It's Like Racing for Free!!!!

So.... I am sitting down to write this blog on an empty stomach but with a full pin of Duchesse de Bourgogne straight outta Belgium to help. Some may think this a hazardous undertaking.... but I am feeling lucky. Hell, I woke up this morning feeling that way.

Today was the first race of the 2010-2011 CX season. There is a pack of real CX bad-asses that live up in Steamboat, Colorado. Every weekend during the CX season, they drive down to the Colorado front range (Usually the bubble that is Boulder, Colorado) to race. This year, they decided to put on their own race.

As some of you longer time readers may know, The Frites en Mayo Velo Club have certain rules. No.... "not talking about Fight Club" is not one of them. However, Rule #3 of Team FMVC simply states "Never race in the Bubble (City or County of Boulder, CO) unless you absolutely have to." There is also a corollary to Rule #3.... which is.... Always support races outside of the bubble if you can. So, while the rest of Team FMVC was trying to explain why they suddenly have the incredible desire to squat when they pee, I loaded up the bike, my kit, two dogs and headed on the 2.75hr drive up to Steamboat Springs, CO.

I found the race and parked right next to John "Skillit" Haley who was sporting the FMVC wool jersey that he acquired while at my place last weekend. It looked sweet on him.... to bad that Dubba treats him much better that we do..... he soon doffed it and donned his BCS kit.

I rolled over to registration, paid my $25, got my number and headed back to the truck to change into some slightly less comfortable racing attire. I set the trusty truck guard out and set off to check out the course.

Boone and Uli..... The Royal Truck Guard

mmmmmmm...... Side note......Damn, the Duchesse is good!

My summary of the course.....quite possibly the best fricken CX course I have every ridden on. Not for what the course was.... but for what the did to take advantage of the terrain they had to work with. The used it to crate a course that would make sure that the best overall rider would win. If you had a weakness, this course would expose it.

Not have the best power/weight ration for climbing?.... the course started off with a half mile climb (After the first lap, you got to cut off half way through this climb to go ride some technical sections in a Ditch of Death before going back out and finishing the climb).

It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.

Jake Wells and Jon Cariveau work the Ditch of Death

Not good a short super steep power climbs in the dirt?.... at the very top of the course was a 50 ft pitch that had to be 25% grade.

It was ride-able, but you had to know what gear to use to do it.

Not a good descender? Then say hello to multiple off camber turns in loose and rough terrain. The worst of these was Midway though the course. It was a 200 degree right hander that turned onto a traverse of a steep hill. If you missed this turn, you could easily end up at the bottom on the hill and having to run back up it to get back on the course. When I first saw this turn, I thought " Great, I suck and right hand off camber turns and here is one at the very first race. Hello crash." Instantly, I had a vision enter my head of Jon Cariveau and Mick Robson (Just a few of guys who had a hand in designing this course) giggle with delight at the carnage they would cause with this feature.

Side View


Front View - It's a long way to the bottom if you miss this one.

And finally.....Not good a technical dismounts that lead into steep run-ups? Yup, they had that covered.

Always fun to have to negotiate a 90 deg turn while dismounting.

But, wholly smokes....was this course fun to race! Everyone racing has different strengths and weakness. Due to that, there were constant changes in the standings each lap as guys moved up at certain parts of the course and feel back at others.

BTW.... The Duchesse is saying that is was indeed the best CX course I have ever raced on.

I showed up at the race, with one bike and no back-up wheels. Like I said, I woke up this morning feeling lucky. Halfway through my second warm-up lap, my front tube let go. It was on the long uphill climb so, sorry folks, no crash. No real surprise either, that tube had to be at least two years old and the Stan's Latex in it had long since jumped the shark. I thought to myself..."Damn, that was lucky it did not do that during the race." I walked down the hill to the Moots supplied tech support tent and Jon Cariveau hooked me up with a new tube. Jon, I owe ya big time!!!! The rest of the warm-up goes well and I even get to where I am somewhat satisfied with the way I am handling the right-hand off camber turns.

The Duchesse just said to quit all that yakkin and get to the race.

I raced was was politely called the Master's B. Basically, it is a bunch of 35+, and 45+ guys who are not good enough to earn their way up to the next category. There were nearly 25 of us that showed up today. Larry G. (BTW, Larry has an eye-watering funny AXE commercial on his site right now if you click that link) even handed the mic over to Skillit so that he could race with us. Ref Dean blows the whistle and off we go up that big ass hill. At the top of climb, I slot in about 7th and try to get my large carcass to recover as I see that I am running just over 90% of my max HR. There is little time to recover since after two switchbacks, you have to hit the gas hard to get speed for the 25% pitch. The 3rd and 4th place guys miss the gearing on the climb and come to a dead stop almost at the top. Instant carnage. We get it all straightened out and resume racing. As the laps begin to roll, I find myself looking for any wheel to follow on the climbs, recover, then ride aggressively on the power parts of the course that suit me better. After an indeterminable amount of suffering, I look up and there were only two guys left in front of me. Wholly Crap!!! What the hell am I doing at the front of the race!?!?!?! I look back and there is a decent gap to the next guy. We are running at a pace I can stand so I decide to settle in and concentrate on running smooth lines each lap. Then.... half way through the 3 to go lap, I hit the off-camber turn. By now, I have figured out that it works best to chop almost all my speed, cut the turn as tight as possible and then hit the gas down the hill. Only this time, I cut it too tight and promptly hook my hip on a fence post which jerked me sideways. The front end washes out and down I go in a heap. Keen to keep up with the two in front of me, I hop back up and get up a good running speed down the traverse before I jump to re-mount. In mid jump, while my feet are high in the air and the only thing I have that is stable is my hands connected to the bars, which are connected to the stem, which is connected to the fork, which is connected to the wheel, which is connected to the tire, which is connected to the ground........ the front wheel drops in a hole and takes with it my entire stability platform. Go ahead folks. Try to imagine what it looks like when somone who is 6'4" does a fully extended flying W over the bars. OK... Got that image? Good, caus I go over the bars and hit the dirt in a giant cloud of dust and debris. On the next attempted remount, rather that try yet another completely embarrassing Twinkle Toes maneuver, I run down to the bottom of the traverse before re-mounting.

So, you know how every once in a great while you see a spectical that leaves you unable to make any sound? Instead, you just hold your breath while your inner voice screams out how you cannot quite belive what you are seeing. Well, I am pretty sure that is what happened to Skillit. During this series of events, Skillit has gone totally silent on the mic. I bet you could have heard birds chirping up the mountain. He finally comes back up to power with...."I am just not going to comment on what I just saw".

By time I get this straighted out and going again, I am in 4th and the 3rd place guy is a long way up the road. So.... back to the suffering. I slowly reel him in and get the pass on the tail end of the final lap to finish on the podium.

After cooling down, changing clothes, and taking a full barrage of well deserved heckling from Skillit, I head back up to take some pics of the course for your viewing pleasure. On my way out, I drop by the main tent and ask....."Hey, you giving anything for 3rd in the old broken-down farts race?" Sure nuff they are!!!! $25! All this fun and I get my entry fee back! It's like Racing for Free!!!!

OK.... The Duchesse is just about gone. Time to close this one up. Final word goes out to all the guys at Moots, Steamboat Velo, Orange Peel, and others who put on a great race. Nicely done guys, very nicely done.

One of the locals grabbing some air.