Shoe Steez and Bruises

On Saturday, I made my way back north to visit the fam, and because I just can't get enough, I jumped in a Women's 4's race in Cannon Falls, MN, joining Kayla and Becky (representing The Hub) for their first road races ever.

STYLIN' SHOE STEEZ from left to right: plastic bags in Sidis, Nike hightops, and never ridden Specialized road shoes/cleats

The race was cold, misty, and fast paced in the beautiful Minnesota country. Lots of rolling hills and amazing descents, ending in a super steep uphill battle to the finish line. For once, I decided to be patient with my jump, knowing that if I took off too early, I'd burn out; the plan ended up working, and I finished 8 seconds ahead of the next lady for my first road win ever!

Click for my submission to Cat up to Team Post Up

On Sunday, Daphne and Jamie rolled out to Cobb Park for the third Illinois Cup race with a game plan that included James going for the win.  Unfortunately, partway through their final attack, James was crashed out, leaving Daphne to pick another W for the leaderboard. James was a great sport about it, though, and gave a smile for the camera.

Purrrdy James!

Next up, we have the Urbana Grand Prix, where we plan on doing some homework, soaking in some 70 degree rays, doubling up and pulling off some more high results! See you there!

"HI, I'M MUMFORD."

Photo courtesy of Dilts

Remember the first time you met him? Or the first time you heard him shout "TEAM KRUNKSHOX" from across the park? Get ready to see more of the proclaimed "Dave Zabriskie of Cuttin Crew" all pretty in pink at all of the road races this man can manage.

Every generation has had their Cher, their Madonna, their Ke$ha. We've got our MUMFORD.

Need I say it?

FIRE IT UP!

Brian's Big A Debut

Remember Bri Bri? Well, he's off making a name for himself in yet another region of cycling, this time Collegiate. He's finishing up his second semester at Lees-McRae, and between classes, he has somehow found time to crush some races. Here's his latest report from the weekend.

Photo courtesy of Tom Reed

Had my big debut racing in the A's at Clemson!

We did an 8mi TTT that featured a very tight turn around and a very long roller climb on the way back. My fitness was unbelievable and my smoothness was top notch. We ended up dropping one teammate on the climb and came in with a perfect sprint finish 3 wide.

Later that day was the 3 lap 60mi RR with a lot of rollers and crosswinds. The same climb that was in the TTT was in the RR about 2mi from the S/F. An early break of 6 went up the road on the first lap. We only had one guy in it. I felt we should have brought it back right away but the team captain let the gap build to 3.5min. On the second lap we came through the feed zone where our coach instructed us to begin chasing. Pain face. We had 7 men at the front hammering. After a lap and a half the gap came down to 55sec. The break surged and opened it back up to 1.5min. Coming through the feed again we found out that our teammate wasn't taking any pulls and was still fresh and the chase was called off. However a break of 5 moved up the road with not LMC present. We were all gassed from chasing. My next objective was to attack at smart times and cause Mars Hill and Cumberland to chase me down. I was finding holes very well and countering my attacks. Mars Hill, mainly Sebastian, had to chase me down several times at 35mph. I was then tasked with protecting the sprinter from the crosswinds because everyone was being guttered and the road changed directions too often to form echelons. He ran out of water and I relinquished my last bottle of Gatorade to Zac, the sprinter. With about 2/3 lap to go, Zac got into a break with Sebastian from Mars Hill and one Cumberland racer. Sebastian is Zac's nemesis who has raced for the German National Team so this was big. They go up the road and I stay in with the peleton which has dwindled to only about 10 riders. There were a total of 11 men in the lead group then and 3 men chasing. Everyone else was shelled off of the back. We get to that final climb and I knew that if I was in the back of the group I would have a very hard time staying in contact. I moved up to the front and hit the hill with good momentum and paced the climb. When we get to the top I realize that that brought the pack down to about 6 men. My teammate Joe launched a flyer with a mile to go while everyone was drinking water. He was never brought back. Cumberland sent a flyer a little later. I got a leadout but was dropped off too soon with about 500m to go. I accelerated in the seat and stood up and hammered with about 300m. I was gaining quickly on the Cumberland flyer but ran out of race as a Mars Hill squeaked past me at the line. After I finished I found out that our one man from the early break won the sprint easily and that Zac had dropped Sebastian on the climb.

Sunday was the crit. 60+2min on a four corner course. My objective was to chase down moves and not pull through on them. I ended up in about ten different moves. It was extremely painful to have to go again and again and again but I did it. With 2 to go I was very close to the front when two riders from King College went up the road. I saw them coming and hopped on their wheel. I did not pull through and we were caught. However, I was burning my final matches and struggled to get back into the single file pack. Should have let them go. I found my way back into the top half of the line. Between turns 2 and 3 on the final lap and elite group pulled away featuring our winner from yesterday Jake, Zac, and Sebastian. When I saw this I jumped HARD to get up to them but to also not bring anyone up with me. I got stuck in no mans land and was able to finish 9th, Jake got 5th, and Zac took 'er home beating Sebastian once again.

I earned a spot to race Conference this weekend at Brevard. The head coach says that if I raced like I did at Clemson again, then I will be flying to Utah for Nationals to race the crit! Walk-on B team Freshman to Nationals Team in under one season!

Watch out for him in the Midwest this summer! Looks like Bri's learned a thing or two this school year!

Top 10 Hillsboro highlights

10. Mumford mooned Half Acre at 90 mph, especially impressive since they had to hot swap drivers on the highway to pull it off.

9. Brian Ellison on a conference call, over breakfast at Dohacks Family Restaurant. "FUCK YEAH DUDES. FIRE IT UP." The entire conversation was in all caps.

8. Jamie opting out of racing in the nasty and serving as soigneur, first class. We all needed it at some time or another.

7. Marie got reacquainted with her old friend, Hillsboro mailbox. This time, mailbox took the worst of it and Marie finished in the top 10.

6. Daphers capped off her first trip to the borough of hills with a medal in 4th.

5. Andrew flatted, and for once, he had listened to the race organizers in not putting too many extra wheels in the truck and counted on borrowing one. No dice, so he celebrated early with the ladies.

4. Avi finally dragged himself over the hill near the front, for the first time ever, where a slow leak caught up with him. He scrounged up a wheel from the ladies of the crew and rode a lap solo, because he has an old DETH B4 DNF prison tattoo.

3. Mumford had to pee, so he told the front group he was going off to make it rain, and rode away. Nobody knows exactly what happened up there, but rumor has it has was wheelying around a corner on a descent, whilst peeing in the gutter, things got a little too krunk, and he decided to pull off and water a tree properly. Unfortunately this act of bravado inspired everyone to start acting like they were in a bike race, and left him chasing.

2. Mike was 5th wheel over the top of the final climb, but a little overcompensation for 4th wheel's wide line put him in some deep gravel. He recovered to finish in the teens.

1. Our post-race goose chase (in search of beer and food under the same roof) found us at a bar constructed entirely of particle board and Tyvek signs. The kitchen had a two pizza capacity, but they gave us free jello shots. Hillsboro's equivalent of "the tamale guy" surfaced, so we didn't starve. We almost had a Karaoke outbreak, but we were able to control ourselves, though the owner tried to entice us by offering to set up the beer pong table. I think he recognized our potential.

Actually a couple of those things weren't very fun at all, but they were supplemented by the following: several members of our entourage, J-Rho and K-Tom, notched top tens. Mumford was interviewed on race radio over the loudspeaker at the s/f, where he recounted his off-road adventures while somehow not violating God's code of conduct. Mike said, "hey, check this out" before dropping his pants. Andrew invented "Nordyking it" though it somehow remains undefined. Avi brought his wife a Neurogasm from a highway truck stop, but she didn't seem to be too impressed. Mumford did 27 other things that were so entertaining, he should be paid just to hang around and make people happy. And for god's sake, if Hillsboro means one thing, it's bike racing season again, so even with good legs and disappointing results, how bad can life be?

Winning Tutorial

UPDATE:

Check out our interview at ICA's website! They've posted a lot of really cool media lately, and I can't wait to see what else they've got in store for the season!

We've got a barrage of results to share! 2012 is looking realllll good.

March 24th brought about Barry Roubaix, a grueling gravel race in Michigan. Mumford, Max, Avi, and Christina made the trek and made the results! (If you want more stories, you know all you gotta do is ask them!)

Max - 6th, 36-mile 20-29 Men

Avi - 4th, 36-mile Single Speed

Christina - 2nd, 36-mile 11-29 Women

Mumford - 19th, 62-mile Overall

Followed came a week of racing with Half Acre's well executed Gapers Block Crits, making history with an average of 38 women racing each night! Not all of the racers were placed, but of the results, we had teammates make marks every day!

3/26/12 Mike - 2nd

3/27/12 Avi - 6th Christina - 3rd

3/28/12 Marie - 9th Christina - 10th

3/29/12 Marie - 3rd Max - 3rd Andrew - 11th Josh - 17th

And, finally, the first race of the Illinois Cup series, Super Crit highlighted some lessons.

Lesson #1: Always bring extra pairs of everything because it is much colder than weather.com predicts

Lesson #2: You are stronger than you think you are

Lesson #3: If you work as a team, you will get amazing team results

Lesson # 4: Don't give up til you cross that line

Lesson #5: When you win a race, you have exactly one obligation:

...as opposed to... (thanks Greg for the photos!)

Results:

Womens 4: Daphne - 1st Marie - 2nd

Mens 4/5: Andrew - 7th

Womens Open: Daphne -  6th

Mens 4: Andrew - 19th Josh - 27th

Our next sanctioned race is looking like Hillsboro, but if you wanna keep in shape this weekend, join us for BEERSTER!

ULTRACROSS

Avi and I headed down to Georgia last weekend for some Waffle House (there’s a good one in Georgia) and the chance to buy our gas, fireworks and liquor all at the same store. While there we decided to stop by the SouthernX endurance cyclocross race in Dahlonega at the rustic and partially foreclosed Montaluce Winery and Estates. The race started out in the Winery proper and quickly headed out on the highway towards the mountains.

Photo credit to Weldon Weaver Photography

The first climb was kind of a shock to the system but Avi gutted it out on the steepest ramps of the day while I was off and running. Twice. It’s hard to complain about being over-geared in a situation like that, but for the record 39x25 was nowhere near low enough. I felt pretty good though and managed to work my way through the field on the climbs and limit my losses on the descents which were absolutely insane.

Photo credit to Weldon Weaver Photography

I don’t think I can over state how competitive Avi’s singlespeed field was. I didn’t catch the second place ss rider till the very top of the first climb. When I did, I saw he was using a freaking powertap. I caught the first place ss guy on one of the intermediate climbs but he passed me back on final unpaved descent surfing the top tube with his hands under his chest and nowhere near the brakes.

I got a flat in the last 5 miles and lost about 15 spots in the overall while I tossed a new tube in. To be fair though, I had seen at least four of the people that passed me stuck on the side of the road with flats of their own earlier in the race. The roads were pretty rugged. I was so distracted by the people flying by that I only put about 12 pounds in the tire and forgot to hook my rear brake back up. Luckily we were done with the gravel/rock/dirt descent at that point and I avoided pinch-flatting on the remount. Unfortunately there was plenty of climbing and descending left before the finish. Of the 51.2 miles in the race, I think there were about two that would qualify as flat around here. I nursed the bike through the remaining switchbacks and down the cx course heading to the finish, barely managing to hold off two more riders. I'm pretty sure they didn’t take a beer on the final run up though, so the odds weren't in their favor.

In the end I got 15th in the Men’s Open and Avi was 10th singlespeed. We were happy to see some familiar faces out on the course and the Chicago cyclocross scene was well represented with Eric Drummer 14th, Chris Jensen 48th, Paolo Urizar 84th, and Mia Moore 9th in the Women’s Open.

Many thanks are due to our gracious hosts, Mitzie and Barry as well as their son Sam who gave up his room for the weekend. We had a blast staying with you guys.

Check out video highlights HERE!!