evolution racing cyclocross in lessburg tommorow... first race in the Bs so it's going to hurt even more than normal.
found this by accident this morning... Banterist
Friday, November 11, 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
rosaryville...
another great ride tonight... rosaryville this time, ripping up sweet singletrack sweeping in and out of little hollows and valleys on the southern side of DC. fast again, pushing up on the edges of the envelope as we floated around the rythmic flowy turns. to put it simply, this place rocks...
the trails were covered with leaves and blended into the forest floor so you had to watch the rider ahead to see the turns. somehow i managed to spend most of the night with ricky & jeremy in the lead group but i was on the edge the whole night. there's another night ride coming up at rosaryville on the 30th, keep an eye on the MORE ride calendar to details.
the trails were covered with leaves and blended into the forest floor so you had to watch the rider ahead to see the turns. somehow i managed to spend most of the night with ricky & jeremy in the lead group but i was on the edge the whole night. there's another night ride coming up at rosaryville on the 30th, keep an eye on the MORE ride calendar to details.
tuesday
good ride at wakefield last night... a good sized group, everyone seemed to be having fun. chris, the ride leader, had light problems so i ended up doing some of the leading and pushed the pace a bit up the climbs. plenty of fun to be had dodging trees on the phase 1 trails and carving through the new trails in the powerlines. had one of those great mountain biking nights where you're right on the edge of being out of control, flirting with the line, crossing it a little every now and then, but bringing it back before you get into too much trouble...
had a couple of bobbles while i was in the front when i lost the line and ended up somewhere i didn't expect to be... rain started falling towards the end of the ride but we managed to get in a couple laps of the racecourse a trip through the bowl and a couple runs down the creek trail.
rosaryville tonight, but the weather is looking a little iffy...
had a couple of bobbles while i was in the front when i lost the line and ended up somewhere i didn't expect to be... rain started falling towards the end of the ride but we managed to get in a couple laps of the racecourse a trip through the bowl and a couple runs down the creek trail.
rosaryville tonight, but the weather is looking a little iffy...
Monday, November 07, 2005
no blog...
no racing this weekend...
no riding this weekend...
but i don't care
i wouldn't change a thing
no riding this weekend...
but i don't care
i wouldn't change a thing
Friday, November 04, 2005
wind power takes to the high seas...
haven't had a chance to check out if the engineering is sound behind this (and wouldn't know enough to do so anyway), but these seem like a really good idea [via slashdot]...
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
drunkcyclist.com linkage...
somehow my pics from gloucester made it over to drunkcyclist and he's posted a link to the elite race shots... pretty cool to get a link from such a big blog and it looks like i've got a bunch of extra hits to my flickr account this morning... http://www.drunkcyclist.com [not work safe]
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Monday, October 31, 2005
gloucester...
saturday was very cold with a couple of flurries as we started... a bad start and bobble in the sandpit put me way back in a big field... rode into the top 10 by the end of the first lap and finished 4th. snow picked up all day and ended up in near whiteout conditions for the later races.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
granogue pictures...
stuck around after the race saturday to spectate & shoot some pictures. shot a lot during the masters race, but the rain started to pick up and i put away the camera in favor of some refreshments from the beer tent. go to the photos...
Monday, October 24, 2005
photo sighting...
back in the spring i did a photo shoot out local downhiller (and city bikes teamate) hillary elgert since she needed some pictures to help her in her assault on the pro ranks. hillary won a ride with marla streb in a charity auction and i marla wrote the ride up for her blog on mountainzone and guess who's picture showed up... (in case i'm being too subtle, it's one of mine). they've shown up in a couple of city bikes posters and ads but this has to be the coolest place that one's been used so far...
granogue
another early start on saturday for the drive up to granogue for the wooden wheels cyclocross but the 'C' race had a relatively leisurely 10am start, and i was there in plenty of time. took a walk around to try and get a look a the course and ran into marc & buddy who pointed out some of the "features" on the course then got checked in and headed back down to the car to get ready and get warmed up and take a couple of laps on the course...
the course was wet, slippery, and full of off-camber turns and roots... 2 run-ups, the second with a set of barriers at the start, but both had good flat to downhill remounts so hopefully they wouldn't hurt me too badly. the hardest part of the course was a series of sweeping off camber turns on the side of the hill that sent you along the contours for a way and then forced you to turn sharply up the hill and then back down and were already getting torn-up before the racing started.
managed to snag a spot near the outside of the 2nd row in the starting grid. buddy was lined up on the singlespeed mountain bike, thom moore and kevin dillard were over on the other side, fort james was in the 2nd row with me, syd lea was on the inside of the front row. the start went well... the field was big, almost 50 riders, and i went just hard enough to be in the front group as we hit the grass -- probably around 8th - 10th place --and then started picking off riders one by one. after a about a 1/4 of a lap i realized that there were only 2 riders ahead, a pair from east coast velo. i caught up to them just before we got to the climb to the water tower and decided to just try and stick with them for a while, at least untill we knew how many laps we'd be doing. if they were smart and stuck together they'd have an advantage on the road sections and i didn't see any need to try and attack on the first lap.
as we were descending down the water tower hill (evil slick off-camber turns mentioned above) the lead rider of the pair ahead turned to early and got caught in the course tape and his teammate either followed him of just got caught behind him. i rode around them and started to push a little harder to take advantage of their mistake. can't remember if i made it around the evil hairpin on the first lap, but by the time i got to the barriers i was on my own and starting to build a gap. came through the start/finish and didn't see any lap cards out, not a good sign, but from the comments coming from friends on the course it sounded like i was building a pretty good cushion.
on the 2nd lap i tried to stay smooth and ride smart. the ecv riders were close enough behind that i could still see them from time to time but i had a pretty consistent gap, then, on the evil turn i slipped sideways... i got off and ran a couple of steps to the top of the turn and then remounted, only to realize that my chain had come off... i coasted to the bottom of the hill, then fumbled around for a few seconds trying to get my chain back on... not having any luck and knowing that the barriers were up ahead anyway i picked up the bike and ran over the barriers and up the short hill after them, then stopped again and got my chain sorted out... after this run-up there was a good fast downhill section with a couple of nice semi-technical turns that i could ride smoothly but might have slowed down the non-mountain bikers (thanks marc, this was your part of the course, right) so i was able to get some speed and try to save my lead.
coming up to the finish i heard two things, one worrying, and the other the sweetest sound in a cyclocross race... the first was some chatter from the announcer about another rider bridging up to, and then passing the chasers - if he was doing that he might be able to catch me as well, the second was the bell, one lap left.
managed to keep the bike moving for one last lap around the course... almost got caught up in the tape on the first run-up (thanks for the heads up susan) and had to keep the pace high as the chasers were still uncomfortably close and the mystery rider was now ahead of the 2 east coast velo riders and probably gaining on me. the climb up to the water tower hurt a little more this lap and i ended up running a couple of steps at the top of the evil turn. at the bottom of the barriers/2nd run-up i could hear some fans cheering on the rider behind me and as i was getting back on the bike he was jumping the barriers and looked like he was running the hill faster than i did (note to self: practice running with the bike and work on shouldering the bike instead of pushing it) so i kept the pace up and pushed hard on the road untill about 20 yards before the start/finish and managed to cross the line for the win. 2nd place (don yungher from rutgers) came in about 15 seconds later, then the pair from ecv almost 25 seconds after him. buddy took 6th, fort james (fort-gpoa) came in in 10th, kevin dillard (ncvc) 13th...
thanks to everyone (susan, pooch, dave, marc, chris, etc...) that yelled out advice and encouragement, this was my first win ever in any kind of bike race and every bit helped... special thanks to my philly cheering section for some extra motivation...
time to try a 'B' race?
the course was wet, slippery, and full of off-camber turns and roots... 2 run-ups, the second with a set of barriers at the start, but both had good flat to downhill remounts so hopefully they wouldn't hurt me too badly. the hardest part of the course was a series of sweeping off camber turns on the side of the hill that sent you along the contours for a way and then forced you to turn sharply up the hill and then back down and were already getting torn-up before the racing started.
managed to snag a spot near the outside of the 2nd row in the starting grid. buddy was lined up on the singlespeed mountain bike, thom moore and kevin dillard were over on the other side, fort james was in the 2nd row with me, syd lea was on the inside of the front row. the start went well... the field was big, almost 50 riders, and i went just hard enough to be in the front group as we hit the grass -- probably around 8th - 10th place --and then started picking off riders one by one. after a about a 1/4 of a lap i realized that there were only 2 riders ahead, a pair from east coast velo. i caught up to them just before we got to the climb to the water tower and decided to just try and stick with them for a while, at least untill we knew how many laps we'd be doing. if they were smart and stuck together they'd have an advantage on the road sections and i didn't see any need to try and attack on the first lap.
as we were descending down the water tower hill (evil slick off-camber turns mentioned above) the lead rider of the pair ahead turned to early and got caught in the course tape and his teammate either followed him of just got caught behind him. i rode around them and started to push a little harder to take advantage of their mistake. can't remember if i made it around the evil hairpin on the first lap, but by the time i got to the barriers i was on my own and starting to build a gap. came through the start/finish and didn't see any lap cards out, not a good sign, but from the comments coming from friends on the course it sounded like i was building a pretty good cushion.
on the 2nd lap i tried to stay smooth and ride smart. the ecv riders were close enough behind that i could still see them from time to time but i had a pretty consistent gap, then, on the evil turn i slipped sideways... i got off and ran a couple of steps to the top of the turn and then remounted, only to realize that my chain had come off... i coasted to the bottom of the hill, then fumbled around for a few seconds trying to get my chain back on... not having any luck and knowing that the barriers were up ahead anyway i picked up the bike and ran over the barriers and up the short hill after them, then stopped again and got my chain sorted out... after this run-up there was a good fast downhill section with a couple of nice semi-technical turns that i could ride smoothly but might have slowed down the non-mountain bikers (thanks marc, this was your part of the course, right) so i was able to get some speed and try to save my lead.
coming up to the finish i heard two things, one worrying, and the other the sweetest sound in a cyclocross race... the first was some chatter from the announcer about another rider bridging up to, and then passing the chasers - if he was doing that he might be able to catch me as well, the second was the bell, one lap left.
managed to keep the bike moving for one last lap around the course... almost got caught up in the tape on the first run-up (thanks for the heads up susan) and had to keep the pace high as the chasers were still uncomfortably close and the mystery rider was now ahead of the 2 east coast velo riders and probably gaining on me. the climb up to the water tower hurt a little more this lap and i ended up running a couple of steps at the top of the evil turn. at the bottom of the barriers/2nd run-up i could hear some fans cheering on the rider behind me and as i was getting back on the bike he was jumping the barriers and looked like he was running the hill faster than i did (note to self: practice running with the bike and work on shouldering the bike instead of pushing it) so i kept the pace up and pushed hard on the road untill about 20 yards before the start/finish and managed to cross the line for the win. 2nd place (don yungher from rutgers) came in about 15 seconds later, then the pair from ecv almost 25 seconds after him. buddy took 6th, fort james (fort-gpoa) came in in 10th, kevin dillard (ncvc) 13th...
thanks to everyone (susan, pooch, dave, marc, chris, etc...) that yelled out advice and encouragement, this was my first win ever in any kind of bike race and every bit helped... special thanks to my philly cheering section for some extra motivation...
time to try a 'B' race?
Thursday, October 20, 2005
wakefield after dark
back from the new trails at wakefield... first full blown lights on from the start ride since the 24 hours of big bear back in june. there's only one word for the phase I & phase II loop at wakefield: fast and flowy - ok, that's 2 words... fast, flowy, and just a little jumpy...
the new phase II trails have big insloped turns, a couple of switchbacks, and plenty of twisty singletrack and tie into the phase I trails on the hill with a couple of insloped turns that replace a series of tight, flat 180 turns that forced you to brake hard and scrub off a lot of speed.
damn these trails are fast, can't wait for the wednesday races next summer...
the new phase II trails have big insloped turns, a couple of switchbacks, and plenty of twisty singletrack and tie into the phase I trails on the hill with a couple of insloped turns that replace a series of tight, flat 180 turns that forced you to brake hard and scrub off a lot of speed.
damn these trails are fast, can't wait for the wednesday races next summer...
granogue...
my cylcocross bike is preped and ready for the granogue race this saturday so i'm going to head to wakefield tonight to take in the new phase II trails that i helped build a couple of weeks ago. the trails looked like they'd be a blast while i was working on them and they've have been getting good reviews, so i'm really looking forward to tonights ride...
spent tuesday night tuning the setup of the tri-cross and getting my new tufos mounted onto my old road wheels. these will be my race wheels and i'll keep my old wheels with michellin mud 35s as training and backup wheels...
spent tuesday night tuning the setup of the tri-cross and getting my new tufos mounted onto my old road wheels. these will be my race wheels and i'll keep my old wheels with michellin mud 35s as training and backup wheels...
Sunday, October 16, 2005
no cross this weekend... hit the roads for a couple of hours yesterday for a much needed antidote to last weeks grey & wet weather. beautiful blue skies, cool air, warm sun, and that great autumn scent in the air.
today, instead of 3 hours on the road to the beacon race i opted for a shorter drive up to fredrick for a casual ride at gambrill with jason, david, rob, & chris. we did a pretty casual spin around the yellow trail stopping to play around on some of the technical features and speculate on alternate lines. there used to be a couple of sections of trail that i've never really felt comfortable on, but today i just felt great, flowing... perfect fall riding
today, instead of 3 hours on the road to the beacon race i opted for a shorter drive up to fredrick for a casual ride at gambrill with jason, david, rob, & chris. we did a pretty casual spin around the yellow trail stopping to play around on some of the technical features and speculate on alternate lines. there used to be a couple of sections of trail that i've never really felt comfortable on, but today i just felt great, flowing... perfect fall riding
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