my new cap

Yup. I'm writing a blog entry about my new cycling cap. It is black with a red stripe. It looks fast. I even got it custom embroidered with 'team lake effect' on the side. And it pretty much fits- hard to do when you have a super small dome. www.walzcaps.com

Todd Field vs me saturday.

UCI3 Wrapup

Day 3 was harbin park. Legs are starting to get a little stale, but nothing to worry about. The course ended up being fun and tough. The field was huge. I ran through the sand everytime- probably a mistake on my part. The slow grinding uphill before the sandpit was just killer- i came to almost a complete stop at the top. I always would make up time on the screaming downhill- brakes are for the weak. The drums and bongos and tons of spectators made it really fun. I ended up with 24th. I think the 'Newports' gave me 1st in style points however.

I can't think of a favorite course. All 3 were different. Friday was a slop fest, and I ended up doing okay in it, keeping my rubber down(somehow) , and riding past the road weenies. Saturdays weather was beautiful, I liked the sandpits, and had a great bunch of people cheering me on. Sunday had a fun screaming downhill, and a sweet mud pit, and the coolest atmosphere.
I will be going next year for sure! I will sign up sooner than the very last minute.

Great job to all my teammates and local riders who raced their hearts out down there.

Next up, Spin's Cross my heart and hope to die cyclocross spectacular.

UCI day 2 Java Johnny's

Todays race was awesome. Much nicer weather! Great spectator weather. The 2/3 race had a LOT of people in it.(i heard a rumor of 100 people starting) The pileups started as soon as we hit that first grain of sand. Soon enough things got spread out a bit. I felt good again. I only made one mistake every single lap, which was running up the short steep hill, while most everyone else rode it. I don't know, it seemed slippery, and I wanted to make it all the way up. Not sure how I ended up at all! I will let you know when the results are up.

It was great weather to cheer on Bill, Rudy, Julie, and Matt in their races.
Some highlights from watching the races:

I bought a cowbell for $3.
Jeremy Powers bunnyhopped the barriers almost every lap for the crowd.
Ryan Trebron is 9'13".
People were getting beer hand ups.
I got sunburnt.

Harbin Park tomorrow.

UCI3 day 1 - cyclo stampede

Me and Johnny P line up in the last line- what we get for waiting till the last minute to pre-reg. We go. Oh yea, did i mentioned it rained inches and inches of rain last night, and today. I have never seen so much mud. There were people falling all over the place. Somehow I think I was the only racer in our race to never fall. I passed alot of people on the techincal stuff. Yea, seriously. I did good on it today.

My remounts are way better than my races last month. Only issue I ran in today was landing back on my seat, it moved and pointed up. Seeing as I didn't want a saddle up my ass, I slammed down on it and temporarily fixed it. Ended up 14th out of 50 or so. Nice job to teammates Johnny and Tony who raced real well. 7th and 6th respectively. Matt Weeks who raced with the real big boys, and put up a valiant effort versus an insane group. Scott Marut, and Nate Szabo also raced real well.

XC & CX

picture stolen from roberts flickr.

Last weekend was the Reagan park TT. 120 or so riders came out. By the time i first hit the singletrack i thought it was going to be a bad race. I passed 2 or so on the old reagan side. I got stuck behind one rider as well for way too long. Asking to get by didnt really work, and when i was told to go by, this rider moves over and i almost biff. I won't mention who it was, but I heard after the race that I wasn't the only one who had to deal with that issue. Coming up out of the one trail I put the hammer down to pass 2 riders on the hill leading up to st.route 3. Right before the gravel path leading to the huffman trail, my tires slide out. The ground is soaked. Why?.... I don't know. But I get up and continue on my merry way to pass another 1 or 2 people, ended up 3rd in my group(sport 19-29). Won a michelin tire, and had plenty of monster energy drink.

This weekend was the Stark Velo Cyclocross race. Weather.com's radar showed no rain in the canton area, so I left my rain jacket at home. Bad idea. It poured, and it poured, and it poured some more. The B race was even cancelled due to a few thunder clashes and some lightning. Luckily, it had calmed before our race. Line up in the 2nd row, as I learned last week, I'm not 1st row material. That start was FAST! The course was fun, and was made of 99.4% grass. A few technical sections, which I think I did fairly well on. The 'pain' hill, I actually passed some people on this section as well. Ended up 16th, but I think I raced pretty decent. Hope to be up near the top soon.

Kind of bummed I have to work next weekend, and miss out on Kevin's cross race. On the bright side, that will give me a few more hours to pay off my bike.

New road bike

2010 Specialized Tarmac Pro SL
Threw on my Bontrager Race X Lite wheels, ultegra pedals, and a Selle Italia SLR kit carbonio. This bike is insane.

whiskey island

What a beautiful day! Heading east on the shoreway, i could see the sailboats a moving, and the kites a flying. Line up in the front, and start off pretty well. The fast guys made a group, and then it was strung out. I was in a pretty good position (within latching on to the group distance) for the first 2 laps or so. Then I slowly lost probably 4-5 places because I am wimpy. Then I get a flat. Dean from snakebite got me a wheel, but i had some issues getting the brake back on. I probably lost a 1/2 a lap there. FInished.

Reagan park TT next week, just for fun. should be horrible.

bikecation

I am going on a bikecation in pa for the holiday.

Saturday- mountain biking
Sunday- road race - tour de tamarack
Monday- mountain biking

should be fun.