Yup, I brought the big dog. This is the perfect 29er course- fast, rocky, rooty and technical.

Specialized Epic 29er.

For more on 29ers, visit my my 29er page on Facebook

-Command Post telescopic seat post. (notice dropped seat height for the technical terrain) I wrote about the Command Post exhaustively on this previous post

-Specialized Fast Trak LK S Works 2.00 tires.  24psi front and 29 psi rear. This course has a super rocky high speed section with some water bar jumps, so I run more psi than I normally would.

I’m very tempted to run The Captain 2.00 in the front- it has taller knobs and corners better in the loose (or if it gets wet), but they roll quite a bit slower, (about 30W vs Fast Trak) so I’m going to go with the Fast Trak, use the Command Post and finesse the loose corners.

-Roval carbon wheels- super stiff and light.

-LOOK Quartz Ti pedals

Blood Rock is famous here on the Oak Mountain, Alabama bike course. Thanks to BUMP for building, maintaining and advocating this epic course. On race day, its lined with spectators, who take incriminating pictures of failure and cowardice…

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Stoltz, McQuaid still perfect

at Southeast Champs in Pelham

Shelby County, AL (May 23, 2009) – Another state, a wildly different course, yet the same result as Conrad “The Caveman” Stoltz and Melanie McQuaid roll to their third straight regional championship victories, this time at the XTERRA Southeast Cup at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, AL.

At about the same time the endurance community celebrated the life of cycling and triathlon great Steve Larsen (who passed away on Tuesday) with memorial rides and runs in his hometown of Bend, OR, many of Larsen’s friends in sport were riding and running in honor of him in the southern woods of Alabama today.

Leading the charge was Stoltz, who said “the technical parts are usually my strengths, but today I couldn’t focus. I did feel like I had amazing strength today though. This was a great victory for Steve.”

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