And the pain just keeps coming at you. It was another tough race this week brought to you by ABD. The course was long and set up for the power riders, with long straight false flats. The ground kinda soft for my first race, the masters 30+. I am still in a fog with all of the non-training that we have been doing. (The price for puting on our first cross race, well worth it.) I’m not worried anymore about placing in the rest of the cross races. I just want to ride hard and get as much benefit as I can out of them.
One thing that was good was I raced on a set of carbon tubular from Rob Curtis. He is renting sets at each race, so you can try them before you buy them. I will post a review of the wheels on my blog in a few days.
On another note, I had the opportunity to meet some of the upper crust of the local cross scene. One being Tim Boundy from Verdigris Cycling. He gave our team some great praise for our race that we put on. When someone like that says that it was UCI caliber, and very euro, you have to stop and take notice,and he is not the only one. Trust me when you get people of that caliber commend you on your course, it gives you a sense of accomplishment. A bit of fear that you will have to step it up again next year. I’m sure that we will be up to the challenge. We have an outstanding core of riders and sponsers who have stepped up to the plate all the time. To which a lot of the credit should go to. VeePak inc. & the Beverly Bike Shop For now we have more pressing things to tend to. We have shown that we are a good team in retrospect to always being out there, but now we need to work on our commitment to training to achieve better results next year. Only time will tell on that one.
To all of those who were yelling for me all over the course, THX. I was ready to die out there. The cheers were the only thing that was keeping me going in the last race. You are all the best.
Bob
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
As the World Turns
I thought our course was hard. But man, all those turns made me as dizzy as a kid getting off the tea cups at Disney; by the way, which I also experienced. I got there last minute as usual, and I met Bob for a little pre-course strategy. He gave me some tips on the course. It was nice having someone on the team ride 30+ with me. It gives me support and motivation to do well and I hope I have the same effect on others. Bob has been riding well so I had to be on my game. As we took off, Bob got to the front of the race quickly and in good position. I tried to use him as a carrot but he was riding well and I felt he was pulling away. I’m very sketchy on the turns and with so many of them I could sense I was dropping back. More confident riders were easily passing me. What little I could make up was on the straights and clearly this was not going to be enough. As I started losing sight of Bob, all of a sudden I see him standing by a tree I thought for sure he crashed. As I approached him I asked “you crashed?” He held up the top of his saddle while the metal rails remain on his bike. Enough said. That sucked for sure.
As I continued the race, it got harder the more turns I made the more squeamish I got. I crashed last Sunday on our own course.. Go figure? I didn’t want to crash today.(what a Wuss) The sand pit had a nice twist to it or shall I say turn, also those rolling bumps were equally challenging. The course was awesome my skills suck, but I still had a blast and my sweet wife got some nice pics. Thanks for your support!!!!! See you next week.
E
As I continued the race, it got harder the more turns I made the more squeamish I got. I crashed last Sunday on our own course.. Go figure? I didn’t want to crash today.(what a Wuss) The sand pit had a nice twist to it or shall I say turn, also those rolling bumps were equally challenging. The course was awesome my skills suck, but I still had a blast and my sweet wife got some nice pics. Thanks for your support!!!!! See you next week.
E
Carpentersville Race Report
I changed up races and road in the 30+ event. Not wanting to interfere with the real racers I lined up in the back. I figured if I started in the back and moved up past riders it would be good training. The plan started off well enough, I went into turn 1 DFL, and by the middle of the first lap I was sitting mid pack. I was leading a group of 6 to 8 riders into the last two turns when I hit a large root on a turn and went down. I heard a few of the guys ask if I was ok, and I told them yes, and to go. I jumped up and hopped to remount the bike, but when my leg hit the seat, the seat snapped off the rails with a loud snap. I jumped on the bike anyway, saying to myself, I’m going to finish one lap. That’s when the officials saw me cross the line and laughed as they told me I was done if I didn’t have a saddle or pit bike in the pit. They did say AAAAhhhhhh that’s the noise we heard, as they chuckled.
Bob
Bob
Monday, October 12, 2009
Who Designed that F'ing Course?
Uh, we did. Oh yeah, I forgot. Having this as our training grounds and riding it so many times was nothing like racing on it with tape and the hoopla that goes along with race day. I would first like to thank my team for their support and all the riders who came out also. All 344 of you. See the south side has something to offer afterall!
We started getting ready the night before by cleaning under the trees, pruning low hanging branches and flagging the areas we knew would be ok for the night. Elvis ended up looking like a bush himself with all the burrs he got attached to his whole body while cleaning up the single track.
We got there at 6:45 in the morning on Sunday and started to set up the course. There were some game day changes to the course which I think now enchanced the course itself. It felt like it took too long to set up, but we were ready at 9:29. The first race started on time at 9:30. If I knew it was OK with the officials to keep both sides of the run up open that's how we would have ran it the whole day instead of just for the 4's races.
So, onto my race. I suck. Nothing like going down twice on the switchback on the hill when that was my bread and butter while training. In all I went down two more times. Actually down one more time, coming around the 360 at the bottom of the run up hill, and a complete dead turn-your-bike-around 180 degrees dead stop at the bottom of the other hill. That was the part of the course we changed. Coming down from the big hill was supposed to go around one tree where you would have to apply your brakes. We made the turn around two trees where you didn't need brakes and could just fly. Well after the two tree turn I didn't lean in enough catching an outside tape post with my handlebars. Now I'm thinking that I must have hit that post almost with the center of my bars because it stopped, and jumped the rear of my bike 180 degrees so I was facing backwards without falling down. It took me a second to figure out that I had to get off my bike just to get back in the right direction on the course.
With all that being said we suck, but hopefully our course didn't.
We started getting ready the night before by cleaning under the trees, pruning low hanging branches and flagging the areas we knew would be ok for the night. Elvis ended up looking like a bush himself with all the burrs he got attached to his whole body while cleaning up the single track.
We got there at 6:45 in the morning on Sunday and started to set up the course. There were some game day changes to the course which I think now enchanced the course itself. It felt like it took too long to set up, but we were ready at 9:29. The first race started on time at 9:30. If I knew it was OK with the officials to keep both sides of the run up open that's how we would have ran it the whole day instead of just for the 4's races.
So, onto my race. I suck. Nothing like going down twice on the switchback on the hill when that was my bread and butter while training. In all I went down two more times. Actually down one more time, coming around the 360 at the bottom of the run up hill, and a complete dead turn-your-bike-around 180 degrees dead stop at the bottom of the other hill. That was the part of the course we changed. Coming down from the big hill was supposed to go around one tree where you would have to apply your brakes. We made the turn around two trees where you didn't need brakes and could just fly. Well after the two tree turn I didn't lean in enough catching an outside tape post with my handlebars. Now I'm thinking that I must have hit that post almost with the center of my bars because it stopped, and jumped the rear of my bike 180 degrees so I was facing backwards without falling down. It took me a second to figure out that I had to get off my bike just to get back in the right direction on the course.
With all that being said we suck, but hopefully our course didn't.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Going Backwards
I have so much on my mind with our race coming up that training hasn't been a top priority. Then again, I think I just suck no matter how much training I do. It's a little disheartening when you find people who are in their first cross races beating somebody who has been riding cx for 3 years now.
Enough of the pitty party onto the race. I got to the chute and placed myself on the front line. Then it was monkey see monkey do with everybody linning up behind me. I thought I was golden. I didn't have great postioning at JP and it hurt in the end. This Sunday was going to be different! So after the call ups the rest of us mopes moved to the line. I got in the second row right behind the guy in 8th on the call up. I was happy with this postion knowing that somebody with skill was in front of me. Too bad he wasn't paying attention for the whistle. So the whistle blowes and for a couple of seconds I'm not moving. So much for good starting position. Needless to say I gas myself to on top of the hill. I'm done at that point, knowing that what little I gain or loose is'nt going to make that much of a difference. Another disheartening thing is to find people who went down in front of you, when you didn't fall down, beat you. OUCH. The rear wheel got loose 2 times, but I was able to save a high side both times. I think it's a cool feeling to know you averted getting thrown off your bike by sheer luck rather than skill.
Well it's over with probaly my worst finish since my first race of cross coming in 40th. Onto Dan Ryan Woods. We'll see if there is any home field advantage. I doubt it with 74 other guys who are more fit than I am. Tony
Enough of the pitty party onto the race. I got to the chute and placed myself on the front line. Then it was monkey see monkey do with everybody linning up behind me. I thought I was golden. I didn't have great postioning at JP and it hurt in the end. This Sunday was going to be different! So after the call ups the rest of us mopes moved to the line. I got in the second row right behind the guy in 8th on the call up. I was happy with this postion knowing that somebody with skill was in front of me. Too bad he wasn't paying attention for the whistle. So the whistle blowes and for a couple of seconds I'm not moving. So much for good starting position. Needless to say I gas myself to on top of the hill. I'm done at that point, knowing that what little I gain or loose is'nt going to make that much of a difference. Another disheartening thing is to find people who went down in front of you, when you didn't fall down, beat you. OUCH. The rear wheel got loose 2 times, but I was able to save a high side both times. I think it's a cool feeling to know you averted getting thrown off your bike by sheer luck rather than skill.
Well it's over with probaly my worst finish since my first race of cross coming in 40th. Onto Dan Ryan Woods. We'll see if there is any home field advantage. I doubt it with 74 other guys who are more fit than I am. Tony
ATTENTION TIMES HAVE CHANGED!!!
Please look at our flier. As of our race and all races thereafter, Chicrosscup has made time and category changes. This is to better accomodate the ammount of riders who are coming to these events.
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