Team Red Wheel

Quail Run Gravel Grinder

Saturday was a great day to be on a bicycle. Knowing that the gravel around Owensville is always a blast, i threw my bike on top of my car and went to meet Corey for a good day of riding. We jumped on our bikes at his house and took off for the not so bland town, Bland. On our way, we couldn't seem to get out of the wind. We took turns pulling until we found oursevles at Praire Star Restoration Farm. We met up with everybody that was going on the ride, and listened to Randazzle talk about the course and warn us of a section that was completely submerged in water (thank you Adam Hempleman for finding that out the hard way). We then gathered for a group picture before heading out to conquer some gravel.

There were a couple different options as far as route distance (short, medium, and long at a respective 20, 27, and 40 miles). Adam and his friend Keith still hadn't made it back to the Farm by time the group was leaving. Corey and i found ourselves being the lone soldiers on the long route. We passed some fields that were unbelievably green, and found ourselves grinding up some pretty massive hills. We eventually found oursevles in Mt. Sterling. Randy had mentioned the sandwitches there, as well as Corey, and i decided i had to try one of these things. Corey and i bought a powerade, monster, sprite, and two sandwitches for less than $10, and the sandwitches were stackked with meat. After more than filling ourselves with those delicious sandwitches, we headed back toward the farm. The country out there was beautiful. Near the end of the ride, Corey and I came up on a couple of the riders that were doing the shorter route after we connected back in and nearly scared them to death. We got back to the barn and realized that we were the first ones in. The two women we had just passed soon came walking up the hill to the farm. Corey offered them a couple awesome beers (or so i've heard) from our new sponsor, Tall Grass Brewing Company.
(sorry i couldn't flip the pic. apparantly since i didn't take it, i can't edit it)

Adam and Keith returned after taking a tour of the farm, and grabbed a couple cold ones. They deserved it. Four flats on the day for those two.

People started getting back, and the food hit the tables. The owner of Praire Star Restoration Farm, Bruce Sassmann, cooked up some brauts and burgers for the group of riders. The food was great.

(here is Randazzle from a side view in case you haven't seen that before)

The place was really cool. He restored his barn, and the property surrounding it. In the upstairs of the barn is a dance hall that has been done up extremely well and looks amazing. Bruce was even kind enough to grab a couple shot guns and let us shoot some skeet. We need to get Nick and his band out there sometime to play some bluegrass.

A big thanks to Tallgrass Brewing Company for the sponsorship and to Bruce for the use of his farm.

Boonedoggle

I haven't seen anything on the site, but i talked to Stoney and know that Nick, Robby, and Matt were all planning to do the boonedoggle at 9 a.m. I'll be under the bridge at that time. I guess if you guys are meeting somewhere else and see this, just shoot me a text.

Quail Run Gravel Grinder

It's Tuesday and it's like 80 degrees outside.

Are we riding Binder tonight or what?

I'm in meetings until after 5, but after that I'm grabbing my gear and I'll be out there. Maybe after the ride I can sing us some tunes from back when I was a rock star.

 Hope to see you there.

Team Meeting Wednesday 3/14/2012 at the Bikeshop and a Cedar Cross Update

Well folks, it would appear that all the puzzle pieces are falling into place. The venue is secured, the Surly Cross-Check frame is paid off and the course has long been finalized. I'm feeling pretty confident this event is gonna be smooth-sailing.

Should you find yourself in the Jeff City area on Saturday and you'd like to do a short adventure race, check out the Capital City Adventure Race. The people who put this race together are responsible for giving us FREE access to our START/FINISH line.

Every race needs a cool logo, but paying someone to create one can be very costly. Lucky for us, Dean Eichler, (confirmed rider), has volunteered his time to create this kickass logo:

Anyone who doesn't love this logo is obviously some kind of whack-job.  T-shirts are definitely gonna happen, so let me know if you wanna buy one. BIG thanks to Dean for all his work. This is a kickass logo.

In course-related news, I'm pleased to finally announce that we'll be riding past  the Callaway County Nuclear plant. Be excited.

Look closely and you'll see the gravel road going behind the reactor

I honestly don't know how to make this course any more badass. We've got gravel, forgotten singletrack, untold quantites of schwag and a nuclear reactor. The only thing missing is a bacon hand-up station, and I'm pretty sure we can fix that.

This won't just be a race, it's gonna be an adventure.

As you prepare for this event, I want you to keep a few things in mind. For one, the course will not be 100 miles....it's gonna be more like 113.  I tried every route configuration I could think of, but there was just no way to shorten it to an even 100 without using more pavement or cutting out the fun parts. I know most of us are racing Dirty Kanza in June, so the added mileage should be no problem. In fact, you're welcome.

Also, the singletrack portions of the course are accessible to horses, which makes them vulnerable to complete and total destruction from horses. I'll do everything I can to prep these areas in the days leading up to the race, but I can't guarantee you won't see a bit of this:

Trust me, noone is more frustrated with this than I am. You don't even want to know how much time I've spent clearing these trails only to see them  ruined all over again. I swear, it's like a bunch of equestrians got together and had a "F*ck You Bob Jenkins" parade on the Cedar Creek Trail.

                               I'm definitely feelin' some rage out here.

On the other hand, every decent cyclocross course has at least one mud-pit, so maybe this is how it's meant to be. The good news is that the singletrack sections are short and well within the first 50 miles. So, your legs will still be fresh if you find yourself knee-deep in mud and horseshit.

I'm sure you noticed I haven't been doing a very good job updating the list of confirmed riders lately. Sorry about that, I've been kinda busy planning the race and having anxiety attacks about someone being disappointed with the course.

As I've said, the course is finalized. Should there be enough rainfall to keep us off the singletrack, an alternative course without singletrack has also been finalized. We are ready to go.

Every effort will be made to ensure we have a great time out here, and I'll be posting updates as they become necessary. As always, don't feel shy about emailing me with any questions you have about the race.

I'm really looking forward to meeting all of you on May 6th. This is gonna be an awesome time.

Saturday Ride in Mokane

I'd like to do a longer ride Saturday morning. I've got shit to do later in the day, so this gravel-jam will begin at approximately 730 am in beautiful Mokane, Missouri. This may or may not be a scouting ride for parts of the Cedar Cross.

Shitty weather will not be grounds for ride cancellation. The only thing stopping me will be the Hams Prarie gas station...their sandwiches are delicious.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/73295094

Don't forget dog-spray and gummi bears

TNT Ride 3/1/2012

 

Katy Trail paved pavilion at 6:30. That's right, we're leaving from the "full blown" parking lot. We gon' ride to Tebbetts and back. It's 70 degrees for crying out loud.

Bring your own gummi bears

Baby, it's cold outside

Well, it seems that winter has finally found its way to Missouri... Just in time for my new bike. I decided i wasn't about to let a little cold weather and some snow stop me from getting out. I went out and did the haunted bridge loop on saturday which was a good time. i had a ridiculous tail wind on the way out, which of course turned into a ridiculous headwind. It was a good ride to get familiaried with gears again.

Today when i walked outside for class, snow was everywhere. I hadn't ridden in the snow in forever, and decided to go out for a ride after i finished up with the whole school thing.

The roads were pretty crappy, but fun to slide around on. I did my best to give the cars their space, but today they weren't moving much faster than i was. I got out into the country and found some fresh powder to lay my tracks on.

The only problem that i ran into was that i couldn't gain enough traction to get up some of the hills. I had a blast on the ride and am ready to get out again. Hopefully we'll get some team rides going on during the weekend if you guys don't mind gearin up for the weather.

Rutherford Road Gravel Ride!!!!

I'd love to head to Chucky's Challenge this weekend, but unfortunately I don't have the patience to sit in a car for +3 hours...so if you're sticking around and not heading north, how about some homegrown gravel????  If you're interested in freezing your taint off and crushing some gnarly gravel, join Nick and I at the river access lot 9am Saturday morning.  60-65 miles of freezing, man making miles!!!!!!  You don't want to miss out on views like this!

Gravel Tires

It seems to me that everyone has their own opinions on what tires are the best for riding gravel. Boroughs, Schwalbes, SpeedMaxes, etc...why do you ride what you ride? Are Schwalbe's really worth the money, or are they just "in style"?

Discuss.