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..

Tour of Lawrence, Circuit Race

Head on over to Twin Six to get a race report. 

Click on the logo

While your over there, pick out some gear and head down to the best bike store to get it!!

Ask for Justin, he will take good care of ya!!!

This race is hard and my favorite road course to date. Had a absolute blast! Yet to crack the top 25% of a large field, but its coming... Watch out! 

Thanks Roger H for the pics! Field was spread pretty thin after a lap or two.

Still hanging with Gregory, must have been early in the race. I think I got dropped shortly after.

Rogers Pics Here

Marks Pics Here

Go to Local Cycling to get Results, etc...

Tour of KC, Longview Crit

Wowww! That was way harder than I anticipated. This Tour of KC will go down as my first official road race! I have raced in Cat 5 and have done some other training type races (Perry Lake), but nothing like this. It was hard, it hurt a lot, I blew up, I got lapped.... It was flippen Awesome!!!!!!

All I kept hearing over and over is how dangerous or how scary crits are. Cornering at speed really is not that scary, other people though... They are very scary... I think in the Cat 4's we had 3 go down in the first lap or two. One of which was 3 feet away from me.

Darrel and I, 35 people deep (Thanks Mark Breeding for the pics)

I was only out on Saturday on their figure 8(ish) crit course, which seemed more like a circuit race to me, but what do I know. I enjoyed the course quite a bit actually. It was hard and I thought pretty technical. It had one punchy little climb, but I found the straight away to be the toughest part due to the constant headwind.
 
Our field was really deep, 50 ish and I got started way too far back. In my head I was not worried (because I don't know what I'm doing) just thought that I would work my way up to the front in a handful of laps.

Yah, not so much... Before I even hit the first corner the field was spread out 100 feet and had to about come to a stop before I got to it. It was 100% full gas from that point to try and make it to the front. I asked Keck to go up there and tell them to slow the crap down, but he apparently does not have the influence I thought.

 After about a couple laps I found myself about 4 guys back from what would become the break from the lead group. Once I realized the split was being made I jumped and tried my best to close the gap.
Unfortunately I found myself alone in no mans land chasing like a mad man. I was so close, like 6 seconds back but just couldn't close the gap. I tried to get on for 2-3 solid laps before I realized there was no chance. Especially when I have had my heart rate maxed for 4 to 5 laps and see there are 13 left.

Think this is about lap 2 as I can see my yellow
helmet like 200 yards back.

I hoped I could sit up and wait for some guys to help, but when they did they were about more gassed than I was. Found one guy with some legs to trade pulls with for a little but the rest of the race was about the same. Just hanging on for as long as I can.

From what I gather, if your racing all weekend, when you don't make the selection you bail and save your energy for the next day. Not me man, I drove over an hour and race one day. They are going to have to tackle me on my bike to get me to quit racing. So after plugging along, the second to last lap was the lap of shame... I got lapped. Bummer.... On a brighter note, its the best spot to see the race unfold. My cross rivals were out killing it, which was awesome to see. Gregory took 2nd on the day and John W. took 3rd. Sucked that I was not there, but I liked to see guys I like to race against do well.

Which leads me to scoring. I don't know if they do this at all the races since I am new to to the road scene, but I guess they don't score folks that get lapped which really sucks. I don't agree with it at all. I tough it out for an hour in in 20 mph headwind in 95 degrees to look at the results and see guys who threw in the towel after 20 min placed higher than me. I understand that in the grand scheme of things it really does not matter a DNP (Did not place) is a DNP. But it is still a competition right??? Anyway...

Get all the results etc... Local Cycling .com

Good write up over at .. Prologue Cycling Magazine

See you in Lawrence!!

Robidoux Roundup!

Was waiting until I got some pics to post, but still haven't seen any. I know I saw somebody taking a bunch of them.

Anyway, the fellas put on yet another great race. I don't think folks are going to see trails that manicured for a race the rest of the year.

Krug does not offer a lot of rocks for you freaks that actually enjoy riding technical sections. But more than makes up for it in flowing dirt and some good climbing. The course was FAST! GWiz put in a hard to believe 32 min lap.

Lined up down on the first turn on the road up to the top of Krug and I was surprised to see a bunch of Cat 1's out to play. I hung in with the best of them at the start on up the hill and on into the singletrack. Had a moment or two when I thought I was going to be able to keep pace for a little while. That lasted about as long as 1/4 of a mile in the race where it became painfully obvious that perhaps I should have rode my MTB more than a handful of times in the past 6-8 months. My focus switching to the road has left my handling skills absolutely horrible.

Kinda funny looking back on it. I would catch a guy or two through some of the climbing sections and then they would drop me on the downhills. And whats rather ironic is that this is my home course and I should know every rock and root out there.

Kept within myself for most of the race. I have figured out when I am red-lining and need to cut it back a bit. Its better to choke your motor a little bit than going way past it and blowing up, which have been done on many occasions.

After the first lap I needed to fuel up, I had accidentally dropped my water bottle halfway through the first lap. At that time Craig had already caught up to me and passed me. I guess I can't make too much fun of his camleback after that.

Last two laps were pretty uneventful, just out doing my laps in my usual place. All by myself in no mans land, slower than the faster guys and faster than the slower ones.  Makes me miss cross where you can see how far folks are ahead or behind you. Was able to get all three laps in under 40 min, under 2 hours altogether, which I was happy with. I did have higher aspirations of placing a bit better, but that's racing man.. We had some stupid fast guys out there that day, just on another level altogether.

RESULTS

It was a great day for racing and I am super impressed with Horizon Cycling. These guys are getting fast! Don't really know how or when it happened, but they got my attention now. Amazing how getting your arse handed to you on the MTB will do that to you. I'm back on the road bike, so I will see you Travis and Blake come cross season & hopefully not just the back of your jersey's.

Krug Park Race is THIS Sunday!!

Come on up!!!!

Course is awesome yet again!! Unless you like technical rock sections, then stay home....

Its fast and flowy with some good ole climbing... I can feel my legs seizing up as I type this...