Good weekend of riding and racing cross bikes, talking bikes, and drinking coffee.  Saturday I picked up Michael at the train station and we headed across Germany to meet Ken for some riding near Hochspeyer.  They have much more decidious trees than we have and most had a lot of their leaves.  Very scenic with great colors. 

After an Alt bier, pizza, and a coffee, Michael and I headed south to Karlsruhe for Sunday’s race.  Woke up to sunshine and warmer temps and with our early 11:30 start, only arm warmers were needed.  Lined up with Ken on the second row, had huge issues clipping in and out with my clown commuter shoes as my Sidi’s are in the cobbler’s shop for repair.  Coming up to the first barrier, I failed to unclip and slid up and into the barrier.  Epic.  I managed to hop back up before I caused to much carnage behind me, but never saw Ken again.  I battled in or around the top 10 for the remainder on a very diverse course with 2 barriers,  1 sand pit, 1 slick and steep climb, and numerous off-camber sections.  Great course. 

The barrier I didn’t attempt to knock down.

Michael making it look easy.

Marty showing the sand who’s boss.

Ken finished in 2nd.

Gavin scored a 2nd place finish, just a meter from the win.  I think he expended most of his energy in the jumping castle.

Angela lined up at the start with a few new fast girls, and won a hard race, capturing the US Forces Europe championship race as well as the overall series champion.   My race consisted of more walking and changing tubes than actual racing, only completing 3 of the 7 laps before I succumbed to my 3rd DNF of my career, 2nd this month.  So Sunday I vowed redemption.

Another finals, with all the short XC specialists showing up.  77 men lined up, with 30 of them being called up due to their series standings.  I started about 50 back, and long story short, never did move up.  Probably one of the hardest 5km loops I’ve seen in a XC race.  What was awesome was I was given the number 29 plate, and being the only 29er in the group, it seemed fitting.  I would have kept it but would have cost me 15 bucks in a security deposit.

No t-shirts or gels, but an organic block of bread. 

Angela took some great pics, she saw some stack it here.  I haven’t seen a German race yet where a dude just lays it over for no reason right in front of me.  Notice the crashpad.

This is the look of relief,  first full season complete with the rebuilt knee and tibula.  I am mostly painfree, atleast until the day after back to back racing.  

Cyclocross as a hobby racer in November.

In news I haven’t really seen covered that well, Eatough is retiring after Moab, whereas the little prick Cadel can’t get enough media.  Maybe he should retire as well.

This past weekend we attended the 1st round of the World Baseball Cup in Regensburg.  1st game we saw Venezuela 15 run rule China in the 5th, then got to sit around and watch the US team take batting practice before taking on Germany.  US won that game 9-1, but lost a heartbreaker on Thursday night to Venezuela in the 11th inning on a Grand Slam.  Kids had a great time.  US team is now in Italy playing in the second round and doing pretty well.

Then after the game we drove to Garmisch, finally getting to bed around midnight.  Woke up the next morning and got ready for the Garmisch Fat Tire race, a mixed German/US Forces race.  Up first was Gavin racing the bambinos, and a 2.5km course that was quite challenging.  He handled the wet/slick conditions beautifully taking the win over much older kids.

Then Angela and I lined up for the main event, both without eating breakfast and our share of coffee.  This weekend was an exercise of being entirely unprepared on all fronts.  Some fast dudes showed up including Andreas Strobel and a few teammates, Ken Bloomer of Indy Fabs sporting the only other 29er I saw this weekend, and the some fast US forces racers.  Course was around 4km with two longer runups, quite challenging, and a ton of fun.  I think we did 5 laps, but I needed a few more as I was just getting into the groove on the last one, as I held on for 5th overall, narrowly missing out on 4th (Ken) by 15 seconds.

Angela and I warming up on the course.

Sunday’s marathon race in Oberammergau didn’t go well, as I flatted in the first 15km.  Angela flatted as well in her 27km race, but was able to get air back in it, and finish 10th out of 30 women.  This weekend, we have a castle wedding to attend, then a XC race in Pegnitz on sunday.

This girl is not ready to be away from mom at kindergarten, so she will be staying home for atleast another year.

So don’t show up in Luxemburg on the 24th of October with your Cannondale Caffeine or the new Flash 29er, even though Cannondale is a sponsor of the race, because the rules clearly state “funktionsfahiges MTB 26 Zoll (kein Crossrad)“.  Maybe I should show up with the 69er, she has been a bit lonely lately.  I feel a tad bit discreminated against, anyone have the number to the ACLU?   Maybe the promoters had a chance to read the Velonews article. 

This weekend is back to back racing, saturday 25km, sunday 80km with 8500ft  climbing, all while aboard the big wheels.

This weekend I was able to link some trails up that equated to 50-60km of decent singletrack.  Weather has tipped in favor of autumn, and this weekend is supposed to be cool, rainy, and windy.  Here’s a few pics including one with the new caps that just arrived.  Thanks Matt!

Also made it to Playmobil funpark outside of Nurnberg, which is basically a giant playground.  School started back up this week, including Rylee who started German kindergarten.

Obviously, this place is rooted deeply in fiction.

Gavin came from behind 1 meter from the line to take the pedal tractor race.

Our first true month of summer, where temps have routinely hit 70 and it has only rained every other day rather than every day.   Days have been spent lounging at the pool, frolicking in the sand at the lake, cruising bike paths with children in tow, but mostly, slaving away at work.  There has got to be a better way.

Racing has been on hiatus for August for myself, Angela as done a couple, including a 6 hour race last weekend taking another 1st.  I think she has won 4 consecutive races, but this last win was her toughest to date.  Racing will pick back up after labor day weekend, with 5 races planned for Sept. and maybe a few in October. 

Here are some photos from our latest camping trip to the Alps. 

Finally Germany has been able to put together a decent string of sunny days, so one must take full advantage.  Either here or the local swimming pool is where most days end.

To conclude the report for the Funatic marathon, I finished 12th, 10 or so minutes out of 3rd.   It was a crazy race with saboteurs blocking off singletrack and horse drawn carriages on two-track, but I will definately go back next year. The following week I had intended to do two shorter XC races Sat/Sun, Sat. being a USFE championship race. 

The course in Ansbach saw an inch of rain the night before, and the temps had dropped to 50 with threatening skies.  Upon arrival at registration, I was informed my start had been bumped back 2 hours, allowing the women first dibs on the 10k lap.  I didn’t preride, 3 laps would be enough, and I knew I had to get the Geax Barros off and the Ignitors on.  I only managed the rear since my front Ignitor was flat that morning, but no tire would have been good. 

The course had a couple of sick and slick climbs, one unrideable and unwalkable, and tons of standing water.  Women did a good job trashing any ridable lines, so just point and shoot, hopefully you stay upright.  A German kid shot off the line from the start, so after missing my pedal and sinking to the back, I shot through a hole to grab his wheel before the first hairpin turn.  A half kilometer later as we cleared the first unrideable climb, we had a gap on the main field.  He didn’t recover, so I floored it on the decent, and soloed for the next few laps, adding  a minute a lap on “Andreas” Overfield, with him coming in a few minutes back, and then the German kid.

Angela had a great race, winning by 10 minutes or so, winning the overall and age as well.

The Ansbach race pretty much destroyed my rear brake pads, and coupled with lack of excitement for Sunday’s race, I bagged it, which was a shame because the start was 20 minutes from the house.

Tomorrow its off to check out the kindergarten for fall enrollment.  This girl needs German playmates.

In the states, typically for the past several years, racing is amped up a good 10-20 percent in July.  This can be solely blamed on Le Tour.  Early mornings/late evenings spent watching the drama unfold in the hills of the Pyrenees and Alps, one can’t help to be inspired and dig a little deeper.  I am pretty sure this is a phenomena felt round the world.

This was the maiden race for the Funatic bikeshop out of Burgebrach, 75km marathon through some interesting terrain.  Corn fields on the left, wheat field on the right, and singletrack up the middle.  First time meeting  a horse-drawn buggy during a race, where one had to give some ground.  Horses won that one, driven by a less than stable Mennonite smoking a pipe looking on with tremendous curiosity.  No place to get into a rhythm, and to earn your stop at the feed station, you had to navigate 3 “Northshore” obstacles.

As I alluded to earlier, this race started at the pace of a 30min shorttrack, and never let off.  I made the first split into the front group, and after the first climb I noticed I was the last man there.  We put a large gap into the field early, and I dangled back for awhile until I lost contact along with a few others.  One disappeared backwards, and the other stayed a few seconds in front, virtually the entire race.  Passed one, but caught or was caught by no one else.  Maybe a top 15 or 20 finish, results aren’t posted yet.

Edit:  12th place, just outside the top 10.  Getting closer.

The real story comes from Angie, who had a misfortunate race with an endo and a broken chain.  The chain was fixed by a fireman/marshall/MacGyver with a stick and rock.  His first attempt ended with missing the front derailleur cage, so he had to break the chain again only to fix it again with his stick and rock.  She finished, with an extra 45 minutes to her time.  She also got lost and went the wrong way, thanks to MacGyver.  He probably felt bad so decided to fix the chain for karma reasons.

This weekend more local racing, two short xc races.