Evil Mike gives us Crowe versus Chief

Ah, another week of action in the greater STL cross scene. Chief Reimbold and the Heckawee tribe mostly settled on the great race up in Altonville put on by the Wild Track boys. Those guys have done a great job this year, and I was bummed to miss their finale. I’m always on a short leash, so I was happy to have hit one of their races, but all accounts have them as being class acts. Molteni, Chief, Berto, Kelly, Dave, Flavia, and Big Tom all made the trek up from Carbondale.

I was relegated to Sunday play at Bubba 6. It was a great venue, and I should have had a better race. It was a fast and relatively untechnical course, which should have favored a suck-ass roadie like me. But, I kept hitting the deck on the fast turns. I think the conclusion was that I went too low on pressure. Which seems weird to me.  But, Dave said after his race that he thought I should bump it up (of course, by that time I was at line-up…and I didn’t believe him at the time). I didn’t feel all too bad since Mike Weiss was playing the grass a good bit with me. Darrell Bratton had a great race in the 3-4, finishing 4th. And, Gary Meredith won the hot dog eating contest after a strong finish in the 4’s! Flavia cleaned up on the running race, to give Carbondale two victories in the competition.

I hope Matt Dawson is ok after his wrist plant. He was walking back to the pits with a way-rolled tubie on his single speed and an ice pack on his hand. Dr. Mark started to give him some advice, but then was called off and DNS’d the A race.  Dr. Mark DNF’s or DNS’s a good number of races because of that DR. thing. I remember one time a few years ago when I saw Dr. Mark stopped on the switches at Faust way up ahead with what I thought was a mechanical. Then, as I turned I saw he was still there, and then when I finally got up to him I saw he was talking on the cell phone to a patient or colleague…he doesn’t finish well under those circumstances.

Thanks to Rudy, Darrell, and the Heckawees for egging me on!

So Ill at its best.....view from Mississippi Levee Road

Ah, Fall in So. Ill. The rains finally stopped, but the rivers are up….I did a solo ride up the Big Muddy Levee and then into the Pine Hills. Unfortunately, I found Scatters Road underwater for about 300 meters. Since it was 60 degrees or more, and I knew it wasn’t too high, I shouldered the bike and trudged through the dregs of the Big Muddy (scattering giant gar and other fish as I went). It just made it up to soak my chamois….but no higher….

I have tickets to Bubba this weekend, so that should be fun. As non-preparation, I did Cedar with  Big Tom and Don. Tom’s thinking about doing the Sat. race in the Alton area, and I think a lot of our people are going up for that (Berto, Chief, Dave…). I can’t go up on Saturday, or I would. The Wild Track guys did a great job with that series! But, I’m only free Sunday this weekend….

Evil Mike, Help Me!

Bubba 3 returned to the Jefferson Barracks, and it was a rockin’ good time. Huge turnouts in all of the fields. Lots of food and beer for those in the earlier races….And a great power course! I always like Jefferson Barracks, and this one was no disappointment.

All manner of mayhem in the C race. Kelley was in the women’s field, and Molteni and Gary M were blasting around in the C’s. And, Jeff Williams joined them, eventually. I think Jeff was, ah, indisposed when Buddy sent them off. Dave, Chief, and Berto lined up for the B-race. I swear. There was some issue with maybe Chief hanging out at Larry Flynt’s place, but he was there.  Evil Mike got a picture. Come to think of it, I don’t recall seeing Berto or Dave in the results either….hmmmm. No, they were there. I swear….And Mark Shea was in the house!!! Great to see him getting dirty. And, how about Rudy!!! He turned in a fine ride while bleeding profusely from his head!

Gary Dyer taunted me with a chili bowl throughout the A-race. Robo and I struggled around the back, and he eventually nudged on. I was ok on the most technical parts, surprisingly enough. But, my back was still killing me from a spill on Cedar Lake last week, and I really hurt on the high speed descent and dismount…ah well, and I suck. But, I must say that as bad as I suck, some of the other regulars looked really good. Denis K almost lapped me! I hope to be back out at the races for Nov 7 or so….

Heckawee, anyway?

Well, I missed the first couple of Bubbas, and may miss several more…But, a good number of the Carbondale crew headed up, and it looks like there were a few Mackers as well. Will had some trouble, it seems. Molteni, Chief, and Dave were pounding around in the dark (and today). Looked like Frank Brummer and Robo were rockin in the dark. Didn’t see Mark Shea in any of the pics….

I’ve been doing some riding and thinking about maybe doing Sunday in Louisville….

Don and I found that you can do an additional 2 miles or so of dirt by taking Winstead Road off of Union Springs heading into Alto. Chief always said that connected, but I don’t know why I’ve never done it. Very cool road! Geez, we should just truck down new 51 to Limestone Church, over to Union Springs, up Winstead, and that’s a nice stretch of dirt! Do that with a Rhine Road to Pine Hills…..

Truth in advertising, at last

The Wild Trak People put on a great race in the Pride Cyclocross series in Godfrey. What a maze. It really was a brilliant effort. Thought was required.

We had six Carbondaliens in the various races. Kelly contested the women’s 4’s. William and Molteni did the men’s 4’s. annd Chief and Berto did the 3-4. Chief was way up there in the 3-4, and William took 7th in the 4’s.  I hung in for the 1-2-3. Mack had a good showing, with Dan Ingersoll  mixing it up in the 3-4 and Justin Armstead hitting the podium with 3rd in the 1-2-3.

I managed to not be last (thanks to a mechanical for someone else), and had a fun dual with Scott Peipert. I was having trouble with the course from the start. I really could have used four or five practice laps…..instead I had none. But, I finally got in the groove and caught back up to Scott. We went back and forth for several laps before he put me away with 2 laps to go.

Sven Nys…He’s back….Gilbert takes Paris Tours….Gary Dyer takes the beginners race at Godfrey…..Weird shit. Apparently, if you didn’t race cross in a reported categorized race in the last few years, they bumped you down to Cat-4 on your USCF license. So, Gary Dyer is a cat-4.  He took out some of his anger on the beginner field, winning that (though there was a young sandbagger he had to fight with). Then, Dyer took on the 4’s, finishing third, I think. Then, he started the 3-4 race. However, it was also the women’s open race, and several of the women began pushing and spitting on him. So, he retired after a couple of laps.

irritating, but fascinating....

All kinds of madness. First, the Ronde was quite a smash down here in Carbondale. We had 62 or something like that registrants. Chief Reimbold and the Heckawees put together a fabulous course, the best ever! I was so busy handing out Chimay primes, I can’t remember who won what. But, one thing is for sure, Dr. Mark and Mark Nagy are the winners of the road warriors prize for always making it down to C-Dale. Big Chimay for them….Great to see Dennis K, Dave Stroot, Martin Lang, Jeff Yielding, and a host of others in the house. I wound up doing the Masters race. We had a strong Cat-3 guy, Todd Nix who came down from Kentucky, so I figured I needed to give him some competition. I felt good, and kindof wished I had saved myself for the a-race…but, what the fuck. that’s like being a virgin when you marry or something, right?

Cadel Evans won the world championship. I watched the finale before going over to help with the Ronde. It was incredible. Australia raced the best race of the match, and they won it. With Cadel Evans….It was amazing. He was awesome. He did everything right. He never wavered. Never looked for someone else to chase, or set the pace. He followed every move, then blew the last two guys off of his wheel and soloed in. And, it was a HOT race. I’m guessing that the lead group of about 12 was pushing over 55mph on the descent when Cancellara was trying to break off. And the breaks by Vino were awesome!

http://rondevonevergreen.blogspot.com/2009/09/ronde-von-evergreen-results.html

Team Mack finished up the road season with a bang! Big wins by John Fleckenstein and podiums for Uncle Gary, Robo, and Robert Kron at the ABD Fall Fling. Great job by all who went! Time for Cross!!!

Wow. It’s cross season already!! I’m not ready yet, but I’m hoping to not be quite as bad this year….I’m gonna start running, and my new Diadora running shoes just came in the mail today. We’ll see.

Lars Boom isn’t racing cross anymore. Talk about fucking the homeland. The Dutch could all give a crap for road racing; they want him racing cross. But, Rabobank wants Italian mobsters to hide their loot in their bank….

The Ronde….what is this, four or five years now? It’s a great course, Big Tom as been secretly hacking away, enough to draw complaints…Three letters…..BMX>>>>>>>>>

THE highlight of the summer riding season happened last week when Don Mullison scored a direct hit on the evil demon dog Oreo with his Halt!! Oreo went down on impact. Direct Hit. It was AWESOME! But, Oreo remains undeterred. Yesterday Molteni and I encountered him once again, and his “owners” tried to corral him in the middle of the road, while we tried to dodge both them and Oreo. Best yet, Hiram and Davide were in the truck behind us, and Hiram pulled up and said “I’ll get my pit bull and take care of heem”.

I was feeling good about the Gateway Cup, having survived and even raced ok, and all. But, alas, many were not so lucky. Reeschard and Kurt Russell went down in the first night of action, and Kurt somehow managed to break two scapulas and a clavicle! I think he wound up uninvited to one of those garden parties. Reeschard has a broken hand, and maybe other peripherals. Our new SIU guy, Mike Vail, was one of the many doing the street surf in the 4’s on friday night. Mike busted his Giant frame, and raced the rest of the event on my Waterford. The street cred of carbon continues to decline– as Mike then wound up winning the Hill and taking 3rd in the finale. He’s not just gonna fill the pack in the 3’s next year, I’m glad to see this kid at SIU!

Dave Neis was the next victim. He went down in the 3’s on saturday with a broken clavicle. Huge pileup in the masters on the Hill, I’m glad I missed that.

Overall the Carbondale crowd did a great job, with Gary Merideth, Berto, and Chief Reimbold all putting in great races! Danimal and Chad were also in the mix, although Chad’s bike was stolen after one of the events!

Sebastian was riding great! At one point on Saturday, I was off the front chasing down a solo, and who should pull around but Sebastian! Unfortunately, Ethan was also on his wheel and immediately countered….I barely managed to hold Ethan’s wheel for about a half a lap…damnit. Next year. Go Cubbies!

Darrell was the man for Mack. He hit the top ten in all three masters races, with three 6ths….Overall, we did well, but the competition is keen this year, and there were some really strong people in the fields. I’m still waiting on reports, but there was also a huge crash in the masters race on the Hill….

Jeff Williams won best in show in the Spoked Art competition!!! Jeff is an incredibly talented artist, in several genre. And, I was bummed that I didn’t make it over to the Friday reception.

And, wow. the Tour of Missou. This is among the best fields of any race in the US, ever.  It was friggin’ amazing to watch Cavendish take Haedo and Hushovd. Jackson, Gary, and I had front row seats at 100 meters when Cav came around. Wow. On Tuesday, Molteni and I did a few laps of Trail of Tears, then headed over to Cape. Once again, it was Cavendish powering past Hushovd and Haedo. I sure hope they can keep that race going. It was cool!!!

I think it was Oreo’s fault. We were doing fine finishing off a nice group going through Giant City, Cobden, Alto, and Pomona. Trippin’ back from Von Jacob’s I hit a brick in downtown Pomona and  flatted, near the trailer of Oreo, demon dog from hell. Oreo has two confirmed bites on cyclists, eighteen calls to Jackson County Animal Control, but is still often on the loose and looking to bite cyclists.

As I began the tire changing process within spitting distance from Oreo’s triple-wide, Big Tom began recounting their latest encounter with Oreo, an incident which concluded with Don attempting to perform unnatural acts on the canine with his recumbent. I missed that one. But, then Big Tom set it off. He said, “Don came undone.” Of course, this causes Chief to launch into “She’s come undone…” And, being a bunch of drunk-addled old farts, we could make out half of the words of the song, but couldn’t remember the band. Chief is no help.  He knows too much, and his connections are too diverse. And then he gets off on these Hermann’s Hermits sidetracks and shit. It was driving me crazy.

We were racing a storm back into town, so I picked up the pace. Then, I almost remembered the band name. It was The Something Something. I knew it. When I pressed the pace, It came in more clear. So, I hammered at the front, and held my breath, pushing my heart rate up near max. And then it came to me, The Guess Who.

I don’t know. I’m thinking of trying this autoerotic asphyxia stuff now. I may recover some memories or something.

Wow, it was kindof hot in KC. Good thing I didn’t try to race bikes or anything like that. Dave and I made the long drive to KC, and it was quite an experience. I loved the courses on both days, I only wish my ah, form, was more suited to the conditions. Normally, I would have had a hard time finding a better race for what little talent I sometimes have–Saturday was a power course, a race of attrition style crit. Sunday was a technical figure 8. I’ve done some of my best races on similar courses. Not this time. Dave did a lot better, and scored almost in the money on Sunday. Danimal took the juniors, and banged heads in the pack on both days in the 3’s.  Darrell Bratton arrived on Sunday and did the 40+.,  while I skipped the early race and did the 3’s (to no avail).

I’ve never done the Tour of KC, since it’s situated on the calendar right between my major professional meetings and our wedding anniversary. But, this year, I’m skipping the meetings, and the race was the week before our anniversary! Too bad the road race was cancelled.

Former Macker and all around great guy Clark Priebe was on hand. Clark’s done some great races at KC, and he was the main man animating the 1-2 crit on Saturday. Totally awesome! Clark caused the main split, and did everything he could to get the win. In the end, he was scored 11th, but I think he may have been 8th…

Great to see Gary Dyer, Dodd Slawson, and Dennis K. making the moves. I’m still overwhelmed by the competition this year. Janne Hammelein and Dave Henderson lapped the field both days in the 40+. 

Dave says I need to take Growaset(R), and become a Cub’s fan.

Update: Congrats to Robert Kron and Justin Armstead for taking big wins in Grayslake!!