Ships Log: Fat Aircraft carrier war games

[UtahJoe]

Racing and Ringwood

Hey I did a race this weekend. Ringwood Rumble. Marks my first time racing at ringwood since 2009....( I had to look it up, I missed ringwood in 2010 dude to my honeymoon) Man, cant believe its been 10 years...I was supposed to do it the last 2 years but one year my wife got really sick, the other she got called into work at 7am....Sadly this year, the only excuse I had was a biblical rain storm...

As I was loading the rain getting rained on I started to consider blowing this off and just working on the mustang...Then i took the bike down off the wall...The rear tire was flat. Ok, blow it up...its just PISSING air out of the spoke holes...This is interesing since I just rode it about 24 hours ago without issue. 15 min of dicking around later i find a rip in the rim tape.....So now im just annoyed to the point that I rip all of the tape off and retape the wheel....whatever that power is telling me to stay home...well FU now...im racing anyway.

Get there with about 45min to spare and see my teammates and friends....one being Ben Williams who I havent seen at a race in super long time. I wasnt sure what class I was going to sign up for (more on that later) but Ben signed up for pro, so fuck it, ill race pro.....thats seriously about as much thought as I have been putting into this lately.

The course. Its good for a ringwood course, by far the best I have raced there. However its still ringwood. 20-25min of fire road climbing to get you out of the Shepards lake area....the entire white trail down broken up in two spots with some more fire road, then skylands to the race course finish. Great course and Dave K deserves major props for not dismantling it because of the rain.

My group...and this is kinda why im just whatever at times about racing pro after 8 years...
Nick L...aint nobody around here beating nick at ringwood....At least I can say I beat him once back when he was like 18
Joe Thomas...Maybe he cant beat nick, but lately it seems like he can beat everyone else
@mbruno hmm, not sure that I had ever raced Matt in pro class that I recall. Anyway, I know Matt is strong AF and at best I would catch him on the DHs.
@szymon usually always faster than me, but on occasion I have gotten him on a few downhill/technical courses...All I know is that we dont go uphill at the same speed, thats for dam sure.
Rob M...Who I just met last year at lewmo...but I had to pull out of that race, so not sure where he will be at
Ben W...Ben hasnt raced in forever, so im guessing he will be out to have some fun
Dude in EE red ferrari kit (Gabe)...Never met Gabe before, but that kit makes you look fast AF
I think there was another guy but he dropped out right after the start....

Anyway...in general...I pretty much can recap this race as im sitting on the starting line. I know whats going to happen. Nick lines up behind me bc hes being a smart ass, but 3 seconds after the gun hes like an off shore racing boat plowing thru the wet fire road start. Joe, Matt, Szymon Gabe chase Nick...Me Rob and Ben do not chase Nick....So in general, I know im not going to compete on a 25min climb with these guys. Ill do what I can and with any luck ill pick up a couple on the downhills and tech sections. If it was dry...im pretty confident I can run that white trail with everyone outside of maybe nick...but NOT when its slick as hell.

So we start the climbing, I pass Ben and Rob...Nick, Szymon, Matt and gabe are long gone...Eventually halfway thru the climb I run into gabe who was struggling in the short rocky section. He gets out and I make a huge effort to hold him off until the start of the white DH. God these fire roads can SAD...I think I saw around 24min on my garmin until the start of white. Gabe has caught back up to me, but I hit the first section of white and open up a gap again....but then its not the whole white trail...we have to break off and go around the lake and Gabe makes some time back on the climb. Back into the ST...im going, but compared to how I can rip this trail in the dry...im crawling basically. Making some time, but then we hit this big muddy run up and he catches back up again....I let him by and just sit behind for a while....I know im going to be suffering on that climb up warm puppy so i figured I would wait until the skylands trail to repass if he wasnt out of sight.

We hit the climb and its a mud hole...few times I almost spun to a stop... I give gabe credit, he could hop off that bike and run his ass off, gazelle style. Probably had about 30 seconds on me by the start of skylands but I was able to catch back up to him pretty quick. Then I was pretty tight on his wheel thru skylands...He would have had to stop and pull over, so I just kinda chilled out and waited....near the end I looked back and saw Ben like a few switchbacks behind....I informed Gabe to "time to pick it up a little".....So now there is only a few short climbs left, one being the set of switchbacks up....figured I would wait til then....Passed him at the top of the last switchback and just put the hammer down to the finish line. Which landed me in 5th

So in all it was fine...predictable finish. If it was dry, I think it would have helped me alot more obviously since im trying to make time on the downhills and rock stuff. But I had someone to race with for 90% of the race and its always good hanging with the crew.

As I mentioned earlier...I spent some time thinking about maybe going back to Cat 1 this year in h2h. Mainly because for me to be "generally" competitive in pro (and I use that term loosely since I have raced people from my speed, to Lando, to Aaron, to Adam Craig.....Like you could fit 4 more classes in that range ) But anyway...to be generally competitive, I need to be really on my game riding skills wise, mentally into it, really keeping my weight in check, training on point, etc. After 8 years...im kinda like...well, what if I just go have an average day and live with it. Really, I would say "not getting fat again", seeing my friends, having some fun is probably 99% of my motivation for racing bikes now...The drive to try and get to the next level has long since left me. Last year at lewis morris, me, Lando and @The Heckler were having this conversation in which Matt said to me..."so utah, how does it FEEL to know you will never ever have any chance of beating this guy?".... Meaning nick....Which of course I found hilarious...I mean even coming from @The Heckler who didnt get his screen name for nothing. However ridiculous the question, it FEELS pretty ok....I mean if im honest I can MUCH easier live Lando kicking my ass forever than having the Giants go 4-12. Point being, I never sign up for the pro class (or any bike race) and dont have a flash back to when i was 270lbs wearing size 44 pants and couldnt ride a bike to the nearest donut shop. I never had the delusions of being a pro at anything....my football coach use to tell me that if I stop eating, my 4 point stance would soon be a 5 point stance.....he also failed me bc i couldnt run the mile in gym class....lol, god he was a dick. Anyway...now that im 42, have a 5 year old, wife who works nights....I spend a fuck load of time thinking about how im going to take down Nick in the next race.....Which reminds me, I need to get to bed..I took the day off tomorrow and im taking the family to legoland in Westchester.....So good night all.... ill be soon dreaming about how lando running my balls over with his bike is probably more enjoyable than 9am drive to Westchester with my 5 year old in the car.

PS.... I still have no idea what class ill race for Mooch...Ill say pro if @Norm promises to give me a single digit number plate.

 

[Mitch]

Good stuff Utah.

 

[seanrunnette]

I love it when you race!

 

[Norm]

have a 5 year old, wife who works nights

Good recap, and just wanted to point out the importance of solid comma usage here. @JimN approved.

 

[JimN]

Wait a few years and race Cat 1 45+. Then you've got 20ish years before Lando starts kicking your ass again

Good recap, and just wanted to point out the importance of solid comma usage here. @JimN approved.

I typed "commas important meme" into google images to find something to post here, but there are too many.

 

[jShort]

Wait a few years and race Cat 1 45+. Then you've got Roger and Frank kicking your ass again

There's no where safe!


I'll say Utah can race Cat1 but he has to eat a bag of jelly beans every 2 days. And we need video blog proof.

 

[JimN]

I'll say Utah can race Cat1 but he has to eat a bag of jelly beans every 2 days. And we need video blog proof.

He should just start drinking beer.

 

[UtahJoe]

Mooch madness 2019

Another year on what is now my favorite h2h course....I think it used to be waywayanda, but since thats gone, mooch moves up a notch.
nothing new or improved this year....except we decided to replace the sunny and 65 weather it has always been for this race with 36 and rain.....Hope everyone enjoyed.

Of course prep for this race starts back around short track when we scout everything out, plan the TM day, clean the course, mark the course, etc.....Its not as bad as the stewart race, but its a ton of work. I think we have these things down pretty well now and

As for the race itself...@norm did grant me a single digit number, so fuck it, im in for the pro class.....#4...I have been #4 twice, both times I got 4th...no, im serious.

The cast:
Me (4th time doing this race...in years past 4th, 4th, 5th)
@mbruno (now new and improved sporting official mtbnj.com attire and sans mustache)
@syzmon (gone are the days when he would do this race on his hardtail....I liked those days better)
Jordan who I met on the starting line and dont know that I have ever raced with outside of last week where he broke his shifter in the first mile and had to bail.
Greg G who continues to kill it
Nick who beat me for 2nd at the short track
Rob M
Gabe (again sporting the Ferrari red EE kit)
Kieth garrison (who I dont recall racing with since many years ago at jamesburg CX)

Anyway, aside from the cold and rain, the race was fairly predictable. At the start, Matt, Szymon, Gabe and Jordan blast off up the road and quickly leave myself, Greg, Nick, and everyone else behind....like WAY behind. After about 15 seconds Greg causally pulls up next to me and says "huh where are they going?"....I had no answer for this, but in short order they were GONE. Greg causally passes me near the top of the hill....These are the kind of races you PREY for when you are me and cant sprint off like the little kids anymore. I mean if were a betting man, I would bet the farm on Greg running down anyone in this race eventually...So ill just stay back here and try to follow.

They were long out of sight by the time we hit the woods....Greg lead Nick and I thru the first section, then started pulling away on freaking middle. I passed nick who was having issues with the rain on his glasses....Not long after I saw Matt on the side with a flat. I had a ton of daylight after that and started to turn it up and see who i could catch. I hit the climb then bombed the downhill totally alone with only catching a glimpse of Gabe's red kit in the distance. Finally out into the short track I saw that Gabe was up ahead probably 30 seconds or so. Came thru on lap 1 to alot of cheers and Kirt telling me I was less than a minute off first....So I felt good...in years past I always managed to pick off someone on the last lap, so I just keep my head down and pedal.

Lap 2 the rain starts falling hard and the course is now getting slick. Gabe is putting time on me at every climb but despite that im getting closer and closer....I again lose sight of up up bitch slap, but when I get out to the short track im now right on him. He lets me by in Iggys switchbacks and I go thru lap 2 in front....Went thru the start/finish where Norm told us we were battling for 2nd...Which doing the math in my head must have meant 2 other people flatted? Dam...Gabe re passed me on the start/finish climb, but he took a bad line thru the mud puddle and i went around him again. Unlike last week at Ringwood where I sat behind him thru skylands, I was hoping I could put a gap on him thru freaking middle....enough so that I could hold him off for maybe half of the big climb and keep him in sight at the start of the DH. He passed me right about the middle of the climb and I worked hard to keep the gap in check....I hit the downhill hard and erased most of what he made on the climb....I was expecting to come onto the ST and him be about 10-15 seconds in front....But he was further ahead and try as i might, i could not get back up to him. He really dropped the hammer and i could not match it. So that left me in 4th.

Good race, 4th...AGAIN. I swear i have been 4th in h2h pro...has to be like 10 times in the past 8 years....I mean hey fuck it...beats 5th right? I felt good outside of being cold and having a cramp in my right calf on lap 2...which I think was related to the cold. Laps 2 and 3 were only 9 seconds apart which is usually a good indication that im doing about what i can do. Good race,solid effort most of all really fun.. Best I have felt all year for sure.

The rest of the day I hung out with the gang and fellow racers...stood by the fire that @JimN built and shivered. While I REALLY hate having to get back on my bike and do another lap to tear the course down, at least this time it helped me warm up.

Another great day, sadly they cant all be sunny and 70.

 

[Patrick]

Great racing!
You were smiling on the road climb while being heckled by the peanut gallery....

---
Did the early mustangs have turn light sequencers? Would you add them?

 

[JimN]

Nice job out there!

by the fire that @JimN built and shivered.

@Magic helped with the fire, and @Mitch destroyed the fire and then helped rebuild it.

 

[UtahJoe]

Great racing!
You were smiling on the road climb while being heckled by the peanut gallery....

---
Did the early mustangs have turn light sequencers? Would you add them?

I have gotten good over the years at masking my suffering in races. Actually, when its 36 degrees, im really not suffering all that much until the last lap.

So the mustangs never had sequential tail lights. They were put in T-birds in 64...although i dont think they became sequential until 65....And dam was this system complicated...since you are the EE, you can read this and better understand than me.....But it was entirely electro-mechanical using relays, motors, etc
https://www.tbirdranch.com/sequencer.html

The 67 shelby used the tail lights from a ~66 T-bird

the 68-70 shelbys used the 65 T-bird tail lights

But the mustangs never came with them from Ford until 5th and 6th generations.


They do make a kit now to retro-fit my car with digital/led versions, but thats a whole bunch of money im not spending.

 

[Patrick]

I'm comp-sci, we do it all with s/w.....

the retrofit is an interesting problem - i'd do it tho. would be one of those unexpected things
that someone oogling would appreciate.

 

[The Heckler]

R Last year at lewis morris, me, Lando and @The Heckler were having this conversation in which Matt said to me..."so utah, how does it FEEL to know you will never ever have any chance of beating this guy?".... Meaning nick....Which of course I found hilarious...I mean even coming from @The Heckler who didnt get his screen name for nothing.

This is why I'm retired from Heckling too.

 

[UtahJoe]

Poison Ivy mouse trap

Another year....This one felt so fast as we really compacted so much of the planning into a single week.....Moving the race to May had its good and bad points...the good being that we didnt have to weed wack and mow for half a day...the bad...more water on the ground. I think I prefer the latter myself. It was a long day friday of marking the course and some minor TM, but this year we had a much bigger crew so it was much smoother.

Anyway, I wake up at 4am the morning of and remember that I dont have a freezer full of ice cream to deal with this year...SWEET. In fact all I had to pack this year was cones, 5 gallons of gas for the generator and a bike...and some riding gear.

The race.

I really...like REALLY did not want to race yesterday. The set up the day before, the mothers day operation flower bed operation, 4am wake up....The running around morning of...I am never in the mindset to race.....I mainly do it because this is usually the downtime for my duties at our races...(set up/tear down) so if im not racing, id probably just be standing around eating all day. So I got dressed, rode around...and at the end of the day...riding stewart is just never not fun...so I just take off slow and ride around.

Soon as the efforts hits, feel how tired I am...I remember like 10 min in I had that feeling like when I dont sleep the night before and im nodding off at my desk. But oddly enough I think im hanging in ok....catch up with Matt, Roger, DT and Rich W and manage to keep them all pretty close. This goes on until the bigger climb where I start falling off... Then on the downhill a wet root causes me to loose my rear wheel momentarily and I wash out. Recover from that but by the end of lap 1 I'm tired and just not into this effort today.... I decide to call it a day...

Then I come thru the start finish and decide to keep going.... I find if you just start the next lap, you will keep going just bc... So I ride with @Dave Taylor thru bear and into Windsor where I mentioned to Dave that I wanted to hammer the camp trail bc it's fun.. So I go around and rip thru camp... Near the end I nearly catch back up to Matt.....

Soon I find myself alone and I just start cruising. I'm tired but I felt good enough to finish...run into the occasional endurance rider here and there but all is pretty quiet. With maybe about 20 minutes left @BrianGT3 catches up to me and passes. This wakes me up and I decide to hang with him for the remainder of the race....When we got to horse i decided to take a pull and see if I could go run down Ben Williams before the finish....which I got close to but did not. In all I was actually pretty happy with that effort for 2 reasons.
1. I stuck it out despite REALLY wanting to quit
2. my laps were surprisingly consistent

Afterwards I had myself a chilidog, guilt free...Chatted with the crew and enjoyed the rest of the day thanks to @MadisonDan @Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST @Ryan.P and @MissJR taking on what I refer to as the SHIT DETAIL. Unmarking the course....I have done this detail at I think every race since 2011....This year I only had to go ride around with @shrpshtr325 and @pooriggy picking up arrows, tape and cones. Wow that was an awesome and pleasant surprise, huge thanks to my teamies for relieving me of that task.

@capedoc set up in my favorite jump spot where I ended my 2017 SSAP campaign....

 

[Dave Taylor]

Poison Ivy mouse trap

Another year....This one felt so fast as we really compacted so much of the planning into a single week.....Moving the race to May had its good and bad points...the good being that we didnt have to weed wack and mow for half a day...the bad...more water on the ground. I think I prefer the latter myself. It was a long day friday of marking the course and some minor TM, but this year we had a much bigger crew so it was much smoother.

Anyway, I wake up at 4am the morning of and remember that I dont have a freezer full of ice cream to deal with this year...SWEET. In fact all I had to pack this year was cones, 5 gallons of gas for the generator and a bike...and some riding gear.

The race.

I really...like REALLY did not want to race yesterday. The set up the day before, the mothers day operation flower bed operation, 4am wake up....The running around morning of...I am never in the mindset to race.....I mainly do it because this is usually the downtime for my duties at our races...(set up/tear down) so if im not racing, id probably just be standing around eating all day. So I got dressed, rode around...and at the end of the day...riding stewart is just never not fun...so I just take off slow and ride around.

Soon as the efforts hits, feel how tired I am...I remember like 10 min in I had that feeling like when I dont sleep the night before and im nodding off at my desk. But oddly enough I think im hanging in ok....catch up with Matt, Roger, DT and Rich W and manage to keep them all pretty close. This goes on until the bigger climb where I start falling off... Then on the downhill a wet root causes me to loose my rear wheel momentarily and I wash out. Recover from that but by the end of lap 1 I'm tired and just not into this effort today.... I decide to call it a day...

Then I come thru the start finish and decide to keep going.... I find if you just start the next lap, you will keep going just bc... So I ride with @Dave Taylor thru bear and into Windsor where I mentioned to Dave that I wanted to hammer the camp trail bc it's fun.. So I go around and rip thru camp... Near the end I nearly catch back up to Matt.....

Soon I find myself alone and I just start cruising. I'm tired but I felt good enough to finish...run into the occasional endurance rider here and there but all is pretty quiet. With maybe about 20 minutes left @BrianGT3 catches up to me and passes. This wakes me up and I decide to hang with him for the remainder of the race....When we got to horse i decided to take a pull and see if I could go run down Ben Williams before the finish....which I got close to but did not. In all I was actually pretty happy with that effort for 2 reasons.
1. I stuck it out despite REALLY wanting to quit
2. my laps were surprisingly consistent

Afterwards I had myself a chilidog, guilt free...Chatted with the crew and enjoyed the rest of the day thanks to @MadisonDan @Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST @Ryan.P and @MissJR taking on what I refer to as the SHIT DETAIL. Unmarking the course....I have done this detail at I think every race since 2011....This year I only had to go ride around with @shrpshtr325 and @pooriggy picking up arrows, tape and cones. Wow that was an awesome and pleasant surprise, huge thanks to my teamies for relieving me of that task.

@capedoc set up in my favorite jump spot where I ended my 2017 SSAP campaign....
View attachment 95156

Nice racing for a bit. I’ll being taking these seriously once mohican passes. I mean I am trying but coming in with a really high TSS is optimal but hopefully it pits me in a good position 3 weeks from now. The 2 hour preride probably just added to the fatigue. One day I will race with you all...for 3 laps.

 

[pooriggy]

Nice race @UtahJoe, even when you're half fast you're fast.
Don't sell yourself short, you're a terrific slouch.

 

[Pearl]

i wish i could come back and just drive the truck for course break down

did you have to drop the pallets off to oscar?

 

[MadisonDan]

pallets

Fire

 

[UtahJoe]

i wish i could come back and just drive the truck for course break down

did you have to drop the pallets off to oscar?

No but @pooriggy and I told @shrpshtr325 Bill the pallet story as Bill was driving us around in his truck for clean up duties.....Bills biggest mistake....joins teams...shows up to stewart race with pick up truck.

Sadly i think the toyota has seen its last stewart race...im afraid the frame might snap in half at this point.

It is a great example of just how much better we are at doing this whole thing now. I was saying to @Norm today.....@pooriggy and I one marked the six pack course, TEN MILES of it the morning of the race....It was absurd...I think Iggy saw angry Utah when the stapler broke and might have threw it. That was not fun....I think I once finished the old mooch madness course like 5 minutes before the racers came thru on lap 1.

 

[shrpshtr325]

No but @pooriggy and I told @shrpshtr325 Bill the pallet story as Bill was driving us around in his truck for clean up duties.....Bills biggest mistake....joins teams...shows up to stewart race with pick up truck.

still waiting for someone to show up and wash all the mud off it . . . . . . . .