It’s late Sunday night and I’ve just rolled back from a three-day road trip to western New York. Rather than sifting through a stack of press releases, looking for a newsworthy nugget to post in this space, I’ve decided to tell you about my trip.

Early Friday morning I pointed the trusty Windstar north, with my ultimate destination being the Raccoon Rally in Allegany State Park near Salamanca, NY. But before I rolled into The Rally, I wanted to sample the sweet singletrack in nearby Ellicottville, NY. Fortunately, Dennis Baldwin of the Ellicottville Bike Shop was kind enough to agree to slip out of the shop on Friday afternoon and share the local goods. Here’s a picture of Dennis, before he got all muddy at the Raccoon Rally XC race on Sunday:

It had been a few years since I last attended the Raccoon Rally, and I found this year’s action bigger and better than ever. There was a good turnout for Saturday morning’s road race, downhill and trials events. I didn’t partake in the competition, as I was hunkered down in the vendor expo area, a.k.a. Raccoon Alley. Fortunately, Saturday afternoon’s short track XC ran right down the middle of Raccoon Alley, so I was able to snap a few photos of the action. Click on the thumbnails below to see larger photos.

On Saturday evening the venue got hammered by a downpour that packed enough rain to turn Sunday’s XC race into quite the muddy affair. Again, I was on booth duty, so I was spared the mud bath. The sloppy conditions did provide an endless supply of muddy bikers, who were kind enough to pose for the camera.

This gentleman won my award for the best T -shirt slogan of the day:

The kids race followed the XC action. From the looks of determination (and joy) on these little bikers’ faces, I’d venture to say there may be future champions in this crowd:

After the kid’s race, the local radar was showing a line of severe thunderstorms heading our way, so I took my cue to bust down the booth and re-pack the van for a hasty exit. I got everything packed up and hit the road before the deluge arrived, but there were a few white-knuckle moments on my drive back to Pittsburgh. I made it home unscathed; however, I noted several weather-induced accidents on the way. At least the rain made for cool temperatures—perfect for late night blogging.

The drama is supposed to happen on the race course, not in the parking lot. On a hot and dry June day I pulled into the Neshaminy High School parking lot in plenty of time for the Guy’s Racing Neshaminy Classic. After getting checked in, I kitted up and started my warmup circling the parking lot. The night before I had put a new Maxxis Crossmark tire on the front, with Stans sealant, and while riding across the parking lot mid-warmup I thought I heard a leak. I bent over the front wheel and tried to locate the source of the sputtering sound, but I couldn’t figure it out. Then I saw what looked like oil on my rim. The lower seal on my Maverick SC32 fork decided to head south and was spraying fork oil right onto my disc brake rotor and caliper. A few curses later I was rummaging through my toolbox. I managed to pull out some old brake pads and proceeded to use my towel to try and clean the rotor and brake caliper as best I could. With new pads fitted, it made a screeching sound that would make Hitchcock proud, and even slowed the bike a bit. I jammed the seal back into the fork and pumped some extra air into the spring to keep it from slamming the bottom. With 5 minutes left before the start, I spun my legs out a bit and tried to relax.

Photo by Ed McDaniel

The course was a 6 mile loop of twisty turns and short steep climbs, we would do a prolog and 3 laps for 20 miles total. It seemed to be a good singlespeed course, only the flat grass start would be challenging. We had 4 singlespeed riders on the Elite starting line, the most yet this season. I went with a 32×18 on my 29’er and it proved to be a good choice with no forced run-ups. I got a reasonable start and dropped into the singletrack around 10^th place, right behind singlespeed master Topher Valenti (Bike Sport). The prolog section was fast and fun. Tight corners, log piles, wood bridges, and roots worked to hold your attention. Half way through the first main lap, I was riding down I slight downhill covered in roots when I suddenly felt my cranks freewheel. Somehow I had dropped my chain, on a singlespeed! Since I busted my crankarm in the last race, I had replaced it temporarily with an old geared one. When I tried to hand-pedal the chain back on, I kept catching it on the damn studs for the granny gear. After losing a minute, and getting passed by the whole Elite field, I got moving again. After the race I discovered a disturbing lack of roundness in my chainring.

The rest of the race flowed perfectly. I had a blast trying to keep my momentum and reeling in riders. The course really suited a singlespeed well and reminded me of riding at the Plateau in Philly. I was able to keep pace with the geared riders everywhere on the course, and made my passes on the two longer climbs. By the end of the second lap I was riding behind Andrew Alesio (Fuji Bikes) and felt good. Mike Hebe (VisitPa.com) was on our tail after an earlier crash. I intended to pass Andrew on the last climb, but he saw me coming and got on top of it. He passed fellow singlespeed rider Mike Yozell (VisitPa.com) right before the finish and I came in 10 feet behind Yozell. Good enough for 11^th place. Harlan Price (Fitness Together/IFracing.org) won the Elite class followed closely by Aaron Snyder (Scott Bikes) and with Topher (Bike Sport) being the first singlespeed rider, with an impressive 6^th place finish.

Needless to say this experience has accelerated my quest for a new fork. Over the next few weeks I’ll be sampling the 29’er offerings from Fox, Rock Shox and others, and be making a switch. With my Stans lightweight aluminum rotor doused on oil, I’m taking the opportunity to try something new there as well. Scrub Components has just come up with their own superlight rotor made from a metal matrix material, which I’ll be trying out to compare with the Stans rotor. Keep tuned for the results.

We invite you to join us at the Dirt Rag World Tour stop at the Kenda Bikefest Presented by Dirt Rag, scheduled for July 25–27th in Hancock, MA. If that’s not in the cards, then we’ve got dozens of events listed from coast to coast. Check out the action!

–Karl Rosengarth

Here we are back from the wilds of Canada and happy to report that Mountain Biking is alive and well amongst our neighbors north of the border.

This weekend at Chico Racing’s 24 Hours of Summer Solstice we were treated to a slice of what Ontario and greater Canada have to offer in way of great biking trails and singletrack. Albion Hills Conservation Area, just an hour north of downtown Toronto, is 446 hectares (1102 acres) of rolling woods and pine forest converted from uncultivated farmland. We pre-rode the largely singletrack course on Friday with the Princeton Tech team who were on hand through race night to supply support for their light rentals. The course wound it’s way through the park, scaling up to the ridges and dropping back down to the lowlands to several bridged river crossings. It offered up a nice variety of challenges with fast twisting drops and rebounds that were reminiscent of pump tracks and peppered with clean quick straight-aways to open up and make time.

Adam Ruppel and his team of workers and volunteers have done an excellent job of creating a well organized event (the largest 24-hour race in North America) without loosing the spontaneity that allows for giving prizes away for the best bootie shake, a animal show with a barn owl and snake (in separate cages, of course), Chico’s Pirates of Albion mud pit challenge for riders and Misfit Cycles Dance Party stop on course.

Families were in attendance and the Shimano Youth Series offered a tough course for the next generation and young bikers eagerly stepped up to the challenge.

We buckled down to business on Saturday spending the morning spreading the Dirt Rag and handing out Platypus Big Zip bladders, Genuine Innovations Nano CO2 inflators, Jagwire shift and brake cable kits, and Seal Line Urban totes to new and renewing subscribers. Noon start time saw a lull in the business and Justin took the time to snap some pictures of the of the teams en masse on an absolutely beautiful Canadian blue sky day…

…that turned a little grey and rainy later. By nightfall the riders were faced with heavy downpours, mud slicks and other night hazards. Luckily the lightening, feared to shut down the course, held off until late Sunday. Instead, lightening and pea sized hail, shut down traffic across all four lanes on the QEW while drivers struggled to cram as many cars as possible under the sheltering overpasses.

On a personal note, I have a renewed sense of respect for all participates in endurance racing. This weekend was a new experience for me and there were moments that will stay with me. Waking in my tent to early predawn mist and fog on Sunday, listening to riders sweep by and downshift as they approached the final small climb to the finish line is lingering moment of sweetness in an epic weekend.

Check out our photo gallery. Words by Amanda Zimmerman.
Photos by Justin Steiner.

The Mountain’s Edge 2008 Cactus Cup is scheduled for September 19th – 21st, 2008 in Las Vegas, NV. The latest incarnation of this venerable event sticks with the tried and true Cactus Cup formula, combining a three-day festival and a mountain bike stage race. The event takes place on the weekend preceding the annual Interbike trade show and outdoor demo, which begins on September 22nd.

Pro and Semi-Pro racers will compete in a stage-race format, involving the Exploration Peak Time Trial, Super D, Fat Tire Criterium and Cottonwood Cross County. Expert, Sport and Beginner category riders will compete for individual honors in each of the events. A children’s race is also planned. Registration is set to open July 1st at www.cactuscuplasvegas.com (limited information was posted as of this report).

Activities will be based at Mountain’s Edge, a master-planned community located in southwest Las Vegas at Buffalo Drive and Blue Diamond Highway. The Mountain’s Edge Cactus Cup is produced by Swagger, an event management organization that currently produces over forty criterium events, including the Twilight Criterium in Athens, GA.

The Mountain’s Edge 2008 Cactus Cup is a fundraiser for the HERA Women’s Cancer Foundation and the Animal Foundation located in Las Vegas.

–Karl Rosengarth

In earlier parts of this series we looked at the advantages and challenges of racing a singlespeed bike. While a singlespeed drivetrain is mechanically more efficient then a geared one, we need to make the most out of that efficiency. As some readers have pointed out, the motor is just as important as the drivetrain.

What presents the greatest challenge to the singlespeed rider? The changing terrain of the typical mountain bike course. A geared rider can maintain a fairly even cadence throughout a race, while the singlespeed rider has to change theirs to accommodate the terrain. Singlespeed riders tend to excel on the climbs and in technical sections, with a more efficient drive train and lower weight. As a singlespeed rider, you need to deliver high power at low cadence, moderate power at very high cadence as well as steady power at a moderate cadence. Acceleration out of tight corners or through rock gardens requires explosive strength. Climbing at mid to low rpm’s requires sustained strength and a well-developed core and upper body. And, while you can develop strength naturally through riding, optimal performance requires some specific training. Some athletes go into the gym to build strength, but here are a few on-the-bike techniques I’ve found to be effective. Somewhat ironically, most of these drills are easiest to do on a geared road bike.

Over Gear Efforts are great for building leg strength. These are done on a moderate hill in a very large gear (53×15, for example) at 50-60 rpm. Start conservatively, with 2 sets 5-10 minutes in length. Allow 5 minutes rest between sets and increase sets or duration of effort as your training progresses. These efforts should be done seated. Over Gear Efforts are on-the-bike strength training, ie. resistance training for cycling specific muscles.

Another good strength builder, and it’s not a fun one, are Increasing Rate Hill Intervals. These are done as out of the saddle accelerations done up a fairly steep hill at 80-90rpm. Start the effort at 70% effort for 10-15 seconds then increase to 80%, 90%, finishing the last 15 seconds at 100%. Do 2-4 sets with full recovery in-between (10 minutes), depending on where you are at in your training.

Sprint Efforts are also good training. Sprint Efforts are usually done in sets of 4-6 with full recovery between all-out sprints. You can do these on your singlespeed, but you’ll probably find it easier to do them on a geared road bike. A computer or power meter for feedback never hurts.

Building a solid core and good upper body strength is key for delivering maximum power at lower cadences. Yoga, Pilates, and other dynamic workouts are good for this. Physical labor, or sports like kayaking or rowing, can also help build these muscles.

Yes, these look as dorky as they feel.

The biggest challenge for the singlespeed racer are the near flat sections of a course. You can coast down hills and climbing can be our advantage, but the flats are tough. Singlespeed riders quickly loose their ability to pedal efficiently and are often forced to coast, losing valuable time. Track sprinters face a similar challenge, they need to ride a gear which allows them to accelerate quickly, but also give them top end speed. They do this by developing excellent leg strength, and by training their legs to deliver power at very high rpm’s. There are two main tools used to do this, One Legged Drills and high cadence roller workouts.

One Legged Drills are done at typical cadence, alternating with one foot pedaling for 20-30 seconds, then the other. 4-6 times on each leg. Make sure to focus on driving through the entire pedal stroke. This is best done on a flat road on a road bike, and care needs to be taken to avoid injury.

Learning to ride rollers and doing high cadence workouts will help smooth out your pedal stroke and develop more fluid pedaling. My wife, coincidentally a track sprinter, often does this roller workout: 15 minute warm-up in a light gear, then 3-4 sets of 1 minute at 110rpm, 1 minute at 120rpm, 1 minute at 130rpm, 1 at 120, 1 at 130, then a 15 second max sprint. Do this effort 3 times at 5 minutes, with 5 minutes recovery in between. The entire workout should last 45 minutes.

High cadence workouts are used to train the body to deliver power efficiently at high rpm’s. By improving your ability to pedal smoothly and at high cadence your efficiency on flat sections will improve, though it’s still the singlespeed riders biggest challenge.

Does this look like singlespeed training?

These drills and techniques can help a singlespeed rider become stronger, more efficient, and faster. As with all training exercises, these are best done as part of an organized training program and under a coach’s supervision.

For earlier posts in this series click here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3