blackrainbow

the lowdown

there is a lot of hullabaloo surrounding last week's cx nationals. i did witness some of the drunken fans onto the RS fleet of bikes. rediculous. the weather was something to contend with. at 8 am, while james was puttin the wood to the rest of the ss field, it was upwards of 60 degrees. by the time i hit warmup mode around 12:30 it was around 30. by race time it was closer to 20. with a 2nd row start position i couldnt help but feel a little out of place. surrounded by guys who have been top ten at nationals for years. guys that get paid to ride their bikes. pffft. nothing i havent dealt with before. i threw caution to the wind and managed one of my better starts of the year, top fifteen after half a lap. the race itself wasnt all that exciting after a lap or two. a few gaps opened up in front and i was too far back to even attempt a bridge. spent the first half of the race w/ troy wells and matt shriver. shriver put in a monster effort and was long gone. justin spinelli bridged up and joined the group. i was loosing time on the twisty descent, then gaining it back after the 2nd pit. with a few laps to go we caught a fading jpow and jeremiah bishop. spinelli launched an attack and we sat about 10 seconds back. turns out jeremiah wasnt fading either as he sat on my wheel. last lap came around and bishop launched an attack. i chased hard in the last quarter lap, dropping troy and about a second behind jeremiah. we hit the pavement and i threw it down, coming up just short of 10th. cant help but wonder what wouldve happened had i gone a quarter lap earlier. either way, i was spent and it was a good effort. much improvement in confidence and placing over last year. after a few days of sitting on it i decided to submit a petition for the world's team. it's a longshot, but im gonna keep riding until the team is named.

black rainbows all around.

     

11th place at the nationals. could have gone a little better, but not sure the legs had much more in them. almost came from a few seconds back to catch bishop as we sprinted it out down the stretch. i then proceeded to plow over a bystander as she walked across the chute 20 meters after th line. full recap later. jamie young photos.

a1 brutality.

  day two of jingle cross was quite different than the first. i finally managed a good start off in third after a quarter of a lap. i couldnt follow it up with a very solid race though. i managed to go down at least once a lap. the off-camber, muddy section took me out nearly every lap. i hung on to tilford for lap then fell off. went back and forth with t wells for several laps as he struggled with chain issues. matter was gaining on me like mad but i managed to pull it together on the last two laps to salvage a fifth. no dollar grabs today. my body was shutting down the last lap as i crossed the line shivering. lesson learned on how to dress. decided to lay low this week and get ready for nationals. thanks to pb, edge, ridley, oakley, t6 and most of all, meghan for the help thus far. foto from velogrrl.

close but no cigar

day one at jingle cross in iowa city. surprised to get number 4, my first ever front row call up. had a decent start in the top eight or so. quarter of a lap in theres a massive pileup on the slickest part of the course. i managed to run around it and not lose too much time. the wells bros were the two in front of the pileup and after that they were gone. a small "chase" group of ajm, b-matter, and myself formed after about two laps. i put in some pulls but i couldnt shake either of them. somewhere in the last two laps we managed to lose brian. i led into the last lap and ajm sprinted past just before some twisty parts. not much chance to pass after that. i was plotting my move and before i knew it i was on the ground. oops. so much for a sprint for the last podium spot. rolled in 4th and a few more points on the total. today could be a shake up as theres about an inch or so of fresh snow that fell overnight.

real to reel

 

 

 

bohlster.

djonnymac.

states

  last wisco race of the season, state champs in hales corners. nearly identical course to last year with a few small changes. looks like the snow was a day late this year. with brian out in ny and james out sick i wasnt sure who would show up. dewey and EZ came down from MN for the race.

i tried to work on my start. got out hard and never looked back. the superfans were out in force today. i took full advantage as its gonna be a year before i get that again. managed a couple of handups and defended my title. the PB team took home quite a few titles on the day.

thanks to PB, T6, and Oakley for the support. foto by mg.

so jersey.

  the next stop on the cx sched for the year was nj for rounds 3/4 of the USGP series. the team drove out but i opted to fly so as not to skip out of too much work. left around 3 on fri for the airport. what a fiasco. after flight swaps and delays, i finally made it to philly about 12:30 am. our mechanic for the weekend, chris, picked me up and we made it to the hotel about 1:30. rough start. i got a bit of sleep and we headed to the course so the ladies could warm up. i managed a preride lap w/ b-matter and we were covered in mud after just one lap. looked like the mechanics would be workin just as hard as us.

i got a good start for once out of the second row and went with it. i figured the high amount of running was gonna favor me. i worked up as high as 7th riding with troy well and jamie driscoll. after a few laps of not so goodness i managed to come back and muster a 9th. fairly happy with the result, but sixth was oh so close. chris rocked it gettin the bikes set for two swaps a lap!

i awoke sunday with a bruised shoulder and forearm. a test run of shouldering on my normal left side proved pretty painful. looked like i'd be switch hitting if you will for the day. no better way to learn dis/remounting on the "correct" side then just being thrown into the fire. not as good of a start but i was still in the top fifteen after two laps. at one point possibly as high as 11th or 12th, but the prior day's race had taken its toll. i was nursing it for all it was worth and caught a tree branch with about four laps to go. withing 45 seconds something didnt feel right. was i really that tired? turns out a branch went through the sidewall on my rear tyre. i ran about a 1/4 mile and got a new bike. by this time i think i went back to 16th. it came down to a second wind, which luckily i got on the last two laps. managed to pull out a sprint in my 38t for 14th place. solid weekend. next up is the attempt to defend the state title. thanks to the sponsors: PB, Ridley, Edge, T6, and Oakley as well as the crew for lugging my stuff half way across the country. if you havent already, check out the PB team blog for some great pics and videos.

snowsuit

  with meghan workin sat it left a solid block of nothing to do. i was operating under the "if i wake up in time i'll go" clause. i woke up in time so i headed over to mke for the polska cx race. they increased the brutality of the course by putting the barrier at the bottom of the hill and adding another decent switchback climb. with some solid efforts the day prior i wasnt sure how the legs would respond. after two conservative laps i put in a bit of pull. soon enough it was brian, myself, and james hangin on. i inadvertantly got a gap on the runup so i went with it. kept the gas on for a few laps and managed to stay away. brian rolled in 2nd w/ james pullin a solid third. the polska crew did a rad job of it, one of my favorite wi courses. its good to be racing in wi again. the superfans never cease to amaze me. the crowd was all jazzed up on the runup; yellin, pushin, stickin beers out. djonn and nils keepin it metal! next up a little break from the cx scene to close out the mtb year. then it'll be off to nj for round two of the usgp. foto by al haas.

usgp day 2

the second day of the USGP in louisville played out very similar to day one. decent start but I got pinched pretty good. im starting to get used to the aggressiveness of the starts, but im not totally there yet. i stayed on it pretty well and worked up into the top fifteen. we had a solid group w/ brian and jesse in it. i was fairly content to follow for a few laps before puttin in a good dig to stretch out the line a bit. chris jones took over the next lap and dropped all but myself and brian. we kept on it pretty good down to the last lap. brian was leading and i put in the same move as day one right before the green monster. i managed to fend them off for tenth on the day. not a bad result but i cant help but think theres still more to be done. im on the fence about racing in mke this weekend. a day of housework actually sounds not too bad. thanks to all the sponsors for making it happen: planet bike for the tremendous support, oakley, and twin six. and last but not least, thanks to meghan for putting up with my racing schedule. foto by jamie young.

louisville gp #1

today was the first stop on the usgp series in louisville. brian and i started second row w/ jesse 3rd right behind us. i had an ok start but got a little lazy, or just not aggressive enough. as brian worked his way up i failed to do so. i spend three laps trying to get on his group but the few guys i was towing around wouldnt work to get up there. i got fed up w/ burning my legs and sat up. meanwhile, jesse was in the group behind after getting caught up on the first barrier set. his group caught up and after a few laps he put in a good flyer and i got on his wheel. we managed to switch off every lap and gap the chasing group. eventually we caught adam mcgrath. i put in a surge to hit the green monster first coming into the finish and sprint it out for 13th. brian was kinda spent from pulling his group around the whole race and we nearly caught him. 12-14th for the wisco guys, not too bad. i think a top 10 is definately w/in grasp though. ben popper had a great race to finish 18th. the ladies raced really well also. kristin recovered from an early race crash and worked all the way up to 11th while anna rolled in 14th. super fun course, lots of sand pits, and of course, the green monster. hopefully i'll be a little more on it tomorrow. at least we looked pretty pro in our new Planet Bike black skinsuits.