In order to begin the story of camping and racing at Ponca, NE one has to start Thursday night and rather uneventful TNR. Tranquility was the place, It was hot and humid  and quite windy. Recent heavy rains have made  some erosion progress on the prairie portion of the course.  On the south decent I heard a pop  in back of the bike but proceed to ride it for about another 10 seconds. Until Jeremy yelled at me to stop and check the wheel. I though it I have broken several spokes but no this was the end result.

What a bummer not only I had to walk with bike for about  mile  I had no ride for Saturday’s race.  Trek Omaha and Chris Wolff came to the rescue. After begging, pleading and bribing Chris I walked away with replacement bike for Saturday, not just any bike but pretty sweet top fuel 9.8 Everyone’s comment was so you going to ride 26 inch bike.   Well it might be small wheels but it is a lot faster than me running for 3 hours so yeah I had bike  to race.  The only bad thing I could see were the stock tires, not exactly best choice for tacky trails. This would prove to be an issue on first couple of laps. Megan and I piles our stuff into the car and went on camping. Feagans, Larry and his kids, and Bergrmans were already there.  Jesse was pimping sweet new carbon cannondale.  After good dinner we went to bed.

Saturday I had to get up early and make sure the small wheels  bike was set up right. Heck I even went for ride, and it was interesting. I had to figure out how to climb on this sucker as it’s careful act of balancing your body to much of a forward lean and your back wheel will start spinning out, too much back weight on the front end would start bouncing like it was possessed.  I think I got the basics of how this worked. We lined up for marathon and the gun went off I  believe I was in 5th place into the single track, That was pretty much the only time I saw Ryan as well…bummer.  The trail  was  still slick  so first climb I spun out and got passed by 2 guys. Then on the super slick roots part I spun out again and got passed again.. At that point I was both a) cussing at the bike b) apologizing  to the people behind me for messing up their momentum.  Quick run up the  hill and I was set. I think Roxy was laughing at my constant cussing for about 3-4 minutes.  We got to top of the climbs and it was time to make up the gap. Surprisingly  everyone was less than 10 seconds ahead of me.  What the hell? I though I  would be at least 20-30 seconds down, I guess people were not really taking advantage of the donwhills to get gaps opened up. When we came out of the woods I made up 4 places and was  back sitting in 5th or 6th place with Roxy right behind me. The pool climb would ensue I passed 2 more guys and was sitting in rd place behind Shaun from Lincoln, at the feed zone I rode by him and was not in second. He grabbed my wheel and asked me where was Ryan, I said I have not idea.  At next lap I would gain on him on the climbs and he would close the distance on the descends( yup he was on the 29er)  Eventually I pulled away from him, and to be honest with you didn’t really see anyone except for Anne, and   top of cat 1/2 group on their first lap. I had no idea what the gaps were, I knew Ryan is probably smiling and posing for anyone with a camera in hand.  I knew there were still some people behind me who could close the gap so I maintained solid tempo.

The most memorable part of the ride was Nate passing me and asking for permission to pass. Small wheels and Metal Kit must of thrown him off, from what I understand Nate, Jesse and Scott were treated with some lead on way to town.

At the end of lap 8, Roxy passed me on the pool climb, I asked here if she knew what the gaps  were. She didn’t know, then it was over I came in second place.   The bike handled great for most part, it climbs  like a mountain goat  and  it is pretty compliant for smaller wheels size,  once again thank you for letting me borrow that bike for day, Trek Omaha hooked me up fat that’s why they are  top shop in town in my opinion . Thank you Megan for being awesome support side kick that was sweet I think I might of stopped for total of 1-2 minutes.  Most importantly  thanks local volunteers that worked on the trail and made it super fun for us city slicker.    Congrats to MOD and Chris Wolff on good finishes. MOD dropped chain 3 times and still finished second in cat 1 race. wow

That night we drank beer and eat smores we watch night sky without any ambient light present. It was great.  I’m off to chicago this friday for some single night out with some friend. Not before THOR FUNdraiser Thursday night.

First of the promoters of dirty kanza joel and Jim are top notch dudes who know how to put on a great event. 3 of us, EB, JP and I left Omaha Friday midday to venture to flint hills of Kansas. The spirits were high so was the wind and the temperature a little bit of foreshadowing of events that would unfold the next day. The Nebraska crew was pretty strong this year with 6 people from Omaha and about 10 from Lincoln. That’s accounts for about ten percent of the field sweet. The talk was about the weather and many people from GLGA were present. Sean was sweet mountain feed bag which I immediately borrowed. We  called it a early night  and got ready for the grind.

The alarm went of at 4:10 in the morning and we were all started getting ready  for day ahead.  Around 5:15 am we rolled out with the Lincoln crew to the start race. The race kicked off to with police escort  out of town. First gravel road and the pace picked up and I found myself in lead group of about 40 people. Sitting on the back of the group spinning it up.   Eventually the pace was picked up and I  settled into nice state of mind.   I really didn’t know many people I rode with for long time I road wit 3 guys from colorado, including  mike beck. Super awesome dudes.  At some point around mile 20 I so EB changing a tire and about 5 minutes later I saw troy krause fixing his bike. I thought he only had a flat  I didn’t know he crashed.   I had to pullover soon after to fix my  water cage as it rattled itself loose.  Eventually Scott Bigelow  pulled up next to me and rode together until checkpoint one. Scott is super fun to ride with we rode together last year.   Checkpoint one was pretty fast stop. Fill out bottles and we rolled out . We road together for super long time after that, until enemy of all single speeds attacks slightly downhill flats. I just couldn’t spin out  and after i looked down and saw 25 mph I decided to let Scott go. Lesson number one ride your own race. Indeed, that’s true. I didn’t manage water to well this time and I ran out with 5 miles to go before checkpoint 2.  I’ve made one attempt  to get water from the farmers house. It would be my luck  to find a house with no one in it.  Luckily some guy from Kc. offered me some water couple miles down. At that point things were looking good. I was motoring averaging 16 mph, stomach was good legs were good.

I pulled to second checkpoint, to see troy krause  smiling  and drinking cola  red bull, that bastard has been holding out.  At the checkpoint I was informed that I was second single speed to check in. I knew there was  gap between rest of the single speeds. I took good 30 minutes  to recover. Talked to MG and Fob took my shoes of and let my feet relax.   Eventually I rolled out from the second checkpoint and headed  toward Alma and epic lil Egypt road.  Weirdly enough I saw the number one single speed guy  and we pulled each other for quite sometime. Eventually he took off and i settled into grind again.

Watching road racing you see people crack all the time. On tv it happens  in couple of minutes and you see them  just slowdown a bit. The real life and endurance racing is bit different, it happens slowly and it’s obvious when it happens somewhat slows down noticably and swerving does occur.  Eventually you pass them  and you know that there is nothing to for them.  I noticed a lot of people just slowing down and stopping.  While the temp hovered around 87 degrees and nice cloud cover was  welcome sign.  I passed leading single speed guy and was in first.   At that point I was feeling great and just motoring.   At mile 120 I entered  lil egypt road, yes it takes just as long as  walk as it does to ride. Scott the guy who won single speed actually managed to ride up the hill but then stopped to recover.   Yes at that point him and Adam passed me I was in 3rd.  Then just like that  sun came out and temp jumped to 95-96 degrees  that was about mile 129. With ten miles to go and 2 water bottles I though I was set. Well I  my body decided otherwise and I wasn’t the only one.   This is the only race I’ve been to where I’ve seen  people on side of the roads resting.  Crazy….

My body was getting pretty worked from the high heat and humidity.  The speed slowed way down. At some point along some hill there was about 5 people standing at the shade looking at each other, I was one of them, so was scott and jason from salsa.  I knew it was damage control  time. The plan was to drag myself int to alma, recover and proceed.  During one of the downhill I was starting  to see double and my hearing was getting somewhat bad. I think I knew at that point there would be not miles after 140.   My core temp was super high and after 4 24 oz bevs some ice cream I knew it would be straight up dangerous to continue on, as I sweated all the liquid right out meaning my body was too hot.   I told Adam and Scott good luck.  They looked strong and I knew at that point that both of them finished.   Rest of time at Alma I spend getting stuff for people who wanted to continue, Aaron Gammel looked great, so did everyone  who went on.  Lesson number 2 it’s hard to say no more.

I was pretty disappointed in calling it but I knew I gave it my best calling it  quits while being in top 3 was pretty hard. Now to things that did work. Kenda Kommando tires, slime tubes and 65 psi gave no flats awesome.  Nutrition was solid  i had no stomach issue. Perpetum and Sustained energy worked great.  I still don’t know how much water is enough I don’t know if that was just combination of  things  that lead to  my spectacular shelling.  96 oz should of been enough.  I don’t know for sure.  I’ve met some cool people and rode some  sweet country side.  This was probably the hardest day on bike I ever had it also made me determined to comeback next year to finish this sucker, and to challenge Scott  and Adam for some singles speeds.

I would like to thank Gammel family for bringing  me back to Emporia.  Sean for letting me borrow  his bag ( I will be getting one those bags ).  Big props to Corey for winning (Corey you inspire me to ride harder),  and for Troy to continue on and rallying into 8th place, you might be okay even if you do hold out on nd red bull cola  The biggest props go to Scott and Aaron for finishing. I’m  very happy for those two guys.

Well Swanson race came and went. It was perfect conditions for the race. I did line up at start line of marathon event. I didn’t know how to the events will unfold. There was a lot of experience in first row all seasoned endurance riders Cornbread, MG, and the little mustachio buddy EB. Throw in couple of of cat 1 guys in mix and you have pretty steep competition. I really didn’t have great  expectations, I knew  I would do better than  bone bender as I didn’t spend day before building earthen structures.  I also knew in order to even see top guys you have to go pretty hard for first couple of laps.  (Side note when Ryan says the course will  be in perfect condition he means it will be perfect at  12 pm not at 10 am) First lap as pretty fast and greasy I managed to slide out maybe 1 minute after EB went Big Toes up on greasy corner.  Order  of things settled I think I was in 7th place.   And more importantly 2nd place in self proclaimed stache prime.  After first lap I passed two guys and I was in 5th place 30 seconds behind EB.  The laps turned and positioning didn’t change, I passed Ryan Atkinson on 5th lap and got passed by some dude flying swoobo jersey. I  wanted to be be as far from the woods as possible when cat 1 race started. Mission accomplished.   Kent was the first one to pass me up and then out of nowhere MOD pulled like minute behind him, wow that was out of nowhere, what was even more surprising is the fact that after mark Came through there was no one else for about 30-45 seconds, wow dude impressive.  It  got close to 3 hour mark  I think I made the cut off by 4-5 minutes. The judge said you have time for one more, without hesitation I threw all my gels and electrolyte containers out and proceeded to  to go out for one more lap. The sense of urgency quickly disappeared as I saw the guy who was about minute  back sit up and look at his watch, yup that’s all the clues I needed he was done and chance of anyone coming behind him were pretty much nil. I did a slow cool down lap talked to some people jumped my bike. Wondered where the hell is brunt but pretty much put in the slowest lap of the day  just chilling.  After I got past the finish line I was informed that yes mr. modest, Corey has indeed won the category. Brunt flatted and MG had some issues with digestion. That put me in fourth or maybe fifth, sweet bacon sweet bacon indeed. Not bad for going against pretty much all cat 1 guys.

Congrats on the win Corey, Kent, Joshua  and on 2nd place for single speeding MOD. Later that night we drank beer and talked about bikes and shredded  some rock band guitars. Good times. Sunday MK and made our wish list. Who knew it was such long ordeal. Not me..

Photo courtesy of Heather Wolf

Some of you know how much I like twin six stuff . They make cool looking gear and sweet shirt…  In addition too  MCC I will be proud to fly Twin Six flag for 2010.   I’m looking forward to representing both this year.

Just like George Harrison album the xc racing season for me is over.   This last weekend was last race of psychopath series at Manawa. I decided to ride 2 races, Cat3 and Single speed.  If I knew two guys from Norfolk wouldn’t show up I would most likely ride marathon, oh well I didn’t know that until the registration closed.     The race for Cat 3 was pretty uneventful  like always 1/2 lap was pretty hot and then it was just  riding out the rest. I slowed down quite a bit and probably talked to Smithy and Jim from Lincoln for about a lap good solid pace.   The only high point of the race was me playing Ben Hur with some guy from35 + category on one of the open spots. First place in race locked up the series. I guess I have to move up next year.

For the single speed I got to demo trek 69er single speed. There really wasn’t much time for me to relax I had to put the pedals on the 69er and  figure out how to make 17.5 frame work for me.  Benefit of having large frames  is the fact you get longer seat post, this wasn’t optimal fit but I was going to make it work.  The race started and it was obvious that I was under geared 32-16 was not enough,everyone left me in dust. While the 69er bike was working really well in tight spots in Manawa the maverick fork (maybe I just didn’t have it setup right, that is possible) is pretty much a piece of shit, I have no idea why would you buy that fork i mean really.  I managed to pass couple of people in my category but at start of lap 3 I knew that  I wasn’t going to catch the guy in front of me and no one was going to pass me on single speed.  Afterwords bunch of people went to guaca maya and had some Mexican food and it was good

So all and all it was pretty good year for racing

• meet some cool people
• will get to race for free next year
• rode 140 miles of Nebraska gravel
• had a PBR in black hills

What’s happening next year more riding for sure. What will it involve? Probably new bike for road and mtb. More endurance rides, sweet wedding of mine, honey moon, bacon rides.  Stayed tuned @pedal-omaha for Greasy Gravel  Grinders coming near gravel road near you in November as well as Around the Bend meet up with the Lincoln crew.

Let just say that drive to south Dakota is long and laborious process which takes some time. There drive is pretty boring and windy, it was long and uneventful 8 hours in car.    When we got to the Spearfish city campground the Omaha/Lincoln crew were just guarding the flame.  The campground itself is pretty sweet plush grass next to creek showers close to the start.  Sweet bacon.  We setup a tent and went to bed.   Saturday I everyone was going to pre-ride the course, that was after some sweet coffee and b-fast bagels from common grounds coffee house.   One of the coolest things was riding out 10 people plus out of the campground to ride the course, that was pretty sweet i believe we were a posse.   And then there was climbing and more climbing and some more climbing on top of that. It was good eye opener for Sunday.  But it was good times  rest of the day was spend eating and waiting for food and butter at local eateries.

Sunday was race time, I said good luck to all the fast cats and proceed to get to the mid pack of riders. I wasn’t in contention for anything and it would be easier to pass people on the long climb then  go balls out.   That plan worked pretty good I said passed most of the single speed contingent from Nebraska and settled for solid pace. The only one I didn’t see was Showen who apparently was pretty thirsty as he sprinted to checkpoint for some beers.   As the saying does what goes up must come down and the  first climb was rewarded with some sweet open meadows and some awesome downhill fire roads. It was good times. I saw Megan and Anne at checkpoint #1 and #2 and I was just cruising along.  There were couple of hike a bike section as riders were still bunched together pretty well.  It was pretty uneventful until checkpoint #4 and the long climb, which must be going for over a mile it’s not that it’s steep but it’s just sooo freaking long and gets fairly technical 2/3rd up. Like Roxy said the thing is once you get knocked off the line you have to hike a bike to the top… Well that’s what happened I rode to the rocks and then just proceeded to hike bike… the reward for climbing that sucker is a can of PBR .   That might of been a mistake on my part.  I slammed my beer down and proceeded to super sketchy descent followed by limestone road with no shade anywhere to be seen, PBR was taking it’s toll I slowed way the hell down until i reached the single track again.  Single track and the shade gave me the second wind and I manage to get myself together and pick up the pace.. Final time 5:27 which was ahead of my estimate of 5:45 hours.  the trail reminded me a lot of the rainbow trail.   Congrats to Mod, Roxy Lucas and Dave from Lincoln for dominating  the course you guys were riding really strong.

I’m going back next year. For sure. Couple of things. No pics from me

• Seedhouse 3 is pretty sweet tent
• No Pbr for me at hobo camp
• stop at only two checkpoint instead of three
• Ride a bit faster now that I know the layout of the course
• 29er and tubeless is the way to ride this course it’s rocky enough where big wheels give you advantage

P.S. I didn’t know  at the time until after this chick was on my wheel until checkpoint 1. I obviously had no idea who she was…

P.P.S. pic from MOD