Pre race, we went up next to the antenna up there
Oh the pain. Still, best race ever, or at least dumbest, or more accurately, the race I am least prepared for, yet still participate in. To refresh your memory, this is an uphill downhill ski race. Starts and finishes just above the lodge at the Pajarito Mountain Ski resort (9200ft). In the middle it goes over the top of the mountain (10,400 ft). Since I will probably refer back to it alot, here is the race report from last year.
Zac and I in pre race dork mode...
So anyway, there are lots of things I am good at in cross country skiing, but extended uphills (first part of the race) and scary downhills (second part of the race) are not it. Despite this I get absurd enjoyment from this race. Part of it is that it takes 15 minutes to get to, part is that it is free and part is maybe the whole nordic vs. skinners part. The trail jeep road on the west side of the mountain is groomed for nordic skiing, but those on skins can take a steep shortcut up dogpatch. This allows the nordic folks a fast, long way up, but allows the skinners a shortcut to even things out. There is a middle traverse section of the mountain top that is groomed and pretty much a big advantage to the skaters, and then a steepish downhill down the "I don't care run" that is frankly terrifying on skate skiis and the skinners are at a HUGE advantage, especially if they like going downhill. The skinners usually are on some sort of tele, backcountry or touring gear. The nordic folks are usually skaters, although one guy showed up on classic touring skiis and took the nordic route this year.
Jeri prerace, victory was hers in the womens race.
Unlike last year, 9 of the 12 starters were skinners. Clay and myself skated and Martin classikked. The conditions were odd. After a dearth of snow since january, we got about 8 inches on the ski hill the day before the race. The warm temps and lack of snow put some sections of the back side of the mountain unskiiable, but there were some steep roads that were substituted. The nordic side of the course had been groomed the night before but it was really soft. The dogpatch shortcut was ungroomed. The downhill was groomed, but only one groomer width wide.
Stretching at the startline
The race started a bit late and with a flurry. Clay got out to a really fast start, I sort of flailed behind him in second and super strong skinners Rich and Hans apparently were skating on their backcountry skis not too far behind me. All action at the front and back of the race are hearsay as I was middling the whole way.
The start, Clay out fast, and me doing the pterodactyl behind, caw caw.
As Clay and I headed up the road it was clear that this was going to be a slow climb for the skaters. The snow was really soft and some of the ski resort's snowmobilers had passed up and down the groomed trail churning it up more and making it even softer. I got into a slow rhythm, not wanting to blow up like the year before.
Great view of the fog enshrouded valley
Not much happened for a while. There were some spectacular views on the course, Clay was beset upon by a trio of yellow dogs, but their owners called them off before they ate him. Things got really slow for me and Clay disappeared far off into the heights of the mountain.
Rich skinning close behind me at the start
After awhile we crossed courses with the skinners. I saw my buddy Zach skinning up just below me. He informed me that he thought he was about the 5th or sixth skinner on the course, which put us in the 8th or ninth position. After one more switch back the skinners and skaters joined courses and we headed up a steep off camber groomed trail toward the aspen lift. This part was my darkest hour. It was so soft and so off camber that I was getting no glide and not even able to actually move forward. Zach actually trudged by me on his skins and started to drop me. Oh the humanity. Fortunately after a while the course firmed up a bit with the altitude and I was able to catch up to Zach and drop him. There was a fast short downhill followed by some rolling terrain and I was able to catch Rob and pass him (almost exactly in the same spot that I caught him last year) and almost catch another skinner, Ken, before getting to the top of I don't care. For comparison sake, last year I had passed all the skinners by the top of the descent, but got passed by three of them on the descent...
Flurries blew in midrace
The descent was really soft and I did my best to try and stay upright the whole way, but I quickly crashed pretty hard twice, once almost hitting myself in the head with my own ski, so I decided to try some alternative methods of getting down the hill. My first plan was to try to slide down on my hip like last year. It was too soft and I ground to a halt. I then sort of fell into the successful plan. I basically sat on the tails of my skiis and glided down the slope, half on my ass, half on my skiis. When it was steep, I would grind my butt into the snow and essentially, uh, snowplow with my crotch. When it was a more shallow slope I would kind of paddle with my arms to maintain momentum. It worked pretty well, but I am sure I looked ridiculous. While I am dedicated to you dear readers, my dedication does not extend to wishing that video of my ignominious descent existed.
Jeff, Hans, Clay, post race, 4th, 1st 3rd respectively
About halfway down the slope Rob came blowing by me in a full tuck. I think he took no turns at all. Very impressive. I continued my dog-ass-wipe descent and finally got to the jeep road back to the lodge. As I turned onto the lodge, I attempted to get some speed up, but surprisingly, this descent felt much faster than I remembered it and I ended up snowplowing quite a bit. Fortunately no one else caught me and I finished up. A foggy snow flurry had blown in and I was soaked from the effort of the climb and from rolling in the snow on the descent. I quickly retreated to the lodge to change.
Me finishing, do I look scared? I ain't.
As we gathered in the lodge and swapped war stories, the race fleshed out. Rich and Hans had gotten to the top well in front and Hans ended up being the class of the field and finished in a very impressive 31 minutes. Rich took second. Jeff made it up to the top in third, but was using light backcountry gear and fell alot on the way down. Clay actually out descended him on his skate skiis (and did not fall once, which is really impressive) and took third. Jeff followed in for fourth. Toti was in fifth. Ken and Rob in sixth and seventh.
Race organizer Karen, thanks Karen!
I was 8th, Zach finished in 9th at some point behind me having some descent troubles as well. Turns out the half groomed downhill lead to some spectacular crashes in the soft powder. Here are some overall results:
1. Hans, Skin, 31:56
2. Rich, Skin, 34:05
3. Clay, Skate, 37:31
4. Jeff, Skin, 38:32
5. Toti, Skin, 38:55
6. Ken, skin, 43:17
7. Rob. Skin, 45:13
8. Tarik, Skate, 47:30
9. Zach, Skin, 52:39
10: Ron, Skin, 56:33
11: martin, classic, 1:02:58
12 Jeri, Skin, 1:22:11
Race organizer Jean holding the results
I think I was much faster down hill this year and much slower up hill this year, but the overall result was exactly the same, eight place, and a time that was about two minutes slower. They ran a nice awards ceremony that broke the 12 of us down by both age and technique. Pretty much everyone won either a hat or a pint glass. After the race I ate the hell out of a giant breakfast burrito at the ski lodge cafe and then had a beer as part of the skiesta festivities featuring three local microbrewers. Good stuff and a great time had by most. I awoke extremely freeking sort the next morning from the hard poling up the hill and the hard crashing on the way down. Go races!
Big thanks to Dina for taking photos. All but three in the report are from here. Go see the rest here She got most of the racers finishing and more shots before and after the race.
Post race fueling
Buddy and me during better times
See that picture above? With me and the 7 foot tall bear costumed skier? Those were the good times. The Alley loop starts on Elk Avenue which is the downtown main drag in Crested Butte. This year we started by going up Elk avenue and looping back through the alleys. We were supposed to follow the guy in the bear suit through the sketchy parts of the alleys as a neutral start. Here is what happened. I was on the front row of the starting line. Buddy the Bear was in front of me. The race started. Everyone started skiing except the bear. The bear was still dancing. I hit Buddy the bear hard and bounced off. By the time I recovered everyone was way up the road and the bear still had not figured out what just happened. That, pretty much, sums up my race. You need not read any further, that was the best part of the report. For those who are looking for the usual overblown, late and too wordy report, please read on. For everyone else, thanks for coming by.
Start area with imposing massifs in the distance
Paul and I made the drive up to Crested Butte to race the Alley Loop race. We left on a friday, made it uneventfully under clear skies up to Gunnison by midday. We checked into a hotel (the tidy and cheap ABC motel) and I walked around Gunnison for a while checking out the town and photographing bikes. I had a nice chat with the owner of Tomichi cycles about the wealth of local mountain biking and skiing, and then headed back to the hotel. Paul and I then headed up to Crested Butte to get our reg materials and get some dinner. By the time we got back to Gunnison it was 4 degrees F and dropping.
Whole famdamily, crested butte is good stuff
The next morning we awoke to -12F at 7am and shivered our way for some grub at the W cafe there in Gunnison. I think I got serviceable huevos rancheros with bacon. Yum. We headed up to crested butte which was reading a balmy -5F as we pulled into town a coupe hours before the race. We scored a nice parking spot right next to the course and got our chips. Temp now -4. I took my time getting my chip for the ankle, hitting the loo and getting dressed for the race, by the time I was all suited up for it was 5 or 6 F at 9am. And my hands had no feeling at all. Poor glove choices (none) while getting the skis out of the top of the car and my boots laced left me with numb fingers. I skated around a while and realized they weren't getting better, so I went into a local restaurant and warmed my hands in the bathroom sink. Better.
As usual it was a snow cruiser fiesta in crested butte
I skated around a bit and watched the kids races, got warmed up and realized that even though it was probably 8 degrees, it was not the 15 to 20 degrees the forecast called for and the squeek squeek emitting from my skis meant I was waxed a bit warmly. I did a warmup loop with my buddy Clay and former SWnordic ski member Denny and then watched them line up for the start of the 42k. Right before the start Lenard Zinn (also a former los alamosite) came by and said hello and disappeared into the 42km race pack and was gone as the races had begun.
Pre race hyper dork pose. Oh yeah.
A few minutes later I lined up on the starting line and then, well, read the first paragraph again. After that, I furiously sprinted up Elk Avenue passing about 20 people and ended up at the back of a pack that seemed to be a good fast bunch. We turned off of elk avenue and into the twisty alleys, replete with 90 degree turns, bridges and little whopdedoos. Despite the lack of a pace bear, we took it pretty sanely through the alleys and as things opened up, off we went. There was lots of passing and jockying for position and after a bit I settled into a good group. Alas, we soon came up upon the tail end of the 42k race and there was some chaos trying to pass through them. I got a little too jiggy trying to weave between racers and I crashed and one of my skis buried itself in the side of the tail. It took a while to get it out, I had to back up slowly to get free of the snow bank. The pack I was with skated off into the distance and I chased futilely.
The 42k skiers do three laps of a course was the same as the 2 lap course us 21k skiers did, plus an out and back loop, so after a while the 42k racers split off from our race and then further on, faster 42k racers who had done the out and back already caught up to and passed us. This is nice as you can watch much faster skiers blow by you and occasionally get a burst of speed. You can also get demoralized when you see some fairly young looking women wearing purple spandex with puffy tails and mouse ears blow by you like you are standing still... Alas, after my crash, I was getting a little demoralizd and was skating and squeaking along and looking at my ski tips.
Finally the first lap was done and we skated through some back alleys, up elk avenue and then down some more back alleys at the start of lap two. This year I had a pretty clean shot at the alleys on the second lap and was moving pretty fast and proud of how I handled all the little turns bridges and whoopdedoos. At this point Lenard Zinn lapped me and said kind words of encouragement as he zoomed by me. A few minutes later I came upon him in pain on the side of the course being tended to by a spectator. He crashed and dislocated his shoulder I found out later. I yelled out to some spectators to help him (who told me the guy helping him was a doctor) and I told the next course marshall of the crash (she said help was on the way) and I skated out into the meadow.
The second lap was about as squeaky as the first, but as I got into my rhythm of ski tip looking, I realized that Crested Butte is a beautiful place and maybe I should look around. So I did and boy is it pretty out there. I kind of got into an enjoy the view epiphany and then looked down again and realized that my knees never really get balanced over my ski. I think I have always done this, but never noticed. You get more glide the more balanced over the ski you are and I was kind of buckled inward as I glided along. Self realization!. I tried to work on this and work on getting my poling to the right better and my V2 smoother and suddenly I caught and passed the guy in front of me. Yay me.
Look at the bent right knee, I don't think it should be doing that
I started skating hard for the finish and though I was tired I felt pretty great and I headed back into town for the finish. Just before descending into town a guy came out of nowhere to pass me, I followed him as he skated away from me and then I was surprised to see he finished just ahead of me instead of heading out for a third lap like the 42kers. Crap. there goes that last pass... But anyhow, I finished and felt good. Though I warmed up quickly during the race, it was still quite cold out, maybe 10 or 12 F, so I ran to the car and changed into my warm clothes and watched Paul finish strongly and then, a while later Clay finish well in the 42k. The race had a New Belgium Brewing company sponsored beer garden with a free cup of beer for all racers, so I headed to the finish, got some free soup and a beer. They had a nice dark beer with high alcohol content and espresso infusion or something. It was delicious. I usually am not a fan of dark beer that has strong coffee flavors in it, but it might have been the post race hunger, or it might have been good. I think it was a one off beer, I have not seen it in stores or on their website.
Post Race Frosting
The end result was 16th overall male in the 21k in a time of 1:30:32. Despite the slight miswax it was about 15 minutes faster than last year, which is probably close to 100% due to faster conditions. There were four guys ahead of me within a minute and that was probably the group I lost contact with when I fell on the first lap. Oh well. Next time, no falling for real. I really need to stop doing that. Overall it was a great race and a bunch of fun. Maybe the marathon next year...
Paul and I caffinating at the Camp Four
After the race Paul and I walked over and enjoyed an excellent espresso in a tiny paper cup at Camp4 coffee, then we hopped into the car and drove to Gunnison for more coffee and eats at the Bean. Then we zipped home, enjoying the views, including seeing a bobcat, bald eagle and a herd of antelope in a five minute period between Gunnison and Saguatche. Damn, Colorado, you are good.
The Bean in Gunnison for more coffee and grub afore the long drive homeResultsPhotos Here,
Dina's photos here2008 Alley Loop race report
Clay put on a couple of ski races with the help and hosting of the Enchanted Forest staff. Saturday was a classic race that started pretty early and I did not make it. I did not want to stay away for two nights and I was still pretty banged up from the previous weekends chama race. Paul and I drove up on Saturday morning, stopping at the bean for breakfast burritos and coffee and then made our leisurely way up to enchanted forest for some classic sking.
Saturday's breakfast burrito (formerly)
As I mentioned before I bought a two pairs of waxable classic skiis and, even though the race went poorly the week before, I was eager to try them out. I organized nicely in a tackle box I got a garage sale. I carefully waxed one pair of skis with some hard wax, and saved the other for the likely klister conditions. I have avoided getting waxable classic skis for years as I was not all that psyched for the lore and magic involved in getting proper kick, but boy is it cool to have a little toolbox stuffed with carefully organized waxes.
The mighty wax box
Anyhow, when Paul and I got there, it was warm and getting a bit warmer. So klister it was, with the advice of Clay and a few others I reapplied the swix blue klister that had worked reasonably well the week before. Paul, who hates klister, went with some super warm hard kick wax. We headed out on the trails and it was clear that it was much warmer than either of our waxes could handle. We double poled around for an hour or so and returned for a snack. I cleverly applied Universal Klister , which, in theory, would work in a huge variety of warmer conditions. I will now refer to as UMAKlister which stands for Universal My Ass, which might tell you how the rest of the day went. I actually had great kick, but no freaking glide as the wax was filled with a giant snowball after about 15 minutes of skiing. I realized if I kept moving and did not stop at all I could get reasonable sking done. Paul still had nothing, so I skied back an forth on the trail while paul walked around on his skis. He looked like he was having fun, and it was, upon reflection, a pretty good day, so I kept on skiing. Later I ran into clubmember Tom who clued me in that UMAKlister was too warm for the day, I needed violet Klister, and he was getting amazing kick. Feh, Universal my ass.
Anyhow, after a not unpleasant, but could have been much better classic ski, Paul and I headed down the hill to the charming burg of Red-River-filled-with-Texans. We checked into a reasonably cheap and clean motel. I almost got brained by a giant chunk of ice falling off the top of the two story hotel. Missed me by about 12 inches. And then I took a nap until dinner. Paul and I won dinner as we were the first at the "good" mexican place so we got the coveted spot right in front of the fire, and then we ate and then to bed.
Next morning we awoke early and went in search of food. The 8:30 AM on a sunday race start made it a bit hard to find food early enough to digest before the race. WE located a little cafe/pastry shop that had egg sammiches, atem up and drank some coffee and headed to the race. Got there, paid the fee and got out for the warm ups.
The UNM team was there as well as the "Los Alamos Team" as I overheard one of the enchanted forest owners say. Hey! Thats us! Specifically it was me, Clay, Paul, John B., Dina, and maybe Tom and Rich? Anyhow, there were a bunch of us there. Go team!
Hanging at the start line, Paul in the foreground, in the middle Me, Hans Noordik, Shawn, front row, the UNM ski team
I registered, pinned on the numbers and then got my warmup on. The course seemed really fast. After the warmth of the day before it was quite cold and there had been a bt of new snow over night. That plus the fresh grooming and my skiis ran like the wind. As I skated around and mostly just stood in the sun to kwwp warm, I watched the University of NM team warm up. They are much faster than me. It is a joy to watch people who really know how to ski go.
Anyhow, the race lined up and started quickly. I got a decent start. I watched most of the UNM team and clay and JohnB ski away at a furious pace at the start. I settled behind a UNM woman and a guy who was taller and possibly heavier than me. The first half of the course was a twisty loop with sharp turns and some short straightaways with a couple of hard climbs thrown in. I kind of tucked in behind the UNM woman an big guy (even bigger than me, named Hans Noordik if you can believe it) and was actually drafting for a while. What a blast. I watched the two ahead of me skating with form I could only dream of having. I was tucked in just skiing along and rarely poling. My skis were fast and the draft was working well. I knew these two would drop me at some point, they were too smooth, but I was enjoying the ride.
The first half of the course ended with a hard steep short hill followed by a long twisty descent. The two ahead of me dropped me on the up hill a bit and then put what seemed like 30 seconds on me on the descent. They were tucked and stepping the turns, I was bolt upright and snowplowing a bit. I think I was the fastest person in the race who was snow plowing any. I was constantly wiping clean the carve groves and step marks through the tighter turns with my wimpy snow plowing. I am not sure that I am really going to get all that better at high speed descending on xc skis at my age, but it is definitely something to work on.
Shawn trained pulling this the day before the race
As I transitioned from the long downhill to the long long climb that started the second lap I heard another skiier come up behind me. I was able to drop him a bit on the climb, but the second half of the course was the long climb followed by a bunch of rollers with more downhill than up, leading back to the finish. So through the rollers we went. I was able to ski away from the guy behind me a bit on the uphills and he would catch right back on on the downhills. Finally there was one sketch downhill that I was checking my speed on at the top and he came by me in the classic tracks and tucked. Turned out it was Shawn who was a former HS skier and had great form, but limited fitness and really good descending skills. Also he was on rental skiis. And he spent the previous day pulling his kid around in a sled behind him. After the sketchy downhill, there was a steep uphill, I pegged it to catch up to him, but I blew up and watched him smoothly ski away from me. Dammit. Form crushes fitness yet again. Note to self, learn to ski better.
Post race awards ceremony, clapping for JohnB and his gloves
We had a nice award ceremony and I finished fourth in my age group in a time of 39:48. Which is smoking fast for the 13 odd kilometers that the race was. The winner was even smoking fastier in just under 28 minutes. Wow. Even though I did not place in my age group, I got an extra cool participant ribbon, as I was a participant, see? Anyhow. Fun race.
Participant!
After the race, Paul and I headed back to the bean and repeated the burrito breakfast of the day before and headed home. It was a good day.
Sunday Burritoresults hereClay's fast guy race reportMore photos from the race
As full blown race reports are apparently no longer within me, I will get down with mini reports to get some content out there. Here is the quick and dirty from Hawke's Old Fashioned cross sufferfest in Glorieta this past weekend. (see here for a report from a previous excellent Old fashioned cross race from the same promoter.)
Old faithful, ended up running a slightly wider more bitey front tire for the sand and the off camber loose stuff
The course was on the grounds of the Glorieta (baptist) conference center and was really hard, somewhere between 2 and 5 dismounts per lap depending on how strong you were, as appropriate for the Old Fashioned cross series. Two long runups: one stairs, one quasi ridable dirt. One short set of stairs. A gopher hole riddled set of tight chicanes which was pretty ridable but slower than running. One short steep ride up with an ugly transition that was a bit too steep for my one gear for 5 of the 8 laps.
Much more technical than the usual UCI looking cross we get used to. Lots of off camber, lots of grassy dirt, a couple sand pits, even tighter chicanes than normal, longer run ups. I acquitted myself decently on the one speed I think. Got an OK start, crashed straight through some course tape on a chicane, lost a couple guys I shudda stayed with right there. I churned along painfully in my slightly-too-large-for-my-fitness gear of 36-17 or so. Rode the sand well. Ran the run ups well. Did not chicane as well as I could of. Got lapped by two really nice fellers on cool bikes from a Trek Composites something something team (zach and some other dude), down from durango possibly. Highlight of the race for me was getting lapped by them in the ugly little gopher chicanes and then blowing right back by them in the sand as they were waylaid into running by another lapped rider. I lost my will to live about 40 minutes in and then lollygagged for a lap and then noticed that I was getting caught by someone behind me, so I turned on the jets and finished OK. Given the complete lack of training and the only one other cross race this year I was pretty happy with the effort. There was only one mens category, which I enjoyed, reminded me of outlaw races I cut my teefs on 20 years ago, I have no idea where I finished other than the three guys who lapped me, I think midpack. I am pretty sure I was the only single speed.
Here is a video Elena shot of me through the sand pits.
It is probably best to watch the full minute with the sound on to hear what Aida thought of daddy racing. She did tell me today that she loved going to the race and wanted to go to another cross race soon, so this was probably just a bit temporary dissatisfaction with the attention meter.
Anyhow, good course, good turnout, hurt my lungs. Yay cross. Thanks to all the organizers.
I wrote most of this post last month and never finished it, but in honor of Jonathan Page's national championship victory and the impending world champs in Kentucky, I cleaned it up and added a million photos. I have been a big fan of Page since 2001 nationals and supercup in Baltimore when I watched him win the Supercup race (on a Richard Sachs cross bike) by sprinting full speed around Todd Wells into the last set of barriers, barely holding it together as he tripped/ran/fell across the barriers and holding on to the finish for the win. So congrats to Page for his 4th national championship and read on if you got some minutes.
Jacob Van Artevelde discovers Gent's Socialists Dwelling
So there I was in Gent for a meeting a back in early November, I cleverly had built in two days at the end of the trip for bicycle based shenanigans, fortunately my long lost pal Jeff was living in nearby Antwerp and up for said shenanigans. On Saturday I planned on hitting the Soudal Classic Jaarmarktcross Cyclocross race in Niel Belgium. I hopped on on my fixie bike friday early saturday morning and rode 5 rainy kilometers to Gent Sint Peeters station and hopped on a train to Antwerp.
Excellent train murals in Sint Peeters Station
Once in Antwerp I hopped on the bike and rode a couple of km to Jeff's abode. Where I discovered he secretly is the man behind the evil society of the Ned Van Vlanders Flag. We talked bikes and stuff and set up a road bike for me for the next day's cobbly adventure on the RVV course. Finally, due to a cancelled ride, Jeff graciously offered to accompany me down to Niel to watch the race.
Flag of the free state of Ned diddily Van Flaandersen
We rode down on a very confusing yet well marked bike routes down toward the race. I am glad Jeff had some local knowledge and was able to steer us more or less directly down to the race. The routes varied from separated bike lanes, to sidewalk routes, to suburbs then on to skinny farm roads that eventually dumped us in Niel. The ride down featured varying levels of driving mist and rain. It was clear that it was getting increasingly crossy out there. Once in Niel, we followed the trail of welly wearing superfans, paid our fee and got into the race site just before the start of the women's race. We immediately got tiny beers in plastic cups and frites.
Frites with Diablo Sauce and tiny Primus beers
Jeff watches the women's race from the special vantage place...
The atmosphere was a bit sparse at the Start-finish line, so fortified with more beers, we went in search of mud. It was found. The course was pretty flat with one impressive off camber muddy chicane. Some of the flat sections were more or less unridable. There were sections where the mens field were running for what appeared to be 1/4 mile or more on pancake flat ground. Impressively mucky.
My feets
Deep ruts even for flyweight riders
Manual assist on the crowd barrier
Jeff and I set up camp at an area with a great view of the muddy chicane and with a turn of the head, we could watch the big screen following the race. We watched the end of the women's race, went on a dangerous mud mission to get more beer and returned to our original watching spot to watch the rider's introductions on the big screen. Sven Nys got the biggest cheer. Niels Albert got boos. Jeff and I were probably the only people at the race who cheered for Jonathan Page. The vinyl jacket wearing superclub supporters (Vantourenhout, Nys and Pauls) in front of us, smirked at our homerism.
Me and Jeff and the Bald Superfans, best photo of my whole trip really...
More superclub fans, Klaas Vantourenhout, Sven Nys and Kevin Pauwels
I really enjoyed watching the top Euro's fight it out. There was a pretty big pack at the front initially with a couple guys turning themselves inside out to stay with Nys, Albert, Aeronauts and the reanimated corpse of Bart Wellens. As the race progressed and the field split up we had ample opportunity to cheer on Jonathan Page and watch the big four duke it out. Some mild gamesmanship occured throughout the race, often playing out on the slick climb right in front of us.
Nys cleans it
Chicaney Goodness, I think Albert with Nys behind him
I know you wanted to see the giant umbrella again, note the freshly trimmed tree for TV coverage..
We spent the race cheering Page on as he slowly moved his way from a position in the 20's up to his final position of 18th. The battle between the top four guys spread out over the mud in front of us and the big screen behind us was pretty cool. At the end, much to the disappointment of nearly everyone there, Albert just plain old ran away from Nys and Aeronauts on the long muddy flat run. He opened a 20 second gap there and finished easily ahead of the rest at the line. Aeronauts jumped Nys on the finishing stretch and Wellens tailed in for fourth.
Field blows on by in the beginning
Page wings on by
Page again
Yu Takenouchi was riding a sweet steel Toyo frame with extra cool downtube
Nys hisself
After the race ended, Jeff and I wandered around the pits and checked out the mechanics cleaning the bikes, the cool giant buses and the riders warming down. Nys had a giant personal camper, a big tour bus for VIP's to drink and meet people and a small camper selling Nys branded crap. I bought an ugly ass Nys hat. Other highlights were checking out the Toyo bike and the amazing multi team battle jitney.
Only steel bike in the race
Check that Downtube
The multi team cyclocross battle jitney
Washy wash
washy washy wash
Totally typical mechanic guy
Finally, if you are still reading and are trying to figure out where the title comes from, Jeff and I left the circus of Neil and started riding home on the bike path out of town. Right at the edge of town a camper van passed us and as we looked over at it, Jonathan Page stuck his head out of the passenger window and gave us a hearty heckle or cheer. It was pretty cool that he not only heard us, but recognized us, especially given his intense focus during the race. I am pretty sure there was no one else on the course cheering for Page that day, but it was still pretty cool. Later, Jeff forwarded me this twitter exchange:
I was smiling about this for at least a week. After getting the cheers, we then rolled back through the fields and dales back into antwerp and shared some road beers on the way among the cows and misty fields. Rolled in to Antwerp, grabbed some dinner and then I folded up the mud and cowshit smeared bike and headed back to Gent. A perfect bike adventure, even including the extra few miles I rode in Gent in the dark and rain as I got pretty lost on the way back to my hotel from the train station.
Road beer on a road, covered in mud and cow shit, but it was a road
Trusty steed on the way back
Dinner in Antwerp, beef stew, more frites and beers
The crapulous bike folded up back on the train
So I recommend going to watch some cross somewhere big, whether it is Nationals or a Supercup like event or pretty much any race in belgium or upcoming worlds or something else. It is awesome. More photos from the race here. The entire set from belgium is here
Oh the pain. Still, best race ever, or at least dumbest, or more accurately, the race I am least prepared for, yet still participate in. To refresh your memory, this is an uphill downhill ski race. Starts and finishes just above the lodge at the Pajarito Mountain Ski resort (9200ft). In the middle it goes over the top of the mountain (10,400 ft). Since I will probably refer back to it alot, here is the race report from last year.
Zac and I in pre race dork mode...
So anyway, there are lots of things I am good at in cross country skiing, but extended uphills (first part of the race) and scary downhills (second part of the race) are not it. Despite this I get absurd enjoyment from this race. Part of it is that it takes 15 minutes to get to, part is that it is free and part is maybe the whole nordic vs. skinners part. The trail jeep road on the west side of the mountain is groomed for nordic skiing, but those on skins can take a steep shortcut up dogpatch. This allows the nordic folks a fast, long way up, but allows the skinners a shortcut to even things out. There is a middle traverse section of the mountain top that is groomed and pretty much a big advantage to the skaters, and then a steepish downhill down the "I don't care run" that is frankly terrifying on skate skiis and the skinners are at a HUGE advantage, especially if they like going downhill. The skinners usually are on some sort of tele, backcountry or touring gear. The nordic folks are usually skaters, although one guy showed up on classic touring skiis and took the nordic route this year.
Jeri prerace, victory was hers in the womens race.
Unlike last year, 9 of the 12 starters were skinners. Clay and myself skated and Martin classikked. The conditions were odd. After a dearth of snow since january, we got about 8 inches on the ski hill the day before the race. The warm temps and lack of snow put some sections of the back side of the mountain unskiiable, but there were some steep roads that were substituted. The nordic side of the course had been groomed the night before but it was really soft. The dogpatch shortcut was ungroomed. The downhill was groomed, but only one groomer width wide.
Stretching at the startline
The race started a bit late and with a flurry. Clay got out to a really fast start, I sort of flailed behind him in second and super strong skinners Rich and Hans apparently were skating on their backcountry skis not too far behind me. All action at the front and back of the race are hearsay as I was middling the whole way.
The start, Clay out fast, and me doing the pterodactyl behind, caw caw.
As Clay and I headed up the road it was clear that this was going to be a slow climb for the skaters. The snow was really soft and some of the ski resort's snowmobilers had passed up and down the groomed trail churning it up more and making it even softer. I got into a slow rhythm, not wanting to blow up like the year before.
Great view of the fog enshrouded valley
Not much happened for a while. There were some spectacular views on the course, Clay was beset upon by a trio of yellow dogs, but their owners called them off before they ate him. Things got really slow for me and Clay disappeared far off into the heights of the mountain.
Rich skinning close behind me at the start
After awhile we crossed courses with the skinners. I saw my buddy Zach skinning up just below me. He informed me that he thought he was about the 5th or sixth skinner on the course, which put us in the 8th or ninth position. After one more switch back the skinners and skaters joined courses and we headed up a steep off camber groomed trail toward the aspen lift. This part was my darkest hour. It was so soft and so off camber that I was getting no glide and not even able to actually move forward. Zach actually trudged by me on his skins and started to drop me. Oh the humanity. Fortunately after a while the course firmed up a bit with the altitude and I was able to catch up to Zach and drop him. There was a fast short downhill followed by some rolling terrain and I was able to catch Rob and pass him (almost exactly in the same spot that I caught him last year) and almost catch another skinner, Ken, before getting to the top of I don't care. For comparison sake, last year I had passed all the skinners by the top of the descent, but got passed by three of them on the descent...
Flurries blew in midrace
The descent was really soft and I did my best to try and stay upright the whole way, but I quickly crashed pretty hard twice, once almost hitting myself in the head with my own ski, so I decided to try some alternative methods of getting down the hill. My first plan was to try to slide down on my hip like last year. It was too soft and I ground to a halt. I then sort of fell into the successful plan. I basically sat on the tails of my skiis and glided down the slope, half on my ass, half on my skiis. When it was steep, I would grind my butt into the snow and essentially, uh, snowplow with my crotch. When it was a more shallow slope I would kind of paddle with my arms to maintain momentum. It worked pretty well, but I am sure I looked ridiculous. While I am dedicated to you dear readers, my dedication does not extend to wishing that video of my ignominious descent existed.
Jeff, Hans, Clay, post race, 4th, 1st 3rd respectively
About halfway down the slope Rob came blowing by me in a full tuck. I think he took no turns at all. Very impressive. I continued my dog-ass-wipe descent and finally got to the jeep road back to the lodge. As I turned onto the lodge, I attempted to get some speed up, but surprisingly, this descent felt much faster than I remembered it and I ended up snowplowing quite a bit. Fortunately no one else caught me and I finished up. A foggy snow flurry had blown in and I was soaked from the effort of the climb and from rolling in the snow on the descent. I quickly retreated to the lodge to change.
Me finishing, do I look scared? I ain't.
As we gathered in the lodge and swapped war stories, the race fleshed out. Rich and Hans had gotten to the top well in front and Hans ended up being the class of the field and finished in a very impressive 31 minutes. Rich took second. Jeff made it up to the top in third, but was using light backcountry gear and fell alot on the way down. Clay actually out descended him on his skate skiis (and did not fall once, which is really impressive) and took third. Jeff followed in for fourth. Toti was in fifth. Ken and Rob in sixth and seventh.
Race organizer Karen, thanks Karen!
I was 8th, Zach finished in 9th at some point behind me having some descent troubles as well. Turns out the half groomed downhill lead to some spectacular crashes in the soft powder. Here are some overall results:
1. Hans, Skin, 31:56
2. Rich, Skin, 34:05
3. Clay, Skate, 37:31
4. Jeff, Skin, 38:32
5. Toti, Skin, 38:55
6. Ken, skin, 43:17
7. Rob. Skin, 45:13
8. Tarik, Skate, 47:30
9. Zach, Skin, 52:39
10: Ron, Skin, 56:33
11: martin, classic, 1:02:58
12 Jeri, Skin, 1:22:11
Race organizer Jean holding the results
I think I was much faster down hill this year and much slower up hill this year, but the overall result was exactly the same, eight place, and a time that was about two minutes slower. They ran a nice awards ceremony that broke the 12 of us down by both age and technique. Pretty much everyone won either a hat or a pint glass. After the race I ate the hell out of a giant breakfast burrito at the ski lodge cafe and then had a beer as part of the skiesta festivities featuring three local microbrewers. Good stuff and a great time had by most. I awoke extremely freeking sort the next morning from the hard poling up the hill and the hard crashing on the way down. Go races!
Big thanks to Dina for taking photos. All but three in the report are from here. Go see the rest here She got most of the racers finishing and more shots before and after the race.
Post race fueling
