KindHuman Sports Cycling

Welcome to Houston Kindhuman!

2011-12-28T17:32:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Justin Borden for introducing us to KindHuman! We thought you'd like to know a bit more about us because nobody visits Houston...ever...

Justin Borden
Race Age: 40 (editor's note: Justin is the first person we've encountered who lists his older race age...he is proud to be 40)
USCF: Cat 3
Hometown: Denver, CO
Current: Houston, TX
Profession: Oil (pronounced Earl) Bizness

I have never seen E.T. I started racing in 2009. I shave my legs daily. I like the smell of embrocation. I think the full windsor is the only acceptable way to wear a tie.

Anna Felton
Age: 30
USCF: Cat 4 (road), Cat 3 (cyclocross)
Hometown: Wenham, MA
Current: Houston, TX
Profession: Geologist

Anna learned about cyclocross through riding too much the past summer and trying every crit race available in Houston. Cyclocross sounded a lot more exciting, and seemed like a good bike investment. Her dad gave her a road bike for her 21st birthday and that bike still is the best gift she has ever received!

Anna had very low goals for the texas cyclocross season, only race in Houston, stay on her bike and don’t get injured! With some initial success this season, Anna entered the state cup races with a lot of excitement. She decided to race the 3-4 and the women’s open race for the state champion. Anna won the cat 3 race and placed 3rd in the women’s open! Thanks to friends and fellow kindhuman racers!

Anna’s goals for the upcoming road season are to have fun and learn how to race on a team! She also plans on baking lots of cookies to bribe people to ride with if there are no donuts nearby!

Career Highlights
1st (2011) Terra X Cyclocross Race (Texas Age Based Championship 19-34) (The Woodlands, TX)
1st (2011) Bikesport Cyclocross Challenge- TX State Skill Based Championship 3/4 (Houston, TX)
3rd (2011) Bikesport Cyclocross Challenge- TX State Skill Based Championship women's open (Houston, TX)
1st (2011) Sugarcross (Sugarland, TX)
1st (2011) Cyclehaus Tough Cross (Fredericksburg, TX)
2nd (2011) America's Choice Home Loans Criterium (Houston, TX)

Mandi Hall
Age: 33
USCF: Cat 2 (Road)
Current City: Gainesville, FL
Profession: Research Assistant, University of Florida, Doctoral Student

Mandi Hall started cycling in 2001. She joined Team Florida, University of Florida cycling team, while obtaining her master’s degree. At UF, Mandi competed in multiple national collegiate cycling championship events for road, track, and mountain biking. Mandi was a member of the Trigators at UF, triathlon team, where she competed in two Ironman events and collegiate triathlon nationals. After graduation, Mandi continued to race and competed in Fitchburg Longsjo Classic stage race with top time trial, road race, and GC finishes. She also competed in Redlands Bicycle Classic stage race. Additionally, Mandi is an avid adventure racer and placed second in the 2005 US Adventure Racing Association National Championships.

Mandi loves cycling. She has been fortunate to race on phenomenal teams who together successfully won many races and conference championships. She is a team player and enjoys racing with others who share her passion. She seeks to race hard, have fun, and spread the love of cycling. :)

Natalie Kurz
Age: 30
USCF: New
Hometown: Katy, TX. Though Katy is now part of the Houston metro, she unfortunately does not count as a "Houstonian"
Current: Houston, TX
Profession: Lawyer

Natalie has been known to travel far across the great state of Texas, completing epic rides with beautiful scenery...for donuts. Her training mileage has increased greatly in 2011 due to the influence of teammates from the northeast who will bike great distances to one of Houston's few Dunkin Donuts. Because the Houston crew has realized that training may be compromised by integrating donuts and cookies into our rides, Natalie's greatest challenge in 2012 looks to be identifying a new source of motivation that enables her to log miles and also fit into her bibs.

She is expected to take the Cat 4 scene by storm this year and will have great success in the KindHuman kit. We promise to teach her not to not get chain grease all over her calves and shorts...

Career Highlights
Natalie has won a few MTB races (by margins of 18 minutes or so), but was a sandbagger and didn't buy a USCF license until we made her start racing cross.

Christy Lan
Age: 31
USCF: Beginner all the way around. This is Christy's first season racing on the road, but don't make any mistakes, this is not her first season on a bike.
Hometown: Louisville, Ky
Profession: Engineer

Christy started biking like most young girls, with her dad chasing her down the drive way and a huge smile on her face. The thrill of biking subsided as other sports took over in middle and high school, but was revived after college when Christy was introduced triathlons.

Christy became an accomplished triathlete within her first three seasons, winning several sprint distance triathlons, several half ironmans, representing the USA at the Long Course World Championships in Australia, and qualifying for Ironman World Championships in her first Ironman by placing third in her age group. Christy has become know as much for her never failing smile as for her speed on the course. Because her strength was running, Christy decided that she needed to focus her efforts on the bike in 2011 which proved to be an inspired choice. A new love for the bike formed along with some new friendships.

After several season competing in three disciplines at the same time, Christy decided that she needed a new challenge....and thus begins her career as a cyclist. Christy competed in her first cyclocross race this past December and is ready for more. Although there aren't many pure bike accomplishments to speak of this far, this girl is ready for the thrill of the race!

Her goals for the year are focused on leaning the ins and outs of road racing and cultivating the love of cycling in other woman.

Career Highlights
1st place AG Lone Star Half Ironman
1st place AG Oil Man Half Ironman
1st place AG Cajun Man Triathlon
Team USA Long Course World Championships
3rd place AG Ironman Louisville
Ironman World Championships, Kona Hi

Cycling...Hey, give me a year and I will get back to you :)

Kelsey McArthur
USCF: Cat 4 (road)
Hometown: El Paso, TX
Current: Houston, TX
Profession: Geologist

Kelsey loves long rides in the sunshine. She is contemplating retiring early and moving to Tucson. Until then, she enjoys long rides around Houston when the temperatures are moderate or hot. She is still hesitant to jump into racing with the rest of us, but enjoys cookies and is easily convinced to join any ride.

She has completed a few Olympic distance triathlons, but considers herself a cyclist; don’t get her confused with multi-sport enthusiasts!

Kelsey just needs a little push to enter a road race!

Annie Radecki
Age: 31
USCF: Cat 2 (road), Cat 3 (cyclocross)…and total beginner (MTB) once I get a bike.
Hometown: Newtown, CT
Current: Houston, TX
Profession: Real estate market researcher

Annie got her start in cycling at age 2 by sitting on the back of her father's bike yelling "wheeee!!". Now in her 9th year of road racing, Annie Lux is a Category 2 rider and has officially been racing a really long time.

She has numerous wins in regional time trials, crits, and omniums and has raced in NRC races such as the Nature Valley stage race, the Charlotte Criterium, Hanes Park Classic, Speedweek, and Superweek. She made a foray into triathlons and did pretty well because she once swam and played soccer, but mostly because she could bike really fast. However, she realized that she didn’t share the “multisport enthusiast’s” “enthusiasm” for waking up early to exercise excessively…and has retired to the greener and more sarcastic pastures of cycling.

Her current cycling goals are to have fun, to race hard, and to use her experience to help develop new riders. She's excited to see more women on bikes, and would be even more excited to see more women out racing. Oh, and if you couldn't tell, she really likes flames.

Career Highlights
1st (2011), 2nd (2008, 2009) Sanford Critierium (Sanford, NC)
1st overall (2008) Piedmont Triad Omnium (Lexington, NC)
1st (2010), Capital Cycling Club Road Race (Apex, NC)
1st (2007), I’On Criterium (Mt. Pleasant, SC)
1st (2011) Sugarcross (Sugarland, TX)
1st French Broad Classic TT (2nd omnium, 3rd RR, 4th Criterium), Asheville, NC
2nd (2009) Downtown Wake Forest Criterium (Wake Forest, NC)
2nd (2009, 2010) Uptown Greenville Criterium (Greenville, NC)
3rd (2008) Ride Sally Ride Criterium (Chantilly, VA)
Finished (survived) 2007 Nature Valley Grand Prix (in 70th), Minneapolis, MN

Courtney Scott
Age: 27
USCF: Cat 4
Hometown: Katy, TX
Profession: Analyst

Courtney was always involved with sports as a kid. Basketball, swimming, gymnastics, and soccer, and the occasional bike ride.

Courtney’s first taste of competitive cycling was in high school during her first triathlon, in which she crashed on the bike course. Although abraded and bruised, she finished with a smile on her face. She put aside the bike for a while to focus on swimming and running, but due to various injuries, picked up cycling. She joined her collegiate cycling team her senior year. It was a perfect match. The fun involved, the team atmosphere, and the great workout was something that could not be compared.

Courtney just enjoys being on a bike. On two wheels, you can find her running errands, bike commuting, and participating in local races. She looks forward to the challenge ahead of a fun racing season.

Her goals for the year are focused on riding hard, having fun, and staying injury free.

Career Highlights
2nd place AG Cinco Ranch Triathlon
2nd place Baylor Road Race, Baylor Criterium
2nd place TAMU Criterium
3rd place MSU Omnium

Scott Merrell
USCF: Cat 4

Scott didn't send us a bio...but he did send us a Christmas card.

I made Ritchey's Nice List.

2011-12-20T07:31:00.000-08:00

Angelo over at Ritchey heard my Chrimbus Wish List plea and quickly rushed out a WCS C260 stem, replete in it's wet white finish. There are several reasons to add to this stems awesomeness: First, this is the first part to arrive that will go on our marketing sample (and my personal) Human Cycles KorsAir. This stem is so dreamy in person, it's almost uncomfortable. Really, attraction to an inanimate object of this particular shape and stature (130mm) isn't appropriate. I should probably seek help and guidance of psychiatric sorts but I shall digress into an enthusiastic euphoria of directional device coupling fastener empatheticalism.

See the sleek, sexiness of the stem and not the model...new addition to the team and coworker of mine, Matt Tagliaferri:

That all being said, I'm looking forward to putting the C260 through it's paces. I've been using Comp level stems from Ritchey for several years and have been more than pleased with the better-than-par performance and durability in comparison to Easton, Specialized and FSA products I've used in the past...so this is a big step up for me. Once the KorsAir is fully built, I plan to do a full video review for Hawley (my 9-5 employer) and post detailed photos and ride reviews. If you can't wait until then and you are a team member be sure to contact Angelo or Travis at JRABS.com. If you're a fan or friend or both, then be sure to contact Travis at JRABS.com or your local independant bicycle dealer to order a C260 in your choice of carbon or aluminum, in BB black, wet black, wet red or wet white in one of seven sizes.

Cheers and Merry Chrimbus!

Marky Mark Duroy Is Back.

2011-12-09T11:14:00.001-08:00

Mark Duroy has been with the team since it’s inception in California. When I went to work at Specialized, I was shocked by the speeds of the daily lunch ride. It was a full-on road race at sub 3K to go speeds with national and world champion caliber racers that happened to be my coworkers at the time. As I was being crushed, physically and mentally there was one person who went out of his way to pull me along on the hardest days and on the days when it just got too hard, slow down and pedal-in at a more enjoyable pace. This guy was Mark Duroy.

For those of you that don’t know, when mark was younger he raced at the highest level of junior racing and spent some time bouncing around from professional outfit to professional outfit, eventually landing himself in Europe. The guy has experience. His legs have been hurt by top-notch guys like George Hincapie and a close-personal hero of mine Chad Gerlach (I casted him on an episode of Intervention).

When you look at Mark, the first thing people notice is his height. Sure, he stand about as tall as I do but the guy seems a bit larger than life even alongside his usually quiet personality. His legs are huge and have muscles in places most people don’t have muscles. Then you’ll notice how low his position is on the bike. Flat-back doesn’t begin to describe it.

Mark has power for days and I’ve been lucky enough to hop in a few breaks with him and experience his draft/wrath first hand.

Two years ago, Mark broke his leg. Pretty bad. Dealing with the healing and trying to get through his MBA Big Mark was put out of commission. There were some complications latter in the healing processes that were quite scary for him. Nerve damage. Gnarly. Mark gained 65lbs, gnarlier. Luckily, after visiting some specialists at Stanford this past July he was feeling better and was finally able to get back on the bike.

Fast-forward to this September, 55lbs later; Mark decided to hop into his first race in nearly three years. A Pro/1/2 event called The Sacramento Grand Prix. The SGP is a heavily contested event by the majority of California’s fastest pros. Every contender enters this race after a full season of fast road and crit racing. Some of them arrive with stage race experience in their legs. I can’t imagine how hard it was for Mark to line up after a virtual complete hibernation away from the bike. Away from the race. Away from the pain.

Mark finished in the field that Rahsaan Bahati bested that day. I can’t imagine how difficult a feat that was. It speaks milestones for Marks character and strength as a rider and man.

I am proud to say Mark will be lining up as a fellow KindHuman Sports racer, #GettingRad at every opportunity. Everyone, give him a warm welcome back to the team and back to the scene.

My Christmas Wish List

2011-12-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

We are cyclists. We want what we can’t have. It’s, like, engrained into our DNA. Luckily, we have some incredible sponsors that make it easier for us to ride in style with the best performing, most comfortable and effective products on the market. Here is my 2012 Christmas Wish List…and probably yours too.

RUDY PROJECT | I’ve been rocking the Rudy Sterling since it’s debut two-three years ago and I’ve loved it. But, seeing their latest WindMax at Interbike a couple months ago sealed my future with it atop my head. It is super stylish and surprisingly lightweight. I did notice it was a touch smaller in the S/M sizing than my Sterling so I’ll likely try the Large. Now, the real question is: do I get matte black or white? Truth be told, I’d be happy if Santa’s elves made me either.

I’ve been wearing Rudy Project ExoWinds for like, four years now. It’s time for a change. Santa needed Rudolph to guide him on his journeys; I need me some Genetyk frames with Photochromatic clear lenses.

GAERNE | It's no lie that I am pretty much obsessed with my Gaerne G.Myst Plus kicks. Since my brother-in-law is getting into cycling this year I told him I'd help him out so I will be somewhat reluctantly bequeathing him my shoes, somewhat, because I am totally stoked to try their new G.Air Carbons. These babies are sexy and all-white...clean...PRO.

I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Gaerne mountain offerings from Ryan and the gang so I also figure it’s about time I get some G.Inkas dirty this season. Ryan, being the penultimate style guide said I should rock the whites…but the Reflex option came in a close second.

RITCHEY | Angelo and Sean at Ritchey Logic have kept us rolling this season with some fantastic offerings from the Comp-WCS line of products. My new favorite being their WCS Contrail saddle, I’ll be purchasing a couple more for my cross and mountain bikes. The item I am most excited about is the Ritchey WCS C-260 stem. The stem is a product that hasn’t changed a whole heckuvalot since the industry wide standardization of the threadless opposed to the quill model. The C-260 has changed that. Angelo, Sean…if you’re listening. I would much appreciate it if Santa would provide me one, in Wet White, size 130. Danke.

JRABS.com | Travis has been a huge supporter of not only our Mid-Atlantic riders, but the rest of the team with sweet deals and service. He’s also putting our team logo on his trailor! Badass! Travis and his own contingent of elfish monkey wrenches are all talented wheel builders and if you are on the lookout of either a tubular, clincher or tubeless handbuilt wheelset then I highly recommend their Rolling Blackout custom sets. Travis starts with Chris King’s R45 hub (which I love and have on a build courtesy of Greg Borchert) mated to your choice of HED clincher or Stans Alpha 340 tubeless rims laced with Sapim CX-Ray spokes. What an impressive combination. I highly recommend giving tubeless a try especially with this speedy setup.

DEFEET | There are two things that have been constant since I began riding road bikes…those are the socks on my right and left feet. I’ve been a committed DeFeet wearer for a long time. Woolie Boolie, Air-E-Ator…love. Ryan is actually working on a custom KindHuman Sports order as we speak and I can’t wait to rock them real soon.

TRP | I’ve been in love with my R960 road calipers this past year and my EuroX alloy cantis have been fantastic but I’m contemplating shaking things up a big and running a V-brake set up for next season and also hoping Santa brings me a set of Dash hydraulic brakes for the 29er I’m building up.

As always, I’d love a few stocking stuffers from NuuN and Soigneur. Maybe some Challenge tires? Who knows?

So Santa, if you’re listening, I’ve been a good boy. I’ve stayed away from sweets and I’ve ridden lots. I’ve gone to bed early and haven’t watched cartoons in like, 4 months…so if you should find my name on the Nice List, then hook a brotha up.

Do us a favor, if you're a non-team member and visit the sites of our sponsors and advocate their well being by purchasing some products over and over and over again.

Merry Christmas all!

MABRA Championships at Taneytown

2011-11-28T17:43:00.000-08:00

Today's race was the MABRA Cross Championships at Taneytown Memorial Park. I was the only KindHuman rider there but I am somewhat of a Cyclocross Socialite so I found some cool people to hang out with. This race is not in the MABRA Super 8 Series so it wasn't one that I was really focusing on but I thought it would be good to race it so I still feel fresh next week for the last race in the Super 8 Series. I didn't have huge expectations going into this one because of rain and holiday plans getting in the way of training. I really didn't ride near as much as I should have this week. On top of that I went for a hike on Friday that was supposed to be 7-10 miles but turned into 16 miles of hiking through Shenandoah National Park with about 3000 feet of elevation gain. I haven't done much hiking, walking, or running lately so this was certainly a shock to my legs. I basically wore my compression socks continuously from Friday until my race started today in an effort to combat the soreness in my legs. So with all of that in mind I really was setting my goals lower than I should have but I did want to grab at least 1 upgrade point since I was 1 point away from the 10 needed to upgrade to a Cat 2. With 40 racers in the the field, that meant that I needed to get 5th place or better. So my goal was 5th place. When I got my number I was surprised by my 1st row starting position since I have only done 2 races in this series and I didn't place well in one of them due to mechanicals. But I took that 1st row position without complaining. The course conditions were pretty rough. I think this park may have been a water park at some point because it retains water like no other. It hadn't rained since Wednesday but there were huge mud bogs and plenty of large "bodies" of water to ride through. So after some pre ride laps on the Pit bike I line up on my sparkling clean Kona Major Jake. I've been trying to figure out why I've been terrible at my starts all season so I was determined to get a good jump on the field. I know I'm not a sprinter but I should be able to get off the line quickly.

The whistle blew and I was clipped in immediately and off. I made it to the 1st corner in 2nd position. BEST START EVER (for me)!! I took a couple of bad lines and was sitting comfortably in 3rd position. I remained there for a bit and as I passed the pit, i made my 1st mistake. "BARTLETT DOWN!!" I hear from a rider behind me as my wheels slide out from under me on a slick corner. I get back up with only losing one position. I made it through the 1st 2 major bog sections pretty well but I definitely took the slower line through it and lost another position. I'm in 5th place now as I pass the pit for the 2nd time of the lap. In an attempt to get back into 4th I try to pass on a slippery off camber straight away and wash my wheels out from under me again. Quickly I get back up and didn't lose any more spots. I run through the Run-Down/Run-Up section smoothly and remount before the next mud bog. This mud has a chain link fence on the right side and the easier way through was right next to the fence. So I take that line but the mud decides to throw me into the fence wedging my right shifter between the fence post and the chain link part of the fence. I get it out but lose another position. Now I'm in 6th as we get to the off camber turn that follows the mud. My tires are caked and I go down again. I'm right back up and now getting pissed at myself. I go through the start/finish and towards the 1st half of the lap that we skipped on the 1st lap. They made the prologue avoid that section because it was super muddy and technical and they didn't want us sprinting right into that with a large group. So right as I get into the mud I have to unclip. I remount and make a sharp right turn into a slick off camber straight away and again my wheels go out from under me. I'm pretty sure I've already crashed 5 times by the time I do one complete lap. Now I'm telling my self to relax and race smarter and let other people make the mistakes. This goes pretty well and an amazing battle starts between 2nd and 5th place. There were gaps between all of us. I bridged up, passed, bridged up, battled, passed, bridged up, battled, passed....until I was in 3rd place. For the next 2 or 3 laps positions 2 through 5 changed pretty frequently. I've never been in such an intense battle. With 2 laps to go I start running a lot more of the mud and start putting a bigger gap on 4th and 5th place because of this decision. Finally positions are claimed by the start of the final lap. I'm in 3rd with a 15-20 second gap to second place that I was bringing down pretty quickly. 4th place was about 20-30 seconds behind me now and 5th place was about 20 seconds back from there. I continue to hammer it through the straights and focus on staying upright on the turns. I continue running more of the mud sections. At the final mud section I decided to let my momentum from the hill take me into the mud and then dismount. Just as I was about to dismount I was tossed into the fence again. This time my brake lever and shifter were wedged in the chain link fence and I couldn't get it out at all. I spend about 20 seconds trying to get it out of there and then it broke and came free. I'm still ahead of 4th place but I only have about 5 seconds on him. I have no rear brake and 3 sketchly turns to go. I get through those cleanly and I'm on the straight away. I try to shift my rear derailleur but the shifter is broken and I'm stuck in my biggest cog. I shift into the big ring and start spinning my ass off to try to hold off 4th place but with a couple of shifts of his gears, he took me by a few feet at the line. 4th place.

The broken shifter was pretty frustrating to me mostly because it caused me 3rd place but I did get my upgrade points that I wanted so at least I had that. It seems like they should start changing the 4th place podium step from saying "4th" to "Chad's" because I've been 4th for 3 weeks in a row now. At least they know what size stuff to put in the 4th place prize packs. Overall it was an unbelievably fun race and an epic battle. I made some new friends and maybe a new nemesis.

Photo by Lauren Howe

Race Reports: Rockburn Cross 11/20/11

2011-11-22T06:05:00.000-08:00

Chad Bartlett’s Report – Cat 3/4 Men 2:00 pm

Photo: Peter Ong

Chad didn't send me a race report for the day, but here's a brief summary as seen by me (Matt). The super short story is that it went pretty well, since he ended up on the podium. From my perspective (working the pit), he pulled away from the field with a group of 3 other riders early on. All of them seemed fairly content to wait until late in the race to shake things up. With about 1 and a half laps to go, the attacks started, and the group split in two and steadily separated further as the final lap progressed. In the end, Chad grabbed 4th place for another podium this season. All of the guys at the front of this 3/4 field are pretty well matched, and as a spectator, it's definitely been a fun race to watch over the last few weeks.

OK, OK, OK. I'll take the hint and go ahead and write a more detailed race report for you Matt. First of all I was really on the fence as to whether this course would suit me or not. The pre-ride laps seemed like it was a twisty course but not the kind of cornering that I can really benefit from. I like a course that has technical corners that are still fast. This seemed a little too tight for my liking but I still felt pretty confident.

For 2 weeks in a row I had a front row starting position and in this race I really think it made a difference. I got clipped in right away and powered up the uphill start to the first set of corners. My only goal here was to stay in the top 10 and stay on two wheels through the first 5 or 6 technical corners before the sand pit. I was successful by going into the sand in 6th position and figured that the guys in front of me were going to be able to ride it clean so I stayed on my bike. It was a good decision until Pierce Schmerge (Bike Lane) who entered the sand 3 spots behind me dismounted and ran around me taking out the course tape in the process. I managed to stay on my bike but had to slow down while he ripped the tape from his bike. Now we were in the power section through the single track and the lead group was about 10 guys and we were all together with a gap to the rest of the field. As we got to the second technical part of the course, I made a mistake by going into a 180 turn followed by a short, steep, slick uphill in too large of a gear. I pulled my cleat out of my pedal and was forced to do an awkward lunge to get over the hill. I did this right in front of Chris Carraway creating a small gap between the last 4 of us in the lead group and what was now the lead 6. With one corner to go on the first lap the lead group split into two groups of 3.

So on the start/finish straightaway I sprinted across the gap to the 2nd group on the road. The 1st group was up ahead and I had to use my cornering abilities to make my way through the group I was in on the first 2 corners of the lap. Now I had some ground to make up. I just hit the corners aggressively and cleanly made my way through the sand cleanly and hammered it through the single track slowly reeling in the leaders. On the run-up, I tripped over the 1st barrier and quickly hopped back up and continued my chase. Again focusing on fast cornering to reel these guys in. It turned out that these corners were just about right for me. They seemed easier and I could really get a ton of flow going at faster speeds (Greg may disagree with me on that comment as his experience was a little different). It took half a lap but at the dismount for the 2nd set of barriers that I finally caught on. Now it was time to sit on and relax for a bit since I had just put out a pretty huge effort for half a lap. We were moving pretty well so I knew we were opening up a gap on the 5th place rider. This was just making me feel more comfortable as I tried to recover in the draft.

The next 2 laps were pretty uneventful as the 4 of us were trying to figure out who was going to make the move to try to split us up. I knew it would be Eric Krause (Antietam Velo Club) because he's a roadie that has a huge engine and loves to attack on power sections. Sure enough that's what he did and the 3 of us were unable to match his power as he shattered our little group. The rest of the race (a lap and a half) was just damage control for me. Trying to keep a good pace to slowly try to reel in the other 2 in the group while holding off the 5th place rider who has shown to have a ton of power late in the race. I managed to maintain my position and ride across the line in 4th place for the second week in a row. Next goal is to get a little higher on that podium.

It was great having Matt and Greg offering support from the pit even though they had their race right after mine.

Patrick People’s Report – Cat 3/4 Men 2:00 pm

Photo: Peter Ong

I had high hopes coming into Rockburn since it was my best race of last year. My personal goal was to shoot for a top 20 finish. I found that the course had not changed much since last year; a few new turns, a run up, and a few features were redesigned. When I got my number, I was horrified to discover that my bib number was 660, essentially putting me in the back of the field. I fretted because I know placing in the first half lap would be important once you the single track, in which passing was next to impossible. I lowered my expectations and decided to just aim for beating my usual rivals. At the start line, I had the usual pre-race jitters. I always talk about how I wish we could all skip the start and first lap, and just start at the second lap. The ref blew the whistle, and we were off. I tend to sink towards the back at the beginning of most my races and then slowly work my way up. I tried to not let that happen today. I found myself within the top twenty at the hole shot, but with such a wide course at the hole shot, holding that position was difficult. I slipped a little further back as the the pack rounded the first few turns, and there was bottle-necking once we hit the sand pit. Running through the sand pit, I fought mercilessly for positions to give myself as best advantage as possible before the next bottle-neck. I hit the off camber section, positioned somewhere in the mid-20s, not too far behind Nate C. When I hit the single track, I stayed as close to the wheel in front of me as possible, goading the rider in front of me to go faster. As we hit the stairs, I managed to gain a spot or two. What really hurt my chances of meeting my goals during this race were the amount of sloppy turns. Over this season, I've really improved my cornering abilities, but I had a hard time finding a line through a lot of the off-camber turns during this race. I forced myself to turn wide and almost go off course more than a few times.

As the race entered its second lap, and the pack spread out a bit more, which is how I like it. I made a habit of dropping the hammer during the start/finish and continuing through the grass and into the first turns at full speed ahead. This allowed me to shed the racers on my wheel at the start of each lap. I continued to move up steadily, passing groups of 2 or 3. I ran into some a little trouble during the third lap, when I was stuck behind a slow rider on the single track, which allowed a group of 5 that I had dropped to catch back up. This same guy continued this habit and slowing my race through the third and fourth laps, as I would pass him at the power sections, and he would catch up at the technical sections. All this time, I was ahead of this group of 7. On the third lap, I suffered a mechanical with my rear derailleur while coming up towards the pit. I was forced to stop and readjust my chain, allowing all 7 or the riders behind me to pass. It didn't take me long to catch back up to the rear of the group, but I wasted energy in doing so. I found myself neck and neck with one of my CrossResults rivals. During the latter part of the fourth and fifth laps, we were neck and neck, yo-yoing not more than two spots from each other. As we hit the back section of the course for the final time, I was leading him, and I knew he was eager for the sprint. I rode defensively, not allowing him to pass me until we reached the road. Until the final 100 meters we were neck and neck, until he let out an unholy growl, and lifted himself out of his saddle to make it a true sprint. I had nothing left to give and was forced to let him have it uncontested.

After the race, I had a few people tell me that I looked stronger than I have been all season and they thought I placed well. Hearing that lifted my spirits about my performance. I ended up finishing 33rd. While its not anywhere near where I would like to be and where I think I could be, I'm still content. I'm gradually improving each week, and I hope to finish the season strong. If only I was a better bike mechanic.

Nathan Ong’s Report – Cat 4 Men 8:30 am

Photo: Peter Ong

So today was my second CX race and probably the last of this CX season. I was really looking for redemption from last week's race at Schooley Mill as I plagued with some bike mechanicals. Rewind to last week, i rode last two laps with horrible front brake drag (also slight rear brake drag) and handlebars pointed in a totally wrong direction. So in hope of doing "better" or at least faster [in my head] I did some much needed bike maintenance week and go the bike setup. I had also told myself that i would not repeat my somewhat woeful mount/dismounts that i performed at Schooley Mill last week, so mid week CX practice commenced in my yard. Practice makes perfect i guess and i was more confident in my jumps off and on the bike somewhat.

Lining up on the grid i was number 58 (about 6th row). One of the "new found" strategies i wanted to employ this weekend was some big ring riding especially at the start. My borrowed bike was a full sized crank set 53/39 and last week i had brought a knife to a gun fight opening the starting spring in 39/16 or something....so this week, it meant using that 53T. So the whistle blows and i immediately find my pedal with minimal glances down and start moving up in the line. Going into the first turn I was probably around top 7 and stayed top 7 for about 1/4 of the lap or so. I probably got way too excited and just wanted to keep them in my sights, but this pace was soon putting me into [more like BEYOND] the RED. About halfway through the 1st lap, i gave up trying to stay with the top 5 and started to ride at my own pace...unfortunately my pace soon allowed riders left and right to come past. The field at this point was already strung out but I desperately was trying to ride on courage in hope to not lose to many places. Surprisingly the mounts and dismounts went fairly well for me today. Not too many hiccups I can recall.

2nd lap of three, I felt more at my own rhythm and found someone to somewhat draft off of to gauge the rest of the race. We were probably top 15 at this point. In my mind the gaps were pretty large in front and behind me, so why not stick with this guy for a little and see if i can attack somewhere.... Leading into the sand pit, it got sketchy when the rider in front of me (whom i was drafting) slams on the brakes to get off the bike, causing me to awkwardly unclip, whilest sitting on my top tube, forcing me to get off the bike on the drive side. By the time we exited the sandpit the gap was about 3 bike lengths....I wasn't able to close the gap and the gap grew (end of the day finished 4 seconds behind). 3rd lap I was just trying to not let anyone pass and not let the gap go too much. I did have one "kill" on this 3rd lap so that got me boosted! To finish off the race, i sprinted to the finish , alone.... but cross is kind of a race against yourself at times so i figured it would be fitting.

In the end of the day i finished 17th/57. I was pleased, knowing that this race went by without having a major bike mechanical and having done some things "right" like some of the technical turns, not crashing, and mounting/dismounting. Kinda disappointed at my fitness level giving up so many places, but in the end (as always) it was a good learning experience! Congrats to the team, for getting me caught on the cross bug! =P

End Of The Year, End Of An Era

2011-11-16T10:19:00.000-08:00

So, cyclocross race numero dos for the 2011 season went pretty, well, painfully. It was a tough race for the singlespeeders. A good course in Charlotte's Veterans Park that begs for big powerful riders to put it down. Not exactly a singlespeeders greatest dream. It was fun nonetheless and I accomplished my goals for the day: ride the run-up every lap and ride the sand pits (without crashing) every lap.

After the race, a group of spectators asked me, "where can I get a TOMS Shoes kit?" For the first time in my life, almost sadly, I had not much to say. But, a lot to say. As most of you on the team already know and some of you might not for 2012 we will be parting ways from the namesake that started this team in 2008. TOMS has grown to be an entity known by many. Their giving efforts are known and felt worldwide and I am proud to say that we have helped grow their One for One cause all across the country. You should all be very proud.

In that time, our relationship with TOMS has gone in many different directions and as their company grew, their support of our team lessened. In a matter of four years we have grown into 16 states, we've had a teammate featured on a SRAM commercial (during the Tour de France, no less) and we have become one of the most widely known and well respected teams on each of our local circuits. I owe a great deal of gratitude to Ryan, Jen, Matt and Wade for their contributing efforts over the years as well as our sponsors that have supported us along the way. I think we all owe a great deal of thanks to Travis at JRABS.com as well. Without all of you, our next step wouldn't be possible. The end of an era, but the beginning of movement. The KIND movement.

Starting in January 2012, Team TOMS Shoes p/b KindHuman Sports will officially be known as KIND Cycling. Their is a supporting sponsor in the lineup but the officiality is postponed for the time being. The first official order for KIND Bikes and Wheels has been placed and riders will be receiving frames in the next couple of months. That is something to be excited about. Also, we are in development of an aluminum cyclocross and 29er frame for everyone to #GETRAD on next season. That is also something to be excited about. Of course, all proceeds of future sales will support junior cycling and hopefully we will be welcoming some young new riders to the team very soon.

Please stay tuned. We are preparing our 2012 Jersey and Socks order for December. Also, information for reapplication and new applications to the squad will be accepted in the next week or so. If you have friends who want to jump on board with the KIND kids, now's the time.

I want to thank all of you for all that you do. You're all incredible people and 2012 will be a big one for all of us. But first thing's first, there's a lot of racing left in 2011...I know Matt and Ryan are headed to Nationals, who else if going to Madison?

Alright...time for me to get to work. Team applications won't write themselves.

Hearts.

This Week's Practice: Starts

2011-11-14T19:55:00.000-08:00

Nathan O, Nate C, Patrick, Chad, Greg, and I headed over to Schooley Mill for race #6 of the MABRA Super8 series. The vast majority of us had some pretty horrible starts, but everyone stuck with it and managed to drag themselves back into their respective races. We'll just roll through the day's races.

Nathan O. Lined up for his first CX race ever, and his adventures are chronicled here. The quick summary is that he learned how to dismount/remount 30 minutes before his race started, then promptly learned all the joys that cyclocross has to offer.

Chad, Nate C, and Patrick lined up for for 3/4 race. Nate had what appeared to be a great start, but managed to lose a pedal somewhere around turn 4 of his race. He came running into the pit shortly after and suffered his first DNF in like a million years or something. This wouldn't end his day though. He walked the course for a bit, found his pedal, and immediately registered for the elite race. Patrick had some 1st lap woes as well, suffering a mechanical shortly after climbing over the barrier that most horses would trip over. I couldn't see his mishap from the pit, but I did notice that he steadily worked his way from about last place to battle it out with some of his regular rivals. Chad was the only one to get through the 3/4 race relatively unscathed. From the start, he was in the top 10, he quickly split off with the lead group, and he brought a podium spot home for the team.

Greg, Nate C, and I lined up for the 1/2/3 race, and it was more of the same for the team. Greg appeared to have a great start, then crashed hard near the pit on lap 1 and suffered a mechanical that cost him at least a minute. He regrouped and started working his way from last all the way up to 11th by the end of the race. It was the best worst race of his career, as he put it after the race. I had a miserable start, nearly running into Joe Dombrowski's rear wheel on my first pedal stroke, failing to clip in, and slowly accelerating my way up towards the finish line. I think I was in last place going into the grass. I managed to put myself right behind the first crash of the race, having to stop completely to avoid running the guy over. Then in a desperate attempt to regain some time, I washed out 3 corners later. That would be the end of my troubles, and I was able to find my way back to 8th at the finish. Nate C (in his first elite race) surprised himself by actually racing in a group, not finishing in last, and just barely getting lapped. I think he got both his best and worst cross results score in one day.

The poker race was a great addition to the event. We fielded 2 teams. Greg, Chad, and I shared 1 bike and 2 pairs of shoes, but only got 2 pair in the end. Only good enough for 5th. Nate, Nate, and Jim brought home the 2nd podium spot for the day, finishing 3rd with a better 2 pair.

Great day and great fun for everyone.

-Matt

Trial by Fire

2011-11-14T16:59:00.000-08:00

My name is Nathan Ong and I will be blogging about my past weekend's experience(s) at the Schooley Mill Cross event this past weekend. This was my first cyclocross event, my first 'race' experience, and my first weekend with KindHuman Sports. At first the guys had convinced me to join them for the poker relay while borrowing Nate C's bike, but it quickly evolved into borrowing another friends bike for the morning Cat 4 Beginner Race. Before Sunday morning, my experiences with a bike have been mainly road focused so my knowledge of cyclocross was limited to mainly pictures and youtube videos floating around the internet.

So having set up a bike, borrowed from my friend the night before the race, I was not able to ride a single mile prior to Sunday. Matt B, was gracious enough to meet up early with me in the morning and give me a cyclocross101 lesson at 7:30am. Upon meeting Matt in the morning, we got my number pinned on and class was in session. Matt quickly took me to a grassy patch near the start line and showed me a dismount/mount technique which was practiced a few times at walking pace. After doing a few jumps on and off the bike, we promptly went to the circuit and rode the circuit 1.5 times. I tried to soak in the atmosphere and visually keep all the hairpins and obstacles in mind for later recollection. After riding the course and talking, Matt accompanied me to the start line to give me some emotional support.

I arrived slightly late to the start line I was probably lined up 40 or so out of a field of around 65, i'd guess. Once the bell/whistle/voice sounded for the start, we were off! At this point all the adrenaline had come to me and I just tried my best to get a decent position while exiting the asphalt and staying upright while cornering shoulder to shoulder, wheel to wheel with the other riders. Being told that this was a more "technical course" than last year by Matt, I knew it would be tough to gain ground on people while needing to navigate the cyclocross obstacles around the course, so I tried my passing on straights and up slight inclines. I was fairly successful in this wayward strategy and probably passed 10-15 people on the first lap despite losing major time on dismounts/remounts and people falling closely in front of my bike. I felt fairly good about the lap =).

Now unfortunately this is where things quickly went downhill... Inevitably on the second lap about 2 minutes in, I went down due to coming in a bit hot and locking up my rear brake. I got back on the bike as best I could and quickly noticed that my handlebars were pointed in a very different direction to that of my front wheel. This being my first cross race, I suppose I didn't realize that stopping on route to fix issues is way faster (in the end) than riding a possibly broken bike. I trundled on, and subsequently realized that I was nearing my LIMIT. My lungs were burning, my legs were screaming for oxygen, and the flicks of my right wrist could not find any more gears. In my mind, I had accepted the fact that I had blown up spectacularly and was merely a spectator in the race from that point onward. Suddenly all the people who I had passed, were passing me left and right no matter the terrain. This continued on, until I crossed the finish line placed roughly 45th out of 60.

Matt quickly gave me some post-race verbal support and gave my bike a quick lookover. After a couple of seconds fiddling with my bike, it was apparent that the brake was rubbing my front wheel considerably not allowing the front wheel to spin freely. Looking back, this was probably due to improper tightening of the quick release before the race =( . So there you have it, my somewhat "crash" course into the world of cyclocross. A few notable things that I've learned from the weekend are:

Cyclocross is quite straining, but fun in retrospect

Always double check equipment before the start

Smoothness can often times trump pure speed

Thanks to Matt for the lessons, the team for their support, and fun times during the poker race relay shortly after the Men's 1/2/3 race!

My New Year Of Making A Better Effort

2011-11-11T05:47:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I've been able to post about a race that I have done. I know, I'm the team director, there are no excuses for me to not be racing. I should be out there every weekend busting my tail repping for the team and for the cause. Getting rad. Getting beat. I agree. Sometimes, though, life gets in the way. Races are too far and there's not enough gas in my car. Money saved is money maybe better spent to visit family or my beautiful fiance, all of which are a long drive or plane ride away. Looking back, it's funny. I did the most racing of my life when I was unemployed. Nearly every week I found myself at some nondescript industry park crit or makeshift cross race on an all-girls college school grounds. Truth is. I really miss it. I miss the competitive companionship. The mutual respect amongst competitors and the pats on the back and 'atta boys after the race. I miss the burn in your legs and lungs that you can't replicate on a training ride no matter how many watts or BPMs. Last Saturday's Cross in the Park at Greenville's Cleveland Park was where I would put my pedal back to the meddle of racing. It was cold. I dressed in the zoo parking lot. On the other side of the trees were primates booing and barking as I chamoised up and globbed some embro on my thighs, knees and calves. This is where it all starts coming back to me. The balmy mentholyptic aroma that hits the back of your throat and nostrils is my first sign that I am stepping back into my old comfort zone.

11:00am | Although few competitors are near to be seen, I register and hop on course to recon the pain that was about to ensue. Red and white course tape lined the tree covered course that resembled more a short track event than a cyclocross race. Not a cambered straight or even run-up on the course. This, was nature.

12:00pm | My reconnaissance would pay off in turn one. A sharp, bottle-necked 90-degree turn that quickly wrapped into a 180-degree left-hander before a doglegged sprint into the singletrack. I on my singlespeed and the majority of our field geared, was at a disadvantage in the sprint. The lead riders took off and seemingly forgot the aforementioned hard right to 180-degree bottleneck I just described and piled on top of each other. I made a sneaky pass on the right and found myself sitting in first place through the singletrack. I sprinted hard and put a solid gap into my geared rivals.

12:08pm | It wasn't long before the stampede would catch me. I did my best to fend them off by taking tight, fast lines and making myself big through the turns. Did I mention the corners on this course? This course was one big corner. It was very difficult to stay on top of your gear because the optimal chances to open up the engine were nonexistent. Cant left, cant right, foot down, at every opportunity I was out of the saddle trying to get back up to speed. My hips have never burned so much.

12:10pm | My attempts to hold onto number one were flighting. A rider tried to take my inside line and jammed his front wheel between my crank and chainstay, right under my foot. After untangling myself from his mess I found myself in fourth place. I like to call this part of my race: Momentum Lost.

12:35pm | One more rider ended up catching me around the barriers (where I need lots of work) somewhere on lap two. For the remaining three laps, I did my best to limit my losses on the front five and hold off the field behind. My cornering become a bit more sloppy but I found myself having a lot of fun. Snot pouring out of my nose, the dreaded cross hack creeping in my chest and throat, the burn of Soigneur embro still tingling on my thighs and calves I soon crossed the finish line in fifth place. First in the single speeders.

They started the juniors about a minute behind our race and I gotta say, I had the most fun on the course riding alongside these lapped saplings. I would ask if they were having fun and encouraging them to try to sit on my wheel. These kids, most of whom were forced to race on their entry-level mountain bikes with skateboarding helmets and flannel jackets were probably wishing they were at home playing Wii at the start of the race. I hope, and think, that maybe I helped make this forced family fun - more fun.

This is a new start for me and my off- and -on relationship with racing. This is my New Year of Making a Better Effort. I have the love and support of a great woman who wants me to pursue my love of competitive riding. I also have this group of amazing individuals that has truly grown into something spectacular and inspiring. Some of you I plainly consider my closest friends. In this New Year of Making a Better Effort I will also not take anything for granted, not my loving wife-to-be's support and encouragement or your selfless efforts and contributions to this little team we started four years ago.

This weekend, I'm off to spend Pre-Thanksgiving with my amazing parents Mark and Patti, in Winston-Salem. On my way home on Sunday, I'm going to make effort number two at Veteran's Park in Charlotte, part of the growing NCCX series and hopefulyl stop by to see my college roomate and good friend Dan who bought a house on the course about two years ago. Here's to making a better effort...

__________________________________________________________________

On another note, we have found a steel/aluminum manufacturer Stateside to build our cross and mountain bike models. We are actually in the process of providing detailed insight for their house geometry. This has all of the promise of a beautiful partnership for KIND Bicycles, our team and our causes in the future. Be stoked.

Also, our carbon order for the Koura, KorsAir, KuTT and K.38, K.50, K.60 and K.88 tubular wheels and rims ends tonight at midnight. If you want/need race wheels or frames for next road/tri season...get those orders in tonight!

https://www.kitorder.com/solutions/?orderuid=1c613c6b-37b9-4b22-96e9-63115298237d

Ciao!

Another MABRA Race, Another CXHairs Video

2011-10-25T04:16:00.000-07:00

Bill at cxhairs.com has always been kind to us, giving us plenty of time in his videos, interviews, and photos. As a thank you, we like to post them up here for our followers to watch. And as a bonus, they are super entertaining.

So, here is Bill's video of DCCX. THANKS BILL!

DCCX 2011 from In The Crosshairs on Vimeo.

DCCX or: How I Learned to Stop Whining and Love the Rad

2011-10-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

We had a good amount of riders at DCCX this past weekend, and we decided to give the collaborative blog post a try. We have broken it down into race order.

11am - Singlespeed Open: Ryan Dudek (5/51)

I started fifth row in the singlespeed race, which was almost the absolute back. The start was surprisingly polite, and with the low gearing, nobody could REALLY be making sketchy moves anyway. Well, I guess that they COULD, but the DIDN'T, which was RAD. Everybody in the entire field got rad jumping over the dirt road, and then the field started splitting off into groups. I had to make a lot of moves to get around a large portion of the field, but by lap two I was sitting in the top ten. I remember passing Jon Seibold and thinking HOLY CRAP, IVE MOVED UP. On lap 3 I caught Cargo Mike from DCMTB, who is totally a home town favorite. We rode the rest of the race exchanging pulls and almost caught second place, but on the last lap, as we were coming into the stairs, somebody who was lapped traffic decided to get on Mike's wheel. They dismounted and ran, I rode the stairs like always (#getrad). For SOME reason, the lapped rider stopped on the stairs forcing me to stop and letting Cargo Mike get away. I was unable to catch him going through the last power section, so I knew he had third locked down. I slowed up a bit, thinking I was all alone, when Dan Atkins came BOMBING past to swipe fourth. I finished 3m behind him in the sprint, which I wasn't too upset with considering that he podiums at Cat1 MASS races. This was a very refreshing reminder of why you don't stop riding until you cross the line.

12pm - Women 3/4: Jennifer Franko-Dudek (34/41)
Registering late got me a last row start, and everyone in the two rows ahead of me seemed to be in the wrong gear to start a race. Diane from C3 and I had a laugh about it and were praying for the seas to part and we would make our way through the pack...I went right, she went left, and the part was to the left. Stuck behind the entire field and grabbing a handful of brakes on the second turn was not fun, but still I made the best of it through the turns on the back half of the course. I didn't really have any idea of where I should be in the group since I haven't raced a MABRA race since 2009, and I didn't really recognize too many names. It was great to be in a bigger field and actually racing a group. I was with a couple of girls going back and forth having fun just riding my bike. I suppose I could have been a little more aggressive overall. Mid-race, I realized I was racing close to Doron Peterson, who used to lap me when I started riding bikes. I turned it on a bit, and it felt good to actually have the desire to race someone in cross, it doesn't happen often. My competitive bone is not there on a cross bike yet. After a few words (of course being girls we had a chit chat and say hello in the middle of the race) I made a "move". HA! I couldn't believe that I actually wanted to pass someone, and I was doing it! One lap to go, and the leaders of the elite field were starting to make their way through the 3/4's (all but the top 3 finishers in the 3/4 race were lapped by the winners of the 1/2/3). At that point our race is pretty much over, yielding for the leaders and just basically holding your position. I still tried to make up ground where I could and got a little crazy trying to pass another group of three girls on the U-turn. I went down, bummer! Doron got back around me, and I did my best to stay with the group, but again the elite field breaking through and we had to move aside. I hung on the back of the group for the rest of the lap and actually had a little of a sprint finish with two other girls. Overall I had a great time and surprised myself. Maybe I should listen to Ryan and try racing a bike instead of just riding a bike. :)

It was great to see the rest of the team out there kicking butt and having a good time partying and racing. We've come a long way and have a great group of riders representing and improving every weekend.

2pm Men 3/4: Uwe Steckhan(61/125*)

Photo courtesy of Shreya M

You could say this was my best and worst cross race of the season in one day. But being DCCX, how could it have been bad at all? After all, this is a great location, no need to rent a car to get to, the course gets more fun to ride every year and it was perfect Mid-Atlantic cross weather - sunny, cold and just a few muddy spots here and there on the course. Having upgraded to Cat 3 for this year's season, the first few races my remaining German habit of punctuality and signing up on time proved to be a big disadvantage, having to start in the front of the pack resulting in being run over by almost everyone within the first few seconds of the race start. For whatever reason I did get a mid-pack start for DCCX, made up a couple of spots immediately after a somehow unannounced start and got into a good flow within the first two laps, making up and losing spots about on equal, but keeping my overall position. But coming back to the bad part of the day, maybe I got too comfortable, with this being already my third time at DCCX without major issues in past years. Anyway, in the middle of the third lap I took a wide turn to try to pass a rider and got my front wheel violently stopped at a root, sending me including bike within an instance into a nice somersault, taking my breath and orientation for more than an instance and picking up a nice grass patch with my helmet, which I only realized after the race, but might look nice on some of the upcoming pictures and probably explaining why some spectators looked at me as if I had been from a Zombie or Halloween movie. After realizing what had just happened, but not immediately figuring out what kept my bike from further fulfilling its purpose of at least allowing me to roll on and with the team tent in sight I was about to throw it all in, when I did see my arch-nemesis coming up about two corners down the course. Reenergized not to lose that opportunity I bent my shifter back into place, found and dislodged the brake arm from being stuck under the rim and off I went. Even after realizing I was slowly losing air in my rear tire and stopping in the pit once to borrow a pump, I managed to keep on going. Although very much necessary I did not have enough of a lead on my nemesis to refill my tire a second time, I went into the last lap with my tire rolling off the rim in every corner, me riding standing wherever possible to keep the weight off the back and actually finishing the race riding on the rim. So much from the middle of the pack, where in the end I was fortunately able to keep my position, beating my nemesis and my body, both probably not very happy about this today, but it seems the mind prevailed; but both mind and body are now looking forward to one weekend without racing.

2pm Men 3/4: Patrick Peoples(50/125*)

My only real goal for DCCX was to not have fun because cyclocross is srz bsns. That and to beat my arch nemesis, Seabass. We've had a pretty gnarly rivalry going on this season. I started on the same line as Uwe and Seabass. Maybe about 6 or 7 back. When the race started, I decided to forego my usual habit of not being able to clip and, and get right to business. My body was not in business mode, though. (insert excuse for poor performance here later). Also, I think I went deaf during the first lap due to some dude who smeared grease on his carbon wheels before the race. I stayed pretty close to Seabass for most of the race, either me falling a few spots behind, or him falling a few spots behind. It was a epic clash of mediocre cylcocross racers for the ages. After 3 laps in, I finally accepted the fact that I wasn't gonna win. A lot of the course left me feeling like I was peddling through molasses. I thought I was super clever by riding down the 180 hill, in a ready-to-dismount position and then running up. It was probably about as clever as tossing my bike at Hyattsville. I was taking what ground I could on the straightaways and taking the turns with more confidence than I have all season. Come last lap, I thought I had some distance on Seabass, so I stopped Schlecking. He closed the gap a bit during the last lap, with me putting in a little extra kick in the end to secure 50th place. Overall, I'm happy with how I did considering how poopy I felt during the first few laps. Although, I was only able to achieve one of my goals.

2pm - Men 3/4: Nate Chenenko (20/125*)

i started in the second row due to series pointz and came into the dirty u-turn on the side of the hill in about 15th. my nemesis (not arch-nemesis though) was just to my left, and he moved right just enough that i couldn't take my desired line. i got into the soft soil and lost front wheel traction which ended up in such a phenomenal faceplant that people were congratulating me after the race.

i was back on the bike after 5-10 seconds (concussion check/chain fix) but by this point i was in 45th-ish place. i picked up 8 spots that lap and proceeded to #getrad on the jump for the next two laps.

i caught charly hermanson from kelly and jumped past their group with three to go. an AFC guy was stuck to me for the next two laps and i didn't really have much interest in shaking him because we were still picking up so many places via passing. by this point we were in 28th, or so i thought.

it was at about this point where i realized my rear skewer was loose enough that every time i lifted the bike my wheel was rattling around in the dropout. that was the end of #getrad on the jump, much to my disappointment.

i was consistently faster than the AFC dude over the barriers and around the u-turn onto the finishing straight, so i let him by with half a lap to go so i could draft him on the two road sections. this proved to work quite well because i caught the ultra draft and then passed him before the barriers. i was on the road with a 10 meter lead and dropped gears for the sprint. i have never lost a sprint in my life, especially with 10 meters at the start of it. unfortunately all streaks must come to an end, because as i pushed my SRAM paddle to downshift it broke (after being in dire straights all race) and the AFC dude came around and beat me by a meter at the line.

i was pretty displeased after the whole thing because i thought i finished 26th, but i checked the results this morning and i actually finished 20th, so i am happy now.

2pm - Men 3/4: Chad Bartlett (DNF)

I had a great start coming off of the pavement in 10th place and airing it out over the gravel road complete with bike whip. It was RAD but the only people who could see it were those people behind me because there were no spectators there. I quickly moved through the top 10 riders just trying to stay ahead of any mishaps by other riders. Basically I saw Chris Caroway in front of me and decided I needed to get in front of him and stay in front of him because he was surely going to make a mistake and cause a gap to form between him and the lead group. That was probably my second smartest move of the race because that's exactly what happened. He did something on some corner and before I realized it our lead group was 5 guys and Chirs wasn't there any more. I felt great for the first 3 laps. I had just sat in the group not doing any work and being very efficient with cornering so I wasn't burning energy accelerating out of the corners to close gaps. Two guys from Bike Lane were in the group and they were doing all of the work at the front and were starting to get tired. I saw this happening on the back (uphill) straightaway so I went to the front and lifted the pace in an attempt to make them crack. I wasn't on the front for too long before going into the most technical corner on the course too fast. A totally off camber 180. I fell but got right back up. Without even looking at my bike I just assumed my chain had fallen off. So as soon as I got up I picked up my bike and started running up the hill while simultaneously cranking my pedals with my hands. This was the smartest move I made in the whole race because that put the chain back on while I was running up the hill and I didn't lose any ground. I was sitting in 5th position right on the back of that group. All was good for another half lap until I went into a corner a little too hot and hit a little bump. I stayed up but it pushed my tubular off my rim just enough that it was rubbing my brake as it came around. I made it to the pit still with that group that was now 6. I went in the pit grabbed my pit bike and I was on my way. The only problem is that just as I exited the pit I realized there was only about 5-10 PSI in my rear tire of the pit bike. RACE OVER!

* there were 125 registered for the 3/4, but only 90 finishers. without full results posted

3pm: Men 1/2/3 - Matt Bartlett (21/51)

I'm pretty sure this was the most stacked field MABRA has ever seen. On top of that, there were over 50 starters, which meant my time spent racing in no-man's-land would hopefully be kept to a minimum. The field delivered. I went for my Tacchino strategy of putting myself in the red from the gun and seeing how long I could hold onto the lead group. I successfully lasted longer than I did at Tacchino, but by the 2nd lap, I was out of reach from the leaders, settling into a more reasonable pace, and looking for the cash/fun hand-ups that the fast guys skip over (my favorite part of this season so far). While I didn't make as much hand-up money as I have in other races this season, I did successfully run the stairs while eating an apple with a dollar bill embedded in it. Cash AND refreshment! I was definitely having a good time out there, but was feeling really good too. This is probably the first 60 minute race that actually felt 'short' to me. The last 3 laps felt great, and I was reeling myself up towards the group that had been 30 seconds in front most of the race. I never quite reached that group, and I got passed by 2 guys who were leapfrogging their way through the field. That being said, I picked off a couple of guys who were popping, and maintained my 21st place position at the line. It was one of my lowest placings for the season, but I'm really happy with it considering the strength and depth of that field.

3pm: Men 1/2/3 - Ryan Dudek (49/51)
The elite race was horrible. I toed the start line with dead legs and fell apart after 3 laps. I tried to win at partying, but I think I only got second place. I did take one dollar, one beer, one cream soda, and one tortellini handup (thanks Carraway) after riding the stairs, though. After getting lapped, I grabbed my Raleigh out of the pit for maximum raddage. On the last lap, I broke the chain and slowcoasted to get the Rock Lobster back and finish. Overall, I had an awesome weekend. Good times, good friends, and new blisters on my hand. (I really need to get some of those TRP RRL levers on my singlespeed).

Kenzo Cross Winners

2011-10-24T11:56:00.001-07:00

Ryan took home the win, along with a course marker that he wrapped up in his wheel and $10 at last Thursday's Kenzo Cross in Philly.

Photo and race by Surly Rider

Granogue CX 10/15-10/16/2011

2011-10-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

A bunch of us Mid-Atlantic KHS riders went up to Granogue CX out in Somewherenearwilmington, DE for 2 days of racing this past weekend. The Granogue courses may not be the most technical ones around, but they’re always a suffer fest. No matter how they set it up, you go home feeling like the course was 75% uphill. There are very few places to recover. The conditions were unexpectedly dry this year, considering the amount of rain DC saw during the week. That was great news for me, because I could finally get away with the file treads glued to my new Hed Belgium/White Industries wheelset that JRABS built up for me this summer. Quick review/plug: super responsive and plenty light (1450-ish grams I think) for me... RECOMMENDED.

Anyway… on to the racing: I lined up in the 13th row (#67) of the grid in the 2/3/4 race (I need to improve my Bikereg race tactics), but I set my sights on a top 10 finish. Having gotten used to the 60 minute races in MABRA, I figured I’d just drill it 100% for the 45 minute race, and see what happens. The whistle goes off, and this is where things get a little blurry for me. I don’t really remember many details of the first few laps of the race, because I was really just trying to turn myself inside out and take advantage of any opportunity to make a pass. I didn’t care who was sitting in drafting. I just focused on the rider directly in front of me until I passed. Somewhere around 3 to go, I heard a spectator tell the guy in front of me that he was sitting in 9th. Mission accomplished as far as goals go, but I could see 2 other groups ahead of me within striking distance. Dropped him on the road and chased them down. About halfway through the 2nd to last lap, I caught a group of 4 or 5 guys, including the Shane Watters, the MAC points leader, and a few other people that I would assume are part of the lead group or the 1st chase group. I couldn’t see anyone in front of this group, but if there was anyone up there, they were probably out of reach with just a little over a lap to go. I decided that I was better off sitting in for a minute and taking some time to figure out how to beat these guys. I let them pull me through the 1st half of the last lap, and after recovering for a minute or 2, was able to determine that this actually was the lead group. Recovery section over… I started a couple of attacks. Only one person seemed to be able to respond and counter. I knew who’s wheel I wanted to be on (Alejandro Guzman) leading up to the line, and decided to stick to it until the last 150m or so. I’m sure he knew what I was doing, because he definitely started trying to entice me to pass. This little game allowed Nick Taylor to close the gap just before we entered the final technical off camber section. All I had to do was stay on Alejandro’s wheel. I had ridden this cleanly for the previous five laps, but started over thinking my lines, took a stupid one, and washed out my front wheel while correcting. That gave Nick the green light to go grab Alejandro’s wheel. I got up quickly, but kinda slammed my drive train into the ground in the process (this will come into play later), and watched my chances of a win sneak away. I drilled it for the next minute and a half, but couldn’t close the gap in time for the sprint. Alejandro took the win, and Nick took 2nd. The best I could muster from my legs at that point was to hold my 3rd place position and keep Shane from closing the gap on me.

While writing this, it kinda seems like an epic failure on my part to capitalize on a solid chance at a win. Yes, it probably was, but I it didn’t bother me that much. I still think this is the best CX race I’ve ever had, including past wins. While that one mistake was certainly untimely, it was really the only notable mistake I made the entire race. From a bike-handling standpoint, I'm not the cleanest of racers out there... especially not when I'm riding so far into the red like I had been for the previous 44 minutes. So to ride clean and fast enough to work my way through more than half of the field (and still have something left for attacks when I got there) was a huge confidence-builder. I met and exceeded my goal for the day, had my best-ever finish in a cat 2/3/4 field, my highest-ever kill count (64), and snagged a spot on the podium to top it off.

Ellis (31st), Ryan (39th), Blake (66th), and Uwe (87th) all raced really well on Saturday too.

On to Sunday's race...

I was lined up on the 13th row again, so I had the same goals in mind, but was also eyeing a win in the back of my head. The whistle goes off, and my bike (which ran silent during warm-up sprints) was making an awful clicking noise in the rear. I figured I was between gears or something, but the sound continued as I worked my way through the cassette on the start. Once I settled into my saddle, it kind of went away, so I tried to forget about it. I had made up a lot of places by the time I hit the first corner and was probably already in the top 35 or so. Greg was up front somewhere near top 10, and I was right behind Ryan, Ellis, and Sean.

Let me stop right here. Sean (on a single speed, BTW) registered day of and started on the back line of a 125 man field. Less than 500 meters into the race, he's sitting top 35. That's just crazy.

Back to racing... Ellis takes off, looking really strong. Sean, Ryan, Chad, and I get caught behind a small crash on the 1st tight turn. About 3/4 of the way through the first lap, I'm pacing through the field with Sean and Ryan. We're about 10 seconds behind Ellis at this point. Chad is following close behind us. About then, that clicking sound in my rear derailleur came back to haunt me. Apparently my 3rd-place-ensuring crash on Saturday had weakened my derailleur hanger, because it just snapped off when I got out of the saddle on a small climb. By the time I looked down and diagnosed the problem, Ryan threw his bike at me and grabbed mine. In hindsight, there are surely rules against this, since we weren't in the pit, but what's done is done. By the time I thought it through, I was already sprinting my lanky self away on a bike that is much too small for me. I'm still not sure it was the right thing to do, but I bring this up because stuff like this is what makes Ryan a great teammate. He's always looking for ways to help the team, even at the cost of his own race. While he was running my broken bike 1/2 mile to the pit, I was able to continue trying to work my way through the field and get to my better-fitting pit bike.

Coming out of the pit, I had probably lost about 5 places to Sean, who knows how many to Ellis, and Greg was still up in one of the front groups. Chad goes by me as I'm coming out of the pit, and we work together for a little bit to close the gap to Sean. As we were doing that, we were leapfrogging our way towards the top 25. Chad faded behind a little over the next couple of laps, but never drifted back farther than about 10 seconds from me. By the time Ryan got to his bike in the pit, he was WAY off the back and pretty much just trying to catch someone (anyone). As we got into the last lap, Greg was still fighting for a spot on the podium, Ellis was looking for a top 15, and Sean, Chad and I were still trying to catch Ellis. At the finish, Greg took 7th, Ellis was 18th, and Sean finished right in front of me in 21st (kill count 100+!!!), and Chad was 33rd. Ryan's generosity got him lapped and pulled at 76th place. Good day for the team with 5 out of 6 of us squeezing into the top third of a 125-man field.

-Matt

Lemonade

2011-10-12T19:08:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I drove down to Ellicott City, MD to stay with teammate Chad and Greg before racing Sunday in Hyattsville. After such a brutally disappointing day on Saturday, I really felt the need to redeem myself. Saturday night Greg and I watched Harry Potter while he rode the trainer. We also talked about bikes, racing, training, and our favorite kinds of apples. PROTIP: Right now, Honey Crisps are in their prime and in a few weeks, start looking for Jazz and Pink Ladies. After a brief trip to the store to purchase some apples, bananas, soy milk and butter flavored chemical spray, Greg made me a toasted peanut butter and banana sandwich on multigrain bread and went to bed. I watched more Harry Potter.

Sunday morning Greg bought me a coffee and went out on a mountain bike ride while I split for Hyattsville. I wanted to watch the beginner's race because Matt and Chad's father was doing his first race. I parked my car at 9:05 to see the C race finishing. What did they do, half a lap and quit? Nope, MABRA switched the schedule and the C goes off at 8:30. Bummer. My buddy Steve came out to watch some races before he had to go to work, and he bought me another coffee. We ran into old friends and joked around, I am really glad he is back from Oakland. Also, I think coming to watch the races may have caught him the bug, so I'm EVEN MORE excited for that!

After the Masters 3/4 race, I started checking out the course with 1.5 - 2 laps between each race, so a total of 6 - 8 laps before I started. The course was awesome, the new "feature" was a gravel climb with some logs that a lot of people were running for some reason, followed by a semi-technical descent into a mud bog. It was all totally ridable at first, but that mud bog became a death trap later in the day, sucking in wheels and trapping feet, even stealing a few shoes. (Note: if you are racing cross in a pair of shoes that only has velcro, buy new shoes before you lose one in a mud bog! My Gaerne G.Keira (#sponsorappropriate) shoes were AWESOME at not falling off my feet! I ate a few Honey Crisp apples and drank water (and coffee) and chatted all day. Also, my buddy Jason Pearlman from my first season of cross was there. His kid is in the Little Belgian's races now, so we cheered for Tal and handed out free high fives.

An hour to go, better get my number. Awesome, I get to start 89th out of 103! After looking at Cross Results, apparently only 83 starters toed the line. I guess that is a little disappointing.

Before the race, I was talking with friend/nemeses Chris Carraway about the course. His teammate had told him that through the climb, descent, and mud bog, he was running the entire thing and opening five second gaps on the guys around him. Well, I suck at running, but I took this into account. Starting in the back was going to mean that I would need to be really smart about what to ride and what to run.

At the line, I felt like I should just not start. I didn't want Nate to win our CROSS CLASH because he was starting 13th! Everybody knows that Cross Results is the truth and that nothing else matters! The whistle blows and we're off. Well, sorta. The guys in front of me just kinda stood there and couldn't get clipped in and then fought for position into the corners. I swear nobody pre-rode any of this. At least, nobody lined up near me! Coming out of the prologue, I couldn't even see the leaders. When I got into the baseball diamond corkscrew, they were through the finish. It was going to be one of THOSE days. Through the finish stretch, I passed 5 or 6 guys, but everybody was still elbow to elbow and fighting for 80th place. In the first hairpin, everybody dismounted. For a turn, in the flat, no roots, no off camber... just a turn. Sweet! Around a few more totally non-technical turns turned that must have looked like an infant playing with that toy with the blocks and different shape holes, and we were into a straight with some barriers about 70m up. I pedal hard and make up a handful of spots, dismount, run around a bunch of guys, and remount. Sweet, I've made it to about 70th.

After the barriers were a few technical turns near some trees, so I knew I had to play this smart or else I'd get taped... only the tape would be made of a dense, hard, organic matter. I actually dismounted and ran, and it proved successful. I made up another five spots. Through a puddle that people slowed down for I kept left when everybody lined up to go right. Success, I'm in 60th! Now we are zig-zagging through a super fun small ride with some chicanes and off cambers up and down it. I ran this as well. My body was saying WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, and I said BECAUSE I HAVE TO BEAT NATE! So my legs listened.

Going in to the woods, I must have been in the top 57, and I saw it in front of me. THE bottleneck to end all bottlenecks. People were fully stopped, stepping off of their bikes, walking up the hill, and for some reason shouldering the bike as they walked. Forget that! I suitcased the bike and ran. I made up at least ten spots here, and then I decided, heck, I'm already off the bike, might as well keep running (I GOTTA GET BUBBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), so I run down the hill and through the mud bog. This was the absolute best move I made in the entire race. I passed another ten guys doing this while they were busy falling over in the mud and skidding down the hill. PROTIP: Don't lean forward while you descend a cross bike through a loose downhill section.

Coming out of the woods and things are stringing out, finally. Time to see what I've got. I mean, I knew it was going to be relatively ok, since I had moved up to about 47th by now! I couldn't even see the leaders anymore, so I was a little bummed about that. People were riding in groups, and I was island hopping from group to group. Drop, catch, drop, catch, drop, catch. I was moving up steadily, and it felt AWESOME. Through the backsection, I was divebombing corners so hard as long as there was nobody else trying to corner. Tape to tape, no brakes, can't stop (don't want to either). Moving up, up, up, up.

Laps 2 and 3 were more catch and drop. Riding the gravel hill was awesome, and I was getting heckled for running down the hill and through the mud bog, but I had something to prove today. I had to get Nate. Smooth is fast, and I'm not usually one to turn down a crowd's request to ride something, but I wasn't going to lose my IMPORTANT cross clash with a teammate over riding through some silly mud.

Coming over the barriers lap 4, Matt yells out to me that I am 16th. Amazing! How did I move up this far, and where the crap is Nate? Hammer. Hard. I GOTTA GET NATE! According to my stem mount Garmin that Greg calls a laptop, I was averaging over 16mph per lap, and was pretty consistent on lap times throughout the race. Laps 3 and 4 were my fastest at 6:44 and 6:42 (both times average 16.6mph) and lap 5 was next at 6:49 (avg 16.4 mph). On lap 5, I caught Nate. And then I dropped him. CROSS CLASH SUCCESS!

I finished up 11th. This was a complete success in my book, considering the giant field, the horrible start, and my back row call up. Cross Results has me 2:30 behind the leader, which would be why I couldn't see him, but considering the gap they had on me in the first lap, and the traffic I had to deal with throughout the race, I am confident that I could have been in that top 5 (fifth was 0:55 behind the winner) had I gotten a better start. But thats racing. You either get series points or you register early, or you suffer with a bad starting position. I hadn't raced a MABRA race yet this season. I registered Thursday for a race on Sunday. This was all on me.

During the race, Bill at CXHairs was heckling me for running sections. He even told me that Nate was riding them, and this ALMOST got me to ride them, but then I found out after the race that it was a lie and that he just wanted me to fall in front of his camera again.

This course suited me very well. There were power sections that were broken up with some semi-technical (but not overly technical) turns. I kept a clear head and I kept the legs moving. Bill made a pretty rad video from the day, and the team is heavily featured. Mostly good, except for this one part where Patrick makes an absolute fool of himself and throws his bike through the mud.

Hyattsville CX 2011: Risk vs. Reward from In The Crosshairs on Vimeo.

Eating It, Too

2011-10-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Town Hall Cross in Bethlehem, PA is the PACX Series opener, and it is a course that suits my riding style. A little bit of climbing - but not straight up a hill, some false flats, power sections, and some technical turns to break it all up. I had marked it as a race I wanted to podium in my calendar. And well... yeah, lets just start from the beginning.

Lap 1 I accidentally took the hole shot because Jack Drummond decided to ride straight through the course tape instead of turning. I wanted to be second or third wheel so that somebody else could set the tempo up the hill. I eased up and worked back to second and then followed up the hill. Coming down was a little messy being in the group still. After a couple of straights and hairpins, we were riding across the grade of the hill and my front tubular just rolled a little bit. I stopped, put it on, and eased my way to the pit to grab Ellis' bike.

The pack was now stringing out so I had some work to do. Within a lap i had worked my way back up to seventh. In another lap, i was in fifth, and each lap after that i was making up small chunks of time on the 2/3/4 group. Until lap five.

At the start of lap 5, climbing the switchbacks, the 2/3/4 group had about 10 seconds on me, which is a lot, but achievable in two laps. Ride strong through the switchbacks and shift to the little ring for the short and steep climb. Only the chain doesn't shift, so when I torque it after the slippery grass, the chain drops. FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Run up the hill and throw the chain on, but sixth saw me slip up. He's making his move.

Bombin' down the hill and I'm ready to let him burn his matches to get my wheel. Through the turns after the barriers he is getting close, so its time for me to burn one. Stand up and put it on, through the ruts in the mud and into a sweeping left. And suddenly the bike is gone and my face is in the dirt. The bike hits me in the back of the head and I'm seeing stars. Six and seven pass me. The rear wheel is locked up. I fidget with the brake and get it to let go and eighth place passes me. Back on the bike, hurting, dazed, and wanting to give up. I can't tell if there is snot all over my face, or if I'm bleeding. I wipe it and its snot, so that is good.

I pass eighth in the power sections through the back and then, through a tight right hander up a hill, the rear tubular completely rolls. All the way. It was insane. It makes me wonder if the tubular had rolled head when i crashed and then popped back on when the bike hit me in the head. The more I think of it, the more this makes sense. I was in a sweeping left turn, and I high sided it landing on my right side and face. Either way, I am now out a helmet and owe Ellis a wheel gluing.

DNFs always hurt, and as sore as I am from crashing, the mental pain of a DNF is worse. Always try to finish after you crash. I'm still kicking myself for not running a half lap (uphill) and grabbing 10th - 12th place. But I could redeem myself Sunday in MD, plus, I was heading down to Greg and Chad's for the night for some partying!

***Unfortunately, I am having a hard time finding pictures from this race. I will try to update this entry if I find some.***

CXhairs and Winchester Apple cross.

2011-10-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

Watch more video of CXHairs on cyclingdirt.org

You gotta love Bill and the folks at CXhairs.com for doing what they do. Here's some great footage featuring some KindHuman all stars...

Great Lakes Report

2011-10-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

The bite in the air is a telling sign of what's on its way here in Michigan, winter. After a full and very successful season on the road and in the woods, we can take a few minutes to reflect on the fun we have had and mentally prepare for the cold and snow that is sure to be around the corner.

Cary Roseth had an exceptional road season in the masters 35+ category winning the overall points series here in Michigan while teaching us all a thing or two about a thing or two. He has shown us that hard riding is easily shown up by smart riding. He has proven when other riders are cross eyed with effort, its smart riding that lets you maintain wide eyes, and great fitness that will keep you on the sharp end of the bike race. Its been a great lesson to learn from a great teacher.

Greg Hughes also had a great season on the mountain bike. He won an all out battle in the MMBA points series in the mens sport class. He took his fair share of podium spots and it came down to the final race. Hard work, great tactics and super skills took him to the top. Seriously, he has the trophy to prove it. Greg is a model teammate and we are lucky to have him aboard.

In addition to many top individual results, at the end of July, a few of us got a chance to do a 100 mile team time trial in beautiful northern Michigan. It was a great opportunity to really push our own limits and enjoy the team in the true meaning of the word. The objective was to hold a certain MPH, to come in under "x" hours and obtain a bunch of other goals on the way. The race was good, the weather was great, and the company was unbeatable. The exhausted smiles on all our faces said it all, "I wouldn't trade this hell for the world". I can only speak for myself but I feel I echo the sentiments of the group when i say this wasn't my best result of the year, but it was the best result of the year. This my friends, is a team.

Cyclocross is here, late season mountain bike races are taunting us and we plan on keeping the wheels turning.

Respectfully,

Wade

There are four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer and Cyclocross.

2011-10-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, I stole that quote from Ryan Dudek. the king of quotes. Seriously, he has a trophy and crown somewhere in his office or something like that. I'm going to attempt to make this a short update with a lot of info, so here goes...

First: did you know that we are winning races everywhere? Yeah, Jen Franko won a cross race and Greg "The Great Meanderer" Capelle won like just about everything he's entered this season. If you're still on a single speed and beating the yokels, you deserve a PITD for not getting geared up and beating JPow and Ryan Trebuchet or whatever his name is. Big congrats. As I always say, wins are awesome and a huge feather to put in our team hat but just to have everyone out there being awesome and getting rad is what I appreciate most. I think we also owe Matt Bartlett a big round of applause for being a general badass. I also think everyone in the Greater D.C. Area should stop into JRABS.com's physical shop and give Travis a hug. If Travis isn't there, Matt's brother Chad will do. Chad, I want one awesome photo of you getting rad next week. Okay? Okay.

Second, we've always had riders on the west coast. That's where the team started afterall, but never in the cross-crazed Belgium-west: Portland, OR. Now we do. I'd like to offer a big team welcome to Heather Vanderzanden. I mean, her last name even sounds Belgian! Heather is going to hop on board as a Regional Director to help rep hard for the KIND kids in Portland and hopefully grow the team and the message out there as well. Everyone: WELCOME ABOARD HEATHER!

Third, Interbike was great. Cross Vegas was great. Meeting with sponsors was great. And even though, 98% of the time that I'm out there I'm lugging around a camera doing interviews for my day job at Hawley I do get to catch up with our sponsors, old and new faces and get some KIND talk going. That being said I was really excited to see some new products and catch up with old friends from our most awesome supporters at Ritchey, Defeet, Rudy Project, Nuun, Gaerne/GizmoGear.com, TRP and Challenge.

FYI: If you haven't heard, Ritchey has a badass new stem out called the C260. I want one, you should too. Here's Angelo, the guy that places your orders and gets your rockin' 'n rollin' Tom Ritchey's mustache style...

Also, another big FYI: an awesome company from Missouri who likes to give back in big ways has signed up to sponsor the team for 2012 (more details to come). I'd like to give a big welcome to Küat Racks to the KIND family and offer a huge round of thanks to Bill for setting everything up. Check out some of their latest products, here...

In all honesty, their Vagabond roof mounted cargo carrier that has integrated bike mounts and faring was one of the coolest things I saw at the show. I love it and hope to get on in the future. Oh, and if you didn't know Option + "u" than a vowel will give you a nice ¨ (umlaut). Get used to it. I expect you to blog about it.

Finally, I'd like to let you know that we are opening up another wheel order. I've had enough inquiries to make it happen. That being said I will be emailing you the "deets" on how to get in on the team order very soon.

Thanks for reading friends!

Kindhuman CX Camp

2011-09-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Adam,

I'm having a great time here at Kindhuman CX Camp. All of the other campers are really nice and they come from all over. Some people are from Washington D.C., some people are from Maryland, some people are from Virginia, and some people are from Pennsylvania. And my friend Uwe came all the way from New York City. My friend Blake rode his bicycle with all of his camping bags all the way to camp from Washington D.C. My friends John and Travis from Just Riding Along Bicycle Shop came to visit camp too. It's fun having my brother Matt here because nobody can tell us apart and we can play tricks on them. The first night was not very crowded. It was just a few of us and my friend Patrick had a lot of fun.

We get to ride bikes all day. It rained a lot on the first day and everyone was covered in mud. My friend Nate rode the course like it was a Slip and Slide. My friend Ellis hit a tree but he wasn't going fast so he was ok. It was hard for everyone to ride in the mud and people were falling and running with their bikes.

There are lots of really cool animals to play with too. There are dogs that play fetch and chase us on our bikes and my friend Sean said he saw a snake. He said it was wearing sunglasses but I think he was lying. At the camp next door they have a lot of animals and we can see them through the fence. They have donkeys, mini-horses, big horses, goats, and emus. The donkeys yell loud and we can hear them at our camp. There are some mean hornets. Me and my friend Ryan Dudek and my friend Ryan Carter saw one hornet eat another hornet in half. The front half of the hornet tried to fly away so my friend Ryan Dudek killed it so it wouldn't hurt anymore. There was a bee hive near the course and one of the Staff guys Mr. Mike poured gasoline on it to get rid of the bees. Later, my bike was near a bee hive and the bees tried to make my bike part of it's hive. They are fast workers. I think they like carbon. When I was playing with the dogs one day a stray cat was really mean to me. It bit me right in the arm and it made my hand fall asleep. I had to take a trip to the emergency room to get a ton of shots so I don't get rabies and die. I was mad because I couldn't ride my bike in the hospital.

When I got back to camp from the hospital, my friend Sean was buying a bike from my friend Greg. Sean isn't very good at buying things so when Greg said the price of the bike was $500, Sean rode it for 100 feet and then offered $600. Then my friend Nate bought a bike from my friend Sean!!! It had pink handlebars so it was worth more money than the one Sean bought. It was awesome! Just like a bike swap and it was probably better than Interbike. It was great to get back from the hospital to see it all happen. But even after that I was still mad that I didn't get to ride my bike in the hospital, so I rode by myself for a while and I felt much better. The course is twisty and hard. There are big logs that they used to make barriers and it's hilly too. When I finished riding I was sad because my friend Patrick had left because he was "crossed out."

The food is good. We get burgers and chicken and sausage and bacon and vegetables and burgers cooked in bacon and vegetables cooked in bacon. My friend Blake and my new friend Eric do not eat things from animals so they were not impressed. They just ate fruits and vegetables without bacon.

Night time here is fun because we sit around a fire and look at the stars. Some campers made fun of my friend Greg but they were joking and everyone laughed. My friend Ryan Dudek came on the first night and he brought a girl named Jen with him. I think it's his girlfriend. They showed up in a car from the Tour de France! I think it was one of Lance Armstrong's cars because it was yellow and it had so many bikes and wheels on it that I couldn't even count them. Ryan wanted to ride bikes at night so we put lights on our helmets and rode through the woods in the mud and the dark. It was foggy and scary at night and I hit a tree. But I wasn't going fast so I was ok. We stay up late around the fire and nobody cares. Matt is not good at staying up late so he fell asleep in a chair and everyone laughed. He woke up to say 2 funny things and then he fell asleep again.

The second day was not raining but it was hot. A guy with a HUGE truck showed up and I think he was the King of the Mountain because his kit had polka dots. He was looking for my friend Greg and when we said Greg wasn't there, he got in his big truck and left. We were nice and said he could ride bikes with us but I guess he did not want to.

We rode bikes all day and some more campers showed up. My friend Jim from Baltimore came and made us laugh because he is funny. My friend Brad came and he took Matt's bike and rode it around for a long time. My friend Sean hit a tree but he was not going very fast so he was ok. He was bleeding but he is always bleeding. Then a new girl came. Her name is Katy and when she showed up we all had our shirts off because it was so hot. She didn't leave right away so we were happy. She borrowed the bike with pink handlebars that my friend Nate bought from my friend Sean. She had never ridden a cyclocross bike before but she was fast and I think she liked it. After riding bikes all morning we had lunch and then we worked on some skills. We worked on getting off of our bikes, carrying them, jumping over a water bottle, and getting back on our bike. We all got faster at doing it.

Then my new friend Ryan Carter showed up. He was at a cyclocross clinic with a professional cyclocross guy named Jeremy Powers. It must have been a great clinic because Ryan's bibs had a big hole in the front. Ryan showed us everything he learned from Jeremy Powers. Even the Pro tips. We all rode bikes some more and we took some pictures. My friend Tim Day took pictures of us jumping over the logs. I took pictures of people riding through the woods and it was fun. The course was more dry so everyone was going sooooo fast. I saw my brother hit a tree but he wasn't going very fast so he was ok. I almost got a picture of it too. My friend Ellis never stopped riding his bike and he never put a shirt on either. He was crazy. My friend Ryan Dudek did a lot of wheelies and skids. in the afternoon, my friend Tim Chiang showed up and he rode bikes with us too.

After we finished riding for the day, my friend Greg showed up again. He had to go somewhere all day so he didn't get to ride bikes until we were all finished. When he was getting ready we SOAKED one of the corners with a cooler full of ice and water. Then we sprayed it with the hose to make sure it was really muddy for him. We rang cow bells, held out sodas, and put money in the mud for him when he rode through that corner. It was like a real race. He spilled soda on himself and he couldn't get the money. It was fun to do while we waited for dinner time.

That night we stayed up late again. This time my brother Matt did not fall asleep in a chair. My brother Matt, my friend Ryan Dudek, my friend Tim Chiang, and my friend Greg rode around the course that night. They rode for a long time and there was still money in the muddy corner that we made for Greg. Ryan picked it all up and he had $4. When they finished riding everyone got kind of tired. It rained again that night but it was not too wet in the morning except for the one corner that we made muddy for my friend Greg.

In the morning on Monday my new friend Will showed up. He is one of Greg's friends and he brought his own cyclocross bike to ride. We worked on riding bikes around corners and everyone got faster at it. After riding for a while we took a field trip to Just Riding Along Bicycle Shop in Laytonsville, MD. They have soooo much cool stuff there and Travis is really nice. My friend Jen bought a frame to use in the velodrome because she races there too. Other people bought little things and we talked about bikes. Travis gave out some stickers too. It was awesome.

The Staff here is awesome too. Mr. Mike and Mrs. Anna are very nice and they ride a bicycle built for two.

Overall the weekend has been great and everyone is faster now. I can't wait to race when I get over my rabies.

I Miss You,

Chad

Artwork by Ryan Dudek

Photo by Chad Bartlett

Photo by Chad Bartlett
Wheelie by Ryan Dudek

Photo by Chad Bartlett

5.1.2011 Race Report

2011-05-04T05:45:00.000-07:00

Hey, there. I'm Patrick and this is how I spent my Sunday morning. I took a trip to the other side of the Beltway this past weekend to race the Bunny Hop Crit in Suitland, MD. I had no goals for this race, although I was slightly confident after having a good week on the bike. I arrived an hour before the race with the usual pre-race routine: pick up my number, pin it, pull out the bike, check my pressure, lay out my pit wheels, dunk a Nuun tablet, and put in a few warm up laps. The course was suited for me: flat and fast with wide open turns and potholes-a-plenty.

As the race started, I lined up with the usual bunch who would rather have a spot in the front line than get in an extra warm up lap or two. At the whistle, I grabbed the closest wheel to the front I could and let the pace set in. I found myself in the third position for the first two laps, sitting nonchalantly on the wheels of an NCVC and WWVC ride. They both traded turns at the front. There were a few fruitless breakaway attempts during the first few laps. Finally, a WWVC rider made a breakaway that stuck. Everyone at the front of the pack just looked at each other, while the solo rider made his escape. He was finally caught after 6 laps.

With 8 laps to go a friend who rides with Raw Talent Life, affectionately known as Hood Ornament, sprung out from the pack and rode away from the front. I panicked because I knew he was strong enough to make it stick, while I knew he is prone to bonking hard when he pushes himself too far. I made an attempt to bridge. I chased for a lap, making up nearly half the gap. Hood managed to add more of a gap. I could feel myself fading, although I wasn't fully cooked just yet. I then did what a bike racer should probably never do: I started thinking. I weighed the risk of burning all my matches to bridge the gap and it sticking vs. the risk of Hoodie fading and the pack catching up to him. I bet on the latter. I stopped pedaling, took a sip from my bottle, and let the pack overtake me.

This is when the race got dangerous. More people were taking the insides of turns and sweeping to the outside, swerving to avoid potholes, and all that Cat 5 goodness. Luckily, I have the reflexes of a cat! I even received compliments on my ability to not be coaxed into a crash. With 3 laps to go, I came to the side of a friend from another team who was also riding without teammates. I asked him if he wanted to give a last lap bridge a try and he agreed. The only problem was I never got to fully communicate the plan with him as he moved up in the second to last lap. I pulled up beside him and tried to tell him to hold off until the second turn, but before we even passed the start line for the bell lap, he took off like a rocket. I did my best to hang on his wheel, but the front group anticipated his move. He was quickly caught and consequentially kicked up the pace of the pack for the last lap. A chase at this point was no use. Hoodie managed to stay away and took the win. I found myself in the middle front of the pack coming around the last corner. I lost one spot in the sprint, finishing 14th out of 41. Not a disappointing finish considering I'm still in my first few road races.

This weekend's lesson: I still have a lot to learn when it comes to tactics. As the nuances become more apparent, I hope to apply these lessons in future races. I'm content with my 14th place, but there is a slight sense of disappointment in my decision to give up the chase. I've had a few races that've played out for the worst based on my bad racing decisions. The lesson of this season so far has been "stop thinking, stop worrying, and just race."

Morgantown Road Race Report 4.2.11

2011-04-04T20:09:00.000-07:00

Greg, Chad, and I decided to head out to WV for some hilly spring racing. The course was a 50 mile loop with 4 major climbs totaling 3100 feet. For reference, the plan was to sit in until the first major climb at 23 miles, where we planned to ride with whoever was setting the pace. From there we’d be able to figure out who to pay attention to. The field would probably thin out along the way, but we planned to make our real move on the last climb. That one tops out 10 miles from the finish, and it’s downhill most of the way home. If we could be in a small lead group over the top of that last climb, no one was going to catch us.

The weather forecast wasn’t looking great during the week leading up to the race, and it was hard to figure out what was actually going to happen. We knew there would be precipitation, but with temperatures in the 30s, weren’t exactly sure what kind of precipitation we were going to have to deal with. On the way to the race, conditions only got worse. Trucks were scattered about the interstate, because they couldn’t make it up the mountains. We saw a couple of other cars with road bikes on them, so we figured we wouldn’t be alone if we showed up at the start line.

Photo by Greg Capelle

At registration, it was a horrible mix of snow and rain. Luckily, the race was delayed a half hour due to the weather conditions, so that gave us some time to set up the tent and hop on the trainers. The snow stopped, but it was still cold and wet. After throwing our stuff back in the car, we headed to the start line to drop our spare wheels in the support truck. We look around for a minute and see some trucks for some other fields, but don’t see ours. We were then informed by a helpful promoter that our race was already 3 minutes down the road. Greg, Chad, and I looked at each other for a second, and headed off to start our chase.

Since this was a road race with a neutral roll out, we figured they weren’t that far ahead, and with a little TTT warm-up, we’d be able to catch them before the 1^st climb. 6 miles later, we were on the back of the peleton and working our way up towards the front. We asked around to see if there was an early break, and figured out that one or two guys were up the road, but they apparently weren’t together. We just sat in and let the field dictate the pace to the first real climb of the day.

The first major climb came at 23 miles in. We caught the last of the early escapees right at the base. Once on the climb, we stuck to the plan and stayed at the front without actually setting the pace. It wasn’t blistering, but the field was starting to thin anyway. About ¾ of the way up, I’m riding right next to the guy setting the pace, and I feel like I’m only pushing about 75% effort. I looked at the guy next to me, and he looked redlined. I guess Chad and Greg were feeling the same as me a couple of wheels back, because the pre-race plan was about to go out the window. Greg turned to Chad and audibly asks: “Do you want to go?” Now that those cards were on the table, we didn’t have much choice. Chad gives an “OK,” they hit the gas, and I hear Chad say "Matt, grab my wheel" as they go by. I did what he told me. I just thought we’d end up creating a small break with a large KindHuman presence, but when we hit the top, it was just the 3 of us. I know we didn’t catch the field off guard, so I’m guessing the only people with the strength to match our move were caught out of position. Bad for them… lucky for us.

We crested the top, organize quickly, and start a screaming descent to the base of the next climb just a couple of miles down the road. We lost sight of the chase before we hit the 3^rd corner on the descent. The 2^nd of the back-to-back climbs was ridiculously steep. On the way up, I was thinking we may have made a horrible mistake by making a move with 25 miles to go. We assumed that whatever chase group had been organized behind would be just as cooked as us, and we decided to pace up the climb without going too far into the red. Once over the top and still out of sight from the chase, it was clear that this move had a good chance.

Following the 2^nd of the back-to-back climbs was another screaming descent including a blind entry to a hairpin that gave Chad a little cyclocross practice Greg some sweet fixie skid practice. After that little debacle we reorganized for the next 10 miles of mildly rolling terrain. We kept drilling the pace line through this section, but my rear derailleur cable housing had somehow gotten crushed, and I was having difficulty staying in a gear. To top it off, our little “late start TTT warm-up” seemed to be coming back to haunt me with some calf spasms. Greg and Chad carried the majority of the load through this section while I tried to recover. Surprisingly, I could actually help push the pace on climbs, but I felt mostly useless on the flats, just taking short pulls to try to give them a couple more seconds rest. Even though I wasn’t able to help as I would have liked, I knew we were more organized than the chase group, so we were most likely extending our gap through the flats.

On the second to last climb, we got a line of sight to the chase group. They were a solid 3 minutes back, and it looked like it was only a handful of riders. At the base of the last climb, we just hoped we’d stay out of sight over the top. The last climb was brutal. It started off tame enough, but eventually made a right hander into what looked like a wall. The pitch just continued to increase until we got to the last switchback that greeted us with a false summit. We had to keep going up for another ¼ mile or so, but with no sight of the chase group at the bottom of the wall, we knew we were home free. We pushed the pace on the descent, and kept a relatively moderate tempo through the rolling section to the finish. The finish was completely uninteresting, because I couldn’t even pretend to contest the sprint with my leg spasms. Based on the number of points we all had going into the race, we just agreed that it would be best to let me take the win. Chad took 2^nd, and Greg took 3^rd.

Photo by Fred Jordan

It wasn’t quite how we planned to do it, but Greg made a great call to make the change mid-race. The moral of the story is that if you pretend your leg hurts, your team mates let you win.

Photo by Stephen Mull (KindHuman CX rider who happened to finish 2nd in the elite field)

Soigneur and Team TOMS for 2011 and Beyond!

2011-01-20T10:59:00.000-08:00

I am proud to announce the beginning of a beautiful new friendship and partnership with the team over at Soigneur Embrocation and Skincare. Founded by Dan Socie with the help of his buddies Geoff and Michael, Soigneur's original embrocation cream was born and we are the lucky ones who get to use it. These guys are athletes too and they know that it takes a lot of gear and effort to have a great riding experience, they are simply focused on trying to make that experience better.

I'm excited for the first round of product to arrive so I can lather up my legs real thick and then go jump into a pond. Oh, wait. That's Karsten's job. Kdubs...how is yo' nuts? But seriously folks, jumping into a large body of water after over embrocating is a terrible idea. So don't do it. And use less steamy cream next time.

In all seriousness, though. I am very excited about this. I feel like Soigneur has a lot to gain from aligning themselves with a team like ours. I only hope that we will do our part to represent their product well and help them grow while we race our faces off each and every weekend!

Please visit our friends at: http://www.soigneur.net/

Iceman Cometh

2010-12-07T16:18:00.000-08:00

The twenty-first running of the Iceman Cometh Challenge was a departure from the "Niceman" we here in the Great Lakes Region have enjoyed the last few years. Northern Michigan treated us to 19o temperatures at the start of the race. On top of the frigid temps, we had a fresh two inches of white fluffy snow to deal with. For those who are not familiar with the race; it is a 29 mile point-to-point race held every year on the first Saturday in November. It rips through the Pere Marquette State Forest between Kalkaska and Traverse City in northern Lower Michigan. The Iceman has come to be one of the largest mountain bike races in the country; it draws close to four thousand cyclists including a large group of top level professionals.

The start found me cold and nervous (but mostly COLD). My previous years’ time put me in wave eleven, thirty-seven min. till the start of the race. This was a new format for 2010 in an effort to make the race smoother and less congested--- it almost worked. With my hands frozen hard as stone and my choice of gloves weighing heavily on my mind, we were off. Three miles into the race, it was one other rider and me leaving the rest of the group well-behind. I can only refer to this other rider as Bradley from Chicago. We worked together for about the first fifteen miles to leapfrog rider after rider after rider…. well, you get the point. The course, although flat, fast and wide was reduced to a single ribbon of dirt cut through the snow. This created conditions that were sketchy at best. The passing was fast and furious and the crashes were many. Extremely slick sections of single track with ice on anything in the shade made for one of the more demanding races I’ve had.

Bradley and I began to reach the rolling hills that carry you in to the Grand Traverse Bay area. His pace up the hills on his cross bike began to put me into difficulty. I wisely let him go. I managed to keep upright and struggled my way through the next seven to eight miles. All the while I passed group after group of riders. I had recovered nicely after letting Bradley go and was feeling strong. Chasing a goal of a sub-two-hour ride, I upped my pace.

With about five miles to go I started to pass a string of ten to twelve racers. I was flying by on the left up a mild hill, picking them off one after another. As I neared the front of the group, there, setting the pace was none other than Bradley from Chicago. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I gave him a big "COME ON BRADLEY!!!" Needless to say he was unable to

muster any response and I left him and the rest of the group behind. From here on out the traffic seemed to dissipate. I suffered up the last few climbs and snaked my way through the single track into the finish at Timber Ridge campground.

This marked the fifth time I’ve finished the Iceman and a new P.R. beating last year’s time by over thirteen minutes. I ended up eleventh in my class with a time of 2:03.34. I was hoping for a time of less than two hours, but considering the conditions I’m pretty happy, any other year I would have come in way below two hours. I owe a large part of my results to the great teammates of the Great Lakes Chapter of Team TOM’S Shoes, and especially Wade and Doug. Thanks guys. For those of you that haven’t run this race it’s definitely worth checking out. Maybe next year I’ll see a few more of you there. Oh yeah, if you want in you’d better be ready to register the day it opens (usually March) it fills up in a few hours.

Happy trails,
Greg

Movember! Post yer 'staches!

2010-11-18T05:08:00.001-08:00

Donate here: http://us.movember.com/donate/your-details/team_id/80590/

Spring "Mountain" Cross

2010-11-07T18:26:00.000-08:00

Well, the race is called Spring Mountain, but it's a half mile down the road from the Spring Mountain ski area, which is just one hill with a T bar. The race venue has maybe 50' of elevation change per lap. The course is on a large amount of land, but is laid out in a fashion which I call "nothing special". There are absolutely no interesting features, just a bunch of flat squares and circles. The closest thing to a fun obstacle was a volleyball court. You ride through it twice.

This year, we started on gravel and after a 30m sprint, we made a hard right. A square around a couple of soccer fields put is into a set of barriers and a hard right back on to the gravel start finish area, at the end of which we would make a hard left and on to the rest of the course. This prologue caused for a lot of dumb riding and high stress. After almost getting taped on multiple occasions, I was sitting somewhere between 15 and 20, but the lead group hadn't broken off yet. Pass, slow, turn, pass, slow, turn, rinse, repeat. Going into lap two I can see the lead five riders as I sit in seventh. Sixth is sitting in no mans land about 30m off the group, and I'm about 20m off his wheel.

After what felt like an eternity of chasing sixth, I had almost bridged and a guy comes FLYING past me and bridges the gap to the front with ease. OHHH thats what it looks like when you ride a bike? This inspired me to burn a match and I got on his wheel. The six of us worked together very well to complete drop the field. It was strange, you don't see six guys working together on the front of a cross race very often. Nothing interesting happened other than making bigger and bigger gaps on seventh until the last lap. I made a move through the bell and got caught in the sand. Another guy made a move, then another. We are half way through the lap and just trying to measure how the others are feeling. Coming through the sand the second time, there were a couple of bobbles, but everybody got back on within 10 seconds.

After the second time through the sand, you make a couple of uninteresting turns and head back into that prologue loop I talked so lovingly about. The first leg is into a headwind, and this is where the attack came. We popped one guy off of the back. Up the second leg, which was a hard packed crushed gravel path and the five of us are trying to attack each other. I was moving between second and fifth. Coming up on the barriers, I was in fifth. There were lapped riders at the barriers and they definitely caused some stress in the group. Two guys got around clean, the rest of us got caught behind. I got caught the worst, because I wasn't around them as they were remounting. Around the last turn and into the loose gravel start/finish and I had to take fifth. I couldn't bridge the gap in the short sprint that was caused by the traffic, but I was happy. Thats a part of racing, I can't complain about it. They didn't try to get in our way, it just happens.

If you have talked to me off the course, I've probably joked with you about me starting a blog called 'How Not to Podium'. I always finish in sight of the podium, but not on a step. I finished fourth at Parma after a mechanical - the podium was three deep. Basically, I am the king of making a really dumb mistake and costing myself a podium. I guess I was just relieved to finally step on and get that podium I've been trying to get, but we forgot the camera at home. Maybe thats the key?

I felt really good today. The Movember stache is wicked gross, and I'm loving it. I'm pretty sure that the crust on my lip and the silly band my nephew gave me are making me faster. Jen seemed really excited about the concept that having the facial hair of a pre-teen is making me faster. But I mean, seriously, check this thing out!

Highs/Lows

2010-11-04T19:09:00.000-07:00

Hi, there. I'm Patrick and this is how my weekend went.

I raced the C race at All Hollows Cross on Saturday morning and the B race at Kinder Kross on Sunday.

After struggling with deciding on a costume for All Hallows Cross, I finally settled on going at "Patrick Bartlett, the third Bartlett brother after Matt and Chad gave their approval.

I arrived in Hughesville, MD for All Hollows Cross with an hour to spare before my race. It was in the upper 30s and my hands were already numb by the time I exited my car. I surveyed the course before registration opened. The single track made me grin. The horse rings made me frown. I opted to only ride the course once and focus on how I'd approach the horse rings.

I started the race in the second row back. At the whistle, I gunned it, gaining a few spots as we approached the first turn. As we entered the sand pit, most riders tried riding the whole ring, while I dismounted and ran the second half. This gained me two or three spots. As I passed the finish line for the first time, Matt yelled that I was within reach of the top 5. I couldn't help but think that a podium spot was within reach. As I hit the barriers for the first time, I fudged an immediate left turn, costing me a position. I rebounded and took my spot back. Once I hit the single track portion, I was at home, cruising over roots, not even touching the brakes as I swung around corners.

For the second, third, and fourth laps, I maintained my position. After a few laps in the horse rings, I managed to find a path in the sand that allowed me to stay on the inside of turns, allowing me a spot or two or to close gaps. By the fifth lap, I had secured a top ten position, as I couldn't see a single person behind me. I caught up to a Coppi rider and racer sporting a Bike Rack jersey. We dropped the Coppi guy and stayed neck and neck for the remainder of the lap. We struck up a conversation on the last lap, discussing our strengths, who was up front, taking guesses at who would win the sprint. We lapped some riders as we made our final approach to the horse rings. I pulled ahead, coming out of the first horse rink. Mid-way through the second one, I fell as I foolishly attempted to ride all the way through. As I unclipped out of my pedal and lifted myself, the Bike Rack rider passed me. I hurried to exit the ring and remounted just in time to catch back up to him. By the last turn, I was gassed and I indicated I didn't have the energy to sprint. He pulled ahead by about ten yards before I decided I couldn't go down without a fight. So I dug deep and pulled out the last bit of energy I could find to pass him and move a place ahead.

I collapsed, feeling good about how I raced. Several people told me top ten. I ended up 8th out of 51. Not bad, considering just a month ago, I couldn't even muster a top 50.

Kinder Kross was not so kind to me. I decided to race it at the last minute, as I knew Nate would be there and there were still plenty of spots open in the B race. This was my first foray in the 3/4s, and despite still feeling destroyed from the day before, I decided to just have fun and don't worry about placing. An initial run of the course confirmed my anticipations of a poor performance. It was the complete opposite of the previous day's course. Lots of turns, off cambers, and very windy.

As the race started, I found myself in the back of the pack, unable to keep up with my more experienced peers. As I made my way through the first few turns, the gap between me and the main pack only grew. I conceded this race early, but I still held my own against a small pack in the rear, getting some distance on a group of five or so. By the second lap, I was zapped. Not aiding the situation was the fact that I was now running a 1x10 gearing that was not enough as I struggled to make it up even the smallest hills. As I came around on the section of fire road towards the rear of the course, I hit a bump, knocking my chain off. The one C3 rider directly behind me took advantage and whizzed past me while I tried to reset my chain. I tried to reset it a few times to no avail. It wouldn't stay on. As the rest of the 3/4s passed me, I accepted defeat and walked back to the finish line.

My first DNF was kind of hard to swallow. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, particularly in this race. At least it happened in a race in which I wasn't attempting to be competitive. I'll be looking for redemption come this weekend at Tacchino.

Some Belated Updates.

2010-11-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

For those of you that haven't been paying attention, OUR TEAM IS KICKING MAJOR BUTT! Certainly our best cross season to date, leaders jerseys and all. First and foremost, our uber long distance mountain bike racer Jen Smelser-Wood (or Wood-Smelser or Badass Mom )is a happy, healthy mother to her happy, healthy and adorable baby girl, Campbell Maddox...

...on behalf of the rest of the team, our sponsor and supporters; I would like to wish a giant congratultions to both Jen and her hubby. Y'all make cute babies.

Furthermore, after a year long hiatus Mr. Rob Jaimes himself (one of the fore-founding members of the team dating back to our roots in NorCal) returned to the single-speed cyclocross scene and managed to sneak some front rubber into a solid third place finish! I haven't raced cross in a year either...and I'm way out of shape. Does that mean I have a shot of stepping a TOMS Shoe'd foot atop a podium anytime soon? No. Not a chance in hell. Because I am not a badass like Rob.

I had the chance to see Rob for the first time since he likely last threw his leg over a bike before this race, at Interbike in Las Vegas. We gave hugs, cried a little and when the passersby became all too creeped out by the whole affair, we played it off the like tough guys that we are. It was really great to see Rob and his wife Nikki who also races for the team and you might remember from a certain SRAM commercial that was aired during a certain race for a yellow t-shirt:

"I Chose SRAM": Jaimes & Rubiera from Jim Fryer/BrakeThrough Media on Vimeo.

Here's a little piece from The Billionaire himself, Matt Bartlett:

"KH staying on top of the podium!"

I felt awesome on Saturday at All Hallows Cross. Got to try out the new Kona for the first time, and it friggin delivered. That bike is SO much more responsive than my Gunnar. I did not expect that kind of difference in feel. Anyway... the race started with a pretty weird prologue. It was a 100-ish meter downhill grass sprint off the line to a 75-degree turn. I expected mayhem, but most of us got through OK. I started on the front line, so that helped a lot. Shortly after the prologue turn, we head into the 1st of 2 sand pits (horse rings). I head into the ring in 5th or 6th, with Sean right next to me. I knew that was a bad place to be, because if one of us went down, we were likely to take the other with us. It was too late to do anything about it though. 2 turns into the sand, we run right into each other and bottleneck the field. We got back into the groove quick enough, and I caught back up to 5th just as a lead group was starting to form. This course is pretty wide open, so there's plenty of room to pass if you have the power. I pushed through the group up to 2nd, and saw Andrey Doroshenko (the guy who beat me out for the win at DCCX) starting to pull away from the group. I knew if I could get his wheel, we could probably walk away from the field together. This was another spot where I appreciated the Kona. I put the power down to make the bridge (not a huge gap -- maybe 5 seconds), and the bike responded instantly. I was on his wheel within seconds and hardly felt like I burned a match.

Once I was on his wheel, it was on. We traded half laps pulling, and put a 20+ second gap to 3rd by the 5th lap. I was really looking forward to a rematch drag-race from the prior weekend, and I think he was too. I even ended up waiting for him when he got caught behind some lap traffic with a little less than 2 laps to go. Attacking in lap traffic was not how I wanted to win the race.

With 1.5 laps to go, we came up to Ryan's famed barrier. They moved it down the course a bit this year, so the approach was much faster. Andrey and I were riding side by side, because that was about where we were trading pulls, and I heard a huge bang as I stepped over the barrier. I look to the right, and see Andrey running with no bike. His bike is flipping behind him, because he apparently didn't pick his bike up high enough and clipped the front wheel. I hesitated for a sec to see if he was going to get back on, but from the look of how it landed, I knew he threw his chain at a minimum. I couldn't wait for him to fix that, so I rode on to the finish alone. With a 20+ second gap, I knew I just had to ride smooth through the technical sections and continue to push the pace on the power sections. The finish was pretty anti-climactic, since I knew it was in the bag once Andrey had the mechanical, but I was really happy that I had put myself in such a good position to take the win. I was bummed that we didn't get to race it out at the end, but Andrey's mechanical was self-inflicted, so it's all part of racing.

Definitely the best race of my CX career (both in results and how strong I felt).

Most importantly... I'm hitting ALL of my goals for the season:
earn upgrade points (check)
podium in a 3/4 race (check)
top 10 in the MABRA 3/4 series (it isn't over, but I'm currently top 5 with only 4 races left)

...If you notice the guy showing some belly button, doing his best Mark Cavendish impression in those Oakley's, that's Greg. He USED to ride for us last year. We still love him. But his man-belly hair Fauxkley's look way better in a KindHuman BLUE! Great job to Matt and the rest of the Mid-Atlantic crew. Keep it up...now to the rest of y'all: RIDE SOME BIKES!

Chapeau team.

Cheers!

Cobbs Hill Cross

2010-10-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

I raced Cobbs Hill Cross in Rochester, NY on 10/10. Rochester never has super huge fields, which makes me nervous because it can make your result fairly skewed if there are ten really strong guys in a 20 man field. This year, Cobbs Hill was categorized instead of open, and there were 41 racers in the 3/4 field. DEFINITELY a record for the course.

At the start, I got in the third row because of my excellent scrum abilities. A few jokes later the whistle blows and we're off. Around the first corner and I make a good amount of passes, elbows out, looking wide. A guy in front of me goes down on the right and causes a bottle neck, but I squeak through clean. Going past the pit, another crash that I squeeze around clean and there is a 5 man lead group that I am chasing. I catch them through the technical turns and I am in 6th going into the single track. Out of the woods and along a slight incline power stretch of gravel and one guy pops off. This year, instead of riding up to the reservoir, the promoters force a run up by placing a barrier at the bottom of a water run off that is completely eroded beyond belief. The barriers up north are not the same size as in MABRA land, and coming in hot I bonk the barrier with my wheel. Front brake is locked up, run up the hill, put chain on, can't figure out brake.... ah crap I'll unhook it. Climb up the hill and descend without a front brake, through the finish in about twelfth. Pass two on the barriers, get to the pit and grab Mitch's bike. It has SPDs, I ride Crank Brothers, but I'll make it work while Jen figures out the brake. Get about 20m out of the pit and realize the front has about 25psi and the rear has about 12-15. GREAT. Fall back a LOT on the half lap on that bike, sitting in about 30 of 41, steam coming out of the ears. An excellent pit hand off from Jen and I'm back on the Rock Lobster and chasing... hard. Coming through the finish in 21st and see 5 to go. Can't stop, won't stop.

I put out maximum effort for all five laps. Two laps of chasing and I can see the leader ahead of me coming off the hill before I was going into it I'm sitting in about 15th, and now we're starting to lap a lot of riders. Going through the finish with 1 to go, Jen says I'm in 11th, and I can see a group of five riders about 60 meters ahead. Bridge, gap. Going into the hill there are three more riders about 30m ahead. Descend without fear, because hey, I have TWO brakes now (and this is why my futurewife is better than yours). I am blacking out all lap, I can't see straight, everything hurts, and I pass all 3 riders in the last turn and out sprint them into the finish, thinking I just finished 5th-7th. I check the results and they have me in 11th.

Regardless of what my official result was, I had an amazing time. My niece and nephew were ringing cowbells for me, and my nephew and I shared a chocolate milk post race. I left everything on the course, I didn't give up when I got frustrated, and I am happy with my result, whether it is 11/41 or 5/41.

I would also like to say how much I LOVE our new kits. You go to a race where nobody knows you and nobody knows your team, and they are able to see from afar that you ride for TOMS, they yell 'COME ON TOMS!' at you. Good, clean design. I really like that people don't have to try to figure out who we are when we show up some place. Good job Adam and Jen.

I am going up to Rochester for Halloween to race at Parma Cross and hang out with my family, since there is nothing happening in PA that weekend. Anybody care to join me?

-Report by Ryan D

Editor's note: Len & Karen Sorbello at www.FotoReg.com were kind enough to share these photos with us. Check out their stuff, its beautiful.

Two Days in 'Upstate' NY

2010-10-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

I raced on Saturday and Sunday at Westwood Velo's cross weekend, held in upstate NY (sorry Ryan, anything north of the Bronx is considered "upstate"), just outside of NJ. They scheduled their races a bit differently/in-reverse with the Mens A going at 12.30, B at 1.45, and C at 2.45.

I raced in the B's both days. The fields were about 27 racers each day. The course(s) was long. I know on Sunday we only did 5 laps (9min laps!), though Saturday may have been 6 laps... Fortunately for me and my riding style, there were few twisty/windy sections (though i'm getting more proficient at those), instead there were a number of straightaways, false flats, some muddy/soggy sections, and multiple dismounts (x2 sets of barriers, x1 set of stairs, and x1 messy runnup [or on Sunday only it was a rideup but only for some of the riders]).

I'm still trying to get a feel for my power/pain threshold, bike handling abilities, and race strategy. I've noticed that i need to work harder in the opening sprint, even if it requires burning a match or two that i may need later on; the positions i lose in the start are just too valuable. Nonetheless, on both days, i basically hold my starting position (mid-pack) going into the hole shot (compared to dangling off/near the back) and work to just pick people off in the early laps. And i think because of my very loud freewheel, a lot of people will make mistakes once i bridge up to them while i am coasting the sections they are pedaling.

Anyway, because of the relatively small field, by mid-race the gaps between racers is too large to continuously bridge up and/or work together. On Saturday, by mid-race, i found myself in no man's land and it was rather difficult to keep up a high output without a "target" in sight. So on Sunday, towards mid-race, i recognized i was in a similar situation, with the guy who finished a decent distance ahead of me the day before in front of me by a slightly smaller margin. Instead of just maintaining my position, i decided to burn a few matches and try to bridge. It took a lap or so, with me yo-yo-ing off his wheel a bit, but by my 3rd or so bridge, he basically sat up. I'm guessing each of my bridging attempts forced him to put in an acceleration that eventually tired him out. Or he may have been wanting me to pass right before the road section, so when i passed i made sure to put in a sustained acceleration to create a gap, it also helped that i passed a little before the stairs (also before the road), where i had been gaining distance (to only lose in the winde-y sections) all weekend. Anyway, bell lap comes around (remember only 5 laps) and proceed to bury myself in the power sections and run-ups (my strengths) while being rather cautious in the turns and off-camber stuff (my weaknesses), and am able to hold my position through the finish even though he definitely made up some ground towards the end.

Finished 9th on Saturday, 6th on Sunday.

–Report by Ellis Kim

Editors note: not pictured due to cropping and Ellis' head being in the way are his brand new TRP EuroX brakes. So fly.

Sunday Morning at Hyattsville CX

2010-10-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

I started the morning out like any other: attempting to follow the car with the cross bikes strapped to the Yakima roof rack. Its just easier to assume you know where other racers are going than to keep checking Google Maps' directions on your smart phone. It seemed like the guy I was following was onto me, because he pulled into a 7-11 parking lot off of Riggs Rd to make a u-turn onto Ager, giving him enough time to lose me as I got caught at a red light.

Once there, I went through the usual routine of gearing up, checking in, and riding the course. I didn't come up with much of a strategy during my test ride with the exception of take it easy on the 180s and sweep the outside if opportunity allowed. I tried riding over the second set of barriers to no avail. Noted the uphill u-turn, spiral of death, sandpit, etc, and decided one ride-through was enough. I was disappointed at the lack of hills.

9 o'clock rolls around and I find myself fortunate enough to be on the front line. By now, I was so used starting towards the back of the field that I didn't know what to expect as soon as the whistle sounded. Within seconds of the races start I thought I had moved from the first line to the third. I stuck with my strategy of not expending all my gas in the first lap, striving to move up one spot just to lose two spots on the fourth or fifth lap. I marked a District Velocity racer and hung onto his wheel for as long as I could. As I approached the second set of barriers, which were not but around 6 or 7 inches high, but started and ended a turn, an older gentleman attempted to roll over the logs, but fell. I couldn't help but think how he probably didn't ride the course.

By the end of the first lap, the pack was completely broke up. Matt yelled that I was within the top 25 as I passed all the TOMS B crew. Due to the absence of my Garmin, I spent the entire second lap wondering how many laps we would end up doing. This might have been the reason I took a tumble as I entered the sandpit, taking out two riders behind me. I rebounded quickly. As I approached the finish line for the second time, the lap counter read "3." I was relieved, as my mouth was already parched.

By the third lap, I was feeling like a champ on the barriers. I might have a little to do with the fact that I finally dialed my SPDs, unlike the past three races. I spent the entirety of the third and fourth laps maintaing position. Gaining a spot and losing a spot. I played yo-yo with an NCVC rider for a while. As I exited the spiral of death for the fourth time, I looked back and noticed a Route 1 Velo rider on a 29er about four or five spots back. By the end of the fourth lap, this was reduced to three.

I started burning the last of my fuel as I entered the fifth and final lap. Passing a few riders who clearly had nothing left to give. I made it past the second barrier set, and looked back to see the rider on the 29er rolling over the barriers with ease. I jokingly yelled, "that's cheating," to which he mischievously grinned at. By the spiral, he was one spot behind me. Thinking about how devastating it would be to my self esteem to let some guy on a mountain bike beat me, I tried putting as much distance between us as I could muster, but he was too strong to make up any more time on. I split my attention between the 29er behind me and two riders about 10 yards ahead of me that I hoped to catch up to. I screwed up a turn after the sandpit, costing me a few seconds and crushing my hopes of catching the two riders ahead of me. I managed to pass one rider on a Fuji, who seemed to have completely given up, during my last trip through the baseball field. With the 29er only a few yards behind me, I went all out as soon as I hit the pavement, sprinting as hard as I could as I passed the line by myself. You would have thought I was sprinting against myself.

This was the first race that I didn't immediately collapse after. The posted results said I finished 27th out of 72 finishers. My best result yet. I ended the race with a little more confidence, despite my end goal being to not get beat by a guy on a mountain bike.

–Report by Patrick Peoples

Big Expansion in the Mid-Atlantic

2010-10-11T05:53:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to send a note out to all of you that there have been big things happening in the Mid-Atlantic for us. Over the summer, we picked up some new riders who are currently killing it in MABRA land. Sean O'Donnell of DC is a true cat 4 cyclocross racer who currently holds the series leader jersey for the 3/4 field of MABRAcross. Additionally, we have picked up Stephen Mull of Richmond, VA who is ALSO a favorite for that field. Up north, we have added Ryan Carter of York, PA and Blake Rubin, who spends his time bouncing between DC and Philly and getting increasingly solid results in the 4's. Chad Bartlett hopped on board before the cross season, and he is getting very solid results in the 4 and 3/4 fields of MABRAcross. Karsten Walker, also of DC, has joined the squad and is looking to try his legs at 'cross, and he will be very solid competition for Patrick Peoples of Bethesda, MD, who has weaseled his way from top 50 to top 20 in the cat 4 field. Watch out for him in that 3/4 race by the end of the season! Ted Matherly is now back from the far east, so he will likely be joining that cat 4 field soon as well.

All around, this is a SOLID group of riders that I am very excited to see grow. Keep an eye on the blog for big things happening in our cross seasons.

-Ryan

WhirlyBird Cross Recap

2010-10-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

Report by Ellis Kim

I arrived at the venue around 10.30am. But i still had to find my bike and clothing which traveled from Philadelphia whereas I traveled from New York City. After a few minutes, we were reunited, and after a few minutes in the visiting team's locker room, I stepped outside to find out that I missed that small window between races to pre-ride. Oh well, looks like i'll get in one lap before my race. After some road riding with old and new friends, I got my lap in, but unfortunately it wasn't at race pace. This may have proved signficant, but not in a good way. Despite my relatively good starting position, 3rd or 4th row (I can't recall) due to my early pre-reg, I lost at least a dozen spots from the start. Maybe I'm not aggressive enough, maybe it was the wedding the night before. Also, i gave a few taps of my presta valves before the gun to drop a little air from my ~40psi tires. This would prove especially significant. At the apex of the first tight, semi-off camber, my rear wheel slides. To say the least, I was having trouble holding lines all race, even more than usual!! This led to me racing very conservative through turns and the loose stuff, so for about 85% of the race, I feathered more speed going into turns more than most while also taking VERY wide lines. Fortunately, i only went down twice!! Ryan passed me relatively early on, but he went down a few times too. Next time we should make sure to work together better since I think our strengths may compliment each other well (his sarcasm with my deadpan humor, unbeatable!). Also, beyond the two sets of barriers, there was no need for running, so no chance for me to work my bread-and-butter :( Anyway, my race ended up being sloppy/slow through the turns, with strong accelerations on the straights. Unfortunately, there were a lot more turns than straights on this course.
After finishing, and moping, I went for a cooldown ride on the road. As I began inflating my tires, it turned out that my rear was at, if not below 30PSI!! I prefer to race on 40psi! A young rider from my alma mater claimed that 30 PSI is what he uses, but then again, he's 135 lbs whereas I'm 190...
Next up, Hill Billy Hustle!

Ryan's Charm City Dirt Stache

2010-10-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

As Chad said in a previous post, I got a pretty wicked dirt stache at Charm City thanks to a 77th place starting position and super dry conditions. Photographic evidence thanks to Bill Schieken of In the Crosshairs.

Race Report for Charm City Cross

2010-10-11T05:35:00.000-07:00

Report by Chad Bartlett

Day 1:

This being my first cross race, I didn't exactly know what to expect. I made my 1st mistake early by showing up to the start area with less than a minute before the start so I had the pleasure of starting in the last row of the group. Considering my starting position, I was happy with the prologue. I was able to work my way past about 1/5 of the field by pushing it on the sprint up the pavement and staying upright through the chaos in the first few corners. For the 1st lap, the field was pretty grouped together so I had to pick my time to pass but was generally able to pass 4-5 people at a time on straight aways and pick off people in some select corners just by braking late and accelerating hard. The second lap was more of the same but the field had stretched out a little more so passing became a little easier. By the 3rd lap I had almost made my way into the top 30 and finally had some room to take the good lines through the corners. By this time I was basically only passing riders in select areas of the course. The sand, the fast but bumpy area in the field turning behind the backstop, the stairs, the straightaway leading up to the really off camber corner by the road, and tarmac section on the finishing straight were all areas I could pick off riders. By the 4th lap I had moved close to the top 20. I maintained a strong pace but tried to keep something in the tank for the last lap. I passed a few more riders and by the time I started the final lap I was right at 20th position. I continued trying to move up and picked off a handful of other riders. I put a big effort in leading up to the stairs to close a gap to 2 riders and pass them. I was now in 16th position and those two riders were right on my wheel for the 2nd half of the last lap. As we came out of the grass and onto the tarmac, I really pushed it hard up the hill to try to put a little separation between us so they couldn't draft on the straight away. I was successful but I had my only mechanical problem as we turned on the the finishing straight. My front derailleur struggled to shift into the big chainring and as we approached the finish line the two other riders caught my wheel and slingshot themselves around me as I finished in 18th place out of a field of 107 riders. I was happy with my first cross race and felt like I learned a lot in those 40 minutes.

Day 2:

After my poor starting position on Day 1, I made sure I arrived at the start area with plenty of time to be called up. On Day 2, I was number 355, so I still was not at the front of the group, but I was in better position than the day before. On the start, I sprinted past some people but mainly focused on getting into a good position on the right side of the road to set up the my passes in the first few corners. This prologue was a bit more chaotic than Day 1. A lot more rubbing wheels and people crashing around me. I think my crit racing experience helped me avoid some of the chaos and stay upright. As we made our way through the prologue, I found myself about 30-40 positions from the front in a dense group of people. I picked off riders one at a time through the corners by just picking my line, staying in a small gear, and punching it a little coming out of the corners. Twice in the 1st half of the 1st lap, one rider tried passing me by braking extremely late into a corner. Both times it ended with him on the ground and me riding around him smiling. A few corners later one of his teammates tried the same move, with the same results. This time I got around him as he was crashing but he took out a few people behind me. I quickly realized that my plan for passing was superior to that rider's plan. His unsuccessful move did help in creating a small break in the pack which took away any pressure from behind me, making it easier for me to move forward. So, thanks guy. I continued moving forward through the 1st and 2nd lap. Just as I entered the big turn around the tree approaching the stairs on the 2nd lap, I was passed by someone who was going into the corner way too hot. He went through the ribbon and soaring off the course cursing. I chuckled to myself because he was surprisingly wearing the same kit as the previous guy. By the middle of the 3rd lap, I knew I was getting closer to the front because there were large gaps between small groups of riders. I decided to push it hard to catch a group, sit on them and recover for a few seconds and then pass and push it hard up to the next group. This plan worked and I made my way into the top 10 by the end of the 3rd lap. At this point the leaders were pretty well spread out and I just had to settle into my pace and try to catch them without blowing up before the last lap. At the beginning of the final lap, I caught the 5th place rider and waited for my opportunity to pass. I finally got it when we got into the open field and the straight away before the stairs. I put in a hard effort to pass him, and managed to stay ahead of him up the stairs and through the technical part after the stairs. He passed me back as we climbed up towards the large barriers and I had nothing left to try to pass him again. I finished in 6th place. Ryan told me he was horribly disappointed in me for not making the podium. I told him he is a jerk and I didn't tell him about his dirt-stash (photo proof to come) which looked terrible.

Overall it was a good weekend and I learned a lot. I was happy with my races and I managed to stay upright the entire time. Maybe that means I wasn't pushing it hard enough but I like to think that it means I raced smart. I can't wait for Ed Sander this weekend to try to improve again.

Matt and Chad Bartlett host the first ever KindHuman Sports Cross Camp!

2010-09-14T07:35:00.001-07:00

Here's a nice little letter from Matt:

Thanks to everyone who came out to the first official Kindhuman CX Training Camp. I think it was pretty much a success. We had about 10 people stop by throughout the weekend, I had a great time, and I learned even some stuff. Based on some feedback that I've heard, I think everyone else felt the same way.

Saturday was sunny and beautiful with super-dry conditions. Greg brought a surprise guest lecturer (from Race Pace Bikes in Ellicott City), who led a really good session in cornering/bike handling. We also picked apart portions of the course, did plenty of hot laps, did some leisurely laps, and test-rode other people's bikes.

Sunday was fairly similar, but with rain all day, conditions got pretty slick. We worked on barriers, dismounts, and remounts, and had some more sessions on cornering, handling, and line-picking. Of course, there were plenty more fast laps to be done.

Mixed in with the riding portion of the camp: watching a few world cup CX races, watching the Vuelta, fireside chats, eating, drinking, merry-making, and some sleeping.

I took some pictures, but I haven't really gone through them yet. Hopefully some of them are good.

To those who couldn't make it, don't worry, we'll try to host some more camps down the road. In the meantime, the course is just sitting there waiting to be ridden some more. Just let me or Chad know if you want to come ride it.

-Matt

Matt races Greg in the Amish Country?

2010-08-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

Here's what Matt had to say about his Kirkwood Road Race:

"I did the a road race up in Kirkwood, PA today. It was a 7 mile circuit through Amish country with some short-but-punchy hills thrown in. I think Tim Day(???) was there as a new rider for Kindhuman too, but I didn't see him.

Anyway... I hitched a ride up there with Greg, so we had some time to come up with a good race plan. Even though he's riding for AFC now, we figured we'd try to do something together today. We pre-rode the course, and picked a poorly paved, stair-stepper of a hill as our attack spot for the last lap. I thought it might be a bit far from the finish (4 miles?) to make it stick, but it was definitely the best option to put the hurt on the field.

Greg and I were lined up towards the back at the start, but figured things would take a while to develop, so didn't think it would be a big deal. The race started, and within the 2nd mile, there was a crash 2 wheels in front of me. Greg had already moved up, so wasn't involved. I didn't go down, but had to slow to get around. There was apparently an attack at the front of the field right at the same time as the crash, so no one was waiting around to regroup and I had to hammer to close the gap. Caught back up, cruised with the group for another mile or so, and we hit the stair-stepper hill for the first time. Someone up front attacked, and I saw Greg grab his wheel. The people who were getting away looked like they could make something stick, so I figured we had to change our plan to make the move on the 1st lap. I was a little out of position, but leap-frogged my way up to Greg's group. I think I pulled 1 or 2 guys with me, and we had a breakaway of 10-12 riders. We had a 30+ second gap by the end of the 1st lap, so I figured this one was going to stick. It did, but we lost a couple of the weaker guys as the race progressed.

By the start of the last lap, we were down to 7 or 8. Since there were only a handful of riders to break, Greg and I employed our original plan when we hit our chosen climb for the last time. We both gunned it from the bottom, and I think we caught everyone by surprise. No one could follow. Unfortunately, Greg's calves started spasming towards the top. I eased up for a second, hoping Greg could grab my wheel and recover for a couple of minutes, but could see the group rallying behind. I decided to just go solo. With about 4 miles to the finish, I knew the next 10 minutes were going to hurt.

It was a long steady downhill section for the next mile or so, but I couldn't afford to do any recovery. Just kept hammering. As I rolled through the 2nd to last turn (still 3 miles out), I could see Greg and one other dude probably 10 seconds back. Just kept hammering. Greg and that other dude bridged the gap by the time we hit the turn onto the last leg (2 miles out). I was kind of happy that I might be able to get a draft for a little bit, but they burned too much energy bridging to be of any real assistance and the other 4 guys were no more than 10 seconds behind us at this point. Just kept hammering. The last leg of the circuit had 2 short and steep climbs. Greg and I put as much power as we could into the first one, leaving just the 2 of us out front with a little over a mile to go. I finally got a little help from Greg. Just a few seconds on his wheel helped me find some more energy. We clambered up the last climb, but I wasn't seeing straight enough at this point to be able to judge how big of a gap we had. Just kept hammering. Neither of us really remember what happened in the last mile. We were completely cooked, but could finally see the finish. By the time we got there, I had nothing left for a sprint. Greg came around me with 100m to go, but I was borderline blacking out, had vomit in my mouth, and could do nothing to respond. We finished 1st and 2nd with a 17 second gap.

Even though I didn't quite win, I was perfectly happy with my race. The pre-race plan was executed just about perfectly, and I was really happy to be able to make a mostly solo move like that and hold off a hungry chase group.

Really, I just let Greg win because he was my ride home. I'm just that kind of guy." haha Gotta love it.

Nikki chooses SRAM!

2010-07-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

One of the original Team TOMS Shoes members and all around badass, Nikki Jaimes was featured during this year's Tour de France as part of a SRAM Commercial Ad Campaign featuring professional riders from different disciplines. Pretty awesome!

"I Chose SRAM": Jaimes & Rubiera from Jim Fryer/BrakeThrough Media on Vimeo.

Bartlett, Baby Bartlett

2010-07-14T05:51:00.000-07:00

Kits have been shipped, check out Matt and our "newest addition."

Great Lakes Wrecking Crew.

2010-06-30T12:05:00.001-07:00

Look at these cheeky mugs. Some of the Great Lakes guys 'illin' before a race.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to Introduce...

2010-06-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

...Seren Amelia Rose Bartlett! Team TOMS Shoes resident badass and new father Matt and his lovely wife Nichole welcomed Baby Seren to the world the other afternoon. Both mother and daughter are healthy and happy, Matt had been seen sneaking hospital food and pacing rampantly in front of the hospital room doors...but that's only because it had been a few hours since he had been able to drope hammer on the bike. Once his dementia tremors settled, he was doing quite well, posting regular updates and turning his patented quips en mass.

So, on behalf of the team, our sponsors and friends...CONGRATULATIONS MATT AND NICHOLE!

Timmmaaay!

2010-06-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Jeez Tim, that kit is so dated.

Updates and dates and dates and dates...

2010-06-23T05:34:00.001-07:00

So, it's been a while, yes. I promise if you saw the sheer amount of technical clothing including bibshorts, jerseys (both in two different varieties), socks and a super top secret item that according to UPS is set to arrive today....(breathe in deep)...then you would totally understand.

I know we have guys and gals across the great American states hopping in crit races and endurance mountain bike events each and every weekend. So, kudos to everyone. A big kudos to anyone that lives in the southern states. Being relatively new to "the real south" I had no idea just how flipping hot it gets. I was brought up in humid regions and have lived in basically the desert before, but my Gob! It is HOT! One nice thing about training in said heat is that I lose approximately 8-12 pounds after every 2-3 hour ride. Oooonly to have it all come right back after I get out of the chamois which I'm pretty sure if I rode for another hour or so would adhere to my hide much like that of a screenprinted t-shirt...it's THAT hot.

Anywho, be excited. Gear is coming and so are some beebies! That's right, word has it that a TOMS Mom-to-be almost is! I don't want to relay too many details, I'd rather let the proud father gush with photographs of the healthy mother and child (their first) when the time comes. Good luck, godspeed and congratulations!

I would also like to give a warm hello to our good friends at Team Hoffenchard. These guys have just the right kind of fun-having, balls-to-the-wall, get-after-it, hup-hup-hup attitude that we at Team TOMS can and do appreciate. If you happen to come across one of these fellers or dames at a race or event or trail or road or bar or on a late night Wal-Mart run near you...be sure to say a kind a-hoy! Oh, and you can't miss them in their lovely dampened dandy pink and bastardized baby blue team kits that are generally worn in all applications. I'm pretty sure I've seen one of these guys walking out of church in their Hoffenchard kits. Seriously.

Best!

Gunnar Riiiiides!

2010-05-26T05:46:00.001-07:00

His report is way better than anything I could've put together, check it:

http://anello-grande.blogspot.com/2010/05/almanzo-100-2010-victory-or.html

2010 Tour of Battenkill through the Lens and Words of Ray Jones

2010-05-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

Team TOMS Shoes p/b KindHuman Sports has been blessed with the new pressence of reknowned New York Times photographer, Ray Jones as not only a documentarion but as a hard-boned racer! Today, we feature his documentary of the 2010 Tour of Battenkill...

"Well we did it, survived I mean. No crashes, no injuries. And here's how it all went down. The six of us arrived at the hotel in Shaftsbury, VT on Friday night around 11 p.m. For the most I think we were all filled with equal parts anxiousness and excitement. But we tried to get some sleep. Ellis snored.

We woke up at 7 a.m. on Saturday and the butterflies were definitely fluttering. I had done quite a bit of talking to my local friends who have done Battenkill in years past.
The one thing everyone talked was the final climb before the finish, Stage Road. It's all dirt and over 2 miles long. This was what I was most worried about. We had six riders representing Team TOMS in the Cat 5 field together. We were the largest team in our field and we knew that would be one of our biggest advantages. The biggest wild card was just how steep the climbs were going to be and how would our legs hold up? For many of us it would be the longest race we had ever done.

We donned our TOMS kits, loaded our pockets with gels and water bottles and tried to prepare ourselves for the wind and cold. We proceeded to registration at the school in Cambridge, tried to continue eating but it was hard. We used the bathroom many many times and pinned our numbers on each other in the locker room of the school. We then went on a quick warm up ride together and headed to the start line.

It was cold, cloudy and steady winds of 15-20 mph. Our primary goal was to stay organized at the front of our pack because we knew riders would start falling off the back early on and the pack would likely split. The dirt roads were numerous and the pot holes just as plentiful. Luckily everything was dry. It was a cold and windy start, the sun eventually broke through and remained but the wind was persistent and all over the place. In my group we rotated in a tight pace line and echelon when crosswinds arose.

The first two climbs were absolutely brutal. I was totally caught off guard. I knew the mileage for the climbs but I was not prepared for the grade of each. Our speed was in the single digits. As we predicted the pack split early on with about 20 riders out in front and the rest scattered behind with no organization. Matt and Greg were able to work together and maintain good position in the lead pack. I found myself alone in the middle, exactly where I didn't want to be. Tim was off behind me and Ellis alone in front. Ryan was also somewhere on his own. Unfortunately Ryan and Tim had to bow out. Ellis fought through the stomach sickness he had been battling and impressively finished the race on his own.

During a relatively flat and rolling section of the course I spent about an hour bridging a gap on my own to reach a group of four riders. I recovered and for the remainder of the race we worked together very well and made up a lot of the time we had lost. At around mile 55 we hit Stage Road, our last major challenge before the finish at 62. It was a long stair stepper climb with unfortunate casualties forced to walk their bikes all a long the way. When I finally reached the peak I was filled with relief and pride because I knew I had done it. The finish was just a few rolling hills away, on pavement.

At the finish Team TOMS gathered to reflect on the brutal race. I think each of us faced our own unique challenges but in the end we represented the team with pride and definitely had a blast."

...It's been a pleasure having Ray on board and it's always great to look through his amazing photographic work. The guy is a PRO. Of course, all photography comes to us courtesey of Mr. Raymond Jones.

For more of Ray's work please check out his Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raymjones/sets/72157623707388303/

2010 Tour of Battenkill by Matt Bartlett

2010-05-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

"The morning started colder than I would have liked (42 degrees), and the wind was steady at 15-20 mph. Figuring out how to layer up without overheating in the early afternoon was just the first challenge of the day. After a few trips into the school to warm up and eat some food, we headed to the line for a 10:30 am start. Our cat 5 field was about 50 deep, and our six Kindhuman riders gave us the advantage of having the biggest team in the group.

My goals for the race were to do the work for Greg and Ray, so they would have "fresh" legs for the last climb and finish. I had studied the course map and profile pretty intensely on the ride up to NY, and decided to tape the profile with some notes on my bars so I could relay info to everyone during the race. I figured we might be able to use our energy more wisely this way. A high finish was a bonus goal for me, but my main goal was to make sure at least one Kindhuman rider finished in the top 10.

The flag dropped, and we headed out, but not before 2 teammates from NY Velocity almost took each other out before crossing the start line (yay cat 5). As soon as the pace car pulled away from the neutral start, the attacks started. The most notable one came from one of the NJMTB guys. A couple of other guys tried to bridge up to him, but ended up hanging out in no-man's-land. My thoughts: with 60+ hilly, windy miles left to race, let them go.

After 5 easy miles, the course took a left towards a covered bridge and immediately into the 1st unpaved section. My goal from the beginning was to control the pace of the race from that left turn to the end of the unpaved section. I made sure all of the TOMS riders were close to the front, and I picked up the pace. Before we even got to the covered bridge, we caught all but one of the early attackers (the NJMTB guy). I drove the pack for the next mile or so, and we started the 1st climb. It was a steep one, and I could tell right away, that it wasn't going to be my best climbing day. Since I was at the front of the field at the base, I decided to let myself slip back as we ascended the steepest sections so I could save some energy for the 5 climbs to follow. After the descent, we made a sharp left onto the 2nd dirt section. It started off OK, but there was a really tough climb in that section. I ended up dropping off the back of the pack at the top, and had to figure out how to bridge back up on the descent and flat to follow. I looked back, and saw a TOMS kit that I thought was Ray's, and I slowed down so we could both bridge. When he caught up, I realized it was Ellis, and we started the chase. I accidentally gapped Ellis once I picked up the pace, but the 2nd pull was more successful. It was a couple of miles of hard riding to bridge, but we ended up back in the pack by the time the 3rd climb started. Luckily, that one looked a lot worse on the profile than it actually was. It gave me a little time to recover from bridging, but not much. Now we were in a 7 or 8 mile flat section with brutal cross winds.

When Ellis and I got situated in the group, we realized that they, including Greg, were pushing hard to try to catch the guy who had been out front since mile 1. I rode up to the front of the group and told Greg to keep his face out of the wind. At this point, I was thinking that if the guy on the solo break wants to do a 61 mile TT, he's more than welcome to do it. The roads were wide open through this section, and that guy was no where to be seen. I was pretty sure he was a really fast TT or MTB guy who didn't have enough group starts to be in a higher category. We probably weren't going to catch him, so our team isn't going to try. Greg and I sat back and let the rest of the group do the work so we could conserve. At some point during this section, Ellis and a few other riders dropped off the group. The chase group was down to about 15 riders when we hit the 60k mark.

At 70k, we hit the 2nd feed zone. At that point, we were told that the guy out front had 6 minutes on the field. There were still some delusional people in our group who thought we could reel him in over the next 30k, but most of us knew the race was for 2nd. After the feed zone, we started what turned out to be the hardest climb of the day. It was a long, dirt climb, with a lot of false summits. My calves had been on the verge of cramping since bridging back to the chase group an hour earlier, and the relentless nature of climb put the nail in my coffin. Not only were my calves cramping while climbing in the saddle, now my quads were now cramping while climbing out of the saddle. As Greg and the rest of the chase group faded into the distance, I prepared for a 20k limp to the finish. Luckily, I caught up with another rider in a similar state, and we worked pretty well to get ourselves over the last climb and through the final 10k of flat roads to the finish. I found a little more energy, and started fearing that the "group" behind would catch us on the line, so the pace was going faster than expected at that point. We even ended up catching one guy in the last 100 meters.

I took 12th overall, and was really happy that Greg took 9th. I wish I could have stayed with him through the last climb, but I felt like I did what I set out to do for the team. The guy with who was on a solo break away for 61 miles had a 10 minute gap at the end, and his overall time ended up being just 2 minutes slower than that of the cat 3 field. I was satisfied with my instincts to let him go. Even if we covered the break early, it seems very unlikely that our field could have controlled him in the end.

Ray stayed strong, even though the 2nd climb beat him up. His finish put 3 Kindhuman riders in the top 20. SOLID showing. Ellis looked good early on, the fact that he had a pepto-mustache on the start line didn't bode well. That guy is driven though. He must have felt horrible, but he pushed on and crossed the line. Ryan and Tim had a tough day, but snagged ride back into town in time to support the rest of the team on the line.

I had a great weekend, and I think everyone on the team should be proud. We represented Kindhuman well, both on and off our bikes. I learned a lot, and can't wait to apply it in future races. I'm not sure how excited everyone else is for this race next year, but I'm definitely considering it."

All Photos Courtesy Of: Raymond Jones

Midwest Crew's Race Season Underway!

2010-04-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

It's a shame I don't have kits for these guys yet, but I'm super stoked that the Midwest fellas are already hitting the roads. Here's how the Second Annual Barry Roubaix went down in Wade Burch's words:

"Michigan’s 2010 cycling race season is fully underway now that the Killer Gravel Road Race – The Second Annual Barry-Roubaix is in the books. Racers were treated to sunny skies but the morning lows were in the 20’s and by race start the temps only crept to 34 degrees with a 15 mph biting wind out of the southeast. We didn’t see 50 degrees until 3:00 pm, but it was plenty warm once the gun went off. The race had an increase in attendance by over 250%. Nearly 700 racers toed the start line! The route started on a paved park road with all categories starting together... SCARY!!! The local Sheriff provided a neutral roll-out for the first 2.5 miles and provided a controlled start to the day’s fireworks. Within seconds after the neutral start the pace picked up into the start of what BRX is famous for – gravel, dirt roads and steep hills. One of the more challenging early features was the “Mur de Two Track”, which forced many racers off of their bikes in order to traverse the fluffy, sandy sections. This section is more reminiscent of a Superprestige course than any traditional race – paved or unpaved. It may have been the most decisive part of the day...

(Wade, killin' it)

...Myself and Doug Derdowski raced the Expert 30-39 class and both had real positive results and more importantly, a great time. We worked together through the early miles of the race to split up the class and get it to more manageable numbers. We were at the sharp end of the Expert class when we hit the "Two Track", but unfortunately we hit the rear end of the Elites and it split us apart. I had a real lucky clean run through the 1.5 mile sand pit from hell, unfortunately Doug got stuck behind some walkers. This was a bit of a game-changer, but the race goes on. We both worked with small groups from time to time, but when it was time to move on, we moved on. I came in with a group of 5 or 6 and Doug powered it in with one parasite in tow. I ended up 5th on the day and Doug finished off the top ten. The race is an early season killer, but quickly becoming my favorite race of the year. the event is run super smoothly, the vibe is pretty relaxed, and its a true test of what you carried over from the fall. This is the kind of stuff that makes you check yourself all winter long. Good times."

(Doug, makin' it happen)

Sounds like Wade and Doug had thier hands full with this one. This would have been a great pre-cursor ride for our crew that's heading to the Tour of Battenkill, next weekend. I was talking with Mark Hekman of Team Mountain Khakis at a race on Saturday, he said Battenkill is a crazy fun, but crazy painful time...and that, my friends...is what this sport is all about.

'til next time...

Team TOMS Shoes on Mellow Velo Blog!

2010-03-22T15:51:00.000-07:00

Our newest addition and fledgling newb to the sport of cycling, Katherine Fuller is documenting her struggles and eventual successes (I know it) at her blog and through ShePedals magazine for the world to experience with her. She's got the perfect attitude for our team and hopefully, our nationwide network of likeminded riders will be able to chip in when necessarry along the way.

We are extemely excited and proud to welcome her aboard!

http://www.mellowveloblog.com/?p=289&cpage=1#comment-57

The Rider.

2010-02-12T13:07:00.000-08:00

"The greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is nature’s payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you’. Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few friends these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms, she rewards passionately.” -Time Krabbe, The Rider, 1978

Wintery Weather Racing!

2010-02-11T12:45:00.001-08:00

This is yet another blog post that should have been written a while back. Presently, we are in the midst of some jersey and sock orders as well as getting some decals made and lots of other fun and TOP SECRET projects along the way. So forgive me for my blog-tardiness. I know a lot of the guys are getting seriously fit in preperation for the Tour of Battenkill. We hope to do a fun little photo shoot for TOMS Shoes' "Day Without Shoes" campaign. Unfortunately, the weather is interfering with our plans a little bit, but I'm sure we'll find a way to make it work.

More fun stuff...some of the fellas from the Great Lakes and Mid-atlantic squads manned up and hit the trails for some seriously snowy racing. Here's what Greg Capelle had to say about the Snotcycle event:

"First of all I want to thank Plumgrove Cyclery and Gotime Racing who put on a wonderful event. Despite the arguably horrendous conditions it was run very smoothly and I think everyone had a great time. This is a great venue, a great race and I hope we can get more of my KindHuman teammates out there next year!

Driving out to this event, in Leesburg, VA, you already knew it was going to be an interesting day. When the C race went off, the ground was pretty much clear. The snow was pouring by eleven o'clock and the accumulation was at least four inches by ten o'clock when the SS category left the line... the ground was frozen solid. I doubt if the temperatiure ever broke 25 degrees.

There was no order to the line up, first come first served, which landed me starting in nearly the very back of the field. Luckily the lead-in to the single track was long and wide and, having raced this event last year I had plenty of confidence to make up 20 or so spots before we even got in to the woods.

I continued to make up ground, bridging to groups, picking them off and bridging up to the next. There was plenty of lap traffic to deal with on the second lap and between that, two crashes and a rear rotor that will never again see race day. I'm very happy with 10th place and I'm looking forward to a season of even better performances for TOMS and KindHuman.

Was a great day, can't wait to get the kit back on with some of my fellow riders and really pick the competition apart!"

Greg...you are rad. And kind of fast. You should have seen the gear ratio he was pushing at Urban Cross at IX in November. Dude is nuts and I love the guy for it!

A new addition to the team, hailing from the lower peninsula of Michigan, Bradly Potter recently put on a snow covered event that drew in some pretty big names! Some might be familiar with a certain six time consecutive winner of the Leadville 100 (until a certain yellow jersey wearing Texan had to steal the spotlight last year)...Dave Wiens showed up! WTF!? Really!? Dave mother-lovin' Wiens! I don't know how Brad was able to pull that off...but ku- ... -dos. Here's what Bradly had to say about the event:

"Myself and another member of our local MMBA chapter put together a simple grassroots short-track race on an old golf course (currently working with the city to turn it into a bike park and establish a weeknight short-track series). Being the middle of winter and early in the morning we only had 15 racers, but I think most had fun while suffering over the 1.2 mile course with 115 feet of climbing per lap. We do not have many elevation changes in the Lansing area, so I felt pretty good about the distance to elevation ratio. Here is a quote from Wade (Great Lakes Regional Manager) the day after the race, 'Did Wiens say anything to you about me? Did he mention the bitchen leadout from the start I gave him? It was like 3/4 of a lap. He owes me and I think he knows it." In the end, Jesse Gould took the top honors in the A-Class with Dave Wiens right behind in 2nd, and Ron Stack further back in
3rd."

Great work fellas. Hearing that y'all are putting events like this together and getting out there in the bitter, bitter cold weather makes me truly proud. That is what this team is all about. We are blessed to have such positive influences for our sport and for the "One for One" mission out there riding, racing, suffering and freezing thier butts off on the bikes week in and week out! It's going to be a great 2010!

NCCX Series Finals Photos...

2009-12-08T16:20:00.001-08:00

Burly Matt.

2009-12-08T07:35:00.000-08:00

Matt found this photo and sent it my way. i have to give much credit to the photog, Dennis Smith, for capturing Matt at his best. Cyclocross, you gotta love it...

All Good Things...

2009-12-07T16:04:00.000-08:00

I must first wish a huge congratulations to Bryan, of the Mid-Atlantic Crew, and Patricia on welcoming "Buns" now known as Dominic to the world, last week. I've seen videos and photos and the little dude looks just like his daddy. If he grows up to ride half as hard as his father, Dom will be one helluva racer!

With the news of Dominic being born being passed around our team member's inboxes, Matt (also of the Mid-Atlantic Crew) informed me that he and his wife Nichole are pregnant! He didn't want to steal any thunder from "Buns" because he's that kind of a guy, but I'm not that kind of guy. In my mind, it's not stealing thunder, it's re-categorizing the storm! CONGRATULATIONS! I have to say, it's pretty amazing how many newborns there are within the team as well as "on the ways" on the way! What an exciting time for all of the new mommy's and daddy's and mommy's and daddy's to be! Our family just keeps on growing. As team manager, I've already sent out training schedules and logs for our junior recruits...I'm expecting some great results in about sixteen years. ;-P All kidding aside, many well wishes and congratulations are due in part on behalf of the rest of the team, our sponsors and supporters alike.

Cross season, for some is just warming up (kind of an oxymoron, with the weather only becoming colder) for some and dwindling down for others. All in all, Team TOMS has had some great showings thanks to our riders all across the country. This weekend, Matt and a few of the guys participated in the Cap City Classic where the grounds were covered in a blanket of snow! Here's his recap on the day:

"Four inches of snow on Saturday, and a sunny 40+ degree day on Sunday made for a fun slog through a lot of REALLY cold mud. Ryan and I decided that the weather was warm enough that we didn't need anything covering our arms or legs, so we went with short sleeves and bibs. I think we were the only ones without warmers or long sleeves! It was our feet and upper legs took the brunt of the cold, because they were in direct contact with the most mud and splashing.

Ryan and I both registered really late, so we got lined up in the back of the grid. Ryan decided to gun it at the start, and worked his way through a LOT of the field really quickly. I, on the other hand, was chatting with the dude next to me and took whatever you would call the opposite of the hole shot. Most people were trying to stick to the tracked down muddy line on the first lap, so there were lots of opportunities to pass if you wanted to ride through the snow. I didn't realize it, but I guess I passed a lot of people during the 1st lap. By the time I caught up to Ryan (2nd lap), we were sitting somewhere around top 20 (this was cat 2/3/4 race). Because of the mud, there weren't a lot of power sections, and I guess we were both handling the mud pits a bit better than most. We kept creeping through the field.

The muck led to some mechanical difficulties, and Ryan ended up being stuck in his granny gear for the 2nd half of the race. Alas, he still kept in contact with the group. I had a good deal of chain-jumping going on with my cassette and icy-cleat issues, but I can't say my issues were anything worse than anyone else was dealing with. I took some bad lines on the last 2 laps, and had to run some muddy sections that I really should have been riding. For some reason, I was able to run kinda fast for once, and ended up gaining a place on the 4th lap and holding my spot on the 5th lap. I held off a guy who consistently beats me and tends to be really strong at the end of the race, and finished 14th of 40+ starters. On the final lap, Ryan made a good passing move to bridge up to our friend Chris, but he found a root or something under one of the snowy lines and went down. The fall ended up messing with his rear brake cable, making it really hard to get the bike moving (even with his granny gear). The whole incident ended up costing him 10+ spots on the last lap. Kinda sucks, because he was having a great race and the results don't really reflect it accurately.

Even if we didn't podium, TOMS was noticed for being the idiots in the shorts and short sleeves..."Here's Ryan's take:

"The fall actually pulled my rear brake closed, and ten people passed me while I figure out what the issue was. I then pushed a guy up the hill I was at the bottom of, remounted, and finished my race with a crooked stem and still in the granny gear.

On the last lap, I found an ice patch and went down trying to bridge another gap and soft pedaled the rest of the lap so i could finish along with my friend Danny."

I raced my second official race of the season, thanks in part to my bike taking so long to arrive. (Big kudos goes out to Chris Lowe, again for letting me borrow his rig for Urban CX at IX a few weeks back). I(Cat4) along with my Clemmons Bicycle pal Josh Tucker (Cat1) lined up for the SingleSpeed category of the North Carolina Cyclocross - Tanglewood event. It was a solid course layout that was allegedly setup by North American cyclocross living legend, Jon Hamblen. The course was super fun with some very fast and some semi-technical areas that were only made more technical by the amount of mud buildup between races. My big mistake was trying to follow Josh's wheel from the start. I successfully managed to do that, until lap two where I found myself vomiting asiago cheese bagel into my mouth. I recovered a bit and am pretty happy with how I finished up the race. More than anything, this was a really fun course with some really fun people. That, my friends, is what cyclocross is all about.

I also pseudo-previewed the new kits. I am not the brave soldier-type like Ryan and Matt who will rock the short sleeves/no warmers combo. Call me a wuss, but it was friggin' cold!

Thanks for reading!

MABRA Championships.

2009-12-03T06:56:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Jen for taking and posting these great photos of our boys in action!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamtoms/sets/72157622923547240/

Old Smelly Jerseys.

2009-12-02T17:16:00.000-08:00

It's a funny thing being a cyclist. When it's time to consolidate your wardrobe there are lots of jerseys. They aren't just things you wear when you ride your bike, they are a memento of a time and a place. Your first this, or the last time you did that. I was wearing this one when I had my first crash. I was working for this company when I wore that. Old teams. New teams. That bike shop and this one. After going through and separating which ones to keep and which ones to toss, I struggle. These are reminders of who I was, then. It's tough saying goodbye, but in the end, I guess it's just a smelly old jersey anyways.

DC Crewnesssss...

2009-11-29T20:09:00.000-08:00

Today, at a cross race somewhere in Virginia, or Maryland or Delaware or Pennsylvania...wherever the DC Crew was at, we reeled in some great results! You can tell there's a lot of inter-team rivlary because the fellas always seem to place within a couple places of each other...new addition to the team Rez finished 18th, with Greg following at 19th, Matt at 20th and Ryan rolling in around 34th. Pretty solid. I'm pretty sure if Nate had raced he would've been somwhere between Rez and Matt, that's just his style. Ryan is still suffering from a bout with bad karma after chasing InTheCrosshair's Bill around Urban CX at IX with a broken grip shifter. This upset the cycling gods which lead to Ryan breaking his own shifter in the middle of the following race. Ryan, my advice to you, just race singlespeed...I mean you ARE a copy cat and got a bike JUST LIKE MINE...you might as well ride it. haha. Ryan knows I love him and I'm kidding, he'll probably beat my ass come NCCX Winter Series. Jen finished in a solid 16th place, but she's a sand bagger and if she would have actually went for it, she probably would have won. She's basically a PRO. Great job fellas and Jen!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all,

I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. Whether you're spending it at home or travelling to see family and friends, be sure to enjoy this day. I like to put aside all of the "bads" for one day and concentrate on all of the "goods" in my world. For example, BAD: bonking at mile 79 on a 98 mile ride. GOOD: not being pulled from the Urban Cross at IX race. In all seriousness, I'm really thankful to have you all on board with the team. 2009 was in fact a great year for the team in terms of growth, in terms of finding itself and also in terms of garnering lots of great coverage for our mission and the whole One for One movement. I've had countless emails from people who have seen our riders at races and were immediate fans when they heard about/saw what we were all about. DailyPeloton and PezCyclingNews took notice as well! On this Thanksgiving I want to give thanks to you all (the team) because you're the people that make these things happen. After we get all of the triptophan out of our systems and we ride a little closer to Christmas time and the New Year, I hope that you all are as excited as I am for all of the good things to come.

Thanks for everything guys and gals. To you and your family, Happy Thanksgiving!

Can't You Feel The Spanish Flava?

2009-11-17T13:26:00.000-08:00

How fitting is it that on the same weekend that Robert is racing a giant road race in Spain that Sean would be racing the inaugural edition of the Vuelta a Miami! I know both of these guys were pretty amped for these events and rightfully so.

Here are their write ups with some photos, unfortunately, I haven't found any pics from the Vuelta of Sean but we were able to dig up some photos of Robert in the breakaway as well as his very loud orange skinsuit (he hasn't received our team gear, yet). Enjoy...

ROBERT VOKES: BENIDORM RACE
"It was bloody windy, decent temperature +19C and the course is the same one as every year. The funny thing is that I'm no where as fit as last year, but this year the race plan worked better than last year, I got the script in 1999, when I won here. Last year it worked, but being with 3 pros wasn't a good plan, and I got a very good working over! This year I only had Guillermo (Olympic Silver Medal at the track pursuit in Beijing.. he has also ridden a number of world cup track events, came back from one this week.. so no slouch on the bike) and, having him tell me before the start that he'd attack me if we were in the same group, just because he cant kick my ass in the sprint was a fair warning!! (he was my lead out man for 2 years.. so we do get on well, and know each others weaknesses.. but hes screaming fit at the moment, and I'm dragging my ass).

So anywhy, I followed the script, saw 3 guys come along with me, and waited to see what would happen, next lap Guillermo and Lorenzana (ex-Masters World Champ, current European Masters Champion) bridged up..the race unfolded more or less to plan until the final prime, where I lead out one of my friends and going up the hill Lorenzana attacked... I didn't have the gas to go, and got dropped, but.. as luck would have it, and my knowledge of the circuit, i eased up, on the hill, just enough to make the best of the descent, and really rode for my life... took me 1.5km to catch up. One lap to go, Lorenzana attacked again, I was out of position to chase and ended up with 4th place... If I'd have been offered 4th for one of my feet before the race I'd have happily signed!!!"

SEAN O'NEILL : VUELTA a MIAMI
The most anticipated road race of the year! The Vuelta a Miami. With the winner getting $1000 and 14th place getting $100 this thing attracted the big guns. Frank Trevisio (winner of NRC Pro12 races and Las Vegas USA Crits) and Yosvany Falcon (NRC podium finisher) were present. Other Pros came out of the wood work to stake claim to the cash prizes.

No race like this has ever taken place in Florida. A road race starting and finishing within the city limits with a serious rolling enclosure on heavily used roads made this a MUST event for all serious Florida racers.

All week the weather has been partly sunny with periods of mostly cloudy and seriously windy conditions. Intent on making the Vuelta a Miami akin to a Ardennes spring classic, mother nature saved the best for the race. The race conditions were as follows: Temp: about 80 degrees, mostly sunny, Wind: from the E at 22mph with gusts up to 35 mph! Yep, if felt like springtime in Belgium (save the temp).

The Course is a 72 miles out and back loop which starts out heading west and slightly south and west again for the first 5 miles. Then it runs North and slightly East and North again before turning back. So, the last 5-7 miles are directly into the headwind. Lots of fun! The first five miles were run with speeds reach over 38+ due to the tailwind. Then we turned into the wind.

Prior to turning into the wind I moved up into the front third of the field knowing that once we the wind hit us the field would split quickly. And boy did it split. Barely 20 minutes into the race a breakaway with about 8 pros got off and the peloton as shattered into chase groups. We were strung out across both lanes (this rolling enclosure thing is nice!) and I as in the gutter of the first chase group of about 30 riders with the next chase group about 40 seconds behind and various groups formed after that. We were going 29 mph into a 22 mph crosswind and I was getting no protection from the wind in the gutter. At almost 6' tall and 148 lbs, I'm not built for these conditions! My HR was at 190 (my max for my age) and I was praying for a couple echelons to form... Wait, this is Miami, these guys aren't thinking about setting up echelons! Actually, to give them some credit, not many people can think while enduring the death march that the Vuelta quickly became. I could not continue at that clip so a sat up and jumped on the next group... and then the next. I quickly discovered that most of the people who I regularly race with (Cat 3s) got caught out behind my and I was rolling with the Pros before my heart almost exploded in my chest! from here (mile 20 or so I was just trying to pull my weight and get this thing over with! The Wind (yes I capitalized it) never let up. I was one of 3-4 people actually taking pulls and we would shed riders and pick up the leftovers from the chase groups ahead...and then shed those riders.

Eventually we saw the leaders come by us on the other side of the 4 lane highway separated by a large grass ditch. I thought to myself, at least I'm almost half way done. The Wind continued to batter people all the way back and then we hit that 5 miles directly into the wind. All I can say is... not fun. I started to pick up the pace about a kilometer out from the finish and sprinted got passed and tucked in behind the guy who passed me and sprinted again across the line (this as a seating sprint since I had almost nothing left in the tank. I have no idea where I finished, but I know it couldn't be worse than 40th."
All I have to say is helluva a job fellas. I know Robert seems to be at peak fitness nearly year-round...so we can expect to hear more fun stories (with a British accent) from Spain.

Sean only keeps progressing and I think he is building some great confidence as well as race fitness for 2010. he is going to kill it in the Cat 3s next year!

Great job fellas!

Mitch Gets His First Win!

2009-11-17T12:55:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time coming now and much deserved. We've seen Mitch's progress each and every time he throws a leg over his bike. You gotta owe it to the kid, he's got some talent and for what talent he is still developing, he makes up for with a sheer will to win. He's a great kid that comes from a great family and an very supportive crew by way of the Team TOMS Shoes DC Crew. Here's what Mitch had to say about the race... "On Saturday, I raced the Wayne Scott Memorial Cyclocross race in Fair Hill, Maryland. It was a great race, and the course really leant itself to my riding style. The juniors start at the back of the B Women's race, which is cool, but also creates a bit of a bottleneck. I had a pretty good start and found myself riding with the two leaders of the MAC juniors series. The sand pit was awful and I had a hard time with it, I hadn't really ridden sand pits before, but over the barriers I felt great. Must have been the PRO-tips from Ben Popper at the SpectaCross clinic over the summer.

I rode my race and made some moves, Julian Meier from Bean's Bikes would make his moves, and we attacked back and forth for forty minutes. Justin Mauch from NCVC ended up cramping up and dropping back, so it was basically a race for first and second. Julian was having a few issues throughout the race - a dropped chain, somebody going through the tape in front of us and the tape getting caught up in his wheel. On the last lap, I put in an effort that created a good gap into the downhill and first set of barriers only to have him bridge right back by the cement barrier. I had an issue getting back into the pedals, but Julian was running around one of the women, so when I kicked my front wheel from the mis-clip it wasn't that bad. In the barriers in the barn, I put in another move and he was behind me going around the last turn into the uphill finish sprint on the road. I put in every ounce I had left and got my first win. It was awesome, people were cheering for me and the team had a huge showing of people cheering me on throughout the course. It's pretty awesome to have people yelling for you and letting you know what was happening in the race, and the encouragement was awesome as well.

Sunday, I raced at the Spring Mount PACX Series race. It was a really hard course and there was some real power sucking mud and long grass sections with a few technical sections between them. My legs were a bit tired from such an effort the day before, but I rode a pretty good race. I ended up getting third place in the Juniors race. Julian Meier from Bean's Bikes was racing in the C's, so it was my goal to catch him even though he had a two minute head start. Well, I reached my goal, and we talked a bit after the race. We both said how much harder the effort seemed because of Saturday. He finished up 24th overall in the Men's C, great job Julian! I can't wait to race again."

Mitch is such a humble character and a real clas act for his age. Can't wait to see him develop out of the amateur ranks...at this rate, he'll be giving Popper tips in the PROS in a short amount of time. :)

You Should All Be Here...

2009-11-14T19:01:00.001-08:00

...the team is having a stellar weekend here in Charlottesville, VA, in preperation for Urban Cross. After a fantastic spin amongst the University of Virginia football fans sprawling around the college campus, we stopped for an amazing lunch at The Main Street Cafe. Mmm....tuna melt with roasted tomato spread and sharp Spanish chedder cheese next to a white bean salad. Perfect. We got lost a little bit trying to find our way home from the course recon mission, then had more food.

Unfortunately, Bryan is feeling a bit under the weather. We're hoping he shapes up for tomorrow.

About the course, let's put it this way: there are no straightaways, about 10% of the course is flat, there is a foot deep sand pit, curbs, stairs, barriers, grass, mud and an abandoned warehouse.

I'm scared, not gonna lie...but it's going to be a hell of a time! Stay tuned....

Choonimals partners with Team TOMS Shoes!

2009-11-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

I'm proud to announce that Team TOMS Shoes p/b KindHuman Sports is partnering up with Choonimals Clothing Co. for some fun, casual wear for 2010 and beyond! Choonimals is a cool, fun company founded by some cool, fun people. They are huge fans of TOMS Shoes and recently participated in a "Style Your Shoe" event at Ohio State University, along with many other TOMS related events.

You can check out some photos from the event here: http://www.choonimalsclothing.blogspot.com/

They also support a really great charity called Develop Africa, Inc. Choonimals will donate 20% of all proceeds of thier trademark Grauf t-shirts to help support this non-profit fund. Very, very cool.

So head on over to www.choonimals.com to see more about what they are all about!

Look What I Got...

2009-11-03T16:54:00.000-08:00

Jealous? Best part about it...because I bought these, another child who doesn't have shoes gets a pair just like 'em! Cool, huh? You should go buy a pair, like, yesterday. Based on my shoe collection, twelve kids have shoes who didn't have them before. Just sayin' ...get to work! :)

One for One!

2009-11-02T16:18:00.001-08:00

All-Hallows-3rdRace-075.jpg

2009-11-02T16:17:00.001-08:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

All Hollow's Cross!

2009-11-02T16:14:00.000-08:00

Team TOMS Shoes had a great showing at All Hollow's Cross and I'm regretting very much that I didn't take my Potsy Weber from Happy Days costume a few hours north to join in on the fun in the mud with the game. Two weeks, figners crossed...two week for Urban Cross! Below a race report from noneotherthan Matt Bartlett, himself with photos of the crew. Lots of photos. :) ""All Hallows was pretty fun this weekend. It wasn't very heavily attended, being a non-series race on Halloween, but it was a good showing for Kindhuman. Tim represented in the Cat4 race, and me, Ryan, Nate, and Bryan were all in the cat 3/4 race. The course was almost pancake flat, but the rain made it kinda boggy in places. There was one section of single-track-ish stuff that was pretty fun. Other than that, the course was a hammer fest.

I had a pretty good race. I felt much better than I did last week. I had an issue with my glasses fogging up, then falling out of my shirt collar in the 2nd or 3rd lap, so I ended up doing most of the race with fuzzy vision. It really wasn't a big deal, except for all of the roots in the single-track. I was really worried about pinch-flatting because I was taking horrible lines. By the end of the 4th lap, I had worked my way solidly into no-man's-land between 5th and 7th. At that point, I changed my strategy from trying to catch 5th place to finishing clean and holding 6th. I was pretty sure I'd end up washing out on a corner or pinch-flatting in the woods if I pushed it much harder, since I couldn't really see the good lines very well, so I decided a 6th place was better than a DNF.

Bryan finished right behind me, and Nate was just behind him. 6th, 7th, and 9th and Ryan finished in 12th.""

Great job to all involved! I have to say though Nate's "Triathlete" costume was pretty superb, but Ryan definitely takes the cake for the inter-team costume competition as your favorite cop from Reno reality television and mine: Lieutenant Jim Dangle of Reno 911 fame! His brand new, all purple custom Rock Lobster bike definitely fits the character's bill to boot. :)

Lieutenant Dangle also took a shot at the Best Barrier Competition...here's how that went down...
The Lieutenant after making solid front wheel contact with the earth...

Right about now is when the human body is left to gravity's fate...
Houstan, we have landed.......HARD!

Thanks to his Rudy Project Kontact helmet, the Lieutenant survived. Gleeeeeeeeee!

Many thanks go out to the DC Crew for these fun photos and memories! Can't wait for Urban Cross!

The Googe's recap of "12 Hours of the Hill of Truth"

2009-11-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

"This weekend I joined my old team from last year to compete in the 12 Hours of the Hill of Truth. Last year we competed on singlespeeds in the open class and finished second by only a few minutes. This year team Asswipé (az-weep-ay) was looking to win. In addition to the team that beat us last year, there was a collegiate team from Union College and another local singlespeed team looking to spice things up in the open class.

Morning of the race saw over 2 inches of rain on a place that usually takes a week or two to dry out. I lined up as the first rider to go off. Determined to win, we hoped that by adopting the strategy of having everyone do two laps at a time would gives us an advantage (and provide more time to sit around and drink beer between laps and less time in a muddy chammy). I took off on the first lap and kept pace with the leaders until 3/4 the way through the first lap when we hit the Hill of Truth. The Hill of Truth consists of a mile long drag up a powerline cut about about 10-16% grade. Trying to conserve for the second lap, I walked up the hill and lost contact with the front group. After my two laps were done we were in 3rd place in the open division, where we would remain for the rest of the day. Due to the slow pace of laps, I didn't have to get back out and do any more laps. Instead, we ate a deep fried turkey, drank beer, and spectated for the Huffy jump/toss (jump a Huffy off of a ramp as far as you can, then see who can throw it the furthest when said Huffy is no longer rideable).

Overall, team Asswipé finished in 3rd place. Rest assured we will be back next year."

Great job Matt and Team Asswipé! Next time, instead of rocking the oldschool Specialized kit in place of the Team TOMS kit...I think Matt and his old pals should get on with a an all brown skinsuit, or maybe a slightly less tasteful white skinsuit with brown skidmarks. haha

Great job fellas!

Nate's DCCX Recap.

2009-10-25T17:47:00.001-07:00

Straight from the horses mouth, Nate himself, who along with about a bazillion other Team TOMS riders participated in this weekend's District of Columbia Cyclocross edition. Enjoy!

"There were 100 or so starters in the B field at DCCX - tough field because no travel was required. We started Matt, Ryan, Bryan, Greg, and myself. Unfortunately only Matt, Greg and I finished. Ryan rolled a tubular on the first turn, and Bryan had some rear wheel/brake trouble that I barely spotted when I rode past him. After the start, there was a huge stoppage on the left side of the course that caused everyone to go right, and then of course there was a huge stoppage on the right, which I was sort of caught in. I got out quick, but not as quick as Greg, who suddenly was in about 20th position, coming up from starting 70th. Some jokester rode Greg off the course a few turns later and I passed their mess and never spotted him again, but Greg ended up beating half the field on a singlespeed mountain bike! Huge showing from him, plus he's a great guy and I can't wait to ride with him more. Billionaire (Matt Bartlett) was ahead of me the whole race; I typically assume I can't catch him because he's superhuman, but I got him today! It was right after some jerk was shoulder-checking me for three straight corners (I beat him). Matt and I grouped up and rode the last lap pretty much together. I finished 27th, and I'm super pumped because I've never come close to that high in the B race before. So huge success for me, at least. I know everyone had fun hanging around after the race. TOMS was well-represented, I'm not sure there was a team who had more starters than we did."

Here is Matt's follow-up race recap:

"My races over the last couple of weekends were OK. Flatted at Granogue, but it was so muddy that I have no idea how long I was riding on the rim. 34th out of 94 in the 2/3/4 at Wissahickon. I felt pretty good about that race.

DCCX this weekend was good, but I didn't feel as strong as last week. 30th out of 100+ in 3/4. One dude took me out once, then nearly took me out a 2nd time. First time, he washed out on a corner and took me and the dude in front of me with him. 2nd time, he couldn't remount after the run-up and decided to run down the hill dragging his bike sideways by the handlebars behind him. He got a stern WTF look from me as I was riding over his wheels and frame through the 180-degree corner at the bottom. Nate blew by me on the last lap, and as hard as I tried to hold his wheel, it wasn't happening for me. Nate finished 27th I think. He looked really strong."

On another note, our resident Brit in Espana rode a stellar race today at a race whose name I can't for the life of me remember. But I think there might have been snow involved? Robert said he rode a stellar race until the final climb where he so poignantly explained that he "blew like a stuck pig." Better luck next time, oinker. ;-) Just kidding of course, love having some Euro-Flava' reppin' the One for One movement across the Atlantic! Looking forward to hearing more race reports from Mr. Vokes.

A-for effort guys! I gotta say the DC crew (or District Delinquents, as I like to call them) are a great group and I'm always super stoked to hear about their race successes and failures alike. Lots of talk has been passed around about some Charlottesville Urban Cross race. I'm thinking I may have to meet up with the Delinquents for this one! Please keep your fingers crossed my cross bike arrives in time so I can get my ass handed to me by Billionaire, Bryan, Capelle, Tim, Nate and Ryan.......well, maybe not Ryan. :-P

Gotta love the inter-team rivalries! 'Til next time...

Way Overdue, Way.

2009-10-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

Fans, Friends and Persons Who Race Bicycles,

Team TOMS Shoes has been busy...it's cross season! And with the majority of our road and mountain bike racers competing in our sports' red-headed-stepchild-little-half-brothers of their own respective disciplines, (no offense to any little-stepchild-half-brothers that happen to be of the red-haired descent) cyclocross season is a busy one for our team.

Adding to the excitement, DeathRow Velo is busy manufacturing our brand spankin' new team kits...including our WAY badass new cross-specific thermal skinsuits. These new kits will be the perfect kick in the ass after a hard summer of riding on the road to get ya' back in the action on the bikes of the knobbier tire kind. A huge thanks go out to John Landino of DeathRow Velo and Jen Franko our designer (jenfranko.com) for all of their hard work and patience throughout this process! Badass status has been achieved by the both of them.

A shoutout goes out to Scott Gelbke, a new rider from NorCal who complete Levi's Gran Fondo, this past weekend. He was one of 3,500 riders including present and former PROS from all over the world. Not to mention it covered about 1-bagillion feet of climbing on some of Santa Rosa's toughest "hills" ...Scott Nydam went on to "win" the event, although technically it was not a race.

Before we get to the knitty-gritty details of early cross racing results and photos, I must take a moment to thank PezCyclingNews.com for their mention of Team TOMS Shoes. I should also take this moment to introduce and welcome our newest additions to the squad:

Aaron Malys is a badass blogger who lives and breathes all things bicycle, from New York state. He is also a talented designer, husband and father. His major goal for 2010 is to compete (and hopefully do really well) at the Tour of Battenkill. Erick Hirschorn is another new addition from the Big Apple. Craig McKnight is a fresh new addition to our Ohio crew along with Tyler Wolfcale who won't be too far while representing Team TOMS Shoes in Indiana. Tim Chiang is a new recruit who will be joining our "DC Delinquents." You will be seeing some photos of him from recent competitions, below. Rounding out our new additions while taking home the Most Distant Rider Award is Robert Vokes. Robert is a British-Native living, working and Riding in Alicante, Spain. He will be spreading the good word to riders across the pond, next year. On behalf of Kind Human Sports, TOMS Shoes, our team and our sponsors...WELCOME ABOARD!

I figure the best way to encapture all of the recent racing is to compile some photos and results for y'all to see in a cute and compact manner. Enjoy! :)

18 Hours of Scouts Honor (August 15, 2009)
Team: Mitch Franko, Ryan Dudek, Matt Bartlet, Guy Franko

7th place out of 10 finishing teams in the 4-Person Men's Team Catagory

Bear Creek Resort MASS Finals Weekend (September 13, 2009
Mitch Franko: In is first individual mountain bike race, he finished 7th place in the Beginner Junior 3 XC (16-18).

Charm City Cross (September 20, 2009)
Mitch Franko: 4th place out of 14 riders in the U19 Mens Category.

Bryan Billington: 56th out of 125 riders in the 2/3/4 Mens Category.

Nate Chenenko: 69th out of 125 riders in the 2/3/4 Mens Category.

Here are some photos from our guys and gals at Whirley Bird Cross and Ed Sanders Cross...all in all being the competitive, but really fun crew that they are!

As always, a huge bit of thanks go out to our supporters and sponsors alike. Formally I would like to thank my father Mark, Bill Messenger, Jeremy Johnson, Joe Cahoon, Chris Lowe, Greg and Robin Huff, Kyle Wardle and Tommy Wallace who have each purchased a Team TOMS Shoes p/b KindHuman Sports kit, helping our team spread the message across the globe!

Also, another huge set of thanks go out to Rob Richardson at Rudy Project, USA for his continued support with glasses and helmets for our team. Rob recently hooked me up with a new set of Photochromatic lenses for my ExoWind optics in a dire time of need! Thanks Rob!

Thanks for reading! Keep it rubber side, down and faster than the guy behind you! :)

Burly Matt.

2009-09-15T02:36:00.000-07:00

Gotta give credit where credit is due, this time credit is due late apparently (Team Manager has been way too busy for his own good). A couple weeks ago, a member from our DC Crew, Matt Bartlett competed at the Devil's Backbone Cross event somewhere between Charlottesville and Lynchburg, Virginia. Out of the 135 entrants, Matt finished in tenth place overall!

Now, I don't know what's a more ginormous achievement, though. Matt finishing 10th overall or Matt finishing 20 minutes behind the event winner, Jeremiah Bishop of the MonaVie/Cannondale Cycling Team? For those of you who don't know who Jeremiah Bishop is...he is a pretty burly pro in the mountain and cyclocross scene. And when I say burly, I mean USA National Champion in the Short Track and Marathon Mountain Bike Events, burly. Burly. Burly.

Matt and the team are super proud of his result and his finishing time of 3 hours and 58 minutes. That's just a tad under 4 hours on a BURLY 62 mile course with about 6,000 feet of climbing. According to the organizers the course was 50% paved, 50% dirt, but I don't believe them. Accodring to Matt the course came in around 60-70% dirt.

Considering how well Matt did this year (as a non-pro) I'm thinking that next season, Team TOMS will have to field an all on off-road assault and see if we can't creep onto the podium!

As of 5:52am, September 15, 2009...I officially have retired the word burly from my vocabulary.

Congratulations go out to Matt on his...................err................KICKASS ride! :)

Crossroads Classic 2009.

2009-08-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

Figured it was about time the Team Manager gave some personal race updates. I competed at a few races during the Crossroads Classic week long event. It was a great series put on by Gene and his crew at Swagger.us, that concluded the morning of the Presbetyrian Crit in Charlotte with the Hanes Park Classic looming the Sunday after. I'm not too proud of my personal results, but I can say that I had one helluva time! I missed racing and I'm so happy to be back at it. That being said, I have my work cut out for me before next season and I'm looking forward to REALLY getting back into the swing of things!

Points and Points and Points and Points.

2009-08-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

As some of you may or may not know, in the sport of cycling there are points awarded at different series of races in different locales in different disciplines. Some count towards a series leader, a state leader or a national points leader. Now, many states determine their state champions in a lot of different ways. Some, like in North Carolina and California have one-day competitions in pursuit of finding their "state's best" for the given year. In Ohio, it works much differently. The Birthplace of Flight makes an effort to track points of the most consistent and consistently successful rider throughout the given race season.

We here at KindHuman Sports aren't too wrapped up in winning, winning, winning! Albeit, podiums and first place medals are nice...who doesn't like that? We here are more concerned with the fun aspects of the sport and the natural development of our riders. We don't mind being the underdogs and the 'where did that guy come froms'...because in any given city across this great nation, there might only be one of us at any given race on any given day going head-to-head with local juggernauts on the road and in the mountains.

Team TOMS Shoes p/b KindHuman Sports rider, John Proppe, is the perfect example of the aforementioned type of rider. All season, since the inception of this team leading all of the way up to the Ohio State Championships... John has performed and garnered consistent and progressively successful results weekend in-weekend out.

In John's first 100-mile mountain bike race, the Wilderness 101, he finished with a time of 9:26...that's right y'all, nine hours and twenty-six grueling minutes of mud, roots and according to John some very technical terrain.

John deserves a huge congratulations for even finishing the 101 mile effort, let alone his stand-out time and the extra points he's stacking up towards that Ohio State Championship Title.

Currently, John is sitting in first place in his class for the overall. I along with the rest of the team and sponsors would like to wish him the best of luck in his journey towards that title. In the end, we're just proud of him for his progress thus far! Congratulations JP, keep up the good work!

John's First Podium!

2009-08-10T16:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a little race recap from one of our NorCal Team Members, John Nguyen...

"I finally got a chance to do another race since that poo-mud endurance race...(see poo-mud race photo, below)...

...it was the Howell Mountain Challenge near Napa Valley in a little town called Angwin. It was a bit over 100 degrees today so we were burning up out there. The course was super fun and it definitely had some technical descents as well as climbs especially the Hike-A-bike, my cyclocross experience definitely helped out in that area :) Other than that, I had one minor fall and was cramping up bad towards the last few climbs of the race. At about that time, I totally thought I was at the very end of the pack. I couldn't see anyone behind me and I knew the person in front of me was at least a minute up. At one point, I even thought I was going the wrong way and was saying to myself, "where the hell is everybody?"

The race finally ended and I cleaned up, had a bite to eat, I figured I did okay because I finished and it was a tough course...and on the plus side, MTB races are always fun. The race was pretty crowded, so I felt super slow when one of the expert guys lapped me on a SingleSpeed. I really didn't bother checking the results, but my girlfriend did. When she said I got 3rd place I totally thought she was lying. Checked it myself, and what do you know...there's my name. So happy...FIRST PODIUM!!!! I'm super stoked about that and have some motivation to do more mountain bike races. -John"

I think a huge CONGRATULATIONS is due for our little=buddy in the Top-Half of the Golden State. John is a guy who never gives up and always has a smile on his face no matter how bad he is hurting out there (unless he is monging on granola bars post-race). Great work, John and good luck with your upcoming Cyclocross season!