4th at Kirtland Park

Last battle in Cleveland for the cross season would be a classic battle again with Paul, John and Steve. Course was the typical layout for the venue, with a few new twists added by incorporating a jungle gym and a different set of stairs. Classic.

Gun goes off and I somehow manage the lead position going into the first corner. Through a few more twists and turns, I was still at the front but I wanted to get out of the front as I could see things had immediately got strung out.

On the straight, up the stairs and up to the sketchy section of stairs I was making the majority of time up in practice and I run into the tape trying to see who was still on my wheel. Dah. I loose three spots and I am immediately go from leading to chasing.

Steve would take the lead. Paul and John would sit in front of me for a bit, and I chased.

4 to go and I was closing after we had gapped off most of the field. Seeing me coming, John and Paul up the pace a bit.

Going onto the sketchy steps, Paul dabs and John takes off. We are now 4 riders alone.

The gap to Paul shortens, but going up the stairs with 2 laps to go, I make a pretty serious dab and have to dismount after nearly whipping out falling backwards.

I would hold on for 4th for the day, about a minute separating the top 4 again.

Would end up 6th in the series despite having only race 6 races. Bummed out I could not have raced more, but pretty happy with how things went this year and was glad to see some good hard racing go late into the year.

For now, I'll take a bit of a break and then plan out the rest of the cross year. Will be hitting up Nationals and possibly Masters Worlds, but I also have to think about a duo 24 hour race in February.

Ernesto out

3rd at Willoughby

Past Sunday was the next to last race of the NEO CX series - here's how it went down.

Got there early to pre-ride = aweosome.

Got there early to take a spill on the first warm up lap and break my brand new Sram Red front shifter = Not awesome.

Course was a tough one, the wind was bad and the run up was going to be hellish. Other then that, a few turns and a dismount and a lot of wind.

Gun goes off. I get punched in the gut and elbowed in the face to in the fight to win the first sprint up the climb to take the Oakley sunglass prize at the top to the first one to round the corner.

John takes the shades at the top. (It was a clean battle all the way to the top - but there may have been some elbows in there somewhere)

Things spread out fast as Steve and Paul put the hammer down. I get pinched a bit as I try to make my way back up to John as I battle the wind.

I push on, and soon I am by myself about 50 feet'ish behind John when I start to see we are pulling back Steve.

Just as I near John and Steve, John speeds off and I catch Steve. Steve is immediately on my wheel as John continues to sit just in front of me. I figure Steve is not going to chase so I try to bridge the gap.

John is holding the gap as I am battling back and fourth with Steve. I sit back a bit and let a gap get in between Steve and myself, hoping that he would try to get to John - with a plan that I would a big jump on the last climb of the day.

I would close the gap back down with 2 to go and Steve would take himself out in the same corner I bashed my lever up on in warmup.

I would take home 3rd on the day - Paul took a hard fought win in the wind and John would take 2nd. Guessing maybe a max of 30-40 seconds separating the 3 of us at the end.

1 more NEO race to go, bummed I am not going to be in the overall as I missed too many races. Will be the first time in a long while where I haven't done enough Cleveland cross races to get in the overall.

Ernesto out

3 days in Cinci

Here it is - better late then never, still trying to finish up some bike work and figure out if I want to glue up some tubulars or not.

Day 1
As usual, I was running late getting over to Shawn's place. Running an hour late, we made our way south towards Cincinnati. Soon we would run into traffic several times, putting us even later the expected.

The course was soft and muddy, lots of climbing and throw in a couple sets of barriers. One lap of warmup, some hill sprints to warm up and to the start line.

First muddy corner, everybody going for the win right there, and a huge crash. One guys gets up to see a frame broken in half. I get around it, but loose time in the process.

Immediately, the burn starts coming into my lungs and it is pretty obvious I did not warm up enough. Soon, the leaders would catch up to me and I would get yanked.

Very disappointing day for both Shawn and I which was a bummer as it was mostly caused because of me running late - but I would wind up with some cash for the day, so it was not a total loss.

Day 2

Day 2 brought the Java Johnny's course, a course which I did decently on a few years back so I was looking forward to racing the mostly flat and fast course.

Gun goes off and I have a decent start, sitting mid pack.

Soon, we are going by the pit. Another rider in front of me suddenly slows and swings far right and looks right and starts waving and yelling "hi" to his buddy in the pits - totally looking away from the upcoming left corner.

I continue on with the gas, pass him and go into the corner and then wham - the idiot looking the other way hits into my rear derailleur super hard as he didn't see me. Nice. He says something to me, I pedal away not noticing he bent the rear hanger.

3 corners later, I take a corner wide and sweep in tight - just like i did every time in practice as it was the fastest and safest way to get around it. but - the same idiot that hit me before, hit me again. this time, intentionally. it sent me flying, i tried to counter steer and partially rolled the tubular. Great, 2 minutes into a race and this jack ass takes me out.

I climb back on, try to catch on after pulling the tubular on and pedal on.

20'ish minutes later, I am nearly catching the back of Shawn's group and my front tire washes out and the tubular completely rolls off. it also snaps the shifter clamp band.

Game over.

Great. So much of these races are the first 4-5 minutes and needless to say it is very frustrating to get behind an idiot. And when you finally get around them, they intentionally take you out. I don't understand that logic at all.

But - hats off to Sram Neutral support. Free upgrade from a Sram Apex front shifter to a Sram Red so I could use the bike the next day.

Day 3

The last day of racing would be a tough one, the course was all soft and muddy and had a decent little climb in it. Lot's of power would be required.

We get to the venue about 3 1/2 hours early. The organizer was running late on time, so he cut ALL pre-riding of the course. I was NEVER able to ride a full complete lap during warm up as the officials would start yelling and blowing there whistles. Was a total FAIL in all of the riders minds to not let us ride all of it - especially considering they were cutting us off from riding the last 1/2 mile'ish of the course when the next race had not even started - even with lap times running over 7-8 minutes. Unreal.

Gun would go off, and I took off from the last row. Super awesome. Not.

The first few corners I get pinched, pinched again, and then I am at the back with the majority of the guys faltering on the twisty section by the road that I had cleared every time in warmup.

I play catch up, picking off a few riders here and there. I feel like I am riding the best of the 3 days so far, but soon the leaders are catching up.

I get yanked again, but end up with some cash for the day.

All in all, good eye opener for me to get my attitude adjusted before nationals, but I wish things had turned out a bit better.

Time to glue up some tubulars.

Ernesto out

Photo credit - Julie Lewis

Two 2's and OH states mention in CX mag

This past weekend was the latest of NEO cross race series, a double weekend hosted by Brett Davis.

Saturday:
This was the "mandatory" Halloween costume day - show up without a costume and you get a 30 minute penalty. Needless to say, everybody came in some sort of costume. I opted for the Green Lantern.

Got there early and decided to take a spin around the course and check it out - like I have done every year for the past 5 years.

Alas, according the official who apparently knows a lot of rules, I was not allowed to pre-ride when a race was going on. Must of been friends with the guy at the Cincy 3 day cross weekend a few years back that I saw going around checking pit bikes for bar end plugs because he was getting ready to not allow the bike in the pit if he found one missing.

So I continued to warm on the parts that he couldn't see - I mean the road - and I prepared for a muddy and slick'ish cross race.

Gun went off and we all went a blazing through a short lap loop.

At the garage door stream crossing, Phatty and Steve went down.

I slowed and made it, others did not.

Gaps went out immediately. I got around Phatty and joined up with John P.

I was able to ride the barriers which was good as I didn't want to deal with possible mud issues with remounting.

I soon parted ways with John and then tried to get back time on Steve. Things were slick and muddy, but I had some pretty awesome lines and I started to grab back seconds from him.

With the laps closing, I was running out of time. With about a lap and a half to go, I bobbled and lost about 10 seconds. I lost the chase to catch Steve, but rode in steady for the next 10 minutes to hold on for second.

Sunday:
The course was the same only reversed this day and the sun had come out somewhat and had dried things up a bit. Brett added a bridge to save us from the mud and with things tacky it was going make some corners slippy but most of them grippy.

With a smaller field the gun went off and I somehow got the hole shot for once in my life. Immediately I was off with John and Ross.

I pulled for most of the first lap, John got around me and pulled on the second and Ross was hanging in with us riding a 29er.

Pace was hot as we went back and fourth with strong pulls, then Ross slowed a bit and dropped from our group of two.

John and I would go back and fourth, pulling and sprinting as hard as we could out of the corners and on the straights trying to drop each other. John ended whacking his head off a tree in the pine section (which I think was the same one I hit really hard last year) and got cut a bit, but it was merely a flesh wound and we continued on.

Gaps were holding, but Dan creeped up on us a bit, then we upped the pace a bit as we tried to drop each other some more. I was saving a move for the last lap as the person going into the single track on the last lap would be hard to pass at the finish.

John lead in the field heading into the triple barrier that we had been jumping the whole day. Right before it, I got in front of him and ran over the barriers and remounted - and nailed it. I had a gap, but then ended up loosing it in the left hand turn by the garage. John got around me.

Through the twisty stuff, I got right back on him. Over the garage door bridge he slowed a bit thinking that the line was closer - we sprinted and he got the win by about a wheel'ish length or so. Good hard racing, congrats to John as I took home 2nd for the 2nd day.

Ohio State cross coverage:
And, in case you missed it - the Ohio State cross race got some coverage in CX magazine which has a nice article and some great pics.

You can check it out HERE

Ernesto out

Ohio State Cyclocross Championships

This past weekend was the Ohio State Cross championships, and here's how things went down.

Saturday - Single Speed:

I signed up for both the Single Speed and Masters age group, but things were going to be tight between the races as the Masters race was right after the Single Speed race. It sounded good in theory thinking about it earlier in the week.

Field was about 20'ish or so riders, some of whom I know, most of the others I did not.

Course was flat and twisty and the rains from the previous days had left the course soft and muddy in some spots. Things were drying out a bit from the little bit of sun peeking out from the clouds, but not much.

Gun went off and I started spinning out the 39x18 I had on my old Indy Fab single speed cross bike. Soon, I found myself with Nate Z and another rider off the front of the race with one lap down.

On the second lap, I put the pressure on and got a little bit of a gap but I was pushing the heart rate limits hard so I eased it back a bit to see what was going on with the rest of the field.

Nate and the other rider come back and I let them take some pulls for the next few laps. The other rider is strong, but keeps taking consistent foot dabs and bad lines so I bide my time.

Two laps later on the back straight with no wind protection and a head wind, I let the rider take a nice long pull. Right before the 3 soft corners before the 3 tight corners before the straight, I jump around him and nail all the corners as fast as I could go. I got out of the last corner and onto the finish straight with a good 7-10 second gap.

I pushed on.

Now clear of my mini lead pack, I start riding my good lines that I was hiding in the first few laps and I slowly start building a gap.

I was feeling good and the gap grew. I stayed steady with the effort and took home the Single Speed Title for 2011.

Afterwards, thinking about the effort, my trashed and dirty bike and coughing from my asthma, I decided to bag the Masters race to save all efforts for the Elite race on Sunday. In hind site, it was a great decision.

Sunday - Elite Men:

Can to the start line on the first row, with a field of about 30'ish riders. Most notable riders were John Proppy, Steve T, Paul M and Shawn A. Not doing much of the OVCX series, I did not know the majority of the others, but the Cleveland contingent was mucho strongo and a serious amount of pain was about to go down.

Gun went, all guns were a blazing and I think I either got chopped off, cut off, or bumped by at least a half dozen or so of my closest friends going for the first corner.

Through the first corners, and over the barriers, I moved into the top 4-6 riders with the pace still a little hot.

Over the small barrier, into the sand, onto the straight. Paul comes flying by and comes straight to the front to show his presence. The pace goes up even faster.

Second lap and we are stringing things out. Gaps start to grow, and I try to concentrate on my lines, the barriers and in staying on the front. That back straight will hurt big time if I didn't stay with the front group.

3 laps in things have dwindled down and I am in all out pace group containing myself, Paul and Bike Authority teammates Steve and John.

I immediately thinking that John and Steve are going to try to one-two us as for a few laps, one would up the pace and the other would sit back a bit and let a small go. The gaps would close as I don't think any of us wanted to miss out on the win.

Bad luck would happen for John first as he slipped out and then immediately dropped his chain. The pace was hot and immediately we got a gap.

Now a group of 3, we all had digs at each other.

Paul and Steve both took good strong pulls on the straights as I hung tight to their wheels on the tight sections.

Paul took a small spill at one point, and then came right back to us - even with Steve taking some pretty clean lines and good pulls.

The course was technical, lots of good hard turns for me and Steve to show our stuff, and with a long straight for Paul to show his hella power. It seemed like we were even and it was going to come down to the last few corners as the straight was to short for a real sprint.

So, we started watching each other after attacking each other for the past 55 or so minutes. Going through the start/finish, I knew it would come down to the long back straight and I had to stay close to them.

Over the barrier, into the sand and Paul and Steve lite it up and got a gap on me immediately, but I closed in on them right before the first soft left hand corner after the straight.

Paul narrowly got ahead of Steve, but Steve didn't give up and going into the tight corners before the straight, Steve tried to take to inside line.

I was directly behind them, but I thought for a second they would both crash each other out. Paul held his line and disaster struck for Steve as he rolled his front tubular off and fell down.

I got by, still going pretty hot myself. I closed the gap to Paul as he fought to stay upright. Going out of the last corner he jumped hard and had a good 10-15 gap on me coming onto the straight.

Paul would take the win, I would finish second and Steve would run in and place 3rd.

Great day of racing and rubbing elbows, happy with my finish and overall weekend and pretty stoked to see 3 Cleveland area riders take all 3 top spots at the State Championships.

Ernesto Out

photo credits:
Julie Lewis, Lisa Martin, Blair Fraley, Kurtis Fraley

2nd at the 24 Hours of Moab

Field was about 30 or so deep, the weather the week before was rained filled and patted down the typically dusty conditions. After not sleeping much the night before the race and waking up to misty rain conditions, I made my way out to the venue.

As race time neared, the conditions bettered. The clouds cleared the dust gun and the field lined up on the start line for the Le Mans style running start. ¼ mile round trip around the sage brush and to your bike, down the road aways and onto the course.

Gun goes off, everybody starts running and I have my typical horrible run but quickly make up some ground once on my bike.

I am in the top 15-20 riders going into the first section of single track. Not many riders are near me and I pick off a few here and there along the miles and a few catch me. I log in my first lap and am somewhat surprised to find out I am sitting in 3rd after having what I thought was a decent lap.

I make a quick stop for refueling and made my way out for my second lap.

Chasing and chasing, I was staying steady but not gaining much. As I came through on my 2nd lap I overheard the announcer saying that the two solo leaders were together. It was going to be tough to pull back one rider, let alone two working as one.

I chase and chase, and finally I catch one of the riders as he bobbled on one of the rock sections on the 4th or 5th lap. He’s looking a little fatigued from the pace and I push on but the lead rider still eludes me. He would eventually finish 3rd on the day.

Temperature was cooler all during the raced hitting maybe in the mid 60’s during the day, but the night was setting in and temperature would start dropping. Little did I know it would go as low as it did.

Lights came on and the gap to the lead rider was going in the wrong direction as he was putting time into me on each lap. The remaining pack of riders were in our wake and by about 8pm’ish or so, we had lapped most of the field – only 4 rider remained on the same lap as us.

The laps ticked off, we made battery changes and put on extra clothing, but at about 2am and 30 degrees I was freezing my arse, hands and feet off. Duct tape on my shoes, neoprene on my hands, thicker hat on my head and a windstopper vest went on.

On the next lap, I find out the lead rider stopped. I later find out his light burned out and he was going hypothermic and stopped.

I continue on, now in the lead.

I push on, riding at the same effort but my back is hurting me and my wrists are in bad shape all from some earlier falls as I stuff some heater packs into my back pocket for warmth and to loosen up my tightening back muscles.

Two laps later, the rider I was chasing previously now catches me and regains the lead from me. After warming up and getting some new batteries, he rides past me at a fast pace that I cannot match.

Only a lap two later and the lights came off – which feels like a huge lift off my back. By this time I had lapped the entire field except the lead rider and had locked up 2nd.

I pushed on in chase of 1st, but the gap was staying steady. I was starting to count down the laps.

As the laps rolled on and the finish time neared, the gap to first was nearing 11am and the gap back to 3rd was nearing the lap and ½ mark. As I came in at near 11am after 23 hours, I called it a day and would finish out 2nd on the day.

Not the result I had hoped, but my nutrition was dead on and the asthma meds were awesome as I had no breathing issues at all for the first time in 4 years at Moab.

Huge thanks goes out to my support crew for getting me through the event and for my 2011 sponsors – could not have done it without you!

Ernesto out

Moab update

Thursday here in Moab, and the weather has been a little on the cold side with some doses of rain. Tuesday saw me split town early from Fruita as the temps got cold and the rain rolled in, so I opted to stay dry and head 2 hours to Moab.

First day in Moab saw me hitting up the roads as the skies were overcast and it looked like it was going to rain. Opting not to clean the bike for an hour, I went out and got blown around on the road.

Hit up a couple of laps on the Moab course yesterday and as was expected, the course is pretty much the same layout as all the years past. It's pretty packed down from the recent rains, but the sand and wind is still there in sections to rob you of speed and mess with your head. Think of it as riding in powder snow in the winter with all the wind but no totally freezing weather. Put it like that, it seems like heaven compared to a cold February Ohio ride.

Does not seem to be as many riders rolling in this year, not sure if 24 Hour Nationals had an effect on the turnout - but the solo men field is nearing around 30'ish riders, so we are looking at a decent sized field. A possibility of no Moab 24 hour race next year will add a little bonus dynamic to the event.

AM rain and high temps of only 60 degrees for Saturday will play well for me to keep down the dust which seems to inflame my asthma. Let's hope the wind dies down a bit so it does not blow me or my pit tent off course.

That's it for now - one last post tomorrow before the race, and hopefully an update on Sunday assuming I can feel my fingers.

Ernesto out

Shenandoah 100 write up

shenandoah_100_results, originally uploaded by solo_goat.

6:30am Sunday start was the last NUE of 2011 season, and a decisive one for me as I had to place 9th or better and be ahead of Robert Marion at the finish to move me up to 5th overall in the NUE series.

Also at stake was the first place overall for Jeff Schalk and Christian Tanguy so the pace was going to be hot off the start.

And so it was.

On the first climbs, things starting breaking up pretty good and I settled into my pace. I seemed to be having some pretty heavy legs at the start and I was creeping further and further back, but with the humidity in the air and 95 miles to go it was going to be a long race.

So I pedal on and my legs start coming back to me and I am picking off riders here and there. When I was catching them, I wasted no time and rode right by not asking for any help in the effort.

I would catch Robert about 25'ish miles in or so and we would ride together for a bit, but shortly after aid station 2, I would ride away from him and another rider.

Soon after, I would get caught by singlespeed winner Gerry Pflug and we would ride together for a bit up to the short hike a bike.

I would then set off to venture on my own for awhile and also took a pretty good over the bars spill but somehow managed to not get busted up.

I would soon catch back up to Garth and a few others and then got my way back up to Zack. We took turns pulling, but he slowly inched his way away from me around the 5th feed station.

Right before the 6th feed, I see Mike Simonson on the side of the trail right after a sketchy downhill bleeding all over, mostly from his chin. The medic was with him already and told me to go on, but medics were rushing up the hill. Bradon's dad was heading up the trail too and for some reason seeing somebody I knew in the middle of nowhere kind of threw me mentally off and I was not watching the trail and hit a rock full on at full speed, making a small cut in the tire.

Off immediately, I put in a tube and continued on - guesstimating a 3-4 minute loss of time.

Climbing, climbing, climbing and nearing the end, I decided to look back. All I could see was a black jersey and I didn't know if he had caught site of me (I later found out it was Gerry and Garth) so I took off with about 7 miles to go.

With this effort brought cramps, but it also brought into sight another rider in front of me.

Nearing the top, I catch him, but I softpedal so he doesn't hear my freewheel - and 15 feet from catching him, I jump on the pedals.

Two small rises after, the downhill starts into the camping area. I carry a lot of speed and try to focus on not wrecking stupidly. I would wind end up 10th on the day - 1 spot short of taking 5th overall in the series.

Still happy with how the series turned out for me - I had a lot of fun racing "shorter" endurance events this year and I am already looking forward to next years NUE series.

solgoat out

4th at the Fools Gold 100

Next up on the NUE series was the Fools Gold 100 in Georgia.

Heading down, we had chances of showers here and there - and during pre-ride, we got hit with some heavy sprinkles and thoughts of pyrite and mud mixing in with my brake pads and eating them slowly away like they did at last years event flashed before me.

Shortly before heading to sleep and a 4AM wake up to eat, I watched a cyclist's most "favorite" of past times when not riding - watching the weather channel and obsessing about the next days venture. Somehow, right before 10pm, a storm that was headed right for us died out and just missed us. Went to bed hoping the same would happen thing would happen again for the mid-day showers that were supposed to hit race day.

Race day comes, a small but stacked field was in place for the 100 mile event. It was surely going to be painful and the temperature was going to be hot.

Race starts off with a neutral start for a bit, then Eddie pulls off and the pace is slowly lifted up. 6 miles to the big climb and all the fast dudes are all there in place...

Up the first climb and immediately the pace is hot and the lead group starts pulling away. I stick with them a bit, but with temps already hitting 80 degrees, the pace blistering and with 94 more miles to go, common sense takes over and I settle in to a nice hard tempo that I can hold.

Up and over the hella long climb, into the single track. I am with a few others for a bit, then I am off on my own in no mans land for a long while, and then I start reeling riders back in.

Up the climb the second time, I reel more riders in but I am not feeling too swell. I switch to just drinking water and backing off on my pace a bit until I start feeling better. Heart rate is good, legs feel awesome - better yet, no asthma issues due to my new meds. Ah, it is so nice to breathe....

Into the last stop on aid 2/3 on my last lap, I get inspired by learning I am sitting in 3rd spot. My stomach is starting to feel a lot better, I am getting nutrition in and I feel great - the temperature is cooling off a bit too, so I up the pace and hope that the darkening skies do not unleash any rain.

Miles are ticking off, pace is going up and I am passing up a lot of 50 mile riders. With about 12 miles to go, all rain hell breaks loose and things start to get sloppy.

I am making a mess of the mud riding, can't see to good and I felt like I was riding too slow - just about then I slid out pretty hard. Hoping that the single track would end around the next corner, I press on.

About 2 miles from the end of the single track, the 4th place rider catches me and flies on by. He's riding the single track well when I am not.

I am soon out of the woods, onto the road back to the finish. I use the last of my water in my bottles to clean off my drive train and pedal on. I look back about 30 times in the last 6 miles to make sure nobody is sneaking up on me.

Would finish up the day 4th with one more 100 miler to go in the NUE series, the Shenandoah.

Sologoat out

(PHOTO CREDITS: Dean Thorton, Ryan O'Dell and OutdoorEventPhotos.com)