My 2010 End of Season Awards (not that anyone is going to care ATMO)

Best Team: Columbia-HTC would be the obvious choice, but those hidous kits rule them out. Even with the whole scandal at the tour, Garmin gets my vote. They paid their dues in the US Domestic scene and are now reaping the rewards of such. Fourth at the tour, a pair of big wins through the season with Tyler Farrar proved these guys can run with the big dogs and that 2008 wasn't a fluke.

Best Performance:
Cadel Evans at Worlds: I know it's a cliche by now, but a true champion can bounce back from adversity and not let it keep him down. The TdF and Vuelta were disasters for the Aussie rider, but he proved he's tough as nails by winning World's in convincing fashion.

Biggest Disappointment: The very public feud between Lance and Contador. On stage 17 I thought I was watching a Cat. 5 race with the way everyone seemed to be riding for themselves. Between stages it was like watching a cat fight. It makes for some good drama for the papers (and internet outlets), but that's not what we came for. At least next year they'll be able to duke it out on separate teams.

Rider to Watch in 2010: Will Dugan - Team Type 1. I've seen this kid racing cross for the last several years and seen his results on the road scene. He'll be in Europe racing for the big boys by the end of next season.

Biggest Surprise: Tom Boonen. To be honest I didn't think he had a chance of coming onto form after his little run in with the law, but the man again delivered the goods (no, not white powder) when it counted on the cobbles of France. Too bad after all the hoopla surrounding his TdF entry he did squat there.

Most Memorable Race: The last stage of the Giro. It was already a nail-biter from the beginning because of the time gap to Di Luca, but Mechov's crash made it memorable. Or was it his mechanic. He was already out of the team car while it was still moving and had the spare bike ready to go before Menchov was off the pavement (I jumped out of my chair, but not as fast as this guy).

Prelim 2010 Schedule

This is really sick but I'm already looking forward to August of next year and beginning to plan my 2010 CX centered season. The only events I have official dates for are the Nightmare and the National Championship race, but most of the races listed are always run on the same weekends as the previous year, so I'm making some assumptions:

August 14 - Nightmare - 176 Miles
September 18 - Nittany Lion Cross - T-town PA
September 19 - Charm City Cross - B-more MD
October 9 - Iron Cross Lite - Carlise PA
October 16 - Grangoue CX race - Grangoue DE
October 17 - Wissahickon CX race - Wissahickon PA
November 13-14 - USGP Mercer Cup - Lake Mercer NJ
November 27 - PA State Championship CX race - Allentown PA
December 4-5 - USGP Stanley Portland Cup - Portland OR
December 9 - USA Cycling National Championship CX race - Bend OR

All told it's 12 days of racing over 8 weekends between September and December. I'll leave the results from 2009 posted up until the end of January.

Best!
Captain Crunch!

End of Season Thoughts

Ugh, It's been almost 10 days since my last race on Dec 6 and I'm just now writing this. I can tell it's the end of the season. I'm going to keep this short. The cyclocross season was way too short - I'm wishing it could continue for another month or two. I had an awesome time at the Mercer Cup in NJ with the Richard Sachs team in November and closing out the year at the Capital Cross in Reston with my best friend was a great way to finish up the season. I got 9th out of 90 at the Capital Cross for those keeping score. Click here for pics from the weekends races.

I've already shared some thoughts on the entire season back in a post in October (click here to read it), but I'll briefly say them again. I had a blast, met some awesome people, made a ton of new friends, and got to see some awesome parts of the Northeast USA.

I'm already planning my season for next year. I posted back in October that I was giving up racing to pursue my full-time volunteer work more fully in a third world country. After taking a long hard look at my finances (and myself) I've decided to hold off on making such a large move in 2010 and will reconsider my options in 2011. However, even with that being said, I am still planning on giving up road racing. I don't have the time (and don't want to devote the time) to put into training to stay in competitive shape for road racing. Even though I will be here in Lancaster PA for the next 12 to 18 months, I intend to have as much of a share as I can in my volunteer work - so the training for road racing will no fit into that schedule.

However, I do intend to continue to train as much as I can for the Nightmare and the 2010 cyclocross season and run a full schedule of races in that discipline in the fall and winter (and maybe a MTB race in the summer). This is for two reasons.

First, even if the leaders drop you at a CX race you can still have fun. In a road race when you get dropped it simply becomes a training ride that you paid to be in. In CX as long as you stay on the same lap as the leaders you can still have an awesome time racing. Plus the stress level at a 'cross event is way less than the road.

The second, and most important to me, is the amount of training that goes into being ready to race 'cross - or better put the lack of training. Since the races are only 40 to 60 min. long it doesn't require the same level of training as a road race (which can be 1 to 4 hours long at 20+ mph). Simply riding all summer will put me in more than adequate shape to be able to finish any CX race I enter. This way if I miss a day or two or three of training through the summer it won't be such a big deal as if I was trying to stay in shape for the road racing season. This will allow me to put as much time as I want into my volunteer work while still having fun and having a goal to work towards in the cycling realm.

Another lesser reason is crashing. In road racing crashes can be really bad (at the Green Mountain race a guy broke his collar bone, a leg, a rib, and both arms) involving several cyclist. If you crash in a CX race (and you will - trust me) it's not a big deal because you're going much slower and falling onto grass.

Next year is going to be much more laid back. My first event will be 8 long months from the now. You guessed it - the Nightmare. A 176 "fun" (only if you're into pain) ride around Lancaster County. It's not a race but the top endurance cyclist treat it like one (I got second in 2009 in 10 hr. 42 min). Then after that it will be a full slate of CX races.

I'm going to try and race twice a month between September and December. In September I am planning on trying to get to VT for the Green Mountain CX (if money permits) and Nittany Lion Cross. October will Include the Grangoue and Wissahickon races, November the USGP weekend. The big plan for next year will be to either fly or drive Portland/Bend Oregon for the Portland Cup USGP and the National Championships in the first two weeks of December.

Well, so much for keeping it short :-) Thanks for reading all year and be sure to read into next Spring and Summer as the Adventures continue. Even though I won't be racing then, I'll still ranting on cycling related topics.

Best to all!
Captain Crunch

Capital Cross and End of Season report coming soon

It's been a busy week. I promise I'll have more before the weekend (including photos from the Rockville race as well)

Best
Captain Crunch

Found some more photos of the Iron Cross Lite race

Here is the link to the entire album on Picasa:

Rockville Bridge CX Classic report

Despite not being one of my cleanest races I still managed a fourth place finish - but a top 5 is a top 5. I over shot a corner and ate the course tape (no really - it ended up in my mouth somehow), went down on a fast off-camber corner, and stumbled on the steps at the top of the run-up. Although the steps was due to my taking a beer hand-off. I grabbed the beer on the next lap AND managed to clear the steps.

Even without my mis-steps throughout the race I wouldn't have gotten a better finish as the top 3 were really motoring. I also must add that this was one of the best courses I've ridden all year with some great barriers and technical corners. You not only had to be a good technical rider but also had to be able to put power down on the flats. Overall it was good race - I just wish I would have ridden better (aka. less crashed).

Hopefully tomorrow I'll do better at the Capital Cross in Reston VA (again - less crashing). It's hard to believe that there is only 40 minutes of racing left in the season! Stay tuned for pictures from the entire weekend. Joe Mallis was photographing today's race and tomorrow I'm taking a long-time friend with me to shoot some video/still footage of tomorrow's race (and I'm sure Anthony Skorochod will be there as well along with Joe).

Thanks for reading!
Captain Crunch