Last weekend with 2 ‘cross days

11.18 Louisville Rec. Center
! got there early. The drive went faster than ! expected. The bad news was that my seat post wasn’t really fixed. It looked fixed, but when ! sat on it the back dropped. ! had to pull Amber’s seat post for the Jackal. The course is pretty much a bowl. Rec. center land has a big dip in the middle of the field. We went all the way around the lip and several excursions into the hole. Go in and ya gotta come out. ! did one warm up lap and thought it was pretty bad. Bumps everywhere. It wasn’t so bad at race pace though. After ! put Sara’s old wheel on the Jackal ! still couldn’t back pedal without jamming the chain. And it kept skipping. A twist of the barrel adjuster solved the back pedaling problem. Every time ! put any power into the cranks it would still skip. That really slowed me down. After the race ! went to the Full Cycle tent and had the link unkinked. She was riding well now. 1.6 miles/lap. 5 laps. Lapped on lap 4. 6.7 miles. 10.7 avg. 23.4 max. 37:54 0>170>15:45>160>22:09 37th of 41

Race 2 Confidence builder.
It didn’t start out that way. The Jackal was working again finally. The start was as far from the finish tent and parking lot and pits as it could be. 5 minutes to start my back tire was really soft and totally flat by the start. There was no way ! could get to the pit for a new wheel and back in time so ! rode the first part on the rim. Everyone else went off fast. ! was barely moving. It was ½ a mile to the pit then wheel change. ! was dead last and way behind by then. With the new wheel ! could start pushing and that is what ! did. ! attacked everywhere ! could. It really hurt, but it was fun. ! got some guys who were giving up. The 2 leaders passed me just before the start line. From the start we took a long gravel trail part way around the lip of the bowl before sweeping down into the lower part. They had a little gap when we hit the straight. Screw it. ! jumped and closed the gap. ! was right on them and could have gotten by with a little longer run. ! can turn on the afterburners if ! need to. Into the bowl it was more power and then the toughest climb on the course. They got away there. Next lap one of the Cat IIIs passed me in the same spot warming up. He went hard like he was racing. ! attacked again and blew by him. Maybe ! should get in shape for some of these. Preparing for Roth should do it. 39th of 42. 5 laps. Lapped once. 8.3 miles. 11.2 avg. 24.8 max. 44:48 4:58>170>27:36>160>12:14

11.19 Tabletop Mountain. Golden
This venue hasn’t been used for a few years. It is the state patrol’s driving course. Mostly flat and sort of smooth. Very fast. The dirt sections had good clear lines. One twisty section was after a slight downhill on the pavement. ! was in my biggest gear jamming as hard as ! could to the entry. Swing wide since it’s a 60* left turn and straighten up just before you hit the gravel on the road side. ! was hitting my max speed there. The dirt section was a backwards 3 shape. The radiuses tightened up farther through. Over 20 mph ! could just lean into it and that was enough to scrub speed off for the tighter corners coming up. ! was leaned over too far to pedal. Right, left, right, punch it. Onto the next paved section to the gravel with 2 barriers and a ditch. There was one bumpy section just past the pits after the 180 and the only really slow section was the long start straight. A slight uphill and into the wind. ! felt really good. ! tried to tuck in for the 1st run up the hill then nail the technical sections. ! need to get better starts. After the start section, we turned onto the dirt. It was mostly singletrack for the good line. Things really got strung out. That damn accordion effect. ! pushed hard. The heart monitor was reading 0 almost the whole time. The only reading ! saw was 167 briefly. ! had all the lines dialed in and was hitting them hard. And it was fun. For the first race all season ! didn’t get lapped. 18th of 29. My first top 20 finish this year. 1.9 mile/lap. 6 laps. 11.4 miles. 13.9 avg. 24.3 max. 49:11. 0:33>170>42:16>160>6:22

Race 2 This Course Rocks
While wheezing after the first race ! heard a tire explode in the pit. ! figured ! should go make sure mine were ok. They were. When ! got back to the Jackal the front tire was flat. Argh!!!!! ! patched it and it flatted again so she got a new tube. For my warm-up ! did 2 sprints up the road. ! was running 22 mph and blew by a few other guys warming up. ! lined up on the side a ways back for wind protection. One of the guys crashed hard after the start and ! hear he didn’t finish the race. ! was a little farther back than ! wanted to be when we hit the dirt. ! couldn’t quite get it together to make passes through the bottlenecks. ! kept on it. This is a faster group and ! usually go faster. One dropped chain coming into the barriers by the ditch. That was enough to let Bob Prieto get away. ! think ! was hurting more this time. Partly because it was my 2nd race today and 4th for the weekend and partly because ! was going faster. There wasn’t really anyone ! could hunt down. There was one group but they pulled over when ! came up on them. ! thought they were racing. 6 laps. Not lapped. 11.3 miles. 14.1 avg. 24.6 max. 48:16. 0>170>45:24>160>2:52. I think the HRM puts everything into the zone if it doesn’t get a real reading. It was reading 0 most of the time.

still more 'cross ! feel better now

Come back.
11.11 Veteran’s Day CX Boulder Res.

It was cool out and the course was looking fast. It’s mostly flat. No big climbs. Always a visit to the volleyball sand pit. We lined up to start and with 1 minute to go ! saw my front tire was getting soft. Damn. ! headed back to the monster truck for Amber. They started. ! had to wait for the whole pack to pass by before ! could get on the road. Then ! had to ride back to the start line and come back up. !’m slow anyways and now ! just spotted everyone ¼ mile and rode my MTB on a ‘cross bike course. ! hammered and hammered. ! liked the course. After ! got it figured out ! could sweep through the corners almost without touching the brakes. Some bumpy sections. On the last part of the last lap ! was dicing with a ‘cross bike. There was a long road section to the finish. 180* turn, short straight then 90* right hander onto the finish straight. ! started picking it up and got next to him. He started speeding up. We were haulin’ ass over the finish line. ! nipped him by maybe an inch. It wasn’t far past there to the first corner. It was marked with tape and there was pavement beyond it. No way was ! going to make that turn at that speed. ! was hard on the brakes and looking at the spectators in the way. ! just barely got stopped in time. No one moved. 25th of 30. 1.5 miles/lap lapped once. 9.6 miles, 12.1 mph avg., 27.8 max, 47:32

Race 2
! spent most of the time between races fixing the Jackal’s flat. ! parked Amber in the pit and went to the start. Joe Haulman and one of his little kid friends joined us. The little one was fast. Joe pulled out halfway. He was overheating. ! felt fast. Some of the loose corners were sketchier than on Amber with her fat tires. Still ! was sweeping through. ! got lapped midway through my 6th lap instead of the 3rd like the race before. The whole field is faster and ! was faster. ! was dicing with a Trek carbon hardtail MTB. Mostly he was wheel sucking. He could sneak by after the sand pit and hang on past the finish line. ! couldn’t get away from him. ! decided to not worry about him as long as ! could stay with him. ! knew ! could kill him in the final sprint. Half way through the last lap my front tire went squishy. ! pitted and felt it. It probably wouldn’t last the rest of the lap and no way ! could push those last corners on it. Amber was in. The guy had a big gap now and ! was slowed down. ! tried, but he was gone. Into the final straight ! attacked guy in 4th place. He answered and his chain jammed. ! kept going and beat him. Too bad he was a lap ahead of me. 40th of 46 6 laps. Lapped once. 9.4 miles, 12.4 avg., 25.2 max, 45:47. 1:01>170>28:40>160>16:02
After the race ! went to Performance in Boulder. The Jackal needed a new rear wheel and lots of tubes. ! was looking around and saw “20% off all wheels” and a Dura-Ace wheel set for $460 already marked down from about $800. Too good to pass up. Sara could use some sweet new hoops. Her current wheels would be nice ‘cross gear. So $428 and ! left with sweet wheels and 8 tubes and ! get 10% credit for Team Performance. A couple hours in the garage changing tires around.

11.12 Red Rocks Elementary in Morrison.
Another fun course. Wheels in one pit and Amber in the other. They have that damn long, steep driveway for the start. It was cold. Light drizzle when ! left the house. It got heavier as ! went West. Great ‘cross weather. ! decided since it was so cold that ! would run a lap instead of ride to see how it looked. That really warmed me up. The tourets pit looked to be the easiest !’ve ever seen it. The rest was long sweepers. Stay smooth and go fast. After the big driveway climb we went on the flat briefly around one of the classrooms then up the steep dirt hill. ! just couldn’t get the power down to ride all the way to the barriers. It felt like ! was @ 12,000’. ! was dying up there. ! could barely carry the Jackal over 2 barriers then push her another 20 feet to turn around and come back down the hill. ! could dive into the tourets pit, but could only ride about ½ way up the other side. The basketball court had a sharp corner that was getting muddy and looked slick. Then another one into the sand pit. ! could ride part of it then run and remount before ! got out of it. Around the back of the school we turned right so the climb wasn’t as steep as usual. The old course was still visible, just taped off. That actually helped me a lot. Just about every lap ! saw the wrong line and knew ! had to hit it hard to make that steep climb. Then ! would realize ! had just cranked up the power for a short hill. ! sure made it up fast. Other than the big climb to the top ! felt pretty good the whole race. 1.2 miles/lap. 6 laps. Lapped once. 29th of 33. 7.7 miles, 9.9 avg.,20.5 max, 46:23 0>170>3:21>160>43:02
Race 2
Between races ! talked to baby brother about problems at the horse farm. http://www.saddlebredtalk.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10523 ! hear it’s “all over the web”. It’s not our fault. We were delayed a few minutes. As soon as the whistle blew little sleet pellets started falling. ! had a tough time on that climb. There were still racers around me. On lap 2 on the last downhill section where it is bumpy and fast my seat post bolt snapped. It was scary. ! rode the next ½ mile standing up. Near the top of the climb before the finish line ! dropped my chain. That was scary too. Finally made it to Amber and took off again. A total of 4 laps on Amber. The 2nd and 3rd times through the tourets pit ! actually rode it all the way. First time ! did a track stand on the lip and just managed to grunt it over. Next time ! did better. ! could ride the sand too. 6 laps. Lapped once. 29th of 30. 7.8 miles, 9.6 avg., 19.5 max, 49:22 0>170>2:54>160>46:28

More 'cross

10.22 10.22 Arapahoe Ridge High School in Boulder Dave Toule Returns

Once again it snowed a lot on Thursday. It was still around Saturday morning. High temps were in the mid-40s and there were 2 races prior to my first one. That meant the line was muddy. ! mean MUDDY. Slimy. Slippery. ! was chilly before the start, but that didn’t last. The first dirt section was an inch deep and hard to pedal through. Most of the course was muddy and the off-camber 180s were a little sketchy. It was a power course for sure and kind of technical so ! couldn’t really get my heart rate up. After the 1st race ! went to the sprayer to get the Jackal cleaned up. That’s when ! discovered the busted rim on the rear Spinergy. It’s done. 1st race ! ended up 32nd of 37. 1.1 mi/lap 5 laps. Lapped once. 5.9 miles. 7.7 mph avg. 20.5 max. 46:03 0:05>170>18:17>160>27:41.

Race # 2 w/ my back-up wheel. The old tread sure didn’t help in the slime. And it was slimy. It really warmed up a bunch from the race before plus the extra race in between. It now looked like gravy. Another trip to the sprayer. Chris Grealish did the washing this time. Cleaner and cold. Headed home. 30th of 37. 5 laps. Lapped once. 5.8 miles. 7.6 avg. 22.0 max. 45:57. :05>170>18:08>160>27:44.

10.23 Interlocken grass course by JefCo airport.

This is a fun fast course. Lot’s of grass and steep run-ups. ! got the Jackal out and was putting the front wheel on her when ! found my derailleur pulleys were jammed up. They wouldn’t turn @ all. Damn you Grealish. ! loosened the bolt on one of them and it would turn. The other bolt head was stripped. She was out of commission for the day. ! would later have to drill that bolt out and put in an old one from the junk box.
! got Amber (MTB) out and went for a lap. ! should have ridden Amber yesterday in the slime and the Jackal today. ! just didn’t “feel it”. My first race started and ! was just watching. ! didn’t get any more inspired. ! watched my second race. It was fast and looked fun. Davis Phinney’s son raced Cat IV until his saddle snapped off. Daniel Summerhill raced Cat III and busted his saddle. He pulled the post and rode standing up until he could pit for a new one. Kat showed up for the girls’ race. ! think the girls have gotten stronger. She’s not kicking ass as much as last year. We hung out after her race until the Pro race ended. ! felt pretty lame about missing the race.

10.28 SWAP
Duh…no race on SWAP day. 4p was the meet for the Super Diamond bar crawl. Damn that Denny. ! estimate 15 beers and 2 jagermeisters before the show. ! don’t really remember much of the show. ! think we missed the warm up act. ! caught a couple lines of something ! recognized. Then ! felt like hurling in a trash can. It never happened. Just wanting to hurl gets you tossed out.! Wandered about in front then found my way to Jordan’s office. He was out on patrol. ! sat there in the lobby for a bit until ! wanted to barf again. They told me to get out. Kicked out of a police station. That’s something to remember. The ride home on the cruiser was treacherous. ! didn’t manage to hit anything.

10.29 Boulder Res. (! Think)
The alarm went off way too soon. ! think ! was still drunk. No way ! was going to make it to the Boulder Res. to race. ! thought about going to church instead. ! should have. ! just couldn’t get it going. Mostly spent the day in bed. Self-loathing set in. !’ve decided to skip the November beer special. After the current batch runs out !’ll be dry for a month or so. And no coffee. It’s time to really start back to training. !’m in pathetic shape.

11.4 Xylinx Cup

Xylinx is always a fun course. It’s a long drive, but worth it. This weekend’s races are part of the US Gran Prix of ‘cross. UCI points and pros from all over the country. The schedule was different. Cat IVs went an hour earlier than my usual first race time and there was no 35+ IV race. One race would have to do each day. ! got there an hour before race start as usual. Found registration and filled out my app. That’s when ! found out they were closing the race an hour before the start. ! had just missed out by about 10 minutes. So no race today. They didn’t even start them until 10 minutes late either. There were over 100 IVs that got in. It was a huge cluster. Steve Capstick said he just stood around by the first run-up waiting for everyone to go. Then it spread out. It looked like a really fun course too. ! watched a couple races then left.

11.5 Boulder Cup Fairview High School

Another Gran Prix event. A grassy course. ! made it on time and paid my $30. No pre-riding the course. ! rode around some trying to get warmed up. It was a beautiful day. They called us to staging and we just sat there for a while. 130 starters. We were to roll to the start line then start racing from there. ! was stuck in the very back. ! was last to hit the start line. No reason to push it here. The leaders were half-way around the course by now and ! was still dealing w/ traffic as well as my heart trying to explode. ! hadn’t even seen the course. ! got in front of Joe Haulman. He’s doing IVs now since the kids in his usual group are too slow and don’t go long enough. ! pulled past him on the finish straight for lap one. Then off he went. His sister never could ride away from me like that. Danielle is a Hot Tubes pro since the start of the year. ! prefer to think that he is much stronger than she is. The other option is that !’ve gotten slower and weaker. Lap 2 was clearer. ! had moved up a few spots but most of them got back by me. ! hit the finish line for lap 2 and Beth Wrenn pulled me out. $15/ lap. ! heard they pulled ½ the field.
Kat did the girls race. ! couldn’t give her feeds since it was a UCI race. She thought she was flatting before the start and rode off to fix it. ! was going to let her use my wheel. Good thing ! didn’t. On the ride back to the Monster Truck ! broke a spoke. The end jumped into the chain and jammed the rear wheel. ! skidded to a stop. Katie Compton is the US National Champion as well as World Champion. The Canadian National Champion was out there too. Those 2 girls took off and stomped the field. Katie finally got a gap and kept growing it to take the win.
Daniel raced juniors. Alex Coelho is the series leader. Daniel got a weak start to the series. He’s focusing on Worlds. Those two took off together and battled Daniel finally ran away for the win. And he got to kiss Miss Colorado on the podium.
The pro race was wicked fast and really impressive. Ryan Trebon is leading the series. He had handlebar troubles so he switched bikes. That one flatted. Another switch. Now the bars were in the wrong place. He stood in the pit while the adjustments were made. Then out on the warpath. He had dropped way behind. The top 3 were working together and hauling ass. Trebon cranked it up. With only 3 laps to go he was into 4th place. Still about 20 seconds behind. He pulled out more power and started closing the gap. By the finish straight all 4 were together. All the spectators lined the fence to see the sprint. Trebon didn’t have quite enough. He finished 4th. You should have been there.