Done

The 2010 bike season finished up last weekend for me. The final race being Mill City in Stillwater, hosted in part by Oliver from The Bikery, a big thanks to him for the help this year for racing. Time to eat more pastries!
Race went ok, nothing special, I just was not feeling it, I had other things on my mind...

2010 was a pretty decent season for me, spanning 8 months, and around 40 races, it has been pretty busy. Road season was fun, the Synergy team really came together and made things happen. Hopefully we can continue the fun next year.

Post part gravel road race in the thunderstorm.
Making silly faces in Stillwater.

I did a few more mountain bike races then I have in the past also, I really enjoyed those and look forward to maybe doing even more next year. It's really nice to get off the roads, and I did do quite a bit of my riding away from cars, why not race there too!

Things went pretty well too...

Right at the start of the cx season I took part in The Heck of the North. A great bike race up by Duluth that at just over 100 miles, mixes pretty much every aspect of bike racing into one great time. There were even wood bridges to ride over, therefor by default the track is also included. HA!
Anyhow, it was a great race, and ended up being my first win in a few seasons.

Out in the woods

Plus, it's so dang pretty up yonder that it was just fun to be out there.

Then came the cross season, things started off with a number of mechanicals. Including, but not limited too chains dropping, seat posts breaking in half, flat tires, and mental break downs during the race. About half way through I got into the groove and things got much better. The coolest race of the year was by far the State Champs with all the snow and mud, with the following day being pretty fun too. It ended up being a good season, despite not training as much as I had planned on, maybe that made things better...

When this is the start, how can it not be fun? Sloppy, notice the snow packed into my helmet...

The next day it was all mud, fun.

Like I mentioned above, a good year. Now time to have some fun, hopefully some of this

will work it's way into the schedule...

Not only did I finish the bike season this week, but I also finished paramedic school and all associated requirements, and earned one of these

cool looking patches.

Now I just hope I can find myself a job in these parts doing something that I really enjoy!


Keep in tune for winter adventures...

How 'bout that.

My eyes still hurt, there is so much gravel and mud jammed up under the eyelids that if I were to cry about how long it took to clean my bike, I could fill a sandbox. Hopefully the washing machine still turns after my clothes are done...

This weekend was my favorite cross race in the state, the state champs. Always fun, always a pretty decent crowd. And this year 6 inches of wet sloppy snow. Saturday was probably one of my all time favorite races, you just can't get much better then that for cross. In addition to the course conditions being great, I felt pretty dang good also, which is always a bonus. Despite running the first 1 km due to a massive number of people and only a single file track, I ended up in an OK position within 5 minutes. After that I just kept moving up, and got lucky a number of times as people I would have been stuck behind picked the proper moment to biff it in the powder. I myself had a nice face plant with a few to go, luckily fresh snow and mud is soft...

The start was nothing but a cluster.

Carving in the pow.

Fun in the mud

The stairs
This is why this race is an event! Thanks to everyone who comes out to watch!

Sunday riding in the snow was not really part of the race, thick sloppy mud was the challenge at hand. I definitely did not feel as good as yesterday, but still managed a top 10. Today is where my eyes were filled with gravel and such, it made drafting relatively unwise. Despite that, it was still a pretty fun day.

Nothing but mud.

Not much of a crowd this time, but still lots of fun.

Overall a great weekend, too bad the races that are happening after stuff up here in MN is done are so expensive. Someday I'll be able to afford them!