A Synopsis of the Summer

This summer has been full of riding bikes.  At the end of May I completed the Dirty Kanza on my singlespeed, which is a 200+ mile gravel race that words can't even begin to describe.  It is possibly the most difficult physical and mental test I may ever experience, but then again I could give Trans Iowa a shot at some point!  I started the 9th edition of the Dirty Kanza near the front with the hope that I wouldn't get stuck behind lots of traffic. Considering it was a 200 mile race I assumed it would be a nice, gentle start.  I was wrong.  People started the race with a blistering pace.  It didn't really bother me since I assumed most of them would fizzle out by the end of the day, but I definitely started much too slow.  I was probably out of contention for the SS category win within the first couple of hours since I was taking it so easy, so next year (assuming I participate again) I will need to be sure to pick up the pace early on.

My biggest fear with going to fast, too soon was that I would blow up and want to die at some point.  Well that happened anyway at about mile 150.  I made a critical mistake of not eating enough food throughout the day, and it caught up to me in a big way.  I strongly considered pulling out at that point, but my wife aka support crew for the day basically told me I was not stopping.  It was a painful last 50 miles, but I'm glad I finished it.  I tried to set a relatively conservative goal of 14 hours before the race, and I finished in 13 hours, 57 minutes.  So it was a success for the most part, and I even finished before dark to earn a "Race the Sun" print.  Below is a picture of me as I'm approaching the finish line.  It might be difficult to see, but the combination of relief to be finished and disappointment for not being faster was pretty intense.

After a week or so of licking my wounds I got back into race mode and started to eye several mountain bike races.  I also converted my mountain bike to a singlespeed, so I raced several races in the SS category. Overall they all went very well, and I even picked up a couple of wins.  As of this writing I'm in first place in the UFD West series standings in the SS category.  I have no idea if there is anything more to that than feeling awesome, but I'll take it.

I also had more endurance racing on the cards in recent times.  It started with the Farmhouse Classic, which is a 100 mile gravel race put on by Joe Fox of Cycle City.  I probably started this race too fast and suffered near the end with some pretty intense leg cramps.  I was able to defend my win from last year and finish in first place, so that was pleasing.  Joe created a killer course with some intense climbing near the end, so kudos to him for the challenge!

Next up was my second foray into the race called Gravel Worlds.  I raced it for the first time last year and blew myself up about 75% into the race, but I was able to hold on and limp across the finish line for the win.  This year was a different story.  I went in to the race very fresh after an easy week of riding, and I took the first 100 miles pretty steady while also trying to maintain a good pace. The entire day saw me chasing other SS riders, and I knew exactly who was in front of me at every checkpoint since we had to sign in.  At about mile 100 I was feeling great, so I started to really push my pace and use the energy I had conserved all day.  I picked off SS riders one by one until there was only one left in front of me - Rafal Deloto.  I caught him with 8 miles or so to go, and we rode together until the finishing stretch.  At one point he asked me if we were going to have to sprint for the win, and I muttered out something about how I doubted either of us were going to give it away.  With about 1/2 a mile left he started his attack.  I thought this was pretty early and I knew if he could sustain it that I would probably lose.  I tried to keep a solid pace, but I wasn't trying to stick with him at that point.  I noticed he was slowing, so I picked it up a bit in order to catch back up with him with about 1000 meters to go.  I was able to go around him as I caught him, and at that point I gave it all I had.  He stayed pretty close to me, but in the end I was able to hold on for the win.  So believe it or not, I won the SS category of Gravel Worlds for a second year in a row.  That means I won another sweet jersey! I think next year will again be a challenge since Peat Henry will likely be participating.  He was there this year to provide support for another rider, but after watching all day I can only imagine that he wants to get involved.

At this point I am about 3 weeks away from my first cross race.  Considering cross is pretty much the reason I ride a bike during the rest of the year, I am pretty excited!  I also have a new bike coming at some point, but that date keeps getting pushed back by Cannondale.  It is the gorgeous blue SuperX pictured below, but I got a SRAM CX-1 1 x 11 group to replace the Rival components.  It should be fast!  Until that arrives I will just be racing SS, which starts in Hermann with the annual Hermann Cross weekend.  It is always an incredible event, so I'm looking forward to it.  The SS category selection for that weekend was also partly due to the fact that my wife wants to make a weekend out of it in Hermann.  Since the SS race times allow that to happen very easily, I thought I would give her this one since I'll be racing all fall and winter!

Spring is already here?!

Time sure does fly, and I suddenly realized in the past several days that I still have a blog.  Yes, I think it is entirely goofy and probably a waste of time, but I think it will make for entertaining reading many years from now.

New since my last post is two new bikes!  I got two more Cannondale rigs, so I now have three Cannondale bikes and one Felt.  The first new bike is an aluminum 2013 Cannondale F29 that I immediately stripped and converted to a singlespeed.  I haven't ridden it a ton yet, but the rides I have done on it were pretty awesome.  I can already tell I am going to love this bike!  Here is the only picture I have of it as of now, which was taken right after it got a nice coating of white dust from a gravel road.

The other new bike is a 2014 Cannondale SuperX Disc that I again immediately stripped to convert to a SS. This will be my gravel bike until mid-August for events like the Dirty Kanza, Farmhouse Classic, and Gravel Worlds, and at that point it will be transformed into a SS cross bike. Both of these bikes were converted using a Beer Components eccentric bottom bracket for BB30 frames.  My experience with these EBBs is so far fairly limited, but they seem to work as intended.  Here is new bike #2 almost ready to take out on the gravel.  I'm pretty sure it is going to be a rocket ship of a SS.

Since my last post I've done a little bit of racing and a good amount of riding.  I've got a couple mountain bike races coming up this month (the first is this weekend), and then of course the Dirty Kanza at the end of the month.  It also happens to be my anniversary, so kudos to my wife for being so cool about me spending the day suffering on my bike.  I'll be back soon with race recaps and hopefully some interesting photos. With that in mind, my cat says hi.

That's a Wrap on Cyclocross!

It's been a while since I have posted, but a lot has gone on with cyclocross.  The season went pretty well considering my dismal failure last year, so I can't really complain.  I still need to figure out how to bridge the gap from being mid-pack to somewhere closer to the front, so there is still work to do.

After Gateway Cross Cup I stuck to local races and looked forward to the state championship race in Topeka.  Sadly the week before I got sick and was pretty much worthless, so I had no choice but to skip it. This was disappointing since it was an event I had been looking forward to all year.  I guess I already know what I'll be targeting next season!  The season finished with the normal holiday season races in the KC area: Boxing Day Cross, Grot Prijs Shawnee, and Cross Off the Old Year.  These were all fun races that were well organized.  Since I recently sold my geared cross bike to make room for something new, I did the SS races in all of these events.  It was fun battling with Joe Fox and Britton Kusiak, and I even managed to pick up a couple wins.  I considered doing the open races on my SS, but my fitness just didn't feel right after being sick earlier in the month.

This year will be full of lots of riding and racing again, and hopefully riding more in the early months will help since last year I focused more on running for the first 1/3 of the year.  I'm going to pick up a SS mountain bike, and my intention is to work in as many SS races as I can.  I'll also be doing as many gravel races as I can on my SS cross bike.  This will include the Dirty Kanza 200, which should be a brutal yet fun ride, and I'll have no choice but to try to defend my SS gravel world championship in August.  Both of the SS bikes will be new additions to my stable, so I'll likely post on that sometime in the relatively near future.  Both are geared bikes, so my plan is to convert both to SS by using the Beer Components EBB30 eccentric bottom bracket.  I've heard great things about this item, so I am fully confident that my SS conversion problems from 2011 will not repeat!