Geneva Cross and Canopy Tours

Last Sunday we went to Geneva cross in Lake Geneva to watch.  It had rained all day, and I had never been to a cyclocross race before so I wanted to check it out.

When the riders would go by you could hear the mud and sand grinding away at their chain and cassettes.  Even with the sounds of grinding gears and squealing brakes I was a little jealous not to be out there.  I will be doing the cyclocross race in Woodstock on November 10th, its part of the Chicago Cyclocross Cup.

I cleared the can, once.

After watching the race, later in the week I decided to work on my cyclocross skills, in the front yard.  I don't know if I am good enough to consistently bunny hop a barrier in a race every lap.  I will keep practicing and just have to see how the course looks.

Today I wasn't planning on doing much of anything other than cleaning up from Evan's second birthday party, instead I got a text from Jay.  The conversation went like this...

The orange paint on this bike looks way better in person.  In the sun it SHINES!

    So I gathered my things and hopped on the macho man.  I'm thankful Jay got me off my butt.

With the road construction this side of the 4-lane road was open to me!

We went up to Canopy Tours in Lake Geneva.  They have mountain bike trails that twist around under the zip line tours they put on.  I rode up there on the road then road around with Jay on the offroad trails and took the road back home.  The All City Macho Man from Wheel Werks can do it all.

-David Swanson

Treadfest

            I have been looking forward to this race for awhile. I don’t typically do WORS races, but when it's just down the road and on an awesome course you'd be silly not to attend.

            My race would be about 90 minutes long which is a sprint compared to the races I usually attend.  I raced the Comp (Cat 2) which is one step down from the PRO/Cat1 racers.

10,9,8,7,6,5…………Goooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Sprint, sprint, sprint! Straight up Grand Geneva Ski hill, started mid pack with about 20 guys ahead.

Crest the hill and fly back down, try to catch my breath without sucking to much dust.  Fly down a short gravel road and sneak past a couple guys.  Head back up the hill again and pass a few… try for one more and he closes the door on me.

Back down the hill, don’t touch those brakes! Carry that momentum back up the hill one more time… 4 guys ahead, one is wheezing,  bye bye.  3 more, one loses traction in the rocky corner.  2 more, I'm content with heading into the woods in third, then I find a way past this guy and I am in second.

Now the nerves are kicking in… this is where I want to be but not where I expected to be.  Keep pushing!  A couple miles of single track and we head into the rock garden, a popular spectator point.  People cheering, a guy with a super loud blow horn going off… somehow I am able to here Christina "Go David!"  She seemed to be caught up in it as well.

30 minutes in and lap 1 ends, time to start climbing the ski hill three times again.  Its easy though because I know after this I only need to do it one more time.  I see Christina again at the top of the climb, offering a fresh bottle, thing is that I haven't even pulled mine out yet.  I haven't even had time to think about nutrition or water or anything just GO!

Lap two ends and I haven't seen the leader since the start, I also haven't seen third place (thankfully).  Climb the hills one more time, I know if I push it over the limit here I can catch my breath in the woods.  I meet the relief of the tight single track and tell myself "just ride smooth and finish, you've got this."

Then BAM!  My chin was in the dirt before I even realized what happened.  My hands never left the handlebars to protect my face.  No time for pain just get up and get GOING!

Someone is catching up, I don’t recognize him… "is he in my class?" Who cares just don't let him by!

The finish line… Finally.

Good job, Daddy!