Day four - a day to remember

Team history was made today. Caroline Dezendorf in her first nationals since 2019 has won the single speed race . This makes the fourth national title for the team in its history. She went from the gun and had a battle with two other riders that lasted until the last lap when she attacked and held her lead until the end-no need to unleash her considerable sprint. After years of racing , this is Caroline's first national jersey.

Max and Andy were next in the men's single speed with Andy starting on the second row and Max on the third. The fast start saw both riders in decent position but a rolled tire and a crash put Max back close to the rear of the field. Andy continued to work his way up to the top-10 with Max chasing for a lot of the race , having even more crashes. This did not deter him from keeping the power down and eventually he caught the top-10 and Andy. The two of them rode together for the better part of two laps with Max being able to pick up a couple places to finish 8th with Andy coming in at 10th. Nobody has been out of the top-10 at the nationals this time so far. There's just two more days of racing but still podium possibilites remain. 

 

Nationals, day 3

We only had two riders racing today but it is hard to imagine that things could have gone better. Max Judelson in the men's 35-39 got 4th and a podium. In the next race Andy Wulfkhule also got 4th in the men's 40-44 - two podiums before noon ! The reward after the race was a trip to Rymolene's for some of their famous pie. the pie shop is less than a mile from the house so there's a good chance that we will be back. 

As far as how the races went, Max went from the gun and the leading four quickly gapped all the rest of the riders. With a lap and a half to go Max flatted but managed to still hold onto 4th. In Andy's race didn't have a good start and had to ride through a lot of traffic to get to the top-5 but he worked hard and made it up to a group of four other riders. He managed to overhaul all of them on the last lap and came in 4th with a bike throw on the line to keep ahead of the rider in 5th. Tomorrow is single speed day with Max, Andy and Caroline all with a shot at more medals. The account has been opened and so far this has been a great outing for the team. 

Here's a view of the pie case. I'll spare you the video I made of a singing robot Santa- it was very disturbing.

 

Nationals day two - men's 70-74

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The first day of racing was at least good for one person on the team- that would be me in the 70-74 age group. Last year from the back row I managed to ride to 18th. This year from the same third row position I made it to 10th, my first nationals top-10. The course was as it was the day before- fun and challenging and not everyone's cup of tea. I did see a few crashes and some pretty random errors in riders around me and tried to capitalize on others mistakes as I knew they would do the same if it were me making the errors. Luckily, I had a nearly error free ride and was able to put the power down the whole 5 laps. If the nationals are here next year I am tempted to return as they did a super job of making a fun course and a very low key, low drama environment. 

Nationals - day one- course recon

Ready or not, the nationals starts tomorrow but today was the first chance anyone racing had to see what the Fayetteville edition of CX nationals had to offer for a race course. I did not get any photos of the course but will later this week. I was too busy doing laps, hoping to find that illusive 'flow' that makes for less wasted energy and more fun. After 8 laps, I think I'm about as close as I'll get in that regard. First lap felt slow and ungainly but it did not take long to start understanding each feature of the course and how to keep efficient so that when the energy needed to be there, it would not have been wasted elsewhere on easier parts of the course. There's enough tight turns for little bits of rest but having good balance will be key to making it over some steep little humps in the course without having to put a foot down or dismount. 

For me, there will be just two dismounts- the first is a steep off camber hill that I found faster to run up than to try to ride and possibly topple over or have to do a clumsy dismount. The second is a pair of planks  on an uphill that are the tallest I have ever seen- I'll be amazed if anyone can jump them , but of course the best racers always do. Most of the course is dry and bumpy turf, not unlike California courses-I heard people complaining about the bumps but to me it was nothing compared to Surf City or the old Rock Lobster cup races. There is no mud and it looks like there isn't going to be for the whole week. The race course would be so much more challenging if it rained-it would make for epic world-cup conditions. I guess we won't be experiencing that this week but I'm sure most of the riders are thankful. 

Tomorrow is my turn to see what I can do on this course. Wish me and the team luck- 

One feature not on the course but nearby is the local waffle house. I noticed it as I was leaving the course....maybe Friday morning we will pay a visit.

 

Nationals roster

Off to the nationals tomorrow in Fayetteville, 

Ark. We have a small but strong team showing up this year and many podium opportunities. We have the return of Caroline Dezendorf who will be racing in the 35-39 age group and in women's single speed.Max Judelson and Andy Wulfkhule will be racing age group, single speed and elite. Enzo Berghout will be racing in UCI junior men 17-18 . I'll be racing age group 70-74 and we will have Steve as the pit man again as in the last few seasons. We also will have guest star and former team mate Dan English at the house and he will race in the UCI U-23 class. This means that we will have someone racing every day of the event so Steve and I will be busy in the pit. Unfortunately my Sister who was part of the pit crew has Covid and will have to miss the trip- this is really unfortunate but she hopefully will be back next year to pressure wash bikes and keep the racers rolling. I'll be reporting from the field daily so expect some writings soon. I'll do a recon of the course Tuesday. The weather looks to not be classic CX weather until the weekend when theres going to be some cold temps and maybe rain. Stay tuned.......

 

Nutty 'cross- or should it be 'Muddy 'cross' ?

Participation of the team at CX events this season has been pretty selective as some events on the calendar are part of the BASP series and are thought of as 'must do' races  while others not part of the series are sometimes overlooked - this race was definitely not overlooked as the number of Rock Lobster riders at Muddy Cross was very high. We had riders in most of the categories and many podiums, a few wins and some BASP overall winners as well. Riders like Gene Park were on the podium 2-3 times ! Since this race was the last in two race series the podiums were numerous and maybe a bit confusing. I'll report on as many as I can but you'll have to look up some of the figures from the BASP overall and Cyclo-Circus . 

On the day the results were as follows:

Junior men 10-14

Noah Hekkert        1st

Junior men 15-18

Pavlo Tkach    2nd

Women's open B

Allison Peck    1st

Keelan Senkier   7th

B Women 35+

Mei Peters    2nd

Men 35 A

Eric Brown    1st

Men 45 A

Carl Hekkert    10th

Men 60 A

Paul Sadoff     3rd

Rick Ortenblad    4th

Men B Single Speed 

Jeremy Schloss   2nd

Men open B

Nathan Delaney    4th

Kai Yee       8th 

Men Tracklocross    

Gene Park      2nd

Men 55 B

Jim English       6th

Men single speed A

Connor Hormell    2nd

Kyle Taylor     6th

Josh Becker     7th 

Matt Miller     11th

Women pro elite 

Caroline Dezendorf     1st

Diana Drew       2nd

Hannah Solberg    4th

Maddie Ortenblad   5th

Men pro elite 

Nathan Barton      4th

Brendan Lehman    8th

Kailin Waterman    11th 

BASP series winners:

Noah Hekkert  men's  10-14

Eric Brown   men's 35  A

Paul Sadoff    men's 60   A

Maddie Ortenblad   women's pro-elite

All in all, I count a total of 25 riders- that's a mob and I think that we collectively made it more of a race. The following photos will back this up-glad everyone made it and hope that we all show up again next season.

 

Lembi park Sacramento CX races #4 & #5

Two very different courses greeted the team this weekend- the first on Saturday had some mud but had a fair amount of fast turf and paved sections with only a couple of dismount sections. Sunday was completely different with deep mud, a bit of rain and some real hard slow sections of deep bog. The second day was not unlike 'cross crusade courses in Portland where the real mud is found. 

While a lot of the team decided to miss this weekend, we still had a fair amount of participants and lots of podiums. Here's the Saturday results:

Men 70+  A&B       Paul Sadoff     1st

Men's open B..Nathan Delaney       4th

Men's single speed B  Jeremy Schloss  2nd

Men's single speed A  Connor Hormel   4th

Men's open A     Eric Brown          7th

Women's open A     Caroline Dezendorf  1st

Sunday at the mud fest we had one more team rider show up and a true cyclocross experience of the most classic nature was on tap. The lap times were a lot longer than the day before and later races were so difficult that there were no smiles to be found on the riders- that is until it was over !

Here are the Sunday results:

Men's 70+ A&B  Paul Sadoff       1st

Men's open B     Nathan Delaney   7th

Men's single speed B  Jeremy Schloss  1st

Men's single speed A  Connor Hormell  4th

Women's open A  Caroline Dezendorf  1st

Men's 40+  A   Kailin Waterman     2nd

Men's open A   Eric Brown     7th 

This was my bike after 4 laps on Sunday. It got worse as the day went on and the few riders that had spare bikes had an advantage. 

Saturday was sunny and short sleeve weather - Sunday was cold with some drizzle and the conditions more like classic Nor-Cal winter CX. I have to say, all the good press that this course has gotten is well deserved- the race was well organized and went smoothly and the two courses over the weekend were examples of what good course building is all about. There was some off-camber, a short sand feature, a set of barriers, some steep kickers that became running sections on the second day when there was little traction. Each day was a completely different experience for the racer. I think this one has to be on the calendar next year. 

 

Mare Island BASP race

I'll go out on a limb and say that the Rock Lobster team was the largest and most successful team at this event by far. We had racers on nearly every podium and many wins. This was not even the full team but still a pretty large group as the team is really attempting as a whole to complete this BASP series and take as many overall titles as possible. The casualty of the day was Decker Krogh who had a hard crash in the last couple laps of the men's B race while in the leading group- lets hope that he heals up fast and gets to race more this season. 

Junior men 10-14              Noah Hekkert     1st.

Junior men  15-18             Pavlo Tkach        1st

Men 35 A                           Eric Brown         3rd           

                                         Gene Selcov         7th

Men 45 A                        Carl Hekkert          4th

                                  Kailin Waterman         7th

Men 60 +                     Jim English               1st

                                    Paul Sadoff                3rd

                             Rick Ortenblad                 4th

Women B           Allison Peck                       1st

Men B                 Nathan Delaney                10th

                              Kai   Yee                         26th

                          Decker Krogh                   DNF

Single Speed men B   Jeremy Schloss           2nd

                                   Patrick Lewis              6th

Tracklocross Men        Gene Park                  1st

Women A                     Hannah Solberg         1st

                                  Maddie Ortenblad         2nd

Single Speed men A      Matt Miller               3rd

                                      Connor Hormell        5th

                                     Kyle Taylor                 6th

Men A                  Brendan Lehman                 6th