Saturday, December 17, 2011

Long time, no see




Hey there.........long time, no see. It has been ages since my last post.

Today, as I was doing a long dirt road ride, I was thinking what a great 2011 it was for me on a mountain bike. Lots of fantastic races, outstanding race venues and great friends. So, I decided it was time to revive the old blog. So, you can expect weekly updates reviewing the completed 2011 race season and looking ahead to what is already shaping up to be a special 2012. See ya soon, but until then stay "Clipped in and Crankin".

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Dog Days Of Summer

I have settled into a pretty decent riding routine that adds up to about 125 miles per week. This routine includes two, 20 to 30 mile rides each week at Wilson, one dirt road ride around Great Bend and two long road bike rides. Nothing beats a good single track ride but I have grown to really enjoy my solo road bike rides. Give me some hot weather, my ipod loaded with "Linkin Park" tunes along with the quite country roads around Great Bend and I can go 40 miles pretty easily. Those road bike rides are also a great stress reliever. My weekend rides at Wilson have also been great because Linda has really started to enjoy riding that trail. We even did a recent night ride up there. It has been great watching her technical skills improve over the past several months.

The race schedule will get pretty busy in August and September with the racing frenzy kicking off on July 25th at the Sunflower Games in Topeka. On August 1st we will be back in the Topeka area for the Crocodile Rock Race at Lake Perry. August 14th is R.I.M. (Rapture in Misery), a 12 hour race at Crowder Lake near Trenton, MO. August 28th is the always great "Cruise The Blues" race held up at Doug Palen's farm near Tipton, KS. September 12th is the "Tour De Lizard" race at Camp Horizon outside of Ark City, KS. September 18 is the KC Cup at Swope Park in Kansas City and Sept. 26th is the Red Dirt Race at Draper in Oklahoma City. Looking further out into early October is the greatest race of them all, the "24 Hours of Moab" outside of Moab, Utah on October 9th and 10th.

In addition to all of these rides, on August 6th will be a challenging ride for sure. Around a dozen of us are headed out to Colorado and we will be riding the "Ring The Peak" trail, http://fotp.com/ringthepeak/index.html . This is a series of trails which climbs up Pikes Peak, over the continental divide, across the secluded western side of the peak and back down the mountain. The trail head starts at 6400' and we will climb to 11,400' and spend 3 days riding and camping. It will be a challenge and also a great experience for all of us riding in the backwoods with the bears and mountain lions.

Well I am off for a dirt road ride, until next time, stay "Clipped in and Crankin".

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Mother Nature Isn't So Fancy

This weekend was suppose to be the Crocodile Rock race at Perry Lake. Well once again mother nature had different plans. Heavy rains on Saturday washed out the event. I was already in the area attending some meetings and when I arrived at the race venue around 1:00 on Saturday the race coordinator, Lyle Reidy, along with Jim Cummings were tearing the tents down. You could see the pain in Lyle's face because he had to postpone the event. There is a ton of things to put together for one of these MTB races and it is always a shame when they have to be postponed. But, he had no choice. I immediately called LJ to get her turned around and luckily she had only made it to Ellsworth.
I pulled out of Topeka and headed west down I-70. Since I had all my gear and still lots of daylight I was thinking about heading to Wilson to get in a ride. As I passed the Wamego exit I remembered a trail called Fancy Creek. I had always wanted to ride Fancy but until now had never been in that area with my gear and some extra time. I wasn't sure exactly where it was so I called Steve Dutton. Steve has ridden about every MTB trail in Kansas and he gave me directions to the trail head.


The trail head is actually very easy to find and it is located just outside of Randolph at the extreme northern tip of Tuttle Creek Reservoir. Even though it is pretty secluded, the signage makes it very easy to find. After getting geared up I headed off on a counter-clock wise loop. Steve had mentioned that clockwise was easier and counter-clockwise was much more of a workout. Fancy is most definitely a great skill building trail. It is loaded with small to medium sized smoothed out rocks, lots of tree roots, short steep climbs and about 90% is heavily wooded. It is a trail that requires alot of balance and skill. As is usually the case, since this was my first time on the trail, that first lap was pretty slow going and not much fun. However the second lap was much better and I ended the day with a clockwise lap that was much faster and much more enjoyable. Total mileage for this ride was 3 laps for 17 miles and it is a trail that I plan to return to again whenever I am in the area.


Not sure what the make-up date for the Crocodile Rock race is yet. But I have three races coming up that are all endurance races. The Flint Hills Death Ride, R.I.M. (Rapture in Misery) and Cruise the Blues all are very long races so I plan on really stepping up my long distance rides over the next 30 days in preparation for these events.

You can double click the title of this blog post for the Garmin link to this trail. Until next time, stay "Clipped in and Crankin".

Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Canyon Experience



Well it has been 2 weeks since we competed in the "24 Hours in the Canyon" race so I thought I better get an update posted. Going into the race I was pretty excited because I knew we had a great team. Steve Dutton, Jon Shank, Bill Clinesmith and myself made up the "Kansas 29ers". So here is the race scoop.

Steve Dutton and I rolled out of Great Bend around noon on Friday and headed down to Larned to pick up Jon Shank. After loading his gear into the race trailer we motored toward Dodge City. In Dodge we hooked up with Bill Clinesmith and snatched up his gear. Bill would be coming down to the Canyon on Saturday morning to join us for the race. After a fuel stop in beautiful Booker, Texas (where we could see the end of the earth) we rolled on towards Amarillo for a final stop before arriving at the race venue around 8:00. Our plan was to get a campsite secured and get a pre-ride in on Friday night. But, we were running abit behind schedule and running out of daylight.

None of us had ever been to Palo Duro Canyon so we didn't no what to expect. As we entered the main gate to the canyon I will admit we were not impressed. But, after driving another mile it was almost like we had landed in a different world. We topped a rise in the road and then began a steep, winding plunge to the canyon floor. This decent is as dramatic as anything you will find even in Colorado. It is a 900' vertical drop from the canyon rim to the canyon floor. Palo Duro is the second largest canyon in the US behind the Grand Canyon. The terrain also changes dramatically from a dry sagebrush covered flatland to a lush tree and brush covered valley with a small river flowing throughout. After following the road for what seemed like an hour, we found our way to Juniper camping area where the competitive race teams would be stationed. Unfortunately, as we drove through the campsites, we found that all the spots were pretty much taken. So we pulled into a less than desirable spot, unhooked the trailer and marked the area with some yellow tape. We then quickly dawned our riding gear, checked our bikes and prepared to take that pre-ride. However, just as we began to hit the trail, one of the race directors informed us that we could not park in the area we were in. So, we had to hook up the trailer and move everything to a spot which they had found for us. Once relocating, we were off to ride the trail. Our pre-ride quickly tuned into a night ride and to our dismay, the exact course for the race had still not been marked. So, after getting lost in the darkness, our 9 mile pre-ride ended up being a 13 mile pre-ride. As we pulled out of the canyon and headed to the motel, we still were not exactly sure what tomorrow's race would bring.

After a restless night of sleep, Saturday morning and race day came quickly. The gates to the canyon opened at 8:00 am and we were in line there at 7:30. After descending to the campsite, we began the process of assembling the pop-up canopies, organizing the pit area and doing some final tune-ups on the bikes. Once all those tasks were complete, it was time to establish the position each of us would race in. We all agreed Bill would be our best choice to lead off the race but since he would not be arriving until just before the start, that would not be possible. So, the decision was made that Steve would lead us off, followed by Jon, and then either myself or Bill, depending on his arrival time. With everything now in place, I made a quick tour of the campsites to scout out the other teams. There were a number of impressive pit areas and it was obvious that the competition would be tough and it would be a challenging race. As I returned to out pit area, it was about 10:00 am and much to my surprise, Bill had arrived. This was perfect because that meant he could now be our lead rider which would put us in the best position to challenge for the title.

As the noon start of the race drew closer, it was time for the riders meeting. We all gathered near the camp entrance as the race director outlined the rules and answered questions. The start/finish area was very tight so the first lap would include a 1/4 mile of paved road which would allow the riders to spread out before funneling into the narrow single track. As the siren sounded the start of the race, Bill quickly sprinted out with the lead pack and would maintain that position as they entered the single track. Bill is an outstanding racer and even though he had never ridden this trail, he was not the least bit intimidated. The trail was a 9 mile loop and knowing it was very fast and not real technical, I had anticipated Bill's laps would be around 35-40 minutes. At 12:30, Steve was positioned at the starting line awaiting Bill's arrival and just as predicted, Bill came in at just over 40 minutes which included the extra mile or so of run-out. Bill and Steve exchanged timing chips and Steve was off on his first lap. Team Kordestani was in 2nd just 15 seconds back, Team Access was in 3rd at just over 3 minutes back and the Four Strangers were in 4th place, a full 8 minutes back. You can already see the battle that was developing between our team and Team Kordestani. Steve would finish his first lap in 41:35 with Jon finishing in 41:24. All three of my team mates had turned really fast and uneventful laps and as Jon passed the timing chip to me I was off on my inaugural lap. The trail really set up nicely for me. The cliffside portion of the trail was very fast with long gradual climbs. After reaching lighthouse rock, the trail became much more twisty with short steep climbs. All of the descents were not real technical but the trail was littered with numerous jagged rocks in varying sizes and shapes as well as deep ruts that really kept you on your toes. Other than encountering afew slow riders, my first lap was pretty smooth and I finished in a respectable time of just under 46 minutes which is about what I had anticipated.

As we started our second rotation, the temperature was really starting to heat up. The humidity was also pretty high and there was very little breeze. To say it was HOT was an understatement and little did we know it was only going to get hotter.
I had grabbed a water hose and spray nozzle from the garage before we left thinking we could use it to wash off the bikes. Little did I know that this hose would probably be the most important thing we had on Saturday afternoon. There was a faucet right next to our pit area and after every lap we would just sit under that hose and let the water rain down on us.
This really allowed us to cool down much quicker and we need quick cool downs considering the temperature was between 105 and 110 degrees. The trail was mostly headp-packed red clay so the sun was really radiating off the trail and onto the riders. There were several large thermometers scattered around the course and at one point they were reading 120 degrees. Since all of us were turning pretty fast laps, we really only had about 75 minutes of good rest time before we had to start gearing up again. We all did 3 laps in the extreme heat and we were most definitely glad to see the sun drop down behind the canyon rim.

The race utilized electronic chip timing which enabled us to keep track our times and position in the race. Just as we thought it would, it become a three team race and 6 hours in we were battling Team Kordestani for first with Team Access still in third but slipping further back. We were 10 minutes out of first.

As night began to fall, our strategy was for each of us to do back to back laps. This would allow for much more rest time for each of us and since we had really good light set-ups it would also allow us to hopefully make up some time. As miserable as the conditions has been that afternoon, the night conditions were completely opposite. Many of the race teams had really backed off their ride time so the trail had very little traffic. The temperature had dropped back into the 60's and at times it even felt alittle cool. The trail was extremely fast and all of us were really flying around the course. Last October, when I did the 24 Hours of Moab, I only had a single Stella light. It is a decent light but it doesn't even come close to the two Ameba's that I now have. My bar light is a 510 lumen flood and my helmet light is a 510 lumen spot and they make it almost like riding in full sunlight. The confidence you get from good lighting really helps you go much faster at night and in fact my fastest lap of the event was a night lap. Let me tell ya, night racing is a real blast.

As the sun came up, Sunday morning. Each of us were experiencing some minor stomach issues and cramping but surprisingly we all felt pretty good and none of us had any major mechanical issues or crashes, other than my run-in with a porcupine. During the night we were able to really put some distance between ourselves and Team Access. But, Team Kordestani had really turned some great times and they had also doubled up on laps as we did. Their lead had grown to about 30 minutes. Kordestani is the top local team and Palo Duro is their home trail. They ride the Canyon as much as we ride Wilson so obviously this gave them a huge advantage. Plus, the fact that they had air conditioned trailers, cooks, bike mechanics and other support staff also gave them a leg up on us and the other teams. That being said, we were really giving them a battle and it would go down to the very end.

As each of us finished our Sunday morning laps and as the time got closer to the noon finish, it became apparent we were not going to catch Kordestani. They had built a 35 minute lead on us and when Jon came in just before the 11:30 cut-off there was no need for me to go out. We were not going to catch them and our lead over the third place team had exploded to over 2 hours. We were guaranteed 2nd place and just in case I had went out for another lap Kordestani had a rider waiting to go also.

So, it was over. As we packed up the gear, several of the Kordestani team members came down to see just who these guys from Kansas were. We had really pushed them the entire race and they were appreciative of our efforts as we were of theirs. Jon had brought a scale and each of us jumped on to check our weights. The four of us had lost a total 34 pounds during the race and that was even after we had consumed almost 4 cases of bottled water and countless ounces of energy drink. We pulled out of the Canyon with our 2nd place awards, some great stories to tell and a new found respect for Palo Duro. It was a tremendous race and one we look forward to again next year. Until next time, stay "Clipped in and Crankin".

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Headed to the Canyon


Well, tomorrow morning we are headed down to Canyon, Texas to race in the "24 Hours in the Canyon". This event is held at the Palo Duro Canyon State Park which is about 30 miles south of Amarillo. The is the second largest canyon in the United States behind the Grand Canyon.

I have heard they put on an outstanding race and it is suppose to be extremely competative with great teams coming in from all over Texas and New Mexico. I am pretty stoked about our team, which is called the Kansas 29ers. The 4 man team includes, Bill Clinesmith, Steve Dutton, Jon Shank and myself. It is a 9 mile loop and the temps are expected to be around 100 during the day so our bodies will definately be tested. The race starts at Noon on Saturday and ends at Noon on Sunday.

If we are able to get cell coverage in the Canyon we will be posting updates on Facebook as well as Twitter. You can follow our tweets at either MikeJohnsonMTB or Pedalstroker, which is Jon Shank. You can view the race web site at www.24hoursinthecanyon.org and also click on the title of this blog to view a video of the canyon. It is really awesome!

Thats all for now, I will be posting a post race report early next week. Until then, stay "Clipped In and Crankin".

Thursday, May 27, 2010

That Roman Nose Thing


Well its been one week since the Roman Nose race and thought I better get something posted concerning the outcome. Considering all the rain in that area just afew days prior to the race, the trail was in pretty good shape.

Linda went off in the Cat 3 group at 9:00 am to do a single 8 mile lap. Her confidence and technical skills are really improving and this trail sets up nicely for her. The first half mile of the course is on asphalt and leads you to the bottom of a steep climb and another 1/2 mile of fast jeep trail. LJ is really fast of the start and this type of terrain is exactly what she needs. She had built a nice lead and quickly progressed across the dam and into the single track. LJ was able to maintain her position through Inspiration Point but shortly after departing that area she had a chain issue. It was not a serious problem and one that can fixed very quickly. However, I have failed to give her any instructions on how to make these types of simple repairs. So, what should have taken 15 seconds to fix
ended up taking her 4 minutes. During this time, the second place rider that she had built a good lead on, was able to close the gap and move out to what would be an insurmountable margin for Linda to overcome. LJ ended up winning her age group and and finishing 2nd overall in in women's Cat 3. Linda was happy with her finish but it was disappointing because she would have likely been 1st overall had it not been for those mechanical problems. Oh well, that's all part of racing.

As for me, I had set a goal of 90 minutes to finish my two laps and I was able to beat that time. However, that was not good enough for a top 5 finish. The Cat 2 class in the Tour De Dirt Race Series is extremely competitive and loaded with really good riders. Just the slightest mistake will cost you dearly. I made that mistake early on after crossing the damn and heading up into the single track. Their was a temporary river flowing through that area and I had some issues navigating through the water. I dropped from 2nd to 9th and was never able to regain much of that lost ground. Oh well, live and learn.

After recovering for afew days I was able to get in an awesome ride at Wilson on Thursday. LJ and I are headed back up there on Monday morning. I have some big racing events coming up in June and I will discuss these in detail on my next post.

Until then, "Stay Clipped In and Crankin".

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Crankin Away

(Below) LJ and I at Roman Nose and Inspiration Point


As I write this post, Linda and I are crashing in beautiful Watonga, OK. We made the 3 hour drive down today to pre-ride the Roman Nose trail in preparation for tomorrow's race. Roman Nose is one of my favorite trails and we always top off a night here with a great meal from the Noble House.

Considering this area has had about 2 inches of rain in the past 10 days, the trail is in pretty good shape. There are some areas of mud and some deep running water. But that will just make the race abit more challenging. The Cat 2 class that I am competing in will ride 14 miles. My class is extremely competitive with a large number of very talented racers so I am not expecting a real high finish. But, my goal is to just go faster than last years race. Linda will be competing here also and she is pretty stoked for the event. This is her first time to ride here and she did pretty well on her pre-ride lap today. This is a great trail and it reminds me alot of Lake Wilson.

(Below) The Wilson group ride and LJ's first ride down Stego drop


Speaking of Lake Wilson, a group of us had a great evening ride there this past Tuesday. Doug Chambers has been wanting to get some pictures of riders on the trail and the evening light was perfect for that. Sandy Gilmore-McMullen went with us and it was a good night for her and Linda because they were both able to overcome their fear of the in-famous Stegosaurus drop. The evening was topped off with some great burgers cooked by Chef Chambers.

Well that's all for now, be looking for a Roman Nose race report in the next few days. Until next time, stay "Clipped In and Crankin".