Herbs on the Cross Bike

Well, vacation days are meant for riding.

After getting the errands out of the way, it was time to head out to Herb Parsons Lake for a few laps. I did two laps and started a third. A portion of the way into the third, I was feeling really cold, so I turned around.

Its always good to get out and spin the legs at Herbs!

New Bar Tape for the Cross Bike...

Well, enough of my friends complained that the red bar tape on my cross bike did not suit it..... Sheesh.

The red was recycled from my roadbike, so I decided I might as well put on some fresh new tape. I used Deda this time. I've not used tape like that in a while, so it took a couple tries to get it right, but the results are good.


Somehow the yellow in the bar tape matches the frame decals perfectly. I feel like a hipster : )

33 Miles of SingleTrack On The Cross Bike

Sunday morning, I hit Herb Parsons with Jacob. We cranked out 4 8.3mile laps around the course. Two of the 4 were sub 1 hour laps, so I'm pretty happy with that. The guys at the 6 hour race there were turning sub 1 hour laps on mountain bikes, so turning that time on the cross bike felt pretty good.

2009 Outdoors Inc Cyclocross

Well, this race is in the books. Definitely a lot of fun, but I do wish I had felt better for my first Cross race of the year.....

The upper portion of the course was soggy and slow, with lots of hills to either ride or run-up. I ended up shouldering my bike every time for one of the hills. That area was followed by a severe off camber portion and more sogginess.... I think this might have been worse than other mud, because the soggy sod was more like riding on a waterbed.... you never found the bottom!

Next up was a set of s turns, followed by a stairway run up. The hills that followed were rough but plenty rideable. Only one traditional set of barriers on this section.

The bottom half of the course was hardpacked and straight. I drafted on that section when I could, while trying to pull out in front before the one barrier section on that portion of the course so I could make some time. That set of barriers was made from river driftwood. LOL.

I think I placed 9th out of 13 (there were supposed to be 13 starters in my class, and I showed to be in 9th...) so it could have been worse, but I really felt like crap today and just did not have the legs......

I am proud of one thing... I finally got my remount down. By the end of the race, something had finally clicked, and I was doing re-mounts like I should. I've worked on that for a lot of years, and finally have something for it.

All in all, it was a great race, and I encourage anyone and everyone to come out and race it next year!

After the race, I headed with a bunch of my team to Herb Parson's and did a lap of the trail there. Even got my new jersey from the team. I actually don't look terrible in it...... Not good, but not terrible.

Outdoors Inc Cyclocross Champs - Pre Ride

Its nice having a race in your own hometown!

I had the opportunity to get out to the racecourse today and pre-ride the thing. There are some really fast parts, a few tough climbs, and 3 sets of barriers.

One dismount is a set of stairs to a paved section where the remount will be important. The next is a traditional set of double barriers on an up hil.

The final mandatory is a set of 3 huge logs laying out on the riverbank. There is a shicane right before this set of logs, so slowing is not a problem. I did my dismount/remount pretty fast in that section. The others, I was stinkin it up today....

Final area is a tough hill that I'm not sure I can climb. its pretty huge, so I will likely dismount and run up it.....

Rest of the course is either bumpy sodded areas, or fast trampled down trail areas.

Wish me luck......

Wolf River Night Ride

I was dying to get out and ride, but the doggone time change has made that nearly impossible.

The guys from the Journeyman Race team shot me a message and mentioned that they were going out for a Tuesday night ride at the Wolf River trails. I thought it looked like a great opportunity to get out and turn the pedals over....

Bad news was that I don't have any good lights. In the end, I rode with an old set that put out approximately 15 lumens. This was in comparison to my buddies who were riding with combineds sets of 700-1000 lumens!!!!!!! Needless to say, I outran my lights pretty quickly.

The ride was really fun though. Fun enough for me to go buy some new lights! Charles and Shawn were fast as ever, Same for Billy until he ate it hard and bruised a rib or something, so he slowed a bit. Kurt was ripping along pretty good until some wierd shifting problems slowed him a bit.

All in all, it was a kickass ride, and my first ride on the trails with lights since I was in college!

2009 Outdoors Inc Cyclocross

Well, this will be my first 'cross race of the year. I'm excited like you can't believe.

I know I'm gonna stink it up, but at least I'll be out there.

With a little luck, I won't get pulled, and I might even have a picture of the disaster :)