Beefcakes Bike Blog

Trans-Sylvania Epic 2014 - Day 2

Bad. Long. Hot. Never under estimate the difficulty of 40 miles of Pennsylvania rocks, hills and more rocks. We have rocks in Western North Carolina but they are typically small and usually move. In PA they are big and reach up from the earth to grab tires as you roll by. Upon completion of day one i knew that a podium spot in my age group was very unlikely. I knew that coming into this race. The Enduro aspect is still in my sights. Unfortunately there is only one winner in the Enduro category and it's winner take all. No second place losers. Long story short, I bonked around 25 miles in, went through two 3 liter camelbaks, 2 water bottles, 2 flat tires and 2 naps trail side. Distinction between reality and la la land was a fine line of which i was straddling over. A kind biker and two young riders stopped to ask if i was ok and if i needed help. All i could say was nothing at all. Then finally i lied and said i was ok. She read my answer and pressed on with questions which evidently pulled me back from the la la land side of things. I remembered my name, which a few moments prior i could not, and decided that i had to get out to the next check point and call it a day. Finally, after what seemed like the longest walk of my life i came to the last downhill and rolled into the check point, 30 minutes past the cut off. The race director knew i was toast and complimented me on my arrival. Ego hurt. Legs hurt. Feelings hurt. Brain hurt. Hands hurt. Everything hurt. I climbed into the sag vehicle with sad bike strapped on the back and got a king of the mountain segment on Hwy. 322. Somehow me and my bike averaged 57.x miles per hour up a 4 mile climb. I just wish i would have been on it.

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Alley oop oop. Oop. Oop. Oop!

July 3, 2011 - First Annual (hopefuly) Brevard, NC Alley Cat Race. What a blast! Thirty some odd people (i use odd loosely) including kids, adults, adults who are still kids and in-betweens. This was my first participation in an Alley Cat Race. Typical alley cat format is basically no format at all. This race consisted of 10 or so check points, each worth a certain amount of points based upon their distance from the starting point. Also in the mix were a number of local landmarks, people and combinations of both that were each worth an additional 3 points each. Who ever has the most points and returns to the designated finishing area by the cut-off time wins. My buddy and official H8R, aka ZB, decided he just wanted to follow me for the race since he doesn't know Brevard all that well. Together we sped through Brevard and its outskirts, collected pictures, signed sign in sheets, danced, busted some rhymes, begged, consumed liquid refreshment, obeyed all and any traffic laws, improv...

Mongolia Bike Challenge 2017 - A brief history of time

Typical view from my stay in Mongolia The Mongolia Bike Challenge 2017 Tired, heavy eyed, suddenly sitting in my office chair but my brain and body are traveling at Boeing 777 speed over the Pacific with the hum of jet engines in an unconscious area of my mind. I sit and try to get ready for the upcoming work week but the afterglow of a twenty day vacation as far away from home as possible is flashing a slow motion slide show of landscapes and feelings experienced while gone. Prior to arriving in Mongolia I had little knowledge of the terrain. I only knew what I found online and what one local professional racer was willing to share (not much at all). I composed this post to answer questions for those who are interested in the Mongolia Bike Challenge so they feel more informed than I did. Tamir Wellness Ger Camp I've wanted to visit Mongolia since seeing pictures of it in a geography class in high school. Green is all i remember and green is what...

PMBAR. Nuff said.

Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race 2010. I've finished last in this race and now I've finished 8th. Wide spread. So is Pisgah. So is the difference in my mind, body and soul compared to how it was when i arrived in Hendersonville in 2004. I knew it would be hard here, but not to the extent it is. Now i know why mountain people often emanate a quiet presence...with hard skin and a squint in their eyes. They know what hard living is but the beauty of the mountains and all the mountains give is worth the price we pay. That price is acknowledged by the silence. Yes it's hard here. We overcome. We realize lack and shed layers of glitter but end up with all we need, sometimes more. Hard. Ever seen the winners? I have maybe once or twice. Spoke to a winner before. He didn't talk much and his skin looked hard, clothes worn and he carried an air of unspoken mountain confidence...the quiet kind that makes some people uncomfortable. Yeah, you know he could crank out 50 miles or 1...