Toss out

I kind of like these polls.  The latest one about having a throw out rule garnered some interesting results.  65% of people voted for having a throw out rule, and 34% voted against having a throw out rule.  Are there any series around that have a throw out rule?  I don't know of any personally.

Cross Weather

Cross weather is finally upon us.  52 degrees this evening, precipitation varying from slight mist to moderate drizzle, cloudy skies, and a near full moon, freaking perfect.  The quad half full americano, and a fist full of Mad Alchemy Medium embro at the stop lights while driving over set the tone for my misty evening ride.  Guessing low turnout was to be expected I also loaded up Death Magnetic from Metallica on the ipod.  

The practice loop was ripping it gets better when wet, more challenging...extended over to include the small hill first, which was just barely rideable, you had to keep your weight distributed just right to keep traction on the rear wheel and keep the front wheel on the ground, then a fast round-a-bout the trees, over to the large hill for a full run up that was just slippery enough to keep you on your toes and realize that those spikes you put in are a good idea, then a fast downhill skirting the soccer fields that were super soft like sand due to the water, over the wood chip pile, onto the soft gravel that you just sunk into, then around the outside of the park on the pavement/crushed gravel path, finishing back on our normal route through the pine trees.

Rode a double for the first time in a long while, seemed ok....not sure if it's really worth the trouble. Stuff you can ride up in a 39 you can run up almost as fast, alright I can't run up as fast but someone can. Rode the Dugast Rhynos today at 35psi, wow those are great tires in the soft stuff, I was hitting the soft corners hard with no issues at all, kept pushing them a little harder but never got close to washing them out.  

Jackson Park was hot, Hawthorn Woods was hot, today was beautiful and crossy, and I might add lonely.....Just me, Jack, and Mark out there today...it was an awesome practice on a perfect fall cyclocross day.  One of the coolest things about cross is it goes down in all conditions.  

Front Derailleur Mount

Pro...

Not pro...

X-Fire

Ridley project number 2.  This is the X-night's little brother.  It is also full carbon, but doesn't share the ISP, has less shaping to the tubes, and forgoes the magnesium rear drop outs.  It does still use a full carbon fork.  This bike here rides great, feels super stiff, and weighs in at 18.4 with plenty more weight to lose.   I mean seriously the bike has cheater levers, 2 cages, and some seriously heavy pedals.  With some massaging it could easily be in the 16lb range.  

Custom Painted Ridley X-Nights

Photos from the road diaries.

CCC #3 Hawthorn Woods Psycho Cross

Good race today out in Hawthorn Woods.  Yet another new venue this time promoted by Ted Schweitzer, who is an independent bicycle rep.  Ted did an excellent job of working with the park and setting up a course that included two fun trips up a toboggan hill.  I can't say I had the best day, and not sure what it was exactly....could have been the heat, could have used maybe a double ring for that hill??? who knows.  I think I ended up 5th on the day.  Roman and Jim were in the teens, Mark dnf'd with the busted post.  Eric Sondag (VQ) looked super solid on his new Ridley and traded blows with the eventual winner lap for lap, congrats on 2nd place, nice work!  Lots of photos courtesy of my daughter Chloe, just of the 30, 40, and 50 race as marathon duty had us shooting down to watch my wife whoop her last year's time by 15 minutes.   Greg's post today leaves me wishing for cooler temps and more technical sections...

"no really it broke off, no I didn't do it on purpose"  is what Mark is explaining to Aspen here, who doesn't look convinced.  Mark has had lots of seat post issues as of late, I think we're going to aluminum not carbon on Mark's bike!  I asked Mark why he didn't just ride the rest out without the post?
Done..... I look relieved.   

GO Devon GO!!!!

Check this out!  Go Devon, Go Pony Shop!

Results

Results from DeKalb and the overall standings are posted.

Practice

Good practice last night, did our starts in the soccer field, there were no soccer kids because the fields were too flooded to play.  Ha, not too flooded for cross.  I actually heard someone say "it's kind of soupy over here"  I quickly shut that non cross attitude down and the starts began.  I like getting dirty like that because when you take a shower you know you got your moneys worth, you can see you're cleaner.  You can see Sondag with the ultra pimp ridley getting it all dirty and broken in, it was not slowing him down at all, what have I done.
This is Sam.  Sam has a Cross Bike.  Now I've seen him and his bike get dirty, glad to have you out there.  Speaking of out there, Cliff and Carolyn were missing, and I heard that Carolyn was having to talk Cliff into getting out to practice in the wet...shame shame.  
Ernie checking out Roman's new fork.  Roman was keeping a good perimeter around his bike after the fork breakage at the DeKalb race.  Roman can't keep his hands off my sweet uber pump, I have a christmas idea for Allison.  Lastly, sorry I had to jet out of there last night, we had a family emergency, thanks for cleaning up the barriers.  

Coaching Tip from Brian Conant

Some of us got to experience FUN wet conditions this past weekend. Cornering becomes a whole new beast when it is wet. You have to loose that aggressive cornering style when its dry, and corner with a light touch. Speed has to be drastically reduced, watch out for the roots around trees. Roots are like ice when they are wet. If the corners are a mud bog and there is any grass left, ride the grass. Once out of the corner, stand up and GUN IT!!!. CROSS RULES!!!!!! BSC Coaching - bconant@msn.com

Hesitation

I had a good conversation with a fellow cross guy the other day about this season.  He was feeling behind the 8 ball a bit this season, and I certainly felt a little shell shocked this year coming out and getting spanked at Jackson Park.  After the beating I took at JP I really had some doubts roll through my head.  After putting those doubts into perspective I really thought about why I race cross, because it is the most fun I've ever had riding a bike, period.  It is so much fun, the crowds are so great, the venues are awesome, the fellow competitors are cool, and it's fun to be part of something that is growing bigger by the year.   We ended up discussing  how I feel that every year when it's done I wish I had done more, drove further, and doubled up.  So no matter what you're thinking don't start "next year's plan" talk now, get out there and do more now, this year, these nationals.  I have a mental list in my head, believe me I have sold a lot of cross bikes over the years, they want to see the dirt, not the lakefront path, get out there.  Don't hesitate.

Pro Bike

Joachim Parbo's Leopard cycles cyclocross bike is profiled on Cycling News.  He is the current Danish national cyclocross champion.  

Voila

Before and after, I think I like the Alpha Q better.  It is clear coated so that matches the Kona frame better than the Easton fork did, although I'm not sold 100% on the forward arch of the fork legs, visually hard to get used to.  Speaking of forks it was interesting to notice that the "new" Ridley fork that comes on the X-Night is the same fork that came on my Colnago C50.  Not sure who makes it but it works well.   Notice in the top photo how the right STI is "hyper extended" toward the outside of the handlebar?  I think we were all too shocked by the fork to notice.  It still works though, which is a testament to their durability.  I wonder if a red or campy lever would have broken off?  Not sure but we'll see if this one keeps working, it's a little off centered now but other than that feels normal.

6.7132 equals?

14.8 lbs.  (still needs jump stop and pedals)

Diet

Chicago Cyclocross #2 DeKalb

Great day, first off my hats off to Half Acre Cycling and North Central Cyclery, who put on a phenomenal race.  The park in DeKalb was absolutely perfect for a race course.  You could put on 4 days of racing and never be bored with the course.  It had everything you could want, a great flow, and never felt like things were being thrown in just to make it longer or trickier, didn't need it.  It also was a course that would change with the weather, and got more technical as it started to sprinkle on the master's races then pour during the 1's 2's.  In the masters 30 plus Mark and I both had good starts and ended up 2nd and 9th, in the 40's the duo of Roman and Jim continue to impress and put up a very solid 3rd and 4th place finish, knocking on the door gents!  I heard of massive carnage in the 4's race, jack, scotty, and cliff all started out really strong then mechanicals abounded.  There is rumor of Tony out there ripping it up on a single speed!  Welcome back my friend.  Coach Brian ramped up another strong one for 2nd in the pro 1/2 and Luca was right behind in 5th.  Devon pulled a compton and decided to race with the men's 3's, awesome choice, she looked right at home sitting in the top 8 selection for most of the race.  I haven't heard of anyone else's results but I have a car full of wheels, there was a lot mechanicals and flats out there, so more work to be done, question is more tires!!!!!  

Roman decided to be the gentleman that he is and lend his bike to Ernie for the 3 race, only to have the steerer tube sheer off on the first lap.  OUCH!  Glad no one was hurt.  This kind of thing can be scary....glad that it wasn't bad. 

Tires

Sweet Silk
Bring on the Mud, man these look so bad ass.

Money

Million dollar idea....an embrocation remover.  Used up some cold weather Mad Alchemy Embrocation tonight, alright I was pushing the threshold of the coldness recommendation range  a bit but wanted to see what kind of bite it had before using it on race day, and damn I will say I am still burning.....this stuff is potent and pretty awesome.  I also have their warm weather embrocation, which will be my embro of choice till we it the 40, and below temps.  Oh yeah and keep away from any mucous membrane, I'm not kidding.  All seriousness check them out, it's always nice to support a small guy who loves the sport as much as we do, not to mention his product is some of the best I've tried.  Seriously though, patent pending, patent pending on the embrocation removal salve.  Now all kidding aside how do you get this off, I have to be on the bike at 5 am and don't think I can sleep with it on.  

Back to work

Great practice tonight!  We had 14 people out, and jessica pointed out that about 14% were girls, that's what we get for inviting school teachers out!  Some new faces, jaws were dropping, Tony B. and Baughb both showed up, great to have you guys out there.  I was bunny hopping a single and then Tony really showed us how it was done and cleared her easily.  Races this weekend, can't wait!

This is Roman doing backing in.
Baughb!  The two bucks is yours.


See Tony even surprised himself!

Ridley Bikes

I've been thinking about this for awhile, and after being at the show and speaking with the Ridley folks I'm convinced that they will be a great addition to our store.  The biggest factor for me was that a lot of companies are dragging their feet on producing a top quality Carbon cyclocross bike.  Ridley and Colnago have both stepped their game up and done so, but Ridley has gone one better and followed up their flag ship model with the X-Fire, a reasonably priced Carbon frameset.  Ridleys are currently being ridden by a lot of the top teams in the world including Fieda and more locally Planet Bike.  If you're interested feel free to contact me.  I will have some X-fires here and built up this week, and I have a secret project in the works for someone that is going to be sick!