Hello! Just a reminder that I am no longer blogging over here, but never fear, I have a new blog home!

I tried really hard to get the feed switched over to the new blog but just couldn’t make it happen. So here’s the feed link: http://www.areyoukittenme.com/feed/

And the site is http://www.areyoukittenme.com/

Bear Creek CX

Raced a bit of cyclocross last weekend and because I know there are mass amounts small handful of people that enjoy road bikes in the mud, ill post a quick synapses/few photos. This year the venue was changed from Beer Creek to Emmaus where they have a weekly practice due to the snow storm from the previous week. The C race started at 10am (I was a fan) and I think was roughly sold out with 50 registered. The course felt fast during my warm-up lap with most of the mud sections still frozen. I didn’t know how this was going to play out with the thawing and actually didn’t think about that until during the race. The course was pretty much all flat with 2 barriers and no run-ups. I got to the line and about 4 rows back, not too bad. The start was in grass and a slight up hill for a while before any turns. I was hoping to make up 10 or so places at the beginning but the course was tight. This was my first PACX race and didn’t know that they had call-ups in the C race. After rambling off what seemed like 20+ names I’m now sitting in row 5 or 6. The start in front of me is slow, I see the top few guys get a big jump on everyone else. I hammer and try to make up and many places as I can before it clumps up at the first turn. I think I moved up ~7 spots and sitting in the 20s somewhere. The first lap felt fast and I was being fairly cautious as my tires are worthless and I only got one full lap in before hand. Yeah I put a foot out a lot, and as I said, if you don’t like my poor turning ability then pass me During the second lap I passed a group of riders and was sitting 6th and coming out of the barrier section into a fast 90 degree left turn and went down hard. I wasn’t expecting it at all but as people rode that turn and the grass/mud thawed it became really slick. I dropped my chain and tried to ride to back on, didn’t work. Bleh. I finally cranked it back on but not before getting passed by 5 or 6 people, I need to get better at that. After that I wasn’t in it mentally, I knew there was no chance of getting catching the top few riders and was a bit pissed. I kept cranking and because of the various double backs heard the encouragement of a few friends racing. I also noticed that random people in this race were really nice, saying words of encouragement while you passed them, I liked that. Anyways during the next lap I was able to re-pass the group that had overtaken me while I dropped my chain and saw 5th place a bit ahead of me. It was hard to gauge how far off a wheel you where due to the course layout. I was hoping to close the gap but it never happened. Ended up doing 5 laps and got 6th overall. Not that excited about the performance, but it was a learning experience. Grass turns are definitely not my strong suit, so its definitely something I need to work on. Had the GoPro on but it didn’t save any videos… I was really hoping to post the first lap and the crash, oh well.
After the C race was the B race. Was hoping to encourage the Team Tom’s boys. I shot a few photos, taunted, and watched people take turns a lot faster than I could. At some point Ellis flatted and I had to run to the car to grab my bike as I didn’t have room in the car for his pit bike as well. We made a seamless bike swap but he had lost 2 places while riding on the rim and was sitting in 6th. Ryan had a battle for 1st and ended up winning the B race. After that I pitted for Jeff in the 45+ race which he went on to win. Congrats to both of you.

After riding we ate, talked, then it was game time. Neither Ellis or I had ever been to the beer store/mecca known as Shangy’s. Needless to say we were both excited. Luckily it was all cases so we didn’t get too wild, but we spent over an hour there pondering our next move. They have cases of four loco to slyfox to $300 cases of mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel. Anyways it was dangerous and too much to choose from. After seeing Jeff come in, spend 10 minutes and pull the trigger on various cases of Belgium goodness, we decided to go ‘cheap’ and stay domestic.

New to me.

Took a bit of finagling but theres always room for a case or two/three.

Im thinking next weekend of doing Spring Mountain Crossasaurus Awesome, not sure if I’ll race the C race or try out the B race + SS race… hopefully learn how to use the GoPro for a sweet video as well.

Another Bike in the Stable

Out with the old,

and in with the new.

I took the new bike on her first commute this morning. Far from finished, but its running just in time for the rain.

I’m excited to have a real commuter bike with plenty of tire clearance and plenty of braze-ons like rack & fender mounts. I found this used/new bike at a CO-OP store that was run by volunteers where proceeds went towards The Boys and Girls Club. While were we at the shop we were able to donate a bike that we weren’t using as well as some other random parts which hopefully make it onto a sweet bike. I was hoping this would be the last bike for a while but Lauren has been talking about a cyclocross bike… 1 bedrooms weren’t made for this many bikes.

The Weekend – Granogue

Eric here. I thought I would help Lauren out by posting some photos from the weekend (a day late).
We started the weekend off by heading to my buddy and teammate’s wedding.

Lauren and I got our Sunday best on and cruised out to the suburbs. Lauren did some dancing, me and the others sat around and talked about dancing.

Our table even had cupcakes for a couple of us.

Saturday morning I raced the Granogue Cyclocross race down in Delaware. I’m new to this sport, but it’s more or less a technical mountain bike course that one usually rides a modified road bike with wider tires. Plenty of different terrains including pavement, grass, dirt, sand, rocks, and random objects like barriers and run-ups. There’s lots of pain, plenty of falling, people heckling, beer, and cowbells. It’s kinda up our alley.

After racing Saturday there was some beer drinking back in the city that needed to get done.

It was a double header so we headed back down south Sunday morning for more cross racing. They changed the course up enough that it was still very painful with little to no recovery.

After my race we watched a bit of racing and talked with friends. I ended up 8th or 9th the first day and 13th the second. I was happy with the results as the fields were huge and I started behind 50+ people.

There were even races for little kids.

Hung out most of the day and watched the men elites tackle the course, stopped at Total Wine then cruised home. This cyclocross thing is a different beast.

GoPro Video