Tall Oak 6 hour race report

What a turn out yesterday! Must have been the awesome weather and great event that Nick and his Team Redwheel folks put on.

Mark Gullet and I again teamed up, coming off a 2nd place last year we were again looking to have a good race. Should have been third really with Chris and Tom having a mechanical.

But this was a new year and a new race, and a new race it was.

The super fast team to beat was Travis Donn and Garrett Steinmetz from Ethos, veteran fast dudes Chris Ploch and Tom Albert were there, Cannon Ball/ Hub showed up with Rock and fast roadie Devin Clark, another solid Ethos team of JP and Jesse, Dogfish brought endurance strong man Andy Gibbs with Andrew Moorman and last but not least a strong Team Redwheel duo of Corey Case and Bryce Hylton rounded out a solid 6 fast teams. Total due team count was 31!

• Lap 1: Mark leads us off with a lap time of 35:48 good for 6th place. Teams are bunched together at this point separeated by less than a min.


• Lap 2: I circle the 7 mile course in 35:03 puling back one spot, we are now in 5th.


• Lap 3: Mark @ 33:31 back in 6th as JP and Jesse take over 5th and Correy and Bryce are in 4th not that far away.


• Lap 4: Me @ 34:43, Corey from RedWheel and I go out almost at the same time, I catch him and soon after Jesse. Jesse and I would stay together for almost this entire lap pushing each other to what was my fasted lap. I attacked him on the last open grassy area putting us in 4th ready for Mark to take over.


• Lap 5: Mark @34:20 - great lap for Mark as it was needed, JP/Jesse and Corey/Bryce were only 1 to 2 min back. Third place was getting out of reach almost 5 min up the trail.


• Lap 6: Me @ 37:25, JP/ Jesse just 2 min back and Corey/Bryce had a tire issue causing a 41 min lap.


• Lap 7: Mark @ 35:07 - holding 4th place


• Lap 8: Me @ 38:59 - not a good lap, slowest of the day


• Lap 9: Mark @ 36:15 - still holding 4th


• Lap 10: Me @ 37:21 - motivated to push it as we were now getting close to the 6 hour cut off and Mark wanted another lap. Came in 1.5 min before cutoff, Mark goes out for lap 11. It was a good thing too, Dogfish team Andy/Andrew were coming on strong now just 40 seconds back.


• Lap 11: Mark @ 39:15 holding on to our 4th place spot for the day. I think the last lap might be a bit off for Mark, I don't think it was that high.

1. Travis/ Garrett 6:09:29



2. Tom/Chris 6:19:42



3. Devin/ Rock 6:22:33



4. Mark/Jeff 6:37:47



5. Andy/Andrew 6:39:28



6. JP/Jesse 6:01:23 (10 laps)



7. Bryce/Cory 6:02:20 (10 laps)

Full results

Another solid effort by Revolution Cycles against some really good compitition. This race keeps getting tougher and togher.

Top 5 Podium


Out on the trail. Wife of Matt from Team RW was all over the place taking shots.



Two Tall Oak Bells on the wall now!



Looking back at the power numbers from this year vs last.


What it tells me is that I've have better control over power, last year you can see a higher 1 sec to 5 sec peak but it drops off fast, this year the line is straighter for 40 sec. Then from 5 to almost two min the power is better.

After that the number are about the same. Overall happy with the power results.

Mountain bike now cleaned, lubed and in the basement until gravel rides start up again. It's all cross races from here to Jan, about 22 races in all.

11 days till cross starts!

Dogfish Cross Course/ Tires

This past Sunday was spent in the Hermann Park doing full laps on the Dogfish Cross course. One I wanted to get a feel for this years layout and two testing new for me Dugast Rhinos tires.

The course will be in the 5:30 to 6min lap range. Happy with course flow with features that will keep you on your toes.

The tires were about a good as I think you can get. They hooked up so well I was shocked how much traction they provided. The ground was wet and soft so they really dug in and felt great.

I think they will end up being my every day race tire regardless of conditions. I'm starting to agree with the concept the more tread the better.

17 days till cross!

Train With Grain

Bobs Red Mill has a sweet deal going on right now "Train with Grain" check it out.

My package arrived yesterday.

Participants receive an awesome training kit, packed with a delicious variety of whole grains – including Honey Oat Granola, 10 Grain Hot Cereal, Quinoa and 7 Grain Pancake Mix – as well as their choice of a sweet cycling cap or running hat (plus a few other goodies).

Cross Practice in Hermann

Few of us in Hermann headed out to where I work Sunday, set up a short 2.5 min course and went to work.

We do it right in Hermann, barriers and all. Helps when you have a shed full of CX race equipment too :)

After a few 1 and 2 lap all out efforts followed by a 20 min race we shifted our attention to skills.

I love doing this: carve out a small technical area that takes about 30 sec to 1 min. Needs to be as technical as you can get it with lots of turns, some off camber stuff and what ever else you can mix in. High intensity is not important for these.

5 times one direction timing each effort. Then 5 times the other way. The fun part is trying to beat your best time, find places you can take a risk or rail a corner as fast as you can the point you slide out. Trying to power your way through will not equal a fast time, technique is the key.

Here are out times.

Post practice sandwich, yum!

25 days till cross!

Cross Prep

Yesterday I spent a good portion of the day getting stuff ready for the upcoming cross season. One item on the list was gluing on a set of Dugast Rhinos to a new set of Rokkit wheels.

I enjoy gluing on tires but I'll be the first to tell you I'm no expert. I tend to get a bit messy so some extra precautions are needed.

There are a ton of ways to glue on tires, here are a few things I do.

All the stuff out and ready. Takes about 6 tubes of glue, I like the tubes over a can as I find it easy to spread the glue on the tire better. The brushes are multi purpose that you can find at any hardware store.

Like I said I can get messy so I don't want to mess up these pretty wheels and tires with a excess glue so I wrap them up good with painters tape.

I use my trainer to mount the tire for easy glue application. Wheel geta three coats of glue.

I lay the tire on the hood of my car and apply three coats.

I alternate back and forth between the tire and wheel with glueing applications. By the time I'm done with the tire the wheel is dry enough for another coat. I do all steps in one sitting, I've found no need to let things dry for a day between coasts.

Here is where things can get messy.

With the tire on I pump it up to 60 and let it sit for a few days before it's ready to ride on.

I take the tape off and apply sealer to the side walls. Im using this product this year, I think it will work the same and you get more for your money.

The pay off is mounting the wheels on the bikes.

This year I have Challenge Fangos on one Easton wheels, Rhinos on the the other. Based on race day conditions I will choose what feels the best for that particular event conditions then put the other bike in the pit.

Easton bike weight = 17.3

Rokkit bike weight = 18.4

27 days till cross starts!

Micro Bursts

With the first CX race just 28 days away CX training is in full swing. The shift from heavy endurance, tempo and threshold training has shifted to higher intensity. The first week was tough getting adjusted but now some adaptation has occurred.

One of my favorite workouts are Micro Bursts. I'm sure there are a million variations out there but I thought I would share what approach I take.

Micro- bursts. 15 seconds ON and 15 seconds OFF.

Each block is 15 seconds ON- go to (160%) ON, and (60%) OFF- 15 seconds is OFF period.

Sets and how long you do the micro burst interval is up to you, for example you might do 4 sets of 5 min or 3 sets of 10 min. The idea is short high intensity efforts followed by a short recovery. You can see clearly from the image above where the bursts are, that work out was 4 sets of 5 min. I promise you what ever variation you take these will hurt.

This weekend I plan to glue these on as I fine tune the bikes for this year. More on that later...

29 days till cross starts!

Show Me State MTB Bike Race Report

2009 was the last time I was at this race, 2010 it was rained out so I was really looking forward to getting there this year.

As I approached Columbia it looked like it may be a rain out again as a big glob of red on the radar was approaching. But it broke up just in time with only a few showers that did not impact the trails at all, actually the trails could not have been better.

The rain cooled things off a bit as we started. I lined up with 14 other marathon racers and away we went.

Team mate Mark took the lead with me in 2nd as we entered the first section of trail. Mark and I slowly separated our selves from the rest and he slowly separated himself from me.

Lap 1 I was feeling great and the power numbers showed it, good intensity with NP right about where I though it would be. Trail skills were spot on feeling confident with the downhills, railing corners and have a fun time doing it.

Lap 1

Duration: 40:15

Work: 474 kJ

TSS: 44.1 (intensity factor 0.811)

Norm Power: 222

Still in 2nd place as I started lap two I continued feeling good with no problems.

Lap 2:

Duration: 41:19

Work: 432 kJ

TSS: 35.9 (intensity factor 0.722)

Norm Power: 198

The coolness that was felt in lap 1 was gone, the sun came out, the humidity and temps began to reach their peak near 95+ degrees. Near the end of lap 3 I began to feel drained but still had 2 place.

Lap 3:

Duration: 43:40

Work: 412 kJ

TSS: 31.3 (intensity factor 0.656)

Norm Power: 180

Lap 4 is where the wheels fell off from the heat, 3rd place rider caught me shortly after the start of lap 4 pushing me back to 3rd. I began to really slow down on this lap coupled with a lack of power. You can tell from the power numbers I struggled taking a long time to finish this lap.

Lap 4:

Duration: 48:33

Work: 367 kJ

TSS: 24.5 (intensity factor 0.55)

Norm Power: 151

I finished lap 4 at 2 hours 50 min. To keep 3rd place I would need to complete a 5th lap as I was under the 3 hour mark, that was not going to happen. I held off crossing the line until the 3 hour mark expired. Three more riders came in under 3 hours then went out for another lap, one of them I think I lapped while the other two were heading out for a 5th.

So I ended up 6th on the day with Mark taking home first.

Disappointing finish to the day but felt good about trail skills and the early part of the race. And I got to hang with the Red Wheels folks for a bit which is always and entertaining time.

33 days till cross starts!