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Today I did an epic ride in Bend, OR: 44 miles of nearly all singletrack, and some stellar trails. I rode my full rigid Niner for it. I'd gotten the low-down from Ryan at Pine Mountain Sports (thanks Ryan!), as we mapped it out, plus I had the new edition of the Kising the Trail book (bought at the shop - looks great so far). I knew this would be a pretty big ride for me, it's been a while since I've done an MTB ride in the 40 mile range, plus it was in the upper 80's and low 90's temperature wise for the ride. I got on the bike around 10:30am, parking sort of halfway between Phil's trailhead and where the Shevlin park trail ends (some random set of stores and offices). I quickly got lost finding my way to Phil's, maybe going a mile or two out of my way, then getting back on course. I took Ben's trail in the Phil's network, which was a mild ride, and fun. This is a fairly long segment, and took me out to the start of Skyliner's Trail, which was superb. Skyliner's has various stunts and log rides, etc. on it, and was just a really twisty fun ride. I didn't do the long log ride, telling myself I shouldn't do that while I'm riding solo, but I've got to get back and do that. Skyliner's also looks like it'd be fun the opposite direction. Next up was the Tumalo Creek trail, which is where things went a bit wrong for me. It started off innocently enough, and fun, but I'd read that I was supposed to "drop" to the right and cross a creek. Well, uh, I picked the wrong one. It was a drop, and there was a cool bridge there, and a black diamond sign that said "Most Difficult", but I thought I was on trail, as I knew if I went left I'd head off to Sweed Ridge where I didn't want to go. I got to find out that the reason this is a black diamond, is that you are bushwacking through seriously thick manzanita for a mile until you hit a dirt road, and then, uh, realize you've gone the wrong way. Bushwack back, fall over into manzanita once, argh. But, it was actually still nice, and I took the opportunity to refill a bit on water, dipping into the fast rushing water. Back on Tumalo Creek trail, I found the correct junction, which then was half a mile to Tumalo Falls. The Falls are gorgeous. They seemed far taller to me than the 131 feet that the reference page I found said, but that was probably the mileage starting to set in (was at about 22 miles at this point). After inhaling a banana, Mojo bar and gel, it was off to climb Farewell - after some hiker's warned me it was steep. And here I am at the falls with the sweet headband ring on my forehead :) Ok, so, yes, it is steep - about 1000' of climbing in 2 miles, then the last mile of it is a mild rise. I was pretty stoked though, as I rode nearly all of it - couldn't make 3 switchbacks at the bottom, and 3 sections of steep in the first half or so (I'm riding 1x9, and a granny would've helped, but it was minor). Couple of cool little rock slab and hop ups on this climb, and a nice view coming around the corner maybe half way up. After that, it t-bones into Mrazek. Mrazek is just a kick ass 12 mile descent. There are bermed sections, lots of mini-jumps, a log ride or two, and perma-grin sets in for sure! This is one of those trails, where you could really really fly, and it's darn good that the trees are quite tight in spots (watch those handlebars!), as you could probably get yourself in trouble in a big ring. This is a truly well done trail, just so damn much fun. There are a couple tiny rocky bits as you come into Shevlin park, I wish there was more of that, but still great. It made me think of sort of a combo of Fruita's 18-Road and Tahoe's Rim Trail. Down in Shevlin Park, I refilled in the river, as I was out of water, and then it was basically a few miles back to the car. I took a little bridge across to some switchbacks to avoid the road on the way back, and had my one true crash. I don't even know what happened, but somehow on one of the switchbacks, I just fell over and scraped the crap out of my arm and leg. One of those tired-at-the-end-of-the-ride crashes I guess. There were even a few raindrops falling as I pedaled the last few miles to the car. All in all, a really superb ride, and I was stoked to get in such mileage and fun. Came home and gorged myself, feeling pretty nice now.

I've been riding in De Marchi Contour Plus bib shorts for a few years, but my current set is getting worn out, so was time to get some new ones. I started out by just ordering one new pair of De Marchi's super high end "Contour EVO" shorts. But, they were too tight on my jewels (they were the same size as prior pairs I had, and I've lost 20 lbs, so this is odd), so I checked with friends and some said try Hincapie's. Got some Hincapie HC-12's. Better, but a bit tight too. Next was a pair of Specialized BG Pro SL's, and we had a winner! More specific notes...

• The De Marchis definitely have the best chamois, but these shorts were really tight on my jewels - too tight for me to wear them comfortably. Maybe I need the XXL? That seems a bit crazy given that I wear size 34 pants/shorts these days, and if I recall correctly, the XL's (which is what I have) are 35-37. Leg grippers on these rock, best of any shorts I've ever used - minimal, but effective. Bascially, if these shorts didn't bind my nuts, they'd win.
• Hincapies: good, and I'll be able to wear these, but they're a bit tight too, wearable, but probably won't be the first I reach for. Chamois is also elastic like the De Marchi's, but I don't think as good (shape didn't feel as nice, etc.).
• Specializeds: fit is outstanding. Chamois isn't "elastic", but seems pretty nice. These are SUPER light! The material seems thinner and lighter, they breath really well, and the bib part is not at all tight, which is really nice. My only gripe so far, is that the front part of the bib portion comes up a bit high, and you feel it/notice it when riding. Hopefully I'll just get used to that, but so far I love these shorts.
None of these are cheap. The Hincapie's and Specializeds were the same price, with the De Marchi's being about $35 more. Anyone want a pair of De Marchi's for a nice price? Also I recently tried out DZ Nuts chamois cream (see prior coverage). That'd be no. Ok, maybe it's good in the winter, but basically, it made my rear end warmer, not cooler! Assos on the other hand does a nice job of keeping things cool, and maybe I'm just used to it, but I like it a lot. DZ you feel less, but it feels hot. Also, the stuff is more expensive and actually seems like you have to use a lot more to cover the same area. DZ Nuts: $23/4oz, Assos: $20/4.7oz (and I'd guess you'd need at least 6oz of DZ to cover the same, if not even more).

I was really excited when I saw Camelbak was coming out with cycling water bottles - a new bottle called the "Podium". As soon as I found them at my local shop, I snatched up two of them, and started using them on road bike rides. And that's when the disappointment set in. I am a HUGE Camelbak fan, I think their bladders, bite valves, and packs are head and shoulders above the rest, and I've tried a fair number of others. I also love their "Better Bottle" which I use pretty much every day, plus these rock for traveling. But, the Podium has been nothing but a disappointment. The flow on them is terrible. The bottles themselves are pretty stiff/hard, so they are much harder to squeeze and make your drink come out quickly, as compared to regular cycling water bottles (or specifically as compared to Specializeds current bottles). Also, the bite valve thing is different than the usual Camelbak, and for me just doesn't work as well. The simple fact is you just can't get water out of these as fast and effectively as a regular cycling water bottle, and well, that makes it inferior. I've tried the bottles several times, thinking I had something wrong, or maybe it would break in with use or what not, but no. So, they've been sidelined. The one good thing I have to say is that the locking mechanism is great, and truly keeps fluid from leaking out, unliked regular bottles that, even with the spout closed still seem to be able to leak a bit. Maybe I will try Camelbak's "Performance Bottle", which looks sort of like a combo between the Podium and Better bottles - having the regular Camelbak bit valve, but in what looks like it might be a compatible shape for a water bottle cage.

Friday and Saturday I did two road rides. On Saturday as I went out I felt a bit heavy and sluggish. It was also during that 3pm hour, which is my sleepiest time and never seems good. But, apparently I friggin hammered! I did 30 miles in 1:44, with over 2000' of climbing (not huge, but decent, and within that usual 1000'/hour). This was on a loop I do fairly often, and I don't recall ever having done this in under 2 hours! Sweet. I did eat along the way, which I know gave me a little boost too (1 Gu and 1 Clif Mojo bar (yum!)). I do think I've been hammering a bit harder in general lately though. And getting in rides like this, especially when I head out and am thinking I'm feeling tired or slow or what not, and then laying down a good pace, is a really nice feeling. After getting home, having a recovery drink, and showering, I was feeling pretty darn sleepy though, just wanted to lay on the couch and chill. Alas, when you have two kids, and mom needs to go pick up a friend at the airport, there is no such luck. One other thing, on Lorane on the way back, literally 10 seconds after I unzipped my jersey just a little bit, a bee flew in and managed to attempt to sting me 8 times! I have a trail of red bumps down my right side - the trail the bee left as it stung me along its path. Apparently it was a rookie bee, and he wasn't able to get his stinger in and have it stay (or it didn't have a barb?). But with all these stingings, I had to pull over and get him outta there as I was not having luck smacking my side to smash him while riding. On Saturday, had a smaller window for a ride, and headed out again at that 3pm hour. Was definitely feeling tired, so went for a loop that didn't have as steep or long climbs in it. Good recovery. Turned out to be a very nice little loop. Only an hour and 20 minutes ride time, but did my beloved Blanton road section (mini climb and ripper descent), then out the Lorane Highway and eventually did a little dead end offshoot called Summerville, that ended with a short 12% grade leading up to this: Turned around, and headed home. Pushed the pace relatively well, especially the final climb up McLean. Arrived home, and much like the day before, showered, and wanted to chill. But my wife was heading out to dinner with her out-of-town friend, so there chillin' was not to be. Luckily, I made an espresso and mostly chilled while hanging out in the backyard with my kids. And then of course I made a great meal: a really good steak, grilled, and then a tasty salad made with all local organic ingredients from our CSA, with exception for the avocado :) Later on I had some snacks too, and yet woke up this morning to weigh the least I have in 10 years (I've been losing weight since moving to Oregon and riding more of course). This feeling of slowness, or tiredness or what not, yet riding quite solid, has been happening more often than not lately. Kinda strange, but nice to know how it works. I think my attitude remains the same in general though, to just listen to my body and go the pace I can. Push it when I can, and do tempo when needed.

Maybe you are like me, and use Assos ass lather, er, I mean chamois cream. Ya, many of us do. But, ever the character, Dave Zabriskie went and made his own, "dznuts" or "DZ Nuts". No joke. Well, lots of jokes in this video about it, which is a must watch. I bet you didn't know it was a dip too? Competitive Cyclist has it, along with some good commentary of their own. Check it out, you know I will.

Saturday I spent at the "Wipe Fest" ride here in Eugene. The "Coasties" (a group of mtb riders from Florence and nearby areas on the coast) wanted to come over and ride Why Pass with the Disciples of Dirt. The request was to ride every trail in Why Pass, and we did just that! Everyone arrived around 9am, and the weather was looking great, even though the forecast was for thundershowers. It was about 50 degrees when the relatively large group of 28 of us started out. By the end of the day it had warmed up to a lovely 66 degrees. I actually wound up wearing knee warmers, a thin wool long sleeve base layer and thin long sleeve jersey on top of that most of the day, and was perfect. The trails were mostly dry and tacky, and conditions overall were stellar. With the large group we stopped to regroup a fair bit, but the nice thing was there wasn't a huge disparity in skills, so the wait was primarily due to the effect of nearly 30 people in a group. As we saw on short sections, like "Green Velvet Elvis", as the front end of the group was finishing the loop, you could still see the tail end of the group. On one trail, we stopped to have a couple guys do this pretty sweet drop. It wasn't too big (3' at the drop itself, although Isaac and Erik were probably dropping a good 6' by the time they landed below. Isaac was on his dirt jumper and really flyin it, crossing it up, almost went for a bar spin and the whole deal. The crazy part is that shortly after these guys were landing it, they had to slalom through two big trees, and then another one right after. There were some VERY close calls! Bob gets some big cheers too, as he pulled this thing off on his full rigid fixie! Yes, fixie! Nice. We finished off with one of the best descents in the place, and Bob and I rode the final log ride, or specifically, he rode the first part, not sure about the second, and I rode the second part. Super fun. I need to work on that first part, but it's a bit sketch to me so far. At the end of the day, we'd ridden 20.5 miles of singletrack, with almost 3 hours of ride time, and having been out on trails for 4.5 hours with a great group of people. Awesome day. Update: picture thread has started on MTBR.

Speedgoat just released their 2008 Pink Bike charity raffle. Tickets are $10 and benefit breast cancer. You have a chance to win the kick ass, all pink (well, just about), Niner Jet 9 they put together.

Yesterday yielded an excellent, fairly large (for me) road ride. I had to be out of the house for the morning while the pest service was convening war on the carpenter ants that have come around. Initially I thought the guy only needed us out for 2 hours, but then he said 3. So, I grabbed an extra bar, and set out on the road. At first I thought I'd dressed too warm. It was supposed to be a rainy day, and my various thermometers said 56 degrees, so I had tights on, thin wool base layer and a thin long sleeve jersey, jacket in back pocket. Right as I set out, it was totally sunny and my cyclometer thermometer read 70 degrees! Eeek. Weather held, but the temp on the cyclometer did drop, and things were fine. I rode out and did my first climb up McBeth, weather was ideal. About 10 seconds after reaching the summit it started to rain lightly. I proceeded down Fox Hollow which is a fairly long and fast descent. Within a minute, it was raining hard, and the temp had dropped a bunch (down into upper 50's). At this point I pulled over and donned my jacket. I was glad I did, as the rain just got harder and colder, and it was stinging my face, etc. Quite the turn of weather. Of course, by the bottom of the climb, the rain had calmed down, and it was real light. I kept cranking and knew that to be out 3+ hours I'd need to refill water, so headed towards the "town" of Crow. Crow amounts to a few houses, a gas/convenience store, and a combination middle school/high school. But hey, the gas station always has gatorade or something. By the time I got to Crow, I realized I was into it pretty good, at 32 miles and just shy of 2 hours. I for some reason thought I was only half way, so figured I was in for a pretty big ride, which was cool. I hadn't done 60+ miles in a long time. I nabbed a 32oz Gatorade, and a 12oz V8, and some of those junky peanut butter-cheese cracker things. It was noon, and I was hungry, even though I'd had a bar and a gel (but a light breakfast). Refilled bottles, drank the V8, ate the crackers, and carried on. Turns out I was actually exactly 2/3rds of the way through the ride. The roads back went fast, and the total mileage turned out at only 48 miles. I was glad to be back earlier as I needed to get back to work, but was bummed it didn't turn out to be 60+ miles and 4 hours. Still, a great ride, and I had good weather for most of it, mostly just that one descent that took the bulk of the rain, which was fine. Recovered very well, and don't feel the ride this morning, nice!

Yesterday evening I went to a presentation at my local REI here in Eugene, OR, by a woman named Jude, who along with two friends rode for 3 months in Patagonia, essentially from Buenas Aires to Tierra del Fuego. She talked and told some stories, and showed a slide show. She also has a blog that she wrote during the trip: http://overtheandes.blogspot.com/ I haven't had a chance to read all of the blog, but see that it has some of the same pictures, and many more stories and so on. It's a really amazing trip. They did it totally seat of the pants, or as she called it a "SOPA" (Seat Of Pants Adventure). What that boiled down to was the fact that they didn't plan squat. They basically packed up their bikes, some clothes and gear, and flew down there, unpacked their bikes, bought a map, and just started riding. No set plans of any kind, no routes known ahead of time, bought and carried food along the way, etc. They have some great pictures, and some of the scenery is amazing. Also, some insane conditions at times, like this: http://bp3.blogger.com/_heWRvjK67EM/SAFZfQOHnjI/AAAAAAAAAQk/8-pVXDViw_A/s1600-h/P1080855.JPG They do have some riding experience (varying), and Jude is/was a bike mechanic (her last day was yesterday) as well as she's a cycle touring guide. The youngest woman was 20, and Jude is 25 I think. Pretty cool. p.s. one funny thing that sticks out to me was how Jude said she never eats mayonnaise, but on the trip, to get calories, and in part as its what they could get at times, they were wolfing down mayo - including putting it on cookies!

We've had some pretty wild weather swings here in Eugene, OR over the last 10 days or so. The weekend before last, I went on a road bike ride on Saturday and wore short sleeves, and actually got a sunburn! It was a gorgeous day, and hit temps in the low 80's. I rode on Sunday of this weekend as well, and it was still pretty warm. Then, during the week it rained and got colder...

This past weekend though, it snowed. Yep. We actually had an accumulated 2" around our house on Sunday morning. On Saturday morning I went out for another road ride, leaving the house while it was snowing, and with temps in the mid to upper 30's. It was beautiful as well! It was not snowing hard, and was amazingly nice to ride in. I rode out doing a new chunk of rode that I hadn't been on, and eventually reached this place:

You betcha, Whopperoonie Ranch! What a great name. I was unable to see the actual ranch itself (I only went a few feet down the road as I didn't want to trespass, and knew it was a dead end, etc.). Fun.

By the time I got home this same day, it was sunny and the temperature was about 44. Of course not long after that it snowed again. Sunday was crazier. We woke up to the snow as mentioned, and then it got probably up to 50 degrees and sunny, then snowed, then sunny, then it hailed several times, and so on. Just wacky.

From what I understand this is the latest its snowed since 1911. New record, set first Saturday, then again on Sunday.