Opie Adventures

I live, I live through the Belgian's - Therefore I Blog Again

2012-01-31T14:49:00.001-05:00

I live, I live through the Belgian's

Masters Regional Cyclocross Championship Start

Top 5 into the 2nd turn

Yes, I have been completely absent from blogiscyclesphere. The reasons are many, the largest, my employment situation - I am positive it will change soon.

Hence the lack of cycling related enthusiasm. Basically, I struggled to find motivation to finish the 2011 cyclocross season or even show up to the races I had pre-registered.
I hoped to maybe attend nationals, and see how things went or felt and then head down to Kentucky for Masters Worlds in mid January. As the air was slowly removed from my enthusiasm tank, I dug deep to stay on the cx bike, creep through and physically finish training and two cross races in December.

The first one in early December was Dec 3 Midwest Junior and Masters Regional Cyclocross Championships, Mason, OH - Kings CX near Cincy. There were miserable conditions, I had an amazing start, but as my Ridley carbon cross bike became slaughtered (weighted) with mud, I made a bike change to my Epic Carbon mountain bike (22lb 26") so my super amazing new team mate Graydon could clean my cross bike (I don't have two cx bikes). It was a great pass, and kept me moving forward, but the heavy mtb, wider tires, and life sucking mud got the best of me over 45 minutes. I finished in 5th Place - not bad considering. My other good buddy James T and I ran each other into the ground, back and forth throughout the race. I dug deep and caught up to him in the last two laps, and found something to pass him somewhere. Stats: I was almost 2 minutes behind my buddy Bill Marut, and nearly 7 min behind Cleveland fast man, Nate Loman. I have lots of respect for these guys and got to know them over the season. However, I am sure the mental stress of the job situation contributed to my lack of being fully "in" this event. Cycling and racing bicycles is a mental game.

James & I run the muck

My friend James Turner-we battled hard all season

Finish Line - agony of defeat - bike weighs 35lbs

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Up Next on the survival chopping block was the last Cap City Cross race at Smith Farms. In contributing back to the sport, I volunteered to help set up the course the day prior and have some influence into dishing out some pain for race day. It worked, I was able to convince Mason, Spencer and Andy to let me bring back the "Death Spiral" as it was named on the day. I hadn't ridden much or had much sleep and was stressed all week. I guess sometimes not worrying about your race can do you justice. I had amazing legs, amazing fitness and stood on the podium for a 1st place finish - My first for 2011. I was super proud of this finish and it was a big boost to my overall morale that was really in the gutter.

Thanks to my team, my CapCityCross friends, my OVCX friends, my CBUS practice peeps, my coach, my good friends and my BWE for supporting me this season. All of you helped put me on the podium and keep me motivated in 2011.

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And Finally - My tribute and hats off to the Americans (Powers, Trebon and Drew Dillman(Jr. From Kentucky) racing at CX Worlds. The sandy beach sections got the best of the US riders it seems.

How do you slow down all cyclocross racers except for Belgian's? Dump 500 tons of sand on a course.

Drew placed in the top 10 (on his way to pro status) and Trebon finished 18th or so (1:06). I think Jpowers ended up 38th?

Let me not forget our American ladies. They had an amazing effort, and put us on the map. We do need more women racing cross locally and regionally. So, get your friends out there ladies. Develop those roadies into cross racers, get them off the pavement in August and show them what cx is all about.

Ohio State Cyclocross Championships - October 22 & 23

2011-11-01T14:50:00.000-04:00

I line up with the fastest Masters over 45 in the State of Ohio

(L)Meredith and Chris, (r)Me and my Dad

(L to R) Team Hungry Mayor, Tony's Tan, Me and Katie

Katie and I do the 'Captain of the Ship' pose

Me and the "Cleveland" boys give each other hell

Some Guy, Tim and Kurtis

Scott, James and Doug

My finish against the CAT 1/2/3 Masters

Cap City Cross - Big Run Park - October 16, 2011

2011-10-30T01:21:00.000-04:00

The one thing each week about cross racing, is you just never know when someone is going to have a better day than you are having. Some days, you get served...

Cyclocross Race #5 for the year

This day, I was not having an amazing day on the bike. I knew I would suffer, but suffering and having the engine are two separate things. I put in a fairly tough week of training in the days-week preceding. I knew my legs wouldn't respond with everything I needed, but I didn't know just how.

I got a good pre-ride in, but was arrived at the race way early and I think spent too much time riding around and not enough eating. No matter, the Senior Citizens club of Masters line up at the bottom of the hill, along side CAT 1 road racer, Jim B. It is an open masters race right, yea it is. Whistle. We are off, as I smartly settle in behind the leaders pulling my fat ass up that soap box hill. Over the top we go, my team mate Glen and I battle for position in the first few turns, I take a different line down into the ditch than most everyone else, it provided a smoother straight line into the next hard right turn. We head into the hillside and the barrier at the bottom of the hill, then back down towards the bottom of the Box derby hill, but over a giant dirt climb.

It was rough on the other side, and required quite a bit of focus and attention to avoid the ditch and raised sections of hard dirt and rocks. Scott Young was having a good day, and was not going ot be reeled in, however, Glen and Blair and I were riding around like we were chained together. I had a few moments where I was suffering and Glen, slowed up the pace, there wasn't anyone gaining on us, so it was going to come down to the last few turns and the run up the hill, or the grass section at the bottom....

We all stuck to each other like a kids magnetic toy train, until we rolled off the grass and onto the pavement at the bottom of the Soap Box Hill, near where we started the race (see start pic above for perspective on the sprint distance) Blair put in a dig, Glen countered, I sat on, waiting for the moment. Blair was up front, I was on Blair's wheel, I knew I couldn't out sprint Blair or let him get the jump, I had to go, I think my shift click was a trigger for him, however, I jumped flew hard left and gave it full-throttle. Blair had his gas wide open, so I swung back to his wheel and tried to suck any wind I could, I pushed and pushed, but still missed beating Blair by about a bike length.

That is the first time he's beat me this year. Glen rolled in right behind me...he didn't even bother getting up to sprint.

The BWE (wife Jen) always takes amazing photos....

I pulled a decent 6th place in, just missing 5th.

that was one long uphill sprint. I hit a high Heart Rate number for the year. Ouch.
Lots of coughing after this race.

oh, Masters CAT 1 road racer guy, finished over 2 minutes ahead of us...he was rollin.

Catch up - Gun Club (OVCX) October 9, 2011

2011-10-30T00:22:00.000-04:00

Pics First - write up at the bottom.

The days before the race, lots of chatter about the photo to the left. Team Hungry Cycling team (race sponsor) and Promoter Gatch pulled a fast one on the interwebs, putting stakes and tape up this crazy steep hill. It was all fake and we never had to run/ride up the thing. Hilarious non the less.

The Start line of 64 dudes crammed in there

Duane and I battle it out

I finally get to pass James Turner - he's fast...smell food

Tall barriers for this guy's short legs

my look-back finish

Metz, is killing it this year. Just got the upgrade too.

Team Mate Doug C riding super strong

After review of data from our race chips, I raced faster at the beginning, then steady, then fastest on the last lap, this is good. Especially from where I started among the 64 dudes. My split-time was the same as the winner of this race, so my turbo is there, I just faded in the first few laps, compared to their jet engines or wasn’t going hard enough. Good grief, what a bunch of weekends. I was getting pretty tired there for a few days.

Split Place Lap1 Place Lap2 Place Lap3 Place Lap4 Total Time

0:59 26 8:53 21 8:47 21 8:54 19 8:44 36:18

I fought off getting shot at the Gun Club for an 8th place in a huge group of over 60 dudes over 35 years old and up. I think a third row placement and got a decent start into the first turn ahead of the giant pile-up. Later looking at the photos, the person that caused it ended up at the bottom. I was fully gassed by the time we came around and into the double sandpit. This is slightly downhill, so getting in the drops right out of the double track sandy turn is key and not grabbing someone’s wheel, since you have no idea if they can ride a good line or not and might lead you into the tape or a stake.

I really have enjoyed racing at the Gun Club for years, however, I am not a huge fan of adding mountain bike type obstacles into a cross course. Don’t get me wrong, I love a great wind-y, twisty, tree filled, go round and round, get you dizzy course that requires lots of power out of each corner, with some long grass or short pave’/gravel between, but running a cross race into a creek is not really my idea of cross. It's just my opinion really. Without this section I think there has always been plenty at this venue to keep us all busy and drooling.

Good guy and cool dudes, Duane Walker and Jeff Schoeny beat me at Gun Club. Duane had a great race and certainly had a solid performance. Jeff is just fast, he’s got a great run and is like a steam ship, steady as she goes. I tried like hell to keep up and stick to Matt Stierwalt’s “Rogue” wheel. My superglue was out of date and didn’t work, his mountain bike skills and fitness were a few notch's above mine for sure.

Soapbox: I don’t like driving to Cincy, paying 25/30 dollars to race a CAT 3 race and only getting to race for 36 minutes. Really? I am not sure why we’re getting robbed here out of the full 45 minutes. I am paying the same amount of money the Elite Masters are paying, the same amount all others are paying, but not seeing the full race time. #weaksauce. Yeah yeah - you can say, well, just move up to Elite’s then and kwityourbitchen. I say naaa, make it Like a boss, we all race 45 minutes. Cleveland and Cap City all give the CAT 3’s and up their full fair shake at 45 min and a full hour of racing. Just sayin’ Ok I am finished with that.

Another thought, I’d say with the growing fields of this series, ovcx has outgrown this super cool venue. The course can only be set up to be so wide and with masters fields this big and CAT 3 open fields growing - it might be time for a new gun club course for 2012?

Spencer (Jeni's) in the double sandpit

OVCX - John Bryan SP - Cyclocross Race - October 2, 2011

2011-10-06T23:05:00.000-04:00

Lining up with 60 plus guys is always better than lining up with 120. However the challenges remain, lots of pedals, shifters, elbows, gritting of teeth, tongues hanging out, grunts, shifting noises and swear words. However, the difference is the 35 and 45 plus categories have a tendency to be very competitive. Many entrants, who train hard, who set goals each season to improve their fitness, watts, overall speed on a given course and improve their results to a new place among the masses each week, each season. Sounds easy right?

Well, it’s not that easy if everyone you are racing against has been putting in more hours, more time, more training, maybe some of them have a coach? Maybe some of them are a few years younger? Maybe some of them have a job, where they can get out in the Fall as the days shorten earlier than you? Maybe they lost their job and have been able to go out and spend lots of time on the bike? Maybe they just might have the gift, a better watt output at a given 20 minute effort? Maybe they have a higher VO2 max and can sustain 45 minutes at a breakneck speed longer than you? Some people you race with each week, talk post race each week with ‘excuses’. I discount these, we all have them. I believe it’s more so about all the above questions and differences between us as bike riders and athletes.

With that, I got registered, grabbed my free awesome giant cowbell provided by the main race sponsor, got my helmet set up for the race chip system, that would track our lap times as well as our finish time and filled out my free raffle ticket for the Reynolds Carbon wheelset.

I headed back to the car to pin up my number, usually the BWE takes care of this as part of my good luck process, however, she was on a social and cowbell marketing mission. Crap I forgot pins. Ahh found some spares in the hatch of the car.

Number pin’d, it’s time for some pre-race drink and some warm up on the bike. The last race was finished so I sneak out onto the course looking for places I can excel, places that suit my skills, areas and corners I can handle faster than others.

The course is long, I mean long, did I say long? I like a long course, but I also like to travel to cross races for the full 45 minutes of racing. I don’t like being short changed by 5 minutes either. Am I bitching? Maybe, but I traveled to your race, paid your entry fee and I want my 45 minutes, not 40, not 42, Forty Fucking Five Minutes. Odd about 10% of the Elite field got to race an hour, then the other 90% got to race an hour and 5 min. plus. Let us all race for 30, 45 and an hour please.

The course is awesome, as usual, TJ and the crew at JB always throw some great stuff out there and did so this round. Karen and Doug Hamilton volunteer a ton of time at this park, building and maintaining the mountain bike trails, they also regularly keeps us informed about the condition of the trails at the park via Facebook. I say thanks to those that put this together and for CapCity to help sponsor this fine event.

Usually this JB race is in November around Thanksgiving and the ground is cold as well as the temperature. This day however, the temperature during my race would hover around 60 some degrees and sunny. The fortunate part for most of us racing later in the day is the sun and other racers were drying out the course with each race. It rained most of the week of the race, which proved to soften a few sections of the course, including the section from the start. It was a false flat as some say, but basically it’s a 3 to 5% hill with some super bumpy grass and some life sucking soggy, saturated ground. Lots of guys in my race were really going backwards on this section, my plan during my race was shift down a few gears, stand up, tell the legs to shut up and throttle myself all the way up each time. Once we got up to the ‘top’, we rounded a new wildflower field that was quite awesome and smelled great each lap, then back down a bit into some twisty’s, over two tree/logs, and then back up that same false flat hill just on the other side of the flower field. The logs were not really a factor I don’t think in the race per say of separating the field one way or another in my race at least. They were just big enough that they could be crossed without stepping off the bike, if you had some skills and were willing to take the risk, however, I choose the conservative method and got off my bike. There was one other set of barriers, a double set, over by the popular twisty bits near the park Gazebo. This area is always a fun set of turns and slickery grass, where you must find the balance of speed, pedaling, driving your bike, leaning while pedaling, upper body position and the like. It’s always one of my favorite areas of the cross races at JB.

We get our call ups according to who’s leading the OVCX series, not one f’ing mention of CapCity, and then line up according to registration. I am about 3rd or 4th row, and snag a spot right behind my buddy Matt Stierwalt. He’s a badass, I figure if I can stick on his wheel for a majority of the race or at least keep him in sight, I will have a good day. We’re off, I am sitting in about top 15 maybe into the first turn and surprised where I am as we round the flower field. Guys are racing like it’s the world championship and cutting others off, running into course stakes, course tape, etc.

My heart rate was up there, but I was able to recover as sections of the course got stacked up in certain areas with racers and as the pecking order was formed. I knew we’d only be racing a few laps and each one had to count. I went after my goal of shifting down two gears, standing up and throttling it up the false hill each lap, passing racers and putting distance on those behind me. Scott Young a few other guys I knew were going to be giving me a run for my money. Scott was easy to spot, Stierwalt was gone, James Turner was still in my sights but gaining time on me here and there in front of me. The toughest thing to do I’ve found during these races is keep your brain going, keep thinking, keep focusing on who is in ‘your race’ who you need to go after and when to put in an effort to distance those behind you…The guy in the specialized kit, Michael Seaman and Scott Bond came around me near the double barriers I think and just kept distancing themselves from my front wheel. Uggg. I pushed hard to stick with them on the third lap, and by the time I got to the Gazebo, I almost threw up.

I guess I had done some damage, since looking at the timing, my fourth lap was my slowest at 9:27. I recovered for my final and fifth lap for a 9:21.

Sad to know, I faded a bit in the last two laps, from my best lap of 9:15 which was Lap2’s time and my Lap3 time being within .01 second of Lap2 at 9:16. If I had ridden more consistently with a bunch of 9:15 laps, I might have won my race or at least been podium material, so lets hope my fitness improves as it should each week of racing.

With my calve issues at hand I was pretty worried about running full speed over the logs or over the barriers. As I got to lap 4, the legs/calve seemed to be responding to faster and faster dismounts back by the gazebo. This was a confidence booster, so, with the bell lap, I put the afterburners on and fought hard to keep some distance between myself and Scott Young and the other guy with him, who I had no clue if he was in my race or not, however, that’s not a bad thing when you don’t know, it pushes you, forces you to go hard and maintain a hard pace. One last time up the false flat, the legs felt good, so I gave it one last super hard effort to try to maintain my gap. I think I got passed around the sand pit and right before the finish line, I just have no idea if he was a 35 or 45 guy. I didn’t bother sprinting for it, he had already done the damage, I looked back to make sure no one was there and rode across the computer finish line for 7th place in the 45+.

I finished 17th out of 64 total racers.

For my third-race of the season and a week-break since my second race, I think it’s a sign things (fitness and power) are on track to have some fun this season.

So, lets just chat a bit about the timing and what the lap results show via OVCX. The Top 10-15 of the CAT 4 race all need to move up. The Top-10 of the CAT 3 Open races also need to move up. The winner of the CAT 3/35+ has lap times early in his race, to compete in the Elite race for sure, however, his last two laps he was going backwards.

NEOCX - Racing Cross in Cleveland - Cascade Park and Wendy Park

2011-10-04T01:08:00.004-04:00

September 11, 2011

NEOCX – Cleveland,Ohio - Cascade Park

My fist cross race of the season. Nerves not present. Noexpectations of anything. The BWE and I hauled up to Elyria in the early a.m.hours, bypassing freeway for country roads, sights, and smells of Amish Country.After Exiting off 71 N, we see a yellow sign with an Amish buggy on it warningus to keep an eye out for the black buggies. Until we saw our fourth buggy,full of family, we realized it was Sunday and they were all headed off to anearby Church.

We follow the GPS to old town Elyria and into a small parkhidden in an old Cleveland neighborhood. The park is located down a windingroad and near a well-known landmark, called Cascade Falls.

The race course included grass, two rides up the sleddinghill, a long section of pave’ out to a tree for a left turn across the road andback onto pave’ then onto some grass. We had one section of soggy grass, asection into the woods near the creek, that was deep, life sucking, tire andshoe sucking, that was followed by a short section, along the creek near steps,that I managed to ride twice during warm up, but didn’t want to risk it duringthe race. Basically, two times off the bike, for the run up and the double setof the tallest barriers I ever ran through.

From the start line, we hit a wide sweeping grass sectionthen into a few sweeping turns around a tree. I ended up on the outside intothe first turn and second turn, and fought hard to move up. After the firsttime up the sledding hill, I passed a few people, then the second time more people.I had no idea where I was in the group during the race; I was having fun,battling it out with a few people. It is always better to have people to racewith and against. Back and forth is a good thing in a cross race, competition.

Cleveland puts on a great race, they are friendly racers andpeople. They don’t throw elbows, there is no one cutting you off into everycorner. I did not see the type of racing where everyone thinks it’s the end ofthe world championship.

I finished in Third Place in the 45+ CAT 3. Not bad for astart to the season.

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September 18, 2011

NEOCX – Cleveland,Ohio - Wendy Park Cyclocross Race

My second cross race of the season. ALake Erie front view racecourse, just a few miles from the famous Rock and RollHall of Fame some new sports stadium and an old closed lake Coast Guardfacility and Lighthouse. The weather was just spectacular, the course wasamazing and the other racers very nice. More chitchat at the line I have everseen in any races, other than CapCity.

The course contained a little bit ofeverything, grass, dirt/single track, gravel, a long sand section right by thelake, another small sand pit, some hills, rollers, a round mound where we rodearound the top crest and a pavement section, out and back to an old abandonedCoast Guard station and even two smallish logs that were both bunny-hop-able atsome speed (way fun).

I managed to take the holeshot (justlike Ray), and hold the lead by about 20 seconds for the first three laps. Yes,I said the lead. I felt amazing, the legs felt amazing, and I was rolling.

Until… I tried to anticipate a movefrom the rider just in front of me, as Blake from Jeni's pedaled around thecorner and into the small sandpit, I waited too long to make a decision. He wentleft, I turned, not leaned my bike. I went down hard in some large gravel. Myright calf locked-up, I got my bell rung hard by slamming the left side of myface and shoulder to the ground, oddly enough the drive side of my bike wentdown. So, I am not sure what happened there exactly. I got up, found myeyesight and brain and straightened my bars, and went back at it, trying togain back my lost ground.

All the riders in the 45 plus had 500numbers, so I was keeping an eye out for them...
I knew there was at least three or four guys that had past me.... as I limpedmy legs and brain back up to speed, they went into my crosshairs and bam, 1, 2,3

I passed the last person just shy ofthe finish line.

Results - How about 1st place?

Yes, I won a race.

I made some Podium time, complete witha first prize being a full-on giant bottle of Jim Beam for the three podiumstars. We were not allowed to leave the podium until all three of us bustedopen the bottles and took a swig.

Walking from the podium was more likelimping in pain. Shortly after I stepped off the bike and right after the race,my calf was seized, frozen solid and swollen, hard as a rock. I pulled an icepack out of the cooler for the drive home. It was apparent I really injured myright calf and the inside bone of my left leg below my kneecap, on my wreck. Teammateand good friend, Dr. Clem was nice enough to look at my injury after we gotback into town from Cleveland.

The informal ‘porch’ report, I haddamaged my calf and had what was informally called ‘Tennis Leg’, a commoninjury for tennis players and old people like me, but it could take from 2-6weeks to completely heal. Pretty much that same issue with my calf muscles Ihave been fighting for a while. UGGG Old age. Muscles and tendon's in the calfabout midway down. The gastro’ muscle is a common injury I guess, however, itis one of the faster healing muscles in the body. The report, ice, more ice,compression, ice, rest, ibuprofen, fish oil, magic powder, leg replacement, ageregression therapy, and massage. Well, some of that is not true, but hey, itsounds more interesting.

What this also meant was no racing inIndiana or Cleveland for the following weekend, so I would have time to heal upbefore John Bryan, OVCX/CapCity cross race in Yellow Springs.

Top 10 Reasons to Race Cyclocross

2011-09-28T14:12:00.000-04:00

TOP 10 REASONS TO RACE CYCLOCROSS

1. CyclocrossRaces Are for Working Folks: Bing, bang, boom! Cross races are less thanan hour long. Unlike triathlons, road or mountain bike racing, you can find afew hours to train enough to race CX while holding a full time job and having alife. Plus, generally-speaking cx bikes can be purchased for way less than most road bikes.

2. Great Forthe Whole Family: There are categories for everyone! Races are timelimited for the most part; they don't take all-day so you can race withoutcompromising the whole weekend. Did you know kids/juniors race for FREE orcheap in youth categories in many of the Ohio races! Women's categories haveseen a huge rise in participation, too. It’s a spectator friendly sport evenfor Grandma and Grandpa.

3. CXculture is All About Fun: Cross is about having a good time, ridingin dirt, cheering for your friends, drinking an adult-beverage or two, wearingcostumes, enjoying BBQ, and having an entertaining time whether you are racingor watching. No pretentious behavior allowed!

4. But is itSafe: Courses are very safe and held on a closed course off public roads sothere is never a fear of traffic. There are only steep climbs to ride up, ordismount and run. There are a few descents, but they are generally short andquick and not on pavement, certainly nothing to worry about and it’s generallyabout 70% grass, so hup-hup buttercup, what’s holding you back now?

5. NoShortage of Opportunity: There are over 30-races per season in theOhio valley alone. Many of these races are all within or around a two-hourdrive so you can race to your hearts content. With organized weekly practicesgoing on in Columbus and in the Cincy area, how can you not see opportunity totry it out?

6. Keep ItWeird: Cross is all about being an individual, there are no robots here. Likepink? Go for it. Like to wear your wife’s tall socks, go right ahead. Like toglue animals or things to your helmet, have at it, we will still like you andsalute your individuality.

7. Jerk Free: We liketo keep it Jerk Free. In other words, we like to support each other, yell atother racers, encourage those racing when we are not, even people racing wedon’t know. We support our friends, deepen friendships and develop new ones, byscreaming, yelling, slapping, hand-ups, working the pits, calling outgap-times, clanging cowbells, cupcake hand-ups, expensive and inexpensivebeverage hand-ups and dropping Benjamin’s in the mud pit.

8. Come BackStronger: If you thought you were finished with your cycling season, well,you’re not. Go find your cx bike, head out to your local practices, then getout and race. You can race locally until late December here in the Midwest.Then go to Nationals in January and freeze your ass. Then take a few weeks off,and blam, it’s road training season. I guarantee, your fitness will come backaround quicker and you’ll have more power from a full season of cross racingand training.

9. Beat theRoadies: You have an opportunity to beat some super fast roadie types who mightsail past you on the local hammer ride each week or beat you hands down in acrit or road race. There yes I just said that - but in cross, you have a chanceto take your mad mountain bike skills short bursts of power and crazy abilityto take chances, where a roadie might not and beat them lap after lap. Howgreat is that? You can sign up for a CAT 4 CX race, with a varied degree ofother racers, the playing field becomes level of sort. There might be Road CAT1,2 folks in the CX CAT 4 field or even in the CX CAT 3 field. They might havean advantage on the straights or flatter sections, but you can get them in thetrees, and twisty bits. Show them up, then congratulate them afterwards ontheir efforts. Don’t be a jerk.

10. Heckling is Allowed: You mighttake yourself too seriously at a cross race if you can’t endure the heckling.It’s all in good fun and certainly can be taken in stride. There is an art toit and not everyone has the gift. Yell at people you don’t know, tell them topedal harder, get a megaphone and make sure everyone can hear you cheering onyour racing friends. Call out the sandbaggers that are 2 minutes off the frontof the CAT 3 race. Dress up in your scariest getup, jump up and down, anddistract your racing friends until they wipe out in the sand pit. It’s game on,cause it’s cross.

Fine Wine, Grape into Raisins and Coal into Diamonds

2011-09-13T00:06:00.000-04:00

Fine Wine, Grape into Raisins and Coal into Diamonds

Like these things that change over time, I turned 45 candles this year.

Back in December and January I decided or at least started thinking about my up and coming 2011 cycling season and mentally putting together some goals for the year and considering all the time and effort required to hit the mark on said events.

I determined I would not attend the NUE Endurance races I did in 2010, nor would I have an interest in participating in an entire spring road-race season. I would focus more on having some fun, doing the races I wanted to do, rather than the ones I felt like I should do...Maybe a sign of a change in my perception of cycling in my life or a sign of old age?

What I have learned about turning 45?

I Can't Do It All

I have to be more picky or selective in the races and rides I choose to attend. I am not 30 anymore. Plus this year I just didn't have an interest in spending 6 hours mountain biking on a Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday. It wasn't appealing in January and isn't now in September. I need to listen to my body more, listen to my brain more, where both maybe telling me, "there's nothing here, ride back home". I must choose my battles so to speak. Plus I'd like to spend more time at home, doing things with the BWE, friends, family and projects around our home.

Wed and Friday

Generally on Tuesdays and Thursdays I put in some harder workouts and efforts and I've certainly noticed in the early a.m. on Wed and Friday's at work I am getting out of my chair slower and walking funny for a few steps till my stuff comes around. My co-workers even notice, but they really have no idea, what I've put my body through on the day prior. They think I was just out 'riding my bike' which I was, but, well, its just not worth explaining to co-workers really. Which brings me to the next topic.

Stretching - Foam Roller - The Stick - Massage

As I have reached this ripe age, I have discovered the foam roller, two to be exact a hard one (black and dense) and a medium density white one that have become staples in the main room of our house. I use them regularly and find they can fill in about 75% of the void between professional massages. I highly recommend purchasing at least two, if you’ve never used one there are quite a few videos out there on you tube of how to use a foam roller.

The Stick is a massage tool, that I’ve had for years, its a roller type stick with grips at each end and I can hit up some specific areas of my legs, hips, quads and shins. One must be careful with the Stick, and the foam rollers, you can really hurt yourself and bruise your muscles. I am stretching most nights, but at least 3 or 4 times a week.

I have a yoga strap I use as well that helps stretch my hamstrings, which get tight on and off throughout the season. When cyclocross season starts, and I begin running/weights, hard efforts, my hamstrings usually get super stiff, so the yoga strap comes in handy, laying around watching TV sometimes.

If you have never had a professional massage, I highly recommend finding someone local, that can either visit your home for at minimum an hour or an hour 30. If you must travel, it might save you a few dollars. As I age, and increase training loads or my stress levels go up, I find the professional massage to really do wonders for me, especially in areas, I just can’t seem to get to with the Stick, foam rollers or stretching.

Get Happy About Riding

Yes that's right. I am going to get happy about riding, no matter what kind of riding. Even on my unicycle (when I learn again). You shouldn't hate going out to ride, nor should it be a dreadful thought when you go out to train. It should always be fun, when it's not what should you do? Great question, thanks for asking, I would suggest you go ride another bike in another venue. What do you mean by that exactly? Wow, where do you come up with these great questions? I mean, if you are a road cyclist, go out on your cyclocross bike and find some dirt, or take your mountain bike out of town and go ride a trail you've been thinking about riding for a year or more. Or go trail running, hiking, snow shoeing, skiiing, XC skiiing. Just go do something different, when you get back to riding your main bike - you'll enjoy it that much more. I swear.

“It’s going great, but how are YOU doing?”

The Best Girlfriend Ever (BGE) passed along an article to my BWE early this year about how sometimes it’s better when someone asks about your cycling to just simply answer, “it’s going great, how are YOU doing?” In other-words, not everyone in and around your life, shares you're (my obsession) with cycling. They don’t want or need to hear about how you busted out 1000 watts twice last week or how you crushed some 25 year old last week at a local training ride or the like. Be polite, answer their question and return the favor by learning something new about your friends. There will be a time and place to start talking cycling with your friends. For the most part, they might not have any concept of training, efforts, why you enjoy spending so much time riding, and why you just spent 100 bucks on tubular cyclocross tires. To summarize, don’t be the long-winded boring-cyclist-blowhard and monopolize the conversation for 3-hours at a party when someone starts asking about cycling - riding, racing or training. I am working on this, I swear.

Cross Racing Schedule 2011 - Sept- December

2011-09-12T23:13:00.000-04:00

Here's my 'hope' schedule. I know what will happen is, and I'll say in a few months, oh my gosh is it really Thanksgiving already...then what might seem like days later, what? it's Christmas? It was just Thanksgiving.
and so it goes...
There are a few of these weekends, I'll just have to see how the body responds and what is going on with life. It's just not great to go race double weekends all the time, at least for me. Some of them, I'll maybe see what is up with the weather and choose to make the drive based on the weather. One possible mountain bike race on the schedule, if the planets align, it would make a really tough weekend, with 25 miles at all out effort at Mohican and then GunClub on Sunday, we'll see as the tides change.

SEPTEMBER
4-Sep	CCX	Frankenbike 50 Gran Fondo - Scioto Trails
11-Sep	NEOCX	Cascade Park, Elyria
18-Sep	NEOCX	Wendy Park, Cleveland, OH
24-Sep	OVCX	Brookside Cup, Indianapolis, IN
24-Sep	NEOCX	Kent State, Campus, Stark, OH
25-Sep	OVCX	St. Mary's Cross, Indianapolis, IN

OCTOBER
1-Oct	OVCX	Gearfest, Dayton?
2-Oct	CCX	John Bryan Classic, Yellow Springs
8-Oct	OMBC	Mohican State Forest ? MTB Race - 25 miles
9-Oct	OVCX	Gun Club, Cincinnati
15-Oct	CCX	Big Run Park, Columbus
22-Oct	CCX	Dublin - State Championships
23-Oct	CCX	Dublin - State Championships
29-Oct	CCX	Uncle Steve's Party/Race, Marysville, OH
30-Oct	CCX	Uncle Steve's Party/Race, Marysville, OH

NOVEMBER
5-Nov	UCI	UCI - Sunset Park, Middletown, OH
6-Nov	UCI	UCI - Harbin Park, Cincinnati, OH
20-Nov	OVCX	Promotion Cross, Lexington, KY
20-Nov	CCX	NEW Dayton Race - maybe cancelled?
27-Nov	CCX	Infirmary Mound, Newark/Granville, OH

DECEMBER
4-Dec	OVCX	OVCX - FINALE - Kings CX, Cincinnati, OH
10-Dec	CCX	CapCityCross FINALE - Smith Farms, Columbus, OH
11-Dec	CCX	CapCity Cross - PARTY AT CARABAR

Cross Racing - 1st Race for 2011 - CX Races

2011-09-12T16:43:00.001-04:00

Reader Peeps:
I finally got a schedule in place approved and signed off by the BWE for the 2011 cyclocross season schedule.

This weekend is race number 1 of many. I’ll try to post up my tentative plan for the season, so you can push me into the tape when you see me.

Heading to Cleveland for the first time to race the North East Ohio Cyclocross (NEOCX) series in Elyria, Ohio. Here is a link to their series.

CK It: Sept. 11 Cascade Park CX, Elyria

I thought I might go up to Cleveland and visit with my peeps up there, for once and support their scene. I found a few photos of the race from last year, it appears there is a sledding hill involved and some long sections of grass. Hopefully, there is more technical bits, twisty stuff and trees. I can’t stand grass cross crit courses - boring and lame.

Here’s a pic of me looking pro at the race, after not being pro and eating some of that mud. More on the race later.

I have already pre-registered for 3 cx races, because I am a dork. Two of the UCI3 races and CapCity’s John Bryan race.

I am pretty sure I can race 95% of the CapCity Series this year and still manage to sneak in a few NEOCX and a few of the OVCX races. The plan is to try to stay in Ohio this year and not spend dough on hotel rooms. I am planning on a few of those double-race-weekends, but not all of them.

For the Record I am NOT...& Some Q & A

2011-08-31T00:09:00.000-04:00

FYI,
This is for public record and for the 4 people that read my blog, And for the others who seem to think it's me. Even tonight at CX practice another person, commented directly to me, they thought all along it is me. Well, its NOT.

Lastly - I figured before the regional-tri state cyclocross season officially gets underway I thought i would clear the air - For the official record, I swear on a stack of pancakes, belgium waffles(and I love me some waffles), your life, your moms life, my life, I am NOT running a blog about sandbaggers in ohio.

-----------------------------------------------
Maybe these questions will help you understand how my melon works.

Am I an outspoken person?

Yes.

Do I always have an opinion?

Most times.

Like my friend Denny used to say, Everyone has opinions, just like everyone has an asshole."

Do I have issues with sandbaggers in all non-pro cycling?

Yes.

Do I get cranky-moody in the middle of CX season?

Yes. sometimes. Ohio weather can suck the life out of you.

Have I verbally vented about CX, MTB and Road/Crit Sandbaggers in a past season to friends?

Yes. I see the same racers each summer in the top 5 of many of the same series races.

Do I take myself seriously?

Not so much as a person, I'd say I am right about age 15 most times. I think monkey's throwing poo is pretty funny, old Bugs Bunny, Dumb & Dumber and most recently cat farts. Oh and yesterday my neighbor picked up his pet bunnies and they shot out small rabbit pellets like a pez dispenser. The 'seriousness' comes and goes as a bike racer, about like a broken teeter-toter.

Would I say I am a competitive person?

Yes, I have a fucking blog about bikes for goodness sake to talk about bikes and bike races and bike parts. Who comes up with these questions - sheesh.

Do I think someone can earn podium time over the season?

yes certainly so, everyone should have the opportunity to stand with their arms up at one point or another. It's a great feeling. We all train very hard for those little moments. But if you are up there every week, all season, or running away with races, you need to move up. Let someone else have their arms up and enjoy that same feeling you got to enjoy.

Is sandbagging a common problem among the sport of cycling?

Regionally, locally, and statewide sure, I believe so, I don't get out of state enough to comment about other states.

Who’s responsibility is it to monitor the 'behavior'?

Primarily, the individual = The cyclist - he/she needs to take personal responsibility - own up - grow up and CAT up. I believe USA cycling, State cycling officials and race promoters have a role. Most of us pay USA Cycling quite a bit of money each year, they should be reviewing results of all races regularly - State x State, regionally and locally.

Do I review CrossResults.com?

Good grief who's asking these lame questions? oh oh right me. Who doesn't, if you haven't get on board, it's the CX race-result mecca and pretty accurate.

Is it the race promoters responsibility to force-upgrade riders spending too much time standing on a podium in one season?

I think it is partially their responsibility, I know promoting and running races is hard enough, I hate to put all that burden on them, but they are keeping track of results right? I know two of the CX race series here, have addressed this in the past and created some new guidelines for the 2011 season, for which I support.

Now - kwit your bellahakin and go riid your biik

Cyclocross Teaser

2011-08-30T22:37:00.001-04:00

The new cyclocross bike is fast, furious and very comfortable. More pics and details soon.

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Tour Of Colorado - Preview ride by the Rapha Team

2011-08-09T10:51:00.004-04:00

Video is amazing, stunning and the ride looks epic.
Makes me want to drive out there and climb those peaks.

Wabbit Season is over- It is Now Cyclocross Season

2011-08-03T23:37:00.001-04:00

Bust out your Embrocation, find your old Cyclocross Magazines, get those cross training and race tires out. Order some spare chains, brake pads and install new cables. Did you get your tubie's glued up yet. Now is the time.
Find those toe cleats for your shoes.
Now start thinking about all that suffering.
Ready?
Ok how about now?

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Goodbye Dear Sweet Cyclocross Friend

2011-08-03T23:06:00.000-04:00

Goodbye my dearest Ridley Crosswind that hasith servithd me soith wellith.

I sent you with my friend Ray on his first Expert CAT 1/2/3 race in Louisville when you realized he had broken his hanger and you knew it was the right thing to do. You propelled me to a high finish last year at Frankenbike. You gave me about 10 top 10 finishes last year in the Ohio Valley Cyclocross Series. You held me upright, you let me get you dirty quite a bit over the years. You were nice to me and never broke down. You went slow, fast and half-assed as I drove you to the brink of your limits. You let me push, pull, throw, grab, shoulder you over and over and over. I rode you from Mid-August till late December without near a whimper. You let me ride you as a road bike, with different tires and didn't complain one bit, even at 35 mph or more.

You may be getting replaced by someone else, but please don't take it personally. I will miss you.

Thank you Ridley Crosswind. I will see you down the road.

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Tour Day France Bike Tech

2011-07-25T19:58:00.000-04:00

VNews pic - This looks oddly like a specialized s works cranks. However, note the double sets of chainring bolt holes. This would allow the team mechanic easily to add a compact ring or standard ring without changing cranks. This would be excellent to have for a cyclocross bike.
Tech Pics©James Huang

A photo of Contador's bike - early in the tour. Note the non sponsor cable housing. This stuff I would imagine is the iLink product from Alligator. It appears to be the lighter weight version and small iLinks. The cable itself looks to be coated running down the tube similar to the Gore Ride-On.

Finish line cameras:
I think the high speed HD cameras and how they film the finishes is just dang impressive at the finish line. It deserves some respect. These things really do some amazing work.

Note the custom weight weenie skewer and carbon hub. I am not sure I would trust those skewers or hubs, but of course I don't weigh 100 pounds.

A french TV car swerved around a tree, to hit a few riders and move Johnny Hoogerland's name to the top of the cool guy/badass/big ring list. Surprisingly, nothing happened to either of the drivers and they never apologized to any of the riders they almost killed to avoid a tree.

This actual fence post was auctioned off for Charity days later. I am not sure what happened to the barbed wire. I am sure it had about 40 years of rust and cow hair on it. I think he ended up with 25 stitches.

And spawned a really cool t-shirt.

This man has now moved up to badass status. His man card just got replaced with a brand new one.

New Pro (manufactured by Shimano) one piece stem/bar. Can you say Barmac?

Or how about this one from RavX with the removable geek mount? Way way less cost.

Guess who's saddle?

I think the cable routing on this frame is awesome. I like the mounting area near the derail hanger. Note the different type of hanger as well. Odd to see a Sram Red derail on a TDF bike as well, many of these guys wouldn't ride them last year...for some reason.

I am not too happy about the $9000.00 U.S. price though. WTF specialized? who has the money to bike these bikes?
1. Dentists 2. Heart Surgeons 3. Wall St. brokers

There are about 10-12 other frames out there just as nice, almost as stiff, just as "aero" and for about 60% less cost.

I was pretty busy this year during the tour with work and training, I didn't have as much time to focus in on the super details during the stages, I barely got to watch all of them each night or every few days. Sorry to the 5 people that read this stuff. :)

Tour D Burg - Miamisburg, Ohio - July 17, 2011

2011-07-25T19:24:00.000-04:00

These pics and screen shots should cover my pain from my second race on the day.
First Race
Masters State Crit Championships
I lined up with Doug and Kristian in the masters race with about 30+ dudes.
They went off like a rocket, I struggled. after a 1 min lap and back through the start line, the back of my bike felt funny. through the bricks, tire is low. crap.
Ride through to finish to get air and take a lap. I get air, get a push from the official and get back in, redlining myself to get back into the speed and pace.
3 or 4 laps later - tire goes low again. I head back around off the back of the group through the start finish and into the "pit" - I get it changed and holler at the officials to request permission to get back in - they say, less than five laps to go you are on your own, hit it -> as the speed of the masters race gets faster and I try to get back on in the back straight, sweat beginning to just eek out of my pours, I decide I better pull the plug to save some for my second race.

State of Ohio Crit Championships - CAT 4 race - Me, Brian and Kristian and Doug line up. It's hot as shit. Sweating and sweating. We hold for 2 min as the local police tell the race official they are chasing someone downtown on our course. They caught him, there is applause, a few nervous laughs - we get the whistle and we're off. Lots of guys not pedaling on the brick section, why are they not pedaling - very frustrating. Lots of young guys, with too much air in their tires bouncing around in corners like super balls and again not pedaling. I guess I got spoiled in the masters race?
I lean way over load up the front wheel, pedal and pass 4-8 guys in every corner to rest, soft pedaling to recover. Every lap, while all the other racers are not pedaling on the bricks, I click two gears and push it pass a bunch of guys and then sprint up to get to the front, recover, get passed by guys moving up and start it all over again.
We get the 2 laps to go....the group slows some, I jockey up for position after the bricks, we head into the finish start area for 1 to go, I am mid-field off to the right sucking wheels, there is some crazzy wheel cross and about 10 dudes go down from 27mph into a giant pile, I grab the back brake, slide the back wheel around sideways and keep it upright to pedal around and catch back up to what's left of the field, only for us to roll back around and the race officials neutralize our field for a lap, we sort of slow pedal at 20 mph around to finish again - with about 200 meters before the finish - the officials yell out - race is on go - so, out of the saddle we go, Spencer bolts up the inside for good position, Doug and Kristian move up to good spots I hang on for dear life, hoping to move up after the brick section and pedal up through the corners as I had been...
Spencer is first out of the last turn, where I wanted to be - Doug and Kristian go flying by me and I pass about 10 dudes in my 1000 meter finish. Ass up, head down, power to the

pedals, just like Scotty always used to say.
My team mate, Kristian, got 6th and is a badass. Doug I think, blew up, this race being his 3rd of the weekend in the heat. Doug is also a badass. Brian from my team also raced in this race for his third crit race of the weekend. Cowbells.

These kind of wrecks though are the reasons why I don't care too much for crits anymore. I would prefer to eat sand during a cross race, or even wack my own shoulder into tree on my mountain bike or biff it over a log in the woods from my own lack of skill rather than hit the deck at 25-27 mph on my road bike. Quite a few of these guys don't have a sense of the space around their road bikes - or at least some of them don't, they put too much air in their tires, slow down through the corners, don't pedal when they should be pedaling, take bad lines, overlap wheels, go up front then sit up and get a drink from their bottle, its' just all not consistently smart all the time....

However, it is an amazing rush from an adrenaline standpoint, it requires so much focus and concentration and attention,

Heart Rate and Speed - almost threw up after my sprint

there is a huge sense of accomplishment to know you survived another one of these crit races. I like to not take them so seriously, there are so many of these cat 4 dudes, that might think they are racing for the End-of-The-World-Get-a Million-Dollar-Championships.
Lots of game face, lots of serious faces at

The Course - 'downtown' Miamisburg

the start line >I am so serious looking everyone up and down, lots of elbows, and lots of risk taking for 30 minutes.
Which hey, I get, a majority of them are way younger, well, ok, lets be honest, half my friggin age and they might become the next big thing...so hats off to them for even being out there and giving something like this a whirl - it's hard and not for everyone right?

At least they aren't sitting on their couch being oxygen thieves right?

Props to the organizers for a great event. Go race this if you can. I think Troy will be back next year.

<< Some of the speeds around this course.

Oddly enough, I think the Troy Ohio Crit Course is faster as a general rule, overall and seems to be a little less dangerous, sans those stupid strawberry's they painted on the road.

Wed Night Worlds - not quite there...

2011-07-25T18:39:00.000-04:00

So, here is what our Wed-Night-Worlds road ride looks like from a watt and speed perspective. As guys get more and more fit, this ride always seems to get faster as the season of summer peaks, and much more aggressive from all aspects of speed, attempted breaks and accelerations.

The temp was around 86-90 degrees or so. Lots of surges, lots of roller coaster hills and roller coaster moments, where you feel like your are going to get flung out the back roller coaster car at one of the hill crests.
There are quite a few CAT 1,2,3's up front the entire time rotating and then making breaks off the front one after another. It's a great workout and for sure a way to test your level of fitness and mostly a way to put you in your place from a humility standpoint. Just when you think you are in shape or 'fast', you show up to this ride, and quickly find out you are not fast or that fit. :)

The ride is quite safe or the route for that matter. However, it's quite a challenge to get to the starting location, at 6p from where I work. This particular time, I parked about 4 miles from the starting location and rode there as a warm up. In years past I have ridden from my house, which makes this a very long hard ride home. I want to say more like a 75 mile or so ride. Which, based on my effort and fitness, it was a great decision not to make it that long of a ride.

I did manage to get into a rotating line with a group of us trying to bridge a gap back to the main group, doing 28+. I was dreading my turns at the front, but managed to pull through and recover, I was glad the main group found a stop sign and some traffic.

Tour Da France - Stage 18 - The Race is On

2011-07-22T08:28:00.000-04:00

One of my all time favorite stages ever.

I don't really need to say anything else.

WWJD - What Would Jens Do?

2011-07-18T15:34:00.000-04:00

The Tour this year is really Jens, I mean Jens.

He's Just not Doping - TDF 2011

2011-07-15T10:35:00.000-04:00

Quote today from Eurosport:

46km - Philippe Gilbert believes that Alberto Contador is not suffering, but bluffing. In his latest video chat with Eurosport, the Belgian gives his views on who's looking good in the Pyrenees. Gilbert: Contador is bluffing.

Sorry Philippe, I am buying it. I think he's just not on his doping regime. But that's not the big one for me - It' that he's not smart enough to pull this off. He's not a tactically smart rider as we have learned in past Tour's or in the Giro. He can't listen to the voice in his ear and rides how he wishes to ride, no matter the comments/suggestions from his Director.

Two Nicknames I heard this week: Dopador and Contadoper.

Yesterday's Stage 12 however was exciting.

OMBC - Eastfork SP - Sweatfest

2011-07-11T13:21:00.001-04:00

Real quick from the phone during lunch.

Ouch is all I can say about my performance. Two solid fast laps and the third lap I just blew up and went backwards for about 30-45 min.
Entire kit including my gloves were soaking wet with sweat almost the entire race.
I think I was Lantern rouge, last man in the woods.
Almost passed out after the race. Not enough drink I guess.

Leg photo has red tint due to POP up tent. It's not a sunburn.

More later.

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Tour Day France 2011 - July 5 - Stage 4

2011-07-05T17:52:00.000-04:00

Champion!
This guy rode his ass off today, stuck with the dopercontador and stayed with a very select group. This is going to go down as one of the greatest finishes for a sprinter in Yellow at the TDF.

Cowbells to you Thor!

Cadel showing his butt chin and fitness against some gifted cyclists today. He sat out in the wind forever and dragged so many to the line, it was incredible he still won. I would like to see some watt files from Cadel. I wonder if he hugged his little doggies after the race?

Thor ->>> Well deserved for him to hang on to the yellow into stage 5.

Mohican 100k - 60 Miles of Smiles 2011 (well sort of...)

2011-06-27T20:33:00.000-04:00

When I tell people I know about doing 100k or 100 miles on a mountain bike they always gasp and then say, "how long does that take you?"
It's a tough question to answer. Usually, I say "it depends" begging them to ask the question, depends on what?

Glen(L) - Me

Well it depends on a million variables. Well, maybe not a million but there are quite a few out there. There are two examples I could give that might help. You start the day with a deck of cards.

Each time your heart rate goes over your max you hand out a few cards. Each time you stand up on your pedals off the saddle you hand out a few more cards. The bigger the effort, the higher value cards you must hand out. Every time you forget to eat or drink at the right time, you hand out more cards. Each effort early in the race will determine what is left in your deck at hour 4, hour 5, ect. This theory is not as supercrucial (just made up that word) in a 100k race as it is in a 100 mile race for sure.

The F'in Start

But back to my variable, "it depends". Since I am an ex-audio engineer, lets just think about the variables between a band recording in a controlled environment and playing outside live on a stage. Let's see, we have; controlled temperatures-no control over the temperature, comfort - your saddle, thermostat control-sun, couch-no couch (unless you ride a downhill bike), access to catering - access to only the food/water you can carry or obtain at designated stops, well you get the idea. There is no substitute for training on the bike and trails you are racing, unless you are some gifted athlete, for which I am not.

After several weeks now have passed, I have some good perspective on my Mohican race effort. I think I did pretty good for my age and fitness level. I managed to hold my own with the Top Women 100k finishers that are about half-my-age and was within 1 minute of the Female 100k winner from the last three years. That is the high point for me, she was in my sights just after Aid 3 and as we climbed that stupid hateful gravel road climb, I locked out my fork, put it in the 26 x 32 and gave it the bizz-ness to stay with Amanda. She just slowly rode away after the crest of the hill and around a corner. I was gassed after making that climb, hindsight, maybe the 11/32 cassette wasn't the best choice :)
Start to Aid 1
I spent 2-minutes at Aid 1 (Mile 20) where my team sponsor, BikeSource was supporting the racers and that aid station, they were all supportive and very helpful. BWE was there along with my friend Ben, who raced all those hundie's with me, Ray and Layne last year. It was great to have the help and support and know I was on my targeted time to Aid 1 of 2-hours. 1:50 would have been better, but with all the traffic, you just don't realize how much, sitting behind a few people here and there and waiting for them to move over, eats up precious seconds and minutes overall. I had eaten and drank what I needed to up to Aid 1 and was hopefully on track to get to Aid 2 in an hour 30. With my little camelbak and bottle refilled and pedaling away from Aid 1 with BikeSource Sawmill store manager Dan screaming at me, I put my head down to some of my favorite parts of the Mohican loop. I knew that stupid gas-line hill bike push and horse trail water bar section was near, then descending down across Route 3 and up that slog to Aid 2. Mentally, I was ready for the slog into the horse trail, what I had forgotten about was the bike push up through the boulder hill from hell. I did have my only wipe out of the day prior to the creek crossing in this area, I was looking at the creek on my approach, decided the best line was to swing wide and hit the creek crossing, well, as I swung wide, my front tire buried itself into the sand, flat rock and threw me down like a cartoon character. I really thought I broke my elbow (which already had been broken and is pretty ugly as it is) and considered sitting there for a few minutes with my elbow in the cold creek. I thought, I better get up and pedal away and just see what I could handle after that - my elbow was throbbing and I had to change my upper arm/forearm descending technique to take the pressure off my right arm until aid 3.
Aid 1 to Aid 2
After I crossed Route 3 and headed up to Aid 2, I reviewed the time, it had been more than 90 minutes, I wasn't going to make my time goal. I had to just slug on, get some fresh water to drink, lube up my chain and keep my time in Aid 2 to a minute. Upon riding up the hateful short steep hill, riders around me that I hadn't seen since the start, were starting to crack. I watched many of them flop down at Aid 2 like an overheated African lion, as a small group of us entered into the Aid. I got my water, chain lube and ran up the hill and bounced on my saddle with any cyclocross effort I had left at Mile 34. The benefit of leaving Aid 2 is the realization you are about half-way in the 100k.
Aid 2 - to Aid 3
I used it to my advantage and buckled down to gain some time back. There is much road riding after Aid 2 and I needed to find a few wheels to sit on for these sections. I managed to do just that, I found 4/5 guys that were all on 29ers except one other guy, who like me was on the tiny wheels - we all hauled ass at 20 mph plus, up and down on the rollers. I sat on, in true sandbagger fashion, not doing any work, since I was already suffering, pedaling my little wheels off and trying to find a good draft. Everytime the hill went straight up, we all separated to each side of the road hill and settled in for some slow speed, high cadence suffering, once at the top, we would re-group and hit it again. We did this all the way till the left hand entrance to the Mohican Wilderness "mountain bike trail". Two guys from our group from Team Dayton (cross racers) immediately pulled over about 500 feet into the trail. My plan from the get go here, was to get through this stupid poorly designed rock laden trail in once piece and put some distance on anyone behind me, by letting go of the brakes and pushing my bike hard. I managed to ride this section really well and I felt really great, popping out near Aid 3 and realizing I had to do that stupid loop up around the corn field in order to get back to Aid 3. No worries, this was mile 46 or so coming up and the end was near. I was hoping the BWE (BestWifeEver) would be at Aid 3 to bring me back to life. She was - thank you.
I was in and out in less than 4/5 minutes.
Aid 3 to the Finish
With a renewed zest and knowing I only had "about 15 miles or so to go" I was off to chase down some folks sit on wheels where I could and gain back some time. I was starting to feel the stomach issues coming on and had a few moments of cramping starting on the inside of my quads. I held them off by standing and pushing a hard gear. About this time, I see a blur of a Specialized 29er dual suspension bike and pro (100 Mile racer) Mike Simonson (i think) come blowing by me about 25 mph. I thought for a moment I could stand up, wind things up to a frenzy and try to keep at least part of that pace for a short time. That was not in the cards. I would have run for 1/2 a mile with my bike if I knew it would keep the cramps at bay. I knew there was a hateful climb coming up off the paved road. I remembered in years past walking up this beast, but this year I was going to dig deep and make it happen on the bike and try to stay with Amanda. As I started up, I was about 15 minutes in and heard panting, it was a guy from cyclocrosser and Team Dayton (Jeff Schoeny)(who also had dropped his teammate Peter Hills somewhere since we left Aid 3), rolling by me about 2 mph faster. He was closing the gap to Amanda faster than I was. I managed to get over the top and see them, ride away downhill together, but I was gassed at the top and needed some time to recover, before I could go again - blasted 32 cassette. I sailed through as fast as I could the next few sections and down that crazy rocky section before popping out onto Route 3 (see pic). I roll down to Rt. 3 make the loop under the bridge and head over to aid 5 - and yell out for a coke. I grab a cup and drink and go - thank you local bike shop volunteers. I head into the woods and see a local Rogue rider right on my wheel, I dig deep and try to keep him at a distance, as soon as the trail when up my legs said ummm no sir. He hollered and I let him come by. I tried to keep him within a distance and drank and ate some food where I could. As we reached the last peak of the trail, I started feeling better and started to really put down some metal and gain back the gap. I let him know I was behind and he really ramped up his game. We both had a grand ol' time flowing through that single-track. I knew if I could sit on and push him, he might run out of gas, before we hit the camp ground. I was starting to feel better and better. The end was near. As we blew out of the single track, I made my "move" and came around him and he got on my wheel through the shit course sections in the campground. The further into the campground we went, the bigger the gap (1000 meters or so?) As we approached the gravel across the camp sites, near the last straight, Rogue man was still there, I put in the rest of anything I had to try to make sure I was ahead of him, just cause, we are all competitive, even after 60 miles. We made the last right hand turn, into the gates and through the timing and across the finish line - 6 Hours 47 Minutes later.

Rogue Guy: Otherwise known as Dave Placke and overall great dude riding for a great team in the Dayton/Cincy area. Dave was right there with me and only 10secs behind me. He is competitive too after 60 miles.

Here's a video I found on the interweb:

Lake Hope Mountain Bike Racing - Left My Jelly & Bread At Home

2011-06-27T13:07:00.004-04:00

Right after my finish

This looks bad right?

Real quick from my phone, Yesterdays mountain bike race at Lake Hope. Rain, rain and more rain turned the trail into a sloppy peanut butter mess. Odd thing, the trail was faster and easier to race while it was raining. Once it stopped or slowed, the trail got tacky, sloppy, slippery, and turned into a wild stallion ride around every corner and down every hill. Of course, I still wanted to, a) live to ride another day b) make it to work today and c) have energy to finish.

looks like doody on my saddle?

Mud and more so the peanut butter mud will suck the life out of your legs and back in a 30 mile race. I let the air out of my back tire twice. No luck gaining any traction. I ended up walking a few sections where I just couldn't even find traction to walk, let alone pedal.
I spent some time singing Peanut Butter Jelly time to myself and wondering why I keep putting myself through the pain of these expert races. The mental battle raged on the latter half as my avg speed was reduced and my legs shouted out explatives at me.
I know I wasn't in the top five of my group about 12-15 of Vet Expert starters, I was however one of the top 5 into the woods after the start and the climb up the gravel road and on the rollers before the trail entrance.

Dried - at Home

I had no shifting issues, contrary to the 5.5 lbs of mud on my bike at the end of the race. I weighed it when I got home, then spent two hours cleaning my bike, bike clothes, shoes, camelbak and helmet.
However, my back is killing me today.
I felt pretty amazing for about 85% of the 30 miles which is a great sign. I also think about comparing riding 30 miles at Mohican and how long that would take....so that brings perspective to my finish time and effort on the day, considering the peanut butter time.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

And Just in case you need a moment:

2011 Ohio State Masters Road Racing Championships - Podium

2011-06-20T13:36:00.000-04:00

Unhappy Master racers - not excited to race in the rain for 2 hrs.

and we're off, fighting tractors and traffic

gotta love wheel spray in your face for 2hrs.

Well, I interrupt this regularly scheduled blog and my inability to finish my write up about Mohican 100k --->>> to post up a photo of me on a Podium (see below).

I really liked showing up to this race with no serious expectation other than to stay up right and finish in the front part of my group. Although I did feel I had some fitness to put power down after my efforts at the Mohican 100k. The legs responded well to these high speed efforts. Our average speed was about 24mph. I had a max of 40mph and much time spent at 28-30 mph. It's always amazing to me, during these road races to look down and see a low HR and speeds in the 28-30 range. Ahhh summer fitness.

This was the first time I have ever stood on a podium for a road race or cyclocross race or for that matter any skinny tire race. I have had a few good placings over the years at mountain bike races, but never on the road. So, I was pretty happy to see my name in the top three of the results posted on the side of BigDave's trailer after our race was completed.

My team mates Teresa, Doug and Kelley all had good results as well, but I was the lone wolf from our team with podium. Doug was 4th and Teresa 4th, they both just missed being third by half a wheel. Teresa got to race early and stay dry.

200 Meters - go time

Our race however, actually from the time I went out to warm up, about half way around the 14 mile course loop I got soaked. Shoes, socks, just soaked.
I returned to the start area with about 45
min before my start time. We sat under a picnic area all staring at each other, checking phones and radar. It was going to rain, but most of the hard stuff was gone. Suck water off of wheel fest.

Ohio can be stunning in it's own way.

I try to look like a road racer

I felt really great the first lap, chased down a few attempts at breaks, sat up in the front 10 fairly easily. The second lap got ugly, and for some reason I kept waiting for the moment where 4-6 guys would get going and get off the front, everytime, I was right there, in that group, thinking we were putting in a gap, we weren't. Then about 3/4 a way around our 2nd lap of 3, I got in a rotating paceline with about 8 guys, just throttling it up front at about 30 mph. I thought, for sure, ok this is it, we are going to have a big friggin gap and I'll get a podium for sure. Nope, I look back after a few miles and the entire group is still there. I was gassed, thankfully the rest of the group was too and we all sat up, grabbed some fuel and pedaled through the finish/start for our last lap.


Me and Kelley after a nice 1000 Meter sprint

A few more attempts and one almost successful, by one guy, in the middle of some real confusion by a race ref on a motorcycle and our lead car, while we over took the Masters group of YOUNGER racers in front of us. Yes, we were crushing it. The group was yelling at the lead car driver to reel back the guy off the front, since he left us during all the overtaking confusion. He was pissed. The last lap was fairly un-exciting, by the time we rolled through East Liberty, the group had realized nothing was going to stick and it was going to come down to the last turn and the 1000 meters to the finish from the turn. I thought I would make it up front to be top 5 into the last turn, but I wasn't and ended up about 12th or 8th maybe. Not the best place to be, but I managed to hold my sprint out of the saddle for almost the entire length, sitting down right before the line. Placement into that last turn is key.
All in all a good solid group of steady racers. I was impressed with the professionalism of everyone and the communication going on since we all had to go back to work on Monday.

I was happy the BWE was there supporting me and there to see me stand on a podium. She also took some amazing photos.

My sprint finish

The Result of my sprint finish. 3rd Place and a medal.

Plus my team mates Kelley and Doug hung out to support me.

Hats off to coach - I got to see him stand on the 30+ Masters Podium in first place as well. Hand claps, cow bells all around.

So, I am ranked - nationally. Now back to mountain biking.

OMBC Grassman - Walking and Pushing - Not much Racing

2011-05-22T17:11:00.108-04:00

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8 - 5/22/2011
Wow that fukin hurt. I somehow got stupid in the heat and my suffering and lost track of my laps. I was supposed to do four, only did three.
Worst course, worst course design, worst trail ever.
It would have taken me another 45 min to do another lap. My average speed was 5 mph. We spent more time going up and walking our bikes up these stupid steep hills.
I wanted to kick someone in the balls for designing that race.
Sorry Ben. I don't really mean it.
I am tired, stupid and cranky.
However, Tim brought home 3rd place in the sport.
Kelley got first in his second ever mountain bike race, novice.
-------------------------

Update almost a week later:

So, here's the map of this place and our "race course".

So, in a coherant state and not from my phone, I am still alive after this beating we took at this place. I am sure after watching most of the awards, that Ryan was very sorry and apologetic about this course. I am sure he knows now he must be more involved with the course designs moving forward. He's always done a great job with races and organization of them.

I am not sure what my problem was, the heat, the severe lack of sleep the week of or what. I had no energy. The start was nothing really crazy, on a short gravel road section up hill then into the woods on the right. I think it was a combination of lack of sleep, lack of eating enough, heat and just not my kind of course. There were folks in the woods, telling us where the lap points were for novice, sport and expert, in my haze of suffering I just couldn't seem to remember what lap I was on, where the actual lap points were and after three laps, mentally I had enough.
The only reason I went on to lap 3 was to pick up my bottle I had left beside a tree early in lap 1. I knew I would need it with the heat and lack of wind and air in the woods. Well, as I fought to get to lap 3 and find my bottle, I looked at the tree and it was gone? WTF? I ask a guy that I had seen standing before it, he said he never saw it...as I ride down the trail, I see my bottle thrown down in the woods, just off trail. Really? someone picked up my bottle and drank out of it? It just summed up the day.

Post race I was handed a bottle of water as I lay on the gravel parking lot after the finish line. After two cold Pepsi's and about 30 minutes of sitting staring into la la land I was able to get changed and clean up and almost have a conversation with words that made sense. The mosquito's in this place were after mass amounts of blood and they got some from me for sure.

Time:	03:05:42
Distance:	15.62 mi
Elevation Gain	3,327 ft

Moving Time: 02:50:56
Elapsed Time: 03:05:42

Avg Speed:	5.0 mph
Avg Moving:	5.5 mph
Max Speed:	18.8 mph


Elevation Loss:	3,336 ft
Min Elevation:	950 ft
Max Elevation:	1,184 ft

As it related to climbing and a road ride, it would take me 5-6 hours in Asheville, NC to do about 5k-7k of climbing and that would include at least one 10 mile climb. The miles for this type of climbing would be around 60-80. So, basically, this race at 16 miles was 1/2 of the climbing I did this year on our first day in Asheville at triple the miles. Perspective?
Stats:

Time:	06:10:01
Distance:	83.13 mi
Elevation Gain:	6,876 ft

I Love the Giro Bike Race -Tour of California - Yellow to Black

2011-05-21T11:46:00.001-04:00

Every year I seek out time to watch the Giro on my computer or listen in at work when time permits.
Last year I became a super fan of this race. As much as I love the Tour, I think the Giro is a much harder race and less of a circus.
I am enjoying the Giro yet again this year and was on the edge of my chair
most of this morning watching Stage 14.
I am very disappointed and sad all-many of the sprinters left this race, I am not sure Cav and Petachi all deserve my respect after they bailed. Seems a half-assed approach to being a pro cyclists. You are given an opportunity to ride/race, well, grow a pair, man - and race your bike.
I still think someone is riding themselves into too much attention and will be removed from racing at the 2011 Tour. I'll give you one guess. Top level athletes can't consistently (day-to-day) ride away and I mean ride away from the rest of the pack. It's just not that possible. Additionally, Alberto is just not that smart.

The 2011 Tour of California is on this week as well, I've been glued to the TV-versus this week watching the coverage, reducing my nightly sleep. It's been great and I am super stoked for Horner to be leading. His ride 2 days ago and his TT efforts were top notch for a 40-year-old. He's always been one of the smartest Pro peloton riders and certainly deserves the overall win over RobotLevi. T.Phinney is riding himself into a top 10. Hope he's hitting the TDF this year!

On another note, 60 Minutes this Sunday will highlight some old and new information from Tyler H and Landis about the fact LA is a doper, was a doper, and asked others on his teams to be dopers. I am not a hater of LA, just a realist. He's been jingling the key's

Hi, I am a DOPER

over there (re-direct) for many years with his mission for cancer. I do appriciate and applaud his efforts to bring money and solution to the awful disease, but I truly think, he's used it to provide a teter-toter balance to his ilegal doping activities. Attention: LA sheep followers - how can everyone that ever raced for him and against him all be dopers and keep up with him from an athletic performance and the MAN himself not be doping. Logical - guilty by association. I saw no S on his chest, therefore he is not Superman.

OMBC - Race - Grassman - This Sunday & Mohican 100 Training

2011-05-20T14:34:00.000-04:00

Here's the google map overview of the OMBC mountain bike race this sunday. It's done nothing but rain for almost a week. I hope these trails were designed properly and will dry out today and tomorrow. I am not interested in running up unrideable hills or cleaning mud out of my bike mid race with a stick. There seems to be some talk there is a bunch of climbing, I don't see it, I see short punchy stuff.
My fitness at this point is rolling around, I am still battling the balance of work and training and getting some damn sleep during the work week. I am stoked to race my 2x10 XX setup though.
Proppe had a very enticing invite to go race with him down south this weekend, but I just couldn't make the time this weekend to make it happen. Sorry JP!

Mohican Training:
Teammate Tim and I went up to Mohican and put in a pretty hard lap in the rain this past Sunday. We didn't break any of our Personal time/lap records, in the rain and somewhat sloppy conditions, but we did both stay upright and really kept the pace high (I should say Tim kept it very high for the first 12/15 miles) in the misty consistent rain. The ground and trails weren't as bad as they were during the Mohican 100 last year, but they were soggy, slow and full of leaves, which basically sucks the life out of you for almost every pedal stroke. Thoughts are: "is my back tire flat?", "are my brakes rubbing", "is my rear shock flat?" Not only that but the humidity and constant water on your face, prevents you from wearing glasses, then you just get bashed in the eye sockets at every downhill or short section down hill. I could swear I was mountain biking in a sand storm Monday when I went to work, this week. I didn't start to really feel great and have good legs and lungs till about 12 miles in....Tim and I were remenising how many times we had ridden the Mohican loop and more, at this same time last year....Ohio weather is sucking the mountain biking life out of me this year. Good thing I didn't sign up for a bunch of the hundie's this year :)

Mohican 100/100k Race
So, with the weather here in Seattleohio, I am pretty happy I didn't sign up for the 100 this year, instead I am going for a Personal Best in the 100k race. I have some goals in mind I need to hit and know the 100k course well enough to make sure I can hit some key points at certain times. I'll be time trialing it as hard and fast as I can and leaving it all out there this year. The weather better be nice this year, I've got the training hours in the bank I need to do well. The bike and new drivetrain is dialed. I am wishing to have some 650b wheels and stuff setup before the race, but not sure if that's so smart at this point, since I have no training time to get them dialed. We'll see.

First Race of 2011 - Lynchburg, Ohio Road Race - May 1, 2011

2011-05-10T12:54:00.000-04:00


la la la la

Lynchburg, Ohio - Road Race
Yesterday my team mates and I, Doug, Teresa, Kristian, Brian and I all went out to battle the wind and damp country roads in Lynchburg, Ohio, just south of Wilmington Ohio.

Doug on the front

It was a good day, the rain held off, the wind was windy (but somewhat manageable) and there was about 200 racers total registered on the day I heard. Props to Big Dave Sports on building this series and putting together quality races.

Teresa

Z-Courza - There was very little elevation change each lap, which was fine with me for my first race. We had a long roll-out from the registration area until we were on course. I hadn't done this race for a few years and it was familiar territory after we passed the finish line area. Each lap consisted of long false-flat section into the finish line and into a massive headwind, a right turn into another flat with a massive side wind onto the non-drive side of the bikes. Everyone was singled up, in the gutter and gravel on the right side of the road. We then turned right again into an awesome tailwind, where speeds reached around 30 mph for quite some time into a downhill sweeping left. Passed the dead cat each lap, then a hard right turn onto a concrete bridge up the short hill into a series of really fun rollers, up and down. One more right turn into a longish 5% grade hill, then the last right into the long 1500/2000 meters to the finish line.
Doug, Kristian and I held off and chased down a few little breaks. I kept an eye on Doug since he is signed up for the entire series and I wanted to try to help him out as much as possible and try to help Kristian get to the front of the field before the sprint finish.


Brian

The group of about 35 CAT 4's kept things groupo compacto for most of the first three laps, until one of the big teams (UDF) sent one guy up the road and left us all standing while he TT'd to the finish line in the last two laps. In the middle of some confusion in an attempted break, another guy shot off the front and no one reacted. UDF and Cyclesport had huge numbers and were very aggressive at the front of our CAT 4 field. There were other small 2 and 3 member teams, doing their fare share of the work.

Doug had his best finish of the season with a 8th Place, Kristian got 21st (maybe his best finish?). Teresa pulled out another 2nd place and Brian toughed out a finish in the CAT 5's. I battled for elbow space and some wobbly bike handlers to sprint for 12th.
There was only one moment with three laps to go where I was cross-eyed and thought I was going to pass-out. My heart-rate was through the roof, I unzipped a bit, tried to calm down, relax and cool-off. Thankfully the headwind section was close and I knew there was an opportunity to get some drink and recover.

Doug, Me, Kristian sprint for it

It was great from my perspective to see our newly designed Team SixOneFour kits out racing. Tim, James and I worked really hard getting them done. James deserves most of the credit.
Heck I was happy to be out there, racing, seeing some old friends, enjoying dry time on the bike, having fun and giving it the berries with a group that all appeared half my age.

Retailer Frustrations

2011-05-10T11:37:00.000-04:00

Retailers should carry more parts and products.

Situation: I needed to repair on a bike part. I had no real true time to repair it myself and take all the time needed to make it completely right.
I removed the entire piece, took it to a local bike shop and asked them to get it working and asked if it could be completed in less than a week.
Shop Response: no problem, fill this out, I'll have "Bob" take a look and see if we can get you fixed up.
Telephone Result-12 hours after drop off - "we can order a part you need and have it here next week, then get to your repair after the part arrives"
"we make orders once per week on Day X of the week"
My Response: Thanks, I'll be over after work today to pick up my part.
Solution: I ended up partially fixing the item myself, then taking it to another bike shop, out of state, and getting it repaired for 1/2 the cost the original shop wanted (not including the parts), they said "needed replaced".
After riding this bike for over six hours, I would easily say that part did not need replaced. But had they stocked my repair item, I would not have taken my money out of state or spent my valuable time attempting a hack-job repair.

Or you go to several of the same retailers to buy a piece for a project.
None of them carry what you need.
So, do you wait till they can order it for you? or go out to the interwebs and purchase said item and have said product in your hand in three days?
This is my general experience with hardware stores (lowe's-Home Depot), automotive retailers such as Napa or Advance Auto and lastly electronic retailers such as Best Buy. They want our business and money, and credit cards, but I think don't have a great grasp always on who their true customer is and their needs or immediate needs.

Recently I purchased some new parts for my bike that required specific type of grease. There wasn't a retailer in town, out of about 8 or more bicycle shops that had in stock a new tube of the proper lube. Yes I understand that it maybe a specific lube, but it has other uses and is a high quality product that can be used for Bottom brackets, and other bike parts. What did I end up finding? I found a local shop with a used tube, I ended up buying for a dollar.

My expectation is not that every retailer, including bicycle retailers, carry every single version of every single product. But you know as well as I do, when you need a derailer hanger, you need Ti Grease, carbon paste, a chain that is not a low grade model, seat post clamps, certain pedals, disc brake parts or even a shop that has a disc brake lever and caliper in stock, you need it that day at that time. I don't want to wait, three days, a week or a month.

I think this is the main reason, many reach out to the interweb to order bike parts. I like to support sponsors, I like to support independently owned retailers, I like to support local biz period, but get some inventory please and keep it updated. If you stocked it at one time, we go back to re-purchase and there is not even a replacement product on hand, then the customer is going to elsewhere.
How about using your social media outlet as a way to keep your customers updated on your new inventory? or new inventory items?
Yes it's tough for the smaller retail shops to keep a huge inventory of dollars sitting out on their floor if their business model doesn't support it, but if you are the big gorilla in town, it's important you have in stock multiple models of multiple brands in stock for your best customers to fondle and handle.
That one day someone needs a specific part, is the day it gets sold and disappears from inventory.

2011 - Snow vs the Sun - 3 Hour Trainer Rides HTFU - 2x10 MTB Project

2011-03-07T07:00:00.001-05:00

2011, is here and more than 60 days in.

I finally saw my backyard and front yard greenish brownish spotty grass and the hundreds of lumps of dog poo in my neighbors yard (so lovely in the a.m. hours).

I have been outside riding, several times, including a few mountain bike rides at the flatlands of Alum Creek in the snow. Also a few outdoor road rides, to get rid of some seasonal winter basement (riding) depression.

In the last few weeks with the weather up and down and on and off, it's go time on the weekends for trying to get outside and get in the base miles. Riding friends are good and make the time go.

I manged about 4 weeks in a row to grow some motivation and do some long 3-4 hour road rides the last few Saturdays. And oddly, last week I was like a broken wild horse and had no motivation to do much, thank goodness my training plan was on the same page as my brain and body. Odd though this season, I have found the motivation somewhere to sit on my trainer for upwards of 2 and 3 hours twice. Does this make me better than those out suffering in the February or March 30 degree temps, I think not.

I've been going to a free Yoga class each week for about two months now. It's been a learning experience and quite good for morale, balance, and brought equality to muscle groups in need of flexing. Note to self: continue this, it's good for old people.

I've been gathering parts for my mountain bike to move to a 2 x 10sp set up for 2011. This has been pretty fun and exciting, especially since Santa was so great to me this year.

Santa came through with some Sram XX shifters and a XX chain to get me started. I ordered a Sram XO 10 speed rear derail right after the holiday with some gift cards. I just got my hands on a great deal on a bike for sale forum on an 11/32 XX cassette. This thing is just sick. I wouldn't have ever bought this if it wasn't for the price I got, it was a new take off so, it's never been used.

All that's left at this point is the front Derail. The situation as of today is....there is not a bike shop, retailer or parts distributor in the United States or Europe with either an X0 or XX derail I need in stock. #badinventorymanagers

I can't install my sweet S-works carbon cranks without the front derail because of how the derail mounts to the bracket low on the seat tube.

I ordered some new high-tech lightweight cables-housing and hope to see those this week. I also ordered some fancy new rotors with shiny new bolts and scored some xx matchmaker clamps on ebah for 11 bucks! to clean up my handlebars. This clamp combines the brake and shifter clamps into one nice adjustable clamp.
On the 650b project:
I hoped to order a pair of Stan's 650b rims, but it appears all the discussion I read about on MTBR were just that rumors. None of the distributors have them in stock. We'll see, otherwise I might aim to purchase the WTB or Velocity 650b rims. For legal reasons I won't be using these wheels on my current bike or fork. Really I won't. It voids warranty. So really no I won't be doing that. really.

Last Cross Race of 2010 - Cap City Cross - Lobdell Reserve, Newark Ohio

2011-02-24T07:00:00.005-05:00

Snomageddon 2010.
This is what happens when you run a race in Ohio in December.
I thought I would post up quite a few photos for the last race post of 2010.

I figured since I was way out of the standings for Cap City I would bump up and see how I measure against the fast guys and register for the Elite (A, CAT 1/2/3) race. A good thought from my warm couch, I suppose, initially.

Huge huge turnout for the races at noon and at 1p.m. My team got call ups for the entire front row of the B race, which was awesome! Ohio ortho slaying dragons from the front!
What was it like racing on this course and all the snow? It was hard, which I didn't realize till I got out there for myself to race for an hour. I was watching my team mates and my buddy Tom get tired as their 45 min race wore on...Tom was looking slower and slower over the barriers, I was screaming at him from across the field - telling him to go faster and get the lead out. About 15 minutes into my race I wanted to take back my harassing words to Tom, realizing I signed up for 60 minutes in the torture chamber with this race and race course.

Who would ever think that an extra 15 minutes is that much harder. Well, aside from the fact the course was just hurt locker city, the snow, muck and tire sucking ground, just made the race that much harder. It was cold and I had a hard time getting warm. Generally, if the temps are below 35/40, it takes me a good 45 min to get warmed up, I might have rode around for 15 just trying to stay warm. Not enough.
Hindsight, it was fun lining up with the big boys and trying to stay with them for the first lap at least.

My respect doubled for my good friends that do the A races. Not only for their speed, but for their ability to just go so hard for a full hour. Yes, they've been doing this hour all year at every cross race, but still - props to the Proppe and Billiter, Spencer and my other buddies killing it in the A's this year.
Even dry, which I have never raced at this place when it's been dry, I hate this course. Sorry Kyle and Andy. It's just not my favorite, but you must race against your weakness's to get better, so there I was.

I watched all the speedy elite guys ride right away from me in the first lap, as I thought about Glen's comments while I was at the start line. He said, "wow, I'll be interested to see how you stack up", my reply, "yeah me too". Even the BWE said after my race, "wow, you looked really slow in the first few laps" ok thanks for the support :) wife. I did go slow for the first few laps, while I found the lines and tried to stay upright, get comfortable with

pushing the bike sideways while pedaling, running up that dam hill a million times. I sprayed my pedals and the bottoms of my shoes with pledge furniture polish, since I was out of spam at home. It helped for about 2/3 laps then I was back to banging my shoes on my pedals at the top of the run up every lap for way way too long. In the last few laps, it became a battle of getting clipped in with Spencer and I, not fitness, not skill. Egg beaters were the

pedal of the day in these conditions for sure. I know the spd or atac was not it! Spencer and I battled hard the last few laps to give each other a run and see who could dig the deepest and win. Spencer seemed to have more issues with his pedals than I was and somewhere along the last painful moments I past him and beat him. He's a tough competitor for sure and a great guy.

Jen and I put up the most badass tent ever to provide, needed propane fueled heat, hot chocolate and a place to stay warm, before the race, during and after. It worked out pretty well. Everyone was laughing at us while we set up our house, but then as each lap progressed during my race I saw more and more people staying warm in our tent. Cookies all around were a big hit.

Me lining up with the big boys.

Get Ready....

We're off...

Jon Dy, Garth, Proppe, Herman and Matt Weeks? - mason all make this start look super easy.

James B runs away from me like I am using an assisted walker, rather than a cross bike. He was at the top of the run up before I even got to the bottom.

There he goes....

Spencer and I battle it out, the last few laps.

me planning my "attack" yeah right.

James = Style Council Member

Greg Flecher - a beast on wheels and general unassuming fast guy.

Jon D showing us he's really fast.

BWE loves to make signs and be creative. She's the best cheerleader.

Jon's bike after. Frozen stuff.

This was my bike in the basement days after the race. It had to thaw out and took hours, before this goo dropped off.
I Think it took me a few hours using hot water, dish soap and other cleaning stuff to get the bike clean.

The final race of 2010, ends in a muddy, mucky mess. Thank you everyone for a great year.

Catch up -Cross Season is Over, Now What?

2011-02-17T13:49:00.000-05:00

Yeah yeah, I suck and haven't been posting much.
Let me see, Thanksgiving? what day was that? I was cross racing that weekend right?
Christmas? was I cross racing that day? no I think I was finished the weekend before right?
ahhh it's all a blur after Sept....my wife (BWE) said, she remembered August, then it was Thanksgiving - gotta love going to a race every weekend right?
I ended up doing more cross races than origionally planned last year. Early in September, the BWE and I starting looking at the schedule and it went something like this:

Me - Well, so that's what 7 OVCX races right?
BWE - what about visiting with your cousin in Lexington?
BWE - well, we should go there, you can race and we'll meet up with them.
Me - ok that is good, maybe they can come to the race with the kids.

8 races

Me - Bloomington?
BWE - I've never been to Bloomington, maybe we can visit with April near Brown Co. and go eat out in downtown and check it out?
Me - sounds great, maybe John Mellencamp will show up.

Ok, so that's 9

Me -I guess since you are going to NYC that weekend, I should just go to Indy and do the last two races, then. Ray is going and it's double series points.
BWE -Yes, that makes sense. Now you qualify for the big ovcx prizes and wheel giveaway.
Me - yes I need some zipp 303's for sure.
BWE - no you don't unless they are free.

that's 11.

However, that 11 doesn't include my CapCity Cross races.
9/5 - The Frankenbike 50
Results online
Ridenet Results - not so much of a cross race, but I did use my cross bike and it wasn't really a race.
---
10/ 3 -- Big Run Soap Box Hill
Results
Ridenet Reports
---
12/12 -- Lobdell Reserve (see also a frisbee park)(see also snowmageddon)
Results
Ridenet Reports

So that's 14 cross races from September to December for 2010.
In 2009, I was more of a machine and did close to 20.

onto 2011

Snow Ride

2011-01-19T00:29:00.001-05:00

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Homeless to NYC in Three Days - Ted Williams

2011-01-07T12:01:00.001-05:00

I am not much for promoting videos and such that are constantly passed around the interweb, but for some reason, Ted Williams has captured my heart in 2011. I think this is one of the best stories and hope him success and all the money in the world. The interesting thing here is the impact I hope this will have for the homeless. Next time you see someone standing on a freeway ramp or side street asking for money, you might think twice? or supporting your local Homeless shelter? or funds to pay for a new shelter?
or doing a benefit bike event for your local shelter?

Cheers Ted and Happy New Year!

If you'd like to work with Ted, you can contact him here or at his brand new email address, goldentedwilliams@gmail.com.

OVCX #14 and #15 - Indianapolis, Indiana (Ft. Harrison and Brookside)

2010-12-24T19:21:00.001-05:00

Saturday - (not shown with Snow)

It's the end of the cyclocross season- finally. These two races marked the end of my 2010 season.

I had an overall season goal to stand top 5 in the OVCX series overall CAT 3 35+results.
These were my last opportunities to give it my all and go for broke at both races. It was snowing all the way over to the first race of the weekend at Ft. Harrison. I wasn't quite sure I was going to make it there safe, 70 East was a major health hazard in some places and quite slippery. I was thinking, watching some guy in a truck almost take it to the concrete wall, wow, I could be in an accident on my way to a 45 min bike race, damage my car, break my hitch rack, destroy my bike, cost myself huge headaches for just trying to race my bike.....I got off the gas pedal and slowed down. Not worth it - I will arrive in one piece and live to ride another day. After a call into Little Caesar, I figure out how to get to the park and learn at the 'gate' I must pay more money to enter and race, $5.00.

The left side of the course-hill

B4 the roads got ugly

about when the roads got ugly...

Jacob V's winning SS

Broken post = sad Amanda

It's finally cross season.

Team Shamrock-locally built frames

:: FORT HARRISON (St. Mary's) ::
Forced to park, I hop out, find registration, sign in, break staples and head back to the warm car to change clothes and get a warm-up. It's cold and snowing, still. Did I mention cold, about 25 or so. I was hoping to wear shorts, and go with some embro, but after changing clothes, I decide I am not interested in bare legs today, determine it's about racing well. I head out to try to warm up, get some time on the course and see what this course has to say. It said; no major speeds required-except the repeated sprint through the start/finish pavement, it was about skills, mad/crazy/get sum skills, it was about staying up right, going hard, pushing limits in and out of every turn, running fast up the hillside and up the hill near the top of the playground slide. It was about finding the fastest lines where the ground and grass is frozen to stay up and keep pedaling. There was a short section into the woods, where the flat trail had become peanut butter slop, where I was putting in large gaps and catching those ahead. I managed not to fall once, pedal my ass off and have a great result. I almost caught Andrew from 7hills, but he had a good gap on me from the first few laps. I ended up with my best finish of the OVCX series in 5th place.
------------------------------------

:: BROOKSIDE ::

Having never been to either of these races I was cautioned by coach to take a trainer and stay close to the park. What did I forget? Yes the trainer. After breakfast, Little Caesar and I bail out of the nice-friendly Hampton Inn and head off to the "ghetto" Brookside course. On the drive to the course, I see, boarded up homes, old giant warehouse's, lots of empty property and nothing really super scary enough to make me reach for the auto door locks.

We drive into the park and race location into some pylons, I manuver my vehicle through them and park 10 steps to the start line, help Little Caesar to park his truck and set up his tent.

We check out the layout, watch the CAT 4's for a bit and run up the steps to sign in, grab numbers. I buy two can's some some locally made Embrocation and head back to the car.

C.Freter + bike

My bike was worse

added weight

Did I mention it was colder than the day prior? I mean F'ING cold, certainly the coldest race for 2010. I get into the car to change into my kit and put the carbon tubie wheels on and get to scouting out the course, socialize, see who showed and watch some racing. The gang is all here, Collier, Gers, Biven, Sherman, Stierwalt, Walker, Mirus and Andrew. This course requires fitness, mad skills, risk taking and the ability to take a giant set of steps crazy fast. These steps run up the left side of this old building, have a landing midway, curve to the right and in some places are crumbling away into nothing. I pretty much ran these things in double time as fast as I could each lap, there is no way I could have even run them any faster without a bike, I think. The course suited my skills and fitness, there was two road-pavement sections both were uphill around to the backside of the old school building. My tires were lower than Saturday on purpose, but we spent a ton of time riding frozen icy off camber sections of trail and some seriously snotty mud sections, requiring riding just on the edge of crazy to keep the bike upright and maintain momentum. There was a section of pine trees and needles that allowed for some recovery before going into a crazy off camber downhill section, just before the stair run. Riding up the road to the left side of the old school, took us around some slick twisty stuff and down a sweeping off camber left turn, where in the first few laps I had to hang my leg out to maintain some sense of balance. I would say this place suited my skills. I had some good-luck when Mirus and

Sunday - (not shown with Snow

Andrew(7hills) both went down with (I think) two laps to go on an off camber section that was just before a little hill. I put in a hard attack once I got around them, even though they were both sprinting to stay with me after going down. It appeared Mirus went down and Andrew had no where to go and went down as well. This moved me up two places in my finish for a 6th Place. I was super happy with my finish, almost catching Josh Biven. I wasn't too far from Sherman, either, whom had one of his best days of the year on the bike at Ft. Harrison-Saturday. I have had a blast racing with Gers, Biven an Collier this year, they are good people, great racers and have kept me motivated all season.

I interupt this program for Endorsements - Lights & Embrocation

2010-12-07T23:09:00.000-05:00

Winston's Brand
Embrocation - I bought this at the Indianapolis, Indiana Brookside OVCX race. He hooked me up on the price and so I got two different blends. The "Brookside Blend" was a custom made blend the actual night before the race (Saturday Dec 4) and was mixed to the projected race day temperature.

I am yet to try it out, as I didn't want to mess with routine the last series race of OVCX. I will however give it a go this weekend at the last Cap City Cross race at Lobdell Reserve.

Amoeba Lights
These are handmade in Colorado and are sick bright and just about $220 dollars.
2x Cree XP-G R5 LED's (spot beam pattern) - ~600 lumens total output regulated at 800ma. Single mode – on/off anodized aluminum housing (matte silver, bright silver, or dark bronze) Optical grade Lexan front cover, rubber switch cover, Trail Tech connectors, waterproof cable gland 7.4V 2400mAh rechargeable Li-Ion Battery w/ 1.2 amp smart fast charger
Trail Tech jumper cable ~3 1/2 hours runtime - ~3 hour charge time with a total weight of 159 grams (plus $10 Priority shipping) for 1 light head, battery, smart charger, charger adapter cable. I don't own one, but read and heard from others, they are amazing lights.

Magic Shine Lights

I have had this light for over a year now, and it is nothing short of amazing. It looks like just short of a BMW motorcycle running down the road on my bicycle handlebars. I recently purchased the rear red/flashing light to tie into my existing Magic Shine headlamp and battery, I was supplied a short 'Y' Cable to tie it all together.
This tail light is about the brightest thing I have ever seen and with the headlamp it's one of the meanest combo's out there for night riding and commuting. I think it you rode trails a ton at night, I would buy two of the magic shine lights, one for helmet, one for the bar and two batteries. These original batteries are small enough and light enough to strap to the top of your helmet. One night I was riding with another two friends on our local bike path back in September and this woman grabbed her husband by the arm and yanked him off the path, and yelled out "CAR" she thought three of us were a car just driving down the local bike path. Proof, these work and are that bright.
Unfortunatly, there is a shortage right now on batteries for any current MagicShine lights - GeoManGear.com is working to find a solution. Oddly enough my battery works fine and continues to charge and work properly.

OVCX#13/CapCity - John Bryan SP-Ohio State Cross Championships-11/28/2010-Yellow Springs, Ohio

2010-11-28T20:34:00.111-05:00

Wow, I go to the Ohio State Cross Championships and actually move down in the finish placings with an 11th place.

Google Earth and my Garmin Tracks

Let's see, Matt Steirwalt beat me, Sherman beat me, James Turner beat me (again). Fancy bike computer said average speed of 10.5 mph and a max speed of 23 mph for the start, pretty lame actually, as I should be doing closer to 30 mph on these types of starts.

My attempt at pulling back a top 10

Men CAT 3 Start Line - I am back a ways

The slick off camber turn...I chose to run

Sister, Mom, Dad

We started further back on the park road than 2009's start by going uphill on the park road to a wide sweeping left hand turn, fading onto the grass into another wide sweeping left turn. We ran around some trees, had a section of turns and log overs, there was a set of double barriers back by the park Gazebo, we had a downhill, an off camber turn that was very slippery during our race (but got tacky for the Elites), we had two sections of muddy/snotty/peanut butter park single-track, that could be easily ridden at high speeds, if those in front of you weren’t on their brakes or riding like little old ladies (some were). There was a false flat back up to the sand pit crossing, that I managed to get out of the saddle and give it my all each lap in order to gain (back) some ground. To explain, in the first lap, someone decided to try to jam their front tire between the left inside rear part of my frame and the spokes of my wheel. This basically stopped me in my tracks and launched me over the bars and onto the ground, smashed my left shin into my pedal and threw my bike away from where I landed. As I flew through the air and landed on the ground, I watched about 20 dudes ride by me. While flying through the air and laying on the ground, all I could think about was this is the State Championships, is this really happening? I got up as fast as I could and used the wreck to fuel my anger put into the pedals for the remainder of the race. I started picking off guys left and right, gaining back lost ground each lap. I was attacking and running the double barriers, bunny hopping the logs, running the off camber slick hill, putting in all out efforts on the short soggy slow false flat before the sand pit. At least in my mind, I was flying as hard and as fast as I could muster. I was happy to have my parents and my sister watch me race, since my dad the Football Coach was there, feeding me placing each lap, which was awesome and very helpful.
I managed to save face and feel pretty good about nearly missing top 10 by one spot. This was the 13th race of the OVCX series, I had two more after this, the Indianapolis double weekend. Then I also plan to do the last Cap City race in the Elite category.

the wreck - top 10 guys way over by the third tree?

James T and I battle for sand

someone thought they were coming around...

Glen throwing sand in my face

The season is not over yet!

After Hours - Before Thanksgiving - Andymanathon

2010-11-25T08:00:00.006-05:00

For those of you that only know me as the guy obsessed with racing and riding bicycles, way way back before I rode my bike all the time, before I was married, back when I wasn't able to hang on to a girlfriend to save myself, before I had any days-off and before I became a Human Resources guy and when I had no time to do anything other than work
- I was a full-time sound engineer.

There I said it....

What is that you ask? I can't hear that well, what? huh?
I was the long haired guy in the back of the concert running that big mixing console with all the knobs, lights, buttons, faders and meters. I controlled the volume of each instrument on stage, each microphone, each nuance of what you heard. I controlled the blend of the band, what was loudest in the mix and tried to make the band sound like a recording or their recording at the time.

I did not control the air conditioning in the theater, the location of the bathrooms on the fairgrounds, who was playing next, or why it was so loud at your seats - right in front of the f'ing speaker stacks.

I was fortunate to run sound for some Presidents, Vice-Presidents, famous bands, not so famous bands, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Sesame Street stars, and the like over a 20 year span.

Before the Thanksgiving holiday, BWE and I made time to visit the LC concert venue for the Andymanathon.

The Toll was performing it's first concert in over 18-years for this event and I wanted to be there to see them perform.
Andy was a local well-known DJ here in Columbus on CD101 an alternative station that is locally run and owned. Andy was a great guy and did quite a bit for local music, breaking bands into national acts, owned a cool local bar (Andyman's Treehouse) and was just overall, a great guy. Each holiday he would spend hours upon hours on the air, staying up for several days, gibbering on into the wee hours, straight playing songs in exchange fordollar donations, people would donate towards "the kids". Local musicians and 'celebs' would go be on air with Andy to keep him awake, feed him coffee and assist in gathering funds for the cause. The money all went towards several local children charities. Sadly, our Andy passed away recently.

Yes I am getting to the point.
As we say, 'back in the day' I was fortunate to run sound for many many local acts, up and coming bands and bands that got signed to the majors (labels). My buddy Bill ran sound for the Toll at the time and was nice enough to show me the ropes early in my career. The Toll also let some friends of mine in another band travel around about a 4 state area to be an opening act many times over. It was great fun for awhile. The Toll was ahead of its time, in more ways than one. They were big, like stadium big, like bigger than u2 big. Their show was big, their lyrics, the guitar riffs, the driving rhythms, all huge. After my buddy Bill left his mixing duties to pursue other more profitable career opportunities, I was fortunate to stand in Bill's old mixing shoes for the Toll. They were still signed to Geffen records and they were still stadium big to me. Between shows, I would study their two recordings and listen for sounds of instruments, adjustments to guitar volumes, space between instruments and vocal effects. Yes this is an art. We still joke around, shit in, shit out, meaning if the band was crap, their instruments would sound like crap and then all you would be doing is amplifying crap. Never the case with The Toll, always in tune, always there, giving it 150% every show, no matter if there was 5000 people or 50.

I shot some HD hand held video at their show and thought I would tell a little story to go with the video to bring some history to their name and my history.
If you like rock music and have an open mind, check out their two Geffen releases, I am sure you can find them out there somewhere.

The Toll-Jonathan Toledo:

The Toll-Boys are Bustin' Bricks

Highlights:

OVCX-#12 - Promotion Cross- Kentucky State Championships

2010-11-21T23:21:00.000-05:00

More mountain bike Less cross.

Lots and lots up ups and 180 degree turns with a down and another 180 degree turn and an up. No place on the course to really recover. The flat sections were false flats, and into a major headwind. single barriers at the bottom of a super steep hill, then a top flat with another steep hill 180 turn into another banked 180 degree turn up another false flat.

Some say, it was the worst venue or race layout from a spectator standpoint.

This did not effect me, I was affected by my fitness and taking some time off the bike. Either not my kind of cross course or just didn't have the complete deep-fitness in the tank (entirely) to give it the berries and stay with the leaders for the entire race. I hung on to them for almost three laps I think, then one by one, guys starting coming around me, even down to the last lap, I bumbled a turn at the end of the baseball field fence and lost a few seconds, guys were still chasing the bullseye on my back. Odd thing with three laps to go, I ride through the finish and see still three laps to go. I was a little worried with the 'true' three laps to go I would come through again and still see three laps.

Gers, Bivin and Collier were long gone and about 30/45 seconds in front and impossible to drag back. I kept looking for them around the turns and trying to push and push and push to gain some ground back. I was picking off open three riders and battling it out with some of the 45+ guys.

I heard Ray yelling at me in the last few twisty turns to "go go go" there were guys on my wheel, one guy with 2k wheels, biffed it in the single track along the fence, and so I new I had a few opportunities to let it fly and go as hard as I could to keep who ever was on my wheel in the last few turns away. I made the last turn off the grass and onto the pavement as smooth and wide as I could but shifted too many times into too hard of a gear and wasn't spinning enough. It was a hard fought finish with Nathan Mirus (nice guy and fast fast dude this year) It was close, but the officials gave it to me? they had cameras....but I am not so sure, Nathan was right there at the line.

Highlight of my weekend, with the BWE, was hanging out with my cousins that live in Lexington about 15 minutes from the race course. Sherry has a great family. We all went out for some pre-race dinner Saturday night to catch up and hang out. Lizzie and Grayson both got a big kick out of sitting on my bike and ringing cowbells provided by BWE.
Apparently the next day, both kids asked about bike racing...thanks for taking time out of your busy weekend to visit Sherry!

OVCX#11/Cap City Cross-11/14/2010- Infirmary Mound - Granville, Ohio

2010-11-14T19:32:00.000-05:00

Lap 2

"sprint" finish, James T wheel on right ahead of me

One of my favorite races in my area. A short 45 minute drive. It happens to be one of the few courses that you can really open up the throttle and give your 11/12 tooth gears a workout. Where you can test your ability to just stay on the gas at a much much higher rate of speed than most any other course, other thank Kings CX. This place requires the ability to take risks, sit in the saddle, put power down, sprint out of every corner and go fast really fast. Oh, that's every cross race, ha.
Well, I do think this course lends itself to a different kind of rider and fitness. Some said a "roadie" course, I am not so sure about that, but it was a more open course that certainly requires a different type of fitness.
It's a long lap, it's all uphill from the single-track section in the woods with a steep hill, that required some to dismount, but I rode it every lap. All the way to the top of the pond lip and another false flat up into the woods. So almost 50% of the

John, Andy J. Spencer, me

lap, you are going up and up. Once at the top, there is a hard right, downhill into some washout (fall line), then a series of up and down slalom sections on the side of the lake hill. These things could be ridden at a high rate of speed in the drops, if you were smooth and picked the right line in and out of them. The last up, brought us back towards the start area a bit and past and around the wheel pit. There was another super speedy section of wide double track with horse shit in one of the corners, across the road and down into some sandy stuff, across a

Matt S. and take in air & recover

bridge then into the single-track woods. I am not sure there was too much technical 'cross' skill required at this course, other than the ability to ride what is there at a high rate of speed and take risks in and out of the technical bits that are included. I did ok, at this place and nudged out Bo Sherman in a sprint for 9th Place, but couldn't pull back James Turner. He was within 10/15 seconds for much of the race, I just couldn't real him back. It took me a long time to get my mojo workin' and by the time the legs felt fast, I couldn't close the gap. Mirus beat me by quite a bit this race, he came by me like I was at my first race at some point. Looking at the BWE photos, I looked pretty sad going over the barriers for the first few laps, the low back issue not completely healed.
A weird vibe at this combined Cap City Cross race and OVCX series race. Not sure the vibe and feel of these two race series are on the same planet.

The Ohio Ortho team had a huge turnout and some great results. In the Open 3 Race (B's for Cap City). Sholl, Joel, Ryan, Kurtis, Pete and Joe all battled it out with some fast guys from the OVCX series. Doug C and I were the only ones in the 3/35+ group. Josie Stubenrach got a nice 5th place in her race. Daisuke, Brian and Kristian all battled it out in the CAT 4's for good placings in a larger field than usual from the Cap city races. Kelly Clem took a solid 16th place in front of Kristian and behind Brian and Daisuke. Jon Dy pulled out an awesome 9th place in the Elite race just behind Josh Prater and Gamm. Way to go Team!

OVCX #10 - Gun Club Cross - Going Backwards

2010-11-07T01:45:00.000-04:00

A pre-race ride the course video by Elite racer - Peter Hills
and "borrowed" from Joe B's blog.

Above is a super sweet video put together by my teammate Doug. He actually is a professional videographer for a living - hence the quality and look.

...and onto my race. This photo represents what my front chainring felt like on race day. The car was not present. But to sum up my race, terrible and not as bad as I thought. I ran over the double barriers like a 150 year old man. I dismounted my bike for the single barrier hill run up like I was getting out of my wheelchair. I pedaled hard and fast and smooth in the twisty bits, and short uphill sections, where my mountain bike skills come in handy. I dismounted my bike and ran up the steep hill at the creek with the form of a 2 year old eating smashed food off my tray. I was embarrased to get off my bike down in the creek area and run up that hill. Hillarious, Corey Green actually pushed me up the hill while he was warming up on the course, that was the fastest I went up that hill for the entire race.
So, the story is, I over trained, over raced and got in the car after Bloomington and then went out and did hill repeats the tuesday after.
I showed up at Gun Club just hoping to hang on for dear life to the top half of the 35+. My morale and general mood was down, knowing I had to run barriers and look like a mannequin in front of a ton of people near the wheel pit and save face, from my best finish at Bloomington. It's tough going from top 6 to top 20, but this type of thing keeps one humble and keeps one fighting. I got passed pretty much by anyone and everyone in the first few laps and gave up with about a lap to go.
At least I finished with some points for the overall series and live to pedal another day. There are worse things than having one bad race out of a dozen or 20?

OVCX - Bloomington Video - highlights CAT 3

2010-11-04T07:05:00.001-04:00

Again - I am no video editor. Thanks to the BWE for managing the still camera and the video camera in the same day.

DNS - Did Not Show, Oh What a Feeling

2010-11-04T00:43:00.004-04:00

Have you ever called in sick to work when you weren't?
have you ever lied to someone that has never lied to you?
have you ever done something as a teenager you knew you weren't supposed to be doing?
Or kept the extra change you weren't supposed to get from the cashier?

In my mind, this is what it feels like to lay in bed and realize you registered for a race weeks earlier and won't be going. It's like this sick feeling in your stomach, knowing all your racing buddies will be lining up at some point and you won't. Knowing they are all in their cars, driving, prepping to race - while you eat breakfast and sit on your butt.
#Dissapointment

This is what happened to me this past Sunday - missing out on the epic post USGP weekend of cross racing at the OVCX Storm the Greens in Louisville.
How could Pre-reg and not go you ask? (this is where I draw you in)

I am un-officially or officially getting old - I think. At least that my personal consensus. My co-workers I am sure would agree. I was not administered this diagnosis from a medical professional per say, but I believe this is the root cause of my recent health issues.

Over the last 10 years of being a cyclist, I have grown to love the sport, the gear, the people, friends, the challenges and the ability to remove any question in my mind that I can do something. Once I make a decision to go after something - I just set my mind to it, register for the event, train my ass off and go get it done. This year, I seem to be getting the beat down from my body, telling me this free thinking might not be able to continue. My back, my joints, knees, grass, yard, flower beds and man chores all seem to suffer at times. I would not say, the flower beds kept me from racing this time, but you get the idea.

After leaving Bloomington's race, about a full 30 minutes of coughing up some dust and part of my left lung, I sat in the car for 4 hours for the drive home. Monday, no ride. Tuesday some hill sprints to wake things up and get things going. Needless to say, my lower back did not enjoy this combo platter. Since the race I've had some on and off riding to keep things moving and finally some good feelings this past Saturday. I decide to go hit the road for a short time with the osu collegiate cycling team. Nothing too crazy, get things moving and do a few sprints. I get home from the short ride, my right knee is almost locking up. Major pain. I can't straighten it or bend it back all the way. So, with the slight reduction in my ride load, going out and riding in the wind, my back issues, Sunday morning I wake up and feel like I should be a retirement home. I grab the white flag and throw it up in the air and choose not to go race at Storm The Greens in Louisville. UGGGGG.

As I sit here, with Ice on my knee, thinking about lost fitness, I hope I can recover and finish my season with the original goals I set up to achieve. Sunday is another race I pre-registered for in advance to secure a good starting position. Lets hope I don't look like the "Old Age" radio shack employee in the photo after or during the race.

NUE Mohican MTB 100 - revisit - video you have to watch

2010-10-25T22:12:00.000-04:00

This isn't my video, but it was a good find through the interwebs.
It certainly brought back some memories from this crazy epic day in the saddle.
The music sucks but the video coverage and comments are spot on.
Enjoy this break from cross racing.

OVCX #6 - Bloomington, Indiana Cross - I cooked marshmellows with Barry Wicks

2010-10-25T13:59:00.002-04:00

Kenny Powers - yes the man does not believe (2:18) in the art of triathletes, swimming, cycling or running. But he does believe that a man with a great sense of badass-ery, a great haircut and some nice clothes can be good at anything. Well, a good set of cowboy boots and a sweat suit helps as well.

I would say Kenny certainly would have approved of the OVCX #5 stop in Bloomington Indiana. It was badass and required a set of speed skills, jewels and pedal power to keep the tires rolling on the concrete grass = ground. The location of the race was at Karst Farms, a very amazing park on the southwestern side of Bloomington.

I kind of wish I would have a a big ring like this guy; for the race, but my 40 tooth Thorne ring worked out fine.

This course was long, did I mention long, I think I heard someone say it was just under 2 miles for one lap. There is a ton of really cool terrain here, that went unused I think. Messer, Knapp and Sherer worked really hard I am sure making this new location epic. It was I think a course for someone who can keep on the gas at a steady pace throughout the entire loop. There was a double sided sandpit (vollyball court), some limestone gravel paths that I think were a factor, coming out of some other HR raising sections, that required you to just stay on the gas and suffer. There was a pavement section (where we started the race), that I used to suck in some oxygen and grab my bottle each lap. - - - - Jen's Photos of the Start and some sand pit
I chased hard after Corey, Collier, Nalley Biven and Millard to close the gaps and keep them to a minimum. Corey, Collier, Nalley and Biven all had a good front row starting position, but also managed to fight their way through a large group of the open 3 field, early in the first lap - after that they were almost un-catchable unless they had mechanical issues. Matt Stierwalt and Jeff Schoeny gave it their all, I just kept on their wheels and found a few places on the course each lap to put in a few digs to try to widen the gaps once I got passed them. All these guys racing in the top 10 of the 35+ are super strong riders, so I was super stoked to have gotten around two of them and almost (almost in horse shoes and hand grenades right?) caught Biven and Millard who passed me at some point when I was drooling all over my top tube and didn't pay enough attention if they were in the Open 3 race or in my race. Well, now I know I guess.

Highlight of this weekend was BWE and I drove over on Saturday, just in time for the Barry Wicks cross clinic (thanks Messer). There was a small turnout of about 15 or less and he actually spent time watching us run barriers, ride the sand and corner through a difficult turn, and provided individual suggestions of our form and areas we could improve.

:Photos Here:

I learned quite a bit from Barry regarding how to ride one section of this course and some great tips about riding sand. BWE has photos of the clinic as well and Barry pounding stakes into the ground for the barriers (Knapp needs to get to the gym for some upper body strength :)

Even better was the dinner BWE and I had downtown Bloomington (What a great town), then we made a short drive back to race venue to hang out with some cool folks around a giant bonfire (thanks Messer) and hang out again with Barry Wicks. He was sportin' his flannel and cooking some marshmallows and hot dogs (turkey?) and just chillin' with some folks around the fire. Certainly a down to earth guy. Knapp, Sherer, A.Messer and anyone else that was around to help with this race, thanks and thanks for the fire and hospitality.
I am enjoying myself this year in the 35+, here's a cheers to more races where I felt this good, 6th Place is two up from my best result this year.
This weekend begins non-stop races each weekend till December 12.

Louisville this weekend - last years location for USGP
Gun Club Nov7 in cincy
Nov 14 - Infirmary Mound -newark ohio - combo CapCity/OVCX event
Lexington KY - KY state championships
Nov 28 (Gobble Gobble) John Bryan SP - Yellow Springs, Ohio - OHIO State Championships

UCI3 - Cincinatti Weekend of Cyclocross - Saturday-Java Johnnies/Sunday-Harbin Park

2010-10-14T07:31:00.044-04:00

Weekend Highlights:
Hanging out with the BWE(Best Wife Ever) all weekend. She's my good luck charm and biggest cheerleader. Not being Nervous one bit about lining up with almost 200 dudes both days. Not having calf cramping issues all weekend - yoga master am I. John Gatch announcing.
Having overall good consistent results for both days. No podium, but with the traffic I fought through I will take my result. Racing with my buddies, Ray, Katsu, Spencer, Doug Glen, John Proppe, Derrick, James T, John Reidel, Scott Young and Dave G.

Saturday:
Starting the race behind over 110 other CAT 2/3's and then lining up 2nd row of the CAT 3 - 35+. Hearing my name yelled all over the course. My wife and some other friends saying I looked fast. (hey, they said it I didn't) Having great legs. Having the ability to sprint up the road/pave' section and sprinting out of every stinking corner. This was great morale for me, but not good for those that are racing against me, giving away my course position, pretty much the entire time....It's about racing your hardest every time every lap and if others catch you, I guess you are not racing hard enough. This course was perfect for me, I also was of the select few at the start line with a bottle or bottle cage on my bike. I found a place on a slight downhill, where I could grab the bottle and catch a drink after the first two laps, I think this was a factor in my race result. I just hope I can re-create some of this feeling in the next two months, since this was defiantly, one of the best days I have ever had on a bike. I finished 8th.

Sunday:
I met Brian Matter's Mom! She was screaming at him and being his biggest fan. She was so enthused to be out there and watching him race, I just said to her, "THAT'S Brian Matter, Iceman racer and super fast bike guy from Michigan", she replied and enthusiastic yes and was just going ballistic, it was awesome, what a Mom.

Finally meeting up with some of my new cycling Facebook peeps. Debbie B and meeting and hanging out with some of the 513 Rogue boys at the top of the hill area, before we lined up to race, chatting - good times to chillax with some of your fellow racers. Matthew S - got me Sunday.

Seeing our team Junior, Justin M. kill it in his Junior 15-18 race. He has really shown some skill and confidence in the last few races. I hope when he gets to college and starts winning lots of collegiate races, he doesn't forget about the little people.

Realizing after doing a look back after climbing up that grass off camber hill that I only had 1 lap to go. I mustered up some power and put the legs to work by trying to reel back a few places I lost on the last two laps. When I also finally figured out that the line through the uphill beach section was on the far left against the fence I modified my technique the last two laps of carrying my bike, which helped speed things up a bit. Apparently, I missed 7th place by only a short time gap, it was within reach in the last few laps. Sunday I finished 10th.

I got to hang out with BWE' cousin and my old Columbus cycling buddy Russ from The Organic Mechanic a bit on Sunday while I waited for my 20 min massage from Linda. Russ was pretty busy taking care of the pro's bikes (Kabush/Subaru Hudz team) and anyone else that sought out expert mechanical services. But it was nice to take a moment to hang and listen to Russ point out some issues on my bike :) "what is that?, what is this? Really?"
The post race massage, from Linda, I think was key to how great I felt on Monday morning when I got up for work.

Jen (BWE) took a few hundred photos from the races on Saturday and Sunday
of the Men's CAT 2/3 & Men's CAT 3 35+ and Men's CAT 3 45+

Here's a video of the sandpit (uphill beach) that I did not ride - the pro's however did and made me look like a rookie running the damn thing.

Cross Racing Schedule - 2010

2010-10-13T23:32:00.000-04:00

My Cross race Schedule for 2010

OVCX Series Schedule
Cap City Cross Series Schedule

18-Sep	OVCX	Kings CX - No Points towards Series
19-Sep	OVCX	Kings CX - Cincy, OH
3-Oct	CCX	Big Run Soap Box - SW Columbus,OH
9-Oct	OVCX	Cincy UCI #2 Middletown, OH
10-Oct	OVCX	Cincy UCI #3 Harbin Park, Cincy, OH
17-Oct	OVCX	Bloomington, IN
31-Oct	OVCX	Eva Bandman STG Louisville, KY
7-Nov	OVCX	Gun Club - Cincy, OH
14-Nov	OVCX/CCX	Infirmary Mound - Newark, OH
21-Nov	OVCX	Promotion Cross -Lexington KY
28-Nov	OVCX/CCX	John Bryan State Championships - Yellow Springs, OH
4-Dec	OVCX	OVCX Finale - Indianapolis, IN - Ft Harrison
5-Dec	OVCX	OVCX Finale - Indianapolis, IN
12-Dec	CCX	Lobdell Reserve - Winter Snow Cross

UCI 3 - Cincy Weekend of Cross

2010-10-08T23:21:00.000-04:00

I'll be here: http://www.cxfestival.com
on saturday and sunday giving it the berries big ring style.
Looks like I am lining up with 140 racers at 1p both days.

Shit.

Still don't know why they don't break off the cat 2's from the 3's and provide a separate race for the 35/45+ CAT 3? I know the day is only so long...but still - how do they do this in Portland?

Saturday's course usually works to my skills. Last year I raced all three races.
By the time Sunday rolled around, my legs didn't, they were rubber and absolutely worthless.

October here in Ohio is shaping up to be a dry one so far, knock wood. Last year I seriously spent more time cleaning my cross bike than riding it or racing.

I'll go after it, tomorrow and Sunday = hopefully the number of elbows and pedals will help me get by some of my Top Nemeses in the ovcx overalls.
Speaking of nemeses, IF you don't know about CrossResults, check it out. One of the coolest things out there.

and let me just say this is f'ing hillarious: Ohio Sandbagger

Cap City Cross #1 - Big Run Park, Columbus-Ohio

2010-10-08T23:04:00.000-04:00

Big Run park - Cap City Cross

First race of the series and someplace Andy and crew have been trying to get their hands on for about three years. I'd say after today, it was worth the wait. This place was so cross. Lots of off camber, lots of twists, lots of flow and a bit of pavement.

The photos to the left are from the National championship course in Akron, Ohio - a little Ohio History for you readers.

We started at the bottom of the actual Big Run Park Soap box Derby hill on the pavement. I lined up with the Open Cat 3's and the Cat 3 - 35+ and 45+. I think a large group of just over 54 or so of the combined fields.

The start was fast and furious, with super speedy racer/ official and Ohio Cycling Association creator, Kirk Albers. Since myself, Layne and Tim had done some recon, we knew if the start or finish was on that pavement hill, it would be a determining factor each lap, at the start and at the finish. It was. The start was fun, I was sitting top 10, just where I wanted to be at the crest then recovering a little quicker and having more confidence than some into the super grass dip after the road crossing, much of the race was determined here and at the first hard left hand turn around our first fat tree.

From the tree we dodged a telephone pole on some fun off camber stuff then back hard right up and over the first set of flat ground-double barriers. After the barriers we elbowed our way into a wide section where some passing occurred each lap, then back across the same road and up onto the grassy side of the Derby hill itself. Up, down and up again over a short single barrier and up a very short steep run.
I actually enjoyed this run, each lap. I am not struggling this year with any of my previous years calf cramping issues. Good grief those hurt the last two years.

AT the top of the steep run up was a hard right down a steep off camber sweeping left turn, that was proving to be a determining area for the race and a challenge for those with no balls or lack of experience to find the right line and balance on the bike. John Proppe figured it out and had it down! As we twisted and turned up the grassy hillside within the tape we crested onto the pavement at the top of the derby hill, then back down to a set of super fun sweeping right, left right then along the tall grass to enter the straight away for the super steep hill dirt climb. This was so much of a mountain bike hill and seemed to prove a challenge again for some. The other side was a long run out into a hard left turn that was holding some moisture and also required braking at the right time to carry speed out of the turn.
We zig zagged back and forth along the bottom of the pavement and back out on the pavement for a brief moment, then back out at the way bottom for the long speedy hurtful climb back up the pave'.

I managed to not loose any places on the road section, and hold my own.

I did go down on the last lap, which certainly jarred my melon, I lost track of what lap we were on and lost two places at the line, but no biggie, it was my two teammates, Doug and Tim.

Had I not gone down on the off camber bumpy stuff, I might have had a 8th place overall in the 3's.

Ahh well, I still managed a 2nd place in the 35+ field, which was stellar. I was just super bummed I didn't get to physically stand on a podium for once.

<<< Kyle Wingler

Pics of the Elite racers, Single-Speeds and some of the 3's that actually did two races.

<< This is Matt Weeks and Paul Martin.
Both very good racers, but Paul got the best of Matt at the bottom of the hill on the last lap and basically out sprinted him and made it look like Matt wasn't even moving - very impressive.

<<< Mason (SS) chasing Joe Hall

<< Greg Flecher ended up 5th in the Elite race.

Ridley Crosswind Bike 2010

2010-10-04T00:45:00.000-04:00

Just some recent Photos -
I used some wire shrink wrap to cover the bare wires along the top tube. I also replaced the goofy stock headset front brake wire guide with a XTR - v-brake 'noodle'.

This seemed to smooth out the front brake quite a bit and provide slightly more stopping power up front - not that I need it - but hey - it was a cool experiment.

I also gave up hope on the white Look Quartz pedals. They are gone and have been replaced by Time Atac carbons.

I have also since added some blue hoods covers for my Ultegra 6700 shifters, which actually seem better than stock. They look cool too. They were ordered from Fairwheel bikes, it seems even Hudz doesn't even make covers for the 6700 levers for some reason.

These are my training wheelset, with Kenda Small Block tires 34c. A good solid set of wheels, with Mavic Open Pro rims and older Dura Ace 7800 hubs. I have beat the living crap out of these wheels, they have not come out of true or needed any work.

2010-10-02T19:44:00.000-04:00

Crossseason is officially here. I've been going after it pretty hard the last fewweeks, running, training, building some speed and power during regularworkouts. I am up to easily running 5-miles at a good solid pace, which feels nice at my age to be able tomake happen. I finally got the Ridley Crosswind up and going better than lastyear. I went through every bearing, every part, added lube, installed newcables, my new shrink cable covers and even some new swanky blue brake hoods,to cover my 6700 Shifters. I also found time over a three week period managedto remove the pair of front “sealed” bearings and all four rear “sealed”bearings in my Planet X brand carbon wheels. This required basically, taking asharp, small bladed knife to each of the seals on each side of the littlebearings. This was much cheaper than replacing them all with ceramics, replacingthe hubs and or ordering replacements from American Classic, whom it appearsmanufactures the hubs for Planet X. I also noticed and learned I need to domore service on my cross wheels more often than once per season. Those rearhubs have so much going on, I think it would be beneficial to take a day andwork on them. The gain is, watching them spin and spin forever is worthy of thetime investment. This was just way more tedious and time consuming - hopefullywe will have a much drier cross season here in the Midwest and I won't bewashing my bike every Monday.

Sunday,September 5th 2010

I traveled down to Scioto State Forest and entered the Cap City Cyclocross Frankenbike event.This was a 50 mile ride, that was not promoted as a race, but hey, get a bunchof competitive end of the season road racers, mid-season mountain bikers andearly season cross racers and what do you get? Well you get 25-30 mph from thegun for the first 4 miles of pavement, just before we made a right handturn up the gravel road for the first hurtful beast of a climb for the day. Thecourse was split in two halves with a short stop for me back at the car for newbottles. I choose to race my Ridley Crosswind, which seemed to be a good choicefor about 85% of the course. The other remaining parts of the course werereally mountain bike sections. Spencer and I rode together for most of the second half of the race he did a good job writing up more details of the event here: I ended up 13th overall with about75 or so at the start line. A good early September sign – regarding what is inthe fitness hopper.

The bonuspart of riding my cross bike in this type of race, which I found out last weekat our regular cross practices here in Cbus - is that all that time spent onthe cross bike was a huge confidence builder as far as handling the bike inprecarious situations.

At Frankenbike,I rode and managed to finish around 12/13^th place depending ona few others and whether they actually rode the course, or “missed a fewsections”. I don’t really care one way or another, I was happy to have thefitness to stay with my man Spencer, catch Marksteen, stay with Payne Leeters(who was on his cushy 29er mtb) and finish minutes behind the actual leaders.

A good day onthe bike.

SaturdaySeptember 18, 2010

OVCX– Kings CX – Cyclocross Race 1 (not for series Points)

I took 8^thplace at this old converted golf course, which is now a city park. My goal wasto test the waters, see who’s out there, and save some berries for Sunday’smore official points race. I got a good start line call up- second row I think of the 35+crowd, had good position going into the first turn and tried to hold that forthe race. It was hot, did I mention it was hot? I don’t mind the heat, it’sjust if I am going to go hard and TT for 45 min, I would prefer at least mid80’s for cross and not the high 90’s. After lap 1 I was starting to eat intothe back of the Open CAT 3’s and find some good lines on the course. My Ridleyfelt good as I pushed it into some corners testing the tubie tires on my carbonwheels. Lots of power to be had and power in reserve, even with 2 laps to go,even though I felt like I was fading some at the 30 min point, these were longlaps and this course was not very technical. A good course, but just not toocrazy from this mountain biker’s view. I like the short courses I think andenjoy them more when I am not out there doing 10 min laps. This felt way more like a roadie course and not enough of a cross course. Well organized, good food in the old Golf cart storage room.

Sunday,September 19, 2010

OVCX– Kings CX – Cyclocross Race 2 (Series Points)

Sunday Iarrived plenty early to make sure I was relaxed and not rushing about, tryingto get it all finished and remember everything – pre-race. I had LP and BWE in thecar along with “The Motivator,” two-sets of wheels for me and severalindividual SS wheels belonging to LP. We got changed quickly, since LP was racing the SS race shortly after arrival. I took my time (which I love), getting warmed up, getting a few sprints in, checking out the course changes, which they basically just changed the direction we were riding and a few other areas, making it much harder - still a bit of a roadie (usgp) type of course for my taste and not enough technical bits and trees to keep things interesting. I figure if you can stay on the gas and average over or around 15 mph - the course is too fast and too much roadie - there were a few steep hills on the camel-hump - a nice section into these dark woods and over a log, then up a steep short hillside - the finish line/lap area was defiantly uphill and cause for some increase of HR - and Oh, the friggin sandpit was a bitch. It was an uphill battle and after some serious up and down sections that got your HR up then a sweet sweeping downhill tight around a tree then uphill into the sandpit with a giant lip to pull your front wheel up and get the back end of your bike out- I heard days later they dumped a ton of new sand in there which makes total sense - it was some life sucking sand for sure. I wonder where you purchase life sucking sand? I was battling it out with my teammate, Doug, passing him, he would pass me, I even caught up to Spencer from B1(Open CAT 3's) and with Ray yelling at me(after he finished), I dug deep, found something I didn't know I had and sprinted elbow to elbow into a sweeping right into a sweeping left uphill, then a wide fast sweeping right uphill into the finish line - just nipping Doug and Spencer at the line by a horsehair. Those guys are tough! We were just having fun and it was great! I had absolutely not-a-clue where I finished, but had I known I might have ridden a bit harder with 3/2 laps to go, to catch a few in front of me. I guess Doug and I should be working together and not messing about racing each other - ha. We wore timing chips, so after the fact it was interesting to see my lap times.

10th Place finish.

Not awful - not great - but it's a start to the OVCX series for me and a good solid finish with no mechanical issues.

What's Up - August into September

2010-08-12T23:30:00.001-04:00

Although I am taking a well needed break from pedaling, starting this weekend, I have some good things in store during the break to keep the engine going and add more power to the pedals for cross. My first race is less than 40 days away.

Lots to do on my vacation from work and the bike.

The list is long:

Finish going through every little part on my cross bike
Finish removing, cleaning and lubing each ball bearing or cartridge bearing on all my cross wheels.
Install cranks, new chain ring and chain guard on Ridley Crosswind.
Get Griffo's installed on Mavic Rims.
Get Kenda Small Blocks installed on Open Pro practice rims.
Install new cables and try out my new custom sealed cable system. (more on this later)
New bar tape on both cross bike and road bike.
Check into using a new Specialized Roman saddle for cross.
Take some new photos of the Ridley after completion.
Photograph and list all my un-used bike parts.

Avg Pace:	11:53 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace:	10:56 min/mi
Best Pace:	03:11 min/mi