DClog

When the Smoke Clears

I went to the 4th race in the GSC mountain bike series in Jackson on Sunday morning. The smoke from the fires in south Georgia was so thick that the visibility was limited and the smell was awful. I'm still smelling/tasting the smoke in my lungs and sinuses this morning.

The Dauset trail was all new to me and the first 15 minutes or so of big-ring stuff was really fast, but my disproportionate power-to-skill ratio was revealed in the more technical and rocky section. Slammed the rear tire on a rock and it went flat a minute or two later so I had to pull over and fix it. The guys riding the tubeless tires don't have to deal with pinch-flats - my MTB is a couple generations behind the current state of technology.

The darn C02 nozzle/adapter malfunctioned but I was also carrying a mini-pump, eventually got rolling again and rode behind a strong young guy that did an awesome job of pacing me and blazing through the crowd (thanks dude!). The slightly under-inflated rear tire (darn mini-pump) pinch-flatted again and with no more spare tubes, that was the end of my race. I ended up walking and pushing my bike for several miles to get out of the woods.

From a dominating start at the front of the pack, to the back, chasing hard, to a long walk out of the woods. Not exactly the way I had hoped things would go but good exercise I suppose.

The "Grand Master 50+" line up at the start.

OMG - FYI

[This is nuts, but in response to some email messages...]

I am not an atheist. I believe in and have reverence for a power regarded as creator and governor of the universe. I have cause, principle and conscientious devotion which I actively pursue however I do not find spiritual satisfaction in institutionalized religious systems.

To illustrate this concept here is a crude analogy (please, no offense intended to anyone).

Most Americans like pizza, everyone in my house likes pizza, I like pizza. We prefer to make pizza at home completely from scratch with home-grown fresh ingredients and baked to perfection in our own oven. Most Americans get their pizza ready-made from places like Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Domino's and the grocery store. Institutionalized pizzas aren't bad and probably a heck of lot better than most folks can make on their own. The big places are also very good at spreading the word and even offer a place to congregate. I too enjoy a ready-made pizza now and then but get far more satisfaction from the home-made pizza... but if you come over to have pizza with me bring your own beer 'cause I don't drink.

Creation-Evolution Controversy

Let me see if I have this straight. Currently, in this part of the world, the controversy is between the following groups.

Young Earth Creationism - Interpret the text of Genesis in a strictly literal fashion and do not believe in physics and chemistry (especially absolute dating methods). Beliefs also include that the Earth is 6,000 to 10,000 years old.

Old Earth Creationism - Believe that life was created on a pre-existing old Earth and interpret the accounts of Genesis in a number of different ways. Beliefs also include the idea that God allows certain natural process (such as gene mutation and natural selection) to affect the development of life, but has also directly intervened at key moments in life’s history to guide those processes.

Theistic Evolution - Believe that life, including humans, evolved over millions of years, but that God guided this process.

Modern Evolutionary Synthesis - The synthesis of genetics and evolution. A theory about how evolution works at the level of genes, phenotypes, and populations and not simply Darwin's theory of natural selection.

Hinduism believes there are times when the universe takes form and times when it dissolves back into nothing. They date creation back to about 77 trillion years ago. Now that's a leap of faith.

2007 GTC Champs Ride

About 30 riders started together at this edition of the GTC Championships. The opening miles were animated by many attacks and some fairly serious looking solo breaks.

Ultimately a break got away on Bethany Ch Rd, after crossing Mt Vernon and stayed away finishing with a 23 mph avg speed.

Tim Stone initiated the break, Steve, Jim and Dan solidified it. Jeff chased solo and caught on at Moores Ford Rd. The 5 riders worked smoothly until the feed zone. Jeff stopped for a bottle, Steve wanted to go and Tim was helping meanwhile Dan and Jim blocked trying to give Jeff a chance to get back on. When Jeff finally got back the chase group was now within a minute and we could see them as we turned onto Snows Mill from Jones Wood. The breakaway riders had to really clock in and get busy and this is where the deal was sealed.

I was not intending on doing the finishing lap and was riding along as an insurance policy in case anyone needed a wheel, so when we got to the school I swung into the parking lot and grabbed my camera.

The chase group came about 3-4 minutes later and we all waited to see the finish together.

1. Jeff Welp
2. Tim Stone
3. Steve Simpson
4. Jim Behning

The riders gather for the obligatory pre-ride photo.

The break-away companions: Dan, Jeff, Steve, Jim and Tim

My Polar HRM data.

Here's some more of my photos from the GTC Championship

Too Many People

WARNING: Cranky Old Man rant coming up.

Lately I have been driving all my friends nutty with complaints about traffic congestion, road rage, price gouging and headlines like "91 year old veteran beat up in carjacking as bystanders look on". I realize those are just little hassles facing me personally, but one doesn't need to look far to see signs of a declining quality of life and serious environmental degradation. I believe what is at the very core of problems like green-house gas, pollution, crime, infectious disease, war, malnutrition, widespread famine and similar catastrophes is that there are simply too many people.

Human population seems to grow exponentially and advancing technology provides solutions for some of the problems of this overcrowding... or are we just trading one set of problems for another set of problems?

I don't know if the global threshold is 2 billion people or 102 billion people but when we can no longer thrive in harmony with the environment and the majority of the people are forced into miserable and suffering difficult lives with limited resources, then we have found that threshold.

Above the Earth's Surface

The duo played at altitude last evening, on the 50th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel located on 14th Street in Atlanta. A big rain storm with much lightning animated the sky while we played.

View toward the South.

Three views of the atmosphere.

Practically Incomprehensible!

I'm proud to say I've been knowing and riding with this man since he was just a Sport racer. Currently he rules all things dirt in and around these parts also is a rider to watch on the road and cyclocross racing scenes.

Shey won the solo Dirty Spokes 12 Hour Mtn Bike race at Fort Yargo on May 5, 2007. After recovering from a 1st lap crash on a slippery bridge he went on to ride 13 laps and into the night until his lights failed... loving every minute of it.

13 Laps
12:47:24
154.6 miles
12.1 MPH average

Shey Lindner (BearNaked/Cannondale) Covington, GA

Carl Mesta Photos

This photo is during the final hour of racing and Bev, Rachel and I are watching for our last rider, Jay Halgat, to come across the bridge. After crossing the bridge there was still another 10-15 minutes of hard trail riding back up to the start/finish line.

Carl had climbed up a ladder to get this photo of the riders staging for the mass start.

After about 50 minutes of racing the first 20-30 riders were splattered with mud. The course was not so messy after the first lap.

mestaphotos.us

Dirty Spokes

The 2007 6/12 Hours at Fort Yargo is now complete. Yes, there are many riders who get on their mountain bike and ride for 6, 12 and 24 hours straight, and some even take this endurance thing to another level.

Right here I have to mention my friend Scott Hodge, owner of Addictive Cycles bike shop. This rider was out riding the solo 12 hour event yesterday just as a training ride for the upcoming Great Divide Race, a self-supported, solo 2,490-mile mountain bike competition coming up in June.

I was invited at the last minute to join a 4-man relay team with some GTC riders, Jay, Ben and Bill. Ben is younger but Jay and Bill have to be pushing 50 and I might have been the oldest rider on the course yesterday. As a team we had no particular goal except to have fun, ride hard and let the chips fall where they may.

Riding my 10+ year old bike, I arrived hoping the thing would hold together just a little longer. No such luck, my chain broke on my second lap and I was not carrying a chain tool so I had to run with my bike for a few miles while phoning my teammate to meet me across the bridge with a replacement chain and tool. Probably gave up close to 11 minutes with this bit of bad luck. Finally back on the course for my final lap and I'll be darned if the new chain didn't break too! Amazing because in all my years I have never broken a chain before. Anyway after stopping and looking around in the woods for a while I found where my broken chain had flown off to and amazingly Scott Hodge pulls up (I had passed him moments earlier) and offers to stop and fix it for me! The guy is a saint. I got rolling again but something was not right with the drive train and I had to pedal easy nursing the old bike back to the start/finish giving up another 6 minutes.

It didn't see the leaders finish but it looked like Shey Lindner was dominating the 12 hour solo event and was about to win all the marbles while making it look easy... well, other than that first lap incident on the wet bridge. Great ride, my friend!

Official results

Some of Bev's photos

Bruce Tolbert's photos

Jansen explaining the finer points of mountain bike racing - I was chasing this little rascal down when my chain broke (the first time).

Ben ready to go, "His chain broke and he's running?"

Elevation Profile

I rode the 12-Hour Fort Yargo course today, actually did a couple of laps with Cody, and here's the way the elevation profile looks for each lap according to my Polar HRM.

All Kinds of Bike Racing

Last week I was so busy and out-of-town that I didn't notice that the Georgia State Championship mountain bike race schedule was different, as a result I missed my race at Ft. Yargo on Sunday. I headed back home to get my road bike and race at the Roswell Criterium but then realized that it was probably too late with the field limit being reached before I could register. I ended up doing a 3.5 hour road ride with Doug around the "Dans Macabre" course.

I had been practicing the Ft. Yargo trails in the previous weeks so when I found out that a 4-man team was short a rider for this coming Saturday's 12-hour event at Yargo, I signed up. This will be something new for me, a 12 Hour Mountain Bike Race at Fort Yargo State Park. Check it out: dirtyspokes.com.