Mooch Midweek with Iggy

The best way to stick it to the man is to take a day off during the week and go mountain biking.  While everyone else is commuting into work, driving to the trail with your bike on the car feels so uplifting.  Getting up early to ride is so much easier then getting up early for work.   Work would be better if it lasted 2-3 hrs like a bike ride. You could work for an hour eat some gu, drink some water then work for another hour and repeat. When you’re out of gu and water that’s when you go home…simple.

A drizzly damp day on the trails beats a dry day at the office any day. That’s the kind of day it was at Allamuchy when I got together with John Kuhn, Dave Clapp, Ben Tufford and Kirt Mills.  Despite the temps in the upper 30’s and a damp mist from an over night shower we warmed up quickly climbing the hills of mooch north. Unlike the climbs of Round Valley these ascents are rewarding as you pick your line up through technical features. Lots of up and down but the rocks keep it interesting.

Kirt is always our Sherpa on these rides up north. He knows the trails and the lines well, which keeps the pace steady. With the elevation at mooch, 2 hrs. of riding can feel like a 4hr road ride.  The climbs supply a steady amount of interval pace intensity, which can wear you out. It’s the off season so we kept the ride under 2 ½  hrs. We had our fill of sticking it to the man and headed back to the cars…screw the man.

Old Guys Rule

January in Short Sleeves

By Robin:

My skis and snowboard are collecting dust.  But I’m not complaining...the weather has been unbelievable for riding.  You can’t deny that - and this weekend was incredible.  Who would have thought we would be riding like this in January?!

Lots of riding to report for MTBNJ this past weekend...

Saturday
Patty and I talked about a ride and decided to post it for Stephens.  MattyB offered to take the group on a stellar loop.  We had an awesome turn-out, with a strong group of riders.

The loop encompassed some of the best parts of Stephens, covering all areas of the park.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139681257

Conditions were stellar for the most of the ride...we were lucky to get out and finish before things got too messy.  It was great to get out with other teammies Alex, Mike, and Woody.

Pearl and Mandi hit up Nockamixion with some friends...from Pearl “we rolled around in what felt like peanut butter for way too long”.  And to top it off..”This happens when you've been riding some really fun single track that was finally dry. You are having a blast of a time and really moving. You then come into a slight uphill turn to the right... that is wet. Woops. I slid pretty good and this was the result. Obviously the adrenaline and good times made this not hurt”.

Dana added another beauty to her collection of bikes - and had a stellar time at White Clay on Saturday.  Shorts and jersey weather? Who doesn’t love that?

Eric was in MA exploring some “wicked” roads...

Brad, Steve, and Tim all hit up Mahlon for a loop...apparently Utah was there too - but they didn’t run into him.  His new bike was too fast for the trio to catch him.  

Meanwhile, Ben was leading a ladies clinic on the road....Norm, ChrisRU, ChrisG, Jeremy, and Iggy aslo ventured out on the roads...

Sunday
I’ve been wanting to get down to White Clay for some time now...and this weekend seemed like an opportunity to get down there.  Managed to find some fun stuff before running into Iggy, Kirt, and their friend J. Kuhn.  Managed to ride with the guys for a bit...

Back in NJ...

Mandi and Pearl got out for a road ride near Round Valley...

Norm, Utah, ChrisRU, bushwacked on a death march adventure...details unknown but I hear it was a good time.  I’m sure Norm will blog about this...

Alex and Patty battled the rocks in Waywayanda - smiles for both ladies...here they are with Jeff Mergs...

Jeremy enjoyed the Stephens loop from Saturday’s ride...while Brad, Tim, Steve all ventured out on the road...Dave was out on the Columbia Trail, dodging soccer moms...Fred was off in the land-of-cheese representing MTBNJ at Nationals...

Wissahickon

Believe it or not, Central NJ has an option to travel an hour south and find some pretty gnarly terrain. Saturday a couple of MTBNJers and regular NJers headed south to meet up with 1speed for his version of Wissahickon. This place has just about everything you could want from a trail system; from techy climbs to nice fast flowy downhills, all within the Philadelphia city limits. Couple of different ways to loop this together to always keep it fresh. No more words, watch the video!

Mooch; The Good Stuff

As written by: Poor Iggy

Its winter so let it be cold. That doesn’t mean we have to put our bikes away until warmer weather comes back in the spring. There is a sense of accomplishment and triumph involved in winter cycling. Overcoming frigid temps to do what we enjoy can be very satisfying. Sometimes a group ride is needed as incentive to wake up early on a weekend to leave a warm bed. The idea of meeting some friends for a mountain bike ride is all the motivation I need in cold weather.


The cast of characters from left to right; Brett, Utah, Falco, 26er, Woody, Pearl, & a missing Chris RU

Last Sunday a gang of us met at Allamuchy, not quite the ass crack of dawn but to some 8:00am is early for a Sunday. Getting up early is not foreign to me; my work- day usually begins at o dark 30. For group rides I prefer early starts; with 9 of us riding the miles will take awhile. Besides we never start rides on time anyway.


Mooch Mocha

We parked in the tranquility lot and climbed our way up the white trail. The start of the ride was 20 degrees but the ascent up white made it feel like 90 degrees. Our bodies stayed warm but Camelbaks, water bottles and derailleurs began to freeze up. At this point we were all riding 1x9’s, except for Woody on his SS rigid Indy Fab. He is a farm boy type; strong, resourceful and unassuming. He can do anything on his bike and fix anything with what he has in his back pocket…farm boy.



Here is Woody helping 26er fix his flat tire but 26er screwed It up by putting too much torque on valve stem while re-inflatting, which resulted in a sheared stem. Luckily Pearl had a back up 26” tube even though he was on a 29er. Pearl also has the largest collection of betamax movies on the east coast.




Utah and Chris Ru at Lumpy Bumpy


The first showcase on the 26er tour was lumpy bumpy. Compared to rolly polly and candy ass I find this to be the easier tech stuff. Not that I didn’t take a dab or two, it’s the large boulders that drop you straight down that scares the jeebies out of me. I’m proud to say I walked some of those big-ums that rolly and candy ass are known for. I watched some of the other guys roll it but not me, something in my brains says don’t do it. I’d rather ride out a candy ass then end up with a busted ass.


Local Mountain Man Brett and his flat pedals

Next up on the ride was to make our way over to rolly polly. The only people out of 9 of us that knows how to get there from here are Brett and 26er. But they have to collaborate with their information; it took the two of them much discussion at the back of the train to figure out the proper route. We made it even harder for them by taking the occasional wrong turn. Along the way we found Marty’s riders Paul and Vick. They hopped on bringing our train up to 11.


Paul after climbing up ice cream


At about the 2-hour mark Brett, Falco, Ru and Pearl had to split and followed the trailhead back to the cars. The 7 of us continued toward rolly polly by climbing up ice cream. The climb was not the steepest but it seemed to be never ending. Paul was leading the way in what seemed like a 15-minute interval up ice cream. Once at the top we played on the boulders that are rolly polly. The climb up nearly killed 26er but the rollers on rp brought him back to life, he ain’t no candy ass when it comes to the big-ums.

To make the 26er good stuff tour complete we had to hit candy ass. At this point we had over 2.5hrs of saddle time in but there was no way we were going to turn back. Paul and Vick parked on the other side of the park so they opted to head towards their cars as we made our way toward CA.

By the amount of leaves on the trail one could see that CA is clearly the road less traveled. At some points we lost the trail briefly due to leaves but it was easy to pick up by following the rocks. This section of mooch offered great flow with some tough technical rock sections thrown in. Of course I was a ca on the parts that had you descending straight down a boulder but other then that I kept it respectable.


26er was happy to share his dream Mooch-loop with us

The good thing about parking in tranquility is the bombing downhill you get as you head back to the cars. After 3+hrs, not having to pedal uphill is a good thing. After 20 hard earned miles 26er took us on the best stuff that Mooch north has to offer. That’s what I call the good stuff.

Horseshoe Weekend

We jumped into the end of race season too early and forgot to update this. You can forgive us, right? The memories haven't faded; but here are the photos we thought captured the Horseshoe weekend.


Rob is #1! If you want a full size poster of this, just reply on this post and we can make it happen.


Ilya in one of the best battles of this years CX. This was great to watch all season.


Capers and his trained Gorilla.


Fred cruising to first place.


Robin NOT smiling!


ChrisRU with the shared secret of the "tree swing". The fastest way through this muddy section.


Kirt rubbing elbows


RobG mid-flight.


Utah showing Eric his limp hand pre-race.


Ilya, Cornering.

Saturday

Men C
ChrisRU - 4 of 29
Chris26er - 8 of 29
Capers - 15 of 29

Men C 40+
RobG - 1 of 24

Men B
Ilya - 5 of 23

Men A
Fred - 1 of 14

Men Masters
Norm - 5 of 14
ChrisG - 11 of 14

Women C
Robin - 4 of 7

Sunday

Men C
ChrisRU - 6 of 38

Men C 40+
RobG - 2 of 23
Kirt - 4 of 23

Men B
Utah - 9 of 28
Ilya - 13 of 28

Men A
Fred - 2 of 13

Men Masters
Norm - 3 of 17
ChrisG - 12 of 17

Women C
Robin - 4 of 7

Just because we aren't racing doesn't mean this won't be active. Tons of shenanigans will be happening this winter; Just you wait.

Sussex TOOOOO!

At the end of the long 4 day Thanksgiving day weekend, when everyone is feeling fat & lazy, the second Sussex race comes along to give you a little kick start to get ready for that post-turkey slumber week that nobody wants to face. In a way, it's makes life easier, because the pain of the 45 minute race makes going to work easy in comparison. At least for an hour or so. This weekend we had another good crew of blue & orange up at the Sussex Fairgrounds for installment #2 of the SCCX Double.

40+ Men

Foreshadowing:

First race was Norm & ChrisG (and some other guys) where we saw Lombardo check out as usual. There was a fight for 2-3 between Eric and some other non-regular, and then the 4-5-6 was a bit of a battle with Norm, Doug Spitz, and a 3rd guy who I'm not familiar with. In the end, I didn't have much in the tank as my season feels like it wants to drop kick me at this point. So I ended up 6th of the 3. As the bell rang on the last lap, nothing changed at all. That's a tough time to try to cover anything and as usual, the lap ended as it began.

I don't have the results so I'm not sure where ChrisG ended up. He was battling behind me and I saw the trailing blue and orange the whole race, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't too far back.

C Women

After the 50+ the ladies lined up to go, with Robin & Mandi representing yesterday. Robin is in mid-stride with her training and really did a great job trying to hang on to Gerilynn's wheel yesterday. I stuck around for the women's race and got to see a lot of familiar faces in blue & orange as well as assorted other colors. Here's Robin trying to track down that tricky podium:

Alas it was not to be, as the1-2 girls checked out and Gerilynn managed to hang on to the 3rd spot. Mandi rolled in with a 7th place finish, solid times all around. I have to say that for as little as she ends up on the cross bike, she's a near pro with the remount. Here she is on the tricky downhill section:

Meanwhile, Pearl watched it all unfold:

A Men

No blue & orange in the fast class, as Fred is mired in central Jersey with no coffee roaster so spends most of his time with a Big lighter and an old wok that he found in a Carribean island. But Maurice was out there, who does wear blue & orange for some of the races. He checked out yesterday and won the A race, hands down. Here he is on the triple barrier run-up:

B Men

Feeling the effects of coaching his kid's hockey team, Ilya was forced to skip SCCX #2 which left Utah as the only blue & orange rider in the B class. He managed a 12th place finish, which is the same as last week but better since the fields were deeper this time around without the Supercross race to compete with. Here Utah makes an aggressive pass as Chris Esnes watches on:

40+ C Men

Next up were the 40+ C men, where Sean Runnette has been ripping up the class this year. Lo and behold, Rob (old not young, but I guess that's implied by the class) did his best to rip it up and he did exactly that. While not walking away with a win he did manage to land us a 3rd place and help the team cause. Rob managed our best result of the day and along with Robin (4), myself (6), ChrisRU (6), and Mandi (7) led the charge in helping us retain our hold on 2nd place in the NJ CX Cup standings.

C Men

Finally the day wrapped up with the C race, where we have our strongest presence. Chris26er was rocking a potential podium until he flatted towards the end.

ChrisRU tried to hang on to 26er and he did for a while, but in the end he let that podium slip away a little bit and would up 6th on the day. Chris has really come a long way this year and it's great to see him reaping the rewards of all the hard work he's put in.

Like myself, Pearl has about had enough of the cross season and the big rides over the Turkey weekend added up to produce a somewhat lackluster result on the day. Slipping just inside the top 10 isn't a bad day for not feeling it though. Here he approaches the sketchy little downhill turn.

Rounding out the team day was Capers, who is off his great ride at Cathedral last weekend. The 6 hour training does not really translate to the shorter, high-end efforts of cross. By his own admission he was a bit of pack fodder on the day. To be expected given last weekend.

In all a great course again, and a great weekend for the team. No idea where we sit in the team standings but hopefully we managed to hold on to the 2nd place overall. Somerset is likely too far out to catch. But there are a slew of other teams breathing down our neck last I checked.

See you next week at the Scramble!

More pics here:
Norm's pics
Mandi's pics
Robin's pics

The Misfits at Allaire (by Utah)

So I have been hearing about the awful sand, flat and boring conditions at Allaire for 3 years now.  Frank has been trying to convince me to never ride there as it is indeed not worth the drive.  Well despite the negative reviews I figured I would hit up the Misfits ride and see for myself.  Misfits ride as in a ride for owners of misfit bikes.  Matty B originally organized this ride for all misfit owners as they are apparently some sort of hells angel gang of bikers who wear tights rather than leather.  However, the ride was in fact an all-inclusive and I was not harassed for riding my conformist cannondale.

After meeting up with Luke and Eileen, we made our way down.  Arriving in the parking lot, I was surprised to see it completely jam packed with riders.  I would name names, but there were far too many to list.  The misfit drivers soon came together for a picture

Soon followed by the rest of us….Mitch took the picture, but sadly could not join us on the ride.

So after some social this and that we finally hit the trails with Matty, Frank and Chris G leading the way.  Within a few minutes the train was moving at high speed and we were having an absolute blast.  Cant understand why Frank dislikes this place so much J.  It’s a really nice change of pace from the rocky and technical trails that surround my hood.  I can’t remember when I have been on a group ride this large and seen it move so quickly.  Got to do some quality chit chat with lance, walt, spence, lou and even some james pearl commentary!

Train was crazy long

Our locomotive

James Pearl must be in cross season

Eventually we made our way over to this thing…Luke kept us there for 10 minutes until he cleaned it

Nail it Wookie!

The pines

In total we racked up about 15miles in an hour and forty minutes of moving time which was dam good considering the size of the group.  Cant believe I waited this long to hit this place up, its an absolute blast.  I only wish it was closer to my house.  Great times and a great tour…Thanks to Matty and Frank for the guidance.

After the ride, about 15 went for some post ride refueling..good times!!!