Tour of St. Louis- a week late

Well, I actually raced my bike last week. It was kind of an accident... that is I was in St. Louis and I had my bike and there was a race.

The race was the Carondelet Circuit Race- the Saturday morning race in the Tour of St Louis. I was really not looking forward to it. I had been sick all week, not sleeping and coughing compulsively. However, I had preregistered and I couldn't bare to let that $30.00 go to waste.

I'm going to be honest, I sort of shocked myself. I was in good enough shape cold or no to be a part of the race the whole time. I even tried a solo breakaway after a couple other teammates were brought back. Its always far far more fun in a road race to participate than to just hang on.



The last two laps I was actually trying to move up to the front. I even had the legs to do it, but the holes kept closing. Oh well. Who knew, I enjoyed racing my road bike cold or no cold.

I have heard rumors about this thing called spring

Yep, its here. I am realizing that I had not updated this blog since December when I did my last cross race. I would like to say that there is a good reason for that, but really it just has to do with not having anything to say.

This winter has been spent trying to finish my phd and get the hell out of Champaign. Its looking like this might actually happen... although I probably won't be the hell out of here until the end of the summer. Due to the odd place my life is in I have really just been riding or running periodically with no real "training plan". For the last few years I have focused on running until the middle of April and the St. Louis Marathon. I didn't sign up for it this year so I've just been tooling around.

The weird thing is that I am actually in pretty decent shape. My power data seems to indicate that I am already riding around where I was the middle of last summer! This is a little confusing, the only think I can figure is that since I have been riding fairly regularly when I normally would just be running I managed to keep some cyclocross fitness- who knows. Regardless, I am happy about it. I am thinking that this unstructured crap is going to have to go away soon... Perhaps May. We'll see.

Anyway, I have been thinking about when to start my season. I have missed two MTB races already due to 1) it getting cancelled and 2) my being lazy. I am thinking I might hit up some of the Tour of St. Louis races in two weeks, but for some reason I'm just not at all excited about road racing this year.

I don't know. I am scaling back my expectations this year in terms of volume and what I hope for from myself, and honestly the bikings been treating me well so far... I guess only time will tell whether or not that continues on with racing as well.

Washington MO CX

So... I'll be honest here. I was kind of on the fence as to whether or not to go to this. I was kind of feeling like I was getting sick. I had felt like crap running and mountain biking the two previous days. A combination of already having registered, not wanting to miss out on something awesome and finally not really having anything better to do conspired to get me out to Washington Sunday morning. Long story short- I'm glad I did.



The field was fairly small. I think something like 15 people maybe. I actually got lined up in the front row! This was exciting. I was second or third wheel at the start... which was largely determined not by sprinting but by who managed to get traction in the mud. At one point I actually was riding in the lead of a cyclocross race... this felt both mysterious and good. There was a brief moment when I was thinking I could win.

This feeling was promptly mitigated by several big shark dudes passing me. I kept them in sight for about two laps, but there was no closing the gap for me in these conditions. I honestly had never spent so much time in my granny gear and ended up that spent. I distinctly recall a period during the second half of the third lap when I felt good- other than that it was pure CX hell (mostly in a good way).

The layout of the course seemed like it had the potential to be awesome. Lots of short rollers, reasonable twists, and some fun features like stairs and runups. This is the reality of it though. I was going like 6 mph the whole race. There was a long section that I ran simply because it was faster than trying to maintain traction. I had a foot out in a ton of corners, but realistically never really got up enough speed to fall.

I am pretty sure it was a good time... or at least I'm glad I did it.

Missouri State CX Championships

I spent quite a while this fall trying to decide whether I was going to go to the Illinois state championships (where I live) or the Missouri state championships (where I have been racing all year). I couldn't really make up my mind until I did my second "Chi Cross Cup" race. I think they have a really well run series up there, but I think that there is a touch too much hipster douchebag one uppery going on. Most important though is the fact that they run their 4's races at 30 minutes... the last one I did I finished in ~26 minutes if I remember correctly. If nothing else, they should at least make sure the leaders race the whole 30 minutes. Regardless, it seems like a waste of time to drive for that short of a race. Mind made up, go to Missouri.

I don't even vaguely regret the decision. Jeff Yielding crafted an amazing course out in Hermann MO. Honestly, it would definitely be in the competition with the Louisville GP for best course of the year. The fact that the weather conspired to get some slick muddy grass helped a lot.

That said. I think I had an "OK" race. Not great... I felt like crap the 3rd lap and lost some places. I think it had something to do with the booze consumed the night before and the breakfast of donettes Oh well. At least I had a decent start



I thought it was a really good start, but reviewing photos from the race seem to indicate that there were 14 or 15 people in front of me (two guys were in the front of this picture). Still, I was pretty happy. I felt like I was able to see the leaders for the first 2 laps, which is a testament to how wide open this course was, and that I wasn't sucking too hard.

Basically, I was just having fun. I tried bunny hopping the 5 inch barriers a few times. I was feeling good every time running up the hill or the stairs, actually passing people or gapping. My only real complaint was that looking back I think I was a bit cowardly in the corners. For some reason I was really concerned with riding the course clean... I am pretty sure I would have been faster if I didn't worry about it.

As far as I can tell, the only picture of me was at the top of the stairs.


Honestly, I run... as the weather gets colder my motivation to log miles on the road bike declines. As such, I run to stay in shape. Stairs don't bother me. In fact, I kind of like them.

Well. 2 more races for me this year. Washinton MO (no national championships here), then Concordia (about 100 ft from my parents house) the 19th. Then what the hell, I might even do the Team Seagal CXMAS non-race.

Mount Pleasant Winery Cyclocross.

Normally I would take this moment to make fun of the label "mount" placed onto this place. However, after having ridden 8 (I think? I honestly lost track of how many) laps of this course, I feel I am in no place to make light of the elevation change here. I was physically and mentally drained... completely. light headed and confused for the majority of it.

Mount Pleasant is in Missouri "Wine Country" which surprisingly makes
some decent wine. The majority of the course seems to have been set up on a "scenic hillside" where tourists were meant to sit and enjoy their Norton. This made for a very unpleasant "mount" (yes, I am aware of the over use of this word play at the race).



This picture seems to portray how the course was on a hillside. It was almost always going up or down. The largest problem was this was that the ground was soft and almost every "down" section ended in a 180 that required all the gained speed to be scrubbed off. All sorts of cyclocross pain and anger was induced.

The race started out as per normal. I was mid back pack. The first time around it didn't really seem that soul sucking. I even rode the runup hill. I was feeling pretty good about myself. Then suddenly about halfway through the second lap my body hit a wall, almost like it was saying "what the fuck are you doing enjoying this"- there was no further enjoyment. I fell back to about midpack with all of the other people hating their lives.

I really wish I could write a more complete writeup, but I honestly don't really remember most of the race. My head was numb. One of the more amusing bits of the course was that it was routed through the bar... I was so crosseyed at that point in the course I don't think I ever remember what it looked like.

Like this apparently


Somewhere toward the last third of the race I crashed pretty hard on one of the many off camber downhills. This might or might not have been when my front tire came so close to rolling that it picked up grass between the rim and base tape.




When I picked myself up off the ground I had dropped another 5 places or so and was feeling all the fight gone from my legs. My goal at this point was to finish without looking too pathetic. I honestly have no idea whether I succeeded or not in that goal... I am guessing not. I didn't linger at the finish. I rode straight to my car and gulped down water and attempted to regain sanity.

I did eventually gain it with the aid of several Augusta Brewing Company beers. I'll probably need a few days to say for sure, but I am thinking that it was a good time.

Indian Lakes Chicago/ St Vincent St Louis

For some reason I have been having as much trouble motivating myself to write about cyclocross races as I have to write about my dissertation... interesting how that is working out. Both topics have several incomplete drafts saved. However, I think I might just never finish past writeups of cross races... I am really hoping that's not the case with the dissertation.

So... I had been getting kind of used to doing races on Saturday and Sunday this fall. If nothing else, its been good training. My schedule has looked like this for the last month:
10/17 -"Night of the Living Bubba", St. Louis 10/18 - "Dawn of the Bubba", St. Louis
10/24 and 10/25 US Grand Prix, Louisville
10/31 - "Sprints of Darkness", St. Louis 11/1 - "Daylight Savings Bubba", St. Louis
11/7 - PICX #4, Alton 11/8 - "Harvest Bubba", St. Louis
11/14 - Indian Lakes Resort, Chicago 11/15 - "The Ides of Bubba", St. Louis

So yeah... you get the point. Thats 5 weekends in a row of Saturday/Sunday racing. Over this time I have definitely started feeling like I am in decent shape. I haven't actually been riding all that much in the week. My goal has been to get at least one decent ride in and hopefully get out and run with the dog 12-15miles in the week. Much to my surprise, power data seems to show that the two a week racing has made me stronger. Say what you will about CX, if nothing else its a damn good 60 minute LT workout.

Last weekend was arguably my most ambitious 2 a week race schedule. The Chicago Cross Cup race happened to fall on a Saturday last weekend. For some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to drive up there, do that race, then drive to St. Louis and do theirs on Sunday. It was fun, but A LOT of driving. Plus, legs that have just raced really don't feel good after having sat in a car for over 4 hours.

The Chicago race Saturday was surreal. It took place at the Hilton Indian Lakes golf resort. Not only was the course on very well groomed grass fairways and through golf course sandpits and over (what appeared to be) an enormous mound of excavated dirt, the resort gave the race access to their "dressing room". The race itself was pretty awesome. But seriously, the dressing room was the story of the day. Not only was it the greatest race bathroom I had ever seen (even with showers) but the mens dressing room seemed to have a huge lounge with a bar. Presumably where the men are meant to smoke cigars and drink brandy and talk about "events of the day".





A few actual notes on the day. The Chicago course was easily the smoothest, fastest course I have ridden this year. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the Chicago racers are vicious about their starting position, and when I got to the line I had to start dead last (no hyperbole, literally nobody behind me)... I guess people start lining up like 30 minutes early. This sucked hard. The traffic had me basically at a standstill for a lot of the first lap (75 rider field). The race was only 4 laps, apparently I finished in 27minutes. This was ridiculously short. The length of these races alone is enough to keep me from the Chicago races. Anyway, I managed to work my way up to 31st. However, I think given another 2 laps or so I could have been top 20... I was still actively catching and passing people and feeling good when the race was over.

Some mexican food and a 4 hour car ride put me and Nick Dornik in St. Louis. I was kind of concerned as to how this race would go given how stiff I was after the drive. Since I am a "B" racer and don't even really expect to win that race I wasn't too worried. The scene at St. Vincent Park in St. Louis suggested that it would be the exact opposite of the Chicago course. Lots of elevation change on soft ground and some proper mud. I got a decent warmup on the trainer and was feeling ok. I think I was about midpack at the start. I had one HUGE fuckup when I attempted to take the line to the left of a long concrete staircase leading up to the ex-mental hospital (seriously). That line completely disappeared halfway up, and I couldn't get back into the field. I ended up running up the stairs, getting passed by most of the field and seriously putting myself in the red. Oh well... I am getting used to the feeling of working my way back up to the middle of the field. One of the things that made me feel pretty good about the race was how fresh I seemed on one climb adjacent to the road. I was consistently passing people who were gassed here.



I'm not 100% sure, but I think I finished like 20th out of about 50. I am not really unhappy about the result or how I felt, but I feel disappointed about how I raced. I was talking with Nick afterward about the fact that I am yet to actually feel like I am "racing" with the people around me. By the end of races I distinctly feel like I am catching and passing people. The conclusion is that I need to go harder and be more aggressive at the start. We'll see if I can actually do it.

One final note. Something I think St. Louis could take from Chicago is the fact that they spread the organization responsibilities around. I hate seeing what is distinctly burnout in the faces of some of the people that put on the races in the Bubba series by the end of the year.

Wow... I actually finished a writeup.

Last weeks Bubbas and more Cyclocrossing...

Well, last week came and went. It was fun, but it was probably one of my worst weekends of racing for quite a while...

Saturday night was a night race celebrating halloween. I decided, since this was the first time in years I had not planned on attending a conference on Oct. 31st, I would dress up as Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia character Charlie as Greenman. Yes, this did involve me racing in a green full body suit. Even covering my face. Suffice it to say that I underestimated how much one needs to "see" and "breath" in order to race ones bike. It was a good time all the same. I realized the mistake I had made when on the first lap I was passed by the entire field as I fumbled around trying not to run off the course or into anybody. Things worsened when I ate it on a wet off camber right turn, coating the right side of the body suit with mud (did I mention the whole course was mud?). From that point on I realized that I was going to get last, and just had fun with it. Much to my surprise I actually passed some people (I think they may have just had mechanicals).

Since I had attributed all of the lack of success Saturday night to my green body suit, I assumed that I would have a good race on Sunday. This was not the case. I started slow, and settled into the bottom quarter of the field in the first lap. My legs felt dead and I generally felt like I had no energy. About halfway through the race I started feeling OK and felt like I was noticeably picking up the pace... more accurately I was riding faster and not feeling quite as miserable. I had already fallen back far enough in the race that I couldn't really muster the effort to push that hard.

Oh well. I am looking forward to this weekend. If nothing else, this is at least good training...

Louisville USGP CX

So... I think cyclocross season has officially kicked off for me. Well... mentally I had slated last weekends Saturday/Sunday combo. However, after last week I was really too tired to write anything blogwise about it.

This weekend had been in my sites for a while. Well, at least since toward the end of summer when I really started thinking about cyclocross. This weekend the US Grand Prix of Cyclocross series was in Louisville KY (the announcer did at one point ask if anyone had ever heard of a "petite prix"- although the joke was lame I must admit that I had not). Louisville is about 3:45 from Champaign, so I figured it was my best chance to do some large scale cyclocross racing. Plus, with racing Saturday and Sunday it seemed like it would be worth the drive.

I drove up Friday afternoon, hoping to get to the "number presentation party". Unfortunately I did not remember the hour time change until about 5 minutes after I got into the car. So I got to Louisville too late and was left to find something to do with myself until the guys from St. Louis I was staying with showed up. I promptly found a bar... The first place was named O'Sheas and had a band named "Rocktimus Prime" playing. They were the presumably self proclaimed "best cover band in Louisville". I didn't stay long enough to confirm or deny this statement. I moved down the street to an establishment that was willing to sell me $1.50 PBR. Winner.

Seeing as I am a lowly Cat 4 cyclocross racer I had to race at 8:30am. We needed to get our numbers and timing chips by 7:30 (remember in 1 hour time change). I am not a morning person, I was not happy about this. The sun finally came up around 8am and I was beginning to get motivation to get on the bike. I had about 5 minutes of warming up before the race- not good.

The course was really muddy... like the muddiest I had seen a CX course. It was either sloppy, or sticky and always difficult to ride in. I got a bad start and probably slipped to like 50th or so... I felt terrible on the first lap, but slowly warmed up and picked some people off. Overall, I felt good and enjoyed myself. I ended up 31st out of 104. Not bad, but I really wasn't too happy with the result.


postrace muddiness.

Luckily I was so exhausted that plenty of sleep was obtained Saturday night. Waking up Sunday was not quite as miserable. I once again didn't have the motivation to warm up in the dark. The race started and I felt like CRAP. I actually had a decent start... probably in the 30s somewhere. But it took all my will power not to lose a ton of places. I went through the start and noticed that they had shortened our race to 3 laps? Anyway, second lap I started actually passing some people and feeling a bit better. I actually felt good by the third lap, but was so disappointed in how the race had gone to this point I really just didn't care that much anymore. The highlight was deciding at the last minute I was going to ride the railroad tie runup. Unfortunately Casey didn't get a picture of me fucking that up. Much to my surprise, I finished 22nd... I thought I was much worse than the day before. Particularly since I wasn't really warmed up and not cramping until the third and final lap.



Basically I've got to do a better job of preparing myself. I feel like I'm not doing a good job of leaving it all on the course. Maybe not the night race this weekend (since I will be in costume and possibly won't be able to see) but my goal for Sunday is to at least make a go at being in the front at the start... We'll see.

So... As opposed to including all these sundries in the text, I decided I would include a list of things I learned this weekend.

• I remembered how little White Castle cheeseburgers resemble cheeseburgers, or really food in general
  
• If you are a hipstery dude with a Chrome bag on a fixie with a cycling cap kinda sideways, it doesn't matter if the two cars behind you are full of cyclists (some of whom own chrome bags) you will incite road rage in them if you ride at 12 miles an hour taking up the whole lane with your douchey friend.
  
• The Stanley USGP thermos really does keep your coffee hot for 6 hours... impressive.
  
• Horny goat weed is not on the WADA list of banned substances, yet according to advertisements "increases circulation".
  
• Mexican restaurants attached to Best Westerns by airports are, generally speaking, a bad idea... Even if Ernesto sounds like a reputable gentleman.
  
• "Rocktimus Prime" is Louisville's premier cover band... and a lot of their following is composed of "Dudes" and larger than average women.
  
• You are capable of finding free wireless internet pretty much anywhere... including parks in Louisville
  
• Seeing pros race their bikes is AWESOME, and very humbling... Its shocking how much more accessible they are in CX than any other type of biking (or sport in general)
  

Its officially time to start cyclocrossing

Well, if I am going to be technical, I have already done 3 races this year. However, none of them have really felt like it was really CX season.
1. Ronde Von Evergreen in Carbondale IL... it was still September, there weren't a ton of people there, and I felt really sick in the race.
2. Dekalb Chicago Cross Cup race... seemed like a decent showing, but I had to race the "4b" category and as such drank some PBR before the race. I started at the back of the pack, and worked my way to 10th out of 70... I felt good about myself.
3. Pride Inc race in Alton IL. Flat but hard course, not a ton of people, a lot of CAT 1s 2s and 3s lined up in the "CAT 3/4" race. I got lapped at the end of the race by the leaders, was scored as "DNF" and felt shitty about my form...

Regardless... for me the season starts this weekend.

I'm excited, the St. Louis series officially kicks off with a night race Saturday followed by a day race Sunday... hopefully I at least represent the middle of the pack in the "B" race. Low expectations are good.

Not much to blog about

That is to say I have been doing little to nothing. The traditional lack of paycheck in August has only intensified my work/ bike/ sleep lifestyle of this summer. I tried to get out to k-poo as much as I could trying to be fast for the race out there last weekend. As it turned out, the race was nothing really to write home about. I was marginally fast (3rd in my age group in a pretty large field). However, my "fastness" was tempered by frequent falling down.

I fell on my right side twice hard. My right leg from knee up is one large bruise. My right shoulder is very sore... I was honestly kind of worried I had fractured my collarbone last night, consumed 2 vicodin (ironically held over from when I broke my left collarbone). Luckily it felt a bit better today so I think its just badly bruised or slightly separated regardless, bad race.

Next weekend (labor day) is Gateway Cup in St. Louis. However, to be honest, I am not really that excited about it. My mind is really already focused on cross. I can't wait for the Bailey-Bikes "Obrien" to arrive and get to building it up. I think I am going to skip the REALLY early season CX races and shoot for late September start. We'll see. I am throwing some running back into the weekly workout schedule in anticipation.

Although this is where the excitement lies, I still have a few mtb races coming up keeping me interesting... I'm just hoping I don't break myself doing it.

Urban Assault Racing

So... I have been doing a lot of "serious" racing this year. Its been a lot of fun, but was kind of getting ready for something different. My head has already left the road racing scene. I really still want to race my mountain bike, but my heart has really already left for cyclocross season.

In the meantime, I found myself entered in an "Urban Assault Ride". Its a team event sponsored by New Belgium beer. Basically you bike around the city and complete absurd obstacles at various checkpoints. My sister and I entered the very competitive coed division as team "Golden Star Fireballs" We put on our racing kit and got down to business:



We started off to the mystery checkpoint first... The clue was emailed out a few days earlier and was an color coded anagram. We sorted the two words "botanical" and "gardens" but couldn't get the first word... luckily there were enough people to follow that we found the "climatron".

The second checkpoint we hit was "Bike Works" where Leah and I had to navigate a twisting course on modified big-wheels. I think we rocked it. From there we headed over to Tower Grove park and did some kind of three legged tennis ball balancing on a frisbee challenge. We didn't lose any balls and took off for the city museum.

As we arrived we saw some people we knew informing us it was "a long way"... not knowing what that meant I went up to the checkpoint to find out that we had to run up 15 flights of stairs then negotiate our way up an incline to a large slide. This was made less fun by the fact that someone had puked in the stairwell.

A long ride down delmar to Big Shark had us on a plunger powered longboard collecting different colored cans. Due to our team work and Leah's longboarding experience we zipped right through while others were struggling. Down delmar to big bend and on to Mesa where I had to catch Leah thrown sponges in a basket on my head... it took us 4 chances to get the required 3- not our best preformance, but still not bad. From there it was on to the final mystery point.

Leah knew where it was, but I will choose not to embarrass her and keep quiet about the reasons why.

At the end of the day we were told we placed 3rd... I was excited. It was the first "podium" I had gotten all year. Well, we were actually 4th. I have been 1 place off the podium quite a bit this year- even in Urban Assault Racing.

Luckily, I was able to redeem myself by dancing on stage for a Rudy Project helmet:



Good times.

Another relaxing weekend of mt bike demoing and bike riding before I have to worry about racing again. August it working out pretty well.

8 days in St Louis.

After I skipped the Chicago Criterium a few weeks ago, I decided I kind of needed a break from racing my road bike. I was realizing that some weekends I was only doing it because it was available, not really because I was excited about it (Soulard excepted- it was awesome).

So... it was all coming together at the beginning of August. I was going to have a questionable living situation and was planning on staying with the family in St. Louis. This was great timing since the first two weekends in August had Mountain bike races more or less in the city. I had made the decision to avoid road races until the Gateway Cup.

Anyway- a week in St. Louis

Sunday 9/2- MWFTCS race at Castlewood St Park.

I headed down to STL on Saturday evening. I knew the race on Sunday was going to be tough. Castlewood is the "home turf" to a ton of very fast St. Louis guys. Knowing every turn and feature of a trail is a very good thing is a race. I made my first mistake right at the start. I was charging past a ton of dudes trying to make up for a mediocre start on a climb wondering why everyone was taking it so conservatively. Well... the reason was that this climb at the start of the race just kept going up for the first mile or so of the trail. Ugh. I was way past redlining when I hit the top. This over exertion caused a stupid crash on a slightly off camber section that resulting in me losing a lot of the positions I gained on the climb.

This very quickly became irrelevant when I flatted on a loose rocky climb later in the lap. Since I had forgotten my CO2, I was left with my shitty minipump. It took me like 15 minutes to change the tire. Race more or less over.

I kept riding though. Only to flat again on a rough downhill section. After much swearing I began walking back to the start. I decided to quell my grumpiness by fixing the flat and riding another lap just for fun. This turned out to be a good moral boost. My lap time was similar to the winners of the sport class, and lower middle for experts.

Tuesday 9/4- St Louis Tuesday Night World Championships

This is the St. Louis training race. However, training is mostly just a state of mind. The weekly race is actually licensed by USCF and properly officiated. The course was 0.7 mile circuit that involved a climb, a quick downhill and a flat section around the start/finish. Here is my power data to give an idea of the profile:



The race started with Dogfish guy Chris on the front and me at second wheel. I think both of us were kind of interested in this positioning. After 1 or 2 laps he motioned me to pull through, I moved past and he slowed down the field I very quickly had about a 50ft gap... wow. how did that happen? I was confused and uncomfortable never really having been in this position in a race. I put my head down and rode (realizing full well I couldn't hold this for the whole race but decided to ride while I could). To my surprise, I was strong enough/ group moving slow enough to stay out for a few laps. Some fellow bridged, and rode with him briefly. Then a group bridged, I looked back and saw the whole race wasn't far behind. I was kind of cooked, so I fell back into the pack.

I rode the rest of the race amazed by the facts that. 1. there was such a huge field in a "training race" 2. that the pace of the B race was so high. The second was explained when I was informed that a lot of A-Game masters and cat 2/3 guys were in the field. 1. is simply explained by good the race was.

Wednesday 9/5- The Hub ride

Short story, I got to the shop about 45 seconds too late. Good to know that group rides leave promptly the world over. I rode about 27 miles from the shop west, then north. They have something around there that I think people refer to as "hills". Seeing that I don't see them that often, I might be using the word wrong. However, there was a particular bit that took 5+ minutes to climb at over 350-450 watts. I think that qualifies.

Thursday 9/6- Castlewood Revenge

I decided to head out and hit up the race course again. I got 20+ miles in with no flats on very nice FAST singletrack. I am glad I went back in a better mood. These trails dry and hard. Occasionally tight trails, occasionally rooty, occasionally techy downhills and some extended climbs. Castlewood is far from the hardest trail I have ridden, but I think it ranks real high on the fun meter. It flows nicely and is just tricky enough in places that you don't completely zone out. I think its the type of course I normally would have done well on.

Sunday 9/9- Spanish Lake Race

This course is notorious for its lack of extended hills and large quantity of gravel roads. This year there were several new sections of trail to add some intrigue. Over 100 degree temperatures made me fairly thankful that the climbs were as short as they were.

To make a long story short, I actually had a good race! I got a crappy start (as per usual- I really need to work on that). Luckily, the course was open enough that the front of the race never really got a chance to truly escape. I was loving the fact that I was in good enough shape to pick people off every time the trail pointed up at all. I also gapped a few dudes in the single track! Nice, I might actually be a mountain bike racer after all. By the 3rd of 5 laps I had no idea where I was in the race, but knew I had passed a lot of dudes and had not been passed.



When I came through on the 4th lap I was rather crestfallen when the official told me I had one more to go (MWFTCS races are done by time). Luckily my Dad was sat by the side of the course handing me up bottles after every lap. I think I poured about as much of it on me as I drank. I had one more bottle in the cooler, grabbed it from my Dad, and attempted to finish one more lap. I think I ran into every tree possible... not a good lap but still fun. There was one humbling moment when on a gravelly uphill drag Chris Ploch flew past lapping me- shows how far there is to go.

On finishing, I slammed down 2 cans of coke started feeling slightly less lightheaded and looked at my results. 4th in my age group. 5th overall- apparently 30-39 is on average the fastest group out there. The fastest dude was either a 40-49 or 50+ racer, hardcore. Well, apparently I have decent races when the conditions truly suck. Or it was just a coincidence.

Moving makes me grumpy.

It really does. It seems like every time I do it, it takes longer. After every move I swear I am not going to do it again until I leave Champaign. For some reason this never works. I have officially moved almost exactly 1 mile away from where I previously lived. Although all of my things have technically been moved from point A to point B, it barely seems likes its over. At the moment it is almost impossible to get into my bedroom due to the large amount of unpacked boxes. I am trying to do anything (including write blog entries) to distract me from the inevitable puzzle of making everything fit into a new and distinctly different living space. Its odd, I think I remember kind of being excited about this years ago... now it just pisses me off.

I plan on racing my mountain bike in St. Louis on Sunday. I am feeling like I am in pretty good shape and have been riding fairly quickly. I had high hopes for this race, and wanted to head out and pre-ride the course tomorrow. Sadly, I am just too exhausted to make the trip early. Yeah, I hate moving.

Another week goes by.

So here was the decision:
A. Wake up at 4:00 am drive 3 hours, find parking, maybe have enough time to warm up, hopefully find the one teammate I had in the race before the start, then race against a field that probably contained like 40 dudes from XXX racing. Then I would get to drive home trying my hardest not to pass out.

B. Go drink Miller High Life and Tullamore Dew at Mike n' Molly's then ride my mountain bike with Nick all day Sunday.

As I am sure you can gather from my phrasing, I chose option B.


Its weird that this is an abnormal situation for me this summer. I was registered to do the Chicago Criterium on Sunday, but as the time approached, the logistics just seemed too complicated. This was also coupled with the fact that I didn't know hardly anyone who was going to be there and that I wasn't really feeling that excited about racing in general.

I think I might be finally suffering from a bit of burn out. Luckily for me, almost all August has to offer are MTB races and fun stuff like the Mesa Cycles St Louis Urban Assault Race. I think August couldn't have come at a better time.

As for not racing over the course of a weekend? I think it was a success. I hit the trails at k-poo Saturday and Sunday. Nick and I were accompanied by a first timer- John Henry. He was predictably slow. I took advantage of this and doubled up on a few tough sections like the new downhill/ climb. There is one obnoxious switchback that continues to have my number...

Sunday Nick and I intended to head back for some fast ~1 hour laps. This did not happen. Both of us were feeling fairly tired. On top of that, the mechanical problems kept piling up. I had 2 flat tires (only had one tube with me) and picked up a stick of about 1 inch diameter in my rear wheel. Not fun.

Nick had some chain dropping issues and a couple nice ending up a long ways from the trail and bike crashes.

Sunday was not a win. I am sure that reaquainting myself with hangovers this weekend didn't help matters.

10 Turns- Yeah, it worked pretty well.

Last weekend I was planning on heading up to Wisconsin and do the WORS race at Sunburst. I am sure that it was fantastic, but my plans ended up falling through for a number of reasons. Aside from the fact that I am looking for more starts at MTB races this summer to get upgrade points, I really wasn't too disappointed (particularly considering that I probably would have entered the "Comp" category and not gotten a top 5 anyway).

The main reason I wasn't really heartbroken was that this Sunday was the Tour of Soulard. People had been telling me how awesome this race was for quite a while now. Honestly, if it weren't for the lure of a WORS race I don't think anything else would have kept me away.

So I show up having no idea what to expect aside from the awesomeness everyone had described. Needless to say, expectations were high. At first there was the confusion that the course was said to have 10 turns and was run clockwise. Fwiw, it looks like this:



Needless to say some preriding would have been useful. Unfortunately my recon consisted of that map and the knowledge that one bit was a "climb" gleened from message boards. I was running a bit late due to the fact that I am not at all used to racing as late in the day as 1pm. Additionally, I was kind of confused by the race running late then mysteriously getting back on track. To add fun and excitement, I noticed my front tire was flat on the startline. Luckily I was able to get my spare on right before the gun. This resulted in a poor start position, but whatever.

The race itself was a lot of fun. I would like to be more descriptive, but with 10 turns I was largely clueless as to when anything was happening. All I know is that somewhere around halfway through the race I was caught behind a crash (I think) and a group of 6-10 depending on the point in the race got caught out. I felt really strong and led the chase group for quite a while. Word on the street was that we were pretty much holding on to a 10 second deficit to the lead group. This also made me feel pretty good about myself.

At some point I dropped to the back of the chase group and held on for a couple laps. My one highlight was when a $50 prime was announced for our group. I attacked the group going up the hill on the back part of the course and shot past everyone from last position. I had about 20 feet at the top of the hill and didn't look back again. Somebody passed me after the last turn before the finish... oh well. After chasing for so long it felt good to actually race a bit.

A note. I was told much later that I came in 15th or 16th. I rode the whole race thinking a huge group was up the road. As it turns out it was only about 20. The main group, and in turn us ended up dropping additional people. That was a nice surprise.

Anyway, one of the amazing things about this race was that there were people (drinking booze) around the entire course. Seriously, Soulard appeared to use this race as an excuse to get Sunday day drunk. It was great... having people cheering you on over the entire course makes you feel very PRO- good times.

Theoretically I am going to the "Chicago Criterium"- where there are going to be actual pros- next weekend. I still haven't worked out the logistics yet unfortunately.

Admirable Cyclists?

I am what I believe to be a very amateur athlete. From my understanding of being such a person is that I am supposed to idolize/look up to professionals. I have found this fairly easy to do with mountain biking seeing as there are truly awesome guys like Adam Craig out there. Cyclocross is similarly stacked with amusing fellows.

Oddly enough (with a few exceptions) I have never really related to an road cyclists.

That is until I started hearing more about Bradley Wiggins in this year's tour. There are plenty of guys out there that are really strong. I tend to admire professionals for more personal reason... that is to say that I find them amusing. That said, I was liking the fact that he tried to remake himself as a serious road cyclist (from track) and appears to be succeeding at age 29. Also he is riding for Garmin this year which doesn't hurt.

However, there are plenty of riders that fit this type of description. What really amused me was that this dopey looking fellow:

Is a huge fan of 70s British punk. In fact, he is known to blast "The Jam" while preparing for a race- something I have been known to do in the past.

I love it. I would suggest following him on twitter.

Radios, racing and sundries

Yesterday I gave myself an ill-deserved "rest day". That is to say I did not ride my bike. Today it was back to "training" (I believe the use of quotations is appropriate). The plan was to wake up and do my 2x20s early in the morning. However, my body apparently wanted _more_ rest. I slept for like 10 hours. After finally dragging myself out of bed after multiple alarm resets I started watching the recording of today's stage of the tour- note: also not my intervals. I watched about an hour or so before heading out to ride at like 11:00 or something.

I found myself riding with thoughts about today's stage on my mind.

First off- no radios today. My first feeling about this was more power to Garmin and the French teams that didn't protest this. Whatever, right? I still kind of thing that all the teams that complained and protested are a lot of little bitches.

That said, as I was thinking about it, I couldn't figure out why they were removing radios from the race. I remember hearing some vague argument that the added information takes suspense out of the race. Examples being breakaway's being chased down 300 meters from the line. This was the only thing I remember having heard. How does this hurt the race? Bike racing is supposed to be tactical. In addition, if a sprinters team wants a break to be chased down, they still have to do it. Not knowing time splits every 30 seconds doesn't change this. Honestly, I think that the more information riders have the more exciting and tactical a race can be. This is bike racing as the sport is right now. We are not going to harken back to the days of Eddie Merchx by removing radios, and why would we want to? Seriously, cycling is a technological sport these days... I think most of us involved actually kind of like that.

I had left the last 45 minutes of the race to watch when I got home. I was really amused to see that in the end the break was caught and the sprinters teams lined up their leadouts... and Mark Cavendish won. That is to say, the race played out pretty much exactly like it would have either way.



That said, I thought the finish was amazing. The sprint was won by Cavendish- no surprise there. However, the perfection of the Columbia-HTC leadout was nothing short of awesome to watch. This was punctuated when Garmin tried to move in and disrupt the Columbia-HTC leadout and George Hincapie shouldered him off (apparently they don't know you are supposed to hold your line while racing). The Columbia leadout put Cavendish right in front of Thor Hushovd and Tyler Farrar... and neither of them has the power to pass. It was a great 25 seconds of bike racing...

Also, where is Tom Boonen? Is he planning to show up at all this race? Is Quick Step not doing a good enough job getting him to the front? I don't know. Its like he's not even there.

As a side note, I must be getting faster. I thought that I felt like crap and had done worthless intervals. I looked at my power after the workout and it was nearly identical to last week when I was feeling really good...

At least my tanlines are slightly more rediculous.

Well... I have had several good weekends of racing in a row, so I suppose I was due for a downer.

Let me first reiterate the fact that I was truly confused by a series of races taking place only minutes away from my house. I didn't really know just how dependent I had become on a routine. I tried to compensate for this by driving to the races and pretending that I was several hours from home. Of course the fact that I continuously left things at home did not really help.

Saturday was the criterium downtown Champaign. It has some clever "bike racey" name, but I don't remember what it was. I drove all of about 5 blocks so that I could warm up on a trainer next to my car. I lined up with a pathetic field of like 15. After an epic quantity of warm up laps the race started- then the rain started. It seemed like every lap someone else was falling or otherwise dropping out. I don't think it was actually that bad. The race sucked. It was single file nearly the whole time. It started pouring halfway through. Then, there was lightning, then our race was paused. After a restart as XxX guy went off the front (who I later heard was dropped before the restart?) Myself and the other two non-wildcard guys in the race tried to chase. I was very uncertain where the wildcard guys were. Then I started cramping and pulled from the front. The wildcard guys then complained at me for trying to grab like the 5th wheel. Seriously? You weren't going to let me into the paceline? I was pissed off and soaked at this point and dropped out on the next lap.

I was angry at the race and the day. I was pissed off when the announcer kept talking about how the Cat 3s were so much better at handling their bikes and thats why there were fewer crashes. Nevermind the fact that it was not pouring down rain... additionally, I can point him in the direction of several people in the Cat 3 race that will inform him that there were in fact crashes.

So... regardless of the fact that I was planning on going out for multiple beers Saturday night, I decided I needed to race Sunday since Saturday went so poorly. As it turns out, waking up late not eating breakfast and being a bit hungover is not a good combination for doing well in a bike race. The first problem was that I thought the race started an hour later than it actually did... bad start. Then there was the headache/ lightheadedness. I felt miserable the first 10 minutes or so then started to settle in. Around 20 minutes into the race there was an attack (by a wildcard guy) then about 15 seconds later there was a chase (by another wildcard guy) the field (of 15 people) accelerated. I felt nauseous and paused briefly. The field got a gap and I rode the rest of the race with Sam Wilson from U of I.

Moral of the story, I have had better weekends. Next week is back to the training regime and hope for some better times, albeit farther from home.

Confused.

So unaccustomed am I do going to a race that I don't have to travel to, I am not entirely sure what to do with myself.

First I go for a longish hard ride the evening before a race...

Now I have decided to dismantle clean and reassemble my drivetrain.

Finally, I am seriously considering getting up early and driving the 4 blocks to the race just so I don't feel too out of sorts tomorrow... Perhaps if I try hard enough I can pretend I have a 3 hour drive home.

Friday is boring.

So I am sitting here at work listening to the cubs get beaten by the Cardinal and drinking a "Vault" soda (the vending machine was out of everything else). I am amazingly bored and thinking that leaving to go on an ill advised bike ride is in my near future.


***Edit***

I really need someone to join me on "endurance" paced rides, I don't seem to have the will power to do it on my own. I really did not intend to ride 40+ miles 39% of which was at threshold. I don't think thats what you are supposed to do the day before a weekend of races in your home town. Good times.