4th at the Fools Gold 100

Next up on the NUE series was the Fools Gold 100 in Georgia.

Heading down, we had chances of showers here and there - and during pre-ride, we got hit with some heavy sprinkles and thoughts of pyrite and mud mixing in with my brake pads and eating them slowly away like they did at last years event flashed before me.

Shortly before heading to sleep and a 4AM wake up to eat, I watched a cyclist's most "favorite" of past times when not riding - watching the weather channel and obsessing about the next days venture. Somehow, right before 10pm, a storm that was headed right for us died out and just missed us. Went to bed hoping the same would happen thing would happen again for the mid-day showers that were supposed to hit race day.

Race day comes, a small but stacked field was in place for the 100 mile event. It was surely going to be painful and the temperature was going to be hot.

Race starts off with a neutral start for a bit, then Eddie pulls off and the pace is slowly lifted up. 6 miles to the big climb and all the fast dudes are all there in place...

Up the first climb and immediately the pace is hot and the lead group starts pulling away. I stick with them a bit, but with temps already hitting 80 degrees, the pace blistering and with 94 more miles to go, common sense takes over and I settle in to a nice hard tempo that I can hold.

Up and over the hella long climb, into the single track. I am with a few others for a bit, then I am off on my own in no mans land for a long while, and then I start reeling riders back in.

Up the climb the second time, I reel more riders in but I am not feeling too swell. I switch to just drinking water and backing off on my pace a bit until I start feeling better. Heart rate is good, legs feel awesome - better yet, no asthma issues due to my new meds. Ah, it is so nice to breathe....

Into the last stop on aid 2/3 on my last lap, I get inspired by learning I am sitting in 3rd spot. My stomach is starting to feel a lot better, I am getting nutrition in and I feel great - the temperature is cooling off a bit too, so I up the pace and hope that the darkening skies do not unleash any rain.

Miles are ticking off, pace is going up and I am passing up a lot of 50 mile riders. With about 12 miles to go, all rain hell breaks loose and things start to get sloppy.

I am making a mess of the mud riding, can't see to good and I felt like I was riding too slow - just about then I slid out pretty hard. Hoping that the single track would end around the next corner, I press on.

About 2 miles from the end of the single track, the 4th place rider catches me and flies on by. He's riding the single track well when I am not.

I am soon out of the woods, onto the road back to the finish. I use the last of my water in my bottles to clean off my drive train and pedal on. I look back about 30 times in the last 6 miles to make sure nobody is sneaking up on me.

Would finish up the day 4th with one more 100 miler to go in the NUE series, the Shenandoah.

Sologoat out

(PHOTO CREDITS: Dean Thorton, Ryan O'Dell and OutdoorEventPhotos.com)

2011 Fools Gold - short post

2011_NUE_FoolsGold, originally uploaded by solo_goat.

tough day, sitting in a hotel just about ready to head back north and i feel like i was in a fist fight last night and had a couple of kidney shots.

ended up the day in 4th, just loosing 3rd place in the last few miles of single track after the late race rain made a mess of the trails.

stay tuned for the longer write up, hopefully tonight.

sologoat out

pierre hole 100 part 2, 24 hour nats pre-ride and ernesto update

Saturday was the start, freaking early start at 6am, but at least that meant an early finish to soak up the atmosphere.

Gun went off, and the pace went up immediately. I settled into a pace I could hold for the next 8'ish hours and by the first downhill, I was catching riders already who had flatted on the very first descent.

about half way through the first lap and i picked off a few more here and there. i was moving up and felt good.

2nd lap, all is still going good and i am settling in and picking off riders. seems like i am riding alone a lot at this point, but the heart rate is still holding strong.

somewhere in lap 3'ish, i start to come unglued. heart rate is dropping and i am having difficulty breathing. asthma is starting to kick in slowly but surely and i try not to panic, but i am dropping places and speed. eddie o catches me on the long climb and is out of sight pretty quickly. i try to take in some caffeine to fight off the asthma, but it's too late.

lap 4 become hellacious at this point and i have slowed way down right along with the heart rate. i come through the pit area with 7 miles to go and have to sit down to catch my breathe, but continue to push on. the last miles seemed like an eternity as i had to push my way some little pitches i was flying up just 3 hours before.

i make it in under the time limit to get the belt buckle and somehow still manage a 12th on the day when i was sitting top 5'ish. very disappointing, but happy i pulled it out.

would suck down a few puffs from troy's inhaler along with a few brews before we called it a night.

the next day we would drive straight back as i think the race hit us all pretty hard and hella big breakfast we had in grand junction was enough food to feed us for an entire day, so we rolled on in back into golden colorado the next day....

and then hit up the 24 hours nationals course the day before the rough course layout came out.

behind jon's arm is the pit area, which will be a different spot then compared to other venues out there as you can literally run across the street for brews in case you run out during the night.

otherwise, the course is going to have very little climbing and what rocks they do have on it are going to be very techy and ouchy if you happen to decide to inadvertently eject yourself off of your bike. hope you find a sandy spot if you do.

after that, rolled out, had some awesome Chinese food compliments of Jon - which i have to say mucho thanks to for his and his families hospitality for my week long adventure out west.

and up this week -

reassemble bike 1, bike 2 and 3 repairs and new treads - done

interbike registration and flight - done

asthma doc and new (hopefully) "working" meds - tomorrow

another 100 - this weekend

sologoat out

My Pierre Hole 100 adventure - Part 1

Sorry for the lack of bloggage lately, been out of state and internet access for the past week or so, just getting back from the Pierre Hole 100 race which was the latest stop on the NUE 100 miler circuit.

Flew out solo to meet up with Jonathan Davis from Colorado, along with some of his pals, Kurt and Brandon to head up in his RV to roll up to Wyoming for the 10'ish hour trip.

First day would see me put together my bike which arrived safely from FedEx sent through my pal Billy A and BikeFlights.com. Shortly after we got the bike together, I shot up to Jon's home at 9000 feet and immediately began sucking air as the altitude hit me pretty hard. Felt like breathing through a straw.

Would sleep the night there, then go out for one more cruise around Golden Colorado before heading north to Alma Wyoming.

Driving and resting and eating was the plan for the next 10'ish hours or so and we would make it almost to Jackson Hole before we would crash out along the only spot to stop along some random back road we were on.

Woke up and found a beautiful landscape of mountains and a roaring stream next to us. Surely was not in Ohio anymore.

Huge breakfast in Jackson Hole, a few stops at grocery stores for some supplies, then up to the Grand Targee resort near the Grand Tetons. We would be around 7200 feet, race course would max out around 8200'ish.

We would ride the last 7 miles of the course. The near the basic figure 8'ish layout of the course would allow us to have our RV right on course and easy for us to grab our feeds.

The last 7 miles was rolly, going up and up, down somewhat, then back up and then back down. And don't forget lots of rocks along the way and a fun downhill to the finish.

The first 25 miles would have to wait, but we hear from others - a fast descent, and lots of climbing after.

It was going to be a tough 100 miles.

wilderness 101

or should i say, mechanical 101?

race day saw a pretty stacked field for the 2011 version of the wilderness 101, which saw a couple of ex-pro roadies along with the normal super fast riders.

going up the first climb it was all out, we were flying and there was not many with us, but by the top i was maxing out. not really knowing how much further it was until the end of the climb, i backed off and got into a little group.

we were about 8 strong, and were in a pace line - somewhat. i don't think the majority of them had ever ridden a pace line and it was breaking up with every rotation, but somehow we were closing the pack on the main pack that had slowed. as we neared them, some of the guys surged and then 4 of them popped off the back. 4 or 5 of us made it to the main pack around mile 20'ish and then they decided to up the pace again. damn. popped off again.

a few miles later and into the first real single track and some hellacious rock sections. i hit the section pretty hard, i think the chain jumped off a little and then i cranked down hard. not good. the chain had twisted around somehow and when i pedaled down, it bent the chain.

it was skipping bad, no way would i make it another 70'ish miles like this. so i jumped off, looked at it and the bent link was right before the master link. sweet - out with the chain tool, a quick fix and back on the bike.

10 feet later - snap! don't know what happened, but it snapped for good this time, and bent the master link too. somehow, i got it to bend back - but i had lost considerable time fixing it and damn near lost my cool a few times.

back on, i made it to the next station and had the mechanics bend the master link as best they could. more lost time.

now, the chain was cut short and i was not able to make it into the biggest two cogs when in my big ring. i would have to remember this or i would probably damage the rear derailleur. something very hard to do when your heart rate is averaging about 150 and you have 60+ miles to go.

up and down, up a climb and then down, and then - a sliced front tire and stans all over me. cut was so bad, there was no way sealant would fix it. and chris beck was right next to me, having the same issue.

so i gave him one tube that i had, i used the other. and off we went.

he would drop me on a climb, i continued on and flatted 3 more times on the same tire. at one point, i would walk for over 20 minutes waiting for somebody to pass with a tube. oh the futility.

finally, got a tube from a passing rider. at this point, i was sort of in a bewildered state from the mechanical mess of a race i was having. i ended up catching up with robert who rides for tomac and we would ride together the last 10-15 miles of the race. he was not having a great day either, so it was good to ride in together, bs along the way and forget about the issues that lay on the trail behind us.

their will be other days, and besides, got to ride on some nice trails and enjoy the day with 300+ plus mountain bike enduro freaks.

see you in wyoming.

sologoat out