Boulder Racing's last race in its four part series finishes up tomorrow with the fianl showdown at the Louisville Rec Center in Louisville CO. Brian Hludzinski, race promoter sent out this teaser for all to come and bring 'er tomorrow!

Hello Cyclocross racers and fans,

A few notes in regards to Saturday's Boulder Cyclocross Series race
#4 and Series Finals at Louisville Rec Center...

* Unfortunately we'll have sunny skies for Saturday, so no mud and no
goatheads.
* The Prize List is stacked with plenty of product from Boulder Cycle
Sport, Curve clothing, Moots, Ryders Eyewear and over $3,000 in cash.
* Overall results are up at BoulderRacing. com and the last race will
be double points. So if you are anywhere in the running for a good
overall result and have a decent finish you are sure to ride home
with some sweet prizes.
* Dave Towle will finally be in town along with Nat Ross, so the
dynamic duo will be on hand with mad lyrics.

* Dale's Pale Ale will be flowing with a free beer garden for ACA members.
* Tot Race - after last Saturday's successful kids race at Chatfield,
we were inspired and begged by the kids to do another one. We'll have
an impromptu tot race course setup in the infield with some fun
teeter-totters for the small riders. Race at Noon so bring the kids.
Also, the new playground is up and running, so it should be a good
time for the little ones.
* Valmont Bike Park - Come take a look at what's in store for the new
Boulder bike park and any donations made at the race will be matched
by Boulder racing up to $500 - NPR style.
* Since we've all had our share of goatheads this year at non BR
races ;) we added a rescue kit to our prize packs and primes - tubes
with removable stems and bottles of sealant. Be sure to keep an ear
open for these necessity giveaways

A few logistical notes -
* Course marking - we'll have a preliminary course marked with
orange flags on Friday evening so the early morning master racers
will know exactly where they are racing while we are finishing setup
in the am.
* Extra parking is available a little farther past the Recreation
Center on Via Apia Drive at the Christ the Servant Church, please no
rigs and trailers there.

See you there,
www.BoulderRacing. com

I guess having your sport covered in the NYT means you've made it. Big time.

Blood, Muddy Courses and Air Horns

Continue reading the NYT article here....

Oh God. Sourced. Just in time for mud season.

It's growing. Can you feel it? 1500 racers in PDX on any given weekend. 80+ people on a training ride in Boulder on a Wednesday AM. It's a wave that is growing. If you love it like I know you do, give back! Bring a kid to a 'cross race! Let 'em get muddy! Walk the course with them while drinking a hot cocoa!

It's happening here in San Francisco...

And here in Boulder...


The Boulder kids clinic above I reported upon earlier and took place yesterday on their Veteran's Day off from school. Ghris Grealish's DBC guys were there as were all of Ben turner's CLIF Bar team. Amazing.

What are you doing to help the sport?? Give a clinic. Or keep taking them to learn more to teach others down the road. Take your neighbor to a local race. Help set up or take down the course as a volunteer.

It's growing!

I'm still lusting this past Saturday's course. All twisty it was. You lean over and let the tires bite. Bend them into the trail side as the cotton sidewalls do their job and flex keeping your rubber contacting the dirt. Let the treads chew into the earth. No washing. Constant pedal pressure as you apex through up over and around trees. Railing. Flow.

There's no better feeling in biking.

This upcoming weekend is Boulder Racing's final race in Louisville. We're past the mid way point and as I said so long ago, I'm am smiling. No goals, just flow. Faster hopefully each race. Every one cleaner than the last. That is an incredibly tough thing to do....so OK, I do have goals. Cleaner. Improve. Flow better. Stay on top of the pedal stroke. Be supple. Spin faster. Hands stay on hoods. Head never drops. Every barrier cleaned. Every port perfect and smooth.

OK: now I am starting to sound like Private Pyle describing how cleans and reassembles his M-14.

The training went well to day at the lunchtime ride. Pete Webber and I pile drove each other into the ground on 'Dubba's Course'. More tomorrow. Then rest.

When is a 37 year old supposed to get tired of all this and go dormant.

Never methinks.

Almost. But that only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, right? Oh that close. That absolute sweetness of being at the front and truly believing I am going to put my hands above my head and know what it feels like again. But alas, not today. I'll get to it all in a minute....

I think I have something dialed: race day food. It's taken me at least a decade to figure it out, but I think the secret pre-race meal is (drum roll): pancakes. Before every sporting event of my life, my pops used to whip up his patented breakfast: the Egg Mc Dad-which. Eggs, a bit-o-cheese on toasted Jewish rye. Dee-lish. And I'd replicate that often when I moved out on my own and continued the sporting life (and no, I know what you're thinking, my cholesterol level is mad low, thankfully!).

But as of late, I needed a change. A bit of the home made pancake action was the remedy and for some reason, all seems right in the world. I feel deeper and better with my performances after scarfing 'em down. Or, maybe it's me starting to separate myself from him, pops, as the only reason to have an Egg Mc Dad-which was tradition. Maybe it's just time to move on and leave what was experienced behind.

The 'cross was a good one today folks. A beautiful one. It was an 'On The Cross' event held in Littleton CO at the Chatfield State Park grounds. Everything this course dished out was seemingly designed for me. Incredibly flowy single track, tough technical transitions, lots of barrier work, sand sections. It was a long course but the whole thing was single track! Truly! When I say single track, I mean the sweet stuff that you lust on your MTB carving in and out and up and down of apexes, berms and between trees. The course was made for me, I swear. Honestly, pre-riding it reminded me EXACTLY of the first course we did in Belgium, Shriek Grotloo, and honestly a bit better. And yes, I can say that with confidence.

The pre-ride proved that a hole shot was a requirement. The long, drag straight-away made a HARD right turn into the singletrack. So 10 abreast needed to single file it out in a 1/4 mile drag race and flow into the twisties. A lot of the normal heavies weren't there (where are you Timmy, Chris, Jeff??) but regardless, the pre-ride was firing things in my legs that I haven't felt in a while. I did not care who toed the line. I was getting into the singletrack first.

I got the call up which was great and situated in the position I wanted to be in: Straight shot down the drag strip. TWEEEEEEEEEEEET! We're off. Exactly to plan I drill it...hard. I went into my 42 x 12 in like 3 pedal strokes it seemed and flew right into the singletrack. Honestly, that was it. I never looked back. Me, my team mate Whit Johnson and Ward were off and running and nearly immediately gaped the field in the first lap. The three of us, mountain bikers first and foremost, were off to the races. I ran my 34 Dugast Typhoons today at about 35-36 PSI and it was exactly like my bike was on a fun park ride's rails through the twisty single track. We put a massive gap in these sections so it was clear you needed some level of flow-skill only learned when you are on fat tires. No brakes and lots of leaning/body english to keep momentum.

2nd lap and I did the unthinkable (at least to me...): I clip a barrier! Man oh man! I immediately jump up and I am back on with Whit and Ward. We still have a gap but that yard sale certainly did not help! I am a bit rattled but flow behind the boys and proceed to lead out the next lap, followed by Whit's lead on the 4th lap and my final lead again on the bell lap. Things are going great and I have folks (like Dr. Pete!!) yelling at me as they can see I want this...badly. It's been too long. I get into the singletrack in 3rd position. By this time the three of us have a passenger: JJ Clark. Homie can win races. I am tweaking a bit as I keep thinking of pops and that I am absolutely going to win this thing. No question. I could feel that I could gap people on prior laps and saved a bit. We all barrel out of the single track onto a dirt road power section. I tell Whit, "Dude, I'm going to bring this home for my pops" (I literally said that, felt it, meant it and went for it...but such an emotionally driven move! I wasn't thinking!). I attack so hard that I feel like I have the gap but it was just that too far out from the finish. Whit does an awesome job blocking but JJ who'd had fresher legs bridges up to me and sets a harder tempo and I suffer for it. Whit edges up past me and sets behind JJ along with Ward and I think I am still OK. They gap me slightly and that was it! I could not bridge the TEN FEET to get their wheels. If I'd only waited and done what I was doing ALL race....flying through the sand sections...I would have been there. Arms up i the air. Almost pops! Almost. The raddest part of the day: Whit taking first and Ward 2nd. The WB is like a brother and if you knew how much I respect his abilities, you'd know how proud I was to be in site of he and of course Whit. JJ is a guy I do not know too well, but beyond his well known achievements on the bike, if he's like his Spike Shooter team brethren (the 'Brians'), he's a good guy in my book. Whit 1st, Ward 2nd, JJ 3rd yours truly 4th.

Horseshoes and hand grenades. It felt great and I have not had that much fun in bike racing since...well since I can not remember when. I was with such dear friends throwing down gauntlets that I did not know I could throw at this stage of the season. It's motivation to stay at the very pointing end...solely due to the fun factor.

Hopefully pics later if anyone got any!

George pulled through on the pics!

Last lap! Me, Ward, Whit and JJ....

Conceding 4th...

And Dave Hix got the Video goods!!

Chatfield St. Park CX - 8 Nov 08 from Gregory Keller on Vimeo.

Sunday December 7th 2008.
Arapahoe Ridge High School
Visit DBCEvents for more details.
Co Statecx 08 7

Official Race Photographer of the Boulder Cup, SkiPix, has posted their photos of the Boulder Reservoir race on Saturday.

Come check out the Day 1 and 2 Action Here! It's very easy to find your racing category and is sub-categorized by various course landmarks.

As mentioned countless times on this here blog, the photographers are getting more and more prolific and talented. Why shouldn't they?? They're shooting the most gorgeous, pain filled, beautiful, dirty, outrageous sport on earth!

See the originals here, but you can preview them in this little photobucket dohickey:

So Scott, a reader of mine from DC, sends me this simple question:

Hey Scott!

Thanks for the note, man. You have asked a very religious question! for me, its sort of a confluence of materials, custom sizing/geometry and finally 'cult' status. I've raced a variety of off the shelf bikes from Kelly (a production/non custom steel frame), Felt and Scott and of course my various Rock Lobsters. Let me net it out this way:

a) Scandium rocks: The material of choice for me is scandium. It's SUPER light, SUPER strong and has a variety of characteristics I like that frame builders can literally 'tune' the design to how you want it to ride. As an example, I had Rocklobster's Paul Sadoff give me super rigid chain stays (for power transmission) yet the scandium down stays provide some level of flex for comfort. I get exactly what I want in a 3.0 pound frame that is roughly a 59cm (so that light in a larger frame size). Carbon's good, do not get me wrong, but it has limits (for me) on sizing, geometry, colors, et al (see b. next).

b) Custom sizing/geometry: A lot of these off the shelf manufacturers think that sloping top tubes and lower bottom brackets are 'cross' geometry. It's MARKETING geometry. They wouldn't know a cross bike and how it should ride from a commuter bike with 700c tires and cantilever brakes. A horizontal top tube and high BB are CORE cross with near road geometry...albeit just ever so slightly slacker. I personally think Ridley and Colnago have it nailed on the production side (wonder why the best teams ride these frames in Belgium?)...the latter requiring a double mortgage on your house to afford. Paul has built cross bikes for 20+ years....for many national champions and Europeans. His geometry stands the test of time. I have one special requirement though on my frames he builds.....OK 2: First, I run double chain guides with a single ring. I have him specifically crimp the right chain stay to allow for this clearance AND ensuring I can fit a 34 tubular in the stays with appropriate mud clearance. He nailed that. The second thing is that if I want to run a double ring up front, I would (personally) ask him to route my f. der. cable on the top tube. He likes the down tube routing. This may have no bearing on your tastes/desire though.

c) Cult: Support your local frame builder! OK, Paul's in Santa Cruz....but he WAS local to me when I lived there! Ha! I have an affinity for the hard working manufacturers of the sport...who are artists in all senses of the definition. Paul is an artist to me before he is a bike frame builder.

Hope this helps you! In fact, I may post this as it is a question I get often!

Finally Scott, just LOOK at how beautiful they are!!! Mmmmm. You know you want one.