BELLY CROSS CORNWALL PARK

Great morning at Cornwall Park: the return of Belly Cross, a Mark Peterson produced cyclocross race through the forests of open fields of Bellingham's oldest park. Above, the start of Class C race, wherein we took off LeMans style--run around the crazed maniac in the skull mask and yellow wig, then hop on our bikes and get going. I was in the Master C category but more on that later.

More interestingly, Baker jumped into the Youth race and won it! Below is the podium, as it were, from left to right, first, third and second. The second-place kid is named Liam, but I've no idea what the middle kid's name is. (Sorry.) Kind of funny, right before his race, Mark asked me if I would ride ahead of the kids to show them the course. I really wanted to watch Bake race so I almost said no, but since he was in first or second the whole time, I got to watch his whole race unfold. Below, that's me in orange vest with Bake just behind. I really had to push it to stay ahead of these guys. Bake and the two others broke away from everyone pretty quick, with Bake and Liam going back and forth for the lead. It was thrilling. At one point, Liam bounced off a rock and hit one of them big, hard, green things that are real tall--a tree, I think they're called--and Bake got ahead to stay. (Liam was OK.) Below, Bake crosses the finish. That's gotta feel good. As I said, I did the C race, Masters C for dudes in their 40s and above. Right off the bat, I got tangled in the tape and one of the gates. Konked on the head too as riders zoomed by. Kind of set me back quite a bit. I made back some ground but for much of the race I was in no man's land by myself. Still had a great fun.

Check out my spiffy shirt and socks.

Finally met Dessa of Dessa's Days, a Seattle cyclist's blog I check often. Nice guy. I think he finished fourth.

CYCLOCROSS ADVENTURES

Check out the latest issue of Adventures NW magazine (http://www.adventuresnw.com/) which has my story about CX'ploring, exploring the trails and roads around Bellingham by cyclocross bike. Extree cool--that's my cover shot of Mark Peterson and Ryan Rickerts, a couple of local 'cross race promoters. Go to http://www.cyclocrazed.com/ for the latest info on their new race series.

END OF YEAR RIDE

Went 'cross bike riding with Mark Peterson, athlete and sponship dude at Kona, and Ryan Rickerts, of http://www.cyclocrazed.com/ fame the other day. Strong guys both who thankfully waited up for me at various and sundry points. I'm writing a story for The Seattle http://www.seattletimes/ about such 'cross-type riding behavior; it should run next Thursday, the 10th.
There's Ryan giving me the Lance look. (Cheeky bastard.) We started at Mark's house where, after enjoying one of those mini cups of some amazingly rich espresso, we headed up the Pipeline Trail on Galbraith. See the snow in the distance (above); see it in my back wheel below?
Probably six or eight inches of snow once we hit where the road/trail flattens out, then we headed down the upper trails just east of Lake Padden. (That's the top photo.) From there we dropped down into Fairhaven and took various greenways back. Just about two hours riding in all.
Sunday, I went running with the Chuckanut 50K group from the Vet hospital. About an hour into it, as I was having a jolly time running with Mr. Clark and Mr. Scott, it just kinda hit me: I don't feel like training for this race. Even if it's the last time ever for this course, I just can't seem to get motivated for the long, long hours of running in the mud every Sunday until raceday in the middle of March. And for a race that long and painful, I need to be mucho motivated. (Still ended up running 2 hours 45 minutes with a couple thousand feet elevation gain.)

Went home, took out the 'cross bike and rode about an hour and 15. That was fun.

Tractor 'Cross Video

Here's Bellingham 'cross racer and super nice guy Glenn Gervais reenacting part of the pedal through the demolition derby area. All the super skanky mud is just off camera. Check out the crowd in the grandstand--they can hardly contain their excitement.

TRACTOR 'CROSS

Saturday, Glenn (http://www.ggtriguy.blogspot.com/) and I headed to the Lynden fairgrounds for a little Tractor 'Cross action, the third in Ryan Rickerts' Cyclocrazed series (http://www.cyclocrazed.com/). It was great fun--we rode through ankle-deep mud (also known as quicksand) at the demolition derby area (where some years ago Garth Brooks caused absolute mayhem by showing up during a Trisha Yearwood show), the pig barn where we went up and down one of the skateboard ramps (I did a 900 variel heelflip with a fakie axle stall a couple times; pretty tough on a 'cross bike), and finally a killer run-up where I lost any hope I had of winning the Master C race.

Above and below, see professional cyclocross model and America's little sweetheart Glenn Gervais riding through the aforementioned demo derby and through the pig barn.
Like I said (kinda) I raced Master C and at the start felt really confident that I could finish top five. Especially since there were only four of us. (Professional cyclocross model Glenn Gervais is a mere lad of 37 so he raced Mens C.) Tjalling Ympa (or Ypma?) was there and lucky for me he was on a mountain bike. Top 3 was looking like a real possibility.
At the start, I raced to the front and was feeling pretty darn proud of myself for being so aggressive. We bobbed and weaved, wound around tree trunks and on this long straightaway I tried to open it up while making sure not to hit any of the haybale obstacles. Then we hit the derby demo and the mud. And in the case of me, I stuck. Like glue. Like a fly to flypaper. I weren't goin' nowhere. I didn't fall; I just came to a standstill.

Unfortunately (for me) the two guys behind me had no such trouble and passed right on by. Then it was onto the pig barn, down into a ravine and into the run-up, a steep slippery hill probably 40 feet high that was impossible to ride. It was like a mountain climber's boot trail straight up the side of a mountain on the way to someplace in the Pickets. I love my Motobecane Fantom CX, but she ain't light--24 pounds she weighs in at and after carrying her five times up that run-up she felt like she was 240 pounds.
Anyway, eventually I caught one of the two fellers who had passed me that first time through the demo derby mud pit, but never caught eventual winner Malcolm (don't know his last name but after the race I heard him say that he was 190 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal. Or something like that.) I'd reel him in on a couple of the straightaways but he had the run-up totally dialed in. He just disappeared on me everytime.

So I finished second and had a great time doing it. So strenuous, so right-at-the-edge of what I'm capable of doing. We did five laps, about 38 or 40 minutes of racing (I forgot to turn my watch off at the end) and everytime I looked at my heart monitor, it was pinned on 175-176.

Kudos to Ryan Rickerts. He puts on fun races and I hope he does more of these next season. He's got a real knack for putting on fun events. And he always wears a quite fetching yellow wig too.

Seattle cyclocross (http://www.seattlecyclocross.com/) is huge right now. Before the race, I talked to someone who said they get so many people showing up they have to start in heats ... of like 90 riders. Not sure that down there I'd feel confident of a top 5 finish.