Guru Praemio Titanium

It's here! 75 miles down and loving it! I was wondering if I was just playing mind tricks with myself that a custom frame would actually "feel" different. However, my first ride was about 3 1/2 hours and all I had to do was adjust the seat. Flawless! More picks if you are curious...

My first titanium bike, but now I'm a believer! I like a stiffer ride of aluminum but didn't want to get beat up. Most carbon feels too flexy for me. I know you can get carbon frames that are stiffer, but in terms of durability and performance this thing is just incredible.

Broken but not Beaten

My CX season came to an unfortunate end on Tuesday night (of all times). I had a dinner meeting with my team captain, Steve, and met him up in Capitol Hill.

On my way home I made my way down to 1st ave and was coasting along at about 20mph down the grade which is one of my favorite ways to come home from the city.

As I'm coming to cross Pike I see a car waiting to turn left. Wait...the car IS turning left!

I grabbed both brakes and found that the cobblestones underneath were giving no support. I had just enough time to get out the works "OH SHIT" before hitting the passenger side of the SUV like a bug on a windshield.

Now I'm laying on the ground trying to figure out what just happened. My ride side is absolutely killing me. About 15 people are circled around me.

"Are you OK?"

"No"

"Do you want us to call 911"

"YES!"

That's about all I was good for. I managed to make one more call to my wife who was on her way home from class. I wasn't very convincing in my statement of "I've been hit by a car, I'm OK but the ambulance is on the way".

I got a lovely ride to Swedish and the EMT was nice enough to put my bike in the back of the ambulance so my wife wouldn't have to come back.

The net of the situation is a broken clavicle and lots of bruises. It could have been a LOT worse. My race season is over and that is what I'm probably most bummed about. Especially after getting 6th at state champs last week.

Thanks to all the well wishes and prayers from my friends and family! It's been an overwhelming show of support. :)

State Cyclocross Championship - Will Trade Beer for Food

Back out to Pacific Raceways just one more time...

I had a lot of prep leading into today and was feeling really good. I felt like I finally was back on track with the training plan. Because I helped with course setup yesterday I had an idea as to what the "fun" areas were going to be and I think the course modifications that we made from our race were a HUGE improvement.

The weather was freak'in awesome. Are we sure it's November in Washington?!?

They announce the call for staging and I make my way over and get a good spot in the second row. Some guys start trying to edge there way in and get along the sides outside of the lanes when finally the official comes up and says "to the back guys!". Finally they were starting to regulate on that, their are no friends at staging. :)

I get a good start and I'm sitting in about 12th. Catch a place or two going into the barriers and I can quickly see a pace group developing. Nine of us are in line flying down the back straight. A gap starts developing and I bridge back on to the group but I'm quickly realizing I'm going to destroy myself trying to hang on and I ended up dragging two guys with me.

A group of 5 makes their way off, now it's me, and HB guy and an unattached guy. Lap 2 the HB guy cases it at the bottom of the hill before the run-up and then their were two.

This guy was faster than me in the corners so I just had to try and hang on and follow his line. I had a feeling I could get him on the straights but I needed to be patient.

On the last lap I made sure to be right on his wheel on the back section into the run-up. We hit the flat part by the bleachers and I get in the drops and hit the gas catching him by surprise and opening up about a 15 yard gap.

We're going into the final right bend and I take the turn wide think "Oh crap I blew it!" but got down in the power position and just didn't look up screaming towards the line and crossing in 6th. (best finish of the year! wahooo!) He finished about two bike lengths behind me.

Here is how it played out:



I celebrated with beer (Are you worthy?), beer and beer. It's important to get some variety in your diet!

Since man cannot live on beer alone I made my way over to the food cart to get a burger for myself and my lovely wife who was volunteering in registration. Toting my 32oz Arrogant Bastard ale she promptly ask, "Do you have any more beer?" Uh...is the Pope Catholic?

"If you bring us back a couple lunch is on us!" Nice! I think a cyclocross race is the only place where beer is actually considered currency.

I made my way back for Jill B's single speed race. Promptly after the start she coming running up with a broken chain right off the line! Not a good start.

The pits get her up and running again but she's two laps down. After a little convincing we get her back out there. Ed goes "hey man, crack a beer open for her on the back stretch".

About 7 minutes later she comes around to the back straight greeted by the Starbucks Crew holding out a nice microbrew like Gatorade and the NYC marathon. She promptly pulls through the pits, grabs the beer and DOWNS IT much to the cheers of the spectators. Now we're CX racing!

I also learned from the official monitoring the pit that it is technically illegal to pass liquids to racers. However, if the beer is mounted to the pit bike during an exchange then its OK. What!?!? Who writes these things? Needless to say he was very cool about the whole thing. :)

On to our podium finisher! In his first season as a cat 3 Vern took 3rd in the 45+ division! I only got a photo of him on the podium cuz he was going too fast on the course!
We had an AWESOME showing today from the Starbucks Crew.

I believe the tally is:

Cat 4 35+:
Tim - 7th
Steve - 13th

Cat 4 Men:
Myself - 6th

Cat 3 45+:
Vern - 3rd

SS Women
Jill B - 4th (and that's after the beer!)

A few more action shots:

Tim looking strong:


Steve Z powering through the back stretch:

Can't wait to do it all over again next weekend. :)

The Mud, The Blood & The Beer. - Bremerton CX

It's bad to do a race report just 2 days before your next one, but this work week has just been hell. Come to think of it...the last few have been hell. Work is crazy for everyone I know since it seems like we're all trying to stop the world from ending. Maybe we should all just chill for a second and take wisdom in the words of Dave Matthews...



All that work and not enough play did not give me a good feeling. After doing the math on what time I would have to get up to catch the ferry I decided to get a room and go over the night before. We stayed at a great little B&B, Illahee Manor which was about 10 minutes from the event. Great little place!

The highlight of the day came from our CX Rookie, Liz. This was her first CX race and she just got a hold of a bike the night before. She's a cat 3 road racer and ex-sport mountain biker though so the skills were there. Tim and I were giving her tips on mounting and dismounting. Told her to go out and have fun, be safe and line up near the back... blah...blah...yeah right. :)

Our tent was at the bottom of the hill at the 180 after the start. We see the racers coming down the hill and there is this green and white flash just hauling a$$ down the right side jumping to the front. Her expression was classic, "I WILL make it to the turn before you!". She came in just a little hot and made a nice little power slide working her way around and the crowd goes wild! From there she simply put the hammer down, caught the back of the mens cat 4 masters group within the first lap and proceeded to ride away to the podium. (We then promptly called her a sandbagger even though it was her first race!).

My race felt like one of those slow painful workouts where you just can't wait till it's over. The grassy field sucked the life out of me and I could tell from the first 1/2 lap that today was a day to just have fun and push it for all I had. No big crashes or mistakes but a few of us were playing cat and mouse for most of the race to keep us motivated. I crossed the line in 30th...promptly changed and hit the beer chest.

Training regiment has improved so I'm hoping to crack the top 20 at state champs this sunday.

Crosstoberfest 2008

It was a the perfect day for a cross race. Rain, clouds, cool...but not too cool. I think I finally got the smell out of my kit from starcrossed, just in time!

We had a great turnout today! Ali, Nancy and Kelly (our newest woman's member...all the way from Michigan!) were representing the cat 4 woman's race. Scott and Steve were racing masters. My teammate Dave and I decided to do the 9:30 as a warm up. Plus, I was testing out a "bar cam" from our new sponsors over at VholdR. (the footage is very cool, more on that later!)

Dave and I lined up in the back as to not interfere with the lead group. I was having blast and taking it easy with the POV cam when suddenly I heard "on your right Brian!" only to see Scott from the 45+ race passing me! He later went on to WIN the 45+ in only his 3rd cross race EVER! Can you say natural?

Cat 3 report in one sentence: Vern took 2nd place in his first cat 3 since the upgrade. Nuff said. :)

For the ladies, Ali finished 5th and I remember Nancy and Kelly having strong finished as well (sorry guys, post your place in the comments!). After the race we noticed Nancy did a number on herself and bloodied her lip and STILL finished the race. One tough gal!

I took down a quick recovery drink and lined up for the 10:30 cat 4 race. Had a front row spot and was determined to make it a good start. From the word "GO!" I was charging hard and found myself in 5th going into the twisty sections. Things were looking good until the left corner right in front of the building where you go from grass to concrete. I came in too hot a WHAM...I'm on the ground sliding. I got up and had to re-buckle my shoe and straighten my left brake lever. By this point I'm at the very back. I look down and my knee is bleeding pretty good but I put it out of my mind and hop on.

Now I'm PISSED off for blowing a good start and riding like a man possessed. We hit the first single track and it's a cluster &*%&. Exactly what I was trying to avoid. Everyone was staying in the middle despite the fact that the lane is 15 feet wide so I hop off and run down the right side over the bushes, logs, whatever and pick up about 7 places. We drop into the second singletrack and I just have to be patient until we get to the top. One by one I keep trying to move up and my knee is killing me (along with other parts of my body) but nothing worth stopping over.

My teammates are SCREAMING at me at this point knowing I'm hurting. Dave seems to be everywhere on the course shooting at me. It truly made it easier and a lot more fun!

I crossed the line and managed to go from dead last to 33rd out of about 70 riders. I wonder what might have been if I didn't crash but just had to step back and take it in. That's racing!

What a great course and a great event! Ragnarok should be proud!

Off to sunny Arizona and Las Vegas for work on Wednesday for 5 days!

Shameless plug, if you haven't yet, register for the Starbucks GP on November 1!

Pacific Raceways 8/26/08 - It's a wrap

My last road race of the season! I got there really early and was riding through the gravel area right before the track. As I hit the pavement I was using my right hand to "rub" the gravel out of my tires. In the process of doing my back tire I managed to suck my thumb in between the wheel and my frame, almost jerking me off the bike. That hurt like a mother f@#$er! Nothing like injuring yourself before the race even starts.

We had a HUGE turnout tonight from the Starbucks men' squad. Steve, Vu, Darol, Scott, Charles, Bart, John,Dave and myself...who am I forgetting? Jill also came out for the women's race.

It was point per lap with flat course and I expected a fast race given every one's fitness by now. Dave and John and 1st and 2nd in the bag so our goal was to honestly just have fun. We messed around with some lead outs for the sprint and tried a few small breaks that were not getting away. On one of the sprints I looked over at Brian from Cucina as all the sprinters were blowing by. "No sprints for me tonight" he smiled. I felt pretty much the same way. Long leadouts were OK but my legs didn't have the snap needed to really pin it.

On the last lap we had enough guys that we were literally attacking from the left and the right of the group. It was awesome! Dave ended up 3rd in the final sprint (because he can!).

Rory and Deanna gave out some awesome swag as everyone sat around and BS'd about how fast we must have been going. This series is a real gem and I'm already looking forward to next season.

It's time to start getting dirty.

We want YOU!

Is it that time of year again already? The season is almost over, and what a great one it has been!

Wanna join in on the fun?

http://www.starbuckscycling.org/

Saturday, September 13 @ 9:20am.

Hope to see you there!

Gear Push Time Trial - 8.10.2008

Today Vu, John S., Barbara and I ventured down for the Gear Push TT. This was my second race on the Abici since Tenino. I made the swap to the "straight" aero bars and found that to be a much more comfortable position.

Barb was starting things off with the first start time of the day. Maybe Rory knew something we didn't, because she won the woman's cat 4! (Barb getting in the zone)
I went off 40 minutes later. 2 minutes in I realized my speed sensor didn't start my clock and I wasn't registering. I hit the start button quickly to have some idea of where I was at. At least I had heart rate right? Wrong. A few minutes later the Polar decides to go weird on me, registering a HR of 34 beats per minute, then 203, then 84, then back to 177. I'm guessing I was between 175 and 183 for most of the time. I ended up 13th with a 24:31. My goal was to break 25 minutes so I'm pretty happy with that.

Mr. John Sindel took the opportunity to swap helmets with me since I finished well before him. I know that's why he came in with a 22:50(1), 2nd place in the cat 4 mens! Vu put in an excellent time of 25:27.

If photos are good, than video must be way better...right? Here is John in the last 200K. You can hear the disk making a funny sound (which we later found was it rubbing on the frame)





So we ended the day with a 1st and 2nd for Team Starbucks. Full results can be found here.