I love our sport. LOVE IT!

Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Pooks for dialing in a shirt from the M & C store!!!

I'm back at it this week...already traveling for work getting buried with lots to do. Getting the training in too as we have some fun races coming up in the following weeks. It seems like a month ago that I was getting my ass rightfully handed to me at CrossVegas...all the while having the time of my life. It was, as I reported, sick. Completely off the hook.

But something occurred to me. I totally forgot to tell you that I met my ABSOLUTE all time hero: Thomas Frischknecht!

Hype is not Frischi. Style is omnipresent in everything he graces when he’s on two wheels. Especially when those wheels have knobbies…which is most of the time. It was such a bizarre scenario at CrossVegas but perfect in the same sense. Hoards of cameras, lights, microphones, BlackBerries and iPhones….all pointed at Lance. Massive hype. Hype before the race. Hype during the race. Hype after the race. And all the while that spectacle is going on, Frishi is present, smiling and keeping consistent with, again, the grace he exhibits. It’s his RETIREMENT race. His last race after an amazing career that saw him race every Worlds since they decided it was probably a good idea to have a championship for these fat tire klunkers back in 1990. A Mountain Bike Hall of Famer. Anyways, the race ends and I crawl off my machine and see my friends from Ritchey at the Scott/Ritchey tent and I get waved in and handed a beer nearly instantaneously. The scrum around Lance is going off a ways away and there is Frischi. Just chilling, smiling, with a frosty Corona.

I hung out a bit with my bros recounting the race and the overall spectacle, having beers late into the already late evening and just couldn’t take it anymore. I walked up to Thomas and just laid it out. Simply and succinctly:

“Thomas, it’s bizarre for me to say this but I have to. I never had any typical ‘heroes’ in sports as a kid. OK, maybe Bucky Dent but I digress. But following your career and having put you on a pedestal of ‘core’ dope free mountain bikers who grit and get it done year after year, you have been that hero for me. I can NOT believe I just raced in the same race with you and for that I am honored. I love you Thomas. Have my children.”

Something like that anyways….

Thomas gushed. Again, grace personified. We talked a bit, clinked some beers and celebrated a great night.

Check out Dubba's overviews with Neal Rogers on 'cross equipment and technique....sort of a high level re-cap of what we teach on the Wednesday clinics. Speaking of which, I'm not going to be at BCS tomorrow night as I am on the road for work! Call the shop ahead 303.444.BIKE to ensure there is a clinic tomorrow as we have great coaches stepping in when Dubba and I can not make it.

Worth the scoping-out of...
Especially this one of my boy Lane getting the full on Missing Saddle interview. Good one, Lane. Just don't think you're having beers with LA next time you see him...

Just a brief post of yesterday's race out in the middle of nowhere. When I say middle of nowhere, I mean the FULL on prairie! Goatheads and all...

I took a pass for yesterday's race at Interlocken. I love the course, but I literally did not feel recovered from Wednesday's CrossVegas effort and all of the travel. Sunday's race was sponsored by Schwab cycles...part of their Boss of Cross series.

The course was...well, let's just say we got to race! It was a tough course with a lot of elevation gain on fairly bad decomposed tarmac and dirt. The barrier placement was fairly awkward but made it a bit harder...something I actually like....but not at the expense of rolled ankles given the uneven ground leading up to the barriers. A bit dangerous IMHO. The goat heads were also horrendous (I personally got 3) and in my foresight, I brought extra wheels and swapped out all the carbon and tubulars for wheels and rubber I am not emotionally tied to and could thrash.

It was a small field and I got a call up as did the Spike guys. I had very warm up and the little I did, I felt crappy STILL. Not recovered in the legs. So with that knowledge, I decided to not try and blow myself up and win hole shots, etc. Gun goes off and me, the Spike boys and Mitch got out front. A couple of other guys too but they blew catastrophically in a 1/2 lap. Then...it was literally just the 4 of us at the front. I paced with a nice Chipotle guy who wanted to work on lap 2 but i think he ended up hurting a bit and faded. So the race was a game of attrition and keeping everyone behind me away which even in my non-recovery was not an issue and trying to bridge the gap to the Spike's and Mitch. Mitch had a mechanical and had a super quick bike change and I saw him start back up again...and eyeball me behind him to gauge the gap I was closing. Homie is SUPER strong and I'd try to bury to bridge but he is so experienced, he'd gauge his power and hold me off. I had no legs to cover the 20 seconds to bridge.

So the race ended as mellowly as it began...started in 4th...ended in 4th. I'll take it.

After the race, I complained a bit about the course. "It's ghetto". or "It's jungle". Going to pick up my bottle and jacket, I swung by the scorer's booth with the ever present ACA officials Dean Crandall and Yvonne Van Gent. It occurred to me at that moment that jungle, ghetto....or whatever...it's a cross. They are out there officiating in the same sweltering heat in the middle of no where making a fair race for us all. The course is the course. You race what you're given in the series. You have to be strong to win...and you've got to be 'in it to win it' as my dad used to say. So, it's ghetto. It's another name for 'technical'. We're lucky to be racing.

By the graciousness of BlueSky Velo's Susan Prieto, we have some digital celluloid! Thank you Susan!

I'm breaking some of the rules I teach during the clinics regarding porting in this shot! What's wrong?

The open prarie. Yup, those Dugasts are now dead with Goatheads. Tried to fix it but no joy.

Bob Prieto, regular Wednesday Worlds hard man, getting his hup hup on over the barriers.

Travel this week, so no Wednesday Worlds. I still need the break regardless. Good timing.

Re-entry back into family after nearly a week away (and sometimes more...as will be the case for some hops I need to make including Europe) can be trying. Maybe it is just me and the uber-emotions that get crankin when I am away and when the triumphant return happens, life has been moving here too. I can't be naiive to that.

Sincerely...I hate travel. Despise it. When the plane is wheels up, on its way to my next destination, I look at my watch and will start calculating the hours before I get home. Rainman style. 86 hours 42 minutes and home. But ironically, being out in 'the world' is my strength. Speaking. Meeting. Eye-contacting. Arm waving. Connecting. Convincing. Converting.

It's my painful dichotomy. I have to suck it up.

But coming back home when the senses are on fire, my mind is on over-drive as I pull the car into the garage and shut off the engine and breath out. Home. Thankful the Triple 7 didn't lose a wing. Am I getting a cold? What meetings do I have this week? Can I get out on a date with my lady tomorrow? Should I even line up at the race in Somewhere, CO? Do I still have it? When will the cycles finally snap the rubber band?

When away, I am the fish that has been yanked out of the water and am sitting on the wooden seat of the fat man's canoe as I bake in the sun, scales drying, mouth pulsating....doing what it can to pull in oxygen. The pulling-into-the-garage-from-the-airport from these trips is my symbolic re-entry into the water. It takes me a few moments...OK, maybe a day some times....and then I come back to normalcy. I can breath again.

I can do this. I can balance. I can be there when I need to because you know my intent is good and my mission is to get home. Be home. Feel home. I can be precisely who I am and continue to try only because of your faith in me. Is it a hedge? God, I don't know. But it is authentic....even if it has no answers present to me, to us, at the moment. It is, what I speak of, a continued search for the next wave in our lives. No more scales baking in the sun. I need to be drinking oxygen.

Thanks for the photo, Brian. It spoke all of this to me.

Finally back home and dove directly back into work today. Chaotic...much like Cross Vegas itself. I am inexplicably sore still...but not so much the legs...but my lower groin where I pulled something during the warm up on the very first lap when Boups and I first got there. It 'popped' and hurt, but I raced on that it anyways. Paying for it now. I'm on the fence for racing tomorrow....

Anyways, I put together a quick collage of things I saw/experienced in 'Vegas. I had camera issues (mainly I forgot it!) so used Boups' camera to capture some stuff. Enjoy....

Cross Vegas Run up lap 1 from Gregory Keller on Vimeo.

Boups and his larger-than-life portrait. You had a phenomenal race man!

My main Man Lance! This is the gentleman behind my lust for TRP brakes. He and his son were working the booth like champs....touting the virtues of their cherry carbon and magnesium stoppers to all who came by! Simply, the world's best brakes! Thanks for all your support Lance!

The RockyMounts booth was rocking and all the fellas were representin'!

Ergon! I FINALLY met up with my boy Jeff Kerkove (right) at the Ergon booth. Such rad equipment they have. I am LUSTING the to-be-released white sex ergonomic grips. Yum. To his left is Butch Peterson of SuperHumanMag.com. Check out his videos of the Leadville and CrossVegas!

I saw this anonymous bike at the Shimano booth displaying 7900...and behold! It was a custom Sycip!

Finally...the SRAM booth! I met up with many of the crew here and at the race venue and thanked them for all their GREAT support to me and my aging carcass. The bits are the REAL DEAL. In love with the feel of SRAM Red (and Force) now. I've definitively made the leap.

Lastly, I want to give a SHOUT OUT to my fellow cycl-bloggers!! I met all the homies that have been representing in their respective regions and blogging about it for some time now!

• The ATM of Mexler Werks!
• Ryan Knapp of The Pursuit of Rad Skills!
• Ben (and his Rock Lobsters!) of Ben Likes Bikes!

SO RAD to get to meet you guys. Absolute class, you all are.

I picked up an email from a bud when I got off the plane that simply said: 'Money' in the subject line. It linked to this person's Flickr site....me putting the fear of God into LA. Ha! Wishful thinking. Anyways, my boys will love this one some day...

Wasted. That describes my mind and body at the moment but my spirit is flying. I am at McCarren airport in Vegas waiting for the flight to Denver...to take me home back to my waiting family...and I am sitting here so spent to my core, you have no idea. I'm smiling wide as I type this, and people staring at me must think I am psychotic.

I am on another high right now that is hard to describe. It's all related to this sport I love and the frothy pandemonium that can ensue when an event like Cross Vegas can take place, assembling the elite of the elite here in the US and nearly ALL of the top players in the bicycling industry.

How do I want to break all this down for you in the short time before my flight? Let me sum it up in highlights, sound bytes and other tid-bits of my experience...

• A thumbs up: That was what the UCI guy gave me when I was cleared. The helpful UCI folks got me registered and through a small licensing discrepancy I had at sign-in. They are looking out for the racers all the time and I thank them.
• The course: A leg sapping, heart wrenching, mind blowing course. 99% grass. File treads ruled the day for sure (more on that in a second). It was not technical at all, just fast and furious but designed perfectly by Chris Grealish, Brooke Watts Joe D and the Denver Boulder Courier gang. Only one set of barriers but massively hard climbs with super fast speed sections.
• The warm up: Spent most of the afternoon there dialing the course. By nightfall we were game on and I was hot lapping. I hear a shout across the field: "Hey! Keller!" I whip around and it is Tim Johnson barreling down on me. This is our Nation's stars and bars wearer and on a night that is incredibly important....arguably the most exciting race of the season...he flies up to me and just shoots the shit for a few laps. We hadn’t seen each other since I think Michel’s house in Belgium, and raps with me like we'd seen each other just yesterday. One would think he'd be in cone-of-silence/"I'm focusing" mode....but he just rides on up and smiles that smile at me, throws a hand on my back and greets me like a long lost friend. If you ever, and I mean EVER, get the opportunity to meet with Tim, it is the most disarming, pleasant and warm meeting you'll likely ever have. Contagious spirit that makes you motivated and confident. His advice to me on the race was priceless...but sorry I couldn't follow through homie! About 5 minutes later, J Powers does the identical thing...rides up to say hello...and we talk through all the recent goings-on. It's like Cannondale has a pre-req to ensure their riders are totally core and present with themselves and life itself. I digress, but PRO doesn’t describe these guys. They re-define and transcend it.It's what I want my Aiden and Seamus to experience in competitors when they come of age.
  
• My warm up was classic Keller. Powers is following me as we're chatting and I come into this apex with a quick riser and 'fa-WAP!'...rolled my challenge Grifo XS file tread. D'OH! So, I end up racing on my back up set and all is well. Bummer though as I wanted to fly those for Donn K from Challenge.
• The RACE!: Crazy fast. Crazy hard. Crazy frenetic. I have never gone so hard. EVER. Master's Worlds was not this fast. Not by a long shot. Add on another 20 minutes and it was the single most suffering I have ever done on a bike. The call ups were crazy. 100 racers in the queue. I talked to a few folks and they said ALL racers would be called up. So I am chilling at the back. Then I see dudes start to crowd up so my instincts kick in. I get myself up behind Travis B and we get up farther. They call up all through Lance and then EVERYONE floods in! So I was probably like in the 5th from last row. Crazy. The start was a total panic with a massive pile up…see picture…that’s me No 74 to the right. Left me near DFL. We motored hard hard hard hard. The fans were SO LOUD it was amazing. A tunnel of people and cowbells and hands in the air and…well, pandemonium. Within a ½ lap ANOTHER huge pile up. My friends: No embellishment: I bunny hopped some dude and his bike and just kept my head down and railed. My friends were screaming each lap. To make a long story short (I’ll write up more later), you have NO FRIGGING IDEA how hard a C1 is. My GOD. I made it to roughly 42 minutes before the fastest train I’ve ever experienced came flying by. Page, Trebon, TJ, JPow et al. I cleared myself to the side and just got on them for a bit. I started hallucinating as I was totally dehydrating (the top guys had bottle cages on which was my mistake). I had a fairly bad crash about this time where I had to get off and straighten my bars….and by this time Barry Wicks….probably 2nd group comes by. So coming through near the S/F area, I rolled off and called it a night. I was SO WASTED I proceeded to stumble over and like an angel put before me…looked at Chris Grealish (who seemed, again, to just materialize in front of me) and mumbled…water. And his eyes grow wide and he grabs bottles and opens them for me and I feel the cool rush of liquid filling my core. I put 3 bottles of water and 2 Pepsi’s into my system in like 3 minutes until I felt my body again. Folks: THIS IS THE GUY WHO RUNS THE RACE! He took the time to just make sure I was OK. Rad. Chris G is so unbelievable to us all. Thank him when you see him for the work he does to get us racing!
• Boups, Paul Brooks and Nick Stevens: WAY TO REPRESENT!!! Boulder was bringing it hard with SAME LAP FINISHES! This was a C1!!!!! They railed it hard…SO HARD…and I am so proud.
• I will blog about after the race stuff later…when I am back in Boulder. In addition, I want to write up my experience at InterBike and need to get a hold of my pictures.

Lastly: A special note to all of you that found me at the race and said such beautiful things..merely after reading my blog. I am living on a high from those conversations in a way I hope you understand, and I do you proud when I write this stuff. It’s about our sport…about my lens on trying to do my best…basically about the REAL crossers who get it on every weekend in Anytown, USA. I am channeling that spirit that you have through my fingers into these digital characters. I am honored to have met you all from SO MANY parts of the country. I can not wait to see you again!

I gotta jump on a plane and when I can focus a bit, I’ll be more methodic with a write up with pics, etc.

‘Cross on.

Crash photo courtesy of Carlton Reid
Course Photo courtesy of Zach Lee.

I'm finally at SFO ready to depart my old home and City by the Bay San Francisco on my way to the City of Sin, Las Vegas. I stayed up in Marin this week and it was super mellow commuting to Oracle Open World with the masses to the Ferry Terminal in SF. I stepped off the boat yesterday and walked through the terminal and did a double take when I saw this just SITTING there right in front of this salami shop at the Terminal:


God it is BEAUTIFUL! Jeremy and Jay do such incredible work. I LOVE my Sycip as you all know. (And Jay is now a Chris King employee and resident of Portalnd!).

So by now you all know that LA is going back to Johan's bubble (Good luck with that Alberto). My sources this AM through 'official' SMS text have confirmed that the peeps of LA have confirmed his CrossVegas participation. One would suspect that Chris and Brook will give LA the 'i'm famous' call up next to Ryan and Tim and the guns up front. But the sadist in me wants his non-UCI-point-having ass to line up right next to me and the other pack fodder in the back of the bus. Bring it.

Lastly, my good friend Zach is at the course site helping to get it built. He sent me an email describing it...