cheq 40 fun?

Update... as most may know by now, the Andre tandem didn’t fair to well, during the roll out some d!ck tried to whip around us and in the process tangled bar ends at 35+ mph on the way to the highway turn... what followed was lots of blood, torn jerseys, and taco'd wheels of a reported 10+ bikes. The crash was so bad that is shaped the outcome of the overall placement of the women’s and affected numerous top riders overall (see http://cheqfattire.com/pages/2008/press_release_2008.html )

After cleaning our serious asphalt road rash (down to the meat on a couple of spots), spending just about exactly 55 minutes truing our rear wheel and disk rotor enough that major damaged wouldn't be done by the rubbing tire and disk, bending the rear derailleur so that a couple gears would work, we rolled out of Hayward.

We passed the trail cleanup crew, about 10 miles in, the stone saddle rider about 3 miles from OO. Can you believe that? Riding at about 19 mph we didn’t see a soul until 6 miles from OO!?!

We had a nice clean ride from Hayward (in the rain the entire way), only putting our feet down once on a muddy rut, we cleaned all of Firetower (which was pretty impressive given that 1400 riders had crewed and loosened it up pretty good and we only had 3 gears (middle ring only). We finished at 1276 overall passing about 450 racers (from OO to the finish), subtracting our 0:55 delayed start, we might have been around 300 overall - 10 minutes and 2 places from a podium finish (although we rode numerous parts much much slower because of our broken bike & spirits)... before the race I was planning on a 2:24 finishing time...

Not sure where it happened (because I was on the lookout), but we did pass one other tandem (we didn’t get last place, and we did finish unlike 4 years ago with our disastrous attempt to ride a cycle cross tandem [9 flats by OO]).
I guess a bad day on a bike is still a good day... right??? Because it was a bad day on the bike…

Anybody looking for a slightly used mountain tandem??? ;-p

Triple D 2009 set for Jan 10!!!!

More information to follow... will be nearly the same with the exception that all racers will finish at Durango (Dubuque to Dyersville to Durango = Triple D). Mark your calendars for January 10, 2009 for the craziest 60 mile bike (or 24 mile run or ski race) in North America!!! Only 4 bikers finished out of 30 last year, are you ready to give it another shot?

Arrowhead Ultra set for Feb 3rd (Monday), come on, how hard can 135 miles be?

Iditarod Trail Invitational - Feb 22nd, 1100 miles... that just sucks no matter how nice the weather and trails are.

Colesburg 40 Race Photos

Colesburg 40 - Results

Sorry this took so long… between travel, work, Cheq40 Training & sleep there just wasn’t any time left to type the results up.

First, let me give thanks to our overworked volunteers: Jody Bramel who ran our start/finish line, helped with registration and her son Alex who drove the short course sag. Rob Leigh who drove the long course sag and water wagon. David Hartig III who supplied the filled water jugs and shower hose. My wife Traci who ran registration and typed the results. Chris Sauer reserved the park. Without these great individuals this race would not have gone off as well as it did.

Again, the course markings… we tried not to make this an “adventure race” none the less we still had a couple racers miss a turn or two. I apologize for this, there are a couple of the turns that exist in places of high-speed where no matter how well we mark the course they just aren't obvious at 35 mph. We will see what we can do about this next year because riding 40 out here is bad enough without having to ride 50 lost. For those of you that return each year this course starts to become second nature.

My warning of the danger of loose gravel again this year may have been taken more seriously than last year as there were no reported hospital visits, although there were still numerous stories about bikers climbing back out of the ditches or washing out on corners. Great race everyone! This race has truly become a one of the classic suffer fests of cycling.

The race bolted from town with 60 strong optimistic racers in its typical balls to the wall style. The Andre tandem reached the first big climb out of town at an average speed of 28 mph towing what would end up being most of the top 10 finishers. The first climb separated the racers in its typical fashion, with John Olney from Iowa City getting off the front and then a number of small chase groups close behind. John would end-up riding the race solo for a new course record of 2:09 with Jeff Barnes close behind (jeff missed a corner which cost him some time). John ended up taking somewhere around $200 home for the Preem, Course Record & lots of Lottery wins. Total cash given out was over $900!

I asked a first time racer (Nicole Hutchison) where on the course she began to hate Colesburg? Calmly and without hesitation she replied “the first hill.”

Long live the Colesburg 40!
Lance

See the XLS file on www.ChainReactionCycling.org site for a comparison of the last 4 years of times. The short course was lengthened to 24 miles last year and remained the same this year. The long course has remained nearly unchanged for the last 12 years at 40.9 miles.

First Last Name Course Category 2008
1. John Olney Long Male 2:09:32* (that last 5 miles really sucked, but $ is king)
* New course record
2. Jeff Barnes Long Male 2:13:48 (I was going too fast to see the course markings)
3. Jeff Bradley Long Male 2:19:07
4. Chris Eastburn Long Male 2:19:53
5. Todd Gillihan Long Male 2:20:15
6. James Hopson Long Male 2:22:50 (don’t draft the Andre’s, really, it’s not safe)
7. Lance & Traci Andre Long Tandem 2:23:10 (do as we say, not as we do)
8. Jeff Dalton Long Male 2:23:47
9. John Newell Long Male 2:25:45
10. Joe Frost Long Male 2:26:10 (I hate races over an hour 50, I’m walking)
11. Daniel Galles Long Male 2:28:19
12. Nick Martin Long Male 2:32:59
13. William Huntsberger Long Male 2:33:31
14. Bruce Grell Long Male 2:35:32 (Triple D here I come!)
15. Jeremy Fry Long Male 2:36:59
16. Jeff Spahn Long Male 2:37:51 (I’m taking Amelia on the Tandem next year)
17. Connie Inks Long Female 2:39:19 (first female)
18. Mike Johnson Long Male 2:41:32
19. Daniel Kratochvit Long Male 2:42:39 (I traveled from eastern Europe just to race Colesburg)
20. Landon Beachy Long Male 2:43:18 (secretly I love this race, and wish it were even longer)
21. Darcy Sanford Long Female 2:44:15 (second female)
22. Phillip Curran Long Male 2:45:23(no hospital visits for me this year)
23. Karl Steichen Long Male 2:46:06 (I can ride this course blind folded with a beer in my hand)
24. Juan Ochoa Long Male 2:47:49
25. Sandy Kessler Long Female 2:51:59 (third female)
26. Ron Saul Long Male 2:52:04
27. Jeff Dullard Long Male 2:52:35
28. Dewayne Bonnett Long Male 2:53:04 (3rd X’s a charm, I’m getting the hang of this Colesburg thing)
29. Marge O'Connor-Leigh Long Female 2:53:35
30. Nick Book Long Male 2:53:39
31. Gary Johnson Long Male 2:56:40
32. Jeff Abel Long Male 2:58:48
33. Jamie Jorgensen Long Male 3:01:04
34. Jean Gilpin Long Female 3:04:19 (Triple D here I come, I'm not doing shots on the trail this year)
35. Chris & Monika Martin Long Tandem 3:04:57 (they call it a divorce bike why?)
36. Brian Walsh Long Male 3:07:20 (where’s my ride when I need it)
37. William Allen Long Male 3:09:32
38. Chap Cuthbert Long Male 3:10:30
39. Nicole Hutchison Long Female 3:13:09 (no really! I’m serous, the first hill)
40. Lor Hutchison Long Male 3:13:10
41. Bruce Timmerman Long Male 3:17:32
42. Sandy Kilburg Long Female 3:22:00
43. Greg Aronson Long Male 3:25:25
44. Hana Syslova Long Female 3:31:09 (I traveled from eastern Europe just to race Colesburg too)
45. Frank Flack Long Male 3:32:03 (so this is what the finish line looks like)
46. Paul Meyermann Long Male 3:32:58
47. Matt Klemish Long Male 3:38:32
48. Bob Graf Long Male 4:08:00 (now this is an adventure race)

First Last Name Course Category 2008
1. John Adamson Short Male 1:28:03 (my belt buckle is bigger than yours)
2. Evan Hartig Short Male 1:29:57 (CheqFatTire podium here I come)
3. David Hartig Short Male 1:30:14
4. Parrish & Natalie Marugg Short Tandem 1:34:10 (CheqFatTire podium here WE come)
5. Chris Congdon Short Male 1:37:38
6. Mark & Cassandra Hirsch Short Tandem 1:41:48 (hand sanitizer is great for cleaning open wounds)
7. Lucas Marugg Short Male 1:45:30 (my sister cheated)
8. Gary Bramel Short Male 1:54:26 (where did all these hammer heads come from)
9. Kathleen Porter Short Female 2:01:35
10. Jason Teggotz Short Male 2:16:36
11. Amanda O'Neill Short Female 2:32:08 (the short course was too short, I made my own long course)
12. Anjanette Clark Short Female DNF (but i still have a smile on my face...)