Cross is a picnic after some good coaching!

I was feeling pretty low after Bloomington and the GP. I was nervous about my move to Elite and I was starting to wonder if I made a mistake. I was starting to not have fun.

So the night before Storm the Greens I met up with my patron Mitch at Kings for some opening of the legs. He noticed I get all sketched out around other riders so he told me to chill, keep the rubber side down and work on being a foiler by coming back late in the race and poaching spots.

Race #57 Slow Birdie but back on par!
So my starts are so slow. I need to get some fast-twitch muscles someday! It's like I have a bungie on my back. Anyway, I held on at the start, trying to stay glued to the last wheel. Mitch was coaching me to keep it cool. It worked out and on lap 2 I attacked two riders and made a gap. Somewhere I passed a couple more! Goal #1 a success, out of last place! Unfortunately in the middle of the race my brakes began to mysteriously rub, so I had to jump off for a sec and worked that out. I lost one spot to a LWC rider, but he was pretty full of steam and going to hunt me down anyway. So lap number 8 I look back and I see the Bob's Red Mill Grain Train chugging along. I had to gun it so they wouldn't gobble me up, and I succeeded in Goal #2, I didn't get lapped! After that I just did a victory lap! I sprinted in to the finish to the cheers of my friends, kind of funny since I was so slow! But hey, no slip ups! Mitch's advice got me back on track!

Lap Time Speed
1 6:56.456 25.069
2 6:51.509 25.370
3 7:00.513 24.827
4 6:57.906 24.982
5 7:15.384 23.979
6 7:08.893 24.342
7 7:11.096 24.217
8 7:07.241 24.436
9 7:21.751 23.633
AVG Speed = 24.46 kph

Race #58 Picnic in the Mud
I had a blast going out and pre-riding the course with friends all week. The Gun Club is so scenic and such a unique venue.

A couple years ago my friends and family came out and we had a picnic in the mud. The day before I went down to Findlay Market and picked up a bunch of local ingredients straight from the farmers. Finally got my hands on some incredible Blue Oven bread. I also picked up some aged goat milk Houtz cheese from Blue Jacket Dairy in Bellefountaine. Great cheese, bread, beer and wine are their own religions and I worship at the alter. I had such a blast shopping down there, and I woke up early Sunday morning to make a vegan Apple Tarte Tatin, which I call the Parisienne Powerbar. It's basically an upside down apple tart that is perfectly suited to consuming about an hour before your race. I also made a vegetarian broccoli and cheese quiche. A hearty source of recovery protein post-race.

So to the racing! I lined up at the start with the same strategy as Louisville. But that all changed when two rider collided in front of me and I found myself endo-ing over the top of them. I got up and gunned it to get back in the race. I had to make a risky pass here and there, one was to get around a rider who couldn't corner worth a darn. I accidently blocked my homie Travis in a couple corners cause I thought it was that guy trying to get back around me.

Eventually I made it into a small group with Christopher Chartier and Samuel "The Kid" Dobrozsi. All of us excelled at certain parts of the course but no one could really pull away. Here and there one of of would attack but a bone-headed move in a corner would cause the attacker to be pulled back.

My friends were awesome! There were so many people cheering all over the course, and the three of us were battling for the last money spot. It was so fun to hear all their cheers and sometimes someone would say something funny to crack me up. My team homies were in the woods and I rode the creek crossing and the steep hill after just to make them happy!

It was there that the real drama happened on the last lap. The Kid got dropped and Christopher rode the creek and hill so smooth and clean I thought for a second he was Sven Nys! It was simply beautiful, and I think my dropped jaw slowed me down! He got a 10 second gap I couldn't pull back, and Chartier got the money.

Oh well! I was close! Best cross race of the year so far! Simply a blast!

Another crazy thing is sometime during the race I twisted my ankle but didn't feel it until I quit. Gotta love adrenaline!

Lap Time
1 0:07:39
2 0:07:35
3 0:07:41
4 0:07:55
5 0:07:50
6 0:07:53
7 0:07:47
8 0:07:38
AVG Speed = 26.47 kph

Voting in Spandex

I've been working late a lot lately and my hours on the bike have been suffering. So after work I did some intervals on the commute home, did a beautiful ride up to Alms Park, took the road bike a short trail and then hit the polls. Yes, in my kit. It's called multitasking and although others don't oggle my Blackberry they can see my twig and berries. You're welcome.

Jimmy Fumbles!

I'm halfway through and I have a lot less momentum than last year. Actually I feel like the Bengals of cyclocross! But part of this is from the learning curve of pushing myself to new levels. I think pro sports teams call this "restructuring." Early in the year I had a a lot of momentum and I was on the fence about racing 3's or Elite. In all reality I would only finish in the top 15 and possibly 10 of the 3's, but I was really excited about pushing myself for an hour. I also have to take a step back and realize that this is my third year racing and I am racing Elite. Wow, and in my short time as a cyclocross racer I have really had a lot of luck and last year was a dream year with 2 wins and tons of top 10s.

PreSeason:
Harbin MTB TTs, great workouts, totally got steamed killing myself in 90 degree weather for 45 minutes.
Kings CX TTs, great workouts, showed promise on a couple nights

Jimmy's Season:
Kings Cat 3 Race: Fumbled and fell, finished 15th.
Kings Elite Race: Having fun battling for 22nd place, then cramped and DFL'ed!
Shawnee Elite Race: Best race so far, battled with another guy and lost for 7th out of 13, but had tons of fun.
UCI 3 Devou Cat 2/3: battled through 50 racers to get 2nd
UCI 3 Harbin Cat 2/3: headache at the start, came around halfway for 34th.
Bloomington Elite Race: blew up on lap 2 and started crashing and ended up DFL...
Derby City 1 Cat 2/3: lost somewhere in the back of the race, pulled with 3 laps to go.
Derby City 2 Cat 2/3: went out and really fought, had a great couple of laps but still pulled.

The Derby City USGP was tough because I really stunk it up the first day and I felt I really let myself down. I actually was pretty upset and had nightmares about the money I was wasting racing. But I learned and really pushed myself on day 2.

The course was pretty cool, I really loved the wooded section — it makes for very challenging racing and great spectating. It's always great to watch the pros kick ass too.

I'm super proud of super Bjet for racing hard and hangin' with the pro women despite drawing 2 bad numbers in the lottery. I think she started last each day and had to ride her way through some women with lesser technical abilities.

Cycling Dirt's Coverage of Bjet at the Derby City Cup

My morning moment of zen. Stopping to stretch in Cincinnati's beautiful parks while enjoying some coffee. I love bike commuting.

Race #60: Race of the Falling Jimmys

Bloomingcross 2010 from CinéCinnati on Vimeo.

Nate and I shot some quick clips of my favorite homies like Jroo, Opie, Bjet, the Farrels, the Virotsko clan, and some BioBuds. Awesome post race interview by me... The race was so fast I was gassed. I meant to say I popped so I tried to rail some corners to catch up but I couldn't corner with a head full of hot blood and ending up getting "front rad" and slammed into the ground a few times. The last time I ended up dropping my chain and getting chain suck... There is always next week!

Races #57 & 58: Back of the Line Mister!

UCI3 #1: Darkhorse Racing's Cyclo*Stampede
I was dreading this race. The weekend before I sprained my right calf muscle and thought I wasn't going to be able to race. But thanks to some great therapy from Dr Yost and Dr Brodeur from Norwood Chiropractic and an easy rest week I felt miraculously recovered! I was still scared of a re-injury so I woke up early and bike commuted to the race with leg warmers and compression socks on to get my legs flushed and warmed-up.

Totally didn't hear my call up on the starting line! My name was announced earlier than I thought and I ended up back row and that was fine. I was a little scared to push that right calf. So we set off in a whirlwind of buzzing nobby tires on asphalt. I got stuck behind a pile up at the end of the first off-camber section but I stayed calm and just kept pedaling keeping my nose clear of wrecks.

Well, it was a tough course and everybody was suffering. But I still found it quite fun and my legs actually felt great so I started passing! I probably started in 70-sumthin place and by the end of the last lap I was fighting for 21st. But I pushed my luck trying to keep my speed up and slid out in a dusty corner. I lost the spot to the guy just behind me but kept it together to come in 22nd. I had a really blast and was pretty disappointed in another bad start but excited about my strong finish.

So I helped out at a course crossing for the pro races and spent the next two hours with my jaw dropped watching how it is really done. Bjet crushed it in a tough field of Women. She looked really strong on the hilly course. Blown away Trebon popped Jpow on the uphill run and was impressed with the Tree Farm finishing 1 & 2.

UCI3 #3 United Dairy Farmers BioWheels Harbin Park Worlds
I felt horrible after not getting much sleep helping set up the race course. My head was pounding and I didn't feel like racing. I was still proud to be part of one of the largest and most well-run Cat 1 UCI races in the mid-west. It's like being a wedding planner for the dreams of a thousand weekend warriors!

On the startline I lined up but immediately felt like picking my bike up and walking to the side and waving goodbye to everyone. But I said "shut up headache" and went off in another blur of motion with over 150 racers. It was another day where I started from the back line.

But today was worse than Friday, I pretty much kept going backwards for a few laps. I tried to accomplish little goals to keep me going: ride the uphill sandpit, ride the roots, sprint through the sand. This is kind of cheesy but the fans really push me to excel beyond what I thought I could do. Just know there are people screaming at me kept me motivated and I wanted to entertain them. Thanks to Jdog Roosen the Mountain Biking Queen and superglam sunglass homie Ryan for keeping me going. I felt lame sucking in front of them during the first few laps! The good blood flowed to my brain and I finally woke up! I started passing again. You can tell from my lap times that I woke up halfway through the race: 02:44 (prologue), 9:36, 9:29, 9:14, 9:02, and 9:08.

At the end I caught up with teammate Mott Sauce and he glued his wheel to mine and we finished strong. We came in 34th and 35th. Glad I raced! It was hard to see my main man Nate lose a potential win with a mechanical. That guy is going to crush it this year! Teammate Jaden also raced well. He also had a mechanical on Friday, I see him doing really well in the 3's this year.

Another day watching the pros. Teammate Gerry "Ole Chappy" battled for a strong finish in the Women's field with Bjet behind her. Can't wait to post the video I shot of the pro races.

Bjet and I had a nice Wedding Anniversary. We both took a lovely Autumn day off of work. We went out for a long cyclocross soul ride to Riverside Park outside Loveland and a few other parks on the way back. Hit up Sugar for a cupcake refuel and later we headed out for a gluttonous evening of wine, beer, bourbon, mussels, quail confit, snails, frog legs, a lobster blt and truffle fries. At least we burned a ton of calories earlier that day!