2013 Was A Bust!

2013 was a bust. What more can I say. It was a tough year.

In the end, I raced two duathlons which were a lot of fun, but that was it.

2014 is going to be different. I don't know how much I'll get to race, but I am going to ride more. My Colnago and my Vellum need more miles!

One fun thing added for this year is a GoPro Camera. I've been videoing my rides since New Years and I think they are fun!

JourneyCross

This was our second year to host a cyclocross race in Cordova. This year the difference was that my entire team was part of it. The team really pulled together to make this happen. Anthony Parks was the inspiration of the race and the leader of putting it together. Members of Journeymen Racing were the arms, hands, legs back and voice of making the race happen and as a result the race was great!

We started the race in cold weather with plenty of rain. This unfortunately made us think that the race would not turn into anything good. However, Cyclocross races are not fought out in the sunlight, and the local racers know it!

The rain settled down just as the B race went off, and as a result the course was absolutely sloppy and absolutely awesome!

 

After a great B Race, we had the A Race go off and again we had a great race.

 

 

 

With a little luck and a lot of persistance, we'll have the race again next year and the results will be awesome!

 

Fall Racing!

Its been wayyyy too long since I've posted anything, but the truth is that I have not because I've been busy.

Some of this busy has been good (finally racing again) and some bad... (work).

The racing? Well, I had the opportunity to hit 3 cyclocross races and 1 six hour mountain bike race. Some good, some bad again, but thats the way things are in life. My wife would say, 'Life is not all butterflies and rainbows!'

The first race I hit was Cyclocrunk 1. Frankly, I went better than I expected, but it was hard. They even made the race only 30 minutes, but by the end I could taste blood on my breath. It was that hard.

Then I had the opportunity to hit the 6 Hours of Herb. I teamed up again this year, just like 2 years ago. My teammate, Brad, turned out to be a great relay partner (not that I expected any different!). The race started early in the morning with temps nothing above 50 degrees, and rain absolutely pouring down. Brad took the first lap and did well -then I went out.

My first lap was slow. Not terrible, but definitely not great. A bunch of things were against me on that one- I had not been on the MTB in months, and the slick trail made for sketchy riding. I did not go down, but that meant I was not pushing hard enough.

With my first lap in mind, as Brad rolled in, I rolled out hard. I flew across the dam and dove into the woods, and I really dove - face first into the trail at a very high speed. I taco'ed my front wheel and smashed my right side hard on the ground. I still have bruises from it 2 weeks later. It took me a long time to get up, and even longer to straighten my wheel enough to ride. Sure enough, 3 miles later, my back tire went flat - so much for the new Bontrager sealant, won't be buying that again.

When I came in Brad was definitely worried, but he went out and did a killer lap. While he tore up the course, I moped around a bit and then decided to straighten the bike and get ready. With the wheel straight enough to do the job, I hit the course hard, but this time I mean fast instead of painfully.

In Brad and my last laps, we pulled from 7 place in relay to 4th place, just a couple minutes off the podium. I really feel like we could have podium'ed if I had not laid the bike down!

Two days later, I hit Cyclocrunk 2. This time, I went as hard as I could and actually had a race going between myself and a few other racers! I have no idea how I did overall as they don't post results for a training race, but I know I did well and felt like I went fast. Unfortunately, I did manage to lay the bike down again, only this time as I tripped over a barrier. When I got up, I race for the finish and beat out another rider. Good race overall......

To be continued.

New Skins For The CX Training Wheels

So, I've been running Continentals and Vredisteins on my CX training and fun wheels. The Contis are wearing out pretty quickly. Center tread was gone, so they had great traction when it was dry and went to hell when it was wet out...

The Vredesteins are basically the same tread as the Challenge tubulars I normally run for racing, but they are wrapped on a narrow tiny casing.

So a fellow local racer put up an advert on our local MTB forum for a set of Schwalbe Racing Ralph CX clincher tires. The price was right, so I grabbed them.

They measure out as a true 35c tire, which is what I wanted, and the casing feels pretty supple. The tread pattern is nicely knobby tire.

I'll give a good review of their performance and handling as soon as I get a chance to roll them down the trail.

Tour De Cross 2012 Race #2

Well, my wife surprised me this weekend. She asked if I had seen anything lately on Facebook.... My answer was that I was reading about my team members heading out to the Tour De Cross #2. She commented "You did not ask to go to it?" I replied that I hadn't because I thought I needed to be home with her and our new son.

My wife is a wonderful person, and not just because she told me, "Go ahead, we'll be here when you get here". A little cleaning around the house before I left ensured some good karma and put a small deposit in the domestic homefront bank.

So I headed out to the race. I decided to drive my Triumph to the race with the bike on the back. Unfortunately, it was cold (sub freezing) and so the car backfired a bit. I got there fine though and surprised my teammates (they thought I was in poopy diaper land)

The course was pretty doggone good. Aside from being somewhat poorly marked in a few areas, it really made the most of the land the organizer had to run the course on.

I started out great and got a substantial holeshot on everyone. Unfortunately that only lasted about half a lap and I blew a bit. I managed to hang in about 5th position for a while and then took a wrong turn on the course and literally got lost....

Two people passed me and I figured out where I was supposed to be. I decided to follow one of them for the rest of the lap to make sure I did not get lost again....

Finally, after figuring out the course, I made up a couple positions and held there until the end. I actually finished fairly strong considering how long I've been off the bike.

Spooky Cross 2011

For me, this is one of my 'home races'. I live 5 mins from the course and ride out there regularly. The event is also put on by a bunch of friends and attended by most of my friends, so it makes for a great event!


The course this year was similar to last year's excepting the run-up the stairs in the ampitheatre. They had some renaissance festival going on in there supposedly so we could not use it....

Day one had a very large CX4 field (large for Memphis standards) with over 2 dozen riders. They also ran the SS'ers with us to make the group bigger.. I got to the line late so lined up mid-pack. The start involved a straight that eventually dove into some pretty tight singletrack. I knew getting into the woods would be crucial and edged up a bit from mid-pack to hit the woods in the first 1/3 of the group. I came out of the woods in pretty good position, but quickly started going backwards..... By the end of the race, I managed to beat a couple of racers I knew I wanted to be in front of, but was pretty much behind everyone else....

Day two had half the field of the previous day. They also reversed the course and moved some of the barriers to reposition them on run-ups. I felt better on the start even though I did not hit the woods in the best position. After a while, I started going back and forth with a couple non-locals and we had a race going. I'd beat them in the barriers and woods, they'd pull me back and pass on the flats and on the paved sections. In the end, I was able to make a large dig and make it stick. Unfortunately, I was still back of the pack at the finish.

I did not get completely skunked however - they had a 'bike handling' competition right before the awards ceremony. They did the 'circle drill' where all the riders are put in a circle and then the circle is gradually tightened up. Dab and out. I made it to the end and won. The prize was something my results say I definitely need - one month full service coaching from a USAC certified pro coach.

Cyclocrunk 2011 #1

After waiting for too long, cyclocross season is finally here. The first race of the year for me was Cyclocrunk. This is a USAC training race put on by some local friends. Its grown pretty big through the years and so this year it even had sanctioning (never did previously).

This race promised to be a fast one as it had not rained in a month. The ground was dry and hot. We expected some serious fast racing on what was esentially the previous course with a few modifications.

However, Mother Nature showed her hand about 2 hours before the race and dropped a downpour on us. Perfect for a cyclocross race!!!! The rain really hit us hard and the result was a lot of mucky areas, along with standing water everywhere and lots of peanut buttery mud to slip around on.

I managed to get an OK start and was in the first 10 or so into the first barrier. Unfortunately, I must have been racing with the 'Start slow and taper off' strategy. I managed to stay on the lead lap for approx 3 laps and then the Cat 2's came around hard and fast. That being said, I did lap a few people myself and held with a couple racers for a pretty good period before they finally pulled away on a straight.

As usual, I made up time on the barriers and lost time on the bike. Seems wierd to me as I'm a terrible runner. I guess I get on and off faster.

Now if I can just get some legs back for the rest of the season!

Painting the CX Bike - Part 6 - Decals and Clear

With the color on the frame, I checked over everything and it looked pretty good. I pulled out the extra decal set that came with the frame when I bought it. I then trimmed the edges of the decals to get rid of some fuzz they picked up and pulled out the measurements I had done of the frame before I stripped it.

I took my time installing the decals and they still came out a little crooked. Measure twice and stick once is the rule here!

Stickers in place, its time to mix up some clear and shoot it. As you can see from the pics, I shot the bike outside. Clear is dangerous nasty stuff. I did not want the fumes anywhere near myself or my family. I shot one misty coat and followed it shortly with a wet coat. I followed that with a wet coat 15 mins later.

The results are pretty doggone good. The clear laid down well and the finish is nice.

There a few too many places with an eggshell look to them, so I'll wetsand this down with 1000 grit paper to knock off the highspots and then spray it with 2 more wet coats. The results of that will be a glassy finish.

Painting the CX Bike - Part 5 - Color

After all that prep work, it was time for some color. This is when the paint job starts to look like a paint job!

I shot the white of the main tubes first. I used the touchup gun to lay the color and it went on very well with 40psi and approx 10% reducer.

Masking for the blue was the next task. Intially, I masked with standard green masking tape and used an Exacto to cut the shorelines. The result was terrible. I was beyond dissappointed with my results......

So I started over. This time I used 1/8" blue polyurethane 3M masking tape. This tape pulls and stretches around the shorelines very well. I then put the green tape around the ends of the tubes and cut the tape back from the blue tape. This gave a nice masked line. Finally, I sprayed a line of white AutoAir around the blue tape to seal its edges. This ensures the next color does not bleed under the tape.

Finally, I sprayed blue on the frame to finish the color. I used the touch up gun for the main body of work, and followed up with the airbrush for the shoreline areas.

Painting the CX Bike, Part 2

So I posted below what the final product should look like When completed in the prevous post.

Here is what the bike looked like to start.

The bike did not look terrible before, but there were some issues with the original paint.

1. There were several rust spots on the frame where the paint had been rubbed away or chipped and rust had started to form. Not good on a CX bike, and something that is hard to stop once started.

2. The transfers on the frame were all coming off and looked pretty worn. 80's stickers were not the best quality.

3. I did not love the color of the frame, and it had a pearl clear coat on it which was peeling off in sheets in different places. 

New Paint For the Cyclocross Bike

Well, I decided a couple years ago that I wanted to re-paint my cyclocross bike. I'm now well into the process, but I thought I'd show some of the process here....

To start, I had to decide what I wanted the bike to look like. I pulled up BikeCad and had a go at putting together the paint scheme.

Here is the result......

Next up, I'll show some detail of the actual work......

New Wheels!!!!!!

Finally, I've finished my new wheels. Wayyyy too much time to get these things built, but finally they are done.

They are 50mm deep carbon rims laced to OffTheFront Racing hubs via Sapim spokes and nipples. They were/are my first deep dish rims, my first carbon rims, and my first tubular wheels.

As built, the set weighs 1290 grams. With them shod with Challenge Fango and Grifo, my CX ride now weighs in at just over 18.7 lbs. Thats a drop of almost 2lbs off my shoulder during the races, and gives me mucho better traction.

The project started with a 'group buy' on the Weight Weenies website. I ended up buying the 50mm tubulars from the vendor in Taiwan. Unfortunately, they took absolutely forever to get here. Apparent quality issues at the manufacturer prevented them from shipping. However, they did get here, and the quality is great.

Next issue was spokes. I had trouble finding them, but eventually settled on Sapim Laser for the front spokes and Sapim Race for the rear. Sapim alu nipples anodized red tie everything together.

My wheelbuilding friend Chris suggested that I build the wheels with nipple washers to spread the load inside the rimbed. That proved to be a bit of a problem. Because I used Sapim spokes and nipples, I decided to use Sapim Nipple Washers. Unfortunately, when they arrived, they were obviously not going to fit....... Wayyy too big. I looked at several opportunities to use locally available 'hardware store' washers, but none would fit..... They also were not really the right 'conical' shape that I needed.

Finally, I elected to order Pillar nipple washers from BDOP cycling in Taiwan. Do all bike parts now originate in Taiwan? They arrived, and they fit perfectly.

The wheels laced up very nicely and tensioned up well. I got them within approx .012" of true right off the bat and same for roundness.

With all that done, the tires are now stretching on the rims with the hope of gluing them up this weekend. I guess its time to get sticky.....

Tour De Cross Race #3 - Real Cross Weather!

The Tour De Cross #3 Cyclocross race was today. This race series has been at an unusual time of the year for cyclocross, and as a result, we've had some unusual cyclocross weather.......

First race was warm and dry. Warm might not go far enough.... Rarely have I had sweat pour from my brain bucket after a cross race, but at that one, I did......

Second race was relatively warm, and only a little muddy. Kinda like an early season race.

Third race was real cyclocross racing..... We took the start line with the rain having just stopped. The temperature was a whopping 40 degrees..... and the course was an absolute swamp!

This really seemed more like a classic cyclocross race. Corners were sketchy, water standing all over the place. On the first lap (right after this picture was taken), I managed to take that little near 180 turn and lay it down. The following roll in the mud, or maybe it was a slide, really took the piss out of me. At that point, I realized quickly I'd take nothing but DFL, so I backed it down one notch and simply finished the race.

Is there anything wrong with that? Yeah, I did not kill myself out there. But then again, there were 5 people in the race, and I was in fifth. Maybe that really was not the way 'cross should be ridden, but today I guess I did not have much more than that in me.

I started the race without any 'cross in my tank, and very little cyclo. By the end, I was empty on both counts.

Next week is going to be a real tough one - a duathlon in the morning and a 'cross race in the afternoon.

New 'Cross ride for Carter

Well, my plans to ride every day during my two weeks off at Christmas are rapidly falling to pieces. Rain keeps us off the trails and off the road. Either way, I'm getting cabin fever fast. There are two more races in the TN Cyclocross season, and I wanted to be ready for them...... Now I don't know if I'll even get to go.

On to the new bike. Carter is a student at my Alma Mater, and decided to re-start the cycling team that existed at the university when I was a student there. He's successfully gotten it going, and I'm impressed by that. The team has approx a dozen members, and a faculty advisor. I signed on as an alumnis member.

When I signed on, I had no idea what I could offer. I have little time for my own riding usually and I'm not sure I know many people that would help with sponsorship. I did work as a wrench for too many years however, and I figured when I could sneak in a lesson on bike maintenance for the members, I would do that.

Carter had just the perfect opportunity. He bought a Ridley supercross used from a member of our local Trails Association, and a $100 Ultegra group from another. After piecing the rest of the parts together, he called and asked if we could build it up.

I basically did a total frame up build for him while showing him how and why things go together the specific way they did. We finished it off with a good looking bar wrapping job and a ride to dial in the fit somewhat.

I'm really impressed with how it finished out. It needs proper 'cross gearing, but its a nice build overall. With some lighter wheels, it will finish out at a nice finished weight, and the gearing will make it just right for the local races.



With a little luck, we'll get to do a 'cross race in Columbia, TN.

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.

Updating the Cross Bike.... : )

While I was out of the country, I managed to snag an Alpha Q CX fork for my bike. I had an extra Chris King headset and a stem that was a perfect match for it as well.

Mounted everything up this morning and I'm pretty pleased with it! Knocked 1.3 lbs off the bike in total. Definitely very pleased.

Now, I just need an opportunity to race the dern thing!!!!!

Cyclocross Goodness!!!

Well, even though I won't get to ride it for a while, I have gotten my cyclocross bike ready for the season.

Using some parts from the stash, as well as some parts from ebay, I made a change to the bike that will hopefully be for the better.

When I originally built the bike, I built it as a singlespeed. Unfortunately, the only guys racing SS are super strong around these parts. As I had my bike geared, I could make the climbs, but would spin out massively on any fast section.

I decided to take a Dura Ace 9sp shifter and cassette and gear the bike. I also had a chain without much use. I added a 42 tooth QBP ring and bashguard to the setup, and an NGear jumpstop to keep the chain on.

I really don't want to know how much weight I added, but on the few brief spins around the neighborhood I've gotten, it feels geared right for our races.

Hopefully it will suit me well!!!

Cyclocross wheel score!!!!

Last week, a local guy posted a set of Bontrager wheels on the MSTA website for sale forum. The price was great, so I shot him a note and we made arrangements to meet.

I picked up the wheels, and they're pretty cool. They're Bontrage Race-Lites and I picked them up for a song. The rear even had a 9sp cassette on it.

With the blue annodizing on the rims, and the paired spoke setup, they are the schizzle!

Mounted them up on the bike and I'm pretty happy with them. They're lighter than the junkers they replaced as well.

Happy Father's Day!!!

This weekend started a bit rough.... I headed out after work on Friday to Shelby Farms for some MTB riding. Unfortunately, approx 2 miles in, I endo'ed hard and did a massive faceplant. I hit so hard I shattered my helmet. I finished the lap, but did not go for another as planned.....

After buying a new helmet on Saturday, I managed to get out on Father's Day for some riding. The wife asked me not to go out on the road because of the heat, so I decided to head out to Herb Parsons on the singlespeed. I rode 3 laps out there in the heat and had a dern good time.

I felt stronger out there than I have all year. I could not believe how I was able to pull through areas and climb on that single gear.... I was really happy with how it went!

Maybe 'cross season won't be so bad this year. Maybe I'll even not finish last!!!!!

Cyclocross Practice

I'm really hoping to do better at the 'cross races this year. Last year, I was terribly out of shape, and my form over the barriers just plain sucked.

This year, I'm in better shape (though no where close to any of the other competitors in my area) but I'm hoping to have much better form.

To get there, I decided to do at least some 'cross practice every 2 weeks until then. Today, I rode out to Shelby Farms on my SSCX and rode the MTB course. Then after one lap, I pulled up on the empty RC Airfield runway and practiced mounts and dismounts repeatedly at a slow speed.

By the end of the practice, I had done approx 30 dis/re mounts at a slow speed. While they were still ugly, they at least were smoother than before, and maybe closer to my ability when I was younger : )