2008 Single Speed World Championships

Here is a must do event for all of you single speed freaks out there. The 2008 Single Speed World Championships are being held in Napa, CA this year. Mark the date of August 23-24, 2008 on your calendars.

Here's a note from the race organizers:

Registration for the Single Speed World Championships 2008 in Napa,
CA, USA, will open on January 1, 2008, at 12:00 a.m. pacific standard
time (AKA: California time). We will post an on-line form for people
to fill out and email to us soon. Again, registration does not open
until January 1, 2008 at 12:00 a.m. Any emailed registration forms
prior to that date and time will be deleted. We will leave
registration open until it fills up, maximum riders will be 350.
Everyone will be emailed letting them know if they are in or out. If
you are in, there will be instructions on payment via PayPal.
Registration is $35 U.S. dollars. If you don't make it in, we still
encourage you to come out and play that weekend anyway. There will be
lots of rides going on all over the Bay Area. More details about the
race weekend will be posted soon. Good Luck! Please forward to
friends that might be interested and please post on blogs and
websites, if applicable. We really want to inform as many as possible
so that everyone has a fighting chance to get into the race. Thanks.
Curtis, Ken, Jeff, Andrew, Dennis & Mitzi

I hope to earn a tattoo like like last yeas winners Kelli Emmet and Adam Craig. Carolynn would just love that.....

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I headed out for some more snow riding Christmas Eve. This time we went up to Smithville Lake. The snow was kind of deep and only about 75% of the trails were ridable. Even then it was hard going. Carolynn made the wise decision and decided to hike the trails instead of ride. I new she was a smart woman...


We had a great Christmas this year. It was nice to stay home and spend some time with Carolynn's parents. We usually head down to Florida this time of year, but my vacation dates were taken at work :-(......Carolynn got a nice new Giant bicycle from The Wheel Cyclery. Christopher got an Xbox 360 and a cool Ultimate game chair to go along with it. And I got a combo Christmas/Birthday gift again. Having your birthday a week before Xmas really sucks sometimes...



We did a little cross training and headed out to the Crown Center Ice Terrace. I haven't gone ice skating in at least 10 years, and it showed. I have a new found respect for hockey players and ice skaters. They make it look so easy. Poor Christopher took several headers. Carolynn is from Pennsylvania and she looked like an old pro out there.

Starting 2008 Season Early

I had planned to take a few weeks off to "recharge my batteries", but the heck with that. I started my base training on Wednesday. I am really excited about the 2008 season and actually feel really healthy and very motivated.

The plan is to focusing the first period on weights, core, flexibility and putting in some long easy runs/rides. I also plan to start my swim training after the first of the year.

Saturday I went for my first long run. I had to use my home made snow shoes that I used with great success last year. What a blast running in the snow is. I wish Kansas City would get more snow, but we usually only get a couple of snow events each season. This year however we have already had two snow storms so things mike be a changing. Might be time to get a pair of snow shoes and one of those fancy snow bikes.

Sunday was a nice bike ride in the snow. Except for the 2 foot snow drift I fell into, it was great ride. I ended up just riding for two hours on a combination of roads and single track around my house in the Northland. These trails are very nice to ride on in the winter. I usually hit them once or twice a week. Anything to keep from using a trainer. I did find an interesting trainer that I would like to try. The h/p/cosmos 300/100r looks like it would be fun.

2007 Year in Review

Overall I would say this year sucked for me as far as good results go. I basically had about 5 good races. The rest I will try to quickly forget.

The Good Results:

• Winning the Fat Tire Duathlon Series Male 40-49 Division.
• Podium and top 5 time at the Rapture in Misery
• 2nd place team at the Spoke Pony
  
• A top 5 overall finish and winning the Lunatic Fringe Duathlon on a Single Speed.
• A top 4 overall time at the Rim Wrecker
• A top 4 overall time at the Lunatic Fringe MTB Race
  

The Bad Results:

• The entire cross season. By far my worse cross season yet.
  
• Every round of the Midwest Fat Tire Series except the above mentioned two.

The rest of the events, like the Show-Me-State Games Triathlon, were o.k. I learned a lot from the past couple of years and will make some big changes in 2008.

Monday

CX Nationals - Single Speed.

Final race of the weekend for me. The single speed class is my favorite and I had hoped to do well, but two dropped chains and a first turn pile-up (see Mike D's picture on the left) on the first lap put an end to that. After the third dropped chain I about threw my bike in the near by frozen lake, but decided to soldier on. In the end I got 39th place in the Single Speed class They had 104 racers listed with a lot of DNS's on the results sheet, but I know I at least a dozen of those did race. Joel Dyke started and seemed to be doing well, but he is listed as a DNS. Strange stuff.

Start was hectic as usual with so many riders. I changed my gear ratio due to the slick/icy conditions. This caused me to be spinning like a mad man on the starting straight. Once we got into the icy course I was fine, but the downhills and road sections were very hard for me. I was going great until my chain popped off as I crossed the ruts to go to a faster line and get by some of the riders who were having trouble on the really icy sections. I was so mad and was near dead last once I got the chain back on. I quickly got going again and was passing the back markers like they were standing still. Tire pressure was key again today and I was running mine at 25 psi. Hooking up great until my chain derailed again. This time it took me forever to get it back on. I only ended up doing two laps until I got pulled. The leaders were still far back and I don't really understand why I got pull so early, but " it is what it is".

Here is my Arse on www.cyclingnews.com Speaking of arse's, I suggest everyone takes the ARSE Exam

Some pictures that my wife took are below:

CX Nationals - Masters 40-44

The weather gods must have something against Kansas City hosting the cyclocross championship. Just like in 2000, racers were greeted today with snow, cold weather and an ice rink for a course. I like Thursday's condition much better than todays for sure.

After a short warm-up to go watch my teammate Tige Lamb out on the course, I went back to the van to finish my pre-race warm-up. My feet were frozen so I opted to race with my Lake winter shoes. A good choice as it turned out. Unlike my upper body, my feet remained toasty warm.

I had about a 9th row starting spot which put me about mid-pack. I stayed upright for the first lap picking off riders has they either crashed or had troubles in the slick spots. I was running my Ritchey tires around 29 psi and they were hooking up very well. I was actually very impressed with them. I was having trouble on the up hill spots, but seemed to do well in the downhill sections and turns. At the end of the first lap I was just outside the top 50. Not bad with over 163 competitors in the Male 40-44 class.

It was nice to hear a lot of supporters. I could hear them cheering me on. Thanks to my wife Carolynn, son Christopher, Tige, Gerard, Brian, Rich and all the others for helping be get 54th place. I really needed everyone's support today. The only disappointment was having the race winner James Coats pass me at the line and putting me 1 lap down.

CX Nationals - Juniors

Christopher competed in the Junior Men 13 - 14 today. Man some of the kids are huge. Still waiting for the results. Here are some pics below of the juniors.

CX Nationals - Men's B 40+

Course was a mess. Mud, frozen ruts and slick corners were all the course was. Very little time for recovery. HR was was in the 180's to 190's the entire race. I started about mid-pack with will over 100 riders signed up. I did great the first lap and worked my way up to a top 20 position passing dozens of riders in the first half lap. Things were looking good until I crashed while crossing this muddy ditch. It took me a lap to regain my form and by then I had gotten passed by about 1/2 the field . Really bad 2nd lap for me. I started to bring riders back on the 3rd and 4th laps and felt good at the end. On the 4th lap I had slid out on the off-camber section and lost a top 40 placing. Ending up 46th on the day out of 118 starters. Not as good as I had wished for, but it is about what I expected with my current fitness level and the health issues I have had to over come. Patrick Morrissey of N.M. won todays event. Here is a video of the first lap of the Men's B 40+ where I get caught by the helmet cam dude.

Tomorrow is Christopher's turn. The course will most likely be icy for him. It will be interesting for sure.

2007 CX Nationals

I hope I am ready for this. Tomorrow are the 'B' events at Nationals. I am registered for the 40+ division. Get this. My race number is 2007. May be it will be a lucky number for me. So far this cyclo-cross season has not gone my way. At least I have not got the results that I am used to.

So I go to packet pickup to get our 'Goody Bags" , race numbers, etc. I was a little shocked when I arrived. A very lame setup, no banners, no 'welcome racers', nothing. After a little walking around the hotel, I finally found packet pickup. I go up to the table "What class you racing?" he asks. "Well I'm racing 3 classes and I also need to pick up my son's packet" He just gives me the race numbers and has be sign the photo release. He doesn't ask to see my license nor does he check my age which he should have done. I ask if that is it and he says yes. "What about the goody bags?" I ask. Oh yea, here you go. He gives me one bag. I respond with "I have 4 entries so I should receive 4 goody bags" He replies "You only get one. One person one bag" Let me get this straight. I pay for 4 and only get 1. Well what a cheap ass promoter I reply and left in disgust.

This past Sunday was the Kansas State Cyclocross Championships. After set-up was complete and since sign-up was running smoothly thanks to Margaretta I decided to go ahead and race. I am still not feeling 'race ready' but decided it would be good training and help me relax some to get out and ride. Actually had an o.k. race and took 3rd place on the day. Thanks to Cameron Chambers not racing the Single Speed class I am now leading the division in the De Stad Cyclocross Van Kansas Series. I guess consistency pays off.

Kansas State Cyclocross Championships

This weekend the De Stad Series continues with the Kansas State Cyclocross Championship Saturday will be course set-up and Sunday we will finish things off in the a.m. The weather forecast for the weekend is looking great for an epic cyclo-cross race. Light freezing rain to a wintry mix is on tap. I just hope the ground is not frozen. It's going to suck trying to pound in stakes into a frozen ground.

Cyclocross is cathing on. Locally it is catching on as well. Maybe not as much as I expected, but the number of racers have grown along with the number of events. Event number are still rather low compared to other areas. We will see who show up this weekend in Leavenworth.

This will be my last event to promote for the year, and maybe ever as I am not going to promote any Spring events next year do to some health reason. I am looking forward to getting healthy again and spending more time with my family and just riding.

Evel Dies

I can not believe what I am reading. Evel Knievel dies at 69!

Evel was one of my childhood hero's. We used to try and beat his jump records when I first started riding motorcycles. We would build some ramps and try to jump over cars and tractors. I remember on one jump I looked over while in the air and I was as high as the power lines. I was even planning on jumping a couple of my fathers semi-truck trailers. If they would have stayed in the yard long enough I would have :-) I guess I am lucky I didn't end up dead.

Wikipedia has good write-up of Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, Jr. Some of the stuff he did early on in life is interested. I love when he used to take customers to the Yellowstone National Park to hunt. Evel was one crazy man. I guess that is why I used to idolize him. His official website www.evel....

Check out the photo of Evel with his bicycle. I bet you didn't know he also road bicycles.

Fun in the Sun

We just got back from a nice visit to Sunny Florida. It was great to see my Grandmother and Brother who both live in North Florida at our farm.


Christopher has a new favorite hobby - shooting AK 47's. My brother has a large collection of guns and Christopher was just drooling over all the guns.
Joey let us ride some of the motorcycles that he has. Christopher was styling on the CRF50 and I got to ride his XR650R and new YZF450. The trip to the sand track in Alabama was very fun for me. I am feeling at home again on a dirt bike after more than 15 years away. Even did a couple of doubles and was flying on the back big sandy whoop section.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving graphics hosted at MySpaceGraphicsandAnimations.com

Thanksgiving graphics hosted at MySpaceGraphicsandAnimations.com

Well I say 'Holy Shit!

Funny thing happened to me earlier this week. Well, it was not funny at the time....

I come home on Tuesday and start getting ready for a quick workout with Christopher. While I am waiting for him to get ready, I notice there are a couple of messages on the answer machine. First two are hang ups, then the third one took me by surprise.

"Mr Locke, this is Brian with the Missouri Department of Conservation. There is a serious matter we need to discuss along with the Kansas City Police Department. Can you please call us back..."

I went into freak mode. All kinds of things came across my mind. Did someone fall into the Missouri River during last weeks Riverside Cyclocross Festival and they just now found their body? Did we cause damage to the bank of the Missouri River? Are they calling about the shed that I had build which back a green way along Line Creek?

I call em' back and leave a message. After 2 hours I am so worried that I try again. Still no one available. A little after 7:00pm Brian finally calls me back. "Son, we need to discuss the incident" Again I'm thinking what incident? He goes on to say "We need you to come on down so we can talk about the carcass that was found in Hodge park". I am still thinking someone fell in the Missouri river, but it does not flow by Hodge Park. "There were remains found in a box that has your name all over it. What do you have to say about that?" Well I say "Holly Shit!".

I soon find out that someone had killed a deer in Hodge park. The guts and all were put in a box that had my name on it. Long story short, I go down and ID the box. Sure enough, the box was mine. It was a box used at the Riverside Cyclocross Festival and was put out in the trash. I tell the officer everything I know and they let me go. Lessened learned. Remove all labels from boxes before you discard them.

Olympic Training Center

Got to visit the Olympic Training Center this past week. Eric Struckhoff and I went out to Colorado Springs for a cycling summit. It was very cool to be among our Olympic athletes and stay at the Olympic Training Center.