A little strip of singletrack through a group of mayflowers on our backyard trail
First time I have ever seen a red mayflower
Snapping turtle next to the trail
After some thought over the course of the last six months, I have decided to stop pursuing Supremacy Athletics, my sports performance training company. I have been working on it for a few years now as a side job because one day I would like to work on progressing athletes instead of just treating injured patients. Starting a business like that requires a lot of time and effort. I have spent a great deal of time marketing and so far it has had no effect. I have had several high school athletes commit to my training plan, but there is no follow through. They, and usually their parents too, are interested and excited to begin, but when it comes time to start they drop off the face of the earth. The area we live in is just not a big sports area. People here don’t believe sports will ever take them anywhere and are not willing to put any money into training for it. They’d rather spend money on the latest shoe style than spend it on training to run faster in their current shoe. I have found you can only motivate people so much. The rest is up to them. I feel it is taking away from my bike time too much and at this point in my life I want to keep racing bikes at the highest level I can attain. I’m not at my peak yet, so I’d rather sink my time into the bike than into marketing. With that being said, I will still train anyone from any sport that is interested. I’m just not going to actively seek out new people anymore.
My race performances have been a bit disappointing, but my biggest concern right now is my new team. So far nothing has happened with planning the criterium in Clarksville and no money has come in to support the team. I have literally heard nothing. Most of my teammates seem to be totally unaware of the city wanting to sponsor the team and look at me like I’m crazy when I bring it up. We weren’t reimbursed for our licenses and nothing has been given to help with expenses like promised. Our kits came in at the end of March, but I still haven’t received mine. They didn’t leave them at the shop where I could pick them up and the person supposed to bring my kits to the team rides seems to always forget them or not show up at all for the ride. I have seen the kits on other riders and it does not even have the Clarksville city logo on it like it was supposed to. Needless to say, it’s a little worrying.
Between the Conyers and Winder SERC/GSC races I did the first Bells Bend Time Trial of the year. I still struggle with time trialing, but I did a good time considering I have not been working on sustained TT efforts at all this season. I was very pleased to feel good and only be a few seconds off my PR on that course. I ended up 13th in the Merckx class with a time of 31:18 and an average speed of 22.7 mph. It was the first time I have ever felt like I wasn't blown up after the turnaround. I actually had some legs to hit the long false-flat just after the turnaround and the rollers that follow. I did feel a bit drained by the final climb and think that is where I missed my PR time, but I finished strong and wasn't completely destroyed afterwards. It was better than I have been performing in recent races.
Other than that time trial, my road rides have been disappointing. I have lost way too much ride time due to mechanicals. Shannon and I have broken more spokes on the tandem and continue to have wheel difficulties. I think I am just going to completely rebuild the wheels as the spokes are just too old and weak. I attempted to make the local group ride on two occasions to get in some hard riding and long miles. The first attempt saw me flat just a few miles into the ride. The group left me behind as always. I have come to expect that from them, but I had several teammates there that night and did think they would wait, but they didn't. A rider clinging to the back of the group offered to stop, but I told him to go on as I knew he would be better off staying with the group than riding out the rest of the loop with just me. That's a long loop to do with just one other person to help. It was a good thing I sent him on because after I put in a new tube I flatted again a mile later and found a hug hole in my tire. I ended up calling Shannon for a ride home. My teammates claimed they didn't know anyone flatted and they assumed that when they didn't see me later they thought I got dropped. That kind of annoyed me because they know I am the strongest of our team and it would be highly unlikely they I would get dropped that early when the pace was not high.
The second attempt was successful, but will be my last ride with that group for a while. The group was riding stupid all night, blatantly running stop signs when cars were coming and taking way too many chances. They appeared to be trying to split the group through erratic riding. It makes the drivers hate us. Those guys ride in my area once per week. I ride there every day. I did not appreciate them angering the drivers and risking everyone's safety. You have some real ego problems if you need to get ahead of a rider so bad that you risk your own life to cut in front of traffic to get a gap. Riding like that is detrimental to our sport and does nothing but hinder every cyclist on the road. I don't want to be a part of that.
I also got in a good training day at Montgomery Bell. I did a lap on the winter TT loop, then did the summer XC race loop. Montgomery Bell will be the site of this year’s Tennessee State Championship XC in September, so I am already thinking about that.
Trees down at Montgomery Bell
One of the MB gnomes. These guys have been here since the trail was first cut.
I got caught in the rain at the end of my Montgomery Bell ride and ended up with some soggy fingers. That was a problem because I had a huge cut on one of my fingers after a mishap with a saw. I was cutting some boards for a shelf in the garage. The circular saw couldn’t quite get the corners trimmed out perfectly, so I touched them up with the hand saw to make them perfect. I had put the hand saw down and was reaching for the tape measure when I got cut. My hand caught the edge of the last two teeth on the end of the saw blade and ripped the side of my finger. I needed stitches, but since I work at a medical facility, I just got into the supply closet. After a few steri strips and glue it was back together. That worked well until my soggy gloves saturated the skin of the finger and made it very soft. As I was changing after the ride, I hung the cut on the seat of the car and not only ripped it open again, but also made it bigger. The rip hurt so much worse than the cut did! Not the way I wanted to end a long, fun day on the mountain bike.
After the two weekends off, we were on the road for the Peach State yet again for another SERC/GSC double at Fort Yargo State Park in Winder. It was a chance to get the ship righted and get back to racing like I know I can. The weekend was composed of a Saturday afternoon time trial that was for SERC points. Then Sunday brought an XC that awarded points for both series. Athens is just down the road from Winder and Athens Twilight returned to its normal April date, as did the Historic Roswell Crit., so we planned to make a full bike racing weekend out of it. In addition to our three mountain bikes we also brought my road bike so I could race Roswell on Sunday afternoon.
We drove down to Winder on Saturday morning. Our traffic woes continued and we lost a lot of time on the way there. We got there too late to pre-ride the XC course before the time trial and only had time for one lap on the time trial course before the scheduled start. The TT loop was just 3.5 miles and included a lot of open pedaling. It started with a fast piece of twisting singletrack, then opened up on a cleared pipeline area where the main climb of the course was located. You weaved in and out of the woods on your way to the top before a fast descent in the woods brought another more gradual climb in the woods before the TT loop separated from the XC course. The rest of the loop was on wide trails that see more foot traffic than bike so they weren’t in quite as good condition as the previous half of the course. There were some fast corners and one small climb before you shot down to the lake for the finish on a narrow wooden bridge. There were a lot of people out hiking despite the trails clearly being marked as closed so I was glad to not be the first rider out on course for this one.
SERC TT Loop at Ft. Yargo
We ended up starting 15+ minutes late. I wish we had known that in advance so we could have taken another lap on the TT course, but at least it did let me get in a full warm-up with some road sprints while I waited to start. I was about the fifth rider off. I felt tight with my riding in the first section, not hitting good lines and carrying speed off the corners like I normally do. I let loose on the big climb and went up it faster than I ever have before even though my legs didn’t feel great. I may have gone a little too hard as I felt like I was really suffering just to keep rolling after that. I knew I was slower in the last section than what it was going to take to win, but I stayed on it all the way to the end, finishing with a hard sprint across the bridge. We didn’t have much room to slow down after the finish, but I managed to get it stopped just before hitting the scorer’s table. Perfect! My time was 12:12, a full minute back from the fastest rider on the day Ryan Woodall. Dustin White also had a smoking fast time of 11:29. He and Ryan were on another level. Third overall was Mose Howard, who also went under 12 minutes. I was sixth overall and second in Pro. There were only two of us in Pro, so second by default.
Ryan Woodall takes off for the fastest time of the day
Mose Howard
Dustin White
Me in the yellow leader's jersey
Harrison Klapheke sliding in the first turn
Great to see Regan Woodall back to racing!
Me crossing the bridge to the finish
Sprinting the bridge
Dina had a good ride with a time of 17:30 and finished fifth overall for the Yellow Wave Women, and was the top Cat. 2 Weman. She had to wait a long time before her start, so we didn’t have enough time to ride a lap on the XC course after the race if we wanted to get to Athens Twilight. I don’t think she wanted to do a full 10-mile lap anyway after putting in that TT effort. I did do a little more riding, catching the last 3 miles of the XC course which is probably the part of the trail I am least familiar with here. Then it was off to check in at a rental we had for the night in Athens. We got the truck unloaded and grabbed showers before catching dinner at Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, which is one of my all-time favorite places to go. We are actually getting one built close to us in Clarksville that will be open later this summer.
Dina starts her TT
A rider comes across the bridge to the finish at the cones
Dina finishing
Video: Clip of two younger riders starting their time trial
Pro Women racing under cloudy skies in Athens
My camera did not like the combo of cloudy, dim conditions with a whole lot of speed
Pro Women on the backstretch hill as darkness set in
Pro Men were just a blur in the dark
Video: Pro Women at Twilight
Video: Pro Men at Athens
On Sunday, I felt much better in my warm-up. The legs seemed to be there and I was excited to get on course for three laps on a 10-mile loop. It was a beautiful morning with dry trails ready to be raced. We only had four Pro riders, but again we did a separate start since the Cat. 1 19-39 group was so large. For SERC points I only have to worry about other Pros, but for GSC points we are combined with Cat. 1 19-39 so points would be handed out based on finish times. That means I would have to hold the one minute gap we get at the start on a bunch of fast and hungry Cat. 1s, something I was unable to do the last round at Conyers and it cost me a lot of points. You get one drop race for GSC. We are doing the whole series so my drop will be my lowest score, which I hope for that to be that ninth overall at Conyers.
A rowing team was out on the lake early before the race
On the start line there was a lot of confusion as to which groups were starting. It ended up being just Pro and the whistle blew quickly. I wasn’t ready and got smoked off the line. As we took off, somebody was yelling at Nathan Haslick that he shouldn’t go, thinking he was a Cat. 1. I thought for a second they were yelling at me and it made me back off a second. Nathan also did before everyone realized he was right to be starting now. Ryan Woodall and another riders were well ahead of Nathan and myself in the first five seconds of the race. I was instantly into full chase mode and had to ride hard to get to the rider in second. I went right by him when I saw he had let Ryan’s wheel go. I accelerated to try to cross the gap to Ryan, but he was also going full-gas, which is faster than my full-gas. The other two did not follow me, so I was out in limbo the first section. I could see Ryan, but couldn’t get to him.
I hit the first hill hard, which was the hill used in the TT on Saturday. I went up it even faster than yesterday, setting another PR. But Ryan went even faster and had a 30-second gap on me at the top. It was clear at that point that he was on another level than me, but I kept chasing him. Things happen. Mechanicals, flats, crashes, it was all possible. And chasing him was helping me pull away from the other two riders and securing me second place in Pro. The rest of the first lap I tried to limit my losses to Ryan and stay ahead of the Cat. 1 group that I knew would be coming if I backed off any at all.
Ryan Woodall leads on lap 1
Me in second
Dustin White
I could hear the Cat. 1 group about 1/3 of the way through lap 2, but they were still 40-50 seconds behind and I managed to keep them that far back for several miles. Then Mose Howard caught them from the Cat. 1 40-49 group and went straight through the 19-39 class. A few riders jumped on his wheel and he pulled them across to me. I worked really hard from mile 6 to mile 8 of the second lap to keep them behind me, but they finally caught me near the end of the lap. With them making up the one minute gap on me, I was already behind them for the GSC points. Luckily, there were only three with Mose.
Ryan continues to lead on lap 2
Running from the Cat. 1 group behind
Mose leading a group that caught me at the end of lap 2
I missed my feed to start lap 3, but was hanging on to the back of this group so far. My legs suddenly were gone on the first rise. It wasn’t even big enough to be considered a climb in my book, but it ended my run with this group. My legs just didn’t want to go anymore. The group pulled away and I was out on my own for several miles, fading all the time. It wasn’t so much fatigue as just a general loss of energy. I didn’t feel like I was bonking, but there sure wasn’t anything left to push with. It was that all-too-familiar feeling I have had so many times over the last few weeks.
Regan Woodall caught me halfway through the lap and I was able to pick up the pace enough to stay with him for a while. Then Shannon appeared in a rooty section with a bottle so at least I would have something to drink. It wasn’t in a good spot for a feed, but with the way I was feeling I was not about to pass on taking a bottle. I had to slow down to grab it and lost Regan’s wheel. I never got it back and ended up suffering out there alone the rest of the way. This course is very fast and pedaly so being alone really is harder than being in a group because there is quite a bit of draft that can be gained here. I knew early in the first lap that me sitting out there alone would probably bite me later as the Cat. 1s would surely be working together in a big group like they have at every other race this season. They would probably have fresher legs than me at the end.
Regan Woodall running fourth in Cat. 1 19-39
Me just trying to get to the end
Dina crosses the road about halfway through the loop
A group of Cat. 1s charging hard on the final lap
Good to see Pete Edmondson out for this race
Nobody else caught me on my way in to the finish, but a group came in about 30 seconds behind me and it contained three Cat. 1s who also beat me on time. That put me in ninth for combined Pro/Cat. 1 19-39 yet again. With my GSC rivals finishing in the top three spots every race and me now having two ninth place finishes with only one drop available, my hopes for a GSC title are now very slim. That was my main goal this season so that kind of sucks to be out of it and it’s only the end of April. But there was again a bright moment as I continue to hold onto the SERC lead with my second place in Pro. Maybe now I will focus more on SERC than GSC and see if I can take the title for the second straight year. Also, my finger held together today thanks to some short-finger gloves. That's the first time I have gone without full-finger gloves in a mountain bike race in a long, long time. It felt a little weird at first, but after a while I didn't even notice. They kept me healing finger dry.
Regan with two miles to go
Me
Dina
Dina comes into the finish chute
Dina had a good race. She tried to keep me from catching her on course, but two laps is still a long way for her so I did catch her. There were only two in the Cat. 2 women's class and she ended up second. I think she can go faster than what she has been riding, but she is still scared of the distance right now.
Pro podium
Singlespeed
Cat. 1 19-39 podium. Dustin White took the win by holding off Harrison and Justin McMurrer in the short sprint.
Pro/Cat. 1 Women
Pro SERC Series leader's podium with me and Josselyn Gutierrez
Jeff Yeager topped the Cat. 2 50+ podium
Cat. 2 Women
Video: SERC/GSC Winder clips
The podium took longer than expected and so we left for Roswell too late for me to make it into the Cat. 2/3 race. I doubt I had anything left to race with, but I wanted to try. It looked like a fast race so it probably was a good thing I missed it. I could have raced Pro/1/2, but I’m not stupid. No way I would have finished that after a morning XC race. We still had a good time watching the races from the Fickle Pickle while we had some of their famous fried pickle chips and also sampled their newest offering of ice cream. It was Dina’s first time watching the Twilight and Roswell races and I think she was impressed. She liked the crowds at Athens and watching the Pro Men roll 30+ mph up the hill on the backstretch at Roswell. We know it was 30+ because they had a speed checker set up back there. I saw 36 flash up one lap!
Cat. 2/3 Men from the lawn of the Fickle Pickle
Pro Women staging
Roswell was the final race of USA Crits Speed Week. This is the Speed Week overall leader Peta Mullins.
Beck Wiasak went solo for most of the race
The group chasing after Wiasak
One to go for Wiasak
Solo win for Beck Wiasak
Frank Travieso on the inside of Turn 5 in the Pro Men's race
On the outside, #154, is Andy Reardon
31 mph this lap
Pro Men strung out in the closing laps
Video: Historic Roswell Criterium action
In other news around the local cycling community, there has been talk of significant changes coming to the trails at Chickasaw Trace in Columbia, TN. The county wants to expand the landfill into the Trail of Tears area of the trail. The proposed expansion would eliminate the entire Trail of Tears section and split the trails of the park so no loop would be available, which would all but guarantee an end to our racing out there. There was a community meeting in Columbia with city and county officials and also friends of the park. The mountain bikers were invited out and our middle Tennessee cycling community showed up in force! I wasn’t able to go as I was working at the time of the meeting, but I heard there were some alternate proposals laid out by some of the city officials that would have much less impact to the trail system and other areas of the park used for other forms of recreation. Some of the mountain bikers were disappointed by the amount of time given to them to plead their case, but from what I hear it may not be worth getting upset over. Rumor has it that the state will not approve the expansion so it may not happen anyway. I can’t imagine that putting large amounts of trash and silt runoff that close to the Duck River would be within environmental regulations. Maybe that is why the state has not approved it. There has also been a lot of talk about another area of land possibly being opened by the county to recreation, including mountain biking, so even if things don’t work out with Chickasaw the residents of Columbia will still likely have a place to ride. Hopefully this expansion won’t pass and they will have two. I sure hope that we haven’t seen our last Chickasaw Trace Classic race. I will pass on any other news I hear about the situation and any ways you can help if interested.
Up next for me is a trip to Utah with Dina for the Pro XCT race in Midway. I am not where I want to be with my fitness, but I will get in some good miles at elevation before the race which will hopefully help. I will give it my all out there and take advantage of the chance I have to finally do a big Pro event. If nothing else, I will come back with better fitness from all the riding and better knowledge about what is required to race at the top level.
Thanks for reading! I promise that I will get this blog caught up eventually. We have been super busy lately so the blog gets put on the back burner in favor of more important things. I have had an immense amount of media to pour through this season with all the photos and videos, so that is actually slowing me down more than the writing itself. Thanks for being patient with me.
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