Bike Race Photos

I wonder what the cycling ghost looks like. Tim talks abous his a lot. Most cyclists that I talk to have the sleep ghost on occassion. The ghost mostly shows up when the season is in full-swing and the intensity is high. My ghost seems to stick around all season long. She starts showing up mid to late march and doesn’t leave till December. Even with mother’s little helper she has been showing up around 2:00 am lately. I think she is pissed that my season isn’t ending till December. This will be my longest race season ever. I keep waiting for the day that they create the sleeping pill that allows you to just take the one that will allow you how many hours of total sleep you want. If I could take the 7hr pill, I’d be totally stoked.. But until then, the ghosts will continue to haunt.

Pretty hillarious… that they are talking shit about me all the way over in Oregon at the Cross Crusade Forums. I do like that they have the Smack Talk Central forum though.

http://www.crosscrusade.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=703&PN=1&TPN=2

“Come to Oregon and you would’ve been called out a long time ago.”

SANDBAGGER

Cyclocross ditch bunny hop

For those going to Xilinx Cup USGP. This may be in store for you. They have a ditch that they have used in the past.

Cyclocross 2006/2007 Superprestige 2

Nature Valley Cross Race

Interview with the King Smithers

The weekend in Minnesota was great. I think Peggy and I both got our “fix” of our family and friends. Peggy got so see her family and a few friends and I got to see my bike family. It was good to see her family. Her sister Karen let us crash at her place, she is like the little sibling that I’ve always wanted. We give each other crap all the time. Peggy’s mom taxied us to and from the airport and papa Seipp let me use his car all weekend to get to the races. My bike family: I rode for Birchood/GIS for over 10 years and spending every weekend together and training during the week with a group of people for that long, teammates become family members. We grew together, suffered together and motivated each other. If I miss one thing about living in MN this is what I miss the most. I raced both Saturday and Sunday and both days around every corner of the course I heard people cheering me on. It was awesome.

Saturday Red Barn Course Description:
Start on grass double track hard left to more grass to a dirt road, back to grass double track to a double, grass double track twistys to a single, to more twisties, to a downhill to a steep run-up repeat. At the start I knew I was back “home”. If you don’t know Hollywood you’ll meet him some day. He won the single speed world championships in Mpls a few years back and last year at State Cross Championships he was taking hot-dog and ciggarette hand-ups. We are at the line and the official says 2mins to start. Hollywood tells the official “hey look over there”. The official turns his head and some body hands Hollywood a beer… he takes a long pull then someone else hands him a twinkie.. and then it is GO time. MN cross has a lot less attitude then CO cross. I think the community is a lot tighter and everyone in MN is from MN so we all grew up racing together. They run races A,B,C The A field all starts together(pro 1/2, Cat 3, 35+. So, there are only 3 races a day. So, you can see that the fields are not as big as CO racing. But, there are plenty of fast riders. You have Doug Swanson and his brother Dan – both super fast and both will be at USGP this weekend and you have boy wonder Bjorn Selander,and seasoned pro Dewey Dickey and plenty of other super fast guys. Gun goes out and I it is chaos going into the 1st hard left corner but I stay up and the top 3 guys are gone. I look back at one point and I’m in a group of 10 and I’m towing them around the course. Nobody was pulling through so I made a couple of attacks and split the group in half. Finally I got some help and we opened the gap. Mid-way through Dan Casper comes ripping by and I hop on his wheel for 1/2 a lap and we split the group again to 3. Dan is a super strong 1/2 and a TT maniac and he rides us off his wheel. So, it’s down to me and another guy. We take turns pulling for 3 or so laps when Aric Harland comes rolling by. He is another super fast guy in the MN scence. I thought he might be lapping us so I hopped on his wheel and the pace was too much for the other guy that I was battling with so we dropped him. I told Aric that I wasn’t going to contest the sprint and he pulled me around the last 3 laps. I found out later that Aric had a flat and that he didn’t lap me.. I ended up 6th overall and 3rd in 35+. What’s up with all the fast old guys?

Sunday Como Park Course Description:
Another day on the grass. Start on double track to a hard right to some twisties to a high speed single to a climb, back to some twisties to a grinder climb, back to twisties to a single to twisties to a slight downhill to a circular run-up to single track to twisties to maybe a block section of pavement through start finish and repeat. There was no recovery today and the bumpy grass and grinder climb was going to take a toll on riders. The gun went off and I grabbed 3rd wheel. Doug Swanson 1st, Bjorn 2nd. I was in a great position for the 1st 1/2 lap then I started getting passed by a few guys lap after lap. I wasn’t concerned as the guys that were passing me were not 35+ guys and I knew they would/should finish in front of me anyway. A group formed in front of me with about 4 guys and a group formed in back of me with about 4 guys. I saw 9 laps to go and I was dangling in between both of them. I couldn’t close the gap ahead and didn’t want the group behind to catch me. So, I just kept pounding it out.. 3 laps to go and I see someone coming accross from the behind group.. I turn up the gas a little more and go into a corner too hot and lay it down.. my chain comes off and I get it back on and sprint out of the corner and go into hammer mode. 2 laps to go and he is closing – I go harder. 1 lap to go and I put the head down and just ride as hard as I can… I roll in 8th overall and 2nd in 35+. The field today was twice as big as yesterday so I’m happy with my result. Today was the hardest cross race I’ve ever done. I don’t know what it was – the bumpy grass made my back scream in pain 20mins into it and the grinder climb sapped the legs. Plus the fact that I had no draft all day had a lot to do with it.

So Big Fish vs. Little Fish.. I feel like a little fish here in CO and a big fish in MN. This will change the more people I meet and the more I race here, but being a big fish feels good.