Schaeffer 4/30/08

Did a quick ride with Chris and Edward. We swept through Schaeffer pretty much non-stop, except for the once we tried to fix the shifting problem Ed had with his Cannondale.

This was probably the first time I rode 10 miles without drinking even one drop.

Ren Chengyuan （任成远）

2008 Nissan UCI Mountain bike World Cup 2nd stage Offenburg (4/27/08)- with a bloody nose, Chengyuan Ren made to the podium. Source: UCI

HMC/Schaeffer 4/26/08

The 32x16 gearing seemed to work well for me in Schaeffer so I'm keeping it for now. The ride was fun and relaxed with multiple mechanical and physiological stops, ended up with 20 miles or so. Photo credit: Nocro.

Shed Ride 4/24/08

Climb up the rutty trail near Crystal pond, turn left, up and down a few trail-side rocks, there is a short but fun new cut loop on the right hand side.

Ren Chengyuan （任成远）

Mountain bike World Cup : China took victory and leader jersey
Date: 21.04.2008
Description:

Putting in a sensational finish, Ren Chengyuan took out her second consecutive win at Houffalize. Even the World Champion, Topeak Ergon rider Erina Kalentieva (2nd) and Marie Helène Prémont (3rd) were powerless in the face of Chengyuan’s fiery finish.

Source: UCI

More From The Race

I worked on the bikes the night before, adjusted brakes, lubed the chains, cleaned the rear hub on the Vicious, and etc. I brought both rigid SS bikes to the race, one geared at 32x16 and one at 32x18. Although I didn't have to change the bike , I did switched the front wheels after the first lap.

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8 am Saturday morning, I packed up everything and headed towards the farm. It was a beautiful morning, bright sunshine and cool breeze. Met David, Todd, and Liz on the same ferry boat. Everyone was in high spirit and ready for the race. Liz ended up with impressive 13 laps in 11:17:10 in SS Female category.

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The SSOFT, Dave G. and Shannon, Todd and David all set up their tents adjacent to each other. Every time I rode by, I got friendly cheered on.

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The boys on Tim's team (THE SCARLET LETTERMEN) were riding flat pedals but still pulled some fast laps. They totaled 18 laps in 3-person male category. Both Denis and Edward produced 12 laps in their solo endeavor.

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Single speed rigid is fun, but after long hours riding, I started to wish I had a front fork.

17 Laps

I arrived at the farm around 0840, went ahead and got my packet and marking. A few minutes later Chris pulled in. We set up the camp site together with Tim's team, did some last minute wrenching, and at 1100 the race started. Chris went first and we alternated every lap. About 30 minutes into my first lap I had a flat. Once I got back to the camp site I slapped on a tubeless front wheel, and never had any mechanical since.

Chris pulled some fast low 30 minutes laps and I did high 30 minutes. Half time passed we were on the teams 11th lap. When the lights turned on things started to slow down. We ended up with 17 laps and called it a day to enjoy pizza and bluegrass music.

The GPS trace looks horrible and I believe that's because of its smart recording. The unit simply doesn't have enough memory to handle long rides. Chris' is here (his first lap wasn't recorded).

Overall, I only had one flat, one OTB endo, and a couple out of pedal slips. I can live with that.

[Update 4/21/2008: Results are in] 17 laps, 12:07:54 total time.
1: 39:17 39:17
2: 48:34 1:27:51
3: 33:27 2:01:17
4: 37:24 2:38:40
5: 34:30 3:13:09
6: 38:52 3:52:01
7: 36:51 4:28:51
8: 40:01 5:08:51
9: 37:42 5:46:32
10: 41:36 6:28:08
11: 36:47 7:04:55
12: 38:42 7:43:37
13: 38:37 8:22:13
14: 43:05 9:05:18
15: 54:37 9:59:54
16: 1:19:02 11:18:56
17: 48:59 12:07:54

Two Days Before Race

The Baker's Dozen is on Saturday. I changed the gearing to 32x16 because from what I have heard the race course is quite flat, with only a few of very short steep climb. Having tried the 2.0 gain ratio in Schaeffer for two days straight, I found it was actually not too bad and most likely doable for this race. Once the race is over I'll be back to 32x18, though. No point to over-stress my knees.

Tomorrow will be a resting day. I'll do some shopping and get the supplies ready.

Schedule and race rules from the organizer:

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Schedule

Friday April 18

12:00 Noon - Venue opens for camping and pre-riding. The gates will be shut and locked until Noon, please do not come before. We will need to have the area clear to complete race preparation.

5:00-8:00 pm - Packet Pickup. Each registered rider must be present to pick up their own packets. We will also be marking the racers at this time.

11:00 pm - All generators, radios, etc must be turned off.

Saturday April 19

8:00-10:00 am - Packet Pickup. Each registered rider must be present to pick up their own packets. We will also be marking the racers at this time.

10:45 am - Pre race meeting

11:00 am - Leesburg Bakers Dozen starts

3:00 pm - Leesburg Bakers Dozen Kids Races are under way

11:00 pm - Pizza's begin arriving

12:00 pm - No more riders are permitted to start a lap. All riders on course will be able to complete their laps.

12:45 - 1:00am - Race awards ceremony around the Bonfire's


Racer Rules

No Cheating - We hope to provide a fun and healthy environment with good clean competition. We are racing on the honesty policy. You as riders will be policing yourselves. Please do not be "that guy" who cheats, cuts the course, uses a motor, etc.

You will be permitted to transition at your campsite. We will have a transition area at the start finish area, but you are not required to transition there.

Riders will be using the championchip timing equipment. Each team will be given an RFID chip. When making rider changes, the chip must be removed from the retiring riders' ankle and attached to the new riders' ankle.

Please ensure that when you cross the pads at the timing station, you keep your ankle in the down position and listen for a series of audible beeps.
This means your chip has been picked up.

No riders except registered racers will be permitted on the course. We had a few instances last year of unregistered riders poaching the race, including one person who suffered a broken collarbone. This not only endangers you as riders, but the race itself. As a racer, it is your responsibility to ensure that none of your crew, supporters, friends and/or family is on the course on a bicycle. If we find that a member of your group has illegally ridden course, your team will be docked with a 2 lap penalty. On a second offense, you will be disqualified and asked to leave the venue immediately. Also, if the offending rider is part of a group of teams, the same rules will apply to ALL the teams the offender is associated with. Your crew, supporters, friends and/or family are welcome to ride the course on Friday, Saturday before 10:00am, or anytime Sunday.

All on course racers must have three things: a race number on their bike, a championchip on their ankle, and the race markings on their calves.

If you leave the course, whether on the trail or through the camping areas, you or your teammate must reenter the trail at the same spot. If your team is transitioning at your campsite, the new rider must reenter course at same spot as retiring rider exited the course.

Make sure you enjoy yourselves.

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Shed Ride 4/13/08

Denis and I did many miles of fine Shed ride today (his computer wasn't working right, and I didn't even bring mine along). We started from the Hamburg lot, headed north via the right side trail, struggled through the Enchanted Forest/Tim's trail, little Canaan, flew down Fishing Creek, turned right on Mountaindale, ground up Death March, toured Super Sweet, crossed the Gambrill Park road, climbed up and went to the 4-way near Thurmont overlook, turned left, crossed the Gambrill Park road again, turned right at the 3-way, down and crossed fishing creek to blue, played in that huge rock garden a little :), climbed up to the pond, dropped down Crystal Clear, crossed Delauter Rd, followed the blue, took the freeride cut, then climbed the right side back to Hamburg lot. Three and half hour total time.

We even timed the trip from 15 to Hamburg. Apparently, from rt 40 exit to hamburg is 10 miles, and Hamburg to Rosemont exit is only about 8.1 miles. Both route took around 15 minutes.

Photo credit: Denis.

Schaeffer Time Trial - White Loop

I was curious to see what the past winter had done to me so I attempted the time trial again today. I didn't feel myself riding strong, but was able to keep pedaling without unclip. The result was 0:18:48, slower than the previous 0:18:25 on 7/29/2007 or 0:18:10 on 7/14/2007. It looks like continuous riding throughout the winter didn't really help me to improve, speed-wise.

The new Juicy brakes worked great. The pads still need to be broken-in, though.

2008.04.16 update: 0:17:45 with 32x16 gearing on the Vicious.

More on Disc Cogs

Finally I got an email from Firebird today said the cogs were ready to be shipped. One extra 18t was made as the machine shop was probably testing out the tools and everything. Anyway, can't wait to see them. The cogs will end up being more expensive than the Boone's, but they bear my personalized inscriptions :). Pictures will follow once they arrive.

Shed and Gambrill Ride - 4/10/08

Sunny 70F, perfect weather to ride. Five of us started from Hamburg lot as usual and headed south, went all the way to the Gambrill tea room and back via lawn mower, logged in ~15 miles. The reroute near the pond was a fun addition, thanks to David and the MORE trailwork crew. We missed Andy and hopefully he will be back on board soon.

I was still having a little trouble with shifting, even with the new X.O. medium cage installed. I start to suspect maybe the cassette also needs to go. [update 04/14/08: It was the B-screw, apparently 6 mm is not the best clearance for the setup. I adjusted it to around 8 mm, problem went away.]

Jack and Rob attacking the Gambrill rocky climb:

Ride9.net

"We just don't have that much to prove." - Br1zn

SS @ GB

Rode the Vicious at Greenbrier today with a big group - big mistake. The 32x18 gearing is a little too tall, and the bike just did feel right on rocks. Next time going back to GB I'll be on my 1x1 with 32x22.


brizn on shaky tree from Kro Li on Vimeo.

******

Need to get the geared bike ready for tomorrow's Shed ride. A new derailleur was delivered on Friday.

Casualties of 3/21 Watershed Battle

The battle against rock has claimed its price.

Killed:
Derailleur hanger (KIA)
Rear derailleur (bent plates, broken jockey wheels, L limit screw, cage stop screw)
Chain (multiple nicks and frozen links)

Wounded:
Cassette (re-shaped some teeth with a Dremel)
Rear QR (Bent it back straight on a vise)

Schaeffer Trailwork 3/30/08

I then did a post work ride in Schaeffer with Aaron, Brian, and Mike. Towards the end I managed to crash and bend the Vicious fork dropout, had to take out the front rotor with Aaron's help in order to ride back to the parking lot.