Charm City Cross Race - Baltimore, MD.

Yesterday’s race was a nightmare for me. One huge mistake cost me about 50 places. I beat the pack off the line and into the taped course only to overshoot the very first turn and get tangled in course tape. I was hung up for about 4 seconds and lost about 50 places. The rest of the race was spent playing “catch up”. I passed as often and as many as I could but only placed 17th. 

 

This was just a bad race. I’m not letting it get me down. I made a lot of mistakes, I was flustered after having a bad start and didn’t get my act together until the 3rd lap. Oh well. I hope I got all this horrible racing out of my system for this season.

I’ll make up for it next weekend at the Ed Sander Cross Race in Buckeystown, MD.

- Mike

Saturday ride at Loch Raven.

Saturday morning I was up and at em'. I rode up to Loch Raven Reservoir and was there by 8:30.

For those of you who haven't ridden the singletrack around the reservoir; it's perfect. I've been taking my cross bike there for the last two weeks or so to hone my technical skills for this coming cross season.

The way the reservoir was like a sheet of glass reminded me of camping, back home, in the Adirondaks.

Regardless of my two flat tires, I had a nice ride and stopped frequently to take in the sights, sounds & smells.

- Mike

Friday: Orioles crush the Yankees!

Friday night I swung by Camden Yards on the way home from work and picked up 2 tickets to the Yankees game. My girlfriend and I showed up to enjoy the game. We were in the upper deck but were still able to see just fine and we had a nice cool breeze. The Orioles beat the Yanks 9 - 2 I believe. Awesome game; good nachos!

- Mike

A new look for phattire.net

I have to at least mention that I totally revamped phattire.net. It was a good weekend to geek it out in front of the pc for hours. Take a look.

My girlfriend did loads of homework while I pulled my hair out and Doris observed the action on the street.

- Mike

Saturday & Sunday at Loch Raven Reservoir

I spent Saturday and Sunday in the woods. Saturday morning Mike Hoffman and I rolled the cross bikes up to Loch Raven and enjoyed some sloppy singletrack. (It had been raining for about 24hours solid) It was pretty tricky riding a lot of sections that were laced with greasy roots and slippery rocks but we managed to keep the bikes upright and even carried some decent speed.

Sunday I went back alone. The trails were perfect. Nice and tacky. Some sections were already dried out but the majority of the trail was pretty lush. 

Above: Some parts of Loch Raven is like riding in the rain forest.

I rarely ride trails with my ear phones in but I was feeling in the mood to roost some singletrack while I listened to some bassy hippity hop music so I did. All was fine and dandy. I was flying over logs, slaloming through saplings, hopping into descents and all the while mumbling segments of Outkast here and there. Talk about flow... man was I ever flowing. Yes, you could even say I was "more Mac than Kraft" as I blasted through the singletrack. ... until I tried to skid under this low bridge and was yanked right off the bike. That hurt. ... a lot.

Above: This is where my flow came to an abrupt stop.

- Mike

Rainy daze.

Well, I can't complain. It hasn't rained in Baltimore for the last 2 or 3 weeks. I didn't mind getting soaked on the way home from work. I wish it weren't going to rain the entire weekend though; I really wanted to hit Patapsco State Park on the cyclocross bike.

- Mike