The Fifth Beatle

Uhhh, what? One of these kids is not like the others!

I feel a bit like Clarence Walker-The Fifth Beatle...

Overall Grasshopper Results

Funny stuff. But these are totally fun events, I really like finishing-at any cost or time!

Bad. ASS!

2009 Old Caz Grasshopper Pt. 1 from Geoff Kabush on Vimeo.

Sweet, sweet video of Grasshopper last weekend, damn, if I could only go half as fast as you fellas-but somebody's gotta finish at the back!

More video here:


2009 Old Caz Grasshopper Pt. 2 from g kabush on Vimeo.

Grasshopper site here-great folks, great races!

Grasshopper Blog

Grasshopper #5-Lake Sonoma

"Back at Car"...Stick communication was key...

Saturday was the final Grasshopper and again, we gathered up the lucky souls who would head out to race/ride the event. Things were going to be interesting for sure as the temps were slated to be around 100 degrees, the course called for lots of climbing and, well, it sounded hard. It was.

The omens were out there early for Otto, my friend I talked into going on his first Grasshopper. He called me at 8PM Friday to say he just remembered, as as he was eating dinner, that his bike which he was going to pick up earlier was indeed at the shop, and the shop had closed at 6:30.

 Nice.

I convinced him to ride his old bike, which he hadn't been on in a year. He agreed. Sucker.

His next call, as he was 30 minutes from my house, was to inform me that he had shoes, but no pedals. Jeezus! Luckily, I had a pair of crank brothers pedals on my fixed gear (I use TIME on other bikes), so no sweat, he could borrow my pedals.

He then gets to my house and has no camelbak and only one water bottle. Did I mention it was calling for temps above 100? I know I had told him that. Luckily, Curtis gave him an extra Camelbak he had. Very nice and Thanks Curtis.

Morning of we head out a bit late and end up getting to the event about 5 minutes before start. 5 naked guys in the Lake Sonoma lot surprised some families, but somehow we made it to the start in time to find all of the maps (maps are CRUCIAL for these events) were handed out. Uh oh...

LIke the blind leading the blind we headed out onto a long road climb before the dirt. I scored a map laying on the side of the road and told Otto we had a map. Too bad he didn't stay with me.

Once in the dirt, I was too excited/scared/nervous to ride too slow and proceeded to keep moving. I saw another map laying in the dirt and hoped Otto had the sense to pick it it (he didn't).

The course called for 25 miles or so with something over 5000' feet of climbing. The trails were incredible, I would say 90% singletrack for the race and really fun. There was a lot of climbing. Also a lot of folks flatting out there. I somehow came upon Curtis, Kathleen and the Crizzler™—they were helping Kathleen fix a broken chain. I pedaled on...

As I rode for about ten minutes, a fantasy came into my head where I finished ahead of Curtis. That bubble was busted about 3 minutes later as he caught me and pedaled on.

My next delusion was that I would finish in front of Kathleen, Curtis' nemesis. That bubble burst about 10 minutes later.

I resolved to at least finish before the Crizzle (he was on a SS by the way, so my feat wasn't exactly equal).

As the race moved on, the temps went up and it became evident that Otto, without a map, was gonna be screwed if he didn't follow someone. Even with my map, I still checked in at a couple of junctions with other riders to make sure we were heading the right way.

On top of the heat, the largest thing looming over my head was the long, steep climb to the finish on a road aptly named "Bummer Hill". I could not shake the thought of it and when I realized 2X that I was farther out and hotter than expected, the race which was always a ride for me, turned in just hoping to survive to the finish.

It was crazy to see how many people were f' ed up by the heat. One really fast woman I came upon had been sitting in a creek for 40 minutes-totally suffering from heat stroke. The crew around her nursed he along to the finish. Me, myself-I settled into a real slow pace and dreaded every descent (as I knew it only meant that much more climbing). Well I came upon ol' Bummer Hill and set to walking. Walking slowly. VERY slowly. I wasn't cramping, I was HOT and done. I had drained 1-70 ounce Camelback and 4 water bottles up to this point. It was a welcome sight to see folks milling around at the finish. I made it in 4:15. curtis smoked me by 20 minutes. Andrew was in the top 10. Jeff was up there too. 

Where was Otto?

2 more water bottles downed at the finish and 30 minutes of waiting and no Otto. Now I was getting worried. There is NO access out there. And it's out there. We heard of a guy in a skeleton jersey sitting on Bummer Hill saying this is "Dangerous". Otto had a skeleton jersey. Curtis and I began the ride back DOWN Bummer only to find it was a different guy. He hadn't seen Otto. Neither had the Helmet-less Euro guy on the Moots walking up the trail in socks (his cleat was stuck in his pedal-we helped him out of it and sent his delirious-ass on the way up).

Farther down Bummer we went when we encountered Heather. She was having a rough day and said she was "last". She had not seen Otto. 

Oh shit. It's now like 1.5 hours since I finished. I'm freaking out inside. I leave broken sticks in the shape of an arrow hoping Otto will see them and head to the finish. Curtis tells me we need to go notify a ranger, as there is nothing we can do. He also says, " I bet Otto went back to the car". I hope he did.

Another walk up Bummer and we see Jefé and Otto! Hot damn! I am so glad he is alright. He had returned to the car after only 5 miles of the race. Thank God he was alright.

To say we were cracked was an understatement. The trip top the post-race BBQ and pool party was kinda a bust as the catered food was gone. The pool felt great though. We decided to head back to Napa and get dinner at Azzurro. A call in about 10 minutes out to have food ready saved the day. We inhaled 4 pizzas and order of Pasta, 2 salads and were gifted with a new chocolate polenta cake Michael was testing and 4 bowls of ice cream. A. Men...

Easily the toughest G-Hopper to date-primarily because of the temps. I am glad to have actually completed the 5 race series though...met a bunch of great folks and found out a little more of what I am capable of... can't wait until next year.

A few pics on Flickr (too hot to shoot on the ride)...

Grasshopper-Kings Ridge

Pre-race with Lemurian Class Winner A. Brooks...

Grasshopper#4 was a blast! Good ol' Levi Leipheimer showed up again as did a BMC pro Scott Needham...of course Levi won.

The week proceeding was filled with all sorts of nerves..how much climbing would we be doing? Could I do this? All further  frenzied by A. Brooks incendiary emails and warnings to bring our "A" game. "A" game? C'mon now, I'm like a Category 8 rider. I'm heavy. I can't climb well. "A" game! Anyway, I mistakenly looked up the course profile before the event and freaked a bit more, but then settled in to whatever mode. If it gets too hard, I can always walk. I bought Bicycle Works out of processed food stuffs, tubes, CO2's and new brake pads. Ate at Azzurro the night before and even had breakfast the day of. I was ready as I was ever gonna be.

Crazy ride, really cool with tons of climbing and virtually no cars. Was involved in my first crash. Coming back down the road (missed turn) with two friends, I was leading and started to slow to ask directions from riders heading other direction, just in time to hear my friend Chris (behind me and much bigger than me) yell, "Ken!" He hit me from behind/back side (I stayed upright somehow) and went flying off the road onto his back and then bushes. Then my friend Michael hit Chris' rear wheel and flipped into dirt on side of road. While Chris was in the air his rear tire exploded, scared the hell out of everyone. Luckily no one was really hurt although Chris' jersey was shredded on the back and his helmet was destroyed. Michael's chi-chi R-Sys wheel snapped a spoke too. Chris is super human, he brushed it off, fixed his flat and was asking who else was going to join him back "on route" for the 7 mile dirt descent! I stayed with Michael and his broken Mavic-we had to cock it a bit in the drop out so it wouldn't rub on the fork. Bear in mind we were about 40 miles into an 80 mile ride!

Michael nursed the Mavic through some seriously screaming downhills (18% signed grade on road) onto Jenner. I convinced him that we only had 10 or so miles to go and he went along. Funny thing though the remaining 10 miles were mostly a dirt road climb! He flatted 2X with his Michelin Prorace 3's (I had swapped to heavier Conti's in anticipation of dirt).

Anyway, we finished the ride which was really cool and had a blast in doing it. Didn't end up being the total crusher I feared, we skipped two sections (dirt descent and a serious steep climb), but still got 70 miles with 7,500' or so feet of climbing. And spent Sunday pretty slow with Jake-mo as I was much more sore than I imagined!

And yes, we didn't "officially" do the entire ride...I did notify them of fact at finish...guess I was assuming that given the circumstances of the day (crash and all), my general ranking (somewhere near the bottom of the event) and the fact we at least made it back without hitching a ride-all qualified my fat ass as at least nearly last and not DNF.

Here's a comparison of my ride and my friend Peter's ride (way to go Peter you and Andrew were the only ones of our group to finish the entire ride correctly)...

My MotionBased suck-etude

Peter's MotionBased

Of course, I am fully willing to take my punishment—how about I race the final G-Hopper and then Tamarancho? Maybe even do Tamarancho on my SS...

Pics? Yep, lots of them, go to my Flickr page.

Thanks again everyone who organized the Grasshopper, they are truly outstanding events with great courses, and really fun folks.

Grasshopper #2

Here I am...Grasshopper #2
Photo courtesy of kimdow at Flickr

Quick one on Grasshopper #2 as I had a dead battery in camera and not too many pics to show the incredible ride we had Saturday.

The nutshell goes a little somethin' like this...

All the online weather folks were calling for the end of the world on Saturday--thunderstorms, lightning, 70% chance of rain and on and on...I was in until Curtis said Jeff and Cameron (much stronger riders and his barometers of whether to go or not) were saying no way (that was on Friday night)...I was fine either way, he agreed to call me first AM Saturday and we'd decide then.

7:00am rolled by, then 7:30...OK cool, I'm doing the Azzurro ride, no need to worry about braving the weather in Occidental...ahhhhh, then like 7:35, the phone rings..."we're going! and Peter's going too!"
Oh damn, it's on. At least with Peter I would have my familiar wing-man out there suffering along with me...so get up, dress, down coffee, down cereal, say goodbye to Jake and hop in Scion for trip out.

Rain? Uhhh, no. Try blue skies and wind. Still had jersey pockets stuffed liek a squirrel for winter with heavy-ass rain coat, food, electronics, money, license...There were a ton of people out there, at least 150. One dude stood out, none other than Levi Leipheimer was there to race. Mind you this is a free event, no support, no prizes...guess the lack of a tour invite puts him out with us folk--pretty cool I had to admit. By the way the only time I saw him was at the start. He won (of course), did 65 miles with 6,000 feet of climbing in 2:59:00...

My "spy shot" of Levi...I had dreamt I would be able to get a better one at end of race..maybe if I finished closer to him (which is physically impossible for me)

Out we headed in a neutral roll-out, although this time it was a bit faster paced and a little jumpy. We owned teh road for 8 miles until the fist pee-break. I was ready to pop and needed it. Of course with shy bladder, unit hanging out side of road-style and some other dude intent on talking to me while I tried to pee didn't help...it was a no go for too long. When I finally got the deed done, I was fighting to catch back onto the end of the pack. After a few miles I did, got up to Peter and just kept pedaling (sorry Peter, my nerves got the best of me). I ended up joining Alexis from Norcal Velo and a guy named Jim-we ended up staying together the entire time, and boy did we need it-the wind was a crusher and would have sucked to be alone out in it (again-sorry Peter, you are the man for doing it alone).

We rode in some really cool areas near Dillion beach, along Tomales Bay and out to the Marshall "Wall" lots of climbing and super fast descents with the wind blowing you side-ways. If you haven't guessed it, I hate the wind. It was maddening. I couldn't hear, it was in our face for like 2 hours at least and made things pretty tough all-around. With the course calling out 70 miles or so, at 63, I was stoked to know we were close. On last climb up to Occidental and Alexis and I rolled across the line together at a healthy 4:28:00, Jim was 2 minutes back after he discovered his seat bag was open!

Burritos and good company were in order as we waited for Peter. He made it across about 1 hour later and we headed back to Napa and saw at 4:00PM the first rain! Oh yeah, a necessary stop for fresh, organic bread at little bakery in Freestone was in order too, yummy goodness...

I really am glad I am getting out to do these rides and spend time with new friends and folks, it's a great spirit in the air and a wonderful time to be had while punishing yourself physically! See you all at #3...

As always, check out my Flickr, The Grasshopper Flickr Page or Motionbased for all the details I could acquire...

One more Grasshopper Pic

The cool thing about the interwebs is how much sharing you can now do. On the Grasshopper, I met another rider shooting the same spot I had just come upon. After looking around on flickr, I found his photos (very nice I might add) and this one of me (which I had no idea he took).

Anyway, it's visual proof I at least started...

That's me in fat-hiding argyle, next to the fastest Inglis out there.
Photo courtesy of Jon Suzuki