I have not been to top US races since 2001 nationas/supercup in baltimore and the quality and depth of the US fields have increased mightily. Hopefully I will be able to post a ton of photos and videos. The short summary is as follows: if the USGP is coming to your town go see it, thats you portland and seattle. The elite races were a blast. Hup hup hup hup hup hup hup hup.
Anyhow. Ryan Trebon is a freak of nature. I think he is 6'9" or 7'11" or something. Look at his bike:
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Thats Todd Wells's backup bike talking to Ryan Trebon's backup bike with Barry Wicks backup bike in the background. They are talking about how cool all their new Dugast/easton carbon shoes are. And Todd Wellses bike is feeling inadequate that Treefarms bike is soooooo big.
The videos today are from the Xilinx cup on saturday 11/4. First we will compare the technique of a slightly overweight and undertrained yet crafty cat 3 crosser with the dominant 40" inseamed crushing behavior of by far the best cross racer in the US right now.
Me (last lap, I was slightly more sprightly earlier in the race, not counting the lap that I tripped on the second barrier and almost ate dirt):
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Treefarm:
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Notice he takes only 2 steps total while I take 150. Also his socks are fantastic. I think they might be up to my knees. Not to mention the white skinsuit. There is beauty in horror.
Here is the somewhat frenetic chase who were mostly attacking each other in as Trebon rode to a commanding victory.
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The name of the game in cross is economy of motion. Trebon does not so much run as glide. He saves energy while running and expends it on the bike, where he is more efficient. Unless he is angry, as happened on sunday. Then he runs fast and acheives supehuman speed at great cardiovascular cost. See another video of him hitting the same bariers smooofly.
The course was really flat and really fast. I geared up to a massive 36x15 gear and found it to be a touch too big to spin later in the race as I tired. Despite how flat it was, there was virtually no rest, thus it was really difficult. if you felt good during the race, it meant you had been slacking hard for the last half lap, you loser. There were lots of culvert crossings, three runs including a long sand one, and two little bridges with steep transitions on the other side. A fair bit of singletrack amidst prairy dog mounds and the like and some fast pavement. A great course for such a flat location. Very cool for the Xilinx corporation to allow a race like that to beat down the shiny grass on their huge campus. I think I finished 65 out of 85 plus starters. Not so great, but not too bad for the flatness and my half assed fitness and start. I was in no danger of being lapped, which is good. I unretired my very faded green kelly shorts for the race. They look OK from a distance, but are becoming very wrong upon closer inspection. I successfully blinded some of the roadies who were too weak to even race with the orange and three shades of green nastyness.
Here are some more videos from saturday:
Treefarm on t'other barriers:
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Chase on the t'other barriers, note the sequential remount ballet, Jeremey Powers, Todd Wells, Tim Johnson:
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How to be popular? Wear Oakley factory Pilots like Troy Wells (first rider TIAA/cref clifbar jersey). How to be really popular? Wear factory Pilots, a godawful avenir helmet AND run like superman up the runup while screaming:
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Other ways to be popular, be Chris Horner (5th rider red specialized kit)or Freddie Rodriguez (davitomon lotto kit last rider):
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Its hard to tell from the video but Rodriguez had his mouth clamped shut and appeared to only nose breathe during the race. Maybe he only can aspirate Europigshit dust and cleaner xilinx logic dust might kill him? Horner had a bad race. He had a much better one the next day. apparently many mechanicals.
Here is the chase appearing like godzilla over one of the plywood bridges. If you did not force the front wheel down coming off it, it would almost stop at the bottom. I guess a few guys in my race crashed hard coming off it. Maybe a touch too steep, but whatever:
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hup
1 comment:
Awesome vids, dude!
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