MFG 2013 #1 - Big Finn Hill Park

Well, it is officially Cross season now! This past weekend was the 1st event of the MFG Cyclocross series out here in Washington, and despite the rain the past week, the event was dry and hot like usual. This year I am racing in the 1/2 field, so not only are the races longer, but also against a harder field.
As mentioned in my previous post, I am primarily racing a new bike this year - a Baron Nightingale CX. This event helped show me how good this machine will be for racing this year, however the race also showed me I have a lot of work to do this year!

I had a terrible start (mostly my fault for doing a practice lap) and ended up in the last row. We started with a rush and I managed to climb up a few spots as we moved into the field and started through the corners on the field. I jumped through the corners and made up spots as much as possible.
As we hit the bottleneck single-track section, I dismounted and managed to squeeze past a few more riders who were stuck dealing with the traffic.

Rushing through the course, I definitely started to feel the results of the heat and the work. As we made it to the lap count-down (about 30 minutes into the race), I was definitely slowing down. Luckily, most of the other riders were starting to run out of steam too. I was slowly making up ground as possible, but was very thankful for the final lap.

Putting everything I had left into the pedals, I raced through the last lap and managed to squeeze past one more rider before hitting the finish line.

Still ended up being further back than I wanted, finishing 31st of the 40 starters.
Time to re-focus, build up, and hit Starcrossed next weekend with full force!

Cross Rigs 2013/2014

The first real race of the Washington calendar is this weekend, and in preparation, I have finished up my new race steed, along with making sure that the trusty IF is ready for competition again, should the need arise.

A quick refresh of the IF for the interested:
1997/8 Independent Fabrication Planet-X Steel
IF Steel Cross Fork
SRAM Rival Shifters and Deraillieurs
TRP Euro-X Mag brakes
Fully Sealed cables
SRAM Red Cranks
Shimano XT Pedals
Thompson Elite Seatpost
Fizik Arione VS saddle
Ritchey WCS Stem
FSA Wing bars
Thorne Chainrings
2x10 Drivetrain

A fast and capable machine that served quite nicely through the 2012/13 season, and ready for racing even in the fastest crowds.

But, in the effort to be even faster through the races this year in the 1/2 field, I will be campaigning my new race machine:

2010 Baron Nightingale CX
Ritchey WCS Carbon Fork
SRAM Red/Force/Rival Blend
TRP Euro-X Carbon Brakes
Fully Sealed cables
FSA K-Force Light Cranks
Shimano M540 Pedals
Thompson Masterpiece Seatpost
Fizik Arione Saddle
3T ARX Stem
3T Ergonova bars
1x10 Drivetrain
Mad Fiber tubular wheels

As the continuation of my review work for Mad Fiber, I will be racing primarily on these wheels for the season and should have a depth of experience to share by the end of the season.

Stay tuned for the race report from the MFG Cyclocross race at Big Finn Hill park this Sunday, Sept. 8th.

Cross Whip Preview

Almost Cyclocross season, so it is time to get my new machine finished and ready to tear it up. I will continue to run the Independent Fabrication machine, although it may end up being more of the "B" bike this year depending on the course. The "A" bike will be the sweet Baron Nightingale I picked up last year, which I have been slowly building up for the last few months.

Quick little preview of this new race machine. It should be a blast due to the lightweight steel frame, carbon fork, and I am pretty excited to race a full season on these Mad Fiber wheels to finish my in-depth review.
Full build report for both bikes will be coming up soon!

Long ride and long necks

I ended up going for a great training ride the other day, one of those days on the bike that start out simple enough and suddenly you are 4 hours in and still have at least an hour left to get home. Nothing but sunny sky and asphalt to deal with, long rides have always been a great way to clear my mind and find new routes. I planned to head out to a small loop that I used to ride and then connect it back to some of the newer routes that the team uses frequently.
While out in the roads around Duvall, I found a Alpaca farm and stopped to have a bite and check out these long-necked beasts.

About an hour later, while heading toward Sammamish and a nice climb, I ran into a separate Llama farm. Funny that these farms were on the same fun ride.

In the end, I got a great few hours on the bike, good base miles ahead of 'Cross season, which is just around the corner.

SPY Optic Screw Sunglass Review

Over the last year I have trained and also raced road, criteriums, and Cyclocross using SPY's Screw sunglasses. During this time, they have become my favorite cycling glasses and I have purchased a few sets as well as gotten my friends riding in them as well.

SPY offers a variety of models in their newer Performance lineup, and we are actually sponsored by them this year (something I pushed for after my experience with them last year). The Screw is the flagship shield model but shares many of the fit characteristics with the other models too. If shields are your thing, they offer the Alpha with individual lenses and the Quanta with full frames as well.
In addition to the great fit, all 3 models are crazy lightweight, something you really notice if you come from Oakley glasses like I did. The Screw are almost 1/2 the weight of the comparable Oakley sunglasses, and that is definitely something you will notice at the end of a long day in the saddle!

Rubber grips on the nose and the end of the arms provide a solid hold, and the venting on the arms and lenses keep your eyes happy and lenses fog-free. To make things even better, the arms fit into helmets quite well, so you can tuck them in without trouble.
I am interested to try the new Daft model, but that will be another day.
Get yours at a local bike shop, or order direct from http://www.spyoptic.com/collection/performance
With all these great features, I can see how SPY continues to grow their Pro roster with former National Champ Matthew Busche, current National Cross Champ Jonathan Page, Dave Zabriskie, Nicole Duke and more!

Mashel-Nisqually Kermesse

Sorry for getting this posted a little late, but things have been a little crazy recently!
At the start of the month, I participated in a little mixed-surface racing that the organizers called a Kermesse race. The course, a roughly 2 mile loop, was part asphalt (mostly a short up-hill) followed by a combination of climbing and downhill on a rock field trail. I would point out, this offroad section would be an easy little ride at normal pace, however we were bombing through it at race pace, and it was a little harsh!
I decided this would be a good race to break out the R5, since it is very responsive and has some extra clearance for some wider tires (the S5 doesn't do a good job in that regard).
Continuing my road/cross trial for Mad Fiber, I decided to race these wheels with a 25mm tubular tire - giving a decent ride through the rough section. These did the job without complaint, other than being very bumpy.
Our mixed 1/2/3 field started the course at high speed and hit the rough section going over 20mph. At this speed, the rocky road was pretty bouncy, and unfortunately my water bottle decided to dive off for the safety of the bushes (along with about 75% of the other bottles in the race) - note for future events, use a tight cage! This lack of water was definitely a set-back, but luckily the race was only 13 laps, so it was doable.

I was in the lead group of 5 for the first four laps and then one of the group blew up during the dirt section, causing a split. There were now 3 guys up the road, and my group of 3 chasing hard behind them. We kept up a high pace and eventually the lead group dropped to 2 riders. After about 7 laps, my rear wheel developed an interesting knock. I thought that I must have broken a spoke, however the wheel was still spinning true, so I kept racing hard. A few more laps and the noise became more evident - something that other racers and the spectators/announcers noticed and mentioned at the end. With about 3 laps to go, I finally began to succumb to the heat and lack of water (and the drag on the wheel). I fell off the back of my group and would spend the next few laps trying to catch back on (finished less than 200m from their group).
As I finally rolled across the line in 5th place, I was definitely spent! I rolled around to cool down and then drank about 2 bottles to get re-hydrated. It turned out that the noise was actually caused by the carbon wall on the wheel de-laminating from the rim and smacking into the brakes - so in addition to the metronome of noise, I was also fighting against the brake-drag for the last half of the race. Not cool, but at least nothing terribly damaging. I took the wheels into Mad Fiber to look over and they believe the damage was caused by the wheel hitting against the rocks with a decent amount of force - understandable given the rocks I encountered on that course!
So, 5th place, so not what I wanted, but a decent result none-the-less. I definitely learned from the experience though, and next year I will be back with a tighter cage and some bigger tires for better rolling (less bumpy) and try to get the wheels through without trouble!
Now, it is time to change pace and get ready for Cyclocross!

Redmond Derby Days 2013

So, 90 minute crit right?
Not only is this easily the longest criterium I have done, but with Logan Owen and Morgan Schmidt (local Pros, Logan was recently crowned the national Crit and Road champ for the 17-18yr Juniors, and Morgan has been with Jelly-Belly for a few years), we were sure to have a fast and difficult race. Throw in a huge paycheck for the winner ($1000!) and it was a who's-who of WA cycling (and some added firepower from Oregon and I think some Canadian riders too).

Right off the bat, things were going fast, but unlike the Ballard course, Redmond has pretty wide and manageable corners so the race held together. This doesn't mean there were not attempts to break things up though. Both Pros, as well as some of the aggressive locals, all put in big attacks to try to gain ground and/or split the field. The big $$ primes were just added incentive to push the pace every few laps and keep things running full tilt.

After the initial rush of the first laps wore off, it was just a game of staying up front (to stay out of the mess of the pack) and making sure no one dangerous got going off the front. With 90 minutes of racing, not many people were dangerous in the breaks (especially since most were shut down within a lap or two), but there were definitely a few times when the dangerous guys got up the road and I had to make sure we had someone up with them or drag the field back.

Our initial plan for the race was to put Robson or Barrato into a place to sprint for the win, but the main goal was to make sure that they were ready when it came time. My job, as something of a crit specialist, was to keep things working into that direction; get into breaks if they happen to make sure we are represented, but work to bring things back together for the sprinters to do their job. I would definitely say that I did that pretty well. Andrew, Doug, and I were up front for the majority of the race, with added assistance from Munson, Alec, and Mark to make sure things stayed together well. Meanwhile, Joe and Robson just had to surf the field and stay safe for the finish.

As we moved into the second half of the race the attacks had a bit more staying power, with longer escapes initiated by Morgan, Logan, Max O'Neal, and Steve Fisher (Steve actually had an impressive amount of primes too, making his attacks at the right time to capitalize). I managed to stick to a few of these, but Andrew did an impressive job to pull quite a few back as well.

As we got down to about 15min remain, the pace ratcheted up and the pack started getting a little crazy as we approached the finale. Doug, Andrew, and I were still working the front and I know Alec and Munson were both running in great position as well. Time to start setting things up! I made sure I moved up to the front so that I could be in good position for the end and hopefully drag someone to the line.

Disaster struck with about 2 laps left, as a rider clipped Doug's wheel a few riders to my right. I saw the bikes start clipping and braced but managed to squeeze past before bodies started moving luckily! I jumped onto the wheel in front of me again and worked forward again.

Turning onto the final lap I was in roughly the top 15, which is right where I wanted to be. I moved forward a little more as I could and when we hit the last corner, I jumped into a higher gear and turned out the pedals with everything I had left, managing to pass a few people and cross the line in 12th! Ouch did that hurt, but it did pay off. I ended up the highest placed rider on our team, as unfortunately everyone else was stuck in that crash and slowed down, pulling them out of contention. Not the result we were hoping for, but at least it was a great workout and experience for the next race.
The next crit in the area is in two weeks, down in Georgetown. This will be the first time this course has been used, so I hope it is a good one. Maybe I can finally get that elusive top-ten in one of these races down there.