Michael Simonson is one of the consistently fastest guys on the NUE (National Ultra Endurance) Series scene. He had some issues at the last stop in the series, Syllamo's Revenge down in Arkansas, but he's looking like a serious threat for the win at the Mohican 100 this Saturday, June 2nd in Ohio. 1. Dude, what happened to you at Syllamo’s Revenge? Ahh, don't get me started on that disaster... that trail eats bikes. Normally the Nano's hold up pretty well, but the trail is a bit on the ridiculous side. Not a good race course. My fi...
Patrick Blair is a special dude. He rides and races for Adventures For The Cure, using the sport he loves to raise awareness and money for causes that matter. The Mohican 100, race number three in the NUE series, will be his first one hundred mile mountain bike race, but this isn't his first rodeo, read on... 1. Correct me if I’m wrong but you have never done a hundred miler before. What made you decide to do The Mohican 100? Well, in the beginning of the year I thought I might want to get back into racing long distances. After doing a f...
I hope I never get too cool for school. Last night I got to go riding with one of my all-time cycling heroes: Mark "The Shark" McCormack. (If you don't know who Mark is, go read the afore-linked Wiki page or check out this Cyclingnews article.) I have ridden with Mark before, but that was during races. Not road or cyclocross races, but mountain bike races. We had never gone out on a casual ride together... and actually I still don't think we have, even after last night. There was nothing casual about the ride, it wa...
A collaboration between the BigBikes and the Medford, Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Cycles has begun. I'm almost as excited about this as I am the Ridley Scott Alien Prequel: Prometheus. But you can't rail a scifi movie into a berm, so the BB/CC collaboration is markedly more exciting in reality. This bike, which we're calling "BigBikesOne" for now, could be thought of as a prequel to a thing we'll be calling "The Smashing Machine." (If you don't get the reference, that's fine. If you do, you're as big a dork as I am and we should...
May 13th is the intergalactic CycloFemme ride day. Somehwere in the text below is the info required to register a ride and get a temporary tattoo. Press Release: Cyclo Femme is presented by Girl Bike Love. Our mission is to create a unified voice for women in cycling, encouraging and empowering more riders. By highlighting the health and environmental benefits, community building and positive social impact that cycling can have on our world, we hope to engage more female riders. “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think i...
"Thom - are they cool with you riding in the pack like that? I imagine they would be, and it's great for the sport to have that perspective, but just wondering if anyone gives you crap at all? Nice to see all the singlespeeders smiling so much." - BigBikesMedia & Cyclingdirt viewer "Funny" commenting on the Cohutta 100 highlights video That's an interesting question Funny, one I will answer in blog form. First off I want to point out that all the pack shots were courtesy of Jeremiah Bishop (Cannondale Factory Racing), at n...
Last night I was at a dance party at Club Hairspray in Asheville, North Carolina. Right now I'm at a 24 hour McDonalds in Blue Ridge, Georgia. The contrast between those two places...imagine rocketing-naked down a Slip 'n Slide and discovering mid-way through your slide, and or slip, that some sick f— had replaced a section of the Slip 'n Slide with 40 grit sandpaper. This is how I felt in the morning. Penelope can't open her left eye because she doesn't have one. In my case it's more of a reducing visual stimuli thing. ...
JB is one of the few riders who can jump back and forth between endurance and XC events, absolutely killing it at both. He is definitely going to be in the mix tomorrow at the Cohutta 100, the first race in the Kenda National Ultra Endurance (NUE) series, a 12 race 100 mile mountain bike race series that spans the country. JB will also be providing helmet-cam footage for BBM & Cyclingdirt, which will be great...unless he leads from wire to wire, giving us nothing but shots of open trail. Maybe we should mount the camera in a rear-facing ...
11 Vaguely Cohutta 100 Related Questions With Soul-Crusher-From-Hell Amanda Carey
April 27, 2012, 10:07am
Amanda Carey is not normal. Usually bike racers are good at one thing or the other — short stuff or long stuff, but not AC. She can finish top ten at Cyclocross Nationals or at a short, little Pro XCT cross country mountain bike race, and then come out and win a five day stage race or a hundred miler. And not just win it, CRUSH IT. 11 Vaguely Cohutta 100 Related Questions With SOUL-CRUSHER-FROM-HELL Amanda Carey 1. Amanda Carey, you are a rare breed. You are able to transition seamlessly from cyclocross to XC mountain biking to end...
Endurance racing is often seen as the realm of older guys, not teenagers, but Dylan Johnson is bucking that stereotype. A string of mishaps — flats, wrong turns...concussions — has marred his previous attempts at placing well at NUE hundred milers. After an early flat, he was able to battle back to second place in the single-speed category at the Shenandoah Mountain 100 last year, beating everyone except for Gerry Pflug. This season he'll be riding with gears. He's a year older, he has a lot more miles in his legs, and he's go...
