Mud in My Teeth

(Thanks to MTBRaceNews for this great photo of Tom and I that seems to really capture the essence of this crazy race and for providing great coverage, as usual, despite the weather!)

Dave says: Dark clouds rolled in over last Saturday's cross race in Draper. However, the rain held off until 2:10 pm. Unfortunately, we started racing at 2:15 right as rain and hail began to dump. I got a good start and ended up behind Bart in 2nd when we hit the craziest part of the course. It was a downhill, off camber, slightly turning section where the mud made it like a sheet of glass. I literally held my breath and slid down it sideways without an incident (this time) while riders behind went flying (check out the huge glob of mud on Alex Grant's head).

It was a slop-fest where your bike sounded like it was about to break, your tires slid sideways in every corner, your sunglasses were so dirty that you couldn't see, and your hands were so cold and wet that you couldn't feel them. This is "real" cyclocross at it's best. I worked with Reed Wycoff for awhile in the middle of the race. His brakes were basically non-functional and I watched him slide out right in front of me. On the next lap, I went around him right before the tricky hill and then promptly crashed and dropped my chain. As a result, my face was covered with a little extra mud for the rest of the race.

The crash through off my groove as I slid out again a bit later. Near the end, I worked with my teammate Tom before he dropped me at the end and I took home 6th. I have mixed feelings about whether it was fun or not. On the one hand, it was one of the craziest races I've done. On the other hand, no one should ever be riding a bike under those conditions. Check out this sweet video of the race (which regrettably shows mainly pavement sections) and you'll get an idea of what cross is like.

Fall Break

Dave says: It was fall break this week and so Alisha wrote me a chore list to keep me busy. However, the weather was so nice that my list is only half done. Instead, we did a long ride on Monday (see previous post), and some hiking on Thursday and Friday.

Alisha took the rest of the week off the bike to rest up before her structured training begins again in November which meant that by the end of the week she was antsy to get outdoors. Our Thursday hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon took us up into the snow by Dog Lake. On Friday, we spent a couple hours on the shoreline trail by Red Butte Garden checking out the fall leaves.

Two long hikes right before a cross race is not a good idea but I don't take cx that seriously. Even worse was helping some friends move from their third story apartment on Saturday morning. I showed up at the race in Heber feeling as tired as if the event was already over. However, I managed to pull together a pretty good 60 minutes in a chase group of six following the two leaders. With about 2 of 9 laps to go, I noticed that my front tire had lost some air and was starting to roll on the corners. I was pretty tired anyways but had to back it off and lost my chance to sprint it out in the group. However, I was pleasantly surprised that things turned out decently well under the circumstances.

Exploring on Columbus Day

Dave says: I think a new Welsh family tradition will be to go explore somewhere new on Columbus day. We rode from Park City through Brown's Canyon, past Echo Reservoir, up and over to East Canyon, and back to Jeremy Ranch. It was a 70 mile loop with the last 10 miles on a pretty little dirt road that a road bike can handle. This is a very low traffic loop and we were passed by probably a dozen cars in 4 hours. We also had a blustery tail wind that put us up near 30 mph for about two hours of the ride. Of course, the other two hours were right into the wind at 14 mph but what can you do.

Dave says: We did our last road race of the year up city creek canyon on Saturday. It was a pretty low key event with lots of recreational riders but Chase Pinkham was there and eager to shatter the course record. As a result, things went quick right from the gun. Chase finally got rid of me about a mile from the finish but it was still a good race for me. Alisha was fourth overall and the first girl and shattered her old course record by over a minute (22:59).

Today was perfect for a fall walk up around memory grove, the capital, and city creek. That's about it for the week except for a bunch of fun little things like seeing the new Harry Potter movie (now somewhat old and in the cheap theater), going to Costco (yum), hanging out at the Pie with friends from school (also yum), doing homework, working at the bank, etc.

A Bit of Cool Weather

Dave says: Alisha was out scraping her car windows today for the first time this year. It was General Conference weekend as well as the start of cyclocross season so we had plenty to do. On Saturday I raced 'cross at the Weber County Fairgrounds. The flat bar, single ring, ghetto tubeless bike setup is going to be great. However, I still am not very fast on and off the bike in jumping barriers. The atmosphere at a 'cross race is pretty sweet though as there are plenty of spectators and lots of excitement. On Sunday, we went for a rainy day hike up Emigration Canyon between sessions of conference and found some really pretty fall colors.