Cohutta 100 2009 is in the bag. Over and done with? maybe, but the pain is still fresh in the ol' brain. The goal was actually 10 hours this year, last year it took me 12:01 after a monumental bonk.

The weekend started off Friday with rounding up the fellas. Keith, and I met Jeff and Scott in Nashville for the carpool to Cleavland Tn, just outside of Chattanooga. Jeffy scored us a free night in the same cabin we crashed in last year. The cabin is sweet and less than 30 minutes from the start of the race. We headed to the Ocoee White Water Center where the race was to start, to drop our drop bags and get checked in. There are 6 aid stations along the 100 mile race route. We were allowed to send 3 one gallon ziplock bags full of whatever we could cram in them, ahead to any 3 of the 6 aid stations. After signing in we grabbed some pizza and headed for the cabin where we met up with Matt. We were all pretty tired and hit the sack nice and early.

The next day we were all up and eating breakfast by 5:45 on race day. We headed to the race slightly behind schedule. By the time Keith and I toed the line we only had a minute fourty seconds to start time. They blew the horn and we were off up the first of many big climbs of the day. Scott took off like a bat out of hell, like Scott does, Keith and I just settled in comfortable with our dead last place start. We set a pace that would bring us to the line at our 10 hour goal and were determined to stick with it.

We stayed on pace hitting all of the aid stations for food and to top off fluids. I had just bought some new steel bottle cages and accidentally bought 2 road bike cages which are pretty flimsy compared to a regular mountain cage. As a result I chucked water bottles left and right going down the hills. I finally stopped and bent my cages into shape and managed to hold on to them for the rest of the day.

About mile 70 my minor stomach issues started to become a real problem and by mile 75 I was down right sick. I sent Keith on his merry way while set out to suffer alone. I really don't have much to say about the rest of the ride other than it was pretty miserable and very slow.

I finished just 10:55 just over an hour better than last years 12:01. Keith finished under 10 hours putting an hour on me in just over 20 miles, pretty impressive. I felt slightly better than last year. Everybody from our group rode well. Scotty tore it up finishing under 9 hours. Jeffy and Matt had great times in the 60 mile course also.

After the race we got to hang out with Super Bad Josh Tostado. Super cool guy and amazing athlete.

Great weekend of riding and playing. The trip there and back are as much a part of the race as the bike ride it's self.

Can't wait till next years race.

March 29th Chickasaw Trace Classic Race Report. It was a chilly one and a SERC race this year. Chickasaw Trace is about a 8 mile trail, about 9 for the race after the ridiculous long start, that is extremely flat on one side and hilly on the other side. Single speeder do 2 laps. Picking the right gear is always torture for me at this course. Gear to high and suffer the hills, too low and suffer on the flats. I just picked 32X19, my usual local trail gear, and ran with it. Last years champ (Thad) decided to sit this year out due to a cold/sinus thing he had going on.

We toed the line and off we went. I grabbed the hole shot before being passed by Adam D. and Troy T. I settled in behind them thinking the pace would drop once we hit the woods. Not the case. Adam D. just kept pushing. This was not going along like any XC race I've done before. We hit the hilly side first and the guys put a small gap on me that I quickly bridged. Adam D. was crushing it. That's pretty much how the whole race went. I would decide that I could no longer hang with the crushing pace and drop back. Then I'd start feeling awesome and catch back up.

About 1.5 miles from the finish line we cross a huge flat field into the wind. I'm riding inches from Troy T.'s wheel drafting into the painful wind. I had already decided that holding onto 3rd place was great considering how these guys are riding. I was ok with that. But at the last minute as we neared the end of the field with the trail in sight again, I decided to pass and go for the win. I was slightly rested from the draft and I knew I would have an advantage. I jumped out of the saddle and sprinted around Troy T. then Adam D. and hauled arse for the woods.

Into the woods I figured out that I wasn't as close to the end as I thought so I needed to keep the pace up for a long time if I wanted to finish in first. I had a good gap. I would tire and Troy T. would almost bridge, as he had passed Adam also, then I'd hammer again. Up the last climb before the flat field finish, I hammered and never looked back again. I put my head down and spun to the point of almost barfing, holding Troy T. off till the finish. I think he actually crashed on the last climb so my massive effort at the end wasn't really necessary.

Chickasaw Trace Classic Results: Here

Pics: Here

Training/Riding News-I've had several good long rides under my belt lately getting ready for my second attempt at the Cohutta 100, just days away. Last week Keith, Super D, and I decided on riding a road Century on Saturday. Funny, I've never ridden 100 miles on the road bike only off road on the mountain bike. We had an awesome day. The weather started chilly but warmed steadily through the ride. We really took it easy as we were looking for saddle time and not overall speedy time. I felt kinda crappy till about mile 60 when Dustin and I decided to battle on a climb. That hill climb really got the blood flowing and I started feeling good again. At mile 65 we ended up at Keith's house and refilled our bottles before setting out for the last 35 mile loop.

Refueled and refreshed Dustin and I started sprinting hills again. At about mile 75-80 we started sprinting for signs and mailboxes. At about mile 80-85 Keith started stepping up and sprinting them with us. We were 85 miles into a 100 mile ride and absolutely killing these sprint like little kids. We were all feeling good and by now Keith was killing both Dustin and I on the sprints. We ended up back at Keiths with 98 miles on the computers. We couldn't stop with 98 miles so we did laps around Keiths neighborhood until we rolled over 100.

This was an awesome and much needed ride by me to test the legs and ticker. It really built up the confidence going into a huge race that beat me down last year(Cohutta 100). Last year I managed to finish but not well. I lost my will to live at about mile 65. Hoping for sub 10 this year.

Bike News-The day after the Chickasaw race the new frame, a shiny Mooto-X, showed up on my door step. I shredded the packaging like a kid would some crappy wrapping paper at Christmas. It exceeded my expectations. It is absolutely an amazing frame. Handmade 3/2.5 Ti straight gauge tubes, double pass welds and an amazing bead blasted finish. I threw the parts on that I had acquired over the last few months and rode the bike. Haven't even stopped to take a picture until last night. After several weeks and several rides on several different trails I'm still in awe. I knew it would be a better machine than my Karate Monkey was but I didn't realize it would be better in every way. Lighter, better handling, better climbing, better descending, easier to maneuver over logs and rocks and it's stiffer. You mash on it and it goes without stopping to flex.

I'll let the pics to the talking.