• The Team is FIRED UP for 2013 Racing. Bring it!

  • 2012 Checkpoint Tracker Nationals in Oak Hill, WV

  • Earning #3 in the nation plaques at USARA Nationals

  • Check out our latest clinic on Stan's No Tubes!

  • Two co-ed squads tackle the 24-hr Cradle of Liberty

Posts by: jared

Phil Wood Waterproof Grease Review

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by Barry

Does this sound like you…?

Have you ever valiantly fought but eventually lost a battle attempting to remove your your pedals or cleats?  Have you ever had to hang your head and walk into your LBS or ask your non-judgmental bike mentor to help you remove your pedals because you couldn’t do it yourself?   If this sounds like you…today is your day to stop being such a loser.  Next time before you install a pedal or a cleat, add a generous portion of Phil Wood’s Waterproof Grease all up in and around the threads.  Don’t be stingy, get it in there good.  If after you install them a little excess squeezes out, simply wipe it off with a paper towel.

The other day, while I was preparing to clean my bike in the back yard, I found another helpful use for the grease:  I had difficulty removing the fittings on my garden hose so after I forced it undone,  I lubed up both ends of the hose with grease and am now able to quickly and easily unscrew it from the spigot and the sprayer head.   While this is perhaps not Mr. Wood’s original intent, it works great for this purpose too.  Perhaps you can think of other applications around your house.

So be a pal and run down to your local Spokes,Etc. and pick up a tube for yourself and for your formerly loser friends too.  Makes a great birthday gift, stocking-stuffer or pinata-filler.

Retails: $12.99 for 3 oz tube

 

 

 

The Whiskey Off-Road

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Paul gets aggressive when he has his Whiskey

Report by Paul Ruchlin

Who’s been to Prescott, Arizona?  C’mon, raise your hands.  If not, it’s something you should really consider.  Even more so if you register for the Whiskey Off Road mountain bike race put on by Epic Rides.  And make sure you pronounce Prescott correctly.  It rhymes with “biscuit”.  This year, Michelle Faucher and I took part, she in the “50 Proof” (50 mile course) and me in the “25 Proof” (which was actually 30 miles).

Luckily, I have very good friends who live in Prescott Valley so lodging for the two of us was the easy, and cheap part.  Many thanks to Christina Carmody and Chris Hummel for a great week of hosting us.  We arrived, via Phoenix, on Wednesday afternoon.  I planned this to make sure, 1) I could get some good rest pre-race especially with the time difference, and 2) to acclimatize to the elevation, at least a bit, before race day.  Prescott sits at 5200 ft and the race would take us up in the mountains outside the city to a max of 7000.  Not terrible, but enough to make a difference to us sea level dwellers.

Thursday was a prep and tourist day.  I’d shipped my bike via FedEx.  That was, to say the least, COSTLY, at $225.  I have a somewhat unwieldy but sturdy bike box (which, by-the-way, I’m willing to lend out should any of you ever be in need) and it would have cost me almost the same and been a real pain to travel with.  Michelle brought her bike with her on Southwest Airlines for a very reasonable $75, each way of course.  Anyway, Michelle and I re-assembled our trusty steeds Thursday morning and then did some afternoon hiking around The Granite Dells of Prescott.  In the evening we all ventured up and over Mingus Mountain to the historic mining and now charming, artsy, tourist village of Jerome for a great Mexican meal at Quince.15.

Paul climbing and keeping on

Friday morning, Michelle and I did some more exploring around The Dells before meeting up with our friends to head downtown for packet pick-up and to enjoy the weekend festivities.  The race starts and ends, and all the festivities take place on the central square adjacent to the county courthouse in Prescott.  Packet pick-up was well organized and efficient and took all of 5 minutes, and the swag provided was some of the best I’ve seen.  Generous and useful products, such as GU (a huge race sponsor), Stans NoTubes Sealant, some other food/race products and for some reason a natural testosterone enhancement product.  So, if you notice a slight mustache on Michelle……………

After check-in we headed to a couple of local breweries/eateries (The Raven, and Granite Mountain Brewery) to imbibe some and await the late afternoon Pro Crits which would determine the Pro starting positions for their races on Sunday.  That was interesting and entertaining and afterwards, a great Italian dinner at Papa’s Uptown before heading back home to finalize prep and an early bed.

RACE DAY…….. WOOHOOO!!!!  Michelle and Chris were up and off early, as their start for the 50 Proof was 0730.  I slept in a bit and Christina and I got downtown about 0900 for my 0930 start on the 25 Proof on a PERFECT Arizona day; brilliantly sunny, a slight breath of a breeze here and there and about 65 degrees.  Temps would rise a good bit throughout the day, even at elevation, and “PERFECT” may have been a little cooler, but all-in-all a great riding day.

I was rested, I’d eaten (yogurt and granola breakfast, pre-emptive Ibuprofen and 4 pre-race Sport Legs capsules), all stretched out and ready to go when the gun went off.  With absolutely no knowledge or experience on this course, and having no illusions of being “competitive” in this “race”, I started off well near the rear of the 796 racer field. (There were 618 racers in Michelle’s 50 Proof).  If you’d like to see the course you can check out my Garmin download, but essentially it’s an 11 mile climb (the first 4.2 on city streets, then various fire roads, jeep tracks and single track) a 5 mile descent a 5 mile climb and a 10 mile descent.  Ok, ok, there may have been 500 or 600 yards of flat somewhere along the way.

Like with any race, it was hard not to get caught up in the adrenaline and excitement at the start, but I worked hard on not busting it out of the gate.  I need a notoriously long time to warm up and I’m not a particularly strong climber to begin with so I was really concentrating on keeping a reasonable, steady pace so I’d have enough to perform decently on the second long climb I knew was ahead.  Plus, we did get foreknowledge that the start into the single track always bottlenecks and there was no way I was beating the crowd up, so easing in to it was a good plan anyway.  Up and up and up we went.  It took me about 45 minutes to get the 6-ish miles to the single track and shortly in to that, the infamous bottle necking started.  For the next mile or so we would ride 50 yds, then have to stop and stand around for 4-6 minutes, then ride then stop.  It’s unfortunate because this part was through beautiful, smooth, gently up-and-down pine forest and it was frustrating not to be able to ride it out.  Eventually we got to the few small “technical” sections that were the cause of the bottlenecking.  I have two complaints about this race and this was #1.  Because this was a known problem, the race was lengthened a bit this year and this section was added to help avoid the fire road to single track transition bottleneck. Unfortunately it probably made it worse.  They do need to devise some sort of staged start to avoid this problem as all told, we probably lost 25-30 minutes of time standing around.

Whiskey with a splash of water

Eventually the riding opened up and there was not any more problems with stops the rest of the race.  BUT (and you knew there was a “but” coming) this is where things got pretty damn tough.  It’s Arizona, you know, the “dry” heat.  Well, heat wasn’t a problem yet, but the “dry,” which meant dusty, loose gravelly, sandy trail, along with the “steep” (and yes, still going UP) kinda was. Throw in completely exposed telephone poles used as trail water breaks and you can already guess, I joined the crowd in doing a fair amount of walking in this section.  Near the top, I took my first little break, stopping to get my heart rate down below 185 and eat a little food.  I had a Honey Stinger Waffle, some Hammer Gel and 4 Sport Leg capsules.  By this time, near the top of the first climb, about 2 hours in, exposed to the sun and still not really any wind to speak of, it was really getting hot.  I suppose I should mention, for this ride I was wearing my 70 oz. camelback and drinking generously.

I only stopped for 3-5 minutes and then headed out………up some more.  Not too much more though and then it was time for some SERIOUS down.  1300 ft in 4 miles.  Yep, there was some white knucklin’ goin’ on there.  Big rocks, drop-offs, sand pits………..  At one particularly nasty rock drop I got caught up and took my first spill (yes, there would be more).  I’m not sure if I was lucky or unlucky that I was going slow at that point.  I didn’t tumble off the mountain and die, or at least I don’t think, but it did bring me down on the rock pile, tearing up my left “hip”  which is more to say………buttock, and ruining my beloved THWT bibs.  DRAT!!!!  Actually, “OW….DRAT (except with a “F—!!!“)”.  Generally when this happens, assuming I’m not really hurt, I rub some dirt on it and move on.  This time, with the aforementioned sandy, dusty trail, this step was already taken care of, so on I went.

Paul near the bottom of the bottle...

At the bottom we came back to fire road for big climb number two.  Not technical and in pretty good condition, it was a 2 mile uphill slog to Aid Station #1.  This is the point where those on the 50 Proof would head west on fire road for 10 miles downhill to Skull Valley, then turn around and return making it Aid Stations 1 and 3 for them.  This is the only difference in the 50 and 25 Proof courses.  I stopped for a good 20 minutes this time.  My Garmin was reading close to 90 degrees, though I’m not sure it was really that warm.  I found some shade and ate again.  A couple of orange slices from the Aid tent, a Tropical Hammer Gel, an entire Pocket Fuel packet and finished off the last of my camelback.  I also took 4 more Sport Legs capsules and more Aleve.  As I went to re-fill my camelback I ran in to complaint #2.  The Aid Station was concerned about running out of water and ask us not to completely fill our bladders.  REALLY???  Of all the race logistics to be sure is properly stocked, that should be #1.  I filled up ¾ and started climbing again.

From here the road, although not paved, is a county road, so nicely graded and maintained.  That’s not to say it isn’t steep, just very ridable.  Again I set myself in to a nice, steady pedaling pace, not so much concerned with speed as with being able to ride the entire way to the top without bonking, cramping, or…….at this point……..puking.  I saw or heard some of each along the way.  Not far from the top was, as promised, a dude offering up whiskey shots.  It is the WHISKEY Off Road, after all.  I swore, before the race, I would stop partake, but shortly before getting there my stomach began to bother me a bit.  I probably over ate at the Aid Station, but no matter the reason I wasn’t about to jeopardize all my efforts so far with getting really sick, so I passed it up.  After 3 miles from Aid Station #1, you hit single track again, and the top, just under 7000 feet.

I gotta tell you, at this point, I was VERY glad to see down, and exhausted mentally and physically, which probably led, not too far in to this once again technical downhill, to spill #2.  I kind of registered the thicker sandy portion in front of me but not soon enough react properly and the next thing I knew I was slamming in to the trail at a brisk 16 mph or so, this time on my right side.  DRAT!!!!  Actually, “OW….DRAT (except with a “F—!!!“)”.  I’m sure the guy behind me had a pretty good show.  There was a wide area here and I was able to drag myself off the trail and recover for a minute or two.  A little bit shaken and feeling some trepidation about several more miles of hard downhill, I proceeded, but markedly slower and more careful.  More quickly than expected I regained some of my confidence and let my speed creep up the further I went, although I’m not sure I ever completely let off the brakes for a good few miles.  Somewhere in here, just out of fatigue, and stupidity, I fell over again, which is not remarkable other than managing to put my hand right in to a cactus-like stickery sort of shrubbery.  Another minute or two getting over being angry about it (we’ve all been in that mental state, I think) whilst pulling thorns from my hand.

Cramp Hill (yes, that’s really its name).  You know it’s there, if you look at the course ahead of time, but somehow you forget.  Just when you’ve adjusted to no more climbing…..there it is.  It’s not big, it’s not overly steep, and it’s only about a mile long, if that……..but it’s a mental crusher.  Ughhhhh, I don’t WANT to go uphill!!!! (in as whiny a voice as you can muster)  I walked a little bit of the steepest part of this, but…….no cramp.  I’m told many people did.

From the top of Cramp Hill it’s winding, flowing trail, sometimes rocky, down to and then along a creek and then finally, back on to paved road for the last 4 miles downhill.  I was rather surprised at what I had left to get me down this and I knew my mental state would soar once I hit pavement, which it did.  What a great way to end this race, screaming downhill in to town, topping out at 31.2 mph.  And finally, cheering, waving crowds at the finish.

Sweet victory...

A grateful and appreciative shout-out here to some of my gear and supplies.  First and foremost, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my Stans No Tubes CREST wheels.  They handled all of the various terrain of this course phenomenally and gave me great confidence to ride, clearly, at the edge of my technical limits.  Since I’d forgotten to bring my usual electrolyte supplements, Sport Legs were recommended to me by a local bike shop and they were AWESOME.  I felt far better on my climbs than I expected, lasted longer and can truthfully say, although fatigued the next day, my legs were not the slightest bit sore.  Amazing!!!  I’m a convert.

And finally, great Congrats to Michelle.  Although I’m sure she has her own story to tell, she ROCKED this race. Unfortunately, she appears nowhere in the official results for this race so, of course, that means I WIN!!!!!!!!  But that’s a technical glitch I’m sure she’ll get worked out.  Seriously, she was awesome!

Despite a few hiccups, this was a great race and I’d HIGHLY recommend it be on anyone’s list of races to do.  It was a hard challenge and a lot of fun and the town of Prescott is a great place to visit.  Even if you’re not into the competitive frame of mind, the weather in this part of AZ makes it ideal for riding nearly year round and there are literally hundreds of miles of trails around the city, from flat paved bike trails to mountainous and technical single track.  Go West…..and Ride!

Pangea’s Sea-to-Sea Expedition AR

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TeamHalfwaythere.com/Spokes.etc (THWT) returned to central Florida for the 2013 running of the Pangea Sea-to-Sea expedition.  The 2013 THWT crew (Jeremy, Lukas, Nate) was not only new to the race, it was the first expedition race for Jeremy in many years and first AR at all for Nate since 2009.  The course design and topography of central Florida made this an ideal introductory expedition race with no segment taking more than 12 hrs and Florida being flat, flat, flat.  It was a bare bones, but extremely well-run race with great and enthusiastic volunteers.  It’s no small feat over a 300 mile course to make sure everyone’s stuff is where it’s supposed to be, when it’s supposed to be there, and Pangea nailed it.  We are extremely happy with our 6th overall, 1st 3-4 person male finish.

Prologue – The race started with a short beach run followed by an hour long paddle.  No real drama here although the paddle portion was a little tricky as the tidal basin we were paddling in was full of mangroves and it was a bit of a challenge to find the best way through.

We then transitioned to a 75k bike leg that was also very straight forward. We maintained a good pace line with each of us taking a km stretch at a time.  We grabbed the three checkpoints and made our way to the first of four foot sections.  We took a look at the course and decided to drop one of the ten points that was a bit out of the way.  It’s a tough call less than 12 hrs into a 72hr race but we were nervous about the upcoming paddle leg and really wanted to get on the water with some daylight left.

With nine points, we got back on our bikes and took a quick 20min ride to the paddle transition.  Unfortunately we weren’t moving fast enough and our strategy to paddle with  daylight set on us during transition…and thus began the crux of the race, less than 12 hrs from the start.  The paddle looked straight forward, five points,  three off the main river, two down tributaries…no problem.  We had an 8am cut off to finish the next foot section so we had to be mindful of our time.  I think like most teams we left the paddle believing we could hammer until we reached what looked like a rail bridge a few miles from the start of the paddle.  Unfortunately the bridge wasn’t there and that was the start of our (and everyone else’s) challenge.

Once we realized the bridge was gone and there were no posts or any other signs of it remaining, we tried to pinpoint our location.  Unfortunately the maps weren’t very good, the river was very much choked full of rivergrass and lilies, and we often times couldn’t tell if we were seeing the shore, an island, or any other distinct landmarks.  The river itself was essentially running north/south so we didn’t have any good headings to run off of either.  Along the way we meet up with another team that was paddling back up towards us and was looking for the same point we were.  They helped confirm the bridge was out and gave us some comfort as they at least thought they were in the same place we thought we were.  We made some probes up a few of the channels on the same side of the river as our point, finally making a turn and seeing the team we had met up with again.  We asked them if they got the point, they said “no” and put on the gas (to the degree the boats had a gas pedal), and we knew they had bagged the point and we were heading to the right spot.  We finally got there and nailed the point, about 2 hrs into the paddle.  Knowing what we were getting into now, we pressed on.  Our new strategy was to try to get the points on the main river, but not spend too much time on them fearing we’d get trapped in a maze of little cut-throughs and leave no time for the foot section.  We essentially tried to find, but really blow past the remaining points on the river.  While not what we were aiming to do, we kept true to our strategy and pulled into the TA finishing the section in 4.5 hrs.  Much to our surprise, we were the first in (9th out) and some teams would end up spending 11+ hrs getting all the points.  We transitioned and got out on the foot section around midnight, 14 or so hours into the race.

Now, here comes the only bit of criticism we have for the otherwise great folks at Pangea.  We transition to get new maps, and the TA is not on the new maps.  We ask where we are on the new map…and no one knows.  We press on, thinking we knew where we needed to go.  We do eventually figure it out, no harm done but the combination of not great maps (blown up Nat. Geo. maps) and volunteers not exactly knowing either (although otherwise incredibly helpful and awesome) could have been a bit more effectively managed by just putting the TA on the map.  (In hindsight we may have needed to use the paddle map a bit during this section to carry us over into the foot map).

Night nav with no real topography can be a bit tricky.  Nate, Lukas, and I are all strong navigators so we stuck to our pace counts, essentially rotated the map between all of us to keep us fresh, and cleared the course.  We moved back into transition, got some more maps, and prepped for another bike section.  We had originally planned to sleep during this TA, but we were transitioning slowly and decided to ride a bit before catching a nap.  Asking for the clue sheet, we were told “your clue is there are no clues.”  We ride on,  get to the point on the map and proceed to search for about 30 minutes looking for anything resembling a point.  We eventually find out that a volunteer was supposed to be there and we’re credited for our time, again, good call by the race director and it actually benefits us as we slept on this leg.  We pull into the TA, have a good transition, and head out on the 3rd foot section.

On this leg we were faced with our final cut off at 6pm, so we have about 6 hrs to clear the course.  At this point, 30 hrs in, fatigue and all the other things that plague you in a long race starts kicking it, but we still moved at a good clip.  We decide we can clear it, but need to push a bit harder to do so.  Luckily it paid off, we nailed all the points, picked a good route, and cleared the section with about 60 minutes left before the cut-off. Our time, 4:30 in this section, was solid but about 45-60mins off the leaders, fine by us.  We roll out on another bike leg with just a bit of sun left.

The fourth bike leg was tricky, we were given a really rough 8×11 black and white map with a spider’s web of roads and a Google earth image and scales were a bit rough.  Not ideal by a long shot, but everyone else had the same data so not a huge deal.  Most of this section was contained in a sandy sort of jeep track area and the difference between an improved road and unimproved road was huge.  We got caught up in a bit of this and the leg took a lot longer than we had hoped.  We dropped two points here less because of time and more because we were starting to wear out and wanted to have enough for the next 18 mile foot section.  We rolled into the TA around 3-4 am and proceed to have the worst TA of the race.  Cold, tired, we knew we’d sleep here and proceeded to do so in probably the worst imaginable way.  We had set up some TA rules at the beginning of the race (sleep after having everything else done, etc) but the cold, wet, and fatigue took over and we become a race mess.  We eventually pulled it together, probably a good hour longer than we ever wanted to be in a TA, and moved out on foot.  The section was essentially a long figure eight, we’re moving pretty poorly at first as we shake off the cobwebs, but eventually hit our stride and start knocking off points at a pretty good clip.  Faced with another night paddle with temps hovering around freezing, we wanted to leave ourselves enough time to set out on the paddle, so we left four points out on the course.  It ended up being a good call as we guessed we had four more hours left to clear the section and it would have taken quite a bit more out of us to both clear the section and have something left for the paddle.

The final paddle was quite a bit better than the monster 2nd paddle leg in terms of navigating on the river and locating points.   It was quite a bit worse once the sun set and the wind starting howling.  Hard to say exactly what the temps were, but it felt pretty cold.  After bagging the final point we were elated to be finished with the leg, then proceeded to paddle for what seemed to be forever before we actually got into transition.  Everyone has highs and lows in a race this long and this TA was Jeremy’s low as the cold had really gotten to him.  After another long TA he was ready to go and we headed out to grab the last two points.

The final leg was highlighted by the final point, which was a nifty cave that I doubt many Floridians even know is there.  We grabbed a quick nap in the cave and got to the finish just as the sun was starting to rise.

Many thanks to Pangea for putting on a great race and to our sponsors for helping to keep us going.

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