number crunching

Last night I was dreaming that I came home and Kelly surprised me with a ZR Cycles track bike with sweet star cutouts everywhere. I have essentially no use for a steel track bike right now but I was pumped. She had also gotten herself a red ZR 3-speed commuter with a dynohub. Sweet, 3 ZRs in the house! When I woke and told her about it, she laughed at the idea of owning such a bike. Not her style.

Stuck in dreamland and lulled by the howling winds outside, I slept in and blew off a chance at an easy commuting day to spin the previous days' efforts out of my legs. Listen to your body, they say. Mine is sending mixed messages.

Looking forward to the Trash Dash and Gibbs Lake this weekend, I need to keep my legs on track. The series is looking close, though Casey has a gap on Maciej and I, with another couple of possible threats from below. Anything can happen and there are a variety of courses left to race, so I need to stay consistent and get all the points I can. I need a win if I want a shot at the overall, and I can't help but think that Sunday would have been as good a chance as any. I guess my expectations have been on the rise since the beginning of the series, so it's time to crank it up another notch.

Madison Cross Weekend. Free Beer. Podiums.

The weekend began after work on Friday. I had just picked up my bike from Zack the night before, and had time only to position the levers, wrap the bars, and take it for a spin around the block, which was enough to determine that it's way different than the Crosscheck. Armed with allen wrenches, I headed to Badger Prairie Park for one last recon visit and shakedown ride. The course was still grassy, bumpy, and grueling, and I still dreaded it more than most others. It took me a few laps to get used to the different braking, shifting, traction, handling... just about everything was different. As I got a bit more accustomed to the bike, my laps got faster and more confident, but it still struck me as a bit of a gamble to race on it the next day. Excitement to show it off trumped my sense of caution, however. I got the saddle position a little more fine-tuned as darkness fell.

Saturday. Drove to Cam-Rock with Nils (and his boombox) and Andy. The course was dry and super fast, with some mulch-filled turns and the occasional rock or root to avoid. Squeezed in next to Casey on the line for crucial starting position. The start went flawlessly, a moderate sprint up the hill to the first corner. Got ahead of the pack and backed it off a bit to follow Maciej and Casey into the turn. We quickly had a big gap on the rest of the field, and started taking turns at the front. A chaser appeared behind us and was making up ground. After the first lap I came through for a turn, which in retrospect maybe wasn't in my best interests, but I wanted to help keep the gap open and didn't want to be the guy sitting on. Right after my turn I needed to recover but the Baraboo Sharks rider caught us and kept right on going. The other two jumped on his wheel and I didn't have the gas to make it, so faded back.

photo: Djonn

I enjoyed no-man's-land for a while but was still recovering so I more or less waited for the two chasers behind me to catch up, a Moosejaw and a Brown Bear. I sat third wheel and saved my bullets for the end, sizing up the other two. I also rocked out to "Holy Diver" playing on the boombox on the run-up. Moosejaw was looking strong, so I figured he'd be my competition in the sprint, but I've been sprinting pretty well and cracking out hill repeats like nothing lately so figured I had a good shot. He slowed on the last lap, a little cat-and-mouse, perhaps, until the last few corners where he put in a dig. Brown Bear mis-shifted or dropped his chain and I made a pass on him that may have hindered him further. I got on Moosejaw's wheel and let him lead out the sprint up the hill, coming around him to just barely take 4th. A sweet day, the first podium for the ZR Cycles, decent points, in the money, free pint glass, and it turns out that my pull at the front won me the beer prime so I won a free sixer to boot. From what I can tell, most of these faces will be on the podium a lot this year.

photo: Colin

Cale won his race, and the rest of the crew either did well or was plagued by mechanicals. That night I went to the party at Nine's house, got really loaded, and barely found my way back home. Some would consider this a poor attempt at recovery for tomorrow's race, but those people don't have nearly as much fun as I do.


Sunday. The rain and chill in the air eliminated any thoughts of riding to the race, so I loaded up the car and after helping Nine put the leftover keg in his car, Erik and I drove to Verona. Showing up and seeing the cat 4s sliding and crashing all over the muddy corners didn't do much to build enthusiasm, but we registered and took a warm-up spin. Having done well on fast, dry courses so far I was somewhat expecting a reversal of fortune for me in the slop. There were also a handful of fast mountain bikers in attendance that I suspected might have an advantage.

photo: Djonn

Another front-row start, but I fumbled at getting clipped in so made it into the all-important first turn in around 10th or 12th place. Somewhat discouraged, I was able to quickly get around the slower traffic and moved up to around 3rd place behind Erik. He was setting a stiff pace, and I was already fairly happy with where I was, so I followed him for a bit. Neil Swanson was riding hard on our heels on his mountain bike and I could see Maciej not far behind, so I was eager to grow the gap. Pinning it on the road sections a few times gained us some ground on the chasers, and I think I popped Erik off at some point. At that point it was TT mode, I wasn't sure that I could catch Casey but I wanted to fend off any chasers and stay smooth and upright. The course was amazingly fun, enough muddy sections that had to be taken slowly to recover, and enough smooth sections to get on the gas. Casey was holding about 20-25s on me, but I could see a rider catching me from behind. I didn't recognize him at the time, but it was the Moosejaw rider that I outsprinted the day before. He passed me and I tried staying close. Ahead we could see Casey's gap shrinking quickly, I'd later learn that he had started crashing and dropping his chain, and had entirely lost his rhythm. The crowd was starting to go nutty as the remaining laps dwindled. Moosejaw passed Casey, and a little while later I was almost upon him when he slid out in a slippery corner. I squeezed between him and the course ribbon and kept going. He got back on my wheel before the final turns, but my line through the last grass-to-pavement transition was faster, and I heard Frank in the feed zone yelling "Sprint!" I should have been more focused mentally because I didn't know it was the last lap. In any case, he might have saved me and I put in just enough acceleration to keep Casey from catching me and rolled in 2nd.

photos: Djonn

Then we capped off an epic weekend by watched Jesse kill it in the P/1/2/3 race. Time for rest and refocus. This weekend bumped me up in the overall standings, so my sights have been raised a bit for this season. I want to stand on that top step. Thanks to pals for cheering and handups this weekend. Next weekend is the infamous Whitewater Trash Dash on Saturday, Gibbs Lake on Sunday. Bring it.

ZR Cycles: Sneak Preview

I've been trying to contain my excitement for the last few weeks, but the day has finally come. That day is New Bike Day. Last night, after a quick stop at the liquor store for some refreshments, we steered the Wednesday night ride around Lake Monona to the Mainframe so I could drop off the final few parts needed to complete the build. The smell of tubular glue was still in the air as I took a few teaser photos that don't come close to doing the bike justice. I can't wait to see the paint under actual sunlight.

Hopefully I'll have it in my hands this evening, and I'll take it on its maiden voyage to do some race reconnaissance tomorrow evening. I'm still torn on whether I'll run a saddle that vaguely matches the paint or a (lighter) plain black one, but we decided that I'll race on both of them this weekend and the better result will indicate the appropriate saddle to use.

I'll have complete photos and specs up as soon as time and natural light permit, but you can come see it in person when it makes its race debut at the big Madison 'cross weekend.

See what else Zack is up to here.

Back on track

Maybe inspired by my good result at Lapham Peak last weekend, or maybe just as a result of some time off the bike this summer, I've been back in the zone and training like I feel I should. It's fall, it's cyclocross, it's hardman time. Hill repeats in the pouring rain, pre-dawn recovery rides, past-dark miles spontaneously added on long after the hunger knock starts to set in and dreams of dinner start dominating my attention. Burnout is nowhere in sight, this is how it should be. Whether the results keep coming or not, I'm racing once again and it's what defines me.

Last night's session was rudely interrupted. The data:

The summary:

0:30:00 - heading south on Timer Ln, set of 3 "crit sprints". all is well.
0:38:00 - turn east onto Military Ridge. recovery.
0:40:00 - pssst, pssst, pssst, pssst, pssst
0:40:15 - flat tire. not a puncture so much as the entire tread decided to wear through rather suddenly.
replace tube and boot with piece of sandpaper. continue riding gingerly.
0:45:00 - flat again. cellphone comes out. start walking toward Verona.
1:00:00 - fuck this, I'm riding it.
1:04:00 - stop to reconfirm position via cellphone. continue riding
1:06:40 - should I try to take it easy on the rim? walk for a while.
1:10:00 - fuck this, I'm riding it.
1:14:00 - walk
1:24:00 - ride
1:30:00 - arrive in Verona, sit and wait for ride to show up

I didn't get to finish my workout, but that's how a tire's life deserves to end.

No racing this weekend, but hopefully a lot of saddle time between mountain biking and a team ride on the road.

Lapham Peak CX

This past weekend was the Lapham Peak doubleheader. An uphill TT and a cross country TT on Saturday, a real cross race on Sunday. The TTs were about as un-fun as predicted, though I didn't ride terribly. Showed up ~25 seconds late for my start on the hill climb, so that hurt my time. I had a pretty good time on the cross country TT and overall I don't think my blunder was enough to have taken me out of the money on its own, so no harm done.

Sunday was much more fun. We had a pretty good turnout, and it was fun having so many people to cheer for in the 4s, almost to the point where you can't even keep track of everyone.

My race consisted of three distinct phases. The first was a bad start. I showed up to the line later than I should have (as per usual) and got a second-row start which guaranteed getting bottlenecked into the middle of the pack. Then while trying to get around riders who were at a near standstill at the first barrier, my chain came off. That could have been much worse than it was, because the front derailleur I have mounted for the purpose of keeping it on is a tight enough fit that it doesn't always want to go back on once it's off. Luckily I was able to pedal it back on, but lost a handful of spots in the process. So I spent the next couple of laps on the rivet, trying to get past slower traffic. At one point I saw Ben at the side of the trail, working on getting his chain back on. Quite an unfortunate setback for him, since he was probably at the front when it happened.

The middle phase was settling in and slowly moving up. I got into a group of four with Nine and a couple of hangers-on, and I got the impression that everyone else was pretty gassed. Nine and I traded at the front of the group a few times, and the other two would yo-yo but kept coming back. What looked like an ISCorp rider rode up to us and kept going on ahead. I was able to recover a bit, and normally this would be where I would go into survival mode to maintain my current spot. This time, though, I had a rare combination of mental sharpness and the legs to increase the pace, so my goal was more aggressive than usual. I felt I could go faster and the group was softpedaling a bit after barriers, so I came to the front and turned it up a bit through the next set, held it on the open flat section after it, and they faded back.

photo: Djonn

Now in no-man's-land, I could see riders off in the distance ahead, and nobody behind. Out of nowhere, Ben rides past me and I grab his wheel for a lap or two. We could see Casey and another rider ahead. "Is that third and fourth place?" "I dunno, is there another rider besides the Polksa up there?" "Not sure, how many laps left?" "I don't know." "I think we can catch them." Ben did a good impression of being tired for a minute and I took a turn setting the pace. Then we hit the run-up and he hit the gas again, fading off into the distance. For the last two laps I rode with the happiness of seeing the front end of the race just ahead of me and worked on reeling them in.

Ben ended up making his way all the way back up front to take the win. Unbelievable. I came in fifth, so all things considered I'm very satisfied, and whatever I did right I hope I can keep doing it. Sometimes the suffering fades into the background and things just work out.

also by Djonn