when all youre planning to do is ride your mountain bike around in circles for 24hrs... in the legend, there was this afrikaans guy with an old beater of a mountain bike, his coffee pot as his support crew, and his velskoene - shoes that are as dear to the afrikaans as clogs are to the dutch. and if i remember correctly, he took on the lycra clad, spare bike wielding masses and beat all but one. my attempt to plan like the guy in the legend went up in smoke with all the help i got from olympic cycles, and the canadian avenger flew in this morning with some fresh heckling just for the occasion.
against what im sure is perfectly good advice, i am only taking one gear with me - 32x16. one speed steel frame hardtails just never seem to get old. the course out at oak valley is rumoured to be relatively flat, and the weather is certain to be more than just relatively warm. 4 of my mates are entering a singlespeed team, and last i heard planning to stick it to just about everyone, and another 7 of my mates are entering a 'social' team. who knows what they plan to do with all their spare time
anyway, the bags are packed, lights (thanks again to olympic who still help me out whenever i need stuff for a race on my summer holidays) are charged, bottles are filled. early start tomorrow, so its time to sign off. 12noon saturday till 12noon sunday. cant wait - 24hrs of oak valley :-)
the luckier you get. or so i have been told. i guess i wasnt trying hard enough then :-P either that or i can say that with all this bad luck, i should have a long lucky career in cyclocross ahead of me! the race in rotterdam ended 20mins in with a broken derailleur and dropout. the third time this season! its tempting to blame the refurbished derailleur and thus my own workmanship for this, but said derailleur functioned perfectly for a full 50mins last weekend under arguably worse conditions. anyway, such is this muddy life. 5th place in this race, and overall, slips through my muddy, thermal glove covered fingers, and i have to settle for a DNF and 7th in the championship.
on the bright side, 7th place is still in the prize money, and while it wont replace my rear derailleur, i win just enough to buy a new dropout for the kinesis, plus one as a spare. im not going to cry (for long) over how if i hadnt missed 3 races, and the 15points you get just for starting, and if i had had spare bikes at the races like the pros (and some of the guys i raced against), i would have finished a few places higher up in the overall rankings. the milk is spilt.
tears would be shed mostly happily anyway. this was my first cyclocross season, steep learning curve and all that, and while i lost 5th at the last race due to a mechanical, i still achieved my goal of a top ten position overall. looks like i also need a new chain! thanks to sven for this photo. and to the canadian avenger and friends who turned up or supported online, you guys rock, much love to you all! so now its time for a little (sunshine) break before training for the road season starts, proper. amateur racing license has arrived, there is a new bike in the pipeline, more details will appear as things are confirmed. cheers
there is still mud on my bike. no bike cleaning facilities at the race on Sunday added insult to injury, as I was forced to pull out of the race probably by some of this very same mud. I came round the corner to see one of the guys I normally race against looking at his derailleur perched unnaturally above his cassette. he forced a smile and warned me that it was muddy, yeah cheers, and 2 pedal strokes later my derailleur found the same position. now I'm not sure if it was the riders talking or the bikes crunching (crunch. crunch crunch? crunch crunch!!) to each other, but this started some kind of chain reaction as about 6 of the 10 riders around me suffered the same fate, at exactly the same spot
up until this point, it was good racing. somewhere between 50 and 60 people on the start line and I was riding in around 25th place at the time of the muddy derailleur death. good to see that the level of the national races is not hugely different from the level of the weekly provincial races, this bodes well for next season. anyway I think I put my dura ace derailleur back together, using some parts salvaged from the old 105 derailleur which died earlier in the season. only problem now is, the drop out of my frame is broken. this shouldn't have been a problem, as last week i ordered a new frame to replace the cracked schwinn, but it hasnt arrived yet. so while i wait and hope it arrives, i am choosing ratios for Saturday's races if it comes to it that I have to do it singlespeed.
thanks to the canadian avenger for the video, and willem jan, who has come to 2 races and witnessed 2 mechanicals, coincidence..? saturday's race is in berkel, riding distance away, looking forward to it, gears or no gears!
Aah Delft, home of the famous blue pottery, johannes vermeer and delft technical university, organisers of this weeks race. Straight to the race then :-P Its funny how 1 lap can change your whole image of a race. Almost 30 guys turned up for A-klasse this week despite (or perhaps for the excuse to play in) the snow and thanks to seeding, I was able to get a good start position. The start was pretty fast, if you had the racing line like me, but plenty of people went exploring the deeper snow off the racing line and some even succeeded in picking up speed. I entered the first singletrack around 12th place I guess but soon got restless. There was some slipping and sliding and some people even unashamedly made snow angels close to the icy parts of the track. With a bit of luck, some pushing and shoving, and some annoying beeping from my heart rate monitor, which seemed to think i was operating at 102% of my max, I made it into 6th place by the end of the 1st lap.
I was lucky enough at this point to be tucked neatly in the wheel of the number 1 ranked rider in the championship, who had had a bad start and was working his way to the sharp end of the race. It didnt take us long to catch the 3rd place rider, who we both passed, and then I decided I was bored of watching Kees' back wheel and I let him ride away from me. So there I was, 4th place, pretty happy with myself, everything working fine, until I got overtaken, and then overtaken again. At this point, even tho I was in 6th place, it felt like I was having a pretty average race, with the great unwashed about to trample me as they came passed. Even the stairs became challenging...
But thanks to the encouragement of the canadian avenger, clearly feeling at home in her natural habitat (snow), and the fact that everyone was feeling the pace a little, the great unwashed never caught me. And then that 1 Lap I was referring to earlier happened. The mud and snow decided to annoy other people and I was free to clip in to my pedals first time after each of the 3 sections where running was well, erm, faster. The guys in 5th place hardly noticed me go by he was trying so hard to clip in, and then suddenly, I was right behind the guy in 4th place, who later told me he had already all but given up trying to clip in at this point. All that was left was some hard pedalling, a daring overtaking maneuver on the last corner, and voila, 4th place!
anyway, this puts me in a 3 way tie for 7th place overall, 2 points behind 6th place, 3 points ahead of 10th. and it looks like the snow might just hang around until boxing day in leiden.
delft cx race heart rate monitor stats: duration 57:25 heart rate max 194 (this is getting a bit silly now) heart rate average 182 1038KCal 15% fat (Changed wheels and forgot to move the magnet for the speed sensor so no speed this week. I would however estimate the speed to be: not very fast, and the distance to be: not very far, this is cyclocross remember)
dordrecht cx race heart rate monitor stats: duration 56.20 heart rate max 193 heart rate average 183 1045KCal 15% fat 16.4km, 34.3max, 17.4avg (speed sensor was this weeks' bike upgrade)
aah dordrecht, the oldest city in zuid holland, population 120000 density, 1500 people per square kilometer. and just on the outskirts of town, cycling club drc de mol found the space to set out a great cyclocross course with plenty of nice winding singletrack, a bit of elevation gain and loss and mud, glorious mud. around 20 guys arrived for the A-Klasse, including some pretty fast guys meaning that 1st and 2nd place in the championship came in at 6th and 7th respectively. and I came in 8th :-)
last week in the snow it seemed like every time I pedaled hard I ended up sliding off the course, well that was my excuse at least for the average result, and hardly being tired after the race. dordrecht mud however seemed to be what my skinny hutchinson tires were designed for, I felt good, pedaled hard and was really really tired after the race. things are getting interesting in the overall points standings, and while this 8th place brought a decent number of valuable points with it, I stay in 11th place overall. 4 more races to go. until Saturday in delft...
that's me in the background wearing every piece of winter cycling clothing i have. it was pretty cold, even when we got going, but somehow manageable. and while it wasn't the coldest (see previous blog post), it definitely was the snowiest day of riding ever for me. at least half of the course was racing on packed down snow, while the other half was churned up mush of snow, ice, sand and grass. good times :-)
i think this one was taken during the warm-up. we normally get about 20mins on the course after the masters' and ladies' races finish. it was more of an -up tho, cos i cant say i managed to get warm... the result of my slipping and sliding and occasional face-planting? 15th out of 20. slipping down to 11th place overall. not fantastic as i struggled to find a rhythm for the first half of the race. the second half of the race was better, as i found that rhythm, overtook some people, stayed on the racing line, mostly, and on the bike, mostly. in a few short wintery days we get to do it all over again in dordrecht.
yesterday was my coldest messenger shift on a bike to date. thank goodness for army surplus stores where I found some awesome gloves the day before for 6euros! I also finally found a use for the dorky scarf type things I bought for my first snow experience 7 years ago but never really used. face-covering-dork-scarf-things are the new beard. and after a days riding and heavy breathing through them, im pretty sure they'd repel almost all insects, and most humans.
the hard working titanium bike got some aerodynamic fake titatium upgrades for the day too. the pretty shapes got me thinking, and there's plenty of time for thinking while delivering packages, about aerodynamics. mostly because the shapes the fake titanium formed, over and over no matter how many times I tried to shake it off by hopping over imaginary obstacles hidden by all the fake titanium on the ground. these new shapes however were familiar, look at just about any over priced and engineered time trial bike and you'll see them. but they were formed by the air leaving the bike, mostly just air leaving the wheels, not by the air approaching the bike. now I had heard that a lot of aerodynamic design was about helping the air leave the object smoothly, but it was interesting to see it in practice. or maybe my brain was just a little cold...
anyway, I couldn't let the work bike get all the upgrades this week. I spent some hard earned money on some new brakes for the cyclocross race bike. I've read mixed reviews about the frogglegs brakes, but because the spooky origionals are pretty hard to come by, and around double the price, in the name of losing weight and increasing mud clearance, I decided to give them a try anyway. they even got a koolstop pad upgrade before the test ride. i hear these pads are the best in the business, so i look forward to testing them out in rijswijk at tomorrow's race
gouda cx race heart rate monitor stats: duration 52.13 heart rate max 192 heart rate average 178 921KCal (just less than 2 big macs, without cheese) 15% fat (big macs are 50% fat, before the cheese)
the weekend started with a little pre-race dura ace, amazing how much attention around the world a simple low quality shot of a high quality bike can attract :-) i was really hoping to save this derailleur from the wear and tear that cyclocross seems to put bike parts through, but after 5 years waiting in the wings (for the special bike project that just might come to fruition early next year) it was time for mr dura ace rear derailleur to take the stage
anyway, lets just say that nothing is forgotten about as quickly or underrated as much as a drivetrain that works. good thing too, cos there was a fair amount of aspect to the course in gouda so it was really nice to be able to shift cleanly and crisply (for an old, worn chain with bits of other chain spliced in to get rid of the twist it developed when the last derailleur died a while back at least). otherwise the course was great with plenty of tricky corners, some bits that reminded me of my sand pit as a kid, and some great energy sapping off-camber muddy grass sections
14th place out of 22 starters was a little disappointing, it was a tough battle with ronald (above) from gaul amsterdam, which he eventually won, respect. i stay in 9th place overall, but the points helped narrow the gap to 7th and 8th places overall (who were also in the race). i wont be at the race next weekend, which wont help in the overall points classification, but should help with the overall fatigue sensation, and hopefully also with the bronze complexion. thanks to fotokoos and ronald's girlfriend for the photos. and thanks to keelie in her absence (beterschap) for her support and the post-race cookies, without which, the rock-star-life-on-a-fast-food-budget (aka catching the train to and from the out-of-town races) might have been just a little hungry and lonely ;-) until 2 weeks time in schiedam
I've thought about it for a while now, and I think I've figured out why this weekend's race in Numansdorp was so, well, average... It wasn't because I wasn't feeling 100%, when do we ever feel 100% anyway. I kinda always think about an interview with an old tennis pro (I don't remember who anymore) when he was asked if he had any injury problems, and he replied that being an athlete is basically about constantly managing injuries. In all honesty, apart from lacking a little explosive power, I felt pretty good on the start line.
But still, the race was average... Basically I got beaten by guys (all respect to them) that I normally beat. Maybe I've been lucky so far or they've been unlucky. Either way, not the result I was hoping for: I did move out of a 3 way tie for ninth into 8th place overall, but it was more due to people not being there than due to good performance. Next I blamed the course, which was great as it wound around trees with some pretty nice singletrack, until we had to ride on a beach. Now, I'm not particularly heavy, but I sunk like the fat kid into the soft sand. And I couldn't help but think the others were mocking me as they rode away. 8 laps really tried my patience.
In all honesty I can't blame the bike either, it got some great upgrades this week. Perhaps I was even worried that I would have such a great race I wouldn't know which upgrade to give the credit to. The old shimano 105 hubs that got converted from 7sp to 9sp got swapped out for some nice shiny second hand actual 9sp dura ace hubs. The trusty 35c clincher tires got swapped out for some 30 or 32c - yes, I aware that narrow tires are not advantageous in sandy conditions - tubular tires (oh how I love tubular tires). So it wasn't me, the course or the bike... I blame the weather. I mean it was almost sunny and warm enough for short sleeves. Not even a spot of rain. Thats not cyclocross weather. Hopefully it will be better in Gouda this weekend :-P
The 18th edition of the halloween alleycat was a great excuse to visit Berlin again. It was also supposed to be the 2year reunion of team beer break which came together spontaneously at the prenzopoly alleycat. Unfortunately however, although all 5 members from around the world made plans to be there, when it came down to it only Morgan and I made it, while I guess the others had spent their monthly travel budget on, well, beer... I'm so proud. This is Morgan's unimpressed face at the slackness exhibited by team beer break. It was soon replaced by that happy face we know and love after one of the many different vegi burgers we sampled along the way. The food in berlin rocks...
Sober October came to an abrupt end on the 29th. I can't decide which was more stupid, not drinking for a month, or ever starting again... I was gonna try blame this somehow on the guys from ESK (a berlin cycling club, something to do with steel pigs, but thats all that i can remember about them) who organised an epic night time cyclocross dual slalom race in a park, 1 euro entry fee, including a beer... but yeah, that wouldnt work, good times
October was however a relatively cheap month, well, no that's not exactly true, what I didn't spend on beer I spent on bikes, the cheapness was just a matter of perception. I've been trying to make small incremental improvements on the cx bike each week, last week was new cleats and studs in the shoes (which attach to the bike). This week some tubular cx tires will see action for the first time. Thanks to the guys at cicli berlinetta for a sweet set of Hutchinson shark 32c tires.
