Random sunrise

It's rapidly becoming that time of year. The leaves will change, jackets will be worn again, day and night will seem to blend together. It's random sunrise time!

Capital City CX

Capital City Cross Day-1, we headed out expecting to get wet. That's the odd thing about cyclocross I suppose, knowing that it would be cold and raining just made me look forward to getting onto the course all the more.

It did rain during the men's race but the course held up pretty well and remained rideable (for most people anyway). There were a few off-camber hills that turned to mud and there were the run-ups which became mostly mud as well. There were definitely plenty of people who decided to lay on the ground and take a nap for a bit, so they were easy to ride around. 

Day-2 promised sunshine and clear skies. Double-race weekends still working great - I felt even better today than yesterday and went on to finish with my best placing in a cyclocross race to date. We had a great showing today as a whole team.

Dirty Wooden Shoe CX

Wooden Shoe! Back-to-back race days are going well so far, I felt good today despite doing a race and a wedding yesterday. A little riding and a lot of wandering around checking if tape needed to be repaired. Our event went great and the weather was nearly perfect. 

IMBCS #9 Banner Lakes

Corrine, Cody and I are playing hooky today from our team's race in Pella. We went to Indianola instead to race in an abandoned coal-mine pit. 

We were about half way there when Corrine realized she forgot her bike shoes and helmet and only had sandals. She called Amanda in Carlisle to check if we could borrow anything. We got some plastic flat commuter pedals and a helmet. Along with the shoes Cody wore on the way, she was ready to go.

Also coolest number plates yet. 

Course Building

It's Friday afternoon and the Jimmy Johns team is out in force to prepare for a big two-day race weekend. We're using the South Overlook property at Red-Rock Lake again. I still don't like this area as well as the Whitebreast location myself but it always turns out great and it's more accessible here from major highways. 

I think we put in about 500 poles and started with 14,000ft caution tape (not sure how much of that we used). It had rained recently but the ground handled it just fine and the forecast was clear for the whole weekend!

IMBCS #8 Sycamore Trails

Sycamore trails! This one is about as close as we get to a "home" MTB race. An urban/river/interstate trail system, things were well prepped, smooth and fast, fast. Lots of cool features, including two-way traffic on a power-line road, kept things different. 

There was a nice long road chunk at the start line which was great for me since most people in my category aren't real proficient at sprinting. I was feeling pretty good today and held onto a decent spot.