We left Rapid Transit bright and early, or more like dark and early. 4:30 AM. I had stayed up until 11:30 the night before trying to piece together my road bike and do something unthinkable. The bike was frustrating, the break to take a long hot shower was soothing. Not a big deal for me to make the early morning drive because this was far from a focus race for me. None the less, it was to be a great time. In terms of a pre-race, things were standard. Register, chat with people, get dressed. The embrocation is awesome and the difference in leg warmth was immediate. With about 45 minutes until the start we started rolling around to warm up. The key, with the wind was easy, against it was going to be hell. Mike Hemme and I had a pretty sweet half assed strategy. Not being road racers, we did not how to road race.   Mountain bike and cyclocross races are races from the get go and we figured that is how we would race this race too. 100% from the get go.

There was about 500 yards before the neutral lead out was over before the group was let loose. As soon as Mike and I hit that line we were out of the saddle and going. I had not thought this plan through very well, and where he was running true road gearing, I was still riding my cyclocross gearing, trying to keep up with 48/12 to his 53/12. It was not working well and as I fell off of his wheel another rider was making the jump between the fast approaching "peleton" behind me and his wheel. I looked back, realized there was no way I'd be able to keep up and sat up. It was not long until I had settled in easily in the front of what was now a chase group. I wanted to stay clear of any sort of crashing that might happen within the group and so I tried to hold position in the top ten or so. It worked out well, as at about mile 15 the sounds of carnage erupted just behind us. A significant portion of the middle of the lap had quite a bit of gravel to contend with. With about a mile left on the lap there was a down hill section followed by a short flat section across a river and then up a pretty good hill into town. Kevin Clark was riding in front so as we came down the hill I rode to the front to pull him onto the uphill. Well, the strong effort into the wind across the flat right before the hill wasn't a great idea. By the time we hit the hill, I needed a really strong effort to get up it and I had just spent myself. Fifty yards into the hill my engine shut down. I thought to myself, "well maybe everyone is slowing." It was very quickly apparent that this was not the case as everyone just rode away from me as I struggled up the hill. By the time I made it to the steep hill leading into the bricks I was way out of range. Speeding down the hill onto the bricks was really fun, and really fast. I handled the rough stuff with ease. Coming over the line into my second lap I came really close to giving up and dropping out, but then I thought to myself, why? I came all this way, I have nothing better to do, I ay as well just ride as fast as I can. The 11 miles out with the wind were not so bad, the 11 or so miles back in were really bad. The wind had gotten progressively stronger all day and riding into it alone was demoralizing. Coming back into town with about two miles to go Zach and I passed going in different directions. He was just starting his third lap of the 3/4 race and was alone. He looked at me, looked ahead and rode back into town with me. He did not laugh at me as I struggled up the final climbs very slowly and I thank him for it. In the end, I was crossing the line 43rd, should have been a few spots higher, but people who should have been DQ'd had gotten added back into the results apparently after I looked at them at the race. Kevin Clark finished 15th and Mike Hemme who broke from the pack way at mile .5 with me went with that other rider the entire 44 miles, working together, breaking away on the final hill before the bricks and won. He was at the front of the race the entire time and from what I understand the two of them went uncontested the entire way.

It felt good to ride and ride fast and ride hard.  It has been close to four months since I pushed my body like that and it lived up to any and all the expections I had of it.  The powermeter quieted some small fears that I had gone too long without a hard effort and that my legs would be out of shape.  My threshold power is still at the 315 benchmark I thought it was at, and that is calculated with the two and half hour effort of the entire race.  The bike worked great and gave me no problems at all.  It feels great to be riding steel again and will more than likely have my Rock Lobsters built out of a light weight steel.  It was awesome to see a ton of people I haven't seen in months.  It was great to ride in the sun and be warm, on open roads with almost no traffic.  I really good day.

The best part of the day.  It is dark, we are driving south.
Ben: I need to admit something. No one knows yet.
Chris: (immediately and without hesitation) I bought clip on aero bars...
(Mike and Ben laugh uncontrollably)
Mike: It is like you (Chris) knew Ben was going to admit something and that would make your deal look a little better.
(Chris and Mike looks Bens' way)
Ben: I shaved my legs.
(Mike and Chris congratulate Ben)
Chris: Now the real question is are you wearing wool boxers...

If you know me well enough, you already know the answer

Sometimes we forget things we already knew.  It is easy to get caught up in discounts this and hook ups that.  There are shops with hours similar to K-Mart and they are frequented often for one reason or another.  There is the internet, where you can find just about anything for the right price, plus shipping.  But then there are a few shops that are unlike any other.  Marcus runs one of them, the ever amazing Yojimbo's Garage.  Procrastinating on finishing the details of the Waterford, I needed to replace the hoods on my SRAM shifters, still torn from cross season.  For the record, I made these calls in this order.  First contacted someone at SRAM who said they did not have any available.  Then called Rapid Transit, Mission Bay (didn't pick up their phone the first time), Upgrade, Get a Grip, Village Cycle and Performance.  Each shop didn't have them in stock, but could order them.  I initially left out Yojimbo's because it was after he was closed.  Julie and I had some other errands to run and between one place and the next I had a thought.  It is spring, Marcus is probably in the shop working late.  I can just call and leave a message, if he is in, he'll listen to it and if he doesn't mind us stopping by he will call back.  And if not tonight at least tomorrow.  Well, ten minutes later he calls and has the hoods!  Of all the big, fancy, chain, expensive, snotty shops in the city, it was Yojimbo's who had what I needed and I was welcome to come by way after hours.  A shave and a haircut at the door and we were greeted by a smiling Marcus.  He has recently rearranged the shop and seems to have alot more bikes in there.  His plans for the near future will make it even bigger.  We hung out for a while and it was really nice to chat about just about everything.  Marcus was in a really good mood.  True to form with Yojimbo's, with all the fancy stuff he has laying about, we could not leave with just what we came for.  I bought some record pregara embrocation and Julie got a fancy pair of socks.  It was really nice to see him and I need to make it a point to stop in more often.  And everyone else should too.  He is a race ready shop whether people want to admit it or not, and has everything a bike racer of any level should need.  Thank you Marcus.  Photo from Yohei

And my brain is back to 100% bikes.  I left work and there was a stiff wind at my back as I rode to the train station.  That stiff wind carried me right past the station on through my new route home.  The new route is wonderful with some long stretches of good pavement lacking stop lights or signs with little to no traffic.  I think it will be a good way to get some workouts in throughout the summer.  The temperatures were perfect and it made for a great ride.  I rode a section of Belmont over the Des Plains River at 32 M.P.H.  Those twenty five miles will be an anomaly in the average speed on my cyclo-computer.  About an hour after I got home I was back out the door to go up to Funky Weasel to pick up the parts for the road bike.  Well, Tom was not ready right away, so I walked down the street to the record store.  On my way I was walking past a different bike shop and what I saw in the window was astounding.  It was the Courage cross bike from this years NHMBS!  I could not believe it, I walked into Roscoe Village Bikes and started chatting with the owner Alex about it.  Apparently, a good customer, Jonathan, is really good friends with Aaron, the builder, at Courage and through the help of Alex the three of them put together a bike that earned Aaron "best new builder of the year."  That bike will be the hottest bike in the Cat4 races, if not all the Chicago races this coming season.  Then it was a short walk up the block back to Funky Weasel where Tom and I talked shop for a little while.  He had a bike from the show in his shop as well, A Sycip 650b mountain bike.  So sweet, two bikes from the show, in different shops, just hundreds of feet apart.  We talked a little about getting fitted for the custom framesets for this fall.  That will be cool because I have never been properly fitted for a bike I am riding.  Speaking of which, from the Voodoo I was racing this past fall, the frame (53cm ish), fork (1" steertube), Stem (fancy Easton EC90 1 1/8" carbon), 1" threadless black King Headset and seatpost (thomson black 27.0) will be for sale soon.  If you want any of it, let me know.  And as if no one knows yet, a huge congrats to Marko who will be riding for Planet Bike this fall!  This weekend is going to be embarrassing, but I am riding in the name of a good time.  I am actually pretty excited.

I am the the newest member of Rock Lobster's Elite Cyclocross Racing team!  Paul at Rock Lobster and the other folks on the team out west have graciously offered me a spot on their roster this fall.  So I am super excited for that and now pretty motivated to live up to any expectations they might have of me.  It works out, in terms of summer riding, that I will still be able to sport the ultra-awesome Killjoy kit on my mountain and road bike.  So, some good news on a snowy day.