Backbone Race Report: October 2012

San Diego Cross report a la Fuzz

Captain C,

We all have that one race where it just doesnt happen. This past Sundays race in San Diego was mine. Felt fatigued days before and even taking days off to rest didnt help to recover. Still decided to head down to SD for the SocalCross race at the Velodrome. Took the Amtrak Surfliner down from Union Station in LA. Mark Thome called and was able to make it to the race which lifted spirits and having somebody there makes it so much more fun. The course was a fun mix of dirt and grass with alot of tight turns and short power uphills. Riding around the Velodrome was something new for me, a little sketchy at first. This race was dedicated to our proud sponsor Sigma Sport, the computer, light, and heart rate monitor supplier.

Mark Thome went off first in the Class C race. Had a strong start and kept at it each lap. Sporting a sweet handlebar stache Thome finished 27th out of 44 riders. Trust me, that Class C is stacked with sandbaggers. Good job Thome! Mass in motion... physics lesson. Love that guy!

Personally, it all went wrong for me. Ate an egg sandwich an hour before the race just to get some food in me. Had a bad start position, wayyy in the back. Exiting the velodrome at the start of the race we all got bottlenecked and had to singlefile out of the chute. By that time was almost dead last and had to rally to pass racers. Caught a bunch but by that time legs had given out and something was brewing in my chest and throat. Sad to say, for the first time this season, racers started to pass me in the end. It was so bad that I got lapped and pulled from the race. Sneezing and coughing ensued after the race where I had 30 minutes to ride back down to the train station to catch my train back to LA. Barely made it with two minutes to spare. The next three hours on the train was a blur. Flashbacks of the night before, horrible race, and a nice 22oz Stone IPA in my lap... knocked out on the train. The conductor had to wake me up to get off at Union Station. The 9 miles to my house was a death march. Today I'm coughing up green stuff and wheezing in pain. But hey, after checking the results today.... 22nd out of 40... not good but was out there representing our sponsors and having fun with friends.

Big shoutout to Stephane Roche who came out for the first time to race cyclocross and crushed it. Been racing mountain bikes against Stephane since 2005. He also raced on a mountain bike but with full knobby tires. Ixchel also came out with Mark and raced a good race. Good job Ixchel!

Going to take the next couple of weekends off to recover and get over this chest cold. Full fatigue has set in. Need to go on an extreme Amino Vital binge. An IV of Amino Vital is in the works.

Fuzz

Spooky-Cross Fuzzy Style.

Hello Christopher F. Sharp,

This race was dedicated to long-time sponsor Kenda Tires. Decked out in full Kenda kit to represent!

Spooooky-Cross! It was spooky because of the long flat sections and grass of impending doom. Felt like I was riding through molasses with my Kenda Kozmik Lite tires. The flats were perfect for cross bikes which hauled ass. Not too many technical sections again for such a long course (2.5 mi). This was a UCI sanctioned event that drew in many pros from around the continent, expecting more challenge technically than physical. The BMX section was fun to go through with whoops and berms. Legs were dead at the end of the 45 minutes of hell. Amino Vital FastCharge kicked in right before the race and had a great start until the guy infront of me crashed on the second turn. Made ground in the dirt and then lost it on the straight aways throughout the whole race. Held off an attack of more than 10 riders in the last 2 laps to earn my place, but there was no way I was going to catch up to the racers ahead of me.Trusty Sigma Rox 9.0 had me clocked in at a max 25.6mph on the backstretch and still couldn't keep up with the cross bikes. Xpedo pedals were saddened because we had to clip out only twice a lap, those pedals like to get nasty. In the end, with amazement and shock, came out in 22nd out of 76 racers in Class B. Could have done better, but improving under the circumstances

It was a fun time in Pomona though. The atmosphere was relaxed and having friends around made it so much better. Thanks to Shortstack and Joy who came out and cheered us on. Roger and PMBC had a nice pit area to regroup and get some good heckling in. The beers went down so well. James Cross, former Backboner and gram cracker, threw down some hot laps aswell. Missed Thome though!

I'm probably going to get a cross bike now, keeping it real with a mountain bike is taking its toll. Maybe....

Next race will be dedicated to Sigma Sport.

Fuzz

Tookie Takes Ohio!

It's official! After the gruelling old-school throw down in the Mohican Wilderness yesterday, Backboner Jeff "Tookie" Williams is the overall winner for the Clydesdale category! This course was a bruiser, with so many riders being taken out with wrecks and/or failed bike parts it was startling. Mossy boulder fields, off camber rocky climbs, greasy leaf-covered descents and rotor-scorching switchbacks made this one of the hardest XC courses I have seen in years. Thankfully our team sponsors came through for Jeff, and really made the difference. Hydrapak's bottle-free hydration packs made sure there were no lapses in focus, Royal's full fingered gloves provided airy but tough protection from the eventuality of a crash, the Kenda Slant Six tires handled the varying terrain perfectly, and the KMC X10SL ti chain performed with every shift...despite a bent rear derailleur! Huge props to the XPEDO pedal engineers as well, who created a mud-proof set of kicks for Jeff to deftly get in and out of. Enjoy the photos....