roadcx.net

My brother/sister-in-law gave us a digital picture frame… I decided to start pulling together a bunch of photos. The first theme is 2008 road season… 1-2 photos from every race that Andrea and I raced (and had photos of). Sorry about the random order… I noticed it after I posted, but decided to leave it like that.

Photos are from Ride to Live, Tour de Tuscaloosa, Mississippi Gran Prix, Chattanooga Georgia Cup, Sunny King Crit, Highland Rim, Tour of Arkansas, Tulsa Tough, Edgar Soto Memorial Crits, Smith & Nephew / Marx & Bensdorf GP, Tour de Louisane, Allanti/Bike Peddlar Crit, Downer’s Grove, BMW Omnium/River Gorge Challenge, & Oak Ridge Fall Classic.

Andrea had road/crit wins at:

• Ride to Live @ Leeds, Alab.
• Edgar Soto Memorial Downtown Crit @ Nashville, Tenn.
• Tour de Louisane TT, RR, Crit, & overall @ Covington, La.
• BMW Omnium crit @ Chattanooga, Tenn.
• Oak Ridge Fall Classic TT @ Oak Ridge, Tenn.

She picked up the Tennessee State RR jersey (1st in Tenn) and the TBAR points jersey. She also took the SEW series overall. I really couldn’t be more proud of her.

Meanwhile, I had a decent season as I settled into life as a Cat 3. I didn’t get the results that I wanted in 2008, but expect to change my top 15 type placings and improve them this year.

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I am building up a new ‘cross steed in the coming weeks. It is going to be half-step to my no-compromise 2009-2010 rig. All carbon Ridley X-Fire frame, SRAM Force + Red crank (I have one sitting on the shelf due to the FSA SRM upgrade), Thompson seatpost/stem, Frogleggs brakes… Next year will see carbon rims + tubulars. Will it really help me win? Probably not, but it couldn’t hurt. BTW, I am looking to sell my Cannondale…

Well today life will get back to normal, as much as it can be. My brother, his wife, and my mom were all here for xmas. Andrea was as well, but left the day after Christmas to go to Dallas for training camp. The last couple of days I have been playing tourist with my family checking off those places that locals (even new ones) don’t normally go.

Day 1: Rendezvous for lunch, Memphis Mojo tour by Backbeat Tours.
Day 2: Panera Bread for lunch, Sun Studio, and Brooks Museum (just public part).

Day 3: Graceland and then Corky‘s for late lunch.

Day 3 got off to a slow start since we heard in the morning of my grandfather’s passing. He was a week shy of 89. It was good that we were all together and that my mom’s flight was today anyway.

As my mom flies back and my brother + wife + 2 dogs drive back to Wisconsin, it will be an empty house until Andrea gets back next Sunday.

Here is what a dual-cycling house looks like with one away and the number of bottles in-use slows way down…

There is not space for another single bottle in the cupboard.

At least the dogs will be able to rest now… having two other dogs in the house multiplied the amount of activity by 4 probably.

He will be missed.

Two hundred in the bag… here are a couple more photos from the race at MLK park on Sunday.

The paradox of MLK park. A nice old city park surrounded by the ghetto and industry.

Robbie on the third lap…

Cal and Chase. I am visible in the background nursing my flat tire.

The nasty run up… I am just ahead of Jarret trying to claw past Chris after doing a wheel change at the start of this lap. Where the cones were was a deep pile of leaves…nothing like turning sharp into a run-up in deep leaves….

This is the scene I expected…

The park is a great layout for a cross race and the course was a good one. Great job Josh, Joel, and anyone else that was involved.

After a while, it is clear that one has been doing something for a while when you approach milestones like 100, 200, etc. I started this blog back in April 2007, which although not that long ago means that I have a built a thing that starts to look like something. Yesterday, I changed my banner image since the old one was nearly 1 year old (it was shot from the 2007-08 Tennessee state CX championships back in January).

I changed it to the following (which is still above if you are reading this post in the near future).

This photo is from the 2nd run-up at the nationals course last weekend at KC.

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Since coming back from nationals, I have pretty much had another heavy volume schedule.

• Sat. Raced Masters 30/34 (~40 minutes)
• Sun. nothing. Spectator and drove back to Memphis
• Mon. 4 hours with a good bit of tempo work.
• Tue. off (my birthday)
• Wed. lifted at lunch, 1 hr trainer ride (2×15 minute sub-threshold int)
• Thurs. 1 hr trainer ride (easy)
• Fri. lifted after work. 25 minute run (street)
• Sat. 4-1/4 hr ride (3×10 minute sub-threshold int)
• Sun. 50 min CX race. 3 hr ride (windy…ended up being a lot of tempo)

By this morning, I felt like someone had mugged me. My body was drained and sore (I have stepped up lifting now that natz is done), but I decided to go ahead with the practice race this morning at MLK park. It was a low-key event, but enough firepower showed up to make it tough.

So, here is the rundown. First of all it was cold. If it was 32F, I would be surprised. Made the course recon pretty miserable, but during the race it was fine. Got a good start (hole shot) and led the group around the first 1/3 of the course. Robbie, Cal, Chase, and I were the one in the mix. About 1/2 way though the course, the course went through a gazebo with 4-5 concrete steps in and out. The in was obvious to me…run up.

The gazebo was big enough that you could remount and then ride down the stairs… which turned out to be a bad move…on the 2nd lap, I burped out some air from my rear (tubeless) tire and was forced to ride it until I saw Andrea again (see link for why). On the 3rd lap through the gazebo (where she took this photo), I told her to get my other rear wheel out of the car… so she ran back and got it… When I got back to where the course was closest to the parking area, I had to wait 20 seconds for her to get it for me, but it allow me to continue racing (the tire went down to 10-15 psi I found out later at home when re-inflating it). By then, Robbie was way ahead, Cal/Chase were up the road, and I got passed by Chris and Jarret when I was getting my wheel changed.

[Jarret and I on the run-up (I'm on the left)]

I rolled a lot better after having a rear tire again and passed Jarret and Chris again after a hard lap of effort, but could not reach Chase or Cal. I ended up in 4th place. Not the best day of racing but a great training day.

[Cal & Chase on the run up]

[Robbie ran away with it today... Time for upgrade? ]

Next race is the Columbia double #1/#2 on January 3rd/4th. In the meantime, I need to continue training for the 2009 road season. Need to get those miles in now so I can build on it with some intensity in Feb/March.

Now that I have my Garmin 705 for a few months, I am starting to flesh out the map of places to ride in/around Shelby County. In the summer, this will fill in some more.

I have started to post up some of the photos that we took this weekend. Andrea and I drove back from KC yesterday and got home pretty late. I will link what I have finished as I finish them…for now, we are going on a long ride on the road since I already took today as vacation from work.

• 12/12/2008: KCCX US National Championships (Kansas City, MO) [Women 30-34/35-39]
• 12/13/2008: KCCX US National Championships (Kansas City, MO) [Men 30-34]
• 12/14/2008: KCCX US National Championships (Kansas City, MO) [SS] [Elite Women] [Elite Men]

Katie wondering what the hell.…… at this point she had a healthy lead. (Keep in mind it was <32F and windy)

Trebon before laying down the race winning attack. Johnson (#1) follows behind closely.

Most of the elite men were inches from this post, some even leaned into it.

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Here is a flickr album from a photag that snapped photos most of the weekend at the top of the course: [Lantern Rouge FLICKR ALBUM]

This morning I lined up with a group of 65 others for the Masters 30-34 national championship race.

I had a good start position (2nd row) and had an okay start (my helmet is visible above blue/white jersey’s shoulder on the right side), but started to lose a bunch of places as my rear tire burped air about a 1/3 of lap in … by the time I got to the S/F road section, I was riding with basically zero pressure… I got Andrea’s attention to get to the pit to give me a bike change. A 1/4 lap later, I was in the pits and we did a pretty good bike change (considering we have never practiced it). I was aboard my Cannondale and tried to make up lost time, but only pulled back a few… Andrea got my rear tire reinflated in the pits and I did another change at the last time by the pits on the 2nd lap.

After that, I was pretty much on my own trying to pull back as many as I could. On my last lap, the leader came by 1/2 way through the lap and then 2nd/3rd passed me right before the end of the lap. I was pulled as the race was getting 1-to-go. Disappointing, but pretty good considering how slow I was riding with a low tire. The repeat winner is a pro rider on the road and most of the field are 1/2′s I am sure. I couldn’t find a result, will update when I find out.

Andrea took a bunch of photos of me. I will put some more when I get home since the photo uploading thing is not working so well from the hotel.

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Update: I ended up 40th of 55 finishers (64 starters). They marked me as “two laps down” which is an overstatement since I was pulled just as everyone was finishing up their 2nd-to-last lap. Oh well, I probably could have made it to do a final lap if it weren’t for the lost time. I am sure I would have still gotten lapped.

Andrea and I finished the drive into Kansas City this morning after over-nighting again in Columbia, Mo. We got to the race venue around 10.30 am, picked up our race numbers and got setup to ride when the course opened at noon.

When we got on the course, it was definitely a new experience. Nearly the entire lap (1.6 miles) was thick sticky mud from tape-to-tape. I think I got in around 4-5 laps and managed to sort out how to ride the conditions and picked out lines for tomorrow, etc. Even in that short hour, the course was firming up due to the sun and the relatively warm temps. At 1p, we got off the course since the racing had started. We changed and stayed to watch the Women’s Masters 30-34/35-39 race where we knew some people. Andrea took some photos which she will put up on her blog a bit later…

I snapped a quick pick of my bike after scraping off the big mud chunks… the worst part was the mud ball my pedals turned into. They did continue to work, it just felt strange since I had to put my cleat in the pedal through about 1.5-2″ of mud between the pedals and my shoes.

BTW, the white bar tape cleans up well with Simple Green and a plastic bristle brush.

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Before we left, I got my replacement batteries in for my headlamp. I took the battery pack to Batteries Plus and they wanted $85 to rebuild the pack (I have found new ones for $65). Instead, I search and found the needed batteries from an online store (batterystore.com) for about $32. I will have to do some soldering, but they even build the pack-connecting the 5 cells to make the 6V pack.

new battery pack and the old one that stopped performing….a project waiting for me when I get back.

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Another project that I did do, was hang blinds around the front door. My plan to hang them got more complicated when I looked at the panels around the door. Instead of being wood like I originally thought…it was metal sheets with a foam core. I ended up using drywall anchors… the hardest part is that they want to spin before you can get them to bite.

After lasts year’s cold frozen-tundra-like course, the medium range forecase for Kansas City is showing 50°F for my raceday (Saturday).

I am sure glad my no-tubes are working out… it will probably be really really muddy out there by the 3rd race day.

After reading a few articles and a few reviews, I decided to try out tubeless for cx. I bought the Stan’s No Tubes kit directly from them and got it setup Wednesday after work. I started to mess with it on Monday & Tuesday, but didn’t have much time other than to put the strips into my Velomax Vista rims and try to inflate the tires.

The front wheel with the Mud2 already installed sealed around pretty well even dry (and despite the puncture hole in the sidewall. The rear wheel was more of and issue… in the end I decided to use the Kenda Kommando’s that Andrea won (which replaced the ones I bought during the summer but ended up on her single-speed cx bike). Anyway, these readily inflated (after soaping up the beads) and I added the latex solution and performed the ritual of sealant distribution in about an hour….

I decided to test out the new tires/no-tubes combo on the night mtb ride out of the Outdoors, Inc / Cordova. I rode down to the shop with 30/30 psig in the front/back. It felt weird, but solid. At the last minute, I borrowed a pump and tried to air them up a bit more for the trail. The pump I borrowed sort of sucked, and I ended up (I think) adding air to the rear and taking out air from the front.

We started out on the road to the trail and immediately the front end was really, really squishy…but it was holding air. On the more technical stuff, the ~17-18 psig (as I found an hour later at home using my floor pump) was not really enough and I ended up losing too much time as I tried to minimize bottoming out on the roots, etc. I decided to bail out about half-way through the ride because of this and rode back home.

(smiles only allowed during pre-ride…. Beat the Freak #5. Andrea and I hitting the stairs.)

All-in-all, I think the setup is a good one. I aired up the tires to 30 psi and will try to use them on a more conventional cx course this weekend. I hope I can get this setup ready to give me another option the weekend after next…at kccx nationals……. I have my number, which puts me 3rd row (#519). It is a lot better than last years ~12-13th row spot.

Long range weather for KC is showing 32F (low of 22F) with some warmer weather on Thursday (40F).. This could result in a pretty similar conditions as last year as the Thursday races tear up the course and the muddy ruts freeze overnight.