We pulled off and walked to the St. Croix. At first we just waded in and that felt good so we went back to the car and got some shorts and then soaked the legs proper. Sat there about 10min. Sure felt good the trip down to the cities and kept the inflammation action to a min. Doesn't seem to make sense to cool the legs after getting them warm.
Stayed at Jonell's sisters place. Nephew Garrett learned how to hula hoop this week. He is a hula hooping machine. He was hopping and threading the needle over Jake. Jake was so scared he had to keep his eyes shut. He went across like 4 lawns, walking down the street, strutting his stuff. I have seen a lot of hula hoopers at the Maplelag Saturday night hula hoop contest and none of them like Garrett. Gonna have to have him put on a show next New Years Eve.
Like a lot of other Expert riders, Harmon isn't at the top of the list for the favs. I would say at least a dozen didn't race because of the venue including quite a few that raced at Cable and stayed there for some "real" riding on Sunday. The fact the weather so was "nice" had me excited to race after the cold temps the day before and it is a great spot to start the series and the type of course brings in tons of riders which is all good. I love cold weather but my body works just a little better when it is warmer. Warming up the legs felt great. Usually I do a tempo ride the day before a race and Cable was a good tuneup for Sunday. I really liked the change running the course the other way. It flowed really nice and for sure was my best time racing at this venue. Still have the memories and scars of crashing hard last year so the clean start was awesome and everyone rode beautifully. Not knowing the singletrack was going to come so quick, I might of made more of an effort on the paved path to move up a few spots but went in 7th or 8th and it all worked out fine. Had a blast riding in a train and riding with Heath, Tom M. and Cam K before he threw down his trademark move and went fishing. Another lap or two and he would of probably caught Jack and closed some of the gap down to Brendan. The last lap and a half with SamO was a complete gas. Sam picked up Eric in his radar the last lap and drilled it. It was so much fun.
The new bike fits like a glove and handles and accelerates in amazing fashion. Running Karma tires with tubes that are the best all around tires. Like I said after Buck Hill last year, the shorter races like 1.5 hours long make for tighter, more intense racing and I would think be more exciting to watch. I have to say riding behind Sam in the tighter stuff was a bit smoother than the 29ers just because the acceleration is quicker out of the tighter corners. Not taking anything against Tom or Heath because they were riding as clean as possible and the wide open stuff they were rolling but I notice on the 29ers those big wheels like to come out of corners a bit wider and seem to put a rider out of position and not set up for the launch out if you know what I mean. Also on the punchy climbs, the bigger wheels move slower and noticed slower speeds at both races but that is pretty much as advertised. It will be interesting to see if the UCI etc. makes any movement on wheel restrictions etc. as more riders make the switch to 29. You definitely think about the 29 situation and wonder if you are at a disadvantadge. Personally I think some riders can handle the 29er better than others and there are situations were 26" is better. Whatever, two wheels, off road, all good.
Recap in skinnyski report on Wed including the shakedown on Scott Hebel and Jack Hinkens. Seeing Jack race at state in the skate race, his result doesn't surprise me. Jake had a solid race coming in 15th overall for racing Expert our of 47 riders. He enjoyed riding behind Larry Sauber. "That guy is a beast" ..yeah with some endurance. Larry is off to a great start. Nice job.
Jonell and my mom enjoying the chairs we brought back. It was nice to see all the leaves down south as we have no leaves yet. Hard to believe the leaves will be starting to change in 3 months and they aren't even out yet. Jonell didn't like that analogy. Waving the flag for real. You don't see flags in US like Norway. Everyone seems to have a flag in Norway. Driving through Spooner I notied a lot of flags. Nicely done Spooner. Jonell deserves to sit down and chill after covering the birthday party shuttling over the weekend. B-day parties amp up this time of year for some reason. The kids make maybe half of them. If you have pre-school kids now, just wait til they hit elementary. The one Jens went to on Friday, the dad was dressed up like Chewy for the Stars Wars themed party. At first from a distance Jonell said he looked like a beaver but upon getting closer...it was clearer. Nicely done.
Jon's Moorhead team was invited to play in a tourney over the weekend so he was all pumped as he was itching to play but they cancelled the tourney because to GF teams bailed since the tourney was reschuled because of the flood so he was bummed. Instead he went to his first boy/girl party with some hockey buddies. Yikes!! So, roller hockey continues. Found a good puck they came out with this year that has three rollers on each side and the puck has a feel as close to the real deal as possible. I stuffed Jon pretty good tonight, doing my best Cam Ward.
With a warm day today finally, the swim season officially opened. Jack hesitated but went in after Jake and Jens did. I think today we finally got the surface temp above 50.
8 comments:
Jay... Your spot on with your 29 theory... I am running one and agree with the cornering, decelerate/ accelerate disadvantage... Turn radius wider. They do roll though, and are fun to "try" and handle... You have to pick different lines...
Nice job taking on mentoring the Jr's by the way... Will be fun to watch them all improve...
L Sauber
Thanks LS. For the record, Piotr Bednarski is coaching Jack and Ben Popp is working with Trent. But yeah, great to see all the young blood rippin' it up.
Speaking of young blood.Sat I went to the local synergy TT when it was cold and windy. Take a look at Jordan Cullen's time. He posted a 1:01.06 in a 40km TT thats an avg of almost 25 mph at 13 years old. everyone in front of him were cat 1/2 riders and he even beat some. At blackdog a couple weeks ago he beat Hollywood and was only like 30 seconds off Tim Mulroony's time. Granted that popular opinion states he is doing too much, those kind of results put him in the Lemond/Armstrong feats. I just hope he doesn't get burnt out or gets an overuse injury.
Jay, thanks for the post. This years topic wasn't as hot as last year. All good, glad race start was smoother for us all!
On 29'er topic. U got me thinking. The truth is my SS obsession got me liking 29'er for "climbing" and "rigid fork" (surface area/volume). That habit transformed into my XC bike. For cornering your comments may be right. Depends on ground conditions. Hmmm. I will say I love the rigid set up as I dig climbing more than most. Also as you've seen my extra english style power slid cornering is so much fun. Although perhaps slower I dig. Maybe as the year goes on ninja and settling will commence, but then again..it's me. In tight corners laying the bike over feels like bmx'ing. Again, with big surface and vol. so fun in the right conditions. By St. Cloud I'll be in shape and more stable. So in short: rigid, SS, & bmx corner traction are my 29 drivers. I’ll stay with 29'er...but you got me thinking. And, with above comments my theory has always been, 29'ers are best for short people! I feel like a kid on the 29'er. Cheers!
Ha, good memory you have. Yes, no hot topic which I'll take. All good comments. I cannot speak for the riding of a 29r other than the tandem (and I wonder if a 26 setup would be better)....just on observations on the 29 roll in front of me. Interesting you feel climbing is better. That is one reason I haven't venture. I guess since I started riding 26 rigid with a 26 hardtail just feels right and the feeling as one is like it has never been before so hard to change. Even full sus I have been slow to adapt and wonder if I will even race it this year, maybe Natz in CO.
Slow down fast guy. 29'er not always better as in climbing "speed" or acceleration but better for "traction." Like a pugsley tire, bigger tire better grip for climbing loose snow trail etc etc. I really like big tire for climbing when on SS. One must stand more on a single and the big tire works well to keep grip (never worry 29 fat tires). Breathe harder on climbs, sure usually. Also the rigid fork around here works great especially with bigger tires. See? That darn SS rigid habit transformed all my bikes to 29'er.
Not saying always faster, just always fun, and simple. Ok ok sometimes for fun I pretend I'm faster on my SS. See you at #2.
How about mud and really steep climbs? I don't know.
Right, no matter what bike take the situation to extremes and preference may change. I have the answer, more bikes!! I think I'll tell Amy I need 5 more bikes.
Ok we got your comments pretty high on this post. Funny. Next time I might just call to chat instead of this cyber sillyness. Have a great holiday. Say hi to all. H
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