As America implodes, the bike industry booms

I ran across this article titled As America implodes, the bike industry booms.

Switching Gears....

Troy Wells, Clif Bar, charging to the top of one of the more challenging hills of Saturday's course.

For me, it was 'cross spectating on Saturday, then mtb racing on Sunday.

Saturday's Jonathan Page Planet Bike 'Cross event pics. The flickr uploading process is taking forever - it keeps getting hung up and skipping lots of photos, so then I have to go back and try again. It's slow going. If you, however, want to see what's online so far from the Elite Men's Planet Bike 'Cross event on Saturday, then go here, and also check back later!

Racers entering the Culvert, with spectators at both ends.

Sunday's Wolf River Rendevous: the Dirty Face Race. While the crossers in Madison battled it out for their second day, the WORS racers encountered dusty conditions on one of the bumpiest (but otherwise fun) courses I have ever been on. The Dirty Faces of WORS series can be found here, along with some shots of racers entering the dreaded culvert! Did they make it to the other side where all those people are waiting, without bumping their heads and scraping their elbows? Was it all message board hype?

Congratulations Sara and Scott!

Congratulations to Sara and Scott Kylander-Johnson on the birth of their adorable daughter Saturday! Keira Ester is the newest (little) member of the Trek team!

I can't wait to meet her, likely at Sheboygan.

Go Ben!

Congrats to Ben on a great race at Cross Vegas! There's a great pic of him charging up the run up near the beer garden, giving the spectators his now famous high five, in a slide show on Truesport. The next pic after his in the slide show? Lance! After that? Ryan Trebon!! After that? Lance again!!!

Update: Turns out that same pic got the first spot in VeloNew's Cross Vegas slide show!

Zero Traction

In addition to the Nine Ball Diaries, there is another film being made about the 2007 Cross Nationals, called Zero Traction. What an appropriate name! I just read about it on CBR. Watching the trailer was like reliving the race for me, in a way. They show you the sloppy mud, the icy mud, the puddles, and the snow that we encountered, it's all there! Very fun to watch, if you love cross. Or even if you don't.

More Wildlife

On top of all the animals mentioned previously, last night I was walking not far from home after dark and I saw a little raccoon! He was on someone's lawn. He stopped and I stopped and we just stared at each other for a bit, neither moving. Then he turned and disappeared into the bushes.

Kamikaze Wildlife?

Am I the only one who has noticed kamikaze wildlife on road rides lately?  Is it the moon?  the economy? I know they say there is always more roadkill around a full moon.  (not sure where the moon is right now in it's cycle).  

A week or so ago it was skunks.  One jumped off the curb and ran into the road right in front of me by the hospital on Ridge at night after dark.  I think it saw my headlight, because it stopped just in time and scampered back to the curb.  Then, that same week, it was after dark and I was roaring up the front walk on the bike, headlight blazing, hitting the brakes, and there was a little skunk on the porch!  He scurried down the steps, around the front of the building and into the bushes.  I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't scare him enough to get sprayed!  I have been smelling skunk outside a lot around my place lately, so I feel like I dodged a bullet!

The other day on a ride at least three squirrels ran in front of the bike during the course of the ride!  Maybe four.  Enough that I was wondering what was up.  They were close calls. I think I saw a chipmunk running across the road the same evening as well.  

There was a deer walking across the street right in town around dinnertime a few days ago. 

And tonight, I started my ride at dusk, with lights, around 7.  I wasn't able to get out any earlier. A FOX ran right across Sheridan Road in front of me at one point!!!  Crazy!! I never see those.

I did have a very nice night ride. ("night" in thiis case referring to in the dark with lights)  I have been really enjoying night rides lately on the nights that it has been fairly warm.  I try to start when it's light out, but take lights so I can stay out longer. I see a fair amount of commuters out there.  Tonight I saw, or rather heard, a group of four guys with headlights that must have been out for a training ride.  I could hear them talking as they passed on the other side of the road, but all I could see was four headlights glowing in the dark.  

Maybe all these animals can feel that the economy is collapsing and they are panicking like the rest of us?  Or they just sense the panic in the air?

note: even now, sitting at the computer late in the evening, the smell of skunk just started wafting in the window.

'Cross season kickoff!

IMG_9744
Originally uploaded by soupy371

Thanks to Soupy for taking this pic at the Chi Cross Cup race in Jackson Park yesterday.  A great time was had by many!  As far as podium spots go,  congrats to June of Verdigris for 1st and Holly K. of Killjoy for 3rd in the Women's Cat 1/2/3 race!  Congrats to Kevin K. of Killjoy on crushing the Men's 30+ field for a win!  Congrats to Tim B. of Verdigris who I am pretty sure took 2nd in the 40+, and to Aris of Expo who won the Juniors race.  I  know there were more who had great rides but that is all I can remember of podium spots at the moment without seeing the results. Race report to come.

New Cyclocross Movie!

Check out the trailer for the new 'cross movie Nine Ball Diaries, featuring last year's national champion Tim Johnson. Something to look forward to!

I got to meet him at the party after Nationals last year.  Dave Towle took a pic of me with him.  Tim was really friendly, likeable, and seemed like a really good guy.  (I'll stick the pic up later if I can find it.)  

Chequamegon!

Some things I brought back from Chequamegon:

- a renewed passion for an event that I have been doing on and off for, like, forever! With my very last minute decision last year to sit out the race to give my body a rest, I had somehow forgotten how incredible it feels to be part of this event, and not just a spectator. I had so much fun in the race!
- a sense of how great a sunny, dry Chequamegon weekend is, and can be, compared to a rainy one. having a rainy one made me appreciate the good years so much more! the rain sent everyone scurrying back to their cabins instead of hanging out after the race and making plans to go out later on in the evening. if you didn't catch them after the race, you may not be able to meet up with them again later, because most people's phones don't work in Cable.
- a nasty cold/sinus infection thing that has gotten worse before it has gotten better.
- a sense of impending doom that summer is over and fall is upon us.
- a sense of relief that I wasn't around for all the flooding and downpours that we had at home.
- some t-shirts and pint glasses
- going to the awards ceremony and watching the slide show gives you an appreciation for all that is Chequamegon. seeing that the second place woman in the Short and Fat is 51 and the third place woman is 58 (!!) gives you an idea of what is possible, and is inspiring! and both these women pull off results like that year after year.... how do they do that?
- never take our racing for granted. we forget how lucky we are to have Chequamegon, WORS, and WEMS within driving distance! when people from other places come and do this race, they can't believe how well run Chequamegon is, how great the people are, and how much enthusiasm for riding there is out there on the trail, found in all shapes and sizes of people and bikes. someone who lives in Colorado and does the race told me how people from other places react when they first do the race. this applies to sponsors from out of state, too.

and, as a side note, my friend tells me that mtb racers (or former mtb racers) in Boulder that came from the Midwest fondly reminisce about how wonderful the WORS series is, and how it is the best race series in the country. we forget that!

Fall: Save it for Never

Barbara Brotman of the Tribune captures the sentiment perfectly! After a summer that wasn't (at least by the lake), the cooler weather is hard to bear.

Having been in the North Woods the last two weekends, I guess I've had a bigger dose of it.

Registration for CX Nats

Don't forget to register for Cross Nationals on September 15th at 12:01 am! it's going to be a great time!

Comeback

The truth comes out?

Smokin' Spoke

This is my kind of start! It was a surprise to me, though. I didn't remember the start at all from last year, except for the actual start line area. At that point I wished that I had remembered it or preridden it so I would have been better prepared. Below I am trying to gain some time on the field, along with a few others.  Yes, I do look like a geek.  It felt cold to me (50 on the weather channel first thing in the morning?).  
                     Thanks to Christine for the above pic!
The day turned out well, better even than I had hoped. Our course was super fun, to me!! Though the bumpy singletrack was really hard on my back - I am really feeling it this week. I didn't feel it so much then, but I feel it now.

If there's time I'll do a real race report before Chequamegon. There's a lot to get done between now and then, though, it's a short week.

How many of you?

How many of you are there in the U.S.?

If you are curious about how many people have the same name as you, you can find out at howmanyofme.com. ( It did occur to me that they might be gathering marketing information behind the scenes on this site, but they say that they don't share the info with anyone.)

There are a hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. with my first name, and a lot fewer with my last. There are only 4 people in the U.S. with my full name! Turns out my sister only has 3 and my mother may not exist. Anyone else have a low number of clones?

Labor Day Weekend

(update: I added some pics below)

I am so behind. There's so much to write about. If only one could blog while driving to/from a race, or on a ride. That's when some of the best thoughts pop up... I haven't even had a chance to even write about how nice and how much fun Ben and Julie's wedding was! Until then, I will do a short version for Labor Day weekend. It may not be so short by the time I am done.

Labor Day weekend brought my favorite kind of weather - warm and dry. I have been waiting all summer for some hot weather! It's often cooler by my house so I have felt shortchanged this summer.

Friday night: went out to dinner with New Zealand Wendy, her ex-boyfriend, her ex-roommate's ex-boyfriend from France, and her soon-to-be roommate who also happens to be from France. The people from France came here (independent of each other) to teach for a year. We sat outside at Heartland Cafe. Then got ready for the race until about 2 am, then off to bed, later than I had planned.

Saturday: got up, got ready, got the food/cooler ready, packed the car and hit the road for Stump Farm near Green Bay! One of my favorite WEMS courses! I sat in at least four different traffic backups, three on the tollway, and one north of Racine where state troopers shut down a lane or two for an accident. This put me at least 45 minutes, probably more, behind schedule. (I really did leave on time!) I enjoyed watching all the Harley riders heading up to the 105th anniversary, it made the long drive alot more interesting. By the time I got registered, ready, and had to go back to get a second number plate after mine vanished into thin air, the race had already started. I saw the pack of LeMans starters go by, it was kind of fun to watch them all scrambling for their bikes. When it comes to LeMans starts, I'm not a scrambler. I'm more of an ambler.

I saw Amanda and Audrey right away when I got there - it seemed like they had had a good day on the trails and were ready to head home soon, complete with awards.  Congrats! Audrey got to experience, for a lap, what it was like to ride a mt bike that fits her. Someone lent her a bike for a lap.

About 15 minutes after the others, I finally got going.

I'm not sure if the big snake that slithered across the trail right in front of me midrace lived to tell the tale or not - I didn't feel a "thump", so I hope he was able to get out of the way. I couldn't believe how big he/it was! The course seemed a lot bumpier and less swoopy/flowy than I remembered from last year. One person suggested that the wors race had an effect on the course, in terms of increased wear. I don't know if that race used all the same trails, or not, so I can't comment.

I do know that there was a lot more sand than I remember, due to the recent lack of rain. This makes me think we might be in for a lot of sand at Chequamegon too? I didn't like the sand at all - I have forgotten how to ride in sand. There was one particular scary sandy downhill that didn't get any better each time I did it. I am close to deciding that this bike is not a great sand bike, after losing control over and over. I always made the save, though, just in time.

I was on edge the whole last lap, wondering if I should be trying to squeeze that lap in. I hadn't been keeping as close an eye on my lap times as I usually would. I got thrown off by the late start. Sure enough, it got down to the wire! Near the end when I was starting to worry, I got some friendly encouragement from Tim M., and some inspiration from watching two Hayes blurs on wheels that I think were Russell and perhaps Kyle. Having them roar by helped me mentally pick up the pace. Once I was in the open I gave it everything I had trying to make it before the 6:00 deadline. It was very close. At 5:57 I still wasn't sure exactly how close the finish line was, though I knew it had to be soon. I finished with around 25 seconds to spare!! And just now I noticed that the woman who was ahead of me finished only 33 seconds ahead. Wish I had known she was there! I passed several people in the first lap. If I hadn't started late I think I would have gained only two more places, looking at the results. Not that you ever know for sure how it would have gone. There was a pretty big gap up to the faster people from there.

Subtracting the late start time, my first lap and last lap were very close in time. I must have really slowed down in the second one though, that one was four minutes slower. Usually they are all within a minute or so of each other. The first lap I was torn between just going my own comfortable pace and having fun, or trying to catch some people. I had no idea of even how many women were in the race, but I did know there were some I couldn't catch under any circumstances! The second lap I fell apart a little, my singletrack skills got even worse that lap, I was all over the place and bobbling on stuff I cleared the first lap. The last lap I was under the gun to finish under the deadline, so I stepped it up in the second half.

After the race Susie led the awards ceremony for the three hour race. Lori got second and Brittany got third - nice work! They each got to take home one of those awesome Stump Farm pint glasses. Thanks to Susie and Bill for putting on the race! I saw at least one dad out there riding the whole race with his son, and one husband riding along with his wife in her first race, how cool is that? I think Susie and Eliott did a lap or two together, too. Eliott won a stuffed animal - they had some kid's prizes.
Brittany (3rd, 3 hour) and Lori (2nd, 3 hour) after the awards with their pint glasses.
Susie and Elliot. Susie's husband Bill is the race director. Susie rode laps with Elliot, who won the prize you see here.

After the race I chatted with some people and compared notes with Anne about the course. We all had dirt all over us - some smart people had sun showers with them. Thanks to Bill and Brittany for sharing some of their delicious bbq in the parking lot. It was fun talking to their Pedal Moraine group.

At the gas station/restaurant/convenience store on the way to the main road, the woman at the checkout counter asked how the race was. Apparently she was getting pretty good at spotting the white feet/dirty legs combination! Or maybe it was the dirty raccoon face thing some people had going on! And I thought I had gotten all the dirt off - there was just enough of a hint of a dirt ring left that she spotted me for what I was - an exhausted bike racer. She said people had been coming in to buy alot of icy hot, among other things.

Things that helped me stay awake on the drive home: running across the "House of Hair" show on The Hog radio station. Metal bands. Dudes with long hair. It was funny seeing the radio display showing "The Hog" and "House of Hair". I was amused by that for some reason. When that got old I discovered a station with call letters that included KM for "Kettle Moraine" (Northern Kettle) that was playing polkas! Lively stuff. I lasted about two songs, but it did perk me up.

Got home late, got to bed late.

Kettle on Sunday, met up with some teammates and some of their friends later in the day. I was feeling so beaten up from the race that I almost didn't go. Took 41 to avoid the tollway back-ups, which worked well . Tried the Rainy Dew trail for the first time - I like it. I was surprised to see a big log pile on the blue - it hadn't been there the week before. It was the height of two people, I would say. A good North Shore style rider might be tempted to ride down the side of it for fun. I'm sure someone's already thought of it... We ended up hanging out for quite a while, into the early evening. Fun. They were going to bbq but not enough of their friends could make it so we got stuff from the general store. I got everyone that had our team jersey on to pose for a pic.


Kettle again on Monday. Took 41 again. The girls ride was starting too early for me, but I had lunch with some of them (Christine, Sonni, Amelia and Ty) at the general store, then went back for another loop before heading home. (Regina and Bill left right after the ride.) I had to be at a going away bbq and was concerned that traffic at the end of the holiday weekend would be bad. It wasn't as bad as I expected!

The going away party was really fun. Brian is moving to Colorado, and it seems like he can hardly wait to begin his new adventure. I will be sad to see a good friend leave, but I know he's ready for something new. Our local group of friends has fallen apart as people have moved away in the last year. There goes one more.....

Pretty much all I did for the weekend was eat, pack, drive, race, drive, ride mt bikes, eat, drive, socialize, and so on. It was fun. I am tired. What happened to the two days of not traveling anywhere I had promised myself? Or all the house stuff I was going to get done? Oh, well, it was perfect weather for me. You have to take advantage of it when you can, with winters like ours!