State Crit Champs

Hey, it’s a bike race blog again!

Well, last night was the final stop of my bike racing reunion tour. Our state criterium championships, The Harvest Moon crit. The course was maybe a little short for my liking, but it was a good, fast, aggressive race. At only an hour, the right combo was never found and it was field sprint city. I felt pretty fast (what a difference a few weeks makes), but made some big errors on the last lap and you just can’t do that. Ended up 7th.

Great having the fam-bamily out to support.

Keeping in the bike race frame of mind, I also did the P-town Cross race Tuesday (of course). My skills still suck, but I could tell I was getting way better physically. From getting lapped twice(!) the first week, still getting lapped by the top 5 guys the 2nd, to finishing on the lead lap. In 10-15 years, I should be crushing these things!

Back in the real world, things are going great. Work is still really busy, but it’s going well. Kids are good. We’re due to go do a fall colors hike/lift ride at Sundance today, but we woke up to rain, so that could be on the back burner.

5 Days in Vegas= XX Years off your life

I’m a couple days back from my annual “vacation” in Vegas and woooheeee, was it a whirlwind.

I left Monday morning around 4:30…the plan was to leave around 6:00, but then a kid woke up and I was like “I can stare at the ceiling for an hour or I can just go”…so I just went. Dirt demo all day Monday, followed by a quick ride. Got to stay in a house one of my brands rented that night.

*Side note, this is the day the big flood came through and wiped out the 15, so I was lucky I was down there early.

Tuesday, I got up early and rode again! My partner from CO came in early that morning and we were back at Dirt Demo, followed by a sales meeting/dinner and finally getting to our room for the week.

Wednesday was pretty full up with meetings and then straight out to ‘Cross Vegas. By the time that was over, I crashed pretty hard.

Thursday was even more full up and then I went and raced a criterium sponsored by Zappos. I rode the master’s race. It was fast. I was way better than at master’s nationals until I came apart with about 7 laps to go. Ended up 8th. We were going to hang out for the pro race, but then a drunk or something walked into the women’s pro field and they cancelled the rest of the races. We had a couple close calls in our race too, including one with a wheelchair, so you know, crowd control could have been better. Went out to ice cream and then took all the guys I was with back to their house and then back to the strip. My CO guy flew out that night, so I had the place to myself, but I was pretty worked so it was promptly to sleep.

Friday I had a couple more important meeting and then got on the road in a hurry. My headlights went out the night before. I drove around Vegas with my brights on, but figured that would be moreso frowned upon in Utah, so wanted to make it home before dark. With losing an hour with the time change and an extra hour detour due to the flood, I had my work cut out for me, but like a true driving professional, I persevered.

Got home and ,of course, had a massive case of the Interbike flu. Seem to be finding my groove now…just trying to catch up on all the work!

Master’s Nats

So, yeah, I had a great time racing master’s nationals. It was a nice safe course. 75 minutes, which pretty well flew by. I actually felt just fine, lacked a little bit of snap but not too bad, all things considered. It was a really small field and pretty much felt like a local race. I missed the break of 6 and the field sprint was a little crazy, so I wound up 16th. My friend Chris who came out from TN ended up just missing the win by maybe half a bike length to another friend, Darren. 

Going to give it another shot in Vegas next week! 

Kelly went through the 9th layer of hell dealing with our Morgan though. I don’t know what the kid was on about, but man, it got to be a bit much. Like where you want to start asking “who’s kid is that over there?”. She’s an amazing girl in general, but wow, tonight she was not a lot of fun. Here’s to a better tomorrow! 

Time Will Tell

So, I have a big deadline tomorrow. I’ve done all I can do and now I mostly just wait for orders. Okay, not completely as I’ll help write a lot of the orders tomorrow. I know I’ve done more than any year to date. It can be a little stressful making your living 100% on commission, but I like it. But, you know, fingers crossed. 

In other news, I went for it and registered for the master’s national crit champs today. I had to go up to the road race course (at Snowbasin Resort, outside of Ogden) to reg. This actually worked out really well as I needed to see dealers in the area. Seeing the road race finish made me pretty glad I’m not doing the road race tomorrow! 

The circle will now be complete as I’ve done Junior, Under 23, Elite and Pro nationals, but this will be my first time at master’s.

One of my inside guys for one of the brands I work for is coming out tomorrow to do the race on his way to Interbike. I would probably never have registered if he weren’t coming out, so I’m glad he is. Plus he is staying at our house…Hopefully tomorrow night is better than tonight for my kids, ’cause if not, he is in for it! They have been completely nutso all night. 

Well, that’s all the news that’s fit for print.

Farewell and adieu.

Pee-town Cross #2

Woah, buddy. Did I get worked. Probably not as bad as last week though.

For starters, in 25+ years of bike racing, I think this was the closest to home I’ve ever raced. Maybe a mile. So nice.

It was hot. Like low 90’s, which for cyclocross is ridiculous. And the course was all super thick grass. Oh em gee, I felt so slow out there.

Anyway, as mentioned, not quite as bad as last week. Probably mostly due to the bike being put together slightly better. Still got lapped by your winner, Jamie Driscoll and a couple other guys.

After the race, our 10 year old took a digger on the playground, running into a bar nose and teeth first. Her nose was bleeding pretty profusely and I’m really hoping her teeth aren’t damaged! She pretty well bit through her tongue, but she was mostly concerned with her lip being swollen though. She’s can play rough, but is still a girly girl at heart and wants to look her best.

Went to Kelly’s folks place after, which remarkably is even closer than our house, and had some ice cream and said our good-byes as they are heading back to Long Beach tomorrow. 

Oh, and I probably missed my chance to do the master’s national crit champs this weekend. Duh, forgot to register. If I can’t find a way in, we’ll go watch and I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. Still trying to finagle my way in though!

Ha!

You thought I’d quit again, no?

Yeah, I’m not so very good at this keeping up thing. But, I am trying!

Anyway, we’ve had a great long weekend. Saturday we took Morgan out to Ft. Bridger, WY for the Mountain Man Rendezvous. She stayed with our neighbors/her bestie and, of course, had a great time. We spent the day there, which was really fun, but I guess the real shenanigans happen at night when they kick out everyone not in costume and it’s full on mountain-man-lock-down.

Sunday we churched it up and…not much else. I have come to really enjoy a day of rest. Although I still get antsy sometimes.

Today I took a little cross ride and hit up some local trails in the morning, before taking the family (minus, Morg, of course) for a hike around Sundance. It was such a glorious day. Picture perfect. Leaves beginning to change in the high country, sunny and bright. We rode the lift up and hiked down, which was pretty much idea with kids. From there, we went almost straight to a bar-b with the in-laws. A pretty perfect day, really.

Save for the kids (now including and perhaps especially Morgan) going absolutely ape at bedtime. Whatreyagunnado?

Anyway, more p-town cross on tap tomorrow. Big week with a BIG deadline on Friday. Then, racing a national championship on Saturday (?!?) and off to Vegas on Monday…I should have some stuff to write about. 

Buenos nachos, amigos.