Until the Snow Ends

The best explanation for why this post didn't get written until Friday is that when you do a fast, flat, singletrack 100-miler, instead of being burnt out on bikes the following week, you end up STOKED and have to ride every day. In related news, expect a post with the phrase "inexplicably tired" to appear here soon. After last year's hundred miler , the gravel road climbing championships of the world, Christin and I picked the Lumberjack 100  because it was the exact opposite -- 90 miles of singletrack and only 6000 feet of climbing.  The only problem with the 'jack is that it's in Michigan, and not even the close part of Michigan.  That's okay, though, because the drive is only 12 hours.  Even though I swore I'd never drive to the Midwest again after the 18-hour solo trip from Madison to Boston I did two years ago... this is different.  Somehow. We carpooled with Jesse Q, and I promptly made us half an hour late by forgetting my suitcase, only ...

After it rained most of this week in New England, I just couldn't get my head around racing the Pat's Peak 6-hour race on Saturday, knowing that it's super hard  even when it's dry.  I decided to check out the Black Fly Challenge  in upstate New York instead, a 40 mile point-to-point cross-or-mountain-bike race.  I figured, if nothing else, "it will be a unique experience and worth blogging about." On that front, I was not disappointed. While this race may be billed as "The Legendary Adirondack Mountain Bike Race" (now in it's 19th running!), saying that phrase with a straight face is at least as technical as any course feature.  Even in 1995, there's no way this was a "mountain bike race."  It's 10 miles of pavement and 30 miles of dirt road, and not even especially bad dirt road -- I could have driven the whole course at 25mph or more in my Honda Fit, slowing down for exactly one wide puddle at about 10 miles in. The nat...

So last year  we ("Weasel Enterprises, LLC"*) put on a mountain bike race and it went GREAT, which means no one got an ambulance ride and we didn't lose money.  We attempted to repeat that feat this year.  Here is a collection of semi-random notes from race promoting. In case you haven't noticed, mountain bike race scheduling is STUPID, and we're part of the problem.  There's only so many Sundays in the year, and there's not a single open Sunday in the months of May, June, or July... and maybe even August, although I'm too lazy to check right now. Oh, but Colin, why don't you just put your race on a Saturday?  It works for road racing and cyclocross! Oh, don't I wish.  Unfortunately, our #1 obstacle to successful race promotion is parking, and the motorcycle dealer who graciously lets us park at their place  only lets us do it on a Sunday.  So if other promoters with more flexible scheduling want to move to a Saturday...that would be grea...