Tour of Lawrence

Okay, its not set in stone, but thinking of getting my roadie on.. Tour of Lawrence is this weekend and I am thinking of doing the circuit race on Sat..

Saturday
June 30

Event Type	Time	Location	Event
Race	8:30am	KU Campus	Master's 40+/50+/60+ KU Circuit Race
Race	10am	KU Campus	Cat 5 KU Circuit Race
Race	11am	KU Campus	Cat 4/5 KU Circuit Race
Race	12noon	KU Campus	Women 3/4 Juniors 14-18 Juniors 10-13 KU Circuit Race
Race	1pm	KU Campus	Cat 4 KU Circuit Race
Race	2:30pm	KU Campus	Cat 3 KU Circuit Race
Race	4pm	KU Campus	Women Pro/1/2 KU Circuit Race
Race	5:30pm	KU Campus	Pro/1/2 KU Circuit Race

So I need some help from my CX/Roadie friends. Do I have to start at Cat 5? Do I do that race or the 4/5's? I just know you guys are a peculiar bunch, love your rules and shaved legs carbon parts and all...
Just need the 411 on everything..

Down and Dirty/ MO State Championship

What a great turnout for the Down and Dirty/ MO State Championship MTB race at Warsaw Lake. I pulled in about an 1.45 before race time and could hardly find a parking spot. Damn, this field is going to be deep! Saw the usual suspects out to give me a arse whoopen, but I was determined to give them a run for their money. It had been a while since I had a good race effort in my legs with my mechanical at Robidoux Roundup, so I really did not know what to expect. In a good note, I finally have gotten over my hamstring issues that have been bothering me the last several weeks.

Race started down a very long gravel road which had rock pebbles flying around like rocket ships. I personally don’t care much for glasses for MTB so I was a little apprehensive I was going to get one shot directly into my eye. I hammered it just hard enough to get in front of a couple dudes I wanted to, yet behind the guys I knew would be tough to hold onto a wheel. Minus the guys who just killed it on the start, I was able to keep up with the main bunch for about half a lap before I started blowing up.. I did not think I was going too hard, but the all too familiar feeling of misery, aka the full body drain that tells you that your putting in one hell of an effort, was creeping on me fast. I do have a motto that if you don’t feel like quitting at some point during the race, then you’re not going fast enough. Halfway into the first lap is not the time to be feeling this way however. So I started to back off a little to gain some composure.

By this time teammates Micah and Roger was just ahead of me and Craig was back (how far I didn’t know). On another note, Doug Long passed me at this point with what looked like plenty of gas in the tank. I remember thinking that was pretty impressive. Unfortunately for him, I saw him messing with a tire shortly thereafter… Anyway, finished out the lap feeling a little better. Looking back on the race, its not too often that the first lap goes worse than the last two.

I did lose a bunch of places on the first lap when I fumbled around on a non-technical section but started to pull a couple of people back in on lap two. I started feeling like I wanted to put in a couple digs and see about putting in a decent lap here. I passed a guy (can’t remember who now, it’s been to long) and remarked to him to be careful as I was bound to blow up shortly. Little did I know that I was going to mean that literally. There was a section towards the end where the rocks were just a little bigger and had more off camber areas to it. I was in recovery mode after a good dig to pass a couple of people when I clipped a pedal and ended up over the handlebars, face plant followed by summersaults down a ravine.  After checking to see if all my limbs were still attached I picked up my bike and proceed back to the trail about 10 yards away, same dude came by to see me in all my glory.

Can't really see it from the pic, but hit the ground so hard I broke a huge chunk off my helmet.

Third lap was pretty uneventful, just hammered along as hard as I could and not blow up. Finished 5^th out of 8 in Cat 1 30-39. Overall Cat 1, 11^th out of 28. RESULTS HERE

Teammates did well ,Micah came in 4 min ahead of me for 4^th and Roger came in 1-2 min before me and took 2^nd in the 40-49.

There were some fast guys out there that weekend!!

Robidoux Roundup

Okay, a little late on this post. Figured I better get it up before this weekends race.

Being at my home course, and one that I know like the back of my hand, this is always my best result of the season as far as MTB racing goes. I was going to kill myself out there trying to keep up with the top guys that beat me down on a regular basis and give some overdue payback to a couple of guys that have gotten the better of me the last couple races.

Randy, Craig, Brad and the rest of the trail hippy disciples had Krug in the best shape I can remember. The course was perfect! I know I am biased but the work that goes into this race as far as trail maintenance is second to none. Its always cut three feet on both sides throughout the entire single track. When was the last time you raced without some overgrown areas on the trail? Not here! A huge thank you to everyone that make this race as sweet as it is!!! And for not 100% ostracizing me for not pulling my weight. Another story entirely.

Anyway, I knew from the start that I needed to hit the single track right behind the stupid fast guys. I made the mistake last year of not hammering it as hard as I should and I found myself riding my breaks the first 2/3 of the lap.

Race started perfect! I hit the single track sitting on TDonn's wheel, behind GWiz and two other dudes. Little did I know, this was also the end of my race.. I heard a pop on the road climb leading to the singletrack but did not think much of it until my handlebars started rotating on the first downhill.

Typing a multitude of profanity could only express maybe 1/3 of how I felt at this time. After the first little climb, I hop off to the side and tried to fix my stem, only to find that one of the bolts was completely stripped. I got it as tight as I could and tried to pedal on but I had to stop again and try to fix it. At this point all the Cat 1's were long gone and half the Cat 2's had passed me also.

Apparently this little 5Nm actually means something.. Yah, I am an idiot!

Once I thought I got it rigged enough to ride further I passed all the Cat 2's and just thought I would turn this into a good workout. Try and catch whoever I can. On to lap two I had taken back some places and even passed some of the tail end of the Cat 1's, but half a lap in and I had to face the inevitable and DNF.

This was my 2nd DNF, EVER! It took me a solid week to get over having to DNF on my home race. Disappointed would be the understatement of the year. Owe well, thats racing..

All those that had to miss it. Sucks to be you, the course was sweeeeet!

On to this weekend down to Warsaw, we'll see how it goes..