Old School

This is old school cyclocross. Pretty cool!

The good and the bad of 2010

In the words of Charles Dickens 2010 “was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” As the end of the year approaches I have been reminiscing on this year in cycling, the good and the bad.

Good: I had a good year racing in the crits. I won three races and moved up to the A group (we will see how it goes next year in that group).

Bad: I wasn’t able to ride Lotoja! It was a sad realization that I would not be able to do it this year. There were a few reasons as to why not, but just wasn’t able to this year. The week leading up to the race I was a wreck. I was more nervous not riding, then riding. Glad it went well for everyone who finished this year.

Good: I was able to race a cyclocross race. I was battling for first when I went down.

Bad: I crashed and busted my rims and didn’t get to race again. After the crash and wait for the new rim I burned out. My desire to kill myself was lost.

Good: Been taking a break from training real hard.

Bad: My desire to start training again has not returned. Enjoying my leisurely pace.

Good: Got my first cell phone this year. Hard to believe, but yes I did.

Bad: Sent my first text message. Now they keep coming.

Good: Doug had a great season, winning the Utah Cyclocross championship for his age.

Bad: All his crashes! Heal up soon.

Good: Didn’t have to ride over 2 and a half hours all summer. I got to on a few occasions, but not very often. This helped my training for the crits.

Bad: Signing up to ride the Seattle to Portland 200 mile race. Need to get my distance legs back a little.

It has been a good year overall. Can't wait to see what next year brings. Life just seems to balance out - Yin and Yang.

Last crash of the year!

Saturday was the last Cross race of the season, even though it should have been over at nationals. I really didn't want to race but I went anyway. When I raced this was all snow and slush. I was chasing back hard after I dropped my chain. I cooked this corner to fast and my front wheel slide out and a smashed my left shoulder into the ground. I thought I could continue but quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. I drove back to Ogden and went to the emergency room and had an x-ray done. I was diagnosed with a class 3 shoulder separation, and a crack in my hip from a previous weeks crash, thats why my hip hurt so much at Nationals and on the drive. Its time to put the cx bikes up and heal my old body.

Cx this year has been alot of fun and stress as well. There are so many factors that can effect your race, many out of your control. I'm looking forward to a break. We are going to start some winter rides in Jan. so get ready. Ride safe Doug

Seattle to Portland

My friend is trying to get me to ride the Seattle to Portland bike race. It is 200 miles on July 9-10. You can race it in 1 day or 2. It sounds pretty fun. Here is the link:

http://www.cascade.org/EandR/stp/index.cfm

It looks fun!

2010 Nationals

For some reason Blogger won't up load anymore pictures. I'll try with more after I post. This is what the course looked like at 8:30 in the morning. Icey, wet and muddy. This was ice I was on here and then you turn left on to a grass mud bog. It was very hard to ride fast. This is one of the steep run/ride ups. No one could ride it this part of the week but as the course changed most rode it in the elite race.

The lovely stair run up, 26 stairs 2 at a time makes for a tough climb after a few times up.

Here I am finishing in 8th. I rode as hard as I could and even though I was disappointed, I thought I was going to win, I did the best I could.

I prepared for a year and felt good about the effort. My bike was perfect, conditions were tough, but not unrideable. The thing about age group racing is that there is always younger guys coming up. I beat everyone that beat me last year, except the winner but there were new fast guys that turned 60. All in all it was a great experience. It is alot of work and getting everyones equipment there, finding housing, food, travel and the race. This was my shot as none of us are going to Madison Wis next year. Now I hope to have some fun on the bikes and enjoy some other physical challenges, (Ogden Marathon/Boston Marathon). Enjoyed hanging out with alot a great people and learned a ton. Hope to see you on the road. Ride safe. Doug

Finally Nationals are here!

Daren, Mark and I are heading off to Bend tomorrow for Nationals. It should be exciting and hopefully we will all feel good about our efforts. It looks like it will be a muddy track so we will see how it rolls. Ride Safe Doug