New Rider today

Today was a small break in ride to Welcome Duncan to Mo-town, and also to introduce Cat to the scene here at WVU. Emily, Chad, Duncan, Cat, and myself headed out, we went past the lair onto the trail and headed towards Snake Hill via Doug Hill. Chad was suffering and Cat was looking stronger then some of the newbies I have riden with.

The ride was ended short when I kept dropping my chain on snake hill. After a quick inspection I found my little chain ring had bent, and I had way too much climbing left to complete the ride with only a big ring. So I bailed, with Duncan returning with me to help me up the hills, and Cat returned also, saying she just wasnt ready for all of these hills yet...

After returning I didn't feel too bad as Emily informed me her and chad turned around 5 minutes later...

Good Ol' days

Found some antique from my hard drive

You're hitting your face with your window

Chad and I were pedaling up University just past the law school on our way down to the Hammer Ride, about to crest the hill to begin our fast descent, when this crazy lady in a Toyota Camry zoomed by me over the yellow line. She also zoomed passed Chad, shoving the oncoming traffic over to the right.

Then as we headed down the hill, preparing for our 35 mph descent, the lady suddenly brake checks. Chad shouted, "Whoa!" as she waved her hand and flicked us off.

At the stop light, Chad pulled up next to her, "Hey, what you were doing back there was unsafe."
The lady rolled down her window just a crack, leaned her face out, and said, "I'm calling the cops on you!" Then promptly rolled the window back up.
Chad shouts back, "Call the cops on yourself! I'm not doing anything illegal, I have a right to the lane."
The crazy lady rolled her window back down, "I'm a lawyer! I know the laws, and you need to stop breaking them." She rolled the window back up.
Chad scoffed, and said, "No, I know the laws, and I'm not doing anything illegal."
The lady rolled her window down, "You just need to get out of my way!" She rolled her window back up.
Chad told her, "You're hitting your face with your window."
She rolled the window back down. I saw her roll her eyes in her sideview mirror, "You're an idiot! Get out of my way."
Then the light turned green and the lady was saved from any more confrontation with that crazy hooligan in the tight shorts. Waaaaaaaah

Ryan, incidentally, just three minutes behind Chad and me because he forgot to inflate his tire, also encountered some fat ladies harassing him on the way down University. He'll tell his story soon enough, if he remembers.

Share the road!

Big Bear Ultra

Big Bear Ultra was sweeet. Rode 80% cruisin with Liew and Bala, and then the last bit cranking it out to the sounds from my ipod. Lots of sick new trails, tight and gnarly...fast and flowy...fast and rocky, brims, pines, mud, roots, rocks.

Felt good, felt bad, good again, tunes, funny stuff, Bala wrecking, Liew wrecking, me wrecking...


Left the last aid station with Bala...flew down to the lower expert loop at Mach 2, Bala dropped me climbing outta that hole, and I was so stoked about the last section, the stupid fast flowy trail before the mega downhill...I dont think I've ever taken that as fast as I did. I suppose it was equal parts, having a blast, being comfortable on the bike after having been on it for so long, and wanting to get to the beer at the finish...but man was it sick. Climbed outta the creek bed, hit the last lil pull hard...and was headed out!


Coming to the finished I was so stoked to be done, feeling like I rode hard and coming in under 6 hours, that I got a little overboard on the last section, and totally wrapped myself around a tree, and then planted myself firmly in the ground. I had not had such a high speed wreck in a while...whew! My hand, and shoulder took most of the hit, and my hand is swollen like crazy...which is why this post is shorter than it should be...note in the picture my twisted bars and not-so-in-place helmet when i finished. I wrecked so close to the finish that i just rode in the way i got up off the ground...luckily it happened just up in the woods so no one saw me....Laura saw me just after tho as i was shakily getting off the ground...laughing and somewhat delerious...


That was tough...50 miles is one thing, 50 miles of single track only, at Big Bear...that is full on...

Race was sick, thanks to Mark for putting it on, all those who worked on the trails, and of course to all the sponsors...the food and refreshments after were just outstanding.

Hopefully we hear from my Ultra riding partners soon...

The Road Ride

Brautigam posted easier this week about some great 85mile course.

So we met him at Bakers Ridge and Stewartstown at 7:30 to begin our journey in hopes of extending his ride to make a century. Of course, google maps has failed again listing roads that don't exist somewhere around mile 36, if you recalled the earlier post we shouldn't repeat the same mistakes.

So we ended up on Friendsville Rd, then got directions to head towards Wisp looking for Sand Springs Rd. In typical Andrew fashion, he had a timeline and had to call for a ride once he realized he wouldn't make his 2PM deadline. So Emily and I carried on with meager directions. When I saw Bishoff Rd, I knew it was hopeless and began to try to remember our old WVU RR course on Sang Run. We ran into a guy picking up trash who gave great directions to get to Big Bear, which we figured at that point we could either continue home, or get a ride from one of the Ultra racers. We chose the latter.

70miles/8k' climbing.

Trail Werk

4 of us went out to Wisp for the day to get some trail maintence in. We kind of expected to do some boring leaf raking and rock kicking, but nope, today would be trail building! But not some boring trail, no no, Northshore stuff.

So we started with this.

Almost 5 hours later...

That stuff takes a lot of work to make it solid, but maybe we'll include it in our DH race. We also built a 15' berm just after this.