Descent into Mediocrity

Guess I'm just going to have a mediocre end to my season.  Raced at the Boulder CX series # 4 event today.  A new and REALLY good venue,  and NOT in the bubble.  Race was at Westminster City Park,  a large grassy park with a huge set of stairs and a LOT of elevation delta to work with.  Again,  a great course from Brian at Boulder Racing,  even if it was WICKED hard from a gasping & breathing hard prospective.  I really hope this venue repeats next year,  it's a great place for a race.

For me,  went about like all my resent races,  a decent start,  then faded back to a mid pack finish.  Lots of climbing,  along with some deep and very draggy uphill grass just peeled all my speed off,  and led to a lot of chasing on the downhill & twisty parts of the course for me.  Just can't seem to find ANY legs here in the waning part of the season.  Coming to grips with the realization that it seems like that is how I'll be ending up,  chasing & fading more than my early season,  where I was at least staying in the front.  Ah well,  it is what it is.

Enough whining,   states is next week,  and will mark the end of my racing season.   Hard to believe the season is "already" over.  Time Does Fly,  does it not?

Here is the video grabbed for the day,  Just the 35+ open and 35+ 4s.  I even managed to forget to mount up the Bar-cam today,  realized I didn't have it when I lined up.  Old age is really catching up.


Boulder CX#4 - SM35+ Lap 1 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.


Boulder CX Series #4 - SM 35+ Cat 4 - Lap 1 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Happy Thanksgiving - Cycling style

Well,  with the weekend almost over,  It's time to go race again.    Boulder CX Series #4,  and at a new venue,  Westminster City park.  Should be a good one.  All rested up,  legs even felt "snappy" on a little "opener" ride this afternoon.  Closing in on the end of the season.

I AM thankful this Thanksgiving season.  I have a loving wife,  the health at 50 years old to let me go beat myself to a pulp and race cross every weekend,  no personal issues or other crisis to bring me down.  All in all a great life right now,  and I am quite content.  I am also thankful I am comfortable enough in my own suck-itude as a bike racer to not get tied up in the Pro-Wanna-Be life.  It seems to get you into a place where one does things you must know are FAR from right.  

I've not been much for paying much attention to the "Big Stars" of cycling in the last 10+ years.  In my early bike racing career,  I did follow the pros (usually the "lesser" underdog types...) like so many.  Then later on,  I lost interest in them,  just too far removed from the world I know to make much of a connection.  Sadly,  I kind of replaced that admiration to the pros with a more localized version.  I saw some of the local masters riders as more "human" people,  ones I could actually see (briefly..) in a race,  and could get a true appreciation for their talents by lining up and getting my rear handed to me by "Working Stiff" riders of a more down to earth level.   I've Joked about getting on EPO,  both with friends and even on this blog.  I've joked with friends about those guys at the front of these local "masters" races as needing to get drug tested. Sat & compiled our list of "suspects" needing testing over beers.  Never did I really think it might really be needed.  

I don't Know this guy.  Nor do I care.  I only know what I've seen in the press,  and frankly,  if this is the best story you can come up with after being busted for buying Performance Enhancing Drugs online,  I can't see you as being any better than the legion of big-time pro dopers who try and whine their way out of being caught.  At least the other 45+ guy in Michigan busted in the same way had the PROFESSIONAL-ISIM to come clean,  admit his errors,  and even explain why he did it.  Lots of people are on the cusp of being a "Pro" bike racer.  Pro means a lot more than what color your bar tape is or how fast you  ride.  It reflects your approach to what is now a job.  Based on the story so far,  one of three things happened here

1 - Bought & used PEDs for own use
2 - Knowingly Helped teammates buy PEDs
3 - Cluelessly allowed teammates to use your identity to buy PEDs.

None of these are Pro.  All are stupid.  No matter what really happened,  it's just one more black eye to the sport I love & Enjoy so much.  Thanks.  Thanks a lot.  Happy Thanksgiving from you.

I am going to go race my sorry,  slow,  clean ass this weekend.  I'll still have fun.  You will not.

Yum...

Lesson from this Sunday's Cyclo-X race:     Puking (even just a little bit...) while racing slows you down.

After a good start,  and actually riding comfortably in the top 15 the first 2 laps,  my stomach decided to crawl up & try to strangle my brain for making it race in the cold,  windy morning.  nothing like the taste of bile in the morning to get you going  Yum.

  Frustrating.  Finally see a glimpse of my earlier season form,  and am riding well,  only to have a thing like eating something that did not "agree" with me kick me right back to the middle of the pack.   Was a reasonably fun course,  almost completely non-technical except for the BMX track,  which was kind of a hoot.  Only wish they would have turned off the wind blowing off the lake.  Coldest I've been "warming up" ever.     

Bar-Cam video from the Beer-Drinking-Dads-League  (with the barfing and gagging sounds edited out for your protection....)


Cyclo-X - SM35+ Cat 4 Barcam from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Couple of weeks left to redeem my "meh-ness".  Hope my revised "program" will get me back to a bit better form to end the season on a bit higher note.  The glimpse of that better form yesterday was at least encouraging.

Stranger than Fiction

Back when the Euro Trolls from the UCI bat cave decided that a 34mm cyclocross tire was so vastly superior to a 32mm cyclocross tire that it would turn a 3rd rate old-guy Cat 4 like me into a Tim Johnson-killing-uber-cross racing machine,  tell me you did not think " Really?   What are they going to do, sit on the line and measure tires with a caliper?"

Well,  From Sunday's New Belgium Cup UCI Women's elite race,  I give you the call-up pen scene.

UCI official on far left,  with call up list
UCI official on far right,  guarding the gate to the grid
Current National Champion & overall bad-ass KFC in the middle left

And to her right,  the UCI commissar & chief official.
Note the direction of his very serious gaze.  Front tire maybe?

What's that in his hand?

Yep.  It's a set of calipers.  Surely set to 33.000mm

They were actually running a caliper over each front (and sometimes BOTH) tires as each rider was called up.  Big Brother is here.  Even had one of the local back of the pack kind of women told that the 32 Dugast on her bike "were a bit tight",  but let her race anyway.   Generous.

I guess cross is now really part of big time cycling.  Are millimeter-wave body scanners and full pat-downs next?   All over 2mm  (2 mm for gods sake....) of tire width?  Really?  2 Millimeters people.

Then the bat-cave wanna-bees at USA Cycling,  after telling everyone in August that anyone over 17 will need a less than 33mm tire to race Nationals,  sparking a massive sell off in 32 mm tires as lots of people grumbled away in their basements stripping & re-gluing to smaller tires,  suddenly changed their minds.   Now it's just elite,  Jr. 17-18,  and U23 that need to get their tires "caliped" at the races.   So nice of them to help with their stated intent of "The intent was to reduce the amount of equipment that many riders feel they must bring in order to be competitive."


Got any 34's laying around?  As for us local,  wanna-be nothings?  I don't know about you,  but I'll be out Sunday at Cyclo-X with my "monster meat" Flexus 34s.  Good luck keeping up with those babies.

New Belgium Cup USGP - More Video

Some more video from the Ft. Collins USGP. Happy to have our Chief Videographer back in town. Videos courtesy of Lisa Robinson. Enjoy.

Saturday 45+ Start

New Belgium Cup USGP - Saturday 45+ Start from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Saturday 45+ Lap 1

New Belgium Cup USGP - Saturday 45+ Lap 1 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Sunday 35+ Lap 1

New belgium Cup USGP - Sunday 35+ Lap 1 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Sunday 35+ Lap 1 +

New Belgium Cup USGP Sunday - 35+ Lap 1+ from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Sunday 35+ Lap 3

New Belgium Cup USGP - Sunday - 35+ Lap 3 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Sunday 45+ Lap 1

New Belgium Cup USGP - Sunday - 45+ Lap 1 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Sunday 45+ Lap 2

New Belgium Cup USGP - Sunday - 45+ Lap 2 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

New Belgium Cup

After weeks & weeks of dry,  warm & dusty,  we finally got it.  REAL cross conditions.  My back of the pack results don't begin to reflect the pure,  unadulterated,  suffering-filled FUN that was had this weekend in ft. Collins.

Saturday was just as cold and damp as you hoped for.  Slimy, Muddy Goodness.  The course was beautiful,  milking a bunch of small features on a big hillside,  that when muddy,  became a bike handlers course.  HARD course,  lots of long hills,  and what with the squishy ground made those going up do some serious breathing

 The muck made it really fun,  trying to gt around while in close proximity to a whole pile of other folks.

New Belgium Cup USGP - Day 1 - 35+ start from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Conditions led to much carnage, especially as the thawing continued.

New Belgium Cup USGP Cyclocross - 35+ carnage from Dale Riley on Vimeo.


I failed to start my Bar-Cam on Saturday (Doh!),  but did manage to remember for Sundays snot-fest.  I got to line up next to Rod Yoder,  who you can briefly see disappearing up the road with Gary Thacker in tow.  (I had noted to Gary prior to the start that he should probably follow Rod,  and not me.  This sage advice helped Gary a lot at the start....)  I've been watching Rod's videos, and you can learn a lot about racing from watching him move thru a field.  NO hesitation,  just go,  whatever line you get.  You can watch Rod's video to see what the front of the race looks like,  but here's the middle/Back view.

New Belgium Cup USGP Cyclocross - Day2 - 45+ Barcam from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Should have some more video later,  the Chief videographer was back on Sunday.

What a weekend.  I'm beat to a pulp.  Usually a 45 minute cross race doesn't hurt my upper body like this,  but the courses were SO hard,  and SO techinchal,  that my back,  core and arms are a wreck today.

Race came off great,  my only complaints would be parking,  and that the New Belgium beer tents RAN OUT OF BEER just before the star of the Elite mens race.  Oh the horror.    Hope that the USGP can return again,  nice to have 2 "big" races here each year.

All in all a Whole lotta fun.

It did....

Wow.  what a weekend.

It was kinda like this....

Only with more slime.  More later.  Spanked.  Need sleep.