O-H...I-O State Champs

513 part time blogger here again as the KY portion is tapering for the SSCX finale in Indy next week.

Oh, the best laid plans as they say... Not that I have the ability to target any races but I had hoped for "good sensations" as the Euro's and hipsters like to say. I really enjoyed the John Bryan race last year and I was coming off back to back top 10s.

I arrive at the park about 8:00 for my 10:00 race. We had the women racing before us so warm up laps would be less than the usual. And it was about 27 degrees upon arrival so "warming up" was all relative, but it was a nice looking day.
Registration went fine, number pinned fine, tires inflated fine, grabbed Kirk for recon lap. All seemed fine but my bike was shifting funny... oh well, new drivetrain, its just breaking in. Well, the massive amounts watts I was producing on our recon lap were too much for my brand new, very fragile Ultegra chain. SNAP! I proceed to run around frantically looking for anyone to help me fix this as I have no links or pins. A huge thanks go out to Scot Hermann and his horrible Movember mustache. Luckily he had a spare pin and we got the chain fixed in time for staging but no warm up to speak of. I got the hole shot and then it was pretty much all down hill (or uphill in cycling terms) from there.
No legs and I was questioning why I get up early and ride my bike in the cold. But the heckles kept me going. I could hear Jeff, Butch, and Darrin early in the race actually cheering and urging me on. A few laps in and they were pretty much just encouraging me to finish. Lots of "you can do it, keep cranking, you're still not last!" I suffered to a 12th place finish. I blame my chain but I think turkey and pie and no time on the bike in the last 2 weeks had more to do with it.

Congrats to James for the win and the OH champs jersey, Chip was second and said he got caught behind a Tan-Dumb team on the singletrack, that had to be fun, B. Horton from Reser rounded out the podium and Kirk rode well for a 4th place finish.

Here's me leading a bunch of people early in the race who will finish in front of me. But hey, no leg warmers!

There was a sandpit, which early in the day was frozen. It caused much carnage in the open 4's. It posed no threat when ridden at my speed.
I got no pics of Jeni or Sherri in the ladies early race (see chain issue above) and none of Darrin in the open 4's but all 3 rode well and have had strong showings here late in the year.

In the 3's Matt continued riding his way into an upgrade to the big leagues next year with another top 10, Jeff rode really well, seen here on the high side on the log, including a crash into Mark Farmer seen here,
and I am pretty sure Butch got drunk from handups.

Onto the good stuff:
Best heckle(s):

• Jeff telling me my mountain bike license was revoked for not riding the logs

• Corey telling me he was getting me a tissue for the next lap

• Me telling the leaders of the cat 3 race who had a sizable gap "Congrats, you guys are riding right into cat 2 licenses!" and all the spectators laughing
• Gatch on the PA saying Corey had been "dispatched quite handily" by Mike Schulze in the SS race

I gave out 3 handups of Brooklyn Brown ale. 2 of which went to Butch. Jeni and Darrin also had a handup for Butch, theirs was 12 oz of Dundee lager. Butch took it and negotiated the barriers and the singletrack while still carrying beer. Sounds like he had a good race!

A Rad Dog Italian "Sausage" (vegan, tube-shaped mush like substance), while quite good, produces noxious gas about 2 hours later.

Cyclocross is still awesome even with a bad race thanks to my friends and teammates. Like Dave below, in his first race. Oh we cracked a beer afterward to celebrate that! Pretty sure he is hooked now too.
A huge thanks to TJ, Phil, Team Dayton, the sponsors, Karen and Doug, and all the folks that make this race happen. Every event involving these folks is always top-notch and well run. The six hour MTB race at JB is a must do event for any one who has not done it either. Just a blast with good racing, good food and good people.

See everyone in Indy for the finale next weekend. Rumor has it there may be some extra shenanigans in store.

World Cup Koksijde 2010 -this is amazing

If you were feeling good about your skills, this may ruin your day. Koksijde is ridiculous. Huge crowds and the coolest course yet.

This Year Im Thankful For...the long arm of the law?

Judges and law enforcement protecting cyclists and not laughing off death like in years past. Im thankful that people swerve to avoid hitting squirrels but dont understand why they swerve towards the 2 wheeled humans.

Heres a great example of justice coming thru...click here

Granted they shouldve fried this asshole, but since we arent doing that this year, lotsa time in the greybar hotel will do nicely. Wait'll he finds out why they call it the "pokey"

Btw prosecuting this dude and the arrest of the "red-truck" dirtwad, it almost feels safer to ride here in the village.

And Im thankful for bad reality TV. Sue me

Ky State Championships-Bringing It All Back Home

Well, at least part of it. I've been struggling to get back motivated after a mostly lackluster season. Sometimes it just takes a little something.

Lets face it...I can sit around ruminating that Strummer and Thompson are still dead, and that inspiration has to be lying around here somewhere in this jumble of stuff, and its on me to find it.

I spent Saturday making some changes to the Igleheart and the beloved SingleSpeed(Slow Only). I swapped some saddles around and changed some position things. Raised and Lowered saddles until I found something different that still worked.

A test ride w Zack and Joe Cz @ Eva made me think that I had just a little bit of voodoo left for this race.

I actually had a race plan, although it amounted to giving the Cat 4 35+ race a fair shot, but saving something for the SS race if I wasnt going to pull some magic out of nowhere.

I pre-rode the course and thought the usual-great course, gotta push it here, watch for traffic there and god help me in doing this without gears.

I had a decent first half a lap, but got off the front group and faded further as the race went on. In the 4th lap I actually heckled someone back...a sure sign that I wasnt pushing it hard enough. The SS race was heavy on my mind. Joe Cz and I had schemed away about the other riders and what they had to throw out there.

Quite a line up. You can see Bill Crank chilled out in the back waiting to throw it down upon us, as he surely did.

Extra points for Ben Wilson for-

A having a bike that matched his kit exactly. very PRO

B Getting the hole-shot on the aforementioned 30lb blue beast

JC surely had the sweet setup with the Salsa/Zipps combination and embro'd to the gills. Quite a crew. You can see Czerwonka commenting about the impending pain.

it looked a lot like this....

Lets say 42x18 is the gearing of agony. A 20t cog is going to make its way back there very, very soon. the 18 let me ride most of the way up the short steep hills but then a wall was hit and it was speedy dismount time. I felt every pedal stroke of the first race in my leggs, but I kept a count of who was ahead of me in the race.

At the end it looked like this for the State championships

Bill Crank 1st place SSCX

Joe Czerwonka 2nd place SSCX

Yours Truly 3rd place SSCX

It was cool to stand on the haystack with a good friend and grab the new necklace. Even if I did get extorted by another McShane child for food in the waiting!

The other RRP family members to podium were

Gryzwald 1st place slow medium old men(cat 4 35+)

JHardin 2nd place slow and really old men (cat 4 45+)

Ray(little caesar) 2nd place Cat3

Rachael's family and she had some new jewelry and McShane rides for Bob's Rogue Mill so we count him and his 1st place in Elite Masters.

The Promotion folks did an awesome job, I always say that when I do well. the ice cold Orange Crush was spot on after that hot and hard race. I was proud as a porch pony.

nice work. Now just a few more and time to chillbernate. Im trying to see if that word'll catch on...

The Only time you'll See Doug and I in VeloNews Unless We Run Over A Cyclist

VeloSnews

Great article by Chris Jones about his experiences here in the village. Its always great to have Chris in town. Great racer and and equally great guy. Having him on the Rapha-Focus(pronounced raahhh-fuhh, thank you) was just icing on the cake.

Like other pros such as Tim Johnson and Georgia Gould, Chris is a regular person who just happens to be freaky fast.

And its also cool to get name checked in national cycling media, instead of those neighborhood watch items I normally get mentioned in....

Promotion for Some, SloMotion for Me

The OVCX continues and Im jumping back into the fray after a couple of schedule conflicts on the previous races. This weekend is one of my favorite courses, The Promotion CX in Lexington. Usually a fast, fun course annnnd its the Ky State championships. I dont have any misperceptions of winning, but I'd like to get close. I still think Im the biggest thing btw me and racing better. Easy diagnosis, difficult fix. We shall see. Gears and SSCX on Sunday.
Bring it!

Tell Me Again What All Those Gears Are for?

The singlespeed cross bike project is finally up and running after some fits and starts. As many of you remember, I decided to convert the Salsa to an SSCX bike when the Igleheart got built. More on the Iglebike later, but basically once everything was moved to the new bike I was left with almost enough spares to re-build my favorite bike. Without worrying about derailleurs anymore. Simple, right? Yes I am.

In talking with Drew&Derek @ On Your Left about the decision btw using a chain tensioner vs building a wheel with the Eno eccentric hub, we decided to do it right and go with the Eno. This seemed like the ultimate solution and they built a beautiful wheel as always.

Now part of my due dilligence in making this decision was to read the reviews on line. As always, the internets were a wealth of information and its actually hard to find a negative review of this product. The only negative review I found was debunked by the crowd online.

Feeling good I took the Salsa out for a test ride and it was fantastic.

I got it ready for USGP and made sure that my chain tension was correct and got 3.5 laps in before dropping the chain. WTF, right? This isnt supposed to happen.

I figured that it was operator error, as thats usually the culprit. Back to the shop for some adjustments and additional inservicing on the correct way to maintain this.

I lined up at Storm the Greens and when the man said "go", I did. About 10 feet before dropping the chain. Now, the winner of that race happened to be riding a SSCX Moots. Gorgeous and coincidentally using the Eno hub. He was gracious enough to spend some time looking at my set up and check for some of the more common errors. He was stumped. I knew that it had been set up correctly and have a ton of faith in the work that Drew and Derek do. He looked again. I looked too(for no good reason), chins were scratched and then

finally he saw a possibility. The hub didnt seem to be making contact 360 degrees on the drop out. My beloved Salsa was somewhat of an anomaly in that it had a ridge along the bottom half of the equator in the drop out region. Or, more plainly said, From 3:00 to 9:00 there was surface to surface contact but around the top of the horn the was nothing. Because the seatstays are designed to flex, and because there was not full contact it was just enough room for the hub to pivot under stress and drop the chain.

I called the folks at White Industries and they were unusually helpful(no, really). They brainstormed with me and I took 2 of their theories back to Derek. He looked over the situation and agreed that the best option was to grind down the small ridge so that a flat surface would result and full grip could be had.

The fix was perfect, and I tested it at RRCC as well as a trail ride thru Cherokee/Seneca. The stop and start of a simulated race start, sand traps and rooty trail climbs were met with smooth, predictable pedaling and a sweet ride. I did my best to get the bike to dump its chain but every check revealed the same tension. SUCCESS!! Only I would have a complicated singlespeed. This was a huge relief as I'd gone thru all sorts of options that I didnt want to excercise in looking for ways to fix the situation. I'd thought about switching frames, but this just has the feel of being "my bike". I've logged a lot of miles on it as a cross bike, mtb, road bike and gravel road racer. Im glad that the On Your Left guys were able to help me transition it to its new life. the singlespeeding is a good time. If I want to catch the guy ahead of me, I need to pedal faster and stay off of the brakes. Think less-Pedal harder. I could do that....sometimes. And sometimes its nice to just ride trails on it with Kid A.

tales of a tallgirl-siltstone trail half-marathon

so usually Im here making funny(to me alone) comments about the content of some amazing photos documenting our exploits taken by one mrs seiler aka tallgirl(not ironic). We decided to flip the script and detail a serious accomplishment that she had herdamnself this past weekend. lets face it, its hard enough to ridee a bike in jmf, running there is just ridiculous. and yet, two of our rogue racing family(didnt leave mrs bearden out) took on the race and kicked its ass.
Tallgirl won her age group and was 5th overall in the womens group. Take that young chicks.
When asked for some quotes, all we really got was "goddamn thats hilly", and some mention of sandwhiches....and cookies....and beer...and several other food groups that didnt really seem to go together. well earned, well earned.
we'll be back to talking about all things scatalogical and cyclocrossical later this week, but daddy tired now and seeing that todays intervals induced serious verping and wishes for death I believe we'll leave it all here.
Congrats to Marcia and Valerie, awesome finishes!

The Great Poo dodge of 2010, or OVCX @ Infirmary Mound

What, 2 race updates in a row from Jason? Either I am ambitious or Segal is slacking. You make the call.

I decided to go ahead and race at infirmary mound. Many of the fast Cat 4 35+ guys from KY did not want to make the drive so I figured it was a good chance to sneak some points. I got to the park early to get a good pre-ride in and warm up since I heard great things about this course. The first thing I noticed were the piles upon piles of horse shit ON THE COURSE! Well, that is nice. The horse poop section was immediately followed by the flood wall around the lake, or as Sparky named it "Swan-shit lake". Yes, 2 types of fecal matter occupied about 1/3 of the entire race course. Ironically (or not) enough, that was how I felt the whole race.

I got a good start considering the staging went like this: top 5 of the open 4's, top 5 of 35+ and top 5 of 45+ called up. About 5 of the 15 total were at the race so the front row was sparse to say the least. The official then said, and I quote, "now the rest of ya." Um, yeah, so that was neat. Anywho, I settled in about 5th wheel overall after the start behind Chip. I held his wheel for 1/2 a lap and a few of the usual suspects passed me. I raced with Dell (45+ from QCW) most of the race and we picked off a few and were picked off by a few. The course was deceptively hard, a good headwind by the lake slowed you down and the climbs were all long, shallow power climbs. The singletrack section had the big runnable ride-up which was all rooty, steep fall line trail so there very few places to recover. I wound up 8th which was better than I thought I did cuz I really was not "feeling it" today. I'll take back to back top 10's into my "bye" week though.

Congrats to Chip for climbing up on the top step in back to back weeks and Scott "Sparky" Lyle for getting on the podium. Even if he did have to file a protest for it. I left right after the 3/4 women's race so I did not see the men's 3 or the elites. The Cat 3 35+ report I got said the 513 RRP crew looked strong, all riding together and coming home 13th (Matt) 15th (Jeff) and 17th (Butch).

Jerry Hayes' had a standing bet with his daughter. She wins her race, he races in her socks. Congrats Emma!

Mama Petrov was on camera duty for the 4's and I got a few of the ladies. Please note my camera has no idea what the date is.

Me near the start, cloudy day
Lance demonstrating how most of the field "rode" the run-up.
Sparky showing us how it was done.
Me showing everyone how it is not done. However, I cleaned it the next lap. I have no idea how I went all ass over tea kettle up a steep up hill...
Jason Reser of Reser Bicycle Outfitters and a dog are seen here heckling Sparky's bike washing skills.
Sherri Cross face!
Hez Not Cross face.
Sherri climbing the front hill.
Hez showing that front side hill who is boss! But can someone tell me why she had to borrow my embro when she has on long sleeves, knee warmers and tall socks?
Good luck to everyone at Promotion CX next week. I am taking that one off so Brian will have to provide insightful witty commentary. Thanks Cap City folks for hosting, it was fun. I will see everyone at JB in two weeks to race off my turkey, gravy, and pie.

Click, Click BOOM! Gun Club CX

Gun Club CX. If you have never experienced it these words and pictures will not do it justice. This is more than a typical CX race. More so than any of the other OVCX races, this race truly embodies the CX spirit of the races being events, spectacles even, rather than just a “race”.

Last Wednesday most of the regular Cincy CX racers went out to recon the course with John Gatch. Gatch is the diabolical mastermind of Gun Club CX. He is perhaps more famous as being one of the Johns from the Two Johns Podcast. He also is one of the voices of OVCX as one of the more animated announcers on the tour. Oh, and he is the guy wearing leiderhosen and suspenders at the races…

They pulled all the stops out this year. Roto-tilled up the sand (didn’t matter, it was still super fast, more on that in a moment), added a very technical creek crossing with two lines to enter and a steep hill directly following the creek which was a run up for many. It was rideable if you had momentum from the creek and did not get bogged down in traffic up the hill. The rest of this super MTB friendly course was the typical short steep climbs, the singletrack, the gravelly twisty turns, and the smell of grilled meat from the HUGE grill next to the tiny little pit area. Oh and added to all that were these guys:

What the hell Gatch? Seriously, a drumline? Gun Club CX is sensory overload.

Since the 4s were going off at 4:15 and finishing sometime around sunset I arrived at venue around 1:00. Just in time to see the finish of the Elite Masters and the Elite Women. Nikki won the women’s race, and B-Jet Donovan-Billiter (wife of official Gun Club Artist James Billiter) took home 3^rd. Some combination of the usual suspects for the men were on the podium. I was not really paying attention as I was trying to navigate the crowds to get to registration. I missed the 3-4 women’s race but Heather got her best finish with a 5^th in the old lady 4s and Sherrie put in a solid ride too. They said there was still some frost on the ground when they went off. Sounds like cross season is finally here.

I registered, pinned a number, and settled in to watch the Cat 3 Masters race. Butch, Jeff Cyrus, and Steirwalt were representing the Rogue Nation and all 3 are strong MTBR’s so I expected a good showing.

As you can see here, Jeff and Butch are ready to go. Steven Gers of Bio Wheels is contemplating something… perhaps a top 10 finish for him today?

They were off, around the big turn, through the straight away and into the sand. Like I said, it did not scrub any speed and Butch decided to go all human-bike bowling ball and a few others were happy to oblige as the pins. Carnage ensued. Matt and Jeff made it out in good position but Matt’s rear der was all jabberwockied. Jeff looked strong all race and had his best finish, 11^th. He just could not catch onto the Bio Wheels paceline right in front of him. Matt was behind him somewhere, strong mid pack considering he only had about 3 gears all race. Butch fought back from the sand carnage to come home 22^nd, but it was an inspired 22^nd.

The open 3s were next, Tim Brown was the lone Rogue in this race. He and Joe Cz were warming up together so I am sure he rode well, I was debriefing Matt, Jeff, and Butch and did not see much of this race. Tim did bring a tiny little dog with him though and try as we might, we could not convince him to race with a basket on his bike and put his dog in it.

In the Elite men a crash at the start line left Josh Johnson with a broken bike so he ran the first half lap to the pits. It was entertaining and he took it in good spirits and did not quit. Bob’s Red Mill basically rode a paceline at the front the entire race. I went to warm up for real.

The 4s started with me on the front row since the only race I can win is the registration race. The open 4/kiddie fun ride went first and us old dudes had a 15 second delay. Nolan won the 4s but Spencer Petrov rode well to come second and as you can see he is about 70 lbs and blurry.

Segal told me I had to put up a pic of “the young Mr. Bain” so here it is. Apparently there is some stipulation in Segal’s contract that no pic = no cookies and that would be bad.

I got a decent start which I knew was key to hold off the faster roadies who were not as fast in the techy-bits. At one point after the creek and the runable ride-up, and after the next little steep hill that some people ran, I think I was leading the race. This did not last long as Chip, Tim, Tracy, Jeff, and Bryan went by. A few more passed me, I passed a few back and then we settled down. I was able to pass people on the two run ups as I rode them, or rode most of the big one until someone would stall in front of me. I am not sure who was right behind me at one point, I thought it was Christian Ambjorn but someone was yelling at him to “Get past Garneret! Go!” I held him off which makes me feel great. I love this course, it suits my abilities and I raced well. Jeff Hardin, Rogue in the Cat 4 45+ caught me and I rode behind him most of the race. We crossed the line together, him winning the 45+ and me notching my first top 10 with 9^th. Cyrus stuck around to take pics and give me a beer afterward so huge props to him. Some more pics:

Jeff getting a good remount and Matt behind.
The view down into the creek crossing
This is what the run up looked like in traffic on lap one
And here's me riding it on lap 2

Proof I cleaned it

You could've gotten PAID at the top!


A blurry Jeff H. taking the win in the 45+ 4s and me right behind for 9th 35+


Me scaring this poor girl as I dry heaved after the race. It was brutal but a blast. Get it? A blast, like a shotgun?


Next week is Infirmary mound in C-bus for the joint OVCX/Cap City race. It is unknown if any LTP correspondents will be there so Segal may just have to post obscure music videos for 2 weeks. Thanks for reading (or at least looking at the pictures)

Jason

DESCENDENTS. Austin, November 7, 2010

While we wait for Garnah-Ray to post a race report, I thought Id share this from Austin. Should've blown off work and hopped in the car with Jimmy. Stupid job.

New Tubular Racing Ralph Cyclocross, Mountain Bike Tires from Schwalbe

New Tubular Racing Ralph Cyclocross, Mountain Bike Tires from Schwalbe

Friday Motivation from My Morning Jacket, pardon the chatty chick in the background

Storm the Greens -every picture tells a story, don't it?

They say its good to have friends, and maybe thats true. I know the saying isnt, "its good to have friends with cameras when you're getting beaten", but what the hell. Here's how my day played out in my battle for mid-pack supremacy. Picture me singing quietly in my head as Im sure Im doing here.

Company? Why Id love some.

Nice pain face. Why you hiding it from us? No, really he was sharing the funniest anecdote about Churchill...wait no that was Fatty. I dont remember what this was about.

Here's your coat, whats your hurry? We were just bonding. I didnt get to finish my story!! rude.

Right! so we'll just catch up later then? okay. Nice being on this club ride with you.

There's onlly a few things more horrifying than that...and they all happened at Storm the Greens...Mike Kennedy's costume still has me waking up screaming. That man is dedicated if nothing else...besides being in touch with his feminine side.

Whats even cooler is that he beat soo many of those guys wearing half a dress and giggling the whole damn time.

then there was speedo guy, who was really funny until he rode a parade lap during the little kids race. Creepy, thy name is speedo guy.

And then there was Dug"the blizzard", who got that nickname for getting DQ'd(eh, eh? nice) during a sprint for thousandth. Like I've said. A man's gotta work and Blizz and Cav, they gotta push the limits sometimes. And really, whats better, a "meh!" finish in the race or a quality story plus nickname?

Oh and Seiler won his race. yawn.....boring, back to shemales and DQ's right? Congrats to him and Little Caeser for fine performances out there. Caeser's gotten more holeshots than..wait is this a family blog? Crap, when Mr Bain's 18 I'll finish my broken metaphor. Cursed youth!

More later, now go vote and then shut up about it. thx