KC Crit News!

Yesterday I was in the shop when Dean said he thought he saw the city repaving the crit course. I thought it was to good to be true so I stopped by.

Turns out it is true, look at that pic of the run to the finish line. Now the whole course is fresh pavement......................except......for the last turn.


Oh well, at least they patched the holes.

November Thunder

What's up with the crazy weather we're having today. Gale force winds, driving rain, and thunder and lightning! November 5th......go figure. 70 degrees today and 37 degrees with a rain/snow mix predicted for tomorrow night.


Anyway......I thought I would get back on the bike and try to get in some training. I headed for SMP on the MTB looking for some fast laps. First I ran into Ted getting in some laps, he said something about riding for 2 hrs. Hmmmmm..... better get at it. It was not to be as I hit something under the leaves after about 10 minutes and I started hearing the tell tale spit, spit, spit, sound of Stan's not sealing the hole in my tire. Bummer, time to put a tube in a slimy tire.



Not long after I start working on my tire I felt something on my leg. I looked down and saw this guy looking back at me. Geez.......kinda freaked me out, he's as big as my hand. Eli looked at this picture and proclaimed that it's a "Stick Bug". Anyway, I wanted to take him back with me but he wasn't about to let me pick him up and I had tire issues to deal with. See, I wasted one roadie size CO2 attempting to seal the tire, now I have a tube and 1 CO2 left(and it's a small one). In the end I got just enough air in the tube to get out of the park and to the shop.

I guess I got a power workout riding a nearly flat tire a few miles to the shop so all was not lost. Too bad I couldn't bring my buddie with me!

Halloween, Soccer, cubscouts, and Cross

What a busy weekend! Friday brought a bunch of stuff to do during the day and then there was Halloween. We did a family style Halloween. That is we went out with 5 other families, (we all have kids in the same grade at school), and while the kids went to houses we hung out on the sidewalk and had cocktails. We had a route figured out that brought you back to the hosts house for refills (cocktails, not candy) every 20 minutes or so. Fun night but that's a lot of walking!














Friday I got to build up Bill Marshall's Scott Cross bike. Sweet build and pretty fun to do when you have all the time in the world to get it done. 15.4 lbs as it sits, that's light!


Saturday was Jonas's last Soccer game for the year in the am and then off to the Cross race.
This one was a write off from the start. I got sick last week with the same illness that's been hanging around the house for the past month. I'm the last in the family to get it so I'm hoping to keep it out of my lungs and recover soon. Craig made the trip from Lincoln for a few races on the Nationals course.
As far as the course design goes I've heard mixed reviews. Some liked it, some hated it. If you've got tons of sit down power it's definitely a course for you. I'll just keep quiet on this one since I was sick and rode poorly. Kinda hard to make a judgement after a DNF.

So after the race it was off to Weston, MO for a Cub Scout function. Nothing like wandering around a corn maze for an hour with tired legs. The kids had fun in the maze and then if was off to the campfire for hot dogs, chips, and smores.

The dinner of champions, Yea!!!!!!

This I thought I would never see again, gas under $2.00. WOW.

I had to fill up just because.....

Sunday I met up with group ride from Starbucks. 4hrs at an easy pace was just what the doctor ordered. I felt pretty good except the sinus headache that came on in the last hour. I came home and drugged myself and slept.

Wonder what this week will bring.........................

Green Monster!!!!!

Yea, you thought this post was going to
be about Halloween but this thing is scary enough. The "Green Monster" run up at the Louisville USGP was huge. Our normal barriers are bad enough but I don't think I could get my knee to bend far enough to run this thing, those steps are huge.

I have to say that building a over/under bridge for a cross course would be super cool. Maybe one of these days..............

Spooky Cross Weekend review

I made the trip to DesMoines last weekend for 2 days of Spooky Cross. With 2 days of rain leading up to the races I was a bit worried about course conditions but by race time there was very little mud. The promoters did an awesome job laying out courses that had tons of unique features. There was some road, trail, bean field, climbs(both short and long), and of course barriers both in the open and on the climbs.
The first picture is of the bean field straight that was mud on day 1 and rutted and soft on day 2.


Troy searching for a good line in the bean field. Day 1 was tough because of the mud, day 2 was tough because it was soft, rutted, and into a 40mph wind. Sure glad we dropped into the woods shortly after the beans.



First lap up the climb/Run-up in Saturday's 1,2,3 race. It was steep at the bottom, then they put 1x4's on the hill to make it harder.
On Sunday the climb had boards on a short steep climb followed by a longer climb that was a slow slog in a 42x25.







Here I am with Iowa fast guy Brian Eppen. He won both days 1,23 race. Saturday I stuck with him for most of the race but ended up 2ND. By Sunday I was getting tired and all I could do was hang on for 3rd.

Overall the races went well, 1st in the Masters 40+ both days(Troy 3rd both days, Craig 6Th Sat). Lincoln Rider Darin Schlake was 2ND in the masters both days and made me ride way too hard to save much for the 1,2,3 races. The rest of the Lincoln Industries crew had good rides all weekend as well. The whole crew was in the top 10 both days.

Once again I've got to give credit to the promoters, the courses, the crowd, the overall vibe was awesome. The amount of work and thought that went into the courses was amazing. They have good prizes and plenty of good food, beer for everybody. I'll go back and I hope to bring a number of KC folks with me.


Then there was this................I guess I'm ready for Hooligan Hill during the Lincoln Cross Weekend after seeing this guy. I was offered beer, Slim Jim's, and bucks on the climbs both days but racing was too tight to partake. Man, what a rowdy bunch, it was loud at the tops of the climbs!



I dare you to take that buck! I think the devil is eyeballing a few for himself.

Spooky Cross

Yep, this weekend I'm going to try something different, cross in Iowa. A few of the guys from up north are heading for DesMoines for Spooky Cross so I figured why not. No matter where you race this weekend it's going to be muddy so bring out the buckets and boots. I guess this is what they call real cross weather.



As for the picture, Jonas is a crazed clown this year and his costume is fairly spooky. We went to family fun night at school last week and he enjoyed scaring all of the girls from his classes. Pretty amusing.

Boulevard Cup

From what I've heard around town it sounds like there was a good turnout at both races this weekend. I saw these picture's by Kyle Reynolds on Localcycling. Nice shot of the Masters race going off. This one is fun to watch on a weekly basis as the racing is tight.




Then there's Nate Woodman bunnie hopping the barriers. Nate can bunnie hop just about anything and is a crowd pleaser for sure (especially when he occasionally misses).









Then there was my weekend.........Family issues, a week of sick kids, ect., ect...you get the idea. What a difference a week makes, last weekend I felt great, this weekend....not so much. All of the above kept me from racing Saturday but I decided to give it a go Sunday. I got a good start and slotted in where I wanted to be but after a lap I knew it was not to be. I pulled the plug early and decided to ride hard enough to get a workout but not hard enough to wear myself down. I'm not sick.......yet, but I'm the only one in the house that has not had it yet. Anyway, I think this picture of me was taken just after I downed a beer and I'm getting goofy all ready. I rarely drink and I'm sure the last time I downed a full glass of beer was over 20 years ago. I do have to admit that the lap after I drank the beer was probably the fastest lap I rode all day!