Long Days

Nope,   not now,  what with the daylight savings dark-fest bearing down on us.    I am speaking of the day (and Night..) spent helping put on the Cyclo-X Xilinx race on Saturday.  I seem to be able to block out the long days and just plain work that goes into doing a race.  (Might well be a post describing the process in the future here...)

Couple of the team put in a full day,  and a couple of hours the night before to help the WOL gang put on the race.  Couple of hours Friday night putting in stakes and some weed-whacking.  Then a nice sprightly start to that long day with a 5:30 AM tape-stringing session.

Fortunately for us,  They have this race setup thing down to a science,  and it's not too bad to put together.  With me not racing (Wah!),  I spent my day "patrolling" the course,  fixing tape and smashed posts,  while heckling and shooting some video with the Go-Pro.   Got to see a lot of good racing,  and just made me even MORE annoyed with not being able to flog myself into a drooling pile of putty.    Still,  good to be part (A small part) of one of the biggest and best races of the year.

That long day,  and no racing kept me away from what I knew would be the most interesting race of the year,  the Zombie cross from the Frites & Mayo guys.  From what I see,  it looks like I missed THE party race of the year.  Sigh.   Once again,  I raise my new mantra...  "Next Year!"

Not much of a surprise there.   Gotta say,  doing a cross race in roller skates is,  well,  pretty damn cool.

Once again,  I have some stand-in race video from Xilinx.  35+ Cat3 Rubbin & Racin From John D.   Have at it.   Enjoy the daylight savings time change!


CycloX Xilinx 2013 highlights 10-26-2013 from John Deibert on Vimeo.

The Return

I managed my "triumphant" return to racing Cyclocross this last weekend.  Returning to the insanity that is cross after a long absence brought home a couple of points with startling clarity.

Racing Cross is a blast.

Racing Cross in the mud is even MORE of a blast.

Racing Cross still hurts.  

A Lot.

So after a week of virtual inactivity from the monsoonal rain we had,  and a pretty hit or miss ability to actually leave my neighborhood due to closed roads,

I was able to evacuate SouthWest "Not-Boulder" last Saturday on roads that JUST re-opened after the INSANE flooding up here in the north.  Pretty strange to weave thru closed roads,  hunting for bridges that remained intact,  looking at flooded fields and houses half underwater,  then heading off a few miles later into what seemed totally unaffected and normal.  Very strange,  to say the least.  Hooked up with a teammate & headed down to Littleton for the "Zero Gravel Cross",  which actually lived up to it's name.

Compact & twisty course around a big church.  Dry,  it might have been a bit on the short & boring side,  but racing in the muddy morning got us "Beer-Drinking-Grand-Dads"  (Not sure what to call a 45+ cat 4....) prime muddy-tacky-gloppy-slimy-rutted goodness.  My kind of course,  pretty flat and twisty,  and with the goo,  EXACTLY what I do well on.    Given all my recent issues,  not racing for a year,  and general aging,  I had no expectations or goals.  I did not even put the Go-Pro on,  thinking I might well be so far out of it as to be boring and/or embarrassing to have video of my "glorious return"

Turns out it went REALLY well,  the conditions playing well into my strengths,  the driving,  not power/go fast stuff.   Ended up FAR ahead of where I thought I might be,  in 6th place.  Keeping it steady and smooth,  I just seemed to wear people down,  and along with noticing and jumping on a less obvious line early in the race when you could pass a lot of people with less effort got me up there.  I did not even realize I was that far up,  spending the whole race thinking I was back in the teens.  Not racing and the effort to stay upright kept me from any awareness of where I was in the line.  Strange.

Good result or not,  I can tell you that after you have had one of your passions taken away from you,  when lousy diseases keep you from going out and doing what you love,  coming back to it is so very,  VERY sweet.  Hearing Larry G notice I was back out racing & welcome me back to the fold just about made me cry mid race.  The suffering was sweet,  the racing fun,  the atmosphere even better than I remembered.  

It's good to be back.  

These are not the droids you are looking for.....

I know it is cross season.  But it really is still mountain bike season,  maybe even the BEST part of that gig.  Having a bit of trouble switching modes just now.   It's just been SO.  DAMN.  GOOD. this year. The damp trails,  the long days.  Just plain off the hook.

Now,  if you DO ride mountain bikes,  I have to tell you that you need to add one thing to your list of things to do.  Even if it's just once,  or once a year.  Go over to the dark side.

Yep,  go rent a big ass,  slack-o-rama,  eight inches of squish mad max Downhill rig,  a Storm trooper suit,  full-face helmet

 

and a lift ticket.   Don't worry,  16,000 feet of downhilling will still leave you beat to a pulp.  It is FAR from "easy" and more fun than it should be.

Even an old geezer like me can learn to get (a little) air,  and come to love it.  Go do it.  You might like it.

As usual,  there is plenty of room for learning.  Always something to "try later" (Or never...)  This old dude is not really up for EVERYTHING on offer in this knuckle-dragger-huck-it world.  Sometimes a man has to know his limitations,  and just say no.

Get out there & Ride,  whatever it is.  We will return you to the normally scheduled Cyclocross obsession soon.          

Maybe.

Spring has Sprung, er... dumped?

You'd think it was mid-February,  given the cold & snow lately.  While springtime dumps are not really that uncommon,  the last few storms have been on such a neatly staggered schedule,  It's just kinda getting annoying.    I'm ready to REALLY start riding,  and the Colorado spring is doing it's best to keep me from doing it.

After finishing up my Cancer treatments a little over a week ago,  I was really hoping to get a chance to get a couple of weeks of riding in before heading off on our "Spring Training Camp" at a top secret Utah location.  Looking more like it will be mostly on that trip where I'll find out how much my lack of any decent riding ability was fitness driven,  versus cancer drug driven.  I anticipate having my head handed to me on a platter twice a day by my still-in-shape riding companions.  Maybe the gallons of beer will help vault me back into top form quickly.  Or maybe I'll just suffer like a dog,  and do my best to have fun riding Mountain bikes in the desert.

In the last week or so,  the U.S. Cyclocross scene got news of more bad luck.  The USGP series looks to have died after a 10 year run.  I for one am pretty bummed by this news.   I think that a solid,  obvious premiere national series was a boon for focusing the elite of U.S. cross.   Sadly,  I don't see an immediate replacement on the horizon.   USA cycling is putting races on a "National Cyclocross Calendar",  but that is not really the same as what the USGP series brought to the table.  With luck,  there will be some kind of high-end series to focus on soon.  Wondering how much the "stress" on both  the promoters and the U.S. cross sponsorship pool from hosting Worlds contribute to the USGP demise?  Think it was probably on its last legs anyway,  but a shame that there is not an immediate,  obvious series to leverage the buzz from having Worlds here.

It appears that for us Colorado folks,  the Ft. Collins race will survive in some form,  looking like the "other" UCI race here in Colorado (besides Boulder Cup...).  Hopefully we will still get a chance to see the big dog pros in action twice a year here.

Not a lot else from my snow-addled brain right now,  starting to have reoccurring visions of tight,  twisty desert single track.  Getting hard to focus.

Stick a Fork in it

Stick a fork in it

It's DONE.  Cross season is over for yet another year.
Me sad.  Me no get cross season this year.  Me have SOME fun at a few races hanging out.  Me no like not racing.  Make no sense why hurting yourself SO bad is SO fun.  Make sense to miss such silliness.  Me will race next year.

The HPM bunch had a good season,  and a great time at States up in Loveland.  The E2 boys put in a HUGE effort to do a great event,  and they put on a good show.  I have to say I am still happy to share the way of life that cross is with a class bunch of guys.  They seem to know just the right balance of racing their guts out,  being competitive (7th place in Colorado Cross Cup for both 35+ 4 and 45+ 4, all with a VERY few riders...),  and still knowing how to have a good time.  I think this shot from Saturday pretty much sums up both the season,  and my dear teammates.

Armin risks disqualification to get a beer hand up.

Santa says thanks for a great season.

There is yet one more race to do if you are hardcore,  maybe a few underground things on tap,  plus Nationals and even Worlds here in the United States to keep the Cross buzz alive,  but mostly for us lowly middle of the pack types,  it's time to start thinking of next year.

For me,  my number one training plan is to get the cancer back out of my blood so I CAN train and race next year.  The time to treat my blood cancer is rapidly approaching.  Time to fix that broken blood shit so I can actually ride a bike again.  I am finishing up some baseline diagnostic work in the next couple of weeks (Spleen ultrasounds and a bone marrow biopsy...),  and hope to start my Chemotherapy in early January.  I think I will go ahead and document the Leukemia treatment process here,  as it seems to help my brain out when I write about the cancer thing.  Good way to let some of the demons out of my head,  and maybe give some insight into the wonderful world of cancer and it's treatment.

Till then,  you all enjoy being DONE,  not getting up so damn early each weekend,  NOT freezing your cowbells off,  and NOT beating yourself into a pulp each weekend.  Rest up,  it will soon be time to start it all again.  I SHALL be part of it this time.