TIme Flies

Three weeks ago the first next post was going to be the Wilderness 101, then last week about the two sweet rides last weekend at RB Winter and central PA, then this week just some whining about not riding, we'll go in a different direction tho now and touch on the other stuff lower down a bit.

Kris graduated last night (cue the balloons and streamer cannons). Where the hell did the last two years go. She's officially a PA now. Good thing too since then I'll have medical staff on site all the time at my race events. Yep, thats why I was behind this from the get go, so that she can take care of banged up bike racers and then no one can worry about a ambulance being on site.

So, what's next? I thought a 29er tandem mtb from Ventana would be perfect, but Kris is thinking we ought to get a house instead. I don't think we'll be able to do very many 50 mile mountain bike races on a house. She's really thinking dog first (with a house not far behind mind you) and is all over petfinder trying to find a match. I love the idea of that site, but man there are few things as sad as seeing a photo of some sweet dog and then being told, "you have 7 hours otherwise this dog will be euthanized." A very macabre Ebay sort of thing going on there.

Going back a bit, the 101 kicked my ass. My riding and training has been crappy since the stage race weekend due to a number of factors -- lets call them life -- and I suffered like I haven't suffered in a long time in those hills around state college. I looked back and my volume on the last time I'd put in a WEEK with as much riding as I did in one day at the 101 was the week of the previous hundred in Michigan a short 7 weeks prior. I need to get my life to cooperate with me a bit more.

Got back on the wagon after recovering from the 101 and put in some great rides last weekend at the site of my next race promo in Bald Eagle State Forest at RB Winter State Park with Rob L. and

You know what, I'm going riding, more later.

The eye of the beholder

"hmmm...Do you think somewhere there is a listserv for cage fighters where
dads are protesting about their kids being forced to watch ads for programs
where anorexic drug addicts in their underwear race bicycles around France?"

Nothing like perspective - or a lack of it.  

All Shook Up

I've emerged from my cave after that whole stage race thing. I was sleeping for 10 hours a night and not feeling like I was getting rested or recovered at all --- and not really wanting to do anything but sleep more. That damn thing took more out of me than I thought. Now I'm fat again or more or continuing to be - however you want to put it - super awesome.

I just finished putting together a bit about the 50 Rattling Miles for yinz, watching Fletch, and walking through some cat vomit. All in all its been a pretty good evening.

Kris is back in town after spending last month on a Harrisburg rotation and starting her very last rotation this week. Pretty crazy that we're almost through this phase and she's been at this for two years. Don't know what's next 'zactly, but we're working on a few things.

Look for 50 Rattling info and perhaps even a map(!) in the next few days on High Speed Cycling. Head over to bikereg to sign up. You can put it on Mr Underhill's credit card.

Fletch F. Fletch

VisitPA.com MTB Stage Race and Festival Highlights

So it's pretty much all wrapped up. Results are posted on HighSpeedCycling.com and the last bills are being paid. We had a really sweet weekend all around with wonderful weather, fantastic racing, and just a great feeling of camaraderie.

A few of the bits about the weekend that stood out for me:

My Wonderful Friends and Family
Let me say it one more time... I get a lot of the credit for this thing and you all know how I like to be the center of attention, but the amount of enthusiastic help and support I get from my folks, Kris's parents, my sister Susi and her husband Doug, Kris' brother Matt and Matt's friends John and Wes, my friends and teammates, our sponsors like VisitPA.com, World Cup, Memphis Blues, and Ted at Sutliff Hummer - all of whom contributed greatly to our event, and my wonderful wife, Kristine, is pretty unbelievable and I could not do this without each and every one of them. This isn't my event, it is our event and we hope that you feel like its your event too.

Great freakin' racing
Almost 60 riders scored points in the Elite A field in one or more of the stage race events (even me!!).
At least four of the overall stage race wins were determined by hard and fierce racing in the STXC. This means that in those categories at least two if not three or four or even five riders came into the STXC with a shot at the overall win! It doesn't get more exciting than that and we saw some really great racing tactics played out - particularly in the Sport A and Expert A STXCs where team work played a role in the wins.

Fun Events
Both the Slow DH and the Bike Toss were bigger and better than ever with three heats and a final in the SDH and lots of spectators and Men's, Women's, and Kid's winners in the bike (or wheel if you're a little one) toss. Its great to see more and more people trying something that seems, well perhaps pretty stupid at first, and really getting into it by the end.

Dominating Performances
It is pretty impressive to win all four events in your category in one weekend. Both Gunnar Bergey and Leif Lucas took home victory in all four of their races this weekend. Congrats gentlemen -- you've proven you're ready for the next level.

Mother Goose
Thanks Andy, Mike, and Frank.

Parity in Racing
What I like even more than Lance like domination is to see something like what happened in the Elite A race where we had a different winner in each of the stage race events. Ryan smoked the Night ITT, Brandon flew up the climb, and Wes rode away in the STXC, but Aaron Snyder rode the most consistently and ended up taking the overall win. That is sweet stuff.

Alaina Rocks...Again!
Once more Alaina Dietz came out to the weekend and once more she walked away with a podium spot. Over the past four years she's done this in the Beginner, Sport, and Expert B categories. She continues to demonstrate that women kick ass and can compete with the guys. Alaina thanks for your continued support of our little shindig. You plain rock.

Rob the Lumberjack
Most of you missed this and I wish I had Ry's camera to video it for you, but at one point I decided to finally remove "the branches" since we must have had a lot of tall riders on the course this year. So off I go with the chainsaw to eradicate some zombies with support from my troops Ray and Ry. We get out there and we're not getting the saw started. Ray's big heavy ass is able to break off one of the branches, but we ain't breaking the other one. Sheeeitt...now what. Well, along comes Rob. Rob's a landscaper. Hey Rob, feel like giving this thing a shot. Sure. Rob fires 'er up and ride off. Branch 2 come down with out hitting Ray or I on the head. Thanks Rob!

The After Party -- I got to do something I've not been able to do very much at all this year and hang out with my team. I don't think I realized how much I miss these people. Its worth all the work for the weekend just to be able to let loose with these guys after you all go home. Go here (sorry, but you're not invited - members only...and we do have the jackets.)

I DON'T SUCK COMPLETELY
Holy crap, I got top 10 at something. I just suck mostly.

You Saw It Here First

COMING TO AN OESTERLING FARM NEAR YOU

4TH OF JULY WEEKEND 2008
VISITPA.COM MASS STAGE RACE AND FESTIVAL V
presented by SUTLIFF HUMMER
book your travel arrangements now

Zombies Beware

Pickle and I were out practicing with the zombie dismemberment devices today and have most of the nasty overhanging flora cut back so that you all don't scratch you poor wittle arms on the briars. Heimster was out again and though he looks like he got in a bit of a scuffle with a zombie last weekend was adding yet more volunteer time to the cause. Had young Zach out on the course too and he and Howdy were experimenting with the possibility of crushing zombies with the large rolls of hay scattered about the joint. Pops was out all day on the big orange machine patrolling for marauding bands of zombies and Kris has yet to find any zombies pre-registered for the event.

All in all I think that we're pretty much safe for the weekend though the small pond just off the house is looking a little nasty so who knows what might crawl outta there.

BTW, if you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about go visit fatmarc.com and catch the hell up.

Gas powered hedge trimmers rock.

I can't wait for Sunday at about 5 PM.

MASS GOTS TALENT???

Who wants to get in on this talent show gig? Saturday night after the band. Open mic. With celebrity judges. Get your act together and let me know your coming and its on. Remeber that there is also some liquid courage available on Sat night so email me and let me know that you're doing it!

Stage Race Q&A

A couple Q's that have come up recently and my answers...

TIMING CHIPS??

Dear Mike
The sensors we had on our bikes at the Danville race proved to be a problem for some racers. They sometimes break off when you crash. I know of 3 cases of that happening. One was a friend of mine and he refused to pay the $35 they wanted for it. These sensors are used for road bike races and our new race timers probably used them in the past for that. I think it might be an even bigger problem for racers like myself who plan on doing all 4 races. Maybe taping them on would help.

Thanks. I believe they have some ankle straps availble and they can be zip tied on as well. However, the racers are responsible for the sensors and will be signing a form that designates this.
I kinda hate to do it because I'm pretty happy go lucky about things mostly, but I am going to be a hard ass about it and I will not count people who do not return the sensors in the results nor will I allow them to race future HSC events until the sensor is returned or paid for.


XC IN STAGE RACE REG??

I am a little confused. I signed my son up for the stagerace which I thought included the cross country but now I am not sure. Idont want to get there and have to sign up and pay late fees. Thanks

Hey there, - yes, if you reg'd for the stage race it includes the XC too!

This is freakin' cool

Did you see this yet? Its on the race website at www.highspeedcycling.com -- can you guess what the t's will look like? Big big thanks to Zach Williams at Red Tettemer for this cool design.Stage Race Coming SOON!

Race to the Stage Race and Festival

Seems like my stage race is actually in the day's leading up to the stage race. The prologue is over and now the main stages begin as we finish cleaning and setting the course for this coming weekend's events.

The Heimbone made the trip out on Friday to help with the course and gave poppa Kuhn a hand clearing part of the hill climb course and getting the leaf blower out on the twisty turny bits adjacent to the big field. Howdy did what is probably the final mowing of the camping areas and we're ready to set the stakes this coming week. I'm expecting the World Cup boys to come armed with various implements of destruction this Wed night to do the final cutting back of the overgrowth. Also, I got the night ITT course marked with those reflective arrows and did a test run on the XC, ITT, and Hill Climb courses.

The HC course has been slightly improved since last year with some road work on the upper dirt portions offering a few more line choices when the going gets steep and a bit of fill making the final bit on the farm slightly more manageable.

The XC and ITT courses are riding super fast right now. The trails almost seemed pavement fast due to the sunny and dry conditions we've had recently, but the front wheel definitely wants to wash out if you get off the hard packed course.

This weather keeps up and we're going to have some very fast times.

How big is it?

Some of my VisitPA.com team bubs, Hebe and Wes, came out yesterday to lend me and pops a hand with some course work. Those of you who seem to think I have too many logs on this course can thank these boys for taking a few of 'em out of your way. After we finished up the boys put in a lap on the course and Hebe's fancy dancy GPS thing said, "Wes & I doubled back on a few areas, but not much more than 1/4-1/3 of a mile. Distance was 6.59 miles. Elevation gain was 1045 ft. Thanks for dinner, that was very nice."

If we get the 90 degree + weather next weekend its looking like - Beginners - 1 lap, Sports - 2 laps, Experts 3 laps (for the most part).

6 and a halfish miles and 1000 feet of elevation per lap. I'm glad I'm not doing the endurance race.

Yummy, yum, yums

Kyle Hammaker's folks and family members do all the cookin' for the stage race weekend and use the funds they raise to help offset some of Kyle's race expenses as he travels around the country. Here is the menu for next weekend:

HOT DOGS.................1.00
BURGERS...................2.50
BAR-BQ PORK SANDWICH......3.00
CHICKEN SANDWICH..........3.50
FRENCH FRIES.............1.25
BAKED POTATOES............1.50
PASTA SALAD...............1.50

PASTA DINNER..............7.00
ANGEL HAIR PASTA W/MEATBALLS
PENNE PASTA W/ALFREDO SAUCE AND CHICKEN
served Friday and Saturday night

PANCAKE AND SAUSAGE BREAKFAST..4.00
SAUSAGE AND EGG SANDWICH.......3.50

ICY COLD DRINKS
BOTTLED WATER..........60
CANNED SODA............60
GATORADE...............1.25

Stage Race Update

A little over a week to go to the stage race and things are falling into place. If any of you have a desire to do a little course work, a few of us will be at the farm Thur and Fri this week to do some trimmin' and rakin' and markin'. Drop me an email at kuhndog1 at earthlink dot net if you wanna help out a bit.

Please remember that the only pre-riding of the course is on Wednesday evenings as part of the World Cup Ski and Cycle (Mechanicsburg, PA) group ride complete with waiver. If you want to get in on the the ride next week - or any of the rides the rest of this summer - give Lee, Dave, or Greg a call at 717-730-9402. Also be sure to tell 'em thanks for supporting this event! They rule!

VisitPA.com Team Grows

Check it out, a new VisitPA.com Team Member!! Congrats Zack and Christa!!

The view from the VUE

Coming to you live from the VUE en route to the hotel in Cleveland on the way home. This mobile internet deal is pretty sweet, no? Levi has all the cool toys.

Speaking of cool toys, forgot to mention that I grabbed some new gear for the bike for this race. I put some of those Rotor rings on the bike the other day to try and I stole Ray's old wheels from Zack. Zack doesn't have his 29er yet so he hasn't had use for the hoops. On the day I borrowed the wheels he and his wife Christa welcomed their first kid into this world -- Gavin was born on Thursday and Z won't be on his mtn bike ever again so I'll probably hang onto those wheels for safe keeping.

Got into Mannistee later yesterday afternoon and put 10 miles or so on the course. Lots of twists and turns and basically nothing else. The climbs are mostly short punchy ones which are the opposite of my favorite kind of climbs. Actually, climbs in general are the opposite of my favorite types of climbs, but these are particularly in opposition. Can't say lots of twists are turns for 100 miles are really my thing either, but we'll give 'er hell.

Ran into Ernesto on the ride fresh off his 2nd at Big Bear 24 Hour Solo last weekend. I was hoping he was actually not-so-fresh off of the effort, but he rode a solid race today...more below.

Grabbed a room for the evening. Michelle wanted to camp. Us tough guys said that we'd prefer feather beds. We settled on Super 8, which is sort of like camping inside. It was fine really, but it did not come with the choice of soft or firm pillows or the "no handguns allowed inside" sign as did our lovely Holiday Inn from night one - so we were roughing it a bit.

Early morning this AM to get to the race on time and then stood in line for one of the four port-a-johns available to racers until start time. If you don't know, port-a-john rental joints will tell you 1 toilet per 100 people per day. So, the promoter was probably about right - 400/4 = 100 --- EXCEPT that all 250 racers and their support staffers needed to visit the joints at exactly the same time this morning. Note to promoter - get some more freakin' toilets.

Race started at a nice clip and I was sitting on the back of the front group of 9, but I'm still thinking I'm not really fit enough to take chances and dig deep early so I layed off the gas and drifted back a bit. The next group caught me soon after and I did the same thing. Gaaaaahhh, I don't know, maybe I'm too concerned with the points chase and I should give it a little more early on to see if I can hang onto it and move up a few places. So now I'm riding outside the top 20 and settling in to my pace.

Turned out my pace just wasn't quite enough today and I finished outside the top 10 in about 14th (we didn't stick around to find out for sure). Levi's day ended early with a crank arm that parted ways with his bike about a lap and a half into the race. Michelle kicked some serious ass and came home in 3rd. Like I said, she's the tough one on this trip.

Just pulled into the HIXpress and I'm going to bed. Final leg of this thing tomorrow.

On the road again

Half way there and hanging near Cleveland. Did the typical 1 hour later than I planned to leave departure since we're definitely operating on KST (Kuhn Standard Time), hit a bit o' traffic on 80 - where one must question why there need be 200 foot long construction zones every 3 miles - before grabbing Michelle and smooth sailing since.

The big excitement on the trip has been the design, fabrication, and construction of a credit card retrieval system. As if the VUE isn't sucking up enough of my hard earned cash it ate my credit card not long after our departure from Allentown. In order to get it back we had to, much like that deal on pinnochio, delve into the belly of the beast to get it back. We did it the hard way first and Levi was considering pulling apart the vehicle bit by bit. Yet another triumph of duct tape.

Toaster waffles and OJ for breakfast...that's all devoured and its time to go.

Travel accommodations and breakfast for our show provided by Holiday Inn Express. Yapping provided by me.

Michigan

Leaving for MI today and the Lumberjack 100. Taking two traveling companions with me and buggin' out late this afternoon. Lots to get done before we leave, but looking forward to the trip. It has been a pretty long time since I piled in car with other bike nuts and drove some ridiculous amount of miles in order to race my bike. Looks like it'll be about a 12 hour haul to get there - half today and half tomorrow will hopefully bring us into Mannistee with time to check out a bit of the course and stretch the legs on Friday. Here goes nuthin.

Righties on this side, Lefties on that

"Sorry, I don't mean to be a complete ass (just mostly an ass), but I think this is ridiculous...with the title of "expert" should come the realization that you're there to RACE your bike, not be guaranteed a prize for finishing.

Beginner and sport level racing is for growing the sport -- that is the FUN for them. Expert level racing is for competition and getting your ass kicked so that you get faster. In expert level competition the competition and racing hard should be what is FUN!! It should be drive to push yourself harder and further than you thought you could. Expert level racing should be about facing other fit racers on the start line and giving it everything you've got to win. Expert racing should not be about showing up with expectation that just by finishing you'll get a prize or get on the podium. That is not what expert is for."

The above is a bit from an email I wrote to the other MASS promoters regarding yet another call to split expert racers up into even more categories.

Perhaps I'm annoyed because in the past two days I've spent hours and hours trying to get bikereg set up for the stage race weekend with the 32 separate categories we run in the MASS races plus the 4 enduro categories plus the stage race weekend options for a total of 2.7 million different options.

I know that it feels really great to do well and get on the podium in a race. Its been a long time since I've been anywhere near the top of a race on my own and it is really frustrating to put in time and energy and not get what you hope out of it. But, where is the satisfaction for experienced competitors in finishing 5th out of 5, or even 1st out of 5?? You put in all that hard work and then to have a result gift wrapped for you before you even start isn't very satisfying really. It also doesn't fool anyone - your friends can read between the lines. Yea, it looks nice on a resume and it might give your team more points in the team rankings, but why work so hard for something that you're guaranteed to get just for showing up? You might as well eat donuts for every meal and just ride the races to finish --- it doesn't matter at all since there is no competition. Don't you want to know that even if you got your ass handed to you that you rode harder than you thought you could and did things you didn't think you could do? That doesn't happen if you're not pushed for it.

If you're not getting satisfaction from the effort you put forth and you need external reinforcement by finishing on what amounts to a basically false podium or receiving an award then don't do this racing thing. Ride your bike and enjoy the outdoors and stay fit and healthy, but don't race for prizes.

Race for you -- not for what you might be given, but rather for what you might learn about yourself.

Did I mention...

that the date has changed for the Rocktober Challenge Marathon and it is now scheduled for Sunday September 9? The date change moves it the to day after one of my all time favorite races - the Laurel Classic in Tioga State Forest near Wellsboro - and combining the two events would make a pretty sweet late season get away weekend. It'd be tuff too. I can almost guarantee XRay will do the double. Now if I can only find a way to get to both... You can even plan your trip through these nice folks.

Stoopid is as Stoopid does

I'm pretty pumped after yesterday. Did a long 50 miles in Rothrock yesterday in the Stoopid 50 MTB Marathon. First off, the boys at Mt Nittany Wheelworks and Shenandoah Mtn Touring did another bang up job on a cool event. Them bubsers rawk. Plus it was pretty sweet to 120+ riders give this thing a go as its a new avenue for the MASS and having the riders come out and support it was beautiful. I'm hopeful we'll see similar if not larger turnouts at the rest of the MASS single lap marathons. Yes, the events are a little remotely located, but they sure are worth the drive. Thanks Chris, Frank, Jim, Harry and all the rest!!

It was a butt-kicking 50 miles with lots of beautifully made, but pain inducing singletrack -- the entire NMBA crew does a heck of a job with new trails and even the stuff that was cut recently rode pretty well. The best part of the day was catching up with a bunch of great people I'm not getting to see nearly often enough these days.

Of course my VisitPA.com teammates were there and Wes and Ray put on a great show to finish 3rd and 4th overall (taking home 1st and 2nd in the SS class at the same time). And before I go any further - congrats to Brandon and Aaron for smokin' it today! Ry would have put in a solid ride too as he was tuned up for this race, but a little house moving incident has Bubser suffering from a bad back now. Chip K was putting in some miles before taking on TransRockies and is worried that he'll now have to drag Ry's carcass all over the Canadian mountains for the week. Some of the boys from Gettysburg came up to spy on the marathon goings on in Rothrock to make sure that Michaux is still king of killing riders and Keefer ended up with a nice top 10 spot. Good to catch up a bit with Buck, Tom, and Shawn while my slave work crew at Marysville - Andy and Craig - had sweet rides too. Well, Andy did anyway with a 6th overall while Craig musta just been drinking beer. Taylord was riding great and its good to know that he's not suffering from the Freshman 15 and I'm glad to see (no-longer-quite-as) Young Nick P out riding, though with his impending departure for Boulder I guess we won't see him too much more. Of course Marc and Buddy represented and it was great to catch up with them after the goings-on. I even ran into the Henry Clan sporting some vintage Team Harrisburg gear out poaching the well marked course. I miss seeing these guys week in and week out and while I coulda hung out and run on at the mouth for hours I did ride a bit...

That part went fine. I started with a plan to not ride too hard as 100 last weekend plus 100 next weekend had me a bit concerned and I just wanted to have fun on this one. I was riding very comfortably in 6th or 7th about 2 hours in when things started to deflate. My Watch Them Blow tires and tubes let me down for the last time with a slow leak. I rode it for a bit while chatting with Keefer and then stopped to change it. The brand new tube went in and promptly came right back out as it already had a hole in it. Back in goes the original and I pump 'er up as hard as I can get it. Another 5 minutes on the bike finds Scott, Dave, and Linda Henry hanging out at their truck and so I stopped to see if they had a floor pump. We chatted a bit while I re-inflated. I rolled out and not two minutes later was in aid station 2 (DOH!). I then probably looked pretty stoopid as I completely deflated what appeared to be a perfectly good tube and changed it AGAIN.

By this time I've moved entirely into fun mode and ride the next couple hours with a few hard efforts here and there, but also hanging a bit with Taylor and Topher and a few other folks. I took some breaks here and there and in general reveled in a gorgeous day in the woods. Don't get me wrong, more than one time I came around a corner to see more and more rocks stretching to the horizon and mumbled unseemly things about the Stoopid course and its designers as I was certainly lacking flow and mo' on the rocks. But, I don't think I over exerted for next weekend which was the main goal. I'll put in a couple efforts on Monday and Tuesday and then taper into the weekend...we'll see I guess. Next up -- more HSC event news!

Not the way an athlete wants to go

Who knew Icy Hot could kill you.