Veterans Cross

Skipped HPT due to some commitments on Saturday night, but was able to make it out to Veterans cross on Sunday at the University of St. Mary's Campus. The weather was absolutely amazing for November. Sunny and 70s. Awesome.

I had a decent starting place for the first time in my cross racing career because I decided to pre-reg. on Thursday night. I liked starting up towards the front, because all the wrecks were behind me and I had some of the big names of the race within striking distance. Eric Stull and I were working together with a group of about 4 or 5 riders for the first couple of laps. On the third lap, disaster struck. Some loose barrier tape that was blowing around over the course got wrapped up in my cassette and plugged up all my gears except for my 25 and 23 tooth. I knew I was doomed, so I hopped off in front of the barriers and and began ripping tape out. Soon, Eric came running over to help because he had just broke his chain! Damn, that's bad luck. We were on our way to our best finishes in a 3/4 race. I lost a good 8 places while monkeying with the tape, but soon we got me back on the bike on I was on my way. I basically just rode hard and would sprint past every person I came up to. I caught something like 8 people in the last 5 laps and was coming up on 2 more just before the finish. Somehow, I ended in 10th out of about 30 riders. Not bad, but I think I could have locked down top 5 without the mechanical. Hopefully all the barrier tape will stay put next week!

All in all, the course was pretty tough. It featured two big ups, two sets of barriers (one fast), and some bumpy ground.

It was great to have 4 Colavita guys on the starting line. Dan has been battling some Achilles tendon issues, so he ended up dropping back after a few laps. Eric was looking great but his chain decided to self-destruct. Andy, our newest cross racer, won the 4s and was right behind me in the 3/4 race!

I can't wait until next weekend. Kansas State Cross Champs and a get together with the whole Colavita Team. Should be a good time.

Boss Cross #3

Had a good race in Platte City yesterday. It was awesome to see many of the Colavita guys make it out, and Joe Fox put on a nice event.

The course was extremely hard. The ground was rough and it felt like I was riding through mud the entire race. The ups were also pretty tough but ride-able.

Started towards the middle of the pack and did nothing but move up. I found it pretty easy to pass people on the course, and then just set my sites on the next guy. Eventually, I came upon the cow town racer Mark Cole, who has been doing really well in the 3/4 races. I had also dragged another guy up with me. At this point I was going pretty good and decided to pass Mark. Pretty soon, I had a nice gap on him and he had gapped the other rider. As we came up to the big hills, Mark must have dropped the hammer and he caught up and then passed me. I tried to stay up, but he was going hard to keep me away. We sat in the same positions for the last few laps and I ended up 6th out of 20 or so riders. Mark Cole had finished 1st last week and 2nd to Jason Knight a few weeks earlier, so I felt good with my finish. I think I'm really making my way up the field. The first two finishers, Nick Coil (road cat 1) and Luke L. (road cat 2) were in the 3/4 race and just killed everyone. They have been asked to race open in the future...Thank God!

On Sunday (day after Halloween) I didn't really feel like I had my legs so I opted to just ride up to Clinton Lake and hopefully watch my teammates in the 3/4 race. Unfortunately, there was little participation at the event and none of the Colavita guys were racing. Chatted with Adam K. who had just finished well in the 4 race, and then watched my good buddy Bob Lock race in the 3/4s. Beautiful day, and I kind of wish I would have raced. With the low numbers, I'm pretty sure I could have secured a 2nd place finish (there's only one of those guys I have yet to beat) barring no mechanicals or falls.

Here's a little pattern of my results so far:
Race 1: 24th
Race 2: 12th
Race 3: 6th

So, my 4th race I should take 3rd based on the pattern. I'll see what I can do...
I'm not sure if I'll race at Heartland Park or Leavenworth next weekend. We'll have to see if anything pressing comes up on the weekend. No matter, I will most definitely be racing at least one race.

Steve Tilford posted this video and I thought it was hilarious. The best part is he said he hoped that Cadel Evans would HTFU now that he has signed with BMC. Check it out.

Smithville CX

I took last week off from racing due to a bum leg and some work that I needed to finish up, but this week I was right back in the action. Last race I had just come off of a month and a half rest period, so I was less than prepared. However, today I had two weeks of intervals and training under me. I felt ready to do some work. I'm glad to be back in the competitive racing scene!

The Smithville Cyclocross race was ridiculously awesome! tight turns, a big hill, a 50 meter muddy/sandy beach, some nice pavement runs, and, of course, a couple of walls to climb up. Only one set of barriers and they were fast, coming right off of a pavement section.

Started the race towards the back among 40 other 3/4s looking to bring the pain. It was a beautiful day and no extra clothing was needed. I still embrocated, but that's just because I'm addicted to the stuff. It's awesome. So the whistle was blown and soon 40 guys were trying to cram themselves around a bunch of very narrow corners. Many guys went down, but that's because they were being stupid, imo, by trying to squeeze into places that didn't exist. The key to this race, if you started in the back, was to wait until the hill to pounce. If you were going for the win from the back, then you were just going to have to work your ass off! The first couple of laps I hung right up with the leaders, but soon I began to fade, and others started to pass. I knew that I just needed a short break and then I'd be able to get into my own rhythm. Here I even took a dollar from the dollar tree! Sure enough, I started feeling strong again and re-passed most everyone that had taken my position. From there I just picked off a few here and there and made sure that no one else ran up on me before the finish. A GP velotek kid was hot on my wheel but I was able to hold him off and ended up crossing the line 12th out of 40.

Considering my first 3/4 race of the year I took 24th out of 32, I think I've made some huge gains, and I feel pretty confident. I'll be looking to claw my way up further in position at my next CX race. This sport brings a smile to my face, and I love being able to stay active in the "off season." It seems like most of the guys I'm racing with feel like cyclocross is "THE season" but I assure you, I'm just racing for fun.

Great job to Dan's 7th place finish, and Andy's 2nd place finish! Good job to all that came out to test themselves in the cyclocross arena!

For now, more training!!!

Roger has close to 900 awesome photos. Check 'em out.

Cross Racing?

Chris Cross. So I finally found a break in my schedule and headed up to Leavenworth for my first Cross Race since Collegiate Nationals last year. Interestingly enough, this would only be my 2nd cross race ever! 2pm was the official start time for the Men's Cat 3/4 race, and by judging some of the guys lining up, this race was going to be fast. Unfortunately, too fast for me! Despite not being able to stay up front, I had a blast racing around in the 40 degree weather. This weather seems to fit me perfectly for cross racing.

Lining up at the back, I noticed some fast guys ahead of me, and knew I would not be able to keep up in my condition. So I tried, failed, and then settled into a decent rhythm around the 2nd lap. Around lap 3 or 4 I was starting to feel pretty good on the bike and was riding more aggressively. A few weeks of training and racing, and hopefully I'll be able to contend in the 3/4 race. For now, it's time to work hard on the trainer and practice outside in the cold!

To all my Colavita team, thanks for cheering me on! It was fun to have so many supporters on the sidelines. You guys are awesome! Also, kudos to Dan O. who is a beast on the CX bike! Eric, you'll be right up there with Dan next time. I'm really motivated by you guys and your ability to take control of these races. I hope to be up there soon!

KU Cycling spin session is tonight, so I should be able to get another good work out in for today. Picked up 4 new trainers (2 mag, 2 fluid) from Britton at Volker. We will be able to have some legit classes now, I can't wait.

Tour of KC #2

The second weekend of the Tour of Kansas City took place this last weekend. It was hot. It was windy. And I was racing in my first weekend of Category 3 races. Overall, it was tough.

This year, the Friday Cliff Drive Criterium was canceled due to road work, so there were only 2 races. The first was in downtown KCK and consisted of a nice big 4 corner loop with two good sized hills. At 7pm, it was still 95 degrees with a decent headwind on the finishing straight. The first 10 minutes of the race I felt decent. I was passing guys going up the hills and I felt strong. At about 15 minutes, I began to fade to the back of the pack, and at 20 minutes I was extremely overheated. Going into turn three I missed my line by a fraction and was fully leaning on the guy next to me. At this point I knew I was cooked and had no business staying with the field. It was a terrible feeling to see the pack slowly ride away. From here I just kept riding solo at a decent pace. One SKC guy who had just moved to Cat 3 was with me, but was taking weak pulls. 40 minutes into the race the pack was beginning to lap me. This means it took about 20 minutes for a 50 person field to gain about a mile on me. Not terrible. I hopped on for the last 4 laps and just hung onto the back and practiced a nice sprint at the end. It felt good to out sprint a few people to end the day.

The Overland Park GP was a 6 turn course with a section through an around-about and a 120 degree, slightly off camber turn. The race was scorching. Both in speed and temperature. Again it was a hot and windy day with the sun relentlessly beating down. Today, I wanted to keep my head together and not overheat. Unfortunately, I was overheating at a few points during the race and began to fade off the back a couple of times. However, unlike yesterday, I was able to bridge back to the group each time after restoring my composure (Thanks to the technical turns!) One of the most tricky aspects of this race was avoiding the crashes. I was surprised that at least 6 crashes unfolded in front of me during this 45 min race. The two big crashes were on the first and last laps. Since I was cruising at the back of the pack, each and every crash forced me to put in a big effort just to link back to the group. I was fortunate enough to avoid all of the wrecks, but both of my teammates went down on the 120 degree turn on the last lap. People were misjudging the turn and pedal striking like crazy. On the around-about tires were getting caught in cracks and one guy, after a domino effect, almost fell into me after two guys fell into him. I was able to ride the gutter and was prepared to hop on the curb to get out of the way. Luck was on my side during this race. After the last crash I did everything I could to get back up to the main group, but everyone was pretty well spread out. Not sure how I finished, but nothing spectacular. I'm not sure what my average was yesterday but today we ended with 24.8 mph.

I'm looking forward to a couple more road race weekends, and then I'll dive into Cyclocross. School will also be firing up next Thursday, so I'll have my hands full with 17 hours of Junior level Mechanical Engineering courses.

Courses - Thermodynamics: Heat Transfer, Numerical Methods, Strength of Materials, Science of Materials, Machines and Mechanisms.

RAGBRAI - Day 1

The last 3 years I have made the journey across the great state of Iowa, however, this year I was only able to make it up for the first day on Sunday. It almost felt like one day was ample time. I had such a great time, and I think we accomplished almost all of our goals for the trip. It was really fun!

Friday night I drove down to Lawrence and hit a few golf balls around on Orchards golf Course with future roommate Jerry. Saturday I drove to the Plaza for our Team Colavita ride. I was expecting 40+ miles, so was a little disappointed when we only put in 20, but it was good to see some of the team that I haven't seen in awhile. After the ride I went into Volker and talked bikes with Britton. I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy his Xenith SL and load it with Sram Rival parts. Should be a really light bike! I'm also wanting to build up a new training/racing wheelset and put all my Ultegra on the cross bike for cross season. That would be a nice set up, but I need to make sure I have the money to cover all the bike costs and still manage to eat for the next 8 months.

I drove from KC to St. Joe and then started packing for Iowa. We left St. Joe after 3pm with Jack, Tony, Gary, Alice and me all loaded up in Gary's van. 3 bikes on the bike rack, 2 in the back of the van, and all the luggage piled in the back seat with Jack. The ride up was pretty quick and soon enough we were in Council Bluffs Iowa with 15,000 other cyclists. We set up our tents and headed over to the Bike Expo in hopes of finding free stuff and some good eats. Unfortunately, almost all the free stuff had been given away, so we browsed through the trailer-stores and made our way over to Famous Daves for some tasty BBQ. I was ecstatic to discover that the Bare Naked Ladies were going to be playing at 9:30pm, so we decided to buy tickets (only $10!) and made our way into the concert. Standing towards the side (stage right) and front row, we had a great view of the band. They put on an awesome show and kept the crowd heavily entertained. They would break into hilarious freestyle sessions and sing about Ragbrai and the annual Ribfest that coincided with Day 1 of Ragbrai (It's cuz of them ribs).


We headed out on our bikes after 7am sometime and joined the crowd of riders beginning their ride across Iowa. The first day can always be a little sketchy due to the large amount of 1 day riders and the jittery folks who are not accustomed to riding with such a massive number of riders. Luckily, we had no accidents and made it to Mamma Raphael's fairly quickly. I ate a huge breakfast here and saw some of the other Huff 'N Puffers here. This is a great place to stop for breakfast. Full breakfast buffet with breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, grits, oatmeal, cereal, juice, milk, coffee...unlimited awesomeness. Shortly after breakfast I ran across David from KSU Cycling and we rode for a good 10-15 miles at a nice fast pace. It was great to stretch my legs and it cool to run into someone I was racing with earlier in the Collegiate season.

I waited for awhile and soon enough we were all together and riding to Beekman's ice cream. I got a nice big rootbeer float and we killed some good time there. Tony somehow became immediate friends with the owner of the house. We headed out and our next big stop was in the last town of the day. We used the facilities at a firehouse and then went back to the park to sit and waste some time listen to an old guy karaoke country ballads. Somehow Tony had become best friends with a girl from Minnesota, so we had a 5th person to converse with and tell our stories. Eventually she left and then we decided to head out. Fun times were had as we lolly gagged all the way to Red Oak. I learned many lessons from the guys (like catching signals of when a girl is coming on to you...BOOM!...haha). Once we hit Red Oak we found camp at the top of a gigantic hill and quickly made our way to a very large and chilly pool. Luckily, we had Gary's van transported to the finish, so we were able to drive around town. After cleaning off in the chlorinated water, we packed up and departed the Huff 'N Puffers until next year. Driving through the fairly uneventful downtown, we decided to get out of the car and find some eats. We settled on an all you can eat Chinese joint on the corner and proceeded to stuff ourselves silly for the car ride back home. With all the MSG and unnecessary calories crammed in my body, I slept for a good hour before we pulled over and we switched drivers. From here, we all woke up and the rest of the car ride was just plain good fun.

Overall, a great weekend. It was relaxing to have a weekend where I wasn't getting all wound up for races and then immediately trying to recover.

More pics from the trip...

Omaha Racing

Coming off of a great weekend in Lawrence I wanted to continue experiencing my mild "peak" of fitness into Omaha's Cycling Weekend. I took Monday and Tuesday off, killed it on Wednesday at the Wescoe ride in Lawrence and then took an easy 30 mile recovery ride on Thursday. Feeling slightly tired, but mostly dispirited, I decided not to ride Friday night and ended up chatting with Matt for awhile on the phone before heading to bed. Waking early Saturday morning I was able to watch the end of the Tour and prepare everything I would need for another weekend of racing.

Eric and Matt picked me up aroud 1pm in St. Joe and after loading up all my junk and swinging by Subway, we took off North to the greater Omaha metro area. Being "backseated," I spent most of the trip attempting to sleep. Upon arrival to the Pappillion Criterium, I wanted nothing more than to get on the bike and rid myself of energy. I warmed up with Eric for quite awhile and was able to get some fast laps in on the tight 8 corner course. After previewing the course I knew that it would be essential to fly to the front from the gun. This is exactly what I did. Using more aggression than I ever have, I made my way to the front of the pack within 3 laps and stayed 2nd or 3rd wheel for the entire race. I tried to stretch the pack out by attacking on the last hill of the loop a few times and I think it was a success. Most of the race was spent keeping position and trying to stay off the front. Coming up to the last turn a pack of 3 soon to be lapped riders were racing as if they were on their last lap. Refusing to get out of the way and riding much slower than our finishing pack we all were jammed up in the corner. The smell of burning rubber was in the air and we all were pressed against each other. Somehow no one went down and it was a 200 meter race for the finish from almost a dead stop. We ended the race in a close pack. Each of our sprints were fairly parrallel and no one could overtake the other with no momentum to work with or drafts to swing out of. Dissapointing finish, but 4th will work. I really wish I would have put myself out on the line more and worked for a better position in the last lap, but I'm pretty happy considering the amount of work I shelled out to keep the other racers in check.

After a stressful night and morning it was time for my first road race since the MO State Champs. I felt strong but not strong willed. I had my work cut out for me after seeing some of the local competition that I was soon to face. Hitting the "Hill" for the first time, I passed the entire field and sat in the top 5. I stayed here for the majority of the race. A couple of times I desperately tried to make a break that didn't include Ashton (previous days winner), but never could stay away. With one lap of the 7 mile rolling course to go, Ashton took off. I was quick on his wheel and we raced away from the field and had a really nice gap. Passing to take my 2nd turn up front I turned to Ashton and said "you know we have one lap to go, right?" He was 100% sure we were ready to exit the loop and head straight towards the finish. We sat up from our attack and a lone chaser came up and confirmed that we had one more lap to go, also letting us know that we had just blown a huge gap. All three of us reunited with the pack and rode directly into dark clouds that were sure to dump rain on us. Flying down the largest downhill at over 50mph, I was making a gap, I took the turn grabbing a bunch of break and hoped I could swing the turn and not wipe out. The stretched out pack caught up, but as soon as the stinging rain hit we all slowed and tried not to get blown over by the intense wind. The pack seemed to stay together for the rest of the race, and luckily the rain stopped and the streets began drying quickly. Hitting the last rolling hill, I was standing and cranking a huge gear ready to take off. This wore my sprinting legs down and going down to the finish I found I had nothing left to stand. I cranked as hard as I could in the saddle and saw that a local from the area was in the same boat I was. Neither of us had a sprint left and we powered through the last few meters. I ended up taking 3rd. Stull was on my wheel and ended 5th. Ashton took off with an excellent sprint taking 1st.

In the next few weeks I hope I can lift my spirits and train hard now that I have upgraded to Category 3.