Veterans Cross race report

Sunday the legs were tired. This being the first double race weekend for me. I had limited expectations. I got to the venue @ St. Mary's early enough to catch a few pre-ride laps. I managed to go through 3 sets of wheel/tubie combos before settling on the Grifo's @ 23 psi(god I love low psi).

Since this is a Destad race I got my #2 call up for winning the Master's series last year. I figured I'd put this too use with the start being uphill on the cobbles. A good start I got. Actually brake checked to not hit the grass in first. No need for the hole shot for me. I guess there was a crash or mishap & it showed since Shadd kept the tempo in check & kept looking back. I couldn't care since I knew I was going to drift backwards.Proof I was sitting in 2nd. FYI I have a taste for the front again & I'm thinking it would be nice to spend more than two laps up there...just sayin. Probably not going to happen in this season of transition.

Anyway I faded. Did a gut check & went into tt mode. Got caught by Cameron riding a fixie mtb. That hurt the old pride a little, but hes a former MTB national champ so not too bad. Stayed on lead lap to get another freaking 12th. That's about all I have to say about that.

Grand Prix HPT

Pics will have to come later. Turns out the neighbors my be on to me & the intraweb is spotty to non existent...kinda like my CX season(like that transition?).

Saturday I loaded up the family & headed to Topeka, KS. I loved the Grand Prix HPT last year so I really wanted to make the trip again this year. There is something about CX on a car dirt track at night that is appealing to me . Its appealing but not my kinda of racing. I just don't have that kind of top end speed in my legs these days. Not enough crit racing. Guess I'll have to bite the bullet & upgrade to 2's on the road as well so I can get my ass handed to me in crits as well as CX. All in the name of speed I guess.

The course was a little different this year with the addition of some extra grass off track. Good call since it made the lap a little longer, which made my chances of staying on the lead lap better. The start went up a little grass hill with a tight S turn thrown in to snub speed before going around a washed out gravel like ice turn before hitting the track. Then a balls out spin out your biggest gear down wind run on the track. Dive into another loose turn. Go into the wind on the track. Shoot into the bumpy infield. Then a series of turns that actually put you back on your self. This was my favorite part of the course. Then off for a into the wind turn tail wind run down the back side of the track. Then a sketchy turn(Everyone was actually running this) up a set of stairs to get out of the track onto the grass. Next up was a leg sucking slog throw grass. Then up a steep little bitch of a hill back around some chicanes to another stair run to the finish.

Not really much to report on my race. I ran the Grifo XS for the first time this season. I went with 40 PSI(I went for speed over comfort). Made the grass bumpy but manageable & was nice on the track. In the S turn after the start I hit traffic HARD. I smashed into someones wheel & had the favor returned to me from behind. Didn't unclip but all momentum was gone going onto the track. Then I pretty much came unglued & went backwards. After a few laps following faster wheels than mine hooked up with a Colvitia guy. Dropped him then when on a TT to stay on the lead lap. No small feat with a former road PRO & #3 U23 of the USGP up front. I put my head down & stayed on the lead lap. Crossed in 12th my usual place. If there is a 100 people or 12 it seems I'm 12th.

The actual Chris Cross Report

Thanks to the power of the intraweb(maybe) I got a front roll call up (sometimes you should be careful what you wish for I guess)which helped with my one & only race goal; Get a good start. Well I take that back I had two goals; the other take a beer hand up from Crusty He informed me via Twitter this was in play.
Mark Studnicki has a good vid of the start. I managed to slot in about 6 or so which in the "elites" seems to be a better than average start. Got to work on my warm up routine more I guess. The first two laps were pretty much a suck fest till I managed to settle in. I worked into a group with Marshall, Alex Edwards(KCCX), & T-Nuts. Somewhere along the line Adam Mills worked in with us. Marshall was killing it on the bricks pulling for his boys. I just sat in & caught the free ride.

After some crashtasticness the group was whittled down to Bill -where are my KCCX socks?-Marshall, & T-Nuts. I figured I was pretty much screwed. T-Nuts has about 10 million miles in his legs this year & Marshall was slowing up waiting for the crash brothers. I told Bill do what you have to since I didn't have the means to bridge up to Tom Price. I just start riding tempo & biding my time for the inevitable.

The crash brothers caught back on & waited about a half lap before the volleys started. Mills punched, I bridged up, he punched it, I bridged up, he punched, I was done! Edwards rode across to him. Then Marshall bridged up leaving me to pass the time with Troy. I guess Marshall felt guilty or spent & came back to us. Bill is a class act racer so I knew I'd get no help from him chasing his teammates. I put my head down & pulled for a couple of laps till the finish.

I'll tell on myself here but hopefully I won't get relegated like my teammate did in the 3's race for a beer hand up. I took one with two to go. A FULL PBR. Next time dump some out Crusty. I was going at least 15(UHHHMM kph) up that hill. Perfect handup though. Beer flying everywhere. I took a big swig & hucked it since there was still racing to be had. Turns out KfC took a beer hand up in Cinci after giving a CX clinic in the UCI3. All the cool kids are doing it. Anyway turns out I gave Bill a pretty good shower which explains his comment about the hand up being AWESOME.

We hit the last section before the cobbles & Mills started yelling something. Turns out he was tell Bill he was going to wait for him. Those guys SUCK!(sarcasm before anyone gets panties in a twist) I had nothing left anyway & was lucky to hold off Troy. I'll take 12th since 10th was insight. I'll get my top 10 in "elites" before long.

Jeff Yielding made the trip over. After the race we were chatting & he mentioned how much faster KC CX racing was than the Lou. I've been saying this for awhile now. If you want to go fast come to KC. Right now there are some fast dudes riding the piss out of CX bikes. "elites" this year is a whole new ball game.

Chris Cross Race Report

Its coming I promise.........keep checking back, I'm troalling for pics right now. Some info on Twitter.

For now link to these reports:
East Side come West

Check out start vids.

Race report from the front(definetly not mine). Ego Building

SuperFan had the sniffles.

360 Fast

I rode my bike 300 miles to race. Cars suck.

Call up enforcement. Its how I got such a good start.

Live Day 1 of the Great Brewers Gran Prix of Gloucester

Live Report

Destat Series Race #1

"It is weird how well you can be going one week and how bad it feels the next." Steve Tilford

That just about somes up Diamond BlackFan for me. More later......

Hermann Cross Under the Lights

CX Season has started with a BANG! Probably hardest race of the year is race numero uno. I hooked a ride up with the Bolivar boys so I got to enjoy Hermann for 5.5 hours before I raced. Any of you that follow me on Twitter or Face book know this from the 4 million updates. All in all a great race, great atmoshphere.

Jeff Yielding did a great job setting up the course. A grass crit plain & simple. If I would have wrote this yesterday I would have had a different opinion but after thinking on it another 24 hrs I've decided short lap grass crits are probably the future of grassroots CX. Why would a 3:00 min lap be the future you ask? Excitement for the fans plain & simple. They get to see the racers 19x in the case of the Cat 1/2 race. That's a lot of entertainment value.

The highlight of the course had to be the stairs. Not the full blown misery fest that has been used in the past. Just half way up to the beer tent. The folks in the beer tent went all out & should be commended. Every lap was something different. I had beer poured on me one lap. Sparklers lit on several. Constant screaming, yelling, & yes cowbells. The fans at the top were great. The fans on the back section by the tennis courts were great too. They camped out next to a wicked cool flowing grass section offering beer hand ups.

With a goal of staying on the lead lap I passed on beer hand ups this year. Focus is what I had to do. I got a horrible start & pissed away my 2nd row call up & paid for it for 4 laps. Once things thinned out I was able to grab back some time & worked myself in to a good group picking off fast starters. I wish I would have gotten a better start since I felt really good the whole race. I took a sprint for 12th & just barely stayed on the lead lap. Mission accomplished. Take that Mr. Johnson!

Tire selection was Challenge Grifo 32's @ 30psi. I did a lap or two warming up on the Grifo File treads but decided to switch to knobs for the race for the extra traction coming out of all the grass turns.
I stole this pic from TK's blog. Figured it was fitting since I rode with him for 15 laps. Notice my cool cx gloves? I got the idea from Tim Johnson.