June 2014

The rain gauge at edge of the garden is getting a workout

New apple trees and blueberry bushes

Kiera's new ride thanks to the Raymond family

This year's sweet bike thanks to THE SKI HUT



It's getting tougher and tougher to blog because whenever I pull out the computer Kiera wants to watch a Charlie and Lola episode. Of course, one is never enough so she watches a couple and then wants a third. Rather than battle, we leave the computer hidden and rarely use it.

We've done three races so far this year: Cable Off-Road Classic, Mount Borah Epic and the Chain Drive. Unfortunately the Cable Classic was 100% on gravel but the other two were littered with single track. The Chain Drive continues to be one of our favorite races since it it has some rougher single track with plenty of two track and rocky ski trail sprinkled in. Furthermore, the Houghton area is super beautiful and the weather is usually like Duluth - chilly, cloudy and windy.

Sara has been riding well and managed to win all three races so far. I've been happy with my results too and we absolutely love the new S-Works hardtails. I'm a little bummed we didn't get a couple of these sooner because they are incredibly nimble and super light. It's getter harder and harder to find rocks and roots on trails nowadays so I'm not sure a full-suspension will be in the stable for us anymore. We'd have to do a stage race in BC, out East or West before tracking down a full-suspension again.

We've brought Kiera to each race so far but it gets a little stressful trying to find someone to watch her. Usually we can line someone up before we commit but we didn't find Nina Karinen (Pete's sister) until we showed up at registration for the Chain Drive (thanks Nina and Lori!!!!). I figured I'd hand out water for Sara if we couldn't find anyone. Kiera wants to go everywhere we go and we sure enjoy having her along so we do whatever we can to make it work.

I did a mountain bike camp for 6-8th graders last week and had 17 riders. Each year I am amazed at how excited kids are to ride mountain bikes on trails (even those who have never ridden off-road before). Hartley was a little wet the first day but on days two and three it was difficult to find a puddle. The rain hit again on day four so we had to stick to paved trails on the fifth day of the camp. The kids rode about 2 hours and 30 min each day with plenty of little breaks along the way. There was a gigantic puddle on the gravel portion of Hartley road that they had to keeping back and forth through... I feel for the boys in the basement at the SKI HUT!

I am now officially on summer vacation. Hopefully the 46 degree temps and pea soup fog will roll out of here soon so I can get off of the gravel roads and hit some single track. Almost every ride I go through Jay Cooke to gander at the new single track that is being constructed - 6-8 miles by the end of June. It is on both sides of 210 and east of Mud Run on the eastern edge of the park. On the south side of 210 the trail is up to the Fond du Lac power station entrance but there is plenty of flagging that continues through the park so it looks like the system will continue. COGGS reports that Duluth will have about 25 miles of NEW single track by the end of the summer.

We aren't sure what up next for us. Red Wing got cancelled and we didn't sign up for the Lutsen 99er.

4th PLACE ICEMAN 2013

The entire SKJ family ventured to Traverse City, MI this year so Sara could give the Iceman a go. The biggest draw for Sara is the simple fact that there is a women's only start and the overall race tactics play out without the aid of men. Of course, it is always a bonus to get to toe the line with Olympians/World Cup medalists/multiple time Canadian National Champions like Emily Batty and Cathrine Pendrel - not to mention a cadre of other fast pros from around the country.

In order for us to get ready to travel 10+ hours from home we have a week-long packing extravaganza, plenty of bike maintainace, extra school prep since I have to take a personal day and general mass chaos trying to pack the old Volvo with enough supplies to get us out of any potential bike failures. Thankfully Kiera is a travel queen as long as she's got a pile of books and a few toys.

Steve Ferguson, a good buddy from Marquette, MI graciously offered us a room to sleep in on the way out and back, making this Iceman the easiest to date. THANKS STEVE! The big bonus was getting to catch up with him and hearing about all the great mountain bike trails around his area. The only drawback is we arrived at his place pretty late Thursday and Saturday evenings so we didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked in Marquette.

The 2:30 pm race start on Saturday made for a long wait for Sara but it allowed me to explore the endless singletrack with my running shoes. I couldn't believe how much there is and I didn't realize the North Country Trail made its way through this part of Michigan (one bonus of not racing). We ventured over to the start venue and Sara layered up and got in a good warm-up while Kiera and I read stories in the car trying to stay warm. I ventured out to the start once the men were off and they called up plenty of women but not Sara. Even though she's done the race three times prior, getting second twice, that's not enough to get a front row start. Nonetheless, she worked her way up to the front group where she stayed until almost the halfway point before losing Cathrine and Chloe Woodruff(who had a fantastic race, by the way) when she found herself behind a gal that struggled in a singletrack section allowing a gap to open that ended up being too wide to bridge back up to a group of three. She wasn't all that worried though since Emily Batty was with her and Sara figured the two of them could work their way back up to the gal in third. It would be for not however, and Emily and Sara ended up working together the remainder of the race with Sara getting the upper hand in the finishing sprint, nabbing 4th overall.

I can't say that it surprises me that Sara is able to mix it up with the top pro women in the sport. She has always been extremely strong on the bike and she has a ton of race experience from her years as an Elite Nordic skier. Sara continues to be motivated to race her bike with races like the Iceman around.

The Big Check

The pull of 35 miles of single track coerced us to get serious about repairing the Eurovan. Immediately following yet another disappointing Chequamegon (for me of course, NOT Sara)I got busy spending money on the copious amount of parts needed to get the old boy rolling down the road. It has been on blocks since last August so it was daunting to think about spending an entire day working on the vehicle, yet not knowing for certain if it would make it to Ishpeming, MI after such a long furlough. After replacing the water pump, timing belt, timing belt tensioner,the serpentine belt, a/c compressor, and rebuilding the alternator and starter, we figured it should be ready for a 250 mile trip.

Thankful the van worked better than I did. I sputtered about and seemed to be missing at least a couple of gears throughout the race. Furthermore, the course had very little single track so my motivation was snuffed out completely and by the end I was barely moving and content simply be upright.

Sara, on the other hand, rode a very smart race and ended up winning the $1000 for first place. She too was disappointed in the actual race course as opposed to the advertised fare but was quite happy to suffer away and collect the big bucks. I am still amazed that she can ride as fast as she does considering she was bedridden for about a week at the end of July.

Sara is still contemplating the Iceman in November. If she is feeling good we will travel to Traverse. I won't do the race since it is a point-to-point and it's difficult to get back to the car with the bikes. Instead, we'd pack up Kiera and make a family trip out of it.

Maplelag

Jeff Hall leading the pack during the short track

Sara pulling a pack of comp men in the short track










Why is Maplelag our favorite race of the year?
1) Family atmosphere (and we don't have to cook)
2) Three races in two days on old school mountain bike trails (they still have rocks, roots, fall line climbs, etc.)
3) There is a lake, sauna, hot tub, huge lodge
4) Bottomless cookie and coffee jars/pots (if one stays in the cabins or lodge)
5) The Richards family

Every race we do after Maplelag is a let down. I think it would be great if this was the final race of the series since it is such a huge event. I'd like to see the series awards happen on Monday if the series could pull off the quick turn around in points tallying for the year.

Racing was super fun for us and we were both pleased with our results. Sara said she could have done another lap (her second lap was faster than her first)which hopefully bodes well for Chequamegon.

Thanks to the Maplelag crew for another fantastic weekend!

Race one this weekend for the Minnesota High School Cycling League. We have a great group of kids from Duluth and I have a feeling they will do a great job in Inver Grove Heights on Sunday. If you know of any mountain bikers (grades 7-12) in the Duluth area that wants to practice with the team or race, send them to the Duluth Mountain Bike Team Facebook page and have them sign up to the wiggio account.

Up next: Chequamegon

Summer is Going Fast

This is the setup...

Nice and sparkly!

Multiple chains ready for action

Like always, summer in Duluth goes past in a flash. I am back to work this week and start with students next Wednesday. I am excited to start up again and get back into the teaching groove. The posted picture depicts our clean drivetrain. Thanks to Scott's hard work and ability to try new things, this has been one of the best things he has done to make sure our bikes work perfectly! We have had perfect shifting and no grease marks all year.

The SKJ household has had a rough summer health-wise. Sara somehow picked up Lymes and the flu at the same time. She was on antibiotics for a couple of weeks but her stomach is still giving her fits. Thankfully she can ride her bike and race shorter races. Her eyes were affected by the Lymes and that was one reason she didn't do Ore2shore. The other obvious reason was that she was bed-ridden for almost a week and she didn't eat a thing only two weeks before... Thankfully she opted not to race, but that meant I had to. Sara was able to win the River Falls race while still on antibiotics, but she cramped badly/couldn't see very well because her eyes watered so badly, and in hindsight, it is an event she shouldn't have done. She felt much better at Mount du Lac and she's hopeful that she will be able to do Chequamegon but it is still to early to know. She didn't feel normal yet (she was ready to be done after two laps and she usually finishes feeling like she could do another lap). Diana McFadden ended up second and Rachel Byrnes was third so the Duluthians had a good showing.

Kiera managed to get the flu a handful of days before Sara, followed by a crazy bad stomach ache which found us traveling to the hospital for x-rays and then a CT scan. We hate exposing her to that kind of radiation but she was in so much pain we didn't feel like we had an option. No answers but her stomach ache is much better. Our gut instinct from the start was constipation but we don't know for sure...

I was able to break a couple of ribs at the Lester race but it only kept me off the bike for a week. Plus, my injury was pretty minor based on Kiera and Sara's troubles. I was able to race without tightly wrapped ribs for the first time at Mont du Lac this past weekend! I was willing to risk it since it was so blasted hot. I ended up in 3rd behind Jesse Rients and Eric Thompson. I would catch Jesse at the bottom of the singletrack loop and he would put 30 sec or more into me on the climb each lap. This seems to happen every year between the two of us... I also set a new trend (?) using a ridged fork on my Specialized Epic since I broke my suspension fork. It worked just fine at River Falls and I was able to nab sixth place in a sprint. Broken ribs and a ridged fork aren't the best combination but I was able to make it work. Ore2Shore was a pretty fun course and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the race. I had a rough start and was off the bike behind a big crash early on but I the legs finally came around by the 8 mile mark or so. I was comfortable pulling the group for a solid 10 - 12 miles before catching a large group where I could sit in. Finished somewhere around 30 but still plenty content considering I wasn't planning on doing the race until Sara decided last minute to pull the plug.

Paul, Kelly and Leo Hanson drove the motor home up north and stayed in our driveway for a few night this past week. Kiera and Leo had a terrific time playing together and Sara and I enjoyed showing Paul and Kelly some of our trails. There is nothing like watching young people giggle non-stop while playing in the yard.

Sara and I will be doing some coaching for the newly formed Duluth Mountain Bike Team. We have some super fast riders in Duluth and they are chomping at the bit to race against other kids instead of a variety citizen racers. Thanks so much to the Minnesota State High School League for helping get us organized and off the ground. We are excited to hopefully host our first race in Duluth next year.

First "official" high school team practice.

No racing for us this weekend but we are excitedly gearing up for Maplelag.

It's Been Awhile...

WEll, since the last post, we've raced at Red Wing, Buck Hill, Lester Park, went on vacation in Cable, WI for a handful of days with the Raymond family, swapped out our 170mm cranks for 175mm and I've managed to crash HARD twice in just under a two week span.

Sara has won the last five races she's done and she is starting to feel quite comfortable on the Specialized Epic. Sara's the State Cross-Country Champ after winning the Red Wing race. She followed up with wins at Buck and Lester Park. The 175mm crank arms make a huge difference and it is still a head scratcher as to why a measly 5mm can cause such a pronounced power outage... I am also loving the 29er even though it doesn't have an affinity for me yet.

I've broken my helmet twice thanks to big crashes. I tried bunny hoping a tree going uphill on an easy ride with Sara and ended up quite bloody from head to back on my right side. I followed this crash up with a catastrophic mistake at the Lester Race on Sunday when my giant antler bars (I love the extra leverage of wide bars but now will be cutting them down...) caught a tree in a tight open section (crossing the old tubing hill) and almost ended my day 10 minutes in. I was able to work my way back into second place but then came completely unhinged at the start of the last lap and wobbled my in, losing too many places to count. Bruised ribs, cut up left forearm, sore back and shoulder along with my fancy Specialized helmet smashed up in three places thanks to my error in judgement. There is nothing worse than feeling like the legs are good enough to give a push in a hometown race and end up having nothing to show for it except a bunch of bumps and bruises. My crash has forced me to take some time off the bike. Probably a good thing since I'm prone to ugly crashes lately...

Sara's looking forward to Ore to Shore and possibly the Afton Race. She is intrigued to see how the 29er rides at Ore2Shore since she's never had the pleasure of racing the big wheels in the sand yet. I'm looking forward to handing her water bottles and playing with Kiera since the O2S isn't my thing.

This weekend I'm going to get certified to become a NICA mtb coach so a Duluth High School League MTB team can hopefully get established. There are plenty of young riders itching to race but nobody is certified to coach from around here yet.

Chain Drive Update

Thanks so much to the Chain Drive Organizers and host site hotel, Franklin Inn Square - Best Western. If you are looking for a fantastic point-to-point race course, look no further than this one (in the midwest anyway). The only reason we are willing to drive 4+ hours is because this is one of our favorite courses. Plus, how many races can you finish and coast back to your hotel room for a quick shower (hanks Best Western for the late, late check out!)?

My race went okay. I have zero ability to go hard and recover. I guess I might have to do some intervals again... I went up the climb and felt great, hit the single track and couldn't ramp it up until the last few miles of the the 30 mile course. Thanks to Todd McFadden, I had a wheel to follow the entire race and moral support when I almost fell into the creek (since I cannot swim, Todd made sure I got through it and didn't leave me for dead). Bushey also rode most of the race with us along with a gentleman from Houghton so at least I had people to talk to which assuaged my suffering. Funny that I rode more with Todd and Bushey in Houghton that I have in Duluth for a long time...

Sara is feeling better and better as she races. She's feels like she's still missing a gear and she's certain it is because she has 170 cranks instead of 175. We both are going to go back to 175 and hopefully this is the last change we'll have to make on the bikes, which by the way are worth every penny. The Epics are made for the bumpy, fast descents that the Houghton/Hancock offers. Sara enjoyed riding with a young gal, Cooper D., for a good chunk of the race before turning the throttle and getting away the last few miles. She rarely gets to race with other women so it was nice to have someone on her wheel.

Luckily, Bart Rodberg and his wife Jean were also at the race and their daughter Madeline agreed to entertain Kiera. It makes for the perfect weekend when Kiera can travel to the races with us. On Sunday we headed up to the Copper Harbor and rode as much trail as we could find in the Brockway Mountain Drive area.

Up next, volunteering at Grandma's Marathon at 4:30 AM on Saturday and then off to Red Wing on Sunday.

This week I have a mountain bike camp with 20 kids for 3 hours a day in the morning. We have been riding in Hartley and these youngsters are going to be rockstars at some point. I've got a kid going into fifth grade that can shred downhills and scamper up technical ascents. It is always a blast showing these kids trails because they never complain about a thing and they are game to ride up or down anything.

Life of the Working, Child Rearing, Racing Folks (along with some soapbox preaching)

This is a crazy time of year. "Training" consists of riding to and from work when it isn't raining too hard and I don't have an early morning meeting. Sara will accompany me when she starts later so we can get in a short ride together. Kiera is getting old enough now that when she sees Sara in her kit she begins hollering and leveraging to join her on the ride (or stay home and skip riding). It is tough for Sara to leave with Kiera wailing away with tears the size of grapefruit dripping off her chin. Kids sure are good at manipulating and vying for what they want.

We've got two races in the past couple of weeks - both in Cable, WI. Cable Classic was a gravel road ride from start to finish. For those of you who claim that is "old school" you are sadly mistaken. Old school mountain biking is riding on two track through deep creeks, hoping over logs, boulders, etc. and yes, riding some gravel, wide single track and maybe even a bit of blacktop. Racing on perfectly manicured gravel roads is not old school mountain biking, however.

Sara and I could not hide our lack of race fitness like we can at the typical Cable course so it seemed like work from the first pedal stroke to the last. Definitely not the ideal course to start the race season. We would have done the first MNSCS race if we hadn't pre-registered. Lesson learned. I sure wish Todd McFadden could have pulled off the win so he and Diana could have stood on the top podium spots together. Congrats to Aaron and Diana for winning the men's and women's races and the dominator t-shirts.

The Mount Borah Epic, on the other hand, provided plenty of single track. Not only is there a nice variety of trail, but the new stuff they finished at the end of last year is loaded with big berms, pump track sections and overall big grin terrain. Sara led the women's race from start to finish, but Abby was less than 30 seconds behind. Since the men and women start together the women rarely get to dice it up (with other women). I know Sara would have enjoyed racing wheel to wheel with Abby and chatting along the way. Hopefully there will be more point-to-point races in the near future that will allow women to start together without the men.

If you like flowing single track this is a must do race. Ten years ago this area had bits and pieces of single track that locals built (like Tom Geier) and held races on for the Northwest Series. Now they have a mountain bike destination on their hands and riders are coming from all over the place to ride the 50 plus miles of sweetness.

Thanks to the Raymond family for the accommodations and specifically to Kathy for watching Kiera while we raced. There is nothing better than getting to do a race on the weekend AND being able to bring Kiera along to be a part of the action. Hopefully Ben and Luke (Ron and Kathy's boys) bike riding skills will inspire Kiera to get rid of the training wheels.

On a side note, we are slowly getting our new Specialized Epics dialed in. I cannot believe how long it takes to get new bikes properly set up. We have been changing seats, stems and seat posts to try to get in the right position. Furthermore, we are experimenting with shorter cranks so it's sort of like being tossed into the washing machine on the regular cycle and trying to stand up... We are getting closer every day though.

Morning Commute

Still snow on the Enger Golf Course!



There used to be single track up there (Piedmont MTB Trail).



100 meters of Skyline Rd. under construction.







View of Duluth/Superior harbor.




Tough to tire (no pun intended) of this view.

April?

We ate at Miguel's, this fabulous little Mexican restaurant, all but one of the five evenings. Variety is the spice of life, right?



We ate, drank coffee and read at Love Muffin every morning.



The weather did not deter us from riding but it did remind us way too much of March in Duluth.



We got to battle the elements in Colorado on the drive out and back. Vail pass was especially bad. Got to see the aftermath of a Subaru (without snow tires?) trying to make up time on the icy Interstate (one for I 70, zero for Subaru). Also saw a car melting into the Interstate in Nebraska (stopped traffic for bit) and a couple of nasty accidents. We alway are thankful to have made it out and back without any serious trouble.



Our humble abode for the week. It got down to 25 one evening but our summer bags were good enough.

Sara and packed up our old 850 Volvo for a little R&R in Moab, UT by ourselves for the first time in over ten years. We put in over 25 hours of riding in six days and over 42 hours of driving in two days. I know this seriously violates some folk's rules on driving vs riding, but the riding in Moab continues to get better. A mechanic at Rim Cycle, a great shop my brother Brad worked at over ten years ago, said the local volunteers have been going gangbusters building new singletrack. It has gotten to the point were we don't have to ride any jeep trails anymore. In fact, it appears that Moab now has more twisty, turny midwest style singletrack than even Fruita, CO. I assumed IMBA had influence in the new trails but I ran into the IMBA rep for that area and he said they don't even have a chapter in Moab...

We were able to ride a good chunk of the Whole Enchilada (other than the upper La Sal trails since they were under snow). We did ride Sand Flats road to where it ends at the La Sal Mountain Loop Rd and then on to the Kokopelli single track, UPS, LPS, and the return down Porcupine single track to Highway 128. Long day in the saddle but incredible views to be had from the La Sal Mountains. I'd love to be able to do the other couple of higher elevation trails but there is always snow when we head out in April (not as much snow as we have in Duluth right now, but plenty nonetheless).

The other rides worth mentioning are the M.O.A.B. Brand trails, Klondike Bluff trails (yeah, your read that right), Pipe Dream (a stone's throw from downtown Moab) and Sovereign trail. We didn't get to ride the new stuff at Sovereign yet but if it is anything like the other stuff they've been building, it is a must ride.

We did make the mistake of doing over seven hours to complete the loop from our campsite in town of the Magnificent Seven trails, to Gold Bar/Gold Spike, to Poison Spider back to town. Sara thought it would be a good idea since the Epens did it last year. Way too much blacktop for me with such great single track available. It didn't help that Sara had two flats and one of the three tubes I brought had a Schrader valve. Needless to say, I had to ride her bike for the last half of the ride since we didn't have a patch kit and it was getting too late in the day to walk out there. Felt like a real rookie and have to admit that I was a bit nervous once she got the second flat. It didn't help that the Specialized FSR Expert 29er demo bike from the SKI HUT came with a patched sidewall. I had a new tire sitting in the Volvo that I would have gladly put on had I known the sidewall already had a hole in it and the patch would let loose during the ride.

Even though the weather was cold, wet and snowy for over half of the trip, it was the best bike trip to date. Sara rode the Specialized full suspension 29er for the first time and she was riding more stuff than ever by the end of the trip. I still have trouble believing how strong a rider Sara is. She can suffer more than many of the guys I ride with and she's determined to ride in any conditions. Hopefully we'll be able to do a trip like this every year because I forgot how easy it is to train for a week without any other responsibilities.

Changes

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After thirteen years on the same bike brand, Sara and I will be riding Specialized Epic 29ers this year. Incidentally, Sara cut her teeth on a Specialized M4 full-suspension MTB in Moab, UT fourteen years ago. Even though it was her second trip to Moab, there was a lot of blood, tears and angst during her second visit. Thanks to Ski Hut and Specialized, we are building the bikes from the ground up, so it’s exciting to work with a bunch of new Specialized components along with the new SRAM XX1 group. We are waiting for all of our XX1 components to show up but by the sounds of it, it will be worth it.

We’ve been putting in a bit more time on bikes now that good skiing is behind us. It’s amazing how tired we get riding on the road, spinning our legs versus skate or classic skiing – or chugging along on the chubby bike. From a neuromuscular standpoint, we’ve got some work to do. Speaking of the chubby bike, I was fortunate to swap out our 80mm rims for 100mm clown shoes. The wider rims transform the bike into a snow surfing machine, easily navigating deep, rutty, new snow. I now see what all the fuss is with these bikes. In fact, I rode snowmobile trails last week in the afternoon sun in 47 degrees, an impossible feat on any other type of bicycle. It was fast on my first pass, but the second time through was much easier. I’d highly recommend getting one if you are looking for an alternative to fighting a skinny tire bike in the winter. Make sure to get clown shoes and Big Fat Larry tires though.

Since my dad returned from paddling the Buffalo River in Arkansas, Sara and I had the good fortune to ride together both Saturday and Sunday – on gravel/pavement with crossbikes on Saturday and chubby bikes on snowmobile trails on Sunday (55 degrees and sun on Saturday, 32 degrees and 30 + mph wind gusts on Sunday).
For the first time in 17 (or more) straight years, I won’t be going to Moab. Although I hate to miss it, the drive is getting too painful. Maybe Arkansas or Missouri are in the cards this time around…


$4000 or best offer. Know anyone looking for last year's Trek Top Fuel? It was Scott's bike and it's in great shape. We also have carbon clincher and carbon tubular 26" wheels and tires if interested.

Nordic Racing

picture credit: Clayton Keim, Nordic Spirit Race Director

Sara has done one Nordic race so far this year and I am up to two. Sara would have done the Boulder Nordic race at Boulder Lake, about 45 min north of Duluth, if Kiera hadn't gotten sick. Mick at the SKIHUT was kind enough to give us bibs for the race so Sara still feels bad about letting it go to waste.

Skiing is the fantastic right now in Duluth. In fact, I haven't been on my bike for a couple of months due to coaching and good snow. I much prefer to ski over bike in the winter since I can work myself over so much better on skis than on the bike. I blew ski high at the Nordic Spirit race a couple of weeks ago and there is nothing harder than finishing off a ski race when you are seeing triple (in addition to being tired, one has to continue to cordinate a lot of moving equipment and try to keep from freezing to death).

Sara took the week off and we planned to go to Telemark and hang out with friends but Kiera's illness will keep us grounded at home.

Fat Bike Race on Korrki Nordic Singletrack

This is from Chis White at the SKIHUT:

I am going to put on a fat bike race at Korrki Nordic an March 16th...11:00 start time.

This will be a great event with a venue that will include...snow, mud, roots, hills and twisted

trails...maybe even a creek crossing,depending upon the weather. Guessing 20k

We are trying to raise money for a new mower for the trails, as one didn't make thru last season.

I am planning on charging $20.00...awards to 1,2,3 overall for men and women.

Bring dry clothes for after the race, we will have a bonfire a few cold beverages and brats.

Let me know your thoughts and pass the word...we will limit the event to 100.This race will be about going

out to have fun with friends

Update

We ordered a fat bike a couple of weeks ago. After proclaiming I'd never waste the money on one of these babies for the past five plus years, I called up Whitey at the Ski Hut and had him get us a 970. Since Sara and I need another winter bike and we can ride the same size bike, we decided to plunk down some $$$ and step into the cultish fat tire world. As every Nordic skiers knows, Duluth skiing has been deplorable at best the past couple of years and fighting out riding on a traditional 29er is a strenuous endeavor to say the least. I love riding ice and harder packed snowmo trails, but it gets so darn warm that even a bit of snow makes for a slow slog for the 29er. This is my first public admission of the purchase, but I just had to get it off my chest. Phew.

I gotta admit that I'd much rather classic or skate ski but mother nature is having none of that any more. Sara, Kiera, Cory $ Sophia Salmela and I skied at Giants Ridge on Saturday and Sunday and I couldn't believe how good the skiing is despite the dearth snow. Skiing at the Ridge is exhilarating because they've got so many good trails with longer climbs and descents. Furthermore, the girls got to play in the pool and run around the lodge.

Congrats to Josey Wiek on his impressive cyclocross result in Europe!

Recaps

Sara and I thought about recovering with the pneumatic recovery socks, but since we don't have any, we decided to tear out the chimney we no longer use. It took me about 12 hours with the hammer and chisel to get the thing down to the basement. Sara carried the bricks out of the house with five gallon buckets. Kiera even helped by cleaning up the yard of stray pieces of mortar, etc. that I tossed down from the roof. Water cannot get by the flashing anymore though!

I've said it before but I'll say it again: Maplelag is the must do race of the season. Sara and I have traveled the states to many race venues and haven't found anything as family friendly as Maplelag. Furthermore, the trails are second to none for stage racing (Jay Richards has also added bermed terrain to mix it up).

Sara, Kiera and I headed up to the Swanson cabin at Otter Tail Lake on Friday afternoon. We got there a little too late for Kiera to play with Stella so that was a bit of a bummer. The girls got to play a bit before we headed out for the Saturday time trial and short track though. Both Kiera and Stella are three and they get along really well. Stella is a full on dare-devil and Kiera is Ms. Cautious so they make a great pair. We are hopeful that Stella's Strider bike riding skills have inspired Kiera to ride hers or at least give the bike a go without the training wheels.

Once we arrived at Maplelag the race was on to find someone to watch Kiera. Thankfully, Maria and Meredith we up for the challenge :) Like always, the time trial hurts the most no matter how well or poorly the warm up goes. Both of us felt slow and flat but we did alright. The course was super fast and not a touch of morning dew could be found.

In the late afternoon we toed the line for the short track. If you're interested in seeing some great video footage, check out skinnyski Jay decided to mix things up a bit and tweak the course. During the warm up laps I didn't care for the new addition, but I liked it better than the old course once we started racing.

The women were mixed in with the comp men so it was the battle that I'd hoped to watch. Jenna got away when Chloe went down very early in the race and had a comfortable gap to the finish. Sara and Chloe rode together for much of the race until Chloe turned up the throttle and rode away for second place. It would have been nice to see a women's only race (all women in all categories?) because the race tactics would change. Maybe next year?

In the men's race, things started out pretty slowly and we had a large group. It whittled down as the laps ticked by and by the end there were four of us. I sat at the back while Brendan and Travis did all the work. I looked at Paul's rear wheel for most of the race and didn't have enough to hold on to those three to sprint it out at the finish. The skinnyski video has Travis winning by a decent margin.

The XC on Sunday went alright. The women rode one lap and they were all together at the start. Jenna went down early, Sara a little further into the lap, and Chloe also sampled the soil at some point. The ladies were all within a minute and a half or so of each other so it was a good race. Chloe ended up winning the overall but a smidgin over Jenna and Sara was further back in third.

In the men's race we did two laps. Travis busted a chain early on going up the steep, loose climb on the ski trail chasing after Brendan. I slotted in behind Justin for awhile before going by and settling into to second place. I was going a pretty comfortable pace for the first lap and Michael M., Justin and Paul were content to let me lead. As soon as we started the second lap, the group went by me when I had to stop to get a fresh bottle. I chased back on but he yo-yoing was on and Michael and Paul got away while I chased solo. I rode by myself until Sam O. caught me and pulled me in to the finish.

Racing was fun, but hanging out with everyone is the icing on the cake. Signe, Doug and Anne's 2 week old baby is a delight and super cute. Doug didn't have much in the legs but he kept coming back for more which is impressive considering Signe was just born.

MONT du LAC

Sara won in the smallest women's pro/exert field I've seen in a long time. Diana McFadden gets the tough as nails award for the weekend since she raced the day before in the WORS Cup.

I blew up pretty hard with a little over a lap to go and lost a good chunk of time and a few places by the end. However, I did squeak out a win over Brendan - less than 2 tenths of a second - and took home the State Championship Super D title!

Ore-2-CHORE

Sara's arm after tangling with a guy at the start of the race. Incidentally, a front spoke snapped in the crash and she lost plenty of skin on her left leg/thigh, but I'll spare you the jpeg details.

Race start

Commentary:

The time has come for point-to-point races to have a separate women's start. MN and WI do it for the shorter races and Iceman pulls it off too. The current system of a men's race thrown in with some women is unfair for the women. Why? Oh, let me list the ways. 1) It is difficult to know where other women are with hundreds of men around
2) Women are competing for position against riders that are meaningless in their race(place wise) for the ENTIRE race distance
3) The men provide a great draft (as do the women) but since there are so many more men, if one of the women gets away with a great group of men, she can punch her ticket to the finish line if she can hang with the group.
4) Often times the guys that finish with the top women are stronger on the flats and sometimes the climbs, but cannot descend as well and slow the women down in areas they should be resting
5) Women get in the way for those guys battling it out for top 50 spots (even though these women may be fighting tooth and nail to see who is going to win the women's race).
6) The men's top finishers aren't disrupted by other bikers, so why should the women's be?

Even though Sara doesn't have much of an opinion on this topic, I certainly do. I watch the women's race play out every time I give feeds in these types of races. Sometimes the men in the race help her win or do well and at other times they cause her great difficulty.

That said, Sara is pretty happy with her day at Ore2Shore since she was able to catch up to Chloe and Jenna after going down hard at 20 mph. She obviously had good legs for awhile and but ended up blowing up around the halfway point. To say she is disappointed with her day is an understatement, but she's competed long enough to know it is only one race. The hard part for her is that she feels she had the legs to compete...

Great job to Chloe on the win and to Jena for nabbing second. Those two were way off the front and able to battle for the entire race which is quite an anomaly at longer races like this.

Great Hawk Chase

Sara and Jenna Rinehart go 1 and 2

Brendan taking the top step (like usual), Jesse Rients (2nd) and me (3rd)

A confidence building weekend for the KJs. Sara has been on and off this spring with race fitness but it appears she is coming around. She can go really fast, and I mean really fast when we ride in Cable, Duluth or elsewhere, but then come race day, her legs will feel sluggish or she just doesn't feel like she can "give it" for whatever reason. Obviously, that wasn't the case yesterday and she was able to push pretty hard from start to finish in what turned out to be a very hot day by our standards (even if it wasn't bad according to Brendan or other central/southern folks' opinions:) ).
Sara and Jenna took off from the start and they entered the first section of single track with a gap. Sara entered first, got a gap, pegged it, and slowly increased her lead. Sara sure enjoys racing with Jenna because if she can race with her, she knows she is going good.

Thanks to Jesse for leading out the train all the way to first section of singletrack. I was happy to sit on Devin's wheel for most of the trip up and then jump around him and Jesse to follow Brendan into the singletrack. I had false hopes of riding with Brendan but he is so strong that he easily rode me off his wheel on the set of three punchy climbs. I had to slow down to recover and Jesse rode back up to me, said we had a gap and to keep going. Jesse is also quite strong and it took everything I had to keep him within site on the climbs. For the first couple of laps I would lead on the downhills and Jesse would set pace on the climbs. I started to cramp a little early in the third and could no longer match Jesse's pace. I knew I had to to work as hard as possible though on the last lap because Luke Nelson (4th overall) was behind me. Luke flew by me at Mankato earlier in the year and I figured he was planning to do the same here.

The 2.0 XR1 tires worked perfectly, squealing on many of the rocks and bridges. I also ate a ton of Hammer Endurolytes along with adding a the Endorolytes Fizz to each bottle.

Thanks to Dean Gies from the SKIHUT for doing hand-ups and to COGGS for putting on a great event.

Up next: Buck Hill

Warm Up for Great Hawk Chase

I am busy getting the roof back in shape after the Memorial Day hail storm. Charlie Farrow helped me tear it apart on Tuesday, which just happened to be our hottest day of the summer so far. Today we will begin putting shingles down. Thanks to Mike Haag from Haag Built Fine Carpentry, I am able to tackle projects like this with his help. Plus, Mike is always good at getting me good and tired before hometown races.

Sara and I rode a couple of laps on yesterday and the trail is in great shape. In fact, it is in better shape than before the deluge. New bridges have been installed, the trail is weed-whipped and now has some moisture in it, allowing the tires to grip nicely. In addition, for those of you south of Duluth, it sounds like you will be able to race in KUHL conditions and escape the heat this weekend if you make the trek up to Duluth.

Chariot Adventure

Sara and I threw Kiera in the Chariot and headed to the Hut, Co-op, Northern Lakes Smokehaus, Amazing Grace and the toy store in Dewitt Seitz. It was nice to get the whole family out of the house and go on a little adventure. We started in the rain at 10:30 and got back at 4:30. Sara packed the Chariot full of books, toys, snacks and water so Kiera was quite content.

The blown out road has helped us realize it's not so bad to take Kiera on Skyline and through town. Cars were pretty courteous and the Chariot is okay going off road too.

We plan to do the same thing tomorrow!


The city awarded RJS Contractors the bid and the fellas are already getting busy


They've started by bring in lots of gravel and fill to prep for a new culvert


Sara pulling the Chariot down Michigan Street near the Duluth Grill


Off-roading with the Chariot. We are climbing up old HWY 61 I believe (either that or it was old Cody Steet).


The creek that blew the road apart is back to its normal trickle


The Stover boys have now dug out steps into the ravine


The rope in the background just in case it gets greasy again



Kiera is now able to traverse the ravine on her own. And people think we are stranded:)

Great Aerial Footage from KSTP

Check out this 20+ minute video of the flooding around and in the Duluth area:

http://kstp.com/article/stories/s2663295.shtml

On my way home from mtb camp today I got passed by the political motorcade coming out to see our hole in Skyline Road. The cameras were flashing and the video cameras rolling. It is hard to believe so many people would stop to look at this small problem when other areas in the city are completely destroyed. Would it be great if we could use our cars to get places? Certainly. However, when biking around and seeing so many with so much loss, the lack of using a car means nothing to me. I still cannot believe there hasn't been any reported deaths.


Mayor Ness, Senator Klobuchar, Senator Franken, Rep. Cravaack along with County Commissioners checking out the damage.


Mayor Ness, Senator Klobuchar, Senator Franken, Rep. Cravaack along with County Commissioners checking out the damage.


This is Fond du Lac. Sara's up to her waist. These folks need all the help they can get. We can wait.

In the past two days I've pedaled for 16 hours. It has been a ton of stop and go to take pictures, but riding has become a necessity to get food, go to work, etc.