Unbelievable weekend as you've all read by now. Compton is absolutely sick and deserving of the world cup win....the first by an American. Seeing her last weekend at the Redline and Boulder Cups, my buds and I were drop-jawed at her power. The sand was nothing for her....and literally she rode the entire sections while most the men's pros and 35 opens ran it. Sick.

Boom. That was the sound Lars made blowing Sven (his teamate...ha!) and everyone else up. Wellens had a great weekend obviously but Sven was not Nijs this weekend.

Totally weird observation. When Sven suffers, he switches his porting technique. Even in total deep mud like today, when he is on song, he ports under the down tube. But when the suffering sets in, he wraps the head tube. Weird. Maybe I'm just a total geek but it's just something I've noticed after watching zillions of hours of Flemish.

Photo ©: Isosport

The WB's (way) better half fired up her new DSLR and grabbed some fantastic pics of last weekend's races. Here's a re-cast:

Stoic and poised I stand at the Res...before the bombs went off

Jeff C's Wife captured AWESOME pics like that above. This is one of his faves....and obvious because of the rippling quads he's busting. Show off...
Another Jeff C pic

And another Jeff C pic.

A little of the hup hup through the sand at the Res

If I could have, I would have been sucking my thumb crying for my 'happy place'

Brandon doing a litte of the Braaaaap through the sand at the Res
Jeff C's lady caught this one of J-Pow. Check out the front clincher.

The Boulder Cup @ Harlow Platts

The WB showing Tim Johnson-esque porting form at the Boulder Cup

Me a little back back when things weren't feeling so bad

What you can't see here due to the protection of my chamois would have made most people sick

Oh my God...I'm going backwards

...and backwards...

....and backwards....

....and finally backwards...until my jaw bone felt like it was going to never be able to hinge again due to my clenching.

Troy getting 'er done. Dude, eat some food you skinny beeatch.

Corey at the office.

Boups!

Like above, J-Pow giving that rear Dugast 'just a little tap'.

Brandon showing some of that nice form to his Top 10 placing at the Boulder Cup

...on grandma's blog. Nice to see the family support!

Yeah, yeah, I've said it before a ton of times on this here blog, but it's true, rest works. I touched a bike once this week as my body was yelling at my violently to slow the F down. Bottom line, today was a good day in the vet pro class for Rocky Mounts. More on that in a minute.

Today's race was held in Highland's Ranch CO. A bedroom community with lots of sub divisions....and even more churches. So with that theme known, today's race was called "On the Cross" and was put on by Bike Source. Honestly, I think this was the best organized race I have been to this year and the nicest folks. Yeah, the veritable cathedral we were racing around was semi-intimidating (Timmy, you would have probably sizzled a bit upon entering the compound....HA!) but the atmosphere was great and the free food, awesome schwag bag and organization with marshals in orange vests EVERYwhere really mad a big difference.

Me, Ward and Dave W from RM made the trek down to race the 35 Opens. As we see every weekend when we pull in, the Squires bros were out there in their masters race throwing down....putting all their ooomph into their identical Moots CX bikes.

We arrived, reg'd and suited up in the warm up kits and began the pre-ride. The course was classic Colorado CX. Lots of dirt fields, bumpy grass with some pavement for good measure. Today saw a set of triple barriers and a double barrier set on a run up which made the course well suited to me as it was twisty and technical with no sections where anyone would have a clear advantage, unless of course you are Dennis Farrell (more on that in a minute). Rolling on my warm up Dennis comes up to me and says: "You're running Dugasts on this today??" Well, yeah! They hooked up SO beautifully. The Rhino's bit into the crappy earth like buttah. Rolling back to the car to get changed, I saw why Dennis asked me that question: Another 'feature' of Colorado 'cross courses...a goat head. I pulled that thing out, applied a bit of spit to the hole and low and behold: No bubbles! A set of Dugasts saved. Thus, I lined up on my white Rock Lobster with a shitty old set of Rhinos that are hazed and I wouldn't be so heart broken if I nuked one.

The field was a decent sized one today (I'd say roughly 40-50?) with most of the usual suspects there today save my boy Timmy and Karl K. We got the call up and the group was ready to go. I whispered to Ward that I was going to win the hole shot today because the first section was tight and dodgy and I did not want to be caught in any meles.

"One minute gentlemen..." said the ACA official. "....30 seconds....10 seconds....TWEEEEEET!" We are off. I win the shot as planned without burning too many matches and get through the dodginess with Ward right behind me and I think Dennis behind him. Through the barriers and we are motoring. We get a split with all the usual suspects: Dennis, Ward, me, Jeff Wardell, Rod, Mitch, Chris Phenecie, etc. Dennis pulls up with me as does Ward and puts in an attack which gets 20 feet. Ward covers and it and whispers back that the situation is perfect.

We continue on and by lap 2 I witness what makes Dennis the caliber he is. He just applies another attack and that 20 seconds turns to 40 and Ward is put in difficulty. I'm close enough to see but so loaded up I can't react to even try to work with za WB. I continue to roll with a group of like 5 or 6 including Hartman, Wardell and three Green Mountain Sports boys: Phenecie, Rod and Mitch. Onl lap 3 or 4, Phenecie sees me suffering a bit on the front of this group and he attacks. His Green Mountian Sports guy just settle in and wait patiently like the good team mates they are. Adios Chris, nice work as usual! I settle in and literally for the WHOLE race it is our group of like 5 or 6 within a foot of each other training around the course. I decide that I NEED to do something smart so I settle in, do NOT work and sit on the back fairly comfortably of this 5 person group. Lap after lap the Squires bros and Doug in particular are feeding, cheering and waiting in the pits. Unbelievable team mates. We owe you something HUGE you guys.

Towards about 35 minutes, Rod puts in an attack after working his way up through the 5 of us which essentially leaves me, Hartman, Jeff W and the rest of the Green Mountain squad. They play very shrewdly and let Rod go forcing Jeff Hartman to use that Diesel of his to bridge and pull us. He doesn't pull us back as Rod is on song today. Nice work man!

Throughout the race, Mark Woollcott is cheering me on SO SUPPORTIVELY it is crazy. From under trees, laying n the ground by the barriers...he was popping out of everywhere! Thanks brother. He's saying "Just roll! You're playing it smart!!". Apparently he's yelling at Ward with the same type of support which is rad. Quote of the day:

Mark: "Ward, you got Farrell! Just a few seconds back! You're catching him! Oh, and I'm telling Dennis that too next lap!"

HA! Thanks man. We need that against hard men like Dennis!

So, bell lap and I am suffering a bit and the group concedes a bit. I hear the announcer call Ward's name rolling in, in 2nd as I am pulling up the pavement in the final stretch. He's behind the day's winner, Dennis Farrell by a 1/2 minute to maybe 40 seconds which is so incredible. Our group comes in like 30-50 seconds after that and by the last 1/2 of the last lap the concessions were going on and finally gaps of 5 seconds between riders formed. Jeff gaps be by 10 seconds and I can not bridge back to make it a sprint but settle in satisfied with an 8th or maybe 9th. Dave Weber my team mate I see about 20 seconds behind me and he is on a break through day! Nice boy!! So for the RM'ers today, it was solid: All of us in the top 10 with a lot of great racing going on. The cool part is that I am again crawling back./ I did not have the punch bt I raced smart, I hung in teh whole race with a truly hard group of guys and recognize that when I train and 'take', I need remember to 'give back'. Especially at this time of year.

So I get home and my beautiful lady has a cold Samuel Smith's Nut Brown waiting. Kind. I open up the schwag bag and it is awesome. Hammer gels, powder, e-Caps, a water bottle and the new CX Magazine as has been advertised here on their blog. I crack that beetach open as I've always wanted to start a print edition of my rants and evangelisms of 'cross to the masses....in a very glossy, color sort of way that only a fresh new magazine can deliver. The mag looks pretty interesting and I'll tear it apart tonight when I crawl into bed. But on a quick pass through it was the last page....the back cover....which caught my eye.

In the blink of an eye I had a semi-sexual reaction (Sidebar: Mom, I know you read this blog so I am officially coming out of the closet, er ah garage: I am a cylosexual. There I said it). I got a wet spot when I saw the picture of this Zancanato custom made Hup United edition ridiclo-steed. Yum fricken yum.

My God, the paint, the FMB's mounted to rare Mavic Classics tubular rims and the pimp white saddle and bar tape. You GO boy. I want to sort of hump it a little. Just a little.

So here in all its glory is the picture that was used in the mag shot.

Drum roll.

Ta-fricken-da! Like butta:

So that's it fold. Week 7 out of the way The 7th inning stretch. 2nd half of the season coming up with Mol in the cross hairs.

Check it out! My Google Crawler picked up the site for Geoff Proctor's Euro Cross Camp...made famous in the Transitions movies which by now, nearly any one of you fellow cross geeks own (and I am sure you own parts I and II). I saw the Camp's site linked to me which is super cool! I've done the same so you can always come here to link through to their site and read the blog entries and more.

Check out the latest blog entry where Geoff interviews Sven the Cannibal Nijs about the risks of running his Rhinos too high or too low when battling it out with the likes of Bart Wellens. Cool read.

I'll be hoisting up the big girl undies as far as possible to race the On the Cross race held in scenic Highlands Ranch CO tomorrow considering my implosion a week ago. Last weekend's debacle is still looming in my brian but a week of just getting away from cyclo-cross bikes and the pressure to just stay on it was part of my agenda. I'm way happier and truly have no idea how the body will respond this weekend but a couple of days on lunch time rides on my single speed brought smiles to my face that haven't been there in a while. I want to get over this mid season hump and in parallel am willing the work badness to stop. I am trying like hell to Jedi Mind Trick the work drama to move from me and slap its all-consuming badness on some other poor sucker. Be gone work shite. Be gone.

Tomorrow, fun 'cross with WB and Dave. No expectations. No pressure....whatever. Just me and some pain for an hour or so.

Better news: Mol is a go for me and a tight crew who have committed. More on that in an upcoming post We've got the hook ups over seas and the race schedule is coming into view.

Old home Monday to Friday this coming week for the DEBACLE so again, limited training but such is life. I'm gonna pack up and bring the 1 x 1 along and go and be with some of my core family for some smiles. An epic night ride I hear is in order!

I was able to rip these from Furious (thanks man!!). It will give you a great sense of teh racing, field sizes....and on Saturday the WIND!

Men's 35 + Opens

Mens Open/Elite

If you speak a bit of the Frenchie, then navigate yer browsers to this little clip, sent to me by a closet blogger ~ slash local pro hard man ~ slash über cross geek. Ahem. You know who you are. HA! It is about the little new sew up tire start up in France, FMB.

Note on the screen capture above where the scene is in relation to the whole video which has a bunch of other ridiculous crappy French news. You'll need to fast forward. Fascinating to know who these things are built. I can not remember my French from college for anything!

West and weewaxashun today! I spun down on my single speed to hang with friends and just shoot photos of the Wednesday Cross Crew at the 'world championships'. I am still hurting and just taking care of myself these days so I did not participate and just shot pics and had fun. Clearly there were lots of people resting this week so while a big crowd, many of the antagonists were AWOL. Paco and JHK threw down and I was able to film a bit which was fun. Paco inexplicably scorched on a 39 x 16 single speed Primus Mootry cross bike this past weekend at the UCI races and did so again today! I watched carefully and it is amazing how he can use that gear (arguably a small one) so effectively against folks who have 2 x 10 speeds! Amazing.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Steve Z: I APOLOGIZE! (per your comment to the blog posting below!). I should have gone to your site first! Ha! Folks, head on over to see Steve's sexcellent pics of the Redline Cup.