Boulder Cup

The Boulder Cup was supposed to be at some school, but it got moved to the Boulder Reservoir because of the 2 feet of snow that Boulder got last Wednesday. Two feet of snow plus Friday being 50 degrees, Saturday being 50, and Sunday 70 = super muddy course, right? Wrong. I put an easier gear for the SS expecting mud, but the course had NO mud. I lost track of time, arrived at the start super later, crawled through the junior field to get to the SS field, and lined up last. Luckily everyone went one way and I was able to sneak around the outside to get second wheel.

On the second lap I took a corner too hot, laid the bike down, lost a couple of places, but was able to get back to second place by the end. 99.99% percent sure I was second. The guy that won was standing right after the finish line and confirmed I got second SS. Cool. We sat around for a while waiting for either podium announcements or for results to be posted, but nothing was happening and everyone was hungry so we left to go get some food. We came back about a hour later, checked results, and saw that I was listed as fifth. A guy with the last name MorriseY was listed as second. Truth be told, I wasn't too worried about it and didn't want to deal with trying to get it fixed. I didn't know the names of anyone who I finished around, podium and prizes were already done, and there was no way I was going to be able to find the guy that finished third who I battled with for most of the race.

Watching the UCI race was awesome. We had a most rowdy-ious group with a sand corner to our own.

A few pictures:

Thank you Deidre for: Driving me, mixing my bottles, cleaning up after me, driving to feed me and generally being there to listen to me whine.

CUCycling homie Brady killing it

CUCycling homie Chris Hurst also killed it.

Bryce

Bike Racing is Cool

Wake up. Pack backpack. Leave for the Boulder Res on 'cross bike. Get caught in snowstorm. Freeze. Get to race venue 45 minutes later. Sit in heated bathroom for half an hour. Register. Bathroom for another fifteen minutes. Go find Chris. Sit in Chris's car with the heat blasting for an hour and a half. Start race. A third of the course is on the beach. Lots of running. Leg warmers falling down = super annoying. Winning SS! Flat. Yell for Chris to get a wheel. Get a wheel. Lose 4 places. Get 2 back. Blow up super bad chasing. Finish. Sit in car. Chipotle. Shower. Bed.

Yes!

Bicycle Governing Bodies-1 Sam-0

"So tell me Sam, what's up?"

Today, I had to buy another license to race my bike. "Any one day ACA [not Pgh ACA, the OTHER ACA they always talk about] license holders are required to line up in the back of the start" Awesome. I was grumps.


"What's even better?"

It's not USAC, so no 'cross races here (since everything is ACA) will count towards an upgrade for USAC. Awesome.

"What's even better than that?"

They asked me what category USAC I was (to convert over to their system), so I just sent my whole license in, letting them figure out where they should put me. Apparently I'm a two in their system, even though I'm a 3 on my real license.

"But Sam, I know you're the whiniest person ever, but this is like a free upgrade! What gives?"

Boulder 'cross is coming up. I was really looking forward to getting beat bad. Exciting right? Wait, it's not USAC, it's ACA/UCI. There is no place for 1/2 ACA licensed riders to go except UCI, and I'm not buying an UCI license for two races. In addition, I'm not 35 or older, so there goes the masters' races. I guess I'm pulling my cables out and going SS.

"Sam, maybe you should just break your bank for an UCI license"
No.

Finding a USAC Mtn race near Pittsburgh = Super hard
Finding a USAC 'cross race near Pittsburgh = Super easy
Finding a USAC Mtn race near Boulder = Super Easy
Finding a USAC 'cross race near Boulder = Super hard

Huh?

Ouch

Missing some parts

Yeah

I missed a few weeks of posting. It's ok.

I raced my bike a whole bunch. Did pretty good. Had a really good time. Short track is basically zero fun. Cross country is really fun. Collegiate racing is fun.

Time for 'cross.

Last year at this time...

... I was smack dab in the middle of 24 hours of 7 springs. Amazing memories. I know the race is next weekend, but the calendar says otherwise.

My campus bike is a bike I threw together a couple days before I left. Fixie, flat pedals, front brake. I was riding to class laying on the brake trying to avoid eating peds and skateboarders (although I know I would win that), and it explodes. No more brake.

Fast Forward a couple hours later. Morgan Miller and I are on the way to a get-together of sorts. Campus is kind of on a hill, so to get anywhere you pretty much have to go down this hill. I pretty much can't stop, so I'm crawling along working super hard to not die, and I look up and there's a kid with a Trek Livestrong kit and like 1o feet taller than me. Taylor Phinney! No more slowing down work being done as I'm pretty much starstruck and by the time I realized this I was like a runaway train.

Today on the ride I was following a fast kid down a hill, and we came around a turn and there were a couple of dogs running loose. I was able to avoid them, but a dog went right in front of him and he went over pretty hard. Dog was alright, but he has a broken Madone and an ambulance ride to remember it by. I think he'll be ok, but best wishes to him. Kind of scary. Some mountain man jumped out of his pickup and got the emergency response team. Another kid and I went up to the corner above to warn motorists, and almost got taken out by the emergency response team vehicle- driven by a true mountain man. He had one of those gray beards like santa except not so well groomed and wild hair. He proclaimed that he doesn't do medical stuff, like "sticking needles everywhere. We don't do that. We just make sure you ain't dyin". I liked him.

I'm coming home for Thanksgiving. Going to try and get the Lake Effect race in the Sunday before T-day and, of course, the Dirty Dozen. Hopefully Steevo decides to retire and not contest.

Not Pittsburgh

New town, new way of life, new people.

I like people. I don't like names. Apparently no one does.

I've met hundreds of people, and exchanged names with everyone. I remember like 3.

My roommate had a friend over, and we exchanged names. A couple minutes later someone brought up the name thing, and we both didn't remember each other's names. Nice.

Riding is pretty cool. The altitude is seemingly getting better on the lungs-ies. Maybe I just forget what it's like to have lots of air. Morgan and I have been doing a good job of getting lost in Boulder, but it's getting better.