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.
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?
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!
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?
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.
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
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.
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
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Cross
season is officially here. I've been going after it pretty hard the last few
weeks, running, training, building some speed and power during regular
workouts. I am up to easily running 5-miles ata good solid pace, which feels nice at my age to be able to
make happen. I finally got the Ridley Crosswind up and going better than last
year. I went through every bearing, every part, added lube, installed new
cables, 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 managed
to remove the pair of front “sealed” bearings and all four rear “sealed”
bearings in my Planet X brand carbon wheels. This required basically, taking a
sharp, small bladed knife to each of the seals on each side of the little
bearings. This was much cheaper than replacing them all with ceramics, replacing
the hubs and or ordering replacements from American Classic, whom it appears
manufactures the hubs for Planet X. I also noticed and learned I need to do
more service on my cross wheels more often than once per season. Those rear
hubs have so much going on, I think it would be beneficial to take a day and
work on them. The gain is, watching them spin and spin forever is worthy of the
time investment. This was just way more tedious and time consuming - hopefully
we will have a much drier cross season here in the Midwest and I won't be
washing 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 bunch
of competitive end of the season road racers, mid-season mountain bikers and
early season cross racers and what do you get? Well you get 25-30 mph from the
gun for the first 4 miles of pavement, just before we made a right hand
turn up the gravel road for the first hurtful beast of a climb for the day. The
course was split in two halves with a short stop for me back at the car for new
bottles. I choose to race my Ridley Crosswind, which seemed to be a good choice
for about 85% of the course. The other remaining parts of the course were
really 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 about
75 or so at the start line. A good early September sign – regarding what is in
the fitness hopper.
The bonus
part of riding my cross bike in this type of race, which I found out last week
at our regular cross practices here in Cbus - is that all that time spent on
the cross bike was a huge confidence builder as far as handling the bike in
precarious situations.
At Frankenbike,
I rode and managed to finish around 12/13th place depending on
a few others and whether they actually rode the course, or “missed a few
sections”. I don’t really care one way or another, I was happy to have the
fitness 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 on
the bike.
Saturday
September 18, 2010
OVCX
– Kings CX – Cyclocross Race 1 (not for series Points)
I took 8th
place at this old converted golf course, which is now a city park. My goal was
to test the waters, see who’s out there, and save some berries for Sunday’s
more 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 for
the race. It was hot, did I mention it was hot? I don’t mind the heat, it’s
just if I am going to go hard and TT for 45 min, I would prefer at least mid
80’s for cross and not the high 90’s. After lap 1 I was starting to eat into
the back of the Open CAT 3’s and find some good lines on the course. My Ridley
felt good as I pushed it into some corners testing the tubie tires on my carbon
wheels. 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 long
laps and this course was not very technical. A good course, but just not too
crazy from this mountain biker’s view. I like the short courses I think and
enjoy 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 I
arrived plenty early to make sure I was relaxed and not rushing about, trying
to get it all finished and remember everything – pre-race. I had LP and BWE in the
car along with “The Motivator,” two-sets of wheels for me and several
individual 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.
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 
