The First Prairie Cross is in the Bag!

Wow.

First a BIG thank you to all the volunteer help. I don't think I said it enough yesterday. All you volunteers did a tremendous job. Couldn't have done it with out you.

Second, thanks to ALL the riders who came over. Turnout was good with about 40 riders total. Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and of course Wisconsin were represented. From all the talking I did with racers afterwards, every liked the course, even though it ended being harder than anticipated. Was it the lenght? Or was it the soul sucking long gradual climb right in the middle of the loop? Or was it the heat? MAN was it hot out there! 80+ degrees hot. Talk about unseasonable...And there I was wearing black. Go figure.

My race went uh...poorly. I was off the back almost immediately. I foolishly let out too much air from my tires at the start line. I thought it would make the bumpy course a bit smoother. Not so. I had to ride SO gingerly that first lap. I was waaaay off the back almost immediately. Oh well, I'll jut suffer along and hope I can catch some one by the last lap. Well, I DID catch someone [Dale] who promptly pulled a Benken[long standing inside joke from the 'kato scene] on me. Completely took the wind outta me and my effort. I fell back again and suffered through the heat of the last lap.

I need to give a big thanks to Renee and her crew from Madison for supporting us and coming over. She's the brains behind MadCross, and puts a ton of effort into expanding the 'cross world here in WI.

Will I do it again next year? You betcha! And I sure hope to get even more riders here. For a first year event, I'm glad that 40 showed. Lets me find the errors while they're small and unobtrusive. Will I go for full WCA series calendar status? Probably not. I like keeping this affordable and fun. Should bring out more racers/riders that way.

Some photos: credit for them to Dale. Thanks for coming up from Ill-noise Dale.











In other news, it appears that Mike and I are working on the same bikes. Odd that, since he's in Northern California, and I'm here in Wisconsin. His last two posts in particular are eyebrow raising. I swear I've had this conversation about bar tape with Gita as she's ambling about the shop babbling about babies and puppies.

There must be something in the air with camera's too. Jason seems to be having issues with his stuff too. As any photographer will know, it sucks being with out your gear at any time. If that time happens to be now though. During autumn. With out. a. camera. Ohhh...it hurts!


Listening too: The Current. In the mug: black gold from McGregor Coffee Roasters.

This is just too awesome.

Gotta post this one up. Watch and enjoy.

Prairie Cross Poster!

It took a bit to get up - but its worth it! Hope we get a good turn out. Clicky
HERE!to see the pdf.

Cryptic, eh?

That last post I mean. What is it? Well, stating the obvious, its a map. But you didn't need me to point that out for you. More specifically, its a map to the site of the Cyclocross race being put on by me, The Prairie Peddler and Chris from Viroqua Cross. I'm excited to get this off the ground. I've mailed flyers to other area shops, hoping to pull some riders from there. Hear that La Crosse? Decorah? Platteville? Viroqua? Even you Madison people not heading to Chicago! Come on down for $5 worth of garunteed fun!

On another cyclocross note, I went over to Laphan Peak State Park for the WCA cross race there on Sunday. When I woke at 5:30/dark oclock. I could here the steady pitterpatter of rain on the roof. Great. No really. Great! I love racing in wet, sloppy miserable conditions. Its just more fun that way. Well, that plan/thought lasted untill Dodge Center where it stopped raining. When RT and I got to LPSP, its was all dry and almost sunny. Wish I left the fast tires on the bike now...oh well.

Since I haven't really done a cross race in a few years, and RT not at all, we both decided that we'd start at the back of the 4's and gut it out for 30 minutes or so.

That thought didn't last very long. As soon as the officail said GO!, my latent competitive streak kicked in and I gunned it. I immediately passed a good number of racers and settled into a good pace. Other racers couldn't maintain what they started with though, and I started passing fading riders. Lap two I think I got four in all. Lap three and four, I still felt really good, and started pushing it a little harder, bridging gaps of 50 meters or more between places. Pulled a few nice passes, and made some really good time on the downhills. What really surprised me is that I was able continue closing gaps on the hillclimbs. I would normally expect to loose a bit of ground there, seeing as that I'm certainly above the 200lb mark. I guess living in and riding these hills here has really worked for me!

As I rolled in for the last lap bell, I could see one last rider I though I'd be able to catch, I kept pushing hard, and I was slowly gaining, but not fast enough. I didn't really feel like pushing it TOO hard and crashing out, so I let the gap stay where it was and rode it in.

And this is where the surprise came in. I got 9th of 31 in the field.

Yup, I'm happy with that.

There were lots of cameras there from a photography club in Mwke. Hopefully, I can find some of them. I'll post up if I do!

listening to: Man or AstroMan 1000x

View Larger Map

Mogrel 'cross!

Ben showed me his.

Now here's mine. Not quite as, uh, good looking as his, but a mongrel no less. Its an ooooolllld Trek 420 or something that I had canti studs brazed on to. Peiced together from parts in the garage, and its stayed mostly the same for a long time. XC Pro/Araya wheelset courtesy of my man Dale. Ritchey Logic cranks, 177.5 mm long. Ti railed Salsa seat. Bontrager Satelite bars, upside down. Has lived life happily as a commuter for a number of years, but has has seen the race course in the past.

From The Prairie Peddler

There ya go Ben.

listening to: Uncle Tupelo; 89/93 An Anthology

Whew. That storm is over. NEXT!

The BRAVE ride held last Saturday went well. Really well. The [perfect] day had 76 riders show up for our inaugural ride. They came from Chicago, Colorado, Arizona, Iowa and of course Wisconsin (mostly Madison area). I only changed one flat all day, and only gave one lost rider a ride back to the start. Speaking of lost riders...there were too many.

Something I didn't anticipate was the number of people that would rely on cue sheets for directions. I was (I thought) pretty meticulous about marking the course on the ground, and that's what folks would use to navigate with. Not so. So along that line of thinking, DON'T use mapmyride for cue sheets! Directions were wrong, and road names were wrong. The maps produced are fine, but only for examples sake.

From BRAVE

The views. And a little bit of gravel. Won't be any of that next year.

From BRAVE

More views. Something we're not short on 'round here.

From BRAVE

The day dawned foggy. The drive to the start was stunning. Fog in the valley's, clear on the ridge tops. It was hard to not stop and fill the card up on the way there!

From BRAVE

Yep we have corn. Just not as much as IA.

From BRAVE

Near the top of probably the hardest climb on the route. nearly 600' in a bit over a mile or so. And this guy giggled as he rode by. Nice!

And up next we have something I'm really excited about. The Prairie Peddler and Viroqua Cross are getting together and putting on a Cyclocross Race. I've mentioned it before, but things are starting to come together for it! Went out and previewed the course on Monday. I saw that parking will be at a premium, as there was a JV Cross Country event happening as I rolled up on the Kelly.



I think I may have scared a few people. Not that I want to or anything like that! I milled about, waiting for the course to be clear, then proceeded to ride a few loops. I rode a couple different directions, trying to come up with something that'll be fast, but fun and challenging. I think I've got it. Check the image provided by my handy GPS unit.