The Grand Loop

93.5 miles today. I am kind of bummed that it wasn't 100, but I am very aware that it was twice as difficult as my Mad-Town century about a month ago. There was a ton more hills this ride. Now all I got to do is come up with a way to add 10 more miles. The only thing that felt good at the end was the LEGS. I was absolutely beat.
Man did it feel good once I finally made it back to my yard.

Buckwheat shower.

Here is a pic from Aris's Bday. Happy Sweet Sixteen!

Yard Work

A smaller 45mile ride today. Why? ITS ARIS'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! And I had some yard work to get done before we left.

Go ahead and check out my updated "favorite reads"... Jeff is really starting to pick up the pace.

I threw on the used Madone tire I got from John G. I felt really fast. I can't imagine what it feels like to have the whole bike. I went out for 60+ with Jeff. just a few pics.

You CAN't Have'a da MANGO!!!!!!!!

Madone tire mated with a bad hub and a 14t cog....FAST

I cut it off!

After four plus year, I finally did it. I said I never would. After it decided to do some damage to my achilles tendon, it was time. Thanks to the blogger, the cut will forever be remembered.

Really NICE ride today too. Pics and report later.

Summer Solstice Swing Ride Report

***Do Not Scroll Down If Blood Is Not Your Friend***

I did not realize how popular my blog has gotten. I post the info for our Summer Solstice Ride maybe two days before, and look how many people showed up...

Lap one was so wet. It did a little raining before we got there. just enough to stay on the leaves. Much of the trail was over crowded with brush, very wet brush. It was a must to change clothes after the first 25miles.

Lap two was to start with a fresh kit, more assos and much fluids.

After lap two we were feeling good. Only 3 of 4 were left. Greg had to bail. He has a Tri on Sunday. 50miles done. 6hours done.

John G. was making the push at the start of lap three.

While trying to push, he decided to make nice with this tree. We pulled a band-aid from his elbow and used the electrical tape from my stem to stop the gushing blood.

Check it out! To the bone. It did put a halt to the 75. No problem, stitches were a must. 55miles completed in just over 6hours of riding. I would say 95% single track all day. An absolutely beautiful day mixed with some sweet single track.

Summer Solstice Swing

When - On the real Summer Solstice. Thursday the 21st of June. (not all this fake "Summer Solstice" stuff on the weekends)
Where - Emma Carlin trail head. Kettle Moraine State Forest South Unit.
What time? - We start the ride at 8:00am

3 Laps Emma Carlin to Connector trail to John Muir Blue loop - back to connector trail - finish Emma Carlin loop. Do that 3 times @ 25miles per lap.

Do you got in the DOG?



Hey Mr. 24, thanks for the super quick ERGON delivery! You ROCK!

Way to go Brandon

3hours 3min on the TRAINER! He watched Off Road to Athens and Breaking Away(most of it)

Props to Trix

"Did you put my pedals on????"

There is no better way to wake up in the morning. To have your wife, at 6am, wake you up because she is ready to ride. She put me in such a great mood, that I decided to suit up myself and ride with her to work. Rushing around the house looking for my things and Christie was already out the door.

Wow did it feel good to get out so early in the morning. Cruising with Trixie. Ha! Eat it!!!
After the drop off, I headed to the lakefront for some hill climbs. In total I did almost 2hrs in the saddle.

This very well could be one of the last times you see this fork.

After I got back home I met up with the nephews and grabbed some breakfast. Before I knew it, it was time to get back on the bike and head back to Segway with Jordan to ride with Trixie back home. She wasn't ready when we got there, so Jordan and I did some riding by the lakefront(again). All in all a great day!

Well done Trixie!!!!

Just call me a dwarf!

remind me never again to hook up with someone else for a ride, when i am not prepared myself. in other words, i was very dehydrated on my ride today with EXPO teammate jeff frings. then on top of that, i had to cut out early because of work. thanks to jeff who was ultra flexible with all of my misfortunes today...dealing with my busted hub, my showing up late, me having to leave early, my lack of a big gear for the tail wind, and most of all for my BONK:( jeff thanks for whipping me into shape today, i barely made it those last 5 miles home to my house alone.

props to christie on her first day of work at segway..did i mention she is riding to work tomorrow? no really...she is! (her bike)

The Cote de Constantine

OK. At least I can say I wasn't lying. Mr. Jeff Frings is really making up for my lack of saddle time(Monkey Butt). He decided to go searching for this nice climb. He found it. He rode it.

I absolutely can't wait till Monday. Some way, some how, I am going to hook up with Jeff and do some much needed riding.


Sunday - Fathers Day driving.
Monday - Much Riding.
Tuesday - Less riding.
Wed - WNR.
Thursday - 1st annual Summer Solstice @ John Muir (3 laps of 25miles each)***



***More info to come...

Jeff Frings

My case of Monkey Butt Continues....

So I have for you a pic of teammate Jeff Frings doing a very nice Century.
Can you tell what who some of our sponsors are????

BTW, He is also one bad a** photographer. If you have a few minutes check out his page. Let me know if you recognize any of the wedding shots.

No WNR!

"One thing is for sure. I will not let a minor case of the monkey butts keep me from some WNR."...



No WNR. It wasn't my legs, butt, upper body, broken bikes, loss of sleep, or anything closely related. It has to be work. I for sure can't turn down my job. You know. The ones who let me off every other weeend for a big race here and a big race there. I gots to take my tours when I can.

Monkey Butt

This is what I would call a minor case of the monkey butts. Irritating just enough to put a halt to my big ride today. What was supposed to be a good 4-5hr ride, turned in to a 1hr crit. I found a 1/3mile loop that was either all up or all down. All right turns too. That way my rear never had a chance to touch my seat. The legs felt pretty good and upper body soreness has mostly gone away. It was just my damn butt.

One thing is for sure. I will not let a minor case of the monkey butts keep me from some WNR.

Chris Tamborino

Chris Tamborino

7laps 2:46:47

5th

The 3rd Hour

By: Chris Tamborino

Got off to a good start in this year’s 3 Hours @ John Muir hitting the trails in around 4th or 5th out of a nice sized group of 31 or so. Typically these events have some dicing and racing on the first lap or 2 and then it spreads out and I just try to settle in and maintain till the end. Not this time. The leaders took off and set sail while I sat in a group of 3 or 4. The pace seemed a lot higher than normal for the start of a 3hr race but I didn’t want to get left behind so I tried to hang as long as I could. Well this went on for about an hour and a half. Lots of racing and passing and flying along on some really nice new trails, thanks WORBA. Got to see team mates Jeff and Aris on the course for a while, that was cool. Finally the fast pace and working through traffic started to take it’s toll and I was feeling it. I wasn’t drinking enough and the legs started to cramp a bit. More hydration and Clif Shot Bloks and I was feeling better. Finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and rolled in 5th after 7 laps in 2:46.
Thanks to Holly for the hand ups and The Peter’s Home for Boys for their support. Also special thanks to Jeff Martz for the beer hand up afterwards, that hit the spot.

Tag Team

EXPO Racing 15laps 5:54:23
Jeff Frings Aris Peters
3rd

The 6th Hour
By: Jeff Frings

That’s More Like It!

The second WEMS race had more of everything I like about racing. More of the people that make the racing scene fun, and more hardware that can turn a good race into a great experience. Almost the entire EXPO team was at the race. What a great bunch of people to have on your team, and in your pit. Only John and Kathy G. were missing. Also a big shout out to Frank and Chris from Team Giovedi. Just met them Saturday, but they’re cool guys to race with. Aris and I decided on the 6 hour duo. Aris started us out, and I knew after my first lap that the duo was the right call. I hadn’t gotten much sleep in the last few days so the solo 6 would have killed me. I slowed it down a bit and started to get my rhythm. Aris was about a minute a lap faster than me on all but one lap, so a lot of the credit goes there, but I got the fun lap. Just after halfway, I checked the lap count and times and found that we were 4th with about 3 or 4 other duos within about 30 seconds, and 3rd place between 2 and 3 minutes ahead. On my next lap I came upon the guy that I knew had to be 3rd place. It was Chris from Team Giovedi. I caught him and passed him near the connector cut-off. He stayed right with me and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to drop him, or worse yet he would pass me back any second and sprint away. I put the hammer down in the fast single track after the climb out from the connector area and got lucky with some slower riders, and had about a minute by the end of the lap. Aris went to work and took a little more time and by the end we had almost 5 minutes. Constantine covered the rest of the race pretty well, so I’ll just end with the cliché, A good time was had by all.



How sweet is it? Throw over 20 teams all together. Ride really fast for 5hours and be able to truely "race" in the sixth hour. What a rush. Great ride Aris. Great ride Jeff. Thanks for the great write up. Great ride Chris. Great ride Theo. Great ride Cody.

Pits - As John Posner would say, "This is a Formula 1 pit". With that said, we are almost there.
Cody - Thank you so much for stepping up and helping Christie get to me. I owe the two of you my hardware.

1 29 in wheel. Get it?

12Hours @ John Muir
4:45am and I was up, ready to go. I headed over to dad's place to pick up Aris, Theo and Dad. We hit race site around 6:45. Registered, prepped bikes and applied some butt cream. The plan was :
Me: 12hr Solo Single Speed. Ride consistent. Eat Clif. Finish.
Cody: 1st attempt @ 12hr Solo. Goal, 3ish laps.
Theo: 6hr Solo on a single speed. Goal, ride for 6hrs.
Aris and Jeff: 6hr Duo. Goal, podium.
Chris: 3hr Solo. Goal, finish near the top.

My goal was to ride the rigid as long as possible and try to stay with all the fast guys at the start. Today(Sat.) was the day to get some bike swap practice in too. Up until this race, I never have had the pleasure of identical bikes. Again, not much of a warm up, I felt very slow the first lap. John Muir had gone under some major course changes over the past year. All for the way better. It just took me a while to get going. Turns out my what-I-thought-was-slow 59min first lap was actually my fastest lap of the day and the only time I would be under 1hr all day. Lap 2 came in at 1hr3min. For some reason I was only feeling so so. My legs felt great, I was riding everything, but with the knowledge that there were probably alot of SSers in front of me. Mentally, I was not good. Then on Lap 3 another SSer flew by me. I quickly caught up to him and held his wheel just long enough to tell him he was on a super fast pace. Way too fast for my liking. If I have learned anything from past endurance races, You must ride your own race. I let him go and felt even more crappy. I entered the pits after 3 laps for a bike change and hydration pack change. I was told I was only 5min back from 2nd and 3rd. Great. The only problem was that I felt like falling asleep. How am I going to shorten the gap when I feel like this. At this point the only thing going for me was my drink and food. I chose to eat exclusive CLIF all day. Bar and Mojo for breakfast. Shots and Shot Bloks every lap.

4th, 5th, 6th...I really start to slow down. My gap to 3rd had moved to 10 min and I felt like I couldn't do anything about it. My legs were still good, my eating/drinking was great. I just felt slow. Really slow. I then realized I hadn't peed yet since the start. That's it! I pulled over, leaned the bike on a tree and waited. Waited some more. Then booya! It was like I had jumper cables attached to my system. I felt like a new man. Did my lap time get better? No. Was I reeling 3rd place closer to me? No. I just felt better. That's it. As The end of the race drew near, I mentally started to give. After 8 laps I was STILL in fourth. I left the pit for my 9th lap knowing I only had two laps to go with the time available. As I was leaving the pits, Cody asked everyone in the tent if I knew I was in 2nd? Christie freaked! She knows me better than anybody and knew my current mental state was not going to keep me in second for long. She decided to run the course backwards with Cody to tell me I was in second. They caught me halfway thru the lap. I was in second by 8min. I turned it on. and blazed the second half. As I was rolling in to the pits I hear Theo screaming "Your In First!!!" I make a quick stop to ditch my hydrating pack. I was holding first place by 4minutes. I layed it down! My third fastest lap of the day. 1st Place! What did it for me?
CLIF - 100% CLIF all day. I have a new Endurance side kick.
ERGON - OMG! This is what these grips were made for. I put them to the test for 12hours and they passed with flying colors(Green to be exact)
Trek 69er(s) - I love this bike. Railed in the single. climbed better than any other singe speed I have ridden. Descended like a DH bike. There was not one person that could hold my wheel going down all day.

While I was out on the 12hr course. EXPO Racing earned much respect in the 6hr Solo, 6hr Duo and 3hr Solo classes. Aris and Jeff held off a 20+ team field in the 6hr Duo for a solid 3rd place! Podium! Theo decided to surprise all of us finishing his first ever 6hr Solo race on a single speed. Chris T. decided to throw in a top 5 in the 3hr race too. Hopefully Jeff r Chris will get to me a race report from there races.

My rigid 69er.

My butt at the start.

Cody's butt in the pits.

Aris rocked these shades all day. No lie.

Jeff, Aris and Theo ready to ride for 6.

What a "feel good" feeling it is to cross the line with a win.

I was beat. EXPO Racing was pumped.

Jeff and Aris collecting their hardware.

I'll take it.

129. On a bike with 1 29 in wheel.
What a super weekend for EXPO Racing. There is nothing like loving the product you use, and making your sponsors proud. Trek, Oakley, CLIF, Lazer, ERGON. The team would have not been able to post these kind of results without your support. Thank you!

ConstantME - 12hr Solo Single Speed - 1st Place (1oth overall)

Jeff and Aris - 6hr Duo - 3rd Place

Chris T. - 3hr - 5th Place

Theo - 6hr Solo - 16th Place

Cody - 12hr Solo - 25th

Remember your 8th grade Graduation?

Busy day yesterday. Did some major bike cleaning on the on the "MUD" rides. That took me all the way to 2:30ish. I then loaded up the car to pick up my wife from school. Ran(drove) out to my hometownship of Erin for the the "other" bro's 8th grade graduation. My four younger brothers and I gave a big thanks on stage to Mrs. Wagner. She is retiring after 37 year of wonderful service to the Erin community and 20 years of super service to the "Peters' Home for Boys". From My 1st day in 1st grade to Theo's last day in 8th grade she drove us to school each and EVERY day! 20 solid Years baby.

Left to right. Dar, Al, Aris, Mrs. Wagner, Yours truly, Theo. And yes, the bus was yellow.

After the festivities, I was off to prep for 12 Hours at John Muir. Bike #2 arrived just in time for some endurance practice. I started the build around 11pmish and finished 1hour later. MC over at Expedition Supply really came thru big time. Thanks Mike!

I think someone slipped this in the box to maybe...pump me up???

Smells so good.

I had no idea what this was.

Underneath the foam, cardboard, and tape was even more safety stuff to keep me lookin' good at the start.

Mount bar, wheels, crank, chain, front brake and the fork leg bumpers and your done.
Done. Adjust seat, bars, add ERGON grips and a pink cage. Then I'm really done. One rigid. One not. we will see which one I ride more this Saturday.

46 for the youngest = 72 for the oldest

The other bro. The Bro that doest wus out when a big ride oprotunity comes his way. Theo. I rode from home, north up the lake, West twords My parents' house, Call Theo, tell him to start riding to me. Thats how the story goes. I was to ride the SAFG so I could really get a workout when I hooked up with Theo and his 700c Fixie. Today was very close to Epic. Freezing cold, super hot, chilly rain, and one big ass kicking from my little brother. Thanks for ripping my legs off Theo. I have to say, U maybe had me on ONE climb, just one!

Theo - Fixed, 46miles, 3hours 15minutes, 46 x 16, 700c
Me - Fixed, 72miles, approx 5hours, 44 x 16, 26in


Move that Orange thing so I can see. Love those ERGON grips

your bike sucks

Theo looks like he is beat
that rain was so cold

MUD (part 2)

Post Race love.

End of lap #4

End of lap #3
Theo rollin to a Podium

Aris on the BONK

Brandon's Longest race to date. Single Speed Rigid none the less

Lap #2

I am starting to get sick of this same old shot of Jordan. Although, he looks to have layed it down.