Palmarés Updated, 1993-2006

1993 – After my first mountain bike race – the 1993 Cumberland Classic at Sewanee, TN. 6th in the juniors and 25th in the beginners (there were 100 people in the race!)

I started this post earlier in the year when I decided to update my racing results dating all the way back to my first mountain bike race in 1993. My latest foray into mountain bike racing (winning the Chain Buster Battle at Oak Mountain 9 hour race on Saturday) has had me reminiscing into how I first got into mountain biking back in high school in 1993 so I thought I would go ahead and wrap up this post. Most of it centers around Oak Mountain. In fact, if you go back even earlier to the late 80s, my dad and I used to do road biking on a 10 speed (eventually 12 speed) with down tube shifters at Oak Mountain. We’d park outside the park at the info center and then ride in through the front entrance. I’d always start out fast and ride off ahead of him and his work friends, but then even before we made it to the golf course I’d be tired so my dad had to ride with me slowly the rest of the way to the spillway in the back of the park and then back to the car. Probably a couple hours for the 15 mile ride.

Fast forward to 1993 – my junior year of high school, and two of my friends on the math team (Steve Montgomery and Jeff King) were into mountain biking. Steve said his dad had a mountain bike I could borrow, so the three of us set off to Oak Mountain one day after school in two cars. We parked Steve’s Bronco II at the picnic area parking lot and then piled into Jeff’s jeep and hauled ass up the Peavine Falls road (seriously don’t know how we didn’t roll that jeep) up to the overlook area near the end of the red trail. We took off up the red trail and then turned left into the BUMP downhill. I don’t remember my first experience with blood rock, but I assume we walked it. We flew down the trail past what is now the berm (I don’t think there was a berm back then) to the twisty section of the downhill, popped out onto Peavine Road followed it for a tenth of a mile or so to reach the Johnson’s Mountain climb. It started out with a tricky entrance with a short log bridge over a small creek crossing, and then the super steep trail with the rubber run-off protectors across the trail every few feet. I eventually could clear all that on a good day, but I definitely walked it that first time up.

From the top of the steep section, you had a nice pine-straw covered straight gradual climb until a couple twists at the steeper section near the very top of Johnson’s Mountain (super fast coming back the other way) at the park boundary. Then you came down through some tight small trees, small logs turns entering the rocky bumpy section (where I would sheer a seatpost off in a ride the next year) that is now the opening climb for Johnson’s Mountain (when coming from picnic area parking lot). My first big wreck was on the downhill after the giant log (the log is long gone and replaced with some rock steps now) where there are some wood trail run-off protectors now. There were no wood steps back then (unless we were going so fast through there I forgot about them), just a fast downhill with me going right off the side of the steep hill falling halfway down to the creek at a high rate of speed.

Then it was up the shallow switchbacks and the fast straight section (now called Foreplay) across the horse trail intersection into the long set of twisty turns (now called Mr. Toads) through the picnic area parking lot down to Steve’s Bronco II for the shuttle back up to the top. I think that was it that first day out, but eventually we got into good enough shape to not need the shuttle any more, and we would just start out in the parking lot head up the climb to the red trail, turn around at the top and then come all the way back down adding on the lower section of singletrack by the paddleboats. This section was an out/back trail that wasn’t finished. We would ride it through to the end and then just keep riding a ways through the woods before turning around and heading back up. After buying my first mountain bike from James at River Oaks Cycles in Hoover (the Mongoose Alta shown in the top pic), I made this trip pretty much an every day after school experience. The lower section of trail was finished shortly after all this began so eventually I started to park at the old boy scout road just past the golf course where the lower trail section ended. I would ride from there all the way up to the Bump trail, turn around and ride back.

By April of 1993, I raced my first mountain bike race — the Cumberland Classic in Sewanee, TN — where I finished 6th in the juniors and 25th in the beginners (our fields were combined). There was more than 100 people in the race (IT WAS HUGE!!!) and I still remember starting and climbing out of a gravel parking lot area, racing across some huge field by a barn or something, and then a double track road before making the left into the singletrack. Whenever I think of “hole shot”, I still have this mental image of the gravel hill, followed by a wide open field leading to a double track leading to a lefthand turn onto singletrack overlooking a valley far below that made me think I was in an airplane (which I had never been in before). Later in the year, during the start of my senior year I would see a flyer for the Bull’s Gap time trial and race that as my second race (see pic below), following that up with two more mountain bike races (the Maddog Mountain Bike Race in Springville, Alabama and the Suck Creek Classic up in Chattanooga, TN).

Brian Toone – Bull’s Gap Time Trial 1993

Eventually, I’m going to link these pictures onto my results page, but in the interim, I’ve included a gallery of pictures that I scanned in from 1993-1998. If you are wondering how I could remember these results from way back then, I still have my “bike racing photo journal” (see pic below) that I kept which included a description of the race, the number of people in the race, my result in the race, as well as two or three 35mm snapshots. When I started college at Clemson, I kept track of everything in a Microsoft Access database (see other pic below).

Photo journal of bike racing I started my freshman year of college
Screenshot highlighting some 1997 entries from my microsoft access database of racing and training

1993 – After my first mountain bike race – the 1993 Cumberland Classic at Sewanee, TN. 6th in the juniors and 25th in the beginners (there were 100 people in the race!)

1993 – Cumberland Classic – finishing up in 6th place – it was just one lap

1993 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race – NORBA beginners field strings out heading towards the singletrack

1993 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race – NORBA beginner

1993 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race – NORBA beginner

1993 – Suck Creek Classic – lined up with other NORBA Beginners

1993 – Suck Creek Classic – I remember telling my dad as I passed by that I needed to get clipless pedals after this race

1993 – Suck Creek Classic – creek crossing

1993 – Suck Creek Classic – triple down arrow section shortly after the hole shot

1994 – Jackson, MS – AL/MS state road race championship juniors field

1994 – Clemson collegiate mountain bike race

1994 – the Cow Chip Classic

1994 – the Cow Chip Classic, sport category lines up for the start

1994 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race, Springville, AL – I stop for a pic with my mom before the start

1994 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race, Springville, AL – the sport category lines up for the start

1994 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race, Springville, AL

1994 – Natchez Cycling Classic – the juniors field lined up for the start of the mall criterium

1994 – Natchez Cycling Classic – the mall criterium

1994 – Natchez Cycling Classic – the mall criterium

1994 – the juniors field just before the start of the road race at the Natchez Cycling Classic

1994 – the juniors field during the road race at the Natchez Cycling Classic

1994 – Natchez Cycling Classic – my first view of the Mississippi River

1994 – Rocket City Mountain Bike Race – Hunstville, AL – the sport category lines up for the start

1994 – Rocket City Mountain Bike Race – shown is my Schwinn Series 70 mountain bike, which I raced on until 1999 and then kept as a commuter bike until it was stolen in 2004 at UC Davis

1994 – Rocket City Mountain Bike Race – Hunstville, AL

1994 – I lapped the field with Dan Hubbard from UTK in my first collegiate race (Cat B, Michellin Classic) – I ended up taking 2nd even though I had Bert and Pat to help lead me out – my sprint was awful – no power

1994 – the Natchez Cycling Classic time trial – aerospoke front wheel – very flat 2 miles out and back on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River

1994 – my first and only cat 5 race. I upgraded to cat 4 based on my collegiate results

1995 – finishing 21st in my first assault on mt mitchell. i probably only weighed 125 pounds in this pic.

1995 – Coming out of the chicane in the Augusta criterium – cat 4

1995 – Augusta criterium cat 4 – my clemson teammate Pat just behind. He was a great sprinter – probably won this race

1995 – Clemson Collegiate Road Race – off the front

1995 – Clemson Collegiate Road Race – off the front

1996 – Clemson dirt criterium – precursor to today’s cyclocross mania. I lapped everybody except for the 2nd place rider. In retrospect, I probably should not have been racing the B category. My teammate Bert Hull did pretty much the same thing in the A category lapping everyone and winning by a long way.

1996 – Life College parking lot crit in the rain

1996 – Auburn collegiate criterium – 5th place, my best finish in a collegiate A criterium. I attacked on the hill on the last lap taking two riders with me who both passed me at the line for 3rd and 4th. Up ahead, GSU teammates Dave Martin and Shannon Hughes lapped the field taking 1st and 2nd.

1996 – Cleveland Park on the back stretch – is that Travis Sherman in the Auburn kit?

1996 – Cleveland Park start finish area – somebody in the pit

1996 – Tour de Bloom, winning a prime in the Cat 4 race

Tour de Bloom criterium – I made it into the winning break in the Cat 4s, which gave me enough points to cat up to Cat 3 at the race and then double-up to race the Cat 3 race where I believe I just finished in the pack

1996 – Virginia commonwealth games – Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Roanoke

1996 – Cleveland Park race during the Michellin Classic weekend – rounding the final corner in the collegiate race

1996 – Cleveland Park race during the Michellin Classic weekend – Cat 3

1997 South Carolina Road Race – 1st place, Cat 1/2/3 state championship. I didn’t have a camera with me so when I made it back to Clemson I snapped this pic of my bike and my car. The race was at the Donaldson Center in Greenville and I won on a solo breakaway but finished same time as the field sprint won by my roommate Bert Hull who earned the state championship medal by winning the field sprint since I was out of state.

1997 – McMinnville road race finish – this was the Cat 3 finish. I had been away solo for 15 miles. Note the field approaching very quickly. I barely held on to win.

1997 – McMinnville road race – happy to have won the cat 3 race on a long solo break

1997 – McMinnville time trial – shortly before the start, note the litespeed bike and the Lemond time trial bars

1997 – McMinnville Criterium around the high school – I tried to race aggressively (here I am attacking) and my finish in the crit was good enough to keep me in 3rd overall for the weekend

1997 – Augusta downtown criterium Pro/1/2

1997 – Augusta downtown criterium Pro/1/2 – in break early (shown here). Post-race analysis: “So close, so close, so close. Attacked hard with 3 to go and caught the National Junior Champ (Eric Walters) with 2 to go, but we got caught with 1/2 lap to go. I still finished 15th in the sprint.”

1997 – Clemson Collegiate A criterium – how did this break not stick with UF, GSU, Clemson, and UGA all represented? Answer: it looks like it was my fault … post-race analysis: “Did not place in any primes. Was in a four up break with 5 to go, but I could not pull through and we got caught. Felt pretty good, but heart rate not quite as high today.”

1997 – Georgia Tech Collegiate A criterium – “I felt pretty good. I did not seem to be working nearly as hard on the climb as everybody else. I also took the corners much faster than everybody. I tried a solo break on a prime lap and made it to the top of the hill before getting caught. On the last lap I went hard b/c Bert was in good position. I was too tired to attack on the hill as I had planned.”

1997 – James Madison stage race – my Clemson teammate Bert Hull and I drove up to Charlottesville and stayed with my grandparents for the two day race. I flatted out of the road race but was allowed to start the time trial. Bert won the overall after passing six or seven people during the hillclimb timetrial up to Skyline Dr.

1997 – Pro 1/2 Crit for Kids in Columbia, SC – does anyone recognize who the national champ is? Wikipedia says it was Jonas Carney that year. Is that him? Or is that Eric Walters?

1997 – PeeDee road race – national champ present again. This was the only race my Grandma on my dad’s side of the family ever got to see me race.

1997 – Tour de Pocono pro-am field

1997 – Tour de Pocono pro-am field strung out (this was pretty much the entire race … single file through the motorcycle infield and then half a lap around the Nascar track)

1997 – Tour de Appalachia in West Virginia and Ohio – I always looked like a chipmunk

1997 – Athens twilight Sunday race in Conyers, GA. I had placed 2nd to George Hincapie the day before at the Assault on Mt Mitchell

1997 – Assault on Mt Mitchell – me with my parents shortly after finishing 2nd to George Hincapie

1998 – me and Daniel road tripping to Jacksonville for one of the first collegiate races of the year. We played follow-the-leader / tag through a car dealership until midnight shortly after arriving the day before the races. Tied my best collegiate A criterium finish (5th place) during the race the next day.

1998 – Jacksonville, FL – me warming up before a cold rainy collegiate criterium

1998 – Jacksonville, FL – Daniel before the start of his juniors race on Sunday

1998 – Jacksonville, FL – me before the start of the USCF pro/1/2 race on Sunday

1998 – Georgia Southern collegiate A road race start – I finished well in this surprisingly hilly course. I think Travis won it on a solo break.

1998 – Collegiate National Road Race near Ceasar’s Head, SC – I flatted out, but my teammate Bert Hull (middle) was in the day-long break before it got reeled back in towards the end of the race

1998 – Collegiate National Criterium in downtown Greenville, SC – I won a points prime fairly early in the race and then finished towards the front of the field sprint

1998 – flowers for Carol, our SECCC coordinating official, during the nationals award ceremony banquet

1998 – Athens Twilight – first of three races of the day, this was the amateur 2/3 race qualifier.

1998 – Athens Twilight – first of three races of the day, this was the amateur 2/3 race qualifier. Travis Sherman and I started a two-man break that eventually became a ten man break which stayed away … good enough to qualify for the finals race setting up an attempt at “epic triple”

1998 – Athens Twilight – me resting before the start of the amateur finals race. I would finish near the back.

1998 – Athens Twilight – neither of these is me, but I think one rider is Jesse Lawler from UGA, which means that I was just out of the frame to the right as we got popped and pulled together fairly early in the race.

1998 – McMinnville, TN pro/1/2 road race – lining up at the start. The red team would win … literally, the whole team.

1998 – McMinnville, TN road race – I won this race the year before as a Cat 3, this pro team swept the top four positions the next year in the Pro/1/2 field. I finished with the pack.

1998 – McMinnville, TN high school criterium – lined up at the front before it started to rain … post-race analysis: “Lots of rain. Didn’t corner very well and got stuck at back of pack. Had to chase out of every corner. Got dropped and pulled with 5 laps to go”

1998 – Columbia, SC crit for kids

1998 – NC/SC time trial – two things stand out in my memory about this race for me … I just barely missed breaking an hour in the 40K tt (by a few seconds) and I had just gotten a ticket for speeding on the way to the race

1998 – NC/SC time trial – my teammate Bert Hull on his homemade drop bars (probably winning or podiuming)

1998 – NC/SC time trial – my teammate Scott McDowell and his wife Rachel before the start

1998 – Espoirs (U23) national road race – Cincinatti, OH. This course would be perfect for me now, but back then it was basically a giant 10 mile crit course spanning two states with a couple of big climbs from the river. I only lasted a couple laps before getting dropped and then rode a couple more laps before getting pulled. There’s a very good chance I could win a national race on a course like this today!

1998 – Espoirs (U23) national road race – Cincinatti, OH. We rode up onto an interstate as part of the course. Loved it.

1998 – Roanoke stage race – road trip with Daniel and his friend from Brazil whose name I can’t remember but who once biked with me from Clemson to Greenville to the start of one of the training races. He didn’t speak any English, and I didn’t speak any Portuguese so we settled on Spanish … izquierda, derecho, en frente de

1998 – Roanoke stage race – Saturn pro rider Tina Pic (I think) everybody at Clemson had a crush on her

1998 – Roanoke stage race – me right before the start of the Pro/1/2 hillclimb time trial up the old road to the zoo. Oh if I could only race that again… I probably finished near the back of the pack.

1998 – Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – flying out from Greenville, SC on my third plane trip ever, first time flying with a bike

1998 – Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – driving from the airport through Boston to Fitchburg

1998 – Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – view of Wachusett Mountain with its hilltop finish for Saturday’s road race

1998 – Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – view of one of the glacial rocks sitting in the middle of town near Sunday’s crit course

1998 – Tour de Toona – before the opening prologue

1998 – Tour de Toona – one of my all-time favorite features on a road race course – gravel hill climbing through a corn field heading into a double track section through the woods … all at 25+ mph

1998 – Tour de Toona – one of my all-time favorite features on a road race course – gravel hill climbing through a corn field heading into a double track section through the woods … all at 25+ mph

1998 – Tour de Toona – either before or after the last day’s downtown Altoona criterium

1998 – UTK Knoxville rolled a tubular on easy ride around Knoxville, fell and ripped my cycling shorts … had to race in “holey” shorts the whole weekend. The road race picture shows my normal rear training wheel paired with my American Classic racing front wheel

1998 – UTK Knoxville Collegiate A road race – right after winning the race

1998 – UTK Knoxville Collegiate A road race results – 1st place!

2001 – Reno, NV – shortly after winning the Cat B collegiate road race. I was fascinated by the snow on the mountains … my first time biking anywhere remotely near snow.

2001 – Reno, NV – Cat A field strung out climbing the hill on the crit course. I had finished 2nd in the Cat B race earlier with my teammate taking the win. My other teammate, Jeff, won this Cat A race solo. UC Davis had a very strong team and would go onto win nationals (without me) either that year or the year after

2002 – Davis, CA – after another year of no racing and only riding 20-30 miles a week (on my mtb to/from the lab), I catted down to C’s and placed third as part of a 1-2-3 podium sweep of the Cat C road race

2005 – Camp Sumataunga, AL – with my beautiful wife and newborn baby (8 months old) I started back into bike racing in 2005 making it into the break in the A training race in the spring. Later in the year, I would race in the Mad Potter’s stage race placing 3rd in the Pro/1/2 road race in Biloxi, MS only two weeks before Hurricane Katrina would completely wipe out the town.

2005 – Camp Sumataunga, AL – me in the break during the A training race. I believe that is Mark Simpson pulling at the front and me hanging on at the back

2007 – Greenville, SC – my best result up to that time and my last race as a Cat 2 was placing 3rd in the Greenville Cycling Classic just behind Geri Mewett and Bobby Sweeting. I would place 2nd the next day ahead of Geri.

Photo journal of bike racing I started my freshman year of college

Screenshot highlighting some 1997 entries from my microsoft access database of racing and training

Lakeshore Trail and Vulcan Trail with the kids

I needed to have some work done on my mountain bike in preparation for Leadville – so I thought I would throw the kids bikes in the car and have a little fun on the Lakeshore Trail and the Vulcan Trail. Into the car went both the kids bikes, my mountain bike, and my road bike. Josiah’s bike went in the front passenger seat, and the other three bikes went in the back behind the kids. These are the pics I got of our journey.

Warming up in the parking lot – doing tricks already!

Riding on the Lakeshore Trail

Analise – no feet!

Josiah – no feet!

The Vulcan

The Vulcan and the kudzu

Downtown Birmingham

Pole vaulting mountain goats

My birthday present

Loving where you ride

My friend and teammate Jacob Tubbs sent me this link to a Fat Cyclist post from earlier this week:
http://www.fatcyclist.com/2012/07/30/how-climby-is-your-climbiest-ride/
. Even though it was a contest with a specific set of rules, what I got out of the post was that the Fat Cyclist really loves riding where he lives and was wondering if other people had cooler places to ride. My personal thought on this is that a person who really loves cycling will adapt their interests so that wherever they live is the BEST place in the world to ride. I’ve lived and ridden in several places all around the country, and each has been my favorite place to ride during whatever phase of life I was in at the time.

So without a doubt, Birmingham, Alabama is the best place to ride – especially if you like the trifecta of climbing, descending, and cornering. The appeal to me is summed up in these two screenshots from Strava. The first one illustrates how many times your speed changes in a single ride. The second one has the ride map demonstrating the amount of cornering in a single ride plus the elevation profile. Those are just the quantifiable aspects of the ride that are appealing to me … the qualitative aspects go on and on, but the top of the list has to be the scenery with everything from ridges stacked on top of ridges to beautiful trees, gardens, neighborhoods. Plus, since there are so many neighborhoods to ride through, you see a bit of the everyday life of people from all walks of life.

Ride performance graph – the blue is speed – look how frequently (and dramatically) it changes (click to enlarge)

Ride map and elevation profile – look at all the turns (click to enlarge)

Ride highlights today alone included seeing (again) the mountain goat statues on Monterey Pl setup for the olympics as if they were in a high diving event (see pic at the end), seeing all kinds of clouds and cloud patterns from the thunderstorms firing up all around, scaring a wild turkey as it was crossing the road at the top of Shook Hill (never seen one this close into town before), and just the usual fast descents and steep climbs. Today was extra special, though, because I really felt the entire ride was a fun “dance” … very delicately balancing the maximum amount of climbing I could do without repeating the same road twice (in the same direction) while still trying to hit the highlights of some of my favorite roads – AND while avoiding huge thunderstorms moving through the area. I was successful in avoiding the thunderstorms, but ended up getting a flat tire, then flatting again on the spare. Luckily I was right next to Cahaba Cycles when I flatted the second time.

So I set out to do a “climby” ride and ended up on one of the best training rides of the year covering 73.9 miles and climbing 12,327ft, exploring part of Cahaba Heights that I haven’t ridden in a while. Plus, one more thing about how much variety and selection there is in the roads to ride around Birmingham … this ride is probably less than 10% of the available roads in the area – including entire sections of town I had to avoid because of the thunderstorms. Bluff Park, Georgetown, Hoover, Homewood, Birmingham proper including Red Mountain and Ruffner Mountain, the Double Oak area including Leeds – none of these made it into this ride. This ride traverses parts of just three suburbs of Birmingham: Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, and a small portion of Irondale.

I didn’t have a camera with me today, but I’ve dug up a selection of photos I’ve taken from spots on the route I covered today.

High diving olympic mountain goats

Sunrise on South Cove Dr – check out all the ridges

Samford University from Vestavia Dr

Vestavia Dr looking over Brookwood Hospital (where my son Josiah was born) over towards Red Mountain with Montclair (Trinity) Hospital where I was born visible on the side of the mountain

Ridges in my neighborhood

Max speeds, part 1

Max speeds, part 2

Elevation profile, part 1

Elevation profile, part 2

Complete ride stats, part 1

Complete ride stats, part 2

Time and distance to 12,000 feet

Time and distance to 11,000 feet

Time and distance to 10,000 feet

Amount of climbing over 50 miles

Opposite vertical acceleration

Lots of roads close together

High diving olympic mountain goats

Rapha Rising Climbing Competition – Days 4, 5, 6

It’s 4AM – time to start my longest ride ever.
At midnight, celebrating with @beautifulwife the end of a very long day of riding.
Wednesday – Day 4 – 249 miles, 42,200 feet of climbing
These two pictures above bookend my longest ride ever with the most climbing ever. Getting up at 4AM and then riding all the way until midnight with only a few breaks along the way. Even though my grand total was exactly 248.84 miles and 42,200 feet of climbing, my Garmin lost 24 miles of GPS coordinates. So only 225 miles and 38,000 feet of climbing counted on Strava towards the climbing competition. I’m still waiting for official results, but I believe it may have been just enough to win the “one-day challenge within a challenge” for the Rapha race bag given to whoever climbs the most on Wednesday.

I rode laps around my neighborhood for the first hour or so until it got light enough for me to venture out onto the main roads. I kept it nice and slow on the laps since I was hand carrying a flashlight and because I knew that I had a long day ahead of me. I was really, really sleepy and had a lot of negative thoughts about how on earth I was going to last 20 hours of riding. The repetition of the 1K lap along with the really sketchy corners in the dark didn’t help with my motivation. But then I started to notice that the sky was getting lighter. Each 2.5 minute lap would see the sky brighten ever so slightly until I could see the sketchy corners clearly and could start going a bit faster. This was all it took to get rid of the negative thoughts, and I was ecstatic by the time I headed out of the neighborhood.

Max speeds – south cove dr

My first destination was South Cove to get in some super fast descents before traffic started to pick up. There were people out jogging and walking (seriously, how do you people get up that early on a regular basis??? That is some serious motivation). But the nice thing about the S Cove Dr descent is that it is so steep that it is rare for anyone to try to walk or jog up it. So I let it all fly and hit these max speeds approaching 60mph just about every lap.

After the S Cove loops, I went over to Skyland Dr to do my first set of roller coaster hill repeats. Unfortunately, I nearly t-boned a German shepherd that gets out of its yard occasionally on the first descent down the roller coaster. I decided to come back later and opted instead to head on over to Vestavia Dr and then back home to say good morning to the family before Kristine left for work and the kids left for a day of playing at Grandma’s house.

Looking east towards the first thunderstorm of the day

After a nice breakfast, it was back out again – this time heading through hilly, curvy, fun Georgetown over to Bluff Park and Green Valley. When I climbed to the top of Green Valley I could see a thunderstorm building to the east not too far past my house – but the storm was heading south and not going to hit me over in Bluff Park. It was cool to watch the sky darken and to be far enough away to see close to the top of the storm. I continued riding through Bluff Park and made my way over to Vestavia to get water at the Publix grocery store. Then as I made my way to the top of Vestavia, I could see a huge thunderstorm that had built over downtown which was hidden from me because of the ridge line. I thought maybe I had enough time to dip down into Homewood and then back up the Hwy 31 climb while traffic was light – but as I was descending Hwy 31, I had a perfect view of lightning striking the Vulcan (less than 2 miles away) and decided to cut through Brookwood and try to make it home. I made it about 1/2 mile before the storm hit hard with heavy downpour and lots of lightning. I continued on making it home where I took these videos:

After a long lunch trying to wait out the thunderstorm, I had to eventually head back out in the rain. I had just made it over to Mountain Brook and started climbing over there when my Garmin shut off – went completely blank. I turned it back on, but as soon as it made it past the startup screen, it would shut off again. I did this several times – almost in a panic because here I was 8 hours 48 minutes into my ride and I was thinking that the Garmin might be in the process of losing the ENTIRE RIDE. So as much as I wanted to do the entire ride in a single file, I decided to try to reset the Garmin while it was on the “picking up satellites screen”. This worked AND it saved the entire ride. So that is why I have annotated the screenshots at the end of this post with the approx total time and total elevation gain.

Cahaba River at Grants Mill Rd from canoe landing

Nearly 40% incline down to the canoe landing

Since it was still raining, I decided to head over to Karl Daly since it is more straightforward without very many turns. By the time I had made it out to Karl Daly, the rain was gone and the sun had come back out. I climbed Karl Daly from all three sides going for a KOM on the long version from the Grants Mill road bridge (after snapping these pictures of the canoe landing on the cahaba river). I was 130 miles into my ride at this point, but I still felt great and set a new KOM on the climb. No power meter to pace myself, but I basically went as hard as I felt reasonably possible with 120 miles still left to ride. I did get the KOM (sorry Kyle!)

Then it was back down the Irondale side of Karl Daly to cut through the Irondale neighborhoods back into Mountain Brook. There is a steep descent that leads to two traffic lights. I normally turn at the second light – rarely missing the first light. But today the first light was red and I decided to go ahead and go through it since there was no cars coming out of the shopping center where I was turning left. Not a good decision, especially since there was an Irondale police officer at the intersection. He came after me in the shopping center and was absolutely furious asking if I had a death wish. He ran my social security number through the system with the dispatcher since I didn’t have any ID, gave me a stern talking to. Thankfully he didn’t give me a ticket, and I learned a lesson – obey the law. I was very respectful to him, and told him that it was a mistake, a bad decision, and I shouldn’t of done it – but he was still really angry even several minutes later after calling in my social security number and everything. The only other time I’ve gotten pulled over while biking is when I was drafting an unmarked state trooper on Hwy 280 towards Lee Branch. I didn’t realize it was a state trooper because I was focused on the rear end of the car and brake lights. He also was really angry when he pulled over into a bank after turning his lights on, but after a couple minutes he cooled off and we ended up joking together about the whole thing. This officer, on the other hand, was really upset. Don’t mess with the law in Irondale, folks.

Analise and Josiah high five me on the way up the hill past our house

On the hill past our house. Heavy training wheelset doesn’t make for good climbing, but it makes for GREAT descending!

A couple hours of climbing through Irondale and Mountain Brook and I was home for refueling again. Kristine was home from work, and the kids were home my parents’ house so they came out to cheer me on a couple laps.

Samford University from Vestavia Dr

Very lucky one-off iphone 3 self portrait (no reverse camera) on the top of Vestavia Dr

Mountain goat statues that get moved all around the yard at the house at the top of the Vesclub descent

This was a really short stop at home – just to grab a quick bite to eat and refill my bottles before heading back over to Hoover / Green Valley / Bluff Park / Vestavia for some last minute climbing while there was still daylight. The Vestavia Dr area is a favorite of mine along with these mountain goat statues at the very top of the Vesclub descent.

I ended up doing the Vesclub descent well after sunset – then I realized that instead of being stuck doing laps in my neighborhood for the rest of the night – I could do laps over in Countrywood and Dolly Ridge. I discovered this when I had to ride home in the dark from that area with no light – and it felt very safe so after a long stop for dinner with the family, Kristine kicked me out of the house telling me to go get the last 38 miles I needed for 250 miles for the day. I headed out needing to average a fairly high speed to do it. I got more and more motivated as I got closer to midnight. But at 11:15 PM (about 8+ hours into my second ride of the day and only 45 minutes left to ride), my silly Garmin cut off again. This time, unfortunately, I lost everything from after dinner – about 24 miles and 4,000 feet of climbing. I didn’t realize it, though, because the ride was correctly listed in my history as 126 miles. It wasn’t until I uploaded it to Strava that I realized the GPS coordinates were not stored so Strava would only recognize 102 miles of that ride.

Even though I didn’t know all of this at the time, the second power outage on my Garmin really cut my motivation. I was trying to do some math in my head to figure out if I was going to make 250 miles, given that I needed 14 more miles and had less than 45 minutes to do it. I incorrectly calculated 30mph when in fact it was only a bit less than 20mph. So I cruised on home no longer trying to hit 250 miles, but instead trying to hit 400km which is about 248 miles. I figured I could do that … but as I started to do laps with Kristine cheering me on and taking pictures at 11:30 in our neighborhood, I recalculated and figured I might be able to make it all the way to 250 miles. This renewed my motivation in a big way, and I really hit it hard – each time up the hill in front of our house, I sprinted like the end of a night criterium. When all was said and done, though, I only made it to 249 miles as the clock rolled over to 11:59PM – which I decided would be my stop time.

Then I spent the next 3 hours trying to figure out how to merge all three ride files into one file – and to figure out why the total was only showing up as 225 miles. Eventually, I figured it all out – but there was nothing I could do to recover the missing 24 miles. Grrrrrrr. 249 miles, 42,200 feet of climbing, 1 crazy hard fun cycling adventure!

Ride history for Wednesday

1st ride details, 109.18mi, 19143ft climbing

2nd ride details, 126.79mi, 20810ft climbing

3rd ride details, 12.87mi, 2247ft climbing

Thursday – Day 5 – 52 miles, 7,636 feet of climbing
Easy recovery day today started out with a short ride to the grocery store with Josiah. My forearms were the sorest part of my body from all the shifting on my long ride on Wednesday. It was really difficult to shift by the end of the day! We bought a few things and headed home for a nice relaxing day watching the tour de france. In the early afternoon, I headed out for an easy ride and ran into somebody who lives in the neighborhood across the street from us. We rode together all the way through Mountain Brook to the Irondale turnaround and back – before I took off to head to my brother’s house for a birthday dinner. After dinner, I headed back home and did some more climbing in the dark. Legs were starting to feel better by the end of the day. There was a huge thunderstorm blowing up just to the north and I managed to snap a picture of some lightning (although I only got the afterglow).

The most interesting thing that happened during the ride was early on when I passed this guy only slightly faster than he was walking up a hill carrying a big log on his shoulder back up to his truck. He asked me “Are you doing this for fun, or because you have to?” I thought for a second and then said “A little bit of both”. And then I proceeded to spend the next hour of my ride thinking about how complex a question that was that he asked me and how complex an answer could be given – but was boiled down to “a little bit of both”. I was thinking I would go into more detail on my blog post about the answer to that question – but it requires more thought and I’ve spent too long on this one already!

Storm cloud brewing over downtown Birmingham

Storm cloud brewing over downtown Birmingham with lightning afterglow (righthand side)

Friday – Day 6 – 57 miles, 10,261 feet of climbing
My legs were still feeling tired today – wrists/forearms all better. I really wandered on this ride although I basically did all of my normal routes hitting the Green Valley roller coaster loop several times. The only thing out of the ordinary was the Hwy 31 sidewalk climb – which I normally only do on my commutes into work. It has been 2 months now since the end of the semester so it was fun to revisit a climb I haven’t done in a couple months. Plus, I wanted something easy and steady towards the end of my ride, and yet I wanted to go snap some more photos from the top of Vestavia Dr. The mountain goats didn’t disappoint as they were in a new position today.

Mountain goats in a new position – plus one goat was missing

Finally, here is a gallery of photos and screenshots. Most of these are from my ride on Wednesday – but the ones from Thursday and Friday I’ve tried to pick out and label as such. Also, the Garmin screenshots are in order starting before sunrise and ending after dark.

The first 20% grade of the day – on the inside of the switchback making the turn onto Renfroe

Zurich, Paris, Amsterdam … this is on the Renfroe climb

Sunrise on South Cove Dr – check out all the ridges

Looking east towards the first thunderstorm of the day

Thunderstorm getting bigger over my house

On the bike photo 3 min, 56 seconds after the Garmin crashed and I had to start a new ride. I was in panic mode wondering if I had just lost the first 9 hours of the day.

Lover’s leap up in Bluff Park

Lover’s leap historical sign plus the Tip Top cafe

Rainy streets and even a bit of fog on Dolly Ridge … heading back out after the thunderstorm

Nearly 40% incline down to the canoe landing

Cahaba River at Grants Mill Rd

Analise and Josiah high five me on the way up the hill past our house

On the hill past our house. Heavy training wheelset doesn’t make for good climbing, but it makes for GREAT descending!

The covered road/bridge at the bottom of the Mountain Oaks divebomb descent

5 hours, 18 minutes into the second ride, 13,181 ft of climbing

Very lucky one-off iphone 3 self portrait (no reverse camera) on the top of Vestavia Dr

Vestavia Dr looking over Brookwood Hospital (where my son Josiah was born) over towards Red Mountain with Montclair (Trinity) Hospital where I was born visible on the side of the mountain

Samford University from Vestavia Dr

Mountain goat statues that get moved all around the yard at the house at the top of the Vesclub descent

On the bike picture after sunset trying to get current climbing total (something like 18,000 ft into the SECOND ride of the day)

Sunset – Brookwood Hospital (where Josiah was born) plus Samford University (where I work)

11:48PM almost done – about 5 more laps

Thursday ride – view from Heatherwood Ridge looking towards Shades Mountain, Red Mountain. The Heatherwood Ridge is a Cahaba River bluff that rises about 200 ft. This is an abandoned golf course now.

Thursday ride – another picture of the Heatherwood ridge line

Thursday ride – rolling hills on Old Brook Trail

Thursday ride – storm cloud brewing over downtown Birmingham

Thursday ride – storm cloud brewing over downtown Birmingham

Thursday ride – storm cloud brewing over downtown Birmingham with lightning afterglow (righthand side)

Thursday ride – a different storm cloud farther in the distance (towards Alabaster)

Friday ride – mountain goats in a new position – plus one goat was missing

Friday ride – sculpture of a runner stretching – plus Brookwood plus Montclair hospitals

Friday ride – heard a hawk crying and saw that it was flying near another one. Snapped this pic but only got one of the hawks

Friday ride – the small roller coaster on the Vestavia Forest descent – the normal descent path takes you into the hill from the right (and farther down into the creek ravine)

Friday ride – the Vestavia High School back driveway secret entrance – 30% max gradient – plus pine straw, mud, a gate, and rocks

Friday ride – the Vestavia High School back driveway secret entrance – 30% max gradient – plus pine straw, mud, a gate, and rocks

Friday ride – view from halfway down the Vesclub descent off of Shades Mountain – looking towards Dolly Ridge and the higher ridges farther southeast

Friday ride – view from halfway down the Vesclub descent – looking towards Oak Mountain

Max speeds – south cove dr loops

Ride history for Wednesday

1st ride details, 109.18mi, 19143ft climbing

2nd ride details, 126.79mi, 20810ft climbing

3rd ride details, 12.87mi, 2247ft climbing

Out west – day 13 – Barn Burner 104 MTB race

Me and Josiah immediately after the finish

Great race today at the Barn Burner just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. This was by far the hardest race I have ever done – 104 miles of double track forest roads – some very bumpy, some very sandy, some very crazy, all of it a whole lot of fun! I was happy to finish 4th overall, but sad to lose my Garmin Edge 800 with approx. 25,000 miles on it.

Race Details – the dust bowl
It was a Le Mans start, which means you ran to your bikes mounted on bikestands or being held by your support crew. I opted to have Kristine hold my bike so I wouldn’t have to try and extract it from all the bikes jammed together on the bike racks. I ran kinda slowly because I don’t run well and because the terrain had some lava rocks and there were tons of people jostling together. I met Kristine behind the bikestand area, mounted my Garmin and took off running through the grass to get back to the dirt road. By this point dust was everywhere, and I was easily 100-200 riders back.

The first mile of the race was on some dusty, sandy rutted roads so it was really hard to see a good line and you didn’t want to get caught in the deep sand so I could only pass a few people here and there – but as soon as we turned onto the main forest road, the terrain tilted upwards on a long false flat. I passed probably 100 riders through here. At the beginning it was streams of riders that I was passing, but then it has started to break up into small groups – so I started to catch and pass these groups.

Lost water bottle
Right before the lefthand turn onto the next rutted sandy section, I latched onto the back of a fairly large group of maybe 10 riders. It was here that I realized that mountain bike racing requires a lot of trust/faith in the rider immediately in front of you. You are trusting that they are going to take a good line and not crash. This section of the course really emphasized that trust because there was so much dust you couldn’t see the ground in front of you – you could only barely see the wheel of the rider in front of you. It was at this point that I lost a bottle when the road unexpectedly dropped a good 2-3 feet into a rounded rut/hole. I wasn’t expecting it so my weight was forward and I ended up coming out of the hole doing a front wheelie. Luckily the ground was smooth long enough that I could get the rear wheel back down without flipping over the handlebars. Hitting the hole popped out my water bottle so I did the entire first lap on one bottle.

Lost Garmin
Not too long after the front wheelie, the group I was in came out onto another stretch of road which was much harder packed. I went to the front and tried to rally the troops, but I ended up dropping that group and catching one or two more groups until I finally latched onto the back of the lead group. I knew I had reached the front group because there was no more dust in front of this group. This was towards the top of the long gradual descent before the first climb. This part of the course was super fast, and we were absolutely flying single file trusting the rider in front of you to take a good line. For about five minutes, this was my favorite part of the race, but then I felt something hit my knee. I thought it was my only water bottle popping out of the cage so as we are motoring along I’m looking down and doing a double-take to see if it’s my water bottle. It wasn’t, so I continued staring hard at the wheel in front of me following his line. Then I glanced at my handlebars and noticed my Garmin was gone!!! I debated for another 10-15 seconds about turning around or keeping on going. I realized the Garmin was worth too much to just abandon – so I turned around and rode backwards on the course. It had been a couple minutes of fast riding since I had felt something hit my knee (which I assume now must have been my Garmin), so I had to ride back a long ways but I never did see it. It is quite an understatement to say that my motivation was completely gone by this point in the race. I was about to attack the Strava KOM challenge segment hard, and now I not only wasn’t going to be able to do that – I had lost my great position at the front of the race and given the leaders a good 5 minute head start.

The Strava climb (1st climb)
Frustrated at not finding my Garmin, I went flying up the climb that started shortly after the stretch of trail where I couldn’t find my Garmin. It was the more technical of the two climbs on the course, but I didn’t care – I just flew past everyone no matter what line I had to take. By the top of the climb, the race was all blown apart and people were by themselves and no longer in groups.

The rocky technical descent
After the top of the climb, there was a short rolling section followed by the longer, rockier, and more technical of the two major descents. It started out super fast on a mostly clean but a few high speed rocky sections that you could roll over, but then there was a hard left turn on loose dirt that required clipping out for balance that immediately led into some nasty rocky sections that you just had to blow threw as there wasn’t much of a clean line. I went really slow through here on the first lap – getting passed by two riders, the second of which came by probably 10 mph faster just riding over all the big rocks I was trying to avoid. So that is when I learned that you can do that – just bomb over rocks at 30mph – the bike and wheels can handle it these days!

Once I reached the bottom, I continued passing riders all the way to the start of the second climb – the longer, steeper, and less technical stair stepper. In fact, I almost ran right into the back of a small group of three because I had been so intent on catching them that I wasn’t looking for turn signs. I caught them right at the turn and had to slam on the brakes skidding for some distance before stopping just shy of ramming into the last rider. I immediately passed them and continued passing riders all the way up the long climb.

The fast descent that gradually became slower
At the top of the long climb was a super fast steep descent. I didn’t have my Garmin, but it felt like I hit 50mph on this descent on the first lap. There was one clear, clean line between loose gravel/dirt and larger rocks on either side of the foot-wide line, but the line was clear, non-washboardy, and had no rocks in it — on the first lap! I almost wrecked here on the second lap because I tried to take it at the same speed as the first lap, but 1100 riders doing that descent on the first lap had loosened up soil on the clean line and created a bit of washboarding so that it no longer felt safe to go really fast. So each lap of the race, this descent got a bit sketchier and slower for me.

After the steep, sketchy part was a harder packed fast double track that went next to some sort of campground before turning onto the original national forest service road leading back up to the two-way Barn Burner entrance road. I flew through this part catching one or two more riders, and I heard someone yell out “ninth” as I made the turn in towards the barn.

The pit crew
At the end of each lap, you have to dismount your bike and run through the barn. Below is a video of me coming through the barn at the end of my second lap. You can see Analise waving the chain lube that I desperately needed because of all the dust/dirt on the course. My pit crew was just like a Nascar pit crew! Josiah would hold my bike, while Analise would hand me bars/gels/chain lub and Kristine would refill my bottles with gatorade. I would stand there eating and drinking whatever I could get down before Kristine finished with the gatorade. It was so awesome – less than 30 seconds to have two new bottles, a lubed chain, more gels/powerbars, and then off again.

The second, third and fourth laps
On the second lap, I was caught by a rider wearing a green Trek kit and the two of us worked together catching another rider to form a group of three. We worked well together all the way until the second climb where I rode away catching and passing a few more people on the climb finishing the lap in 5th place.

I rode the first half of the third lap alone eventually catching Derek Wilkerson who was in 4th place at the time. We worked well together catching and dropping the third place rider. Derek was a far better descender than me and had to wait for me after the descents. At the end of the third lap, I stopped with my pit crew to refill bottles and gels while Derek had enough to keep going.

I was so tired I figured I would never see him again, but a relay rider came flying by on the long gradual false flat leaving the barn. I hopped on his wheel and dug deep to stay there and soon we had caught up to Derek who tagged onto us making a small group of three. I was digging way too deep, so when we turned onto the dusty long descent I decided to back off and do my best to pace myself to hold onto a top 5 finish. I cramped on the Strava climb, stopped, went easier until I got caught by another relay rider towards the top. I was able to stick with him until the descent, but then he dropped me hard on the descent. I was caught by one more team rider on the section leading into the second climb, and he really lifted my pace again – but he flatted shortly before the start of the climb.

I went up the final climb knowing that I would need to go slow to keep from cramping again, but I continued to pass lapped riders many of whom were walking there bikes up the steep sections of the climb. I was able to solider on in a very easy gear to make it up the climb – but there were definitely sections I was wondering if I was going to have to get off and walk. I kept thinking that at any moment whoever was in 5th place would come cruising by. It didn’t happen though, and I made it up to the top, down the sketchy descent, and then turned on the gas one final time to make it to the finish line. It turns out that I was over 12 minutes ahead of 5th place so I could have taken the finish a little bit easier.

At the finish (as you may be able to tell from the picture at the top), I was exhausted. It took a while to be able to get out more than one or two coherent sentences in a row. I sat on the gatorade jug for quite a while drinking chocolate milk and cokes.

Two final videos before all the pictures – the first is of my finish. Look at Josiah cheering me at the top of the video near the far track, Analise near the turn, and then Kristine filming the video. It was awesome to come through there and see my family cheering me on. Also, there was a cool dirt bike track next to the barn so that the kids could spend the hour and a half between laps riding up and down the jumps and around the berms. Analise is tackling one of the jumps in the second video.

Analise, me, and Josiah after the race
Podium for 30-39 yr old males … 2nd place for me … Ken Chlouber handing out Leadville entries!

Very cold air temp, but the sun warmed everything up well before the start of the race

Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time, so this sunrise was just after 5AM.

Me running to the starting line to warm-up for the Le Mans start

Me and Josiah immediately after the finish

Analise, me, and Josiah after the race

Me and Kristine back at the house

Solar panels powered the event – Kendrick Peak is in the distance. The race course circled the entire mountain.

Josiah got in on the schwag toss at the awards ceremony – getting a cool water bottle. Ken Chlouber got the t-shirt and then gave it to Josiah, who wore it to stay warm!

Dave Wiens (multi-year winner of the Leadville mtb race) handing out medals to some of the later finishers.

Ken Chlouber (Leadville race series founder) and his wife at the start of the awards ceremony

Podium for 30-39 yr old males … 2nd place for me … Ken Chlouber handing out Leadville entries!

Podium, take 2

Belt buckle and entry to Leadville – I’ll take it!