Cold days of winter.

Winter duldrums of a biker hits hard sometimes, but here is a way to take care of it. The other way would to man up a little and go outside but this night was not one of those nights. Congrats to Sexy Dave on his nationals results, in the harsh conditions.

MN State 'Cross Championships

This just in. Dave Meyer is a dominating force! Or at least he flew past me like I was standing still on about the third lap en route to first place in the B1 race. This also happened to be the Singlespeed Cross Championships for the State of MN. So, Dave is the champ!!!! Nice job Dave. You made it look easy. Here is a shot of Dave on the podium:

My race didn't go quite as well as Dave's, but I did end up passing a BKB dude on the last bit of the last lap. So all was good. The course was amazingly fun I thought. A hill or two to grunt up (not huge, but something), some tight spots, and a big hill o' steps. Beautiful. If I could design a fun course it would be that, only thing missing was mud, but it wasn't in the cards.

Things to work on for next year:
1) Actual speed. This is sort of an issue.
2) Single out the Poprad (or requisition a SS cross bike somehow)
3) Learn/practice/get halfways ok at remounting. It was embarassing out there yesterday. Seriously. I freaked myself out completely.



Thanks Larry for the cheer section! It was a fun 2007. Dave and Jake may have one more race to tackle yet this year, but I think the rest of the crew is done. Good job all. 2008 is just around the corner.

Welcome to Sucksville... population 1

After this past weekend's race up in beautiful Milaca I (Blackbeard) have come to the conclusion that I suck at 'cross racing. I don't really mind, but it hit me pretty hard on Sunday. I'm just not fast.



The course for the afternoon was in one word fast. If I would use a few more words it could be described as "fast if you are good enough to actually go fast". The only real hills on the course were both preceded by barriers (but at least the barriers weren't right on the steep part of the hill... THANKS!). Everything else was pretty flat. Essentially a drag race. Once again fun seemed to have been had by all. Sorry to Sexy Dave for clearing out of town before the A race really got going, but nice work on the race. Nice job by Jake in not getting last in the B race (though I looked it up, it was actually close), and doing pretty decent in the C race. I didn't get lapped (which was my realistic goal) but not being able to stick to people that I thought I should have been able to stick with sucked. Oh well.



Special kudos to SPHers K-Money and the Express (aka Bill Dance) and SPHer in training Lar-Dog for the awesome cheering! SPH's enthusiasm will be the key to our complete and utter world domination.

Trans-Iowa V4!

I (Scraggs) just sent out the official postcard to enter TI V4. They usually lotto 100 entries to get in, but this year they are giving people who have shown up to the start line a chance to get in before anyone else. SO I'M IN! Now all I have to do is convince Ole Blackbeard that it WILL be fun and a GREAT idea to live through it again, without calling him a W@$$. As G-Ted would put it VIVA LE GRAVEL!

Team Kit is on it's way

From the offices of SPH Cycling Ltd. - Team kit has officially been ordered. Hopefully it will come in in 4-6 weeks and not 6-8. I'll let everyone know what you owe once the stuff comes in. This little singlespeeder can't wait.

Back to the races.... Milaca on Sunday.... State Championships the following weekend... Nats upcoming....

Wooden tracks, sunshine and mud!

Not things you usually put together, especially mud and sunshine. The course was a one of a kind due to not many people having a wooden velodrome to their disposal. With a hundred yard dash through a mud field and super off camber hills, Sexy Dave and Scraggs tried their hand at Grumpy's cyclocross race in Blaine, MN. Dave taking the SS class in the c race, and finishing solid in the A race, he earned the gold star on the day. Jake just hoping to finish both races while having a little fun was his goal. With only a couple more cross races on the season we set sail for Milaca!

SPH is gaining crew members

Introducing our first really good rider... with one glance he will pierce your heart, so beware maidens of the ship... here he is Sexy Dave!

Proving herself worth by dressing like a Pirate Hooker, and ridding in platform boots.... here she is "Creek" Henry!

Criss Cross Crash

4/5th of the official crew of SPH made the trip west to the sunny practice fields of regal St. Olaf College. Or the College of St. Olaf. Or St. Olaf University. Whatever it is, there was one nasty ole hill, and one dizzying spiral o' doom.

Scraggs did pretty well for himself in the C race, and finished the B race. So he get's the gold star for being such a trooper. The Red Devil and ole Blackbeard both struggled a bit in the C race (1st and 2nd cross races ever respectively) but represented the old Orange and Green with aplomb.

A huge YARRRR for Kate and Katie for their blessed cheering. Maybe next time Creek will be out their racing too.

Cold, rain, and goose droppings

Tossing Eric overboard, (no women allowed upon ye ship, happy 5th anniversary Eric) the rest of the ship mates sailed north for a little cross action. With K-money and The Asian Express hoooping and hollering... Blackbeard and Scraggs take off in the C race, with a pile up at the start Scraggs was slowed and ended up playing catch up all race... Ole Black finishing like a pro in his first cross race... the B race not fairing so well for Scraggs.... with not much in his legs finishing the race was all that could be asked.

Thanks to AE and K-money for the support and keeping my jacket handy and bottles filled!

Eric the Red Run a Ground

Sunday morning found the poor viking a bit weak from scurvy and rum. His sea legs fell right out from him in an attempt to plunder the University's Race. Many a racer passed as he felt like passing out! All alone without the kinship of his SPH crew, he finished a disgraceful race in wich even the cabin boy had a heartier set o' lungs.

CX'in it!

Setting sail, wind 15 knots to the west was a bit slow... trying to make the start of ole Blackbeard's marathon, I showed up about 2 min late. After reading my maps wrong I decided it was time to move on to my own race. The race being Lake Rebecca's CX race.... placed in the valley town of Rockford, MN. Hopping on my bike I immediately knew it was going to be a bad race day... but with the leaves in full color and legs filled with lead I attempted two races. First one with a unrecoverable bonk half-way through and the second race was a joy ride. After being lapped I turned on my Sunday cruise mode and finished the race. The heat didn't help anything, and a final congrats to Blackbeard for completing a landlubbers marathon.

The ship sets sail from Minneapolis to St. Paul

Avast all ye stout hearted souls. Before ye read on, just know that this isn't a cycling related event. Blackbeard decided to spread the good word to other venues and tried out the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. The weather was more like off the shoals of St. Kitts than Minnesota in October, but we still weighed anchor at roughly 8:10 am. The pace was too fast for my peg legs and after about 8-9 miles I almost was headed for Davey Jones' Locker, but we pulled down the spinnaker (that's a nautical sounding way of saying that we slowed down) and I could keep going. I think I was running until roughly mile 12-13 and then the dreaded run/walk cycle began. About that time me first mate Speve came down with a case of heat stroke or dehydration or hyponytremia and had to pull out. Remy and I continued on and victoriously raised the Jolly Roger in a snail like 5 hours and 10 minutes. Below you'll see a picture of about mile 6 or so. We were still actually having fun.

Wind and rain was the name.... I thought I'd give cyclecross racing a try.... it's a good idea. Not to shabby for the first time round. I thought I held my own for running 42x16 (which is a horrible idea for me), but 30min into the race my load was a little heavy for the bead of my tire. After hitting my rear tire on a log I heard my rear bead give way with a sound that would represent a cannon. That was the end of the day for me.... now on to the next one! Maybe I (Scraggs) can get ole Blackbeard to join in the escapades!

Exercise the Landlubber Way

Note to all ye SPHians. When a swarthy dog (who happens to be a good friend) asks ye if ye would like to run 26.2 miles (I think that works out to 345218 fathoms or somethin nautical like), respond "Nay you scurvy dog!". Lovable Blackbeard responded "Yeah, that be something I'd be up fer a tryin'!". Yarghhh.

14 miles of jogging the plank later and only a fortnight until the race and ole Blackbeard is starting ta think that he should just leave the running to all ye landlubbers. Blackbeard will be able to draw on all of his pirate powers to make it through, but will it be as fun as plunderin some booty? More like taking a trip to Davey Jones' Locker.

YARGH! (Oh... vote Blackbeard... only 700some days left!)

Stay tuned

With the racing season coming to a close, perhaps the SPHers will have some time to give back to their loyal fans... submit any questions you have for the crazy piratical single speeders and we'll get them answers. Also... stay tuned for your heroes' bios.... oooooo can't wait.

The blast from the mothership!

A bit of Chipotle in the belly and gas in the air, we arrived at at Telemark friday night. Sailing through the crowds to meet and greet sailors of another ship. Waking up nice and early to a crisp air The Chequamegeon starts. With about 50 of 1,700 people behind us the gun explodes. Eric the Great and Scrags are off, with both loosing water bottles, the dust and rocks became pretty extreme. In the end it wasn't so bad, Scraggs with a time of 2hr 50min claiming 449th place and The Great coming in at 3hr 9min not sure on the placing. 3hr 9min, SPH represented. Special note to Blackbeard for making the 3+ hour trek to northern Wisco. to spread his love to fellow mates!

Straight from a fellow expert racer! Read the red!

Jacob Huot with the way cool kit. A few years ago he showed up at Maplelag thinking the race was going on but he was a few weeks early. I told him about the race in Jamestown so he went and did that. The spirit of mountain biking. He had some coding on his back. Not sure what it meant. The cheering section on Stairway (which was the best of the year) had the same coding.

Some salmon and corn was the reward for a hard 24 hours of work for three of the team (ole Blackbeard took a few hours off).

The hills were nasty, the rocks were rocky, and the night was nighty.

Big hill and sickness!

Both suck, especially when the pirate crew is slackin'. With Blackbeard on hiatus with sickness and lack of forks, and scraggs just sucking. It wasn't the best for the pirates, untill...... the viking himself pulled it together, Eric the Great pulled through with a win and gave SPH some golden booty that was well needed. With all the riches locked up, its time to conquer a new ship... 24 hours of afton, see you there!

Yo ho ho and a bottle of chocolate milk

Twas a dreary morn as we decided to throw 20 bucks out the window for the River City Ramble. A couple of landlubbers talked me into the TCM so the 10K was the name of the game for Scraggs and I. The race started out good... got slow... then ended better. My pace was a bit like I was walkin the plank (or something else suitably nautical) at times, but with the amount of time I have in, it wasn't too bad. Scraggs race the 10K in 52 minutes. I was 5 minutes back. I think we both could have gone faster, but Scraggs is racing in Mpls on the morrow, and I'm still using the fact that I've had a long running flu....

On other related news, I have to send in my second fork in a week to the dockyards for repair. I'm down to my little schooner only. I bet that it breaks before any one of the lads gets any booty. Except Capt. Job. He needs no help in that search.

Ye ship sank in the muddy banks of R'n' R

Yaaaaargh, was the word of the day, except for one pirate hooker. With the help of Eric ,the ship made it to the bank. With an outstanding second place finish he propelled us into the the banks. As the day went on the search for booty lessoned, with a cracked fork for Isaac and a demoralizing crash for Jake, the ship started to go down. All and all I think we can rebuild and conquer the hills of the Welch.

Tuesday night races have been a hit and miss.... with a few cannonballs to the gut and one in the tire... the SPH crew managed to pull out a 3rd and 4th finish at the gully of white tail. Ole Black had a different story.... the cannonball was the name of the game for he.... as it felt like he not only was hit but had to drag one behind.

Avast ye hearties

Ahoy and avast all ye landlubbers.

Complete and utter domination of the Afton field is the only option (or at least over the comical team of Quattro Stinko). Neut's arms will fall off descending some of the rocky switchbacks of the Port of Afton.

On semi-related matters... is there any chance of new jerseys by the race? Does Neut have one?

On non-semi related matters. Blackbeard is finally starting to get his legs back under him from that 12 hours of crapfest that was Spooner. The race was tons of fun, but kinda like getting kicked in the hoo-hoo-dillies over and over again at the same time. Why are these races so much fun in hindsight, but so much pain and agony while doing it? Me brain must be messed up.

Blackbeard has spoken.

Two race reports from ole Scraggs

So with the drought of racing comes a plether of action. In the last week I've raced a couple times.

1) Fireworks and Criteriums have been this pirates booty for the last three July 4th holidays. Conquered by the last two, one crashing out, the other pulling a pedal, this one turned out for the better. With 20 min. left of the 40min race Ole Scraggs wasnt feeling to good, so I dropped to the back only to find out that the back wasnt to far from the front, at this point we had ripped the field from 46 to about 12. Realizing this I sucked it up and moved back to my regular 3,4, and 5 place riding. When the final bell rang we conquered the last hill, a few more turns and the sprint, leading out was a rider from silver cycling, and the race was on, the pressure was put on by a fellow Rochester rider, not being able to match the power of him I worked my way to a second place, finishing with third place a bike length behind.

2) Now onto July 7th, SPH'ers Scraggs and Blackbeard head out to Spooner, WI. Here stands not only horses and rodeos but our destination, a 12 hour solo race! It started of strong for Scraggs. With 7 laps in the first 6 hours, I held a lap and half lead. At this point fatigue and exhaustion was setting in. I turned to resting after everylap. With the field slowing down I settled into my lawnchair after my 10th lap. With only Blackbeard on my trail and having to do 3 laps to beat me I figured victory was mine. But with his legs matching his beard only Blackbeard would have attepted a third lap in a row to win the race. Thrown off gaurd, I was quick to throw my equiptment together and hop back on and catch Mr. Black. With about a five min gap I started on what would be my fasted lap. With about a quarter of a lap to go it was doom day for blackbeard, I had reached him, now it was time to figure out how we would end this epic race. Would it be letting someone win, a sprint, or just crossing the line hand in hand. The decision was to sprint it out SPH style. with about 200 yard to go the race was on, in the end it was Ole Scraggs with a 2-3 second victory. That ends the recap. YARRRRRGH!

Race/Trip Report: Keweenaw Chain Drive

Eric and I headed up for the umpteenth annual Keweenaw Chain Drive this past weekend. I didn't rightfully know for sure how long the drive would be, but had heard that the race was pretty cool. That was enough for me, and was enough to lure Eric away for a weekend of piratical skullduggery.
I think it would be apt to say that the 16 mile race is the Short and Fat on steroids (or something like that). There was a sweet cop lead roll through downtown Houghton. Some insanely fast and TERRIBLY rocky two-track. AND some pretty sweet singletrack, though I would put the course at 5% paved, 60% doubletrack, 35% singletrack... maybe. Starting in the very back, and spinning a SS meant getting stuck behind a ton of slowpokes in the first singletrack. Things got better though, and by the midpoint of my race I was mainly going at my own pace. Eric was caught behind a few people, but still seemed to be happy with the race all in all. The 32 miler I think was much more epic feeling - more singletrack and less crowded once the course split.

Notes:

1) Fun event, definately one to think about for next year. I am fairly confident that both Eric and I could podium in the 16 mile race with a few adjustments. I would be inclined to do the 32 though if I head up there again.
2) Houghton seems like a pretty cool town actually. I was pretty surprised by the vibe I got.
3) The drive up, if you are smart, isn't too bad, though the time change is stupid.
4) The Ojibwe Trail is sweet.

Thanks for a fun weekend Eric! We'll have to try and do more SPH roadtrips similar to this. Definately a great way to spend a weekend.

(How do I post pictures?... I'm just a stupid pirate)

Boy Afton is sweet

Nice finish by Eric the Red, but the rest of the swarthy bunch had a rough day. Blackbeard was walking most of the bigger hills on the second lap, and Scraggs made it about .25 miles before a flat tire ended his day early. Bring on the 24 hour race.... gar.

BLACKBEARD SUSPENDED!

Today Blackbeard was suspended for one day, due to not showing up for a Friday lunch. Rule 209.

Avast Ye Mateys

It's been a rough week of racin' for Blackbeard (aka me). Rough but pretty fun. Braved the dreaded "steps o' doom" that would make a land-lubbers yardarm go a twitchin at the Wooly Race up in St. Croix Falls. Finished dead center middle of my first Sport race at Steeplechase. The bookends to the week of racing were the Route's Tuesday night races. Twas a good time for certain when I finished one spot ahead of the sandbaggin Scraggs while navigating the treacherous Rivers Falls singletrack. The performance at the Badlands was less than impressive as ole Scraggs decided that losing to a chump such as myself really isn't that advisable. I think he only finished 2 spots ahead of me (so we're close in the series standings if there were such a thing), but the total time looks a bit rough for ole Blackbeard. There is some controversy about whether the results should truly stand as I wasn't racing under the SPH banner.... Next up: Afton baby. Yargh. For sure. Yargh!

Grass and hills

Not that kind of grass! Tuesday night of racing. Blackbeard finishing y + 10 min behind Scraggs, while Eric the Great finishing strong in the b race. Look forward to next weeks finishings. Thanks to the asian express for closing the shop.

Ole Scraggs and a Critter

Yargg so it was an alright Sunday for Scraggs. Up north two clicks in St. Paul Scraggs participated in the Capitol Classic. At the beginning he felt great, dressed to impress in the new SPH jersey. There was a point in time, call it the middle of the race, he decided to take off. With a 30 second lead on the pack he looked back and saw no one to help him. So he went back, once back with the pack it was decided that he made the wrong move! With 3 laps to go Ole Scraggs felt the end. With only a couple endurance races under his belt and the wrong training he dropped back with only two laps left. In the end he muttered f'bombes and snakes onto himself as he felt defeat.

Welcome

This is the home of the famed SPH cycling experience! If you have randomly found yourself here, please leave or you will be bombared by ugly pirate hookers. Here you will find diaries from famed SPH riders. Beware once your in, you never come out!