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.
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.
posted by Doug!! @ 10:32 AM
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