WCA Cyclocross Race #5

VeloTrocadero Halloween Classic, Washington Park, Milwaukee, WI

Are you guys ready for another race report? Probably not, but you're getting one anyway. It was a beautiful day today, sunny and about 50 degrees without a cloud in the sky. Apparently nobody told Sampson about the time change, so instead of waking me up at 7, he woke me at 6. Thats cool though, I ate breakfast and took my time before venturing to Milwaukee. The race was at an awesome city park. The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed New York's Central Park.

The course was, in my opinion, exactly what a 'cross course should be, mostly mowed grass with some pavement. There was a large, open start area that led into a sharp right-hander up a steep hill and back down, lots of fast, sweeping corners, a section of high-speed barriers, some off-camber turns, a run-up with barriers, and a fast paved road section. It wasn't really a course that suits my strengths, as there was lots of fast, power sections, and I'm not very powerful. There were some sections where I was really able to get in a nice rhythm though.

Brian and I lingered around the start line and watched Heather finish her race. She raced really well, and had a nice photo-finish sprint with another girl. The start line was nice and wide, so there was really no bad starting spots. Brian had a really good start and was second wheel. My start wasn't so good, but I passed a bunch of guys on the steep hill, and was 5th wheel for the first half of lap 1. I moved up and passed Brian, but the leader was already gone. He had a 12 second lead after the first lap that grew to 40 seconds after lap 3. After that people didn't even give me time splits I was getting my ass kicked that much. There was a big gap (10 seconds) back to 3rd place, so I just tried to keep everyone else behind me, which I did. So second place points for me. Brian dropped a group of 4 he was in right before the finish.

Stats from the Polar S520:
Time: 38:18
Average HR: 191
Max HR: 197
Calories: 793

The wifey had to work today, so no pictures. Sorry. Here's one of Sven Nys though. He's faster than I am anyway.


Nice tires Sven.

New Glarus Limited/Seasonal Beers: Part 1

This post series is mostly for the readers that actually drink good beer and have access to New Glarus beer. Which is pretty much only my In-laws. The rest of you people can read on and be envious. Here's the review.

New Glarus Brewing Co. Unplugged: Enigma

Here is what New Glarus says about the Unplugged series:

"A few times a year, we will cut Dan loose to brew whatever he chooses, uncensored, uncut, unplugged. Always handcrafted, the bottle you hold is brewed for the adventurous soul. This is a very limited edition and we make no promises to ever brew this style again."

I'm an adventurous soul, and I also very much like beer, so I was intrugued. Here is what New Glarus says about Enigma:

"A Complex and intriguing original. The mystery began with wild yeast spontaneously fermenting a rich treasure of malted barley and whole cherries. Unlined oak casks breathe deep vanilla hues and chords of smoke into this sour brown ale. Our Master Brewer has forged a smooth garnet tapestry that defies
description. Wander off the beathen path."

The first thing I noticed when I opened the bottle was the intense yeasty smell. It almost smells like the beer isn't ready to be bottled, like it is still fermenting. The smell is glorious. My novice palate smelled apple cider with cinnamon and nutmeg, but it must be the cherry. The color is a nice medium brown. It's very cloudy, like an unfiltered wheat beer, but much darker in color. The beer tastes sweet with a quite sour finish, and makes a very good seasonal beer in the fall, as it's flavor is reminiscent of apple cider, so much so, that it might actually taste good hot. Its a much more complex flavor though, then your run-of-the-mill hard cider. Enigma lingers in the mouth long after swallowing, and as the name suggests, it wants you to decipher its complex layers of flavor.

It's pretty tasty. I give it a thumbs up. You wouldn't be able to have too many of them though, as they're pretty intense.

Look for Part 2: "Copper Kettle Weiss" next week sometime.

In The Works

Check it out. I'm in second place in the WCA standings, only 5 points behind Sachs Boy. Maybe I'll overtake him on Sunday.

Also, stop by the Team Brown Bear site the next few days as there is some interesting projects we're working on.

This picture is during the race in Whitewater last Saturday. I look pleasant.

Stolen from Madcross.org

Not Suck

Alright gang, here's the race reports from this weekend's races.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #3
Whitewater Trash Dash, Whitewater WI

I'm sure some of my faithful readers saw the quick recap of Saturday's fiasco already. It rained Friday night, so mud was expected, and desired. What wasn't expected was the race venue. Lets just say that for various reasons, capped landfills don't like lots of rain or bike racers. Brian and I were walking around when we first got there, and it felt like walking on a waterbed. The weather was perfect, around 45, overcast, and no rain.

Brian and I had front row starts, and entered the race course around 5th or 6th place. I moved up nicely the first lap and was second wheel after lap 1. I stayed more or less in the front group for the second lap, but just kept moving back after that. I couldn't find a good line through the mud, and could never get in a rhythm. I had only one gear as all the others were so packed with mud that the deraileur couldn't move. So that was that. After the race I noticed that if I tried to spin my front wheel with my hand, it would immediately come to a stop from all the mud and grass. I ended up in 9th position, which wasn't quite as bad as I thought, but still not good for series points. Brian had a rough go of it, and wisely dropped out after the first few laps.

Here's some stats from the HRM:
Excercise Time: 42:04
Average Heart Rate: 192
Max Heart Rate: 197

After the race, Brian and I went to the car wash and blasted all the decomposing diapers off our bikes. That worked really well. I recomend it if you bike ever triples in weight from mud.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #4
Cam-Rock Cyclocross, Cambridge, WI

It snowed Saturday evening, and not just melt-instantly-on-the-ground-snow, but still-on-the-ground-in-the-shade-24-hours-later-snow. So again it was going to be muddy, but unlike the landfill, Cam-Rock Park has had 4.5 billion years to figure out drainage. Sunday's weather was sunny, but bitterly cold. The course was mostly singletrack with tacky mud, or 1-2 inch greasy peanut butter mud.

Brian and I got to the start about 2 seconds too late, and ended up in the back. Shitty. I think I was in last place entering the singletrack. When you got offline the course was so greasy it made passing difficult. Anyway, I slipped and slid my way to the front group of 4 about half way through the first lap. I stayed at the back of the group for a quarter of a lap, and moved to the front. Being at the front is much easier as you can see the entire trail, and pick and choose the lines that are best, instead of just following the guy in front of you. I upped the pace at the front, and Sachs Boy (who, I imagine, will be blogged about in the future, as he is a major a-hole) was the only one that could hang. He pimped me at the start/finish line on lap 1 for the beer prime, but I attacked early on lap 2 and dropped him easily. I rode off the front with a very comfortable lead the rest of the race for my first win. Yay!

There was actually a bike wash at this race, so instead of cooling off and putting on warm clothes, I went and hosed off my bike. Then I noticed they had free beer, so I drank some ice cold beer, so needless to say, the 40 minute sweat fest+the water hose+the cold liquid in my gut+the vasodilation from the alcohol made me mildly hypothermic. Heathrow was getting a kick out of watching me shiver violently causing me to spill my beer. After the beer I went and sat by the fire and drank hot apple cider and eventually became normothermic.

HRM stats:

Excercise Time: 41:04

Average Heart Rate: 191

Max Heart Rate: 196

Calories Burned: 858

Another big thanks to my wifey for being my water girl/photographer.

Suck

Quick results:

Brian: DNF
Brooks: ~15ish

To say it was muddy would be a gross understatement.

Bloggy Blog Blog

Hi gang. I just came across this and thought I'd share it here.

WCA cyclocross races 3 and 4 this weekend. I'll probably have results and a brief report Saturday night, and a full rundown of the weekend's racing Sunday sometime.

Chicks Dig 'Em

You know you want one.

Boonen got the prototype

Peektors

Here are some pics from yesterday's race.

Heather before the suffering. Next time she won't have that smile on her face.

Heather on the hairpin. This corner was cool. You came into it flying down a hill, had to brake hard for the corner, and accelerate like Fernando Alonso out of it. It was one of the few cyclocross elements in the course.

Brian on the same corner. He looks like he knows what he's doing.

The author on the corner. I hardly needed brakes with the Dugasts. They are truly amazing.

There are more photos at Madcross.org. Check them out.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #2

Moe's Burrito Cross, Lapham Peak State Park, Delafield, WI

Preface: Lapham Peak State Park is a really cool park with tons of mountain bike, and cross country ski trails, rolling hills and forests. They have a snow making machine for xc skiing and a nice little hut to keep skiers warm. They have (weekly?) ski races in the winter, and its only about 50 minutes from home. For all this nice stuff, they charge you $7 to enter the park, and another $4 for a trail pass. This is on top of the $20 entry fee for racing. There is only one toilet in the only men's bathroom, and no toilet paper, just paper towels. Spectating was crappy as there was a half mile walk from the parking lot, across a major highway, to the start/finish line. It was hard to see multiple sections of the course from one vantage point due to the course being on single/double track mountain bike trails. Cyclocross races are not supposed to be run on mountain bike trails. That is why they have mountain bike races. So the venue is awesome, just not for cyclocross races. Enough whining, now on with the race report.

Like I said, the start line was like a half mile from the car, so if you used the car as your "base," you never really knew what was going on with the racing. Are they running on time, or are they behind schedule? Are racers lining up for the start? Who knew. Brian and I managed to get one practice lap in before watching the start of Heather's bike racing debut.

The lap was basically long, flat power sections with some very slow speed chicanes thrown in to break things up. Not technical at all, with one very long run-up, and another double barrier section. Surfaces ranged from tacky, loamy dirt to gravel and a little grass. No pavement, sand, or mud, no off-camber techy stuff. The laps were long, almost 8 minutes. A poorly designed cyclocross course, in my opinion.

Brian and I got our spare wheels in the pits, and went to warm up on the trainers. With start position being critical, and the cars so far from the start line, we were worried we'd warm up too long, and miss the line up. So with absolutely no warm up at all, not one pedal stroke on the trainers, we made our way to the start line. It was a good call since there was already all sorts of dudes waiting for the perfect start position, which Brian and I got, by the way.

So we start, and I have the reluctant hole shot without any effort at all. Brain got screwed over at the start by some Polish dude. I used the first lap as my warm up and never really gave it 100% the first lap. The second placed rider said we had a gap, and I looked back and we already had 10 seconds or so on the chase group which contained Brian and some other dudes, one dude being a dip shit on a Richard Sachs Signature team bike. The cycling gods smited this unfortunate soul when he crashed hard whilst cutting the course. Brian later said he could have ran over his bicycle, and ruin his essentially priceless bike. So the second placed rider never pulled through, and I lead the first lap and a half until he made his move and attacked in a power section before the run-up. I stayed with him for a while, but I was unable to match his pace and he gapped me. I rode around by myself for a half lap until another rider bridged up to me. He immediately pulled through, and we rode a nice tempo for the next few laps, with the first placed rider dangling about 10 seconds up the course. We were never able to reel him in, however. I had a little day dream moment and drifted off the back of our little two man group. With about one lap to go the second placed rider hovering about 5 seconds ahead of me, I wasn't able to close the gap, and had to settle for third. Not too bad placing wise, but its annoying knowing I was definately strong enough for second place if I hadn't lost focus. The dude that won was really strong, he was 3rd at the first race. It will be hard to win if he's around.

Effort wise, it wasn't near as anaerobic as a cross race should be. More steady-state type efforts, and this is reflected in the stats from the HRM:
Excercise Time: 38:32
Average Heart Rate: 191
Max Heart Rate: 198
Calories Burned: 810

A big thanks again to my wifey for water hand-ups. Blogger is being retarded, so pictures will come later.

I Got Nothin'

Alright turd burglars. I haven't blogged about anything interesting for a while, so why change now. This ones gonna be pretty boring.

Monday Brian and I had a productive (hard) cross practice. Doing hard intervals wrecks me for the next 24 hours. Every muscle in my body is fatigued, but I can never sleep, and when I do finally fall asleep its low-quality-wake-in-the-middle-of-the-night-soaking-wet-with-sweat-sleep. I usually feel pretty good the next day though. And I know it makes me faster. So what did I do today? More intervals. Slightly less intense, and inside on the trainer.

Its been pretty cold here lately, it even "snowed" here a little today. I haven't experienced temps in the 30's for a few years. I'm really excited about cross-country skiing. I've decided I'm going to race this winter. I know absolutely nothing about xc skis, let alone ski racing, so it should be pretty interesting.

Speaking of racing, Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! High flying monster truck action comes to Lapham Peak State Park! Witness robosaurus breathe fire and eat cars! You'll pay for the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge! No, silly, the next cross race is there. Its sponsored by some burrito place, so I better at least win a frickin' burrito.

Team Brown Bear

Check out the Team Brown Bear website. I designed a t-shirt!

Post 101 (seriously)

One hundred and one posts on Leedahl's Life. Thats a lot. Not too much new over here. Today I went old school and bought an antenna so we can watch tv. We've just been watching movies, but I hate 99% of movies, and would rather watch fuzzy PBS. I'm intimidated by this archaic contraption, so I haven't yet installed it. The antenna box said it was good for HDTV. Who in the hell would own an HDTV and use an antenna?

Sampson is finally understanding his invisible fence. I cranked the "static correction" way up, and now he doesn't even think about getting close to the boundry. He runs laps around the yard while I practice my cyclocross skills. I built some cyclocross barriers a while back and have them set up in the back yard (have I blogged about them before?) They're pretty sweet. I'm not sure what the neighbors think of some dude cruising around his yard in lycra jumping over hunks of plywood though. I don't care, they're all very old.

I've added some new links. Race.cx is about cyclocross racing and culture. There are some sweet videos and interviews and whatnot. Intelligensia Coffee is the best coffee I've ever had. You can order it from their website. Lastly, there is an infant cycling team in Wisconsin with an equally infant website. Team Brown Bear might be the laughing stock of the WCA with their sweet brown jerseys. Check often for race recaps, bike features, and your very own chance to own some offical Team Brown Bear goodies.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #1

Badger Cross, Badger Pairie County Park, Verona, WI

As the title implies, yesterday was the first Wisconsin cross race of the year. Brian and I stuffed the car full of wheels, Gatorade, and trainers for the arduous, 20 minute journey to Verona. It was a beautiful indian summer day with highs in the mid 70's. We registered and watched the start of the beginner's race. We got the bikes ready, pooped, and rode 2 laps of the course.

The course started on a long paved road with a tight right-hand turn onto grass with a set of 3 barriers and a hairpin turn around a tree, all within a couple hundred meters from the start, so start line position was cruical. The course narrowed into a double-track, gravel climb, and descended with some good tight turns to a beach volleyball court with very soft, deep sand, and a 180 degree turn directly after the sand that required a dismount and a run back through the sand. The bike did not like the sand in the drivetrain, and shifted poorly for a while. After the sand pit, the couse meandered around and came to a fairly short, not too steep run-up. This section very closely mimicked the run-up at Brian's practice course, so did not pose too big a problem. After the run-up there was a short paved road section and a fast double-track descent with a tricky, loose left-hander at the bottom. The rest of the lap consisted of short, straight, grass sections with tight corners between them. The lap ended with the long gradual uphill paved road where we started, and ended after the 90 degree right hander, before the barriers.

We warmed-up on the trainers and Heather, Mary, and the Spectating World Champion (Mary's Mom) found us. My warm-up felt a little short, but I was able to get in some good efforts none the less. Brian and I lingered around the start line and both snagged front row spots.

The start went well, and I found myself second wheel coming into the barrier section. A guy passed me around the hairpin, and Brian was right behind me in 4th. On the gravel climb, Brian drilled it and bridged up to the leaders. I was suffering pretty hard, and dangled off the back. I got into a rhythm near the end of the first lap, and started feeling (relatively) comfortable. The two leaders had again gapped us again. I pulled through, in front of Brian, through the sweepy descent to the sand pit. After the run-up I looked back and saw no one, so I just rode my own race. I never saw the 2 leaders, and found myself in a 4 man group. I was able to ride the sweepy corners much faster then my companions, but they would catch me on the road sections, or the gravel climb. I fell once in the sand pit, but somehow it was faster then everyone else in the group, so no matter. A guy riding a cannondale with an SRM and Mavic carbone pros passed me on the run up and gapped me immediately. A lap later at the bottom of a hill, I saw the same guy pulling his bike out of the tall grass, way far from the course, like he totally missed the corner. His bike was f'ed up and I'm not sure what happened to him after that. Somewhere 2 guys snuck away, and I ended up 5th. Not too shabby.

The winner was a 35+ singlespeeder, and second place was also 35+. So third place in Cat 3, 35 and under, which means I won some cash and who knows what else. I wasn't around for the awards ceremony so maybe they'll send it to me. WCA only recognizes Cat 3, and not age groups, so I got 5th place points for the series. It's too bad since 3rd place is worth 20 points, and 5th is worth 14.

A big thanks to my wife for being my water girl. My mouth was like the sahara for a while. Thanks to Karen for coming up for the weekend to spectate. The bike worked flawlessly. I used a 42 tooth ring up front, and a 12-25 cassette and was never in the 25. I was thinking I wanted a 12-27 cassette for cyclocross, but now I don't think I do. The Challenge Grifos were awesome, and I never lost traction at 40 psi.

Here are the stats from the HRM:
Excercise Time: 46:02
Average Heart Rate: 197
Max Heart Rate: 203
Calories Burned: 1048

Brian should have a recap of the race on his blog shortly.

Before the start.

Yours truly over the barriers.


Brian on the run-up.


Hey Deb, could you take a photo of me on the horse real quick?