the island, the t.i., the bag, the photos

so...the pictures in this post make absolutely no sense in the order that they're in...get over it. for some reason this laptop sucks at reordering pics. or i do. don't care.

first...the stampede. got to sylvan island feeling pretty good. walked up to the registration tent and signed up for the expert class. a 5th place finish in last year's mudfest in the expert class left me feeling plenty comfortable racing expert again this year. then ran into adam. first words out of his mouth "did you see who all is here? yeah, a bunch of us are just doing the single speed race." my first thought...damn, that was eppen that i saw. so i headed back to the tent completely comfortable dropping to the ss class, especially since i was standing in line behind jesse lalonde as he registered. considered tapping him on the shoulder and informing him that he was one of the reasons i wasn't racing expert, smiled to myself and left him alone to avoid seeming like a stalker. experts went off and i was happy to not be with them. along with eppen and lalonde, cam made his mark and knowing robnett was there and then the ride that kingsbury put in...i'm completely comfortable with my decision. our group went off a couple minutes after the experts and i was into the singletrack first after a couple hundred yard sprint. was feeling pretty good about not blowing up completely at the start then totally blew a 180 degree turn (should probably pre-ride in the future). adam took the lead and looked strong. i got it back and led a fair amount of the first 2 laps feeling pretty strong and being coached around the course by local guy ryan neipert. was wondering why he wasn't coming around but he seemed comfortable and i was appreciative of the advice. lap 3 came and i got passed like i had an orange triangle on my back. neipert recommended we chase him down. i wanted to recommend that neipert fuck off but my manners were still in tact. he metioned that he was inclined to do it so i made room and never saw them again. the next guy in line then sat on my wheel for the remainder of the 3rd and all of the 4th lap. as expected on the 5th and final lap he was done toying with me, moved around me and was gone. i settled into cruise control accepting the fact that i could have ridden another 5 hours but was powerless to accelerate, chase or really race at all. my acceptance of 4th overall was short lived when i got tracked down and passed again and rolled in for a 5th place finish ecstatic not to have another 2 laps like the experts did. the race was a blast, justified my decision to bail on the experts and a testament to my training. realistically evaluating my performance, not making excuses, i have lost my high end. i averaged 164 heartrate for 1hr45min. that hurt and my back is toast. but i was smiling in the end and more and more that's all the reward i need. maybe someday i'll get back to focusing on xc racing but for now i'm happy riding as hard as i can as long as i can. huge congrats to neipert for taking the ss race. eppen, lalonde and cam killed the expert race but for me kingsbury was the story. 4th place and the first of what i would consider non-pros. pretty damn impressive. good to see everyone else out there as well...all the iowa city folk, trevor, brian, grelk, jed (tough day with the tubeless set-up), i'm sure i'm missing people cause that's what i do...tons of people out for this one and was cool to see the big fields.

the new seatpack came in from epic designs and is looking every bit as promised. got it installed this morning and looking to get out for a ride with it today. probably pack it with useless shit just to see what its like. the next week will be a lot of shorter gravel rides making sure everything is dialed.

transiowa v.6 is virtually upon us. i leave in 10 days. getting lodging/support/food/packing/etc dialed so i can pretty much wake up friday and leave. anxious, nervous, excited, scared, hopeful and a whole host of other emotions. the 2nd guessing is hitting the point of absurdity. most of all is the excitement though. having been through 2 and finished 1 i have an idea what i'm in for and i know how much i enjoy it. having scotty along this year will add a whole other reason to be excited. we've trained hard together in the past and i know what its like to put in some truly suffering-filled rides with him. looking forward to tackling this monster together.

now...the pics. again, totally random order cause i suck.
jesse lalonde: reason #1 i bailed on the expert race

the fuhrmanator

the little man showing off the fully packed ride

the new bag installed and in its smallest state

recovering with adam

recovering with a tallboy of highlife

brian eppen: reason #2 (cam: reason #3, not pictured)

single speed race pain train (before i derailed)

coming off the wall with neipert and adam in tow

plenty of places to have fun once you know you're out of the race

early on, before neipert took charge of the race