RR: Wissy Bye Bye and the Race

[Inline at http://tinyurl.com/jqvhy]

Time to say good-bye to another local trail. Actually the closest
technical trail to my home. The mighty Wissahickon. The place where I
had my first ever group ride on a mountain bike and pretty much walked
up every hill. Amazing, that was just a little over four years ago. Here
I am today saying good-bye by riding it on a 17/34 singlespeed.

http://www.schnauzers.ws/images/wsr/wsr1.jpg

Dino and I pulled into the lot around 8:30 and since we were going to
the Philadelphia Pro Road Race (the Manyunk Wall), we wanted to plan the
route to take us out to the bike path into Manyunk. Even though this is
the local trail, I have never had a love affair with Wissahickon. I only
rode here a couple of times a year, so my trail direction skills are not
great. No bother, we head out on the Indian Head trail. This trail has
the bias honor of being one of the most technical trails around. Lots of
2' drop-offs, loose rocks, off-camber roots, and some really nasty
lines. I wasn't even thinking about it though as I just rolled
everything on the HT 29er SS. After reaching the bottom of this churned
up mess, I turned around and said that I remember it being much less
demanding. It didn't matter anyway as I cleaned it with perfection.
Again a testament to where I was and where I am now.

The climb up from the bottom of the DH was a bit more taxing. It's bad
enough putting everything into getting up a hill with one speed, but
dealing with the big loose rocks, babyheads, and water bars really put
my thighs to the test. At the top we wondered what the hell we were
doing by putting ourselves though this first thing in the morning. It's
all good.

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We did a good portion of the western side of the park finishing the dirt
with a great big grin.

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Then it was on to watch the race, which as usual happened on a beautiful
sunny day.

First we stopped at the bottom of the Wiss damn to watch the racers
enter Manyunk.

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Then to my favorite spot under the train tracks. This is where the
course goes over cobblestones. Some great wipe-outs happen here, but not
this time.

Here are the girls rounding the corner and heading up the wall.

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We then make our way up the wall to watch the struggle. Known as one of
the hardest climbs in US road racing, they do the wall 11 times!

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http://www.schnauzers.ws/images/wsr/wsr9.jpg

http://www.schnauzers.ws/images/wsr/wsr10.jpg

http://www.schnauzers.ws/images/wsr/wsr11.jpg

http://www.schnauzers.ws/images/wsr/wsr12.jpg

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Then the downhill.

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It was a fun day with over 35 miles of riding both dirt and road. We
finished up by riding over to the art museum to check out the exhibits
and bike flea market. The only thing of value there were the models in
the Toyota racing booth wearing the lycra uniforms which were slightly
too small.

A great way to say good-bye to Philadelphia's local trail and so long to
my friend Dino. One of the few who stuck with me after the JAR club
incident. In other words, a true friend.


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