USGP Finals

The final round of the USGP in Bend, OR was a few weeks ago and the blog has been on the back burner because of the holidays. 

It was a fun weekend of racing and hanging out in our giant house that Trek rented.  I raced pretty well both days and ended up just off the podium in 4th, both days.  My teammate, Mark, won both days and I had another teammate, Shannon, who was on the podium both days so it was good results for the Trek CXC.  Chris Fisher was 3rd and 2nd and had a great weekend of racing.  I ended up 5th overall in the series for 35+, Fisher was 2nd,CJ was 4th and if Roeser didn't have to miss the finals, MN would have had 4 of the top 5 in the overall.

Now is when it gets tough because there was/is 7 weeks to train for the last 2 races of the year.  Nationals in Jan. and Master's Worlds in Feb.  It will be great to be done in Feb. and then party and drink beer while watching the world's best compete for the rainbow stripes in Louisville. Trek has a big party planned for that Sunday night also so hopefully I will still be able to make my flight that Monday morning.

front row start

trying to stay warm

Mark S., teammate and overall series winner 

the backside of the flyover

Fisher and I w/ 2 to go on Sunday

Thanks to Jason Perry for the photos and to my wife for being so supportive as I travel around acting like some kinda pro bike racer.

Cross and Puzzles

I made it to Bend with only one hitch.  The first time in 2 years I have checked a bag and it did not make it.  It was delivered on Friday but luckily I packed my shoes, helmet and 1 kit in my cary-on so I could ride the course.  Here is a video.  It is a super fun course and I have call up #5.

The Trek CXC house is pretty sweet.  We are living large up the hill about a mile from the course.

After setting up the Trek team tents we rode the course for an hour or so before heading back to the house to wash bikes and shower up.  When the rest of the crew arrived we headed down for the number presentation party and had a beer and picked up #'s.  We cooked up dinner and rested up for the night.

World Cup CX and puzzles last weekend

The gang watched the Euro CX races this morning before heading off to the course and I am hanging out for the morning waiting for bikes that didn't make it on time.

Racing at 1.  Lets do it!

MN CX State Championships

Waiting for my flight to Bend for USGP final so it is a quick recap.

Saturday I had the #2 call up from my 2nd place last year and had an ok start.  I thought with my hard ride the day before I would be opened up but that wasn't the case.  I rode with the lead group of 8 all race but lost it with 2 to go.  Not the finish I hoped for but I am usually better on the 2nd day.  The crowds were awesome and I even picked up 4 $2 bills so I had that going for me which was nice.

Sunday was the 35+ race and even though my motivation in the morning was low, (I almost stayed home) I felt great once the race started.  I ended up with CJ and Fisher the whole race as I chased down all of their attacks.  They played the perfect teammates and had I let one of them go that would have been the end.  I was gapping them through the sand as I was riding it pretty fast so I figured I would attack before the sand and try and hold it. Well, my rut was destroyed by lapped riders and then this happened.  I chased and got within 5 sec. and held on for 3rd.

Now I am waiting for my flight to Redmond.  Sitting at the airport in Seattle on a 3 hour layover.

Bourbon and Horses Day 2

After ascending out of our sleep cave for coffee and breakfast, we piled our stuff into the van and were off to the course for our last day of racing.  We would not be back to the house as myself and Russell would be shuttled straight to the airport after the Elite race.

We made it to the venue in time to sneak in a lap of the newly revised course before the next race went off.  After riding, I was back at the truck to set up the "B" bike on the trainer so I could be all set for my warm up.  I spent about 10 minutes looking around before asking if anyone had seen my other bike.  It was brought back from the pit after yesterdays race and stored in the truck over night.  I checked with the guys in the pit, called a teammate that rode back to the hotel and spoke with the race director and none of them turned up a thing.  My bike was gone, crap, now I was a bit stressed as I warmed up for my race.  Matt was already on the phone lining up a replacement to be shipped out that week and had also set up his bike as my pit bike.  With about 30 minutes til race time, my teammate, Isaac, walks up with my bike and a great story. He was walking the course and sees a guy standing with my bike and quickly takes it from the guy.  The guy looks and says "hey, what are you doing?"  Isaac says "I am taking my teammates bike back, they having been announcing this bike missing for the last 2 hours and you are standing right next to the speakers!"  He says "I just borrowed that this morning!".  Well, it turns out that he had checked out a demo bike from the truck and took the wrong bike. I would have thought the name on the top tube and the $300 Dugast tubulars would have tipped him off that it was not a demo but I guess not.

After the stress of all that business, I had to hit the line for race #2.  I had a pretty good start but not as good as the day before and found myself just off the lead group.  It was really windy and I could never close the gap.  I would get within 5 sec. and then would lose it in the sand as people were running in the only rideable line so I was forced to run.  I ended up 10th but felt like it could have been another top 5 day.  Oh well.

I skipped the elite race and worked the pit and then helped with cleanup so we could get to the airport on time.  We were out fairly quickly and I was on a plane back home from another great weekend with the Trek CXC crew.  I will be back to Louisville for the Master's and Elite World Championships and hopefully my bikes will not go missing.

Thanks to Trek CXC for the great race support this season and to my wife for her encouragement and support to do it.

The land of bourbon and horses-day 1

Last weekend was the third stop of the USGP Cyclocross Series in Loooville, KY, I guess that is how to correctly pronounce it.  I flew out on Friday after work and was picked up and taken to our host house by 8 p.m.

Wonderful hosts and accommodations for the weekend

We had the basement and it was like a sleep cave and was probably more square footage than our whole house.    There were many pictures, art work, etc. that reminded us that we were in Kentucky Derby country.  It was a fantastic place to stay for the weekend.

Since I was the only one that flew in, I was not there to ride the course on Friday so when we made it to the course around 10 I headed out for a couple laps between races.  This was/is going to be the course for the 2013 Elite Cyclocross World Championships in February.  It had steps, a long sand section and high speeds, a great European style course, although it was short.  My 35+ masters race was at 1:00 and my legs were feeling pretty good.  I was called up #10 so 2nd row and I lined up behind Pete Webber, current Master's World Champ, a good wheel to follow.  I had a great start and found myself in the lead group.  I was nailing the long sand section and that is where I was putting time into people.  With 3 to go I caught the series leader, Mark Savery, who is also my teammate, and passed him for the final podium spot and never looked back.  I came across the line in 3rd for my best result so far at a USGP.  3 Minnesotans in the top 10.  Cj Faulkner-5th, Josh Roeser 8th, Chris Fisher-21st, which also put 4 of us in the top 10 for the series.

pretty sure they forgot to give us champaign

It was a great feeling to be on the podium in the Trek CXC colors.  It also meant that the pressure was on for the next day.

We hit up a great place for dinner and a beer and then it was back for some recovery time before heading to the sleep cave.

D-Day

Daddy/Daughter date day and Surly Darkness Day.  No, they were not one in the same.

Annie was gone over MEA weekend so it was daddy/daughter weekend.  There was no daycare for Thursday and Friday so I either had to find a babysitter or take the days off.  Thursday morning Aunt Aimee had her til noon and then I was off work for the weekend.  Friday was adventure day as we headed to Angry Catfish for coffee, Trader Joe's for groceries and a stop at Penn Cycle to drop off cookies for the guys.

Cappuccino for dad and breakfast for Peanut

having salad just like dad

Today was Darkness Day at Surly which keeps getting busier every year.  It started as the only way to get The Darkness but now it is not quite as exclusive since one week later you can get a bottle at the liquour store. The first 2 years I attended I was able to show up on Saturday morning around 9 am and still was within sight of the brewery.  I bought my max of 6 750ml bottles and was off to the afternoon cyclocross race. It has now grown to giving out 1500 wrist bands and this year Matt, Nate and I camped overnight to get our spot and the racing was off the list for the day.

after tents are down and the line is compacted

after getting our wrist band and time slot we headed back
to make breakfast and share beers with other beer geeks

The gates open at 11 am and the food trucks are open for business and the live death metal starts blasting.  We had the 1:30 time slot so we headed across hwy. 100 to Caribou to thaw out and relax for awhile.  The 3 of us headed in around 12:30 to get a beer and have some food before getting our Darkness.

Omar and Todd
the masterminds of Surly and Darkness Day

We were out of there by 1:30 and on our way home from my 5th Darkness Day.

Ft. Collins USGP

Ft. Collins weekend came and went pretty quickly.  It was great to see many friends from CO that I have not seen in a few years.  The races went pretty well with a 9th on Sat. and 14th on Sun.   

I had host housing with Chris, who worked at the local Trek dealer.  It was great staying with a local and hanging out with other like minded people.  He was also only 3 blocks from an friend I met while living in Durango.  

The weather on Saturday was rainy and cool so the course was a bit slick.  It was a mud tire kinda day but not muddy enough to require bike changes in the 35+ race.  The elite race was a whole different track.  It was dried up and the tires stuck like velcro.  It was my second race of the day and I rode around for 30 minutes, eventually pulling out before getting lapped.  The Elite race is more of a bonus workout than anything. 

The weather on Sunday was completely different.  It was sunny and 65 and the course was getting dry and loose.  I felt pretty good after the double effort on Saturday but only managed a 14th.  I was pretty smashed after and decided to bail on the elite race.  I had a beer and hung out at the truck til it was time to work the pit for Bjorn in the elite race.  

Jeff and Sam, the bartenders/truck drivers
3 kegs of New Belgium

The Collective has become the afterparty sponsor of the USGP so we had 3 kegs of New Belgium to serve up for anyone that stopped by.  Beers were drank, truck was packed up and the weekend was over.  I spent Sunday night in Denver with my uncle before flying home early Monday morning in time to make it to work.

Teammates: Matt, Katie, Mark

Sunday night sushi with candied crickets from Japan for dessert

Thanks to Jeremy Cook for the race photos.

Slow this train down!

The blogging has taken a back seat since the first round of the USGP's but now that I have some time with my feet up, I figured I could write something up.  I am in the Denver airport waiting for my ride up to Ft. Collins for rounds 3 and 4 of the USGP series.  I should have a 2nd row call up in the 35+ race so I will hopefully see the front end this weekend.  The Elite races are more of a bonus as they start 2 hours after the master's racing.  Maybe I can pick up some dollar bill hand ups to pay for dinner.

The train of life has been rolling pretty fast lately. The weekends have been full with local racing, relocating the service course and finding a renter for the old one.  The stress has been eased as we had a 2 year lease signed on our townhome last night.

New house

Metal CX podium-2nd

The local racing has been going as well as it can with the 3 on 1 battle I have most races.

Yea, maybe when things slow down a bit I will
get this room put together

Pain cave-with daylight fading this will be where
most of the work gets done

Thankfully the rest of the team clothing showed up before I rolled out for the airport.  With CX being such an equipment heavy sport because of the fall/winter weather it is good to have plenty of extra clothing.  Thanks Trek

On a muddy weekend, all of this clothing plus more
could be all used up plus the 20 pairs varying types of gloves

bath time in the new tub

 I guess I should probably start finding my way out of here.  I guess the trains are not running correctly and they have to run them manually?  Fred Flintstone style?  I am not sure what that means.
It sure is nice not traveling with bikes as mine made the trip out with Bjorn Selander and his Fiance.  Trek has full support out here for us again which if it turns out to be muddy it will be quite nice to have someone in the pit washing bikes.
Thanks to my wonderful family and my sponsors for these bike racing adventures.

Full Service Station

1st weekend in the new skinsuit taking the "W" at
the Franconia Sculpture Park CX

The past weekend at the USGP Wisconsin was kinda like a full service station.  Annie, Penelope and I left for Waterloo on Friday night for our wonderful weekend accommodations at the Moran's for USGP #1 in Sun Prairie.  We stopped for dinner at the Norske Nook and shortly after Penny was asleep for the night and easily transferred to the crib until morning.

Penny and Rowan 

Micah and I headed to the course to pick up our registration and check out the expo so I could find the Trek CXC set up for the weekend.  I found the team managers and went back to get my equipment from the car. This is when it became like pulling into a full service station for the first time.  You know, when you get out of the car to pump your gas and the attendant says "no, no, I got that".  It is strange because I have always done it by myself and feel guilty for having someone else do my work.   I came back and my bikes and wheels were quickly grabbed by the mechanics and checked over.  I got kitted up and they asked what wheels go with what bike. Which bike is the "A" bike and "B" bike and what pressure I wanted in the tires.  These are things I do like 20 minutes before I race so it was a fantastic surprise to have full on pro support.  I rolled a couple laps, they adjusted pressures and then went to set up a trainer only to get "no, no I will get that, get a bottle and some food and relax".

warming up

Penny with her team beanie and Honey Stinger waffles

"A" and "B" to the millimeter thanks to
Bicycle Fit Guru and bike builds by Penn Cycle

I had full support in the pits for all races and some at start and finish with warm clothing.  The 35+ races were really the focus with the elites being an added workout.  I was lined up in the cheap seats (60th) for the 35+ race and rode my way into 16th which is good enough for series points and should put me in the 2nd row at Ft. Collins.  CJ, Fisher and Roeser were 5th, 6th and 7th in the race and were also in the first 3 rows for the start with great results from last year.
The Saturday elite race I had the best possible non-UCI point racer call up with a 33rd and held pretty well at the start and slowly went backwards finally pulling out after 25 mins to save it for the next day.

Sundays 35+ race I was still in the cheap seats but started well only to have the race stopped because of a bad crash which turned into the race being cancelled.  This also meant I had no excuse not give giv'er in the elite race. I was pretty uninspired after the let down of the cancelled race but I made til 2 to go and got work done which is really all that mattered.

Trek then sponsored the after party with a DJ, frites and New Glarus beer so we hung out and gave Penny dinner so she could sleep all the way home.

It was an awesome weekend and pretty great to be treated so well thanks to Trek, Bontrager, SRAM, Honeystinger and all of the Trek mechanics and employees. Also to Annie for watching Peanut all day while I was busy racing and being pampered.

3 years

I cannot believe it has been 3 years already since I married the most beautiful, wonderful and caring woman in the world.  I have such a great family.  Happy Anniversary Honey!

Family photo for Penelope's 1st birthday

1st birthday-Belgian Style

Penelope, my beautiful, precious daughter, turned 1 on the 7th.  There was not a better way to celebrate a fall birthday than Belgian/CX style with waffles and a new bike just in time for CX season.  Oli, from the Bikery Du Nord brought the Waffle Van and served up some wonderful Belgian waffles with chocolate, strawberries, bananas and whipped cream.  He also had the espresso machine fired up.  The only thing missing was the beer.

She liked the whipped cream the most

New bike, time to start learning her dismounts

smash cake

The smash cake was very uneventful, we had to get it started and she wasn't into it.  She is definitely Daddy's girl and skips the sweets.

Hobo plumber

Apparently, that is what I look like when I am commuting to my secret cx practices.  I have an old Trek backpack that has become my pack for CX practice.  I use it to carry my portable cx barriers.

Hobo plumber backpack

I have definitely changed over to the new cycling season. The scent of embrocation is in the air and that familiar burn is in the legs.  I have already had 2 days with some top secret embrocation.  I know it has been a bit warm but I have to test it before it can be sent out to the CXC.  I am looking forward to the cooler temps so I can break out all of my cool weather clothing from KUHL.

keep it on the DL

It has been a great mtb season with KUHL and Penn Cycle and I will probably end up 2nd in the MNMBS. The last few races Dot Com has definitely made me work for it and will hopefully not overtake me with bonus points.  Brendan walked away with the season pretty handily without being challenged by anyone.

Today I turned the big 35.  Annie made me a ice cream pie and after 3 good days of training, I will probably finish it off tonight.

I also got a nice variety of dark Belgian chocolates, massage gift card, a coffee table book, belgian beers, He-Man dvd and cycling journal.  I guess not only does the cycling season change but the summer beers go away and the belgians and the stouts start to come out.

Days of Thunder

Cole Trickle. That is what the guys at Penn Cycle Minnetonka called me when I first started going to them for mechanical help.  They said I knew how to race but I had no idea what was going on with my bike.  There was even one time when they switched my brakes to moto style on my mtb and I never figured it out until somebody else pointed it out.

Well, the longer they have sponsored me, Pat Sorensen and Penn have been my shop for the past 12 years,  the more I have picked up from having Eric, Doug and Alan help me out. I am not quite Cole Trickle but I still need help on new bike builds.  I have 1 of my new Trek CXC Cronus that was built up by Guse and the other is waiting for a few parts and will be built by Doug H.  I think I should have a frequent buyers card for Pizza Luce because it seems like I have had almost one per week going over there lately.

I have been on a couple rides on the new bike and it is pretty much the same as last years. In fact, the only difference is handlebars so far. I am looking forward to pulling out the portable barriers and starting the bike practice.

I cannot believe it is only 1 week til the first TNC race.

Christmas in August?

That is what it feels like as the new stuff starts showing up for the cx season.

New 2013 Trek Cyclocross Collective team bikes

I definitely have no excuse for going slow.  The new 2013 Cronus CX bikes have been in my garage for 2 weeks but I had to wait until they announced the team to show them. Now I just need to get in to see the man, Bicycle Fit Guru, to get me fit. If it wasn't for him dialing my fit and molding my custom insoles, I would not be as fast as I am.  It is definitely worth your time to go see him.

Trek Cyclocross Collective

Aaahhhh, Fall

Hello?  Is this thing on?  Does anyone still read this?

I know it has been a long time.  It is coming into my favorite time of the year.  The Fall season.  I was married to a beautiful woman in the fall, my daughter was born in the fall, CX season starts up and all of the great dark beers start showing up.  It was also when I spent 2 great months in Europe.  The temps are starting to be tolerable and soon the long sleeve jerseys will come out of the closet.

It is starting to feel like Christmas with all of the new CX gear starting to show up.  I am getting excited for the season to start.

Annie and Penelope are gone for the week which is leaving m with too much spare time.  I am not sure what I did with my time before Penny was here.  Now when her and Annie are gone I am not sure what to do.

A new jersey just like Dad's

1st ice cream cone

Annie said to make sure I did not take too much time doing projects around the house and make sure I have some time to relax and have a beer.

I better get drinking
It has been a while since I have been through the beer closet

I am not only going to need a 3 car garage for the bikes, I will need a cellar for all of this delicious beer.

I will hopefully start making regular posts as the Fall season progresses.