Saturday rode a lap of this years Sport/Comp/Expert look. With slightly cooler temps and a race pace ride, the deer flies were not that bad. Only bit twice which was amazing. (Working on the trail this week has been brutal. Flies are like we have never seen) The loop is around 10 miles and took me around a hour. Once we get everything buffed out proper, should see the top Experts crank laps out in 50 minutes or so. Sport race should be around 1 hour with one lap, Comp and Ex women 1 1/2 laps and Experts two laps. The twin lakes singletrack rides good at a fast speed and some fine tuning the next few weeks should put it in better condition. The woods are as lush as we have ever seen and the trees are doing very well, especially the pine trees we have planted.
We had nephew Garrett for a while before he and Jens went to camp. He was loving the smores.
Introduced him to Nutella. Spread on a Norwegian pancake.
The tour wrapped up on the weekend and was good to see Cadel take the win. I was looking for the article I thought I had saved of when Jeff Hall and he battled in the America's Cup. Couldn't find it but did stumble across the old flier for the Fat Tire Frenzy. Did the race in 96 when part of the WIM series. You think its far driving up here from the cities, doing the WIM series was 6-10 hours one way of traveling from where we lived in Essex. Made for a lighter schedule but the races/courses were awesome. Always keep the Frenzy on the radar...hope to get back some day and race it.
Stumbled across a bunch of results from the 90's including the above from the NORBA National in Traverse City in 1996. Note the 8th place finish by Cadel with Jeff Hall just one spot behind by a few seconds. (Click on photo for better viewing) Other MN riders doing the Elite that year, Eric Bartz and crazy George Hayes. Ned Overend was 18th which was four places off from his 14th place at Nationals this year in Sun Valley at age 55!! The guy is amazing, very inspiring.
Lake cabin action for the day on Saturday. Uncle Ryan brought the first corn of the year from the corn capital of Minnesota. Some of the best ever. Cooked over open fire with burgers, beans and beer doesn't get much better.
Jens wanted to get in a ride after I logged a 25 road excursion straight north. Rode up to Naytahwaush and he sprinted the hills. The rides are getting longer and bit more intensity. Coming around more and more. Feels good.
Yoda dog killed a rabbit and ate part of a leg before I intervened. It was disgusting. Poor rabbit. What did it do to deserve this. Uncle Ryan didn't believe us. Think he just jealous because his dog eats corn cobs.
Jon picked a good week to be at hockey camp during the heat wave. Despite the warm temps and power being out at the arena for a few hours one night, the ice was in great shape and always nice to have ice in town for the weeks we do during the summer.
Jack is in second week of Italian camp. First day he writes letter to mom "come pick me up" but no letter since so I am sure the decaf espressos are flowing nicely, he is making good friends and picking up some words.
2 comments:
Hi Jay,
Those were some good old days...I believe that was the year that George Hayes rode over with me to Traverse City, Jeff had flown over earlier to Traverse City. George took some kind of sleeping herb and slept the whole way, 11 hours, 675 miles, never woke up. I did the all night drive. We pulled into a gas station at 7:00AM in Traverse City and George woke up, he says "I feel great, do you want me to drive some? Where are we?".
George was a one-of-a-kind! Funny stuff.
I have good memories of Jeff racing against Cadel back in the 90's. In the Traverse City race, Jeff was back racing with Ned (I set a goal during the race for Jeff to get on Ned's wheel and hang with him and let the race unfold) when Cadel came up from behind. Jeff and Cadel talked and worked together to move up through the field. A month later Cadel raced at the first mountain bike race in the Olympics.
Cadel was a "classy competitor back then and he deserves all the success that has come his way over the years.
Thanks for the flash-back, Jay.
Thanks for the comment and historical recap Mike. Great stuff. I think George had sleeping herbs as well when we road tripped to Idaho for Natz. All good. Take care.
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