Last weekend I did get out and ride (cx on Saturday and road on Sunday), but I have been pretty swamped by closing on and then moving into a house. So far I have been 3 nights in the house and so far so good.
Last Thursday, a bunch of guys from my team (Memphis Velo / Smith & Nephew) met a socialized with Floyd Landis. He was in town with Smith & Nephew (our sponsors and the manufacturer of his successful hip replacement). We all met in mid-town at Celtic Crossing. Ate some food, drank a few beers, and hung out. I didn’t stay too long since I was closing on my house the next morning.
These are a bit old, but I just got these. Brian Anderson (Pro Bike) was up at DG along with Lauren Edwards… he took these photos (Andrea and Lauren were busy warming up for their race). He managed to snap a few pics before I was unceremoniously dropped.
Today, we again spent the afternoon working on refinishing a bunch of furniture for the house.
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While taking these photos off my Blackberry, I found some from last Friday when a ton of people in Memphis lost their mind and all decided to get gas at the same time (on news of Hurricane Ike refinery disruptions)… the run on the pumps was its own cause of disruption… (and it has happened again in Nashville this weekend). It is really disappointing that people over-react to stuff like this… and how, in general, people fail to grasp gasoline prices (and how little drilling ‘our own’ oil has much to do with gas prices).
With the end of the race season suddenly providing a nice chunk of free time (at least until ‘cross season heats up), it is time to get some things done. The big one for me, of course, is moving into a house for the first time. As a part of it, Andrea and I spent this afternoon refinishing a table and 4 chairs (since I don’t get the house until next week anyway).
Here is a quick photo rundown of the project.
Start with 4 chairs and table that have been outdoors (in Memphis) picking up humidity, etc.
Wash them down with bleach and then soap, then rinse. Pat dry.
Andrea sanded the table…
I did the chairs… (after hand sanding the first one, we went out and I bought this B&D Mouse sander…this thing is one of the best $25 I have spent.)
After de-dusting, we hit them with the first of several coats of polyurathane. These are going to look good when they are done!
I skipped a number, so I am making up for it now….
These are some photos that showed up on the internet (link) from the Cat 3 race @ Pepper Place… I cropped them to make them more interesting…
the above photo is early in the crit … when it was still daylight.
this was later on when I was trying to bridge up to the leaders.
this is when Tria rider Leonard Moon (left) bridged up to me…unfortunately, we were caught after another lap….
After racing down in Birmingham this past weekend finished off my road season for 2008 (which ended up being a great race for me despite not finishing high up or in the money–I raced very aggressively…. races are always fun when you are able to slip away for a while).
So with that, it is time to mix it up. Yesterday, Andrea and I took Turbo (her Belgian Malinios) out for a quick 25 minute run at Shelby Farms. The duration was about right since I have not run (except for 2x in Estonia in August) since probably last Fall.
So today, I returned to Shelby Farms to ride the relatively easy single track Tour de Wolf trail. This trail is pretty moderate so it lends itself well to riding my ‘cross bike. I dusted off the Ridley and hit the trail. Getting back on the trail after 1000’s of miles of road riding takes some getting used to, but I managed to not flip over or hit a tree. Towards the end of the ride, I went out to the horse jumping area to drill some dismounts. I don’t think I have done a dismount / remount since January at speed. I have a lot of work to do. … After some October practice races, I will start racing again in November either up in Nashville or waiting to the Mud Island race (Outdoor’s, Inc Tenn. State Championship race).
Last night I set my alarm for 10 to midnight (yes, I am normally sleeping at that time) to pre-register for cyclocross nationals. Between snoozing and a small delay getting the Wi-Fi to reconnect, I put in my registration and got in 16th…. It would be really cool if that (like last year) is the start order. (As previously mentioned, it might be random.) By the time I layed back down, there must have been 200 people registered in several categories and about 35 already in mine (Masters 30-34).
Returned to Birmingham again this year for the 2nd annual Pepper Place Crit. This year it was a bit different since my races were running in the dark.
In the cat 3 crit, I felt really good and generally could move up pretty easily. I jumped off the front with 15 minutes to go and I was away for about 3 laps, first alone then with another. In the end we were caught, I ended up 11th.
(Andrea got this one shot from a dark part of the course. This shot was taken right as I was being absorbed by the field. We didn’t take too many photos since my race was during her warmup and her race was during my getting ready for my second race.)
In the 123 race, I also felt good. It was fast but at least the whole field knows how to corner. I bridged to a break of 5 or 6 about half way in, but we were pulled back. At 3 to go, I bridged to a chase group of 2, with 3 up the road. They weren’t working well (they attacked out of the turn 4 instead of working together), and we were reabsorbed with 1 to go. With the big ramp up of speed on the final lap, I finished just off the back of the field in 29th.
Tomorrow morning Andrea and I plan were going join a group ride here to ride with Floyd Landis, but it ended up being canceled (or at least delayed) so we just drove back to Memphis this morning.
I felt tired coming into this weekend, but it ended up working out really well. A great way to cap off a season. I plan to start cyclocross again in early November. For now, I will run, ride my bike for fun, and move into my house. That should make October a good month. Tonight is the open of the registration for Kansas City cyclocross nats. I will pull the trigger on the Masters 30-34 field again tonight. Last year I signed up late and had a bad grid spot. This year, the grid spots are “drawn by lots, which is determined by order of registration”. I am not sure what that means since it is saying two things at once, but I won’t take the chance.
I was surprised this morning when Andrea sent me a link to the sports article in the Oak Ridger online edition:
The photo was taken by a photag from a low angle right out from the start (guard house right behind).
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On Monday night, I decided to go ahead and register for my final (road) race for 2008: The Pepper Place Criterium in Birmingham, Alabama. I did this race last year as a Cat 4 and in a moment of insanity (or genius), I signed up for both the Cat 3 and the Cat 123 races. The 1-2-3 race will be in the dark (starts at 8:50 pm) with only a few lights setup to guide the way through the corners. Some of the bad pavement on the backstretch has been fixed, so it shouldn’t be too bad… plus I am racing Cat 3 in daylight a few hours before, so I will know the course. Dealing with the speed…we’ll have to see.
In the crit there were many attacks from the start. I had a classic bad start (flubbed clip in) and was strung out during the first lap. It took a few laps, I was able to move up in the field. After several (failed) attacks by me and some successful attacks by others, there was lead group of 3 up the road and another 4 chasing behind them.
Late in the race, I tried one more time to bridge up attacking up the hill between corners 3 & 4.
With about 7 or 8 laps to go I was stuck between the field and the chase group with 3 and 4 in those groups. After a couple of laps, an old teammate of mine (from my Chattanooga days), Tom Knopp (Economy Honda) bridged to me and gave me a much needed rest. We worked to increase our gap over the pack and picked up a Fondo rider that fell out of the chase group.
During the last lap, Tom gapped and dropped us and I ended up pulling the chase group rider to the final corner. We needed to keep the speed up and the field was right behind so I had no choice.
Ended up 9th in the crit and 6th in omnium. Almost made my $84 entry fee back.
Andrea had a pretty good weekend winning the TT, 2nd in the RR, 3rd TT, and 2nd overall. She also finished out the tbra season by securing the womens 1-3 TBAR jersey. That was the reason we made the trip but it ended up being a good weekend for both of us. I needed some more results in cat 3. Not awesome results, but hard earned, so that makes a ninth feel good!
Pepper place is next weekend, then it is time to hang up the race wheels for the year. Cross is only a few months away, but it will be nice to take a couple of weeks to just ride.
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I posted up crit photos from the following: [Cat 4] [Cat 3] [Women 123]
I haven’t been exactly on form since my Estonia trip a few weeks ago. The last week or so has been a bit crazy with work with the additional load of buying a house (I expect to close by the end of September). The main reason I even went to Oak Ridge this weekend was in support of Andrea’s quest to seal up the Womens 1-3 TBAR jersey (she had a lead, but needed to get another RR in to make sure).
Time Trial – 8 miles. The event was an out and back TT on Bethel Valley Road which is actually a closed road within the secure complex in Oak Ridge. This meant the road had little traffic and good pavement. The original distance was 14 miles, but they shortened it to start at the Portal (guard shack) and use a roundabout as the turn around. I was pretty tired (we rolled into Oak Ridge after midnight the night before and my TT start was 8:20am). Despite this, I managed to roll a pretty good TT (for me) which was good enough for 3rd of 7 (small field).
Road Race – 66 miles. The lack of sleep Friday night was my big concern acoming into the hilly road course. Because of the small Cat 3 and P12 fields, they combined us for the road race. As expected, this increased the pain. Right out of the neutral zone, a group of 7 to 8 (mostly 3’s) jumped off the front. The rest of the field chased and I tried to save my strength for the two big hills on each lap. As we hit the bigger one about 10 miles in there was some hard attacks and the field strung out and I was put off the back. I chased and chased, but the rear of the field was chasing hard and I was losing time to the chase. By the second hill I caught up with a dropped rider. We worked together and pulled in another a bit later. By the start of the 2nd lap, we were 4. After the big hills on the 2nd lap, one dropped off quickly, so we continued on as 3. We lost another that pulled out of the race at the end of the 2nd lap, so it was two. After the descent of the big hill on the last lap, I rode away from the last guy (he must have just sat up, I had 300 feet when I noticed that I was alone) and finished out the lap alone. The main reason I bothered to ride it out, is that omnium scoring was 20 deep (and double points for the TT & RR), so even the 11th place was worth getting. This puts me in 5th place for the omnium going into the crit (only single points).
