WTF hundee...

Made our way to Manhattan, KS yesterday morning. Craigio, myself, & FOB in one car w/ Cornbread & MW following in the Disco.  Gravel Conspiracy was on the agenda, 110 miles of flint hills gravel & B roads.  I considered this a recon trip, a chance to check out the area & test my equipment setup for Dirty Kanza in 2 weeks.  Below:  start was in Cico park, our first stop was the provided facilities... 

Just about to get under way.  FOB, MW, & Cornbread breaking it down...
Fast forward to the post event festivities.  I guess I could have taken pictures along the way but my camera phone could not have captured the beauty of this region.  I'll have to send you over to Cornbread's site for pictures out on the course, when he gets a chance to post them.  Below: finish line barbeque, the guy with the chops...event winner Mark Smelser.
Cornbread & Mr. Sunflower Dan Hughes rolled in together for a mutual 2nd place slot...to Dan's right is event promoter Joshua Stamper.  This guy put on a great show!  Beautiful route, supported aid stations out in the middle of nowhere, & a super-positive attitude.  Great energy. A big thanks to Joshua & his wife & everyone who made this happen.  Dude even went in to his kitchen & made me a pasta/mushroom dish when he found out I was vegetarian.  Then he did it again when MW rolled in!  Above and beyond... 
MW & FOB roll in...
So that's the positive...here's the other side of my story.  I rolled in 4th, 17.0 avg elapsed time which includes a couple brief stops at the checkpoints.  Actually not too bad.  Here's my problem...Dan, Cornbread, & myself were in chase mode after Mark got away when a loose steer got in the middle of our group.  At mile 33 I felt the first of what would be numerous muscular alarm bells go off through out my day.  Are you f'n kidding me!  I rolled into the 40ish mile checkpoint 30 seconds behind Cornbread & Dan with Mark just heading back on course.  The three of us rolled out together with a tailwind.  Within the first mile I knew there was going to be trouble, cramp maintenance was to be my companion for the day.  I had to just let Dan & Cornbread roll away.  Truth be told, those two guys are tough as nails & riding great.  Unsure if I would have survived a full day of Cornbread killing the hills & Dan crushing the flats.  Unsure of alot of things right now.  Frustration, disappointment, disbelief are a few of my emotions at the moment.  Those who know me are aware that I'm a cramper but its almost always at the end of an event.  Hell, my triceps even cramped up. A first.  I only had one full blown lock, my left hamstring went rolling into Wamego.  I probably had 20 near misses where I had to stop pedaling, coast & hope for the best.  

I need to rethink my approach to Kanza...

Blah, blah, blah...the scenery was awesome, a beautiful day.  

Later,

TK

"how about the silo..."

The silo ride, what is it?  NW12th & Little Salt.  Looks like someone bought this former missile site & lives here?, there's a horse roaming around behind the gate. Ordnance depot?  I'll have to look into this...

wow! standing water. NW33rd & Waverly, haven't seen much of that around here...

Later,

TK

recovery...

Craigio, Cornbread, & myself bound for Valpo.  Below: Craigio with some friends in hot pursuit, little guy was the bossy one...

"and don't come back!..."
C-bread makes an offering to appease the wind...
Bohemian Alps MMR...
Roughly a 2 mile rolling section with an abandoned vineyard on one end...  
Cornbread rocking the "mike munson" from TI...
chillaxin'...
Rolled into the driveway with 60, recovered.

It's downhill from here.  100+ gravel race Saturday around Manhattan & then DK just 2 weeks after that. Oh yeah!

Later,

TK

hundee, the wierd way...

Today's plan...a lot like last Saturday, ride up to an area mtb race check out my peeps racing & then keep riding.  At least it gives me a destination to start with. Hadn't even made it to Walton on the Mopac & I see a couple bikes up the trail. As I got closer I discovered it was a pair of JT's.  I knew they were headed to Platte but the last I heard they were going to roll HWY 6. Anyway...we hooked up & the three of us continued our journey.

Last year Coach, Craigio, & myself rode our road bikes up to this same race.  I'd never been there & Coach led me out on a lap on our Lemond Zurich carbon road bikes, no problem.  This year I was on my CX bike & set out for my annual lap on a non-mtb bike.  The circuit was in primo condition & I was going around at a pretty good clip.  As I approached "the rock garden" section I prematurely looked up the trail to pick my line, wham!  I smacked a lunar/lava looking rock & over the bars.  As I landed my front tire lets out a big gasp of air to add insult to the situation.  Hell...its May, right? I had to get my crash in didn't I?  2009 crash update:  I've now crashed in 4 out of 5 months.  I got up, fixed my flat & took off again.  No problem.
I watched a few laps, TP came up from KS again.  Apparantly he had hit the deck as well, how do I know this?  The chunk of dirt stuck in his helmet gave him away.  Scooter also made the journey to test out his mtb skills up here since most KS trails are under water.  C-bread blew apart the 3 hour race & Craigio had a solid ride for never riding at Platte before.  Throw MT in the mix & our team had quite the turnout.  As I'm preparing to leave & continue my journey, the phone rings.  It's Coach, "where you at?"  He's in Lincoln & I'm at Platte, which is closer to Omaha than Lincoln.  The plan...lets meet in Ceresco.  I take off on what turned out to be my 31 mile journey to Ceresco, into the wind. Below: I captured pictures of the I-80 crossing I did a few weeks ago, this time I did it South going North.  Waiting for a gap...
Looking back after a 2nd succesful construction zone I-80 crossing...
Hooked up in Ceresco & headed back towards Lincoln, wind at our backs (sort of) just enjoying this beautiful day on the bike.

102.6

We'll see what tomorrow brings...

TK

heaven & hell...

Took one for the team Wednesday & set out for a journey yesterday instead. Forecast said SSW spinning all the way around to NNW by evening, but light winds.  I can handle that.  They nailed the wind shift but botched the light wind part.  My legs this morning are as or more tired than after some of my bigger journeys & I only snapped off 66 last night.  Ok forget about the wind...the scenery was gorgeous.  Below: looking east @ SW 100th & Panama Rd., heaven...

at the same intersection, hell...Later...it appears the Denton sprint sign is missing.  Note: we'll have to use the mailbox until its replaced.

A few weeks ago I broke a King SS bottle cage, pitch it?
Or give it to a welder at work...

Weekend's looking good, enjoy!

Later,

TK

the window is closing...

I'm talking about the safety window in our dear old park.  As the trees & bushes get their leaves the corners become blind & our multi-directional track gets riskier each day, especially when you're going through at warp speed because the conditions are superb. The gnats are out & other non-biting insects (I ate my share last night) but it won't be long until the humidity rises & the mosquitos return in anger.  My days in there are numbered.  Below:  tested out my new TRP EuroX Mags last night.  First time setup was a bit slow but once I got it all figured out it went ok. Braking power feels much better than my Pauls, need to fine tune a couple things but I'm pleased.  Oh yeah...they look bad a$% also. 

No Wednesday adventure today, my wife's birthday.  Prioritize man!  Maybe tomorrow instead.

Have a great day.

TK

hundee, the easy way...

Well...maybe easy's not the way to look at it.  Folks were racing mtb's up at Swanson today (Bellevue) & I thought I'd ride up there & check things out then ride back.  Word got out & I had company for the adventure up, good time was had.  So I'm on my CX bike & JT's on his Madone, who flats twice?  Me.  We hammered up the Mopac, crossed the river at Southbend, & then explored gravel North of HWY 31.  Tell you what...there's some hills between the river & Bellevue.  I forgot to mention, JT's racing when we get there.  His mtb bike is going up with MT.

Below: just finished changing my first flat.  I don't mind changing flats but its annoying when you can't find what flatted you.  Whatever it was it got me again later, still couldn't find it but I was flat-free for the remainder of the day.

Random view from first flat fix...

So we roll into Swanson, I've got 66 on the odometer.  Below:  that's Craigio blazin' past me during his 3 hour event.   Hundee, the easy way?  Did my 2 hour layover between legs of the journey make it easier, harder, or it didn't matter.  Unsure.  Basically I hung out for 2 hours, cheering people on & chatting with a bunch of folks I don't see all that often.  TP even made it up from KC, right on.
I headed out of Swanson on 36th, busy street...bummer.  I headed east on Platteview, busy street...bummer.  Took me a while to get back to gravel.  Below: crossing back over the river, just under the hundee.
322nd & Church Rd.  This is a sweet MMR section/shortcut Coach introduced me to last year.

I eventually made it home.  Long, good day.  BTW - it wasn't easy.

129.4

Later,

TK