Ne cx championship

First of all I must say John Lefler and Sean Craig, put on hell of show for everyone. The course was nice and technical, spectator friendly  and hooligan hill was of the hook… as always.  Last year I spend both day watching various people ride away from you me in SS race. I was determined to make amends  for that this year.   I signed up for SS party cause of the reasons mentioned above partly because I will be riding  SS  for Midwest CX championships also known as  Jingle Cross cx…

Saturday

We were lined up behind the 3/4 guys we had 30 second gap.    The whistle blew and we were off, it wasn’t the best of starts and I found myself  following Ryan and Skip into hole shot. However after the prime, they sat up and I was left loose.  I started to see 3/4 riders pretty much instantly  I decided to ride through as much of the field as possible.  Eventually i worked myself into 3rd spot overall.  I stayed  there for most of the race, until 3 laps to go when my front wheel out from underneath me on one of the turns and I went down. Jeremy and Aaron caught up to me and I kind of lost my motivation to catch the other two guys.  I eased into a pace and actually stopped for beverage  at top of the hooligan hill. That was the race  I rolled in first.  After the race  I rolled home… MK sister is 40th so high five on that. I had some scotch and some swedish meatballs  rolled home and went to bed

Sunday

I was a bit nervous on Sunday, the course was the same but we had addition of Clarke Dolton and  Johnathan Neve. It was going to be a battle of Nature Boys  as it seems. After less than spectacular start I had to work myself  chasing Clarke. Worst of all I was so mesmerized by him jumping barriers that I forgot to get off my bike on lap one…. Duh!!!! I did manage to close the gap on him and his spill before the run-up pulled me in right to his wheel.  I soon found that I’m stupid  enough to ogre the giant climb after the run up. I was forcing the pace and trying to use the MTB section in the woods to get my heart rate down. It  worked I got good 30 second gap and I was working on keeping it steady  for rest of the race.   2 for 2…  Congrats to Jeremy on his championship and Mod for back to back wins as well as second straight year for NE State champ…. I will be the rogue lantern on that train next year :D

Jingle is next and after that long deserved break…. And some race registrations. Looks like I might dip my toes in more regional races at cost of the local series … alas part of  human experience is about new moments in life. But for now it’s all about jingle and winter base miles on gravel…

Happy Thanksgiving  to you allday2

My Sweet metal skin suit kept me nice and cozy in cold windy weekend

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360 & boulvard cup

Saturday Morning Mod, Mk and I loaded up the van and headed south to Kasas City, kansas. I decided to race my single speed as racing that division is just really fun for me. Plus it simplifies things  no shifting  just pedal.

Day 1

You never know what i doing to happen when you go out of town for racing. You do not know whom to watch and who might be the sleeper. I was bit nervous as I saw one or two guys in SS riding a steep run up. I figured they were running super low gear, which they were.  This formulated my plan for the  race.  With bigger gear i should be faster on the flats and downhills  and if I could so ogre on big climb on the day I would contest the  race.

The start was pretty mellow and 1/3 in to the first lap I was in the lead pack on  of 3 building a gap.  I was running the steep run up and two guys were riding it. I would say  it was about even. After 2 laps it was just me and other guy up front.  And on the long ridge climb I powered past him.  I was using all the flats and downhills to my advantage just pedaled away from him for about 20 second gap.   Last lap the  gap grew and I won.  First race win since i was cat 3 mtb dude. I was stocked.

podium

Afterwords we watched Mark, Slug through some mechanicals  but still ending up in 5th place. Nice. Shim and Randy got podiums good day all around.

Day 2

Second day would be  a bit flatter and longer  course.  The big difference was the fact we we were starting behind 3/4 people. with only 30 second gap.  It didn’t take us that long to catch all these fellows. I saw someone in 3/4 dab as we were coming into the technical turn. I was off the bike and running as people were just being crazy…  That was faster  alot faster i passed several people doing that.  Then we went to the technical off camber stuff.  My gear might of been a bit to steep for the climbs I knew I was loosing time to people  in that section. Lap one was also time when I discovered  my seat was all jacked up. I stopped and try to adjusted but it was no use. I had jacked up seat whole race… The amount of standing was increased.   I build a good space rest of the field  of the field but somehow the dude in 3rd caught me right before the straight away section. It was going to be sprint finish.

After he passed me I he took a corner really wide. I saw my  opening got ahead of him and used the guys in front of me to shield me  from the attact. On the last turn it was just matter of getting good jump and going for it.  Good sprint effort netted me a second place.

sand
Sandpit, accually this was not a good line for me. After taking left side whole day I took right and ended up loosing a spot for 1/2 lap.

Photo credit Keith walberg

Mark rode awesome to 3rd place finish. After dusty 2 days looks like it might be back to mud for Wed night race

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Pork

If you know me, you know I love pork. I have all kind of useful and useless pork trivia and I can talk about preserving meat by smoking and drying for hours. Weirdly only Joshua was willing to talk at length about the given subject. Alas… I can tell you more in person. Last evening i drove to Erstwhile Farm to pick up my organic “better” half of pork. I was really impressed about their operation. All organic fed, free roaming hogs. The owners were super nice and I stayed there for about an hour. Talked at length about land management, organic farming and their plans to actually slaughter the pigs on site and save them the stress of being locked up in trailer to be driven away and popped by some commercial hack and not a butcher.

pork

After saying good byes I loaded my cooler and headed home. Now I have whole pig head in my freeze, yes.. And I scored some extra lard for free. Winter will be good. It’s so sweet to know where your food comes from. If you like to know more about:

So from the farm to you table. It’s awesome to support local farmer and pigs who are not genetically modified and would probably died if you let them go outside… This is reality of hog raising in U.S.

 

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Spooky CX

After attending Spooky Cx last year MK an I knew that we have to make our way back this year.  The only bummer was missing a pub crawl and unleashing MK awesome glue gun skills to use.  Maybe next year would be more gooder.

The venue is pretty sweet  and DM peps are super nice, free food after the race.  Quick result turnaround  and just over 90 minute drive from Omaha.  What’s not to like..

Day 1

Day one was marked with warm sun  and good amount of climbing.  The start of the race was pretty mellow.  Being in 3rd row wasn’t going to be be easy to catchup to the leaders. Luckily I was on the outside  of the start and I was able to work the boundary  and progressed to the front. By the time I got to the top of the long climb I was sitting 7th  wheel and by the time we hit the first down hill I was sitting pretty in 3rd.  By end of the lap  I was in 3 man break away with some roadie from DM and John Rokke.  The pace slowed down quite a bit and we just traded places up  front and building that gap.   Eventually the zoom guy and Rokke pulled away from me as I was running a  big hill and they opted to ride it. Looking back at it I probably should of rode it as well, but you don’t want to try something new if what you are doing is working okay…  With about  3 laps to go the zoom DM guy got a flat and I was left in second place. I kept the gap to John about the same until i dropped my chain on after one of the barriers.   That was the race… Dave Randleman finished 3rd.  All NE podium for cat 3 on day one. Before our race Shim, Randy and Ted got on a podium in the master race.

podium

All NE Podium Day 1

WE spend the night eating ice cream and drinking beer.  We also watched emotional roller coaster that was Noah, watching the Wisconsin game…. they lost and sobbing kept going to late at night… ( just kidding)

Day 2

Second day was a lot cooler and winder. The course was bit more rugged and we were joined by Vaugh  Pierce.   Weirdly enough we were almost offered front row start  with all Omaha/Lincoln start line.  At the start it was familiar affair 4 of us Rokke, Vaughn, Dave and I got a bit of a gap.  A guy from Rassy finally bridge to us and Dave fell off the pace. I was having hard time staying with the Kaos guys and was marking the Rassy guy really well, until he got a mechanical. At that time we had 5 second gap to the front and about 10 seconds back to  rest of the chaser.   After the Rassy guy dropped off I kept the gaps consistent, until l botched remount and  was in matter of speaking riding for 3rd.  That’s how the race finished.

powerclimb

This was a pretty nice power climb. It could of used a barrier at the bottom of it.

This weekend, I shall try to race my SS bike in KS good bye  friendly confines of IA. Hello elbows, off camber turns and long power sections of KS cx racing… Ohh there is also this wed business at Seymour Smith… Hopefully we get nice turnout. TMCX boys put together a nice course for everyone to enjoy….

 

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Ft. collins

Let’s just say ft. Collins was pretty hard racing and resulted in sudden stop day 2…  But i’m getting ahead of myself. The whole trip was fun the MCC bus was hoot so was seeing Chris Wolff.

Day 1

Let’s just say that I kind of knew I might be over my polish breeches when everyone in the front row was rolling on tubulars and carbon rims. I was like crap one of those wheels is worth more than my bike put together.  But you got to do  your thing. I race and I did my best. This altitude thing is different  I had not  acceleration. Last lap the rain started coming down and i had my wheel slip couple of time. I should of picked off 2 more guys in front but it didn’t happen worst some dude wont the sprint for 19th… ahhhh!!!!! I spend rest of the day pitting for Mark/Matt and Jay and for Ray Smith riding the elite race….  It was cold rainy and crappy…

Day 2.

I had  decent start. Avoided a big crash at the first turn,  someone did hit my wheel out of true and i heard some crunching.    Lap 2 I  decided to inspect the a pole right off the flyover. Ran straight into it with my handlebars almost broke my collarbone and that was it for racing for me.

jumpon

It almost looks like i know what i’m doing here. This hill was actually a lot tougher on ss speed. It was straight up form the double barriers.

After everyone got done racing we watched the elite man race which was really crazy and awesome.

Best part of the weekend was having MK with me. She is a super  fan she had blast… I will take it easy next two weeks and then continue on at spooky cross.  That’s it  from the rockies.

 

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Told you it was Rad

Goulet

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