So the Thanksgiving Ride tradition continues....this time Marja and I rode the newly established Arnold Rim Trail, above Arnold...in case you couldn't figure it out. I will be honest, due to the lack (or as we found out, apparent lack) of trails and descriptions I had heard of this trail, I expected a casual ride along some nice rolling trails.

We headed out from Marja's parents house and rode up to White Pines to hit the trail head. There was a little ice on the roads still so it was a nice winter ride. We started up a trail running along an old logging road cut, just as I expected, but then a sharp left started the days fun! What a gorgeous trail, single track winding through the pines and fast too! After a creek crossing, we started up a tough little switchback climb and the single track just kept coming.

It seems this area is criss crossed with old motorcycle trails that are now restricted. We rode a spur out to Cougar Rock.

The view was amazing, looking down toward Sheep Ranch and Mountain Ranch to the west and north while taking in the Sierra to the east. Once back on the main Arnold Rim Trail, the play ended for a bit with two sweet pitches that left me struggling on my 34x18. Legs felt great, just my t-rex-like upper body was flailing! I obviously need to either:

1. go to the gym and lift; or
2. ride my SS mt bike more!!

It was sad...anyway, once up that pitch we climbed casually until we hit yet another pitch that had me hiking. Marja was spinning the granny and made her way up most of the climb

at the same speed I was hiking in the steeper pitches.

The rest of the trail was bombing single and double track! And if you hear anyone say its all downhill from Arnold to Avery on the ART, don't believe'em! Luckily I have fallen victim to such descriptions in the past so we knew better.

I found a little spur that was actually labeled "more difficult" so we thought, well really I thought, we should ride the tighter single rack and it will certainly meet up with either Sheep Ranch Road or the ART itself. This was my "abridged" navigation I learned from my adventure racing days. That was the joy of adventure racing, at least on the team I raced with, we flew by the seat of our pants and we always "got close." Marja, luckily, didn't really know that part!! Reality was I was almost right, and Marja reminded me of the third boundary we may hit and that was the town of Sheep Ranch 1500 to 2000 vertical feet below us.

Somehow my "you are absolutely right, that's a possibility, but...." didn't instill a lot of confidence so we hiked out. I think I redeemed myself by bush whacking and hitting the trail right where I said it would be - 10% skill, 95% luck!!

The remainder of the trail was a blast and we were able to ride a county road (dirt) back to a neighborhood across highway 4 from access to Marja's parents place. The ride totaled only 19 miles, but the 12 miles that included the ART had 3400 vertical feet of climbing. Once IMBA adds more trail either up toward Big Trees State Park or down the hill its only going to get better.

Post ride was fun too, we headed out with Marja's dad to shoot a little trap. The first year I joined them, Marja really made me look bad, she couldn't miss! This year I was on fire while Marja was streaky at best with the shot guns. Then Tim pulled out the 22 and said he wanted to try and hit the trap with the 22. He nailed one after several tries.

Next, I went for it and I swear I nicked one! But alas, nada. Talk about frustrating! Marja reloads the 22, and she missed with a few shots and then nails one. Ouch my Man-Card in question again....then she hits another with the 22. Looks like I have to wait until next year to get it back. Maybe I can go shoot throughout the year to get some practice, she won't know!!!???

Both of us hitting the target...

Pics of the day....

There needs to be more of these signs posted, EVERYWHERE ...say on all the trails between Downtown and Granite Bay? Remember:

bikes don't poop

...if you can tell me where I took this I will buy you coffee!

The new wheels....if you have to ask you obviously are not having enough fun in your life!!!!

Pave it Damn it!!

I need to be a little selfish here. I know I should be happy for the "greater good" here, but I have to admit I am sad.

Marja and I were riding our CX bikes on some single track/double track trails that wind along some old RR tracks to Camino from my house. Trails are very hard to come by in the 50 corridor, its mostly private property between here and Echo Summit. So the trails I pieced together from the house were great for the CX bikes.

As we got as high as Missouri Flat Road, as we waited to cross it, I noticed a parking lot where an old dirt lot used to sit, "Hmm, what the heck is that for?" I thought to myself.....

Well, as we rode across I noticed the single track trail was now a paved bike trail...wow, what a bummer that was! This section in particular was fun and it dumped you out on an old abandoned RR bridge that was exciting to ride across...now, its like a freeway overpass across Weber Creek . The pavement continued all the way to Forni road, what used to be well hidden single track.

So, yes, I feel guilty for being so bummed out seeing as maybe more people can walk/run/etc on trails in the 50 corridor, but why pavement? Well, at least the first 13 miles form the house is still predominantly dirt, and fun at that. My concern is that they will eventually pave all of it, part of "Rails to Trails".... here's the funny part, the equestrians are none too happy with the paving either! Wow, maybe we should have worked together to keep the trails dirt! Hmmm, there's a novel concept! A lesson for equestrians and MTBers alike!

Remember....

bikes don't poop

Cheers!

Don't think I ever posted this pic, dunno who took it. This was in the Collegiate National Championship Short Track at Northstar back in October....Marja just rode passed this group.... Its a cool pic! She ended up 15th in the nation in her first ever short track race.

"What a difference a day makes..."

This weekend marked the return, for me, of cyclocross....but like no other cyclocross race I had ever done. This weekend I would be doing it with gears. Crazy, I know. Who would have ever thought it would be such a hard thing to figure out. Okay, I remember how to shift, its just remembering TO shift proved difficult at times. And being efficient using the gears, well I have a long way to go.

Saturday night was a night race at Sierra Point near Brisbane (South SF) in the Bay. The course was a blast, bumpy a few steep run ups, barriers at the base of a short hill, lots of partying fans, and hey it was lit up, pretty cool. Racing the 35+ A group I figured it would be a wee bit tamer than the Open A category...what was I thinking!? A few former world champions (mtb and CX), a few multiple national champions, what seemed like most of Cal Giant racing this category....lets just say it was gonna be fast! Cool!

I had a Marja-esque starting position, back of the back with nothing but daylight (or moonlight I guess) behind me on the pavement, but hey, its my first go at the gear thing so I thought I'd ease into it. Plus with all the roadies I still stress about being taken out, especially on first laps... Race starts, feeling good, move up from the rears to the middle of the field in the first and then second turns (note: see reference to roadies above). No crashes but bizarre lines on dirt/grass allowed me to take advantage of the inside of both turns. We fly down to a 180 turn, oopps there's face plant #1 and the guy looked like he was in pain. Steep up, steep down, run-up up some stairs, back on having fun. Legs and lungs feel good. Go through a few hairpins in the grass/dirt, head back to to some barriers at the bottom of a hill, crest, hard left down a steep descent to an immediate rise, catch some air and get some beer sprayed on me....so on. Having fun to say the least.

Half way through lap #2 I notice a chatter in my front end. Wrap my hand around the headset, no movement, oh crap!!

1. is my fork busted (have had issues with flex, etc with this new carbon fork)??!!; or
2. does my fork have lawyer tabs, cause my wheel is loose!!?? YIKES

So I keep pushing, but stressing as with each lap the fork chatters more and I notice as I come into tight turns, the bike is slow to track through the turn. Hard to describe! Not a good feeling. So I ride scared which I think slowed me down A LOT (at least that's my story and I am sticking to it!!), but I still grabbed every dollar bill I could from the beer bottles placed in precariously technical spots on the course - grabbed $6, dropped 2 of 'em trying to stuff them down my shirt. Lets just say my mtb riding payed off as I was grabbing the bills literally as I was dropping into a steep little diddie, place the bill in my mouth then kickout off the lip of the ensuing up getting a rise and usually beer sprayed on me each time I was airborne....probably not the fastest way to race, but definitely the funnest considering I was either going to be visiting Marja's Dad to have my teeth remade after my fork fails or it was going to be the last ride on my new CX bike after I ovalize the head tube!

Race ends, no catastrophe, just the plug started to pull out of the fork thus allowing the steer tube to rattle around like a rock in a diet coke can!

Hats off to Scott, he started 45 seconds behind and passed me on the last lap, got about 10 meters on me then i luckily out sprinted him to the line to save a wee-bit-o pride amongst friends... I think it was the "YEE_HAW" he yelled as he passed me that spurred me on. He was still 45 seconds faster than me though, nicely done!!

Marja's A race was right before ours. She was lucky enough to be called up which should have given her an OK starting spot, but a lot of the other women rolled up as Marja was going up so I think she got a little screwed there...Women! I tell ya!

She started faster than I have seen her and she started moving up after lap 2. And I mean really moving up. She caught one of her main rivals with a few laps left and left her behind and almost caught Lizzie on the last lap. She looked strong the whole race and is not being shy about passing! She surely ended up with some strong results, still waiting to see exactly where!

We watched most of the Open A race and then headed back to Cameron Park. Got to bed about midnight, woke to the alarm at 7am (impressed I slept that late, wanted more!) to get up and prep for the next race at Folsom HS, Bicycle Planet's covert CX race - someone needs to tell them to advertise better!! Marja's start was at 9:45, 14+ hrs after she finished her last CX race. I was lucky and got to start at 12:45 in the A's.

Marja's race started FAST....translation: Marja was 30 seconds behind the leader at the end of lap 1, 15 seconds behind Emily who was in 2nd....typical start, but Scott and I figured she'd start winding up! Lap 2, same split to Emily, the leader was about 25 seconds up on her. Marja looked good and was powering through the start/finish straight. A few laps later Marja was 10 seconds behind the two leaders, Emily had reeled in the Velo-Bella gal and I was worried the two would now work together and pull away from Marja but she was on fire. Seems in that lap the Velo-Bella woman took a face plant into a barrier at the bottom of a hill and struggled to get back up to stay with Emily....she punctured trying to catch back up to her. Emily came through the start/finish and Marja was now 5 seconds behind.

In roadie fashion, Emily waited for Marja so they could work together and leave the rest of the field, but as Marja came over the top of her to pull through, Emily punctured as she was riding from dirt to a wooden bridge.... Marja rode the next two laps solo to a win in the women's A race. STUD!!!

She tries to minimize her win by referring to the other women's flats, but she caught'em and its all part of it!! She was a stud.

My race rolled around, finally, and I have to admit, after the night before I was nervous about my fork and the gears. In the night race I was fumbling with my gears, always seemed to be too ez or too hard, longing for my single speed so I did not have to think I just had to pedal... Truthfully, I was tired as hell too!

I started near the rear, the Open A's and 45+ A's went together. I slowly moved up through the pack down the straight and a few tight turns and some technical sections, as we flew down a section of hard pack dirt (and cobble, duh..its Folsom always assume half buried cobble) we came to a tight left. AS I set up to take it fast, a Davis Bike Club guys flies to my outside along with a SGW inside of him who is going to pinch me off in the corner.... this is gonna be ugly!!

As we start into the turn, I have my elbow and right knee sticking out to keep the SGW guy from pushing me off my line....my first thought as we entered the turn was that DBC guy is toast, and as I thought it I hear the sound of deep dish carbon tubulars skidding across the cobble....Then, the SGW next to me hits the deck and they get all tangled up....being on the inside of the turn, I immediately stood up and pedaled through it to miss the carnage!

"F-ing Roadies!!" slips out of my mouth....

Bruno from Davis comes by as I am still shell shocked from being taken out of the race, "man I can't believe you didn't get taken out!!" It was good to see it wasn't Bruno who was in the DBC kit...jumped on his wheel for several laps but couldn't hold his pace, he's strong!

Rode up through several people and started to slowly make my way up. Rode strong, I was really happy with my race. A couple of the longer straight aways I just couldn't spin up with the roadies and caught myself thinking, "I gotta ride my road bike more"...but oh well.

Going into the last 2 laps I was catching another DBC rider, got on his wheel through the start/finish straight and then the next straight he opened up a can of whoop-ass...ouch...I didn't panic and figured we had the whole last lap ahead and I was faster through the technical stuff. 1/3 lap later we hit another straight and he gets more distance after I closed the gap, and as we approach the final run up he looks over his shoulder and saw me closing the gap. at the top of the run up I just wasn't close enough to get by the line.

Ended up 6th in the Open A class, but more importantly I was just happy how my race went! Got a little bit better with the gears but still felt completely inefficient...but getting there! Love the bike when the front end isn't coming a part!! I would like to have that night race back to ride again.

For me, the two races were as different as Night and Day.....

Sorry, I had to do it!

Race Across the Sky...Leadville, CO

Cool race to do at least once. I have done it 3 times and would love to do it again on my single speed. Now with Lance embracing it, its insane, at least for the first climb up and over St. Kevin's (20 miles). The last year I raced was when Floyd Landis raced and the race organizers ballooned the field from 450 to 750. That was a crazy start and I was staged in the top 50 or so from the previous year's finishers. Now the field is 1400. So you can imagine the cattle call on climb #1. Still, with the elevations involved its a great challenge, great atmosphere, great town!

November 12 is another showing of the documentary on last years race with Lance winning...

http://www.raceacrossthesky.com/

FYI