Big Tex

First racing blog from the great state of Texas.  We've been here three months now and everything is going well. It's awesome. Jenny and Tyler are digging Texas. I'm digging it. So let's get the bike racing on, right?!

It's been slow getting some training going.  I crashed my mountain bike real hard and that set me back a little. It was dumb. I was having fun ripping this awesome local trail and not thinking about how I didn't know shit about this trail, about what was coming next. All healed now.  Back at it.

Northshore Trail

Road riding is huge here and I've jumped on some great rides.  One of the regular fast riders introduced me to a guy named Bobby.  "Joe this is Bobby.  You'll want to know Bobby if you're racing cross in North Texas."  Bobby is a 40+ masters guy with a long black beard.  He has an easy Texas drawl like maybe he's been here all his life.  We talked about the cross scene, the training options, what cross racing is like in the east.  He's a cool dude, super modest. And fast. Turns out Bobby is ridiculous fast. Bobby rode away with the lead groups and landed on the masters podium both days this weekend. And then jumped in the Open 1/2/3 race just for kick and pulled off top tens. I'll be paying attention to Bobby.

Bobby is Texas Cross.

So on with the racing.  Wednesday was the season opener of the Wednesday Night CX under the lights in Irving.  Very cool setup but I was sidelined early.  I have mild asthma "attacks" sometimes - usually exercise induced - and on Wednesday I forgot my inhaler.  So after the 20 minute short track event I was shattered and wheezing and had to bail on the 40 minute main event.  I will report on WNCX in a few weeks after I try again.  I had forgotten what a shock to the system CX racing is.  Damn I miss those DCCoD and Reuther practices!

On Saturday I showed up for the season opener - a double race weekend for the North Texas Cyclocross Series (NTXCX) - "Day 1 & 2: The Return of Levee Cross".  It was at the same venue as the Wednesday Night CX - Sam Houston Trail Park. The course was rad. The old MAC and PACX crew would approve. The promoter seems to give a shit and knows how to lay out a course. The race was really well done from registration to music, announcing and the whole thing. Attendance was more PACX than MAC size but not bad. The masters field was a little light, I think 15 on Day one and maybe 22 or 25 on the second.  The B race had 40-50 and the C race even more...so typical stuff we see in the east, guys don't want to move up.  But a good turn out and plenty of fast guys and girls.

While I was warming up on Saturday morning I saw Paul Bonds.  I did a double take.  Paul is from Oklahoma - just a couple hours north of Dallas - and he travels around racing some of the well attended Masters CX races.  I met Paul in 2014 at Nittany. Paul and Nick slugged it out that year in 2014. Paul won one of the Nittany races and Nick won the other. I talked too Nick and Paul after that race in 2014 and the guy was super nice. Just liked to race and talk racing. Paul didn't remember me but we talked about racing and he asked about Nick and Jenn and the Sears family and the whole thing settled me right down and I felt at home. Plus I was racing in the same race as Paul so I figured no pressure, Paul is going to be like a lion playing with his food in this little field. The following year at the 2015 Nittany race I remember being somewhere halfway across the course and hearing the announcer call Paul's name during podiums, "And your winner of the 35+ field....Big Tex....Paul Bonds!"

Big Tex

For the Satruday race I felt good and raced well with the legs I had.  My lap times trailed off more than I would have liked near the end but hey, I showed up to my first race in Texas and pulled off a solid 4th place with some pretty fast guys. Okay, so third place was two and half minutes ahead of me but I was the leader of the mid-pack masters racers on Saturday and I was super stoked with that result. Paul Bonds won and my new friend Bobby was on the third step. The dude is fast. Gotta watch him. If I can get in that zip code by end of season then I'll be getting somewhere.

I picked up a matching Boone for a B bike.
So pro.  Love these bikes!

On Sunday a deeper field showed up. Paul was not there but a few other roadie/ringer types showed up that weren't there on Saturday. I could tell from the chatter who had what. It was a stronger field overall. Sunday was also cool because they did call-ups based on first day results and since two of the top four didn't show up I was second on the call-up.  "Okay, first....Bobby, get up here."  (Mild chatter from the field, "yeah Bobby", "nice ride yesterday Bobby").  "And second...uh...Joe...uh Both-well?  Is there a Joe?"

Love it.  Just like first day of school.

I had a decent start and for a half a lap I thought maybe 4th position might be my spot again but near the end of the first lap I was coming detached from the lead three and feeling some heat on my wheel. I'm no dummy, let 'em go and jump on the wheel if you can. That worked for a while but then I was getting detached from 4th.  More noise from behind, too much gap to 4th, let him go and get on the wheel.  Again that worked for awhile but by the middle of the second lap I was gapped alone in 6th place. 7th place caught me and went by and we had a solid race for a couple laps before he seemed to blow up. I went by and built a 20 second gap over the next couple laps and that would hold to the end. 6th place. So again I raced well with the legs I had. I was pretty happy with the weekend. Might just be a fun season in Big Tex!

The Force Awakens

With CX Nats out of the picture I took two and a half weeks off the bike after the last cross race. I could have gone for more rest but some good rides were shaping up for New Years Day and beyond. Nice chill rides. Well, not all chill. On Friday I jumped on the Amnesty/Memorial ride that Wiser posted up. My body was still totally shut down in full rest mode so I had to really force myself to get up and get out the door. I'm really glad I made it - lots of good people on the ride. I told Chappy this was the first social pace ride I had been on in almost a year. Chap said, "It feels good, right?" Yep. It sure did.

Amnesty/Dan Ryan Memorial Ride on New Years Day. 57 strong! Thanks to Mark Wise for posting up the invite on this one!

Dave and Chappy on the Memorial Ride. Always good to ride with these guys.

Glenn Turner posted up a mountain bike ride for Saturday. I was planning to resume my intensive resting program but the ride the day before had stirred something in me...I sensed a disturbance in the lazy. I added a few others to Glenn's invite and it was on. We kind of high jacked Glenn's ride and the pace was a lot tougher than I was thinking about when I loaded up the single speed that morning. I won't name any names but the initials for the instigators were Buddy, Jay and Ryan. I'm kidding of course...it was one of those really memorable super fun rides.

Awesome crew! Contrary to popular reports the trails were fine. A little slick here and there but mostly great and mild temps. Left to right: Buddy, Paul, Matt, Ryan, Mark, Jay, Rebecca, Glenn, Bob and Dennis. Thanks to Glenn for throwing out the invite!

Jay let me know about a mid-day Fair Hill ride with the Chuckster on Sunday. The disturbance in the lazy dark side was getting stronger...the force was awakening. I was totally stoked for this ride. Chuck was tinkering with a tripod-foot-down rear-wheel-power-slide-through-fast-corners thing. The leafy trails made it pretty sketchy.
Chuck said, "You know like Sagan does."
"Wait, on a road bike?" Jay said skeptically.
I was just enjoying the show. It was like the Evel Knievel documentary I watched the night before. Like something bad was about to happen sooner or later. Except Chuck is a really nice guy. Evel is a douche.

Jay didn't get the memo about the sexy gray beard stubble look.

At one point we ran up on a couple guys with a mechanical. One of them had broken his derailleur hanger. They were about as far from their parking lot as you could get and had no tools. Jay, Chuck and I took over and converted the bike to a single speed in about 5 minutes. There was something really amusing yet really efficient about the three of us working together. I hope our handy work got them back. I have a feeling it did.

Glove in my teeth. Wrong gear. Steep hill. One hand. Yeah...that picture.

I posted up on Facebook earlier in the week about Tyler and I going to see The Force Awakens. We had watched all six of the Prologue and original movies in story-chronology order during the Christmas break.  I'm not a serious Star Wars fan but the original 1977 Star Wars is a great movie and The Empire Strikes Back almost as good and Return of the Jedi pretty good except for that Ewok thing. But I was not a fan of the Prologue Trilogy. Anyway, no spoilers here...the Force Awakens is a really great movie. Well done in almost every way. It's the movie the last three should have been.

Finally, after a week of watching all the Star Wars movies...the main attraction!

If you ever get sick of your bike, take a break. Rest up. Leave the bike hanging in the garage all disheveled and dirty with a flat tire from the last cross race of the year. When you're rested and ready...the force will awaken and you will love your bike again. Peace all!