Bike Patrol

Friday night a local running club invited PAMBA's bike patrol to come out to the oldest cemetery in Peoria to watch over the runner's at a Spooky Marathon race.The race started at 6:00pm to midnight and had close to 200 people run a 5 K and 25 run the whole marathon.



It had been raining for two days but it finally had stopped for the race.We set up a fire pit and paired up the patrol riders to keep a eye on the 6 mile course.

It was a lttle smoky from the pit but kept us warm.

Morgan made some chili that helped keep us warm and fueled for the riding.

The run had some steep climbs and long I think a rode around 24 mile by time we were done.We only had one sprained ankle out of the whole night so it was a good night of patroling for us.

Carrie got a magic wand for her efforts !




Hope to get some more riding out side before winter sets in,I don't want to get in the gym to soon but look foeward to some dungen workouts with Midz.

See ya !

End of the season

Tough end to my race season with a DNF at the Matthieson race last weekend,I went way to hard for the first 2 miles that was out in the open prairie and suffered for it once I got in the woods.I was hoping the legs would come back but they said "you blew it" and once I got in my first lap I knew I wouldn't make it for another 2 laps.

getting ready to race with Midz,Kelsi,Steph and Zack looking on.

getting warmed up riding with Tony amd Stauby

racing down a hill right before the creek

Tony with a flat tire carrying his bike thru the rock section

Mike Staub making it up the monster climb for the last time.


Kelsi posing on the Vermillion river at Matthieson State Park.

The place will be part of the I-74 series next year, I can't wait to get back up here and redeme myself for the DNF.

I'm looking at next years season and I need to decide if I want to shoot for Trans Iowa #6. I need to make up my mind before Thanksgiving to make the roster.If I do that means I need to start training at the start of December and really get going in January on the trainer.

Mohican 100 is a must do race and the Wems series.I should be able to do the I-74 XC series and a 24 hr,I'll be hitting the road endurance races also.

I have taken about 4 weeks off from any real training or hard riding I guess thats why I had such a bad race last weekend so after this weekend I'm hitting the gym and get back to eating good.

By the way if you see a wallet on the highway up around Matthieson State Park it's mine ! THAT SUCKS !

See Ya !

Still here ! 7 oaks race

Pic from the top of the ski hill at Seven Oaks September 5&6 24 hr race I did with Tony,Brad and Andy,we took 2nd place with a hard fight with Team Rasmussen from Iowa.


Me coming in from my second lap,going hard trying to make up some time.


Tony cooling down from another fast lap


Andy grabing his bike for another lap with Brad in the back ground coming in from his lap



Brad all done with his last lap of the 24 hr race and pulling a nose wheelly !


Me enjoying a hot cup of coffee while the fog rolls in at 3 or 4 am waiting for Andy to come in from his lap


Race is over and were hanging out relaxing waiting for the awards


Team PAMBA Brad,ME,Tony and Andy


I know Tony and Brad had to drive the 4-1/2 ride back to Peoria and Andy stayed in Des Moines but I had Cindy driving me back and I just had to close my eyes !


Fun race with Bob and Peggy making the ride over to watch and help support,Cindy and Kelsi as always was there for support and cherring us on ringing the cowbell,Thanks guys!

Yep I'm Here !

Wow ! Starting to get some time to get on the bike and try and salvage some of this season,I rode Jubilee today after work with only 3 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours.Wouldn't know my legs felt great and I did the full race course for 3 laps at race pace and could have kept on going...Expert did 4 laps a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to stop feeling good.

Missing 24-9 was killing me this weekend but I kept on watching Paddy,Naomi and Ray Nees and a big YEE AHH for Ray ! he does his first 24 solo and gets the win ! When I think of the battle we could have had it would have been a blast !I'm really Happy for him...and of course Cindy and I missed seeing Paddy and Naomi maybr next time Paddy and Congrats on the wins !

Getting the Jubilee race out of the way has really let me get back on the bike we now need to get I-74 #4 at Black Partridge done on August 9th.

I did get to race a couple of weeks ago and did ok I raced Sport with the legs lacking saddle time and have hit the road for some good miles.I'm doing a Endurance road race on the 8th and shooting for a 12 or 24 hr. road race in September.


See ya !

Trailwork and riding

I have been trying to get Jubilee ready for the I-74 race that we moved back to the 28th of this month,it's almost there with a little more back work to be done.Tony,Bob and Betsy and a few others have helped out with knocking down the weeds so the whole course is ready,except for knocking some burms down that hace chaneled water.

Cindy and I rode the Rock Island Trail today I had my Bike Patrol garb on so I can put that in the books,It was nice getting Cindy on the bike,we also stopped in Dunlap and had a coffee at Joes.

More Trail work in the morning and a afternoon ride if the weather is good !

A small group of PAMBA members have over 200 hours of trail work at Jubilee since March !


See ya !

Mohican 100k in the books

Finally getting to the Mohican 100k race I did on Saturday and I finished and that's what I was wanting since this was my first point to point race.It was tough with more climbing than I have ever done around here and a lot of it was on the county roads connecting you to one trail to the other.


We stayed at the Mohican Inn before and after the race and enjoyed the quiet( no TV's)

Getting lined up for the mass start of 400 riders


Were off and I'm in the upper half of the racers

Riders coming in to the first aide station

Finally made it with 20 miles done and mostly all single track I did take a bad fall coming down a steep hill with wet roots only four miles in the race,shook it off and tried to get in a grove but I was all over the place and needed to let some air out of my tires.

Coming into aide station 3 with 46 miles in and feeling pretty good, I hooked up with a couple guys and we rode the rest of the race together.

No respect LOL!

15 min. later pro's come by aide station 3 and pass us on the rode like we standing still,they were on maybe mile #88 and we were on #52 but all were hurting !

No post race pic's due to logistic's and me being me (crotchety) The race was fun and I could have done the 100,I think I did have it me...The great part about this type of race is you don't need to worry about carrying all your food and water the aide stations have every thing you need unless you want a specific type of food but they had fruit,P&J,oatmeal pies,Hammer products and water.

This is the type of race you want to do with some friends so you can all help each other get through it and talk about the war stories after the race.There was no need for me to get in a hurry since you know your not in the top ten so I just enjoyed the ride and scenery...I'll be back for this one !

See ya !

6 hrs of Northern Kettles

The race up in cheese land turned out pretty good,a mudd race for a while and glad I stuck it out.The race was up in the northern part of the Kettles and Cindy and I with Bob not far behind us was in for a wet but fun race.Cindy and I stoped in Millwalkie for some pancakes and coffee a little to close for race time for me but I needed to eat a good meal before the race and It was almost 10:00am with a 1:00pm start time.

After we set up camp close to start finish line I seen Charley Tri coming in from a lap and went to see how he was doing and the course conditions.He had taken a bad fall and was trying to mend himself and get back into the race but I think the rain that came later would make him decide to call it a day.

At the start of the race I went into the woods in about 11th place and I made some passes right before we went into the woods and glad I did because the next 7 miles was all singletrack.The course was rocky,bumby,rolling and fast and I thought I would make some good lap time until the rain hit half way into the 2nd lap.I could only drink when I came out to the pit area so it was drink half a bottle and take some Hammer gel in and keep rollimg.When the rain hit it I thought about doing a couple more laps then call it a day so I mudded up thr NRS composite pretty good then switched to the NRS 2.It was my 5 lap and when I took off on the NRS 2 the trails were getting pretty good shape and I just flew on the bike( I train on the NRS 2 and I just feel good when I'm on this bike)The trails were in that I could get in trouble condition,meaning they were getting fast but the slick spots would make you pay if you got to cocky.I payed a couple of times !

On the 6 lap John caught me as I stoped to get a drink while on the trail, I was trying to drink with the bottle in my mouth and still trying to ride so I just stoped.We rode together for more than half the lap and I told him I could make another lap if we hurry so we kicked it up and made one last pit on the run and I had around 55 min. to get one more lap.John had to put air in his tire but I couldn't wait so I kepted up my pace and ended up with my last lap coming in at 6:55.44 abd it was my 2nd fastest lap of the day.

It was a good race for me,6th place and with some strong laps for me a 6 hour XC race really ! John had a good race with 12 laps for his 12 hours of riding.

Heading to Ohio for the Mohican 100K my first point to point race !

Oh Yeah ! some new GX2 Ergon grips and a new BD2 back pack for the race !