Me catching a handup....for those that haven't already seen it on my blog, or on facebook... ;)

Super Fanning is a growing pass time I see. We need to get some chanting or singing going like they do in Belgium!

Ohhh Ayyyy, Oh Ay, Oh Ay, Oh Ay .... Muuuseeeew, Muuuseeeew !

Those pictures look like the rides we used to go on when I was in high school

Finally starting to get some decent results. Enough with the Cat 4s. Submitted my upgrade request in time for states. MJH2 gets to chase me around in 2 categories now.

Upgrade request approved. Thank you Mr. Fowkes!

well that's it. The end of the CX season. Next year I will place.

It was definitely fun while it lasted. But after Montrose my legs are sore as hell. They were never that sore after the other races. I wonder if it was the course.
Entering the sandpit at Montrose was intense, at one point I flew over my handlebars and made a full roll in the sand :D

OK, Like damn ... that was seriously funny!

I think it was those short steep bits in the dunes and coming from under the bridge where you had to put out maximum force on the pedal for a couple of strokes just to crest without dabbing. Quite bumpy as well. That always contributes to soreness.

Surprised to see no BBVP and only a couple of Bike Heaven peeps.

talking about under the bridge. The section with the rough gravel under the bridge was where I wiped out during the 30+ race. Not pleasant at all to crash on such surface.

I hear ya! There's one compromise I will always make and that is to take grass to pavement transitions very conservatively. I'm allergic to crashing on pavement - I tend to break out in a rash (Boom! Boom!). btw, some promoters do make an effort to sweep rough gravel on sketchy pavement or make similar efforts to lessen chances of bad crashes.

That course was a huge improvement over last year. Although they went a bit hogwild on the repeated off-camber hairpins, there were a bunch of open power sections where one could pass, I loved going up the hill twice.

The one section that was ridiculous was the 50 yard dash at the start into the quadruple hairpins. Didn't make a difference if you could sprint or not. It was all about which row you lined up. The leaders were already long gone by the time you exited and the race for the top 10 was effectively over. Several races this year have had similar starts but this was extreme. Apart from being explicitly advised against in USAC rules, there was simply no need for it, there are plenty of natural obstacles in the course to string things out. Simply bad design.

Thre was also some confusion over the pit area. Originally, there was a double pit near the bridge. At some stage of the morning it was decided to move it to the start/finish and make it single entry. Although it didn't affect me, a lot of the flats happened on the concrete path exiting the sandpits, requiring riders to run more than half a lap to get a wheel change. Leaving the pit near the bridge would have worked out much better for them.

Early results from nationals which I relay from the Madcross email list:

Ian Haupt (Planet Bike) - 1st Junior Boys 13-14
Sarah Huang (Planet Bike) - 1st Junior Girls 15-16
Kaitie Antonneau (Planet Bike) - 2nd Junior Girls 17-18 (it appears she had an early crash and had to chase repeat champ Rivera)

Brian Matter of Sheboygan, WI has arrived in Belgium to race some UCI 'Cross races with Powers and Wells.

He's been posting his adventure on his blog along with some nice pix. I think he'll be there for a few weeks.

http://b-matter.blogspot.com/2009/12/travel-time.html

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mvWLWyOwLp...0/DSC08789.JPG

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mvWLWyOwLp...0/DSC08797.JPG

Let's race!

http://www.cyclingcaptured.com/2009-...98_4bJuc-M.jpg

http://www.cyclingcaptured.com/2009-...46314698_4bJuc

The annual junkyard 'cross race in Philly just after they got 20+ inches of snow!

Just an FYI - James LaLonde, one of the brother's LaLonde who rule the MTB and Cyclocross scene here in Wisco ... won the Milwaukee Bike Messenger race this past weekend.

I knew you guys were dying to know that.