Ruckus Racing // Shawnzyoo

Migration

2009-03-09T16:34:00.001-07:00

So I decided to finally bring all my information to one site

I have moved this blog to

http://www.shawnzyoo.com

Wet and gritty

2009-03-01T18:31:00.000-08:00

This was my first Oregon road race since I moved out here in August, I was super excited to get back into it. As much as I love cross and mountain biking, road racing is still a lot of fun.

In the OBRA series everything is a little different than what I was used to back in the Midwest. For starters you are issued two lycra numbers to last through-out the season, and you can preregister for all the races. This cuts down on a lot of annoying headaches associated with racing. But with biking being very popular out here, the fields are large and strong. The fields are broke down by Cat 1/2, Cat 3, Cat 4, Cat 5A, and Cat 5b, also a large number of master fields as well. I am registered for the Cat 4 series with my eyes on upgrading to Cat 3 this season.

Today’s race was stage 1 of a three part series called the Banana Belt. 44 miles around beautiful Hagg Lake (actually is beautiful) the course rolls up and down quite a bit (overall elevation gain of 750 ft). The Cat 4 field seemed to be around 100 riders for the day, all unfamiliar to me, except Andrew Utz. The weather was not-cooperative, it was raining the entire race and everyone was covered in grit and dirt from the road, it looked like we just finished a cross race.

My goals for the day were simple, don’t chase or attack anything. Sit in and finish with the pack. I was just trying to figure out my fitness level and get a feel for racing again. Also being so early in the season there was a lot of general uneasiness in the peloton; lots of dropped water bottles, a crash, general bumping, and the words “slowing” repeatedly. Road racing.

I was sticking to my plans well until the final 7 miles. A rider from Team BEER charged up a hill with another on his wheel, they gapped the field by a decent margin. When this happened I was sitting 5^th wheel and decided to go after it, a man in a pumpkin-orange kit followed. We got up to the 2 man crew and joined in, we put on about 100 ft of distance between us and the peloton, it seemed like we could hold it. But some of the guys decided to sit-up and get reeled back in. I knew this was going to cost me; the biggest hill was near the finish.

Still sitting near the front and approaching a sketchy-downhill turn, I decided to jump into the lead, coast down the hill and take the turn fast. This time Andrew was sitting behind me, we flew out of the sketchy turn and put on a decent 50 ft gap, 3 miles left. A few other riders decided to join us in another attempt at a break. The other riders were total assholes or smarter than us. They just sat on our wheels and refused to pull. During this confusion/waste of time, the pack caught up. Screw it, might as well finish with the pack. Too bad I had burnt all my matches in the last 7 miles and bonked on the final hill leaving nothing for the finish.

Overall I felt great to be racing again, even in the cold, gritty, rain that was today. I learned who to stay away from in the pack and who to stick to. Andrew and I worked very well together; I think it is going to be a great season racing with him.

This was also the last race for my road bike; this is the first bike I had ever built up (wheels and all) and have been riding it for three great years. The new bike is a big upgrade and I am really excited for the next stage of the Banana Belt to test it out.

Basket-less

2009-02-24T21:25:00.000-08:00

Friday night as I was riding around with the ShowersPass team a little chainring bolt fell off. I didn't know this happened....and then this happened

The chainring just crumpled instantly, a good sign to lay off the EPO. Luckily I was only 2.5 miles from the ShowersPass headquarters which had beer and pizza. Home is only another 1.5 miles from there. I decided to turn this scenario into chance to finally get my commuter stripped and re-powdercoated.

Monday morning I dropped it off at Brooker Enterprises and I should have the frame and fork back in less than two weeks with a fresh new powdercoat on it. I got really used to the baby blue color so I went with a really close match. I also am going to use this opportunity as time to rebuild it with some new parts and fix things that were in need of repair. Here is what is going to be new on it:

New chainring obviously and this time I am going to put on a carbon chainguard for style
New pedals, the ones that are on it now are have been broken for years
New Ruckus Comp. brakes (really a first prototype)
New bar tape instead of the oury grips
New bottom bracket
New SS chain
Replace the basket with a portuer style rack
New Ruckus Comp carbon fenders
I am in debate of paying for a new set of commuter wheels as well...really wanting to do it to finish off the package

In all I am really excited to get my bike back and rebuild it. This bike means a lot to me and is by far my favorite.

Limp arms and a smile

2009-02-16T14:46:00.000-08:00

The past two weekends in a row I have put in over 100 miles each with some tough climbs on the road, I have also been trying to put on 100 miles or so during the week.

Yesterdays ride shook my arms into a spaghettificaion state (no black holes present). I got talked into riding 10 miles of fire trail (bumpy off-road) on my road bike. While rough on the body and the bike I loved it. I need to put my cross bike back together so I can do some fun rides on it. Every now and then I need to remember that bike riding is a lot of fun; all the base training miles have beaten my brain into mud.

Today was the lunch time lawyer ride, small group due to the holiday. I was feeling pretty good so I decided to have some fun.

First hot lap I sat 3rd wheel following a strong rider who was pushing it. I flashed Andrew a hand signal that I was going to pound it and that he should follow. I jumped hard and he followed perfectly. I pulled for a brief moment but it was enough to slingshot him into the lead finish.

The 2nd hot lap I was curious to see what would happen, so I attempted to pull the entire lap and just pound it out. I got a small gap on the group and held it for most of the lap, I knew they were reeling me in though. I tried to keep it going but I was spent and sat up. Not strong enough.

Still feeling fairly spry on the hill brutalizer I decided to pound into it and see what would happen. I held a large gap for awhile and then got caught by 2 guys that are really freakishly good climbers. They gapped me by a bit but then I started reeling them back in, not fast enough for the finish though.

Training rides are for dumb mistakes and trying/playing tactics. Today I figured out that I should sit in for a little more and then make a move towards the end more. I know this is obvious, but sometimes you just have to learn it the hard way.

A soild week

2009-02-05T22:17:00.000-08:00

Really I should have wrote this yesterday on my rest day.

Right now I am watching cyclocross worlds, I wish I got to race on a course like that. Flat, fast, nice turns....sadly the organizers of the cross crusades intend to make every race a slug out between the riders and the pits of mud. I m not complaining at all, I just need to get a lot better at handling technical terrain.

I got in all my rides this week as planned and am no worse for wear. I am much further in training this year than I have ever been in my life. I feel in 2 more weeks I will be at my previous peak, which isn't much of peak but more of a gentle hill. This is making me really excited to start the racing season again. What I am not excited for is my road bike, it is in desperate need of a tune-up right now.

Currently I feel as though I might be on the verge of coming down with a cold. One of my roommates was sick this week, I tried to avoid it like the plague but who knows.

schedule update

2009-01-29T15:39:00.000-08:00

So to keep myself on schedule I resorted to extremes, that's right I made a training schedule wallpaper for my computer. That way I will always feel guilty about not riding.

Image best viewed when listening to this

Lunch-time lawyer ride

2009-01-22T20:33:00.000-08:00

Thursdays, the day when around 40 of Portlands finest lawyers, attorneys, rich guys, and masters go for a group hill ride from downtown.

This is the ride where you realize your bike is not worth enough, when some of them show up with their "B" bikes and it is a Pinarello. Interesting note a guy on a recumbent showed up.

It is about a 16 mile steep hill climb adventure with 45 mph winding descents through the west hills of Portland.

I am starting to feel good about hill climbing again, my 39:25 isn't very efficient for me, the new build will definitely have a compact crankset. Tomorrow is more base miles. Looking forward to the upcoming season.

Overall it is a fun time, everyone seems to string out up the hills and then regroup on the top. Some of these guys are fast and can drop the hammer. I usually finish about 3~5 on all the hill climbs, which is a good start for this early in the season considering I have a few more pounds to drop, a slow bike, and an endless amount of excuses on losing.

Side note: This is the Urban Dictionary definition of "dropping the hammer"

	dropping the hammer
	when sitting, you get up and fart on a persons head while they are watching tv, or playing a game, then you yell the name out

Training update 2

2009-01-21T13:57:00.001-08:00

I have been putting on lots of base miles as of late. Around 200 miles a week

A good effort almost every day. When it is nice out I put on 30 miles of flat little-ring riding to Sauvie Island and back. Other days I have been riding the trainer in the basement for 45 minutes.

Overall I think I am over-exerting myself with training and commuting. The commuter miles lately have been the worst, from towing many larges pieces of wood in the wind, to lots of wind miles in general have really been taking a toll on my recovery. The commuter miles will lessen up real soon.

I started jumping on the Thursday lawyer ride, I forgot how much more interesting riding hills can be. It is also fun to be riding in a group again. This ride is probably more exertion than I need for training, but it is more of a mental exercise than physical right now.

Training update

2009-01-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

I was using my roommates rollers for a week and I must say rollers are much better than a trainer. At first they were awkward to ride but they really honed in my balance in only a few sessions. The bad part with these is that the drum diameter is tiny, approximately 1 inch diameter, so they are really hard to spin.

Taking advantage of this freakish January weather I have been outside every morning putting in 25 miles. Right now I am feeling slightly tired, so I am going to take a day off and then hit it again. It feels good to be riding outside again and is making me really excited for the road season. As much as I love cyclocross and want to peak for the season, I am really drawn to criteriums and road races.

I am still trying to get the body back into training shape, drop a few pounds, and generally get back my snap.

I am dreaming about building up a new racing machine for the road season. The Bianchi is heavier than most, the wheels are heavy, and everything is incredibly flexy. Great for training on because it is soft and supple but there is a lot of power loss due to the flex.

Lusting over the new Dura-ace as gruppo, use my carbon tubulars, and build up a custom carbon frame.

Start of the off-season

2009-01-01T15:29:00.000-08:00

Back in Portland and about to officially start up the off-season base miles.

Off Season Training

2008-12-08T16:28:00.001-08:00

Now until January (I ll be in Wisconsin for 9 days and this will disrupt my training) I am getting back into shape and laying some base miles down. I am putting together a training schedule for the new year. Hiring a coach is on my mind right now, I think it will really help me attain my goals. Also I am going to document my riding more, with a brief synopsis everyday. My wonderful girlfriend is also going to encourage me as much as possible and help me keep on track to help reach my racing goals of being a good Cat 3 next season on the road, and a good Cat A for cyclocross.

Last night I finished rebuilding my road bike and today I took it out for a 3 hour ride. I forgot how much fun road bikes are. Originally I had intended it to be a shorter ride to adjust everything but just kept going and going. My bike is going to be a perfect off-season trainer for the upcoming road season. It is heavy (compared to road bikes), super flexy (lots of energy loss), and outfitted with fenders/lights/saddlebags, this will make my eventual new race bike seem that much faster.

USGP--Portland Cup

2008-12-08T16:22:00.003-08:00

A few weeks off from racing since the Cross Crusade series ended. This was a nice break and I was trying to stay in shape and get ready for the off-season by running every day for 5 miles. This was mildly successful, usually each week I would get in 3~4 days a week. My bad.

Overall I was having a bad race, mechanical problems with the bike on various fronts. A course that I would normally do well on. A fun course that sent us through a moto-cross course with lots of fun burms and a roller coaster type track. Overall I was off, nothing was working right.

This was a race where I wanted to quit, I wasn't having fun and generally was annoyed life. I decided to stick it out and finished. Not a winning and not worth a lot of write-up.

THERE WILL BE MUD

2008-11-20T21:19:00.001-08:00

Season in review

2008-11-20T20:50:00.000-08:00

It is the end of the racing season for me once again, this is a time for review to see what I have accomplished this season (technically the US Grand Prix is coming up on December 6th/7th and I am racing it).

Originally my goals were to move to Cat 3 on the road.
Fail, but at least got some points on the board.

Start mountain biking.
Success and had fun doing it.

Survive Portland cyclocross and see where I fit in.
Success in my opinion. With a decent starting position I could usually work up to mid-20s or 30s out of 100 or so riders in the B category.

Super commuting
Success, my bike has full fenders, moustache bars, and a front basket now.

Overall I am happiest with my cyclocross season. This is my favorite style of racing and in my opinion where I excel, and one of the main reasons on why I moved to Portland.

Preliminary goals for next season:

Road
Actually move to Cat 3 in OBRA and compete occasionally during the road season.

Mountain
Compete in the short track series on my 29'er and have a lot of fun exploring Oregon wilderness and hopefully get a full suspension mountain bike.

Cyclocross
Be a top 20 A rider or better. This is my main goal for next season and my whole training purpose.

Commuting
Not get hit, live a car free life, and never wear an orange reflective vest or ankle straps.

Find a local like-minded team that I can join.

Cross Crusade 8 (State Championships Hillsboro)

2008-11-17T19:22:00.001-08:00

The OBRA Cross Crusades championships, I have done all the races (except for one) this entire season, it has been a season of delicious oatmeal, hot apple cider, minor injuries, bad starts, and lots of mud. But I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.

This race yielded another bad lottery starting position (I will never gamble) and I was third from the last out, so that started me around 80^th or so. The start was fast, but since I have been starting at the rear of every race I have been greatly improving my starting style. I am able to quickly pass 15~~20 riders before the first technical section. This is where it always gets complicated.

The first technical section was a “mystery” steaming wood chip pile section that was about 100ft long or so. With a wood chip burm going into it and another wood chip burm coming out of it. Being early into the race this yield into a 100 person pile-up. Like everyone else I dismounted and started running passed people until I snagged my rear wheel on some guy’s handlebars and I started dragging him. It took a second during this mayhem to unhook this dead weight and I was quickly back on the bike and riding off.

Overall it wasn’t an overly technical course, almost all the turns were rutted and slippery but compared to everything else that has been thrown at us this season it wasn’t a big deal. There was the standard 6-pack of barriers but with a straight and fast entry and exit.

The major hilariously technical section was the rodeo arena where we pretty much had to do a large u-turn around 100 yards long. I pre-rode this section three times to see if I could figure a way through it. The first time I rode and got about 40% in, when I hit a hidden hole that sucked my front wheel in up to my hub, I stopped instantly and almost fell. A quick mental note on the location and I tried it again. This time I avoided the hidden pit, but it was still next to impossible to ride. On my third attempt I tried constantly popping wheelies to keep my front wheel from being sucked in, this also put more weight on my back wheel yielding some more traction. This surprisingly worked fairly well and I was able to power through this ridiculous section.

After pre-riding this section my bike was beyond muddy as was my body. I had to go over to the wash area and clean everything off. Oregon is probably the only place where you get beyond dirty from pre-riding the course.

Overall it was a very fast paced race. I ended up finishing around 38^th on the day, which is fairly mediocre, but considering my starting position I am still fairly happy with it.

While the Cross Crusades series is over that does not mean cyclocross has ended in Oregon at all. The US Grand Prix series will be in Portland at PIR in December. I am really looking forward to this race because all the fast boys/girls are coming to town to show off what they got. This was also one of my favorite courses so far this season and I am also looking forward to some first rate super fanning to happen. Ryan Trebon will be back and I am ready to yell at this fast fast stork of a man that has more seat tube than top-tube on his bike.

Also I just found this, Portland offers a bicycle racer specific yoga class…..interesting http://www.umakleppinger.com/bikeyoga.html

A Vanilla rider powering through the slop

The easier section of the rodeo arena.

A lot of people actually ran the whole length of it and it proved to be fairly successful. I opt to ride as much as possible because well I race bikes to not run.

Steaming wood chip section.

I think she has a smile on her face.

Cross Crusade 7 (PIR) SSCXWC

2008-11-10T01:38:00.001-08:00

Now I have been bicycle racing for almost two years now and I was very unprepared for todays events. The magnitude of everything today was extremely off the charts and it has been the most fun I have ever had bike racing or super-fanning.

For starters it was Ruckus Components give-away day. One of the lucky recipients gave me a custom cowbell of epic proportions and the tastiest garlic mayonnaises french fries in existence. Also to boot for $3 you got a nice Cross Crusade pint glass. Which comes with UNLIMITED BEER ALL DAY. Yes UNLIMITED BEER ALL DAY. 21 kegs were demolished through-out the day.

My friend Alex has been in town and was interested in trying a cross race. He told me that he had been biking quite a bit. So I lent him Rita, my 29er mountain bike. Alex got the DFL award (dead fucking last) of the beginner category. He came back muddy and extremely tired and then proceeded to drink his share of beer (11 pints in total). Alex did a great job, he never quit and finished the race completely and had a great time and seems to be hooked now.

Having about 3 hours to kill before my race I got in a lot of good scouting and pre-riding in. It was very very very necessary. The course was muddy. Not wet spray in your face muddy like last week, but slow, sticky, energy sapping muddy. Some parts were so sticky that even on the flats it was near impossible to ride.

I don't know what it is, but apparently I suck at lotterys. My number was second to last today (started about 90th). Luckily the start was a decently long straight-away before it reached the first technical section. I dropped every hammer I was carrying and passed a large number of riders quickly working up to mid 60s.

The first technical section was insane. There was a tough muddy off camber uphill section which then kicked you down into a 6 inch deep sticky mudhole that basically grabbed onto you and took away every bit of momentum you were carrying. This was brutal sometimes I was able to punch it out of the hole and then attempt the next hill which was painfully muddy as well. It was really hit or miss if people could ride it or not. If you were able to stay on the bike and keep moving you would definitely pass people. But if you had to dismount at all, you were screwed. It was pretty much impossible to get riding again and you had to end up running a long ways before you could remount.

Part of this section also had a rutted muddy downhill section which put you in a water pit area about 30 ft long. This was almost a relief because your tires would get cleaned off a little, but shortly there after more energy sucking mud.

After this brutal hell hole of mud. You had a short section of crushed gravel which lead to a large concrete "barrier". This was a great place to super fan because various people were able to launch up it and jump it. Following the "barrier" there was a calm section of large swooping grass turns. A lot of riders were recovering here and going slower. This is when I would turn it up and pass a lot of guys.

For the B race, they decided to add more barriers and put in a small double barrier section along the grandstands. After this there was a few quick turns a short downhill and then a four pack of barriers up a muddy hill through a wind mill that would turn periodically. Following this set there was a very slippery off camber turn and then onto some more crushed gravel onwards to the second technical section.

A quick uphill and then a mud pit which would quickly wreck any plans of holding a line going into the hardest section of the day. A very very very steep dowhill section with a 180 degree turn at the bottom and then back up it. Imagine the steepest hill you know, run down it go 10 ft then try and run back up. Now do this when it is extremely rutted out and so muddy that you can hardly stay upright. This was the best place to super-fan because everyone was sliding down the hill hilariously. The uphill was way too steep to ride so some riders would just run the whole section. These got heckled. Others would try and coast to the bottom, sometimes successfully and other well lets just say they made it to the bottom. I slid down this hill on my side four out of nine times I attempted it. Luckily three of those were during warm-up laps. Once past this section there was a long twisty fast and muddy section and then the finish line.

Overall I felt great and raced fairly well. I passed over a hundred some riders and ended up 30th overall. My main personal victory is that I only got lapped ONCE by Ryan Trebon.

SIDE NOTE: They made a special qualifier for Ryan Trebon for him to race the SingleSpeed World Championships race. He had to win the regular SingleSpeed race and then must win the Mens A race on a SingleSpeed if was going to race in the last race. Three hours of brutal racing should tire him out and it kind of did. He very very easily won the first two races and then got third in the championship race. Also I heckled him to a hilarious degree every time he would come by.

Now that I was done racing it was time for some serious super-fanning with my new cowbell for the SSCXWC. I got a good number of beers in me first and then was ready. I really regret not doing this race. It looked like an amazing amount of fun. They were setting off smoke bombs on the course, had the windmill rotate faster, put out more barriers and turned on a large foam machine to make a foam wall. More than half the field was in costume of some sorts to some ridiculous degree. Tandems/burleys/eXtracycls/bmx it was all legal as long as it was singlespeed. My favorite of the day was one guy had nine 19 tooth cogs in the back and two 39 tooth chainrings in the front and full derailleurs. Now he could shift but it would always be the same gear. This race was amazing too watch, it was pure insanity.

EDIT: Bike weight before race 17.2 lbs. Bike weight after race 24.5 lbs. That is a lot of mud.

Cutest tandem couple ever. This guy from Canada got heckled a lot.

Who wears white shoes, white socks, and a white shirt to a muddy cross race? Oh wait Alex does.

Pink Spider Man attacking the foam.

Me running the concrete barrier.

Polka dot biking+Cowbell+leg warmers+rain boots = Portland Cyclocross

Foam wall part 2.

This area was hilarious to watch.

This guy and I went back and forth for the last two laps. He could bunny hop barriers and ride everything I couldn't but was slower on the straight aways. He beat me.

Alex attacking the barriers, shirt still clean.

Awesome drum group.

Painfully running towards the windmill.

This section was tricky.

This is the tricky downhill off camber and then run up section.

There was a sit up contest to decide to won this frame.

I am not sure exactly what this guy in PBR cans was.

Crowd shot.

This guy could jump the concrete barrier quite well.

SMOKE BOMB

Viewing Pleasure

2008-11-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

Cross Crusade 6 (Barton Park)

2008-11-03T23:24:00.001-08:00

Now this is cyclocross.

Try to explain to anyone why you would pay $22 to possibly injure yourself, break expensive components, get soaking wet, eat large volumes of mud, and stain everything you brought that day and they would certainly not understand unless they also raced cyclocross. Barton park is a race of what cross dreams are made of. It was impossible to look around at the some 1200 racers and spectators and not see a huge smile underneath layers of mud on the faces of everyone.

Best photographer at Cross Crusades, I highly suggest click through the slideshow.

http://pdxcross.com/2008/11/03/barton-park-photo-slideshow/

As the Mens B and Singlespeeders were lining up, the sky opened up and began to rain even more. As this happened the approaching sounds of sirens were heard. First an ambulance and then a firetruck and various police cars. Brad Ross explained that someone just got seriously injured (later found out that it was a broken jaw) on a very very treacherous off-camber/rocky/muddy/slippery/steep downhill section. The OBRA officials decided to quickly cut out this part of the course because someone had already broke their collarbone on this same section earlier in the day. Honestly I was relieved this part was really scary to ride and I mainly just held on for dear life and tried to keep my wheels underneath me.

The lottery system was once again my foe. My number was third from the end. Oh well today was more about having fun than racing at this point. The start was a fast pavement section that lead to a sweeping gravel road. This was one of two portions of the course that were moderately safe. All of the downhills had large smooth rocks on them (very very slippery) and there was mud and standing water on every section of the course.

According to UCI (cyclocross governing body) barriers must be a maximum of 18 inches in height unless they are natural barriers. In the Cross Crusades the word "natural" means large concrete walls much much taller than 18 inches. There were two sets of these "natural" Portland barriers.

It was hard to hold any sort of line while riding through this course. It was very easy to slide off track and quickly go out of bounds (I lost track of how many times I did this). Overall I was not on my A game at all. Clearly lacking techincal skills I was going fairly slowly and then kicking on the turbo boosters on anything that was moderately safe. I did alright to hang with a group of riders for the most of the day. Overall I was having too much fun too focus on going extremely fast (loser talk) and finished 68th out of 100 riders or so.

My victory is that I didn't fall and hurt myself or wreck anything. I also finished the day with a few beers, some complimentary hot apple cider from Chris King, and a bowl of the most delicious oatmeal from Bob's Red Mill. These two sponsors are at every race feeding and hydrating everyone for free.

The highlight of the day was watching everyone clean off themselves and their bikes in the biggest "cleanest" puddle. After the Womens A race, there were many ladies soaking wet and covered in mud cleaning off. I am sure many guys were dreaming of this moment all season.

It took me 45 minutes to clean my bike and 3 repeated loads of laundry to get my jersey clean.

Here is a video shot from the day, it shows all the hilarity that ensued from the steep hills and wet slippery conditions.

Cross Crusade 4 (Clatsop Fairgrounds)

2008-10-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a double Halloween race weekend in Astoria, Oregon (coastal harbor town) at the Clatsop Fairgrounds.

Andrew wasn't able to race anymore due to an "accident" that his bike sustained, but was still kind enough to come along for the 2 hour drive. He brought his road bike to climb the Astoria Column, while I was racing around. It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive to Astoria. We successfully made it a 3 hour drive by attempting to get closer to Seattle.

Strange side note, the weather prediction for Oregon has been nothing but 65 degrees and beautiful. The closer we got to Seattle the more it clouded over and soon began to rain.

Since we took some extra time to get to the Astoria, I only had one hour before my race. My favorite part of racing in Oregon is that it literally takes one minute to register. I suited up and dropped my wheels in the pit and went off down the road to warm up a little. There was no way that I would be able to pre-ride the course at all since there were people racing back-to-back before my race.

Since my number was drawn last for the race at Rainer Highschool, this week I got the chance to line up first. I got lined up around 30th place or so behind the points leaders. The major downside was that I didn't know where I was going at all, this makes it incredibly hard to go really fast.

After the customary feat of strength (this week it was an egg toss) that is performed before every race to decide who goes first (Mens B vs Singlespeeds), the singlespeeders were off first. The B's were off a few minutes later. We were quickly led down a steep bumpy section that had lots of swoopy turns. These turns at first seemed really slow to me and I was taking them slow and getting passed. The bottom section then led into steep climb, which was very rideable until they put a barrier in the middle of it.

It is generally very difficult to remount your bike going up hill so I just ran it. This was the last time I ran it because I was getting passed here as well.

This hill kicked us into section that went like this
dark horse barn (100 ft)
180 degree turn
race between barns
180 degree turn
dark horse barn (100 ft)
180 degree turn
race between barns
180 degree turn
dark horse barn (100 ft)
180 degree turn
race between barns
180 degree turn
and finally out. All the turns going in and out of the barns were strangely wet and slick. Various people were sliding out here. This was one of my favorite sections of the course.

We were then kicked through the standard 6-pack of barriers. My barrier skills have really improved a lot and I have been passing many riders through them. I pass people not because I am a fast runner (which I am not) but due to the fact that I dismount at the absolute last second before going in. While everyone else is already running or in the middle of a dismount I am still pedaling into it.

The next section was a longer and steeper uphill bumpy climb. The first lap I wasn't very efficient in this section and just held my line. Everyone had little traction because of the bumps and were pedaling in the same fashion. Mashing down and then relaxing with each pedal stroke. I noticed this quickly and changed my own tactics.

I started saying "round round round" in my head. I was trying to apply power all the way around the stroke. This worked extremely well, this evened out my power transfer and soon on every lap thereafter I was able to always pass multiple people going up this section.

Following this hill there was a long bumpy downhill section that was super fast and fun. This course was so bumpy and fast that I actually gave myself blisters on the sides of my hands from holding my brifters (brake/shifters). FYI: I was wearing bike gloves as well.

A few large swoopy off camber turns, an awesome kicker for air and then another horse barn. This one was a large show barn, this was trickier to ride than it seems. Mainly because you were coming in from the outside sunshine and coming into a shadowed area of loose dirt/gravel/sand. It was amazing.

It took me about two laps to figure out the course completely. This is when I started taking every turn at full speed and hammering out of turn. I dominated the barns and hills. I started passing all the riders that took off in front of me. I felt fatigue during part of the race and this is mainly due to my lack of road miles right now. Overall I finished 25th out of 80 some riders.

This has been my best finish to date. This was a great race for many reasons. I was tactically paying attention to the course and the other riders going my speed, this helped immensely because I knew where to recover and each lap I knew what I had to improve on. I attribute a lot of this to my good starting position.

Usually the first two laps I am much too focused on passing all the slower riders to get up to a good position that once I get up there I don't have a good tactics base yet.

Awesome photo from http://www.cheryljwillson.com/gallery/v/album_010/IMG_8056.JPG.html

People are strange in the cross crusades. From Cross Crusade 4

Between barns. From Cross Crusade 4

OH SNAP!!! This guy ran over a junior racer, strangely no one was hurt and all the wheels stayed true. From Cross Crusade 4

Uphill bump section. From Cross Crusade 4

One of the horse barns. From Cross Crusade 4

Part of the 6 pack. From Cross Crusade 4

Pit row. From Cross Crusade 4

Bumpy downhill section. From Cross Crusade 4

Absolute crusher, she finishes so much ahead of all the all the other A racers it is scary.From Cross Crusade 4

The single barrier in hte middle of the uphill. From Cross Crusade 4

Cross Crusade 3 (Rainer High School)

2008-10-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

With last week's suck fest far behind me. I woke up this morning once again really excited to be racing cyclocross. There is nothing I would rather be doing on race days....training is a different story.

Andrew and I left Portland around 7:30 am with a chilly, dampness in the air. It stayed with us until 1 in the afternoon. We got in a lap before the beginner race started. The course was a classic cyclocross course. About 6 ft wide fast grass, off camber turns, some wooded tree ruts, and then the uniqueness that is the Cross Crusades steps in. Most barrier sets around the country have two barriers in them. Portland has six barriers (called six packs). There is also a monster of a loose gravel uphill climb. Which was ridable for some, also a very popular spectator area.

With the increasing popularity of cyclocross (over 1300 riders once again), the officials decided to try something new with setting up the starting area. They devised a lottery system based off the last digit of yoru number. My number is 344. Number 4 was chosen last, this meant that I got to line up at the back of my field..........not awesome. But on the upside of being last means that you get to go home with a 6 pack of beer. There ended up being 102 riders in the category B race. I was tied for 102 place.

The race started and was a sprint fest. I was only able to move up 10 spots in the begining before it slowed down. This is where any ideas of winning or finishing well went out the shammy. There was absolutely no way to get through 3~4 riders on a 6ft wide track through the woods. I had to wait for the race to start stringing out.

I was very fatigued the entire race. My usual pop that I can kick out at points was gone. I was plodding through the course at what I thought was turtle's pace. I felt like racers were going by me constantly. Everytime I would come through the uphill I was dead tired. My body was never able to recover. It was extremely frusterating and I was very happy when I heard the bell signifying one more lap.

I assumed I got like 80th, but it turned out I actually got 45. Which is really surprising to me because I DO NOT remember passing 57 people at any point. I mean I know passed a few people. This actually lifted my spirits quite a bit. I know I could have done 100000 times better in this race. I m not sure what was holding me back besides starting in 102 place. One of these days I ll get a good start and drop the hammer or lay some pipe, insert whatever biking analogy you like.

EDIT: Lots of riders were being destroyed by the 6 pack. You could see with every barrier that their legs were not going as high. There was lots of epic summersaults/barrier smashing. Also there was a mountain biker in the C race that was determined to bunny hop them. Lap 1 he got over 2 barriers before endoing. Lap 2 he got over 3 barriers. On the last lap he made it over 5. Very very impressive none-the-less.

Disclaimer: I didn't take many photos today because the course was kind of hard to walk around and quite frankly I was tired.

Spectators viewing the 6 pack.

About to hit the 6 pack. Good form.

Hitting the first barrier.

This is actually a 3 ft kicker. I was waiting for one of the A riders to do something fun. I lost patience.

Loose dirt/gravel climb.

She finished 4th in the Women's A race and is also my CycloCrush, partially because she is an awesome rider and partially because she is on a really cute bike.

EDIT EDIT:: I keep forgetting to add stuff. A qucik background story. Last weekend at Wilsonsville a Team Beer member urinated outside and some stuffy old guy saw it and bitched on the forums about in a less than classy manner. About 3~4 people joined sides with the stuffy old guy. Team Beer in their infinite class rented out 3 special Honey Buckets (port o potties for you non-NW) and they had a concierge standing there all day with special amenities. Also posted on the doors of the Honey Buckets was a no user list of the stuffy old guys. Class. Quick interview here.

Cross Crusade 2 (Villebois/Dammasch State Hospital)

2008-10-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

EDIT: There were around 1300 riders at todays race. Also cyclocross out here is completely not predictable.

When you look up the race on google earth you see two different tags for the area.

1) Haunted abandoned insane asylum

2) Cross Crusade Race 2

At first you think that is silly, why would there be a cyclocross race at a mental institution.   Then you realize wait....it makes perfect sense. Sadly all of the buildings are torn down and the race was just on the grounds of the institution which is under heavy construction.

We arrived very early (8 am) at the grounds to get Andrew off for his first cyclocross race.   He raced very well and got third place in the Beginner Category.    While I didn't race until 12:40 this gave me a lot of time to preride the course.   Which is usually something I neglect.   I got a total of 3 laps in before my race, I found all the good lines (this all proved to be in vain later) and routes.

The course wasn't much of a cyclocross race as much as it was a short track mountain bike course.   It was all crazy rutty, hard pack, off camber, large really loose gravel, hell of a course.   As each race went on, there were a growing number of flat tires and trips to the first aid tent.

I got a mediocre warm-up in before the race, mainly because I was trying to get a good line at the start. I got lined up around 4 or 5 row which is pretty decent considering it is an absolute cluster-fuck of a 120 riders. This was a much better start already than last week.

We were off fast and I quickly moved up to top 20 on the first lap and was feeling great. There was a lot of hitting and sliding on every turn. I m not sure if I got taken down or just slid out. But I hit the ground hard. I jumped back up and got on my bike.   My right shifter was twisted in, not a big deal I can fix it later.   (later I found out that I was actually fairly bloody from my arm, hip, and leg).   Whenever I crash pretty hard it tends to make me slighly sheepish for the rest of the course.

With my fall and new sheepish attitude I dropped to around 30th and finished the lap.   Now this course was intense, I was running my tires soft and cushy for traction and it was just way too bouncy with large rocks to wreck your life.

On my 3rd lap my rear tire started feeling weird, I looked down and it looked really low on air. I thought I had a slow leak or something and it was causing the weirdness. Luckily I was right by the pit, so I pulled in and jumped off to check my tire.   It felt fine so I was back off.   Very shortly there after (just passed the pit) my tire rolled off the side of my rim. I just thought to myself damn it.   I am fairly new to tubular wheels and wasn't entirely sure on what to do. So I just pushed it back on and tried to ride it. It was sort of rideable but it felt really weird and considering it was such a bumpy/rocky course I didn't want to damage my carbon fiber rims.

So I decided to run for awhile and run I did. I ended up running about 1 mile back to the other side of the pit and ended up getting passed by a lot of riders. I changed wheels and just finished the race, in a leisurely fashion. Too much had happened already and I wasn't going to tempt any more.   Overall I finished in 81st place which isn't too shabby considering what I went through.   Also I escaped with only three areas of gravel rash, which is good considering one guy finished with his teeth sliced through his lips. There is always next week.   I would like to thank my great support crew today: Jen, Andrew, Zach, Vivian, Lindsay, Jon, Preston, Tarah, and Mandy.

Also this weekend is the Oregon Handmade Bike Show, all the local builders took a special lap with all their bikes. BLING

One of the easier parts of the day, steep downhill with loose gravel everywhere else.

This was a giant mountain of dirt that contains a course.

Super rutty turns, is this cyclocross even or a mountain bike course?

It looks like a barren waste land here of dirt clumps and small ride lines.

There were three different tracks you could take through this waste land, all bumpy and painful.

At one you point you come down this hill.

This was part of a special surprise for the B and A riders to lengthen the course. There was nothing I hated more.

While this kind of looks like fun, it was also kind of tricky.

Lots of weird riding here, the video below shows it better.

Downhill section.

These ruts made it really hard, because they were deeply rutted around 6-8 inches.

Line of riders.

Very short and steep run up.

Top of the run up. Love the pink Gentle-Lovers kit.

Special Ira Ryan single speed racer.

Speedvagen Fuck Yeah.

Seriously awesome.

The part that I didn't like (As racers make everything look easy though)

From Cross Crusade 2 10-12-08

Kind of fun tricky section.

From Cross Crusade 2 10-12-08

Cross Crusade 1 (Alpenrose Velodrome)

2008-10-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

Cyclocross in Portland is a way of life. Overall 1260 riders were registered and there were just as many spectators, everywhere. It was intense, I have never seen so many riders of every skill level and category. There were people on unicycles racing, a single speed cyclocross tandem, and other silliness.

It has been raining in Portland for the past 4 days just in time for the start of the CrossCrusades. Cyclocross has gripped the city, bike shops are closed, there are cyclocross themeded parties at bars, various cyclocross documentaries are being played around town. I <3 Portland

This was to be my first Category B race on my new bike with my new tubular carbon wheels in a state renowned for cyclocross. Honestly I was very intimated to line up. Since I was intimidated and more because people lined up insanely early (30 minutes) or so I got a terrible starting position. There were approximately 120 riders in the B race and to make it crazier the SingleSpeed race starts 2 minutes behind us. I was at the ass rear of the starting group.

FYI: Mens B and singlespeed take turns who starts first. There is usually some feet of strength to determine it, today there was a milk chugging contest by both number 1 riders of each category mens B won.

The race started off slowly, there were lots of bottleneck type areas where it was stupidly slow and I was lost any dreams of the lead. Once the race started to open up a 1/2 lap in I never got passed by another B rider (4 singlespeeders went by, but they were crazy crazy crushers) for the day.

The course was awesome, it was wet, muddy, sticky, slippery, rutty. There were multiple barrier sets, a quick run up, a stairset run up, a fun weird course through and on the velodrome, and some pavement sections. Absolutely ideal cyclocross conditions.

My bike/wheels handled far better than I ever imagined. There is a quote in cycling saying "it doesn't matter what you ride, it matters how you ride it." While this is very true, it is really nice having high end stuff. The carbon wheels are so light and fast that I was able to accelerate out of every corner and turn and blow by a lot of people. The frame was absolutely perfect, it handled so perfectly, the tight tracking made it incredibly fast and it soaked up all the bumps (hats off to High-Five cycles). Since it only weighs in a bit over 17 lbs it just floats over the barriers effortlessly. The big winner on the day was using my 700x34 Grifo Challenge tubular tires. I ran them around 30 psi and they were perfect. I had traction almost around every turn and I was able to ride a lot of parts that other people had to run up which saves a lot of time and energy. I just need a few more miles on it yet.

Overall I finished 41 out of 120 riders, not tapped out of energy, and kept it rubberside down. I claim this as a victory considering where I started and how many riders I had to pass in 45 minutes. Next time I am lining up first row and I think I can pull out a top 20 finish.

And now for some photos!!!

" Alpenrose Velodrome is one most exciting tracks in the United States. At 268.43 meters around with a 16.6 meter radius and a 43 degree bank, Alpenrose is also one of the steepest velodromes in the country. The steep banks make races on the velodrome interesting to watch and just plain fun to ride."

No one even attempted to ride the wet, steep walls.

Tight hairpin turn

Rock barrier

Ryan Trebon leading the mens A around another sloppy hairpin

Barrier set

The course looped through the middle of the velodrome a lot and then the finish line was a straightaway on the track.

This stair run up was a clogging point a lot. You could go up both sides though.

Some guy riding.

Playing in the mud.

The rear of my bike afterward, somehow those brakes still worked.

I had about 4 lbs of mud and grass stuck in every part of my bike. It still worked flawlessly though (surprisingly). My handlebars stayed immaculately clean somehow, which make for excellent grip.

can I get a High-Five?

2008-09-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

From High-Five

Late last night I finished building up my new cyclocross racing bike. It is a High-Five frame/fork courtesy of Jason Prudhom and High-Five cycles. The rest of the build is either parts I made or parts off my road bike.

The crankset is a FSA-SLK with big beefy external bearings on the bottom bracket and a single 42t chainring and a custom Ruckus Components chainguard.

The wheels are also courtesy of High-Five cycles and are a deep section carbon fiber tubular wheel with Grifo Challenges glued on them (courtesy of Ben's Cycle and Fitness).

The brakes are custom Ruckus Components carbon fiber brakes.

The stem/handlebars/brifters are from my road bike and a Ritchey WCS stem, Bontrager Race Lite bars, Shimano Ultegra brifters.

The seatpost is the original OEM seatpost, which will probably be the only part I would ever really legitimately change because changing that alone drops more than half a pound. And when you are forced to run with your bike on your back, weight matters.

The rear derailleur is a Shimano XT shadow. I am really excited to be using this derailleur, it is a fairly light mountain bike derailluer (238 grams) with high spring tension. Also since it is a Shadow series it sits more underneath the chainstay and doesn't stick out past the rear wheel quick release (very useful when crashing). Aesthetically it is nice because with the rear derailleur cable/housing running straight down the seat stay it goes directly into the derailleur, no silly loops here folks.

From web

Overall it weighs in just over 17 lbs which is pretty impressive considering I have a really heavy seatpost, my unused left brifter, and my LOOK pedals still on there. By far the lightest bike I have ever owned, even my road bike weighed in around 21 lbs and that had road tires on it.

Today I took it out for the Monday lawyer ride. I put on an easy 30 mile (it is a recovery day after all) of good climbs and fast descents with tight turns. It handled marvelously, I was able to hang on the climbs with that 42:27 gearing, I think because it is lighter and a stiffer frame. The bike also handled all the speed bumps better than my steel/carbon road bike. The tracking on it is tight so that will need some getting used to, but it was my first ride after all.

Tomorrow is a day off from riding and then Wednesday it is cyclocross practice!!

The Battle of Barlow

2008-09-29T01:58:00.000-07:00

I just got my new High-Five but didn't have time to finish building it before todays race, the Cross Crusade series doesn't start until next week, so I decided to take my mountain bike and enter the men's B/singlespeed event. Now Rita is a nice bike about 22.5 lbs, 32/17 gearing, 29x2.3 tires, and midge drops bars, but she is certiainly no cross bike. I really had no idea what I had in store for myself today, being my first Portland cyclocross race, it was truly an interesting race.

There were maybe about 40 singlespeed riders and we had 45 minutes of work to do under the 80F sunshine. Hand-ups were not allowed (not sure why honestly) so I carried half a bottle of water (turned out to be the best decision I made all day).

I had lined up toward the rear of the pack, mainly because I was on a mountain bike and wasn't trying to prove anything besides just having fun. The race started off in a flurry of speed. Being a singlespeed only category you have riders of every different skill level out there. Let me tell you there were some crushers on the front. I just sat in and worked.

The course was intense, more intense than anything I have ever rode for cyclocross. They threw everything at you in this order

Loose dirt off camber riding

Fast paced downhill pavement

a curb jump and then instantly a barrier that leads to an 270 degree off-camber uphill loose dirt turn

Lots of switchbacks

10 foot long 8 inch deep sandpit (mountain bike very useful here)

A barrier and then a run-down that was terrifying (all rutted out and steep)

Run through a creekbed

the steepest cyclocross climb I have ever done that had railroads ties spaced far apart

lots of fast wooded singletrack

slight relaxing ride through a small vineyard

more woods singletrack

a 5 pack of barriers that destroyed many riders through-out the day

more woods

I am not sure on the total distance of this insane course, but we ended up doing 6 laps of it and I was very tired at the end. But I had paced myself well for the entire race. My major strengths of the days were definitely my mounts and dismounts all very clean. My major problem of the day was anytime I should have have been shouldering my bike. Rita's small front triangle makes it so I can't shoulder it. My arms got very tired while doing the run-down and rup-up, I had to suitcase my bike.

I am looking foward to having a cross bike that only weighs 17 lbs and is easily shoulderable. I am just looking forward to everything about riding a cross bike in the next race. Overall I think the B category will be a good fit for me. There are some cat A sandbaggers though, but I m there to have fun.

Also I have never seen such an amazing amount of bike porn. For the entire day there were only a few entry level cross bikes, it seemed like everyone was riding the best cross bikes.

A special thanks goes out to Vivian (for taking some photos), Andrew, and Zach for being the sideline cheerleaders and support.

apparently I got 26 out of 48 riders not bad

3/5 of a barrier set

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

right after the 5 pack

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

random fast guy

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

me running through the barriers, eventually caught that guy

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

real tired here, mountain bikes are a lot of work

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

fun footwork shot

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

the trail goes down there somewhere

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

the worst runup in existence (so far)

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

mens A stampede through a barrier set, small children might have died

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

more stampede

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

stampede up the horrible run-up, apparently spectators like to watch other people in agony

From Battle of Barlow 9-28-08

time lapse photo run up

From Movies

Portland is for climbers

2008-09-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

not these guys

more of the cycling persuasion.

This morning Andrew and I took off around 8:15 am with the intention of heading west for some hill climbing. Now being a recent transplant to Portland from the midwest means I haven't really experienced real hill climbing.

Once we got away from downtown, the climb began. Steep switchbacks all the way to the top of a hill/mountain (?) for about 25 minutes. I was in the small chain ring (34t) and my largest cog (25t) and crawling about 5~6 mph. I would do various spurts of sit-down climbing and standing. There were quite a few points where I wanted to get off and walk, but that isn't allowed in cycling. My legs burned, but eventually we made it to the top and all those feelings were gone.

With every up there is a down (most of the time at least). The downhill was fun and fast. A 52 mph coast down winding roads. This is why I love road biking, the pain and speed that are attainable by a single person powering this machine is incredible.

We got back to SE Portland and decided to do a climb up Mt. Tabor (bottom to the peak). Which is still a pretty decent climb. This last climb session tapped me. We reached the top and spun home.

These hill climbs will kick me into shape fast.

Rough elevetation climb 1000 ft.

Vanilla Cycles Cyclocross Clinic

2008-09-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

Speedvagens galore, well only really like 5. But nonetheless they are a beautiful piece of bicycle machinery.

Tonight was night 1 of Team Vanilla Cyles cyclocross clinic series. I was pretty excited to get out there and see who showed up. While my High-Five is yet to come to america yet, I was readying the On-One this afternoon. I built up a single-speed tubular wheelset to race on. Now there were a lot of little things I had to get done to transfer the On-One back into a racing bike and quite frankly I was running out of time. So I took the "big girl" my 29'er mountain bike. This isn't really that absurd because, the "big girl" is light (21 lbs) and has drop bars on it. It would make a decent cross rig if I threw on a different wheelset, I am keeping her in my back pocket for the cross series out here just in case it ever gets real crazy wet/muddy.

"Big Girl" worked just fine all night. The clinic was mainly dealing with the technical aspects of mounting/dismounting/barriers/ect... My mounts/dismounts and high speed turning are all in good shape, I just need to get into good shape. Tonight was just the motivation I needed to kick my butt into gear. Technical skill wise I was on par or slightly better than the group I was with (seasoned riders). The first race is about one month and I am getting very very excited!!!

EVANSTON RACE

2008-07-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

Start time 9:30 am

Evanston Illinois

Left milwaukee with teal, picked up jason (chowing down endless mcgriddles) at mcdonalds in kenosha.

Arrived in Evanston around 8:20 plenty of time. Headed down to registration, the line is long and moving at a snail's pace. Get out of registration around 9:15. No time to warm-up. Frustration rising.

Pinned up and slammed a monster. Luckily the course is open for pre-riding. Everyone started lining up. Sat on the start line for 10 minutes. The officials then told us to go take a lap. Came back and waiting for about 20 minutes. Frustration rising even higher (could have been from the monster).

Race starts and its fast. Stuck in the middle somewhere. Five guys go off the front, nothing I can do about it. Pace stays high around 26~27 mph. Kept moving up. Slowly working my way up. Sitting top 30 and only 7 laps in. There is a crash ahead of us on a corner. We are told to slow down and go wait at the start line. The race was delayed for 20 minutes and they took 2 laps off the race. Also at that point the front pack had dropped about 40 riders off the back which were allowed to catch up with us. (frustration peaked) Race restarted its fast again, but not as fast only 25 mph. A few laps go by and I thought there were 3 left to go so I start moving up.

I was passing about 3~4 riders on every corner and moving up nicely. Came by the start/finish line and hear 1 lap to go....shit I forgot they shortened the laps. Everyone starts pushing it. I kept up my pace and passed a few more. Did a sit-down sprint towards the finish, end up 25th out of 75. Not bad, but could have been much much better.

Average speed 26 mph

Top speed 34 mph

Apparently there was something interesting off to the right, also it looks as if Jason's eyes had rolled back into his head.

I did the best pinning job on Teal.

Andrew Utz being swarmed, Teal's ruby reds on the right.

Chris Padfield, 1 st place crusher.

Also on the way back we stopped for food, jason has an obsession with lil' smokies and crayfish.

This means WORS

2008-06-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

Back to back racing, is anything better? One day a road criterium; next day a mountain bike race. Two very different styles of bike racing, both awesome though.

This was to be my first WORS race, I know absolutely zero abour WORS racing. To be honest I know zero about mountain bike racing. The only thing I really know is to keep my legs rotating around an axis of rotation. This was also to be my big girl's first race (29'er Rita). Andy, Jason, Jim, Sam, and I departed fair Milwaukee around 8 am, headed towards Suamico Wisconsin (near Green Bay).   It was a 2-hour drive filled with silly jokes, napping, Skittles, and Taco Johns.

We arrived at the parking lot and unloaded everything. This is when I noticed my problem.....during the car ride my front brake bolt (one that holds the cable) had fallen out and was lost somewhere along the highway. Son of a bitch. Luckily Jim stepped up and let me borrow his bike since he wasn't able to race that day due to a bum shoulder. I adjusted it as well as best as I could to fit me. It would work.

We all lined up, it seemed like there were a 100 people or so in our race. The race started off and was just packed, luckily the first 4 miles or so was wide double-track. This is where my road skills paid off. I was zipping along passing people, but still trying to get used to a different bike. This is when I started doubting myself and my speed. Mainly because I had no idea how far I had gone, how much was left and I didn't want to burn myself out. So I decided to slow down a bit and see what was to come. The first double-track was fast and fun. Everyone seemed to quickly spread out and clump into little groups. This is when we hit the first single-track section. Now it is very clear that I am not good at single-track. I was caught by a few guys through the single-track section, I still claimed a personal victory of not falling.

We then came out upon another wide double-track section of mud with a light cover of wood chips. The wood chips did little and it turned into a mud pit of doom. There were big dips in the mud that you couldn't see that would suck your front wheel down. This is why 29'ers were created they say fuck you to such things and roll on through. The main tactic was to not be anyone near this mud because you would most certainly be eating the mud that flew off their wheels. (I ate a lot of mud).

The entire course was two 12.5 mile loops of alternating double-track and single-track and it was awesome.    I kept yo-yoing with a certain group, they would destroy me at the single-track and I would catch up during the double-track.

The first lap I was slower than I should have been, for fear of burning out and my lack of skills. When I started the second I was still feeling fresh, so I decided to drop it and cook it on the double-track. This time when I came around to the single-track I felt like my handling skills had improved exponentially. I braked about 50% less compared the first lap and flew through more of it. This time no-one caught me and I actually caught a few people.

During one of the more technical sections it began to pour.   This is where wearing glasses is a curse (not sure when it is good yet). My glasses were rain soaked and slightly fogged, the perfect time to be racing through a technical area. I tried not to let it get me down.

I also caught my yo-yoing friends and flew passed them. They never caught me after this point and I was beginning to near the end when I saw some people ahead of me. I decided to start my sprint early and get the jump on them. No one chased me and I passed a few people right at the end.   Overall I finished 6th SS, which I was fairly happy with considering I wasn't on my own bike.

From my point of view, mountain biking brings out a wider group of people that are all racing different races. Some are racing the course, some are racing themselves, and some are racing who ever is front of them.   This diversity makes it a lot of fun, because most people are extremely friendly and helpful if you have questions/problems.

Giro D' Grafton

2008-06-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

It has been a little while since I had done a crit...and the last one didn't go so well to say the least.

But much has turned around since then, as far as biking and life is concerned.   I have been excited and feeling good all week. I have been putting on a quite a few miles since the last crit.

Jason, Teal, and I left early to go up and watch Katy crush it. Crush she did. Well done Ms. Katy.

The course was a 5 turn course through downtown Grafton. Fairly smooth pavement with gentle turns, nothing that should cause any problems. The only sketchy area was the last corner before the finish line, there is some lines of tar that they use to patch the road and in the heat these get real squishy and make your bike do weird things (false flats, move around, explode).

We had all brought our trainers along to warm-up down by the car. i was topping off my tires when I hear a dreaded noise....pssshhhhhhhh. My front tire went flat....I quickly changed but by that point it was getting late so I just went off to ride a little to warm-up. I wasn't able to get fully warmed-up by the time the race was going to start, so I just lined up and planned to warm-up on the first couple laps.

The field wasn't very big today, around 40 riders or so. Almost seems like the exact same crowd that showed up to the State Road Race. The race kicked off fairly quickly and maintained a fairly high-speed through-out the entirety. The first 1/3 of the race I sat on the rear of the pack still trying to warm-up and get a feel for the course and my shifting patterns. Once I felt fully warmed up and figured out what gears to use, I jumped up to the front. At this point it was time for the 2nd prime of the day. The first prime was $40, sadly as we came around the 2nd prime was an after-race massage ( I would prefer money).

I thought what the hell, I don't go for primes and I am sitting good for this one, so why not? As we came along the topside I jumped and one guy followed me. We still had 1/3 of the race left so I didn't want to burn myself out too bad and it was only a massage. We both went for it, but I decided to sit-up and let him have it.   At this point I was feeling pretty good and everyone started moving around for final positions.

This is usually when I screw up and lose positions for the end. I was sitting top 10 with 3 laps to go, when the rear of the pack surged into us and tightly tightly packed everyone in. I got pushed to the back (I need to work on this more than anything).   It is really hard to work your way back in at this point because the speed of the race has increased quite a bit and you need to save some energy for the final sprint. As we were coming around the final corner, something happened where someone went down and took out 10 riders or so (Teal included, his golden locks are fine though). Luckily I didn't go down and dodged a few bodies and bikes on the ground. This totally messed up the final sprint and broke everyone up. Jason (Milwaukee Wild Man) was about 20 ft ahead of me for the final sprint. A good little carrot to chase, I went for him, but he was rolling strong and finished right ahead of me. Overall I took 18th for the day. Not great but another solid mid-pack finish.

This race I actually learned quite a few things. Sit-in and never pull (or rarely pull) and fight/push for your position for the final sprint. This is the most crucial part of any crit.

Now to train very very intensely for superweek and to ride mountain bikes for awhile.

State Road Race Video

2008-06-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

@4:20 you see me struggling up the hill, this is the point where I had fallen off the back......yeesh glad this race is done for the year.

I get wet without even trying

2008-06-12T23:16:00.000-07:00

Currently it is monsoon season in Wisconsin. Roads are flooded, shoes are wet, brakes don’t work well, biking still fun and time for the Wisconsin State Road Race in Spring Prairie. A fabled course that houses a monster of a hill that is similar to those written about in …………….

Jason, Teal (matt), Evershed, and I took off from my house around 10 am, no rain yet. On the drive down, we hit rain. Rain that made it hard to see while driving and slowed us down. All our thoughts were “is the race canceled?” We got to the registration area and it was pouring, everything was muddy but the show must go on (slightly delayed though). We all registered and went back to the car to get the bikes ready and to put on our kits.

We got the bikes ready and started changing; it started pouring again so we all jumped in the car to change. It is obvious why people question the homo-eroticism /sexuality of bike racing. At one point people were changing nakedly (word?) in my car and pinning each other in compromising positions, all the while the car was steaming up and getting extremely hot. Ok everyone out and ready to warm–up.
We all were warming up and readying ourselves for the race: to help get everything back on time they took a lap off our race. Only five laps today. The split the fields into Wisconsin riders and non-Wisconsin riders; strangely there were quite a few more non-Wisconsin riders. Our field had approximately 35~40 people in it. We started off in a neutral staging area about 0.5 mile from the start line, but sadly at the bottom of the fabled hill.

The first lap was slow, no-one wanted to do anything just yet. It was raining and the roads were wet and people were feeling each other out to see who could handle riding in the wet. Lately I hadn’t been feeling very strong of a rider, so my goal for the day was just to sit-in the peloton and be a bum. On the second lap I got a little antsy and jumped to the front of a big downhill section that was fast. Since I am extremely good at coasting (aka exerting no effort and letting gravity do the work) I was flying down the hills with minimal effort. I mainly did this so I didn’t have to brake at all sitting in the pack and it’s a good moral booster to be in front at least point in every race.

Ok time to put effort in, so I let the pack catch me and I sat back in. Around this time we were approaching the hill for the 2nd time. I rode into sitting near the back of the pack thinking this was a good idea. I didn’t climb very well and fell off the back about 20 ft. Luckily on the top side it is flat and then a downhill section, so I was able to jump back in. The 3rd lap was uneventful until we came around to the hill again. This time I fell off even more and wasn’t able to jump back on.
Luckily quite a few other riders also fell off the back. I quickly scanned and evaluated the riders around me and organized us into a chase down pack. Usually when I do this it fails terribly because the other riders tend to fall further off the back and disappear all-together. But today was a different story we were working together extremely well and were slowly catching back on. A few more riders fell of the main pack and our chase down group dropped a few and picked up the new riders. This is when we picked up Jason. Our chase down group was me, Jason, a guy from Café Hollander, UW- Whitewater, and an unattached rider. We were pace lining perfectly, everyone taking pulls to their potential and pulling out when they started slowing. We were making amazing time and were closing the gap between us and the main pack.

We closed the gap to about 100ft before the hill, most of us decided to sit-up and rest up before the hill, with plans of pursuing after the climb. Jason attacked up the hill and made it back in the pack on the topside. We lost the Café Hollander and UW-Whitewater guy, just me and the unattached rider left. We still were taking rotations and were able to close the gap and rejoin the peloton about 1 mile after the hill. Only 5 miles left of the race.

I joined the main pack and sat-in with the intent of recovering as much as possible for the hellacious uphill finish. We were about 1.5 miles from the finish when I decided to make a move and sprinted to the front. I saw my buddy Addison (solid finisher) and a few of his fellow teammates (all strong riders), I was hoping that they would jump with me and we would be able to break-off the front to finish. Addison yelled up “Sorry I got nothing”. Shit, time to sit back-in. Closer to the finish.
One last straight away to go, a right turn, and then the uphill finish. I thought about how I wasn’t climbing well that day and decided to make a move again. I jumped and got a 30 ft gap on the field. I thought “holy shit that worked,” but the hill was the great equalizer. Some riders caught me on the climb and I finished 13th overall. I was very happy with my performance that day. I successfully fell off the pack, organized a chase group, rejoined, and finished 13th. This race got me really excited to race road bikes again, and was the motivating factor to start training hard for SuperWeek.

RITA

2008-06-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

I have a new girl to ride, her name is Rita

Bianchi Rita 2007, White 29'er carbon fork, On-One midge bars, Cane Creek brakes.

She rides like a dream and is fairly light (23.5 lbs)

So far I have about 50 miles of river trails on her, and am still learning how to mountain bike. I am going to switch out the current stem and put on a high-rise stem for better control and to push my center of gravity back a bit.

The only other parts I am going to switch out is the current bashguard, gotta have a Ruckus on there. I am also going to put on a set of Ruckus Cog Collars.

Mountain Bike Race?

2008-05-30T06:33:00.000-07:00

One night Jason, Teal, and I got talked into doing a WEMS mountain bike race, I was drunk and apparently crazy. I don't have a mountain bike nor have I rode one in many many years. Teal backed out on us, and luckily my roommate Arron stepped it up to join our very green team.

The WEMS race was a 12 hour event at New Fane (Northern Kettle Moraine). The laps were approximately 4.5 miles long and the plan was to each ride a lap and switch. Our order wasn't based on any sort of strategy, my only request was that I would go approximately the same time as Andy T. (friendly competition). Jason was borrowing Cales 1x1 29'er, Arron was borrowing Katy's Motobecane 29'er, and I was riding my On-One (little steel cyclocross bike (not the tool for the job) ).

Jason started the morning off for us, since no-one had seen the course we had no idea what to expect. We were told that laps should take about 30 minutes and that there were some logs that had to be jumped at some point. Arron and I were anxiously waiting for Jason to come back, first we saw some guys come in at a blistering pace in about 20 minutes. Then around 22 minutes we looked out on the hill and saw a little kid coming down the hill. Wait thats not a little kid it was Jason, he was hauling it and came flying in. He "high-fived" in arron and arron was off second for our team. It was then time for me to double check all my things and make sure everything was in working order. Everything checked out fine. My main concerns for my bike was my gear ratio, I decided to run a 39:19 gear ratio that day. I didn't know really what to expect
what-so-ever.

I had been watching the time and wasn't sure how fast Arron was going to come back, I went over to the "tag-in" area at the 20 minute mark. Arron came roaring in about 24 minutes on his first lap. It was then my turn, the start was on an uphill area, in true cyclocross style I did a running mount and was off.

The first half of the course was rolling hills through deep rocky trails. I was surprisingly handling it well and with quite a bit of speed. I quickly caught up to a number of riders and passed them up. On the first lap I had to run a number of hills due to my larger gearing and not being able to expect them (future laps I was able to ride them all). I also decided to dismount over the largest log pile to play it safe, but I jumped the other ones. The biggest surprise (and most fun) section of the course was when I got about 2 feet of air coming down this steep hill and launched off the following burm. Luckily I kept it rubber side down. I finished the rest of the course fairly quickly in about 22 minutes as well.

Our little team was doing alright so far, we were all scared that we had to do this for 12 hours and would burn out. We kept up the same rotation for the morning and I had only fallen once at that point (front tire slid in some loose dirt and I got real dusty). Much to everyone's surprise we were sitting in 2nd place fairly well, thats when tragedy struck. My fear of riding little cyclocross tires on a mountain bike course came true. I double flatted about 1 mile into the lap. I dismounted and threw my bike on my shoulder and started running (this was going to be long). While in a normal 5K run I can usually do about 20 minutes, this time I had a 20 lb bike, a loose rock mountain bike trail, and I was wearing bike shoes. It wasn't looking good. I ran for about a mile and then I needed to walk, I was completely wiped. I decided to take desparate measures, Jason had given me a piece of cloth that said "party party party" on it, I decided to use rip up that cloth and tie my tires to my rims as best as I could. This way I could at least roll the soft flat sections and give my running a break, this work surprisingly well. I would roll really slowly and would cringe everytime I would hear a ding (poor rims). I then got to the really hilly and rocky section and had to run the rest of the way, luckily Arron got word of my situation and met me right before the grassy area and gave me another bike to ride. When I saw him, I was deliriously tired and confused.

I then switched out both tires, but at that point Andy T. let me take his bike on my next round. It was a fully geared Specialized mountain bike. Almost the complete opposite of what I was riding previously. It rolled so smoothly and the gearing was a life saver because I was so drained at that point. I rode most of the rest of day on his bike and thank him for it. Gunnar also let me borrow his bike for a round as well, slighlty different, it was 1x9 set-up with a front suspension. The front suspension was the weirdest part to get used to. The rest of the day was fairly unventful, I would go out ride 2 laps and be so tired that my legs would lock completly solid and I couldn't move them. There were a few times that I had to slow down while riding and physically punch my legs until they loosened up. Overall we finished in 5th place (mainly due to my double flat and run-athon). But everyone had a ton of fun and want to try it again, but under better conditions.

I learned a lot about myself as a rider. I learned that I wasn't that bad at mountain biking, that mountain biking is a lot of fun, that cyclocross bikes aren't for a mountain bike race, and mainly how about hard I can actually push myself and keep going even when my body has started powering off.

Yes that is all dirt on my face.

Whitnall Park Criterium

2008-04-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

Wind and hills, hills and a crap load of racers.
There were approximately 75++ racers lined up, I got situated at the back. I wasn't too worried because most races start slow on the first few laps and I usually sneak up to the front right away.

The race started and everyone took off, the front line really took off the middle group sat there like a bunch of stumblebums. I could tell right away that this wasn't going to go well, it was going to be really easy to fall off the back and a lot of people were already starting too and it was only the first half of the first lap. It was mayhem, I tried to fight through everyone but the front group was already 200 yards out. I caught Matt and Jason on a hill climb but they weren't feeling too hot and I jumped passed them. I ended up riding by myself for quite awhile chasing down as many riders as I could. I passed more than 30 riders and finally caught a guy from Cuttin' Crew. We worked together for the rest of the race taking turns pulling and chasing down other stragglers. We ended up getting lapped by the pack on the 2nd to last lap. We caught another Cuttin' Crew guy and I thought I was in for trouble that they were going to work together and pass me up, I decided to drop the hammer and start my sprint early up the final hill. It was worth it, I got the jump on them and held them off barely to the line. Overall it wasn't a good day, tactically I made bad decisions by starting towards the end. This assumption made me lose, I was feeling physically strong otherwise.

Never again.

P.S.

Jason and Matt eventually revealed to me that they were worried about my pre-race training tactics the night before. They thought that since I was drinking from a bucket and dancing at Mad Planet until all hours of the morning that this would some how effect my racing abilities. Boy were they wrong. They are both now going to incorporate Mad Planet training into their regiments as well

Great Dane Criterium #2

2008-04-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

Jason and I planned on racing the Cat. 5 race which was only 20 minutes long and then doing the Cat. 4 race which was 35 minutes. We got there late and quickly registered for the Cat. 5 race, we then found out that they would not let us do both races. We were told that we could then go get official Cat. 4 upgrades from an official. We quickly ran over and got little "4" stickers on our licenses, the only downside was that we weren't allowed to then do the Cat. 5 race as well.

So we then found ourselves with an hour to warm-up and get ready. The temperature reached near 75F and sunny, it was beautiful. There were approximately 40 people in our race, Cat. 4 racers only. The course was clockwise with two hill climbs, a downhill, and a flat into the wind. I got lined up in the front row and the race started off slowly, I sat up front for the first few laps and then decided to sit in.

For some stupid reason I kept falling to the back of the pack. Every now and then I would fall off by 10 ft and would have to work to get back in. This kept happening through-out the whole race, and I am not sure why necessarily. I wasn't extremely tired, just one of those days really....

I stayed attached to pack for the whole race and hung until the last half lap and everyone took off and I missed the jump. A lot of other riders also missed the jump and fell off the back as well. I started my final sprint early and passed a bunch of riders, and was chasing down the pack. I saw that Jason fell off the back as well, I set my sights on him. I kicked it hard and snuck passed him with only 3 feet to go before the line. Overall it was strange race, since there weren't any new racers in the pack everyone stayed safe and fairly quiet. It was a good race to be a part of, the pace was fast and I should have payed better attention through-out the race.

Menomonee Falls

2008-04-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday was an early start and drive out to Menomonee Falls park. This criterium planned by Team Trocadero was to race around the park roads, a 1.9 mile loop that was all flat with one 90 degree turn and all the others were gentle left turns. Jason, teal, and I rolled up and found to our surprise Ben VC, Henry, Chris, and Andrew. We were all excited to have 7 Pegasi racing in this course.

There was a lot of pre-race talk of various tactics, the plan we settled on was on lap three to lead a Pega-break-away and hope for the best. Everyone got lined up for the start, just a bit under 60 riders. Some familiar faces/bike/jerseys were there. The race got off to a decent start no-one trying anything crazy but the speed was high. The usual new kids went off in a sprint ahead of the pack and burned themselves out never to be seen again.

The first few laps were fairly uneventful, nothing crazy was happening just yet. Towards the end of the second lap, I jumped near the front and got a good position to hopefully set something up for the planned third lap. After we crossed the line and started the third lap the pace picked up a little. I then jumped and took off with Chris, Henry, and a few others in pursuit. I was really pushing it averaging 28.5 mph and much to my own dismay the pack was still only 20 ft behind and not falling back any further, we tried this for about a mile and then decided to sit-up and just sit in with the pack. Nothing was going to get away today.

The pace stayed high through-out the rest of the race, the pack stayed together the entire way and no-one got out ahead. As we were heading into the last lap, I was sitting in the middle of the pack conserving energy to hopefully sprint it out at the end.

Through-out the race I had been taking note of what corners were generally more open to hopefully bridge up to the front on. Since the course was counter clockwise the right side of the pack tended to be a little more open than the left. I decided to move out to the right to hopefully work up to the front to get into a good final position for the end. I began to move out and decided to sit right behind Jason. I sat there for about a minute and then yelled something to the effect of "The right side will open up and I'll take it." Meaning I wanted him to let me in and I wanted him to jump on my wheel to lead us up to the front and set up for the end. There was a misunderstanding and he thought I meant that I wanted him to stay there. I ended up getting stuck out of the far right side and got pinched off on the final turn going into the final sprint because of it. I kicked out the sprint and passed a few guys to finish ride behind a group of Pegasi. We took 24th-28th, Henry got 5th, Chris pinch flatted his wheel and Ben's body disagreed with him but still fought out a good finish.

For a generally smooth, safe turning course there was a lot of squirrlyness from various riders. There were maybe only a handful of BAD riders that were just scary to be around. A lot of people were getting pushed off the side of course onto the gravel or grass and some people would purposely ride through the grass. I learned the importance of clear communication between teammates.

Chris and Henry leading the pack around the corner.

Jason training for cyclocross season

Kind of hilarious crash from the Cat 3 race, towards the end you see their bikes are somehow stuck together... Everyone walked away with only minor road rash.

EDIT:: Matt wanted me to mention that I ran him off the road at one point and made him go cyclocross style. This wasn't entirely my fault, all the people next to me, swung hard and I had to go that way too, I had less than 1 inch of pavement left myself and to Matt's demise he was next to me.

SUPER CRITERIUM

2008-04-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

Today was the most beautiful weather that has been seen around these parts in a long time. The drive to South Beloit, Illinois was a nice one filled with sunshine and 64 degrees. Jason and I rolled up to Blackhawk Farms Raceway and were nicely greeted by the organizers. We found parking next to fellow Pegasi Ben, Aaron, and Henry who were already starting to spin for their warm-ups.
Jason and I got registered and then joined in the spinning warm-up, we both were feeling pretty good and the sunshine helped. We were able to get one lap in before the start of the race. Since it is a motorcycle race course all the corners are wide and high speed, the course was incredibly smooth with only a few ripples in spots.

Everyone lined up; the field was maxed out at 75 people. I got lined up near the front right where I wanted to be. We rolled out at a fairly quick pace and everyone quickly filed into position. Since this was a training criterium there were a lot of new racers and they were scary. On the first lap there was already a pretty bad crash. Everyone was braking heavily around each corner and then bumping off each other constantly.

A group of four people jumped off the front very quickly and were distancing the peloton, I saw this happening and knew that some of the riders in the break were strong and could make it stick. I jumped hard and caught them pretty quickly but as I got up to them they all sat up and decided to drop back into the peloton. It seemed like nothing was going to stick this day, people were just to squirrly. There were two primes but no-one really seemed too interested in winning the pack of powerade. There were more many more crashes that happened through-out the race and some of them were quite bad. The closest I came to crashing was when someone dropped a water bottle and the guy from Cuttin Crew next to me hit it hard and exploded it all over the place and almost went down. As we were approaching the final turns to head into the finish I was sitting in a good position right behind Jason. We were about 20th or so and I was planning on doing a really strong lead-out with Jason on my tail and sling-shot him up. As we were heading into the second to the last turn the guy next to cut in really sharp and pushed me off the course onto the side. I ended up losing about 20 possessions because of it. I was pretty upset by this and tried to make it up in the final spring I ended up finishing 35th right with Ben VC and right behind Jason and Aaron.

Congratulations go to Henry for getting 3rd place!! Over all it turned out to be a strong showing from the Pega-crew. We weren't able to really work together to make anything happen but overall everyone made a really strong showing. Afterwards we hung out for awhile with the people from Pegasus, Half-Acre, and a few others to watch the other races. The hard part about racing is that it is hard to get pictures, here are a few pictures I grabbed from the Cat 3 race, it kind of sums up the days worth of crashing.

Training

2008-04-01T21:09:00.000-07:00

Twice a week Jason and I have been doing interval type training. Tuesday nights are devoted to sprintervals along Lincoln Memorial drive, we start at the Art Museum and do 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off all the way until the top of the hill near Kenwood blvd. This usually get pretty brutal towards the end; the 30 second recovery goes by fast. We have been doing these for a number of weeks and I feel like it has made me a lot stronger of a rider. I feel that my body is able to recover more quickly than it ever has.

On Thursday nights we have been hitting the hills, basically soft pedaling to all the hills along Lincoln Memorial and hitting all of them as hard as we can (sometimes standing and sometimes spinning). This tends to take more out of me than the Tuesday night sprints, since I am a bit larger it takes a lot of energy to carry myself up the hill. Recently I switched to a FSA SLK compact crankset and am never going back. The 5o tooth chainring in the front is perfect for my high cadence styles. The 34 tooth inner ring is really small though and I might replace it with a 36 tooth.

This Saturday is the kick-off to the Wisconsin Road Series in Sheboygan, it is the Evergreen Criterium which is listed as a 1 mile loop with a steep finish......hopefully training pays off.

Kenosha Training Crit #2

2008-03-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

Category 4/5
45 minutes
Overall finish ??

Back in the Kenosha Industrial Park for round 2 of the Training Crit series. I was feeling good and excited on the drive there, having raced on the course the previous weekend I felt like I had a slight advantage. Also many fellow Pegasi were coming out to race as well, it is always really motivating to have people cheering for you and to see fellow pink/blacks in the pack with you.

The weather was down right balmy compared to the previous weekend, it was fairly sunny with a mild wind, temperatures around 35F.

The overall turn-out was pretty large, maybe 50 people. The race started off and everyone was off fairly quickly. No time for mistakes this week. I got clipped in and sprinted around the side of the pack to jump upfront. My strategy today was to make sure I didn't miss out on anything that jumped off the front. I wanted to sit top 10 the entire race. The entire race was fairly quick through-out. There was a crash early on, luckily it was a bike length behind me. The entire pack was really aware and awake for the whole race. Every time someone would try something, there was always someone calling out what was going on. Much different than the previous week. Jason was also feeling rather squirrely and a few times we tried to lead a break-off with a few guys, but the pack was always right there to pull us back in.

No one was escaping today. What was also impressive was that there were not any fall behind packs. Almost everyone stayed in the main pack or dropped out. I stayed overly aggressive and jumped on anything that moved off the front. I knew I was tiring myself out doing this, but I didn't want to miss anything. This was the perfect race to practice various tactics, no WCA points were being awarded so there wasn't anything at stake. The entire race was up to whoever was the best sprinter in the pack ( I knew this wasn't me). I am not sure where I finished overall, but I was really happy with how the rest of the race played out.

I stayed really aggressive and put myself in a good position to win. While I was overly aggressive and chased the slightest thing that moved hence unecessarily wasting energy, I felt really good about it. While I wasn't able to work with many of the Pegasi I was able to work with Jason, I stayed aware of where he was and what he was doing the entire race. Overall it made me feel really good about the season to come, personally I am feeling really strong as a rider and feel really good about my fellow teammates.

Kenosha Training Crit #1

2008-03-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

Category 4/5
45 minutes
Overall finish 13th

The weather was overcast and cold; there was snow in the forecast for the afternoon, this weather is synonymous with cyclocross racing, not criteriums. I haven't done a criterium since August, much less ride anything but my cyclocross bike all winter; I was nervous. Would my training pay off or would I get dropped from the pack?

Since it was so cold and just all-around nasty weather only about 25~30 riders showed up to the line for the Cat 4/5 race. I looked around and didn't recognize anyone from last season that would blow up this race. We started, I kicked off and took like 20 seconds to get fully clipped into my pedals. This mistake could have cost me in another race, but luckily no-one was in much of a hurry today. The first half of the race was fairly uneventful, I was lazily attacking and pretty much just sitting in. I decided to save as much energy as possible and moved into the thick of the pack. As I was pulling in, a few riders on the front jumped off and before I noticed they were 50 yards out. I cursed loudly in my head, my lack of attention had cost me this opportunity. At this point there are a few options to consider, should I risk it and bridge the gap by myself, or should I try and organize the strong riders left in the pack.

Since the race was only half over I wanted to save my energy. Jason and I tried to organize the riders as much as possible to help facilitate a chase-down. It is incredibly frusterating to try and organize people that don't want to work together. No-one wanted to take a pull other than Jason and I, we pulled about 85% of the chase down. The most frusterating part was when others would pull they wouldn't be going fast enough to warrant them being in the front. Our efforts were futile. While we never we're able to catch the lead pack, I did learn some valuable information.

From now on I need to be more aware of what is happening around me. Criteriums are lost more on strategy, tactics, and mental awareness than on physical strength.