waverly installment #2

this past weekend was one of the bike. you know, like the chinese have the year of the rat and stuff, this was the weekend of the bike. or more appropriately, another weekend of the bike.

saturday swung down to pella for to watch the state crit with lindsay. we got there in time for the master's race. then, much to my dismay, the 5 race... i had thought about bringing my bike, but elected not to. regrets... oh well. i like crits. anyway, i didn't get to ride. and should have. opps. next year. then came the women's race. fun times. followed by the kid's races and finally we stuck around for the 1,2 race. which turned out to be a very fun race to watch. all sorts of fun stuff went down. and even some not so fun.

we got back to ia city at about 3.30, and i packed up the gear and the golf to go get john and head to waverly. we got up there in time to pre-ride saturday night. and the trails were sweet and vicious all at once. explained: trails = sweet and all kinds of fun, they have everything... creek crossings, super fun downhills, very fast rollers, sandy corners, rocky climbs, and lots of freshly cut trail through the woods...that was the vicious part. fresh trail = tush jostling goodness. lots of people on rigids = poor guys. i am still a bit sore and i had a squishy front end. post pre-ride we went down to meet john's friend andy and his lady friend for dinner. dennis was nice enough to join us. he was the only other guy who camped. cory slept inside the lodge. all in all a good night.

sunday: woke up. ate breakfast. went out for another pre-ride with dennis of the rigid, internally geared karate monkey <--he is a bike genius. a nice lap. felt good and strong. burned through all the oatmeal and granola bars i called breakfast. come race time this would = a very hungry brian, which in turn would equal a good, but not great race. i just wasn't feeling as strong as i should have been. i guess i overdid it a bit. but, how could i turn down a chance to ride with dennis on his tank of a surly? i know, i couldn't think of a good reason either. even only a good instead of great race.

race time: lindsay showed up with donny. which was neat. so she got to hang around with us. andy showed up. lots of single speeders on rigids from that irwin's team. good for you boys! sounds like john had a great race. well, apart from shoe trouble had a great race. he was feeling strong, and was up in the front of the pack. way to go pal. sadly his cleat came loose. i still didn't catch the swine. a wrong turn, and a stop to fix his cleat, and he still finished with 2 minutes on me. nice. oh well, i had a very nice endo on the same rocky downhill that i had cleaned twice already this weekend, but had taken me down at waverly installment #1 back in early may. it was a good endo though. and i have yet another gash on my leg to add to the collection. YES! even i am starting to think my legs are getting kinda scary.... but i rode creek crossing number 2 both times! they put up these sketchy bridges, covered with some plywood. some spectator propped up the 2x6 that led to the 2nd bridge, so that the foot climb up the bridge now was a 2x6 mini bridge. anyway, i saw it and made a quick decision that i wasn't close enough to the front to worry about crashing, so i'd give it a go. it was awesome. i found out it was possible the first time around, and not only that, but on the far side if you were lucky (my case) or good (other's cases) you could hop down on to another series of 2x6's which lead over the sandy bit to the other side. this let me put a nice big gap on the guy that had been tailing me for the longest time on lap 2. anyway, i was proud. i'm a nerd. it doesn't take much. i'm sure lots of people rode it. it wasn't exactly hard. just looked a little iffy. other than that, not too much exciting. i finished 9th, right after john, 2 minutes down on him. waverly races rock socks. yeah, i said it, socks.

one week down: i should buy text books. they are not in stock. it's going to be a busy semester.

sugar bottom scramble and other tid-bits

so, since last wed a few things have happened.

1. we had us a friday night fixie ride


2. bren, andy and i rode some sugar, then were joined by john for more riding.

3. andy was nice enough to take me tree climbing


3. andy built a fixie. it rocks socks.

4. it rained friday night, so sugar race was cancelled postponed saturday morning. sadness ensued.

5. fire pit corn + beer = pre-race carb loading session
read: we salvaged saturday. i even unpacked my room. about time, eh?

6. sugar bottom scramble!!!!

hilarity ensues.

7. yerke and i finish the bike rack.


right. so i might have left something out, if i did, i'm sorry. it's been a busy few days. oh yeah school started. but that isn't terribly exciting. and i certainly don't have any photos of that. but that's only because kim didn't stick around long enough this morning to take our first day of school picture. we'll have to do one tomorrow.

sugar race write up:
here's the quick and dirty... it was a fun, fast, frustrating time.
FUN - it was tons of. i rode out with andy, who was kind enough to pull his b.o.b. containing our post race beer (or what little remained after certain drunkards raided our race beer stash late saturday night!!). but we did rig a radio up too, so that was fun. dave joined us on his road bike, and the three of us headed out just after 9. we got there probably near 10ish. we were there in plenty of time to see the beginners off at 10:30. got registered up, ran around and chatted with folks. bren showed up a bit later than desirable! she slept in accidently...been there done that...as you may well know if you've been reading this for a while. but was in plenty of time to be situated and ready to go for the beginner race. speaking of the beginner race...amanda put in one heck of a showing...2nd place was the rumor i heard. way to go! bren made a nice showing too! nice job on her first even mtn race.
FAST - it's a race isn't it? why wouldn't it be fast? trails were in good shape too.
FRUSTRATING - so, yeah, i think once the race got postponed the race gods were angered and started plotting to make this a bizarre ride for everybody. things were going well for a while. that while being the 1st lap lake side of the trails. then, the north side came out of no where and kicked everybodys arse. andy had a spot of bad luck, when his crank arm bolt came loose a bit before the end of the 1st lap, and ended up with a dnf. sorry buddy. i got to the first black trail, and shortly after the first downhill, i caught a stick and it ate my chain. so i had to stop, get out the tool, remove half a link, and re-attach my chain. all the while watching as people were blowing by me. i'm guessing the change took at least 3 and a half minutes. i was fumbling all over. and i think at least 10 people went by me. lots of them were nice and asked if i had what i needed. which is one of the many reasons i really love mtn racing. finished up, and hopped back on the bike. i had been doing very well for me, and decided it would be a shame to just quit now, so i took off, making it my goal to catch the people who had passed me. so for the next lap and a half i kept making it my goal to get whoever the next one was in front of me. when i caught jami, she was all sorts of great, and kept hollering at me whenever she'd see me on a section of trail. thanks, it helped tons! i didn't make cyclocross the first time, someone was already walking my line of choice to the right, so i gave the left a go, but am not quite that good...so hopped off and finished it with what had to be one of the worst transitions back to the bike ever. but it worked. made it the second time though. which was nice. it was very cool to have a crowd of people hanging around all over the place on that hill. on the second lap, much to my surprise i passed yerke off the bike. poor guy cramped up. him and about 4 other people. everyone was having a hard time of it sunday. there were weird cramp vibes going on all over. (see above comment about angering the race gods) anyway, even with my chain issue, i managed to pull off a 13th place finish. which i am super happy with. but, pompous as this may sound...i can't help but wonder if i could have done a bit better sans chain problem. oh well, we'll find out next year! post race i rode home with andy, we stopped for some ice cream...which hit the spot. and i even scored another pair of glasses for schwag, and a gift certificate too. throughout the race, john played photographer with my camera, and took, what i think, are some super fun pictures. he now knows how to use my camera better than me... along that note, let's hear it for the jokers who came out to watch us suffer: margo, ma, lindsay, kim, john, and scott jr. thanks guys!

steve g. aka "number terror" rocks socks.

i've got the tendonitis!

in my left wrist. to heal i must take one of two possible routes.

1) deal with it
2) take it mildly easy

i vote option 1.

countdown: friday night fixie ride:: 1.5 hours.

one more week...

...and the fun that has been this summer will be coming to an end. students are moving back in. traffic downtown has picked up again <--- oh boy! it makes for fun townie riding! still not riding a lot. actually for the last week, riding has mostly been on the fixie around town. had a very nice ride sunday morn with lindsay. the weather was awesome. other than that, last sugar ride was last week sometime.

looks like i never finalized my race against ragbrai. ragbrai won. by a landslide. lucky kids riding around iowa for a week.

sugar race = saturday. can't wait.
andy = in
john = in.
me = in.
yerke = in (hopefully).
brenna = in.
me = excited == understatement.

the last 'night at the oval' race is tonight. it looks like it's going to be nice weather. and there will be pizza after the race. hopefully i'll feel a bit more like eating than i have at every other oval i've done.

since it's been about time i put up a picture:
micheal's new (and most adorable) little puppy maggie (<---maybe. i suggested 'vrodent' and 'black train of death' but neither seemed to have that appropriate ring...)

oh yeah, and i've finally immersed myself in those harry potter books. they really are quite nice.

a brief hiatus explained

i moved.

but now things are up and running again. i see my last post / whine-fest was all about gears allegedly sucking. they still suck, but now i have a new rear derailleur and shifters and fork, and the mtn bike is fun to ride again.

other than that, i now live with kim, and bomber (for the few of you who may not know, bomber = big blue great dane). yerke moves in this weekend. good stuff. new place is fun.

on the riding front, i've been doing exactly that. although not quite as much as i'd like.

i gots me a cell phone. i joined the ranks. once upon a time i said i didn't like 'em. then i said i was jealous of them, but didn't want a land line and a cell. now i have one...i love it. so, that's settled.