As We Draw Towards the Finish...

This past weekend was the Indy Double Cross and I was going in with my best form of the year, good points on the line and a legitimate chance to move up in the rankings from my 9th place perch. I had UDF Jerry ahead of me, the papist lurking behind me and in the distance Trevor with 5 races but lots of points each. My plan was to find a way to keep pope and trevor behind me for both races. There are only 2 races left after this. The domestic goddess/cyclocross widow is overjoyed to be almost done.

Saturday was a ridiculously technical course that was not made for me. I've been doing better on the power courses and so I didnt help myself much with the first race. Better than the early season stuff, but not what I was hoping for.

Sunday was Brookside, everybody's favorite and both my nemesis'(nemeses? nemesi? help me here) would be in the race. We had the usual suspects in attendance with Little Willy and Shamwow racing early and the right rev blackwell racing with us and of course super fan sherri who must have an extra lung to yell that loud.





We took off on pavement heading uphill and the first big hit of the day landed as the rider to my right came in on me hard enough to force a major wobble. I thought I was road kill for sure with 30 guys riding over me. I stayed up but you can see things were tight and friendly on the staircase runup. Love the stairs- fly down the hill into a dismount and run like hell. Thats for me.



And no Bessie Im not trying to decapitate the papist...I think. Not intentionally anyway. Maybe thats why he chased so damned hard. I could not get the papist off my wheel and I was right on Trevors. I had to do something...I went harder, that's all my blasted out mind could come up with.



In lap 3 I got Trevor behind me and started fighting for position to get some other riders in btw us.




As we came thru the final barrier I knew I had my foes behind me, but I wobbled the remount and had two more riders on my tail. Thank god for Doo-Wayne(has that ever been said before?), who shouted that I had riders on my tail. Out of the saddle I went and we sprinted the finish. I ended up 2nd of the 3. Not a bad finish, but I would have loved to have had one more lap.

As you can see we watched Fatty's race(cheerinig for him and Doo-Wayne as loud as we could) and repaired our wounds with some ale, followed by an amazing lunch at the Brugge Brasserie, a Belgie joint in Broadripple.

Good lord the frites, the house made beer, Oh the humanity. Too good for me. We all kept saying "I'm not going to finish this" and then the plates were clean. Perfect way to end a race day. Drive up with your friends, race hard eat great food, have some fabuloous beer ...if only a nap had come right after....maybe next time. The massive rental car that Im in since destroying the previous family truckster on bambi was a shade too comfortable. I think Fatty and the Papist knew that and kept talking to me to maintian my consciousness. Momentarily.




This truly was the blueprint for how to have a great day. My one mistake was not getting a complete hallpass before enacting such a plan. I wanted to txt home.."on a scale of 1 to chris brown, how angry are you" but didnt dare. I'll use more forethought next time. With the standings waaay too close for comfort, every finish is going to matter big time.

Storm the Greens looms large in the distance.

Too Cool (doug/jon)

Ah, I remember when I was so new I couldn't resist racin.

Love this video montage...

http://vimeo.com/7729746

Crap, am I out of shape! (doug)

So, dang. Interesting couple of weeks. I've learned a bit about myself (not good). So, since the USGP, I've been on this exercise "diet" to rest the shoulder and wrist (separated and sprained, respectively). I took a few weeks off, skipped Gun Club, took another week off, then raced Lexington (dumb), then rested a week, then just raced Columbus (ouch). The decisions were probably "physically" stupid, but "mathmatically" defensible. I needed the points. I had two miserable finishes that I knew I could beat. And it worked. Lexington was a fiasco, but served it's purpose. I got 11th or something, to replace the "28th" place railing I got from Darkhorse. Then, as I mentioned in the last post, I got permission to race Columbus

I spent my normal routine getting ready for the race (drink like a fish, stay up too late), and actually drove up to Dayton the day before the race to get closer. Sunday morning, i got up, got ready, and headed up toward Columbus. I wad right on schedule to get to Columbus at 9:45am (and hour before the race started) when my GPS device explained toi me that my ETA was 10:38am...$%&@@#!!!>. I'd made my plans to get up to Columbus in my head, not realizing that Granville was 40 minutes from Columbus.

FLOOR...MEET PEDAL.

I called Brian (already there) and asked him to arrange for me to register late, just in case, then I raced a car as fast as I've ever raced a car before.

Long story short, I made it, registered, and got to the start line with some good advice from my friends. We raced. I gave my best effort, finished 7th behind some solid racers, and am totally ready for a 3 week rest. Thank Goodness not all of the top 10 are showing up at these next few races, which might preserve me a spot in the top 10 for the STG starting line, which will be a sweet race.

link to more infirmary mound pix

http://teambikesource.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album95

Thanks for the link!!

Double Crossed and Looking Forward To It

This wknd is the Indy Double Cross wknd with races Sat and Sun in Indy. I had the bright idea that since I was sitting 9th in the series, I needed to find some races that would be less attended. Apparently so did all the other guys in the top ten. With the exception of the dean, dug and udf Jerry, we'll all be there. Thats okay because after grabbing 6th last weekend, I just need any single digit finish to move up a little more in the rankiings as we close out the OVCX. After this, only Dayton and the mighty Storm the Greens remain. I'm rolling the dice that with the momentum I've got and a bunch of luck, I can avoid a dfl and get some movement on the leader board. This season's goal is to finish single digit....hopin'.

The competition this year has ramped up signifigantly. The cat 4's this year are far and away a better group of racers than the majority of the 4 field last year. With Seiler and the Web-dood and fatty catting up, I thought this year would be easier. No way, no how. These boys are fast. maybe not as fast as the aforementioned(instant 100 in comm college for that word), but damn!

i'll keep you posted. Indy awaits

Bike Racers Are Stupid Punks-as forwarded by Tim Omer

Jared Roy, The Wah Report



it hurts because its true

Infirmary Mound Cross Photos

I'm going to leave the race report to Dug, but the Infirmary Mound Cross race was a blast. Super fast and flowy with a section that rocketed you thru turns like a ski slope. Big thanks to Sherri for screaming(and disorienting some of the competition) and for taking pix. The cap city folks did a great job organizing and designing this course, and we were glad to share it as ovcx'ers.





that last turn was super fast,soo many cool sections on this race course. that face is what my people call a shana punim....okay, no its not.


See anybody behind Webber? Thats because he won the open 4's going away



The Rev Blackwell on his way to winning the 4 45+ race



Doug was blurry 'cause he was going fast, NOT because of last nights drinking....okay, partially because of the previous nights drinking

waaaaaaah! im in the saaaaaaaand!

Thanks, I guess? to the Dean for sending me this lovely snapshot from the gunclub race. that's exactly what it felt like. There's clearly something wrong with me that I enjoy this.

he's in the bandman!

After ramming my car into bambi @ 65mph the other night, I finally felt like getting back on the bike to see if I was going to be able to race this Sunday @ Infirmary Mound in C-bus. My lunchtime ride took me around the usual haunts, and as I circled RRCC I decided to find Eva Bandman park-the rumoured new home for cross in the village.

I almost missed the sign, but turned in and saw a mid-sized soccer field, I took a lap and noticed two men appraising the area. As I made my way back to the parking lot I saw 2 metro lou vehicles. Opportunity strikes!

I had thought one of them might be Jason Cissell, the parks guy with whom many of us have spoken. It turned out to be Marty Storch and an associate. He was very open and was more than happy to talk about the situation. More than anything he was surprised that there was so much opposition to what is happening. Here's the lowdown.

They don't love the dog-people either. Not the law-abiding folks. We all get along w them, but the folks that battle us battle them too.

RRCC is not an option for us. STG is our last hurrah, let's make it count.

The city is committed to creating a worldclass facility for us. I am down with that. Bruce Fina, who designs amazing courses for us ev ery year at USGP and Simon Burney are the go to guys. If we begged the city to do this for us these are the people we'd beg to have design it.

Right now, Bandman is a nasty rough diamond. If the city comes through, it could be amazing but it will be ours. No fighting dog-people. No crazy altercations. We will have a real home.

Check out the details of drmandrola's conversation w Bruce Fina on his blog or bikeclicks.com. Sounds like a little communication is going a long way.
Like all of you(except dug),
I'll miss RRCC a lot, but if we work with the city and hold them to their commitments....I'm not known for optimism, but maybe this works in our favor.

And yeah, I'm racing Sunday. Neck hurts, but so does cross. I'll live

Pick Your Battles...(doug)

So what?! I haven't posted since the (LATE) night before the USGP. I've been in a bit of a funk. I don't have much time, so let me give you the rundown. As I mentioned, I wrecked a little bit during the Friday practice for USGP. I didn't think it was much more than a bruised ego, and I raced just fine both Saturday and Sunday. In fact, I had a freakin' ball! Brian has given a good synopsis of the events, but Saturday was good an muddy, and Sunday was a little faster and less muddy. Brian had it all together Saturday (ahem, I'm not sure I've seen him brag about his 7th freakin' place finish), and I had it a little better on Sunday. Actually, I ended up with a 12th and an 11th for the wknd, which was better for the overall standings than I could've hoped for. I would LOVE to go into detail about the fun that I had both days/nights with Brian, my buddy Jon (50 mile J), and the rest of the Rogues, but that would take longer than even I'm used to posting. Thanks Rogues for a great weekend, and special thanks to: Fatty for the beer/tap/tent; Marcia and Michael for the coffee/donuts/photography/support; Team Sandbag (John Osgood and Curt) for the long trip, comraderie, and the t-shirts; Shannon for the great company, good beer, and cool swag; and my buddy Jon for making the trip (side note: Jon is now addicted to cyclocross in Michigan).

Anyway, after the weekend was over, and the beer and adrenaline wore off, the shoulder never got better. After a few days, I eventually talked to Dr. OneDood at his 2nd office (BW-3), and then got another opinion from a friend who is an Orthopedic Surgeon. "Class 1 AC Separation"...essentially a separated (sprained) shoulder. I had to skip one of my favorite races of the year, the Gun Club Cross the next wknd to give it some rest, but as it turns out, the race was a mud filled run-fest, and I had a wonderful weekend with Alison and the kids, so it all worked out. With the two decent finishes at USGP, I actually have some flexibility.

So, after a couple weeks of mostly rest (no CRIT, just spinning and running), another favorite race came up. The Promotion Cross in Lexington. Looking at the schedule, there are only so many races left, and I need to get at least enough in to count 7 finishes that I'm happy with, so I wanted to do this one. The weather was going to be perfect (for a fair weather cyclist), too. I did not pre-register, because I was really waiting to see if the shoulder felt o.k., but made the decision to race because of the weather. I'm glad I did. I missed it. Although I had a rough go of it (two crashes, including one right on the injured shoulder, and a dropped chain), I still finished 9th, which will help bigtime in the standings (that will get rid of the "28th" from earlier in the season. We had a great turnout of Rogue teammates and friends (read Brian's account of the day, including honorary Rogue Ben's heckling). Oli and Michael continue to own their categories, which is really cool for the team. Brian also got a little closer to his USGP1 form, and is starting to average "top 10 near" finishes, which is fun. He and I are now battling for spots on the race course and might even be able to work together pretty soon. His progress from averaging 20th (first couple races) to averaging 10th (last couple races) has to be worthy of "most improved" and "most impressive". Hard work DOES pay off kids.

So, where does that leave me? I've got 8 races under my belt. 6 finishes between 9th and 12th place, the 22nd from Harbin where I messed up my back brake, and the "Darkhorse incident". I need at least one more race before Storm the Greens to give me some leeway. Had my 9th place finish at Darkhorse been scored right (instead of being given the 28th), I'd have a little more room, but I think I'm going to be fine. That's why they only take 7...to give room for error (theirs, not mine). So, I was actually going to skip the Columbus race this weekend because it was so far away, BUT, the weather is going to be so nice (70 degrees and sunny) that I can't pass it up. I just registered, and am going to try to find a place with some friends to crash up there to make the race easier. This way, if I can finish Columbus with a decent score, I technically don't need to race any more races, in case the weather just gets ridiculous. I can only assume I'll race Storm the Greens no matter what, but this allows me to make game day decisions for the rest of the year. Thanks, honey. Oh, the shoulder? Yeah, it hurts like hell, and the telltale "lump" on top won't ever go away, I'm told. It'll remain "separated" for a bit, I suppose, but will have plenty of time to heal come Dec 7 and beyond. Once CX is over, I have nothing until the February/March triathlon season starts.

where we at with this?

As I related in the last post, there's a lot going on with the home for Louisville Cross.
The are facts, there are suppositions and there are rumours.

Here are the facts as I've come across them.

The city of Louisville wants to find a permanent home for cyclocross on the River Rd corridor. That's awesome. No more fighting the dog-people, control of what happens and a schedule that works more around us. Also, if its still on River Rd, it should still be a place we can ride to. Driving to ride my bike seems crazy.

It likely won't be @ RRCC. There's too much back story to go into, but keeping our current course is not looking good.
The worry is that it will be in a place that has issues that make it inferior to where we currently are. That's totally valid.
Another great thing that's come out of this is that the cross community has gotten organized. A leadership group made up of designates from each USAC team got together for a first mtg last night @ Cycler's Cafe(I was deer hunting in the wilds of IN, bow season's ovr but camry season just started!)

From the reports I've read from Seiler(read his commentary on Lou Dirt Club) and others, it was productive, passionate and a good first step. There is talk of fighting to keep RRCC. That would be great, we have roots and history there, but if we have to move we may have options we haven't even considered. Mr Lyons had the idea to study courses in europe and incorporate thos elements into what we do at a new place. Cool possibilities.

I've gotten several emails from Jason Cissell @ Parks(as has tallgirl), and he seems determined to make this happen sooner than later. That would help ease the fear of losing RRCC and having nowhere. He seems to think we are a few days away from an announcement. That means any efforts to change the final plan need to move quickly.

The one thing that could help this move in a positive direction would be to have a lot more open dialog. The biggest issue that had people digging their heels in was that a group had been mtg with the city behind closed doors. Once again, more communication solves the problem. If you can get the city's ear and get us what we all want, cool. But secret mtgs always cause backlash. There are so many people that have built this community up to where it is, surely there's a way to give them a voice.

My hope is that this new leadership group can help steer things to a better solution, and that wherever we end up, be it RRCC or Eva Bandman, that we are able to keep growing this.

Now I just want to race my bike with my friends and have some fun. Is there a way for all of these things to happen at once?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

With all the uproar over the ridiculous situation at RRCC(and keep roaring, dont give up), there was still some amazing racing to be seen. The weather was warm, sunny and a perfect day to be out. Lexington's Promotion Cross was Sunday. This has always been one of my favorites. Its fast and flowy and technical and has the most ridiculous barrier section of any course we do. Straight up a massive hill.
It's awesome.
Oh the humanity. The sixth time up that thing was searing pain and jubilation that I wouldnt have to run that mother####er again.

I rode down with the Papist and the usual crowd soon formed. Dug pulled in behind us, Shamwow and Little willy had come down in the Bain Family Truckster with a tin of Debbie's magic poundcake(FORESHADOWING). Sherri and the Rev Blackwell were there. B-dub even brought the wife. It was all good.

We pre-rode the course and the boys from Pedal the Planet had really worked on the course. Lots of familiar features plus some new sections that were a series of 180's up and down hills that had you flying across the course.

It was a mass start for the 4's with Masters blended in. We took off and it was sweet agony. I couldn't figure out why Oli kept yelling "c'mon honeyy, get up there". I was totally mystified until I realized her husband Paul was behind me. Oli heckles so hard she made the Mandrola's blush.

We all rode well and Sham-Wow took fourth in the open's, Dug was 9th, I was 10th and Pope was 14th right behind. our boy UDFJerry was 5th ot 6th maybe? good race. Nice, I love it when I really racing with my friends, all of us putting it all out there. Spitting cotton, eyeballs out, turning yourself inside out...whatever your preferred metaphor is. We all kicked a little bit of ass in a large fast field.

Then Sherri popped open a cooler filled with Rogue ale and Magic Hat. Yes, I feel slightly guilty bragging about getting to drink beer in the sun with my friends in mid-November. Sorry?

We made our way to the hideous barrier section to cheer for Oli and thanks to us, she again demolished the field. She won going away. I'll admit, I've never lusted after a Cannondale before(big companies usually turn me off) but hers is really rad. The Salsa isnt going anywhere for now, so just a comment.

We stayed for the 3's to cheer/heckle/berate/abuse Seiler. Some of the more creative taunts? " go, tallgirl go"(his wife's nickname), "don't hit the tree, dont hit the tree, okay hit the tree"
And add another victory for Mr Seiler with 3 wins on the season. Not too shabby.

My favorite moment of the day involves the aforementiioned poundcake. We're at the barriers and the riders are absolutely giving everything they have. Including every drop of moisture in their bodies. So it was only natural that sham-wow and little willy started offeriing poundcake handups. The first taker is probably still chewing(and it was amazing poundcake). He was laughing and trying to swallow for a couple of hundred meters. (ps-yelliing SWALLOW at anyone in public is dicey, just sayin)
We knew we could count on the boys from Team Hungry to participate, and they did, although they may regret it.

So yesterday was a blast, but we still have the RRCC situation to deal with. I don't know if I can put it any better than john does, so make the jump and read drjohn and see what he has to say about it. It would be a shame to lose whats become an icon in the OVCX. Do what you can, but dont just sit there bitching. I've got that covered.

civil unrest

No, I didn't yell at the kitchen lady or any of the other dog people yet. Not yet.
Yesterday we got some bad news that the dog-people will be taking over part of RRCC and fencing it in as a dog run. Obviously, this means that cyclocross and cross country running and soccer and all of the other activities at this multi-use facility will be moved so that dogs can crap there.
The google map shows the area they are taking. Its not all of the course we use, but it takes a lot of it.
Public outcry was more subtle than expected. A few folks tried to posit alternatives. This was received w mixed reviews. I can explain why. So many of us, many far more than me, have put a lot of time, effort and thought into making RRCC a great place for cross. Is it the ultimate? Of course not. But it was damn good. I know that the guys leading the kidscross efforts are upset not just because they lost something, but because this is where they spent time with their kids. That's time well spent, outside, no video games.

I've been told that it is official and I've been told that its not. Noone seems to have a solid answer yet.
The dog-people begin selling permits to use the place Nov 30th, so they feel pretty confident.

So what do we do? Fight or flight?

Bobrow intimated on the message boards this morning(can you intimate on a msg board? Really) that an alternative is in the works.
That's good news unless it means driving to go ride your bike. We need something and we've been spoiled to have what we have,something where we are welcomed and are comfortable.

Zack's idea was to go more covert and find new places and see what options we are overlooking currently. I like that idea as well. Sometimes new is better, but losing what we have is still going to suck. Maybe we'll find someplace that's equally accessable that has technical features we haven't even thought of. Could be.
I'd like to put effort into that. Hell, it'll be fun trying even if we get chased out of a few places(poss moreso if we do, god knows its been a long time since I've been hassled by the man)

We could also find new areas on the current property. A community effort and possibly that could work.

I'm not trying to go "chicken little", but we can't just wait until the fenceposts go in to come up with an alternative.

I don't have closure for you on this. If you have ideas, nows a good time. And try not to piss on the folks who are down about this.
Key word is "try"

Race Across The Sky... Again

For those of you, like me that missed the first showing of Race Across the Sky, the film about the Leadville 100. It will be shown again November 12th. Hopefully our bootleg town will have a showing. Last time we had parent/teacher conferences, so this time it's on. Everyone raved about the movie from the drama of the competition to the scenery. Can't freakiing wait.

Gun Club/ Run Club

This is definitely the wettest cross season of my short racing career. I've been replacing corroded parts and cleaning the bike constantly. Im really tired of stuffing my shoes with newspaper. But it is what it is. We had a ton of rain Friday and it changed the Gun Club course into a wild festival of falling, sliding and general hilarity.

This is one of my favorite race courses. Out in the middle of nowhere, at a shooting club with a really nice lodge(with a roaring fire +10 pts)
Normally this is a hard course with a BIG climb on the backside leading to some singletrack then barriers etc. The rain changed everything. I lined up with the right rev blackwell(welcome back on the grid my man), molnar, the dean, udf jerry etc. I was sans posse w Dug, Fatty and the papist being pressed into other svcs for the day.

After a start that could only be called lazy(or lackadaisical for those of you not into the whole brevity thing) I was way in the back chasing. Obviously we know what I'll be working on this week.

For a course with 2 sets of barriers, I was off the bike 6-7 times per lap, and that was just the times I planned on coming off. the big hill was a sort of run up. I shouldered the bike and hustled as quick as I could. Others tried to remount at the top but this was foolishness. I was able to pick some folks off there by running the whole hill. Oli suggested we ditch the bikes and just make it the Gun Club 5 k. It would've been way faster.

Luckily, sherri the super-fan was with us. It really does help when somebody's screaming your name(in a good way, okay not that good. sheesh) So the support from teammates was great. I ended up with a shocker, mid-pack finish. 17th out of 30 something. The bad starts are killing me. The sand was fine and tho I'd like to have done better in several sections, the opening sprint is where Im losing ground.

So we had Paul(mr oli) racing to 14th in the 4's in his first cross race. Sham-Wow(webbber) got 5th and keeps killing it. The story of the day was Oli with the win in her category. Strong work woman.

Post race, I hung in the lodge with Depot Joe and Molnar-who lectured me on the rules of the tribe. How the hell is it he knows more than me AND Brad Goldberg? Scary.
But there was actual food there. I hope this is a trend that continues. I like being fed.

So here I sit, muddy kit soaking in whatever the domestic goddess/laundry mgr dug out after the washer failed to get my whites a sparkling. the shoes are stuffed with newspaper, too wet to even put on the dryer rack yet.

We have sunshine for the week leading into the ProMotion Cross in Lexington. Im looking forward to (hopefully) a dry, power course