate, and oh yea UPers take finish lines about as serious as I am taking this post, so serious that they put down two of them…and then make ya guess which one is the real deal…I chose the wrong one, Simonster chose the right one for the 3rd podium spot, had a bike length as I put the brakes on over the timing chip white line identical to the next one that really counts, as Simonson goes by a second later I sat up wondering “what just happened???”

Ever see how people bodies going full board tend to sprint, here are the best in the world showing us how it is done, albeit jumping much later than my inexperienced noob move did to be a nice lead out train for TJ and Tristan who buried me, great job guys!

Heads go down and look down for a line, not up 15 feet looking for a big blue sign.  I really did not want to make a big deal about it, but I had to keep pushing  back a nagging feeling of being cheated or misled out of a place I had earned, so I very nicely talked to the peeps in charge and I was very confidently assured it would be changed for next year as to not confuse myself or the many people I talked to who all thought the same thing I did.  OK, vent over, this was suppose to be lighthearted and funny, but I got myself going…

 

In other news the Taliban has taken interest in my cycling career, but were not gonna stop doing Church at the races no matter how much of a threat our massive evangelistic movement in the back woods of  Wisconsin mountain bike races becomes to Islamic Fundamentalists in the Middle East. (totally kidding and very humbled by the fact that my photo appears in ArabCyc.com)

More to come from Ore to Shore and Border Battle…