2 Olympians, 2 Days.

I raced Saturday afternoon in Longmont at Xilinx business park. The venue was really cool and the course was one of the best this year. The registration and bathrooms were inside this big office building, but right inside the door was a big stainless steel locker room type thing off to one side with hooks lining all the walls for employees to hang their bikes on. That is why I like Boulder, not that I could ever handle working in a large office building, but it would be cool to have an indoor place to hang your bike at work. Anyway, the course had a nice little road climb into some singletrack, over a set of uphill barriers, into some off camber stuff and another parking lot false flat which led to a smoking fast winding descent. At the end of the descent you hit a large field that the course snaked around in. There were two different log barrier sections, and one little ditch that you could bunny hop over. I had a great start and at the top of the road climb second lap, I was sitting comfortably in the top ten. I threw my chain again and lost a few places which I was working on getting back when the chain came off again on about lap 5. I had a decent rythym through the course and kept going back and forth with a few Vitamin Cottage guys. I thought I finally had them dropped when I jumped the little ditch and got all sideways and squirrely in the air. I came down and instantly stacked it up into the barriers. I got up, got my chain back on and finished out the last three laps. Overall I felt great physically until those last 15 minutes when my legs just started going slower and slower, but I feel like I finished stronger than last week. I ended with 13th on the day I believe which is alright, but I wish I could have gone without the chain problems and held onto that top ten a little longer. JHK showed up to stretch his legs out a little I guess and absolutely tore everyone apart. Rumor has it there may be a US Gran Prix race at this venue next year, which would be absolutely awesome. Of course this is only a rumor.

Saturday night, Scott, Ray, and I went to the Feighny residence in Loveland for a slideshow of Mike and Dick's trip to France this summer. The pictures were pretty cool, but not nearly as cool as the array of appetizers and desserts that were set out in their kitchen. I think I ate about enough for 3 days. Scott met up with his old buddy KC and they had a ball. It's good to see Scotty in such fine spirits. I'm pretty sure Scott recruited another client at the party, Ray most likely sold 2 motorcycles, and all I did was eat. Oh well, the food was awesome.

Today's race didn't go so well. The day started off great with a stellar 8th place performance by our very own Scott "BOO YAH" Wenzel in the Cat. 4 race. He had a little wheel trouble on the second to last lap, but luckily he has a grade "A" pit crew and he got a rear wheel change in about 15 seconds and didn't even lose a place, plus he still got his feed on the backside of the loop. My race started great just like yesterday. At the end of the first lap I was sitting right where I wanted to be, and even moving up a little, but I rolled my rear tire on a remount, got pissed, and pulled the plug. I feel stupid about not finishing, but I guess there is nothing I can do about it now. Colby Pearce showed up and I'm pretty sure he finished the race. I need to figure a few things out. #1 I need to get my chain problem fixed. I'm going to get a Third Eye chainwatcher and set it really close to my chainring and I think that will do it. Maybe I'll put a new chain on too, mine right now is pretty stretched. Problem #2, I need to figure this tire thing out. After ever race there will be a little part of the bead coming off from my Tufo tires. I was under the impression that these things were supposed to work great at low PSI, and I hear people saying they are running like 30-35 pounds and don't have problems. I figure I weigh a little more then the average pro cross racer so I keep them closer to 45 PSI and they are still constantly coming off. The most obvious solution is to simply lose the weight and get about 10 times smoother on the bike, that's not gonna happen overnight though. Another solution might be a different wheelset, maybe the bead on a Mavic would hold it better? The only other solution I can think of is gluing them on. Maybe just a little tubular glue along the beads? If anyone has any ideas let me know. I'm always open to suggestion. I just want to finish a race without thinking, "I wonder what would have happened if _______ hadn't broken."

I think that pretty much sums up my weekend. Thanks again to Mike and Jen for having us. I'm sure those 3 or 4 pieces of pumpking cheesecake helped that tire roll just a little easier. Although the weekend didn't quite go as planned, I still had a lot of fun. I don't think I'll ever get used to lining up on a start line with people that I read about in magazines, and look up to so much. I would be like taking batting practice with Kirby Puckett when I was in grade school, only these guys don't beat their wives or sexually assault ladies as far as I know.