Superior Bike Fest: Twilight Criterium

I was nervous. It was my first crit, and my first road race. I worked a twelve-hour shift, Thursday, so I had no time for preparations that day. Friday morning, I packed up my bikes and my dogs. Unfortunately, it took much longer than I expected and I didn't arrive to Marquette until 4:00 p.m. I had very little time to get my packet, get ready, and start my race.

I started strongly. I hopped out in front, as racing articles said to do, and I lead the pack for the first lap. I took corners at top speed, leaning my bike into it while maintaining stability and grace that I only possess on the bike. The end of the lap met some difficulty as we hit a hill. I slowed and the rest of the pack went by. Unfortunately, most of them were just as fast as I on the rest of the course, but they were good climbers, so they dusted me.

The second lap brought a lot of pain as my chest burned from my deep, intense breathing. I was racing. My climbing got slower and it took longer for me to get up to speed on the straightaway at the top of the hill. By the third or fourth climb, I had to slow down for a bit and regain some of my breath. When I caught my second wind, I began climbing more strongly and the pain eased up only a bit.

I finished in tenth place that night. I was last. However, I noticed my riding skills were superior to some of the other girls as they braked like crazy into the turns and coasted down the hills instead of picking up speed by pedaling. I will continue to work on my climbing and I will come back to next year's crit with a vengeance.

Invite a Friend for a Ride

Summer really doesn't seem to be trying all that hard to arrive in the Keweenaw. It hit just under 60 degrees and I threw on my short sleeve jersey and shorts for a ride into work to do an ultrasound. I returned home two hours later to trade in my cross bike for a mountain bike and I hit some nearby trails. It peaked at 60 degrees, so the short sleeve jersey was a good idea. Well, that's what I'm telling myself. It's a good thing I had the trees to break the wind for me, because I could feel some pretty cool gusts on the road. The weather people lied, as usual – the wind far exceeded the forecasted 6 mph.

Even though the weather is less than desirable for this time of year, it is still National Bike Month, and it is the perfect time of year to get a friend out on the road or trail with you. Invite a non-cycling friend and plan to do an easy, social ride in an effort to get them hooked. Remember when you first fell in love? Your friends deserve that, too.

My friend, Erin, did a cycle of training for her degree here in my town. Fortunately, her clinical instructor is a riding friend of mine. It didn't take long to get Erin excited about mountain biking. She was hitting up the Tech Trails and Maasto Hiihto/Churning Rapids with us quite frequently. She also happily took part in the post-ride meals and beverage, read: beer.


I stole this picture form Erin's blog. Left to right: Mike, Cynthia, Di, Kevin, Arlyn, and Sandy. Erin is behind the camera. We are all contained within the Keweenaw Brewing Company. I personally believe that is what Heaven will be like.

I am proud to say that we have done well with Erin's training. She accepted a job in Washington and moved there a couple months ago. Erin's new adventure is our great loss. We miss her dearly, but we are proud to say that the Keweenaw has forever left its impression on her. She continues to mountain bike in Washington.

Improve Your Riding With a Good Book

I like books. Whenever I start a new hobby, I buy books. Bicycling wasn't any different.

When I started mountain biking, it was pretty obvious I had a lot to learn regarding technique. I didn't know how to climb steep hills or maneuver through rock gardens, and the only advice I was given was "ride more." Well, that advice really doesn't work. The following are the books in my collection.



Mountain Bike Magazine's Complete Guide To Mountain Biking Skills was the first cycling book I bought. It was a fun and easy read. I would read a chapter, visualize what I was reading, and then go try it on the trail, with few exceptions. I've attempted a wheelie, but that ended in disaster and I haven't tried since.

I highly recommend this book for beginner mountain bikers and for those that don't got skills. For the men who would like to encourage their girlfriends or wives to ride, this an excellent book to give as a gift. It will take a lot of stress out of learning how to ride because the very important unspoken information is in the book. It really will make climbing and technical riding easier.

I like to think of Bicycling Magazine's Complete Book of Road Cycling Skills as the roadie companion to Mountain Biking Skills. It is set up the same way and has short, easy reading articles. What is great about this book is that it doesn't only have articles pertaining to fit, skills, and racing, but it includes men and women only chapters containing many of those embarrassing to ask questions.

This book is geared toward roadies, but it contains lots of great information for all riders. It serves as a great compliment to the Complete Guide to Mountain Biking Skills.

My riding partner lent me Ned Overend's Mountain Bike Like a Champion. I'm still reading this book. I recommend this book for someone who has been riding for a few months. It is a great read after the Complete Guide to Mountain Biking Skills as it just seems to be written on a more experienced level. Not surprising, and quite enjoyable.

Ned goes more in depth about basic and advanced skills and gives information about racing and training as well. What I found quite enjoyable about this book are Ned's anecdotes and his admissions that he isn't particularly good at everything, at least not in his mind. It's refreshing to learn from such a great rider that it's ok not to be able to master everything. Just do what you can.

When I joined the Red Jacket – BlueSky Health Racing Team, I decided it was time to get a training book. I didn't get the one that everyone recommended, because it just didn't speak to me at the time. After about an hour sitting on the bookstore floor and thumbing through some cycling books, I purchased The Lance Armstrong Performance Program after much thought.

This book has a lot of great training information including riding programs and goal-specific workouts to include in your training. It is full of Lance experiences and tactics and is quite inspirational. If your training program is lacking something, this may be just the book you need for a little inspiration and a lot of great ideas.

National Bike Month tip of the day: buy a bicycling book for inspiration and skill improvement.

Join a Local Bike Club

Many cities or regions are fortunate enough to have a cycling club. While some cyclists are elites and need to ride with fast groups, there are many organizations that cater to riders of all levels. My area is a great example of the different kinds of clubs that can exist:

C4 – University cycling club

Keweenaw Cycling Club – new community club open to families and creating a kids' race team.

Red Jacket – BlueSky Health Cycling Team – adult race team with riders of all levels.

Trekkers – Community cycling club geared toward adults that meets once a week and sends out about three groups of riders: beginner, intermediate, advanced. All gather together for a potluck afterwards.

Bike shops often host weekly rides through the summer as well.

While there will be some discouraging rides for new riders, they are usually quite welcome. Many clubs host no drop rides where the faster riders ride to a certain point and wait for the slower riders, allow them to rest, then move on. Many faster riders have no problem with no drop rides. I like them because it gives me an excuse to stop and drink since I'm not particularly fond of refueling while riding.

Joining club will also give you the opportunity to make social connections with people who share the love of cycling with you. It sets you up for becoming a healthier, happier, and better rider. Spending time with your local cyclists presents many educational opportunities that will help you become a more competent cyclist.

National Bike Month is a great time to get involved with your local cycling club and get rolling!

Cycling Forums

The Internet is a pretty addicting little tool. Many of us have spent hours, if not days, surfing the web with endless information at our fingertips. I spent one whole night last week surfing through the backwards chronology of the English monarchy on Wikipedia.

If you are reading this blog, it is probably a safe assumption that you spend some of your bandwidth surfing through various cycling forums as well. I am quite guilty of this, especially this winter. Four complete weeks of bed rest dispersed throughout the winter is encouragement enough to click over to my favorite forum and dream of getting outside to ride my bike. I think this has been the cause of my spring fever, which I rarely get because I usually get to enjoy my winters skiing and snowshoeing in good health.

I spend a lot of my Internet time surfing through four cycling forums. The forum I spend the most time with is the Michigan Mountain Biking Association. This is a fun, passionate group of people who never fail to entertain. Even most serious topics get “sent to the Basement” when someone inevitably makes a sick comment sending the conversation into a downward spiral. This group proves amazing, though, as this forum also serves as a major network for riders who want to find others to ride with at various Michigan trails. One of our members moved to Colorado and even guides many the Michigan riders who head out west to be awed.



Team Estrogen is an online store for women cyclists looking for a large selection of fun cycling clothes and accessories to meet their needs. This store is unique in that it also hosts an online forum for women that has become quite the community. There is an incredible contrast between the female-dominated Team Estrogen and the male-dominated MMBA, both offering different kinds of information with the latter providing more humor and politics.



The Red Jacket – BlueSky Health Cycling Team forum is a new forum that deserves my time mostly because I am the forum administrator and a member of the cycling team. The goal of this forum is to provide a common source for local area riders to communicate and facilitate rides and transportation for races and trips. It is also our goal to provide health and training information as topics of discussion. All are welcome to contribute.



Mountain Bike Review is a precious resource to mountain bikers all over the world. It provides user product reviews, photos, and other resources along with an extensive forum. I only use the forum when I am homebound due its complexities. It is a very large forum with a lot of subforums and countless threads. Due to its size, it can be a bit overwhelming, but a lot of information can be found in its depths.

Wild Times

I love going Negaunee. I visit a friend who is more like a sister to me. People are usually quite curious about what we’re up to. A girl’s weekend? They must be partying!

For several years, people would ask us in that “you’ve been doing something crazy, I know it” tone, “What did YOU two do today?

“Oh, it’s funny. We went to Munising to get Dairy Queen, buy lottery tickets, and then we went to Chatham and loaded hay on the truck. It’s hay day!” That’s usually when we get a weird look. That’s usually not the response someone expects from two women hanging out.

I met Sandee when I began the clinical work for my degree in Marquette. One day, I went out to see her horses and the rest is history. I’ve always had horses and it was a common interest. We started getting together somewhat frequently to snowshoe, open a bottle of wine, and have girl chat. For a reason unknown, Thursday ended up being the most convenient day to do this. It was never planned, but that’s the day girl chat fell on. When I moved away, girl chat changed to the occasional weekend. It was one of those girl’s weekends when I first brought the cross bike down from Houghton. So much snow had already melted, and I brought the cross bike to test it on the roads in Negaunee Township.

It was an interesting ride. It was the first time I’ve ridden my Jake. After almost a year of mountain biking, the Jake felt like there was barely any bike there. I was worried that it just couldn’t hold up. I was worried about crashing.

The beginning of the ride was incredibly interesting. Sandee’s driveway exits onto a hill, and you have to go uphill to get out of her road. I turned uphill, decided to shift gears, pressed the only lever I could find for my cogs, and it shifted into a harder gear. That wasn’t good. “How the heck do you shift this thing into an easier gear?” I was getting quite frustrated. I only saw one lever.

I called my bike shop and talked with Caleb. “Caleb, I can shift it into a harder gear, but I can’t figure out how to shift it into an easier gear. I’m going uphill, so this isn’t really a good thing.”

“Um, ok, let me think about how your bike shifts for a minute.”

“Ok.”

“Ok, with your bike, press the brake lever in. I think that’s how it shifts.” I pressed the brake lever in. It shifted! Wahoo, I could go for a ride! With that, I hung up my phone and proceeded to take my first road ride.

Shortly after that, I fell in with Arlyn and Sandy, two masterful tandem riders. They will ride anything! You should see them on a mountain bike. They take things with ease that scares the be-you-know-what out of other people. My spring and early summer consisted of several road rides with them and my friend, Pat. The three of them taught me road skills, skills that still need work to this day, nevertheless, skills that have benefited me as you’ll see in future posts.

The frustration I had with riding with them was that I was out of shape and much slower, especially on hills. Some hills would just kill me. By the time I would get to the top of a hill, they would already have more than adequate rest and be ready to proceed as I broke out a goo or took a swig of my beverage. The rides didn’t always consist of chasing them, though. We often rode together while chatting about whatever. Road riding was a social event, and it was one I was developing quite an appreciation for.

At Least it Shifts!

I returned to Houghton on a late October day and headed straight to Cross Country Sports to drop off my bike. I bought a new derailleur and the guys straightened the existing hanger. I picked it up the next day and went for a ride.

Remember, this was my first year mountain biking. I was practicing and mastering new skills all the time.

Enter the wheelie. Oh, yes. I wanted to learn how to do a wheelie. I started off at the trailhead, the Core loop at Tech, and tried to apply what I read in books. My last attempt ended with my front wheel coming down hard and the bike flipping forward. I landed on my left chest as my head was forced to the right. The bike flew up behind me and twisted in the air. I was still clipped in! My spine twisted in the lumbar region and my feet finally broke free of the bike as it flew down to the ground. I quickly sat up and took in a breath and panicked as a horrible wheezing sound came from my left lung. I quit breathing. I was afraid and didn’t want to take in another breath for fear of what was happening. I had an interesting thought process:

• Di you have to breathe. You can’t hold your breath forever.
• Ok. Just take in a breath slowly. (I slowly take in a breath. No sound. Resume normal breathing.) You’re breathing, so you don’t have a collapsed lung and your ribs aren’t broken. Check.
• My head feels funny. Sound is muffled. I’m having an adrenaline rush. Crap. My back is sore. I have to relax! Lay down, Di. Lay back. (I lay back and stretch my arms overhead. It feels good.)
• Ok. Sit back up. Everything feels ok. I really want to ride. I feel fine enough to ride.

I got up, picked up my bike, got back on, started pedaling and . . . why does my bike feel funny? I tried pedaling again. What the heck? I looked down at my wheel and realized it was slightly tacoed. Wonderful. I can’t afford a new wheel.

I threw my bike over my shoulder and walked back to my truck. I called my family doctor and explained the situation. I told the nurse I wanted to get checked out after what happened, but I figured the ER wasn’t appropriate since I just threw my bike over my shoulder and carried it back. She did a phone assessment and told me that if I felt dizzy or sick, go to the ER. Otherwise, just take ibuprofen. Great. I hate ibuprofen. Aspirin it is!

I got into my truck and drove right back to the bike shop. Mind you, about thirty minutes have gone by since I picked up the newly repaired bike. I walked in with the bike and Steve looked at me with utter confusion. He knew I was going riding. “Uh, why are you here?”

I just started laughing. I couldn’t get the words out and I just looked at him and the bike. He looked down at the wheel and exclaimed, “Holy crap! How did you do THAT!?”

I laughed more. Caleb smiled, “What? What happened?”

“Look at her wheel,” Steve said.

Caleb assessed the situation then offered the brighter side, “Well, at least it shifts!”

Steve bent the wheel back and had the bike ready for me the next day. I was in a bit of pain, but I concluded my weekend with the usual ride around the Tech Trails.

I haven’t tried a wheelie since.

My First Mountain Bike Hike

“Di, are you going to do the race in Copper Harbor?”

I had fear. “Copper Harbor? Uh, no. I don’t want to race mountain bikes. I just want to ride and enjoy.”

“Do it with us. It’s going to me and another girl. We’re just doing it to do it. Ride it with us. We won’t be going fast.”

“I don’t know. Isn’t it really hard? Do you think I can do it?”

“Yeah! Just sign up online and we’ll drive up together.”

“Ok.” My first moment of succumbing to mountain bike related peer pressure had come and gone as easily as one breath. I hopped online and signed up. I thought I was crazy. I still think I’m crazy. What I didn’t know was that this race was going to be a transforming event.

Michelle introduced me to Kristi. Kristi was a new rider as well, and the three of us were going to ride merrily along bringing up the rear of the race. We made it up the first road, and I do mean up – it’s all uphill. We rode along some interesting singletrack and made our way down some more roads. Then came Dancing Bear.

Dancing Bear is a long, uphill trail with some uphill bridges and uphill rocks. Everything seemed uphill, but I guess I’m not really exaggerating when I say it is. That’s how Copper Harbor is. It can be likened to riding out west because you spend a lot of time climbing a hill just so you can ride a thigh-burning, long descent. It’s great fun . . . unless you’re a beginner.

Just before we got to Dancing Bear, Michelle took off. She knew she had to keep going if she wanted to finish the race. She had to stay in the zone. I knew I had to stop and breathe so I could survive. Period. THEN came Dancing Bear. I’m almost afraid to admit that I walked almost the whole trail. My hike began on the two uphills on the road just preceding Dancing Bear.

Kristi spent the rest of the race with me because she also needed to breathe. When we got to the top of the hill, we got back on our bikes and rode just a little of the end of the Bear. Some of it was too technical for a beginner. We were relieved to get off the singletrack until we realized that we weren’t really to the top of the hill. We had to take some doubletrack to the Red Trail.

I absolutely love the Red Trail. It is one of my favorite trails and it offers a great challenge and an adrenaline rush every time I ride it. I didn’t appreciate these qualities at the time of this race, however. Kristi and I walked most of the Red Trail, and had to move off the trail to allow other riders by. Yes, we were being lapped. Paul’s Plunge followed. We walked that, too. I was scared while I walked it.


Paul's Plunge - the great finale of the Copper Harbor Fat Tire Festival.

I guess one could say that we hiked that race. I was so exhausted afterwards that I lay down in the grass and stayed there. I didn’t care that there was free beer and food. I think the fact that I couldn’t drink beer was a good indicator of how hard this race was on me.

Copper Harbor had proven just how inexperienced I was as a rider, and I didn’t like it. I had a new focus in life. I had a vengeance. Copper Harbor had conquered me. I had to conquer Copper Harbor.

A New Era

Some people think I’ve been riding for quite a while. They are impressed by my dedication and strong desire to hit the trails almost daily throughout the summer. I love outrunning the bugs and dodging the squirrels and ducking the overhanging tree branches. There is nothing sweeter than successfully passing over that narrow bridge, or clearing the rock garden in all its sharp, jagged glory.

I think some of my passion and dedication for mountain biking is so prevalent because I am still a new rider – kind of.

I had a conversation with a stranger in May 2006 about outdoor activities in the Keweenaw. She asked me if I had a mountain bike. “Yes. I have a 1997 Giant Yukon. I never use it. I bought it for camping, but it’s practically brand new. I’m thinking about getting back into running though, and training for my third marathon this fall.”

“I’m thinking about starting a women’s ride on Saturday mornings,” said she. “I broke my collar bone last year, so I’d like to start riding again, but only slowly. It will be a beginner’s pace. Why don’t you meet with us when I get a ride organized?”

“Sure!” I was very excited about discovering more of what my community had to offer.

I’m afraid of the unknown. I had no idea what the Michigan Tech Trails had to offer, and I didn’t feel like I belonged there because I thought elitists would be using the trails. I was afraid of getting in the way. My new friend took me on the “beginner trails” that first Saturday morning. The trails were over flat terrain, insignificant hills, but they were bumpy with lots of roots. I took a bit of a beating on my hardtail.

After that ride, I decided to alternate my running with riding. I spent two weeks switching between trail running and mountain biking. The third week, I rode the first day. Then I rode the next day. The cycle broke and my habit took over. After the third week, I realized that I was giving up running for mountain biking. I started venturing onto new trails and realizing new fears. I developed a love for speed and a vengeance for hills.

Two months of dedicated riding had gone by. I realized that I could no longer improve my skill. Something was holding me back. What was it? After pondering this during a few rides, I realized I needed a new bike. It wasn't that my Yukon was an inadequate bike. It was a hardtail that was in great shape and ready to be ridden in. It was a very nice bike! The problem is that it didn’t fit. I realized that I couldn’t get my weight back far enough when going downhill to feel stable. Likewise, I couldn’t get my weight forward enough on climbs to maintain momentum and keep the front wheel on the ground. The top tube was too long for my reach.

Enter . . . the bike shop. Little did I know that this would become the place around which all my grocery shopping would center. Every pay day, I would head to the bike shop for chain lube, tire levers, socks, shorts, gloves, and sometimes just for that so highly revered bike shop chat! That very first day, however, what I did know was how I feared going into the very bike shop I knew absolutely nothing about. I was afraid of being sold a bike that wasn’t right for me simply for the sake of the shop getting a sale. My new friend, Michelle, who introduced me to this “crack habit,” as a fellow biker once referred to it, met me at the bike shop and brought her boyfriend along. I test rode a couple of bikes and they helped me with fit. I just didn’t know. Then, I rode her bike. It was an 18” frame and it had the familiar word across the down tube that many non-cyclists have heard of and equate with quality: TREK. It was a 2005 Trek Fuel EX7 WSD (Women’s Specific Design) that she had just bought on closeout. I fell in love with it and decided on the spot to order THAT bike. It came in a week or two later. I felt like my life had come to a new era. I was right.