Plume's ride and race blog

I decided for an easier loop today. Easy pace. Solo, no racin', just cruisin', really great day for that...

Parked at Yellow Gap
Headed west on Yellow Gap Rd, aka 1206
1206 to 476
476 turns into South Mills River
South Mills to Squirell Gap
Squirell Gap to Laurel Creek
Laurel Creek to Bradley Creek
Bradley Creek to 5015
5015 back to Yellow Gap

Right in at 25 miles, a great half day ride and one I plan on doing often (with variation of course).


My bike @ the junction.

Squirrel Gap... This ride is great because you get to ride one of the best trails in Pisgah from start to finish. This is classic Pisgah single track here...

The sunshine was making me giddy... :)

I ran into a ton of bikers out today, easily the most I've ever seen in Pisgah in one time outside a race or BC. Pretty cool, most folks were friendly and I exchanged quick trail condition reports as all the riders were heading in the opposite direction.

The ride starts out with a fair amount of dirt road, it's an ok warm up and once you get on single track you're ready for it. This section of S. Mills is fun, it's pretty fast and flowy but there's a share of rocks to keep you on your toes. I made a wrong turn right before Buckhorn Gap that had me following a goat trail pretty quick... opps. Got back on track and headed towards Squirrel. I met quite a few hikers and equestrians on S. Mills. Once I got to the junction of Squirell and S. Mills I stopped for lunch. Took my time with it and soaked in the sun. Made some use of my camera, this is one of my favorite places to hang out, that bridge is so cool.

Got headed up Squirrel and at this point I wasn't sure if I had made a good decision with my route or not. I had been [i]down[/i] this part before but it had been since October and I knew there was a fair amount of climbing. Luckily there was basically no need to get off the bike except for the occaisonal downed tree, ok there was more than the occaisonal downed tree, there's a lot right now. Squirel kinda kicked my butt. I don't know what it was, the crazy amount of leaves hiding all the logs/roots/rocks/deathtraps or the fact that I wasn't totally focused (haha) but I managed to crash about 3 times on this trail. That's more than I usually like to crash in a month. I took a nasty digger right towards the end where some rock armoring has occurred (PAS, I presume... great job I might add) unfortunately leaves were covering a loamy section followed immediately by a big ole rock.. I found the softer ground and rock pretty quickly as I managed to go flying OTB! lol, I was fine but decided it best to slow it down. No sense in breaking a leg while solo.

Finally got to Laurel Creek trail. I had remembered this trail from my first attempts at conquering the Turkey Pen area, the thing is that I got to go DOWN it this time, what fun! Laurel cuts into some pretty nifty tight and twisty single track, it's get really narrow in some spots. Found my way to the Bradley Creek trail and after getting my feet wet in the creek crossing I quickly found the beginning of 5015 that would teleport me back to the car. I thought of the riders I had just met talking about going UP Pilot Rock and DOWN Laurel - I told them it didn't sound like much fun, but they seemed to think otherwise. Hey to each his own! Luckily I can say I've climbed up Pilot before and I flashed back to a really cool ride back in October with Pisgah Productions and Tomatoe... ah the memories.

Sorry it's been so long since my last update, pretty lame of me. I have been sick for the better part of 2 weeks so riding has taken an unfortunate back seat. I raced the Knobscorcher a couple weekends ago with poor results. It's to be expected when you don't feel well I suppose. The singlespeed class has proven to be very competitive. I ended up in 11th place out of 17 riders, not at all what I had hoped for. I think if I was feeling 100% I could have gotten 5th or 6th. No matter.

The extra wet race conditions at Tsali left all our bikes in need of dire repair. My HeadShok especially was feeling really crappy and it was apparent that I needed to rebuild it. This was a learning experience for me but it went surprisingly well and now it feels pretty OK. I had ordered some nice new wheels from Mavic - the CrossMax STs, a new wheel for the '07 line they're a little burlier than the SLs or SLRs. They're wonderful. This is my first really nice wheel set and it's the first time I've been able to run a UST set up, what a difference! Here's the newly rebuilt 1FG, there's not much stock on it anymore...

Optimo 1FG frame

DLR HeadShok

WTB Laser Saddle

Oury Lock on grips

FSA Riser Bar (wide)

Avid Speed Dial SL Levers

Avid BB7 brake set

Thompson offset seat post

Cannondale stem

XT Cranks with a 33t generic ring

Sram 9 spd chain

20t Endless Kick Ass Cog for silent drive train

Mavic CrossMax ST wheel set

Scott Stroke 2.3 UST tire - front

Continental Survival 2.1 Kevlar - rear

I have to say I'm very impressed with all the new stuff on the bike. The Mavics truly shine and it's such a night and day difference compared to the old Cannondale Hub wheels I had. I'm not thrilled with the Avid brake levers, for what they retail for, nearly 70 dollars they really aren't any better than the stock Cannondale levers I had. I need to find a quality mechancial brake lever, I may even switch to a Shimano hydraulic system eventually. This is a pretty racey single speed now. I'm looking forward to doing some long rides and endurance racing on it.  It's not ultra light by any means at just over 23 lbs, but for the riding we do here I'm not sure I want something ultra light weight.  Plus, I've lost a lot of rotational weight which is key.

I also have some good reviews on some accesories I picked up recently as well. I've been struggling with a choice for eyewear when traveling off road. I need Rx glasses and I've been using some very expensive Rudy Projects with Rx inserts, the problem is that they fog up very easily when ever I would stop, or even when I was doing some harder climbing, not good. I needed to go with a direct fit type of lens system and I finally got them. I opted for a Tifosi product and spent a fraction of what I paid for my Rudys, so far they're great and don't hold fog like the Rudy's. They're also slightly more fashionable plus they're lighter and don't slide off my nose like my heavier Rudy's did. The Rudys are now my full time sun glasses and they're fine for road riding. I've been needing an "all day" camel bak for awhile now and I finally got the HAWG, (holds a lot of water and gear), it's great. It's actually even more comfortable than my old smaller camel bak. Other little things include finally switching to lock on grips and a new Halo sweat band for keeping sweat out of the eyes - they both work great. Ok... so not so long til my next entry, I promise.

Sweet day! I've been battling a cold for the last week and I wasn't sure if I'd really get a great ride on the mountain bike today. I woke up and felt a lot better and started the phone tree and mtbr posting to see who would brave the "early" morning cold with me. Nate and Kris K (my coworkers) got on the horn and decided that Bent Creek would be the best bet. I don't think that any one really wanted to be in a car for very long today, myself included. After I got off the phone with those guys I checked MTBR and saw that Dave (Maida7) would be there as well and possibly a few others. Right after that Matt Johnson called me and informed me that himself and Jay Clinton would be there as well, this was shaping up for a BIG old group ride. I was psyched, I haven't done a big group ride like that in forever.

So let's see, in total we had 11 riders take off from Rice Pinnacle: Me, Nate, Kris, Tom, Liz, Matt, Jay, Dave, Gabe, Chris, and Dave 2, I think. Someone please correct me if I've gotten names wrong. I'm not so good at that.

Took off right down Wolf Branch where I ate it pretty hard on that small little log bridge. I usually nail it but I was going too slow and did the classic, "look where you DON'T want to go" lol. I hate crashing but I guess I'm ok at since the bike and myself was fine. Caught up to the hammer head who of course would string the group out a bit. All single track to the intersection on Inglels Field. Great place to take some pics of the great group we had.

Kris on his brand new Jamis XCR expert. He loves his new bike!

Roll Models crew representin'... Tom (on the left) came out to Pisgah this weekend from Raleigh, Nate's on the right with the BioWheels' super cool demo bike, the Cannondale Rush 3. Nate would later be jumping this bad boy on Green's Lick with style.

Dave, MJ, Chris, Tom and Kris K, waitin' 'n' restin... felt good to chill out a bit!

Just a beautiful day to be in Bent Creek!

This was most of the group, getting ready for the next climb up Ingles.

Matt let me go ahead of him and grind up the steep section on Ingles Field right before 5 points. Well, when you ride a singlespeed it's grind, sit, or get off and walk. ;) but, that's how I roll. We re-grouped at 5 points very briefly. It was windier and colder up there so we needed to keep crankin away. About half way up North Boundary Jay's brakes seized up a bit. Another well received excuse for stopping. Nate and Jay quickly fixed the problem and we made it to the top of Green's Lick in no time flat.

Another quick stop at the top. I borrowed a granola bar from Liz (thanks!) and slammed a bit of gel. I was feeling surprisingly good in the lungs but my legs weren't up to snuff for some reason (week off the bike will do that I guess). We all went down Green's Lick nicely. That trail has really grown on me and I especially like the top section with all the burms it's so fast and flowy there's little need for brakes if you hit all the burms right. I stopped at the last little kicker jump at the end and took some pictures of everyone coming off from it. Matt and Nate decided to do a quick session. I got a few nice shots of them both.

Gabe and Dave... Gabe likes to ride not only a single speed but a fixed single speed at that! He's insane. I had to give him props though, he rocked it down that gnarly downhill trail much faster than what was expected! Can you imagine riding GL without coasting? I can't! Smoke bikes was in the house today!

Liz spends most of her time on her road bike but she rocked it out today, nice job!

Matt gets some air on the kicker!

Nate's got a strong background in BMX, motocross, and dirt and urban riding... it shows! Blastin' off the kicker with the Cannodale Rush 3. Single pivots were meant to be jumped.

After Green's Lick we did the Explorer Alt loop back to Deerfield and eventually back to the cars.  I don't know the trail names there as well as I should, but they're all really fast and flowy, just what the good doctor ordered. The group split off at Deerfield because Jay's dog was MIA for a bit. Luckily he found her, and we all said our good byes at the parking lot. It was a great ride, I don't have a computer on my bike now but I'd guess it was right around 12 - 15 miles. But as you know it's not the mileage, it's saddle time that's important. Thanks to everyone who came out. I had a great time!

Just got back from my weekend out at Fontana Village where I participated in one of the coolest races of the season, The ICycle. Their XC race is a familiar format but is unusual because of the time of year it takes place. Most people race this one for fun, but there's certainly still an aura of friendly competition and even smack talking going on. Overall the vibe was very relaxed and fun and considering the amount of alcohol consumed I'd say there were little or no problems, at least that I noticed. The night down hill race is what really makes this event stand out - how many night down hill races do you know of? It kept a lot of people there and hanging out until late at light. While most XC races are a lot more serious and seemingly less fun, The ICycle is not like most XC races that's for sure! It had a familiar party vibe that you find at longer endurance races without the commited saddle time which, for this time of year is a plus.

The ride out was fairly uneventful. I gave one of the newest BioWheels racers, Kylie Krause a lift out to the race - we joked about my lack of muffler which made the trip louder than I would have liked but apparently added "street cred" - lol. It's about a two hour drive from Asheville to Fontana Village and by the time we got on 28 I understood why it takes a bit to get there, very twisty mountain roads complete with beautiful vistas. We pulled in right around 10:30am and immediately found the Johnson family and the BioWheels tent which apparently made for a better wind sail than tent when it blew over shortly after the XC. Once we settled in a bit we decided to get signed right up and get some sort of warm up in before the start.

The sign up was hassel free and complete with an annual ICycle pint glass, I could see where this party, erm, I mean race was going... I decided to just race the XC event and sit out the DH. I was told it was very doable on a hardtail but I wasn't sure if I was even going to spend the night at that point. I opted for the chili dinner meal ticket instead.

My warm up was lame. I farted around with last minute adjustments, you know things I should have done prior to an hour before launch time. I almost went out without a pump because, let's face it if you flat in something like this, it's over. I was quickly talked into bringing a hand pump with me because it's certainly no fun walking a bike out of the woods race or not. I had to quickly install the little pump holder that goes on the bottle cage. So basically instead of spinning my wheels a bit I was messing around with that. Thankfully I never needed the pump. Finally got on the bike about twenty minutes to the start. There was no way to do a parade lap in time so I opted to check out as much of the course as I could. I climbed up the first hill and up through all the switch backs and decided I needed to head back. Got back in time to spin my legs and keep warm on the pavement right up until the riders meeting.

They started the race with a lemans style start which is a great way to spread out the field right away. I made one finally adjustment before the start as I removed my winter head gear, I was going to get really hot, really fast. A good choice in hind sight as I think a lot of folks were probably over dressed. The experts took off first and looked like fast people should, fast. I was impressed to see some single speeders racing in the expert class and they would prove to be the fastest in the bunch. Nice one guys.

Next up was the single speed class, a great turn out of around 25 riders, one of the biggest classes of the day. Finally, a good start for me. I've learned to like the lemans start. I suppose I'm a decent sprinter because I was probably one of the first guys on the bike. That wouldn't matter as the top five spots quickly bombed ahead of me on the first climb. As we got up the first climb we quickly descended down the pavement and turned into the woods and up the first hard climb. The best thing to do was simply hike a bike up the steep pitch because our wheels were all slipping out on the hard packed and slippery surfaces. By the time I made it to the first switch back I looked up and saw Matt Johnson battling it out for top position, he hollered at me to hurry up, so I did. Unfortunately I wouldn't see Matt until the end of the race. It was time for me to ride my own race and hell, have a good time doing it.

I quickly settled into the 7th or 8th posistion and stayed there for a quarter of a lap. I was racing it out with a rider in a grey and yellow kit and was having a hard time keeping on his wheel. Luckily my friend Art Schuster (or Sinister as the results had him listed) was right behind me giving me some moral support and quick advice, "keep him in sight, don't lose him, stay on his wheel" so I did. It paid off because when we got to the first technical descent I made a move past him into 6th or 7th place just barely avoiding a crash into a baby head rock. Now I could see Rich Dillen right in front of me and I got a little excited. If I was racing with Team Dicky I must be doing good. We traded back and forth for maybe a mile or two and he finally turned on the juice going into the second lap leaving me well behind.

At this point I settled into a great pace and was really feeling pretty good on the bike. I was climbing well and riding well through the little technical sections. The course was pretty open in most areas making it easier to make passes on riders in other classes. The rest of lap two went on pretty uneventfully as I stayed nestled in to 6th place. I traded passes with a geared rider, I think he was probably leading the sport class but I'm really not sure. He passed me once then flubbed on one of the icy climbs. I walked passed him and waited until the trail got flatter to get back on the bike. I need to work on my mounts and dismounts, after the last hike a bike I couldn't get clipped in, arg! I thought that's what egg beaters were for? A quick flick of my shoes and I cleared the mud and ice off my cleats and got back into pedal mode. Finished out the rest of the field laid course as fast as I could. At that point I could feel my legs getting tired, I was glad it was over when I made the final climb before the finish line. I didn't see a whole lot of single speeders which was a good sign. I wasn't positive where I had finished but I knew it was 5th or 6th probably. Heard a lot of encouragement from my friends and teammates which is something I needed.

Sure I would have liked to get on that damn podium but I felt really good about my performance. I think the short track race last week paid off too. I noticed that I was spinning a lot faster and more effciently on the flats and my over all speed is improving too. I quickly got washed up and started the recovery process with a quality beverage, a Miller Genuine, thanks Gabe! Enjoyed meeting some folks from the MTBR North Carolina board, Brad thanks so much for the invite and good look on getting those kegs. I made a donation to the cause. ;) The race promoters also had a keg and I enjoyed that as well after my chili dinner with Jonathon and Kristin.

At that point I decided to stay the entire night so that I could enjoy myself properly, I planned on having a good time now! Before things got too out of hand I got a massage from my friend Elizabeth. She's pretty amazing and she comes highly recommended. She's very interested in cycling events and can usually be found at the major WNC race events. I met her at last year's 24 hours of Pisgah and she worked on me right before my last lap. I was feeling so crappy at that point and my stomach was completely turned around. Needless to say that after she worked on me my legs started to work again and I could once again eat. So yeah Elizabeth is great. Get a massage from her next time you see her, and leave a big tip. :)

I finished out the weekend with a nice little family style hike with the Johnsons, Matt, Amber and Hyla. Matt took us out to Joyce Kilmer recreation area and we did the standard 2 mile hike in the beautiful old growth forest. Matt and Amber took pictures and I'll bug them for some copies. Wow, what a splendid weekend! It's truly a blessing to live in Western North Carolina.

I won't be racing for at least one full month. I'm going to stop doing interval training and start keeping my heart rate down, down, down. Long slow rides for me right now at least for 3 weeks I think, maybe more. I have my sights set on a SERC race in SC in March which is really more of a season opener. I really need to make a race calender so I can keep track of all these events. So far I'm doing a great job at my goal for 2007, racing as much as possible. Now I'm looking forward to doing some nice, easy but long trail rides. I'm making a great investment into a much larger CamelBak, the HAWG. This thing is pretty much an all day Pisgah pack and it will make carrying a camera much easier. Expect some good Pisgah photos real soon...

Thanks for readin,

-ian

edit: pictures are up. BioWheels results as follows:

Men's Expert: Adam Ray - First Place (on a single speed!)

Single Speed: Matt Johnson - Third Place, Ian Baldwin - Sixth Place

Men's Sport: Kurt Weigand - Third Place

Women's Expert: Kylie Krauss - Third Place

Women's Sport: Kassi Day - Third Place, Lea Osborne - Fourth Place (first race!)

Women's Begginer: Kyley Cross - Second Place (first race!)

Great Job BioWheels! Representin' with style! Amber Martz-Johnson did a really nice write up on the BioWheels page. You can check it out here: http://www.biowheels.com/Home/Article.asp?PostID=1180

I'm still collecting more pictures.... they'll be up soon.

I decided to kick start the pre-racing season with a trip out to Charlotte to check out the short track series put on by the Dirt Divas. I realize it's pretty early to start interval training but this sounded like too much fun. One of my weaknesses is simply not having enough speed on the flats. I figured this event would be a great place to train at a high output for a short duration. While I could obviously just do intervals on my own time I need all the race day experience I can get - you can't train for a race better than by simply entering one! My folks live out that way, so it also gave me an excuse to bug them and make them come watch me suffer for 45 minutes. My father is the person responsible for giving me the "racing bug" back when I was just a little kid. He supported me while I raced harescrambles (think XC racing with motorcycles) as a young kid and as a teenager. I had mild success with that but always enjoyed it. I draw a lot out of those experiences as they are very similar to racing bicycles. Thanks Dad!

The day started with unseasonably warm weather. I signed up as soon as we got there and decided that I had enough time to walk the course. I walked the course with my dad while my step mom (aka mom 2) researched the hot chocolate area. Very short course, which is exactly what I expected. Very little climbing. A lot of pavement and dirt road and pretty straight forward single track. This would prove to be the fastest race I've ever entered, which again is what I expected. I felt confident while watching the sport level guys race. I knew I could pedal faster. I also felt really good about the gear ratio I had chosen. I knew I needed a much higher gear than I was used to using in Pisgah (33X20), and I opted for a 33X16 ratio for this event. I felt that I had choosen wisely seeing the only tiny hill I would have to climb.

At the starting line my confidence lowered quite a bit. I didn't realize that there would be such a large number of single speeders, 14 in total. I knew I was in for a challenge at that point. My plan was to get as close to first place as possible and check his speed until I could make a move - that never happened. As usual, my start sucked. I got embedded into 5th, or 6th place and quickly fell back to 8th or 9th. I did a quick assesment and started my "damage" control, or plan B. All I could do was hold on to a pace that I knew I could handle for 15 laps and push it. I lost so much time on the flats and in the woods section and would make up just a little on the very short climb. 3/4 of the way through the race I got lapped by first place, dammit he was flying. I tried to hold on to his wheel for as long as I could and I couldn't even keep him on the climb, he was on another level for sure. Second place was about a half lap behind first and he also made quick work of me.

I did a bit of passing myself but it was mainly racers in the other class. Some of the racers in my class had simply started out too hot trying to hang with the first few guys. While they were much faster than me in the start I reeled a couple of them in towards the end. Of course I felt really good towards the end, but that doesn't matter in a short track event. You need to feel good in the beginning to be successful in that type of scenerio. On the last lap right after the woods section with the only climb I saw yet another rider in my class who was in striking distance, but only if I really hustled. There was no way he was going across the line before me! I passed him just yards before the end. He really didn't seem to care of course because we both knew we weren't even close to the podium. I'll tell you what though, I'm really glad I finished 7th instead of 8th! I think that had the race been longer the results would have been in my favor, but that's how these things go. I got some great experience in, and I had a great time too. Thanks again to my family for always supporting my efforts, even the non-succesful ones.

If I lived in Charlotte I would be racing this entire series. Unfortunately this will be the only one I'll be able to attend as I plan on participating in the ICycle this weekend and can't race on Saturdays. This is a great little series. Check it out if you can:

http://www.charlottemtnbike.com/

thanks for readin,

- ian

Gosh I feel so current now that I finally have my own blog! As the descriptions states this will mainly be a place for me to discuss past rides and races that I have been involved with. Living so close to the beautiful Pisgah National Forest I thought this would be a great place for people to keep track of my cycling adventures. While this blog will mostly focus on mountain bike rides and races I'll also be updating this with road rides, hikes, and other topics of personal interest such as my other passion in life, djing. Don't be surprised to see very random "party pics" as well. I want to keep this fun so it won't be all about training rides and racing.

Quick background about me... I recently moved from upstate New York to Asheville. I've been riding mountain bikes for just about three years now, "seriously." Of course I always rode as a kid but never to the extent that I do now. I have a background in motorized two wheeled vehicles and I used to race harescrambles as a teenager. I've always prefered woods riding of any kind which is part of the reason I was drawn towards mountain bikes. I moved to Asheville specifically for the riding. I love it. I work at the best local bike shop in town, BioWheels as a mechanic and as a front of the house employee as well. I'm also very excited to be part of the BioWheels racing program - 2007 is promising to be our best year yet as a team. I feel lucky to have found such a great organization.

My experience in racing is pretty limited as of now. I entered three races while still living in NY and did quite well on the sport level finishing in 2nd, 1st, and 5th - all podium finishes. I quickly learned that things were much more competitive here in the south east and realized that I needed to get much stronger if I still wanted to see the same results. I entered my first south east XC race back in March and finished 10th out of 22 riders, the pace was a lot faster than what I was used to seeing back north. I missed a lot of racing this past summer due to my last place of employment. There was little to no time off on weekends so that put a damper on many summer racing plans. Luckily the folks at BioWheels saved me from that place and I was quickly put on the 2006 co-ed team for the 24 hours of Pisgah! That was one of the best experiences I've ever had - I had never ridden with a team before so that part was totally new, it was also my first endurance style race and I was very nervous. With a LOT of help from my other teammates we managed a very close 1st place victory. I was just happy to be a part of that whole experience. That event comes highly recommended, total grass roots 24 hour racing right there. Next on the agenda was the 2006 Super Swank. I was feeling very confident on race day but the gruling 45+ mile Pisgah course proved to be too much for me that day. I placed 25th out of about 75 riders just missing my goal of top 20 by 20 minutes or so. I learned a lot and had fun, which is why I race to begin with!

I just got back from my first short track race out in Charlotte. That was also a blast even though I didn't get the desired results - I always try to learn from my experiences and apply that knowledge towards the next event. This was also the first time I had raced in the single speed category. I plan on racing as many single speed events as possible this season. It's interesting because the single speed class is usually an "open" class to any level rider so you can have semi-pro level guys racing sport level guys in the same category. Of course single speeders are generally all very strong but strong and fast are two very different things.

My goal this year is kind of simple, to race as much as financially possible. I feel like I need a solid year of racing to really learn, train, go faster, hurt more, etc... in order to be successful. I want to focus on endurance racing because that's where my real passion is but I plan on using traditional XC and other shorter types of racing as a type of training - I plan on being very involved with the local racing circuit.

Besides riding my other passion is music. I love electronic music. I probably won't get too involved with talking about that but I do want to mention it. I have been a dj for the last ten years, plume, my alter-ego simply comes from my life as a dj. It's a name a chose ten years ago and it's been my nick name as well. It's a song title from an alternative band from the 90s. You can research the meaning if you so choose.

I hope you'll enjoy reading about my adventures on my bike and in my life. Next post is the first race of the season... a very interesting experience to say the least.