Why not some Cyclocross -- in the SNOW!!

Living in Wisconsin during the months of January and February are just not very fun. The temps are generally in the single digits at best and the sun rarely comes out. To make those months go by a bit faster, Mrs. Team BRAZO and myself purchased snowboards so we could start boarding with the kids. Well, that helps, but those 20 below zero days with the snow and winds blowing still suck.

So, until we can snowbird like my parents do we are stuck finding things to do in the winter besides hibernation.

I found it -- Cyclocross in January!!!

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Team BRAZO’s CycloCross Debut…

Well, today was Cyclocross race day for Oldest Mini Team BRAZO and myself. We only needed to travel about 2 miles into town to get to the race, so it was an easy morning.

We decide that it might be a good idea to pre-ride the course to see what we are getting ourselves into. The course was very flat with no hills, but they did a great job twisting and turning the course all over the place. The hardest part of the course (outside of the whole darn thing for me) was the ride through the sandy beach.


Oldest Mini Team BRAZO signs up for the Junior (10-14 yr old) age group which was scheduled to start at 10:15. Around that time, the race official notifies us that he was the only one signed up for the 10:15 race and that he had two choices – he could just ride a ceremonial lap around the course by himself and they would declare him the winner or he could ride with the Cat 4 group at 11:00 and he still would be declared the winner of his age group. So, he decided to ride with Dad in the Cat 4 group.

We met up with XT4 before the race and make our way to the starting line. The head official goes through the rules and how the race works. I was very interested in how the race ends – my plan was to just stop riding when everyone else stops. After his instructions on how the race ends, I still had no idea how the race ends.

The race starts and off we go through the grass turning some tight corners and racing along a fun course. I knew from my previous Cyclocross practice that I would need to pace myself for the race. My only hope to stay out of last place was “out endurance” someone. So, after the field had kind of spread out across the course I notice that I’m in the last pack with probably 5 other riders. I was just in front of this group and started to lose ground.

I didn’t really care if I came in last place and with JWM’s encouragement in my blog comments – I expected to pickup that place – but I either wanted to be in last place by a good distance or I didn’t want to be in last place. So, I kept up the pace as much as I could to stay in front of the others.

Finally, like what felt like 6 hours later, I heard in the distance the cow bell ringing – this meant that the lead rider only had one lap to go.

Now, my mind is trying to calculate out how I can stay out of last place but at the same time get lapped by the lead rider to ensure that this would also be my last lap. I’m about 2 turns from the finish line and then I hear my most favorite words from the leader “ON YOUR LEFT” – thank goodness, I was lapped and now I just had a few yards to the finish.

So, I finished in probably 4th to last place in one of the hardest things that I have done in a while. I remember telling Mrs. Team BRAZO along the way that I couldn’t wait until IronMan Louisville – had to be easier than this…

Weekend Activities...

Well, this weekend's weather looks to be pretty good for November in Wisconsin. The temps for both Saturday and Sunday show a high in the low to mid 50's -- great Mountain Bike weather.

So, on Saturday Team BRAZO will be heading to Kettle Moraine for some mountain bike riding. The only thing that may stop us is Oldest Mini Team BRAZO had a bit of a cold before leaving for school this morning -- we'll see if he is up for the ride.

On Sunday, Oldest Mini Team BRAZO and myself plan on participating in the Flying Viking Cross - Cyclocross race in Stoughton, WI. This will be our first Cyclocross race and we are looking forward to it. Next Sunday Youngest Mini Team BRAZO will make his Cyclocross debut in the kids cyclocross race at the Angell Park Speedway Cyclocross.

Then Sunday evening it is on to dinner with Erin, Chief of Stuff, XT4, Robbyb, and Tri-Teach.

Have a Great Weekend....

First Cyclo-Cross race scheduled...

Today I received the following e-mail from the MadCross Yahoo group that I'm part of:

"Local racers take note . . . a new cross race has just been added to the already exciting season of cross racing in Wisconsin. This race, the Flying Viking Cross, will take place in lovely Stoughton, Wisconsin at Mandt Park."

Well, guess what -- I live right outside of Stoughton and I plan on being at our Stoughton house that weekend -- so I guess that date is set for my first Cyclo-Cross race. I'll also get oldest Mini Team BRAZO to participate -- maybe even Mrs. Team BRAZO!!

So, "-jwm" -- if you plan on racing that day you'll have a formidable challenger for that last place position -- in fact, just count on a better than last place finish for yourself -- I'll have that last place medal all sewn up.

Can't wait...

Cyclocross practice – I might just get cut from the team...

Ok, so today oldest Mini Team BRAZO and I attended our first Cyclocross practice in Madison. We got to the course (which happened to be the same course that oldest Mini Team BRAZO had run his x-country race on Saturday) and began to ride around. Oldest Mini Team BRAZO had noticed during his run on Saturday that there where “boards” in the weeds along the course. So, we figured that these must be the “walls” that you dis-mount your bike and carry the bike over. We set up a few of these walls and began practicing getting ourselves and the bikes over the walls. For the most part, it really wasn’t that hard – just a matter of getting faster.

About 30 minutes later, the rest of the practice team showed up for the practice. They went around the rest of the course and setup more of those “walls”. I noticed right away that there were some differences between the rest of the “team” and myself.

The rest of the team had nice cyclocross bikes – I did not (I didn’t hear anyone laughing at my 1992 Fuji Sand Blaster, but that may be just my hearing going bad with the old age). The rest of the team had clips on the bottom of their bike shoes – I had Kayano’s. The rest of the team was decked out in full biking clothes – I wore some tri-shorts and a normal shirt. The rest of the team looked like they knew what they were doing – I did not.

The team leader decides that tonight we would ride the course backwards to practice our “right turns” – not sure what that meant, but what the heck – I didn’t know what it felt like to do the course not “backwards”. We begin racing around this grass course with walls lined up every once in a while. Oldes Mini Team BRAZO and I stay in the back of the pack for the first part of the course and then pass a few people that amazingly had fewer skills then us (or they just wanted us to feel better). I noticed that the more we went around, the harder those little walls were to get over. I thought I might get to a point that I would need to take off the front wheel of the bike to make it lighter, then next the seat, and so on – then re-assemble the bike on the other side of the wall -- it was much harder with the quads burning up.

Overall, it was a great time. My quads were a bit buzzing by the time that I had completed 2 laps of the course. The rest of the team planned on completing 5 laps of the course (and then do something else), well thankfully oldest Mini Team BRAZO had homework to do – so we headed out after 2 laps.

Thankfully, we will be on vacation for next weeks practice – so I shouldn’t be cut from the team for at least 2 more weeks….

Almost melted down for soup cans...now my Cyclocross bike

Well, one week ago our 1992 vintage Fuji Mountain Bikes almost made it to the scrap yard. I had a trailer full of "metal items" from our basement and our business -- and I almost threw in the bikes.

Now, the re-furbished 1992 Fuji will be my Cyclocross bike -- there was absolutely no way I was going to buy another bike. So, I took the handle bars from my son's old bike, took the seat that my wife replaced on her bike, switched the brake levers, and bought some new Cyclocross 1.5 inch tires.

I may be wrong -- but this bike looks like it is certainly capable of a last place finish -- we'll see....

Ok, this needs to stop – we are running out of room in the garage…

On Saturday the oldest Mini Team Brazo had his last cross country meet of the year. On the way to his meet we noticed that many of the cars that were going the opposite direction had bikes on the roof. Knowing that they were going in the direction of Cam Rock 3 we figured it was a Cyclocross race that they were going to.

Well, after oldest Mini Team BRAZO completed his race with a PR (beating the previous PR by 50 seconds) – we decided to head to Cam Rock 3 to see what was going on.



When we got there, there were probably 75 cars in the parking lot with many bikers racing around the course. The course is made up of some blacktop, grass, and dirt. Along the course they setup small “walls” about 2 feet tall in which the riders need to jump off there bikes and carry their bikes over the “wall”. In some spots they are moving quite fast on their bikes and other spots they are zig-zagging around thru paths setup for the race.


From what I understand, they continued doing loop after loop until a specific amount of time has passed – some races are 45 minutes – others are 60 minutes. Once that time has passed, then they do one more loop to finish the race – at least from what I understand.

The bikes that they use are basically road bikes with bigger tires – knobby tires around 1.5 inches. Some people have mountain bikes – but most look just like (and are) road bikes.

It looked very fun and in fact – I’m going to try one. There is no way I’m going to purchase another bike, so instead I had an old Fuji Mountain bike that I’m going to retro-fit to handle the Cyclocross.

So now the plan is to possibly race November 18th in Sun Prairie Wisconsin at the Angell Park Speedway as part of the Wisconsin Cycling Association Cyclocross Race Series.

This needs to stop – our garage just isn’t big enough to hold all these bikes – I guess it is time to start parking the cars outside…