brickhouseracing

OK, here are the rules…

You are welcome to download any of these photos free of charge. If you want the high res file of yourself, I’d be happy to provide it- just email me andrea@brickhouseracing . com

There’s ONE stipulation, though- if you post one on a blog, send it in an email, post on a forum, etc… please also post a link to Brickhouse Racing (copy and paste from the address bar above). If you don’t, bad karma will make you flat during your next race.

I wasn’t going to get into this, but it’s getting ridiculous… the whole “UCI/forbidden race” thing.

First off, if you’re a rider with a domestic licence (not an International license), this rule doesn’t apply to you. Lots of people I see getting up in arms on the internets and posting “OMG, NOW I CAN’T GO TO MY FAVORITE UNSANCTIONED RACE” are people who don’t even hold an international license. Calm down, put your pitchfork away, and go race.

Also, I realize that there’s a statement in the UCI rulebook that allows USA Cycling to grant exceptions for unsanctioned races that allows UCI-licenced  riders to attend the excepted race with no consequence, and that USA Cycling, for whatever reason, isn’t doing that. Ok, sure, it’s a jerk move. I won’t deny that.

I’m not a professional, but I do hold a UCI license. I needed it for participation in the Master’s Worlds race (and will need it if I participate in any of the UCI-level ProXCT races this year). You need one to participate in any UCI-Governed race, which, in many pro mountain bikers’ situations (Amanda Carey’s last couple of years racing NUE is a shining example), means that you may only go to non-sanctioned MTB races, but then compete in UCI-sanctioned cyclocross races. On the other hand, you may be a World Cup level rider (like Amanda’s teammate, Krista Park) . Either way, if you’re served with a 1 month ban for an unsanctioned race, you could potentially miss out on the UCI-level races.

So, lets get into the meat of the issue here.

Rules.

USA Cycling is following the rules handed down to them by the UCI. If you’re living the dream of being a pro cyclist, you’re incredibly lucky, gifted, and hard-working. You also have to follow the rules that govern your profession. If choosing your races based on sanctioning body is the WORST thing that ever happens to you in your career, do you realize how much better you still have it over the 99.9% or people who can’t be professional cyclists?
If your livelihood is soooooo harmed by this rule, you could always find a 9-5 job that isn’t governed by USAC. It’s like a long-haul trucker whose employer speed-governs his truck at 65 mph. Sure, he could make more money and haul more loads if he could go 70, but he is paid to follow his employers rules, and that one, as much as he hates it, it one he has to follow. I’m fighting and training as hard as I possibly can to even get a taste of “pro” cycling. I’d sell my freaking SOUL to have your job. If getting even the smallest of paychecks because I’m awesome at riding a bike meant that I had to abide by some rules I didn’t agree with, then WHO CARES, I’M A PRO CYCLIST AND THAT MAKES ME REALLY HAPPY!!!

If you’re not pro, but you happen to have a UCI License, then you have to just deal with it. Until you get a paycheck, this is an expensive hobby. One that’s got its own set of rules. Pick and choose your races so that you’re not “banned” from competition if your “A” race of the season happens to be a USA-Cycling sanctioned race. That’s what I’m facing. It sucks, but it’s not the end of the world.

One of the big issues I see is that USA Cycling hasn’t said how, when, and at what level they plan on enforcing the rule. Are they googling every rider on the roster at sanctioned races to make sure that all of the ones holding a UCI license are “eligible”? Probably not. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, are they leaving it up to the competitors? In other words, if I race the Sun Valley Enduro (non-sanctioned) the weekend before Marathon Nationals (which uses part of the same course), then win Marathon Nationals, is it up to someone who I beat to protest to the officials that I did something illegal the weekend before and should be disqualified?

Because, let’s face it… the best training for a race is racing. If the ladies I beat at Marathon Natz follow the rules and don’t race the previous weekend’s enduro, then I gained an advantage over them by breaking the rules and racing an unsanctioned race. On the darker side of things, unsanctioned races have no doping controls. You could be full-on positive for PEDs in those competitions. I can see that as one of USA Cycling’s incredibly short list of  legitimate reasons for wanting their thumb on all of the racing in the US.

Also along the lines of enforcement, not only is it unclear as to how USA Cycling plans on “finding” riders who break the rules, it’s also unclear as to how they plan on doling out fines & bans. Will they be cumulative (1 month & a fine for each unsanctioned race)? Or, is it just an immediate “you’re banned from competition for one month” following an unsanctioned race?

So, before you post hateful things and tell me I don’t understand how bad this is for cycling and for promoters, I’ll just tell you now, YES, I get it. I think that it sucks shit for anyone with a UCI license to have to potentially make a choice between races because of the rule, and that USA Cycling could probably find something else to do with their time and energy besides attempting to monopolize all racing in the US. I think it’s terrible that promoters will have to pay more money to get a “blessing” from USA cycling unless they want to be “forbidden.”

I also agree with the Team Director of Sho-Air, who has some very good points in regards to what USA Cycling ISN’T doing right now (copy & paste from here):

Team Director Ty Kady welcomes the opportunity to take a stand.
“I’ve been pushing Scott for several years to really make USAC stand up for
mountain bikers and the sport here in the US. This is a perfect opportunity
for USAC to support all their licensed members by giving the UCI pushback
on a rule that clearly doesn’t work with the US model of mountain biking.
However they have yet to make a stand against the UCI. As the promoter
of two Pro XCT and two PRO UET eventsin 2013, what’s even more
grievous is USAC offers no overall prizemoney for their Pro XCT or Pro UET
series champion, even though they claim them to be the “premier” US
Mountain bike series. They offer no financialsupport for promoters, who
actually do host a UCI event on their behalf, yet now they want to tell
racers when and where and for whom they can race their bikes? That
doesn’t sit well with me, especially when it’s obvious they are doing
nothing to bolster their own series so riders can try and earn income.

However, Rules are rules. Hopefully they’ll be changed for the better, but, until then…

You may have noticed that I didn’t post anything about training last week. Basically, last weekend, I had a wicked sore throat, and it developed into a full-on upper respiratory infection by Monday afternoon. I was on the couch/walking dead for most of the week before I finally started to turn the corner on Thursday. I was left with a lingering cough and just enough head congestion to produce epic snot rockets (both of which are still lingering… I woke up coughing and snotty this morning).

The original plan for the race was for Ryan, Matt, and me to board the dogs and all three pack up & camp at Todd “Antique Gun Show” Henne’s   property that sits just off the Womble trail about 20 minutes from the Race start (includes a sweet pump track as well). However, Thursday evening, Ryan stabbed himself in the thumb meat with a knife while trying to break into his Apple Time Capsule to replace the hard drive. After bleeding some and freaking out enough to pass out, Ryan figured out on Friday that he couldn’t use his right thumb to shift. So, he stayed in Memphis to road race, and Matt and I went to Arkansas.

The drive is always entertaining until Matt gets so crunk that he makes himself bonk.

We set up camp and rode a little bit of the Womble before going to packet pickup. We later discovered that there was a kennel full of barking dogs within a mile or two of Todd’s place, and we got to listen to at least one or two bark at most hours of the night. Matt was in his hammock with earplugs, so he was pretty cozy despite the noise. I can’t wear earplugs, because then I don’t sleep because I’m worried I’ll miss my alarm. So, between dogs and coughing, it was a long night.

Sunday morning, we woke up and immediately got in the car to go to Oden school for the start. Along the way, we stopped to drop a cooler full of bottles at Sims (the midpoint of the race course). After a little oatmeal and coffee, we lined up early so we’d have a good spot on the start line (the “neutral rollout” of the OC Race is pretty wild, and with Matt riding singlespeed, it was a move of both safety and strategy)

(Photo courtesy of the Ouachita Challenge/Ouachita Cycling Club FB page- for anyone wondering, Matt’s been MTB racing in a Brickhouse jersey this season since his usual team doesn’t support MTB racing. I told him it’s like a season of “tryouts” for getting in on the actual sponsor support next season)

As usual, the start was a hammerfest of bar-bumping and tire rubbing. Once the lead truck pulled out of the way, I was well-positioned around the other women who wanted to stick to the front of the race- Jessica Rawlings and another woman in a Dallas Bike Works kit. I realized (thanks to my new MTB Quarq powermeter) that as we approached the first climb, I was going a little too hard. The thing that kills a lot of people (myself included) at Ouachita is how badly you can blow yourself up at the start and on the first climb. I learned that the hard way, so this year, when Jessica and the Dallas woman pulled off with the lead men, I hung back and rode the climb at my own pace as the 3rd woman. I lost sight of Jessica, but the other woman came back to me about 3/4 of the way up. I knew I couldn’t chase Jessica at that point, so I settled in with the plan to slowly chip away at her lead as she got tired over the next 50 or so miles.

Once I was mostly up Brushy Mountain (first of 3 Ouachita Trail mountains), I was gettin’ it down the trail when I wonked my rear wheel on a rock. It started to feel a little mushy… then went flat. I made my way to the side of the trail and did what was probably the fastest trailside tube installation of my life. All the while, other ladies and riders were blowing past me (including Matt, who went by just before I got my wheel back on). It was early, so without panicking, I used the next two mountains (Blowout and Chalybeate) climbs to pick my way back through all but one of the women who had passed me earlier, landing me on the gravel/road section in 3rd position with Matt, who was somewhere in the top 10 in Singlespeed. Soon after, some geared guys came by us, and I left him to spin incessantly while I worked with them all the way to Sims.

At Sims, I did a quick bottle swap at the cooler and got back on the road. Only a couple of the guys I’d been with were close by, so I hopped in with them. We lost one guy on a hill, so me and a man on a Fisher swapped pulls until suddenly, the Dallas Bike Works woman was in sight. He pulled off and said he’d stay out of the way of our race. I caught her rear wheel just as we got back on the short section of Womble singletrack before the next aid station. When we came to a short, muddy hill, I took the soft line to the left and made the pass. With another 25 miles or so of racing ahead, I didn’t need a full-on attack, so I just stuck with the “slightly faster than you’re going” effort for the next few minutes and through the next aid to another gravel road section.

When I came out on the gravel, I could hear another rider on my wheel. Thinking it was her, I didn’t look back for a long time. When I felt like I’d pulled long enough, I checked over my shoulder and saw that the person behind me was actually the guy on the Fisher. He came around to take a pull and said something along the lines of , “you put the wood to her back there on the trail.” We’d only covered a mile or two at the most since I’d made the pass, and she was nowhere in sight.

At that point, I wasn’t feeling like a rockstar. I’ve been racing just long enough to realize that the “I’m gonna cramp later” twitch in my quads and the distance left to race was a combination that needed to be dealt with carefully. I didn’t have the gas to go for an all-out chase for the win, but I did have plenty in the tank to ride tempo in order to stay a steady 2nd and to catch 1st if she were to totally fall apart or have a major mechanical. So, I pounded some more Roctane and did just that. Jessica, however, was feeling like a rockstar, so I ended up holding on to 2nd place and finishing about 20 minutes after her (my flat change was only ~5 minutes, so it wasn’t really that pivotal in the results). My time of 5:40 is 15 better than my best effort on that course, so, given A)an upper respiratory infection, and B) this one me, exactly one month ago (to the hour) from the finish of Ouachita:

…I can’t let myself be too disappointed with not getting the win I was hoping to get as a season opener. After the race, I was still feeling the effects of my car accident. Essentially, with the physical stress of riding a mountain bike for that long, my right sacroiliac joint feels like an aluminum bike with a weak weld undergoing frame flex. It’s got me back on the ibuprophen and ice for a couple of days before I get back to my usual schedule to prep for the Whiskey 50.

A.K.A. One of the unluckiest/luckiest days of my life.

Saturday morning, Matt and I drove down to St. Francisville. We stopped on the north end of the course and pre rode the 2nd and 3rd (previous years, these were the 1st and 2nd, but the course was changed this year) sections of gravel. It was sandy and treacherous as usual. I was happy with the fit & feel of the new bike. In case you were wondering, a CAAD10 rides very nicely- the handling is great, and, though it’s a tiny bit less “rockety” than a super stiff carbon bike, it’s miles better than the 2009 Madone I briefly owned a couple of years ago.

Sunday morning, everything was shaping up for a good race. For the first time in 15 years, women had their own separate start (in previous years, they’d raced with cat 4 and/or masters men). I haven’t road raced in the area in a couple of years, so, other than Louise Smyth (a.k.a. best TTer in the South & last year’s winner) and Amy Phillips (who I’d met racing cyclocross in TN), I didn’t know who the horsepower of the bunch would be.

The race got off to a little bit of a slow start. Fine by me- we had 104 miles of course ahead of us. However, as we approached the fist gravel road section at about 18 miles in (a new addition to this year’s course), Louise, who’d been sitting on the back, moved up to the front of the group. I glued myself to her wheel, and, as we made a sketchy, loose, hairpin right-hander onto a gravel road, she and I got around clean while the rest of the field faltered.

Hammer = down.

Louise can throw down on some gravel. We pounded through the rest of the section, and as we neared the exit, looked back and saw that one lone rider, Amy Phillips, was dangling in no-man’s land behind us. We decided that with ~80 miles to go, it’d be wise to include another good rider into hammer time. The three of us worked our butts off to the next gravel section. Behind us, I can only imagine the infighting that was keeping the group from getting organized and chasing us down, but Louise and I agreed that it was unlikely that they’d catch us if we stayed steady.

Gravel #2 (the longest gravel section) was a little sketchier and sandier than the first section. We paced ourselves- going just hard enough to make it through everything smoothly, but not so recklessly that we couldn’t see the washouts and waterbars ahead of us. Unfortunately, right near the end of it, Louise stopped as we approached the crest of a hill. Amy and I stopped at the top and yelled back at her to see what was up, and she said that she’d dropped her chain. We soft pedaled for what seemed like an eternity (it was probably only about a minute, but in “off the front” time, it felt like 10) before deciding that we didn’t want to stick around long enough to see the rest of the group. So, Amy and I set out onto the road as a duo.

We agreed on sharing the work in steady, two minute pulls and settled in for what was going to be a long, hard day. Unfortunately, this is where the bad luck comes into play. At mile 58, we were on a long, flat, straight section of road. Amy mentioned that (because of the lack of hills or turns), this would be a good place to see if anyone was behind us. While she pulled, I took a good long look over my shoulder.

Nope, nothing back there except a car in the distance.

Seconds later, I heard a fraction of a second of car brakes panicking on the asphalt. Before it could register in my head what was happening, the car I’d seen behind me seconds before plowed into me and my bike. I was airborne long enough to picture myself dying on the side of the road. It was the most absolutely terrifying moment of my entire life because I was moving so fast, and everything hurt so bad.

(just typing this now is making me feel clammy and anxious)

The rest of my story is in a police report, and, because I’m not sure if it’s the right thing to do “legally,” I’ll leave the details out except to say that I went to the hospital, was x-rayed, and was discharged with nothing broken. Just to clear up some of the rumors I’ve heard- no, it wasn’t a hit and run.

As for the race, Louise caught up with Amy, who’d stopped when I was hit. They battled it out for the QOM on the next gravel, then rode together til the last gravel, where Louise attacked her and rode in for the win.  I’m disappointed that I wasn’t there, but I’m happy that I’m not in a hospital or dead right now.

I haven’t talked about it much until now (it was a little bit of a late addition to the sponsor list), but it’s high time I made this post. All of my sponsors are great, and they’re all very important pieces of the race season puzzle, but today’s post is dedicated to Gu Energy.

Details aside, they’ve made both a product and race entry contribution that’s so significant, it’s allowing me (budget-wise) to go to an extra stage race (TSE) this season along with the Breck Epic. If you know anything about mountain bike stage races, you know that they’re expensive as all getout- not just the entry fees, but also the cost of travel, lodging, etc. I’m incredibly privileged to have such a generous sponsorship, and I hope that all of you who are reading this take it into account when you make your next nutrition purchase at the bike shop.

I mean, it should go without saying, but, like most of my other sponsors, I used Gu products way before they had any idea that I like to ride a bike at high rates of speed. Just a quick rundown:

Roctane (gel and drink mix) is one of my most favorite nutrition formulations of all time, and, even if I wasn’t sponsored by them, I’d still mainline it during my hard training & racing efforts. In the words of my friend Forrest Owens, “it hits you like a freight train through a wet paper sack.”

Gu Chomps are like athlete candy. I use them a lot as a pre-ride snack, but you can eat them any time just like you would a regular gel (there are two servings per pack). Confession- sometimes I want to ride just so I’ll have an excuse to eat them. They’re crazy tasty.

Recovery Brew is also something you’ll start craving once you’ve had it. I’ve taken to making various recovery brew recipes. My current favorite (since it’s cold & gross outside) is heating up 1/2 water 1/2 goats milk in the microwave (just enough to make it warm) then pouring it over the chocolate smoothie recovery powder in the shaker bottle. It’s like having post-ride hot chocolate.

P.S. There are two other people that use the pictured shelves & drawers for storage, so other stuff is bound to show up in photos.

P.P.S. Honorable mention to the new style purist bottle- holds 22oz, softer plastic than your usual bottle, and a water hose for a spout. That shaker bottle is pretty sweet, too, and you don’t actually have to use it in the same manner that Poolboy Matt does for it to be effective.

I haven’t pictured the electrolyte brew and tablets. I like the Roctane so much that I generally just drink it in my bottles, however, the electrolyte brew does have a lot more salt in it that I’ll be craving in the summer time, so it’ll likely show up on the shelves in the next couple of months.

There’s really nothing to report about this one. I showed up, registered, then was approached by an official and one of the two other 1/2/3 women (Scotti Wilborne) who were at the race. Instead of racing in a small group, she wanted to ride in the men’s 1/2 race. Her reasoning? She didn’t want us to get battered by the wind for 70 miles/4hours (our race was billed at 39 miles- I have NO idea where she got those numbers), be bored, and not get a good training day. I think, to paraphrase, she was saying, “I don’t want to grind around in the wind with one/two other people then sprint for the finish.” She even told me, “if you don’t want to do the distance, you can pull out after two laps, and I’ll let them call you the winner.”

I told her two things:
-I’m here to race, I don’t care how many people it’s against.
-If I wanted to hang around on a group ride with fast guys, I wouldn’t drive all the way here and pay money. I’d stay home and go to a group ride.

The one thing I didn’t say (which, honestly, I don’t think would have changed her mind) was, “hey, I don’t know where you got the idea that I was going to make it easy, but I intend doing my damnedest to kick your ass and win, even if it’s just the two of us.”

When I was arguing with Scotti about which race to do, I was hoping that the other Memphis woman who was at the race, Pam Tate would be at the start line. Instead, she raced the men’s master’s race. She complained that it was too easy. I told her afterward that she should’ve raced me, because it wouldn’t have been easy. She gave some sort of reason that had to do with needing more/faster pack racing because she was doing some bigger races this season.

The thing is, women can’t actually race each other in a men’s race. The guys get in the way. They either chase you and weld you back into the field, or they’re making breakaway moves of their own, and you’re not welcome to play. What it turns into is sitting in the group, listening to guys piss and moan at each other, occasionally going hard, then finishing with the pack. It’s essentially a group ride, but with slightly higher testosterone levels. The men’s 1/2 race at Crosswinds had two break groups, and, with that, most of the teams were represented, and the field shut down to “roll to the finish” speed. One of Ryan’s teammates reported that Scotti was complaining that no one was chasing the breakaways down.

So, I rode 39 miles with a couple of tandems and a couple of juniors. I rode the first lap with them, then I decided to do my own thing and ride the 2nd & 3rd of the 3 laps as hard as possible. I got my training for the day. I wished it didn’t have to be that way, though.

If you don’t know the story, scroll back a couple of days and read it first, lest you be totally lost.

First off, when I was told that the “surefire” bottom bracket cup kit to make my frame work was being overnighted to me, that wasn’t true. It was sent 2-day. When I opened the package, I find that I’ve been shipped a single aluminum bottom bracket cup. Unlike the “wrong” kit that was sent days earlier, which included two bearings, two cups, and an instruction manual, this is just one, bare cup (Joel talked to a C’Dale tech who said that it should have been two). I take a closer look and see that the only difference between this and what I’d received previously was that this was a normal cup that had been honed out a little (it was very obvious by the lack of anodization and scoring on the inside surface)

I’m not even going to try to build any sort of suspense here. When I installed it into the drive side of the frame with the bearing, the bearing didn’t turn smoothly. It didn’t bind up nearly as much as before, but it made an obvious “click” as it rotated. There’s no way a bearing would remain viable for any length of time in that situation.

At this point, it was after business hours. I called Joel and let him know that on Monday, please inform Cannondale that the only viable options for me are to either A) get a perfect, new frame, NOW, with a perfectly functioning, ceramic bottom bracket installed without any shop-made band-aid fixes, or B) Send the frame back and get a refund. I’m not playing this “lets hone something out and hope it works” crap any more. This bike retails for $7700. I haven’t been able to ride it since OCTOBER.

I’m going to a road race in Arkansas tomorrow morning. I’ll be riding my cyclocross bike.

If you’re a mountain-only type of person, this post will do one of two things for you- bore you to death and make you never come back, or be oddly fascinating as to why someone would take this sort of time to prepare wheels and tires just for road racing (in all fairness, tubular CX wheels/tires are used almost exclusively by serious CX racers, and tubular mountain bike wheels/tires do exist, they just aren’t that common).

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, all bike tires were tubular. I’ll spare you the explanation of what that means since Google is your friend, and just say that now, they’re generally only used in road, tri, and Cyclocross (and occasional MTB) racing. Gluing a tubular tire to a rim is a process that seems to mystify a lot of people. Do it right, and you have a very safe, reliable, lightweight, and incredibly buttery-feeling ride. Do it wrong, and your tire could come off of the rim, and you could wind up seriously injured.

So, let’s first go over what you can do that’s “wrong.”
-Not use enough glue
-Not apply the glue evenly/leave dry spots on the rim and/or basetape
-Not make sure that the basetape is pressed all the way into the center “well” of the rim when you install the tire
-Not prep the basetape/rim surfaces before applying glue
- Make a mess/install the tire backwards (won’t kill you, but doesn’t look pro, either)

Here’s how I avoid those things. Disclaimer- if you are currently searching the internet for “how to glue tubulars,” you’re likely to find different methods that will yield the same result- a well-glued tire. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those as long as the end product is the same. Heck- Poolboy Matt does it differently, and I’m about to race a set tomorrow that he glued for me last season. The important thing is, whatever method you choose, you avoid the things I mentioned above.

Supplies- acid brushes (available in the plumbing section of the hardware store), Acetone, Goof-Off, latex or nitrile gloves, truing stand, glue (I like Vittoria Mastik One), a skinny broomstick, and a helper for step 6.

1. Prep the tire. The night before you’re going to glue, put the tire on the rim dry and inflate it to 120psi. That will stretch it out a little and make it easier to install once it’s glued.
2. Prep the gluing surfaces. Wipe the rim and basetape of the tire down with some acetone. If there’s old glue on the rim, that’s ok as long as it’s not clumpy and messy. I usually soak those spots in a little acetone, which softens the glue and makes it “melt” a little into the fresh glue you apply to the rim.
3. Put electrical tape on the brake track of the rim. Trust me- It makes everything soooooo much cleaner.
4. First coat of glue. Inflate your tire enough that it starts to roll inside-out. Add air until you can lay it on a clean counter and the basetape faces up. It’ll look like this:

(instagram it for added “hipness”)
Wear your gloves, and brush the glue on a little at a time, being sure to get it all the way to the edges of the basetape without going over. You want every millimeter of it to have glue on/in it. When you’re done, put it someplace out of the way so it can dry.
Put your wheel in the truing stand. Put a similar coat of glue on it Be sure that the glue is smooth and even from wall-to-wall on the rim. Leave it in the stand to dry. Keep cats away from it.
5. I give everything at least three hours to dry, but it won’t hurt to go longer (some people say overnight). At that point, evaluate as to whether or not you need another coat of glue on both surfaces…
-Basetape: some basetape is very “thirsty,” like the Conti in these pictures. I ALWAYS go with 2 coats on a very absorbent basetape. Tires like a Zipp tubular have a much less absorbent basetape, and, you’ll find that the glue you applied is already giving you a nice, solid sheen. This is where your judgement comes into play. If in doubt, apply another coat of glue and allow it to dry, just like you did before. It should end up looking like this:

-Rim: Here’s another judgement call on your part. If you’re gluing a wheel/tire for road & crit racing, put another coat of glue onto the rim. In those situations, you’ve generally got more brake heat and turning force applied to the rim/tire. Also, someone who flats a tire in either of those situations is going to remove their wheel and get a spare from the pit/wheel truck. In most triathlons, not only will the the wheel/tire not be subjected to the same severe turning/brake heating forces as, say, a road-racing criterium, but also, if the rider flats, he/she will generally need to be able to remove the tire on the side of the road and install their spare. If you put another coat of glue on the rim, it’s going to be close to impossible to take the tire off without a lot of time and herculean effort. If in doubt, apply another coat and let it dry. It should look nice & smooth, wall-to-wall, like this:

6. At this point, you have 2 dry surfaces with “enough” glue on them. The last coat of glue is a very thin one, only applied to the rim. Once you’ve done that, let the air out of your tire and call in your helper. Set the rim on a clean surface on the ground (I use a piece of cardboard on the floor). Stick the valve through (you remembered your valve extender, right?), and pull outward/down on the tire (making sure to keep the basetape centered on the rim) to wrap it around the rim and give yourself as much “slack” as possible for the last bit of tire. (If this doesn’t make sense, search youtube… I’m sure you can find a few videos there.) When you get to the last section of tire, you want to try your best to grab it and pull it over the edge of the rim rather than rolling the tire surface and sidewall through the glue- this is where an extra set of hands is very helpful.
7. Once your tire is installed, add just enough air to give it shape. Put it in the truing stand and start working your way around the to make sure that the tire is centered on the rim. Some people use the feelers on the truing stand to look for any wobbles. Whatever works for you.
8. Once it’s centered all the way around, uninflate the tire.  Lay your broomstick on the floor and roll the tire over it to insure good contact between the basetape and the rim. This is ESPECIALLY important if your rim has a very deep “well” in the middle. I usually make several passes, using my bodyweight to press down and really make the basetape and rim stick.
9. Inflate the tire to 120psi. Remove the electrical tape and use acetone & goof-off to clean up any excess glue.
10. Bask in the glow of a gorgeous job. Install wheels on bike and go kick everyone’s butt.

It’s been a hot minute since the race, and anyone who follows me on Twitter or Facebook already knows at least the important part of the story- I finished 3rd place. The combination of rain from a Wednesday morning thunderstorm/deluge, a little extra rain/snow Wednesday night, and the hundreds of people who raced on the course immediately following that, turned it into a total mud bog.

Ryan and I pre-rode on Wednesday at lunch before his heat race. At that point, it was sloppy, but less damaged, so it was nicely difficult- some deep, power-sucking mud, and a lot of slick, tricky mud. I felt great about it. However, between that time and my race, the course conditions deteriorated dramatically. The grass, mud, and water was so churned together that the course turned incredibly slow, and pedaling felt like trying to run and fight off an axe murderer in the throes of a nightmare- the type where you can neither run nor fight because your body feels like it’s moving in slow motion, no matter how much effort you extend.

This year’s field was a little more serious than last year- not that last year’s competition wasn’t tough, but this year, the field size doubled, and included the current National Champion. The stripes made it easy to pick out who to follow when we were given the signal to GO, important since I hadn’t done any e-stalking ahead of time, so I had no idea who was “fast” (other than myself, of course… hehehe)

The start was fast as usual for any very competitive cross race. That was about the only thing that was fast, though. As soon as we were off of the solid start/finish area, everyone dumped to the small ring, and we were racing our asses off… at an average speed of 6.5 miles per hour. Going that slow means that bike handling won’t be a determining factor in the outcome of the race. So, it boiled down to a 3 lap, 40 minute power test with 2x per lap bike exchanges thrown in for good measure. Ryan, who was working the pit for me, had his work cut out for him, repeatedly running the mud/grass-caked bikes to the powerwasher for the big stuff, then finishing the drivetrain cleaning off with most of a can of ProGold Blast Off that Bruce Dickman gave me just before the race. If it weren’t the good pit work, I would have been dead in the mud.

Off the line, I was on the wheel of Kari Studley, the National Champion. I didn’t look back, so I had no idea how the race was unfolding behind me. Kari would periodically pull away then come back, and I decided that, along with her, I’d pass the pits the first time. I stayed behind her like a slinky until finally imploding somewhere after the 2nd time past the pit- during which we both took a clean bike (I exchanged bikes 2x per lap following that). She began to pull away, and I worked on recovering enough to minimize the damage.

(photo courtesy of Debbie Baker)

In the meantime, Brianne Marshall of NoTubes was creeping up behind me. She passed me somewhere during the 2nd lap and seemed to dangle just out of my reach by about 10-15 seconds before pulling away in the 3rd and final lap. She tended to run more of the worst mud sections. I decided not to run- I made the switch from Crank Brothers to SPD pedals a while back, and they were NOT the best pedal in the deep mud because they clogged up every time I got off of the bike. I don’t really consider it to be a deciding factor in my situation, but Crank Brothers pedals would have been one less thing to worry about being affected by mud.
Kari, Brianne and myself finished spaced out about a minute or so of each other, but well ahead of the spots off the podium.

So, this third place was a lot better than last year’s third place, where a stupid mechanical for which I take full responsibility (rear skewer rattled loose) took me out of the 1/2 contention. I think that Thursday’s race through the mud bog could have been contested as a 40 minute power test on trainers with the same outcome. Not as fun as a high-speed, running/jumping/sliding race, but it’s the hand that all of us were dealt, and we made the best of it.

We arrived in Louisville yesterday afternoon, dumped everything into the hotel room, and went out for a quick spin to look at the course (it was closed, so we really did just go and look at it) then stop by registration and get back to the hotel before dark.

(insert obligatory “blurry phone photo from the riverfront”)

Once we’d cleaned up and had dinner at a nearby brewery (OMG @ the local/grassfed burger, gluten free when served minus bun), we went to Whole Foods to stock up on groceries so we wouldn’t constantly be in search of a healthy place to eat meals (actually not too hard in LV, but the kitchenette is a sure thing).
When we arrived back, I took half an hour or so to unpack my clothes into drawers and re-arrange the kitchen cabinets to hold the groceries and other food I’d brought. It can get a little tedious, but settling in and nesting in such a way makes the remainder of the stay a lot more “normal,” something that can be hard to maintain when you’re living in a 250 square foot space for 4 nights. Getting a room organized and making yourself at home is some of the best advice I can give to anyone aspiring to make more than 1-night road trips to bike races. It also keeps you from searching through luggage/grocery bags looking for an apple or arm warmers.

This morning, a giant storm front passed through (it went through Memphis last night, and I nearly worried Poolboy Matt to death doting over the fate of him and the dogs if there were a tornado). We slept through most of it, but it ended up flooding and blowing down parts of the race course, so the start of everything was delayed. Luckily, the schedule is staying the same from afternoon pre-ride on to Ryan’s heat race.

I was super happy with our choice in groceries yesterday, because when we went down to the complimentary hot breakfast, my food snobishness came out in full force when I got grossed out by the slimy-looking “scrambled” (powdered) eggs. I got a spoonful of the baked potato wedges and went up to the room to make my own bacon/potato/cheddar/egg hash. It was one of the most delicious things, ever.

Now, we’re just hanging around until the noon open course time, when we’ll go get covered in mud then scramble around to get Ryan’s bike back to “perfect” for his 3:30(ish) heat race.

You’ll notice the hipster/instagram flair on that one. Yesterday, on the 6ish hour drive here, I got bored and started a social media side project. Based off of richkidsofinstagram.tumblr.com, I started uppermiddleclasskidsofinstagram.tumblr.com. Hopefully, it’ll catch a little traction with the target audience and get some good submissions of the fun, occasionally expensive hobbies of people with a little disposable income. You can tag photos on Instagram or Twitter with #umckoi.