The Big Tease

This time of year Mother Nature can be a real tease. We started the week with temps in the 60's and hopes of a great weekend of riding and we end the week with snow, wind and freezing temps. In addition to the training regiment, the race season is also feeling Mother Nature's wrath. The Battle at the Bird race in Norman scheduled for today has been postponed until later in the season. I have also heard that next Sunday's race scheduled at Lawrence will be postponed and I received an email from the Roman Nose 50 last night and it is looking like they may have to postpone that race also but they will not make the call until Friday.

Well, at least we did have afew days early last week for some serious riding before the weather turned bad. Two great rides on the Ark River trail, Tuesday and Thursday night, were just what I needed. I have said it before, we are really fortunate to have this 24 mile ride right at our finger tips. Bicycle Magazine spotlighted this trail last fall and here is the link to the web article,
http://bicycling.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/569408

Tuesday night was a pretty intense 25 mile jaunt on the West side. Myself, Doug Chambers and Jon Shank headed out with about and hour of daylight remaining. Both Doug and Jon are very outstanding and experienced riders and having those two on my tail really pushed me to the max. It didn't take long to reach the water crossing and then after a short stop for some mechanical repairs we were on to the Dundee bridge where the single track ends. Going on west, a ride over the bridge puts us into a really fun area of fast double track filled with lots of tight banked turns where it is just peddle as fast as you can for several miles until we reached the diversion dam and our turn-around point. After a quick recharge with a Clif Bar and a check of the my sweet Amoeba light set-up we were off again, retracing the trail back towards town

Thursday night ended up being a "chick night". Doug and I were joined by Morgan Stevens, Sandy McMullen and my lovely wife, Linda. We pulled out of the bike shop and hit the tight twisty east loop first. This part of the trail really helps you work on your balance and tight turns. This was the first time that I had my new Superfly 100 on this section and I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it handled than my Paragon on this type of trail. After a spin through the East Loop, we headed for the West trail. A ride through the river bank section took us across the water crossing and then onto the "pinball section". Since everyone didn't have lights, this was our turn-around point. Thursday night rides are definitely much more laid back than those on Tuesday. But, they are equally enjoyable as it is always nice to have the ladies with us.

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully the snow will melt and the trails will dry out quickly this week. I need to get afew more rides in before heading down to Watonga to do the Roman Nose 50 on the 27th. I guess we will find out on Friday if Mother Nature will let us hold the race. Until next time, "Stay Clipped In and Crankin".