Time to pay the piper!

This message goes out to dunsmuir and others concerned about my Cx racing category.....just received my upgrade from a 3 to a 2 this morning...........Jesus, what the F@#K have i done??

Racing Calamity From Smithville

So here are some great pics from Kristine Larsen(Mark Studicki's better half and rumored 'sugar momma'). She told me she wasn't Trying to get my faceplant>>>sure kristine. she didnt get the blood running down the other side of my face unfortunately.

Have a laugh on my part and if you missed it, my race recap from above race is a couple of blogs ago.

Racing Calamity From Smithville

'Cross' footnotes and rankings

Cool Pics courtesy of Lyle Reynolds. I borrowed them from his Flicker account.

Thanks Lyle!

I also want to thank Jeff Winkler for putting together some rankings of racers in our area or those who have raced cx in our area. He even seperated everyone into the category that the individuals are racing in.. Cool stuff, if you are in into comparing yourself with your competition, contemporaries and seeing how far back you are of the really really fast guys....ie. winkler, schmalz, wallace, tilford, smith......the really really fast SOB's.

Here is the website> http://sites.google.com/site/kccrossrankings/home

If you race cx, road or on the mountainbike in the midwest region from nebraska to arkansas, then you have probably seen the name Jeff Winkler. What has most likely been the case is, you have seen him go by you as he is starting his 4th lap and you are still on your 3rd. Regardless, wether you are a seasoned cyclist or relatively new to the sport, you need to check out his blog. I dont have the full story on jeff. I have only heard stories. Suffice it to say, he has raced at a high level for a long time. He has raced all over the world against the fastest in the world.(i.e. think Europe and the top pros). I find his blog and his race replays insiteful and incredibly interesting. I am a geek, but it is cool to see what a guy at his level is thinking during and even after a race........like i said, i am a geek.

Check Jeff's blog out here>http://onthebikeagain.blogspot.com/

that's my 1 cent worth.

see yah!

What can go wrong, will..........

This weeks race is located up north of downtown KC about 20 miles in Smlithville, MO. The race course is located in a cove near a marina so you can count on it pretty much always being windy. thank god its cross and not a road race. The course designed by the 'cowtown' gang had a little bit of =everything. It was a mixture of technical turns, some decision making on run/ride-up steep sections and a long sandy beach section that was meant to be a long run. However the rain packed the sand down and made it ridable. the steep bank forced most off their bike at the exit of the beach to hurdle back onto the course, this of course had your heart rate pegged only to have the course turn uphill and forcing most to grind their way back up to another technical sections of turns and high speed sweepers. It was a great layout and should have been ideal for me....but that is in theory. So i will tell u ow my race unfolded.....

Wow, i was so pumped to race today. I was not expecting to self-destruct in the process of though. So i lined up with maybe 18 or so other guys for the Masters 'A' 35+ race up in Smithville, MO. Some missing faces, but still a strong group today. Doug Plumer decided to race with us today instead of with the 1/2's. Family obligations rule over cx desires. A good warm-up under my belt and my legs feel so-so. I very rarely have any idea before the race unless i feel absolutely horrible.

11 a.m. rolls around and the official blows her wistle. Mark Studnicki fro Localcycling.com leads us into the first turn, followed by Joe Houston of Slimenundgrossen Racing, me and Doug Plumer. A good start..........Doug goes by me and Joe on the first paved section(about 500 meters into the course) and i work around joe at the first set of barriers coming off that same paved section. so a half lap in and the race starts to settle itself out. 2 1/2 laps in and teammate Steve Songer from the 45+ group is now on me rear and eventually goes by me on the early lap pavement.. i can now see my gap over 4th place Joe Houston growing a little. and behind him and working their way to me are teammates Larry Smith and Jeff Unruh from the Slimen team. Jeff is in the 45+ race and Larry is in my race. If that guy would learn to get a better start he would have been racing with Plumer for second. 3 laps in and now larry and jeff are getting by me late in lap 3. next 2 laps has me holding a constant gap back from Larry of about 10 seconds and about 5 from Jeff. Joe is about 15 back of me.......until lap 4 at the double barriers i proceed to mentally check out and catch the second barrier with my right shoe. this had to have been comical for anybody watching. In a split second i amface planting then picking my lenses from my sunglasses off the ground with the frames still attached to my face. I am in a daze, my helmat is on sidways, i am stuffing lenses down my skinsuit so i dont lose them and at the same time trying to remount my bike.....only praying it is still functional. I even vaguely remember Jeff Unruh yelling out at me to see if i was ok. I think he had a really horrified look on his face like i had my face ripped off or something. For how violent me collision with the ground was, i was back up to spped fairly quickly. It was just a few seconds later on a flat section that i was trying to stuff my lenseless sunglass frames into my skinsuit as well. I dont want to just chuck them.......they me not be broken.

Well, unfortunately the comedy of errors was not over with. Joe saw the tail end of my wipe out and was now super motivated to catch my sorry ass. he was charging and actually overtook me briefly coming out of the long sandy beach section. He actually tried to ride it and i ran it. So there went his brief split section advantage. The ensuing climb up towards the picnic area saw me increase my lead on him by 3 or 4 seconds....not huge but important to know that he is gonna have to pull something out of his ass to beat me cuz of the little climb late in the lap.

However...i decided i would make it easy for joe. On a ride/run-up that some guys were riding and most were running, i made a huge boneheaded decision. I had run it once and ridden 3 or 4 times up to this point. I was closing on a lapped rider and made the dicision to ride it and ended up taking my eye off my line cuz i damn near ran up this guys back side. Shame on me. A huge tactical move on my part....as i am picking myself up off the dirt, joe ride up as i am hopping back on my bike. The last little bit of technical 180's before you get back on the start/finnish straitaway, i get sloppy and ride into the course tape, which then of course get snared in my rear cassette and rear derailler. As i am looking down at the pink tape mess in my rear drivetrain, i make the decision that a coule of gears will be good enough and i blow right by the wheel pit as the officials are ringing the bell for 'last lap'. Of all of the dumb ass move i had made up until then, sthis was by far the worst. i only had the two easiest gears on my rear cassette with all off the tangled tape in it. If i trade out for my 'B' bike in the pit, i can probalbly give Joe a run for 4th place, instead i grind my drivetrain into submission and watch Houston slowly drift away from me unable to even get up to speed. Super frustrating and disappointing. I totally brain locked. I can handle physical mistakes like the barrier goof, but the mentall mistakes that i made later in the race are just inexcusable. I put too much work into my technical skills, the cornering and barrier work.....to just lose focus and panic cuz someone is close to ou and breathing down your neck.....I really Pisses me off!.....oh well, there is always next weeks race.

Mark Studnicki won the race going away, with Plumer taking 2nd, larry smith was 3rd, Joe 4th and i was 5th. Steve songer won the 45+ race with Jeff Unruh finishing 2nd to him. I was told by some confidential sources that here are some spectacular pictures of my great wipouts...so stay tuned. I will post them as soon as they are available. till next time,

see yah!

Wanna Be Photographer.....

These pics were taken by friend and fellow cx geek, Joe Houston during the Boss Cross #2 race in Parkville, MO.

Joe wasnt racing cuz of an injury sustained on the previous day of racing......something about landing on his 'vagina' wrong or something.

Anyway......Thanks for the pics joe!

Pic 1) Joe taking a pic of me exiting the ridable sand pit late in the race. It was really starting to hurt here.

Pic 2) The actual start of the Master's 'A' 35+ race. Day 2 of the Boss Cross series. I was 3rd wheel here entering turn 1, on my way to a 2nd place finish.

Pic 3) Joe really liked this shot.

Pic 4) This spot was a great for fans to cheer/heckle the least favorite racer. Short but steep little ride/run-up.

Pic 5) Joe just got tired or lazy and quit moving around for new shoot locations.

Some Pics of the Lil' One.....enjoy!

Some pictures of Brynn ranging from early summer of 09' around her 1 year birthday to this fall. She is quite the character .

She loves her 'cozy car'. Sometime early summer 09'.

The B-day girl and Heather at the Fire Station on June 4, 2009.

Brynn's year old pics. 2nd time we have had professional pics taken. She didnt fall on her head this time around.

Late spring at the petting zoo in Olathe, KS. I was sure she was gonna pick up some kind of farm animal disease.

Life updates with pictures

Well.....it's been a long time. we will call this a fresh start. A month into cx season......the lil' one is doing great at almost 17 months old. Beautiful wife, heather and i are getting along great as well.

<>Brynn in the backpack. The family here is in Portland, OR at a weekend farmers' market.

I will be posting a bunch of pics over the next few days...instead of words, i will use the pics to show whats' been going on the last few months since my last blogging efforts.

Like i referred to before....Cross season is a few weeks old. 6 races down and 10 or so more to go. Won't be heading to Bend, OR for Cx Nats in december, so i will be racing as much as possible here in Kansas City and surrounding area to get my cx and racing fix. 4 podiums in the first 4 races of the year. Opening race of the KC area was held at Swope Park in conjunction with a mtb festival and a Grand Opening of the new Swope trail system in the inner KC area. I won the Cat 3 race with 19 racers toeing the start line. A week later saw the cx junkies in Lenexa, Ks. 34 racers started the Cat 3 race. A good start had me 2nd wheel in the before the first technical section of the course. That perfect position was wasted with a dropped chain before the first lap was done. next 2 laps had me working from 'DFL' to 5th place, but 1st and 2nd were already well up the road from me and 2 other racers. t took me midway thru the 3rd lap to leave that train and try to get to 2nd place on my own. Overtook the Colivita racer in 2nd with 2 laps to go. 1st place was about 30 seconds up the road. I may have closed to within 20 at the finish. 2nd place after giving everyone a head start isnt bad, but it would have been nice to make the winner at least work for it a little harder. would have been nice to mix it up with him.....oh well.

<>Brynn with Heather and I at her year 1 B-Day Party. She's naked for the impending cake monster and mess.

The first weekend in October were

races 3 and 4 were a were a round 1 and 2 Saturday/Sunday affair which saw racing in north KC along the Kansas River in Parkville, MO for the Boss Cross series. I lined up and finished 2nd on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday i had a dropped chain 500 meters into the damn race. worked my way up thru traffic a couple of laps later and joined 2nd, 3rd and 4th. left them a little bit later and finished 2nd. Sunday was actually the first clean race of the year for me, but i didnt have the legs to challenge the eventual winner Brendan Jenks.(he hadn't raced the day before...thats my excuse)

<> this is Brynn flying thru the air, courtesy of her father. Dont worry....she is landing on a bed full of pillows.....doesnt matter how hard she is crying or how cranky, i can alwasy get her to smile and say "WEEEEEEEEE" with this trick.

Races 5 and 6 were this past weekend. Saturday saw us visiting the state capital for the 2nd annual Capital CX Cup. I again lined up for the Masters race. Only the SERIES60 races seperate master in 40-50-and 60+ instead of 35-45-55+. amazing the different dynamic with age difference and a larger field. Lining up for Saturdays' race had 5 or more cat 2's...definately making this an 'A' race. A slow power course with no technical aspect to it proved my undoing....on top of bad legs. i finished 6th with 19 starters. THe 5 guys who finished ahead of me....4 are category 2 racers and no slouches.

Sunday saw the cx racers visiting the site of the 2007 U.S. Cyclocross Nationals in KC, Kansas. O felt a little better than previous days' race, but the course was not ideal for me......aagain, it was a fairly sublime non technical setup. Like Saturdays field, it was a solid group of guys lining up to race the Masters 40+ with 24 or 25 starters. i battled thruout the 40+ minutes, exchanged and lockedd horns for 4th thru 8th at various times. Ended up 7th at the end though. Like i said earlier....The masters' "A" class in in our region is plenty fast enough and a level faster than the Cat 3 racing.

<>My beautiful girls visited me at work at the fire station on Brynns' Birthday. Heather baked cake for the 'kid' and the my crewmates, but really we all just wanted to see Brynn make a 'mess' with it....she did.