Ice Socks... Wha?

That was some seriously un-cyclocrossy weather! The Cincinnati UCI3 Weekend has come and gone and I employed the ice sock tactic at a cyclocross race. Unbelievable.

I seem to forget how hard these 3 day cyclocross weekends are. Stage race hard. So, I was talking to (name drop coming up) Jeremy Powers on Sunday and we decided that this was definitely harder than Joe Martin. You try to do 3, one hour time trials in a row and see how you legs feel. Anyway, it was all in the name of fun and UCI points.

Friday was a new course from last years slog in the mud, but no less brutal. Very, dry, dusty, and some said "mountain bikey". It was one of those courses where you couldn't really ride it easy. With temps in the mid 80's too much time above red-line and there was no coming back from it, the theme for the weekend. I got an uncharachteristicly good start and slotted in 3rd wheel behind Powers and Trebon, exactly where I didn't want to be. I was afraid I'd go too hard, too early, following those two, but the pace wasn't terrible so I decided to follow for a few. Eventually I settled into a group with Chris Jones and Troy Wells, racing for 6th place. We weren't really close to catching anyone, or being caught. I was comfortable for a while, but started feeling it with a few laps to go and went out the back. I was able to ride the last few laps solo and avoid being caught by Jake Wells in 9th. I was toast afterwards, but pleased with the placing.



We stayed at Chris and Kim Chartier's as we do every year for these races and it was awesome, as it is every year. I knew my legs were milked, so I tried to do the "professional" thing and drink water instead of beer and give my body a good shot at recovery.

Saturday was hot and dusty again, but the course had less elevation change and was more wide-open. I spent the time before the race trying to convince myself that my legs felt ok and that they'd be fine once we started racing, and I did a good job of it. I lied. I felt like trash for every second of that race. Not only did I have shit for legs, I had shit for brains. I couldn't seem to hit any of my lines and I felt like I was giving up 10 seconds a lap, in about 5 different spots on the course. It was just one of those days where I couldn't put it together. Group after group spat me out the back until I limped in in 13th place. Bummed, but optimistic for the big C1 on Sunday.



My legs felt infinitely better turning the pedals during warm up for Harbin Park. With all the traffic, the course was disintegrating by the hour and I spent a good amount of time pondering tire selection. I checked the with others and some were riding Mud tires and others, semi-slicks. There was no continuity as to the tread du jour. I Felt like my FMB semi slicks were hooking up well, so I went with them. I decided not to ride the course between the women's race and our race, which in hindsight, may have been a mistake. I got an average start, but I guess I was just far enough back that I felt like I had a million bees buzzing around my head through every corner, so I took to moving up through the first few corners of the course. No sooner than I take the "hot line" through a slippery off-camber corner, I find myself on my ass. Crashed. Chain dropped. Race riding away. I scrambled to right the ship and get to chasing. After one balls-out lap, I found myself in the group racing for 13th. I'm ping-ponging off of riders trying to get through that group and in search of the next targets. Just as I'm about to head out the good end of that group I come up on Derrick St. John at the bottom of the screaming descent with the "g-out" at the bottom. Since I was in kamikaze mode, I didn't touch the brakes. Apparently he isn't familiar with the Ricky Bobby mentality and was just fine with 13th place and taking it easy through that corner. Before I knew it I was on his ass, and soon after that we were rubbing wheels and I was body slamming myself on the fastest part of the course. Perfect.

I ate it hard. While I was going down, I thought to myself; "welp, there goes the collar bone. I can't believe you've done it again." I managed to tuck and roll and avoid breakage, but I had knocked the air out myslef and proceeded to roll around on the ground for a minute, regaining composure. I thought about dropping out, but decided that was for losers (so is finishing 23rd, but less loser-ish than quitting). I found my bike, straightened the bars and shifters and set out riding hard out of anger and desire for gas money.



It was really nice to hear all the cheers for me even though I wasn't preforming well. There are so many awesome supporters in the Ohio Valley and honestly, I didn't want to set an example for all those Red Zone kids that quitting is the thing to do. I was nearly last after the second wreck and managed to make it up to about 19th or 20th, but riding with reckless abandon for an hour caught up with me on the last lap and I gave a few spots back as I limped in.

It's hard to say that the weekend was a failure, because it was so much fun and I managed to get one decent result, but it was nowhere near what I was looking for. I feel like I missed a huge opportunity by letting the C1 points slip away, but as they say, "that's bike racing". I wish I could personally thank everyone who came up to me with something nice to say, or encouraging words during the race, it really means a lot to have such a home field advantage when I get to race a UCI in my area. Thanks to everyone who cheered, regardless of how fast or slow I was going this weekend.



Coming up we've got our OVCX race in Bloomington this weekend, BloomingCross. Barry Wicks is coming down to do a clinic on Saturday at 4 pm and then we're doing a bonfire/party after the clinic. The after the bonfire/party we're taking Wicknasty to Kilroy's for a Jager Bomb, Bear's for a Hairy Bear and Upstairs for an AMF. All the while, I'll be drinking water. Gotta find some way to beat him on Sunday.

See you this weekend!

Thanks to Lyne from Podium Insight for all the photos!

Madison USGP's

Leading up to these races I wasn't really sure what my goals should be. I had been racing for a few weeks and feeling decent, but hadn't raced against this calibre field yet. As I browsed the start list, I did the ol' "yes, no, no, no, yes, no, no, no, maybe" as to whom I thought I could beat, or had beaten in the past, I didn't come up with that many "yes" answers. I was trying to be realistic, but this field pretty deep, probably the best field I've ever been a part of. French National Champ, Francis Mourey was still hanging around soaking up UCI pts before heading back to Europe, so was former Swiss Champ, Christian Huele, Belgian Tim Van Nuffel and pseudo Belgian Jon Page. After them it was pretty much anybody who's anybody in 'cross filling the grid.

I decided that a top 15 would be a really good ride and a top 20 would be pretty solid too. I was hoping my 33 UCI points from last year would maybe get me into the second row, but in fact, I got number 22, one of the last spots in row 3.

I kicked at my pedal for about 30 seconds after the gun went off, but somehow managed to not lose too much ground. I slithered though the first few corners with my elbows out, pin-balling my way forward. I noticed I had made good progress because Todd Wells was driving our group and Barry Wicks was on my wheel and a few other quality guys were surrounding me. I knew I had good legs almost immediately because I never felt the need to let off the gas and recover after the initial shock of the intense first lap. I tried not to think about where I was or who was behind or in front of me, but it was hard. I almost crashed in a gravel corner and that helped me refocus on the task at hand. As our group splintered after a few laps, I found myself chasing Troy Wells solo and he was chasing the back of the lead group. Behind I had Barry Wicks and Brian Matter chasing me, not the worst company to be in, for sure.



I dangled in no-mans land for a while, but was picking off guys who had been blown out of the lead group. Two of these huge fish to catch were Ryan Trebon and none other than ol' Frankie Mourey. Trebon was cool to pass and drop, but he obviously wasn't having his best day, but when I caught Mourey, Matter and I were racing pretty hard and I was afraid I would get gapped off of Brian while we were overtaking Mourey. Mourey doesn't speak English, so the thought crossed my mind, "how to I say 'inside' in French?" I obviously didn't know, so I just gave him a nice assertive pass in the corner and he didn't seem to care. I couldn't believe I had just blown by the guy I was watching videos of earlier that week. I thought about retiring on the spot. I tried not to star-gaze, but come on, it's Francis Freaking Mourey!

Anywho, Me, Wicks and Matter raced the last few laps together and couldn't really drop each other. I made a move into the last technical section and was able to put a few bike lengths on those two and hold them off on the run up before the final road section. I wasn't sure how far up I had made it, but I was pretty pumped about the days events. It turns out I was 11th on the day and since it was a C1, that was good for 8 UCI points.

Wow, that was a bit long for just one days recap, so I guess Sunday's recap will be the condensed version... I didn't feel very well at all and didn't do as much slithering through the field at the start, but I still found myself in no-mans-land chasing the front group, with the same guys, plus a few others chasing me. This time I was hurting from being out in the wind so much, when I really didn't have the legs to pull it off. Barry dragged a big train of 5 guys up to me and I tried to get in that group and recover, but that wasn't happening. I got dropped and passed by all 5 of 'em on the run up after a few laps and rode the rest of the race pulling Luke Keough around trying to help him get the U23 jersey. He's a nice kid and couldn't really pull through, so I didn't have a problem dragging him around to help his cause. I ended up in 18th on Sunday, kind of disappointing when compared with the previous day's result, but I would have taken it before the weekend started, so I was fine with it... I guess.



You know you've been driving too much when the 6.5hr drive home from Madison seems short. Looking forward to a local race this weekend, then trying to kill it for the Cincy UCI3 and next round of the USGP in Louisville.

Photos by Caitlin Coar

Nittany Lion Cross

I decided last minute to drive out to Allentown, PA for the first UCI cross race of the season. There wasn't too much going on around here, so I figured I could make it a quick in and out trip and hopefully get a decent result to kick off the year.

I left early Friday morning and got to the venue around 6:30 that evening, with just enough time to do some laps before dark. Pretty similar course to last year, and pretty straight forward. I grabbed a bite to eat and set up my accommodations for the evening, the back of my car. May sound terrible, but it really wasn't bad at all. A Grocery Getter with the seats down makes for an ideal "cheap hotel". With not much in the way of entertainment in my "room", I was asleep early and awake even earlier. If I wasn't already a loser for sleeping in my car, I definitely solidified my loser status by getting a "table for one" at Panera for breakfast. I took my sweet time at breakfast and was back to to venue by 10am.

The promoter was nice enough to not leave the UCI races for the last races of the day, so we were racing at 1:15. I was nervous. Seriously nervous. I always get pretty keyed up before the first race of the year, but I think I put quite a bit of pressure on myself just because I had driven all the way out there for 1 hr of racing, so it had better be a good hour. I was fine once the gun went off, but I was mess on the inside before hand.

I got a good start and slotted into 4th wheel. I just wanted to get a lap under my belt with no mishaps. Before I knew it we had a little gap and there was a group of 5 or 6 of us, with another equally sized group not far behind. Adam Myerson, Luke Keough, Valentin Scherz, his other Swiss teammate, plus me. This was the group I wanted to be in. Once we settled in the pace was pretty tolerable, so I decided to test the waters with small attack. It got rid of Scherz's teammate, but it was too early for me to try to go away alone and no one really wanted to work. Scherz was waiting for his teammate, Myerson didn't mind a group sprint and Keough fancied a sprint as well, so I didn't have much in the way of allies for keeping the pace up.



A few laps later I tried again and this time I dropped my chain shortly after I gave it a go. I couldn't believe it. I probably let out a few expletives, but I couldn't believe that the chain decided to drop now. I probably had 5 or 6 hours of riding on that bike in race like conditions, and the chain decided to come off NOW???



I surprisingly kept my composure and got the chain fixed quickly and chased the front group down within the next half lap. Then it came off again in the wooded/rooted section. It looked like the chain keeper had come loose and moved away to where it wasn't doing it's job at all. I spent the next few laps trying to baby it through the rough sections and still make up time. I eventually dropped my chain 4 times, the last one being with 1.5 laps to go. The legs still felt decent, but I had fallen all the way back to 11th. I chased my ass off and finally caught back on with just under a lap to go, but when it came time for the final throw down, I just didn't have enough left and pretty much had to watch the sprint from the back of the group.



5th place and 10 UCI points is noting to scoff at, but I couldn't help but think what could have been if I didn't have to waste so much effort making up for my mechanical issues, I'd like to think a podium at the very least. Coulda shoulda woulda, I know. Lucky for me I have another chance at redemption this coming weekend when Mike and I head out to Baltimore for two more UCI C2's.

I made it back to Bloomington late sat./early sun. morning and after a night's rest I decided I'd rather do a local cross race and potentially win a little cash, than go out and train hard by myself. I made the relatively short drive south the the Huber's Apple Cross near Louisville KY and was able to beat my head against the wall for a solid 60 minutes and come out with my first win in a bike race in way too long. Thank god for cyclocross.

CX Magazine Write-Up

It's a leaf

I wrote a partial blog entry a few weeks ago, but my motivation died mid post, so it lies in the drafts folder. We'll see if I can pitch a complete game today. I'n my writing absence I pretty much raced the entire second half of the road season. I took a break in July to try to get myself fresh for the second half of the year and then transition to cross. My racing in the second half of the season was just so-so. I felt good, but couldn't seem to put it together. The team raced ok as well, but in general I just felt like the team, as well as me personally, we're operating at less than our potential. I guess that's how it goes sometimes.

I've been enjoying some time at home in the month of August and it's been everything I thought it would be. I've been trying to ramp up my training with cross just around the corner, and being able to stay at home and still race a bit has been nice for the mental side of things. The equipment side of things is also coming together finally. I've just got to do the gluing and Aquasealing this week and then I'll be all caught up. I can hardly tell you how excited I am for this coming season. I feel like I barely got to race last year and now I can get a clean shot at a healthy schedule.

Bloomington is crazy right now, with all the college kids coming back. It's great entertainment to walk or ride through campus right now. I constantly find myself saying "I'm glad I didn't act like that." I probably did. I bet I would have called college Ryan a douche. Not even I can escape my own scrutiny when it comes to douching around.

Anyway, the leaf is turning. New motivation, new weather and new bikes.
Coming to a cross race near you.

Nature Valley: The Rest of the Week

Now that I'm firmly planted in reality, I feel like I can give a decent recap of the rest of the events from the NVGP. I'm sure if you've made your way to my blog, you've probably already seen the results, so here is a little background on each day of racing in Minnesota.



Thursday was supposed to be a 65 mile road race, but mother nature had other plans. The race typically breaks up pretty significantly under normal circumstances, but with tornaders brewing off in the distance, the winds were whipping around at 30-50mph all day. With the conditions like this the field was amazingly antsy. I've never seen a field of confident professionals fight for position like this. Everyone was really nervous and sketchy even during the neutral rollout because we knew that in the crosswinds the field should be blown to pieces in no time. I just kept wondering if this was what it was like in Belgium or Holland. We raced nervously and defensively for about an hour with no smaller groups really developing. Soon we heard the moto referee coming through the field yelling about tornado's and he said he had to turn around and go home.



I "bridged up" to the "lead group" of people hammering back to shelter. Rory Sutherland was driving the pace and I sat on, amazed that he was just cruising at 27 mph or so dragging us all around on our way back to town. I guess Rory's JRA pace is similar to my Time Trial pace. So THATS why he took 1:30 out of me over 6 miles...

Once back to town, the Start/ Finish area had been torn down and everyone was high-tailing it outta there. We did the same. The race refs just decided to act like the day never hap pend and we moved on to the next stage.

Friday was another criterium on narrow streets and at high speeds. Not much going on for me here. Paul took his call up and used it to go from the gun. He started a break that stayed out front until; the halfway prime, some solid face time for the team. I felt more comfortable that the first crit of the week, some of that probably had to do with not hitting a parking meter. The finale approached and the chaos commenced. I participated to a mildly lame extent and was able score myself a "Top 23", a result that I'm sure got the attention of all those pro teams.



The Menomonie Road Race was on Saturday and it was a new course with a handful of steep climbs that the promoter intended to break of the race. We didn't really race the harders climbs hard enough to cause the devastation the promoter had in mind, but the cumulative effect of all the climbing over the first 80 miles did start to wear down the field. As we approached Menomonie, after a series of decent little climbs the field finally started to break up. I was on the good side of these splits and with the front group. My legs felt decent enough and we started the decent into town and I must have hit something because I blew out my rear tire. I drifted backwards out of the group with my arm in the air.

I pulled over to wait for out team car. All of thr groups and team cars passed me as I stood with my rear wheel in my hand. When our car arrived I got it changed and started to attempt to motorpace myself out of DFL on the road. I got a solid 30 second of helf from the car and then we hit the 5x2 mile finishing circuits, where no motor pacing was allowed. Shit. I waved our driver away and set out alone to complete the last 10 miles. Needless to say I went significantly slower than the field. Being realistic with myself, I decided chasing in vain wasn't the best idea, considering the damn Chilkoot Hill was looming in the next days crit. I rolled the 10 miles at a steady but conservative pace and conceded 7:30 or so to the main field, plus another 20 second penalty because I didn't get out from behind the car soon enough once we hit the circuits. Aaaand tack on 50 bucks to USA Cycling for my infraction. Annoying day to say the least.

Prior to the day's debacle I was steadily climbing the GC into a spot in the money, but that was out the window with the most recent developments.

Sunday was the infamous Stillwater Crit with the 20% grade Chilkoot Hill and 150 ft of climbing per 1.2 mile lap, we were slated for 20 laps. Some say this wasn't as bad as Snake Alley, but I think those in that department must have had better legs than I on Sunday because I thought it was brutal compared to the Snake Alley and the Joe Martin Crit. Either way, the mission was simple: stay with the front group as many time over the hill as possible.


I felt pretty decent for the first 10 laps and was able to climb it as fast as anyone in the front group and feel like I had a bit left in the tank in case of emergency. After lap 11 I began to feel the burn. I started to go backwards each time up it and lost contact on the 13th or 14th time up. I rode a few more laps with Phil Gaimon and we caught up as we were waiting to be pulled and given a time. Phil got tired of waiting and gave the commisares the "throat slash" and pulled off to the side. I did another lap alone and was allowed to retire and still get a spot in the overall, even it it was a poor one. I watched the last few laps and waited for Rory to deal his death blow. It was as impressive as I'd imagined it would be. 53x15 or so at the base of the climb and he made the rest of the field look like the belonged in the kids race. Impressive sir.

I was glad to have completed the NVGP without too much difficulty, but definitely left myself plenty of room for improvement. Plenty. My legs still feel pretty good after a few rides this week, so hopefully I can parlee the racing up there into some good from down the road.

Off to Maderia, Hyde Park and Grandview this weekend.

I've been pondering the douschiest maneuver I saw performed by any pro during the week's racing, and it's been tough to sort through the many I catalogued. Nick Frey was at it again, but even though he hearly killled me once and wrecked his own dumb ass out off Stillwater solo, he doesn't get the D-bag Maneuver of the Week Award. That honor goes to Phil Douschejachek (Zajichek) of Fly V for blatantly shoving Alex Wiesler for no apparent reason at the least critical moment in a very boring part of the Menomonie RR. Alex was not in his way and Phil had absolutely no grounds for dousching it up so severely. Get off your high-horse Phil, you're a dousche.

Nature Valley Grand Prix

Yesterday was the first day of the NVGP, an it was a double day. We had a 6.1 mile TT in the morning, then a 75min crit downtown in the evening.

I felt decent in the time trial, but couldn't manage to get my pacing right.  The course was a bit tricky because it was downhill with a tail wind on the way out, and obviously the opposite on the way back, plus you had a little kicker and a 0.7 mile climb to the finish.

I really tried hard to conserve, but I just couldn't get myself to o easy enough.  I went way too hard on the uphill at about 1.2 miles to go and then was too far into the red at the base of the climb and was basically crawling up it. I thought it would never end. My legs did feel pretty good, but I need more TT practice.

I finished around 100th out of 150, but the times were so close that if I'd have gone just a bit faster I could have moved up 30-40 spots. Oh well, one of these days I'm going to crack the top 50% of an NRC TT. And I know that's still not great, but its slowly coming around.

Paul and I went back to our host house for the afternoon and hit the grocery store and tried to kill some time, a tough thing to do with no cable or Wi-Fi.

We ended up watching the Disney DVD, Earth. If you've seen one nature show, you've seen em all. This one was no different.  Needless to say, my Droid has been getting a workout this week (this post is coming from my phone too).

The Downtown St. Paul Crit was seriously downtown, a cool scene for bike race.  Paul got a call up because he's in the Best Amateur Jersey for the race. Looks like we'll be riding the front all day in the road races to protect "the Jersey"... psych. For the most part I don't think there will be much Jersey defending for that jersey. Anyway,  back to the racing. It was hard as hell to move up. I started mid pack and went full gas for the first 10-15 minutes to crack the top 30 or so riders. Every time I looked down my heart rate was near 200. I eventually made it to a spot where I was satisfied to hang out, but it didn't really get any easier because it was a full time job just trying to hold that position.

This crit was cutthroat. I don't think it was due to the quality of field, because I've raced with these guys before, but I think this tight downtown course really contributed to the chaos. The fighting for position in the field was insane. Everyone was chopping everyone, elbows and fists were flying, it was pretty gnarly. I avoided most of the drama and had started creeping towards the back of the pros train at the front when a wreck happened on the inside of one o the corners and send a wave of bodies my way and eventually launching me an my bike into a parking meter, head first.  My body and bike are fine for the most part, but when I rammed the meter with my bars it broke my SRM head, so that's pretty annoying.

I took a free lap and got myself back in there. They wouldn't let me back in at the front so I had to work my ass off to get back up in time for the finish. I never regained my position at the front, but I was able to avoid most of the carnage and roll in just inside the top 30. I think with the right luck and enough stupidity on my part, I can get amongst it this week.

Paul and I are off to the Mall of America to kill some time. Check ya later.

Update from The Bearded One

No, my brother isn't writing this entry, I am. So why then am I claiming to have a beard? Because recently I've received no less than 5 comments about my increasing level of facial hair. I haven't really been trying to grow any fuzz, it's more that I'm just trained to only shave once a week, if not less. With my new found pubescence, my old shaving rate doesn't seem to be cutting it (get it... cutting it). Although I may now be capable of growing what is generally accepted as "facial hair" I dont plan on shaping it into anything or changing my methods, I guess I'll just be looking slightly more white trash than usual.

Any-who, back to the normal bull that I write about on this thing. I raced in Kentucky this weekend, instead of going to Tulsa. Tulsa would have been some serious critting and some serious driving, but Kentucky had a nice little Omnium to offer. with Nature Valley coming up in just over a week, I figured that an Omnium with a TT and a 90 mile road race would be better prep.

The race was in the Red River Gorge area of Kentucky and the race took us through the foot hills of the Appalachian mountains.

Friday evening was a 7.4 mile TT in which I participated. I performed as I usually do in that discipline, mediocre at best.



Sunday was a 51 mile road race with a few small rollers, but nothing like the map in the race bible would lead you to believe.

The scale is wack. There really was hardly a hill you couldn't roll over. Anyway, a group of 8 or so rolled off kind of late in the race and we had Greg in it, but didn't really like our odds so we decided to chase. Other teams had similar numbers to us, so we thought they might help us chase. No one did. Kirk, Chris and I tried to bring it back, but we fell a little short and the group had about 5 seconds on us at the finish. Greg sprinted to 4th place, so it wasn't too bad, but it would have been nice to give Chris a shot at the sprint.

Sunday was the Queen Stage, as they say.

The scale on this one is less wack, but it still didn't have as much climbing as I was hoping for. The race was pretty standard, a group of us would make our way to the front and get a gap over the field, then we would get dragged back. This happened over the first 3 of the 5 "major" climbs, then we finally hit the longest climb of the day and got rid of the field for good. The front group had the usual suspects represented, with Rolf, Greg Strock, Erik Hamilton, some other dude who raced like a pussy, Greg Christian, Wes and another Nuvo, and Niel Forbes, a 17 yr old from the Turner team. The omnium made the racing kind of lame because some were interested in racing for the win and some were just racing each other.



The rain was off and on all day, making the descents pretty sketchy. Rolf crashed early on and took out Uberti, and Dan crashed solo off the front and dropped out too. Bummer, because those guys would have been in the front group for sure. Greg and I took turns trying to get away from the group. Greg ended up launching a counter to one of my moves at about 4 miles to go. He is such a monster. He had a good gap immediately and I knew he was gone. I just surfed around the remainder of the group and watched the "GC guys" attack each other. I helped drag back the guys I didn't like even though there was nothing in it for me. I was just sick of the way a few of those guys had been racing.

We sprinted it out and I got 2nd in the sprint from our group, giving us 1st and 3rd on the day. It was definitely nice to have a break from all the hour long crits around here. I think with a little bit of rest I should be in decent shape for the NVGP in a week's time.