Blogs by Professional Cyclists - Professional Cycling Unplugged™

I am full-on into the ‘cross season and having more fun than I’ve had in a while.  Having mono this year really brought me back to the basics in a lot of ways, and it’s been cool just to have the opportunities to race again.  I’m back with Jamis for the 2009 ‘cross season, and actually heading up to Toronto, ON today for some good, cold northern CX!

I’ve started a website, www.inertiacycling.com, that’s a bit like a blog right now, and I’m hoping to come up with some good content to make it really interesting.  The latest section I’ve been working on is my “For Sale” page where I’m selling some of my old gear, and have toying with the idea of selling Jamis team kits.  I’d love some feedback, so please drop me a line from my contact page.

Well, this was short, but it’s time for me to go do some openers on the trainer before I fly to Canaduh.  Hopefully I’ll see some of you up in Toronto or perhaps in Louisville or Boulder.  Lots of really cool races coming up, I’m stoked!

Let’s send you off with a pic from Gloucester, really great, epic conditions this year!  Thanks to Dave@trailwatch.net for the pic.

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Posted under CYCLOCROSS

Here’s the fancy new kit, a custom one-off from my good friends at Pactimo.

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Posted under CYCLOCROSS

Just finished up one of my favorite races of the season. The Ramble Around Prattsburgh. A super fun, 30 mile dirt road race. Some good climbs and some good fast descents.

Happy with my 3rd place finish overall. 30 miles is a little on the short end for myself being as I’m more focused on the 100 mile/enduro mtb stuff.

We had a single rider dangling off the front and I gave chase with a small group attempting to bridge. It’s not too often that a race shatters on a descent, but with all of us in the front group on cross bikes it was bound to happen.

Check me out ripping the descent on my cross bike
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Posted under CYCLOCROSS, MTB: ENDURANCE

I’ve been a little slow to write a cyclocross nationals recap due mainly to two factors.  Firstly, I’ve been up to my eyeballs in old English for my Chaucer class.  This was my version of hell.  Secondly, I’ve been working to move out of my room at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs where I’ve lived (and steadily accumulated a LOT of stuff) as a member of the U23 National Mtb Team for the past three years.  With class and the move complete, I’ve headed home to Boulder, CO for two weeks of hiking, nordic skiing, alpine skiing, eating chocolate, and yoga.  More on these “off season” activities to come. 

Cross nationals was a blast.  Unlike mountain bike races, where spectators see racers blaze into the woods and then fly by every half hour or so, the entire cross course is visible.  Spectators can see and literally yell into the faces of grimacing racers as they’re attacking or attacked.  Quite fun, especially when all of your season is over before the elite races and you feel as if any of the burdens of resting and recovering have been lifted. 

With all of the cross training (and occasional lapses in training) that I’ve been enjoying this fall, my legs have been pretty unpredictable.  Such was the case in Saturday’s U23 race, but I was happy with 11^th place given the stacked field.  I think I benefited from the relatively lax start pace of Sunday’s DII collegiate race and was able to ease myself into things and win.  I understand that collegiate fields would be huge if D1 and D2 fields were combined, but this separation strikes me as odd given that hardly anyone (with the possible exception of Ft. Lewis and Lees-McCrae) chooses their school based on its cycling team.  Nevertheless, wins are quite rare these days, and it felt pretty good to raise my hands across a finish line and pull on a stars and bars jersey (I’ll ignore the alignment of those bars).

The link below video is a throw-back to Jingle Cross, and it captures one of the darker moments in my first cross season.  Yes, it takes me far too long to get back up, but I swear I wasn’t just pouting.  I knocked the wind out of myself pretty solidly. 

Jingle Cross Crashes

I should now get back to off-season training; there is a chocolate bar with my name on it.  Merry Christmas! 

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Posted under CYCLOCROSS

So here it is, my US Cyclocross National Champs race report.  The short of it is, Ryan Trebon (pronounced “Ree-ahn Trey-boh” in French) used his 87 inch legs to power up this winding, 4-minute climb every lap and stomp the the rest of us into submission over the course of an hour.  I tried to put up a fight and make a race out of it, but honestly the guy who rode most impressively in my opinion is Jamey Driscoll.  Yes, the mustache-bearing youngster from Jericho, VT stayed with Trebon the longest, and then chased him like a scared rabbit for the better part of the race.  Page and I chased Jamey for a while, until Jon put the screws to me with 2 laps to go.  I then was in 4th place and stayed there through the finish line.  I had a great race and was really excited to finish in the top 5.  It was more than I could ask for after a very rocky late-season streak.  

The race began with a large lead group forming on the first lap.  All of the pre-race favorites were watching each other and mustering up small accelerations to see what the others would do.  Near the end of the 3rd lap I kept pedaling through one of those accelerations, and while the other guys sat up and looked at each other I build up a nifty little 10-second gap.  I was feeling really good and really enjoyed leading nationals even if it was only for a short while.  Just to be at the head of the race after a few laps felt pretty cool.  

Jamey started chasing after me, and after a lap of riding just a few seconds apart we joined up on the finish straight and continued our quest for fortune and fame.   Those dreams didn’t last too long as Ryan attacked our chasers and bridged to us in one straight away.  Jamey and I jumped in behind him, but I couldn’t hold the pace after about a minute up the climb.  Jamey hung on for longer than I did, but by the top we were all separated.  I focused on trying to keep the gap to Jamey close, while holding off Todd Wells, Jon Page and my boy Tim Johnson who were closing in behind me.  Page caught me and I dug deep to stay with him, and we were able to put some more time into Big Wells and Tim.  We never really got close to Jamey though.  Page and I went back and forth for a few laps, but I kept cramping up every time I made an acceleration.  When he put in a dig with 2 laps to go I couldn’t go any harder for fear of fully cramping up, so I just kept a steady pressure on hoping I would be able to bring him back.  That never happened.  

I guess one detail I forgot to mention were that it was 22 degrees out when we raced, after starting the day off in the low 60’s.  Not that it made much of a difference, but man was it COLD!  I actually had feeling in my fingers which is rare, but my feet were frozen numb and are still tingling a little bit 5 days later.  

Anyway, that was nationals, and now my season is over!  Time to rest and relax and not care about anything except doing what I want and what I can’t do during the race season.  Love it!  

Oh and I have the best girlfriend ever, just thought I’d mention that.  

(5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Posted under CYCLOCROSS