Until the Snow Ends

Well, THAT was an interesting day on the internet. I got a few questions that I'd like to address. Why did you link to Robert Anderson's USAC profile? 1) Sam Anderson goes by Robert Anderson on USA Cycling.  When Sam Anderson registered on BikeReg, he used the license number that matches this USAC profile  ("Robert Anderson").    Furthermore, in 2009, a 20 year old named "Robert Anderson" raced Great Glen in the solo category riding for "Red Jersey Rockets" (the shop he worked at).  They're very definitely the same guy -- sorry for not outlining how I made that connection.  At no point have any of his defenders disputed that the USAC results I linked to are his. Why didn't you ask him directly? 2) Sam did get in touch with me via FB soon after it went up, and made some spirited attempts at misdirection while ignoring most of my questions.  While he did give some racing history background, at no point did he provide anything that in...

Note that this is NOT the 24 Hours of Great Glen   Race Report. 24HOGG delivered another AMAZING race weekend that reminded me how much I love this event and why it keeps going strong in its 19th year, long after the 24-hour craze of the 90s has faded.  I will be back in 2015, and you should be too! ---- update:  I made a second post  that answers some questions and has some more info. The only individual prizes you can get at a team 24 hour race are the "Fastest Lap" and "Fastest Night Lap" prizes. If you're a serious racer (which most people at this race AREN'T), you pay attention to this stuff. Back when I used to do the race on the Back Bay Team, we'd fight over who got to ride 2nd because it was the "hot lap spot" -- the first rider on the course who didn't have to do the Le Mans start. This was better than going 3rd or 4th on your team because lapped traffic quickly started appearing -- your best bet at taking "fastest ...

This is my new favorite crit, ever. The climb makes it reasonably hard in the cat 3 race, and it was long enough (1:15) that people were getting pretty tired by the end. I much prefer a crit with a little suffering than the old "40 minutes, eveyone's fresh and thinks they can win the sprint" that is so often the case. I know I was certainly starting to regret my fueling choices with about five laps to go, but I held off the bonk just barely long enough to mix it up on the last lap. The team was myself, Preston and Ford and the plan was "leadout Ford if the break doesn't stick." Unfortunately Preston went rogue/plaid the last time up the hill trying to neutralize an attack and Ford and I didn't adjust appropriately, which put us on the front with everyone looking at each other with about 60 seconds of racing left ... unfortunately a bit too far out for me to take over on the leadout, especially after climbing the hill at Preston-speed. So we got s...

This is the first time I've ever won money racing a road bike, so I figured I should talk about it. It came a week after the Stewart 6-pack, which went like a worse version of last year :  more mechanicals, more fueling issues, and more poison ivy.  Which is why I don't feel compelled to talk about that. Yarmouth Clam Fest is billed as the "biggest little race in the world"  if not officially, at least colloquially, as I heard this phrase from multiple bike racers when describing it.  The finish line is right in the middle of a sea of tents, food booths, art booths, and janky carnival rides, so the race becomes just another sideshow at the Festival.  Do the spectators really care about bike racing?  No, but they'll look up from their fried clams once every eight minutes to see a hundred guys ride by (usually sprinting for a prime) at 30 mph.  It works. The course is effectively dead flat except for the last two minutes, which are very  inter...

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...