Smithville Cx Pics

Michael Yeager just before the double barriers

Thad Carson 'flying' on his new Blue carbon cx bike.

Chris Locke finally had the weather and the right amount of water in the lake to actually get a good 'beach' section in his race.  He has been trying to get 

 sand section out at Smithville since he started putting this race on...It turned out great.  It was an awesome feature to a really fun course to race on.  Even with bad legs.

 Mr. Winkler...Before he let all of his anger out on the course and the rest of us cx 'mortals'.  He was flying on Sunday.

 Me thru the first few turns of the race.  I was chasing back on to the front 8 or so after stacking up the group in the first turn of the race.  "sorry everybody"!!

 Jeff above, and Tyler below thru the sand section on the lake.

Some SlimenUndGrossen action shots from Heather Taylor.

Smithville Cx...great course, bad legs....damn!

    Iam at the fire station today.  Got a few minutes before me and my crewmates head out to do an annual night training.  We are gonna do some search and rescue in an old office complex and do some other cool trainig stuff.  This past weeks race was north of my house at Smithville Lake, which is about 25 miles north of Kansas City.  The Wheel Cyclery and Chris Locke put on a great race.  Even with a lot of locals out of town racing elsewhere, the fields were still pretty good size. 

I will post some pictures from some of the days action shortly that my wife took.  Her pics are still being edited and I will post them ASAP. 

I made the decision along with teammates Jeff and Ty to do the Open race.  A pretty good field lined up with a few missing regular faces who were in  Lousiville KY racing the USGP races.  THe big hitters on the day were Jeff Winkler and Brian Jensen.  21  of us started the race.  I camped out for a front row starting spot.  Maybe not my wisest decision on the day, which was followed by my decision to go for the 'hole-shot' with the sound of the officials whistle that started the race.  I was 2nd wheel behind Travis Donn of Ethos Racing into the 1 left hand turn entering a hard grassy 90 degree turn.   Within 20 feet of exiting the paved start, I slid out and stacked up a slew of guys behind me.  Was down only for a moment, recovering quickly and was back on the bike and chasing.  I think I may have gotten back on my back and back in line in maybe 7th or 8th wheel.   Not as bad as it could have been.   I spent the nest 11 laps laps trying to maintain some form of racing.  My legs were dead and I had no power what so ever.  3-4 guys beat me on Sunday that had never been close to me before.  Mid race i was already prepaing for a recovery week.  Not good thoughts to have mid-race.  Every portion of the race hurt.  I seemed to be going backwards the whole race.  No power in the pedals at all.  Really dissapointing but altogether unsuprising.  I have had some good races up until yesterday, so I should have and I do know that I can't maintain that good form for more than a feww weeks in a row.  In retrospect, I always struggle with a lull in form about this time anyway.

Really though, the writing was on the wall before the race began for me.  I was just beat and rundown from all the racing of the previous few weeks.  I could feel it coming midweek.  Legs and body just didn't seem to e recovering from a weekend of racing both days and my midweek hard race workout was not good either.  In retrospect I should have shut the intensity midweek down before it started.  Oh well.  I am prescribing 3 days off the bike this week with no race on the schedule.  I am at the halfway point in my cx season.  8 or 9 races to go.  The 2nd half of the season is more spread out though.  With a good rest week and another ramp up in training, I  hope to peek again come the Kansas State Cx Championships in Topeka on Decmber 5th.   I am working next Saturday, so I will miss the 3 round of the Boss CX series.  Thats a shame cuz I race those events for free this year, thanks to winning the 35+ Masters category last year.  No race on Sunday either, because the Dumbshit Deuchebag promoter that was suposed to put on a race that day, totally fropped the ball and screwed the Kansas City Cx community.

Oh well I need a break....some legs up on the coffe table for a few days and I will hit the the training hard again.  See yah next race!

p.s.  pics will follow shortly

Boulevard Cup, remarks and race recap(race weekend part 2)

    I have put off writing my race report from this past Sunday's Boulevard Cup and Wyandotte County Park, for a couple of reasons.  One, I can be lazy and procrastinate.  The 2nd reason has been for the sole purpose to calm down a little before I go spouting off from the 'hip'.  I made some comments about Sunday's cx course during pre-laps the day of, immediately after my race and even more comments to the same friend(s) within the last 24 hours.  So, I don't think my harsh opinions are going to subside....

    Let me say first, Mike Berning has put on a great event the last few years out at WYCO.  Now I admit, that the venue for racing I enjoy quite a bit.   However, I have never considered the race course that has been set up out there to be my favorite.  To be honest, it is my least favorite cx course of the year.  That is year after year, so it has been consistently the same.  Whatever.  There are many positives to the production that is the Boulevard race.  The food, beer, the venue for the people and racers, the people themselves and it is a beautiful park.  But the course setup for the race, year after year is continually a big disappointment.  Bar none, every year the course is extremely bland and void of any personality at all.  This years' course was no exception.  In fact, it might even have been worse.  This is a personal opinion, but I have got a similar view from at least a dozen other racers who were there who voiced similar opinions.  In defense of the course, I found 2 racers who liked it.  So go figure.  My issues with the course were a few, but simple things:
     1.  2/3rds of the course was unviewable  from the main gathering point of the spectators(food and beer area)
     2.  The course was an absolute disaster as far as markings and being staked.  People blowing thru high speed turns and off course because  cones and hats were laid down rather than using stakes.  On top of looking like a go-cart course from the Ozarks, the set-up(or lack thereof) looked like an after thought.
     3.  And what little grass was mowed, it wasn't even part of the final race course set-up.  At least get the mowers out there.  We aren't bailing hay.

Why on earth was 10 acres of land used for a course that could have been set up in 2 acres?   Why would you run the racers away from the spectators, the food, and the beverages so they can't see anyone race?  Its not a crit.   There were no goats in the goat pasture to view us racing on the west side of the road.  Yet, 2/3rds of the race was on that side in the 'goat' pasture.  Me and a friend can find a ATV and a snow plow and make a cx race possible with 10+ inches of snow on the ground in 3 days notice and mark and stake the course, but 2 months of beautiful perfect weather with multiple volunteers and that is the course that I paid money to race on.  Now if that is the only option, then I can accept that, but when promoters like Jeff Unruh can put out a 'Pro'-like product and Jeremy Haynes and Joe Fox up at Cycle City keep raising the bar....Then how long before the Boulevard Cup goes from the biggest fields of the season to the weakest.   Free beer and cookies are great, but I and many other racers want a quality course, a quality product to spend our hard earned money on.  And Sunday's race course wasn't quality. There are 20 races in the metro area and I can't do everyone.  Very few people can, so people have to make choices.  People can go race in Tulsa, Lincoln and Iowa.  The customers, thats what we as racers are, can choose to take our money and put it in a different product.  That is my less than 2 cents.

Enough of my rant, as I am sure I have offended many people reading my drivel.  Let me remind you though.  I am a paying customer, I have the right to bitch since I am forking over said money.  Try taking my criticism for what it is and make a better product... or don't, be offended and scoff at me and others who may want more.

To the race.  The goal after Saturday's hard effort in Topeka was to recover and get ready to chase the 360Racing master's train.  As I expected, the 360 crew showed up in force.  Hedjuk, Jenks, Songer, Lucas, Hammontree all showed up to race the 40+'A' race at 11:00am.  My inital goal was to get a front row start and get off the line without any issues.  Didn't need the 'hole shot', I didn't want to set the pace, but I wanted to settle into a 360 wheel and just try to stay smooth.  With a few random call-ups, 25 racers lined up for the 30+ race.  My 40+ group lined up immediately behind with 25 of us as well.  Then came 25 or so of the 50+guys.  There would the standard 30 second gap between age groups.  Again, something else for me to think about.  I didn't want to lose time or the 360 guys getting thru the slower riders, which would probably be at least 24 of the 25  thirty year old racers in the way at some point early in lap one.

  
    So with the official's  instructions and a word from our generous promoter we were ready for the  whistle.  The 30+ racers were off, and I was still not nervous, just anxious to get started.  I was trying to protect my Series60 overall lead.  30 seconds later, the whistle blew for my race.  Brendan Jenks of 360Racing immediately surged to the front and I settled into 2nd wheel as we raced down the long paved start headed for the left turn into the grass.  Bombing down a hill and headed towards a high speed 90 degree right hand turn, the racers had to scrub a bunch of speed because we came to the courses' first barrier.  A single barrier maybe 20 feet outside the 90 degree right hand turn.  Remounting, the racers pedaled a slight incline thru the long grass to a 180 degree turn-around.  Down the same slight hill and into a soft but fast left-hander.  The course traversed thru a ditch to another grassy field section where 2/3rds of the course was set-up.  Very non descript rollers and some high speed turns,  a couple with some off-camber slope to them but all in all, a boring section thru unmowed grass with lots of acorns to go thru and over.  After a series of turns, the course climbed up towards a sand volleyball pit that we went across the width of maybe 30 feet of sand.   This is actually where our lead group caught the majority of the 30+ racers.  all 5 of us in the lead group made it thru 'lapped' trafffic without being delayed too badly.   Our group reformed as we remounted and headed towards the road crossing.  Now the sand pit I elected to run every time, but it was ridable.  Not necassarily faster to ride it, but some chose to anyway.  Once thru the sand, the course crossed the main road to the east side of the course.  We went across the road and back on the grass heading north toward the food and beer area where the spectators were mostly watching the race from.  Some technical switch-back turns and a barrier section right after another series of 90 degree turns and the racers were remounting and heading towards the course only rear technical section of the 1.8 mile course.  This amounted to one long off-camber sweeping left hand turn a section of wooptys in a road-side ditch that led to a 120 degree bottleneck turn.  The course was now going back to the south to cross the road and back to the west side of the road for the last section of the course.  The west section was poorly marked and I found racers blowing thru cones and course hats in multiple turns on the back side of the course.  No stakes and tape thru some S-turns, so people were 'straitening' turns to their likeing in this protion of the race.  We headed north past the wheel pit and up the hill towards the road the racers got a couple of technical 90   degree turns in before we hit the road for the start/finish section.  Thru most of lap one, it was Jenks, Songer and me in the front group.  After a bad start, Lucas joined us only to lay it down in an acorn infested turn towards the end of lap one.  He rejoined us in the middle of in lap 2 again.  Their teammate David Hedjuk went blazing by all of us towards the halfway point of the first lap, charging on and leaving his teammates trying to avoid him as he almost wrecked them in the course of passing us.  So much for having to worry about any of the 360 team tactics...I guess Hedjuk had his own plans, that didn't include Steve, Andy or Brendan.  Thru the start/finish line on lap 2, I was on the 360 train but working really hard to stay there.  It was no problem staying in contact with the lead group thru the fast first 1/3rd of the lap, but once we reached the sandpit, the 360 guys gapped me a little there.  Crossing the road they had maybe a 5 bike length lead on me.  I got reattached at the 2nd set of barriers and stayed on thru the spectator section.   But, when the course was heading south towards the street crossing, i got gapped a little again.  I kept stretching the elastic, eventually it was gonna snap.  Crossing the pavement to the back part of the course, i got back on only to lose the wheel of Brendan when the course turned uphill towards the pit area.  So for the remainder of the race, I stayed tantalizingly close to the 360 group.  Their teammate Hedjuk was up the road from them, so they were racing for 2nd.  I desperately tried to get back to that threesome.  A couple of times they seemed to slow but I just couldn't close the gap any more than 10 seconds back.  With a lap and a half to go, Jenks fell off Songer and Lucas pace and now I was chasing Jenks for 4th.  I got to within 6 or 7 seconds of Brendan and at the sound of the 'Bell' lap, the race was on.  But he had more than me.  I should have made more of an effort early to stay with that front 3.  I just didn't have enough late to get up to Brendan.   I settled for 5th behind the 4 horseman of 360.  On a course i have never had much success on, in hindsite it was a decent result.  I held off my charging teammate Jeff Unruh who took 6th, and my time gaps back from the Songer/Lucas duo were under a minute on a very non technical course.   Definately a course that those guys have a distinct advantage over me.   They beat me by a couple of minutes last year at this race.

     So up next weekend is the Smithville Cx race up at Smithville Lake.  Going to race the Open race again.  Could be a really small turn-out this weekend because quite a few are headed to Louisville to race the USGP down there.  I need to plan ahead better and ,maybe I can be racing at one of those USGP weekends next year.



   See yah next time!


          

A Weekend of Cross Racing(Part I)

     Another full weekend of racing came and went.  Both Saturday and Sunday had me dragging the wife and daughter out to random locations so i could feed my cyclocross addiction.  Saturdays race was in Topeka, KS.  Its' promoter was put on by Slimen teammate and friend Jeff Unruh.  Quinton's Cross was held at a local elementary school in Jeff's hometown of Topeka.  About a 55 minute drive for the Taylor clan.  This race was also the 2nd race in the 7 part series that Localcycling.com's Mark Thomas has put together called Series60 Cyclocross.  Now prior to the start of the current cx season, I had set a goal of Top 3 in this series in the Masters 'A' 40+ category.  The first race of this series was the KC Cup race put on by the 360Racing crew at Swope Park in late September.  There I finished 3rd.  So the goal of this weekend was to go as fast as possible and battle with the 2 or 3 big guns from the 360 team that happened to show up for Saturday and Sundays race.  Sunday's race would be part 3 of the Series60 located at Wyandotte County Park, the Boulevard Cup which was put on by the Boulevard/KCOI racing team.

    Saturday morning came not too early with a morning Starbucks run at 8:30 a.m. and we were blazing down I-70.  My wife would be pulling double duty, babysitting and photographer during my race.  It would probably be a race and run soon after with another race the next day.  Pulling up to the school parking lot at a quarter to 10, I was immediately impressed with the 'pro' look of the course.  The Tape and course marking looked right out of videos i have seen from USGP races that the big name pros show up too.  Kudos to Jeff and his fellow volunteers.  My only concern with the looks of the course we would be racing on was the big hill they set part of the course on.  I thought I had specifically told Jeff, "NO Hills".  Obviously, he didn't listen too me.   I was registered and had my kit on and was on the bike taking some warm-up laps a little after 10.  Race time was 11 a.m.  I didn't want a big warm-up.  I knew I was racing the next day, so no since and wasting energy.  I also was judging the lack of competitors that showed up for Saturdays' race.  It was gonna be a small field and I was already thinking of conserving energy during the race, because I knew Sunday's Boulevard Cup always gets the bigger more competitive fields.  Again, no sense and wasting the whole tank.  Especially since i have a limited one to begin with.  Warming up with friend and rival 360racing's Andy Lucas, we had a conversation on the very same subject.  A tentative plan was to not do the usual 'killer' cx start, and have me, Andy, Steve Songer(360racing) and my Slimen teammate Joe Houston set the pace that would create a gap early over the rest of the small field.  A hard but not killer tempo would do it.  Now the writing was on the wall.  The steep run-up hill was going to be the deciding factor in this race.  Joe and I were on the outside looking in with Andy and Steve having a big advantage over Joe and I, because they don't have extremely large, fat asses.  However, Joe and I would be willing to give it a go and give Steve and Andy a run at it.
     Line-up for the Master's race was at 10:45.  Joe and I got a front row start.  Jeff had created a runway for the start of the races that was wide enough for 20 racers across.  Fields were not that big, but I think we started maybe 8-10 across at the line.  With instructions from officials and a few words from our promoters, we were ready to race.  I just wanted to follow wheels and not kill myself for the 'holeshot'.  That is exactly what happened.  Lucas and Songer led it out, with me and Joe following close on their wheels.  Joe or I didn't have to dip into the 'red' to maintain contact and once we were thru the 200 meters of the start, we hit the first brief pavement section.  Songer and Lucas had a 4 or 5 length gap on the pavement, but once we hit back into the grass and took a couple of high speed technical turns, Joe and I were right back on their wheel.  A couple of 180 and 90 degree turns and we were bombing down a grass decline and racing thru an open field heading towards the northern most part of the course.  This fast grass field section took us thru an off camber high speed 90 degree turn around a tree and up hill a few feet before we leveled off and bombed towards another high speed but softer left hand turn that had the racers riding along a creek or ditch and racing towards a set of tennis courts.  A 90 degree left hand turn right before the tennis courts and we were grinding up a false flat to 90 degree right and now really going up a soft and thick grassy section along the length of the tennis courts.  200 meters or so along the tennis courts and the course pitched up and to to the left in a 180 turn and down a few feet to a 180 right hander that pitched back up again 30 meters or so into the first barrier section of the day.  The first set of barriers were set in the middle of an incline, and right after the 2nd of 2 barriers, the terrain pitched up even steeper for 5 more meters making the racers finish the climb shouldering their bike and turning right and remounting.  The top of this run-up was the entrance to the wheel pit.  Now going back to the 180 right and left hand turns before the barrier section, I somehow had a brain freeze.  I looked down briefly and suddenly i was in Songers' rear wheel. Now I just was rubbing tires, we never got tangled up.  However, I breifly panicked here, and was immedialtely steering of course and into the tape.  I went thru the first set of tape and into a stake and got my bike wrapped and tangled into more tape.  That was it.  Andy, Steve and Joe and the gap we had set at the start were gone.  10-15 seconds of getting untangled and the lead group was gone and i was getting passed by two more racers before i got going again.  I ran 30 meters to the barriers and up the run-up and remounting trying to desperately to get back up to speed and close down the gap to the leaders that I had created.  "F!@#".  A moments mental lapse and my race plans went to shit.   So now I was chasing.  Racing past the wheel pit and down a hill 200 meters into a technical section of the course that had the racers going thru a maze like set-up of looping 180 degree turns.  This section allowed the racers to ride right by their competitors that were a few seconds in front or in back of them.  In my haste to latch back onto the front 3, I once again found myself going off course into the tape and running thru and over a stake.  I literally impaled my shin on a course stake.  I removed splinters post race.  I lost no time during this incident but did fluster my self more and had to work really hard to not waste extra energy in the panic of getting or staying at speed.   This circular section led out and up towards the grinding steep 25 meter run-up.  To get to the run-up, the racers had to pedal uphill 50 meters to a right hand switch-back which continued uphill another 50 meters to another switch-back and turned back to the right.  From there, racers continued uphill another 50 meters towards the barrier at the base of the run-up.  I and the rest of  the racers were already grinding our way with no momentum, then we are forced off our bike only to try to pump our legs over a barrier and up a 60 degree pitch for maybe 20 meters to the top of this brutal run-up.  At the top, I was just about closed the gap to my teammate Joe.  Pedaling into a slow off camber 180 degree left and down towards a 90 degree right that had the racers bombing down and into a sweeping soft  right hander.  Carrying a ton of momentum, the course pitched uphill briefly and flattened out right by the edge of the parking lot.  From here you had to set yourself up for a steep off camber/downhill 180 degree left hand turn that transitioned at the bottom from grass to a concrete sidewalk.  I saw plenty of people wipe out on this seemingly harmless section in warm-ups.  Thru this little downhill turn, the racers were bombing downhill again into a sweeping off-camber right hand turn.  Again, if you took this right, you could carry tons of momentum back up the hill that had the racers pedaling by the pits for the 2nd time.  Turning right 90 degrees, the course headed back uphill towards the finish line.  One lap down and 6 to go.  I had now gotten within 10 seconds of Joe.
      I was able to finally close the gap to Joe coming back up the false flat along the tennis courts.  However, Joe's pace had dropped and he was unable to stay on my wheel once we were thru the first run-p/barrier section.  Bombing down the hill past the pits, I was on my own trying to reel in Andy Lucas, who had fallen off of his teammate, Steve's wheel.  On the big run-up on the 3rd lap, I caught Andy.  He was not doing well.  You could hear him struggling to breath.  I knew he was having asthma issues.  So now it was me in 2nd with Songer up the road.  I never really felt like i was going to catch.  Not unless he made a big mistake, so I kept at it for another couple of laps.  I could see that the gap behind me was growing.  Andy had drifted back and altogether disappeared.  So did Joe.  Noone else was in site with 3 laps to go.  A lap later I realized that both Joe and Andy had pulled out of the race.  Every time I slogged up that run-up with lead feet, I wanted to drop out too.  Somewhere along the way, Joe shouted a time gap to me that I was a minute and 25 back of Songer.  This was about the time 2 of the 50+ fastmen had bridged up to me.  Randall Crist from Lincoln, Nebraska and Paul Fancher of Localcycling.com caught me with maybe 3 or 4 laps to go.  I hopped on there wheel and took a ride until we hit the tennis court section.  This was where I lost Randall's wheel.  The slight climb thru the slow grass was the difference. Randall left both Paul and I behind.
     So Paul was my pace setter briefly, until we got to the climb up to and before the steep run-up.  Paul's smaller ass allows him to climb faster than me.  By the top of the run-up he had a 5 second gap.  For the next lap  that time gap stayed the same.  Paul seemed to be struggling as well.  Back around to the run-up I had gotten back in contact with him.  I realized that I would overtake on the technical maze section.  I actually gapped him by a couple of bike lengths and by the top of the run-up i had a couple of seconds on him.  Thru the fast downhill and the next 3 or 4 turns I had the 5 second gap.  Thru the pavement section just past the finish line at the start of the bell lap, I decided to put the hammer down to see if Paul would answer.  This was really unnecessary, because we are in different age groups.  But honestly, Paul is a guy that I really enjoy beating.  He has the personality of a stump, he tends to aggravate about all of the guys he races against, and he is the ultimate 'sandbagger'.  Even with my 30 second head start to the race, I really didn't want him to beat me to the line.  But as little as I really know Paul, I have ridden and raced him enough to know how little class he has and that  he would sprint his dying bedridden grandmother to the line.  So I needed a big enough gap going into the 100 meters to the line, because it was uphill to the finish.  Paul would have the advantage on me there.  So, I tried hard to extend my little gap on the fast flowy turn sections on the first third of the course.  The bells ringing indicating 'last lap' was my reminder how much I needed to 'kick' it if I wanted to get to the line before 'Mr.' Fancher.    I honestly thought I had him.  Still had a few seconds at the top of the run-up the last time thru.  Bombed the last few turns and thru the last right hand turn to the finish I peeked back to take a look and the gap was the same...maybe 3  or 4 seconds.  I got out of my saddle to power to the line, and hesitated.  Why waste anymore energy when I was still finishing 2nd wether the 'you-know-what' beat me to the line or not?  I had another race to compete in tomorrow anyway.  I was thinking about the series.  Andy had pulled out, the 2 guys who beat me at the KC Cup were no-shows for  today's race and Songer didn't race the master's at the KC Cup.  I would be the overall series leader and needed a good result tomorrow to hold that.  Screw it!  Let Paul beat his crippled cousin to the line if it made him feel better.  It didn't affect me and my race.  That's what happened.  I think Fancher nipped me at the finish line by maybe 3 or 4 inches.  Fuck it!   I was already thinking about tomorrows race and how that could play out.
     It was gonna be SlimenUndGrossen, me, Joe and Jeff racing the the whole of the 360Racing masters crew.  Hedjuk, Songer, Jenks, and Lucas would be gunning it for Sunday's race at the Boulevard cup.  I was already putting my game face on.  I wanted to be on the 360 train.  I needed to catch from the start to have a chance to fight with them to the finish.  Sunday was gonna be tough.  Fast Bastards!!
    So the Taylor crew packed up.  We didn't stick around for the rest of the day's races.  I needed food in my stomach and some compression socks on if I was gonna be competitive for the next day's race.  So Quinton's Cross was in the books.  A unimpressive 2nd place, but I had the lead thru 2 races of the Series60.  It was homeward bound to hang out with the family for the rest of the day.

Boulevard Cup report coming soon...

Pics From past weekend of racing in Topeka at Quinton's Cross and Sunday's Boulevard Cup are at the SlimenUndGrossen Racing Blog

Link to blog is here>http://slimenracing.blogspot.com/.  Check out photos and racing highlights for the 2010 cyclocross season from the Slimen crew.

Something other than pictures...

Its' been a while.  Life intervenes and all that crap.  I am not a born writer so i need real motivation to bang away at the keyboard.  Hell, even cx season hasn't brought me to the keyboard.  Time is an issue too.  There doesn't seem to be enough of it in the day.  Access to my blog at work wasn't available until recently.  I can now type away at work on my blog, so maybe i will get to this thing a little more.

Cx  season thru Ovtober 10, 2010>  We are 5 races into cx season. Some good results.  Started my first Open/Big Boy race a couple of weekends ago.  I didn't embarass myself(except with that spelling).  1st race of season opened on Sept. 18 th at the KC Cup in Kansas City's Swope Park.  Finished 3rd in the Master's 'A' race 40+ age group to Brendan Jenks and some MTB stud from Texas.  Manions Cx was a week later. Tougher course not suiting my strengths(large hill,i.e. lots of climbing). I finished a respectable 8th out of 29 starters at the really tough Kansas City, Kansas layout.  I finished behind a group of fast masters' again in the 40+ race, so no shame in that 8th place.  The 3rd weekend of the season was at the Argosy Casino for the Boss Cx series.  I won the 35+ masters overall in this series last year.  The winner's prize was free entry into the Boss Cx races this year, so thats' 4 plus Boss Cx races for free this year.  Hooray!!.  The Boss Cx courses for October 2nd and 3rd were much more suited to my strengths.(i.e. lots of technical high and low-speed turns and flat with some technical sand ride/run section). And other than straining my groin on them, the high-speed barriers were to my advantage too.  So i decided the only way for me to get faster and to challenge some of my friends/fast guy arch rivals like Songer, Lucas, and Jenks is to get my rear kicked racing for 60 minutes with the Big Boys.  I finished 16 out of 28 starters on saturday.  By far the most competitve field i have ever lined up with.  Its amazing how big of a difference it is racing 40-45 minutes versus racing for 60+ minutes.  Sundays race was hard cuz the legs were trashed, but i grinded it out and finished 12th out of 22 starters.  Nothing to write home about, but competitive none the less in an intimidating field of racers both days.  Also racing for 2+ hrs in two days really kicked my ass as well.  I may not have been racing for a spot on the podium, but it still was a lot of fun racing.  The Boss Cx course layout really allowed for group racing and even road/crit like tactics.  Some drafting and pacing was possible.  On Jeremy's super fast design. Both days of racing had me riding and working with a couple of different opponents.  Which allowed me to pass other racers late in both days races.   I competed hard both days for those non-impressive 16th and 12th place results.  But i am as proud of those races as any race i have won in the past.  This past Sunday was the Cross out Cancer race at Shawnee Mission Park.  I lined up with the Open guys again,but was racing behind them because the promoters offered a new category.  The 2/3 categorey race has not been used in our area, but it was a really good field this past week.  My first thought was it would take away from the whole elite race, but both field were medium size for our area.  23 racers lined up for my 2/3 race, and it was a stacked field that i was going against.  I got the hole shot nd was into the back of the elite field by the 2 turn.  Jeff Yielding from Hermann , MO passed me late in lap one.  I spent the majority of the race banging shoulders and elbows with guys from the elite field like Tige, Briton, Mark Cole, Bergeman, and trying to hold off a charging Matt Baugher from Epic Cyling for 2nd.  Finished about 30 seconds back of winnr Jeff and maybe 20 seconds up on 3rd place Matt.  I think I am in favor of not having the 2/3 race coinside with the elite race.  Just have all those guys racing with eachother.  If you are going to have a 2/3 race at all, make it at the oppisite end of the schedule from the elite race.  Oh well...Thats a whole 'nother topic or discussion that i can address at another time.

I have got to get to work, so that is my brief cx report as of now.  I am gonna try to get more writing done on this blog thing.  But the pics are an easy way out.

See you at the next cx race!

Cross Start...2010 cx season is is full swing!

The above pic courtesy of volunteer hero, Roger a.k.a. Lanterne Rouge.  All of these photos were taken October 10, 2010 at the Cross Out Cancer Cyclocross Race held at Shawnee Mission Park in Lenexa, KS.

The above  pics are courtesy of my great wife, Heather.

apologies

Recieved an email from a friend who called me out.......no problem admitting when i am wrong.  His email is located below my apology, which deals with the kcsandbagger blogs and some of the comments i made in response to a post about me and some comments made to me.  i figured i would post it here as a blanket apology to anyone who was offended by some off-color and angry words.




mark,

your point is well taken.  no, you were not lecturing too much.  with your email i began to reflect on some of my 'choice' words.  i do admit to the 'v' word, i dont remember any disparaging comments about homosexuals, but that doesn't mean my inappropriate rear-end didn't make any, and i am sure i used other inappropriate words.  so if you could forward this to anybody who you might feel like I may have insulted, i would appreciate it.  unfortunately, i did not take the initial post about me and the 2 previous guys who were called out as a joke.  i have and still do have a hard time taking 'grief' from someone i dont know or an anonymous person.  whatever.....no excuses.  yes, the blog has turned, at times, very insulting and mean spirited.  for the last few days i have stayed out of it, and those are my intentions.  i think i have made my feelings known(for good or bad):). and yes i believe i added fuel to their fire and obviously played into some peoples hands.  live and learn i guess. i gave them basically what they wanted and that pisses me off as well.  i am the only one to blame for that.  like i said, i have no intention of adding more fuel to their fire.  there are gonna be 'taylor haters' out there.  nothing i can do about it.  all that is important are the people i consider friends ad their opinions of me.  if those friends and family included are good with me, then i have nothing to worry about.  

i appreciate the email and the 'wake-up' call, mark.

so here goes....to anybody i have offended or insulted by my rash and immature words in responding to a 'tongue in cheek' blog, i sincerely apologize.  my sexist and insensitive comments were said out of anger and were out of line.  i hope the offended can forgive me, especially those i dont know well.  this is not the light i wanted to portray the Slimen or the Local cycling teams in, and for that i am truly sorry as well.

I am sorry for all the b.s. , mark and teresa.

again...please forward to all localcycling racers or anyone else you think needs to here my apology.

sincerely, 

josh taylor 

---

From: mark@localcycling.com
To: byknfyr@hotmail.com
Subject: sandbaggerkc
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 17:33:23 -0600

Josh,

Just got back from Europe and got to check out the SandbaggerKC drama. My initial reaction to the site (we saw the first couple of postings while we were in Belgium), was that it was kind of funny. The writing at first wasn’t bad for parody. BUT I think it devolved pretty quickly and got a lot more mean spirited. I think it was still intended to be tongue-in-cheek, just poorly executed.

I think most people are quite aware that you’re not a ‘sandbagger’. However, you really played into the hands of the site’s writer with your reaction. So did quite a few others. He (or more likely, they) poked you, got a reaction and ran with it. It kind of became a situation as if you had written in to Saturday Night Live about a sketch that beat up on some one you liked. Or wrote a letter to National Lampoon after they skewered something.  National Lampoon used to post ‘real’ letters from people they pissed off. It added to the comedy.

Parody isn’t real, and it’s usually better to ignore it if you don’t like it

The bottom line is that ‘Jackass’ style humor is popular for very short runs. You probably added 15 more minutes to the site’s life.

I originally was going to give the site a mention (not necessarily positive) on localcycling.com, but I’m probably going to hold off. I’m not squeamish, but I try to keep things semi-family friendly, and Sandbagger is rated ‘R’.

Another issue I’d like to mention is the rhetoric and language that gets tossed about.

Cycling has lots of ‘boys’ in the population. And sometimes our language (mine included) can be taken the wrong way by others.

A lot of folks toss out words like ‘gay’ and ‘pussy’ to bag on somebody. The problem is that there are some pretty cool folks around us ‘boys’ that might find that banter offensive. The Slimenundgrossen side of the team is made up of mostly males, but the localcycling.com squad has a more diverse makeup. There are straight and gay members of our team, women and men. We also have a Supporters Club that understands the ties between our two teams, and are planning on being more involved at races this next year.

We have members of the team that are gay and others that have vaginas. They probably agree with you that the blog author is an asshole. So maybe that’s a better choice?

I’m of the Charles Barkley camp that athletes aren’t role models, but at the same time, I think it benefits all to think about what kind of respect we earn/give as individuals.

I also know you’re a very good hearted individual and your choice of words probably reflects cultural insensitivity, not Josh’s insensitivity.

Hope that wasn’t too much lecture. I’m ready for some base miles, a little running and a good road season this year. My back is much improved. I’ve got some cool plans for the Wed. Hill Ride.

Regards,

Mark

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.432 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2662 - Release Date: 02/01/10 12:37:00

WOW!! This is Too Funny!!!

holy shit, Batman.....this is too funny!  check out this site cx babies blogsite.  Sounds like the 4's field will be getting a little competition.  Maybe we need to have promoters reinstate a clydesdale category for all the fattys out there that would rather whine than complain??  just an idea...

blog war and sandbagging B.S.

here is a response or a letter from Bill Marshall coming to defense of a couple of guys....namely me and Mark Cole of a b.s. blogsite of a fat noncompetitive  pussies calling supposed 'sandbaggers' out....

Thanks Bill.  Well said.  I could not come up with the words that you wrote, but it summed up my frustrated feelings over the jackass who 3 months belatedly called me out.

Here u go...wait...here is the jackasses blog that i am referring to....r5 or http://sandbaggerkc.blogspot.com/.  apparently this guy is the authority or the 'judge, jury and executioner' of calling out sandbaggers....without anyone knowing who he is.....F@#%ING PUSSY!


Below is what I posted on the Sandbagger blog site. Who the fuck is this pussy? Forward it to Mark Cole.

I have to say who ever started this joke of a blog has no clue what it actually takes to race at the next level or even at a Category 3 level for that matter.  Just because someone is winning a few local races doesn't justify calling them a sandbagger or needing to upgrade. For any Category 3 rider to upgrade they obviously need the required points but, they also need to display complete dominance at every single race they do. Winning every time and absolutely crushing the competition. Then, they should upgrade to a Category 2. Once that is done welcome to hell. It's an entirely different world of racing and training. Even at a local level it’s a whole new ball game and the roles are reversed unless the rider is a truly gifted athlete. I've read many comments about Josh Taylor or Mark Cole needing to upgrade because they are winning races left and right etc. Well, that's at a local level and they are doing quite well for themselves. But, if they (or any other local Cat 3 legend) were to race regionally or nationally they would get their asses handed to them. That is until they gained the valuable experience of racing at that level. Many local cyclist can't lead the lifestyle to gain that experience of doing UCI races, USGP's or traveling to Nationals every year. Have you ever thought of that? I know for a fact both of these riders work hard at training, racing, being parents and working full time jobs. Did you ever think that their commitments outside the sport don’t allow them to train and race at a higher level? Maybe their commitments outside the sport don’t allow them to even do so at a local level? All of those are factors for any cyclist who is going to upgrade to the next level. It takes no less than 15 hours a week of hardcore training just to compete locally at that level. Do you have the time to do that plus the outside commitments? The way I see it is your complaining about these guys needing to upgrade because you're personally tired of getting your teeth kicked in all of the time. Word from the wise and I've seen this a lot in the past 25 years or racing. Come out from behind the comfort of your keyboard, stop letting your fingers do the talking and let your bike racing do the talking. Until you can actually come out and compete toe-to-toe with your peers every weekend shut your pie hole, train your ass off and show them what you’re made of. Your comments make you out to be a coward and someone who isn’t willing to dedicate yourself to training and racing. One last thing... I find it amazing that anyone actually has the balls to post anything on a blog (positive or negative) without stating their real name. If you have something to say, say it openly and quit being a coward. What are you afraid of? Are you scared at the next race the entire cycling community will gang up you and drop you like a bad habit? I’m guessing so. Sack up and quit hiding behind your keyboards. BTW.... HTFU

Bill Marshall
Team Director/Founder
KCCX/VERGE Elite Cyclocross Team.


thanks bill!!

The 2009 Cross Season is a Wrap......

I got some pics of Saturdays Epic Cx Race. Jacob Pitt...putting it to the 'old' guys!

The last pics are of my Element towing my friends 4-wheeler. I have towed 1900 lbs of concrete with that car as well.

A Big Exhale..................The 2009 cyclocross season went a week longer than the previous year and even started a week earlier as well. That being said, i think i had 2 or 3 more races left in the legs and brain. Oh well. I am still looking to unwind a bit. Mentally, almost 4 months of staying motivated and on top of the racing and recovering properly wears on you. I think figuring that out this year and with the previous 3 or 4 years of cx helped me to finish with some strong results this year during the last few weeks of racing.

This past Saturdays' race was located up north of Kansas City in Parkville, MO. the course was again set up on the property where the sponsor, Epic Bike Shop is located.
I spent Tuesday and Wednesday before the race working to get the course prepped and rideable to race on Saturday. The greenspace where the course was to be set up was actually under almost a foot of snow with 2 and 3 foot drifts as of Tuesday. Friend and Slimen teammate Joe Houston and I headed up to Parkville Tuesday morning to see if we could help promoter Mark Thomas. I was actually able to borrow a 4-wheeler with a snow blade from a friend...Thanks Jeff!! The thought was, with the ATV, that the time to clear the snow from the course would
only take a couple of hours. Were we way off. about 7 hours of shoveling be 3 or 4 of us as well as the use of the atv, and still we had work to do with ice removal from paved areas of the course on race morning. Thanks Roger! So a couple of hours on Tuesday and again on Wednesday afternoon with the ATV and some warmer temps on wednesday and Thursday started to turn our race course into a swamp......maybe we shouldnt have removed so much snow??

We had to, we couldnt count on so much snow melt. By Friday morning though, the temps had stalled at about 29-32 degrees with overcast foggy conditions. Late Thursday nite and Friday morning the temps had dropped to the low 20's and refrozen our course back up. This kept the course somewhat firm and icy in most places, with a little half frozen standing water in a couple of places on Friday around noon. The forecast for raceday was more of the same. Freezing temps overnite and overcast foggy conditions thru till early afternoon. So we were hoping for a mostly frozen course instead of a 6 inch deap ice cold swamp to race on.
I arrived at the race parking lot at around 9:45 am with my race starting at 11am. plenty of time to get dressed properly and get a good warm-up. With both bikes dialed and ready to go, i got out on the course to pre-ride and warm-up a little. I found the conditions of the course a little sloppier than the previous day but still not thawed out. Some scetchy icy spots with some muddy soft spots mixed in with some snowy areas. The sand vollyball court still was fairly firm due to the cold so these 2 sections were still rideable. I am sure the whole course would ride and change completely over the course of 45 minutes of racers riding warm-ups and another 45 minutes of racing on it. By the end of the day, the last couple of races, racers would be in a virtual mudpit. I was glad to be racing first. The faster and icy the more fun i would have and the better chance off a good result as well.

So with the call-ups at 10 minutes before race time, I was on the front row. I was 4th in the overall and really no shot of catching 2nd and 3rd. I needed a miracle with both Andy Lucas and Steve Songer not finishing the race. I had no points in an early race in the series due to sandbagging and racing and winning the 3's race at the first race of the year. I however had 4th locked up with noone being able to catch me as long as i finished. 14 racers lined up for the Master's 40+ 'A' race. Not a great turn-out, but expected due to a long cx season and the not so great weather. Also, i honestly question the 'man-hood' of a lot of our regions cyclists who say they race.....WHATEVER....... thats a different topic for a different day. Not all are 'man' enough or tough enough to race cx in January here in the midwest. I guess the 'roadies' need their rest and have to get in their 'bases' so they can be 'peaking' for the 'all important' Spring-Flings in Lawrence here in a month or so. Those guys really find that the March racing is essential to a 'great' season on the Road..........whatever....enjoy your rest, Pussies!

So roll call and callups are done. Officials give their speal and within seconds, they blow the whistle. I get a good start, and am side by side with Studnicki, sitting just behind Lucas(who got his usual 2 plus second head-start). Before we get to the hard laeft that takes us to the pavement, I yield to Mark and tell him to get on Lucas' wheel. I didnt need to throw elbows witha friend and a guy who is stronger than me, and i didnt want to be responsible fro taking either one of us out. I would settle for 3rd wheel behind the 2 leaders gladly. Once on the pavement, Songer and Houston came barreling by me. I was a little cautious on the pavement, i just felt like at anytime, any of us could lay it down on the slick asphalt. So no need to push it too hard until we got to the grass again. Thats when i realized I could have a problem, cuz the next section was soft and slow due to the mud and water. Joe was already bogging down a little and struggling to maintain the front 3's wheels. Fortunately, joe laid it down in front of me and i was able to avoid him and a few turns later i was back on the 360 + Studnicki train. It took just a few turns and the 4 of us had a significant and permanent gap over the rest of the 40+ racers. Now I just had to race my race and keep it upright......half way thru Lap one, It was Lucas, Studnicki, Songer and me in that order. I was actually comfortable and not over doing it. The course conditions were such that the 3 strong guys couldnt put the hammer down due to the icw and snow. Yes, ice and snow are my friends. With the 4 of us heading thru a soupy slow section and towards the 500 meter pavement section, Andy and Mark get a little gap on me and Steve. Steve has difficulty clearing a tough section that i ride cleanly. I am first to the pavement but was slowwed a little by steve. Andy and Mark are probably 5 seconds up the road. At this time, Andy is getting ready to enter into a snowy switchback section but catches a patch of ice on the pavement, and goes down hard. Mark narrowly misses bashing into Andy and his bike. Songer is now back on my wheel as we roll by Andy who is trying to get back on his back. Its now Mark all alone with maybe a 6-8 second gap on me and Steve. For the next 2 laps, Steve and I take turns gapping each other or just riding on the others wheel. Mostly though, its me sitting on Steve's wheel. I am riding comfortably and smoothly at this point. On maybe lap 3 thru the first sand section and making a right turn, Songer and I are trying to pass a lapped rider. Steve catches a rut and goes down. I bang right into the back of his bike and half fall off of mine. I am back up and going fairly quickly, but Steve is slow to get going. Steve is trying to get is rear wheel to roll seeing as how I crashed hard into it. Oh well, I empathize, but that is racing. Steve had mechanical issues of some sort the last 3 races of the year. I had the majority of mine early and often during the season. So for the next 4 or 5 laps and the remainder of the race, it was just trying to hold off the 360 duo of Andy and Steve. It was nerve wracking having those fast guys chasing me down, but i rode pretty smartly. A couple of bobbles on the last couple of laps, but nothing more than anybody else behind me. Steve at one point got to within maybe 10 seconds of me, but he went down at some point trying to be aggressive and close the gap down. I actually managed to finish within maybe 35 to 45 seconds of Mark in the end, but I know he was just managing his effort on not really drilling it. But it was still second place for me, and I had beaten both Andy and Steve of 360racing. those 2 SOB's are fast. Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never beaten Steve and it had been a couple of seasons since i caught Andy on an 'off' day and beat him. On Saturday i finished in front of both of them. This is significant for me, because I am always measuring myself with these guys. I dont have their horsepower or fitness, but on the right course and me racing within myself I held my own with them. And that sums up the last 3 weeks of racing for me. Smart, comsistent racing during the last 3 races got me 3 good results and allowed me to beat some fast dudes. From my current Slimen teammate Jeff Unruh to my former 360 teammates, racing wheel to wheel with those guys and coming out on top from time to time is what keeps me motivated for cx. I love racing against guys i respect and that i am friends with off the bike.

Knowing Andy, I am sure he is pissed and will be gunning to drop my ass at the next mtb race or the next cx race we line up together. But fortunately for me, there is a good chance we wont be racing in the same age group:) Or maybe we will. so I will be ready for Andy to drill it off the start line, and i am sure I will be hanging on for dear life......but hell, thats half the fun of cx, getting your ass handed to you by the 'fast' guys. That's what makes you faster!

so all of you cx posers.....remember that! Good Luck at the Spring Flings! the 'real men' and 'tough guys' will probably be racing our mtb's.

Next cx race....09/18/10................just around the corner

shovelin' snow and new blogs..

So the 2010 SlimenUndGrossen cycling Team roster is set, clothing is ordered......but there is still some cross racing to finish up. Spent a few hours the last couple days helping Mark Thomas and Joe Houston getting the Epic Cross Course set up. Which means tons of snow removal by hand and with a 4-wheeler with a snow blade. Still very hard work. Course conditions are going to change hourly with forcast of rain and warmer temps over next couple of days before saturdays race. Mark could still use lots of help. Also, I have been working on a new Slimen Team blog...check it out!....slimenracing.blogspot.com.

check out the blog and hope to see everyone to race the last cx race for the next 8 months.

BE THERE!

'Crossin' Off the Old Year' with some frigid cold and white stuff

The pics seen here are courtesy of Roger of Lanterne Rouge Cycling. They were taken this past Thursday on the New Year's Eve 'Cross off the Old Year' race held at Stump Park in Shawnee, KS.

A shout out goes to Mark and Teresa of Local Cycling and all the others that help get the race off the ground this year. 8+ inches of snow and some lots of ice thrown in made getting a course set up extremely difficult for the promoter and designer Mark Thomas. Thanks Mark. Thursday morning saw temps in the single digits and with very little improvement in sight. So getting motivated to get going and get out to the course would prove to be the biggest challenge of the day for me. I find that once i get out to the course and get some kind of warm up in, then i am 'good to go' and ready to race. That proved to be the case on thursday morning. My wife was coming off a 12 hour nite shift at the hospital so getting out to the race 2 hours early proved to be impossible. With race time at 1 pm, i was able to pull into the parking lot of stump park at around 11:40 or so. But, lately with the cold weather and my inability to get to the course as early as I would like, I have been dressed and 'pinned' with race # at home prior to driving to the race. Saves me about 30 minutes of prep time and allows me to make changes in layering on the really cold days as needed. I hate scrambling and hurrying prior to race time. The thing that suffers the most when that happens is my warm-up gets shortened or just plain non-existent. And with the bitter cold conditions, its tough mentally to get a good warm-up in anyway.

I was able to get a good warm-up in on the course before race time. The 1 pm races were the first ones of the day. Late starts and shortened races to hopefully make it atractive to racers to skip out of work early and compete in epic 'cx' conditions on New Years' Eve. Thursdays' course consisted of a course which 95 % of was covered in snow and/or ice. The course was shortened due to lots of ice on a long pavement section. So the race track consisted of a narrow paved start/finish area which led to 2 soggy off-camber sections tied together into a short & slick but grinding climb that led the racers to a icey rutted fairly fast and long downhill section that had a lot of racers on edge. Most didnt feel comfortable letting go of the brakes and just bombing on this scetchy downhill. The downhill led into a slow grinding soft snow section which the racer had to work hard to maintain any of the momentum he/she just built up from the downhill.

From this flat slow section the racers turn right down into a little ravine that had hay bales laid out as our only barrier on the course. Running back out of the ditch the racers were back on their bikes trying to get back up to speed thru a ice rutted slow section which headed back towards the start area and the wheel pit. The racers headed back away from the wheel pit and navigated around a softball field on a soft and slowly melting but snow and rut covered section. on the oppisite side of the softball fields the racers had a decision to make as to run or try to ride a iced and rutted out 500 meters section of covered pavement. this section was basically a swection of landmines of covered soft snow holes, slick ice hidden under a couple of inches of snow and a very narrow line that the racer had to navigate thru all of these holes and slick little areas. I of course tried to ride it every time and thru 5 laps of racing I only rode this section cleanly once, and even that '1' time is debatable. I continually had little foot dabs or 'almost' wipe-out mistakes thru this section. It didnt cost anymore than the guys behind me, but it allowed the 2nd place racer, Jeff Unruh who ran it every time, to maintain or put time on me. His decision to run it allowed him to be more consistent then me and my choice to try to ride it everytime. This tricky section was last section which led the racers back thru the start/finish area.

The Master's 'A' 40+ raced for 30 minutes which turned out to be 5 painful laps. A decent start had me 5th wheel going into the snow covered grass and off-camber section. Matt Eastlack and I avoided running into and over John Pahlman who was 3rd wheel at the time of his wipe-out on the slick off camber grass. From there matt and I passed Steve Songer who had 'endo'd and dropped a chain at a muddy ditch crossing. Steve also dropped a chain which cost him tons of time.
So from early in lap one thru the last of lap five, I was yo-yoing off of Jeff Unruh wheel. On lap four I made a huge effort and attacked him on the downhill. I got by him and began to pass a lapped rider when i caught an icey rut at about 25 mph. Fortunately me and my bike went flying together so i didn't have far to go to get my bike and get going again.....I gained contact with jeff late in lap 4 only to see him attack me at the start of the bell lap. Regained his wheel on the downhill but could never find the strength to do anything other than sit on his wheel. Once we hit the last icy straight away, he had more power than me. So Studnicki Finished first, Jeff 2nd and myself 3rd. Songer made a valient effort after his mechanical issues and finished 4th.

The importance of the 2 guys in front of me are they are my new teammates for 2010. I am rejoining SlimenUndGrossen racing after the last couple with 360Racing. Gonna be a fun year I think. My new teammates are really old teammates because I started riding and racing with these guys about 5 or 6 years ago.

2 races races to go before we shut the doors on the 2009/10 cross campaign. 2009 saw me win
the Boss Cross Master's 35+ 'A' category, which means I will be racing for free in that series again next season. I won the Cat 3 Boss Cross series last year and raced for free in this years series. That free entry helps alot. The last 2 races of the year are apart of the Series60 cross series. The standings for that series are locked up as far as the top 2 spots. Mark Studnicki has got a commanding lead over 360 racer Steve Songer. I am currently in 4th, 10 or so points behind 360 rider Andy Lucas. The only way I will catch Andy is if he doesnt race one of the last 2 races. He in fact raced the elite race on Thursday, which allowed me to gain valuable points on him anyway. So hopefully I can finish strong over the next couple of weeks with a couple of more podiums and finish 3rd or 4th in the overall in the Series60 competition. Hopefull these last couple of races will have some more snow and ice and just all around 'fun' conditions.

See yah at the races!