road trip report

the spring training road trip started on friday, february 27th. after a morning meeting at work i was on the road by 1:30 - 11 1/2 hours later i was in madison wisconsin.

what it looked like when i left

after a short 5 hours of sleep i was back on the road, making my way to indianapolis to take in the 2009 north american handmade bike show.

(more here)

the show was very cool with a ton of amazing bikes. it was pretty crowded, but if you were patient you could talk to the various frame builders who were more than happy to chat. in addition to the bike builders there were also reps from components such as: paul, velo orange, chris king, white industries, etc.

following a quick lunch i was back on the road. durham was still 10 hours away, which meant it was going to be a long day of driving.

finally, no snow

the end of snow - well did not really end. somewhere in west virginia the snow started to fall as i gained altitude in the mountains. at times it got pretty heavy but since the ground was still warm it did not freeze.

driving through a tunnel in west virginia

arrived in durham sometime around 1:00 in the morning. the next morning it was raining pretty steady and temperature was hovering around zero. chris and i went for a quick ride in the morning and soon found ourselves inside continuing our spring training

interval training

the next morning we woke up to this. snow in north carolina is not that unusual, but in march it is not that common. schools were closed (as soon as there is any snow on ground they usually close the schools - even if the streets are drivable).

jonah was more than happy to go for a ride in the snow

on monday chris and i headed out for a little 'spring classics' style riding, durham has plenty of paths to cycle on and we tooled around on these for a few hours. the other thing durham has is hills and i quickly discovered that riding around winnipeg in winter does not prepare one well for riding hills

day two of riding - cool, but not as wet as day one

the next day we headed out to pisgah national forest for three days of riding. along the way we stopped at first flight bike shop in statesville. this a very cool shop that collects vintage bikes as well as being a great all round shop.

almost as cool as the handmade bike show

we arrived in pisgah shortly after lunch and started on the first ride. the way it works here is you climb for 40 - 60 minutes and then spend the next 20 bombing down single track.

our first climb was all on pavement

although you can't really see it in the picture this shows where we started

our next ride for the day started with a climb on fire road. it was 9 miles of climbing (higher altitude and steeper roads than our first ride). by mile 3 i was gassed, chris and i on our singlespeeds soon found it to steep to pedal and we began our death march to the top. because of the altitude, and the way the slope faced we soon found our selves pushing our bikes through the snow. as this took quite a bit of time, more than we expected, all we could do when we reached the top was to turn around and bomb down the same road it had taken us 2 hours to climb. taken the trail was not going to be an option as the snow would have been too deep and we would have lost light by the time we were half way down.

pedaling uphill while we still could

we pushed through the white stuff for about 5km

the next day alex had selected a longer ride along a ridge run called turkey pen(???). again, the ride started with a big climb with the trails starting off dry and gradually filling with snow as we climbed higher. during this climb i tweaked my hamstring as i was pedaling through some snow. rather than risk a full pulling of the hamstring we decided to cut this ride short and try another ride which would not be as epic in length (this gave us time to get into town so i could get a tensor bandage and heat balm for the hammy). during the downhill i put a small gash in sidewall of the racing ralph and had slap an tube in the tire (the racing ralph is perhaps a little to thin for riding on the rocks).

chris climbing

starting the downhill

one of many stream crossings on this trail

day three we picked a couple of new trails and continued the modus operandi of riding fire roads up and bombing down technical single track for the descents. the arms were getting quite the workout as i rode rigid for the entire 3 days

checking routes

riding through a rhododendron tunnel

a rare photo of us going downhill

it was a great trip and many thanks to chris and alex for taking time off so they could show this flatlander around the great trails of the pisgah national forest.

of rides and envelopes

first, canada day saw kev b, tinker tim, and i enjoy 50km of riding around the city finding trails to ride. of course, i started off by taking the wrong path through ass forest and quickly found myself in the middle of a swamp which i had to negotiate on foot while carrying my bike on my shoulder - moral of the story: know your paths!!! i quickly joined up with tt and kb and we tooled around on the some of the neat paths this city has to offer.

tinker tim negotiating the pallets in the concrete jungle

those that are going to join the red river racing crew for their sunday extravaganza will have a blast.

so on wednesday i headed off to the bur oak trail for a ride. the round trip was 92km and it was a great evening for cycling. since i was going to leave from work i had to pack everything that i would need for the ride in a backpack.

(foreshadowing)

anyone who races at bur oak likes to ride the trails fast, it improves bikes skills and teaches you the importance of a smooth even riding style. the first couple of laps went well, not blistering, but nice and smooth. after all, this was a ride to work on some skills i would need at 24-9, which is all about riding quickly and evenly which ends up yielding you the most laps at a 24-hour event. on lap 3 i entered the "root cellar", and was enjoying the great lines i was picking through the forest. i was actually enjoying them too much when i caught my right hip on a tree i was cornering. now, most of us, when we ride bur oak, usually come out of there with a few scrapes and bruises, its the way it is on those trails. when we do this we usually ride through it and only notice the damage later when we get home. but this was different, this one i could not continue riding after the contact, this time when i caught the tree as i went by i almost came to a complete stop. for the first time in a long time i actually had to catch my breath - this one hurt.

this will fill out quite nicely

when i got home i took a good look at the damage i inflicted upon my self and found my self with a extra love handle on my right hip, it was actually the size of a small grapefruit and i looked a little lopsided - ouch. the insult to injury occurred later when i pulled the camera out my backpack pocket.


lovely - the camera was f*#ked. nothing like pushing the envelope a little while riding. ces't la vie, i now have a new camera and will be a little more cautious in where i keep it when i ride. lesson learned.