10/16/05 - New Crank Brothers Egg Beaters pedals

I've been using Time ATAC pedals on both my bikes for the last few years and thought it was about time (no pun intended) to try something new. At the last few races I noticed alot of people using Crank Brothers Egg Beaters, so this morning I headed out to my local bike shop, Eddys, to see if I could find some. Sure enough they had one set left, the least inexpensive model dubbed the Egg Beater C. If I like these I'll probably splurge for the Ti model and put them on my race bike. Check back for a quick review later in the week as I hope to be riding these at Poto very soon...

10/14/05 - West Branch State Park, Ravenna Ohio

Having just got back from 3 days of riding/racing in Michigan, I wasn't quite ready to go back to my routine of road and bike path rides, so I decided to head out to West Branch State Park for some "real" mountain biking. I had read about the trails on the Cleveland Area Mountain Bike Assoications (CAMBA) website several months ago, but just never made the trip out there. The park is located about 30-40 minutes east of Akron.

CAMBA's website has a lot of good info on West Branch's trails, including a very nice map and some point to point directions. The trail is very well marked, but I'd still take the map just in case you miss one of the sign posts.

I had planned to ride the entire trail, but instead just did two laps of the trails closest to the water (between the water and Cableline Rd) for a total of about 10 miles. These trails are really nice and CAMBA has done a great job with them. My only gripe is that there are so many roots and rocks. I don't ride this type of terrain very much, and tend to stay away from it for fear of crashing and breaking bones LOL. I just got back from riding the Poto and Boyne Mountain trails in Michigan, and much prefer those types of trails because they have fewer roots and rocks....they still have them, but just not as many, and the trails seem to flow better because of it. If you don't mind roots and rocks, West Branch is a blast.

I didn't get around to riding the trails on the other side of Cableline Rd, but some are labeled "more difficult" and "most difficult", so I can only imagine what they look like. My guess is lots of roots and rocks and steep climbs. I will eventually come back to ride those trail, but didn't really want to ride them alone. Speaking of which, I probably wouldn't recommend riding the trails at West Branch by yourself because there are a few tricky spots that can get you into trouble, and if you take a header when you're by yourself, it might be awhile before somebody comes by to help out.

Did I crash? Yup. And you guessed it, I was riding up a climb on a section of very rooty trail. Luckily I was going pretty slow, but still ended up taking a pretty good fall on my left elbow. Yeoch!

A few more pics...

10/09/05 - Boyne Challenge Cross Country Race

Sunday was the Boyne Challenge Cross Country Race, which is actually the Michigan Mountain Bike State Championship event. I was racing in the Sport Class and we were doing two laps of the 10.5 mile course. I knew I'd have no problem with the overall distance, but was a little concerned about the tight, twisty, and technical nature of the course. I love that type of riding, but I'm simply not used to it, and wasn't sure if I could keep up with these guys who ride it everyday.... I would soon find out.

The Pro, Expert, and Sport class racers were going off at 10am, so around 9:30am I started to get warmed up. It was probably 50 degrees out so I couldn't decide if I should wear tights and a long sleeve jersey OR go with typical summer race attire. Even though most of the racers were wearing tights and long sleeves, I decided to go with shorts and regular jersey. I'm glad I did.

They lined us up by age group and sent my group (35-39) off just after 10am. Just as I expected the pace was VERY fast right off the bat. I stayed near the back of the pack only because I basically just race for fun and didn't want to be holding up the fast guys in the tight singletrack that started about a half mile into the course. The pace was pretty damn amazing. These guys were flying. I kept up for a mile or two, but once the real tight singletrack started I just couldn't hang and began to drop back. I settled into my own pace and for awhile was riding by myself, but eventually caught a few guys and rode with them. About halfway thru the lap was the long climb up the golf cart path. I grinded up it pretty easily and actually caught and passed a few riders along the way. Once at the top I slammed down some PowerGel and headed for the singletrack that would take me back down the mountain to finish off the first lap. I think my time for lap 1 was about 55 minutes.

At the start of the second lap I felt pretty good. I knew I was pretty far behind the leaders, but just wanted to finish the race well and not really worry about my overall placing. For the first part of the lap I was riding with one other guy and we were setting a pretty good pace. I was leading him thru the tight stuff at a pretty good clip when IT happened. I felt one of my contact lenses pop out. SHIT!! All of a sudden I only had one eye to see, which made things real, um, interesting. It was tough to see all the roots and rocks, so I told the guy behind me to go on ahead because I needed to slow down a bit. A few other guys passed me, but I finally made it to the golf cart path climb without any major problems, although I did brush a tree or two just because it was hard to see some of the smaller ones. On the golf cart path climb, I caught one of the guys that passed me, then all of a sudden I heard the strangest sound coming up behind me...sorta like somebody having an asthma attack. It turned out to be the lead Pro class guy LAPPING me. He was flying up the climb and had some sort of strange breathing technique going. It didn't sound good, but it wasn't really slowing him down either. After the climb we headed back into more tight singletrack and the guy I was riding with pulled away again. Two more Pro/Elite guys passed me just before the final descent down the mountain. I came through the finish at 2 hours and 5 minutes. I figure I probably lost 5-10 minutes because of the contact lense issue, but at any rate I was still pleased with my results.

The trails at Boyne Mountain are truly amazing, and I really gotta hand it to Fun Promotions for setting up such an AWESOME race course. I don't think I've ever raced a course that flowed as nicely as this one did. There were several sections that required 100% concentration with not much time to rest or relax. It was pretty much constant up and down thru the trees with lots of tight turns and banked corners.... awesome stuff. Not only was the course great, but the overall organization of the event was first rate. I will be back next year!!

Race Details
Distance: 21 miles (two 10.5 mile laps)
Start Time: 10:00am
Temperature: 55 degrees!!
Class: Sport Male (35-39 age group)
Finish Time: 2:05

Race Day Food/Hyrdration
Pre-Race:
7:00am: Bagel, waffel, etc (Continental breakfast at Best Western yo)
7:30am: Met-RX Big 100 Nutrition Bar w/16oz water

During Race:
Water (Camelbak with about 40oz water)
PowerGel (4 servings mixed w/water)

Post Race:
Endurox R4 (18oz bottle)
Clif Bar
Pringles
Miscellaneous other stuff...

Bike Setup
Bike: Ibis Mojo
Front Tire: Kenda Nevegal (45 psi)
Rear Tire: Specialized Fast Trak Pro (45 psi)

The Slingshot Factory Team was at Boyne and had a few of their very cool bikes on display.

10/08/05 - Boyne Mountain Resort, Michigan

On Saturday we arrived at Boyne Mountain Resort around noon. I wanted to get there a day before the Boyne Challenge Cross Country race so I could pre-ride the course and checkout the rest of the resort. This place is incredible. I was expecting a few small ski slopes and maybe a lodge, but instead found several huge (for midwestern standards) slopes, lots of condos, luxury homes, golf courses, and so on. Several people have told me that Boyne has the best mountain bike trails in Michigan, and now I have to agree with them. Having done several other Michigan trails, including Poto and a few in the UP, I would now rank Boyne as my favorite.


On Saturday we pre-rode the cross country race course, which was a 10.5 loop around the resort. It started out with lots of tight and technical singletrack with several really tricky climbs mixed in. About halfway thru, there was a long and steep climb up the mountain via a golf cart path. This thing was a lung buster, but actually a nice break from the very tight singeltrack which required constant attention. After the climb, the trail headed back down the mountain thru more tight and twisty singletrack before it spit you out on a fast descent down one of the ski slopes to the main road that goes thru the resort.

10/07/05 - Potawatomi Trail, Pinckney Michigan

Since we were on our way to Boyne Mountain Resort for a race on Sunday, me and my cousin decided to stop along the way at Pinckney Rec Area and ride the infamous Potawatomi Trail. This was my first trip back to "the Poto" in close to 10 years. Awesome is about the only word that describes this place. Where I live in Ohio, we just don't get to ride trails like this.


Poto has a little bit of everything... technical climbs, fast dowhills, and lots of sweet singletrack. One thing I did notice on this trip is how well the trail is marked. On my last trip to the Poto, I got lost a few times and had to backtrack. I had a map to go by, but the trail wasn't marked very well. This has all changed. Many of the intersections along the the trail now have signs that are numbered and each one has a map posted so you know just where you are. I wish every mountain bike trail was marked this way. The MMBA has done a great job of maintaining and improving this trail.


In addition to the 17 mile Potawatomi Trail, you can also do the 5.1-mile Crooked Lake Trail and the 1.9-mile Silver Lake Trail. All three of these trails are accessible from the same parking area.