Where's My Cowbell?

Greetings from Boulder!

I had decided not to do the Boulder Cup trip due to various factors that made staying home seem like the best thing to do. Tuesday night it was decided (with the help of one of the friends involved whose plans had also changed) that I was officially not going. Then the friend I would have been staying with called Wednesday morning and said she had figured a way to make it work out for her to stick around and go watch the races. So I did a mad scramble to get ready, staying up until 5am on Wednesday night trying to get everything done beforehand.... and here I am.

I didn't see bike racers milling around the airport tonight like I did in Providence, for example, two years ago. For nats there were bike boxes everywhere you looked. Today I only saw one. So either people are coming in tomorrow, they are driving in, or else they all live around here. Or a combination of the three. The start list is looking bigger and better than it did a couple of weeks ago. Just in the last few days I noticed some new names going up - names like Trebon and Troy Wells. I remember wondering the last time I looked why those two weren't on the list. There's gonna be a lotta good cowbell going on this weekend!

The weather is great - we walked down to Pearl St. for dinner and ended up at Juanita's. The chips were irrestible, and I tried a pomegranite margarita for the first time. I liked it, but am thinking I didn't love it.

Walking back from dinner, we saw a lot of people riding home along 13th from the Halloween Critical Mass ride. Their bikes were often all lit up and some were in good spirits - wearing fun costumes, calling out to us, and in one case blasting music from a trailer hooked up to a tandem. There is supposed to be a crazy Halloween party downtown tomorrow night. I hear it starts out as a party for the kids, but it supposedly morphs into something completely different.

If this great weather holds up, it should be ideal weather for spectating. It may disappoint the die hard mud and drizzle lovers, but I'll take 70's in November any day!

Darn, forgot my cowbell!

I guess I'll have to take some pictures instead.

I won't have time to do the WORS Banquet report this week - but I do want to say thank you to Gary of XTR Photo for taking the time to create two great collages of photos of the mtb team from the WORS series in 2008. He also put together a sweet slide show of various series riders which he showed at the banquet. He and Johnny are out there at every race taking pics of each racer, as well as trying to race themselves. Say thanks next time you see them, and maybe buy a pic or two. As Gary will tell you, they are doing it for the racers.

Great Balls of Fire

Here's a much better pic than mine of Mike P. bursting through the flames on the flaming coffin barrier, taken by Peloton Pix. Wow.


Good thing his team kit didn't melt. Ouch.

WORS Video

A big thanks to Claire for all the time she spent creating the awesome WORS Movie!!! the Movie premiere was at the WORS awards banquet Saturday night.


WORS 2008: The Movie from Team WORS on Vimeo.

It's about 17 minutes - put it on full screen and find yourself! I'm in there, you are in there... a lot of my pics are in there which means if I took a candid of you it might be in there..... the "dirty face" series from dusty Shawano is in there...the list goes on and on.... if you raced WORS often you are probably there!

Don't miss the Halloween Cross pics below in the previous post.

Halloween Cross

I only was there for the 1,2's/Masters 30+ race, so I know there were a lot of great costumes I missed. I stopped on my way home from Saturday night's WORS banquet. I stood by the fire barrier with little coffins on either end. There was a wine bottle set up on one of the little coffins, which barrier hoppers would try to knock off. Some people got a little "extra ingredient" added to the mix when they came by, to keep them on their toes... or to give them added incentive to hop a little higher....

A WORS banquet report to come later...until then, congrats to Christine on winning the big raffle grand prize, a GT Zaskar carbon frame that probably weighs less than my camera!

This is the moment where your stomach either leaps into your throat or else turns into a big knot...

Mike P. survived the fireball to take 2nd place.

It's a bit out of focus, but Jeremey's expression is priceless!!! I was so busy taking pictures (and not seeing faces) that I didn't realize for a few laps that it was him. Hmm, I think he needs to read The Official Rules of the Euro Cyclist again (see my last post).

First place Kyle. You can see the little gray coffin on the left. Further left from that was a fire pit.

Dude, check out those tan lines... this had to be one of the best costumes of the day, even though I didn't see them all.

Flying Santa!

Aris' fuzzy pj's are so awesome, they have feet! Ideal Halloween post-race wear on such a cold, windy day.



And this one I put for Chris and Kim, and Sprout! Some costume ideas for the future? (update: I just found out this is James LaLonde from looking at someone else's flickr)

Pics here.

Confused?

Wondering what bike to buy? What road shoes to wear? Cut your hair or let it grow long? Your non-cycling friends confused by all the minutiae of road cycling? Send them to The Official Rules of the Euro Cyclist and check it out yourself while you are at it. Rating: mildly amusing, some of it true! (note: you may have to be a facebook member to access it)

Can someone explain the glasses over the helmet strap rule? I have never gotten that one. Do we get an exemption if we wear close-fitting prescription inserts/glasses and we need them to actually stay on our face to see? Or is there a no prescription glasses rule too?

So many things, too little time!

It's a toss up!! The WORS awards banquet is Saturday night. On the way home Sunday I could stop at either Washington Park cross or Bartlett cross. The decision would have to be made north of Madison before 90 and 94 split. There are good reasons to go to both. I'm never good at deciding these either/or things, I always just wish I could be everywhere and do it all. I can't be the only one trying to decide between the two - what's the verdict?

Another such decision is whether to go to the Boulder Cup. I made plans to go to Boulder Cup to hang out because a friend got invited to be one of the announcers, and because I could drag other friends that live there to the race with me. I love visiting there, there's just something about the light and the mountains... and that particular race is a blast to watch, from what I hear. But, at the time I made the plans I didn't know I was going to get an invite to Iceman. I really don't have time to go to both, plus I am trying to recover from an injury from a couple of weeks ago. A wise person would stay at home and rest and try to heal that weekend in order to feel good enough to do Iceman right after that.....

On another note, I was happy to see these and these pics. They might look a little familiar. It's good to see friends doing so well in their racing. There was a lot more to the 1/2's race story than was in the article!!!

Congrats to the many friends who rode an awesome race last Sunday!

The Battle of Carpentersville

Above and below, almost to the finish line!


The Cat 1/2 men put on a great show in Carpentersville for ChiCross #4! It was one of the more exciting cross races I have watched lately - probably because I knew many of the characters involved, and also because I wasn't sure what to expect beforehand with some very talented riders going head to head. I need to get some sleep, but I'll leave you with a couple of pics for now. Hopefully more later.

Cat 1/2 men's pics

Cat 4 women, juniors pics

Fluffy clouds and bikes......on top of Ben and Julie's car.

More Sheboygan - Elite/Expert/Comp

An assortment of finish line and equalizer pics from Sheboygan:
Lori crossing the line in 6th place with a big grin! She doesn't even look tired.

Abby crossing the line in second place, elite/expert women.

Holly L. seems really happy to make it to the top of the Equalizer. She got third in the race.

Andrea hopping on her bike at the top of the Equalizer, with Jen in hot pursuit behind her. The Sheboygan newspaper photographer is on the left. Andrea went on to take fourth in Elite/Expert. Meanwhile, her husband Brian was tearing it up in Ohio at the UCI cross races.

Scott K-J has a new baby, Kiera, in the house, but the lack of sleep doesn't seem to be slowing him down!

Jason reaching the top, having a great first comp race.

At this moment Mike was probably wishing he had done the much shorter cross race at Hawthorne Woods instead of climbing the Equalizer!

This guy, whom I don't know, was screaming in pain from leg cramps brought on by the Equalizer. Others collapsed halfway up the hill in a heap, writhing. This guy was lucky, he made it to the top.

The cash ran out, but Russell got a beer handup at the top of the Equalizer.


From this Flickr set and this Flickr set.

Expand your Horizons

Mountain biking may be legal in National Parks in the future, according to this article.

frustration

My internet is out, so until they come to fix it, no more photos uploaded to flickr or to the blog... this is what I have so far. There are also venue pics, start pics, expert finish pics, and raffle pics to come. I was volunteering on Sunday and taking pics was part of what I did all day, so there are alot to wade through, if you have the patience to look for pics of yourself!! Feel free to ask me if I have any of you, I might remember. More coming.

Equalizer - some Citizen

Equalizer - some Sport, mostly women

Equalizer - Expert/Elite

Cit youth start

and I just discovered something that makes me feel really stupid....with my old browser I had to type the html link stuff in every time I wanted to do a link, so I seldom had time to do that. I am on a different computer today, with an upgraded OS, and I just discovered that other (newer) browsers have a box you can call up that makes an automatic link!!

Can't eat this Taco!!

Rick's wheel is one of the most taco'd wheels I have seen! He and his bike still made it across the finish line....

Shevegas - Down to the Last Dollar

The men's elite winner, Jesse, coming across the line. When I was standing at the Equalizer, Cole House had come through first the last couple of times I saw them, with Jesse right on his wheel. Jesse put some time on Cole near the end of the race. I can't find a pic of the elite women's winner. I'm not sure what her jersey looks like, I thought one of the other women won.

You know where you are when you see THIS guy!

His encouragement, which is unwavering but comes in various forms (as you can see), helps a lot of people make it to the top.....of the equalizer, at least! He's having open heart surgery next week - we wish him the best in his surgery!

Below, Sam got the last 5 dollar bill left in the citizen race. I have lots of interesting pics of other people grimacing their way up the hill, but this fellow made it look easy! The crowds lining the hill haven't formed yet at that time of the day. More to come!!! I'll have a photo link soon.

Yikes!

I guess this is only the beginning, as the economy gets worse and worse.... I got one of those toll-free fraud prevention calls from a credit card company this morning. When I called back, I found that someone made a bunch of large charges using my credit card number today. Huge cable bills, and a huge electric bill! Much much bigger than mine would ever be. And a few dollars at a food store, and ten or so dollars at Walmart. I guess the small transactions were a "test"?

The thing that doesn't make sense to me is that if someone pays their cable bill and their electric bill with someone else's credit card number, they know where to find that person! Or they know where to find someone, at least. If they used it to buy goods, at least in theory they can disappear with the stuff.... is that a really dumb thief, or is there something I am missing? or were they just desperate? And of course you always wonder, how did they get my number?

Shevegas Time!

It's that time of year, Shevegas is here!

Watch this if your memory is fuzzy... someone posted a link to this old video on the WORS board. If you are on the fence about 'cross vs. Sheboygan this weekend, maybe this will help. I've done all but one of the series races, so it's Sheboygan for me!

ChiCross Cup #2 - DeKalb

A Half Acre rider, most likely Tim, racing in the 4A's. I like this bridge.

Once I got to the venue and saw the course I was really bummed that I wasn't racing. It really looked like fun to me. It didn't seem as bumpy as others either. It seemed like I would have done reasonably well on parts of it, though I might have had trouble on the off camber slippery stuff in the rain... Seeing so many friends having a great day kind of made up for it, though. It was nice that so many people I knew won, and nice to see so many others do well, have fun, and maybe achieve some personal goal, like not wiping out on the slippery off-camber downhill near the Cuttin' Crew bus!

Below are three of the winners. Holly of Killjoy in the women's 1/2/3's, Wayne in the 50+ and Tim in the 40+! Wayne and Tim both ride for Verdigris Custom Homes. Tim is a former mountain bike teammate. Nice job, all of you!

Tim's teammate Chris L. (also a former mt bike teammate) was on track to win the 30+, which would have made it a Verdigris trifecta, a win for their team in each of the masters races. He got a flat though, and got third. I wasn't there to see the masters races, though, so I don't know who did win, or who got second.

Mike Hemme of Killjoy, below, had a fantastic Cat 3 race and took the win! And then he came back and did the Cat 1/2's and did well in that race too! Now I imagine you are thinking, isn't that the guy who won the six hour duo with his teammate Jason the day before at John Muir? Indeed, that is the one. Impressive.

it started to rain during the Cat 3/ Women 1,2,3's race and got worse for the Women 4's and Juniors race. It changed the nature of the course alot for the Women's 4's and later races. The off camber downhill turned into a crash fest! This pic is from the 4A's.

In the Men's 1/2's race a big congrats goes to Scott (SRAM Factory)(and yet another former mtb teammate) for really pushing it, taking an opportunity when the rider behind him crashed to get a decisive lead and then a strong win! After a long week of non-stop traveling all around the country, no less. All that suffering in Madison last week at the UCI races must have been good preparation for this one. It was a good course for his mad skillz on the bike.

I guess I won't repeat what Kevin K. was saying below when he tore around the tree at warp speed, heading towards the start/finish area. He overcame a frustrating start to finish strong in 3rd place in the 1/2's race, go Kevin!

Tom brought his new Eriksen out for its debut this weekend! Sunday was his second ride on it. He rode the 4A's. I'm very much drooling over this work of art - the parts/decal color scheme is perfect, the frame flawless, all around excellent taste! It was great to see Tom at the races again, and to see little Hans (his son, not the bike). Check out this drool-worthy machine!! mmm, mango orange.....

David L., son of Chris L. of Verdigris, is having fun doing the junior races this year. Those barriers have got to be so much harder when your bike is almost as big as you are! When you see David out there on the course, give him some encouragement, he's the future of our sport!

I'm really enjoying seeing so many of the Chicago area peeps at the cross series that I haven't seen in ages due to traveling to WORS and WEMS all summer. It was great to see all of the Half Acre team peeps at their race! Well, most of them - I was sorry that Julie and Ben had a car breakdown and didn't make it. We missed them! The Half Acres, along with North Central Cyclery, put on a great event with interesting little extras. They had fun stuff going on, like the bake sale and cool t-shirts and great posters and the giant checks that would have been great on the podium had it not rained. It was a good venue, from a spectator standpoint. A building for shelter from the rain, and real bathrooms. From a racer standpoint, the course looked to be really fun, and was nice and long. I took lots and lots of pics, so if you have the patience to scan the thumbnails, have at it! I have some of the Women 1/2/3's, Men Cat 3's, Women 4's and Juniors, Men Cat 1/2, Men Cat 4A's. Some are kinda dark due to the rain and overcast skies. For you Half Acre riders, I tried to take lots of pics of you because I knew you guys were too busy to be out snapping many photos!

P.S. A little blast from the past for anyone who's been around mt bike racing for a while - remember this Pedal Power jersey? When he (I forgot this racer's name, although I remember his face) showed us the jersey on Sunday and asked us if we remembered it, I was trying to also remember the name of the guy who owned that shop who was always at the races. I think he ran the races that were always at the boy scout camp in Kankakee? Both mt and a few cross races were there. One year the state 'cross champs were there in the pouring rain! (I lost the race, got second (small field, only one category then), because I couldn't see the trail through my glasses in the rain, especially on the downhills. I had to slow down or risk crashing and burning, it was sooo frustrating to have that be the reason!) anyway, I now remember his name, can anyone else remember, just for the fun of it?

12 Hours at John Muir - Saturday

Congrats to Chris (World Bicycle Relief) on winning the three hour race at John Muir! He's headed off to Moab this week for the 24 event there. This race was a good tune-up. It was nice to hang with Chris' family, Kim, Kari (sp?), and Kaylee, in the fall afternoon sun.

Jason and Mike from Killjoy won the six hour duo men's race. Congrats to them! Kenny (race director) came over to them after the race and asked who it was that had such fast lap times. Mike's lap times were amongst the fastest for the day for the 6 and 12 hour course.


Julie and Audrey of Half Acre took second place in the women's 4 person team category, and they (along with teammate Amanda) will get first overall in the series. Congrats! Happy Birthday to Audrey - Saturday was her birthday!

I sat out the race, having twisted my ankle in the dark on a pothole previously and having tweaked some body parts when I landed. I had hoped to do this race but it was not meant to be.

I got very lucky in the raffle. Well, not hydraulic brakes lucky, but some good stuff that I can use. They pulled out three of my tickets! I got some handlebar grips (I need some), a big canister of energy drink in a flavor I like, and a neat little gift pack from Planet Bike with a hat, co2 cartridge and filler, seat pack, and tire irons. Thanks to the sponsors who donated the items.

There was a good turnout and it was nice to see a bunch of familiar peeps there racing and hanging out. My teammates DJ and Wendy and their friend Mike B. showed up unexpectedly for a ride, not realizing the WEMS race was that day.

Sunday was the Dekalb cross race. More on that later. I've spent hours looking through a bunch of my not-so-great pics from the cross race and now I'm falling asleep - it's late Sunday night. Dekalb cross pics can be found here. They are kind of hit or miss. It got very overcast and rained for part of the day. I posted the whole batch, of which there are many, thinking people would enjoy seeing themselves even if the photo quality is so-so.

John Muir pics, of which there are just a few, can be found here.