killthedarkness

jingle cross.

something was telling me not to go to jingle cross over the weekend but i went anyway. got the car loaded up, put the bikes on. i pull open the skewer on my new rocky mount tray and it breaks. ok, ive got 2 more. get the bikes on and start pulling out. flat tyre. meghan got me over to the tbs and pete let me steal the van for the weekend. got down w/ plenty of time. warmed up and felt alright. started mid pack at 19th. terrible start. took me several laps to get moving but by that time top ten was just out of reach. i made a few mistakes that really cost me. the start and once through the sandpit i racked my balls. saturdays course was the toughest cx course ive ever done. the climb up mt krumpit was brutal w/ the 44x18. ended up 12th on the day, no uci points.

stayed at heath's that night and got some solid sleep. woke up stiff and a bit sore. course seemed a bit  better for me. my start was much better as i was inside the top ten the whole time. the run up suited me fine. the open sections were tough but i managed to hang on. rolled in 8th for 4 uci points. that should put me starting about 70th rather than 105th at nationals. too bad i had to spend my race winnings on some new tyres on my car. my legs cramped on the last lap both days. i guess that means it was a tough course. wi state cx this weekend and then a weekend of rest for once. photos from madcross.

the judge, old style, and embrocation.

its not everyday your presented with such an opportunity as this. aom3 hooked up the seats for the judge mathis show in chicago. the aomtrain has such prestige, they actually call him to see if he can attend. how could i pass on an invite to enjoy the vip life.

thursday nov fifteen. night train, d-rail, archer, and myself load up for the trip. cracker barrel for breakfast. park n ride on the train. archer led us on brail, arriving at the studio right on time. the range of mathis fans is unparallelled. there was us, a bunch of old drunken ladies on a bday romp, the queen and princess, the shemale and her creepy little lapcat of a boyfriend, and so on. we saw six cases of which four were out of control. dont knock the judge until youve witnessed it first hand. one of the most bizarre and humorous events ive attended. the bar down the street let us down as theyd tapped the last keg of old style, resorting us to mgd. ill have some premium face time when the episodes air in five weeks. right on the isle on the right side facing the judge.

with the mathis spectacle done, focus switched to work, then racing. a day at the shop before jesse, aom, and myself packed up the van and headed up mpls. one am  arrival at the sharps and off to bed. the next morning i got some coffee and bananna bread as archer pondered drinkin after the hunts and watching the football game with kevin. a little coaxing and were off to crystal for the mn state cx champs. aom rocked the massive 4s race. such focus. he passed on both water and high life. other than the uci races i did earlier in the season, this  race was the most stacked. the race got off to a quick start with kurt refsnider getting the holeshot. we filed in line and a lap in it was d-money leading hareland, bergman, refsnider, pellis, jesse and myself. jesse, pellis and i rode the majority of the race together as the gaps slowly grew. the stair runup was brutal. i made a late dash for glory with a lap and a half to go, ending up 5 seconds down on hareland and a 5th place. superfans a plenty. thanks to the kwood/one on one/cykel garage crew, bbbb, hollywood cycles, and the rest of the superfans. a short lived trip lasting about fifteen hours. with the van loaded its back to madison to do it all over again.

i woke up to sore joints and legs. likely a leftover present from the stair runup the day prior. as race time grew closer, meghan and i loaded up the bikes and headed to sun prairie. years prior this had been the state champs. this is the race that can rival the mn races in terms of of superfannage. meghan found the rowdies and got down to business as i started warming up. the race seemed to be just as stacked as the mn race. brian was there, bergman and pellis came down from mpls, kurt refsnider, brian eppen came up from iowa city. off the line i got a good start, settling in to fifth behind brian, bergman, kurt, and eppen. pellis bridged up a few laps in. soon after eppen started fallin off. i bridged to matter, bergman and refsnider. a lap or 2 later i found myself dodging kurt as he hit the pavement. a hard effort brought the front two back. i went to the front for 3 or 4 laps befor matter got around. we got a small gap on bergman that held to the end. my one chance to take the win was foiled as brian caught  me trying to sprint around him. he put in a hard effort to hold me off. the sprint was uncontended as brian took the win by a second. much better race than saturday. a great tuneup for the double uci weekend in iowa. after is was a trip the d-pow and j-pow's for a bit of food and tequila shots. thanks to bob brown, twin six, meghan, the bkb superfans and the pow's. photos by skinnyski and djohnnymac.

finale.

it never fails. get to the end of mtb season and start racing cross. it's only an hour, how bad can it hurt? your halfway through the first race and you remember. the pain doesn't translate. it's a different pain. so racing cross for a month prior to iceman should make it feel easy. wrong again. jesse and i headed up thursday. got in late and got a room. next day, up to preride. at the start we met up with travis and checked out jhk's bike. proto carbon tubulars w/ dugast 45's. i need some of them. rode the first 5 or 6 miles of the course out and back. drove to the finish and rode the last six miles. the course was fast and we knew times would be blazing. then off to our suite at the grand traverse. race day we were up semi early for some bob evans. all i could manage was two pieces of toast. i considered it a victory. raceday was pretty pleasant. mid forties and not much wind. got a little screwed on the startline sitting 4th row. got off clean as simonster, matter, and jkh were hammering the line. a few miles in i was at the tail end of the ten person paceline. i started dropping off a little as ned hammered past me. i felt spent already, less than five miles in. we hit smith lake road as cole, lummis, and i struggled to bridge up. we never did. we rode together for a few miles before lummis and i dropped cole. we still had the leaders in sight but they slowly disappeared. we kept the pace steady and picked up ross a bit before  williamsburg. we heard the time gap of 2 minutes. that was a bit discouraging. lummis was pullin in the big dog on the straights as i did my best to hold his wheel. soon enough we picked up mike anderson. i went to the front for a while as they shadowed me. at anita's hill lummis let me by to carry the momentum. i ran the top quarter and saw a gap. that was all the motivation i needed to hammer it to the finish. i managed the hilly last five miles without cramping and rolled in seventh. a disappointing gap behind matter, but still a decent placing. props to brian for throwing it down and taking the win. and jesse for fifth rolling the 38x16. my gear choice of 33x14 was about perfect. smaller and i'd have stood no chance, bigger and id have been running more. thanks to gary fisher for the bike, bonty for the bits to get it rolling, twin six for keeping my feet warm, oakley for the vision, lummis for pullin me around the flats, jesse for the motivation, and meghan for the vibes. now i guess i can focus on the pain an hour at a time. should be easy now, right?

warsaw.

the poles sure know how to throw a rockin cx race. kletzsch park was the grounds. really twisty course, a bit of singletrack, and a brutal hill dubbed by russell as the polska puker.  with the absense of jesse and brian, it was wide open. after a so so start i bridged to kyle on lap one w/ mikey and bender in tow. kyle dropped his chain at the end of lap one (and then flatted) so he was out of it. mikey and i got away a bit. a bit of a gap on lap three was all the motivation i needed to gun it. after that it was ride hard in tt mode. good iceman tune up. second win for the bob brown brigade in as many weeks. were startin to roll pics by captain kittens.