Photo dump....

Warming up....
Tighten that a little bit, Daddy....

Todd Wells riding the run-up....

Chris Horner running the run-up....

Big field for 3s and 4s....

Hanging in there....

Crowd support....

Sunday's run-up....

Syd spinnin'....

Scootin' down the chute....

OOPS!!!!

#290 is Steve Bullerman....

Jackal catching back up....

Chasing Mike Johnson....

Mike....

Finishing the barriers....

KAT!!!!

Jeff Yielding....

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

More Jingle Cross....

Awesome racing! Todd Wells won both races this weekend with Chris Horner taking second in both. Watching Todd ride the "run up" on Sunday was sweet! Tons of crowd support. Cross racing as it should be! Sydney Brown took 4th on Saturday and 3rd on Sunday. She's a machine! Smooth!

Congrats to the Bike Tech crew on their finishes! Kat won her division on Saturday. Woohoo! John and Landon diced it out and had great finishes in the Master's Division. :)

Jackal suffered a wicked first lap crash on Sunday but got back in it from DFL and about 30 seconds down to catch up with the field and finish 58th of 110! Good job! He's a hurting unit this morning, but will survive. He's more worried about the damage to the Colnago. It can be fixed!!!!! Don't lose sleep over it!

More later.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Jingle Cross Pics....

Warming up prior to the start....
Waiting....

Over 100 in the Cat 3 & 4 group....

Barriers....

Thad Neil....

Total chaos....

This is steep....

The seatpost slipped 41mm.... That's gotta suck.

Sydney Brown dismounting for the run-up....

Chris Horner decending....

Chris Horner at the top of the run-up....

Brian Eppen....

The Queen of Cross gives her stamp of approval....

I think it got up around 37F today. Lots of sun. Large fields of racers and LOTS of cowbells. More tomorrow. Oh yeah!

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Jingle Cross....

We'll be heading off to somewhere around Iowa City for Jingle Cross in a few minutes. Woohoo! Big time CX racing right here in sunny old Iowa. I have my cowbells all ready to go! I have bells for myself and Rhea and anyone else who might need them. Picking up another one when we get there. It will be good!

Jackal's race is at 12:15 but we want to get there early enough to watch our friends in some of the other races then we'll stay for the pro race. It's gonna be good! Oh yeah! Pics to follow.

Supposed to be up around 40 or so today, 45 tomorrow. Go ride your bike!

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Thanksgiving....

The Cedar River, early winter....
The prairie in Hartman North....

We share our trails with the bow hunters. No problem.

Following Jackal east out of Denver....

Just riding along....

Drafting Jackal into the headwind. Almost there....

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving yesterday and I hope that all of you did too!

I started the day with an early morning walk through the Hartman North Unit just to check out the snow before it's gone. Temps in the low 20s with a slight breeze out of the north. The deer and the ducks were active!

My cell rang when I was about a hundred yards west of Jackal's house. It was Jackal asking if I still wanted to ride up to Readlyn for Thanksgiving dinner.... Oh yeah! We were still talking when I was in front of his house and Baby Rhea was waving from the front window. Anyway, we decided that I'd take off at a quarter to 11 and he'd follow at 11 sharp so that he could chase me down and use it as a training ride for this weekend's Jingle Cross in Iowa City. Sounded good to me!

I took off at 10:45 sharp and headed to Wagner Road and then straight north into a 10mph headwind. It was about 25 or so degrees. I pedaled my ass off because I didn't want him to catch me too quickly and that little bit of wind seemed a lot worse than it was. When I crested the hill and crossed C57 I looked back to see where he was at but he wasn't within sight. I kept cranking as hard as I could until I got to the Denver hills and then headed east up the first big hill. It was starting to kick my ass but the wind seemed to shift a little to the NW and I rode over the top in petty fair shape. After that it's about a half mile of rollers then a big downhill into Denver. I expectd that he would blow by me there but it didn't happen. I rolled on into Denver and stopped in the Kwik Trip parking lot to munch on a granola bar and drink some water. I started to get a bit chilly as I was sweating my ass off by then so I headed back toward the Hwy 63 overpass to try to meet Jackal. I eventually turned around and headed east through Denver while looking back watching for Jackal. I was about a quarter mile ahead when I saw him flying down the hill and into Denver so I just pedaled along nice and easy to wait for him. When he caught up he told me that he had gone along the East Lake Trail so I knew he had ridden about 3/4 of a mile further than I had to get to where we were. I had ridden the bike path behind Cattle Congress to get over to Greenbrier.... Oh well, it's all training, right? :)

We headed out for the 6 mile stretch to the east with the wind again dead out of the north. It was a pretty stress free ride with plenty of chatter between us. When we got to the Readlyn turn off I just tucked in behind him for the last mile and a half straight north into the wind. When we tured into town I told him that wasn't so bad with him breaking the wind for me. Ha Ha. He said it's all tempo work. OK. As long as I don't have to set the tempo!

We got to Eric's house and he was out in the garage with the woodburner going nicely. Jackal and I went inside and started to peel layers off as we warmed up. The rest of the family started to arrive so we changed clothes and got ready for one of the best Thanksgivings we've had in a long time.

It ended up being just a touch under 25 miles in about an hour and a half. Sweet!

That's it for now. 15F outside. I may get the Surly out today!

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

1st Snow....

Front yard flower bed....
Bird feeder....

1st snowfall of the year today. It looks like about an inch or so. The forecast is calling for 2-4, but I don't think it'll happen here.

Jackal and I are thinking that perhaps we'll ride our bikes up to Readlyn for dinner tomorrow. It's 23 miles NE of here and it's asphalt county roads all the way. It should be in the mid to upper 20s with the wind out of the NW at about 10 mph or so when we'd be riding, so that's not bad. We'll see. He suggested that I leave 20 minutes ahead of him and see how long it takes to catch me. Hmmmm..... I think he's planning to use it for a training ride for this weekend's Jingle Cross in Iowa City. He want's me to be the rabbit. You get no respect from your kids these days.... :)

I had quite a lot going on this past week and I'm tired. Really tired. I think I'm done for now. Have a GREAT Thanksgiving!!!!!

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Getting cool....

Hwy 58 and Ridgeway....
Downtown Hudson....

Welcome to Hudson....

It was dark when I left at 6:30 this evening for a ride to Hudson on the C50. It was also 38 F. 34F by the time I got home. I wore knickers and a Pearl Jacket with a long sleeved Under Armour shirt, a short sleeve UA shirt, and a jersey underneath. No booties or gators. Brrrrrrrr..... Craft headband to keep the ears warm and my C'dale gloves. My upper body was warm enough but my feet got cold. Should've worn gators. And tights. Or tights and knickers. That would've been fine. Once I got rolling the fingers were fine and the upper body warmed up nicely. Oh well, it's better than whatever happens to be on the tube tonight, I'm sure. I didn't meet a single cyclist or walker tonight. No cars on the recently re-paved Ho Chi Minh Trail. No one walking their dogs with 25 foot leashes. It was good. Really good. 25 miles in an hour and 30 minutes. :) My wife thinks I'm nutty but she accepts it as perfectly normal when I go out at night and walk or cross country ski for 3 hours. Figure that one out. It's all good!

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

The Race....

Passing Jackal....
Passing Brother of Jackal....

They couldn't keep up....

The Queen of Cross looks back to check the competition....

Baby Rhea, Queen of Cross, asks if we won....

Oh yeah, we won....

The First Annual Buchanan Boys Kinda Semi-Urban Cyclocross Race took place this evening with the "Old Man" and Baby Rhea taking home the top spot on the podium. What a race it was! We took off to the east on Rainbow and then headed north on Niagra up to Grand Blvd. From there we headed east again to North Hackett and flew down the hill, under the trolly car bridge, and north up to the bike path. It was a close race at this point with Jackal and Brother of Jackal fighting for the lead. Rhea's advice to me was to just sit in and let them blow themselves up, so that's what I did. About the time we were getting to the trailside shelter at Hartman North I saw my chance and took it. I got on Brother of Jackal's wheel then slipped by both of them and just pedaled my ass off. Rhea just kept giving me encouragement and confidence. We pulled a pretty good gap on them but they started catching up when we were climbing the grade to Pfeiffer Park and Krieg's Crossing. She kept telling me to just pace myself and all would be fine. I wondered to myself "what would Fat Albert do?" I listened to her and did as she suggested. Shortly after cresting the hill and heading into Pfeiffer they both got by us for a couple of seconds but again I pedaled like my life depended on it and we were in the lead again and we held it all the way to Utility Parkway. Jackal got around before we got to the bike path and then Brother of Jackal got around also. Rhea said to just take it easy and we'd get them on the climb over the dike at Washington Park. That girl knows her stuff! We blew them away on that climb and led all the way to the Main Street bridge and then to the far side of the river and into Gateway Park. At this point we were about halfway into the 8.86 mile race and I knew we could win it if we just raced smart. The boys were starting to fade at this point and wanted to stop to get a drink at the shelter and being the good sports that we are, Rhea and I said fine. We were on fire and knew we had this race in the bag! When we took off again Rhea told me to go like hell and let them chase us. I knew what she was suggesting so I went like a bat out of hell and pulled a nice gap again, then slowed down to rest and let them catch up. As soon as they caught up with us we took off again, forcing them to chase without rest. Good tactic! It worked like a charm. When we got to Krieg's Crossing we slowed down again and let them catch up then we climbed that killer bridge and pulled about a 500 foot gap on them. Once on the other side of the river we hung a left and took off down the hill like there was no tomorrow. I think we had a bit of a weight advantage on the downhill sections of the course and we were going for broke! Only 2 1/2 miles to go! Lookout Park hill is about an 18% climb for half a mile. I knew we'd have an extreme disadvantage here so I turned right and headed up that hill pedaling with all my might. I could hear them starting to close on us but I could also hear Jackal breathing hard and Brother of Jackal cussing and moaning. This could make or break the race for us so I put my head down and got out of the saddle and coaxed the Surly along. Again I wondered "what would Fat Albert do?" I have to admit that I started to have doubts when Jackal pulled along side of us but when I looked over at him and saw that he was struggling I smiled at him and looked him square in the eyes.... That's when Baby Rhea won the race for us. How, you ask? She spoke up in that sweet soft voice of hers and said to Jackal "is that all you've got, Daddy?" Whoaaaa! That girl has the heart of an assassin!!!! Brother of Jackal blew up on the climb and limped the last mile and a half back to the finish line in my driveway. I have to give Jackal a lot of credit though.... he came on strong in the end and finished about 2 seconds behind us. It was a great innaugural event and the spectators as well as the racers had a great time. Rhea flashed her big blue eyes at Jackal as soon as she got out of the Burley and all was good! It was a great race!!!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

Something fishy....

Wonder what he's fishing for?

South to Hudson this morning then over to Orange and back through the intersections of death to Cedar Falls and home through Pfeiffer and up Grand. 5oF when I started and 60 when I got back. 35 miles. It was a good ride. Met Clint heading into Hudson as I was heading out on the blacktop toward Orange. That guy flys! He puts in a lot of miles and rides most of the year. Hardcore!

That's it. Time for lunch.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

BROOTAL Winds....

Jackal's new Cannondale....

The trail south of Wally-World....
Tucked in out of the wind....

Jackal checking things out....

48F in Hudson. 24 degrees warmer than it was at 6 a.m.

Amen....

Jackal and I went for a 25 miler this afternoon to shake down his new Liquigas System-Six. That is one sweet ride! It weighs in at a whopping 16 pounds! That's over a full pound lighter than my C50!!! WOW!

We took the bike trail from Pfeiffer out through the intersections of death and on past Kat's CX course then south past Wally World and on to Hudson. The winds were a sustained 20 mph out of the SSE with frequent gusts to 30. BROOTAL!!! Jackal is a great riding partner in those conditions as I can tuck in close and not worry about him moving over and whacking me. He rides a nice straight line even when the conditions suck. I just keep repeating Kerkove's famous words over and over in my mind.... "The wind is our mountains". It doesn't make it hurt any less but it takes my mind off the burn. I have to tell you though, the ride north out of Hudson was SWEET! We rode the Ho Chi Minh Trail with a tailwind. I was surprised that they had repaved the entire stretch of road from Hudson all the way to Shoitz Engineering. Whoa!

We stopped at the shop when we got back into town so that Bottke and Craig could see the new C' dale. I think that both were duly impressed. Very nice bicycle!

Ok, that's it for now.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!