Going Long and Hard.

Thursday

Back to school night for my wife. Went into work early to make up hours for leaving early. No bike. The trainer blows monkey butts. Gonna be a very busy next few days so it's better for me to rest up so I don't run out of steam.

Looks like we're gonna have some fun this weekend. Course is gonna be wet and as I posted earlier, we have some guys pre-regged that are gonna make for a couple days of HARD racing!! All of the sudden I don't have much faith in my home-field advantage😱

Sorta fun day at the shop. Craig-E-Bear brought me a late B-Day gift. This should help my skinsuit fit a little snugger...

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Built a Seven today. That's nice for December. We actually have a few pretty sick bikes in the hopper that are just waiting for a few pieces. Should be fun.

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And this thing is finally finished. NigNug was doing something to it, I forget what. Super-sick bike.

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Another customer came in for us to check over his cross rig but I didn't get to take a picture of it. He has a Moots with Campy Super Record 11 and Cosmic Carbone Tubies. Like Esnes territory expensive!!

That's all, it's boy night so we're gonna go wreck the place!!

-Jim.
 
Can you create a mean mudbog or something? I feel somehow cheated this cyclocross season. I'll pay extra.
 
kush said:
Can you create a mean mudbog or something? I feel somehow cheated this cyclocross season. I'll pay extra.
Click to expand...

after the race and some vodka ill roll around with you in the mud if it makes you feel better.😀

My bikes and I are happy to have had a fun dry cross season.
 
jimvreeland said:
Looks like we're gonna have some fun this weekend :getsome:

Chad Culbertson Guy's Racing
Adam Duncan Finkraft Cycling Team
Charles Erndl Watchung wheelman/High Gear cyclery
Phillip Esempio Kelly Benefit Strategies/LSV
Myles Fennell 3D Racing Team/Tom's Atlantic Cyclery
Dan Larino Pete's Bike/Century Road Club of America
Jonathan Lombardo Finkraft Cycling Team
Todd Peterson Team Bulldog/Cycle Craft
Mark Pohndorf FinKraft Cycling Team
Douglas Von Bushberger CRCA/Kingpin Racing-HJD
Jim Vreeland Watchung Wheelmen


PS-Pre-reg closes tonight so if you haven't registered yet, DO IT!!

-Jim.
Click to expand...

Ummm ... :hmmm:
 
Friday

Course set-up!! WOOHOO!! It's finally go time!! Had a few of us out there to lend a hand, Normie, Rob, and Kirt from the MTBNJ crew, Mike, Mike Esnes, Tyler, and Joe from the WWCX. Later in the day Mark and Scott came out. Everytime I though we were done I found something else to do. I guess being that it's my booty on the line I want to make sure everything is legit. We added a pedestrian path on the one of the back gravel sections to get people from the back lot to registration. I also went around and raked a few sections to make them pretty. Need to do one more section in the morning. There's pics in the HorseShoe Scramble thread in the 'cross dressers forum, I'm not gonna re-post them here.

I did a bunch of laps forward and backwards, course is a little soggy so the lap times were in the 8 minute area, it may be faster tomorrow, at this point it is what it is. My upper body is a little sore today.

No expectations for the race. I know the course better than anyone but I'm gonna be pretty busy so I'm not sure how my warm-up is gonna go. More importantly, I'll be there until the place clears out, so running around in the cold all day won't help me recover for sunday at all. Again, it is what it is, I'm gonna have a ton of fun regardless!!

When I got home I realized I should've ridden my OTHER bike so I wouldn't need to clean my Seven!! DANGIT!! AGAIN!!?? I just cleaned this bike. Now it's all icky. Blah.

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My wife went out shopping with her mom so me and the boys destroyed the place, it's what we do!! I set up the stand in the middle of the mayhem and stripped my bike. Now she's nice and clean. At least something in this room is😀

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Oh, and I stopped by the shop for 5 seconds to pick stuff up for Sean, my pimpy chainring came in. Now I only need a cassette and RD to convert my bike to 10-speed. Sweet. I'm sure after this weekend I'm gonna be pretty happy about putting the cross bike away!!

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Oh and, file, at least what I recorded...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/58686889

That is all, see everyone tomorrow!!

-Jim.
 
The course is looking good. One thing we forgot to do is paint the rocks.

Seriously, don't sweat it. This course is in really good shape. It's looking good. Some spots don't drain terribly well but that it what it is. I think the additions we put in today make the course better. I like that upper field much better that way. The start of the C race could be a little...crowded. But it is what it is.

Good work on everything, and 333 pre-reg for December is solid.
 
I actually bought paint to hit a few spots in the morning and write Dustin's name on that tree😀

-Jim.
 
But I thought Dusty and Capers were lovers, now it's a 3-way? Kinda kinky, but we all know it will never last that way.

-Jim.
 
I like the course. Feels different from any other this year. I didn't make your guys to watch out for list for todays 35+ race but remember I can crash and take out a bunch of u like the best of em.🙂
 
The Weekend MAYHEM!!

WOOHOO!! First things first, thank god that's OVER!! The last 3 days have been chock-full-o-stuff-to-do. A lot of it went by pretty quick so I don't even remember everything that happened. My whole intent during the months leading up to this event was to make sure everyone that came out would have fun and get a better taste of what cyclocross is about.

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We've been aiming at making this a flagship event for the series and in the future, maybe the state. Especially with the drop of the USGP, there's only Beacon and HPCX, someone else needs to step up their game. This year was much better than last and I'd like to think we're on our way. From the very beginning I cast off just making a course that loops around in the grass for 2 miles. Our venue is very unique and there's still a ton we can do back there. I may start building next year's course on monday!! Not really.

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I can't thank the folks from MTBNJ and the WWCX that helped out over the 2 days enough. Especially during breakdown, Ben, Capers, and Tyler had the back section of the course torn down and packed up before the A-Race was even finished!! Thanks to Normie for coordinating all the MTBNJ peeps. Even my clone pitched in during break-down.

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I did race both days, but with everything else going on, my prep was pretty terrible. PS-That mud hole was DEEP!!

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Didn't race well either day. My mind was elsewhere. Especially after watching the other fields go and watching every other guy eat dirt in some dramatic fashion, I definitely stayed off the gas. Another trip to the hospital isn't on the menu at this point!! I managed to stay mostly upright and come in 8th on saturday, with only Dan and Chad finishing ahead of me for the overall battle. The rest of the guys were the FinKraft team Roger sent down to reprezent. At this point, I hit the wafel truck for a WMD!!

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It really did come down to the last race to decide 3rd in the overall, peep the standings with 2 drops. This is after saturday's race. Doesn't get much closer.

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So after saturday's A-Race we ran around to check all the tape. We had to redo the pit because the official said it wasn't big enough. Tyler and I shoveled and raked that mud section to smooth out the deeper ruts to make it fresh for sunday.

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Sunday was nearly a wash, rinse, repeat of saturday. I knew I was in 4th in the overall and needed to beat Dave today, but when I hit line I just didn't care anymore. I watched the lead group ride away and said, I'm ok with that, Chad or Chris weren't there, 4th is fine. Go me. 4th. I flopped around in the mud. I fell once or 8 times. I made a dollar in the mud pit!! During that lap I figured I'd get my pit bike, WTF right? Tyler was working the pit for me and handed me a nice pretty bike. I didn't need a nice pretty bike, but it was there, so I took it. Came around and saw Dave walking his bike off-course, he DNF'd. From the misfortune of others? Hey I just moved into 3rd for the overall AND I made a dollar, NICE!! I'm not sure where I came in, I think 7th or 8th? I think Dan won? I have no idea what happened up there. I was at the wafel truck spending the dollar I made for some extra Dinges when the podium was going on. Yay you guys!! I've decided that I need a pair of Dugast Rhinos for next year. And I'm selling my pit bike if anyone's interested, $1,500. PIMP IT.

My Garmin is in the van, which is still packed to the brim with poop. At some point I'll go find it and upload some sweet files.

Luke took a bunch of great pics on saturday, but this is by far my favorite...Sums up cyclocross in one image!!

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Thanks again everyone for helping out and coming out to race!! It was fun to get one true cyclocross experience in this season:getsome:

-Jim.
 
Good job on the weekend. We saw the best cheering section of the year on Saturday. We'll need to groom that section a bit to make it even more spectator friendly next year 🙂

So we should go bowling or something now that the season is over.
 
Thanks Jim and everybody else for putting on a stellar event. Mud, ice, wafels, rabid fans...what more could anyone ask for except for maybe beer.
 
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