Bike vs. Motorcycle

Can a bicycle go downhill faster than a motorcycle? After watching the 2006 National Downhill Championships a few years ago I am not surprised by the results of this race.

The Road to Recovery.

The 2010 Cyclocross season has ended for me. A little crash at the start of the month caused a premature closure to the season. Most likely for the best because my form this fall has been crap.

It has been 21 days since my little fall out at Landahl and I am still not recovered. Turns out the cut was a lot deeper into the muscle than we first thought and I have a nice bone bruise to go along with it. A follow up visit to the ER to remove the stitches resulted in a dose of antibiotics to help with the little infection and swelling that I had going. Things started to look better a week later so I ventured out for a ride last weekend. While at the visiting the the Wheel Cyclery to order a new MTB rig (11' Anthem X w/Fox Fork and XT) I noticed some bleeding again. When I got home I started to clean up my cut and noticed it felt very swollen and had a lot of fluid build up. I pressed on it and out comes this thick black blood. It did not hurt coming out so I just squeezed it all out of the part of the cut that had not closed up yet. Carolynn was not impressed (actually she got a little sick) but at least my leg felt better. I feel I am on to the road to Recovery.

Fast forward a few more days and I think it is time to get started working on the 2011 season. Things start slowly with tomorrow's Gobbler Ride. We meet at 9:00 a.m. out at Clinton Lake State Park. I talked to Gerard and he does not believe this little dampness we got going today will cause us much problems. With overnight temps at 18 degrees things should freeze up anyway. We should be able to get in a good 2 hour or so before things heat up. Worst case we head over to the River Trails....

This past month has really put life into perspective. Most of the time we take our health for granted, but things can change at anytime. Just a little reminder that we need to live life to the fullest and enjoy every day. The journey to 2011 begins now.....

De Stad Cross Cup Report and Pictures

Where do I begin? Well lets begin by thanking everyone who made the De Stad Cross Cup possible. The Cow Town Cycling Team, The Wheel Cyclery, Pot Pie, Breakaway Consulting, Santa Fe Trails Bike, Heather Jordan, Roger Harrison, Dan Oldehoeft, Scott Bikes, the University of Saint Mary, our sponsors and all the great volunteers - especially guys like Mark Krause who is always there to lend a helping hand without even being asked. I know I forgot a few and will add once I get my wits about me. It goes without saying that none of this would have been possible without my wonderful wife Carolynn and my son. They both worked hard as usual this weekend and had to do double duty because they had to put up with me.

I would also like to thank all the racer and their families who came out and supported us. It has been a long season so far with dozens of races and I really appreciate your support.

I hope everyone enjoyed the course. Sorry it was a little long. I think the evil Cross Guru got a little carried away when he made everyone come back up and do that devilish climb up from the ball fields.

Well I am off to get some rest and heal up. Hopefully I can get back to racing soon myself and join in all the fun. Today's event got my motivation going big time.

Some photos from the Cross Guru. If anyone wants a higher res pictures just let me know.

De Stad Cross Cup

Some vids from Michael Ruder:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvmUZ7xqnMM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B0VVeF0fl0

Cross Training

First a disclaimer: I am not the best self coached athlete out there. In fact, I may be the worst as I sit here all sore, bruised, cut and tired from a week of my style of cross training.....

After a couple of days off I got back to training with a MTB ride at Landahl. My plan was for an easy ride with my teammates (Tige, Rich, Ashley and Roger). This easy ride turned into a pain train down the single track of Landahl and lead to a trip to the emergency room for me. It turns out I forgot how to ride my mountain bike and ended up crashing on the easy section of the trail. I still think Ashley tagged my rear tire, but he says "I did no such thing..."



After a couple days off my leg starts to feel better so I come up with the bright idea to go ahead and run the 5 mile Wilderness Trail Run. I signed up for it several weeks ago and have always wanted to run it (Cross promotion for the past 10 years has always kept me from it) Carolynn advised me against such a feat as well as all my co-workers. But what could it hurt? If my stitches broke or my leg started to bleed heavily, I would stop. Besides, I have all but given up on this years cross season and basically am now just training for next triathlon season. I need to start my run base which Saturday's run did. I ran the 5+ mile off-road event is a blistering 42.58 which was good enough for 6th in my age-group and 48th overall out of 236. Yea I know I need to focus on my run for next season. Running is my weakness and I hope to improve for next year.

Sunday was Roger's Veterans Cross race on a new venue (private land). Like I mentioned above, my season is all but over and I am basically just using any race events to stay fit and do something over the winter months. Which is what cyclocross was originally designed for - training.

The course was in an open field with part of the course on a hillside that lead down to a pond. It is a perfect location to raise cattle or grow crops. After yesterdays run I should have stayed home and just worked getting ready for next weekends De Stad Cross Cup, but like I said, I am not the best self coach. I basically rode around for 30 minutes and came up with this brilliant idea - full suspension cyclocross bikes. I know what you are thinking, but with the latest crop of cyclocross courses one could really use a FS CX bike. I know I needed one today.

It was nice to ride the bike today and hang out with some friends. Even if it is not at the level I would like, I still have fun riding and racing. I hope to see a lot of my friends next Sunday at the De Stad Cross Cup. It is going to be a great day for cross on the University of Saint Mary campus.

De Stad Cross Cup Course

The course for this years De Stad Cross Cup is just about finalized. I was out yesterday working on the course with Cross Guru and my son, Christopher yesterday. Some cool new features have come into play due to some recent construction on the USM campus. By combining these new features and some classics from years past, I do believe this will be the best course yet and that says alot. The long term forecast does has some cooler cross like weather coming to us and who knows, maybe even a repeat of last years classic.

This years course features: Cobbles, dirt roads, double track, gravel roads, steep run-ups, climbs, flowing corners, grass and a little mud.

2010 De Stad Cross Cup Course:


More information about the De Stad Cross Cup can be found at www.kansascitycross.com

Bad Karma?

You ever get that feeling that you should just go home? Well yesterday I had such a feeling. Not because I did not feel like riding, but because it was my lovely wife's birthday and a nice evening out was awaiting the family.

But fall is such a great time to ride mountain bikes and our local trails are in awesome shape. Besides, Carolynn was o.k. with me riding as long as I was home in time to head out to dinner. But was she? After receiving 5 stitches last night in the ER, I am thinking she voodooed me or something. Or maybe it was just bad karma and next time don't plan anything on the wife's birthday.....




Last night was an very restless evening to say the least. Bled all night long and I am not looking forward to removing the dressing and cleaning the injury this evening. The only good thing about last night was I got to pee in a jug while lying in bed (did not want to drip blood all over the carpet...). I just remembered that I forgot to empty that jug......