Boss Cross 1 & 2

Boss Cross 1

Let's see...Today was a good day overall, I managed to pull a 5th out of 20 in the masters 40+ under a big blue sky!!

I was pondering the race a day or two ago and found out JP(I'm gettin crazy fast) Brocket was gonna line up in the old guys class...I wasn't too worried about it, I was thinkin I would just sit on his wheel and see what happens.

I get to the venue and talk to JP for a bit and find out another ridiculously fast local speedy guy by the name of Shadd Smith was going to be in the 40+ as well...so much for the wait and see idea...So I get on with the inspection/warm up and find a track that has a little something for all riders...this is a good thing.

The time comes to line up and as I have stated in the past NO DFL!!! I was there with plenty of time to get the spot I wanted, again!! GO!! We're off, I slot into 3rd behind the aforementioned speedsters and was good with it. I kept them pretty close until the course opened up and they dropped the hammer, I tried to hang on until I started to go blind...I waved goodbye.

I think I crossed the line in 4th after one. About a half lap later the EFFING RIB CRAMPS came back...I had to slow a bit and once again lost a spot...I really need to figure this shit out soon!!

Anyway...I decide to push through and ride as fast as I can. A lap or so later, 6th gets by me for about a minute. He washes his front wheel and takes a dirt sample. I rolled by him as he was getting up and decided to go as hard as I can to the stairs to get a gap. I was riding down the steps on the exit of this feature where the guy chasing had to run for fear of trashing his carbon tubies. This move alone got me not quite out of reach of 6th, but far enough he would have to put in a HUGE effort to get to me.

Courtesy of Flyover Photography

The rest of the race was uneventful but painful. 6th kept me honest until about a third of a lap to go when he finally conceded the spot and put it on cruise.

I'm mostly good with how it turned out today...stupid cramps!!

Boss Cross 2 tomorrow!!

E


Boss Cross 2

I get to the venue and get ready to ride the course, which was changed up a bit. The stairs were gone in favor of a standard set of barriers...hmmm...this may make for a long day. With my inspection complete, a good warm up and stretch, I'm ready to race.

About 15 minutes to go, I see several riders circling slowly around the start area...it looked like a shark feeding frenzy! Anyway, this was my cue to roll that way. I ride around until my clock said 10 til the gun and took my spot on the line, it wasn't more than 30 seconds later the rest were rolling in for a front row spot on the grid...NO DFL!!! The start was wide today, it lead to a pretty fast sweeper to the left which lead to the sand pit, which was rideable both directions today.

Go!! The drag race to the first turn and into the pit first has begun. The start was probably 300 feet to the first left and about 200 to the sand. No one really established a lead at the start, that came right before the pit...I was praying to the gods of CX that I not bury my front wheel and take a sand sample on the first lap...I guess they were listening, no sand for me but in my shoes.

Right out of the pit I'm sitting 3rd, With Josh Taylor and Richard Hu driving it. Through the sand again on lap 1 with the order the same. As you exited the sand it turned left and onto a paved path for about 100 feet or so, also on the same left turn was the entrance to the pit...this is where I went...D'OH!!!! No harm no foul, I dabbed a foot as per the rules and got right back in line.

About halfway through the first lap the course starts to straighten out a bit, it was at this point I was thinking, why are we going so slow??? The field is gonna swarm around us any second!! This never happened, the 3 of us had gapped the field, and were riding away.

The first 2 laps were more or less the same, and it was looking like it was just the 3 of us to battle it out for 1st when the time came. Until lap 3...on the first trip through the barriers I noticed that Josh and Richard step through instead of around. I was like huh...that looks faster...I'm totally gonna do that next time through. Which I did, no worries, or so I thought. The very next time through, as I step through and get ready to run my free foot/toes hooked the ground and I go flipping...literally...

I scramble to my feet and grab my bike and take off. In the course of this adventure, 4th, who was not having a stellar day by any means. I heard him hit the ground several times behind us. Goes rollin by...at this point I'm riding again, but the seat post has twisted so I roll along slowly and twist it back with my legs, tons of ground lost. I punch it and try to get back to the wheel of 3rd, but no dice. I was on the limit from hitting the ground and just couldn't get recovered fast enough to get there...game over. 4th out of 18 is where I finished.

I spent the rest of the race in no mans land. I had a little motivation, Andy Lucas was trying to run me down, and I wasn't gonna let that happen today.

If you know me and/or have ridden with me, you've probably heard me say, DON'T THINK JUST PEDAL!! Apparently I need to take my own advice...Oh well...It would've been nice to fight it out for the top step but it wasn't meant to be. The good thing about cross, is there are races every weekend, so I'm sure I will get to do battle with those two again!!


360 cup is up next.

E

Manions Cross

Day one...

I don't know if the bazillions of peeps that read this stellar blog have ever raced at Manions. If you haven't, here's a little slice of this CX nirvana. It's on a hill, 1/3 going up, 1/3 going down, and 1/3rd traversing this hill. It's a good venue with a little bit of everything thrown at you out on course and a well run race to boot!!

Lets start with the obvious. I wanted to start on the front row, which I did. I am going to avoid lining up DFL at all cost this year. The next goal was to hit the pedal on the first try, nailed it. Those two combined had me 3rd for about half a lap. On the "big" descent, I managed to out brake 2nd and take the spot at the bottom going into a right hander. Now, I was content just following the wheel in front of me.

At this point, about halfway through the first lap, 1st looses the front in a turn and gets a dirt sample for his effort so I go around. Not really wanting to be there, I maintain the pace even slowing a bit so I'm not on the front and continue on. I roll across in third after one as planned.

I'm not sure how many laps we did, 7 or 8, but some where on the 3rd lap I started cramping under my ribs and slowed a bit, this got me shuffled back quickly...I think this is from eating a cliff bar to close to the start of the race, or not breathing deep enough, or both...anyway...I push through that and get going again.

I started racing pretty hard with 6th but he eventually got far enough out on the penultimate lap up the climb, which was a pretty steep, long, climb, followed by a 1/4 mile of the bumpiest patch of earth ANYWHERE!!! That kinda took the wind from my sail...8th came by shortly after, this did not make me happy...I get back to his wheel and as we turn for the finish line to start the final lap, he drifts wide, I dive underneath and drill it. A few turns later I look back and he was gone, a small victory.

I didn't have any expectations today because I knew it would be a tough race, mostly from a terrain standpoint and the competition too, it is masters racing after all. So finishing 7th out of 15 is about what I expected. I'm happy with how I rode and I don't think I would have done anything different...well...maybe a little less air pressure in the front but other than that I'm good with it.





Day 2

I finished 5th out of 16 Sunday. I learned from my mistakes yesterday which made for a better race. The course was run reverse of Saturday with a few changes to keep it a little safe. This made the long grinder of a climb into a high speed descent and yesterdays descent was a manageable power climb.

When the time came to line up, I was there a little early and got the spot I wanted. Once we were off and running, I settle into 2nd. The guy in 1st sat up and slowed while we were on the paved portion, I was not having this today. I grab a fist full of gears and proceed to drill it. About halfway through the first lap, four of us had a gap on the field. On the power climb, the eventual winner comes by me to take 1st. I grab some gears over the top of the climb and get to his wheel. He was able to eventually ride away from me, which left me with 2 others to fight it out for 2nd. Damn those carbon tubies!!!!

For the next 5 laps, the pace was good, I sat on the back of our 3 man race. Rolling into 2 to go, we get to the paved section and the pace drops...I should have gone around but didn't...this allowed another racer to latch on, one that we had kept at bay up until this point...we roll along to the power climb and the new guy goes blazing by all of us like we had the brakes on. No worries, we nail him back straight away.

On the last lap I'm thinkin it's time to give it a go. Mostly because if you never try you never win and partly because 6th was lurking about 12 seconds back of our group...I wasn't going to let him in at any cost. So I formulate a plan of railing inside these guys on the descent to the high speed left hand sweeper...that fizzled due to the overall group speed.

After the descent was a right hand turn that dropped into a dried up pond, momentum carried you wide onto a crappy bumpy line to the left, which for some reason everyone, except me, rode that line... I jammed on the brakes, backed into the turn and dove down the right side which was smooth and drilled to the next turn to take over the front of our group.

I led to the climb for the last time and hit it as hard as I could...which wasn't enough. The other racers got by me right at the top and created a little gap. I put it in the big ring and closed the gap to about 15 feet, which was how it stayed to the finish.

I felt much better today, and there are 2 things I would have done different. 1. Go to the front and pick up the pace when I knew it needed it. 2. make my bid for the second step a little closer to the end and NOT before the BIG EFFIN HILL!!! I think two of the guys I was racing with combined might have been as big as one of my legs...I love cheeseburgers...a bit of a rant...;)

It's a long season and Sunday was encouraging. Let the Boss Cross begin!!

E

Counting the days

The 10's of people that read this know that I'm all about CX racing this year. After all, I have a new bike to race on, my training is more or less geared toward racing CX, I have my race schedule all worked out with the first race on September 22 and I'm super stoked about it!!!

That being said...the time, as of late, has been CREEPING by ever so freakin SLOWLY!!! It has been kinda difficult lately to stay focused, but the end is near and the training will shift from weekly self induced beat downs to racing and maintaining what I've built over the last few months.

As of this post there are 14 days between now and lining up for my first CX melee of the season. I gotta stay focused for one more week...MUST STAY FOCUSED!!!

E

CX Machine

FINALLY!!! It's finished!!! My new toy is done...this is my CX machine from this day forward.

Last year I raced CX on my MTB, and people were like why are you racing on your MTB??? I had a few reasons.

1. It's the only bike I had to race CX on.

2. I don't like being like everybody else!!

3. The fact that I was on an MTB lining up with a bunch of CX bikes added a little pressure to the CX riders to not get beat by the MTB'er and a little more motivation for me to beat those guys...it made it a ton more fun for me!!

Towards the end of my stint racing last year my competitive side had me borrow a CX bike and that's all it took for me to decide to build a CX machine. At that time I didn't know what I was going to build or buy...so after a little thought I came up with the idea that a 29er frame and fork would be the way to go.

There are few reasons for this decision. The first is if I decide to race MTB again next season, there are a couple of races that a hardtail would be better to race than my dually so all I would need is a suspension fork as opposed to a complete bike...hence the riser bar...I don't think a road bar affords an advantage in CX anyway...

The other reason is I wanted disc brakes, more specifically hydraulic disc brakes, and the frames I was looking at had disc tabs but also had canti bosses and looked like ass!!! I'm sure I could have purchased a frame that was disc only, but that would have cost twice as much, definitely more than I wanted to spend...the final reason was cost...I wanted to build this machine for the least amount possible. I could have spent less but I certainly could have spent a ton more.

As it stands, I was pretty close to my target number and I think I spec'd it well. To walk out of a shop with a comparably spec'd bike would mean you spent at least $2500.00 duckets and I managed to complete this build at under half of that!! The complete bike weighs in at a tick over 20 pounds. Not bad compared to the 25.5 pound MTB I raced on last year and a bit heavier than the high dollar CX rigs that are out there, but remember, it's a 29er MTB frame and fork.

There you go now you know.

By the way...DON'T GET BEAT BY THE MTB'ER!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

E

Cyclocross....HURRY THE F**K UP!!!!

What's up peeps?!?! It's early on a day off and I'm BORED!! I'm sure the 10's of you that read this are like what the hell is this gonna be about!!!

Anyway...I've had my powertap since April and I've been training with it and doing specific workouts since May with a couple of goals in mind, one of which has come to pass, the state MTB race and the other is on the horizon, which I can assure you I will write about when it had passed. Basically all the training I've been doing is geared towards CX season...I'm about to go CRAZY from it!!! C'MON CYCLOCROSS!!!

Hopefully my rickety old ass will hold up to the abuse I'm about to put it through this CX season and I make it to December without too much breakdown...in me. I've decided that my first race will be at Manions. I've not done this one but have been to watch it the last few years and thought I should give it a go. I briefly considered doing the Hermann cross but decided against it, no particular reason other than I'm not feelin it, maybe next year.

As most of you know I contested the majority of the cx events on my MTB, the last 2 races were on a CX bike...which leveled the playing field significantly. That being said, I did have a couple of good results on my MTB, which made me happy, because I beat some pretty good CX riders, which probably didn't make them happy!! With this in mind I decided to build a CX machine for this season, and as of now I'm down to getting the wheels built and putting this carbon fiber rocket together. This will have to wait another week, because I'm headed to Crested Butte this weekend to ride in the back-country for a week!!!!!!

The frame and fork I bought is not a CX frame and fork but a 29er. It's the pic at the top, and it's a Chinese carbon frame and fork...I have to say, for $460.00 to my front door, it looks kick ass, and I couldn't buy ANYTHING that was name brand carbon for under a $1000.00, I also wanted to complete this build as close to a thousand as I could. I haven't totaled it up yet but I'm right at that or maybe a little more. Gotta love eBay!!

The main reason behind this is there are a few MTB races out there that I would race on a hardtail, very few!! So going this route, I basically get 2 bikes in one, all I will have to do is buy a suspension fork and tires and it will be a 29er MTB.

Another reason is I wanted my CX machine to have disc brakes, I know there are CX frames that are disc compatible but the have canti brake bosses on them and they are ugly, the newest disc CX machines cost too much, besides that I will have a flat bar with hydraulic brakes...WOOOOHOOOOooooo!!!! Good stoppers on my CX machine!!

It should be pretty light, 20 pounds or less. This will be a huge improvement over my beloved fully suspended MTB that tips the scales at 25...I'm all giddy just thinkin about it!!! TEEHEE!!!

E

Colavita XC

This past Saturday was round 7 of the UFD west series and my fitness seems to be going pretty good right now so I thought I would give it a go. A few pluses to this race...1. It started at 9:00am which is huge considering the weather we've been having lately. When the gun went off it was about 78 degrees, had it been a traditional start time, noon, it would've been about 90. 2. It was on a Saturday, which leaves Sunday to get recovered, which makes Monday that much easier!!

I'm a big believer in course inspection and this race was no different. I had the Friday off before the race so away I went. That was pretty uneventful until the last 100 yards of single track...I was riding fairly slow, my left pedal hit a rock which pushed me across the trail where my bar end hooked a tree and down I went...I got a little beat up, not bad though, the worst of it, and continues to get uglier, is where my bar hit my quad. I have a softball sized bruise and keeps gettin gnarlier by the day!! Here's a pic...

The good thing about this ugliness is it doesn't hurt to walk or ride so no worries!!

On to the race...I get to the venue with plenty of time to get squared away so no worries there. My warm up consisted of riding the first mile of single track and then to the start line. The promoter started all classes of experts together, of which there was 23...so much for knowing who to try and beat to the single track...The start was about 150 feet of gravel onto a grass hill which led to the single track.

GO!! As of late I've been pretty good at nailing the pedal on the first try...not this day! I think it took 4 tries on loose gravel to nail it down...so much for a good position in the single track...BAH!! I hit the woods in about 15th...LAME!!

The first lap rolls by uneventful and the train is going fast enough that I'm sort of content. The course included about a half mile section of gravel road with 2 climbs on it this led to a fairly long single track descent, which was nice!! The rider I was following wasn't rolling quite as fast as I would've like so I say to him "c'mon man, this is the easy money part we gotta go"...he kindly obliged and picked up the pace.


Lap 2...I finally got passed the 2 riders in front of me and away I went. I was starting to suffer a bit and that had me all over the trail when it got technical...this lap was by far the toughest from a stay focused and keep moving through the technical standpoint. To say I was having issues is an understatement!!

Eventually I settle into a decent rhythm on laps 3-5. I consistently turned 24:00 minutes on each lap until the last one. It dropped to 25:00...I think that's because of lappers, my left quad trying to lock up on me, and my focus going away quickly!! I managed to pull my head out and get through the last lap unscathed and dab free in the technical which made me happy!!

I finished pretty strong. Again, I had no idea where I finished until Mr. Prosser, who finished 4th, comes up and says to me "did you get your money"? I said no, I hadn't looked at the result yet. To which he replied with a smile "you finished 3rd, you put 5 minutes on me you fucker"!! I was like SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!! I had no idea!!

There you go now you know...3rd in class and as far as I can tell 7th outta 23...not a bad day at all!!

E

Tour of Lawrence

Photos courtesy of Roger Harrison

I decided to give the Tour of Lawrence another go this year, mostly because it's a pretty big race that's close to home and it has a good payout that goes pretty deep for each race. For the past 2 years I've wanted to line up in the masters race but Mother Nature put water on my aspirations...bitch!!!

So this year I made up my mind well in advance and was going regardless of the weather...which this year was dry and HELL HOT!! One of the best thing about racing masters races is it's usually the first race of the day and this one was no different. WOOOOOOHOOOOOooooo!!! Don't have to race in the hell hot heat!!!

My race started at 9:15am and it was about 83 degrees, life is good!! The high in Lawrence that day was at least 100 and the 3's race was at 2:30ish I believe...Gotta love being an old guy!!

On to the race. Just like like the Tour of KC, I was a bit nervous, mostly the usual race day nerves, and a little from lining up in a race that pays well...meaning the quality of racer would be higher and it could get brutally painful quickly...I think that had me a little spooked to ride at the front...

The race finally starts after about a 20 minute delay for cars being towed off the course. This made me laugh, it's a college town and I would be willing to bet the poor jackasses were still passed out and were going to wake up to more than a hangover!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Moving on. The race starts and it gets rolling pretty good right away. They offer a Challenge Tire prime on the first lap and Mr. Johnson, a former teammate of Steve Tilford, hired as a sprinter, proceeds to take this with relative ease.

For the most part this race rolled on pretty uneventful for me. I stuck my nose in the wind early in the race, after that it was try to stay close to the front. I don't recall ever suffering really bad...hmmm...should have launched an attack or two...hindsight....BAH!!!

Several attacks were launched but none were successful due to the strength of the field. There were 3 cash primes and each time they rang the bell, I was not in a good position to contest any of them...oh well...

The race rolls on and with 4 to go I was sitting about 20th. I decided it was time to move up and get ready for the last lap melee...with 2 to go I'm sitting about 10th as we cross the line to start the last lap. I think to myself it's time to get closer to the front, with that in mind I started picking my way through and made it to 6th with ease...That by itself surprised me because every time I wanted a gap to open it did, I have never moved to the front of a race that easily...it was great!!

Going into turn 2 I'm in 6th and the pace goes to the redline. More or less every lap before this one, the field would surge and come around any group that was driving it...not on the last lap, this made me happy!!

We get to the top of the track and I'm still in 6th, SWEEEEEEEEET!! We make a left and start the fastest section of the course. Somewhere in the last 1/4 mile 8 riders got by me...I don't really recall because we were flat out flying and I didn't think it would be a good idea to be rubber necking at that particular moment. We turn on to the start/finish straight and the sprint is on.

I managed to not get passed and not pass anybody...but I did finish 15th, right at the bottom of the payout and got my entry back, so it was a good day. Any race you finish upright and get a little mean green for you effort is a good race no matter how you look at it!!

E