First of all.  Why is it the Stoopid 50???  The race T-shirt explained it.  On the front was a quotation from the President of the Local MTB club (www.nmba.org) which read the following:

Just picked up a sponsorship with Hayes Disc Brakes.  Can't wait to get my hands on some new brakes!  And maybe a Ti bolt for said brakes to even further reduce the weight!.  Now I need some Ti prep...



EDIT: oh and this Sunday I am racing the 1st Stoopid 50 marathon at Rothrock State Forest, State College, PA.  I'm really excited because it's a marathon, and it will be my longest distance ever ridden on a mountain bike (by two miles that is).  I will update again after the race.

So Sunday was a good day, as you can see from my result.  I felt very good coming into the short track, and I think I rode well, save for one tactical error at the end.  Sunday morning was warm and dry, which meant the course would be fast.  the course was completely flat, and started in a field, went around the field into the woods for some wide singletrack along a river, then back in a field under a high tension power line, then through some brand new, slightly twisty singletrack and back to the start in the field.  The field was small, but the guy that won the last race and the guy that placed 4th were there, so we had a strong field.  At the gun, we all sprinted, and I ended up in 5th (again) entering the singletrack.  Good position overall.  I felt good, and took the draft while we settled into a pace.  The leader (Robert, who won the last stxc) had literally arrived about 10 minutes before the start, so he was still warming up.  This kept the group together.  Eventually, he opened up a little more and dropped one rider.  I moved myself up to 3rd position and stayed there for a while.  Little did I know that the order we were in now would be the finish order.  After another lap like this, I decided it was time to move up.  My plan was to slowly move up, then get a lead and ride hard.  Another lap in second position, and Robert began to fade, and I passed him in the field and took up my quest.

I thought I had gotten a bit of a lead when I looked back and noticed two riders behind me.  It was Robert and a guy whose name escapes me.  We rode three laps like this, and I was looking for every little lead I could get.  I was gaining a bit of an advantage on the back singletrack section, so I was really pushing through that.  At the bell lap, I kicked it up again, trying to break free.  No luck.  My strategy switched to baiting them around the turn out of the woods, but I would need to hit exactly the right gear for it to work.  I would slow down before the turn, forcing whoever's behind me to slow down, then hammer out of it, hopefully gaining a lead, although it was a long sprint to the finish.  Unfortunately I hit a gear that was too low, and Robert and the other guy easily sprinted around me for the win.  Oh well.  I had a good race.  And I got a medal, which is always good.



In other news, I just picked up a sponsorship from Hayes Disc Brakes, which is cool.  Look forward to using their products for the season.



Peace

Well, I felt really good going into today's XC.  I got there to early (side note: Tour De Tykes is the perfect race venue, the registration tent was in the parking lot of a hospital!!! Oh the Irony!!!), actually about an hour too early, since the race not only started a half hour after I thought it did, but was delayed a half hour as well.  So I sat around for a while.  When we finally began racing, I was feeling good riding in 5th up the first fireroad climb.  I knew that there would be a ridiculous amount of climbing in the race, so we were all conserving our energy (in the 13.6 mi of the race, there was 3047ft of climbing, and if you weren't climbing you were descending so you could climb again... mmmmmmmmm).  When we hit the singletrack at the top of the mountain the first three guys began to open up a little gap, and I had no room to pass the guy in front of me.  We really hurt him up the fire road, he was constantly standing for little inclines and was not pulling away from me.  I was still feeling good.  Then we started descending and all hell broke loose.  I think my read derailleur cable must have slipped because then next time I went to shift down to my bottom three cogs, I lost the chain between the casette and the spokes.  Not good.  I walked the climb (BTW, I need the bottom three climbs because I run 2x9 and they are my climbing gears), which was ok because the five of us had put enough gap on the rest of the pack that I was still safe in 5th, although I would have to push to regain the leaders.  Then finally, at the end of the next descent I pulled over next to the course marshal to try and fix my bike.  We had done a bit more climbing, and with my minimum gear 32x22, I was very very slow, even though this is an easier gear then my singlespeed.  I flipped the bike over and played with the adjustment screws until I adjusted it down so that I lost my top gear but regained my bottom three.  Good.  Of course now my legs were bad again, and I had lost 15 min on the leaders.  Most of the pack had passed me.  Now I was just riding to finish.  I paced my way through the race until I felt good again then began attacking.  I don't think I caught anyone in my group. but I definitly brought back some time.  By the time we passed though the start area again for the last 4 miles of the race I was feeling really good (again) and began to go hard.  I ended up finishing 11th, but with only three people behind me.  Not the resuly I had hoped for, but at least I made a respectable finish.  And I had energy to spare when I was done.  None of this sitting around moping because I couldn't move my legs.  I was able to eat immediately (thank you Hammer HEED, you are far better than Cytomax), which is a first for me at any bike race.  Even though I didn't finish as I would have liked, I had fun and really enjoyed the course.  My bike (baring my derailleur) performed flawlessly.  I finally got some nice UST tires on there and the Spider is now a bonified race machine  The Schwalbe Racing Ralphs have amazing grip, are super light (for UST tires), and roll like road tires.  I did not suffer at all in traction during the race, even coming off Kenda Nevegals (they stick to everything), and I was faster.  My bike is finally complete.  I will post a new picture of it when I get home.  I still have another race tomorrow (STXC)...

Stupid me drove three hours for a race in Danville, PA this weekend, and as punishment for missing my girlfriends flight back out to Colorado to take a summer class at her college, I rammed my bike (and my sister's bike) into the car port of the hotel.  No damage to the bikes, gave them a full workover.  My sister's Specialized was thrown off the roof and crashed down behind us, and my Intense tore some aluminium flashing off a beam, but is unharmed.  I messed up my rack though,  Both rear tire retentions straps snapped off, and I bent a piece of the front that helps hold the tire in place.  I hope I can bend it back in a vice of get a new one.  The main problem is that I will now probably owe the hotel a few hundred dollars to get the flashing put back on... This is what I get for missing her departure.  Ah well,  guess this happens to everyone who uses roof racks sometime right???  I just misjudged the height by about six or eight inches.  I hate my life.  Hopefully the XC race tomorrow and the STXC Sunday don't go as badly.  I'll post again tomorrow night after the XC... or maybe I'll wait until I get back home.  I don't know... catch you later.