"All or Nothing" says Todd

I've caught the skate skiing bug. It's awesome, and I'de rather be outside than in the basement. Here is a recent story from my old friend Dave Knoop. He used to crush me on the mountain bike.

"Greetings nordic skiers and nordic ski enthuisiast's too! This week's story brings us to the storied Methow Valley and the Methow Pursuit a two day race format with a 15k Classic/ Diagnol Stride race on Saturday and a 26k Skate race on Sunday. Winthrop, Washington is a little town nestled in the hills just below the craggy snowy North Cascade Mtn range. Fly fishin', ranching, climbing and wandering abound here. In fact one of the more influential oranizations here is called the MVSTA or Methow Valley Sports Trail Association with heavy emphasis on Sports and Trails. In winter that means cross country skiing and lots of it. Like 200k of it as they will proudly tell you. Back in the 70's or 80's somebody wanted to put in a mega alpine ski resort here and they were promptly run out of town and told never to return. In fact you won't find any strip malls and or franchise chain stores like Starbucks in Winthrop and they like it that way just fine thank you. The area can best be described by the local artist who loves this place as his passion, check out www.seanmccabestudio.com Meanwhile back out on the road, driving across central Washington from Spokane, Nordic Dave encountered the huge Grand Coulee Dam situated on the Columbia river. It is a perfect description of power in many ways. The gigantic powerlines stretching out to far off major cities hungry for power, the Columbia it's massive body of water trapped and harnessed from raw power into electric power, Grand Coulee is engineering Power with a capital P. This weekend 'Ol Nordic" hoped to harness power into Elan and Panache. Everyone knows his classic/diagnol stride skills are well..... not good, not good at all, in fact they suck. Nordic reasons the only way to get better is to do more classic races. Hence The Methow Pursuit race format catches nordic's attention. One day classic the next day a skate race. The accumulated time of both days events counts towards the overall results. Nordic hopefully reasoned that he would somehow fake it and get by on Saturday's classic race then apply elan and panache on Sunday.The plan is immediately shown for all it's fallacies when nordic arrives in Winthrop and walks into the Nordic Ultratune ski shop (a shop of mythical purportions much like when the Griswolds finally make it to "Wallyworld" ) and is informed by Mark Waecther, owner, key employee, and "official wax tech of the Slovinian Ski team", that tomorow is indeed a KLISTER wax day. A klister wax day is a day nordic usually just skips all together as not worth the time and frustration on sugary snow and iced up classic groves. Grand Coulee indeed, how to harness power into elan is something to behold on these race days. On race day #1, 53 minutes later nordic has double poled much of the race course, rarely attempting to stride and lose anymore time. Nordic has given up 6 minutes to the race leaders, 3 minutes to his racing buddy Dan Packman (aka Stein Lager) and the ultimate slap to the face, 2 minutes to the leaders in his own "old guys" age group. In fact nordic is in 18th place overall at the end of the day and 4th in his age group. Yes nordic has dug himself quite A HOLE! Much like the feeling of wanting to kick the windshield out on Division St. in Spokane (aka.. a strip mall hell that stretches for 6 miles, nordic is left to stew for the rest of the day and night. Day two, the day dawns warm and generally gloppy, Nordic can successfully report to anyone about the best application of the occaisionally debated MVX grind pattern on skis that yes it in fact works very well in the valley of it's name sake and conditions like this. This morning, the start is all business & you are starting in the order of yesterday's finish and time. Watching the leaders start something like a year before nordic was tedious to watch, watching skiers in nordic's own age group start minutes ahead only made his nostrils flare. It felt damn good for "old nordic" to fire out of that hole with skiers ahead of him, skiers to ski down. Smooth strong, high cadence skiing alone was the order of the day. Catching/passing slower skiers quickly, giving them no chance to latch on was working well, every skier passed another pelt to hang on the fence. Elan and Panache flowing freely, working the hills with a V2 uptempo cadence eyeing the prize of another skier up ahead toiling away up a head in V1 mode. 7k into the race, passing the skier in 2nd place in nordic's age group, he puts up a fight not wanting nordic to pass only made nordic think about the next skier somewhere up ahead. Nordic was in a hurry to ski down as many skiers as he could before he ran out of time and distance. Far off in the distance on flat fields nordic eyes the next two skiers, they are hundreds of meters away. It takes focused effort to bring them in. Once passing them it is an empty void with nothing but ranches and trees to look at in the flat light. A furious effort with 10k to go nobody even in sight just skiing alone against time and an hour and 14 minutes later it is over. A cathartic effort working out the demons from yesterday and it felt real guud. The skate was the 9th fastest overall on the day unfortunately only good enough for 12th overall in the final two day results. Stein Lager has moved up to 6th from 9th overall the previous day yet he seems pensive as if it wasn't good enough. Stein is built to hammer hills he raced the flats this weekend and ponderous of his next events. Meanwhile Nordic takes the 1st in the old guy age group overall, a consolation prize for spotting them 2 minutes at the start and hunting them down imagining that they gave 'ol nordic smug looks yesterday and nordic must have retribution today. Actually they were really good guys but nordic was feeling a bit like Adam Sandler in the movie "The Waterboy". Nordic ponders this whole stride and glide thing as an exercise in futility. Ahh yes, nordic is then reminded by father's persistent outlook in life.....i.e. "the beatings will continue until the morale improves!" Nordic knows he will suffer in more classic/diagnol stride races in the future yet it only makes him hunger for the "A" races in the skate mode yet to come. Stay tuned for more exciting and fascinating stories from the Nordic Dave Adventures Series."

I'm a Facebook convert

So, I guess I'm not going to let the blog die, yet. But I now piddle away my spare time frivolously on facebook. It seems as if there is a whole new movement amongst the cycling underground that is riding that wave.

Sanpete

didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I think I had 8 team mates in that race. Wow. We were all strong and aggressive, and eventually Cam powered off the front and stayed away. Unfortunately there were 2 unknown riders that bridged up later in the race and finished ahead of him. They were really strong. It was kind of impressive. I went down in a silly little mishap and elbowed the road good. It's bruising a little and the tip is soft. It might be cracked, but it doesn't hurt, so I'll be at RMR! Is it ever going to cool down?

Tour of Park City

Why am I doing Lotoja again? That's the question I kept asking myself around mile 150 on Saturday. I was destined for 5th, but took a wrong turn in Kamas, so I got 17th. Bummer. Jeremy won and Spence got 3rd.

Tour of Park City:
Duration: 8:35:17 (8:41:48)
Work: 6338 kJ
TSS: 622.5 (intensity factor 0.851)
Norm Power: 238
VI: 1.16
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 180.174 mi
Elevation Gain: 9754 ft
Elevation Loss: 9695 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (59 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1262 205 watts
Cadence: 26 129 90 rpm
Speed: 1.3 44.8 21.0 mph
Pace 1:20 45:59 2:52 min/mi
Altitude: 4275 9065 5933 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1056 194 lb-in
Temperature: 59 107.6 88.1 Fahrenheit

http://thechasepack.blogspot.com/

Day 9: Racing in Racine

This was my last race. I really wanted to get on the podium and I liked the course. Flat and fast. The last 3 races have had hills in them and they were wearing on me. We did 65 laps with a race time of about 1:45. It doesn't seem that long, but you just go numb after a while. I was surprisingly stronger than I expected. I attacked, covered, went with breaks, but in the end I missed the move that stayed away. It had 9 riders. I was dissapointed and worked and I just drifted towards the back and sat there for about 20 minutes. I had nothing left to contribute to bring it back. Once again, I had excellent position into the final turn. We came out of it and I went to wind it up and still got passed by about 20 riders. There is just no more top end. Oh well, the trip was a success, no crashes, Eric got a win and Patrick is hanging with the big guns. We'll see if I can have a repeat performance at Coalville like last year. I don't think so though, I feel more tired now than my final race last year.

Day 8: Volkswagen Whitnall Park Road Race

I'm starting to feel it now. Just a bit tired and lazy feeling. It feels like I did a 5 hour ride yesterday. I was pretty strong throughout the race. Solo off the front for a moment, bridged a few breaks, but it was all together in the end. I had good position at the final turn and tried to open it up, but everybody had more than I did, and I finished with a low placing. The top end just isn't there!



Race Type: Road Race

Course Length: 2.3 miles

Course Description: Rolling hills

Past Winners:

2007 Brian Jensen
2006 Steve Tilford
2005 Juan Jose Haedo (ARG)
2004 Dan Schmatz
2003 Ivan Dominguez (CUB)
2002 Viktor Rapinski (BLR)
2001 Ivan Dominguez (CUB)
2000 Harm Jansen (NED)

Day 7: Cedarburg

I dnf'd this race last year. The Holy Hill race the day before kind of takes it out of you, but I was determined to make it. Today was Eric's last race as well and Patrick is racing with the big boys in downtown Cedarburg. I was pretty strong throughout the race and attacked a few times unsuccessfully. Then a 3 man break went up the road. They stayed away, the field chased hard for several laps but we all just got tired and had nothing left to chase with. The races have been kind of frustrating. The speed is, then its down, and everybody is riding their brakes through the turns. It makes harder. Then you get swarm ed constantly from the sides and its hard to keep your position at the front. With 2 to go, I made a nice move and got near the front, but I got swarmed going into the 2nd to last turn. It was about 400 meters to the line after the final turn, but that just wasn't enough road to move back up once they opened it up. You had to be at least 5th wheel out of the last turn. My legs did hurt a little today as well. That's ok, we finished safe and I've got 2 more races. Patricks race was OK, but he had a minor crash. His front brake mysteriously grabbed hard and sent him over the bars in a turn. He took his free lap and got back in just fine and finished with the group. They did 70 laps, it took 2.5 hours, and was about 100 km. Local boy Luis Zamudio has been out here for almost a week now as well and he is doing great. He just barely missed the winning break today that almost lapped the field. They would have, but they just eased up.

Past Winners:

Year Name
2007 Sebastian Haedo (ARG)
2006 Karl Menzies (AUS)

Check out Patrick on Bahati's wheel (Bahati is wearing the red sprint points leader jersey)

Day 6: Tour of Holy Hill road race

Eric and I were both looking forward to this race after our strong showing yesterday. Its a fun circuit with several power climbs. The country is beautiful and the parking lot is next to a lake that we jump in after the race every year. There needs to be a lake at the finish of every hot bike race. Overall, we went pretty hard most of the time. There were a lot of hard efforts on the hills with attacks and breakaway attempts. I attacked with one rider with 1.5 laps to go, but they brought us back with one to go. Then Eric counter attacked and nobody went with him. Soon one rider jumped up to him and they started to ride away. The field just watched, it was great. We kept riding along and nobody did anything. We came to the first hill of the final circuit and a rider put in a stinging acceleration up the hill, but after that, nobody wanted to do anything. 5 minutes later I heard somebody say 'it looks like were racing for 3rd'. And we were, because the field just gave up. I put in some big efforts to get to the front near the finish, but I kept getting swarmed left and right. It was hard to keep position near the front. They changed the finish this year as well which didn't help, and before I knew it, we were make the right hander with a K to go. I was about 30 back with no room to move up, so thats where I finished. But hey, Eric got the win!

Day 5: Evanston, IL

We were all fired up for this race. Its a fun course. Flat and fast with good turns (for us anyway, others, not so much). Patrick took 2nd here last year. My legs felt great. I could tell from the beginning I had a good ride in me. The race was very frustrating though, because the pace would just keep sitting up and the pack would swell as wide as the road and you would get passed by 20 riders on one side or the other. You basically had to get in the top 3 and power up with every surge if you wanted to stay near the front. Somebody crashed midway through and they temporarily stopped the race. There have been a lot of crashes this year. I was at the front before the final turn of the last lap and the field was all together. Of course, I got swarmed and lost 20 spots. I went around the bend, heard a crash behind me of course (standard protocol in a cat 3 race). I came out of the turn way down on position, so I just started my sprint from the beginning of the straightaway. I'm guessing about 600 meters. I wound it up pretty good and passed a lot of riders. Just as I was coming to the line, there was another crash. A rider hit the deck close to my line and bike was flying through the air right at me. I didn't know if I was going to make it or not. I kept the speed oin though and was able to thread the needle, just barely, for 6th. Eric was just behing and bunny hopped a bike at the line for 12th. Chaos.

Day 4: Waukesha

Today was the spectacular yet feared Waukesha. After last year, I decided this was the hardest criterium that I had ever finished. 1.5 hours and a lot of turns. The course looked smaller and not as menacing this year. It must have set in mentally. My legs felt great. They announced a priem at the beginning of the race for a pair of track wheels. I could use those. I gradually worked my way up as the race progressed. They rang the bell for a $25 priem lap. I was near the front but didn't want to waste an effort to contest it. We crossed the line and they rang the bell for the wheel priem. I was near the front so I decided I was in the running. I held 3rd wheel around the course and the final turn. They started to ramp it up and then we jumped and were all out. We went long, at least 300 meters. I gave it everything I had and stretched hard for the line. He beat me by an inch. It hurt, and I wasn't pedaling. The field started to come by and I tried to list my speed. There wasn't much there. It kept going by and by and I kept trying. Eventually I was dangling off the back barely hanging. Eventually they accelerated out of a turn and I was gone. Oh well, I went for the wheels. Eric took a priem for $50 with 3 to go, then stayed off the front with 2 to go for the $100 priem, except they awarded it to the pack and not Eric. We were dissapointed about that.