In Delaware right now drinking a poorly made Americano in the college town I went to high school.
Ran into Mark Vettori, Barry Wicks and race promoter Tom McDaniels at the Granogue venue this morning when I got a few valuable pre-ride laps in. Mark V and I used to skateborad together when I lived in Delaware 10 years ago. The Granogue course is going to be hard. It is really hilly, lots of off camber and some kinda technical sections. Not a whole lot of recovery time between sketchy sections. My mom is pretty pumped to come out and see me race. It is going to be kinda crazy, like “yeah, this is what I do with my time.”
New York, New York:
Ugh. My flight Wednesday night was bad, I could NOT get myself to sleep. I drifted in and out of tiredness and watched MTV, did you know that is actually Jaime Fox singing with Kanye on “Golddigger”? Wow. He is putting those singing lessons from the movie “Ray” to damn good use… I usually like redeye flights. Then I got to NYC, spent 2+ hours on the subway due to slightly off directions to my friend Sarah’s house. Keep in mind I had my newly glued race wheels and a HUGE kit bag with me. Walking 2 blocks was a chore. I finally made it to Sarah and Thomas’ house and we walked Thomas to work and I got a NY bagel with tofu cream cheese. Mmmm.
And EVERYTHING is expensive. It was $8 to get from the airport to Sarah’s. Then I dropped $50 on a car service out to the rental car I had to pick up in New Jersey. There was NO way I could manage lugging my wheels and bags over to NJ on public transportation. Apparently Budget rental does NOT accpet debit cards inside the NY metro area. I don’t own a credit card. I stood there gawking at the rental guy. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Then I just pulled out my Albina Credit Union debit card and handed it to him, bluffing “try this one.” There is no way it should have worked but, it did. Somehow it worked out, I sped to Newark, Delaware from NYC in 2 hours, stopping to take a nap north of Philly before I just fell asleep at the wheel. Damn, I am tired. Yeah, if you are ever driving up and down the East coast, bring lots of cash. Seemed like I was paying a toll every few miles.
I made it to the Wooden Wheels shop right after they closed and flagged down an employee to let me sneak in and get my bikes. The front wheel on the A bike got knocked out of whack in shipping and I had to run back to the shop and have them true it up for me. It felt so wrong walking up to the counter of another shop “hey, do you think you can do this for me in an hour?” Also, the fork had a pinched dropout. I had to gently pry it apart to let the front wheel fit back in. Can’t tell if the alignment is off or not.
Now my mom and I are hanging out at a coffee shop. I’m going to swing her by the Hallmark store and, after she glanced over my shoulder to see what I am typing, we are going to rent “Ray”.
Christina/Crank Bros sent Veloshop some fancy new “short” TI spindles for the race bikes. They will be there when I get back. I hope Keely is doing ok by herself. If you stop by the Veloshop, be really nice to her. Buy her lunch, I’ll pay you back.
I wonder what Gully’s doing…
No I don’t. I know Wells is out golfing somewhere and the Kona boys are holed up in Tom McD’s fancy house taking long hot baths, Tonkin is probably working on bikes as we speak, and Brian is at home watching the 2nd season of Arrested Development.
Wow, per usual I have been crazy busy. Got up at 5am on Sunday, shaved my legs and headed out with Issac and Brian to PIR to setup the course and get ready. Doug Moak (the River City Bicycles pit master) met us there and really did MORE than his fair share of labor helping me setup the course and design the little hill section. A lovely, lovely man.
A handfull of superstars made public appearences: Jonathan Maus, Chris Distefano, Jacquline Phelan.
Bike Portland already has a good race report up!
The Veloshop team is freaking amazing. I finished up my race and spun around a little and before I could start bossing people around to clean up the course, it was done! No joke, this sprawling cross course was spotless and the OBRA van packed and ready to go not 30 minutes after I crossed the line.
Everyone did such a commendable job. Brian and Jackson sacrificed thier races to run the show. Brooke Hoyer showed up and got straight to business lap counting. All the Veloshop ladies rocked the race, Bridgette winning the Elite race, and Erin Playman getting 5th in the B race on a singlespeed.
Brilliant. It was just such a blur and if PIR does not jack us on groundskeeping fees we will have a nice little race fund started. There is serious talk of a Veloshop series next cross season and also talk of promoting cross events well into January and February.
Que mas? I’m late for work again. It’s ok, not like I will get much work done anyways. All I seem to do anymore is glue tubulars and repair cross bikes f’ed up over the weekend.
OH! Here is a horrible story about spending the night prepping my bikes to get shipped out to the east coast. Spending all day packing them Monday only to miss the Fedex deadline to get them there on Friday and then having to drop $400 on both bikes and a wheelset to get them there in time to race on Saturday. I drove my van around during rush hour traffic last night going from Fedex office to UPS to the Post Office and back to FedEx and then FINALLY to the Kinko’s down the street from my shop.
Long story short. The wonderful gentleman at Kinkos recognized me from my MLK blvd. days where I had fixed his brakes once. With a smirk he quietly told me I had become a Fedex employee and both bikes would be $80. AND they would be there a day EARLY!
No shit! Right when I was about to give up and drop the cash. I mean I had my Visa in hand and was letting him swipe it ($400!!) when he recognized my name…
Wow.
Wow.
(thanks Andrew Arnsberg for the photos!)
“Last week’s “question du jour” was:
It is pretty apparent that there is alot of hype surrounding the SRAM road group! I’m pretty excited too. As the quote above suggests, SRAM is overshadowing Shimano and Campagnolo’s hype this year. (2006) From a techy perspective I hope it kicks them in the butt and makes them innovate. They have been chasing each other around for the last 15 years. My one hope is that the SRAM components are interchangeable with the other major manufacturers. I’d love to be able to spec out bikes with a mix of parts though, I doubt it will happen. Those companies want to see bikes with a complete brand spec.
A woman from Ashland came in today and we chatted about being vegan and stuff. That’s it. She works down there at the UBI bike school. She said it was nice to be in a business that she does not have to worry about buying animal products. That was cool, most people take the vegan aspect of my business for granted or want to be super critical about it.
I’m sitting at Veloshop typing away on a quiet Saturday afternoon. I’m pretty nervous about my trip to the East coast next week. I’m flying in to NYC on Wednesday afternoon and then driving right down to Delaware for the Granogue and Wissahikon UCI cross races. I’ve gotten rid of that cold but, not ridden my bike much for the last 2 weeks. I’m promoting our Veloshop cyclocross race tomorrow and going to try and race in that too. I have been so busy. The shop has been out of control for the last 6 months. It is hard juggling this giant responsibilty and my racing responsibilities. I am so fried after work it is hard to get my ass up at 6am and get on the bike to train. I remember reading something Jonathan Page wrote last season about forcing yourself to recover during the racing season. I keep that in the back of my mind all the time when I am freaking out about not training enough.
It is a little overwhelming, I’m leaving the bike shop in Keely’s fully capable hands, I’m going to stay with my mom in Delaware. She is a mess, going through a divorce and in and out of the hospital all the time. She is going to be a small handful to take care of and hang out with. She still lives with her ex husband. It does not seem super dramatic or chaotic but, I know it is going to be fully awkward and I’ll be out of my element, trying to scrape up some healthy food in Delaware and keep myself sane and focused on racing.
Well, it is getting late, I am going to lock up and ride out to Alpenrose Velodrome to get the OBRA truck, drive it out to the race venue and then ride back into town and snag some Thai food with Brian.
The photo says it all, I raced my ass off this weekend. The Crank Brothers US Grand Prix of cyclocross started off in Portland with a bang!
Take a look at this sweet race report from Jonathan Maus of BikePortland.org!
The race on Saturday was hard, muddy and required a fair amount of finesse. I have always had a hard race at Alpenrose. Though, 4 years ago I entered and won my first cross race ever in the “C” category there. I was hooked.
Shannon had a brilliant race. Attacking with Carl Decker early and racing gracefully to finish 6th. I felt like the cold I have been moaning about was mostly gone but, after the first few laps I could tell I was not doing great. Shannon and I both had great starts, we both don’t have any UCI points and started in the 6th and 7th rows back. That is about 40-50 places back from the first row FYI. I gave it all I had and just could not get up into the top 20. I hovered around the low 20′s most of the race but could not respond to an attack from Kabush (who had flatted) and some other guy in the last lap.
The next day up in Tacoma was FAST. It was like a road crit with a huge runup. That kind of course would typically be in my favor but, I just did not have the lungs to take advantage of it. You would drill it on the flat road section, drill it to the run up, drill it up the run up, drill it up the hill, drill it down the hill, drill it on the flat road section, again and again.
Shannon broke his carbon bars I think. About 3 laps in I caught him and just drilled it, hoping he was on my wheel and getting a breather. When he swapped bikes in the pit he ran past me on the next time up the run up and placed 15th. I was 26th after Sean Doyle (Desalvo bikes) pulled away from me in the last lap. One spot out of the money!
All in all, I am pleased with my racing. I salvaged my first 2 UCI races, not getting lapped by the leaders and learning a little bit about the caliber of racing I am aspiring to. I did not make any technical mistakes though, admittedly I rode more conservatively than usual. I knew I did not have the energy to recover from a big crash or fumble so I took the side of caution. A crash can put you back ten places. My technique needs work, this is only my 4th season on a cross bike so I like to think I am still learning. It is pretty clear to me that I am not even in the race with the lead riders at this point. Still looking forward to a top 20 UCI finish and even bettering that by the end of this year.
I am promoting the Veloshop Portland International raceway cyclocross classic this Sunday!
I expect to see you all there. It is going to be fast and muddy!
Of course I did. The week before what is probably the most important race this season. The big hometown UCI race. What else can I do besides taking tons of Zinc, Vitamin C, multivitamins and, drinking tons of water and green tea and eating really well? Any miracle cures out there?
I went over to Luke’s house last night and made lasagna for a bunch of kids and we listened to hardcore records and hung out. That is oficially like the first time I have “hung out” all year. Just gone over to someone’s house to relax.
How novel.
Brutal road ride tomorrow morning. I fear I may be coming down with a cold. Sore, scratchy throat this morning. We will see. Saturday is a big day. The first of the Crank Brothers grand prix of cyclocross. Thanks to Jackie at King for the photos.
Wow. I don’t think anyone will be able to describe the weather in Seattle on Saturday night. The start was delayed due to lightning. It was torrential rain and then hail and then rain and hail and thunder and lightning. I was warming up in a pinic padoga with Tim Johnson, Ian Brown and I assume the Jaques-Mayne brothers+the “Dopers suck” guy. It was just ridiculous. And then, not ten minutes before our start, it clears up.
I had a good start and a pretty good race. My fitness is ok, my technique needs work. It took a bunch of laps to get into a rhythm and at that point I was battling it out for like, 15th. Which I got, I think. See that Dale Knapp guy? Yeah, I finished behind him.
We drove back after the race finished, I got home, washed my bikes up and tried to get to sleep as the neighbor upstairs moved her furniture around till about 4am. I got up at 9 and drove out to Hillsboro for the Cross Crusades race #1.
Long story short. I had a craptastic start and then found the legs in the 2nd lap, made the move up to my teammate Shannon Skerrit and flatted. We were 3rd and 4th in the race, chasing down Barry Wicks and Eric Tonkin. And, I just get a flat. I was thinking, “sweet, we have 3rd and 4th locked up.” How awesome would a Vanilla 1-2 have been?
Not today though. The course was LONG! I jogged it all the way from the backside of the course and swapped the wheel out. Rode a few more laps for fun and then wandered over to the hoses when I noticed Barry ripped his derailleur off. That left Eric and Shannon to duke it out.
Vanilla took top honors.
I’m late for a movie. More tomorrow.
PS: My Veloshop teammates are amazing. Truly. I’ll post some results when they are up.
Woke up in all my clothes.
My ladyfriend and I drove up to Seattle Friday night and ate sushi with some of her friends. Spent the night in the Wallingford neighborhood and she woke up to run off and help a friend move. I slept in pretty heavily and scampered off to find a coffeeshop and internet access. Hopped on the pit bike for it’s first ever ride. (I was frantically gluing tubulars and wrapping bartape as we were running an hour late yesterday.) I got it from Sacha Wednesday morning and spent the last 3 days getting it together while running the shop. It weighs exactly 18.5 pounds with the Chris King clincher wheelset. One pound more than the race bike with the Chris King tubulars. It is atypical of me to just hop on a bike and race it before riding it in a bit, the rear brakes feel tight but, besides, it is identical to the race bike.
Sweet. I feel tight but, excited to race. I did not rain nearly as much as it was in Portland and the course should be tacky but not a total mudfest.
I’m going all out. My realistic goals for the year are top 20 finishes and not getting lapped by the Trebons and Wickses of the pro cyclocross scene. I’ll only get faster when I ride with faster people. By the end of the season I may change my expectations a little bit. Been pre-registering for a bunch of my east coast races: Granogue, De.+Cross Nationals. They do the call up based on UCI points first and then order of registration. Since I currently have no UCI points…
Off to Thai food.
Wow. I am still recovering from last weekend. Have not even unpacked from our race on Saturday. Still got boxes of stuff littering the floor of the shop. I am super stressed out!
The promotion of our first cyclocross race went flawlessly. 270+ racers in attendance and almost no problems. There were a few missed start times, noteably in the singlespeed and women’s races. Which actually made the racing exciting, as some of the favorites were about a minute or two behind the race for the first few laps. I think we made a little money on the race which is pretty stunning. We will keep that in our pockets for the next race we are promoting.
The Veloshop PIR supercross. Maybe we have a race flyer up? It is not finalised.
My race last Sunday in Eugene went pretty well. I rode smart and attacked Jon at the bell to snag 2nd place. Jon Myers is a diesel engine. If I eased up for a second he would have ridden right away from me. I was pretty stoked to hold him off in the last lap. He always whips my butt on the mountain bike. It would not have mattered which one of us won, we just had a really great battle for the last 8 or 9 laps.
As you know, my laptop computer died and I got a new harddrive installed for a couple hundred bucks. Any lessons learned? Back up your data. I lost a ton of great photos, my racing resume, the updated version of the Veloshop website, tons of sweet euro cross footage I snagged off the web, etc, etc. Ouch. I have spent the last 3 days restoring my Ibook to OSx and getting it all cleaned up and useable. I still need OSx versions of all the programs I had, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Quickbooks, etc. (hint-hint)
Looking forward, I’ll be in Seattle this weekend for the Starcrossed race. And back down on Sunday for the first of the Cyclocross Crusade series.
I just snagged Ryan Trebon’s old black spooky brakes for my “pit” Vanilla. I’m still waiting on the Carbon Spooky’s to arrive from TUFO North America. My Ritchey components arrived 2 days ago, I got my Chris King clincher and tubular wheelset built up and I spent hours debating between the black Arione saddle or the limited edition silver and blue Arione saddles Fizik set me up with. I went silver and blue with white bartape. I’ll likely switch to black when the going gets super dirty.
The epoxy is drying on the steerer tube insert on my Alpha Q fork and I’ll have the pit bike rolling tonight. FYI tech nerds, here is what I am running. All the gory details. Both Vanillas are built up exactly the same besides the frame tubing. The race bike is True Temper S3 and I think the pit bike is Columbus Foco. I’ll ask Sacha and clean up my techy info later. I HAD photos of them (remember my laptop died?) I’ll take more today when I get the pit bike out on a test ride:
Chris King 1-1/8 black threadless headset
Chris King Classic 28 hole hubs front 2x rear 3x
DT Swiss Revolution 1.8-1.5 double butted spokes with alloy nipples.
Velocity Aerohead/Escape rims.
Zipp Ti skewers.
The wheels weigh in at 1475gm. I have not drilled them out yet. (heh, heh.)
Dura Ace 9v 12-27 cassette, DA chain, single right DA STI and DA 10v rear derailleur.
Ritchey WCS 44cm 31.8 bars
Ritchey WCS 110 stem
Ritchey WCS 175 crankset, single 42t ring w/Spooky carbon chainring guard outer.
Chain watcher on the inside.
XTR 112 bottom bracket. Perfect chainline.
Crank Brothers triple ti pedals. Quattro road cleats. (Q-factor adjustability!)
Spooky brakes with Ritchey red compound brakepads.
Ritchey WCS carbon seatpost. (I hacked 20 grams off the post, got it sub-130 grams!)
Schwalbe Fast Fred tyres (dry, fast)
Schwalbe Racing ralph tyres (wet)
I know, I am a big nerd.
But, besides training, equipment is one of the most vital aspects to a good race. I value equipment that will not crap out on me (obviously) and like to push the limits on what I can get away with. I ALWAYS test out my new or modified gear while training and make sure it is solid before I go out and race on it. I’m a pretty light rider and decent bike handler so, I can get away with super light gear and Ti parts.
The bikes are solid.
Just under 18 pounds with the tubular wheelset.
Believe that!
So, my laptop died. I’ll get it back in a few days, the hard drive is
dead. All my data on it is gone. That means I’ll have a lot of work to do
when I get it back.
Ugh.
We promoted our cyclocross race this Saturday and then Brian Ellin and I
raced in Eugene on Sunday. I got 2nd behind a, not quite recovered,
bandaged wrist, Ryan Trebon. That is exciting.
I have a hundred people to thank for this weekend, I’ll write a real entry
when I have a computer again.
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