Greenville Cross In the Park #1

Been a somewhat busy cross season here in WNC. We had the Wednesday night training series, and the new Asheville Cyclocross series to keep me busy, as well as the MSG series just over the border to the North in Tennessee. This past weekend was the first race in Greenville of the new Cross In The Park series in Cleveland Park. My kind of course...mix of singletrack and high speed tech stuff with minimal all out power sections. I-9 Drew and Eric from Liberty Bicycles made the trip as well and seeing as how I have raced them a few other times this year I knew it would be tough. Drew was coming off 3 straight wins and Eric is quick Cat 2 that crushed me a few weeks ago at the Pisgah Brewery race. My goal was to get a good start, and then hang on. Little did i know that i would be attacking on the last lap and taking my first win ever.


Start of our race. Only 8 of us, and that quickly whittled down to me, I-9 Drew, Liberty Eric, and 16 year old Charlie Hough.



Coming through a fun little hump on the first lap


Liberty Eric leading us through the singletrack. It was a gradual climb followed by a really fast, fun down hill section (black framed pics courtesy of Brado who was out shooting the race)






Coming through the finish. Note my wife KB wildly clanging her cowbell on stage right! Rode strong and smart but had to use up some luck points...i noticed my rear tire start to steadily lose air about halfway through the race. By the end of the last lap it was rolling all over the place. Afterwards while we sat around and chatted, it gave up and with a little hiss it went completely flat.

Tuesday lunch ride

Just a few shots from the lunch ride today over to Terry's Gap and through the hills surrounding work. Also, I ran over a squirrel.

Random Footage

The start of Day 2 of Charm City. I roll up in the back...

Frisco CX Report

Frisco, the wonderful land of altitude sits at out 9,000ish feet. So thin air would been an issue. I was there most of the day representing The Pros Closet so I had pretty much the whole day to acclimate myself. It was a beautiful day, mid 70s slightly overcast, hardly Colorado at altitude in October.

The race was put on at the Frisco Nordic Center and they added to the coolness fact by using old ski poles as all and I mean ALL the course markers.Plenty of time to relax before my 4oclock start time.

The course was a mix of long paved climbs, mulch covers single track, gravel/sand pits and some pretty gnarly loose rocky down/up hills.

So... some how or another I managed to crash pretty well going through the series of 5 small telephone pole sized barrier half way through the first lap while I was sitting about 8th. My bike found its way in the center of the course while I was outside the course tape, wtf?! So after the majority of the field had passed I was able to get my bike and continue on. Shit! Chain's off! and I mean off, not even touching my crank, just hanging by the derailleur. It took me a second to get it back on. Once I was up and going I was sitting dead last with probably a minute to the next guy and seeing the SS class rounding the corners behind me. Once I got going I knew I was in for a rough day.

Amazingly the legs answered my call. I was making up ground and doing it fast! I had guys trying to hang onto my wheel on the long paved up hill. After crushing it for about 40 minutes I had clawed my way back to 15th. In my opinion I think I can call that a successful race, the legs and lungs felt good, I was railing turns and clipping back in first attempt. The only thing I could think was, If only...

Now I'm not quite sure what clicked, I can only hope that it will click again.

USGP this weekend in Ft.Collins!

Mills River

Josh and I headed over to North Mills River last Thursday to photograph Stage 3 of the Pisgah Stage Race, which covered Spencer Branch and Gap, Fletcher Creek, Trace Ridge, and Bear Branch. There was a pretty good showing of some baller pros and locals, which made for an exciting couple of hours in the woods. We set up on an exposed rock face section of Lower Trace and I can only be blamed for causing one wreck the entire day (sorry!! You're supposed to look at the trail while racing, not the photographer!). After shooting Josh had to be a good house husband and run some errands so I did a short solo loop up FS 5000 and Spencer Branch and "down" Trace. I use "down" loosely, bc although it's considered a downhill there is prob more climbing on it than on the while Tsali loop that I rode earlier last week. And as it was a Thursday, of course it was followed up by Papas & Beer.

















Post From My iPhone

Tsali

I love Tsali. I don't care that I live in Asheville and I'm supposed to love Pisgah with it's technical bullshit and gnarly downhills - I don't. I love Tsali with it's minimal climbing and gradual downhills. We actually never come out to Tsali except for the once a year that we race 12 hrs of Tsali in the spring, but I happen to be staying in Cullowhee this week for a workshop and it's 45 mins to Tsali from here, which is 45 mins closer than going from Asheville. So yesterday during my early afternoon 3 hour reflection period, I raced on over to ride Thomson loop for 7 miles and headed back. It was a perfect day and was a super fun, low key ride by myself. Only stopped for a few cheesy/scenic/fall pics, but thought I'd do a quick post since Kyle keeps yelling at everyone to post more.

Kisses,
KB



-- Post From My iPhone

Xilinx CX

Boulder Racing Cross race @ Xilinx went off pretty much exactly how last weeks race went. I had a good start, this time trying to hold back a bit so I wouldn't blow up like I did the week previous.
Unfortunately my plan did not go to... well plan. I once again kept moving back, finding my legs just couldn't answer my commands. My back was completely wasted by lap two, which after thinking about it means I should probably not be riding a -10 Thomson Elite stem. Yea I know, duh! I'm switching it up this week.

On a more lighter note:
Team Pegasus spotting in the women's 4s. What?!

Also many of you may have read Kenny's stories from Charm City. He told of drug laced Twizzlers hand ups.
Well here on the Front Range, we do Bacon! Bacon, Whiskey, Beer and Cross, That's what Boulder does!!
To quote the man in charge of said hand ups,
"Gluten free, dairy free, meat free bacon!"
For those of you that know what Boulderites are like, you understand the humor here.

So now I'm debating taking this weekend off, reassessing what the F may be going on with my cross legs. Stay tuned.

Eric vs Bent Creek

On a spirited closure to the Thursday night social ride, Eric dropped joshie and shortly after a rhododendron dropped Eric. 13 stitches - 7 in his upper lip, 6 on his chin.











-- Post From My iPhone

CX Race Report #1 Valmont

The course at Valmont Bike Park is like no other cross course you could think of. It has a mix of dirt road, single track, berm filled downhills,

a monster sand pit,the Belgian Stairs, and the leg killing 5280 run up.As for my race, lets just say things just did not go as planned. My start was great, settling into 4th after the first half lap going into the 5280. I thought all was good, just sit in hang with the boys at the front, try and make a move if someone bobbled or I could tell they were suffering. That strategy quickly went out the window. I was the one who kept making mistakes and paying for them. Although I had ridden the sand pit every time during warm ups I couldn't make it cleanly across and it cost me a good 2-3 spots each time. About half way in I hit the wall, BIG TIME. The legs locked up and said, "sorry sucka we're out this piece!" and I kept falling back. I ended the day in 17th. Not at all where I had hoped to be. Hopefully I'm blaming it on the 1st race jitters. Lets hope I'm right.

This weekend race will be a Xilinx, a course that if I remember correctly should be less of the up down style at Valmont. Hopefully my form will show its reluctant fat ass face.

A Piece of Hoff History

Who wants a piece of Hoffenchard history? After a summer of debate and riding in the CO Rockies. I have decided its finally time for the leap to a geared mtb bike. Parting ways with this gem will be no easy feat. Its been ridden to the historic 12hr of Tsali Hoff podium sweep, passed down to me from the "godfather" of Hoff and much like all my bikes become an extension of me...ha! If anyone is interested shoot me an email @ teamhoffenchard@gmail.com

In other news, today is the first ever cross race at
I'm pretty pumped that cross is finally getting underway.