Surf City Silliness

Before you start, scroll down start the youtube so you have theme music. Then come back here to read.

Well, I have to say that the Bella's and Co. have outdone themselves. Sunday's Surf City CX was the most fun I have had at a race this year by far. I know the course got changed, Blah, Blah, Blah. I thought it was great though. The swirl was soooo cool. The run up was great if you like run ups, if not than you probably hated it. I thought the course was fast, but you had to be able to handle your bike for sure. So here is how the 35A race went.

Drove to the race 6:30am with the Champ and SuperLex. Got in a solid warmup, 5 or so laps. The course was tricky, and had lots of grass, something we never see around here. The water sponges around here are so protected like family jewels that running a cross race over them is a cardinal sin. But, oh yeah, they grow back. I love grass, and there was a swirl in the par course which was awesome. You had to be there to understand it. Anyway, the approach to the runup was real bumpy, and the runup it self was a long, steep mofo.

So, start time, they do the call up, the champ goes first then the rest of the heads of state. Except for one of the berry boys. The rest of us crush to the front to claim our valuable real estate. "Casey the ref" calls out the instructions, and then the missing berry boy who was apparently doing yoga or something in the back starts to worm his way through thestarting grid, "excuse me, let me through". He gets right in front of me and he is not even on his bike! Casey says "10 seconds". Oh shit, are you kidding me? Does he get on his bike? NO! does he even look ready? NO! Whistle goes off and dude starts running! WTF? So I try to get around him and start squeezing through the madness. Strawberry boy starts yelling at everyone like " let me through!" Dude welcome to the middle of the pack scrum, there is no love there.

The first barriers are packed and I come off of the bike elbows flying trying to make it through, I end up flailing through them well back in the field. I start pickiing my way through and pass a bunch of people. I was with Richy Italiano again on the first runup, I decide to blast up it and pass as many people as possible on it. Finally get into a good spot going into the speedway section of the course. Feeling good, by the way, did I mention I built up the new team frame. It was working perfect! And I have two bikes now, so of course I had no mechanicals. I got into a good group with Murray, Eric B, Ceaser and Chirs D. I noticed that on the runup Murray was hurting, so I tried to push a little bit to keep him honest. Ceaser had a mechanical and dropped out, Chris is still in the hurt locker with an injury and also DNF'd.

I managed to get away from them for a while but I ended up with Eric B for a while, then with a lap and a half to go he got a gap and I could not bring him back. He stayed about 10 seconds up at the finish. I manage to hold off some chasers to finish 12th! Finally, a decent result, and the fitness is almost back to normal. 9 and 10 were only a few seconds ahead of Eric so I am encouraged about getting a top ten before the season ends.



Forecast is for rain this week and the weather is getting cold. That can only mean one thing. Real Freaking Cross Weather!! Bring it on. It is about time. The big bays will be in Colorado this weekend, so I may be able to poach a top ten. we will see. The costume race was hilarious. Seeing OV in the bumble bee outfit made me laugh so hard. I kept hearing that bumble bee song in my head, "No Rain" by Blind Melon. Still singing it today. OV can have that effect on people.

Cyclocrossboy but on quite the spread this weekend, he has vaulted to elite status cause he brought Ommegang Ale. That stuff is the best beer I have had, and I have had alot. I am glad I drove, or else i would have a serious hangover today. The ale was flowing in generous amounts yesterday. There is much to blog on but I need to get some work done. What a weekend.

Peace,
VJ

In case you needed to know

Can't breath feel like drowning? Kinda like cross racing, I guess it's not so bad. * The CIA uses cellophane wrap, I wonder if it is cling wrap? Hmmm...... I like that they blame it on the Spanish too.

Get my sh$t together!

OK, the rust has been officially kicked off. I have had three mediocre races filled with mechanicals and what not. It is time to put the CZ demons behind me and start getting my shit together. I would like to feel good about one race, cause these last two have been all about letting people have a free ride. Not anymore! Time to start kicking some ass! I got my new frame and am in the process of putting that bad boy together, so next week it will be a new bike and a new attitude suckas. Let me just say, that thing is NICE! Stay tuned for pics of the bling.
I got another good start, slotting myself in the top 15, keeping an eye on things. I was keeping the gas pedal to the floor, when the funniest thing started to happen, my seat post was shrinking about 2 cm. each lap. By lap 3 it was a circus bike and I was screaming for a wrench, which I shoved into my skinsuit, where it promptly went down to my chamois. Well that won't last for long. I picked a nice slow place on the course, which was at the top of the run up and went to madly wrenching on the seat post. Got going again only to find that it was about 5cm to high, I could barely reach the pedals! Stop again lower it down, get going only now it is cockeyed. Oh well, that's fine, got to stop the bleeding somehow. Got passed by so many people that I had no idea where I was. All I know is that I rode with Richy Italiano for the last two laps. We traded pulls around the course as I attempted to stay on his technically superior wheel, it was a good push for me. Anyway, on the long stretch of pavement coming to the finish I figure that I should lead it out and try to come off the rocks in front, stomp on the gas, and, hold him off for the last 100m. Everything worked great till about 20m to go, he comes into me with his arm at 35mph and nips me by 1/4 of a wheel. Insult to injury, oh well, he is a good guy. Besides I matched my result from last week at a paltry 24th. Got a good work out though. Next week I will have two bikes and the form is coming, I can feel it oozing from all parts of me....Well the good parts anyway.

That's my boy!



I brought little man to the race, which was a little distracting, but he is pretty good at being self sufficient, in his own 10 old warped perception kind of way. As I rushed out of the house I did not think to pack any food. No problem. Not only did he pack his own cash (from god knows where) but he took it upon himself to go and buy two bags of corn chips and two sodas. Not for us to share but just for him. He also had a gift for me after the race as well. He handed me a box which on the top read, To: Dad - From: Love your son. I opened the box and inside was a Pilarcitos Bay Area Super Prestige beer glass. No tell me how can that not bring a tear to your eye? So the conversation went something like this - "Hey buddy? Where did you get the money for the glass?" "Um, I got it from your wallet" "Cool". Well, the intention was good, got to love that kid! Did I mention that he also helped himself to a redbull? Mom was not to happy about that, but hey, the kid has survival skills, and next time I won't forget to pack a lunch.

TTFN

VJ

Ripped it off from SWOBO

Who ripped it off from youtube and so on....

CX update and all things Cruz

The Surf Sity race on sunday was rocking. I brought the whole famdamily. Which was cool but it added to prerace stress. dealing with potty breaks and all. The good news is that my legs finally showed up, unfortunately my bike did not. Here is a readers D of how the race went.

1 - Bellas + Olaf + Jeff Clark = kick ass race enviro

2 - Broken seat 10 minutes before start sucks

3 - Getting a seat and quick change from my rightous bro Chris D is ass kicking cool! Thanks!

4 - Breaking three chain ring bolts and turning the small ring into a taco sucks!

5- After all that still finished better than last week = cool

6 - Training partner winning 35A race = bitchin'

7 - Felt good, killin it on the run ups

8 - Finishing like I could have gone 3 more laps + cool

9 - Look out next week.

10 - no ten sorry

What a great event, after that I took the family to SC pier. The Cruz always has a stroy to tell. Mine is this. Sitting on the beach with the Mrs. and kids running around having a great time. All is good. Until....... the kids were playing under the pier, all the sudden I see water gushing from underneath it. I go over there, a fire sprinkler head has been broken. Well 2+2=4 which means the little man was playing Curious George again.
Damn. Off in the distance I hear the siren call of in bound fire rigs. Okay, time for little man to pay the piper. I brought him kicking and crying to them to explain what happened and had the captain give him a little sit down. That was fun. Well enough of the lovely Cruz, we've done enough damage for one day.

Yesterday rode with Mr. CX Natwick for a couple hours. That guy just oozes cross, and i was licking it up. Spent most of the day in the attic fixing stuff in the bathroom remodel. (Yes I am still Working on it, it's cross season, what do you expect?) Today I had jury duty. This is some funny stuff, but I save that for another post. Just know that i got picked to be on the jury. HA! Believe it or not I am looking forward to that, shouold be a hoot. Stay tuned.

VJ

Because the D rocks

MOFO

Well CX season got off in earnest on sunday with the bumpiest course I have ever been on. Lots of babble on how bumpy it was, but hey, get used to it. It's cross people. Expect the unexpected. The same badasses still win and the rest of us suffer like mofos. Same as it ever was. Typical norcal early season cross. You like real cross weather? Real cross courses? When all of you fair weather CXer's have dismantled your precious scandium, dugast laden dirt benzos, my man DG will be putting on the Peak Season races. DG does it right. Sweet courses and who cares about the weather. It seems everyone wants to fold up shop and prepare for the coveted early bird crit anschluss. I can never figure that one out. Besides that fact the crits are a little ho hum for me. So save your medical bills and show up for peak season.

Nice to see all the familiar faces this weekend. The never aging Nobleman killing it on a cheery picking weekend. OV getting off and smiling the whole way. 35 A's was brutal, I got caught behind a crash 50 meters out of the gate then another going into the first barriers, then again just past them at the 180 turn around. Once I got going I felt ok, no power, but ok. I had a great week of training but I was riding a' bloc. Oh well. Going through the velo was fun, Dave G taking care of me with some H2O, Thanks Dave! I have a lot of improvement to make up but I will get there soon enough.

Went out with the champ yesterday, felt a little scratch in my throat nothing major though, yet. We rode through some illegal stuff in an undiclosed location, uh hem. Well we got lost and it turned into a 3 hours CX/MTB/HIKE that seem to go all uphill. I know the training with him will pay off, I am just not sure when, and if my body can put up with it long enough.

After that, the little scratch turned into a full on, can't swallow feel like crap fest. Slept for 10 hours, woke up, felt like crap again. Thought about going for a ride, my body said " I don't know what you thinking about fool, but my ass is going back to bed". So I did. Looks like to day is a day off. Mostly.

I am not sure I can even muster up the energy to comment on the current state of affairs our country is in. Seems like everybody is driving too fast, in to big of a car, to care about anything else. Locked up in there own personal oyster. They just don't realize everyone else is peering in, like its a fish bowl. Seems like such a lonely place sometimes. Thank God for CX!

Props to CP for snapping some quality pics, even though he is getting a papparatzi attitude. Should be O.N. this weekend with all the peeps back from the east side show down. I heard they had 125 starters in the 35A field back there. Damn! Oh well, time for the vege chicken soup.

Late. VJ.