Keith Bontrager on preparing for the Trans-Sylvania Epic
Originally posted on May 27, 2012 at 16:19 pm
By Keith Bontrager,
Mike Kuhn sent me an e-mail a few weeks ago and asked if I was interested in riding the TSE this year. I’d been thinking about it for a while but hadn’t been able to get there due to scheduling conflicts. After thinking about it (very briefly) and realizing that there weren’t any this year…
“Yeah. I’m in.”
It seemed so simple.
It’s not that simple of course.
I’ve been riding a bit, but not that much so far this year. Not nearly enough in fact to race hard for a week. So this is going to be a fun week, enjoying the great outdoors from my saddle. It will not a bared teeth, race to the death week. That’s fine with me.
And all of my riding has been on the road, testing this and that. As I recall, the trails around State College are a bit rocky. Some are on the technical side. And some are on the technical side of technical. So I might not be very well prepared for that, not at first anyway. But this jazzy Trek Top Fuel I’ve got should help make up for some of my shortcomings. At least I’ll be getting some cyclocross practice in along the way.
I’ve done a handful of these events over the years. A couple handfuls and at least one foot full in fact. The best part is often the people you get to ride with and hang out with. I’m looking forward to it.
Thanks to Mike and his crew. See you there!
Cheers,
KB