into another week...

Took the girls to the cross race over the weekend so Rosie could have a fun day of her own. Running, pedicures, out to lunch, to bad there was a race! Again, if the weather was poor this little daddy-racer day would be tough to pull off even with grandma's help, long live warm cross racing. Got into a good rhythm at the race but got tired of pedaling as there was only 1 or 2 corners you couldn't pedal through, super fast. Still fine tuning the position on the cross bike but only had to move things about a mm after the race. Either getting things dialed or I am head case? It's good to see a more competitive aggressive Elite race, people are focusing on cross and it shows.


I thought the Crest was done after the last storm but with a couple weeks of perfect weather it was primed for another run. Alex and I rode up BC and met Rosie and Sammi at Guardsman. I was pumped to see Rose riding so well, I think the time on the road bike has helped her comfort at speed on the MTB. If you have not been on the Crest this fall get up there one last time, watch out for the ice on the run into Millcreek. Check some pics on Rosie's new blog, she got sick of me not posting hundreds of cute pics so she fired up one of her own.





2 new soups over the weekend, White Bean Chicken Vegetable and home made Minestrone. Tonight one of my favorites, Roasted Vegetable Chili. We make soup in industrial loads and freeze it for later, makes for a quick healthy dinner.

soup season

Tonight we enjoyed butternut squash and apple soup, Saturday we had homemade flat noodle and chicken soup followed by sweet potato chili.

If you were at 24 hrs of Moab and tasted my moms vegetable chicken noodle you know that I grew up with fine soups. Rosie is the first to admit she is no gourmet cook but she has a knack for soup and loves to mix it up.

Enjoy soup season and let me know your personal favorite, maybe I can put in a request for next weeks soup.

Oh yea it's also cross season and if you think racing in cold rain is somehow more fun than the weather we enjoyed last Saturday then you are obviously not being honest with yourself.

pic by newbie

Warm cross and warm soup, can't beat that!

horizontal sand

Another 24 hrs of Moab in the books, possibly my last....





I love the event but the cost to benefit ratio has got out of hand. 2 years in a row now with very few Pro teams and I am guessing it is due to high entry fees and low purse possibilities. I hate to leave the event behind because nothing defines why I ride bikes like burning a hot (cold) lap at 3 am in the desert under a blanket of stars, but the organization may be forcing me to find a new tradition.





Anyway, we had a good time and as you would expect the support crew makes all the difference. For 24 hrs all I had to do is worry about riding my bike around in the sand every few hours, thanks!





The Mona execs ripped some good laps and I was super impressed with the positive energy throughout the compound despite 40mph dust storm and cold temps. We have a quality crew!





The stella's had a good time






The compound




Tinker, Rose (tinkers mom), and Carl




That's how we roll




A couple hot laps for another king of the mountain title, that's a fast queen!

How can 2 laps be 1 second apart? My 2nd lap I felt better and was going faster into the brutal headwind sections but augured hard into a dirt wall and had to pick through more traffic so it ended up the same, or 1 second faster. Check out grannygear.com for real time results.

Also check out superhumanmag.com for some cool race footage including a little shot of me threading my favorite line on the course, nose dive! And tons of good tinker shots.

Found a jacket in the compound if anyone is missing?

conversation with a 3 year old

Eva: "daddy why are you shaking so bad?"

Bart: "I got cold in the bike race"

Eva: "why did you do that?"

Bart: "well because it was raining and cold"

Eva: "why didn't you wear a rain coat like me and use a green umbrella?"

Bart: "it sure wouldn't have hurt, I got wet and was riding like a little girl today"

Eva: "like me daddy"

Bart: "yea a cute little girl like you"

I have raced in a lot of cold weather but have never been so hypothermic from a cross race. Not sure why but it shut me down in a hurry. I started shivering pretty bad after 2 laps and once the core gets cold it's tough to go hard enough to generate any heat. My whole body just locked up and I could only go one slow speed. My front tire went low just after Cris P got a gap and I nursed it around for 1/2 lap and only got colder. I shook violently for about 2 hrs after the race and when I woke up this morning the only thing that was sore was my jaw!

After I became coherant I was pretty frustrated with myself. I did things just like I normally do in the foul weather but for some reason was not able to handle it. In hindsight I probably should have used a trainer and got my core temp all lathered up beforehand. Learn from it and move on!

Good to see mitchy mitch get the win on his home turf.

We stayed at Snowbird last night for a family get together and I was so looking forward to the hot tub at the lodge.....

Just not my day!

I was excited for the snow this morning at the bird and got the itch to strap on the planks, maybe I should bag any plans of racing cross in Belgium over the Christmas break and just get straight to playing in the snow.

Now for 24hrs of Moab.....