The road less traveled part 12. Almost the end.

Day 12, Bingen to Koblenz. We weren't 2km out of Bingen when it started to rain. Hard, then even harder. Fortunately, I had my rain gear out of my bags and ready to put on as the skies were pretty dark when we got up. My dad and brother weren't so smart... Being that we knew it was our last day of riding, it didn't seem so bad if we just bailed out and jumped on a train bound for Koblenz. We rode all morning in the rain, stopped for lunch, (mmm, sausage salad again) and then kept riding after lunch because the sun had come out. Not for long, though so we hopped on a ferry to St. Goar and took the first train out.

I don’t know what it could mean,
that I’m so sad: I find,
A fairy-tale, from times unseen,
Won’t vanish from my mind.

The air is cool and it darkens,
And quiet flows the Rhine:
The tops of the mountains sparkle,
In evening’s after-shine.

The loveliest of maidens,
She’s wonderful, sits there,
Her golden jewels glisten,
She combs her golden hair.

She combs it with a comb of gold,
And sings a song as well:
Its strangeness too is old
And casts a powerful spell.

It grips the boatman in his boat
With a wild pang of woe:
He only looks up to the heights,
Can’t see the rocks below.

I believe the waves swallowed
The boat and its boatman,
That’s what, by her singing,
The Lorelei has done.

My brother and I standing high above the Rhine on top of the Lorelei. The folklore gives the name both to the maiden and to the rock we're standing on. This was one of the few moments of the day when it wasn't raining.


This fortress looking building was a toll collector's house. When a boat would come along, they would stretch a big chain across the river and collect the toll for the local baron before letting the ship pass. note to Jim: see, taxes aren't a modern liberal idea :)

View from the top of the Lorelei.

Three lonely looking steeds on the ferry to St. Goar. I love my bike but not enough to stand out in the rain with it.....

State Championships

Loading up the trusty, rusty Race-mobile on Sunday morning at the Rusty Tool Shed. 3 guys, 3 bikes, 6 sets of wheels.... noooo problem.














When Russell, The Boy and I arrived at Sun Prairie for the race, we ran into ace photog and all around swell person Renee from Madcross who congratulated me on my comeback to racing. Some comeback. 20th place in the fours race. Better than this guy though. He got himself a shiny new cross bike this year. I think he should just give it back if he's not going to ride it....













Truly an enjoyable course. JP Ericsson and the Brazen Dropouts team put together another tough course for states. Wisconsin cyclocross is a top notch series thanks in part to this club and all the others who work hard to put on the races.












Seems like only a few weeks ago we were planning for the cx season and now it's over. Well, there's Chicago yet but that's just an excuse to overindulge in Chicago's best culinary creation after the race.







Next up: season recap.

Need painting?

This is a blatant plug for a good friend of mine, Mike from Colorwheel Painting. He's been working on my house for so long that he needs some paying work pronto. If you know anyone who needs paint work done before the holidays, he's your man. I can personally vouch for the quality of his work and of his crew. Contact him at 414-501-1991 or check out his website here.

That's one good lookin'.....

.....BIKE

I think it makes Mike look so good that he should own it. First $1100 takes it (the bike that is).

What I won't be doing today

Many thanks to Renee Callaway at Madcross.org for the great pics. I think I look alot better than I felt in these.

Estabrook

What a waste of time on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. 1 1/2 laps. My first ever DNF in a race of any kind. Got a super start, first to the turn off onto the grass. Lost a few places to the strong guys over the rest of the lap and then, BOOM, no more legs. Hamstrings felt like overstretched piano wire and I was done. I don't know what I did the week before last that was so bad but it's haunting me now to the point where I don't know whether I should try to finish the season or just cash it in and recover. What a drag.

Painful

No, not my muscles anymore, just my wounded pride in posting about my meager race results last weekend at Washington Park. It was, as usual, a well organized event and a fun course. Props to Velo Trocadero for another great race this year except for handing out PBR instead if French cigarettes for primes- maybe I'd have ridden better.

I'm getting old(er), or, a story of inadequate recovery; that's my leadup to the race. Saturday: race Whitewater, Sunday: race Cam Rock, Monday: easy ride, Tuesday: ass kicking, nausea inducing workout, Wednesday: medium ride, Thursday: another ass kicker even harder than Tuesday's, Friday: off, Saturday: medium ride. By the time Sunday rolled around, I was just cooked. Spent. Useless. So what do I do? Yeah, sign up for not one, but two races. I know, I know, the depth of my intelligence is astounding.

Half a lap into warmup and I'm on the ground trying desperately to work the kinks out of my hamstrings. Another half a lap and I know one thing for sure: today is going to suck. Bad. I don't need a double race day, I need a double rest day. First up is the 4's race, which I won last year at Washington Park. The race starts and I'm in trouble by the first set of barriers. No repeat on this one... By the second lap, I'm getting passed by guys I beat with one leg tied behind back. It was all I could do to just hang on 'til the end. 12th place. Wow.

By now you're thinking, "ok smarty, you at least bailed on the second race, right?" Wrong. It so happened that my wife and kids and my dad were going to be on hand for this race, the only one which any of them will get to see this whole season. No skipping this one, no matter how much I wanted to. If I thought my result in the 4's race was sub-par, this one was downright pathetic. Russell even commented that I was an embarassment to my three year old daughter who was cheering. Word. One bright spot is that at least I wasn't DFL. Nor did I get lapped- my only goal besides finishing this damn race. 19th place. Yippee.

So after the race my dad comes up and says "hey kid, you're not a kid anymore, you need decent recovery". What a genius. Now I know where my big smarts come from. So this week's training plan looks a little different than last week's. Monday: no ride, Tuesday: no ride, Wednesday: 45min easy, Thursday: no ride, Friday: one hour easy, Saturday: one hour easy. My hamstrings are still a bit sore but nothing like Sunday. Estabrook is a fast course and looks to have extra barriers this year- a plus for me. The weather looks to be an un-cross like 50 and sunny but I'll survive it. Give me 40 and rainy, it weeds out the wimps.

Next up after Estabrook is Janesville. It's a new venue and I hope it's better than our other new venue this year, Whitewater. After that it's the championships in Sun Prairie. That is always a fun and challenging course by John Ericsson and the Brazen Dropouts crew. Don't forget to put December 3rd on your calendars. It is the date for the Illinois State Championships at Montrose Harbor in Chicago. Last year this race was held in the snow- truly memorable.

Now that's more like it!

Cam Rock baby! First I want to send out props to the Brazen Dropouts crew for putting on a great race. From registration to an outstanding course they do a great job and know what it takes to put on a first class race. This is one of the best courses we race all season, what I imagine to be more of a "true" cross course with a good mix of grass, single track, hills and run ups.

On to the race report. I definitely dig the later start times of the masters races. I can sleep in and still help get the kids where they have to go before heading out. It makes life a little less stressful. As I was leaving home, Rascal called me to let me know there was snow on the ground and it was a bit nipply out so I threw my mud wheels and warmer clothes in the car just in case. By the time I eluded the Cambridge po-lice and made it to the course, it was warming up nicely to at least 35 degrees. Today was perfect cross conditions. Cold, windy, muddy; feels like Belgium or the Netherlands.

By the time we went off, the course was pretty dug up but it was NOTHING like Whitewater. With the exception of the grassy areas, this race was held on established trails. That means mud, but two inches of it not eight inches! After the first lap, I got the hang of just bombing the corners and letting the depth of the mud keep me upright. I think I gained time on my chasers with every muddy corner. I actually hit the single track on the first lap ahead of Trekie, strong racer and all-around-good-guy Damon Rinard but he was going to have none of this me before him business and quickly put me in his rear view. I spent the first 3 laps with a small group before finally shaking them all off and riding solo for the entire rest of the race. It was kind of nice to just put my head down and go as hard as I could maintain for a few laps without worrying about being passed. The best part was that the course conditions improved with each lap, making for an even more enjoyable race. My only scare came when I dropped my chain right after the barriers near the registration shack on the bell lap. Luckily, I was able to get it back on right away. I don't think I lost any places as there was a guy overtaking me anyway but I don't think he was in the 40+ cat.

Thanks to the Polska crew, Jay and Rascal, and Patrick from Trocadero for giving me some serious encouragement around the course- it always helps to hear someone hollering your name.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I kicked it up another placing to 8th loser today. If I keep it up, maybe I can win a water bottle or something by the end of the series. Damon talked me in to doing the double at Washington Park next week: 40+ then right into the 30+. Should be fun as the Trocaderos always put on a good event. They are another crew that knows what it takes and they make the best of the park every year.

Whitewater

Am I glad to get that race behind me. Pop quiz time. Question: what do you get when you take a seldom used field, mow a strip through it and add a few inches of rain? Answer: a suffer fest for the hardy souls who show up to try to race through it.

I have to admit, that was the hardest race I've ever done. It was a fairly short loop mowed through a field with some barriers here and there. On a dry day, it probably would have been good for 10+ fast laps but add all the rain and it turned 70% of the course to mud. Wheel sucking, energy sapping, ooey gooey mud. When the 4's race was in progress some Trocaderos and I were standing around talking about how slow they were going. Little did we know, from our vantage point at the finish line, just how quickly we were to find out WHY they were going so slow.

My race went off at 11:45 after the 4's and the juniors had already raced. The course was by then beyond reason. I rode the first 4 laps entirely, more than once getting passed by somebody running. That's pretty sad. On the 5th lap, I ran the whole back section of the course just to try to give my legs a break. The mud was so deep that stopping pedaling for even a moment forced you to either dismount or fall over so there was no place to ever give my legs a rest from the 40rpm grind in my lowest gear. I was happy as hell to get lapped by the 3's leader with 3 to go as I then only had 1 to go next time through the start/finish. I'm not too proud to say that.

In my last post, I said I was starting to feel better as the fall progresses. My goal was/is to start placing top 10 in my field so I made my goal today by finishing 9th loser. I am looking forward to Camrock tomorrow and usually I like a 2nd race in a weekend but today was so brutal that I hope I have the legs to do well tomorrow too. The only consolation is that everyone else today had to race the same thing as me.

Congratulation to The Boy for winning his age again today. That kid sure gets alot of bling for his efforts. Of course I heard that his dad sells it all on ebay to make up for his entry fees....

Movin' on up....

....to the (middle of the pack) to a de-luxe finish at the ra-a-aace. OK, enough Jeffersons theme song. Had a great race and improved on my 15th loser placing of Badger Prairie to 11th loser this week at Lapham Peak. Given my complete lack of technical skills, LP was a good course for me as none were needed. That probably explains the better finish. It was about as nice a day as one could have for racing, unless of course you prefer Belgian-stayle cross in the cold and snow. Generally I like the adverse conditions but I have to admit that today was nice at 55 and sunny.

I started the race DFL as I was yakking with Danny and Bald Erich at the start and paying no attention to what was happening. Mind you, I probably still would have started DFL even if I had been paying attention but whatever. I battled back and forth a few times with Bald Erich and some others before finally getting free of them on lap 4 on the back straightaway. It helps that Erich was on a single speed but hey, I'll take whatever advantage I can get. Anyway, one guy made it back on to my wheel but I had a good run up and dropped him for good. There was just too much distance to the next guy and I couldn't make any closer than about 25 feet by the finish line.

The viral infection I have had for now five weeks is almost gone. Still some hacking and stuff but way better. I also raced Sheboygan WORS last weekend- my only mtb race of the year- and had a better finish than I thought I would; 8th in sport single speed. Today makes three race weekends in a row and if I can manage to get in some good training during the week, I think that consistent top 10 finishes could be a reality in the remaining six Wisconsin and three Illinois cross races. Maybe even better than top 10 in the Illinois series as the competition, at least in years past, has not been quite as strong as Wisconsin's. Speaking of which, the competition in the 40+ masters field is pretty strong here. Jay asked why I didn't just race 4's instead but if I did that I don't think that I would improve as much as racing with the faster guys in masters.

Next week is Whitewater on saturday and CamRock on sunday. I love double race weekends. The second day's race feels great for some reason, however CamRock is a much more technical course so I'll have to see how that goes; I'm looking forward to it anyway.

So, today was a high note to cap off a week of very low notes from pissed off clients to a burglary at my shop. If someone pops the trunk on thier '79 Eldo to sell you some nice power tools cheap, just remember that they probably were stolen from someone like me.

15th loser

As Russell would say. So, for anyone who actually checks in here once in a while, sorry for the lack of posts. Blah, blah, I have no real excuses. Now that the first cross race is in the bag, I can start posting about all things cross.



Firstly, I'm racing the Orange One again this year as my primary machine. The feel of it is great, no matter the terrain and when a bike feels good that's half the battle. It might not be the lightest machine around but then again neither am I.




I picked up the Bianchi San Jose this spring with the intention of using it as my pit bike and for racing in the SS category in the Chicago Cyclocross Cup series. It's kind of turned into my everyday kid hauler with a baby seat and everything though. If I was half the man this guy is I would race it in the WI series. The Ronsta showed that if you got it, you got it, no matter what you're riding. Congrats on showing 'em who's boss Ron.




Two weeks ago a Bianchi Cross Veloce showed up in my stable. It's a nice cushy ride but has the smallest handlebars for some reason. It doesn't feel anything like my Gunnar and I'm looking forward to swapping out some of the parts on it to make it more similar. Primarily a set of these.

Ok, so on to the race report, such as it is. First, having a wicked case of strep for two weeks before the first race the season really effed me up but good. My legs were dead 30 seconds in and my lungs were on fire the whole time. I raced the Masters 40 category, a tough group by any measure. I had a good start, making the barriers in 7th place, rounded the tree and into the field. By the time we came off of the gravel path I was getting passed by nearly the whole field as my body was just shutting it down. I figure that there is an upside though: it can only get better from here! Seriously, with such a crappy race and fitness how can I help but get better? I have no illusions that I'll be placing in the money by the end of the season, but I do believe that I can be placing solid in the top 10 within a few weeks.

Congrats to Nathan for taking his race by minutes over the next kid. The kid sure loves to race bikes and it shows.

BMX Crystal Ridge style

So I took the cretins to the new track at Crystal Ridge for the first time last night. They had one word for it: cool. It's been since February since they've been on a track and they loved it. It's probably 2 1/2 times as long as Elkhorn and laid out really well. If they can build up some stamina and skills on this track, Elkhorn should be fun this winter.

It was Hayes/Sun Ringle night at the track. All kinds of characters associated either by employment, racing or whatnot. I hope that the powers that be at the track start some weekend practices too as that would only help the kids before indoor starts.

Here are some of the best shots:

The Rocket and The Boy wheel to wheel. Thanks Nate.

Ooooh, big air from the Big Daddy Jay-doh.

Super Russell showing us how it's done.

The Boy showing some good racing form.

Concentration.

Vacation part 3- fun with digital

Vacation part 2

A great time so far. Except for the sunburn.

Fiiiiiish

The perfect recovery food after a soggy beat down. Bubba should have bought this for me for dragging his ass back to Hells Corners in the dark and rain.

Potato salad, sushi bar style. Notice the personal chopsticks, they don't hand them out just any old poser.

Special roll. Boston roll. Spicy scallop roll. Wasabi Tobiko. Big ass Sapporo.

One very happy patron. Thanks for din-din Ru-double S-e-double L.

Vacation

It seems a bit odd to me, but that's Julie smiling at 5:00 in the morning on Sunday. The alarm went off at 4:00. We had loaded the car Saturday night, but still had to load the bikes, food and kids. The smiles weren't to last very long, but more on that in a minute. We rented a cottage in Saugatuck, MI for a week. It's a cool place with it's own beach on a nice little lake about 5 minutes from lake Michigan. Saugatuck is a resort town so it has lots of restaurants and shops and stuff and it is also close to all kinds of other things to do.

This is just before we hit the road to head down to the dock to board the Lake Express.

I'll be the first to admit that this is one happenin' boat. It is a twin hull catamaran style vessel with four 3000hp diesels powering it. It cruises at a land speed of 40mph. Anyone familiar with boating knows that that's pretty fast, especially for a boat this big.

My brother and his family took it last week for short vacation in MI and they really liked it. They must have had smooth sailing.....

We did NOT have smooth sailing. Apparently, a front had come through during they night, and had kicked up some serious wave action. The boat is meant to cut through waves at a right angle no problem but the front had kicked up the waves in a NE-SW direction. Imagine 2 1/2 hours of the riding an out of control roller coaster. This thing was pitching and yawing god only knows how many feet. There were 220 some passengers on board and I'd bet that 90% of then were puking. Even people who had taken Dramamine were puking it was so bad. For our family, Maddie was the first to go and I was the last. That was the first time in probably 15 years that I have ralphed. Brutal. I had to laugh, thinking about the big group of rough and tough (looking) Harley riders waiting to get on the boat when we docked in Muskegon. The thought of them hunched over barf bags was amusing to me.

All's well that ends well however. The resort is even better that we expected. Hey, they have shuffleboard! What more can you ask for? Except a high speed wi-fi connection for free. Oh yeah, they have that too...

If you weren't there...

...then you missed it. Sunday evening/night at Alpha and Crystal. My first night ride of the season. Now I remember what I like about mountain bikes. Did some laps while it was light and while it was dark. Checked out the Ross lodge trails and did Alpha and Crystal backwards. Talk about being lost. In attendance: Rascal, The Alderman, Danny, Sti..., I mean Danielle, Harold and some new guys who mooched The Alderman's beer.

This is what people look like after you do some laps on an empty stomach and drink a bunch of beer. Even though it was only Corona near beer.

Getting ready for round two. After some big ole' sausages and potato salad, compliments of Marty. Oh yeah, and beer.

Danielle after getting busted by Ranger Rick for having fire in the park. She pleaded ignorance. and then blamed it on Alderperson Marty who's tight with the guy's boss, Sue Black. That made the parkie leave right quick. Or maybe that didn't happen.

Danny showing off his mad skeelz.

Mark your calendars

October 1, Badger Prairie

October 15, Lapham Peak

October 21, UW Whitewater

October 22, Cam Rock

October 29, Washington Park

November 5, Estabrook Park

November 11, Janesville

November 19, Sun Prairie (state championships)

Even if you don't want to race, come out and ring your cowbells, drink beer and holler at us.

Would be champions...

make sure to watch THIS.

The road less traveled part 11

Day 10, The Middle Of Nowhere to Bingen am Rhein. Without knowing it, this was to be our last full day of riding. Passed through some groovy places today as you'll see. This was our last day on the Nahe River as well. Bingen is where it flows into the Rhein river. We stayed in Bingen on our last Germany tour and tried to stay in the same hotel to no avail. All the good hotels were booked so we ended up in a less than stellar place.

We started out the day climbing to the top of these vineyards. If you look close you can see my dad way down the road in the distance. It was a fun downhill. Good thing the Bianchi San Jose is a solid descender.

The first town of any size we came to was Bad Munster. It is known for these bizzarre salt water walls. They pump salt spring water up from underground and drip it through these huge assemblies shown above. You are supposed to gain some health benefits from "taking the air" by these things. All I did was cough for the next two hours....

You can barely make out the trees at the top of this wall. I can't do it justice in a photo.

Bad Kreuznach. These houses were built on the bridge. Had a great lunch here of brats and fries and a raw beef and onion sandwich for dessert. Mmmm, health food.

What's a day without copius amounts of beer? Oh, and Ouzo to top it off. We went to a Greek restaurant for a little change of pace. Wasn't like any Greek joint here.