Gettin' Dirty.....

Smithville Cx Pics

2010-10-26T08:55:00.002-05:00

Michael Yeager just before the double barriers

Thad Carson 'flying' on his new Blue carbon cx bike.

Chris Locke finally had the weather and the right amount of water in the lake to actually get a good 'beach' section in his race. He has been trying to get

sand section out at Smithville since he started putting this race on...It turned out great. It was an awesome feature to a really fun course to race on. Even with bad legs.

Mr. Winkler...Before he let all of his anger out on the course and the rest of us cx 'mortals'. He was flying on Sunday.

Me thru the first few turns of the race. I was chasing back on to the front 8 or so after stacking up the group in the first turn of the race. "sorry everybody"!!

Jeff above, and Tyler below thru the sand section on the lake.

Some SlimenUndGrossen action shots from Heather Taylor.

Smithville Cx...great course, bad legs....damn!

2010-10-25T17:11:00.000-05:00

    Iam at the fire station today. Got a few minutes before me and my crewmates head out to do an annual night training. We are gonna do some search and rescue in an old office complex and do some other cool trainig stuff. This past weeks race was north of my house at Smithville Lake, which is about 25 miles north of Kansas City. The Wheel Cyclery and Chris Locke put on a great race. Even with a lot of locals out of town racing elsewhere, the fields were still pretty good size.

I will post some pictures from some of the days action shortly that my wife took. Her pics are still being edited and I will post them ASAP.

I made the decision along with teammates Jeff and Ty to do the Open race. A pretty good field lined up with a few missing regular faces who were in Lousiville KY racing the USGP races. THe big hitters on the day were Jeff Winkler and Brian Jensen. 21 of us started the race. I camped out for a front row starting spot. Maybe not my wisest decision on the day, which was followed by my decision to go for the 'hole-shot' with the sound of the officials whistle that started the race. I was 2nd wheel behind Travis Donn of Ethos Racing into the 1 left hand turn entering a hard grassy 90 degree turn.   Within 20 feet of exiting the paved start, I slid out and stacked up a slew of guys behind me. Was down only for a moment, recovering quickly and was back on the bike and chasing. I think I may have gotten back on my back and back in line in maybe 7th or 8th wheel.   Not as bad as it could have been.   I spent the nest 11 laps laps trying to maintain some form of racing. My legs were dead and I had no power what so ever.  3-4 guys beat me on Sunday that had never been close to me before. Mid race i was already prepaing for a recovery week. Not good thoughts to have mid-race.  Every portion of the race hurt. I seemed to be going backwards the whole race. No power in the pedals at all. Really dissapointing but altogether unsuprising. I have had some good races up until yesterday, so I should have and I do know that I can't maintain that good form for more than a feww weeks in a row. In retrospect, I always struggle with a lull in form about this time anyway.

Really though, the writing was on the wall before the race began for me. I was just beat and rundown from all the racing of the previous few weeks. I could feel it coming midweek. Legs and body just didn't seem to e recovering from a weekend of racing both days and my midweek hard race workout was not good either. In retrospect I should have shut the intensity midweek down before it started. Oh well. I am prescribing 3 days off the bike this week with no race on the schedule. I am at the halfway point in my cx season.  8 or 9 races to go. The 2nd half of the season is more spread out though. With a good rest week and another ramp up in training, I hope to peek again come the Kansas State Cx Championships in Topeka on Decmber 5th.   I am working next Saturday, so I will miss the 3 round of the Boss CX series. Thats a shame cuz I race those events for free this year, thanks to winning the 35+ Masters category last year. No race on Sunday either, because the Dumbshit Deuchebag promoter that was suposed to put on a race that day, totally fropped the ball and screwed the Kansas City Cx community.

Oh well I need a break....some legs up on the coffe table for a few days and I will hit the the training hard again. See yah next race!

p.s. pics will follow shortly

Boulevard Cup, remarks and race recap(race weekend part 2)

2010-10-22T12:46:00.001-05:00

I have put off writing my race report from this past Sunday's Boulevard Cup and Wyandotte County Park, for a couple of reasons. One, I can be lazy and procrastinate. The 2nd reason has been for the sole purpose to calm down a little before I go spouting off from the 'hip'. I made some comments about Sunday's cx course during pre-laps the day of, immediately after my race and even more comments to the same friend(s) within the last 24 hours. So, I don't think my harsh opinions are going to subside....

   Let me say first, Mike Berning has put on a great event the last few years out at WYCO. Now I admit, that the venue for racing I enjoy quite a bit. However, I have never considered the race course that has been set up out there to be my favorite. To be honest, it is my least favorite cx course of the year. That is year after year, so it has been consistently the same. Whatever. There are many positives to the production that is the Boulevard race. The food, beer, the venue for the people and racers, the people themselves and it is a beautiful park. But the course setup for the race, year after year is continually a big disappointment. Bar none, every year the course is extremely bland and void of any personality at all. This years' course was no exception. In fact, it might even have been worse. This is a personal opinion, but I have got a similar view from at least a dozen other racers who were there who voiced similar opinions. In defense of the course, I found 2 racers who liked it. So go figure. My issues with the course were a few, but simple things:
   1. 2/3rds of the course was unviewable from the main gathering point of the spectators(food and beer area)
   2. The course was an absolute disaster as far as markings and being staked. People blowing thru high speed turns and off course because cones and hats were laid down rather than using stakes. On top of looking like a go-cart course from the Ozarks, the set-up(or lack thereof) looked like an after thought.
   3. And what little grass was mowed, it wasn't even part of the final race course set-up. At least get the mowers out there. We aren't bailing hay.

Why on earth was 10 acres of land used for a course that could have been set up in 2 acres? Why would you run the racers away from the spectators, the food, and the beverages so they can't see anyone race? Its not a crit. There were no goats in the goat pasture to view us racing on the west side of the road. Yet, 2/3rds of the race was on that side in the 'goat' pasture. Me and a friend can find a ATV and a snow plow and make a cx race possible with 10+ inches of snow on the ground in 3 days notice and mark and stake the course, but 2 months of beautiful perfect weather with multiple volunteers and that is the course that I paid money to race on. Now if that is the only option, then I can accept that, but when promoters like Jeff Unruh can put out a 'Pro'-like product and Jeremy Haynes and Joe Fox up at Cycle City keep raising the bar....Then how long before the Boulevard Cup goes from the biggest fields of the season to the weakest. Free beer and cookies are great, but I and many other racers want a quality course, a quality product to spend our hard earned money on. And Sunday's race course wasn't quality. There are 20 races in the metro area and I can't do everyone. Very few people can, so people have to make choices. People can go race in Tulsa, Lincoln and Iowa. The customers, thats what we as racers are, can choose to take our money and put it in a different product. That is my less than 2 cents.

Enough of my rant, as I am sure I have offended many people reading my drivel. Let me remind you though. I am a paying customer, I have the right to bitch since I am forking over said money. Try taking my criticism for what it is and make a better product... or don't, be offended and scoff at me and others who may want more.

To the race. The goal after Saturday's hard effort in Topeka was to recover and get ready to chase the 360Racing master's train. As I expected, the 360 crew showed up in force. Hedjuk, Jenks, Songer, Lucas, Hammontree all showed up to race the 40+'A' race at 11:00am. My inital goal was to get a front row start and get off the line without any issues. Didn't need the 'hole shot', I didn't want to set the pace, but I wanted to settle into a 360 wheel and just try to stay smooth. With a few random call-ups, 25 racers lined up for the 30+ race. My 40+ group lined up immediately behind with 25 of us as well. Then came 25 or so of the 50+guys. There would the standard 30 second gap between age groups. Again, something else for me to think about. I didn't want to lose time or the 360 guys getting thru the slower riders, which would probably be at least 24 of the 25 thirty year old racers in the way at some point early in lap one.

So with the official's instructions and a word from our generous promoter we were ready for the whistle. The 30+ racers were off, and I was still not nervous, just anxious to get started. I was trying to protect my Series60 overall lead. 30 seconds later, the whistle blew for my race. Brendan Jenks of 360Racing immediately surged to the front and I settled into 2nd wheel as we raced down the long paved start headed for the left turn into the grass. Bombing down a hill and headed towards a high speed 90 degree right hand turn, the racers had to scrub a bunch of speed because we came to the courses' first barrier. A single barrier maybe 20 feet outside the 90 degree right hand turn. Remounting, the racers pedaled a slight incline thru the long grass to a 180 degree turn-around. Down the same slight hill and into a soft but fast left-hander. The course traversed thru a ditch to another grassy field section where 2/3rds of the course was set-up. Very non descript rollers and some high speed turns, a couple with some off-camber slope to them but all in all, a boring section thru unmowed grass with lots of acorns to go thru and over. After a series of turns, the course climbed up towards a sand volleyball pit that we went across the width of maybe 30 feet of sand. This is actually where our lead group caught the majority of the 30+ racers. all 5 of us in the lead group made it thru 'lapped' trafffic without being delayed too badly. Our group reformed as we remounted and headed towards the road crossing. Now the sand pit I elected to run every time, but it was ridable. Not necassarily faster to ride it, but some chose to anyway. Once thru the sand, the course crossed the main road to the east side of the course. We went across the road and back on the grass heading north toward the food and beer area where the spectators were mostly watching the race from. Some technical switch-back turns and a barrier section right after another series of 90 degree turns and the racers were remounting and heading towards the course only rear technical section of the 1.8 mile course. This amounted to one long off-camber sweeping left hand turn a section of wooptys in a road-side ditch that led to a 120 degree bottleneck turn. The course was now going back to the south to cross the road and back to the west side of the road for the last section of the course. The west section was poorly marked and I found racers blowing thru cones and course hats in multiple turns on the back side of the course. No stakes and tape thru some S-turns, so people were 'straitening' turns to their likeing in this protion of the race. We headed north past the wheel pit and up the hill towards the road the racers got a couple of technical 90 degree turns in before we hit the road for the start/finish section. Thru most of lap one, it was Jenks, Songer and me in the front group. After a bad start, Lucas joined us only to lay it down in an acorn infested turn towards the end of lap one. He rejoined us in the middle of in lap 2 again. Their teammate David Hedjuk went blazing by all of us towards the halfway point of the first lap, charging on and leaving his teammates trying to avoid him as he almost wrecked them in the course of passing us. So much for having to worry about any of the 360 team tactics...I guess Hedjuk had his own plans, that didn't include Steve, Andy or Brendan. Thru the start/finish line on lap 2, I was on the 360 train but working really hard to stay there. It was no problem staying in contact with the lead group thru the fast first 1/3rd of the lap, but once we reached the sandpit, the 360 guys gapped me a little there. Crossing the road they had maybe a 5 bike length lead on me. I got reattached at the 2nd set of barriers and stayed on thru the spectator section. But, when the course was heading south towards the street crossing, i got gapped a little again. I kept stretching the elastic, eventually it was gonna snap. Crossing the pavement to the back part of the course, i got back on only to lose the wheel of Brendan when the course turned uphill towards the pit area. So for the remainder of the race, I stayed tantalizingly close to the 360 group. Their teammate Hedjuk was up the road from them, so they were racing for 2nd. I desperately tried to get back to that threesome. A couple of times they seemed to slow but I just couldn't close the gap any more than 10 seconds back. With a lap and a half to go, Jenks fell off Songer and Lucas pace and now I was chasing Jenks for 4th. I got to within 6 or 7 seconds of Brendan and at the sound of the 'Bell' lap, the race was on. But he had more than me. I should have made more of an effort early to stay with that front 3. I just didn't have enough late to get up to Brendan. I settled for 5th behind the 4 horseman of 360. On a course i have never had much success on, in hindsite it was a decent result. I held off my charging teammate Jeff Unruh who took 6th, and my time gaps back from the Songer/Lucas duo were under a minute on a very non technical course. Definately a course that those guys have a distinct advantage over me. They beat me by a couple of minutes last year at this race.

   So up next weekend is the Smithville Cx race up at Smithville Lake. Going to race the Open race again. Could be a really small turn-out this weekend because quite a few are headed to Louisville to race the USGP down there. I need to plan ahead better and ,maybe I can be racing at one of those USGP weekends next year.

   See yah next time!

A Weekend of Cross Racing(Part I)

2010-10-19T14:21:00.003-05:00

Another full weekend of racing came and went. Both Saturday and Sunday had me dragging the wife and daughter out to random locations so i could feed my cyclocross addiction. Saturdays race was in Topeka, KS. Its' promoter was put on by Slimen teammate and friend Jeff Unruh. Quinton's Cross was held at a local elementary school in Jeff's hometown of Topeka. About a 55 minute drive for the Taylor clan. This race was also the 2nd race in the 7 part series that Localcycling.com's Mark Thomas has put together called Series60 Cyclocross. Now prior to the start of the current cx season, I had set a goal of Top 3 in this series in the Masters 'A' 40+ category. The first race of this series was the KC Cup race put on by the 360Racing crew at Swope Park in late September. There I finished 3rd. So the goal of this weekend was to go as fast as possible and battle with the 2 or 3 big guns from the 360 team that happened to show up for Saturday and Sundays race. Sunday's race would be part 3 of the Series60 located at Wyandotte County Park, the Boulevard Cup which was put on by the Boulevard/KCOI racing team.

   Saturday morning came not too early with a morning Starbucks run at 8:30 a.m. and we were blazing down I-70. My wife would be pulling double duty, babysitting and photographer during my race. It would probably be a race and run soon after with another race the next day. Pulling up to the school parking lot at a quarter to 10, I was immediately impressed with the 'pro' look of the course. The Tape and course marking looked right out of videos i have seen from USGP races that the big name pros show up too. Kudos to Jeff and his fellow volunteers. My only concern with the looks of the course we would be racing on was the big hill they set part of the course on. I thought I had specifically told Jeff, "NO Hills". Obviously, he didn't listen too me. I was registered and had my kit on and was on the bike taking some warm-up laps a little after 10. Race time was 11 a.m. I didn't want a big warm-up. I knew I was racing the next day, so no since and wasting energy. I also was judging the lack of competitors that showed up for Saturdays' race. It was gonna be a small field and I was already thinking of conserving energy during the race, because I knew Sunday's Boulevard Cup always gets the bigger more competitive fields. Again, no sense and wasting the whole tank. Especially since i have a limited one to begin with. Warming up with friend and rival 360racing's Andy Lucas, we had a conversation on the very same subject. A tentative plan was to not do the usual 'killer' cx start, and have me, Andy, Steve Songer(360racing) and my Slimen teammate Joe Houston set the pace that would create a gap early over the rest of the small field. A hard but not killer tempo would do it. Now the writing was on the wall. The steep run-up hill was going to be the deciding factor in this race. Joe and I were on the outside looking in with Andy and Steve having a big advantage over Joe and I, because they don't have extremely large, fat asses. However, Joe and I would be willing to give it a go and give Steve and Andy a run at it.
   Line-up for the Master's race was at 10:45. Joe and I got a front row start. Jeff had created a runway for the start of the races that was wide enough for 20 racers across. Fields were not that big, but I think we started maybe 8-10 across at the line. With instructions from officials and a few words from our promoters, we were ready to race. I just wanted to follow wheels and not kill myself for the 'holeshot'. That is exactly what happened. Lucas and Songer led it out, with me and Joe following close on their wheels. Joe or I didn't have to dip into the 'red' to maintain contact and once we were thru the 200 meters of the start, we hit the first brief pavement section. Songer and Lucas had a 4 or 5 length gap on the pavement, but once we hit back into the grass and took a couple of high speed technical turns, Joe and I were right back on their wheel. A couple of 180 and 90 degree turns and we were bombing down a grass decline and racing thru an open field heading towards the northern most part of the course. This fast grass field section took us thru an off camber high speed 90 degree turn around a tree and up hill a few feet before we leveled off and bombed towards another high speed but softer left hand turn that had the racers riding along a creek or ditch and racing towards a set of tennis courts. A 90 degree left hand turn right before the tennis courts and we were grinding up a false flat to 90 degree right and now really going up a soft and thick grassy section along the length of the tennis courts. 200 meters or so along the tennis courts and the course pitched up and to to the left in a 180 turn and down a few feet to a 180 right hander that pitched back up again 30 meters or so into the first barrier section of the day. The first set of barriers were set in the middle of an incline, and right after the 2nd of 2 barriers, the terrain pitched up even steeper for 5 more meters making the racers finish the climb shouldering their bike and turning right and remounting. The top of this run-up was the entrance to the wheel pit. Now going back to the 180 right and left hand turns before the barrier section, I somehow had a brain freeze. I looked down briefly and suddenly i was in Songers' rear wheel. Now I just was rubbing tires, we never got tangled up. However, I breifly panicked here, and was immedialtely steering of course and into the tape. I went thru the first set of tape and into a stake and got my bike wrapped and tangled into more tape. That was it. Andy, Steve and Joe and the gap we had set at the start were gone. 10-15 seconds of getting untangled and the lead group was gone and i was getting passed by two more racers before i got going again. I ran 30 meters to the barriers and up the run-up and remounting trying to desperately to get back up to speed and close down the gap to the leaders that I had created. "F!@#". A moments mental lapse and my race plans went to shit. So now I was chasing. Racing past the wheel pit and down a hill 200 meters into a technical section of the course that had the racers going thru a maze like set-up of looping 180 degree turns. This section allowed the racers to ride right by their competitors that were a few seconds in front or in back of them. In my haste to latch back onto the front 3, I once again found myself going off course into the tape and running thru and over a stake. I literally impaled my shin on a course stake. I removed splinters post race. I lost no time during this incident but did fluster my self more and had to work really hard to not waste extra energy in the panic of getting or staying at speed. This circular section led out and up towards the grinding steep 25 meter run-up. To get to the run-up, the racers had to pedal uphill 50 meters to a right hand switch-back which continued uphill another 50 meters to another switch-back and turned back to the right. From there, racers continued uphill another 50 meters towards the barrier at the base of the run-up. I and the rest of the racers were already grinding our way with no momentum, then we are forced off our bike only to try to pump our legs over a barrier and up a 60 degree pitch for maybe 20 meters to the top of this brutal run-up. At the top, I was just about closed the gap to my teammate Joe. Pedaling into a slow off camber 180 degree left and down towards a 90 degree right that had the racers bombing down and into a sweeping soft right hander. Carrying a ton of momentum, the course pitched uphill briefly and flattened out right by the edge of the parking lot. From here you had to set yourself up for a steep off camber/downhill 180 degree left hand turn that transitioned at the bottom from grass to a concrete sidewalk. I saw plenty of people wipe out on this seemingly harmless section in warm-ups. Thru this little downhill turn, the racers were bombing downhill again into a sweeping off-camber right hand turn. Again, if you took this right, you could carry tons of momentum back up the hill that had the racers pedaling by the pits for the 2nd time. Turning right 90 degrees, the course headed back uphill towards the finish line. One lap down and 6 to go. I had now gotten within 10 seconds of Joe.
   I was able to finally close the gap to Joe coming back up the false flat along the tennis courts. However, Joe's pace had dropped and he was unable to stay on my wheel once we were thru the first run-p/barrier section. Bombing down the hill past the pits, I was on my own trying to reel in Andy Lucas, who had fallen off of his teammate, Steve's wheel. On the big run-up on the 3rd lap, I caught Andy. He was not doing well. You could hear him struggling to breath. I knew he was having asthma issues. So now it was me in 2nd with Songer up the road. I never really felt like i was going to catch. Not unless he made a big mistake, so I kept at it for another couple of laps. I could see that the gap behind me was growing. Andy had drifted back and altogether disappeared. So did Joe. Noone else was in site with 3 laps to go. A lap later I realized that both Joe and Andy had pulled out of the race. Every time I slogged up that run-up with lead feet, I wanted to drop out too. Somewhere along the way, Joe shouted a time gap to me that I was a minute and 25 back of Songer. This was about the time 2 of the 50+ fastmen had bridged up to me. Randall Crist from Lincoln, Nebraska and Paul Fancher of Localcycling.com caught me with maybe 3 or 4 laps to go. I hopped on there wheel and took a ride until we hit the tennis court section. This was where I lost Randall's wheel. The slight climb thru the slow grass was the difference. Randall left both Paul and I behind.
   So Paul was my pace setter briefly, until we got to the climb up to and before the steep run-up. Paul's smaller ass allows him to climb faster than me. By the top of the run-up he had a 5 second gap. For the next lap that time gap stayed the same. Paul seemed to be struggling as well. Back around to the run-up I had gotten back in contact with him. I realized that I would overtake on the technical maze section. I actually gapped him by a couple of bike lengths and by the top of the run-up i had a couple of seconds on him. Thru the fast downhill and the next 3 or 4 turns I had the 5 second gap. Thru the pavement section just past the finish line at the start of the bell lap, I decided to put the hammer down to see if Paul would answer. This was really unnecessary, because we are in different age groups. But honestly, Paul is a guy that I really enjoy beating. He has the personality of a stump, he tends to aggravate about all of the guys he races against, and he is the ultimate 'sandbagger'. Even with my 30 second head start to the race, I really didn't want him to beat me to the line. But as little as I really know Paul, I have ridden and raced him enough to know how little class he has and that he would sprint his dying bedridden grandmother to the line. So I needed a big enough gap going into the 100 meters to the line, because it was uphill to the finish. Paul would have the advantage on me there. So, I tried hard to extend my little gap on the fast flowy turn sections on the first third of the course. The bells ringing indicating 'last lap' was my reminder how much I needed to 'kick' it if I wanted to get to the line before 'Mr.' Fancher. I honestly thought I had him. Still had a few seconds at the top of the run-up the last time thru. Bombed the last few turns and thru the last right hand turn to the finish I peeked back to take a look and the gap was the same...maybe 3 or 4 seconds. I got out of my saddle to power to the line, and hesitated. Why waste anymore energy when I was still finishing 2nd wether the 'you-know-what' beat me to the line or not? I had another race to compete in tomorrow anyway. I was thinking about the series. Andy had pulled out, the 2 guys who beat me at the KC Cup were no-shows for today's race and Songer didn't race the master's at the KC Cup. I would be the overall series leader and needed a good result tomorrow to hold that. Screw it! Let Paul beat his crippled cousin to the line if it made him feel better. It didn't affect me and my race. That's what happened. I think Fancher nipped me at the finish line by maybe 3 or 4 inches. Fuck it! I was already thinking about tomorrows race and how that could play out.
   It was gonna be SlimenUndGrossen, me, Joe and Jeff racing the the whole of the 360Racing masters crew. Hedjuk, Songer, Jenks, and Lucas would be gunning it for Sunday's race at the Boulevard cup. I was already putting my game face on. I wanted to be on the 360 train. I needed to catch from the start to have a chance to fight with them to the finish. Sunday was gonna be tough. Fast Bastards!!
   So the Taylor crew packed up. We didn't stick around for the rest of the day's races. I needed food in my stomach and some compression socks on if I was gonna be competitive for the next day's race. So Quinton's Cross was in the books. A unimpressive 2nd place, but I had the lead thru 2 races of the Series60. It was homeward bound to hang out with the family for the rest of the day.

Boulevard Cup report coming soon...

Pics From past weekend of racing in Topeka at Quinton's Cross and Sunday's Boulevard Cup are at the SlimenUndGrossen Racing Blog

2010-10-18T17:28:00.000-05:00

Link to blog is here>http://slimenracing.blogspot.com/. Check out photos and racing highlights for the 2010 cyclocross season from the Slimen crew.

Something other than pictures...

2010-10-14T12:49:00.001-05:00

Its' been a while. Life intervenes and all that crap. I am not a born writer so i need real motivation to bang away at the keyboard. Hell, even cx season hasn't brought me to the keyboard. Time is an issue too. There doesn't seem to be enough of it in the day. Access to my blog at work wasn't available until recently. I can now type away at work on my blog, so maybe i will get to this thing a little more.

Cx season thru Ovtober 10, 2010> We are 5 races into cx season. Some good results. Started my first Open/Big Boy race a couple of weekends ago. I didn't embarass myself(except with that spelling). 1st race of season opened on Sept. 18 th at the KC Cup in Kansas City's Swope Park. Finished 3rd in the Master's 'A' race 40+ age group to Brendan Jenks and some MTB stud from Texas. Manions Cx was a week later. Tougher course not suiting my strengths(large hill,i.e. lots of climbing). I finished a respectable 8th out of 29 starters at the really tough Kansas City, Kansas layout. I finished behind a group of fast masters' again in the 40+ race, so no shame in that 8th place. The 3rd weekend of the season was at the Argosy Casino for the Boss Cx series. I won the 35+ masters overall in this series last year. The winner's prize was free entry into the Boss Cx races this year, so thats' 4 plus Boss Cx races for free this year. Hooray!!. The Boss Cx courses for October 2nd and 3rd were much more suited to my strengths.(i.e. lots of technical high and low-speed turns and flat with some technical sand ride/run section). And other than straining my groin on them, the high-speed barriers were to my advantage too. So i decided the only way for me to get faster and to challenge some of my friends/fast guy arch rivals like Songer, Lucas, and Jenks is to get my rear kicked racing for 60 minutes with the Big Boys. I finished 16 out of 28 starters on saturday. By far the most competitve field i have ever lined up with. Its amazing how big of a difference it is racing 40-45 minutes versus racing for 60+ minutes. Sundays race was hard cuz the legs were trashed, but i grinded it out and finished 12th out of 22 starters. Nothing to write home about, but competitive none the less in an intimidating field of racers both days. Also racing for 2+ hrs in two days really kicked my ass as well. I may not have been racing for a spot on the podium, but it still was a lot of fun racing. The Boss Cx course layout really allowed for group racing and even road/crit like tactics. Some drafting and pacing was possible. On Jeremy's super fast design. Both days of racing had me riding and working with a couple of different opponents. Which allowed me to pass other racers late in both days races. I competed hard both days for those non-impressive 16th and 12th place results. But i am as proud of those races as any race i have won in the past. This past Sunday was the Cross out Cancer race at Shawnee Mission Park. I lined up with the Open guys again,but was racing behind them because the promoters offered a new category. The 2/3 categorey race has not been used in our area, but it was a really good field this past week. My first thought was it would take away from the whole elite race, but both field were medium size for our area. 23 racers lined up for my 2/3 race, and it was a stacked field that i was going against. I got the hole shot nd was into the back of the elite field by the 2 turn. Jeff Yielding from Hermann , MO passed me late in lap one. I spent the majority of the race banging shoulders and elbows with guys from the elite field like Tige, Briton, Mark Cole, Bergeman, and trying to hold off a charging Matt Baugher from Epic Cyling for 2nd. Finished about 30 seconds back of winnr Jeff and maybe 20 seconds up on 3rd place Matt. I think I am in favor of not having the 2/3 race coinside with the elite race. Just have all those guys racing with eachother. If you are going to have a 2/3 race at all, make it at the oppisite end of the schedule from the elite race. Oh well...Thats a whole 'nother topic or discussion that i can address at another time.

I have got to get to work, so that is my brief cx report as of now. I am gonna try to get more writing done on this blog thing. But the pics are an easy way out.

See you at the next cx race!

Cross Start...2010 cx season is is full swing!

2010-10-13T11:34:00.000-05:00

The above pic courtesy of volunteer hero, Roger a.k.a. Lanterne Rouge. All of these photos were taken October 10, 2010 at the Cross Out Cancer Cyclocross Race held at Shawnee Mission Park in Lenexa, KS.

The above pics are courtesy of my great wife, Heather.

apologies

2010-02-03T18:56:00.001-06:00

Recieved an email from a friend who called me out.......no problem admitting when i am wrong. His email is located below my apology, which deals with the kcsandbagger blogs and some of the comments i made in response to a post about me and some comments made to me. i figured i would post it here as a blanket apology to anyone who was offended by some off-color and angry words.

mark,

your point is well taken. no, you were not lecturing too much. with your email i began to reflect on some of my 'choice' words. i do admit to the 'v' word, i dont remember any disparaging comments about homosexuals, but that doesn't mean my inappropriate rear-end didn't make any, and i am sure i used other inappropriate words. so if you could forward this to anybody who you might feel like I may have insulted, i would appreciate it. unfortunately, i did not take the initial post about me and the 2 previous guys who were called out as a joke. i have and still do have a hard time taking 'grief' from someone i dont know or an anonymous person. whatever.....no excuses. yes, the blog has turned, at times, very insulting and mean spirited. for the last few days i have stayed out of it, and those are my intentions. i think i have made my feelings known(for good or bad):). and yes i believe i added fuel to their fire and obviously played into some peoples hands. live and learn i guess. i gave them basically what they wanted and that pisses me off as well. i am the only one to blame for that. like i said, i have no intention of adding more fuel to their fire. there are gonna be 'taylor haters' out there. nothing i can do about it. all that is important are the people i consider friends ad their opinions of me. if those friends and family included are good with me, then i have nothing to worry about.

i appreciate the email and the 'wake-up' call, mark.

so here goes....to anybody i have offended or insulted by my rash and immature words in responding to a 'tongue in cheek' blog, i sincerely apologize. my sexist and insensitive comments were said out of anger and were out of line. i hope the offended can forgive me, especially those i dont know well. this is not the light i wanted to portray the Slimen or the Local cycling teams in, and for that i am truly sorry as well.

I am sorry for all the b.s. , mark and teresa.

again...please forward to all localcycling racers or anyone else you think needs to here my apology.

sincerely,

josh taylor

From: mark@localcycling.com
To: byknfyr@hotmail.com
Subject: sandbaggerkc
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 17:33:23 -0600

Josh,

Just got back from Europe and got to check out the SandbaggerKC drama. My initial reaction to the site (we saw the first couple of postings while we were in Belgium), was that it was kind of funny. The writing at first wasn’t bad for parody. BUT I think it devolved pretty quickly and got a lot more mean spirited. I think it was still intended to be tongue-in-cheek, just poorly executed.

I think most people are quite aware that you’re not a ‘sandbagger’. However, you really played into the hands of the site’s writer with your reaction. So did quite a few others. He (or more likely, they) poked you, got a reaction and ran with it. It kind of became a situation as if you had written in to Saturday Night Live about a sketch that beat up on some one you liked. Or wrote a letter to National Lampoon after they skewered something. National Lampoon used to post ‘real’ letters from people they pissed off. It added to the comedy.

Parody isn’t real, and it’s usually better to ignore it if you don’t like it

The bottom line is that ‘Jackass’ style humor is popular for very short runs. You probably added 15 more minutes to the site’s life.

I originally was going to give the site a mention (not necessarily positive) on localcycling.com, but I’m probably going to hold off. I’m not squeamish, but I try to keep things semi-family friendly, and Sandbagger is rated ‘R’.

Another issue I’d like to mention is the rhetoric and language that gets tossed about.

Cycling has lots of ‘boys’ in the population. And sometimes our language (mine included) can be taken the wrong way by others.

A lot of folks toss out words like ‘gay’ and ‘pussy’ to bag on somebody. The problem is that there are some pretty cool folks around us ‘boys’ that might find that banter offensive. The Slimenundgrossen side of the team is made up of mostly males, but the localcycling.com squad has a more diverse makeup. There are straight and gay members of our team, women and men. We also have a Supporters Club that understands the ties between our two teams, and are planning on being more involved at races this next year.

We have members of the team that are gay and others that have vaginas. They probably agree with you that the blog author is an asshole. So maybe that’s a better choice?

I’m of the Charles Barkley camp that athletes aren’t role models, but at the same time, I think it benefits all to think about what kind of respect we earn/give as individuals.

I also know you’re a very good hearted individual and your choice of words probably reflects cultural insensitivity, not Josh’s insensitivity.

Hope that wasn’t too much lecture. I’m ready for some base miles, a little running and a good road season this year. My back is much improved. I’ve got some cool plans for the Wed. Hill Ride.

Regards,

Mark

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WOW!! This is Too Funny!!!

2010-01-30T01:57:00.002-06:00

holy shit, Batman.....this is too funny! check out this site cx babies blogsite. Sounds like the 4's field will be getting a little competition. Maybe we need to have promoters reinstate a clydesdale category for all the fattys out there that would rather whine than complain?? just an idea...

blog war and sandbagging B.S.

2010-01-25T23:49:00.000-06:00

here is a response or a letter from Bill Marshall coming to defense of a couple of guys....namely me and Mark Cole of a b.s. blogsite of a fat noncompetitive pussies calling supposed 'sandbaggers' out....

Thanks Bill. Well said. I could not come up with the words that you wrote, but it summed up my frustrated feelings over the jackass who 3 months belatedly called me out.

Here u go...wait...here is the jackasses blog that i am referring to....r5 or http://sandbaggerkc.blogspot.com/. apparently this guy is the authority or the 'judge, jury and executioner' of calling out sandbaggers....without anyone knowing who he is.....F@#%ING PUSSY!

Below is what I posted on the Sandbagger blog site. Who the fuck is this pussy? Forward it to Mark Cole.

I have to say who ever started this joke of a blog has no clue what it actually takes to race at the next level or even at a Category 3 level for that matter. Just because someone is winning a few local races doesn't justify calling them a sandbagger or needing to upgrade. For any Category 3 rider to upgrade they obviously need the required points but, they also need to display complete dominance at every single race they do. Winning every time and absolutely crushing the competition. Then, they should upgrade to a Category 2. Once that is done welcome to hell. It's an entirely different world of racing and training. Even at a local level it’s a whole new ball game and the roles are reversed unless the rider is a truly gifted athlete. I've read many comments about Josh Taylor or Mark Cole needing to upgrade because they are winning races left and right etc. Well, that's at a local level and they are doing quite well for themselves. But, if they (or any other local Cat 3 legend) were to race regionally or nationally they would get their asses handed to them. That is until they gained the valuable experience of racing at that level. Many local cyclist can't lead the lifestyle to gain that experience of doing UCI races, USGP's or traveling to Nationals every year. Have you ever thought of that? I know for a fact both of these riders work hard at training, racing, being parents and working full time jobs. Did you ever think that their commitments outside the sport don’t allow them to train and race at a higher level? Maybe their commitments outside the sport don’t allow them to even do so at a local level? All of those are factors for any cyclist who is going to upgrade to the next level. It takes no less than 15 hours a week of hardcore training just to compete locally at that level. Do you have the time to do that plus the outside commitments? The way I see it is your complaining about these guys needing to upgrade because you're personally tired of getting your teeth kicked in all of the time. Word from the wise and I've seen this a lot in the past 25 years or racing. Come out from behind the comfort of your keyboard, stop letting your fingers do the talking and let your bike racing do the talking. Until you can actually come out and compete toe-to-toe with your peers every weekend shut your pie hole, train your ass off and show them what you’re made of. Your comments make you out to be a coward and someone who isn’t willing to dedicate yourself to training and racing. One last thing... I find it amazing that anyone actually has the balls to post anything on a blog (positive or negative) without stating their real name. If you have something to say, say it openly and quit being a coward. What are you afraid of? Are you scared at the next race the entire cycling community will gang up you and drop you like a bad habit? I’m guessing so. Sack up and quit hiding behind your keyboards. BTW.... HTFU

Bill Marshall
Team Director/Founder
KCCX/VERGE Elite Cyclocross Team.

thanks bill!!

The 2009 Cross Season is a Wrap......

2010-01-20T19:33:00.002-06:00

I got some pics of Saturdays Epic Cx Race. Jacob Pitt...putting it to the 'old' guys!

The last pics are of my Element towing my friends 4-wheeler. I have towed 1900 lbs of concrete with that car as well.

A Big Exhale..................The 2009 cyclocross season went a week longer than the previous year and even started a week earlier as well. That being said, i think i had 2 or 3 more races left in the legs and brain. Oh well. I am still looking to unwind a bit. Mentally, almost 4 months of staying motivated and on top of the racing and recovering properly wears on you. I think figuring that out this year and with the previous 3 or 4 years of cx helped me to finish with some strong results this year during the last few weeks of racing.

This past Saturdays' race was located up north of Kansas City in Parkville, MO. the course was again set up on the property where the sponsor, Epic Bike Shop is located.
I spent Tuesday and Wednesday before the race working to get the course prepped and rideable to race on Saturday. The greenspace where the course was to be set up was actually under almost a foot of snow with 2 and 3 foot drifts as of Tuesday. Friend and Slimen teammate Joe Houston and I headed up to Parkville Tuesday morning to see if we could help promoter Mark Thomas. I was actually able to borrow a 4-wheeler with a snow blade from a friend...Thanks Jeff!! The thought was, with the ATV, that the time to clear the snow from the course would
only take a couple of hours. Were we way off. about 7 hours of shoveling be 3 or 4 of us as well as the use of the atv, and still we had work to do with ice removal from paved areas of the course on race morning. Thanks Roger! So a couple of hours on Tuesday and again on Wednesday afternoon with the ATV and some warmer temps on wednesday and Thursday started to turn our race course into a swamp......maybe we shouldnt have removed so much snow??

We had to, we couldnt count on so much snow melt. By Friday morning though, the temps had stalled at about 29-32 degrees with overcast foggy conditions. Late Thursday nite and Friday morning the temps had dropped to the low 20's and refrozen our course back up. This kept the course somewhat firm and icy in most places, with a little half frozen standing water in a couple of places on Friday around noon. The forecast for raceday was more of the same. Freezing temps overnite and overcast foggy conditions thru till early afternoon. So we were hoping for a mostly frozen course instead of a 6 inch deap ice cold swamp to race on.
I arrived at the race parking lot at around 9:45 am with my race starting at 11am. plenty of time to get dressed properly and get a good warm-up. With both bikes dialed and ready to go, i got out on the course to pre-ride and warm-up a little. I found the conditions of the course a little sloppier than the previous day but still not thawed out. Some scetchy icy spots with some muddy soft spots mixed in with some snowy areas. The sand vollyball court still was fairly firm due to the cold so these 2 sections were still rideable. I am sure the whole course would ride and change completely over the course of 45 minutes of racers riding warm-ups and another 45 minutes of racing on it. By the end of the day, the last couple of races, racers would be in a virtual mudpit. I was glad to be racing first. The faster and icy the more fun i would have and the better chance off a good result as well.

So with the call-ups at 10 minutes before race time, I was on the front row. I was 4th in the overall and really no shot of catching 2nd and 3rd. I needed a miracle with both Andy Lucas and Steve Songer not finishing the race. I had no points in an early race in the series due to sandbagging and racing and winning the 3's race at the first race of the year. I however had 4th locked up with noone being able to catch me as long as i finished. 14 racers lined up for the Master's 40+ 'A' race. Not a great turn-out, but expected due to a long cx season and the not so great weather. Also, i honestly question the 'man-hood' of a lot of our regions cyclists who say they race.....WHATEVER....... thats a different topic for a different day. Not all are 'man' enough or tough enough to race cx in January here in the midwest. I guess the 'roadies' need their rest and have to get in their 'bases' so they can be 'peaking' for the 'all important' Spring-Flings in Lawrence here in a month or so. Those guys really find that the March racing is essential to a 'great' season on the Road..........whatever....enjoy your rest, Pussies!

So roll call and callups are done. Officials give their speal and within seconds, they blow the whistle. I get a good start, and am side by side with Studnicki, sitting just behind Lucas(who got his usual 2 plus second head-start). Before we get to the hard laeft that takes us to the pavement, I yield to Mark and tell him to get on Lucas' wheel. I didnt need to throw elbows witha friend and a guy who is stronger than me, and i didnt want to be responsible fro taking either one of us out. I would settle for 3rd wheel behind the 2 leaders gladly. Once on the pavement, Songer and Houston came barreling by me. I was a little cautious on the pavement, i just felt like at anytime, any of us could lay it down on the slick asphalt. So no need to push it too hard until we got to the grass again. Thats when i realized I could have a problem, cuz the next section was soft and slow due to the mud and water. Joe was already bogging down a little and struggling to maintain the front 3's wheels. Fortunately, joe laid it down in front of me and i was able to avoid him and a few turns later i was back on the 360 + Studnicki train. It took just a few turns and the 4 of us had a significant and permanent gap over the rest of the 40+ racers. Now I just had to race my race and keep it upright......half way thru Lap one, It was Lucas, Studnicki, Songer and me in that order. I was actually comfortable and not over doing it. The course conditions were such that the 3 strong guys couldnt put the hammer down due to the icw and snow. Yes, ice and snow are my friends. With the 4 of us heading thru a soupy slow section and towards the 500 meter pavement section, Andy and Mark get a little gap on me and Steve. Steve has difficulty clearing a tough section that i ride cleanly. I am first to the pavement but was slowwed a little by steve. Andy and Mark are probably 5 seconds up the road. At this time, Andy is getting ready to enter into a snowy switchback section but catches a patch of ice on the pavement, and goes down hard. Mark narrowly misses bashing into Andy and his bike. Songer is now back on my wheel as we roll by Andy who is trying to get back on his back. Its now Mark all alone with maybe a 6-8 second gap on me and Steve. For the next 2 laps, Steve and I take turns gapping each other or just riding on the others wheel. Mostly though, its me sitting on Steve's wheel. I am riding comfortably and smoothly at this point. On maybe lap 3 thru the first sand section and making a right turn, Songer and I are trying to pass a lapped rider. Steve catches a rut and goes down. I bang right into the back of his bike and half fall off of mine. I am back up and going fairly quickly, but Steve is slow to get going. Steve is trying to get is rear wheel to roll seeing as how I crashed hard into it. Oh well, I empathize, but that is racing. Steve had mechanical issues of some sort the last 3 races of the year. I had the majority of mine early and often during the season. So for the next 4 or 5 laps and the remainder of the race, it was just trying to hold off the 360 duo of Andy and Steve. It was nerve wracking having those fast guys chasing me down, but i rode pretty smartly. A couple of bobbles on the last couple of laps, but nothing more than anybody else behind me. Steve at one point got to within maybe 10 seconds of me, but he went down at some point trying to be aggressive and close the gap down. I actually managed to finish within maybe 35 to 45 seconds of Mark in the end, but I know he was just managing his effort on not really drilling it. But it was still second place for me, and I had beaten both Andy and Steve of 360racing. those 2 SOB's are fast. Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never beaten Steve and it had been a couple of seasons since i caught Andy on an 'off' day and beat him. On Saturday i finished in front of both of them. This is significant for me, because I am always measuring myself with these guys. I dont have their horsepower or fitness, but on the right course and me racing within myself I held my own with them. And that sums up the last 3 weeks of racing for me. Smart, comsistent racing during the last 3 races got me 3 good results and allowed me to beat some fast dudes. From my current Slimen teammate Jeff Unruh to my former 360 teammates, racing wheel to wheel with those guys and coming out on top from time to time is what keeps me motivated for cx. I love racing against guys i respect and that i am friends with off the bike.

Knowing Andy, I am sure he is pissed and will be gunning to drop my ass at the next mtb race or the next cx race we line up together. But fortunately for me, there is a good chance we wont be racing in the same age group:) Or maybe we will. so I will be ready for Andy to drill it off the start line, and i am sure I will be hanging on for dear life......but hell, thats half the fun of cx, getting your ass handed to you by the 'fast' guys. That's what makes you faster!

so all of you cx posers.....remember that! Good Luck at the Spring Flings! the 'real men' and 'tough guys' will probably be racing our mtb's.

Next cx race....09/18/10................just around the corner

shovelin' snow and new blogs..

2010-01-13T13:54:00.002-06:00

So the 2010 SlimenUndGrossen cycling Team roster is set, clothing is ordered......but there is still some cross racing to finish up. Spent a few hours the last couple days helping Mark Thomas and Joe Houston getting the Epic Cross Course set up. Which means tons of snow removal by hand and with a 4-wheeler with a snow blade. Still very hard work. Course conditions are going to change hourly with forcast of rain and warmer temps over next couple of days before saturdays race. Mark could still use lots of help. Also, I have been working on a new Slimen Team blog...check it out!....slimenracing.blogspot.com.

check out the blog and hope to see everyone to race the last cx race for the next 8 months.

BE THERE!

'Crossin' Off the Old Year' with some frigid cold and white stuff

2010-01-03T16:19:00.006-06:00

The pics seen here are courtesy of Roger of Lanterne Rouge Cycling. They were taken this past Thursday on the New Year's Eve 'Cross off the Old Year' race held at Stump Park in Shawnee, KS.

A shout out goes to Mark and Teresa of Local Cycling and all the others that help get the race off the ground this year. 8+ inches of snow and some lots of ice thrown in made getting a course set up extremely difficult for the promoter and designer Mark Thomas. Thanks Mark. Thursday morning saw temps in the single digits and with very little improvement in sight. So getting motivated to get going and get out to the course would prove to be the biggest challenge of the day for me. I find that once i get out to the course and get some kind of warm up in, then i am 'good to go' and ready to race. That proved to be the case on thursday morning. My wife was coming off a 12 hour nite shift at the hospital so getting out to the race 2 hours early proved to be impossible. With race time at 1 pm, i was able to pull into the parking lot of stump park at around 11:40 or so. But, lately with the cold weather and my inability to get to the course as early as I would like, I have been dressed and 'pinned' with race # at home prior to driving to the race. Saves me about 30 minutes of prep time and allows me to make changes in layering on the really cold days as needed. I hate scrambling and hurrying prior to race time. The thing that suffers the most when that happens is my warm-up gets shortened or just plain non-existent. And with the bitter cold conditions, its tough mentally to get a good warm-up in anyway.

I was able to get a good warm-up in on the course before race time. The 1 pm races were the first ones of the day. Late starts and shortened races to hopefully make it atractive to racers to skip out of work early and compete in epic 'cx' conditions on New Years' Eve. Thursdays' course consisted of a course which 95 % of was covered in snow and/or ice. The course was shortened due to lots of ice on a long pavement section. So the race track consisted of a narrow paved start/finish area which led to 2 soggy off-camber sections tied together into a short & slick but grinding climb that led the racers to a icey rutted fairly fast and long downhill section that had a lot of racers on edge. Most didnt feel comfortable letting go of the brakes and just bombing on this scetchy downhill. The downhill led into a slow grinding soft snow section which the racer had to work hard to maintain any of the momentum he/she just built up from the downhill.

From this flat slow section the racers turn right down into a little ravine that had hay bales laid out as our only barrier on the course. Running back out of the ditch the racers were back on their bikes trying to get back up to speed thru a ice rutted slow section which headed back towards the start area and the wheel pit. The racers headed back away from the wheel pit and navigated around a softball field on a soft and slowly melting but snow and rut covered section. on the oppisite side of the softball fields the racers had a decision to make as to run or try to ride a iced and rutted out 500 meters section of covered pavement. this section was basically a swection of landmines of covered soft snow holes, slick ice hidden under a couple of inches of snow and a very narrow line that the racer had to navigate thru all of these holes and slick little areas. I of course tried to ride it every time and thru 5 laps of racing I only rode this section cleanly once, and even that '1' time is debatable. I continually had little foot dabs or 'almost' wipe-out mistakes thru this section. It didnt cost anymore than the guys behind me, but it allowed the 2nd place racer, Jeff Unruh who ran it every time, to maintain or put time on me. His decision to run it allowed him to be more consistent then me and my choice to try to ride it everytime. This tricky section was last section which led the racers back thru the start/finish area.

The Master's 'A' 40+ raced for 30 minutes which turned out to be 5 painful laps. A decent start had me 5th wheel going into the snow covered grass and off-camber section. Matt Eastlack and I avoided running into and over John Pahlman who was 3rd wheel at the time of his wipe-out on the slick off camber grass. From there matt and I passed Steve Songer who had 'endo'd and dropped a chain at a muddy ditch crossing. Steve also dropped a chain which cost him tons of time.
So from early in lap one thru the last of lap five, I was yo-yoing off of Jeff Unruh wheel. On lap four I made a huge effort and attacked him on the downhill. I got by him and began to pass a lapped rider when i caught an icey rut at about 25 mph. Fortunately me and my bike went flying together so i didn't have far to go to get my bike and get going again.....I gained contact with jeff late in lap 4 only to see him attack me at the start of the bell lap. Regained his wheel on the downhill but could never find the strength to do anything other than sit on his wheel. Once we hit the last icy straight away, he had more power than me. So Studnicki Finished first, Jeff 2nd and myself 3rd. Songer made a valient effort after his mechanical issues and finished 4th.

The importance of the 2 guys in front of me are they are my new teammates for 2010. I am rejoining SlimenUndGrossen racing after the last couple with 360Racing. Gonna be a fun year I think. My new teammates are really old teammates because I started riding and racing with these guys about 5 or 6 years ago.

2 races races to go before we shut the doors on the 2009/10 cross campaign. 2009 saw me win
the Boss Cross Master's 35+ 'A' category, which means I will be racing for free in that series again next season. I won the Cat 3 Boss Cross series last year and raced for free in this years series. That free entry helps alot. The last 2 races of the year are apart of the Series60 cross series. The standings for that series are locked up as far as the top 2 spots. Mark Studnicki has got a commanding lead over 360 racer Steve Songer. I am currently in 4th, 10 or so points behind 360 rider Andy Lucas. The only way I will catch Andy is if he doesnt race one of the last 2 races. He in fact raced the elite race on Thursday, which allowed me to gain valuable points on him anyway. So hopefully I can finish strong over the next couple of weeks with a couple of more podiums and finish 3rd or 4th in the overall in the Series60 competition. Hopefull these last couple of races will have some more snow and ice and just all around 'fun' conditions.

See yah at the races!

Still Cx racing here in KC.....

2009-12-08T13:09:00.002-06:00

So i've been reading all the cx blogs the last week or so. Seems everybody's local cx scene is pretty much done. Hell, we still have races to go. The last one is january 10th. If you arent making it out to Bend, OR for nationals then it seems everybody is shutting it down getting ready for 2010 road or mtb season. I think the only guys here in my neck of the woods still itching to race cx are the diehards. Thats' ok. to each his own, no. Not everyone is gonna have the cojones to gear everything towards the last 4 months of the year. Not everyone looks forward to racing in 'epic' cold, blustery, freezing, snowy, rainy downright miserable but absolutely 'fun as hell' conditions.

I got goose bumps reading all the Colorado cx blogs about their state champs this past week. Sounds just like the conditions i just described. Perfect for racing your cx bike! Looking at the pics on 'Mud and Cowbells' just totally fired me up for the last 3 races of the year. It really makes me take notice of how the cx scene here in our area has blown up. Just since i have been racing cross since 2005, the fields have really expanded. The KC area is not Portland or the New England area, but i would put our field sizes up against any other area or region. go to kscycling.org or localcycling.com and search the results if anyone doubts me. We blow the Texas and Southeast areas fields away in the 3's and 4's and master's races. We are comparable to SoCal and NorCals' fields. However, the big difference is the amount of races that are put on in these areas. These other areas may have 6-10 races. The driving distance to each race is another difference. These races are seperated by 100 or so miles in their respective regions. The KC region.....We had 17 cx races all within a 60 mile radius here in our region. That is 17 races....nobody and no region provides that amount of racing anywhere. Not all races and fields are huge, we have our down weeks but we also have our big weekends as well. Plus we were within 3 hour drives to 4 races in the Lincoln/Omaha Nebraska area. You are also within a 5 hour drive to one of the best weekends of racing in the country on Thanksgiving weekend with Jingle Cross in Iowa City, Iowa. How in the hell do Louisville, KY and Cincinatti, OH and BFE, North Carolina Continually get 'UCI' Cx race weekends and our KC area gets none? Not a lot of respect.

That respect thing should change though in the next year or 2. just in my race alone last year at natonals in the 30-39 'b' race we had 4 local guys in the top 10 with 80 some odd starters. With me finishing 9th and Tige Lamb and Kyle Bush finishing 4th and 7th respectively and Lawrence local and former Pro roadie Brian Jensen winning the race. KC was well represented in our field. In the 40+ "b' race fellow teammates Steve Songer, Andy Lucas, and Brendan Jenks finished 17th, 8th and 12th from backrow starts to repesent the KC area in a 90+ field. Lincoln resident Troy Kraus finished 2nd in the same race. Troy does 90% of his racing in the KC area and his teammate and fellow masters' strongman and KC local Tom Price finished 3rd. So with other multiple tops tens in big fields from the local guys at nationals the previous 2 years in KC to local master's racers Tom Price and Dean Parker kicking heads in the Portland USGP this past weekend, We Kc and midwest 'cxers' should get a little notice and feel very proud of our growing 'cross' heritage. We now have 2 local local young men being invited to Belgium to join the US 'Cross' camp with a shot at making the USA worlds team. Chris Wallace is back for a 2nd year after racing for the USA junior team at the 2009 World Cyclocross Championships. and this year Lawrence native and prodigal son Joe Schmalz is invited to belgium as well with a great opportunity to be selected for USA's U-23 World's Team. Just more ammunition for the whole respect argument for our area. Chris and Joe are just 2 of the many guys that will be representing the KC area in Bend, OR this week at our country's National Championships. And all of them will do us proud no matter their result. For those of us that werent able to make the trip out to the 'great northwest' to race this year.....we will be pulling and cheering hard for our KC/Lincoln, NE brothers.

Finally.....Good Luck to Tom, Troy, Dean, Chris, Joe, Jeff, Adam, KCCX/Verge and to anyone else i may have forgotten. Race hard and Give'em Hell! We will be racing and competing this weekend thru your eyes and your love of the sport of cyclocross. You do your KC brethren proud already.

see yah at the next cross race......

Nebraska State Cx Championships

2009-11-23T09:43:00.003-06:00

I received the OK from the wife mid-week to race up in Lincoln, Nebraska for their big cx weekend. I wouldn't be able to race both days, but i would at least get to go up for one day. Since Heather was working Thursday and Friday nights', she would be sleeping and recovering on Saturday. So it only made since for me to drive up early Sunday morning to Lincoln to race the 2nd day. I would spend the early day on Saturday hanging out with the little girl and Heather could catch up on some sleep. It turned out that the biggest contingent of KC racers would be going up and racing on Saturday and not on Sunday. Turns out that there were quite a few KC guys who stayed the nite and raced both days. Lucky Bastards!......oh well, i at least get one race in for the weekend.

So the plan was to race the Masters' race on Sunday. This would be the first race of the day at 10am. Now that is not too early, unless you live 3 hours to the south of the race course that was set up at beautiful Pioneers' Park in Lincoln. I was up at 430 on Sunday morning and out the door and on the road by 4:45. A quick stop at MickyD's for a breakfast sandwhich and an OJ and i was rolling. Pulled into Lincoln at about 7:45 and into the park a few minutes later. I was there early enough that i could could my morning bathroom break in, check both bikes out, and sign in and dress with out having to feel rushed. Just a chance to calm the prerace nerves and get a good warm-up in. I decided to bring 1 of my 2 dogs with me for the trip. Landis, my brittany was the lucky one. He is great with people and is a good car dog. He probably slept 2 and a half of the 3 hour drive and all of the 3 hours back home. Landis got to partake in a litle of my warm-up and then hung out at the car which was set-up on the west side of the race course. He had a perfect view of everyone racing by. From what some friends said, he actually seemed to be quite intent on checking out the dorky spandex clad racers going by him.

My initial impressions of the course were good. Tjis is the 4th year in a row coming up to Lincoln to race at Pioneers' Park. Have had nothing but great experiences racing at this venue. I new it would be a fun but hard course for me and other racers. The start and the long pavement section was on a 1/3 mile stretch on a gradual incline that was actually into the wind. This would make it difficult for the racers that were going it alone on this stretch with racers that were working together chasing down those lone individuals. Once off the initial pavement section, the course took a soft right hand turn into the grass that immediately began to pitch up and over a little knoll and pitch up again another 20-30 meters to another knoll and take 90' right turn to a false flat that led into another 90' right turn down a 20 meter hill into a fast hard left hand 180' on a little bmx off camber bump. Once the racers got thru the 180, the course then climbed back up the hill, carrying a little momentum, it climbed for maybe 75 meters into a 90' right hand turn. Racers then traversed across the hill gradually descending into a 90' right that took you thru a little chicane that bombed into a fast but soft right hander that led into a 180' hard left hand turn. Carrying speed thru this turn got you up a quick incline for another 90' right turn which led to an off camber 20 meter section into a soft left hander. From here, the racer wanted to maintain momentum around another pine tree right hand turn and bomb down into a little mtb section thru a stand of pine trees that had you going left and down the hill for 75 meters into a hard and fast 180' left that took you back up the hill to the first barrier and to 'hooligan's' hill. The barrier was set up in a place just past the base of the hill that had guys loosing all speed before actually getting to the barrier. For me, the section was always very awkward. I always seemed to be running in 'quick-sand' here, but never actually losing time to the guys behind me. Once the racers were over the barriers, you had another 20 meters before a 180' right hand turn that bombed back down the same hill into a frigging fast 180' left that led you into another pine tree stand up a hill and around a tree, taking a right and flying out of the pine trees, heading down towards the 2nd half of the course. Out of the pines, you were into a power section flying into a couple of fast technical turns on grass heading towards a steep but short 5 meter pitch to a short 20 meters of pavement and then back on the grass down into a bmx type 'dipty-doo' right hander back up and out of a ravine and on to the pavement for another 20 meters into another power section with a series of fast 90' power turns. Thru these turns the racer was met with a decision making seemingly innocent soft, but off camber right hand turn. A racer had 2 options at this right hander. He could set the right hand turn up by staying far left and low which allowed the racer to maintain a high speed into an off camber quick 2 meter incline where the turn was actually at, or the racer could stay way to the inside leading into the turn essentially taking a short cut. The racer had to scrub some speed and travel thru a questionable off-camber rutted out line into the turn. I took the latter line every time thru for all 7 laps. Had no problems whatsoever until the decisive bell lap. Once thru this turn the racer was basically entering the latter 3rd of the 1.5 mile lap. This section was fairly strait foward and simple but was also a real power section that had the second set of barriers and then another 400 meters of grass before the racers entered the finshing 300 meters of pavement to the start/finish line.

With a most of my warm-up done on the course, and a few leg opening sprints and a coiple of hard efforts, I felt i was ready to go. Racers began lining up for the Master's 40+ category about 9:45. Sunday's turnout was much lower than Saturday's races. Unfortunately some of the missing faces were teammates and 'fast guys' Steve Songer and Andy Lucas. they could only race Saturday and had to get back home. This actually left the door open for me and a couple of other guys to battle out for the win. Another regular master racer and 'fast guy' Mark Studnicki wpould race later in the day with the Elites'. I felt like the race would come down to me, friend and deisel engine Dan Hansen and Nebraska resident Randall Crist. He would be vying for a Nebarska State Championship as well. So me and 11 or 12 other guys were ready to go. With roll call at the line finished......

The race official blew the whistle....we were off. I made no effort to get to the front in the long stretch of pavement leading to the grass. I just wanted that 2nd or 3rd wheel and to stay out of wind and use as little energy as possible before we got to the grass and started the climbing. With my extra few lbs this racing season.....i could use all the extra energy when the terrain starts to turn upwards. 2 teammates of mine, Dean Parker and Bill Anderson, were battling it our and coming from there 2nd row start to jockey for front wheel position before the pavement turned to grass. This threw me for a loop, cuz I had never seen these 2 race so aggressive at the start of a race. They were drag racing the last 100 meters of pavement. I had to really catch myself to not go with them. I needed to be patient and race my race. things would settle in and down once got into the grass and the technical stuff. At least that is what i kept telling myself. Climbing up the initial pitch and into the first turn, we were going 3 wide. This was totally unexpected for me, i was used to this in a cat 3 race with 30+ guys duking it out but not a masters race. Oh well......lets' race. Into the 2nd turn i went from 5th or 6th wheel to 3rd by cutting a couple of guys off. Dont remember who, but sorry. I would be the fastest once we got to the high speed turns and it was to my advantage to get in front a.s.a.p. Not to get a gap and go on my own, but so my pace wasnt slowed and dictated by a slower rider in front of me. I knew noone in this group that i was racing against would be as aggressive and as fast thru this technical part of the course after the first bit of climbing. I needed to get to the front. Somewhere in the next couple of turns i got past 1 more racer and was now 2nd wheel. Heading down towrds the 1st pine tree stand i was still 2nd wheel. I accelerated to get past Randall and get to the trees first. I just barely got by him and into the trees first probably forcing him to break check a little entering the 90' left thru the trees. Oh well, we were racing...right??? Down the hill and into a fast 180' and back up towards 'hooligan's hill' to the first barrier. I ran the bike up about halfway and was back on my bike first as Randall was running along side of me rounding a tree into a right hand turn that took us down a bombing hard left hand 180'. Getting on my bike and clipped in before Randall allowed me to maintain my front position and allowed me to just absolutely rail the fast 180' 2 truns later i looked back to see a 8-10 bike length gap. As I got thru the bmx dipsy-doo and into the power section on the back side of the course, I looked back to see my gap expand to an advantage of 3 or turns ahead of a group of 4 racers. I hadnt necessarily planned on going it alone, but I committed to and I was out of the saddle and pounding it now. Fuck It! I was going for it.....

The next 2 or 3 laps were uneventful. My lead, depending on where I and my chasers were on the course was any where from 3 to 15 seconds over the course of the next few laps. Randall finally shed the 2 or 3 guys that were initially with him on the 1st lap. So for laps 2-6, He was just breathing down my neck. He would climb faster than me, so would close the gap to just a couple of seconds on the early part of the course only to have me get all that time back on the technical fast grass turns. It was a constant yo-yo. Every time I would start the grass climb I would question my intelligence(or lack there of) in my decision to try the solo effort. Every I would come thru the start/finish line and look back, my gap on my chaser always seemed to be about the same.....until the start of the last lap. Randall had just gotten in contact with me on the previous lap on the last little uphill dig in the grass, and would have stayed there had I not nailed a couple of turns and gotted an few seconds back on him. But, thru the start finish area on the start of the bell lap, Randall was charging. Midway thru the pavement section I sat up a little to try and recover for his inevitable attack on the grass climb. I knew it...he knew it. I needed to respond and stay as close as possible to him so I could in turn attack him on section of the course that played to my strenths. Hmmmm....if only I had something left. I actually wasnt that blown, but he was going really good, and once we hit the initial climb....he just kind of danced on the peddles and immediately got a 4 or 5 bike length gap on me. I just couldnt close any ground, even on the technical turns. I was so redlined that I couldnt really rail the turns.....it was all i could do to keep my head up and keep pedalling. I was 3 or 4 seconds back entering the bmx 'dipty-doo' when i saw Randall slide out a little and lose some serious momentum. I was up and out of the saddle in response. He had given me and opening to get back in the race and i couldnt let it slip away from me. Within the next 3 turns i was bck on his wheel. Coming out of a 90' left I sprinted to get to that damn '2-line' choice off-camber turn that I had talked about earlier. I felt like if I could beat him to the turn I could take my high line and force him to take the slower low line or have to scrub some speed to allow me thru 1st. Good thought, and poor execution....I totally over-cooked the high line and the off-camber line shot me towards a tree on the left of the tape and i was instantly bouncing off a tree and tangled in the course tape. All I could think about was getting out of Randall's way and not take him out as well. Fortunately, Randall floated by me and my overaggressive moveand was down the road. That was the race.....45 minutes of racing came down to a questionable overaggressive move on my part. Oh well........ it was fun as hell. I didnt take a competitor out and I made the effort to win the race at least. I went for it. In hindsight, I probably should have attacked him at the last set barriers. Live and learn, race and learn. It was a blast, I finished 2nd and am not too disappointed. Teammates Dean, Doug, Keith, and Bill all raced hard and Keith and Dean even lined up 2 races later to race the singlespeeds....they are Hardasses!

A lot of people may think I am crazy to drive 6 hours round trip to race my bike for an hour or so, but it is what I do. It is what I love. Landis got to cruise around with me and chase some squirrels while I cooled down after my race. He got to swim in some nasty pond water and just basically be a happy dog running around. I got to race my bike with and against some friends. I got to push myself beyond my supposed limits, and I won forty dollars for my effort. That covered my gas money, but that doesnt matter. I would have done it knowing I wasnt gonna win any money. Man, I just love racing my 'cx' bike. I just love racing and riding my bike with my friends.

So its monday. My legs are tired and sore. I have got a big smile on my face typing this. No race for a couple of weeks.....I think I will put my little girl in the stroller and grab the dogs and go for a run............

See yah!

Kansas Cyclocross Championships

2009-11-16T20:33:00.004-06:00

Kansas Cyclocross Championships were held at St. Mary's University in Leavenworth, KS yesterday. A solid night of rain softened the turf before race day, and a steady drizzle and a field of 40 plus racers starting the morning off turned the course into an epic 'slick as snot' day of cyclocross for the remaining races thruout the day on Sunday.

My race, the Master's 'A' 35+ went off at 11am with the 45+ and 55+ categories. Upwards of 27 in my class and another 30 plus lined up behind in the older aged categories. The temps steadily dropped thru out the morning. by race tine for us it was low 40's and later in the day the temps had dropped into the 30's. The first race at 10 am had 30 plus racers, which led to a 'softening' up of the course. With a steady drizzle the course got slicker and slicker.

Great layout for Sundays' course. Hats off to Chris Locke and friends for all the hard work. I think the course was great and the weather made the day perfect to race 'cx' bikes.

I generally believe i have an advantage going into a race like yesterdays. The layout of the course and the nasty conditions of it make for what i think is a highly technical day of racing. I consider that perfect ingredients for me to beat some of the guys who i feel like are my rivals or guys who are similar ability to me.

However, picking myself off the ground a half a dozen times will not lead to a great result. That is exactly what happened yesterday. Legs were fine, but mentally i was not prepared. I overraced my bike yesterday, raced way too aggressive, i got in a hurry trying to play catch up after my initial wipeout and got careless under the conditions and paid the price. You cant do those things to be competitve in a cx race in our area anymore and count on a good result. The KC area and our region has gotten so competitve the last couple of years. So many guys have caught the 'cross bug' and are really going fast. It is friggin awesome. 2 years ago, weather like Sundays' would have chased a lot of racers away in our area, and we would have been lucky to have half as many racers line up for a race like that. So hats off to everybody who welcomed the 'epic' cx conditions and who really came out to experience a great course and a great day of racing.

Off my box and back to my reflections of my own day of racing..........I also made a bad decision in equipment choices as well. I chose the wrong tires and went with the wrong wheels. This is frustrating because I thought i learned my lesson after racing in last years Boss Cross #2 and #3 races. If you were there...You know these races were absolute mudfests. I made the same mistake last year with these 2 races yet still I chose the wrong tires that i have at my disposal. This was just one of many mental and physical mistakes i made yesterday. Bottom line, I was horrible yesterday. my result could have actually been a lot worse if my legs didnt feel good. Fortunately, the guys behind me suffered some of the same problems keeping the rubber on the ground as I did. So by the end of the 40+ minutes of slipsliding and slopping around in the mud, grass, brick and asphalt I tried to outsprint 360 teammate Joel Hammontree, only to come up a half a wheel short. It was a disappointing 10th place with 27 guys towing the start line for my race. I Got beat by a bunch of fast guys though, so no shame there.

On top of all of my supposed mistakes and slopping around and picking myself up out of the mud....I still had an absolute blast racing my bikes(s) yesterday. Great course, great conditions and above all else....great competition. I love racing against guys and competing against guys who I like and respect. Going against teammates or guys I opposing teams, I really revel in competing against friends and rivals in our area who love 'cx' as much as I do. And there are a lot of guys who love cx as much as me now.

For some good race reports....check out these blogs....http://bike-o-latte.blogspot.com/ and http://onthebikeagain.blogspot.com

hope to see a lot of KC cxers in Lincoln next weekend...

see yah!

pics from saturday nites cross race at the Heartland Speedway in Topeka

2009-11-10T22:10:00.007-06:00

Post race trying to keep Brynn busy

Heather got some good pics with the little camera last saturday nite. We also discovered that Brynn doesnt like to share the salsa when we are out eating 'mexican'.....so our waitress brought her very own bowl. Spoiled even by others!

With the sun going down, thats' me hopping back on the bike after the stairs exiting the dirt oval.

Racers lining up before the start of the Master's 'A' 40+ race. I am front row on the our left hand side.

Brynn having way too much fun on the bleachers at Heartland Park. More fun than watching a bunch of weirdos in spandex anyway.....although she did see the racers running the stairs, which had her screaming 'weeeeeeeee'. We were cheap entertainment for her.

Heartland Raceway Grand Prix Results

2009-11-10T20:22:00.003-06:00

here is a link to the Heartland Grand Prix results from last Saturday nite....http://www.sunflowergames.com/........dont understand why they are hidden or only posted here.....for now.....

later........

Heartland Raceway Grand Prix under the lights.....

2009-11-09T18:21:00.003-06:00

So the race schedule for this weekend was just to race Saturday in Topeka at the Heartland Park Raceway. Last years race was its' first ever at this site, which was again promoted by SlimenUndGrassen racer and Topeka resident, Jeff Unruh. Last year's race to me, turned out to be the coolest venue behind Lincoln, NE Pioneers Park. Racing under the lights adds' another 'cool' factor as well. I won the Cat 3 race at the Raceway venue last year, so i was looking forward to Saturday evening. I had decided i wasnt going to racing Sunday morning, instead i would save the vacation hours and go to work instead. So i could race Saturday without worrying about how i would feel the next morning.

As excited as I was to race, I was somewhat apprehensive as well. The last 2 weekends of racing have been less than pleasing with really the last 4 races producing less than approving results in my mind. I have gone in to the last few weekends feeling fatigued more than normal and really having what i would call 'dead' legs, or no snap so to speak. So with some training adjustments over the last week thinks to friend and coach Mark Thomas, i felt a little livelier coming into this past weekends' race.

The race track at the Heartland venue is 'fast fast,.....Fast!' Jeff is able to utilize the 1/4mile dirt race track and the surrounding land around it. This allows the ability to string together some long and fast flat sections tide together with some technical 180's and high speed 90' turns in the infield, with the remainder of the race course looping around the 1/4mile track and the adjacent concession area. Just a cool spectator friendly venue with a centralized gathering area for beerdrinking and bbq eating family and friends for Jeff and the rest of his volenteers to use.

My recent upgrade has meant no more cat 3 races...officially. However, i have been racing the faster Masters' category races the last 4 weeks anyway, so no big deal. It is just more of a humbling experience, since I go from being the guy that others afe looking to to set the pace to being the guy just hanging on for dear life and battling for a top 5 when all of the 'regular' fast masters' show up. On Saturday nite, most of them did. Mark Studnicki, Andy Lucas, Steve Songer, Scott Fleming and promoter Jeff lined up. Minus a couple of other 'fast guys', it was still a good field with a total of 18 guys lined up for the Master's 'A' 40+ race. With the soundd of the official's whistle, 'fast-startin' Andy Lucas had the hole shot with Songer, Studnicki and me following from the pavement start to the first grass chicanes and onto the initial 'dirt track' section. Studnicki proceeded to takie over the pacesetting once on the track at up to 30mph with the other 3 of us in tow. Mark and his blistering pace had already created a gap for the front four of us, but i was already in danger of losing the wheel of Lucas. I had to kill myself to keep the 3 of them close. However, I was able to reattach to them once entering the 'infield' section of the oval where all the technical 180's and high speed turns. From the infiel portion we transitioned back onto the dirt to do another down and back on the other side of the track's straightaway. This led us into and 'off-camber' 180 uphill to a stairwell taking us down and out of the oval onto another grass section of 180's and hot turns. This is where i was able to keep the front 3 close again. I began to notice that Andy was getting gapped by Mark and Steve as well. The race course proceed to bomb down a grass hill and to the fence line of the speedway property and turn right to slog thru a thick grass section that was slightly uphill that pitched up at the end of this 500 meter section, from there once you climbed the chort little pitch up transitioned back on to pavement a few yards and took a hard left onto the grass to do a 90' right hand sweeper down and around a tree into a hard and fast left. Another 100 meters and the racers were back on the pavement headding towrds the 2nd dismount up a set of stairs and onto the bike heading slightly uphill and off camber into a right-hand 180 off-camber down hill into a 180 left hander that transition onto the pavement in the middle of the turn for the last 50-75 meters to the finish line. We did the 1.5 mile loop 8 times. by he end of the first lap it was me and Lucas together trailing the front 2(Songer and Studnicki) by maybe 5 seconds.

Once Andy and I got back onto the first section on the dirt, i pulled to the front to see if we could close the growing gap that was between us and the front 2. Andy didnt seem on top of his game and I felt pretty good. I found myself having to calm my excitement so as not to get careless. There were plenty of loose corners to lay it down in if I got careless or impatient. Not another 30 seconds later it was Andy on my wheel laying it down in a loose right hand turn. I looked back and figured he would recover pretty quickly and get back up to me....I even contemplated slowing a hair only to see a charging Jeff Unruh closing in on Lucas. So I did the next best thing, I stomp on the pedals and got out of the saddle and charged ahead. I immediately saw dividends in my big effort as the gap began to increase. So for the next 3 laps i was putting a gap and maintaining it on teammate Andy and Slimen racer Jeff. Starting late on lap 4 and early into lap 5 Andy had disengaged from Jeff and was closing in on me. I officially lost all my advantage when i 'brain-farted' and laid the bike down in a loose 180' turn on the dirt track. So much for a clean race, and before we entered the infield Andy was on my wheel. I didnt realize it at the time, but Andy told me later he 'killed' himself to get up to me. In hindsight, that made me feel really good. At the time, I wasnt thinking that way. I had to calm myself and ride smooth to conserve what i had left in the hopes of answering Andy's eventual attack to get away from me. Stupid me, I let him recover and sit on my wheel for almost 2 full laps. At the time I figured he was vying for the overall points lead and I had raced in a different category the previous races. So i really didnt figure myself into the overall equation. I was just thinking about Andy as a teammate. Late in the next to last lap I figured where Andy would probably make his move. On the slow grinding grass climb leading up to the concession area was where i figured Andy had the advantage. I knew it and he knew it. It was gonna take something special to stay in contact with him there. I actually was still pulling Andy leading into that section. Midway to the steep pitch he pulled in front. He didnt blaze by me, just kind of set a little higher tempo and maintained it to the top to the pavement. From there i was already 4 or 5 bike lengths back. Into the 2nd set of stairs the lead was maybe 3 or 4 seconds. Man, that doesnt sound like much, but in 'cross'....that is a definate gap. I didnt have an answer thru the finish area and the ringing for the bell lap didnt motivate any snap in my legs whatsoever. Damn.......i think i mentally gave it to him there. I didnt sit up......but I didnt dig deep either. My best race in over a month and I get that 'satisfied' feeling before i cross the finish line......THAT REALLY PISSES ME OFF! Going into the last part of the bell lap, I thought maybe Andy had started soft pedaling, so I gassed it only to finish a couple of seconds back crossing the line. Wish I had given that kind of effort at the start of the last lap to maybe get onto his wheel to put some pressure on him. Oh well......

It turned out to be a good race. I finished 4th. well ahead of a couple of guys who had been putting down some 'ass-whuppin' on me the previous couple of weeks. Payback is good. I think the tweek in the training paid off as well. I hope to continue to get or feel stronger over the next couple of weeks. The State Championships are next Sunday and I am looking forward to my first clean and uneventful cross race of the year. Cross the fingers.

360racing had a good nite with Steve taking 2nd, Andy in 3rd with me just behind in 4th. Dean Parker was 2nd in the highly competitive 50+ race and Doug Long in 4th and mtb'er Lyle Reidy racing as well. Fellow 360 teammate Shad Shreiner finished 2nd in the elite race to 'wunderkid' Joe Schmalz . Congrats to Localcyling.com racer Mark Studnicki on his 1st place effort in our 40+ race. The guy needs some competition........

Friend and teammate Ted Moore made an appearence as well. Whith the selling of his 'geared' bike, Ted lined up for the singlespeed race. He finished 2nd to teammate Steve Songer, which was his first podium of the year....Nice Racin' Ted!

till next time.....see yah!

pitchy climb makes for tuff cx race.

2009-11-01T13:21:00.002-06:00

Saturday's 3rd race in the Boss Cross series was located in the Northland of Kansas City. The venue was again the Platteville Ridge Park used for the 3rd year in a row. With the venue and the course designer, Jeremy Haynes, I knew what to expect. Hard if not brutal test of mental toughness was the theme for the day. I knew the course would not really suit my skill, because of the cousre being on the side of a pretty good hill. This race has always had a couple of tough grinding hills thrown into the race loop. This however, instead of the longer grinders thrown in, Jeremy decided to change it up and throw in 3 short but very steep ride/run ups. Actually 2 of the 3 were ridable thruout the 40+ minutes of racing. The 3rd little pitchy hill was ridable in warmup, but thru the course of the race and the pounding and grinding of the race, it was better and even faster for the legs to run it rather than ride it. It was just steep enough to be faster to run vs. ride it. I felt it also saved a what little power i had in my legs as well.

Regardless, I still felt less than 100%, hell not even 75% truthfully. Last 3 weeks i feel like i have been playing catch-up on recovery and going into each race feeling almost like a baseball pitcher with a 'dead arm'. I have got dead legs. which is confusing, cuz my midweek simulated race efforts have felt pretty good. So until a couple of conversations with some friends, I could not figure out the problem. In retrospect, i had been trying to do recovery rides on the rollers instead of getting outside. Until today, I didnt think that should be a prolem. With the cooler temps and not wanting to subject little girl to a cold trailer ride, the roller rides have been much harder efforts than my recovery rides outside because i was so focused on my heartrate. Big mistake. So with an adjustment in expectations and less focus on HR and more on perceived effort I think I can come into the next few weekends races a little fresher.

So round #3 saw some fast guys line up for the Master's A 35+ race, but not a real large field. Big hitter from the 1/2's race, Mark Studnicki lined up as well as teammate and fast guy David Hedjuk and Doug Plumer. I was gonna be hard pressed to hold onto their wheels but was willing to make the big effort early in the hopes of seperating myself from guys who might be marking me. I was Overall leader going into the 3rd race of the series and none of the before mentioned guys had even lined up in the previous masters races in this series. So regardless of how i finished as long as i finished, i would maintain my overall lead due to some missing faces for saturday's race from the overall points standings.

With rollcall completed, the race official blew her whistle and we were off. Mark Stunicki took the hole shot into the grass after a long asphalt start section, followed by David Hedjuk, me in 3rd whell with Doug plumer breathing down my neck. Teammate Matt Dutcher was on doug's wheel. The front 5 of us immediately gapped the rest of the 35+ field in the grass and began to extend our lead thru the first set of technical 180' s right after the beginning asphalt section. A technical downhill offcamber muddy grass section led us into a sloggy grass trench section about 30 meters long before we took a 90 degree left up the first steep ride/run-up. This little pitchy climb was ridden by all 5 of us. For me i realized it was steep and wet enough that the traction was questionable so i ran this section the last 7 laps of the race, which was the faster technique anyway. From the top of this little pitch the course took another 90 degree left into another 120 degree right hander leading into a technical bumpy rocky 30 meters that was gradualing climbing up a hill that the course was set on. The course then took a 90 degree left down a the hill 5 meters and then a right hand turn back up the slope and onto a false flat running along a bumpy section into a fast downhill that led into a high speed soft 90 degree left turn that you took as fast as you wanted. This high speed rail turn shot you back up and onto a paved road and up a hill about 50 meters and into the grass for a little 20 meter soft soiled uphill climb that just sapped all momentum. From here you took a left and picked up some speed along a section that ran along the side of the slope where the course was at the highest point on the hill. Racers proceeded to bomb into a looping high speed left hander which left you going back the opposite direction and another 75 meters to a right hand 90 back onto the pavement and past the wheel pit. You then would bomb down and back onto the grass for 30 meters and back onto to the pavement and down a hill until you took a fast hard left onto a off- camber grass entrance thru a big dip, down a hill into another slow slogging grass drainage ditch into the 3rd short but steep little pitch. Racers then took a slow 90 degree left which led you into another 180 and back up a small false flat and another left led you into a double barrier set up which had racera dismounting with hardly any momentum at all. Mounting back on your bike and grinding your way to a right hand turn and back on the asphalt for the last section of the racecourse was a downhill bomb into a fast paved 90 degree turn, heading downhill again picking up speed into a fast paved looping 180 and back up the hill towards the start/finish line thru the parking lot was the end of a short but extremely difficult 1.1 mile Cross' course.

I lost Plumers' wheel and began to try to settle into that mode when you are trying to decide how much pain you can take while getting your 2nd wind after a blistering start. Matt Dutcher and I rode the first 3 laps together with Matt mostly sitting on my wheel. Matt decided to take a turn on the front and set the pace, but his pace was just a little bit faster than i could maintain. Like i described before with my lack of snap or dead heavy legs, I was just in that deisel type grind mode. Matt was going good so he left me to struggle on my own. For the next 2 laps i kept a consistent gap behind matt of 6-10 seconds hoping he would gas out or make a mistake, but he never did. He even seemed to get stronger the last 2-3 laps and increased the gap between us to atleast 45 seconds to a minute by the time i hit the finish line after 8 laps. So the 360 racers took 2nd with David Hedjuk, Matt took 4th and i took 5th. The last 3 laps had me battling wtih a couple of fast 45+ racers who were duking it out for 3rd and 4th. I was aable to follow their wheels for a time and stay motivated and not allow any 35+ racers to sneek up on me. I had to mentally work hard not to shut it down both physically and mentally, knowing i want feeling and going like i wanted for that mornings' race. Plus, being the leader of the 35+ A's in the overall points was a motivator too.

I just raced and immediately took off after so i wasnt able to see who showed up and raced the 1/2's race or even the cat 3's race. So I dont have any other race results.

I hope to have some pics posted in a day or too and hopefully i can get my training tightened up so i am flying for the Kansas State Cx Champs in a couple of weekends.

Get out and ride......See Yah!

Time to pay the piper!

2009-10-29T17:42:00.002-05:00

This message goes out to dunsmuir and others concerned about my Cx racing category.....just received my upgrade from a 3 to a 2 this morning...........Jesus, what the F@#K have i done??

Racing Calamity From Smithville

2009-10-27T21:08:00.002-05:00

So here are some great pics from Kristine Larsen(Mark Studicki's better half and rumored 'sugar momma'). She told me she wasn't Trying to get my faceplant>>>sure kristine. she didnt get the blood running down the other side of my face unfortunately.

Have a laugh on my part and if you missed it, my race recap from above race is a couple of blogs ago.

Racing Calamity From Smithville

2009-10-27T21:07:00.000-05:00

'Cross' footnotes and rankings

2009-10-27T17:27:00.014-05:00

Cool Pics courtesy of Lyle Reynolds. I borrowed them from his Flicker account.

Thanks Lyle!

I also want to thank Jeff Winkler for putting together some rankings of racers in our area or those who have raced cx in our area. He even seperated everyone into the category that the individuals are racing in.. Cool stuff, if you are in into comparing yourself with your competition, contemporaries and seeing how far back you are of the really really fast guys....ie. winkler, schmalz, wallace, tilford, smith......the really really fast SOB's.

Here is the website> http://sites.google.com/site/kccrossrankings/home

If you race cx, road or on the mountainbike in the midwest region from nebraska to arkansas, then you have probably seen the name Jeff Winkler. What has most likely been the case is, you have seen him go by you as he is starting his 4th lap and you are still on your 3rd. Regardless, wether you are a seasoned cyclist or relatively new to the sport, you need to check out his blog. I dont have the full story on jeff. I have only heard stories. Suffice it to say, he has raced at a high level for a long time. He has raced all over the world against the fastest in the world.(i.e. think Europe and the top pros). I find his blog and his race replays insiteful and incredibly interesting. I am a geek, but it is cool to see what a guy at his level is thinking during and even after a race........like i said, i am a geek.

Check Jeff's blog out here>http://onthebikeagain.blogspot.com/

that's my 1 cent worth.

see yah!

What can go wrong, will..........

2009-10-25T16:40:00.004-05:00

This weeks race is located up north of downtown KC about 20 miles in Smlithville, MO. The race course is located in a cove near a marina so you can count on it pretty much always being windy. thank god its cross and not a road race. The course designed by the 'cowtown' gang had a little bit of =everything. It was a mixture of technical turns, some decision making on run/ride-up steep sections and a long sandy beach section that was meant to be a long run. However the rain packed the sand down and made it ridable. the steep bank forced most off their bike at the exit of the beach to hurdle back onto the course, this of course had your heart rate pegged only to have the course turn uphill and forcing most to grind their way back up to another technical sections of turns and high speed sweepers. It was a great layout and should have been ideal for me....but that is in theory. So i will tell u ow my race unfolded.....

Wow, i was so pumped to race today. I was not expecting to self-destruct in the process of though. So i lined up with maybe 18 or so other guys for the Masters 'A' 35+ race up in Smithville, MO. Some missing faces, but still a strong group today. Doug Plumer decided to race with us today instead of with the 1/2's. Family obligations rule over cx desires. A good warm-up under my belt and my legs feel so-so. I very rarely have any idea before the race unless i feel absolutely horrible.

11 a.m. rolls around and the official blows her wistle. Mark Studnicki fro Localcycling.com leads us into the first turn, followed by Joe Houston of Slimenundgrossen Racing, me and Doug Plumer. A good start..........Doug goes by me and Joe on the first paved section(about 500 meters into the course) and i work around joe at the first set of barriers coming off that same paved section. so a half lap in and the race starts to settle itself out. 2 1/2 laps in and teammate Steve Songer from the 45+ group is now on me rear and eventually goes by me on the early lap pavement.. i can now see my gap over 4th place Joe Houston growing a little. and behind him and working their way to me are teammates Larry Smith and Jeff Unruh from the Slimen team. Jeff is in the 45+ race and Larry is in my race. If that guy would learn to get a better start he would have been racing with Plumer for second. 3 laps in and now larry and jeff are getting by me late in lap 3. next 2 laps has me holding a constant gap back from Larry of about 10 seconds and about 5 from Jeff. Joe is about 15 back of me.......until lap 4 at the double barriers i proceed to mentally check out and catch the second barrier with my right shoe. this had to have been comical for anybody watching. In a split second i amface planting then picking my lenses from my sunglasses off the ground with the frames still attached to my face. I am in a daze, my helmat is on sidways, i am stuffing lenses down my skinsuit so i dont lose them and at the same time trying to remount my bike.....only praying it is still functional. I even vaguely remember Jeff Unruh yelling out at me to see if i was ok. I think he had a really horrified look on his face like i had my face ripped off or something. For how violent me collision with the ground was, i was back up to spped fairly quickly. It was just a few seconds later on a flat section that i was trying to stuff my lenseless sunglass frames into my skinsuit as well. I dont want to just chuck them.......they me not be broken.

Well, unfortunately the comedy of errors was not over with. Joe saw the tail end of my wipe out and was now super motivated to catch my sorry ass. he was charging and actually overtook me briefly coming out of the long sandy beach section. He actually tried to ride it and i ran it. So there went his brief split section advantage. The ensuing climb up towards the picnic area saw me increase my lead on him by 3 or 4 seconds....not huge but important to know that he is gonna have to pull something out of his ass to beat me cuz of the little climb late in the lap.

However...i decided i would make it easy for joe. On a ride/run-up that some guys were riding and most were running, i made a huge boneheaded decision. I had run it once and ridden 3 or 4 times up to this point. I was closing on a lapped rider and made the dicision to ride it and ended up taking my eye off my line cuz i damn near ran up this guys back side. Shame on me. A huge tactical move on my part....as i am picking myself up off the dirt, joe ride up as i am hopping back on my bike. The last little bit of technical 180's before you get back on the start/finnish straitaway, i get sloppy and ride into the course tape, which then of course get snared in my rear cassette and rear derailler. As i am looking down at the pink tape mess in my rear drivetrain, i make the decision that a coule of gears will be good enough and i blow right by the wheel pit as the officials are ringing the bell for 'last lap'. Of all of the dumb ass move i had made up until then, sthis was by far the worst. i only had the two easiest gears on my rear cassette with all off the tangled tape in it. If i trade out for my 'B' bike in the pit, i can probalbly give Joe a run for 4th place, instead i grind my drivetrain into submission and watch Houston slowly drift away from me unable to even get up to speed. Super frustrating and disappointing. I totally brain locked. I can handle physical mistakes like the barrier goof, but the mentall mistakes that i made later in the race are just inexcusable. I put too much work into my technical skills, the cornering and barrier work.....to just lose focus and panic cuz someone is close to ou and breathing down your neck.....I really Pisses me off!.....oh well, there is always next weeks race.

Mark Studnicki won the race going away, with Plumer taking 2nd, larry smith was 3rd, Joe 4th and i was 5th. Steve songer won the 45+ race with Jeff Unruh finishing 2nd to him. I was told by some confidential sources that here are some spectacular pictures of my great wipouts...so stay tuned. I will post them as soon as they are available. till next time,

see yah!

Wanna Be Photographer.....

2009-10-24T15:18:00.005-05:00

These pics were taken by friend and fellow cx geek, Joe Houston during the Boss Cross #2 race in Parkville, MO.

Joe wasnt racing cuz of an injury sustained on the previous day of racing......something about landing on his 'vagina' wrong or something.

Anyway......Thanks for the pics joe!

Pic 1) Joe taking a pic of me exiting the ridable sand pit late in the race. It was really starting to hurt here.

Pic 2) The actual start of the Master's 'A' 35+ race. Day 2 of the Boss Cross series. I was 3rd wheel here entering turn 1, on my way to a 2nd place finish.

Pic 3) Joe really liked this shot.

Pic 4) This spot was a great for fans to cheer/heckle the least favorite racer. Short but steep little ride/run-up.

Pic 5) Joe just got tired or lazy and quit moving around for new shoot locations.

Some Pics of the Lil' One.....enjoy!

2009-10-24T14:52:00.002-05:00

Some pictures of Brynn ranging from early summer of 09' around her 1 year birthday to this fall. She is quite the character .

She loves her 'cozy car'. Sometime early summer 09'.

The B-day girl and Heather at the Fire Station on June 4, 2009.

Brynn's year old pics. 2nd time we have had professional pics taken. She didnt fall on her head this time around.

Late spring at the petting zoo in Olathe, KS. I was sure she was gonna pick up some kind of farm animal disease.

Life updates with pictures

2009-10-23T20:11:00.007-05:00

Well.....it's been a long time. we will call this a fresh start. A month into cx season......the lil' one is doing great at almost 17 months old. Beautiful wife, heather and i are getting along great as well.

<>Brynn in the backpack. The family here is in Portland, OR at a weekend farmers' market.

I will be posting a bunch of pics over the next few days...instead of words, i will use the pics to show whats' been going on the last few months since my last blogging efforts.

Like i referred to before....Cross season is a few weeks old. 6 races down and 10 or so more to go. Won't be heading to Bend, OR for Cx Nats in december, so i will be racing as much as possible here in Kansas City and surrounding area to get my cx and racing fix. 4 podiums in the first 4 races of the year. Opening race of the KC area was held at Swope Park in conjunction with a mtb festival and a Grand Opening of the new Swope trail system in the inner KC area. I won the Cat 3 race with 19 racers toeing the start line. A week later saw the cx junkies in Lenexa, Ks. 34 racers started the Cat 3 race. A good start had me 2nd wheel in the before the first technical section of the course. That perfect position was wasted with a dropped chain before the first lap was done. next 2 laps had me working from 'DFL' to 5th place, but 1st and 2nd were already well up the road from me and 2 other racers. t took me midway thru the 3rd lap to leave that train and try to get to 2nd place on my own. Overtook the Colivita racer in 2nd with 2 laps to go. 1st place was about 30 seconds up the road. I may have closed to within 20 at the finish. 2nd place after giving everyone a head start isnt bad, but it would have been nice to make the winner at least work for it a little harder. would have been nice to mix it up with him.....oh well.

<>Brynn with Heather and I at her year 1 B-Day Party. She's naked for the impending cake monster and mess.

The first weekend in October were

races 3 and 4 were a were a round 1 and 2 Saturday/Sunday affair which saw racing in north KC along the Kansas River in Parkville, MO for the Boss Cross series. I lined up and finished 2nd on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday i had a dropped chain 500 meters into the damn race. worked my way up thru traffic a couple of laps later and joined 2nd, 3rd and 4th. left them a little bit later and finished 2nd. Sunday was actually the first clean race of the year for me, but i didnt have the legs to challenge the eventual winner Brendan Jenks.(he hadn't raced the day before...thats my excuse)

<> this is Brynn flying thru the air, courtesy of her father. Dont worry....she is landing on a bed full of pillows.....doesnt matter how hard she is crying or how cranky, i can alwasy get her to smile and say "WEEEEEEEEE" with this trick.

Races 5 and 6 were this past weekend. Saturday saw us visiting the state capital for the 2nd annual Capital CX Cup. I again lined up for the Masters race. Only the SERIES60 races seperate master in 40-50-and 60+ instead of 35-45-55+. amazing the different dynamic with age difference and a larger field. Lining up for Saturdays' race had 5 or more cat 2's...definately making this an 'A' race. A slow power course with no technical aspect to it proved my undoing....on top of bad legs. i finished 6th with 19 starters. THe 5 guys who finished ahead of me....4 are category 2 racers and no slouches.

Sunday saw the cx racers visiting the site of the 2007 U.S. Cyclocross Nationals in KC, Kansas. O felt a little better than previous days' race, but the course was not ideal for me......aagain, it was a fairly sublime non technical setup. Like Saturdays field, it was a solid group of guys lining up to race the Masters 40+ with 24 or 25 starters. i battled thruout the 40+ minutes, exchanged and lockedd horns for 4th thru 8th at various times. Ended up 7th at the end though. Like i said earlier....The masters' "A" class in in our region is plenty fast enough and a level faster than the Cat 3 racing.

<>My beautiful girls visited me at work at the fire station on Brynns' Birthday. Heather baked cake for the 'kid' and the my crewmates, but really we all just wanted to see Brynn make a 'mess' with it....she did.

life isn't fair!!

2008-11-12T12:02:00.004-06:00

No racing, no reports of racing......it all jst doesn't seem very important right now......Its been a tough few days. Myself and 100 or so other firefighters are trying to make sense of losing a friend, coworker and most of all, a brother. There are of course countless friends and family reeling from losing someone near and dear to them as well.

I recieved a horrible phone call this past saturday evening. A friend and firefighter called to tell me that Craig had past away earlier in the day. This came from out of nowhere. Craig was a 30 year old strong athletic guy who was seemingly in great health. Other than rehabbing from a shoulder surgery over the last few months, there was nothing to make one think that craig wasn't going to live a long and healthy life.

I met craig in the late summer of 1999. we both wee enrolled in JCCC emt program. although 8 years older, we were both beginning new lives working towards becoming firefighters. Finishing EMT class we then were both enrolled in the firefighter I and II class the next semester. Hanging out with the same group of fireman to be friends I got to know a little bit about Craig. TO keep it short....Craig was one of those guys that people seemed to be drawn to. Just a super person with endless amounts of potential. Low and behold, a couple of months later we found ourselves going for and competing for the same job openings. Instead of becoming rivals, we began to workout a little together. Hell, we even carpooled to a couple of those job interviews. One being where we have both worked the last 8 some odd years. We were both hired and attended the same recruit academy together. Actually we were assigned to the same shift as well. A couple of years on the job i was reassigned to the very station Craig had been first assigned to. We were now crewmates. After a couple of years together Craig was reaasigned to another station. He had spent a year completing and going thru JCCC's paramedic program. I think people on the department were blown away by how and how easily craig had rolled thru the paramedic stuff. I wasn't. I had been around craig long enough to know how hard he worked..How much it meant to him to become a firefighter and how much he had dedicated to become a paramedic as well. Craig was laid back on the surface, but once you got to know him, you realised how important the job was to him. He was a extremly smart and motivated individual. I truly admired the qualities in him. he pushed me, just being around him those couple of early years we spent working towards our ultimate goal of being firefighters. I am just sorry it took something like this to appreciate that about Craig. He was a friend and brother, and i am truly devastated by his passing. I am not alone in those feelings, which i am not sure if this comforts me or makes me all the more sad. To see so many people hurting....that breaks my heart.

Below is a email i wrote to my fellow firefighters.....i thought i might share it.

Cycling isn't the end all, but it is an outlet to deal with lifes' curveballs.....

From: Josh Taylor Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7:19 PMTo: FiremedSubject: saying goodbye....

Accidententally sent this out before I completed it……then 2nd time around I only sent it to my self…….i am not fully functioning on all cylinders.

Brothers and sisters,

Not completely sure why I am writing this or really even what to say. I guess I felt compelled to say something. Writing seemed easier than verbally conveying my feelings I guess. I don’t think I would be able to put more than a couple of sentences together before I lost it anyway.

Like many of you I’m sure, I have gone thru a wide range of emotions over the last few days. From the initial phone call from jimmy on Saturday evening, I’ve tried to make sense of it. The initial response to Jimmy’s words were of course, disbelief. No way was something like this possible. It just seemed like a horrible joke or a bad dream. Once jimmy and I hung up on each other, I had this need to share this horrible news with somebody. I had to call somebody that I felt should know, or would want to know. After a couple of brief phone calls, I received a call from someone else repeating to me the same message I had already received and had been relaying to others. Jesus! It hit me. I had to hang up, because I didn’t want to start balling on the phone. I went upstairs to my wife and hugged her and tried to tell her that a friend and brother had died today. God that was hard. Because now I wanted to know why, and how?

I mean, don’t we all. I know in the end it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how we leave this world. At least not to the one’s that are left behind. All that matters is that person is gone. Now I find myself trying to not be angry. Angry that a life was cut short. I also am finding myself fighting back the waves of sadness. I am sad that our friend won’t get to live the life that he was making with his beautiful girlfriend.

I think most of all, I am just plain heartbroken for the people our friend has left behind. From family to friends, there are a bunch of people broken up and struggling with a big loss in the lives. A sister, mother, aunts and uncles, friends, bestfriends and most of all…………………………………………………………..craig’s girlfriend Janine. I am at loss as to how someone in her shoes begins to pick up the pieces. My heart breaks for her. Just thinking of the days and weeks she has ahead of her makes me want to cry. That about sums up to whole deal. My heart is broken for her and for the guys and girls here in Lawrence, who some how have to continue to pull their boots up and go to work. There are a lot of heavy hearts here at the Larwence Fire Department, and that makes me incredibly sad. Never could I have imagined showing up to work here and finding it difficult to say ‘hello, how ya doin’ to guys and girls I have worked with for almost eight years. That is exactly how it has been today. Briefly saying hello but not talking too long, because I am afraid I will break down in front them. Hell, just riding M4 with Armenta has been tough. we get to talking about him and I have to stop and look away to fight back tears. I thought initially that with so many of feeling the same or similar loss, it would be easier here at work today. It has been just the opposite though. Everywhere I turn, I see someone else who is hurting……………………man.

So I’ll say this. To all of those hurting, to all of those with heavy or broken hearts, to my brothers and sisters………………….what do you say? What can you say? I’ll miss Craig too, I will truly miss him………..

Goodbye Craig Yeager, my brother……………………Godspeed

Josh Taylor

Preview of host park for 2008 USA Cyclocross Championship

2008-11-02T19:37:00.005-06:00

pics courtesy of Heather Taylor

Boss Cross #1 was held at Tiffany Springs Park in the nothland in Kansas City, MO. this is actually the site of this years Cyclocross national championships. taking the place of last years host, Wyandotte County park. i had actually checked the venue out a couple of weeks ago on the way home from the airport. lets just say my initial view of the park didn't leave me jumpimng for joy. not for any other reason other than i was dreading the course cuz i didn't think it was a course that would lend to my strengths(strength). the park, as far as i could figure, where the cx course would be set up.......looked like it was going to have a serious amount of climbing invloved. ugggh! not something that i am going to get real excited about. of well, i thought........maybe i am at the wrong part of the park???? i don't think so.....

so saturday morning rolls around. i leave work right at 7 am. actually got a good nite sleep. no late nite calls, and my legs didn't seem to have the same soreness as thursday and friday. i was really worried, cuz my wednesday interval workout really seemed to shred my legs and i didnt seem to be bouncing back like i should. some reaffirmation from mark thomas on the telephone friday evening told me everything was as it should be. my legs will still feel tired or sore on friday, but by saturday they should be good to go. so i would have thought i would have been a little more amped for saturday's race......

i think, at the time, my 'vagina' was just a little swollen. i had to go home and load up the car with bikes and gear for me and also for heather and the little one as well. a couple of relatives were staying with us as well and were coming out to watch me race so i had to pack refreshments for them so they wouldn't be to miserable watching a grown man act like a child. in hindsite, i think it was just a lot of this stuff that seemed to be taking some of my motivation to race. because that was it, i was really questioning or doubting wether i wanted to race on saturday or not. i knew i would have regretted not racing later that day. the weather was going to be perfect, and i knew i would be mentally ready to go once i was out there and warming up.

i also know.....with the addition to my family, i am goimg to have to deal with packing the car for both my child and me. really i am going to have to take the load off my wife just to keep her having fun and allowing me to continue to race by her taking care of brynn for the hour and a half i am on my bike while warming up and racing. having my cousin Audi at KU now adds a viable babysitter option when heather is unable to come out to the races due to her job.

so, with Heather, Brynn and my two cousins' Katie and Audi packed in the car, we were off to the cx race. once at the the park, we immediately pulled in while the masters race was going on. seeing my 360 teammates dominating the field really did nothing to raise my excitement level to race. the damn course seemed to be on the side of something that you would see in a picture of the 'Scottish friggin Highlands'. alright...... i am being a little melodramatic, but i was really having to force myself to 'get up' for this race. I needed some metallica or something to get me going.......

got dressed and got on the course and was able to get in a couple of practice loops before the start of the 4's race. i then proceeded to finish my warm-up on the road. opened the legs up with some 30 second and some 1 minute max efforts. legs really didn't feel that great. not bad, but not that good, either. knowing how competitive the 3' races have been this fall......i really felt like i was going to have a hard time getting into the top 8-10, hell i really didnt think i would be contending with the front group to be quite honest.

so i had somehow started to analyze how the start would be......i felt like i didnt need to make my same normal push for the 'holeshot'. i consistently put myself in the first 3 wheels at justy about every cx race. i truly feel that noone in our area that races in the 3/4's around here, starts as well and consistently as me. a may not be the fastest or the most fit, but i am consistent. consistent from week to week and at the starts. however, on saturday i began to realise that i needed to back it off a notch and not get into that 'redline' before the course starts to turn uphill. saturdays course had by far the longest starting pavement section that i have ever raced on. but once off the pavement and on to the grass, it was going to be an uphill grind for the next 3 or 4 minutes. this is where the selection would take place and i would need to be sitting in and conserving some energy before it did turn uphill.

so my strategy was set. thats the only thing i visualize or preplan, is the start of a cx race. the rest of the race is 'easy', it is just 'drilling it' and 'suffering' for as long as possible. hopefully you dont blow up and the guys near or around you dont last as long as you. every now and then you have a race that you actually get to work with and sit in with a competitor. getting to manage and control your effort thru the course of the 45-60 minutes of racing, however this is not usually the case.

with the 3/4's lined up and waiting for pre-race instructions....i had forgot about my 'swollen vagina' and my lack of motivation. i was 'ready to go', ready to get the race started. friggin' officials drive me nuts!

finally, the whistle sounded. just because i set a plan or strategy or visulize how i want the start to go......that doesn't mean it works out that way. however, saturdays start went darn near like i felt it needed to. there were a few 'pretenders' jockeying for the front at the start, the usual suspects were up near the front as well. by the time we neared the grass i had made very little effort and was about 8th wheel when the 3/4's entered the grass. we made our first hard 90 degree right and i realized i was racing. i began to realize that i needed to really pay attention to the wheels next to me and the the couple of guys up in front of me.......cuz they were already letting gaps form thru the first couple of technical high speed turns and were sure to take me down if one of them would lay it down. so as the course turned uphill i began to pass a couple of the 'pretenders' and work my way up to the next wheel. if i didnt like or respect that wheel i wouldn't stay thare for long. by the time the race turned down hill, i found myself about 6th or 7th wheel. i had passed 4 or 5 guys during the climb up and had a couple of guys pass me in the process. this is normal during the first lap or so of cx. its just the 'selection' process. as the course began to head sideways and east, a front group of 6 or 7 of us had formed. once we were to the stair section, the front group turned into 2 with 4 chasing and me in 'no mans' land. this is how it went as we hit the pavement. it was here at this point on the pavement that i made my first 'good' decision of the race. i didnt chase the group of 4 in front of me. i was maybe 20-25 meters back of them, but i felt i didnt need to waste the energy so early to get to them. i had cost myself a few seconds on that first lap in some of the 'high-speed' technical turns by riding to close behind inferior bike handlers and i had to scrub my speed. if there wern't 4 or 5 guys to pass at the time and had it been just 1 or 2, i would have made the effort to pass them thru those early turns. the reason for my decision was i felt like i would catch back on, they wern't going anywhere. i would eventually be faster than most of those guys in front of me thru the dow hill section of the course and would eventually pick them off. over the next couple of laps, the seletion process or the thinning out of the racers played out. a couple of guys would wreck, have a mechanical or just plain 'pop'. by the end of lap 3, i found myself next to garrick valverde of mesa cycles and chasing one of the epic guys. they look the same from behind. actually, both guys had passed me during the 2nd lap and gone up the road. the epic racer was actually with the front group of 3. briton kusiak of KCOI and alex edwards of mesa cycles had attacked mid first lap and got a gap of maybe 4-5 seconds on the next 4or 5 of us. the epic guy was with them briefly, i just assumed he couldn't match the pace. anyway, garrick had passed me on lap 2 and went up the road with maybe a 4-5 second gap on me. i once again didnt panic and rode my pace. i felt it was early. so by lap 3 i could see garrick was coming back to me and so was the epic guy. at some point during lap 2 one of the early leaders, jon giles of cycle city, wrecked out or burned out. i believe he blew his 'wad' by getting the 'holeshot' and going for the STUPID first lap prim. do you rally need a prim lap in cx??? when is it ever not 'balls to the wall' in cx??? so, one guy in front of me was now in my rear-view. i guess there were 2 epic racers in front of me early as well, cuz matt rolled a tire and had to pit. i noticed him bridging up to me as i was closing in on his teammate jason on lap 3 or 4. by lap 5 of 7, the battle of attrition had set in. alex and briton were battling for the win and me, and epic teammates matt and jason were together and racing behind them. by the 6th lap i realized we had actually closed down the gap of the 2 leaders. in hindsite, i wished the 3 of us behind the 2 leaders would have worked together. i think they were in reach. maybe only 20 to 25 seconds up on us. from lap 5 to 6 i think we took a big chunk out of the lead they had on us. oh well!.........we were racing for 3rd and i was realizing the fact that these 2 with me were taking turns on me. jason took a couple of digs on me with matt in between. i went around and stuck on jason's wheel only to have him attack a 3rd time. i wasnt able to respond and jason had a 10 meter gap before i had recovered enough to stop the bleeding. at the start of lap 6(2 laps to go) i soft pedaled on the pavement a took a hard dig once we hit the grass with the intent to shake matt off my wheel and not let both epic guys beat me. matt barely hung on. i took another dig when the course went uphill and made matt struggle to get back on. i figured if i could open a gap on the uphill, i could recover going downhill and still maintain the gap cuz i felt i was faster thru the technical turns coming up. i took maybe a 4 or 5 bike length gap going into the stairs and added a couple of more to it thru the 180's before the pavement. i dont know if i actually 'lit' it up on the pavement, but a did take another hard dig thru the start finish and by the time i got to the grass i had maybe a 6 second lead on matt. i really tried to hit it again on the uphill section of the course and not take any chances thru the turns. once i hit the downhill i felt matt breathing on me, but i had actually maintained if not added to the lead. i really tried to lite it up going downhill without taking any risks in the turns. i tried to remind myself that my 'conservative' was faster than his 'railing' it thru those turns. even with overcooking a hard 90 degree turn i was maintaining my gap on matt. i recovered and was able to talk myself thru the last few turns before the stairs. 2 180's before the pavement and some nervous energy and i got on top of as big a gear as possible before the pavement in case matt was charging. i think matt was cooked though, cuz he sat up realizing he wasnt gonna get me. the mechanical in the middle of the race had really put him behind the 8 ball. 'hats off' to him and great finish with having to go into the pit for a wheel change. i finished 4th and took the last 'payout' place for 20 bucks. i was about 10 seconds back from 3rd place jason knight of epic cycles who was in turn maybe 20-25 back of 1st and 2nd.

i actually feel better about my result on saturday than i do winning the Heartland Park CX race a month ago. the couple of pounds i lost over the last 2 weeks must have helped my climbing. hahaha!

a good result can show all the hard work and preparation for a racer is paying off. in my case, it has actually relieved some stress of wether i have made the right training decisions over the last couple of months as well and show me that i am on the right track for december 11th and 13th. actually want to thank (or owe)mark thomas for really coaching me and helping me to continually improve over the last couple years. thanks mark!!

U.S. Nationals is just 6 weeks away..........

'hats off' to cycle city and jeremy haynes for a super course and a great preview for next months 'nats'. we had a great turn out and some great racing in all categories. thanks joe fox and jeremy and all the others reponsible for Boss Cross 1.

see ya next race.

Round 4 of DeStad & day 2 @ Smithville Lake

2008-10-28T00:14:00.002-05:00

So i couldn't help myself. 11 o'clock saturday nite heading for bed and i cant take it anymore........i decide at that moment i am throwin' my original plan to the wind. seeing 30+ guys in saturday's cat 3 race, watching the 360 guys and everyone else duke it out was too much. the choice of racing against 9 or 10 in the masters race or against 30+ guys in the 3's race.......well, thats easy for me. at least right now anyway. I actually felt like i could double up and still do both races. however, that thought was before i finished racing 45 minutes in the first race on sunday.

Saturday evenings recovery from a hard day of racing and chasing andy and steve consisted of a barbeque dinner at Oklahoma Joe's with friend and bike geek Dan Hansen. a perfect source of protein to help torn up muscles recover. I then proceeded home to bath dogs and bike, but not in that order. actually the epson salt bath i took before i went to bed really seemed to help, cuz i woke up feeling great. i seemed to havd no ill effects from the previous days race. the saturday/sunday racing is new to me this year. i did the back to back race days 4 times last year. but those really seemed to take a toll on me come early and mid-december once state and the nationals' races came around. i have really tried to limit my racing as much as posssible eiht the hope that it will pay dividends later and i will be able to peak better for nationals this december.

i was actually amped up to get going sunday morning and left the house about 45 minutes earlier than originally planned. this allowed me to take my time and get an early breakfast with the hopes of not racing with a full belly. once on the bike and warming up though, i really felt the effects of the previous days racing not soreness, but more fatigue is the description i would use. oh well.....most everyone else would be dealing with the dame issue.

like i previously stated in last blog, the cat 3 races in our area seem to get more nad more competitve with each year and each race. this season especially. cat 1 roadies sandbaggin' and cherry pickin' by not racing on saturday and 18 year old legs of a guy who didnt race the day before too are gonna be tough to beat. i dont mean that to be an excuse. it just a plain fact. young graham aldridge is a stud and steadily, hell drastically improving with every race. wether its on a road, mtb or a cross' bike, the kid can absolutely kill it. the other guys......well......i'll just keep my foot out of my mouth and shut up.

i got a call up cuz of pre-registration. this put me on the front row with the field size a rider or 2 shy of 30 racers staartinng in the cat 3 field. it was brian, ted, jason, joel and myself representing the 360 colors. so with the quick roll call, the wistle was blown and we were off. i didnt really have to dig at all to get a good position going into the grass 'bottle-neck'. with ben stover from gp velotek, i was 2nd wheel and racing well under the red line thru the first 1/3rd of the course before we hit the pavement. ti was ben me and mark cole of cowtown putting our noses up front with teammate brian joining up front about halfway thru the 1st lap. really once we were thru the start/finish area starting our second lap, this is where mark cole got on the front and just stuck it. noone else did any work to speak of for the next 2 laps. mark was content and so was everyone else. it was halfway thru the 3rd lap when i realized the mistake we had mad in leting mark do all of the work. obviously after 3 laps of work and noone else bothering to help out, the pace is going to slow a hair. no matter how strong a guy is, that pace is going to slow just enough. as i turned to catch a view behind what i thought was a group of maybe 4 to 5 of us, what i actually saw or counted was 11 friggin sets of wheels. including mine. this was not good. and with a complaining cat 1 roadie behind me and working to the front, i knew something was coming. and it happened. slow motion almost as we were grinding up the little hill to the gravel section. i even barked out to brian to get on the guys wheel, but on that hill, nether one us were able to get on that train. it was the train to be on, i knew it before it even formed. only graham on his singlespeed and ben stover were able to match the OKC racer and once on the gravel, those 3 had enough snap to put 4 or 5 bike lengths before we got to the grass. joe fox was next with brian actually getting on his wheel a few seconds later. i had screwed myself. i was racing too conservative and had glued myself to mark cole's wheel. the guy had just done 95 percent of the work thru the first half of the race and just didnt have the snap to get on even joes wheel. i was lacking the quick acceleration but was really pinned in by mark and and another guy to my right cuz we were almost 3 across coming up to the gravel road. so w/ 3 up the road, joe and brian in the 1st chase group, it was me and mark trying to get to those two. mark really dug deep but joe was just so powerful on the paved andwindy sections, we weren't ever able to get to him. and i, hinestly was no help to mark in this endeavor. joe i going so good at this point that he eventually popped brain off with a lap and a half to go in the race. mark and i actually began to reel in both ben from the lead group and brian with the race official ringing the bell for the last lap of the race. this actually perked me up and mark as well. we did 7 laps in the race and the last 2 laps were much better for us than laps 4 and 5. brian was not able to stay on our wheel, but ben had shut it down early enough up the road and recovered enough to join mark and i. i've raced against this 18 year old on the road and i was not happy he was sticking to us. cuz the little 'f!@#&r' can sprint. i had already told mark that i wasnt going to sprint with him. he had done all the work the last 3 laps and i wasnt in the overall series points either. but ben being there changed things. i tried to communicate this to mark on the run up right before the sprint to the finnish. he didnt here though and didnt know we had a 3rd guy in our group. so i started to wind it up on the little downhill buefore the last pavement section, cuz i knew ben was coming. i hollered out to mark that he had to go!go!go!. he turned around just in time to see ben roaring by me and gaining on him. ben actually nipped mark at the line by no more that a 'butt hair' fo 5th. mark was 6th and i was 7th. brian finnished a couple of riders back and jason and ted were a few more back. joel had been sick the previous week and pulled out after a lap cuz that chest crap just didnt allow him to get enough air to race. cant push or rush those chest colds.

the masters races were hottly contested again, with 360 racing taking 1st and 2nd in the 45+ with steve followed by andy. david white raced the masters instead of with the 1/2's and finished 2nd behind scott dunsmuir of slimenundgrossen. david hejduk was 3rd and brendan jenks was 4th. jason gaikowski 'doubled' up for the 2nd day in a row and raced like an iron man. guy is already training for the DirtyKanza. now all he needs to do is get a map.

360racer of the weekend though is Cameron Chambers. a lap or 2 in to the pro1/2 race, cam began take time out of shadd smith early lead. cam had actually jumped out of the bill marshall/mark studnicki group to rell in shadd a lap or 2 later. he then spent the last 1/2 of the race consistently putting time into an 'under the weather' shadd smith. take nothing away from cam. awsome racing, cuz a 'off day' shadd is still faster than shit. great racing , cuz a healthy studnicki and guys like bill marshall,shadd schreiner and kyle bush were left way back in camerons' wake.

a fine, fun weekend of racing. however, i missed my wife and daughter because they were out of town visiting grandma. so the weekend would have been much more enjoyable had they been here to enjoy it with.

til next time.....

DeStad Series @ Smithville day #1

2008-10-27T16:33:00.004-05:00

360racing was highly visible this past weekend. from the cat 3, the master's 'A' to the cat pro,1/2/3 race.

these pics courtesy of Bruce Edwards from day 2 at the smithville cx festival.

The Smithville Cx festival this weekend were rounds 3 and 4 of the DeStad series put on by chris locke and the wheel bike shop.

after 3 days of rain and depressing weather(i.e. some call it fall), on saturday morning, the skies broke and the sun shone thru. all be it chillier temps than what we kc folks have raced in up till now in this young cx season.

for whatever reason, and they were many. i had decided i was going to challenge myself this weekend to racing in the Masters races. this means that i would be getting punished by my own teammates andy, steve and david and also by the fastest man in said category, scott dunsmuir. andy and steve have been trying to help david hedjuk out thru the first few races of the year. david has been battling w/ scott dunsmuir and jeff winkler. both of these guys have been flying and tough to beat. with david white and brendon jenks throwing their support in a couple of races, i felt like i needed to at least attempt to help in the 360 cause. i knew it would be tough, and really didn't think i could be of a whole lot of help except maybe in the first couple of laps. it was going to be a challenge for me to dig deep enough to stay on these guys' wheels. really noone has finished w/ dunsmuir, winkler, hejduk, lucas and songer all year. these guys have really seperated themselves to be the strongest masters' racers in our area. they are the standard, and i wanted to see where i stood.

so day one in smithville came and went. sunny and 50 by the first race of the morning on saturday and it was the cat 3's starting things off. 360 teammates, brad, brian, jason and ted got the ball rolling. brian was coming off a great previous weekend with a 3rd and a 2nd. he was a guy that was going to be in the mix. but, a early wreck, then a midrace mechanical and subsequent bike change had brian going backwards from the front 3 or 4 players to mid-pack. thats tough to overcome in a 3's race around here anymore. the competition just keeps getting better. when you've got pussy cat 1 and 2 roadies sandbagging and afraid to take their lumps with the 1/2's, well.......lets' just say it has been getting more competitve. however, these same roadies i speak of will dissappear when the temps start to fall and the weather turns to shit. i digress...... brad schrock continues to look more comfortable handling the pain of cx and jason and ted are improving and rounding into peak race shape each race weekend.

the pro/1/2 race had cameron and david white wearing the 360 colors. both seemed to get stronger the longer they were out on the course. david was chasing down a worn out bill marshall by the end of the hour of racing and cameron finished 3rd behind winner josh johnson of st. louis and local star shad smith.

the masters race on day 1 was as hard as i had expected. but, in hindsite, i had placed no expectations on me. other than challenging myself to staying on the front groups wheels, i dont think i had fully commited myself to endure the pain that would be needed to accomplish this task. therefore, i think i let myself off 'the hook' before the race had even begun. note to self in future......if u are going to challenge yourself, dont just give it lip service! really do it and pay the price to achieve it. this meant that on saturday, i needed to hurt just a few minutes longer and push just a little bit dipper to stay in contact with steve songer when he went around me to bridge up to dunsmuirs' attack towards the end of the 2nd lap. i didnt do this, and i was left to dangle in the wind and race by myself for the next 4 laps about 15 seconds behind andy. that gap increased to 30 by the end, which in hindsite, is not a bad day of racing. it just leaves me wanting more. more......more effort to dig deeper, more commitment before the start whistle goes off. so 360 finished 1 and 2 w/ songer and lucas in the 45+ race. i think there were 15-16 45+ starters. i finished 2nd behind dunsmuir in the 35+ race and 4th overall behind dunsmuir, songer and lucas respectfully. jason gaikowski raced this race which meant 2 races for saturday. he is definately the 'iron' man of the 360 team. actually matt dutcher raced twice on saturday as well. i think matt might be flying come the first mtb race next year.

360 teammates

2008-10-19T14:27:00.006-05:00

images courtesy of joe houston. pics are from sundays Boulevard Cup at the start of the masters race. Take note of the 360 charge. 6 or 7 360 guys up front putting everybody into the dreaded 'pain locker' from the opening seconds of the race.

i know i get caught up talking about myself too much here on this blog. so i would be remiss to not talk about my 360racing teammates and how well our team is built for cross'. i think most of us crossers on the team knew that this would happen. but our team has really had an imprressive showing thru the first few weeks of the very young cx season. with Andy Lucas and Steve Songer killing everybody in the masters' 45+ field. no one has come close to them in the first 3 races in our area. andy even has a couple of podium finishes in a 40+ masters field at the UCI weekend up in madison, wi at jonathon pages' races the last weekend of sepetember. steve and andy have traded wins the last 3 races. andy winning saturday at the capital cx and steve winning at the heartland nite race and today at the blvd cup. David Hejduk has had the tough task of going up against jeff winkler from the kccx team and scott dunsmuir in the masters' 35+ category the first 4 races of the year, finishing 2nd 3 races and 3rd in another. david white is still racing his way into shape. he had a tough summer with not a lot of training or racing due to a double hernia surgery. he has actually been taking his lumps by racing with the 1/2's for 60 minutes of hell. cameron chambers has started to show his strength again with a good showing of 4th place in the 1/2' race at the capital cup on saturday afternoon and another 4th place on sunday in a very strong 1/2 field again. brendan jenks has raced strong in both the masters and a couple 1/2's races as well. with brian williams finally feally healthy, he finished 2nd sunday and 3rd saturday afternoon in the 3's race both days. then there is doug plumer. he has raced at a super high level on the mtb bike and the road in the past. with a wife and daughters, he is probably lucky to ride a day a week at best. However, he has come out and raced the first few weekends this year and totally turns himself inside to get the 360 train going in our masters races. doug has never met a holeshot he couldn't take. our 'missing in action' teammate from the summer, tead moore, is taking the david white approach and racing his way to peak form for u.s. nationals. with a 'new' bike and a new found appreciation for racing and training, ted should be right on schedule come early december.

360 racing is well represented every weekend there is a cx race in the surrounding area. with guys like joel hammontree, jason gaikowski, mike palitto, and brad schrock toeing the start line from weekend to weekend, no other team in the kc region can stack up to 360racings' depth and quality of cyclocross racers . trust me, i hear our competitors talking about us every weekend. skc, kcoi, cycle city, and bike shack, its all good natured competition. but its cool seeing the other teams a little envious of all the 'fast guys' wearing the 360 kit. oh well, i guess they will just look forward to the 'road' season that much more, cuz we own them on the mountain bike as well!!:)

see you at smithville!

anyhow.......

2008-10-18T19:14:00.002-05:00

3rd race of year and 2nd round of the 60series cx was held in topeka, ks at the hummer sports park. supper nice park that has a high school district football stadium a softball park and lots of room to run a cool cx course. a little elevation change w/ some decent 180's and hard 90 degree turns thru some trees and around an old abandon insane asylum. its actually a cool course and a cool venue. thats why i chose to race on saturday vs sunday.(nothing against the blvd course in wyco park tommorrow) anyway....i may like the venue and the setup but that doesn't necassarily translate to good results. last years race in the 3/4 saw me catch a pedal with 3 turns to go to the finish line and i went from fighting out for a win to 6th place in a 3 second mistake.

today however was something different. no excuses, i just need to chalk it up to not my day and prepare for racing next weekend and 2 rounds of racing. teammate brian williams just prior to the race, asked how i felt. and honestly i told him not that great. legs were heavy and even tired. in hindsight, I think i overcooked it thru the week with the rollers and trainer and the longer rides midweek. i think i didnt listen to my body this week and maybe just over did it. i did some sprints warming up for this afternoon's race and i was filling the legs up and never even getting winded. the legs were really just not responding. i was a little worried, but hey, i pushed the worry to the back of the noggen and got ready to go. a good start saw me 3rd wheel into the grass behind chris wallace and richard hu. chris was quickly gone(must've been the high altitude training he had last week at the u.s. olympic training center in colorado springs) super talented chris was gone and i had figured right....the rest of us were racing for 2nd place. it ended up being mark cole, teammate brian and myself settling in to pretend we were chasing down the youngster. we were all three on the rivet, but i was suffering more. we quickly gapped the rest of the field in the 1st lap. the writing was on the wall for me as well. i kept hoping the the pace would slow a hair for just a couple of minutes for me to get a chance to get a 2nd wind or something, but mark never let that happen. chris tilford was present again on his single speed and was with the 3 of us for a couple of laps. he would yoyo with our little group thru technical areas but by lap 3 he was finally gapping us for good. about the same time he was doing that i was going the other was. on several occasions thru the first 3 laps i had to dig hard to get back on. i really made a mistake in letting my 2 race buddies dictate my race thru some of the stuff that i would have been much better of leading thru 1st. the technical sections i was having to slow because of brian or mark, i am faster thru those areas. but honestly, i didnt have the stregnth today to get to the front in those sections. so laps 4 and 5 i was just trying to continue to put as much power into the pedals as possible. that wasnt much. by lap 5 i noticed a challenger closing in on me. jason knight from team epic was charging, but i thought i had enough of a gap at the sound of the bell for the start of the last lap. the gap was 15-18 seconds but was surely closing. with the last 1/4 of lap left, jason rolled by me and there was nothing i could do. i had no answer whatsoever. stick a fork in me, cuz i was done.

so, 5th on the day was as good as i could do. i think 20 guys lined up and started the 3/4 race. not a real impressive field size, but still better than some other areas of the country that might be considered cycling hotbeds.

i do know that if it is going to rain hard the day before a race and the course is going to be soft. i want it to be soft and muddy and just plain sloppy. cuz then i would have an advantage on some of these 'roadies', but a normal fast course turned slow with a soft power sucking soil is really going to hurt me compared ot some other guys. that is where i have to address the whole weight issue and me being at least 5 if not 10 pounds too HEAVY!

oh well.......i will recover the next few days and make sure i am well rested going into next wekkends races up in smithville, mo. rounds 3 and 4 of the DeStad series on sat and sunday. this will be my first back to back saturday/sunday race weekend of cross racing. now its being patient thru the week cuz i am chomping at the bit to get back out and race after a dissappointing saturday afternoon of racing. the weather was absolutely perfect though. low 60's by 1:00 pm with no wind and nothin' but sunshine.

2nd cx race of year in the books.

2008-10-14T22:55:00.003-05:00

so, the 2nd cx race on the calendar here in the local kc area was put on in topeka, ks. actually the race was held at the Heartland Park Raceway. I am not a huge race car fan and had actually never been there before. when i heard a race was gonna be heldd there, i thought i could be a cool new venue. just the idea of making use of the dirt track they have out there seemed like a pretty new and cool place to put on a cross race. especially after my experience out in portland, oregon this summer with a short trak mtb race at a similar venue.

anyway......to those who missed or decided not to race or chose to do sundays race instead.......i have done the criss cross race 3 years in a row, and i will be honest. the people who missed saturday nights' affair and jeff unruh's race at heartland park, well let's just say you missed a great oppurtunity to race at kc's coolest and most unique venue. 1st off, the last 2 races were after sunset, on a very well lit course. which meant safe and non scetchy racing on top of a super fun and super and supa' fast course. thi was my first time racing after sunset, cuz i missed the Hermann race in september. i had heard from several guys who raced there and they all compalined about the lighting and the somewhat unsafeness of he course there. this however, was not the case this last saturday night for the 1st round of the Series60cx and the HPT Grand Prix. Kudos to Jeff Unruh and all who helped him put on a great race.

i wish i had some good pics of the course and the racing from saturday nights action, but heather was working and i never thought to bring the camera. i was pressed for time what with the little kid's feeding and bedtime schedule , it was show up to race, say a few hellos and get the hell on the road back home after my race was over. really din't even get to see any of the final race and the big guys duke it out.

setting goals is a common thing in athletics, and i for one spent the majority of my competitve years in golf from 12 to 24 years old having them. from junior and highschool years thru college and my oh so brief professional golf career. goals are what can help you achieve that next level in athletics or in anything a person is looking to achieve in life. i think cu i soent so many years having them and setting new ones and being so focused with the self-obsessed one track mind, i have avoided doing that with the bike. at least in not setting specific goals.....i just mainly stay focused on the whole idea of constantly improving. improving strength, endurance.........just training with the idea that wiht time constraints, i need to make every ride count. especially now, now that my time is even more limited with the amazing little girl added to my life. so i am focused on riding and racing and squeezing the most out of my limited genetic make-up. so much so that it literally to me a good 3 days to appreciate that i had a really good race on saturday night and also a pretty darn good one a couple of weeks ago at the lenexa diamond blackfan cx race.

my first thought across the finish line saturday night was.....the race officials cant calculate lap time.....cuz we race almost a good 10-15 minutes longer than we were suppose to(the last 20 minutes of the 55 minutes of racing hurt really Friggin Bad!!) and the second thought was to tell myself to not be satisfied, cuz i had one guy beat me and the field was somewhat smaller than the previous week with some missing familiar challengers to the cat 3 races. I guess it took a while for me to figure out a couple of things. at least for some things to sink in anyway. First, the guy who beat me is a genetic freak who races as a cat 1 on the road and the brother of a local cycling star who happens to be in the 'world mountain bike hall of fame'. Obviously compared to a lot of guys, kris tilford has a long and impressive racing resume here in our area. so no shame there, right josh?? i am a little dense and short sited sometimes(oh, by the way, chris was racing in the single speed category and not the 3's race). second thing that came late to was to.......accept that a win is a win, even in a 3/4 race, even if it not a 1/2/3 race an even if some of the main competition isn't racing that particular day(hopefully those guys, that i consider my competition, are a little relieved if i dont happen to be racing on another particular day). oh well...wishful thinking.

to the race recap......the start, again is to me the begining and end to having a chance to winning a cx race. at the very least, you may not be able to win a cx race with a good start, but you can certainly lose the race with a bad start. i felt this played out again in saturday evening's race. A short hundred meters of pavement at the start line took you to a soft angled left hander that curved back down a small noll back onto the pavement which set you up for a 90 degree turn that about 10-15 ft out of the apex took you on to packed but loose dirt. the 90 degree turn and the loose dirt both played a big part in the start of the race. this was 10 maybe 15 seconds into the race and already i was hearing squeeling brakes and metal on metal. I had already gotten the 'hole' shot now, once onto the dirt race car track heading north at about 29mph, i also had at least a 10-12 bike length gap on a single file group of about 8 to 10 guys. this gap seemed to increase once i got thru the loose dirt off-camber 180 that takes the racers into the infield of the race track. the infield is where all the medium speed 180's and 90 degree technical turns were at. again, riding solo and getting to pick my own line, i seemed to increase my lead some more. i had never been off the front solo of a road or cx race before. and it had been about 4 years since a couple of sport class mtb wins where i was flying solo off the front. this was new territory for me. in the past, i have always been chasing someone just a little bit faster, and every now and then maybe setting an early hard pace w/ the front group in a cx race. but always i was accompanied with at least a couple of competitors right behind or in front of me. saturday night, with an early lead, i found myself talking to myself a lot more. nervous that i would blow a big lead or blowup spectacularly by racing just a bit too hard too early. so i really raced what little technical sections there were pretty conservatively, knowing that most of my competitors would still be slower than me thru those sections. i focused on really hammering it on the straight-aways and really nailing the stair and the barrier sections. 40 minutes into the race, this really started to take a toll on my legs though. i spent 3 or 4 laps being slowly reeled in by kris tilford and also had an SKC and a GP rider that kept a constant distance back from me. but they popped first and drifted furthur back, but kris eventually overtook me w/ 3 laps to go(i think 3). It was with 4 or 5 laps to go that i noticed another rider that got my attention. Joe Fox from CycleCity was closing in on me. Joe made me really nervous. Joe is really strong when in shape and racing a lot and significantly more powerful on the straightaways than me in years past. if its road bike and time trials. he wouldve' caught me. but it wasnt....we were on cx bikes. and i think all of my AtThreshhold work the last month and a half was paying dividends. Because i kind of held joe in check the last couple of laps and was able to coast the last few hundred meters of the bell lap and cruise to my first cat 3 cx win in more than 2 years. no arms raised or celebration(i dont want anyone making fun of me celebrating too much over a cat3/4 win). just a relief that the pain was over and i could get out of the 'hurt locker'. man my legs were fried. the fast course and the abundance of power sections in cross course have not been my cup of tea in years past. i generally do better in more technical courses. so this course really forced me to 'dig deep'. so too did the guys who were chasing me and the guy in front of me.

its amazing how much the competion has increased here in our area the last 2 or 3 seasons. more and more guys are really putting in significant cx training and gearing up for cx season and the national championships that are held here again this year. just one more reason to take a little pride in winning a race.

2 more races this coming weekend. saturdays is back in topeka and sunday at Wyco park. the same park that held last years U.S. cyclocross championships, but with a different set-up. this weekend will be rounds 2 and 3 of the Series60cx races.

see ya this weekend or see ya back here for a recap.

month and a half.....

2008-10-01T23:02:00.004-05:00

top pic is my cousin audrey with brynn at de stadd cx race #1 and below is brynn looking extremely bored. obviously she wasnt impressed with the 4th place. she doesnt consider 4th and 5th to be true podium results.

man......

life can really interfere with a persons' best laid plans. its been a month and a half since last update. at that time i believe the thing most on my mind was cyclocross season being just around the corner. i tend to get a little OCD with my 'athletic and toy' endeavors. this can tend to strain even the best of relationships. my wife and i included.

thru some long and 'loud' discussions and some heated debates......some depression like feelings......even some deep thoughts of things considered to be important. well..............its been a long few weeks.

happy to say, those heated arguments....err....discussions , turned to talks(civil) and some things were made clear, and hell we even agreed on some things.

as the clouds began to lift and the sun poked thru in my life, i think i have begun to realize i can strike a balance between what keeps me happy and sane without making my wife feel less important than my bike.

i hope she knows that her and the kid are first and foremost and the bike and all of its trappings are the glue that is me......however......the bike, racing, well its third, maybe second depending on what kind of day i had at work.

i know i can keep the bikeracing and training OCD thing from being too obtrusive on the wife and our happiness together cuz she does accept the fact that it is a part of who i am.

anyway....1st cross race de stad series race #1 DiamondBlackfan is in the books.

new venue was used. the Sar-ko-par trails park in lenexa, ks was the locale for this last weekend cross race. lets just say it was a great opening event to the cx season. Chris Locke and company put on his best event yet. a great venue for racing and spectators alike. weather was perfect if not a few degrees too warm(85ish). the races later in the day really had tough and the heat played a factor as to the atrition invloved with the guys racing.

i decided to do the 3/4's race. actually didnt give any thought to doing anything else really. no desire to race for an hour with the 1/2/3's. but guys at registration were of course asking about it. still dont consider myself that caliber, dont even think i am midpack material with the big boys. but a teammate, brendan jenks raced 1/2/3 race and did ok, and i have beat him more than he has beat me in the past......so i dont know.....should i or not??? so i just suck it up or what?? oh well, we'll see.....

so 46 guys lined up for the 3/4's at 10:30. i was at the line about 10 minutes before the start which allowed me a front row spot. the start sets the tone in cx and can make your life tougher or easier depending on how that start goes. with the whistle, we were off. 4 season into racing cx, i am no longer paranoid enough to push for the 'hole shot', but i do battle for those first 4 or 5 wheels. depending on who is up front jockeying for position. sudays start was routine, noone got tangled up and i liked who jumped up to the front to push the opening minutes tempo. alex edwards, mike palitto, chris wallace, myself and graham aldridge were the initial front selection. at least those are the guys that i noticed around me. i am totally cluless to what is going on behind me. i just want to know who is near and in front of me. this was particularly important on this coures to the technical aspect of the set-up of the course. lots of switchbzcks and high-speed tech turns. even before the first hard left i knew i neede to get in front of alex and chris. no offense to these guys, they will kill me on the road, but in cx or the mountainbike, they are just going to slow me down thru turns like we were racing on. hell, i think chris laid his bike down 4 times in the first 3 laps, but hte kid kept his cool and eventually raced past everbody but the eventual winner, graham aldridge. 17 and rubber legs, chris finished very well later in the day in the 1/2/3/ race. he is a stud!! i rode a clean, almost flawless race until the last lap. frank jachovich had been stalking me and reeling in most of the second half of the race. when he did catch me with 2 to go, i didnt panic and just kept him close. again, i felt i would be aster in the technical turns. and there were plenty of those to male a move on him on the last lap. with 2 to go, it was graham, followed by a surging chris wallace about 15 seconds back, with frank and me another 15 or so back of chris. with the ringing of the bell for the last lap, i made a point to keep frank close. i really didnt want this guy to beat me, not on this kind of course. this was my kind of course, i should have an advantage over this 'roadie'(a friggin strong SOB). a hard highspeed worn down turn was my downfall. this turn was where i had on two different occasions early in the race, railed it to pass 2 guys at once. both times 2 guys were hanging on and going wide wile i just railed it and ripped by them. however, the last time thru , i got too aggressive and caught a loose patch. i was trying to close the gap on frank to setup the next turn and carry momentum thru it for the pass on the inside. well, the thoght was good but the execution was horrible. down i go, this laying down the bike cost me all of 5 seconds but it might as well have been an hour with jachovic being the guy i was chasing. now i was concerned about the 2 guys that were charging behind me. i opnened the door for them. now they thought i was catchable and they had hope. hope can make you faster on the last lap when someone is in site of the rider in front. i told myself to remain calm, that i was faster than those guys chasing me, faster thru the technical turns. disaster struck again at about the halfway oint in the lap. with a half a lap to go, i laid it down again. this time in loose gravel. i friggin know better. why am i pushing the envelope thru gravel??? friggin dumbass!!! now, my right shifter/brake lever is broke and for some reason i have only one gear. all i can do is hop back on my bike and 'Push the Panic Button" with the hopes that that will make me faster thru the last 1/2 mile of the course. i was stuck in my 16t gear in back. (i now know i dont have big enough balls to race singlespeed) it took all of a half a mile in my 39x16 to realize i will never 'want' to race singlespeed! i somehow held off a charging mark cole and brian williams by 10-15 seconds. its amazing how much adrenaline and panic can make you ride into that red zone for just a little bit longer. i spend 35 minutes racing a really clean race and with 2 miscues i am robbing parts off of my road bike hours later to get my cx bike up and running again. oh well, just money.....so sundays race netted me a 4th place result in a field size of 46. happy, but not satisfied is how i feel that.

its good to be racing cross' again, we got a long way to go before nationals.......now do i race for an hour with the big boys??

til next time.................

oh well........hopefully i wont wait as long to write.

brynn at 9 weeks

2008-08-14T16:24:00.002-05:00

finally took some time to post some pics of the baby girl. she is about 6 weeks older than the last time i posted a photo of her. i dragged heather and brynn along wiht my mom and her husband gary out for a 3 day weekend filled with bike racing. they were great sports indulging me. and brynn was as easygoing as could be.

i am a lucky guy!!

friday nite downtown kck crit 'strawberry hill'

2008-08-13T09:40:00.004-05:00

alright....a little race report and some commentary to go with it.
first things first: description of friday evenings course. 3 races on friday were the first day of the 100 version of the tour of kc(ok, not 100th but alot anyway). an approximate 1 mile loop covering 4 right hand turn. the start/finish was situated on top of a hill. rolling down from the start line takes you down said hill into a 90 degree turn and back up another hill into turn 2. now back to turn 1. at the race speed of 28 to 32mph in the cat 4 race, this became a somewhat sketchy corner depending on who was next to and in front you. suffice it to say it was safest up near the front if not leading the pack into that turn. it took until the second lap for me to realize i was going about 2-4 mph's faster than everyone else thru that corner during the race. no matter who was next to me, i was putting multiple bike length gaps on anybody near me thru that corner. turn 2 was at the top of a hill that could be taken at 4 or 5 bikes wide. this led the racers into a long straight away that covered 2 city blocks. this actually heads the racers back to the east and is generally a fast part of the course. however, on this nite, the wind was out of the east by north-east. thus making this a slow section of the race, cuz everyone was sitting up do to the grinding hill we just flew up and very few cat 4's ever make it to the front of a race.(gutsless asses!). turn 3 should have been a fast 90 degree, but with the head wind it was fairly tame. thru turn 3 we turned south and with the wind at our back, this is where things seemed to pick up. a few 'lazy wheel suckers' would poke their heads to the front trying to reposition themselves in the pack. this led us to turn 4, which was a fast but 'soft' cuving turn that takes us to the base of the 200 meter 9% grade finish hill. neither of the 2 hills on the course are difficult until you add race speed and 45-50 minutes of racing. this is enough to throw nails into your wellplanned out thoughts for a good sprint finish. i know a 1/3rd of the 4's field was spit out the back in the first 15-20 minutes. and the bigger sized cat 4 racers who generally mix it up in the flatter crits were not going to have a shot at winning this race. also mix in the fast technical downhill turn 1, and you had some guys white-knuckeled and just flat out afraid to lat it hang out on this course.
I realized early on that i was faster than anyone thru the first turn, but it took 20 minutes to figure out that i was working too hard on the 2 hills to stay near the front. i finally figured out that i could save some 'bullets' by soft pedaling up the start/finish hill, lose about 10-15 bike lengths and make it all up before i was even past the apex of turn 1. some cat 4 guys really need to practice taking corners at speed. not at 25 mph but at 35. jeez, its amazing, you would have thought some of these guys had never thrown their legs over a bike before. other than jockying for position and fighting to keep it, not much excitement happened. i kept upright, which i failed to do last year on this same course(got tangled up with a white knuckeled racer on turn 1 of the race's last lap). everyone else kept upright as well. no wrecks, unfriggin'believable!! Teammates Joel and Brian stayed near the front and out of trouble as well. With joel doing a lot of work at the front, chasing down a bunch of attacks and bridging up a few times when some guys let some wheels go. Brian and myself chased down a few as well. hoping to get lucky and maybe hop on tthat train that might just head out of town. Nothing stuck in the end though. i think maybe 35 to forty of the 60 starters were together on the start of the bell lap. Of course the past reallly wound up with tyler henson from loclacycling.com launching his much anticipated bell ringing attack. this was good, because it strung it out and kept things safer going into the last few turns single-file. but of course, wel all bunched up again between turns 3 and 4. with the pace quickening prior to turn 3, i began to look for my teammates. not being able to find them, i latched onto a good alternative and a great 'wheel-out' in mark cole. i figured if i could at least stay with him until the finish i would get a really good result. mark is new to crit racing but has shown a knck for sprinting on the 'tuesday- nite' crit series. he also has a ton of power. heading into the soft turn 4 i was still on mark's wheel, but a split second of hesitation and a look down i was immediately off marks whell and back 2 bike lengths. there goes my free ride. just before the base of the hill it was 'off to the races' . launching myself into the 'pain-cave' i finished a respectable if not somewhat dissapointing 8th.
close but no cigar! with a post race recovery drink of chocolate milk, it was back to the drawing board.

OverlandPark Grand Prix race report coming soon......

cross' is coming!

tour of kc weekend

2008-08-12T20:52:00.002-05:00

hey, real quick.....
check out the slideshow i have on the right of the blog. good pics taken by the wife from this weekends racing. 4 fields were ok. not as big as years past. 50-55 in the cat 4 field on friday nite in downtown kck. sprint finish on a 200 meter hill. kept the big guys from having a shot. i finished 8th. no racing for me on the hilly wet and muddy circuit race on the infamous cliff drive in kc missouri. came out to watch and the early races were all marred by wrecks and muddy and just yucky conditions. glad i didnt race. save my legs for sundays crit on the 8 corner flat fast overland park grand prix. with one guy up the road the last half of the race about 30 seconds, the cat 4 field was sprinting for 2nd place. just one question though. WHAT THE HELL WERE THE 8 SKC RACERS DOING NOT COMING TO THE FRONT TO HELP BRING THAT GUY BACK??
oh well. i finished a solid 7th. two top 10's on the weekend and won my entry money back.
i am now going to petition to be upgraded to a 3 on the road. i just dont think i am improving racing in the 4's. i dont race enough on the road in twelve months to garner enough upgrade points but i have accumulated enough top 10's in bigger sized fields the last couple years to upgrade that route. we will see.
i'll write a more extensive race report and post it in the next couple of days.

some good fun was had with the last road racing of the season for me...

time for CROSS'!!!!!

cross' just around the corner!

2008-08-05T22:11:00.002-05:00

you know how i can tell cross is just around the corner........?? cuz that is all i have thought about since the last cx race of last season. the shawnee grote prijs on january 7th of 08'........thats how! tour of kc this weekend. raced the tues nite crit for the first time in a month. sat in early. followed wheels in the middle of the race and worked up to the front the last 15 minutes of the race. again, i just followed wheels come bell lap and finished 10th in the pack sprint. 4 of the usual suspects were up the road. really consciously held back tonite and raced really conservative knowing i was just get ting the crit legs ready for this weekends racing.. should be a minmum of 80 racers on friday nites race in downtown kck and close to 100 for saturadys circuit and sundays crit. i love big fields! anyway....the above are some pics to get you in the mood for cx, courtesy of heather.

2008-07-26T00:16:00.001-05:00

more pics from portland international raceway and OBRA's monday nite mtb short track series. good dirt fun!!

more pics and check th website for results

2008-07-26T00:01:00.003-05:00

more pics from wife and check out this website.....http://www.portlandracing.com/results.html and july 21st. kc's very own 360 racing colors were being flown in portland, oregon. the announcer found it strange that some guy from olathe, ks had shown up to race in portland and kept mentioning the teams' and my name thru about all of my times thru the start/finnish hill. first announcer that some interloper was in their top ten and then from the 3rd lap on kept talking about the dirt on my team kit, the blood on my knee, and for some reason that i seemed to be going backwards thru the pro/expert field. hmm....go figure.

is portland........????? have i died and gone to heaven?

2008-07-25T23:20:00.003-05:00

so, the taylor clan spent 7 days in portland, oregon visiting heather's mom and step-dad. perfect excuse to take a bike with me and get some epic adventure riding in. perfect weather for the week, with mid 50's in the morning and maybe mid 70's by noon. jeez, is portland heaven?? no rain at all for the week either.
my only problem with the trip out their was 'what bike do i take?' road? did that last time in febuarary. cx bike? makes sense. some tame single trak and gravel mixed with some great pavemnt. but..............i cheked the state run race website. OBRA, and found a weekly run mtb short track race held on monday nites thru the summer. take the mountain bike ??
i started iliciting my cycling friends for their opinions as to what bike i should take. not a one said the mtb. 'take the cx bike', even when i told about the the weekly shot track racing. i thought about it, but it just did noy seem like it would be as much fun racing on that course with just a cx bike. hell, i do alot of riding on the road on the mntain bike when i amriding solo and putting in a base of training.
so i changed out my maxxis 2.1 crossmarks for some fast bontrager 1.85's. seemed like the perfect balance for the short trak race and a better tire to lo some base miles when on the road. i figured i might even scope out some urban singletrack or gravel. i decided i would not bother the in-laws for a car to use for my riding addiction. everything would be based out their garage.
needless to say, i wassuper psyched about the chance to race on the 03 & 04' u.s. cx nationals course at the portl international raceway. i have never raced in a mtb short track event. man i was pumped. the following pics are courtesy of the wife. and i'll post some more later.

but i am in the process of typing one fingered and feeding the little one.....and it about midnite and ive got to be up early to work at the firehouse...............................so, to be continued....portland is a cyclists dream, from the racing to the roads with bike lanes to the great weather and great scenery.

2008-06-30T13:45:00.002-05:00

couple of pics and an update. brynn is wonderful. heather and i are up a couple of times a nite to fead and change. thats when i am not working the next day at the fire staion, otherwise heather is taking a big bulk of the load.

no races the last couple of weekends, i bailed on the 360 teammates yesterday for the baldwin road race. feeling kind of yuky and run down and i was scheduled to work anyway. didnt want to burn time off work for a race that i didnt have down as an 'A' race and not feeling well either. so i went to work......go figure. it was a sunday and i got paid to take a couple of naps .....also ran a nasty car wreck on I-70....took us 50 minutes to cut a guy out of an overturned car. he literally had the car folded and smashed around him and almost had his feet pinched off by the crushed car around him..
tuesday nite crits have been fast and fun the last 2 weeks. finished 4th in the field sprint 3 weeks ago which was 8th on the nite. last week the average for the nite was 27+ for the 2nd week in a row. it was unusual again in that noone got up the road. not for lack of trying but everything just got chased down. so with the real 'big' boys not up the road, the last 3 laps were friggin crazy fast. i knew this was gonna happen so i just tried to hold on for dear life to some good wheels and hope to stay in contact until the final corner. i found myself just barely holding on to the front 12-15 guys on the bell lap. coming into the last corner it was all i could do to stay uprite and not pass out. first 5-6 guys were 20-30 meters up and i was dangling on to the next half dozen racers. the final sprint saw me pass about 3 guys before the line and noone coming around my wheel. i counted 11 wheels ahead of me at the line. so 12th was the result. not what my original goal was, but a good hard nite was in the books and i think a few recovery days were in order after the last 2 killer tuesday niters and 'tt' efforts on the previous 2 thursdays as well. 360 racing was again well represented. david hedjuk was 2nd on the nite and andy lucas was a couple of wheels ahead of me as well. cameron chambers was active all nite trying to get into breaks. plenty of other teammates doing a lot at the front setting tempo or chasing down breaks.

'Cross' is still the final goal, or i should say 'main' objective, so i have got a lot of training and work to do before september 28 th rolls around.

ive also got this kid thing to deal with......holy %#$^ i am a father!

more pics and thoughts about the new 'taylor'

2008-06-09T19:33:00.002-05:00

so.....day five of brynn madelyn taylor coming into this world has come and gone. the posted photos are of friends muggin' up for the camera with brynn. everyone seems to be quite amazed at heather and i. for heather, its the amazement of how well shee handled the pregnancy and the birth of her first child and how well she looks just a few days removed from delivery. myself is aa different story. i think its that same sense of amazement these same friends of mine had when heather agreed to move in with me, then said yes to my proposal of marriage and the final straw being the actual going thru with the wedding plans. 'what could heather be thinking?' or 'what is she doing with that guy?' and yes, the perverbial 'that shlub must have a really big c#$@, to be with a hottie like that!'

yes.......unfortunately these are just a few of my friends, cycling and non-cycling friends, along with heather posing with brynn as well. jeez, you get a baby and a camera, and everybody is a Friggin' model!

oh yeah..... on morning of day five, heather allowed me to head out to blue springs, mo for race #2 of the heartland mountain bike series. somehow, after all the rain we've had the trails at landahl park were dry enough to race on. with only a couple of hours of sleep due to it was my turn to feed and change brynns diapers the previous night, i managed to just miss out on a podium and a small cash purse. 6th place in the expert 30-39 class was all i could manage, which actually was better than my expectations at the starting line. i was about 2 and 1/2 minutes back of 5th place and some cash. still managed to put an ass whupping on some friends and rivals but still just 3 to 5 minutes back from the guys that i really would like to be 'racin' with. the studnickis and prices', guys like that.

oh well...........more pics and useless antcedotes to come.......did i spell that word right???

2008-06-05T17:50:00.002-05:00

hey all,
just wanted to post a couple of pics. i stated in a earlier email. to some cycling 'buddies' that the wife and baby are great! in fact 25 hrs after giving birth, heather was allowed to go home. she is a tough and beautiful lady! i am truly in awe of the strength and toughness it takes to give give birth. anyway...if anyone was worried about the progress of my training for the remainder of the road and mtb seasons and leading up to the 08' 'cross' season. its 6pm and a couple of hours after the family came home to the hospital. i am throwing the 360 team kiton and going out to ride for a couple of hours and get in some tt or Lt efforts.......if anybody was interested. again, the beautiful wife of mine didn't even flinch when i talked to her about my riding plans.

god, do i love that lady. and i am truly in love with my daughter Brynn Madeline

here is a couple of pics. heather will not be happy about me posting one of her and the baby, but they are both incredibly beautiful. andi dont know how the hell the picture of my mtb bike got in there?? oh well,

thanks for all the e-mails and here is to some dry weather and a margarita for heather!!

Bout' that time??

2008-06-04T04:26:00.003-05:00

4:30 am update.
contractions are about 7 minutes apart. last couple of hours they have gone from 10 minutes down to 7, so we or heather is getting close. i am packing up car with heathers bag preparing to head down to ku med here in a little bit.

jeezus krimany..........we are going to be parents! is that legal????????????

updates to appear randomly.

later!

ps.....i am squeeging inch or two of water out of my basement from early morning damn thunderstorm. F#@#!!!!

Request To Induce? Denied...

2008-05-28T16:49:00.002-05:00

So my wife and i were at the doctors' office on tuesday. she is starting the weekly visits cuz she is getting close to due date. doctor does the ol' insert finger into my wife's privates to check on dialation of cervix and whatever else all 6 figures of that student loan went for. The doc actually informs the 2 of us that heather is much closer than she would have thought. basically saying a natural birth was rather eminent if not expected at anytime.

So, me being myself. I say lets get it on, lets induce now. what the hell, right? the doctor had told us the previous time in that she would only induce if heather's cervix was favorable. those were actually her words. now she is telling us that from her examination of heather today, that her cervix is favorable. i was just thinking, the earlier in the week she delivers the kid, the more likely i will get to race on the weekend. Hey, i am just being pragmatic here. I dont really want to go race and be unreachable during a race if heather still hasn't delivered yet, you know. she already has like 10 different phone numbers to try and reach me if i am at work. i am still looking into getting the national guard emergency number and the governor's hotline number.

so the doctor looks at me as if i am 'half' joking with my request and i look at her as if i am 'half' serious. meanwhile, heather begins to explain to her my predicament with the whole racing my bike thing. That i would just as soon get the kid out now so i won't miss a race on the weekend. the doctor and the med student look at each other and slowly start to laugh. truly, i think they only laughed to hide the sympathy in their faces for my wife and the poor misfortune she had to marry somebody like me. heather found it thouroughly enjoyable to show how completely 'off the rocker' her husband is. she also got a big kick out of how the doc responded to my request and her explanation of that request. seeing the doc not know if i was serious or joking about inducing my wife due to bicycle racing concerns really really struck the wife as humorous.

Really though. this is how cool heather is. we were discussing some teammates racing out of town this next weekend and another race that was in town and that it was still a possibility that i could race in town. i figured that weekend would be a wash with no racing. seems only logical that i wouldn't, wether she delivers or not. jesus! i am not the F'-up.....or maybe i am......i don't know......so anyway...... my thought was, at best, i might be able to race on sunday june 8th if she delivered earlier that week.(due date is actually june 6th)(hey andy, how long did you wait to race after your old lady had your little girl??) i was thinking that if the delivery went smooth and everybody(wife and baby) was healthy and at home, i might have a shot to sneek away for a few hours to partake in a mountainbike race. heather actually informs me that it was still possible for me to race if she didn't deliver as well. mind you, i truly wasnt fishing for any gimmees here. i wasn't feeling her out to see if it was a possiblity or any thing. i had truly not planned on doing any racing for the next few weekends, and hell, i still may not. but just to see her even mention it, not even roll her eyes at it, and even bring up the possibility of it......well, she get's it!

hell, she somehow gets me and my F'd-up brain and how it works.

hmm......poor poor heather!
she is Friggin great, though!

man, I Love my wife!

p.s. to any of those folks who thought i might get slower on the cross' bike....well, bad news for you! i.e. ted, joe, andy

self-help....self psychology...step away from the ledge

2008-05-19T20:35:00.001-05:00

Well, it has been a while. no good reason i haven't updated, except for laziness, no racing and just life itself interfering.

A teammate and friend, Andy called today to tell me he had actually checked my blog today to see if i had posted anything about the race from this weekend. Obviously i hadn't, so he called to get after me about it and update it already . Problem was, i realized i hadn'tbeen inspired to write about anything specifically. Hmm...i need to figure out what i am going to 'talk' about on my blog. I don't want to bore anybody with the day to day b.s. of life. Hmm.... i realize, i am boring and on top of that. I am full of a lot of b.s. too.

After a trip to the dog park to give the two 'shits' some exercise and a swim(i call it a bath, heather doesn't like that), and some yard work maybe I'll figure out a topic other than just the race from the weekend.

Well a couple of hours later, here I am and no luck on what i should write about.
Actually, it was a great weekend period, wether you were racing or just outside hanging out with the family. 75-80 degrees on both saturday and sunday sunny and dry. Heartland Promotions hosted what was supose to be their 3rd race of their cross country mountain bike series. With the crazy spring wether up until a couple of weeks ago, it turned out to be race #1 of a now 3 race series(instead of original 4). Again the weather changed er..uh...ruined the series format. Promoters Scott and Craig decided 3 aces doesn't make a series, so each of the remaining races will stand alone. However, prize money is increased big time, which in turn created a good showing of fast guys gunnin' for some prize money.

So, the race on Sunday was held in St. Joseph, MO on a 6.5 mile course with 5.5 to 6 miles of it being singletrack. Actually it was really fun, really really fast dry stwisty tight singletrack. So for me and my race, it was the Expert category lined up for a mass start. The promoters sent of all of the Expert ages at the same time. We were racing for overall and age-group prize money. I am telling you, nobody pays out more prize money % per entry fee than scott and craig of Heartland Promotions. These guys really put on a good 1st class event. New course, never been raced on, and the races on sunday went off without a hitch. Money well spent by me, and i didn't win a dime, didn't win any free shwag or anything in the raffle drawings. i bet you 90% of the people who stayed for the raffle and podium stuff left there with something free, some kind of prize or goodie.

Props to Scott Capstack, Craig Stoeltzing and all of the Heartland Race Staff!

So anyway, with a warm-up lap and some discussion with andy about how the race would play out, i had my 'game-plan'. Which was.........Even with 'shitty' 'tired' legs, and 3 hours of sleep(i was putting water from an 1& 3/4 inch hose from a fire truck onto a basement fire at midnight and the morning of Sundays' race), i felt like with the technical aspect to the course and a 'good' start i could still get a good result and maybe win some prize money in my age-group. I realized even before i saw the course and before i pre-rode it that the start of the race was going to be just a 'balls to the wall' stereotypical 'mad-dash' cyclo-cross start. You could set yourself up for success or failure, even with an hour and a half of racing in just that 45 seconds it takes you to get to the singletrack once the gun goes off for the start. I went from a chance at 5 to 8th wheel into the woods to almost 30th in 4 seconds after the gun went off. A guy got into me, forced me to clip out 5 meters off the start line, great now i have to play catch up and throw some elbows to get into to bottle-neck. I made a huge effort to pass a couple of guys prior to the singletrack but i had to wait to pass anyone again for 3 or 4 minutes because of the high speed of the trail and absolutely no room to pass in the very tight single-track. 4 minutes is an eternity when guys like Jarrett, Plumer, Lucas and Price are up the trail driving the front group. Once we got to the open field about a mile into the race it was a full bore 'cross-eyed' effort to pass anyone. i was able to go around a 7 or 8 guys, but it wasn't like passing someone on the road. the guys i were passing were on tightly mowed grass that was 2 feet wide. i had to pass them on an unmowed hay field. F@#$ Me! that Friggin hurt. once back into the single-track it was all i could do to concentrate to slow down my breathing, un-cross my eyes, avoid hitting trees(cuz of the double vision thing) and keep peddling hard to maintain a similar speed as the leaders that were already 30 seconds up the trail from me. The leading group of 10 or so guys, thru the course of the race fragmented and split up into smaller groups, and i was just trying to get up to any of them. It took me a lap and a half to figure out that i was making a valient effort, however my fate was sealed with my unlucky(up to interpretation) start. i was only going to get any of those lead guys if they cracked and started leaking oil from overextending themselves from the super hard start.

So, a day later a few minutes stressing and looking at the official results posted online and looking at time splits and lap times from the guys i always seem to be marking and consider someone i want to be as fast as or even beat, i realize i am on the LEDGE........The ledge i am speaking about? This is where you can decide to stay the course: which means stick to the training plan you have set up from the previous december. don't panic, continue to train hard but smart. keep the bike and racing in perspective with things like family, life and work. Or you can jump off the ledge and throw your training plan in the toilet. Go cazy hard on 3 weeknights a week hitting the hardest rides in town. Make every race an 'A' race. Make yourself crazy by pooring over results for hours on end and worry about unknown guys and girls beating you. Essentially overtrain and overcook yourself before you even get close to the really important races on your schedule. i.e.; Tour of Kc and all things 'cross'(real hardass men race cyclocross!)..................So which is it. Do you talk yourself down off of the ledge........or Do I jump?

Let's see. I realize my lap times from this race from my 1st lap to my 3rd lap stayed fairly consistent. Even with a horrible start i finshed 7th out of 15 starter in my expert 30-39 age group and 13th overall out of 30 some total starters in the whole expert field. So i beat some people. Maybe not the guys i am really gunning for, but fast guys still. I will choose to consider my job. I am a Firefighter, which means i was subject to running late night medical emergencies and even the occasional house fire. Which did turn out to be the case late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. I choose to not see these as excuses, only facts of my 'regular' guy exsistence. A guy who spent a couple of weeks training hard and working hard leading up to Sundays' race, who also helped his wife get the house presentable for a party to celebrate the impending arrival of our first child............................it was also a 'fun' race' not an 'A' race on the training calendar. And i did have fun racing my bike under beautiful conditions

I choose to keep things in perpesctive. Mostly for the sake of my wife, and my future daughter but also for my sanity and my continued enjoyment of riding and racing my road, mountain and 'cross' bikes.

Hmm, i guess my inner self-help guru was able to talk me down off of that ledge.

Sweet!

So, till nexttime, keep riding or doing what ever it is that makes you happy!

crappy download of pics

2008-05-01T18:02:00.002-05:00

the pics from previous entry turned out so bad......i just thought i would up/download some other just random pis. The hincapie pic from paris-roubaix is friggin awsome! the 2nd pic is ted shouldering at the capital cx cup in october of 07' the other is alex edwards at the same race andand the last pic is me at crowder carank-n-cruise in june of 07'...just 3 days post wedding in vegas.......man i was tired! all pics are courtesy of beautiful and talented wife, heather.

2008-05-01T15:21:00.000-05:00

these pictures are from the GP Velotek stage race from April 26-27 in lawrence and perry, ks.Myself and 4 other teammates toed the start line over the weekend for 360 racing. 5 of us started and finished the stage race in the Cat 4 race. Keith Walberg, Brad Schrock, Joel Hammontree and I work extremely hard in stages 2 and 3 to set our young G.C. contender up for the win. Nathan Borozinski rode awsome in each stage, winning the crit on saturday and the road race on sunday. he was able to gain enough of the time bonuses during the crit and road race to overcome a 15 second deficit he had after his 8th place stage 1 prologue result. as a team the 360 guys finished second to SKC racing and ahead of 3rd place BicycleShack. 44 racers started the cat 4 stage race on saturday morning in the prologue and in the crit in the afternoon. i personally had a horrible TT on saturday and was in 33rd and the last of the 360 racers. i followed that up with a good crit and an 8th place finish. was within a bike and a half length of Nathan and Kurt Muelbach who were 1st and 2nd in the final sprint. i was just in too big of a gear and really lacked that extra snap to finish off that sprint. I am getting closer though, and although i missed out with a really good finish noone came around my wheel those last meters to the line. in fact, a fellow racer who was using me as a 'wheel-out' told me later that i actually rode him off my wheel those last 100 meters. so.....i am getting better at this sprinting stuff. the road race went good on sunday......the 360 guys were up front late in the race to help bring back a break and then set Nathan up on the finishing sprint on the hill to the finish. Joel H. really set up Nathan with a big pull on the flat cross-wind section across the damn leading up to the finishing hill. Nathan killed it and beat everyone to the line. Brad Shrock was the second 360 guy to the line in 8th and i finished a few places later in 12th.was really a fun weekend to race and work with good guys and great teammates.Great weekend for 360 racing and for the cat 4 winner, Nathan.till next time, go ride.....

repress negative feelings or short memory

2008-04-19T16:44:00.002-05:00

so its 3 days off the bike to try and see if my legs will heal. this past tuesday nites' crit was going to be super hard. this i knew on monday with the weather forcast having 30-35 mph winds. this means NO PLACE TO HIDE!.. on top of that......the legendary Steve Tilford and another guy by the name of Brian Jensen(rides professionally for Successful Living)were on hand. add even more speed with the gusty winds, man o man............were we all in for a world of hurt!

so these 2 factor led to a super bad day for myself. 25 minutes in i was spit out the back. i took a free lap and got back in in the back. lasted another 10 minutes and was again spit out. gave it one more effort for another 10 minutes and called it a day.

thru the rest of the evening, my nites effort continued to naw at me.......why was tonite so bad. well........the tilford factor, the wind the speed....more than anything it was just a bad day. got to looking at my cycling diary and realized over the last 7 weeks i have raced at least 1 day with the majority of those weeks containing 2 races a week. I count the tues nite crit cuz its at least as long as the cat 4 races i do and harder as well. mix in to saturdays where i doubled up in both the 4's and 3/4's crit on a couple of saturday spring fling crits(over 2 hrs of crits on both days) a 3hour marathon bike race on another saturday......this all adds up to 12 races overr the last month and a half with no specific rest time........i was due to have a bad day. i was fried. the last to shifts at the fire house i was worthless. i felt like i had a little elf lodged in the back of my legs stabbing me with needles. my legs were just fried. i dont ever remember having this extended time of muscle soreness in my legs before. 3 days of rest my legs actually started feeling better.

saturday morni ng came early today and i was itching to see how i or my legs would respond today. ted and i hooked up with the trek store guys on a regular sat am ride that leaves a coffee shop from next door to the bike store. ted and i joined them in the middle of the city limit sign sprint and were in 'bridge up' mode from the get go. we raced to join them only to have to time trial up to the front group. we worked thru those that were left behind in the sprint and joined 2 guys about 200meters off the front 3. 1 of the 3 was former u.s. nat'l 24hr champ Cam Chambers. so needless to say the front 3 worked us over. we kept a pretty constant gap only to see them increas after about 6 or 7 mile into the chase. towards the end of the ride afterlosing one of the 4 in our group, we finally joined the front 3 with about 4 mile left in the ride. oh well, they had let up and were cooling down. 30 minutes of all out 'race' effort and 4 hours and 65 miles back at my house...........well, i can put tuesday nites disaster behind me. i put in my share of pulls on the effort earlier in the morning with ted. you are only as good as your last ride.....at least with my short memory.

oh, the sun came out about a mile from my house. 64 miles in the blustery cold and the sun finally comes out.

spring here???

pics from Spring Fling #6 courtesy of Heather

2008-04-10T21:34:00.004-05:00

race pics from Saturday March 5th.

cat 4 race with me, ted moore, and brian williams representing 360racing.

spoke pony mtb and springfling crit results

2008-04-08T08:56:00.000-05:00

So I haven’t updated about races results in a while. If I get something in my head that I want to write about, it generally becomes the first to be written about in the blog. Race results are either forgotten or I have written so much crap I figure noone wants to read about my stupid races.

So anyway…..Saturday march 29th: spoke pony 3/6 hr mountainbike race put on by one of the 360racing team sponsors Heartland Sports Promotions. The race was located in blue springs, mo at Landhal park reserve under cloudy skies but dry trail conditions. Actually the trails conditions were perfect considering our last month of weather. Scott Capstack and Craig Stoelzting, once again put on a great show. Most of my teammates from 360racing participated in the 3 hour race in differing age groups with a couple of the hardier strongmen doing the 6hr race. Check out scott and craig’s race series website @ heartlandrace.com for info and more concise results. I wont bore you with calculas type moments of a marathon mountainbike race. Except for the racer its about as exciting as watching paint dry. Some highlights included seeing all of the really strong riders show up in the 360 team kit to race that Saturday morning. With a grueling 300 yard running “le mans” start to get to our bikes we were racing our bikes. Andy, david and myself running in the top 10 during the first lap all together one after another. That was cool. when I got to andys wheel, I felt that if I just stayed there I was guaranteed a good result. However, andy proceeded to totally screw things up when he inexplicably broke a chain. I still don’t understand why he did that? Why would anyone break a chain at that point in the race?? Oh well…..doug long was a stud doing the 6hr. he seemed to just casually roll by me in my 3rd lap. He’s fast, but it does eat at me that he is doing the longer race and passing me. Damn. He made that look easy. Sure, his farts are dust and he is almost prehistoric, but son of a #@$%#, he is strong as hell. I also think I overheard him say that was his first offroad ride of the year. Someone gonna have a strong summer! So with 3 plus hours of riding in the 30-39 age group and 22 of us toeing the line, I crossed the finish line at 3:08 and in 7th place. I think I was 11th overall in the 3hr class with all men age groups with about 53 racers starting. I did four laps. The top 5 finishers In the 3 hour overall did a fifth lap. Fast and impressive. Shadd Shreiner won the younger age group and the overall, and Mark Studnicki won my 30-30 age group. Jason Gaikowski finished a few minutes behind me in 8th , David White finished in 11th and Tony ‘t-love’ Stanislav finished in 17th rounding out the racers in the 30-39 age group. In 40 and up age group, Brian Williams was steady all day and finished in 3hrs and 22 minutes for a excellent 3rd place and a podium spot. Brendan Jenks finished a minute and a half and in 4th place. Doug Long was the most impressive 360 guy on the day, finishing in 2nd place in the 40+ age group and 5th overall in the 6hr race. He did 8 laps in 6hours and 34 minutes. Like I said, IMPRESSIVE!

It was a good weekend to be racing a mountain bike, with perfect trails and weather. A good turnout for the 360racing team with some quality results

Racing the Spring Fling #6 in Lawrence, Ks at Clinton Lake State Park. March 5th :

Well, this was my third attempt in the spring fling series. I set a goal over a month ago to try and accumulate some upgrade points on the road so I can race as a cat 3. My last foray into the crit thing ended up in just missing points in 3 different sprints. In the mid race point prims, the top 4 finisher score points and the final race sprint, the top 8 score in the points.b 3 weeks ago found finishing 5th in the 2 mid-race sprints and 9th in the race ending sprint. Needless to say this was worse than the “kissing your sister’ analogy. Well, spring fling#6 didn’t start any better. A 3rd of the race in and the bell ringing for a points prim I locked onto my goal……a qualified wheelman for a good wheelout to take me to the line for some points. I predetermined my mark for this job the night before with a conversation on the phone with andy lucas. I neede to be on one of the ‘fast guys’ wheels when the bell rang and I needed to stick on him like glue. This guy happenend to be a Bicycle Shack team racer by the name of Craig eaton. He was in the top 5 in the overall and one of the top sprinters in the cat 4 race over the lat couple of races. It worked, It was a great wheelout, however I didn’t’ finish my sprint. I practically paused at 100 meters to the line thinking I wasn’t going to pass my mark. That cost me. I was a half a whell back of the 3rd place finisher and a tires width back of 4th place. The lesson learned? You’ve got to commit to the sprint and stay committed once you get out of the saddle to lite it up! Damn! Another 5ht place and a ‘peck’ on the cheek from my sister. 2nd points sprint started out the same way. I found my lead out wheel in the same Bicycle Shack racer and followed him to the backside of the course. This time I committed and it paid off. I nipped the same two at the line that got me in the first sprint and took 3rd and 2 points. Finally some reward for my work. The final race sprint seemed to start a little early. With two laps to go, series leader Jim Rank lit it up and attacked. Not a big deal, but everycouple of seconds that went by another racer would shoot up the road to join him. I kept telling myself to be patient, that it was too early but once I saw 6 guys up the road and the jerseys that were there…….well……I thought “this is the move’. So I proceeded to hop on the wheel of a guy who was looking to join that group up the road. With a concerted effort by the guy in front of me we rolled thru the start/finjish area with the bell ringing ‘one to go’. Me ‘wheel’ in front of me popped, he was cooked so it was my turn to do the rest and get to the front group of 6 or 7 riders. I was maybe 100 meters off when I began to realize I might be flailing in ‘no man’s land’ with a group behind me who could overtake me and a seemingly strong group of riders off the front. Frick! With my teammate ted on my wheel I urged him to get to that front group and off he went. Neither one of us made it and we both got swarmed by a group of 10 or so racers chasing hard. Ted in I were caught in the chicane turns on the backside of the course. Our 3rd teammate brian Williams was in this chase group that rolled by ted and i. I wasn’t sure if they had a shot at getting the front group, but they ended up catching them just before the finnish line with brian taking the sprint and finishing 2nd overall one the day in points. Congradulations to Brian. Like me, he has had a lot of ‘almosts’ and ‘just misses’. There is some reward for Brian and his hard work and training on the bike. My 2 points netted me a 10th place at the end of the day and zero upgrade points. Oh well………I see some light at the end of the tunnel. Still no ‘sprint’ specific training yet, but I seem to be getting better thanks to the Tuesday niters and some spring fling under my belt. With a different decision with 2 laps to go I am confident I would have mixed it up at the end. Oh well……..i thought I saw the move but I responded too late and compounded that mistake with another when I attempted to bridge too late. I’ll learn from itand get better!

go ride!

spring here??

2008-04-04T15:06:00.002-05:00

waited till about 10:30am to get on mike bike this morning. just didn't really want to deal with 35 degree weather. it was about 45 when i left the house. not bad out. sun shining with a little breeze out of the north. so i decided to head to the trek shop in shawnee, to say hello to friends i haven't seen in a while.

long story short: i and a friend, ted worked at the trek store for 2-3 years intil late last september. still friends with all the really good people there, i just left due to an ownership change. one of the owners 'decided' to leave for 'differing' pastures. anyway. time can 'heal' or temper bad feelings and its been a realization of leaving behind good people really sucks.

wether the cycling community in our area realizes it or not, bike shops have personalities. they take on a life of there own due the owners, managers and there full and part time employees. i for one have bought a bike in 6 diferent bike shops in the metro earea over the last 7-8 years. so i say this from a consumer and a bike 'geek', the Trek stores personality is second to none in the area. a close 2nd is the Sunflower bike shop in lawrence, ks. anyway, minus the owner issue, the trek store has all the elements. good managers, good full and part time staff, and good stuff in their cool atmosphere shop. ive read reviews in the past of the shop from various websites(i.e. roadbikereview.com) that complained about it beinga 'roadie' only kind of shop. thats friggin rediculous, cuz all of the mechanics have their cycling roots that begin on the mountain bike. its ammazing what a disgruntled customer, who does't feel like he should have to pay retail like everyone else, can do on the web with a few exagerations and even a couple of lies. the shop has top notch mechanics and a couple of managers with a great deal of knowledge and who are willing to pass that on to their customers and employees. anyway, seems the soapbox has gotten pretty high over here. i better get off before its' too late and i find my foot in my mouth.

seems like some spring like weather might be creeping this way, go friggin' ride your bike!

June 6th.........thats due date of life changing child......i bought a burley child trailer yesterday...............yes, i am a 'bike geek'.

2008-04-01T16:19:00.002-05:00

i got a ride in this morning on the trails. this was unplanned cuz i figured the trails were going to be to wet for the next couple of days. however, all the rain in the forcast somehow missed my little world. so ted and i got about an hour and a half in at s.m. park. trails were ideal.

posted a couple of pics of my bike. it sure was dialed in for the 3hr spoke/pony race this past saturday at landahl park. the experiment with the 1x9 gearing is o longer an experiment. I Loved It! 34t up front with an 11x32 in the back was just fine. with that 11 ring in back, i have to get up to 29-30mph to even come close to spinning out. and even 3 hrs into the race, i never felt like i needed an easier gear. now i just need to figure out how to set up a 2x9 on it when ted and i get a few days in Crested Butte, Co this July.

my wife sure was happy with me this past week. we knocked out the painting of the baby's room and set up the crib as well. i think she thought i might string that project out a couple of weeks. anyway, one of the pics is of the new room with pait and crib. and the last pic is of my lovely wife heather and the brittany is 'landis'.
the other pic is bud ted meeting up with me this morning at the trailhead.

spring here?

busy guy, wife happy!i

2008-04-01T16:07:00.003-05:00

Sports' Great Champions, pre-game preparation and my bowels

2008-04-01T09:21:00.003-05:00

Sport’s great champions, pre-event preparation and my bowels

Forewarning…..I am not a professional writer, so if my words and blogs seem to meander and seem unfocused, well……sorry, but they are thoughts and I tend to put them down as soon as they come to mind. To no surprise, I was not an ‘A’ student when it came to writing English or history papers in high school or college. Many times, much to the dismay of my teachers, my rough drafts were generally no different than the final copies I turned in for grades. Laziness was the assumed culprit, with no argument from me.

Bird, Johnson, Jordan, Musial, Williams(ted), Gretzky, Unitas, Montana, Orr, Nicklaus, Woods, Lopez(nancy)…………..for the non-traditional sports fans I’ll continue; Hawk, Mirra, Mcgrath, Kiraly(beach V-ball), Owens(Jesse), Merx, Hinault………………….do you see the thread. The common theme. These are the ‘Greats”, the Pantheon of sports champions. Sorry if I left out anyone’s childhood hero. We all know the obvious common physical characteristics “the Great Ones”. They were blessed. When Bob Gibson was born, God came down with a strike of lightning from the heavens and blessed ‘Bullet Bob’s cannon of a right arm. George Brett was blessed by the baseball ‘gods’ with the ability to hit any pitch in the most climactic of situations. Just ask Goose Gossege about Bretts’ bomb of a 3-run homerun in the 7th inning to clinch a trip to the World Series in 1980. We know about there physical gifts. We can also read about stories told about them and thru interviews how these athletes talk about their ability to slow things down. Through the fastest of game situations, the event almost seems to be playing out, to them, in ‘slow-motion’. The ‘greats had and have an uncanny ability to process thoughts faster than the average athlete. ‘magic’ or john Stockton talk as if they see a play develop 3to 4 passes before it ever happens.

I’ve read tons of antidotes and stories of all sorts of different great athletes. The true sports geek in me comes out when it comes to stuff like this. The mental strength, the ability to outwork their rivals, the ability to suffer for longer under the worst of conditions, the ability to sacrifice ones’ self goals for the greater good of the team. Since I was a child growing up under the roof of a baseball and basketball lover, these are the things I was taught were the characteristics of a champion. Thru my career as a collegiate and brief professional golfer, I prided myself in excelling under the worst of conditions. Be it a ‘goat-path’ of a golf course or the worst of weather, I prided myself in being tougher than the spoiled rich kids I was playing and competing against. The first to come to ‘my’ mind (that i actually watched live on tv) when you talk about great “golf” battles, is the 1987 British Open. American Paul Azinger battling Brit Nick Faldo. Not just the battle between the two sticks in my mind, but the conditions they played under is what I recall most. Rain, wind and fog on a stereo-typical ‘great’ English weather kind of day for golf. These 2 great golfers separated themselves from the rest of the field on that final Sunday and waged an epic battle that to me goes down as one of the great ‘major’ championships.

So what the ‘frick’ does golf have to do with cycling? What do all of the aforementioned athletes have to do with my cycling and racing as a late 30 year old ‘never-was’?

Well, to be quite frank! I wonder if they struggled with the same kind of pre-game, pre-race nerves or ‘jitters’ that I do. The movie “Invincible” about Vince Papale comes to mind. You know. The bartender slash substitute teacher who turned up for the public and very laughable ‘open tryout’ for the NFL Philadelphia Eagles. Vince ends up spending 4 more years in the NFL having never played a down of college football. Well, a scene from the movie that stuck with me was with Mark Walberg and Greg Kinneer(playing former Chief and Eagle coach). Both of these guys were preparing for there first professional game, Vince as a player and Dick vermeil as a former college coach taking part as a first time NFL head coach. These guys are both in a bathroom stall puking their proverbial guts out prior to taking the field.

So my question is, did Michael Jordan puke prior to his first pro b-ball game? How about his first game in the NBA championships? How about ten years later in his 6 and final Championship series? Did he puke before game 6? Now I am not a puker. I have a strong aversion to puking. I think I have it worse. I Get ‘it’ coming out the other end. Yes, the other end………….come on, you can say it. ‘the shits’, the ‘squirts’………..DiaFrickinRhea.

30 minutes prior to me teeing off in my first high school golf tournament, where was I you ask? On the shitter. Where was I 30 minutes prior to my first and last high school basketball game and avery game in between? ON THE SHITTER. How about 30 minutes prior to my first college and last professional golf tournaments? You Got It. On the Shitter! I am like clockwork. Do you think Bobby Orr was on the toilet with diarrhea prior to strappin’ on the skates? I contend that athletes don’t put on a “Game-Face” because they are mentally preparing for their game. They are just trying to hide the fact that they are nervous and they are mentally talking themselves into dealing with those nerves.

No, my multiple pre-race visits to the port-a-potty are not because I ate Mexican food the night before. My visits to the trees to pee 8-10 times an hour prior to my race time are due to the fact that my nerves have me peeing and ‘shitting’ my brains out to the point that I would actually rather throw up once or twice instead. That final time to the port-a-potty actually has me dreading having to ‘wipe’ my ‘ars’ cuz it hurts so bad.

Actually 5 years into racing mountain, road and cross’, I have noticed the nerves have lessened to a degree. I can tell the difference from race to race as well by how important a race is to me. The more it means to me, the more I’ll be visiting the ‘jon’ or the trees prior to race time. I sleep like a baby before a race. No nerves or ‘butterflys’ the night before. I would trade my ‘runs’ for No-Sleep anyday of the week.
Hmm………….i say that now, but in two months when my first child arrives I may be singing a different tune. No, I wont. I still remember the last time I wiped my ass before the 3/6 hour Spoke Pony Showdown this past Saturday.

Now understanding me when i say i am not by any means comparing my self to these great athletes that i have mentioned. I have just always wondered what was going on in there heads' before a game, a race or a contest. Were they just thinking about their gameplan? or, better yet like the rest of us mortals, were they actually contemplating something similar to what the rest of us mere mortals might be thinking about? Such as; 'jeez, i hope that jonny-on-thespot doesn't run out of toilet paper', or ' i wonder i can still make the race on time if i stop at that Mcdonalds to use the bathroom?'

Its' amazing how a persons bowels can affect the decisions he/she has to make!

hmm.....just some food for thought.

An Apology................

2008-03-25T22:10:00.002-05:00

hmm.......................where to start? I Owe an Apology to a couple of guys. the following words are meant to be a background and not by any means an excuse.
i'll be the first to admit i can be an asshole. i am extremely opinionated, and can be quick to judge. however, one of my few(admittedly) redeeming qualities is that i can admit it. i can also admit it when i am wrong or have made a mistake, without excuses.
i posted a blog a few days ago calling out a couple guys about an incident during a race a couple of weeks ago. i didn't say anything too derogatory, however i named names. and after some introspective thought on my ride home from the 'tuesday nite training race' i realized a few things.

first; someone actually is out there reading my random thoughts. which means my words have power. they have power because they provoke thought. after tonites' race, a few of us were hanging out afterwards telling 'war stories' from the previous painful 45 minutes. a guy commented to me how he had read my post about this 'said' race and remarked how ;he had found it rather funny. somewhat taken aback that this guy(or anyone for that matter) would be reading my worthless blog. without letting him say anything else about it, i almost instantly expressed to him that i regretted naming names. i that time, i don't know if that regret was because i got 'caught' or because an honest feeling of regret of the words i said were actually out of line. know this guy who commented on my blog is a guy i respect and even look up to as a racer and just an all-around really 'good guy'.
so my ride home tonite consisted of me contemplating his remark and my written words. now this guy by no means criticized my words. he did however say that he tries not to use his blog to 'vent' about racing 'incidents' on his blog for that very reason.
so, thanks mark! for letting me know that someone is reading my words. and indirectly educating me that my words can have a negative impact, on both someone else or myself for that matter.

second; racing for a fifth season means absolutely nothing when you compare it to some of the guys and the years they have raced that live in our little world here in the kc metro area. i read steve tilfords blog, the guy is a living legend in the world of cycling and he lives and races right here in our little world. not once have i read a blog on his website that called someone ot like that. mark studnicki, a guy that has raced at an elite level in mountain and cx, and someone that i look up to as a racer. never once that i have read has he called someone out like that. hell, i even got a lecture from my friend dan(also a racer, bike shop owner and another all-round good guy) on my posted blog. on the phone dan had to remind me what it was like to be a 1st or 2nd year racer. he had to remind me of what it felt like to be surrounded by a bunch of over-competitive assholes in spandex at a race wher you were inntimidated as hell and how intimidating that could be. dan reminded me that i was just a '4'. my first thought when he said that though, was that just cuz i am a '4' doesnt mean i dont care any less than that 2 or 3 fighting it out with a bunch of 1's trying to prove he belongs. however, i did realize i dont want to be that 'guy'. that guy that the rest of the group is talking about and how big of an 'asshole' he is. i remember talking about 'pricks' like that........hell, i still talk about Pricks like that to this day. they are still in the pack, acting bigger or more important than they really are. I DONT WANT TO BE THAT GUY! i realize that i dont hang out with anybody like that, and the guys that i do hang out with dont want to be associated with anybody like that!

Third(and most importantly); no matter how i have arrived at this point, i am sorry. i Regret having named names and what i have said in my previous blog. for all of the above reasons.

so.........to william prann and jan(skc racer). I Apologize! i hope you will forgive me if you have read or heard about my posted blog and i have offended you. and to other readers, cycling friends, and non-cycling friends........ i hope you will accept this apology as well. and forgive me if i have offended you as well.

sincerely,
josh

almost 'dry trails'

2008-03-23T17:29:00.004-05:00

saturday i got word from a friend, joe that the trails at shawnee mission park weren't too bad. so i coaxed ted into joining me for a sunday easter a.m. ride. he had done 4 1/2 hrs on saturday with another hammerhead, so he wasn't a positive for sunday, though.
sunday rolls around and ted calls. its a good thing he called to say he was ready to ride. cuz a couple of late nite car accidents that my crew and i ran had me really thinkin' about crallin into bed with the wife when i got home from work this morning. peer pressure can be a positvie thing and keep you from wimping out on a training ride.
anyway............the trails were not too bad. 4 or 5 spots where it was really swampy for 10 to 30 meters or so. other than that, 90% of the trail was ideal. next 3 or 4 days should be great trail conditions.......................and maybe the rain forecasted for thursday/friday wont happen and the heartland marathon mtb race will kick off the mtb racing season this saturday. cuz we all know the midwest craptire series is about as well run as an 78' AMC Pacer. thats a whole nother' topic in itself. i'll leave it for a later post to rant on.
so an hour ride from my house to the trails, an hour offroad and ridin' with a friend turned into a great 3 hour ride with a little sunshine mixed in. if i was warmer than 38 degrees you would've thought it was spring. %%#@, who am i kiddin', its still friggin' winter. oh well, still a good day to be outside on the bike and not wussing out and going for a run instead.

anyhow........go ride!

road racing with friends

2008-03-17T22:15:00.004-05:00

perry road race, march 16. #3 in th series was 7 laps instead of the 5 from the 1st race of the series. i actually had 2 other teammates there. 10 guys toed the start line and 3 of us were wearing the 360racing kits. i have or had no idea what to do with more than one teammate anyway..........so what the hell, let's have some fun. jason, ted and myself didn't even bother to discuss tactics. i just assumed that was due to all of us knowing we were chasing a soon to be cat 2 racer in shadd schreiner from cowtown cycling. all he needed to do was fet one more race win and he should have enough points to be a 3 and then its on his way. trust me this kid is super talented. lots of mtb racing in his past and 2 seasons of cx under his belt........he is FRIGGIN fast. the previous 2 weeks he has won the cat 4 race rather handily. actually he has been rather kind to us and stayed with the group. i truly believe he doesn't know his own strenth and he could of left us at any time over the last couple of races. with the one good climb on the circuit it would be easy for him to do. his tempo up that hil is everyone elses 'redline'. relative to us cat 4 guys.
anyway. end of lap one rolling down the hil onto the dam and into a head wind, jason just kind of road on up the road away from the other nine of us. ted and i were on the front with the group kind of dissorganized behind us. by the end of the mile lenth section before we turned downwind jason had a 20 second gap on us. shadd tried to light it up a little on the downwind section to bridge and i chased. that lasted for a few seconds and he shut it down, not wanting to do all the work or not wanting to bring me along for a free ride. i decided there that i would be chasing anthing and everything as long as jason was off. i think the rest of the group either didnt want to help shadd or didnt think jason could last the final 6 laps. hell i knew he couldn't but i still think they were a bunch of pussys just sitting back and waiting for shadd to do the bulk of the work. a full lap later and jason was still 25 seconds up the road when the group turned west down wind. marking shadd, i could see he was getting antsy. and did i call it, i was out of my saddle sprinting almost before shadd was. so for the next mile or so i don't think my computer went below 38mph thanks to shadd and a stiff wind at our back. i really thought it was going to be shadd bridging me and him up to jason. but the 6 or 7 behind us barely creeped back on when shadd backed it off a hair.(maybe , naw i couldn't help) but it would have been cool me and shadd rollin up to jason. cuz basically 3-4 of those guys were dead weight. didn't do a friggin thing all day. so the group ended up reelin' in jason about halfway up the 3/4mile climb on the circuit that has the start/finish line at the top. and of course over the top. everybody sits up as we roll downhill towards the damn. shadd proceeds to roll off the front in slow motion with the 'dead weight' staring at eachother like idiots. i wanted to let shadd get a little furthur up the road and join him but about the time i am grabbin a drink a teammate rolls by me to join shadd. and all the idiots just let my teammate go to him. alright.............guess i am going to be chasing down everything today, cuz the winning break is shadd and somebody who has a teammate in with the pack. an that would be the 360 guys. thanks alot, deadweight! that truly was the race. an Oz racer and a capp's rebound racer put in a bunch of digs over the next 4 laps. i probably cover 7 or 8 of them and once ted got his racing legs under him he covered a bunch as well. we even chased or bridged up late with 2 laps to go when the Oz guy took a hard dig downwind that caught all the lazy bastards and me and ted by suprise. not only did SKC(jan), the trekof KC(william) and a couple of others not want to do any work, they couldn't even holler with some guy sprinting from the back of the group. friggin assholes. hell, the one time william comes to the front, its with less than a mile to go in the race.........he proceeds to overcook the final turn, which turns uphill mind you. so he overcooks the right hander and takes ted and i into the grass with him on the oppisite side of the road. SO much for sprinting for third. fucking asshole!!

oh well, jason got second. so i guess ted and i did our job. it was fun working fo a teammate. and ted and i received another lesson in why we really want to cat up and race as a cat 3.

till next time.

chasing upgrade points

2008-03-15T08:48:00.002-05:00

round 2 of racing for upgrade ponts. the weekend of 8th and 9th was a dissappointment at best. and with a few days to put it into perspective............well, i'm still pissed. saturdays 'spring fling' crits was fairly standard cat 4 racing. however, the 'bicycle shack' guys really impressed. i think 4 guys finished in the points. they seemed to be everywhere, chasing down attacks, initiating attacks, and dominating the point sprints. yet somehow, this dumbass could never find one of their wheels once the bell rand for a sprint lap. go figure. i am not a guy thats going to outsprint a bunch of guys to the line. i am going to have to be smart and follow the right wheels if i want results in a crit. at least for now, with no sprint work added into my training yet, i have got to race a lot smarter than this past weekend. i have no excuses, i just really really %^$# al 3 sprints up. i finished 5th on the to midrace point sprints, missing out on points by 1 place each time. then.............racing to the line on the bell lap of the race, i had a shot at 3rd with 2 guys just up the road and probably out of reach. i was following a really good wheel in Tyler Henson into a 20mph headwind...........still 500-600 metres to the line............i proceed to lose all sense of intelligence and leave Ty's wheel to go it alone............like i am actually going to bridge up to the 2 up the road(frigin' dumbass)............even if i did get to them, i wasnt going to get them at the line, cuz i already killed myself just to get on their wheel. instead, i go from having a 'wheel out' for he sprint for 3rd whith probably a finsh no worse than 5th and garnering some valuable points...........to getting swarmed by 7-8 guys at the line.............which left me in 9th place on the final sprint and again 1 place out of the points.
Swallow that bitter friggin' pill! Friggin' Dumbass!!!
obviosly i am still pissed, pissed at myself. i thought i knew better.
perspective...................hmm.................lesson learned and get better from it, i guess.

so sunday's road race.............i bagged it. i didn't feel good, and ifelt like a couple of days rest and time off the bike would do me some good. i didnt think or didn't realize that the previous weekend of racing both saturday and sunday would hit my like it has.
so a day early into a 'down' week of training and maybe i'll be rested for this weekend of racing................
Saturday(today) is the 'heartland spoke-pony 3/6hour' mtb race at landahl reserve park............NO GO...............friggin 1/2 inch of rain and friggin dusting of snow on an already oversaturated ground has canceled the second mtb race of the year. WOW! how friggin depressing.......... oh well, that means i'll be rested for tommorrows "perry road race".

i will try to give an earlier update of results next post, along with some pics. here is a link to last couple of weekends results...springfling#1http://www.sunflower.com/~cmartell/kca/files/2008/results/spring_fling_1.pdf
springfling#2http://www.sunflower.com/~cmartell/kca/files/2008/results/spring_fling_2.pdf
perryRR#1http://www.sunflower.com/~cmartell/kca/files/2008/results/perry_rr_1.pdf
perryRR#2http://www.sunflower.com/~cmartell/kca/files/2008/results/perry_rr_2.pdf

until next time.

a goal is set

2008-03-02T18:07:00.002-06:00

alright, its been a while. typing is really painful though. posting on this blog thing is tough. or maybe i am just lazy. i keep meaning to get some photos posted, but of course i haven't.

since the last post, its been more of the same. trainer time at work, mtbing in the snow and ice a little, but the weather has been slow to break. its NOT south dakota by any measure, but it has been a tough winter to get the base in.
however, i have managed to get from base to build in a matter of 10 weeks. and with a couple of days of some intensity mixed in the last week and a half, i felt i was furthur along than previous winters, when it comes to preperation for first race of the year. which just happened to be this weekend. originally on my schedule was a mtb race on sunday march 2nd. the'heartland mtb series' race opener was set for landahl park in blue springs, mo. but with our crazy weather and winter here in kansas cty, i think everybody had a good idea a week or two out that it wasn't going to happen. so early season schedules can't be set in stone when you race in the midwest. it will only lead to more frustration. you gotta be flexible and willing to race different disciplines to progress in your fitness, or you are just spinnin' your wheels.

the winter plan laid out after cx was to focus on the mtb racing thru the spring and into early summer until the life altering arrival of my kid comes. but, like i said, plans must me tentatively laid out to accept some shifting and schedule changes, and that is what the weather has brought us. so, with this crazy weather here, i have always been hesitant about setting hard concrete goals for the mountain bike and for spring racing as well.

however, with the change of focus(i am thinking half of my 6 sceduled mtb races will get canceled/postponed to later in summer due to wet conditions) comes on old quandery i have not really dealt with the last couple of years. do i/should i make the effort to go after the points to 'cat up' on the road from a '4' to a '3'???
the last couple of years my focus in the spring has been the mountain bike and hit a crit or road race when my shedule allows. which meens 2 or 3 races with the road bike into august and prior to the 'tour of kc'.this about all i have gotten in the last couple of years. and that doesn't lead to many chances to gather upgrade points.other than 2 or 3 'tues nite training races' a month or the wednesday nit 'hill' ride on the road, i haven't entered a lot of official road races the last couple of years with the focus shifting to the mtb, which really seems to help my cyclocross skills.

the decision has been easy for a couple of years........i am not a world beater, so i am not going to win a ton of crits or rr's so i need to enter more races to gather the points needed to upgrade.....i am stuck in the middle as far as the talent thing goes...... i am neither a sprinter or a climber and i dont really even time trial worth a shit(hell, i have been beaten by a 13 year old and a woman). i think the only reason i dont take anymore heat from friends about the kid and the woman beating me is i generally kick the 'shit' out of those same friends on a 'cx' or a mountain bike. i am a cat 3 in cyclocross but that is a whole different animal.
so anyway...................i have realized i want to upgrade to a 3 on the road becuz there are a bunch of 3's on the new team i am on and i really want to race with these guys. so...............how do i get the points to upgrade?? first> i decide i want to......second> make it a goal/priority..........third>for it to be a goal you have to write it down or voice it to somebody.................this third thing i have done. i starting telling teammates midweek when the mtb race was cancelled.

so, its official. i am now chasing upgrade points. i am COMMITTED.

the weekend went like this: saturdays racing wazs part of the 'spring fling series" that takes place just west of lawrence, ks at clinton state park. critirium racing to me, is fun but nerveracking, especially in a 4's race. its scetchy as hell and usually you cant race for 45 minuteswithout having a couple of wrecks. this scenerio plays out due to sub 24 year olds and newly ugraded cat 4 racers. i just cussed out 1 kid on saturday, so it was a good day in that regard. cant quite figure out why someone is diving into corners and cutting people out of their line midway thru a race. GO TO THE FRONT if the pace is not fast enough or stay to the outside in turns ir you want to go faster. oh well.............
saturdays race is a 'points' race. meaning the promoter is to cheap to award cash or prizes for prims or pay out deep into a 50-60 man field, so the promoter just creates a 'series of races over a month or two and gives shitty prizes at the end of the series and stroaks everyones ego by saying you did really well in my series', 'here is some herbal remedy and a gift card to the local holistic dork store for $2o'. 'thanks for racin'!.

so for the 4's race. ther are 2 mid race sprint prims for points for 4 places, points go 4-3-2-1 from 1st thru 4th. thru 20 minutes of racing and feeling the group of 60 or so racers out, the bell for the sprint prim rang. i was up in the top 15 going into the 2nd and 3rd corner. coming into the 4th and final corner i moved up to about 10th not sure if i had the legs to contest the sprint but just wanting to stay in contact with thes guys in case a few happened to try and sneak away. so sure enough, out of the 4th corner guys start to stand and wind it up, i proceed to stand and..............and...................and.................umm.............it suddenly ocurred to me that i may not get a 'frickin' point at all today. my legs seem to have no snap, just that same low torque diesel gear that is left over from cyclocross. WOW, that was a shocker. didnt really contest anything and nobody got off the front. i guess i will slowly add some sprint training intervals over the next couple of weeks.
the course was a 4 corner(soft and fast corners) 3/4 of a mile loop with the wind gusting at upwards of 35mph. the wind in itself made it difficult, nevermind my lack of snap in the legs to mix it up in a sprint. i must have gotten smarter at some time over the next twenty minutes. or 40 minutes of racing must've taken a toll on some guys legs, cuz the next point prim sprint went much better. again, i worked my way up to 10th wheel before turn 3 and a couple of more positions into turn 4, from there i had the wheel of a big strong wind block and just hopped from wheel to wheel until the last 100 meters where i proceeded to pass 2 more guys and nick another at the line by no more then an inch and somehow got 4th and won a single point. from there we were staring at an even hour of racing by the time the 'bell' rang for the last lap and you could actually see all the guys that got spit off cuz they were watching the finish from the corner of turn 4. with two guys off the front and another getting swallowed by the thirty or so of us left, we were sprinting for 3rd with the top 8 places getting points. wheel hopping again i managed to get 5th in the group which meant 7th and 2 more points. a total of 3 points put me 9th on the day. i started with bigger ideas but considering the first point sprint and no sprint work coming into this weekend, it could've been a lot worse. no upgrade points, but still a successful day for a 'non-sprinter'.

day 2 march 3rd race was located at perry lake state park which lies between topeka and lawrence, ks. this 5 mile circuit race was going to be dictated by 35mph wind and a really good finishing climb. race went like i expected it would. the few guys that would go to the front and work only did so at 'tempo' or a little above. most everybody was just trying not to get blown over or into the next guy and conserve as much energy as possible until the 3/4 ,mile 10% average grade hill to the start/finish area. being a 'nonclimber', this conserving energy and doing as little work as possible was me. hey, i figured i raced yesterday, let's let some of these squirrelly little guys burn up some matches before we get to that last lap and maybe i can get them up that last hill. the most exciting part of the race for me was starting lap 4 after the climb, 3 of the guys i had marked were off the front bombing towards the dam at 38-40mph trying to get away. about 20-30 meters in front of me were a couple of guys trying to get up to this 3 man break. i felt that this was a decisive moment in the race and i was going to have to do some 'bridge' work to get some points at the end of the day. it was a dangerous 3some up the road. the two guys i worked up to didnt' seem to want to put it in a bigger gear and get to them...........so i left em'. and made the committment to get to that front 3. which was now a gap of 100meters or so with that damn 30mph cross wind. it was a 1/2 mile and a couple of my 'matches' burned to get to them, and as i get in contact with that last wheel, i hear someone from behind say 'good job taylor'. 'FRICK", I turn around and realize that i had just pulled 8-10 lazy #$%*suckers up to this group. oh well, a few more latch back on with a lull in the tempo when we turn back to the head wind. i realize here, that of the 30 or so that started, ther might be 20-22 left, and its going to be a dragg race up the hill to the finish line with the ringing of the bell for the last lap. my lone teammate jason killed himself at the base of the finishing climb and kept a couple of guys close as we passed 2 or 3 with a 1/4 mile to go in the climb and i finsihed 5th with jason a bike lenth or so back for 6th. not bad for a nonclimber or nonsprinter. this 5th place actually got me 2 upgrade points as well, but i just missed out on winning my entry fee back. i have somehow gained 4 lbs since the last cx race 2 months ago. so maybe i'll be climbing even better in a month or two with the shedding of a few lbs.

my hands er my two fingers hurt, that's all ive got. i will update sooner next time. same races and same time next weekend. more chances for upgrade points.

i better hurry and get as many as i can before ted starts racing in a couple of weeks.

later!

been awhile

2008-02-13T14:54:00.002-06:00

alright, its been a long time between posts. spent a couple of days last week preparing for a trip out to the west coast to see the 'in-laws'. heather's parents moved out to portland this past september. heather went to visit last fall but i had yet to get out there. i had briefly lived on the west coast, however it was my first trek to the 'great northwest'. i actually had shipped my road bike out to heather's folks' place a wekk prior to us flying out there.........yeah, i actually turned this into a bike trip/vacation for me. a couple of strategically placed vacation days and i was off of work for eight days in a row. god the ork schedule of a firefighter is a beautiful thing!

heather actually approved of my bike accompaning us without batting an eye. god, what a great wife. even the in-laws were excited for me to get to ride in and around there beautiful new home town. hum............i wonder if thats' an indication about how they feel about me and wanting me to go get lost on my bike for a few hours?

oh well, like it really matters. i got to bring my bike to portland. dont say anything, but it is almost a built in excuse for time away from 'family-time'. ha ha. i do jest, heather's parents were great! i helped heather's step-dad jim around the house on a couple remodel chores for all of about 10 minutes and he drove us around portland for 5 days to shop and site-see. pretty good trade-off, huh? drove to the coast to see the ocean and beach at canon beach, or. the oregon coast is not your southern california beach lanscape. its more like what i would invision the scotland or ireland coasts look like. very beautiful, but very harsh with similarly epic weather. just spectacular scenery to drive thru. hell, its the dead of winter and everything still seems so 'green' there. much milder temps and with lots of rain.

a couple of hikes on our second and third days, i kept thinking that this is what a rain forest in central america should look like. i was just blown away by how green everthing seemed to be, even in early february.

the riding..............mid 40's, wet and misting on a couple of rides and high 40's low 50's and dry and sunny on the 2 other rides. i basically got rained out on our second day, friday. was able to recover and get a 4 hour ride in on saturday with a few locals. let's just say that whatever direction you decide to head out ffrom your driveway. you are going to have to climb, period. from 1/4 mile 18% pitches to 7-8% grades for 2 miles, you will climb. portland was similar in topography to my experiences of riding in and around fayetteville, arkansas. although, portland was able to master the technique of switchbacks, where our neighbors in arkansas never were quite able to master this practice in road building.

you couldn't go a 1/4mile without a picture worthy view. on the sunny days on the right ridge you could take in views of both mt. st. helens and mt. hood(at same time, a100+miles apart). both easily 40+ miles away. i dont get into to altimeters and elevation gained and feet climbed and all of that, but let's just say i got in 11 hours and a 140+ miles in 4 days of riding and a 1/3rd of that was spent seated and standing climbing and slogging my way 'up' some of portland coolest cycling friendly roads. portland is big on bike lanes and bike friendly traffic. the in-laws made it a point to tell me how much more effort they make at educating drivers on bicycle traffic on the thouroughfares in and around portland. its an impressive city, with the 'light-rail', trains and buses ffrom the surrounding suburbs and neighborhoods accessing the downtown area is so convenient. it almost makes hopping in your own vehicle and driving thru traffic and looking for parking seem altogether 'inconvenient'. maybe thats the point. hey kansas city officials and poliicians, spend a week or to visiting portland and tell me light rail and quality 'mass-transportation' can't work her in our area. portland is just a reminder of how kc and other midwest towns are really in the 'dark-ages' when it comes to transportation and helping our communities go 'green'.

so if you have a chance in the future, and have never been to portland, or, i highly recommend visiting this beautiful and diverse city.

till next time.............

new team kit

2008-01-31T12:43:00.000-06:00

new team gear is in!! '360racing' is official. will post team kit pictures later this evening. paying for my sins today by working at the bike shop. trying not to shop too much while i am here.

cold and windy commute to the shop this morning. 30 degrees and snowing a little riding over. maybe up to 4 inches of snow tonite. could be great mtb weather over the next couple of days.

later!

stover metal works

2008-01-27T23:00:00.000-06:00

are right, let's get the mundane suff out of the way early. finally got to ride the 'road bike' for a change. sun was shining and it actually got into the 50's. not until i was done riding though. high 40's, maybe 50 by the time i rolled into the garage. a group of 5 of us did a nice tempo ride for a couple of hours. i actually got in 3 hours and 50 miles. man, it was nice to be outside in the beautiful weather. it's been a while.........

i got some pictures below of my new reciever hitch bike rack. none of the big or even small companies makee a 'fork mounted' reciever hitch rack anymore. just the kind that lock in both wheels of the bike. i dont' like that style at all, and have heard to many horror stories about bikes falling off.
so a friend of mine, who was actually my first captain on the fire department, designed and welded one for me. he actually made one for himself first. his first production had an elbow hinge that swung out to the side of the car so you could access and open you hatch on the rear or your car. the one he made for me, i asked to simplify and lighten a little. it actually hinges at near the base of the tongue from the reciever to swing up when not in use. pretty cool stuff. allows me to get the bikes off the top of my car, which i hate because it hurts the gas mileage.

nathan is in the process of making a few more to sell and should have few to look at and to sell come 'spring fling' races. more info from 'Stover MetalWorks' forthcoming in future posts. nate is trying to get a website up and running and will have a contact number for questions and interested persons.

hoped you enjoyed the couple of days of sunshine and mild temps, cuz it looks like another round of artic air is headed towards kc and the midwest.

till next time,
vote, even if its for an idiot, at least vote!

note to haters out there

2008-01-24T17:02:00.000-06:00

let's see...............weather channel had olathe as 5 degrees when i left my house at 10:30 am to hop on my bike.....................who's a pussy, you ask. not me! anyway, i hopped on my mntn bike to meet ted at shawnee mission park. stayed warmer and out of the wind by taking the streamway path. no wind though and I ended up working harder than i would have preferred due to snow pack on the pathway. oh well. this just means i suffered the cold on the way home by taking the main roads. legs could use the break of grinding all the way home from the snow. able to spin higher gear on the road out of the snow.
it ended up being a really good ride. not near as bitter and painful as i expected. the sunshine and lack of wind really made for an enjoyable ride. ted has a cx loop figured out come next july when we start prepping for cx season.............god, i'm screwed, i am already thinkin' about cross'.
i need help!!

go ride! oh, i wonder what lucas was doing while ted and i were riding?hmm...................probably not riding.

2008-01-20T09:38:00.001-06:00

so i've got a couple of excuses for not joining some friends on a sunday morning ride. 1: its only 12 degrees. 2: it was a busy day at work yesterday, we had structure fire my crew spent a couple of hours at. 3: i dont want to battle with my wife with why i'm riding when i'll be on shift at the firehouse starting monday for 48 straight hours. then she will be working the next couple of nights during the middle of the week. so, i probably ought to put her first.

but honestly, those three reasons may be good ones. however, i think for whatever reason the motivation is down and it is just easier to hop on the trainer for an hour. the alternative is to spend 20 minutes preparing for the cold ride, then another 25 minutes driving to the trailhead, ride for an hour and a half at god only knows who's pace. this basically puts back home at noon or so, cuz the guys i'm meeting didn't want to start riding until 9:00. which really means wait for everyone to show and maybe the ride will start by 10:00.

like i said, its just easier to hop on the trainer. i may not be saying that come tuesday afternoon at the firehouse when i'll be starting my 4th day in a row with my daily ride being spent on the friggin' trainer. oh well! today i choose the pathe of least resistence.

i'm sure the guys will have a fun ride with or without me, and i'm sure my wife would'nt have kept me in the 'dog house' for very long, and i'm really sure i'll be cussing at the trainer monday and tuesday. the motivation to tough the elements and other life' obstacles will only increase over the next few weeks, and i will be riding under nasty midwest weather conditions.

besides, i'm not as 'lucky' as Ted. i am not able to commute to my firehouse.
I dont wonder, I Know What Ted is doing!

human powered two wheeled machines are better for you.........

trainer wins

2008-01-20T09:38:00.000-06:00

snow ride

2008-01-18T17:26:00.000-06:00

mid 20's and 3 inches of snow on the ground doesn't sound like fun stuff to ride in. let me tell you though, the tempurature becomes an afterthought and the snow makes it seem like you are on virgin singletrack. i rode out at shawnee mission park this morning and i think i had a couple of hikers and another mtb'er on the trail before me. as much as i wanted to do an easy tempo ride, it is really impossible to do that kind of ride in 3 or 4 inches of snow. unfortunately you are going to have to work a little harder than on a normal day. it was still a super fun ride, and for those of you who haven't ridden off-road in the snow. you need to try it, it's well worth it.

oh well, back to work on shift tommorrow which means more trainer time. my hour and a half ride will have to carry me thru until i can get out again on sunday. think i have got my new 'ride' dialed in. had to get rid of the riser brs and go back to flats to get handlebar height to where they were on my previous bike. feels a little more agressive with flats instead of risers. jury is still out though.

so till next time........dress warm and go ride!

maiden voyage

2008-01-15T18:47:00.000-06:00

First ride with the new bike. i only rode off-road for about 30 minutes before the ground was in full thaw mode. it got really goopy and i just didn't want to deal with spending 2 hours cleaning it, since i was going to change front ders later in the day. another 30 minutes on gravel and pavement at shawnee mission park gave me an easy recovery ride of an hour.
The 'Niner' rode like i thought it would. steeping head tube created a quicker handling bike compared to my Fisher 29'er. i also thik itmight be a pound lighter. this is unsubstantiated though, cuz i haven't weighed it yet.
I think i will make another change in the set-up of mountain bike. i am going to a single ring up front, replacing the standard 3 rings. i just don't like the lack of clearence issues and the cross gearing really limits your gear choices anyway. i've got 3 chainrings on order, a 32, 34, and 36 tooth. depnding on the trails, i will change out accordingly. i am unsure how the single ring will work in race scenerio, so i will use the next month and a half to experiment with the 1x9 set-up. i hope it work out, cuz the simplicity of it really intrigues me. i've run a 1x9 set-up on my cross' bikes the last 2 race seasons and loved it. however, a mountain bike race has got a little more elevation change an is generally at least an hour longer than a cross' race. we'll see..............if the 1x9 experiment doesnt work for racing, then plan B is to go to a 2 ring set-up, similar to a road compact gearing set-up. i've had in mind a 29/40 , 30/40 or a 29/42 gear set-up. with mountain bike cranks, its tough to find anybody making the exact sized rings with the right bolt pattern and spacing. i think my only option will be going back to an octa-link style BB and crankset. and i belive my only option is the company FSA. they are the only company that i can find doing that kind of set-up and gearing.
I've got a cold and possibly wet commute to the bike shop tommorrow. i hope its snow and not rain. i think kansas city is supposed to get another blast of arctic air over the next week and a half or 2. makes for some long cold base miles. fortunately my motivation is still pretty good so getting on a trainer a feww days a week doesn't seem so horrible right now. eventually the monotony of it will drive me outside to bear 15-20 degrees, even 10 degrees on the mountainbike. riding in the frigid cold is like anything. if you are prepared and dress acordingly then it can be an enjoyable, almost an adventurous experience.

till the next time! and don't bother steering on ice.............

the new ride, courtesy of my beautiful better half

2008-01-14T21:09:00.000-06:00

alright alright, my man my man.......about 3hours of leg work and i got my new mountain bike built. my lovely wife bought me the Niner frame for x-mas and it was delivered to the shop today. i could hardly contain myself. going to take it on a test run tommorrow morning on some frozen singletrack and check my build. i got it built with not really any catches to speak of. which is new for me. each build over the last couple of years has gotten a little bit smoother each time. the only thing missing on the bike is my Thompson seatpost i have on order. i didnt realize the niner aluminum and scandium frames came with that gigantic seattube(31.6). oh well, when you look at the pics below just imagine that good looking bike with a silver thompson seatpost! we'll see tommorrow, but i think i need a new front der. ther's a lot of play in it so i think i may match it with the rear and make it a sram instead of the shimano

anyhow, check out the pics! and
see you on the trail!

oh man! why did he have to show up?

2008-01-14T08:29:00.000-06:00

so as a cyclist that races you know, if you aren't a cyclist, winter base miles can be excruciating, monotonous and painfully insane. so mixing your training up with the mountainbike on some singletrack is a much needed chance to has some fun. and even a group ride here or there is really fun as well........although you have to be carefull. this 'group ride' can be a chancy deal at best. first of all, you need everyone on the same page i. e. it's 'base miles' which means guys should hopefully taking it easy. 'base miles' are a time for the slow long time in the saddle kindof training. however, you should know or at least i should, that when you get more than 4 males cyclists together...............well..................let's just say there is too much testosterone in the group or the levels of ability differ enough that you have a higher pace than normal or wanting a person might be looking for as far as following there training log. you might just have guys on different periods of there 'program' or training. whatever the case may be, i should have friggin' known better.!!!!!!!!!!!!!...........
however, the doldrums of base training were blinding me and i was under the impression that a sunday group ride on the road with 10 other guys in sub 32degree weather was a really good idea..... man, did it sound like a lot of fun too!
jeez! am i a dumbass, or what?...........i should've known better, but it had been so long since i had riden with somebody other than myself and maybe my friend ted from time to time, well...................i was blinded i guess, or in denial.
i was immediately mad aware of my mistake and slapped back into reality when i pulled into the bike shop parking lot on sunday morning by who i saw there. the 1st person i see was an immediate 'ah shit' kinda reminder to what i had gotten myself into. a realization that this was not going to be an easy ride. hell, i was the 3rd guy there, who else was going to show up that was going to cause my legs to be ripped off? that first culprit that brought me back to my 'mortal' cat 4 world was 'Bill'. let's just say 'Bill' is a cat 1 racer who has been racing for over half of his 38 year old life and is one of those guys that just loves, i really mean 'loves' to suffer. shit! what on earth was i thinking? too late to back out now. 2 more guys show up..............i'd really be a puss if i snuck out now. oh well, its sunday, i'm off for 4 days, i can just decide to suffer. these are things i am telling myself to mentally prepare for the impending pain. its the last ride before a recovery week in my training cycle, the previous ttwo days of easy recovery rides have made my sore, heavy legs feel better........hmm, what else can i lie to myself about...............this is gonna friggin' hurt!!

skip to 3 and a 1/2 hours later, im rolling up to my driveway, i am tired, my legs are dead, i'm cold and somehow............i'm glad i took my 'asskickin'. it didnt hurt as bad as i thought, we didnt go as hard as i thought we would. oh, dont get me wrong, it still hurt, it was still a harder ride than i want for this type of year or that i have planned for my training. i might end up really feeling the affects a couple of weeks down the road...................still, its good to test yourself, even in the winter. its good to ride with guys who are stronger than you, its how you yourself improve and get stronger. right? thats what i tell myself anyway.
most of all though, it was just fun to ride with some company, some social ascpect to the ride i guess. sometimes you gotta throw the 'training book' away and just go ride. thats what time away from racing is all about. get away from whole 'just riding to train' mindset......for godsake! its a friggin' bike! go have fun!!

till next time, keep the rubber side down!

2008-01-11T21:31:00.000-06:00

the last cross' race of the year was this past sunday, the 6th.............all my free time is spent thinking about the next race. i think i'm crazy! march 2nd the first Heartland race of the year, the first mtb race, the first race of the year. my i'm consumed or obsessed. eaither one. i've got issues.

base miles.......god! it's already been a long three weeks, 9 more to go.....

new mtb frame is due in on monday.......can't wait to get that built up and some dry or frozen singletrack to ride it on. that is a much more enjoyable way to log base miles on.

short post, i'm up early tommorrow to work. 530 comes too soon.

oh, here's something....ran a call yesterday, 23 year old kid took a 9mm to his mouth and pulled the trigger. how does it get that bad. hopefully he was an organ donor, cuz he had a heartbeat when we got him in the helicopter.

till next time!

Hello! Jan. 9: my first entry

2008-01-09T22:15:00.000-06:00

Well, this started cuz a friend of mind started a blog. ichecked it out and thought it was really cool. just a snapshot into his life. pics of wife, kids, dog, hell it was just a window into his daily life.
i sent him some pics my wife had taken of him racing his bike, he loved and posted a couple. i thought that was really cool.

my friend, Ted and i are out riding today, and i asked him, 'how do start a blog?'.....well, that answer led to this. i seem to be stumbling through the whole set-up thing.......not quite sure what will look good or what i should say. but as i was setting this up, that's where the whole 'journal' thing seemed to come to mind. kinda like that 8th grade english teacher asking you to write in you 'daily journal'.....we all know how big of a pain in the 'ars' that was.

this doesn't seem to be that way though..........multi-media technology, i guess?

so anyway, ted and i rode for a couple of hours together. company on the bike helps those base miles go a littke faster and a little easier. i got in 3 1/2 hours and about 46 miles. a miserable south wind made it feel like 32 instead of the claimed 44 degrees.

gotta go, i'm up early to work......24hrs/7am to 7am. just saving lives and making a difference. ha ha. actually i or my crew has 'ice rescue' training tommorrow. we get to put on a cold water wet suit and jump into a half frozen pond tommorrow. it is actually some fun stuff!! seriously!

until next time.