2 Epic

I love my Siren SS.  The bike feels as good and natural as anything I’ve ever ridden.  Bike and rider blur on this steed.

 Yet, racing it in a geared class is a losing proposition.  If there’s one thing I learned racing TransRockies on a SS, it’s that going with one gear is a major disadvantage.  It was fun and honestly we didn’t walk much more than those near us but when it came to flats and descents we got waxed.  Soooo waxed.  We could climb with the lead teams no problem, but riding with faster open men teams was not an option on the flats.  Pat Doyle even tried to pull us into the draft of a fast train a few times but it was not happening at 200 rpm.

 Never say never - like when I said I’d never need gears on the Siren so buzzed one of the big ring arms off the XTR crank - but I’ll never race a SS in a geared class again.  That’s stupid.  We have a phrase for that:  “taking a knife to a gunfight.”  That’s what we did at TR and we got shot

There was an enormous amusement factor.  Like day 2, when we were passed by the entire field on a 20k downhill tailwind paved section.  We literally got to see everyone on course that day as the leaders came hiking back down from that missed turn in the avalanche chute…on the first climb we clawed back through the back half of the field.  It was as if they were standing still.  One guy says quietly to his partner “we just got passed by a dude on a single speed”, then LW rolls up and says “it get’s better!”  There were a lot of moments like that days 1 and 2.  Drew Bragg, announcer extraordanaire, was astonished day 4 when we came in ahead of the Luna team and only 5 min down on the leaders.  At the awards he called up the Luna team saying they must have had a mechanical to finish behind a SS team, LOL.  Earlier in the day someone asked Katerina Nash how her day went and she grunted “we got beat by the single speeders.” 

Amusing for sure.

What doesn’t settle so well is putting a number plate on and showing up with a limiting bike.  So we are gonna fix that.  VT125 doesn’t quite fit the bill, Payson Stampede does, and doubles as a preview of next years 24 nationals course.

We’ll have plenty of competition.  And this time around, gears.

Lots of riding was done the past 4 days just up the road from us.  A 4 day stage race at BrianHead drew some fast riders.  Maybe payouts really do attract riders?

Top 3 of Elite Men’s and Elite Women’s Pro field will have equal pay:
                                              
  Elite Payout as follows:

                     Elite Men’s Top 5 Payout: $2,500/$1,500/$1,000/$750/$600.  
                                    $500 bonus to the Winner of each Stage!  

                      Elite Master’s 40+ Top 5 Payout: $1,500/$1,000/$750/$600/$500.  
                                    $250 bonus to Winner of each Stage!                        

Elite Women’s Top 5 Payout: $2,500/$1500/$1000/$550/$400.  
                                    $500 bonus to Winner of each Stage!

JHK, Bishop, Irmiger, Pua to name just a few.  Uh, yea 1 week before the NMBS finals race they are doing a 4 day stage race?  Trebon dnf’d day 4 with blood running down the bridge of his nose. 

A most interesting testament to the current state of XC racing at the top level - and how much these big dawgs care about their NMBS race next weekend

Here they are hitting the first singletrack yesterday (day 4) near 11,000′ after 20 minutes of road climbing.

Not an easy race by any stretch, the route day 2 included all of VRRT (which will also be featured in TU), and yesterday had a couple of trips around next weekends XC course, the techy Dark Hollow and Scout Camp trails.  Next year….

Manny leading the pack

Mario charging hard.  He rode minus rear brakes today.  Down Dark Hollow.  Twice (!).

Heather Irmiger topped the first climb ahead of Pua.

Ernie rocking on.  Nice job for a sea level guy!

Pua.  She has found the magic combo this year.

Fergy!

Miles!

Aaron

Tinker in the 40+ Elite leaders jersey

Sue Butler looking lean and mean

Most everybody who raced was pumped after the finish. Looks like this race formant is a hit - too much fun to miss out on. Next year we’ll have to do this one.

Trans Utah will start nice and easy - the major climbing doesn’t start until mile 80.  Those first 80 will take in some singletrack (roughly 25 miles), a bit of the Sunshine and Honeymoon trails in the AZ strip, killer views, a fun trip up the Hurricane cliffs, a key spring that is hopefully running (!), and 1 river crossing where it will likely still be dark. 

 The town of Hurricane (all services) is about 3 miles and 800′ vert off-route near mile 70.  The next town near the route is at about mile 200.  This will be a common theme to the route:  there are towns on-route only in the area near Tropic, but towns will be nearby.

 Decisions, decisions.  Start strategizing.

The 45 mile (mostly) climb starting around mile 80 is on non-technical surfaces, which you will be thankful for.  You’ll have time to soak up the expansive views.

Mile 145 takes you to the Virgin River Rim trail which we will ride in its entirety.  The route gets progressively more challenging as we push onward to Escalante…

Stay tuned!

SS may be the primary chosen mode for ‘08, but don’t be confused kids.  A puritan I am NOT. 

Gimme gadgets

Cutting edge ideas

The brightest lights

More cutting edge ideas

The latest round of debauchery brings me to some big green pride and joy

It was a childhood fantasy (living in Michigan) to live in Utah and own a motorcycle for endless forays into the desert. That’s livin’ large.

It’s a great recovery ride machine too. I do actually get smoked from time to time but that doesn’t mean I want to sit on my ass to let it pass. What a great solution! Not to mention TU scouting possibilities and 80 MPG.

I’ve been looking at motorcycles for quite a while and just before leaving for TR the need hit a fever pitch. It was so strong in fact that on day 2 at TR while zooming down this techy descent, there was a motorcycle guy parked next to the trail. I couldn’t take my eyes off his bike - that saying you go where you look is indeed true and I smacked right into the side of his bike It took me about 36 hours from being back in StG to finding this green beauty. 12 inches of travel, climbs like a demon. Oh yea.

Next up on the gizmo list is this:

I donated another GPS unit to the Canadian wilderness at TR (did the same at BC last year), this habit is getting pricey. The 705 has been catching my eye lately anyway, it does everything the 60CSx does plus what the 305 does with the additional feature of connecting to Ant+sport 3rd party power meters. Ummm, yea this thing has had my eye for quite some time.

That’s it for now, gotta go talk to my banker.

Somebody got a new bike today.

This one has gears…