There are more pictures of the Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross race posted at cyclocrossELEMENTS (site no longer exists). It looks like they are mainly of the SM Cat 4 and women’s races. Ryan Amirault that runs cyclocrossELEMENTS also raced the SM Cat 3 race.
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Saturday I went home and showered after the Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross Race and then went to Bristol Brewing for the post race party. I had posted a couple days ago that I was going to go to the post race party to score one of the Rock Shox Reba forks that was being given away. It turned out they were Psylo SL forks instead of Reba forks. There was lots of other schwag such as $100 spa certificates, teeth whitening, sun glasses, t-shirts, caps, water bottles, and more. Club members had done a really good job of getting things given for the raffle.
I had two numbers. One for volunteering and one for racing. One of my numbers got pulled for a Rudy Project t-shirt and a water bottle. For anything valued at less than $50, your number went back in. They went through a lot more stuff and then gave away the first fork. My other number was pulled! Bummer it wasn’t the Reba but I’m sure I can trade the Psylo or sell it on eBay and get something that would be better for cross country racing. Since my first number got put back in, it got pulled again for another t-shirt and a cap. Bob, club president, said I’d already gotten enough and wouldn’t give it to me. The 2nd fork went to a lady that had crashed hard and had some nasty locking road rash. I think pretty much everybody that was there got something and a lot of people got their number pulled more than once.
One of the professional photographers that was at Saturday’s cyclocross race has pictures posted on smugmug.
Yesterday morning I got up early and rode the 35 minutes over to Bear Creek Park in the dark for the Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross race. Friday when I left work it was snowing but it was just slushy rain at my house. I was afraid I might be riding over in the rain or snow but when I got up it was clear and 35 degrees. I got over to the park just as it was getting light.
Once it really got light, it was beautiful with the fresh snow on the mountains. When I was driving on the course to set up barriers, I saw a coyote. We got everything set up in plenty of time. The course was pretty muddy for the first couple races but slowly dried out. Once the racing started, I rode around and made sure the runners and people walking stayed out of the way. I was able to take a bunch of pictures.
I had debated whether to race and if I did whether to do the 35+ Open of the Cat 3 race. Danielle, my 3 year old, wanted to see me race. Julie was busy in the morning which was when the 35+ Open race was so I did the Cat 3 race at 1:20. I thought there was a good chance I’d finish last and get lapped with as little as I’ve been riding. One or two hours a week of easy riding doesn’t qualify as training even for something as short as cyclocross. I was in last place for part of the race but I passed a couple guys as they started getting tired and I was beginning to get warmed up. My legs felt strong but I just didn’t have much aerobic fitness. My IT band and hip have continued to be tight since RAAM but I didn’t notice them during the race. I had an average HR of 186 and a max HR of 193. I may not have been fast but at least I was working.
In the SM 35+ 4’s, Pikes Peak Velo had 8 riders in the top 10. Katie Compton, the women’s national cross champion, lead the Cat 3 race most of the race but got passed near the end. The women’s race was next and she won that by a big margin.
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This Saturday is the Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross. It looks like the weather is going to cooperate and make it feel like cyclocross season. Last night we got rain and the snow level is down pretty low. Breckenridge ski area got 12 inches of snow at the top. The next couple days are supposed to stay cool and wet. I’ll be at Bear Creek Park at 6 AM Saturday to help set up and I’ll take plenty of rain/snow gear.
We always have the race pretty early in the cyclocross season because the races in Denver and Boulder take the later weekends. I remember one year it was in the 80’s and I wore a CamelBak because water bottles are in the way. I wasn’t the only racing with a CamelBak.
Last night I joined some other riders practicing on the course. I haven’t done any intensity since before RAAM and have only been riding once or twice a week since RAAM. I was surprised it didn’t take long for me to get into a rhythm and feel good. We had some barriers set up and I felt pretty smooth even though it’s been a few years since I’ve raced cyclocross.
The county park service mowed down a big area of weeds so we can use more than the gravel paths. I think the course is going to be really great. It will be more technical than most other years. If we can get at least a little more rain and even a little snow Friday night, it should be perfect cyclocross conditions.
After riding last night, I’m really wishing I was in racing shape so I could do it. Since I turned 35 this year, I can do the 35+ Open but I’d still get killed in that. It probably wouldn’t be as as bad as the Cat 3’s though. We have 9 guys from the club racing the 35+ Cat 4 but I don’t think any doing the 35+ Open. I probably wouldn’t be need to help during the 35+ Open but I’d need to warm up during the 35+ Cat 4. Maybe I’ll take my stuff and see how badly I want to get my butt kicked. I still have my rigid fork on my hardtail mountain bike from doing RAAM. It’s the bike I use for cross but I used to not have a rigid fork for it.
Starting at 5 PM after all the races have finished, there’s going to be a post race party at Bristol Brewing. There’s going to be a free pint of beer for every racer and volunteer. There’s also a lot of schwag to be given away including two $500 Rock Shox Reba Forks. I could really use one of them! The coating is worn off the fork on my hardtail and it sticks and leaks oil. I’ve been debating whether to replace it or get a new bike. I don’t really have the money for a new bike and I love the way it rides but it is 6 years old.
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This last weekend was probably our last camping trip until next year since it will be too cold to take the kids. Maybe if we go somewhere like Moab, we can get some more camping in but even there it can get pretty cold at night. In 1997 when I first did the 24 Hours of Moab solo, it was snowing pretty hard for a little while during the night. Even when it’s been warm during the days it’s been pretty cold at night and it’s less than a month from now.
We drove down to the Great Sand Dunes National Park Friday night and camped about 5 miles up the Medano Pass jeep road. It was actually just after leaving the National Park boundary and going into the Preserve because you can’t camp in the National Park except at the campground. They recommend you drop your tire pressure to 15 pounds to make it through the sand. I didn’t want to bother letting air out so I just locked into 4 wheel low. There were a few places where we were spinning and sliding around but we always got to where it wasn’t as soft before we spun out. A few places where we were dragging bottom in the sand.
Saturday morning we drove to Alamosa and met my sister and her family to ride the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad. This is the first year since 1953 that there’s been passenger service on the standard gauge route from Alamosa to La Veta. Both Alamosa and La Veta had time stations during RAAM this year. You can also take the train the other direction to Antonito and connect to the narrow gauge Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. The trees were changing color although next weekend should be better if we don’t have any bad weather before then. They stop right at nice park in La Veta for lunch and then return. It was a very scenic ride and I got my exercise taking Danielle, our 3 1/2 year old, from one end of the train to the other all day. We saw some deer and 4 elk.
When we got up Sunday morning, it was 23 degrees and the kids were getting cold at camp. I figured the sun wouldn’t hit our campsite for another couple hours so we decided to drive down to the sand dunes. When we got down to the dunes, it was only 18 degrees but in the sun it didn’t feel too bad. The kids had fun sliding around on the ice in the creek and then we climbed up on the dunes. Cassidy got fussy so Julie took her back to the car while I climbed up higher so Danielle could slide down a steep section. You could barely see were somebody had carved some good turns on skiis. I carried Danielle most of the time so I got a good workout and am a little sore today.
After playing in the sand, we went to Colorado Gators. This is a tilapia fish farm started in 1977 and they ship about 2,000 pounds of fish each week. They use geothermal wells to heat the water for the fish. They brought some aligators from Florida several years ago to feed the fish that die and the waste from fileting the fish. Since then they have hatched about 350 aligators and have about 400 aligators. They also have other reptiles and animals. They had 35,000 visitors in 2005. The big Albino Burmese Pythons had eaten a couple days before so they couldn’t be held but Danielle got to hold a Leucistic Texas Rat Snake. Since it had been cold, the aligators wanted to hang out in the sun instead of eating the food we bought for them. The kids were bummed they didn’t snap it up but still enjoyed looking at them and all the other critters.
After the gator farm we went back to our campsite. On our way back, we saw some people getting ready to go skiing. After tearing down camp, we drove over Medano Pass and went off on a side jeep road. Up high a lot of the aspen were turned and there were some great views. I have more pictures posted on my website.
The project I’m on got changed considerably a couple months ago. Now instead of building a web interface in J2EE for a new network monitoring device, we’ve been told by management to use C# and ASP.NET. That’s why I was at Microsoft a few weeks ago for the Devscovery conference. More than that they changed the name of the project to Dreamliner. My manager sent the above picture to me yesterday so I now know why I’m wandering around lost and can’t find my way outside to ride at lunch.
Life is full of dangers even if you don’t participate in fun things like cycling. On my first project at HP, the technical lead always made sure my code was checked in before I left on Friday. She always said she didn’t know if I’d come back on Monday. I’ve always maintained that you can get injured or killed even if you’re a coach potato. You might as well enjoy life. At least that way you’ll have great memories and have something to talk about when you’re crippled. Fortunately I’ve always been able to show back up to work on Monday. I’m still aware of the risks while I’m out which is why I always wear my RoadID.
A few weeks ago one of my co-workers, we’ll came him Jack, didn’t show up to work. Nobody heard anything until afternoon when his son called and said he wasn’t able to come in to work but didn’t give any details other than his arm was shattered. After a few days, our manager got the scoop but was sworn not to tell us what happened. Jack didn’t come back to work for a couple weeks. In the meantime we properly padded his cubicle to make sure he didn’t get injured by bumping anything. Once he was back, I found out that he had been filling the bird feeder. He wasn’t thinking and stepped back right off a retaining wall. At least the only thing my co-workers here at Fluke Networks have done to my cube, is put up a banner welcoming me back after RAAM.
The worst I’ve done is crash mountain biking in Moab and limped around the office for a few weeks. I had just gotten a full suspension mountain bike and had never ridden full suspension before. Sure I had tested it a couple times on some local trails I new well but hadn’t done anything long or hard. I was screaming down Porcupine Rim with some other good Expert racers. One by one they had dropped off. We had hit the single track at the bottom a short distance from where you come out to the highway. I finally dropped the last rider that had hung with me. I dropped over a drop off. The rebound was set pretty fast on the rear and I wasn’t used to it.
When I hit a little rock, I got launched through the air. When the first other rider got there, I was face down in the dirt with blood gushing out of my chin and my bike on top of me. I hadn’t moved because my wind had been knocked out plus I was in on awkward position in addition to my bike being on me. He asked if I was alright and I said I didn’t know. Once I got up, he said my chin didn’t look that bad. I was scraped up but able to move.
By the time I had gotten collected, the other fast riders had caught up and we rode on down to the road. I was in pain but nothing I thought was serious. I knew the other guys wanted to hammer so I told them to go on. We had some slower recreational riders that we had last waited for at the top. I figured in worst case if I was in too much pain to ride they’d find me and go get help. As I rode in to Moab, my knee kept swelling. Pain was shooting up my arm from my elbow to the point that I was nearly in tears. Of course we were camped up near the Slick Rock Trail which meant climbing up a big hill to get back to camp.
Julie was back at camp and when the other guys got back, they told her I had crashed but they didn’t think it was anything serious. They suggested she drive down to check on me. She debated whether to because I refuse to bail and get a ride back. My friends finally convinced her and she drove down. By then I had made up most of the climb and didn’t have too far left to ride. She asked me how I was doing and the first thing I said was I thought we should put the bike on the rack and go to the ER. That’s all she needed to hear to know I was in a lot of pain.
The ER visit was less than reassuring. It turned out I had a really deep gash on my chin underneath the big glob of blood and I needed stitches. The doctor numbed it up but didn’t really seem very experience and getting it numbed up was quite painful. The nurse aid seemed to have no idea what she was doing and had to keep asking the doctor what to do when she was cleaning up my chin. Julie could have done much better. At some point we found out that she was a ranger at Sand Flats and worked at the ER part time. By the time she had it cleaned out, it wasn’t numb anymore so I had to go through getting my chin numbed all over again. Before the doctor got it stitched up it wasn’t numb anymore. He said he only had a couple more stitches and just kept going as I clung to the table in pain. The x-rays of my elbow and knee didn’t show anything. They figured I had a bone bruise near my elbow and my knee was just freaked out and swelling.
By the time we got back to camp if I tried moving my leg in any way, my quads would seriously cramp. The guys took down our tent so we could drive to my uncle and aunt’s house in Grand Junction. It was Sunday night and they were gone to church so we couldn’t get a hold of them. We know how to get in their house so they came home to find me all bandaged up and in a sling and Julie was in a removable cast because she had sprained her ankle a couple weeks before.
A couple days later, I ended up going to my doctor which sent me to an orthopedic doctor. It turned out my knee had been bleeding internally. The blood was in a bursa instead of the joint so there was nothing that could be done to drain it. The doctor said it would take about 6 weeks for my body to re-absorb it and the less I moved my knee the less chance I’d end up with chronic bursitis. It took 4 weeks before I could bend my knee enough to walk very well and another couple weeks before I could bend it enough to start riding again.
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Cyclocross season is already here! It’s hard to believe it’s that time of year again. My club, Pikes Peak Velo, is hosting the first race of the ACA series in a week. My teammates have been getting together and doing skills training.
In used to do a lot of cyclocross and did well at it. Back when it wasn’t as competitive in the early 90s, I had some top 10 finishes in the Men’s Open class. The last time I raced it in the Cat 3 category I was closer to the back than the front. The problem is with the 3’s is they only do 45 minutes. I wouldn’t have done nearly as well as I did in the Open class if it had been 45 minutes instead of 60 minutes. That was even long before I started focusing on ultra racing and was doing 2-3 hour NORBA races.
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I’ve posted an e-mail interview with 2 time winner, Danny Chew, on my website. Danny has been doing media coverage for RAAM the last few years but he’s finished RAAM 8 times and is attempting to ride his bike a million miles. As of last year, he had ridden 584,671 miles. He has lots of stats about RAAM on his website.
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