Arctic...that described the temps out early this AM and only the true flahutes were out for our pre-work hup session. Nothing much to report other than the engine is feeling good and I am still doing my voodoo rain or snow dance for this weekend. PLEASE Santa, bring me crap weather.

On the digital celluloid tip, I upped the ante recently and upgraded my point and shoot Cannon to a big boy Nikon D90. My GOD is this thing nuts. I have been inspired (as constantly reported upon) by PDX Cross and the other photographers in the various regions capturing our beautiful sport. I'm trying to be all artsy-like and shoot b & w....

Doing relays. Just an ever-so-light dusting of snow getting kicked up as we go off in waves.

My boy Whit's freezing cold hands.
Za Dooba.

A PRO mechanics rig. Matty Opps Van Dessel

Fangos and Zipps. Must be Boulder.

The Birdman and is Snotcicles.

T Prehn. National Road Champion.

I suck badly, but it's fun learning! I'll be taking some classes soon to learn about light and exposure and all that goodness.

Today was 2nd to last Wednesday Worlds. One more next week to prep for Nationals. A wave of sadness is enveloping me. Looking forward to KC!

A certain secret agent with the initials CG sent me some super secret spy photos captured from his leased U-2 Spy Plane. a bit of course is still missing form this shot but is the spirit of the course we'll face this Sunday.

I think personally the course HAS IT ALL! Stairs, sand, grass (or mud), pavement. Mmm. You want to see what this course looks like with a bit of mud, have a look at Joe S's Peloton Photos here from 2 years ago.

GAME ON!

Hippo, birdie, two ewes.

But more importantly than my vantage point on the scene, I learned a lot about YOU. How you share the same exact passion I do for the sport of the changing leaves. The mud. The equipment. The style. The skill and technique. The constant craving to be smoother. The improvements you make week after week in your local cycling league.

This season is officially almost over folks. I can not wait to meet many of you in Kansas City! We will have beers. There will be talk of cross and we will geek it together. But we know that the planning, day dreaming and lusting for the leaves to change for our season is an all-year activity for us. I know how you think. And I love it.

Thanks to you all for reading my crappy blog. I'll keep trying my best.

'Cross on.

My main man Lance from TRP Brakes sent me the new upgrade kit which is coming to a bike shop near you very soon. I was able to converse with him this week all the way from Taiwan and he gave me an update on the upgrade kit...

There are actually two upgrade kits at the moment....the barrel adjustment kit and the brake pad kit. The brake pad kit currently retails for $79.99. We're examining the costs but these are particularly expensive to make due to the CNC machining of the post body. The barrel adjusters and straddle cables packed for one bike sell for $24.99. QBP has the pads in stock, so any shop has access to those. The barrel adjusters so far are only available at CyclocrossWorld.com, they are the only place that has both the pad kit and barral adjustment kit in stock.

I am working on getting the MSRP for the upgrade kit and ultimately all it includes. My box had a shed load of stuff (see below). The kit can be used on your TRP Euro X-style systems (magnesium, carbon or aluminum)...but truly the kit can be leveraged on similar designs to the Euro X such as Empella FrogLeggs or Spookys if you already own those systems and don't want to go PRO (like Sven) with the TRP's!

The goods....

The upgrade kit: 2 x Barrel adjusters/new cables/cable ends and a complete set of toe-in-able cartridges and aluminum rim compound pads. (Podium cap not included!)

If you haven't seen them up close, the TRP brake post system offering toe-in is absolutely awesome. No more bending brake pad posts for toe-in! If you look closely, you see that the end of the post has an allan key slot which when loosened, allows the cartridge to rock to your desired toe-in position. You then tighten 'er up and voila, toe in.
The barrel adjuster is trick. As you can see, it is designed to fit EuroX-style brake arms which leverage two arm plates that slide into each of the slots you see on the left and right sides.

Now here is something you don't see every day! My dear friend Michel, an old friend of Dubba's whom I was introduced to last year on our trip to za Motherland, sent me some spy photos. Yummy. Now, if any of you have seen Transitions 2, you know Michel is a master mechanic (especially when he tweeeeeaks Kashi's rear derailleur hanger in his garage by hand...creeeeek. Remember that! Ha!) but our boy Michel knows his equipment. He blew me away with his knowledge and advice during our mini campaign last January. He let us try some very rare custom made FMBs for the beach sand at Worlds last year and now, working with FMB, has come up with another sweet concoction: Challenge Fango's glued to FMB casings. Boing!

The Challenge casings are good out of the box...but FMB's are not unlike Dugasts.....suppleness on the extreme side. This pattern and those casings are likely 'ta die faw'. Reports on the Fangos this weekend here on the super slippery CO courses were great. I'm still waiting to try 'em out! But Michel, I'll promise to come back soon to try 'em out on the sweet Belgian peat I long to kiss again...

Enjoy these pictures with your coffee this AM:

And lastly, here is Michel himself railing it this past weekend in Limburg. Michel is a guy, readers, who I have on video mixing it up with Sven Nys and the rest of the Flahutes. Give 'em hell Michel!

Long live mud.

Valmont Bike Park & Boulder Weekly Films
invite you to join us for a great evening!

The 9 Ball Diaries

DATE: Thursday, December 4

TIME: 7:30 PM

LOCATION: Boulder Theater

MORE: Tickets $10 General Admission

The Nine Ball Diaries stars U.S. Cyclocross National Champion Tim Johnson. Ride along with road racing's golden boy, Tim Johnson, as he wraps up his day job and makes the transition to compete in his true love: Cyclocross. Follow Tim as he tackles the North American cyclocross circuit, kicking it all off under the lights in Las Vegas. Then watch as he battles through the rain and mud of the grueling USGP series, eventually claiming the National Championship title on a brutal, frozen course in Kansas City.

Four-time Emmy Award-winning sports documentary producer and director, Don Hampton and his crew from DH Productions captured all of the drama and triumph in pristine high definition.

Valmont Bike Park

Valmont Bike Park is a destination being crafted specifically for you, the cycling enthusiast.This multi-discipline cycling park is being designed by some of the finest trail builders in the United States to support a vast array of trail networks created for their respective disciplines. Epic single-track for the mountain biker, rhythmic pump tracks for BMX enthusiasts, and cyclocross circuits designed in the style of the best courses in Belgium will be free for all to experience and allow any skill level to enjoy from beginner to expert, child to senior citizen.
To see the plans click here

Can't make the movie but want to support the Valmont Bike Park? 
Consider buying a brick!

Valmont Bike Park Committee

Contact Rocky Mounts or DBC Events

Epic. Delectable conditions that I savor. Relish. Long for. Lemme get to the race action in a minute and tell ya a little bit about the weekend first.

Turkey Day was awesome. Best in a long while Dinner with great neighbors...kids running wild having made themselves up like Native Americas, tons of good beer. Late night music DJ-ing to each other. An epic in itself. Friday, The Man was at bay and so played with the kids and met up with The VeloNews boys for some openers at Elks.

Then things went sideways...

Saturday AM I was gearing up for my revenge at Chatfield. I felt great that day a few weeks ago, my cold is all but gone, and I wanted to try and up the ante and get closer to the podium. 4th is good, but it's still 1st not-on-the-podium guy. I pack up and start to head south to the venue and get a call on my cell. It's my lady and when I pick up, she's screaming for me to turn around. She's cut the bejesus out of her hand on a broken dish in the kitchen. I abort and blaze back up home (thank God I was close!) and immediately see that this is beyond my butterfly stitching capabilities. A trip to the ER, skin and tendon sewn back together, the family and I hunkered down to take care of moms on Saturday. She's a rock start and doing fine...

Sunday. Cold and damp outside. Belgie style. No snow here but you can taste it in the air. I pack up the Rock Lobsters, emborcations and head south to the venue at Bear Creek Lake Park in Morrison...about 50 minutes South of me. I tell my wife not to handle any sharp knives and to leave the dishes....I'll get 'em when I get back! By the time I reach Golden CO, about 1/2 way there, snow...probably 2 inches and coming down. 30 degrees. Perfect.

At the venue it is coming down. There are STILL crowds at this Red Rocks Velo race, and all is being handled super PRO. Registration, course marshaling. You name it. I pre ride and the course is super technical...and then add snow. Holy crap...perfect. I wash out continually and then take my Typhoons down lower...and lower...and lower. 30 front and 31 rear. Amazing. My next pre ride lap I was sticking virtually everything. It glued over some amazingly dodgy ice sections.

We line up and I get a call up. Most of the usual suspects are there so it was not going to be easy today. Gun goes off and the WB, yesterday's winner at Chatfield and my bro, grabs the hole shot. Nice punch WB! We fly into the snowy singletrack immediately and start to flow. I stay in 2nd place through the first lap where me, WB, my team mate Whit Johnson and recent Cat 3 upgrade Mike Robson...also the Photographer for Moots! We get a fairly sizable gap by lap 2 and the 4 of us just flow like a 4 part train.

Roughly 3rd lap Mike comes to the front and ups the pace and by this time Whit is in 3rd place and me right behind. Whit has a bobble and I take the reigns at 3rd. Lap after lap we are trading spots. WB takes the front and gets a gab, Whit bridges and I sit on Mike. By the last lap, the BCS boys make their moves. Whit uses his former pro mountain biking skills and puts a gap into WB in the slick singletrack and I come through guns blazing through the volleyball sand section running its entirety and maintain my gap over Mike. Whit 1st, WB 2nd, Yours Truly, de laatste podiumplaats for 3rd. Mike trailed in 25 seconds and unbelievably it was roughly a minute and a 1/2 before the next wave came through.

Never a crash. Certainly a few slips and slides and feet out/off camber-ings, but man the bike performed. Never a mis shift with the SRAM and the tires were delicious.

Next week States. Week after that...Nats. See you in KC sports fans.

Digital celluloid provided by BCS team mate Phil Ball:

Whit rocking to 1st

The WB, super form at the right time. 2nd.

Yours truly. 3rd.

SRAM's Jim Mathis captured some GREAT pictures of teh winter wonderland as well. Thanks Jim!

All's that is missing is a sleigh.

Matty Opp railing his Rhinos.

Braaap!

Fire up your browser, grab a cup and watch the antics here.

My boy Jeff Kerkove found a new way to video his rides. Rad angle! This would be GREAT for cross.

Chainstay Cam from Jeff Kerkove on Vimeo.

It's not a question of how, but why sometimes. The WB took a good one on Sunday in the 35's and I'm so proud. Excellent video captured by Dave Hixson.

CX in Golden - 23nov08 from Dave Hixson on Vimeo.