3, west and 101

been a hectic week of sorts, so the lack of free time has cut dramatically into bloggage time.

here's the past week wrapped up -

3
- or should i say, the westlake disaster.

ok, got to admit, prior to this year, maintenance on my road bike has been somewhat non-existent. my stuff is just beat down in general to the point i am going to the point i will be needing a new road bike next year.

1 - anyhoo, got to the crit. 120 pounds of pressure in a tire does not fare well in 95 degree car. so boom goes the dynamite and my first tube of the day.

2 - new tube, pumped it up and the pressure seemed a little high. got distracted talking bike stuff, tire slipped off the bead as it wasn't seated, boom goes the dynamite again. damn.

3 - new tube from marshall. warmed up, did about 45 minutes of racing and hit one of the various ruts on the course super hard with my front and rear wheel. front wheel with the new conti wide clincher came through fine. rear wheel didn't and flatted by the first corner.

out of tubes, ticked off and i have always had a notion in my head that when you get your third flat of the day that it is divine intervention telling you not to ride any more. so i bagged it....


WEST
....and went home and packed up one of my pivot 429's to head west. i'll meet up with her in golden colorado with jonathan davis where we will head north to the pierre's hole 100. it is a new edition to the NUE 100 miler series.

25 miles loops, at high (but not stupid high) elevation, and has a lot of climbing. so, on paper, should be a good course for me - and i have always wanted to race in wyoming, so why not?

got the bike to fedex, rested and rode a few days and now....

101
headed 4 hours east to hang out with the stans gang for a bit before our early AM wake up call tomorrow for the start of the wilderness 101.

it's been a few years since i have done the 101, and i am excited to get back here to my home state and to check out the new course design that chris scott came up with. it will be to catch up with old friends and to say farewell to billy a as he heads west with bikeflights.com.

oh - and if you think i am nutty for riding 100 mile mountain bike event...

how about the burning river 100, a 100 miler RUNNING event in akron ohio. winning time last year was 15 1/2 hours. ouch. saw this event a few years back and caught up with runners at 70 miles. they were looking "slightly" rough.

and just to note - they will have 309 runners tomorrow.

either way, good luck to them and everybody else doing a 100 miler tomorrow. see you on the trails.

sologoat out