The Wah Report

Teammates old and new are family. And they are always there for you when you need them the most. You have not truly experienced bike racing until you really understand what a teammate is.

Today was Back To Shool Cross in Northfield. Mikey P and I rolled down together. We have been teammates on many different teams. This year we are both riding for different cyclocross teams. The course was pretty brutal. It had a steep climb that was painful in the 42x27, add to that a short course and we climbed it 12 times. There was also a board that most of us were bunny-hopping. I'm not the best at it, but made it over every time. I got the traditional good start and held back a little to see if that would help me from blowing after a few minutes....it didn't really help. Midway through the race Mikey P and I hooked up and took turns for the rest of the race. It was great having a "teammate" to share the work. 15mins left in the race I was popped, so Mikey P was kind enough to tow me around the rest of the race and keep us away from those chasing us down. Thanks again Mikey. I ended up 4th in 35+ and 9th overall.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28587395@N00/sets/72157622757433674/show/

This is the course we put together for our race. Let me know what you think

What a beautiful day. 60 degrees and sunny. I arrived early to catch the Midwest Single Speed Championships and saw Marco Lalonde put on a clinic and win by 1 min.

The course was twisty, turny and grassy. Pretty technical with 180s and grass to pavement sections.

My coach told me I needed to slow down my starts as he thinks I'm blowing up after I sprint as hard as I can to get into the top group. But today I had to go hard from the start. The start was critical because it went from pavement to a 180 to grass, so I knew I needed to be top 10 going into the 180. I got a good start and waited for my normal fade, but it didn't come today. I was able to stay on the gas the whole race. I was top 10 and stayed there all day. The course took many victims today. I saw a ton of people go down around corners and a few mechanicals. I knew I had to ride smart and not make any mistakes today, and I did. I was able to hand with the fast group today and ride wheels. I got into top 5 at one point and had to slow it back a little because I was about to blow. Dan Swanson caught me with 5 laps to go and I let him tow me around the course for 5 laps. I couldn't pull through, I just wanted to hang on. I told him the race was his and not to worry about me. With a 1/2 a lap to go I let up a little and let him go and rolled in 2nd in 35+ and 7th overall. My best race of the season so far.

My coach has taught me to train smarter and rest harder.

Labels: velocross

2nd in 35+, 7th overall

Sent from my iPhone

Great article about the Crossnaics in Cyclocross Magazine

Labels: The Cyclocross Meeting

Daylight Savings means early morning trainer rides

Great post by Adam Kleinberg at iMedia.

1) Mass collaboration is powering the new economy
Companies are taking advantage of a new collaborative world to foster innovation and grow their enterprises.

2) Constant connectivity in an on-demand world
I'm wired almost every minute of every day and so are your customers and prospects. People expect you as a company to be "on" 24/7.

3) Globalization: Making the world a smaller place
Technology has made geography irrelevant. Businesses around the world are doing business with one another and will continue to do so.

4) Pervasive distrust in big corporations
The impending financial doom this country faced a year ago had a tremendous impact on consumer confidence in America, but even greater damage was done to consumer trust.

5) A global sense of urgency to fix the problems of a modern world
Being green is a minimum standard.


5 marketing megatrends you can't ignore

Labels: Adam Kleinberg, iMedia, megatrends

Thanks Frank Rowe for all the great images

Labels: cyclcross, Frank Rowe, red barn

Wow! I forgot how much work it is to put on a race. But it was awesome. My teammate, Bryan Butts scored by getting us the Fridley Middle School venue since he is a teacher there. We were there at 6:30 for set up. The course started on a cinder running track, then hit a pin-wheel of deal and then zig zag section, followed by some off camber in the trees to a fast grass section to a 5-pack (5 barriers in a row) to a barrier to runup down a hill and then zig zag up the hill and back down to a rideup for the few, but run up for most of us and then back to the cinder track. I was in charge of the hill and it was pure pain.

We had a good showing with 150+ riders and my teammates were awesome and helped a ton with setup, registration, and tear down.

I even got the opportunity to race it. I got a great start and then like an idiot crashed in the pinwheel. The pinwheel was on a baseball diamond so it was soft and sandy. I got up quick and hopefully didn't screw anyone up. Doug Swanson put on a clinic and destroyed the field, Adam Bergman broke his collar bone on the 5-pack.

The 5-pack was also my idea and the official looked at my funny when he saw it, but I insisted it be included. Our goal for the course was to cater to those who have bike skills cross skills. The strong without skills suffered today.

Back to my race. I got into the 3rd group and Smither's bridged up and the race was on. We took turns pulling and got into a small group. There were 3 of us going into the last lap and I didn't want it to go into a sprint, so I sprinted into the 5 pack as fast as I could and new it was do or die time. I needed to nail the 5-pack and hopefully get a gap because I went into a lot faster then the other 2 guys. It worked. I opened a small gap and held it to the finish. I ended up 4th in 35+ and 10th overall.

We also collected bike parts to send to the soldiers in Iraq. One our Crossniacs teammates in OR, is sending them over.

All in all a good day and I hope everyone enjoyed the race. Big thanks to my wife Peggy for helping all day.

I've done well at this race and have the medals to prove it... but today I gave it all I had and ended up 12th overall and 5th in 35+. I got an awesome start and was sitting in 3rd and then didn't have the legs to keep that pace going and guys started coming around. Midway through the race my legs came around and I got into a group of about 6. Mikey P and I were doing all the work so I was a little concerned that we were going to tow these guys around most of the day. With 3 laps to go we caught Jake out in no-mans-land and he had good legs. With 1 lap to go I attacked through the start/finish line and only Jake went with me. We got away from our group and I rolled in just behind Jake. I need to pull a whole race together.

Mud and Cowbells turned me on to TireAlert last year. Tubular tires run anywhere from $50-$150. I use those in the range of $100 by Dugast. Yes $100/tire for cyclocross tires is ridiculous. But if you have the wrong tires for a race, you will suck and hate every minute of the race. Tire selection is key to cyclocross. Before I discovered mud tires for muddy races I used to hate muddy races. Now that I have added them to my quiver of tires, I love the muddy races. I'm running Dugast Rhinos this year as my mud tires and they shed mud and grip like crazy.

My 2nd race on the Rhinos I flatted them and the hole in the tube was beyond repair. So as I was taking them off after being mounted the Belgian way (glue and tubular tape) the base tape on the tubular started coming off. So with 2 rides a blown tube and the base tape coming off, that equals $50/ride on these tires. Plus they have been aquasealed, stretched, etc...

How do you throw all that work and love away? You don't. I sent them to TireAlert and Ron over there replaced the tube with a butal tube and replaced the tubular tape all for only $16.50.

I highly recommend sending your tubulars to Ron at TireAlert.

Labels: TireAlert

Today was truly crossy. Mud, twistie and technical. Usually not my favorite kind of course, but I was on today. I think my issue with these types of courses in the past have been tire choice. Ever since I got the Dugast Rhinos it's night and day when the conditions get nasty. They give me the confidence, traction and shed mud like nothing else.

I think yesterday's mishap with the flat made me fresh today. I ended up 2nd in 35+, 6th overall

Pics from Yore Momm and Robbie Halvorson

The Dugast Rhinos were awesome in the mud. Thanks Lazer Helmets for
the swag

Great venue today. Finally got some pavement in our cross today as well as fresh scones and waffles. The course was mostly cross country ski trails and a little pavement. I got a decent start and as in week's past don't have the juice in the first 5mins to make the initial selection. I felt good though. But 30mins in I hit the pavement section and felt the rear tire go soft. I thought I could maybe make it around to the pits, but that would mean an entire lap to get there. As soon as the pavement ended the tire was unridable and sketch so I had to turn around and call it a day. Oh well....1 mechanical a year isn't bad. Tomorrow is another day and another race. I put some Tufo Extreme in tonight, hopefully that will fill the hole.

Stolen from Frank Rowe

Labels: crossniacs, cyclocross, Frank Rowe