Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Beginning of the End

As the light of the day grows shorter the weather gets cooler and the best time of the year to ride is here. The race season is almost over and a lot of people switch to rec riding so they can hit the trails they didn't have time to go to during the season. Others start to dab in their off season cross training sports, watching football. Some try brand new sports and others are just focused on the Iceman...more later on the Iceman. But, it is only the middle of September and there are races thru the beginning of November so the team is still active.

Where to begin. The events covered by Team Signoutfitters.com were as follows: The Kenetic systems/Tailwind UCI two day Cycle Cross event at Springfield Oaks, the CPS XC Race at Addison Oaks and the Triple Trail Challenge held at Poto. I guess we'll start off with the CX racing....Sorry that I will have to be brief on all so I can cover everything that happened this weekend.

For those who don't know what Cycle Cross is I'll post some links in the next day or two to some pictures. In the mean time: Captain Terror, Hollywood and Team Signoutfitters.com sub team, Team Kissel, all made the trip to Springfield Oaks for the teams first run at Cycle Cross racing. The good news is everyone survived and seemed to enjoy it. Russ, Lila, Zoe, Dylan, Hollywood and Terror all put out their best efforts in thier respective classes. It was a new sport to the team so we are proud of them for going and giving it a shot. It's quite a demanding race. It is sort of like a TT because your heart rate is redlined the entire time. There is zero time to spin and rest your legs. You are constantly suffering, jumping off your bike to run up a hill or over barriers....heck, here's some links to look at:

http://www.tenmilemedia.smugmug.com/gallery/6043429_H6DyD#378510279_kWb46

http://www.tenmilemedia.smugmug.com/gallery/6031792_W2yTK#377572139_iMnL2

It sounds like Team Signoutfitters.com will become a fixture on the CX circut in the future....may even see me out there next year. Sunday Team Kissel went back for more as Heather had plans Sunday and Gerry was to report to Addison for the CPS XC.

Sunday Jeff, Brian and Terror made it up to Addison for some points chasing in the CPS standings. Jeff, our Endurance Enthusiast, opted to race both geared and single speed. But he did both races on his SS! Why, because he is Jeff and he does these things. Anyhow, Jeff pulled a solid 3rd out of 16 or 17 in his geared class and 7th in his SS class. He raced over 52 miles on that SS Sunday. Your are crazy man! Gerry and Brain pulled some solid laps in their classes as well. Gerry said Saturday's CX race didn't hurt him much in Sunday's race but fresh legs would have definitely helped. He had no regrets tho because he enjoyed his first CX event and plans to go back for more. Brian, well, he was a little dehydrated come Sunday morning. He had prior commitments Saturday night but wanted to go to Addison because he had never raced there. He finished and that's all we ask.

As for me, I went to the Triple Trail Challnge Saturday morning at Poto. Got there early and starte off close to 8am. It was an organized fun ride not a race but I had always wanted to do it. In the end I did 45 miles in just over 3 hours and had a great time. Met a few nice people along the route as well. this ride was a series of 3 trails connected together by some fire roads and dirt roads. Thanks to Brian again for the deal on the spare wheelset. Felt great to be back on the trail.

With only a handful of organized events left I'll cover what I can. Not sure of the team's fall race schedule since this weekend's race at Pando is the last XC series of 2008. Come back and check for more CX coverage and Jeff's trip up noth in November to race the annual Iceman.

Keep your head up and get ready to start layering up......the nights are getting colder already.