Iceman

What a weekend! Iceman has to be my favorite stop of the Triple Crown....the most Superfans, the fastest racing, and the toughest competition. This was my 15th Iceman!

We started off as we always do loading up the Hyundai friday morning for the long drive up and over Lake Michigan. We picked up Tristan and were on the road earlier than last year...right? Every year we leave earlier, but for some reason it always gets dark before we finish our warm up ride. The bike was great, the trail was in top notch condition, and I was ready to rock....

We hit registration, saw old friends, had some dinner, and finished off the night with a little ice cream with my dad.

Saturday morning was a little breakfast and then a short drive to Kalkaska in the afternoon for the race. It must have been the warmest Iceman to date....

The call up was odd as a bunch of roadies were called to the line and the US National MTB Champ was not....

The start was smooth for me at the front of the race, but someone went down and the not so good noise of metal and carbon scraping against the concrete, along with tires exploding, had me happy I was at the front. I filed into the woods in about 5th wheel.

Tristan made the first move after Simonson was pulling...I sat up and started blocking...midwest on the offensive....it was fun....

A couple miles later after the Tornado singltrack Tristan and JHK took 2 hard pulls and the gap opened. The 2009 Iceman was down to 6 men. JHK, Sam, Carl Dekker, Mike A, Tristan, and Myself. I attacked multiple times only to be marked by the duo on the 29ers. I gave it one really hard effort just before the Vasa Trail, but JHK shut me down. I was starting to feel the efforts, the pace was slowing and I think all 6 of us were hurting....

With 3 miles to go I started to get the twinges in the right quad. Not good....

I positioned myself good up the Ice Breaker climb and was stuck like glue on JHK's wheel. He gapped me by 1 second out of the final singletrack and had a little more punch up the wood chip climb. Sam caught me by the top jumped in front of me and opened up the gap. Once he started ramping it up again there was no way I was coming around him through the campground maze.

I'm a little bummed to lose out on the double triple, but I raced aggressive and only missed out by 12 seconds. But, at the same time this is my 4th podium in a row at the Iceman...and 2 outta 3 ain't bad. JHK said it best, "I just wanted to make sure you were the only "one" to ever win the triple crown!"

Andrea capped off an awesome season with a 16th in the pro womens race....I think the womens field was even deeper than the mens. She was really strong the entire season and I'm really proud of her...I think shes going to come back even stronger next year.

The best part of the Iceman is always seeing the old familiar faces...after the race I hung with Mesko, Precthl, Buermans, my old soccer coach Dennis Massey, Bernie Smith gave me a newpaper clipping from 1996.....so many stories, so many good memories.....

Thanks to all who have supported along the way...

Iceman (quick)

A quick update before this mornings Omlette run....

3rd place yesterday. It's hard to race the Iceman with a big X on your back....especially when its the dude in the stars and stripes chasing down evey attempt you make.

JHK 1st
Sam Schultz
me
Carl Decker
Mike Anderson
Tristan

Andrea finished 16th in the toughest midwest field of the year.

All in all a sweet weekend though hanging with the ol' MI homies....full update later

Derby City Cup

Day 2 of the USGP in KY finished with nearly the same result as Day 1.....11th place. This time things seemed completely opposite though. I had a much better start and was top 10 off the pavement. Half way through the lead lap I found myself trailing the lead group and by the end of the lap I was leading the chase group. A few laps later I bridged up to Troy and Frattini with Marko, McGrath, and Bergman in tow. With 3 or 4 laps to go it was down to 3 of us racing for 9th. I led the entire last lap hoping for a mistake by one of the other 2 riders, but no luck and didn't have anything left for the sprint.

Overall it was a great weekend with some great racing. I like the trip down to KY and the spectators always seem to like me down there! Especially my mom!

Thanks again to all my CX Sponsors....Gear Grinder, Hyundai, Blue, Easton-Bell Sports, Crank Bros & Oakley next up ICEMAN!!!

Time Zones, Toll Booths, & Bluegrass

Quick update from the road again....it was nice to be at home last weekend after 6 racing weekends in a row....now I'm at it again at the second round of the USGP in Louisville, KY. Had great legs yesterday, but a horrible start. AJM missed his pedal on the front row and as a dude who usually gets the wholeshot I lined up right behind him and instantly utilized the Rishi Grewal reverse drivetrain. I must have been in the 40's over the first barrier, but then soon started moving forward. I rode to 7th by the middle of the race and with 2 laps to go took a big crash. Frattini, Wicks, and Weighall passed me and I finished 10th...I'll take it...

Pretty sore today from the crash, but its time to race soon....

Bio-Wheels - United Dairy Farmers

The drive home last night was brutal.....immediately from the finish line to the car and a 7.5 hour drive home. Work this morning to get the shop back to normal after a fair amount of product went over to the WORS race this past weekend.

Andrea had an awesome race in Sheboygan and finished 4th with some really tough competition. I could tell she was ready to have a good race, but then she told me she was feeling sick Saturday morning. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I think she rode her best race of the year! I'm really happy for her to finish off the season with a great result. Maybe I can convince her to come to Iceman???

It's not official but I think I won the WORS Overall for the 3rd time! It's not official, but according to Don's math Andrea should move into 5th place overall in the series!

The Bio Wheels race was the last of 3 for the Cincinnati Cyclocross Festival....I finished 6th and Marko was 7th. It was kind of like doing a WCA or a WORS...just the 2 of us riding along. I lined up behind Marko and he didn't clip in right away. We both kind of got swarmed on the line. I'm pretty sure I had too much tire pressure and a small gap opened around the first 180 degree turn. Troy went to the front and killed it and the gap grew. I was chasing with Marko on my wheel the first lap. The second lap Marko came by me in the sand pit and started to help with the chase...2 corners later a little kid ran into the course and Mark was over the bars.....I think the kid would have been clear, but the dad yelled and the kid hesitated and that was it....I wasn't sure what to do and slowed up for a minute...once I saw Mark was back on the bike I started going and soon after he latched onto my wheel, but there was no way were closing the gap. We traded pulls for the next 6 or so laps and with 1 to go I got a small gap after the run when Marko couldn't clip in and held it to the finish.

I think I have raced 15 weekends in a row or at least it feels like it...so I'm looking forward to a week off....Thanks to Team Half Acre for holding the bike in the pits, thanks to Gear Grinder, Blue Bikes(which worked awesome all weekend), and Hyundai(32 MPG at 80mph saves some gas money) Easton/Bell, Crank Bros, and Oakley

Lionheart

Much better today....I found my legs....maybe they were lost in blogger land and I asked for them and they showed up....

5th place and I was actually racing. Marko had another killer race in 3rd. He had an instant gap with the big dogs in the first 1/4 lap and was gone. I was in the chase group with Wells and Parbo. I thought we had dropped Parbo like 10 times, but he got me in the end. Wells was 6th.

Dinner was amazing. We even ran into my old neighborhood friend Bradley Palumbo at the Montgomery Inn! I went with Big Ted's Platter....Brisket, Ribs, and Pulled Pork on Jalepeno Pancakes and a sweet potato for dessert. Mmmmmm

Darkhorse

Rain Rain go Away......Legs Legs come back today.....

That's the story of the Day #1 at the UCI International Cyclocross Fest in Cincinnati. It was a muddy one and a special thanks goes out to Karew for rocking the pits for me.....good thing I had an A bike and a B bike w/ sweet Easton wheel and Dugast Rhino tyres!

I had a pretty bad start and was overly cautious on the first off camber muddy section. As soon as I hit the next section though I was past 10 dudes and onto Molly's wheel.

I pretty much stayed 20 seconds behind him the entire race until he caught Troy on the last lap and had some extra motivation. I felt good in the mud, but no power on the climbs. Marko killed it finishing 4th....

The coolest part of the day was the custom number plates! Oh yeah and the 10oz Garbage Burger from Max & Irma's mmmm!