The Schalk Diaries: Biblical Fool’s

In strange, yet appropriate fashion, my 13th career NUE victory arrived in biblically dooming fashion at the Fool’s Gold 100 in Georgia last weekend. One would normally expect high humidity and sweltering conditions in the South in August. Instead, the skies opened up the night before and rain dumped continuously throughout the race. There were floods and rising waters. The trails turned into rivers of blood red clay. There may have even been frogs and locusts at one time. I’m not really sure. I’m just glad it is done.

 
The seventh stop of the U.S. National Ultra Endurance series was a two lap format. The lap began with a 1500’ climb and the first to the top on the first lap was awarded a prize for King of the Mountain (KOM). I felt good and decided to ride hard while my bike was still in good condition, so I topped out ahead of the pack, blowing up the race from the beginning. Once the trail leveled out, I sat up a bit and let Christian Tanguy bridge up to me.

“What was that?” he asked, clearly referring to a somewhat idiotic attack to get the KOM. All I could think to reply was: “I figured we’re in for a miserable day, so why not embrace some suffering from the start?”

From there, the blood red clay took over the race. I lost all rear brake function by mile 30. Christian began to fade out of sight just before that with other mud-related issues. No one else ever bridged up, so I continued to ride alone in the Biblical flood to the end of the lap, watching in terror as my front brake pads slowly disappeared to nothingness. I had to drag my feet or jump off the bike on a few of the remaining descents just to avoid killing myself.

And that was technically only the first lap of two – fifty miles to go. However, the race director made a wise decision and called the race at one lap: everyone was losing their brakes, and the “riding” was getting dangerous. Ironically, it was all the Mica (Fool’s Gold) in the soil that eats away so quickly at the pads when the mud runs fluidly through the brakes.

I won the “100” in just 50 miles… strange.

The Schalk Diaries: Opposite Coasts

Since I began specializing in ultra endurance events a few years ago, I have never attempted back to back ultra race weekends. Such an idea didn’t sound like a problem in theory, however, since it generally takes me 3-4 days to recover from a 100 mile race. But, apparently, recovering back to good race form is a whole different beast from ‘recovering’ to the point of being able to train. I learned this firsthand in the past few weeks.

Round five of the U.S. National Ultra Endurance (NUE) series stopped in Pennsylvania a few weekends ago. Despite a stacked field, I seemed to be more in control of the race than in any other that I’ve done in recent memory. I felt absolutely phenomenal and I walked away from the competition, nabbing the victory. I also stole the Wilderness 101 course record along the way amongst a beautiful day with ideally fast conditions. I even felt I had more to give at the end, and could’ve held off just about anyone had the need come to defend against a late race surge. Due largely to this experience, State College, PA has become one of my favorite places to race (also, the trails in Rothrock State Forest are fantastic and Chris Scott puts on a great event).

With such a weekend, it seemed that my form should be able to make an appearance seven days later, right? No. My form clocked out for the week. But it didn’t become apparent until I was in Oregon.

I traveled across the country a few days after the 101 for round six of the NUE. Despite feeling strong and ready to go in the days leading up to the High Cascades 100, I felt like a wreck in motion once actually underway – I was tired and uninspired at just the 30 mile mark. It made for an incredibly long day of inching along, just begging for the suffering to end. It was as bad a day as I’ve had in recent memory. From feeling invincible to riding like a heap of kinetic garbage in just one week… at the very least, the trails were fun and the views were amazing. (That goes to prove that my performance was lackluster – I never notice the scenery when my head is in the race…)

Regardless, my victory in Pennsylvania secured the series title. That makes it three years in a row as NUE series champ… I can hardly believe it. Massive thanks go out to Trek for giving me the huge amount of support needed to achieve such a feat. More specifically, thanks go out to Trek’s Michael Browne (the Inside Man, the wizard behind the curtain) and Scott Daubert (Gadget Man Q, the guy that supplies me with the fast toys of the trade), as well as Steven Hoover (the spiritual guidance counselor of my cycling world).

Trek Prototype — Meet the Broadsider!

 

The ’Broadsider’ is a bike derived from a post oil, post-apocalyptic graphic novel based on its namesake. It tells the story of the legendary ‘cliff racer’ Max Malco who lost his life saving a young boy from his racing rivals.

The story and bike were created by Trek’s industrial design group. The Broadsider is a conceptual prototype project intended to keep the Trek brain trust sharp.

It is through executions like this the design team continually dreams up new directions to keep up the excitement and enthusiasm for bicycles.

Should the  apocalypse ever come, the human spirit will survive. when oil comes to its end human power will thrive!

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C3 Project: Brandon Semenuk and Cam McCaul at Crankworx, CO

Crankworx Colorado slopestyle competition marked the fourth straight Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour in which a Trek C3 Project rider took 1^st place.

 

With Brandon Semenuk’s taking first place, his hat trick win means three in a row, not only for the Crankworx Colorado slopestyle event, but also for the last 3 Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour events, putting him in a commanding first place, with only 3 events remaining.

 

“It was a fun weekend in Colorado other than some of the weather issues, but my new Trek slopestyle bike was feeling dialed and helped me get in 2 good runs that led to my 3rd consecutive won in Winterpark."

 

For fellow C3 Project rider Cam McCAul, it was a different story. After a stunning qualifying run, the Aptos, CA rider took it big on the double whale tail with an attempted front flip. The move, which he’s completed with ease in the past, resulted in a broken femur, putting him out of contention for the main event—Crankworx Whistler.

Cam McCaul audio interview:

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Semenuk Wins. McCaul nearly fatal front flip. This is Crankworx Colorado.

Check out this sick video from sicklines.com. You'll see the ridiculous stunt known as the double whale tail that ruined so many famous names, and you'll also get to see Semenuk's clinical precision as he takes his second straight slopestyle victory, vaulting him to the front of the Freeride World Mountain Bike Tour rankings.