Photo Slide Show from Lansing

Here is a photo show from Lansing by various photographers on Truesport, along with an article. Holly, Scott M. and John G. are all in the pics. I would guess the same pics and article will be on VeloNews, cycling news, CX mag, etc. later on.

The Sandpit - making them work for their primes....

Missed the sandpit action on Sunday? Left before the fun part? Here's your chance to see some of what you missed, including Mike of Killjoy doing dollar bill hand ups (hand-downs?) from a chair in the middle of the pit...

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)

"Meh" becomes a real word

The dictionary editors in Britain are excited enough about the expression of boredom "meh", that they have put it in their dictionary. whatever. meh.

More Cowbell

'Cross is such an awesome spectator sport... and some people have spectating down to an art....John and his buddies have a warm and comfy spot right in the middle of the course.


Wait a minute, maybe spectating 'cross is a sport itself? It's even got GEAR! Check out that cowbell on steroids! And the megaphone (yes, there is a fourth person under there), and the water bottle and the Other Beverage. Plus blankets, sofa, etc. These are guys that take their spectating seriously.


Giant Cowbell!!

Lost: One Olympic Dream

Ever wonder what happened to Sue Haywood's case against USA Cycling in the DVD "Off Road to Athens? Yesterday Velo-News gave us an update. A federal jury awarded Sue $300,000 in damages for the loss of her Olympic dream!

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.

Iceman Cometh this weekend, and Boulder Cup

Good Luck to everyone racing at Iceman this weekend! And especially good luck to all the people representing WORS in the Midwest Regional Mountain Bike Championships! Maybe see ya there.

I haven't had time to go download all my Boulder Cup pics to my computer or upload them to Flickr, but I do have a little prototype action from Day 2 and a little finish line action from Day 1 at Boulder Reservoir below!


Todd Wells was able to get enough of a gap on Ryan
Trebon at the end that he had his hands up in the air long before the finish line. Now that's confidence.

Georgia Gould was so far in front of the other elite women she must have felt like she was in her own race.

Racing legend Travis Brown showed up with a furry face. This is him on Sunday. I looked right at him last Saturday and didn't recognize him at first. I had heard someone saying he had a furry beard so I figured it out, but what a great way to go stealth, but yet not, the day after Halloween, wearing black (on Saturday) and sporting a beard. That beard will be a great thing to have when he races at Iceman, which is likely to be cold and wet on Saturday. See below for his prototype cross bike.


Above and below is Travis Brown's prototype belt-driven Trek XO Singlespeed. I believe there is something special about the rear hub, as well, but I don't remember exactly what he said about it. You can tell I don't know much about singlespeeds.

Happy Belated Halloween!

It's been a busy week and I haven't had much time online, with the traveling etc.. But I was excited to notice the link to one of my Milwaukee Halloween pics on Chicago Bike Racing! Thanks, Luke! Thanks to Sheri for spotting the same pic on Bike Snob NYC's blog. I read the email about Bike Snob NYC on my phone a while before I could get to a real computer, so there was some suspense involved as to what exactly was on there! I was pretty excited to see that pic up there, even if it was because it depicted something Bike Snob thinks is really stupid. It made for an interesting pic, regardless. It's way more rewarding taking the pics and making the time and effort to put them online when you find out that people are actually seeing them, and (hopefully) enjoying them... and in at least one case, even making fun of them.

Tonight (Friday, Halloween) we ate outside at Boulder Cafe and watched all the Halloween revelers strolling up and down Pearl Street Mall. This is the most it's felt like Halloween to me in years. So many costumes, some of them run-of-the-mill, some of them "why didn't I think of that?" The best shoes were the pimp's leopard print platforms with the goldfish floating in the heel. Actually, pimp and ho' seemed to be one of the most popular his n' her costumes strutting around tonight....Tawnya was on her way in from Leadville to work the race tomorrow. She was going to come hang but had to get up super early, so she just stopped her car in the median, put her blinkers on, and came and talked to us for a few minutes. I'll see her at the race tomorrow and Sunday, and a bunch of us are going out after the race tomorrow night.

Today was the perfect day weather wise, for this time of year. It must have been about 80 in the sun and I was able to walk around in a t-shirt. I stopped in Pro Peloton on my way to the grocery store, and found a pair of Craft wooly socks for half off. And I got to be a geeky superfan. While I was in the store JHK (of "Off Road to Athens" fame) and his wife Heather came in to for a repair, in full kit. The kit was the tip-off, I might not have noticed them otherwise. The store guy was nice enough to introduce me to them and we ended up talking about WORS and Iceman and Chequamegon and some peeps we know in common. Heather is racing at Boulder Cup and they both are doing Iceman next weekend, I think. I knew Heather said she for sure is. They both said they love the point to point races like Chequamegon and Iceman. It sounds like they are looking forward to Iceman. They were super friendly and fun to talk to. Maybe some of you have met them before at Iceman or Chequamegon.

I was supposed to be going to the store to get Halloween candy for any kids that might stop by my friend's place that afternoon. She had a work report due and was busy. But, it being Boulder, there wasn't any "real" bad-for-you "rot your teeth out of your head while raising your blood sugar" candy to be found within walking distance. None at Whole Foods (employees confirmed that they are not allowed to sell such things) and none at the drugstore (if there is such a thing as a "spa-like" drugstore, this one would qualify.) I just wanted a bag of bite size Snickers! No such luck. At the drugstore I bought some "healthy" fake M&M's in small bags (which I happen to like) and some wrapped boutique-y milk chocolate foil-wrapped monsters.

Later I went to breadworks (near vic's) and got a late lunch and sat outside at the tables for a couple of hours watching the various late lunch eaters, then the kids and parents going to the various stores trick or treating. I'm pretty sure the Dopers Suck guy was on the phone at another table for a short time - a friend used to work with him - I met him once. Later we went for a hike. You can walk to the trails from my friend's house - a huge perk of being in this part of town.

Good luck to everyone at ChiCross Cup Sunday in St. Charles!!

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....