I know who you are!

You stole my picture! And it sounds like the girls love that picture!

Here!!

As revenge I'll take this one and use it as the picture in my profile. Uuh, stop, what am I thinking here - better not!

What happened?

Sorry, but I was simply too lazy to post the last days. So here is what happened:

Monday:
First day back from the roadtrip, found a comfortable position on my office-chair so my ass wouldn't hurt, and went back to work. Easy recovery ride in the evening that was kept short. To my luck our ride leader forgot to dress warm enough and got so cold that we headed back early. Checked out the new American Cycle&Fitness shop on Woodward. It's sweet, somehow reminds me of a Starbucks... two perfect worlds meet: coffee and bikes!

Tuesday:
I fell for American Idol. Yep, I watched it - blury as hell since I just have a cheap antenna, but that's what you do when you're too tired to get usefull stuff done.

Wednesday:
Got my credit card receipt and saw the charge for the Fitness Center on it. Shock - reminder that I still have a membership, so I better go there. Did some weight lifting and spent a lot more time checking out the interesting character there.

Thursday:
Easy trainer ride. What happened to me in North Carolina? Since I'm back I simply don't want to ride at temps below 55 F any more.

Friday:
Quick trip to the gym - still thinking about that credit card receipt.

Saturday:
What a shitty day - the weather sucked. The plan was to head out with Jim for an around town MTB tour, but it started to snow early in the ride. Heavy and wet. 2.5 hours into the ride one hand was frozen, and I barely was able to put on the mittens I luckily brought along. Nice tailwind on the way home, and we finally suffered through 80 misserable, cold, wet, gray Michigan miles. Thanks for the ride Jim, I wouldn't have gone that far if you hadn't been in town.

Big WRCS awards party in the evening at Joe's house. His basement just blew me away. It's finished, and his definition of "finished" means: Bar, beer on tap, kitchen, Pooltable, Arcade-machine, and 3 TV's. Insiders know this place as well as "Sports Town Tavern". It was fun seeing many of the WRCS riders at the party - but sometimes hard to recognize them without balaclava and helmet.


Sunday:
Another day on the mountainbike: We rode from Detroit to Chicago and back. Just kidding. But man, we were going ridiculous fast for 2 hours. I never looked up during that suffer-fest, so when we finally slowed down and I lifted my head I was surprised to find myself in Milford and not further west in Chicago...

Roadtrip - day 7

Spent 2 hours in Du Pont Ntl Forest. Cool place to ride, lots of ups and downs, and the trails are more what I'm used to. Quick change in the hotel afterwards, and we headed off for a roadbike ride. Yes, I'm on the roadbike again, and I had a great time. But how can't you enjoy yourself when you're flying down a road like a rollercoaster at 45 mph!

Forgot the camera on the rides, but here is a picture of our hotel room just after a bomb exploded:

Roadtrip - day 6

The camera is working again! Sweet ride, local Jacob (Trek rep from the area) showed us around. Thanks.

Climbing hurt at the beginning of the day, but the legs started to feel better throughout the day.

Greg and Chris were flying down the trails with Jacob - sounded like he was pretty impressed with their descending skills. Didn't apply to me - I suck on the downhills...


Robert looking fast


Greg climbing


Chris, a 29er and a crooked helmet


That's me


Singletrail in NC

Roadtrip - day 5

Met some other Michigan racers today for a day on the trail. Long uphill, fast downhill. We were out for quite a while, but still needed to add a couple of more miles to make it a 5 h day. Overall the pace wasn't too crazy, felt pretty good.

Roadtrip news

Roadtrip - day 1
Getting up at 6:30 - uuh, that hurts. Wanted to hit the road with Robert at 7:00 AM, which would have worked out if I hadn't assumed that I have to drive to his place. He drove to mine - so of course we missed each other...

After a couple of hours of driving through OH and PA we hit some railtrail out of Ford City, PA and did some exploring on our own. With ~2.5 hours not too big of a ride, but a nice way to mix up the long ass drive to Harrisonburg, VA.





Roadtrip - day 2
We rode the first half of the Shenandoah 100 race course today. That should make 50 miles. And if you can't find the first turn and get lost on the ride back from the half way mark to the car that adds 20 more miles.

Did a lot of climbing, a good amount on singletrail (mostly because our guide - that would be me - needed the full climb up to "Wolfs Ridge" before he decided that we now for sure went the wrong way around that eastern loop of the course - the correct direction would have brought us up there on a boring 2-track).

Getting lost wasn't so much fun, especially because it started to rain - aah I mean pour. A lot. We got dirty. A lot.

I think I scared the shit (a lot) out of some locals in their Pickups when I asked them for directions. My accent and completely mud covered face is something they don't see to often down here. Glad none of them hunters shot me!



Roadtrip – day 3
We bought a map. Now navigating the 2nd half of the race course was a lot easier. I can’t believe how little I remembered from the race. There was a section of road I though was maybe 3 miles long, but riding it now it was a lot longer. Also some singletrail section, that I had no idea I every rode before. What am I thinking during a race?

All the singletrail downhills were so sweet and fast, I can’t believe it. At one point of time I looked at the computer and it showed 26 mph. Wu-hoa, too much to take your eyes of the trail. Fun!


Roadtrip – day 4
Climbed up to “Reddish Knob” on the roadbike. Roadbike? Yep, Robert brought his two Treks along. Thanks!

We climbed for about one hour – it was a pretty steep climb, and the wind gust didn’t make it a lot easier, because it was a headwind for most of the time. I grinded my way up with a super low cadence. Not because I wanted to, but just because I ran out of gear.

Robert did a sympathy ride and picked the same gearing – and made it to the top faster than me….

Yesterday my HR monitor decided to die, today my watch stopped to work, and my digital camera finally retired from taking pictures. I wonder what brakes next? Probably my body…

Lube details

Sorry, but I have to come back to the chamois lube topic again. Got an email today at work an was asked which lube I use. I would have answered, but I didn't know the name of the product - even though I bought many of those tubes so far.... Now I'm back home and actually see what it is: "Ozone Interactive Protect Cream". I think it comes somewhere from Italy...

Found a place online where you can buy it for $19.99 - what a rip off! Our sponsor shop American Cycle & Fitness has it a lot cheaper!

I know the Royal Oak store has it in stock (but you better hurry to get it before it'll all be mine!)

Going to North Carolina

We are getting our plans together for the trip to NC. Some of my teammates from the ACF-WSC team and myself are heading down there. If all the logistics work out Robert and I head down on Saturday, sneak in a ride with friends from the Columbus, OH area, continue on to the Shenandoah mountains to check some trails there and then head to Brevard, NC - the final destination - on Tuesday.

Sounds like some big miles are waiting for us...

Gear review #1

I got new shorts from our sponsor brand Nike. Man, now I know how worn out my old shorts really were. Those new ones rock! Rode in them for a couple of hours on Sunday and Monday. The padding is thick, but you can't feel the material at all. Together with some chamois lube it feels really nice (ok, too much detail now). Give them a try - they might be a little more expensive than the average short, but I'm convinced those $20 are invested really well.



We were hanging out at the bikeshop after the Monday night ride - a highlight was the tricycle high speed chase through the isles of the shop. And it was just as much fun doing burnouts on those rides (yes, that's possible).

Gears are back in town!

Time to abondon the Singlespeed and learn how to shift again. Todays weapon of choice (which, by the way, I would sell or trade against a roadbike - shoot me an email if you're interested or you know someone in need of a nice bike):


We met with a bunch of people, and I got scared once I saw many of them showed up on crossbikes, and one even on a roadbike. The ride was as fast as his roadbike looked. Decided 2 hours into the ride to not blow myself up and let those guys hammer it all out. Before I did that I tried to look as strong as possible, and it even worked. Comment from one of the cross-riders after I passed him on a climb: "Alex made me look like I'm riding a tricycle!"

I'm also starting to get the point of the city limit sign sprints (that is: once you see the sign go as fast as you can to the sign) - I just need someone to point out that there is a city limit sign up ahead. Had 2 good sprints with Danny - and of course lost both of them...

I'm tired, and so is the MEGAbike after all the winter-riding it had to handle. Here a short comparion of what it looked at the beginning of the winter and 3 months later:

Just pedaling...

Back in town and on the bike again. Longer trainer session on Friday evening, outside solo today for 5 hours.

It's funny, you ride around town - and Metro Detroit is not so small - and of course you run into friends on their bikes. Took me only about 4 hours, but at the end I saw Danny, Kelly and Will.

Today's brain fart: All the time I wished I had my camera on me, because it was so nice, until I realized 10 miles from home that I actually packed it this morning. Biking doesn't seem to make me any smarter...

Kokopelli here I come!

This is it, just booked my flight to Salt Lake City, and once I'm there I'll jump in the car and drive to Moab. Then there is only one more thing to do - THE RACE.

Now there is no way any more to change my mind about doing that race or not. Am I excited? Oh yeah!

Bike related travel info:
IMBA members fly their bike for free when you book your Frontier flight through Adventure Travel. And my flight is fairly cheap: $287.10 includes everything (taxes, one bikebox up to 50 pounds, one bag).

Some pics about the trail I found on the internet:

Up North

OK, just a couple of weeks ago I heard that one of my classmates became a famous opera singer in Europe. I'm currently in Sault Ste Marie, MI for work - now who is making a career here?

It's cold in the northern parts of Michigan, and I don't have my bike with me. I didn't expect any workout options during this trip, but I actually got one hour in today. Better than not working out at all...