Palisade Bike Classic-1st Single Speeder

It was a battle royal in the single speed class for the overall but I played my cards right and took 1st place over some super strong young competition. And for my efforts I won a White Brothers Rock Solid 29er carbon rigid fork. Score!!!!
The course was a tough one with 35 miles and 4800 feet of climbing and the wind was a constant 30mph through out the course. The climbs suited me more so with the long sustained grinds. It started off with nearly 13-15 miles of uphill and a knarly river crossing at the top. Than a 1/2 mile of a hike-a-bike through some slimy clay and than a few miles of some crazy techy descent. After the descent I lost contact with Will and he was going hard in the flats with the bigger gear. I rode a 32x20 which was a good call as Will in 2nd place was trying to push a 32x18 which took it's toll on him on the last climb over Horse Mtn. and where I caught back on after pushing through the headwinds by myself for nearly an hour. Mentally I could have checked out and just cruised for 2nd but I pushed hard hoping I would be able to reel him in and my perseverance paid off. I took a fall on the asphalt in some pea gravel at the end as I was hauling the mail fast; too fast; and knew I was going down. Jacked up my hand and hip a bit but all is good. 1st is great!!! I felt good the whole time with the legs never feeling tired.
Hopefully I can get some photos of the race.

Phil's World and Snakes, Oh My!!

I had Wednesday off this week and went down to Cortez to ride a bit. This little guy got my attention real quick on the Stinking Springs initial climb. I thought I was about to run over a rattle snake but turned out to be a scary looking bull snake of some sorts. I bunny hopped over him and all I could think of at the time is that I might get bitten. I'm plenty paranoid of rattlers from living in Las Vegas where the deadly Mojave Greens and nasty little Sidewinders are abundant. I have been stricken at twice and seen them too many times to count on the Cottonwood trails out by Blue Diamond.

Laura's New Rap Song

Ahhh phhthh phhthhhh phhhthh.

We broke as a joke, cuz the wife's skills broke;
She a messed up failure, and broke her derailleur;
We done gotta new part, and it broke my heart;
Cuz we gots ta eat cheap for da rest of the week!!

Ahhh phhthh phhhthhh phhhthhh!!

Boggy Draw Riding

After a demoralizing DNF attempt at the KTR I was able to get some good miles in Sunday riding the single speed cross bike from Rico to Boggy Draw located outside of Dolores and jumping on the single speed mountain bike. Laura and Sophia were going riding at Boggy so my bike was transported to the trailhead and I was able to get a ride in with Shawn and bust out 20 miles of sweet singletrack. Wet in a few places but overall great early season riding in the Ponderosa's. Heading down on Wednesday to ride the total loop. Hopefully the weather keeps nice.

Shawn looking perplexed.

My fully rigid Vassago single speed. A carbon Bontrager Switchblade rigid fork up front while my White Brothers Magic is being repaired.

KTR=DNF

No finish this year on the KTR for me and 4 others. 8 started and 3 finished a very tough KTR. 5 of us bailed after the first 20 mile climb up to La Sal Loop Road. It was getting ridiculous in the mud as we were pulling, carrying and dragging our bikes that wouldn't even roll through the mud as it clogged up the tire clearance. We were 30 minutes already off our pace from last year and decided collectively to bail. Looks like I am going to give it another run on May 29th and run it from Fruita to Moab this time. It will be hotter for sure.

12 Hours of Mesa Verde

The 12 Hours of Mesa Verde has come and gone. As expected it was a very tough race. In my opinion it is one of the harder 12 hour races due to it's length of 16 miles each lap and the rockiness of the Stinking Springs section and not to mention the 1500 feet of climbing. My goal was to complete 8 laps but I succumbed after lap 7 and was able to hang onto 4th place after leading for a bit and dropping consistently to 4th in the solo singlespeed class. Not sure if I had went for the 8th lap that I would have been able to take 2nd or 3rd. I was cooked. Shawn Gregory took top honors in the solo singlespeed class. He has had a tremendous year and has done well. Very tough competition. Paul Adams; a local from Cortez took 5th place. Lenny Goodell; my teammate on Big Wheel Racing from Albuquerque took 7th respectively in the solo SS class.
Another BWR member from Durango, Jeni Turgeon, took 5th place in the solo women's class with 6 laps. Very impressive! Jeni stepped in to take Matt's place in a solo spot who is out with an Achilles injury.
Not a huge Big Wheel Racing team turnout as in previous years but at least 2 of us were on the podium.
And yet another noteworthy finish is to my good friend TR Larson, whom competed in his first ever 12 hour race; TR finished 6 laps in the solo singlespeed class. Nice job TR on your first 12 hour race. He may be BWR material.

Next on tap is the Kokopelli Trail Race this Friday starting at midnight. A self supported endurance race. This will be my 4th time to ride this and hope to knock some serious time off of my previous finishes. Local racers joining me on this adventure are Kiviok Hight, Shawn Gregory and Paul Adams. Kiviok and Shawn rode with me last year to finish their first KTR's.

We have a new traveling weekender vehicle. A 2004 Ford E150. I have been wanting a van for traveling to my races, etc. for a few years now and finally found one in mint condition. I had to sacrifice the truck to get it but we still have two 4x4 vehicles for winter driving. Found this van in Carbondale, CO. via Craigslist. Perfect condition inside and outside with only a minor scratch and dent on the rear bumper and never has towed anything. New tires and the Carfax report showed no recalls and routine maintenance performed on it. Taken care of beautifully. A lady in Florida used it for transporting pottery supplies around. She passed away and the niece inherited it. It has 49K miles and runs like a dream. It is the V8 4.6 liter engine with decent gas mileage averaging 19 on the highway which will be most of my miles. Time to deck it out for my bike trips. The bike racks from the Tacoma made it on the 2nd day I had it and I installed a bench seat in the back as well that my brother-in-law Mike has from his 15 passenger van. Good time abound with the new van.