My Season Ends with a Fizzle

Not much blogging lately as it seems the end of my season was one big disappointment after another. Maybe I set too high of goals for myself, or perhaps I just blew it. Oh well, as it's just bike racing: not the end of the world.



The Ohio state championship was this past weekend, and I made the drive down to Yellow Springs with the idea of being on the podium in my head.

The race started way way mellow, and I sat in and bid my time the first 2 laps. It started to gradually ramp up a bit, but nothing too out of this world.

Then I screwed myself.

The course was a bit slippery, but I knew where the problem spots were. For some reason I didn't keep this in mind as I washed out in a 180 and lost contact with the lead group.

I was still sitting in 3rd overall in Ohio, and maybe 5th or 6th in the race so I needed to stay on the gas if I wanted to stay there. As Ernie was hot on my tail.

Staying consistent is key in a cross race. Too many mistakes and you're toast. With that being said, I made the world's biggest cat 4 mistake you can. I ate shit on the double barrier.

I got a little ahead of myself and was thinking about what I needed to do to make contact with the lead group.

One thing leads to another, and I don't unclip in time. Wham! Front wheel into the barrier, me over the bars. I was fine, but 3 people got by me and were long gone.

I had to go into the big as my stem had twisted on the fork steerer, and that was pretty much all she wrote.

I duked it out with 2 Bob's Red Mill dudes for 9th place. Which I was able to get.

That left me 4th overall in the Ohio ranks.

2 more cap city races on the horizon, but after that, a few weeks off, then it's Georgia time for the first >Snake Creek Gap TT.

Iceman Bonketh

Iceman has cometh and gone. Longer writeup when I get photos.

After dealing with some pretty pitiful traffic, which was a surprise as I was supposed to go with the fastest times from last year. I moved up to where I wanted to be with about 14 of the 29 miles down.

Time to sit in for a second and refuel... I grab my waterbottle and it's frozen solid. Water handup coming too, oh sweet, my frozen hands drop 2 handups.

I blew up spectacularly. Seeing stars for pretty much the last half of the race and barely limping back in.

1:51 for 4th place in 19-24.

Longer write-up on the horizon.

Louisville USGP

Holy late blog entry.

Louisville came and went. Disappointed with my results, but can't win them all. I had an awesome time hanging out with my dudes and that's what it's all about yo.

The course was super fun. A wild sandpit, sketchy wood sections, a few short super steep climbs. The logistics for the race definitely needed improvement. The thing that pissed me off the most was the fact that they cut our (2/3 and SS) race short because they were running late. Way to cut the biggest field of the day's race short.

I got a reasonably good start. Super duper Clif Bar wunderkind attacked a bunch, I felt good and was able to keep him in site for maybe 2 laps. Then I bit it in the sandpit. Shit.

After scrambling back on, I was riding with a dude for 4th. The top 3 were just too far out of reach.

I got outsprinted at the line by a junior, again, which is pretty much the story of my season. 5th place. I'll take it.

Sunday was a bit more fun, course-wise. They added some distance, got rid of a run up, and this lead to more fun racing.

I wanted to stay out of the wind for the first few laps, so I took the start a little easier. Bad idea. Clif Bar dude took off, and I wasn't in position to chase. No one wanted to go either, as there were still a few dude that start well and then blow up later on leading the way, so they were pretty much at their limits.

I worked my way up to 3rd, and then what do you know, a buried tree stump in some moon dust dirt. I hit it super fast and was scared that I flatted. About 2 turns later I bit it super hard going into a turn very quickly. Flat front tire rolled over.

Trashed Dugast Rhino. Ouch.

After riding half a lap on my flat front to the pit, I was able to get my pit bike. Shit! i forgot to air up my tires before the race. I probably had 15 psi front and rear. I slowly picked myself some places back up for the rest of the race and ended up in 24th I think. Oh well.

As said before, I never want to race cross in 80+ degree weather again.