I managed 5th today and while I lost time to Tostado who bumped me down to 5th GC, I made some time on 3rd GC, racing getting tight up in here! After every day we refuel with oranges, watermelon, coke, chips and custom sandwiches made to order thanks to this guy!

Mike doesn’t get enough props for what he does. If you want to do a whopper of a race, rip some sick trails and be taken care of the whole time I would say Mike has put together an event that can suit your needs, thanks Mike.

Tomorrow we go to Death Zone Charlie (12.500ft). The view is one of the best in the country and the DH will make anyone pucker at least once. Should be fun.

Blake

The second phase of drama, turning it into DRAMA was the announcement of the disqualification of Luis Mejia of Colombia for taking outside assistance (don’t worry he still raced and paced the leaders). In protest many spanish speaking riders blocked the start, crying and moaning how it was unfair.

With the official time started, spanish riders yelling bloody murder and gringos looking at each other asking “what do we do?”, race leader Ben Sonntag took the microphone and basically told the group that rules apply to everyone and that many people including himself came to Costa Rica to race and that’s exactly what he was going to do. Props to Ben, that took some guts.

Finally the race was on.

So many motos

Having good legs I managed to keep site of the lead group for a little longer today…they are the little spects at the top

I think Sam is just getting all his bad luck mojo out in one race. After fixing another flat Sam joined for awhile and also gave me the first draft I have had all race.

The views today were awesome. We started in fog, climbed through some rain, into the clouds and the out of them again. Pretty cool.

The descent was so long and bumpy that at one point I lost feeling in my right hand (rear break) and let up enough while still full on breaking with left hand (front break), doing a mini nose wheelie and scaring myself I spent the rest of the descent focused on not doing anything stupid like having my hands slip off the bars, easier said than done. After the descent finally turned into pavement I rode down into town where a motorcycle cop saw me. He turned around and rode up next to me with sirens blaring. He asked me “Tu solo? Primero!!???” I told him yes. I’m pretty sure he thought I was the race leader and went to bat for me directing and stoping traffic. While I was only 15th or so, I really realized what it feels like to be the race leader!

The finish today was good. I believe I was 15th ish but I felt good and rode a good race. We finished at some location which I’m still not really sure what it was, but the volcano was in the background and overall it was refreshing to be on level ground again.

So that’s DRAMA and good legs, oh yea BANANA BOAT. Perhaps the biggest lesson today was in patience and making good times out of bad. We were done with the race, and had already eaten lunch by 11:30am, AWESOME! What wasn’t cool was pissing off an already angry bus driver (seecyclingdirt.org for some funny stuff on this!) and ending up at our hotel at 3:30….did I mention that the drive to our hotel is only like 5 mins away?

waiting. At this point is wasn’t bad. The bus is leaving in 10 mins. Manny had his gangsta atire on.

10 minutes later. Sam “tu said diez minutos, diez minutos ago”.

Still waiting. “So where the hell do I have to take these gringos?”

Rebecca and Sue were really pumped!

Still waiting. Getting the picture yet?

This is about when Colt decided to give the driver a really hard time. Made us laugh, a lot. “Watch this”

Captain of the banana boat. Text, drive, almost kill us a couple times…oh yea and drive the opposite direction as our hotel!

We finally made it and let’s just say we’re not in the nicest part of town. It’s a bit of a downgrade from the place we stayed at last night, and the places we dropped other people off at. Oh well, I don’t have to sleep on a pull out again!

Tomorrow is railroad ties day. If you believe in a god, pray that I don’t break.

You know packet pickup is off the chain when the band fires up an encore set.

Now, Wisconsin is an island unto its own, unless you live up there, of course. But, I don’t, so I never quite found myself in the neighborhood, and the race would pass without me each year, clearly not suffering in any way from my lack of participation. 2000+ folks and a waiting list that goes for days, getting into the race is harder than winning it. Well, no, I’ll take that back. I was a last minute entrant thanks to the grace of Gary, the promoter.

You see, its better to regret something you did, than didn’t do. Just 3 days before the race, this resonated too loudly with me to ignore, so a phone call was made, a plane ticket booked, and off to the great white (American) north I went.

To be in that start is an experience, in a race of experience.

Fast doesn’t do this start justice. The first half hour is pure chaos, alternating coasting while gasping with sprinting as hard as you can, dozens of riders swarming your position…ironically fighting for a singular bike space on a 40′ wide  and 40 mile long ski trail.  Machismo runs strong at the Mid West World Champs.

Eventually things will thin out, but grasshopper….you must be patient.

Something for me to think about for next year. I gave the race a go with about 7 or 8 miles to go, per Jon Page’s suggestion, and the plan worked…until 2miles to go. Too bad its the Chequamegon 40 and not 38! I’ll say that it was the funnest time I’ve had losing in a long time. Brian and Tristan are good guys.

I was out at dawn the next day, as I had a 600 mile moto ride to knock out.

Now its Interbike time before Snyder and I head Back’East for the VT50. I think that might be the curtain call on mtb racing for 2010?

The trip out to Ohio for Manatoc was full of surprises. Starting the trip off with with the airline losing my bike and myself losing my own bag….DOH!… was not the best of starts but Jamis rep Matt Majka hooked me up and soon I was on a 650b cruisin the course.

Saturday was Manatoc demo day and Jamis was out letting people shred a fleet of 650b’s on the race course and its adjacent trail network. Ohio isn’t a place where you might think a plush big travel bike like the 650b would thrive, but the terrain and people just eat it up.

The guys at 331 productions did a top notch job on the event…. the race food was catered and their was a live Flight for Life swoop chopper landing, Hollywood style.

Cratering….I think the record was 18 crates set by a 7 year old

Oh yea.

Between working the demo with Matt, chatting it up with Jamis fans and pre riding the course on the d29 (my bike that showed up at 3:20am) I neglected my body and didn’t give it the necessities it needed such as you know, things like water. Or food. Needless to say the Saturday afternoon CX race didn’t go too well.

Sunday was the XC race. Running on low levels across the board, geared up in baggy’s and a collared mesh tech shirt I picked my place on the start line next to the guy in jean shorts who I have named the humbler. He’s the guy who might not invest in all the fancy gear but nonetheless throws down come the weekend. I’m pretty convinced he puts on the jean shorts just to hurt your feelings if you don’t beat him. And I didn’t.

Kevin and the guys who put on the race at the boyscout camp do a top notch job and putting together a fun course. After a successful weekend of demo and racing Matt and I headed over to Mike’s casa for some post weekend shenanigans. Mike’s got one of the coolest pump tracks in his backyard I’ve ever seen.

We ended the weekend in proper Ohio style with a BBQ and bond fire.

The weekend wasn’t anywhere in the top 10 in terms of race performance but the despite all my hangups I still had a great time, made some good friends and saw a race scene that puts on a great series with the interest of racers and fans in mind. Perhaps next year I’ll be back for another weekend of Manatoc.

Being in the big show is a career highlight and one that I never was able to achieve. To see them participating, giving their all, and challenging themselves on the world platform is exciting to see and inspirational. Its been awhile since Jamis had 2 riders on their bikes in World’s XC in a long time, too.

Big ups, guys!

(here’s Rotem, #60, in the Elite XC start. Pretty much any guy in this photo could rip your legs off at any given race.)

Robbie in the team relay race

While the real pros were off banging bars with amped up racers from around world, Sager was reaching into his bag of courage and flying into Fargo, North Dakota as part of his travel plan to the Laddies Loppet in Maplelag, Minnesota.

The guys who run the Maplelag resort and camp put on a class act of an event. 3 stages – TT, STXC, and XC make the travel worth it as a stand alone event, but then you combine one of the best family environments I’ve seen at a bike race, ever, amazing food, a tremendously welcoming and warm vibe, with a great course, perfect weather and the best dirt of the year…this is what I’m talking about when it comes to bike racing.

We all aspire to do the “pro” races around the country, and there’s a time and place for the pure business side of competition, but Maplelag, and most leading regional events in general, are where the heart of our sport is. Competition is nothing to sneeze at (fast guys live in every region), the courses are generally so fun you get lost in the pleasure of riding and forget to race sometimes, and most importantly – they fit the life style of today’s passionate cyclist – affordable, family friendly, competitive, and convenient.

You might argue with northern Minnesota being convenient, but I’ll challenge you to find Granby, Sun Valley, or Downieville near too much, either. Today’s modern bike racer, be it a professional or hungry newbie, generally is balancing all that life throws his or her way….and if you can’t juggle/balance life while attending a bike race, well guess what’s going to be the first to get dropped?

That’s right – the bike racing.

Jay Richards at the Maplelag ranch (that’s the Texan in me, sorry) has it figured out and I highly recommend you add this event to your calendar for 2011 – and that’s even if you have to fly to the race. Fargo’s only 50 miles away, Minneapolis maybe 4hrs and some change – bring your whole crew – teammates, wife, kids, brother/sister/neighbor….you’ll not be let down by the experience.

We’ll be back next year, no doubt.

Kids’ racing summed up the weekend. Every time you walked near the course, the little rippers were busy rippin’.

Perfect dirt.

The Willy Wonka cabin. Somehow inside there was a double bed, a single bed, and a wood-fire stove.

Only about 15% of the lodge’s lunchbox collection.

Kids bikes were 1:1 with adult bikes, if not out numbering the older folks’ machines!

I gave one of the weakest podium bubbly sprays of the year…but I don’t think anyone would have appreciated getting hosed down with champaign.

Anyone who’s been to Mapelag knows this station. Endless cookies and coffee, and lot of downtime are the devil’s handy work.

Robbie raced the U23 race on Friday….it was a day in the trenches, a battle of which only he can describe:

I’ve certainly had better days on the bike- like, you know, every other day of my life! Today was one of those days where I couldn’t get out of my own way. Warming up I felt great, everything was looking right and I was ready to do some damage. However, when the race started I began to come apart right away. It’s difficult to know what the problem was because I had never felt like that before. For the first 4.5 laps I was struggling and just managing to stay up right and moving forward. Toward the end of the race I started to ride a bit better and moved up in the positions and managed to finish the same as last year in 32nd- top North American. It certainly wasn’t the race I was aiming for or expecting but it isn’t the end of the world. I still have two more years to try to chase down the podium and I feel it is more than enough time. On the bright side some early morning rain made the course perfect for our race. The track was really dry and dusty all week from unseasonably warm weather which was actually making the course a bit difficult- you couldn’t see the lines from all of the powdery dust. This course is certainly a mountain bikers course and despite the conditions would be fun.

In the end I’m a bit disappointed but still excited about racing and looking forward to next season!

Rob

Meanwhile, Rotem is racing the Elite race on Sunday…that’s a lot of sitting around at a French Canadian ski resort during late summer. He checks in during the most difficult part of being a pro cyclist: Waiting.

Being a pro cyclist traveling all the time is no easy deal, good thing I love what I do everyday.

Since June I’ve lived out of a suitcase and one big bike bag…it feels that I’m always on my way to somewhere, never settling down, or completely unpacking. Because of this lifestyle, you have to be able to consistently adapt to new places, new people, changing languages and cultures. I guess the place where all traveling cyclists find there “common-ground” is WiFi. When arriving at a new temporary house or race venue, it’s always about hooking to a solid internet connection. That’s how you ground.

After saying goodbyes and a lot of thanks to my host-family in New York, I took a short flight to Canada where I joined the Israel national team. Its not your typical national team – it’s one big family – 5 guys and gals, each from different category, with one mechanic and one coach. when I arrived early this week in Mont Sainte Anne, our Israeli apartment and the venue was kinda lonely – an empty complex occupied by mostly officials. Two days later and the race venue is all crowded with tents, booths, spandex racers, downhillers, 4Xers, spectators and media. This is the World Championships of Mountain Biking… in Canada…it can’t get any much better than this. But, back to grounding…the internet connection was just impossible and irritating get ahold of…sudden yelling could be overheard throughout the day – typically from people getting tired of trying to check their emails, facebooking, and then losing their connection. At least we had each other in the Israeli house – I mean who else can I speak Hebrew with around here?! That’s old school. With this “family” on the road with me, dinners feels special again, and everyone joins in for the cooking/BBQ and the cleaning after.

How about the race course?

Well, what can I say… a real hard man’s course – nowhere to rest, steep climbing, super technical sections all over the place… a complete dust bowl during the week when temperatures stayed around higher 80′s, now it’s cloudy and has begun to rain. Canadian weather is even more unpredictable than Colorado weather. I’m just keeping my mind open for every scenario, I could be racing a whole different course tomorrow it dries up… I wish I had my dualie Dakar here for the extra cushion over this bumpy course…but it will definitely help to ride Saguaro 2.0 tubulars on my hardtail, and that keeps it EXTRA Euro, you know.

Either way it always comes down to 2 hours of racing mountain bikes and it’s always like putting pain and fun in a blender and topping that milkshake with good vibe and people! Hells yeah people, this is the big show and I’m excited for tomorrow!

notes :
* this a HUGE blow up bag, and yes there’s a launch ramp before it… looks sweet! Sunday afternoon I’ll work on my double back flips.

* new star of David champion outfit! We’re trying to keep up with the Dutch regarding national team style points.

* I guess you can be at Eurobike and World’s at the same time. Flat pedals and RST fork? I guess they’re saying I’m “casual performance at a value”.

Last note:

Blake forgot his carry-on yesterday on the flight to Ohio. A carry-on which had his shoes, pedals, racing kits, gloves, glasses…pretty much everything you need to race a bike. Whoops.

Now his carry-on is lost in airport land and the time, the reunion undetermined at this point. Left with just the clothes on his back, a new albiet not necessarily temporary uniform has be acquired:

With the up’s and down’s this race has dolled out, and because today was the last day,   I decided to leave it all out there on the course. Today’s stage was a bit more suited for roadies and trackies than the pure single track shredders, so I decided to roadie on the guys and ride my D29 hardtail (compared to the XCR I’ve ridden in every stage of every stage race this year). I’m on a new 2011 version of the d29 and have only three rides on this puppy…what better way to get a feel for her than with 14 miles of jeep road climbing up to the continental divide.

With the course description previously mentioned, some of the racers were on more of a tour than a race, Ross opted for the baggy’s.

The neutral rollout was actually neutral today. Woah. The roadies of the group were sitting behind the lead car like rabid wolves waiting to chase down their prey.

As the race got underway I decided that I would leave it all on the course today and go for broke, after all I’m getting a belt buckle after this stage that say’s BAMF’er on it. I soon found myself riding with some people I havent seen all week except for at the start and finish, I’d lie if I said this didn’t motivate me.

At the end of the day I was happy to sit down and feel like I didn’t anything else to give, it’s a healthy feeling. Like I mentioned, this stage was fast fast fast and the roadies were in paradise. Not that Colby doesn’t have skillz, but he is a trackie. Colby summoned his Jedi powers (as Mike the race director would say), made a balsy move and it worked out, good on ya Colby.

The race is over and I think everyone is pretty satisfied with that. Our bodies are telling us no more but I don’t think any of us can get enough of the sweet trails we’ve been riding this week. Time to lay the bikes down, pick up a brew and let it all soak in. The Breck Epic is an awesome race put on by those who truly love mountain biking. Mike and his crew do a top notch job and to say this race is anything short of an awesome experience would just be plain wrong.

Until next year- Big Black

You see, while Blake was pushing his XCR through scree and gravel, I was riding a bike path backwards along the course to meet the guys on the DH.

The racing was animated today by with guys recovering at disproportionate rates to each other, some finding their legs and others finding deep and dark places they’d rather not visit.

Curiously, I saw Tyrone’s 29′er stashed at feed zone 2, which directly preceded a long flat bike path section and flowly single track where you’d want a 29′er, but prior to that section/feed zone, you’d want a dualie. I’m not a fan of bike swapping during races unless you have a mechanical, and even then that sort of is a grey area….but like the Euros say, if its not taped off, its not illegal.

But, let’s get back to Blake’s dark place.

The hurt locker, pain cave, whatever you call that state where every pedal stroke is painful and you can’t seem to forget any moment of time and suffering, acutely aware of every second and every synapse in your body and the pain that is transmitted…yet you soldier on, taunting the darkness to creep in more tightly around you. Just to see how long you can linger in its shadow? Or is it to prove that the mind really is the master of the body?

Keep pushing. Going slower only makes the pain last longer.

Breck Epic Day 4 is in the books and it was the longest stage of the race thus far and pretty tough.

However, since having back to back days of SUFFERING I decided to ride easy early on and try to actually enjoy my riding. In this process one would think you would end up going slower, since you’re riding at an easier pace.

Up the high country however there seems to be a paradox: go slower to go faster. I had a great day today and finally didn’t get chick’d by Pua, although she did give me a strong run for my money. Today’s climbs were long and hard…..but the descents were awesome.

Tomorrow’s stage is pretty gonna be one of those where I debate bringing hiking boots, but I’m looking forward to it anyway. In more important news, the new season of Bear Grills starts tonight on Discovery I think something exciting happens.

Sager took some pics. Enjoy.

Until Tomorrow- Big Black