50.50 Recon

Went out for a ride with David R. & Tom H. this morning to retrace the first half of last years 50.50.  We even hit up Northbank while it was still frozen - it had been a while since any of us have been on that trail.  There was also a good bit of snow still at Powhite, which proved to be a lot of fun.  Sunday is going to be interesting...

Fun in the Snow

I have had a chance to go out with Mason the last couple of days and ride around in the snow.  Here she is rocking out the DP kit on her 'hand me down' bike from dad... Merry Christmas!  Rumor has it she is planning on poaching the road portion of the 50.50 - I will be riding right at her pace by that point in the day.

Well, Sherando was a bust due to the cold temperature and expected snow.


But Joe, Jeff and myself headed to Pocahantas to try and make the best of it. Awesome day for a ride that is for sure!! Hard to beat some frozen singletrack. Certainly an improvement over the trainer I have been wearing out lately.

The trails were in good condition for the most part, with some wet leaves, snow and even a bit of ice mixed in. While the snow wasn't real deep, it did make it a bit more difficult due to being covered by ice. We threw in some fire road as well. Made for some nice base miles since it was slow going with the same ice/snow conditions.

Overall an awesome time even though my toes were frozen and I had a flat.

Ahh..The Southern Traverse

Where do I start…what an incredible day!! Joe, Jeff, Dennis and I headed to the mountains to tackle the Southern Traverse last weekend. All epic rides start super early and this one was no exception. What was an exception was riding the Sweet Bus to the mountains.

Took a little break on the way up to ensure the early morning bike strapping was working out. Everything looked to be in place so off we went.

We arrived a bit late to the trail head so we quickly got our kits on and unpacked the bikes. I was able to snag this photo of the bus at the trail head before hitting the trail. It was cool to look around and see such a large group of mountain bikers. There were 20 of us once it was all said and done with 4

members of DP Racing representing. I think it was a pretty good turnout for a chilly morning in November.

The Southern Traverse starts with a nice, mild climb up a fire road for around 3 miles. Jeff and Joe quickly made their way to the front of the pack and left the rest of us far behind.

Once we got to the top, it was nice to look around and see that most of the DP team hitting the top first.

The first real climb started when we left the fire road. As it turned out, this really separate the pack. After this several mile climb, the flowy singletrack started. It was amazing how many miles of trail they were able to string together at this elevation with relative little climbing. The trail had several sections of nice, challenging rock gardens stuffed in between moderate climbs and fast singletrack.

Of course this entire trail is put together to reach the downhill at the end. This is one sweet downhill and well worth any of the climbing we had done this day. The whole trail was covered in leave, sometimes up to a foot deep. Funny how almost the entire downhill was somewhat tacky with only a few leaves. Just made it perfect!

Sorry guys, no pics of the trail. Guess you will have to make it out on the next trip to check it out for yourself. Thanks to Jeff for snapping these photos. I was too busy enjoying myself and trying to track down Jeff and Joe to reach for the camera.

Wayne Goodman

As many of you know or have read on the cycling forums, Wayne Goodman had a serious cycling injury at Forest Hill Park.  Here is an excerpt from his website. 

The Crash

It's the kind of thing that could happen to any of us, or the guy walking through the parking lot or the girl riding in front of you. A simple error. Nothing more. Nothing less. Only it meant everything.
From the "mouth of Wayne", he was reaching back to adjust his pack as he rode on a grassy area next to the parking lot in Forest Hill Park. His wheel found a small indentation in the grass and Wayne was ejected head-first into the small stone wall on the edge of the parking lot. He was traveling no more than 5 miles per hour.
"It was lights out for my arms and legs," he recalls. His brain wasn't hurt, thanks to a helmet and no doubt his hard head. When he was in the ambulance he started to get some sensations in his extremities, but had no movement there.
Wayne, true to form was helping someone when the accident happened. He was riding with a new mountain biker, taking him on an outing. Thankfully he got fast medical help from his companions.


Please follow along with his progress and look for more information on how the team can help.  John Leino is directly involved, please forward any questions to him or the website. 

18 Hours from a Rookie...WOW!

The beginning of the race is much a blur. I remember arriving a few hours early to make sure all of my things were in place for the night, but in no time it seems like we were at the start line waiting for the “GO”. The pace was pretty slow around the gravel roads with several people trying to push towards the front. I kept thinking “man, this is an 18 hour event, who cares if you enters the woods first.” I was nervous to say the least and kept remembering what Todd had told me just before the start “don’t blow your load on the first lap.” No doubt that was the mindset of me and everyone around me with a few guys seemingly struggling to make it through the roots and up the short steep climbs that litter the Scout Camp.

The course this year was awesome!! Ed really did a nice job of adding a few miles of trail (several of which I was able to help build) and Billy insisted on adding some gravel around mile 7. This was a nice welcome on every lap, as was the vuvuzela that one of the camps was blowing on this short gravel section. The real relief to the gravel section was that you knew only a few miles were left once you re-entered the woods.

At the end of lap 1, I started to panic when I looked over at our camp and saw somebody sitting. This person had dark hair, and that was all I could see. I immediately started yelling “hey Todd, hey Todd”, but the person didn’t move. When I got to timing, I yelled for Todd and he was of course there waiting for me. Todd was off in no time at all; “check” first transition went smoothly. Turns out that Matt Juaneza had come to join us for a few hours to hang out at the camp and he was the dark haired person that didn’t moved when I yelled.

When I got back to camp I was thinking the laps would take about an hour. Then I got to thinking, how the heck would I know when an hour was up? I started mixing my drinks to consume over the next hour and Heed for the next lap. As I sat down, it hit me that I had luckily brought my watch that had a chronograph on it. So I grabbed that and sat down for the quickest 30 minutes of my life. Soon it was time to get to the transition area for lap 2. I checked my tire pressure and was out. This turned out to be my routine for the next several laps.

While waiting for with the Bike Factory guys for Todd in the staging area for lap 3, I was listening to them talk about how fast they were turning laps and how they all felt great. (I had no idea how fast my laps actually were at this point) There was a vibe that the leaders (Gordon and Jay) would not be able to maintain their fast laps and these two Bike Factory teams would soon be catching them. When Todd appeared, he said he had passed one of the other teams to move us up a spot. I picked off one of the 4 man teams during my 3^rd lap so I was thinking we must be doing alright. But then I realized that I hadn’t looked at the standings and had no idea what place we were in. Lap 3 came and went as did lap 4. I felt pretty good as the night set in. I knew my laps were getting slower, but felt it was a pace I could maintain.

After lap 4 (or so??), somebody told me we were in second. I thought cool, but didn’t know if this was second overall or second in class. Either way, I was happy with that. At the beginning of the race, I was talking with some friends and we were discussing the strong teams in the duo field. Seemingly heavy hitters for sure and I was thinking Todd and I may finish somewhere in the top five, or may get lucky and squeak onto the podium.

During lap 5, it was dark and it really hit me that I wasn’t sure I could continue to do this for another 8 hours. The air was thick and the roots were slick after the dew had fallen. This also had the affect of making the trail nice and tacky so you could really rail the turns. I had become much more comfortable with the short downhill sections of the course and was really flying down them. These were a blast! This was the first lap that I hadn’t really seen anybody on which would become the norm for the rest of the race. I saw several huge frogs around the lakes. It was crazy!!

I saw Paul in the pits after lap 5. He was hanging out and about to call it a night. Since there was only two singlespeeders, he figured 2^nd place was locked up for him. Paul said he was going over to the showers in the fort, so I headed over there as well hoping the shower would straighten me out a bit. It was a nice break from the hectic pit area for sure. Unfortunately I came back just as screwed up as when I had left. I was mentally drained and physically hurting from some serious chaffing I had picked up. I have never had a problem with chaffing so I didn’t bring anything to prevent it or treat it. Serious mistake!! During lap 6 I could hardly let my ass touch the seat. It was burning bad. When I came back around, I told Todd that I would have to sit the next one out. I just didn’t have it in me. I felt HORRIBLE for screwing Todd like that!! Todd is a machine and powered through though.

I could see the sun starting to peak over the horizon when Todd entered the transition area to pass me the chip for my lap 7 (as it turns out, I really didn’t know which lap I was on at this point). My legs and lungs were still strong, but the chaffing didn’t let up. I decided half way through that this would have to be my last lap. Looking back on it I really feel like I gave up on myself and Todd. Paul mentioned that I would feel really bad if I gave up. You know, he was right and I still feel bad about it.

I will be better prepared for my next endurance race due to this experience. The key is to make the most of your down time and the only way to do that is to prepare everything before hand. I didn’t do enough of this so I ended up doing bike maintenance, mixing bottles and picking out food to eat during my breaks. While it would be nice to have someone do your bike maintenance for you, this is inevitable. But mixing your bottles and organizing food is something that can be done ahead of time. Preparing for any sort of medical problems is a must and any rubbing must be addressed immediately before it goes too far. Food, can’t say enough about food. You HAVE to eat to maintain your energy. I felt nauseous during lap 3 and never ate enough after that. I also found that I didn’t finish my bottles during the laps like I had planned on doing. I'm looking forward to entering more races like this one next year and will be at the Camps Honor for sure. Hopefully Todd and I can improve for next year.

BTW: Paul is awesome and woke up to do a few more laps to win the singlespeed category.

PS: I will try and get some pics up for my next post..doh.

Days of the NUE

This year’s National Ultra Endurance races have been a tough bunch and you never quite know what adventure awaits when rolling out from the start. The weather has often been quite bad and I’ve had a few hard spills. One thing is for sure, every hundred mile MTB race is an adventure in itself. Epic conditions and intense days on the bike have helped to forge a stronger rider in me.

The Cohutta 100 - April 24th
Rain the night before the race had made the trails nice and tacky. A long paved climb at the start crested and tuned right into fun and flowing single track. I surged around a group to make up some lost time and pinned it on a paved section approaching a wooden bridge. My brain did not compute how slippery it would be and I tossed myself and the bike across the bridge at about 20mph. Later, I noticed my rear brake dragging and was getting quite annoyed with the squeal of the disk rubbing on every revolution of my rear wheel up the big climbs. I would find out later that it was more than just a pad out of adjustment...

After more single track and the start of the 65 mile forest road section, it became soul crushing when a thunderstorm engulfed myself and others midway up the longest climb at about 45 miles into the race. The torrential sheets of water mocked me as I rolled into the aid station and paused before continuing up the rest of the major climb. Rain washed stinging sweat into my eyes as I approached. For extended moments I was essentially riding blind. At the aid station, I fished my bottles and gels from my drop bag as I shivered in the downpour that was relentlessly stripping any body heat I had left as it washed over my skin. Struggling with my rain shell, my arms cramped and my upper body pretzel’ed. Things seemed very bleak.

This single moment is the only time I have seriously debated dropping out of a MTB Century. But, I decided I had come with a purpose and I was going to get my hundred miles. I pushed through the rest of the big climb, riding way off the beaten tire tracks on the fire road. At this point the road had two rivers running down the double tracks. I looked forward to hard pedaling because I desperately needed the warmth. 50 deg F and pouring rain will drain you down fast if you don’t generate some serious body heat.

Riding in those demoralizing conditions with another 50 miles to go seemed to unearth the dark corners of my mind, and bring them sharply into focus. I felt anguished while remembering my cat and friend Lemmy, whom I had just lost to an illness that starved the life from him. I recollected all to vividly how he struggled to stay alive as the long night refused him another dawn. In that moment I became intimately reacquainted with the sense of helplessness I had tried to forget. Struggling to crest the mountain and escape down the other side, the realization that I was not helpless to finish what I had started became clear. That’s when I knew there were 50 more miles I would ride, no matter what.

While I rode the last mile of paved path to the finish, a fresh thunderstorm kicked up and gusts of gale force winds and rain tried to blow me back to the mountain. I pressed on cursing the rain and laughing madly back at the storm like King Lear. For sure, this was one of the toughest days I've had on a bike.
132 Finished open men, I placed 109th in 10:52, almost an hour off last years finish

Mohican 100 - June 5th
I love the Mohican 100. It’s one of my favorite races and has loads of fun single track. The forecast was for partly sunny skies and I could only hope for a bit drier race. I woke up at about 4:00AM as multiple waves of thunderstorms rolled through and dumped all over our campsite and the Mohican wilderness. As I got dressed I just hoped that it would not be raining when we started the climb out of Loudonville. As fate would have it, conditions cleared up nicely for our start on the road and gravel.

Plunging into the single track, it quickly became clear just how muddy the day would be. Slithering back to the campground via single track muddied us all considerably and proved slower than usual. The next fun and flowing 15 miles in the Mohican State Park were great, and not in too bad of shape. There was a long wood bridge with a turn in the middle that was covered in rain, and a thin coating of muck from the racers that came before me. The folks helping and taking pictures cautioned us to slow and watch out for the Death Bridge…I slowed and let out a “Yee-Haw” for the photographers… and then promptly crashed on the wet planks.

The remaining 80 mile of the race was very challenging because of all the peanut butter mud sections that required extra strength from all corners of the body. Also, a pretty nasty storm kicked up and I was again caught out riding in a tempest. I found out later that the storm system spawned tornados nearby. At the last section of the course, I was glad that a really nasty short wall of a climb had been re-routed at the campground where the race ended. There was however a very full stream to negotiate while hoisting my bike overhead. Crossing the finish line, I collected my pint glass and washed away some of the mud… then swapped war stories and recollected the challenges of the day.
190 started open men, I finished 64th in 11:06
There were 90 DNFs in open men.

Wilderness 101 - August 3rd
Ah… Pennsylvania trails. You had better like rocks, cause that’s what your gonna get. They are not the insurmountable hike a bike type of rocks, but rather a carpet of smaller pummeling instruments. The weather forecast looked good, maybe a 100 miler this year for me without all the epic thunderstorms and rain.

The race rolled out of Coburn park at controlled pace behind a lead out vehicle. This was a nice section to get the legs warmed up before pulling the trigger on the 1st gravel climb. Sure enough this day was starting beautiful and the weather would remain that way.

My friend Clarke has a nickname for me, it’s the “Cro” as in “Cro Magnon”. You see, at times I am like those prehistoric ancestor of man who probably approached some things in an adrenaline fueled, fight or flight responses. I like to go fast in single track. I’m better at killing trails than speeding up long gravel climbs. So, when we got to the entrance of the first section of trail, I should have heeded the warning a couple of cheerleaders were chanting… something… something…”watch the rocks, watch the rocks!”

I was feeling my oats and quickly overtaking riders in front of me so I decided to pass. “On your left” as I tried to weave around a rider in the grass next to the rocky trail. Just then, a strange and sudden feeling filled my senses. There was that sickening violent fling and moment of weightlessness as I arced over the bars and into the rocks my front tire had just met. Ouch! My limp carcass littered the trail and I lamely pulled my bike to me so other racers would not run into it. It was going to be a long day and Pennsylvania had just let me know where I was.

The rest of the race unfolded with out too much drama for me, just a few folks who felt they should point out I was a little dusty, thanks guys… The last abandoned train tunnel you go through is full of rocks and the line is on the right. Some how I ended up NOT on the right… and then my front tire found another big rock and I spewed some profanity as I met the rocks once again. My calf seized in a cramp as I tried to pick myself up, and I must have looked strange as a collapsed pretzel of man and bike. Ah… Pennsylvania.

Overall I finished a bit bruised, but not broken and with my best time yet of 9:52.
205 open men started, I placed 96th



Next up - Shenandoah Mountain 100 !
Cheers, Jeff Plassman

Seven Springs, PA

The team showed up with three riders for the second stop of the Gravity East Series at Seven Springs Resort in Pennsylvania. The course was fast and fun with only one truly technical area - a jagged rock garden that spanned only about 50 feet.



The rain rolled in after practice on Saturday afternoon, which took care of the dry, dusty corners. By race time on Sunday the course was tacky and smooth, with only minimal mud to deal with. Nick had a fall in the rock garden, which left him with a sprained ankle and no way to pedal through to the finish. Ross and I slipped by without injury and completed our runs at 2:39 and 2:29 respectively. Ross raced CAT1 which netted him 20th spot, while I competed in CAT2 and found myself in 1st place.



It was a successful weekend and certainly an improvement on the GES stop #1 at Massanutten.

Hey man your ankle has a baseball stuck to the side of it...

Oh yeah, that, it is nothing really... 

This is after 12 hours of icing when the swelling went down tremendously.  It looks like I am out until the end of summer...

...Jason

2010 Cap2Cap

With the conflict in dates today between the cap2cap and Hilbert #2, I decided to stay close to home and ride in the cap2cap with Mason.  Mason has ridden on the road with me plenty of times before, but not for 25 miles.  She just turned 11 last month, so we decided that the 50 miles would have to wait until next year.  We got up early and cheered (and rocked the cow bell!) for the century and 50 mile riders.  It is amazing how much the cowbell adds to the spirit of cycling.  Then it was time for me & mason to head out.  Craig joined us as he had unexpected obligations come up which forced him to ride the 25 miler instead of the century.  He was the first one back out of any distance, but it was with little fanfare as I do not think anyone expected someone back so soon...

Adding a little lube to Mason's chain before we head out.  It is nice that the ride leaves pretty much from our doorstep.  One final pose for the camera before we head out.

Then we lined up and were off for our 25 mile adventure.

I think the three of us stood out within the 25 mle crowd...  We did have a lot of fun along the way with some of the participants doing their best to keep up with an 11 year old.  It was a lot of fun.  Sometimes we would get passed on the flats, but then on the uphills I would grab Mason's seat and we would drop the hammer, passing everyone right back!  Mason was great on the ride, she never once complained even though we had terrible headwinds.  A couple of times I would put my hand on her back and we would spool it up to around 22 mph.  Even with my assistance, I could tell she was no longer in her comfort zone.  She was trooper, though.  Our bars would be 2-3 inches apart and she held steady like a veteran rider.  It is great to see how far she has come along on the road bike.  Her skills and focus seem like they improve with every ride.  Everyone was super supportive of her along the ride, complimenting her and then being amazed that she was just 11.  We ended up finishing the 25 miles in 1:45, which is 15 minutes quicker than I expected to finish the ride. 

Here we are crossing the line.  Mason loves this picture because she claims to have beaten me to the line.  One of our many 'sprint points' along the route.  We came in to a ton of cheers, which was pretty cool for Mason. 

We were all smiles after it was over.  It is nice that kids get such great support from the cycling community. 

...Jason

Massanutten Yeeha

Hmm...how can I explain it?

Friday's practice was going perfectly. My tires were hooking up on every corner, I was feeling confident and fast. Each run was increasingly better than the last and I was really settling in well on the new bike.

On my fifth practice run I came screaming through the first rock garden and set my sights on sprinting out of the first "bump garden" - a field of small, but awkward and sporadically-placed rocks. As I'd done in previous runs, I started to mash the pedals in order to "ride the rear wheel" through this bumpy patch. Unfortunately my front wheel smacked a rock just as I rose the the front of the bike to apply power, which threw my weight forward and sent me flying over the bars.

Some people say "face first" to describe any over-the-bar fall, but this time I mean it. I landed "face first" in the rock garden and have the stitches to prove it. Oh yes, somehow I busted my face despite wearing a full-face helmet and goggles.



I was carried off of the trail and transported to the hospital where they cleaned up my face and stitched me up. Everyone there was amazingly helpful and one of the eye-witnesses to the crash rode to the base to find Rachel and tell her where to find me at Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg.

It was a rough way to start the season and I hope that it's my only BIG wreck of the year, much like the Snowshoe wreck of last summer.

In true idiot-fashion I claimed to feel "much, much better" the next morning. I still wanted that run, even if it was going to be slow. The rest of my body was sore from the fall. My right knee was swollen, my right hand had two jammed fingers, and the rest of my body had scrapes all over it. Still, I insisted that I'd take it easy and just try to make it down safely.

I carried a bag of ice on the lift in an attempt to loosen up my jammed fingers enough to grab the handlebar and brake lever and committed myself to a slow and cautious run. I made it to the bottom [eventually] and my time put me in the middle of the pack, 16th out of 30 riders in CAT2.


I found this photo on Sempertubby's Photobucket.

It seems that I was hardly the only person to go down, even if I was known as "that guy" for most of the weekend. I was topped on Saturday by the US phenom, Neko Mulally, who broke his wrist on that morning's practice run.

There was, however, some good news to report from the weekend. The event was very friendly, fun, and competitive. We met a bunch of great people over the weekend and got to see some of our friends do quite well in the first race of the season (for this region at least). Neko's brother, Logan Mulally landed first place in CAT1 Junior. Jason Memmelaar showed well with a second place result in the Pro category, complimented well by his teammates Gavin Vaughan (4th in Pro), Chris Higgerson (18th in Pro), Alex Moschitti (21st in Pro), PJ Mihalick (3rd in CAT1), Alex Couture (12th in CAT1 junior), and Dennis Yuroshek (1st in open). Our camping neighbors, Ryan and Becky Gardner did well too. Ryan put in an amazing run of 3:31:73 to place second in CAT1 and Becky put in a time worth 3rd place in women's CAT1. Trevyn Newphyr from Snowshoe secured 5th place in pro with a time of 3:21:27. Our friend from Ohio, Thomas Herman, grabbed fourth place in CAT2 despite catching traffic on the course and losing crucial seconds. Butch Greene of Asheville and Life of the Butch scored big time this weekend with an astounding 3rd place in Open, not even two full seconds behind Dennis Yuroshek. My teammate, Ross Ciminelli, stepped up big time and entered CAT1. He put in a respectable time of 4:00:57, which correlates to about one month of shit talking since he beat me by twelve seconds.

Chaching

You've got to love free exposure.

Happy Easter

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter.

The Hopkins family eggs, 2010.

Thanks Steve...

Thanks for reminding me that I should have ridden more than twice during March...  that and showing me your home trails York River & Freedom yesterday. 

...Jason

Mean Todd Green

OK, so two posts in one night.  This one does not have as much to do with racing as it does with teamwork. 

This past weekend, our condo at Rocketts Landing was featured in the 2010 Richmond Loft Tour.  I had a lot of work to do in order to get my place ready for the tour and almost made it...  I was running behind schedule making a loft for Mason out of some old heart pine beams which were salvaged from one of the old buildings at Rocketts.  I had dreams of getting this done before the tour and needed some last minute help.  This is where Todd comes in.  I call him around 4pm on Friday and ask if he wants to lend a hand.  He asks what time and I tell him to come over the my buddy's millwork shop at 11pm for the late shift (Gepetto Millworks) - Matt Wiley from the team owns it.  He responds by asking if he can come around 8:30, if that would help more.  Of course it would, I was way behind schedule but still holding out hope.  I also inform him that it would be extremely helful if he could throw some scaffolding on his truck becuase it would hlep  with constructing the loft.  So Todd shows up and we promptly ask if he has ever used a skilsaw, which he says "sure I have".  I am pretty sure he was not expecting this.

There are not many people who will step in and rock the 16" skilsaw!  He was ripping boards like a pro.  We did not get the loft up, I pulled the plug around 1:30am to focus on my interior doors.  Todd stayed all night and the doors made their way into the loft around 5:30am at which point I installed all seven of the doors in an hour!  I am telling this story because it is friends like him that make up our team.  He did not hesitate to lend a hand at the last minute and work all night until 6am the next morning.  I do not think the doors would have been complete without his help.   He has already said there is no way he is not going to be there to set it up!  Here are the completed doors made from reclaimed heart pine with a single polycarbonate lite and stainless steel hardware. 

THANKS TODD, YOU ROCKED IT OUT BRO!!!

I even got compliments on my 30 minute - I am tired of my bikes leaning over - bike rack.

...Jason

A New Season

Wow, it has been a while since anyone has posted on the site.  It must have been all that riding we were doing all winter... no time to post. 

First off I would like to welcome some new people to the team this year.  I am always stoked when someone asks to be on the team.  We have a great group of friends who enjoy riding and racing together.  So welcome to:

Jeff Plassman
Matt Juaneza
Tom Haines
Paul Leeger
Dave Ezzell
Matt Wiley
Andrew Smolak
Ross Ciminelli
Jake Meyers
Nick Jacob

This cover both our MTB & DH Squads.

The season officially kicked off tody with the "Ride the Ridge" race.  I have not heard from everyone, but I do know that we have notched our first victory of the season.  Congratulations to Jeff!  Todd came in behind him for 2nd place - great showing for our sport vet guys.  I will update once I find out how the women and expert riders did.  

Once again, welcome to the team and good luck throughout the season.  Here's to a strong year, lot's of group rides and a whole lot of fun.

...Jason