12 Hours of Northern Kettles

Well I made it; 12 hours of northern Kettles is over. After loading Mailen's Xterra to the roof with gear. Sean, Katie, Gretta and I headed East to Greenbush, WI. For those of you who are not familiar with your Wisconsin geography, Greenbush is between Oshkosh and Sheboygan.

Gretta packed to the roof of the car wondering, "Why do these guys need so much crap"

Friday night we camped out in a group camp site with a handfull of other racers. We were unable to set up our tents on the race course so we had to wait until Saturday morning to set up the Twin Six tent and all of our gear for the race. This was a pain because we had to unpack the vehicle friday night to get our tents out only to pack the truck back up and unload again to set up our site for the race. Friday night I didn't get the best sleep b/c we had Gretta in the tent with us. This was Gretta's first camping trip; she did really good, but got excited a couple times during the night and woke us up. Saturday mornign we were up at 6am and headed to the race course to start setting up our shelter, make breakfast, and get ready for the 8am start.

The course was 8 miles of all rocky single track. I was happy to be riding the Dos Niner. The large wheels and extra inch of rear travel helped take up some of the bumps. I rode pretty strong for the first hours, only stopping for water bottles, GU and a few pieces of PB&J. At about 2pm it started raining. Around 3 pm the course was like ridding on a slip and slide. I took my time finishing my 10th lap and went to our tent for a break. At this point it was still raining and I didn't know if I would go back out on the course again.

New Twin Six team kit, "It's Metal"

After another PB&J, some Builder Bar, a Coke and an hour and a half break, the rain stopped and the course was starting to get tacky again. I decided to put on a fresh change of clothes get back in the saddle. I was fortunate to have company for my first lap after the rain. Thanks Anne for being my winglady! I turned out 3 more laps and ended the race at 7:40ish pm. My records showed that I rode a total of 13 laps, totaling 104 miles. Fortunately for me, the score keepers had me down for 14 laps( I don't know if it was me or the score keepers who lost count through out the race?), but 14 laps was good enough for 3rd place out of 22 solo riders. One lap and one hour behind the winner.

The race was tough, I was happy that my legs felt good the whole time. It was my hands and butt that really took a beating. I am planning on two more 12 hour races this year and am still contemplating doing a 24 solo in Aug. Time will tell.


Now playing: Green Day - 2000 Light Years Away
via FoxyTunes

Cable Classic

This weekend Katie and I went north to Cable, WI for Cable Classic mountain bike race; A 23 mile race from Lakewoods Resort to Cable. This was the first time I have done this race and didn't know what to expect. What I did know was the weather at the start of the race was going to be cold. The forcasted highs for Satruday was 55, but I didn't expect to see snow flakes in the morning. Luckily I was prepared for the cool weather and was comfortable for the race.

The course was a lot of fun with a good mix of single track and fire roads. The worst part of the race was splashing through the freezing mud puddles and then riding in wet shoes for an hour and a half. I felt like I rode a good race yesterday. I was able to move into the first group of riders right from the start and hung with the group for about half the race, eventually I started fading and couldn't hang on to the group. With about 10 miles to go I lost sight of the group and ended up riding the rest of the race with 2 other riders. With 2 miles to go 1 rider attached and I knew I wasn't going to be able to hang with him. In the end I held the other rider off and finished 11. I am really happy with how I rode. I didn't know what to expect fitnesswise since this was the first race of the season, but I thought I fared pretty well.

Special thanks to Tim Krueger and his family for letting us crash in the Fonzie loft.
Kaite and Odia for their support.
Thanks to Twin Six for the gear.
Rivers Eatery for the great pizza and beer. If you are in the cable area and are looking for some good pizza check this place out. You wont be disapointed.

Next weeked I am doing my first solo 12-hour race of the year in Greenbush, WI. Looking forward to a long day in the saddle.

A glimpse of things to come

This season I have the honor of riding for the Twin Six team. If you are not familiar with Twin Six, it is a local Minneapolis company that designs some of the coolest gear in the industry.
Not only are the graphics on the jerseys and shorts well designed, but the fit is also custom; making the apparel super comfortable and well thought out from start to finish. Below is a little tease of what the kit will look like.


That's right, nothing says "METAL" like silver and black lycra. This ensemble screams "Speed". So if you see the silver and black on the trail, don't be afraid to throw the horns in the air and with your best Bruce Dickinson voice yell "Run to the Hills"!

First race of the year is this weekend in Cable, Wisconsin...Bring the Noise.

Congratulations Joe

Joe Meiser wins Trans Iowa 5.

Nice work, you put a lot of effort into this race.

One bike left

Saturday morning Mailen, Joe and I rode the Minnesota River Bottom trails from Minnehaha Falls to 9 mile creek where we met up with a group of guys to help put in the raft that helps trials users cross the creek. It was nice leisure ride down to the creek, once the raft was in the water, we stood around, indulged on coffee and pastries we carried in and enjoyed the cool morning air.

(This is an older picture of the creek in the summer when the water is down. Now in the spring the water is up to the top steps.)

Yesterday was also the first time I rode my Dos Niner this year. The big tires and 1" of travel make for a perfect ride on the river bottoms trail. So far this month I have ridden all of my bikes except one; the SS mountain bike. Maybe I will squeeze it in for a ride before the end of April, or maybe it will have to wait a little longer. Regardless, most of the metro trails are now open and there will be plenty of opportunities to get some quality mountain biking in.

Now playing: Biz Markie - Just A Friend
via FoxyTunes

New Colors and New Bikes Photos

Not a whole lot of news to share since the last time I posted. The biggest news is a couple weekends ago Katie and I painted some of the rooms in the house. This is the first time I have really done any painting like this. I am pretty confident I can say "I don't like painting".
We really like the colors we picked and the rooms look as good as they can, considering the poor job the previous owners did painting.


Yesterday I finally got out on my road bike for the first time this year. We got about an 80 mile ride in, including some pretty serious pace lines, sprints, and hill climbs. I felt really good throughout the whole ride, even after a full week of riding including a hard ride on Friday.

City Limit Sprint
L to R- Fast Frankie, Sean Mailman Mailen, Joe Diesel Meiser, Derrick "D. Lewis"

Salsa Primero-with new Red Group and Dura Ace Carbon Clinchers

Since I switched the RED onto the Primero, I had a Chorus group sitting around collecting dust. I decided to convert the Casseroll fixed fear into a gear bike. This bike is awesome!

Salsa Casseroll-with Campy Chorus 10 group and wheels

Finally, since I lost my fixie I wanted to convert my Cross Check back to a fixed gear. The Cross Check is a very versatile bike that allows one to set it up in a a number of different configurations. Here is the 4th mutation of my Cross Check.

Surly X-Check ,Mutation 4.0 - 42x17 fixed gear

Now playing: Yonder Mountain String - Night Out

staying on average

This year I am really trying to meet a goal of commuting 200 times to work equaling about 6000 commuting miles. To reach the 200 commute mark I need to ride to work an average of 4 days a week. I have had this same goal for the past 3 years and have never been able to reach it b/c of travel, some intentional rest days before races, or a week of for jury duty.

As of today, I have rode in 50 times, which puts me at 1,500 miles. I rode to work 20 times in March and only missed 2 days due to a work trip to Las Vegas. I am right on track to reach my goal. I know I am only 3 months in to the year, but the weather should be getting nicer soon making riding easier.

Now I need to keep putting in some consistent weeks while I can. Before I know it the summer travel schedule will pick up and it will be easy to fall behind.

Oh yeah, it is going to snow tomorrow. I did say it is going to get nice soon, didn't I?

First race of the year is April 18. The Durand road race in WI. It's time to start getting out of the saddle and building up some sprinting legs.