the iowa city report. long version.

jingle cross did not disappoint.

it was yet again, an event of epic proportions. and this time it was a uci sanctioned race.
which meant a few things;

alot more heavy hitters,
alot less regular barriers,
and, fines would be in swiss francs.

all of the things would come into play before the weekend was over.

the big news of course, was that former national champion todd wells was going to be there, in addition to tour de france racing, (and almost stage winning), chris horner.
they would end up taking 1st and 2nd respectively on both days.


[uci mens podium; day one]

others in town for the men's uci event included doug swanson (mn state champ), tristian schouten (recent winner of a uci cx race in cali), marko lalonde(4th at chaummy), bjorn selander (former junior nation champ), steve tilford (old), adam bergman (fast), dewey (jingle cx 2006 35+ champ)... it was gonna be a spectacle.

we hit the town a bit friday night, but tim was on his best behavior. sarah was with for this trip. unfortunately, no bar fights ensued. and none of this.

saturday we were up early, and set out for the races. it was cold.
colder than it was in mn, it didn't seem fair.
the forcasted snow was not present either, i was kinda hoping for it. i figured i might have an advantage. oh well.

the rock one course was pretty similar to last years version, but being that it was now a big money uci event, it had only one set of barriers instead of the 4 sets on last years course.
they did throw in some logs as natural barriers. they looked very natural laying out in the middle of the field like that.

the first day featured the long grinding, endless climb up mount krumpit... followed by the extremely steep fast decent off it. neither side of this hill was friendly, it was lumpy, and clumpy, and bone-shaking.

on day two it would reverse, and we'd run up the steep side, and descend the long side.

most of course was pretty straight forward, only the sandpit, some bumpy off-camber, and some small, but tricky muddy ditches to really give anyone problems.


[wells lead horner thru the grinch's lair]

the rock one for me started well, but not a hard as i knew i could go.
not sure why, but i gave up some spots at the beginning that i knew i should have fought for.
my head was just not 100% in the game for that first lap.

i was maybe 15th into the first barriers, and settled in the line.

i gained some ground on the climb, but i'd lose it on the decent. it was too treacherous for me to just let go of the brakes until about half way down. this was the one thing i knew that i had to improve from last year.
i did better, but when i watched wells and those dudes... holy freeking crap.
there is a lot of room for improvement.

little guy and i kept yo-yoing, all race. he was having all kinds of chain issues, and i'd pass him fixing it, he'd catch up, i'd lead him out for awhile and send him on his way.
...only to see him on the side of the road fixing his chain again... repeat 4 times.

i finished the race in 24th place out of 115 starters. not bad.
...although better than last year, i knew i could have preformed better.

saturday night was the punk rock cycling jingle party, but it was elbow to elbow, so the grumpy's crew (12 deep!) had our own party across the street at some other bar. little guy was not too good at big buck hunter. caitlyn would be proud.


[little guy, too compassionate, or too poor a shot?]

tom came down to take in the spectacle, and graciously gave out some post race massage.
totally pro.

rock 2 would, like last year, prove to be a better course for me. the slightly less death-defying descent, and a long, long, hard, long, hard, long, run up where i was able to drop people every lap definitely worked in my favor.

i took the holeshot more seriously, and was sitting 5th wheel into the barrier.
fil lead it out, with the little guy in tow. that was rad.

i lost some spots on course, but i drilled the run up the first lap a dropped the group of 8 that i was with. finally formed at group of 3 with some dudes that i knew had finished well the day before. we were racing for 12-14th.

i was killing the paved sections as much as i could, and pushing it on the run, and i was able to drop them both for awhile. one managed to claw back. it was really a fun race.

in the end i finished 13th, and in the money. that was nice.

little guy was flying, and snagged 5th place. no chain trouble today!


[linda and maria, day 2]

jimmer has the most amazing thing i have seen in a bike race on video.
if you weren't there, you have no idea what this feat entailed.

jingle cross was a huge success yet again.

the icing on the cake was when the uci officials said noonan would get a 100 swiss franc fine for taking a beer hand up. (they ended up just giving a warning to lalla, the hander).