24 Hours of Nine Mile I'm back from the cheese state. Lots of rain and hot humid temps, but lots of fun anyway. The weekend started on Friday morning with a 7 hour trip to Wausau, WI. We arrived at the race venue and set up camp. Then went on a night time pre-ride lap. The course was a blast. By far the best singletrack I've ridden, and lots of it. Tons of rocks and roots that all flowed perfectly. We went back to our camp site and tried to get some sleep. Unfortunately it started to rain. At first it was just a little sprinkle. Then it went from a light rain to a windy downpour and back all night long. Needless to say we didn't get a lot of sleep. The clouds had parted by the start of the race. I volunteered to do the first lap with the lemans running start. I saw a bunch of familiar faces in the starting shoot. Matt, Paddy, Kerkove and Endurosnob to name a few. 10:00am came and we were off. I felt pretty brave on the run, and tried to pass as many people as I could. Probably not the smartest thing to do. I passed Paddy and told him to pick it up : ) Once we got to our bikes and started down the course, he did just that, and flew by me. My first lap was decent. I definitely got caught up in the excitement and took off way to fast. I always seem to do that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I finished in 1 hour 15 minutes and tagged off with Trent. The afternoon laps were hot and sticky in the sun. Brian set the fastest lap for our team at 1 hour 4 minutes. Way to go! Trent had great times as well. And Sears kept up fast lap times even though he was on his fixed 29er. Greg made a quick trip up from Madison to cheer us on. I was saddened that the infamous Fox was a no show in his lederhosen : ) As the sun set, it started to cool off a little bit. I took off with my lights and had my best lap of the day. There were three checkpoints along the course. The first one was all lit up, and had a good sized cheering section by the dirt jump they had built. I got some good air and roar from the crowd. That got me pumped for the rest of the lap. At the third checkpoint (Checkpoint Charlie) there was quite the party going on. There were people cheering and ringing cowbells all over, and the music was just as loud. They sure know how to put on a race in Wisconsin : ) On my second night lap it was starting to lightning and thunder. After checkpoint charlie the skies opened up and the wind started to howl. I made it back to the finish, and that was the end of the race. The race organizers had stopped the race and eventually cancelled the rest of the event because of a tornado warning. We packed up camp and hit the road. This is a must do event for anyone thinking of trying a 24 hour event. Minus the weather everything about it was perfect. Great course, loud music, hot showers, bike wash and food and equipment vendors as well. A first rate experience. Our team had a great time and a lot of fun. That was our goal for the weekend. Mission accomplished. Great race guys! A big thanks go out to Terry, Monty and the gang at The Ski and Bike Shop for sponsoring us. Thanks guys and gals. You're the best!

Off to Wisconsin Going to Nine Mile to have some fun : ) Report and pictures to follow. Later.

Random Mode Not much new here. I should be in GF again this weekend. Last weekend was fun. Sears was in EnduroSnob Epic training mode on Sunday. Check out his ride report. Sounds like he'll be ready for 9-mile next weekend. Greg is back in the area, and he showed up at the Sunday night ride. It was good to have someone to push me to the limit. The trails were really dry. Places that usually have some water on the trail were bone dry. Even the gopher hills section! Which is good because that means NO mosquitoes! I showed Greg the new section of single track in the horse trails, and we found that someone had extended it even more. They did a really good job too. We rode back to the Chalet for some water, and met a guy who said he was with Americorps. He said that they have been staying there for a week so far, and would be building a bunch of new singletrack for the next six weeks! He said they would be working on some new trails in the northern part of the park as well. I can't wait to see what they do. If it's anything like what they have already done, I might have to move back to GF : ) Anyway, sounds like Greg will be in GF again this weekend. It should be another good weekend of riding. I might even have to bring the Poprad for a Mangan Gravel Grinder. We'll see. Is Lane still alive? Simmons out.

Finally Friday Hey Friday is finally here tomorrow. Not that it means that much to me. Everyday is like Friday for this slacker : ) I ventured out to Maplelag on Tuesday. It was hot, and the deer flies were crazy. I had forgotten how tough the single track was out there. I did a loop of the Expert course for the Laddies Loppet race. It was brutal, but still a lot of fun. Trent we need to plan a trip out there sometime. Sounds like Greg is going to be in the area until September, so maybe we can all get together out there. Sears, would you be interested? On Wednesday I went on a group ride with some guys from Paramount Sports. There were six of us. It was hot and windy. There were some goods sprints. About 30 miles total. It sounds like there is a group ride pretty much everyday of the week. Lots of riding to be had. Jen and I are heading up to Grand Forks tomorrow. I'll be bringing the 8000 for some Turtle River action. Any takers for Friday or Saturday?

Fargo Well I've been in Fargo now for over a week. It's not that bad. Not Grand Forks, but not that bad. Still looking for a job. I'm in no hurry though. I have a sugar momma now : ) Just kidding Jen. Hopefully, I'll be able to contribute to the bank soon. Biking here is crazy. The traffic in town is horrible. On Friday Jen had to go to Grand Forks to do some wedding stuff, so I decided that I would bike up there and then get a ride home. I took the 2300 out of the stable and headed north. It took me 35 minutes to get out of Fargo! Once out of town it was nice. I bet I didn't see more than 10 cars until I got close to GF. It was a hot and humid day. In the 90's with a strong tailwind. I took two bottles of Accelerade and a 1 liter camelbak full of water and Elete. I had to stop in Hillsboro to refill with water and gatorade endurance. I love the look on peoples faces in small towns when a guy in tight shorts and tap shoes comes into the convenience store. Priceless. 3 hours 46 minutes of riding time. 84 miles. Should be good prep for 24 hours of 9 mile at the end of the month. Are you ready guys? It should be a fun race. Since we're in the team division, I should have plenty of time to harass the solo guys. Can I get a roll call of who's going to be there? I'd like to get some good pictures of the event, so stay tuned for that. Greg are you going to make it? Later