29inches

Taylor Brooks Foundation

We wear the gold ribbon in support of children with cancer

Vassago Cycles has teamed up with Dirty Spokes to support the Taylor Brooks Foundation. We at Vassago Cycles are very passionate about childhood cancer and raising awareness to an amazing foundation that does not receive half the research funds it needs. It has become a mission we are proud to be part of.

Vassago Cycles has donated a frame that will be raffled between now and October 11th, 2008 at the Dirty Spokes 12/6 Hour Mountain Bike Race - Georgia International Horse Park, Conyers, Ga (ALL proceeds from the raffle go to the Taylor Brooks Foundation). Raffle tickets are $10.00 and can be purchased through the Dirty Spokes web site.

We urge you to read the story of mountain bike racer Jeff Brooks and his wife. their daughter lost her fight against cancer on April 1, 2008.

We wish the Brooks family all the best and our thoughts are with you.

Last weekend I completed my first 12 hour race of the season and experienced parts of Tsali that I had not ridden before in the process. Here’s how it went. This race started at 11am on Saturday morning so I opted to skip the social Friday night camping and sleep in my own bed. After a good nights sleep I woke up around 6am and drove to the starting area. My Teammate Brian Archer and his family/friends had already set up the tent and were gracious enough to allow me some room at the supply table close to starting area and in the shade. I quickly set up and hiked my bike up the road to the gate here I would eventually be picking it up after the LeMans start. However, I didn’t get it past the gate, and this was the first of four rules I managed to break during the first 2 hours of the race.

The race started a few minutes after 11am and I quickly found my heart rate rising as I ran approx. a quarter of a mile up the road to find that my bike wasn’t where I left it. I continued to run another 25 yards or so and found my bike in the road waiting for me. The LeMans start actually worked as planned and broke up the front pack fairly well. I finished my first of 10, planned 11 mile loops and returned to the staging area where I was supposed to dismount at the orange line and walk through the taped area. I overshot the tape by about 4 feet and the fine young gentleman who was helping out asked me to return to the line and walk through again. I did. (Second rule broken). I quickly picked up another water bottle ate a gel and started # 2.

Lap two went well and my legs and lungs were feeling good. I knew I needed to pace myself due to the lack of riding I’ve been able to do since the Winter. I realized the week of this race that I hadn’t ridden a ride longer than 4 hours since participating in the Dragon’s Back the month before. I had been riding shorter interval rides and some 2 hour tempo rides due to my work and family schedule. Weekends have been held to 3 to 4 hour rides and knew this would eventulally catch up with me no matter how strong I felt starting. At the end of lap two I broke my third rule. I was heading towards my tent to pick up another bottle when some sreamed at me for being on the wrong side of the cones. Riders are supposed to stay on t he right. My tent was on the left. (I broke this rule every lap but after lap two I waited until I was closer to the tent). I ate, grabbed a bottle and started another.

As I started lap 3, I realized Brian had a few minutes on me and I used this to motivate me to keep up a good pace. I caught him quickly, but not because I was riding faster. As I was heading down one of the two semi-technical sections of the course a stick was sucked up between my cassette and spokes, locking my rear wheel and bringing me to a quick stop. As I stood there trying to pull the wedged wood from my wheel I looked up a saw Brian about five feet ahead of me looking for his eye (Not literally, he lost a contact and was trying to get it back in as about a dozen riders squeezed between us while navigating the trail. He eventully found his eye and used it to assist me with getting my bike back up to speed. This would be the last and only mechanical I would have in the race. Once again, the Vassago frame, White Brothers Rigid fork, Bike29 built wheels and WTB parts carried me through another full day of riding in the same dependable fashion they did last season. Oh yeah, at the end of lap 3 I broke my 4th rule. I had my mp3 player on and was asked to take it off. I managed to do the right thing for the remainder of the race. Sorry, for the all the mishaps. They want happen again….

Laps 4 through 8 were uneventful and blended together the way they do in all these “hamster wheel” races. However, I enjoyed this course. It was well marked, dry, fast and became more and more challenging as the hours ticked by. This course was divided into several different sections, each a little different in it’s own way. This assisted with decreasing the monotony as the laps added up. I was also able to chat with and meet many riders lap after lap. Some much more serious than others. The course cleared up tremendously after the 6 hour riders finished and the night laps were quiet and peaceful.

I finished lap 8 around 9:30pm and by this time I had realized that I didn’t have 2 more laps in me. I would have to settle for 9 of the planned 10 and hoped I could get motivated enough to do this. My legs and body were tired, but my mind was awake and trying to convince them to keep going. I stopped and ate some food and checked the postings. After realizing another lap would make a difference in where I finished, I parked the rigid 1×9 Bandersnatch and left on the Jaberwockey SS for my 9th and final lap at 10:15. Finishing up in 6th Place, Solo Open Male and 11th Overall, with a little over 99 miles and 9 hours and 41 minutes of actual riding time.

This was a well organized race and a pleasure to participate in. Thanks to the promoters for the work they put into this event. Congratulations to Chris Janiszewski 1st Place Solo Open w/12 laps, Danielle Musto 1st Place Solo Open Female w/11 laps, and Eli Geske 1st Place Solo Open SS w/10 laps. Congratulations also to teammate Brian Archer who finished 3rd in the Open SS class w/8 laps. (Both, Eli and Brian were riding Vassago’s OptimusTi SS).

On Saturday April 5th I met fellow teammate Jeremy Arnold (www.goatandabandersnatch.blogspot.com) in Craig County Virginia for the hardest “bike ride” I’ve ever done. We met the evening of the 5th for some dinner at Olive Garden and talk of riding the much anticipated Dragon’s Back XXC race. We quickly ate and went back to the hotel. The rain started as I checked in and continued for the remainder of the night. The sticky mud that this produced on the forest roads would eventually lead to my downfall. After check in, I went upstairs for a good nights sleep. Luckily, I was upstairs away from bash that was occurring downstairs, approximately 50 feet from the Arnold’s front door. After one of us got a good nights sleep we packed up and headed for the forest.

We quickly checked in, chatted with Kris and Misty of Vassago as we got our gear together and then lined up for what would be the hardest race I’ve ever done. Here’s where I should thank the female who pointed out that my bike was the prettiest bike she had ever seen. I must say, I agree. That pink Bandersnatch is a pretty bike and it stayed that way for the first 30 or 40 seconds of the race. Anyway, I’m not sure if that’s the kind of thing you want pointed out at the starting line of a XXC race in front of a bunch of macho male mtn bike riders. There were approximately 50 riders in our class who lined up to start the race and fortunately, non of them made any comments (that I could hear). From my understanding, 13 of these racers DNF’d. That’s a pretty high percentage and instead of giving you a play by play of my ride I’m going to tell you why I thought about joining that group of riders on more than one occasion.

This was the most technical course I’ve ever ridden. The 36 miles seemed like 66 and the 8,000 feet of climbing was continuous. There wasn’t much down time or time to recover. The hills were steep, the mud was deep and the rolling hills on the ridgeline were covered in sharp, jagged, moving rocks. As if the rocks and mud weren’t enough, they were covered with leaves that were sometimes so deep that your feet would be buried on your downstroke. Approximately 5 of the 35 miles of the race was not ridden but pushed and this was often in piles of leaves that would come up to your knees. Did I mention that the mud was so tacky that it almost pulled my shoes off my feet when I was walking to the tent to sign up for the race. This is what several sections of the first 3 or 4 mile climb was covered with. Finally, there was the fog. On the ridgline, which was approx. 9 miles long, the fog was so thick that it was sometimes impossible to look more than 15 feet ahead and pick a line. In fact ,when you combined this with the leaves it often made it difficult to distinguish where the trail was. I got lost once and had to hike back up the mountain to find the trail again. Get the picture yet…..

I rolled across the finish line 5 hours and 37 minutes after the start in 24th place. Mentally and physically, I dropped out of this race about 4 hours before that. At that point, I decided to just enjoy the ride as much as I could and try to finish the course. This race turned out to be the most challenging “ride” I have ever completed. It took my body two weeks to fully recover and my ego is still in the process.

This race was well organized and had a grass roots feel that I always enjoy. The course was well marked and the volunteers were great. Congratulations to the First place Female, Michelle Co and the First place Male, Shawn Altizer. Michelle finsihed in 6:10 and Shawnin 4:09. Fellow teammate, Jeremy Arnold finished in 18th place about 17 minutes before I did (on a SS). Great job guys.

If any of you are looking for a race that will challenge you more mentally and physically than the ORAMM, the SWANK, or the 24 Hours of Pisgah, try this one next year…..

Those 26 days have past, the temperatures are rising and the racing season is about to start. In two weeks I’ll be heading to Virginia with teammate Jeremy Arnold to race my first race of the season, the Dragon’s Back. This will be a 35 mile race consisting of forest road climbs and technical singletrack. Last years 37 mile course was won in 4 hours and 47 minutes. That’s about 7.5 miles per hour. Not your average groomed XC Race course average speed.

This week I find myself training for this race on a road bike in Litchfield, SC. I always enjoy the break from the mountain riding when I come here to ride, and this week is no different. It’s not often I get to ride 8 out of 10 days and better yet, it’s even less often that my body will hold up to ride 8 out of 10 days. That’s the beauty of riding a road bike on the coast. I’ve been able to ride multiple miles and control the fatigue by rotating, distance, intervals and tempo rides with recovery rides. I find it more difficult to do this in Asheville due to the terrain and the urge to ride a SS on trails when given the opportunity to choose.

Anyway, I don’t know if training for a technical mountain bike race with multiple climbs, in the flatlands, on a road bike, is a good idea, but we’ll find out in 2 weeks. In the meantime, I have two more days of riding in the flatlands with gears. Tune in after the Dragon’s Back to see how things turned out.