NCCX- QueenCity Cross - Charlotte!

During the weeks leading up to our home cross race here in CLT, I was really looking forward to racing first thing in the morning then hanging out and cheering on friends, teammates and fellow racers the rest of the day.  However, when the weatherman said it was going to rain all night Saturday and Sunday I was pretty disappointed.  I was hoping for a sunny beautiful day to hang with friends. Despite the rain, this race turned out to be better than I had hoped.

 

With the parking issue in mind, I got to Veterans very early on race day- 2 hours before my race was to start.  I warmed up in a light drizzle.  The course was in good shape with a few muddy slick spots.  It was a really tough course with a lot of elevation loaded near the finish line.  The race started and I had a great start, passed a few people and was in the front 30ish people.  The park must have just been mowed because there were rooster tails of dead dry grass being thrown over my head by the racers in front of me.  For me, the highlight of the race came at an unexpected point.  I followed someone into the twisting turns into the steep run-up.  He tried running up the right side, I took the left.  I passed him at about 4 steps into the run-up.  Got to the top, jumped back on the bike, clipped in as fast as I could and coasted down the off-camber side hill- NO Brakes!  Then immediately back up another hill and passed another racer on the way up that hill.  As I made the second pass the racer commented, "great job!".  I finished the race, cooled down and changed into our freshly printed Slippery Sasquatch team T-shirts.

The spectators and fellow racers were encouraging.  During my race there was someone cheering for me by name it seemed like every other turn.  It was AWESOME!  My wife and son were also there cheering me on and pushing me to keep pedaling.

 

 

 

 

 



During the 3's the sky opened up and it began to pour.  The course went from wet to soaking! That's when the fun started. The crowd was out of control. There was a big crowd with great heckling, creepy baby hands, megaphones, beer hand-ups, and loads of crazy half-drunk fans. The crowd started chanting "SLIDE SLIDE SLIDE SLIDE....." eventually the racers gave in and started giving the crowd what they wanted, sliding down the muddy embankment.  But no one could top, the now local legend, Ben. He took sliding to a whole new level- sliding every chance he got. Eventually wearing a 4" round hole into his skinsuit.

 

 



weldonweaver.com

 

 

 

Brian got the lucky job of pinning Ben's Skinsuit back together in order to avoid being taken to jail for indecent exposure.



CX PreSeason - Spartan Cross

I've been pretty tired the week leading up to Spartan Cross. The wife was out of town and I've been playing Mr. Mom for the week and haven't had a decent nights sleep for quiet a while. So along comes Sunday Morning and I wake up at 6:53 and I'm meeting Justin and Jason at the shop at 7:30 which is about 30 minutes away.

I quickly throw on my bibs, some shorts, and a t-shirt all while brushing my teeth. Run out the door load the bike, bottles, pump, gear bag, and a extra large cup of coffee. As I'm loading the gear into the truck the thought crosses my mind "Why I'm I doing this? After all, I really needed some rest, the bed was so warm, I'm late, and I don't feel prepared at all to race today. I head out anyways.

I get to the shop and load up my stuff and grab some coffee and pastries from Starbucks and head to Spartanburg. We get to the race, register, and start warming up. It's a fun course with a lot of off camber sections, flowy single track, and a long stretch of flat pavement. AWESOME!

I do my warm up lap and head over to the starting line. The race was going pretty well except for the run up stairs. A guy falls just before the barriers, I go over the barriers just behind him. I basically sit on his wheel until........... I hear Ben yelling "Go Mike! Granted I was very happy to just sit on this guys wheel until the finishing pavement and out sprint him. But when Ben said "Go Mike", I did just that. I over took him just before an off camber section and took off as best as I could. I finished that lap with the bell ringing for the final lap.

I stayed on the power and didn't let up. As I got to the top of the hill I could see Justin a good ways ahead of me. I pushed harder, I thought I might be able to surprise him on the finishing paved dragstrip. Unfortunately I didn't see him again until after the race. We hung out and cheered on some guys from the shop in the Cat 3's race. Then we headed home after we found a decent Mexican restaurant and ate too much!

team page

If you are looking here why not look at my team's page.

http://slipperysasquatch.blogspot.com/

And like us on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/slipperysasquatch

Thanks!
Mike

Cross Camp- Thanks Cycle Smart & KindHuman

So I traveled to Ridgeway, SC located just outside of Columbia last weekend. Yes, cross camp in the SC in the middle of August. I'm not sure what I was thinking but it actually wasn't nearly as hot as it could have been. I had just meet BC, at the shop, and asked me if I wanted to drive down with him. I thought it would be fun to get to know a new friend and talk cross on the way down so I said "Absolutely-YES!". So we went down early Saturday morning, registered, and proceeded to kit up. We all gathered up in a picnic area and waited to hear what the weekend was going to entail. Adam was introduced and then we all introduced ourselves to the rest of the group. Attendees were everyone from newbies who just bought a cx bike to 3rd place finishers in CX Nationals. Needless to say a huge variety of backgrounds and skill levels. I'm not going to talk about what I learned, because I think you should go pay your own $300 and learn from Adam, It's well worth the money!

I was blown away by the 30+ people who sacrificed their weekend with family, friends, and rest to drive down to Columbia, SC to ride a bike 6 hours a day in the close to 100 degree heat. You see I thought I was the only that crazy! But as it turns out I'm not! The cross season is still 2 months away but don't tell a cross racer that. We typically start thinking CX a couple weeks after our last race. It's our fix, our addiction, it's our.......religion. It was awesome spending the weekend with other like minded people like me. See you all at the races!

2014 - Ambition or Stupidity?

This year I'm going to try my hand at some things I've never done before. such as Gravel Grinders, Endurance Mountain bike races (4 & 6 Hour races), and maybe an Enduro. Also going to be supplementing in some local cross-country races.

So here's my proposed schedule for this year-2014.

January 12 - Winter Short Track - Race #1

January 18&19 - NCCX- Biltmore Race

January 26 - Winter Short Track - Race #2

February 9 - Winter Short Track - Race #4

February 16 - Winter Short Track - Race#5

March 2- Maxxis Southern Classic - The Knot

March 9- Tom Dula's Revenge or Maxxis Southern Classic - Shootout @ Angler's Ridge

March 22- Tour de Charlotte with Faster Mustache

April 5- 6 Hours of Warrior Creek

April - Charlotte Mountain Bike Summer series (15 races)

April 26 - 6 hour Gear Grinder - Hendersonville, NC

April 27 - Maxxis Southern Classic - Stump Jump

May 4 - Maxxis Southern Classic - Harbison Race to the River

May 18 - Maxxis Southern Classic - Riverfront Classic - USNWC

May 23 - Mountain Sports Festival - CX Race

May 25 - Maxxis Southern Classic - Uwharrie

June - Tree Shaker - 4 Hour

July 26 - Jerdon Mountain Challenge


There will also be some local Wednesday night races at the Anne Springs, Whitewater Center, Fisher, and maybe North Meck. June and July is about have fun- trips to the mountains, long road rides, and riding for fun. Then after Jerdon I'm going to be resting until CX Season - Hopefully a month or more.


September - may be bring something new from Slippery Sasquatch Racing to Charlotte

September - Asheville Cyclocross Series (4 races)

September 28 - 6 Hour Grind on the Greenway

October 5 - Wilson's Revenge CX

October - North Carolina Cyclocross Series (15 races)

November - North Meck  Cyclocross Series (4 races)

I'm expecting this year to be a very fun year! With the new team, new races, more races, killer bikes, and new friends! I'm also hoping to be at a reasonable fighting weight before CX season.

Race Report- Hendersonville NCGP

It's been said a picture is worth a thousand words, by my calculations this post is over 5,000!

nasty off-camber section- just before "The Wall"

sticky peanut butter MUDD

my rear brake

my shoes after the race

the mud was worse than it looks

I wanted 1 day of racing in epic conditions this season - I'm pretty sure I got it. It was a good experience but I hope I never face that again. It was so bad I couldn't get my buckle to release from my shoe- I had to get in the shower with 1 shoe and my muddy bibs. The water finally loosed the mud's grip on my buckle. Dear Hotel maid, I'm really sorry the bath tub was full of mud & grass. I felt so bad I had to leave her a tip before I left.


I'm still having nightmares about that mud. Oh yeah, these guys were there too!

Robert Marion doing NC Proud!

Anthony Clark

Tim Johnson

Mr. Adam Myerson

Jeremy "JPOW" Powers

Race Report- NCCX Southern Pines- 2 days playing in the sand

I wanted to do both days at Southern Pines, so I decided to make it a family outing as well. Since my race was at 10am and it's a 2 1/2 hour drive, we had to get up pretty early. I wanted to do both days it is pretty flat and not a lot of climbing. Yes, all that was true, but the SAND! Some of which I smuggled back with me as a souvenir inside my bottom bracket, chain, shoes and body crevasses. Life's a beach..... sometimes...... so is Cyclocross!

Day 1-
I took a easy spin around the course just to get a feel for the turns and obstacles. I took another lap with more speed, checking out different lines, and to see if places were ride-able. Although the course was flat, it was tough.  It wasn't an exciting day of racing for me.  Yeah, I passed a few racers and I raced pretty well but nothing worthy of writing a race report. The only thing exciting about this race was when the sprinklers came on mid-race. For the excitement see Day 2. That being said, watch this video of a portion of the course-by far the most difficult part.




link to video

You can also see "The Shelf" at the top of the run up. Some of my fellow height challenged competitors had to kneel on the top step to get up to the top.

Day 2-
We arrived early.  It was very foggy; it had rained the night before and the grass was wet. On pre-ride the small mud puddle at the bottom of the hill had turned into a 20' long gauntlet of slick mud. Somehow they also found more sand for the second day and re-routed the course to include
more drivetrain killing sand. I finished 1 lap and wanted to switch tires to my Clement PDX but realized I forgot to bring a tire lever. I bailed on switching tires and decided to continue with warming up. On the warm up I could hear the sand grinding the inside of the bottom bracket. That's NOT good!




Foggy and damp start to day 2- greenway to the finish line.

The whistle blew and we all sprinted down the straightway then slammed on the brakes for everyone to file 2x into a narrow paved greenway. Into the woods then out onto a paved downhill section and into the mud. While most guys took the inside line, I followed a friend, Bob, on the outside which was a little straighter and dryer. Mind you, this mud is directly after a fast paved downhill, so you are going through this mud with some speed.  Mud was thrown everywhere-on the bike, legs, shoes and fellow racers. The course then turned to grass with sandy corners. Then another fast downhill with a really fun 90 degree right hard banked turn with a slight uphill-no brakes needed on that turn! The turn put you on top of a dam of a small pond, then more SAND.  Actually, an uphill section of sand that was maybe 1/4 mile of soft sugar sand which stuck like glue to the mud from before. Then the crux of the course was a 1/2 pipe of soft sand which provided the crowd with many stopped front wheels and resulting face plants. Once past the sand the course set up pretty well for me - a ride-able steep hill followed by a grassy flat field and a paved track to the finish.

The first few laps everyone got sorted out into their positions. Going into the race I wanted to stay on Bob's wheel, or least have him in sight. On the last lap things were pretty much as they had started until the sand run-up. On the run-up my legs were burning.  The sand was so soft-- as I took a step my foot would sink into the deep sand.  I was exhausted and my legs said "We aren't running up this!" so I relented and walked up the sandy incline-2 guys ran pass me. We followed each other down the drop-in and up the small sandy hill to a hard right hand turn. The crowd was going wild- ringing cowbells, yelling and heckling us.  With the 2 racers right in front me, I jumped on the gas and passed one before a narrow section of single track. Then I passed the second guy who was on a mountain bike. I gunned it as we approached the steep ride up. I had to take the outside line because of the big roots on the inside. Once I got to the top I made a hard right turn.  Just as I got my bike straighten out, the guy on the mountain bike rode up next to me, apparently taking the more direct line up the hill. We were neck and neck on the flat grass, pedaling side by side on the back side on the course. As we approached a 180 degree corner, I got out in front, took the corner and poured on the power after the corner to drop him.





You can see the 2 guys in front me that I'm getting ready to pass. Knuckles & Elbows!

Next up is a group of 3 riders, one of which was Bob. I'm in no man's land all by myself. We went through the volley ball court (as if there wasn't enough sand on the course) and passed another guy that was sitting up and spinning- he was fried! I passed him and went through the barriers and noticed Bob and another racer on the Greenway.  I took the turn onto the greenway and closed the gap on the mountain biker. I blew by him.  I wanted to put enough distance between us to dissuade him from trying to catch me but before I knew it I was closing in on Bob. I was happy where I was but I just kept peddling. I thought it was going to come down to a sprint at the finish but I passed Bob as the track straighten out. I finished, EXHAUSTED! The course was set up very well for me- A Fast flat finish! I finished 39th out of 59- my best finish to date. I'm beginning to think that racing every weekend is finally paying off. I feel like I'm getting faster, and bike handling is getting better. I'm able to trust my tires more in the corners.  I was able to make it through some tough sections of sand. Overall I'm very pleased with the weekend of racing.



Me with Bob in my sights - 100 yds form the finish line.

All that being said, I doubt I will be back to play in this sandbox (see liter box). Once we got back I immediately had to disassemble the bike and spent the next 2 days cleaning the drive train of grit to get ready for the "Fight under the Lights" race on Tuesday night.



My crank after the 2nd race. I'm pretty sure sand isn't supposed to be inside the bottom bracket.