It’s a good thing Bend has such a tight-knit pro bike rider community. If I hadn’t the opportunity to carpool to the airport with Ryan Trebron on Friday I wouldn’t have thought hard enough about the Boulder Cup Cyclocross weekend’s race plan to develop something as incredibly insightful as “save it for Sunday, it’s a UCI C1 so there’s way more points and cash.” Ryan is super smart. And reads the UCI website instead of calling his blasting contractor all the time…
Speaking of Blasting, I'm building a garage in Bend. We had to break up some rocks to dig the hole...
His plan was even more applicable for me, considering that since I’d flown home from Europe two weeks early on account of being smoked, I’d felt only marginally better as the days passed. It was only a few days before this weekend trip to Colorado that I said screw it and did a couple decent rides, which helped me feel normal again. Good planning…
Even better planning was that our mechanic, Joe Staub, agreed to come down from Gunnison bearing not only a toolbox and workstand for the races but a pair of Mountain bikes so we could shred some Front Range singletrack before and after the races. Solid work, Joe.
Four hours after Ryan and I high fived the United ladies in Redmond and hopped on the direct to Denver (from which, upon approach to Denver, we noticed a solid forest fire in hills above Boulder) Joe and I were at the Hall Ranch trailhead, discussing exactly what time it got dark with my hosts for the weekend, Carolyn and Rex. Carolyn and I shared many a high school ski day at Sugarloaf in Maine and have stayed in touch whenever I’m in Colorado. It was her genius idea to go for an evening shred instead of the normal build cyclocross bike, ride it on the road for 20min then go home routine that’s a normal cross race arrival. Instead, we rallied some rad singletrack with a bunch of Granite for me to go mobbing over on Joe’s Reign X as the sun set on the week. Nice.
Saturday dawned clear and smoke-free, looked like a nice day for racing out at the Boulder Reservoir. Upon our arrival at the Res, we were greeted by a dust cloud from the category that happened to be racing. Geoff Kabush later quantified this phenomenon as “Summer Cross” when he explained that every race since the gloriously muddy Seattle events in September had been like this. Hot and Dusty. I brought a water bottle with me during my race. Does that make me smarter than Ryan? Ryan actually had some tough luck, just as I was easing into the second lap in 10th place or so I caught him (it must have been him, a 6’8” guy in a purple Kona kit) coasting into the pits looking uncomfortable. Turns out he pulled his Groin on the first lap. Ouch.
Riding the beach stairs. Way easier than running...
I pulled my ability to ride a steady, smooth, sustainable pace into service about then and got gapped off the group into about 15th place. A few passes here and there happened until I was joined by fellow Northwesterner Zach Macdonand. In short, Zach shreds. We had a good time riding smart lines and drifting corners so we could pedal less hard on the straights. I rode the beach corner and uphill sand stairs so I could give him shit about running with his perfectly good bicycle just because it was “faster” and eventually we finished 13th and 14th. No need to dig super deep for the 1 UCI point and $30 more available for 10th when there’s a big C1 coming up… And I got way bigger cheers than the “winner” J Pows for riding the stairs anyway…
Zack making a huge draft for me to sit in. Thanks for shredding.
Saturday night I may or may not have gotten bored and gone to check out the Downtown Boulder Haloween scene with some like-minded Kona folks. It was totally worth it, holy hell. Pearl Street was PACKED wall to wall with all kinds of rad get-ups and every watering hole was even more packed. It was hard to differentiate between the queues to get into each bar and the hordes of people milling around. Fortunately, we got let in the back door to The Walrus, expediting my process of getting “one drink” which was promptly spilled by a quite striking American Gladiator who went by “Ice”. Kind of what my shattered glass of Whisky looked like on the floor… Instead of jousting with me, Ice bought a replacement, which her sidekick promptly spilled on the pool table. Some things just aren’t meant to be… Since Oscar the Grouch was owning the dance floor, we wandered back outside and did a lap to check out the best costumes. I’m pretty sure the Avatars, who not only had amazing body paint, hair and accessories, but were also on stilts and 9’ tall took the cake. Half an hour later we were in bed like good little bike racers and feeling much better knowing how rad Haloween in Boulder can be.
I didn't get that pissed about the spilled drink after seeing this beatdown...
Sunday was another perfect day for “Summer Cross” and we headed out to the Flatirons Mall in Broomfield to check out a new course for the Boulder Cup. It was definitely interesting and required a rider’s full attention to avoid slapping the ground, which I did about 3 minutes into my first practice lap. Turns out mowed dead grass on top of dead grass that originally grew out of super-hardpacked clay is slick. Who knew? I’ll tell you who knew, the people with a cooler full of adult beverages camped out and the slickest, most benign looking corner on the track. Unfortunately, giving us a heads up would cut into their enterainment…
I was pretty stoked on how my custom Michelin/Dugast tubulars were hooking up and the fact that I had “brakes” on my bike thanks to Tektro’s Mini V setup. This stoke combined with the fact that my body was feeling even better after a conservative day’s racing had me pretty fired up to race. I started around 10th again and set about passing those who left the inside open and those unlucky low hanging fruit who crashed or flatted until, a few laps in, I’d settled into the fourth place chase group with Kabush and CO shredder Jake Wells. We worked to bring the leaders back but had to settle for the race for 4th. Kabush attacked for with a few laps to go and claimed it for himself. I ended up fifth, a minute behind Tim Johnson and feeling way better about cyclocross racing this fall. I should be able to get in shape a bit in the next six weeks and have a go at Nationals.
This was the best costume Carolyn could dig up on short notice... At least I tried...
Sunday’s “Proper Halloween” scene in Boulder was exceptionally mellow so we called it early and went for a super rad morning ride on the new Heil Ranch/Picture Rock area north of town before heading to the airport, with a stop a Chipotle for good measure… A damn nice weekend, if I do say so myself.
Here’s a little video from last weekend’s “Gentleman’s Super D” in Bend. There are a few other clips in the "Near Broken Top" file below. We started at the Wilderness Boundary near Broken Top and rallied snow, mud and perfection down a few thousand feet to town. I rode my singlespeed in honor of the SSWC10 (that Ross Schnell was losing at that moment in a chugging contest) and tried to keep Timmy in sight as long as possible… Fun times and a fire at the finish line…
Thanks to Sven Martin for the pictures of the stuck van (Video was from inside) and finish fire. Good skills.
