Jingle Crossings & Ferris Wheel Lines

Well two days of racing a difficult course at the Jingle Cross races in Iowa City, IA left the legs feeling a little weary. It was mad fun though!! Huge fields, new bike, cold weather, what else could you want? The staging was done by registration and bib# so I was in the back. #74 of 90 something starters on Day 1, which was the last couple of rows. I couldn't see or hear the ref and next thing you know people are going and I still have my jacket on. Throw the jacket and let 'er rip and tear through the field, taking no prisoners. The first runup was mayhem... everybody was falling and couldn't get any traction up the muddy slope. By the 2nd lap I'm sitting in 4th!!! Few more laps go by and one of the KC locals swings by me and I grab his wheel. He bobbled in the sand section and I went down behind him... he got a gap on me and I could never bring it back. My shifter would not shift after getting gummed up with sand so I was constantly struggling with that the rest of the race. Finished in 6th, felt pretty good. The X-Fire performed great and felt so light on the runups and barriers. I'm really going to like this bike.

Day 2 - It was rumored the top 10 from day 1 would get call-ups to the front, so I was ready for the chance to make the podium. Well it didn't happen and again last 2 or 3 rows in a 110 person field. The course was reversed today with a long steep runup. Tried to get through the field today but everytime I'd make a move, somebody was flailing in front of me. Two big crashes in the first lap made things intersting, luckily I steered clear. Keep slogging through them and near the end of the first lap, I'm passing on an inside corner of a tight muddy section and I literally get pushed into a bush. There I am hanging off the ground, sticks poking my back, feet still in the pedals when I hear and I quote "That's what you get mother fucker!" I don't even know what to say.... pull myself out of the sticks, get going, and catch right back up to the guy and was like what was that... he says "wait your turn". My response "This is a race you punk, not a line for the ferris wheel!", accellerate and dust him. Make my way to 11th and that's all I had. The huge runup killed me. I still couldn't believe the attitude from this guy, sure I made a hard inside turn which probably cut him off a little, but they were going slow and I had already made up 60-70 places, come one. If you aren't aggressive you can sit at the back and that's where you should be.... or in line for the ferris wheel.

Here's some video from my teammate Mr. Dunsmuir of the Elites on the first runup.

Check out the pics.

Wells taking snapshots .. of me

Elite Lineup - Horner Tilly Wells

Muddy Runup

SupaFast Downhill - Bjorn

Markos Bob Brown

A Day in the Life...

Thinking back to a previous post about the Juggling act we non-pro racers go through, I was inspired to delve into a little more. As I began the last 4 week phase of training before Nationals, work has also started its year-end run for the finish line. The workload at this time of the year is at it’s max, two seriously high profile projects are in the works as well as prepping for Cross Nationals. Below is a recap of last week's Monday leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday.

The rest week ended Sunday with a 2.5 hour easy road ride. Then trying to get ahead on the week, I worked from about 6pm to 1am Sunday night. Monday started early and ended late. The day went in this order….work, training, dinner & family time, re-glue tubie, and build the X-Fire.

7am Start work put in 10 hours on revenue targets

5pm Time to ride 1.5 hours EZ spin with the LTrain out on the road 75 degrees!

6:30 Family Time --Help with Dinner, time with the kiddos, then bedtime
9pm Start the re-glue process – another layer on the rim and base tape. Sunday night I was looking at the Dugast and pulled it back a little and the tire totally came off in a section. Ripped the whole thing off and time to re-glue - ugggg

10pm Get some libations going, crank up the tunes and build up the Ridley

11pm Another bourbon rocks

1am Finally getting everything done and adjusted – fatigue is setting in.
1:30am Head to bed and get some rest before 7am hill repeats and the test flight on the X-Fire.

Oh man, this is hard work. What would it be like to have a mechanic? Or a Nanny? Or Just get paid to Ride? I’m sure it wouldn’t be any easier, just different. On with it…

X-Fire takes Flight

The X-Fire is freshly built with one test flight under her now. Getting ready to load it up on the car and head out. I'll put it through the paces this weekend with back to back race days in Iowa at the Jingle Cross. The massive hill will test its climbing ability and descending prowress. This baby weighs in at less than 18 pounds!! Lugging it up those hills might be a bit easier than before.

Euro on Euro

Snow is starting to fall today, then the weather is supposed to clear up for the weekend. The temps are expected to be around 40 degrees for the high in Iowa, so this is going to be perfect cross weather... FINALLY!!

The Powers Stack

Steve-Z Photography caught this sweet sequence at the recent Redline Cup at the Boulder Res. Jeremy Powers is the Sinsei of bunny hopping barriers but it is nice to see he is human. As many times as he flawlessly bounds over the barriers, we all know he must have stacked it hard trying to perfect his technique. Double click to enlarge the sequence to get a close-up view of this, you might not see it again.




In the first photo he has the look of 'Oh Shit here we go'. In the 2nd photo, he's setting up the landing with the flying squirrel. And finally the roll, right up to the barrier. A little further and he'd been right on top of the 2nd barrier, yikes. JPows is still super-human in my book.

The Eagle has Landed... Repeat the Eagle has Landed

I should really say the Phoenix has landed cuz this beeeatch is on Fire. The X-Fire arrived on the doorstep the other day and finally got some pics of it to post up before I gets her built up. Missing parts you say? Oh Yes, Missing parts that are integral to getting it built up. Headset is missing one cup, bearings, top cap, and the seatpost wasn't in the box. Sinclair is hooking it up though with an overnight delivery... new headset and a Ritchey post as the Thomson is on backorder. So they should be here on Friday and I'll be riding the Nationals course on Saturday for another "practice" race to ride the course in.

Initial impressions:
1. The all carbon is HOT!
2. The seat stays and chain stays look like ripped calves with those sculpted lines
3. Paint job is sick - nuff said
4. It weighs next to nothing and wondering what it will end up at on the scale fully built

Check it out...

Sweet Simplicity


Now those are some legs


A headshot for the books


TailFeathers/flattened brake bridge...ooooooo

The final build will look something like this:
SRAM Rival Shifters
Salsa Bell Lap bars
Thomson Stem
Cane Creek Aros 58 carbons
Dugast Rhino tubulars
TRP CR950 Carbon Canti Brakes
Thomson post
Selle Italia Flite Classic Ti saddle

Time to get it on! Just need that headset before I rip apart the newly renovated Slingshot and end up bikeless for the weekend.

Poetry in Motion

How beautiful is this clip? This photo is courtesy of David Chui and shows the elegant display of bunny hopping barriers by the master himself, Sinsei JPows. One of these days I'll man-up and give it go.... on the porta-barriers cuz I'm a wussy and probably end up on my face. This is not something you can try in a race unless you have it down perfect EVERY time. Jeremy is also rolling the new SRAM RED on a Ridley X-Fire (it better get here soon!) Straight up Badass.

Do They Grow on Trees?

Since there aren't any races in the metro for another couple weeks, we must improvise. Today a few of us gathered at Loose park for the circuit. Set up a couple barrier sections and went for it. The wind was jammin' (30-40mph gusts) and the 80 degree day made it exceptionally tough in the tall grass. Mitch and Brent are captured here approaching the barriers before wind tunnel hill.

Brent's De Rosa was hangin' out in the tree, just ripe for the pickin'.

Another One Flies the Coop

One of my recent acquisitions just flew the coop this week. This 2007 Trek XO2 was around for a couple months, but had to make room in the barn for the real deal. The Ridley X-Fire will be here soon and although its hard to have too many cross bikes, the wife has a different opinion. The wait seems endless.
OUT




IN

Du-Du- Dugast

Well the Rhinos are finally mounted up and it took a full week. This is my virgin glue job as I've never had tubbies before and I'm hoping for the best. I did a quick and easy spin around the park the other day and they felt good. I had too much air in them but was a little nervous about running them with very low pressure for the first time out. I put them on the spare Slingshot DD-X that I'll be using as a training/pit bike this year.

They look sick and can't wait to put them through the paces, although I have read a few posts about people rolling them (yikes!) Lets just hope I have enough glue in all the right places. I may peel those stickers off the wheels too, they look a little much and all black is always BA.