24 cremona 2009 – By Ed

Sand is not my friend

Well, well, well, I have been reading another blog and it seems as if I the target of the blogger.  You know the one who doesn’t have much to say about much I don’t post much and don’t have a head the size of a hot air balloon.  So in deference to his extremely popular blog and my much less so popular blog I will avoid using the words “not much to post” and “took pics on my ride today” and stick to his uncanny ability to pump up his own inflated ego.

Racing is not really the best way to have fun, 24 hour racing makes racing even less fun and as I did one last weekend I have spent the past week trying to recover my will to ride.  Not as easy as one might think.  I don’t want to see any mountain bikes at all, I don’t want to ride the road bike and I want my freaking calf to quit cramping.  I broke a chain and raked the teeth of my crank set up the back of my calf causing an immediate cramp and bunches of blood, but the cramp won’t go away, it seizes up at random times while walking the dogs or riding causing a bit of pain.  Not that it bothers anyone else, but I care about me, at least when things hurt me.

Ouch!

So the race went well, I got one flat, one broken chain, one continually dragging rear disc brake, 16 hours of rain and mud more slick than ice. Fun, no?  Well not really.  The race began with a stupid long run, I hate runs to the bike, it makes me tired and hurts my feet in my cycling shoes.  You must get to the bike, and although all the people competing for the overall run like sprinters, I, myself, trot slowly.  As I get to the bike most everyone else is already flying onto the trail acting as if this first lap will decide the final placing of the race.  NOTE TO ALL YOU GOOFY PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THIS, IT IS THE FINAL TOTAL NUMBER OF LAPS YOU DO THAT MATTERS, NOT WHO FINISHES THE FIRST LAP FIRST.

So I cruised around dodging people, getting passed and in general saying hi to folks I have met at previous races and members of the Los Lobos club.  It was kind of nice, well really I felt good so I was having fun and for the first 8 hours it was pretty much just like that, ride along have a good time and enjoy the off and on again rain.  It all changed as I stopped at 10 PM to grab some food and take a quick shower and have a few beers before I went off to sleep for a bunch of hours because my partner in the duo class had gone home and wasn’t going to ride anymore that night, so why should I?  Well we were in first place!  What me in first place at any race, no.  So instead of kicking back and having a good time I looked for a coke, some meat and some chips and ate as much as I could as fast as I could and was back out on the course.

Overnight I managed to do a bunch of laps, but our rival teams had two riders going all night, not one.  (I should clarify it was cumulative not cooperative for the lap total) So for every two and half I did, they did four.  It was mentally wearing to pass people, and know I was still losing laps.  I managed a brave “I can do it” face until 0400 and just had to sit down for a few minutes and promptly fell asleep for an hour.  Upon waking I jumped up and realized I was really really hungry.  So I ate and ate and ate and then finally left the dry safety of the Lobos tent city for seven more hours of fun in the rain.

As the race continued parts of the course where closed due to danger for the riders, and as the course was modified we got to ride new and more slippery sections of “less” dangerous trails.  Well they where wider than the stuff they closed off, so when I fell I had less chance of smashing a tree with my face, but more of a chance of smashing the ground with my face.  Fun, fun, fun.   I made it until noon, when, generally speaking most 24 hour races stop, when I crashed.

At this point I was standing up and riding more than sitting, and I won’t tell you exactly why, just think water, mud, 17 hours and a nice light and normally comfortable saddle and well I hope your imagination takes you to why I was standing.  So I was pedaling down a pretty straight slippery flat section of double track when I lost concentration for a second lost my front wheel and fell way faster than it took you to read this.  It hurt, not just my pride, as a few people saw me, but my wrist too.  It felt like a mild sprain and hurt like a mild sprain and I needed a reason to hang up the old cleats.

At this point we couldn’t catch first place and third was too far behind to catch us so why not take advantage of the excuse?  I could have taken some advil and kept on going, or eat a bunch of grilled Pork and sit down and relax.  Well relaxing seemed the order of the day.  The pork was very good.  Thanks Stefano.

All in all a pretty good race.  I am recovered physically at least, my legs felt good two days after the race, but I am not motivated to ride at all.  Bikes are bringers of pain, not the fun machines they where prior to the race.  Another week maybe the fun will return, but today it is drizzling and instead of riding I am typing this drivel.  I need three more hours this week to reach 18 hours riding, but what the hell, I like popcorn and petting our dogs, so I will eat popcorn and pet the dogs and think about riding, that should help my fitness level, right?

Mmmmm, I'm hungry!

I had a good race and had some bad luck, some good luck, thanks to SingleStoff and the Lobos guys and took second overall.  Not a bad weekend, I just hope to ride as well in a month in Finale.

For those of you who are interested, King Cages rock, not a single lost bottle for me but others lost bottles everywhere, the Avid brakes I used where very good, aside from the constant dragging which turned out to be the fault of a bad bleeding job by a local shop, I used Kenda and Maxxis tires, the Crossmarks where not great in the mud, the Karmas not any better, but no tires would have been good on this course.  Who else?  Oh a great frame by Stoic cycles that is now being painted and the best handle bars in the world Luv Handles by Groovy Cycles.  Oh and I used several products for energy from Hammer nutrition to keep me fueled physically.  Mentally, well I am never stable there.  Hope you are all well and next time I hope some funny stuff happens because it is more fun to read about my failures than successes.  Of course I have very few successes so I won’t have to wait too long to write something funny, to me at least.

(From Michael…. many more photos of the race here on Flickr)

Tegernseer Marathon ‘08

The only photos of the event where I look like I’m moving more than about 4 km/hour. The above were taken by Sportograf.de and the ones below were taken by Kera. A few other photos can be found here and here.

Last Sunday I ‘participated’ in the Tegernseer Marathon 2008 version and did the C route. That means 65 kilometers with 2.483 meters (8,146′) of climbing. I say participating because my performance didn’t warrant the term racing.

I hadn’t signed up in advance so I missed out on the really cool ClimaCool Adidas running shirt that they give the other racers or ‘participants’. I did get a few goodies in my bag though. I got 2 Powergels and a Chocolate Harvestbar (the only Powerbar that I can bear to put in my mouth) and one of the regular extruded (Soylent Green-like bar). The regular ones are just too similar to 10 year old toothpaste or Soylent Green to me.

After riding (mostly) a well laid-out course with a lot of up and the only down being sloppy-rugged singletrack, I was pretty beaten up. Quite a few riders would come up to me after the long 30 minute downhills and congratulate me on doing it with a rigid fork. It was kind of funny. On the last downhill I’d finally decided that this wasn’t either A) fun anymore or B) funny at all. Luckily, just past that, I hit what amounted to the last few kilomoters of the course. The back side of Walburg will look familiar to some of you as you saw photos of it when we went sledding with our friends back in the winter. See below or here or here. Oh… as a side note, there are a lot of rocks under that snow which I found on the way down in the race.

In the end, I finished 73rd in my category and 241st overall for the ‘C’ course in 5:20:06.02. It probably goes down as one of my worst races in recent memory even considering my abysmal performance thus far this year. I’m not really sure what’s going on with me other than not enough training. I just can’t seem to get jump-started at the beginning of each race. It’s actually becoming fairly frustrating in spite of the fact that I feel stronger each week but I just seem to keep falling further and further behind in results.

On a lighter note: one thing that I can often say about events here in Europe is how well organized they are. I suppose when you’ve got the population of a small American city racing (think between 1500 and 2500 racers) you kind of have to be well prepared. At the Start/Finish area this past weekend there was a small expo area, food, beer, etc. There’s almost always an official MC to announce incoming riders and keep the crowd entertained throughout the day. Along with that there is music and sometimes a DJ. Out on the course, there are a lot of volunteers at key places with food (bananas, Powerbars and chocolate) along with water, Coke and some sort of sport drink. At one point on the course, they actually had a bike wash where, while I was drinking and eating a bit, a young girl was washing my bike to remove of the massive amounts of mud that had collected.

So… I just want to thanks to Ergon for making great gloves, one of these days I’ll get around to putting some Ergon grips on my Curtlo.. It’d sure help. I’ve got the GP1’s on my Black Sheep and they’ve become one of my best riding buddies. Also, I was running Maxxis Ignitor tires which never ever slipped on even the muddiest and wettest of rocks and as soon as I was out of the mud shed it quickly. Hopefully, one day I’ll be able to get ahold of some of the other sponsors products, but I’m happy with what I’ve got at this point. Thanks again to our team sponsors.

Photo follow-through

I promised you photos from the Corratec City Bike Marathon. Here are a few. There are more here.

This coming weekend, Ed Husted and I are partaking in the Garda Marathon. I think he’s shooting for the long-loop and I’ll probably be happy if I make the time cut-off for the middle distance (I’d love to do the long one though). I’m sure that we’ll both have race reports from that ASAP afterwards.

19 April 2008 – Corretec City Bike Marathon

This morning, I took part in the first race of my ‘08 season. As I mentioned in my last blog entry this was done in part to gauge my fitness for the upcoming Garda marathon and just because I wanted to do it. Yes… I have to be truthful there.

So, I’ll get results out of the way right off the bat and head on to the meat of the matter. I placed 46th (if you look at my time not where they placed me) out of something like 160 in my class. They don’t seem to have overall results posted, but I’ll keep checking.

O.K., the meat of the matter. Kera and I left (she didn’t race) to ride up to the Olympic Park at about 8:00 this morning as my class and distance were to leave in two groups starting at 8:50 & 8:53. I left in the second group as I didn’t feel like fighting my way to the front of 700-1000 people. By doing this, it meant that I was in the heart of the newbies instead of with more of the seasoned veterans. Looking back, it was probably a big mistake on my part.

The city had blocked off the streets with signs for not only our bike marathon but a running marathon as well. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize what they were dealing with and made a lot of “pinch points” on the course while in the city. Everytime that we got close to one of these areas things got really squirrelly.

What else? Oh… they’d placed cones in various places through the city but no one had any idea why. At one point, while hundreds of us where rolling though the English Garden and rounding a turn, suddenly there was a bus coming at us. Surprise! We then figured out what the cones were for.

About 25 km in to the race I saw some course tape lying on the side of the gravel/dirt road that we were on. I assumed that it was to block that turn off and a hiker had broken it (hikers don’t like most cyclists here either). Well…. no! That was there to actually mark the corner. Again, a group of maybe 100+ seemed to figure it out simultaniously and we all did a U-Turn and headed back toward the tape. That cost us 20 minutes and 6-10 km.

Immediately after that, we hit a huge bike traffic jam. When we, finally, made our way up to the front it turned out to be a 1 bike width bridge that we had to cross as the canal was too deep and too cold to cross with the bikes.

That was the last major foible, short of the roadies that aren’t able to handle a mountain bike on anything other than pavement. As an added bonus, they seemingly can’t make it up a hill without falling over in front of you either. This is where I picked off a lot of people. Give me a climb baby! It’s definitely something that I’ve learned to love while singlespeeding here and in the Alps. I’m a damn good climber. Woohoo… I have at least one good skill on a bike.

After all this it was nearly all flatland gravel, dirt or pavement for the remaining kilometers. I honestly don’t know how many actually. One place the long course was listed as 100 km. Then it was listed as 90 or 87 km depending on where you saw the listing. On my speedometer (with getting lost as well) I have just shy of 72 km. Are you with me? No, I have no actual idea how far we travelled.

Anyway, the end of the race found us riding up and over the Olympic mountain three times in different directions. It was here that I realized that I was in danger of cramping so I downed as much of the fluid that I had with me and that seemed to help along with spinning vs. mashing. We then rolled in to the Olympic stadium and crossed the timer.

They then fed all of us pizza and all the fruit, cucumbers and cobbler that we could stomach. As always, we also got all the Alcohol-Free Weissbier that we could drink. I had a bit of each and headed home.

How do I feel now? Pretty good actually now that I realize that I’m actually 12 places higher than where they originally placed me according to me time. I also know that I need to do some pretty heavy training before Garda and especially before I do a week of climbing starting in Garda and ending up on the other side of the Dolomites for a Cross-Dolomiten 29′er Tour in July. That’ll be 270 km and 10,800 vertical meters in 6 days.

Thanks to Ergon for making really great gloves (not yet available Stateside). I really wish that I’d had some Ergon grips on my bike for this race and an Ergon pack would maybe have been good too for having enough fluid. The Maxxis Ignitors worked great as always, especially pumped up to 42 psi for road/gravel/dirt use.

I’ll say it again… the Pactimo uniforms are fantastic! I’ve not got even a hint of a saddle sore after sitting and hammering for that long. Thanks gang for making stellar uniforms. Lastly, I’d have to say, in spite of the local impression of 29′ers, the big wheels had a lot to do with how I did on Sunday. Next time, I’ll move closer to the front to avoid some of the problems and see how I do then.

Official photos are in the works. I’ll post ‘em soon.

24 Hours of Palladio

NOTE: I’m posting this for Ed Husted who has internet problems where he lives in Italy. Hey, Italy is known for wine and scenery, not it’s IT business.

_______________________________

Several attempts to write an entertaining and enjoyable report of the 24 Hours of Palladio have failed so I will write a truthful and less than enthralling story.

Okay, I may have to relay some of the strangest things I have ever seen or experienced at any race, but remember these are Italians who believe that cycling is more like air than a hobby. The race ended rather well for me, a cappuccino and a dolce (a tasty slice of chocolate cake) eight minutes before the official end of the race then the ride across the finish line to see the winning teams all riding across the line together. A strange sight to see as the eight man teams seemed to be celebrated far more than the Solo riders, male and female both. Maybe I am a bit prejudiced as I race solo, but strange to me nonetheless.
Well, I should provide a little more information on my participation in the race. Trying to access the 24cup.com website the night before the race turned up a crashed site with no information, but I was sure the race began at two o’clock. Just to verify I did some other searches the next morning and found the unofficial website and realized the start time was in fact ten o’clock. So I was behind schedule from the start, which seems to be how I run when it comes to bike races. In spite of my lateness in leaving I arrived to register and get my start numbers with just a bit more than an hour to spare. Change clothes, put water bottles on the bike, stick my front wheel on the bike and off to the start line.
For some reason the Italians have one thing in common with the American 24 hour race scene, a Le Mans start. I hate those things, running to get your bike seems wrong and it never spreads out the field, it just makes me a little irritated. So trotting to the bike was the best I could manage, and as I was certain getting involved in the crazy start of race antics would be foolish, I made sure to be one of the last off the start. A good idea in theory, but as I had no idea of the course layout or the exceptionally bad bike handling of my competitors, being last proved to be very bothersome. Needing to pass forty or fifty crazy caffeinated Italians in Lycra was nearly impossible. Of course I knew I had 23:57 still to go so bumping and fighting for position in the first three minutes seemed foolish. Deciding that slow and steady was the best option, I just laid as low as I could without getting involved in the “race”.
Early on it became more than clear that the feeling of the race was not brotherly and there was nearly no camaraderie, just cut-throat racing, especially those on eight man teams. These people never said a word as they passed, one would hear huffing and puffing and then some lunatic would choose to pass on the shortest line possible, even if that meant nearly dying. I witnessed two members of competing teams, mind you about two hours into the race, fight for the best line down to the start finish area and then collide. One nearly fell ten to fifteen feet off the edge of the trail, and the other literally bounced off a retaining wall causing him to need help from the medics. It was two hours into the race. I wanted to yell, “22 more hours, guys”, but resisted. The second really strange incident happened to me. Needing to walk up a section of trail, I would always ensure I was not anywhere near the best line for the climb, but this didn’t seem to occur to number 25 (name unknown) who yelled at me for walking, four hours into the race. Okay, I was walking, okay I was off line, okay it was four hours into the race, okay he yelled but it was four hours into the race and if the two or three seconds it took him to yell at me caused him to lose the race, I apologize, but he dropped out not much later. I guess I must have ruined his whole flow (lots of sarcasm).
So I had twenty more hours to go, most of which went by without any incidents or much conversation from my competitors, which I did not find too unusual. Most of the conversation was one way, me saying, “good job” “va bene” and “molto grande”, often times returned with a loud EEEEHHHHEEHHH which I took as leave me alone. Naturally, I kept up with the encouragement and was eventually talking to several of the racers. Most spoke only Italian to me, so I am assuming the returned words were also encouragement, but I have been mistaken before. Three of the racers, the eventual winner and his pace man, along with a tandem, okay two riders but considered one person, would talk to me with random fragments of English and me returning in the bits of Italian I knew. It was pretty funny and I am sure that if an outsider had been recording the conversations they would have made no sense at all, but at the time it was a pretty nice.
As races go this one had problems, not just the lack of a support crew, or any time checks or any help at all during the race, but the biggest problem was the 5k course. That would be 3.2 miles in American. So as for also battling with the fatigued and mental blocks of wishing to sleep and just stop, I had to keep coming right past my car every fifteen to twenty minutes. It was a tempting place to sleep, eat and get in my car and drive home. Every time I needed to eat, I could sleep, and a couple of times I did. I slept about four hours total and am pretty sure that I lost a top ten finish due to the sleep. If I had not slept I may not have had a decent attitude late in the race, so I think it may have been a catch 22. Sleep is the enemy at a 24-hour race, but not sleeping and still not winning is just not smart.
Naturally I am not smart but I did finish and I hope I left the impression that I had a good time. At the end of the race, as I normally do, I tried to thank all the volunteers who had helped, the paramedics, the course marshals, and the good people who put on the race. I say I tried as I really could only say stuff like thanks a lot and I had a good time, which I am sure most did not understand. I just hope it came across as friendly. But this race was good for a couple of things. I realize I cannot do eight 24-hour races that have 3 mile courses, and I rode 65 more miles than I had planned on riding. I rode 300k or 185 miles and 6600 meters or 21000 feet of climbing, which has made me pretty happy. I will do the next two races, because I have committed to help promote the European Single Speed Championship, which is being put on by a great group of guys in Cremona, Italy, and I have registered for both. I will reevaluate after those two races and weigh the overall series points I have versus the enjoyment I am getting from the races, but with 3 mile long courses, how much fun would you have? Hopefully the next race I do will be more entertaining, but if not, be assured I will make something up that will entertain. Ed

Some other observations from the race are I really need to ride more on the mountain bike. I ride five or six days a week, on the road most days, but really noticed that the climbing in a big gear is not the same as riding the SS uphill for 24 hours. Nothing is, but I think I need to get a little more saddle time in off road. Hopefully up at Riva del Garda, as they have big climbs and some world-class single track. In spite of the lack of overt friendliness of my fellow racers, it seemed that at the end of the race nearly every solo racer had a positive comment, normally something like Bravi or Brava, both of which I take as a good job. I guess, with a couple of days between the race and writing this, has changed some of my perspective of my fellow races. A couple of the guys and gals racing in their first 24 solo race pushed harder than I would ever have even tried. A few of the racers were so far down in the overall standings it would have been wiser to have just packed it in, but they did not. Much respect to them, and I hope one day to be able to suffer as much as they did. Lastly, I just don’t get the eight man racing team concept and the admiration that it seemed to inspire in all the racers, solo, duo and four man teams alike. It seemed as though everyone would dive out of the way for the eight man team riders, maybe I don’t recognize the people racing. Perhaps they are real life pros just out for fun, but the rudeness they displayed towards the rest of us on the course made me think, it does matter how you win. I personally would not be proud of any win I had if my teammates had acted as these people did. Then again I am American so maybe I don’t have the same perspective on racing as my fellow racers….but it does matter how you win. Next month, April 19th-20th I think will be my next race 24-hour race, I hope for a better result, at least 50-75 more kilometers and a friendlier atmosphere. Thanks for reading this and I hope you are all doing well.

And for the postscript the official site claims a 5k course the unofficial site claims a 4k course, so I don’t know which is true. I like to believe the 5k version as it makes me feel better. Both sites list elevation gain at 110 meters per lap and officially I did 62 laps. All is well that ends with me at home safe, and I am.

New uniforms and new members

Well, today I got a package from the States. It included my uniforms for Big Wheel Racing made my Pactimo which are fantastic! I’ve always been a big fan of Voler bike clothing. I’d previously found that the quality was so much better than any custom manufacturer that I’d seen (think…. Verge which which has never impressed me, especially with their logo being larger than others on the uniform).

O.K., back to the point of my post. The quality and the beauty of these uniforms is fantastic! There’s a reflective strip on the back of the jerseys and the vest. Wow! Can’t beat that, can you? Also, the sublimination is really well done too.

Yes… it’s still raining and raining and raining. Ugh!

In other team news. We’ve added two more folks to the Big Wheel Racing European team. First, we have Ed Husted (that’s him on the poster below) who lives in Italy but is originally from Rolla, Missouri. Next we have Marty Dudel who is also American but lives over my Heidelburg. We’ll be adding some more non-Ami’s as we go on. Please welcome these boys to the team.

Ed is racing in an Italian 24 Hour Series and the first race comes up on Easter weekend. Kera and I might go down and play support crew for him. We need to figure that out.

Getting it together… like a solo racer.

As the only “official” member of Big Wheel Racing Europe, it’s up to me to work on getting a line-up of racers for ‘09 and to start off the search for sponsors. Phew! Once that enormous task is complete, then everything heads off to some company, as yet unknown, to make the uniforms.

I’ve done this quite a few times in the past with MSRacing, Midwest Cyclery the reorganized and combined KCOI/Boulevard team and more. With the other teams, I had a lot of great help. At this point, I’m kind of having to go it alone. That means I have to translate resumes as best I can, search and ask people in various languages (mostly English or Deutsch), etc.

Big wheels are few and far between in Germany, although, not so much in the rest of Europe. For that reason, I feel it’d be a great opportunity for any interested sponsor to show their “Big Wheel” related products to the European racing community.

In my little head, I have a list of people that I’ll probably be starting with for both racers and sponsors. However, like I said before, if you’re looking for a quality (and fun) group of people to race and ride your 29′er or 700c wheels with, drop me a line. If you’re an interested sponsor also please drop me an email. I’m revising the Team info. from the States to fit our needs but I can get it out to you ASAP.

Welcome to Big Wheel Racing the European version.

Welcome to the European version of Big Wheel Racing. Starting in late 2008 or early 2009 we’ll have a team of 29′er & 700c racers in Europe flying the Big Wheel Racing Banner along with a host of new European sponsors.

As I wanted to get this rolling, I thought that I’d post a new blog for the upcoming team and mention that we’re looking for sponsors and riders. If you’re interested, shoot me a message through the website (unless you already have my email address).

Thanks a bunch,

Michael Cleveland

(aka Wunnspeed)