Rewards for a Hard Years Work

This weekend Carolynn and I headed down to the Lake of the Ozarks for the annual Fat Tire Mountain Bike Awards Banquet. Time to relax, hang out with some good friends and for some accept rewards for a hard years work of racing.

Never have figured out why the Fat Tire series has it's awards in late January down on a frozen lake.

We drove up from KC with our good friend John Schlesselman. John has been racing the Fat Tire MTB series for several years and was finally rewarded with a series championship - Sport Men 30-39. As we drove, we discussed the 07' season and what events we were going to be able to attend. This is one of my favorite parts of my year. Making goals and planning my season. Still undecided if I'm going to focus on Xterra events (something I have been wanting to do for 4 years) and get back to my multi-sport roots, or stay focused on cycling only. Don't even get me started with my adventure racing asperations....

Back to the awards banquet....

Some good times down at the lake. Congradulations to all the Series winners.

Check out the picture on the right for a complete list of award winners. For detail results visit Midwest Fat Tire Series

Daily Quatation - Have Fun!

Daily Quotation – 1/25/07

All is well, and you will never get it done. Life is supposed to be fun. No one is taking score of any kind, and if you will stop taking score so much, you will feel a whole lot better -- and as you feel a whole lot better, more of the things that you want right now will flow to you. You will never be in a place where all of the things that you are wanting will be satisfied right now, or then you could be complete -- and you never can be. This incomplete place that you stand is the best place that you could be. You are right on track, right on schedule. Everything is unfolding perfectly. All is really well. Have fun. Have fun. Have fun!

I think I do need help

We got about 6 inches of snow around my house last night. I had planned to attend John's Snow Angle Ride, but I decided that I would give the trails behind my house a try. Especially the old Line Creek RR section which is relatively flat.

First a quick tour around my neighborhood. They just got done plowing the roads and were in fine shape. It was very fun and I was surprised by how much traction there was. I got all kinds of strange looks as folks were out shoveling their driveways wondering why some fool would be out on a bike during weather such as this.

After a few miles I decided to hit the trails just off 68th Street and Green Hills Road. There is a section of trail that goes straight through to Barry road (I believe it as used for the old Line Creek Rail Road) and usually offers some fun riding after a little snow. It was hard going at first, but I soon hit a section of trail that a herd of deer had so kindly plowed for me. Their trail lasted about 1/2 mile then it got tough again. That was until I came to a section of trail that an ATC rider had packed down for me. It would have been time to hit the big ring except for the fact that I was on my single speed. The fun lasted only about a mile then ended when the rider decided to hit the hills to the East. I decided to stick to the flat section and plow through the snow.

I ended up going out and back twice to Barry road. On the final leg I started to get cocky and tried bunny hopping several downed trees. The small ones were easy, but then I made a bad decision and tried to jump this rather large downed tree instead of following the ATC tracks around the beast. My rear tire hit squarely and I did a nice flip over the bars. I landed on my back and got the wind knocked out of me. It took a few minutes to catch my breath and dig my bike out of the snow. When came out of the woods at 68th street I again rested and removed some packed snow from around my brakes. While I was working on my bike a truck stopped and asked my if I needed help and why I was out in such weather. I said I was o.k. and was just out on a training ride. As I started to ride home I thought about what the driver had asked. Do I need help? After getting sprayed with freezing slush by a car that came speeding by I decided that I do need help. A sane person would be home drinking some beer watching the playoffs....

DAM, IT'S COLDER THAN A WELL DIGGER'S ASS

What a great ride last night. Thank you John for organizing the Dam, It's Colder Than A Well Digger's Ass ride. Conditions were very good despite the freezing rain we received over the weekend. The little snow we got on Sunday provided plenty of traction with only a few slick spots.

When I arrived at the Smoken' Davey trail head Tige and Randy were already out on a recon lap. I got out of my truck and started to work on my wiper blades that had failed on me en route when I started having doubts as to why I was here. I started to fear that I might get Frostbite, but then Tige came out of the woods and was gave a quick trail report which included that fact that he was burning up.

After waiting for what seemed like eternity we finally got going. Well I should say everyone else got going. I was having some issues with my Night rider light (only LED's would work). I decided I would just catch up and work on my light when we stopped to regroup. Well that plan didn't work to well because I busted my arse within the first 20 feet. The road leading to the trails was a sheet of ice and I was busy thinking about my light and hit the brakes to hard and down I went. I have a nasty bruise that I will take a photo of tonight. After hearing the loud crashing sound of my fat arse (actually hip) hitting the ground the group waiting for me and we worked together to solve my lighting problem. I ended up having to borrow Randy's (the Stud) 10w light for the first lap (my light did end up working for the second lap).

The trails were in great shape and I think all of us had a great time. I still want to work on my studded mountain bike tires for future snow/ice rides. I ended up going down two more times, but that was before I borrowed Randy's light. Once I could see and I got used to the snow I was fine. It appeared the Tige, Randy and John were having very little problems as well. As I was chaseing down Tige during one section I was thinking of this cool 212 degrees video. It helped has I started to ride like my normal self and feeling ready for some more.

Plan is to also ride on Saturday morning at 8:00am. See you then.....

Thank God I Got Screwed!

The weather here in Kansas City has been crappy as of late. Freezing rain does not make for good riding (mountain or road). So I decided to head out for a trail run. Not a good idea either - I busted my arse big time. What I need are some snow shoes. But being the tight ass that I am, I didn't want to spend any money so I search the www for an answer. A couple clicks later I found Screw Shoe

This seemed like a simple idea and it was. A quick stop by the Home Depot and $3.00 later I had some #6 - 3/8 inch sheet metal screws in hand. It took about about 5 minutes to install. I had about 20 minutes of daylight left so I went for a quick test run.

Man I am glad I got screwed! Traction all over the place. I could not believe the difference 16 little sheet metal screws could make. I wonder if I could use these on my mountain bike tires? We plan to ride Smithville lake tomorrow night. I guess it is off to Home Depot again for another box of screws.....