Missed Friday by a day, but here are a couple of video’s anyway

There is a new movie called Life Cycles.  Looks to be really kick butt.  Here are 2 early views of it.  Enjoy.

The official trailer for it is quite good, but here is another view of the movie that someone cut together.

I went to the Dresser.

For the land of the free

And the home of the brave…………vroooom, vrooom…

It was almost like being at a GNCC race.  200 people on the line, announcements that you cannot hear and that do not make much sense, an almost 12 mile loop, a significant amount of spectators.  Oh ya I forgot, this is not just a D16 race, but also a shared race with D23 (Minnesota).  There is a lot more offroad riders there, or maybe it’s because they do not have a competing series in a sparsely populated state.  Regardless, it sure is fun to have 22 people on your line.

The course at Dresser is at a small local ski area, Trollhaugen.  Not sure where it gets its name from, I did not see any Trolls on the property.  What I did see was

– 11.5 miles of sweet up and down hills singletrack

– a super cool little endurocross section at the finish area

– a semi gnarly downhill section with telephone poles down at angles and drop offs etc…

– several woods areas with spaced out trees and multiple lines that was very GNCC like

– no river crossings (so that made it not like a GNCC) – woohoo!

– incredible dirt.  Must have rained in the days prior as the moisture content in the dirt was as perfect as it can be.

John and I had another epic battle.  We trained off the front from our group right away from the start.  We pushed and shoved our way through the groups ahead of us, and finally late in the 1st lap found ourselves able to race hard.  We traded the lead back and forth, but neither one of us could get more than 50 yards away from the other one.  We truly are exactly the same speed now.  Our races are coming down to whoever makes the least costly mistake is going to win.

John fell over on the second lap, and I got by him on a downhill.  I put my head down and went like crazy.  Unfortunately, later in that same lap I fell over and gave up that lead.  I was still ahead of him, but now he could see me and that was all the incentive he needed to make up the gap.  Near the very end, in a sandy section, i pushed the front end over a berm and awkwardly came to a stop, that was all he needed to get by me.  In the end I made 1 more mistake than he did, and that pushed me back to 2nd – although right on his tail.

This makes 6 races this year that we have finished right on top of each other.  It is sure fun.

Next race is Dyracuse, and then we will be on to the Crawfordsville GNCC race.  Wow, where did this season get off to?  I know I have not gotten enough racing in this year.

out,

Joe

Another Friday, another video post!!

Here goes! It is Friday, I am sitting at home with nothing to do, so you get the benefit or the pain – whichever you would call it.

The first video is from the video crew that follows the Trek World Racing crew around and documents their exploits. We had them to visit a while back, and we took them riding at Dyracuse. If you fast forward to about 8 minutes in you will see a couple of minutes of us at dyracuse. Scott is in orange Moose Gear, I am in blue Moose gear.

This one is a bunch of crazies that just do not make sense to me.  But, it is set to a great JFK speech.

Here is the Canadian Open Enduro race.  This keeps up my fascination with Whistler.

That is all for now.  Dresser race on Sunday.  It is always a good one.

Joe

That was the most epic battle yet!

Sunday was race number 2 at Crystal Falls.  Some subtle modifications of the course, but basically the same layout as the day before.  Yet, Saturdays deluge was replaced with sunny bright skies and a bit of wind.  Since most of the area is sand, the dirt became fairly epic.  And with the exception of a few areas that are going to be muddy for a long time, the dirt was perfect on the course.

After spending the morning cleaning the motorcycle, and working on the damage from the day before (I am not really sure how it actually ran the day before, as the air filter was completely soaked.), I discovered that I did not have any brake pads left on the front.  I scrounged around at the race, and found a set of used fronts.  Beggars cannot be choosers.  In the end, most of the damage from the day before was superficial.  Ready to race.

When the gun went off, John and I led out and checked out.  He followed me into the woods, today I was not going to let him leave me behind.  But, unfortunately I fell over right away in the woods.  No big deal, just handed the lead right over to him.  Soon after that, he tipped over and I went back around him.  From there, it was on.  The lead changed hands multiple times on each lap.  One of us would get stuck in a slower line, and the other one would go through.  Interestingly, neither one of us could get away when we got to the front.  It seemed pretty easy to make up ground on the other one when you were behind, but once in front – getting away was just not happening.

About halfway through, either John was getting desperate or just tired.  Either way, his attempted passes were becoming more aggressive.  One time he went inside of me to a line that did not exist, and we ended up completely tangled up.  I was almost completely off my motorcycle and onto his with him.  I do not know how we did not go down together on that one.  Another time, I was ahead again, and fell over in a rut going uphill.  He slammed into me and then toppled right onto me.

We laid there in a heap, 2 bikes, 2 riders all tangled up.  If we were not so tired and both so determined to win that day, it would have been comical.

After that, John got through a lapped rider in a tough section that I was forced to follow the lapped rider through.  That put a 5 second gap between us, and that was how we finished.

Oh well.  It was super fun.

On to Dresser.

Joe

Wow, that was muddy!

So after 3 days of no rain here in the UP, the sky opened up today.  Go figure eh?  Of course this is the day we were racing.

I drove over to Crystal Falls from Marquette, only about 1.5 hour drive.  Of course it poured the whole time.  It was raining lightly at the start, there were huge puddles everywhere.  The valleys between the doubles and the whoops on the MX track were completely flooded.  The woods had water running down the hills.  The creeks we had to get through were flooding.

The MX track was deep deep wet sand.  Tough to ride.  The woods ended up very rutted.

Started raining really hard during the race and then of course stopped and cleared up at the finish.

I had to give up on my goggles about 1/2 of the way through the race.  I am still picking dirt out of my eyes.

I have no front brake left.  I borrowed some pads from JD Friebel, I hope they work.  If they do not, I do not think I can race tomorrow.  We will see when I put them pads in in the morning.

Oh well.  It was fun though.  I ended up 2nd in my class.  The line was big, maybe 17 or so on the line.  John Buechner won.  That has become a habit with us.  I could see him just in front of me at the finish.  That has also become a habit – finishing just together.

Beat up bike, that hates me after the race. "Feed me some new brake pads, Seymore!"

Dang, I look good.

Scott's gear is only a little bit bad. I took mine off and threw it straight into the trash!

Scott's bike also does not like him.

Hopefully tomorrows race will be less muddy.

Out,

Joe

Dude! Can you come and get me? I think I need stiches… Again!

Poor Chad! The title above is the last words that I heard from him today.  He was on the phone with one of his friends here in Marquette, Mi.

Chad Landowski went to high school with my oldest daughter Ali.  He now lives in Marquette, and goes to school there.  Marquette has fantastic mountain biking.  Chad is a mountain bike freak.  Chad works at Trek in the summer, helping Dwayne build trails on our property.  His heart belongs in Marquette and on a mountain bike.  Unfortunately, for Chad he rides with more gusto than he sometimes has skill.  He has no shortage of heart…that is for sure.

We have been riding all week here, and Chad joined us today for a ride.  He fell at least 3 times – hard, during a 3 hour ride.  The first was a stiff washout in a turn.  The 2nd time was by clipping a tree with his handlebar and ending up far down the side of the hill.  The 3rd time was the charm though.  He did, who knows what, and rag dolled down the hillside in the rockiest and toughest section on the whole ride today.  Bad luck.

Chad, after the 3rd accident. Getting ready to head to the clinic for some stiches.

Dean also crashed hard today. Yep, those are tire tracks.

Doug from Vio sport rocked the Session around the XC trails

Room filled with fun.

Motly crew. Looking over towards Marquette Mountain, which we would love to be riding on.

We spent 3 great riding days at Marquette.  The trails there rock.  The local crew has done an amazing job with them.  Every time I come up here they get better.

To celebrate a great work week, we went out to dinner at what turned out to be the best restaurant in Marquette.  L’attitude is great food with a great atmosphere – right down by the lake.  Then, we went to the beach and built a fire and sat around telling stories.  There was lots of laughter, too much beer drank, a football tossed, people wrestling on the beach (yep, very high school I know), Riley telling masturbation stories (another story in itself).

What was really funny with it was the police showing up at about 10:30, with a complete camera crew in tow, and kicking us out.  I think they thought they were going to be busting up a bunch of underage drinkers, and that was maybe what the film crew was for?…I do not know.  That shuffled us over to Flanigans bar for some Karaoke.

Yep, I rocked the Journey.  Don’t stop believing baby!

The girls. Ready for a night out.

Great restaurant "L'Attitude" in Marquette. Worst chairs in the world though.

Now I am off to Crystal Falls for 2 days of HS racing!  Wish me luck!

Out,

Joe

Friday Video post – woohoo!

Here are a few.  I am still stuck on Whistler, but will get over it eventually.  Maybe.

I was there during this week.  That is how the riding was.  It was sick fun.  I wish I was going back with Liz next week, she is lucky as she is going to Whistler.  I am stuck at work.  Hmmm…..

This is another one of those silly urban downhills.  It is an older one, but it was won by Renee.  He’s cool.

I will have much more next week, as I am finally done with trip after trip to Luxembourg.  Should be able to settle into a better rhythm now and especially get back to racing my motorcycle.

Out,

Joe