It was surprisingly warm and sunny in Prunedale on Sunday - no arm warmers, embrocation or base layers required. Even the CA natives like me were freaking out! The course was SUPER technical and went over a lot of hardpack singletrack, and passing was confined to two small strips of asphalt and a manicured out-and-back that ran through a baseball field. There was a little bit of everything, except for mud; it was dry as a bone out there, especially once you got out into the chapparal on the far side of the course. My legs felt good and I had an okay ride, but mentally I was a bit scattered. I tried to muscle my way through the technical sections and was generally riding sloppy, and even got punked by a log barrier. I did make it across the finish line in one piece though, which is more than two other guys in my race were able to do - they crashed hard on seperate off-camber sections and had to go to the hospital, one of them by helicopter (get well soon, guys).

So how nice was the weather, really? Well, I had snagged a spot next to two Highway 68ers in the parking lot and when I finally got back to the car after the race they were sitting in the bed of their pickup truck, wearing t-shirts and sandals and drinking beer like it was 4th of July weekend. I even got a bit sunburned. Nuts. Seriously, any description I could give of how nice the weather was wouldn’t do it justice, so just check out the pics (MASSIVE THANKS to all the kick-ass photographers who document the scene out here).

- Nick in SF

courtesy of Steve.Anderson (hope the ankle heals fast!)

courtesy of liveplayride

courtesy of Rick Rasmussen

Saturday 10:00 Basset Creek at the MN states course.

The world’s largest ‘cross series (www.CrossCrusade.com) wrapped up this past Sunday with a romp around the Washington County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro, Oregon. The weather was cold and foggy but no rain to be seen. The course, was flat, long and riddled with chances to contract diseases. Who ever thought that running a race through/around horse livestock stables in the Fall/Winter was a great idea should be shot…and then buried in a horse’s stable.

Either way, Jesse Lopez (J-Bone) raced his enormous carcass in the Clydesdale category, Guy Smith (Smitty) is gonna rest up for the rest of the season and I (Buddhabelly) have decided that racing Single-Speed is where it’s at. Unfortunately racing my Trek 820 Antelope commuter was the worst idea…5 dropped chains and zero frame clearance for tires made for a very exhausting race.

 3 more local races are left:

(1) Kruger’s Crossing Cyclocross - how can you deny the almighty corn maze? www.PortlandRacing.com

(2) Toyota Portland Cup - USGP stops by in December for 2 days of racing at the Portland Int’l Raceway. www.USGPcyclocross.com

Here’s a pic of my run through the rodeo arena at the fairgrounds kicking up e-coli laced water (or what passes for water).

(Please note the buddhabelly…err, the Erik Zabel method of stomach/diaphragm breathing)

I decided to use the 30 minute race as a warm-up for my race. Sounded like a good idea at the time. I forgot one important point - the dudes in the 30 minute race would be going full speed. While I was taking my time strolling up the stairs, a rider came charging past me & clipped my back leg. I caught my right leg on the stair under me, but my body fell to the stair below. I heard/felt a POP & then my right hip was on fire. I stopped racing & looked for Jayne (My wife - who just happens to be a very talented massage therapist). She did her best to get me back on the bike, but my hip was really messed up. Done for the day!! :-/

I stuck around & got some pics & video of the 3rd. & 4th. race. The fans at the stairs were insane. I haven’t seen anything like it in Minnesota.

Eric S.

Here are the links to the pics & the slide show - the video may take a while to load.  Feel free to download what you want.

Slide Show:

http://flickr.com/photos/14375471@N08/sets/72157609186092298/show/

Photo Set:

http://flickr.com/photos/14375471@N08/sets/72157609186092298/

Mikey P - Bronze, Wah - Silver, Dan Casper - Gold

In a word: Frustration.

I got to the course nice and early so that I would have plenty of time to warm up. My race was at 5pm and by the time I got to the staging area the flood lights were already being fired up. I snagged a halfway decent starting position this time, about four or five rows from the front.

First thing the ref says after calling up the top 10 and letting the group fill in behind (I’m paraphrasing): “TAKE IT EASY GOING INTO THE FIRST TURN. It would suck if your race was over before you even hit the dirt. Get down the straight and through the first turn cleanly, then go ahead and race it out.”

You’d think people would take this to heart and make an extra effort not to half-wheel each other . . . but no, two guys touched wheels within fifty yards of the start and went down right in front of me. I locked up the rear wheel and left some rubber on the asphalt, but I managed to stay upright and swerve around them. I actually ended up with a decent position after that because the guys who crashed were near the front and I was one of the first people to come around them. It didn’t last though - two other different people crashed in front of me on each of the up-and-overs on the back side of the course and I ran into the back of both of them. In the time it took me to pick myself up off the ground and untangle my bike TWICE, a large chunk on the group that was behind me had scooted past and most of them I never saw again. I spent the rest of the race working my way up from the back of the field and actually rode well, but to say that I was pissed with the events on the first lap would be the understatement of the season. To add insult to injury, the judges missed my number as I came through the finish (”because it was dark”) and left me off the results!

YouTube here, pics here; photo below courtesy Cyclocross Magazine.

- Nick in SF

Anyone interested in racing this coming weekend in Milwalkee?
cj

The season officially ended for Minnesota today. The course was awesome and pre-riding it, it suited me. Power course with a tricky sand section. I rode the sand a couple of times and couldn’t make it. My aero riding position with being in the drops was putting too much weight on the front tire. I tweaked the position and went into the sand really fast with no weight on my hands and put them on the hoods and rolled through it. I did it 10 more times in warm-ups to dial it in. The A race had 40+ guys in it. Everyone comes out for states. I got a horrible start and had to run the sand the 1st time because it was a cluster and then got into a groove and started chasing down the pack. I went from group to group and hooked up with Mikey P and we worked together and got into a group of 4 of us and we hooked up with Super* a few laps later. So we had 3 crossniacs and then the fun started. I attacked a couple of times to try to break up the group because it seemed like the only guys working were the 3 of us. The attacks cracked the group into 4 again and Mikey and I worked over another 35+ guy in the group…he was strong and a serious threat. With 1 lap to go I attacked the group on the stairs and opened a gap and never looked back….I crossed the line and soon after Mikey P rocked the next place. It is so much fun working as a team in cyclocross. I ended up with the silver medal and Mikey P took the bronze in the 35+. Good work. 12th overall for the day. The coolest part of the race was the stairs - there were a few laps when both sides of the stairs were packed with people and they were yelling and drinking beer and chaos…they only left a little bit of room on each side..it was like alp du huez tour de france style…thanks everyone for the encouragement on the course…it really helps

It is frustrating for me to watch, yes. However I really enjoyed screaming for you guys and watching the races unfold. You are good peeps and great teammates. Now keep training for Natz.
cj