Recent results, where to get those AWESOME SHIRTS!

It's been a while since posting. No good excuse except the usual - work, work and more work. It's summer time so guys are taking vacation and the remaining folks have to pick up the slack. So it goes.

I'll start with Warrior Dash. Having talked with several bike riding friends and some co-workers about this event I decided that "sure, why not?" was the way to go. It was fun, hot and very muddy. Challenging as well. I wasn't sure how to pace myself for such an event so I think I ran a bit conservatively in some parts but it worked out. I placed 29th out of 620 in my age group on Sunday, 3-June-2012. Which put me the overall standings as 219th out of 6,774. Not bad, I'll take it!

Two weeks ago was the Lake Hope Mountain Bike Race. My first MTB race ever, and I was indeed the only monkey to try it on a cyclocross bike. I cued up with the Novices and took 9th overall with a 5th in my age group. Not bad, I'll take it.

While the results seem pretty decent I also see that I have many areas for me to work on so I'll keep this short as I need to get work and riding done. Well, there'e the coffee-drinking to be done as well.

Last bit of info: Several people have seen me at races or whatever with my "Die First Then Quit" shirt & have asked me where someone would get such a thing. I had them whipped up at CafePress so here's the link:
http://www.cafepress.com/hughjasseclothing . There will be several more designs coming out in the future. It's an idea I've been knocking around for a while. If you need a reminder to get going, or you think other people need a direct form of motivation, then here you go!

Thanks again for reading. I look forward to your photos of what you're doing when wearing these shirts.

Cyclocross is for crazy people.

What is cyclocross? What is it about?

For thsoe who don't know much about it, Cyclocross is nuts. In all honesty it really is. The season starts in the fall and runs through the winter. When all the other cyclist are putting their bikes up until the weather gets warm again, cyclocross racers are just starting. Rain? Snow? Mud? C-c-c-cold? Yep, whatever it’s doing outside the ‘cross racers head out into it. Master’s World Championships were held in Louisville this year in the middle of January and the final round of races were held on “frozen muddy ruts”. Cyclocross uses bikes that are pretty much road bikes with tires that are a bit wider – say, 33mm wide instead of 23mm wide with a little bit of tread – and ride mostly off-road. Sure, there’s some pavement but there’s also sand, grass, single-track, hills or stairs steep enough that you are faster to run up and the infamous barriers. Barriers are usually found in groups of two or three forcing most racers off their bikes to hop off, run over the barriers, toss the bike down, hop on and pedal away as fast as you can. All of this done on a course no longer than 2 miles for a time of no more than an hour. The end result is pretty much an all-out sprint. Go right up until you’re about to puke and then back off just enough so you can maintain that effort for 45 minutes to an hour.  Add to this the atmosphere where heckling the racers is encouraged, costumes are common and beer hand ups are practiced (just try chugging a cheap beer while you are so far in the red zone you can hardly see straight). So I think you can see what I mean by “nuts”.

 

Halloween race at Uncle Steve's. Photo courtesy of Noah Hutson



I tell people that cyclocross can be explained two ways. It’s a lot like when you were 8 or 9 years old and you got together with your friends on your bikes. Someone would say “OK, we go down the sidewalk, up the driveway at Tommy’s house, around the car, around the tree in his front yard, over the fence…”

Or you could explain ‘cross as in the early 1900’s several French guys were drinking too much wine late in one fall and talking “We should host a bicycle race…”

“Yes, let’s do that. It should be really hard”

“Yes, Yes! (Oui! Oui!) We will make them take their bicycles built for the road and race it in the fields and forest. We should also put the logs right in their path.”

“Oh yes, that would be excellent! And it should be when the weather is horrible outside”

“Agreed! But we should get them drunk first so they will be much more agreeable to race.”

So if it could possibly be miserable out why would anyone want to do it? I explain it as being like heroin in this manner: Right after your first race you’ll be sick and want nothing more to do with it. But 20 minutes later you’ll be jonesing for more and more. You may even decide to race in a second category that very same day. You will now be hopelessly addicted. In several months you’ll end up with an identical bike and three sets of wheels for each bike (each set having course-specific tread) as long as your wallet and/or significant other allow.

Larry P at Uncle Steve's Halloween race. Photo courtesy Noah Hutson.

Besides, what drives people to do any sort of activity that is difficult, strenuous, challenging or just plain hard?

Why not?

Around the world and back

Yeah, not really. But I did go to the Masters Worlds Championships and made it back. A race I was nervous about right up until the whistle blew & then it was another race.

We started of heading down to Louisville, KY on Wednesday because you have to check in and pick up your number the day before you start racing. As well, the course was supposed to be open for a while on Wednesday for pre-riding. Well, in our usual style we didn't make it down in time to pre-ride the course but that was OK as it had rained all day and was a huge mud pit.

Thursday I push my lovely wife into getting to the track hours earlier than needed to get to the qualifying race. That gave me time to watch how other guys were getting around the track, walk the track, and prep for the race. By a stroke of luck we parked two cars down from Jared, CJ and crew from Crossniacs. Nice, good to meet the folks. As for how guys were getting around the track it was just trying to stay upright and get through the mud. It was as much survival as anything else.

When it was time for my race I didn't survive so well. Off the back a bit from the start but not too bad, until chain got stuck between the chain rings in the sand pit. Jump off, watch guys go by as I fix. No problem, I'm thinking. I've got a pit bike ready. I catch the last couple of guys, pass them on the run-up/flyover and head to the pits. Come out with B bike and catch up again. Get past these two guys after a bit of work, then fall in a corner. Get up, chase back on, work to get around them and then fall again. Even more spectacularly. Ugh. Get up, run up the hill, try to run down the hill (no way I was going to chance wrecking again!) and promptly fall. Get up again, try to get going and headed down the steeper hill I fall. AGAIN. By this time I'm laughing because it's better than curling up like a fetus and bawling my eyes out. Get to the pavement and I'm pulled. One of my worst laps of my life. It was like I hadn't ridden in mud before. Oh yeah, temps dropped like 20 degrees between the time we got to the track and the end of my race, which made trying to wash bikes with partially functioning pressure washers a chore. But they did have pressure washers. Can't argue with that. And I made it to the final championship round. Can't argue that, either.

The next day we washed out the clothes - we literally scrapped off 5 lbs. of mud off of my kit before tossing them in the wash. Went out to get better shoes as I saw the benefit on the muddy hillside of having shoes that allowed toe spikes. Ran in to the fabulous Rudy and Julie Lewis-Sroka at On Your Left Cycles. Good folks & good folks at the shop but didn't have what I was looking for. They directed us to Clarksville Schwinn who did have what we were looking for and offered us a great deal. Nice people, treated us great. We also had dinner with the only other Central-Ohioan racing that weekend, Doug Carraway. Good dinner, great company. We didn't race on Friday but the temps had dropped considerably overnight so that those racing had to deal with frozen ruts in the mud we made the day before. One broken wheel that I saw, one broken bone I heard of in those treacherous conditions. Yow.

Saturday was race day. Temps had warmed up some to above freezing. Which meant course conditions were a layer of mud on top of frozen ruts. That was real tricky because with the mud you could slide a bit, get caught in a rut and BOOM right on your butt. Or head. Lots of guys were hitting the deck. My beautiful bride Catie is my pitting for me and I'm thinking I'm going to need her for at least one bike change as muddy as everyone was getting.

Before my race I has seen the parts of the course where a flat-ish patch began to develop. Keep it in mind, new MO is to survive this race more than hammer. Then the whistle blows and we're off. I'm off the back at the start until everyone is trying to stay on the one foot wide path and it all jams up. I can make time up and pass guys if I can "float" over the ruts. Doesn't always work but does well enough at the start. Having a good race, back and forth with Mark Fasczewski. Everyone bobbles but half way through lap two and I catch a rut that sends me right into a course stake that promptly nails me in the jewels as I go ass over teakettle. Oh geez, that hurt. Took me a good minute to recover. Which means Mark got past me and got some distance. When I feel good enough I get on the bike and go go go. At the end of the lap I'm drawing pretty close and I think when we get on to the pavement I'm going to jump. Yeah, well, we got pulled at that lap - Mark, Devon Alvarez and myself. One more lap, I could have gotten by those two is what I'm thinking. Of course, one more lap and I could have bit the dust harder, too. C'est la vie, that's racing. Mark stayed up when I didn't so he's 53rd in the World and I'm 54th.

Afterwards I'm getting changed into not-so-muddy clothes and Beautiful Bride/Pit Crew offers to start washing my bikes. While she's standing in line for the pressure washers I wander off to cheer on my Crossniacs teammates. Then I walk the course cheering for Doug Carraway. Oblivious about the bikes. My wonderful wife takes care of both bikes while wondering where in the hell I went to. Yes, I left her holding the bag... er, bikes.  I owe her big time.

Mud collecting apparatus

Did I ultimately do as well as I hoped the week before? Yes but seeing how things unfolded I could have done better. More things to work on. Was it a once-in-a-lifetime experience? Yeah I suppose you could say that. And I owe my wife one heck of a dinner.

The crew that put on the Masters Worlds did one heck of a job. Each day after racing they were working on the course, trying to make it safer and better for the racers. Check in went easily enough. Podium presentation at Fourth Street Live on Saturday night was a great idea, showcasing to the rest of Louisville what sort of event was going on in their town. Results were almost immediate. I think they are ready for the Elite World Championship next year.

Shoot out at the Not-So-OK Corral!

Last week we posted the challenge for Halloween -- make a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project and you get to vote on what costume I wear to race my bike in. The grand winner is . . . the 187s! Chief 187 picked me to dress up as a old-west Marshall, perhaps Wyatt Earp. Well, you asked for it:

Photo ccourtesy my lovely bride

The yellow helmet bag is not exactly period-correct, I grant you. Yes I look like I'm about to reach for my six-shooter but alas I had none. I did have the Sheriff star badge but it kept falling off. And you can plainly see all the tired ponies laying about. More photos exist to prove I actually raced the C race in this get-up (swapping the cowboy had for a helmet) that I am working on getting permission to use. Will post them soon.

Too bad we didn't think to get pictures of my lovely bride. She dressed up as "The Devil as played by Josephine in the theatrical production of "Tombstone"." She looked absolutely stunning. My bride also won the prize for "costume with the longest title." Which I didn't think existed outside of the Halloween party in Athens, OH. But this was instead Uncle Steve's in Marysville, OH. Cap City Cross race #3.

I didn't win any prizes for my costume nor for my riding. I did win the "first guy to wipe out" in the C race. To set the scene: All people wearing costumes got a call-up on the starting line (A call-up meaning you get called to come up to the front of the pack). Heading up the front stretch, through the first turn and down the next stretch it's Scooby Do followed by yours truly. YEAH, alright! But it didn't last so long as going into the left hand 180 I grabbed a bit too much rear brake and slid right at the front of the field. A recipe for disaster as we all can imagine. (Lesson #4: Less rear brake. More Cowbell). However most people were able to avoid me and such falls are pretty common place in a cyclocross race so evasive maneuvering is a quickly mastered skill in this line of racing/havoc. I quickly got back up and back in the race. Which meant I pedalled to the point of oxygen deprivation and tried not to cross that line. I didn't pass out so I guess I succeeded.

The course for the most part was very technical; tight, winding back and forth on itself like a really long, really confused snake. Maybe the snake reached oxygen deprivation and fell over. I don't know. There weren't many long stretches that allowed for a lot of speed and most of the long stretches we had were really bumpy. Wonkers, my shoulders have never hurt so bad from a bike race. And then we went down a STEEP drop off into the creek bed, following the creek bed for a good 75 yards or so. Pure vintage 'cross. The mud was more than ankle deep and halted anyone who attempted to ride it, although many tried and many more would ride just up to the muck. I just hopped off the bike prior to the drop off, jumped down and ran. Run, dumb bike rider guy, run! Then climb back up, hop on and pedal like mad to the start/finish line to do it all again! Not a fast course but that probably suited me OK as I haven't worked on holding a fast pace in the straights.

All in all, I held on for another 11th in the C race. And yes, I did indeed race the B race again. My beautiful bride and those who challenged me at the last race to do it showed me that I can indeed handle it and I increased my placing over last race - 7th place in the B (Masters 35+). Not bad considering I wiped out shortly after the start of the race and was DEAD LAST coming out of the first series of S turns. It was a little further in and was just one of those racing things. We were all wadded up trying to get through the S's and my front wheel overlapped a rider ahead of me with nowhere to go. So it goes. I ended up passing some guys who got me in the C race and now I'm beginning to think that the longer nature of the B race might suit me a bit better. Not the fastest off the start but able to maintain the output a bit longer. And hey, we had beer hand-ups! What's not to love?

We did observe but not participate in the Columbus City Championship race. I can't tell you all the details due to some super-secret double probation but it involved a shortened course, the ability to cheat at will and LOTS of Boon's Farm. Yes, *that* Boon's Farm. It was the scariest thing I saw all Halloween.

Next race is at Infirmary Mound in Newark, OH. It's a great place to race, hope it is laid out like last year. Sort of. However it's an OVCX race and the OVCX group brings some serious guys. So I'm expecting a LOT of riders and might get run over. So it goes. But I'm sore, tired & ready to go again.

Hope you are, too. Or at least ready to donate to the Wounded Warrior Project. What's stopping you?

Thanks for reading.