State RR Championships....

The Iowa State Road Racing Championships took place in West Branch on Saturday....
Not your typical racing bike....

Pete Basso on the front of the 3s....

The 4s at the finish line....

Jackal rolls across the finish line....

A little post-race chit chat....

Pro 1/2/3 at the end of lap 2....

Jake says "Hey!"

The Queen of Cross in her coach....

West Branch, Iowa is more famous for being the birthplace of President Herbert Hoover than for it's bicycle racing. That all changed this weekend with the State Road Racing Championships being held there. It was a sunny day (I managed to get burned again....) with temps in the mid 80's and a bit of a breeze. A great day for racing!

With most of the Bike Tech crew out in Colorado preparing for The Leadville 100, Landon Beachy and Richard Gilmore, both Masters racers, were the only ones wearing the red and white. 3 laps at 27 miles each in the heat and the hills. Brootal. Some would call them big long rollers, with the exception of the climbs out of the Cedar River valley. (Two times per lap.) Brootal.

Jackal punctured at about 18 miles on the first of 2 laps that the 4s had to race. He was on the front when it happened and it took some time to get the wheel truck up to him and get the tire changed. He was left to chase solo and wasn't able to get back on. He kept pedaling and passing those who had been dropped and still finished, though back a bit. Good on ya for keeping at it! He was having the race he had hoped and trained for and was feeling good, right up to the time he flatted. Bummer. It happens and he seemed to accept it just fine.

Jackal and I went for a little spin down to Hudson this morning. The wind was out of the south and east and south south east at somewhere between 15 and 30 mph. It couldn't make up it's mind which way it wanted to blow or how fast. It was a good ride though.

I took The Queen of Cross for 15 miler through the parks after lunch. Pulled the Burley with the Surly. It was great! We rode around Big Woods Lake then stopped at the shelter and watched the sailboats for awhile. She really liked that a lot! We then headed into Cedar Falls and did a little xc on the way to the Little Red Schoolhouse. She was laughing and yelling and carrying on. We stopped at the little park there just as a train was coming by. She went out and waved at the engineer and he waved back so that made her happy too. We rolled along the river and under the bridge. When we started cimbing the dike I had to get out of the saddle to make it to the top and she yelled "go-go-go" to keep me moving. Same thing when we climbed over the dike by the golf course. She's a hoot! No, we didn't do Lookout Park hill. No, no, no....

Anyway, that was my weekend. It was good.

Next Sunday night I'll be staying in Cedar Rapids to catch a commercial flight to Orlando at 5:50 on Monday morning. 10 days in Florida for work. Florida in August sucks. If you've never been there that time of the year you haven't experienced brootal hot weather. Yukk..... Oh well.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!