Bike to work day 2018 - Anchroage

Anchorage has been really upping their game when it comes to bike to work day. Sure the weather isn't always going to be amazing as we are often dealing with the tail end of winter still when it comes around but the turnout always seems to be healthy. This year we once again matched up with national bike to work day in rest of the USA.

With so many stations (see map below) hitting them all is never really going to be an option.

Bike to work 2018

The game is always get to as many as possible whilst hitting up some key don't miss stations. This year I'm not working and was unsure as to whether I was going to partake in the bike to work events. I got a message yesterday from Josh who asked what I was planning on doing and would I like to join him and some of his colleagues (Matt and Tom) as they made the rounds. 

We met at Elmore and Abbott at 06:30 and headed north on Elmore. This meant coffee and House of bread put on by the Trek store was our first stop, less than 0.5 miles from the meeting start point. Following this it was the Police stop, Maple and Bacon donuts. Then it is the Blueberry stop with Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. We then cruised around onto the paved bike path network to hit up a few stations including roasted marshmallows, before the main deal. As ever the Bacon station didn't disappoint. Whilst there we were informed by some friends that we had missed out on Fire Island Bakery, a quick back track took care of that then it was back past the bacon station again, though we didn't stop for seconds. One more station Nordic Ski Association of Anchorage then it was onto C street to head towards my riding company's work location at Klatt Elementary. C-street has stops on both sides, we stopped at only the west side stops and hit up a couple of stops before getting to Alaska Fish and Game for some tasty salmon.  Following this is was a quick dash to our last stop at Anchorage Sand and Gravel who had breakfast burritos. 

All in all a feast of a 20mile ride. The weather was a little damp, some might say wet at times but the turnout was still impressive.
Finally thanks Amanda for taking care of the little one so that I could do this.

Photo dump

Stop one
Tom, Matt,  Me andd Josh. - PC Trek Store Anchorage

side walk cruising

Josh with the selfie

Tom, Matt, Me and Josh
random guy photo bomb in background :D

Roasting Marshmallows - PC Tom 

Gorilla butts

NSAA - last stop on Chester Creek

Interactive map

The Strava Data

Celebrating another successful orbit of the sun

For my birthday I once again got to go riding. This would not have been possible without the simply amazing Amanda who puts up with my cycling obsession. 

This year, I hatched a plan to ride around town at a mellow pace hitting up singletrack, multiuse and the beach if the riding was suitable. I invited a bunch of people along, some of whom are racing/riding the Susitna 100 others who just like to ride. Given this was also billed as a training ride I and some others chose to ride with some of our gear that we will have to carry on the Susitna 100. I should also add this, it was for many of the group, the day after the Frosty Bottom. See my post about that race here. 

We were 7 strong from the house then gained a few on the ride. The riding was a blast, all who had raced the Frosty Bottom were suffering from tired legs but with the warm temperatures, sunshine and smooth trails we had a blast. 

The full crew - Photo Credit Josh Chelf

We rode through Bicentennial park then made our way over to the APU singletrack. 

At the top of the unrideable hill... unless you are Josh. 

Winding our way through the APU singletrack.
- PC - Josh Chelf 

After passing through APU it was onto the singletrack sections along Chester Creek Trail. 

Before we knew it we were at Earthquake park for a beer and food break. 

Lunch stop - PC Oscar

Soon after getting going again we hit up the mandatory I'm a kid Uranus stop. 

This is funny whatever your age right?

Before long we were cruising the beach which was perfect. 

Getting artsy 

Perfect light

Andrew playing around - PC Josh Chelf

The beach was great until it wasn't.... perhaps we should have exited at the bottom of the Kincaid Hill. Oh well what's an epic ride without a little pushing. 

Yer it's kind of rideable.

New trail day  

So that is where they used to dump the cars. 

Pushing bikes is never fun, at least the view is good. - PC Josh Chelf

After pushing up the dune past the old mostly buried cars we were back on familiar trails and soon cruising a short road section before hitting up the frozen swamps between  Sand lake and Jewel Lake. 

Between the two lakes. 

 Another short road section and then it was onto Campbell Creek Trail. 

Riding Campbell Creek Trail. 

From the end of Campbell Creek trail we hit up a little more singletrack, tried to connect via swamps back to blue dot, which is currently a no go. Then it was back over to Ruth Arcand park for a little more singletrack with a view before heading home. 

Sunset with a view

We knocked out the final 1mile back to my house bringing our ride distance up to 45miles. Not a bad effort given the previous days exertion. 

Thanks to Andrew, Andy, James, Jeanette, Josh, Megan, Nico, Oscar  and Tom for joining me on the ride it meant a lot to me and I had a blast.

The cherry on top for this day though was returning home to have a home made cake. Baked by the love of my life, Amanda. Whilst getting to enjoy it with a great group of friends. 

As has been pointed out that is a lot of candles
and probably a fire hazard - PC Amanda

Our route. 

Arctic Cross Race 1 - 2017

The season opener for Arctic Cross was 9th September 2017. It was a new location for the cross crew to race at. The course was fast.

Course description 

The start was on ski trails with a downhill section into a fast right hand turn, followed by a short climb into a section of singletrack before returning to ski trails. Due to moose on the course during the womens race the course was shortened to avoid interactions with the moose. The course then had another fast downhill section into a slippery right hand hairpin turn before a long straight into barriers. This was fun as normally we don't approach barriers flat out, this time we did and they were scary. After the barriers it was a hairpin left then back onto a little singletrack before crossing a road and dropping onto second breakfast for a short section.  Second breakfast is a fun trail on a mountain bike but riding on a cross bike makes you realise how bumpy the trail is. Turning off second breakfast there was a ride/run up then a short gravel road section into a singletrack descent then a steep uphill run up. After the run up we rejoined the ski trails to cross over the start finish line and complete the lap.

How did my race go?

It went really well, just like last season myself, Clint, Chris and Jared were all battling it out for the first few laps, we also had the addition of Brad who got a cross bike this year. The race started off really fast and basically continued like this throughout the race. I spent a couple of laps being chased down by Chris and Brad then we worked hard to chase down Jack during the final four laps. 

Towards the end of the race we also started to catch up with Jamie who had a mechanical during the race. It was interesting to see how close we were to his speed. If the season continues like the first race it's going to be a lot of fun.   

Will won the race, he lapped me most of the rest of the field, he once again crushed us all of as he has been doing all season. I was fortunate that Josh who took second didn't pass me also at the then of the race. 

I finished in 9th Place which is a great way to start the season off and I also realised how close a season it is going to be when I look at the lap times. 

Race 1 results

Race 1 lap times

Lap analysis 

Lap Number	Race lap time	Strava Lap Times	Strava Back half of lap
1	4:40	4:38	2:50
2	4:50	4:50	3:01
3	4:53	4:50	3:02
4	4:53	4:51	2:59
5	4:57	4:56	2:33
6	4:58	4:55	3:08
7	4:53	4:51	2:59
8	4:52	4:51	2:30
9	4:54	4:52	2:31
10	4:49	4:47	2:31
11	4:38	4:37	2:50

A few things I take from my lap times. My laps were fairly consistent and I actually managed my fastest lap at the end of the race which is really unusual for me. 

The back half of the lap contained the barriers and two run ups. I think laps 8 - 10 were where Brad, Chris and I were chasing down Jack. As such we were really pushing the pace and had our lines figured out compared to earlier in the race. 

I really should have practiced lines a little more before I raced especially the first run/ride up off of second breakfast. 

Photos from the race

Photos were taken by Jana, Amber and Megan, thanks for capturing the mens race and all the heckling was fantastic too. 

Mens Start

Myself, Brad and Chris mid race

Water splash. 

Short run up

Top of the run up 

Fiona's race

 Arctic Cross does a great job of getting kids racing, they have a Junior race where the kids race the full course but for a shorter time and a kiddo race where younger kids race on a shortened course for 1 lap. All under 18 year olds race for free too, in whatever category they want! 

Fiona took part in the kiddo race and did amazing. She pedalled really strongly to finish in 3rd place overall and 1st girl. To say I am proud is an understatement. 

Kiddo start 

Kiddo race

Fiona finishing 

A ride with Mr Mark Beaumont

I have been following Mark Beaumont for a number of years ever since I heard about his first record breaking trip around the world by bike.
A full list of adventures can be found on his wiki page here or on his website here.
He is currently attempting to set a new world record for riding around the world supported. His target is 80 days including travel which is an amazing feat and means he needs to average 240miles per day.



Mark has a fantastic team helping him achieve this goal and he arrived in Anchorage on the 19th August 2017 to start leg three of the challenge on the 20th August 2017.
Through a friend (Thomas) in Anchorage, he got me in touch with Mike who is in charge of this leg. It was all a little last minute but on the 19th during the day, before Mark arrived. I had a face to face discussion with Mike and we worked out a route to get Mark out of town and on down the road for leg three.

Where does the riding come into this?

Well, I was given the opportunity to ride with Mark out of town and guide him on the correct way. So at 03:00 on the 20th August I left my house and headed to the airport for the 04:00 start. Mark and the team arrived and finished setting up, he did his usual talk to the camera, they took a couple of pictures and Mark, David and I set off out of town.

David, Mark and I before the rollout -PC Mark's media team

The ride went well and we were treated to mostly dry roads until we hit the Highway at around mile 36 of the ride. David, Mark and I were joined by another rider Donovan as we rolled along the Glenn Highway bike path. Once we reached Eagle River we followed the old Glenn until we reached Settlers Dr.

Rolling the Old Glenn

This is where our party split with Mark and I continuing on along the highway and David and Donovan heading back to Anchorage.

I got to ride with Mark until we reached Palmer where I made the decision to turn around and retrace my route back to Anchorage.

Quick gas station stop

After a short (not by Mark's standards) stop at Vaga Bond blues it was a 20 min stop. Mark rides in 4 hour ish stints with a 10 min break every 4 hours. He does 4 stints a day and aims to average 15mph to achieve 240miles a day. I headed back into town.

coffee and cake

When riding into Palmer we had a pretty stiff headwind and it was raining pretty consistently, so much so there were no views. After my extended break the rain stopped, the views improved and I didn't need to put my rain jacket back on until I reached Eagle River.

Highway views

Mirror Lake

All in all it was a great day out on the bike. I managed a meager 109miles albeit at a moving speed of 15mph. Mark went on to put in 235miles. see strava

Mark's strava data can be found here
And there is a live tracker here (although at the time of writing this its not working.)

I want to take this time to thank Mark and his team for allowing people to ride with him, they are a very professional outfit and I had a lot of fun tagging along for almost 4 hours.  Good luck for the rest of your ride Mark. 

My Strava data

Winter Trails with references 2017

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