Wintery Time

I've been trying to get my cycling feet back under me since oh, about November, and I think I've made some progress in the last two weeks.  The week between Christmas and New Years, I actually clocked about seven hours of riding!!!!  A whole seven hours!  It was amazing.  All on my singlespeed, which is nice, because I love that bike.  It is my favorite out of all of them.  It just feels right.  It's even better after I got some new parts for it for Christmas.  It's much easier to pedal with a bottom bracket that actually turns round.

Took one of my friends from college, a new cyclist, on a road ride yesterday.  He brought the great weather up from Florida for our ride and we ended up putting in 31 mi at a chill chill chill pace in shorts and short sleeves.  It was pretty cool to get out on the road again, as I haven't really done that in a few months.

Enjoying some fresh powder trails in upstate NY.

Pretty NY countryside.

Shiny bits for the SS... plus a bath which it hasn't had in a few years.  Salsa Toothfairy is the best bashguard ever.

 After watching the 'Cross nats coverage on Cyclingdirt today, I'm definitely excited to get riding again.  It was pretty awe inspiring to watch those Delaware's best walk away with the women's race for the eighth time in a row, and to see her young protege pick up the silver.  And watching JPow's perfectly timed attack left me with goosebumps.  Now I am really ready to start 2012 with a bang.  I'm continuously honored to be able to ride with the great group of guys and gals that is the C3-Athletes Serving Athletes team.  All of you inspire me every time you turn your pedals over.  I'm also proud to be an Ergon Factory Rider again for 2012.  This year, not only will they be keeping my hands comfy, but my rear end as well, which is always a plus for 100 mile races.  Sore butt = unhappy bike racer.  I'd also like to tip my hat to ENVE Composites, who is coming on board with some support and some super sweet cockpit components.  They'll cut a few grams of weight off the Epic and pile on a few kilograms of sexiness.

So now that 2011 is actually over (with cross nats being finished and all), congrats to all my friends who trekked out and raced, and I'll see you all when the mountain bike thing starts up again!

A Good Fall

[Insert obligatory appology for not posting for over a month]

Charm City.  Whirlybird.  Granogue.  All cross races near and dear to my heart.

C3CX Day 1- Enjoying me some Planter action before my bike fell apart.

C3CX Day 2- Bike was a bit long in the TT, but drove pretty well. Blue geometry > Van Dessel geometry?

Granogue Day 1- A little help from my friends.

Granogue CX Day 2- Those three behind me... that's the end of the race...

I need to become smarter at racing these courses.  I tend to have too much fun on the first day, burning more matches than I hold trying to ride run-ups, and in general finish as high as I can.  The thing is, I like having good rides on these courses.  It's all too easy to destroy myself and still have a day of racing left.  I managed to do ok with this at Charm City, but most of that probably had to do with the fact that I had a catastrophic crankset failure on lap three on Saturday.  Sunday I raced a teammates bike, and had a pretty darn good day.  It's great to be a part of that event.

Whirlybird was good too.  And muddy.

Granogue was a lot of fun, as always.  It's, again, great to be a part of this event, if only a small part.  Everyone chips in to make it happen.  Saturday's race was great.  Started 108th, finished 58.  One of these days I'd love a good start position.  I would hope I could make it at least into the top 20 of a cross race like I did two years ago at HPCX.  Enough complaining...  raced hard enough on Saturday that I got lapped and pulled on Sunday.  Only at Granogue...

In between some cross racing I got a few weekends off.  I decided to head down to the Shenandoah Valley Mountain Bike Festival in Stokesville, VA for some singletrack riding.  I definitely got my fill.  Narrowback night ride on Friday night, 54 mile Fatty ride featuring the Dowell's Draft, Road Hollow, and Braley's Hollow descents, and the 1.5 hr Hankey Mountain climb, the Confederate Breastworks climb, and the Bridge Hollow climb.  I hurted on that ride.  But getting to rally down Dowell's, Road, and Braley's was fantastic.  Road Hollow is the only one I hadn't ridden yet.  It was frighteningly skinny, off camber, rocky, swoopy sidehill singletrack.  Amazing.  Sunday I participated in the JV Squad and Friends Lookout Mountain ride.  Best singletrack I have ever ridden, hands down.  Following Sue Haywood down from the top of Lookout didn't hurt either.  The lower lookout also had the best view ever; a full display of fall in the Virginia Mountains.  Now with pictures.

The reward for a 1.5 hr plus climb... This and the Dowell's Draft descent.

Rollin...

The group I pretty much spent the day with.

Overlook at the Confederate Breastworks.

Wonder what's to the right?

Tired and happy after rallying down Braley's.  Only 14 or 15 miles to go!  Plus the bottom half of Hankey!

Lookout Mountain singletrack... primo.

JV Squad and friends.

Lower Lookout Mountain overlook, after a killer descent.  Words can't describe how amazing the VA backcountry is.  Many more trips will be in order.

Hopefully I'll be back in the 'cross scene for HPCX next weekend, but only if I can carpool with someone...

There also may be a Michaux trip in my future...

And so it begins...

I will admit straightaway: I had almost forgotten why I love cross.  About a month ago, it was just seeming like another thing I was going to be spending money on in order to switch my Van Dessel from road to cross mode.  Nittany reminded me why I love cross.  It was muddy, something we haven't seen for a solid year.

It was good.  Very good to be back in the cross ring.  I definitely came into it without any practice since I hung up my skinsuit last year, so I think I was a little rusty on my "cross skills." The good old Holeshot was definitely up to the task, as I think I've finally found a build that is both low maintenance, and light weight enough.  The only thing I could see changing are the wheels, but who has money for a fancy new pair of carbon hoops anymore right?  Lord knows I don't...

I think I enjoyed Sunday's course more than Saturday's, even though I failed to successfully ride the run-up/log combo during the race (rode it twice during practice).  I am happy with this, even though I was riding very slow.  I definitely don't have the top end speed I had at the end of last cross season.  Hopefully I'll be racing myself into that kind of fitness this year since I'm probably not going to be sticking to any kind of formal training program.  Just cross practice once a week (work permitting) and whatever other rides I can fit in during the rest of the week.  Work schedule is definitely picking up more as we are getting near to the end of the year as out timetable for submitting out yearly monitoring reports has been moved up to the end of October.  All the sudden, the end of the year is in October now.  Whouda thought that...

Mid-Atlantic Monuments

Fair Hill XC is a Monument.  At least around here.  Like the Marysville Relay, Greenbriar, and Granogue.  Classic bike races that should be on everyone's calender every year. I didn't race last year (some college-related musical commitment I believe... psh) so this was my first time rolling with the Elite Field.  It's been a while since I've experienced Spit-Out-The-Backitis (probably since the U23 Elite race at Kansas City CX Nats).  I got a very good taste of it on Sunday.  Second row start (same as CX Nats)

Where am I?

But got spit straight out the back at the start.  I definitely don't have the snap I need to hang with guys like that at the start.  Normally I would make the excuse that these guys train for short XC events, but 4 of the top 5 guys will be throwing down hard at NUE races this year.  I think this start may have been faster than some 'cross starts I've been a part of.

Zero to what??? in 10 seconds

Rest of the race went pretty well.  Entered the singletrack behind Madison, passed him, rode in no mans land on the climb.  There was a huge group right in front of me, but I couldn't seem to grab hold of them. Got caught by the Madison group again.  Destroyed some people on the gravel road starting lap two, Yada yada...

Bike Racing Ensued...

I felt super-human on anything uphill, but it took me a lap to get my flow on the downhills together.  I guess I stiffened up with racing nerves or something, because I couldn't keep off my brakes and I had to think about leaning my bike over in the admittedly slick corners.  That was the worst part of my race.  My third lap was fun, pretty much alone the entire time because I managed to catch a guy who was cornering slower than I was in the slick tight Fair Hill-ness, so I could put enough gap into him on descents that I could extend it on the climbs.  Rolled across the finish in 1:43:35 with 3 very consistent laps.  Good enough for 24th place.  I'm going to have to work hard if I want to see the top 15.  Being able to make enough money to cover gas or maybe lunch would be cool.

The new bike performed fantastically in its first real racing test.  Having my race wheels on there drops almost 2 lbs off the bike and made it really fast.  The rear end is much stiffer than anything else I've ridden thanks to the 142x12mm through axle.  Picked up some super-bling XX brake rotors to keep the weight down.  New Ergon GS-2 grips are much better than the GX's that I was running last year.  Thanks Ergon!  I'm proud to say you'll be keeping my hands happy for another year.  And thanks to all my  C3 teammates that were out there cheering.  Heading up to Danville, PA for some more XC racing next weekend and the first real test of my climbing legs. Mmmmmmm climbing...

Best Scotty face ever!

End