LBD 2009

The 2009 Leesburg Bakers Dozen is officially over and it was quite the learning experience for me. I decided to try out the "solo racing thing" this time around. Last year DKEG and I did it as a duo team and I had to modify my strategy this year. Double laps and an hour rest between pulls was replaced with 13 hours of turning the cranks this year.


I lined up in the first 1/3rd of the pack. I didn't want to get stuck in a long line like last year and hit it hard at the start. Making my way through the crowed field before the narrow single track was a primary concern. I geared a little steep, 2:1 like last year and it felt fine on the pre-ride. This helped me pick off numerous riders initially and I was burning through lap one at a stupid pace for a solo rider. I brought it back a little for the next couple laps, but, hindsight being what it is, I should have brought it back a little more. By lap 4 I knew there was no way I could push that gear all day and I decided two more teeth on the rear cog would work better. The new ratio was much better, however, now I had a new issue to deal with, dehydration. By the middle of lap 6 I knew something was wrong as my head started to swim and my stomach wasn't quite "right". I pull into the pit for lunch and found myself feeling worse by the second. Light-headed and nauseous the required nutrition was impossible to eat. Brie hooked me up with a cold damp towel for my neck and Shannon opened up her stock of E-Caps. Both these things helped, but, I was loosing time and still could not eat. I laid down for a bit and that calmed my stomach. Washing down a PB&J with as much water as I can stomach I head back out for lap 7. Feeling better I caught up to another solo rider and his teammate. Pat and Adam from the AFC team, who would later finish 1 & 2 in my category. Pat was leading me with Adam right on my wheel. The three of us rode most of the lap as a small train passing riders whenever possible. Pat had a great pace and I kept telling myself to stick with him, even though I wanted to pass. At the last large rock ledge Pat struck a pedal and I passed at the top. His pace kept me honest and I foolishly picked it up once in front. They made no attempt to chase and that should have been an indication to bring it back a notch.

Lap 8 I pushed things a little and by the middle I was feeling foul again. I brought it back and tried to drink as much water as possible, however, I'm already in the hole. As I pull into the pits Barb has arrived with the kids and I wish I could give them a better welcome. I'm feeling like crap and wonder how many laps I have left in me. I laid down and took a long break. A VERY long break. Goals for the race are now being modified and my 16+ laps are now looking like 10....if I'm lucky. 1/2 a BBQ sandwich in my belly I'm doing alright. Feeling somewhat human after this extended break I decided to try again and see how things shake out. I grind out 9 and 10 and continue to flirt with dehydration sickness. Not quite as bad as before, but, not where I'd like to be either. More E-Caps and water and back to the single track.


Two more laps got me to 12 and I was actually feeling better at this point. 2 more laps and I'd have a century for the day. Yeah...I can do that, I have that much left in me. The sun is setting and the night riding is about to begin. Lights mounted David and I roll out together. The setting sun shoots beams of light through the pines and I'm feeling renewed. The next two laps go without incident or bouts of pain. 12 down and back at our pit I continue to eat and drink to feed my hungry body. A few Outlaws are heading out and I gear up to join them. Baler, David and I roll through the dark pine section and we start to spread out before the farm road. I don't see my teammates the rest of the lap, but I catch glimpses of their lights as we meander through the dark woods. Jon is on his last lap, #14, and David is working on #12.

Two more down and I have my century with 14 laps. I hear Becky is still rocking the course and is working on #15. In a zone, I head out for #15 as well. The course is becoming softer as the air is heavy with moister. The roots are getting slick and on several occasions my tires resist commands to track straight and true. These minor annoyances aside, I am finally feeling good and having fun. My head and stomach have stopped revolting and I can enjoy the ride. I come back in from lap 15 with 5 minutes to spare. I have no idea where I am in the standings and don't know if another lap will do anything to help. Jojo asks "how are you feeling", "fine" I respond and she suggests one last lap. That was a great suggestion. I was having fun, feeling good and one last lap did make a difference. It moved me up 5 spots from 9th to 4th.

Becky kicked ass the whole day and grabbed third place with 15 laps riding rigid single against a field of geared riders. Liz did amazing as well with 4th place and 15 laps riding single in the same category. Baler and David both knocked out 14 in the single solo group.

Rob and his crew put on a top notch event that gets better each year. The staff and volunteers should all be commended for all their hard work. Actually everyone did a great job. From the casual teams to the more serious ones. The vibe was amazing and the racing was top notch!


Photos by Gary Ryan @ http://blog.toofattorace.com/

Captain Awesome

For DCTony





Damn right you are!

You love it. You ride it. But you've never had a chance like this before. How about cutting 1 mile of new legal singletrack in the Frederick Watershed? MORE and PATC have been working with the City of Frederick to get permission build a big chunk of new trail to replace an eroded road bed that passes it self off as a trail. We want to get at least 40 workers out on Sunday April 5th to put a major dent in this project. That's a lot of people but this is a major opportunity to show the City what we are capable of building. Building a mile of trail is tough work, doing at the Watershed is even tougher, that's why we need a big turnout to get things moving quickly.

If you want to work but can't make it on Sunday a smaller crew will be going out on Saturday April 4th to do some corridor clearing and get the site prepped for Sunday's army of volunteers. We welcome help on either or both days. Please RSVP so we know how many people to expect each day and can plan accordingly.

Why is this such a big deal? Until now, authorized trail work in the Watershed has been confined to doing band-aid style fixes on the poorly laid out blue trail, fixes that should be large reroutes due to poor trail alignment. This is the first time the City has given the OK to build a major chunk of new trail. We have a cycling advocate on the City staff that is very much behind this project and has helped push this through, setting a good example with this pilot project will lead to more opportunities in the future. This project will take place between Sand Flats and Fishing Creek Road. You can see a map of the reroute here: [url]http://tinyurl.com/NewTrail[/url]

We are working on a food and beer supply for the workers. Stay tuned.

Also, if you work at a bike shop or some other business that would like to donate cash or swag to help us feed our workers or reward them for their hard work please contact me at [email]joewhitehair@yahoo.com[/email]. We will make sure everyone knows your business helped us with this project. Thanks!

*** Details ***
Contacts/Watershed liaisons:
David Kegley - [email]dkegley@gmail.com[/email]
Phil VanWerkhoven - [email]phil_vw@yahoo.com[/email]

What to bring:
Gloves, water, snacks, sturdy shoes. If you've got tools, we might need extras so we could use: shovels, picks, loppers, McCleods, rakes

Date and Time:
April 4th and 5th, 9:00 AM - arrive a bit early if you can so we can do our start our safety talk at 9am, then we'll be car pooling to the work site since there is limited parking where we will be working.

Location:
Sand Flats gravel parking lot. Gambrill Park Rd, approximately 3 miles north of Hamburg Rd. Directions from the I-70/270 junction can be found here: [url]http://tinyurl.com/sandflats[/url]

Question? Just ask! Thanks!

Destination Brewpub

Rolled up to Frederick with DKEG today. Cloudy at first with the threat of rain, then the sun popped out as we approached Sugarloaf. This has happened to David and me in the past. A questionable ride turns beautiful in the shadow of the mountain. We made good time and decided to grab lunch and a beer at the Brew Pub in Frederick. An outside table on this beautiful day seemed like a good call and patio filled up fast. Joe and julie met us for a beer and the weather changed quickly while we ate.



Dark clouds and gusty wind moved in and the temperature dropped like a rock in a matter of minutes. Our beautiful day was slipping away and we were only half done with the ride. Moving inside, we finished our beers and decided to get moving. The sun re-appeared, but, ominous clouds were ever present. Headed south we were trying to out ride a fast moving front and got caught near Urbana. A little later that same fast front passed us and the sun emerged again. This was going the be the pattern until the rides conclusion. Our only real concern was the lightning we saw off in the distance. A little rain never killed anyone, but lightning......that's another story. We had to deal with some rain, but, the lightning and thunder stayed well clear, thankfully.



For a day that started off questionably, I must say we had a great ride. Sure, I had a couple flats, we got caught in some rain, but, considering the weather yesterday, I think we came out ahead. Just under 65 miles, a couple IPA's, a plate of calamari and a chicken wrap. That's a pretty good day in my book. Thanks for the ride DKEG!

and the photos.

Riding bikes is fun

.....or at least I thought it was supposed to be. I went for a little road ride today, trying to beat the impending rain. While I was out, I passed 6 other bikers. The first one looked like a casual kind of rider, no flashy kit or bike, just out for a ride. As I passed, I said howdy and he tossed out a waive and a smile. The next 4 guys were the polar opposite. Team kits, weight weenie rides, hell, one guy was simply sporting a euro bike cap sans helmet. I tossed out the same greeting to each of these guys and nothing. No nod, waive or acknowledgment that I was even on the same stretch of road. The last guy (#6) cruising down the road on his "comfort bike", he knew what it's all about. He took the nano second required and returned my greeting.

2 thru 4.......WTF??

Sherman & Veach Gaps, EF

The EF ride was awesome, even with all the mishaps. Camp had a plan, ride up Sherman, down Veach, over to Mine and hit stuff on both sides of the valley. It was going to be a long, hard day. Weather gods smiled upon us and it was going to be a spectacular day. 28 at the beginning, high near 60 meant extra layers were going to be shed. The approach up Sherman was rocky goodness. The first section paralleled the stream with not much elevation gain. A fine technical warm up before the hard work began. As the grade increased, so did our effort and the Big Dog was owning the climbs. JoeP and I were grinding up some steep stuff and Camp suggested we pull it back and save ourselves. "Lots more climbing ahead" he mentioned and he wasn't kidding. The trail took a turn for the nasty and we were doing a lot of hike-a-bike. Way more than I cared for and I started to question the route. The final pitch was simply ridiculous and Darius resorted to portaging his bike. I opted to push, but, had to carry it over numerous "steps" were your footing was questionable.

Dkeg suffered the first two of 4 flats after we made the turn onto Veach Gap. Insanely tight tires made these flats troublesome (to say the least) and our ride organizer was getting frustrated after getting his third just moments after 1 and 2. Fresh eyes and hands took care of the potential issue as we cracked a couple cold ones to pass the time.Patched and re-fueled, we headed down the Veach Gap. Each new high speed turn down the rock strewn trail made that miserable climb a fading memory. Our hoots could be heard through the woods as our group snaked down the twisted trail. A section of high speed double track caused David to suffer his forth flat and Darius' first. I'm sure these mechanicals weighed heavily on David as we entered the last section of rocky terrain and the semi-dry stream bed.

Wet tires and off-chamber rocks are hard to negotiate when your mind is clear (just ask JoeP who went OTB on one section), when concerned with multiple flats, I know it's hard to go with the flow. I assume this is what happened to David as he stuffed his front wheel in this section and went down hard, on his face. I was trying to clip in when I saw it happen and knew there was a problem when he just laid there, bike twisted on top of his body. I pulled the bike off him and saw a lot of blood on the rocks below. A major face plant resulted in a split upper lip and a broken tooth. Joe ran back grabbed David's bike and we got him moving after locating a napkin to handle the blood. The one saving grace was that we were at the bottom, done with the rocks and had smooth double track until meeting the others at the road.

We still had 4 or 5 miles of road riding before the cars and proper first aid kits. The road through the valley is beautiful, but, narrow roads and impatient drivers can make it quite dangerous. Another casualty of the ride was my camera that got dropped while taking a picture of an old well pump. JoeP suffered an apparent pinch flat on the road (not sure how) and we were passed by a runner for the second time that day. Our humbling ride ended with Darius patching up DKEG's lip with Steri Strips and beer. We dropped off Darius and decided to hit the ER at Frederick Memorial. Several hours later David's lip was all stitched up and looking better.

After all the chaos, all the flats, all the hike-a-bike, the one memory that out shines them all was that descent down Veach. It was that good and I want to hit it again.......soon!

Man, I'm slacking. Really doesn't matter as no one reads blogs any more. Apparently Face Book (and twitter) is where all the cool kids hang out these days. I'm going to hang out under the bleachers, smoking cigs, a little longer before I make the plunge. I really like to wait until a technology is on the down-turn before I embrace it. By my calculations, should be the middle of next week.

Outlaw ride and party a couple weeks ago was fun. Ricky and I switched bikes for a little. That old Specialized he stole is nice. The chopped down bars were squirrely, but other than that is was a sweet ride...and fast. We got razed by a bunch of bikers ( the leather clad, Harley kind) when we stopped for mid-ride beers at Daniel's. By the time we left, there were small groups of us talking story with the throttle twisters. One guy even stopped traffic so we could safely cross the street. That was kinda cool. Then there was the old guy in a pickup who cut in front of us and threw his door open. RiderX was all in his face ( never seen that before). Back at Jay's the beer was flowing and the food was abundant. We even got some business done in the way of jersey fittings. Fire pit in the back yard topped off a good day.

Let's see, the weekday rides have been moved to Thursday and we had a good one last week. Shed to Gambrill through the Valley of Death. Tough for sure. Nice to do an after work ride when the sun is still shining. This past Wednesday we finished off the Gambrill Graveyard Shift rides for the year. Only 4 in attendance, DKEG, RiderX, Victor and me. Fast laps, minimal stopping left plenty of time for brews at the Pub. No table this time, hung bar side, feasted on the buffet and got $2 dollar beers......sweet!

First day of Spring was today and I hit a "not-so-quick" recon of Schaeffer. Cleared a bunch of crap off the trails, tried to use the new "unbeleiveable saw" on some big stuff that kicked it's ass (and mine). Great saw for soft woods, not so great for 8" hard woods. I lost my GPS at some point. Went to check the time and it wasn't there. Musta has some good kharma working cuz I found it on the back side of a tree I hopped. Could have been an expensive day. Trails are in great shape and only have a few trees to cut. Need to take care of that soon as people have already created ride-arounds......on the first day. Geez!



Elizabeth Furnace with a strong crew on Sunday. I'll try to take pics and post something about the ride. Should be a stellar day.