Winter River Bottoms

This is a water pipe that sprung a leak about a mile west of the Cedar Bridge



I have a four day weekend and so I went down to the river bottoms today. Started at 35W bridge and went to the Bloomington Ferry bridge. This was the best section. Fast but icy so make sure you have studs if you ride them or it will be no fun, and leave your front brake at home. Everything in this section was buffed out nicely and made for a joyous 1:10. Then I headed to the Mendota bridge. Not many people ride this section. It is mostly hikers, thus the trail is like riding a horse trail. I didn't mind it at first but it got old after 2 hrs of it. I was running the innova studed tires and only about 18-20psi. Those tires are so stiff I think its possible to ride them flat. I make it so that pushing down with my two thumbs I can compress the tire about 3\4 of the way to the rim. If I was really serious, I'd try stans tubeless. I'm sure Brendan has experimented with some studded tubeless systems. Care to share any tips Brendan? Anyway, the conditions from Mendota to 35W vary. There is soft sections like your riding through an inch of sand, to supper rough, to fast and icy. Its all ridable but you have to crank out a little more juice to go at a reasonable pace. I finished up in just over 3hrs. Good ride.

I have my final speed skating race on Sat. First and last metric style race. It will be just me against the clock. All the good guys will be there. I'm signed up to do the 500 and 1500 meter races. This speed skating stuff really kicks your butt, the legs are just fried after every workout. There is no easy day on the ice. Working out with Mike Anderson and Andy Kostka this season has really helped. Andy is about my speed but Mike is an animal and he really pushes us. Speaking of those two here is a report on last weekends Marathon Championships in Bemiji. This was the 50KM, the day previous Mike got second in the 25KM. I might try it next year, sounds fun.

Another awesome day of racing in Bemiji. It was a bit warmer this morning, but it seemed colder since the sun wasn't out. About 5 laps or so into the race, the sun came out and it was beautiful, I was actually over dressed.

The first 20 laps (of 50) were VERY casual and quite civilized, generally 1:55-2:00 minutes per lap (1k). At one point, Matt Trimble crashed so we all stood up and waited for him, no luck though since his blade fell off his skate. About 2 laps later, one of the women fell, so we all stood up again and waited for her. The main pack was about 15 skaters, with appx. 20 race starters.

With 30 laps to go, I launched an attack. I got a pretty good gap and managed to break up the field. The only skater to really respond was Charlie Stangl. Once he caught up to me, we worked together to eventually lap the field.

As we caught the field, I noticed there were two skaters about 25 seconds off the front, Erick, the flying Dutchman and Matt Trimble (he got his blade back on, but was about 15+ laps down at that point). I hit the front and attacked again, I think Charlie had enough fun at this point, he looked kind of 'funned' out. This time, Andy Kostka hopped on and we caught the two off the front. Once we caught the two off the front, We all kind of worked together, eventually dropping Matt, then catching the main pack again.

At this point there were about 10 laps remaining, I figured I was on a roll and went for it again, this time no one showed any interest. I guess I was just in a hurry to get the race over with. I managed to get about 3/4th's of a lap on the field, and won the race.

Charlie Stangl took off on the last lap and ended up skating it alone for second place. Andy was third, a few seconds behind Charlie. The Flying Dutchman was 4th, quite a ways back from Andy. It was great to see Andy and Charlie do so well beating all the seasoned veterans like Bruce Anderson and John Koppi.

Hopefully there will be some complete results posted somewhere, I haven't seen any yet. Here is what I know, kind of:

1) me
2) Charlie Stangl
3) Andy Kostka
4) Erick ?? (the flying Dutchman)
5) Bruce Anderson ?
6) John Koppi

This really was an excellent weekend of racing and would highly recommend it to everyone. I guess the weather was really what added the most fun, these things are NOT fun when it's cold out!

Later, Mike