I saw Kerkove's tweet on his best of list of 2008 and it is RAD! He did a fantastic job in getting this year-in-review out I was inspired to do likewise. So with confirmation from Jeff that I could blatantly rip off his framework for his best-of (after all, he is the MASTER of sports marketing in this Web2 day and age....), I've listed below what were my tops of the year. Thanks to Jeff for letting me 'borrow' his list framework!

Best New Race: The Blue Sky Velo Xilinx 'Cross Race!
TOTALLY pro and the entire Blue Sky Velo team went psycho to get it done and done right.

Best Race that I Raced: Chatfield State Park.
I can not describe the FUN I had at this race and likely was the best I felt the whole season. A true course for mountain bikers and those who can handle bikes.

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

Best Race that I didn't Race: Cross Crusade
I'd get an email a week from my hombre Chris DiStefano in PDX this season to let me know how rad the scene is and that they'd measure their racer participation each weekend in the THOUSANDS. I need to make it a mission to get out there in 2009 to mix it up a bit with some of the fast West Coasters.

Best Training or Racing Aide: Nothing.
As it was a very 'different' year for me with no real ability to build up this year (at all), I went completely naked into the season and felt my way through. Not ideal but the best thing I could have done to keep the pressure off. I'll have a better plan for 2009, but just flow-ing in and out of each weekend in 2008 was what the doctor ordered.

Best Food: Pancakes!
For some reason these bad boys made me feel infinitely better than my old pre-race fuel: Eggs. It must be a protein versus carbs thing but my best results came with a healthy dose of the flap jacks ~3hours before race time.

Best Road Trip: Za Trip!!
While the Nationals in Kansas City was an epic road trip this month, it was still (unbelievably) in 2008 (January) that I was in Belgium and The Netherlands on the most epic racing road trip I've ever partaken in. It will happen again. Plans are in motion...

Best New Product I Tried This Year: SRAM Red/Force
This was the year I 'made the leap'. The products are absolutely bomber and worth of the rigors of 'cross and would recommend it to anyone who wants lightness, bomb-proofness, cable-free bars, etc.

Best All-Around Ride:

Best Picture I Took: Some Pro dude in Shriek Grootlo
It's not a technically great picture in the eyes of real photographers I am sure, but I like looking at this pic as it reminds me so much of the trip to Belgium and of the fantastic woodsy courses we flowed on in Za Motherland. It was taken with a crappy Canon point and shoot camera so I can't complain.

Best Picture Someone Took of Me: Larry Rosa at Nats.
I met Larry for the first time in person in Kansas City. I'd admired and aspired to his image taking for some time and was stoked to meet him in person. Salt of the earth! The image is perfect and his effects are rad. I am suffering inexplicably this race and yet I like seeing this pic as it 'feels' like the day to me. Cold. Always climbing. Pain.

Best Purchase I Made In '08: Selle San Marco Concor Saddle.
The product just fits my ass well. What can I say? It is bomb proof which is truly the most important reason (and is so Euro-bling it makes me smile).

Best of the Best of 2008: Lucca! This was the year we got our little fat-head, floppy eared lab/boarder collie mix. She rules. Even though I want to duct tape her up and keep her in a closet some days.
I am really looking forward to the clock turning to 12AM January 1st 2009 tonight. It's been a long year and we are ready to move into the future! I wish you all the best of everything this coming year! Make it your best.

Trippy video of the men;s 35-39 Nationals Race assembled by my favorite cat, Cat Johnson. Check it out!

CX Nats Men 35+ from Catherine Johnson on Vimeo.

CX Nats Men's 35+ Part 2 from Catherine Johnson on Vimeo.

Uh oh, drama folks! Looks like my friend Edwin Raats, Masters racing 'hard man' from The Netherlands, tried in vein to challenge the participation of Ludovic Dubau in last year's Master's Worlds in Mol. I paraphrased the translation below for you from an article in Belgian Cycling Selection.

29 November 2008, Edwin Raats still with empty hands
SOURCE: www.belgiancyclingselection.be
It's [nearly a year] now after the world masters cyclocross championship in Mol and Edwin Raats has thrown in the towel as a result of his complaint against the irregular participation of Ludovic Dubau [in the 2008 January race]. Dubau won this world championship indeed, but there was serious doubt if he, however, belonged in the masters category. Dubau as an example rode as an elite racer in A1 the cyclocross in Roubaix just before the master's worlds, and briefly stood in the top 200 at the UCI ranking for Elite cyclocross racers.

Edwin, with the UCI rule to his side, complained against this irregular participation which cost him the world title in Mol in January. We supported Edwin Raats point of view; the world championships for masters belong to the pure amateur sportsman, to them that Elite racers have chosen consciously to race for the master's [trophee]. In spite of his sound complaint, Edwin still has not received an answer from the UCI and of the Dutch KNWU, which him would have support in its matter, he experiences little good will here make work, for them it is purely a master category issue. It is sad note that this complaint no longer gets attention from the UCI, and this dipute and hs already dragged on way too long.

Finally it concerns here, however, the world title. Edwin is tired of this fight and wishes now to be able put energy in the sport himself. However, he remains with a sour feeling: "Apparently the sport-loving value of the World Championships is [sucked out] and seems its more and more a commercial matter. I have 23 years with a permit at the KNWU/UCI and have considerable experience in this sport. With much pleasure I have raced for years in the amateur and masters, all [us] boys with the same context and the same objective. It's our game, and no aubaine (translation: 'cherry picking) by the inferior elite racers."

Small [closing] detail: In November our master Dubau took 3rd in the A2 cyclocross at Marle, behind Mourey and Vervecken. Master for 1 day?

So Edwin is taking one for the team I guess but has clearly created a stir. So for all you folks heading over to Mol this year, best of luck. It's a knife fight against hardened pros.

Indeed it is that time of year. Oy. Sort of like when a TV show ends with a To be continued... ALWAYS a bummer. I've got all this restless energy still and not sure if I should do pre-work intervals or maybe just go and spin around and do wheelies on my single speed. I'm a bit lost. There's a race on the 3rd, but not even sure where I'll be at that time this January. This time last year, it was frenetic. Trying to maintain fitness between the last Colorado race and going to Belgium.

So with all this restlessness, I decided to reflect a little on the season. All-in-all, I can't complain. 8th overall and a enough top 10's to satiate, but I know that I have a couple of surprises left in the legs. The Firecracker 50 just isn't enough for training for 'cross. Ha! The summer was spent with my head far far away from bikes, and when I came rushing into the 'cross season, it was done so with a complete 'Hmm, let's just see where you end up' kind of attitude. No expectations, just flow. And so it was. I think that with the exception of my barrier clippings at Xilinx and Chatfield, the cleanliness goal was met. The racing was done with no technical issues...rolled tires, failures, flats, weak lines, bad technique....and I think I rolled as smoothly as I have ever. So, I had that going for me this season...

What's next? Each year....even after a decade of racing our sport...I strive for better. Each year I spend the first 1/2 of the year contemplating the changing of the leaves. This contemplation starts from the time I clean the bikes after their last race and hang up the tubulars for their winter/spring hiatus until mid summer when I start taking the bikes down of their hooks, re-fill the tires and just feel the bikes again. Each year I take 'em down a bit earlier. Each year I say to myself, can you go at this again? Can you get closer to hands in the air? Can you continue to balance?

I think it's longing that keeps me alive.

The season has ended. Sigh. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself! As I was preparing the bikes for their hyperbolic chambered rest as I switch to the fat tires, I decided to snap some photos and comment about the most excellent equipment I used this year. It is surreal the abuse this equipment takes each week from August through December and I hope it can help you with your 2009 equipment plans!

Click on the photo below to take you to my Flickr set and each photo is commented including on-photo notes.

Most of all I want to thank Paul at Rock Lobster, Shotty at SRAM, Lance at TRP, and the entire Boulder Cycle Sport crew (Brandon, Mike D, Jeremiah, Dwayne and Coleman) for all the work and support this season!

(Originally posted by Andrew Hyde on Boulder.Me )

If you haven't heard, Boulder became the third community in the US to achieve ‘platinum bike status’ from the League of American Cyclists.

This video is produced by StreetFilms and is very well done.  It perfectly captures the feeling of biking around town.

I've posted a sampling my pics from Nats for y'all. The photos of me racing I obviously could not take...and were snapped by first time photographer Chellie Terry who did an unbelievable job! Click on the picture below of my bud Tom Steven's duct taped arse to view 'em!

Done and Done, folks. The season is finished and now I am really looking forward to just coasting for a while. I thought a lot about what I wanted to write here and I think if I abstract it all out and up, it boils out to never, ever saying uncle. Ever. I’ll get to that in a moment.

Road tripping is a lost art. When I say I had more fun this weekend than what seems like the past 5 years, it is an understatement. I have never laughed as hard as I did this trip due to Ward Baker, Paul Maude and of Course Aaron Boups Bouplon. There were moments when I came undone laughing that the minivan was about to go into a ditch let alone the frolics we had on the course…and in the bars of lovely Kansas City. Thanks boys. My soul needed that more than you realize.

Let me summarize the weekend’s highlights briefly and in no particular order….and then I’ll get into some bad prose below.

• Everyone should road trip at least once a year. This is mandatory for the soul and should absolutely be part of your training program.
• I have never raced as poorly as I have in what feels like a decade. But I won’t bitch here (see below).
• The performances of Dubba, Andy Jacques-Mayne, Katie Compton and Ryan Trebon were so awesome in how they crushed the fields, it was a spectacle.
• I’m not ashamed to be from Colorado…even though Wicks called us a bunch of poseurs. I’ll chalk that up to the après-race beers, Barry. Ha!
• Jamey Driscoll blew my mind with his ride. Unbelievable and meeting him for the first time this weekend and meeting him showed me yet again another core/good person that is getting it done in the right ways. He’s going to blow some shit up in the next 3-5 years.
• My name was shouted at every bend and apex of the course during my race. Here I am 12 hours from my house and folks I’ve never even met are screaming their guts out at me to go faster. I’m honored and embarrassed at the same time. I wished I could have made my carcass go faster.
• I’ve never been on a cross course with that much climbing. Jeebus it hurt. Don’t get me wrong….the course was great and beautiful, but the antithesis of a course I could ever be good on. No one could hide this weekend.
• File treads work in the mud!
• I love cyclo-cross. I love cheering for cyclo-crossers.

OK, so to the race and details of the weekend. I drove the 10 hours from Boulder to KC on Friday and we went directly to the course before the hotel. The warm up was…..tough. Without saying much to my buds, I knew that my legs were empty. No spring…no punch. Don’t know why, and it’s not important, but I felt nicht so gut. Saturday, race day, we had decent weather. I’d say absolutely perfect cross weather. The course was dry(ing) and it was this interesting mix of soft earth mixed with grass. The days before were debacles of mud leaving juniors running and some in tears. By the time Saturday came around, it was an entirely different course than what they experienced. It radically changed in texture. You literally sank in to the course, without any mud actually getting on you. It was surreal. Never been on a course quite like that. I think it was mainly due to the compacted grass that acted like a sponge. So imagine riding on a wet sponge…on a course that was straight up…then straight down. The funny part about it all, though, was that I ran file treads. They were perfect for the course, hooked up and cornered perfectly in fact, yet still did nothing for the sinking….especially for my large corpse.

My call up was mediocre. I was 41st (4 rows back) and funny enough that’s exactly where I’d end up. From the gun, I settled into mid 30’s and by the 2nd lap, I’m going nowhere. I would suffer like hell on the climb up the courses front face and once at the top, every lap, pass like 3-5 dudes on the running section and even more on the downhill (which was super fun and not unlike a dual slalom course!) only to be passed by them again on the climb. Quite funny actually. I was not strong enough to attack or preserve my position on the climb which was simply too hard for me. Simple as that. Like I said, no hiding on this course and only those strong enough….and strong enough mentally to dig in and attack….could move up.

On to the sappiness portion: Never Say Uncle. This year has categorically sucked for my wife, family and I. Again, the sheer fact I even lined up at the races I was able to this year I am ecstatic about. But while the sickening embarrassment of my ride was occurring on Saturday with all these people I don’t even know personally cheering for me like I was their own brother, I would get another pedal stroke down and move my body up the mountain. It’s as simple as that. I wanted to be top 20 this year. There, I said it. I know I have it in me and likely even a better ride, but not this past Saturday. I would close my eyes as I was climbing and suffering and knowing I am going backwards, knowing I would be embarrassed and then I’d hear it again: GO KELLER! Or C’MON M & C!!! Or HUP HUP GREG!!! Another turn of the cranks. Another few meters. One position preserved.

There will be times in life where the call will be to acquiesce. But, when you have control over the situation, even when you are cross-eyed and utterly embarrassed, you have to push on. For some, they fear that others will see their name in the results….and way down. They think these things during the race yet have the audacity to pull the plug and crawl off the machine. Call it a day. Call it a ‘training ride’. Those, Barry, are the fucking poseurs. My father would tell me to take my medicine. Take what’s coming to me and learn. Don’t hide. Don’t quit. Simply said, how to you explain quitting to a 6 year old? That’s all that need be said. Never let anyone see you quit. Go until your eyes bleed and some official has to physically remove you.

After our race, the gang and I got our beer on and celebrated. We cheered like crazy people for all those getting their Nationals on. Henry Kramer, Jeff Wardell, Jon Cariveau, Brooke Watts, Karl Kiester....my GOD we were pumped for you. It was INFINITELY more fun than my own racing!

Sunday was awesome. The racing and of course après party was epic. After watching the Elite Men from the pits (I was working for Baker, Boups and Dubba) and yelling at all my hombres like Ryan and Ben….but especially Timmy J and Jeremy as hard as I could (can’t speak today), we all communed in this Irish Pub to get our party on. Drinks were had, frolics played out. It was a fitting end to the season. Tim, thanks for dragging me into your Irish Car Bomb session. Priceless.

So, this is the end of the season and likely my posts will wane a bit as I focus on other things that need focus. It’s been a great season all things considered and once again I am in debt to all of you that read my rants. And it was unbelievable to meet so many of you at Nats this year. I’ll keep ranting…er ah,…writing, if you keep reading.

More photos coming later in a collage of sorts. Stay tuned. Thanks to Longman for most of the racing photos you see above.

‘Cross on.
Keller

Sports fans: We're FINALLY back from KC! Ward, Boups, Longman and I spent 11 hours getting back in thankfully cold yet clear driving conditions tolerating each others inexplicable gas, surfing YouTube on a AirCard'ed laptop searching for something Longman assured us was funny and had something to do with cake and farts, and eating unbelievably bad food in celebration of the season being over. I'll do a complete report for you tomorrow with TONS of pics I still need to sort through. For some reason, my race shots are all reminiscent of me in this (familiar) position:
I had a hemorrhoidal version of a bike race Saturday as you will see. But I promise I won't cry on your shoulders. The beer flowed like wine afterward so all was made good. All was good. All is good.