Mohican MTB 100 Results

Unofficial Results posted on Ohio Mountain Bike Championship's Website http://www.results.ombc.net/ Mike Maher 15th 100k Alex Cox 17th 100 mile Cyclingnews.com's report of the race http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2006/jun06/mohican100_06

Jennerstown 5/21,Ligonier RR, Snitger's CR

Due to lack of time and no lack of racing, I'll lump all of these races into one larger posting. Jennerstown,PA 5/21 First, the 2nd freddie fu Jennerstown Crit. The day started out pretty nasty. Rain/T-storms were being called for all day long in addition to 40-50 degree temps, and winds gusting upwards of 30 mph, not a good forecast for race day. Still, a good sized field showed up for the crit, including Brian Hopkins and myself. The race started off slowly with very little action in the pack. The conditions certainly made everyone feel pretty lethargic and not wanting to do much. After about 9 laps of the course and a few failed attempts at pushing the pace, Doug Riegner made a solo break from the pack. Seeing my opportunity, I jumped and was able to get a gap on the pack while advancing toward Doug on the back stretch of the course. I was able to carry this advantage over into the technical inner section of the course because the wet, muddy corners of the infield were much easier to maneuver solo at high speeds than in the midst of a large pack. After chasing for a few laps, i had him down to about a 5 sec. gap, but didn't have the oomph to close the last little gap and latch onto his wheel. The race continued this way with Doug leading, me chasing him, and our ever-expanding lead on the field. At the end of the last 21 laps, Doug lapped the field with his commanding lead, and i came in for a solid second with a minute gap on the field, and brian contested the sprint with a 4th place finish overall. A good victory for Indiana Cycling. Ligonier,PA 5/28 The next weekend, Indiana came out in force to the Cat 3/4 men's PA state championship race. Mike, Brian, Nick, and I came out to contest the race. The day was beautiful and ideal for a race of this caliber. Apparently the rest of PA felt the same way, because there was a field 100 deep in the beginning of the race. The start consisted of a large neutral lap around the historic Diamond of Ligonier and then back to the Ligonier H.S. where the staging of the race took place. From here the field took off into the mountains of the Laurel Valley. The narrow winding climbs, flats, and descents were very tightly packed with riders as we weaved through the course, but that didn't slow down the pace. Most of the pack stayed upright and together for the entire ride with the exception of a few minor wrecks at the beginning that separated the field and took a few good riders out of contention. Despite having a few descisive areas where it could've been possible for a break to be established, nothing came of anyones efforts to get away. Inevitably, the race came down to a 55 mph downhill bunch sprint. The result of this large bunch was one rider getting taken down and having a 30 second facial pavement scrub, and taking a trip to the emergency room for his wounds. Overall, Nick got 5th (Also taking the cat 4 pa state championships) and I got 13th overall (3rd cat 4). An enjoyable day of racing on a hilly yet fast course. Beaver,PA 5/29 Mercifully the Snitger's Cycling Classic the next day was at 2pm, giving a sufficient amount of time to sleep and recover from the day before. I met Brian in Monroeville and we took off towards Beaver in what would prove to be a heat-stroke inducing day. The temps climbed as we waited for the first races to finish up and our lap of the course to open up. The race began with the master's class starting 5 minutes ahead of the Cat.4's. But the Cat. 4's started off fast and the speeds quickly took off as the field gained momentum. Unfortunately in the 3rd lap, someone crashed coming around one of the 9o degree turns on the back stretch of the course, causing Brian to take a flying bunnyhop through the adjacent yard at 30 mph and landing the foot drop off the other side of the curb. This slowed him down and left him racing to catch up to the pack, with 4 stragglers hanging on his wheel, yet taking no pulls. I was able to stay up in the top 10 throughout the race and attempted breakaways on numerous occasions. Making a jump with Eric from the UPMC squad, i nabbed a prime and thought we had a good gap on the field, but we ended up getting reeled in about a lap and half later thanks to both of us being pretty cooked from the effort in ligonier the day before. On the 4th to the last lap the lead pack overtook the masters and then everything ended up going to crap as the masters grabbed onto the 4's wheels and noone knew who to chase. The last lap the pace ramped up significantly and riders began to get dropped. On the last small hill to the finish line, the front pack i was with made a huge effort and as we topped the hill I figured my only chance was to hold the pace and catch everyone off guard before they had a chance to take the sprint on a straightaway. I got to the line in second, ending the weekend on a high note with a much better race.

My Mohican weekend in review

After becoming happily graduated from the Greensburg-Salem School District on Thursday June 1, I decided that a graduation party was in order. So what better way to celebrate a 12 year block of schoolwork than by tackling the Mohican 100 MTB race out in Loudonville, Ohio. To put things into simple terms, this was a race of attrition. Apparently, this portion of Ohio had been under a dry spell for about a month before recieveing about 5 days worth of rain the week before race weekend. Needless to say, the course was more than a bit f-ed up from the weather. And one can only imagine how bad it must have been when the race director, Garth Prosser of Cannondale, after questioned as to the condition of the trails said that, I quote, "This is going to suck". That left everyone a bit shaken and hoping for the best, expecting the worst. The next day began at 5:30 on a crisp late spring morning with clear skies with no forecast of rain for the day, perfect MTB weather. All the racers slowly began to rise and prepare for the 100 miles or 100 kilometres ahead. All gathered close to the 7 am hour at the entrance to the Mohican Hotel to hear the race instructions and line up for our "neutral" roll-out. Unfortunately, someone forgot to inform the state park police driving the lead vehicles about the concept of "neutral" when the pack rolled out at about 25-30 mph on the roads heading toward the dam hill to get the race underway. When the race was off at the bottom of the dam hill, I was fortunate to have good positioning in the front of the pack and with decent climb-abilities, kept that positioning over the hill and down into the singletrack. My race appeared to be going quite well, i was feeling ok, the new Cannondale Rush frame was a dream ride and everything was fast and fluid. Until about a half hour into it when my chain exploded. Every racers dream, a mechanical to ease the pressure of the next 95 miles ahead of you. After about 5 minutes of fumbling with the wonderous quick-link and getting the chain reattatched and in working order, i had only lost about 30 places, including hearing fellow racers, Nick Broskovich, Mike Maher, and Doug Miliken fly past during my ordeal. Just the boost i need to get my arse in gear. Off down the trail i go, probably at about 30k race pace, not so hot an idea when the race your in is 4 times that length. I passed by a few and eventually caught up to Mike and Doug furthur down the trails. Speaking of trails, at this point, they were slowly deteriorating into about half of the width of a normal trail from the complete washout they had recieved pre-race. Thanks to this I found the one moss covered rock to catch my now completely mud covered front tire with that threw me over the handlebars, onto my face, on a rock. Another confidence booster to happen at the beginning of a long race. With both face and knees torn apart from the fall, I got back onto the bike and made my way toward the back of the lead pack again, only to catch up as the race turned upward up the meanest hike-a-bike to ever take shape. A perfect time to grin and bear the calf-tearing pain. At the top of this hill, i made my way down the opposite side, only to be confronted by, miraculously, the front end of the pack, in a quandry as to which direction we were supposed to go to the first rest stop. Before deciding which way to go, another biker happend by who had broken his seatpost and was riding standing up for the last hour, the perseverance of a champion. After much debate, it was decided to continue up the SECOND huge hike-a-bike, equal in length and steepness as the one that we had done 30 seconds ago. This spilled out onto the correct trail to get to the rest stop, only we were going in the opposite direction that the race was supposed to go. After grabbing food at the first rest stop, the race basically restarted itself with everyone in the same place. The trail took us to the base of an on-road big-ring climb up to the next section of trail. And this is where everything deteriorated. The next 20 miles to the 2nd rest stop had us riding through completely washed-out horse trails, with streams actually running through the center of some trails, and other times with the trails falling into a river running parallel to the trails. Traction was minimal, hiking was often, not a fun part to speak of. After the race spilled out onto some more sturdy gravel sections, i was able to make up some more time. Between catching up with my Dad and Sheila at the 2nd rest stop, the quad-tearing climbs, the complete physical and mental destruction of the next 30 miles, and about 20 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, i can honestly say it was decent riding despite the pain that i had already brought onto myself by going out much harder than was necessary. Mostly the riding consisted of lots of gravel roads, a little bit of slick singletrack, and some long rails-to-trails, and a couple brutal muddy uphills. And then i arrived at the last aid station. The ladies there gave my racing mind a bit of calming by telling me there was only 11 more miles to the finish. Whew. The last 11 miles of singletrack were the same we had ridden out on, only backwards. Except for the very end, where the race was led up another excessively maicious run-up that would make the most hardy cyclo-crosser cry. Straight up the face of a 500 odd meter dam to the road ontop. At the top of the dam, the road led up again towards the Finish line where of this 10+ hr odyssey lay waiting. Unfortunately, the line lay at the top of another section of washed out mud caked trail and a 100 meter grass climb. At this point, i no longer cared. To be here was more than i could imagine. i collapsed after the line, completely and utterly mentally and physically spent from the effort. I left everything out on the trail. After laying face down in the grass for a good bit of time, the gods smiled upon my fate by granting me a room at the hotel for the night. I carried my bags down to the room, showered, and promptly passed out for about 6 hours. Waking up famished, i made my way down to the lounge and acquired a lovely 16'' pizza, which i devoured in its entirity, with the exception of 1 piece that my dad managed to get. At the end i came up with a top 20 placing overall, at about 10 hours 15 minutes over the 101.2 miles and 10,000+ feet of climbing in this race. Pictures to come.

My new Six13 with SRM. It's so pretty.

Jennerstown Speedway Crit.

I really sucked things up on Sunday. I knew I wouldn't be great because I'm not really made for a completely flat course or crits in general but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. It was my first cat. 3-4 race also which was different because it was faster by far than any other that I've been in thus far. I started on the front line but after some difficulty shifting into my large chainring on the first lap I was quickly in the back of the pack. Then I had to deal with passing all of the people who were getting dropped. It probably took half of the 40lap race until I had worked my way through the rubble and got to the front where I could be more comfortable. I ended up finishing 12th after passing 3 people on the final sprint but I was in a really bad position coming out of the last corner that turned us around 130 degrees towards the finish. After that turn it was just a short sprint to the finish line and I had no chance. I guess next time I just have to be smarter and be in a better spot for the final sprint. I do feel good that I was able to hang in and felt good while doing it. At no time did I feel like I was on the verge of getting dropped which sort of suprised me but made me happy at the same time. Hopefully I can improve for the next race in two weeks.

Mingo Creek

The final Mingo Creek road race of the year was today. I woke up and heard rain and thunder and wanted to go back to sleep. I decided to go since I told Nick I would be there and it turned out to be a good idea because the day cleared up, the sun came out, and it was beautiful. I didn't know if I had fully recovered from my 105 mile outting on Thursday so I didn't know if I'd be able to stay with the lead group let alone do well. That was OK since Nick was ahead of me in the series points so I was just going to lead him out anyway. Everything was goin well and the race wasn't going at a crazy pace because any time someone would try something Spokes-N-Skis would chase them down because they wanted a sprint since they had the largest team at the race. With one lap to go I told Nick that I'd go to the front on the next lap and give him the best leadout I could with whatever I had left. Well, on the last lap I saw an opening, yelled at Nick and jumped. He was on my wheel and we were off. The next thing I know I hear Nick say "go, we have a gap". So I hammered as hard as I could to the finish and ended up with the win.(Nick was nice enough not to come around my wheel and beat me) He ended up getting third. Then we found out at the awards cerimony that along with our first and third places from today we ended up finishing second and third in the overall points. It was a good day for Indiana Cycling.

Here I am with Miss Pennsylvania, this is for you Rich. Now you have to believe me.

Another Night on the Fixed Gear Bike

Well I just completed another ride on the Fixed Gear. No mishaps this evening just and enjoyable 20 mile ride in the dark really enjoying riding the Fixi and am anxious to see how riding this style of bike effects riding my regular bike.

Fixed Gear Bicycle Blues

So, You are probably wondering what this subject might mean. One of you probably has an inkling of what I am about to write about.We have all had mishaps on the bike, yo ride you wreck thats the name of the game. While mountain bikeing you been thrown fore and aft, over logs and onto rocks. Road riding you have been sent flailinginto the air by pilons, other riders or wet bridges, train tracks etc. but what I wxperienced this evening was a totally diferent sensation. As some of you know I have entered the realm of fixed gear. A dear friend of mine built me up a fixed gear conversion for Christmas and I have been enjoying it quite a bit. A fixed gear for those who don't no is basically a Track bike with brakes or in other words a bike with one gear and pedals that are always turning even when you are costing. Now you can probably guess that this takes some getting used to, the fact that the pedals are always turning takes a little while to get used to, but as I said I have been riding since Christmas and have become quite comfortable with it. So comfortable that I have been riding clipless pedals for a few weeks now which, until this evening, has made riding the bike even more enjoyable. Now for the ejection part. As I am leaving for my ride for whatever reason I have trouble getting clipped in to the right pedal, so I'm kind of not paying full attention to what is happening.Add to this a friend of mine is comming by on an evening run and we exchange niceties. SLIGHTLY DISTRACTED + TALKING TO FRIEND + FORCING RIGHT CLEAT DOWN WHILE PEDAL COMING UP =................ You gueased it EJECTION!!!!!!!! Over the hadelbars and into the middle of the road. Now on the bright side of thins there were no cars coming in either direction and my friend got a good chuckle and rated the whole incident as a perfect 10 een though I didnt quite ace the landing.

I just returned from my ride no more than 5 minutes ago. Sorry Rich, I didn't want to wait until this afternoon for fear of a snow storm. It's funny how cycling seems to work. When I left home I was planning on doing a 30 mile loop and was debating if I even wanted to go that far. Now, 56 miles later I finally return home and feel great. It's only 34 degrees outside but with no wind and some spots of sunshine it's actually really nice out to go for a ride. I love this sport!

Here I am returning from a wet, cold, sloppy 40 mile ride this morning. It really was a great time and I wish you all could have been there but since you weren't I had all of the fun myself

New titanium SRM, Looks interesting

Morning ride

I went out for a ride this morning and I was suprised to find I wasn't as cold as I thought I would be. On my way home I ran into Mike about a mile from my house. We stopped and talked for a while and then I headed home. I hope this snow ends soon, it makes me sad.

Another Tuesday gone by and another spin session over. It was just Rich and Myself who showed up again this week. With people being busy around Christmas I guess it can be forgiven this time. Anyway, we did the Carmichael climbing video. I really liked this video especially compaired to last weeks spinerval tape. It was fun, more people need to come.

Monday Night Ride Report

Tonights ride was a challenge to say the least. The cold temperatures weren't bad at all, but the snow and ice proved to be a real problem. I figured the snow would have compacted somewhat after Saturday and Sunday being clear and sunny, but the ice under the snow is now harder, but still not strong enough to stay on top of. I ended up cutting the ride short, and returning home via the road. This may be the end of the mountain rides until the snow melts a bit.

Mountain Bike Ride

I went on a mountain bike ride today, or should I say I took my bike for a walk. There have been some 4x4s to the gas wells, and the ruts are ridable. Some parts of the woods are ridable, where there isn't an icy crust. The areas that are open (no trees) are too difficult to ride because of the layer of ice... you can't get on top of it, and there is too much resistance to plow through it. The ride was fun, despite the amount of walking, and maybe by Monday the conditions will change for the better. I may try again tomorrow, for no other reason than to get outside.

I just got back from a ride outside. Everything was going fine until I was going down a small hill and hit some slush on the road and went down at about 25mph. I got a small tear in my seat and some scratches on the bike, a small cut on my leg also but nothing major on me or the bike. It was a nice ride and refreshing to get outside. Did I mention that I hate snow.

Another spin session

On Tuesday night it was only Rich and I at the trainer session. It was my first time doing a Spinnerval video and it was miserable. I thought this was a time of year for easy base training or complete time off of the bike (god forbid). It was actually sort of funny doing one of these videos with someone else and being able to see someone else struggle with you while the people on the video spin the huge gears, that the video tells you to use, without breaking a sweat. Anyway, it was a good time.

Have mercy

The Title of this Post describes the feeling you have when doing this particular Jacobson tape. Have mercy was the video choice for last evenings indoor festivities. This is a 2 hour session but we opted to only do 1 hour due to time constraints as well as physical. It is amazing how isometric squats load your quads with lactic acid after 50 minutes of a heart pounding leg burning workout. Hope to see you all next week.

Tuesday Night Ride Report

27 Degrees with a slight wind may not sound inviting to the rest of you when it comes to riding but here in Indiana PA you have to go with what the good Lord sends your way. As I was leaving town, around 7:30 pm, I did however see Matt returning from a road ride so I didn't feel so foolish headed out for a mountain bike ride on such a frigid evening. The riding conditions were almost perfect. There was around 3 inches of crusty snow and only a few patches of ice. There had however been some 4 wheelers and 4 wheel drive vehicles on part of where we were riding so we did have some ruts to deal with. They are calling fore approximately 6 inches of snow for this evening so by next Monday the riding conditions should be perfect.

30 miles of cold and ice, but riding keeps your heart warm!

Here I am returning from a 30 mile ride this morning. The temperature was in the low 20's and there was snow/slush/ice covering the back roads I was riding so I took my cyclocross bike. After the cold numbs your face the rest of the ride is great.

Night Ride

I went on a night ride last evening (mountain bike). Hopefully, the snow will not get too deep, and we'll be able to ride all winter. If anyone is interested, Rich and I ride from my house on Mondays at 7:30p.m.

If this is the Indiana Cycling blog I thought I should post a team picture to make it official. So here we are in all of our glory

Hello

Hello Indiana Cycling blog! I'd post some pics but my desktop is on the fritz right now and I need a new network adapter. Who all was on the trainer today? Anyone? It's great fun, I think we should set up a message board. That would be more fun than a blog and I can ramble on and on Brian

Ironcross III

As many of you know I, along with several team mates participated in the IronCross Cyclocross race this past weekend. Mike Maher (Cyclocross Bike), Alex Cox (Mountain Bike), Brian Hopkins (Cyclocross Bike), Myself (Cyclocross Bike) and a recent friend of mine, Peter Buck (Single Speed).For those of you not familial with what a Cross bike is, it is basically a road bike with wider knobby tires.and a single speed bike only has one gear. So a brief course description. The race had a mass start then headed into a field that was set up as a standard cyclocross course set up in a field with twists and turns and obstacles then out onto the 63 mile course ( which is actually more than that according to my calculations closer to 66 miles). The course took us out a dirt/gravel road and eventually onto a tar-chip road.this was the beginning of the climbing. The course consisted of many dirt/gravel and fire roads with a fair amount of technical single track and to those of us on cross bikes the several miles of paved roads were a sheer pleasure.The twisty gravel road decants at 44 mph were hair razing at times (Just ask Mike) but allot of fun. Now as many of you know,cyclocross racing usual involves getting off your bike a couple of times due to obstacles or run-ups. A run up is a part of the course where you shoulder your bike and run up a hill. Might I say that the guys that organized this race took that one step further with the 2 back to back rumpus at pretty close to the middle of the course witch I dubbed Insult and injury. The first so called run up was a power line. I know what you are thinking, You have seen many power lines around the area, cleanly mowed, usually a motorcycle or 4 wheel trail ascending them, not these ones. Maybe Billy goat trails.Steep and rocky better describe the first plod up. I watched people take 2-3 steps stop put their bike down then start the same process over again. I' not sure how long it was but let me tell you it was plenty long enough. Now you finally reach the top of injury and look on to insult. so you remount your bike and ride approx 200 yards and ascend insult. Now this run up want nearly as bad as the first. It did appear that at sometime something might have driven up it but long before all of the large stones and rocks were put there. the third run up was just a road that was too steep to ride. Now you are all probably wondering how the race went. Mike and Alex did rather well although Alex did have some road rash at the end of it all. Brian and I finished together a little later in the day and Pete actually passed Brian and I about 12 miles from the finish like we were standing still (on a single speed). My race went pretty much how I figured it would, actually a little worse. As many of you know I am as passionate a archery hunter as a cyclist so unfortunately cycling kind of takes a back seat to hunting this time of year. Needless to say my fitness isn't what it usually is as well as the fact that as a fanatical archery hunter I have probably been somewhat dehydrated for the past month.. So the race starts and all is going well. I had a plan to take it easy knowing that I really wasn't prepared to race this course hard but my competitive nature wouldn't let me not try to do as well as I could, so as we started through the true cyclotrons portion of the course I feel my heart starting to beat funny (as may of you know I have exercise induced atria fibrillation), so I backed off a little and started to feel better and off onto the course. I was feeling pretty good so decided to bridge up from the group I was in to a group further up the road which I soon caught but was soon to pay for on the long climb we were starting to ascend. so I just kind of settled in and found a rhythm.We road along a long time on fire roads and Gravel Road descents and I started working with another rider and we started catching many people and was really feeling better than I expected. sot after a while we went off road onto the technical single track. It is amazing to me how well a cross bike handles the rougher terrain but it handles quit well. Not far into this section I caught Brian and passed him. His off road skills need a little work. then on through the woods down a pretty steep rocky descent and eventually back onto a paved road. I didn't wait for Brian at this point because I new if that when we got to some more climbing he would catch me. We reach a checkpoint ant they tell us we are 25 miles in and I cant believe it. I still feel pretty good and we are almost half way there.So we turn off the pavement and head toward and of section leading to insult and Injury (the back to back rumpus). At this point I start to feel a little cramping in my legs but no big deal at this point. As we approach insult I cant believe my eyes but up I go ( So this is what mountain climbing is like), passing many people along the way. I here Brian yell at me from the bottom so I waited for him at the check point at the top. I take on a little food and water we get on our bikes and start out again only now the cramps in my legs are getting worse. I don't know if you have ever had your inner thigh muscle cramp up on you before, but I cant even explain the amount of pain they produce. You stretch them one way and they pull the other. But at this point I had to ignore them because I was only half way through and I wasn't going to quit. So up insult I climb and back onto the bike. I spun through the cramps and was feeling alright. We got onto some more Gravel roads and back onto some pavement and the more I spun the better my legs felt so I figured that I was out of the woods. It wasn't long until we headed back to gravel roads and some more off road stuff and every time I had to exert any real force to the pedals my legs would start to cramp again so I switched to survival mode. easy on the hills and spin the flats and descents. All in all I'm glad that I did the race and look foreword to doing better next year.It was the hardest race I have done to this point in my life and hope that I'm able to do other races of this caliber. Some things I did learn from the experience: Don't wait until the week before a race to try to get your bike dialed in. Spend more time on the cross bike off road. Stay well hydrated leading up to the race. Continue to train and prepare for upcoming events. Don't eat at Denny's Restaurant the night before a race. one more thing. Dont plan on going away to race on wifes BIRTHDAY!!!!