Sunday, October 21, 2007

Weekend Update

Man, what great weather this weekend! I had Friday off work so I worked around the house in the morning and then road from home to meet the wife at her work in the late morning and then we headed to the baby doctor. Everything is going well so that was cool. Nearing the end, less than 11 weeks to go and there will be another girl around here who will be handing my butt to me in multisport events. It will be truly awesome. From the doctor, the wife went to an eye appointment and I road my bike over to Webster Groves to pick up my car which was getting a full set of new dampers. 180,000 miles was far enough on the old corners I thought. So it was kinda of nice to commute around on my bike. On my way through Webster I grabbed a coffee and stopped by the Hub. They were friendly and gave some insight to their Saturday morning ride which I might try and make from time to time. Finally get my car and head home by 2pm. Matt called and he couldn't resist the urge to go mountain biking so I joined him. It was a short but sweet ride.

Saturday Matt and I met again early to ride some and to check out some of the Specialized demo bikes. I brought out the old, and still crappy, shifty bike. Then I demo'd a 29er Stumpjumper hardtail. Pretty decent, SRAM X9 shifters, Reba up front and a certified Fred riding position and narrow bars. Aside from they Hybrid position of the stem and bars, and I was pretty pleased with the ride. Scale of 1-10 I would give it a 8. Climbed well, decent bike at a decent price, and it had big wheels. I then went back to my crappy geared bike and Matt and joined up with some other friends to ride Lone Wolf in the counter clockwise direction. It was all good until we came upon the non-helmet wearing choad as we entered the steep and tricky decent at the end of Lone Wolf. I got around the guy, but the other 3 in my riding party did not. So the guy has no helmet, cuts my friends off as they do the "last" climb before the tricky section with a steep fall off the bluff to the right. Then won't move over and is trying with all his might to stay on my wheel. What a way to cap off 2.5 hours of riding. I hurried home and made a late breakfast for the wife and I and then we went out and did some errands. We stopped by Big Shark and I got a few things I needed. Seems like I spent a lot but didn't bring much home from there.

Saturday night we ended up helping Matt by watching his daughter. I only hope my little one is a cool as her. It was good practice and I drank 5 of Matt's cold O'fallon's. That makes two weekends in a row I have been at Matt's drinking his beer before a cross race. Man, what a teammate!

Sunday was round 2 of cyclocross. Kept the same 32/13 gear because last year that worked for me at Creve Coeur Park. I did make a pre-race cross weight adjustment and ran my tires at 65 psi due to the possibility of pinch flatting on the bumpy course. If you read this and can tell me what cross-weight is I'll give you a new pair of Cannodale socks. So I road a couple laps. Good course, definite non-roadie sections, and a one tough short climb before a long pavement section. I named that section single speed hell. Race starts, and I get a better start than last week. At the first turn I make it inside a guy similar to the way Alonso went past Hamilton in the Brazil GP. Go over the barriers with not issues. Then the next tight turn, I make another Alonso inside pass. Third tight turn, yep another inside pass. People, get off your brakes! We hit the off camber bumpy section and some guy stuff it and I pass him and another guy who apparently slowed down for a look. WTF? Is this rush hour, keep riding! That was all the first lap. I settle in and a few guys pass me, I pass a few. Klages is up the road. Jose is too, but I pass him. Mike went by me like I standing still and he ended up finishing pretty well. Then I pass a few guys back who passed me. Then with 3-4 to go I get a couple more. Then I see Joe in front of me. He is a pretty darn fast master and I figure if I can get him that would make my race. So get close and then on 2 laps to go I flatted in the rough off camber section. It was, BAM, psssss, all in about 10 feet. Damn. I was going to catch Joe too. Looks like if I did I would of been 10th or 11th. Same as last week.

I was happy with my race. Legs were a little dead due to the riding I did Friday and Saturday. The flat was a bit of a pisser, but it happens. Next week I'm off to KC to see the parents and try out a race there on the Nationals Cross Course.

1 comment:

Bobber said...

Yo James, you're in the blogosphere, whay to go! Sounds like you had a good race. I'm sure I would have pinch flated if I would have been there. I seem to attract them like flies on fly paper. Keep it up!