Team Profile...

Thanks Renee for putting our team profile up on madcross. If you haven't checked madcross.org out, you should. It's a great source for upper midwest cross racing info, photos, and updates. New this year is the local cross team profile. My Wife Inc is proud to be amoung the first teams profiles for this new feature.

I Got Skillz!

Little air time show casing 'Mad Skillz'

Sweet nose wheelie!

Unfortunately the X-up wasn't taken. 2 out of 3 aren't bad though!

Photo quickie...

Mo's Cross Face.

Making sure Aaron knows where to go. On his way to a stellar 2nd place. Next time he will stay upright and take the W.

Chad chasing for the money.

And apparently my sock choice caused a minor buzz in the pink circus compound.

Quickie...

"Hey let's sit on this guys wheel for the next 4 laps"
"Ok, then we can out sprint him at the line."
"Sounds good to me!"

Roscoe raced his second 1/2 race today. He pushed the pace in the chase group, but 5th was just out of reach and had a teammate sucking wheels in the photo above. I think Ross did the right thing in trying to bridge up to 5th. They got within 8 seconds, with Ross doing the bulk of the work. Better to try and come up a few seconds short than sit in and wonder "What If?" You killed it out there today, nice job!

For the non-Twitter folks here is my haiku Tweet re-cap.

Holeshot is all mine.
Loosing air fast makes slow turns.
Anger fuels fast legs.

Yep another holehsot squandered. This time by an untimely slow leak¿ Kept the lead into the techy twisty stuff and slowed the pace to a crawl to keep the wolves at bay before the pit as to not lose too many places switching bikes. It worked like a charm and came into the pits still in the top places. Unfortunately using the pit bike had not been on the agenda for today and as I had left the training wheels on with really slow clincher tires. I faded fast. Roscoe lent me a front wheel and I set off on a terror of passing people (this seems to be an unsettling trend of mine this season) All my good legs are used on bad days. But man was it FUN! I busted my ass catching and passing as many groups as I could. I pushed myself to a starry eyed frenzy for the next 6 laps. It was nice to hear a few folks ask what happened because they said it was clear I was riding much faster than where my placing was today. I can feel the form coming, now if I can just get the luck to go with it. Maybe I need to find my Power Animal...

How Big of a Screwdriver Do You Need?

I'm seriously hoping that the pain in my knee will disapparate when the screws come out Nov. 12. Roscoe, I hope you're reading the film!

Racing....

A lot of racing the past couple of weeks.

We took the mwi love down to the USGP in KY, it was Awesome. Green Monsters, face plants, pit problems, first races, new friends, old friends....

I had to overcome some first lap issues both days, but raced my ass off passing as many people as I could. So despite my poor results I am happy with the form that is coming.

Yesterday brought a 4 week home stretch for racing and the Halloween race. I have a serious love hate relationship with this race. I really like the course and it should in theory suit me, but I have never had a good race there. So this year I decided to change my approach and embrace the day.

I give you Mr. Smartie Pants

Yes my "costume" was a bit lame, but I did make an attempt to get in the spirit and dispel the demons I have with this race. I managed to take the hole shot and keep it most of the first lap. I boycotted the bunny hop barrier again as I think it is STUPID. (Yes I can bunny hop, but that is not the point). I fell off the pace the second lap, which if fairly standard for me. Then came roaring back! I caught the chase group and promptly attacked. This split the group into Chad (fellow mwi crew member), another guy and myself. Nice work if I do say so myself. Chad caught me sleeping a bit on the last lap and came around unexpectedly, I managed to shut the door on our companion on the narrow section after the run-up, but left a little too much room to close down to Chad on the last 1/2 of the course. It was another day of racing well and I can see the form that I want for the end of November coming!

It was AWESOME to see Mr. Popper and Mrs. Popper come up from the Windy city to race and bring Tall Mike with them.

It was also nice to see Dry Hump Saturday make the trip with them...

6 dozen cupcakes.

Cupcake hand-ups are awesome if you aren't the one taking it> they come right back out.

Roscoe went on up to play with the bike boys in the 1/2 race. He beat 6 guys and didn't get lapped by Tristain Shouten who podiumed in the Toronto UCI a couple of weeks ago. Way to go Roscoe!

Wisco Weekend Update

Saturday- Cat 3 Report

Milwaukee MWI crew made the longer than remembered trek to Verona for the Badger Prairie race that turned out to be a leg and lung buster with a course that included nearly all climbing and descending.  That being said, it was a course that favors my lack of bike handling skills.  As the race carries on, I find myself in 1st, starting to get a nice little gap on 2nd.  Then, on the second to last lap, a 180 degree down hill turn from grass to pavement decided to release the bond of tire, glue and carbon rim on the front. I decide to continue with this set up until I can get to the pits.  I switched bikes and kept going, but the chase was on and I was caught on the last lap. With a 1/4 lap to go, another rider was in front of me through some tight turns when he bobbled slightly, I went around and hammered it for the last climb and through the finish for the win. Chucker in 5th, Mike in 12th and Chili in 21st. Dr. Crash took 8th in the cat 4's.

Sunday- Cat 3 Report

The Cam Rock course is way more fun than the prior day, with much of the course moving through the woods around the park.  MWI lines up 3 in the front row.  I get the holeshot and take it into the barriers where Mike passes me easily, again my lack of handling skills shows here.  Mike and I are running 1 and 2 for most of the first lap.  A couple riders pass through some of the wooded section and during a tight, loose left hander, one of them goes down as I role onto his frame avoiding some nice carbon wheels.  As I'm getting going again, I get run into on the right side as the rest of the pack goes by on the left, knocking my feet out of the pedals again.  Damn, here we go, chase chase chase.  Now my inexperience shows, I chase back up to a group of 3 including Cale from Pegasus, and decide to sit in to recover a little.  What I failed to realize was this was the 2nd, 3rd, 4th place group and the leader was only 10 seconds in front. I thought we were probably running 5, 6, 7 or something like that, so I figured no need to chase down for 4th.  Woops.  As the race goes on I tell Cale I'm going and to stay on my wheel.  He does through the last lap as I get a small gap through the finish line.  I should have chased down the leader, but I didn't know where I was running.  Still learning in this 2nd year of racing. It will not happen again!  I finish 2nd, Chucker in 7th, Mike in 12th (eventhough the standings say 13th, screwed them up again) and Chili 22nd.  Dr. Crash had to work.

Next up, Louisville USGP.