Louisville Is A Wrap

Well my prediction for the weekend's winner was way off and it was Jeremy Powers throwing down again on Saturday and Tim Johnson on Sunday to add to an already impressive back to back weekend of wins for the Cyclocrossworld riders. My racing wasn't so hot and after a couple laps I felt like I was going backwards quicker than forwards and felt like, as Adam Craig would say, I was "riding like a small child." After the race I was pretty demoralized and was thinking of calling it an early weekend by not starting Sunday. Long story short I pulled myself together and pulled off another average race that was good enough to get my moral back. Now I'm hanging out with my good buddies Matt Shriver aka the facebook stalker and Troy Wells at the Wells family compound in upstate New York. It's been a quit night for trick or treaters here at the house, with about six in total, and the boys are busy stealing the wifi signal from the neighbors and getting in internet time before bed... just a day in the life. We headed into the town of New Paltz today for a bit of coffee and some good people watching after the hour long recovery ride, that was much needed after my 14 hour drive from Louisville. The roads around here are really nice with constant rolling hills and very few cars to deal with. I've been lacking the off road skills lately at the races and the cyclocross training race planned for tomorrow will hopefully help hone in those skills and restore my confidence. Either way I'm mentally prepared to throw down this weekend. Parting words... the time is now the place is here just do it.

PA to KY

I rode to the Louisville course today with my host house guy Santiago. Pretty much as soon as we got there the clouds started to unleash an unwelcomed amount of rain onto the already saturated ground. The muddy corners went from tacky to greasy within a lap and I wasn't all that interested in trying to ride at race pace with my rear file tread tire providing absolutely zero traction. After four or five laps my bike and legs had built up enough mud and grass to build a small hut so I decided to head over to the power washer for a bit of a clean up before riding back to the house with Santiago. I arrived yesterday evening after driving about 10.5 hours from my aunt and uncle's house in Pennsylvania and so far Louisville seems like a pretty cool city. The area I'm staying in reminds me a bit of Capital Hill in Seattle with lots of restaurants, bars, music shops, and big, old houses... the main difference being that it's cleaner and it's not quite as funky, meaning from what I've seen there aren't any drugged out homeless people. The race should be difficult tomorrow and although I'm not going to be in contention for the "W" I know it's going to be an epic battle with all the top US talent like Tim Johnson, Jeremy Powers, Ryan Trebon, and Barry Wicks all ready to throw down. I was talking to Wicks earlier today and he told me that Trebon will be helping him tomorrow to try and take the win, should be fun to watch but I'm hoping to put myself into a good group and finally get a respectable result.

Granogue

Oh man. This weekend was a lesson in what not to do when you're trying to race well. Day one was is in beautiful Delaware on property owned by the Du Pont family. This was my first visit to Delaware and it was a short but good one considering the race was only about nine miles south of the Pennsylvania border. I was pretty confident going into the weekend after a solid four days of training in the 70 degree temps on sun soaked farm roads of Amish country in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. I've been staying at my uncle Tom and aunt Diane's house and they've been taking way too good of care of me which has been awesome. I had host housing arranged but the house is so well located in Lititz, which is near Intercourse and Blueball, that I decided to head to the races from here since I was already settled in. The drive time to Delaware was about and hour and a half but was prolonged by traffic lights and what seemed like an unnessecary volume of cars. I put the pedal to the floor when I had the opportunity and made it to the race by about 2pm which I felt was plenty of time for a 3:30 start time; and it would have been but unfortunately the race started at 2:30 (roar of laughter here). I ended up pulling into the race parking at 5 after 2 and then had to run to registration, pin numbers, dress, put my wheels on, and then I really had to pee. I rolled up to the starting area and was only there for about a minute before the race official told me I had to go to the finish line for a special call up with all the other super stars. This was good because it gave me a chance to actually ride my bike before the start. After some last minute shuffling on the start grid I ended up getting demoted to the third row, whatever. I had an ok start but then crashed on an off-camber (I didn't see the course before the first lap) which put be back a few more unnecessary places but it was only a few scrapes on my calf. I got rolling again but it took me a couple laps and another minor snafu tangle with a pole before I got the course down and the pain from no warm-up out of my legs. After that I was on cruise control and I moved my way through riders from 30 up to 20th spot quickly closing on the next rider just seconds up the road. I finished strong and I felt like if I had actually been on time my good legs would have ridden me to a good result. That's just life when being a dumb shit.

gloucester photos

photos curtious of Thom Koschwanez thomnews.com

Gloucester

Another weekend of racing is in the books here in Gloucester, Mass. The weather was cross perfect after the rain and thunderstorms rolled through Thursday and Friday, opening up for the sun and cooler temperatures. There were plenty of riders present to contest both days of racing but the favorite had to have been Tim Johnson with Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks (both Kona) racing elsewhere. Saturday started out well for me as I moved up through riders on the starting 200 meter steep, paved, hill and entered the grass in the top fifteen. From there the race started to split apart and I did my best to keep position or move forward through the chasing groups. The biggest suprise was seeing Tim ride past me on the second or third lap after riding through the field from 35th position after he had rolled off his tubular tire on the first lap and had to run his bike to the pits. I did my best to stick his wheel but he put the pressure on me going up the start/finish hill and I never saw him again; he ended up finishing 6th after getting beat in a sprint. After that I tried to follow some wheels but mostly ended up riding on my own and finishing up 19th. The same thing happened on Sunday when Tim had another mechanical and had to claw his way back, passing me once again, on his way to 2nd behind the charging Jesse Anthony. My friend Thom took the commuter train in from Boston and it was nice to have some support cheering me on. I didn't have the ride I was hoping for but at least it was an improvement from last weekend and Thom had a blast experience his first cyclocross race ever. After the race we went and got some pizza and then drove down to Salem to hunt some witches. The town wasn't what we were expecting and after feeling a bit socially akward at the 2007 Wizards and Warlocks Convention we hit the road back towards Boston. All in all it was an ok weekend but I would like to get some better results... soon! I'm off to Pennsylvania tomorrow to hang out at my uncle's house before the weekend of racing in Granogue, Delaware and Ludwigs Corner, PA (yeah I have no idea where that is). Pic above is Thom and I on the Charles.

I almost traded the team van for this rig...

Long Island\lon-GI-land\, noun:

1. An island in southeast New York, USA with an area of 3,567 square miles and a population of 7,448,618 as of the 2000 census, making it the largest island in the 48 contiguous U.S. states and the most populated in any U.S. state or territory.
2. Long Island is known for its affluence and high quality of life.
3. The island is much longer than it is wide, jutting out some 118 miles from New York Harbor.

Well after two weeks on the road travelling across the country I decided it would be fun to spend some more time in the car and drive to the tip of Long Island for a double weekend. I didn’t have the Long Island weekend in my original schedule of races, because I didn’t know about it until Troy Wells told me about it, and it just so happens that it worked out to head out there after a little pit stop at my uncle’s house in Pennsylvania. It was another good chunk of driving out to the isle especially with the construction, tolls, and traffic heading through NYC. We had booked a hotel in Edison, NJ for the weekend to save some money but unfortunately our estimated drive time of two hours turned into four. So with the hope of finding a different, closer hotel or better yet some host housing we packed everything back into the van Saturday morning and hit the road. Luckily for pops and myself the house that Troy Wells, Matt Shriver, and Greg Reain (Canadian Champ) were staying in was otherwise unoccupied for the weekend so we commandeered a couch and some floor space for the two following nights. The house was near Sag Harbor and was only accessible by a sandy, rocky, dirt road that cut through the woods and down a very rutted out little steep hill. Inside the house was a stockpile of camping gear, bikes, motorcycles, two Bronco trucks, a dune buggy, and pretty much everything you could ever need to climb Everest. The racing weekend turned out to be a great one for Barry Wicks who got second to the word champion Erwin Vervecken in a sprint to the line on Saturday and then pulled off a big win on Sunday after Vervecken fouled up a section of course and broke his rear derailleur. My weekend on the other hand wasn’t as successful and I ended up finishing 20th on Saturday and 25th on Sunday… yikes. I’ve already put that weekend behind me and attributed the heavy legs and poor riding to the long hours in the car driving across the country. My focus is now on this double Gloucester weekend that will be starting in a bit more than a few hours. It’s really cold this morning but the storm clouds are out of sight and the sun is shining bright.

A whole heap of miles

I've been trying to get some more photos on the blog but I've had trouble getting internet access for my laptop and that's where all of my photos are stored. So it's only been about ten days since I left Seattle but all of the days have kind of just blurred together, but in a good way. I was hoping to find some sort of interactive map so that I could pinpoint where I have been thus far; if I did have one I would already be able to check off Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. After driving to Las Vegas for the CrossVegas race I headed east with my co-pilot/dad, Pat, to eastern Iowa for a couple of nice days catching up with family friends on their farm near Dubuqe, the town that my ma and pa grew up in... Thanks again Calvin and Barbara, glad we got to spend some time with you guys and we look forward for your visit to Seattle. After three solid training rides in Iowa we hit the road again late Tuesday afternoon and ended up at my uncle's house in Lancaster Co. Pennyslvania late Thursday evening. It would have been a bit earlier but I needed a quick ride to break the monotony of the long day in the car. It can get a bit difficult trying to fit in my training when travelling on the road like this but as long as I don't get stressed about it, riding in completely unfamiliar areas can be a fun experience. For example Thursday afternoon I got a quick hour long ride near the border of West Virginia in southwest Pennsylvania on quite, two lane roads that rolled up and down, and through and around small farms and a few towns. A different time, while in Colorado, my dad and I unloaded my bikes and took a little spin along a bike path that paralleled a beautiful mountain river, nothing epic but it sure was nice. Anyway this coming weekend is racing in Long Island, NY aka the Hamptons.

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CrossVegas

Well it was no StarCrossed. When my dad and I got to the venue all that we could see was a 500 meter grass loop. He got me pretty worried when he told me he thought that the race was only going to be going around the loop like a Nascar race for an hour. Luckily, I guess, the course made its way up and down and all around a couple of different fields in the heaviest grass I've ever ridden in. The grass had recently received a good bit of rain and as a result made for a very thick ride, with thick mud like resistance. Everyone's tires sunk a good two or so inches into the grass and it made my bike feel like I had over tightened my headset. Not only was the grass heavy but so was the start list at Vegas. The Interbike trade show brought out a very elite group of cross racers which will be very rarely duplicated even at the biggest races to come on the U.S. national calendar. With all of the "special" call-ups for guys like Jonathan Page, Adam Craig (who wheelied to the start grid), Todd Wells, and probably 20-25 other rediculously fast dudes I ended up starting in the fourth row despite having bid number 21. Anyway, it was a pretty hectic start with a fare bit of contact in the corners with the highlight being the first run-up that most of us could only walk up due to the bottle necked traffic jam. Unfortunately I ended up losing places instead of gaining ground on the front group(s) and from there on it was a constant battle to move up. In an early attempt to bridge up to a large group of about eight guys I red lined a bit too much and blew my self up for what seemed like a lap and an half or two before I could regain my momentum and any consistant power output. Once I finally got rolling I started to make my way through riders and small groups but was mainly riding solo which was some what of a disadvantage with the wind blowing through the fields. Adding to this was some super bad stomach cramps which were so painfull at one point that I thought I was going to have to call it a night. The cramping hit quick and without any warning but eventually faded and I managed to latch onto a small group that had slowly realed me in, led by Adam Craig of Giant. Adam was kind of goofing around, drinking some beer and picking up money from the spectators, but he still would hammer in every other part of the course. He and I pretty much rode the other guys that were in the group off our wheels, and then with a lap and a half to go I managed to gain a bit of a gap over Adam on the run-up. From that point on I caught a few riders like Troy Wells that were going backwards and then put the hurt upon myself to keep Adam and the then trailing Wells from overtaking me on the last lap. I got in ahead of those guys in some unknown spot but I was just glad to get that race over with cause it was hard. To top off a not so great performance someone stole my long sleeve jersey, along with about eight other riders' warm-up gear sometime during the race. We searched the infield near the start finish and asked the race promoter and officials if they had seen anybody walk off with a bunch of jerseys, coats, and leg warmers... nothing, all of it gone. Some poor guy from Colorado had his wallet with driver's liscence, credit cards and everything else, in his jersey pocket. If you see a '07 long sleeve Hagens-Berman jersey on eBay or some other website let me know cause it may be mine and I wouldn't mind having it back, especially when it's sub 30 degrees in New England.