I should be reading

Well hello all, I should be reading the two books that I need to have read by next week, but I'm not so here I am. I raced what I think is my last cross race of the season on Sunday, and it couldn't have gone worse. The course was at Dakota Ridge High School in Littleton, there mostly raced on grass and washboard style trails. The first set of barriers wern't bad, but the second was at the bottom of a huge run up and was really tough. I had a pretty good position for the first lap of the race and felt ok, then I crashed once, it wasn't too bad but it definately shook me up quite a bit. I got back on my bike and tried to regain my position, then the kid in front attacked and all the kids in front of me were burying it just to try to stay with him, and it was a pace I couldn't keep up on. This led to my second crash, which wasn't bad at all I wasn't going very fast and I recovered quickly. With about 2 laps to go I was having a lot of trouble trying to get into my pedal after the barrier section, which slowed me down a lot and I continued to drop places. On the last lap I crashed really hard about 100 meters from the finish. I could have quit the race right there, and in the process one of the juniors passed me and another was coming up hard. I'm not sure what place I got and I don't really care, but it sucked getting beat by a 12 year old but not everyone has a great day on the bike.
I didn't really end my cross season on a good note, but I had a ton of fun with it all year, and it is something to work up to for next year. I want to thank corey for letting me use his bike all season and scotty for helping me out too. Well base for road season starts on monday...wish me luck!

Im tired

Well I raced in Golden this weekend and it was an interesting race for sure. Lately in all the races I've done, I have felt really bad right out of the gate, and a lot better about 20 minutes in. So I tried to have a longer and harder warm up today and it made all the difference. Right from the start it pretty much split into 2 groups, just about half and half. I got into the first group and felt really good for the first 30 minutes. Our group of 15 or so turned into about 9 then the guy in front attacked so the pace was made a lot faster. The course was very flat, lots of corners and very bumpy, I thought that keeping the most momentum and speed through the turns would be to my advantage. So I came into a corner a little to hot, bike came out from under me and I crashed hard, probably harder than I ever have in a cross race. I got up and regrouped only to find that my bars were bent one way, and I was pretty scratched up. I finished the race but did not put in any significant efforts to come back. I ended up taking second to last place I think.
I'm dissappointed with how my race went but part of racing is taking risks, and sometimes it comes out in negative consequences. Anywho, I know how to warm up for other races now and I feel that I can do much better next week! I had a lot of people cheering for me including Corey's mom, my dad, grandparents, Scotty, Ambrette, Corey and I even got a shout from our good friend Dave Towle. Scotty had similar luck in his race, broke his shifter cable and got to do his race in a 40-12, doesn't sound like fun to me. Corey's race was very fun to watch, we were all rooting for him and he pulled out 3rd place good job everybody, and thanks for checking in.

Jacob Haines

Well I have had a rough couple of days. I had to go to a funeral for a friend on tuesday afternoon. If you look at the picture the kid on the far right is Jake, he was just 18. Apparently, he tried to beat a train in his car on friday morning, and didn't make it. There was easily five or six hundred people at this funeral, it is amazing how many people he really did touch. I met him this August when school started because he is a friend of one of my roommates. I remember him as the kid who always made you laugh and had the biggest smile you will ever see. His parents and friends who talked at the funeral said the exact same thing about Jake. I could only imagine what his parents are going through right now, having to bury their son. I remember the last time we talked he asked what I was doing this weekend, I told him I was racing my bike in boulder. He told me, well you better win because you ride all the time! I didn't really think about what he said until today, and it really hit me hard. Jake like you always said, if you aren't living life on the edge you are just taking up space. Jake for the short time I knew you we had a blast, and I will never forget it. Someday if I ever win I bike race I am going to dedicate it to you. Rest in peace Jake

Cyclocross

Hello all, I recently have gotten into cyclocross thanks to my good friends Corey and Scott, and Mark Cooper, for letting me use his bike. The pictures I have here are from last weekend.

This is me at the top of the run up, it was really muddy as you can tell.

This is the bottom of the run-up, Corey got Dave Towle to say my name, it may have made me go faster but im not sure.

Scotty got this pretty sweet action shot of me carrying the bike.

Well as for the race I felt kinda crappy right off the bat, and I was extremely nervous. I stayed with a group for a little while within the first 2 laps or so. On the second lap, I hit a bump and my bars decided to do a little spin on me, and I nearly hit my face on the stem. I think that it held me back the rest of the race, but live and learn I guess.

As for this past weekend it was at the Boulder Reservoir, with a lot of sand on the run up, very tough course for sure. Corey rigged up his Surly for me to race on for awhile and it worked out great. I felt really good the whole race, attacked a couple people got nice and dirty and ended up in 58th out of 90. Afterwords we watched the UCI race and cheered Corey on. Thanks again to Scott and Corey for introducing me to another type of bike racing!