2018 was quite the year to remember in some aspects and quite the year to forget in other apects. Did you remember that 2018 was a winter olympic year? That's right, almost a year ago, winter olympics were held in Pyongyang, South Korea. Sometimes the year seems so long that we don't remember milestone events like that. In the Applen household though, the year flew by. Emily deployed and is almost back, the school year is flying by and the 2018-2019 winter cannot make-up it's mind if it will show up or not. On the bike racing side of things, a lot of stuff to report there. Big races this year included Lutsen 99'er, Chequamegon Fate Tire 40 and Icemean Cometh. Not a lot of racing days on that calendar last year, but the quality made up for it. Lutson was a milestone event as Dan and I went up there with the families raced it and qualified for Leadville this year. Dan was ahead of me most of the race after I was left in a chase group for slowing to go around a puddle that I had no idea how deep it was. Basically picture a small lake stretching across double track logging trail. Since it was so early in the race, took it a bit conservative. I ended up finishing up 15 minutes behind him at 6:17 for the 96 miles. Awesome event, it was super dry last year for this race, pretty uncommon. Also finished just ahead of a couple of the Apex cycling guys like Chris Stevens and Thomas Olek, both fresh off of going 1-2 at State Gravel Champs the week prior. Fitness was dialed in and this was one of the best MTN bike races I a have done. Dan and I hope to be back this year to improve our starting spot for Leadville since it is a qualifier. Our U.S. Military Team deal on Schwalbe tires made for awesome traction and performance!

After this, Emily headed out the door for deployment a few months later and I was prepping for Chequamegon Fat Tire. In terms of intensity, this race is more like a crit compared to an endurance event like Lutsen. At only 42 miles or something like that, this race featured lots of gravel and sandy trails. The drive up there to Hayward saw lots of rain and a torrential downpour an hour before the race. The race course contained giant puddles every mile or mile and a half. Some were as deep as the bottom bracket. This race I had a couple instances of my chain jamming (I know, I should convert to 1X, lol), so I had to stop and fix that, the first of which happened a couple miles into the race on the first fairly large climb. LOTS and LOTS of racers went by as I was clearly on the struggle bus with that. Anyway, all disgruntled feelings went aside as we approached and climbed Pirate Hill. Pic below shows the rum shot going down very well. First time at Cheq and first time having a shot of rum on a bike ride. Have to say I was impressed. It went down smooth and did give me a little kick to the finish. In fact it was delicious!!! The pirate signs reading "Surrender the Booty" gave an added morale boost too. Finished that race around 2 hours 40 mins or something like that. Not the best showing, but very fun race. Intense and fast! Pictures below of from Pirate Hill. Goal is to make a return to northern WI for this event! Not for the rum though, duh ;)

Rounding out the race season was Iceman Cometh. A whirlwind trip to western MI with Dan. We drove to his house ins Appleton, WI on a Thur, stayed the night, drove to MI on Friday, raced Saturday and then drove back to his house that same day, leaving only the leg back to Rochester left for Friday. Trust me, it was worth it. I would of like to have had a better starting spot for Iceman though. While Dan and another teammate of ours, Jason Barnes started in the first five waves, I was not until like wave 30 or something like that. Since it was the first time doing this race, I was way back there yo! This also meant I was passing people the entire race. The bike handled superbly, no jammed chain and the Schwalbe tires were amazing. Again, just like Lutsen, we lucked out with dry and fast conditions. I had to do a lot of off piste passing as the course was full of racers from other waves ahead of me. I got pretty comfortable riding and passing in the thick stuff. The finish was awesome as you crisscross and weave through single track amongst the roaring and drunk crowd stopping the clock at 2 hours and 2 minutes. Should be good enough for starting in a top 5 wave later this November. I was trying to catch Dan, he finished 10 mins ahead of me. A huge thanks to Jason and his wife for letting us stay there along with my kids I brought with me. What kind of dad drags their kids to bike races? LOL

One of the descents at Iceman, perhaps the only time I was not trying to or passing anyone. 

Now on to Leadville as the main event for 2019. Some warmup races feature before that such as Ragnorak 105 in April, Lutsen again in June and probably have a weekend camp at Dan's cabin. After all it is a good place for drinking espresso and craft beer. See ya on the trail! Get that buckle!

 

#MinneapolisMiracle

Minnesota Viking playoff football has a longstanding reputation for creating disappointment for us fans in MN. Going into Jan 14th's playoff game against the Saints was no different. Leading up to it fans expressed mixed feelings and thoughts about how the game would go. Haunted by missed field goals and penalties, many fans said they would choke. As a Vikings fan I was still optimistic, but even I would admit that thought crossed my mind of them looking like they belonged back in the pee wee football league looking and 11 monkeys humping a football. Part of being a Minnesotan though, is coming back game after game for the football and staying for the disappointment. So I was determined to watch the game, as I knew that is what every other Minnesotan would be doing. Not only was the game entertaining but in true Minnesota fashion it was snowing outside. Big, beautiful flakes, like you see in cartoons or the movies, and following IndignantMN on Twitter, embracing everything MN during the game. The game was extremely good though, making your emotions fluctuate like a profile of a Tour de France mountain stage. As it came down to the final few minutes the lead must have changed back and forth between the Saints and Vikes three our four different times. Coming down to the final :50 the Vikings needed to get into field goal territory in order to get enough points to win the game.* With several completed passes, including one to Adam Thielen (while getting pass interference, like a boss), the Vikes were faced with one last effort to get the ball into field goal range. This brought a play that had C. Keenum pass to S. Diggs. In mesmerizing fashion, Diggs caught the ball in the air, avoiding a block and a tackle, catching his balance and running into the endzone. Sounds just like a good catch eh? The fact that it was a do or die playoff game, meant that the Vikings would win and move on to the next round. What's so special about it though is the 66.655 purple fans in U.S. Bank Stadium got to see it happen. They were screaming, yelling, celebrating, crying, spilling their beer and hugging the fan next to them whether they knew them or not (because that's MN nice right?). In fact, I am sure the whole state was doing that in their homes and at bars. I was at Kinney Creek and high-fived a complete stranger. We don't really know how it happened that day, but something was keeping that curse away. Could it be the ghost of Prince past that blocked the Saints player from taking out Diggs? I don't know, but i'll let the video do the explaining. Here's to bringing it home. #Skol







*Previous years have shown us how that could potentially go.

Stay Tuned!

More ramblings will appear shortly. Getting some blogging game back and then it will be on! Stay tuned!

Bam! Here is the newest addition to the fleet of bikes at our house. This Dolce belongs to Emily and is getting ridden hard (the bike that is). The reason you ask? Em is training to rock the Wingman Triathlon next month. She has surpassed any level of workout intensity I though she would have the drive to do. So proud of her! So while she is out on her long training adventures, I am plotting which races I want to do next. There are some MN Mountain bike races coming up and I'm thinking a road race or two.

First Em and I will attend a "training camp" in  wine country St. Genevieve, MO to get ready for all this! We will see you on the road! Porco cane!

Winter Training

When you live in these neck of the woods you see signs like this warning you of the local wildlife. It's a great place to train as Sasquatch is not the only thing you will come across. Deer bounding in front of or alongside you is common too. It's the best place to train though when all those panzy cyclist take to Gran Canaria or Tucson, AZ to train. Nothing beats these neck of the woods though for winter training, eh!

Porco Cane

Red Wing Recap

Hmmmmmmm.....Let's see, how do I sum up Red Wing? Well it sucked basically. Weird though because I felt the best I ever have before a Mtn bike race, and I had the best start I ever have had in a Mtn bike race. I sat right near the back of the group and by the time we hit the singletrack I was about 6th or 7th wheel. Over the next 4-5 miles I was able to pass those 5-6 riders and catch the leader. The leader and I yo-yo-ed back and forth for the next lap and then I felt sprinkles. No problem I thought, I will just take it slow and ride to finish. I knew with the rain that I was not going to catch the leader and pass at this point. Boy did I take it slow. The rain did evil things to the course on the last lap and I walked allot of it. It was ridiculously muddy and greasy. It got the best of me, all of me in fact. But I hate quitting more than I dislike pushing my bike uphill and skiing downhill on my shoes because I cannot walk (forget riding). As I did that on the last lap, I watched about 30 some riders go past me. Some riding, some walking too. Not sure what I placed yet though cause the results did not even have me as entering the race. Have to get that cleared up, it is valuable team points.

Wish I was doing Cheq 100 this weekend, but work calls and I need more miles in the legs anyway. Next year fo sure! That's all right tho, after work on Sat I'll take the road bike out for about oh 4 hrs and thrash myself. Here's to f#%@!ng mud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

porco cane

Found the motivation to blog again! Found the motivation to get moving on the bike more too after putting in ten hours on it over the course of last week. Sometimes when the motivation to do something is lost, you just have to do more of it, and more of it, and more...It is summer now and that means, well it will fly by! I'm out for the Cheq 100, this year because I should put in a full weekend at the guard to get ready for the trip to Africa. Next year though, ill be sure to fit it in to the schedule.
The Sandwich 50 came and went, 6th place. Almanzo 100 came and went, 7hrs and 25 min. both races placed further back than I wanted too, but conditions for both events were not as ideal. Still finished both with decency though.
Red Wing is up this weekend for the MN Series, my favorite course and the defending Comp champ, if that means anything. It does to me though! Say posted for a recap

porco cane