About the time I started riding and racing mountain bikes was about the same time I met my wife Jonell. Her parents have a cabin near Pinehurst Resort on north shore of south Twin Lakes in Mahnomen county. In those early years, we would spend as much time as we could at the cabin. Over those years I spent countless hours exploring the unlimited trails in the White Earth State Forest. The past couple of years I have been exploring the trails to the east from Maplelag and last year connected the trails from Pinehurst to Maplelag. I thought it would be fun to organize a race on this course I discovered but first wanted to show some riders to get some feedback. This past weekend, I led a point to point off road, naming the ride Tour De Resorts.

We had 14 riders for the ride that included Steve Wenzel, John Struchiniski (rode a cross bike), Kent Thorolson, Linda Cooper, Aaron Olson, and Lars Moller, all from the Fargo area and Kyia Malenkovich, Kris Anderson, Eric and Sam Oftedal, and Matt Johnson from the St. Cloud and Twin Cities areas. Rounding out the 14 was myself and local riders Chris (Zigs) and his dad Jim, Ziegler. Zigs has his own lawn service and graciously provided his trailer to shuttle the bikes from Maplelag to Pinehurst.

We started the morning with a big breakfast thanks to Jonell and shots of espresso for those so inclined. We loaded up all the bikes on Zigs trailer and shuttled in his pickup and the gas guzzler up to Pinehurst. Upon arriving we unloaded and assembled the bikes. TING!! Dang, the first mechanical of the day. I snapped the end of my skewer on my rear wheel. "Kris 'Evel' saved the day with promising a guy some Whiskey if Jay could borrow his skewer for the morning, agreed and we were off." Kyia reports.

Off we were to enjoy the beautiful day under bright sunshine and partly cloudy skies. No longer than 10 minutes into the ride Zig's wheel completely locked up and I wondered what the heck he was braking so hard for. He stopped, started shaking his head and than BOOM. He blew a tube. Well, what happened was his rear rim split, catching the brake of course, and the pressure forced to the tube to explode. Kris had some duct tape along but it was beyond that. Amazingly, the Mahnomen county sheriff, Brad Athman was right behind us and was able to take Zigs back to his vehicle.

Kyia reports on the rest of the ride: "With Zig being hauled off in the sheriff's car we carried on our way, hitting some nice rolling four wheeler trails, and some fast gravel roads. We got a few pace lines going, so we were bookin' at times. Soon we were on the ski trails of Rainbow Resort. We stopped to look for a blue mouth piece from someone's Camelback, couldn't find it, so he used a stick to plug it. Saddled up again we were back onto some fast tar after the Rainbow trails, and then more rolling gravel roads. Evel drilled it at the front and soon it was Eric Ofttedal, Evel and I. I looked back and we had a nice gap on everyone -- oops maybe we should hold up? Well, then Evel had to go for the Stop Ahead sign. I just waved at him as he went for the attack: let's say it was uncontested. After a short stop to regroup we got onto the trails near Maplelag and then the ski trails on Maplelag resort property."

At the end of the ride I asked the riders if they wanted to check out the new singletrack we had built at Maplelag over the summer.  They all agreed so we rode about 10 minutes of it. Back at the house, Jonell had prepared a nice lunch for all after we had enjoyed a quick jump in Little Sugarbush lake. All in all, a great day with good people, and fun riding in a non-race situation. I'm working on the logistics to make this an official race but for now will continue to operate as a "ride". Thanks to Rainbow Resort for letting us ride on their trails for part of the way. We rode about 4km of the system and would of liked to do their 10km loop.
[Full photoset below]

On the racing side of things, the Dirt Fighter Classic in Phillips, WI. took place on Sunday. Tristan Schouten who has been on the slow road to recovery took the win in Mens Elite. He describes the race from his blog:
  "The race started off typical style, I hit the singletrack in about 10th and started assessing my situation. I was hurting big time, yet it seemed the gaps weren't spreading out and I could still catch glimpses of [Brian] Matter through the woods so I kept it were I was till the end of the first lap. Shortly into the second I made a huge effort and bridged up to Brian. I thought I was going to see breakfast pancakes again, but I held it down and suffered on his wheel for the next two laps. Somewhere near the end of the 3rd lap Seth Lens comes flying by Brian and I out of nowhere, totally unexpected, forcing us to up the pace and start getting serious again.

Traffic was really bad by this point and I was getting wasted trying to fight my way through the traffic sitting third wheel. I had enough and hit the afterburners, taking the lead and shredding the next section of singletrack. My eyes were crossed and steam was blowing out my ears but I kept it pegged, just long enough to get a gap and get out of sight.

Brian chased at about 30 seconds back for the next lap but I was able to stick it to the finish and come away with the W for the first time in a long time."

In women's elite, Abigail Strigel was victorious once again taking the win just under 40 seconds over Christina Betz.

Keep the wheels moving!!