Photos of the Women's race

Start

First lap barriers

Railroad tie run-up

Katie Compton winning

US Grand Prix of Cyclocross

This weekend was the big one for cyclocross here in the Louisville area. The US Grand Prix of Cyclocross came to town. This series is as big as it gets for cyclocross here in the US, and is probably one of the biggest series in the world.

I learned a couple of important lessons this weekend. One, it is important to pre-register for big races, and two, starting in the last row of races that have 75 and 50 racers in them respectively sucks. My lousy starting position was due entirely to my not pre-registering.

Saturday morning I dropped Kate off at work and headed over to the old River Road Country Club for my 10 o'clock race. The categories for races this weekend were a little different from smaller races as the race that I normally do had basically been upgraded to the equivalent of a normal A race. I registered and was handed bib number 269 and headed out to warm up.
With warm up out of the way, it was time to marshall at the start line. When I got to the line, there was already a large group there, that was when they announced that we would be lining up by order of our numbers. So, I started in the very back (there were only about 6 guys behind me), and off we went. The start was the usual mad dash to reach the front as fast as possible and I think that I moved up about 20 places before we left the paved start area.

After having practically no rain for 3 months, October has been one of the wettest on record, due to all the rain we have had in the last week. This meant only one thing for the course, MUD, and lots of it (well, aside from the sand pits, but that is another story). There were a couple of crashes and a bottleneck at the barriers early on, meaning that the back of the field split off from the rest of the race really early.

I found that I was racing in my little ring up front for basically the whole race, the 44t chainring was just too big to push in all of the mush that we were riding through. The course had 1 set of barriers, two railroad tie runs up, and the Green Monster, which was a set of stairs on one side and ramp on the other that the races under under first and then over (it was really just a small bridge).

I was pounding away for most of the race until the last lap when I started to fade and was passed by a couple of other racers who had slowly been moving up during the race. In the end I finished 49th, which was kind of my goal of trying to finish in the top 50. Oh, and I did beat the one single-speeder in the race.

I spent Saturday afternoon cleaning my bike and changing the big ring from a 44t to a 42t.

Sunday I decided to drop down a race and do the cat. 4 race (mainly because everyone else from my new team (Bolla) was going to be racing this race), the only thing was that this race was the very first one in the morning, starting at 8:30.

Again I was handed a rather lousy starting position, 50th out of maybe 55 racers. At the gun we all took off and I was able to move up quite a bit on the outside. However, any hope of reaching the front was shot quickly as another racer went down hard right in front of about 2/3rd of the field.

The course had changed from Saturday, and while there was less mud, there was a lot more sand to ride through. There is not that much to say about the actual race, I tried to pass another racer on the outside, only to find that I did not have enough room, and being forced into the tape that marked the course. I hit a plastic stake holding up the tap snapping it.

Actually one thing I was happy about was that I did not crash either day, though Sunday I had a few bobbles that meant I lost my momentum and had to put my foot down to keep from falling.
In the end, I finished 14th, which was a pretty good finish, though I felt like I could have finished higher if I had gotten a better starting position. Changing my big ring helped alot as I was about to ride a lot more of the course in the 42t than I had been able to previously.

So, that wraps up the race reports, I will post pics of the elite races from Sunday later.

Virginia

Here are some photos from our trip east to the mountains of Virginia. We left last Saturday and drove out through eastern Kentucky, a small slice of West Virginia and then into Virginia. John and Sandy have a time-share at a resort named Massanutten near the town of Harrisonburg.

On Sunday we drove over to Barboursville to visit a winery where Jeremy, the son of a good friend of Sandy, is a chef. The winery is on the grounds of an old plantation that was the former home of a governor of Virginia (from the early 1800s). We did a wine tasting and took a tour of the winery. Unfortunately we were unable to eat at the restuarant there because it was far out of our price range.

The next day we went over to see Judy & John that the Schiavi's know from New Jersey and we all went on a hike along a stretch of the Appalachian Trail. It was quite a hike (at least for us), we hiked past a few vistas that were close to 4,000 ft high. The hike ended at a group of rocks called the Humpback, and I had some scrambling over the rocks.

On our last day, we went to Jeremy's house for lunch, and to meet his wife Grayson and their daughter Nora. Since we did not get to eat at his restaurant, Jeremy was kind enough to serve us a couple of dishes that are on the menu there. After that Kate and I drove into Charlottesville to meet up with Richard, who is a first-year student at the University of Virginia.

We had a little time to kill before meeting up with Richard, so I dragged Kate to a bike shop (hey, she had gone to knitting shop that morning, so it was only fair).

Richard gave us a nice tour of part of UVA's campus and then we went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner.

The next day, we packed up and drove home through the mountains in constant rain.


I did get couple of rides in while we were there, and while I did not ride up in the mountains (I only had my cross bike with me and the 2 gears on it were not low enough for mountain climbing), I found some cool back country dirt roads to ride on.

Another (Artsy-Fartsy) Beer Post

I promised more of my (in)famous beer photos and here are three, showcasing my fine precision forged Park Tools bottle opener and my fine German-made Stroh's mug. As for the beer, I'll leave the artsy-fartsy stuff for the photos (have you READ some of the beer reviews online? All sorts of talk about Madagascarian Vanilla Overtones and Hints of Saffron Hand-Plucked From Grenadan Crocuses (I'll have you know that ALL saffron is hand-plucked; that's why it's so frickin' expensive)). But it was good. All of the beer. Not great, but good. Kirin Stout's easy to find now. I even saw it in cans at the 7-11. And the Asahi Premium Draft was good, considering that it was the same price as their Super Dry, which is plain. Can you find those two in the States? If you can find Hitachino Nest Beer, it seems like you should be able to find those two. And how about Yebisu? That's still my favorite Japanese beer.

I'm not THAT long lost

Hello all of you in cyberspace and beyond. This is Lug Bro. No. 2, recently known as Fardels Bear. Apologies for the long silence. Blame 60 hour work weeks plus the commute; blame the internet being down at home. Blame the weather being too crappy to ride. But all that no more. Today is the most beautiful day I can imagine. I love the autumn. The air is cool and clean and clear. The fruit is ripening on the trees. The new rice is harvested. It's a good time of year. And after next week's school festival, 60 hour weeks should be a thing of the past (at least until June, but that's not for a long time). But we've been good. Tomo's flamenco performance at the beginning of the month was wonderful. Her folks and grandmother came down from Hokkaido and it was nice to all be together. So we've been busy, but it's been all right.

And today we finally had the right weather for a ride! I've decided I need to tone down my ambitions and stick to shorter rides for a few months to give my knee time to heal and my muscles a chance to get stronger, so I didn't go with the (fricking fast) hundred mile group today. Good thing, too, since I'm certain that if I had gone with them I wouldn't have been able to maintain the presence of mind to realize just how beautiful a day it is. The group I rode with did about forty miles. It was short, but, somehow, it was fricking fast. Two new riders showed up today and kept the pace up near 38 - 40 km/h on the flats on the return. I was feeling good and I tried to keep up, but at one point I stopped to take my jacket off and stuff it in my jersey pocket and then there was no way I was going to catch up on my own. There were lots of riders today, so I just dropped back to the next group, (and it's not like we're racing--we stop and regroup every 10 kilometers or so). So I'm tired now, even though the ride was short, but the good news is that my knee doesn't hurt a bit. Taking a lot of time off was probably the best thing that I could do.

Here are some pictures from the ride today, of Mt. Tsukuba and of the park near our house, where I stopped on the way home to sit and enjoy the mid-day sun.

Rider on the Storm - or Why to check the weather

Lesson #1 – You have got to ride when you get the chance – It really is starting to look and feel like Fall in the Ohio valley, and of course that means that the days are getting shorter and shorter. Unfortunately, that also means that it is getting harder and harder to be able to fit rides in after work. The last couple of days I have felt that I did not get a lot of time to ride and so I was kind of chomping at the bit to get out for a ride yesterday.

Kate was working late and so as soon as I got home I decided to put the dogs in the backyard and head out for a ride, leaving Kate a note. It had rained earlier in the day, but it was dry by the late afternoon. This leads to lesson #2.

Lesson #2 – Check the weather report before heading out – I had looked at the weather earlier in the afternoon, and while there were calls for strong storms later, there was no mention of any concerns for the area for the early evening. And I was not going for a long ride, just up to Sellersburg, around a little loop, and home, probably about 22 miles.
I did notice a bank of dark clouds off to the west as I was heading out of town, but since they did not look particularly threatening I decided to keep riding.

I had a fine ride, though the wind was a little gusty at time, and got back home only to find Kate worried about me because it turns out that there was a tornado watch for the area. Oops, guess it was not the brightest thing to head for a ride just then, so let that be a lesson, check the weather first.

How the Pros Do It

Here is a video of the elite mens race yesterday. Kate wants you to all watch it through to the end for the bunny hops and wheelies.

Race #2

This is my second race report for the season. On Sunday, I drove up to Cincy to race at the BioWheels/ United Dairy Farms races at Harbin Park. This was a UCI race (at least for the elite riders), which means that it was an internationally sanctioned race. A lot of the top cross racers in the country were there, including the women’s national champion, Katie Compton, who also finished second at the world championships last year.

This was the first time that I had ever raced at Harbin, though it has been used for several years as a race venue.

I had pre-registered for the race and at the time there were already almost 40 people signed up for the race, which would have made it the biggest race that I had ever done (not counting a combined race fields). Add to the 40 who were preregistered, 25 more people signed up the day of the race, bringing the total to 65 starters.

At the gun we all got off the line as quick as possible. I again started a couple of rows back, and so there were about 30 people ahead of me going into the first turn. I had made a serious gearing error, as this course had a lot more climbing on it than the last race. There was one set of barriers, a 50ft sand pit, and a 40 m run up (well, it was a run up for me, but most everyone else was able to ride up it). Add to this was the fact that a lot of the racers who normally did the A race were doing the B race today because they did not have international licenses.

I really gassed it the first couple of laps and was happy with how the race was going. That is until the start of the 3rd to last lap, that was when my race started to fall a part, or I guess it was when my legs started to fall apart and I slowly began to slip further and further back away from the lead (which was almost 3/4 lap ahead of me). I finished without getting lapped, in 40th place, which was something of a disappointment cause I
had hoped to finish in the top 30.

I thought about sticking around to watch the elite races, but decided to head for home.
I had driven up through Kentucky on my way to Cincy, because it was all interstate driving. On my way home, I decided to drive back through Indiana. Well, ultimately I did make it home, but it took a little longer than I had hoped, cause I took a couple of roads that were not the most direct route back to Utica. But, I did get to explore a whole part of Indiana that I had never been to before, and there were lots of cool, twisty roads to drive on along the shore of the Ohio river.

Calling Lug Bro. #2, where are you??

The Breakfast of Champions

This past weekend Luke celebrated his birthday with family (minus she-who-shall-not-be-named who skipped out due to midterms, sorry B, Luke made me write that...). We had a great time despite the 90+ degree weather. Saturday morning we all woke up and went to get donuts and then walked to the St. James art fair. Luke only seemed mildly twitchy among the throngs of people there. That night we met up with my parents and went to dinner to celebrate. Luke and Mike picked up a couple bottles of "owl" beer straight from Ibaraki. Strange that the liquor store around here even carries this beer. Luke and Mike decided it would be best enjoyed with the Sunday morning pancakes. Just kidding. But, they did want to take this picture for you, Dan. We were thinking about you. Speaking of thinking about you, where have you been?

First Cross Race of the Season

Sunday marked the start of my cyclocross season. The weather was still warmer than usual, but not bad. The race was held in Louisville at Tom Sawyer State Park (just a few miles from where Kate's parents live). The race was billed as the "Tour de Louisville."

This was my first race using the 2 speed setup that I have on my cyclocross bike right now. I would try racing single speed, but I am too much of a wimp. Needless to say, I was the only person racing on a 2 speed (actually there wasn't even a single-speed racer in the field, bummer).

We lined up at the start, and I got a 2nd row position, about half way back in the field. Starting position in cyclocross is really important (at least if you are about trying to win races), as the race will quickly bunch up and come to a stand still at corners or obstacles, especially in the first lap.

At the gun we all took off, but I ended up going the wrong way .... backwards (at least in comparison to the rest of the field), because I missed my pedal and did not get clipped in fast enough. So, in the first 100ft of the race I went from about 20th place to dead last. When I finally got my pedals sorted out and up to speed, it was just in time to get caught behind a crash and a few other inconveniences. Needless to say by the time the field had worked itself out I was probably 400m or so behind the leaders. Not that it mattered much, as my goal for the race was to not finish last.

I started to work my way up through the field, catching a few people here and there, and jumping a few groups to work myself back into the middle of the pack. I ended up staying there the rest of the race. There was a group that I could see ahead of me for a few laps and was able to catch them, but I was also caught by a few people. A racer from Biowheels, a team out of Cincinnati, and I traded places back and forth for a lot of the race. But by the last lap, I was nearing the edge of my energy. I tried to drop the other racer in the first quarter of the last lap, but he hung on and we caught one more rider. The Biowheels racer and this other guy then proceeded to ride away from me after I lost some distance to them on a run up. At that point I just kind of put it in cruise control to try and finish the race in a lucid state.

So, I ended up 17th out of 35, which is not bad. The speed of this series has certainly picked up a lot since I won the overall a few years ago. I cannot say that I was greatly pleased with where I finished, but neither was I really disappointed. I am mainly doing this for the fun of it now, and it was fun to be out racing again, especially as this race was the biggest that they have ever had in Kentucky with close to 150 racers taking part.

The 2 speeds worked fine, but I think that the best way to race with just 2 speeds is to spin a high cadence with the small ring in the front and save the bigger ring for short bursts of speed.

After the race I decided to switch the cog in the back from a 17 tooth cog to a 15 tooth. It really is a mixed bag in trying to do this with just two gears. Too small a cog in the back, and the big ring in the front is too hard to spin easily, but too big a cog, and you simply spin like crazy in the small ring up front and don't go anywhere.

I had the 15t on before, but felt that it was too hard to get up to speed with the big ring in the front. But then I was trying to use the harder gear too much I think.

And now, I think I have completely confused even myself over what I was trying to say about the gearing on my bike. I just hope that we get some rain soon so that we have a muddy race soon.