I am a cyclist

my blog
by: nofinishline

Makes You Think

Midseason Cold

We're in the meat of the cyclocross season and I'm sick. It's an 'off the course' skill to avoid getting sick during fall racing. It gets really challenging with kids. During CX season you just have to remember, like anything during a cyclocross race, something is going to go wrong. There's not such thing as a perfect race/season, it's how you recover and push forward that makes the difference.

Shortly after the Halloween race, the next day to be specific, I came down with a pretty gnarly cold. I've been off the bike, miserable, for the last 8 days. I think I'm mostly over the cold so just this morning I jumped on the trainer for a 30 min ride to see how the body would react. So far so good, no violent relapse. I feel ready to start working out but I'm willing to give it a few extra days to make sure, so I don't lose more time due to a relapse or other complication.

Big Ring Parker CX in on tap this Saturday. It's the second team race this year and it's not in the 'Boulder Bubble'. It's a great course and I'm looking forward to racing! See you there.

Feel the Burn!

Halloween cyclocross! I tried to take things up a level since I missed last year. I had a fun race, lots of wild comments from the fans and racers. My results weren't spectacular but I gave it my all and pushed through the mud and pain.

Sadly the family cold appears to have caught up to me and I feel really bad today. Maybe that explains the results? I thinks so. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Summer's Over

I have mixed feelings about it. Could be good for CX. Not so good for fun training rides; back to the pain cave.

Cyclocross 2011 mid season thoughts

Sorry for the lack of updates this Cross season. As you know I upgraded to a new faster category last season, Cat 3. Moving out of the beginner pack was fun because I got to tell stories about how well I was doing. This season things have been a little harder, ok maybe a lot harder. Everyone is fast and at a much more competitive level.

Everything during the race is heavily competed, (the start, the flats, the straights and the corners, barriers) your weaknesses show up. At first I was a little concerned because I didn't have the strength to push by everyone. But then again, during the race I'm racing in larger groups of riders and all of us are about the same level and no one has the strength to just ride away. In the end I'm always amazed at how many people finish right around me. If I could just go 1 minute faster I move up 10 - 15 places.

In many ways the races have been a lot of fun. Tactics start to play an important roll. I go back and forth with a lot of racers and we all know who's having a strong day, and you can't have a strong race every time. I really feel like I've learned a lot about my self and my racing capabilities this year and particularly this season. It's just not always an exciting story to tell.

Little Piece of Heaven

Tuff Start to the Cross Season

This past Saturday I kicked off my 2011 cyclocross season by attending the Queens of Cross race, not far from home. This venue has been kind to be in the past, I've won races (a race) here and generally had good results. This year I was lining up with the SM 3 for the last race of the year. I was nervous but I tried to stay hydrated in the warm afternoon sun and I remember to be patient on that first lap.

At the start, the officials started doing call ups. He must of read off 50 names for the 12 racers there (no shit). Near the end of the list I even got a call up, that was unexpected. 12 guys, he should of just said "line up". Callups are very important but not for the start of this race. The start had a good straight away then a u-turn and back to the first obstacle. I didn't kill myself, I knew they'd have to slow way down at the turn around, and they did. As we started with the first lap I started moving forward, I was feeling good and people were getting tired after the start. I passed about 4 guys as we came into the first barrier. I dismounted a looked up at the guy I wanted to follow, and jumped....

BOOOM

I clipped my foot on the barrier and went flying through the air like Superman! Splat, right on my stomach and elbows between the barriers. I'm sure I let out a nice "uuuugh" as the air was pushed out of my lungs. It must have looked spectacular because one of the coarse marshals was on me asking if I was ok before I even looked up. I actually felt ok and knew nothing major had happened so I jumped back on the bike. But my speed was really reduced. I felt like I had just been punched in the stomach.

My legs had more in them but puke brewing in my belly said, "not so fast dude". I was hoping if I could keep a few of the racers within my sight I might be able to catch them later. In the end I caught two of them, narrowly avoiding DFL. The wheel I was planning to follow before I crashed went on to win the race, he's a friend, it was good. Two bad I didn't lift my foot another inch. I am happy to say I rode every bit of the two huge, steep hills on every lap.

So, there you have it. I crashed on the very first cyclocross barrier of the 2011 season. Things can only get better now!

Phenomenal Lookout Ride

I got a jump on the rain this morning and climbed into to clouds on Lookout. Just me and the deer. It was fantastic.

US Pro Race

It's been a long hard week and I haven't been able to see much of the Colorado Pro Tour bike race that's been ripping through the state. But today I told everyone to go away and I took my 4 year old to the Golden race. We parked in town then rode up to the turn just before the pillars on lookout. My 4 year old muscled it out, it's the steepest point of the climb. We watched them race by then we quickly dropped back into Golden and saw the racers go back through Golden before racing into Denver for the finale. It was great to the pro racers on my roads. They were flying!
Racer sign in.
Had to ride the start after the race.
Chill'n on the dragon watch'n the race on the big screen after it left Golden.