Stubborn Mule Part 4.wmv

Stubborn Mule Part 5.wmv

Stubborn Mule Part 6.wmv

Stubborn Mule Part 7.wmv

Stubborn Mule Part 8.wmv

Stubborn Mule Part 9.wmv

Bill Underdown's Cue Sheet

Get your dirt road bike out for Bill Underdown's Roubaix-style Group Ride. This is 77.7* miles including 49.9 miles on various kinds of DIRT that takes 5 to 6 hours - a good Wausau 24 tune-up, but not so long that you won't be able to pick raspberries and ride single track on Sunday.

Start from the Underdown parking lot at 9AM on Saturday, July 24th.

Not technically a race, this is a free ride that you attempt while taking all responsibility for your own support, safety, navigation, nutrition, hydration and evacuation upon yourself just as you would on any other training ride. One drop bag location will meet you half way.

Cross bikes are ideal, but not essential. A mountain bike with skinny tires or slicks will get the job done. An odometer is very helpful in this kind of ride. Below is the old beast I ride it with.

*I didn't plan such a cute number for the total mileage. It felt like 90 miles to me.

Trail X Boardwalk.wmv

Trail H Bridge.wmv

Now you can ride over 20 miles of single track with no mud (unless you cross a log landing after a downpour).

Downhilling Trail X.wmv

Thanks Riders! What now?

Thanks everyone for your great comments, courage and efforts while facing the Underdown last week. After hearing from a lot of people and looking at the lap times, I'm left with the Underdown dilemma: too much trail. Though it's a shame to skip good trail and there is a place for the ultimate lap, the 2010 long-course format isn't something we can do every year and stay in one piece. I'm thinking of scaling things back to something like last year's distance and tweaking the existing trails before adding new ones.

What do we leave in? Tell me what trails you come to the Underdown to ride, and I'll try to put them together in a course that is still fun and challenging, but a little less brutal.

Clean-Up White Lightning

Weather permitting we'll be out Saturday morning (the 10th) to clean up the White Lightning trail after the clear-cut. Loggers are making an effort to keep debris off of the trail, and they were very kind to work around that trail before the race. I'm curious about the view after the trees are gone.

See poll at left.

Duluth Boys Are Tough

4 laps of the long course for Ek and Buffington!

Let me know what you think of this year's all-the-way-around format. I know it's not for everybody, but there has to be a race where tough guys can show us what can be done.

Bill Underdown's Roubaix-style Group Ride

I will see you Saturday, July 24th at 9AM for the BURGR, a 90 or so mile dirt-road ride through the forests of Lincoln, Langlade, and Oneida counties. If you like single-lane forest roads like Horn Lake Road, you will have fun on this route. This is a great tune-up ride for the Wausau 24 that will make you strong, but leave you some energy to pick raspberries the next day.

Not technically a race, this is a free ride that you attempt while taking all responsibility for your own support, safety, navigation, nutrition, hydration and evacuation upon yourself just as you would on any other training ride. Cross bikes are ideal, but not essential. One drop bag location will meet you half way.

Cue sheet here soon.

Google Earth Tour

Raspberry Ride and Hike

Come on out Sunday, July 25th for a ride or hike through the raspberry fields of trail C. We'll meet at about 10 AM at the small parking lot and proceed without much organization, picking and eating as we go. From Dog Lake we can ride or hike back to Loop Road on the Ice Age Trail, or explore other trails.

Rush

The hot ride of these

trails of mine,

are access to bumps

and adrenaline,

that peaks at the

sight of fame,

reminding me of sweat

and veins,

that have scarred me

at the rim of excitement,

taking me to a level that

speaks reality,

the hills that kill,

the ground that lives,

the bike that grinds,

until the time is done.

-Kim Marie Plansky

Thanks Volunteers

Ted and I want to thank Michelle, Louise, Herb, Riley, Jordan, Randy, Mark, Roger, Paul, Andrea, Beth, Al, and Steve for helping us help you survive the Thunderdown.

Wausau Takes Thunderdown Cup

The Thunderdown Cup made by local artist Blane Gaeber will be on public display in a Wausau establishment thanks to the 411 miles ridden by Wausau riders versus 352 from Rhinelander. Rematch next year.

Pictures 2010

Hammer Down in the Underdown

What I would do-

12 Team and 6 Hour: You've got a 10 mile test of your power production and flow-maintenance skills on a quite technical single-track course ahead of you. On a warm summer day a single bottle will leave you running on fumes by the end so be prepared, especially if you're going out for another lap right away. The Loop Road aid station will come up after about 6 miles and will have water, Heed, Hammer Gel, and Endurolytes to get you to the end. On a hot day you should have eaten Endurolytes before you even started, but keep drinking and eat a little as you race.

Enjoy the two long descents on trail LL after the aid station, then finish your eating and drinking on the snowmobile trail. Once you dig through trail L you will get back across Loop Road and put the hammer down because you are in the final two miles. Only you will know if you've gone as hard as you could, but ride like there's something stalking you just in case.

I saw a huge bear track there tonight in the fresh mud just past Underdown's homestead, and by a quarter past nine as it was getting hard to see I was cresting the gravel pit overlook on trail A and there was that bear, right in the trail. In these situations I like to think of myself as the baddest bear in the woods. That bear ran away, but I'm sure he will see you if you start doggin' it coming home on Saturday. If you get in by 9PM you should be OK.

12 Solo, 12 Duo, and 3 Hour: You will be riding a tough 21 miles that will keep you out there two to three hours or more. On a warm day like Saturday, two bottles will leave you running on fumes well before the end. I would wear a hydration pack even though I usually don't race with one. Take advantage of the 3 aid stations to get Heed or water even if you normally just blow by them. Eat something like a Hammer Gel or bar around every aid station even if you don't feel hungry yet. Endurolytes or electrolytes in some drinks should keep you from cramping on a hot day. I would have one to three per lap depending on how hot it was, but you could check their website if you were more curious. If my stomach tells me that I've had too much electrolyte I switch to drinking water and that usually settles things down.

Once you pass Dog Lake and the Relentless hill you will be near the first aid station on Mist Lake. This is the start of your only sustained double-track so take the time to eat and drink. After descending Oktoberfest you will reach the second aid station at Underdown Lake. Don't forget to take care of yourself even if you still feel great because you still have half of the lap left.

At some point between Underdown Lake and the Loop Road aid station you could start having your doubts. This usually happens right after the Yin Yang Yalcano, nine miles from the finish. You really start to wonder how much more trail there could be, and if you've got enough left. You might even think about bailing out, but you won't allow yourself that option. Just keep fueling and pedaling, taking one hill at a time. You won't be alone out there. Think about what you're doing - every turn you carve and bump you roll. Admire the view. Have fun. Enjoy Round Top and the Stumpjumper, and before you know it you'll be grabbing something at the last aid station and in the home stretch. You will get done and be glad that you didn't give in to all those reasons to quit you were thinking of . This was not just any lap. This was all the way around in the Underdown.