US Nationals-Cyclocross!!

Wed 12/10/2008
Drove 12.5 hrs to Kansas City, MO, checked into Race Hotel and then to pick up numbers and sign in.
Dinner-bed!!
12/11/2008 Day 1 Racing
Arrived at the course at 7:20ish. It’s a nice 25 degrees outside, snow still n the ground from earlier in the week. Time to get the gear on and pre-ride the course at 8am. The course is hard with snow. I do three laps and my feet are frozen and my fingers are burning, it hurts!!!!!!!!!!
Back to the car. I help Michael get ready for the Men’s B 29 & under class, he seems ready, always too serious! I head to the course to watch him and ring some cowbell. The course is becoming a mud-pit as the toll of traffic takes its turn and the temps rise to 30 degrees. Michael finishes 31st in a filed of 80, awesome. His bike is all gunked up with mud. I have to make a decision if I want to ride at 12pm to check course conditions or blow it off and concentrate on my warm up, my race is at 3pm, the main race of the day!
1:30pm, I decided not to ride course and get the machine all gunked up, so on the trainer. Michael pins me up (4 numbers!) and I do a great warm-up- for 1+ hr. Temps reach 38 degrees, so one pair of socks and thin gloves. It’s time to go get called up!
(Mens B 40+ race) I arrive and the do call-ups, I am called up to third row! 20th spot! WOW, I look behind me and I know this is going to be epic, there are 138 people in the field, oh my, I hope the hole shot does not become a crash fest. Everyone starts with a foot down, whistle blows and all I can hear is Dave Towle SCREAMING something like how fast we went by, we were flying! I would say 30+mph, but really do not know, but went straight into mud hell, people started skidding and pushing and we narrow to 8 meters, and it’s is utter chaos. I go into the hole shot top ten! (I have pics to prove it!!) Anyway, the battle continues and the field becomes single file. I am holding my own and just sliding around, when I get to the run-up, I am at max HR and just looking to recover, the descent was crazy slick and then I went through this massive sea of cow bells, so cool, people screaming, I heard go Aarons, go Georgia rider, go hottie (not!) , it was so cool! I continue forth and find myself with one lap to go and the leaders catch me on the pavement and pass me at the 50 yards to go. Oh well, I lasted a long time with a laundry list of some of the top cross racers in the US. One race to go on Sat!
Couple of things to note, SRAM was neutral support, so if anything did go wrong, they had spare bikes and wheels! SWEET!
They had two huge water trucks with pressure washers with volunteers spraying your bike off after race!
Beer tents, BBQ, that was awesome.
Dave Towle announcing, so awesome!
UCI Course!
Mud Blood Ball was in the evening, we attended and drank local brew and ate organic Brats. Jeremy Powers was doing some DJ’ing and they showed the DVD Zero Traction, a documentary about last year’s snow fest at Cross Nationals, it rocks! Then raffle where I won a new KHS CX200 Cross frame!!!!!!!

Day 2 12/13/08
I spent the day spectating, Women Masters races today. Lots of cow bell ringing and cheering, weather, mid-40’s! Course has dried out!

Day 3 12/14/2008
Masters 40-44
The temp is hovering at 36 degrees but there are 40-50 mph WIND GUSTS!! How cow! We get to the course and I get to do some warm up laps at noon. The course is fast with some nice ruts. This will be a power course which is NOT my strong suit. I get back to car and get on the trainer, the wind makes it COLD!!! I do a nice warm-up, numbers pinned on and get to the call-ups. I am 42 on the call up list on the 6th row! I am looking around me and I am surrounded by national champions, top dogs in cross, stage racing and MTB. Dang, get ready to hurt. Official calls thirty seconds and boom we are off. We are flying into the hole shot and I immediately had to lock it up and slide around the crash! Get around that and we are just elbow to elbow, getting through the turns and then the leash is released and its on. They are going fast, I get to the run-up and again at Maximum HR, just wondering how long will I make it. Dave Towle is screaming and there are like 100’s of spectators yelling at me, ringing cow bells, drinking and just giving all of us encouragement around the tricky sections. I end up racing against a guy that seemed to have the same fitness, so we did battle. As I am battling this guy I can see the leaders, so I ramp it up, I want to finish this race. But fate has it that these guys finally caught me on Lap 4, they were flying! So the official cut me off and said no more, oh well. I learned a lot and really know what to expect now! There were a lot of Cat 2 riders in this group!

Day 4 12/15/2008
Ahh, spectating and supporting Mary Pat Jones today. Temps are 20 degrees with a wind chill of 6 degrees. Nice and cold! Compton tore up the Elite Women’s field and Trebon was just a animal!
People had couches, trash cans full of beverages and grills cooking burgers and chicken. The Cow Bells were loud and the fans were awesome! After the race, I got back in the car and headed back to Georgia, arrived home safely at 5am! Next year I will be kicking it! And oh, the wife asked if I was doing it again, hell yea!! She is not too pleased, ha!!

Racing in the Mud!!

Well, last Sunday we had the honor of racing in the rain and mud in the Conyers Georgia Cyclocross make-up race. 40 degrees outside! Total nastiness!!
I have never raced in the mud before, so this would be total chaos! Anyway, first race in the Masters 35+, I decided to use this as a warm-up and get used to the course. Me and this ACC dude duked it out for the bottom half of the results, he won, oh well, fun stuff.
They had this warm bath house so I decided to get into fresh clothes for the B race.
We lined up and it was mad house getting to the woods. I slid everywhere. The course just got worse. On my second lap, I went head over into a creek face first! I was stuck! I finally pulled myself out and was covered in mud and freezing. The spectators suggested i quit and hit the showers, but I decided no way, I am finishing! I finished but not well.
Oh well, 2 more local races and I am off to Kansas City to "participate" in US Nationals! Should be a riot! Still working on my machine, will try to get some pics of it up here soon!

Georgia Cross Race 4-Rome, GA

The day started off cold, leaving the house at 5:45am, it was a nice 33 degrees. Drove to Rome and arrive early as always. Get everything situated and the time comes for me to check the course out. Well, everything was cool until I get to the Levee's. Two things I do not have going for me are extreme downhills and no MTB skills, ha! Anyway, I attempt to try to go down this off camber descent and just cannot do it. John Johnson was warming up with me and gave me some pointers. I will try them in the first race, I finish warming up and really though about packing it up, but I decided I will stick it out and race my own race.

Masters 35+:
Well, as always this is my fastest race, it was strung out on the levee's and I just tried to hang on. After the barriers, the top guys were gone. I was really fustrated. Then came the Hill I struggled with, when I got to the top o descend, the "other" fast guys in the 45+ caught me so I got out of their way. So way down now. I continued to struggle and basically gave up, worst cross race for me ever.

Mens B:
Ok, I am going to get down that hill. The race was furious off the start. I stayed with the pack through the levee's and avoided the crashes. We have some fast guys in this class who could be A's. I am doing much better and when I got to the descent I made it down, yea, finally.
Do the Levee's and continue to keep my pace. The good thing is I did not get lapped until the leaders last lap. I crashed 3 times. But I had a awesome workout and considered this course was just not me. I know I can keep up with these guys in any crit, but Cross is just way hard and takes some no fear mentality which I am getting better at. Next race: Blairsville!

Night before Rome CX!

I need to start updating this site, anyway, tomorrow is Rome Cyclocross. I will be doing two races. It looks to be a full day with driving, racing and spectating! I will give a full report tomorrow!

Gainesville GA Cup

Headed out this weekend to do the Gainesville Georgia Cup. My main goal is to stay upright and have some fun and help some team mates. Looks like rain on Sat and a beautiful day on Sunday.
My form is way off but coming back slowly.

Long Week

Well, its been a long week. I got some quality time in on the trainer. I am healing and will be able to race at the Barber Motor Speedway Easter weekend! In other news, well, there is no new news.
If your doing Perry-Roubaix this weekend, have fun!

My Story doing the Assault on Mt Mitchell 2007

I forgot I wrote about this epic challenge of a century:

On Sunday June 10^th, I pack up my gear and start driving north to Spartanburg, SC to tackle the 32^nd Annual Assault on Mt Mitchell. This is a 102-mile ride from Spartanburg, SC to the top of Mt Mitchell, NC with 12,000+ ft of climbing. This will be my third time talking this beast and I feel ready for the task at hand.

The weather has always been very iffy over the years, but as I drive up the temps are hitting upper 90’s. This means two good things: no rain, as every year I have done it, it rains; and, hopefully, it's not too hot up top.

Arriving in Spartanburg I decided to carbo load at the Banquet provided at registration. Usually we head down to Greenville and hit up Maggiano's. The banquet was good in the sense of community and fellowship, but needed more food than what was provided. Put this on the list not to do next year. Headed back to hotel, got everything ready for the morning as it was going to be a 4:30am wakeup call.

4:30 am arrives and we head out to the famous Waffle House for some last minute fuel. We notice the ground being wet and look up and see lightning. Dang, I do not want to do this in the rain again. Check radar and looks like it will blow out before 7:00am start time. Have a nice breakfast and get back to the hotel to get dressed and ready for some suffering.

Arrive at the start at 6:50am and there are enormous amounts of people already lined up. I squeeze into the front 15% to get positioned as it’s always a nightmare of a start.

At the right is an electronic sign that does a countdown to 7:00am. We roll out and all you can hear for the next 30 seconds is the sounds of everyone clipping into their pedals. My goal today is to stay with the main pack or the second group.

As we roll out of town we are flying down the road. As we progress into the countryside we are rolling along about a 25 mph pace. Looks like I am in the front 200 or so people. Some guys pass me like it’s a race, but I know that the hard stuff comes when you start the long 32-mile climb from Marion, NC to the top of Mitchell. I keep my pace and we hit the first big incline. Wow, lots of people everywhere, hard to climb in the right lane so I do what is not best and follow the fast guys up the left side taking a chance. But there is like over a 100 people on this 2 mile section. I pass a LOT of people and we hit the descent. My little 135 lbs does no justice in helping me hit the 45 mph others are hitting, so the people I was passing were passing me now! Dang, ok, keep focused and get to Bill’s Hill and do it again. Bill’s Hill comes about 43 miles and is a little steep climb where lots of family and friends cheer everyone up. I do the climb and feel like I am on a good pace. I grab a banana up top and start the long pace to Marion. Need to get to Marion at 3.5 hrs to try to get close to the 6 hr mark.

Get to Marion at 3:40, but have to stop and use the bathroom. Decided to go to porta potty and waited about 3 minutes in line. Grab some food and head off to Hwy 80. This is the prettiest part of the ride and in my opinion the hardest climb. Its about 10 miles of steady climbing until you reach the Blue Ridge Parkway. I am pacing myself but feel really good. I am catching some folks and pass a few. I know there is a rest stop at the end of this climb so I give it my best to keep a nice even pace. I reach the parkway and grab some more food and mentally prepare for the l-o-n-g climb to the top.

I get into a group of a few people who seem to have the same strength as me. We keep a steady pace but I am starting to feel the pain. I do not want to cramp so I focus on drinking and masking the pain. This climb is very steady. I think I average anywhere from 7 mph to 10 mph all the way to the entrance of the Mt Mitchell park. I keep counting down the miles in my head until the turn. Ah, the turn now the real pain! Its 4 miles to the top and an incredible % pitch. I keep my focus as I am climbing through the clouds. I am averaging about 5 mph at this point, the pain is splintering me. As I near the top I misjudge the finish. I start my sprint up too early and forget about the last mile being as steep as it is. I am looking at my time and trying to beat last year's time.

As I suffer I turn and see the last 100 meters, and like out of heaven this lady is like yelling at me to "dig dig dig," like some angel screaming at my inner self to push. I push around the bend and see the clock and see 6:46 as I cross. Two guys grab me and I am like in a fog. I sit there for about a minute and regain my composure and hand off the bike for the trip back to Spartanburg. I change clothes and as with tradition, there is this nice gentleman up top that hands out Tomato Soup and bread and a nice can of Coke to feed the body after such an epic ride.

The trip back is much an epic journey as well as all the transfers and all take another 3+ hours. I arrive back to Spartanburg about 7pm and start my journey back to Atlanta.

I have a personal best time, came in 233^rd out of 1000, but really want to get closer to that 6 hr mark!! Maybe next year!

Ronnie

Aarons/L5Flyers Cycling Team

Thoughts and ramblings

Well, I think I will use this to jot down my thoughts on training and racing and anything else that might come to mind in regard to cycling. As for now, I am building the site adding my favorite links to blogs I follow, etc. Currently I am healing from a wreck during the Greenville Training Series race. I hope to race this Sunday, but if not I will head over to the Barber Speedway in AL for some Circuit racing.