Photos from Saturday's Grass Race

The Alpha Cross #2 race this past Saturday was a super fun grass coarse. Fast! Here are a couple of photos I came across on the web.

Photographer: Dan Rieber

And there was Grass!

With a new venue for today's race (Alpha Cross #2) I wasn't sure what to expect. To my surprise we had a beautiful grass coarse. It was fast and a lot of fun. Very well laid out, two sand pits and one double barrier with numerous short punchy climbs.

My team needed points. We're currently in 3rd place in the team points classification. There are two big teams ahead of us so moving up wasn't going to happen but there are about 5 teams within 20 points behind us. So loosing 3rd place is a real possibility. I put out the call to the team, to see if we can save this podium spot.

Four teammates showed up and the field wasn't huge. A good sign since only the top 20 get points. I took it a little easy at the start to see if I could ramp it up during the race. After the start, things got strung out pretty quickly. The grass and hills made closing gaps nearly impossible. My front wheel slipped out during the first run through the steep chicanes and had to run the remaining section, only loosing one place. Afterward, a group of about 6-8 racers formed. I caught the express until it started coming apart. Later I crashed in that same chicane and was caught by a two man chase group.

I finished 12th and had teammates in 13th and 18th! 20 points to add to the team total. In addition, the other teams behind us miss out on toady's race. So sad. Two more races in the series. Hopefully we can keep hold of this one.

Insanity

Melissa wanted to start early. CRAZY early. Isn't it illegal to have
a Christmas tree up before thanksgiving.

Sunday's Race - The movie

My friend Larry was in my race this past Sunday. He raced with his video camera. It was fun to race with him, he's been doing a great job announcing at many of the cyclocross races lately.

Check out the video, this is what the first lap of a cyclocross races is like.

Sunday's Race

Found a couple of photos from yesterdays race from Dan Rieber
In the first one I'm doing ok. The second has me deep in hurt locker.

"You are a Nazi-Jankie-Wack-Ass"

If your a race promoter or even worked registration you'll love this. The story is hilarious! The sad part, it's true. I've seen too many people not far off from this.

Click here if it doesn't show up below.

Back in the Action

How can something that hurts this bad feel so good.

After getting back home Friday evening I felt like it was time to get life back to normal. I took a pass on the Saturday race to spend time with the kids. The kids wanted to play and I need my dad fix. We accomplished that!

Sunday, it was time to get back out and hit the races. I knew it was going to be a sad state of affairs. After missing last weekend due to being sick and having a lot of work to finish, then spending a stressed out week in Dallas, it was going to hurt!! I hadn't been on the bike in over a week. It was calling me... the pain cave awaited!

The Green Mountain Sports Velo coarse in Golden was long, muddy and hard! I am still sitting pretty good in the 'Best Cyclocross Rider' points, due to my early season performance. So I got a good starting position. We took off through a snow covered field then onto the coarse. After having a second position call-up I was sitting in about 4-5 position on the first lap. Then the guy in second totally screwed up a remount after a short run up and stacked 3 guys behind him. I quickly ran around and boom, I was in second. The lead guy was taking off. It took the group behind me a little while to get moving and I had a surprisingly big gap. But it was hard going and I didn't last too long. I gave it all I had sadly there wasn't much. People were crashing all over the place. I managed to keep it up right and finish 15th. Melissa said she had never seen me race so empty. I hurt so bad at the end, a lot more then normal. Once I caught my breath it felt so good.

I don't have any photos of the race and I'm not sure I want to see how bad it was. There were a lot of photographers on the coarse so maybe I'll come across some online. If I do, I put them up for your entertainment. For now enjoy the clean up I had awaiting me after the race. The bike was still shifting well but it was a lot heavier.



Two more weeks of racing then it's time for a break. I feel a little burned out but its just so fun!

I’ve missed you

Things have been really busy lately. I would say my life balance has been a bit out of whack.

I’ve gone into hiding to write a research/funding proposal for work. This isn’t the first proposal I’ve written, I’ve even gotten a few funded. It has come at a very busy time with many other projects having deadlines. Looking back at my history I find it pretty amazing that I have a job where I can write these kinds of things. In school I never excelled at reading and writing. Since you’re reading this blog, your probably not surprised. Anyway, it ends up being a ton of work to make sure all the writing is correct, that there’s a story, budget and all the other minutia is covered.

What else has happened during this time? A lot, I’ll try to have updates in the coming days to bring you up to speed

So where am I now, at a work conference in Dallas. Not too exciting but it is fun to see all the folks I typically communicate with over the phone or email. I don’t have a lot of free time but I am hoping it will give me a chance to relax a little and recharge the batteries. You know, hit the “reset button” after a stressful few weeks.

Thanks for reading

Blue Sky Velo Cup Photos

Wow, this has been a busy week. Lots to tell you about but that will have to wait. For now I will post the photos from my Halloween race. My friend Adam was the only other racer in my category to get dressed up. Kinda sad but we had a lot of fun.
Enjoy

For you Facebook users, you might have to click here. Then just push the slide show button.