Winsted Woods: Pepperoni, Peppercini and PBR

There wasn't enough rain on the drive home to clean the diSSent but I was hoping.  Getting out of the car at the pizza restaurant is when I realized how sore I was.  I was still all over.  The nice thing, though, was the drive home was only 45 minutes instead of the 3 hour drive from East Taunton.

When I got home it took me an hour to get the car unloaded and everything sorted out, while enjoying my Pepperoni and Peppercini Pizza and an ice cold PBR.  Wet clothes hung to dry out, gear put a way, extra tires hung up.  My gear organization is getting better but needs a few tweaks, especially in the wet clothes department.

By the time I was ready to start on the muddy stuff, the family returned and of course Brodie, my youngest was eager to wash all my muddy gear including the diSSent.  After cleaning the chain and everything else I did the once over on the bike and decided after two wet and muddy races I need to make some changes on the bike.  First off, the I am not liking the response of the Clark Brake cable so I am going to replace it with Slik Cable, like what I have on the Dillinger.  I think I am going to take my brakes apart and see if I need to replace the pads, if anything they need a thorough cleaning.

If I do any riding this week, weather depending of course, it will have to be on the Dillinger.  Of course, Seattle weather is back and it looks like I will be grounded until the weekend.  Meanwhile, I have new BB for the Marin that I have to install so I can get my all weather fixie rolling again.

Winsted Woods: Createx Colors CAT1 Race team

322 Alex Combes 324 TJ Jaykus

7 out of 7 at Winsted Woods

The Massasoit Lung Opener was a cake walk compared to Winsted Woods, this was a death march.  It started raining Saturday night and around 9 AM a thunder storm rolled in and dumped a few inches on the area.  That same storm tracked right up to Winsted.  The longer course at Massasoit was easier to ride but it was a lot colder however at Winsted, the combination of the rain and the course made it a real blood bath, for me at least.  At the start of my pre-lap, the trails were already pretty greasy and you knew it was only going to get worse.

After the pre-lap I switched out my rear tire for the Serfas Krest 9r, while heavier, because its a 2 ply puncture resistant tire, the tread pattern is ultra grippy in slippery conditions and I can run it at 25 to 30 psi and not worry about flats.  The tire change was helpful but the trails for the CAT2 race were a lot worse after the CAT1s tore up the course.  Again I hit that wall and couldn't push myself any faster, granted it was pretty hard to go faster on account of the terrain.  I think it's the way I am training.  I am riding so much during the week, and Saturday, I am not giving myself enough time to recover.  Going to have switch tactics.

What's this?  Hecklers?  Did we just get teleported to Europe or something?  These guys were inspirational to say the least.  

After this guy got heckled, it was my turn!

That was a greasy course and I did a lot of walking, in fact I was last person to finish  My time sucked but I finished and that is all that matters to me.

Another muddy race.  Probably going to have to replace my brake pads but I don't think I had much stopping power on the last descent.

Saturday Morning Eye Opener: Bad tire choices.

After getting the diSSent set up with new shoes, WTB Exiwolf 2.3s upfront and Nanoraptors in the rear, a Facebook friend said to ditch the Exiwolf because it's really a western tire and not made for New England Singletrack but I had to see for myself.  In fact, a later recommendation from someone else said to ditch the Nanoraptors, too.  Well, it became evident in the Big Burn on the second up, a technical ascent and that I immediately lost traction on.

Blue Track is today, red is previous rides

If that first incident wasn't telling on the single track that cuts over to the blue trail from the big burn I lost traction again, stalled out and went down scraping my knee.  Then a little bit later, off the blue trail, headed towards the Mica mines on a trail that I never tried before my front tire slipped in the leaves and I went down.  This time hitting my knee on a rock.  Great!  Day before a race and now I will have a sore knee.

Despite the knee I still managed to have a great ride and rode 8.5 miles.  Everything is working great on the bike and I love riding it.  

Later during the day, I put the Rampage back on in the front and a Maxxis Ignitor in the rear.  We'll see how that does at Winny Woods on Sunday.

The Friday Fix: Mou ichido kudasai!

OK, let's try this again!  I think I got it right this time so I took off on the Lambert again and had one of the best commutes of my life.  It was a bit on the chilly side and I was in tights and riding jacket but I could have had an ear band on, too.  It was 43 degrees when I left the house.

The Lambert was silent but deadly.  The 52:17 gear ratio is a bit much for Southern New England hills but I figure it will just make me stronger but it's the 23c tires that were really impressive.  I had them pumped to 90 psi and they just hummed along on the road.  The bike is really fast and I was able to climb most hills seated.

Who has a conference call at 3:30 PM on a Friday?  Someone on my team did but I was ready to pop smoke none-the-less as soon as the call was over.  It was a surprise leaving the office because it was actually sprinkling out.  I had to go back in and get a Fedex envelope for my laptop because I didn't want to take any chances getting it wet.

Now that it's warm out, it wouldn't be a good fixed gear commute without a beer stop at the Hawleyville Packy.  An ice cold PBR Tall Boy to quench my thirst and prepare me of all the climbing the rest of the way home.  I am a chicken shit when it comes riding such skinny rubber in dirt so my new route home takes me along the highway over to Tunnel Road and then on to Currituck.  I might try riding down to the other end of Currituck and going that way next time.  This bike is such a joy to ride