CX, Iceman and Drinking Season

Well it's been awhile since the last post simply because of lack of motivation and frustration on my part to even talk about the last race impartially. The Cross race was a ton of fun however, on a very sweet course in Traverse City. This was the very course that the promoters were attempting to get CX nats at in January 2012 and I must say it would of been a great course for it. I knew T.C. was bidding for the Nats, but I had no clue we were going to race it! They are talking about getting some sort of larger scale race to put on there next season, so keep your fingers crossed! The race itself went well with me taking the hole shot and growing the gap until the end. John C. had a good battle going for about half the race and took 2nd! A good weekend indeed for the team. Todd raced the same weekend down in Ann Arbor coming in with a solid 6th place in the B riding a mtb, which is no small task against cx bikes.

Now for Iceman. I've never been this pumped and nervous to the point of not sleeping much for a race. There's just something about this race! The mass amount of people starting, the speed and just the.. well, amount of people who might be fit on a road bike in August aren't as fit by November and to put it bluntly can't ride mt. bikes. It's scary! Plain and simple. I can't and don't want to go into too much, but there are some things that need to change in the pro start. I can honestly say that I've done short tracks with over 100 starters and CX nationals in a full ice storm with just as many starters and not once was I scared of being taken out. For one reason and one reason only a majority of those called to the front aren't what most would call mountain bikers. I would never ever line up at front of a crit even if I was asked too. I know for a fact I would cause a crash. Guess I think differently than the road clan. I get the whole sponsorship thing and getting the proper marketing value, but when it starts to make things dangerous it just shouldn't happen.

Enough negativity already! We as a team had some serious potential to be up there and that just didn't happen this weekend. The first one to go was John getting crashed out by one of those not so smooth guys I was talking about. I was next just simply lacking proper fitness to be in the front ten guys, instead hanging out in 15th or 20th doing mini sprints out of every corner... OUCH! By the time I got to the half way point I was ready to start drinking! I was frustrated and bonked. My head was out of it, so I pulled the plug and went home. Not something I like to do at all. Mike had the best day coming in 21st after being up there for most of the race he got some serious chain suck from all the mud. Being on the podium in the past he wasn't a happy camper, but that's what happens in the mud, things go wrong. Captain Todd had an excellent ride coming in 64th in what I think is first Pro Iceman.. I could be wrong there. I should probably look it up before I go throwing it out there.

So that brings us to what I refer to as drinking season, which has come early this year! It's my little thing that usually would start after cyclocross nationals in mid December and last through New Years Eve. After 5 straight years of racing 10-11 months a year and only taking about 3 weeks off the bike a year I've decided to take a little more time off the bike and make myself want it again. I struggled this season making a big (but very positive) move this year, which in turn added new stress to my body that wasn't there before. In translation I'm slower now than I have been in years and that gets in your head!!!!!! So it's time to play for a good chunk of the winter, find some new interests, go back so some of old ones (snowboarding), wait until I can't stand not riding!

We've got some things in the works here, so I'll keep everyone updated from time to time on team happenings.

For your viewing pleasure... The Cry Baby Classic

P.S. If you're interested in sponsoring our team in 2011 please give us a call for details at:

(231) 487-1999

Thanks for reading,

Chad

Evoke RL Mtb Saddle Review

Bontrager has really stepped up their game over the last few years with both the MTB and road line up. From their shoes and apparel, all the way to the components. Their product is well thought out and performance oriented. Bontrager has come out with a whole new line of MTB and road saddles, with both lines offering the Inform size specific fit. Along with the multiple choices of saddle sizes, they also have different padding options with the RXL lightly padded versions to cushy Race model.

Trek/Fisher representative MIke Shrift sent over the new Evoke RL MTB saddle a few weeks back to try out. Having struggled with saddles in the past and tried multiple brands and models, I was curious to try this one out.

From first glance, the seat has a good look to it. The flat black leather and black logos add a clean look to any bike. Along with looking good, the seat looks tough. The abrasive resistant sides and solid shell are nice additions for MTB oriented riding. The saddle is fairly light as well, coming in at around 230 grams. A pretty respectable weight for a MTB saddle.

From day number one, I could tell it was going to be a good seat. The saddle shape is quite nice, with a slight hammock shape and a thicker padded noise. After about about one month of use on the saddle, I am impressed. After riding this seat exclusively on all my bikes, I have not had any discomfort issues. Through rides in the rain and mud and one solid crash, the seat looks brand new. The abrasive resistant sides work quite well, showing no signs of my over cooked turn, unlike my hip.

So if your in the market for a new saddle, I would highly recommend the Evoke series of seats.

Mike

Peak-to-Peak Mountain Bike Race

Mike and I loaded up my Mom's car along with Chuck (my dog) for the journey down to Crystal Mountain for the Peak 2 Peak mountain bike race. Luckily the race didn't start until 12:30, so we didn't have to get up at the butt crack of dawn, unlike Mr. Cowan(s) who mistakenly got there at 8:30 in the morning. Ooops!

Chuck back seat driving.

The race itself was pretty dang fun if you ask me. Fast flowing butter smooth single track connected into one mother of a climb up the back side of the ski resort. Once again was the fastest 5 or 6 fastest dudes in the state lining up,

making for a fun and good spectator watching race. Mike A and Derek Graham got a gap on the main climb after gapping me, so I kept a good solid tempo until Mike Simonson got up with me. He's a big monster of a dude hence the nick name Simonstor, I really could use his draft. After a good lap and half I made a dumb mistake blowing a corner while leading and dropping my chain. After getting laughed at by Simonson he then put the hammer down and got the gap that he held to the end. Oh well! Mike had a show down up front with a sprint finish just edging out Graham.

John Cowan coming across the line in 6th! The dude is on some impressive form right now making the lead group after being gapped out from a crash in the first part of the race. I think he might pull something out of the hat at Iceman!

Now I've got a little pre-race food guide for you that worked wonders for me at the race. I'm not gonna go into foods you should eat so just make it something you know you can tolerate and will give you plenty of fuel.

• Follow dinner with a good quality beer. Not Bud Light, I'm talking something from Bells or my choice this time was Octoberfest from Sam Adams

• Follow this with a putting down a water bottle

• Follow the water with a huge class ( I went with 30 o.z.) of Chocolate milk made with Hersey's Special Dark syrup for the extra anti-oxidants in dark chocolate (I'm sure the syrup really doesn't have the anti-oxidants, but it's all about telling yourself it'll help... more importantly it tastes better)

• Follow this with another beer

• Then hit the water bottle one more time before hitting the hay

• Once the alarm goes off have another water bottled

• Followed by another huge class of Chocolate milk.

After all that get a good solid breakfast in and you'll probably have the best race of your life!

Fun fact:

• Of the top 6 I was the only one on a 26er, all others were on 29ers.....
• 5 of the top 6 were on Trek/Fisher bikes!
• = Trek bikes are fast and I'm getting a 29er next year.

Thanks for reading,

Chad

Lots O' Races

Well.... I've got 3 weekends of racing to get into one blog, so I'll try to be quick on each to enhance your reading pleasure. In other words so you don't get bored!

What seems like a year ago (3 weeks back) I went down to Pando just North of Grand Rapids for some sweet twisty single track. It ended up being a very roadie like course since I was there last back in 2003 or 4 and as luck would have it one the best roadies in the state showed up too. I should say he is one the best in the countr

y after a pretty impressive finish at the U.S. Nats a few weeks back. Anyway, after I attempted a few attacks in the very limited single track he would always bring me back on the long flat sections and with my general lack of fitness at the moment I cracked with a lap to go and soloed in for a nice 2nd place!

The following weekend was the Cry Baby Classic! I was pumped for this because of the lump some of money to be had, but it also haunted my dreams knowing it was that very reason why all the notable studs of Michigan lined up next to me. It ended up being an incredible race with lots of attacks and lots going back and forth with fellow racers. By the end of the day my lack of training all summer showed as I cracked on the last lap losing $260 in thelast 3 miles. Yep that's right I went from 3rd to 6th and lost $260 doing so! Now cracking is never fun, but that one was one of the costliest bonks I've ever had. Mike Anderson took the big fat W for some fat cash and took down the roadie who got me last weekend, so thanks for that. Not all that surprising, but nice to see John Cowen"S" coming in on the last proper podium spot in 5th in the elite field. The Captain Todd Fridinger had a nice solid ride coming in 10th in the expert class that was combined last minute with the old dude class. Lets not be fooled here those guys are fast simply because of Old Man

Strength.... it is in fact a scientific term. Look it up.

With all the free beer flying around there, the fact that the Captain was staying at my place, and my general feeling of a lackluster performance we all had a little bit to much to drink and ended up at the casino for a great smoke filled evening.

Taking advantage of the free beer..... Thanks to Craig for the eye protection!

This last weekend Mike and I headed to Cincinnati for the UCI3 Cross Festival. That's right 3 staight days of CX racing at it's finest. From the get go I was planning on doing only 2 days of the festival and I'm pretty glad I made that choice because we got there with about enough time for us to get a lap on the course and start the race. Mike maned up and went for it leaving him with some very loaded legs and nasty lung butter forcing him to stop 2 laps in. The 90 degree temps where deadly and we where stuck with them for the whole weekend, plus the drought that the area has been in for weeks made for some very dusty racing to say the least. Day 2 brought the same nasty temps, but on a nice and twisty course bringing the speeds do

wn a little bit allowing me to fake my fitness. Mike and I ended the day with me coming in 29th and him in 30th. Not steller days by any means, but starting from the back row you have to take what you can get until you get some points rolling. The next day we started a day by getting kicked out of the hotel room because they wouldn't let us a have a late check for some reason, so we spent some time in Panera bread people watching before heading over to the Bass Pro Shop. Oh man that place is so freaken cool

complete with massive fish tanks, waterfalls, and rock climbing walls. Probably the best pre-race warm up I've had in a while. Unfortanalty we had to take off for another day of racing in the 90 degree heat. Neither of us were motivated about the global warming going on during cross season. The course was straight up roadie, which made my motivation head even further South, while Mike got pretty pumped. Well it showed as he moved up to around 11th or so before a last lap crash broke his shifter off ending his day. I started slow and ended even slower finishing 35th. At least I still passed a few people out there!

After the race we hopped in the car around 6:00 p.m. to head home from Cincinnati. The GPS gave us an e.t.a of 2:35 a.m. ouch!!! Mike did his best impression of Dale and got us home 2 hours and 12 minutes faster then the original e.t.a. Nice driving there! As if we didn't punish our bodies enough this weekend we did a 3 hour ride on Monday. Riding from P-town to the North Country Trail off from Chandler hill and back to town. Super fun fall riding!

This weekend we are all off the Peak 2 Peak mountain bike race at Crystal Mtn.

Thanks for reading,

Chad

CX Season!

It was a nice change to pack up the bag, make the bike all pretty, and throw the race wheels on again. Something about those race wheels just gets me all giddy! I had a long time off towards the end of the summer mainly due to not reacting very well with this whole full time work thing. I’ve spent most of my 20’s avoiding full time jobs. Instead working 3-4 part time (I use part time loosely) jobs at a time and hoping for prize money to get me to the next race weekend. That got old quick! Now that I feel my body has adjusted and have felt pretty darn good on a bike again my favorite race season is freshly starting... good timing on my part. I can start slightly out of shape and end the season on a good high before the Christmas drinking season is upon us.

This however was probably the worst and most unprepared cx race I’ve ever started the season with. I got the bike probably 10 days before the race weekend, but didn’t set it up for about 4 days. Then of course I really didn’t ride it off road, so I really had no clue how it ride. I did however get a sweet motor pace session behind Bo’s car last Wednesday. You truly can’t beat busting out a 31 mph average on the bike for a good natural high! Anyway, on to what truly killed my weekend was the fact that I tried to go tubeless on the cx bike, a tried and true way to go on the mtb bike for sure. Not so much on the cross bike though. Must be the low volume of the tire, but it flat out doesn’t work. Long story short... Saturday I almost high-sided myself when my rear tire burped almost taking 5 dudes out behind me. Sunday... I Did a full on face plant on an off camber section and broke my rear break in the process. I kind of knew that set up wasn’t ganna work, but I’ve had a lot of trouble finding a set of tubulars less then $1000. After this weekend I might just have to bite the bullet if I want to finish in a respectable spot. Other then that I feel like the fitness isn’t lacking as much I anticipated, as I was in the lead group both days

In other news Captain Todd Freidinger made his cross debut racing in the cat 3 class. With an 8th on Saturday on Trek 9.9 and a 5th place on the Superfly on Sunday. I think there might be a future cross bike purchase in the near future from this guy. Nice work this weekend Todd!

Our other studly teammate went back over to Wisconsin for the Chequnaom 40 and pulled of a very solid and hard earned 4th. A very tough race indeed, one I would prefer never to do actually. I’ll try to talk him into a little race report for a first hand account.

Thanks for reading,

Chad

Photo Credit Andrea Tucker:

Checking in from Bloomer Park

Well this well over due. I guess better later then never... right? Well to start with I've made a huge transition in my life going from pretty much a bike bum to... well a guy with a job, but I'll still be the bike bum. It's part of the contract Bo and I figured out. The other transition is moving back to Northern Michigan from my adapted home of Durango Colorado for the last 8 year. It's not a bad move at least, but ask me that again in February and I might tell you differently.

What being a bike racer is all about..... Windshield time.

Last weekend I headed down to Bloomer Park in Rochester Hills for my first true Michigan mtb race in years (excluding the Iceman.) To compare this course to something you all would know... it would have to be a very buffed out Avalanche. Very tight and twisty fast flowing single track goodness served up in a buttery smooth fashion. In other words a real hoot to ride! Not only that I got to hang with the longest standing NCCS racer guy Captain Todd Freidinger, which is always a good time, plus I haven't seen him in 2 years or so. We got in a nice pre-ride before hitting up probably the best pre-race restaurant ever... The Olive Garden of course. Never ending pasta dishes and salads will leave you fueled for the race! That was my plug for The OG, so if anyone from management is reading this you can send me a check with the address below. The race went well for the team. I ended up taking the W! Which was my very first in Michigan, I've had a few 2nds back in 2003 or 04, but never made it to the top step of the podium. Captain Freidinger had a solid race coming in 4th in the expert class. Made even better by discovering (post race) his front wheel wouldn't even spin a full revolution. Probably why he felt the lack of pop out of the corners?

Todd getting it done out there. With some extra drag!

This weekend (being tomorrow) the team will be racing at Hansen Hills just down the road in Grayling. I'm pretty sure that the whole team will be on hand to dominate. We'll be sure to get an update up here in a little more of a timely fashion.

Catchen up with old friends.

Thanks for reading,

Chad

Mud, Sweat, and Beers

Overall I would say I had a good day. I felt pretty good during the race but there were a few critical moments when I wasn't in the right spot and just didn't have the power to close down the gaps. However, I did win the holeshot and found myself off the front for the first 3/4 of a mile. Probably wasn't the best idea but there were a couple muddy, tricky, corners that I didn't want to follow the roadies through.

The guys that beat me were all good cross racers or Cat 1/2 roadies. I recognized most of their names from previous road/cross race results. It was a perfect course and race for their type of fitness. It was 98% wide open two track with rolling hills. The guy that won

was on a cross bike. Basically it was much of the Iceman course backward. I should have run the bike rigid. I had my fork locked out almost the whole race and even when I used the suspension I didn't need it. It was one of those rare races where other guys were noticeably slower on the descents and corners but I could never capitalize because they had so much power on flats and hills.

The venue was awesome! They had a great start/finish area complete with a huge beer/food tent and good music. The had a great announcer and a big turn out for a first time event. There was even a fly-by from a Coast Guard helicopter. They really did an incredible job for a first time race. It sounded like everyone had a great time, spectators and racer

s alike. There were all different ages and levels of racers there.

Overall, I am happy with my fitness. I think I am improving and should be in good shape for Avalance and Superior Bike Fest.