CX 2009
Greetings Readers,
I’m kinda hung over. No, not from alcohol, from cross and its closure for the 09 season. It’s too bad we don’t get to taper, kinda slowly go off the narcotics so we don’t go into withdrawals… it ends so abruptly, after nats, it over.
I had some great racing over the two races I did at nationals, great racing indeed. I had a strong showing at the 40+B race and who knows where I would have finished had I not flatted with 1 and a half laps to go? I felt real good during the SS race too, and believe me after looking at the results there are some serious cat 1 heavy hitters in the SS race.
My thoughts have been swirling for the last few days. So much to be proud of and yet so much work left to do. I am so blessed people, so blessed indeed. The privileged few of us find that which we love and possess so much passion for: with me it’s cyclocross. I love it dearly.
You wouldn’t think so if you could see me prerace. Ask my teammates how stressed I am before a race, I paced for an hour at nationals before the B 40+ race. I know what’s coming: I dread it and I’m so looking forward to it. I’m going to get an anaerobic ass kicking; it’s going to hurt, and I’m going to hate it. At the same time, I’m going to freaking love racing and when it’s over I’ll forget the pain in a nanosecond and can’t wait for my next fix. I love it like a crack head loves his dope.
I absolutely geek out over it all, if I have a smooth and textbook remount and transition I freak out and it fuels me even more. I love the athleticism and grace that is cross. I love to see my fellow crossers with spit and sweat hanging out of their mouths in their own personal fight against cross and all its glory. I love the bikes, the cowbells, the horns, the people that cross attracts.
I love it all. I miss it desperately, already.
I think of my teammates: Devin, how far he has come and so much upside… How awful that his SS race at nats went down like it did. Tim, my friend who stayed with me during the 4 days of glory: amazed I am at how well Tim took to cross. Crack head he is, just like the rest of us. Marcelo: A bad back stole his season. A mere 4 races Speedy was able to finish this year. The team: lots of future for ButtahGut, 2010 brings new resources and energy to build on our 1st season.
I get all nostalgic, thinking back on my best season yet. Pain on the Peak: starting at the back of the field and passing all but the top ten on my way to 11th place in my 1st outing on a singlespeed. Hood River: my 1st evah and likely my last, top ten result. Battle of Barlow: holeshot, I literally lead the race for ¾ of lap 1. What a rush that was, I’ll likely never holeshot like that again. Alpenrose: my 1st Mstr B race. Hillsboro: my 1st race in the heavily contested Cross Crusade SingleSpeed class. PIR: some serious character building I learned in that race along with Astoria. I paid some cross dues in those two races, likely my worst two races in 3 seasons. Psycho cross: what a great venue. USGP: 12th place on an icy freezing morning @ 8am. And lastly Nationals: racing on snow and ice and luckily having a great race to close the season.
Already I’m thinking of next season. Much to do with my bikes and my motor. Even bigger expectations I have for myself in 2010. I aim to make the front half of the Mstr B and SingleSpeed races on a consistent basis. That’s a tall order for me but I will strive to make it a reality. I know what my weaknesses are and I’ll work on them in the off season. I’ve improved each year and although I’m getting older, there’s no reason to think I can’t improve in the years to come. Maybe someday when I’m old, I can contend for a national title. Like Dev said: if I live to 75, I can win the 75 and up category. J
I’ll likely take the next few weeks off over the holidays and begin a new phase of base training and tons of miles on the road bike. That’s the 1st hurdle of 2010, building that base. The only thing I’m going to focus on in the coming weeks is my weight. I’d like to begin 2010 weighing no more than 155lbs. I could realistically come into next season @ 143lbs if I don’t start the season off with a lot of weight to lose. That alone would make me that much faster, not packing my gut with me to races…..
For now I’m bummed. Depressed even. I’ve no cross races to do in the near future. But: the 2010 opener is a mere pregnancy term away…….
Stay focused Jim, it will be here before you know it.
Cheers!
CX Nats
Greetings Readers…
There is an ol’ saying; “be careful what you wish for”
Evah since nats a few years ago in Providence I’ve dreamed of racing at nationals in the snow. I got my wish.
Too much for me to type now, my thoughts are swirling with an awesome experiance and 2 days of EPIC racing. I’ll have to gather my thoughts and give you a real race report later. For now, go to my teammates blog HERE Dev got some great pics.
Thursday, B men 40+ race. 3:30pm, it was 18 degrees outside.
Friday, SingleSpeed race 11:00am, ten degrees warmer but the wind chill made it feel colder.
Awesome course, I friggin loved it. It was EPIC racing on snow and ice. I did very well considering the level of competition at nats. I finished in the top 53% of the 40+B race, despite racing the last lap and a half with a flat tire. I also did well in the Singlespeed race, placing in the top 68%. there is some heavy hitters in the SS race. I managed to stay upright for both races and never went down, don’t ask me how….
USGP Day 2
Greetings Readers,
It was day two of the USGP series and as always in PDX we have some nasty weather to contend with for this event. Works out like that every year, really it’s just amazing.
I thought I was cold yesterday? Sheesh, yesterday was nothing compared to what I would deal with on Sunday. The temperature was around 30 degrees and we had 25 to 40 mph wind gusts that brought the wind chill factor down to between 10 and 15 degrees.
I put on everything I had, two base layers, my full kit and a warm skull cap. For the whole morning up until the race I wore my wind breaker jacket and still I was frozen.
I was excited to race today as yesterday’s course would have been a good singlespeed course, but alas they changed it up quite a bit and we had some steep climbs in the motocross course that were very difficult with 64gear inches. I would need momentum to get over those hills and if I was in traffic and somebody dabbled? That would be it for riding them.
I pre-rode the course 3 times, mostly to get to know the new sections. And to try to keep moving to stay warm. I was frozen and I could feel the skin on my legs stinging to the touch. I also noticed another problem while riding the course: my legs were numb and what power I asked of them, I didn’t receive. It was going to be a long day..
I thought that this was a difficult course, not because it was very technical, and we had no mud. The problem was all the tight 180 like, off camber short but steep little climbs. I was able to ride them yesterday on my geared bike, but I couldn’t get up them on my singlespeed. Which was no big deal as like yesterday, I planned on running them anyway. But the infield and two big whoops in the motocross section would cause me problems the whole race. It would turn out that I would do a lot more running than I had planned.
We got to the staging area and things already started to go south. We stood there way to long in that cold and wind. Some guy who was pre-riding the course got injured and we had to wait for the course to clear. I literally began to shiver uncontrollably.
I was fortunate to have registered early and got a very favorable staging in the 2nd row. Which I was stoked about, but it would help me not. Let me tell you folks, going from uncontrollable shivering to all out effort in a matter of seconds doesn’t work. At least not for me it doesn’t.
I was amazed at how well some of the guys fared in that weather, clearly it was affecting me but I saw a lot of tough crossers who were able to put the cold out of their mind and race on. I didn’t use embrocation, maybe I should have? I dunno, couldn’t have hurt and it might have helped.
The start straight was a long paved section that took us out to a grassy section, as much as I tried the starting sprint wasn’t there for me; my body was too damn cold. Even with my tall gearing I could not get off a good start, the legs just wouldn’t cooperate. By the time we hit the grassy back section I had lost a good 10 to 12 spots already.
We came to this left hander, which was really rutted and frozen. Then approached this large mound made for motocross, too much traffic and I immediately dismounted and ran it. The other 4 laps I would ride this section, minor consolation but something positive in a losing effort.
We then worked our way through the infield, and then back out to the paved straight. I don’t know how many times I was chasing and had somebody screw up a line on one of those aforementioned sections in the infield. It seemed like a dozen or more times somebody would dabble, or crash in front of me and force me off the bike. The gaps just seemed to get bigger to the guys I was chasing and I couldn’t close them. I was so frustrated at having to constantly dismount, losing precious seconds because somebody would dabble. A lot of singlespeeders did a poor job of reading that course and judging all the little sections in the infield. This is the problem with not getting a good start and being up front, you have to contend with the traffic of the pack.
Things were just going south for me, seemed the longer the race wore on the worse it got. On one section of the infield on the second lap back by the fence I was in close pursuit on somebody’s wheel. He dabbled, stopped right in the corner and I had to dismount. I did and just as I started to run with the bike the guy who was right behind me was also forced to dismount. Somehow my right foot got knocked out from under me and I went down. Right testicle, meet steel top tube. For the record, steel wins out in that battle. Top tube 1, nut Zero. It took me about 20 or so seconds to get my bike back up and myself organized enough to try to remount all with my nut screaming in pain. Yea, try remounting with a bruised nut. Anyway, I finally got going having lost a ton a spots during my little episode. At least a dozen to 15 spots, just like that.
The race just continued to snowball south for me and I was continuing to lose spots. My nut was killing me and my back also was starting to give me issues. Too much mashing a big gear up those motocross whoops was taking its toll on my back. Armed with a sore nut and a bad back I pressed on. Still the legs were frozen and would not respond. Seamed like there was this disconnect, like there was a 5 second pause between my mind saying to the legs hammer, and the legs responding with huh? You want more?
I had spotted Steve from HFV up in front of me and I tried to focus on him as my rabbit. I would try to stay with him and hopefully, if the legs would respond, out sprint him on the paved straight. Steve and I traded places a few times I think, but on the last lap once again the rider that was in-between Steve and I dabbled causing me to dismount & lose time. Steve would get the gap on me that would be permanent. I could not close it down. I think Steve beat me by two spots.
To be honest, by the 4th lap, all I wanted was for it to be over and to get to the car and put on warm clothes and get out of the wind. It was a tough day at the office people.
I finished 45th out of the 76 guys who started the race. Around the 60 percentile, demoralizing given the awesome stage I had at the start. I couldn’t even manage the front half of the race and I started in the second row. Oh well, whatever. I had a good race yesterday…..
Let’s talk a little about consistency. One of the things I admire most about crossers (the good ones) is how consistent they are. Its very difficult to continually put out consistent results. Things can go south in a race in a hurry, seconds are precious and gaps open up quickly. I seem to have this roller coaster of results. I seem to have peaks and valleys, highs and lows. I’ll have some good races followed by a string of bad ones. Or I’ll have one good race followed by a bad race. I really admire the guys who can consistently, race after race, throw down with the good results. Crossers are a tough bunch people; make no mistake about that.
On Wednesday, off to nationals. I sure hope I have a better race than day 2 of the USGP. Well see……
On top of one of the motocross whoops.
rounding the corner approaching the pavement section
In the infield section
Just past the barriers.
Cheers everybody!
USGP Day 1
Greetings Readers,
Wow, where do I start? 1st let’s get the weather out of the way. Man, was it cold this morning. EPIC cold. 25 degrees when I got out of my car at 6:10am to register. It was still dark out. I was lucky enough to get there early and got through registration pretty quick. I wanted that out of the way and plenty of time to try to warm up and ride the course.
I’m guessing it was around 7ish, when dawn started to shed some light on the course enough for me to ride it. I pre-rode the course no less than 4 times. For two reasons, I wanted to have no surprises in store for me and I memorized that course and had my plan of action. The other, was to help me get warmed up. It’s very difficult to get yourself warmed up enough for an anaerobic effort when it’s 25 degrees out, just sayin’
It was freakin’ cold. The ground; frozen solid. Hard as a rock frozen. The ruts over by the motocross whoops, they were frozen solid too. Stick your wheel in one of those and get it caught: instant endo over the bars. A ton of guys went down today, probably 80% of the field. I can thank my reconnaissance for my ability to stay upright threw the whole race.
Did I say it was cold? Man what epic conditions, the entire front end of my bike was frozen. Frozen everything, that ground was hard. Being that we were the 1st race of the day I’m sure we had it the worse, by the time the afternoon races went off it was downright balmy.
Back to my plan of action. I staged on the right side of the course, and hung tight on the right side through most the course. There was one absolutely must dismount run-up, along with several off camber 180’s that took you uphill quickly. I rode them during my pre-ride but made the decision before the race ever started that both those sections I would dismount and run. I made lots of time here as guys stubbornly tried to ride them as I went running by. Good plan Jimbo. There were also several tight chicanes and only one set of barriers. I dug the course, dug it I tell ya.
There were several super powah flat sections, were those fast roadies could use their motor’s against me, we played seesaw. I’d get a few guys through the technical parts of the course only to have them go past me again on the flats. That long stretch of pavement wasn’t helping me at all. But in the end it became my ally.
I didn’t feel it today, I think the cold was too hard on me and I just couldn’t get myself all lathered up and really able to let her rip. You know how you get totally drenched in sweat and in that zone where all your muscles are hot and really loose and firing. I think I was faster last week at Psycho; in fact I’m sure of it. I did give my best on this morning; it just wasn’t enough in that cold. Everybody else out there had to deal with the cold also so I wasn’t alone in that regard.
Again, I stayed upright and used a ton of body English today. That was a heck of race and it took hours for me to get warmed up afterwards and feel my toes. Preliminary results had me finishing 12th, I think we had about 85 guys in the field today. I was expecting a top twenty, and hoped for a top ten. I was exactly 60 seconds behind the leader. A few seconds here and there and I would have broken into the top ten. But no matter, I’m happy with my race.
My fitness is not what is was at the beginning of the season, that’s for sure. I’m on the downhill side sliding into winter. I’m also up 5lbs from when the season started too. I can thank 12th place to two things: 1st was my staging, I had a great stage up front. 2nd was my reconnaissance and having a plan. I knew exactly how I was going to attack the course and I stuck to my plan. I was able to just nip a guy at the line with a huge sprint effort, usually the flat finish works against me, but I had enough left to grab one last spot right at the line. Wish I had gotten some pics of that….
Tonight I rest, tomorrow: day two and this time I’ll be in the SingleSpeed class. It’s going to be tough on the SS, its gonna hurt. But my plan will be about the same. I won’t get the staging I did today, that’s for sure, so don’t expect today’s results tomorrow. I won’t even be close……
Cheers!
Psycho Cross #4 Race Report
Greetings Readers!
It was a beautiful day in Eugene yesterday, beautiful for cross that is. Cold, damn was it cold. It was very chilly but it was dry, and despite a muddy section of singletrack back by the pond (once my feet got wet from that puddle back by the pond the toes were absent till later that afternoon) it was a dry and fast race.
I really hadn’t had a good race since Hillsboro, both Astoria and PIR were filled with crashes and misfortune. Barton I didn’t race from the sickness and last weekend I just wanted to get a race in and finish. That’s all I wanted.
Yesterday we had great weather, and I love that venue. I’m tellin’ ya, next year I’m going to make the Psycho series a priority, I love that course, better infact than most, if not all of the Crusade Venues. I wanted to improve on my percentage from last week’s race and I did. 89% last weekend and 73% yesterday. Not much improvement but improvement nonetheless.
I made the mistake of a late potty run that I thought I had time for and when I returned to stage the field had pretty much already lined up. Crap, shitty staging again I thought. Oh well, it aint the USGP so just have some fun. And fun I had.
Maybe I haven’t told you but I love this course. Lots of guys tell me they don’t want to get off the bike during a cross race. What? WTH? Go race the road then I say. What’s a cross race without remounts? Cross is all about getting off the bike, steeplechase baby. I LOVE barriers, runups, and anything that forces you off the bike. Dismounts, remounts, & portaging, that’s the beauty of cross; the fundamental skill of getting on and off your bike and doing it with speed and grace. I admire a guys cross skills far more than his legs. Being fast is somewhat a god given thing, remounting that bike at a full on run and not missing a beat, that takes practice.
The gun went off and I was about 2/3rds back, we had to go through the 8 pack (yes 8 not 6) fairly quickly after the start and I had blown a match already dancing off the line. By the time I had gotten through 6 of those 8 barriers the legs weren’t lifting so high and I nearly tripped on the 7th one sending my grill into the 8th one. Mental note: don’t do that again. The other 4 times through the barriers went off without a hitch, and my remounts looked schweet and clean after each time.
We then went through the finish area and down the pavement headed to the sand pit. I love the sand pit! I had no trouble with it all. Then around this dirt road and into the woods were we had this sharp switchback runup. I didn’t have any trouble with this either. After the remount there was a little downhill that at the bottom had this sharp left hander with a tree marking it. This one I had trouble with, on the 3rd lap, I over shot it coming in to hot and got myself stuck in the bushes. I was literally yanking on my bike panicking over the amount of time I lost trying to free my bike. I was closing too, that little mishap was my only dabble in a very good effort and it cost me 45 seconds easy. The guy I was chasing I didn’t see again. I likely would have gotten 9th or 10th had I not spent all day trying to get out of that tree. This is a huge thing I tell the few beginners who ask me: don’t get gapped. Once they gap you, its very hard to close it again, and again, and again. You burn energy closing gaps and it costs you. Sooner or later that gap is permanent, be the gapper, not the gappee.
After that sharp left hander we went through the singletrack and at the end of it were these two deep puddles that bordered the pond, immediately following was this short steep climb. Most guys ran it, I was able to ride it each lap. Unfortunately I think this was a mistake, I might have been faster running it. Usually when I got to the top I was gassed and had to recover, vulnerable when you have to recover, guys go by you and your helpless to do anything about it.
We then worked our way around to another runup, this one a short railroad stepped runup preceded by a barrier. My wife taped the race and I was amazed at how fast I went through this section, proof that my skills are indeed improving (if only the motor was too) after that we worked our way back around to the starting area.
The positives, other than the intimate meeting with that tree my race went off well. I was mentally in it the whole way and for the second race in a row, no stutter step. I was focused and charging the whole race and not since Hillsboro have I felt like I put together a solid race. I left it out on the course, had fun, and raced hard.
The negatives, I’m weak on the flats. Its where I always get passed. It feels like I’m still recovering from the last section while I hear gears banging and guys are going by me. I just don’t have that big roadie motor to powah the flats. Its my weakness. I hope to improve on it for next year. Maybe Brianero and Marcelo can motor pace me and help me with this weekness next summer….
I don’t think I could have broken into the front half of the race yesterday, but I could have made up a few more spots with a better start and no tree dates. The season is drawing to a close and with my fitness falling; all I hope for is a solid race at the USGP and @ Nationals. If I just give’r and stay upright and race smart and hard I’ll be happy. I want to get that rush from really bringing it and hanging on to control by a thread, taking every risk along the way. Those are the races you really cherish. The ones where your walking that fine line of anaerobic and out of control at the same time. But yet in control and with grace, it’s hard to explain. If you race cross you get what I’m talking about.
I will say that the Dugast rule. My Rhino’s were the shiznit. Good grief those casings are so soft, from here on out I’m going to spend the extra scrill for FMB or Dugast tiyas, I think they are just hands down better than Tufo’s or Challenge, IMHO. Just sayin’
That’s it for now, next up: the USGP. I’m going to get my ass kicked but it will be fun. J
Riding the Sand Pit 
In the SingleTrack
approaching the runup
In the drops
runnin’ the barriers
crossing the finish line
BTW, I’m too Fat. I’ve got to lose 10lbs. If I really want to compete in the B’s next year I can’t come in fat like I am now. 
Cheers!
Psycho Cross Race Report…
Greetings Readers..
My friend Tim and I got up early today and headed down to Eugene for round 3 of the Psycho Cross series. Let me start out by saying I loved this course, loved it. I liked it better than most of the Crusade courses by a ton.
To my complete surprise, by the time we hit Albany down the 5 the weather started to clear and when we got to the venue we had Sunshine. Outstanding.
Tim and I rode the course and then registered. It was amazing to me the participation level at this venue. We had 20 guys in the Mstr B/50+ category combined. Amazing, and this is such a cool course! In a Crusade race we’d have 120 guys in each category for 240 guys on the course at a time. Today; 20 again awesome. I don’t quite get is as it’s not that far of a drive and what a great course. (Have I said that already?)
Last week I didn’t race at Barlow. I was feeling the sickness coming on strong and I decided my best course of action was to skip a week in hopes of the crud not settling in my chest and really knocking me down. It worked, and I feel tons better. The down side to that is I rested, more on that later.
Given that the last three races I’ve done have been filled with crashes, punctures, and lots of challenging mud. My main objective was to stay upright, finish, and have fun. I did not take this race too seriously and I was not hard charging. I wasn’t trying to win. I basically told myself that this was a training race and so is tomorrow.
The gun went off and I was conservative at the start, I didn’t do my usual super hard charge on the first few laps (while my legs are fresh) to establish position. I just let the race come to me and I figured that the few guys in front of me would tire and I would catch them in the later laps and make up placing. Well, that didn’t work. The guys in front of me didn’t tire and I had dug a hole for myself. No matter I thought, I’m not out here to win and I’ve a race tomorrow too. Better to save something for Sunday. I decided to work on my cross skills and just have fun.
I have I believe, after nearly three years, eliminated my stutter step. I didn’t do it once today and my remounts are getting tons better. I don’t know why it took me so long? I even had a spectator yell several times on what he called “my pro technique” that made me feel real good. Hell, if you’re not fast at least you can look pro out there.
So that was a great positive for me, improving cross specific skills. Only going to help me later on as I try to make progress in the B’s. The other positive, I had fun racing today, and I never dabled or was in anywhere near going down. In control the whole race. I railed all the technical sections and I had my first sand pit which I powah’d thru without any problems at all.
Now lets talk about the negatives, I’m losing fitness fast. Seriously, I was half the racer today that I was at the start of the season. I have clearly peaked and I’m coming down the other side. Right now I’m just trying to keep the racing going leading up to Nationals where I’ll get my ass kicked, but I want to have a good race too. I’ve no illusions, I’m tired, gaining weight, and I’m slowing down. I had no snap in the legs at all today, none.
After tomorrow, I have 3 weekends of racing left. Then the season is over and it’ll be time to start planning for next year. The end of the cyclocross season is always a down time for me, but its necessary and is a part of the change of seasons and it’s important to give my body that few weeks around the holidays to recover before it all starts up again in Jan.
I wasn’t fast today, 2nd from last in Mstr B. I’m ok with it though, I had a good race and I had fun. Sometimes I forget that I do this for fun… it’s easy to get carried away with it all as I’m competitive. I have to remember that I love cross, and I do this for fun. J
Cheers!
PIR pics…
Greetings readers!
I got a placing! And, I wasn’t last! That 2.5 mile run was worth every bit of the suffering, I ended up 123 out of 136. 10 guys started the race and didn’t finish, including poor Dev thanks to his crank. 126 guys finished the race. I’m freakin’ stoked! I finished and I wasn’t last. 
A few more pics from some cool cats who hung out and took some photos.
I love this one of both Dev and I on the runup,
This is a cool one too, I don’t think anybody has shot me that close before…
I love this one of Dev, that’s the pain cave folks. I LOVE IT when I see my teammates out there digging deep and giving it everythingj!
Lastly, this one of me. One of the few taken while I was actually riding! Classic photo, head down grinding it out, the lighting is awesome too.
PIR Race Report, lucky #9
Greetings Readers,
How do you follow up a crappy race? “Thank you sir can I have another” Sheesh, makes me wonder why I do this? Again, somebody tell me why?
It’s so friggin expensive for one thing, and for what? To get your ass all busted up and destroy your equipment? Whole lot of second guessing today, I shouldn’t have, I shouldn’t have. I’m actually really upset after today. I’ve had some bad races but man this one takes the cake.
Actually the day started out not to bad. I got some sleep last night and I felt ok physically and was looking forward to racing. I watched my pal Tim do the beginner’s race and I managed to get out and pre-ride the course after the “C” race. Hmmm, this ain’t too bad I thought. There’s a lot of flat power sections and my SS is geared on the tall side at 64 gear inches. Cool I thought, I’ll get by a lot of guys on the flats with my gearing and at the time I rode the course it wasn’t that muddy. So I decided to give the Grifo’s and the Vanilla a go. Despite telling myself all day yesterday, that I would ride my pit bike with the Bulldogs. I can’t justify why I did it, I just did and I would live to regret it. Never again I can tell you that. From this day forward, the Vanilla is the dry bike and the IF is the mud bike.
To start the day off I drew the worst possible lottery staging and was in the very last row. I mean the Very last row. Well I ain’t going to get a good placing today so I might as well just try to have some fun. Ryan Trebon was in my race and with the likes of him setting the lap times I’ll not even make the lead lap, especially given where I started.
I tried to do my best to move up through the 1st lap of huge bottlenecks. Guys are slippin’ and sliding, cutting you off, and it’s really hard to get around all those racers. I was doing ok fighting the mud and trying to move up. My friends always tell me that if it’s muddy I’ll do great as I’m good in the mud. I don’t know where in the hell that came from, Tim Johnson I am not. I struggle in the mud just like everybody else. Plus the guys in the “B’s” can handle their bikes for the most part. I’m no mudder.
There was this section on the back side of the course, where both directions of traffic were hauling and going past each other with only cones to separate us. We had the same thing at Sherwood and I’m totally against this. Damnit organizers, didn’t the Trebon incident last season open your eyes? Somebody is going to get really hurt, it’s just not necessary to have racers going that fast that close to each other in opposing directions. I was coming down the gravel on the way back towards the finish, this racer was alongside me and deliberately chopped me cutting me off and literally sending me into the oncoming traffic. “Holy Shit!” I thought, flashbacks of Trebon’s accident went through my head in a nanosecond as this other racer was heading towards me and I was going to get nailed head on. I basically just let go of the bike and kind of dived into the dirt to avoid the collision, jamming my knee into the gravel.
I was furious! I jumped up, not knowing I was injured and on pure adrenaline screamed to the guy that chopped me the most obscene foul language that’s come out of my mouth in a long time. Then I asked myself, “what are you doing Jim?” He’s long gone and you’re wasting your time standing here screaming at a guy who doesn’t care and is gone, get back on your bike and start racing!
Now some of you will say that’s just racing, no it ain’t. It’s not like there wasn’t two friggin miles of course with ample room to pass guys, Mr. dirty racer did not need to chop me to grab my line at that moment. It was totally unnecessary. I’m sitting here as I type with an Ice pack on my knee hoping that I’ll be fine and able to race next weekend. Bastard, there’s just no reason for that shit out there. Plus it’s not like he was contending, I was still pretty far back in the field, and so was he.
On the second lap I was going thru this deep mud, serious deep mud. My front wheel was so packed it wouldn’t turn. I stopped for just a second to try to clear it but my gloves were coated in mud too. “Crap I thought, I’ll hopefully clear it thru that huge lake I was going to ride through” Bad decision, I should have taken the few seconds to clear my wheel. Soon as I came out of the lake I heard it: Baam! Sounded like an M-80 going off. My front tubular had blown.
More expearlatives came out of my potty mouth. I was about to just walk off the course. It was about then that the little voice in my head said: “pick up your bike and freakin’ run” What? You gotta be kidding me? This is a 2.75 mile course! And I had just passed the pits; I’d have to run an entire lap.
I just started jogging, pissed at my misfortune. “I’ll never make it back to the pits before the race is over” I thought. “Jim, you run this friggin course till the announcer says the race is over” so I just kept running. Well, let’s not kid ourselves, jogging is more like it. Kinda hard to run in mountain bike shoes with toe spikes… “It’s the PIR 5K” I was telling myself, all the while just so pissed that I wanted to quit. Miraculously after a 2.5 mile jog I made it back to the pits where my pal Tim was waiting with his wheel. (Thanks pal) I started to pedal again. “You’ve got to make it to the finish Jim” or you’re going to DNF. (I still might, I don’t know if I got enough laps in to get a placing) So I set out to go as fast as my just ran 2.5 miles tire ass legs would carry me.
I was coming into the runup and looked behind me and saw racers, a lot of them. “I must be on the lead/bell lap” I thought as the leaders where still coming through. So I just gave what I had left got to the finish. I sure hope they score me and that I didn’t suffer that run for nothing.
I’ve got a hole big enough to put my thumb through in the side of my casing, there’s no salvaging that tire. $80 down the drain, Damn.
I’m pretty beat up, battered, and bruised. I took a crash yesterday in practice on top of going down 3 times last week. 9 straight races in 9 consecutive weeks is taking its toll on me. Am I going to call it a season? Are you kidding? Hell no. I’ll feel better tomorrow and knee willing, be back pedaling on the rollers by Wednesday and on the treadmill too. I’ll shit a bunch of money for another tubular and be ready to go come Barton, the final race of the Crusades. This will be the first year that I will have raced all the races in the Crusade series. The previous years I always got sick and missed races.
So I’m happy with that fact that I’ve logged races. That was my goal this year: Consistency, and staying healthy enough to race a full season of Cyclocross. So far I have, and I’m still going. I’m going to keep going until that race last race at Nationals on Dec 11th. Then and only then can I call it a season….
Team ButterCup, from left to right: Marcelo, Dev, Me, and Tim in the yellow jacket.
A few pics of Marcelo Charging..
Timmy on a run up..
A nice one of Timmy suffering.
A few good pics of Devin, who like me had a nasty mechanical today that spoiled his RACE.
And, a few of me. Mostly running….
That’s it for tonight, I’m beat, sore, and I’ve a knot on my knee the size of a golf ball. I need to go tear the blown tubular off my rim……
Cheers!
Astoria Pic
I combed the web, trying to find something, something that proved I was there other than the results and my bruises… Seems there was a gazillion pics taken over Halloween weekend and after browsing them all, I found one.
This was taken right at the very second I crossed the finish line. I was trying like hell to catch the two unsuspecting riders in front of me who had just let up at the line not knowing I was charging from the rear. A few more feet and I would’ve had them both.
I can’t wait for this weekend, and a chance to redeem myself!
Cheers!
ButterCup
Greetings Readers…
Lets go back to last season, Devin and I had planned on this new team. Back then we were going to call it “Independent Racing”. We had a small group of people that were going to be on the team, 4 of those original 6 still ended up on Team ButterCup, but at the time we just couldn’t pull it together; a few people dropped out and we had to wait another year.
Fast forward to this past summer, Devin and I were on a ride out in Forest Park. I was riding my IF that I had converted to singlespeed and Dev was on his Curtlo. Both of us were talking SingleSpeeds and cross, and both of us had future custom steel Singlespeed crossers in the works.
“I’m going to call my bike ButterCup” Devin said. “It’ll be kind of a buttery cream type color” We smiled and I said: “what a cool name for a team, Team ButterCup, kinda self-effacing don’t you think”. “I like it” Dev replied, “we could poke a little fun at ourselves cuz none of us are known as heavy hitters and we’re all carrying a little extra weight” (Well except for Marcelo of course) That was it; “Team Buttercup” was born out of that singlespeed ride in Forest Park.
Team ButterCup became a reality, we’re all racing in our kits and were an official team with OBRA. But the namesake for which the team was conceived had yet to be completed.. Until now that is.
I’d like to do some posts where I do a little thing on the bikes of my teammates. Maybe mine too. Kinda our unsung steeds by which the dirty work gets done on. Bikes of the ButterCups, something like that.
Anyway, without further ado….. Devin’s Racing SingleSpeed, AKA: ButterCup.
Obivously the steertube still needs to be cut and the fit dialed in. But for all intensive purposes this bike is built. I had to post her as she’s the insperation for those crazy kits….
That bike is damn sexy! Now if we can only get Marcelo on a Singlespeed….
Can’t wait to see Dev out there racing it!
Cheers!