005: Mega Dip

The Mega Dip. The Gravity Cavity. One of the prime features of this week's Iron Hill race. This weekend Diane and I met up with James and we played around on the Iron Hill course. It was really fun.

Now I'm going to sound like an old guy talking about glory days. I remember back in the early 90's, there was no Fairhill, and Middlerun was just getting started, Iron Hill was the mountain bike spot. Pretty much every night at 6:00 you could count on a full parking lot of mountain bikers at Iron Hill. Back then Suspension was just starting to take hold, cantilevers breaks were the best you could get on a mountain bike, and toe clips held your feet to your flat pedals. Oh and there was a tower at Iron Hill too.

The Mega dip was a bit more raw back then. There was a root on one side that if you hit, you were going down. There was really one line into the damn thing. I can remember nights when we'd go to iron hill and ride nothing but the mega dip. It was like nature's own half pipe. We'd go looking for other stepper scarier things to ride down. Oh, there was some blood, and stitches.

what did we know we were young and dumb?

The mega dip was fun this weekend, it's so fast now a days, point and shoot, just let it roll...

very fun.

respect

fm.

004: the night I took down Mr. Ying.

In our town there are two sets of hard road rides both falling on Tuesdays and Thursdays and both starting at 5:30. To the north there's the smack-down and piggly wiggly ride. To the south there is the peoples world championships. We used to have one set of rides but all the personalities didn't mesh. The north ride is lead by Mark the Shark; the south by Mr. Ying.

The smack-down tends to be my ride of choice as the ride is closest to my work and the easiest for me to get to. In contrast I haven't made a PWC ride, which is closer to my home, in over a year. Now just between you and me and seriously don't tell anyone, I also tend to go to the smack-down because I am really fond of the ride leader at the smack-down, he talks great trash, strong as shit, gets the idea of the community and frankly after being an all-american tri-guy the fact that he is taking on mountianbike racing makes me respect him even more. But seriously don't tell anyone, I don't want him to get a big head or anything.

I will admit I haven't always gotten on as well with the folks from PWC. These guys were the original gangsters in our area. They are so old school they make me look like a high school freshman walking into the showers in a college lockerroom. They may have not always liked my punky smartass comments jumping in on their fun. I also have to so admit I may have not always tried to go along with the flow down there. Calling someone the "evil emperor" or "Darth Ying" or telling them that they were the Darkside of the force probably didn't ingratiate me to them. All water under the bridge... (i hope)

Today i got out of work early. My original plan was to go north but as I went home first I went to the ride closest to my house. The boys at the PWC were all very kind to me. Hell, Postal Dave, a stalwart of the PWC, invited me to show up for the Saturday ride... That was very nice.

Well, how did I repay their kindness? How did I repay them allowing me to sit in and suck wheel all night? Well, I took out Mr. Ying. In the last ten minutes of the ride I was sucking wheel hanging on for dear life. I focused on the wheel in front of me, not the road around us. The edge of road we raced down turned and dropped off. At the last moment I realized and using my superior cyclocross handling skills, or dumb luck ( I prefer to say superior handling skills), I got over to avoid ditching it in the barley field. Mr. Ying was drafting off of me. I do throw a hell of a draft; like a VW Bug off of a Mack Truck. But I digress, Mr. Ying had no warning and as I narrowing escaped I heard a raucous and looked over to find him was rolling through the barley field and eventually he took a tumble. Fortunately no one was hurt. I won't make that rookie mistake again, I know better than to focus on a wheel. Hopefully they'll let me sit in again at another time in the future. I apologized to Mr. Ying for my mistake. He told me to not worry about it. YIKES that was scary.

Last Tuesday, a number of us geared up in the kit we wore with our Andrew logo on it. We rode up to middle run and had the "three bridges" dedicated to Andrew and his memory. I'll admit it was kind of a heavy moment as we all got ready share our memories of Andrew. Lauri forgot a drill bit so it created a little levity as Jebbagger and James flew home to get what supplies we needed. Over the years since we lost Andrew many of us find ourselves in different places, different teams, different places in our lives. It was nice to reminisce about Andrew at this place with some folks I don't regularly get to see.

Also nice, many folks who couldn't make it out Tuesday sent Andrew stories that we read and were super cool. If you end up out in Middlerun, check out the bridges.Thanks to the DTS for working with us to be able to dedicate this section to the memory of Andrew.

Thanks for reading.

respect.

fatmarc

003: Rider Down

The Delaware Cyclocross Coalition of Delaware has lost one of it's own.



I did not know Joe Manning very well. I know Joe came to cross practice. I know that he always offered to help out with the Granogue races. I know that our last correspondence was him apologizing for not being able to be at this year's mountain race, and me telling him that I appreciated all he had done for us, and that I was looking forward to seeing him during cross season.


When Monkey first started racing cross again, she and Joe would often end up training together during the efforts at practice. Joe was very good to Monk. He didn't ride with her in an aggro "I can't get girled" kinda way, but in a "this is fun and hard, by pushing each other we both get better" kinda way. I liked Joe a lot.


He will be missed.


I wrote this is fall of 2006 about Joe:


Joe is a member of the Delaware Cyclocross Coalition of Delaware. Joe comes to practice religiously, he works his ass off. He is a really nice guy. Joe has a really fast start. Two weeks ago, Wes looked at me and said this, "did you see Joe leading up the run up tonight?" Joe is one of the things I love about our cross season, and our cross practices. VIVA LA JOE!



that's all I have to say about that.



respect.

fm

002: ride

Rather serendipitously a group ride broke out of my house Saturday morning.

Now, between you and me, I love having groups ride out of my house. It's always exciting to see who shows up, and as we roll out just seeing all the riders is just rad. Being surrounded my friends as we carve are way through fairhill is just awesome.

nothing warms the soul like a nice group ride.

except for maybe these geese crossing the road...

or the dogs wrestling...

or perhaps the Scottish Games...

yup, nothing warms the soul like a nice fun group ride except for geese, dogs, and the Scottish.

respect.

fm

no. 1

Diane is funemployed.

I think I'll get a new hat soon. Lord knows my hair is awkward as shit right now.

Maybe I'll even head back to school.
Never thought I’d say that. I hated school.

I am totally the WORST STUDENT EVER.

I wish I was a tough guy. I am not.

I am a passionate/emotional/sometimes angst ridden man. Never mistake that for weakness.

I put suspension on my bike this week. Maybe that is weakness.

Actually it’s because Bilson might borrow it, and I knew he wouldn’t cut the steer tube. So I did.

Actually rode a bike last week. It was fun. Imagine that…

Some Ass clown opened a myspace account in my name. stole a picture of me from Dennis, another of some hairy legged dude’s tattoo. All that I was okay with I mean a bad leg tattoo, the fact that I’m single, That I read steven king, the hairy legs, all that I can live with. When those fucking bastards said I like country music they crossed the line. That cannot be allowed. Fucking country music. If you have a myspace account, please tell the fake me that I am totally a douche, and stealing my identity is not cool.

Country music is the reason for the moral decline in our country. Freakin’ worse than Brittany …

A month ago I had a few big things weighing on me; Thankfully they are all in the rear view now…

I guess it’s time to get back to diggin' my ditch….

Respect
fm

Per Tom's request:

links have been updated and cleaned up...

maybe video didn't kill the radio star...

go twitter yourself, it just sounds so dirty...

slowly I am coming out of the dark...

respect
fm

156: Granogue now even more EPIC !

Friends of Granogue,

Thanks for coming out to support our event in what were EPIC conditions, to say the least. In the weeks leading up to the event, many folks asked us about the weather. My comment was, it always rains just a little bit before Granogue. Well, this year we got a little more than a little.
I need to thank everyone who volunteered to work the event, as many of the races ended up taking double the time they usually do, and most folks who thought they signed up for an hour or two at a marshall station ended up with a Gillian's Island style 3 hour tour... Thank you all.

In all the years that we have done the race, we have never faced full sucky conditions as we did yesterday. We tried to make some decisions regarding the course that deteriorated during the day, to make the racing as fun, as possible. In some cases it worked out fine, in others... Well we certainly learn and get better.

At the end of the day I was warmed by the smiles on faces, even from some of those that threatened to punch me seconds before, The money we were able to help raise for Hera, and frankly that so many of you get the vibe of our race...that so many of you are excited to celebrate the memory of Andrew with us.... It was awesome.

We are also happy to support what we are calling the "granogue bike shop stimulus plan" as we are certain sales on disc brake pads, derailleurs, chains, and bottom brackets at Mid Atlantic Bike Shops will be through the roof this week!

We came home to a number of emails in our boxes asking about results, pictures and what not. Here are some links for your pleasure:

results : http://www.masuperseries.com/ (expect shortly)
photos: http://www.dennisbike.com/
VIDEO: http://www.cyclingdirt.org/

I also need to point out that the pro men's and pro women's winners were the folks behind our registration tent. I'm not saying that there's a direct link between working the race and winning, but I will take volunteers!

thanks again to the Dupont's for allowing us to play in their front yard and all the programs that helped to make this race happen.

Best to you, see you in October for the cross race!

respect
fatmarc vanderbacon
Lauri (women's pro champion)
Tom (world's oldest junior)

155: 15 things you need to know about Granogue

Is everybody in, Is everybody in ? the celebration is about to begin…

15 things you need to know about the Granogue Race Weekend:

15. L-web makes the best coffee world...


14. Hera Cancer Foundation Pre-Ride leaves Saturday 11:30 promptly. No late riders will be let on course. $5 donation to the Hera foundation and a magic wrist band (which we provide) gets you in. Anyone poaching the pre-ride will be cursed with bad karma for ever or at least 7 years.


13. Please bring water.


12. The word's on the streets and it's on the news: I'm not gonna teach him how to dance with you. He's got two left feet and he bites my moves. I'm not gonna teach him how to dance with you.

11. Even though Harlan is going to Michaux, we still love him. Just for Harlan we added new sections of single track, but he's going to miss them. :(


10. Thank you very much for coming out to celebrate our good friend Andrew Mein. Andrew was a founder of the Wooden Wheel MTB team version 2.0, (2x MAC Champs, 2001 MASS champs) and man for who many were brought into this sport. His motto was “be an ambassador for the sport”. Andrew was hit in and killed in Newark in 1998, while riding his fixed gear bike home from work. We have this race in his honor, and to celebrate his life. Thanks for joining in.

9. $1 for every rider entered will be donated to the Hera Women’s Cancer Foundation. If you have not bought a raffle ticket please seen our good friend Sam and buy a raffle Saturday at the pre-ride or Sunday before your race or here.

8.Thanks to the Duponts who are kind enough to allow us to play in their front yard. Please enjoy the course, and we will look forward to seeing you here for our cross race, but otherwise please do not ride the trails on the estate.

7. If you ignore our request to stay off the private estate and poach the trails please don’t blog about it, or put it up on facebook, because someone will email it to us, and then we'll think you are a douche. Yes, we are the man that is keeping you down. We like our little race, we hope to keep it going for years, or until we can sell it for a zillion dollars. Any extra traffic on the estate hurts our race. We hate the idea of this race dieing.

6. Don’t worry we really love you, we really, really do…


5. This race is put on not by one team but by a community of people. The following groups are represented in the groups that have made this race possible: First State Velo Sport, Secret Henry’s Team, Deep Blue, Visit Pa, Fast Forward Racing Productions, Bike Line,C3-Sollay.com, Brandywine cyclery, ELK and Sam, Allied Milk, Deep Blue, Delaware Cyclocross Coalition of Delaware, and the all mighty Frank Zappa Kappa.

4. There was a rumor that Johnathan Vaulters was coming to the race to scout talent and give someone a contract. Truth is, it's just some hipster kid on his fixie drawing anarchy signs on the portolets. We have some nifty plaques as prizes today folks and a sweet raffle, but trust me, no one is waiting at the finish line to tell you to quit your day job and take up racing full time. There is nothing that we are offering that is worth hurting yourself or someone else over. Pass nicely, be kind to each other out there. Celebrate don't hate. On Monday we are all back to being Actress/waitresses; stuntman/repairman; bike racers/customer service professional; Mom/plumber; college students/strippers. We all need to be safe out there...

3. don’t cheat, if you do, you suck. It doesn't matter if you are the prettiest and most talented rider in the world. If you cheat, you are pathetic. If you hit someone, you will be banned from all granogue events for life. If cheaters are pathetic, we can't describe what someone who punches someone at a race is. (we call this the baker rule for punching, not cheating)

2. The course is a classic northern Delaware mtb course. There are logs, off camber trial, bridges, tunnels, roots, rocks, possible yetis, things that might cause you to have a flat tire. Come prepared for a very challenging event. The loop is 7 miles long (really), have a great time out there, enjoy the great single track… apply the golden rule of mountain biking: when in doubt dismount.

1. The race is on Diane’s birthday weekend. She has been working very hard with all of us. If you see her please wish her a happy birthday.


respect
fatmarc, Tom and Lauri

154: sixteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds...

As beautiful, social, picturesque and hip as cyclocross is, time trials are the complete opposite. Time Trials are by far the geekiest part of bike racing. People in skin-suits, helmets out of spaceballs, and ridiculous bikes that really are the most one dimensional bikes ever.


That being said, I have really come to enjoy time trialing.


Today I did the the Cape May TT. The race went well, I was happy with my time of 16:37 for a 12k. That time was good enough for 6th in the cat 4 group. Now I type the number 16:37 with some bit of controversy. You see 16:37 was the time the stop watch on my bike said as I crossed the line. The watch that I started when the race started, and looked at when I crossed the line.


However, when the officials posted the results, they had my time listed as 17:07. I stepped into the trailer where the officials were calculating the results. I calmly explained that my time was off, strangely by :30 seconds exactly.

The officials were very kind, asked if I made my start time, which I did, and then showed me the basic math of my start time, minus my finish time equals finish time equalling 17:07.


I explained that although I went to school for English (yes, Jan I know you'd never know from reading this blog), I understood how basic addition and subtraction worked. I tried to probe a bit into the fact that the time was off by :30 seconds exactly, that was kinda weird right?


I explained that there was no time flux capacitor on my bike, and just asked how my watch could be off by :30 seconds, starting it when I started, and stopping it just after crossing the line? I knew something wasn't right.


Again, the kind official showed me the math.


Putting myself in their shoes, I imagined how it must have seemed: some silly, overweight, bad side-burned cat4 complaining that his finish time was :30 off. I can just imagine them thinking, "hey big boy, why don't you lay off the Ben and Jerry's if you want to make up the :30? Go hit the bricks..."


They were very helpful and polite, and explained they wanted to get the results right, but there was no way the math was off. I could see this wasn't getting anywhere. I wasn't really angry, I just wanted my time right.


I took the high road. I thanked them very much for their time, and told them I appreciated their race and that hell, it's only a cat 4 time trial, I know they had more races to score. I had fun, I knew what I rode, I figured it was what it was. I wished them well, and they wished me well. I walked out of the trailer.


It was only when the 45+ results were posted that I figured out what had happened. As the 45+ men looked at their results, 3 of the men dropped to the ground clutching their chests, seizing in cardiac arrest muttering, "time is off by 30 seconds... tell my wife I love her..."


You see pretty much every master 45+ rider knew their race time, the question was just to see how they stacked up against their rivals. And when every one's time was off by 30 seconds, it was pretty clear that there was a mistake somewhere...


So in the end, my entire class was off by :30 I was still 6th, but my time was 16:37. I won't even get into the fact that it was 16:32 when I hit the line, I'll just commiserate with a pint of Ben and Jerry's, my old friends...

everyday I heart chip timing a little more...

like I said, nothing is geekier than time trialling...

Thanks to the officials, and all of the 45+ masters riders went home and kissed their wives.

Thanks to Joe Saling and Crew for a really fun day, and a great time trial. I'll be back next year for sure. Now maybe I can get that flux capacitor for my bike..


respect
fm


Granogue is next weekend. You should register today. Is your name on this list? All the cool kids have their names on this list.


Granogue pre-ride starting promptly at 11:30 Saturday the 2nd. A $5 dollar donation to the Hera Foundation gets you a chance to preview the NEW single track before the race... No riders will be permitted to leave on to the course after 11:30am; BE TIMELY !!!


While you are at it, you should buy a raffle ticket. It'll make you feel good!

153: Tequila Tuesday

go here. Register now. I will love you forever. Thank you.


Tuesday 4:30, sitting at work.

Phone rings.

“hello? Fatmarc speaking…” It’s Jan.

“Are you riding the hammer ride tonight?” Jan asks.

I scoff, “no way man, I’m pretty shattered still, I might ride easy, I don’t think I can really sit on a seat yet.”

Jan makes me a proposition, “wanna go to picnic and drink?”

I respond, “my legs feel better already, see you at 6:00…”

Tequila Tuesday might be better than ½ priced Nacho Night…

Just saying...


SANCTIONED GRANOGUE PRE-RIDE Saturday May 2, starting promptly at 11:30

$5 donation to Hera women’s Cancer Foundation. All you brothers and Sister out there poaching the course and posting about it on facebook, here’s your chance to get some good Karma back!

But wait there's more than one way to help the HERA FOUNDATION:

HERA Raffle Tickets will be sold and drawn at the event, but why wait, go here and buy a raffle ticket now!!

The economy sucks right now. We all know someone, or maybe live with someone facing a lay off. Ticket sales are down this year. Take this opportunity to swing in and support a good cause and have a better chance to win some sweet swag!!!

Finally, sign up for the mtb race that everyone marks on the calendar every year, make me a happy man go here and register now! Granogue, the only race going on the weekend of the 2nd-3rd that's more than 10 years old.

Register and I will love you forever.

Here’s Layla in action…


Respect
fm