Another Year in the Books

I am now 33. Bikes are still my fun, my exercise, my addiction, my transportation, and my first love.

Blue Star

Being Lazy, Hitting the Gym, and a Little CX

Not too much happening lately. I have been avoiding the bike when the weather is bad or when my motivation is not there to chamois up. I've also been getting slammed at the real j-o-b, so the motivation to ride seems to wane when the work day is a rough one. I guess it is good that I'm technically in the off season. I've set November 1 as my get serious and train cut off date.

I'm back in the gym throwing weights around like a body builder, well at least on the legs. This year I was pleasantly surprised I'd didn't lose too much strength during my time away from the gym during the race season. Also, I haven't been super sore after the first few weeks of leg sled and squats like I have in years past. Maybe I'll be able to pack on some more power this year.

Got the itch race the CX bike last weekend. I felt good on race morning, so I was excited to throw down. The start, however, had other ideas. Due to a missed clip-in by one of my competitors and then an errant stick that landed in my spokes bringing me to a halt within 10 feet of the start line, I was relegated to gapped off the back of the entire pack of 65 racers within the first minute of the race. Not good for a course that consisted of about 50% 1track. I immediately went to work passing as many people as I could. I think I ended up counting 30+ by the end. I never made it to the front of the race, but was pleased with my efforts. Maybe next time out, I can get a good start for once.

Here's a short movie of the barriers...


And a photo of the runup.


Thanks for reading,
Blue Star

Cactus Cup Recap

Stage 1: Uphill TT A short and violent effort up a super steep climb. The course was allegedly a mile long, but I think it was about 3/4 of a mile. The upper section was super loose and traction was hard to find. I pre-rode several times and watched others do so as well in an attempt to find a good line. I came to the conclusion there was no good line. I cleaned it 4 or 5 times and felt like I had it reasonably dialed. Apparently not dialed enough, because during the race I lost traction at a tricky little rock section, had to unclip, and run 50 yards to where the hill eased a bit and I could remount. My slow time made be a bit cranky.

Spectators had a good view of the Strip from the course. Competitors couldn't enjoy the view because they were staring just ahead of their front tires looking desperately for some areas of traction.


World Champs don't have a problem with loose climbs.


Wannabe Pros, on the other hand, had to run their bike.


My time was about the same as this guy who was spectating on the side of the course.


Stage 2: Super D
Saturday morning's stage brought an 11 mile somewhat downhill course through the desert from the Cottonwood trailhead to the old mining town of Blue Diamond with some short but stiff climbs thrown in for good measure. I went cross eyed for about 39 minutes or so. The course had some super swoopy turn sections that were fun if you got the cornering drift right and downright scary if you didn't and drifted off trail towards a cactus.

Semipro's lined up with the pros. You know you're skinny when you make Tinker look thick.


Rippin' in the desert.


Stage 3: Fatboy Criterium under the lights
A road crit with MTBs running slicks on a 3/8th of a mile loop and at night. Crazy fun! Again, semipros were run with the pros. Four current and former MTB Olympians were in the race. It was rad to rocket through the first corner on Sauser's wheel. My goal was to last as long as I could before getting pulled and not knock anybody over. Turns out I was pretty good at railing the 180 degree corners and I nearly went the distance, but got pulled on the penultimate lap.

A quick video of corner #1. I'm in there somewhere.


Stage 4: XC
30 miles of mostly desert 1track. I started strong and was holding the lead for the first 4 or 5 miles. I proceeded to overshoot a corner, which caused me to drop my chain and it wrapped around itself making for a time consuming repair. This left me in no-man's land off the lead pack of semipro riders and that is where I would spend most of the day. The heat cranked up and the trails got even more technical as fatigue set in. One one downhill section I drifted off the trail in a corner and pegged a Joshua Tree at speed. Ouch! On another stretch, I clipped a cactus with my right hand. Double Ouch! No serious injuries, but enough to rattle the confidence a bit, which caused me to slow it down some because there was nobody close to catching me from behind and it was clear I wasn't going to get back to the leaders.

I ended up 3rd Overall in the Semipro Stage Race.


A nice engraved cowbell (and some good prize $$$ too!)


Another fun and entertaining MTB race season comes to an end. I'm already anxious to see how next year's schedule will shape up.

Thanks for reading,
Blue Star

Some National Media Coverage

Check this link.

Full write up to follow.

Blue Star

SS World Photos, Cactus Cup, & Pro Upgrade

Well, I've totally slacked on giving a more thorough update on SS Worlds. I think the New York Times article did a really good job of describing the fun and semi-organized chaos that is SS Worlds, so I won't try and improve on that with my own yarn. A bit late, but here's some good photos from BMW, who made the trip out from Ohio (en route to Hawaii) to enjoy some wine country and observe the wild antics on one geared bikes. I'm definitely working SSWC09 in Durango, CO into the schedule for next year.

Pre-race warmup.


Descending, a bit off the line (eek, sorry trail police).


Feeling spry with a wheelie through the start/finish before heading out on Lap 2.


High fives from the fans out on course as I come through to finish.


Done, dusty, and happy to have a black bottle opener.

This weekend is my last mountain bike race of the season at the revived Cactus Cup stage race down in Las Vegas, NV. This race carries some personal significance, because my first ever MTB race was the Cactus Cup in Mansfield, Ohio back in 1992. I jumped head first into the junior sport category. It was a super muddy race and I loved every minute of it. I survived several tip overs because I was using clipless pedals for only the second ride. If I recall correctly, I was top 5 out of like 40 kids. I have been immersed in the cycling lifestyle ever since. Sport to Semi-pro. 16 years old to 32 years old. Same obsession with bicycles. It's funny how things come full circle over time.

USA Cycling announced a new category system for next year. The semi-pro category is gone. Existing semi-pros have been given a free pass to go pro or to go down to the newly created Category 1 that is comprised mostly of racers from the former expert category. I'm faced with the dilemma of whether to go up or down. SLR and my riding friends say go pro or I'm a sandbagger. I've read comments from USAC board members that the intent was for the top 1/3 of semi-pros should go pro and the bottom 2/3 go down. I'm ranked just inside the cusp of the top 1/3. I could go down and have a chance at getting some more podium time or I could go up for the opportunity to tell my future child that Dad was once a professional athlete and raced against Olympians. I have until December to decide. I may use my result from the race this weekend as the deciding factor. Do well, I go up. Suck wind, I go down. Then again, maybe I'll flip a coin. Feel free to weigh in.

Other things on the horizon: some riding on Orcas; if the good weather holds, attempting the Cascade Triple Crown (including 12k feet of climbing) on my SS; building up a project bike in the off season; learning to build wheels; exploring more Belgian beers; and maybe a few cyclocross races if I feel like going cross-eyed for an hour.

Thanks for reading,
Blue Star

NY Times Likes the SS

SS Worlds goes large with an article and picture spread in the NY Times!
Check it here.

A post with our pics coming soon.

Blue Star

SSWC08 Quickie

We are back in the Seattle rain after spending a quality weekend with a bunch of SSers down in Napa. Plenty of stories and photos to come including the tighty whitey category, many hilarious costumes, some nasty wrecks by fellow competitors, and a really hard 30 mile race.

My race involved a bunch of this...


And plenty of this...


But I got my official finisher's black bottle opener. Mission accomplished.

Blue Star

SS

Sans Shifters. Silly Speeder. Single Speed. With the SS World Championships coming up soon in Napa, I've been riding my SS bike lately to get the legs ready for ultra-low and ultra-high cadence work the race will require. A few weekends ago SLR and I went down to Greenwater, WA to race the White River Revival in the shadows of Mount Rainier. The course is one of my local favorites, so I was excited for some proper NW mountain bike riding. I had some good legs and took the W in the singlespeed category and my time would have had me at the top of most of the expert categories. Here's a few photos from the weekend.

We went down a day early and camped at the race venue. We had such a good time camping it makes me want one of these.


Yep, it's speed de uno.


SLR even gave the trails a go for her best effort on the MTB yet. Here's her little rig waiting to get dirty. She even railed the tech descent. Fun times and a solid confidence booster. I see more trail riding in her future.


Podi shot with the victory brews. Sunshine wheat = Yummy!


We leave in a few days for SS Worlds. It promises to be the wildest race of my long racing career. Year's past have been decided by go carting, pugel stick battles, the whiskey shot course short cut, etc. Definitely some good stories to tell in my next post.

Thanks for reading,
Blue Star

Mt. Snow Video

A sweet video of the pro XC race at Mt. Snow can be found at this link. It provides a good perspective of what the course entailed, but for some reason the climbs don't look nearly as steep on screen.

Blue Star

Soulville

To celebrate three years of mariage, SLR and I have these coming to the stable soon.

His...


Hers...


A little less lycra, a bit more soul. Bring on the coffee and beer runs.

Blue Star

Cycology

Now that I'm over a week removed from the trip back to Vermont, I've reflected enough on the race to pull a post together. I wasn't nearly as fast as I hoped I would be. My goal was to pull a solid race out of the bag (i.e., top-20) and put on a good show for the large Blue Star support team that was strewn about the course. It didn't happen. I was back of the pack fodder. The course, although dumbed down a bit over year's past, was still a blast to ride and I had fun. But I left the beautiful Green Mountains feeling a bit down, like I suck and questioning my presence in the semi-pro ranks.

The best way to describe my racing is mercurial. Some days I have it, some days I don't. Coach Thomas and I pour over the variables and we just can't seem to figure it out. Maybe it's all about what is between my ears. The "cycology" of bike racing is one of the most misunderstood aspects of sport performance. After returning to Seattle, I took some time to relax and avoided any serious training. I feel recharged and had a great ride on the road bike yesterday. I guess the bottom line is a I love to ride my bike in the woods more than just about anything and I'll keep on doing it (whether I'm fast or not) for as long as I am able.

The Western Wanderer was on the east coast taking stellar pics of the event. Here's a teaser until I post a full lot sometime soon.



Thanks a million to the huge Blue Star cheering section. I couldn't help but crack a smile when I rounded the corner in the woods and the trail erupted with cheer and noise makers. Also, a race can't go by without expressing gratitude to the super-soigneur, SLR. She could support a Tour de France team without skipping a beat. The legs were stale, but I clearly won the best supported racer award.

Thanks for reading,
Blue Star

BC Bike Race Recap

Following the finish of the BC Bike Race, SLR, AV, and I spent the weekend in Whistler chilling and otherwise catching up on some R&R before returning to real life. I promptly got a bit of a cold and so did the majority of other racers that took part in the event. Walking around Whistler village over the weekend, it was easy to spot racers because they were all sniffly, carrying lots of tissue, and were not walking very fast. Whistler is an amazing place in the summer. Bikes dominate and there are free riders, DHers, trail riders, and even some XC racers everywhere. I had the itch to stay until the snow flies, but all good things have to come to and end and on Sunday afternoon we drove back to our real lives in our fair city of Seattle.

Now that I'm back pushing paper instead of the pedals, I've had some time to reflect on the "ultimate singletrack experience." It, indeed, lived up to its billing. I enjoyed just about every km we covered (somewhere around 540km) even the full day of fire road of Stage 2. Some of the 1track was the best I have ever ridden in North America. The descent on Stage 5 from Seschelt to Langdale was particularly enjoyable and I know I will go back again in the future.

Next year? Yep, I'm already registered to do battle with my friend Robbin. He owns Arrowsmith Bikes in Nanaimo and is a fast dude on a bike. I think we can crack the top 20.

With that, here are some photographic highlights and a video taken by SLR during the week.

The start on Day 1. A few bikes and that was only the first half of the field.


Cooling down after Stage 1's 90+ degree temps.


Massage was critical for recovery. So were ice baths later in the week.


Mafia opted to utilize local hotels in lieu of tent city.


Lining up for Day 2.


Mafia on the prowl.


Ladies ride.


Parade lap around the track.



SLR and Amecita take in the trees.


And the coast.


The Mafia boys stoked with our best finish on the week. 23rd overall.


Boat 1 at sunrise of Day 4.


Catching some zzz's on the ferry.


The support rig loaded up.


Views from Boat 2 on Day 4.


The start of Day 4 right out of the ferry landing.


All smiles for now.


Chopper getting video footage.


Knuckles at the finish of a tough Day 4.


Seschelt coast.



RCMP escort to start day 5.


Riders following close behind.


SLR taking the support rig from Langdale to Horseshoe Bay.


The Reservoir Dogs walked on the next ferry after finishing a fun Stage 5. Note AV walks to the beat of a different drum.


Surrounded by some good company on Day 6. National CX Champ Katie Compton. Endurance Freak Nat Ross. Etc.


Race marshal's car ready to lead to way.


All smiles after finishing and a near DNF.


See that hose wrapped around the bar, it is supposed to go to AV's front brake.


"It was epic!"


Recounting war stories post-stage.


Happy July 4th!


Grande Americanos and the Mafia Boys.


Descending off Whistler Mountain into Creekside.


Heading out to wrap up the last 20km.


The finish.


It's medal time.


The coveted finisher's T-shirt.


Happy to have a new belt buckle.



On the gondola up to the top of Whistler for the awards gala.


Quite the adventure to say the least. I expect the photographers that were all over the course each day will have some riding shots that I can post in the near future.

Thanks to SLR for the pro support job. She could work for a professional cycling team no problem.

Now it's time to train and get ready for Mount Snow.

Thanks for reading,
Blue Star.