Sabotaged

Saturday morning I was up before the sun to complete my Rapha Rising Challenge. A half hour in I was descending a suburban road in Ivins, 350 N 100 W to be exact. I was probably going about 22-25 mph when I feel what I originally think is a spider web on my face. I quickly realize that it is not breaking, in fact it is getting tighter and stronger and pushing me to my left. 

In a split second I am in full panic because I know this isn't going to end well. Apparently some delinquents had stretched some fly fishing line diagonally across the intersection from stop sign to stop sign. 

The line was stretched across my face, neck and shoulders, when the line reached the end of its give I was thrown to ground landing hard on my left side. My bike was pitched down the road sparking as the skewer bit into the road. 

I hit my head hard and slid far enough to leave large patches of my dermis on the roadway. As I sat up I was in an absolute fury, if the perpetrators had been on hand things could have got ugly. My left arm, shoulder and hip were causing serious agony so I spent a few minutes sitting in the middle of the road to  regain my composure. 

I then collected my bike and my phone which had fallen out of my pocket and proceeded to document the egregious event. 

Line on the roadway.

Close up at the stop sign, you can see they wrapped it quite a few times. 

In my adrenalin fueled stupor, I figured I could just continue on my merry way. I had some vertical miles to get done. I made it about 5 more miles before the pain of the wind on my road rash and my hip forced me home.
I limped in and had a daughter document the corporeal damage.

Notice the ripped bibs. 

This is my mad face. I am so angry in this picture I am kind of ashamed  of myself. 

I called the cops and filed a police report, they were shocked that something like this could happen in their sleepy little burg.  He took his own fotos and headed up to look at the accident location. 

I went in to the most jaw droppingly painful shower of my life. I scrubbed the wounds as clean as I could without passing out, put myself in bed and tried not to move. 

The two representatives from Ivin's finest called me two hours later. They had caught the 3 juveniles responsible for my afflictions. The boys in blue were very proud of themselves that they had tracked footprints left on site to a home 3 blocks away. It was probably the most fun they have had all year. I believe they also had a long talk with the boys and their parents. 

Right here I would like to be clear that I was once a young lad with barely functioning decision making capabilities. I have done plenty of really stupid things in my day, thankfully very few of them ended up in injury or the fuzz speaking with my parents. 

It's Sunday afternoon now and my wounds are lovingly swaddled in Tegaderm, thanks for the heads up on that product JLC. But literally every major muscle group on my body is in pain. 

I am shocked, I did not expect this, I have crashed, fallen, broken bones,  blown knees, received stitches and concussions, separated shoulders and dislocated my jaw,  I have actually been hit by a car and nothing, and I mean nothing has ever given me this all over body pain. 

Could it be that I am, dare I say it..... old?

I will try to assuage my pain with some new bibs and saddle courtesy of the perpetrators parents. I will also be taking the bike into the shop to be sure nothing else is damaged, carbon fiber can be temperamental.  I was also just thinking that what I really need to work out the soreness is a good bike ride. The sickness continues to run deep. 

Kolob

You know I love a good challenge, and you also know that I love the geekier side of cycling with all the gadgets and record keeping. Well, I found something that incorporates both. The Rapha Circle of Death Challenge. 

The challenge goes for 8 days but because I don't ride on Sunday I only have 6 days to complete the 22,575  vertical feet.

As a guy that has never been known for my climbing ability, (I was blessed with a body built for Greco-Roman wrestling) it has been an interesting change to go looking for long climbs and looking forward to every foot of vertical that I can find.

I had done about 100 miles and 7000' feet between Monday and Tuesday and I had Wednesday pegged as a day for some good climbing. I had heard stories that the road to Kolob Reservoir was a beast of a climb with some parts having a gradient north of 20%. 

I started at 5:15am from the Maverick, Adventures First Stop,  in LaVerkin. By the time the sun came up i was well up the climb, looking at the silhouette of Zion National Park.

My phone lens was a little foggy with precipitation. 

This is looking toward the steepest part of the climb, at one point I was standing up, grinding out 2 mph. 

Hop Valley in between the big climbs.

Every mile of this ride has incredible views and virtually no traffic. This was a little over half way and I had seen 4 vehicles.

You will notice that I am in 8th place, no great feat since there are only 8 participants for that climb.

After 30 miles, 3:30 hrs and 5160 ft of vertical I made it to Kolob Reservoir which sits right at 8000' elevation. It only took an hour and 30 minutes to get back to the car. 

It's Friday now, I just finished today's ride which leaves me with 2,400 feet to complete the challenge. So barring any catastrophic events I will finish tomorrow morning. This has actually been a very enjoyable week, I really like scheming and planning rides, I like the suffering in the middle of the ride, I like the feeling of finishing a ride.  

Now I am going to go and try to coerce the homies to go ride it again next Saturday. This time I would like to move up to 7th place. 

2.5 weeks in So Utah.

I found myself volunteering to drive my daughter and some of her friends to Moab for a Church youth event. They were going to raft a length of the Colorado just east of town. I thought I could bring my bike, get my gas and food payed for and enjoy a couple of rides while they were on the river. 

We camped out by Ken's lake so I thought I would ride over Flat Pass. I found a promising trail going up Mill Creek but after 2 miles it proved to sandy to continue, I did get to ford the creek twice and had an emergency get off due to the sand. The 100+ temps kept me from going to far up Flat Pass but the views where good. 

That night my daughter does not eat BBQ was complaining about what was provided. Maybe I should have made her tough it out...or, we could just hit the Moab Diner for some green chille goodness.  I took the "B" option. Maddie was thoroughly impressed with diner food.

Day two, I dropped everybody off at the guide office, from there they would take a bus to the put-in location.  I was on my own for 6+ hrs....perfect.  I had heard about the Bar M trail system but had never been out that way. Keep in mind I was on the rigid single speed, which is not the most ideal sled to bring to this type of terrain.

That is a look toward Arches NP. If you look really close, dead center you can see an South Window Arch.

The trails were great. Very similar to the type of riding we have in StG, up and down with good techy sections. Not enough vertical to blow you up and not enough down to wish I had a different bike. I rode every inch of the trail system which turned out to be just over 27 miles total. By that time it was HOT and my wrist was beginning to ache from the fall the day before.

I hit the Poison Spider for a shower, then over to McStiff's for a pizza, I ordered the Dosie Doe, because when I am alone I don't have to share with non bleu cheese eaters.

*Dosie Doe – Olive oil with a hint of red sauce, roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, scallions, parsley, bleu, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.*


The following weekend was the annual Rainbow Rim Ride. You have seen it here many times before and never fails to deliver. I love taking first timers on this ride and this year I had 2 Chris P and BK.

In this picture I am standing on a 16" stump, BK is of abnormal size.

This is the only picture of Chris P that I have authorization to use, he enjoys the anonymity.

The Tuesday after the RRR I had to be in Ticaboo/ Bullfrog for a meeting with the National Park Service and some engineering types, and then a Board meeting with the TEID.

In between the two meetings I had a little down time. So I rode the ferry and took a little drive.

The confluence of the Dirty Devil and the Colorado rivers. This is where Lake Powell begins.

After a couple of weeks of driving and riding around this state I was reminded yet again how I am constantly and consistently amazed at the geography.  I love living here.

Brains

You know I have an infinity for de-animating the undead. Luckily for me, preparing for the zombie apocalypse coincides with my faiths preoccupation with food storage and emergency preparedness.

Some zombie humor from Jonathon Coulter.

KOM

I have to post this because it will not last and I want to save it for posterity.  Also because Lynda Wallenfels is actually behind me in the standings.

Tales of woe

They say that bad things come in 3's. I really hope that is true, I have had 30 days of the worst cycling luck of my young and eventful career.

First I broke a spoke on the front tyre of my road machine. 10 miles from home I sat dejected on the side of the road until my bride could find me.  It's still not fixed, Easton Wheels are hard to deal with. The company and not the product.

Then last week I got a flat on my mountain bike. I have tubeless tyres but I had not kept up on the maintenance and they were dry, totally my fault. I whipped out a tube to throw it in thinking that it had been over a year since I had caught flat. I used my CO2 to pump it up and prepared to move on but the tyre was not holding air.  The tube had been in my seatbag for so long that it had worn a hole in the side from the friction. Out of CO2 and tubes I ended up walking 6 looong miles back to the truck.

The coup de grace was yesterday. I was ex filtrating out of the Rim Runner trail system huffing my way up a particularly steep pitch, when with a loud snapping noise I was thrown unceremoniously to the ground. Stunned, I looked for the reason of my graceless dismount.

I found this.

I had stripped the bolts on my chain ring, breaking it and folding it like a giro sandwich. I could have felt just a smidgen of pride thinking that I was laying down enough power to break this.

The first thing I did? I calmly sent these pictures via email to the manufacturer. This ring had 3 rides on it. I did not expect much but I got an email back straight away saying that though they denied the problem was theirs they would replace it. Winning!

Secondly, I determined that it was 10+ miles back to the truck. Or... 3 miles mostly downhill to Santa Clara where my lovely, patient, helpful, vivacious, smart, resourceful, and understanding wife could again pick me up, yet again.

Lets all say a little prayer that these ignoble events are behind me and the rest of the summer will be clear sailing.

It's a rental

I am going to be walking the fine edge of sacrilege for some of my readers in this post. So if the words "carbon  fiber"  offend you, you may want to log off now. (I am talking to you JRuss and Steve G.)

I was bumping around the newest bike shop in town, Bike Fix over in Washington. Ian, the owner is also a SS guy and his personal sled is a Niner Air 9 Carbon. As I was admiring the bike, I jokingly asked if I could borrow it for a day. To my surprise he said yes, I must have a trustworthy visage.

This bike is Carbon Fiber everything, stem, bars, wheelset, frame, seat post, fork, everything, and it weighs a mind blowing 18lbs.
I took it out to Navajo for a run up Rattlesnake and down Stucki.

I wanted to, and was prepared to hate this bike.  I could not.  Uphill this ma'sheen is an absolute rocket and comfy to boot. Niner's geometry is spot on and it soaked up the bumps like a champ while remaining stiff under power.
I had done 42 road miles the day before and was a little toasted but that did not stop me from laying down my fastest time form the TH to the top of Rattlesnake and I didn't feel like I was pushing it.

While the climbing was a dream the descent was a horse of a different color. The ride quality suffered when I went north of 15 mph, and through the chop it was like riding a jack hammer. The bike is so light that it was difficult to hold a line, I was tossed around and felt like I had to fight the bugger through all the chunk. If I had more time with the bike I think you could get used to it's trail manners but my hands were achy by the bottom. With a squishy fork this bike could be the cats pajamas. 

But will I be spending my hard earned cash on the A9C.......no.  Did I have fun and wanted to keep it another day.......yes.