Dirty Dawg...

Damon and I headed out for this race. I signed up last year, but wasn't able to go due to a sick child. I got my redemption this year and EastCoasters put on a great event. This race was highlighted by the awesome temperatures we experienced. When we finally arrived at the race start, the thermometer on the car read 74*, what a huge change from the 100*+ that has been Richmond weather over the past week or so.

Of course, the weather remained in our minds as we unloaded the car. Menacing clouds seemed to be moving over the course. Around lap 3 the rain set in. It would rain on and off for most of the remainder of the race making the course slick in spots with one climb becoming un-ridable for much of the race. My drivetrain and Stijl bike worked flawlessly all day long despite all the mud.

The course was pretty nicely laid out. After hearing some horror stories about the course from last year soon after we arrived, we were treated to a nice mixture of singletrack, doubletrack, and fire roads. In short, there were two screaming fast downhills split with 3 major climbs, with one climb being around 1 mile of the 5.7 miles course. The downhills were awesome and got much faster as the race went on and the lines were established.

Pic to the left is of Damon in the last 100 yards battling for position. Damon, licking his chops waiting for the opportunity to blow by, which he did just before the start/finish.

With all the rain, the course got very muddy with some sections almost swamp like. The bikes, as well as riders, were a mess!!










I finished in first for solo men, although second overall as one singlespeed racer was really flying all day long. I came within a few minutes of him, but just couldn't catch him. Damon had an admirable effort for his first enduro event. He kept spinning the cranks all day long, which is far more then I can say for most of the field.

Battle at Burke Farm

Design Physics Racing wins the day at Burke Farm Battle!

The team had a strong showing on Saturday at Burke Farm.
Joe, David E., Damon, Matt, and myself were on hand to dice up it.




The course was a fun mix of rocky undulating single track, fast flowing buff grass double track, and a mountainous expert section with some awesome rock gardens.

Preriding the course with Joe would pay off well for me once the race started. The mixture of singletrack and double track provided a good opportunity to go out extra hard in the singletrack knowing you could recover (some) in the doubletrack.

Racers had to deal with some angry yellow jackets on the course. I got stung in the lip on the pre-ride and many racers I talked to got stung some where during the race.

The race was well organized and there were a lot of great volunteers helping out. We all got to enjoy pizza, sodas, and some brews.

We had some great results:
- Joe : 1st overall expert (fastest man there)
- Jeff : 1st overall sport men

Damon, David, and Matt finished strong after a throwing down some solid laps on the course.

Hilbert #2...almost like home

It is a nice feeling to pull up to the race course and it feels like home again. That was exactly how the feeling has become at Hilbert. You know just what to expect, and even know the best lines around the trails. Jeff and I were able to sneak out to the trails on Thursday for a quick spin around. This bit of recon really paid off.

The team showed up in full force, as normal with Hilbert races. The podiums were full of Design Physics/ Stijl racers as well with Joe 2nd Expert, Jeff 1st Sport, Sonya 2nd Sport, Nolan 3rd Beginner, and myself 2nd Enduro all hitting the the steps. Full results found here: RunRideRace.











Another great race put on my Mark. Trails could not have been in better condition! Super fast and sticky. Thanks to Sonya for all the pictures.

24 Hours of Booty

As many of you know, Mason & I will once again be riding in the 24 Hours of Booty.  You can find our homepage HERE.  Check it out and pitch in some dinero.  Any amount is appreciated.

I want to thank Roger Sattler for being the first one to step up.

...Jason

Fat 5 Enduro Report

Well, I think I should have read the rules to the Fat 5 before arriving at the event. Found out at the starting line that this race was actually 5 hours and 55 minutes, plus a lap. Geeze, so that made this race that I thought was going to be 5 hours closer to 7!!

Anyway, I didn't let that affect me. I knew I had enough drinks mixed for 6 hours, and I could just use water for the final lap. So 8:30 rolled around, and off we went. Small field for sure with around 15 solo racers. The area had received a horrible storm the day before (that apparently Jason got stuck in during a pre-ride with Mason) so the roots were very slippery. Made the field stick pretty close for the first couple of miles as everyone seemed very worried about falling. I was hoping to grab the wheel of a local rider and find the line around the course. I jumped the wheel of the leader and hung on for the first couple of miles. He was painfully slow, seemingly afraid of every turn. This wasn't going to last so I passed him and off I went. I was able to hang onto the lead for the rest of the day without seeing another competitor and lapping most of the field.The course started to dry out after a few laps, and the speed on the downhills really picked up! The course was super fast with tons of very fun trails. I kept trying to find out how far I was in the lead for a while, but then stopped even worrying about it and just kept pounding out the laps. The Stijl performed perfectly all day long for me and I'm really digging the 2x10 XTR.

Big thanks to Kenny Palmer and Mountain Junkies for putting on this event. The event was very cool and I hope to go back next year, hopefully with a few of my teammates. It felt great to win again, hasn't happened for me in a while.

Yeah, I was pretty darn tired by the end of the race. Jason snagged this quick photo just after the finish line.

2011 Hoo Ha

Another great race for the team.  We had 10 people racing and we had 4 podium finishes.  Thanks to everyone who came out, it was a lot of fun. Jim took advantage of the team room and we rode the course on saturday. It was great seeing Nolan pull up with four guys and four bikes inside his yukon. Mason said it looked like a clown van with all of them piling out. Then Tom & Sonya pulled in next to Nolan. Lisa and jennie followed with Matt rounding out the team. Jennie's pedals were still on her other bike, fotunately Nolan rides the same ones and raced in the morning, so a little teamwork kept Jennie from having to race on platform pedals. Matt spent the day trying to take people out while on course and was the talk of the town after the races. Damon could barely walk, much less step up on the podium after the rocks failed to properly cushion his fall. Jeff was unstoppable again and showed off his climbing/descending skills to eveyone behind him. Jim took the overall in his age group. Nolan finished 4th in his class, Sonya took a 3rd along with some nice cuts & scrapes on the ankles. Tom rocked out a solid couple of laps and looked like he wanted to go out for a thrd. I think Kylan also scored a top 5 in his class. A great showing by the team. We all took advantage of a tent that was not being used and it made a huge difference being out of the sun all day. People were coming by, hanging out and sharing in deep fried oreos...

 

Starting the day off with Damon & Nolan.

Jim just stoked to be representing DP.  Maybe it was the Qdoba burrito from the night before.

No one saw this view of Jeff all day.

Lisa running it in!

The team taking advantage of the shade.

Damon with a solid 2nd - after a hard crash.

Sonya following it up with a 3rd.

Jeff - getting paid.

Jim also bringing home the glory for DPR.

Watching Cycling Does Not Get Much Better

What a great morning when you can wake up at 5:45am to catch the Dalby Forest World Cup which overlapped into the 8am start of the Giro. 

FORD #1

Leeger, Ezzel, Lisa and I headed up to conquer the FORD. I know we are a mountain biking team, but several of us enjoy running as well so a duatholon is only natural. We have been training by doing a psuedo duo using both Forest Hill, for running, and the full JRPS loop to mimic the FORD course.

I have to say, I did a quick run to warm up a bit before the start and I really wasn't feeling it. My legs felt heavy, no doubt the hibachi from last night was not the best choice. Nevertheless, I started out strong and led the field coming down the first fire road. I have learned in the past that you need to stay out front here if you want to do well. Two people had past me by the time we entered the woods, I felt like this was good enough. I knew the bike is where it would really get interesting anyway.

Once on the bike, I really felt like I had pushed it to hard. I felt a bonk coming on. I had passed some guys and was now sitting in second place. The leader was nowhere in sight. I settled down to a nice spin, grabbed some water, and was feeling much better after a few minutes. The bike portion of this race was very hard! With the tight singletrack, wet roots, and a bit of mud here and there, it kept things interesting.

One cool thing about this course is that you can see just how far ahead, or behind your competition you are. Heading back to transition, I saw that the leader was quite a ways ahead of the field. After transition, I saw the third place guy was a nice ways behind me as well. After the top three, there was a huge gap to fourth. I was really feeling this second run, but was relieved to know I would finally get a podium at this race which has eluded me thus far.

At the finish, I was second!! Felt great being that the conditions were so tough and the mountain bike portion had been cut short. This is normally my strength in past FORD's.

The whole team had a great race. Leeger finished with a strong 6th, and first in class. Lisa finished 1st for women. Not sure how Ezzel finished, but he wasn't to far behind Leeger so no doubt he finished well. It was a strong showing for sure.

2011 Urban Assault

It was another great turnout for the Urban Assault. The team was very well represented with 14 riders racing.  As I was standing out at the entrance/exit to Forest Hill, I overheard a few people commenting on the team and the number of people we had racing.  It is nice to see and hear how we represent the sport. 

We also had some great results:

Jeff - 1st Sport (30-39), 1st overall Sport

Damon - 1st Beginner (30-39), 1st overall Beginner

Joe - 2nd Expert (19-29)

Dave E - 2nd Sport (40+)

Nolan - 3rd Beginner (30-39)

Jim - 3rd Sport (40+) 

Sonya - 4th Sport Women

Kylan - 4th Sport (19-29)

Tom R - 5th Expert (40+)

Paul - 6th Sport (30-39) 

Matt - 9th Sport (19-29)

Lisa - 10th Sport Women

Waiting for the race to start.

Jennie defending her title until she broke a spoke...

Sport Men

So many rider they were coming and going!

Paulito - one of the few to ride the drop.

New member  - Jim Fisher

Congrats to the entire team, we had a great showing!

2011 12 Hours of Lodi

Not a strong turnout, but some great results!

Paul Leeger - 1st Place Solo
Steve Tolley - 2nd Place Vet Solo

Paul & Steve showed up to race this past weekend at Lodi. They started out with solid lap times and never let up. It was great seeing them roll out together on the start and then finish together in the end. Steve had some tire issues that set him back a little, but did not deter him - even after he had to come back into the pits to fix a flat after riding a mile up the trail. Here are some shots of the two in action.

Steve must have known what the future held for him right from the start.

Paul in full control.

Tolley hunting down Paulito early on.

I brought the team bike and it got rave reviews from everyone.  I never did get a chance to ride it, but that is another post to come shortly...  All in all a good day for the team.  I still cannot believe that both Steve and paul drove back to Richmond that night.