Solo Rides

 Got some good solo rides in at the end of last week. On Thursday I left the shop around 2pm and went out for a nice ride. Route was something like Leaf Valley - Millerville - Inspiration -Ashby - Evansville - Brandon -Garfield. Took out the Roubaix since I wanted to get some faster miles in, but the gravel was calling my name and I couldn't help it, I had to do some exploring. Found some great new roads with some chunky gravel and rolling hills. In the end I got in 60+miles, pace wasn't hard by any means but it was a great ride.

Couldn't help myself

Chunky gravel, Skinny tires

On Friday I left early and was planning on getting in a longer ride than I did on Thursday, but my legs were not feeling it. Still got in a pretty good ride, loop consisted of Holmes City - Lowry - Kensington - and back in. Wasn't that windy or hot but just felt drained the entire ride. Did find some new gravel that was pretty fun, again some nice rolling hills. In the end I got in around 50+ miles.

Nice 6 mile stretch of winding rolling gravel

Pit Stop

 This week I'll do the Tuesday Night ride, be lazy on Wednesday, and then get some solo rides in on Friday and Saturday. Maybe make a trip down to Glenwood for some Hills haven't done that for a while.

Tuesday Night Sprints and Weekend Gravel

Last night we had our Tuseday Night Sprint ride, we had a pretty strong group so it was pretty fun. There was quite a bit of attacking going on and if a group of 2 or 3 got away they'd stay away. Wind was pretty visioucis and the heat took a lot out of me, I started cramping towards the end but before the cramps I was able to be the agressor which is always fun.

Last Saturday I went for a nice and easy gravel ride. Got Skittles ready and we took off at 7am, plan was to get an easy 20 miles and that's what I did. Here's some pics.

Came around a corner and there were a ton of big ass Elks staring at me

Let the fun begin

P.O.V

Nice rolling hills

Breakfast of Champions

 This season I've spent more time on Skittles than any other of my bikes. I've ridden it in the snow, cold, rain, heat and wind and the bike has been a blast. Extremely happy with everything about the bike. The only thing I've changed since the original build are the tires and seat. I switched out the knobbier Specialized Captain tires for a great Gravel grinding tire the Specialized Trigger, the Triggers give me plenty of grip in loose gravel, but I don't get penalized on hard packed gravel or pavement. I switched saddles from a Specialized Henge to a Specialized Avatar. The Henge is great on anything under 4 hours, after the 4 hour mark there just isn't enough padding. The Avatar has the extra padding I need on the longer rides.

This week I'm planning on a longer ride on Friday morning, not sure if I'll take Skittles or the roubaix out but need to get a nice long ride in. I'll decide on bike when I take off. Either way it'll be a mix of road and gravel.

Some awesome weather going on right now so get out on your bike and ride.



Don't call it a comeback

It's been awhile since I posted anything, it's been crazy at the shop, but I'm going to try to get something up each week.
Here's a recap since last post

Ross and I competed in the Almanzo 100. Here's a recap: First 40 Miles "Hey this isn't bad, we're flying" Next 30 "Wow wind sucks but I still feel good, nah I don't need to fill up bottles only have 30 miles left"
Final 30 " I hate the wind, I must not like myself, my ass is sore, I should have filled up my bottles. There's a cemetery that looks like a good place to lay down for a while. Oriole Road that sounds pretty. Oriole Road sucks ass, when does it flatten out. I want to quit, don't quit your almost there. Never doing this again"
30 seconds after finish: " Awesome, when can I do the next one, I need to do more of these."

Final time was 8 hours 28 minutes finished 160th out of 373 finishers. 500 -600 started.
Ross did better finished in 7 hours 34 minutes and finished 84th.

Awesome event and can't wait for next year.

After Almanzo took a week off and then got back into the swing of things.
Signed up for the Dirt Bag it's another long ass gravel race, this one is in St.Cloud.
Had our first Thursday night MTB rides.
2 weeks ago had a nice 5 hour gravel ride and last week spent 5+ hours in Cuyuna Mountain Biking. Love the trails there and got to ridE every trail that was open. Flagged out some new single track in Alexandria.

This week is an easy week so I'll do the Tuesday Night ride and then take it easy. Will have 2 days of trail building later in the week.

Well that's the recap. will try to keep this updated.

See you on the road

Recap

It's been a while since I posted anything, shop has been crazy busy!!! So here's a recap. Last Saturday (3/31) Ross and I rode out to Inspiration Peak and climbed up the hiking path. That was a pretty painful climb around 300ft of climbing in a 1/2 mile. On the hiking path parts of the trail hit 40% grade, which is painfully steep. If the climb wasn't enough we had to ride the 25 miles home into a 20-25mph headwind. Ride was a lot of fun and will definitely be making more trips out to the peak area when I want to get some climbing in.

On Tuesday we had our Sprint Night and on Thursday we had our social road ride. Tuesday I felt great and took most of the sprints. Still don't feel like I can get the explosiveness needed in pack sprint but if I can get a little gap I can power my way to the stop ahead signs. Thursday we had around 15 people and had a nice easy ride.

Yesterday Ross and I drove out to Inspiration and came up with a 22 mile loop with lots of climbing for our area. We did 2 laps around the loop and at the end of each lap came the ascent to the top of the peak. I put new tires on Skittles. I took off the Specialized Captains that were great in the mud and put on a set of Specialized Triggers. The Trigger has a less aggressive tread, a smoother raised center and some larger knobs on the outside of the tire. Tire was  definitely  easier rolling and faster on hard packed gravel. On loose gravel it got a bit sketchy but I think that was more my fault then the tires, I had way too much air. Overall I think the tire will be a winner in anything other than muddy conditions.

This week we have a lot going on at the shop, we have ride leaving the shop on Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm. On Saturday the early early morning ride will be driving to Glenwood for a day of hills and at 10:30am on Saturday I'll be guiding the Guided Mountain bike ride offered through Community Education. Hopefully we'll see you on one of the rides.

Sprint Night #2

We had 11 people show up and face the wind for the Bike and Fitness Company Tuesday Night Sprints. The route we took kept us out of the full force of the wind and when we did have a direct headwind it was only for a short time. The sections with tailwinds were fast, and made me feel like Mark Cavendish, on one of the sprints I almost hit 43mph, now if only I could do that going into the wind or uphill.

I felt way better this week compared to last Tuesday, I did put on the full Carbon wheels so that might have had something to do with it. With the ultralight Easton wheels on I felt like I was cheating a bit. I definitely feel like I'm in way better shape this year than I was last year at this time. My weight is down and I'm weighing less than I did at the end of last season. There's still plenty of pounds I'd like to shed before Almanzo and Chequamegon, but so far I'm on track.

Bike and Fitness Company rides are out in full force. Thursdays ride will be leaving the shop at 6pm sharp. Saturday there will be a 6am gravel ride and a road ride later in the day, will post on facebook when there is more info.

Foggy Gravel Ride

Ross and I had some more riders for this edition of our Early Saturday gravel rides, we knew Noah a strong junior from the St.Cloud area was going to join us, but we were pleasantly surprised when Chuck showed up a little before 6am to partake in the gravel grinding. I'm usually not up at 6am, and our previous Saturday rides have taken off around 6:30, but it's really dark out. My little headlight really didn't do much to illuminate the road in front of me so I had to use the Force and hope nothing jumped out in front of me.

Here's Ross Powering up a hill. Not only was it dark out, but we also had to deal with a thick fog .

The gravel was like peanut butter, it was supper smooth but slow. Every little incline was like climbing a much larger hill. We really had to work to keep the speed up.  Skittles handled the mud great and I never felt out of control, even when I hit some unexpected mud holes. I can't say the same about Noah who was the only rider on a road bike, he tried following my line on a couple of downhills and got pretty squirly. Chuck had a near crash experience when a mud hole jumped out in front of him around a corner.

There's the road

I really didn't have a route planned for the ride and the wind was not a factor so we head west on the trail until we got to Centennial. We crossed 82 and had our first taste of gravel on Centennial. From Centennial we crossed 94 and made our way down Moe Hall Road. Moe Hall is a pretty fun little stretch, at one point the road took us between two swamps and it looked like the road was sunken into the swamps. From there we headed to Pioneer park for a little rest stop. After that we headed to the dreaded Browns road and the fearsome Brownsberg. Not really that dreaded or fearful but a fun little road with some steep climbs. Once we got to the end of Browns road we turned around and did it backwards which has even more climbing. From there we made our way to county road 15, and took that for a while, nothing special but just one roller after another. Then it was on to Solem lake road, half of which was virgin roads to me. Rolling hills and turkeys, pretty fun. After that we headed back in. In the end we ended up with around 50 miles, and I'd say 40 or so were on gravel. Pretty fun ride.

Rides at the shop are in full swing, so Tuesday night we have our sprint night that leaves at 6pm. Thursday Night is our social road ride that also leaves at 6pm. Saturday there are a few option, 6am gravel, 8am road, and 12pm road. Hope to see you on one of the rides. 

Sun tried breaking through but didn't come out until we were done riding.

With the fog every climb felt like we were climbing into the clouds.

Sprint Night #1

It was the first official Sprint Night of the year and we had a really good turn out around 17 riders.  Sprint zones were Centennial, Tanks, Pipeline, Fireman's Lodge, Tastefully Simple, Voyager, and Shalom. I felt pretty good as long as the pace was constant. I was lacking in the jumps and had nothing when it came to the sprints. Still I was in the top 3 in close to all the sprints, and won the last one. It was great to get out and ride with some new riders. Troy, Nan, and Mike are all going to be great additions to the rides. Some of the older guys where being more aggressive and Eric was extremely fast, between him and Angie I'm really going to have to work on getting some of the sprints this year. Now if we could only get some more big guys out there I'll be able actually feel what drafting is all about.

Great first sprint night of the year. Thursday we'll be leaving the shop at 6pm sharp for a mellow road ride and on Saturday there will be a group ride leaving at some time during the day. Will post on Facebook at what time ride will leave. As for me on Saturday Ross and I will be leaving the shop around 6am to go out and get a 60-70 mile gravel ride in.

Riding season is here, we'll see you on the trail.