Weather for Bartlett

Wed Night Practice

We had another great practice over at James Park last night.  The great thing about the park is that they have soccer and baseball fields so the stadium lights keep things bright long after dark.  There is talk of starting earlier but with everyone's work schedules it's hard to start much sooner.  I forgot to count but I think this was easily our best turnout of the year at least 17 people.  It was a good practice, Luca pushed me hard, then when I thought I was done made me do 5 more hot laps.  I guess I didn't learn because I was teasing him about his starts after seeing some photos from Carpentersville.  I will learn this time.  Was super excited to see Carolyn out ripping laps with us this week!  Way to go!  

Check out Luca's custom Pink striped Pony Shop socks.  College kids have too much spare time.
Roscoe village's Alex Tweedie and friend made it up from the city to do a little evening workout.  Alex is hitting up the cross scene for the first time this year and doing well it the 4b's.

Can't reveal this person's identity, but every time I tried to take his photo he covered his face.  I know it's been a bit since he was on skinny tires.

Jingle Cross

I'm all signed up for Jingle Cross 2008! This is a really great event and there will be lots of Chicago people out there. I missed it last year and regretted it! Huge fields, lots of good competition, and tons of fun. There is a great run up, ride up, they switch the course so both days are different, you ride through a coupe of barns one with a sand pit like below.

Conant likes it there!   Here he is winning the 35 plus masters race before doing the Elite race 2 years ago.  

Sand Trap!

Check out this awesome sequence!  Thanks Velosnaps!

hmmm

Ben says "early start" I say HOLE SHOT!  Look at that he's flying off the line, the photo is blurry even.  Photo by E-White.

TOP 5

Wow, must be cool to be one of the top 5 highest ranked cyclocross racers in the country!  Way to go Devon, good luck this weekend, keep it rollin!  

Chicago Cyclocross Cup #4

A beautiful day out in Carpentersville today, Jeff and Main Street bikes put together a nice course, it was different from 07 in that there were more twists and it looped back on itself more, using less of the park but with the same distance, so it was also better to spectate from with the start finish and registration in the center of the course.  You can see Scotty airing into the sand pit below, Jessica Hill, recent transplant from the DC, and Elite woman crosser, sent me the photo.  

I had a better start and rode in the top 5 for the whole race.  Chris L was super strong again, I had 2nd place until the sand pit where a lapped rider took me into the tape, had to dismount, fix my chain and get going again.  By then the fast charing Matt Silva was on me and gone, couldn't get close with half a lap to go, so I enjoyed the ride and cheered Jim to pass one more rider in front of him, which worked.  I am happy to have 3rd considering how fast guys were coming up from behind when I went down.  Jim, Roman, and Mark all had big improvements over last week, and it was great to have Bryan R out there again after a 2 week hiatus.  He looked a little shell shocked after the race, welcome back!  

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.