For a year or more now I have been enamored with the PDX crowd and their ability to capture cyclocross in a way that is not just focused on the racer. It’s everything AROUND the race…namely the people and the sites we see every weekend that burn indelible images into our brain. These are the images I hope to remember above any single race when I am old and gray.

Alas, Colorado too has a ‘Visual Historian’, Joshua Duplechian. An artist of there ever was one who uses his glass to capture what we all see, taste, smell and hear every weekend.

Click here to see his 2009 Colorado States photographic essay, but I highly encourage you to go and scope out his many visual projects. Absolute genius.

I can barely type at this moment. Absolutely no feeling in my fingertips due to the insanity of participating in my 'last' race of the season today, CycloX, in sub arctic conditions. My body is cashed. My mind is too...although 'at peace' that another season is done and the Holidays are here to enjoy. There's talk of some races popping up on the schedule in January but I am officially done with any racing that requires focus. Racing's always fun, but no need to "think" so to speak.

Cross Racing week 12. Let's get to it.

2009 Cyclocross State Championships - Arvada CO

This is 'peakin' season' for us all as States is always followed by Nationals. Thus folks want to be feeling as much spring in the legs as possible. The week had been snowy as all get up here in Boulder-ville and we all knew we were in for an epic Saturday. It didn't fail. It was my 12th week straight of racing and everyone was tired (save the smart ones mind you...). I took the entire week off except for some roller time in the basement to come in as fresh as possible.

Photo by Dan RieberThe warm up lap I got to take showed that I felt good and the course had no monster climbs which would negate any one single dude from dominating. The course was snowy almost exactly like the 2007 State Champs on that bitter cold day. I brought the de-icer and ran Dugast Typhoons at 30psi. I'd never need to change bikes all day amazingly...even with crashes.

All the usual suspects were lined up save Denis Farrell. I had a 2nd row call up today as I've been suckin' but I knew that being behind Jon C and Timmy I'd get off the line safe, smartly and clear.

TWEET! We're off and as anticipated I snake through a hole with Timmy taking the hole shot along with Michael, Jon and Glen Light. I am feeling really pretty light and spinning well. When we took off the course was frozen but in 45 minutes it would all change.

(See Dan Rieber's photos of the race like that to the left, here).

First lap and I am rolling beautifully along. No issues, keeping The WB in my head to stay conservative and not attack or do anything stupid. Coming over this set of barriers the racers would re-mount then get sent through this completely UNSHOVELED sidewalk (the course guys should have really paid more attention here as this was fairly B league ATMO). There were two lines, the right one being next to this orange plastic hurricane fencing. Exactly like that moment in the 2003 Tour when Lance is pulled down by that kid's mussette bag, my SRAM lever gets snagged in the orange fencing and brings me down so fast it was incredible. Hogan comes by me and my bike takes him out (we have a habit of doing this to each other! Ha!) He asks if I'm OK and we get up and hammer.

Long story short, I suffer two more of these similar crashes. One I will admit was particularly scary. My hand slipped off the hood as I came into this apex and the front tire went into a divot. The hand slips off and I hit the deck super fast and super hard face and arm first. I felt this shooting pain which I literally thought was my arm braking or maybe my shoulder. I get up and look at my skin suit to see if there is some sort of bone protruding! Ryan and Glen Light ask me again If I am OK and I remount and get the diesel working again. It turns out I bruised the bone and my tricep muscle and had some shoulder pain but all will be OK (as you'll see by me racing the next day at CycloX below).Photo by Photo by http://markwoolcottphotography.com/

Last lap and this is where I need to pause and explain something that needs explaining as it has relevance below further down in the post...

The group of guys we have in the 35A's here in Colorado are absolutely, positively something special. I am not sure what it is like elsewhere in the country but we generally and fully enjoy each others company as we attempt to slay each other week in and week out. Whenever we come across the line there is always a gaggle of hugs, back pats and recounts of the race. Genuine joy between us. The fact is that we all end up trading emails, calls, TXT's etc during the work week as we prep for another weekend of racing and share a bit of the work and family week stuff we all have to balance in our crew. Mutual respect if there was ever a phrase to apply to a group.

(See Mark Woolcott's photos, like that to the right, here!)

So back to the action and the above known, the closing laps got faster and more chances taken. Matty Opp was having a banner day bridging to us dangling off the leaders. As the race wore on the course changed dramatically. Mud was becoming an issue and my cleats and pedals for the life would not engage. I was sore as a mo-fo and chasing Opp hard yet I could hear LG on the mic shouting about my hombre Ward~The WB~Baker's ride. Timmy early on had an unfortunate tire failure taking him out in lap 2 and Chris Phenecie unfortunately suffered a worse fate about the same time with a crash and ankle injury. These gaps allowed a spilt group to simply ride ride ride. Robson, Cariveau Ward and a strong JJ Clark who'd made it through a number of folks to bridge to try and re-claim CO States after his 2008 win. But if you have ever seen Ward ride a mountain bike, you know that this was his day.

Almost every soul hit the deck Saturday. The best of us struggling. The greatest of us, though, stayed as smooth as he typically is and Ward came across the line arms held high in a much deserved win. LG's words on the mic were motivating me to no end shouting out his gap times to chasers. Hearing Ward was going to take it made my hair stand on end as I was racing and made me go harder still.

Last lap and I am with Glen. We bridge to Ryan and coming into an icy cement corner and I wash out quickly. We're all pinned but to show the class of the guys we ride with (and my sentiments above about our group), Glen pauses to tell me to get up, get control, get my breathing in order and throw in another interval when I get up and going. Class. Ryan, Glen and I come flying into the last stretch: a muddy run up, then immediately flip to a slick down hil. I'd railed this all day with a foot out but this time I wash out. I am up in seconds and remount as Glen begins to stand to sprint for the line with Ryan starting his sprint as well. I can hear our gears changing to find that 46 x 12...Clink clink clink clink! I miraculously find the big ring and drill it, all three of us basically throwing with me taking the print for 9th. Yup, knife fighting the whole way.Photo by Greg Keller

Ward, I love you like a brother and am so proud of you. Every single one of us knew it was your day. You did it man.

Have a look at my photos of the State Championships (mainly apres-race photos) here in my Flickr gallery.

With a pint or so of my bud Joe Ball's home made Westmalle clone in my gullet, I proceeded to don the smock and rubber gloves to pit for my bros Brandon Dwight and Pete Webber in the open men's race. Let it be known that I indicated to anyone that would listen that today would be Pete's day. I know how hard he is training (and resting!) for Bend, and today woudl suit him well. He and Ward are in fact extremely similar riders.

Photo by Philip BallSo with a small posse in hand, we dialed in Pete and Brandon's bikes for what would be an absolute frozen mudfest. The pit crew work (if I don't say so myself...) would be decisive as we watched lap after lap of the pro men struggle with mud that was freezing in massive chunks around the every concievable place.

Lap after lap Brandon and Pete simply stayed smothed, changed bikes and kept gapping the field by a large distance. It all came down to a sprint between these two old best friends with Pete taking the roses.

See an amazing set of photos here by our team mate Philip Ball including the dramatic sprint finish to the line.

Photo by Philip Ball

CycloX - Boulder, CO

I woke up today (Sunday) feeling like my body had been hit by a freight train. Legs heavy arm sore. I peer outside and it's snowering out and we'd gained another 1.5". Oh and it's 16 degrees.

I guess I'll just 'have' to race one last time, right? The good news is that the race course is literally right down the sreet. So I embro-up right there at my house, grab my de-icer and roll down the street with my two bikes...in the snow...with cars nearly stopping to oggle me as if I am absolutely psychotic. 

I roll up to the start line and ask someone to pin me up, drop my jacket and discover it's literally just me and two other guys at the start line! Tim Allen and Jon Baker. We're all freezing and we essentially roll off the line, Tim taking off on a tear (Jon and I would not bridge to him for the whole race).

(Click here to see Six Degrees to Slush great photos like that to the right of the day!)

The course was pretty damn fun. I rolled in 28psi, unbelievably low, and found myself hooking up well. I rolled consistently with Baker at 15 seconds, Tim 30 seconds in front of Jon. My fingers numbed horribly and contacts froze and rolled right out of my eyes. The atmosphere was super fun with us all goofing off. My family walked down and braved the elements with Seamus and Aiden hucking snow balls at me.

I pull across the line with my bike above my head, Stybar-style, in celebration of a fun race and my last race of the season.....although my fingers are still frozen and I fear a 2007-like scenario where they stay numb for a month or more. Arrgh.

So that's it friends. I am capital C cooked and happy with the season. I'd probably give myself a B- overall but know that my focus needed to be elsewhere this season and not going to go down some woe-is-me path. I did my best and I did what I could do weekend in and out, essentially relying on racing as my training.

Best of luck to all my friends going to get thier game on in Bend next week. I'll be thinking of you...as I down a beer and go out on a 1 x 1 ride.

Adios.

Photo by Philip Ball

What kind of crosser are you? Seriously. Think about it for a moment. Are you the type who thrives on the early season warmth? Tackling fast courses and using some of your road or mountain season form to go and wreak havoc? Or maybe you are the new generation crosser who is coming into the sport, learning your place in the pack, dialing in your race day rituals, equipment and comfort level on various courses. Or maybe, just maybe, you are the fanatic. Watching weather.com hourly…yet days in advance of the event…to observe the weather patterns and praying for the confluence of cloud, temp and precip to allow the heavens open up and drain what it will on the course. Ultimately leveling the playing field in favor of those with technical skills versus those that are genetically gifted yet ill-prepared to handle their bikes in the bad.

Hi. I’m Greg. I’m a fanatic.

I don’t know what it is but if the conditions foul, I relish. I’m not intending to sound all egotistical, but I sincerely feel better on challenging courses when weather adds its secret sauce: My tires feel great. My power seems even and consistent. It all just seems to work for me. I like zee sheet and zee piss-rain and zee mud.

Well we got the sheet and the mud but replace the piss-rain with snow. Epic conditions greeted the crossers…and DROVES of us…to Boulder Racing’s final in its series. We were all back once again at Xilinx, home to the last mud fest! I had a hold on 3rd place in the series and frankly wanted to reap some rewards for being “Mr. Consistent” this season. And that consistency would play its self out yet again Sunday. Ha! Or maybe I should say arrgh!

I’ll give the blow by blow for the Men’s 35 A event…and I’ll use some AWESOME photography from David Kutcipal of 303Cycling.com , the lens of Linard Cimermanis and video from Dale Riley’s Crossin’ Colorado blog. Thanks you guys!!

The 35A’s have the ‘pleasure’ this season of lining up super early. Don't know why this is as for years we raced at 11:30-ish. Now this season we’re leaving at 0-dark:30 to make our 9:45 race time on most weekends. So, with these early start times, the course conditions radically change from AM to PM when the weather is foul. We faced ice, fresh powder and mud…not the pure mud the later races would face. Technical nonetheless.

The crew lined up after call ups and the ACA official sent us on our way. My plan today was to take it easy, save matches and burn slowly into the race. That means not blowing wads on the hole shot like I am just soooooo awesome at.

True to my plan I burn into the start chute up the pavement climb evenly and conservatively. I settle in behind Hogan who I am comfortable with and know how smooth he is to stay out of trouble. Up this 1/4 mile pavement drag, there was tons of melting ice and snow creating a pretty scary situation. Limited visibility due to spray and the fact that a bunch of dudes whom I don’t know and are not familiar with their racing styles were taking chances to get into position before we all converged into this narrow chute into the course proper were sketching me out. So, I had to make a move to stay safe. I jammed it on the outside and railed into the single track first …

Safely in the woods and clear of any disasters I was able to set my own pace. Set my own tempo. Set my own lines. And I felt absolutely great. I carved out the players early on. Ross, Robson and I meandered the course and railed as a three person train and took no chances. Essentially allowing ourselves to learn the course and the lines while pushing a good pace evenly.

By lap 2 and 3 our group got a bit larger. Dennis, Ward, Brian an Mr. Hogan bridged so we had a group driving a great pace. The course was starting to flow and all of us were literally smiling. It was less race, more like a rad group ride with great friends pushing hard but having fun. Honestly, none of us felt like we were racing but our lap times were telling another story!

By the lap 3, Ross had punched to create a gap that no one was bringing back. His skills and his Niner 29’er (Cheater, Ross! HA! Kidding…) helped hgim create a gap that could be maintained by teh type of rider he is: Smooth consistent and technical. By this point I am still grooving until the unthinkable! I throw a chain over the outside ring on the back side of the course. As is customary these days, I lose my obligatory ‘5’ spots. The racing is simply that tight and you can NOT make a single mistake. Unless you have the motor to overcome other huge motors, you simply have to stay smooth and problem free. Bummer but I had to get off and re-assemble the mess.

Dubba was manning the pits for me (and I would for he and Pete later in the day) and I dumped of that bike, clogged with ice and muck that caused the derailieur drama. Before the start, Dubba and I could not source De-Icer yet while racing, he was able to get it and load my back up bike with the goodness. It proved effective to keep the drive train clear.

So with the train of dudes now clear of me given my mis-hap and my bike change (as quick as it was), I had my work to do. I drilled it to bridge to my teamie Brian who was gapped by the chasing group going after Ross. B and I would try to push to the next group. The unfortunate part was that we were running out of laps!We wren't going to get on.

Bri and I dove in and out of the single track, in and out of the snow and mud. It was super fast and fun! By the closing of the bell lap, he and I popped out on the pavement together towards the finish and he had a 10 meter gap. Even as team mates, we have to sprint for it! You all know what I’m sayin’! I dropped it into the 46 x 12 and bridged, threw, and B had the distance by a tire to take 7th. Me 8th….again! Ha! Seems to be my number this year.

Good news is that I raced consistently enough over the course of the 4 race series to take 3rd overall…de laatste podium plaats. $100 bucks and socks! Giddy up! So all is not lost, sports fans.

So all-in-all what a great day of racing. Fanatical racers out in the sheet and piss-muck with smiles all over the place. And on the horizon, the state championships are looming. Damn! I think I need to start training. Hup?

8th. Can’t seem to break the curse of the 8 ball. By most standards, top 10 is an achievement in itself…and the crew we have here in Colorado is about as fast as it gets. And yet even while I am in the mix, I am the master of self-inflicted misery. It’s awesome. I’ll walk you through all that nonsense in a minute…

This weekend brought some great racing to the Front Range. The Rocky Mounts School Yard Cross went off Saturday and lots of smiles were had…or so I hear as I took a well needed rest day with the family and forgot all about ‘cross for a day. Check out some of the pics of the course and Boups’ man-made mud drama here.

Sunday I was back on it. I took the drive out to what felt like Kansas to the up and coming town of Brighton, CO for Alpha Cross.  It’s about an hour’s drive from Boulder but when I got there the scene was pumping. LG on announcing duties, jumpy castle for the kids, food, beer…a good ‘ol cross.

The course was literally carved out of the prairie, the Alpha Cross crew having clearly labored to make a course that was fun and technical, using every part of the open space they had at their disposal to weave the course. A lot of the course was fire road that had been completely swamped out by mud from the precip we’d had over the last few weeks, driven over by trucks, then dried. So it was a bump fest. Thank goodness there was no new precip as the course would not have been rideable. It’s different soil than at Xilinx from our mud fest last weekend with clay earth that would have made the course impassable. It featured a huge Nor Cal style run up…one I haven’t seen since racing at Watsonville ages ago.

I lined up with my hombres. Phenecie, Cariveau, Robson, McFarling, Hludzinski and The WB back from a surf trip (read: rested). Clay was doing single speeds but all the usual suspects were there. The start was a long drag on a dodgy dirt road that apex right over loose gravel. I wanted to be out of the melee and drilled it from the TWEEET. This would be the beginning of my classic 8 Ball disease….

By the first lap I had put in a huge gap and went psychotic. I burned a half pack of matches on a stupid 1-2 lap early assault that I thought could initially push and hold on a technical course that suited my style of riding.

The course meandered through countless 180s…essentially a 25m sprint, flowing into corners sans brakes, then power out in a sprint for another 25 meters back up the other side. Once I had cleared them of any melees and got a split of us rolling into lap 2 via my retarded assault on myself, Cariveau and Phenecie, were free to fly which they did. I was bridged to by my fresher (smarter) companions then discharged repeatedly over the rest of the race following the 3rd through 7th guys at exactly the same distance for the rest of the race. I would fly up the run up and bring the guys back, then gapped again on certain sections. Yo-yo-ing with a great group mere meters ahead but so loaded I was not able to put in the bridging assault to get ‘em back. Classic.

So these tactics are indeed stupid. It’s all intertwined in this awesome level of impatience I have…and the fact that even after so long in this game, I have so much to learn. I study all of us in the top 10 in the 35 A’s and it’s all fairly well balanced…but guys like Jon C have this little extra something…a cocktail of skill, fitness and smarts that kind of boils down to this:

A last lap face like this:

Will always win over faces that look like this on the bell…

Sorry for nailing you guys above! Ha! I'll throw myself under the bus with the prime example being my own…

God, I love this sport. Lessons learned with every every season, let alone every race. Here’s to those who repeat the definition of insanity every weekend and apply Quixotic principals every lap. I’ll be sure to be out there next weekend applying changes from the lessons I’ve learned.

But alas, all was not lost on my early race assault! I won the beer prime and took me homwe a six'er of London Pride. Giddy up!

(Photo by Brian Graves)

Hup Hup!

(Thanks to Dan Rieber for his great photographic eye and for being out there at the races! Scope out and buy some of his fantastic pics here!)

I don't know where to begin. Insane jealousy maybe at his ability to capture what we all see and feel in still and moving celluloid as cyclocrossers. Or maybe it's his ability to keep focused on the true core of who we are, what we do and most importantly why we do it weekend in and out. I'm speaking about Brian Vernor, photographer, videographer and historian of what will become 'our time' in cyclocross here in the United States.

In 2005 I was invited to see a debut of his movie here in Boulder, only a year after I'd left the Bay Area. What I saw was...well...a big part of my life actually. Pure Sweet Hell, Brian's break through movie captured so much of our 2003 racing season in beautiful film, it's a special keepsake for me. Seeing how Brian has evolved both in video and in his amazing still photography blows me away...shot quite often without all the fan-dangled digital apparatus that hacks like me rely upon. Instead Brian relies upon methods from yesteryear with good old film and true artistry in knowing how to operate f-stops, aperture and lighting.

At the 'cross Nationals in Bend in December, folks will be lining up to see the debut of his new movie, The Cyclocross Meeting. It will be obvious after seeing it how Brian will help you relive what we do and why we do it. I wanted most importantly to give people a better lens into Brian and what he does for our sport. I've also peppered the post with some imagery from Brian to whet your appetites.And without further adieu, Five Questions With: Brian Vernor.

1) Brian, you are a crosser and only a crosser can appreciate the depths we go through in our minds bodies and souls on any given weekend. Your media reflects this (photos and video). Tell me about how you got into 'cross, those that inspired you and what you love about our sport.

Growing up in Santa Cruz, CA I was exposed to mountain biking very young. Since my friend Justin Robinson was racing (on the Yeti Cycles team), I learned about racing, and this extended to cyclocross with the Surf City CX Series (the longest continually running series in the US). Some of the first races I attended were only two blocks from my house, so it seemed like not that much effort to do it in the first place. When something is accessible like that you don’t have to justify it with great ambitions, you just do it because if you weren’t racing you’d be riding some trails anyway. I think races were $8 for juniors. This was 1993. I went to the Nationals that year as a junior, in Tuolumne, CA, and I saw one of the greatest last lap battles in US cross nats history, which was between Don Myrah and Peter Webber. There were only about a hundred people watching but still there was so much energy following that race. Having that public display of suffering and potential failure is a huge part of the racing for me. I don’t get nearly as excited for forms of racing where the individual racer’s breaking point is not absolutely going to be witnessed.

2) Your Pure Sweet Hell was a break through for our family of crossers. It was perfect (and so much of our racing in Santa Cruz/Bay Area was captured in 2003 in that film! Such great memories!). Tell us about that film and the struggle to put it together. The results are astounding...but the path there was invariably hard. What were your greatest challenges?

Pure Sweet Hell was only a struggle to make once the heart of the editing was happening. Until that point I had never made a film over five minutes in length, and assembling a film about something we cared so much about was painful. I just pictured it failing so many times. The worst would have been people just shrugging and not really caring about it. Some people have pretty strong opinions about PSH which is the best way to have it, whether they are good or bad opinions doesn’t really matter because there are both perspectives out there. When we started filming we had a totally lame idea of what the film would be (kind of Hoop Dreams on bikes), and if there was a struggle, it was in finding a way to make only what mattered to us come through in the film. It is really not easier now than it was then, though now I have a little less anxiety about not finding the way.

3) Your eye captures inexplicable beauty...frozen in time...for us all to appreciate and smile about. What to you prefer most? Shooting still or shooting motion?

That is really strong praise, thank you. I like when I succeed at accomplishing my own standard of beauty, whether with stills or motion. Both formats I use hoping to achieve a similar result depending on what is appropriate. I’m not a gear-head, the equipment is not enjoyable in and of itself, so I have to care about the communication that is the result of the image.

4) Tell us about the Bay Area 'cross scene. The mafia out there is so core (and I miss them dearly!). Rick Hunter, Paul Sadoff, Justin Robinson...so many! What encapsulates the Bay Area cross scene in a paragraph?

The Northern California cross scene is stubborn. There are very strong ties to and awareness of the history of the sport here. There is a reluctance to accept a new direction defined from outside this region. That means our races are focused on the atmosphere as much as the racing, and the ideal is founded on our past and present community, not some inflated view of Belgium, or Eurocross, or something the racing here never was or will be. The racing in Europe is amazing and the character of the race scene is unique from the US. That is a good thing. I think it is fine that cross develops in unique ways in each region. As a documenter I want to be honest about what those unique qualities are and focus on them. The guy wearing Belgian blue, eating frites and drinking a Chimay is not that interesting to me unless I’m in Middlekerke, Belgium.

Northern California promoters have given the middle finger to USA Cycling and I don’t see anyone here anxious to jump into the UCI affiliated races game, but it will happen again due to a sense of responsibility to the regional racers with national ambitions. I do think this would be good for our community regardless of the hassles.

5) Everyone is amped to see "The Cyclocross Meeting" in Bend at Nats! Newt and Wicks get their (more than) 15 minutes in this one. What a unique vantage point to take...'crossing in Japan. Tell us about this movie and what the greatest challenges were in making it. And what was the craziest thing you saw in Japan (besides anyone rocking SRAM...).

The Cyclocross Meeting is about expanding your own community via cyclocross. It is amazing that we can go to Japan and find that we are passionate about the same thing as people we’ve never met, and who come
from a completely different reference point. I mean, we’re so lucky that we’re involved in something that universally brings joy to people. That said, it’s also about going really fast. I wanted to mostly focus on Elite racing, both as an update of where the US scene is at the highest level, and then as a comparison to an emerging scene. Pure Sweet Hell was about the whole scene, pro and amateur, and I didn’t want to show the same thing. I also find that really fast people are much more compelling to watch, unless a slow rider is crashing, puking, or trying to drink a beer while running in ankle deep mud (I’m sure someone is filming SSWCCX).

Japan is a crazy experience the moment you leave the airport. To see an industrialized country with such different priorities of space compared to our own to inspiring. It is very isolated in some ways while also obsessively studying outside cultures, but Japan does everything it’s own way. Respect.

Shawn is a local hard man and has shaken up the 35 Opens after a pretty long hiatus from the scene. The man's got that prototypical Colorado mitochondria that mystifies. Moreover, the man is an inspiration to me on the photography front, having lusted his images in Mountain Flyer Magazine for quite some time now. He wanted me to share some of his imagery from this past weekend and so, I am! Click here to see he essay on the Boulder Cup weekend.

I am trying to fabricate something eloquent to say here about the photos Rob ttook yesterday of teh elite men's and womens race...but I all can say is: holy crap. Mr. Rob O'Dea has done it again. He's allowed me to share these spectacular pics with you so we can all enjoy them and remember the most excelelnt day yesterday...

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

After my debacle-race on the first day (report coming), I was able to whip out the photo shooter and snap some pics of the Open Men. Jake Wells rode super strong with a tenacious 16 year old Yannick Eckmann causing all kinds of drama for 2nd place. I'm figuring all this photography stuff out on my own kids, so I hope you like! Credit back to the site as always if you use any.

Click on the photo below...

For more Frisco Day 1 action, see my man from Six Degree's to Slush's photos!

I'm back from the trip and what a trip it was! I am going to do a re-cap post next week but wanted to share some pictures with you of InterBike and CrossVegas. What great memories! I am shocked at all the people screaming their heads off to push us all on lap after lap. Totally motivating.

This Flickr set includes my own personal photos as well race action shots from the incredible lenses of:

~Rob O'Dea
~UltraRob
~Andrew Yee of CXMagazine.com
~Mat Barlow
~Dan Farrell

Enjoy the pictures for now (I'll be adding more to this Flickr set too so come back and see these again!) and stay tuned for an upcoming post. 

May. It's that time. I'm watching things these days (mainly what goes in me) and I am already tinkering with the equipment. I am lusting 'cross already. You all know I love the photographers who are out there at the courses and snap pics of our tired arses weekend after weekend. Search this site and you'll see a zillion posts talking about photo sites. Here's a couple of new photography sites to get you juiced up on your forthcoming seasons and all the effort you're going to put in this summer to get lean and fast.

Dejan Smaic - Sportif Images

Dejan's Got TONS of coverage from all the  local races....from TT's to crits to of course 'cross.

My man shoots a Nikon D300 as well and as you know, I am a burgeoning Nikon freak with my D90.

I tweaked with this photo he took of me at States this year (sorry Dejan...couldn't help myself) but the raw JPG demonstrates a quality that is like he used strobes...yet I do not recall any other than Rob O'Dea's and one other guy's. Hmm.

Winsor White Photography

'Cross is clearly tugging at the heart strings of Winsor White and it shows. TONS of fantastic pics from the local Boulder and surrounding area races from this season and seasons past.

Get ready folks. 4 months to get unfat and glue tires.