Weekend Round Up

The faithful in the 801 were rewarded with some good old Belgian style conditions. The Gods said “We shall open the skies and bathe the righteous in the goodness”, and oh yes it was good.

Utah Cyclocross - Draper, Utah

Link to Photo Album

AZ Cyclocross Series from Brother Lee

This past Saturday was the second race if the AZ Cyclocross Series. The race course was a complete polar opposite to the gravel, goat-heads, pine trees and altitude of last week’s race in Payson. This week’s race was in at Freestone Park, located in the town of Gilbert. The terrain consisted mostly of rolling grass hills, with a long clay path section, as well as a short section through a parking lot.

This week’s race course was long and tough. Lap times for my category were about five and a half minutes. The start/finish line was located in the bottom of a large water catch basin and that left only one way to go…up! After charging off the start line, the course led into a series of three very tight uphill switchbacks. As the race went on, the top section of this hill turned into a wheel eating, speed killing sponge. At the top of the hill the course made a 90 degree left turn onto a short section of clay path and then back onto grass again along the side of a hill. It was in this grass section that the first set of two barriers was encountered. At the end of this grass section was a tight right turn with a short climb and then a left turn back onto the clay path. I deemed the second section of clay path “The SHOCKER” because it ran underneath some high voltage power lines, and if you were unfortunate enough to touch a metal part of you bike, you got a highly motivation shock to that part of your body. It was as if the gods of ‘cross were telling you to RIDE FASTER! Anyway, after “The Shocker” there was another unique feature of the course, a concrete, half pipe-like water drainage feature. From there, there was a short down hill into a sandy 90 degree right and up a steep hill and then right back down the hill because of a hairpin turn at the top. From the hairpin, it was another short grass section and then into a parking lot with a wide, sweeping 180 degree turn, the up onto the sidewalk and back onto the grass. The second set of two barriers was in this section. The course then continued along the side and into a tight left turn and then down the hill and through the start/finish area.

As I predicted last week, because of this race’s location in the Phoenix Metro area, the fields were much larger. My race (Cat 4) was again combined with the masters 35+ and that made my race consisted of about 20 racers. Overall, all of the fields were larger, the women’s open category contained around 10 racers, and the men’s open contained around 20.

This week, the gods were not smiling upon me. I finished in 11th place…last in my category, but not last overall. I tried to blame me poor finish on my heavy mountain bike that I’m still rocking in the ‘cross races, but as Brother Armstrong says, “It’s not about the bike.” It just wasn’t my day. The gods were smiling on my teammate Niko. He was forced to DNF last race because of three flat tires. This race, he finished 2nd, while riding the only single speed in the field.

Anyway, that’s it for this week’s race report. My club is presenting next week’s race, so if any of you Brothers and Sisters are in AZ, you should come out.

Hail Eddy!!!

Brother Lee,

Montana Cyclocross by Brother Andrew

Another weekend, another Montana Cyclocross race in the books. This time the car was packed for a two day, three stage race weekend in Helena. The cyclocross omnium was the brainchild of one Geoff Procter. If you don’t know who Geoff Procter is, he’s the guy who has put together the European Winter cross camps. During the winter the top cross racers from the US, head on over to Belgium to race cross, and have one hell of an experience. Geoff puts the camp together, and on top of that he’s an English teacher, a father, and one hell of a cross racer. Geoff’s the type of guy who makes anyone feel like they aren’t doing enough. He put together this weekends race with a 1.5 miles hill climb time trail on Saturday, a cross race with sweet singletrack on Sunday morning, and a 20 minute dirt crit at a high school track Sunday afternoon. Race all the events, collect points, and at the end of the crit, the top guys and gals would be recognized. In the words of Henry Rollins, “Get Some, Go Again!”

The hill climb was half gravel road with some super steep sections, and half singletrack with two runups. For good measure a set of barriers were set up in the middle of the course, ya know, just to keep you on your toes. In true cross fashion, the gods decided to keep everyone nice and damp with rain at random times. All of the racers were sent off in 30 second intervals, and when my name was called I rolled up the line, clipped in, and set off for ten minutes of pure hell. My thirty-second man, was my buddy Cory who served as an excellent “carrot on a stick”. The entire time I kept pushing myself to try and make up as much time on Cory. In the end Bozeman’s John Curry set the course on fire, beating everyone by over a minute. I managed to pull off second for the B’s and even posted a time faster than a couple of the A’s. The Missoula crew then headed out for some tasty eats, then off to someone’s parents house, were I put my best liver forward to finish off the leftover beer in the growlers.

Time to wake up Sunday morning, chomp down some food, and warm the body up with coffee. Head off to the race venue, where the cloud cover makes it cold enough to require arm and knee warmers while getting warmed up. The course is nothing short of spectacular. This is the part of Helena where the best mountain bike trails are, and Geoff has incorporated them into the course. The course had two tough runups, two climbs where you better have your A game to ride all the way up them, barriers, and a rough gradual singletrack climb. This was the best cross course I have ridden so far, and I think it will be the yardstick by which I measure all cross course in the future.

My race was set to go off at 10:30, and due to my own stupidity I was waiting at the wrong side of the course for the start. It wasn’t until a fellow racer asked me if I was racing with the big boys, then told me the start was on the other side of the lake. I rode over as fast as I could, going the wrong direction of the course. When the start line came into view, I could see everyone lined up, and the officials, started yelling at me for being on the course. I get off the course, wait for all the racers to start, then head off behind them. Great, three seconds into the race, and I’m already dead last. I spend the next fifty minutes suffering, passing as many people as I could to work my way up to fifth in the end. Despite my blunder with the start, I was excited by the fact that I had been able to work my way up through the field as well as I had. While watching the fast guys race, I thought to myself that I would do everything I could to make up for the mistake in the crit.

The crit seemed plain and simple, four left turns around a quarter mile dirt track, cross the line first after twenty minutes was done and you’re the big cheese. To make things interesting, there was a terrible headwind for half of the lap, and tactics would play a factor. Things got exciting off the bat, when a racer went over the handlebars on his first pedal stroke. I had a bad start, and wound up in sixth position. After a few laps I made my way up to the front, and tried to make something happen. Turns out the only thing that happened was my legs were blown, and I fell from the main group faster than Corey Haim’s career deteriorated in the late 80’s. Like everyone else, I suffer like a dog for the remaining time, and am overjoyed when I finished my final lap. In the end I managed to collect enough points for second place in the omnium. All and all the weekend was great fun, and I highly recommend the omnium format for cross races. Finally, I ask all followers of the church of the big ring to send good karma and positive vibes towards one of the ultimate female big ringers out there, Heather Holmes. She’s been out of commission for some time now with a mangled wrist, and is missing out on the joys of cross. Get well Holmes, and until next weekend, keep it in the big ring.

Brother Andrew,

Santa Rosa, CA from Brother Fritz

This weekend marked the first event of a five race series in the Wine Country, north of San FranPsycho, CA. CX has always been huge around here, we’ve always had to drive, till a man named Los and his band of Monkeys stepped up to the plate, and threw together a race last winter. It was a success, and this year, they got the greenlight from the City of Santa Rosa to host 5 races in 5 parks all winter long.

Last year there was some unnecessary complaynin about the height of our non-regulation barriers, so this year we went to the UCI book and built us some 40cm regulation pieces of art and engineering. Only one guy, Brian Astell (Lost Coast Brewery) could stay on the bike and do the hop, and only chose to do so a few times. Check out the crowd reaction…

We went to sleep Friday night under the first rain of the season, and woke up to a fresh inch rainfall, making a few slick corners and lots of spills. The course was set up in a downtown park, and totaled about 1 mile of switchbacks, straight-aways, and some short, steep, and slick hike a bikes. Some single-track lines and a little bit of pavement. All around a great course, and good feedback from the riders.

Josh Snead (Rock Lobster) rode away from the field early to take the A’s, with Astell 2nd and Chris Brown (NorCal Bikesport/ Specialized) in 3rd, and Andrew Brooks (Inglis/ Retrotec) in 4th.
The day rounded out with a kids race, live music all day, a beer garden and valet bike parking from the local Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition. A good time was had by all, next race is Nov 1st, see www.bikemonkey.net for details. See you all there!!!

Brother Fritz,

Thank you Brothers for your testimony. We are still seeking others to testify, Portland, Boston, Boulder? Come on you are suposed to have a big scene, lets hear about it. For more pictures check out the Flickr gallery.

53:11

The Rev