Riverside Cyclocross Festival...Thank God it's Over.

What a weekend. I am just thank full it's over.

Friday I had a horrible migraine. I felt like tearing my head off. I ended up calling in sick and resting in the a.m. Tige Lamb came over in the afternoon to help me begin set-up for the Riverside Cyclocross. We ended up doing the majority of the stake pounding with the help of Gerard and Roger. Well, if you want to call it help, at times it was like 4 monkeys trying to put together a jig saw puzzle. Together we got R' done in about 5 hours. I am glad went out the day before because there would be no way we would have completed the work on race morning. After the course work I headed to the store to order a surprise birthday cake for Carolynn. November 3rd is her B-day and for the past 7 years a darn cyclo-cross race has gotten in the way of any form of proper celebration. I let Roger know that we need to do something for her and we started planning.

After a few hours sleep it was up at 4:00 am to head down to the course and finish everything up. Thankfully Heather and Dan Jordan was helping this weekend and along with Elliott, some of her MS 150 team and some Cow Town Cycling members we got everything ready by about 10:00 am. First race was not until 11:30 am so I decided to go ahead and race. Did not really feel up to it, but it sometimes eases my nerves to race during an event..... After a quick tune-up on Christopher's bike we were ready to go. I got the hole shot over Cameron Chambers and led for 2 corners :-). I most should not have went off so fast, but I always seem to do stupid stuff. Long story short I ended up 5th out of 11 single speeders. Not bad when you consider all the work I had done the 3 days prior to this event. Christopher had a great day and rode very strong. Even riding the sand pit just about every time. Heck, I only rode it once during my race. He was running the barriers like a pro.

Saturday night was to be relaxing and I was suppose to get some rest. Well it was not. I only got about 2 hours sleep. The rest of the night I kept getting up to pack things I had forgotten the previous day. Morning finally came and I got to the park to a disaster. Some wild animal had ran through all the tape we left up and I had to re-tape most of the course. I kept wondering were all the volunteers were. After about 3 hours some started to show. Better late than never I guess :-)....I again decided to race and ripped another hole shot from Cameron Chambers and Nat Woodman and the other 15 single speeders. I was very happy with the larger than normal field. With the course running backwards I lasted about 15 corners this time. Nat and Cameron went by me so fast on the first climb it was rather embarrassing. I settled in and had a good race and think my form is coming around. Heck, I even hit the barriers good for a change.

Everyone should Promote a Race.

This weekend's Riverside Cyclocross Festival will mark the 7 th year that my wife and I have promoted races. I counted all the races that I either promoted or co-promoted and the total is over 40 events. No Wonder I am so tired. This year alone the number will be 9. Next year I am backing down on the number of events I promote. It's time to get back to my family and having some fun racing myself.

If you have never promoted an event, you should. Only then can you really appreciate all the work that goes into an event. Here is a little shameless plug for help - If you would like to help out at one of the upcoming cyclocross races shoot me an email at chrisdlocke@gmail.com If anyone is interested in promoting a couple of off-road duathlons next year I have two that you can try

Today is Halloween. What am I doing? Going to work on a cyclocross course. What did you think? Speaking of Halloween, check out little Aidan in his Halloween costume. Darn he is cute. He must get his looks from Anita because I know he doesn't get them from Damian. :-)

It's Beautiful Man

A little motivation for when it really starts to hurt at your next cyclocross race.....

"It's beautiful, man."

A stranger turned and said that to me some years ago. We were standing in
the pit area watching the elite men's field come through after the first lap, their faces already splattered with mud and twisted with effort. I nodded, without really understanding. After several years of bike racing,though, I think I know what he was talking about: it was beautiful because they were giving their all.

Racing began for me on a Trek 1000 courtesy of the Bikeman; ages, toe straps et al. I did BAK and thought, how hard could it be? I'll never forget someone telling me on the first Wed nite to shift into the big ring as we were heading west under the underpass. "This ain't so fast, why do I need to be in the big ring?", I quietly mused. Pretty f'ing hard I rapidly learned. Soon, though, I was hooked, certainly on the speed, the competition, and the intensity, but also on the drama of the sport-- the rich pageant of bicycle racing and events like "Rich the deer slayer" and whether you walked on Bobcat. I immersed myself in cycling history and lore, and after reading accounts of hundreds of races and the biographies of many of the great riders, I began to realize that the essence of racing is not tactics and strength and chance, but great efforts made; and that the finest moments in cycling come when circumstances allow or cause a rider to give absolutely everything.

So, I figured that all I needed to do in order to succeed in cycling was to give it my all. Well, it turns out that it's not so simple-- getting to the point where you can give everything is a long process.

First, of course, you have to train a lot. Even if cycle racing is mostly mental, there's no getting
around the enormous physical component of our sport-- you can't go hard if you're not fit. Also,
knowing that you've done everything possible to prepare helps you to convince yourself that you
deserve to succeed, and this is an important part of the process for many of us. Then, you need to develop the mental discipline and physical toughness necessary to hold yourself at your absolute limit for the duration of a sprint, a climb, an attack, or a whole race. When the body is pushed to the maximum, the self-preservation mechanisms revolt against the assault, and they send to the mind urgent, convincing messages to back off; these pleas for mercy must be filtered out, and attention paid to the important data coming from the lungs, the legs, the rest of the body...are you really about to blow, or could you go even harder? "Push through that shit", I heard one of the few times I was ever off the front of a race. If you guess wrong and go too hard, you'll explode and get spit out the back. If you error in the other direction, you'll finish with the frustration of knowing that you didn't leave it all out on the course. Learning how to interpret your body's signals and finding your true limits can take years.

For me, cyclocross is the ideal venue for giving all. On the road, it's easy to sit in and let others do the work. My mediocre bike-handling skills limit my output in mountain bike races. 12 miles of Hell proved that, right Dan! But a good 'cross course offers no respite from lung-searing, leg-burning effort. I really love cross racing. I love the run-ups, the barriers, the turf, the mud. I'm learning to focus through the pain; I'm getting to the point where I can suffer like a dog for the whole race. Throw in a little snow, wind and icy pavement into the mix and you've done something few others ever will!

Which begs the question we've all heard from our friends and loved ones at some point: if bike racing is so grueling, then why do we do it? What's your favorite answer?

A training partner insists that cyclists are poorly evolved, and that in the absence of mammoths and saber-tooth tigers, we still need to chase and be chased... The great mountaineer Dougal Haston said that he climbed to overcome, and to watch others overcoming... my wife says that without cyclocross, life would just be too easy...

I believe we race, at least partly, because we elevate ourselves as human beings by doing our best; and by making great efforts, we celebrate our existence. The philosopher and holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it; to this I'll add that life is 10% circumstances and 90% how hard we try. Most of us don't give 100% to our jobs, our training, our relationships, our families... nor should we; life needn't be a ordeal. But for one hour each week during 'cross season, we give absolutely everything.

And it's beautiful, man.

Sentimental blather or stone cold truth? Only 3 cycling events have made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Having Lance give me the elbow, meeting the god himself; Eddy Merkcx and hearing the drums beat in Portland while Trebon rode through the soup when everyone else ran.

Race cyclocross 2007 and find out for yourself!

Bret Sehorn
Seattle, WA

Cycling is built on volunteerism, have you done your part?

My New Cyclocross Rig

I picked up my new Cyclocross Rig yesterday from The Wheel Cyclery. I sold both my Slingshot and TI and got a sweet Colnago Cyclocross bike with full Ultegra. First impressions are good, especially with lowering my tire pressure per Studs advice. Handling is great and after I switched wheels and changed out the Carbon Bars the weight is around 18.5 lbs. Darn it, now I have no excuses....

DeStad Cyclocross Van Kansas Series

I have been working my butt off on this new series. Here it is....

Paceline Products is proud to present the

2007 DeStad Cyclocross Van Kansas Series.

www.kansascitycross.com

First round - Chris Cross Flyer

Lots more work to do. Looking forward to another great cyclo-cross season.

Interested in helping out on this years events? Email me at cdlocke@lycos.com

Now get back to training.

Hope to see you all very soon.