UTCX 2011 Schedule

I haven't actually tried on my supersuit skinsuit yet this season, but I have taken it out of the closet and held it up to my body once or twice.  Time for some sit ups.  There is no hidding in this thing.

It's almost time.....

2011 UTCX Schedule

1-Oct-11 Utah State Fair Park

2-Oct-11 Utah State Fair Park

8-Oct-11 Fort Buenaventura

15-Oct-11 Weber County Fairgrounds

22-Oct-11 Wheeler Farm (Cross out Cancer)

29-Oct-11 Wheeler Farm (Halloween Double Cross Weekend)

30-Oct-11 Wheeler Farm (Halloween Double Cross Weekend)

5-Nov-11 Heber Fairgrounds, Heber, UT

12-Nov-11 Mt Ogden Golf Course

19-Nov-11 Wheeler Farm

3-Dec-11 Fort Buenaventura

17-Dec-11 Wheeler Farm (Series Final Race)

17-Dec-11 UTCX Series Awards Party @ Rocky Mountain Raceway

Support Your Local Bike Race

The Tour of Utah finished within a few miles of my office yesterday and on Sunday will climb right past my house.  I hope people keep supporting this event and coming out to watch.

TOU Stage 2

By now you may have heard that Adobe is the stage sponsor for the Tour of Utah today.  What does that mean?  It means I plan to "host" several key prospects from the local business community at our hospitality tent at the finish.  This is when it pays to have friends who are cyclists and have good jobs.  Getting paid to watch a bike race with friends is a good thing.  I just need to figure out which one of my friends is going to sign a contract for web analytics this year.  Maddox is my target at the moment.  I plan to wine and dine him all afternoon.

Also, some pretty cool videos of yesterdays pre-work ride here and here.

ATACs

Ordered some new pedals for CX season.  I finally have a set of pedals for all my bikes.  No more pedal wrenching before rides (yes, I am THAT lazy when it comes to wrenching)

I've been running Time ATACs for years without any problems until recently.  I noticed the pins that run through the middle of the spring have been sliding out.  Anyone else notice this?  I'm hoping I just got a bad batch last time.

These are great mud pedals.  And I hope to race in a lot of mud this year.

Also, it looks like the SSCXWC 2011 is coming together. November is the target date in San Francisco. Any local UT riders plan to race this?  It's been on my list for a while now.  Time to check this one off.

Not Cool

A co-worker has been leaving piles of books on my desk thinking I'm interested in reading them.  I probably have about 15 books from him at the moment.

So finally, I approached him and confessed it's highly unlikely I'll get around to these.  Something about 3 kids, a cycling addition, and not enough time in the day to knock these out.  And that's when he responded with "yeah, I read all those books in the bathroom.  Just kept them there and would spend 20 min or so just sitting and reading".
Are you kidding me?  I've spent most of the day washing my hands.

Like Two Dogs Meeting For The First Time (but we didn't actually sniff)

I ran into Fatty on the Corner Canyon trails this morning.  Fatty on his new Specialized and me on my new Cannondale.  Instincts kicked in and instead of chatting about what's new, we quickly dismounted our bikes and exchanged them for a few minutes.  Lifting them, trying out the suspension, etc.  I was quick to point out that my bike had 3/4 of a water bottle in the cage and not one but two air cartridges on the seat post.  Fatty was quick to point out that his bike had two water bottles in the cages. These details are important when someone else is holding your ultra light race bike.  Helps them subtract the grams in their head. 
After a few minutes, we were both satisfied and returned the bikes and went on our way. 

I think my bike is lighter than Fatty's.  Don't tell him that.

PC50 Post Race Thoughts

After racing SS the past few years, I busted out the gears for the PC50.  I didn't do well (11th place in Expert 39) In fact, riding gears almost seemed harder than a SS in a weird kind of way.  Maybe my muscles are just used to grinding up climbs and the abrupt change to gears messed with my legs.  Maybe the extra weight of all those additional cables on my bar slowed me down (did I mention I have a fancy shock lock out remote on my bar?....that's one more cable), or maybe I had an off day. I'm not sure.  But I suffered.  I need to figure this out and fix it.  Figure out how to spin AND keep my speed up.

I still have my SS and I still prefer to ride SS but I'm committed to riding gears for certain events and to help with recovery rides.   I am 39 after all.

The PC50 course was a true MTB race.  Big climbs, a lot of rock and roots, thick forest single track.  I had a blast on the course.  The best part was being rewarded with a 7 mile downhill to the finish.  Nice way to end it. 

Congrats to the USCS crew for pulling off another great race.  We are lucky to have them putting on such great events in our state.

The Draper race should the best one yet.  Especially if they include the new (phase 3) Rush trail.  Not that I've ridden it.  I would never poach a closed trail....never.