ICC 3/6 MTB Race

Quick break down of the weekend/race...

Saturday my GF Leslie graduated and walked the stage with her masters in Education. (WHICH IS FUCKING AWESOME!!)

Saturday night, in celebration for Leslie, I drank a lot of beer... like 1 A-IPA, 12 APA's, and a few shit-lights...

Sunday morning I woke up, sorta, and drove to Zach Braces house on the south side.

Arrive at Zach's, Zach asks if I can drive... Sure, but need to get gas.

Zach asks How I felt... "Slow, dehydrated, and still needed to eat something for breakfast. Told him not to worry, I would eat where ever we got gas."

We then admire his deer head on the wall.. "Is that a 2 point?"..I ask. "No, 3 point." Zach Responds.

Zach hands me a piece of bread with peanut butter and honey. I drank his coffee(first of day)... Zach was out of toilet paper. SHIT!

We drive to race.

Race costs 40 bucks, Zack only had 15. I pay the rest for Zach..

Race starts... I drill it.

First lap... I felt OK, really thirsty but finished lap in 42 minutes.

second lap... about the same... finished around 45 minutes...

third lap.. horrible... probably about 53 minutes or so.. But Carrie Cash did sing to me in the woods.. I think she was singing to me..

4th lap.. Zack catches me and drops me like a turd in the John. Hard.

Finished the race at 3 hours 5 minutes for 16th place out of about 65 in the 3 hour solo class. Not bad I guess for the way the weekend went. I have never been so thirsty during a race... It was pathetic.

I then took Zach to ITAP. He was in love.... and paid me back.. big time(with beer)!!


The race was great and very professionally run. Hope it happens next year and hope to be in better shape for the race. The trail was awesome too. Perfect for a MTB race course. A little of everything.

Since the race, Dave Murray has assigned scattered tornado's to hangout around my back yard(dick, pot smoker). So, I have only ridden 28 minutes and did 3 1/2 sit ups since then. I call it recovery...

I also turned 30 on monday, the 23rd. Party is this Friday, the 27th... Holy SHIT.

Public CX course. In progress, needs work.

Course is slow, soft, and bumpy. Hopefully we can get out there while the dirt is soft in some cars or a roller to get it packed down while its moist dirt. There are some areas that are packed and roll fast(er). Just need to get the entire course like that...

Few picks.

Tour de Grove

Friday night at the first race of the weekend. It was as typical 4 corner crit with 2 really long wide streets with two really short and narrow streets connecting the two together. A rectangle basically. It was a Cat 2/3 race with about 80 or so riders. My plan from the beginning was to sit on the back, the very back, and try to stay protected from the wind. It was super easy sitting in like this. On the long straights I could move where ever I wanted to hide from the cross winds. A lot of people think this strategy is stupid. But it works on certain courses. I figured I would move up at 15 minutes to go.

So, At 15 minutes to go I sprinted up to, and right past, the front and into a small break away. Didn't last long though. Got re-absorbed. I sat on the front for another lap until going into turn 3 we got swarmed from both sides and I was back to 80th. Ok. Now I am thinking I will try it again with 2 laps to go.

Coming up to the finish line seeing 2 to go I sprinted back to the front. I was sitting 3rd wheel. I sat here until about half a lap later when the pack swarmed us again from both sides on the super wide back stretch. At 1 to go I was back around 60th. Just sat in and rode the wave in. Didn't work this time. Shit.

Saturday's weather was a complete piece of shit. Literal shit. Cold and rain. 45 degrees in May is not real common I don't think. Embrocation and arm warmers were a must. Gloves too.

The course had 6 turns and some where sharp. The last one being almost a complete 180. There were about 110 starters. I wanted to be on the back this time to stay out of crashes. But there weren't any really. I saw one going down the front straight but that was it. Being on the back in a wet 6 turn crit is the worst place. We kept getting gaped and I had to keep sprinting back up to the group. Or hammer anyway, not really sprinting...

It started to hurt pretty bad. After about 7 or 8 laps the 10 or so guys around me stopped chasing after the first corner where we kept getting gaped. This area was where the head/cross winds were the worst. I gave it my all but couldn't get back on. All the other riders around me dropped out. I kept going.

I rode alone for the rest of the race in the rain and cold. I caught and passed a lot of dropped riders. I ended up being scored as 70th place. Close to 40 DNF's. It was pretty miserable.

I opted out Sunday. Legs were tired and it was another cold wet day. And the course was harder with a pretty good climb in it. Feel bad for all the people with Bigshark who put in so much time and effort only to get pissed on by mother nature all weekend.

Tonight, Monday night, PG and I went to our top secret Greenwood mile crit training loop. We rode together for about an hour never going below 24. Felt great. I know im getting stronger. Maybe I need to rethink that tail-gunning/sprint at the last moment strategy...

Greensfelder XC

Greensfelder is a tough race and waking up to the sound of thunder and rain wasn't going to make it any easier. The rain was moving out of the area but it had done its damage on the trail. It was slick as shit on the rocks and a few sections of trail were pretty sloppy. Not enough to call the race though..

Cat 1 race.

Our race started at noon. Some earlier races had worn some lines in and cleared some of the mud. The trail was drying but it was still wet.

There were about 19 Cat 1 riders total. I lined up in the 30-39 age bracket(for the first time) expecting to get my ass handed to me. Luckily it was a mass start so I was able to blend in.

The first lap was hard. People were sliding around and crashing on the slick rocks. I was playing it safe just trying to stay upright. Half way through the first lap is when things really got going. The field was strung out enough that you could really pedal. Or in my case, feel like shit. My legs felt slow and they didn't seem to respond to effort. I was in a group with Karl Stover and Marc Ciufolo, Drew Black not far behind. We were moving ok I guess. Karl started to gap us, then I started to gap Marc. Soon we all had little advantages over each other. As we finished the first lap the gaps were about 1 minute to each rider.

On the second lap I was able to ride a little faster. With clear site on the trail it was much easier to pick the lines you wanted and not have to worry about someone falling in front of you. I kept Karl in site and got a pretty good gap on Marc. My legs were feeling much better now also. Accelerating out of corners was much easier and I never saw Marc again. At the end of the second lap on the last climb, I was able to see Drew a switch back down from me. I remember last year Drew finished very strong so I was worried a little about him.

Going into the 3rd lap my legs were feeling the effort. I was on cruise control mostly just trying to ride smooth and not make mistakes. It worked out pretty well. I finished the lap with no one in site to the front or rear of me. Out of the 19 riders I finished 6th overall and 3rd in age group.

My efforts earned me 40 dollars for the 6th overall and a 3rd place medal for the 30-39 age group ranking. In an attempt to make 40 dollars look like a lot of money, I spread it out all over my bed to make it look like I just won the tour. What does 40 bucks on your bed look like...? It looks like 40 bucks.




Huge thanks to DRJ and GORC. This was a fund raiser for GORC and I think they were into the 2K plus range when it was all said and done between the racers and donations from some shops. STL has a pretty good MTB scene. Glad to be a part of it.

MFXC 2011

No shenanigans, no BS, just true mountain biking with the highest quality people from around the area. Also, the most fun I have had on my bike in some time.

Brought to you by TEAMSEAGAL - Superior Attitude Superior State of Mind -


As you all know, the weather was not looking good last week. But, the reports kept coming in that the trails were buff. Yes.. the creeks were high and there were some wet spots too, but for the weather we have had it was almost perfect.

I was not about to miss a Team Seagal non-race. I loaded up and rolled out of Alton about 6:30 AM. When I got to 32 and DD I was shocked to only see about 7 cars. But, they started rolling in until the lot was overflowed out onto DD. 50 or so racers were ready to go.

This race isn't about winning. If you show up, do the race, grab a beer and get a high five or two you are winning. Unless of course you are Matt James, Dan Miller, Wendy Davis, or Nico Toscani. They really were winners.

Felt pretty good on the trail. Went backwards most of the day but my state of mind went forwards.

Long story short I finished the 32 mile-ish race 10th overall for a time of 3 hours 2 minutes. 15 minutes down from 1st overall. I would love to give a run down of how my ride went, and how a very young rider from BigShark sat on my rear tire for 1.5 hours without saying a word, until I finally had to stop so he would pass me... But, no way I can put a post together better than this.


Thank you Team Seagal for an Epic day. Its no surprise your team is growing...