Karma is a B**ch

Karma is a B**ch.

From fan to fanatic

have we gone too far in our addiction to professional sports?  From fan to fanatic.

From fan to fanatic

From fan to fanatic.

Iron “muddy” Hill

Sunday morning forecast calls for a beautiful  sunny 80 degree day. On the road to Delaware from Pa, I have about a 2 hour ride before me. I’m all packed and ready to rip up this trail. About an hour into my drive I wonder, hey where’s the sun? And with that thought the skies open up and it pours and I mean pours. I think to myself, ah just a passing storm. As I get closer to the race venue I notice it is now just a steady rain. And it rained and rained, right up to staging. And after my last race which was in the rain and mud I was not looking forward to that again. But as Lance says “quit your bitching” so I lined up and gave it a go. At the start 2 people commented on my new ergon grips, which is one of the best upgrades to my bike yet. The horn blasts and I take off as fast as my legs can take me, which earned me the hole shot. I lead the pack into the trail and quickly find its gonna be a slick one. The course starts out with some tight twisty single track  and my rear tire was sliding out on every turn. So I slowed down to gain some control and got into my rhythm. I then hear a voice behind me saying “hey its just us”. Me and Tony Hess had a strong lead on the rest of the pack. So I continued to push and we quickly started to pass the other classes before us. It was a two lap course for us and as we neared the lap I was recieving a new bottle and Tony decided to take that oppurtunity to sprint off. My legs at that second couldn’t match his speed so I decided to just get a strong pace and put my head down and see if I could make up some ground. As the course started to dry the mud became thick and clung to your derailiur which caused some shifting problems, so 2:2 it was. After a few miles in the second lap he was gone so I of course started to panic and had to pick up my pace, and in the wet conditions I hit a log crossing a little of perpindicular and I went flying. By the time my bike hit the ground though I was already up and thinking this is gonna hurt tomorrow. But with my adrenaline so high I didn’t feel a thing. So I pressed on hoping that Tony would tire or break something to slow him down a little. As I approached every rider in front of me I would ask “Tony”? if they said “no”  I said “I gotta get by you” and they did generously move over, you gotta love mountain bikers. The last 2 miles of the lap was filled with hills and I started to bonk up the last climb and I thought that was it there is no catching up now, I just focused on making small circles with my feet. When I got to the top of the climb I gave whatever I had left knowing it was only about a half mile to go and I ended up a minute and a half behind Tony. Mildly disappointed I didn’t win when I had it in my sights, but stoked with my first podium finish coming in second, AKA number one loser. And I was proud to repesent Evomoon the podim and hope there are many more podium finishes in my future. I would also like to thank  Tifosi, motortabs, Fluid, and Titec.

Escape from muddy Granouge

I should have known better as soon as I drove down the road that led to the race. My first sight was an endurance rider already on the trail riding and average of 4mph. He was covered in mud and it was raining hard. Not a good start to the day. My buddies Melissa and Laszlo started to set up camp as my compadre Mike already found himself stuck in the mud. But hey we’re mountain bikers, we’re tough, whats a little mud right? As time passed the sport class was already on the course and the racers were abandoning the race left and right warning us not to even bother. Ah what do they know? After an other hour we were at the start, and of course it begins to rain harder. I have a great sprint and enter the trail 3rd quickly passing the other 2. Then came the first down hill, having to abandon my Tifosi’s  I feel the blinding  mud kicking up in my eyes. I thought to myself this is gonna be a long one. As the race continued we were forced to carry our bikes up all hills. People were crashing on the straights. Braking and turning were non existent. I had to use my feet as rigors to stay upright and turn. I was feeling pretty good though, I crossed the first lap in second place. The second lap  though everything went to hell. My gears when the worked were stuck in 2:2, constantly slipping, and the chain would just pop off periodically. As time passed the trail got progressivly worse and the mud stuck  to the bikes like glue. People were actually throwing their bikes in a pond in the course just to clean them off.  When this seems logical in a race, something must be wrong. With the mud on the bikes , the bikes weighed 50 lbs. Hauling that on your shoulder while running up a muddy hill was quite a sight. But there was no quit in me, this is what Evomo riders live for right? So I pressed on finally collapsing over the finish line in 5th place. I was cold, muddy, and exhausted, but suprisingly with a smile on my face, wondering why the hell do I do this, and even pay to do it. All I could think was “Bring the Rukus”

Fairhill 2009

Well after the months of training and dieting and all the anticipation, finally race day has arrived. The Fairhill race is the first XC race on the schedule for the Mid-Atlantic Super Seriess (MASS). Fairhills is located in Maryland with fast slopey hard packed trails with undulating hills. Got up a 6 am threw some waffles in my belly and off to the trails. It was a beautiful 60 degree day with just a slight chill in the air. I am racing this day with my buds Mike. Melissa, Laszlo and an Evomo teamate Scott Lyter.  Being the first race of the year it is a short one which was evident at the all out sprint at the start. My goal this year is to podium in one race and show off the Evomo colors. But my goal this race was to finish in the top third. In trying to achieve this goal I wanted to be around 7-8 going into the trail. This was much harder than anticipated as all the other racers believed this was a one mile race. I entered the trail probably closer to 10-11 and settled down and began to race. After about 3 miles I started to pass all the people who shout their load in the opening sprint and were beginning to bonk. I maintened a good average speed for the 7.1 miles that the race and finished in 38:15. As we anxiously wait for our results I enjoy my post race Fluid recovery drink. As the announce the top three and don’t hear my name, so I jump in line to get a cheeseburger. Then over the P.A. I hear “and coming in 5th place Kevin Sine from team Evomo“. So I got to pick out a crappy prize but realize I’m only two spots away from reaching my overall goal this year. At the end of the day I ended up 5th out of 26 finishing in the top third with my buddy Mike just a few bikers behind me. Unfortunatley for Scott, he had some mechanical problems on the trail and being such a short course there wasn’t enough time to make up for it. So all was well and good until Monday. When I went to check my result all the sudden I was in 6th place. So after some investigating someone in our class lined up with racers 15 years younger than him. So given the open trail to race in since he was first to go off his time beat me by 30 seconds and the series accepted it. So now “someone” has got a target on there back.

Iron Hill Challenge

This race at Iron hill park, located in Newark DE, started a week early for me at the pre ride, some friends of mine decided to go there a week early to pre ride the course to get an idea of lap times. We  were doing pretty good too, until the mega dip. The mega dip is a 40-50 foot dip shaped in a “V” that branches off to the left and right on the uphill. There were three of us riding it that day, Laszlo, Mike and myself. Laz went first followed by Mike then I right behind. Laz decided to go left up the steep incline, but decided to stop uphill. Mike quickly veered left and missed him while I decided to collide with him a full speed endoing uphill. This collision was at the cost of a rear derailleur. We had so much fun on this mega dip that we HAD to do it again. This time Mike crashed and it cost him new  set of handle bars. This wouldn’t be such bad news except my bike shop Genesis bicycles didn’t have the part and it had to be ordered. I told them of my up and coming race on Saturday, and they did everything they could to get my bike ready in time.  They promised it would be ready on Friday, but they actually had it ready on Thursday. Thank you to all those at the shop.

     Race day morning was sunny and perfect weather for racing. There where 21 of us lining up at the start for the 12 mile race. The course was tight single track with plenty of log crossings, some climbs and some wicked rocky down hills. At the start everything was falling in line, I got right behind the racers I wanted to follow and I was feeling Strong. We raced into the trail and about a mile in, the racer ahead of me lost his chain. I thought good now I’m in sixth place, right where I wanted to be at this time.  We rode hard for about another mile or so and POP, there goes my back tire. As I pull of the trail the racers start to pass me, fisrt my buddy Mike, then Rob, then Laszlo then Melissa. And as I’m swapping out tubes here comes the next class of racers, then the next, and so on. Ugh, this was so frustrating, all and all I lost about 8 minutes changing my tire. Side note, learn how to change tires faster. Anyway back on the bike and  my priorities change from a top 5 finish to catching my buddy Mike before the finish line. I take off flying down the trail as fast as my legs could take me. The next 6 miles consisted of weaving my way through the other classes and trying to get caught up to my class. First I pass my friend Melissa who had the same misfortune as I. Finally I see riders in my class. I get passed Laszlo first on one of the climbs, then a mile or so later, I see Rob and eek by him, but still no Mike. I press on as hard as I can. I feel the lactic acid building in my legs and my heart rate is maxed out at 185. With about a mile to go I see Melissa again, she has another flat, what bad luck. But I hear her talking to someone. I think she was talking to Mike, so I ask her how far Mike was up the trail and she tells me a couple of minutes. There’s just not enough time to make that up, I thought, but as I turn the corner there he is. His chain just popped off, so I took advantage of that and squeezed by him. We rode the last mile out together finishing 11th and 12th consecutively. It was a great race and a lot of fun racing with my friends. I would like to thank my sponsors Evomo, Fluid, Sixsixone and Motortabs.

Fair Hill Classic

It was on a beautiful warm Sunday morning at Fair Hill Natural Resource Center. in Elkton MD. There was 29 riders lined up at the start to take on this 17 mile challenge. I knew it was imperative to get a good start to get in front of the pack. The horn Sounded and I was off with My buddy Mike right behind me. We sprinted towards the single track passing most people in our way. Then the next thing I hear is someone yell “middle” and before I knew it I was crashing toward the ground taking out two others along the way. As the dust settled I made a couple of adjustments on my bike and I hopped back on. Now I was in the back by myself all that hard work to get to the front was now for nothing. Except to find my friend Mike had some mechanical problems, so I now had some company. We gradually and methodically worked our way back to the middle of the pack passing people when we could . A few miles later my eye caught a rider who usually finishes in the top 5, so I decided to try and catch him and ride his wheel for as long as I could.  About a mile later we hit the first water station, which happens to be my first water station experience. I made two crucial mistakes, one was to drink the water, and the second was pouring the water over my head.  The first mistake caused me to almost drown as I inhaled it instead, and the second mistake caused the water to run down over my glasses impeding my vision. I’m now barreling down tight twisty single track half blind and coughing up my left lung, lesson learned. I’m feeling suprisingly strong and am keeping up with this rider now for about 4-5 miles.  More suprisngly than that was that I passed him on a climb and I never looked back. As I packed on the miles I continued to catch and pass other riders, and I was feeling pretty good until I hit the hill. The climb consisted of several switch backs and seemed it would never end, and my legs were feeling every rock and root the tires rode over. I know I hit my max heart rate, cause when I reached the top I broke out in a cold sweat and it took everything I had to keep from vomiting, and my legs were like jelly. I felt like I was going to collapse right there on the  trail, but I knew the end was near. About a half mile later I ran into a park ranger, and I asked him how much farther. He told me its just another 4 miles. Another 4 miles, I can’t ride another 4 miles I couldn’t even feel my legs anymore. I just continued to pedal, probably in the granny gear at this time, trying to recover both mentally and physically. Thank God right at that time a nice long down hill came, just enough to get me to the finish line and finish my longest race I’ve competed in. At the finish I ended up in 8th of 29 finishing in 1:32:46. I would like to at this time thank my friends Mike and Melissa for racing with me. I would also like to thank my sponsors Evomo, Fluid and SixSixOne for supporting me.