Cross Isn't far off

Do this race!

USGPS Day 1 Vidyah

CXDorkdom

A post in more than 140 characters

I've taken to Twitter & Facebook for that matter for my life updates. Now I have a smart phone I can use Twitter to update both @ same time & it makes it easier for me. Now I need to find a mobile blogging app & I'll start blogging a little more often.

Work Sucks right now! We've cut back to 3 days a week. Part time job hunt starts this week. More time to train =more fitness. Less work= less $$. Less$$ + more fitness= stuck at home not racing. I'm sitting on some good legs right now. Trained more this week than I have in just about any week this year.

My CX season is now cut back to 5 races. Since I won the Masters overall last year I get to race the DeStad series for free. I guess 5 races is better than zero races. That also means no Hermann CX under the lights next Saturday. My season will be starting @ the end of September. Going to race the open cat in those 5 races & hopefully will place in enough to cover my State CX entry. Definitely motivation to race faster I guess. No race winnings, no state.

Just have to write this season off as a life lesson & do something about getting in a better situation with work. Hopefully the economy will pick up soon.

CX in the Olympics?

From Cyclingnews.com:
Cyclo-cross as Olympic sport?

Could cyclo-cross become an Olympic sport? The Dutch newspaper Telegraaf reported Thursday that a group of supporters of the idea have been busy working to make it happen. Members of the Italian cycling are reportedly working together with the International Olympic Committee and the UCI to make it happen.

Diego Vollaro of the Italian federation told the paper that cyclo-cross could start as a demonstration sport as early as the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February of next year. The sport had previously lost out on becoming part of the Games because the athletes involved were mainly from Europe and the Games, and the event requires more international participation. But that has changed in recent years with Canada, the USA, Japan and even Zimbabwe fielding riders in elite competitions.

Another rule could prove more of a stumbling block. The winter Games require a sport take place on ice or snow, but according to the report, that rule is under consideration.

"Next week the board and I will discuss it," said UCI executive board member Joop Atsma. "If there is only a small chance of success, it would be wonderful."

Adding cyclo-cross to the Games would help fuel the Olympic dreams of riders who make the sport their primary goal of the year. Riders like Sven Nys, who devoted extra time to mountain biking in order to be eligible to compete in the Games, or American Katie Compton, who does not pursue track, road or mountain bike racing at the Olympic level.

"I think that would be great," Compton told Cyclingnews. "They have BMX in there now so why not 'cross too?"

Hell yeah! I'd have a new favorite winter Olympics sport to take over my top spot of Curling.

What if you Had Worlds & Your guy didn't come

It looks like Cross World's could once again have the U S of A not sending their National Champ. Two of the Potential winners, Todd Wells & Tim Johnson, have already said they won't go to World's. That sucks for Cross in the US. I think USAC should make it mandatory if you win you have to go & you go on USAC's dime. I just don't get it. Yes I understand the long season & other commitments. But if your a National Freaking Champion you have obligations that go beyond all your others. Don't get me wrong Wells & Johnson are two of my favorite racers but I think they have an obligation to the sport. Hopefully if they win they'd be willing to change their minds(though I don't think Wells will). I guess I'm cheering for Page & Trebon now more than usual.

Hard Man's Cross

from Cyclingnews.com.

This isn't too far away.

More hard man pics here


From Pezcycling

Not only a hard man but hard fans as well!

What the hell am I thinking??? Bubba @ Night?

I guess I'm going to head to the STL for another damn night race. I must be out of my mind. That'll be 3 in one season. Oh well Amber is going to the STL that wknd anyway to get certified in Sports Massage & there is a beer tent if I get sleepy & need to take a nap. It's the Stupidity I'm not so sure about. Stairs & getting lapped by Josh. They better have some damn good beer in that tent is all I can say.

36 days till Natz

Wow I can't believe in just a little over a month it will be that time of year that's better than XMAS for a mud loving pain freak like myself. That's right Nationals. With that said its time to start sharpening the pencil.



Last night at cx practice I switched up the normal loop by adding more switchbacks to simulate the Nationals course. From all the descriptions & the video it looks like there are about 50 switchbacks all requiring mucho grande power, so I'm screwed. Oh well I'll do what I can. I'll just have to get a better start this year & stay upright. Speaking of starts John & Dale took turns drilling the uphill pavement starts of our intervals to really push me. I lost a couple of hole shots but the extra push helps. I'm a notorious slow starter. I like to ease into it & just keep a high steady rhythm while others slow down I just keep the same tempo. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, 360 has had a different plan this season. Hot starts all of them. Thanks to 360 my starts are getting better. Now just have to dial them in over the next few weeks. I'm not going to be racing as much going into nationals so hopefully my legs will be rested & sharp.

Don't worry Jason I'll be at Veterans Cross on Sunday. No free pass for the series win this year.

Cross Rocks!!

I love cross!

CX Pic

Just found this over @ Chris Locke's pic pages. Coolest pic of me CX racing I've found.

Slimen Team work

Kyle & me working together in the Master's Race.









Could also be titled a study in barrier techniques. Kyle carries his bike between the barriers. I push mine between barriers. I used to carry them till I saw Tilford a few years ago using his bike like a walker between barriers. I figured if it worked for him it surely would work for me. Plus it saves my already aching back. Though I can see the beni's in carrying it too.

Big Girl Panties

In the last week or so Mia has decided she wants to start peeing on the potty. We've stocked up on the big girl panties & she's been doing pretty good. Sunday Amber & Mia decided to come up to KC to watch me race so we were going to have a test of the potty training effectiveness. She did great no accidents though you can tack on about a half hour to the drive time for all the potty stops(including one on the side of the road). I'm glad they came because Mia had a blast cheering & playing all day. Plus its nice to have the company on the drive to KC for a change. Anyway on to the races.



I had thought about tripling up for this race. But Saturday night after work I went for a spin on the SSCX. It took about 5 min for the chain to come off twice & for me to decide not to race singlespeed on Sunday(turns out the smartest thing I did all wknd). Master's followed by a quick break, then 1/2/3's.









Master's was fun. My Slimen Teammate KB decided to double up too so I had a game plan in the back of my mind. I got a crap start & had to fight through some traffic. Got near the front & sat there waiting for Kyle to overcome his start. During that time Jeff Winkler rolled off the front. I thought he was in a different age category but the numbering system I guess was too complicated for me. Anyway I decided not to go with him & wait for Kyle. Kyle caught on & it took about a lap for us to work over the Cowtown guy. Then we took turns pulling & basically rolled around enjoying a Sunday ride rolling across the line together to take 2 & 3 in the Master's.

We were then supposed to get 30 minutes before the 1/2/3's which ended up being more like 20 since the ref's had a point to make. I guess they had there pissy pants on so they picked out the highest profile guy they could find, Shadd Smith, & relegated him on the line to the back off the start grid. Nice, piss him off so he goes even faster. He took it in stride & still waxed everyone. It took him 30 sec to get the lead instead of taking it from the gun. Me? I decided to put on my big girl panties & ride around having a near heat stroke for over an hour @ LT. KB duked it out for about 50 min before I saw a puff of smoke & him coming back to me guarding the rear. There were two or 3 guys behind me who were trying to sneak up on the race. Like an idiot I forgot my gloves & managed to wear a nice fat chunk of skin off my right hand. I then had to spend the last two laps trying to see how many different ways you could hold the bars(not enough as it turned out). Anyway I knew it was going to be hard & I need the work because depending on how you look @ it I'm either behind for the season or ahead. I think behind, but I will have raced 7x this season before I raced once last season.



The 1/2's wasn't pretty with lots of people having meltdowns, mechanicals, or crashes, or early season woes.

No races this weekend so honey do's & training for me.

WED Night CX

Starting to get back into the cross swing. Race on the weekend, wash the bike on Monday, ride CX on Wednesday, race on weekend, repeat. Mia is getting pretty good at washing the bike. She hates the hose("daddy don't spray me") but loves the bubbles & brushes. She even gets some of the bubbles on the bike once in awhile.

Last night was the first go around for the CX practices @ Sac. 3 guys so 1 more than I figured. JJ, me, & another guy from Bolivar who's name I forgot(sorry) once I noticed the Lars Bom autograph on his top tube. He said he apologized to Lars for it being a Bianchi & not a Colnago but could he sign it anyway, which he did. I'd clear coat it & hang that bad boy on the wall. With only 3 of us we decided barrier intervals would be the course of action. 4 x 10 min on a little short course I laid out on the top of the hill. Deep grass made it a leg buster.

Sunday I'm off to Lenexa, KS for the Diamond BlackFan CX Challenge. I'm going to attemept to triple. SSCX, Master's, & 1/2's. It's still early in the year so I'm more interested in racing saddle time than results anyway. This season has started a month earlier than last year for me so I'm still building up, December is a long way away & I have a lot of work to do.

This is interesting, I stole it from another blog:

Challenge Tire Chart

Cyclocross Tires Conditions

Grifo 30- Light rider / Early season conditions (I'm running these)

Grifo 32- All Around Conditions (& These)

Grifo 32 - Seta Unmatched casting material, super supple for greater contact to the ground

Grifo 34 -Muddy Conditions

Grifo XS 32- Fast, hard pack and grassy courses, superb early season tire

Grifo XS 34- Ideal deep sand tire

Grifo XS White/Black 32- Icy conditions – hard ice (also the “styling” early season tread) ((& These))

Fango 32- Muddy conditions (developed with direct input from leading riders of the sport) (& hopefully these)

Fango 34- Deep mud conditions

Donn Kellogg from Challenge tires.

Some people are Hammers other Nails

Guess I'm a nail since I took a beating. One that was expected though. Hey I did get a nice ass pat from Butthead though.

34 hours till CX

5 Days till CX

First "unofficial" CX race was at 12:01 this morning. That is registration for CX Nationals. Once again I got up in the middle of the night to try & get a good grid spot. As soon as it opened 5 people were registered. It took me less than 45 seconds to register & I was 13th. I have a pretty fast Intraweb connection but damn thats ridicuoulus! Oh well 2nd row is good enough.

Sore as hell this AM. Didn't get home from boating yesterday till almost 10pm, thats after leaving @ 7am. Not complaining though because I got to run Upper Richland for the first in over two years. Premo level at 5.0 dropping to 4.30. Took my creek boat since I thought we were going to hit the steep stuff but some last minute additions to the crew saw us doing Richland. After some quick bartering at the put in I left the creeker on the car & snuggled into a nice play boat for the day.

There were photos & video shot so as soon as I have them I'll get them posted. There is video of me being only one of two of our motley crew to run one of the hardest rapids on the river. Not super clean but I'll take it in a play boat. Its a 3 section rapid. Cleaned the s-move in to ride the pillow into the slot. Got pushed right of a hole I should have punched, but lost a little too much speed. Then should have slid left through a trough of water to miss a root wad but speed loss made me nudge it, leaving me bracing on my left side hard(no shoulder pain after a super hard brace so that was good). Then rode the green water out letting out a big "whoop"!

Hiked up to the Twin Falls to look at them. Lots of water pumping off them. Classic Tim Ernst Photo Op. Wish it wasn't such a hassle to get a boat up to them or I'd have run my second 20 foot water fall.

Tubulars are almost all glued up(1 set glued, 1 set stretching, 1 set in transit). Bike is built but needs a little fine tuning still. Barrier work starts this week in preparation for Hermann. Then its full bore into CX mode.

10 days till CX

ToM Day 2

Autograph mission a success++. Rabobank signed my musette. Plus Lars Boom reigning World CX Champ signed it as well. He's working the car for Rabobank for a vacation. No kidding. That makes two world champ signatures on the same mussete. Pretty cool souvenier of the ToM.

Tomorrow is the TT. Here's a start list spreadsheet with GC on it. My watch list are highlighted you can download & put into excel & do with it what you want.

17 Days till CX

Holy Crap its getting close & all I can think about is getting wet.

All day today @  work it was all I could think about was going boating.  Luckily I was insanely busy rewiring 3 control cabinets.  10 hours flew by.  Otherwise I would have gone nuts checking guages.  Don't get me wrong Cross first & fore most but a guy has to cross trane right?  

I even hit the trainer so hard last night Amber got to witness my body telling me to harden the F up. 

 

Yep dry heaves followed by a near pass out.  I've got it in my head to do all my intervals (except secrect cx ones) on the trainer for consistancy via the wattage.  It'll either work or it won't.

Google caused quite a stir with Chrome.  I have it @ home & work.  Haven't got to play too much with it yet.  Did manage to get it to hang up tonight though.   I think it may be more flash than anything.  Will take a lot to get me to convert from Firefox.  But I will give it a chance.  I'm definetly one to try new things  ie intervals on the trainer, wattage, all crazy talk just a few years ago.

21 days till cx

22 days till CX