Craig Irving Metric and Full Updates

Craig Irving had this to report for his June and July activities. If you're reading this in a feed reader, you will see two of these posts because I was too dumb to scroll down to the bottom of my email reader to see Craig's latest update. Sorry 'bout that.

I have a couple more rides to report, one full century (6/19) and one metric (6/26).  I'm doing these singlespeed now since DK ate my second derailleur of the year.  I can tell the blackbirds don't approve though.  I think it's because they were displaced from their native land by early hipster settlers.  I tried pedaling backwards to show them I wasn't riding fixed, but they had already mistaken my bike shorts for skinny jeans so it was too late and I was forced to ride through the relay kamikaze attacks for miles at a time.

So...  Yeah.

 He had this to say about July. I'm curious as to if the goat caught him or not, and what the goat did with him if that happened...

I've got two more rides to report.  On the 4th of July I did a metric hitting many of the B roads in the area.  After 50 miles my knees were bothering me and I skipped some steep rollers, but otherwise it was a good ride.

On July 16th I was down in Lathrop, MO to take part in the Farmhouse Classic.  This was my first race since converting to singlespeed and it went well for the first 70 miles or so.  After that the suffocating heat finally started wearing me down and I struggled to keep moving over the last two hours.  Of the four bottles I had with me, two went over my head in a futile effort to keep cool.  Our group was the last one in on the day at a little over 8 1/2 hours for 99.2 miles.  The course was actually 93 miles, but of course it's not gravel racing unless you get lost.  I figure I did at least point eight worth of warmup so I'm counting this as a full hundy.

One more thing...  I can finally cross "get chased by a goat" off my gravel racing wish list.

Dave Giegerich Metrics 12 and 13

Dave Giegerich had this to say about his metrics 12 and 13. This qualifies him to be the first winner of our Cup O' Dirt for metric centuries! Way to go, Dave!

Metric Gravel #12 6/23/11

Starting out today the air was thick with moisture. That soon turned into a mist, and then light rains, and  then thunderstorms. With the rains came solitude out on the trails. The longer I rode the less everything else became. If was I worried about anything, I had forgotten what it was. I was pulled into my own little world of endorphins as I was viewing the trail in front of me and rotating the pedals. Flying down a dirt trail. I love the simpleness of that. Riding was now lost in my daydreams, no cell phone calls, no time restraints, no reason to care what time it was. Feelings like these, is why a lot of bicyclers bicycle. Health gains are only a side benefit of something done for the sheer joy it.

Metric Gravel #13 6/25/11 Power levels were good today, was able to push the pace most of the Metric. The last 5 miles I ran out of gas, and labored to get home. Beer and food next on the agenda.

Thanks for the Chase
Dave Giegerich

Courtney Hilton - Full Centuries 4, 5, 6

Here's what I got from Courtney Hilton, who jumped ahead in the full century category and has 6 total. This makes him the first person this year (that I'm aware of, anyway) to get what Dave Mable calls the Cup O' Mississippi Mud. Here's what he had to report from his individual centuries:

I got Century 4 on June 4 at DK200.  I failed to complete the race at 158 miles in....
Here is the link to the video from the end the rest of the videos I took from the road are on my blog and Youtube.

Did century #5 on my single speed yesterday (June 29th).  Went north to Boone, Luther, Madrid, Woodward.  Very warm outside.

 

Got number 6 yesterday (July 15th) 130 miles.  Took the Heart Of Iowa nature trail for 70 of it.

Updates from July in August

Holy crap - I didn't post any updates for the Cup O' Dirt in July. Sorry about this, guys. Work and more work and some other crap got in the way. But that doesn't mean people weren't racking up rides to qualify for some cups! Read the next few posts to see what people have been up to.

Nick Larson Bags #4 Metric

Nick Larson - the "other" Nick, as he puts it - had this to say about his fourth gravel metric for the year. On with the chase, Nick! For more photos, check out his Picasa gallery.

I logged gravel metric number 4 on Sunday.  I headed off down Adams St. for Earlham with a pit stop at Badger Creek.  Missed the turn off for Badger Creek and ended up taking a break in a corn field.  Oh well, good times were had.

Dave G. Heats it Up

Here's a report from the gravel metric king Dave Giegerich.

#7  5/27/11
#8  5/30/11 As you can see below #8 kicked my butt. I got sick the next day took almost 2 weeks to get rid of a sinus/throat/eyeball infection. Maybe I was coming down with it or the heat let in. Well I chalk it up to training and no pain no gain. :-)

YIKES!!!  Got Zzapped riding today. Was about 90 and humid. Usually I have tolerated much better then I did today. Perhaps, just maybe it's due to I am older, fatter, and uglier each passing year. At about mile 20 on a gravel road, riding my Trek XO2 Cycle Cross, my fluids were gone. 82 ounces. 10 more riding miles, I came to a small town park water fountain. I drank 24 oz, and filled my 24 oz water bottle full. I didn't know just how much I could trust this water, and needed to drink about a gallon before I would be back home. So I found a vending machine and paid to fill up the rest of my bottles.
My stomach was full of fluids but yet my mouth was dry, I wasn't processing fluids as fast as my body was evaporating them to stay cool.
Then signs of heat stress hit. With out the detail I found a bush to hide behind, I don't know why, I was somewhere in nowhere,  and I couldn't hold on anymore, and was glad I  packed some wet ones along for the trip. I would have two more stops at outdoor small town park out houses.
Feeling dizzy, no cell phone service, I started heading home. Sprinkling water on me and down my spine to help cool off. The wind picked up and the added evaporation had me feeling better. I had some concern about going down in this heat. I kept a close watch on my thoughts, was feeling a little whacky and my eyes played tricks on me.
 I thought about getting in the creek for more cool down, but felt good enough to just keep going and get home.
#9  6/11/11
#10 6/16/11
#11 6/18/11 Rode hard today, felt good but left nothing in my gas tank so taking a few days off from the metrics, and be back at em.

Thanks for the Chase
Dave

Craig Irving's Dirty Kanza Experience Says It All

As someone who rode as much of the Dirty Kanza 200 this year as possible before succumbing to heat exhaustion, I can honestly report that Craig's rundown of the event here is pretty representative of those couple hundred people that had to hang it up. Mechanical issues from the mud that followed from a quickly moving storm, which followed 94-degree heat and wind made for a fun, challenging race! If you love gravel riding, the Dirty Kanza is not to be missed.

Made it about 140 miles at this year's Dirty Kanza before my rear derailleur decided to donkey up and get stubborn on me.  This was it's final act of protest immediately following a 3-1/2 mile slog through some nasty Iowa mud that someone conveniently left in Kansas.  Of the 15-20 people that came through that section while I was there, five of us lost our derailleurs on it.  I could've converted to single speed, but I weaseled out at this point and called my ride.  I feel approximately 18% less manly now.  It would be more, but I salvaged a couple points by downing a Bud Light that I scored from some four wheelers while I waited.

On a side note, I got to meet and ride with (for a bit) fellow Cup O' Dirt rider Courtney Hilton.  Also spent some time chatting with Mr. Cup O' Dirt Nick the day before the race as well.  It's nice getting to know the folks I read about on the COD.  I'm looking forward to seeing you guys around more.

As a professional bicycle mechanic, my diagnosis would be to poke at that derailleur and say, "Yup, that's your problem right there."