Thanks

I decided not to travel this weekend and give the local singletrack some overdue attention. I think it had been a month since I had been to Landahl. All summer long I pretty much was making it once a week, but with cross dominating my days off I had not driven over lately. Saturday morning was a meeting of the minds at Landahl. I was fixed and just ready to drill myself, that plan pretty much worked out. Multiple laps of 10 and 11 drove the nail into the coffin. When I got home I ate and fell asleep.

Sunday was a spectacular Fall day, the kind that make you love living in the Midwest. Amber and I spent the day at Swope, we broke up rock that we are spreading in the opening switchbacks of the trail to help make it a little more all conditions. Then I rode several laps, hopping in with all the people that were dropping by. We estimated that 30 people were on the trail between 8:00 and 3:00. Pretty amazing for a 1.5 mile trail that has only been open a week. I did not talk to one person that wasn't raving.

I think I have rode over two weeks without missing a day. The rain has been holding off and you gotta get while the gettin's good.

Kansas CX State Championships

State Championships this year looked a little different than last season, instead of a white knuckle drive up to Leavenworth through a Blizzard, it was a sunny Sunday stroll. After walking a lap I parked myself in the grass to watch the first three races. The 3/4 race was, as always, a spirited affair with a good battle between Aaron Elwell and Andrew Coe developing. Andrew went off the front and had a commanding lead, but Aaron shook free from the chase group and clawed his way up to Andrew's wheel. Aaron rode hard but could not shake Coe, the recent Seattle transplant, ended up out sprinting Aaron for the title. Good entertainment.

Congratulations to Bike Source employee and 360 teammate David White for his Win of the 35+ Masters class. And I wish a speedy recovery to Ted Moore and Tom Price. Word was Ted may have broke ribs and Tom a collarbone. We do not have enough racers the way it is, we do not need to loose the good guys.

I felt odd warming up, not bad at all just not real energetic. I got off to a decent start. I was on Kyle Bush's wheel and he was steady, keeping us with the front group. Joe, Brian, and Shadd started to get a gap and I was stuck a few wheels back. After a lap of seeing what was going to happen I started to put in a earnest chase. It took awhile but I made it up to the three of them. I hung on for a few attacks but it was causing me much difficulty. Shadd and Brian checked out and Joe was on my wheel, I really had nothing from the surges and was just waiting to recover and not go dreadfully slow. Joe put in a impressive chase and latched back on to Shadd and Brian. I recovered win I saw the 5 laps to go sign and started racing again. The race was gone ahead of me but I needed to ride well to hold of the chasers behind me. I felt like I was picking up speed the final laps and was really enjoying myself. 4th on the day and I believe it was good enough to move me into 2nd in the series, we will see for sure when they post results. Congratulations to Shadd Smith for the State Championship title and Series overall title.

Keep your eyes peeled here, in hopes Chris Wallace will take another step towards representing us in Belgium in a few weeks.

In the meantime enjoy this big timing.

SWOPE OPENS!

Congratulations on this achievement to the people who made it possible. The future is bright for kcdirtbiking.

This is a big deal.

Weekend Report

Saturday morning a crew of earthmovers convened at Swope park for what would be the final major session of trail work before the grand opening of Phase 1 next Saturday. The trailhead was finished in grand style with a huge inviting bench cut that will make any dirt monger start salivating. After a few hours of work we knocked back a good many laps, and I was giddy as can be, simply put, I love the trails at Swope. Anybody that can, try and make it for the opening next Saturday morning, details can be found here.

Sunday morning and we were up and at'em on our way to Leavenworth. While Amber settled into her registration duties I walked the course and decided it looked like a good time. There was an entertaining cat 3/4 race, a strong mix of guys were racing hard at the front, real good to see.

Our race had a little bigger field than the past few races which was nice. A couple of laps in I was dangling seconds back off the lead group, I could not bridge up and had to settle in for my own race. It was cool to see youngster Chris Wallace up on the front on Jenson's wheel. Those two quickly started to put time into Shadd and Bill Marshall ahead of me. This race was as poor as I have felt physically yet this season, I did not feel like I had any punch but I was still tempo'ing along fine enough, and I was happy because I was still having a good time on the course. Shadd and Bill were a long ways ahead of me, but the last two laps Adam Mills was breathing down my neck. Since we were racing for the last money position I was not going to be taking it easy the last laps. Luckily I had just enough to hang on, a little bit of cash for food before I headed into work for inventory scanning. A nice busy weekend.
Oh yeah my new Yeti cross bike is sweet.

I vote for singletrack

Me standing on my singletrack platform while campaigning down in Arkansas.

There is simply to much to say to try and tell the whole story of riding for 5 days in the Ouachita Mountains. 6 dudes riding huge trails in beautiful country, it simply does not get any better.

I made one last campaign surge this morning at Blue River, I hope it is enough. Man it sure would be sweet if singletrack was the new President.

Lunch break on the Pinnacle

swing hard in case you make contact

Wow that was some weekend of racing, I am not sure where to begin. When you look at the area cyclocross schedule there is a ton of racing going on here, a lot of people are putting time and money into letting us all go out and have fun. Paceline Products is a sponsor of everything that happens in the area cycling related. If you value racing every weekend as much as I do patronize these guys so we can keep this train rolling. Obviously all the promoters of the area are busting their butts, let's not let them down on our end.

Saturday was a fun race for sure. Josh Johnson came over from the other side of Missouri and threw down hard on us all. A couple of laps in I heard him say, "Did I give Shadd enough of a lead?" Well I considered Shadd in a different time zone at that point, but Josh put on a show and tracked him down for the win. I was a distant third but still fairly happy with my effort.

Sunday was the same course with a few small tweaks, and the wind was raging up of off the lake. The run up from the video in the post below was changed up so that you approached it from the other side. I rolled up it easily the day before and even though the angle was not as nice I thought I could do the same thing again. MAJOR DISASTER pre-riding! I nosed into the hill and snapped my frame along the top tube and down tube. It was totally my stupidity that caused it, and I am completely sick about losing my bike. I have had it for right at a year, and it has treated my real well. I think a little Dirty Kanza soul leaked out onto the ground where I broke it. I had my 29er SS in the pits and I was just planning on racing that and getting in a workout and having some fun. But along came that Ridley Carbon machine. Rich Anderson, hands down my favorite person in the world, let me once again race his amazing bike. I denied at first thinking about what just happened and how I could not possibly afford to repeat some type of incident on that bike. But I could not resist for long. I set the seat height and did a few laps, it made me smile wide. I cannot express how grateful I am Rich.

I don't suck as bad at starting when my bike is that light. I was in a much better position than usuall into the dirt. Bill Marshal and I traded pulls on the first two laps and kept Shadd somewhat in check. After Bill surged on the pavement I punched it again and made up alot of ground. I caught Shadd on the third lap. After sitting in a half of a lap I went around but did not surge just tried to ride fast and steady. Very very slowly I opened up a second here and there and began to build a lead. Never ever did I have what I would call a comfortable lead but I went into the bell lap fairly certain I could hang on. I was very excited that I scored the fastest bell lap prime. My two days of racing could have been a Ridley advertisement. That bike corners amazing, climbs amazing, so much fun. Unfortunately I have a new bike to buy and I don't think I will be happy with much. I would race bikes even if I was getting spanked all over the place all the time, it is just such a good feeling to go out and leave it all on the course. But combine that with winning, that is enough to make you nearly crazy.

It was sweet that my parents were in town and got to come out to the race. It is a good youthful feeling to have them hollering out from the sidelines. We all visited one of our team 360 sponsors last night for supper. Tapas at La Bodega was the perfect ending to the day.

And the best news of all, It is vacation time. Me and 5 other ramblers are taking knobby tires down into the hills of Arkansas for 5 days of riding riding riding. Wednesday through Sunday of epic rides. I have not had a good ole MTB vacation forever. I am so happy I can't hardly believe
it. When I return I will be equipped with pictures and stories.

Here are my pictures from Sunday.

All my rowdy friends are here on Saturday Morning

I had a good time.

See ya'll again tomorrow