Ogden CX

Welcome to the Ogden Weber County Fair grounds CX race. It was a great course, fast and great weather, at least for watching. Big fields, well organized with alot of energy. This is what Cross racing is about and why it is growing like crazy. Ryan and his kids came and really enjoyed the racing. Cam, Ryan's older son was excited to race and he is a good rider.

Chrispy and Bart of the future. The little dude worked his tail off to get the bike over the barrier.

Bart bunny hopping the double! It was pretty impressive. Crispy and Bart were the class off the field. Crispy is a great rider, so intense and go for it.

Daren thinking what have I got myself into!

Daren leading some serious racers!

Daren's flying over the double.

Tanner on the short side of the double log barrier. That was later ropped off so you had to go over the double.

Tanner bunny hopping the second log

It was a crappy day for CX racing as it was down right beautiful weather. The course was like a road course with a lot of speed and it was a blast to watch. I could see a lot of hurting faces and there was a lot of threshold efforts going on. I was disappointed to watch my group race and not be in there, but the hurt for there efforts made me feel not as bad. Tanner raced a great race. He was off the lead on the first lap, but drilled it to the front by the end of the second lap and put some serious hurt on the group. In the end only one guy could hang with him and he was a pro mountain biker and beat Tanner in a fine sprint. This young dude can roll and it is a blast to see Tanner progress and work the serious adult racers. Ryan came and watched with his kids and hardly recognized Tanner. He said what happened to that pudgy little kid! Daren's race was especially exciting to watch. He has really worked hard and it shows. He was so deep in the effort cave, I don't know how he did it, but it was cool to watch. I have never seen him race that well! Big props, I was a proud brother! He was in a group of all pro's and just worked hard. I kept expecting to see him drop back but no way. He drove the group a lot and he was differently the best technical rider. He would gain gaps on the technical corners and jumps. It was a great day of racing and a lot of fun to watch. I got so excited that I came home and ran 6 miles, since I still can't ride.

Hiking is not Bad!

With the bad wing, I have turned back to my old hiking ways. We have so many great trails here in Ogden. I have been going over and back on Indian trail and yesterday I did Malan Peak. It had abit of ice on the trail but not bad. Picture is at the shed on Indian trail looking back at Ogden. Big Ogden Cross race tomorrow at the fair grounds, good luck to T and DC. Ride safe to all you able to ride. Next week I will be on a bike. Doug

Heber CX

Tanner and I made it up to the Heber Fair Grounds today to race cyclocross. The much anticipated snow storm didn't materialize and conditions were actually pretty dry. However, it was cold and a stiff wind made it a hard day.

Tanner made his Dad proud again with his second consecutive win. He had to work a little harder for this one. T got the hole shot but proceeded to take a header into the first barrier section. He fell back about 10 or more spots but kept his cool and fought back to the leaders in a couple of laps. With 4 to go, he got a gap on his two companions and held on for the win. Flat courses have never been Tanner's strength, so today's win was very satisfying for him.

The course was really good and improved from last year. Jon figured out how to turn a big pile of dirt into a good run-up that made things interesting. He also added some more grass but kept the unique passage through the animal stables.

Here's Tanner on the run-up after he re-joined the leaders.
Tanner getting ready for the victory salute (sorry Bob).

The team had a mixed day. Chris won the A's and Dave was a solid 4th. However, Eric got taken out by a crash in front of him and rolled a tire. He had to put the tire back on the rim and nurse it around to the pits and lost a ton of time.


Here's Chris getting what little draft you can from Ali.

My day went pretty good. I got off to a good start but could only stay with McKone and Sam for a while. MK was putting the hurt on for the first few laps. I was solo 3rd for a few laps but eventually got caught and dropped to finish 4th. In our group, I'm pretty happy with any top 5 finish.

Tanner took a ton of pictures and he captured some interesting ones. Here's a sequence of the run up. I was carrying and MK was pushing. We seemed to go about the same speed.

A little more than half way through the race I was once again reminded that cross is hard. I was drooling, crosseyed and thinking I was going to blow up any minute. However, the next time through the start / finish I saw 4 laps to go and my brain slowly made the connection that the pain would end relatively soon. That gave me new life and I had a couple of good laps to hold off Scott Allen.

Tonight, I'm tired, sore and can't wait to do it again next week. We're racing at the Weber County Fair Grounds in Ogden next Saturday, so all you family members up North can watch Tanner go fast.

Thanks for reading.

I'm Staying

It has been awhile since I last posted and alot has happened. This summer has flown by. We are all going to have to lift our posting games to fill DC and T's departure. I'm showing you a few things that have happend to us this summer, even though most of this is old news. Better late than never. It has been a great year of riding and working on the house fixing up all those things that I put off for 20 years. Special thanks to our support crew at Lotoja! We couldn't have done it without them. It did seem strange to see Kim on that side of the ride. We will look forward to having him back on our side next year.

Another one completed. We are all 1000 milers now. Mindy was a great addition this year. Very proud of her effort. Big props to Sutt for powering the tandem up all the climbs. Russ I don't know how you do it with all your big miles of prep. Bub killed it on the front and we all appreciate it. I felt the best I ever had, so all those sole miles helped. Robby had strong ride again this year.

Joy on these faces, thank goodness it is done, even though we had a great ride this year!

We pulled alot of people up the hills all day long, free loaders.

Bub is pointing the angle of the climb ahead.

Rob is enjoying this climb to much!

Russ having fun on the big hill.

I'm loving the king of the mountain.

Sutt and Mind enjoying the Lotoja climbs!

Daren racing hard against the big boys, a flat with half a lap to go doesn't help.

T has no respect for the elderly, as he flies by me.

T-man on the remount

The Ogden cross race was good. To bad no power after the barriers.

I took a bad line over the rocks and as I bunny hopped the rocks my front wheel made a left turn down the space and if you look close you can see my right shoulder depression in the ground. One more week then MIR to see if I need surgery.

Its time for my fall crash, this year a class 3 shoulder separation, not very fun

Look who we found working the Ute game. Bruce does live!

Great fun at the Utah game with Daren, Joann, Betty and I.

The new pantry I built where the old frig was has really been nice.

The back yard is looking great. Thank goodness for retirement!

I was attacked my this nest of hornets at my little house. Five stings on one ear, not fun, but they payed for it, hornet spray killer works great!

I hope you are all well and at least thinking about riding(for some of us that is all we can do now). The trainers and spinners await. Ride Safe. Doug

Back to work

I took last month off after finishing Lotoja(rode a total of 7 times) and gained 7 pounds. I'm starting a new workout plan that is going to get me back into great shape for next year. It's called no high school sports. I'm going to focus on Jr high Basketball, homework(Masters that should be done by next fall), weightlifting, and riding my bike.

I'm trying to think of a way to post my workout sheet as a motivation to get me going, but I don't think I can attach things to the GC blog. Bub if you can let me know. I modified Daren's old workout tracking chart (No planning, just actual workouts).
Other news--
Just so you know Russ sold his house and is planing on living his dream as a cowboy. His new barn is bigger than my house.

Nutria -1 Me - 0

T-man congrat's on the race. While you were riding I was wishing I could race. There are only a few races in Eugene, and even fewer on Saturday. There was one last Sat., but with my knee I didn't want to risk it. My knee is feeling better, so I went out with some friends to ride a and do some easy spinning. Here is a link for a pretty funny version of what happened, Nutria story.

This isn't my first time hitting one. They are pretty dumb animals. If you don't know what a nutria is, in Utah we called them muskrats, anyway they are pretty nasty little rodents.

I won the B's (tanner)

I won the B's cross race, and it was a large field and a fast one, for pics and more please divert your attention to thenextlocalhero.blogspot.com

A little update post Lotoja

Check out my sweet new liscense plate! Ya, I was a little tired the other day. My job was to keep Liam awake, but who was supposed to keep me awake?


No, I am not writing to tell you that I am writing my own blog (barely have enough time to write to this one these days). It will be fun to read what you have to say on your own posts. Don't forget us here at the GC.

Post Lotoja isn't going as well as hoped. I am a little frustrated at this point. After Lotoja I felt great, probably the best I had felt after any of them. I was thinking I would jump right back into my normal riding life, but things happen differently than planned. I started riding easy and it felt fine, but one day I road a little harder and started to notice a pain in my knee. It kept getting worse. I now believe I have torn my I.T. band (don't ask me to spell out what I.T. stands for). Which means it is always swollen and hurts when I ride hard. I tried to take a few days off of it and ride easy, but it still isn't getting any better. There are a few cross races I want to do, but if my knee doesn't get any better I won't be able to race them. Oh the joy of getting old. It was still worth the pain to ride Lotoja. It is always good to accomplish the ride and see the family. Take care and hope your riding is less painful than mine.

Tanner is leaving the fold also

Sorry team, I am following my fathers lead and starting a blog of my own......stop crying you will get over the loss and I will still occasionally post an amazing piece of literature here, or you can check out http://thenextlocalhero.blogspot.com for regular posts

New Blog

I've started a new blog for my ramblings. Here's the link:

http://www.dccrossings.blogspot.com/

Check it out.

Daren

Cool new ride

On Saturday afternoon I took Glen's tandem back and then went to ride with Mindy's uncle Dave (He's been riding my old E5). We rode up over Suncrest (hard on the tandem), down into Alpine and then around point of the mountain back to Dave's house (just off 110 south). Dave rides up Suncrest ever other day and even road a leg of Lotoja (strong rider). He wants to ride Lotoja with us next year and I think he would be a great addition if he can get in. By the time we finished the ride we were soaked, but it was a good 35 mile loop with about 6 miles of climbing. We need to ride it as a team next year only(good change).

I'm not sure if I'm going to race on Saturday, because I haven't been riding that hard since Lotoja and I'm not sure my legs would be any good towards the finish of a 45 min crit.

Relaxed

4 and 1/2 days of this view.

Lotoja 2009?

The tandem is in and I'm already working on a training schedule to improve the tandem's performance from this year (Sorry we weren't much help towards the last half Bub). Before I continue I must give a big thanks to Bub who pull for a long time, thanks again. I must also thank the team for not bonking and being patient with the weakest climbing link (tandem) and Mindy's need to use the bathroom every hour (On the side of the road or wherever). After a few days of food and sleep I'm looking forward to next year.

Mindy posted most of our Lotoja photo's on our family blog, so go check it out.
Big thanks again to all those who make this event happen (Doug, Peterson's), but next year we need to all start at the same time (fun ride at 6 am). It just wasn't the same not riding to Preston together.

Lotoja 2008

The day of reckoning is over - I am in the 1,000 mile club! All the time and enery to train makes you feel like you earned every mile of it. It was fun to get to see everyone again. When it comes to the Lotoja - you love it and you hate it at the same time. It is always better when you are finished. The first 100 was probably the easiest we have done so far. The last 100 wasn't as easy, but we made it. I don't know how Sutt managed the tandem on all those hills. It was pretty draining. It was good to see Doug and Russ make it without throwing up or bonking. Mindy, welcome to Lotoja crew. She was great. She always had a smile on her face. Rob is quoted as saying, "this was the easiest one so far" (some might think otherwise - me included). I have to say that this is the best I have felt after the race. I can walk without pain. I even road my bike today to work at a moderate intensity. I am still feeling really tired and wanted to take a nap today during my break. Thanks again for all the support vehicles, we couldn't do it without you.

Sittin' in the airport

Needless to say, getting here has been quite the adventure. Where to start? On Monday we found out that Brooke's grandpa passed away in this sleep the previous night. He is a great guy and will be missed. We made arrangements for Brooke to go out to the funeral on Friday. With the high gas prices and $$$$ for parking it didn't make sense for us to drive two cars up to Portland, so I made arrangements to leave early on Thursday (my second day of school) to go up with Brooke earlier on Thursday.

I had a project due on Sept. 6, obviously the same day as the race, so I knew I had to get it in early. I stayed to work on it at school on Wednesday night. I am creating a webpage about the acheivement of the school, including a podcast and photo's of the school. I had it all updated and on the net. Came in Thursday morning to find that the server had crashed that night and some of my work was gone and it was no longer on the net. The IT people said the server should be up by noon. I waited thinking I could publish quick before I left, but it never happened. The server never came back up. I emailed my professor the situation, but haven't heard back yet. This part is yet to be resolved...

Continuing with the story... Brooke cames to pick me up at the school. When she gets out of the car she has a look of disgust on her face and she is shacking her head. As I get closer to the van I catch a wiff of something really bad. Upon closer examination I see orange stuff all over Liam. Liam looks at me and says, "I threw up carrots!" We are supposed to be dropping off Liam and Avery at Alissa's in Portland and Liam is sick! I thought that maybe it was car sickness, but on the way up he continued to throw up. Each time missing his cup and getting all over him. We went through three outfits. The thought kept coming to mind, "what am I going to do?" We called lis and she said to bring him anyway. Spread the wealth! She deserves a gold star for this one. I took him over later when the kids were asleep. I got our kids situated and spent some time cleaning up the throw up. During the night he threw up once in the night around 12. I gave hime a blessing because I was getting pretty nervous. He got up at 3:30 and was a new kid. He was bouncing all over the place, so I could tell he was feeling better. Well, this made me feel a little better about leaving my boy. Thanks again lis and Rob P.

But the story doesn't end yet. As I was driving up the "maint check" light came on in our car! This is why we got a newer car - to avoid this kind of stuff. Reliability. I got the oil checked, but it was still on. I am at a loss with this one. Have to figure this out when I get back.

I am now in the airport about to load. I made it. Crazy as it is - I made it. I will tell you if it is worth it after 11 hours of riding. See you all real soon.

3 day

With three days to go and I'm still thinking of how we can improve our ride and ride time for the past years.

1. I know GC Connection likes to make a statement at the front of the pack, but we can draft towards the front.

2. If we find ourselves at the front of a big pack let's pull off and DRAFT.

3. Lets try to keep our stops at the feeds stations to 5-10 min max.

4. Drafting behind the tandem is great, but we need a draft once in a while too.

5. Make sure we eat and drink early. Doug was awesome at the Tour de Park City, because of just that.

6. If you aren't praying for good weather, start tonight!!!!

7. Charge up your MP3 players

8. Keeping a good pace between 21-23 for the duration is better than going 25-28 for five hours and then finishing at 17-20

9. If you need a laugh or your just thinking of why we do this, remember the funny experiences from years past. (Kim going to the bathroom last year)

10. We'll be waiting for you with fresh legs in Preston (Tandem starts almost a hour before the rest of you)

See ya in a couple of days. Mindy is so excited it funny. If you need any motivation just give her a call.