Is There Anybody Out There

This message proves I read the bike blog. If anyone is reading me please write something on the blog.

What's Next? Trailer 2 from Aaron Larocque on Vimeo.

If you're not excited for this, you should be.

So, as I continue to read posts about the ORAMM, I realized we haven't posted any pictures in a while. The one above is off Curtis Creek, the race's biggest climb. Nine, count 'em nine miles of gravel road climbing a few thousand feet from Old Fort to the Parkway. It comes about midway through the course, and yes, it is going to really, really hurt.





We do eventually get some reward though; we get to ride down Heartbreak. See the huge ridgeline, yup, that's the one. It will be a highlight.

There is also another Wilson name on the registration list, local legend Pat Hurley is doing the ORAMM on a rigid steel 69er with an ovalized head tube. Makes me feel like a cheater. I'll be loving my suspension fork on this descent though, after a probable four plus hours on the bike, a little cush with be pretty nice.



Like Aaron, I am planning on suffering like crazy on Sunday, so its nice to remember that once in a while things go well in races. This spring David Bishop and I won a six hour race outside of Charlotte; it was awfully fun to stand on top of the podium. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to snag one of the lower steps on Sunday.

-Matt

You know what's cooler than Arkansas? The ORAMM

Almost every day I look at the "Registered Riders" of the Oramm website, and every day I can't believe my name is on it. I'm feeling generally conflicted about this upcoming weekend, alternating between excitement and abject terror. One thing that makes me feel a little better, is that just a few spots below my name is Matt Williams'. It's nice to know that at least we're in this together. Well, we'll be starting it together, very shortly after that Matt will jump to the front, and I'll wallow in the middle. Matt's going for a top result, while my goals have been constantly diminishing over the past week. At first I wanted to get somewhere around 100th place and finishing the race in 6.5 hours. Then I had a bad crash and realized I might not be at my best, so I altered it to somewhere around 150th. Now I just hope I can finish the damn thing. I imagine by Sunday I'll want to be able to DNF without medivac assistance.

Eureka Springs Fat Tire Festival

Late July weekends in Arkansas are not known to be the most pleasant times to have bike races. In past years, the Eureka Springs Fat Tire Festival has been held somewhere around the 20th of July and the weather has almost always been uncomfortable. Some years it rains. Some years it is bloody hot (95 degrees) and humid. One year it was even bloody hot and raining for the start of the cross country race. This year however, the temperature was uncharacteristically pleasant. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the temperature hovered around 80 degrees in the middle of the day with very little humidity to spoil the coolness.
Because of the amazing weather, record numbers of riders flocked to Eureka Springs for the race. Every rider class was brim full. Over 300 racers total signed up to race this weekend and nearly 250 of them raced the cross country course on Sunday.
Before all the madness of Sunday's race could take place three events had to be organized and run. I considered trying for an omnium victory, but decided that downhill and observed trials would put too much time pressure on an already packed weekend. Instead I raced the short track and cross country and helped time the downhill.
Friday's short track was held on a minibike course and was the bomb. The track was about the width of an average doubletrack, and was made of perfectly smooth packed dirt. To keep cyclocross bikes from ruling the even, a kicker, a log drop, and three off camber switchbacks were added.
I really had the short track dialed. I took the fastest lap time for my qualifying run. I won the first lap premium and finished third overall in a class of about 13 cat 1 riders. After the first lap I was quickly passed by one rider, but spent the rest of the race battling in a pack of four riders right behind him. I had to phisically push riders out of my way at least three times during the race and had to run a section of the course after being knocked down in the swithbacks, but I guess my results indicate that it all worked out.
Sunday's cross country race held it's own set of challenges for me. Literally two minutes after the mass start downtown I got lost in the back streets of Eureka Springs along with the lead group of about fiifteen cat 1 riders. We never made it back onto the actual course, but thanks to some quick thinking by one of my competitors we rejoined it a bit further on. Once we made it to the single track I fell back into fourth place and then the sidewall of my reat tire was slashed by a sharp rock. Only one person in my catagory passed me while I was fixing my flat and after a record fast tire change I charged off to catch him. Half way through my final lap my front tire was also punctured and without any air, pump, or extra tube I had to stop and shake my Stans sealent into the hole and hope it would hold the last fifteen pounds of pressure in my tire for the rest of the race. My tire held until right before the finish line and I ended up running the final section of the racecourse.
Even with all my mishaps I took fifth place in the cross country event out of fifteen Cat 1 19-29 participants. Arlo, my brother, crashed into a beginner rider he was trying to pass and badly tweaked his shoulder. He should be fully recovered by the time he comes to school but he will be off the bike for a while.
So, as a recap. Third in the short track. Fifth in the cross country with two flats. All during a butiful Arkansas Summer Weekend. Not too shabby.

Linden

ORAMM??

So, I've never done a race like ORAMM before. Some 50 milers sure, the Swank too, but ORAMM is a little bigger and a little badder than those. 60 miles, 11,000 feet of climbing and some pretty sweet technical descents. So, since I am hanging in Swannanoa with little to do but bike for the next month I am doing some specific prep to make sure I'm ready to go. Yesterday I did Curtis Creek, a really long gravel road that climbs from Old Fort up to the parkway, and then road the parkway south back around to Wilson. Five and a half hours on the bike later and I stumbled home. See, I knew Curtis Creek would be hard, but I didn't really remember how much climbing would be left once I made it to the parkway. A few thousand vertical feet left to be exact. So, from Old Fort at 1,400 feet to close to 5,500 on the parkway, with a few ups and down thrown in for good measure. What fun - but I guess that's how you prep. Curtis Creek is going to be hard, some fireworks on the 26th for sure. Hopefully, between me, Aaron , and Tullulah, Wilson riders will be showin' everyone how its done.

Family Trip in The Land of 10,000 Lakes

Last week my family and I packed up our Dodge Grand Caravan with cloths, food, tennis rackets, and biking gear and headed for my grandparents house south of Minneapolis. Our stay was mostly to visit family, but my dad, my brothers and I slipped away almost every day to ride a wonderful trail system at Lebanon Hills (just a short drive away). There are not many mountains in Minnesota, however the local trail designers still managed to create a delightful ten mile loop full of perfectly smooth swooping singletrack studded with occasional built obstacles. The loop takes you over several bridges, a couple rock gardens, and a teeter-totter. Obviously a good time was had by all participants.
I would also like to note that my dad, pictured below, just turned 50 this year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are not a whole lot of 50 year olds still doing this kind of thing.

Aaron's adventure in cross country racing.

Last week you got the good and the bad, here's the ugly: I tried a cross country race. First of all, I think this name is incredibly misleading. I crossed no countries, in fact I never left the state. Despite my obvious semantic problems, I surrendered a small portion of my already small salary to USA cycling for a hour long death march.

Sunday morning started kind of rough, I woke up late, so I didn't have time to take a shower and stretch. Oh well, it's not like I'd be the only dirty kid at the mountain bike race. I mean, Kylie Krauss was showing up, so I knew I'd at least be cleaner than someone. When we showed up, I had about 40 minutes, just enough time to register and get warmed up. I changed, hopped on my bike and got about 3 feet before I realized I had a front flat. When we looked closer at the other bike on the rear rack, we noticed that the exhaust had melted a hole in the tire of the bike in front of mine. When my tire wouldn't inflate, I realized I'd have to borrow a wheel. By the time this fiasco was resolved, it was race time. I tried to stretch on the start line, but I had to accept that I was going into this race cold.

The start went well, and soon I lead when the first two guys crashed on a wet, grassy turn. I felt good, despite everything. Then my chain broke. They actually gave me a half link in my swag bag, and I brought it with me, so I was back on the course in 4 minutes. I worked my way up through some of the pack filler, and then got a flat. I've never sworn more loudly in my life. I changed it, and used a C02 to fill it up and get back on the course. By then I felt pretty damn defeated. Trying to make up for that many mistakes is hard when you only have two laps. My body was shot and my mind was racing. Not warming up, and the southern heat wore me out quicker than anything else ever has, but I was determined to climb up another spot or two. I stepped on the gas and made up a little time on some of the more technical sections. But before I knew it, my race was over, and that was all.

I got 7/12 in my age group and 21/65 in overall Cat 2. I really shouldn't complain for my first cross country race, so I'm accepting it, and going for a better result at my next race.

On the upside, Tony got 4th in single speed on a fixed cross bike, and at one point his chain blew up. That translates from Bike-ish roughly as "Tony is wicked bad ass'. Alexis DFL'ed cat 1 women and Kylie got 4th pro woman. Tony was the only one with a good race day, but we all had a good time.

I have to thank Tony and Nathan from Ski Country Sports for the rides to and from the race. Without those two awesome dudes, I wouldn't have even gotten to try this stuff out.

The two highlights of my race were being the only dude hitting the double on the race course. Granted it wasn't much of a double, but still, it was the most fun part of the "abridged" beginner race course.

And if you've read the previous post, you remember the dude I ride past on the morning on my way to work. Well he was at Davidson, and we got to hang out for a while. Small world.

So far the only one of my posts that anyone has commented on consists solely of a picture of me shirtless. And that was from Lyndon. If that's what you guys want, just let me know. I got plenty of glamor shots.

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo.

When you ride the same route, at the same time, every day, you tend to see the same people group of people. So on my ride into work for the past week, I've been passing the same spandex clad roadie, awkwardly carrying one of those cheap Timbuk 2 messenger bags. This is obviously his idea of a sensible commuting outfit. He's heading towards Black Mountain, and myself towards Asheville, so we have never been able to stop and chat. The only thing we know about each other is that we both ride bikes.

The first day, there was maybe a curt nod or a hand half raised off the hood, gestures in cycling that appear to be the equivalent of meeting your ex's new boyfriend. You really don't want to acknowledge them, but you kind of have to. Over the week nothing seemed to really have changed until today. Today I was in a full kit, with my big ol' bag stuffed to the brim and an extra read wheel strapped to the damned thing. I don't know why, but I was honestly excited to see him when he got into sight. I gave him a thumbs up, and he took one hand off the bars to shoot the metal horns.

I believe this is the start of a beautiful new bromance.

I've been following this story for a while now. It's horrendous. There's no way around it. I almost threw up when I read it at my office. I've been riding bikes for a long time, and almost all of that has been in major cities, so I've heard more than my share of 'hit cyclist' stories. Sometimes i even think that I'll get used to hearing stuff like this, but I never do. The silver lining here is this. Usually all you have to do is say "I didn't see them!" and you can get off a murder wrap and have it downgraded to distracted driving. Not for this woman. This was her second DUI and it resulted in the death of two cyclists and near fatal injuries on the third. And then what did she do? She kept driving until forced off the road by another motorist. If you're reading this, you're probably a cyclist, so take a good look at this pictures in the first article. Do you see the bottom bracket shell on the bottom left of the first picture? She hit these guys so hard that their bikes literally exploded. Now she's charged with two counts of manslaughter. I really hope this sets a prescedent. I really do. A few years back a girl killed a graduate student in Champagne Indiana while he was riding on the shoulder of the road. This girl was downloading a new ringtone and drifted so far into the other lane, she hit him with the drivers side of her car. The drivers side. This girl got slapped with distracted driving and had her license taken away for 6 months. I'm glad we're finally stepping it up a notch, but jeez, it's taken long enough.

Sorry for the rant, here's some bike porn to make up for it.




That last one belongs to my friend Sashae. He built the entire thing up with period correct components. He spent a long time working on his... Dick Power.

I knew it would be somewhere.

I found this picture on Flickr under 'Warren Wilson College Work Day'. For this years work day, myself and a few others ditched the organized projects, borrowed some shovels and put in a solid 6 hours working on our schools skills course. We were all hoping to make it into one of the schools publications, but at least it's somewhere on the internet.

Summer Time and the Livin's Easy

Well, as far as my training goes I basically shot myself in the foot for the first part of the summer. a couple days after getting home I tripped on a bicycle while running to catch a frisbee and did a number on my shoulder tumbling to the ground. My sore shoulder has kept me off my mountain bike and newly acquired dirt jumper, so I have been forced to do LSD on my road bike (long steady distance, in case Cass is reading this). The good news is that my brother Arlo, who will be joining the team next year, just bought a road bike and plans to train with me regularly.

Go Team,

Linden

Crap! A month ago I passed this up. For whatever reason, I didn't think anything of it, like entering a secret code you get under the bottle of a soda cap. Now seven of my friends from back home are getting paid 3000 dollars, an additional 1400 for food to ride across the country in 55 days while some stupid vodka company pays for hotels every night, and carries their gear for them.

Has there ever been a better set up? Ever?

Lil Jon & Tony Cardona Split Part "the best of both worlds" from Vinylbmx on Vimeo.

2:35 is the biggest jump I've ever seen. Ever.

Heading Home

Well, It's been a damn good year. I finished my last class a couple minutes ago and will head home early next week. With the hustle and bustle of school gone I find it much easier to get my mind back on bikes. I have no paper training plan, just an idea of riding four or five days a week and throwing in intervals every once in a while. I am not advocating that anyone jump on the Linden method of training bandwagon, but it seems to work for me. If anybody happens to be in Arkansas look me up and I can take you our riding on some really sweet unknown mountain trails.
Oh, and if you see Matt, give him some love. He has had a really rough week.

Linden

A View From the Road

Gotta love it when your evening recovery ride on the road takes you past scenes like this. Bikes are pretty cool I guess.
In other news, a number of team members will be headed to Spartenburg, SC this weekend for the Stump Jump. Stay tuned for a full race report.

Every Thursday the Wilson team does a local group ride. We meet up after classes at about 4:15 and head out for a couple hours or so. It's always fun to get in a good ride with some friends, and then you have an excuse to stand in the Cowpie line with spandex on. This week we rode some nearby Forest Service trails. The woods were downright beautiful. Spring has definitely come to NC (in fact, maybe we should just call it summer now).





After climbing for 45 minutes or so, we all rewarded ourselves with a dip underneath a waterfall. I couldn't help but think, this is what mountain biking is all about. And, after cooling off, we got to go back down. 15 minutes of super-sweet single track descending. Log crossings, rock gardens, some flowy sections, we got it all.
























Mmmm, mmm, mmmm. Waterfalls are nice.
























After a little more climbing we hit up one more big descent. Vanessa ripped it up. Near the bottom someone had chainsawed an opening through this tree. It must have been an old one.

Can't I detach the trailer and go riding in Pisgah?

Even though Matt was out tearing up the local race scene with David, the Warren Wilson mountain bike team managed to get in a great group ride in Dupont this weekend. This proves that we actually will be able to survive next year after Matt has graduated.
That said the ride almost didn't happen. At 9:00am (the agreed upon meeting time) there was only a small group of hard corps riders at the bike trailer behind the gym. Hanna had business to attend to and Tallula was waffling, leaving only Phil, Aaron, and myself as perspective riders. Art called, and after talking over the possibilities with me it looked as though no ride would occur, however Phil was there to save the day. "Art," Phil cried plaintively into the phone, "my ride just left, can't I detach the trailer and go riding in Pisgah?" Well some hardened souls could say no to that, but not Art. He agreed to meet us at Green Life and we immediately set to work ridding ourselves of the trailer and loading our bikes into the bus. When we reached Green Life we were happy to see Warren Wilson grad and 2007 national champion Kylie Krass chatting with Art waiting to go riding with us.
From Green Life we drove to Dupont and had a fantastic time riding four 4+ hours on the not really all that muddy trails there.
So, four hours of amazing riding with Art, Kylie, Phil, and Aaron on a day that started in a wet bus full of insecurity about wether a ride would even happen. Not bad.

Grinding for Six Hours

Yesterday David Bishop and I (Matt Williams) cruised down south to do some six hour racing outside of Charlotte. You can only do so many intervals and silly workouts before you need to do a race, so we teamed up to race to duo class at the Grind on the Greenway. David woke up in the morning to find one of his cables was frayed, so we got a late start. Then we got lost and couldn't find the start because I had messed up the directions. Eventually we found the race, about ten minutes before the start, which was about enough time for me to attach my number plate and put on a jersey and helmet. The course was 9.5 miles of sweet single track, super rooty, muddy, and twisty. An on the gas off the gas all day sorta thing. David and I were switching off laps, trying to get some good hard training in.






After two laps we were getting into our groove. We had a decent gap to the second placed team, but there were a couple of solo riders ahead of us. No good. I caught Erik on the third lap and past him for good, but Jeremy was rocking all day. After four laps he still had five or six minutes on us. We had the duo class locked up, but didn't want to get punked by a solo rider (way too competative for that). Finally, on lap five, David caught up to Jeremy. The rode the whole lap together, but Jeremy put in a last ditch attack and came through a few seconds ahead.




David passed the timing chip off to me and that was it. We both in super strong last laps to finish with eight (76 miles total). Mission accomplished. We got the win (final results to to the left), some sweet trophies and swag, some uber sweet single track riding, found some good little on the trail, and had a whole lot of fun. All in all a really good day.
There's no racing for a couple weeks, but stay tuned for some updates from the upcoming Serc Series races. This weekend proved that the form is there, so hopefully David and I can make something happen in the Sercs and US Cups this spring.


A couple of Photos of the Scene at the race. Laid back, fun, and well run. The Grind on the Greenway is an awesome race.

Are those I9's?

We all lost.



Because that guy won bikes.

More Pictures

Found a couple more pictures from Sunday's ride in Alexander Park. I think the smiles in this one say it all (is that too cheesy? Probably, but oh well).























Phil being Phil on top of the bike trailer.
























A bunch of kids are headed to do a six hour race this weekend, so stay tuned for an update on that one. Should be interesting.

Trail Work in Alexander Park

We did a trail work day in Alexander Park last Sunday. It's actually a pretty sweet spot, despite being part of the Asheville landfill. It's almost all wooded (the part with trails), and drops down steeply to the French Broad river. The trails are really flowy, some of them ride almost like a pump track. Anyway, we built some new single track in the morning, then rode it in the afternoon, then stuffed ourselves full of tasty pizza. It was warm and sunny all day, pretty awesome. Below are a bunch of pictures (I forgot to bring my camera up to the trails with me in the morning, so there are no trail work shots, but I swear we really did do a bunch of work).








Some Pictures:




Here Vanessa leads Art through a section of pines.
























After the ride, Caleb helped Phil drink some Pepsi.
























Tallulah loading some bikes into the trailer.


















The team hanging out after the ride, ready for some serious pizza eating.

-Matt

Tracklocross

Tracklocross Blog

That's right, it's Tracklocross season. Some of my friends from back in New York put a lot of time and effort into organizing this race, so if you have any friends in the NYC area, let them know.

Some old pictures from race season.

I took these during the 08 race season, and I figured I'd throw 'em up here for you to see. This of course being the hypothetical you, since right now, only Matt and I check this blog. You can click on any of them for the full resolution.


David Bishop in the Georgia Short Track.


Matt looking like a dork on a Dual Slalom course.
Chillin' at Clemson.

Linden looking surprisingly epic.

(Overexposed) Ben West sprinting.

Best picture I took all year.

Where is Dustin anyway?

Who you callin' a roadie?

One of the cool things about the Wilson team is that we are just a Mountain Bike team - no spring road season - which means that people can get some time off to catch up on school, ride
sweet dirt jumps, do uber sweet trail rides, and yes, train on the road too. This photo is from a four hour team ride we did in Dupont State Forest a few weeks ago that hit all the single track highlights and a cool little skills park to boot (Aaron was too cool for school on this one). I got sunburned, which was a great story to tell all my friends and family at home in snowed in Vermont over break. Seriously though, spring is sweet. I've done a lot of exploring this time around, and there is some awesome single track to be had in this neck of the woods if you're willing to search for it (and race through a back yard once in a while, ooops). Yeah, it's true, I do ride my road bike and do springtime intervals. Maybe I am a roadie, though the dirt jumper has been getting some use too. Really, I'm a big fan of the Omnium training plan, i.e. a little bit of everything. Okay, I'm out to go drink some more coffee before I say something really dumb on the internet.
-Matt

Bro'in down

If you're wondering what life is like during the off season for the Warren Wilson Mountain Bike team, it's pretty diverse. Some of the nerds are using this time for road riding and interval work, while others are using this time to ride some sweet jumps at our super secret training facility. Here's a good picture of former Wilson rider Pat 'I eat logarithms for breakfast' Hurley-



And here's a decent one of A 'Captain Barspin' J-


The Super Secret Training Facility has a wide variety of riders. While during the Fall, it was just bmx, we've actually had more guys on dirt jumpers show up in the past week. One of the smoothest is a dude named Peter. He's from UNCA and rides a sweet 1 1/2 inch travel steel dirt jumper. He whips this thing around like Indiana Jones-



I've been taking more pictures than jumps down there in the past few weeks. The last time I rode them, I caught a bar-end to the side of my knee, and I've been a big old baby about them ever since. If I don't get on the bike again soon, I'm afraid some of the 12 year olds are going to be better than me, and if I want that experience, I can just go to the BMX track.

Speaking of which, if you like blogs, you should check out Lexy 'I'd race blog my bowel movements if I could' Lewis'. He writes a surprisingly good blog about his adventures in the world of BMX racing, and what it's like to cream pre-teens on a daily basis. Check out our sidebar for the link.
-Aaron Peet

Thanks for the Introduction

Well, thank you Matt for the wonderful introduction. I have just this one little gripe. Why that photo?




This picture puts me in a much more dignified position, a.k.a not about to put my snout in the mud, and it is available to put on websites and the like. Somehow though, whenever a picture of me is placed in any team literature, it's the old tried and true Linden is crashing again shot.
Moving on. Yes I am from Arkansas, and yes I enjoy a well cultured life outside of biking. Here is a picture of Ben West (Warren Wilson Gravity Rider) I just took this weekend on our fly fishing adventure together.



Woo Bikes,

Linden

And the contributers are........

Matt Williams

Matt is a senior at Warren Wilson. He is a co-captain of the bike team and works on the Mountain Bike Crew. Matt spends his days writing, playing on his new dirt jumper, trying to train like he means it, and generally milking his final months in college for all they're worth. As a Vermonter, Matt feels obliged to say he loves muddy riding, but, really, all those sunny days and fast, dry trails in North Carolina are tugging at his heart strings.


Tallulah Winquist

A veteran of two of the Mountain Bike Team's infamous cross-country adventures to Nationals in New Mexico, Tally can't wait for the trip to Truckee, CA next fall. She was the team's co-captain in '08, and she'll be back next year for a stab at a National's podium in her home state. When she's not hauling logs out of the woods with Wilson's team of draft horses, working on science homework, or generally sprinting around campus like a maniac, Tally can be found with topo maps planning the weekend's Pisgah adventure.







Linden Blaisus

A native or Arkansas, Linden sometimes gets a little too cozy with trailside trees, but he generally keeps the rubber side down and speeds high. Despite spending his off-seasons playing ultimate frisbee and hanging out in the Ballfield dorms, he somehow manages to show up fast for the season every fall. He is currently nursing an Omnium dream, and is looking to up his game in downhill and dual slalom next fall.

Aaron Peet

A man of many nick names, Aaron claims to not like bikes at all, but the pile of them in his living room begs to differ. Aaron's hobbies include, but are not limited to: Being attractive, reading large books with scholarly titles, rigid steel bikes, grammar, comic books and science.

Phil Martin

Phil is the team's resident gravity guru. Though he has been trail riding for years, he just picked up racing last year, and he led the team in the downhill at Nationals. He can be spotted most days riding his BMX bike around campus while wearing funny hats and flashing the Aussie-ish smile.

&

Stay tuned throughout the spring, summer, and beyond for posts by the above contributers (and perhaps a few others). We'll keep you up to date on what we're up to and on the more informal happenings within the Bike Team.