What a long, strange muddy trip it's been...

*Ahem*. I'd like to offer the following excuse for why I haven't been active here on the innerwebs for a while....

Yep. I don't have an one. One what? Excuse, that's what. I just got carried away doing them other things and, well... no excuse.

So what has happened since the Ohio State Championship races?

On October 29th there was the annual Uncle Steve's Halloween Race. As usual there was costumes, merriment, hard racing, barley-pop hand-ups and... mud.



Uncle Steve's special brand of mud.
Photo copyright 2011 Noah Hutson

   So how does one race their bikes in the mud?, you may be asking. When it gets thick and there's a hairpin turn, here's how:


Photo copyright 2011 Noah Hutson



Photo copyright 2011 Noah Hutson



Photo copyright 2011 Noah Hutson

 Hop on and do it again. Yes, I raced both the C race and the Masters race, which meant at the end of the Masters race, shortly after I thought I had a good sized gap opened up on Mr. Chris Freter, he jumped & went around me. By that time I just had no giddy-up left to go. Dang.  Good racing with a lot of great guys. And thanks to the unspecified-bike-store-folks for the hand-ups!

But wait! There's more!

Yes, yours truly headed down to Derbytown. Louisville, Kentucky was the host of the USGP Derby City Cup on November 12th & 13th. Those of you who are not familiar, USGP is U.S. Gran Prix, a premier traveling cyclocross racing series. Both days of racing were held at Eva Bandman park, a permanent cyclocross facility (a rarity) AND is home to the Masters World Championship in January of 2012 and then overall World Championship in 2013. What does that mean? It means if you play after-work intramural baseball, you got the chance to play at Yankee Stadium. Or if you're a Friday night Late Model stock car racer, you got to race at Daytona a few hours before the Sprint Cup guys made a few laps.

What did I think? How did I do?

I did about how I expected. Which was towards the back of the pack in my age group. Which means that I didn't finish where I would have liked but all things considered I held my own and placed a bit higher than I was "seeded." It was a longer course than I am used to and was certainly more challenging in spots but damn it was fun.


Chris Freter getting some speed



Some more Cap City locals, Doug and Derrick getting a bit blurry in a steep turn. Blurriness could be from thier hypoxia or mine. Not sure.

Thanks to Tony Viton and Chris I got down the importance of a good solid warm up. Instead of the usual falling back for the first lap or so and then coming back up through the pack, I stayed right with the guys I started with and was able to go from there. Hey, I learned something!

My lovely wife and I also took a bunch of photos and conducted a few interviews for Cyclocross Magazine.We had a good time, the weather was good (for a change this season) and Louisville turned out to be a pretty nice city.

Last race of the season is coming up! Sunday the 11th of December. Come on out and spectate, race & just have fun! Also, I just confirmed that it will the the fund raiser race for Wounded Warrior Project again this year - thank you, awesome folks at Cap City Cross for allowing me to have this opportunity! Hey, we're over $1,800 in funds raised for this fantastic charity - can you help us get past the $2,000 mark? ANY LITTLE BIT DOES INDEED HELP!

More to come after this week, I promise.



This little guy would watch the racers go by and then imitate them. Almost all day long. He was awesome!