Rim Wrecker Race Report

As expected per the weather folks, snow was in store overnight to the tune of about 4". Woke up to this in Hermann.

Word had it that the Council Bluff area should not get that much snow. Funny how things go sometimes. With rain all day Saturday and snow overnight, Council Bluff was no better off than Hermann.

Arrived at race site to this.

Arrived just as the Marathon and Beginners took off.

We had the pleasure to ride on trail like this

Before the snow melted these two were ready to show the Marathon and Beginners a not so warm welcome to the trail head :)

By 12:30 the blue sky was working hard to show it's face melting off all the snow by the time my race was over.

So 12:30 arrives and off we go, Experts first followed by Sport and Single speeders. We did a short out and back on the pavement before sliding down the trail from the campground to the main trail for 12 plus miles of fun. Not sure how many of us there were, good guess 25 to 30 with 11 in my group, Sport 30+. I was about 10th overall going into the trail.

Near the bottom of the down hill slide and nice piece of mud flew in my eye. Not such a big deal except for the contact lens which was not happy with that. Had to pull over and yank the lens out before heading off again after several passed me by.

Wet, mud, rocky, and roots are quite possibly the worst conditions I could put myself in. I'm not the best technically and today exposed every weakness possible. I was here to grab points and do the best I could. The rest of the day I plugged along trying not to bite it too hard or get an unfortunate mechanical.

For most of the race I was out there with no other riders around. Near the half way point 3 single speeders passed by, after that I passed no one, and no one passed me.

I got to the end of the 12 mile loop at 1 hour 38 min, much slower than the 1 hour 16 min lap I did a few weeks ago on dry ground. But what can you expect with all the mud, did I mention the creek crossings so full of water that I know my bottom bracket was fully underwater on several occasions, and the fact that I had adjust my disc break pads several times?

This what all that looks like when done

Bike before

Bike after

To my surprise I crossed the line 3rd in my group.... this gives me 20 points today for a total 37 for the series which should be good enough to move me into 2nd overall behind last week and this weeks winner Ira Brown.

After what was a rewarding day the final step was to get all the mud washed out.

There is only one Mid West Fat Tire Series race in April, I'll miss that one for my Tour of Hermann event. Next points race is in May. Between now and then I plan to get out to Castlewood as much as I can to practice practice practice.

Big thanks to Andy and the rest of the RW crew for a great day!

Lost Valley Race Report

Louis and I headed to Lost Valley for the first in Mid West Fat Tire series Sunday. The last two scheduled races have been canceled; I along with many was hopeful for good weather this week so that we could finally get out and race MTBs.

Fortune was on our side, all worked out to be a great day of racing for many of the 177 plus racers. Big Thanks to Matt, the Mesa crew and all the volunteers for a fun day.

One of my season goals is to chase Mid West Fat Tire points in a quest to see how far up I can rank with the Sport 30-39 group. I lined up with 20 other Sport 30-39 racers and off we went. Ron from the team took the lead-out with me 3rd wheel. Just before the big downhill into the long climb I moved into 2nd and eventually took the lead heading up the hill. The start felt like a cross race as we were moving fast trying to get that good starting position.

Up the hill I started to catch the back end of the sport 29 and under group and continued to move away from my group. I kept thinking I need to push the pace before we enter the single track to get in front of as many slower riders as I can.

I was able to keep the pace high for the entire first lap feeling great and much better than anticipated. I have not done much high end training yet this year so I was worried how I would respond.

After the 1st lap I crossed the line in 34 min 1 second still in first place, good enough for a near 4 min lead. Surprised to see after looking over the results that was one of the faster 1st laps on the day.

Well that 1st hot lap did not go unnoticed by my legs. About mid way into the 2nd lap I began to feel a subtle feeling a muscular fatigue in my legs. They were beginning decrease in power, not near the same level of power as they had during the first lap. I worked to spin more so to not risk a cramp.

At the end of the 2nd lap I was still in first place but only by a second as two guys in my group, Ira and Christian caught me. We headed up the climb for a 3rd and final lap, I could not hold their wheel. Now in 3rd my goal was to keep spinning at a good pace that I was comfortable with. I had done what I came to the race to do and felt good about the effort.

At the end of 3 laps two more guys passed me for an ending result of 5th place @ 1:59:03. Last lap was about 46 min. Earned 17 points on the day, obviously now 5th in the series.

Next Sunday is point series race number 2, The Rim Wrecker!

Group Ride

Tuesday was the first of many small group rides for the local Hermann crew. When I first moved here it was just Jose and I, now we have Shaun, Danny, Dennis and Louis joining in on the fun.

Yesterday we got things started with a quick trip around the Tour of Hermann crit course.


After than Jose had to take off to teach a spin class that will last a few more weeks while Shaun, Dennis and I headed out on the open road.



New to the rides this year is Dennis, this guy is good! He got a new road bike for Christmas, and for the first time is hitting the roads. He's a light guy, he'll be quick up the hills. Plus he was a fast runner in high school, still holds the 1 mile time record in Hermann at 4:13!

We have some good strong guys here in Hermann, I can tell when we all start joining the ride it will be a competitive, fast eventful ride!

Anyway, good ride last night with lots of hills. I felt good overall well recovered from the weekends MTB ride. I can tell I have lost some fitness for sure, not able to climb as fast as I did this same time last year. That is to be expected with the training plan I'm on not calling for much in the intensity department right now. On the other side of things I think my base fitness is stronger than last year with all the gravel grinders this winter.

Weather is awesome, love the smell in the mornings from having the windows open at night.

Not much going on till Sunday... so until then have a good rest of the week

Council Bluff

Shaun and I made our way to CB in just under two hours Sunday. Once there we suited up and off we went. Just before we left 3 other guys from the KC area showed up for a ride/workday that was going on. We waited on them to get ready then we all took to the woods.

The place was awesome, nice trail, challenging, rocky and great views. Could not enjoy the views much as the trail took all my concentration. After one lap the KC crew took off for their work day and Shaun and I headed out for another lap. This lap I tried to pick up the pace to get an idea what my map time for the upcoming rim wrecker would be. Did my 2nd lap in 1 hour 16 min. I'm sure I can do better than that in two weeks, but we'll see. Keeping things steady and in control will be the game plan for this race. With lap times over one hour it will be a two lap, 2.5 hour race for sure. Not bonking mentally will be key.

We did see a few others out there, Drew and Christopher from Mesa and two guys from Redwheel. Never did ride much with any of them as they were doing counterclockwise laps.




After my 2nd lap I doubled back to get Shaun and we headed up the Ozark Trail a bit before turning back to the truck calling it a day.

Sunday is the first Mid West Fat Tire points race of the season. Looking forward to this one as last time I was out there was in 2007 racing the endurance class. Had no legs and suffered all day, looking to turn that sour memory into something positive.

Want one?

Tour of Hermann is just over 1 month out. Right now I'm busy wrestling up volunteers for the event. Crazy how many people it takes to make an event like this happen. So far the response to helping has been great!

John at Dogfish Apparel designed the ToH logo and race support T, printing up T's for all those that help. This sweet Kiwi colored T is yours if you want it, all you have to do is help volunteer for the race. Email me at yielding@tourofhermann.com for details.


Now I'm off to eat some blueberry flap-jacks before I leave to Council Bluff for what potential to be an awesome day on the MTB.

Hermann Tuesday Night Group RIde

Beginning this Tuesday March 17th, the Hermann crew will set sail at 5pm from Hermann Lumber. This will be a standing Tuesday Night Group ride during the Spring and Summer months. Rides will last a few hours and I'm sure will get longer as we have more light.

Pace will be mid to high, approaching hammer fest on hilly roads.

No Bone Bending this weekend

The Bone Bender 3 hour race I had planned for Saturday is off due to heavy rains in the KC area. Bad news there but good news is the rains have stayed away south of here so Shaun and I will make a trip to Council Bluff to ride and get ready for the Rim Wrecker.

Some guys from Team Red Wheel I believe will make the trip too. I've not been there before but I read that it is the place of all places to ride. I'm sure 2 or 3 out of 5 Team Seagal riders would be willing too.

I plan get there about 8:30am at the boat dock for at least 3 hours of riding. Sunday

Commando Trails

The weather has been great all week and the urge to ride the trails is becoming overwhelming, I even wore shorts to work on Friday it was so nice. I know that soon we will be in the heart of summer with endless days of trail riding and these days of hoping the trails will be ride able will be a past memory. But for now I ready to get more miles on the trails!

Tonight and Sunday are calling for rain, so any chance of trail riding is out the window for tomorrow. This morning I had reserved myself to at best a road ride with the Hermann crew Sunday afternoon or possibly the dread rollers if it rained all day. Granted I would get caught up on this season of 24 while on the rollers, but that still did not motivate me much.

As the day went on today good fortune came my way as Dawndi and I finished up our work in STL early giving me an opportunity to get my planned 3 hour ride in today vs Sunday.

So what to do? Road ride, check and see if the new trail Shaun and I have been working on was dry, gravel ride.... what to do? I made some calls to the Hermann crew to see what they were doing, all were up to other things with the exception of Shaun. Shaun was actually on his way to test out the new trail we are working on. Called back and said it was not dry yet, bummer.

So I said, let's go out to Daniel Boone Conservation Area (pdf) and see how the tails out there are.

When I first moved to Hermann just about three years ago I found this trail. It's mostly used by horses and hikers. I adopted the trail and began to clear it of leaves, logs and other stuff. After many hours I had the thing fully ridable at full speed. Well one thing led to another and I stopped working it.

Now several years later back on the trail, it has returned to the same poor shape it was in when I first found it. Trail is back to commando style riding with leaves, sticks, washouts, logs and big rocks under leaves that you can't see. You have to point the front wheel forwward to go.

Despite everything, we were riding trail and loving every minute of it.

Win a new bike?

Go here to have a chance to win this 3 speed urban bike. Be sure to put Jeff Yielding in the personalized name heading.

Rather send a check? Email me and I will send you a raffle ticket yielding at gosculpture.com

Cosmo Ride

Mr. and Mrs. Smith from Jeff City Team Red Wheel joined Shaun and I for a early ride out at Cosmo Park in Columbia. With 5 inches of snow south of us at Council Bluffs, where we and many others intended to spend the day riding, putting a damper on that idea, Cosmo seemed like a good alternative.

Trail was frozen firm at 8am and lasted that way for a good 3 hours of riding. Great to get out and ride some MTB trails, the gravel was great for the last 6 or so week, but man, it's almost time to race.

In other news, OZ Epic as cancelled due to this late snow storm and KC received alot too, no telling what will happen with Bone Bender. No snow in Hermann.

After the am ride we headed down town for a brew and lunch. - Good time!