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.

La Fermata - Bremerton

My wife and I decided to head over to Bremerton on Saturday night so we didn't have to get up so early for the next SCX race at Bremerton Fairgrounds.

We're staying at Illahee Manor B&B and our stay has been excellent! Just one little hicup...

We had asked for a restaurant recommendation and they said if we liked Italian to try La Fermata
down off 11th ave. We made a 7:45 reservation which seemed to come up rather quickly. We show up about 8 minutes early and the host looked at us a little funny but they promptly seated us.

It seemed strange but we went with the flow. Our server proceeded to take us through 3 courses of amazing "downtown Seattle" quality food (and wine...oh well it's just a race right?). When I looked at my watch I was wondering why we finished a 3 course meal in and hour. Hmmmm...

We started to think a little harder, we based our schedule off the room clock and I had forgot my watch. Katie throws out the idea that maybe the clock wasn't set back last week for daylight savings? Nah...

Well...we asked our sever "were we early?" He replies "yep, by about an hour! We just though you were excited to see us!". Good save. :)

Seriously, amazing food, amazing service (and I left an amazing well deserved tip). This place rocks and if I'm in Bremerton again I'll be back!

It's Over...

Well, the Starbucks GP has come and gone. I was in bed by 7:30 that night (thank you daylight savings) and didn't wake up for 12 hours. I missed Donida Farms because I was just too tired.

And I'm totally addicted to race promotion. :)

Overall, the event went really well and my awesome teammates were there to help pull the entire thing off. Rory and Deanna were great. David and Bilko did an incredible job of scoring and announcing. Thanks to my coach David for coming out and racing!

My only downer was that the turnout was so so...but that's to be expected the first year...and the day after Halloween...and on a Saturday with a series race the next day. For an idea hatched in August though we can't complain. Next year we'll get a better date.

The only scare came in the final race of the day on the final lap when a First Rate guy's tire came off the rim, sucked into the fork and LAUNCHED him over the bars. He was slow to get up (understandingly) and I was thinking "I made it the whole day without anyone getting hurt until now!". Much to all of our surprise he got up, grabbed his bike an ran to the finish. Freak'in Hard Core.

I also watched Jeff Anderson from Cucina Fresca run half a lap when he flatted his front tire. And let me tell you our laps were LONG (we'll fix that next year...). There is something pretty awesome about putting on an event and watching people compete. I don't know how to explain it.

If you haven't yet, check out Steven Bisig's photo site. He's donating all proceeds to the Fred Hutch Survivorship program. He's an awesome photographer and also a really great guy.

Now I'm scraping together my training plan and getting ready for the ferry ride. Mud anyone??!?!

Starbucks GP - 2 Days Away!

Where the heck have I been the last 2 weeks? Well hmmmm....Phoenix...then Vegas...family visiting...race seatac...more race planning....race steilacoom...more race planning...no wonder I'm tired!

It's all coming together and it looks like we're going to have a great turnout for our team's first annual CX race! The process has been fun, enlightening and humbling. The crew and Seattle Cyclocross has been EXTREMELY helpful to us.

I'm looking forward to Saturday...and then looking forward to getting back to my "normal" routine..whatever that is. :)

Hour Of Power

"You never ride me anymore..."

"What?"

"It's been two months, where have you been?"

"Well you know...the weather has been bad and my other bike has fenders and..."

"WHAT? Are you leaving me?"

"Of course not... you know how the winters are."

Come on baby...it's cool and crisp outside and dry as a bone. Let's go for a ride!"

I'm unfortunately one of those people who needs the pressure of a hard deadline to get things done sometimes. I'm headed out of town for 7 days, half for business and half for pleasure. Top that off with family arriving 2 days after I get back and a list of projects that MUST be done around the house and the training plan will suffer.

I was supposed to do 2 hours tonight, a zone two tempo ride. But knowing I wouldn't see a bike for 7 days just gave me the urge to go out and hammer.

I had just one hour...8-9pm. Screw zone 2, this is gonna need to be fast! The rain bike is nice, but it's time to take the race bike out before the long, dark days arrive.

I hit my local west Seattle loop, staring out with a race pace just under threshold and then backing off just enough. I came to the first climb and just hit the pedals hard...the cross racing is paying off! After riding cross and a steel bike with fenders and other crap I feel like I'm riding a rocket.

Almost the entire hour was spent in zone 4 with a few jumps into zone 5. Sorry David...I'll follow the plan better next time. I promise! :)

I finished my loop in a new personal best, 3 minutes faster than my previous best.

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!