Mid-season doldrums

Well, the middle and meat of my season has not gone well at all. The week leading up to the Leavenwoth Indie race my knee was acting up. I kept telling myself if was going to be fine, but when race morning came and I was limping around the house trying to get ready I knew it was a futitle cause. Scratch that race...DNS.

With a few days of rest I went out South SeaTac to give and effort and was happy with my knee. My fitness was down a bit, but the knew was solid. The next race was to be Winthrop. Winthrop is a mountain town in the North Central Cascades and is known for great weather and fun times on two wheels or Nordic skis.

As the course normal this year it RAINED in WINTHROP! Winthrop is the last place in WA state that you expect rain....maybe a thunderstorm, but not day long rain. I rolled into town about 10:30 AM and seemed to be well ahead of everyone else so I had so time to kill. I fueled up with some coffee and decided to drive up to the venue. I wasn't ready to get wet yet so I drove up the Thompson road to get a look at the upper loop of the course.

Later in the day the rest of the team rolled into town and we all kitted up peddled around the upper loop of the course. Joe Brown and Mark Peterson (KONA) had put together a great old skool course with great flowing singletrack, steep climbs and technical downhills.

On race day the weather was iffy, but we started the race in sunshine and low 60s. My race was going well until the top of the upper loop when the skies opened up and the temp. dropped. I got so cold. I had no power, could hardly control my bike and my head was foggy. Decided to pull the plug and looking back now it was the right decision.

Days after the race I felt terrible. Tired and picked up a cough. In the end it turned out I got a case of pneumonia. Lame.

Busy...Real busy and it has just begun

The couple weeks have been a blur. The start of it was the Mutual of Enumclaw (MoE) stage race. This is TiCyles/Avanti race and a great fund raiser for both the team and Special Olympics of Washington. I headed to Enumclaw early Sat. morning without any real tasks assigned to me. With the addition of all the Aurora members (who are mostly roadies) volunteers were no problem. In the morning I helped out with packet pickup and then setup for the afternoon crit racing. Once the crits got started I help Konrad sell raffle tickets for a Ti Cycles frame. By the end of the day we sold about $800 of tickets. Unfortunately, the winner wasn't there for the drawing so nobody was jumping up and down with excitement. I didn't need to be around for the road race on Sunday so I headed back to Seattle to get my bike ready for the Whidbey Island Mudder.

The Expert/Open race was to start at noon so I decided to get the 9AM ferry to Whidbey. On the boat all the racers seemed to find each other and pretty soon it was scene of shop talking, breakfast eating, coffee slurping racers. I'm sure the rest of the folks on the boat didn't know what to make of it. The venue was the same as the Dash for Cash earlier in the season, but was the opposite direction and used some new and different trails. Also, this was no Mudder...it was dry and dusty. I actually counted the number and timing of the whoops at the start because they would be dusted out on the first lap. For whatever reason I was riding like junk and decided to pull the plug on the second lap. I used the time to snap some photos and then a bunch of us headed pack to Seattle for a Gorditos burrito...mmmmmm!

Memorial weekend was fun, but the weather crap. Rain and cold. For the first time ever I decided to do the Ski to Sea race in Bellingham. This is a big deal for a lot of people and they train for it all year. Some teams even pay ringers serious $$$ to help get a top overall placing. I was to ride the mountain bike leg which you don't need a mountain bike for, but have ride one anyway. The course is about half grass trail and half paved road with a section a beach just for fun I guess. I was a one a solid team in the Open division so I decided to take it somewhat serious and prerode the course a couple times. Sunday morning I headed back out to the start of the MTB leg and was in shock by the numbers of people. I guess with 400 7 man teams I should have expected the numbers, but sure was a lot of people and gear. I got geared up, signed in and waited. At about 12:30 the first team came through. Several more teams and then I hear my number over the PA announcing that the canoe team was about to come it. I headed down to the river helped get the canoe out of the river, got the wrist band and was off. I peddled hard across the first field to the trail made the hard left, got back on the power and then zippp...my rear slipped in the dropouts. I jumped off the bike, made the fix and then back on the power. I rode the trail well with good power, but on the road the strong headwind worked me. I wish I had TT bars and faster tires. Oh well. For the next 20 minutes it was pure suffering. I kept it going pretty well, but lost two spots and gained one before I handed off to the kayak leg. At the end we placed 10th overall and 7th in the Open division. After the race we had a fun BBQ with brisket and salmon. I stuffed myself and then headed back to Seattle.

For Memorial day I figured I needed a proper MTB ride and called up Dale and Ann Knapp. We decided to ride the the Ranger Creek/Palisades/White River loop. About 10:30AM we got kitted up and it was cold....45 and wet. I couldn't believe it was nearly June and was starting a ride with a full thermal jacket on. After getting a couple flats out of the way we climbed up Ranger creek. It's always a hard climb, but the wet roots made it especially frustrating. After a solid hour of climbing we arrived at the shelter, fueled up and got going on Palisades before we got chilled. The trail was in good shaped with only a few patches of snow and 7 or so blow downs. About 2/3 the way down we came upon some hikers. The were all older men, probably about 70 or so. They were funny especially Larry. I think Larry was even older and was sitting on the trail. The first comment by his friend was "Don't worry about him. He's nearly dead anyway." and Larry didn't really feel like moving until his buddy said "Larry, get off the trail." Once out of earshot we all busted up and "Larry get off the trail." was our theme for the rest of the ride. We made it back to the Knapps cabin tired and hungry where we cleaned up and had yummy grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.

Another couple weekends down. I already feel like I have had a good summer riding and it's just now June. This weekend is the Leavenworth MTB on Sat and a group ride on SUnday. AFter that I have Winthrop then the Test of Metal which is already screwing with my head.

Until later...thanks for reading.