Cyclocross In the Mountains

Cyclocross 2011

2011-08-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

As always, I'm pretty stoked for the cyclocross season to start. Between 'cross and my new ice climbing(obsession?) I've never had a summer before that I really didn't care much about until now. It's taken everything I have not to post about cyclocross before now, and for most people this is still a little early. I even got my first tilted head "what kind of bike is that?" question of the year while I was refilling my water bottles mid-ride last weekend. I have to go through my pile of tires and decide what I want to use this year, especially the tubulars, and make sure they hold air, especially the tubulars. I don't have a decent set of mud tires and it seems dumb to buy a set of tires for one the one muddy race that we get each year, but it sure would have been helpful at the Ft. Buenaventura race last Dec. Soft pedaling through every corner is not a good way to move up in the race.

I just washed my Clammy Chamois 'cross jersey. Yep, it's been sitting stinky and dirty in the bottom of my race bag since last year. You'd think it would air out a bit after 8 or 9 months, but it was just as stinky as the day I threw it in their. Someone the stank came out and I'll be able to wear it proudly when I line up this year.

I totally slacked on the training last year but even so, I was in better shape than the previous two years and still managed to continually place lower and lower in the sandbagger filled C-class. To remedy this, I'll be moving(not sure if it's to a harder class or not) 35+ B class. It will be sad to leave some of my friends behind, but it's time to move on and challenge myself and some other racers.

The jury is still out on the TRP CX-9 v-brakes. It seems that if I can get my rim true enough to get the pads close enough then they work great. But getting everything adjusted just so is kind of a pain. I need to also consider what will happen if a big wobble happens mid-race, do I want to deal with the brake pad slowing the wheel on each revolution.

Have I mentioned that I freaking love cyclocross. Except for youth church basketball it's the only sport in which I've ever really competed. Mind you I'm not a steely eyed competitor, able to draw speed and stamina from the well when things get really hard. But, I do enjoy mixing it up with the handful of riders around me during the race. If this means I sprint it out with some other guy for 24th place so be it. I have fun and that's all I care about. I started racing simply as motivation to stay in shape. The fun of strategizing and using my strengths, as minimal as they may be, is what makes me keep racing. That, and a delicious bratwurst after the race. Josh, we need to pick this back up. I'll bring the Colosimo's brats to the first race if you bring the grill.

It seems I may be getting my hands on a GoPro camera soon so expect to see some pictures and some video added to the blog this year. Then we can relish in my glory, and the more likely, defeats, with actual visual proof.

If you care about the local races continue reading, otherwise it's going to get even more boring than the first half of this post.

UTCX just posted the schedule for this year. Nice to only have one race at the Weber Fairgrounds this year. It's a long drive and not my favorite venue, though to be honest it has grown on me. I'll be racing at Wheeler Farm 4 times this year. It's always a fun venue with lots of variety, probably one of the best 'cross courses we have in UT. Ft. Bueneventura gets two races this year, wooohoo. I think this is everyone's favorite course. It has almost the same amount of variety that Wheeler does, but the hills have been replaced with a lot of corners through the trees. Mt. Ogden Golf course is back with one race. Hopefully I don't have another mechanical and illness to keep me down this year. This is probably the closest we have to a World Cup type course. Almost all of the course is wide with lots of room for passing. Some tricky downhill off camber corners that can get mighty slick when the grass is wet and a nice lung searing hill in the first 1/2 mile of the course. The season kicks off at the Utah State Fairpark. This was the one venue that I didn't race at last year. Pictures and reports proved it to be a roadie course. Hopefully all of my time on the road this year and the extra fitness will help me not suck too badly. Heber County Fairgrounds gets one race. My least favorite of all the courses, though that may have to do with a DNF from two years ago. One surprising omission is the lack of any races in Draper. I'm not too dissapointed. I'm not sure of the reason for dropping it but maybe others had the same problem I had - way too much single-track, nowhere to pass. It has some features that made it fun, and if you could keep your heart from blowing up you could make up lost time on the long paved climb. This is the same climb that has induced puking twice in past.

Now for a little cyclocross stoke:

Crushed by The Crusher

2011-07-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

If you've made it to this blog you've most likely already read other reports of the race and/or probably did the race yourself. I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about it yet as the sting is still fresh and new but here is the basic (meaning long and overly drawn out) recap.

Friday afternoon I packed up my truck and drove down to Beaver, UT for The Crusher in the Tushar road+dirt race. This race appealed to me because it was a mix of road and dirt. A normal road race just doesn't seem like fun at all. I drove, probably a little too fast since my speedometer only works sometimes, to downtown Beaver where the packet pick-up was being held. Oddly enough some sort of Polynesian festival was also going on. I'd expect this sort of thing in West Valley or even Provo, but it seemed strange and out of place in Beaver. I handed my waiver forms to a woman, I think it was the race director's wife. She asked my number when I told her "12" she said, "Ryan Hamilton from Orem, UT" then found my packet and swag bag and handed it to me. Did she memorize the people that registered for the race or maybe the first 20 or something? Either way it was impressive and kind of strange. Next I scouted out a place to park and spend the night. I needed an out of the way parking lot. I found that Beaver is just as small as I expected and happened upon the high school from which we'd lead out the next day. I soon found a parking lot shared by the LDS seminary building and the high school. There must only be 30 people that drive cars to that high school, that was a small parking lot. A perfect place to spend the night since I'd only have a block or two to drive the next morning to start the race. I blew up my air mattress, stuck it in the back of the truck, peed in the bushes and went to bed. Sometime in the night the sprinklers on the lawn I'd parked next to went on, everything in the back of my truck was pretty wet, but somehow it didn't soak through my sleeping bag.

I packed up and drove to the parking lot near the start area to find I was the first person there. I was able to use the porta-potty in peace without the usual race-day lines. While eating my oatmeal, mountain bike legend, Tinker Juarez pulled up next to me. I've always wondered what national champions do to get ready for a big bike race. Apparently they warm up for 5-10 minutes, fiddle with the bike a bit then sit in their car and text. Good to see I'm not too far off.

Since I was parked 50 yards from the start line I could take my time getting ready. I could hear all of the announcements so when I heard them make the final call for racers to get to the start line I went over to the Men 30-39 group. I was happy to see cyclocross buddies Josh McCarrel and Wesley Rasmussen near me. After a few words from the officials we took our turn heading out. We started out at a decent pace so I pedaled along in the peleton for a few miles. Then, some of the fast guys from the group behind us passed our group. I think that spurred the lead guys to go faster. Pretty soon I was in the last half of the group that didn't want to bust a lung in the first 5 miles of the race. It was nice to have a group to ride with and take turns pulling and drafting as the grades slowly got steeper and steeper up Beaver Canyon. By the time we turned onto the dirt the group was pretty strung out. I hung with a group of about 4 guys on mountain bikes for a while, but dropped them after a couple of miles. I this was due to the fact that I had to stick with my 34T chain ring and they had a 22 granny to drop into so they could spin away. I had to keep the legs pumping up the climb. About 10 miles up the dirt (20 miles into the race) the cramps in my legs got bad enough that I had to stop for a few minutes. Riders passed by and asked if I was ok. One guy who'd apparently replaced the torn off sleeves of his jersey with full sleeve tatoos (later found out it was big-drop crazy Josh Bender) asked for a knuckle bump as he rode past on his 7" travel Ellsworth MTB. After the cramps subsided I got back on and rode to the first aid station, had a cool slice of watermelon (tasted sooo good), refilled with electrolytes and continued on.

After hitting the aid station and refueling I got back to it. I had thought the aid station was at the top of the climb so it was a long 3 miles to top out. I'll also mention here that although I loved everything else at the aid stations, the EFS gel was the absolute worst gel I've ever had. No gels are really all that great, but this was like shooting a big gulp of runny honey into your mouth. My jaw actually locked up for a moment after the intense sweetness hit the back of my tongue, glad I had some water to quickly wash that down. After making it to the top and snagging a dollar from Slyfox I hit the downhill only to find that my rear brake wasn't really working at all. This made navigating the steep and loose switchbacks more than a little difficult. Not wanting to die, I took my time creeping around the corners with just my front brake to keep my speed under control. After what seemed like a hand cramping eternity I finally made it to the paved section, luckily still downhill. The curves were all nice and mellow so I shot down without touching my brakes and enjoyed the relief of not having to exercise any muscles for a few minutes. After the grade mellowed out a bit I tried to shift to different gear so I could start pedaling to maintain the speed I had. As soon as I started to pedal my rear derailleur locked up. Not wanting to rip of the derailleur in the middle of the race I was forced to stop and fix it. The derailleur looked fine but my I couldn't turn the cranks. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out that the bumpy descent had somehow made my cassette come loose. I popped off the wheel and did my best to hand tighten the cassette without a tool. All this time I watched rider after rider pass by. Once I got back on the road I and pedaled into town I realized that I hadn't seen anyone in quite a while and wondered if I'd gone the wrong way.

I made my way to the only flat section of the course, with the stiff wind it offered no relief of easy pedaling. I managed to catch up to one guy and sat on his wheel for a minute to catch my breath. We took turns pulling in the headwind. Once the course turned onto dirt and the wind was now at my back I dropped him pretty quick. That is until a couple miles into the slow dirt climb when my leg cramps came back with a vengeance. I suffered with them for a while until I couldn't take it any longer. Anytime my leg would straiten out it would lock up in a cramp, not only making it hard to pedal with any sort of efficiency, but quickly make my muscles very tired and sore. I pedaled slower and slower until I just couldn't turn over the cranks and came to a stop. After a minute the guy behind me slowly passed by. Then another couple of minutes after that the SAG wagon pulled up and asked if I was OK. I explained the cramp situation, that I was just waiting it out. Apparently my previous cramps, slow descent and mechanical problems had put me in last place. So I now had the decision to try to keep going with the SAG wagon creeping behind me for the next 3 hours, or call it a day. It was a tough decision to make. I had been training hard, harder than I've ever trained before. I was in great shape and had really looked forward to this race. But, I knew from past hot sweaty rides that once the leg cramps get bad there isn't much I can do to keep them at bay. Knowing that the toughest part of the race was ahead and my legs, if I could even get them to move again, would just get worse, I made the decision to get in the van.

It was both a relief and heartbreaking to sit in the van. It made it all the worse when we came upon my friend Wes who was clearly having a hard time on the steep switchbacks, honestly everyone was. Wes didn't give up, even with the van on his heals, he just kept on. He walked when he needed to walk and rode when he could ride. He may have come in last, unable to catch that last guy 10 seconds in front of him at the end, but had more grit and determination than most of the guys that rode the Crusher that day.

Three days later I still get a pit in my stomach wondering if I could have continued and finished the race. All I can do is plan for next year. I've got to figure out my sodium loss issue that causes my leg cramps. I thought I had prepared well enough for it by bringing a bunch of salt pills with me and taking in a lot of electrolytes. I need to own up to the fact that I'm more susceptible than most to salt loss and I can't just do what others do if I'm going to finish a race like The Crusher. One thing is for sure I'll be ready for it next year.

Training Is Not Fun

2011-07-10T19:23:00.000-07:00

I wrote about a recent adventure I had while training for the Crusher In The Tushar race: http://utahmountainclimbing.blogspot.com/2011/07/crusher-in-tusher.html I've thought a a lot about long hilly bike rides during the last month or so as I've ramped up my "Crusher" training. I've come to realize that I don't enjoy most of the tough hill climbs, I rarely ever do. It's hard, painful, hot and did I mention hard. I recall about 6 years ago driving up Provo and South Fork Canyon looking at the cyclists that were sweating their way up those canyons on their bikes in the July heat and honestly wondering why they did it. It didn't look fun, it didn't look like they were enjoying themselves. I said to my wife, "why would you even want to do that, it looks awful?" Fast forward to today and I can tell you why those suckers sweat and grind their way to the top of the hill. You get a supreme sense of satisfaction from completing a tough ride, especially if it involves a big climb. Time after time I push myself on my rides, especially my favorite Provo Canyon/South Fork time trial. I push as hard as I can, yet feel myself moving in slow motion as I finally reach out and touch the gate to the Girl Scouts camp that marks the end of the road. Sometimes my heart is beating so hard that I have to have to sit down and put my head between my legs to keep my lunch down. Not fun. But I feel stronger and tougher because of it and that 30 seconds I took off my personal record feels like my own gold medal.

Despite all this feel good I get from training I tend to slack off the training when it gets hard. During cyclocross season the training is all about hard intervals and hard intervals suck. They suck even more because they're done in my basement on the trainer in front of a movie that I'm bored of and isn't doing anything to take my mind off the pain. Because of this, it's easy to say that tonight is just a bad night and my legs aren't feeling it. I cut the workout short, take a shower and sit down to a nice bowl of ice cream. Probably the best thing that training for the Crusher has taught me is to keep pushing. If I stopped every time the road got steep on the Alpine Loop it would take me forever to complete those training rides. Quiting was not an option, I had to get in the miles or get crushed by The Crusher. So I learned that when it got steep and my legs felt limp that I had to push harder and dig a little deeper. Sure it hurt, but I gained a little extra heart in the process. Giving up 2/3 of the way through a 45 mile ride through the mountains isn't really an option. Turning around and heading back down means I'd then have to ride 30 miles back home in the heat of the afternoon sun.

One of my favorite parts of completing a really hard training ride or race is the silent satisfaction that I get when I go back to work on Mon. and know that I'm that much tougher than everyone else that went out for 18 holes or sat on their couch watching a football game. I have nothing against golf or tv watching, I'll probably take it up when I'm 60 and I have to slow down a bit. But for now I'll relish the grit and mud that I clean off my teeth after a hard 'cross race and feel just a little bit tougher than you.

UTCX# 8 - I Am Not a State Champion

2010-11-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

This year's Utah State Championship race was held on the Mount Ogden Golf course. Most of us were expecting a pretty easy affair mellow climbs over small grassy hills. This is not what we got. I don't normally whine (at least I think I don't and if you think I do please keep your comments to yourself I don't want to hear them and I won't believe them anyway), but I'm going to do some whining to start off today's blog; deal with it.

To start things off, somewhere during my warm-up half of my pedal broke off. I was still able to clip in, but things were pretty loose and I didn't know how long the rest would stay together. I pointed this out to Josh as we were getting to the start line. He happened to have an extra pair of pedals so we rushed to his truck, threw them and on and got back to the line with a minute to spare. Thanks Josh! I've been fighting a cold all week and read a couple of weeks ago that medical science has proven that a cold doesn't affect athletic performance, that is crap. I haven't felt this tired, sluggish and lacking in strength since my first 'cross race 2 years ago. I warmed up on the trainer and felt ok. Then I hit the course and, climbing the enormous hill with extreme difficulty. I didn't realize how big and long it was until later when I was taking pictures and realized what seemed pretty flat in the race and warm-up was not flat at all. It starts with some single-track that's not too bad. Then a semi-tricky steep muddy 3 foot section up to the paved cart path. The path then climbed, and climbed, then climbed some more, up to a 120 degree turn up a fairly steep grassy hill. It was during this first climb of the first lap that I honestly wondered if I could finish the race. I had absolutely nothing in the tank, my legs hurt and had no strength. I literally used my easiest gear on every hill, no matter how small or easy, and still struggled at an unbelievably slow pace.

Up to this point I kept feeling like my rear wheel was a bit wonky. It seemed to hit my brake pads now and then and feel a bit wobbly here and there. I hadn't noticed anything when I put the wheel on or glued the tire on earlier that week. It was at the top of this first grassy hill that I finally stopped to see what, if anything, was the problem. I grabbed the wheel and quickly realized that the bearings in my hubs were loose. Just as I realized the problem, and with the other half of the pack now passing me, some guy said "looks like your cones are loose dude." Yeah, no kidding. I loosened the quick release and hand tightened the hub as much as I could then cranked down the quick release to see if that would hold. Amazingly it did the trick. I have the honest that for a moment this seemed like a problem that was heaven sent, here is the mechanical I needed to honorably bow out of the race. But I had too much pride now so I got back on it and started pedaling. It had now been a couple of minutes, enough time for me to be the absolute last person in the pack. In fact, the pack was nowhere to be seen. I started pedaling by myself still wondering if I made the right choice to keep racing. After a couple of minutes I caught up to Wes riding his mountain bike. Wes had told me earlier that he wasn't racing two races today, he was riding one and racing one. So I decided to just follow along with Wes and just ride for a while instead of race, besides it was nice to have a friendly face to ride with for a while.

I had heard the announcers telling the riders coming through that they had 3 laps to go. When Wes and I rode through they told us 2 laps. Either they made a mistake, or as Wes said, "They're probably just accounting for us getting lapped soon." After a while I found a little more energy and left Wes behind and started cruising a bit. I was starting to feel a little better, maybe catching my 2nd wind. I came down a hill with a turn near the bottom. This particular corner was kind of tricky. It had a couple of smaller hills, forcing you to either take your chances with a tight, and probably slick inside route, the more obvious middle line placed you on the steep side of a small hill in the middle of the corner, or you could take it really wide and avoid most of the problems. I was running a pretty low tire pressure, really low actually since we were riding on bumpy grass it seemed the best choice, so I was feeling pretty confident in my traction and took the corner a little faster than before. My rear wheel slid right out from under me sending me and the bike sliding down the hill, much to the delight of the spectators watching there. My bike and I were no worse for wear so I got back on and started riding. The rest of the lap went fairly well, mostly downhill from here so I was able to get some speed and recover a bit.

I forgot to mention(here's another excuse) that my rear derailleur wasn't working correctly. It seemed to work just fine in the warm-up but as soon as the race started and we hit the first hill I nearly dropped my chain into my spokes, I caught in time and pedaled backwards to get it back on the cassette. From there on out, every time I shifted into my larges(easiest) cog in the back I either dropped the chain into the spokes or I felt it start to go that direction and quickly shifted. As I mentioned before, I used that gear a lot, every hill. So, every time a slight incline appeared I had to gingerly shift to that gear and look to make sure everything was secure and inline. Not being able to confidently shift really takes its toll. You can't just shift and climb up a hill. I had to look to see where I was on the cassette, pedal softly while shifting, making sure everything went where it was supposed to then I could put some pressure on the pedals; what a pain.

Just as I was about to finish lap 3 I hear the announcers say the leaders were coming through for their final (4th) lap. I could either let up and get passed, thus ending the torture or keep pedaling and do a final lap for no other reason than personal honor. I chose the latter and kept riding. I ended up passing a couple more riders, one of which had his bike upside-down fixing his wheel. I managed a 36th out of 42 riders. The worst showing I've had since my first race 2 1/2 years ago. So much for improving. Quite frankly the only reason I care is because the physical exhaustion hurt so much, I really couldn't care less about what place I finished.

This Saturday is Clammy Cross www.clammycross.blogspot.com I won't be attending, but you should.

UTCX #7 - Back to Draper, Back to Puking.

2010-11-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

The weather in Northern Utah has been fantastic this week. A warm high pressure system has kept the winds and cold at bay. The race today was fairly warm around 55F. Though the high pressure system is moving so it was pretty windy at times; enough that it felt like I was always riding against the wind. I don't typically fare well on the course in Draper, either a mechanical slows me down or the darn hill that we're forced to ride at the start as well as an extra time to finish kills my legs and lungs (and spirit). I managed to get in a great warm-up on the trainer to start and pre-rode the course. Everything was exactly the same as the previous few races there so no surprises, except a little sand on a downhill, but an outside line avoiding most of the sand became apparent so the sand didn't seem to slow down many of the riders.

I got to the start line early so I could have a first row start. We got the go ahead and sprinted up the hill; I wasn't about to repeat the mistake I made last time by getting stuck behind everyone. My teammates Josh and Ryan had the same idea. We flew up the hill with the leaders then, almost on cue, all three of us blew up and slowed way down, swallowed up by a dozen other racers just as we crested the hill. Luckily a downhill section wasn't too far away so we pushed on. The recovery was nice, but not nearly long enough. Through the horse corral, which thankfully had been soaked and packed down, then up the steep climb. I got to the single-track without too much exhaustion and was happy to be near other riders going about my same speed, not slowed down like last time.

The rest of the laps seemed to tick off very slowly; 5 in all. In the middle of the last lap I had to suddenly pull over and throw up. I've thrown up before after a race, but never during. It wasn't pleasant, and was probably the loudest I've ever thrown up; seriously just yelling as it came up. I got done and felt much better so I got back on it, but not before 10 other riders blew past me; crap. Just as I was heading down the last bit of singletrack before the final climb I saw Josh on the side of the trail trying to inflate his rear tire. Josh has even worse luck on this course than I do. I finished the race without incident and took a seat.

When I checked the results I came in 32 of 40, not very good, but if you figure I lost 10 places from throwing up and Josh says the top 10 are all sandbaggers I really finished in 12th place. If you round down I made top 10. There it is, with the puking handicap I managed a top 10 finish! If only the scoring judges saw it that way.

I didn't get any photos of the crime scene where I violently crashed and ripped a hole in my tubular tire last time, so here for your enjoyment are some photos and captions.

Here is from the bottom of the hill looking up. Notice the rider showing the proper line down the trail and not the out of control direction I ended up taking (I later found out that a loose brake cable was at least partially to blame for this mishap, hard to controls speed when your brakes aren't working). Click on the pictures to enlarge better read the captions.

And now a shot from the top, to demonstrate the view I had as I blazed through the weeds, rocks and stumps to my final landing place.

UTCX #5 - Halloween Cross

2010-11-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Wheeler Farm Halloween weekend race seems to be a favorite around here. The combination of a great course and people racing in crazy costumes makes for a really fun time. The Wheeler Farm course is always fun because it combines a good amount of everything. Lots of wide, paved and dirt sections for passing and getting some speed, off camber sections, steep hills, and even a little single-track thrown in. I was riding around doing my warm up, mostly easy pedaling, but with a few hard sprints thrown in to wake up the legs, when I took a corner going pretty fast and felt my rear wheel break loose and get kind of wonky. I looked down at my wheel wondering if I'd broken a spoke or something when I noticed that part of my tire was now off the rim. My first rolled tubular. Luckily this happened during warm-up and not during the race. I had anticipated needing a different tire tread for this race anyway; we'd had some rain the day before. I went to the car and grabbed my other wheel and was in business.

I noticed a little too late that everyone had already started lining up at the start so I got a bad start position with about 40 people ahead of me. I made up a few places on the road, but as soon as we hit the single-track everything backed up pretty bad. A few people hopped off their bikes to run alongside the rest of us, but it was futile, any places they made up were lost when they tried to remount in traffic and got passed again. We hit a couple more traffic jams before the group was sufficiently strung out. I noticed a few of the roadies off the side of the trail in the trees, I assume they went off trail through some of the fast corners.

Over the summer some work had been done on the property. This added a few changes into the mix. The normal paved road that winds through the property is now a hard-packed dirt surface (I'd love to see it when it gets muddy). The major change is a large quantity of sand has been dumped along the river bed in what used to be my favorite "pick up some speed as you fly though the trees" section. Now, it's a "100 feet of deep sand to suck up any energy you have at that moment" section. During my pre-ride I wasn't able to ride through the sand and expected to have to run that section each lap. Luckily during the race I managed to go though without anyone getting in my way and could ride the whole thing. Immediately after the sand was a steep climb out of the river bottom and up to a bridge, then right back town to some a twisty section through the trees and more sand before a double barrier section. Amazingly, this 300 feet of the course was even more exhausting than it sounds. Right after the last barrier it was a 180 turn onto the dirt road. I was always expecting to be able to pick up some speed and ride fast now that I had a decent surface on which to ride; I was wrong. My heart rate and legs were

always so ripped after riding the sand and steep hill that I just didn't have anything left once I got to the road. After talking with some friends it seems I wasn't the only one with that problem.

The rest of the course was relatively easy. Lots of wide fast sections, easy single-track and some sidewalks. There was one really tight corner on the side of hill that we usually ride up; I found out riding down and taking the turn is a little trickier. I always managed to stay upright, but had to watch the speed pretty well to make sure I didn't crash or head way off course.

Some days when you head out on your bike your legs feel great, lots of power and speed, and you feel like you can ride forever. Other days, it's the opposite. Legs are sluggish, your lungs burn and either you can't get your heart rate up or it pops too high too fast and you're left wheezing and slow. I knew as soon as the race started that this wasn't going to be a good day. My legs never felt great and I just didn't have that drive to chase down anyone that passed me. The high point of the race was snagging a $20 in the cash zone, just about paying for my race fee for the day. My Clammy Chamois teammate Josh McCarrel seemed to be doing about as well as I was. I caught up with him with a half lap to go. I was pooped so I just rode on his wheel to the finish, pondering briefly about sprinting past him for 28th place, but quickly changed my mind.

After some time to digest this race, even though the course got a lot harder, I actually like it that much more. It was very fun and very challenging and that's what keeps me interested in racing 'cross.

UTCX #4 - This is getting hard

2010-10-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

Do you know what happens when you do a race after not training for a month?

Answer: you dothe hardest race of you can remember and only end up in 30th place.

Note: none of these photos are me, just photos I took of the other races.

This is probably the best planned race that I've ridden. I warmed up on my trainer, making sure to get in some hard sprints to open up the legs. I stopped with enough time to hit the loo and get to the start line to have a first row start. I was ready to go in my new Team Clammy Chamois jersey. We were told to go and everyone went... right around me. Not sure what happened, but it was some combination of being in the wrong gear and an inability to get clipped into my pedal. My front row start turned into an instant 20th place. No problem, roll with the punches. Things got a bit squirrely through the first turn as the pack got funned through a 180 degree turn. After that I settled into a good pace, fast but something I could maintain. We wound through the course, which was being run in the opposite direction as last time. I felt good as we came through the triple set of barriers, the first two right in a row, then you had to turn a tight corner and finish with the last; I didn't like this section as it always seemed rather cumbersome and nothing seemed fast enough. As we headed toward the horse race track I was sure to grab a wheel and run a pace line with 4 other guys. It was nice to have a small amount of recovery time. I managed to race about half the time, keeping people at bay.

Riders would try to pass, but I'd put on the gas and keep them back. That is, until Clammy Chamois captain Josh McCarrel slapped my butt as he flew past me. I wasn't about to let that attack go unpunished so I jumped on the pedals, got past the rider in front of me and barely managed to get behind Josh just before the race track. I maintained the connection for about a lap, then started getting attacked from behind, first one, then another until another Clammy Chamois teammate, Ryan Coburn, came by. I had enough so I pushed through the pain for the next 3 laps and kept close to him. I'd like to personally thank Ryan for towing me around the course for 15 minutes.

As we neared the finish line it was clear Ryan still had something left, whereas I was just hanging on for dear life. He popped ahead about 30 yards to finish ahead of me. Just as I was getting close to the line another rider came up next to me, I tried again, but failed, and he got past me just as we crossed the line.

I coasted to a stop near my team, dropped my bike, and laid on the ground. I feel like I'm starting to get this cyclocross thing figured out. Perhaps it's not a good idea to quit training just as the season starts. With my legs still hurting I vow to get on the stupid trainer tonight and make myself fast(or at least faster) again.

UTCX #2

2010-10-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

I'm doing some writing for CyclingUtah.com now, specifically covering cyclocross and some other thing later. Here is the write-up I did for the website, complete with pictures by Jen. UTCX #2 The race was held at the Weber County Fairgrounds.

The race for me went pretty well. As usual I was a solid mid-pack finisher, which is really my only goal. When I finish a race I'm happy if I've accomplished two things: Finished, placed in the 20's. So my 25th place finish sealed the deal for me. I may have done a little better. After last week I was going to make sure I lined up near the front this time, especially knowing that the course quickly narrows and the back of the pack gets bunched up pretty quickly. I finished my warm-up and had about 10 minutes before the start of the race, plenty of time to do a last minute pit-stop and get to the line. I found the bathrooms and discovered they were locked with a sign indicating to use the bathrooms in another building. I rode around for a minute and found the right building, took care of business and got to the starting area. The C class must be more ambitious this year because with 5 minutes to go everyone was already at the line an I was all the way in the back. Crap.

After being reminded that sandbaggers would be moved to B's next week and they would be watching people who cut the course this week, we were ready to go

Editorial note: There are at least 3 or 4 people that were top 10 all last year in the C class and racing C's again, it's time to move up to the B's and be big boys now. The 1st place finisher this week finished a good 3 minutes before anyone else, move on big feller.

Apparently a few racers cut under the course tape last week in race #1 so they ended up half way up the long finishing climb. Seriously? Cheating in an amateur cycling race? Is there anything stupider?! Congratulations, you placed well in the slowest category of the local cyclocross race. I pros are stupid for cheating and amateurs are even stupider. Just race and have fun okay.

The count went down and we went off. I immediately looked for some holes in the pack and worked my way to mid pack. At the first drop in to the fast grassy corner I nailed the inside line and made up a few more places. I was racing and having fun. Aside from doing a good job of choosing some good lines and getting ahead of most of the slower riders I totally forgot about executing any sort of race strategy. I just pedaled hard and had some fun. Part of the course took us out on a horse race track, with packed sand, making for a relatively fast riding surface. This is the only place I managed to ride smart during the race. I make sure that I got to the race course just behind 2 or 3 other people each lap then tucked in behind them and made good use of the draft. While the guy in front was pedaling hard, I was soft pedaling and getting a bit of a recovery.

As soon as we got back to the main part of the course I drove inside and hit the barrier section with speed and usually got past the guys that had been riding in front of me. I managed to bobble and not get clipped into my pedals once or twice and lost a place or two, but nothing serious.

One thing about this course that always bothers me is the lack of course tape as the course winds back and forth on itself around various logs, dips and gravel sections. Inevitably at least once I end up going the wrong way as I exit a turn and am faced with a series of cones that don't really indicate a clear path. It might seem obvious when their making the course or even pre-riding. But, in the middle of a race when you're exhausted, with your heart pounding in your head and the constant panting that drowns out any other audible sound, it's hard to make a snap decision and remember where the course goes. The race organizers must have figured this out because on the last couple of laps there were people out on the course directing traffic in the right direction.

I ended up on the last lap with 2 other guys who seemed to racing at about the same level as I. I made the decision to pick them off before the end of the lap by getting them on the barriers. That didn't work, they were just as fast. Then I tried to get past on some of the corners, but they stole my lines (I guess they were theirs too so I can't be too bothered). I had been eating up precious energy trying to pass them for the last half of the lap and as we inched toward the finish line they chased each other down and left me in the dust. Oh well, there's always next time. Check out the cyclingutah.com article for photos. I'm skipping next week's race for family vacation time, so my next race will be right back in Ogden.

UTCX #1

2010-10-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

I made two mistakes today. I've been looking forward to today since January. Utah Cyclocross race #1 in Draper. The course in at the Draper equestrian park is pretty fun. Most of the course is made up of single-track. There are two sections that are not so much fun. The U shaped loop into the sandy horse corral isn't any fun because you can't push to hard without spinning out your wheels, then as soon as your legs are tired of churning you are faced with a hill would be a run-up if it were any steeper, but it's not so you put it in a low gear and ride. You reach the top just as your legs feel like they are about to stop, at least it's that way in the last couple of laps.

The other area is where I made my mistake number 1. The long paved climb that both starts and ends the race; the race starts at the bottom but finishes at the top. My game plan for the day was to let everyone that was hopped up and raring to go speed up the hill and blow themselves up while I rode at moderate pace and picked them off over the course of the first lap. By the top of the hill I was literally in 2nd to last place, my friend Andrew playing it safe right behind me. The problem is everyone still had enough juice in them to stay in front of me until we hit the single-track. That's where I caught a bunch of people but didn't have any place to pass them. I got past a couple on the first lap and a couple on the 2nd lap, but by then everyone else was so far ahead because of the delay that I didn't have much of a chance to catch up. I slowly passed about a dozen people over the course of the race and had my sights on two guys that I had a good chance of beating before the last lap ended. We were just about to the end of the single-track and I knew if I was going to beat them I'd have to get it done here and maintain my lead on the climb to the finish line. I saw my gap and turned on the gas. I got past them just before the semi-steep, but rutted and loose drop to the road. I was going pretty fast so I jammed on the brakes and had things under control, or so I thought. Before I knew it I careening off the right of the course. I started getting back in control, made it through a couple of sketchy sections, avoiding some small boulders and was almost home free. That's when two more boulders appeared right in front of me. I did my best to keep it together, but before I knew it the world started spinning and I was hitting the ground. The good part of this was the very soft thick grass that padded my fall. The bad part was I hit those rocks really hard and my front tire was dead flat. I was a little out of it so I laid down on the grass for a moment contemplating my DNF when I realized I was only 500 yards from the finish and I had lapped a couple of guys so I was still in it. I got up, shouldered the bike and started the long climb ahead. All of the 12 guys that I had worked so hard to pass made it past me and I was the last one to finish the race. I managed to get across the finish line just as they doing the podium presentation. I raised my arms in triumph and got some good natured applause from the lady at the finish line.

Because I had lapped a few people and finished a lap ahead of them I managed to get 35th of 39 even though I walked across the finish line. Although I was hurting during the race, I was pretty happy with how I was riding. I figure I could have finished around 20- 25th if I hadn't gotten stuck in the beginning of the race...and of course stayed upright through the end. Josh tells me we should have our new Clammy Chamois jerseys before the race next week, so we'll look official and certainly have a number of people clamouring to be a part of team Clammy Chamois.

p.s To Coop and anyone else who cares to see visual evidence of my cyclocross exploits, I fully intended on taking pictures this week and even had my camera, but I didn't have a rideable bike to ride around on to get to the photo opps. You'll have to wait until next week when Jen and the kids will be around to snap a few.

The Lungs They Are A Burnin'

2010-09-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

The final race of the 4 race mini-series was tonight. We got a lot of rain during the day and I was hoping for some sort of epic mud-sucking, wheel spinning, leg churning muck fest. It didn't happen. A few hours of sun dried out the course enough that they moisture caused the course to be nice and tacky. This made it very fast and cut out the throat coating dust that has plagued me the last two raced. Word must have gotten around about these races because a lot of the fast guys that race the Utah Cyclocross Series decided to show up. I was mildly concerned that the B class would get packed with fast B-packers from UTCX. Either I've gotten faster or they were still getting their 'cross legs under them; I didn't get lapped by anyone but the top 3 A racers.

The race started out awesome, I was in front going into the first turn, blazing fast and feeling good. Knowing that I don't do too well when I go out to hard I let one or two guys get in front of me just before the run-up. Next we headed down the fast, rock filled, hill. I feathered the brakes, dumping a little speed, to keep from duplicating last week's pinch flat disaster. I found a good line through the rocks and got onto single-track carrying a good amount of speed. The tacky dirt held my tires as I zipped around corners in the drops. I came through the ditch and found Jen and the girls cheering for me as I headed up and around the main building before we dropped onto the only paved section of the course.

I was going fast and putting some distance between me and the guy behind me. Just as I slowed to enter the turn that dumps us back onto single-track I remembered to take the outside line to avoid the large mud puddle on the inside line that I normally take. Through the barriers I was still feeling good and having a great race.

Lap two put a stake in me. As I headed to the run-up, to where Jen and the kids had moved, I dumped gears so I'd be ready to pedal at the top of the hill and my derailleur started making horrible grinding sounds. I looked down to see it flopping around and though the worst; broken derailleur, figures. I stopped, checked it out, found everything working well and headed up the run-up. I had lost a couple places with that little mishap, but I was determined to get them back. The extra running and effort put in didn't go well and the two that got past put too much distance between us. I finally got back in a groove when I got to the barriers. I bungled the re-mount and "hurt" myself in a private way. I took a good 5 minutes to recover while I soft-pedaled around the course. Finally feeling good I put some power back on the pedals around a corner and nicked a rock with my pedal. I managed to stay upright but had some trouble getting my foot clipped back in to the pedal. This lap was a disaster. I made it through to the tricky gravel section ending with the big log used as a barrier; almost lost it with too much speed.

The rest of the race went alright. I held my place until the last lap when the one guy I had been working to hold off finally got past me. I busted my butt to reel him in. I thought for a minute I'd get it done through the final section of single-track, where I had the edge on him but my lungs were burning(I'm getting over a chest cold) and I just couldn't catch up to him. He kept about 40 feet on me as we got to the finish line.

I fully intended to have pictures for this one. Even brought Jen, my personal photographer, but we both forgot the camera battery in the charger at home. I had fun. Jen and the kids had fun, ringing the cowbell and cheering all the racers up the run-up. I won an ipod shuffle in the raffle thus getting more than my entry fees back. I really enjoyed the Euclid mini cyclocross series and hope they do it again next year.

DNF - Gettin' It Out Of The Way Early

2010-09-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

I headed up to Heber with my buddy Andrew for the 2nd installment of the Euclid Wed. pre-season cyclocross series. I pre-rode the course and found the lower pressure in my front tire was helping me stick the corners really well; I dropped the psi to around 30 in the front and 32 in the rear. During my pre-ride I was behind a guy on the new Stevens Carbon Cross bike and he had an Ipod with a speaker playing rap or punk(I couldn't hear it really well) in his jersey pocket. I can appreciate a guy that races with is own soundtrack.

Race time came and I lined up next to my friend Kyle, who had downgraded from the A class to the Bs. I made sure to give Kyle a hard time about his downgrade and threatened a severe mocking if he won. The go sign was up and we were off. I hadn't paid attention to where I lined up at the start and realized after we headed out that I was on the far outside so about 6 people got ahead of me by the first turn. Up the run-up down the hill and through the fast first section. This first section has really become my favorite part of the course. You can carry some good speed through the corners and have a lot of fun. There are a few short steep ups and downs to keep things interesting then you're through to the next part.

After I settled in to 5th place I was maintaining my lead on the 6th and having a great time. My heart rate was pegged and I was panting, but I was maintaining it and feeling ok. I had gotten comfortable with all the loose corners, maintaining speed and letting my rear wheel drift out a bit to scrub off speed as necessary. This helped me keep from losing momentum through each corner.

About 30 minutes into the race I was done; pinch flat! I manage to get a flat and DNF at least once each season. You may be wondering, "but Ryan I thought you had tubulars, how on Earth did you get a pinch flat?" I'll explain this mathematically:

(30 psi x 30 mph) + large rock = pinch flat

I had come down that rocky hill going pretty fast. Hit the rocky flat section at what I now consider a somewhat reckless pace; I wasn't really in control. Then I heard a big PING and almost immediately my front wheel started washing out. I brought the bike to a stop and confirmed that I had in fact flattened the tire. Amazingly my discount tubular wheels came through the abuse with flying colors, no dents, dings, and still totally strait and true.

I took the walk of shame back to the car, racked the bike, and cheered on my friends. A bit of a bummer, but it was still a fun night. Now I get the pleasure of tearing the tire off the rim and gluing a new one on.

The Dream is Alive

2010-09-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

As anyone that reads my blog, or Facebook posts, can attest, cyclocross season can not come soon enough. So I was utterly ecstatic when I found out that there would be a four race, Wed. night cyclocross series in September. I planned on using the four races as training races, keeping with my current training regimen of weight training and periodically riding my bike. In all seriousness, I'd ride my bike a lot more, but life has gotten pretty busy and I can't find the time. I could/should ride the trainer but I haven't been able to mentally get behind that idea quite yet.

Sadly I missed the first of the Sep. races due to scheduling conflicts but I'm making sure the rest of my schedule is clear. The races are held in Midway/Heber, not exactly sure in which city limits the course resides. The races are sponsored by Euclid Outdoors and are held on their property. Makes me jealous for the people that work there, they have a standing 'cross course on which to practice. I'd much rather spend my lunch hour doing interval hot laps on a 'cross course than in a gym listening to some meat-head grunting out one last squat rep.

I got to the venue and found it was a pretty mellow affair, $10 and no number plate needed. I found my good friend Kyle, the owner of the SBR bike shop up the road from my house. He was getting ready to do his first cyclocross race ever and he had a brand-spanking-new bike (Bianchi). I got to chatting with a guy that I usually finish near in the Utah Cyclocross Series (UTCX) and decided I'd just stick on his tail and see how things go.

I decided to race the B category, even though I usually race C's in the UTCX, because I figured the C class here really would be beginners unlike UTCX where the top guys are really fast and should be racing B's. Though the course of the race I found this to be a good decision. After a couple of warm up laps I was waved over by Kyle who was about to pump more air into his tires and asked me what psi I was running, he and I were using the same tubular tires. He had 38 psi and thought he should put more in. I told him to suppress the roadie in him and drop the pressure. In 'cross and mountain biking lower is better (faster). I convinced him to go down to around 30-32.

At 6:30 we lined up at the start line. First were the A's, about 8 or 10 of them lined up and went off at the GO. Next were the B's, I think there were about 10-12 of us. We hit the pedals and shot forward on the gravel stretch of road ahead of us. I was feeling good in 2nd place (and had enough in the tank to take 1st if I wanted to) as we rounded the corner, two wheel sliding through the gravel; it was awesome! I held my place though the short steep run-up but just about dropped the guy behind me. I stepped on the big log that had been placed in front of the run-up and it rolled, I was fine, but he almost dumped it. Sorry dude. After that we hit a very fast rocky downhill section, about 60 yards long. I was really glad I had the tubular tires at this point. If I had clinchers at this psi I would have surely gotten a pinch flat, when I felt my wheel bottom out numerous times.

Next up some fast singletrack through the sage brush, the turns were just shallow enough to carry some speed. A short time later some short turns set me up for a quick drop into and back out of a ditch. Coming out of that section the course routed us around the main building on the property then down the paved drive to the northern dirt section of the course. This is where things got hard. This area probably made up 75% of the course and was full of extremely tight turns and loose dirt. This meant I couldn't carry any speed at all through turns. So it was on the pedals, brake and lose all momentum, then full power back on the pedals. I don't know how many laps we did but by the end I was really feeling the effects of this on again off again power suck. As you got close to the finish line the course heads strait through some gravel toward a fence and tight left hand turn blocked by a large 18" piece of wood. The scrap lumber at this venue was used rather effectively. From here it was 50 yards to the start/finish line.

I was going through the race just fine. I had lost a couple of places and was now in 4th place or so. I was taking some pretty good lines and doing my best to maintain momentum through turns when it became clear that that the guy behind me that I was trying to shake was moving up on me. I thought, "this guy must be following my lines because there's no other way for him to stick with me." A few moments later he passed me, it was then that I saw he was one of the A racers. I didn't feel so bad about getting passed and felt silly for thinking he must have been stealing my lines. Before the race started the promoter told us that all classes would be racing for 45 minutes so when the first A races came through after 40 minutes he'd call for 1 more lap. After innumerable laps and endless suffering I kept waiting for the 1 lap to do call. I came through the Finish area where more people were standing around and mentally begging the promoter to call for one last lap. He said something that I couldn't quite understand, it must have been the panting and heart pounding in my ears that blocked it out. I didn't sound like "one lap to go", but for the next half lap all I could do was go over what he said again and again, "could it have been one more lap?"

I suffered through the next lap and came through the Finish area where I was now sure I was going to be told we were done. He waved me through telling me one more lap, "this guy is trying to kill me." Somehow I always have a little gas left on the last lap to go just a little faster. I think it's a mental thing, knowing that I don't have to save anything else for the race. I finally made it to the finish line proud of the race I'd just ridden. In talking with the promoter I found out that the first A racers had come through the finish line earlier at the 39 minute mark, just shy of 40 so that meant we were all going to do 2 more laps. I think I raced for 55 minutes, 5 - 10 more than usual. I think total lap count was 8, maybe 10-12 miles.

All in all it was a good race. I was covered in dirt and dust and ready to do it again next week. Sorry no pictures. By the time the race ended it was getting dark and my camera phone doesn't shoot well in the dark. I'll get some next week.

Fist Attempt At Gluing Tubular Tires

2010-09-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

I knew Jen would be out all day caving with her uncle in Rock Canyon so I decided to go about my virgin entry into the world of gluing tubular tires. You see, years ago (I'd need to check for sure, but my guess is around 100 years ago) the only option for pneumatic tires on a bicycle was a tubular tire. These tires are also called sew-ups, because the tire case and glued on tread are sewn up with the tube inside. No one had come up with the clincher tire and the tire bead, and mating lip on the rim, so gluing tires to the rim was the only option.

The main problem people had with tubular tires were flats. If you got a flat you had to peel off one tire and put on another, much more cumbersome than simply fixing a tube. If you look at old pictures from the Tour De France, and other cycling pictures, you'll see cyclists climbing nasty gravel roads with several tubular tires hung over their shoulders. Today, flats are still a problem, though less so with the advent of sealant.

It just so happens that with modern advances in tire technology tubular tires still offer the best ride, especially in cyclocross where low pressure is king. The pros for tubular tires are lighter tire, less rolling resistance due to the high thread count tire casing that conforms to the ground, and lighter wheels because they don't need the extra material forming the lip for the tire bead. The cons are tire prep and gluing, has to be done a minimum of 24 hours in advance, flats, and cost. Where a quality clincher tire costs ~$50 - $75, a tubular tire costs $100 - $175, or more for ultra premium tires. I managed to stock up on tires when bonktown.com had them on sale for $35.

I started out the day outside, with the kids riding their bikes on the sidewalk, I sat down in a chair with my new tubular wheels, some rags, rubber gloves and mineral spirits. The wheels needed to be cleaned before I could get to gluing. Once the wheels were clean I set up shop in my still unfinished addition where I have our old kitchen table set up. I got my glue, acid brushes (thank you Harbor Freight, 36 for $3.00), and my tires and wheels.

I found the gluing to go along fairly well, though the extremely dry Utah air seemed to suck the moisture out of the glue even before I got it spread out on the cotton tape covering the tire stitches. This resulted in a little thicker coat than I wanted, but it looks like it will be alright. While working on the second coat of glue on the tire I started to have this feeling like I was participating in a rite of passage. That thousands of people had gone before me and done the exact same thing. That the formula of gluing the tires had been refined over the years until it was distilled down to the process in which I was now engaged. I suddenly felt this connection with all of the men(and women) that had gone before me. I was gluing a sew-up tire, something that was both legendary and ordinary all at once.

Later this evening I got to work on the final stages. I had coated my tires with two coats of glue and now had to, somewhat quickly:

put a second coat of glue on the wheel,

put a strip of "Belgian Tape" on the rim over the tacky glue,

put a final coat of glue on the tire,

finally, stretch the tire onto the wheel.

It is on this final step that all romance was lost from the process. Everything went well at first, placing the tire in a basically strait line down the rim, lining up the base tape so it was showing even on both sides of the tire. Then I got to the final third of the tire and it stopped going onto the rim. If you've ever struggled getting a really tight clincher tire onto the rim without tire levers then you've experienced about 25% of the difficulty that I was faced with. Not only did I still have a large amount of the tire still no seated on the rim, but it was also covered in rubber cement that I was supposed to try not to touch or all my work would be for naught. I tried standing on the rim and pulling the tire up and over. I tried holding the tire and wheel against my stomach and pushing the remaining tire up onto the rim, everything I tried failed. I fought with this tire for about 15-20 minutes struggling with all my might. I gave up on trying to save anything, braced the rim on a chair and pushed and pushed, with my now bruised hands, until I had it. I had to quickly get to work straitening the tire out on the rim. With all the pushing, pulling and other ways I man-handled the tire it was really crooked. The glue was setting, or maybe set I'll find out tomorrow, so I got the tire straitened out the best I could and called it good. I used what I had learned to make the second tire go on much quicker. It still wasn't easy but I got it on in 3 minutes instead of 20.

I can look over and see my two wheels leaning against the wall now and I'm glad that no one had to watch fight the mighty battle in which I had been embroiled. I'm glad I took on this new task. I learned something new. I always enjoy learning a new skill, even if it's not pretty or easy the first time through. I don't know if these new tires and wheels will make me any faster, my time may have been better spent doing intervals on the trainer. I don't have a killer competitor instinct that makes me chase down anyone that dares to pass me. I don't expect I'll ever be one of the really fast guys that others admire. I enjoy the technical things I can work on, better equipment, better technique, or even just better lines chosen on the course.

I was going to submit this post to Cyclocross Magazine, but I let it get a bit maudlin and self indulgent. This ended up being more about me than tubular tires. I hope you enjoyed it, I know Hamish did.

Out on the trails - Big Springs

2010-08-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the itch to get out on the trails on my 'cross bike, just to make sure I can still handle skinny tires on the single-track. I headed up to Big Springs Park in the South Fork shoot off of Provo Canyon. There is a nice, but short, trail near the park that my family uses all the time. We spend a lot of time in Provo Canyon and at least half of that is spent at Big Springs. It's become the go-to area for us. Jen takes the kids up there hiking all the time, the trail is relatively mellow and follows and crosses various streams. It keeps the kids interested and makes it a nice area to go. It's also a great place to go snowshoeing in the winter.

I opted to start off my ride by heading up the dirt road that goes along the East side of the wilderness area. I was quickly made aware that my legs hadn't recovered from the weight

training I did two days before; but I managed to make it up the hill anyway. The trail/road is only 1.5 miles up, so a up and back nets 3 miles. Not a whole lot, so I ended up doing 3 laps going up the road and down the trail. I think the old couple hiking down the road and the family hiking up the trail were starting to wonder what I was doing after I passed them a couple of times.

After riding up the road for about a mile the trees open up into a meadow, this is where I cut back on to the trail to finish the last 1/2 mile up (you can see the trail just to the right of the road, heading off into the meadow). The trail is pretty mellow as it winds up, especially through

meadow. It's basically gravely, narrow double-track. Then the trail gets steeper and starts to get fairly rocky. I was a bit worried about pinch flatting on the rocks, especially on the way back down when I had some speed. I had my tires down around 40 psi to maximize traction. I was happily surprised to find that I can still finesse my way up and down through the rocks without much trouble, or pinch flats.

The single-track back down winds through aspens and pines, over rivers and streams and is really a lot of fun. Not the most technical or taxing as far as mountain biking goes, but plenty

fast for getting the cornering and breaking skills on a cyclocross bike. At one point I was

carrying quite a bit of speed and feeling pretty confident. I rounded a corner and saw a tree and a stream right in front of me, I was sure I was going in after I dodged the tree. I managed to get the bike slowed down just in time and made it onto the bridge. My second time down I noticed a lot of other tire tracks where the trail runs wide; I guess others had come into that corner a little hot too. While I was stopped taking this picture a mountain biker came by and did a double take as he passed by my cyclocross bike; obviously not a part of the cult of 'cross yet.

The fast ride down managed to give my legs, and lungs, enough of a break that I was able to be recovered for the ride back up. I managed to get my legs a bit muddy from cruising through a couple of the springs that spout up along the trail and almost ran over a snake. All in all it was a great way to spend a few hours on a Saturday.

Annual "I can't wait for Cyclocross" Post

2010-08-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

This morning there was a definite chill in the air this morning; Fall is on the way. My twitter (yeah I signed up for twitter, but only to see what's going on, not to "tweet" about anything) is full of cyclocross chatter; I follow a bunch of 'cross racers. Some of my facebook friends are posting stuff about 'cross. Everywhere I go there seems to be this feeling of excitement about the forthcoming cyclocross season. To blow my mind even further, the same guys that run the mid-week mountain bike race series are starting a 4 race mini-cross series in September. Check out this awesome gps file of the race course http://connect.garmin.com/player/44997122

To further increase my excitement, this year I have seriously nice (way nicer than my speed and talent justify)cyclocross bike (Stevens Carbon Cross) that I bought last spring with my bike shop discount. I have a set of tubular wheels, aluminum mind you, I haven't managed to get myself to drop $1000 bucks on a set of carbon race wheels. There are a set of tubular tires on those wheels getting stretched and ready to be glued on.

Team Clammy Chamois will be in effect this year, though without our ringers since they defected through the lure of free bikes and local bike shop fame. It sounds like we're going to make it official with team jerseys this year. I'm looking forward to seeing the design and celebrating the rowdiness and brat filled 'cross racing and spectating that is team Clammy Chamois.

My only goal for this year is to move up a few places from my consistent mid-pack finish and not puke after finishing the race in Draper. Upon further reflection, I realize that those goals are somewhat at odds with each other, but I'm going to stick with them anyway.

To achieve these goals I will:

- Do some interval training (periodically, and only as long as my mental Psyche can handle riding a bike in my basement and without going anywhere)

- Limit my sausage consumption to after the race, this includes not taking the bacon hand-up during the race.

- Keep myself mentally in the race and not spend half of it hoping I get a mechanical or a flat.

It should be an awesome season despite the fact that the first 4 races are at venues that are designed to stamp out any delusion that I may have in thinking I've prepared better for this season that in past years. Draper and that stupid hill, Weber x 2 and Heber Fairgrounds designed for fast roadies that have much better cardio than I ever will.

Bring on the cold and the mud and another awesome cyclocross season. Mud and guts on 3!

Geeking out on 'cross bikes.

2010-08-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

Cyclocross Magazine asked me if I wanted to attend a bike industry function at Deer Valley a little while ago. The event titled "Dealer Camp" was held this past weekend to showcase new bikes from major manufacturers, giving bike shops and retailers the chance to look over and demo the new bikes. The event was 2 days, but Jen had her Spudman Triathlon on the 2nd day so I was only able to spend one day up there. It was a ton of fun checking out new bikes. I talked with some other people that were very into cyclocross as well including past National Champion Mark McCormack, and a the designer that actually fabricated the new Blue 'cross bikes. I got a lot of pictures and even a few freebies. Check out my write up and pictures here http://www.cxmagazine.com/new-trends-dealer-camp-2010-deer-valley

First XC Mountain Bike Race

2010-06-26T12:56:00.001-07:00

I know this isn't cyclocross related, but we've got at least 3 months until the season starts. I decided to do my first cross country mountain bike race. There is a low-key mid-week race series that alternates between Soldier Hollow and Sundance. This last week's race was at Sundance. As this was my 2nd mountain bike race ever and 1st XC race I decided to sign up in the Beginner A category. After registering I got a little worried that I'd be racing against a bunch of kids. They started each group, starting with the Expert A's, in 30 second increments. There happened to be a few teens and other men in my class so I stuck with it instead of going with the Sport class. Boy am I glad I stayed with the Beginners.

The race started with a longish paved uphill ride, long enough to get people strung out pretty well, without bunching when we reached the single track. I finally made it to the single

track section only to find

it's the same trail I've ridden dozens of times. The only problem is I've always ridden it in the other direction, as a downhill. After riding for what seemed like hours uphill I began to wonder why this category of race is called cross country, that would imply some sort of up and down riding across varied terrain. The only downhill I encountered for the first 40 minutes of the race was a periodic 3 second downhill stretch that wasn't even long enough to drop my hear rate one beat. After the initial couple of miles I gained a couple of spots, but lost a few when my rear tire spun out on a steep section. It was too steep to try to start from so I had to push to the top of that climb and hop back on.

After the final hill it was time to start that blessed downhill. I found that I had now sapped all of my

energy and was not able to hold a line very well through the sweeping corners. I was forced to use my breaks much more than I would have liked. After a bit of downhill the course cut over for one last bit of climbing through some trees. I had a bit of speed coming into one corner cut that was cut in close to the trees. I was really leaning into the corner to maximize the momentum I had before the trail cut uphill when my left shoulder slammed into a tree and I was brought to a sudden and painful halt. A quick check revealed a small cut on my arm and a still functioning shoulder so I got back on the pedals and pushed up the hill. I managed to get some strength back for the last fun downhill stretch. Jen and the kids were cheering for me as I flew past the lift area where the spectators were hanging out on the grass. I have no idea where I placed and I really don't care. As hard as that race was I think I'll go for it again next week in Midway.

Cult 'Cross 2010 - Race Review

2010-06-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

I forgot to publish this when it happened back in April. A while back I realized that there was going to be a long wait until cyclocross season opens up on Oct. 3, 2010. That is when I started planning on attending the Cult 'Cross race held in Eagle CO. I talked to a like minded friend and we headed out for a road trip and some racing. My race review and pictures were published on the CX Magazine Website http://www.cxmagazine.com/pov-cult-cross

Springtime Criss-Cross

2010-03-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

I generally enjoy the Utah winters, especially now that I have snowshoes to tromp around in the back country. Like most other Utahns I'm rather tired of Winter by the end of January. That makes February a very long and tiresome month; I've long held that February is the worst month of the year. Winter is still here, but its not new, or fun or even pretty anymore. It's old, cold, and the snow is no longer pretty and white, it's gray and brown, filled with mud and sand, the dregs of winter. Along comes March, with it's first hints of Spring. Now, I learned long ago not to succumb to the temptations of March for it's attempts at spring-like weather are more like the song of a siren. You'll be drawn into a sunny 50 degree day only to have a hearty winter storm blow in the next day, covering your springtime plans under slushy snow. Making your dreams and everything else soggy, cold and useless.

Around the end of March, beginning of April, Spring decides to show up and stick around. Of course there is often a snowstorm that sneaks in there but it's usually not too bad. I have a love hate relationship with Spring. I need sunny days, too many cloudy rainy days and my SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) kicks in. Utah is nearly the perfect place for me. Utah is the first or second state in terms of most days with sunshine. That all changes in Spring. I like not having to water my lawn, but the clouds and rain can get a bit much.

The other thing about Spring is that it feels like it should be time for cyclocross. I've had about 4 months off now and it seems like it should be time to get back to it. The weather is perfect for 'cross. Cool weather, rain, mud, all the stuff that makes up a good cyclocross race. It just so happens that some like-minded gent in Colorado has the same idea. Next weekend I will be traveling 6 hours to Eagle CO for the Cult 'Cross race. This annual race has been occurring since 2008, though this will be my first time attending. Though this is a race, it's geared more toward having fun, which saves those of us who didn't hit the trainer nearly as much as we should have over the Winter (oooh how I hated that trainer). This will also be the first race for my new bike, hopefully she can take the beating. It's a bit of a drive just for a "fun" race, but I have an itch that needs to be scratched. Hopefully the mountain bike trails will be clear of snow soon and I can get some good riding in until October when the embrocation will flow and I'll hate myself for 45 minutes of lung searing death on a bike.

My Stevens Carbon Cyclocross Bike

2010-03-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

I had this post written about 6 months ago and just never got around to putting it up on the ol' blog. This post is dedicated to my cyclocross bike. I've referenced it before, but I wanted to document the effort I put into actually building up the the frame I originally purchased into the awesome race machine that it is today. The details contained herein are probably not of any interest to anyone other than me so don't feel bad if you're bored to tears.

I have 6 months of riding the Stevens under my belt and I'm as happy now as the day I first rode it. I know bike geometry is a personal thing, but for me Stevens really nailed it. My Stevens Carbon Cross bike is hands down the best handling bike I've ever ridden.

Firstly the Stevens frame and fork are fantastic. I've never had a hint of fork shudder even under heavy breaking. It rails through corners with the perfect mix of road and 'cross geometry. This frame has been ridden to a number of national and world championship victories.

I added a 46 cm Salsa Bell Lap handle bar, very wide and has slightly flared drops to add to the bike handling when in the drops.

SRAM Rival shifters with Force derailleurs.

TRP Magnesium EuroX brakes; very light and get the job done.

Thompson Elite seatpost that I picked up with the WTB saddle from Kyle at SBR; thanks Kyle.

FSA Gossamer crankset, re-purposed from my motobecane.

Gore Ride-On sealed cables to gunk doesn't clog things up partway through the season.

Vuelta Tubular wheels

Vittoria Cr

oss XG(all around tread) and XN(file tread) tubular tires.

There are minor stories for some of the acquired parts. I had originally planned on using all of

the parts from my old Motobecane, with a few upgrades. I needed a wider handlebar

but after buying it I realized that my old stem was a different size so I had to buy a stem as well. Then I realized that the seatpost was too small and I needed a wider seatpost to fit my frame. I stopped by SBR to see what it would cost to order a new one and Kyle just happened to have the exact seat post that I wanted to order. He no longer needed it as it came from his recently replaced mountain bike and didn't fit his new one. It was topped with a nice WTB saddle that just happened to match my bike well. He cut me a sweet deal for the pair.

I bought some nice brakes, mostly because I had a little extra in my bike building budget and they were nice, light and worked well. So I ordered the TRP EuroX brakes. I was execting the white and red versions but white and gold showed up. I'm not a big GOLD kind of guy, but I went with it, especially after I got the chain I ordered and it was gold too.

I bought a set of GORE Ride-On sealed shifter cables in the spring. When I was at the Dealer Camp event taking photos for Cyclocross Magazine

I spoke with the guys running the GORE booth. I told them how much I liked the shifter cables and the set me up with a set of their new sealed brake cables for free. Along with being sealed to keep the grit and grime out the housing

has been made stiff so there is less give when the brakes are pulled and it gives a better feel for the brakes. I haven't tried them yet, just got them on so we'll see.

Also at the Dealer Camp event I stopped by the Sinclair booth to talk to the Stevens guys. I told them that I liked their bikes so much I bought one. I commented on the fact that they now stock the bikes with a fork mounted cable hanger for the front brake. I told them I'd been looking for one, but they're really hard to find. The guy I was talking with gave me his card and told me to email him. After doing so I had the free new cable hanger in my hand within a week. Those guys rock.

I wanted to go with white bar tape and hood covers to go with my mostly white bike. My Clammy Chamois teammate Josh hooked me up with some awesome Lizard Skins bar tape real cheap. I bought some Hudz aftermarket hood covers to complete the setup.

After using SRAM shifters at Interbike I was ruined on my Shimano Ultegra 6600. I bought the SRAM Rival shifters. Scott from SBR was upgrading to SRAM Red so I picked up his lightly used Force derailleurs heavily discounted.

I've written at length about my Vuelta tubular wheels and Vittoria tubular tires. Needless to say they are light and strong and aside from the Stevens frame, they're my favorite part of the bike.

So there it is, my Stevens Carbon Cyclocross bike.

New Bike

2010-01-26T21:08:00.000-08:00

I've said before that riding a cyclocross bike makes you feel like a kid again. It's a fast, fun, go anywhere bike. Well, I totally feel like an overly excited kid right now because I just got my new Stevens carbon Cyclocross frame/fork. This bike is easily the most comfortable, best riding bike I've ever ridden. It's light, stiff in all the right places, and the geometry and size fits me perfectly. The frameset has a world championship and at least one national championship under it's belt. Right now my precious is sitting in a cardboard box in my office. It seems sad to have such a work of art shoved in a box. I was able to get some new SRAM components bought to get this bike from it's current cardboard state to cruising down the road. I was going to go with a full SRAM Force build, but after doing some checking I found there was only a 17 gram difference in weight between Force and Rival shifters. So, with the performance being the same and the only real difference between the two being a magnesium shift paddle on Force and aluminum on Rival, I opted for Rival and saved a few bucks. A friend just replaced the Force derailleurs on his bike with RED so he's selling me those parts cheap. I hope to get around to building the bike in about a week, when the parts get delivered. I'll get some pics up when I get a chance.

End Season Race - Snow 'Cross

2010-01-03T17:49:00.000-08:00

I half-heartedly registered for the end of season, counts for nothing, cyclocross race. When Friday, the day before the race rolled around I figured I ought to make sure my bike was still functioning; I hadn't touched it or any other bike in about a month. I found the rear tire completely flat. I pumped it up only to see it immediatly go flat. I didn't want to fix it so I pumped it up again and spun the wheel a bit hoping the sealant in the tube would do the job. I lucked out, the tire stopped going flat, and I just topped it off with a little more air.

This year, just as last year, the race was held at Wheeler Farm. Last year the race course was covered in 6 inches of new slushy snow. It was REALLY hard and I hoped this year, though we had 4 inches of snow, the going would be easier since the temps had stayed below freezing. Wrong! The first part of the course was pretty demoralizing. It should have been the easiest as it was snow on top of a paved road, but the it was impossible to ride in a strait line. You couldn't really pick a line and stick with it because the snow and grooves in the snow would just send you back and forth all over the trail. Every person I passed apologized for not going strait and getting in my way. I just let them know that no one could go strait and we were all fighting the same battle. I managed a pretty good time for the first lap. Though there was a lot of passing then getting stuck and getting passed and back again, still I managed to stay ahead of most people.

I must have been pushing it harder than I thought because toward the end of the first lap I just ran out of gas. I got stuck in some deep snow and just didn't have the energy to even get back on my bike. I stepped to the side and took a breather. Once I got back on my bike I slowed down the pace a bit and managed to make up a few places. I didn't even have the energy to check my watch to see how long we'd been racing, it could have been hours. I had no idea

how many laps we'd be doing and I was afraid we'd have to do 3 like last year. To my relief I saw one lap to go when I came through the start line. I managed to keep a decent pace and ended up 12th out of 18.

Utah Cyclocross Race #10 (or how I puked my guts out)

2009-12-10T17:26:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late in getting this report up, as the Utah Cyclocross Race # 10 was a couple of weeks ago. When it came around and I was ready for it. I was back for some redemption in at the Equestrian Park in Draper UT. Last time I was here was the last race of the season in 2008 and I flatted out after the first lap. I took a few laps around and got warmed up.

Josh and I managed to get near the front of the line-up so we didn't have that huge delay waiting for everyone to get going. It turns out it didn't matter much because I was quickly passed on the long uphill paved section that starts and ends the race. I stayed around mid-pack through the first little bit, got bogged down when Josh's wheel washed out in the sandy corral we rode through. The race organizers really wanted to make us work for this one. Normally in a race through sand the course will go strait through so you can do your best to carry speed and power through. Not in this race. We had about 5 cones to go around and if you tried to go to fast down you went. So, through each lap I just spun up a high cadence and made my way through as best I could. Except for that first lap I think I only bungled one corner through the rest of the race. Right after the energy sucking sandy corral was a fairly steep uphill. It was rideable, but I didn't have more than a gear or two in reserve and I wasn't exactly fast up it. Thankfully there was a fast, paved, downhill section next. Across a flat gravely section then you drop into some singletrack. I learned on the warm-up lap to be careful because just as you round the first corner there was ice lying in wait to take down those that were not paying attention. I managed to keep some pretty good speed while staying upright through that section. After a brief bit of gravel road there was a mellow singletrack uphill with more ice. Once you made it through the ice there is a pretty steep run-up with barriers. I noticed that one side of the barriers was about 2ft tall and the other more like 12"-18", I stuck with the shorter side.

At this point in the course I always had a little sigh of relief, most of the work was done for the lap with most of the course on a pretty fun downhill stretch. At one point there is a large rock that had been used by mountain bikers as a jump, I very nearly took advantage of the fun on each lap, but I knew that if I did I'd probably get a pinch flat and be out for the rest of the race. There was a quick running barrier section in a baseball field then down the steep drop to the paved road where we began.

It wasn't until after the race that I fully understood the pain and exhaustion I felt each time I rode this climb. The road is such that as you get to the top of the climb it just doesn't get any easier and the relief I so desperately needed wasn't there. The burning lungs and legs didn't stop and I almost seemed to go backwards. After my race as I was cheering on the next group of racers I looked at that road and realized that what looked flat in the race, wasn't flat at all, it was one of the dreaded power sucking false flats that gets in your head and makes you want to die.

I managed to start passing a few people on the last lap, but there was one guy I just couldn't shake, Aaron. I grew to know his name very well during that last lap because everywhere, and I mean everywhere, the course went there were people cheering for him. Oh how I hated that Aaron and his supportive friends and family. I decided to get away from the taunting cheers for Aaron and put on the gas, what little I had left. I slowly moved away from him as I made an effort to really put it down in the hard sections, hoping he'd back off. I dropped down to that dreaded last climb, intent on putting some distance between Aaron and I. I rode as hard as I could, which wasn't much at this point. About halfway up I realized that he was a ways back and wouldn't catch me, even still the finish line and announcers were coming up and I didn't want to soft-pedal through the line so I kept up the effort and managed a 29th place finish.

I stopped to chat with a few guys just past the finish line then made my way to the truck where I emptied the contents of my stomach in the parking lot. I hadn't realized that I had worked so hard, but as Josh pointed out, at least I knew I gave it my all. Since I couldn't race the last race of the year the next weekend I was happy that I put in everything I had to finish out the season. One last, for fun, race Jan. 2 and Cyclocross will be a sad and distant memory until next October. I'm hoping to convince team Clammy Chamois to do the Cult 'Cross race in the spring: http://cultcross2008.blogspot.com/

It Had To Happen

2009-11-22T08:24:00.000-08:00

DNF, the three letters that no-racer wants to see or utter. Utah Cyclocross race # 8, and my first race in Heber, ended a little quicker than I anticipated. Problems from the very start. First, in trying to get my rear tire inflated I found that I had put in a tube with a very short valve stem, after hunting around for a pump that would work I eventually borrowed a valve extender from perennial 'crosser and beardsmith Bob Walker, who was nice enough to let me borrow the valve extender 3 more times and offered use of any of his tools. Nice guy! I finally got the tire inflated and set out to pre-ride the course. It's both a fun course and irritating course. There are some fun, fast sections with opportunities for those with great cornering skills, and some slooowww grass sections. Although the run-up was kind of steep I thought it was kind of fun, especially the fast 180 degree downhill at the top.

After a single warm-up lap my rear tire was totally flat. Head for the car, get the spare tire, also with sealant, installed and pumped up. One more warm-up lap and found the rear tire was low, found the goathead, re-inflated the tire and headed to the start line. I was in the back of the pack, I hate starting at the back. I checked the pressure on my rear tire to find it quite low again, but ride-able. I knew with the number of thorns out there that I wasn't going to hold enough pressure to last the entire race, so I decided to just go as fast as I could for as long as I could and not hold anything back. The race started and I took off flying past about half the group, made it through the slight bottleneck at the first turn and made up some more time. I was having a lot of fun, all the while I could feel my tire losing more air and getting more squirmy in the corners. I started to baby it a bit, not wanting to pull the tire off the rim.

I got through one lap and had to pull off, but it was a fun lap. Went back to the car and grabbed my cowbell. I found a good spot on the run-up where I could both encourage and heckle my teammates. Things were looking good, Pat was in the lead with Clay in 3rd or 4th, and both of them looking strong. Josh, Brad and Kerry came around looking pretty fresh. I heckled the couple of people that pushed their bike around the 2nd barrier on run-up. After a couple of laps I saw Clay come through wondered if I had missed Pat. Moments later I saw Pat heading for the pits, he had a flat rear tire. I watched from the top of the hill as he furiously pumped up his tire, the he kept pumping, and pumping. He couldn't ever get his tire to seal up so he was out. On the 2nd to last lap, Clay came around in 2nd and took 1st at the top of the run-up. He was looking pretty determined. I guess the 1st place and 3rd place both had mechanicals so he took advantage and put it to them. He came through the finish line with a 5 or 10 second gap on 2nd place. AWESOME! Team Clammy Chamois has a state camp.

I'm not sure where the rest of the team ended up, since I didn't finish I didn't bother looking at the results. Everyone had fun and Josh cooked up some killer brats to enjoy. Kerry brought out the generator and hot chocolate maker to keep us warm as the wind kicked up and it got cold. Though there wasn't any mud, and I only raced one lap, it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Thoughts of Cyclocross Make Me Happy...and tired

2009-11-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

This just in...I'm tired. I haven't been in bed before 11 pm once in the last two weeks. Additionally I haven't touched my bike since I parked it in the basement after the last 'cross race two weeks ago. I'm looking forward to the race on Saturday, but I know I'm going to hate myself somewhere around lap 3, when my legs decide they're done and the pain in my back decides it's time to crank it up to 11. I'm determined to hit the sack early, after I enjoy The Office tonight. Hopefully a decent night's sleep tonight and tomorrow will help the situation.

The weather is supposed to be cold, with some possible snow. We'll see. I'd love some mud, which the 'cross races have been fairly devoid of so far this year. Even still, thinking about racing makes me tired. Team Clammy Chamois needs to make it's presence known with some decent results from the middle and bottom of the team so I'm going to pull out all the stops and go for a top 30 placing.

Utah Cyclocross Race #7 and Introducing Team Clammy Chamois

2009-11-10T22:12:00.000-08:00

I was reminded by the blog of my new team captain Josh, that I hadn't yet mentioned that I've joined team Clammy Chamois. One may wonder why someone would join a team named "Clammy Chamois." I think it's the perfect name for a cyclocross team. 'Cross is sort of a non-conformist, rebel sport. Clearly, with a name like Clammy Chamois we're embracing the non-conformist side of the sport and it makes people, like the triathletes at SBR, grimace and say "ewww" when they hear the name. We are a non-shop or sponsor affiliated team. We just want to race, grill up some brats and shoot the breeze. Currently we're 13th of 25 teams in the Utah Cyclocross Series, thanks mostly to Clay and Pat, but Josh, Kerry, Brad and myself do a decent enough job of adding in some finisher points to make a strong finish. We've got one other team member, Riley, whom I have not yet met. So far things are great. It means we all have a group to hang out with after the race and tell stories about the various racers that either plagued us or pushed us to ride just a little bit faster. We're all over the board with results. Clay and Pat continually finish in the top 10, usually the top 5 or 6. Josh and myself are around mid pack or so. Kerry pulls up the rear, though I'm pretty sure that's because he's masochistic and rides a singlespeed. I don't think I could even finish the race on a singlespeed. The team aspect has made racing cyclocross that much funner. I even found out that Josh, like myself, is a fan of Irish and Scottish punk; Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphy's, Real McKenzies, etc.

Last year 4 of my 6 races were at Wheeler Farm, with the other 2 in Draper. Race #6, my 4th race of the year was at the Weber fairgrounds, that makes 3 of 4 races in the same place. There are aspects of Weber that make it fun. There aren't any tough hills and you can really rail through the corners with tons of traction. The downer is that it's totally non-technical and I just don't have the fitness to keep up with a lot of guys on all of the flat sections. It was a fairly un-eventful race. I learned that I could hop the single log barrier instead of dismounting. To clarify, I can hop the log the first couple of laps, the last 2 or 3 I have just enough energy to get my front wheel over and un-weigh the rear wheel enough to get it to roll over the log. Either way it saves me from that lung searing run between the logs.

I was doing ok, keeping within a couple spots of Josh for most of the race when I dropped my chain shifting to the big ring on a section of sidewalk. I lost about 4 spots and never could get back up to where I was. I think I managed to make up 2 of those spots but just didn't have enough left in the tank to pull out much in the end. No one was around me at the finish so no spectacular sprint this week, though I did feel pretty close to puking after I came to a stop.

Next race, after a week off is at the Heber Fairgrounds, my first time racing there. We'll see how it goes.

Mud and guts on 3

Utah Cyclocross Race #5

2009-11-08T17:46:00.000-08:00

Check out my write up of Halloween-cross Race # 5 on the the Cyclocross Magazine Forum http://cowbell.cxmagazine.com/forum/topics/race-report-contest-3

Mud and Guts

2009-10-16T14:41:00.001-07:00

I didn't race in this week's UTCX race in Heber, I figured my brother's wedding was more important. The other day we received quite a bit of rain and I was thinking about mud and 'cross and those images of cranking up muddy hills and through messy corners came to mind. I realized that in a perfect world of Cyclocross it all comes down to mud and guts. Mud we hope for and guts we work for. I watch the weather report each week to see if the rain gods will bless the Utah Cylocross race with mud that week, so far nothing, but I'm still watching and hoping. Mud just seems to suit the essence of 'cross so well. It's a tough 45-60 minute endurance fest where some of the race you're racing and some of it, at least if you're me, you're trying to make it to the end. Mud just ups the ante. It makes everything that much more difficult, cornering takes more skill, up hills can go from an easy ride to a difficult run. Downhills can go from being a way to get more to speed to just trying to stay upright without going down and taking other riders with you. When you get done your back, face and legs are all covered in mud. Inevitably I have mud spattered teeth, that I only realize when I run my tongue over my gritty teeth to re-moisten my mouth after sucking air for 45 min.

Guts. You have two kinds of guts, one I have the other I do not. I have guts when it comes to taking technical terrain at a high velocity. Either I'm not that scared of crashing or I feel my skills are up to snuff enough that I won't crash. In the heat of the moment I'm not sure which it is, but it doesn't matter. The kind of guts I wish I had are the guts of a champion. The determination to go out and push so hard you're going to puke at any moment because you just have to win. I like to win, I really enjoy winning but when I'm honest with myself, I don't have to win. I mostly enjoy sports because I get to get out and have some fun and competition. This lack of guts plays out mostly in training. In a race I'll give everything I have, that's why I'm there. I'll fight for every last spot I can. Training is a different story. Most of the time if I'm able to convince myself to at least get on the trainer for some intervals I'll get it done. Sometimes that desire is so low that I'll get on the bike, do a half effort, realize it's not in me and I'm done. My wife has the guts of a champion. She will get in a push on every training workout, and she does a lot of workouts. She's like Lance Armstrong if he was a mother of 3 kids and not sponsored by Nike and Trek. I'm working on my guts and I'm hoping for some mud so lets get out there and ride some 'cross. Alright team, Mud and Guts on 3...

Utah Cyclocross Race #2 Done

2009-10-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

The heater in my car is on the fritz and with a 1:15 drive ahead of me and a 45f temperature I was less than thrilled. I watched as the temp readout on my dash slowly dropped until it bottomed at 38f...great. I may have been cold but at least I knew the way to the super secret Weber County Fairgrounds race venue this time. I managed to remember my trainer this time too so things were looking ok. I got out, signed my waiver then hopped back in the car to get a little warmer, it was pretty cold and I was signed up for a bike race, sometimes I really question my sanity and this was one of those times.

It was at this point that I realized that I really needed to use the bathroom. I had done a good job of getting hydrated on the drive to Ogden but now I had a VERY full bladder. I hopped on my bike to ride the quarter mile to the nearest bathroom, or at least the only bathroom I knew about. They probably have another bathroom, it's just kept a secret until you happen to stumble upon it. After the short ride to the bathroom my hands and legs were freezing. I was still wearing warm-up pants and my thick gloves, things were not looking good. I got back to my car hopped in to get warm again, decided I just didn't have it in me to get out in the cold on the trainer and opted instead to do some warm-up laps on the course. I started riding and eventually realized that the course was being run in reverse to the week before. No problem, except I still got turned around. Hey UTCX guys, please invest in some more course tape. I manage to get the turns right when I'm with the pack in the beginning of the race when my head is still in the game. By the 4th lap though, my head is as foggy as San Francisco bay, you need to make the course a little more clear. Over the final two laps I managed to lose 5 places from making incorrect turns and doubling back the right way.

I finished my warm up laps and got to the start line. While waiting to start I realized that my front tire had lost a lot of air and was now at around 25 psi. Luckily there are no rocks or roots on this course so there wasn't much chance of getting a pinch flat. The course was even faster than last week with no rain this week and everything being compacted from last weeks races. The extra low air pressure in my front tire really helped hold me in the fast corners, which saved some energy that I didn't have to scrub off with the brakes. People must have realized that it was faster to run between the log barriers because instead of being the only one running this time, about half of the racers carried or pushed their bikes instead of remounting between the barriers. Cold temps and poor course marking aside I'm actually pretty pleased with the race I rode. Normally I'm racing myself the last two laps. Everyone is so strung out around the course that the back half of the pack us just trying to finish the race. This time I managed to chase down four or five people in the last couple laps. I also managed my best finish yet, 25th of 45 finishers. Not much to speak of but I felt pretty good about it and had I managed to ride the course correctly I would have been closer to 20th.

Utah Cyclocross Race #1

2009-10-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Race number one is done. The first race of the year is always interesting. First and foremost you get a quick lesson in "You didn't do enough training." I race the C class, the (s)lowest of the classes so we get a lot of new riders coming from other disciplines, Roadies and Mountain Bikers. All are welcome. Inevitably there are some riders that should really be racing the B or A classes.

I have to say thanks to the Utah Cyclocross organizers for the super secret race venue. They listed the address but failed to mention that you had to take secret roads and drive on the horse race track to get to the venue. As such I had all of 15 minutes to warm up. I was feeling pretty good and loose so I lined up at the front, I usually line up near the rear so as to not get in anyone's way. I looked at the guy next to me, in a pro looking kit. He was riding a Time full carbon, with integrated seat mast bike, complete with carbon wheels and tubular tires. I was this close to telling him that was an awfully nice bike to be racing C's, but I wasn't sure how he'd take the sandbagger insinuation.

After a few minutes of waiting around the got the high sign to go, I got a pretty good start and was in 4th, though quickly slipped to 8th. We climbed the slight hill and dropped around the corner where we started the only real hill, which wasn't much of a hill. About half way through the first lap riders came piling past me like I was standing still. I figured I was at about mid-pack by now, par for the course for me. I also realized at that point that I had probably started off a bit too hot because I was breathing really heavily. I was able to make up time on a couple of riders by running between the set of logs that were placed as barriers about 40 yards apart. It was just long enough apart that most riders opted to remount and ride the distance. I found I was faster running it. After the third lap I really wished I had worked on my running at least a little bit this year. Once I remounted my bike and started riding my heart hurt so bad I actually wondered for a moment if I was having a heart attack. It felt as if a breakfast sausage link was jammed right into an aorta. It was at about this point that the first old guy (55+ masters) passed me. They race along with us, but we're not scored with them. I didn't feel too bad, I've seen this guy race and he's pretty fast.

At about 4 laps of 5 I'm really starting to hurt. My back is aching pretty badly and I no longer have to brake for corners because I've barely got any speed. The momentum I did have I certainly didn't want to scrub off with the brakes. My corners started getting really wide and sloppy. Then, a 2nd old guy passed me. I made a brief attempt at catching up with him but he had apparently conserved some energy and I didn't have a chance. As I came through with one lap to go I heard the announcer say that the only girl in the race was right behind me my first though was why is there is a girl in the men's race? My second thought was, I have to at least beat the girl. I don't normally care if I get beat by the fairer sex. I'm pretty sure my wife could take me most of the time.

I got to that hill that didn't seem like much the first couple of laps, at this point it was monumental and nearly killed me. On the ride down the other side I started to feel a little better, a little pep was creeping into my system. I put some time on the girl, and was making up a little on the old guy. I knew I was out of my mind when I watched the old guy go down in a corner full of soft dirt and instead of wondering if he was alright I decided to get past him and at put some distance between us. On a side note, I could tell he was ok, the dirt was soft and it was a slow corner. I blazed through the rest of the lap, blazed may not be accurate but it was faster than I had been going. I ran between the logs, felt my heart nearly explode for the last time and made it through the finish line. I didn't get lapped and I actually beat a few people, though I'm sure those people were probably missing limbs.

I do want to mention that although I gave them some slag at the beginning of this post, the organizers of the Utah Cyclocross Series really do a great job. The venues are always well chosen and we don't have to do entire races on just a big field of grass like they have back east. Registration is run well and people seem to have a great time. Good job guys!

Cyclocross and Interbike

2009-09-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

I didn't see and do all things cyclocross at Interbike. I used the opportunity to explore some other cycling disciplines. I rode some time trial bikes, road bikes, cross bikes, mountain bikes, but no unicycles (there were some to sample). Cyclocross Magazine has some great shots and write ups of many of the cyclocross offerings to be had there www.cxmagazine.com. Here are my impressions of the various cyclocross bikes I rode, starting from worst and going to first.

Salsa - Chili Con Crosso: A big disappointment here. I've loved this bike for a year or so and would have bought the frame if I had $900 to spend on a frame and fork. I'm really glad I didn't now. The bike felt really heavy and sluggish. Sadly I don't remember the specs other than I liked the Salsa Bell Lap handlebar. It was wide and the drops were flared which should help when navigating tricky spots while in the drops.

Van Dessel - Gin and Trombones: Not too bad, but nothing really standout on this bike. This is another bike I considered buying at one point. It had good reviews but having the chance at Interbike to ride a lot of bikes back to back really showed the differences. This bike, like all of the others I test rode had TRP Eurox cantilever brakes. I became a big fan of them, but that's not hard considering I hate my Avid Shorty 4 brakes.

Felt- F15X: This was the biggest surprise for me. I've always considered Felt to be a decent brand but nothing to get excited about. This frame was aluminum like the others. This one had been spec'd with SRAM Red. The bike felt light and responsive. It was fun to ride and my only complaint was a fairly severe fork shudder. I'm not sure if this is due to the Easton EC70 carbon fork or if the headset needed to be tightened up a bit. Either way it was distracting and irritating. I would definitely recommend this bike as a good budget buy. Felt has 3 'cross bikes and the frames appear to all be the same, just different builds; wheels, components, etc. Get it with the SRAM Rival build and you'll be looking at about $1500 for a great bike.

Stevens - Carbon Cross: Not sure if this is the actual name of the bike/frame, but most of their literature is in German so it was the best I could come up with. I had read a good review of this bike in Cyclocross Magazine a few months ago but since it was carbon and had fairly road bike like geometry I didn't think it would be a bike I'd like to ride or could afford anyway. I immediately loved this bike. First off I found I liked the new Shimano Ultegra 6700 better than my 6600, who knew a year could make that much difference. I believe the bike had Fulcrum 5 wheels, a decent choice. The TRP Eurox magnesium brakes were great. The Michelin Mud 2 tires did great in the loose stuff. The bike just felt great both on and off road. It struck me as a bike I could easily throw slicks on and use for longer road rides. This bike was so great it converted my triathlon buddy and now he wants to do some 'cross races.

Aside from the fun of getting ride a bunch of different bikes at Interbike was the chance to try out all of the component groups. I was able to use: SRAM Red, Force, and Rival, Shimano Ultegra 6700, Dura-Ace, Dura-ace Di2 (Electronic shifting) on a time trial bike, and Campagnolo Super Record. The Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 shifting was beyond incredible. I would have never thought I could get that much pleasure from shifting. It would even shift up to the big ring while putting some decent power to the pedals, no hesitation, no chain lock up, just quick, precise shifting. SRAM Red was my next favorite, though I suspect I'll go with Force on my next bike. The shifting is just as precise, it's just not quite as light as Red. Plus, the group looks great!

Some non cyclocross tidbits: I rode a Moots titanium 29er hardtail and loved it. It handled corners great and mellowed out a lot of the trail chatter bumps and rocks. I was able to ride a Ellsworth Moment for about 1/2 mile before my companion got a flat and we hiked back out to catch the shuttle truck. It was a great bike, the 6" felt like much more as it swallowed up BIG rocks and bumps. I also rode the Look 985 road bike. I was the first to ride the 58 cm size so they cut the integrated seat mast to fit me. I was cool seeing an expensive road bike made to fit me, even if I was only going to ride it for 30 min. I also rode the Argon E-114 time trial bike with Shimano Di2 push button shifting. I'm still not sure if I loved the bike because of the bike or the component group, either way it was fun. It's amazing how much faster you can go on a TT bike compared to a road bike. It's not as comfortable to ride but it sure is fast.

I heart Interbike

2009-09-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

I got a surprise invite to Interbike, the national bike show in Las Vegas, earlier this week. I'll talk about it more a bit later but suffice it to say, I'm suffering from a serious case of bike lust. I managed to get the triathlete that I went with to ride quite a few 'cross bikes and I think I converted him. All I have to say is get your hands on the Stevens carbon 'cross bike. It's awesome! I rode about 4 different 'cross bikes and the Stevens was the only one I really liked. The Felt F15X was pretty good but the Easton EC70X fork had a lot of chatter. All of the bikes I rode had TRP brakes in one form or another on the bikes, the Stevens spec'd the magnesium for some extra bling.

I wish I had taken the time to demo the new Ellsworth Roots cyclocross bike. I found out just a little too late that Andrew Yee, the editor of Cyclocross Magazine, was included on the design of the new bike. He was in good form riding the new bike during the wheelers and dealers race at 'Cross Vegas. Andrew also let me know that the article that I wrote for the magazine on having a successful first race will be in the new issue. So, if you are a subscriber take a look. If you don't subscribe, repent, get a subscription and immerse yourself in cyclocross goodness.

Cyclocross Bikes - Making Me Feel Like a Kid Again

2009-09-13T21:33:00.000-07:00

I love riding my cyclocross bike! It sees a lot of road riding with road tires but once I have the 'cross tires on and I'm riding around, whether it's on a trail, in the park or just bombing around the neighborhood I can't seem to wipe the goofy smile from my face. I'm not exactly sure what it is. I ride my bikes a lot and I get close with mountain biking, but I usually push the speed envelope enough that I'm almost as scared as I am having fun. I like the thrill of going fast through the mountains but I know, and have the scars to prove it, that the thrill of speed can end up as the pain of defeat really fast. My wife has just shakes her head now when I show her the bloody wound as the answer to her question of how my ride went.

I think what makes me so happy when I ride my 'cross bike is I feel like a kid again. I grew up in a small farming town and had a choice between fishing for carp and catfish in the slow moving Bear River or riding my freestyle BMX bike around. I saved up my paper route money and bought a blue GT Vertigo freestyle bike. It was the nicest bike in the town and I loved it. All summer my friends and I would roll around town. We'd do sessions at the small dirt jump park we'd built near the river or ride over to the church to use the parking lot for flatland type tricks. We just had a lot of fun goofing off or working on mastering the latest trick. Riding a 'cross bike makes those feelings come back. Just the freedom to ride wherever I want. It's not a heavy or cumbersome bike so I'm not limited to trail riding like my full suspension mountain bike. The larger somewhat knobby tires are much more durable than the road tires I have around so I can hop curbs, ride through parks, do some trail riding, and just go do whatever I want.

I think we've all felt this way about bikes. It's the first real taste of freedom that we got as children. Until then we could walk or run but you couldn't get too far that way and it wasn't fast or very much fun, at least on 5 year old legs. Once you learn to ride that bike, the world opens up, or at least as much as your mom will allow. I still remember finally getting to ride around the block with my friends; I could go fast and jump off of the curbs on my yellow Huffy. This is exactly what bikes were meant for. I still feel that enthusiasm whenever I'm on my cyclocross bike. I feel like I'm not tied down by anything. I'll admit to not following proper cycling protocol. I dart around the road, hop off curbs, blast past the ladies walking in the park, and get odd looks from the mountain bikers when I ride past them on the trails.

Cyclocross is a somewhat old cycling sport, around 100 years old. There is a healthy ongoing discussion about whether or not to allow some modernization. Some of the charm of cyclocross is the antiquated technology used; drop bars, cantilever brakes, narrow tires. The honest truth is that even if some changes were made to allow flat bars, disc brakes and wider tires, 'cross races probably would keep using what they've been using. The historical equipment used has not only been refined but it's lighter and one thing I know cyclocross races don't want is an extra pound of bike to throw up on their shoulder for a steep run-up. When I first started learning about cyclocross I considered these restrictions sort of backward, every other cycling discipline take advantage of new technology. I've since changed my mind. I like that there is, to some degree, a limitation placed on 'cross bikes. Sort of like the various classes of auto racing. There are racing classes that require a car to remain mostly stock. This keeps everyone on the same page and you just accept the challenge to work within the limitations and even have fun with them.

In the local Utah Cyclocross Series you can ride whatever you want, standard 'cross bike, a unicycle, a full suspension mountain bike, whatever. Although there are no limitations I still see most people riding 'cross bikes with standard equipment. Again, I don't know if that's based on a 'cross bike with narrow tires actually being faster than a mountain bike on our single-track heavy courses, or if it's tied to what 'cross should be, but that's what most people seem to like about the sport. You'll see a lot of mountain bikes in the C-class division, a few in the B's but none in the A class. So either they're fully committed to 'cross culture or they know what is indeed the fastest bike to ride. Either way I'm going to stick with my 'cross bike the way it is, even if it does squeal like a school girl every time I tug the brakes.

25 days, 19 hours and five minutes...

2009-09-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

I looked forward to the cyclocross season last year but it didn't eat at me like this year. Maybe it's because I have my own 'cross rig to ride this year, maybe it's because I feel like I have a tad more fitness this year, but it probably has to do with DNFing my last real race of 2008. The race was at the equestrian center in Draper UT, the site of my first race that year, where I was lapped right at the line and had to stop, though as I mentioned before it was a bit of a relief to cut my race short one lap. Cut to that last race, or at least the last one that counted before the snow-covered just-for-fun race, I was feeling good, I was riding well. I was actually passing people on downhill and uphill sections. Then just as I was about to start lap 2 I realized my rear tire was flat. I didn't have a spare wheel and there really isn't time to patch a tire in a 40 minute race so I walked up the hill put my bike down and cheered on the rest of the racers.

I'm determined not to DNF this time around, I haven't worked out as much as I should have but still feel pretty good about things. I plan on getting whooped in the first race when the first time 'crossers show up from their full season of mountain or road cycling and realize after one race that they should probably upgrade and race the B's instead of us lowly C classers.

When you're coming up on the start of a new race season you start to plan things out. The things that need to be replaced, the new parts you need to buy, mentally going through the races to get yourself psyched up for it. Apparently the gents that run the Utah Cyclocross series are busier than I am, have other things on their mind or haven't finalized details because they have the dates for the races but no venues listed. It's going to drive me mad! No disrespect intended, they're not under any obligation to list any details, but it would sure help out my mental state. After an exhaustive research I've determined the tires I want to buy, anyone not familiar with cycling, and especially cyclocross has no idea the great amount of time spent in determining the right tires to buy. Panaracer Cinder-X 35 tires are my choice for this year. This means exactly nothing to my wife or anyone else I know but it's one area I know I'll have dialed in for the season.

The thing about both cyclocross and Utah is you never know what the weather is going to throw at you. It's probably because cyclocross season is in the Fall and anyone who's spent a couple of years in Utah knows you could have a drought in October or you could have a blizzard. I spent my that my fair share of childhood Halloweens with a coat over my plastic Darth Vader costume. There were also those year when it seemed downright balmy as I walked around collecting candy and getting scowled at by people who thought 15 too old to be trick-or-treating. What this means for race day preparation is I have to make sure all of my clothing options are available to grab Saturday morning: wool socks, thermal base layer, tights, shorts, gloves, cycling socks, short sleeve jersey, rain gear, skull hat, wool hat, etc. It can be maddening.

In case it hasn't become apparent in previous posts, I, and most of my fellow 'crossers, actually hope for bad weather. The crappier the weather, the better it is for cyclocross. If you have a dry fast course you can usually just hand the first place prize to a roadie. You can make your way through the course without much in the way of bike handling skills and it comes down to pure fitness, which I have none of. When mother nature decides to deliver a nice rain storm it turns into anyone's race. Muddy corners can take down the best of them, I know they sure tried

last year. Rocks and roots get slippery, hills get twice as hard to run up and brakes, tires and derailleurs get all gunked up with

mud. It's beautiful. Belgium is the home of cyclocross, I don't know why. I also don't know why Hungary loves water polo, it's like watching a very foggy soccer match in which you can't see anything that's going on. Every country seems to have it's own favorite sport. What I'm getting at is, from my understanding, Belgium has a lot of rain and it just seems like cyclocross races should be muddy and tricky with even the pros ending up on their faces now and then.

Looks like we're down to 25 days, 18 hours and 25 minutes, and the Utah Cyclocross guys still haven't posted the venues for the season...

Why You Should Try Cyclocross

2009-09-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

The thing about hobbies is everyone thinks theirs is the best, but they don't necessarily want everyone to do it too. Some people like their hobby to be exclusionary, for them to be special in the eyes of their friends and acquaintances. Cyclocross is not one of those hobbies. I don't know anyone that races cyclocross that doesn't want everyone to join in. The more the merrier. It's not just a race, it's more like a bike festival. Everyone is out with their cowbells, friends, kids, dogs, what-have-you, and this happens every weekend for 3 months. Even if the weather is bad and everyone gets covered in mud, you just know that the racing is going to be that much more epic. How great is that!

There are a lot of options out there for amateur athletes who still want to have fun and recreate past high school and college: triathlons, masters swim meets, 5k's, marathons, softball and soccer leagues, road races, mountain bike raced, crits, etc. In every one of these there are 3 basic groups of people that participate.

The pseudo pro: This is the guy(or gal) who just knows they could go pro if they had the time or money or got noticed. They spend every waking minute training or planning their diet to maximize their chances of winning the upcoming race or game. They get really upset if things don't work out, their bike gets a flat, someone crashes and blocks them on the trail, a teammate commits a fatal error, whatever. This guy then flies into a rage because his world has just crashed into tiny pieces and he can't be the one to win the amateur competition that day.

The weekend warrior: This gal/guy is fairly balanced. They train during the week, eat reasonably well and look forward to the race or game, but their week isn't ruined if something derails their training or they lose the game. They're competitive but do it as much for the fun as the they do for the competitive push they get.

The fun guy: This person might run a couple of times before a 5k, just to make sure he doesn't completely die, but also stays up late the night before eating burritos and watching the "Back To The Future" marathon on tv. He just wants to have fun with his friends.

Cyclocross has all of these, except the really fast guys don't seem to get all hopped up when something crappy happens, everyone seems happy to help everyone else. I've had a number of great get-to-know-you conversations waiting at the start line. Cyclocross is the fastest growing segment of cycling for a reason, it's just plain fun. People are friendly and it gives you something to look forward to after the Summer ends. This might be an odd outlook on a sport often referred to "An hour long sufferfest" or "The most painful hour in cycling," but it's true. I am addicted to it.

Every week I experience the same pattern. I wake up Monday thinking about the race on Saturday, get in some intervals on the trainer in my basement while watching a video, usually a comedy to keep my mind off the monotony that accompanies riding a bike that goes nowhere in the basement. Same sort of thing through Thursday. Friday comes and I'm really starting to get psyched for the race. I make sure I get some carbs, get the bike all ready, check the weather report and get the appropriate clothes together. Saturday comes and I can hardly contain

myself. I get to the race venue, register, warm up, get on the line with a big grin on my face. The race starts, I enjoy taking the downhill stuff fast, keep the pace on the climbs, then about half-way through when my lungs and legs are burning and my back is killing me I start to wonder why in the world I looked forward to this. I'm not enjoying myself, my fingers are freezing and I've over filled the terry cloth part of my glove with snot. I somehow make it past that one kid that races with the adults, "At least I passed the kid," I think. I make a last hard push to the line to come in 39th place out of 52 riders. I'm done and an hour later I can't wait to race the next Saturday. Maybe I'm sadistic, I don't think so because I genuinely dislike pain. So what is it? It might be the camaraderie, it might be the experience of pushing myself, it might be the smell of embrocation, maybe it's the muddy grins from the racers that just finished their race. Whatever it is, I love it!

Cyclocross huh?

2009-08-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

“…cyclocross huh, Utah has enough things to do, you don't have to make things up.” This is what my brother-in-law said when I told him about cyclocross. You see, my wife and I are pretty active people and can be pretty random in what we do and say. My wife had been a bobsled pilot for America Samoa at one point and we tend to choose interesting paths to walk, so it may appear to some people that we’re somewhat strange in the careers and activities we choose to do.

After I had convinced my brother-in-law that I had not created some new, overly-difficult, sport, but had actually joined up with a sport that had a 100 year history, he seemed somewhat interested. He’s not really one to question someone’s choices as he spent a few years of his life following the Grateful Dead and Phish around the country. I get odd looks in the Fall and Winter whenever someone asks me what I’m doing that weekend and I tell them I’m riding in a bike race. I get an even stranger look when I have to explain to them exactly what cyclocross is.

I’m not exactly sure what made me want to start racing cyclocross or even how I first learned about it. I’m a curious person by nature, Google and I are best friends because anything I think of or hear about I check on Google and catalogue in my brain. I’ve been mountain biking for a number of years and a few years ago I realized I kept reading references to cyclocross and I always assumed it was some type of mountain bike race, probably because I read about it on MTB websites or magazines. At some point I realized that I should probably find out what this “cyclocross” was since I kept reading references to it and didn’t want to be left in the dark. What I read amazed me. This sounded like the oddest sport in the world. At first I thought it sounded pretty stupid. For one thing it was done on what appeared to be modified road bikes. I’m an admitted adrenaline junky so endurance sports don’t really interest me.

Road cycling just looked tedious and boring. Riding a road bike off road seemed like using the wrong tool for the job, like using a hack saw to cut down a tree, yeah you can do it, but there are much better ways to get the job done. But, being the curious person I was I kept reading and learning. I watched some YouTube videos and

looked at some pictures and before I knew it I was greatly intrigued. There happened to be one more race left in the Utah Cyclocross series that year and so I informed my wife that I’d be driving to Ogden to watch the race that Saturday. Being a triathlete and a cyclist she thought it sounded fun so she sent me on my way. I got to the race course which was covered by 6 inches of fresh snow and proceeded to watch a group of guys gut it out for 45 minutes through snow that quickly turned to thick mud. When they got done they all had a thick coat of mud on their faces. This cyclocross stuff looked really hard but I knew I just had to try it the next year.

Several years later and my wife, I’m sure, gets sick of hearing me talk nonstop about ‘cross. Luckily for me, we have a compromise, of sorts, worked out. She gets most of the rest of the year for her sports. Most of Winter is spent snowshoeing and triathlon base training, Spring is triathlon base training and races, and Summer is Triathlon races. Fall is all mine… at least for now, until she learns how awesome cyclocross is and wants to do it herself.

Embrocation - The Burn, The Love

2009-08-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

No one will dispute that cyclocross is a unique sport. It's a cycling sport that has cyclists riding road bikes off road and if that's not enough you've got to periodically get off your bike to jump over barriers and run up hills that are too steep to ride. Outside of Triathlon, it's the only cycling sport that requires some running.

Another aspect of cyclocross that is relatively unique is embrocation. Sure, it gets used by roadies when the weather turns cold but how long into Fall do they ride anyway? Embrocation is almost celebrated in cyclocross. You're standing at the start line and you smell the pungent smell, spicy, aromatic, and you see the shaved legs glistening in the morning sun. It's great to be alive. The sight and smell of embrocation often has a place in a new racers description of their first races.

Embrocation is usually an oil, though sometimes a lotion, that delivers, among other herbs, capsaicin to the skin. Capsaicin is the chemical in hot peppers that makes them spicy. The same feeling you get on your tongue is now on your legs and it feels great. At least it feels great until you get home for your after race shower and forget to clean it off before the hot water amplifies the heat on your legs to a scorching level.

A lot of cyclists, including mountain bikers, roadies, 'crossers, triathletes, etc, like shaving their legs. Along with providing a real, or perceived, increase in speed and performance they also like that it shows off their well toned legs and makes them feel strong. I am not one of those people. I reluctantly shave my legs several days before the first 'cross race and then each Thursday thereafter so that they're ready for embrocation on Saturday.

Trust me you don't want to shave on Friday night or Saturday morning then rub embrocation into unseen nicks and cuts, owwwww! After shaving, my legs feel exposed, cold and weird. I really only do it so that the embrocation doesn't turn into a big goopy mess, clinging to my leg hairs.

There are a couple of embrocation products I use. For mellow fall rides I use a lotion type that doesn't have much capsaicin and just sort of wakes up my legs. But, for 'cross races in the cold and rain nothing beats the Mad Alchemy - Medium, except maybe the Hot, but the Medium gets so hot just driving in the car I'm scared to try the Hot. I go in the bathroom for the manly ritual of rubbing spicy oil onto my shaved legs about half an hour before I leave for the race. It seems to add an exclamation point to the excitement of the day. Sort of like, the chill in the air on a Fall day at a football game...or a cyclocross race.

I'm often a little worried about how hot my legs get in the car and try to aim the heater vents at my body core instead of my legs, but once I'm in the middle of a cold and rainy, or snowy, race I'm quite happy my legs have their protective, warm, oily coating. Rain, mud, snow, would all start to sap energy from my legs and make me cold otherwise but with the embrocation on it all just beads up and slides off, preparing the way for a solid mid-pack, C class finish.

Fall Is Where It's At

2009-08-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Fall has become my favorite time of year. I used to be a huge fan of summer. It had everything that was good and lacked some of the bad things, namely school. It was three blissful months of fishing on the river, riding my bikes off of dirt jumps with my friends and watching taped episodes of Saturday Night Live, the good years, with Mike Meyers, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and co.

I held to my love of summer idea well into my adult years, then I realized one day that summer didn’t give me much benefit beyond extra daylight, I still had to work all day, so I decided to consider other seasons. I’d always been fond of Spring as it signaled the end of Winter. It's been forever since I had time and money for skiing so Winter gets pretty old by the end of January. Spring, still was too cold, what with the Lion-ish March winds, and all those April showers.

One day, mountain biking on a crisp Fall Saturday morning it hit me, I love Fall. I added it up, cooler temperatures, check, full sports schedule on TV, check, and the overwhelming reason to love Fall is Cyclocross.

At times the thoughts of Cyclocross are so full in my mind that I begin to smell embrocation, then quickly worry that the kids must have gotten into the embrocation. A quick check revealed that they were safe from stinging their eyes with the potent oils of Fall bike racing.

Last year was my first real year for Cyclocross and to make sure I was properly initiated mother nature sent a drizzly rain storm on Saturday morning, making the ‘cross course nice and muddy. I was in love.

I was rather late to the race, didn’t have time to warm up my muscles then quickly wondered what in the world I had gotten myself into. It was cold and rainy, I hadn’t done much training, and I had entered a bike race. You see I’ve never been competitive, in high school I watched my friends compete in sports and the rough and tumble, highly competitive, singing competitions, but except for some church basketball had never really had the competitor fires burning in me. Now here I was, early 30’s and it was so cold I couldn’t bring myself to take my hoody off(a big cycling fashion no no) to freeze in the rain. So I rode down the hill to the start line, put myself in the back of the pack and then proceeded to get left in the dust by the pack of 50 newbie racers. Once I got up the hill (I hate hills) and caught my breath, I started to have some fun. The downhills were great, sliding around in the mud was fun. I didn’t even mind that I was getting passed by girls on the hills. I was quite glad to get lapped at the end of the second to last lap. The thing about cyclocross is, if you get lapped, you’re done. Though it’s a tad demoralizing, if you’re slow enough that you’ve gotten lapped you’re usually happy to be done.

Now here I sit with another cyclocross season about to begin. My heart beats faster with every day we get closer to October. I realize I didn’t come close to doing any of the training I was going to do all year and I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than get muddy on my bike. Hopefully I don’t get lapped this year…sandbaggers.