The season is winding down. You can kind of tell this do to the fact that all the series I've been participating in are having their "Series Final" races. It feels as if summer camp is almost over and we all know it's going to be nothing but short days, and numb feet soon.

After recovering from the unplanned fractured wrist at the start of August, I was mostly healed just in time to do the NUE series final in Tahoe. One last 100 mile race to close the book on a wacky 08 season. Amid rumors that Lance Armstrong was going to be there, we gathered in the wilds of the Sierra Nevada's of northern California. With no hotels, or groceries within 1.5hrs, everyone was going to be camping out. I've been doing it all year, but I wondered how that exposure to the hard ground was going to effect the Trek boys who have been out of practice camping the night before.
Apparently they were just fine. I was hoping my month off of racing, but still training, was going to leave me more rested than my competition. So the short of the long is at Cyclingnews.com. I ended up in fourth, and cinched a fourth overall in the series. Much repect goes out to Schalk, Eatough and Plews for coming out and throwing down. I did my best against the best. I'm hoping next year will go a little more smoothly and I'm pretty invigorated to return stronger than ever. The NUE series definitely stepped up it's game and profile, and that growth is only going to continue. The one day Endurance races are really appealing to lots of people.


Michaux 50 The Terror of Teaberry.
My favorite race series ever! Three races, each 40-50miles, single loops and each different than the other. Lots of rocks, ferns and wet roots. Truely the hardest races ever.
At 5:10, the Teaberry was longest Michaux 50 I've ever done. Oh and I got the win. My favorite, but most agonizing part of the race was the 30min I spent running or riding a rim after my Co2's went bad and I had to go until I found someone with a pump. The Stan's Flow Rim on my Ti Deluxe came out straight. End the end I guess it was good CycloCross Training.

Bear Creek, MASS Series Final: Short Track, Super D, XC

The thing that excited me the most about this weekend was the Super-D race. I love that 6-20 minutes of absolute pain, sketchy lines and almost blown corners. It's so fun, and I get the biggest kick out of beating as many people on 4-6in travel bikes and baggies with my TiDeluxe 29er.
On Saturday we started out the Short Track race, which lasted about 30 min, and included some great technical lines. After a lap as the #2 wheel I took off and lead the last 4 laps to finish pretty comfortably in the lead.
I went back and prepped my bike for the Super D, which meant I took off the 2.1 WTB Nano Raptors tires and put on the WTB 2.55 Weirwolves and lowered the seat 1.5 inches. I was excited to see 55 people signed up, mostly because it was a totally different crowd than i'm used to seeing at the normal XC races. There were a few of us spandexed types still on the start line, but it was the 48 other baggy shorts wearing dudes that got my competitive juices flowing.
My friend Janelle decided to do it as one of only two or three girls in the event.
We went off in one minute intervals. I was number 18 off the line. The drop-in was awkward, and a slow controlled roll-in was my goal to set me up for the first 1/8th of a mile which needed some pre-walking to figure out the best lines. I made it through that section pretty smooth, biffed a pedal on a little berm, but didn't feel a significant slow down.
It's funny how much faster race pace is than practice pace. I took the turns at just the right speeds, the kind where you feel like your slowing down too much but if you went any faster it would be chaos. Made the chicanes, dropped the steep hill into the creek bed with no brakes, pedaled the flat sections and pretty much took the rest of it as smooth as possible.
At the end of the day, 53 people made it to the bottom and the top four guys were all spandex XC compatriots. I took first at 5:15 25sec up on Aaron Snyder who was on his 20lb carbon XC hardtail. Aaron, Brandon and Lichtenwaller were all tenths of a second apart in the 5:40 second range. I think we stunned a bunch of the buff dualie bike dudes!
Sooo much fun!

XC race'n

Sunday we lined up for the final MASS race of the year. This has to be the second most technical race of the year. 7 miles and a ton of rocks. I left the WeirWolf 2.55's on. We climbed to the top of the ski hill in a nice round about way, then dropped over the back side on a course that was rougher than the Super-D. Not a lot of fan fare on this one. I went off the front in the first lap, and tried to hold the advantage in the rocks. A fun race but pretty uneventful.

I still have a bunch of events coming up.
Specifically I'll be heading to NC for the Triangle Fat Tire Festival on October 4th. I'm not racing but I will be there with a tent, giving clinics, talking about bike stuff, and riding with people during the 6hr race. Come out and say Hi!