Little Things

Got home late at night tonight (Wed.) from the airport. Now I know when they clean the airport. There were people busy mopping and squeegeeing at 11:00 or 11:30. The guy that cleans the glass below the railings on the moving sidewalks just holds the squeegee against the glass while the sidewalk moves him and the squeegee along.... and a woman was mopping the brushed metal one or two foot no-man's land between the up and down escalator handrails.

A little boy was sucking his thumb and holding his stuffed dog while riding the moving sidewalk. He insisted on going on the sidewalk while his parents were walking beside it, pushing the stroller. Neither arm was free for balance. His dad seemed to not want him to go on it alone. You could almost see his sigh of relief when the boy made a fairly good transition, hopping from the moving belt to the regular floor.

I get home and there is a box of sale stuff from twin six waiting for me. A nice welcome home. Then I am going through the pile of mail and I see the newest VeloNews. I should go to bed but I have to leaf through it. it's always hard for me to put a new VeloNews aside for later without at least skimming it. I feel a little twinge of excitement when I see in the table of contents that on page 92 there is an article about Chequamegon. They focus on Jesse LaLonde's singlespeed win, then they get into a little bit about this year's event in general. I love it when they cover our big Midwest races like Chequamegon, Iceman, etc.. The article was probably online a while ago, but I didn't see it.

You'd think I'd be feeling really energized with all this extra oxygen to breathe. That was the case for at first, but now I'm really tired. Time for sleep! Looks like everyone has found fun races to do this weekend. I hadn't given it much thought while away, I didn't realize there was so much going on, only getting on a computer once in five days. Maybe the cross race would be fun?

Condolences

My condolences to the family and friends of former teammate Adam S. on his death. He was only 33. Although I haven't seen him in recent years, I will remember him as someone with enthusiasm and passion for cycling and for life in general. Very sad.

Ride on a New Highway before it opens

For one day, Nov. 11, you can ride on the new I-355 extension before it opens to cars. There is a fee that goes towards building a bike trail.

Fall Color Festival

The Fall Color Festival is one of my favorite races! I have been doing the 30 mile race since the first year of the event. I missed racing a few years when I was injured and neither racing nor riding mt bikes, but I still went to the event and hung out with my teammates. This was the race that most of my teammates would come to, and often bring their families as well. A few years our team volunteered at the race. One year we all went up there to help and it rained so it had to be cancelled and moved to the next weekend. So even though I am supposed to be taking a rest from racing, of course I still had to go!

Trek/Gary Fisher used to bring in some of their national guys for this race in the 90's. Travis Brown was there the most often, and some years other pros like Andy Bishop (road guy who did some mtb races), Pete Webber (Fisher, now works for IMBA), Daryl Price, Tim Swift (wasn't he a Saturn road pro?) and team mechanic Scotty D. (coulda been a pro) showed up. There always seemed to be an "understanding" in those days that they weren't supposed to win, that they were supposed to let one of the local guys come in first. They'd do an autograph session in the afternoon. There was also a children's play area where kids did all sorts of kid stuff (face painting, making stuff?) And of course the kid's races. It has a different feel to me now than it did then, I'm not sure why, maybe it's a bit smaller? Trek in recent years has been sending Doug, Tristan and Sara, the very fast guys and gal we know from WORS!

I looked at some of the old 30 mile results to see how much I have slowed down since the earlier years - almost 50 minutes diffference from my best 90's time pre-injuries to my worst time last year. That is so discouraging! (you sport women bloggers who want to upgrade - that is a good reason why you should do the upgrades you are considering soon, and not wait too long)

In the process I noticed a bunch of people in the results from a few years ago that I know now but didn't know then. Mountaingoat being one example. I probably started at the back of the men and never even saw most of them at the race! That's one of the great things about our blogs - getting to know so much more about our fellow racers - makes it way more fun.

I felt the same kind of anguish about not racing that I felt after my last-minute decision at Chequamegon. Maybe worse. I almost changed my mind and raced the 30. It would have been interesting to ride the connector. And I have usually raced myself into decent shape by this time of year. I feel like I am wasting it by having missed two favorite races!! Now, seeing the results and seeing that I might have placed (but definitely not won) in age, I am feeling those pangs again... I have always won great prizes there, too. So it goes, being injured and trying to be prudent. Blah.

The nice thing is, once I decided for sure, that meant I didn't have to get up at 4:45am to be there and ready for the 9:45 start!! I had a bunch of things to do Friday night and didn't get home until 10ish, at which point I made dinner and tried to get all my race gear ready in case I decided to go for a little ride or in case I decided to do the women's clinic. Silly me, I could have gotten a lot more sleep if I hadn't packed any of that stuff. Made it to bed by around 12:30ish.

Dragged myself out of bed at 6:45, spent way too much time getting ready, and went to Kettle. What a nice day for a race! Another perfect one, we have been really lucky around here the last few weekends. One of the first things I did was buy some FCF pint glasses. I knew once the racers all came in they would be gone! This year the logo was etched, so it will not wash off in the dishwasher like the last ones I bought. The finish line was in a different place than I remember it being in previous years. I saw the 30 mile leaders crossing the line, which meant I was very confused later when I looked at the 30 mile results and saw that the list was totally out of order from what I had observed.

When I took my glasses to the car, I saw that a bunch of teammates and friends had gathered around DJ and the Clif truck. It was nice to see everyone - some people I hadn't seen in a long time. Former teammate Mike K. was there - this is one race where I usually see him, but I think he missed last year. It was great to catch up. I found out that his wife Lisa (formerly of the Trek midwest team) is in a different band now and that they are going to sign a recording contract in L. A. soon! I'm glad to hear her many years of hard work are literally making her dreams come true. Scott M. rode up - he didn't know where he finished, but I later found out he got 2nd in his SS age group on a SS with a rigid fork. Did well overall too. Besides our teammates, including Wendy (congrats on 4th in the 20 mile) and Fran, a bunch of people drifted by for food and drink - Kevin K., Ray, and more. Kevin looked like he was feeling alot better than last week. I love the hot pink Killjoy jerseys. They really pop, even more so up in the lush green backdrop of Kettle vs. the cross race last week.

We all walked back to the tent area, where we milled around talking to people, eating, waiting for results, etc. I saw Holly and her teammate Kris, who had finished and changed. Congrats to Holly, on a great ride, 2nd in age! I think she got 3rd overall female. I talked to Regina and heard about her crash, ouch! She rallied, and was able to finish second in the 20, nice work! Teammate Dave P. got 3rd in age, nice. His whole family was there, the kids were racing too. The results were a little screwy and much of this info wasn't available until the end of the day.

I bought some raffle tix. After seeing the raffle prizes, and seeing that there were at least three sets of 10th anniversary chrome brakes being raffled, I went back and bought some more. I have wanted a set of those brakes since I first read about them - it's the lure of the chrome. They remind me of motorcycle brakes, I guess. First they did the results, calling up the top 3 overall in each race. I sat in the Trek tent for the results and raffle, which was a fun place to be, but had no lucky tickets this time around. I used to think I did well in raffles, but my luck has been spotty lately. Jason was doing the announcing again this year. He had a lot of not-easy-to-pronounce names this year. Doug (30 mile winner) was being silly, in a good way. The Cyclops trainer was "fitness in a box", said Doug, but really, Doug himself was fitness in a box. There were no chairs left so he went and sat in a box. It was kinda funny. The kids (big and little) were having fun diving after the red hats and t-shirts the guys were throwing to them. After the raffle we hung out a while longer, and people were able at that point to get their age group prizes.

I had a really good time, but there are alot of people I hardly got to talk to. I imagine alot of people felt that way, even though it's a lot smaller than a WORS race.

I finally got to meet Jason's new wife Stacy, who seems very cool. Congrats to both of them, they just got married last weekend! It was their one week anniversary. They are headed to Costa Rica next week for their honyemoon. And a big thanks to Chris from Trek for helping me out. I went out to dinner with Chris, Chris, Casey and Jason from Trek, Christine (Chris P's wife), Stacy (Jason's wife) and Mike K. at a little bar in Whitewater. Headed home after that.

Sunday and some photos later. Cable guy coming first thing in the morning to figure out why I don't get CBS in HD. Other channels work fine, but that one doesn't. Weird. Maybe it'll be fixed before The Unit on Tuesday.

Bike Gore - Not for the faint of heart

Warning: Skip this post if you are squeamish!


This chainring injury happened earlier in the week to a friend of a friend who was riding alone in the mountains in CO. He had some bandaids and some arm warmers that he tied around it to hold it together. He had to ride 10 miles with this leg to get back to town. Ouch is all I can say.

More Jackson Park Cross

What a perfect fall day for a race in the park on the lakefront! Huge race fields, super enthusiastic spectators, fast course that's good for me, what more could you ask for? Well, I was kind of nervous about all the glass in the parking lot and on the paved trail, but it didn't turn out to be an issue, at least for me. And I wish I had gotten to chat with a few people that I missed, but that's the way these things always go. I had a great time!

Thanks to the promoters, volunteers, and officials who put on the race.

Looking through the race results tonight, I was thinking how it was kinda cool that, with a few exceptions, I know many of the race winners. And quite a few of the others close behind them in the standings. I mean that in a living vicariously sort of way... I may only be mid-pack this year myself, but I can be happy for all of them - it must feel great to get the 'cross season off to such a good start. Congrats to everyone, no matter where they placed, who raced their heart out! Congrats to race winners Lou from the Pony Shop (masters 30+), Ben P. (Cat 3, but not for much longer!), Devon H.(Cat 1/2/3 women - she killed us all in Cat 4 last year and now she's winning Cat 1/2/3!), Debbie P. (Cat 4 women), and Mike S. from the Pony Shop (Cat 1,2). Holly (3rd, Killjoy, rocking the new hot pink jersey) and June (2nd, Active Endeavors) both had awesome rides in a strong field in women's Cat 1/2/3. It was great to see long-time mt bike teammate Tim B. take 3rd in the masters 40+, and catch up with him after the race. Tim used to do alot of mountain bike racing, but now we only get to see him at 'cross races! Goat had a strong ride in Cat 1,2, (coming oooh so close to the cash), especially considering he was traveling in a "foreign country"! I also noticed several Turin guys out there - Chris D., Christian, and possibly Joe. Evanston was well represented, I think.

Pete R. had some bad luck with his seat in his second race, but because he dropped out, we got a chance to catch up. Pete has a wonderful idea - he is donating $300 to the top two juniors in the series. Thanks to Pete for his generosity. We should all be thinking of ways to get young riders involved and help them with the various hurdles they might face (financial, transportation, etc.) Kevin K. toughed it out for a good result in the masters race and even entered the Cat 1,2 although he felt absolutely terrible from a cold. Hope you feel better soon, Kevin. Thanks to June and Jennifer G. for giving me some tire deflation advice (and literally letting air out of my tires) before the race. It helped. I joked with them that if they had been in my race I wouldn't have trusted them to let the air out of my tires, in case someone just happened to let it ALL out (ooops! sorry, did I do that?).... Like me, Gina K. also skipped the WORS race in Iola to go to the cross race. I saw Brad M. and Sara on bikes rolling around, but needed to warm up and didn't get to talk to them. I got to briefly say hey to both Tom F. and Fran of Killjoy and their son who is growing up so fast! I was glad to see that Chris McN. was looking alive and well at the race after having been almost run over (intentionally) by an angry driver in an SUV on a group ride on Saturday.

Thanks to everyone who cheered me on! I couldn't always tell who was yelling, but it made all the difference - it got me fired up when I felt like backing off and giving up. (Not the dropping out kind of giving up, but the not trying very hard anymore kind of giving up.) Julie and her crew at the Pegasi tent were radiating cheer and enthusiasm for cross, it was refreshing. Thanks, Julie, Ben, and Goat. Goat was riding around the course and cheering, which was just what I needed - no slacking off in the back stretch by the bushes, there's Jeremey cheering, have to keep moving! And thanks to Julie, Ben and their teammates for their tent hospitality. I also got to "officially" meet Julie, Ben, and Julie's WEMS share-a-bike teammates Amanda and Kisha, who I often see at WEMS races. The women do 12 hour races sharing one bike! Mike and Britt were cheering at a barrier, thanks, that barrier and uphill was hard. I am probably forgetting someone, and I apologize.

As some of you know, I had a tough time deciding whether to do cross or go to Iola. I do think maybe I should have gone to Iola. I loved being at the cross race, but I realized that the Iola course would have actually been easier on my back than the cross course, given that I would have had full suspension at Iola. After doing every WORS race but one in the last few years, it felt really really strange to be missing one.

I am falling asleep at the keyboard, so the actual race description will have to wait.

Jackson Park Cyclocross

What a great day for the first cross race of the season!

I didn't get a chance to get the camera out until the last race. At this race you couldn't go too many steps without running into someone you knew, which was really fun. But it made for getting easily distracted, and it took forever just to get to the car to get changed! So I don't have many photos, but I do have one of two very fast guys:
Ben was on fire and won the Cat 3 race. His eagerly awaited upgrade will be coming soon, I hope! Jeremey tore it up on the Cat 1,2 course and came sooo close to finishing in the money. Thanks for the cheers, too, guys! In the background is the tent where Julie and her enthusiastic crew kept us racers fired up with their cheers of encouragement.

Thanks to all of you who cheered me on, it helped so much!

Race report coming later, maybe tonight.

Cross Tire clincher Pressure??

What tire pressure would be best in Ritchey Speed Max Cross clinchers for Cross wheels in Sunday's race? Sidewall says 90. I'm thinking 60? Most important criteria is no flats, maximum bump absorption would be second....

I haven't ridden this bike with cross tires yet, will be doing that before the race....have been riding it on the road with road tires. I have been enjoying riding it on the road so much I don't want to switch it over to cross.....

Landis Appeal

Just heard on the radio about the Landis decision. He lost his appeal. Apparently he also was stripped of his Tour de France title. Then I went to Velo-News and Cycling News to get the scoop. I'm sure there will be more stories up first thing in the morning.

More Chequamegon (Trek-amegon)

Gary Fisher was entertaining. Those warm black coveralls must have come in handy later at the chilly outdoor bonfire party after the awards. He hit it off with T and Wendy. He had some interesting observations about body work (massage, chiropractic, etc.) as we were talking about our bike-related aches and pains. Later, at the party, among other things, we talked about his bike building history as well as the movie Klunkerz, which he thinks will be a classic. The kind that stays around for 20 years. He's in the movie, and he made his first mt bike in 1974 (I asked).

Red Trek hats were a hot item. Maybe we should call Chequamegon Trekamegon?

Chillin'.

Tristan, Brian and Doug (eating dinner) waiting in the hall outside the awards. It was so hot and crowded in the awards room that people were sitting in the halls waiting to get called up. Brian looks happy about his 2nd place overall.

Sram and Trek continued the tradition of the Hayes bonfire party. At times the fire was, uh, really bright, thanks to our Hayes friends.

Some of the Alberto's crew.

T got a chance to catch up with Ross Schnell, who was with his teammates (Sue Haywood, Lea Davision, etc.) at the Trek trailer.

Hey, what's that blogger guy doing back there?

This "Blonde Fabrications" bike with giant wheels attracted alot of attention. The tall guy actually rode it in the race!

Gary Fisher got his speedy singlespeed crew to pose with their rigs for a pic. I love those brown Fisher sweaters. I want one!

Sunday Cable Criterium:

They changed the course this year.

Fast guy Doug rounding the sharp corner.

Another fast guy Tristan chasing.

Doug won the crit for the fifth (I think) time! Tristan got 3rd.

T won the women's Limbo Contest on Sunday. The pics are crazy, but they are unfortunately not in my camera. Hope she sends them soon, they are the best pics of all! Ex-teammate Tony won the men's Limbo contest. I think he really wanted to win the Log Pull, but he was pretty happy about winning the Limbo. Lower and flip your stem, let the air out of your shock, some air out of the tires, and turn your helmet backwards....and see how low you can go!

I never did see Greg LeMond and his son come in at the finish of the 40. His son goes to Northwestern, so I have probably passed him on Sheridan road, but I wouldn't recognize him.

Chequamegon 25th Anniversary

Thanks to Gary Crandall, his crew, and the event sponsors for throwing a great 25th anniversary Fat Tire Fest. It was fantastic.


Yes, that's frost you see out there in the field above. Brrrr! Coldest Chequamegon morning I can ever remember....

The moments after the first singlespeed rider ever to win Chequamegon crossed the line:













It was great to catch up with Travis, who says he's been super busy traveling for Trek. Unfortunately Mary was busy with a Trails 2000 project, so she and Zara didn't come along. We also had a chance to talk about 69'ers. Someone my size is selling a custom Ericksen with a Maverick rear and front end.

The Short and Smart:










Christine found her lung on her sleeve after the race.




Short and Fat race female winner Corie Berrigan.

I need some sleep now. Lots more pics and maybe some commentary to come.

Iola or Jackson Park, Sheboygan or Wedding?

I hope to get Chequamegon photos up soon. What a great weekend. The 25th anniversary of Fat Tire Fun did indeed feel special. And history was made. I think it was extra special for WORS people, seeing one of our own win AND make history.

A friend has been over using my computer late the last two nights at the time I would otherwise have posted my pics. Her computer died and she had to invoice all her patients before she leaves the country today to be a guide on a kayak trip in Greece. Last night I think it was 2 or 3 before she finished....

Iola or Jackson Park Cross?

IOLA:
Pros:
have done every WORS so far this year, one more step towards WORShead for this year.
love the course, it's a good course for me.
get points for myself and for the team competition.
see all the WORS folks another time before the season ends.

Cons:
very long drive, w/ an overnight stay. (4.5 to 5 hours)
am suppposed to be taking some time off the mt bike.
there is another race a half hour away.

JACKSON PARK:
Pros:
so close to home.
is part of a series.
need to do every race in the series to have any hope of placing overall in the series.
fun fast course on the lakefront.
see the local folks I haven't seen all summer due to being gone every weekend.

Cons:
haven't done any cross practice.
might actually be harder on my back than mt biking due to no suspension and the dismounts/remounts?
have to get bike ready before Sunday. (and possibly a trip to the shop for tweaks)
will miss getting WORS points

The above would be easier if I could make an even tougher choice:

Sheboygan or Wedding in Colorado?

I really hate to miss Sheboygan, it's probably the most fun race in the series from an overall perspective, and is the last chance to see everyone. It's a race I really look forward to. And missing it means no WORS head. But I feel like I should support my friend by going to her wedding. She is a long-time friend from back in the days when we both worked at a local bike shop. Then I would also go for a few days to Boulder to see other friends.

Sheboygan vs. Wedding, what to do?

This is taking up too much brain space.

Protecting yourself on the Road

This article in Velo-news is very long and well, legal, but it's worth reading if you regularly ride in a group on the road or alone in traffic where you might have an encounter with a driver. Food for thought.

Sadness

My condolences to my XXXracing neighbors and their team on the death of their teammate Tuesday at the Tuesday night crit. They must all be in such pain, losing two teammates in a short period of time to such sudden, tragic, circumstances.

making a statement

I guess it was only a matter of time until someone came up with this for unattached riders.

Sunburst

Some assorted pics, I didn't take too many today. Some pics weren't orienting correctly when I posted them, I'll have to try those again later. The ones that were vertical shots download sideways to Blogger, even though my printer's download software downloads and displays them correctly when I put the card into the printer to download. Blogger thinks they are still turned sideways for some reason. I have to figure out how to fix this....


Apparently I have a new teammate, Molly (see podium). I am not sure what category she got her medal in, but I am going to guess it's the citizen Barksdale category. Being a new racer and all. Congrats to John for winning his age group and to his daughters for their strong rides at Sunburst.


Wishing a speedy recovery to Mr. Fat-tires-n-Beer! He just had shoulder surgery on Friday. He had an ice pump contraption which circulated ice water around his shoulder. He says he is making some changes to the Sheboygan course to keep it interesting for everyone this year...


These guys were waiting for Sport awards. Wendy, Dan, and Nate all placed in their age groups and/or singlespeed categories, I think. Congrats to Wendy for toughing it out on her singlespeed and finishing (and winning), even though the bike was misbehaving. I think they were discussing how to keep bees from flying into your drink can. There were plenty of bees around, as well as enough skeeters to keep everyone scratching for a week.


I noticed these growing next to the ski lodge as I was about to leave. It makes sense that a place called Sunburst would have flowers like this.

We Just Work Here

I just read about the documentary "We just work here" about the employees at the Santa Cruz frame factory. It was done by director Brian Vernor, who did the cross flick "Pure Sweet Hell". Some of you may have seen Pure Sweet Hell when Brian and Katie Compton came to town for a benefit a couple of years ago. I hadn't heard of this new one before.

The article said I could buy it on the Santa Cruz website but I couldn't find it. Maybe it's not for sale yet? I did find a trailer though. You Tube has slowed to a crawl - it's 2 a.m. Friday night/Sat morning and I guess everyone on the West Coast is watching videos.... there are all these other kinda tempting mt bike videos but they don't want to open....ahhh, now they are working.....

And here is the same trailer on another site.

Digging a little deeper on Google, I found out I could have seen it at the Chicago Bicycle Film Festival, along with Klunkerz, another movie I really, really want to see. Klunkerz is supposed to be the history of the mountain bike. Joe Breeze, one of the dudes in the movie, used to show up at Chequamegon now and then. Maybe some of the others did too. Where was I that mid-August weekend of the festival when those movies were showing? Slipping and sliding in the mud at the WORS Cup, I think.

Beach and BBQ

This weekend I realized September has rolled around and I haven't used my beach token even once. This seems to happen most years! It seems like I have either been packing for a race, driving to a race, racing, or being a blob after a race, on weekends. And it's so close! So I went to the beach today, for just a short visit, like an hour. It was late enough in the day that it wasn't crowded, except for the south end that was hosting a large gathering of seagulls. There were some really noisy families picnicking in the grassy area, but the beach itself was pretty quiet. The weather was perfect!!

This side of the beach had really emptied out, most of the people were behind me. The shadows from the trees were starting to make people move, as well.

For some reason there was an orange helicopter chasing a boat. That's what the people are looking at in the distance.

My ride was fine, I got a little over two hours in. In some ways it was kind of weird. I noticed roadkill everywhere, much more than usual. And all of them were squashed flat, just like in the cartoons, although they were missing the cartoon tire tracks. Then, at LakeCook, right before I was going to cross the tracks, the Metra train gates went down. The train came along and sat on the tracks, while a line of cars was piling up, waiting. And waiting. And waiting. People from the train started picking their way across the rocky railroad bed and tracks behind the train. I asked someone if something was wrong with the train and she said it was dead. So there was the dead train, not even all the way into the station, blocking Lake Cook Road between Sheridan and Green Bay. I picked my way through the rocks and over the tracks, feeling vaguely like I was doing something I wasn't supposed to, since the signals were still dinging. When I got to the other side at least there was an even longer line of cars. I was able to tell some of them to turn around. I wonder if that happens often to Metra trains?

Last night I went to a BBQ on the lakefront, in a park near the beach I went to today. I haven't seen my group of local friends all in one place all summer!! It was great to hang out and catch up. We missed Craig, Kristine and Lee, who all moved away in May/June, making the group feel a lot smaller. Wish they could have been there. Also joining the BBQ was Wendy's brand new roommate, who just came here from France to teach in a French school here. She brought some of her French coworkers, as well. I think the guys were captivated by them! Aside from the mosquitoes being too friendly, it was a really nice night out.

Both FS mountain bikes, the race bike and the back up bike are now in the shop. I know one will absolutely not be ready by this weekend, but I am hoping the other one is. I think I need a back up to the back up!!

What if the TdF gave a "clean rider" jersey?

Tristan posted a very funny (or sad, depending on how you look at it) Onion article on his blog about the TdF. Check it out, if you haven't yet!

Stump Farm

Stump Farm = FUN!

Thanks to Bill and Susie for putting on a great race and for setting up a great course!

More later, I need to get a ride in this afternoon then go to a BBQ tonight. Hung out some after the race and ending up getting home pretty late.

I got to catch up on sleep a little this morning, but I am really feeling the effects of the bumpy trail and the long drive both ways yesterday. I kept waking up and going back to sleep. The trail was SO much fun, but it was also bumpy. Muscles seem to be ok, the back stuff is not so good and the sore shoulder from the crash at Rhinelander is just a little tender. I'll find out for sure when I go riding in a few minutes! I'm wishing I could go ride off-road (Kettle?) tomorrow but I should probably take it easy and stick to the road.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend!