Jeff Winkler

MTB for sale

2012-02-13T17:25:00.001-06:00

Fuji 19" Mt. Fuji LTD Carbon Hartdtail MTB
Shimano XT
No miles since RockShock had new seals kit installed.
DT Swiss X430 wheels (ridden once)
The bike was ridden for a couple seasons, but not many miles because of wet weather. Its been sitting waiting for a good home for a couple of years!

$1000.00

2012 Scott Addict CX

2012-01-05T18:31:00.000-06:00

Isn't that pretty? The Wheel Cyclery built it up yesterday and I got to put a few miles on in today. Can't beat 60 degrees in January!

Looks like I'll be spending another week or so here and then its off to Boulder.

BTW, got out to Landahl yesterday and it IS rideable. There are a few slippery spots but it is 99% dry. I took some vids with the GoPro, going to try to post them here.

Descending skills

2011-12-03T13:00:00.001-06:00

Gina and I visited friends in Florida last week. It was a short stop-off before our trip to San Juan, PR. So what did we do? We jumped out of a fully functional plane.

What fun: a 15-minute flight up to 13,500; then jump out and freefall to 5,000ft; pull the chute and "glide" down the rest of the way. I say "glide" because my guide/instructor was pulling some aggressive moves and we came down quick!

Hut-to-Hut: September 7 (Day 3)

2011-12-03T07:37:00.000-06:00

Today's leg was 34 miles and the start and finish huts were at basically the same elevation: 9,100ft. Our endpoint for the day was the Columbine Hut.

Snack time!

We started the day under cloudy skies and on soggy dirt roads from the previous day's rain. The route was basically up-and-down with very little flat. However, none of the grades were too severe. The road cut through the Uncompahgre National Forest heading northwest across the plateau all day long.

As the day started, I wasn't feeling that great and felt like I was having to work harder than the previous 2 days. My mood wasn't super but at least Gina was having a good day, sprinting full speed on all the downhills. The iPods were out today and I think that helped the miles go by quicker.

We took a snack break after an hour or so and the sun was starting poke out. That meant it was time to break out the portable solar panels and charge the iPhones/iPods. The device we have can only charge the iPhone & iPod, but they do make a bigger panel that can charge an iPad too. In the end, it worked pretty well. Here's the one we used: Nomad 7

Although in theory there were a few scenic overlooks in the first part of the day, the clouds obscured everything and we didn't get any good pictures. Also, as the day was basically level and the road tree-lined, there weren't many opportunities for expansive views.

Kickin' up the legs and having some lunch!

We arrived at Columbine fairly early in the afternoon and had time to relax while the sun set. Of course no relaxing was done until the beer was located! Apparently we had a group of vets in front of us that had some recovering alcoholics, so the San Juan Hut folks, as a courtesy, had the beer out of plain sight. Thus, I am captured here diving for beer hidden behind some trailer tires under the bunks.

Where did they hide the damn beer?!?

Despite my not feeling super, this was probably one of the easier days. Gina definitely was having fun today. She determined she liked downhills, as long as they weren't too steep.

Hut-to-Hut: September 6 (Day 2)

2011-11-16T14:31:00.001-06:00

Day 2: Last Dollar Pass to Spring Creek Hut, 27 miles

The day began high on Last Dollar Pass under gray skies. The forecast was overcast with possible rain later in the day. On paper, the days route was downhill, but as we soon discovered "downhill day" simply means you end lower than you start. It doesn't mean you won't be doing any climbing! Even with a few uphills, this was probably the easiest day of the trip.

The start was a fairly long descent from Last Dollar through aspen groves to a high desert plateau. Here we rode by the old ranch where the original True Grit movie with John Wayne was filmed. We rolled up and down on this plateau until a sustained downhill to Highway 62. The roads on the plateau had more traffic than most due to the number of ranches in the area and the close proximity to the highway, but is was still tolerable. As we took a brief rest at Highway 62 (about the halfway point for the day), we talked with a couple guys who were riding across the country, east to west. They were nice guys and looked to be having a good time, despite getting wet and a little cold.

From Highway 62, we climbed up a couple miles to another high plateau populated with expansive ranches. Here we rode over nice gravel roads that zig-zagged through the ranch properties towards a darkening sky. Although we had sprinkles at various points during the day, I thought we might get lucky and avoid any hard rain. It was not to be, within 10 miles of the end the rain started to fall in earnest. The roads got progressively wetter and muddier as we approached the endpoint for the day. Although we were kicking up some muddy spray, thankfully, the roads never got boggy.

Today was Gina's longest ride ever! But, then again, so are the next 5 days! I for one couldn't imagine tackling this ride with as little preparation as she had going in. Nonetheless, today she was riding strong and in good spirits most of the day. Things started to unravel a little in the last few miles. Unfortunately, we ended with a climb and although Gina was still doing well physically, she was mentally ready to be DONE for the day. Although we never had any significant problems locating the hut at the end of any leg, it still can be a minor mind-f*** to not know exactly where the finish line is.

We arrived at the hut in the rain and partially covered in mud. Getting gear and clothing clean and strung up on the clothes lines was a little messy. Before getting cleaned up, I got the handsaw out and got my Paul Bunyan on. Luckily the wood at the hut was under the cover of trees so we had dry wood for a fire in the stove. This made it possible to get our clothes dry for the next day, yay!

In this picture you can see the "crapper" in the background. Apparently, these composting toilets have been pretty nasty in the past, but they were totally clean and non-nasty. They appeared to be relatively new and the design really works well.

Hut-to-Hut: Telluride to Moab

2011-11-07T17:41:00.000-06:00

Early in September, Gina and I did a backcountry MTB tour with San Juan Hut Systems. It was 7 days, 215 miles from Telluride to Moab. For those who might be considering such a outing, here's my review. For booking info see, San Juan Hut Systems.

Intro

First off, San Juan offers 2 routes: Telluride-Moab and Durango-Moab. Telluride is supposedly the easier of the two, but I think this refers mostly to technical difficulty. There are two days that have significant climbing, and the route is by no means a walk-in-the-park. The route could be done on a CX bike, but there would be some rough sections and the steep climbing could be pretty tough (probably depends how lightly you pack). If you want singletrack, the Telluride is NOT the way to go. It has very limited singletrack options off the main route. The Durango route is apparently much better in this regard.

The huts are great. Some are nicer than others, but all are comfortable and get the job done. The food choices are necessarily limited, but its no problem to put together tasty meals and chase them down with some well-deserved beers. Each hut has room for 8 people, so you can put together 8 friends and fill up the hut, or go with fewer and either end up by yourself or make new friends if others book the same start date.

Day 1: Telluride to Last Dollar Pass

This was a short day--only about 15 miles--but it has some good climbing. The first few miles are flat-to-downhill out of town on a paved bike path. From there you turn north and make a decent 2 mile road climb up to the airport. The dirt/gravel begins from the airport and takes you up to the pass. It is basically uphill from here with the exception of a section of downhill early on (losing whatever altitude you had gained from the airport). The early parts of the climb are in an area with some housing so the road is smooth, maintained gravel. After a few miles, the maintenance ends and the road becomes rougher dirt. Close to the top there is a 1 mile section where the gradient kicks up dramatically. On a regular MTB ride the grade might not be too bad, but carrying or pulling gear (I had a trailer and probably 40-50 lbs of extra gear) makes it pretty challenging. And there is the 11,000ft of altitude item too! The day ends with a 1/4 mile hike-a-bike that, for me at least, was the hardest part of the day. Pushing 75 pounds of bike and gear up a loose gravel pitch was a bitch. Nonetheless, it is all worth it when you finally get to the hut. It sits on a ridge line looking down the way you came up. It is amazingly scenic and probably the best vista of the whole trip.

More to come...

360 Cup & Boulevard Cup

2011-11-06T22:32:00.001-06:00

Got to dip my feet back in the proverbial pool this weekend. While I have been getting some riding in over the past 7 months, I haven't done any racing, training or hard efforts. Nonetheless I can't complain about my results. I was mostly able to ride steady, but had no punch or ability to ride in the red zone. The bottom line is you cannot effectively race CX unless you are doing lots of short very hard efforts in training.

First off, it was awesome to see everyone from the local CX scene. I don't think I've seen nearly anyone for about a year. Thanks to all those cheering me on during the races.

360 Cup - Saturday

This race was at Stump Park, on the hilly, north side of the park. The main feature of the course was a moderate uphill stretch probably 300-500 meters long. My initial strategy was to try to pace my effort out for the whole race because I figured going too hard in the early part of the race would mean running out of gas at the end.

I got off the line okay, but I didn't get right into my pedal (no practice). I was in a pretty decent spot, 5th to 10th, until the first gully turn. Shadd rolled a front tire in this corner and there was some chaos as everyone tried to get around. I didn't get by cleanly and found myself back a number of spots. I didn't panic and just tried to figure out a rhythm for the course. I resolved to push the hill hard and cruise the curvy section across the top of the course. Later on in the race I found it easiest to push the flat sections hard, ride the hill steady, and cruise the technical parts.

At first I battled with Nate Woodman and then caught Adam Mills wheel. I couldn't really hold his punchy pace and had to settle into my own rhythm. After a couple laps the race was more or less laid out, Joe was leading and riding away, followed by Andrew, Mark Savery, Adam, me, and Nate. Through the mid-part of the race, the gaps between the chasers started to grow. At some point it looked like Shadd was going to make it back up to me, but then I didn't see him anymore.

I felt like I was holding my pace fairly well because I was more or less holding steady with the guys in front of me and seemed to be riding away from those behind. In fact, with 2 or 3 to go the gaps to Andrew, Mark and Adam had gotten pretty small. Mark and Adam were dueling for third and ultimately Adam won out. The battle must have blown Mark, because I caught him and basically just went by him without a fight. He later told me he was having an off day from a skills standpoint and more or less resolved to ride it in.

That was pretty much it. I rolled in for 4th. Not a tactically interesting race, basically just man vs. course. Thanks to 360 Racing for putting it on and all the officials and volunteers!

Boulevard Cup - Sunday

Good course---had a little bit of everything. All good course have some sand and some tricky corners. Even better with a steep downhill, into a turn, into a run up! Props to the course designers. Based on Saturday, I figured today would be a good course for me. I ended up being weaker on the hill and stronger on the flats yesterday, today was all flat.

I started from the second row and was pretty far back after the start. Over the first lap I moved a up some spots, but tried to do it without blowing a gasket. I rode a bit with JP Brocket and finally moved my way up to Adam Mills. We were sitting 4th and 5th, with Joe out front and Mark Savery and Colton Jarisch together battling for 2nd/3rd.

Yesterday Adam rode away from me without much of a fight. Today, given the flatter course I figured I'd have to be a little clever to get away from him. I hoped that if I was able to get a small gap I'd be able to maintain it. We traded off work for a lap or two while I figured out my best plan of attack. I was thinking this duel was my "race" because Colton and Mark seemed to be out of reach. Adam had been leading in the curvy section and I found myself soft-pedaling a little bit, so I resolved to lead through and see if I could get my gap. I did and I hit the flats hard to make him work hard to close it up. In talking with him afterwards, he thought the gap was so small he'd have no trouble closing it up. Needless to say, small gaps in 'cross are like big gaps on the road. That small gap meant he was getting no rest and it turned into a drag race. I got the better of it today and gradually stretched it out and locked down 4th. The rest of the way was man vs. course again. I did keep Mark and Colton honest and kept the gap in the 12-15 sec range the rest of the way. Just didn't have juice to punch across that gap.

Two 4ths, no complaints.

Don't know when I'll be back in town, but who knows maybe I'll get another race in before the end of the year.

Headed out Tuesday for a whirlwind tour of the east coast: Columbus, Philly, DC, Durham, Orlando, San Juan, back through town on the way to Boulder for a week, and back before Christmas.

A rolling stone gathers no moss.

Coaching Services

2011-11-06T07:22:00.000-06:00

I am now offering coaching services related to many aspects of road, MTB and cyclocross training and racing. If you'd like some help with your CX training and racing, or are wondering what the best thing to do this off-season, I'd love to help.

Advice available in the following areas:

training plan development
evaluation of existing training plan
evaluation of performance testing results
strength/weakness identification
goal setting
race season planning
race tactics and strategy
bike fit/positioning
injury prevention/recovery
off-bike/cross training
diet, nutrition and on-bike fueling

Consultations can be conducted in-person or by telephone, email, or skype. Depending on availability, we can "meet" on the bike or at a race, too.

Coaching is available on an hourly basis at a rate of $60.00/hour. For ease of use, I am using PayPal for transactions. Other payment plans can be worked out if you'd prefer to not use PayPal.

Please contact me at 816-200-2188.

BOB trailer anyone?

2011-08-20T13:01:00.003-05:00

Anyone out there have a BOB Ibex trailer that I could borrow/rent? I'm doing a backcountry tour and it looks like I need to up my carrying capacity. I'd need it from a little before Labor Day until around the 3rd week of September. Thanks!

** Nevermind. I bought a Extrawheel Trailer, I should be good to go.

Ouch! Bone Bender 2011

2011-04-18T12:19:00.002-05:00

Back in town and I joined Rich Anderson to ride the Bone Bender 6hr as a duo team. First time on a MTB for probably 6 months and with the exception of a couple easy spin hours this past week, first time on a bike for 4 months. Baptism by fire.

I asked Rich to do the first lap because I didn't have much confidence about my rusty technical skills in traffic. Also, I really didn't think I was up to 4 laps either! I was right. Although my laps were decent given the circumstances, I had a good calf cramping moment on my last lap. This is actually the first time I have ever had a muscle lock up while riding. Of course, my bike fitness is crap, so its no surprise that riding hard for 2.5 hours was more than I could handle.

My technique seemed to be okay after some time on the trails. Everyone seemed to think the trail was really technical, I guess I didn't. Sure, it had technical bits that I didn't ride, but I didn't really feel like they defined the course. On any given course there are usually some technical bits that I can't ride, so this trail was about the same as anything else for me.

It was good to see everyone. It seems like I've been gone for a really long time. In reality, I probably wouldn't have seen most of these people at all over the last few months anyway, so its weird that it feels like I was returning from a long absence.

Anyway, probably won't be doing much riding/racing this year. Guess I better figure out something else to write about...

Fun in the Sun

2011-01-14T07:41:00.005-06:00

We've now been here the better part of two weeks. Unfortunately, we both caught a cold in the first week so we've been taking it a little easy so far. We start our days waking up with the sun, brewing some tea and coffee and then lazily reading and spending some time online. Once we feel better we'll probably be doing some surfing or yoga, or both in the morning.

Before lunch we usually hit the beach for some walking and swimming. Our tans are coming along nicely, we should be a nice golden brown very soon! By midday it gets pretty warm so we head to the casita for some lunch followed by more reading or napping.

At sunset the whole community convenes on the beach to say adios to the sun. Its a pretty cool ritual, and the sunsets can be fantastic.

Yesterday I was feeling better so I went for a little run. I think this will probably be my aerobic outlet; I need something our I might bloat up from too many Imperials (beer). Running on the dirt roads is nice and there are some hills about.

Looks like we will have a couple of beach cruisers starting this weekend so we'll have a little mobility since we returned the rental car. We'll put these to good use for runs to the grocery store in Nosara (about 2-3 miles away) or Esperanza (1 mile).

We've been watching the weather in KC...ouch! Let's just say we're not regretting our choice to head south for the winter...

We have anticipated some struggle with adjusting to the slowed pace of life and/or having few "things" to do to fill the day. As Americans, I think we have become conditioned to being frantically busy all the time. As of yet we seem to be doing okay. Of course, we were both sick this last week, which makes it a little easier to do nothing. We've spent lot of time reading, thank you for electronic books or we would be sure to run out things to read in a few weeks. Fortuitously, we have a guitar hanging on the wall of our casita, so maybe I'll finally start to learn how to play! I've had one day where I was a little anxious and wanted to be doing "something"; but most days have been great and just seem to fly by.

That's all I've got for now....

Change is good!

2010-12-28T19:08:00.005-06:00

As 2011 begins, Gina and I are initiating a radical change in direction: I quit my job as a law clerk last month; Gina is taking a sabbatical from managing the day-to-day affairs of the yoga studio; Gina's uncle has moved into our house; and we are off to Costa Rica for three months. We "plan" to fill the days with surfing, sun and anything else that pops up. I put plan in quotes because the whole idea is to get away from the planning, routine, and obligations of life as we have known it for the last 10-15 years.

As a warm up, we spent 10 days around Christmas in Bali with Michael Franti and friends at his new retreat center in Ubud (the same town of "Eat Pray Love" fame). It was an interesting place and we met some great people. We both were getting used to the slowed pace of life there and we are sliding into Costa Rica mode after a few days of relatively frantic last-minute preparations.

I will not be riding the bike during this time, except a beach cruiser to the store for more milk (or beer). We'll be posting stuff during our stay on Facebook and perhaps a dedicated blog.

Pura Vida!

Gear for Sale

2010-11-28T11:57:00.014-06:00

A few things for sale here. Contact me for more details:

Fuji 19" Mt. Fuji LTD Carbon Hartdtail MTB - $1200
Shimano XT
DT Swiss X430 wheels (ridden once)
The bike has been ridden for a couple seasons, but not many miles because of wet weather.

Scott 56cm Scott Team CX - $1400
Shimano Ultegra
Mavic Ksyrium Elite Wheels
Frame is brand new and the components are essentially unused (came off a demo bike). The wheels have had some use, but are in good shape.

Scott 56cm Addict CX (carbon) - $2000
SRAM Force
No wheels.
Used for two CX seasons. In good shape with a few cosmetic blemishes.

Tacx Satori Trainer - $100

Grand Prix HPT & De Stad Cup

2010-11-15T16:44:00.002-06:00

This was a tough weekend, two hard courses and weak legs/body. It is not hard to tell that the legs aren't feeling good, but it is hard to figure out why. I've got a few ideas and I'll try to sort them out over the next few weeks.

Saturday night's race was pretty crazy. The mud was off the hook, especially for the earlier races. I had big time accumulation problems and couldn't seem to ride some sections where everyone else was. I managed 3rd, but it was mostly a gift. A few guys had mechanical issues and I was able to ride through to the finish. The coolest part of the night was Luke getting 2nd. He seemed to be floating through the mud and not having any accumulation issues. Must be nice!!

Sunday was another tough course. It was definitely a power & fitness course. I would have enjoyed it much more about a month ago! As it was I kind of limped my way around. I was able to hold steady behind Andrew for most of the race. I finished up 2nd, but may have ended up 3rd if Brian Jensen didn't have his chain fall off a few times.

I ended up riding the Challenge Grifo XS tires in both races. I am definitely exploring the performance envelope for file treads! Next stop Jingle Cross, will I have to run Grifos or Fangos? We'll have to see what the weather holds...

Thanks to Jeff Unruh & Chris Locke (and everyone who helped them) for providing this weekend's suffering...

Boss Cross #3 at Barry-Platte Park

2010-10-31T20:21:00.013-05:00

For me this was the last race of the first half of the CX season. September is basically getting the feet wet and October tells you where you are and exposes any weak spots. November is the time to fix any weaknesses, hopefully kick your fitness up another step, and get your messy conditions technique working.

As has been typical this year, we had balmy conditions--70 degrees and sunny. Friends and family came out to enjoy the day and cheer me on. I definitely was hearing my name and words of encouragement ("C'mon Old Man!!") all over the course.

This was a new course for me, as I didn't race this event last year. It was a compact course, due in large part to the size of the park. As a result, it was quite twisty and turned back on itself in order to get the lap length up. The course definitely had some interesting elements: sand runs, tough off-camber turns, and some slow-speed, elevation changes.

In particular 2 turns were the primary technical challenges. The first is pictured here: you could get in trouble if you tried to rush this one. Basically, you needed to drop down all the way to the tape and then make your turn and ride straight up the hill. The second was a short, steep uphill chicane. There wasn't much grip on the upslope, so you pretty much just had to come at it with speed and just launch up it right to the tape. Once over the lip, then you could make your turn. Fun stuff.

In addition to testing your your technical skills, the course required a decent amount of power too. I definitely underestimated this aspect of the course after the pre-ride. There were some bumpy sections which generally aren't my favorite, but what are you going to do, it isn't pavement!

So, this was the third race in the series and I had the points lead going in, having won the first two races. Jon Schottler looked to be my main points competition, and of course teammate Joe Schmalz was there as likely winner for the day. Going in I couldn't really tell how I was feeling. I figured I had no known issues that would make for a bad race. As it turns out, I was a little flat. I didn't seem to have any punch and I couldn't seem to kick it up above a steady, hard pace. Last weekend I had that next level, not here. I actually think it might be due to riding too easy the day before the race. I think everyone is different and you need to figure out the best way to ride the day before so that your legs are at their best on race day. This can even change from year-to-year. Last year, I needed that easy day before race day, this year I think i need a little more intensity.

As points leader, I got a front row position. I had a decent start and got off the line behind Joe and Travis. I went by Travis as we passed through the finish line. By the time we got to the first sand pit, Joe, Jon and I had a little gap on the rest. That was pretty much it for the top three. With Joe driving the pace, we gradually rode away from the rest over the next few laps. Joe clearly had the most gas of the three of us. For the first half of the race, Jon seemed to have the upper hand on me. I was able to hold position a few seconds behind him, but just didn't have the snap to accelerate well out of the turns or press the pace. Joe eventually was off on his own at the front. As the laps ticked off, Jon seemed to lose some power, don't know if it was his back or just racing, and I was able to ride up to him. For my part, I seemed to be doing a little better as the race progressed. Around halfway, Jon and I had a little over a minute on the chase, first Brian Jensen (retired with mechanical issues) then Andrew Coe. I was able to get by Jon after halfway and eventually put about a minute on him. I ended up about 30 seconds or so behind Joe. Andrew came fourth, and Adam Mills was fifth.

On the whole, it was a decent race. The big takeaway for me is to nail down the best day-before workout. I may have to rearrange rest days so that I can hit it on Friday to open the legs.

October is the books. Compared to last year, it has gone well. The training has been good, and fairly consistent. I'm happy with the race results, in 7 races I ended up with 4 wins, 1 2nd, 1 3rd, and 1 8th. Time to buckle down and make November a good training month. I will probably race a little less in November to compliment my training and to keep the motivation high. I'll do Jingle Cross and St. Mary's at least.

Hopefully, everything will fall into place by December for Nationals.

Berryman Epic and Smithville Cross

2010-10-24T19:49:00.011-05:00

Berryman is a short story. A bunch of guys rode away from me on the starting climb. I started to reel people back over the next 10-15 miles. Then I shifted my rear derraileur into to the wheel and my race was done. I had to walk 4-5 miles to the next checkpoint to get a ride back to the Start. Thanks Trudi! I didn't hang out, but just started driving home planning to ride Smithville on Sunday.

Things went a little better Sunday at Sailboat Cove! I psyched myself up to ride hard for the whole 50 minutes, especially with having the MTB race cut short. Off the start I didn't get into to my pedal right away and lost the hole shot. I slotted in 3rd behind Travis who got the hole shot, and another rider I didn't recognize. I was going for the hole because that first turn off the pavement into the grass is always a little sketchy. On the start line, Britton predicted trouble and he was right.

The rider in front of me lost his front wheel right as we left the pavement and basically blocked up the best line. Out of caution, I had given him a little space entering the corner and as a result I was able to squeeze around him on the outside. I don't think anyone else got through clean. Travis had a little gap on me and I set about to closing it up. He held the lead through the roller coaster turns after the start and then the second set of turns by the parking lot. Once we got on the bike trail heading to the beach I put down the power and was able to pass for the lead before we got back on the grass.

The next interesting section was the beach. This year the sand was basically packed down and the exit was a pretty easy ride up. I gassed it hard from there and made sure I was accelerating hard out of every corner. Over the course of the first lap I had built up an 18 sec lead over Travis with Brian Jensen at 25sec (mostly due to the first corner crash). Somewhere on the second lap the lead had grown to 25sec and 32sec. Brian overtook Travis on the 3rd or 4th lap. Somewhere close to halfway I think I was told the gap was over a minute. We were doing 10 laps and the finish seemed pretty far away when I saw 5 laps to go.

Basically, I just tried to continue to give it my all on the straight sections and be smooth and fast in the corners. I started to get into lapped traffic pretty quick, I think around half way. Everyone was great and let me by without much delay. I especially have to thank Tyler Henson who took the slow line on the beach (caught on film even!) to let me hit the exit with a clear run, muchas gracias!

Unlike Saturday, I had no equipment issues. I rode which Challenge clinchers--Fango up front and Grifo XS in the rear--and they worked great. I had the pressure just right and I didn't have any issues.

I got another time check on the penultimate lap, and it was 2:05. I managed to stretch it out to 2:15 as I hit the last lap. This is great because it means I stayed on the gas and the power didn't fade too much late in the race. I don't know what our lap times were but I suspect we raced close to 55min.

As usual the Smithville course was awesome with the classic elements from years past, as well as some new elements. On the whole I think this year's course was an improvement over last year.

Last, but not least, a big thanks to Chris Locke and all the other people and sponsors who made this race happen.

Tulsa & Boulevard Cup

2010-10-17T20:07:00.016-05:00

A full weekend of CX, two days in Tulsa and one in KC.

Friday: Ruts 'n' Guts
Friday night was a dusty, bumpy, dark affair. I started out fairly well sitting pretty good in the first few riders. The main "barrier" on this course was constructed by stealing flat rocks from a nearby rock wall and piling them across the course. It was a single barrier so all the riders at the front were hopping it. Let's just say I don't bunny hop well and I don't practice it. Somehow I got over the wall the first lap and unfortunately convinced myself I should continue to hop it. Second time through...game over, express elevator to Hell going down, total endo. In the process I managed to take out Shadd and almost Andrew too. Needless to say, that kind of jacked things up for the rest of the race. I nursed a crushed carbon wheel through the rest of the race and tried to make the best of it. I was able to continue at a fair pace but struggled seeing in some of the darker parts of the course. Guess i need some prescription Oakleys. I rode most of the race trailing a small group with no one behind me. Finished up 8th, probably 30 seconds or so behind the group going for 2nd-6th. Brian Fawley took the win solo. Shadd rallied from me crashing him and beat all the chasers for 2nd. Teammate Bill Marshall finished in the money at 16th.

Saturday: New Cross on the Block
This was a totally different race than Friday. It was completely wide open grass and gravel. There were a couple of relatively short uphill sections and one steep run-up. For me the feature was the temperature--85+ degrees. I don't dig the heat. At least they allowed water handups on the uphill, small favors. The field was about half the size, but the top 8 from Friday were there, minus Shadd.

I started a little less effectively and was probably between 10-15 back for the first half of the first lap. Brian Fawley wasted no time getting a gap, and a chase group started to form behind him. Initially, the group was small, 3-4 riders. But, everyone was looking at each other and we were going pretty slow. Several riders came back to the group over the next lap or so. Finally, Andrew Coe applied some pressure and the group started to fracture. Andrew got a small gap and then Johnny Sundt crossed to him. No chase seemed to be developing so I made my own bid to cross the gap. I towed a couple of riders with me, but when they refused to share the work, I upped it again and crossed solo to Andrew.

As I caught him, Andrew said he was hurting and let me by. I built a few seconds gap but then lost it sliding out in a corner. He was back on my wheel for a while but ultimately faded back. He was having cramping issues and had a rough day. From here, Fawley, Sundt, and I were fairly evenly spaced and seemed to be going about the same speed. Things stayed like that the rest of race and I rolled in for 3rd. There was a battle behind, which KCCX came out on the losing side of due to ill-timed punctures. Tom fell from 4th to 6th, and Bill fell from 8th to 10th. Will Gault, teammate living in Tulsa (and our gracious host Friday night) finished 8th on the day.

Anyone got a camel-toe filter for Photoshop, WTF?!

Sunday: Boulevard Cup
After driving home Saturday night, it was catch a few Zzzzs and get up to do it again out at Wyandotte County Park. KCCX/Verge had some fresh soldiers with Shadd and Luke Lininger lining up. It was a strong local field with the addition of the Nebraska crew. The course had some familiar elements from past years as well as some new challenges. On the whole it probably rewarded fitness over technical ability, but of course required both.

Bill set the pace off the start line and I slotted in about five back. Mark Savery from Nebraska set a blistering pace on the first lap and split the group. First Shadd, then me, grabbed Mark's wheel and waited to see how things would develop. Mark started to fade and Shadd took over at the head of the race. After he got a few seconds I punched it up to him and it was just the two of us. Shadd set a fast pace for a most of a lap and our gap started to grow. We settled into a good steady rhythm and watched for a response from behind.

Over the next few laps we slowly grew the gap to the chase. Smooth and steady was the recipe for the remainder and we rolled home with a sizable advantage over Brian Jensen who beat out Mark and Matt from Nebraska for 3rd. Ultimately, Shadd and I crossed the line simultaneously for a tie. Tom didn't finish due to a knee issue and Luke had mechanical issues. Bill gutted it out and finished up in the top 10.

Post-Boulevard, I had Guts 2.0 as something evil took up residence in my intestines. So for dinner, I enjoyed an appetizer of an artichoke followed by Pepto for the main course. As I write this I am impatiently waiting for the pink stuff to do it's thing.

Boss Cross #2

2010-10-03T19:56:00.008-05:00

After a good dinner, nice massage from my superwife/soigner Gina, and a good night sleep I was ready for another day of racing at E.H. Young Park. The post-race massage was a first (at least since the old days), might have to make that a regular occurrence! It'll help keep my aging muscles supple and injury-free.

Got there with plenty of time to do some pre-riding of the course changes. I made more than a few runs through the new riverside section with tricky sand. Eventually I figured out how to ride it, but not without a fall and a nice bruise on my shin. Initially, I was dubious of attempting to ride this section, but I eventually changed my mind in favor of riding because of the advantage of being on the bike for the exit up the hill.

The field was just as fast today, but with a little loss of depth. The Tradewind guys opted to do a gravel road ride instead of race. The Columbians (not Escobar's gente, but Butthead's peeps) were back. I figured Josh for a strong ride today after getting a race day in his legs. Jon's back/SI joint seemed like a limiter but you never know.

We got a clean start with Bill taking the holeshot and leading most of the first lap. I went by before the sandy river section so I would have a clean line to attempt to ride it. I got through clean but some chaos erupted behind and I had a 10-15sec gap just like that. I really didn't want to ride the whole 60 minutes by myself, but sometimes you need to take advantage of breaks when they go your way. So I set it on cruise control to see how vigorous the chase from behind would be. At first I thought this would be good because Tom & Bill could sit on the chase and save some juice for later. As it turns out, Tom had mechanical issues as a result of the sand chaos and would spend the day chasing. I think initially Jon was leading the chase, with Josh and Andrew Coe in close proximity. I more or less held the gap through the next few laps while the chase shuffled behind me. From my vantage point it looked like Jon faded back and Josh and Andrew were battling back and forth. About halfway through Josh seemed to be making some headway and was closing the gap. I had been holding back a little figuring I'd need some punch if he caught me. It held steady over the next couple laps though. With 2 laps to go I kicked it up a notch and I gradually stretched it back out to about 25secs at the finish. It was a hard way to win, but I shouldn't complain. Kind of boring race report from my perspective, but I bet Josh, Jon & Andrew's battle was pretty interesting.

(Photo credit to John Peck. He's got some great shots of the sand pit from Sunday on Facebook)

The team rode great as a whole with Tom riding back up to 4th place and Bill finishing 6th. Luke was up there too, we'll have to check the results for his final placing.

Technically, I rode a little better yesterday. I didn't seem to be cornering as well today. It may be that the slight increase in tire pressure meant I had a little less grip and a little less cushion on the bumps. I'll continue trying to dial this in just right. As for the sand by the river, I rode it successfully half to two-thirds of the time. A couple of my fails resulted in awkward dismounts which probably cost me a few secs each time. That's the risk of riding at the edge of your technical skill.

So I held on to the series lead and will hang on to the General Lee Jersey until October 30th. Yeehaw!

A big thanks to Jeremy Haynes and Joe Fox for putting this weekend on. Also to the officials and volunteers, we wouldn't get to play without your hard work...thanks!

Boss Cross #1

2010-10-02T18:54:00.003-05:00

So it's been a little quiet on this blog lately. Partly because I haven't really been getting too many races in and partly because there hasn't been much interesting to report. This weekend will change that...

Today was the first Boss Cross race held at the Riverside venue. Honestly, I was a little disappointed because I thought it would be at Parkville. I really like Parkville. At Riverside in 2007 or 2008, I sucked, so I don't quite have a positive view of it. Nonetheless, I was ready to get a good day of racing in. Physically, I didn't feel super before the race, but mentally I was good to go.

The course was fairly similar to the previous time I did it. Maybe technically a little simpler because of the absence of the hill run up and no stairs cut into the section down by the river. The sand was set up differently with us crossing it short ways but the entry was on a turn so no speed.

The field was BIG! Lots of upgrades, I hope those who had their first go in the Open field felt it was worth it! It was a strong field with the Columbia Wrecking Crew in attendance. There was also a full contingent of the Tradewind guys. Steve had problems last week, but I wasn't counting him out for today. The course looked good for Brian Jensen with some decent straightaways and a fairly stiff wind.

My strategy was to let the race develop and not get too involved with pacemaking in the early laps. I figured if I had any cards to play I'd do so in the last couple of laps. No such luck. My plan was foiled when I stacked it up in the sand on the 3rd lap. As a result my rear brake got all messed up and wouldn't disengage. I stopped a couple times trying to get it sorted out. Meanwhile the head of the race was riding away. I'm told I was back at least a minute and back around 20th. Maybe so, whatever it was it wasn't looking good.

I didn't panic and just figured I'd put in a good effort and see how much ground I could make up. I settled into a hard rhythm and started moving from group to group. I knew I had about 5 laps to make up ground so I didn't go Hogg-wild. I just tried to ride error free and push hard on the open sections. It seemed to be working because I was starting to see the two lead groups in front of me on course. Long story short, I ended up catching Brian Jensen near the end of the penultimate lap. He was leading with a 5-10 sec gap over Josh Johnson, Jon Schottler, and Tom Price. On the last lap I was able to get a little gap and hold it to the finish. I guess the moral of this story is don't ever stop riding hard, you never know whether you will ride back into the race. Also, you probably need the race effort anyway, so get to it.

As payback for my efforts, I have the honor of donning the "General Lee" points leader jersey. I'll try to do the Duke boys proud tomorrow!

See ya there....

Hermann 'Cross Under the Water

2010-09-21T13:06:00.004-05:00

The Edge…there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. ~Hunter S. Thompson

I'm sure most everyone has heard about the crazy weekend in Hermann by now. Most of the craziness is well documented elsewhere, so I won't repeat it. I'll just share my view of what will probably be one of the shortest cyclocross race ever.

I was lined up in the second row next to Ethan Froese and Andrew Coe, and behind Nate Rice. Our first start was aborted because we barreled full speed through the start/finish area head on into a van driving on the course. On the restart, I got off the line well enough and down the pavement to the first turn. Things got a little hairy through the turn, but I had a good line and came out something like 4th to 6th behind Jon Schottler, Shadd Smith, and Joe Schmalz.

The first half of the course was open straightaways and the stairs. Things held the same until we hit the second half of the course that was all turns. I think I moved up a spot or two through a little sand pit. Shortly thereafter, Jon fell and this shuffled things up so that Joe, Shadd & I were sitting 1-2-3. By now it had started to rain hard and the corners were super slick. A little further on Joe slid out on a corner, and after the shuffle Tom was leading and I was sitting 2nd.

Tom led through the remainder of the first lap and I accelerated hard once we hit the pavement. The bell was ringing as we came through the start/finish indicating that the officials decided to shorten the race. When we hit the grass again Shadd was on my wheel. At some point before we hit the second half of the course, Jon had made it back to the head of the race and was on my wheel. I made it through a few turns before the pressure from behind made me not get my line quite right and I slid out my front wheel. I managed to get back up and going, but not before I was out of contention. Moving up in the slick corners would have been a tall order. So in the end I just rolled in behind Andrew Coe and Josh Johnson.

I rolled with Challenge Fango Clinchers on Reynolds Attack rims. I would say everything worked great but I really didn't get a chance to get a feel for them and my handling skills are probably a little rusty too.

I wish we were able to race longer (and of course Sunday, too) but that's the way it goes.

Thanks to Jeff Yielding, the town of Hermann, and everyone associated with the race. I'm sure they are wishing things had gone differently too!

Time for Cyclocross!

2010-09-08T09:56:00.004-05:00

The season is just about ready to begin! This week has been all about clinics, KCCX is participating in the Source Endurance Clinic at Herman Laird Park in Shawnee on Saturday. It'll be a good opportunity to learn a few things and get your technique on board for 2010-11.

Next weekend (18-19), the racing begins! Either in KC at the KC Cup Cross or in Hermann, Mo for the Hermann Cross races Saturday night and Sunday. I'll be in Hermann.

The long range forecast has a fair amount of rain, with any luck we'll start out with some mud in Hermann.

Mid-Summer Post

2010-07-14T16:13:00.002-05:00

Yep, its been a while. I've been riding, but not racing much. Rhett's Run was way back in mid-May. I've been out of town, doing other things, races have been canceled, etc. Haven't even been out on the MTB bike too much with the continual rain and muddy trails.

But I'm looking forward to the endurance MTB races later this summer: RiM & Cruise the Blues in August, Tall Oak and Sac River in September, and Berryman in October. Also, I think I caught a whiff of CX, do you smell it? I'll kick off my CX season with the Hermann 'Cross races in September.

There's a few other interesting races coming up too: the Super-D race at Landahl, Rock Bridge MTB race, and others. We've even got a Dirt Crit series starting up this week ... if the weather cooperates. May not make it this week, but I'd like to get out there and take some turns in the dirt.

See ya out there...

Rhett's Run in the Mud

2010-05-17T10:05:00.009-05:00

Sunday I headed out to Columbia to ride the Marathon event in Cosmo Park. I rode this race last year under very different conditions. Even though it rained most of the morning before the race last year the trail was not muddy at all. Not so Sunday!

I rode the ol' hardtail, mainly because I was too lazy to do the the equipment changes I needed to do to run the tubed setup on the Genius. I think I would have been a bit faster had I done so. I haven't ridden the hardtail for a long time and I have gotten pretty used to the position and suspension on the Genius. Also I went down one time because I clipped my bars on a tree, this wouldn't have happened on the Scott as the bars are a few centimeters narrower. Oh well, lesson learned.

As for the race, I got through without any major issues. On the last couple laps the rear brake was making an awful racket and was dragging pretty badly. After I cleaned the bike, I could see some pieces were not where they are supposed to be. But, other than that, the gears were working and the air stayed in the tires.

The Marathon group was pretty small. Zach Brace and Zdenek were there and a few others I didn't know. I took the holeshot uncontested and tried to put the hammer down. I need the highend work so I was ready to sacrifice optimal pacing. I had a gap pretty quickly and just tried to keep the gas on. Unfortunately, towards the end of the lap I misinterpreted the course markings and did an extra bit of singletrack instead of gravel road. I probably added 30 secs to a minute on this little detour. After that the laps ticked off without incident, and I got in 7 laps when it was all said and done.

The course conditions changed throughout the race. The first lap offered the most traction, mainly because the trail hadn't been churned up yet. After the first lap, the uphills became considerably more slick although the rest of the trail held steady. The mud bog along the powerline got worse with each lap and required a ton of brute power to churn through. About halfway through my race it started to rain and the conditions changed again. The traction on the hills improved, but I think the course got slower as a larger percentage of the trail had a layer of mud that sapped speed.

For me tire selection was the key. The Maxxis Medusas were nothing short of magic. I am definitely going to try to find something equivalent for the muddiest CX races. If I had something like this at the muddy St. Mary's race I would have been considerably faster through some key sections.

For some other perspectives: Aaron Elwell, Dave Breslin, & Jon Schottler.

Rhett's Run Prep

2010-05-14T14:17:00.011-05:00

The trail is likely to be muddy with over 4" of rain in the preceding week and the forecast is calling for rain throughout the weekend too. Looks like a good race to try out some new treads.

Having ridden Maxxis Crossmarks in minorly muddy conditions last year at the Tall Oak 6hr race, I don't think it'll be the ideal tread for the trail. The Crossmark is a great all-round tread and I have ridden it in wet conditions (Syllamo, Ouachita & Tall Oak), but it can get packed up with mud and traction suffers. For the mud this weekend, I am going to try either the Monorail or the Medusa.

The Medusa is a specialty mud tire, but is not UST. The tread on the Medusa is pretty serious, and probably doesn't roll too fast.

I don't know if conditions will warrant a full-on mud setup, or I should compromise and run the Monorail in the rear. The Monorail has widely spaced knobs and aggressive shoulder knobs; Maxxis says it clears mud well and gets good traction.

Decisions, decisions...

Krug Park, Saint Joseph

2010-05-10T16:22:00.009-05:00

Saturday was the Robidoux Roundup in Krug Park. It was part of the United Dirt Federation series and I raced the XC race. This is a little on the short side compared to what I normally do, in fact, it was the first XC race I've ever done.

Aaron Elwell was there, so I knew who I'd be chasing. It started with a long, paved uphill stretch to string out the field before the singletrack. Otherwise, the entire 7+ miles was tight singletrack. The course was mostly packed dirt without much in the way of rocks or roots. What it was missing in trail obstacles, it made up for in tight turns and steep ups and downs. There was very little trail that would allow you to get into a pedaling rhythm. It was basically all hard accelerations and decelerations. My lower back definitely felt the effort.

Travis led us up the first half of the paved starting hill. I took over for a short stretch and then Aaron powered it up over the top. He went into the singletrack first and immediately started to develop a gap. I was second in with a Nebraska rider hot on my heels. He was not liking that Aaron was riding away and jumped around me. Tom Price was briefly on my wheel, but ended up puncturing and retiring. The Nebraska rider (Ryan Feagon) was unable to close the gap to Aaron and actually started to slow. After 5 or 10 minutes I passed him back and tried to keep Aaron close. Aaron was running about 15-20 seconds in front of me until he stopped with some shifting problems. He sorted it quickly and was more or less on my wheel as we came through at the end of the first lap (of 3). He quickly started to ride away again and developed a 40 second gap over the second lap. The last lap was a little better for me and Aaron only stretched his lead out another 7 seconds. So I finished 47 seconds down on Aaron for the overall and was the first 40-49.

The XC effort is much higher than I am used to from doing the endurance races. I need the work though and I am glad I raced it. Chasing Aaron made sure I worked hard, but I probably wasn't aggressive enough trying to hold his wheel. I may not have been able to stay with him, but I need to work on not being so quick to settle into my own rhythm.

The summer is full of XC races so I'll probably be taking my lumps in them until the endurance stuff ramps back up in August.

On the road, Luke had a good ride at Joe Martin finishing 34th in the overall of the Men 1/2 race. We rode well and improved from day-to-day. Good stuff, especially since he's only a junior!

Looks like I'll be missing Syllamo...

2010-04-29T11:26:00.003-05:00

First, Ouachita, then Lawrence River Trails, and now Syllamo. Can't seem to get any momentum going on this racing thing this season.

Last Sunday I got to thinking I was still 20-something and pushed a little too hard and did some damage. I managed to tweak a tendon in my leg. I've been taking it easy this week and icing it, but I don't think it'll be ready to go for Saturday. I'm bummed. It looked like it was going to be a good race, even with the serious weather in the forecast.

The bones are bent...

2010-04-19T08:46:00.014-05:00

Bone Bender 6hr is in the books. Monday morning and I am becoming acquainted with the various aches and pains of the long race on the trails. All-in-all the race went well: had good power, decent endurance and the skills seemed to be working. A good season opener.

Rode the Scott Genius 20, mostly with the 150mm f/r suspension fully engaged. I locked the rear out a couple of times early on while riding on the pavement. I stopped doing this after I would forget to open it back up on the trail. Also ran a new set of Maxxis Crossmark 2.1 UST tires at 27/29 psi (f/r). This year I am also riding Scott's Team Issue MTB shoes. All my equipment worked great today and I had no issues.

Here's my recollection of how things went down. Some of the timing or laps may be off, but it should mostly be accurate.

For starters, the conditions were hard to beat. The trail was in great shape, the weather was just right, and lots of people showed up for some good-time racing. Over 200 toed the line for the LeMans start. We ran a short loop on the grass and beach before grabbing the bikes and heading on to the 11.5 mile loop. I started on the second row on the very inside (the run was a short counterclockwise loop). I was a little worried about getting pinched in the first corner but things went fine. I probably hit the end of the run between 5th and 10th, however, I had awesome bike placement and was 3rd on my bike behind Tige Lamb and Doug Stone. Things started to sort out after the first short singletrack section on the first bike path section. Tige was still in the lead with a small gap, Cameron (Duo 6) moved past me, as did Kent McNeill (Solo 3) and Mark Studnicki (Solo 3). A little later on the first lap I let another another 3hr rider by so he could contest the race with his competition.

I trailed this group for the first lap holding a fairly steady gap. I think Tige and Mark faded back to me later in the lap. So at the end of one lap, I was sitting behind one 6 hr duo team and two 3hr solo riders. I later learned I was about 2:30 up on 6hr solo competitors Kip Biese and Matt Gersib. About one-quarter of the way through the second lap Jon Schottler (Solo 3) caught up to me. I let him by and he and the 2nd place 3hr rider (I am pretty sure he was from Iowa or Nebraska) were riding together a little ways in front of me. I think this is how things stayed through lap 2 and about half of lap 3. And apparently I was about 6 minutes up on Gersib after 2 laps.

On the 3rd lap, I rode up to Schottler and the other 3hr rider. About halfway through that lap, the other rider looked to be fading and Schlotter accelerated on one of the bike path sections. I stayed with him and we rode away. Schottler was pushing the pace and I had no interest in passing him. Later, somewhere in the last quarter of the lap Schottler got caught up on a tree and ended up letting me by. I kept the pace steady and we continued to work through traffic. I think I must have put a little gap on him (probably because of lapped traffic) because I came into the start of the 4th lap by myself (although Jon was probably right behind me). At this point I was apparently 4-5 minutes down on Cameron & Travis, with Kent McNeill somewhere in between.

Laps 3 and 4 had a lot of traffic to work through. This is always a tough situation and its impossible to not have some issues passing riders. That said, I think the vast majority of passes were pleasant for all involved. I apologize to any riders who's flow got messed up as a result of my passing.

Laps 4-6 were more of the same, just keeping the pace steady and keeping fueled. Jeremy came out and did an awesome job up handing up bottles and food throughout the race. It was definitely a luxury to not have to stop and refuel.

Jeremy's pit assistant Atticus, however, didn't seem to have a firm grasp on his assigned duties.

Starting lap 7 fatigue was definitely setting in. At that point, I guess I was about 30 minutes up on Gersib. As it turns out he finished his 6th lap a few minutes before 4:00pm, but didn't go out for a 7th lap. I was happy to have a sizeable gap and have the luxury of taking it down a notch. I tried to keep it steady and rolled through the lap about one minute slower than my previous lap.

In retrospect, the race "went" different than my two 6-hour races last year. Here, I felt really strong and comfortable through most of the race, but felt pretty tired on the last lap. Last year I felt like I was suffering more throughout, but didn't feel as tired at the end. Who knows though, maybe that's just the memories fading.

The Ethos boys had a good day: Travis & Cameron took the 6hr Duo Class with Travis getting the fastest lap too. Garet Steinmetz got the win in the 3hr Singlespeed category.

(photos by Lantern Rouge and J. Pych)

Smithville Trail Recon

2010-04-15T09:39:00.003-05:00

The trails are in primo condition right now!

The course map is up (here) and it is listed as 11.5 miles. I got a couple laps in and it was good. I am pretty sure I rode the course correctly, with the exception of the bits around the start/finish. Here is Chris' Garmin info from his ride last night. As you can see there is not much elevation change out there, but it is pretty twisty and speeds don't get too high. All in all it flows nice and will be a great race, if we don't get too much rain tonight.

Although the course is pretty smooth, with the exception of a couple rocky sections, I'll be out there on my Scott Genius with 150mm of travel. I'm sure I'll be loving that cushy feeling 6hrs in!

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a few days.

Big Ring State of Mind

2010-04-09T15:50:00.000-05:00

http://www.bigringriding.com/

Tuesday Nighter

2010-04-08T08:17:00.008-05:00

Fairly epic weather for this one. King Kelly wasn't there, but this picture captures the evening (especially the ride home in the dark).

It was dry at first, but about halfway through it started to rain hard and even a little hail came down. Thankfully it was not the walnut and golf ball sizes they talked about on the news. Needed a waterproof camera for some action shots! Sometimes the weather gets so bad that riding in it is almost funny. It definitely changes the dynamic when you are struggling to see the road and riders around you.

All in all it was a good time, unfortunately now I've caught a head cold. I doubt it was from riding in the rain, but that may not have helped!

Tom Price has some pics and results here.

Also, our local malcontent weighed in on the affair here.

April showers? I hope not...

2010-04-06T11:10:00.002-05:00

So, it appears the weather has finally warmed up for good and the sun is coming out. I even have managed to get a couple tan-lines started.

I didn't make it down to Ouachita this year, so nothing to report there. Its too bad, it looked like a quality field and would have been a good race.

April will be full of MTB races, as long as the weather cooperates. First up, is the UFD race at the Lawrence River Trails this weekend. Then its Bone Bender 6hr, Tour de Tick, and Ride with the Devil 6hr. Looking forward to testing out the legs and start working my MTB skills back into shape.

Scott Genius

2010-02-24T09:56:00.005-06:00

This is what I'm riding this year. Actually, I'm riding the 2009 model, but they are mostly the same. The 2010 has the Twinloc feature allowing you to adjust the front and rear suspension on-the-fly from the handlebar, sweet!

Thanks to Rich Anderson I am in the Ouachita Challenge again this year. Unfortunately, I had assumed I wasn't racing it so I'm a little behind on the training. I'll see what I can do over the next month to get ready!

Mudslinging...

2010-01-26T09:39:00.008-06:00

Time to harden up and get some time on the bike. Would like to go on some of the Guru's Gravel Grinders, but its hard to justify driving so much when I can just ride out the door. Maybe when they come back to this side of the metro.

So I got in an epic gravel/mud ride on the MTB this weekend. Saturday was warmer and wet so I went exploring the non-pavement in eastern Jackson and Lafayette counties--71 miles of mud splatter. Should have taken some pictures, I was definitely looking messy at the Higginsville Casey's. Listened to iTunesU the whole time so it was educational too!

Here's the route:

View Gravel Loop - Higginsville in a larger map

Looks like some "e-mudslinging" is going on too, check out http://sandbaggerkc.blogspot.com. On a related note, I got the results sheets from Andrew Coe. So for those who care about such things, I should have the Kansas City CX rankings updated through the whole 2010 season this week.

Now that it has gotten cold again, I would think the trails would be rideable. Maybe I'll try to turn some laps out at Landahl.

2010

2010-01-06T11:37:00.008-06:00

Theoretically it is time to start getting ready to race for the 2010 season. However, we're in the middle of a cold snap that has kept snow on the road and temps well below freezing. Compound that with 10 days in Costa Rica with 90+ temps, and I am not so motivated to get out on the bicycle. Of course, I am never motivated to get on the bicycle indoors! Living in San Diego made riding at this time of year pretty easy. I'm missing that climate right about now!

Does this count for cross-training?

My goals for 2010 are under development at this point. I know at least that I'll be racing almost exclusively on the dirt this year. I didn't get into the Ouachita Challenge (but maybe I'll pick up an entry when someone cancels) so my season may kick off a couple weeks later than last year. The race calendar looks promising with multiple regional MTB race series and several local/regional endurance races. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we don't have any cancellations or postponements.

I'll be riding with support from Scott this year. I'm thankful for the assistance and look forward to riding and racing with their superior products.

One important goal for me is to help Luke Lininger have a successful last road season in the juniors. His goal races for this year are Nationals in Bend, the Tour of Red River Gorge, and the Tour de l'Abitibi in Canada. If the Soto Classic is the Worlds Qualifier in 2010, that'll be an A race too.

Look forward to seeing everyone out on the trails and roads.

CX Nationals 2009 in Bend

2009-12-15T10:14:00.006-06:00

Although Bend is kind of a pain to get to, it turned out to be a great trip. Got to see some old friends in Portland and Bend. KCCX was a well-oiled machine thanks to Bill, Tom & Dean.

Saturday I rode the Masters 40-44 race. I had a front row starting position, so I would have no excuses if I didn't get a good start. I rode okay, I was running 7-9th most of the race. With a little more punch and I could have ridden up to probably 5th. On the last lap, the officials let way too many lapped riders continue and I ended up getting taken down and slipped back to 11th at the finish. Without the interference I am pretty sure I would have finished 9th. I just realized this morning that if I had finished 9th I'd have a guaranteed front row next year, arrgh! C'est la vie.

Started, but didn't finish the Elite race. I rode a few laps and got taken down multiple times. I banged up my hand pretty good and could not hold the bar and brake too well. I was really unimpressed with the quality of riding in the bottom half of the field. I don't recall it being so bad in 2007 or 2008.

So I think that pretty much wraps up my cyclocross season for this year. A big thanks to KCCX and all the sponsors: Scott USA, Maxxis, Challenge, Verge, SRAM, Outlaw Earth, Serfas, TRP, Easton. Another big thanks to Tom Price for wrenching this year, and to Dean Parker for helping out with the Nationals trip. And last, but not least, props to Bill Marshall for making everything happen.

Jingle Cross

2009-12-04T11:29:00.002-06:00

Last weekend was up in Iowa City for Jingle Cross. This year it was three races with a night race on Friday. I skipped the Friday race, but drove up with Luke so he could ride the 2/3 race.

Conditions were a little different than last year. The ground had more moisture and made for very sticky mud. There was a lot of equipment damage this weekend, luckily I avoided all that. We didn't get any fresh snow or rain so the course stayed sticky throughout the weekend. Rode the Maxxis Mud Wrestlers all weekend and they handled the conditions well.

Friday and Sunday had a new downhill that has not been used in years past. Also, Sunday didn't have the decent down the run-up section, the officials deemed it too unsafe.

I rode okay: Saturday I was 20th in the elite, Sunday I won the Masters 35+. All in all about what expected given the state of my fitness right now. The team did pretty well, Tom Price won all three 45+ races and Alex was 1st, 3rd, and 4th in the Cat 2/3 races. The Sunday 2/3 race was awesome to watch as Andrew Coe, Alex, Troy Krause and others battled it out lap after lap.

This week Boss Cross #4 and MO CX Championships in Hermann.

KC Cross Rankings updated through KS Champs

2009-11-20T11:21:00.001-06:00

Peruse, obsess, enjoy: http://sites.google.com/site/kccrossrankings/home

St. Mary's in the Mud

2009-11-16T09:22:00.015-06:00

Great day for cyclocross! It was raining for most of the night and morning before the race, setting the stage for slippery and muddy conditions. It was probably about 40 degrees for the 1pm start. The race preceding ours, combined with the continuing rain, tore up the grass and churned up the mud for the Open race.

We rode up the bricks for the start with Shadd and Brian leading on to the grass, while I sat in third. The first grassy section was a left then a right on a slight uphill to the pit. Right away Shadd started to pull away so I moved by Brian after the second turn at the wheel pit. The next section was cool with a slow-speed, muddy, slippery, left-then-right turn combination. This was followed by a gradual fast-but-straight downhill section. I was within a few seconds of Shadd here and it looked like a gap was developing behind me.

After the downhill there was a tricky high-speed right-hander. I had tested this turn during the pre-ride and it could be ridden without brakes if you got the line right. This turn was followed by a slimy mild uphill and a few sharp 180+ degree turns. The next section was defined by downhill right-hand turn followed by a sweeping left. This was tricky, but again could be ridden without brakes and pretty fast if the line was right.

Following this was a tricky little muddy kick-up and then a tractionless short gradual uphill section. This ended up being my trouble spot for the day. I bobbled the kick-up half the time and just couldn't get much traction on the following uphill. Probably needed to run a couple PSI lower in the rear tire.

As for tires, I ran the Maxxis Mudwrestlers, which were great. I was railing the corners fast and smooth. I ran 30/35 and this seemed to work for the most part. Only my lack of confidence and skill kept me from finding the limit of their capabilities.

By the time Shadd and I hit the run up on the first lap it looked like we had a big gap, 30+ seconds. We were both more than a little surprised at how big it was so quick. The rest of the course was fairly straightforward, with the exception of the thicker muddy section along the pond on the low side of the course. I rode the left tape every time and didn't have any major problems getting through each lap.

Shadd had more horsepower than me today and was able to pull away from me, but the technical portions of the course allowed me to keep him close. I would yo-yo, from right on his wheel to 5-10 seconds back, throughout the race. Late in the last lap, Shadd fell and I came back up to his wheel and passed him briefly. But, I had no intention of taking advantage of his fall after he had led most of the race and had the stronger legs. So, Shadd took the win and I was second. Brian managed to move up through the field to take 3rd and Scott Dunsmuir got 4th (not 12th?!).

Thanks to everyone who made this race happen, especially whoever cleaned up the men's shower room afterwards. I am pretty sure we didn't "leave it in the condition we found it" like the sign directed.

The end of a full week of bike-related activities: Thursday - KCCX/VERGE Fundraiser, Saturday AM - 3hr MTB Ride; Saturday PM - KC Sprints; Sunday - Cyclocross.

KC Cross Rankings Updated through Veterans CX

2009-11-13T11:27:00.002-06:00

Have at 'em!

http://sites.google.com/site/kccrossrankings/home

Tweaking the KC Cross Rankings

2009-11-12T13:12:00.003-06:00

I have been working on developing a new algorithm for calculating the KC Cross Rankings. I am doing this because:

1. Crossresults's points are generated at the end of the week (rather than Mon or Tue)
2. Crossresults.com is more susceptible to errors than a local system will be
3. I have some different ideas about how to calculate the points

I need your help. On this site you'll see the output of a couple different algorithms I am working on. I'd appreciate any comments you could offer about which ranking list better reflects reality. I am sure there will be different opinions, but I'd like to see some opinions from people who race in the categories I am less familiar with.

Please leave your comments on this post.

The URL: http://sites.google.com/site/kcrankingsdev/home

Weekend Off

2009-11-10T08:47:00.004-06:00

This weekend I opted to not race and hit the trails on the Scott Genius 20 instead. The weather was outstanding for some low-key hours out at Landahl. Many others had the same idea as there was a ton of cars in the parking lot. Strangely, I didn't see too many people out on the trail. The trails were in great shape, but there was a healthy covering leaves. In a few places the leaves were pretty slick.

Saturday I ran into Chris Johnson and a friend of his, and we tooled around for a couple of hours.

On Sunday I did some adventuring. I looked for and found the "ISH" trail. There really isn't much trail at this point, but it looks like it could be cool when its finished. I'm probably not much of a freerider, but it would be still be fun to have another trail to hit. On a related note, apparently folks have approval to start building a freeride trail at SMP too.

I also found a good hill climb that could be added to a race course sometime. It is an old jeep trail that pretty much heads right up the northwest bluff from the Truman access road all the way up to Family Trail (just east of where the new connector trail joins the existing trail). While it might not be a favored trail for all-the-time-use (because of erosion issues), it would definitely be a good addition for race days.

I also eyeballed how The Boulevard could be brought back into play with a climb up to Family Trail. I didn't spend to much time looking at the details, but I think it could be done from the fence up to the top of the bluff with a few switchbacks. I guess it would probably connect up with the technical offshoot of Family Trail.

I'd also like to cut in a CX course up in the fields by the Argo trailhead. It would be nice to have a practice course that wouldn't require competing with other park users or getting flak for tearing up the grass. I don't see why we couldn't have a semi-permanent course setup for MTB short track racing and CX practice/racing.

KC Cross Rankings Update

2009-11-03T09:18:00.004-06:00

These are up-to-date through the Smithville race. Crossresults.com updates on Fridays, so we are always a week behind.

If you see anything wrong with your points (I saw some problems), go to crossresults.com and see if you can figure out what's going on (e.g. another rider with the same name and results mixing). If you are not sure, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Many of us have now done 10 races and so your points total reflects only this season's performance.

Boss Cross #3 & Sunflower Cross

2009-11-02T11:56:00.003-06:00

Saturday was the Boss Cross race at Platte Ridge Park. I didn't do this race last year, but did in 2007. Although not as brutal as in 2007, this is still definitely the most physically-challenging local course. Although selective, this course is not very "cyclocross-like." When I say "cyclocross-like" I suppose I mean like the typical course in the major european cross races--World Cup, Trofee GvA, etc. A traditional cyclocross course is about a several "features" separated by so-called transitions. The Platte Ridge Park course doesn't really have any transitions, its just hard pedaling most the way around. I am not being critical, just looking at the course objectively.

Shad Schreiner dominated the day riding away from everyone else. Things splintered almost immediately. By the second lap, I was sitting 4th about 30 seconds behind Shad, with Brian Jensen and Chris Wallace spaced out evenly in between. On the second or third lap I managed to catch Chris, who was having an off day and ultimately retired from the race. After this the gaps just stretched out: Shad pulled away from Jensen, Jensen pulled away from me, and I pulled away from Andrew Coe. This is how it ended, not too exciting.

On Sunday, Sunflower Cross was at Clinton lake on essentially the same course as Chris Cross from the last two years. It was a small field, basically the same as Saturday with the addition of Shadd Smith and the loss of Andrew Coe. Shadd Smith took the early lead while Brian and Shad took up the chase. I was able to to sit on their wheels for awhile but then my strength basically evaporated and I faded away. Just about everyone else had quit and there wasn't really anyone to catch me from behind. I minimized my suffering by backing off a little and just riding in for 4th. Around this time it looked like Shad was dropping Brian and the outcome was set.

No so! What looked to be the final order: Shadd, Shad, Brian, got a major shake up in the final couple of laps. Basically, everyone came together and shuffled multiple times under the pressure of aggressive racing. Ultimately, Brian came out on top with Shadd in 2nd and Shad in 3rd. I'm bummed I wasn't there to participate in what looks to have been an exciting finale.

I wasn't really able to get in the mix this weekend. I just didn't seem to have any gas. I'm not really sure why, I am trying to figure out what the body is doing or what I am doing to the body! I think when you are young the body is quite resilient and rebounds from stress pretty easily. Now being older, it may be that I have to be a little more thoughtful about how much intensity I can take and still recover adequately to race well on the weekends. Or maybe I just had an off weekend, who knows.

I rode Sunday's race on Bill's Easton EC90s and Challenge Grifo tubulars. This is actually the first race I have ridden on tubulars. I was very interested to see if riding tubulars lived up to the hype. Honestly, while I could tell the difference, I don't think clinchers are a huge disadvantage (sacrilege, I know). I ran lower pressure with the Grifos, 28f and 30r, which is a little lower than I can ride with clinchers: 30f and 35r. Ideally, I could have ridden the same course with the two different setups. My primary impression was the suppleness of the tubular--it seems to conform to the ground better than the clincher does. As a result I think it does a little better job of taking the bumps out of the course. From a cornering perspective, I didn't notice a big difference, but this could just be because I didn't run the clinchers on the same course. I actually think I could have run a little more pressure, there was a couple of instances where the front tire grabbed hard when I put too much weight on it. This, however, was probably more of a technique fault on my part than a shortcoming of the tire. In the end, I'll say I am looking forward to riding the rest of the season on tubulars, but if you are on clinchers and can't justify the expense of tubulars, don't worry about it. You can ride well enough on clinchers, at least if you are on the right ones, hint, hint (Maxxis)!

So, we are about halfway through the season, or at least halfway to Nationals. Last year, November was a bad month for me. I was not disciplined enough and didn't put the time in on the trainer. As a result, my October form faded pretty badly and I was probably at my worst in mid-December at Nationals. I did eventually recover a little by Masters Worlds in late January. Anyway, the lesson was learned and I will try to get some quality work in over the next 4-6 weeks.

According to kansascitycross.com, I am leading the DeStad Cyclocross Van Kansas Series right now. As of Saturday, I am also leading the Boss Cross Series. Wow, what a difference from last year! It would be cool to win one or both of these, but anything can happen. Shadd is second in the De Stad series, so KCCX/Verge should be able to win the series unless a major catastrophe strikes. The Boss Cross series is a closer question, I have to hold off Brian Jensen, no easy task. I'll do my best!

Who needs to upgrade?

2009-10-27T16:59:00.003-05:00

Here's a hot topic!

I did some number crunching with the crossresults.com points list.

Here's some basics:

For the Open Men:
Mean: 338
3rd Quartile: 388

For the B Men (combined Cat 3 & Cat 3/4)
Mean: 438
1st Quartile: 408
3rd Quartile: 466

For the Cat 4 Men
Mean: 530
1st Quartile: 474

What does it all mean? I would suggest that any Cat 3 with lower than 388 points should seriously consider moving up. It would appear you could ride mid-pack in the Open class. Similarly, if you are Cat 4 with fewer than 466 points, it could be your time.

This would essentially shift 10-15 guys from the 3s to the Open race and shift 25-30 guys from the 4s to the 3s. This shift would change the fields sizes to: Open: 30-35, Cat 3: 40-45, Cat 4: 25-30. Seems reasonable.

Here's the full rankings: http://sites.google.com/site/kccrossrankings/home

Kansas City Cyclocross Rankings

2009-10-27T15:22:00.003-05:00

For the last couple of weeks I've been working to extract data from www.crossresults.com to create a local area ranking system. The hope is that promoters will start to rely on the rankings for call-ups during local races.

I also plan to incorporate St. Louis' results from the Bubba Series. Hopefully this will stoke the flames of some cross-state rivalries.

Check it out: http://sites.google.com/site/kccrossrankings/home

There are some issues with crossresults.com points, so if you think your points are all wrong take a look at crossresults.com and look to see if you are sharing points with another racer with the same name. The guys running crossresults.com are pretty responsive , so if you see an issue let them know and they'll probably fix it pretty quick.

crossresults.com

2009-10-27T11:37:00.003-05:00

I've been talking to a bunch of people recently who did not know about this cool website: www.crossresults.com This project was started on the east coast and has been grown to other parts of the country. Go check it out and make sure your info is accurate. Also, if your races aren't getting uploaded, take the bull by the horns and start uploading them---its EASY!

Smithville Cyclocross Festival

2009-10-26T09:36:00.007-05:00

This was the first race that wasn't a dry course, but we just missed the rain by a few hours or we would have had a completely soggy affair. Too bad!

Most of the local KCCX crew was off in Louisville kicking a$$, so for this race it was only me and new team member Shadd Smith. Our main competition was Shad Schreiner and Andrew Coe. I started in the second row so I was figuring on having to do some early work to move through the field. With the curvy chicanes at the start and the beach section about halfway into the lap, I was hoping I wouldn't fall back from the leaders too far. I think I was sitting 6th-8th coming off the pavement, right behind Cameron on his fixie(!). Shadd & Shad led off the start and got a small gap. Meanwhile, I started to move up through the field and was towing Andrew Coe with me. I think on the second lap I had moved up to the point where only Shadd & Shad were in front of me and I had gapped Andrew a little bit. Shadd had moved a little in front of Shad, maybe 10-15 secs, and I was gradually reeling in Shad. I caught him on the 2nd or 3rd lap and then made a few digs on the uphills to try to gap him and move up to Shadd. My first effort on the grassy hill after the beach was not strong enough to dislodge him, but my second effort on the paved uphill got me a small gap to start to build on. Over the next lap I gradually closed in on Shadd, then in the turn after the paved hill he went down. I was a few seconds back and was able to see the whole thing. It was a pretty hard crash. I rode by and he was not able to get going right away because of equipment issues. I kept a steady pace to see what would happen next. I figured he'd be up, ride with Shad for a bit, and then launch an attack and come back up to the front. This didn't happen, he was with Shad for bit but then faded back. Talking afterwards, he said that the crash rang his bell pretty good and he couldn't really get going afterwards. Bummer. Over the last 5 or 6 laps I gradually stretched out the gap to Shad and was able to finish first. I didn't see Andrew after the first lap, as it turns out he had an even worse day than Shadd: pulled out of a pedal at the start, banging his knee; rolled a tubular; and flatted a clincher. Tough day!

GEAR:
I ran the new MAXXIS Mud Wrestler clinchers at standard pressures: F30/R35. I had good traction everywhere on the course and everything felt good. I had no issues with the tires folding over in the corners like I did with the Michelins. If you are riding clinchers, this is a good choice for the wetter and muddier courses. Run the Raze when its dry.

COURSE:
Definitely a fun course. The two primary features were a wet sandy beach section ending with a steep ride/run-up and a steep off-camber grassy hill ride/run-up. I rode both of these features pretty solidly throughout the race. I was able to ride the grassy hill every time, a couple of times pretty fast. I also managed to ride up-and-out of the beach each time except for the first and last laps.

The second defining characteristic of the course was the section immediately following the beach. It started with a soggy gradual uphill stretch followed by a series of 180 degree turns zig-zagging up a more gentle hillside. This section was a lung-burner.

'til next week!

Sunday 18 Oct - Boulevard Cross - CX Race #9

2009-10-19T09:15:00.005-05:00

Some days you have it, some you don't. Today was a don't. I was able to keep the pedals turning, but just didn't have any snap or lightness. On top of that I didn't seem to be handling the bike all that well. This picture sums up my race...dangling off the group, it is where I spent most of the day.

The Course:

It was a mix of elements, power sections broken up by off-camber and/or elevation changing corners. Basically the same course as last year. Everything was dry, except the keg, and the sun was out. A nice day!

The Race:

The start was a fast downwind, downhill paved section into a highspeed sweeping downhill left turn through the grass. I got a decent start sitting 4 or 5 back. Bill hit it hard on the start but things stayed together for most of the first lap. On the second lap a small group developed with Shadd, Chris, Joe and myself. Of course, there is no reason for Shadd to hit the front with this state of affairs, so it was Joe who rode at the front for a lap or two. Adam and Andrew Coe were dangling off the back of this group and they were able to join us when the pace eased briefly.

It was pretty clear that the best play was for Joe to ride away from this group. When he went, the elastic in the group stretched. And then snapped. Adam and I were dislodged. For the rest of the race, Joe pulled away from the group of Shadd, Andrew and Chris. I was yo-yoing 5-15 seconds behind them and Adam was a little farther back. Unfortunately, Chris went down on the last lap and couldn't contest for 2nd. Things shuffled at the end and Shadd was 2nd, Andrew 3rd, Me 4th and Chris 5th. Everyone at the front was riding strong and making a race of it, at least for 2nd.

I think we need some more teams in these races!

I've got a little break in the cyclocross action as I'll be doing the Berryman Epic next weekend. The rest of the team is headed for Louisville for the Derby Cup. Best of luck to all and hopefully we'll see Joe and Chris on the podium!

Capital Cross - Topeka, Kansas

2009-10-17T21:35:00.002-05:00

Back to Hummer Sports Park: thick, power-sapping zoysia and the double run-up on the Mound of Mercy.

The course was a little different then past years because of a cross country meet in the big field on the north end of the park. The result was fewer hi-speed straightaways and more thick grass.

The Open field was missing some of the usual suspects, but there was still a good turnout. KCCX was down a few soldiers as well. Chris W., Adam M., Tom P. and I carried the flag for the day. Chris and I got off the line well--1st and 2nd when we left the pavement. I started to let a gap develop so Chris could slip away but Bill Stolte wasn't fooled. He popped around me right away and kept Chris in check. After a couple of minutes I surged to keep everyone in chase mode. I think this might have split things up. Somewhere on the 2nd lap a small gap developed behind the lead 3 (Chris, Andrew Coe, and I) creating a long line of "achtervolgers" a few seconds back.

Chris and I started to stick it to Andrew by alternating attacks. He covered a couple and then went to the front, probably hoping to control things a little. I think I surged after the barriers on the third lap and finally got a gap to stick. I was out alone for a couple of laps while Chris sat on Andrew. I think the gap grew to 20-30 secs before Chris jumped Andrew and got a gap. I sat up and we joined forces with 3 laps to go. Sorry about that Andrew, but I'm sure you'll get to return the favor one day!

We motored the last laps and had a solid gap by the finish. We didn't contest the finish and I crossed first. Cool, more on tap (CX, and Boulevard too!) for tomorrow at Wyandotte County Park!

See ya there...

Call Up Procedure Proposal

2009-10-16T11:10:00.003-05:00

I have a proposal for how we do Call Ups for all local races. Comments are welcome.

Here it is:

Step 1: Maintain a list of all racers who have ridden in local races during the current season. This would need to be done for every category that has more than 8 riders on a regular basis. This is simple enough, just maintain a spreadsheet for each category and make sure it is updated weekly.

Step 2: Run the category lists through the Seed Racers function at crossresults.com

Step 3: Post the "Call Up List" for each category. Riders and officials use this list to call up the first one or two rows.

There is no reason why this couldn't be done and could probably be largely automated. I volunteer to help get this done if the promoters & officials sign on.

The obvious issue is that not all riders on the list will show up to a particular race. However, this can either be ignored---names are called until the first two rows are full, or the officials can cross names off the Call Up List during registration/roll call. This might add a few minutes to the start procedure, but it doesn't seem like it would be too much.

I also propose that we do some test runs on a limited basis.

Here's the "Call Up List" for the Open (P/1/2/3/4) field as of October 11:

1 Steve Tilford
2 Brian Jensen
3 Nathan Rice
4 Joseph Schmalz
5 Jonathan Schottler
6 Shadd Smith
7 William Stolte
8 Jeff Winkler
9 Cameron Chambers
10 Joshua Johnson
11 Chris Wallace
12 Shad Schreiner
13 Troy Krause
14 Nate Woodman
15 Andrew Coe
16 Thomas Price
17 Adam Mills
18 Jay Strothman
19 Mark Studnicki
20 Mark Nagy
21 Scott Dunsmuir
22 William Gault
23 Tim Kakouris
24 Tige Lamb
25 Devin Clark
26 Kevin Wilkins
27 Nicholas Coil
28 Bill Marshall
29 Aaron Elwell
30 Scott Ogilvie
31 Douglas Plumer
32 Alex Grman
33 Ethan Froese
34 Alex Edwards
35 Joseph Fox
36 Jeff Yielding
37 Casey Saunders
38 Michael Gaherty
39 Shea Bergman
40 John Giles
41 Britton Kusiak
42 Randall Crist
43 Benn Stover
44 Mark Smelser
45 Matt Gilhousen
46 Austin Elser
47 Luke Lininger
48 Mark Cole
49 Eric Struckhoff
50 Robert Cummings
51 Elliot Usher
52 Kenneth Harkin
53 Jason Ozenburger
54 Matt Bougher
55 Theodore Fleming

Thoughts?

KCCX sweep @ Chris 'Cross

2009-10-11T19:01:00.005-05:00

Today was our first cool temps race of the year taking place at the University of St. Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas. It was in the low 40's, cloudy and some moderate east winds for our 4th local race of the season. The Cowtown boys set up a challenging course, a little different from last year with a lot of sweeping corners and plenty of elevation change. The bumpiness of the turf at St. Mary's is always a factor, too.

It was a solid field with all the usual suspects, plus a couple friends from up north in Nebraska. This race featured primes on the first and second laps making sure we'd have a fast start. Not so good when you don't get clipped in quickly. I wasted a front row position by blowing the start and found myself sitting around 10th. At the front Joe and Shadd Smith had a gap on Chris and Tom Price, who in turn had a small gap on the main group.

I started to pick my way through the field along with Brian Jensen. By the start of the 2nd lap Brian and I were siting in 4th and 5th closing in on Chris and Shadd. Joe had kept the pressure on and was by himself out in front of Shadd & Chris. This group of four formed up along with Andrew Coe early in the 2nd lap. Somewhere later on that lap Shadd and Andrew faded back. On the 3rd or 4th lap Chris launched an attack and rode away to about 10 seconds. I sat on Brian for a lap or so and then pushed ahead on my own.

Over the next lap or so I closed in on Chris while Joe eased up at the front and the three of us grouped up. We rode out the last 3 laps together with Joe doing most of the pace setting. We cruised in comfortably together without any real pressure from behind. Its nice when a team can run a race like this, you better enjoy it while you can because it doesn't happen too often.

Chris Cross course rumors...

2009-10-05T16:21:00.002-05:00

My inside source says we'll be enjoying what might be a somewhat Euro/UCI-ish course next weekend. There are apparently a lot of longer straightaways and only a couple of discrete tight, technical sections. The brick road section that was broken into two separate parts last year will be in one monster section this year. I'm thinking its a good course for Brian Jensen!

In any case, its good to have a variety of courses, from the ultra-tight & technical Swope to perhaps a wide-open St. Mary's course. Looking forward to it!

Who's the Boss? Mr. Joe Schmalz is the cross boss!

2009-10-05T10:05:00.007-05:00

Joe took back-to-back wins this weekend. He's on good form and hopefully can continue to build on it for the USGPs, Nationals and Worlds.

For my part, I was 2nd Saturday and 3rd on Sunday. Needless to say, for me it was a good weekend, hopefully one of many this season. I had good power and acceptable technique, with the exception of one turn on Sunday. I was a little surprised to find myself up with the heavy hitters of the local scene. I guess my form is coming around and I had fresher legs than normal having not doubled-up with the Masters race.

Both days the field was stacked and at times I was able to separate myself from a host of strong riders: Steve Tilford, Brian Jensen, Josh Johnson, Shadd Smith, Shad Schreiner, Cameron Chambers and others. While the overall weekend was positive, I still made a few errors and have some weaknesses to work on. My start on Sunday was poor, and it kept me out of the action until I could make my way to the front. I made some tactical errors on Sunday in addition to the obvious technical error of laying it down when I was riding in second position. Time to work on the acceleration for the starts and adopt a little more aggressive attitude.

I am happy with my current equipment setup: the Scott Addict CX is awesome and the Challenge Grifo XS Dry Conditions Clinchers rode really well. I think they'd be perfect if I could run a few lbs less pressure. I don't know if the clinchers can go any lower, if not, I may have to step up to the tubular version.

As a team, KCCX/Verge put in a solid showing both days. Chris put in a good ride on Sunday riding up front for the bulk of the race covering Steve and Josh while Joe rode away. Hopefully the team continues to ride strong and make for some competitive local races. On that note, thanks to Josh Johnson and Jon Schottler for heading west and making things even more interesting than usual.

Luke had a solid weekend and is making improvements from week-to-week. Both days he rode the junior race relatively easy for warm-up and to dial in the course and then did the 1/2/3 event. We're going to tweak his position a little and see if that doesn't help his power and handling.

That's all for now.

We need more of this...

2009-09-28T14:30:00.001-05:00

I'd like to see more of this in the local races.

Diamond Blackfan Cyclocross Challenge

2009-09-28T10:27:00.008-05:00

This is the second year of this race which is held for a great cause: raise funds to fight Diamond Blackfan anemia. Tige Lamb's daughter has this disease and because it is so rare there are very little resources dedicated to curing/treating it.

Just like last year, this race was a "cooker" at 85 degrees. The odd thing was that the temps haven't really been that hot lately. Everyone complained about the heat, myself included. It was uncomfortable for sure, but I suppose it could always be worse!

As usual, I doubled-up with the Masters and Open races. Although this surely has a negative impact on my ride in the Open race, I think its important to get the work in with limited training time during the week. This is even more necessary now that all the local promoters have decided to shorten the Open races to 50 minutes. I object!

The Masters race started off fast with Brendon Jenks bolting from the start line. One of my goals for the race was to start harder than last week so I pushed it up to Brendon's wheel and tried to stay on the gas. I ended up coming around him in the upper field and started to get a little gap. I lost my gap when I shorted a corner thinking it was tighter than it was (it was last year). I ended up going through the tape and had to pop back out and get going again. I didn't get much pre-riding on the course so I guess that's what happens.

I stayed on the gas trying to accelerate hard out of the corners and push the legs. Mark Studnicki moved into second place behind me and settled into a conserve mode (he was also riding the Open race) so my gap stretched out. I continued to ride fairly hard, which I would pay for in the Open race, but I figured there wasn't much use in soft-pedaling around the course. If you want to build up CX fitness you have to race hard.

The Open race was relatively stacked with Josh Johnson & Jon Schottler from Columbia coming over. Pretty much all the local guys came out. Not surprisingly, Steve Tilford lead the fray. I chatted it up with Aaron Elwell at the start, we haven't lined up together at all this year. Scanning the photos of the event, it looks like Aaron did a Ben Raby on the barriers. Hopefully, no permanent damage was done because he's racing the 24hr at Moab in a couple of weeks with Cameron.

My other goal for the day was to get a good start in the Open race. I didn't get this done. Between a relatively bad starting position--third row--and just getting stuck behind a long line of guys, I just didn't get up front quickly. Luckily, I was right behind Josh Johnson and I just followed his wheel up through the group. After a few laps we had moved up fairly well with only a handful of guys in front of us. At this point I thought I had some gas and pushed ahead of Josh and up to Shad Schreiner. I ended moving ahead of Shad too, putting me in 4th. Unfortunately, the wheels came off shortly thereafter and I gradually drifted back to 7th. Despite fading at the end, I am fairly happy with my ride under the circumstances. The legs were pretty decent and I'm sure will improve as I continue to get some more quality CX efforts in them.

The KCCX/Verge boys had a good weekend. Joe Schmalz got it done up in Madison, two podiums in the U23. Smokin'! Locally, Adam Mills, Bill Marshall, Alex Edwards and I all finished in the top 15. Will Gault also came up from Tulsa and doubled-up in the Masters and Open races. The course didn't suit his strengths, but he got in some quality efforts nonetheless. He'll be kickin' some butt when the big races come around!

KCCX/Verge also had a guest appearance by my honey in the Women's beginner race. This was her first bicycle race of any kind and she had to suffer through it with a 26lb mountain bike, a cold, and allergies. Of course, she soldiered through it like a champ. Good work, baby!

Bicycle Shack junior, Luke Lininger rode the Open race, too. He's a relative newcomer to CX and is using the season to set up a breakout road season in 2010. I expect to see him improve week-to-week and start to put the hurt on some guys.

On another note, Doug Stone rocked the Cat 3/4 race, riding solo for the bulk of the race for the win. This was his first CX race of the season and first race as a Cat 3. Awesome start, I'd say!

Saturday = CX, Sunday = XC

2009-09-20T20:17:00.004-05:00

Busy birthday weekend:

Saturday: Swope Cross Masters 40+ and 'Cross Under the Lights Open (this is the first time I've ever doubled up in two different cities: KC in the AM, Hermann in the PM)

Sunday was back in Swope for a MTB race

The body is feeling the new little aches and pains from the first time on the cyclocross bike. I haven't done any cx-specific physical or technique work yet so the body is feeling it. It was good fun and thankfully I wasn't so rusty that I embarassed myself. In fact, the barriers, sand and stairs all went reasonably well! Looking forward to polishing up that technique over the next few weeks.

Physically everything was about where I expected it to be. I have two fairly inconsistent fitness goals right now: 6+ hr endurance and cyclocross speed/intensity. After Burning at the Bluff and Berryman Epic I'll be able to focus exclusively on cyclocross fitness. Meantime, maybe someone wants to put on a long cyclocross race, i.e., 180 min + 2 laps?

It was great to get out with the KCCX teammates and get this season started.

KCCX Gear coming in!

2009-09-18T21:54:00.004-05:00

The new gear for CX is starting to roll in! For starters we've got some hip messenger bags by Outlaw Earth. You better get one, all the cool kids have 'em!

And the races start tomorrow: Swope Cross in the morning and Hermann Cross at night. Swope is a brand new race at a brand new venue, hope it is cool. Hermann 'Cross Under the Lights is definitely cool. Last year it was the awesome kickoff to the CX season, I'm sure it will be again.

The Grinder at Binder!

2009-09-08T13:33:00.015-05:00

Saturday morning (too early) Jeremy and I headed to Jefferson City to race the Binder Lake 6 HR. We made a stop at Bob Evans in Columbia for a little breakfast and then arrived at Binder Lake to watch the light rain for the couple of hours before the race.

Jeremy rode a recon lap and reported that the second half of the course was pretty greazy (not greasy). I was a little nervous because I was not running a good tire setup for the mud. I had a Maxxis Crossmark up front, but a Continental Race King in the back and its got some very compact small knobs. I looked around and most other people were running Crossmarks so I figured I'd almost be in the same boat as everyone else.

We chatted it up with Cameron and Travis (Ethos duo team) before the race, including a light-hearted discussion of the merits of my new 6" travel Scott Genius 20. I've been running a hardtail Fuji for the last two years and had pretty much bought into the consensus view that lightweight and short travel was the setup for off-road speed. Not true in my case. I can definitively say I am faster on the Scott. Apparently, my roadie background requires the squishiness that the Scott provides!

Anyway, things got off in the standard way with a nice little jog across the field to the bikes. I was on the bike 4th, Cameron and Chris Ploch were out in front and another unnamed rider was in just front of me. This rider graciously let me by shortly after we started uphill and I pushed myself up close to Cameron and Chris. I was dangling a few seconds behind them for the first 1/3 of the lap and we had separated ourselves from the rest of the field.

At this point we got to the slip-'n'-slide portion of the course and my rear tire was not hooking up real well. I decided to ride conservatively and let them go away from me. I came in about 1 minute behind them at the end of the first 7 mile lap. The second lap was a new story. The course was much drier and I was able to move quickly and smoothly through the sections that were slick the lap before.

Over the course of the next few laps I settled into a rhythm and was turning consistent laps. I didn't really have a good sense of where everyone else was, but I got a couple of time checks and it appeared that I was pulling away from my solo category competition: Mike Best and Dan Miller.

I turned good times for 5 laps and then I hit my weak spot. In these races I tend to start strong, slow down in the middle and then get it back together at the end. Review of the results indicates that it happened here too. Splits for laps 1-5 were within 1 minute, then I slowed a minute on my 6th and another minute on my 7th. At this point, I did some lap-time math and figured I had a chance at 11 laps if I could pick it up for the next 3 laps. I got it back together and ripped some good splits on my 8th, 9th, and 10th laps. I ended up riding laps 9 & 10 just as fast as laps 1 & 2. Cool! So I squeaked in 10 laps at 5:56 and headed out for the 11th. I was pretty tired, but managed to roll at a steady pace and made it home without too much trouble.

This was definitely my strongest ride so far this year. I was only 2-3 minutes behind the Cameron/Travis duo (although they had cramping issues and lost several minutes that they wouldn't normally lose) and about 13-14 minutes behind the first place duo team. If I can build on this race and solve my mid-race slowdown, I'll be psyched.

Jeremy ended up riding 6 laps in about 4 hrs before calling it a day. He was sitting in 11th when he'd had enough. He hasn't had enough time on the MTB this year to get his body accustomed to the punishment.

Thanks to the organizers/promoters for a great race. The trails were awesome and a good time was had!

What's next? Maybe a marathon race in the Psycowpath Series and a couple of CX races (Bearcat and 'Cross Under the Lights).

Gear Liquidation

2009-09-01T13:48:00.005-05:00

So, its time to unload some old gear to make room for the new. I am selling the following, contact me if you have any interest.

2007 Ridley Supercross 54cm w/ Ultegra and Ksyriums - $900

The frame is scandium w/ carbon seat stays and carbon fork. This bike has Shimano Ultegra shifters/deraillers, Ritchey seatpost/stem/bars, 4ZA brakes, Mavic Ksyrium SL wheels (w/ ceramic bearings), FSA cranks/BB, Candy SL pedals. This bike has been raced, but not abused. The frame has some cosmetic scratches and smudges, but no dents.This bike is great, but I have 2 team bikes and don't need it any more. Also, its a little big for me--I have an 86 cm inseam. According, to Ridley, it is for riders with height approx.: 181.8 cm (71.5 inches) and inseam: 87.9 - 91.1 cm (34.6 - 35.9 inches)

2008 Fuji Mt. Fuji SL 19in w/ XT - $1800

The frame is full carbon. Full XT gruppo, SID fork, new DT wheelset & Schwalbe Nobby Nic Tires, new big/middle chainrings & chain, new Easton MonkeyLite carbon riser bars.

2009 Specialized Tarmac 56cm w/ Ultegra SL - $2000

The frame/fork is full carbon. Full Ultegra SL gruppo, Ultegra wheelset.

Rapture in Misery 2009

2009-08-17T14:09:00.008-05:00

I've been looking forward to this race for most of the season. I've never ridden out at Crowder, but I've been told the course would suit me. It was a good course, only a couple of technical sections, a few good climbs, and basically no place to rest.

Louis, Gina & I headed up Saturday afternoon with the Airstream in tow. We were one of the first on site and had a good selection of spots to set up camp. We quickly got situated and then set up Jeremy Pych & Luke Lininger's spot next to us. Jeremy showed up around 5pm and we did a pre-ride. We rode it in 54-55 and I figured we'd see sub-45 minute laps during the race.

Things kicked off at noon as usual. The start was a run up a rocky hill to the bikes. Tige Lamb and Cameron Chambers took off in the lead while a second group was spread over about 30 secs. I followed Jon Schottler on the run figuring he was the guy to beat (he had beaten me pretty soundly at the Firecracker 50 six weeks earlier). Across the initial field section, Jon rode up to Jeremy and I hovered about 10 secs behind them. Descending through the "Bone Yard" we both passed Jeremy as he bobbled on one of the rockier sections. Throughout the first lap I kept Jon within 10 seconds and we slowly reeled in a few guys riding within sight. At the end of the first lap, we were a group of 4-5 that came in 3-4 minutes behind Cameron and Tige. 3 of us were solo 6hr riders and Kyle Shour was next about 2 minutes behind us.

I led out of the check-in area into the second lap and glancing back on the grass section it looked like Shottler was no longer in sight behind me. I got into a rhythm and just tried to be smooth. I was worried I was riding a little too hard, but I figured I'd just see where I was at the end of the lap. About halfway through the lap I looked back a saw what looked like someone in blue catching me. I assumed it was Shottler in his GT Dirt Coalition kit. Nope, it was Luke putting in a great lap! He didn't end up catching me, but came in right behind me at about 15 seconds. Good stuff from the 17 yr old in his first MTB race!

On the third lap I started to dial back the pace a little to settle in for the long haul. I was still feeling pretty good though. Laps 4-6 were less comfortable and I started to have to fight for it a little. Gina & Louis were keeping me well fed and hydrated and gave me updates on the time gaps.

I dialed it back up on Lap 7 to see if I could. It looked like I'd have time for an 8th lap unless I hit the wall or had mechanical problems. I turned a decent time dropping 2 minutes from the previous lap and headed out for one more. On the last 3 laps I was having some issues with cramps and twinges in my legs. I've never had leg cramping issues in races, so I'm going to have to figure out what happened. I just took it easy on the climbs and rolled the rest and finished the last lap without too much trouble. 8 laps, 73.6 miles, 6hrs 45mins, a good outing to be sure. Shottler apparently ran into trouble and drifted back, while Kyle Shour kept turning solid laps to finish 2nd overall and 1st in the under-29 category.

Props to the Heartland Crew for putting on a great race. Also, double thanks to Doug Long for rounding up a tarp for me at 12:30am to cover the leak in our Airstream!

See you at The Grinder at Binder in a few weeks.

Queen City & Show-Me State Games

2009-08-03T14:04:00.007-05:00

Saturday I went with Jeremy down to Springfield for the Queen City Criteriums. We met up with the Springfield Crew and set up the course. I raced the Masters race at 7:50pm and then the P/1/2/3 race at 9pm. I felt pretty decent in both races, interesting I haven't done a criterium since 1993.

After the race we cleaned up the course and headed off to Brackett's house at about 12:00-12:30am. Finally to bed about 1:00 and then back up at 5:30am to drive up to Columbia for the Show-Me State Games MTB marathon race.

I thought I was feeling okay. At least I didn't seem too tired or lethargic. Au contraire, as soon as we started the race I was redlining. I was struggling to keep up with guys I have put time on in recent races. Not much you can do in such a situation but settle in and hope for things to improve.

Jeremy Bradshaw jumped out to an early lead on the first lap with Nate Means leading Paul Krewet and I. Towards the end of the first lapped I crashed hard when a big root popped one of my hands off the bars and sent me sprawling superman-style. It was an awkward fall and I landed badly on my hand/fingers. I'll be nursing my middle finger for the next couple weeks trying to get some grip strength back before Rapture in Misery. So I slowly collected myself and made sure everything seemed okay. I got underway and gradually started to brush it off.

I got back up to speed and just settled into a rhythm I figured I could hold until the end. If I caught everyone great, if not, well, then not.

I came through the first lap in 3rd, having caught Nate Means close to the end of the lap. Paul Krewet was about 10 seconds ahead of me and Jeremy Bradshaw another 10 in front of him. I caught Paul a couple miles into the 2nd lap and every once and awhile I'd catch a glimpse of Jeremy. When we hit the open fields I could see he was close and not pulling away so I relaxed a little. I figured I didn't need to put the hammer down to catch him immediately, but rather just let him know I was still there and not letting him relax into a comfortable pace.

At the end of lap 2 he was still about 15 seconds ahead. It seemed like I was making up time on the first part of the lap and losing a little on the second part. Probably I was making time on the uphills and losing it on the downhills. Finally I caught him in the open fields on lap 3 and put some pressure on the uphill sections. Through the start/finish I had put 10+ seconds on him and it seemed like he was tiring. I just kept it steady and the gap stretched out from there. Unfortunately I had no chance at making 6 laps, so I just rolled it steady through to the finish. The gap stretched to 1:20 at the end of lap 4 and 5:00 at the end of lap 5.

I was pretty tired by the end. I especially was hurting on the drive home! Basically I can no longer function on 4-5 hrs of sleep. Somehow I rallied and Gina and I went to see The Wailers and Toots & the Maytals at Grinders--we even got the tickets for free! Cool show, it was a good thing we had chairs...

MTB Marathon Nationals

2009-07-16T14:23:00.005-05:00

Headed up to Breckenridge, Land o' Thin Air, to put in 50 miles in the mountains against a bunch of locals. This was a tough race, two 25 mile laps with an advertised 5400 ft of climbing per lap. It may not have been that much, but it was substantial.

From the gun I was in trouble with the altitude. I had to back off multiple times because my breathing was getting away from me. I was especially gasping on the upper portions of the course at over 11,000 ft. I settled into the best rhythm I could and just kept turning over the pedals.

I think I was one of the slower descenders out there, at least on the gravel road sections. I seemed to do better on the especially rocky, technical stuff, but on the wider roads guys were passing me all day long.

Rolled my two laps pretty steady, but started to run out of gas a little at the end. At the finish I was pretty hammered, my lungs were actually sore from breathing so much. Weird.

Rhett's Run

2009-06-08T13:14:00.004-05:00

This was a great weekend! Gina and I took the Airstream out and camped in Huntsdale on the Katy Trail. We rode up to Le Bourgeois for dinner at the Blufftop Bistro and then back by way of Rocheport. Fun stuff.

Sunday morning we got up and drove into Columbia for Rhett's Run. It is surprising how little I've been on the MTB this year. I haven't ridden offroad since Ouachita (April 5) and have ridden a grand total of 4 times in the dirt this year, training and racing! And wouldn't you know it, it rains in Columbia for Rhett's Run!

The rain didn't really matter too much, the trails were slippery and sloppy in a few places but overall not too bad. I rode the Marathon class and figured I'd be dueling Dwayne for the win. I rode Jeremy's Epic, its a tank but the full suspension made for a comfy day.

We got off the line pretty well and quickly had a small group of 4 leading the way: Dwayne, Jason Stiger, myself and another whose name I don't know (maybe Mitch Johnson). We cruised the first lap and then Dwayne took over the pacemaking and stepped it up a notch. Shortly into the second lap Dwayne flatted and it was just Jason and I. I started setting pace after Dwayne's flat and soon found myself alone.

I settled into a rhythm and was feeling pretty solid. Half way through I started running into Sport riders and was really getting held up. Some guys just didn't want to let me by. In fact, some unpredictable riding combined with impatience on my part, lead me to go down awkwardly on my hand. Finally I got through everyone and had some clear trail to get back into a rhythm. I was set to turn 8 laps as I came through at 2:28 to start my 7th. I had no idea where anyone else was and I was just riding my pace. My lap times were 24-25 minutes so I knew I'd get around in time for an 8th lap. But it was not to be. I flatted on the first rocky descent. Shit! Not having any tubes, I doubled back to the start to see if I could borrow a wheel.

Ten minutes later I was back underway. I rode the last lap conservatively, not really knowing whether anyone had passed me. I rode a 25 minute lap and crossed at 3:02. Later I learned that Jason had passed me and finished a minute and change in front of me. Oh well.

Commuting by bike...

2009-05-26T14:31:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking about commuting to work by bike for some time. For me, the cleanup and bike logistics are the main deterrents. They aren't too major, but our building is really not designed to accommodate bicycle commuting. Of course, the roads between home and work suck too. I'd have to take a pretty long route just to avoid the worst of the traffic. Nonetheless, I'm thinking about giving it a try.

On a related note, someone got hit riding on I-35/29 this morning at 4:30AM (story). Now, this is undoubtedly a stupid thing to do, but it is still a tragedy for those involved. What disturbed me the most was the comments on the story left by readers. There certainly is no love for bicyclists in the Kansas City area.

Maybe its time to relocate to a more progressive community.

Biting off more than you can chew...

2009-05-12T12:01:00.002-05:00

Joe Martin Stage Race with the professionals: recommended that you train more than 10 hours/week.

Okay, so I thought I had a chance of sitting in and making it to the finish with the group in the road stages and figured I'd probably get shot out the back in the crit on Sunday. I was almost right. I got dropped on Sunday more or less right out of the gate, but I also didn't quite have the necessary fitness to stay with the group on the hills at the end of the two road stages. So, I rolled in after the group in both, but within the time cuts.

Yup, it was pretty hard and I was pretty blown on Sunday. Even though I got blown out I actually think I'm not too far from being able to ride in the group. I haven't done any training intensity this season and I've hardly done any racing. Both of these things would be necessary to be able to survive this stage race, even as pack fodder.

My First Adjustment

2009-05-06T16:20:00.005-05:00

I've never been to a chiropractor until today. I have known for some time that my hips/legs were not quite balanced. Even when I was racing years ago I could tell there was a slight difference. I figured this could either be a leg length discrepancy or a skewed rotation/tilt of the pelvis. While I haven't been suffering any chronic pain in my back or legs, I finally decided to see if it could be rectified.

So today I went to see Dr. Kucera at Sage Integrative Therapies. She confirmed that there is something going on in my hips. Specifically it appears to be my left hip and probably my periformis muscle on that side. While I was there, she also adjusted the cervical and thoracic regions of my spine. I am going to see Dr. Kucera weekly for a while and we'll see if things get better.

I have also gotten Graston Technique from Dr. Kucera a couple times in the past. I may see about making it a regular thing.

Martes Noche Criterium - Cinco de Mayo

2009-05-06T15:51:00.006-05:00

The rain held off and so the crit was on as usual. Today everything stayed together and it came down to a field sprint, which Shadd won. Some guys are heading down to Joe Martin and were not making any efforts. I made a few surges and on the last one ended up a bit off the front by myself. No one figured I was going anywhere so they let me ride out there for a few laps until about 4 laps to go. I just wanted to get a few efforts in before the Joe Martin Stage Race to hopefully be ready to ride hard on Thursday afternoon.

I don't have any delusions of grandeur for Joe Martin, especially in the Pro/1 category. I am just going down for the training and race miles. Hopefully, I won't embarrass myself too much. I'll be satisfied if I have a decent ride in the TT on Thursday, finish the 2 road stages in the group, and make it through Sunday. There's a decent chance I'll get dropped on Sunday, but who knows maybe I can just latch on to some wheels and stick in there.

Belated Ouachita Report

2009-04-30T13:54:00.017-05:00

On April 5th, I lined up to do the Ouachita Challenge 60-mile race in Oden, Arkansas. It was a power-packed field with a number of MTB pros and accomplished amateurs.

We rolled out fairly easy on the gravel road section that started the race. We had a pretty tough uphill a few miles in and the pace was hotter than I wanted to go. I settled into a rhythm with a few other riders and we came out at the first aid station about 5 minutes off the pace of the leader, Jeff Kerkove. I hit the road section with Noah Singer and we were told 3 riders were in front of us, but all out of sight. We put down a good effort over the next 14 miles of paved and gravel roads and caught up to Chris Renshaw and Ray Hall just as we hit the Ouachita Trail.

I settled back into my own pace on the climb and the three rode away from me. In retrospect, I may have held back a little too much on the Ouachita Trail. I did manage to catch back up to Noah at the Aid Station #3, although he proceeded to ride away again on Blowout Mtn. I think Blowout Mtn. was probably my weakest section but because I was holding back I was ready to unleash on the Big Brushy climb after Aid Station #4.

As I came through Aid Station #4, Glen told me I was 1.5 minute down on the next rider. I rode hard up Big Brushy and had Chris Renshaw in sight as we exited the singletrack on to the last 8 miles of gravel & paved road. I quickly closed up the gap to Chris and then we worked together for a mile or so. We hit a few small uphills and I was able to put some distance on Chris. I put my head down and put about a minute on him over the next few miles.

I rolled in 3rd place, 5 minutes down on Noah Singer and 10 minutes down on Jeff Kerkove. The race was both easier and harder than last year. I definitely had better fitness than last year, but the longer course and hills in the first 5 miles made the race more difficult. I still have not got my head in the right place to make hard efforts early in races. This is definitely an issue in MTB races, but has also been a problem in some road and CX events.

Various vids are on YouTube.com

Let's get this party started...Tues Night 4/29/2009

2009-04-29T10:33:00.009-05:00

Just a quick post to start things off. Last night was the Tuesday night training criterium. It seemed like everyone was a little tired or unmotivated after a weekend of local racing. A break rolled fairly early and the group was not interested in chasing it down or riding particularly hard.

Luke Lininger, Bicycle Shack junior racer, continued his strong riding by getting in the break and pulling through strong throughout the race.

For my part, I didn't get to ride before the race because of work and just warmed up during the first 15 minutes or so. After that I made a few efforts here and there. In the end I led out Joe Schmalz on the last lap and it looked like he took the group sprint without much trouble.

I am fighting a few nagging aches and pains surely associated with pushing my aging body too much. My back has started bothering me the last couple of weeks, it was especially bad in the Hermann Road Race on April 19th.