MmmmmmmMmmmmm. Well...grassy road racing.

I'm OK with that.

John, you're bad!

Yeah, I can get away with that stuff because I'm here, safe behind the frozen Cheddar Curtain!

Will be in Grafton for the WCA 'Cross race and would like to get to the Chicago event, but it's a two hour drive ... NOT.

Will hit the MTB race in Sheboygan with the 100 other photographers.

Don't forget a dry hat to change into!

From a race out east (PA?). I don't know and I don't think I want to know:

Answer: You needed to pass under that tent to use the "shortcut." The shortcut has a fee. It's different every week, but this week the fee to pay was to have whipped cream sprayed down your shorts plus chug beer while they do it.

WOW - Crazy!

Made it out to the Pumpkin 'Cross for a bit. Sicker than a dog, so I'm back on the couch now. But it was a good time. Got to cheer on the fellas with the cowbell.

Going to take a look at a used SSCX bike tomorrow. Hopefully it'll fit! I want to give this a try soon!

That is some of the craziest **** I've ever heard.

Lots of fun at Pumkin' 'Cross. Good turnout with decent Chicago representation. Chilly start and then as the 3's started, someone opened the window and it got COLD (38F) and it started snowing! That was miserable, but then when their race was over, the sun came out and it wasn't bad. Good to see Frunkin and Recursive mixing it up, although I don't know what Recursive was riding ... his little sister's bike??

Pix to follow.

(just got the Olympic Style ski jumping schedule in my email - winter must be coming! 118 meter hill comp. in Iron Mountain, MI Jan 30 & 31 - THAT's flying! )

Wow! That is some nutty stuff out east...glad the midwest is more "normal".

Big day tomorrow: I get to ride with the elite men of the Chi marathon to keep stupid fans from getting in their way. I get to blow a whistle. I'm super excited about it...but not the showing up at 6am and standing around for 1.5 hrs before riding around at 13mph in the damn cold part. If I had the duty clearing with wheelchair racers I may have gotten dropped, but at least I'd be warm!

Then I go inside, warm up, change clothes, eat and head to Dan Ryan woods and do the 4b's.

I think I may need to put my 12-26 cassette on...125 feet of climbing. man. If that were a road race I'd be scared.

I have my 12-27 cassette on. But from talking to one of the south chicago wheelmen guys on my group ride yesterday, it's a steep hill. F'n steep hill.

Give that man a Pabst Blue Ribbon!

New SS CX bike in the stable as of this afternoon.......giddee up!

Well, get it out of the stable ASAP!

I feel like a freight train just ran me over. Holy crap.

Punkin' 'Cross

I've barely been on the bike the past two weeks (work/life/daylight/enthusiasm issues) so I decided to skip the ChiCrossCup for a couple of weeks. Today I headed to the Quad Cities for the Olde Towne VandeCross in Moline.

Very well set up and thought out course. Far more work put into it than ANY of the Chicago races I've done. They also manage to nearly match the payout of Chicago despite only having 80 or so racers come out compared to the 300-400 for the cross cup.

Anyway. I'll post up a full report in a day or two. The short version is that a couple of us missed our start due to a misunderstanding, had to dig deep to catch on. Had no top end whatsoever, felt quite detrained, but because it was a 60 minute race I basically TT'ed it and hauled in quite a few riders. Spent the first 8 laps trying not to barf and the last two hoping my back wouldn't give out. Only got lapped by Brian Eppen, which is no shame.

I finished 2nd in my Cat and won $20. First time ever winning cash in a race. Very refreshing to see such a well-organised low-key series. Well worth making the trip. Going to do 3 of the 4 races in the series now and will try to drag others out. Recommended.

Psi, MJH2, I saw your teammate Jason S. finished 5th, I think, in the 3/4 race. Didn't get the chance to say hello.

Tjayk posted this elsewhere, I steal from him because this is just too hardcore.

Minneapolis is hardcore!

My teammate says the Motrin is wearing off from that course (Wirth) yesterday. Sounds like he hit those stairs 8 times in the 45+ race....

Did everyone die??

Have a beer:



Borrowed from bilelikemad (awesome photo) https://bikelikemad.org/comments.php?...#Comment_49473

Even though I think Carpentersville is the best-designed (of maybe three candidates) in the ChiCrossCup, I headed up to Madison to do Badger Prairie and Cam-Rock. Badger Prairie is a long, long slog of either up or down, a couple of long hills and a lot of short hills. No flats. Some fast turns after descents. 10 minute laps. Not really terribly interesting or crossy, really suits MTBers who like to put out short intense bursts - not my kind of course. It was a real lungbuster. Don't think I have ever had my heart rate up that high.

Cam-rock is surprisingly deceptive. Pre-lap seemed kinda meh, but riding at speed is completely different. Fast, very, very tricky corners at speed, barriers to break rhythm, plenty of passing opportunities if you had the nerve. A few hairpins and screaming downhills. Never banged elbows so much in my life. A real blast. Definitely my type of course.

Badger Prairie:

First race: Arrived late and started at very back of 65 rider field. Totally frantic race. Passed 25 on first lap, 5 on 2nd lap and 1 on 3rd lap. Never been so gassed in my life. Was only 10 seconds behind the group racing for 10th but couldn't bridge up.

Open masters: Decided to keep within my limits and wait for people to blow up. Unlike Chicago masters, nobody did. Passed a few people but everyone fought like a badger for their place - that's how cross should be. Harder work than I expected. Found the race much easier on the lungs than the first.

Cam-rock:

Got taken out of it at the start of my first race, then no snap (blame 2 races Saturday) and fell back to about 20th of 30 starters. Stuck behind a bunch of slower riders. Took me 2 laps to get past them. Lap 3 I made it up to main chase group. Last lap I got past them and two guys stayed with me. Didn't kill myself as the lead group was well out of sight. Locked handlebars at runup (my fault) and lost two places. Passed the two riders again and came out of double hairpin 150 yards before finish still ahead. Should have shut the door but took a wide line and guy behind tried to go inside kamikaze-style but only succeeded in banging me off the course. We got tangled again and he was first to untangle himself. I was stuck in a too-high gear and he got to the line first. Wondered why he was so anxious to kill himself for 6th. Turned out there was no lead group and I had thrown away the win.

2nd race. 55 starters. started in 2nd row and only faded to about 25th. Course had dried up considerably and was much faster than the sloppy course of 90 minutes earlier. Passing was much easier. Found my rhythm and just kept passing people. Worked my way into the top 10 with several more riders in my sights. With a lap to go I wiped out on a sharp uphill off-camber corner and lost 4 places. Was pretty knackered at this stage (4th race of weekend) and only caught two of the four. Got top 10 but should have been top 5.

Gotta work on my starts and barriers. I'm really losing a lot of time here that I shouldn't. And it's starting to cost me places.

Things are looking up.

Great report. Sorry about missing the win!

I did that in a ski race once "I tried and tried to catch the guy ahead of me, but just couldn't bridge!"

Uh ... there was nobody ahead of you.

"OH!!"

carpenter park race was great. i loved lining up 30 min before our race. very nice guys.
got caught in a crash on the road portion. still finished though. i was amazed at how bad people ride. its not hard. plus all the people that were cutting the course #311.
im out for 2-3 weeks

Carlos - Carpenters Park was re-done this year. It was very slow and very technical....welll not really but it had a turn about every 20 feet.

The racing has been different this year in the series. A butt ton of riders. So many from road it's pathetic. Jeff is right - we had to line up 30 minutes before our race and we still were about 3 rows back.

Everyone seems to have read all of the same advice so they all hammer like mad at the start. That coupled with the fact that everyone is cold and they started us on a long paved straight before the firs turn into a soft mud/grass transition....

.....and there was a big pileup before the first turn. I was in front of it but someone hit a sign and then nailed one of our guys. It took him out and then most of the rest of the field....including Jeff.

have spent a lot of time talking to everyone about why this year kind of sucks and we are all kind of feeling the following:

Sure cross is supposed to be fun and it's great to have a cheering section out there but it's crossed into a carnival for the purpose of being a carnival.....oh hey....there's a race going on i think...

It's filled with all sorts of guys now that don't seem to jive with the cross mojo. As a result a lot of us have decided to do the 30+ instead. Not because we want to do well but because the vibe is much better.

All in all I had my best race of this year yet but I was still 42. Riding only 1 day a week and spending every waking moment building wheels isn't helping that cause. Time to just fnid a way to enjoy the racing and embrace it.

I think this year has been the most fun yet, and the bigger and rowdier the crowds, the closer, IMHO, we get to true cross mojo. Whatever the opposite of suck is, 2009 has done it.

The atmosphere reminds of what I imagine kermesses are like in Belgium. Kermesse, after all, is the Dutch word for "festival." ("Carnival," if you will.) And as I understand kermesse spectating, it's not much about the racing either. It's about stepping out of the tavern every 15 minutes to hoot and holler at a mass of cyclists flying by, then returning inside to your beer and sausage.

When I see videos of cross in Europe, I don't much in the way of golf clap. I see a bunch of people -- men, women and children -- getting their beer on and screaming their lungs out.

I raced Saturday in Wisconsin and although I loved the course, I have to say I was somewhat disappointed in the "vibe" (John's brilliant photo above notwithstanding). Hardly any heckling. No bacon hand-ups. No music other than a guy walking around with a boom box. And only one 4's race. Cross appears much healthier down here, and I posit we do the "vibe" much better.

But that's the great thing about cross. There's room for everyone. The guys who come to race and perform can coexist with the guys who are only doing it for fun, all without getting in one another's way for the most part. That's a big difference from the road.

+1

The more the merrier I say. What's happening now sure beats riding laps around the team sponsor's father's corn field on your beater Schwinn Varsity on opening day of deer hunting season with 10 other nut jobs who also think that cyclocross is the greatest thing on earth. Yeah, us old farts had it good 'back in the day'.