I thought GA’s sucked ass.

Ok, perhaps not the course. and perhaps not the race promotion and the social-niceness, no… I sucked. Just didnt have it. Of course, the course was built with all my weaknesses in mind-or it appeared to be-with off-camber single-track, high-speed sand traps & turns….ugh. And of course, my shifter decides to call it quits mid-race.

That being said, it was nice to be out in the mud riding hard. Since the shifter went down, I swapped bikes for the Evershed, which was a little undergeared here, overgear there, and way too clean.

Stole this from SSThis from MM

Hint: Look for the only dork going drive-side

BASP #1 @ McLaren Park, photo courtesy liveplayride

- Nick in SF

This was easily my favorite course of the year so far. It had a monster climb that you could barely ride up, lots of off camber, some 180s, a nice downhill, some evil-ly spaced barriers, a couple of nice little runups, just enough recovery stretches, and the weather cooperated to bring along some muddy cyclocross condititons. The promoter did a great job of making it an event, with brats, beer, a nice fire to warm up by while watching the race, and some sweet swag to keep everyone around for a while. Good turnout, lots of spectators, lots of people to catch up with, and some great racing action. Chip timing made for quick and accurate results.

Crossniacs were well represented with CJ, Jared, Nate, Ladric, Guy, Erik, FPA and more. CJ was 1st and Jared 2nd in the 35+ race and Ladric was 2nd in the 45+ race. This was a tough course, but the best time I’ve had on the ‘cross bike so far this year! Crossniacs can be proud.

Crossniacs were two strong at Sherwood.  Brian and myself (Jim) fought out in our respected categories.  Course was designed around the horse facility, through a pasture, down alot of single track, which made passing challenging.  A decent that made my bike and teeth chatter that seriously at one point i thought something was going to break.  And by popular demand to end a 2.1 mile lap why not have two vicious uphills????  OurCrank Bros. pedals worked flawlessly but i wish i could say the same about my gas reserves.  Dr. Butts sent me a very nice pre race food schedule, and hopefully that helped… Awesome turnout, ~100 + competitors in each category again…very crowded at times. Nice place to race, some horse poop ?  yes, but getting away to race with friends…= Priceless. As you can see in my pic, i sweated a bit…Out from Oregon…Jim

Local news coverage link: http://www.kgw.com/video/index.html?tn&nvid=408426&shu=1

Last week I noticed that my ‘Trebon’ used Dugast tires were showing some wear. They had tuffs of material tasseled out the sides and rubbing on my brake pads. I sent out for some advice. It seemed I could just deflate them, cut off the extra bits sticking out the side and then re-seal the edges.

I let them sit over night with high pressure.

Saturday: Baker Orchard. The ground was firm but I feared my tires failing on me so I kept the pressure high. I got a good start and tucked behind Hollywood on a SS for the first lap which pretty much cooked my engine. My tires were much too hard and it was like riding a washboard. My forearms and lower pack were killing me. I managed to for 2^nd place.

Sunday. Hudson. Not wanting to suffer again, I let the pressure down to my normal cross psi. Everything was looking peachy and a first place was at hand thanks to Paul K also rolling his tire (twice) until the start of the bell lap when my rear Dugast just gave up the race and rolled off and fell apart. I now had to run a football field through the double back sections, towards my pit bike, then past my pit-bike (how cruel is that) back halfway down the field again, over the barriers and back to the pit. I was toast. During that run the chasing group gleefully past me. I finished 6th.

Ladric

This race was like a time trial for me: there was no hiding a lack of fitness behind technique or tactics. Many people in my field slid out of some off-camber or turns, or dropped chains at the back barrier, but the rest of the race was a power grind through the grass. I stayed upright the whole race, but the fitness wasn’t there. I kept it honest at the back by holding off one guy who was slowing catching up, and catching the guy in front of me.
This was only my second race in MN this year, so it was great to see teammates and friends again, and my parents were in town from Des Moines and watched as well. Pics are from my stepfather. Weather was nice, if a bit windy. Oh, and the new kits? Way awesome! Way to go FPA!
It was awesome watching CJ battle it out with Little Guy. He’s been on fire this year! Looks like he even stayed upright through the barriers this week too!

I had the chance to head south for a high school reunion, and took that opportunity to race near milwaukee and chicago.

I raced in Milwaukee and sucked, and then was too hung over/exhausted from a night of dancing, to make the race time in Chicago-which sadly-was a goal of mine… But so was dancing with like a bandit with hot classmates like it was 1989.

I mention these races because I noticed the following: WI has a far better cross culture. Perhaps its the beer. Chicago’s race had a low turn-out and was lacking the emotional energy that a good race needs.

kinda a dumb post. But something to read instead of work. So, bite me. ROSS

The days are getting shorter and I’m finding myself on the trainer and rollers more often, as I’m sure the rest of you are. I figured I’d put up a few of my go-to playlist selections for anyone who might be looking for help preserving their sanity during indoor workouts.

- The Casbah, KSYM 90.1 FM, San Antonio
- Anything on FM 94.9, San Diego, but especially Swami
- mixes off Voodoo Funk
- Mishka’s Keep Watch mix series
- everything on SomaFM, San Francisco
- Sonica 95.2, Ibiza

Anyone else got some leads on good music to make the trainer sessions more bearable?

-Nick in SF

My best race of the season! Matt was kind enough to give me a lift to Marin yesterday morning (thanks dude) and I think we were both anticipating a mud bath. I mean, how could you not after seeing this the day before?

We got to the venue around 11am and found that the course had almost completely dried out. There were a few spots that were still a bit slippery, but for the most part the course was either completely dry or satisfyingly tacky. Our race wasn’t until 3pm, so we spent the next few hours watching the racing (Josh Snead murdered everyone in the Men’s A race from the gun), scouting the course, and feeling bad for being on our feet and in the sun when we should have been sitting down in the shade.

Finally, after hours of waiting, it was time to race. I got an okay starting position a few rows back, but it wasn’t okay enough - some guy went down in front of me within ten seconds of the gun, of course. I slammed on the brakes early enough to stay upright and ride around the fuss, made the front split and pounded on the pedals for the next fifty minutes. The legs felt good, the course was awesome and the hecklers mostly left me alone (I nailed all my remounts so they didn’t have anything to make fun of). The only bad part was coming through the start/finish line on my second lap and hearing “SIX TO GO!”… Are you telling me I have to run up that stupid hill SIX more times?!? That seemed like a bit much. Turned out they let us race an extra ten minutes since we were the last race of the day. Still not sure if that was a blessing or a curse.

-Nick in SF

This weekend I decided to race both Sat and Sun for the first time this year. Sat was pretty much a strong man course. The only real drawback was that it was really bumpy. It had alot of fast sweeping corners that you could just rip if you were comfortable not touching the brakes and just rolling through them at speed. We also rolled through a 100 year old barn, that was pretty cool. I made a huge effort right from the whistle to go really hard and stay with the “fast” guys for as long as I could. It paid off cause though I didn’t stay with them (see the picture in the previous post), I was with them long enough that they literally towed me away from the race behind. Once I face planted on the barriers it was recover and hang onto my position. 1st in the 35+ and 6th overall in the A race.

Hudson was a much different course. It was twisty and turned allover the place. Alot of fun and really well done given the space they had to work with. Got a pretty good start and the race started breaking up into groups right away. I ended up in a group with Dan C, Matt W, Little Guy, and Chris Fischer. It was a hard working group that started pulling people back and popping people off. Casper and Matt W eventually got away and Matt Allen and I rocked it together pretty much the rest of the race. Dan bonked hard towards the end of the race (it was his 2nd race of the day, he did the SS too) and I got back around him for 1st in the 35+ and 7th overall in the A race.

I’m having alot of fun with cross this year. Love getting to the races early and cheering on my friends and then going out and throwing down with my other friends. Cross is Boss guys.
cj