Tour de Cure, But No

So I was all signed up and everything to participate in the diabetes fund-raiser, the Tour de Cure. Everything was ready for me to get up and all, but when my alarm went off in the morning, I found my dad standing at the foot of my bed. He told me about this huge storm that was moving through the Boiling Springs area, and told me to go back to bed cause we weren't going down.....
That didn't go so well, and I was pretty angry until I checked out the radar on the internet. Mostly reds, oranges, and yellows, which ment thunder. I don't know how the storm was down there, but when I finally got up at 2 or so to go swimming, the sky was bluebird clear without a single cloud in the sky. What happened to the storm????? It was the only event that weather has stopped me from going to, and hopefully it will be the last, because doing frontflip variations off diving boards for 3 hours gets boring, riding never does. The good thing about it was that I was able to practice tricks for skiing...but that's not for a while.

Wilderness 101 Pre-ride #2

Okay so today we rode the seggy of the 101 from about mile 35 to 62. It went pretty well, our average speed being somewhere around 11 through those hilly 27 miles. The ride was much like a race; we had only one stop the whole ride and I was constantly trying to keep up with one of the riders on the long, steep fireroad climbs. One of the bigger climbs of the W101 "Greenly" kept me asking myself why I was riding...
WOW THIS REALLY SUCKS
MOUNTAIN BIKING IS A STUPID SPORT
WHY AM I DOING THIS???
...but I quickly found the answer at the top of the climb when we desended the sweet singletrack "Croyle," which was about 2 miles long ;-p (oh and I almost killed a bird going down that, but luckly it flew right passed my head)

Wilderness 101 Pre-ride

Today, me and a few other members of our MBR team pre-rode the first 15, then last 25 miles of the Wilderness 101. It was an early start - getting up at 5:00 and driving to first highway intersection of the course to meet at 6:30. My dad and I drove to our team-mate Bill Gardner's house to pick him up along the way. At the pull-off beside the highway we met the other team-mate planning on racing the W101, Stu Hess. After a short climb up and over the ridge, we rode the Sand Mountain road to where the course meets it at the end of Stillhouse Hollow road. From there it was a short climb up to the Sand Mountain parking lot, where we started along the Sand Mountain trail, a loose ATV trail that was very steep in sections, reaching 18-20% in most climbs. After that trail, we rode on a road for a while, then finding the trails got difficult. We were riding in an area that sees very little bicycle use until the time of the 101, and following the obscure trails presented a challenge. We finally made our way to another road, and it was a long, chilly downhill to an old railroad bed, where we crossed a narrow bridge over a river and then rode through a long, dark tunnel. It was still a gradual downhill when we got to the other side. After the railroad bed, we continued on one of the bigger climbs of the W101 - Old Mingle. After riding down the other side of the mountain, the infamous "Fisherman's Path" lied ahead of us. This trail is extremely technical, with rocky and rooty drop-offs then hairpin turns on the edge of a cliff. When Chris Eatough raced the W101 a few years ago, his only goal was to ride this section of trail without putting a foot down or walking. He rode it successfully, and although the trail is at about mile 90, it is a trail that few people can ride even fresh into a ride. With the help of a few trees, I was barely able to make it; I almost fell into the river once or twice. From there it was a long railroad bed back to Coburn, where the finish is. Then we went on to ride the first climb. The climb was definetly fooling us. It was 5 miles where it kept looking like we were at the top, then went around a turn and kept climbing. The descent was rewarding, reaching speeds of close to 40mph at times. After that, it was a long, half paved and half not road back to the highway. Overall it was a pretty good day; we had a ride time of about 3 and a half hours, and got back to the car around 10:15, which was just before it started to get hot.

75 Miles of Montour

http://web.mac.com/earthscapes66/75_miles_/Movie.htmlThis one was quite the suprize. With over 7,000 ft. of climbing in 76 miles, this was one of the most epic road rides I have ever done. Coming through the town about a mile from the start, the police held the stoplights and the peloton was stretching as far as I could see. The first climb was a wall, and split the race into 3 groups - the leaders, a smaller group that we were in, and an even smaller one behind us. My dad and I encouraged the other riders in the group to catch the leaders, and we got within 50 feet at one time. I could see that our group was drifting back, and that there was a dirt road ahead. Most of the leaders where not able to keep a very fast pace through this section, and my dad and I used our mountain biking skills to bridge the gap. We rode together for about 30 more miles until 2nd big climb. Somehow, I used my momentum to get slingshoted up passed other riders to the front of the group. At the top of the climb, our group was somewhat structured, dropping 40 people or so, and I was riding with the elite 20 people of the race. Which wasn't a very good idea. I was expecting on stopping at an aid station, but the group I was with just cruised right through. With about 25 miles to go, I got dropped, and struggled to keep my pace up as a killer headwind was blowing against me. It seemed as if the climbs were easier that the wide open, flat fields, because of the lack of wind. I finally finished with a time of 4 hours and 17 minutes, about 8 minutes ahead of my dad. I had not expected to do this well, because it was the first time I had ridden my road bike in 2 years, and because my bike was 4-5 lbs heavier than the bikes that most other people where riding.

Escape From Granogue 2008

Escape From Granogue was held on the DuPont estate grounds in Delaware. The course provided some great views of the area and at times came very close to the mansion. For the sport, expert, and enduro classes, the course was around a 7 mile lap. The lap was done 2x for sport, and 3x for expert. The weather was great, and it wasn't too hot at the sport's 8:00 am. start time. Many of the other juniors that I like to race against were there, including Gunnar, Jacob, Josh, and Caleb. The course was very fast and fun. I didn't do the race last year, but I heard that it wasn't going to be very technically difficult. Although it still didn't have quite as many obstacles as I would have liked, the race was more technical that I thought it would be, and had a mix of terrain such as bridges, tunnels, railroad crossings, steep drops and climbs, and fast twisty sections. I woke up that morning and felt like I had gotten the flu, but on my way out of our hotel, I grabbed some hot tea and drank that all morning. At the start, I felt much better. Although I never heared or saw them since I passed them going into the singletrack, I looked back about 2 miles later and Gunnar and Caleb were right on my wheel. I knew that I needed to make a move fast, so I quickly passed a few people and picked up my pace. When I looked back and saw that Gunnar wasn't there, I slowed down so that I could recover well enough to race the 2nd lap with enough energy. I finished first with a total time of 1:29:12.25. Gunnar was about 4 minutes back and ended up getting 3rd. 2nd Place went to Cameron Dodge, who I had never raced against and did not know.