Monday

Surf City #2




We did SC #2 in my future hometown of Watsonville, typical fairgrounds
course with a new run up that was even harder then the last big run up, if
such a thing is possible. Andy and I did the old switch-a-roo for halloween,
got a few people to double look and scratch their heads for a few laps.

As for the race, a bit of working out went on and Barry was strong enough to
ride but not enough to dump me like last time, so I think we were both
waiting for the end when he'd try and smash me and I'd try and hang on for
dear life, and then outsprint him if I was still there at the end. But it
was not to be, as he broke his seatpost and so rode the last lap standing up
the whole way. Damn carbon parts. Andy was hanging tough but hit the wall
up the run the last time (and literally had to stop) so I cruised in
uncontested for the win. It certainly did not end up how I expected it to.

posted by Benjaminiac at Monday, October 30, 2006 4 comments  

Wednesday

Mountain Man



I just got this mountain bike and I've been hitting the trails every day

now, cranking the thing up climbs and blasting back down. I did a reunion

ride in santa cruz, went out to campus/grey whale/wilder ranch and did a

bunch of old loops I did in college, flying down hills I haven't done in

years and I had such a good time. I can't wait to get out tomorrow, I don't

even know where I'm going but I'm sure it's gonna be fun.



If anyone wants to hook up for MTB rides, you know where to find me...

posted by Benjaminiac at Wednesday, October 25, 2006 4 comments  

Sunday

Surf city #1



we raced in Santa Cruz this weekend at SC#1 in soquel. it was, as evidenced by the photo, a typical cali 'cross day, warm and sunny, a bit of sea breeze to keep you cool-ish. it was also dry and dusty, making the overall effect of the race be akin to jackhammering for an hour straight. hey, whatever it was a cool course and the Bella brigade (plus fellas) put on an awesome event with cookouts and a DJ throbbing beats all afternoon. fun was had, beer was drunk, bikes were raced. barry the crusher did his thing and put minutes into me as i went hard, but i also dropped my brother so i must have had a good day.i think BW lapped down to 7th place, a very impressive showing. anyone notice how much faster the dude's gotten since he moved to cali? i thought we were going to make him "soft" like the rest of us...

posted by Benjaminiac at Sunday, October 15, 2006 3 comments  

Saturday

Glue Austa

yes, it was day one of the new england world cyclocross championships, held in Gloucester, MA. always a great event, there were huge fields (thank god, or Paul, that i got a callup), big crowds and many motivated racers. i think there was everyone there, except JPage. plus it was so early this year it was a nice and pleasant day with a good ocean breeze and a warm sun in the sky.

there was typical mayhem for the first three laps.

then it broke down into a group, and i marked a few moves and otherwise sat on to wait for a sprint. Andy and Jesse were going hard, but they were not making a dent on the lead of the twin towers and TJ, and so a few mountain bikers sat around until two laps to go and then went nuts. Adam Craig goes way too fast through corners, so he went away from us and i outsprinted a canadian for 5th. no way i was getting 6th again...

okay, time to put the feet up and do it all over again tomorrow.

posted by Benjaminiac at Saturday, October 07, 2006 0 comments  

Friday

Bo-austin

i went in to boston yesterday, it's not all training out here and if it was 'd be going crazy by now. besides it was supposed to be an off day.

i took the train in, and ended up talking to two english gents who thought i was andy (big surprise) and had seen him race back it britain this summer. they were impresse with his ability, and thought even more of him when i said he'd been working all week. they were cool guys though and we passed the time quickly.


once in town i met up with my friend Bret and caught up a bit. lunch, a visit here and there, all in all a good day in the city. i haven't been in town since i visited Bret the last time, and that was the night the Sox won the world series. nothing like that action this week, but the tradeoff was it was a bit easier to get around.

and then i sat in traffic out to the Pedros warehouse where there was a SRAM function to eat pizza and Beer and talk about bike stuff. a few racers, a few mechanics, a few bigwigs, it was all good.

and now a long day of naps, baseball on TV and bike prep for the racing this weekend.

posted by Benjaminiac at Friday, October 06, 2006 0 comments  

Monday

Lon Guyland

i'm on the east coast in Mass., getting started with the CX season. i'm deep in the north shore mafia, surrounded by the big players, made men and wise guys of cyclocross. i'm staying with the Black's, a great family who are just around the corner from Bay Road Bikes, the alter ego of cyclocrossworld.com.

we all drove down to the Hamptons for the first UCi weekend of the season, three ferries took us deep into an alien land of money and leisure, what a strange world. it's like when i visit the deep south, it's hard to imagine that it's the same America we all live in, but in the opposite direction. S550 land yachts are industry standard and there are rolls royces in the wrecking yards. we stayed with Tiger, a big player who spun stories all weekend as we relaxed at the seaside estate. nice.

the racing was hard as is to be expected in the first races, just getting the body used to going that hard again takes a bit of time. plus, my running isn't up to par yet. it'll take time but the overall sensations were good and i was 6th both days. a bit of cash and UCi points will help for next weekend and a callup.

posted by Benjaminiac at Monday, October 02, 2006 4 comments