New Belgium short track series #3(recap)

Coming into the final turn of the 1st lap.

  I was feeling very tired and lethargic last Tuesday, still trying to recover from moving apartments and the polo tournament a couple of days before so Ashton and I went and met up with Malcolm at Crankenstein for coffee prior to heading over to the brewery, we quickly finished our drinks and made our way to the track. I went to the registration table, signed in and then got a brief warm up before heading over to wait for the end of the beginner mens race.
  At the start line there were 61 riders, I had managed to once again get a good place in the field and by the end of the first lap I was sitting in second position. I stayed up front until the end of the second lap when my brake jammed and I quickly began to slide back as I fumbled with my barrel adjuster trying to release my rear brake. Although my brake was definitely dragging I feel that I rode well and finished 13th.

  After the race was over and I was able to catch my breath, I realized the cable housing for my rear brake had become hung on the top tube cable stop and I could have remedied the problem by thumping the cable housing one good hard time...oh well. Anyway, now that Ashton and I are good and settled into our new place I should be able to get around to posting a more detailed race report after this weeks final short track race at New Belgium.     

Inaugural Polo at the Pasture, Cheyenne,Wyoming

  A little while ago Todd and Liz asked if I would play a polo tourney with them, there had been a considerable amount of time pass since the last time I had played in a tournament...or even picked up a mallet period, so I said yes. Well, like all things that I am unprepared the day came way too soon and I was unable to get any real practice in, but I figured 'oh well, it's a 1-day tourney, it's all for fun'.
  Saturday evening Ashton and I went to a graduation party in Fort Collins for our friend Cindy, Liz volunteered to watch Orson for us while we went out, that way when we got home we could make our way up to Wyoming. Me and Ashton did not end up making it back home to Greeley until around 11pm, so Todd, Liz and myself decided that it would be best if we waited 'til morning to drive to Cheyenne, so I packed my gear and we all turned in for the night.  
  The next morning we woke up around 6am, I ate a quick breakfast and then we got on the road. Driving north out of Greeley highway 85 will take you directly to Cheyenne, about 20 minutes out of town the landscape begins to change pretty dramatically, leaving the high plains of north Colorado and entering a sea of rolling hills and a couple of windmill covered mesa. the court was in a park on the south side of the city and we found it in no time.    
  The guys up in Cheyenne put on one top notch tourney, we arrived just as breakfast was being served.We made out way to the breakfast table and had our fill of coffee and breakfast burritos before heading over to the registration table. Like I said before the organization of this tournament was top notch, games started right on time and before we knew it our team was on deck.
  Our first game was against a Denver team called Killdozer, it was a close game but the put us into the losers bracket beating us 5-3. Once in the lower bracket we began to play much better, and won our next three games. Todd and I have played on several teams together at a few different tournaments and we usually seem to do best when we take an early loss and then work our way up through the losers bracket..and it worked for us in Cheyenne too. We played some tough games and we worked well together as a team given that we have been playing polo together longer than most. Finally we worked ourselves up to a game for 3rd place, this game pitted us against Bike Kwan Do featuring Kelly J. from south Florida and Tall George from Colorado springs. 
  Before our game we talked over a little team strategy and I volunteered to stay back and play defense and let Todd and Liz play forward and mid where they could run some of their plays that they had been working on. First off, I love playing goalie, I think I have more fun blocking shots that I do trying to make them and my strength as a road rider on the court makes it easy for me to take breakaways from the goal line. But like every polo game positions are not permanent and I did end up playing up the court a few times. On one such occurrence Liz was playing goalie and Tall George ended up sneaking a slow (lucky) shot behind her back wheel. I got back in goal and blocked several of Georges shots in succession but with a minute and a half to go he finally got one by me. I took the ball and ran it up the court with Liz, both of us took several shots but neither of us made any of them and the clock ran out with the score2-0. This put us out of the tournament, but all in all I would say that we had a good day finishing 4th, 3wins-2 loses

Team photo with Liz's free bike. Thanks Cheyenne!

  Once again Cheyenne did an awesome job hosting, all throughout the day they raffled off bike gear and around noon they brought in a seemingly endless amount of pizza! After awards were given out they raffled a complete ss bike and a Fleetvelo Scrabler frame set, Liz won the bike and George won the fame set! Needles to say I had a blast and definitely plan on coming back  for the second edition of Cheyennes polo in the pasture.

New Belgium Short Track #2

(Sorry for the delayed race coverage, Ashton and I moved, very unexpectedly.) 

Another Tuesday and another short track race, couldn't ask for anything more.

Malcolm"drag" racin'

I started my pre-race with a stop at Roma for a large order of lasagna and several liters of water. After lunch I headed over to pick  up Malcolm, I arrived as he was finishing up his costume for the race, we ate some homemade brownies and headed over to Fort Collins. We arrived at New Belgium as the women's race was about half way through, so I headed over to the Lee's Cyclery tent to get changed and ready to go.
  The ladies race ended and the beginner mens race rolled to the line, after the beginner field was was a good 60 seconds out on the course I got the o.k. from the organizer and headed out onto the track to get warmed up. The course was the exact same as the week before, except run in reverse and the one muddy section was now dry. I got about three warm up  laps in before I headed back to the Lee's tent to get a fresh bottle, down a gel and get ready for my race. As I made my way to the que for my race I was starting to feel a little nervous about the next half hour, at registration I put the roster at 33 riders and it looked as though more had come since then. As we took our places at the start line the organizer informed us that we were the largest field of the day with a total of 55 people...yeah, biggest field I've ever raced in at a mtb event.
  With the course being run in reverse, from the start it took an almost immediate left turn and headed into as set of steep off camber switchbacks. I took a good position on the start line and jumped onto third wheel as the lap started. Coming to the top of the second switch I slid out taking the turn, quickly jumping back onto my bike I was able to keep my position and kept hammering. About a minute or two into the race I noticed that I forgot to start my Garmin at the beginning of the race so I have no technical data or any nerdy stuff like that for this report...sorry. Near the half way point of lap#1 two riders came around hauling ass, I didn't react fast enough and in no time they were a gone, not chasing put me back to about 5th position, shortly after I wiped out coming through a very loose and gravely gravely corner, I stayed calm and got back on my bike but this crash allowed a couple other riders to make it around. During the next three laps I held a good pace but was still passed by a several more riders, I kept calm, held my tempo and finished 15th. After my race I got a chair massage and had a few beers, I watched the end of the single speed/open race,  went and picked up Ashton, then head to old town burgers with Malcolm and Chris and Mandy from Lee's.
  
   

New Belgium Short Track Series May 8th race # 1

  I'm going to start this one off by stating that since moving to Greeley I have not ridden a mountain bike... That being said after discussing a couple upcoming events with my friend Malcolm I decided to do a short track mtb race on the back portion of New Belgium Brewery's property. Tuesday afternoon I(very begrudgingly) put sealant tubes tubes in my mtb...yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I need to get Stans, but oh well. Anyway, Ashton and I loaded up the car, picked up Malcolm and headed to Fort Collins.
  By the time we arrived races were already well under way, so we quickly got to registration and then watched the end of the high school race. The organizers of the race were really on there 'A' game, races were starting and finishing right on schedule, the high schoolers finished and the beginner mens race rolled up to the start line. Ashton and I watched the start of the cat3(beginners) race and then I headed off to the car to put on my kit and get warmed up. I got in a decent warm up and headed to the start line, stopping on the way to say hi to my friends on the 400 Smith team. I got to the side of the start line where my race was in que only to realize I was about to go up against a very large field(for a mtb race) and so I worked my way up as close to the front as possible. The organizer called us out onto course to take our place at the start and I was able to move up several more positions during the shuffle to be in a decent starting spot. The organizer went over a few specifics of the race and then sent us off.
  The Course: 1.3mi.
This track was a lot of fun, It was mostly single track with three gravel jeep tracks(good for passing, or being passed), a couple sections of off camber switchbacks that made a loop with a large mound in the middle which the course climbed repeatedly before coming around to the start/finish.
http://connect.garmin.com/course/1195702
  Lap1: 6:40:00
The first lap was wicked fast but I managed to move my way up to fifth wheel and hold it for the remainder of the lap. Not getting there early proved to make the beginning of the race interesting for me, with no pre-ride I was a little sketchy on a couple of the the smaller more technical sections.
  Lap 2: 6:55:00
Coming around to the start of the second lap I was feeling good but was finding it a bit hard to breathe, the air was crisp and dry and for the most part the track was extremely dusty. About half way through the lap, approaching a small climb I realized that I was still in my big ring from the initial acceleration of the start, I decided it would be best to start spinning a higher cadence and shifted down. Coming through a couple of slick switches a rider in front of me slid out and I had to all but come to a stop to keep from going down as well, during this brief delay a couple of riders made it around me and I began chasing.
  Lap 3: 7:14:00
The third lap I really started feeling it, I decided to back off a bit and try to recover a little, focusing more on cornering and handling and less pushing a hard tempo. This allowed me to catch my breath a bit, but it also meant that a few more riders passed me during that time.
  Lap 4: 7:05:00
Going into the forth lap I knew recovery time was over and went right back to hammering. I kept the pace up the whole lap, no one passed me...but I didn't pass anyone either. I came around through the last corner and finished strong.
  After the race I found  Ashton, caught my breath and we headed to the beer garden for New Belgium tall-boys, we watched a bit of the expert race, said goodbye tour friends and headed out for dinner. The organizers were very quick to have results posted but because they didn't have the timing system up and running yet only the top group of riders were scored, but from my guesstimation and reports from both Ashton and Malcolm I finished somewhere between 12th & 15th in a field of roughly 30. I had a lot of fun and plan on doing the rest of the series so keep posted for more stories from New Belgium.