The Pain Ultra

I tackled this beast Sunday with Wes and Shawn"Scream"Jones. I don't know what was more painful, the race, or riding in a car with Shawn doing 30 in a 55, 40 in a 65, 20 in a 45. But oh well he drove so I can't complain that much. Wes and I had other plans go bad so as of Friday night I got the ok from the boss to do the race. I figured I handled the Mohican 100k pretty well so what is the harm in a 45 mile bike race? Just ride your own race right? I was neither physically or mentally prepared for the ass kickin I was about to receive. After a painfully slow neutral 3 mile start we let it rip. I ran a 32x20 on my single speed and well into the 2nd climb of the day was wishin I had a 21 on the rear and after riding all the singletrack we had done the the other way I was whishin' for a 25 in the rear. This course had 5 or 6 climbs that dwarfed anything on the Mohican course and found myself off the bike pushing and wishing for gears on so many hills. The Shenandoah 100 had the longest hike-a-bike I have ever done, but we were confronted with a straight up quarter mile hike-a-bike-soul-crusher that topped of a brutal race. Would I do this again? Hell yeah. I'd be better prepared next time, plus it would be better to come down and camp to enjoy the atmosphere along the Ohio River and hang with some cool people. As hard as the course was this was beautiful backcoutry Ohio riding.

Team Soupcan Pics

I had a few people ask me where they can look online for some of the pics I was taking so heres the link.

http://s583.photobucket.com/albums/ss273/TeamSoupcan/

I hope this works for everybody. If it dosen't just go to photobucket and search for user name Teamsoupcan.

Vultures Knob Race #3

Crash and burn, that's all I got to say. Made it about 100 yards into the prolouge up the gravel road. A guy went down in front of me, I saw it thought I had plenty of time to go around, I braked and went down. Got up started to pedal and cause of my shitty bike maintenance busted my chain in half. Can't say I never done anything like this before. Guess it was kinda cool. Got to walk the coure with Dr. Soupcan and pound some Old Mlwaukee or as wes calls it "Old Skwak"

Jealousy

I had dreams of winning this. But was reduced to spectator after breakin my chain on my SS. But this is what Bob Rogers proudly gets to display in the family room for the next year. Whos house next year?

mohican 100k

so the 100k has come and gone.Was the most enjoyable endurance event i have done yet.had a pretty good start fought through some slow traffic for a while but ended up not being hampered by to many slow geared guys through the first 15 miles or so. Then hooked up with Mr. davis for about 15 more miles then the trail flattened out and he was gone. Shortly after that gorman blew passed me on a muddy down hill i panicked and tried to counter his move on a climb only to blow up before the top and watch him ride away.The next 20 miles was pretty much hanging on to geared riders as long as i could. Then with about 10 miles to go a single speed rider caught me with a geared friend.Every time i would put distance between us his geared buddy would pull him back however through all this we managed to catch gorman. Once i saw gorman i turned it up a little and in the process lost the other single speeder. I got to gormans wheel only to start cramping pretty bad and had to let him ride away as i had to get off my bike on a few hills.It was still good enough for 3rd place single speed and in the top 15 overall.The best part of these races is getting to hang out with great people for 2 days. I dont think anyone could ever ask for a better team then team soupcan or better people to drink beer with.Hats off to brett davis for his performance that was a stacked field and to be 7th overall is awesome.Then theres lorson top ten overall on a single speed and walked away with the single speed win. If you didnt know he is fast on that thing.The rest of the team did great im as jazzed about their results as i am mine.

photo credit jen f.

Rollin' the MoJo-hican

Yes, what a weekend it was indeed. Why don't more people stay around after the race to celebrate? Mohican adventures has the best accomodations ever! O'dell did a great job putting this one together. We enjoyed his company at the SoupCan SS camp (the "SS" stands for "single speed"; not, I repeat, NOT an Nazi camp). Man, we had so much fun that when it was over we all felt like kids after christmas....bummed. A bunch of middle aged men sleeping in a horse trailer with a disco ball and no responsibilities for 2 days. Heaven. So, we rolled into town after work on Friday and set up shop. We took a short 4 mile ride to make sure our bikes were operating correctly then proceded on to Pizza Hut where we consumed a couple pitchers of beer and ate pizza, hot wings, and lasagna. We traveled back to the camp site where the disco ball was put into effect and brought in guests like moths drawn to a light. We consumed more malted beverages and found our bed rolls by midnight. Lorson's body makes cool sounds; even when he's sleeping. His breathing sounds something like an old train coming into station, "HAAAAA pushhhhhhtttsssshh." Ryan just stinks and snores. Wes is a good sleeping buddy....as gay as that sounds.....he doesn't make a peep. My only beef with him is the 5 a.m. "yeee haaa, get up bitches" wake up call. Race day comes upon us and we proceed to McDonalds for our pre-race chow where Lorson showcases his talents and lets out a symphony of gas that is appreciated by everyone there. A sustained "high C note" reminscent of some of the best work of "Dizzy Gillespie". I really do think that his ass cheeks puff up just like Dizzy's did. It gives him that control and beautiful tone. Bravo! John Lorson, Bravo! Back to camp. Everyone shit at least 3 times. Funny how that shit works. We ride downtown to the starting line and its downright cold. I see people with full jackets on for the race and wonder what in the hell they are going to do with them at the top of Maple Heights (1 mile into the race). At the start, Wes and John take off like its a 9 mile time trial and I think "there's no fucking way I'm gonna blow myself up this early, I'm too much of a pussy to recover from that and ride another 6 hours". So I go medium-hard up the hill and find my own pace. I rode comfortably with Gorman (2nd place) for 5 miles or so thinking he would lead me to the promise land. As we were passing people here and there my back tire exploded off the rim. I yelled "fuck" as loud as I could, but it didn't help any. Should have brought that cone wrench for my chain tensioner. A skinny rock worked after a prolonged hunt for a primitive tool. I got back on the trail and found that passing novice riders is easy because they are courteous and eager to get out of the way. However, passing mid-level riders is not so easy because they really aren't very cooperative (for fear of feeling like a novice rider I guess). Riding a single speed is like having some kind of magical pass though because some riders know momentum is paramount and give you the room. So I learned that yelling, "I'm on a single speed" works to get around people until you yell it to a guy on a single speed. Then the answer is apparently, "so am I, you dick". I had it coming. Nothing real exciting happened to me beyond that for the rest of the race. I found myself in never never land (that gap between fast people and midrange people). I went as fast as I could for the race and had to do an inoordinate amount of passing but never felt bad. That left me with plenty of energy to swill cheap beer and eat Mongolian barbeque at the finish. Brett from the Solon club visited the post race disco at the SoupCan Camp and regaled us with his brand of witty humor along with some youngster from Arkansas. Between his Arkansas draw and his youthful vernacular I didn't understand anything he said. Perhaps it was the mix of American Ale, Dortmunder, Old Millwaukee, and Busch that made things hard to understand. Spinning Todd came down for the post race celebration and surprised me with his willingness to sleep in a camper with a total stranger. I made no guarantees that he wouldn't be a Spinning Todd skin suit but he ended up with first class accomodations. "Wow" is all I can say to John Lorson (1st place) and Wes Jones (3rd place). Great job to Ryan Knoph for 7th. And for me, I finished 6th place in the single speed division, 1st place in the "enjoyed myself" category.

Mohican

Magnus Mo-Ho Review

Theres nothing like staying two nights with 3 other guys in a horse trailer and a disco ball. Lorson is the greatest Team Soupcan farter by far, followed by me, then Wes, but I think that Jason has some female gene that disables him for passing gas in public with male dominance. But we had a blast. We all did freakin great! We got 1st, 3rd, 6th and 7th in the singlespeed 100k.

My race was awsome and had no idea it was going to be. I ran a 32x21 which I knew for me was gonna be not a strong enough gear in the flats and the roads but was hoping to be efficient enough to have a decent time with all the climbing involved. I was shooting for a time in the 7 hour range but was blown away when I ended up with a 6 1/2 hour time! I think a riding a SS has made me a better rider. It makes you relax on the easy stuff and push on the hard stuff.

My favorite point in the race was between the Buckhaven aid station and the Wilderness aid station. I loved the stretch of road riding. I could only go so fast on the SS I took time to relax and enjoy the country. I love riding through all the farms and seeing houses out in the middle of nowhere. Plus being sunny and 70 out added to a great day. But the whole time I was enjoying the ride I was anticipating the Mohician Wilderness and the brutal Valley Stream hill climb. Lorson you rode it! I got off my bike on Valley Stream but was walking next to a dude in his granny the whole way up. After that I remembered the course from prevoius years and rode in with good form. What a race! I got done before my wife could make it dowm to see me finish. Which ain't a bad thing cause it makes me look tough!

The after party rocked! Spinning Todd came down and he and I went to the Marathon right next door and bought a 24 of Busch and a 30 pack of Old Mil, which Wes likes to call Old Skwak. It was sweet to see Scream get hammered. I put on a pre race drunk by 4pm and managed to take some pics of the winners for O'Dell.

We continued the night by riding our bikes in blind drunkeness down to Beano's in downtown Loudonville for some Great Lakes Dortmunder and East of Chicago Pizza and then did the .35 blood alc. content level ride back to the campground for some fire and tunes and disco ball.

Sweet!

Brett Davis Mo-Ho review

Brett you are one cool dude. If the rest of the racing world could be like you.

As of Friday morning, I had not pre-registered for the Mohican 100 so it was still undecided whether I would do the 100 mile or 100k (65 miles). I have competed (and finished) the 100 mile version three times with some good results and some not so good. All of these 100 milers involve some degree of pain and suffering. Within days of completing one of these events, the memories of the 8 to 10 hours of suffering fade but the experience is burned into your brain luring you back year after year.

Ultimately, as the race was to be part of a family camping trip, I decided to do the 100k so I would not be MIA all fricken day (plus I am getting soft and 100k seemed much more sensible/rational).

We loaded up my parent’s motorhome and were on the road by 6pm or so on Friday evening. We arrived around 7:30pm at the new for this year venue at Mohican Adventures on SR 3 by Wally Road. We rented a camp spot for two nights and started getting set up. Got the EZ Up set up just in time for a little rain sprinkle.

Once we got set up, I went to register, but unfortunately they were gone for the night. So I had to add “register” to my list of things to do the next morning before the 7am start time. So I went back to camp, started a fire and we made the kids some smores.

Under the cover of darkness (aided by light) I then proceeded to swap out my rear derailleur, cable and shifter which was busted up from the race last weekend at The Knob. Without too much trouble, I finished that up and spun around the campground for 1 minute shakedown. Good to go!

We put the kids to bed around 10pm and the wife and I sat by the fire and enjoyed a glass of wine. We crashed at 11:30 to the sounds of rain on the RV rooftop.




Got up in the morning and walked down to the convenient store for some coffee and greasy breakfast sandwiches. Got dressed and rode the 1 mile to downtown Loudonville for the start. I found a spot near the front and at 7am sharp we were off. The weather and trails were perfect. Could not have been any better! Low humidity, 70s, light breeze, clear skies, lots of buff single track!

I went semi-hard on the initial climb to stay near the front. Other than that the first 4-5 miles were done at a moderate to high pace. Once we got to the 25 mile State Park loop, I was riding with 3-4 other riders. Then Wes Jones caught and passed me sporting his rigid single speed. I latched onto him and benefited from his pace for the next 15 or so miles. We were together all the way to where we exited the loop for the hike a bike at mile 22 or so (same place many people turned right instead up left up the big hill). Thanks Wes!

After some horse trails we got out onto the dirt roads and a couple steep punchy climbs. I was with several 100 mile riders who where riding pretty conservative pace. I pulled though a couple times and looked back and had a gap; I guess they were conserving for the 100 miles. So I sat up and joined the paceline (at their pace) until we eventually caught and passed Mike Gorman and later John Lorson. I rode with Lorson and the others until just before the Mohican Wilderness section that takes you to the Aid Station which serves as the split for the 100 mile and 100k.

It felt AWESOME knowing I only had 20 miles to go versus 60 miles (in past years when I raced the 100 miler)! Lorson and I left the aid station together and proceeded down Wally Road at a moderate pace. The big gravel road climb to the left lay ahead. Lorson cleaned the whole thing on his single speed. That climb is much easier with 40 miles in your legs versus 80, go figure:) I middle ringed the climb (could not get into the granny). Rode the big rollers with John and I surged at the right turn at the top that leads to the big grassy field.

From that point I rode by myself and did not see anyone until the end. The last 6 miles seemed longer than 6 miles and the sections near the finish were cruel. At the end of the day I finished in 5:38 or so in 7th place overall for the 100k. I felt fresh at the end, so I took the kids fishing and we slayed it catching a few bass in one of the lakes on site.




We stuck around for the evening festivities which included kegs of Sierra Nevada and my favorite..Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold! Got to spend some time with the boys from SoupCan Racing and Bruce from Pisgah Works, among others.

After a night of revelry, we got up early on Sunday morning and I made camp breakfast of eggs and bacon for the kids. After breakfast and a swim in the pool and hottub, we loaded up the RV and did a 6 mile canoe ride with clear skies and perfect weather.




Thanks to Ryan K. for the Mohican Valley canoe referral. All in all a great family weekend with a little bike riding time for Brett thrown in for good measure.

Later,
BRD