Tonkin and I on our way to NOT getting in the top ten.

I did a decent ride at Starcrossed. I faded pretty hard with 4 to go. Shannon and someone else got me with 2 to go and that was it for the top ten.

11th place. Again.

With my guts in knots and my back and ribs still pretty crampy, I started the Rad Racing GP this Sunday afternoon and went backwards from the start. I could barely walk the 2nd time up the run up. I was having a hard time breathing and decided to pull the plug.

It is September and I’d rather let my ribs heal up than aggravate it more than needed.

(violin playing in background)

Shannon and Solomon rode their asses off both days. They are killing it. It is going to be a good cx season.

Off to Wisconsin this coming weekend!

Big thanks to the race promoter’s this weekend. The season opener races are always a blast.

ouch.

After watching Cary Miller pour a little bit of his RedBull out for his homies, I realized I had nerves before starting this local cx race. It was hot and dusty and the course was bumpy as hell.

My teammates Shannon and Kevin were 1st and 2nd in the overall ranking for this little race series and I was there to work for them. Figured I would attack and attack making the other riders do the chasing and leaving the race open for my teammates.

Well, one of the attacks stuck and I found myself off the front with Jason Sager.

Oh, I should also apologize to the masses for the first lap wipeout which saw me face down in the sand. I banged my ribs up pretty good. Not broken this time but, ouch. The white sex file treads may or may not have been the best choice for that course.

Jason and I were both hurting and cramping like crazy. We were off the front for 20-30 minutes and he gave me the sprint. Which was very polite of him.

Not a lot of glory in the win but, I still pumped my fist in the air.

And then I got all bandaged up like a stage racer and rode home with Pete.

We spent the evening chilling at Ryan Weavers house which was so damn nice. It was the perfect summer evening. Winning a race is always a good feeling and there were tons of friends new and old at the BBQ.

Thats all I got, now I am buried in taxes and paperwork. And emailing euro race promoters.

Damn. (here is my tongue in cheek and slightly late tutorial.)

Got a few comments and a handful of emails about the Shimano shoes.

I like Damian’s comment about Adam having a thing or two to say to Shimano about the slickness!

So, here comes a photo or two and a brief tutorial.

Race.cx covered it briefly when I did my shoes up last year.

First: take a dremal or similar and grind out a 5-8mm wide section of your lugs. You are basically creating a lug near the front of the shoe. When I race, I use toe spikes unless the course is bone dry.

With the new smaller front end lugs your shoes are now lighter and have a more aggressive tread.

Second: prep your shoe like you would a sweet new carbon tubular wheelset. A light sanding, clean with rubbing alcohol; prep the bottom of shoe with at least 3 thin coats of tubular glue. Vittoria or Panaracer are my favorites.

Cut up a sweet, expensive tubular tyre into the length you want on the bottom of you shoe. (that is right, I said you shoe. why? because I am baller.)

FMBs work best. You should have a few of those laying around eh? The lighter the better. You don’t want to be adding too much rotational weight to yourself.

Coat and prep the cut-up tread section like you would if you were mounting it to a rim. At least 3 coats. Thin coats. Let them dry in between each application.

Make sure you have prepared more surface area of the carbon on the bottom of your sole than the size of the tread you are laying. Otherwise the edges will not seal up and the tread will peel off.

Put a final wet coat on the shoes and stick the tread on the bottom of the sole! Apply even, firm pressure. Overnight if possible. Use a vice, or cinder block or electrical tape. Get creative. You could stick them in one of these.

Now, due to the nature of clipping in to your pedals, you are constantly “scraping” the bottom of your shoes. And if your technique needs work, you will find your newly glued up tread peeling up just behind the cleat.

Not a lot you can do about that. Except work on your technique. I’m experimenting with mounting the tread right behind or even under the cleat. Let you know how that goes.

I put about %75 of a cx season on a pair of the M300s with a TUFO glued to the bottom of it. Once I went to Belgium in December, it eventually peeled off and I took to using some replaceable “bathtub grippy strips” before every race. And even double sided foam tape worked pretty good.

You are not adding the strip for running traction, you just don’t want your foot to slip around when you are flailing-searching for the pedals. Sandpaper or griptape could work though it may clog in the sand and mud.

Why are the bottoms of the shoes so slippery anyways you ask?

Have you seen the PROs racing in Europe? Their technique is so good, they are in the pedals and sprinting away before hacks like us even have our hips over the saddle. They NEVER slip a pedal!

It just hit me that I’ll be helping out at the OBRA Alpenrose Cyclocross clinics starting tomorrow!

The flyer is here.

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What the hell?

I’ll update my damn website!

Let me think back… I raced a big-deal criterium a few Friday nights ago. Very fun, very fast. I like racing with road PROs. It is just so damn hard you can’t fake it and sit in. Not that I was doing much besides staying out of everyone’s way.

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Last week I did a HUGE training block in the near 100 degree heat in Portland. yikes.

Now it is back to a typically Portland 60 degrees and rainy. So I ride my cx bike in the mud.

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I’ve started setting up my cyclocross schedule.

The skinny?

Traveling domestically for the first month, then back home to race ALL of the Cross Crusade races and train before heading back to Europe or a month or more.

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I love Phil Varner’s flickr page:

Pre-Tonkin Oregon cyclocross lore. Note the apparently brake-less set up. Fixed? Coaster brake?

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There is much to write. Yet, not enough time. I am up to my neck in cx.

Got a new batch of FMB tubulars and at the same time we sold out of Dugast Rhinos! It may be at least a few weeks till I see any more.

Belgie nationals colors on FMB SSC tyres. Amazing.

Got a small batch of FMB road tyres too. His special RACING PRO tread in 22 and 23mm.

White Challenge file tread tubulars are here and they are dope.

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I am moving in with Pete next month, that is going to be really cool! Our new rental is all of 3 blocks from my current house so, I still expect to be able to spend many a late night watching South Park with Steven and Brian. Till I get tired and have to wander back home in my pajamas.

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Heard a rumor that Race.cx is back online.

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I stole a photo from Jose for my header. Check out his photos. New-ish Veloshop team mate and excellent photographer.

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Speaking of Veloshop, there is a bunch of new Veloshop kit at the Veloshop. i remember people were looking for some and I don’t have a list handy. Mostly xs - medium bib shorts and short sleeve jerseys. Call down to the shop if you are looking for some.

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Another image stolen from the internet: Eric Zo.

Sportieve groeten.

It is not that a PRO racer needs be a responsible public figure for themselves or their team’s own good.

It ties into the responsibility of every human being to act decently and with awareness of others.

It never made sense that people cruise through life not realizing (or more to the point, not giving a shit) that their actions affect others.

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I spend 20 hours a week on my bike and I can go all winter long without a single incident of car/bike or bike/bike drama.

The second the sun comes out everyone starts acting like they own the road. Or at least the piece of the road they are on at that second.

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Recent car happenings this week:

*Yuppie gives me a smug, dismissive, blank stare (the I could care less that you are on a bike) while driving past me in the Pearl district in his beamer. Took me a second to realize it is a local frame builder. Nothing wrong with beamers…

*get passed by a woman in a Subaru while training down in Canby/Oregon city. We are in the bike lane and she is shouting something about “staying on our side”. She swerves in and out of the bike lane slamming on the brakes, menacingly. I slow down and dial 911. Give her auto description and plate # and hope they pull her over.

*riding bikes down N Vancouver ave. see a customer who gave me an earful about being car-free and living super “green” loading his track bike into a giant Suburban.

*we have some really awesome neighbors who like to play basketball on the street in front of our house most evenings around 3am-ish. Now we park our hippie eco car (aka: Spacehawk) underneath the basketball hoop.

*saw a video linked from this site. I agree, and that is why I do not participate in Critical mass anymore.

*riding to get coffee with Pete on a quiet SE side street. hear the telltale rev of the engine of an impatient driver who proceeds to pinch us out of a tight roundabout. As policy, I don’t give drivers the finger.

I gave him the finger.

it is Saturday morning and you almost ran my girlfriend into the curb trying to get past us just to park in front of your house a 1/2 block later.

*while driving some chairs and equipment home from work on Thursday eve I get hollered at by a superfan in a lowered Volvo!

“hey Molly!”

pretty awesome to bump into a rad pal. be it in car or on bike.

After a week of bullshit interactions with automobiles it was great to have a nice one.

It is not cars are inherently the big assholes, it is the smug jerks that drive them.

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Scarier than car drivers are the righteous commuters. I ride pretty slow while commuting. The days it stops raining I have to start being hyper-aware of all of the unsafe riders that come out of the woodwork.

I like giving pedestrians and joggers a lot of room, give them a heads up, move a couple feet away from them while passing. And without fail there will be some yahoo barreling past screaming “on your left asshole!” (generally with the expletive), because they are so appalled that anyone would slow their progress.

Then they buzz me and freak out the pedestrians. making all cyclists look like douche bags.

I wish I could count on the bicycle riding folks out there to treat others with the same respect they would want an auto to treat them.

Pretty sure they would consider the move they just pulled on a bike totally fucked up if an automobile did the same to them.

slow down.

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end rant.

off to train.