Lansing Cross

Someone referred to it as a dirt crit... I guess that's an apt description. I probably would have done ok in this race, had I done it. Except for the sand pit. That's a whole 'nother thing....

This race had collegiate categories, which added some new faces to some of the races. Fast ones, in some cases. Lindsay Wilson College in Kentucky had the biggest collegiate presence - they pulled up in a big white van with a big trailer. It's nice to see a college that supports their racing team like that. Hopefully someday there will be more.

Congrats to Scott "McSram" on winning the Cat 1/2 men AND on winning the Wisconsin cross race on Saturday. Back to back wins! (and thanks for the ride to the race, too) Congrats to Kevin Klug for second place at Lansing. Both of them were riding super strong and had great rides. And congrats to Holly Klug on her WIN in the Cat 1/2/3 women's race, as well as a second place in the Whitewater, WI race Saturday!

Hopefully more later, including the dollars in the sand pit! and some pics! come back later.

The pics are not as good this week, but here they are:

Cat 1/2/3 women and 3's


Cat 4 women, Collegiate women, and Juniors

Cat 1/2 and Collegiate A men

Cat 4a's and the start of Cat 4b's (dollar bill snatching, enthusiastic hecklers and snowflakes in the sand pit found here)

Northbrook Chi Cross Cup Pics

Much of Boulder Cup Day 1 is up on Flickr, I will be doing the rest as the week goes on.

Northbrook "Save Ferris" cross is up. The races I was there for include:

Cat 1/2/3 women, Cat 3 men, and 50+

Cat 4 women and Juniors

Cat 1/2 men

Cat 4a men

Cat 4b and crashes at dusk. This set turned out to be really dark due to the fading light, but there are some crashes in this one.

I missed alot of potentially good pics, especially during the Cat 1/2's where you guys were so close together. My flash took a long time to cycle after each pic.

The pile-up below took place during the Cat 4b's race. There was a really muddy turn in the "bowl" after the stair run up and people kept going down in the same spot, over and over.

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.

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?

Tour de Groundhog

Team Mack is having a cross race near Springfield, IL this Sunday the 17th, for those of you who have been training.
Go here to download the pdf for the race.

Lansing CX

Congrats to Scott for winning the Cat 1/2/3's CX race today in Lansing. Awesome job!

And congratulations to the many other friends who had great rides today!

Congrats to Gina on her move to Cat 3 after the race.

And thanks to EVERYONE for the entertainment in the sand pit!
Holly (above) shows us her impressive acrobatic skills! Ouch!! I hope she's not too sore Monday morning.
Almost everyone struggled with the sand pit at some point. It was deep and there were some holes. In order to get up onto the grassy lip at the edge and avoid the sand, you had to make it through the deepest part and past a hole that tripped up many a rider. Eventually the promoters moved the stakes so that you could no longer ride on the skinny little strip of grass at the edge. They also took down that big green post, thinking that the huge cat 4 men's field would hit it! Some people took the "ride through the middle" line, some tried to get to the strip of grass on the side and avoid part of the sand, and some picked the traditional running method.
Ben toeing the fine grassy line between sand and tape.

Cat 3 men duking it out in the pit: John F. got 2nd, Brian D. got 1st, and Chris L. got 3rd. I was amazed at the speed at which the Cat 1/2 and the Cat 3 men rode through the pit. I had been watching the women and juniors race. When the 1/2 men came through on their first lap, I was totally caught off guard by how fast they powered through the sand! Practically a blur.
Kevin sand surfing.
June and Holly battling at the barriers.

More photos here.

New Cross Technique

I found out about this new dismount technique courtesy of an email from Lou. This technique is so advanced they will not be practicing it at cross practice.

Crossin' Estabrook

Jesse came in first place in the 1/2's.

Mike Phillips got second in the 1/2's.

Scott got 3rd.

Debbie (3rd place), Sam (1st place) and Devon(2nd place) rode together the whole 1/2's women's race. They were on the course at the same time as the 1/2's men and the 30+ men. Hence the guy in the pink helmet riding with them.

Holly was in a chase group of 4 fast women.

Goat sticking his tongue out in intense concentration. He came in 3rd in the 30+.

Kevin came in 2nd. He and Jeremey worked together most of the race for a super strong ride.

After the race we saw a guy who had on skull gloves that perfectly matched the Killjoy kit. He was nice enough to give them to Holly, who was pretty excited about her new pair of gloves!

Local Cross Photo Action

A couple of race pics I took at the local cross series race are up on Truesport and Cyclingnews.com, thanks to Imelda. I'm excited about that.

I didn't know she was going to ask me for pics, so I wasn't concentrating much on picture taking. So they aren't the best they can be. I am really out of practice on action shots, especially for cross! But I'll probably take some for them at the next race, hopefully it won't be too cold.

I have memories of camera batteries that barely worked in the cold, particularly at the various December cross nats I have been to where there was either 1) a snowstorm that closed the roads (Boston), or 2) very cold (Denver) conditions, with snow and ice on the ground that froze our gears. Another year it was chilly and raining so much there were gigantic puddles (CycloCanoe Nats in Seattle). I remember keeping the camera under my jacket in Boston to keep it warm, and out of the snow. I have no idea how this newer camera will do in the cold, I haven't really tried it in extreme conditions!!!

Cross Report to come - I spectated at both races, so other people's reports will be the best bet to get all the racing action...

The Joy of Cross

Here is a must-read primer for crossers on the Bike Snob NYC blog.

He even somewhat addresses the crowd and cheering issues Julie was referring to the other day:

The Green Monster

Thanks to Greg H. for a link to a little taste of what's in store for racers in KY this weekend! SIX sand pits? The Green Monster???? That ramp alone is enough to give me nightmares..... I do think it would be really fun to watch, but not so great for me to race.

Hmmmm

I just made the (big) mistake of looking at the start lists for the USGP of Cross in KY that is this weekend. There are only 4 cat 3/4 women. An unexpected temptation. At one time I had considered going to watch the pro races. Then I decided I needed to stay here so as not to miss any series races, hoping to do well in the series. But now that I can see that I likely won't be in contention for placing in the series, trying for a 5th (or whatever) place in KY, just for the fun of being there, is an idea that has just presented itself.... crazy, I know. I didn't even know there was a Cat 4 women's race until now. I am surprised there aren't more IL/WI 1,2,3 women signed up, we have some really fast ones that could do well.

Badger Cross

First off, I have to say thanks to Renee and her Capitol Velo Club crew for putting on such a great race Sunday! They did an awesome job of making the race a fun place to be. Fun course, free food and beer, great raffle prizes, music, an announcer, real bathrooms, cowbells, a small expo area.... Great event, Renee!

When I got back from Colorado last Wednesday night, it was after midnight and I was tired. All I could think of was how nice it would be to have a weekend at home where I didn't have to pack for anything or drive anywhere. Once I started catching up on blog reading, I found out that there was a mtn bike race that I hadn't known about, and that Renee's Badger Cross race was on Sunday. Funny how my resolve to stay home and take it easy immediately dissolved. Never underestimate the power of suggestion (power of obsession??) to a bike racer.

At first I thought that they were both on Sunday. On Friday I realized that one race was Saturday and one was Sunday. (Actually there were two races on Saturday!) Although I would have liked to go to both races, I decided that Sunday's Badger Cross was the one for me. Renee had left me a comment and we exchanged emails, and I have to say her race looked really fun. Chris said it was a fun course, as well. It seemed like it would be a great event even if I didn't race and just decided to spectate.

Friday night I got an email from Gabi asking if I wanted to go to the Beechwood race with her. I would have gone, but it was too late for me to switch gears and go to both. Too bad, it probably would have been fun, even just spectating.

Soooo, I ended up going to Badger Cross. To race or not? I packed everything up like I was going to race. I decided to take my old mt bike that I used for cross the last couple of years instead of my lovely cross bike since I had heard the course is bumpy and I would need some back-saving suspension. Having the mtn bike also meant I could do dismounts the way that's comfortable for me, not the traditional way. Can't do that on my new cross bike, I have found. The fact that there was a prize for the top mtn bike finisher helped, too.

I only got about 5.5 hours of sleep. I got to the race an hour before my race, which should have given me plenty of time to get ready. I have no idea where the time went - next thing I knew I had run out of time to warm up. Maybe the rain slowed me down. I didn't get to warm up at all, nothing more than riding to the bathroom and the start line. No pre-riding, didn't even really see the course. I'm used to not pre-riding courses, though, that didn't bother me that much. But not warming up affected my race.

About 11 women. It felt like a big field to me, though it was smaller than the 16 or so we had at Jackson Park in September. Maybe because I didn't know most of them. When I saw Amelia B. on the list at registration, I knew that my hopes of being the first mt bike finisher had been dashed. So much for that idea. There were several other women on mt bikes that I didn't know. Some of us were lined up in front, the rest of us behind the juniors. They asked the rest of us to move up, but we could only squeeze in on one side, as the juniors stayed where they were. That put me almost at the very back of our group. It made for a terrible start for everyone off to the side next to the juniors and not in the front row. The start, a nice long straightway, would have been good for me had I been warmed up and had I been a few rows up. I had some trouble clipping in right away, too. As it was, the front group got away right off the bat.

We turned off the wet pavement onto the grass, where we immediately encountered MUD! I was way too cautious at this point, slowing down too much for a bumpy downhill turn. I lost a lot of ground here. We crossed the road again, then had to be super cautious as we hit the trail going downhill, at speed, and having to make a turn onto muddy grass. Goopy soft ruts of mud had formed where the pavement met the trail. We headed uphill on the muddy trail, after trying not to slide out in that turn from the pavement. At this point sciatic misery set in - my body was rebelling at going from zero to 60 with no warning. I felt the hamstring and foot cramp coming on, and thought I was going to have to drop out in the first lap. The pain continued but I kept the cramping at bay, and eventually was able to block it out. I totally lost focus there for a bit, however. Someone passed me. Somewhere after the uphill barriers I lost sight of Angela, who had been in front of me. I know that we often finish close to each other in WORS races, so I felt bad about losing sight of her. I should have been able to keep up with her. To me that meant I was losing more ground. I think that I lost some fitness when I had to skip the last four mountain bike races. On the next road section there was a woman on my wheel. The road part is where I do best, and I didn't want to tow her along. I tried to shake her off my wheel the way I was once taught. It worked, I dropped her, and did not see her again.

The section near the parking lot and expo area had lots going on in addition to people screaming - barriers ( yep, agony), downhill stuff, a log barrier step up, and a bunch of tight chicane-type things. All muddy, you were always at risk of sliding out. In later laps I experimented with rounding the corners or trees with both feet on the pedals, vs. having a foot out for balance. I decided that for me, taking the tight turns with a foot out was definitely faster. I have always wondered if that was a total rookie thing to do - it works so well for me. It probably looks like one when I do it, but I read somewhere that even the mtb pros do it on occasion. It seems like when it comes to cross, I can't do anything by the book anymore! I could probably be the example for how not to do dismounts, remounts, and tight muddy turns. But this is one of those cases where I have had to adapt and do what works for me, or else no 'cross.

At various points in the race, the faster juniors were passing me. Nate flew by first - congrats to Nate on a great race! Sometimes there was no one around, other times there were juniors right behind me. On the uphill barriers I would ask if there was anyone behind me, and by the second lap they would say the next person was way back. I still worried about those girls back there catching me, so I tried to keep up my pace. In the third lap I dropped my chain on the uphill before the log step barriers, and it took several tries to get it to stay on. Some juniors caught me then, but I was hoping no one in my race would pass me. Sometimes I could see the person ahead of me, but it would have taken a longer race for me to catch any of them. I think a warm up, not letting the girls get away at the start, and being more aggressive in the mud might have gained me a couple of places, but not too many. In the first lap I coasted out of the saddle over the bumpiest sections to save my back (in the process letting people get away), but in later laps I sat and I pedaled more.

That last lap wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. As hard as the race was and as muddy and yucky as the conditions were, I really enjoyed the course. It had the feel of a mountain bike course in places.

Thanks to everyone who cheered me on! After it was over, I didn't know what place I had gotten in my mid-pack finish, but I knew I hadn't finished well enough to win anything. So I was excited to find out that I had won something in the raffle. I got a wonderful wooly/fleecy black turtleneck top with orange trim that I really like. And it fit !!!

My riding clothes were beyond muddy. Taking off the gear didn't get rid of the mud - it was still there. It migrated right through the lycra. Ugh. And lots of people were smiling at me - I asked why and someone said it was the mud smeared on my face!

It was nice to see Kim and Chris out with the World Bicycle Relief tent. I bought some raffle tickets from Kim. I won a sweet t-shirt, and Holly K. won some socks. Holly had a very strong field for her women's 1/2/3's race. Unfortunately someone right in front of her let a gap develop at just the wrong time. Devon H., who crushed us all in the 4's in the Chicago series last year, won both the women 3's race AND the women 1/2/3's event. Wow. She will be on fire at Natz.

Fellow blogger MountainGoat put on a good show in the last race, hopping some of the log barriers. It always amazes me that people can do that. It seemed like a particularly difficult place to do it, in terms of the approach. Chris was out there in the thick of the 1/2's race, getting acquainted with the mud after a strong finish the day before at CamRock! Scott got to test his Red components in the mud in the 1,2's. He was happy that the solid Red cassette and the components in general did so well in the mud. If I get a chance I'll post a pic of the muddy cassette later. And, no surprise, Jesse won the 1/2's race with Ronsta next, then Scott in third, behind him. The singlespeeds ruled.

And, when I was getting close to leaving, I heard someone calling my name. It was Troy T., who I hadn't seen in ages, since before he moved from Evanston to Madison. We got to chat for a little bit. The drive home was ok until the end, when I was tired, having not gotten much sleep. The way I felt Monday, I can tell I shouldn't have raced, should have just spectated. Too late now!

A fun day, in spite of the less than ideal weather conditions!