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

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

--------------------------------------------

 

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.

------------------------------------------

 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.

Cap CIty Race #6 / Smith Farms - 12/5/09

Smith Farms Highlight
I walked away with my first Ohio Top 3 Podium finish, with a 3rd place. Happy day. This venue was on part of the Central Ohio Parks, Three Creeks. It was a great venue and had some nice features for a cross race. There is much more here to use I think but the area around the barn and storage area served us well, with some really nice terain. I had a decent start sitting with the front of the fast guy ten "B" field.
Course: Our start was a drag race to a wide sweeping left onto a getting narrow bridge and then a hard left up left to an off camber hill. There was a nice dip on the inside of the off camber section, which proved to be not the line to take even though it appeared to be the fastest line, it wasn't - tricky. Once up the little hill, we were on an old double-track tractor road for a short bit, then a hard left onto the pavement, where you could have rolled a tire. Off the pavement and back onto the grass with one of my favorite spiral cross designs of the year. (I can do really well in this type of stuff, looking around and through these type of cross things, where others sometimes can't look ahead of their front tire) After the spiral we headed over to the main road near the course and had a barrier with a super steep run up and then a quick steep downhill. We had a short recovery section downhill still parallel to the road then into some off camber turns up and down a hills side near our parking. There was also a really cool dip with an uphill into a right turn with a tight sweep around the barn in the photo. Sitting in the line of fast 10, I knew if I could just hang on to the group, someone might make a mistake or slowdown, sure enough I hung on, slowly warmed up and started to feel really great. My legs had tons of power and gas and I was running the double barriers and single up hill barriers really well. I picked off Larry P, when he went down in a slipery corner and went from 8th to 6th when a few others cracked with 3 laps to go. Tim, Glen, Michael O. and local B racer and ("i haven't been riding, really") sandbagger Brandon all were remaining in front of me. I chased and chased Tim till I finally got him on the tractor road, Glen was just in front of him with 1 lap to go.
I could tell I was gaining on Glen, I just kept pushing and pushing. Once I passed him, Tim came back around on Glen's wheel and they both worked to try to close the gap to me, but I managed to hold them off in the last of the twisty bits before the finish line.