Summer Racing

Last night was the start of our local Wednesday night racing, better known as the Summer Series.  The whole family was set to go out and compete last night, but I ended up skipping it.  I showed up, but I was having some issues with my tires holding air.  After repeated attempts to get them to seal up in the parking lot, I decided to get out on the course and show my support for the rest of the family.  That’s right, Little Miss Sunshine and Lunchbox got out and raced.

It was a really good turnout for race number one.

Lunchbox went out first, and tried his best to keep up with the fast little racer children that probably ride a lot more than he does.  He held his own at the start though.

Little Miss Sunshine’s class went off right after that, and she was all smiles (even on her single speed.)

Since the trail is only three and a half miles long, I had to hurry up to find a good spot in the woods for photo taking.  I got there with plenty of time, and waited for Lunchbox to come screaming by.  Instead, I saw a bunch of kids in his class go by, and even the women in the class behind him starting riding through.  One of those women was my little lady.

She was still smiling.

A little while later, Lunchbox came flying by.

I asked if he was okay, and he told me that his chain dropped off, and that he had to fight his way back in the pack.  He said he passed two kids already, and that put him in fourth place.

I cut through the trail and caught him heading back down the hill on lap two, and he was trying his best to make up for lost time.

I went back to my old spot for photos, and caught the little lady finishing up her last lap. 

She was still smiling, and I found out later that she sprinted for the finish line.  She missed out on third place by a nose, but she was still happy to finish fourth on her SS.

Not too long after, Lunchbox came rolling by again.  He was still in fourth place, but was closing the gap on third.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough trail left for him to catch up.  He had to settle for fourth place, which is his best race finish to date.  

Both of them are really motivated now, knowing that it will only take a little more effort to get on the podium.  I’m really proud of them for getting out there to race, and I was more than happy to sit this one out and spectate.  I’m not the greatest photographer (which is why my kid usually takes all the pictures), but I enjoyed being able to have the chance to document their races.

This is a fifteen race series, and I;m sure they will both be back to tear it up again.  I plan on using a few of these races as a tune up for the Southern Classic Series, so expect me to get out there a few times too.

It’s always fun when your whole family can get out and do stuff like this.  Most families don’t do much together other than watching TV, so anytime something like this is available it’s a good thing.

This Time I Watched

Last night I headed up to North Meck to check out one of the Summer Series races. I say watch because when I stopped by my house after work to change clothes and grab my bike, the sky suddenly turned black. It started raining, and I didn’t figure that there would be a race. When I got there I found at that it had rained, but not really enough to affect the trail conditions. I didn’t feel like racing anyway, so I took some photos of some of the locals.



I also got to help with the race, which I really enjoy. I stood at the trail exit, making sure that the racers didn’t start out going the wrong way. It was an easy job, so I snapped a few more photos while I Stood there.



In second place (in this photo anyway), my pal Doug was getting his race on:



I also spotted the infamous Mr. Ryde, trying to get some hot laps with the main pack:



I waited, and watched for my friends to come back around after the first lap. These guys were working hard, while I just stood around watching like a goon.






That was pretty much it. After the race I helped tear down everything, and hung out to shoot the shit with the locals. We talked about bike stuff, which is my favorite subject (no shit.) It was good to get out and watch some racing action, and it was nice not to have to go out there and mix it up for once. I’m taking it easy for a bit.


Speaking of taking it easy, I’m gonna be off for a few days. The little lady and I are heading to the Outer Banks for some much needed R&R, and I won’t be back until the middle of next week. We’re bringing our bikes to ride around out there, but I don’t foresee any trail action taking place. I’m bringing the singlespeed, so maybe I can get some kind of workout when I’m out there. I haven't talked to Mr. Shepherd yet, but maybe he'll provide some material here while I'm gone. Keep checking.


In other news, here's something I've been meaning to talk about here for a while. This guy in New York City got a ticket for not riding his bike in the bike lane, and tried to plead his case with the law. Since his complaints were falling on deaf ears, he decided to make a video about why he couldn't ride in the bike lane. It's pretty entertaining, so I thought I would share. Enjoy.

Ride It Like It’s Hot

Yep, it’s time to do some riding. The six hour variety, in fact. As I’ve been telling you the last two weeks, I won’t be doing it alone either. Sure, I can ride my bike for six (or even twelve) hours, but I’ve decided to take on a partner. My first ever endurance race was part of a team, but after that I’ve been doing them all by my lonesome. Not because I’m some kind of bad ass on the mountain bike or anything, but because I just wanted to see what I was capable of doing. I already know that I can hang during these endurance events, but my partner has no idea. Who is it? Well, some of you may already know. If you had no idea, then here is your first clue.





Yup, my partner for the Grind On The Greenway is none other than Little Miss Sunshine. This will be her first endurance race, and she’s pretty excited about it. She initially wanted to team up with one of her girly friends, but that didn’t happen. She also briefly entertained the idea of joining Lunchbox on that adventure, but he won’t be back from Florida until late that evening. I offered up my expert services as an endurance racing partner, and she accepted. She has no idea what she’s in for.



Can we win? I have no freaking idea. The co-ed duo category is usually well represented, so we should have some fierce competition. The plan isn’t to win though, because we are just going out there to see what she can do. I told her I would go first, and do my best to put in as many hot laps as I can. That gives her the chance to go out there and ride at her own pace, and enjoy just being out there. If we get on the podium, then of course we would be happy. I’m not putting that kind of pressure on her though, because I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. My first-ever endurance race got me hooked on it, so I’m hoping that she will find the same joy I did. Who knows, maybe she will start doing them solo after this one.


Speaking of racing, I missed out on the kickoff of the Summer Series, held at Colonel Francis Beatty Park. I didn’t even try to make it. I use to try to get to all of them, but now it’s a little more difficult to make it there on time after work on Wednesdays. There are fifteen races left in the series, so maybe I’ll get a chance to mix it up with the local crowd soon. If anything, it will get me at least one competitive ride during the week to stay on track for the Southern Classic Series. The plan is to do a few of these Summer Series races this year, as opposed to the whole series like I usually do. The Southern Classic Series is taking up a lot of my free time, so I had to cut something out. Maybe I’ll attend a few of the races just to be a cheerleader or something.


Even though tomorrow is a “holiday”, I’ll be here. It probably won’t be much, so be warned.

Back To Racing

Yeah, last night was another race in the Summer Series, and I decided to give it a go. This turned out to be a bad idea, I later found out, but I’m glad I tried anyway. It’s been far too long since I’ve tried to race competitively anyway, but last night was far from competitive. I learned a few lessons as well.


Lesson 1: Don’t take your newly assembled bike out to a race for its very first ride.


As you probably already know, last Saturday I quickly moved all of my parts over to the new frame after breaking the The Big O. I was in a hurry so I could try to race in the Southern Classic Series race at Dark Mountain Sunday morning. In my haste, I neglected to tighten a few bolts here and there, and I also didn’t take the time to adjust the gears properly.


When I tried to get in a warm-up lap last night, I immediately noticed something wrong. My crank arm fell of, due to the fact that I never bothered to give it the once over after the build. Shitty mistake on my part, but at least I had time (I thought, anyway) to fix it. I hurried back to my truck and grabbed some tools, but the race start was rapidly approaching. I got it back on, but it probably wasn’t the best mechanical job I’ve ever done. I took a few minutes to spin around the parking lot, but by them it was time to head down the hill to start the race. This leads to my next lesson learned.


Lesson 2: Don’t try to race when you haven’t warmed up properly.


You would think that I would remember this, since it’s happened so many times before. This time though, it wasn’t totally my fault. Well, unless you count the fact that the B-43 mechanic did a piss poor job, which resulted in me having to perform a little pre-race maintenance. My actual race was a sufferfest, and I struggled the entire time. Not just physically though, since my shifty bits weren’t shifting properly. I was skipping gears all over the place, which made the race even more difficult. Maybe it’s time to hire a new mechanic.



Since I’m not a mega-super-fabulous mountain bike racer, I just don’t have the budget to hire a new mechanic. Sure, I have a few sponsors, but that only gets me a little product once in a while (which is fine, by the way.) I’m not big-time enough to hire any full-time staff for the team here at B-43. So, I have to do the next bext thing and try to get a mechanic to work for free (or food, whatever.) I looked around the B-43 compound, but it was slim pickings. I’ve narrowed it down to two choices.






This is Bailey. He’s not good for much, other than sticking his nose in places it doesn’t belong, and keeping me awake all night with his little doggy dreams. He’s actually kind of dumb, but he makes up for it with enthusiasm. I would only have to pay him with dog food, since he doesn’t drink beer. I’ll give him a thourough interview this evening to see where he stands. Let's go to the next potential candidate.





Next up is Paul. He’s the more logical choice, since it’s all I can do to keep him out of the garage every day. He seems to really like bikes, but he has a bit of a lazy streak in him. Also, I always seem to find him on whichever piece of furniture I want to park my ass on, so he does get in the way sometimes. He’s a bit fussy too, but I guess that is normal for an adolescent male feline. The plus side is, he’ll work for cat treats, which is a really cheap alternative to the standard mechanic pay (you know, money or beer.)


That’s all I have to work with right now. I’m sure there will be a learning curve for either one of these to candidates, but I’m willing to train them. If they can’t perform their job functions, it won’t make much of a difference. My race season is all shot to hell anyway, so I can’t imagine it getting any worse.


I know, I said I would talk about the mystery sponsor box I received, but you’ll have to wait. I’ll get to that tomorrow though, I promise. Meanwhile, I gotta figure out this whole mechanic situation.

No Easy Pedaling

Do I even need to tell the story of last night’s kickoff of the 2010 Charlotte Mountain Bike Summer Series? Of course I do. This is a blog about bicycling you know. What the hell else am I supposed to talk about? Well, it does say nonsensical crap up there in the blog header, but I’ll save that for another day.


When I left work yesterday, I was reminded about how much I hate travelling to each of these races. While I do enjoy being able to ride my bike “competitively” during the week, getting there is actually most of the battle. The after-work traffic around here sucks, and last night it sucked the big one for sure. I arrived at Colonel Francis Beatty Park with only about twenty-five minutes to register, warm up, and get to the start line. Only two of these three tasks would be accomplished.



After I registered Lunchbox and I for our races, we had to change into our riding gear. Once we were finished, I saw that we only had about 10 minutes to get to the start line (about a mile away.) I told Lunchbox that would be our warm-up, so we high-tailed it to the old dam/Gravity Cavity (where we had so much fun on the last Kid’s Ride.) When we arrived at the start, I was amazed at how many race participants we had. In my class alone, there were thirty-six, and Lunchbox had nine in his. I tried to avoid the usual pre-race chit-chat, as I had my electronic music listening device playing “motivational” music to help me along during my laps. I’ve never ridden an event with music before (I forgot to use it at the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek, although I did use it on the last visit there.) I did talk to a few of my fellow racers though, and I gave Lunchbox a little encouragement before his race too. This was gonna be fun, or so I thought.


When it was time for my group to go, I was somewhere in the middle of the pack. Since I didn’t really get in a proper warm-up, I had trouble even fighting for position. I know it’s the first race of the series, but I expected to be a little faster. I way overestimated my ability for sure. Once I got going, I realized that I was still somewhat in the middle of the pack. It wasn’t a fast pace at all though. In fact, I kept running up on the wheels of the guy in front of me, while the guy behind me kept trying to get by. I wasn’t about to let him pass, because I would have just had to run up on him too.


Eventually, we started to spread out. It was at that moment that my lack of a warm-up really got me. I had an almost unbearable pain in my stomach, like someone hat punched me with an iron fist. I found it hard to accelerate at all, but at least The Big O kept up my momentum when I did get going. I hadn’t even made it halfway through the first lap when I started wondering if I could even finish the race. Weird.


Before we even crossed the finish line the first time (my race was supposed to cross it three times), I saw the MadSS down and out on the trail. I asked him if he was okay, and he responded with, “I got a flat.” While I felt bad for him, I figured at least I would stay out of last place now. I hadn’t planned on beating him, so this was a surprise. All I had to do was finish now. I tried to keep the best pace I could, but people started flying by me like I was standing still. That really started to frustrate me, but I hung in there hoping that the pain would go away.


All the way through the first lap, I kept getting passed by people in my class. I had decided that I would just pace myself until the stomach pain went away, and then I would turn it up and hopefully catch up to some of those guys. I’m a lot faster these days (especially on big wheels), but I guess my body wasn’t quite ready for this style of racing.


The music was a big help, by the way. The pain eventually subsided, and I started picking up the pace a bit. I passed the finish line for the second time, and tried to dig in for my last lap. I used the momentum generated by the 29-inch wheels of The Big O to help me along, and made sure I didn’t get passed again. I would go down fighting to stay out of last place if I had to. About two miles into the second lap, yet another rider in my class attempted to get by me. I wasn’t having it this time though. I gave it all I had, and started slowly pulling away from him. He eventually caught up on one of the climbs, but a mistake on the next downhill section would prove to be costly. As we were descending, he tried to overtake me and instead became intimately acquainted with a large tree. The horrific-sounding crash made me look back to see if he was okay, and I was happy to see that he had hopped right up (only to quickly kneel down again.) As I rounded the top of the next climb, I saw him back on the bike and back in the race. I would never see him again though.


I felt better as the second lap went on, probably because I had finally started warming up. I didn’t see anyone else for a while, aside from one unleashed dog that nearly took me out of the race. After a few choice words to the dog’s owner, I sped up again. At this point I heard someone coming up quickly behind me, and I heard him say, “Get some!” “Holy shit,” I said as I looked back. It was the MadSS. I asked, “Did you fix your tire?” He said, “Nope, I just grabbed my spare bike.” And then just like that he blew by me. Oh yeah, I tried to keep up, but it wasn’t happening. That was demoralizing, to say the least. He had a flat tire, was able to go grab his spare bike, get back in the race, and blow by me before the race ended. I gotta ride with that guy a lot more. Shit.


Anywho, I didn’t have much further to go at that point when another guy in my class came up on my rear wheel. I snapped out of my haze, and stepped on it. I had been mostly riding alone (aside from getting blasted by the MadSS), so this was a little unexpected. I didn’t know where I stood in the race, but I knew I wouldn’t finish last if I kept this guy at bay. I gained some good ground on him during a long windy downhill section (thanks to my bigger wheels again), and muscled through the climbs. No more pain at this point, but I still had some hard work ahead. When I hit the very last section of singletrack, I knew I was home free. I gave it my last bit of fight and crossed the finish line, ahead of my unknown challenger. I wound up 32nd out of 36 riders. Shitty, but not last place. Hmmph.


Lunchbox finished ahead of me, and I was very happy about that. I thought for sure I would lap him, since I did two laps and he only had to do one. His race experience was similar to mine, aside from a small mishap where he crashed a little and hurt his ankle. He would recover, thankfully.


No race photos, unfortunately, as my usual photographer Lunchbox was obviously too busy to work the camera. Hopefully my shitty blogging skills have sufficed for today. The first race was definitely a learning experience, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series (even though it will probably be just as rough.) Maybe I’ll just go back to drinking beer instead. It’s much easier.

Ready Or Not, Here Comes the Summer Series

I know, it’s still spring, but the 2010 Charlotte Mountain Bike Summer Series kicks off tonight at Colonel Francis Beatty Park. This one really snuck up on me too. Although I’ve done a few races already this “season”, I’m nowhere near being ready. I have a new bike, The Big O, which should fare well in this cross country race format, but I’m still not totally used to this fine machine.


Don’t get me started on my “fitness” either. I haven’t really done enough cross country riding to make me even remotely ready for the grueling sixteen race series. So much for a training plan, huh? Well, if drinking lots of beer and watching the NBA playoffs is considered training, then I’ll take the podium every race. That’s not likely though, so it looks like I’ll be suffering in the back of the pack, which has been customary for the past two seasons. Sure, I’ll eventually get better as the series wears on, but so will everyone else. Oh yeah, did I mention that we pay for this kind of fun too?


After squeaking out a top ten overall finish in last year’s series, I felt it’s time to move up to the Sport class. That and I pretty much have to since I’ve been racing in the Beginner Men’s class for two seasons. I have the skills no doubt, but can I handle the extra distance? Who knows, but at least I might die trying.


I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, because I actually like racing in the summer races each week. I enjoy the social aspect as much as the competitive part; probably more actually. There’s a good group of people out there at these events, and it is a great thing for our local cycling community here in Charlotte. I just wish I had more time to train. Well, I would probably waste that extra time, but whatever. At least I’ll be Awesome this time around. If you come out to the races looking for me, I’ll be bringing up the rear of my class sporting some sweet apparel and shiny bike bits from Cane Creek Cycling Components.


Wish me luck.



“Good luck kid, you’re gonna need it.”

Looking Ahead

Since I mentioned the upcoming Charlotte Mountain Bike Summer Series, I started looking ahead on my race calendar. It appears as if there is another six hour race in my immediate future. The Grind On The Greenway is Saturday, May 8th down in Fort Mill, SC. While I usually work as a volunteer for this race, this time I’ll be “competing.”


I actually enjoy doing the volunteer part of these bigger events, but it will be nice to actually be out on the race course as a participant this time. Little Miss Sunshine and Lunchbox will be on hand to volunteer though, so things will run smoothly. I always liked mingling with the racers before and after the big events, but I always felt a little funny not racing in them. I usually provided first aid and mechanical assistance on the trail though, along with photos and encouragement. Lunchbox actually takes better photos though, so he will be happy to have that job back. I guess my days of being a cheerleader are over for now too.


Next week, I have a visit scheduled with some really cool people (cycling people of course), but I won’t spill the beans just yet. Let’s just say that it should be very interesting, and hopefully I can get some good blog material from it. I’ll be taking LMS and LB along as well. Lunchbox hasn’t been there before, but I know he will enjoy it. What? I’m going back somewhere I’ve already visited? Yes, but you’ll have to figure it out on your own, or wait until next week for the report.


In other news, my neighbor, friend, and all-around funny guy The Chili Man has joined the blogosphere. Yes folks, he’s decided to tell the world all about what the world tells him. Even though he’s just getting started, I see a lot of potential for laugh-your-ass-off reading material. I’ve heard quite a few of his stories, and now you can too. You should be warned though; it can be a little edgy, since he hears all kinds of shit during his tours of duty. I try to keep it somewhat tame around here, but he is going all out. I like his style.


Check it:
Vic’s Bitch and Pitch



See y’all back here tomorrow for my weekend preview. Peace out.