MikeyP is in the house. The king of the Craftsman and a hell of a crosser.

Welcome brother

(MN) CROSSNIACS: A couple challenges on the table. #1. Who ever can get their picture with Jonathan Page during the nvgp weekend loaded up here first wins a prize.#2. Whoever gets Jonathan to wear Crossniacs clothing/sticker/etc.. for some portion of nvgp, in some manner, and can document gets a prize.Whats the prize? Hmm.. gotta look into the goodie bag.  Now, we dont want to creep him out, just let him know Crossniacs understands he is using the “road” season as a mere warm-up for what matters most.   FPA 

Well said CJ. It was cool showing up at the race and having a solid group of good guys to race and hang out with.  Cheers to the syndicates quality control process.

The sport class course was significantly soggy, and within 20 seconds of the race start, I was splattered with a thorough coating of Aftons finest sludge. I looked up long enough to see that the rooster tail soiling every inch of my carcass was being emitted by the rear wheel of my good buddy Dan. While on a cosmic level he probably owed me that, there was no way I wanted to wear another seconds worth of his shite. I pinned it up the side line and before I knew it, I was on Ladric’s rear wheel and somewhere around tenth headed into the woods. Nice.  I hung with Ladric for a few minutes, but somewhere between the Bridge Loop and Shady Lane he dropped me like a bad habit and I only caught glimpses of him on the switchbacks for the rest of the race.

At the top of the Shady Lane climb I was feeling slightly hypoxic and downright dizzy. I began to question my logic of choosing to singlespeed the course. The trail surface was like riding on a sponge, and even flat sections required a solid pedal effort for forward momentum. Sweet.  Lucky for me, gravity is more than just a good idea, it’s the law. The downnhill into the Deepwoods Express provided me with some much needed recovery time, not to mention the comic relief of sport class machismos getting ejected off of wet roots into the woods and piling up on top of each other in the technical sections. I stayed out of the mayhem and actually felt pretty charged for the remainder of the race, considering my earlier state.

I held my ground, felt good, finished strong and rang my bell at every single spectator along the entire course.

Bike racing is fun.

Mike C.

I must say it was awesome spending a little time with the crossniacs this weekend. Besides myself there was N8, Guy, Ladric, Eric, and Mike. Everyone was out there throwing down on an extremely tough course. Lots of climbing and somewhat slick single-track.
The comp race had a fast start that pretty much blew the pack up right away. We closed in on the tail end of the expert field so fast I couldn’t tell how many guys were infront of me. About 8 mins into the race I crashed (cause I have to once every race) and bent my brake lever at a 90 degree angle straight down. That sucked not having a rear brake going down some of the single-track. The thing that really sucks is the week before super* had just told me to loosen the screws up so that the whole unit would shift on the bar instead of bend or brake if I crashed. Something that I have now done. After I crashed I got into a perfect groove for the rest of the race. With a half of a lap or so to go I passed the leader but he soon got back around me and got away on the final downhill to the the finish line. I’ll take 2nd with a smile baby. Climbings not my thing and this course had alot of it.
A final thought. Neither myself nor the guy who won had a chance in hell of keeping up with a young man by the name of Jake Richards. (I think his name is Jake) He easily rode away from me and from the looks of the photos I saw he was in his own zipcode until he flatted. Jake is 15 years old. How cool is that.
cj

Lets all welcome Bryan “His Holiness” Pope. Bryan is heading up our Tex-Mex Syndicate, which is now based in Austin, Tx. Bryan happens to be a fantastic guy who can 2-step to the fastest Derailer song with the best of ‘em. I’ve asked “His Holiness” to answer a few questions, and here is responses: *Category:  Single-Speed / B  *Liquor: Whisky *Favorite Soap Opera:  Hands down, Cop Rock! *FHMHB: Loudness – Thunder in the East *I pick my nose and have an extensive magic nose goblin collection. Take a look at the pics and you’ll noticed Bryan was dancer for Beck’s touring company not long ago. According to Bryan, Beck is a totally “A-hole to the crew”. So.. that’s something new I’ve learned. Welcome aboard “His Holiness”. FPA

This post if for Chris Stewart, hope he is checking. 

 I met Chris at the Afton Avalanche mtn bike race on Sunday (BTW, CJ rocked it - 2nd in comp class).  Chris is a really cool dude, and kicked my but up and down the course.  he recently moved back to MN from a short stint out in the holy land (Colorado).  Not exactly sure what brought him back this way, but I guess I will let it slide.  Talked him into checking out the Crossniacs thing, so Chris what do you think.  Jared’s post below gives the low down.

 MNGuy

I headed east from the foothills to the plains of our great country to partake in yet another gravel adventure.  The plan was to ride the WaltWorks on 200 miles of gravel in Kansas.  I set it up with a 32×14 gearing and 700x35c Speed King tyres.   

We started in Emporia, Kansas.  The first fifty were just plain fun. I managed to stay with the main group for about 15 miles until the rolling hills. Then I just settled in for a long day grinding some sweet flint hills gravel. I made it to the first CP feeling rather good. I headed out solo for CP2.

We had a re-route which brought a bit of navigational confusion as I was unsure where I was on the map. Another SS rider straightened me out and we rolled into Cottonwood Falls together picking up another SS on the way. Another quick stop and I headed out for the third leg. About half way through this leg, I came upon some fellow gravel snobs (Skip and Jeff).

At this point I was glad to have someone to ride with. The three of us stayed together until the end, A quick stop at CP3 then we headed onward to the last big climb and the finish.  Darkness came outside of Americus, there is nothing better than cruising gravel under the power of lights. We rolled into the Guest Inn parking lot just under 17hrs.

The ride back to Denver gave me time to digest the ride and weekend. To sum up the weekend: I drove 17hrs, biked 17hrs, enjoyed the company I kept, had no mechanicals, pushed a perfect gear, and plan to be back next year. Now all I need to do start assembling a Denver gravel grinding contingent.

The kit rocked! I finished 4th in the SS division.