Bubba #3 Race Report

The difference for me between 3rd group and 2nd group today. More fun photos and captions from Mike here.

All in all a good day, despite the poor clip in at the start and a horrid display of technical skills on the “Dawson run up” (above) and downhill slalom course leading to the barriers.

With the poor clip in I think I was about 10th wheel going into the first turn. Over the next three laps I could not get the run up right, kept loosing time and eventually lost the lead group of 6; Mark M., Scott, Kurt, Mark N., Daniel M. and Elliot.

Looked back to see Dave Breslin working his way up to me, which he did, and we spent a few laps together before Daniel Miller who fell off the lead group joined. The three of us kept a nice pace keeping the gap between us and the lead group in sight.

With three to go we hit the “Dawson run up”, Dave put a foot down giving Daniel and I a gap. Knowing Dave is much stronger this would be the chance to get away so I pushed the pace as high as I could for the remainder of lap three and lap two. They don’t call him Super Dave for nothing, he worked his way back up catching Daniel and I as we started the last lap.

My legs were done by this point, I mean well done, I gave it all I had and the tank was empty, I could press no more so I watched Dave and Daniel pull away. Then I thought I could do a short recovery from here to the “Dawson run up” then try and hammer it one last time to catch back on but my legs said no way and rejected the attempt. Ended the day in 8th.

Did hold on to 6th in the Bubba Cup.

This week is recovery followed by Sat night Bubba and Sunday Bubba.

2009 Bubba Cup

2009 Bubba CupPoints will be awarded to the top 20 finishers at each of the nine series races for A Riders only

Bubba #1 Oct 17
Bubba #2 Oct 18
Bubba #3 Oct 25
Bubba #4 Oct 31
Bubba #5 Nov 1
Bubba #6 Nov 8
Bubba #7 Nov 15
Bubba #8 Nov 22
Bubba #9 Nov 29

In determining the overall Bubba Cup winner, each riders final points tally will be based on the best 8 of 9 events.

Points
50, 40, 34, 30, 26, 23, 20, 17, 14, 12, 10,9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Top Ten Bubba Cup Riders split $500 at the end of the series (Sponsored by Hermann Cycling)
$150, $100, $75, $45, $35, $30, $25, $20, $10, $10

Current Rankings Here (pdf)

Bubba Cup does not replace the 7, 5 4, 3, 2, 1 point structure normally awarded. This is a separate competition for the A race.

Cleaning made easy

Google shopping link

Was directed to this 3.5 gallon portable power washer while reading the STL Biking forum last week. For $40 I could not resit. Item arrived yesterday, today I gave it a go after my early am wet training ride.

Super fast to hook up as it gets power from a cigarette lighter outlet in your car or truck, one hose to attached to the unit, turn on then 30 seconds later your ready to clean off a bike. Not a huge amount of power but perfect to get the bike washed off.

It's not very big, will fit easy in the floor board of the car.

Obviously this will be great to have after a messy cross or MTB race, but also perfect when the weather gets really cold for a quick rinse off after a training ride. Hooking up a hose to the outdoor home water supply when it's 32 degrees out stinks.

2010 MTB Season = new ride

This should arrive in about a month...

Bubba on Sunday CX race report

• Not sure how the legs would respond today
• Took some extra time in warm up to get them feeling good
• Lined up with about 25 to 30 A racers
• Got the lead just past the start line and held that for just about the entire first lap
• Josh, Nate, Martin and Alex pass by
• Dan, Kurt and I form 2nd group
• Kurt falls off then shortly after so does Dan putting me in 5th alone
• Stayed this way for several laps with lead group pulling away while holding off chase group which now had Mark N, Paul Q, Dan and Kurt.
• With three to-go I was starting to feel it and began to slow on the power sections
• I pulled up a bit to join the chase group as they were closing, settle in behind, now 9th
• With one to-go Paul about wipes it after the barriers then a few corners later falls off. Now 8th
• With a few corners to-go Mark falls off just before the mud hole, now in 7th
• Kurt, Dan and I all together for the last few turns before the paved uphill before the finish.
• We all peg it, I could not get passed Kurt or Dan. Came home in 7th, Dan took the field sprint.
• Two 7th places for the weekend, just one spot away from a Bubba point.
• All goals accomplished this week.

Thanks to all that put on the weekend of racing, much appreciated.

Bubba Night Race Report

photo by Pate

• Faust Park has been good to me the past two years
• Last year best finish as a B racer: 2nd
• Tonight, best finish as an A racer: 7th
• Great race from start to finish with the exception of barrier section
• Good start, top 5 into first turn
• Lost lead group when I could not clip in after the barrier section
• Was pushed back to 11th during lap two
• Worked up to Mark Nagy, Martin Lange and a couple others
• Was the three of us with two laps to go
• Martin slipped out and crashed on the first corner starting last lap
• I sucked again on the barrier hill section, lost the wheel of Mark and that was it, cross the line in 7th.
• Very pleased with tonight's race

Back at it again Sunday.

Bubba at night this Saturday

Saturday night at Faust Park. I've always like racing at this park.

More here

Chris Cross race report

Results here

Awesome place to host a CX race, it was almost like racing on a golf course. Hat's off to Chris and his crew for an awesome event, well worth the drive and will be on my list of races to attend next year.

Raced with the fast guys of KC, and there are lot of them, KCCX dominated the talent pool taking the top three and half the top ten. Even if my high end was in better shape I don't think pulling off better than 13th would have been possible. I think I have it in me to get into the the Scott D, Bill M, Adam M and others group that was in sight for the first half of the race. Time will tell.

Next up, Bubba Cross Series, Saturday Night and Sunday.

Will Chris Cross be like this?

With all this rain today, into tonight and more Saturday night. We may end up with one soft muddy day Sunday. And cold, high on Sunday 48.

But you never know, the place may drain so we'll just see muddy rooster tails.

Chris Cross Sunday

Heading West this Sunday for the Chris Cross race in Leavenworth, KS. Looking forward to racing a De Stad series race, I know Chris works hard to puts on a good event, will be cool to finally get that way to experience one.

Race starts at 1pm, I'll post some info from the road.

Sniffing Glue

I'm not much of a bike mechanic, but with the help of Joe at the shop I'm getting to know my way around the bike much better. After rolling my front tire last Sunday I had every intention to drop it off at the shop and let Joe glue it back on. But after some deep soul searching I figured it was time to figure out how to do this on my own.

After several days of reading articles on the web, seeing the many versions of glue jobs there are out there I settled in on a all in one process.

Took 3.5 tubes of glue overall. I think it would have been more if it were a new tire, from what I read the tire will soak up alot of glue with the first few coats.



This stuff drys fast! I went with 3 coats on the tire paying close attention to getting full coverage from edge to center.

Three coats on the rim. I was able to rotate from tire to rim, back to tire, back to rim and so on. By the time I finished spreading glue on one, the other was dry and ready for another.

Up next was what I read as the hard part, the part that can get out of control fast; getting the tire on the rim.

Being it was the tire I rolled it was stretched and went on easy when dry. I kept the tire on the rim all week to keep it that way. I did several practice re-mounts during the week using the techniques I had read.

As I began to attach my heart rate started to go up, what if I totally screw this up? What if I get glue all over the place? This could be a disaster! One last layer on the rim and I attached the tire right after.

All ended well, tire remount technique worked well, got the tire centered for the most part right away, and the tire is on the rim.

A bit messy in some places but not many. After all, this is not a beauty pageant, so who cares if a little excess glue is on the side wall in a few spots? I think for my first time it went OK. With 6 layers of glue, I hope this thing does not roll again!