Is it spring yet?

We can still ski up here in Flagstaff, but early-season racing and riding can be found a little further south of here: racing in Phoenix has been entertaining, there aren't many pro women who race these so I've been racing expert men's singlespeed. It's really fun to race against a bunch of guys that I don't know, and to not know how I'm going to finish...but it's turned out pretty well.
I've been riding a bunch in Sedona, too. Lots of new trails popping up as well as some of the old standbys; it's only 40 minutes away but 3000 feet lower so it's nice even when it's freezing in Flag. Today I rode this trail called Hangover, called such because the first half the rocks are hanging over your head, and the second half you are hanging out over the cliff. A little spooky but a really well-built trail. Cures your hangover in a hurry, thats for sure.

Hi!

This is my blog RSVP. Okay, that's all.

cold as F

5-10 degrees today for 3.5hrs. thanks to cornbread for the pics. i'm the yellow shell on the blue beauty.

I Heart Fall

Fall in Arizona is not quite what you northwesterners are used to, but we still have the same things: fall leaves, crisp rides, and cyclocross. The only difference is that we do it in dry, dusty conditions instead of rain ;)











Cyclocross racing is sweet when there's no mud...










Even an off-road triathlon is fun when you go to Phoenix and race in warm sun in October
(even though I can barely swim I got 2nd place overall!)












Finally I got my Pro DH upgrade...Sean will you build me a downhill bike?

Cross Crusade #8

Cross Crusade #8 (the championship) proved fairly muddy. And when I say fairly muddy, I mean really ridiculously muddy.Like three-foot high mud puddles (or for all I know, they could have just been gigantic cow patties). And all I had to show for it was a bit of splattered mud. I suppose its the experience of actually getting muddy that counts.

Cross Crusade Cyclocross Racing

Well, I tried out Cyclocross for the first time. I went to the third Cross Crusade race at Mt. Rainier High School in Washington.The result was...A BLAST. Cyclocross is crazy fun (not as fun as sitting on your saddle for a 40-mile Sea Otter race, though.) It was dry and fast, which did no represent Northwest Cyclocross racing very well (the dry part at least), but little did I know, I would soon experience the mud. I then went to the Cyclocross Championships at the Washington County Fairgrounds, which was essentially an old rodeo arena complete with barns and cattle guards. I rode through one side of a barn, out the other, and next thing I know I am in three feet of mud. Well, let's just say my body was pretty muddy and cranky by the end of the day (complete with riding thirty minutes back to school from where my ride dropped me off). My Voodoo Wazoo was even less happy. Aside from being smeared and plastered with mud, the drive train sounded like it wanted to start spitting bolts and chain pins out at me. I think its time to hop on a Soulcraft Cyclocross frame (with some new parts, of course)... I am planning to do the next few local Cyclocross races through OBRA, even though the Cross Crusade series is over. I can't wait until next year! I hope I can start getting some pictures of my own, but for now the ones other people people are taking will get the job done (Just joking, they take pretty sweet pictures).

CXSR #2 - Youth Community Park: November 1st, 2008

In true Belgian spirit and weather conditions, the RedNeck and I represented Soulcraft at Bike Monkey's second cyclo-cross race out of the CXSR series that had us smiling the whole time as we suffered like kids out in swampy marshes. Just getting out there was showing commitment enough, but it turned out to be great fun riding through mud at pegged heart rates. It certainly did not start out that way as the only motivator for getting my ass out there to join RedNeck's unquestionable commitment was my wife's accusations of being a total whimp.

I'll let the RedNeck write about how our race unfolded whereas for me, simply trying to stay upright the whole time while all others raced past by me was competition enough.

Encouragement from the spectators including our very own Yuri was well received as we had witnesses to attest to our madness through the mud-slicken and poison-oak riddled trails.

Always humbling to get lapped but this race was all about survival of the machine and the rider. Below is what happens when getting egged on by spectators to, "Get in there, face first"!

Check out Veronika's pics.