... and that's a wrap.

That's me failing to grab a dollar handup and the CX gods punishing me by wacking me in the face with my bars. And so ended 2011.

2011. O-V-E-R. Stick a fork in it. D-U-N. I suppose I should have some profound words about the year that was, or a witty year in review write up. I apologize in advance for lack of wittiness and lack of profoundness. Wow, both of those are actual words according to MS Word. Who knew?

2011 did see the “maturing” of our little race team experiment. We capped out at about 25 riders and I think everyone is comfortable with that number. There are a few people who have standing invites to come ride with us but for the most part we are where we need to be. And I cannot say enough about the quality of the people who I call teammates. I would (and have on more than one occasion) trust my kid with any of them. As said by more than one person we are not a team, but the fastest family in the area. Well, some more fast then others but you get the idea. It’s weird, I have friends on other teams, good friends, and I am sure they share a bond with their teammates but we have truly built something special. I love each and every one of these guys and gals and look forward to sharing more races, podiums, epic rides, training rides, heckling contests, and most importantly, beers, with you in 2012 and beyond.

As for actual racing, we started the year at the Sub 9 Death March and that is still my favorite race/ride/event I have ever participated in. We actually raced pretty well too. The summer was not as “epic” as I had planned and did only the East Fork XC race and the John Bryan 6 hour race on the MTB. JB continues to be a close 2nd to the <9DM for pure fun. I did however, get talked into racing some local Wednesday night crits on the road bike. I went into it saying “these are training for CX only” and left wanting more. I am looking forward to the crit season more than is healthy for a non-roadie!

CX was a bit of a letdown for me this year, I was in the best racing shape of my life, I bought tubies and had aspirations of a solid top 15 overall in the Mens 35+ cat 3 class this year. Well, the OVCX schedule conflicted with my life a bit and I did not do enough races to qualify for the overall series. But if I had, I would have had that top 15. Yay. OK, so it was not much of an accomplishment but I felt like I was racing pretty well this year. All in all I have no regrets, and as Myerson so famously cried, “It’s just stupid bike racing, but it means everything.”

For 2012 right now the plan is to race for fun. At the end of the CX season some of the fun of racing was going away, being replaced by the drudgery of training, racing, cleaning the mud off the bike AGAIN, and doing it all over next week. I have found I really like the endurance racing more than the XC stuff, and maybe more than CX (blasphemy!). The <9DM is on the schedule for sure, hopefully some kind of early season 6 hour or 50 mile type MTB race (April/May time frame), I am trying like hell to make Hillybilly Roubaix fit (June), a bunch of Wednesday night crits (June/July), John Bryan 6 hour if it happens again, Maybe the 6 hour at the 24 hours of DINO, Wayne Ultra, and the Sub 9 Gravel Grovel. CX may take a back seat next year. Who knows though? Half the fun is planning this crap just to see it never come to fruition.

If the interwebs are lucky I might blog a little more too…until then, Merry Christmas!