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.