Manions CX

CROSS SEASON HAS ARRIVED!!!

Manions CX marked the first cross race in the KC area of the season. Day one (which I was not there) was a mud fest and good times seemed to be had by all. Well, everyone that was not replacing bike parts the next day.

Day two the sun was out and the course dried out perfectly. It was a really cool weekend for me, my little man turned 3 on Saturday, and my youngest step daughter came out and raced her first Cross race ever!!
She raced Juniors woman and did awesome for her first race. Especially being on the one the most vertical courses we will see all season.

On her last lap she informed me that she wanted to puke and she hated us all! Can't sum Cross up any better myself!!!! I will note she was wearing her new Manions T-Shirt to school this morning! (Britton, you still owe me a M by the way)

Rogers Pic..

Court looking PRO in her Twin Six kit!

I was next up, racing Cat 3. Lined up and had about the usual 30+ guys in field. We stared about 30 seconds to a min behind the 1/2's.

After surveying the course I knew that anyone wanting to place well needs to get in the top 3 to 5 hole shot to do really well. I always seem to line up after everyone else (folks get there too early in my opinion). I nudged myself in the second row, with a clean clip-in your usually okay in the first or second row.

Here is my GoPro Video. I wanted to do a bunch more with it, but my patients and tec geek only go so far, so this is what you get for the time I am willing to spend on it... I had some good jams with is, but apparently The Black Keys is copyrighted material so its muted. Go figure. Any tips on editing would be appreciated. 

Hit the hole shot (all uphill by the way) 3rd which I was happy with. The game plan was to hold on to second or third wheel for as long as I could and see how it played out. Travis took the hole shot and was riding really strong. I knew he had just got 2nd in Masters so I figured out he would not be able to keep that up for very long. Turns out about 2 to 3 laps, and still got a 6th place. He is riding really strong already.

Anytime someone would jump into 1st, I would jump with them and hold their wheel. This was working perfectly until Mark came by about about 4 laps into the race and drop everyone on his MTB. I held his wheel as long as I could but eventually blew up trying to do so and then battled with the eventual 2nd place guys the rest of the race. I don't know who he is but we traded places until the last two laps when he eventually made a gap on me which I would never close. It was really close though, great job to whoever you are dude!!!

Coming into the last couple laps, I see G-Wiz getting ready to lap all of us. I knew that this meant that I was on his lap, I just did not know he was on his last lap. So.... Finishing out what I thought was going to be one more lap, another guy I don't know had pulled himself up to us and got in front of me and took third. When he was sprinting by me, I thought, easy trigger, your a long way out from putting in an attack. Ooops, turn right, race over, 4th place. Owe well...

That was a blast!!! Can't wait till next week!!

Britton and the Colavita boys put on one heck of a race, they always do! Huge thank you for all your hard work!!!

Manions Blog

Rogers Pictures

Results Here

Pre Jr's race... Before she hated all of us!! Hahahah..

These Three pics are Rogers... Thank you!!!

Mr Stiches

While your here, go to the top right and vote. I am curious to everyone's opinion....

The season is finally upon us!!!

After having my GoPro for over a year, I decided to actually use it. So I thought I might actually learn how to.

Here is our local cross course, just shot it to play around with the camera. Its boring, but your not working on Friday afternoon anyway.

Had to add music to disguise the horrible sound that is my breaks...

See ya this weekend!!

For Sale: Specialized Crux Disc CX, 56

Here is my sweet 56 Specialized Crux Disc Cross Rig, S -1 bike.  $1,900 obo.

What is S -1 you ask?

Velominati (http://www.velominati.com) Rule # 12 – The correct number of bikes to own is n+1

While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, there correct number is n + 1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned. This equation may also be re-written as s -1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.

Built it up and raced it last year. I am upgrading to a carbon frame and need to let it go even though I had dreams of converting it to a sweet single speed racing machine.

Cross bikes are rad! You can do about anything on them, I raced cross and ride gravel with it. But you can also take it on single-track (with zero rock gardens) if you want to. I have my 3^rd best strava lap on a single-track at home with this very bike.

Anyway, frame is 1.5 years old and all components are less than a year old. I built it for racing cyclocross (and looking awesome with the white cable housing!) and have it about as light as you can get it without going full carbon everything ($$$$$). When I put my carbon tubluars on it, it’s just a shade over 17lbs. It weighed in at 19 with a cup of stans in each wheel (without pedals).

I raced last season with it. I only ride the bike in the fall/winter (cross season). It gets cleaned up and sits all spring and summer. It is used, so It does have some cosmetic scratches, etc, but it’s a very, very sound bike and will treat you well.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Frame: Specialized Crux Disc – 56 Geometry can be found here: http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/archive/2012/crux/cruxcompdiscapex#geometry

Wheelset: Stans ZTR Arch 29er (rims & hubs) - http://www.notubes.com/ZTR-Arch-EX-29er-Stock-Wheelset-P918.aspx

Tires: Specized Captians Tubless (rear tread is ½ done, but still has life in it) works great on the Stans rim. http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftb/road-tires/cyclocross-tires/captain-cx-pro

Drive Train - Shimano Ultegra 6700 Groupset – Shifters, Front and Rear Derailleur, Crank 175 front chainring 46-36t, Rear Cassette (Shimano 105) 11-28t.

Breaks: Avid BB7 Road - http://www.sram.com/avid/products/bb7-road-mechanical-disc-brake

                Front rotor 160, Rear rotor 140

Bar: Bontrager RL Ergo 31.8mm/40cm – tape lizard skin http://bontrager.com/model/09167

Stem: Bontrager RXL http://bontrager.com/products/components/stems

Saddle/Seatpost: Selle Sam Marco Bilanciata & FSA SL-K Carbon

Cross Course is Ready to Rocks and Rolls!

Marked and mowed the Cross course this weekend up behind Corby Pond (corby south). Just in time for it to rain and not use it!

Was kind of a pain to mow with my little mower. I name him the noisy cricket!

Here is the basic course layout. For whatever reason I can't get it to post right side up and am not going to mess with it anymore. Parking is on the left.  North is facing right, make since??

Click here to go to google maps to find out where the field is if you don't already know.

I am going to put together some CVC pipe barriers. Just pick um up when your done and put them in the bushes in the tree island so people wont mess with them.

Gravel Soul Searching..

It had been a while since I have done any sort of gravel riding. Went to visit my bro-in-law near Columbia and went exploring..

Shameless selfie

Sun rising.

Instagram edit, pretty cool tool

Katy Trail

Interesting grain silo or whatever (I'm city folk)

Cool little tunnel around Roachport, MO

It wasn't Colorado but its still fun getting off the beaten path. I love exploring new roads on a bike, doesn't get much better.

Here is a good one for you. copy and paste it to something you can see often. you won't regret it. 

"The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for 

adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with 

new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to 

have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a 

new and different sun. " ― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

Mud, Blood and Beers....

Can you feel it???? Its literally just around the corner..

Its that curious time of year again... That time of year that brings out the nutjobs. If your reading this, you have a high probability to be put in that category. If your not sure, here are some sure signs.

1. If you start noticing your buddy's putting in these curious looking workouts into Strava called runs.
2. The usage of any of the following words; Embro, skinsuit, disc breaks suck, disc breaks are awesome, JPow, hand ups, sandbagger, barriers, dismounts, remounts, tubulars, tights, knickers, stout, ale, bock and tons more I am sure...
3. While working and surfing the net for bike porn at Interbike, you love all the new gear that's coming out that us regular people can't get until the season is about over. (I'm still waiting for my Cannondale CAADX to come off back order from last October)
4. Would love to hear any other suggestions... Could get funny...

Owe yah, the Cyclocross sesaon is upon us!!!! Its so close I can feel the cross cough!!

Schedules are only partially out. Up to early November. Go to Local Cycling & KCA to find scheduled races. Owe and put KCCX bog on your radar..

Some random pics to get you excited. And if your not excited, your dead inside... Or racing BTE..