Upgrade!

We had a busy, fun weekend back in ND. Visited with the family, made a buttload of lefse, watched movies (Christmas Story!), played a bunch of card games, visited the gang at the bike shop and the Hub, etc. We got some really cool gifts as well. Tonia and Trent were excellent hosts, putting up with all of us and our dogs. As always, the trip seemed to go by much too quickly and before I knew it I was back at work on Wed. Only three days of work and then back on the road, heading to Michigan for our 2nd Xmas celebration. Craziness.

A few weeks ago I submitted my request to upgrade categories for road racing. I received an email a couple days ago saying that my request had been approved. So I am now a Cat 3 roadie! Yippee. I'm not sure how I'll do, but if anything the longer distance races will be good training for the mtb racing scene. Should be fun.
The Green Team had the week off for Xmas, and I will miss the game this upcoming Sunday since we will be out of town. I'll have hockey withdrawals by the time I play again. Stupid WI being too warm to have decent outdoor ice! :)

Random Notes

Not much new to talk about. I was going to do a season recap this week...but that can wait until later. Heather and I take off for ND tomorrow after work to celebrate Xmas with the Abraham family. I'm looking forward to that! Then the following week we are traveling to MI to visit the Josef family over New Year's. Good times.

Dave posted a humorous elf-themed video of the Team Brown Bear group from 24-9 this year. If you haven't seen it yet, go HERE to enjoy it. Nice job, Vino!

Not a good game on Sunday for the Green Team. Or, I should rephrase that...not a good game for the goalie for the Green Team. Goalies rotate in our league...there are 6 goalies and 6 teams and the goalies rotate around so that no team has an advantage over the others. Well, we got stuck with the same goalie as last week, and he played even worse.
Of the 20-25 shots that he faced, he let in 12 goals. Yes, I said 12. So we ended up losing to the last-place Team Grey, 12-5. I seriously think that we could have strapped the goalie pads on Foxy and he would have only let in 3 or 4 goals. I chipped in with 2 goals (both on the same shift) and 1 assist. Hopefully we can snap our 2-game losing streak after the holiday break.

Has anyone ever tried Xango, a juice from the mangosteen fruit? It is a supplement beverage...you're supposed to drink 1 oz. of it a day. It is $40 for a 25oz bottle.
Evidently they sponsor a bike team, and they had the Project One guys here at work design their team bike, so they sent a case to us to sample. I'm a little scared to try it, but I guess it tastes pretty good. I'll have to give it a whirl.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

London

Heather and I had a relaxing weekend at home. We got done with most of our Xmas shopping and just hung out. We also started cleaning out our basement. Just going through our pile of crap and throwing garbage out, donating some stuff to Goodwill, and organizing things on shelves. We've been getting a ton of snow in the last week or so...hopefully I can get out snowboarding sometime soon.

The Green Team took on Team White on Sunday and we lost 6-3. We battled back though after letting them get out to a 4-0 lead in the first period. Our goalie didn't have the best game and I didn't play that well either, getting no points. I think they passed us in the standings with that win, so we are now in 2nd place, but only one point behind them.

Led Zeppelin had a reunion concert in London on Monday night. Evidently 20 million people tried to get tickets for the 20k seat arena. That's insane. Here's some youtube highlights:

Whole Lotta Love
Stairway to Heaven
Kashmir
Good Times, Bad Times
The Song Remains the Same

Time for Rest

Hello all. So the big WI State Champ cross race was this weekend...and I didn't go. I woke up on Sunday morning to 6 inches of new snow, a driveway to shovel, and a forecast of rain for the day. So I decided not to go, I really wasn't in the mood to drive to Milwaukee and get myself and my bike covered in grossness. So that's that, my bike racing season is over. Last year I posted a recap of my season at the end of the year, maybe I'll do that again in the next week sometime.

Heather's parents came to visit us this past weekend. We had a good time...put some plastic up on the windows and cut down a Xmas tree. Heather has a nice post, as well as a bunch of pics from the weekend, up on her blog.

Here is Joyce, Vontoux, and I playing some cards. Vontoux is quite good at picking the high card from a random set of 3...Joyce loved it.
The Green Team took on Team Orange on Sunday night. They are the only team to have beaten us so far, and we managed to avenge that loss by beating them 5-1. I got one assist on the night and clanged a nice shot off the post in the 2nd period. We are now in 1st place and we play the 2nd place Team White next.

Heather started her job at Trek on Monday, so she is now official. I just hope that she doesn't crimp my style too much with all my work girlfriends. :)

Shorty

Just a short little update since I can't think of much to say. The Abraham family visited us this past weekend from lovely GF, ND. It was a fun, but short, visit. We hung out around town, got lost in the State Capitol, and watched some movies. Nice and relaxing.

On Sunday night Team Green took on Team Blue, who we were tied with in the standings going into the game. We ended up winning 3-2, and I got all 3 goals for the hat trick. That win puts us in first place in the league after 5 games. Crazy, I never would have expected that. Shame on me for being so pessimistic. Next week we take on Team Orange again...they are the only team to have beaten us so far.
This Sunday afternoon is the last cross race of the season for me, the WI State Champs. Hopefully I'll do better than last race!

Nail & Crash

Every now and then you have one of those races that you just want to forget. Last cross season, it was the state champ race in Sun Prairie. This year, it was once again at the course in SP. I like the course; it's a good mix of tight off-camber turns, run-ups, and flat power sections...but I don't think the course likes me. :)

It was a pretty good size field, and I had a pretty good start sitting in 4th-5th for the first few laps. Around the 3rd lap a group with Casey, Chris, Lance, and another rider got off the front a bit and I hung out in a group of 4 a little behind them. It stayed that way for a couple laps.
Here's the grandstand run-up...you came off the speedway track and ran up the stairs. Notice the new hbar tape and saddle combo.

The hill run-up...this was steep and forced you to run up it with a barrier at the bottom.

My cheering section comprised of Heather, Trent, Mario, and Tonia.

I was halfway thru my lap with 4 laps remaining when I heard a noise coming from my rear wheel, like something was caught in it. It didn't take long before I could feel the air pressure coming out of my tire. I rode the rest of the lap on a flat tire to the wheel pit where I switched out my rear wheel. I probably lost around 12 places before I was back out on the course. After the race, I saw what caused it:

That's one rusty, gross nail! I was trying to make some ground back up and had passed a few riders on the next lap when I took a corner too fast and crashed. Now I have some nice road rash on my thigh and elbow. At this point, there was only one lap left and there wasn't anyone close behind or in front of me, so I just coasted for the rest of the race and finished in 17th place. It was frustrating to lose that many spots due to the flat, but there's nothing you can do about stuff like that. Hopefully things will go better in 2 weeks for the state champs.

We had a nice visit with Tonia, Trent, and Mario. It was too short though. We planned out the new electrical outlets for the basement and they got to experience their first ever cross race. This upcoming weekend we are getting a visit from the Abraham family. Can't wait!

PS - Brooks has to update his blog now. A guy after the race bribed him with a pumpkin cookie to update it. :)

Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!

Weekend Retreat

The family had a good time on our little weekend retreat to Black River Falls, WI. We stayed in a cool little cabin in the woods and just relaxed. Felt good. Also did some hiking with the doggies in the nice county parks in that area. Here are some pics from the weekend ... Heather said that she would post more on her blog as well, maybe some of the cabin.

Vontoux loves obstacles. Going down slides at playgrounds...stuff like that. Here he is after a nice leap.

Little Heather and Little Slick Willa, both bundled up.
On a beach with Vontoux. Evidently the lake behind us is the deepest lake in WI.

Playing in a river.

Willa with her hood up, like Rocky (is that her in the link?).

All that fun makes the doggies very tired.

Team Green played Team Gray on Sunday night. We won 5-0. I didn't get a single point, no goals, no assists, but I did clang 2 shots off the post, both in the 2nd period. Sometimes those are the breaks...but the team didn't need the extra goals anyway. :)

This weekend it sounds like Trent and Tonia are coming for a short visit. That should be most fun. They are going to be spectating on Sunday for the cross race right here in Sun Prairie. I like those races that are 5min from your house. Hopefully I'm over my cold by then!

Milwaukee CX pics

Here are some pics from this past weekend's races.

Leading the group over the barriers early in the race on Saturday

The leading group of four (Casey, Lyle, Lance, and myself)
The nice steep climb with the barrier (and the crowd) at the top
Pre-race chat at the start line on Sunday

The six leaders on the runup

Venga! Venga!

Here's Jesse making it look easy bunny-hopping the barriers on Sunday

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Kletzsch and Estabrook Park CX

Saturday:
This was a new course for this year in Kletzsch Park in Milwaukee. I really liked this course after doing a couple warmup laps, and I think it suited me well. It had a nice steep climb with a single barrier at the very top and some good singletrack sections. We need more cx courses with steep climbs on them. :)

I lined up on the front row for the start and got a decent start, sitting in about 7th or 8th for the first section. After the first lap there was still a good size group at the front, so I moved into the lead to try to shed some riders. About halfway thru that lap, I looked back and saw just Casey and Lyle with me, with another rider chasing close behind. The other rider, Lance, bridged up to us to make a group of 4, and after a couple laps we had a good size gap to the riders behind us. I felt really strong, especially on the climbs and singletrack (despite tripping over the barrier at the top of the steep climb on one lap). With 4 laps to go, Casey put in a hard effort and moved away from our group. I still felt good, but I didn't want to go with that many laps remaining. His time advantage kept growing, and we never saw him again. On the last lap, Lance and I got a small gap over Lyle before the last singletrack section. Lance went thru the last set of barriers faster than me and I couldn't catch him before the finish. So I finished 3rd.

Good result on a cool course. I really hope that this course is on the schedule next year as well.

Sunday:
This race was also in Milwaukee in Estabrook Park. Milwaukee really has some badass parks. It was setup similar to last year's course with a couple small changes. It rained a bit before the start, which made it just a little tacky.

My start was almost the same as the day before, and I was in about 8th place or so. After the first lap or two the lead was dwindled down to 6 riders, the usual suspects. The pace was very up and down for a few laps...riders would attack and the pace would get high until we caught them, and then the pace would slow down until someone attacked again. I could tell after a few laps that my legs didn't feel as strong as the day before. I was having to work just to stay in the group. With about 4 laps remaining I lost contact with the lead group and was riding by myself. I realized I wasn't going to catch back on to the 5 leading riders, so I was just going to try and stay ahead of 7th, which I managed to do, finishing in 6th place.

I was hoping for better, especially after Saturday's result, but my legs just didn't have it in them. Casey got the victory again, taking his 5th or 6th win in a row I think. With the results from this weekend, I am now in 5th place in the standings.

Sunday night:
Team Green had a late game on Sunday, playing at 9pm against Team White. We had a pretty good game, winning 4-2. I had 2 goals and 1 assist, with a nice deke around a dman on the 2nd goal.

Random:
It was a really busy weekend...it wore me out. Now I am battling a cold. I don't have any pics yet from the races. If any get posted on the Madcross website, maybe I'll post them here later this week. Brooks had a good weekend of racing, maybe you'll find out about it if he ever updates his blog. Only 2 more cross races left; one on Nov 18th in Sun Prairie and State Champs on Dec 2nd. Heather and I have a fun weekend planned. We rented a cabin a few hours north of here to play for the weekend with the doggies and just to relax.

Washington Park CX & Hockey

The Washington Park CX race was this past Sunday in Milwaukee. This is a fun course in a cool park and the weather was nice and sunny. I did my very first cross race here two years ago right after Heather and I moved to WI. I got a front row start position again and ended up having a great start, getting the holeshot leading into the first turn. I led for the first lap, including over the little bunnyhop barrier.
At the start of the 2nd lap, Casey and Lyle came to the front and upped the pace a little more to dwindle the group down.

Check out the skinsuit on the guy behind me. Killer!

By the beginning of the 3rd lap, it was down to the same 5 guys as last week in the lead. When we hit the switchback section toward the end of that lap, we had such a big gap that I couldn't even see any riders behind us.

We pretty much stayed together for the rest of the race until there were 2 laps to go. Casey and the young Baraboo rider attacked the group and rode off. My lungs were dying at this point, so I couldn't hang with them.

I rode the last lap by myself in no-man's land and rolled across the finish for 5th place again. With that result, I think I am now in 6th place in the standings, but I'm not sure since the website hasn't been updated yet.

All pics are courtesy of Madcross.org.

Thanks to Brooks for doing water handups. He was feeling strong in the 1/2 race, but unfortunately had a mechanical issue with his bike early in the race.

Sunday was also my first league hockey game. I hate to say it Team Green supporters, but it might be a long season. We have some good players, but not as many as last year. Doesn't matter though, I'll still have fun! We lost to Team Orange 4-1...I got the assist on our only goal.

Also, last but certainly not least...congrats to Heather on her big news! :)

Gibbs Lake CX and some Visitors

A fun weekend here. On Saturday morning, my aunt Alane and uncle Dick arrived in Madison for a quick little weekend visit. We wandered around a bit, played some card games, and enjoyed the nice day by heading over to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens.

On Sunday we all packed in the car and took off for the Gibbs Lake cross race. The course was fast and dry with a couple good climbs and some fun singletrack sections and switchbacks. I got a front row start position.

But that was screwed up when they played that Kentucky Derby song on a trombone to start the race instead of saying go. I didn't realize that and was back in midpack before I was even clipped in fully.

I starting catching riders around some of the first few switchbacks, and when we hit the first decent climb I put in a good effort to try to make it up to the leaders. I caught them right at the top of the climb and decided to just keep on riding past them. I saw that I had a gap, so I pushed a little harder to try to win the first lap prime. I ended up taking that (and winning some HEED energy drink for my efforts).
Soon after that, a group of 4 riders (Casey, Lyle, a young Baraboo Sharks rider, and a guy on a sweet IF Ti Planet Cross) caught up to me and we ended up riding together for the rest of the race. It wasn't long before we had a pretty big gap on the rest of the field.

On the last lap, Casey and Lyle upped the pace, and the rest of us couldn't match it. The last section of the lap was all switchbacks, making it difficult to pass or sprint for the finish, so I came across the line in 5th place, making it on the podium and winning some cash. That moved me up into 8th place in the standings, but only 6 points behind 5th place. Coming up this weekend is the Halloween cross race in Milwaukee on Sunday and then my first league hockey game of the season later that night. Exciting times.

Thanks to Heather and Alane for the great pics!

Making the Switch

Hockey league starts in two weeks. The draft for teams was earlier this week.
Bye bye Team Gray.

Hello to the...
Our first game is Sunday Oct 28th at 7:30 pm. Be there. :)
There are a couple guys from Team Gray making the move over to the Green Team, but most of the guys I don't recognize. So it's hard to say how good we'll be. I guess we'll find out soon enough!

Double cross

This weekend I had two cross races. I also didn't have a camera, as Heather took that to MI with her. So no pictures on this post, although Brooks has some from the weekend.

The first race was Saturday in Cambridge. This is a fun course, some fast singletrack on mtb trails and some good power sections with climbs. Gorgeous day out for a 45min cross race. I got off to a crappy start, probably sitting in 20th entering the first singletrack section. The whole first lap I was in pass mode, passing and bridging to riders in front of me. By the 2nd lap I had caught on to a group of 2 other riders only 20 sec behind the 4 leaders. I sat on for a lap getting my energy back when I saw a straggler from the front group. I went to the front and picked up the pace, which dropped one of the riders in my group. We soon caught the rider in front and we were a group of 3 once again, still 20 sec behind the leaders (now 3 of them). I stayed on the front for another lap and this time when we passed a crowd-filled run-up, they informed us that we were only 15 sec back. We wouldn't get any closer than that though. Entering the final sharp left turn onto the paved finish stretch, I went to start my sprint and my freehub body skipped half a pedal stroke. Fudge!! I soft pedaled it for a second then resumed my sprint, but I had already lost too much momentum. Had to settle for 6th place when my legs felt strong enough to win the sprint for 4th. I felt really good this race, it was frustrating to think that if I would have had a better start I could have been with the 3 leaders, as they were running the same lap times as my group.

On to Sunday's race in Verona. I switched the rear tire on my race wheel to my spare wheel for this race to avoid any further issues with my freehub body. It rained all morning, so this race was a slick and muddy mess. Unlike the Saturday race, I got off to a fantastic start, sitting in 3rd wheel behind Casey and Maciej entering the mucky singletrack. I entered the 2nd corner right on Maciej's wheel when he fell. I hit the brakes to avoid him and watched as 10 riders blew by us. I worked hard to try to close the gap, but it was hard to pass in the muddy conditions, and the course didn't have a big power section for me to make up time. On the 2nd lap, a rider blew by me on a short paved downhill and then had a terrific yardsale crash once he turned onto the singletrack. I was sitting in about 12th place with 2 laps to go when I saw a group of 3 riders a little bit up the course. I picked up the pace and managed to pass them on a gravel climb...but then I had too much speed coming out of a corner and wiped out in the mud and twisted my leg funny. As I hobbled back onto my bike, one of the riders passed me again. I took it easy on the last lap and rolled in for 10th place. Not my best race, but not horrible either.

Thanks to Brooks for doing water handups in both races, even though he couldn't race himself on Sunday since he had to work. He had a great race in the 1/2 race on Saturday, I'll let him tell you all about it.

I think that if I can manage to piece together a complete race, I should be able to snag a podium spot sometime this season. I certainly feel a lot stronger in cross than last season, which is a pleasant surprise since I wouldn't consider cross racing one of my strengths. We'll see what happens...still plenty of races to go.

Heather made it back from MI today. The kids and I missed her, so it's good to have her back. I think that Auntie Alane and Dick are coming to visit this weekend, that should be fun. There are two cross races again this weekend, but I think I am only doing one. I'm not sure yet.

Birthday Boy

Hello all. I decided to skip out on the last WORS race of the season on Sunday. It was over a 2 hour drive oneway, and since I wasn't concerned about the overall standings this year, I decided to stay home. I mowed the lawn and helped Heather with the paver project instead. It looks awesome...so much better! Just have to put down the pea gravel and mulch, and it should be finally finished. So anyway, my mtb racing season is over with, just cross remains. Last year I did 3 WORS races, this year I did 6, so I think a reasonable goal for next year would be 9 (there are 12 in the series). Plus, that would put me in good contention for the overall standings.

Today was a special day, as our little son Vontoux turned 3 years old! We took him to the pet store so that he could pick out a new toy.
He ended up wanting a fire hydrant hose throwing toy, which is a toy that he has had before. He loved chasing that thing in the backyard.
Yesterday I went and paid my league fees for the upcoming adult hockey season. First game is Oct 28th...I can't wait! I should find out what team I'm on sometime in the next week or so.

I've been riding strong on the lunch rides at work, which is encouraging this late in the season. Plus, I've been doing some running training every Wed at lunch, as we have a big group from work that plays Ultimate Frisbee in the soccer field across the street from Trek. Hopefully all that riding/running pays off during the cross season.

I will be living the bachelor life this week, as Heather takes off Wed after work to go visit her family in MI. She won't get home until the following Monday evening. I'll try to get some stuff done around the house, remember to feed the kids, and race a couple cross races this weekend while she's gone. :)

Time for CX

The blood lung, leg-burning fun of cyclocross has begun. Brooks and I headed over to Delafield on Sunday for the 2nd race of the WCA series. We both skipped out on the Sat race since it was a weird, non-cx time trial setup. This was the same course as last year, pretty much a rutted out mtb course with a couple barriers thrown in to make it more cross-like. In other words, a course that I could do well on because it's more like a mtb race than a cross race.

I did the Cat 3 race with Brooks as support/water handup guy since he was freshly upgraded to Cat 2. The start was a big cluster with a very wide "starting line" narrowing down to a doubletrack within a hundred feet or so. I was way back in the pack of 30 racers right away. The first lap I spent working my way thru the pack despite almost crashing after nailing a rut with my front tire. Even with the extra work, the legs felt fine and I felt comfortable passing and bridging. By the 2nd or 3rd lap, I got into a group of 5 riders that was chasing the 2 leaders. On the 2nd to last lap, the rider in front of me let a gap develop to the 2 riders in front and I didn't want to drag him back up with me, so I sat on. Probably a mistake. By the beginning of the last lap, I could tell he was dying, and there were riders coming up on us, so I attacked him and went off on my own. I stayed away for the rest of the lap, but never caught back on to the other 2 racers. They don't have results posted yet, but Brooks said that I finished 6th overall, which would be my best CX result ever. I'm happy about that, but I felt strong enough to where I know that I could have stayed with the other 2 and maybe gotten by them at the end. Live and learn.

I'm not going to get too excited about this cross result though, as it will probably be my best finish all year in cross due to the course making it so much like a short mtb race. We'll see though...it would be nice if the legs responded this well in the rest of the cross races.

Peanut Butter Jelly.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Most of the time when I go for road rides, I bring my ipod and sing along to my favorite songs. Eddy really likes the singing...it calms him. But sometimes Heather takes the ipod when she goes running, so Eddy and I tell stories to each other to pass the time. He tells me about his wonderful journey from Belgium to the USA to ND and then finally to WI. I tell him about my previous bikes; before he was born. He was particularly interested in my story about White Lightning, my Giant TCR from a few years ago.
Seems that Eddy is keen on the white accessories. Plus, he has been feeling a little bit neglected lately with all the attention the mountain bike has been getting. So, I decided to give him a makeover. New Race X Lite wheels (with white spokes), hbar tape, saddle, and then I finally upgraded the stem/hbar combo that I've had for many years and got the Bontrager Race X Lite stem with the Race Lite bar.

Notice how I also conveniently snuck the paver project progress (good use of alliteration right there) into the pics. Don't tell Heather! :)

Vontoux chillin with the lil speedster Willa.
We went to Birbigs tonight. It kicked butt, funny as hell. * Mike Birbiglia is skinny and his new CD is hilarious. * - glad I could help, Mike! :)
Also, a big congrats go out to Robb and Tracy!!

Some Pavers & WORS #11

Another weekend blown by. On Saturday Heather and I worked on the paver project under the deck. It's starting to come together, hopefully we can finish up with that within the next week or so. I think it will look really cool when it's all said and done.

On Sunday Brooks came with me to Iola to watch me race the 2nd-to-last WORS race of the year. It was a beautiful day. The Iola course is fun...some good climbing, fast tight singletrack, and some sandy descents. We had to do 4 laps on the 5 mile course. The first lap I felt really good and stayed with the leading group as best as possible. The second lap I didn't have as good of a lap, in part because halfway thru it my number plate came loose and kept flapping into my front wheel. I had to either hold it while trying to hold the handlebar or constantly jam it into my housing. At the end of that lap, I stopped at the feed zone and took the plate off and kept going. For the 3rd and 4th laps, I felt fine again and was trying to catch back up. I ended up getting 5th in my age group, with only around 2min separating me from 2nd place. 1st place was way up there, over 4min ahead of 2nd. Disappointing to be so close to 2nd with the plate problems and all, but that's racing!

Pre-race adjustments.

Why is everyone taking the sandy line when the far line is nice and packed??
Flying down the hill with a rider in tow.
The Lalonde bros killing it as usual...they finished 1-2 once again on their rigid singlespeeds.
Sans number plate.

Thanks to Brooks for traveling with me, taking pics, and doing water bottle handups. Much appreciated!

This Thurs Heather and I are going to watch comedian Mike Birbiglia. We've seen him live once before, and he's a riot. That should be a great time. This weekend there are 2 WCA cross races on the calendar. I might end up skipping one though...doing both of them would take up the whole weekend, and if it's nice out, it would be good to work on the pavers. We'll see.