Scratch my Back with a Hacksaw!

You can't start a blog entry with scratch my back with a hacksaw and not say way to go Pens! For those of you reading this entry that have no idea what I mean, let me give you an explanation. When the Pens score a goal, long-time announcer of the Stanley Cup Winning Pittsburgh Penguins, Mike Lang, is almost guaranteed to say this after the Pens score a goal and so it has become a Pen's Tradition. To keep in the winning tradition of the Pens, I have decided to start my own strange scoring expletive for when I win a bike race.

I would bet that Mike Lang has an interesting story behind the hacksaw thing just like I will tell you my story behind my winning phrase. Let me start by saying that I was torn about doing the Stoopid 50 MTB Race this week. I wanted to do it, but since I am doing the 100 mile Lumberjack Race in Michigan this coming weekend, I thought it would be too much to do both races. Well, I decided that I needed to do a long distance ride over the weekend anyway, so why not just do a 50 mile race. I registered on Thursday Night and was feeling pretty good on my bike ride into work on Friday Morning. I thought that since I was feeling so good on my ride I would push it hard at the Stoopid 50 and try for a great result rather than doing it for just a training race.

After work on Friday, since I already did a ride in the morning before work, I decided to do some yard chores around my house. Nothing special about yard work; you do a little trimming and then get out the mower. Well, I get my weed whacker out and trim around my bushes and landscaping in the hurried fashion that I usually do it. Now, keep in mind when I am telling this story that I am highly trained with all types of firearms because of my line of work. I clearly understand that you should keep your finger off the trigger of a gun until it is ready to be fired. The same should hold true for power tools of any kind. Well, I certainly did not abide by all of this training while using my weed whacker on Friday. I am not sure exactly how it happened, but I think I was going to pull a weed while still running the weed whacker and while wearing shorts with no socks. The next thing I know I feel this intense stinging across the bottom of my leg and realized that I just weed whacked my upper ankle to a bloody pulp.

I walk up to the house, ask my wife for a rag and something to clean my gushing wound. I can tell you it did not look good. Among other thing, I started to think about how I was going to do a dirty MTB race in one day with an ankle that was all hacked-up. Well, I eventually got my bleeding to stop, finished my yard work and re-bandaged myself after getting cleaned-up. On Saturday, I was able to find some thin high socks with the use of gauze and tape to keep my leg clean during a training ride, so I was pretty confident that I would be okay for the race too. As luck would have it, though, while doing my training ride on Saturday, I totally whacked the knee on my same wounded leg into the stem on my bike. So, now, I had two injuries to contend with and my legs were definitely not feeling as fresh or confident as they did only a day earlier.

Brian D. picked me up on Saturday Afternoon for our trip up to State College. After we arrived in town and checked into our hotel, I noticed that my legs even felt more heavy and tired then they did earlier in the day. I was pretty sure that my race on Sunday would become a race of survival more than one of winning glory...and on a single speed nonetheless.

I surprisingly got an awesome sleep at the hotel where we stayed ( I usually don't) and woke up Sunday feeling pretty good again. I was on my new ride with a rigid carbon fork and thought that it would be a perfect set-up after hearing that the course was 60% fire road and 40% single track. What I didn't know was that the single track was pretty much all covered with jagged rock. On the first section of single track, I realized that I probably made a mistake by choosing a rigid fork over suspension. I was still riding pretty well, though, and was able to hang with local rider Matt Ferrari though most of the technical stuff. Matt and I rode pretty good together until the last check point, before he lost contact with me on a long climb. I stayed on the gas up the remaining climbs on the course, knowing that the race finished on a very technical downhill. By riding hard to put time on Matt, I actually caught-up to and passed a single speed rider that had escaped from Matt and I earlier in the race.

By the end, I was able to hang on for the single speed victory and was also able to take a 5th place overall finish out of over 200 racers at the Stoopid 50. So, considering my injury, I guess my winning saying should be: Whack My Leg with a Weed Whacker! Happy Trails - Gerry

Changing Gears

I must admit it is nice to do something different every once in awhile. Since the last Mingo RR on 04/19/2009, I have been riding my single speed mtn bike exclusively. I have a big 36x16 gear on it, with wide 29er tires and just ride it everywhere both on or off road. This past week I finally decided to do something different and ride my road bike again, so that I could get use to it before doing the Tucker County RR in WV. All I can say is WOW! The change from a single speed 29er to a fast and light road bike is absolutely amazing. It was like going from a beat-up 1973 Pinto to a Ferrari.

So, I spent the whole week riding my road bike and the first thing I notice is that my normal rides were way too short to get the time I needed on the saddle. I kept looking at my watch and trying to figure out where to go next because I was way under my normal 29er ride time, but already done with the same route. The other thing I noticed was how nice it was to change to an easier gear when going up a big climb. On my road bike, I did not have to "man up" and keep pushing a gear that probably should not be used for going up a hill. I forgot that climbing could be done easily...I guess that is why gears were invented in the first place.

Anyway, the Tucker County RR did go well for me and my hairy legs. I did the 40+ Master Race again, since I am not a roadie and did not feel like battling a bunch of Cat 1/2 riders all day. After doing a lap on the course, I was very thankful of my decision because it was one tough course loop. The last climb to the finish is probably one of the most difficult road race climbs that I have ever experienced. On one section, with my low gear of 36x23, I actually had to serpentine the climb to keep my gear turning. I could not have asked for a better designed course for me, though, because it definitely suited my climbing ability.

The race course was a lollipop type of design. We all started at the base of the last climb, rode a few rolling miles out to the main loop, did a very hilly main loop and then rode back up the stick of the lollipop, past the starting line to the top of the big climb where the windmills from the picture above were located. I was able to get clear from my race group on the first major climb on the main loop and then basically did a 35 mile solo time trial to the finish. The course pretty much destroyed every race pack out there, leaving riders to fend for themselves, pretty much like a mtn bike race and definitely the way I like it. At the end of my 37 mile race, or should I say time trial, I finish first in my class.

Well, enough for change and gears for that matter. Time to get back on the single speed and to start feeling the pain again. Today I am going to do a 4-5 hour single speed ride up at Seven Springs, then over to Hidden Valley and then back to home. It will hurt, but pain is good...Right? Happy Trails, Gerry

CRACKED!!!

Well, I was hoping to post another picture of me on top of the Mohican 100 NUE Series Single Speed Podium with this post. Unfortunately, the luck I needed for that win was not with me. I had a great race going up until just before the 3rd checkpoint. I was riding with last years NUE Series Single Speed Champion Fuzzy John and was feeling real good. We had a real big gap over the third place single speed rider and were in the top 15 riders overall before my bike had a mechanical issue which brought my race to an end.

On a steep downhill with railroad ties used as water bars, I heard a loud cracking noise right before checkpoint number 2. I knew the noise was nothing good, but the bike still seemed to be riding okay so I continued riding. The longer I rode the more creaking I heard coming from my bike. I started becoming pretty worried about the creaking and figured it was probably coming from my frame. Finally, on a long rocky descent going into checking point three, the creaking noise became so loud that I knew there was a major issue with the frame. I then lost contact with the group I was riding in going down into checkpoint three because I took the rest of the downhill very conservatively, in fear that I might completely snap my frame. When I arrived at checkpoint three, I examined my bike and found that indeed my frame was cracked on the top tube.

The frame I was using had about 3 years of use and actually had cracked at an indentation created by my handlebars coming around and smacking the frame last year, so it was definitely not caused by bad material or workmanship on the frame manufacturer's part. The sad thing about this story is my new frame was to arrive on Thursday before I left for the race, but did not actually arrive until after I left for the race on Friday. Talk about luck!

After leaving checkpoint three, I decided to ride back on the 100K course to get back to the camp ground where the race started. Surprisingly, the bike was still riding okay even with the cracked frame. I did not trust it though, so I rode the descents very slowly and cautiously and kept a constant eye on the crack. I ended up finishing the 100K course in third overall and as the first single speeder, even with my cautious riding and a cracked frame. I asked the race promoter if I was able to switch from the 100 mile race category to the 100K category after I finished, but he would not allow me to switch since I was registered for the other race.

Fuzzy John did end up winning the single speed class. In the men's open race (geared guys), Jeremiah Bishop took the overall win. The lead group was flying this year with the perfect trail conditions. Andy ended up finishing 19th overall with a time of about 7 hours 51 minutes and Ernesto finished 21st with a time just over 8 hours, which was not bad for those guys considering all the pro racers that showed up at the race. The NUE Series is becoming super competitive now with top pros coming to every race. It has been cool watching these events grow in popularity.

All in all, I was pretty happy with everything about the day and race except obviously the fact that I was not able to finish the 100 mile race in the way I had planned. My legs felt great and even the bike seemed to be working great other than my major frame issue. I feel pretty confident I will be able to pick-up where I left off at the next NUE Series race in Michigan in three weeks. So, I guess I will take solace from this race by considering it as a good, but very expensive training ride. Happy Trails - Gerry

A Big Thanks!

Last week was a big mileage week for me, as I prepared for the Mohican 100 this coming weekend . In total I did 18.5 hours of riding. The highlight of the week and actually the last ride I did was on Saturday at North Park. I grew up at the edge of North Park and as a teenager rode the horse trials there long before mountain bikes were even invented on my MCS Magnum 26" BMX Cruiser in the early 1980s. In many ways that old bike was not much different than my current single speed mtn bike. But, it was not my bike that made this ride special.

The old horse trails of Allegheny County's North Park were okay to ride back in the day, as long as you did not ride them on a muddy day after a group of horses were there. The trails now, however, are absolutely amazing. I ended up doing about 4 hours and 20 minutes of riding on Saturday, with about 3 of those hours on the new single track cut all over North Park. The trails were so much fun that I barely noticed how long I was on the bike. There were so many new trails to choose from that I was glad to have Andy along with me as a trail guide, since this is home training turf and he is very familiar with the new trail network.

Anyway, I need to say thank you to PTAG for the hard work they did on the North Park Trails. It is volunteers from PTAG that made riding at North Park a completely new experience for me. One of our team's sponsors from the Law Firm of SPK, Brian DelVecchio, is a PTAG member and a big contributor to this trail work at the park and so he deserves a big thank you also.

I must say that if you haven't been out to the North Park Trails lately, you do need to get there and ride. And when you do ride the trails, think about how much work went into them and then thank Brian or any other PTAG Member that you know for what they did and continue to do to improve the mtb riding at the park.

On another note, only four more days until the Mohican 100, so this is an easy training week for me. The weather for race day now looks like it should be pretty good. Additionally, I am feeling good and everything else seems to be ready to go, so hopefully, with some good luck, I can ride to another NUE Series 100 mile single speed win on Saturday. Happy Trails - Gerry

The Wilds

Gorski and I raced at the OMBC Race called the Wilds this past weekend. The venue is near a wild animal preserve called the wilds, hence the name. The course was on a 13 mile loop of some pretty sweet single track. We did two loops, or about 26 miles of racing. The course was technical without being too grueling on the mind or body.

Since I have been doing the single speed thing this season, I decided to stick with it at this race. Apparently, I was the only one that actually registered for the single speed class. I did not learn this until after the race was over though unfortunately. I could have sworn I saw many other single speeders riding around before the race, so I am not too sure what happened there. Anyway, the race promoter called the experts and single speeders to the starting line and off we all went. I raced like I was leading my class, which I was because I was the only one in it.

At the end of the race, I ended up taking 5th in the expert class....the 1st (and only) single speeder. Of course, only the top 4 expert riders got paid. If I would have known that I was actually racing with the expert class, I might have raced a little more aggressively, or maybe even chose to race in the vet expert class. Oh well, it was a fun race and the $10 seat bag I got off the prize table certainly made my trip a worth while experience....

My angry little travel buddy, Gorski, was able to take the vet expert win, so that was cool too. The picture above is Gorski grabing his cash and a view of the huge prize table from where I got to pick my finishing award. One last mentionable note about the race was seeing SteveO make his 2009 mtn bike debute. Always good to see SteveO, especially since he was able to snag 2nd place in the expert class!

I can't seem to find any nearby XC races this weekend, so I think I will do a few long and hard days of training before tapering off for the Mohican 100 on June 30th.

Happy Trails Friends, Gerry

Racing out of the Saddle

Usually, when someone speaks of being out of the saddle, it means the race was fast and hard. Well, the second stop on the WVMBA XC Series was the Mountwood Race and it has always been known as being a challenging course because it has many climbs. I raced out of the saddle today not because I was going all that hard, but because about 6 miles into my 22 mile race, I cracked my carbon FSA Seatpost off at where it enters the frame. At the point in the race where the post cracked, I was leading the single speed class and had worked my way up to about the top 5 overall. I was feeling good and enjoying my ride in the nasty mud, which covered the course.

I am not too sure how the post cracked because it is only a week old and I was not even riding on anything that could be consider too rough. When I noticed that it cracked, I grabbed it with my hand and carried it for a short distance, trying to consider all of my options. I thought about putting it back in, but knew it would not do too much good because of the short length. Since I figured that getting the remain post out of the frame would be a very difficult task, I ditched that plan and decided to try riding without a post. I then saw a course volunteer standing by a truck and I asked him if he could hold onto the post until the end of the race. He agreed and off I went.

It did not take much time for other riders to start catching me as I got used to riding a bike without a seat. I was surprised, though, that more riders were not catching me and that no other single speeders had caught me yet. I kept pounding away on the course out of the saddle. After doing this for a few miles, I could tell it was definitely taking much more effort than spinning along seated on my bike. My arms and quads were certainly beginning to feel the effects of my extra effort. I challenged myself, however, to keep going and to not give up. I figured that I paid my entry and drove 2.5 hours to the race, so I might as well get a good workout out of the day, if not anything else.

It took quite sometime before the second place single speed rider caught me. He rode behind me for a short distance and then came around me. I was a little bummed to be caught, but did my best to hold his wheel. After riding a mile or two with this other rider, I started to catch my second wind and decided to pass him to keep my pace up. I did not see him again until after I finished the race. It was an ugly win, but I must say a gratifying one for me, since I had to overcome such a difficult obstacle.

There will be no racing for me next weekend. My plan is to do two long rides each day. I will do at least 100 on Saturday and probably about a 4 hour hilly ride on Sunday. Anyone care to join me? I will be sure to bring an extra bottle of pain along with me if you like, but this time my bottle of pain will include a seat. Later Friends, Gerry

A New Racing Season

Well, it has been quite awhile since I have posted anything to this site. Don't see much point of writing when I am not racing. The problem is that I did start racing on the road at the end of March, but just couldn't find the time or motivation to write for many reasons.

As with most years, this year I started racing at the Mingo Road Series, which is promoted by Don Mosites from Trek of Pittsburgh. Don, with the help of Gary Bywaters and many awesome volunteers, does a great job at putting on this race series. Pretty much each of the Mingo Races came down to a sprint, though, so I never did all that well with any of my individual finishes. Overall, I did finish the series in 3rd in the 40+ male category.

During Easter weekend, I did another road race, which was part of the WVMBA Road Series and started near Mount Morris, PA. The course was mostly flat for the first 13 miles or so, but then had a few big climbs on it, which did split thing up nicely for me. The race was about 50 miles long in total and I ended up riding about 30 of those miles alone on a solo break. I must admit that I do like when a road course is designed with a climber in mind. I ended-up winning the 40+ male category with a long, hard individual effort, but I enjoyed every minute of the suffering.

Now for the exiting news! My first MTB race of the season was the Cohutta 100, the first race of the NUE Series. This year I decided to do the Nue Series on a single speed MTB instead of a bike with gears, so I lined up this past Saturday with my new MTB ride and a single 32x19 gear. The race went well for me. Like the road race I did in Mount Morris a few weeks earlier, I ended up riding the majority of the race alone. Initially, fellow single speeders Gunnar Shogren, Chris McGill and Matt Ferrari were all with me in the beginning single track section, but on one of the first big climbs my legs felt like they really wanted to get moving, so I went to the front of the group. I notice around a bend that my move created a pretty big gap, so I just stayed on top of my gear and kept it rolling during the rest of the race. About 85 fairly lonely miles and a bazillion pedal strokes later, I ended-up finishing in first place with a finishing time of 7 hours and 20 minutes.

So, in a nut shell, this is my account of my early racing season so far. In the future, I will add more detail and color to my race postings and will definitely start up dating this blog after each race, since the season is now in full swing. Thanks for reading and Happy Trails! - Gerry