sponsorship news update #1

is starting to come in.... ASYLUM CYCYLES and SPEEDGOAT.COM will continue to provide support into the 2007 season.

TIFOSI OPTICS will continue to their support as well. they have some updates to their line including some new frames and updated lenses. thanks shannon and tifosi!

and, (drumroll please....)



NORTHWAVE will be my shoe sponsor the upcoming year. northwave has recently changed their US distributor, so be sure to ask the guys at the 'goat about their shoes if interested in getting some for yourself. i have been running northwaves now for over 6 years and i love them - to the point i even turned down shoe sponsorship from other companies. i am really looking forward to representing them in 2007 - and the new color scheme on the kameleon is to die for.

in other news..

reynolds wheels now offically have tubulars glued on and offically make both the "hella light" and "hella fast" classifications.

and need a bike? check out the speedgoat.com demo bike sale HERE! sad news though, looks like the moots 29er is now gone.

that's it - back to work.

sologoat out.

down to the last race

in the cleveland cross series - for both the "a" group and the old man's class..



3 points now seperate Nate and myself which means it is coming down to the last race. since it is double points, one place can make the difference in the series. so, the stratus wheelset will make a debut at the cross race this weekend saving me an approximate 200-300 grams of rotational weight, at least.



rudy and brent also have a tight race on their hands, thought the point spread is a little more. as in the past, the last race of the series is a real deciding factor for your overall standings. it will be tough physically as your body wants to shut down for the season but your mind tries to push you through the last hour of major effort.

for some it will be the end of the race season, for others it will be a warm up for state championships and the fiasco finale of nationals out in rhode island. i am pretty pumped up for the trip out there, should be a good time.

the elite race on saturday will be hectic as i will be towards the back of the back because i have no UCI points. next year, i'll try to hit up a few UCI races when my fitness is super high to try to sneak up a few spots on the line up for cross nationals.

then, after the elite race - i'll finally get some rest - but not before downing some pints out of a frosty mug.

that's it - tubulars to glue.

sologoat out

cleveland cross write up

boughton farm, copley ohio was the 6th stop in the cleveland cross series and was set to be a fast one with warm temps and dry conditions.

this course is on a very flat farm with wide open sections that is open to the wind - great course for roadies, awesome course for paul martin who never seems to loose here.

relatively small field, but it was going to be fast with paul, nate, and the alan boys at the start line. i have been feeling under the weather so the game plan was to try and stay with the leaders and to stay close to nate (2nd in the series) and jake (3rd in the series).

gun went off, we were flying. on a ditch crossing towards the end of the first lap, i bobble and loose my placing. i am now dropped and not feeling all that great.

in a few laps, i start feeling better, but run into a small tree and loose more time. i soon recover, make up two places and catch up to jake who i start pulling around the course. just as soon as i was about to ask him to start pulling, i really slip up in a corner and go down.

bars turned, i continue on. i make one last ditch effort to try and catch up to jake on the last lap, but it was not to be. 6th place on the day, paul takes the win, nate takes the sprint for 2nd.

i retain the lead in the series with one race to - the double point race again at boughton farm.

3 points seperate nate and i, so one place seperates us both. basically, next week decides it all - one place in front of nate, i win. one place behind, 2nd place.

either way, it has been a great series. courses have been great, and the new venue was awesome.

that's it - sologoat out.

pimp my moots

yes, once again i have updated the bling level of thy moots.

i bring ye the reynolds stratus dv cross wheelset weighing in at a stupid light weight of 1250 grams. full specs can be seen at SPEEDGOAT.COM

these sweet tubular wheels will have TUFO's glued up and ready to roll by the weekend and just in time for the Ohio state cross championships and Cross Nationals the week after.

in related product reviews, i have a set of brake mounting hardware that allows spooky type canti's to have adjustment of the brake pads. only have enough for one brake, but i'll have pics up this week.

in other speedgoat related news, for all those interested in the new salsa's coming out, looks like they are going to be here around February/March. check with the shop on the exact dates, but i know they are getting a ton of them in because we are on the down-low with the salsa guys.

and - TIFOSOI OPTICS will continue to be a sponsor into my 2007 season. waiting to hear from others, but this is the first confirmed sponsor outside of speedgoat and asylum for next year. this will now make it the 4th year of me riding with Tifosi's and the third year i have been sponsored by them.

and - looks like there is a winter cross series for all those nutz in the ohio area. more details on this later, but it has 3 races that start in january. as if you thought suffering on the trainer was bad enough, try snow and 25 degrees.

things are crazy due to the turkey day holiday, so i may not post all that much this week.

last tidbits-

happy b-day to pit crew members: ernesto sr and nuclear scientist tom
speedgoat and blog pals: have a happy turkey day!

sologoat out

cross write up

hellishly cold and rainy temps were in store today for the next race in the cleveland cross series. constant rain led to light snow back to rain - for the entire race.

muddy conditions were in effect for the course with no dismounts but two hellishly brutual run ups.

start was fast, nate got his guns firing and never looked back. i slipped back to fifth on the first lap, and chased away. i managed to bridge up to 4th, dropped him and then did the same to get into 3rd. it was one of those days you either have a good day or not.

i had a so-so day, didn't have the goods. great job to nate who looked strong and managed to extended his gap the last few laps. this result now inches him towards my first place in the series with 8 points seperating us.

next stop in the series - Boughton Farm next sunday.

course is mainly flat, and should have at least 2 double barriers. tends to favor the roadies as it has a lot of flat sections and the wind seems to be nasty out there as it is wide open with no cover.

and - with any luck, i may be riding my new reynolds status cross wheels. hella light with tufo tubular cross tires.

that's it - gotta dig the mud out my ears.

sologoat out.

tifosi optics posts

got two sites that has an update on the tifosi optic product line for 2006:

CROOKED COG PODCAST
has a pod interview with matt conto from tifosi optics.

and...

WORLD CYCLING TV
has video of the new line up on their website. click on the link on the left for the interbike videos, then scroll on the right to the tifosi icon and click.

i've been running tifosi's now for the past 3 seasons now - get a lot without having to pay major cash for nice optics with multiple lenses.

this weekend...

next stop in the cleveland cross series at broadview heights.

sologoat out.

a 4th, a 3rd and a first

4th on saturday, 3rd on sunday - and a first overall in the cross series in cleveland with 3 races to go.

sunday was a small field, late in the evening at 3:15pm. one barrier/run up and one barrier/stream/run-up combo. longer course, with some single track.

course was slick, field before the first run up was pretty soft.

pace was fast at first - a little too fast for me. there was a group with two ALAN riders (jimmy and shawn) and one other rider who quickly got away from me. they slowed, i chased.

and just when i was about to catch, shawn attacked - classic great move. jimmy sat on the other rider who chased - and the gap to them opened up again.

i slowly caught back up, and sat on for one lap. the non ALAN rider was pulling the entire time, and he was slowing. so through the field we went, with me the third rider.

i unleashed a super hard effort - i attacked with all i had through the field and up the run-up. a lap latter, jimmy was still on my tail. with his teammate ahead of us, it was job to try and pull shawn back - and i knew as soon as i caught him, i would probably get attacked by jimmy.

with 2 to go, i was not getting closer to shawn - and jimmy let me have it at the same spot shawn attacked. he went, and i had nothing to reply with - good move.

overall, legs felt kind of dead, but i am currently still holding the lead in the cleveland series... which will be tough to hold onto, as usual. the last race of the series usually has snow/ice and is cold as hell - and is double points. have a bad race there and it could mean a loss of your placing in the series.

in other news - dan the man (my mechanic) is getting wobblenaughted this weekend. he has seen the light....

that's it - gotta run.

sologoat out

saturday cross wrap up

mud and rain, and lots of it.

this week was the 4th stop in the team lake effect cross series which had me leading the series by 1 point over paul martin.

paul was a no-show this race, but the rest of the top were on the starting line.

conditions were pretty bad from the start, but i got the good start and moved into the lead - which changed pretty quickly as i took a wrong turn. opting to ride my trainer for warm up left me not knowing the course - i have raced here before and i thought it was the same layout. not the case. dah.

the gap was there from my mistake, and the lead 5 took off. i chased and chased, and moved up into 4th place with 3 to go and felt pretty confident i had a good chance at 3rd, if not second - but two more unfortunate events happened.

as i got onto the wheel of the 3rd place rider, i washed out and went down. stupid mistake - looked up to see where he was and forgot where i was in the process.

then, just as i was getting back onto his wheel, the cut the race laps down by a lap - which sucks for me, as the 3rd place rider and 2nd place rider were slowing down.... oh well..

but - i did get a slight consolation prize in that everybody in the top 5 finished behind me (the top 3 riders today have missed at least one race, putting them behind in the series).

next stop - orrville tomorrow at 3:30pm. crazy late start, and with 24 hours of rain and mid 50 temps, we will have crazy mud.

some pics and a post up tomorrow.

sologoat out.

nada mucho

going on these days, but good to see the weather warming up this week in ohio.

two local cross races to hit up this weekend - lake effect's series on saturday and then a late race at 3pm'ish on sunday with the orriville guys. haven't hit up any of their races yet, so it should be a nice change to my usual cross schedule.

so, it's looking like roughly about a dozen'ish or so more cross races for the year, a few weeks break, then into training for the 2007 season which is taking shape already.

and - if you are looking for a deal on some higher end stuff - speedgoat is blowing out some of their demo bikes which includes 3 29er's - one of which is a Moots Mooto-X 29er with roloff hub. and, they also got some higher end road bikes too - a moots, a carbon parlee... nice stuff. my first higher end race bikes were actually speedgoat demo bikes at one time.


that's it for today - got to get to work...

sologoat out.

no race weekend

was supposed to hit up the pittsburgh cross race, but ended up getting really sick last night after eating some clams. was sick all night and half the morning.

not mucho happening these days - just getting in some rides and checking out the schedule for next year. looks like there are some changes coming down from the NORBA guys with some new formats for that could make marathons more "enduro" type of events. schedule (as of right now) is really not looking all that great again for us east coast riders, so hopefully this will open up the way for new events.

if you haven't checked out the speedgoat blog lately and you are a 29er freak, got to check it out. have some posts on there about crank lengths - would be interesting to hear what others think about one of the salsa guys comments that he actually runs shorter cranks on his 29er to help with out of corner speed. what he says makes sense, but i think i'll keep my 175's on.

and looks like mr. bishop got hurt pretty bad - broken bones in his jaw and a broken nose to boot at the la Ruta. good luck to our man harlan price down there...

with that, gotta run - proposals and resumes to get out this week.

sologoat out.

Racoon Cross Flyer - Nov 5th in the 'burgh

RACOON CROSS FLYER HERE

Race start times are a little different then the Cleveland series, so check it out as they start a little earlier.

Fields run about the same size, last time I was there Gunnar from Fort Cycles showed up, along with some tough guys from Eastern PA.

Depending on the layout, Gary could set it up with some mountain bike single track, but he has been setting them up lately as a classic cross course and doesn't put any of that in.

also - just an fyi - for you local yocals out there, CAMBA moved their next trail buidling/maintenance date. yours truely may make a guest appearance - stay tuned for an update within the next couple of days.

gots to run..

sologoat out.

speedgoat presents - vegas best in show

The 2007 Salsa Momasita
Salsa's newest addition to the their 29er line up, the Momasita. Scandium up front, carbon fiber rear end. Setup with a light rigid carbon fork and you are looking at around 20 pounds for a fully geared tricked out 29er that will make you not only go fast, but make others drool.

Read Chris's write up on the Speedgoat.com blog - link is above.

sologoat out.