2013 Missouri State MTB Report

This past weekend was the Greensfelder Challenge  over  in St. Louis, Missouri.  This event would also be the 2013 Missouri State Mountain Bike Championships and award qualifying spots to those riders planning on going to the National Championships in July. While I personally have no ambitions nor talent to race nationals, Tige Lamb and Christopher both headed over to qualify, test their fitness and possible bring home a title.

Greensfelder is hidden in the hills of West St. Louis County (just behind 6 Flags).  The hilly trails are open to hikers, bikers and equestrians.  They are maintained by the Gateway Off-Road Cyclist  .  If you are ever in the St. Louis area be sure to check out these trails.  The GORC guys/gals did an awesome job and these trials just plain flow.  They have a little of everything including a monstrous rocky/rooty climb that would test anyone's cycling ability.  I personally walked that bad boy every lap.  The majority of the trails are smooth flowing single track.  There were several miles of some rocky/hilly terrain that allowed riders with some technical ability to shine. Very fun trails for just about any ability level.  I know I enjoyed my time riding them on Sunday.

Last year Christopher made an attempt at returning to racing mountain bikes.  He started in the junior class and won 3 events in a row including the 2012 Missouri State Mountain Bike Championships which were held in Warsaw.  A winter passed with a few attempts at racing cyclocross to keep his fitness up.  The long winter and early wet spring did nothing to motivate Christopher to ride or train much.  This showed up in spades on Sunday.

A couple of weeks ago I asked Christopher if he was going to try and defend his title.  He said yes and asked when the event was.  I said in 3 weeks.  "I guess I need to go out and ride then"   5 rides later and Christopher arrives Sunday with a new Giant 29er MTB and what he thought was enough form to earn another championship and a ticket to Nationals.  Seven male juniors lined up including Dylan Bartlett who placed 2nd last year behind Christopher.  This years event played out the exact opposite as last years.  Christopher lead for the majority of the event and enjoyed a nice lead up until the final mile of the course.  At the bottom of the final climb there is a short section of double track.  Christopher was getting really tired by this point and eased off some so he did not blow up.  This allowed Dylan to catch up to him.  Once Dylan caught up he attacked at the bottom of the climb and that was all he needed.  Christopher had nothing left in his legs and watched as Dylan road away to earn the state championship.  Christopher rolled in 2nd place and got a ticket to nationals.  That might be one ticket that we will not use.

Tige lined up with a health group of Cat 1 riders.  As expected, most of the big boys were racing including strong riders like  Kenda/Felt rider Drew Edsall,  Daniel Miller, Travis Doon, Chris Ploch, Bob Arnold, Doug Long and Aaron Elwell. 

Tige put a good first lap, but fatigue from a very hard week of training and work caught up to him.  He still earned 4th place in the Male 40 - 49 division and stamped ticket to nationals.  I am sure a easier week will allow for a strong showing at Sunday's Kansas State MTB Championships/ Dirty Little Secret.

My plan for the day was to ride a steady race, have consistent lap times and test my wrist. I have put in a lot of physical therapy and the hard work has started to pay off with very little pain in my wrist.    My legs felt o.k. morning so I opted to ride an entire lap to warm-up.  When it came time to start I guess adrenalin  took over and before I knew it I was sprinting to the front in front of the like riders like Peat Henry, Mike Barro and David Delessio (the eventual podium).  This did not last for long and by the end of the first technical downhill I was in last place (10th) in the Single Speed class.  Yes, last place and feeling damn good about it.  I honestly thought I would bring back most of riders by the time the 2nd lap came around.

I rolled the flowing single track and technical sections great.  On the rocky/rooty climbs I quite honestly suffered.  With a single speed you really need to have the power to keep on top of the gear.  Today I was a little off on the power side.  These same rocky sections would come back in a big way on my 2nd lap.

On the final lap I really thought I would start to bring back some riders.  I was catching up and passing riders but very few of them were in the SS class. On course I came up on Christopher who was out doing a cool down lap and talking to a collegiate cyclist who just happened to be in town visiting.  As they chatted and I went flying by Christopher dropped in behind me.  I was still having trouble with the rocky/rooty climbs so I told Christopher to go by me as I was unable to keep my pace.  On one of the climbs I tried a different line on the edge of the course.  I ended up running over a loose rock which flipped up and got in my drive train.  This caused it to derail and I spent the next 5 minutes getting the chain back on my single speed.  Luckily Christopher finally came back and help and I was soon back rolling and enjoying the course. 

Working on that Bucket List

Carolynn and I recently participated in our first race on our tandem.  We have talked about it for years (over a decade to be more precise) but with limited opportunities offered to race our tandem it just never happened as other events took precedence.

One of my goals this year is to start working on that Bucket List of mine.  It is a long one and I am not getting any younger. A tandem race was on that list along with another cycling tour on our tandem.  Not many opportunities to race in a road race or criterium around here on a tandem.  The only road race that I know of is the Show Me State Games Road Race outside of Columbia.  Roger Harrison offered up a tandem class at this years Bruce Edwards Memorial Time Trial and decided that would be a good event to support.

I know a 10K TT does not sound like much, but let me tell you those short events can hurt.  Pacing is critical in a TT.  I told Carolynn we should go out a little easy and save something for the return trip and those short climbs that made up the course.  That return trip back after Carolynn started to die out on me around mile 4 was painful. It takes a lot of power to keep 375 pounds rolling fast. Overall I felt good about our effort.  "I think I am going to throw up" was the first words Carolynn uttered after the finish so she also had a good ride :-)

Our time of 18:31 did not set any course records but did earn us a nice Gold medal.  I'm still working on Carolynn to get a mountain bike tandem. I would really like to participate in an event like the Ouachita Challenge on a tandem.  Adventures like that with my wife and family is what I look forward to over the years to come.

In a few short weeks Carolynn will be able to cross off one item off her list.  For over 20 years she has watched me race in hundreds of events, many of them triathlons and duathlons.   Well come June 1st she will toe the line for her first ever duathlon - the Sedalia Spring Into Summer Duathlon.  

Some Disassembly Required

Ever wonder how many parts make up a bicycle?  Check out the pics below.  Just imagine a current  mountain bike with all its suspension parts. 

Funny thing is if you gave me all the below parts I could put the road bike back together.

The Bone Bender Report

Another Bone Bender 3/6 Hour has come and gone.  I must say this one might have been the easiest to promote.  With a great team (Cow Town Cycling, The Wheel Cyclery,  Team Go Racing and Lantern Rouge) and support from the cycling community and the Trail Patrol the Bone Bender lived on this year.  Thank you to all the volunteers that really stepped up this year to help.  A special Thank You needs to go out to Jeff Arnaud who put in many hours to make sure we had a great course this year.  One person that really needs the biggest Thank you is my wife Carolynn.  She is basically the glue that holds all these events together.  Plus she feeds us :-)

 Do not forget to check out and order your Bart Cox photos - Bart Cox Bone Bender Photos

The BB36 was started as a fundraiser.  We continue to hold the event to raise money for local organizations.  Last year was about a wash as we spent as much money as we earned.  This year we tried to keep our expenses in line and did a better job of it.  So far this year we have donated over $2,000.00 to the Kansas Trails Council, Lawrence Mountain Bike Club and the Kansas Department of Wildlife,Parks and Tourism.

Bone Bender has grown in reach.  This year we had riders from 13 states come participate - North Dakota, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Utah, Pennsylvania, Arkansas,  Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Colorado, and Missouri.  While the reach has grown, the overall numbers have stayed about the same.  Which has me asking myself this question.  Is the Bone Bender course too hard?  It only seems like the true hard core mountain bikers come back year after year.  Maybe that is the way it should be.

 The work never seems to end when you promote a race but that is part of the game and most likely why so very few step to promote an event.  What was I doing Monday after the race?  Freezing my butt off cleaning up the course.  I collected enough course markings and trash (water bottles, food/gel wrappers,etc) to fill 4 backpacks.  I worked until dark and luckily Jeff was able to come out before dark fell and take care of the campground #3 loop or I would have froze to death (under dressed big time...)

Overall the 5th Annual Bone Bender was a success.  Look for some changes in 2014 and beyond.  If you have any suggestions let me know. I have some ideas but would love to hear yours. 

Thank you to all our sponsors who made Bone Bender possible.

Bart Cox Photography
Chamos Butt'r
Hammer Nutrition
Jewel Cartoons
Lantern Rouge Volunteer Group
MultiSport Marketing, LLC
Schnick Construction, Inc.
The Wheel Cyclery

Bone Bender 3/6 Hour Pictures

Some photos from yesterdays Bone Bender.  I did not get as many as I wanted.  We had an injured rider that we had to take care of and things just got busy from there.  Kind of tired now but I will post a full report later this week.

5th Annual Bone Bender 3/6 Hour Pictures