UCI Masters World Championships

In my mind, Nationals was going to be a freezing mess and UCI Masters Worlds was going to be warm with maybe a little mud. Turns out that was basically backwards. An Arctic storm chased us east on Wednesday and Travis and I made our way from KC.

We headed out to pre-ride on Thursday at noon and got in two laps just as snowflakes started to fall. To say that it was muddy would be an understatement. It was like the MO State Championship race, but the mud was even deeper in some parts. A big section of the course is built on a really big berm leading up to the Start/Finish area and this had foot holes that were over 8" deep so even if you could ride it you would have to navigate these. It turned out to be a solid 2-3 minutes of running. The rest of the course had deep, power-sucking mud as well. If the tempuratures had stayed above freezing, I think it would have been really fun.

However, the storm kept pushing in. Little flurries, strong 20-40mph winds and temps in the 20's turned the rutted course into a giant ice bowl. The promoters wisely removed some of the running sections, and moved a little of the course tape to provide lines that weren't completely rutted from tape to tape. Travis had his qualifying heat at 9AM. He rode great and was able to stay on his bike longer than most, allowing him to ride into a 1st row call up for his finals race.

My race was at 1pm. It was about 25 degrees at the start. I was the 10th person called up and on the start was about the 5th person to hit the grass. Then it got a bit chaotic. I got grabbed by a rut and thrown off my line into some really slow ruts. I kept everything upright but lost about 10 spots. I regained composure and started to wind back through people.

I managed to ride the rest of the lap clean, but the mental focus required on this terrain is completely different than i've ever had to do before. The flats were some of the hardest spots because those were the most unchanged from the day before and had ruts covering the entire course in some sections. You had to constantly be focusing on not dropping yout wheel into the ruts and getting sucked the wrong way.

Our race ended up being 5 laps. I rode the next 3 laps very consistantly and managed not to have an serious wrecks. I moved past several people into 8th. However, on the last lap I was taking a line on the left hand side on a descent and got put right into the tape which grabbed my bars and over I went. I lost about 4-5 spots, cut my hand pretty good, and broke my front shifter/brake lever. So I hobbled back to the pits, got my pit bike and finished up in 12th.

Not a great way to end the season, but my body and mind are in good shape and am looking forward to riding some base miles for road season. I'm happy to have learned so much about cross this year and feel like i've been able to race at a very high level all season. As Tilford said, if you aren't good in all conditions, then you aren't a very good cross racer (my paraphrase). I'm still working on being able to handle the winter aspect of CX and these last two races have certainly been good in that respect. Thanks for reading.

Masters 30-34 Nationals

Nationals ended up being much less wintry by Saturday afternoon than anyone could have expected. The sub-freezing temperatures that are the norm for the area gave way to some very nice 40 and 50 degree days leading up to my race. The result of this was that the hilly course that would be frozen for the early morning races then would thaw and turn into a mudfest in the afternoon (with some patches of ice just underneath the surface of the mud that got exposed later in the day as well.) This made for a constantly changing course. Also, the promoters ended up modifying sections of the course several times over the course of the weekend, which did make sections more ride-able.

Travis and I drove up on Thursday morning and first got on the course on Friday morning. We did 5 laps and it quickly changed from frozen and scary to very muddy and soft. We went back in the afternoon for a couple more laps and it had changed even more to sticky mud that coated our bikes.

We made pit arrangements for our races Saturday knowing that bike changes would be essential. Fortunately, the 360 guys ( David Hejduk, Bill Anderson, and Dean Parker) were available and willing to assist for Travis and JP who raced immediately prior to my race. There race still featured sticky mud but there was much less of it. The course had dried out significantly.

My race was the last one of the day, a 3:45 start. I was happy just to not be racing in the icy conditions of the morning. As it turned out, there were still a couple of sections in the shade by the pits where the conditions were still rutted out and hard to navigate. There were also big ice patches exposed in that area. Most of the rest of the course was getting pretty nice. The descents off of the hill were still a little dicey with ruts and berms burned into the corners.

I started as the 20th person called up, in the middle of the 3rd row. I got an ok start and probably moved up into the top 15 as we hit the dirt. The first section of the course was still very muddy and the ruts threw your bike around a bit making this a little hairy. I got passed by a few people here, but then anticipated crashes to happen over some exposed permafrost and ran by a few downed riders. I was still in the top 20 Just past the pit was the first big climb and I rode past several people here. Over the top was a little bit of a descent prior to a railroad tie run-up section. I held my place here and then on the next little climb I moved up another spot. The race was already starting to break into little groups as the pace was frantically fast. The course then went into a fast fun descent into the barriers, into the pits, wove through some rutted and frozen sections, into a mini sandpit, through more ruts, up another little climb, then down again into some more ruts before hitting the start/finish stretch.
By the end of the first lap I was in about 10th with a little group. I made a bike change and attacked up the climb trying to get up to a group that was contesting 5th place. I had just gotten into that group when I ended up getting bumped into the tape down a descent and crashed pretty hard. It took a while to get back up and going again and I ended up crashing another 2 times after that trying to chase back. The group was gone, so I settled in and just raced a couple people that were still around me. The race was only 5 laps, so we were on the bell lap very quickly. I ended up passing one guy on the last lap but getting passed by one other. I tried to get back to the guy who passed me but didn't quite have enough space in the end.
After the race we quickly cleaned up and hit the road back to KC. It was a very good experience, and I learned a lot. It was a little disappointing to crash out of a group that I could have been competitive with, but that is racing. I'm now very excited to go race the UCI Masters World Championships this weekend.

Watch more video of USA Cyclocross National Championships 2012 on cyclingdirt.org

December

December has gone a little like this:

Some mud to play in at the BMX park

Got sick at Jingle Cross and spent the week off the bike, but raced to 2nd on the day

Won the Boss Cross series leaders jersey for the second year in a row.

Won the Capitol Cup.

Chasing Joe Schmalz at the state championships. I got 2nd, but have taken an insurmountable lead in the KCXBAR series. Next up is Nationals and Masters Worlds.

Jingle Cross Weekend

Jingle Cross was pretty awesome this year. I haven't been able to make many big races this season but Jingle CX was an easy choice. Janelle's family was in town for Thanksgiving, but they were willing to come up to the race as well.

Friday Course:

Friday was a perfect night for cross. The wind had died down and it was about 50 degrees out. The main obstacle of the night was the long run-up

Podium Insight Photo

Running up Mt Krumpit on Friday night

I didn't get a very good start as some guys started to drift into me on the gravel section less than 100m into the race. I stopped pedalling for a second and was immediately in last place. From there I just tried to get by people as best I could. The run was actually going pretty well for me which gained me a spot or two for the first couple of laps. About halfway through I rode up to a group of 5-6 guys, hung out for a lap then ran past them all on the hill. I ended up in no-man's land for the rest of the race, which put me in 21st overall. It turns out the guy ahead of me was a junior, so he got removed from the USAC results.

Saturday course:

This was a real CX day. Raining all day, windy, and a very muddy course. We went up the hill the way we rode down the night before, but it was only half-way rid-able for me before enough mud accumulated that I would have to run the rest of the way. There were two other sections that were rid-able the night before, but were now faster to run. Even the descent was faster to run down. This was pretty fun and made for some good highlights.

Saturday start

Up Mt. Krumpit

The first lap on Saturday down Mt. Krumpit

The second lap down

Somewhere in the middle of the race. Sorry to whoever I hit with my wheel, that almost knocked me over though!

Fun in the mud

The other run-up by the bleachers.

Up the climb near the end of the race

I haven't had too many super muddy races in KC - so it was a blast to race in the mud again. My Challenge Limus tires were the perfect rubber for the day keeping me upright throughout the day. I had a good day and ended up 16th.

Sunday course:

Flyover

Sunday it was still muddy, but of the accumulating type. The course featured the run up from Friday, plus a new descent down the hill that was rid-able but challenging. People were losing derailluers all day from the grass and gravel that would get into your drivetrain and completely stop things up. Janelle and Ryan (brother-IL) were my awesome pit crew that provided me with clean bikes every lap, so I just had to focus on getting around without putting myself on the ground. It was a big advantage to get a clean bike since the mud added a couple of pounds to the bike. I was feeling pretty worn down from two days of hard racing, but felt like I rode well despite the fatigue. I ended up riding with Dan Miller from Columbia for the last couple of laps until we got pulled from the race. It seemed like we still had quite a bit of time before the leaders were coming through, so this was a surprise, but they do tend to pull people early in the C1 UCI races. So I ended up 21st again. I'm very content with how the races played out and with my fitness so far this year.

It is hard to believe that Nationals are still over a month away. Time to get really focused for this final stretch.

Tulsa Weekend

Tulsa races were pushed back to November this year. Last year they were in October and were some of the hottest of the year. This time they were more windy than anything else. 25+ mph both day with stronger gusts.

The big money race, Ruts N Guts was on Saturday this time, which meant the Friday night race was pretty conservative, with people hanging in big groups and looking around at everyone else. The course was pretty awesome, wide open on a driving range. The front half of the course featured a hill with some barriers at the top into a fast descent that caused the group to string out every lap. The back half was a little more twisty with some off camber turns around bunkers and such. The grass offered great traction though, so the only way to screw up was to clip a pedal coming out of a corner. Last year there were also a lot of flats from goatheads and other thorns, but the promoters did a great job of picking courses that didn't have those this time. 

Anyway, so after the first lap there were 7 of us in the front. I felt pretty ok in the group, but being at the back was pretty hard because anytime anyone at the front would attack the whole group would get super strung out and yo-yo. I finally went to the front near the end, and probably should have been up there more of the race. At 3 to go, the real attacks started and I found myself off the back again. I reconnected for a little bit with two to go, but was dropped for good on the last lap. So I just cruised in since we couldn't even see the chase group. 

Saturday morning Janelle raced in the 5K that was a part of the Route 66 Marathon in downtown Tulsa. She won by a pretty good margin. It was still very windy, but a little warmer and also more humid.

By race time for me, it was about 75 but cloudy and windy. I was expecting many more people to show up to the race for the big payouts, but the fields were very small all the way around. Our group only had 20, with the only notable addition being Joe Schmalz. The course was really cool again. Better than last years course. They built some cool stairs and added some singletrack in the woods, had a headwind paved section. I don't know what european cross courses are like to ride, but this seemed like the type of courses they might have in Europe for some reason. If only it were raining, then it would have been really fun. 

I got a pretty crappy start out of the second row, but had several chances to move up after that, but didn't have the legs to do it. So I slotted in around 10th for the first couple of laps. I had chances to jump up into the lead group and when I tried to accelerate, I had nothing. On the 3rd lap, I hooked up with Stefan Rothe on the pavement section (actually he was blazing by and I barely got his wheel). And we picked up another TX guy for a few laps. We traded pulls pretty well the rest of the race. Stefan pulled in the open sections and I lead through the rest of the course. It worked out pretty well and we seemed to be pulling back Mat Ankeny and Bryan Fawley near the end. With 2 to go, I think Stefan messed up on the stairs and I kept going hoping Mat or Bryan would fade some more. This was the first time I actually felt good during the race. I didn't end up catching them so I was 7th again.

Some pics posted on Facebook from: Seth Liken and RJB Photo

Pretty cool video from the race:

Rut N Guts2011 from Design Your Ideas on Vimeo.

Grand Prix HPT

Definitely a highlight of the local CX calender is the Grand Prix HPT race. Last year was a bit of a downer as I tore off a rear derailleur early on and was forced to abandon. This year, the open field was a bit sparse with many guys at the Louisville USGP.

I got the holeshot and led coming onto the track. I had opened up a little gap already and so I drilled it for the rest of the lap hoping it would stay. Britton and Bill Stolte were in chase, so I just kept the gas on for the next two laps.There is something about going for it that early in the race that is exhilarating. I've been off the front a couple of times this year with mixed success, but this time it worked out. I grew the gap steadily by a second here and there and had a good lead with a couple of laps to go.

Somehow, my handling felt really good this race too. Maybe I was just extra motivated from the embarrassing outing at the Blvd Cup.

Up next are my first big races since Hermann and St. Louis way back in September. First is Tulsa with big payouts and fields. Then Jingle Cross UCI. Looking forward to both! After that more local racing for December before heading to Nationals in January. I'm probably not making the trip to Master's World's though it would be fun as well, but I can't take two full weeks of vacation just to go to bike races.

360 Cup / BLVD Cup

Two days in the same park with no overlap. That is pretty much unheard of because it is double the work. Regardless, the courses were two of the best of the year. The 360 Cup was a lot of elevation change while the Blvd Cup was nearly flat except for a technical berm section that modulated a bit. 

Following the theme of being in the same place, but being completely different, my races couldn't have gone more differently. Saturday was nearly flawless technically. I got a good start, rode everything cleanly, got into 2nd place behind Joe Schmalz and stayed there mostly by myself. I really enjoyed this course, had some good climbing and some fun descending sections with just enough technicality to keep you honest. It was definitely a fitness course.

Sunday was brutal and ugly. I crashed 3 times in different places and had 2 near misses. I really did like the course and the atmosphere was great. Mike Berning said the goal was a course with no recovery sections and he nailed it. I couldn't get out of my own way. I missed a pedal at the start and was immediately in 15th. I rode through to about 6th or 7th then screwed up the ride/run up section badly. I slide out on the berm after hitting my pedal coming out of an off camber section. My second crash was in the sand and I bruised my tailbone making pedaling pretty hard after that. A few laps later I majorly screwed up on the barriers and took myself out of the race. That is my first DNF from a crash in 4 years of cross, so I was probably due. Thanks to everybody who helped me scoop me off the course. I think I got the wind knocked out of my and was cramping in the legs pretty bad too. Nothing but bruises and a dent to the ego, but those are necessary to keep one humble and desiring to learn more about racing.