LMBA TT

Yesterday we finally put together an idea we have talked about for a while.......doing a time trial. This seems to be a common thing amoung mountain bike groups. Pick a good trail on your home turf, create a loop with a good combination of technical sections and speed sections and see who can ride it the fastest.

Here's what we did.....started at the shelter #5 (across from the train), rode the Fitness trail up the park, hard road to the beginning of the Woodpecker trail, Woodpecker back down the park, took the first exit point (the one with the sharp right hand switchback in the downhill) from the Woodpecker to the hard road, hard road back to the Fitness trail all the way back to the shelter, 2.5 miles in all.

As in all time trials we started the first rider, waited a few and started the next. We all made a big mistake and began our ride without any warm up. By the time we all finished, the cool temperature and the 100% effort really put a hurting on our lungs.....they weren't the same the rest of the day.

Here's the results..........next time around we hope to have a few more participants!!

100% Complete

I'd like to give a shout out to a rider that completed all 15 races in the WVMBA series this season......Ron Salisbury Jr.

Ron is a good friend of the LMBA and participates in our trail wok efforts. This year he competed in the Sport Grand Masters division finishing 2nd over all and finished all 15 races this season. After a quick scan through the WVMBA overall standings for all the past seasons it appears that this feet has not been duplicated.

This shows a great commitment to the WVMBA race series and the sport of mountain biking in West Virginia and we hope to see him out on the trails for many years to come.

Chris

Update Pictures

We have added some new pictures from the Chief Logan Wilderness Challenge.

Here is a link, the new pictures begin about half way through.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsj7475/2010WildernessChallenge02#

Check back soon for some different race course photos.

Hope you enjoy,

Chris

WVMBA Championship

Well after a big gap in blog coverage I'm finally getting to post a little about the WVMBA championship race at Eleanor, WV. The LMBA had a pretty good showing at this race with even better overall results in the series.....Let's just move straight to the overall year end standings.

William- 1st place sport masters

Dennis- 5th place sport vet

Chris - 2nd place beginner

Derek- 3rd place beginner

Here is a link to some pictures from the championship-

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsj7475/WVMAChampionship#

We have had a great time this year training and racing, but to be honest it's OK that it's over. now we can focus whats left of the year on some fun rides and kick back and enjoy.

We all plan on racing next year with some class changes of course. William will be moving to expert, Dennis staying in sport vet, Chris moving to sport vet and Derek to sport. It should be interesting to see how we all handle the moves.

Next on the agenda, is the return to our commitment of trail work. We will be focusing the first part of the off season to improving our existing trails in Chief Logan State Park. We will be fixing several problem areas and overall just tailoring this trails to be more fun and smooth. The second portion of off season will be devoted to extending the Wildcat trail. If your not familiar with this trail check out some of our older post and you will quickly see how much work has gone into it so far. Many riders have commented that it is the "best trail in the park" and it will only be getting better this winter.

I hope to have more regular post from here on out, please check back often to see how we are doing

Race at Davis

The team was together this weekend for the WV State Mountain Bike Championships in Davis WV. Several of us took our families up for a long weekend and enjoyed the surroundings of Canaan Valley, Seneca Rocks, Dolly Sods and the downtown area of Davis.

On race day, the morning started off a little sketchy with the late arrival of William to our tent area. He had been delayed on the way in and was scrambling to fix a pre-race flat before anything got started. We managed to get it fixed, and him geared up in time for the race meeting with a few minutes to spare. This is the race début for his new Cannondale Flash 29’er and things were off to a rocky (literally, if you know the course) start.

As the race started William got out to a good start, just to be brought to a halt a couple miles in by a rear tire flat. We all passed William as he fixed his flat and got back on the trail. It wasn’t long before he caught us and passed us with hopes to climb back to the leaders of his class.

Derek (newest member of the LMBA) and I continued to race the beginner loop never to see William again. Derek passed me at one point and opened up a small lead. I got off to my usual slow start and then got the motor turning about half way thru the race. After Derek opened up his lead I saw him bobble on one of the many rock gardens and used this to make my move. I powered through that section in the big ring and opened a lead on Derek that I was able to maintain throughout the race. I then started to pick off other riders as I started to feel better and pick up speed. My effort landed me an 8th place finish, not as good as I had hoped but not bad considering I was only 4:40 off of the leader. Derek finished a very respectable 10th out of 28 riders in our class.

Dennis had the best finish on our team with a 7th place in the Sport Vet category, continuing to improve his strength at the new sport distance that he is trying to get use to this year.

As for William………2 more flats that day (yes that's a total of 4) put him pushing to complete the race and a 12th place finish. This dropped him to 2nd place in the overall Sport Masters class for the year. A couple more 1st place finishes should remedy that and lock in the overall win this year.

All in all, this race turned out to be on of the worst showing for LMBA this year. We will be at Little Beaver next hoping to improve our results. Although we are all out to just have fun and ride, finishing well never hurts.

Remember,

If you don't crash, you're not riding hard enough,
Chris

Follow his link to pictures from the 2010 Wilderness Challenge.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsj7475/2010WildernessChallenge02?feat=directlink

Home Course Advantage

Our home course race has now came and gone and I’ll have to admit I’m glad it’s over. When your hosting a race it takes allot of time and coordinating to pull it of. Although I was not responsible for the majority of the work, it still created allot of tasks for all our club members. Hats off to Dennis for shouldering most of the responsibility!!

With that said let’s talk a little about the race. The day started out pretty good and then turned into what we have dealt with at most of the races this year……..rain!! The trails at Logan have always been pretty hard packed and shed water very quick. Often we can ride the same day as an earlier rain and not be affected at all. I will have to agree with William when he said “the trails today are in the worst condition that I have ever ridden here”. Even with that, they were not too bad and the race went on.

Now to our results….William continues to dominate the Sport Masters and bagged a 1st place finish in the sport master and an overall 3rd place in the sport division. Dennis also continues to improve at the sport distance and took home a 4th place finish in the sport vet category. Josh started off very strong in the beginner class and was a couple minutes ahead of the pack until a slippery bridge took him out of the race and to the hospital for 12 stitches on his ankle. To poor salt in the wound, his front wheel was pretty messed up and will probably need replaced. I managed to hold onto 3rd in the beginner class after a flat tire on the Backbone trail climb about 2 miles from the finish.

We hope to update the blog in a couple days with a link to pictures that were taken during the race.

Until next post,
Chris

Race Course Marked

Finished clearing the trees that fell yesterday . Course is marked and ready for the pre rides. Expert will be approx 19...Sport is 15 and Beginner is 10...Trails are in great shape and if it rains tomorrow and sunday the course will still be in great shape. Course starts at the ranger station. The food will be great and an enormous prize table....Hope to see everyone there...

Tour de Peanut Butter

The crew headed to Spencer, WV for the Tour de Lake this past weekend. The weather that day was pretty good, no rain and pretty hot. The problem was the rain that they had on Saturday......just enough to turn the trails into a 10 mile loop of peanut butter mess. The trails were narrow, slippery and full of roots, this made for a very technical course and a great race. I got off to a slightly better start this race, I have had problems starting strong that have left me playing catch up for most of the races. This time I was a little stronger in the beginning and possible payed for it with a slower second half of the course. 3/4 thru the race I had worked my way to 3rd place in the beginner class and could here a ride closing on me. He caught me with about a mile left and passed me only to crash on a slippery root 100 yards after the pass. After this I was able to hold him off after a quick decent and a sprint across the dam to the finish, I managed to be about 5 second ahead of him for a 3rd in the men's beginner class.

William had a strong race even though the mud is his worst enemy, being his least favorite race conditions. He came across the line in 1st place for the Sport Masters. Dennis also was strong with a 4th place finish in the Sport Vet class. For an interesting story, ask him about the rider he came up on that was taking a dump on the trail...........Dennis has the worst luck!!

CHIEF LOGAN TRAIL VIDEOS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1CoPi3UNrQ VIDEO 1 OF 3



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyiX4yOZSTA VIDEO 2 OF 3



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1K4FVUfCiM VIDEO 3 OF 3



THIS IS NOT ALL OF THE TRAILS IN THE PARK JUST A FEW. ENJOY THE VIDEOS...

Mountwood..........RAIN FEST!!

Dennis, William and I made the trip to Mountwood for the WVMBA points race #2 for the season. Weather was pretty good as we left Logan and went downhill from there. Just outside of Charleston it began to rain and continued pretty much the entire day. As we arrived at the park the rain was pretty steady and we knew we would be in for a wet day. As the race started I got off to a very slow start and just could not get the pedals turning as fast as I needed to. About half way thru the race I began feeling pretty good and managed to pass 6 or 8 riders and finished 2nd in the beginner class......pretty happy with that result given all the mud. Dennis and William rolled out in the sport vet and masters classes respectively and had pretty good runs. William was plagued by a long delay to fight his chain as it was hung from chain suck, almost to the point of giving up he managed to free it and finished 3rd in his class. Dennis finished about 4 minutes behind him to secure 6th in the vet class. Both suffered brake failure, a common comment heard at the finish line. All in all a petty fun race, defiantly a course I would like to ride again in dryer conditions. Next race that we will b attending will be the WVMBA #3 in Bluefield this weekend.

Hope to see you there!!!!

Tis Race Season

With our trail work season almost to a close it is time for LMBA to start focusing on another area of mountain biking interest..............racing.

With the opening of the WVMBA race season this past Sunday we have all been training and gearing up for the year. I thought I would tell everyone a little about our race team before we start giving updates on the teams progress after each race.

I use the term "race team" very loosely.......we are just a group of guys that like to ride and have stumbled onto racing as a fun way to do that and experience different trails across West Virginia. We are not sponsored by anyone but have managed to get custom uniforms created and hope to race with some minimal success this season.

Now for rider profiles on the team:

Dennis- This will be his 3rd season racing, 1st year he only ran a few races as a beginner and then cranked up the volume to win the overall beginner in his 2nd season. This year he has moved up to the Sport Vet class and faces the challenge of more miles and a higher level of competition between riders. His ride this year is a new Top Fuel 9.8, pictured below.



William (the Finisher)- Has been riding for several years and is one of the strongest riders of the group. He raced a few races last year in the beginner class and even won our home course event. After a few beginner races he moved up to the sport class for a couple races to finish out the season. This year he will be competing in the sport masters class and hopes to be very competitive. His ride this year will be Cannondale Flash Carbon 2, no pictures yet......bike is still on order and expected in soon.

Me (Chris)- Has been riding off and on since 1992, with several large gaps of no riding mixed in those years. Last year I got back in the saddle and have pedalled more than ever, competing in 4 races in the beginner class. This year I will be competing in the beginner class and hope to race 8-10 events with the main goal of increasing my abilities to ride the sport class. My ride is a 2004 Trek Fuel 100 that has been updated to disc brakes and is pictured below.



Josh- Has has been riding a couple years and plans on competing this year in the beginner class. Look for some good friendly rivalry between Josh and me, we are both real close in fitness and should have a allot of close races this year. He has a new ride this year and is trying out a Gary Fisher 29'er


Check back often for race updates and to check how we are doing in the WVMBA standings.

First Leg of New Trail Almost Complete

Work on the first leg of our new trail is almost complete. After much debate we have finally decided on a name......"wildcat". We have finished the bridge and only have a few hours of work left to complete the first leg from the wildlife area to the Guyandotte Beauty Trail. The trail has turned out very smooth, fast and has a great flow, look for it to be added to this years race course

Rogue Hoe

No, I'm not talking about anyones wife!!

I'm talking about a trail building tool that we have stumbled across and would like to share. The Rogue Hoe is a simple but very good trailbuilding tool that we started using about 2 months ago and absolutly love. When benching you can't beat it. The width that it provides, significantly speeds up progress. Not the best choice in rocky terrian but a definate advange in most other conditions. This tool comes in many different sizes and shapes, we chose the basic 51/2" and a 7". I would have to say that the 7" is the best size and will be what we purchase in the future.

We found this tool so benificial we wanted to share it with anyone else out there doing the grunt work we call "trailbuilding'

Here is a link to their web site, so you can see for yourself.
http://www.roguehoe.com/index.html

Trail Work Continues

We've been busy with our current trail project and the added work of clearing trees that the winter storm fell. We have made pretty good progress but it has been slow going. We have worked every Sunday since Christmas with a few added days through the week. Our race date was pushed back from April to June due to all the damage that the park sustained. Below are a few before and after pictures of a recent valley crossing that we just completed. Once again please note the perfect working conditions on the after pictures, it was 15 degrees!!