Manion's Cx in Kansas City KS

Photos courtesy of Joe Houston

Manion's Cx race was held on the side of a large painful hill...Great event!

Masters Worlds Video

Guys, Here's a video I found from my race at Masters Worlds. Shot by some French woman, shows the sharp end of the race where I was not. Gives you an idea of the course and the sand!
Enjoy, Jeff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-RW7t4ugG4&feature=player_embedded

Masters Worlds Recap

Well I'm back in the States, still a little jet lagged but no worse for wear. Thought I would share my experience across the pond in the motherland of all things 'cross. Left KC on 20 January through Chicago then on to Brussels, BE. Did not sleep very much on the 7+ hour flight over the Atlantic. In fact, I felt like crap. My daughter had been sick the weekend of Epic CX and I'm pretty sure I had the same thing. Once we got to the campground and our cabins, Mark T. and I built up the bikes and went for a little pre-ride of the Worlds course. First impression was, holy #*&% Batman there's alot of sand! Start/Finish straight is about 400M long then onto a beach along a lake. The sand was deep, and for me I could only ride about half way to the waters edge. It was more solid here and you could remount, but only for about 100M, then another deep sand section with a little uphill that was difficult to ride. The next third of the course was a flowy, sandy section that was critical to be smooth through, because if you overcooked it and got off line then you were in the deep sand again. There was a line there, but you had to nail it just right. From there it was loamy singletrack in a pine forest. The ground was soft and berms were forming in the corners. In this section was a downhill to a tight left and a sharp, rooty uphill. About 2/3 of the way around the course there was a sand bowl with 2 tight lefthand corners. I made the decision to run this as I was struggling with the deep sand. Also on the course was one run-up with tree trunk stairs and one barrier section. All told I was looking at 4-5 times off the bike per lap, minimum. We rode about 4 or 5 laps and called it good, as it was starting to rain a little. We reconned again on Friday and saw a couple off Americans, Kevin Hines (National Champ 50-54) and Jonny Bold (National Champ 40-44) pre-riding as well. They were flying! I was watching the locals totally clean the sand sections, it was cool and disheartening at the same time. I knew I was not going to aquire that skill in the next 24 hours no matter how long I worked at it. I did three laps, and still felt nasty, like I couldn't get opened up. I endo-ed on the beach on my last attempt to ride it and jammed my right shifter 6 inches under the surface of the sand. Long story short, Mark and I ended up riding about 50K to a bike shop in a neighboring town to get a new SRAM shifter, as we could not fix it or get it unclogged. Turns out it was Bart Wellens' home shop, too bad he wasn't there. So the day before the race I feel horrible, I am stressed about the shifter, and I rode about 2 hours longer than I wanted! Plus I got to walk to the ATM in downtown Kasterlee in my S&G kit with white Sidis on. I got some funny looks!

So race day dawns cloudy, a little foggy, and cold in the early morning. My race was not until 1230 so I had some time to get ready. Where we were staying is literally 50M from the course. I went with Mark, Teresa, and Donica down to register. This was a trip! People are crowding in the room at 0800 and registration isn't supposed to open up until 0830. Got the requisite forms filled out, paid my 15 Euros, and got my numbers. No waiver to sign, they barely checked my license. I went back to the cabin and got some breakfast, and then watched the women race. A gal from Vermont won the Women born before 1960 race. Another American was third.

I got pinnned and kitted up then went to warm up. I felt better than the 2 days prior, but still felt empty. I got a good warm up on the roads around the park where the course is located. They did this thing all PRO. Crowd control barriers all along the staright, banners hanging from them. A grandstand and podium as well. They have a race announcer on the PA speaking in Dutch, french and English. I go to staging and wait for the random call up. Yep, you guessed it, next to last row! Funny how all the English speakers (save National Champions) are near the back. Whistle blows and we're off. I get a decent start, didn't miss my pedal and move up about 10-12 spots. I'm still middle of the pack as we take the left to head to the beach. The smell of carbon fiber was unbelievable! There was a crash in front of me so I'm off the bike before I left the pavement. I ran the entire beach section, the waterfront and the next sand section, it was so congested. I then got to the corners right in the flowy section and moved up another couple of spots, even traded elbows with some of the locals. I was ready to open it up on the power sections. But as the race progressed I felt more and more drained. Technically I was riding well, cleaned the root section every time. I nailed the flowy section and used it to recover from the beach runs. But I felt myself going backwards. I would try to stay on wheels but couldn't. With 2 laps to go I have no idea where I am as it got pretty strung out. Then I hear, "Laatste ronde, laatste ronde, Mark Druyts (reigning Belgian and World Champ)!" He laps me in the flowy section and I manage not to get in his way and still stay upright. He was yelling at me 100M back. This was new experience for me as I had never been lapped in a race before. The top 4 in the race lapped me and I didn't hold anybody up. Also, on the last time through the stair/run up I was going to be lapped by this French guy. He came in to the dismount behind me way too hot and took a digger. I am remounting and hear him yell, "sacre bleu!" I was cracking up, he must have dropped his chain because he never did catch me. Small victory. I was dicing with a guy from England on the last lap and I bobbled on a remount and he got by for 49th place and me in 50th one lap down. All in all a great experience and tons of fun. Just wish I felt better and maybe could have had a little better showing for the U.S. Sorry this is so long, but thanks for reading, Jeff

check out josh's blog

hey every body......just insulting and pissing people off when i can.....

check out my blog write-up on the Epic Cx Race from this past weekend. site is here.

taylor

http://www.joepuds-wife-o-meter.blogspot.com/

Racing On the White Stuff

Sunday turned out to be a great day of racing. I think everybody struggles to motivate themselves when its late in the season,you've got sub-freezing temps outside and add to that...10 plus inches of snow on the ground that has accumulated over the last 10 days. Several folks should be thanked for all their hard work they put in the week leading up to Sunday's race in Shawnee, KS. The race course for this years Grote Prijs was again held at Hermann Laird Park and the 'Old Shawnee Town' grounds. To Mark and Teresa of LocalCycling and Mike Berning, the City of Shawnee and a few of the Slimen Crew for putting in a ton of man hours to get the course into such great race condition despite of the frigid temps this past week, Thanks A Lot!

Sunday's course was shortened due to all of the snow and lack of heavy machinery to really allow for you typical 1.5 to 2 mile cx course. Despite that, the course was groomed absolutely perfect. It was super fun at race pace, fast in some areas and challenging and leg burning in others. For those of us that rely on technical skills versus sheer horsepower, it was perfect. It actually gave myself and a few others(i.e. houston) a chance to beat some guys that normally beat us on the more wide open courses. So again, thanks Mark and thanks 'Weather Gods' for shining down upon me and Joe:)

15 degree weather means warm-up and race prep is a challenge. However, this was the third race in a row dealing with the frigid temps and 2nd race in a row dealing with lots of snow. So I kind of had the tire choice and psi thing dialed going into sunday's race. I just needed to make sure i got a decent warm-up. That is still a tall order. But i managed to get to the race parking lot pre-dressed and i just needed to get a new race number pinned on. Once i had that done, I spent the next 45 minutes warming up on the course. I rode both the A and B bikes and made some last minute psi checks on the tires and i was ready to go.......

So call-up and the start of the race was at the bottom of a 200 meter climb to the right hand turn onto the the grass/snow. All the late season heavy hitting regulars were lined up, so I knew it was gonna be the typical fast start with me looking to latch on to Lucas, Songer or Stidnicki's wheel for as long as possible. Since we had ample room at the start, the officials felt it appropriate to line up like 12 across at the start. All this does is allow for a screwy scetchy start by allowing some guys to mix it up at the wistle who have never seen the front before. So you got to be quick gettin clipped in and fast up to speed to leave those guys behind before they can cause any undo chaos.

So with the pre-race instructions and roll call out of the way, the official blows her whistle and we are off. I am lined up on the far right hand side, i am quickly clipped in and up to speed with no problem. This allows me to not have to immediately 'red-line' to get a good position going into the bottleneck at the entry into the grass/snow. In fact, i find myself, without to much more effort getting the 'hole-shot' into the snow. From here, I bomb down a icy off camber little downhill which leads the racers thru a somewhat rutted out but fast flat into a lose snow uphill left hander. This little hill isnt the problem. Its the fact that the racer has to decide on one of two lines. The hugh line or the low line, and in warm-up the line to take was the low line. I actually take the low line as planned and once I get near the top I wash out in a rut and clip out and lose all momentum. I panic a little getting clipped back in and figure 3 or 4 racers are going to come flying by me at this point. However I am qhickly back up to speed and i rail the next 3 or 4 turns that are mostly fast snow banked turns that I can take at pretty good speed. These next few turns actually allow the racer to see what going on behind him because the course kind of turns back on itself. I am able to see behind me 2 or 3 tuens and the only guy I see is my teammate Joe Houston. Holy Shit!.....everybody watching the race and all the guys behind me a joe have to be thinking the world is upside down right now. But in reality, the course and the conditions were ideal for Joe and I to be where we were. I just didnt see the start of the race playing out quite that perfectly for us. Mark Studnicki missed a pedal at the start, Steve Songer and Andy Lucas, both 360 racers got poor starts as well. This allowed me to get to the front and which in turn motivated Joe to dig deep to stay on my wheel(he hates losing to me more than anybody else:)...so Joe and I were off and had nothing but clear race track ahead of us. Nothing to worry about but racing our own race and taking the lines we wanted to take for the next few laps. I was continually looking back over the next lap or 2 and joe was always right there at about 10 seconds back. He and i were riding really smoothly. I think Joe made a couple of slight bobbles that allowed Mark and Andy to finally track him down. I think both of those guys expected to leave Joe in the dust immediately, but Joe had other plans. He really made the 360 duo of Andy and Steve work really hard. At 3 laps to go and 5 laps into the race, Mark finally tracked me down. 2 laps into the race, the leaders of the 40+ 'A' race were already struggling getting around lapped riders. with only 1 or 2 lines in most of the course, it was tough to pass in a lot of places. I had to get off and run my bike on a little steep climb that was rideable normally, from laps 3 thru 5 due to a slower lapped rider. As clean as my race was the 1st half, the 2nd half of my race was filled with little bobbles and mistakes. This wasnt any different than Mark and Andy, who tracked me and Mark down with 2 laps to go. From there, Mark and I tooks turns bouncing off of each other and even Andy hit the dirt/snow once when all 3 of us were together for the last 2 laps. So Andy, Mark and myself took turns riding away from the others only to wipe-out and see the other 2 ride past us. Mark actually bit it on a straight away going thru the 1800's farm town in a soft snow rut. Andy and I thought that that was the end of Mark, but he came roaring back. We were actually all 3 together at the sound of the bells signifying '1 lap to go'. I was the one who made the last big mistake or the first mistake on the bell lap midway thru. I washed out in some soft snow trying to get around lapped traffic all while trying to stay glued to Mark's wheel. That was it for me. I couldnt close down that mistake and that gap. It was only about 5 seconds but that was plenty going thru the last half of that course. Mark took the win with Andy right behind in 2nd and i came in about 6 seconds later for 3rd. It truned out to be a super fun race. I hindsite, I would have liked to take a different line or 2 those last couple of laps, but i had a rally good race. I beat some super strong guys in Slimen teammate Jeff Unruh and 360 Steve Songer. Teammate Joe had a great race, giving Steve all he could handle and finished 5th.

All in all, not a better way to spend a Sunday morning or early afternoon in 15 degree temps and lots of snow. Unless of course you live in the mountains, and then I would be snowboarding. It's Kansas, and we love our cx here........huh? they aren't hardy enough to race cx in January in the 'cross meccas' of Portland and the New England areas. Whats' up with that??

See you at next week Cx race up in the Northland........

jt

Mark Takes First Again

SlimenUndGrossen Racing

Slimen racing blog under new construction........come back and see us soon

thanks,

jt