October 2009 Archives

It was a pretty crummy day today.  Cold, with a rain snow mix, mostly leaning towards the rain side of things.  In other words, ideal conditions to test clothing setups for my upcoming Iceman entry.  

I wanted to stay close to home in case I screwed something up and needed a hot shower or shot of whiskey to ward off hypothermia so I decided to look for something I had read about a couple of months ago- the other Askel cemetery.  Yep, the blooming metropolis of Askel seems to be home to more dead people than living. 

Didn't take me too long to find it....  

All I can say is "Wow!". 

I've changed my mind. Previously it was kind of a toss up between a viking style funeral pyre or maybe a Tibetan sky funeral (do NOT click on that link if you are at all squeamish) when I kicked the bucket, but honestly- eternity in the Karki Hill Cemetery might not be so bad. 

In the grand scale of Keweenawsomeness, it only barely rates- but the fact this is sort of a forgotten little place by most makes it really, really cool.   

So, no pictures this time, or GPS coordinates.  You have to find it yourself.  And keep it a secret. 

http://www.keweenawcup.com/

Still some awesome, awesome racing going on in men's bee.  

I wasn't too confident heading into this one, rally duty has kept me busy and the last time I was on a bike was at the previous weekend's race.  A couple practice laps around the course just drove that point home- plenty of opportunity to hammer to your heart's content. Unfortunately, my heart wasn't feeling up to the task. 

I was disappointed to see that Matt Danielson didn't make the race, he and I had a pretty good battle going on in the last couple races. So, I slotted in behind Nevin at the start line and figured I'd try to keep pace with whatever pack he ended up in.   

Unfortunately, it seems his mechanical woes last week lit some kind of fire under his butt for this round and he set a blistering pace at the start, the rest of the pack followed suit and the first lap was just crazy fast.   I had sort of picked out some gears and shift points ahead of time, but all that went out the window trying to keep up. 

And then we got to the second lap....  

Go ahead, take a look at the detailed results.  Notice a precipitous drop in lap times after the first lap?  Yeah, I guess we all learned we weren't "Eh" class racers.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the only tactical mistake I made, on the third lap I tried way too hard to stay ahead of somebody on a section of the course I shouldn't have. On the fourth lap, I came to my senses and looked at what I could with where I was in terms of the overall point standings and lined myself up for an awesome final lap. 

Mike, Bill, and I went into the final lap, nose to tail. No sneaky treachery tricks on my part would do any good- these guys knew what they were doing.  The next racer was too far up for us to overtake, so this was a battle between the three of us. I did manage to get a good line at the entrance to the mud pit to get into the lead and get the good line through, but after that was a lot of very fast, somewhat technical riding- Mike on the mountain bike would have the advantage, so I kind of cooled my jets in hopes that he'd overtake me and I could draft off him for a bit. 

He never actually did make the pass, so on the final stretch of open road ( where my 'cross bike had the advantage), I slowed way the heck down in hopes he'd pass and I could draft and take the final sprint.  

So I slowed down....

Then he slowed down...

Then I slowed down....

Then he slowed down...

And then we were going about 10mph..... 

And then he figured what the hell and cranked it up a bit. 

I drafted for a bit, and then just dialed it up and managed to take the final sprint, beating Mike and Bill and getting 7th place for myself.   Unfortunately, Mike still thought we had another lap to go after that one- so he was working a whole different strategy. That seems to be my best opportunity for winning these days, just making sure I know what lap I'm on when my fellow competitors don't.  :)  

There was a bit of a shakeup in the points this weekend- Steve pulled out an impressive finish for 2nd place.  Kenny took another commanding lead, but not so much that he's completely untouchable- it gives us something to chase anyway.   I'm really looking forward to the double header in two weeks up in Copper Harbor.  I'll be making my single speed 'cross debut in at least one race for sure.

Chris had healed up enough to race this weekend, but thankfully he was still out there getting great pictures of the rest of us....  


 

 

 

 

OK, it's not a fluke, so what the heck?  How'd I get good at this shit? Granted, I'm still hanging in Men's B, I'd have to go faster for an additional 20 minutes just to stay on the lead lap in A, but I'm still neck and neck with some legitimate competition.  Managed a 6th overall today, clicky-clicky for results.  Some of the front runners from the first race had some mechanical woes and crashes, so the overall points battle is in hot contention right now for some of us.  

This was a tough race too. I usually like to preride the course, pick lines, shift points, and braking markers. This course was just too long with too many features, I'm not smart enough to remember everything I needed to. So I picked a rear cog, and figured I'd just go high/low with the front chainrings as needed- 24 gear choices is entirely too many when no oxygen is getting to my brain.  

Anyway, I have the worst luck with cyclocross weather, it's always nice and sunny, blue skies, and everything.  I'm lucky if I have to wear arm warmers.   This time, I got some proper 'cross weather.  High forties, raining off and on, and windy.  As much as I like crappy weather for 'cross, I'm happy the course drained well- I don't mind beating the crap out of me, but I hate beating the crap out of my bike in insanely muddy conditions, bikes are expensive. 

The race was the toughest yet this season. Fast, fast, fast.  And everything became an attack point, there was no place where I could recover.   In my last entry I was talking about strategy, but for me- that requires some sections to recover on.  I was regularly duking it out with 3 or 4 different people this race, and didn't have much of a chance to just sit back and suck somebody's wheel for a spell. 

I had a couple of great battles with a few folks, and this is the kind of thing I really like cyclocross for.  Nothing like super-late apexing a corner in a super high gear, and setting yourself up to be broadsided by the guy behind you. Sometimes being a fat dude has it's privileges. I can get away with this sort of stuff not because I might win in a tangle like that, but only because we all know everybody will lose. 

I think I had a real shot at beating the two guys in front of me, mainly because they thought they were done when there was still one lap to go. I guess I'm an honest racer, if nothing else.  But the only place I could really take people down was on the first ~15% of the course, after that, all I could hope for was to hang on.   I'm pretty happy with my 6th place finish. It took some real fitness to keep up that pace, not just strategy, so I guess I have something more than treachery on my side this season.  

Chris was out, with camera in tow again, and getting some excellent pictures.  I dusted off my old video camera and shot a little footage of Men's A and Women's.  Maybe later this season, I'll have enough to put something cool together.  Gonna have to edit the soundtrack though, it's mostly Steve and I talking teleskiing, punctuated by the occasional beer belch.   

It's that time of year again....