2009 CX Nationals

After a period of blogging negligence, I am back at it. Now that I have something write about—2009 cyclocross nationals in Bend, Oregon—I had better get back at it.

John Heine and I left Albuquerque Thursday afternoon with luggage full of lycra, cowbells, and an optimistic amount of school work. We arrived in Portland after being delayed over an hour in Salt Lake City, picked up our rental car, and made for Bend. Arriving at our sweet host house in Bend at midnight, we were welcomed and showed to the one place we wanted to see—our beds. After a short night’s sleep, we cruised to the course in the dark for a slippery pre-ride. The course was the perfect mix of packed snow and ice, ensuring some awesome spills. After pre-riding, the Albuquerque folks got their first treat of the weekend, courteously of Tiziana. Tiziana rode a clean, fast race and took the stars and stripes. Awesome! John, Chris, Aiden, Patrick, and I lined up for a very slick singlespeed race. I had an okay race with only 3-4 crashes.

Friday continued on with a whole lot of old folks racing. Mario, Dave, Chris, Patrick, Robbie, and Dax all raced hard and did the Albuquerque scene proud. I also had the pleasure of yelling at Jeff Winker twice a lap during his Masters race. Jeff was killing it in striking distance from the podium; Unfortunately, he had some bad luck on the last lap and slipped back to 11th. He had to settle for a really good result over an awesome result. Later, I had the chance to talk to Jeff for awhile. It sounds like he will be racing knobby tires more often next season—awesome.

Saturday included talking to Todd Wells, Jeremy Powers, and Troy Wells. We asked them to give John Verheul a hard time for skipping nationals because of “law school.” They all said they would. Hopefully, John gives me crap for causing him grief. The course thawed on Saturday and several wet laps were logged. The laps were fun and I overdid it and went to bed Saturday with sore legs. Oops. In an attempt to continue my streak of good choices, Mario, Dave, John, and I ate at Pizzamondo downtown. The food was an excellent idea (thanks Jason); I just wish that my digestive system would have agreed with it on race day as well as my mouth agreed with it.

Sunday came quickly and started with Nutella and another drive in the dark. The course had re-frozen on Sunday morning. I crashed once in the pre-ride and it hurt. I might as well have gone down on pavement. The collegiate race happened. John did well. I did not. Fortunately, the rest of the day was awesome. I cleaned up my bike and changed in time to buy a beer and watch the beginning of the Katie Compton show. I finished my beer with enough time to sneak to the back of the course and cheer on the elite women. The guy across the course and I had a blast cheering on every girl. Katie didn’t respond to our cheering; however I was pretty stoked to see Amy really dig deep a few times.

The elite men’s race was nothing short of incredible. Jeremey Powers took the holeshot and didn’t look back. He had a nice gap. Page and Todd Wells were leading the chases from behind. JPows crashed and Tim Johnson and Trebon took off. Page dropped Jamey Driscoll and JPows and Todd dropped Craig. It was awesome to see these guys in action. Tim Johnson is a powerhouse. Todd and Page fly into corners. Adam Craig is super clean compared to those other folks. Carl Decker and Troy Wells give the best responses to cheering. Carl managed to crack a smile every lap. Troy tossed us his muddy, prescription glasses. I don’t know if he recognized us or what… We returned them post-race.

After the race, we had an excellent meal at Bend Brewing Company (the BBC, locally). If I can recommend one restaurant from this whole weekend and if I can recommend one brewing company, I would recommend BBC. I had grilled Marlin with sautéed mushrooms and butternut squash raviolis; it was a perfect way to end the season. John and I stopped by our host house one last time. Across the street was the Jonathan Page after-party to which John and I were fortunate enough to be invited. We talked to Jonathan Page. I don’t care what anyone says; Page is a nice guy and top-notch racer. I recommend reading his nationals report (link). John and I left with enough time to drive through some light snow at Mt. Hood, arrive in Portland around 11:30, and turn in our not-late rental car.

Back in Albuquerque, I have been busy playing catch-up. What a great season, though. So thanks to the following people for making it awesome (sorry if I missed you): My season started racing for the Wheel Cyclery; so thanks to Dan and Heather and all the other folks who have and are putting up with frame replacements for me, thanks to the Smithville Trail folks who started 2009 right with some frozen singletrack rides and for cleaning up some destroyed trails after the Bonebender 6-hour. Thanks to John Harter, Doug Long and Aaron Brown for an epic ride to get me motivated after my first knee injury. Thanks to Nob Hill Velo for many excellent summer road rides and letting my hop on board in October and to Mario for introducing me to the team. Thanks to Lawrence, John, and all the other Lobo Cycling officers for resurrecting one hell of an awesome collegiate team (next season will be awesome). Thanks to the following travel companions: John, Elliott, and Alex. Thanks to Randy and Cindy for helping cover travel expense during the Road Apple Rally. Thanks to Dave, Tanya, Avery, and Olivia for opening your doors so generously to John and I. Thanks to Jason for introducing me to Dave. Thanks to Active Knowledge for hauling bikes, giving us a place to get warm, and providing tons of encouragement at nationals. Thanks to anyone who has given me some piece of advice or cheered me on during any race.

The view from the venue didn't suck

There is really only one way to warm feet post race

Though the bottom half of the course was cleared of snow, it was sufficiently slick.

Odd 'n Ends

November has arrived once again. That translates to a few different things for me: 1) I finally start racing cyclo-cross bicycles, 2) I am finally going to celebrate a No-Shave November, 3) I can start wearing a jacket. Here’s a little more on each of these things—plus a few pictures from California:

Cyclo-Cross:
Last Sunday I drove about 15 minutes (much shorter than 17.5 hours) to Bosque Middle School to race my cyclo-cross bike for the first time this year. After cheering on the Cat 4s, I lined up for the Cat 3/4 race. The first few laps went by quickly. I chose a gear that was a little too easy and spun out on some of the straights. At about the mid-point of the race, I found myself on the back of the 4th, 5th, and 6th place riders. The race went on and my friend John dropped the hammer and blew the group up. I passed 6th place and finished in that place.

After a few conversations and not riding, I lined up for my first Cat 1/2/3 bike meet. After getting a horrendous start and felling like crap, I decided to “ride into” this race. This can be an excellent strategy for races on the order of 6 plus hours. However, for a 60-minute, wide-open, hammer fest, this is probably a not-so-excellent strategy. Upon the subsidence of leg pain, I realized my “riding into it” strategy was not a good one. Accordingly, I started passing people. After a solid streak of two passes, I didn’t pass anyone until after getting lapped on the final lap. I, surprisingly, had another solid two-person passing streak. I ended the day finishing 9th, talking to my friend Chris about how bad our legs felt. Really, I can’t complain about a mid-pack finish at my first Cat 1/2/3 race.

I’m racing 4 times this weekend. I’m at the end of three-week block of training. Hopefully, I can figure out my gearing and have some fun this weekend. Next week is going to be really mellow—fantastic.

No-Shave November:
I’m about a week into No-Shave November. I’ve want to participate in this fine, lazy-college-male-oriented event for the past few years. Finally, not having any legitimate responsibilities—when you work in a lab in a basement, people’s expectations are low—or interviews, I am able to participate. At the end of the month, I anticipate the results to be somewhere between unimpressive and embarrassing.

Jacket Wearing:
After not were a jacket for the last few sub-freezing days of October, I pulled on a jacket and felt warm. I do not really know why I wanted to make it to the end of October without donning warm clothing, but I did.

Here are a few pictures from my mountain bike nationals trip.

On the return trip, Alex and I tooked a scenic route around the West Shore of Lake Tahoe and through the mountains:

Also on the return trip:
From the North Shore of Lake Tahoe looking SE:


Owen's Valley, CA just North of Lone Pine. When the spring comes that snow will melt and end up in L.A. over 250 miles away.
Not CA. This is me on the job. Somethimes work is hard.

Phoenix and Truckee

When you are taking a class in which the homework is unlike the lecture material your motivation to work on that homework is readily diminished and your motivation to do other things—write a blog entry for a blog that is almost embarrassingly out of date—grows stronger. So, I’ve put on some Bob Dylan and am doing just that. As I revisit Highway 61, I wonder where to start. Since my last post, I have spent about five hours racing and 49 hours traveling to and from those races.

Collegiate Conference Championships went okay. The Leonard brothers, Alex and Elliott, and I left Friday, October 9th at 5:30 PM bound for a hotel in Scottsdale. Our drive out took us through Flagstaff in the dark. When you’re driving on I-40 at night towards Flagstaff, the city seems to come out of nowhere. It was at this point in the drive that my latest dream was realized. I long to see “Flag” during the day. Turning south, we moseyed into Phoenix at interstate speeds. After a 30-minute, stomach-churning drive through the disgustingly contrived, suburban metropolitan area that is Phoenix, we arrived at our hotel.

Race day started early with the team—now seven strong—enjoying a continental breakfast while I ate my cheerio-grape nut mix from home. We cruised to the race site. At first glimpse, everything seemed legit and annoying. After a summer racing in New Mexico, I expect the staging area to be minimal but well organized with evidence of free post-race beer from a local brewery. I didn’t get that vibe. I got the these-folks-take-themselves-a-little-seriously and that-announcer-can-shut-up-now vibe. However, I was assured that the trails were awesome. Race went off fast. That’s legit, but I am no good at this high desert stuff. I was moving up steadily after surviving the initial lactic acid bath. Then my skewer came loose. I fixed it and progressed more. Then I think I got lost; though, I am still not sure if I did. Then I returned to progressing. Then I flatted. I fixed that and suffered lots. I was completely floored at the finish and bummed that could not make up all the places I lost after flatting. That said, my level of exhaustion was a strong indication that the trails were, in fact, awesome. Everyone from the team talked while I drank water and ate Oreos (high fructose corn syrup is good for temporarily staving off bonks). It turns out that everyone raced a slightly different route on the horrendously marked and managed course. The results were accordingly screwed. We left the race for food. We stopped at a place called Senor Taco and ate Pizza. The pizza did the trick. Everyone on the team left looking like we had been at a spa or something. Finally, we left Phoenix and drove through some beautiful areas of the Payson, AZ ilk.

The following Wednesday, Alex and I left a hectic week behind, Lake Tahoe bound for Collegiate Nationals. We drove through Flagstaff in the dark again. That was lame. We arrived at the race site on Thursday, picked up our registration packet, and ate dinner with the CSU folk. That wasn’t lame. The next day we ate a legitimate breakfast at some café on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. The XC race was on Friday. The course was basically at 3.5 mile climb followed by at 4 mile downhill. Finally! I’ve been jonesin’ for one of these things. The guys were to do 4 laps. The start was a cluster, but a MTB start that’s not a cluster is the exception. I moved up solidly each lap. Then it started. At the beginning of lap 3, I started hearing a creak. It was small and intermittent; so, it was ignored. On way down, the creak became annoying and loud. Then the frame started flexing. “Crap, am I going to do a fourth lap?” I knew the frame was hosed, but I didn’t want to look. I eased up on the descent, so I could have a little extra oomph on the last climb and everything. With a little guidance from the generous CSU folk (they were handing us bottles), I pulled out of the race. I think I was just outside of the top 20 (of 75). I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with the CSU team at the resort.

The next day, I didn’t expect to race and ate two gingerbread pancakes for breakfast. I then cheered on Chloe and met Katrina Nash. Both were riding un-broken Orbeas. However, the CSU team’s awesomeness turned those things into bad decisions. Caley hooked me up with his Orbea Oiz at the last minute. The seatpost was broken. No worries…Monica let me take apart her carbon fiber Ibis to make a complete bike. With almost no warm up, I headed to staging. Because of my DNF the day before, I got a dead last row start. YEE HAW! The STXC started by going up a steep, loose, gravel hill. Perfect. I passed about 1/3 of the field. I moved up every lap but the one that I crashed. I moved backwards that lap and got complemented on my rad, ‘cross-style re-mount. I finished just better that middle pack. Not bad. After the CSU team unsuccessfully tried to talk Alex and me into staying for the party, we left for home. The trip started with an ultra scenic cruise through the Sierra Nevadas. This time we drove through the Mojave at night. We once again lamely drove through Flagstaff at night too.

I am stoked to start cyclocross racing. The race this weekend was canceled. It’s probably for the best. I need a break. This weekend, I am doing a long ride. I also want to hike in some snow in the Pecos Wilderness. I wonder what I am actually going to do.

*Ed Note – I wrote this and let it age a few days before posting it. So, right now I am actually listening to “Songs of Leonard Cohen.” I pedaled bikes for 8 hours this weekend and didn’t drive anywhere. It was wonderful. My ‘cross bike is finally ready to go. I’m stoked to start racing it next weekend.

Road Apple Rally

Around 5:00 PM last Friday, I jumped in a car loaded with 3 mountain bikes and one ‘cross bike bound for Farmington, New Mexico. My traveling companions for the weekend were Dave, Randy and Cindy. We were all headed to Farmington to take part in the longest running mountain bike race in the world—the Road Apple Rally. The race start was fast. However, because I lined up late, I ended up in the middle of the 2nd group on the long dirt road start. I quickly managed to shake that group and pass plenty of riders being dropped by the 1st group but could not make the 1st group. I was floored but managed to find a rhythm and finish the 30 mile race with a solid 3rd in the Cat 1 20-24 class in 1:58. The course was fun. When my friend Dan-o alerted me to this race I knew it was worth going. He told me that Cameron described it to him as “high dessert pump track.” Cam was right. Hitting whoop-dee-dos for almost 2 hours straight at over 7000 feet is enough to make anyone’s head spin with sand-infused delight.

Dave managed 2nd in his sport class on a ‘cross bike after getting lost a few time and after a long hiatus from mountain bike racing. Cindy got third in her class. It was her 1st mountain bike race…excellent job, Cindy. Randy had a rough day, but managed to break in his new carbon fiber, Specialized 29er. Speaking of Randy’s bike: he let me cruise around on it. I must say it was nice. The highlight of the weekend came when I shook Ned Overend’s hand minutes after winning the race. What a class act guy.

The Road Apple was my last race with the Wheel. Heather and Dan and a whole slew of other guys have been very supportive and helpful and encouraging over the last five-ish years. So, a big thanks to Heather and Dan and everyone at the Wheel who taught me a lot and put up with my constant destruction of my race bike.

Up next is SWCCC Mountain Bike Championships in Phoenix. That’s this weekend. Unless something goes terribly wrong this weekend, the following weekend will be Collegiate Nationals in Truckee, CA. Then a weekend off to do something other than race. I’ll have raced 7 times in 4 weeks, so that will be nice. Then I will be headed to Boulder for Blue Sky Velo and Boulder Cup CX races. It will be my first CX race of the season; hopefully, it goes well. I will be joining Nob Hill Velo for the that race and many races to come.

Alright, sorry for the scatter-brained, typo-ridden posts lately. I’m pretty busy. Hopefully, I can make a legit post sometime soon.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue

Something Old:
Last week was chalked full and passed in a blur. A lot had happened and a lot continued to happen; until tonight. I am sitting at home pretty tired and trying to contain a head cold. So it seems like weblogging is as good a pass time right now as any.

Last Saturday afternoon, I loaded all my camping and racing stuff into my friend John’s car and drove to Las Cruces for the collegiate mountain bike season opener, the Horny Toad Hustle. After hustling into the slow moving traffic outside the NMSU football stadium, John, Lawrence (drove separately), and I picked up our race packets 10 minutes prior to the closing of packet pick-up. Shortly after leaving packet pick-up, the blue skies turned dark grey and the buckets of rain were dropped on the city. So, the officers exercised their power, and we passed on camping and stayed in a hotel. Race day arrived with blue skies and dry trails. The raced marked the 1st of 4 high desert races. Long story short, I underestimated the course, rode sloppy, and after going back and forth with the eventual second place finisher, held it together for 3rd.

Tuesday night I attended a cyclocross race in Pine Flats (south of Tijeras). The race was low profile but still had a solid field. The course was non-traditional but ridiculously awesome. Each long lap, had tons of climbing, a few killer run-ups, pine needles, gravel, pavement, loose dirt, grass, logs, rocks, single track, double track, road, fire roads, etc., etc., etc. Basically, the best cyclocross course ever ridden. Thanks Ethan; I left with a perma-grin. I don’t know where I placed, but I do know that I took the holeshot. I hit the first part of the course with too much speed and rode over some really big rocks, really fast and decided to go hard from there. Eventually, I was passed but managed to chase back on to the lead group. Shortly after, we turned onto the really long paved descent. There my singlespeed and I spun out. The final highlight came when I sprinted with young Jonah. This kid is incredible. He is hardly tall enough to carry his bike over the barriers but is all heart. Cool.

Something New:
Last night, minutes after getting my Marmot Eos 1P delivered, I drove to Gallup to meet John, Nick (who, being twins are indistinguishable in the dark), and Graham (up from AZ). After camping out, we raced a really non-technical course that was actually fun, despite the fact that I did 95% of the race locked-out. However, I was doing okay until snapping my chain with about 8, of 30-some, miles to go. After losing lots of time I managed to pass about ½ the people that passed me. Still, I was disappointed. At any rate, all is not lost. Thanks to the rest of the team and their awesome racing, UNM leads the points omnium for the South West Collegiate Cycling Conference (SWCCC). Awesome. Hopefully, I can manage a better race in two weeks in Phoenix. After the race, Graham and I grabbed a bite to eat. It was good to catch up with him. Look forward to racing him in Phoenix.

Something Borrowed:
Last week’s cold snap did three things for me. First, it got me stoked for cross season and some fall hiking and camping. Second, it gave me this cold. Finally, it reminded me of this article by BikeSnobNYC.

Something Blue:
It doesn’t get much bluer than this or this; who can say?

The Pecos Wilderness: An Incomplete Photo Essay

Last weekend I finally made good on something that I have been promising myself for awhile: a day of hiking in the Pecos Wilderness. However, spending an entire day hiking puts one behind on most everything. So, instead of supplying the reader with the usual, excessively long, boring report, I will have to leave you dissapointed with a partial photographic essay.

About 2 miles into the hike, I turned off Trail 25 onto Trail 257 (see trail signage below).


Only minutes after turning down Trail 257, I crossed paths with four bulls, which apparently roam freely in the Pecos Wilderness. That's really safe.

Somewhere along the line, the government was convinced that mountain bikes do too much damage to trails but horses (or cattle, apparently) do not. Well, I've never seen a mountain bike trail this torn up.

After a few hours of travel, I arrived at Pecos Baldy Lake. East Pecos Baldy lies in the background and was next to be summited.

Right around timberline, I photographed the local fauna.

Because of an impending storm, I was forced to turn around early and not bag South Thruchas Peak. Here's my sad look at Trail Riders' Wall and South Truchas Peak (impending storm not pictured).

Sure enough the clouds opened up. For the last two miles they dropped snow.

Sometimes I forget why I ride. Lately, my motive has more-or-less been getting a good result in October. So, I have been using the road bike as a means to that end. It’s harder for me to have fun on a ride bike, and I have only been fueling my wrong motive. So, as I sat on the floor of my bedroom last night, almost three quarters through a four week block of training, reflecting on how productive the first two weeks were, how tweaking my knee and taking a few days off has thrown me off, thinking about how crappy work was on Wednesday, thinking about all the crap I had to get done Thursday, thinking about how little sleep I was going to get, I thought riding with my fat-tired friend sounded delightful. I wanted to smell sagebrush and dirt. I wanted to ride over rocks going really fast with some wider, flat handlebars in my hands. I tried talking myself out of it. I tried to convince myself that my planned short intervals, road ride would be more productive, but it was all to no avail. After all, I am a mountain biker. I set my alarm for 5:40 and hit the hay sometime after midnight.

Sometime before 7, I was in the car heading for the Sandia Foothills. It’s been over a week since I rode the mountain bike. Boy, I’ll tell you what, I was rusty. Making a road bike go fast and making a mountain bike go fast are fairly different things. No matter, the rust quickly flaked off and I was having a blast riding over rocks, looking out over the west mesa, seeing the Sandias over head, and not using toilets. On the second loop, I tried to do some intervals. I was moderately productive. However, doing intervals has never been so fun. I was hitting stuff fast. Without trying I was getting airborne over little bumps, railing corners faster than ever, floating over rock sections, sliding around in weathered, sand-size granite, and dodging a plethora of rabbits. My confidence was swelling all too quickly. It was not long before that weathered granite put my confidence on ice. I was coming over the top of a climb in a full, 44x12 sprint when I found an off-camber, loose, sweeping left turn. My line was not set up; I took the corner wide and started losing my rear wheel. Fortunately, I recovered that without going down. Unfortunately, I relaxed to soon. My front tire gave way. I slide with my bike, then flipped over it, then rolled a few times. I picked myself up in the midst of a cloud of dust, realized my elbow was bleeding, and glanced over my bike. Everything looked okay. Man, I got back on my bike and rode fast for another 20 minutes. I had sweat, dirt, and blood on me. I was surrounded by nature. What more could I ask for? This is why I ride.

Sometime before 7 tomorrow, I will leave for the airport. I am going home for my cousin’s wedding. I am looking forward to the weekend. I am excited for my cousin and her soon-to-be husband. My cousin and I are only five months apart in age. In a lot of ways, we grew up together.

Sometimes I wonder why Todd Wells always ends his blog wondering.