OMBC - The Wilds - Mountain Bike Race - May 15, 2010

IF I only had one of these before my race, I might have manged to make it through the entire second lap at full gas.


This was a tough first race as an Expert for 2010. I decided it was time to step up and stop sandbagging in the top 5 of the Sport. I haven't won a race in a few years in sport, but have been consistently finishing well and getting money. I don't want to be associated with that behavior, so I lined up with the big boys and fast women.

I Had a great start, on the road and into the woods, there was some of the craziest single track at the beginning of a mountain bike race I have ever seen. I am just glad I didn't get to pre-ride the entire thing, I am not sure i would have done the race. From a scale of 1-10 I would give this place a 9 for hardness factor. There was no room to loose focus, no room for taking big big risks. It was a turn the motor on to 55 and keep it going at 55 type of course.

Funny part was I had no idea we were going to race on parts or most of the AEP ReCreation lands trail, that I helped design, locate, build and maintain for the early years of the trail with COMBO. I actually helped run a few races at the AEP trail, that were also the Official Ohio Single-Speed Championships. So, cool to see some of the sections we thought were so amazing, in a race.

Jon, Tim and Chris were on hand from the Team, with Julie there to do a few bottle hand ups to Jon and I. She was a pro and passed off the bottle to me as I had the empty one in my mouth waiting to roll up that hill for the transition to my third lap (pic).

Dave from B1 and I sat on the wheel of a guy from Cleveland and basically burnt him out pushing from the back. He even said at one point, "you guys are going to sit on my wheel, push me, then pass". I didn't have the heart to admit that was my plan. But, the guy rode really well for 2 laps but faded hard near the beginning of the third one I think. Good rider.

Dave and I paced each other, chatting along the way, complaining about the super steep hills and sections of roots, rocks and trees. Dave was on a 29 aluminum hard tail and I could just hear him getting beat to a pulp by that frame of his. I waited and waited on the last lap, mentally for him to come around me, thinking, he's going to come around me and just smoke me to the finish...We came upon some other racers near the end of our last lap on a difficult log over, but managed to get around them quickly and on to the last fun section of trail for the off camber, steep uphill turn to the finish line. I kept waiting for Dave to come around, I put the hammer down about 2 miles out, but ran out of gas about 1000 meters before the finish, gave it the berries to keep Dave from passing me at the finish. It was a great race, I was happy to have a few guys to keep me motivated and pace. 

Dave is a great guy and certainly can get it done on his mountain bike.

I just missed being in the money by one place, and finished 5th, but still a great result. According to Bruce P from COBC, he said he saw me behind him at a few points - Bruce is fast and a respected mountain biker, road and cyclocross guy by this writer.

Tim looking PRO

Jon giving it 150% on his last lap

Mohican State Park - Mountain bike - Training

Sunday, myself and Layne had planned to hit up 2 full-on almost race type laps at Mohican State Park. This was just shy of 50 miles for both laps. We were hoping for sub 6 hours. We did it.
Moving time 5:21 total time. Much of the group (Joel, Ben) finished within 30 minutes of each other after the first lap - good stuff for Joel and Ben. Joel got in not too long after us and said he had some cramping issues - Ben rolled in shortly after on his Single speed stiff forked bike >owww.
The first lap, I pushed the pace, really hard with Tim, Layne, Glen and Jon on the first lap. Layne, Tim and I kept our stops to the very minimum and slowed up to eat and drink out of bottles etc. when needed. This was a great way to simulate eating, drinking and racing. We finished the first lap, went back to the car, got some food - drink and headed back out. Layne and I were the only ones. We paced and motivated each other on the second lap. I felt great for about 70% of the second lap didn't feel great at mile 21, but it came back around about mile 23. We were both excited to see our ride time for both laps. It was a good measure of our fitness for the Mohican 100k which is at the end of May.

Sunday Starbucks Ride - Will this Hurt?

Sunday, February 8, I made the decision, with a break in the weather to attempt to throw down with all the “Big Boys” in town. Most every Sunday, depending on weather – since early January, a large group of the local “Wed Night Worlds” Group has been meeting up at a local Starbucks, of all places. They typically, from my understanding, have been riding the “Worlds Course” which is about 40-50 miles from the (usually warm temperature) City Park starting point. It covers some hilly rolling roads that are all decent in width and condition. My history with the “Worlds Ride” was a one-time attempt, early last spring. I invited my friend Joel and my brother in law, Tim along for the heart attack special. We all hung on until we got to the lovely blossoming town of Ostrander. As the road ramped up, so did the speed and POW, at about 28 mph, we all go springing out the back. We managed to pick up 2 others that were spit out the back as we went north and find our way back around and back to the city park – and our cars. I roll in to the Starbucks with another local fast guy from about 40 min out. We wait as others roll in, some others call in and say wait – we wait. I get a few looks of, hey what’s up and a few, hello’s. Myself and another guy, Joe are the only ones with fenders to keep our parts dry from the snow melt across the road. 10 minutes and we roll out up North and line up 2x2 on the road. Reviewing my ride file, it doesn’t appear that things got too ugly until we got up north about an hour and some change. I knew as soon as we turned around and got a tail wind, things were going to ramp up and the friendly conversation would come to a halt. Sure enough, about an hour 20 or so, we make our turn across the rickety old metal 1 lane bridge and the front 10 guys, kick it into overdrive. We averaged about 25-30 mph for about 40 minutes. I wasn’t exactly hanging on for dear life, but it defiantly required some focus to get over the quad pain here and there. I was caught up in a bit of pulling up front right before we climbed up this long grade from the river on our way back south. I just didn’t know it was there and should have looked at my handy Garmin 705 to show what was coming. DUH. I was trying to decide, should I big ring it, stand up, pop my way up to the front, and then fade to the back. Or just ride my pace up the long grade? I chose the latter. I managed to hang on as I watched my HR rise up into deathville. One of the long time riders in this group, slides back ever so slowly to pick me up as I was slowly sliding off the back about two bike lengths. We get back up, I move up around a few guys and get low and tight so I can recover. With about another hour to get back to the Starbucks, I drink, I eat again, fuel, fuel and more fuel. I don’t think I had been drinking enough. A few are looking pretty blown at this point as we roll by the regular stopping point in the summer months. We make our final left and hit our final downhill before Starbucks. We get to the light, it turns green, no one says anything except, “green”, we all roll through and blow by the side driveway to the coffee stop/starting point. I grab a few wheels of those I know that live near my house and we get down, to get home. I look around and we’ve lost about 70% of our group. I slow up, the guys in front of me are killing it at this point, I don’t have it to keep up. I look back for a few friends, they are not to be found and must have stopped for some warm up and coffee. Two guys catch up to me, but one of them looses part of his pump from his jersey and both roll off to go find the lost, bouncing plastic piece in the intersection. I blow on and try to keep some kind of pace, with about 10 miles home. I manage to slump it home with Anthony, who is keeping a 20 mph pace, I look down and think I am not going to make it home. He peels off, I slow up and make it home in one piece. My legs feel like big giant redwood trees, my knees hurt, but I did it. 70 miles, 3 hours, 45 minutes, max speed 45.5 mph. I spent about 9 min in crazy power zone, 6 minutes in max, 9.22 at a race pace. I had some great power numbers and blew a few thousand calories.

OVCX-Cap City Cross-Ohio State Cross Championships - Lane Road Park - Upper Arlington, Ohio

It's over, I made it. My season is over. thank you thank you thank you.
What a race today - with a bit of a schedule delay, our race went off about 40 minutes late.
....finally a week or so later - Thanksgiving got in the way.
The big kahuna, all the marbles, my eggs in one basket, the final countdown, the last straw, the swiss army knife of races. Or just the last cyclocross race of the season, just the Ohio State Cyclocross Championships is all! What a day it turned out to be. The sun came out and the temperature actually went somewhere, besides down. After some forethought, I decided that it might help matters if I warmed up on the trainer at home, a grand advantage when the racecourse is only 20 min by car from my house. This was a good thing, but with a second family Thanksgiving on the same day, we rushed to make it out of the house by our projected 9:30 a.m. time. We wanted to be there early enough to see Tim and some other folks roll out for the men’s C/CAT 4 races. We arrive, and find a great parking spot on a side street just a stones throw from registration and a construction port-o-john in someone’s side yard. Sweet. Park – jog over to registration – wait 3 min –sign my name - get my race number – [wow, Race Promoter, Andy Johnson’s dad and wife are super efficient registration table people] then I run back to the car, number in tow. With the sun out, I can race with much less layers originally thought I would wear. This is good; overheating is bad during a race. I can bundle up, layer, then drop a pile of stuff at the start line. I now have plenty of time, to get some embrocation going, pin up the race number chat with a few folks by and in the car (with the heater blasting) and get my race face put together. While chatting with socialite, Mr. Gamm, I volunteer Jen to hit the wheel pit with my spare Mavic SL/Challenge Griffo’s and get on the bike for some spinning around to see how the legs feel. I wanted to roll around the grass boundary of the course and see how the grass looked for race day. One-day prior, I managed a pre-ride of the course on Saturday and check in with the race designers/organizers to see how things were playing out. Forward back to Race day; conditions look faster, the grass matted down and lines picked out by many other sets of tires. Hindsight, I believe I made a good choice going with the Planet X carbon wheels and my more narrow tubie tires, for the most part – more on this later. While I am out riding about, I see the current racers finish and squeak out on the course to check things out. There are two dicey spots on the backside of the hill, on the Lane Road side, that will need some body English, the right line, and possibly a sit and spin situation. One is a hard right turn off the bike path, the other is an off camber turn to the right that guided you into a pine tree if you picked the safer line. There were quite a few of the family watching Tim and I race. My parents, my in-laws, and Tim’s wife-Julie’s parents. It was great having them there for support for sure. I took some time during my warm up to hang out, chat, and feel the warmth. While hanging out, I hear the announcement they are running 45 minutes behind schedule for the Men’s B/CAT 3 race – WTF? Awww Come on. Now all my morning planning, EPO – my doping schedule is all off track – crap. Really – this is somewhat of an inconvenience, but not earth shattering – to self, “remember cross is fun, you are here for fun”. I calm down, calm my parents down, my wife does damage control and shuffles the group of family over to the coffee, dognut, tea tent, and I head back to the car for some heat and more socializing. Time flies and I am at the start line waiting for the sandbaggers to be ‘called up’ to the front row. Layne, Mike Riley, Mason, sandbagger 1, 2 and the maybe 3rd line up. I make my move and get a second row spot. We receive our regular USA Cycling Instruction from Mr. USA Cycling Guy and get a 1-minute warning. The one-minute flies while there is some joking around about putting some of these sandbaggers into the tape or a tree - It is game time. Tweeeeeet – the whistle is blown and we are off like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I get a great spot down the field of dreams sitting about top 12 over the big hill finish. Wow, good stuff, I try to rest, recover and relax, we make a few hard switchback turns and wind around. I am still sitting in top 12 or so….the group is starting to get away, fast, I see Joe Hall, Layne, Mason, Chewning and a few other familiar Team kits around me. I am not doing too badly – we wind around the backside of the baseball diamond fence and head south towards the tennis courts. We twist around and head back south – fly along the tennis courts and make a crazy slick left turn into the pine trees, make a quick tight single-trackish left then right, some grass then back out on the blacktop bike path that surrounds the entire Lane Road park. We follow the path north, hit the grass, fade downhill to the left, hit more blacktop, miss some low branches and slow-up for an off camber section into the grass – I am sitting in a great spot, guys are really pushing from behind and I am forced to take the inside line that was slick, frozen and barren – DOWN I go. Crap, that really hurt. I get up run up the hill as three- four people pass me. We go around a pine tree down a short steep hill, a hard 180 at the bottom, I shift my right lever which is now pushed way way in, and get out of the saddle to spin up, another 180 to the right and down to another 180 into a single barrier. Dang it- my hand is killing me. We head south again and away from my fall point then back towards the hill, where we serpentine around on the Lane Road side of the course that is getting direct sun and melting some very cold water out of the ground. We start at the bottom of the hill wind up it with some 180 degree switchbacks and manage to work towards a tough off camber section that peaks at the top, guys are behind me pushing – I get stuck where I didn’t want to be and crap Down I go again and now my hip, left thumb and index finger are throbbing like a Fred Flintstone cartoon thumb. I sail down the hill and head towards the 180 degree turn near our start line and go to it all over again, trying to regain my losses during my two crashes. I can see Joe Hall, Layne and Dave Groen all not too far ahead. At one point, maybe with thee laps to go I pass Joe Hall on the bike path, he looks popped, but then a lap later he comes flying by me like his ass was on fire. I can see Dave G in the short distance and try to ride as relentless as possible to close down the gap in the twisty bits – where I know he doesn’t do well. Ben Bonney is nowhere to be seen, I hear Mason’s name and a few other leader names being yelled out along the course and finally hear someone say, “Last Lap” as I roll over the hill for the last time. I give it everything I have, knowing this is the big one, the last time I can hurt myself like this for 2008, I catch I think a lapped rider on the last corner and hit as hard as I can across the field start area and up to the crest of the hill for the finish. I thought I might have been top 15. Nope. I managed a 17th place out of 41 guys. Not bad. I’ll take it. It was great to have family and cross friends supporting me out there on such a cold day.

OVCX-Gun Club Cross- Miamiville (Cincinnati) Ohio-11/2/2008

As I type, Barack Obama is now our newly elected President of these United States.
Yes Yes Yes. George Bush YOU are fired! GET Out of town! Palin, you can go home now.

On another note...
With only a few more races to go in the OVCX, my fitness and form is finally coming around. This picture certainly shows how great I felt. I was 12th at the start into the pits here and moved up to 10th and was chasing 9th on the last lap. I know I could have gotten that guy in front of me, he wasn't that far ahead and I was gaining on him in the twisty bits - fast. I suppose it was my time, but it certainly wasn't my fault there was broken GLASS on the course. WTF I say. With a half a lap to go, I roll through the glass, pucker up, and think for the last time, I hope I don't get a flat through here I hope I don't get a flat through here, and what do you know, last lap, chasing down 9th, the best result, best legs all season, best feeling, and POP, pfffffffffftttt, my 10th goes to 12th just past the sand pit and me running as fast as I can to the wheel pit. I get past the sand, through some more twists, now I am 14th, into the pits, 19th now....crap, crap crap. I get my rear wheel on, adreniline is pumping now, I am pissed! I chase down the two last guys to pass me and I make haste to get anyone else I can see. I went as hard as I could and even hoped I would throw up, just to get back those hard earned places, but I only managed a 17th place. I suppose not terrible considering the flat, running far to the pits, but I didn't throw a temper tantrum or throw my bike at least :) - I went out on the road to "cool off" so I wouldn't say anything I would regret.
I did get some nice compliments, after the race, from fellow racers about my fitness for the day, when calmed me down and made me feel better, it's only a bike race and it's fun, right? Right.
This course though is to my strengths for sure. It's like a small Lake Hope State Park Mountain bike trail. Flowy, fun, hilly, and hurtfull in sections. There was a fast section just after the double set of barriers down a small hill and up into the double track in the woods, with a double track fading left turn and over all the glass and back out to the Finish area < then into the sandpit with a 180 degree turn into the other half of the sand pit. Certainly one of my favorite courses this year, it's just too bad i got a flat. The tubie on the Planet X rim is finished, a big slice from the giant piece of glass. I was supprised I could still ride the rim with the tire glued on...now I just need to get a new tubie and maintain this fitness, before the State Championship in a few weeks.
This weekend is OVCX - John Bryan State Park, another one of my favorites and a place I have always done well. TJ said they mixed things up some this year, so I am excited to see what is in store.
She took some great shots but I liked this one of me spinning up some sand.
Top Pic taken by Jeffrey Jakucyk

OVCX - Loveland, Ohio Cyclocross Race #1

OVCX Race #1 – Loveland, Ohio – September 14, 2008

My first official cross race of the season, I had a few pre-race goals, I wanted to meet:

1. Get good position on the start line.
2. Work for top 20 into the first turn (nothing too crazy).
3. Work on skills, technique, barriers (dismount-mount).
4. Run lower tire pressure.
5. Ride a steady pace & output.
6. Draft on paved sections.
7. Save energy on the pave’ for grassy hill climb.
8. Ride up the grassy hill climb.
9. Not let Kerry N. beat me.
10. And Finish top 15.

Yes, these seem specific for one little race, but, with no goals, week-to-week, month-to-month, progress stands still, which equals no change. Change is good. Change your thinking – Change your performance.

Jen, Joe H and I loaded up the car Sunday morning with a rash crap, spare cross wheels, the pop up tent, one trainer and Jen’s Cowbells, water, food and chamois butter. We arrived in plenty of time even though Joe’s dash-talking Garmin got us ‘lost’ downtown Loveland and tried to route us onto the bike-path in the middle of town.
We outsmarted the talking box and found the park.

The temperature and wind would be a factor since it was bloody friggin hot and Hurricane IKE was going to be blowing in – so to speak. The humidity was about 90% and the old mercury said 92 degrees. During warm up my HR was up about 5 beats, which meant during the race it would most likely sit about 10 beats higher.

After a good 40 minute warm up, some grass riding, some road, some on the nearby bike path, with a few minutes before noon, time to roll to the start. During warm-up, Joe and I rode by some of Team Hungry and I got a “your going down” from Kerry. Joe thought it was a ballsy, statement, but I knew Kerry was kidding a little bit. I saw some familiar faces that had moved up from the top of the“C’s” from 2007, Chris Sloan, Kerry – his team mate M. Chewning and a few others. No sign of the Darkhorse blokes though. The showing of Columbus Cross racers was thin, very thin. I think we saw about 6 others we recognized from Cow town. Our guess, they blew their chunks the day prior at the first Cap City Race and couldn’t handle a double weekend of racing, gas prices, food prices or they went to Brandon’s wedding party and were too hung-over to go race.

At the start line, fresh racers filled the entire front row, no worries, not my business today to go hard the first lap. I took a good center second row spot. Said and done, I think we had 55 men in the “B” field. It was crazy looking around, seeing all the bikes, gear, and nervous racers ready for the first one of the year. I saw quite a few dudes with new bikes, new wheels, and new parts. Lots of tubies, lots of carbon wheels and more than 20 or so racers with bottles in the backs of their jersey’s. Good thing, Joe and I begged (ahead of time) Jen to hand-up water bottles to us. She had a full gallon of water available and a few pre-filled bottles. I was just hoping, she could manage to hang on to the tent, her table of fresh-for-sale cowbells and hand up water.

We were off – lots of guys struggling to get clipped into their pedals, lots of elbows and asses flying to beat each other to the first turn. I manage to get good position about 18th or so into the first turn, remind myself of my goals for the day and settle in for a 45 min pain drain. Everyone is single file into the second turn and hard switch back, which set us up to a hard sweeping left right before the first set of double barriers. After the barriers, click click – go the gears > we are all off like rockets on one of the fastest sections of the course, into a sweeping left turn then a hard right into the grass and over the sewer grate along the road. Riding on the tops of my bars and relaxing the upper body from the exit of the barriers worked the best. We serpentined along the road, behind the parked cars and headed to the twisty bits in the 8-foot tall pine trees near the entrance to the park. This was a great section, rolling right off of the pave’ onto a sweeping left up around a tree and down to the left, where it was important to go down wide to the right along the tape to hold your speed up the little hill for the sharp left and hard right against the last pine tree. Once getting around the tree, we cranked it back up a few gears down an off camber section and back onto the blacktop and out onto the right side of the road entrance of the park then a hard left up hill and into the wind.
more later....

Cyclocross BLING

Ohhhhhh
I love lightweight parts.
Can't wait to see how this looks on my cross bike soon. I will be taking that giant 52 tooth outside chain ring off and running just a 39 this year. Basically a 1 x 9 set up.
I hope to obtain/have two DA cassettes to use as well for various races this season. A 12-25 and a 12-27 should cover me for any hill climbing or terrain at the Cap City Cross Series and OVCX. These are just as light as the DA 7800 10 speed cranks and I won't have to take my cranks off my road bike now, which is what I was planning on doing. Now, if I could just find a 9 speed right DA shifter, and get a dream set of DT 240 hubs and DT rims build for cross, I would be set. Hey - let me dream a little dream right?

Tour D Burg - CAT 4 - Ohio State Crit Championships

Tour D Burg - Race Photos

And then, here's what I felt like on Sunday, even though I wasn't doing 260, it was more like 21-30.
The race layout is somewhat fast considering, road conditions, obstacles and many tricky turns, which are certainly cause for alarm. It's just one of those races where you finish and think, I am glad I didn't wreck or get taken out by something or someone. This course requires everyone to pay attention to all sides of your bike. Our start was fast, with several guys hitting it from the gun. I had a good position on the far right front line for the CAT 4 start. Our first left is a swishy turn onto some very old bricks. I was hoping they had finally replaced this section, since I didn't race the Burg last year, but no, it was there, with a nice attempt to repair what was obviously a big hole in the inside of the left off of the brick section. I must complain, I have never seen, witnessed so many racers, not pedaling in a section where they should be pedaling - lets just hope they show up to some cross races and they do the same. Out of the brick, our left hand turn, we faced a wicked head wind and I found getting a good postion on the brick helped stay out of the windy wind. This somewhat flat road section is in very poor condtion and has some lumpy whoopy doo's in the middle and outside of the road, which if you were not paying attention were a bit silly. Not too many laps did I notice the group as a whole lining up properly for the up and coming short left and right turn, before hitting the back flat buttery smooth pavement. Again, the group seemed to wait till the last minute to move to the outside line for the next left. I even hollered out at the group here once. This section was very short, but required good positioning, since there was not much room in this little sweep section before the finish and there was raised pavement with a slick manhole cover and some new blacktop in the apex of the turn, before making the last left before the final 300-400 meters to the finish. My idea was sit in the top 10, follow Mason from Jeni's, Darkhorse, the solid Saturn/dayton guys, sketchy Roll rider dude and the Raisin Rack guys. As the race progressed, I became more and more frustrated with the ability of some of these clowns to hold their line through the corners, "S" sections and what not. Guys were zipping all over the road, cutting people off - riding agressive, but not smart or safe. They just were picking bad lines into the corners and turns, then upon seeing their mistake of heading right over a manhole cover, they would turn to one side and not commit to the line THEY picked. I had to decide, did I want to rub elbows?, throw down hockey-style or go home without blacktop in my skin. I choose the safe route and planned to ride a little more cautious, be safe, set up for my finish sprint - on the last lap & on the bricks and after. It seemed to work sans getting cut off twice before the final two turns. Mason had a guy lock shifters/handlebars with him, then the guy preceeded to get mad at Mason, WTF. If I was a real ass, these dudes would have gotten kicked in the seat by me or if we were in a road race, they would be in a ditch, for this crap. I was in good position for the final two turns, my goal being getting the inside line, on the last turn, inside of the raised manhole cover, well, I was there, just not far enough up front to do throttle damage for a top 10 placing. My other issue was, somehow my chain, in the middle of my sprint, dropped to the small ring up front, I sat up slightly and looked down to see if it had dropped off completly or was still on the small ring, it was ok, I soft pedaled (at least 8 dudes fley by me) and got it back up and sprinted in for 23rd. Not bad, I'll take it considering all the stevie wonder dudes racing in a cat 4 race. I am not so sure some of these guys should have gotten their upgrade, but would guess since it was the "ohio state crit championships" that some of these dudes really wanted the win and the cool ass Festina watch >.
After what I left out on the race course Saturday, I will certainly take this finish result for a first year CAT 4 participant and being an old fart.

Troy Classic & Tour d' Burg - Bike Racing this weekend

Heading out Saturday a.m. for some 3/4 racing in Troy at the famous Troy Classic. I even booked a hotel for the night, so I can get some R & R and hit the Tour D' Burg race on Sunday. Planning on participating in the CAT 3/4 race Sat, and the CAT 4 on sunday. We'll see how things play out, the legs feel good today and I feel pretty rested. I am sure the fields will be large both days, some race both, others come and throw down for one day or the other. These are pretty much the last of the "big" races of the season. I will be spending some needed time on the mountain bike and then getting the cross bike in shape for some training. I need a trip to Lake Hope for some swimming and riding.