Round 4 of DeStad & day 2 @ Smithville Lake

So i couldn't help myself. 11 o'clock saturday nite heading for bed and i cant take it anymore........i decide at that moment i am throwin' my original plan to the wind. seeing 30+ guys in saturday's cat 3 race, watching the 360 guys and everyone else duke it out was too much. the choice of racing against 9 or 10 in the masters race or against 30+ guys in the 3's race.......well, thats easy for me. at least right now anyway. I actually felt like i could double up and still do both races. however, that thought was before i finished racing 45 minutes in the first race on sunday.

Saturday evenings recovery from a hard day of racing and chasing andy and steve consisted of a barbeque dinner at Oklahoma Joe's with friend and bike geek Dan Hansen. a perfect source of protein to help torn up muscles recover. I then proceeded home to bath dogs and bike, but not in that order. actually the epson salt bath i took before i went to bed really seemed to help, cuz i woke up feeling great. i seemed to havd no ill effects from the previous days race. the saturday/sunday racing is new to me this year. i did the back to back race days 4 times last year. but those really seemed to take a toll on me come early and mid-december once state and the nationals' races came around. i have really tried to limit my racing as much as posssible eiht the hope that it will pay dividends later and i will be able to peak better for nationals this december.

i was actually amped up to get going sunday morning and left the house about 45 minutes earlier than originally planned. this allowed me to take my time and get an early breakfast with the hopes of not racing with a full belly. once on the bike and warming up though, i really felt the effects of the previous days racing not soreness, but more fatigue is the description i would use. oh well.....most everyone else would be dealing with the dame issue.

like i previously stated in last blog, the cat 3 races in our area seem to get more nad more competitve with each year and each race. this season especially. cat 1 roadies sandbaggin' and cherry pickin' by not racing on saturday and 18 year old legs of a guy who didnt race the day before too are gonna be tough to beat. i dont mean that to be an excuse. it just a plain fact. young graham aldridge is a stud and steadily, hell drastically improving with every race. wether its on a road, mtb or a cross' bike, the kid can absolutely kill it. the other guys......well......i'll just keep my foot out of my mouth and shut up.

i got a call up cuz of pre-registration. this put me on the front row with the field size a rider or 2 shy of 30 racers staartinng in the cat 3 field. it was brian, ted, jason, joel and myself representing the 360 colors. so with the quick roll call, the wistle was blown and we were off. i didnt really have to dig at all to get a good position going into the grass 'bottle-neck'. with ben stover from gp velotek, i was 2nd wheel and racing well under the red line thru the first 1/3rd of the course before we hit the pavement. ti was ben me and mark cole of cowtown putting our noses up front with teammate brian joining up front about halfway thru the 1st lap. really once we were thru the start/finish area starting our second lap, this is where mark cole got on the front and just stuck it. noone else did any work to speak of for the next 2 laps. mark was content and so was everyone else. it was halfway thru the 3rd lap when i realized the mistake we had mad in leting mark do all of the work. obviously after 3 laps of work and noone else bothering to help out, the pace is going to slow a hair. no matter how strong a guy is, that pace is going to slow just enough. as i turned to catch a view behind what i thought was a group of maybe 4 to 5 of us, what i actually saw or counted was 11 friggin sets of wheels. including mine. this was not good. and with a complaining cat 1 roadie behind me and working to the front, i knew something was coming. and it happened. slow motion almost as we were grinding up the little hill to the gravel section. i even barked out to brian to get on the guys wheel, but on that hill, nether one us were able to get on that train. it was the train to be on, i knew it before it even formed. only graham on his singlespeed and ben stover were able to match the OKC racer and once on the gravel, those 3 had enough snap to put 4 or 5 bike lengths before we got to the grass. joe fox was next with brian actually getting on his wheel a few seconds later. i had screwed myself. i was racing too conservative and had glued myself to mark cole's wheel. the guy had just done 95 percent of the work thru the first half of the race and just didnt have the snap to get on even joes wheel. i was lacking the quick acceleration but was really pinned in by mark and and another guy to my right cuz we were almost 3 across coming up to the gravel road. so w/ 3 up the road, joe and brian in the 1st chase group, it was me and mark trying to get to those two. mark really dug deep but joe was just so powerful on the paved andwindy sections, we weren't ever able to get to him. and i, hinestly was no help to mark in this endeavor. joe i going so good at this point that he eventually popped brain off with a lap and a half to go in the race. mark and i actually began to reel in both ben from the lead group and brian with the race official ringing the bell for the last lap of the race. this actually perked me up and mark as well. we did 7 laps in the race and the last 2 laps were much better for us than laps 4 and 5. brian was not able to stay on our wheel, but ben had shut it down early enough up the road and recovered enough to join mark and i. i've raced against this 18 year old on the road and i was not happy he was sticking to us. cuz the little 'f!@#&r' can sprint. i had already told mark that i wasnt going to sprint with him. he had done all the work the last 3 laps and i wasnt in the overall series points either. but ben being there changed things. i tried to communicate this to mark on the run up right before the sprint to the finnish. he didnt here though and didnt know we had a 3rd guy in our group. so i started to wind it up on the little downhill buefore the last pavement section, cuz i knew ben was coming. i hollered out to mark that he had to go!go!go!. he turned around just in time to see ben roaring by me and gaining on him. ben actually nipped mark at the line by no more that a 'butt hair' fo 5th. mark was 6th and i was 7th. brian finnished a couple of riders back and jason and ted were a few more back. joel had been sick the previous week and pulled out after a lap cuz that chest crap just didnt allow him to get enough air to race. cant push or rush those chest colds.

the masters races were hottly contested again, with 360 racing taking 1st and 2nd in the 45+ with steve followed by andy. david white raced the masters instead of with the 1/2's and finished 2nd behind scott dunsmuir of slimenundgrossen. david hejduk was 3rd and brendan jenks was 4th. jason gaikowski 'doubled' up for the 2nd day in a row and raced like an iron man. guy is already training for the DirtyKanza. now all he needs to do is get a map.

360racer of the weekend though is Cameron Chambers. a lap or 2 in to the pro1/2 race, cam began take time out of shadd smith early lead. cam had actually jumped out of the bill marshall/mark studnicki group to rell in shadd a lap or 2 later. he then spent the last 1/2 of the race consistently putting time into an 'under the weather' shadd smith. take nothing away from cam. awsome racing, cuz a 'off day' shadd is still faster than shit. great racing , cuz a healthy studnicki and guys like bill marshall,shadd schreiner and kyle bush were left way back in camerons' wake.

a fine, fun weekend of racing. however, i missed my wife and daughter because they were out of town visiting grandma. so the weekend would have been much more enjoyable had they been here to enjoy it with.

til next time.....

DeStad Series @ Smithville day #1

360racing was highly visible this past weekend. from the cat 3, the master's 'A' to the cat pro,1/2/3 race.

these pics courtesy of Bruce Edwards from day 2 at the smithville cx festival.

The Smithville Cx festival this weekend were rounds 3 and 4 of the DeStad series put on by chris locke and the wheel bike shop.

after 3 days of rain and depressing weather(i.e. some call it fall), on saturday morning, the skies broke and the sun shone thru. all be it chillier temps than what we kc folks have raced in up till now in this young cx season.

for whatever reason, and they were many. i had decided i was going to challenge myself this weekend to racing in the Masters races. this means that i would be getting punished by my own teammates andy, steve and david and also by the fastest man in said category, scott dunsmuir. andy and steve have been trying to help david hedjuk out thru the first few races of the year. david has been battling w/ scott dunsmuir and jeff winkler. both of these guys have been flying and tough to beat. with david white and brendon jenks throwing their support in a couple of races, i felt like i needed to at least attempt to help in the 360 cause. i knew it would be tough, and really didn't think i could be of a whole lot of help except maybe in the first couple of laps. it was going to be a challenge for me to dig deep enough to stay on these guys' wheels. really noone has finished w/ dunsmuir, winkler, hejduk, lucas and songer all year. these guys have really seperated themselves to be the strongest masters' racers in our area. they are the standard, and i wanted to see where i stood.

so day one in smithville came and went. sunny and 50 by the first race of the morning on saturday and it was the cat 3's starting things off. 360 teammates, brad, brian, jason and ted got the ball rolling. brian was coming off a great previous weekend with a 3rd and a 2nd. he was a guy that was going to be in the mix. but, a early wreck, then a midrace mechanical and subsequent bike change had brian going backwards from the front 3 or 4 players to mid-pack. thats tough to overcome in a 3's race around here anymore. the competition just keeps getting better. when you've got pussy cat 1 and 2 roadies sandbagging and afraid to take their lumps with the 1/2's, well.......lets' just say it has been getting more competitve. however, these same roadies i speak of will dissappear when the temps start to fall and the weather turns to shit. i digress...... brad schrock continues to look more comfortable handling the pain of cx and jason and ted are improving and rounding into peak race shape each race weekend.

the pro/1/2 race had cameron and david white wearing the 360 colors. both seemed to get stronger the longer they were out on the course. david was chasing down a worn out bill marshall by the end of the hour of racing and cameron finished 3rd behind winner josh johnson of st. louis and local star shad smith.

the masters race on day 1 was as hard as i had expected. but, in hindsite, i had placed no expectations on me. other than challenging myself to staying on the front groups wheels, i dont think i had fully commited myself to endure the pain that would be needed to accomplish this task. therefore, i think i let myself off 'the hook' before the race had even begun. note to self in future......if u are going to challenge yourself, dont just give it lip service! really do it and pay the price to achieve it. this meant that on saturday, i needed to hurt just a few minutes longer and push just a little bit dipper to stay in contact with steve songer when he went around me to bridge up to dunsmuirs' attack towards the end of the 2nd lap. i didnt do this, and i was left to dangle in the wind and race by myself for the next 4 laps about 15 seconds behind andy. that gap increased to 30 by the end, which in hindsite, is not a bad day of racing. it just leaves me wanting more. more......more effort to dig deeper, more commitment before the start whistle goes off. so 360 finished 1 and 2 w/ songer and lucas in the 45+ race. i think there were 15-16 45+ starters. i finished 2nd behind dunsmuir in the 35+ race and 4th overall behind dunsmuir, songer and lucas respectfully. jason gaikowski raced this race which meant 2 races for saturday. he is definately the 'iron' man of the 360 team. actually matt dutcher raced twice on saturday as well. i think matt might be flying come the first mtb race next year.

more on day 2 later......

360 teammates

images courtesy of joe houston. pics are from sundays Boulevard Cup at the start of the masters race. Take note of the 360 charge. 6 or 7 360 guys up front putting everybody into the dreaded 'pain locker' from the opening seconds of the race.



i know i get caught up talking about myself too much here on this blog. so i would be remiss to not talk about my 360racing teammates and how well our team is built for cross'. i think most of us crossers on the team knew that this would happen. but our team has really had an imprressive showing thru the first few weeks of the very young cx season. with Andy Lucas and Steve Songer killing everybody in the masters' 45+ field. no one has come close to them in the first 3 races in our area. andy even has a couple of podium finishes in a 40+ masters field at the UCI weekend up in madison, wi at jonathon pages' races the last weekend of sepetember. steve and andy have traded wins the last 3 races. andy winning saturday at the capital cx and steve winning at the heartland nite race and today at the blvd cup. David Hejduk has had the tough task of going up against jeff winkler from the kccx team and scott dunsmuir in the masters' 35+ category the first 4 races of the year, finishing 2nd 3 races and 3rd in another. david white is still racing his way into shape. he had a tough summer with not a lot of training or racing due to a double hernia surgery. he has actually been taking his lumps by racing with the 1/2's for 60 minutes of hell. cameron chambers has started to show his strength again with a good showing of 4th place in the 1/2' race at the capital cup on saturday afternoon and another 4th place on sunday in a very strong 1/2 field again. brendan jenks has raced strong in both the masters and a couple 1/2's races as well. with brian williams finally feally healthy, he finished 2nd sunday and 3rd saturday afternoon in the 3's race both days. then there is doug plumer. he has raced at a super high level on the mtb bike and the road in the past. with a wife and daughters, he is probably lucky to ride a day a week at best. However, he has come out and raced the first few weekends this year and totally turns himself inside to get the 360 train going in our masters races. doug has never met a holeshot he couldn't take. our 'missing in action' teammate from the summer, tead moore, is taking the david white approach and racing his way to peak form for u.s. nationals. with a 'new' bike and a new found appreciation for racing and training, ted should be right on schedule come early december.

360 racing is well represented every weekend there is a cx race in the surrounding area. with guys like joel hammontree, jason gaikowski, mike palitto, and brad schrock toeing the start line from weekend to weekend, no other team in the kc region can stack up to 360racings' depth and quality of cyclocross racers . trust me, i hear our competitors talking about us every weekend. skc, kcoi, cycle city, and bike shack, its all good natured competition. but its cool seeing the other teams a little envious of all the 'fast guys' wearing the 360 kit. oh well, i guess they will just look forward to the 'road' season that much more, cuz we own them on the mountain bike as well!!:)

see you at smithville!

anyhow.......

3rd race of year and 2nd round of the 60series cx was held in topeka, ks at the hummer sports park. supper nice park that has a high school district football stadium a softball park and lots of room to run a cool cx course. a little elevation change w/ some decent 180's and hard 90 degree turns thru some trees and around an old abandon insane asylum. its actually a cool course and a cool venue. thats why i chose to race on saturday vs sunday.(nothing against the blvd course in wyco park tommorrow) anyway....i may like the venue and the setup but that doesn't necassarily translate to good results. last years race in the 3/4 saw me catch a pedal with 3 turns to go to the finish line and i went from fighting out for a win to 6th place in a 3 second mistake.

today however was something different. no excuses, i just need to chalk it up to not my day and prepare for racing next weekend and 2 rounds of racing. teammate brian williams just prior to the race, asked how i felt. and honestly i told him not that great. legs were heavy and even tired. in hindsight, I think i overcooked it thru the week with the rollers and trainer and the longer rides midweek. i think i didnt listen to my body this week and maybe just over did it. i did some sprints warming up for this afternoon's race and i was filling the legs up and never even getting winded. the legs were really just not responding. i was a little worried, but hey, i pushed the worry to the back of the noggen and got ready to go. a good start saw me 3rd wheel into the grass behind chris wallace and richard hu. chris was quickly gone(must've been the high altitude training he had last week at the u.s. olympic training center in colorado springs) super talented chris was gone and i had figured right....the rest of us were racing for 2nd place. it ended up being mark cole, teammate brian and myself settling in to pretend we were chasing down the youngster. we were all three on the rivet, but i was suffering more. we quickly gapped the rest of the field in the 1st lap. the writing was on the wall for me as well. i kept hoping the the pace would slow a hair for just a couple of minutes for me to get a chance to get a 2nd wind or something, but mark never let that happen. chris tilford was present again on his single speed and was with the 3 of us for a couple of laps. he would yoyo with our little group thru technical areas but by lap 3 he was finally gapping us for good. about the same time he was doing that i was going the other was. on several occasions thru the first 3 laps i had to dig hard to get back on. i really made a mistake in letting my 2 race buddies dictate my race thru some of the stuff that i would have been much better of leading thru 1st. the technical sections i was having to slow because of brian or mark, i am faster thru those areas. but honestly, i didnt have the stregnth today to get to the front in those sections. so laps 4 and 5 i was just trying to continue to put as much power into the pedals as possible. that wasnt much. by lap 5 i noticed a challenger closing in on me. jason knight from team epic was charging, but i thought i had enough of a gap at the sound of the bell for the start of the last lap. the gap was 15-18 seconds but was surely closing. with the last 1/4 of lap left, jason rolled by me and there was nothing i could do. i had no answer whatsoever. stick a fork in me, cuz i was done.

so, 5th on the day was as good as i could do. i think 20 guys lined up and started the 3/4 race. not a real impressive field size, but still better than some other areas of the country that might be considered cycling hotbeds.

i do know that if it is going to rain hard the day before a race and the course is going to be soft. i want it to be soft and muddy and just plain sloppy. cuz then i would have an advantage on some of these 'roadies', but a normal fast course turned slow with a soft power sucking soil is really going to hurt me compared ot some other guys. that is where i have to address the whole weight issue and me being at least 5 if not 10 pounds too HEAVY!

oh well.......i will recover the next few days and make sure i am well rested going into next wekkends races up in smithville, mo. rounds 3 and 4 of the DeStad series on sat and sunday. this will be my first back to back saturday/sunday race weekend of cross racing. now its being patient thru the week cuz i am chomping at the bit to get back out and race after a dissappointing saturday afternoon of racing. the weather was absolutely perfect though. low 60's by 1:00 pm with no wind and nothin' but sunshine.

2nd cx race of year in the books.

so, the 2nd cx race on the calendar here in the local kc area was put on in topeka, ks. actually the race was held at the Heartland Park Raceway. I am not a huge race car fan and had actually never been there before. when i heard a race was gonna be heldd there, i thought i could be a cool new venue. just the idea of making use of the dirt track they have out there seemed like a pretty new and cool place to put on a cross race. especially after my experience out in portland, oregon this summer with a short trak mtb race at a similar venue.

anyway......to those who missed or decided not to race or chose to do sundays race instead.......i have done the criss cross race 3 years in a row, and i will be honest. the people who missed saturday nights' affair and jeff unruh's race at heartland park, well let's just say you missed a great oppurtunity to race at kc's coolest and most unique venue. 1st off, the last 2 races were after sunset, on a very well lit course. which meant safe and non scetchy racing on top of a super fun and super and supa' fast course. thi was my first time racing after sunset, cuz i missed the Hermann race in september. i had heard from several guys who raced there and they all compalined about the lighting and the somewhat unsafeness of he course there. this however, was not the case this last saturday night for the 1st round of the Series60cx and the HPT Grand Prix. Kudos to Jeff Unruh and all who helped him put on a great race.

i wish i had some good pics of the course and the racing from saturday nights action, but heather was working and i never thought to bring the camera. i was pressed for time what with the little kid's feeding and bedtime schedule , it was show up to race, say a few hellos and get the hell on the road back home after my race was over. really din't even get to see any of the final race and the big guys duke it out.

setting goals is a common thing in athletics, and i for one spent the majority of my competitve years in golf from 12 to 24 years old having them. from junior and highschool years thru college and my oh so brief professional golf career. goals are what can help you achieve that next level in athletics or in anything a person is looking to achieve in life. i think cu i soent so many years having them and setting new ones and being so focused with the self-obsessed one track mind, i have avoided doing that with the bike. at least in not setting specific goals.....i just mainly stay focused on the whole idea of constantly improving. improving strength, endurance.........just training with the idea that wiht time constraints, i need to make every ride count. especially now, now that my time is even more limited with the amazing little girl added to my life. so i am focused on riding and racing and squeezing the most out of my limited genetic make-up. so much so that it literally to me a good 3 days to appreciate that i had a really good race on saturday night and also a pretty darn good one a couple of weeks ago at the lenexa diamond blackfan cx race.

my first thought across the finish line saturday night was.....the race officials cant calculate lap time.....cuz we race almost a good 10-15 minutes longer than we were suppose to(the last 20 minutes of the 55 minutes of racing hurt really Friggin Bad!!) and the second thought was to tell myself to not be satisfied, cuz i had one guy beat me and the field was somewhat smaller than the previous week with some missing familiar challengers to the cat 3 races. I guess it took a while for me to figure out a couple of things. at least for some things to sink in anyway. First, the guy who beat me is a genetic freak who races as a cat 1 on the road and the brother of a local cycling star who happens to be in the 'world mountain bike hall of fame'. Obviously compared to a lot of guys, kris tilford has a long and impressive racing resume here in our area. so no shame there, right josh?? i am a little dense and short sited sometimes(oh, by the way, chris was racing in the single speed category and not the 3's race). second thing that came late to was to.......accept that a win is a win, even in a 3/4 race, even if it not a 1/2/3 race an even if some of the main competition isn't racing that particular day(hopefully those guys, that i consider my competition, are a little relieved if i dont happen to be racing on another particular day). oh well...wishful thinking.

to the race recap......the start, again is to me the begining and end to having a chance to winning a cx race. at the very least, you may not be able to win a cx race with a good start, but you can certainly lose the race with a bad start. i felt this played out again in saturday evening's race. A short hundred meters of pavement at the start line took you to a soft angled left hander that curved back down a small noll back onto the pavement which set you up for a 90 degree turn that about 10-15 ft out of the apex took you on to packed but loose dirt. the 90 degree turn and the loose dirt both played a big part in the start of the race. this was 10 maybe 15 seconds into the race and already i was hearing squeeling brakes and metal on metal. I had already gotten the 'hole' shot now, once onto the dirt race car track heading north at about 29mph, i also had at least a 10-12 bike length gap on a single file group of about 8 to 10 guys. this gap seemed to increase once i got thru the loose dirt off-camber 180 that takes the racers into the infield of the race track. the infield is where all the medium speed 180's and 90 degree technical turns were at. again, riding solo and getting to pick my own line, i seemed to increase my lead some more. i had never been off the front solo of a road or cx race before. and it had been about 4 years since a couple of sport class mtb wins where i was flying solo off the front. this was new territory for me. in the past, i have always been chasing someone just a little bit faster, and every now and then maybe setting an early hard pace w/ the front group in a cx race. but always i was accompanied with at least a couple of competitors right behind or in front of me. saturday night, with an early lead, i found myself talking to myself a lot more. nervous that i would blow a big lead or blowup spectacularly by racing just a bit too hard too early. so i really raced what little technical sections there were pretty conservatively, knowing that most of my competitors would still be slower than me thru those sections. i focused on really hammering it on the straight-aways and really nailing the stair and the barrier sections. 40 minutes into the race, this really started to take a toll on my legs though. i spent 3 or 4 laps being slowly reeled in by kris tilford and also had an SKC and a GP rider that kept a constant distance back from me. but they popped first and drifted furthur back, but kris eventually overtook me w/ 3 laps to go(i think 3). It was with 4 or 5 laps to go that i noticed another rider that got my attention. Joe Fox from CycleCity was closing in on me. Joe made me really nervous. Joe is really strong when in shape and racing a lot and significantly more powerful on the straightaways than me in years past. if its road bike and time trials. he wouldve' caught me. but it wasnt....we were on cx bikes. and i think all of my AtThreshhold work the last month and a half was paying dividends. Because i kind of held joe in check the last couple of laps and was able to coast the last few hundred meters of the bell lap and cruise to my first cat 3 cx win in more than 2 years. no arms raised or celebration(i dont want anyone making fun of me celebrating too much over a cat3/4 win). just a relief that the pain was over and i could get out of the 'hurt locker'. man my legs were fried. the fast course and the abundance of power sections in cross course have not been my cup of tea in years past. i generally do better in more technical courses. so this course really forced me to 'dig deep'. so too did the guys who were chasing me and the guy in front of me.

its amazing how much the competion has increased here in our area the last 2 or 3 seasons. more and more guys are really putting in significant cx training and gearing up for cx season and the national championships that are held here again this year. just one more reason to take a little pride in winning a race.

2 more races this coming weekend. saturdays is back in topeka and sunday at Wyco park. the same park that held last years U.S. cyclocross championships, but with a different set-up. this weekend will be rounds 2 and 3 of the Series60cx races.

see ya this weekend or see ya back here for a recap.

month and a half.....

top pic is my cousin audrey with brynn at de stadd cx race #1 and below is brynn looking extremely bored. obviously she wasnt impressed with the 4th place. she doesnt consider 4th and 5th to be true podium results.

man......

life can really interfere with a persons' best laid plans. its been a month and a half since last update. at that time i believe the thing most on my mind was cyclocross season being just around the corner. i tend to get a little OCD with my 'athletic and toy' endeavors. this can tend to strain even the best of relationships. my wife and i included.

thru some long and 'loud' discussions and some heated debates......some depression like feelings......even some deep thoughts of things considered to be important. well..............its been a long few weeks.

happy to say, those heated arguments....err....discussions , turned to talks(civil) and some things were made clear, and hell we even agreed on some things.

as the clouds began to lift and the sun poked thru in my life, i think i have begun to realize i can strike a balance between what keeps me happy and sane without making my wife feel less important than my bike.

i hope she knows that her and the kid are first and foremost and the bike and all of its trappings are the glue that is me......however......the bike, racing, well its third, maybe second depending on what kind of day i had at work.

i know i can keep the bikeracing and training OCD thing from being too obtrusive on the wife and our happiness together cuz she does accept the fact that it is a part of who i am.

anyway....1st cross race de stad series race #1 DiamondBlackfan is in the books.

new venue was used. the Sar-ko-par trails park in lenexa, ks was the locale for this last weekend cross race. lets just say it was a great opening event to the cx season. Chris Locke and company put on his best event yet. a great venue for racing and spectators alike. weather was perfect if not a few degrees too warm(85ish). the races later in the day really had tough and the heat played a factor as to the atrition invloved with the guys racing.

i decided to do the 3/4's race. actually didnt give any thought to doing anything else really. no desire to race for an hour with the 1/2/3's. but guys at registration were of course asking about it. still dont consider myself that caliber, dont even think i am midpack material with the big boys. but a teammate, brendan jenks raced 1/2/3 race and did ok, and i have beat him more than he has beat me in the past......so i dont know.....should i or not??? so i just suck it up or what?? oh well, we'll see.....

so 46 guys lined up for the 3/4's at 10:30. i was at the line about 10 minutes before the start which allowed me a front row spot. the start sets the tone in cx and can make your life tougher or easier depending on how that start goes. with the whistle, we were off. 4 season into racing cx, i am no longer paranoid enough to push for the 'hole shot', but i do battle for those first 4 or 5 wheels. depending on who is up front jockeying for position. sudays start was routine, noone got tangled up and i liked who jumped up to the front to push the opening minutes tempo. alex edwards, mike palitto, chris wallace, myself and graham aldridge were the initial front selection. at least those are the guys that i noticed around me. i am totally cluless to what is going on behind me. i just want to know who is near and in front of me. this was particularly important on this coures to the technical aspect of the set-up of the course. lots of switchbzcks and high-speed tech turns. even before the first hard left i knew i neede to get in front of alex and chris. no offense to these guys, they will kill me on the road, but in cx or the mountainbike, they are just going to slow me down thru turns like we were racing on. hell, i think chris laid his bike down 4 times in the first 3 laps, but hte kid kept his cool and eventually raced past everbody but the eventual winner, graham aldridge. 17 and rubber legs, chris finished very well later in the day in the 1/2/3/ race. he is a stud!! i rode a clean, almost flawless race until the last lap. frank jachovich had been stalking me and reeling in most of the second half of the race. when he did catch me with 2 to go, i didnt panic and just kept him close. again, i felt i would be aster in the technical turns. and there were plenty of those to male a move on him on the last lap. with 2 to go, it was graham, followed by a surging chris wallace about 15 seconds back, with frank and me another 15 or so back of chris. with the ringing of the bell for the last lap, i made a point to keep frank close. i really didnt want this guy to beat me, not on this kind of course. this was my kind of course, i should have an advantage over this 'roadie'(a friggin strong SOB). a hard highspeed worn down turn was my downfall. this turn was where i had on two different occasions early in the race, railed it to pass 2 guys at once. both times 2 guys were hanging on and going wide wile i just railed it and ripped by them. however, the last time thru , i got too aggressive and caught a loose patch. i was trying to close the gap on frank to setup the next turn and carry momentum thru it for the pass on the inside. well, the thoght was good but the execution was horrible. down i go, this laying down the bike cost me all of 5 seconds but it might as well have been an hour with jachovic being the guy i was chasing. now i was concerned about the 2 guys that were charging behind me. i opnened the door for them. now they thought i was catchable and they had hope. hope can make you faster on the last lap when someone is in site of the rider in front. i told myself to remain calm, that i was faster than those guys chasing me, faster thru the technical turns. disaster struck again at about the halfway oint in the lap. with a half a lap to go, i laid it down again. this time in loose gravel. i friggin know better. why am i pushing the envelope thru gravel??? friggin dumbass!!! now, my right shifter/brake lever is broke and for some reason i have only one gear. all i can do is hop back on my bike and 'Push the Panic Button" with the hopes that that will make me faster thru the last 1/2 mile of the course. i was stuck in my 16t gear in back. (i now know i dont have big enough balls to race singlespeed) it took all of a half a mile in my 39x16 to realize i will never 'want' to race singlespeed! i somehow held off a charging mark cole and brian williams by 10-15 seconds. its amazing how much adrenaline and panic can make you ride into that red zone for just a little bit longer. i spend 35 minutes racing a really clean race and with 2 miscues i am robbing parts off of my road bike hours later to get my cx bike up and running again. oh well, just money.....so sundays race netted me a 4th place result in a field size of 46. happy, but not satisfied is how i feel that.

its good to be racing cross' again, we got a long way to go before nationals.......now do i race for an hour with the big boys??

til next time.................

oh well........hopefully i wont wait as long to write.