A couple of weeks ago Brian and i did the Krugers Crossing Cyclocross Race, it rained, and rained, and rained…and i came upon this pic which summed up the whole race….not so fast, but alot of fun.

Jim in Oregon

Hey all. I woke up early enough on Sunday AM but despite having already pre-registered and paid my money it took lots of HTFU-ing to get me out the door.

I can take the cold, I can take the rain, I can take the mud. I can take all of those at once, but when the skies are clear and it’s really cold and the wind blows right through you… that right there is my Kryptonite.

Long story short: I almost didn’t get to race. Thanks to Jared I DID get to race. There are a few more amusing elements to relate but they get old and tired quickly. I’ll leave it with Jim and Will regarding with awe my new “outlaw” aura.

Don’t mess with me… I’m a baaaaaad man.

So anyway– I got my race. Jared saved me from pissing away $30 so I figured that the least I could do was pit for him. My favorite part of the experience (Day-um it was cold standing around there!!) was standing next to the person holding Ali Goulet’s pit bike.

She asked “Who you got?”

I replied “Jared mfkn Roy. Crossniacs.”

“Don’t know that name.” she turned away, conversation over. Later it was my turn”

“So… who do YOU got?”

She said something that sounded like “arri-mahmay” after it made it’s way through my parka’s hood and Crossniacs winter hat.”Sorry. Don’t know that name.” I hope I was able to keep a smirk at bay. Turns out though that I did know who she was pitting for. The guy was crushing the field. 7 seconds on the first lap. 15 on the 2nd. She couldn’t give a split on the third lap since the guy was too far ahead of the chase for reference. By the fourth he was up 1:30. Positively Badass. Later, talking to Jared, he asked “Ali Goulet?” Bingo– that was it.

Unfortunately (or fortunately since the wind was STILL up) I had to bail just after the start of the pro women.

So that’s officially that for me. Cyclocross has left the building. Now it’s time to start aggressively sitting around on the weekends getting fat. And dreaming of warmer temperatures and snowy trails in early season mountain bike races. The bikes all get a badly-needed overhaul– they’ve worked hard this year and I’m looking forward to working on them now that I’ve got space to do it.

Happy holidays, merry Christmas and a happy New Year’s to you all. I’ll see you in 2010!

-Brian J “i_r_beej”

1750 miles to the left coast. The road trip wasn’t too bad and I got so see some beautiful country along the way. Montana, Idaho, and now Oregon are on the list of places I could live. Sorry Grandparents.

I met the OR crossniac crew this weekend and it brought true meaning to the syndicate. The brothers on the left coast treated me like part of the family.

The crew set me up with host housing in Portland and it was awesome. I got hooked up with a nice young couple who lived only 5 miles from the race.

Saturday the OR crew was in full force and were there for me in the pits and cheering every lap. Thanks guys. Starting from 104th place was tough, but I got up to 30th in the end. The race was not epic Portalnd mud that we all read about, but it was muddy enough for some fun.

Sunday the crew was back and racing and in the pits for me. The weather was brisk and the wind dried out the course so it was fast, fast, fast. I felt good and got a good started and made it up to 23rd in the end.

Thanks OR crew. Hopefully see someone of you at Nationals in Bend

run!

Well, it was another weekend of cyclocross… that means another weekend of fun and of sucking.

I think that racing is super fun, but it would probably be a whole lot more fun if I could just get a little more “oomph,” a little more Eye of the Tiger..

I’ve got a plan to do just that, but that’s for NEXT season…

Focusing on this season, this past weekend’s BayState ‘cross race (full name: BayState Cyclocross, Round 12 of the Verge New England Cyclocross Championship Series, UCI Cat 2, Presented by Spin Arts/Stevens Cycles, Gear Works Cyclery, and The Mid State Cycling Club) was another opportunity for me to push the limits of human athleticism. Instead, I found myself pushing my bike up a sloppy, muddy hill. But, I’m getting ahead of myself (something many of the people I raced against also did… get ahead of me… that’s almost a pun).

I was originally signed up to race both Saturday and Sunday-an ambitious agenda, my wife thought. She’s right, Anyway, due to a confluence of factors, not the least of which was the torrential downpour I heard as my alarm went off dark and early on Saturday morning, I skipped out on Day 1. Ironically, by the time I did roll out of bed, the skies had cleared and I heard that the start of my race was bone dry. D’oh. That’s okay. I had a little more time to get my stuff together for Sunday’s race (Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!), so I was able to get to bed at a decent time and hopefully be well rested.

zoom!

Sunday morning came early (as almost all of my mornings do), and G-Roll (AKA G-Money, AKA G-Rad, AKA Glen) arrived at my front door so we could carpool to the race. We had our directions spot-on this time and didn’t waste any time on any wild goose chases. In fact, thanks to Glen’s driving tip, by taking a few extra turns-we shaved about 10 minutes off the drive time. Bizarre!

Glen’s race was much later in the day, so he had plenty of time to chill. I, on the other hand, had to sign-in, get my number, and take a quick warm-up spin. I don’t typically warm up before a race, and I think that’s going to change…Anyway, this time around, I did a half-lap of the course and found my way to the BACK of the staging area.

My primary goal with any race start is to avoid any crashes or mishaps, and I was able to do that once again. The course started on a fast crushed stone track… we went around about 1/2 of the track then made a tight hairpin turn onto the grass. From there, it was a typical ‘cross course, with plenty of tight turns, grassy straight-aways, a couple of run-ups. One of the “run ups” was sort of a “slog-up” as it was a slick, slippery, muddy hill. SOME riders were able to ride up, but most did not.

Overall, the course was fast and fun. Unfortunately, I was neither. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I was fun! It’s the “fast” I’ve got to work on. Although, depending on how you look at the results, I didn’t do that poorly. I did CRUSH five other racers. And, in my class, I was the top finisher from Massachusetts’ “North Shore” region. It also appears that of all the men’s classes, I was the highest placed racer with a hyphenated last name. I can only imagine that the sponsorship offers will be rolling in any minute now…

Thanks to Glen for documenting my efforts photographically. I look fast, don’t I?

After my race, it was time to hang out and watch Glen get ready for his race. I ran up and down the course shooting my trusty Canon G10 and I’ll be posting a little slide show once I sort through the pics and eliminate the crap…

With this race done, it appears that there is only one more race on the calendar for this season that I can get to-the Ice Weasel! See ya in Wrentham!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving…too much food and not enough training.  But decided to get up early to hit the race in Conyers.  I don’t really like the course.  There I said it.  I know everyone has to ride the same course, etc., but I don’t like it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like complaing and I appreciate the effort; but this one is not for me.  They have a lot of land, but the course is pretty tight and most of it is through the woods on MTB trails.  Most of it is very rooty, muddy, etc. even though it has been dry for the past few days.  There are a couple of ditch crossings that might not be too bad on a MTB, but they are rough on a cx bike.  There is one that is really like a small creek.  It is about 2.5 to 3 feet wide.  Tons of thick sticky mud on each side and then a run up after you jump across.  There is also a creek crossing on the back side of the course.  This year it was covered with hay…not real sure why. I guess it helped with the mud.  You could ride it, but you could not see the holes, drops, etc. until the hay got packed down a bit.  So, you weren’t sure what you were riding on.

For some reason, I decided to do Masters 35+ and CX4.  Masters is the first race of the morning and CX4 is right after it.  I worked on my bike on Saturday night after we got back from the carolinas.  Straightend the der. hanger as best I could and got the shifting working ok.  Got to the course and did a pre-ride.  The legs felt heavy.  The first lap of the Masters race was tight.  In the middle of the pack.  Still didn’t feel real good, but was hoping to tough it out.  On the second lap, I hit the mud wrong before the creek crossing.  I just sunk into it.  The mud went up about 2 inches on my crank arm and in my der.  I guess the mud pulled on the der. to much.  I lost all shifting at that point.  This course has long laps and I had just passed the pit, so I cut my losses and hoped to do better in the CX4.  I hate a DNF, but needed to try to fix the bike.

I finally got back to car and started working on my Der. to try to get ready for the CX4.  The Der. seemed ok, but the hanger is way off now.  I finally got it working a little by readjusting the limit screws.  Just in time for the start of the CX4.  I got to the line and was stuck on the back of the pack.  We had over fifty guys, and I was on the last row.  The start section was just wide enough for 8 guys.  Then after about 50 yards it narrowed down to about enough room for 3 or 4 guys before heading down a double track into the woods.  I was stuck behind the bottle neck at that first turn. 

It was hard going after that.  Steadily tried to work my up.  But my legs just never really came around.  I ended up in 37th place.   I really appreciate what the promoters do.  But it seems like here in Georgia that only a couple of the promoters have an understanding of trying to make the course flow.  Some of them do either 1 or both of 2 things.  They don’t make enough room to safely get through the first part of the course and spread out the riders.  AND/OR they throw things in just to “make” the course “hard” which takes out the flow.  They could learn a lesson from seeing a course like Hendersonville.  Make the course flow and let the racers make it tough; don’t throw things in that disrupt the flow just so it is called tough. The course a couple of weeks ago in Dallas didn’t really suit my style, but at least it had some flow to it.  IMHO.  Ok, off my soapbox for now.

Hopefully I can get some good recover this week and be ready for next weekend. Not sure yet where I will race.  It is the last race of the Georgia Series in Conyers and the last race of the Bama series in Cullman.  I’m not really high in either series standings at this point.  So, it won’t really matter for the overall which race I do.  But I like the course at Cullman and had a podium there before.  The course at Conyers is a lot of fun and I have had some success, but a little too much climbing for me.  So, I will probably hit the bama race. 

 I know the season is winding down for a lot of you guys, but if I can work it out with my family, job, and money-wise, I still have about 7-12 races that I can do this season.  They won’t be over until the end of Janaury, with doubles every weekend in January.  That is one more thing to love about CX in the Deep South.  Later.

DS

The weekend before Thanksgiving, the UCI came down south to Hendersonville, NC.  Since I was heading to the carolinas to spend Thanksgiving with family, we loaded up the truck and made a pit stop to hit the race.  I was only able to do the Sunday race though, which was a total bummer.  I hear that Saturday was dry and that is much better for me.  It actually was a good course for me, but the rain came in and made things slippery for Sunday.

Our hotel was only about 3 miles away so I let me wife and little boy sleep in a bit.  I threw my bag over my shoulder and rode to the park.  Good warm up.  Got there and did 2 warm-up laps and got checked in. My wife got caught up going through town and got there just before I started.  So, I didn’t get a chance to put out my pit bike.  The course was getting slippery, but I still felt like I could pull out a decent finish. I decided to do Masters 35+ and CX4 back to back.   I pre-registered so I was hoping to get a decent starting spot.  BUT that didn’t happen.  They called up the points leaders from NC first and then it got crazy.  In the Masters race, I started on the 5th row.   We took off down the road on the whistle and I was fighting for a few spots.  We came off the road at speed into the grass and then started weaving our way down a slight hill.  It was tight and guys were going down all over the place.  I managed to make it through the first several turns.  We then hit a short pavement section and then a right hand off-camber turn in some wet grass…did I mention it was slippery.  I was trying to move up a couple spots and overcooked the turn.  I went down and slid down the grassy knoll about 20 feet.  I ended up with dirt and grass in the brakes and the derailleur and the seat pointing about 90 degrees left.  Lost a lot of ground there trying to get it working and got caught up by the 45+ guys. 

The adrenaline was pumping at this point and I told myself I was not going to be a DNF or DFL.  So I grabbed on to a train of 45+ guys and held on as long as I could.  I’m not a climber, but the climb in the woods up a steady hill with leaves seemed to fit in to my gearing that I had working, so I kept going.  As I said the course was awesome and the best part was the “Wall” right before you hit the start/finish.  The course went across a small parking lot and then straight up the hill that weaved down before.  The only difference was that the uphill covered the elevation change in about 20 yards; whereas the downhill weave covered the same change in about 200 yards back and forth.  Of course the ”WALL” was were most of the fans were.  Even though I was fighting to avoid DFL I hit that WALL hard everytime.  If you didn’t, the fans were heckling you pretty hard.  6 laps, I made it all the way up 3, dabbed on 2 right at the top, and ran halfway on 1.   Not the result I wanted, but not a DNF and not DFL.  I was 32nd out of 33 finishers.  We had close to 50 starters since I was in the 5th row.  Not sure what happened to the rest.

As soon as I finshed I went to the truck to try to get my seat straight and my derailleur working.  When I got there, I learned that my son had taken a flying spill through the wet playground right beside the course.  I told him I did too, so it was ok.  Washed the mud and grass off and went to work.  Seat was ok (I thought).  Der…well, the hanger was bent.  Did my best to adjust the shifting so I could get to the line for the CX4.  Got there just in time.  Ended up in the 7th row for the start though.  Hit the road hard, but once again it was tight an even more slippery now as the rain had strated to fall again.  Lot of guys went down, but I managed to stay upright.  But by now the leaders were gone.  I settled in and tried to  pick my way through the crowd.  I got hit by a guy as he picked up his bike to go over a barrier.  Not sure how his bike ended up so far to the side, bit it got caught on my seat.  Seat ended up pointing straight up.  When I fixed the seatpost earlier, I forgot to check the seat clamp.  It must have been knocked loose as well.  I knocked it back down and took off again.  I just tried to be gentle on the seat.  Not easy with my extra weight. 

Only 3 laps for the CX4, so only 3 times up the WALL.  The fans were pretty thick at this point and the beer must have been flowing.  They were going nuts.  First time up got tangled up with someone sliding back down.  The second time I made it clean.  The third time I dabbed at the top and a fan helped push me up. I finshed 37th out of 47 finishers.  Lost a lot of guys to DNF’s in that race as well.  Didn’t get the results I wanted.  I hated it because my legs felt pretty good.  I just couldn’t go any harder because of the slippery corners and the traffic.  I felt like it should have been a lot better.  But it sure was fun.  Maybe tubies would help.  Wish I could try them.  Even though I didn’t finish as high as I wanted, this race still showed me why I love CX.

The NCCX people did a great job. The course was great.  Everything ran pretty smooth. (except the call ups).  Everything was setup real “Pro”.   Jared may remember the “WALL” because I think they used that course when he was in Carolina.  BTW, our he is on the home page of NCCX.  Looks like he is third or fourth in the picture behind a couple of NCCX racers.  Still it was a great race and the town is pretty cool.  Had dinner at a neat place and walked with my wife and little boy down main street.  Must go back here next year.  My wife took some great pictures, but she has not uploaded them from the camera yet.  I will add some as soon as I can.  Got a couple of me going up the “WALL”.  Can’t completely get the feel for it, but it does show the fence from the tennis courts in the background to give you some idea.  By the later races, even the elite guys were sliding back down the “WALL”.  I will get the pictures up as soon as I can, so check back.  Talk to ya’ll later.

DS

For setting me up with host housing for the USGP this weekend in Portand. You guys rock.

Wah

Most are wrapping up their seasons. I feel like mine is about 1/2 way done. I headed down to Jingle Cross for the 3 day event. The race organizer sent an email out early in the week stating that IA had received record rain and to plan for mud…and he was right. Every day was super muddy and Mt Krumpet is super challenging, whether you are going up it or coming down it. This year they had a race under the lights on Friday. It was a little hard to see at times but it was fun and I ended up 7th in the 35s. Saturday turned out to be the muddiest of the days so I had my wife work the pits for me and I made bike changes twice. This was critical as some people were having to stop to pull the mud out of their brakes to make the wheels spin. More people showed up to race on Saturday so I was happy with another 7th place. Sunday I woke up and was feeling pretty crusty. 3 days of racing in a row is tough on an old man, but when they say GO, it’s go time and the legs came around and I got 6th place. All 3 days in the money, so that paid for my entry fees and a little lunch money.

I’m headed to see the OR posse this weekend at the USGP in Portland and then to Nationals next weekend and then off to Master’s Worlds with CJ and Guy in January.

Jared…aka Wah

Jingle Cross 2009: Friday Night Cross from Gizmo Pictures on Vimeo.