OVCX and Cap City Cross - Infirmary Mound & Olentangy Caves - Playing Catch up

Well, what's come and gone? Some real quick thoughts, pics and results.
OVCX Gun Club 10th place - see other post for highlights. : OVCX Gun Club Pics here :

Cap City Cross/OVCX - Infirmary Mound 11/15/09 > 11th Place.
Photo Link here:
I fought hard here to get to the top 10 and just couldn't muster gas to get by Glen and catch James - again. An amazing course for the year. Will go down as one of my favorites, it was so dry, fast and suited my skills. It was more of a course for the roadie types, Dave G. beat me and looked so fast out there. Several guys including James and Dave all got a good jump at the start and had a good first few laps. I rallied the last four and caught Jon C and Glen. I had fun and didn't go into this race with much game face. I didn't arrive early enough to be relaxed and warmed up. It was my fault for not getting up early enough and leaving the house. Choose to race my clincher Mavic SL wheels. It was a good choice as the rims are super stiff and provided I think some needed down force for high speed turns and less chance of rolling a tubie. My buddy Ben B. got first in the 35+ Cat 3 race. I did mange to hold off the Masters 35 / 45 guys this race, which is the first time ever at an OVCX event I have done that this year. Joe Ballante, Ben B and Scott Young were all breathing down my neck on the last lap.

Cap City Cross - Olentangy Caverns 10th Place -
an awful course for me. I didn't really like much about this race. I really didn't like the course layout, design or flow. I think it worked for some, but it will go down as my least favorite this year. I am not sure what happened, but it seemed to have some of the same EXACT things as it did two years prior, when we first raced there. There is certainly enough property to do some fun and challenging things and steer it away from this 'mountain bike' type of course, which is not so much of what cross is about. Yes I am bitching. I was pissed off at my result and I think I was at the end of a long few weeks of work and racing. I knew or at least thought I was better than 10th, so it was a bit sad for me. But: my friend Ben and Layne reminded me we all have bad days and we do this because it's fun. I have to find that Fun vs Competitive balance and sit in the middle of the teter- totter on that one sometimes. My team mates had a great race and finished high in the results. I just didn't man-up, act like a Pro afterwards to be happy for them. Lesson #445. Hindsight, I have finished in the top 10 a few times in the last few races, I guess this was just frustrating, not to have the gas and throttle. I did like the single track in and out of the woods and even the sketchy bridge crossing.

CapCityCROSS - #1 - Alum Creek State Park (Beach area)

After a full 6 days of being sick, coughing, snot flying everywhere, two days off work I managed to finish the race today with some good result. My goals for Saturday morning were to sleep in and get to the race site around 11:30 or so. I wanted to get a good quality pre-ride of the course in before the first race at noon and be better prepared for the 1:00 P.M. StartTime. I didn't get myself organized, after arriving at the parking lot, with enough time to pre-ride before the C's, but I did get a good warm up, and get out for a double lap of the course just after the "C" race finished. Good stuff.
The crazy part of the day, while I was pumping up the tires, was seeing the USA Cycling race official back all the racers up a large distance from their BIKES! What the??? Yep, there was a "lemans" style start. This meant the bikes were separated from the racer, requiring a distance run and creative mount onto your steed. As I watched the "C's" take off, I was wondering if Andy would do this for the other races for the day? Well he did. My big ol' group of about 40 in the "B's" had to start this way. EXCITING Stuff. Thanks Andy!
With that out of the way, I focused on tires and wheels and tire pressure during my pre-ride and finding good lines to keep the brakes off. I decided against the carbon tubie wheels, with the large amount of wind in a few key parts of the course. No advantage running lighter wheels/tubie's if they are wind sails.
The Lemans start certainly proved to be a possible place to 'blow up' before even getting on the bike. Here I thought I had a good run, but after looking at the photos, I was slowish. But I recovered some time, because of my super double secret technique and placement of the bike. Once on the bike, I managed to get top 13 or so before the first two turns and into the large puddle of water in sand. The course then got super skinny into some sand, then into slick mud, some roots, a drop off almost into the resavour water itself then a few twisty turns into a giant field of swashbuckling mud. This mud field proved to be an area of challenge for some, but I managed to plow through it every time without issue. On the first two laps, some thought it could be done double wide, but it was more of a solo rider type of section. Once out of pig slop we rolled onto some walking trail of gravel baby heads and dry ground and then onto some limestone walking paths that zig zagged around in the woods. There were three tight-ish turns, some were really slowing down for, but with the right gear and body english, they were not pedal proof. Once off the limestone, we ran downhill on some very bumpy soft grass parallel to Lewis Center Road. Down a little incline and over a wooden jump ramp (Sweet jumps) covering some large boulders, then a long hateful climb up soft bumpy grass into a hard right over another wooden bridge, up a steep mountain bike like climb and out onto the grass for a series of twists, turns, off-camber bits then onto different section of the limestone path. Some more grass, back into the twists, turns, off camber bumpy stuff, then a hard left turn with a double set of barriers. The grass after the barriers, could have been quicksand, it sucked, getting back on, I think I tried every gear to see what worked and what didn't after those dang barriers - it just hurt. A grassy dip and some more soft life sucking grass downhill and back to the start.
Two guys from cleveland were off the front fairly quickly and might re-think their sandbagging in the "B's", but Herman, Claus, Gardner and TJ from BioWheels all were within reach at various points. I just couldn't close the gap. I really enjoyed my two other teammates, Mike and Tim rolling with me in back and us slaying several other riders one at a time. Eventually, Mike cracked and Tim started to crack with about 3 to go. I was eyeing Biowheels-TJ and trying in the hardest of sections to put in hard digs and make up the gap. My ever so present, goal of no brakes each race, certainly came into play on this course. I passed one or two folks that in years past I have never beaten - great motivation. In the twisty, off camber bits, I was able to gap many and pick better faster lines with no brakes and distance myself. In the bell lap, my team mate Tim came out of nowhere and was all of a sudden sitting on my wheel, I think waiting to pounce. I was able to look back and see Joe H., Dave G and a few others very close. I put in all out efforts in 4 sections and got some distance before the barriers, looked back and Tim was just off a bit. I continued to go hard just before the finish line. I think he could have taken me though:)
I am not sure how they scored the "B" group with the masters in or out. I Took 10th Place, just behind TJ, Gardner and Claus. The pic to the left
< shows how close I was to catching Gardner and TJ. Next time!

Kudo's to my team mates for a great race, Kurtis, Daiska, Tim, Ryan, Mike and Mark B for beating some fast guys in his "A" race.


Props to my buddy Joel for his 2nd Place in the "C's" he's been working hard this season and it was good to see all his hard work paying off.

The fitness is coming around. Good things ahead this weekend at the UCI Cincy Races. It's too bad Shannon and Bonney won't come race with me in the "B's". I have Gers, Chewning and Tinsler (with his downgrade to 3's) to battle, which should keep me busy enough for three days.

Start of Cross Series Numero Two - Cap City Cross

Tomorrow is the first race in the cap city series around cbus local.
I race at 1p.
hoping to get up there early before the C race and get a lap or two in, get warmed up and kick some cross sangbaggin booty.

stay tuned...

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.

What happened to the Ohio Global Warming

Geesh, the temp here should be 50 degrees. The last two nights I have had to wear 8 shirts and multiple layers to go outside to get my workouts done. Sick. I took a photo of our fancy thermostat when I got home - 29 degrees on my back porch (see quality cell phone pic). Just a few more days of workouts and my final cross race of the season - Lane Road Park - which is about a 20 min bike ride from my house. Sweet. I was trying to figure out tonight, while riding home: how best to warm up for the race sunday. Should I hit the trainer here, then ride over? or should I go with Jen's idea to take the trainer, set up the pop up tent with some sides on it, and warm up inside our 'booth'. Hmmm.

Tonight - I did some good sprints tonight to open up the engine some, felt way way better after a few of those. But, on the way out for my workout -I was not feeling it on the start of my ride, with about a 15 mph headwind all the way out to the beginning of my workouts.

John Bryan State Park – OVCX #9/CAPCITYCROSS #7

JOHN BRYAN STATE PARK – OVCX #9/CAPCITYCROSS #7

Wow, what a race, what a course, what F-U-N.
I wrote after my tubie flat (glass on the course) at the Gun Club and my overall disappointment and moment of being pissed - cross is supposed to be fun and this race certainly renewed my view of what cross fun means.
I decree this course was of my top 3 favorites for 2008. Lots of flow like a great mountain bike trail or car racecourse without a ton of climbing. Although, my Polar file showed about 795 feet of climbing, it sure didn’t seem like that much, compared to the UCI Harbin race. I think John Bryan provided steady not steep climbing and not all at once, wall type climbing, which Harbin is known.
We had 40 Men line up for the CAT 3 race and I was on the second row behind Mr. Sandbagger, along with the other 08’ season sandbaggers who were sitting front row.
There has been some chatter about this – this week – I might have helped stir the pot some – me oh no - the issue for me is, yes I am sure you would like to win the overall award for the CAT for the Season, but you know, if you have won more than 3 races or been in the top 3 of 3 races or ok let’s say 6, then dam it, you should fricking CAT up, I am sorry. Let someone else win. It is not going to be me – YET. I am close, but not quite top 5 material in the B’s yet. But these guys, just week in and week out slaughter the rest of us some weeks by minutes, not 30 or 45 seconds, minutes. That is silly and why I am calling these fuckers out. Blah blah, it’s their first season of winning, blah blah train harder and we should all quit our bitching – well, CAT up and race with those that you should be – this one guy – he slams us in this race, then goes out into the A race, and sits 8/9th over almost the entire race, sitting on a CAT 1 wheel most of the race, then blows up and finishes like top 14 or something – I can’t think of a better way to bitch slap everyone in the B race.
Looking at the photos, you can see a bunch of us in laughing and heckling “some people” about sandbagging. That moment was almost as fun as the race itself.
The course started with a slight uphill with a sweeping narrowing turn to the right then a sweeping turn to the left. We wrapped around the field near the finish start area and went around a few trees into the first set of barriers – the field was getting strung out at this point. After the wooden barriers we went up towards Gazebo land hit some pavement then a hard hard fake you out right turn almost straight into a tree then a hard left a the tree into the first sand pit. I thought this one was the toughest obstacle of the day, since I had to place to really put in a serious acceleration to get through it. I ended up running it after the first lap attempt and just glided my bike on top of the sand, without actually picking it up, which was an interesting mid race experience and seemed to work well in this race.
Other highlights were, what I call the Gazebo section, where we came into a large grass area on the right outside, then circled inside center and then back out, genius design, I could pedal through the entire thing with my high bottom Bracket, thank you Ridley. I was putting time on guys here every one of the 7 laps, by just maintaining pedal strokes. I might have been smiling every-time in this section.
After the first sand, we went across the park road into a nice right then left turn onto a grass section that was very fast into a sweeping wide right turn around a tree. Back around a tree to the left and another uphill to the left. This section was a big deal breaker if you could maintain speed and pedal through and around these trees. I managed to just stand up, get in the drops and go hard, in a hard gear. At the top of the small rise, I would settle in and spin to recover a bit on this somewhat downhill grass/dirt section in the woods, behind where our car was parked. We then headed back across the park road, turning hard right and lining up for a good sprint across the other side of the sand pit.
We had two standard, wooden barriers, the standard OVCX series, double sand pits, and two large, large logs with quite a bit of running between them. We then hit the outside of this grass section against the tree line and went into a long semi flat to light downhill and into the woods onto single-track. Once on the dirt, the first sweep turn to the left, required picking the right line and having the right position on your bike otherwise, you would end up hitting sticks and trees on the outside line of the single track. A slight bit to the right and then long sweeper dip to the left and then out of the woods and back out on the grass. Some twisty stuff and back into the woods on onto the dusty single-track.

I ended up Top 15 with Ben B and the BioWheels guy just in front of me, I mean just and Layne was on my ass chasing me down like a rooster in a hen house. Ben said he was watching me like a hawk and working really crazy hard to keep me away from him. That's good stuff. A great day on the bike. A few of us went into Yellow Springs for some food and heat. Good times, good day.

CapCity Cross # 4 – Lobdell Reserve Frisbee Golf Course

CapCity Cross # 4 – Lobdell Reserve Frisbee Golf Course

With a bit of a late start, (my fault & being rushed at home) since I couldn’t seem to get my fat ass out of bed, Layne came over to pick me up in the Saab mobile for our trek to Lobdell for our 4th race in the series and a 1:00 p.m. start time.
I think rushing around in the morning before any bike race is not good. I did think I had my gear together, clothes, bag, bike etc. when I really did not have my shit together. I still had a spare wheel that needed a tire, bottles/cooler to prepare, food to finish eating etc. Crap, I hate when I do that.

We arrived about 10 minutes before noon and got there just in time to see my brother in law Tim, warming up, chat a bit, then watch him start his C race. Tim had a super start, got into the barriers really well sitting third or fourth up the shoulder dirt-climb. He finished with his first ever, second place. I am super proud of him, in three races, he went from 22nd, to 7th, to 2nd. I hear the B’s calling Timmy! The kid has skills. I hope that it will bring confidence for some more mountain bike races or road races for next year.

Course – hmmm, well in a nutshell this was a parking lot with a big somewhat flat grass field, we pretty much covered most of the kidney bean shaped field area with a long fast chatter grass start into a dropdown to the right off camber section on grass that had been shaded and not dried off. We rolled around a wide sweeping turn and over two barriers. Make a hard left sweep to a 180 degree turn along the base of a hill for about 100 feet, then shoulder the bike for a long run up a very steep rocky, loose dirt wash out trail up to another level of the Frisbee course.
At the top of the run up, we go slightly up hill to the right and into a bumpy hard almost 180 degree turn and around a sweeping bumpy uphill turn to the right. We wind around a bit on level 2 then head up to a small somewhat hurtful rise in the grass down and then back up a dirt double track to level 3 of the party. Level 3 similar to level 2, except it was long and uphill with some good turns and then one big sweeping turn to the right that went down fast zipping up and down the grass and around one final post, before heading down hill to Level 2. More of the same zipping in and out of some tape then down a fast (recovery) section to a double track dirt road that dropped us back to level 1.
At the bottom, we veered off to the right a bit and then hit a 180 degree turn back to our left, taking us to the furthest point from everyone on Level 1. We hit a few, what I call ‘lookback’ turns then a hard last turn before a final long slightly bumpy grass finish line.

How was it? How did I feel you ask? I don’t have any photos yet, since my cheerleader Jen was not around and I haven’t seen any links yet. I know Mr. Kimmerle was snapping off some photos with his Rebel XT. Those should be good. I really liked the course, I certainly think there was a bit too much climbing for a cross race, but it was fun and a very well designed piece of work. Even local stud, Phil Noble, commented, it was too much climbing for his taste. Ha, ok I wasn’t the only one. My legs just felt slow, beat, like big giant logs attached to my fat ass. I had no speed really, but had tons of ability to keep pushing and pushing. Just no real acceleration to get gas going, when Ben Bonney or Layne came around me – like I was standing still > up on Level 2 I think - about the 2/3rd lap. I watched them as the race progressed just distance themselves from me. I did rally on the last lap, to hold off I think 2/3rd place in the mens Masters group, Glen Gardner was gaining fast and chasing me like a cat, chasing a mouse. He almost had me, I just kept putting small efforts in on the most difficult sections and difficult climbs. My HR was low for the day and got lower as the race progressed, I know I put too much efforts in during the week prior, but it was all for a good future cause.

I am hoping it is money in the bank-training for the up and coming USGP weekend in Louisville, KY. I think I stand in the top 10 of the Cap City series of the B men/CAT 3, so I guess I shouldn’t beat myself up too bad over the results. After, USGP, I have John Bryan State Park and the Gun Club and then the State of Ohio Cyclocross Championships at Lane Road Park in Upper Arlington. I feel so much less blown than I did last year at this same time and I am sure, with a little planning, I’ll be able to hold some great fitness through the Championships.

CapCity Cross #3 - Lobdell Reserve, Alexandria, OH

The third race in our local series. A challenging course, with a start into two twists and three barriers, more twists, then a long downhill road section into the grass and back out onto the road. A long fake you out road hill climb and back into the woods on a tight dirt single track and down a hill with a sharp left to fast grass and back into the woods, down into a sandy creek up hill to more dirt single, back onto the grass still climbing to the finish/start.
So, there is the description in a short version, what did I think? well, I thought it was hard, fast and challenging. Lots of guys were bitching it was too much like a mountain bike course and I saw many show up with their frigging 29rs and what not. One guy even raced his powder blue Fisher 29r in my race. It's just not the same racing cross on a mountain bike. s
How did I do? you might ask? 7th place. Not bad considering the course and the damage I did passing a few guys on the last lap, after they laid out their life on the sand just after the crazy little creek section. It was the second time, the one guy, fell over and covered the trail just in front of me and I wasn't going to let it affect my finish, so I took off like a H2 in the woods and high-tailed it around two guys about 2 minutes before the finish. I was happy with my result, fitness and skills. The three barriers in a row were hard, but I managed. Funny part, my wife and brother in law both said I wasn't heeding my own (cross coaching) advice and was dismounting my bike incorrectly, so the funny part, I didn't remember what I was doing or remember dismounting one way or another. It was just a blur of being in that special hurt place we go to in these kind of races. It's weird, getting their, but once I am there, I can just nail it to the wall and stay there.
Props go out to my friend Layne, he beat me this week and had a great ride and looked super solid - his kind of course with not much twisty stuff or too many trees. Props to my team mate and brother in law Tim, who also got 7th in the "C" group - he moved from 22nd place in his first race last week to 7th this week - he's a natural. Props also to my team mate, Mike who left everyone standing at the start line in the "C's" and won again. He then raced our race the "B's" and came out of know where to pass me and almost pass Layne and was moving up pretty well. I managed to pull out some hurt on him on the pavement hill climb in the hardest gear I had to power away from him enough to beat him (I think I am 20+ years older). Tim and Mike are so fast and they don't even know how fast they could be. I don't think Mike will be 'allowed' to do anymore "C" races :) Go Mike and Tim!
::Photos Link here::

Hopefully this weekend and the USGP weekend (Oct 24, 25) I can do it again and again, just much much faster.
This weekend, I'll be doing a double in Middletown and Harbin Park - both UCI races with big big names attending. It should be fun and hurtful all at the same time.

CapCity Cross #2 - Alum Creek State Park

We are off for vacation in about 6 hours. Had a great race today. Finished a high 7th or 6th, almost almost reeled in another place in front of me, Chris Grisvard - he looked great today. Good stuff for my second "B" race of the season. My HR was down 10 beats overall average for the race, the temp was down from the last race though, but overall I felt like I could have done an hour for sure. The power is there, I just need more races for some pain and suffering and endurance, which will come.
Here, hopefully is a link to some pics from the race.
My bro-in-law Tim, did well, sans the chain flying off, but he would for sure have been top ten I think. He looks really good on his new Fetish Cross bike.
I sat on Layne's wheel much of the race and then just nipped him on the pavement. I got the other two guys that were with us as well - funny they were racing in the masters and it didn't even matter. A good feeling.

USGP-Cyclocross - upcoming tests

It's almost here. The U.S. Grand Prix of Cyclocross.

Since I moved up a CAT this year, I am trying to get my brain wrapped around racing with 100 plus other cross racers is going to be interesting. Maybe I should get some advice from those that raced in the "B" field last year?
Two weeks prior will be a good test in Cincinnati with a double bill of UCI racing. I love those courses. I haven't raced at Harbin Park for a few years. Last year I was not able to race, since I had some serious calf/muscle issues that are not present this year, due to all my running early in the season.
This weekend is my second cross race of the season.
I will be stepping up the aggression a bit and throwing down with the new Ridley.

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?