It’s NOT Dirty: Lapped While Lapping Another

The King of Justifying the Mediocre...Courtesy Karen WH

Like old latex sealant fermented and stewing in a year old tubular, getting lapped stinks.  There is, however, a shiny new bike bright side.  Ding!  For those sha-lacka-lacka-lacking their non-elite races and wondering about how’d they’d possibly be able to stomach struggling to stay on the lead lap in the next higher category, read on.  I am the king of justifying the mediocre!  Let me show you how to rationalize and make the most of the -1 next to your name.  

The Zero Principal:

For example, getting lapped by the leader but simultaneously lapping someone else cancels each other out.  -1 + 1 = zero.  Shazam!  You’re even, mathematically, on the lead lap (of your competition).  Think of it like being graded on a bell curve, drop the first and last rider and you passed!  Getting lapped while lapping someone else also sounds sort of dirty.

This year’s OVCX Elite field is way harder than it’s ever been.  As the PR guy for OVCX, I partly blame myself for this.  My freelance job for OVCX is to entice more people to dip their knobbies in the goodness of cross.  Consequently, my writing and riding talents counter each other.  The harder I race, the better I do.  The better I write, the worse I do. 

St. Mary’s Child Care Cross (OVCX #2) was a great example.  Looking at the results, friggin’ Chris Uberti raced cross yesterday.  Friggin’ Chris Uberti finished 19^th.  Pretty sure Friggin’ Chris Uberti is getting free pants because word on the street is he signed with Team Mountain Khakis last week.  Friggin’ Chris Uberti reads this blog.  Friggin’ coincidence?  I THINK NOT! 

What have I done and where are MY free pants? 

I finished 45th yesterday, sadly my “grey beard” racing age.  I also was lapped by the leader Josh Johnson.  Yet somehow I was able to text my wife after the race with the good news: 

“45^th out of like 70ish not too shabby, better than last week’s 53rd…only 1 guy (neo-pro) lapped me.  LOL.  Rode well.  Felt Good.  So good day in all.  Be home 8pish.  XOXO.”

The bright side of my race is that I finished 7 places higher than last week and I actually lapped someone else.  Sadly it was my own teammate, but whatever.  I’ll take it Brian.  You’re the ying to my yang. 

Aside from The Zero Principal there are other ways to rationalize getting lapped.

Mechanicals Count.  Courtesy Karen WH

The DNS Natty Natty Boo Boo Bonus:

Beating those that did not start (DNS) is a bonus.  According to USA Cycling I finished 45^th out of 60 starters.  In my book, counting the ten or so no shows it was more like 45^th out of 70.  I’m counting them because I had the nards to lie to my wife and say I'd be home at 8pm when it was more like 9pm, suck up my case of the cough & sniffles, ignore my laundry, postpone my obligations and got my butt to the startline.  If someone is a no-show, you automatically beat them.  Sadly, one of my teammates didn’t show.  There was some confusion as to our carpool plans and BioWheels Steven Gers ended up staying home.  While I missed his wry wit on the drive to Indy, in my head I was one rider ahead before I even left Cincinnati.  Ba bam!

The Joey’s Okay DNFinition:

Anyone who drops out of a race (DNF) due to a mechanical, illness or injury still counts as being behind you.  Cringe.  Offer a sympathetic “you okay dude,” then carve another notch in your carbon bars.  Joey’s okay…and you beat him.  You didn’t case the barriers, you didn’t take a stake to the knuckles, your bike was set up and working beautifully.  You’re soo awesome. 

A Touch of Grey Beards courtesy Karen WH

The Grey Beard Rule:

Sure you got lapped, but if the dudes that lapped you were in a different category, it doesn’t really count.  For example, if you’re racing Masters in a combined field with Elite racers, you’re not lapped until a Grey Beard passes you.  Technically I got lapped the first week of OVCX when Masters leader Fred Rose passed me.  Yesterday with only Neo-Pro Josh Johnson getting past me, I did not.  Same goes for categories.  If you’re a cat 3 and get lapped by Cat 1 and 2 riders, you’re still golden in my book. 

The Look Like A Leader Rule:

So you got lapped fair and square, say the top 7 guys in the field gave you the “leader back” shout.  Remember to the unsuspecting spectator, you look like you finished 8^th.  Look the part.  Zip up your jersey, put your hands in the drops and roar across the finish line and own it with confidence champ!  Next week you may only get lapped by one guy and look like you finished 2^nd!  

#Sub9DeathMarch BioTrain™ Derailment

Special Thanks to Hydrapak

You can’t cheat death, unless you ride with a friend who knows the Heimlich maneuver or carry a backpack defibrillator.  Judging from the size of some hydration packs Saturday, maybe some were prepared for anything.  Consequently, as team Grand Poobah of the BioWheels/Reece-Campbell Racing Death Squad, I’m beginning to rethink the BioTrain™ approach to the Sub-9 Deathmarch race in Hoosier Nat’l Forest.  Last year the BioTrain™ stoked fear in the leaders as we passed like an 8 man bobsled.  This year the BioTrain™ was as imposing as the matinee performance of “Thomas the Train” at US Bank Arena.  Three flats, a broken spoke, two wipe-outs, and a missed turn dashed our 2012 Deathmarch dreams.  For full 2012 Sub-9 Death March results click here.

Last year the BioTrain™ proved somewhat successful on both fronts.  Our 8 man gravel-singletrack-pavement eating paceline placed in the top 12 or so and gelled our team around a common goal.  This year we had fun, but only the duo of James Biliter and Nate Mirus who were driving the train at the time of the 2^nd derailment, had any success.  Being strung out and regrouping after my flat on lower Combs road, a mile later the BioTrain™ came off the rails at the gate.  Dan flatted, our 2^nd of the day less than four miles from the start.  Being driven by ADD, testosterone and adrenalin, Nate and Jimmy never heard the 2^nd call of a flat.  The train of eight was now 2 and 6.  Despite soft pedaling on the front and hair raising riding from the rear it would never be recoupled.

A few loose rules guide the BioTrain™.  1) The train stays together until the last cemetery, Fleetwood, about eight-tenths of a mile from camp where the all-out death sprint between BioWheels/Reece-Campbell racing teams commences.  2) If one gets a flat or mechanical, we all stop.  The thinking is, the bunch will ride faster than a duo and it’s more fun to ride in a bunch.  3) The BioTrain™ is not perfect.  Rule #2 is subject to cases of the very contagious ailments of Multipleflattus, Gappingthegroupus and various hearing impairments.

Who's Got New Pearl Izumi Shoes?  This guy!

On the fun front however, the BioTrain™ is a Billboard Top 100 hit with a bullet.  Had we rode the race in pairs, the guys would’ve missed my teammate Dan Pike’s mesmerizing 40rpm cadence in a gear that would make Jens Voigt and Fabian Cancellera curl up in fetal positions rocking in the corner sucking each other's thumbs in fear.  Dan may appear to be 5’ 1” and 160lbs, but it’s all quads and hammies, baby got back.

Like a NASCAR Replay, right now all the guys are remembering the BioTrainWreck™.   Driving the train on the Nebo Trail between Elkinsville and Berry Road, still in attempt to close the gap to our two teammates a few minutes up the trail, Brian Colliers clipped a buried log right in front of me, sending him over the bars.  He didn’t stop tumbling through the briars till everyone and the caboose passed him.

Slim Jim Hand-Ups In Effect

If it weren’t for Jason Mott’s suggestion that we ask for a tin snips the next time we see the Sub-9 Scooby Doo van, I may have suffered a bit more than a severely out of true wheel and an inoperable rear brake for the last 30 miles of the race.  I broke a spoke after Robinson and had open wheel surgery just 2.5 miles later at the fire tower.  As he snipped the dangling rattling spoke, my vegan self discovered the next best thing to GU energy gels, Slim Jim’s.  Survival mode.

Had Dan and I been solo, I would’ve missed Steven Gers bedrock cracking wreck in my rearview.  On trail 14, enroute to Calahan Cemetery, like a 145 pound sandbag dropped from hot-air balloon, he hit a buried log and augured himself into the ground with a singular whomp, followed by a silence so profound you could hear the frogs croaking five miles away at Coronette Cemetery.

If you think you're fast changing a flat, imagine three guys changing a flat.  Like the “athletes” in a NASCAR pit crew, with brain surgeon precision, they danced around my bike.  While I, the flatter, dug out my spare tube, the wheel guy pulled out the old tube while the air-guy dug out a cartridge.  I handed the new tube to the air guy, who aired it up a bit and passed it to the wheel-guy.  As I stuffed the spent tube into a pocket, the wheel-guy held the tire while the air-guy finished it off.  It came together and we were riding again in three minutes.  Sometimes three heads are better than two.

If it wasn’t for Kris “Karwash’s” flat on Polk Patch which was perfectly timed with our entire bunch bombing downhill and overshooting Trail 14, we wouldn’t have had the 10 minutes for a few of us to turn around, take a natural break and..."Oh, look there it is!"...stumble upon the trail.

You know what?  On second thought, after looking at the pictures of two grown men who look like kids playing in the woods, maybe we did win.

#DeathMarch Planning Questions

Last Year Was A Blast-Story Here

For those that think they have a good route planned out for the Sub 9 Death March and are seemingly prepared, here are a few questions you should absolutely have an answer to before you clip in.

At the holeshot, are you turning left or right?

What about your teammate?

Are you sure that road marked on your map is an actual physical honest to goodness road?

Is that bridge physically crossable or a relic of an aged NASA Satellite photo?

What’s the elevation change between Camp and Hanner Cemetary?

How many valleys will you cross on your way to Lutes?

Are toe spikes a good idea or too much weight?

How are you going to wear toe spikes and shoe covers at the same time silly?

Have you every tried to read a map while riding a gravel road at 25 mph?


Shirley, you can't be serious?


Are you comfortable riding your bike under water?


Is there a compartment for a snorkel in your Hydrapak?

True or False:  Some of the gravel roads would be more stable under your wheels if they were paved 6 inches deep with marbles set in butter.

And, which roads are those?

Are you going up or down them?

If last year’s winning team from DRT spent 4 ½ Hours on their bikes and this year the promoters added a cemetery which is pretty dang far to the east which will no doubt extend saddle time, where and when do you plan on refilling your water?

Should you drink water from a cemetery well?

What time does the sun set?

Is your cell phone’s camera memory close to being full?

Do you know what happens to a paper map in your jersey pocket 5 hours into a ride?

Do you know what happens to the same map after riding through countless creeks?

Are the Garmin and Google maps of Hoosier National Forest as up to date as their map of 

New York City, or are they as old as the farm roads that once criss-crossed the area?

Have you seen the Sprint cell phone coverage map of the area?

So, you're certain your phone's mapping app will be functional?


By the way, have you ever climbed a cell phone tower?

You may not be afraid of heights, but are you may afraid of climbing a Fire Tower which feels like it has the same pieces and stability of a 6 year old’s erector set project?

True or False: Trailheads in Hoosier National Forest are marked with a nice big well painted signs and arrows like the tourist trail to Mt. Rushmore?

If you let the weeds in your driveway grow for 60 years, could you still call it a driveway?

Have you planned your route to Callahan cemetery on the map?

So, when you looked at the Google map you saw Callahan’s tombstones and an adjacent trail together?

You really don’t know where Callahan is, do you?

Multiple Choice: In the pouring rain, what is faster in and out of Callahan?  A horse trail  B) A fresh gravel road  C) A Hard Packed Gravel Road  D) Pavement E) We should really have a Plan B.

Cinti #FightforAirClimb, Any Monkey Can Win

Except if I was late to work, I never ran up a single flight of stairs.  The longest “run” I’ve done since Christmas is 90 seconds.  I’m not rubbing it in or bragging about finishing tied for 3^rd at the American Lung Association's Fight for Air Climb at Cincinnati's Carew Tower.  Aside from giggling at my dumb luck, I am pointing out that “run” and “stairs” are not the operative words.  Climbing the Carew Tower is not about running stairs.  It’s pretty much climbing like a monkey, a very fit and determined monkey. 

Me 2nd from Right with the Rewind 94.9 Rump Shakers

Climbing is the operative word.  In fact, I’m pretty certain I heard a hair raising cackle echo in the stairwell on my way up that gave me chicken skin.  “Ooh ooh ah ah ah ahhh!” No doubt I am half man, half monkey.  Ask my wife.  If I could’ve clawed the handrails and walls with my feet, I would have.  Now I’m not saying it was easy.  To the contrary, it was donkey wheezing, sniveling, spastic arms flailing being chased the boogie man hard.  Bounding is a good term.  Tree-squirreling would be another.  It was not pretty, but fast and effective.

Evil Monkey in Full-Effect

Aside from finding a similarly tight stairwell with handrails within reach on both sides, the 2^nd best training would be boarding a cruise ship as it pulls away from port.  You’re not running a gangway so much as getting from the dock to the ship before the rope-railed gangway goes crashing into the ocean.  The 3^rd best training would be running from an axe murderer in your basement.  You would not run.  You would not step on the stairs.  With your heart rate pegged at max you would go from basement to 1^st floor by whatever means possible, a foot on a wall, a hand on a pipe.  If you must run stairs, the closest analogy is running the pedestrian stairs over an overpass...as it crumbles onto the freeway below.  That is the Fight for Air Climb.

Secret Weapons

As it turns out for me, cyclocross bike racing was a near perfect training.  You don’t run up the stairs.  Hands reaching and grasping, you pull your way up, your feet cross-eye aimed at two steps higher.  Look at the position of a cyclist.  Handlebars become handrails.  Pedals are two-stairs high.  In cyclocross and mountain bike racing, we’re used to getting the “holeshot”, first into the first corner with quick fast twitch speed, trying to essentially eliminate your competition by the first turn.  Most races are all about the first lap, the first 7 to 7.5 minutes of the race.  My time at Climb The Carew was 6:27.  I trained for the Cyclocross Masters World Championships in January with months of 30 and 15 second sprint intervals.  Obviously, some of that fitness is still with me.  The cycling training success fits the advice Marty Sanders, 2012 Vertical Mile Winner, gave me before the start.  He said, “Take two stairs at a time, use the hand rails, don’t run and give ‘er hell when you hit the hallway with 15 stories to go.”  Marty is also an accomplished cyclist and half monkey as well.

I’m not kidding.  I don’t think I could race a 5k without being laid up with sore hammies for two days.  To confess, I have been running, if you want to call it that.  I “run” on a treadmill.  My fastest and longest run is 90 seconds at 7.5mph.  High speed intervals.  In my head I run like Jason Bourne for 90 seconds, and then walk for a minute.  In reality I run like I'm escaping a house fire and walk like a zombie.  Then I do it over and over again for about 15 minutes.  That’s it.

The Next Best Thing to Monkey Feet

I will confess.  I did inadvertently have a secret weapon, maybe two, okay 3.  It was chilly, so I wore a thin set of full-finger gloves on a short jog from my car the Carew Tower.  Made for cycling, they had sticky grippers on the palm and fingers, perfect for gripping handlebars and as it turns out 45 stories of railings.  I wore a pair of tall day glow green tall striped socks (pictured above).  They make me go fast to run away from the heckling.  Oh yeah, and I just got a new pair of Pearl Izumi Peak II trail running shoes.  They’re light, have a snug and soft close fit, and are the perfect color of blue.  While most running shoes might come close to those attributes, the killer grip of Pearl Izumi's sole stands out.  No matter where my feet happened to land, I didn’t slip once, obviously the next best thing to having monkey feet.

#CXMasters2012 A Softie Riding Hard

Shielding my tears from two young girls no doubt waiting for their Dad to cross the line, I broke down after the finish at the Masters Cyclocross World Championships in Louisville.  When I told my wife about wearing my emotions on my jersey sleeves at the finish she rolled her eyes.  She knows me.  I also cried on my wedding day.  My shoulders rattled with man sobs and sniffles.  A photographer snapped pictures of the newly crowned 45-49 year old Masters World Champ Don Myrah next to me but I swear he snuck a click or two in my direction.  I wiped my face, mixing tears with mud and put my head in arms atop my handlebars till it passed.  Under it all I smiled.  Like my wedding day, I was happy.  My friends and family will tell you I’m a softie.

I remember seeing the Cycling Dirt video of Adam Myerson after an east coast race.  Completely emotional, torn apart and crying, he was upset that he thought that day was his day.  Oh please spare me.  He made the lead group in the Elite race only to have one small thing derail his hopes.  He was crushed under the thoughts of all that training, practice and meticulous attention to detail seemingly being of no use.  All he wanted was that one good day on the bike.  I rolled my eyes watching the video.  It’s just bike racing.  There’s always another race.  That's what I thought until my day came.

“Do you want me to put it on you?”  Barb, one of the Worlds organizers and a Louisville race promoter, offered to drape the finisher’s medal over my helmet.  I chuckled and sniffed.  My buddy Jimmy talked about finishers medals on the trip down and how bullshit they are.  He told me he once turned one down, dismissing it by saying medals should only go to the winners.  I remained indifferent.

Smiling, Barb held it out, a white enameled medallion hung from a red, white and blue ribbon.  She recognized me as her “results runner” from the USA Crit Series at Cincinnati’s Hyde Park Blast.  Being close to many of the Papa John’s team riders from Louisville and knowing practically every rider in the Ohio Valley racing scene, she knew first hand all the hill repeats, practice dismounts, and garage trainer nights that brought me to this moment. 

The Pink Pony Pit Bike

The same feelings that Adam Myerson wrestled with on his bad day were welling up and spilling out from me.  It’s not just a bike race.  World Championship or not, it really has nothing to do with the race.  It’s all those hard-guy miles, intervals and practice carries that come back at the finish line to give you one last kick in the ass and slap across the face.  Just when the dues are paid, you get one last call from the collection agency, and like Myerson, I paid in tears. 

At the beginning of the season, all I wanted out of Nationals and Worlds was to be competitive with the best my age.  Seeing the names Fred Rose, Mike McShane and Jonathan Card on the prereg list, I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but after racing the USGP in Louisville that I could stay within 2 minutes of them.  Concrete, specific and (hopefully) attainable, I set my mark on the top 35 and the lead lap at Nationals and Worlds.  That’s not too much to ask from my Sven Nys prayer candle.

Then former Olympian, Don Myrah crushed the field on the 9am frozen ruts at Nationals in Wisconsin.  Even though we weren’t lapped, we probably would have been.  My teammate Mike and I were pulled, officially 2 laps down, 40th and 41st.  I hit the deck three times that day and more course marking stakes than I can count.  Still, I felt good with my ride.  However anticlimactic and disappointing, I still had one more chance, 500 miles, 2 loads of laundry, and 1 bike cleaning away in Louisville.   

"Onetago" Courtesy CXMagazine.com

“Onetago, onetago, one-to-go!”  The announcer shouted as I got the bell.  I buried myself on that last lap, gained three spots and lost two.  I went no handed over the line, clapping my hands, applauding for myself.  I cruised into the finishing chute on the lead lap and the 29^th rider to cross the finish line at the 45-49 year old Masters Cyclocross World Championships.  I nodded, wiped my nose on my armwarmer and Barb slipped the medal over my helmet.  

#OVCX Lexington: Everyday I’m Sufferin’

Brilliant!  Socks and Caps to come!

I’m not high.  However, if I used your bathroom this morning, I may be more inclined to ransack your medicine cabinet looking for pain killers, eye drops and Q-tips.  It hurts to lift my arms.  I have a friend that when exhausted will joke that his skin hurts.  It’s sort of like that.  Between the numerous bike carries at the OVCX Lexington cyclocross race yesterday and pulling on my bars to dig the rear wheel into the cross-arhea mud, I feel like I did the Muscle Beach curling workout.  “I work owwwwt!”

Malissa, Terri & Gerry courtesy Sherri T.

All night my wife kept saying I had mud on my face.  “You showered didn’t you?”  I had, but the specs of dirt on my cheek were in fact coming out of my eyes.  They’d roll down my face with my tears.  I keep blinking.  I’ve been crying in one eye for the past 15 hours.  I blinked while I slept, which turned out to be a good way to see the score of the Packers game on the ESPN recap since I fell asleep with the TV on.  There are still a few gold nuggets left in my left eye.  I’m sure I’ll be panning them out for the next day or two.

Courtesy Steve B.

Just when I start to feel good about my performance yesterday, 21st, my best yet but one spot out of the money, I remember the speeding ticket I was awarded on the way down to the race.  The business like officer clocked me at 68 in a 55 on Lexington’s New Circle Road.  I guess 3 bikes on top of an SUV make a pretty good sized radar target.  It was a simple transaction.  I handed him my license and registration, he handed me a $168 ticket, court costs plus the fine. 

At the start, the official said lap times were running about 12 minutes for previous races and getting slower.  Granted I took what we called “Math for Creatives” in college, a 100 level course officially titled Elements of Math in the UW system, but I calculated with certainty we’d do 6 laps tops.  I’m still trying to figure out why the cards at the start/finish read 3 to go at the 45 minute mark.  As I mashed my way back into the hairy mud, stiff crab grass with ice cream soup mud underneath, I kept saying that can’t be right.  I assured myself I’d get the bell the next lap.  Maybe I messed up my computer out there, but I swear I was on the bike and in the mud for a good hour and twenty minutes and still on the lead lap.

Adam courtesy Lindsay R.

“Everyday I’m Sufferin’.”  I parodied the LMFAO song in my head the moment I felt the effects of the pre-race GU wear off.  I was naked inside and running on empty with 2 to go.  Uphill U-turns, rideable in early laps, became peg-leggers in the Saag Paneer mud.  I’d plant my foot at the stake and fling my bike around.  Rideable climbs disintegrated into dabs at the top which morphed into hoofing it from the bottom.  I’m not sure I used my brakes most of the race.  Like driving a river boat, you just slow the paddle wheel.  Even on the slickest steepest descents, the mud at the bottom would scrub enough speed to keep you from going into the tape. 

My Best CX Season p/b Pearl Izumi

It’s comforting, the feeling of letting go at the end of a race, first ending the pursuit and then putting our defenses down.  While I can’t put an exact time on it, I distinctly remember switching my focus from chasing my teammate Nate and turning it toward keeping the guy behind me…well, behind me.  With two turns left before the finish, I churned through the peanut butter and cat snot.  Sam Dobrozi was nearly two turns behind.  Done.  Pavement.  Nirvana.  I rode into the light.

Degrees of Separation: #OVCX to #USGPcx to Masters Worlds 2011

You raced or watched the USGP Cyclocross Derby Cup in Louisville this weekend.  With course tape snapping in the wind, you rang the cowbell at the fly-over, heckled Georgia Gould, followed Powers lines warming up, shielded your junior kid’s eyes from the guy cheering with a nipple-taped blow up doll and, even though you can’t draw a correlation, the three gladiators seemed to fit in with the atmosphere.  You had a blast.  Now, it’s Monday, November 14^th.  In two months, Cyclocross Masters Worlds unfolds on the same course.  We’ll see real rainbow stripes pulled over team jerseys and tears of joy in the winner’s eyes.  After doing my best 20/20 investigative reporting, crunching results, and talking with masters peers this weekend, I wont be surprised if those rainbow tears could be rolling down the cheek of someone we know. 

Cyclocross Masters Nationals 2010 45-49

1	Don	Myrah		0:48:36
2	Mark	Noble	Metalmtn Cycling	50:46:00
3	Jonny	Bold	Corner Cycle	51:01:00
4	James	Coates	California Giant Cycling/Califo	51:17:00
5	Richard	Mcclung	Lake Washington Velo/Hagens Ber	51:26:00
6	Mike	Hogan	Justin'S / Titus Mountain Bike	51:36:00
7	Arthur	O'connor	Team Big Ring-Realcyclist.Com	51:56:00
8	Tim	Butler		52:02:00
9	Eric	Martin	Webcyclery Racing/Bendbroadband	52:10:00
10	Jonathan	Card		52:13:00

It won’t be me.  The way I figure it, I’m still 4 degrees of separation from the next 45-49 year old Masters World Champion.  I finished in 23^rd place in Day 1 of the USGP 45+ Elite Masters, an eternity of 2 minutes and 47 seconds behind the beaded bling wearing 45+ winner Jonathan Card.  However, Card finished 1:12 behind a certain 3^rd place Jonny Bold at Nationals last year.  45-49 year old Nationals in 2010 were won by the legendary Olympian/World MTB Champ and four time Elite Cyclocross National Champion Don Myrah.  While Myrah didn’t make the trip to Mol, Belgium for Worlds last year, Bold did.  He won bronze, nine seconds behind 2010 (1961-65) World Champion Marc Druvts.  According to Bold’s blog, the race was very close.  Sadly, Marc Druvts passed away this August.  

Cyclocross Masters Worlds 2010 Mol, Belgium 1961-65 (45-49) 

1 Marc Druyts (Belgium) :37:28

2 Dirk Mertens (Belgium)  :00:07

3 Jonny Bold (USA)         :00:09

Granted you can’t compare last year’s Jonny Bold to this year’s Jonathan Card, Fred Rose or Mike McShane.  Variables such as geography, course layout, weather, and jet lag come into play as well as the typical boring master’s issues of family, careers and who's going to snow blow the driveway when I'm gone.  44 year olds turn 45.  49 year olds blow out 50 candles.  While it’s not a divining rod of Masters Cyclcocross, it does show the general caliber of talent present locally in Ohio Valley Cyclocross OVCX and the USGP.  Take a look at the current USA cycling rankings.  You may recognize a few names.

USA Cycling Masters 45-49 Open Cyclocross Rankings as of 11/14/11

1	214.80	Frederick Rose	Bloomington, IN	30553	45
2	216.22	Jonny Bold	Marstons Mills, MA	117383	47
3	219.53	Jonathan Card	Sylvania, OH	6078	48
4	221.85	Ralf Warmuth	Edison, NJ	231788	48
5	225.46	Michael McShane	Louisville, KY	23836	47

Card Tails Rose

In the USGP 45+ Elite Masters race on Saturday, OVCX regular, Fred Rose finished 3^rd, only 7 seconds off Card’s mark.  Mike McShane only 32 seconds off Rose.  Personally, I’m thinking Card may be even faster than last year.  In lieu of having Worlds in their backyard, I think many OVCX racers have raised their game.  After talking with a few Masters racers at USGP this weekend, I heard Card deliberately started training later and put less emphasis on early September races in order to focus on Nationals and Worlds. 

For me, looking at the theoretical gaps between myself and guys like Bold, Myrah and the late Druvts, I’m just glad it doesn’t get too much faster than this.  Staying on the lead lap at Worlds would be a dream.  While it may be a few rows in back of Bold, Card, Rose, Myrah and a few Europeans getting away to tropical Louisville in January, there’s a place on the Worlds starting grid for me.  

USGP CX Derby Cup 45-54 11/12/11
1 43 CARD Jonathan TEAM CARD 6078 36:56:00
2 2 BUTLER Tim WestEndBikes/Specialized 211505 37:01:00
3 11 ROSE Frederick BikeReg.com 30553 37:03:00
4 1 MCSHANE Michael Bob's Red Mill- p/b Focus Bikes 23836 37:35:00
5 65 MORSE Samuel Corner Cycle 25187 37:41:00
6 7 SIMON Wayne Enzo's/ Psimet 32742 37:41:00
7 6 LUCAS Keith Schellers Racing Team 209624 38:00:00
8 49 AUGUST Andy Park Ave Bike Shop 2073 38:03:00
9 5 KRAUSE Troy Monkey Wrench/Inglis 210684 38:11:00
10 57 CASPER Daniel GrandStay Hotels 214654 38:23:00
11 68 NISSEN Dave QCW 165977 38:25:00
12 4 STEPNIOWSKI Waldek lUNA 93056 38:43:00
13 14 FAGERBERG Erik Papa John's Racing Team 11159 38:53:00
14 32 TUCKER Troy Inside Ride 91206 38:59:00
15 56 TOTH Peter ONE DAY 39:04:00
16 12 MANDROLA John Papa Johns Racing Team 201258 39:13:00
17 61 POHLMANN Dirk Texas Roadhouse p/b Motorex 51532 39:22:00
18 63 PAGELL Mark Team WORC INTL 39:25:00
19 53 MCNAMEE Steve Le Scomparse Racing Team 189612 39:26:00
20 23 HUNTER Todd Garneau Customs p/b Powerbar/ W 178827 39:31:00
21 10 WELLSMAN Peter Pro City Racing INTL 39:33:00
22 15 MAY, SR John Papa John's Racing Team 195083 39:35:00
23 16 BELLANTE Joe BioWheels/Reece-Campbell Racing 199092 39:43:00