My Races this Weekend

This weekend was the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross, which was being held in Louisville for the second year in a row. I am glad that the races were close because both of my races started at 8 in the morning, which meant that the sun had barely risen when we started.

I was racing Cat. 4, which is the lowest level, but had by far the biggest fields. On both Saturday and Sunday, there were close to 100 people in my races.

Getting a good start in cyclocross is critical to having a good race, especially in fields as large as the ones I was facing. Unlike last year, when I had just signed up the day of the race, I pre-registered this year and it made a huge difference in where I started on the line. Last year I was in position 70 out of 75 riders, this year, on Saturday I started in around 18 place (starts are not single file or anything like that, but they are done by rows), so on Saturday I started in the 3rd row and today I started in the 2nd row.

Both courses on Saturday and Sunday were well laid out and fit my riding stregths a lot more than the first race I did this year. I got a good start on Saturday and started to work myself up through the field, which I was glad to be able to do, because I kept here sounding of bike carnage behind me as people piled up at turns or obstacles.

Of the two races this weekend, my race on Saturday was better, as I worked myself into the top ten and ended up the day 6th overall. It was the best I had done in quite awhile and it was nice that Kate came to watch me along with our friends Cat and Charlton.

Sunday's race was okay, I felt that I was racing well, though I knew that I was not doing as well as I did on Saturday, but I was still feeling competitive. Unfortunately, on the last lap of the race, I went down hard in one of the sand traps that was on the course and took down at least 3 other riders with me. I quickly got back up, but found that the crash had broken one of my spokes, at least 4 people had gotten ahead of me, and my handlebars were sticking out at about a 45 degree angle to my tire. I finished the race, but ended kind of limping into the finish, it is really had to sprint on a busted wheel and funky steering. I still ended up 14th which was not a bad result at all.


After the race on Saturday we went out to breakfast with Cat and Charlton, and found this old Ferrari parked across the street from the restuarant.

Elite Men's Race

Photos from the elite men's race on Sunday. The race was won by Tim Johnson, the current US national champion. On Saturday he had a poor race, but turned it around today and won by more than 30 seconds. The speed at which these guys ride is simply astounding, and they are not even close to being the best or fastest in the world.

Elite Women's Race Sat/Sun

These are some photos from the elite womens's race at the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross that was here in Louisville this last weekend.

Fall Ride

Here are a few shots from my ride today, which was a two hour and forty-five minute slog fest through the northeast part of Clark County. I guess saying that makes it sound like I did not enjoy the ride, but really it was nice to just go out and ride for a long time without any real aims (I have felt like I have been focusing too much lately on training, etc). I rode out past Charlestown on State Road 62 and then turned off onto Bull Creek Rd. The first picture is of a harvested corn field there on Bull Creek, just before dives down to the river, which meant a twisty downhill and a long, steep uphill to get back to the upland. I then rode through Hiberia, a small, old farm settlement. The second picture is of a small canyon that is on the roade into Hiberia. After stopping at the little country store there is get something to drink, I continued on my way up to New Market, which is another old settlement that has a few houses till, one church, an abandoned church and general store, and an old school. For some reason, New Market is one of my favorite places in the area. After that I headed back to Charlestown along some of the winding, roll-coaster like roads that we have here in Clark County.

Cyclocross & Beer

So, some people here in the Louisville area have started to have some impromtu cyclocross races on Thursdays, called the Thursday Night Throwdown. The one this Thursday was the first one that I heard about and since it was over here in Indiana, I figured what the heck, go give it a try. The whole idea of them is to go have some fun riding and then enjoy a few cold beers afterwards or actually during the race too. There is the "Beer Lap" which was the third to last lap of the race and if you stopped and drank a beer you got only had to do one more lap, but if not, you had to do two more. It might sound kind of lame, but actually it was a lot of fun, far more relaxed than "real" racing, kind of more like a pick-up soft ball game.

So, here is the beer, there are a few guys who did the A race partaking in the "Beer Lap" and then a couple of shots of the fancy cross bikes that people had there. The last shot is of some brakes that look more like jewelery than bike equipment.

Family and Friends

This weekend, Mom, Dad, Britta, and Matt came down to visit Kate and I. They got here on Friday, and we just hungout that night. Saturday was full of running errands and sight seeing. We got doughnuts and coffee in the morning, walked around Cave Hill Cemetery (got to see Colonel Sanders grave). We capped the day off with going out for a birthday/anniversay dinner to the Charlestown Pizza Company with our friends, Cat and Charlton (if the picture of Cat is a little fuzzy, its cause we all had a little bit of beer by then). Mom, Dad, B and Matt left this morning after a nice pancake breakfast to send them on their way.

As for the pictures, the first one is just a late fall corn field that I took on my lunch break last week. Dad is teaching B the better points of beer (not that she needs to know that information for at least another year). And then Cat finding that she actually does like beer.