Cheq100

More of the 'learn something new every day' theme... Saturday-

• 6:58 AM Rock Lake Road- Cheers to Salsa Tim & Salsa Joe
• 7AM Rock Lake Road Lead Out- #1 pimps me at first to the woods. no way... 
• Rock Lake Trail- Too much air, stop twice to deflat, give up spots. rookie
• Rock Lake Trail- Chase group blows by turn, 1 mi to N32
• Glacier Trail- I don't trust the pack naviation skills getting us back on course. Stop. Fumble around for a couple minutes with tulip notes only to succumb to chase group chase. Too early to burn the matchbook. rookie
• Patsy Trail- What? Is that Jack ahead of me?
• Namakogon Trail- Catch Tri-flow, Ek and company. Rode that one round log. 
• Namakogon Trail- blow a spoke, then flat. I spend way too much time trying to complete a root cause failure analysis on why I flatted. But, no more flats would be had. 
• Rock Lake Trail- Heath going backwards. Out with a broke seatpost.
• Rock Lake Trail- Catch Jack again.
• Hildebrandt Trail- Catch Eddie, tell him to follow me over my rock. I don't think he did.
• Hildebrandt Trail- The swamp skinny is the best. You ride it?
• Rock Lake Road- 3.5 hours in, seeking motivation, finding none.
• Snowmo Trail- Catch Rocket working a low tire.
• Danky Dank Trail- Never been. Sweet trail! Skipping a tricky looking skinny, haunted me for the whole road ride South.

Danky Dank Skinny- tricker than it looks.

• Telemark Road- No bait. Wanted to turn around for that skinny.
• Janet Road- Dropped a bag from my pocket with $20 in it. Stopped and went back to get it. Catch Horns and a 29 Single on a FS geared. 
• Hatchery Trail- Finally some singletrack. Back in race mode.
• Hatchery Trail Head- Check Point. Jacks salami sandwich was the ticket. Lube chain, mix bottles, pop salt pills and point out to B Ragowski what 'no shame' means in LCR speak.
•  Hatchery Trail- Feeling good, back in race not wander mode.
• Makwa 'means bear' Trail- More racing. Reeled in 4 of the 6 I crossed paths with at check point. It was the sandwich.
• OO- Quick picnic, then hard crash going into Seely Pass. Yard sale. Thought I dodge a bullet when I was mobile and bike shifted/ wheels spun. But, broke off lockout, fork spring loaded to locked position. Rest of race rigid. Felt like I was wondering not racing.
• Seely Pass- Besides sucking eggs trying to shake cobwebs and riddling over the broke lockout, all was good. Had to redo the 60' skinny. Had to make that skinny. How often does one ride skinny's with 80 miles in the legs?
• Ojibwa Trail- No suspension was a treat. Saw the Wizard. I think he was taking down the course markers towards the end.
• Finished shy of 5PM. Do the math, just under 10 hours of circling. 
• 4 Cheq 100's, 4 finishes. Very few on that list I believe. Ride time? I don't know. No computer, no garmin, just the woods. I figure with the mechanicals, 17 pee breaks, 1 yard sale, and 2 picnics probably an hour not moving.
• Race raised over $10K for trails. 250 people that signed up on the interweb in 48 hours. Less than a 100 showed up. So easy to click a mouse to commit. No shows, you missed a great day on the bike.

Sunday's learning, decode Danky Dank. This time next year Cable Trails will be connected with Rock Lake/ Namakogon Trails. 

Next years race, pack your lights. 

Oh, what I learned on Fri, don't drive 35W to N Iowa on the weekend.

Thanks Volunteers & race Sponsors (Salsa, Milltown Cycles, WTC, Twin6, ACF, Rivers Eatery, and CAMBA)

Learn something new every day...

What I learnt yesterday...

whatdoyoumean?

In prep for the 'Queen of Dirt' (roadies call good road rides 'queen stage', that makes Cheq100 Queen of Dirt, right) checking over the Mamasita, a bit of play in the XTR pedals. Uh oh. Last think I want is to be trying to pedal a bicycle in the Cheq forest for 100 miles on the axle alone. You ever tried that?

Whaat will I learn today?

How about tomorrow?

Check your pedals for axle slop.

I'll have my grease zerk gun with if you want to borrow it tonight. But I wont be packing that for the 100 miles tomorrow. Sorry.

8 for life.

South Mtn- In the oven

You know that blast of hot air you get when pulling a frozen pizza from the oven? Well I come to learn that's what biking in the AZ mountains are like in Sept, like your face is in the oven.

Kona Satori meet Marge Simpson

Random thougths on AZ and elsewhere;

• Gecko's have a quicker acceleration, but they couldn't keep my pace.
• South Mtn- limitless rock playgrounds
• National-Mormon-Ridgeline-Holbert-Corona-[lost for a few]-Desert Classic
• A good rainstorm in the desert erodes just the same
• Multiple 1000' elevation drops (or climbs) in less than a mile
• Triple digit temps will suck you dry
• Way more bikes on the easy trails. I don't get it.
• 1/2 Lb of Slime almost seals up a sidewall gash
• Sun sets earlier on the east end of the western time zone
• Heath. Understood. National-Alta loop. Darkness. Large picnic lunch required.
• Rents good bikes right next to trails:  Cactus Bikes
• They (AZ bike culture) scoff at fatbikes, but there are some good fat lines after a rainstorm. Rocks scattered, rutts, sand piles, trails eroded, up the downhills, bushwack lines. 
• Kona Satori; First extended time on a 29r FS. Was impressed in part due to shorter chain stay, bike is not a standard 29r wagon.
• Chris Horner find the fountain of youth? Ya right.
• Cheq Fat Tire, what'd I miss? (Congrats Sis, I think you are president)
• CHEQ100, packing a lunch, would be nice to have what I had a little over a month ago, but if not I'll suffer just the same, and I'll have some Skirts there to share in the misery.
• CHEQ100, course marked or not? Come on Salsa, 'adventure by bike', course marking not required.

Activated carbon have a shelf life?

Me, "Jack. Nice. You getting ready for the cold..."

Jack, "Nope. Them wrappers been in there for 2 years."

Pirate ship. One heater. One wrapper.

Jack loved my Murphy loop. Eddie riding fast for a Riddler with scar tissue in odd spots.

Plastic skinny backwards for a beach bum named Jim.  

Next- South Mountain in some real heat! (excited mark)

Heat... Reminded of a time the Goat was telling a story about scorpions while we were taking a break on Troy Built Trail in Fruita. Goat picks up a rock, screams and jumps 10 feet, sure enough there sat a scorpion in the attack position. The Goat was gone.

Log Of Death X (w/ no front brake)

LODX- 6
Larry- 1

Log Of Death X had it's way with me until I realized my struggles were due to what you hear on video (squeeling front brake/ no stopping power).

Team Ricoh Law of Physics- Lack of stopping power on the front end results in skidding on the back end. When on downhill logs of skinny, results will beat you down.

Here are two of six fails:

Why is it that cross country mountain biking looks so weak on film...

The 2x6's wobble... perfect.

I heart Mammmath.

Farm Team- Skull loop getting blocked off by bow hunters thinking stick piles on the trail will stop a Riddler...

Note- JBush was my witness.

Next- Throw sticks and stones at MotoYoung for a Laboring day...