Out west adventure – days 4, 5, 6, 7

Thursday, Day 4 – sunset adventure with Josiah
After a fun hobo dinner over the campfire, Josiah and I set out on a sunset adventure. We took the new trail I found to the Bright Angel lodge and then connected with Hermit Rd, which is open only to shuttles and cyclists. I pushed Josiah up the big opening hill before we took a gatorade break at the first overlook point. Then we continued on eventually making it to Maricopa point, which is closed to cyclists. BUT, as we started walking our bikes along the trail, we realized there was nobody there! So we hopped back on and rode the paved trail all the way out to the lookout point where we got the picture and video below:
Josiah showing the view looking west … note we were able to ride to the edge of the canyon because Maricopa was empty!

Friday, Day 5 – worst ride ever – Grand Canyon to Flagstaff
The views were great, but there was a lot of traffic, and the wind was horrendous. 20+mph steady headwind with gusts up to 50mph. Once I finally made it to Valle, I was hoping for a cross-tailwind, but instead it was just a nasty knock your front wheel sideways crosswind. As the road climbed gradually towards the San Francisco peaks, the wind got increasingly worse. Eventually, going across the Kendrick Park meadow, the wind was sustained at 30-40mph with gusts probably in the 60mph range. It is easily the worst wind I have ever ridden in. The only redeeming part of the ride is that after about a mile or two of descending from the high pt of 8046′, the road had bent enough to give me a tailwind. So I had a fast downhill with tailwind to end the ride. I made it to the Snowbowl climb turnoff ahead of Kristine, so after waiting a few minutes I headed up the climb even though I was tired and out of food. Shortly after starting the climb, Kristine drove up so I gladly called it a day – I had had enough of the wind. The views were great – see these pics from Hermit Rd in the grand canyon and much later in the ride approaching the San Francisco peaks.
View looking west from Hopi Pt at the start of my ride
The San Francisco peaks outside of flagstaff

Saturday, Day 6 – exploring Mummy Mountain and Camelback Mountain in Phoenix
We drove down to Phoenix later in the day on Friday arriving while everyone was at the rehearsal dinner for the wedding. The next morning Josiah and I went for an hour long ride exploring the very cool canal trail and tunnels while Kristine did a 5K running race with her cousin, Kimberly. When they got back, my uncle Jim helped guide me through the canal tunnel system over towards Camelback Mountain and Mummy Mountain where I tried to find every way possible to get high up on the mountains. There were many mansions built into the side of the hill with super long, steep driveways but they were all gated-off private property. Still, the roads leading to the driveway were really fun with several steep sections.
Approaching Camelback Mountain from the west – praying monk on the left
Approaching the “castle” climb on Camelback Mountain

Sunday, Day 7 – South Mountain KOM and North Mountain KOM attempt – 104.5 miles
The ride down Central Ave to South Mountain was relatively easy with a bike lane for most of the way. The route when straight through downtown Phoenix, which was deserted on a Sunday morning. Most of the lights could be timed so that I think I only had to wait at one or two lights. This road takes you directly into the climb. The Strava segment that I had looked at was the one that started at the restrooms so when I passed a parking area that looked like it had restrooms, I drilled it. I was trying to maintain 350 watt average, but after about 5 minutes of this, my average started to slowly come down until I ended up with a time of 24’27″ and a 324 watt average. I saw a sign at the entrance that said “Silent Sunday, no motor vehicles” which probably explains why there were hundreds of other cyclists climbing the mountain. It was motivating for me to always have people up ahead to chase. On the way back down, I explored all the side roads and lookouts enjoying the amazing views.
Right to left – Camelback Mountain, Mummy Mountain, Squaw Peak, North Mountain, Thunderbird, Deem Hills
View of the summit climb on South Mountain from the San Juan side road

Later in the afternoon I headed out to meet Uncle Bruce at the Deem Hills park to go mountain biking. Along the way I climbed North Mountain to see if I could set the KOM on it the same day that I set one on South Mountain. Unfortunately, the climb was far too steep and technical and it was all I could do to make it to the top without putting my foot down – ended up third on the KOM. To give you an idea of how steep part of the climb was – there was one stretch of the descent where I was leaned all the way back off the back of the saddle because I felt like I was going to tip over the handlebars if I hit the brakes too hard or hit a rock. Here are a couple pics of North Mountain:

Approaching North Mountain from 7th Avenue
View from the top of North Mountain looking south towards Phoenix with South Mountain in the distance

I continued on up towards Deem Hills and met Uncle Bruce for some awesome desert singletrack riding. We started out by climbing from the parking lot up to the top of one of the northern peak. The climb was pretty steep in parts – particularly in the tight switchbacks. I was able to ride a couple of the switchbacks but had to walk one or two of the others. The trails were rocky in spots, but not overly technical. You could have fun on both the climb and the downhill. Perhaps the thing that stood out the most, though, was all the different kinds of cactus and cholla with the trails clearly visible on the sides of the hills. After we finished riding, Bruce directed me on a much better route that involved a small climb up Thunderbird canyon followed by some very cool canal trails all the way back to 7th avenue.

Desert singletrack in Deem Hills
Deem Hills north climb, part i
Deem Hills north climb, part ii
The final switchback on the way up the north climb

Finally, here is a gallery of some other pics that I took while riding. They are mostly in chronological order with pictures from the sunset with Josiah first and my rides yesterday last – except for some reason the mountain bike pictures in the afternoon are before the road ride pics from the morning.

Traveling out west – days 1, 2, 3, and 4

Day 1 – Birmingham to Mt Magazine – 450 miles
We arrived an hour or so before sunset after driving well over 400 miles from Birmingham. The kids were excited to go for a bike ride around the state park loop to go see the sunset at Cameron Bluffs – found cool trail connecting the campground to the overlook. Analise was really brave to ride her bike down a 15% grassy slope. Josiah felt it was quicker just to hop off and run down the slope with his bike. Beautiful sunset (see timer picture below). We had a nice dinner at the lodge and a good night’s sleep waking up to an absolutely amazing sunrise overlooking the valley 2000 feet below. Here is my favorite picture from Mt Magazine:

Watching the sunset with the kids on top of Mt Magazine – Cameron Bluff overlook

Day 2 – Mt Magazine 2x plus drive to Bernalillo, NM – 830 miles
Rolling descent down to Paris – zero traffic, turn around in Paris – rolling climb back up, realize running out of time so pick up the pace before the top. Zip back down the other side to the low point before Havana … turn around do just below AT effort on the long climb back up. Very cool climb, short hiking trail at slow speed up to the true summit – cat 1 climb. Lunch at the lodge – 830 mile drive to Bernalillo – arrive at 12:30AM, asleep by 1AM

Me at the Arkansas state high point after long KOM effort

Day 3 – Sandia Crest plus drive to Grand Canyon – 425 miles
I picked Bernalillo so I could be close to the Sandia Crest climb. The climb started out as beautiful pavement, but then I saw a sign fairly early on that says “unimproved road ahead, local traffic only”. The pavement was great, though, with cool pueblo neighborhoods and fantastic view of the Sandia Crest peak and all the rocky outcroppings for several miles of the climb so I didn’t think much of it – thought maybe it was an old sign … didn’t believe it.
Then I saw another sign that says road closed for winter proceed at own risk. Shortly after that sign the beautiful pavement transitioned into a rocky, dirt road sometimes steep, basically a rouge roubaix style road except continuing on and on forever (7.5 miles of climbing to be exact). I immediately backed off the pace and picked my line very carefully not wanting to flat in such an isolated area. I passed by the entrance to Sandia Cave where there is a picture of a woman next to a sign that said “unsolved murder 1999″. Most of the climb was rocky, but there were several hard-packed non-rocky dirt sections that were fun, absolute beautiful scenery narrow roads. I lost my gps signal a couple times through the canyons.
After 7.5 miles of the dirt road, I emerged onto NM-536 which was nicely paved and had lots of horseshoe switchbacks on the way up to the crest. It was hard to push any harder than 240-250watts. I’m not sure if it was the altitude or the length of the climb? There was a stunning view at the top of the mountains and crags below and Albuquerque stretched out far below. The gift shop is built at the high point with a radio tower armada immediately adjacent. Amazing views.
No way I was going to do the dirt descent, so I headed all the way back down to 536 to the I40 corridor back into Albuquerque where I called Kristine to coordinate meeting her at an exit ramp (#164) from I40.

From the Super 8 to the Sandia Crest high point – almost 5600 vertical feet – new record climb for me

Warning sign with Sandia Crest in the background

Beautiful scenery on the long dirt climb

Amazing view from the Sandia Crest lookout

Day 4 – Grand Canyon – Kaibab National Forest
Woke up early just after the sunrise … rode with the kids in search of the Grand Canyon. I kid you not – we couldn’t find it! It was pretty obvious which way the canyon was, but all the trails that headed that direction (e.g., through the Shrine of Ages) had “no biking” signs. So we headed up towards another lookout but the kids were exhausted by this point, and the hill was kinda steep. I found out later on my mountain bike ride that we only needed to make it to the top of the hill to get to a nice lookout point. So we headed back down to the cafe for breakfast and then the kids walked over with Kristine and her parents to hike to a lookout. They promised me they would take me over there later, and I headed out on a 60 mile mountain bike ride through the Kaibab National Forest.
The trailhead was about 13.5 miles from the campground so I had a bit of riding on the road to do – but there wasn’t too much traffic, and the road was wide. Eventually I made it to the turn off which immediately turned into a dirt forest service road. After about a mile or so, I made it to the Arizona Trail trailhead which theoretically goes all the way down to the border of Mexico. My plan was to ride out 10-15 miles and turn around to get about 20-30 miles of singletrack practice. The trail was kinda cool because it went through different kinds of terrain. It rolled constantly on short ups and downs with only a few longer downhills and uphills. It was mostly non-technical in terms of boulders or roots, but the rocks and dirt on the trail was loose and the turns tight meaning the speed was kinda slow. I’m sure with more practice you could really fly through it.
After about 10 miles of single track I saw a double track road with a sign that said “bike route” so I left the Arizona Trail and headed on the double track which eventually turned into a forest service road. This road alternated between sections that were sandy and others that were quite rocky (basically a flatter version of the skyway epic course). So after another 10 miles of this, I was tired of getting beat up and turned around bypassing the singletrack and instead taking the forest service road all the way back to the main highway.
This time I stopped to climb the cool fire tower, which is no longer used as a fire tower but instead serves as a great lookout where you have an excellent view not only into the grand canyon but also the surrounding area – it was used as a fire lookout at some point in time so you’d expect it to be able to see for miles and miles in all directions – and I was not disappointed.

Arizona Trail trailhead entrance next to the Grandview Lookout Tower

View of the grand canyon and surrounding area from grandview fire tower

View of the grand canyon from “grandview point” – not exactly near the lookout tower

Analise and Josiah were having dirt bike races through the campground and this was their “podium”

This elk spent the afternoon lounging and eating from the trees at our campsite

The long (4000 mile) journey home

We’re leaving after dinner tonight to start our long trip back home to Birmingham, AL from Minneapolis, MN. By the time we make it home, we will have logged over 4000 miles round trip, 8 bike races, and only 5 nights in hotels staying the other 11 nights with family and friends scattered throughout the upper midwest where Kristine is from. Check out my annotated topocreator map of the trip!

1. Birmingham, AL – Home
2. St Louis, MO – Midtown Alley Criterium 22nd, Tour de Grove NRC 8th, Kids races
3. Dubuque, IA – Hotel Julien – arrived at 1AM after finishing Tour de Grove
4. Shell Lake, WI – The Cardwell House – Kristine’s home in the northwoods
5. Minneapolis, MN – Dale’s weekday apartment
6. Cottage Grove, WI – Shelly’s and her family – traveling to Tour of the Dairyland
7. Grafton, WI – Giro d’Grafton USA Crits 14th
8. Green Bay, WI – Rick and Robin’s house – two nights while racing Dairyland races
9. Appleton, WI – Appleton Criterium Tour of the Dairyland 79th
10. Elkhart Lake, WI – Road America Tour of the Dairyland 4th
11. Minneapolis, MN – Back to Dale’s weekday apartment
12. La Porte, IN – Grandma Vivian’s house in Indiana
13. Cincinnati, OH – The Atrium Hotel – two nights while racing the Ohio Triple
14. Madeira, OH – Madeira Centennial Criterium 28th
15. Hyde Park, OH – Hyde Park Blast USA Crits 11th
16. Columbus, OH – Tour de Grandview 14th
17. Birmingham, AL – Finally back home!!!

It’s been a great trip with some great races — only three more to go — hoping for at least one more top 10 finish!

Update – we made it back home – and I came oh so close to a top 10, placing 11th in Hyde Park.

Why I love bike racing! Rock Hill Bicycle Classic Race Report

I was looking for top ten finishes and a qualifying spot in the Nature Valley NRC Stage Race, but instead I came away 2nd in the Nature Valley competition and two 15th place results instead of top ten’s. Disappointed? Not in the least! 800 miles of driving for a bike race. Are you for real? Totally! The whole story doesn’t always make it into the final results. The highlight for the weekend was catching up and hanging out with my college friends Darol and Donna and their family. Our kids got to meet their kids and have an awesome time playing together on Saturday while Kristine and I were at the road race. When we got back to the house, I played basketball with Jonathan, Elizabeth, and Benjamin (who are amazing at basketball!) who easily defeated me in “Horse”, “Toone” and knock-out. Analise joined in a couple times, too, while Abigail and Josiah played on the backyard playset. The only thing missing from the weekend was that our Sunday race was too early for us to be able to go to church with them and still make it to the race so we had to say goodbye all too soon, and I am sure Analise and Josiah are already looking forward to next year’s race!

Here’s the scoop on how the races went -

Patriot Trail Road Race
The road race consisted of two laps of a 47 mile rolling course through the historic and beautiful York County countryside making for a long 94 mile day in the saddle.

My teammate Wes and I lined up on the front row of a 90+ strong field with 3 pro teams (Kenda, Team Type I, and Mountain Khakis) and several strong amateur teams (Global Bike, Subaru/Gary Fischer, Hincapie Development, and others). Wes rolled off the front a mile or so into the race and got away solo before an attack from another rider in the field brought the whole field along and reeled Wes back in. I went with the next move, but our break lasted only a minute or two before we were caught. Then there was another counter attack and three riders made it into a good looking break — although Team Type I and Global Bike were not represented in the move. The break quickly extended their lead to nearly two minutes ahead of the field by the KOM at mile 24. But the attacks associated with the minor points from the KOM and then the subsequent counter attacks through the hilliest section of the course saw the break’s lead shrink down to below 45 seconds.

It looked like we were sure to catch the break thanks to Global Bike’s steady efforts at the front of the field, but then the break’s lead quickly shot up again. Global Bike felt like they had done enough work, and it was time for other teams to help share the work of closing down the break. Instead, nobody came to help them so our place plummeted again. I expected attacks to try to get across to the break, but only one materialized — a Hincapie Development rider (Michael Stone). He quickly got a good gap on the field since our pace was slow with teams trying to work out who was going to drive the chase. It was at this time I realized that we were quickly approaching the end of the first lap and that I was farther back in the field than I wanted to be. So I was a little bit worried about trying to find Kristine in the feedzone and her being disappointed that I wasn’t in the break — so I found my opportunity, worked my way to the front, and attacked hard to bridge to the Hincapie rider. It worked — the field let me go without chasing, and I made the bridge pretty quickly up to Michael. We had a slim lead of maybe 10 seconds by the time we made it to Kristine in the feed zone a couple miles later at the end of Lap 1.

Kristine did an excellent job screaming encouragement and handing me a water bottle at the same time as Michael and I passed by at nearly 25 mph. Kristine told me later that it was chaos in the feedzone as riders came to nearly a complete stop to make sure they got their bottles since there wouldn’t be another chance to get bottles before the end of the race. Up ahead, we extended our lead so that they pulled an extra pace car ahead to lead us and sent the original pace car back to lead the pack. Michael and I worked well together averaging 26.5 mph for the 10.5 miles that we were away on our break. As it turns out (and unbeknownst to us), we were actually the two leaders on the road for that entire stretch of road. We never saw the original break ahead of us because the police escort in front of them had led them significantly off the course when they missed a turn.

When the pack caught us, they were flying and there were lots of small attacks. Having spent a lot of energy in the break, I was content to sit in the pack and recover and hope that nothing would get away during that time. Fortunately, all the attacks during that time were brought back fairly quickly. As we came into the closing miles, a small break of four got a good gap on the field. I missed that move, and it looked like it might work — but within the last couple miles, Global Cycling finished reeling them back in to set up the finale for their sprinter who took the win. Behind him, the field sprint was rather chaotic with riders bumping into each other and trying to maneuver through riders coming off the leadout train. I managed to stay upright and finish 15th although I could hear at least one or two crashes in the sprint behind me. I was in the top 10 riders at the start of the sprint with 1k to go, but I didn’t realize that we had the whole road from that point on so I got passed by at least 10-15 riders who crossed the yellow line while I stayed in the center of the road. By the time I realized what was going on, I was only able to work my way back up to 15th. C’est la vie!

1. Faulty data (error-corrected)
2. KOM for Lap 1
3. Our 2-man, 10.5 mile, 26.5mph break
4. KOM for Lap 2
5. Good recovery and low HR before the final sprint

Winthrop Lake Criterium
I can’t say enough about this course. I wish every crit course was like this one. We had another large field — this time with 90 riders and 4 pro teams represented with the addition of Jonathan Clarke from United Healthcare. Yet we were able to safely navigate the course at high speeds — even with several sharp corners a short, steep downhill and a gradual uphill. The key element was smooth consistent roads of about the same width for the entire course. My teammates Stuart and Wes both lined up with me for the start of the race. Stuart launched himself on a prime lap and found himself quickly joined by a small group. They extended a small lead before the field gobbled them up. I went with a counter move that looked pretty good, but we only stayed off the front for a few laps. Wes got caught up behind a nasty crash on the second lap on the uphill and wasn’t able to catch back on. I heard the crash as it wasn’t too far behind me towards the front of the field. It sounded like several riders went down hard. Stuart ended up flatting and unfortunately for him taking my rear wheel from the pit. Let’s just say that the wheel he was using wasn’t adjusted very well for his bike. Works great for me as it’s my daily commute wheel, but he could only get his rear derailleur to stay in place for two gear combos – 53×11 and 53×16 (probably where some extra grease was built up).

At about the halfway point of the race with 17 laps to go (out of 35 laps), a Subaru/Gary Fischer rider (Sam ?) attacked and got a small gap on the field. My legs were still feeling really good so I attacked on the short steep downhill leading into the last corner. The field let me go, and I rode hard for half a lap to bridge up to Sam. By the time I made it up to him, we had a good 5-10 second gap. By the start of the next lap, our gap was up to 15 seconds where it hovered there for about the next 6 or 7 laps. We worked very well together and settled into a rhythm where I would pull the uphill portion of the course through the steep downhill with Sam taking over for the headwind section back into the bottom of the uphill where we would trade places again. After 6 or 7 laps, our gap slowly started to come back down – 10 second lead with 8 laps to go, 8 second lead on the next lap, 5 seconds for the next 3 laps and then finally caught with only 3 laps left to go in the race. Fortunately, I was able to tuck in and get a good recovery (see HR data) and then ramp it up again in the final sprint for 15th place. During our break, Chad (@TotalCyclist) rang the bell for a $40 prime which Sam and I agreed to split.

So 15th isn’t the result I was looking for, but I am not disappointed as we made the race really exciting, and it was a lot of fun to be flying along the course in front of the crowd and getting encouragement from Kristine and people all over the course with the hope that we would be able to stay away to the finish.

1. Early attacks and pace changes
2. First breakaway group
3. Our 2-man, 10.5 mile, 27.1mph break
4. Recovery before the finish

Rock Hill Omnium Winthrop Lake Crit Course (topocreator map)

Birmingham, AL to Charlotte, NC (topocreator map)

Three icy rides

We just wrapped up our annual Christmas trip to the upper midwest, and I finished it up with the three icy rides below:

	Shell Lake Lake Ride Air temp: -10F (10 below zero) Distance: 7.8 miles (it was cold!!!) This was my last ride in northwestern wisconsin, and it was also my last chance to really explore the frozen lake. It was plenty cold (-10F) cold enough to freeze your breath almost instantly. But unfortunately warmer temps and even light rain on Christmas left about an inch of water melted underneath a thin layer of top ice. I kept crashing through into the puddled water. No danger of crashing through into the lake b/c there was another layer of thick ice below that, but problematic enough with the temp -10F to shorten my ride. Still, for this Alabama boy – the novelty of riding a bike on a frozen lake never gets old!
Northwest Green Bay ride Air temp: 15F(and very windy) Distance: 61.4 miles (very flat) This was my first ride in the Green Bay, Wisconsin area. I thoroughly enjoyed it although most of the ride was table-top flat. I could tell that if I had gone northwest away from the lake instead of towards the lake, it would have been a much hillier ride. But I really wanted to see Green Bay and see the ice flows and icebergs on the lake. I wasn’t disappointed – although my camera batteries were dead after only one picture. We drove out later to get a few pictures that I posted below.
	La Porte, IN to New Buffalo, MI Air temp: 10F (10 above zero) Distance: 36.9 miles (it was cold!!!) We spent New Year’s Eve with Kristine’s grandma in La Porte, IN which is just south of the Michigan border and southeast of Lake Michigan. I had a great mountain bike ride in the middle of a minor lake effect snowstorm. It was quite an experience and perfectly safe as the roads were snowy and not icy. Actually makes for pretty good traction on a mountain bike as long as you keep the tire pressure low.

And here are all the photos from the three rides…

Ride #1 – Shell Lake, WI – 12/29/09

Ride #2 – Northwestern Green Bay Area – 12/30/09

Ride #3 – La Porte, IN to New Buffalo, MI – 1/1/10