Dakota 5 0

Its on!

I'm hanging out in the Black Hills, fully prepped. Got a bike, sent in my registration, camelbak's waiting patiently... I can't wait.

Who's gonna take it this year? Jeff Kerkove is in town and he wants it. I think it will be the first time a national guy in his prime has lined up, so he's gotta be the favorite. Otherwise, I think a local has to be the underdog. I'm picking old man Jon Nelson, since he's been so close so many times and he has such a badass last name.

As for me? I'm just trying to finish in one piece. Training has fallen apart with the last month of visitors, deadlines, moving and now vacations. Earlier in the summer I was in great shape so I'm just hoping some of that finds its way into my legs for sunday. For now I'm not relaxing at grandmas and enjoying the time off. Chris pushed me into the creek last night, so don't go thinking my life is too great just yet.

Olympics

I've been obsessing a little more than usual over the Olympics this year. Maybe its because you can live stream just about any event on the web (sans announcing). Has anyone else discovered http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html?

------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone in Rapid City have a mountain bike big enough for a long legged 6'4" which I could borrow Aug 31?

singletrack discovered

I did some mtbing today. I went to these trails right out my back door. I'd ridden there before, but just recently C.L.I.M.B. mapped out the trail and I realized I'd missed a huge section. Turned out it took me three hours of riding to do one lap. Epic! Of course, I'm moving in a week, but not to far away so I'll definitely ride them again.

I really like my mountain bike when I'm just riding. Its comfortable and unflappable. In the two races I've done this year, unfortunately, its felt soft and slow. I'd really like to avoid getting a new race bike in the future, so I hope some faster tires might help.

A whole new level of nutrition

Errrr.....


Its nice to see an athlete who likes to eat. I always read those Bicycling interviews of what racers eat for breakfast and the answers are "organic granola with half a banana and some tofu". Unlike those hippies, Phelps likes his food.

Busy Busy

Eppen's bored at work, so I need to write something entertaining. It seems like everyone runs out of bloggin juice this time of year. I think its hard to keep interested in something (even as awesome as cycling) all year long.

Work at school finally picked up and the Jago's were in town; I've spent the last week running all over the place. They'd never to NY before, so there was a lot of sight seeing involved.

We rode the Staten Island Ferry to see Ms Liberty


We walked through Times Square


... and got rained on in Times Square.


The next day I went to another Kreb race. I wasn't sure how my legs would feel after two days of zero biking and one day of walking all over the city, but it was worth a shot. Impending rain limited the field size, but all the big guns showed up anyway. Sure enough, attacks opened up after a few laps. Finally, everyone slowed a bit and Joe Z started going hard. I kicked to follow him and we got separation. He pulled like a horse for a whole lap then waved me through. I kept it going a half mile and then he took over again. When I pulled through again, I could tell I didn't have it. I sat on his wheel, taking soft pulls and trying to recover enough to make it to the end, but he dropped me after a few laps. As soon as the chase group caught me, there was a counter that I couldn't follow. Now it was me a half dozen guys and I knew we weren't going to catch the leaders. We rode out the remainder of the race like that. Why don't my legs like it when I take the day before a race off?

The next day we went to the beach, which was a blast. I've only been twice now this summer and its something I ought to do more.

Kreb 8/1 Race

Last weeks race was kinda boring, so I didn't have anything to write about. This week all the big guns showed up, so I knew something would happen. It's been a pretty hard week, but my legs felt good and I was in a real mood to race. There were a few attacks and Zaverdas Sr took the first prime, but nothing really happened until we started lapping the B's. Brian went to the front and drilled it. I hung onto his wheel and when I looked back we were clear. It was a good mix in the break: Charlie, me, the brothers Wolff, Zaverdas Jr, and some other strong guys. If we worked together, there would be enough people blocking for us to stay away. Brian was pulling through like a madman. I couldn't tell if he was intentionally turning the screws or if he just wanted to push the pace, but every time he pulled through I was on the rivet. As we tried to stay away, the pace kept getting higher and higher and I felt like i was ready to....

*pop* *hissss* *wobble wobble wobble* My tire blew before I could find out how far I'd make it.



Funny thing is, I knew this tire was in rough shape and I was gonna replace it after this race. Oh well. The bitch of it was, I was on the far side of the course from my spare wheel, so it took more than my one free lap to go get it.

Once I got the new wheel, I jumped in with the chase groupe. At this point it was pretty obvious the break was gonna stick, so everyone was taking it (relatively) easy. I took some pulls to have a little fun and get a workout in.

In the end, the break was shelled down to four riders. Charlie took the sprint over Brian, which is pretty cool.