CONGRATS are in order

so, remember that guy on our team who spent 3 months of the fall in a neck brace smoking cigarettes and contributing reviews after breaking his neck at Downieville? well, turns out it didn't hurt him much. or perhaps those "nicotine" patches weren't what he said they were. regardless of how he came back from such a horrible accident, they fact is he came back, and came back well. Kirt raced a bunch of Single Speed cross races this year. He made it to 4 of 5 of the BASP series races and did damn well too. So well, that he took home second in the series. Congrats Kirt.

ps- can you get me some of those patches?

A view from the sidelines

This blog's been a bit silent...but the camel is stoked for cross. More than other disciplines, it requires a full combo of fitness, skill, solid bike setup, luck...and being fired up.  As Skirt has shown, the only one that you can do well without is fitness. Nice work at Livermore!

I spent the entire road/mtb season racing...and waiting for cross. The intensity required beckoned me during long mileage days. Any time I spun out the big ring on my mtb, feeling a high-cadence flow on some stretch of dirt...cross. Hell, I even did some running. And now, after an accident during a recent night trail ride, my season looks shot with only two (marginal) finishes. I've been trying hard to decide whether to aim my PT and training towards late season races, ala Andy Jacques-Maynes'  example...or punt and focus on road season next year.

This last week, a couple of the Altezza guys forwarded me a video from one of Norcal's "Peak Season" races...our only hope at proper muddy cross. I dare you all to watch this, and not get excited. For everybody that has the ability to get to a cross race this weekend, and next, and the one after that: do it. This stuff only comes around once a year. I'm stoked, and I can't even walk right now :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdPwUZcByIY&feature=related

Camel with Mark Blackwelder (Tron), winner of single speed and 4th place in A's. Killing it.

"Sexual Camel? That's what my wife is!"
-Cross Crusade, Astoria, OR

Ride Out the Depression with a Road Trip?

Tell me this isn't a good idea. Two grand for a 21 passenger diesel bus. All of a sudden the economy tanks and I have my days free. I'm thinking buy the bus, gut it and put a veggie oil filtration system in it, a bed, kitchen, bike rack et cetera and race bikes, blog, podcast, temp work and race bikes. But where the F do I park something that big?

Cross season begins

Well, the 2008 'cross season kicked off for me at CCCX's course on Sunday in the infield at Laguna Seca. For those that know the area, we climbed up the pedestrian path next to the corkscrew...which is steep enough to make me really wish I rode a mountain bike. Right after the climb, they added an awkward, off camber turning approach to a barrier. I think the best way to train for this sort of feature would be to have someone give me a swift kick in the junk right before attempting a smooth dismount. Focus. 

So...race report. We A folks lined up with a couple ringers in addition to the rock lobster and cal giant boys....Ben Jacques Mayne, and some old guy named Ned in Specialized kit. As far as I know, those guys up front were on motorcycles, because I lost sight of them before the first hill. I managed to settle into a rhythym, holding onto top 15  on the first lap. I didn't have any major errors except for some poor dismounts on aforementioned barrier at the top of the hill...and lung mucous that I got all over my shiny new Altezza kit. Thanks to Kirt's skills clinic, I almost had the higher-speed barrier dialed...I was one step off on this one, but still moved through it decently. I'm turning the bike since there's a 180 degree left directly after the barrier :-)

http://bikeguy.smugmug.com/gallery/6226196_YzcsJ#392866629_QqMSG

Halfway through the race, I got gobbled up on a flat, fast section by a small group that was trading pulls against the wind, and couldn't quite hold a wheel. Kirt, I tried. I tried.

I finished in 17th, which I'm muy happy with for my first A race. Given the sonofabitch climb in this one, I don't know how I feel about back-to-back weekends with McLaren, but it sounds like they've cut out some of the mtb-like brutality from last year.

Good to see everybody out there, and get this season kicked off! 

Nobody likes a quitter

The neck brace is off so now I have to give up the smoking that I love so much... again. If you've never smoked, don't start. What they don't tell you in Health Ed class is that you're gonna love it.

I hate quitting.