Something very cool about a big race. A real big race.

Wife and family let me play “pro” for the weekend, so Taylor, Jim Grell (a guy you probably dont know but should) and took the Crossniacs Pro-Vehicle (my subaru) down to Madison for the USGP.

I raced SS. Came in 10th.

I was probably over (under?) geared for the long straight-sections and lost a place of two with that, but considering our team tech was busy with Taylor in the 3′s race (there was no such person), I had to race what I brought.

I’ll spare the regular race details. I did go down. Hard. But I got back up… so, ya know.. those sorta details.

I did meet and get my pic taken with Molly Cameron. She is cool. I’ll upload that later.

Ladric, Ryan Trebon says hello.
FPA

Here we go….

Some of us are headed out of state, some are headed within the home state, but we’re all headed to some race some where. For me, its Madison.

At the blow of that whistle, my season will officially start. Probably yours as well.

So give it hell. Go like mad.  Here’s to 2010.

FPA

ps.. Tees are printing early next week. We’ll get those out before the kits.

hey mn syndicate, I need to borrow a track wheel for Madison. I’m rolling SS and need a freewheel wheel that bolts to horizontal drop-outs.

anyone able to help me out?
FPA

I had my very first cyclocross race  of the season, and my first cyclocross race ever this week and was NOT disappointed. I can’t wait until the next race.

I started with the Tuesday night series at Aquila Park in Minneapolis. It’s called a ‘training race’. The series is 8 weeks long and they ramp up the difficulty each week. Only one barrier this week, which was good for a newbie like me. They set it up on an uphill. Now the practice I’ve done so far with mounting and dismounting I’ve only done on flat and usually with imaginary barriers. I was stoked though and rode right up to it on my practice lap at speed. My dismount and step over was fine but I got on my bike with absolutely no momentum and then almost fell over. Great wakeup call that I need to do more drills. During the race I ran with my bike up the hill (along with most everyone else), and mounted on the downhill. Definitely need work on getting back on my bike and in the clips, especially on a downhill.

I thought I’d go crazy with so many laps (the course was pretty short), but it didn’t bother me. There were some really fun twisty sections that I kept looking forward to. All in all it was the most fun and painful 45 minutes I’ve had in a long time.

Biggest mistake: neglecting to pack post race beers. Sure won’t do that again!

-Martha

Sit up in your chair.  Do you feel that chill?  Can you smell a neighborhood fireplace burning?  Damn right you do, and you’re just as fizzdazzled as me to race on some dirt in a couple weeks.  Road is out.  Soil is in, and with it the nuance and rhythm of ‘cross.  No more junk miles chasing calories.  It is now time for dialing the tricks and trades of racing bikes through obstacles.   Big thanks to Jared for helping us dial in the new cross rigs and to one Jay “Hollywood Cycles” Henderson for glueing on the finishing touches.  Was riding with a fellow crossniac down in Castle Rock a couple weeks back and he told me some truth.  He said that it takes a racer to be the kind of mechanic that racers need. Amen to that. Anyways, I digress, back to the topic.  We took our new cx rigs out today and Heather and I set up a 2 and half minute mini course. We started out very slowly by swinging the right leg behind the left and coasting.  Sure thing the 4 year old saw us doing it and mimicked us to perfection.  Next, we practiced the latter step with the addition of dropping the left foot down to the ground.  Finally, we worked on sliiiiiding the right leg over the saddle and clipping in.  It was good practice, but man do we have a long ways to go.  Today was also my first day on a tubular wheel set.  Wow.  I have never been able to corner like that before.  Fun stuff, and as Jay told me when I left his shop this week, “party on.”

-Taylor