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Our kitty has some strange habits… and apparently a taste for steel.

I haven’t touched my X-Fire since the Outdoors Inc race in mid-October…  in fact it is still rocking the Michelin Jets from that race and has been sitting up in the trainer room (real estate agent had called it a bonus room…) since then.  A few things had got in the way, namely mountain biking, road riding, and a little thing about getting married.

In most cyclocross areas of the country, I would imagine that ‘cross season is wrapping up or over by now, but in Tennessee, there are races until late February in Knoxville.  During January, there is a pair of weekends in Columbia (south of Nashville), a Chattanooga weekend, a Cross the Way weekend (Nashville), and the state championship weekend in Johnson City.

What I can do, remains to be seen.  My January promises to be a tough one at work, so I probably will have to race when I can.  All of the weekends are compelling in their own ways (Columbia and Cross the Way are well run and day tripable from Memphis); I lived in Chattanooga for 5 years before Memphis; and JC is the state championship race (although you couldn’t get any further away within Tennessee.)  And then there is Southern X.  I raced it last year, but I am about 90% sure that I will not be able to make the date since it would mean taking off Friday and heading to North Georgia.  Andrea does plan to race it and looks to improve on her heartbreaking 2nd place.

The road season for 2010 is still a bit fuzzy, but I am looking forward to joining a solid group of Cat 3’s on the Marx & Bensdorf cycling team.  We should do well and take our game up the Cat 1/2 by the end of the season.

Andrea and I ordered a pair of Trek Madones with SRAM Red.  With one of our own the regional rep for Trek, it was pretty obvious who would be our bike sponsor.  Maybe if we step up our game, they will give us the frames….  We are looking to sell a couple of frames/ complete bikes.

• 54 cm (medium) Blue RC7 (2008 model, blue paint job, frame/fork)
• 52-53? cm BH Connect (Red/black, 2009 model, SRAM red build)
• 58 cm Felt FC (Black/grey, 2008 model, SRAM Red build or bare frame)

I will probably make a more detailed post about the Felt in January, but if you are interested in any of these, let me know (website@roadcx.net).  Make a reasonable offer.

Saturday, Andrea and I completed the deal. We were married at noon and had friends over to join the family at 2pm.

The party was good, fueled by good food and two 5 gallon kegs from Bosco’s (Flaming Stone and Ghost River Wee Heavy). The Wee Heavy proved the most popular and it nearly ran out (got two glasses from it the next day).

On Sunday, we packed up the dogs, the mountain bikes, and remaining Flaming Stone and headed west to Mountain View, Arkansas to spend a few days at her dad’s cabin and enjoy the country and a bit of mountain biking at Syllamo trails.

We didn’t leave for Mountain View until the afternoon on Sunday (rode on the road in Memphis and then packed up), so we didn’t get there until after dark. On Monday, we drove down to the middle Green Mountain road trail head and started out on the yellow trail (Jack’s Branch) and diverted to the red trail (Bad Branch) before finishing out the yellow trail at the far trail head. For me it the second time I had ridden both trails, for Andrea, it was only the first time for the yellow trail for her. The red trail is pretty moderate compared to the rest of the system and the second time down the yellow meant I started to get more comfortable with it. The big thing is the amount of climbing on the yellow trail. We got back to the parking lot pretty tired and ready to eat.

Today, we decided to tackle two different trails, the orange (Bad Scrappy) and the green (White River Bluff). The ride would a shorter ride, but more technical. The weather also played a factor, since it was much colder today (40’s compared to 60’s on Monday). Like the yellow, trail it was the second time I have ridden the orange, so I started to get better on some of the tougher sections of this trail. After completing the orange trail, we started on the green. We had walked this trail together back on Thanksgiving weekend, so we knew it, but not really… This trail is a blast with some pretty ridable section that challenge me, but not so difficult that I feel outclassed.

About half the way through the trail, we were clipping along, when I felt something snag… like Andrea a few weeks ago, a stick lodged in my rear cassette and tore off my rear derailleur at the hanger. Unlike Andrea I had a replacement hanger and more importantly, I had it with me.

From stop to back rolling, it probably was only 10 minutes. The chain had somehow looped, but I managed to figure out how to get it unlooped without breaking it (Shimano chain with one-time pin that I just installed that morning). The rear derailleur was just fine, and in fact it seem like the shifting improved a little bit (probably had a bent hanger before I broke it).

The worst thing is that my 9-speed cassette is pretty worn. I need to use the biggest two sprockets, the next two are flaky, the next 3 are okay and the smallest two are unusable under load. I have been working around it using the front chainrings. It is sort of a pain, but I am making it work (changing the chain didn’t help the situation). I guess those bad sprockets are just wore out. Two more days of riding, then I will get the parts I need back in Memphis. (I have one more hanger to carry with me…, guess I need to order more.)

Well, tomorrow is the day… Andrea and I will make it official. I know it is important, etc, etc, but generally I feel like it is just a continuation of what we have had. Only real difference is the state stamp and we will mix our money around a bit more.

The wedding itself will be pretty basic (Germantown mayor going to help us out there). The feature event will be the party afterwords. My family is down from Michigan/Wisconsin, her family, and friends from this area. I picked up two 5 gallon kegs of Bosco’s beer (Flaming Stone and Wee Heavy) and Andrea’s parents are preparing some food (and hosting our party). Should be a good time and should fit in with our way of being.

Our plans are to head west again for the honeymoon and mountain bike and relax near the Syllamo trails again. We have the spare parts to keep the bikes going and should have a good several days of riding before heading back to work reality. The main reason I have not posted since 12/1 is that I have been pretty busy with work and stuff after work, posting just got dropped.

As for cyclocross, I hope to get back into it in January some, I need to work myself back into shape (although I didn’t fall far). Plan to race some at Columbia (Tenn) and do the Tennessee state championship race if work will allow. Southern X is also a race I would love to do, but I thing work will prevent this from happening.

Dragging, flipping, and dragging some more… moving a big rock up the hill.