killthedarkness

ghouls nite out.

halloween cx in mke. casey set up a great course. fast but some good sections to break it up. cole took the holeshot and i followed his wheel. after two laps it was cole, jesse, kyle and myself. jesse took charge after bunny hopping the three pack uphill. i was sprinting to keep up. halfway in jesse got a little gap after the barriers. i bridged up and noticed a gap. i put in a big pull for a lap and we were on our own. jesse took over for the last few laps.  i jumped with a few hundred meters to go and it was all out sprint. my slightly larger gear prevailed. i took my first cx win ever by a tyre width. i still cant bunnyhop worth a shit though. meghan superfanned it up with the "metal voice" on the uphill three pack. also seen in the pic to the right exercising said "metal voice". big ups to james for throwin down the smack in the fours w/ fisher guru aaron. pics by pete d.

commute10.25.

a kettles kinda day.

dolla bills.

the whitewater trash dash was an interesting race. after a slow start i worked my way up to a leading jesse. three laps in we along with b.matter had separated ourselves. the rediculously short laps had us doing 15 circuits through a bumpy field. i took the helm after a few laps and continued at a decent clip. the superfans were in full effect with beer handups and dollar bill grabs. i managed half a can of pbr and four dollars for my efforts. brian put in an attack and i stuck to his wheel as jesse had a lapse in effort and fell off just a tad. two laps later he was back on it with me in the lead again. i managed to clip a pedal on a corner and shoot into the bushes. after a short bridge i was back on it with jesse leading. no one really wanted to do much work, it was the amazing slow motion cx race. on the bell lap brian attacked again making it around jesse. neither of us were able to challenge much as we came to the finish it was brian, jesse, then myself. all withing three seconds but no sprint contested. weird. the new bbbb bike was perfect. i absolutely love the bike. after that we packed into the pcw auto and headed north to the wors banquet to collect our swag. unfortunately, work today so no double this weekend for me. im still on the wall about going to louisville next weekend. being a C2 event only top ten get points. its not all that likely i'll collect any there if i didnt in ohio. and it would be a lot cheaper staying in wisco to do helloween cross. photos courtesy of madcross.

bling part ii.

monster cross setup. 2.1 nanos w/ room for 2.2s. minimal toe overlap. rode off road a while and it was quite comfortable. bob didnt hold back on this one. reynolds 953 tubing. custom geometry based closely on my jericho cx but modified for large tyre clearance. this is the first 953 bike (to our knowledge) with significantly modified chainstays (bent and/or crimped) to fit a 29er tyre. steel fork with the super rad "brown crown".

take 2. race setup. swap the wheels and it's ready to go. parts build is as follows:

• wheels: bonty xlite tubular
• tyres: challenge grifo, 30c
• crank: white ind eno, 175 w/ 44t ring
• post: thomson elite
• stem: thomson x2
• saddle: fizik arione
• brakes: paul neo retro
• hs: king
• bars: bonty racelite vr, 44
• tape: fizik
• levers: sram force w/ white hoods
• pedals: crank brothers candy ti
• bb: shimano xt square taper

dont be jealous, bob can build you one too.

bling.

yesterday i drove to st paul to pick up my brand spankin new bob brown cx bike. bob helped build it and it is dialed. you'll have to wait for pics. i overtorqued my deda stem and cracked the faceplate. my new one will be here soon. until then, check out a few teasers of the world's first bent stay reynolds 953 rig. also, today mr belgium knee warmers himself stopped by the shop. a welcome surprise. thanks for the stickers!

***

credit. credit.

haternation.

following up race one in ohio, got my room at the super 8, ordered a pizza and got some sleep. drove to the course the next day around noon thirty. course was a lot faster and less technical than the previous day. i was a bit worried the 42x17 wouldnt be enough. same sixth row callup but the more open course allowed for some more passing. slightly better start. by lap two i worked up to top 25. somewhere along the line i bridged up and before i knew it i was in the top fifteen. the hammer stayed down and we caught tilly who fell off the group ahead. the pace didnt slow much and by the last lap i was in a small group from ninth to thirteenth. i went to the front on the last half and tried to drop everyone. i knew it was a longshot but worth a try. it didnt work. tilly snaked around me with a few hundred meters left. i stuck to his wheel through the sandpit. the canuck cut in on me just before the finish pushing me to the outside. i tried my hand at the sprint again only to come up just short of tenth and a uci point. oh so close. just got word today that the bob is done. pick up tomorrow and then time to get to know the new machine.

ohio is for haters.

first long day down. got up at twenty after three, in the auto by three forty driving the four hundred something miles to middletown, oh. made it without too much trouble. a detour around indianapolis and an ass backward way into town. mapquest had me driving on these crazy backroads for twenty miles. it worked though. got to the race pretty early, around noon. i thought the race was at three, turns out it was three thirty. sat around a while, saw a few big names. started getting ready and did a solid four or so laps on the course. solid ground with some loose corners, really quite twisty. one double set of barriers up a hill and a sand pit with a ninety degree turn in the middle. i got a solid eighth row callup. i guess after uci points its random. so started in the back half of the sixty plus riders. slowly worked up. halfway through worked up to around sixteenth. i went to the front and tried to hammer. me and two other guys got away and started picking up a few stragglers. tristan's group had about twenty seconds on us and we werent making up any ground. on the barrier section just before the finish i passed the two that were with me, hit the sand pit first and sprinted it out for fourteenth. no uci points but oh so close. tenth place was about 15 seconds up on us. barry wicks killed everyone with joaquim parbo in second. tristan rolled in ninth. kyle raced as well but not sure how he did. i guess at least i made enough money to pay for my hotel room. and i didnt get lapped by wicks. hopefully the legs are there tomorrow and i can reel in a few more guys.

swimmin.

im not a triathlete, but for some reason i decided to try it out last sunday. wors finale, lots of money on the line. i had a decent start on the road lead out, then made the mistake of letting a few guys cut right in front of me hitting the singletrack. and with that, the leaders were gone. i started to rally already 20 seconds off the lead halfway through the first lap. i caught seth and we started to go after them. under the bridge and down towards the river. i hit the little whoop way too fast and nose wheelied it into the river. seth got the front row seat. he yelled to see if i was alright and carried on. i was trying to decide whether i should dig around in the water to try to find my racing jackets or start the chase. i chose the latter. towards the end of the lap simonson caught me. i latched on, feeling like id already popped. i was already so out of it that i followed his wheel into the finish shoot rather than take a right to the lap. he kept going as i turned back and got on track. i intermittently caught some energy and put in surges. bridged to seth. we rode the lap. i continually tried to drop him but he was stickin. eventually i managed to drop him, seeing mikey up ahead. got mike's wheel on the last lap and soon after went by a cramping cole house. tristan was within reach, under ten seconds at one point. i just kept thinking that passing him meant another $200. he saw me coming and gunned it to the finish. i rolled in fourth at the line with not a bad pay day. d-money swanson took home the $1700 check with matter in second and tristan third. jesse was feeling the flow in the lead halfway in and flatted, denting the rim and splitting the bead. we've had decent luck with mechanicals this year. i flatted at rock cut. then we both had just one other. the bad thing being my wheel at sswc and this flat at a huge money race. but it is what it is, that's racing. with just iceman left on the mtb schedule, its time to mix it up with some cx. i'll be heading to to cincy for a uci double this weekend and then it's a weekend off. thats something like 8 or 9 weeks of racing in a row. i'll make up for it with another uci double the following weekend at the usgp in louisville. the bbbb bike is coming soon. and it's beyond crazy.