Veld Meisterschaften!

Well, today was the big day. We got up, had some breakfast and prepared for the race. It was quite surprising that the snow was still around, but it was in really rough shape. The girls went first, and I watched for awhile. We did really well, with Rebecca Duseault (2004 Olympian for nordic ski) placing 6th... nice!
The men's race was shaping up to be pretty crazy. Lots of fast guys, plus the run was all on pavement and trails. Sure enough, it was high speed from the get-go. I hung in pretty well throughout that leg, until the third lap, when I really started hurting. Then, it was on to the bike, which was another speedfest. All big ring, all the time. Just roads - some paved, mostly dirt. Drafting played a big role and I was happy to hang with an Italian and a Spaniard for pretty much all of it. Once the bike was over, I was still ahead of Mike Kloser, so I was second American, but I heard him come into transition behind me, so I knew we'd ski together for a bit. The transition was pretty rough because my calves were cramping really bad, mostly from the hard run I think, but it didn't help that it was about 50 degrees and sunny. Once I got on the ski, I lost touch with the Italian immediately. He was going really well. It was so sloppy and nasty. Definitely the worst ski conditions I'd ever seen. However I settled in and caught a few guys. Mike ended up catching me, but I couldn't hang with him. He eventually caught Brian, who was really suffering. We ended up 21-23rd places, all in a row. Pretty good improvement over last year. The crowds were really great - very loud and lots of people. It was definitley a fun, well organized event. All we needed was REAL winter tri weather!
Relay is tomorrow. Hopefully my legs aren't totally shot from today's running.

Day Two...

Thursday was a pretty good day. Not terribly eventful. After a big breakfast, I set up my bike and went for a little spin around Kniebis. It is a very small town, so that didn't take long. However I did find a bakery, where I bought a really good pretzel, and I got a bottle of wine at a little market. It was very foggy and cool. Definitely pretty grim weather. Nevertheless, I made it outside to run and ride the courses. It is quite evident that we will be running and riding on grass and gravel terrain. However, they are working round the clock to truck in snow to groom for the ski. It's amazing. Everyone talks about how industrious the Germans are, but there's definitely some truth to that. It will be a snowy highway running through an otherwise completely brown and grassy forest. Pretty funny.
Later in the day we went down to Stuttgart. We needed to buy some race tops for our uniforms. Fortunately everything else arrived with our shipment from Craft, so at least it wasn't as bad as last year's swimsuit debacle. We drove around for awhile until we finally found a place to park. The shopping area was really cool. They had a big walking mall and lots of stores. It seemed like a really nice city, but we only had time to see a little of it. We had dinner at a restaurant that served modern fusion cuisine, which was fine. Nothing authentic, but good nonetheless. I did have a really solid German beer. Can't remember what they called it but it was nice. We got back a little late last night, and I had some trouble sleeping. Hopefully the legs feel better tomorrow morning. Not sure whether it's the walking or the restless night but they're kind of tight today. I'll see the ski course today and, best of all, tonight is the parade of nations!
P.S. Let's hear it for Scotty, hanging in with the big dogs of the Tour of Cali! Keep it up homie!

Germany Update

Well, things aren't looking to great here in Deutchland. The weather is quite bad. It is very warm and foggy, and you really have to try hard to find some snow. I have no idea what we are going to race on. Should be similar to last year's race in Italy in terms of crazyness. Oh well. The place we're staying is really cool. Plenty of room with good breakfast. I just finished up some bread, jam, meat and cheese. Plus, some muesli is on the way! Hopefully today we'll get a better sense for what the courses will look like. I'm not feeling very optimistic about it, but either way I'm sure we'll be racing on something. Just got to suck it up.
meow.

Best V-Day Ever

This Valentine's Day was already primed to be a solid improvement over last year. Mainly because I actually had a date this time around. Even better, we were going to a Colorado Avalanche game. Little did I know that it would turn out to be even more amazing than I could have ever imagined.
As Kate and I walked up the escalator inside the Pepsi Center, an official looking guy approached us. I thought he was trying to sell something so I was all set to ignore him, but before I knew it, he asked us if we wanted to participate in a contest at intermission... Heck yes! It turns out that we were going to be doing a trike race on the ice during the second intermission. Sweet! It was going to be a relay and we were competing against two other couples (of course, it is Valentines Day).
So, after anxiously sitting through the first and second periods, we headed down to get set up for the race. The trikes were pretty sweet. Quite big and bury with large tires. I imagine that nothing else would do on the ice. We put on some hockey helmets and Avs jerseys and went out on the ice.
It's quite surprising how rough the ice gets during 20 minutes of play — really easy to walk on in fact. It was also really impressive seeing the players at that level. Those dudes are huge!
Back to the race. Kate was doing the first leg. She had a pretty good start but got stuck behind the girl in first. The transition area behind the goal was really tight so we were still behind when I set out to chase down first. Unfortunately, I couldn't make up the gap and we ended up second. We thought we could win, given our collective training and experience, but that just proves that you can't take anything for granted! It was so sweet to be down on the ice that I watch my favorite team play on every week. The only bummer was that we couldn't keep the jerseys!

CAF off to the Races

The Chamois Army Fort is finishing off the last half of February with some sweet racing action...
This weekend, Kiel is off to the Valley of the Sun Stage Race in Arizona, contending for the overall title.
Next week, I'm leaving for Germany (scheisse!!) to race in the Winter Triathlon World Championships with team USA... USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! I'm on the team with some pretty legendary folks – Mike Kloser, Brian Smith and Rebecca Dussault (she's an Olympian!). It should be a pretty fun trip. We'll be in Freudenstat, which is in the Black Forest, down by Switzerland.
But even crazier than that, our very own 80's throwback superstar, Scott, is leaving Thursday to race in the Tour of California! Head to head with Boonen, Leipheimer, Julich and a bunch of other wankers.
Good luck to all!

meow.

Check it out...

I wrote a little journal article for insidetri.com. Note the strategic placement of the bike, resplendent with CAF stickers. Last weekend's trip to Durango was lovely. Great weather, fun racing and some solid tele runs on Sunday before driving home. It's a bit of a haul to get down there but definitely worth it. I'm not sure if I'll ever be a full-on Durangutang, but I'd like to visit a bit more often. Kate wrote a pretty solid blog on this trip, so I'll let that speak for itself.

Bonne Discipline, Yah!

A week ago, I was in France, racing in my first Winter Triathlon World Cup. It was quite an adventure, and I've been so busy since then that I haven't managed to get this story written until now. It was a really quick trip — I flew Thursday night, raced Sunday and flew back Monday morning. At first, that might seem like it wouldn't be worthwhile, but I made the most of my time. The weather was really snowy for the first day I was in Valberg, which is a small mountain town a couple hours outside of Nice. Once it was all said and done, we had a solid three to four feet of fresh snow. Made me wish I had my tele skis with me! Especially when the course was neither marked nor groomed the day before the race. Oh well. I was staying with the Czech team, which was pretty amusing. Only a couple of them spoke English, and even then, communication was challenging. Those guys are so funny. They eat all this weird Euro food and like to hang around in their boxer-briefs. But they are fast.
The race itself was pretty good overall. I had an amazingly good run, which was a surprise, as that's usually my weakest discipline. I was hanging with the leaders the whole way! Probably helped that the course was straight up and down an alpine ski hill. Either way, the bike was a bit disappointing. I had too much tire pressure and the snow was very soft. However, I battled back and had a good ski, finally earning me ninth place on the day. Helloooo USAT performance bonus!
The excitement didn't end there, though. I found out, shortly after the race, that I would have to go down to Nice that afternoon, even though my flight wasn't until the next day. That meant packing up my crap. Really fast. Once I was down there, I made the best of the circumstances. I found a pretty nice hostel and went out on the town. I had some great beers, an amazing Nutella crepe and I went down to the beach, which was really nice (hahaha get it? Nice... nice!). It was an unexpected way to end the trip, but I really enjoyed it. Now, I head off to Durango and then Bend. Valberg was a great confidence boost... I'm ready to rock!

Grizzly Rose!

Boy howdee, did we have a barnburner! Last Friday, I went out to the Grizzly Rose cowboy bar with the old lady and a few of her friends. Cross-Canadian Ragweed was playing, so we had some good, live country music, and the place was packed. Throughout the course of the evening we helped our friends sneak into the place, since the show was sold out and they didn't have tickets; we watched Anna ride the mechanical bull (way better than the other people who tried it), enjoyed the stunning scenery of western wear and we drank a lot of cheap beer. Grizzly Rose gets two thumbs up! The highlight of the evening came when some crazy drunk dude grabbed Anna and dragged her out onto the floor to dance. After that, we watched him for awhile, and he pulled this trick on at least five or six other girls. So classy.


The crabby old lady running the mechanical bull yelled at me for taking photos. Apparently they'd rather sell you photos then have you take your own. I sure showed them! Look at the quality of this image!

Christmas Vacation

As the song goes, "I just got back from a lovely trip, along the Milky Way..." Well, okay, so I wasn't taking an intergalactic journey, and I didn't stop by the North Pole either. But I got a heck of a lot closer to there than normal, as I took a trip home to Vermont for Christmas. The travel was heinous. My flight to Burlingtron, city of the future, was canceled, so I had to fly into Lebanon. Then, on the way back to Ballerado, my flight to Philly was too delayed to make the connection to the Dirrty D, so I had to fly out of Manchester. According to the airlines, their only duty is to get me to a destination safely. Apparently, they do not need to get me there at any specified time. I could have gotten back to Denver in July and they would have still "Fulfilled their duty of care." Absolutely hilarious.
Either way, it was nice to be back home. Weather was so-so (typical), but at least it wasn't pouring rain this time around.


Church Street, lovely as always. Definitely puts Boulder's Pearl Street to shame.


Ever seen a samurai Dachshund? I didn't think so.

Velodrome Action

Shout out to our homeboy, Kevin, who's rockin' the Burnaby Six Day track race in British Columbia right now. Nice discipline! Read his blog for updates. Go Fruitcup!

Merry 'Crossmas!

The 'cross loving denizens of the Colorado Front Range got an early Christmas present last weekend... racing conditions that vaguely resembled genuinely nasty fall weather, providing for a somewhat authentic experience for those brave enough to endure the sub-freezing temperatures and snowy course. Usually these chatched-out Westerners are blessed with 40-60 degree temps, sunny weather and dry courses, but this weekend gave everyone a chance to break out their fancy-shmancy tubulars and finally put them to good use.
I, meanwhile, got a stocking full of coal, thanks to Strep Throat, so I couldn't race the only 'cross race that I wanted to do. Foiled again. Nevertheless, I made a strong showing on behalf of the Chamois Army Fort as I superfanned the women's race with Anna. We nearly froze to death, but it was well worth it.
Oh, P.S. I also got on velonews.com. Ah the glory!!


Let Freedom Ring, I say.


Kate, a few laps before massively eating shit and getting a concussion.

Helpful cycling (and life) tips gleaned by observing the homeless

From the BikeSpeak cycling forum:

"Homeless people use old newspapers to insulate themselves against the cold. My usual cycling footwear loses heat and my toes are often chilly by the end of my daily ride. I made booties from old newspaper to cover my shoes, and my toes were still warm at the end of my ride. On my test ride, I was out for an hour and fifteen minutes. The temperature was 23 deg. F. with a wind chill of 12 deg. F.

I placed a section of newspaper 12.5" x 22.5" on the floor. It was six sheets in thickness. I put my foot onto the newspaper a bit off center to rear of the fold. I pulled the front edge up over the toe of my shoe. I folded the front corners in and over the toe of the shoe. I taped them in place with a few inches of masking tape. I folded the back corners up and around my heel and taped them in place. I put my foot into a plastic grocery bag and wrapped it loosely around my ankle. Another piece of tape held it in place. Then I repeated the process for the other foot.

My pedals are metal rat traps with toe clips. I rode outside the clips with the clips hanging down. My feet never slipped on the pedals. If you want to clip-in, you could cut an opening on the bottom of the newspaper booties, but that could also increase the air exchange and make your feet cooler.

I was concerned that the plastic bags might get caught in my chain or on some sharp corner, but that was not a problem. The paper booties were moist at the end of the ride from perspiration, but still intact enough to use a few more times. For colder weather more sheets of newspaper could be used to make thicker booties."



So the next time you're stuck in a jumble, just ask yourself: "What would the homeless do?"

Mike Janelle

As many of you may know, Colorado cycling legend, Mike Janelle, passed away last Thursday. I had the pleasure to meet Mike at 24 Hours of Moab this past October, and I've got to say that he was a class act. I didn't know him well, but everyone who did had only great things to say about him. The Colorado cycling community, as well as the broader US cycling community, has lost a fantastic ambassador for the sport. He will be remembered fondly by all. Just another reminder to live every day to its fullest. I'm pretty sure Mike did, and there's no reason why you shouldn't too. Just like Ferris Bueller says, "Life goes by pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Check out VeloNews for more info.

100 Miles of Desert

Everybody likes birthdays. Everybody likes friends. Everybody likes biking. Everybody likes 100 mile vision quests in the Utah desert.

Well, okay, that last one is a little bogus. Nevertheless, for me, and a few other friends, it seemed like a good idea to celebrate my birthday last weekend by riding the White Rim Trail in Moab, UT. Trail is a loose approximation of the experience. In truth, most of this “trail” could be negotiated with one of the IMBA Subarus. Despite that, it traverses some of the most amazing canyonland that Moab has to offer, and on a mountain bike, it’s one of the best ways to see the scenery. We headed out at dawn and didn’t return to the cars until sunset. All told, it was about nine hours of riding, with a solid two hours of sightseeing, picture-taking and eating mixed in. The route is mostly flat, but it finishes with a massive climb up what at first appears to be a shear canyon wall. After about 90 miles, that last 2,000 feet of elevation gain is quite unwelcome, not to mention the 5 miles of false flat road afterwards to complete the loop. Needless to say, I was a tired boy on Sunday, but it was well worth it.



Livin' on the edge...



Sunsets are purty.

CAF Guitar Hero Hall of Fame Inductee

Freedom!

Freedom!!!!!Scott, our house crosser, ripped it up!
Ryan Trebon, you fought valiantly! We hereby knight you as Sir Ryan of the Chamois Army Fort.

There is nothing under the kilts

Grandpa C$ wants to express his gratitude to members of the chamois army fort for totally killing the cheering section! Brandon gave the entire "they can never take our freedom" speech from Braveheart to all the 'cross racers. That was one of the best things I have ever seen. I hope they get some serious press from this. You know, as grandpa gets older, each memory becomes even more precious. So to Andy, Spencer, and Brandon, hats off lads.

Actually, just getting to ride the first lap of that course was an amazing experience in itself. It was awesome to hammer through the barriers with everyone screaming. I can't even imagine what something like the world championships must be like.

peace out,
gc$

ROCK!

This past Monday, I headed down to the lovely Five Points area of the Dirrty D to meet up with good friend and CAF alum Kevin for a concert. What illustrious band brought us to a dive like the Larimer Lounge? Why, Electric Six of course! Only one of the finest rock & roll outfits on tour today. If you have a taste for quirky eclecticism as I most surely do, then I'm sure you'll love these rockers from Detroit. Check out some of my cameraphone pics from the show... so gritty, so raw. You can just feel the pulsing energy imbued in the music.


The White Wolf. An amazing lead guitarist.

24 Hours of Moab

Ah, I can finally breathe. The telltale signs of silicosis are gradually fading as my lungs purge the Moab desert from their sensitive alveoli. The race was fun and very hard. The course was a lovely combination of nasty, ledgy rocks and deep sand pits. I just pretended that I was in the Baja 1000 and rallied as hard as possible. Overall everything went very smooth. I bent my chain on my second lap at twilight and almost got caught out in the dark without a light, but I made it back in time and fixed the bike with my bare hands. My team of four did 15 laps (225 miles) and overall, all of the "Team IMBA" teams raised over $15,000 for IMBA. Not bad! I'd say the best part of the weekend was when I broke out my glorious CAF skinsuit for the first lap. Feast your eyes upon its beauty...

Watch It!

This is one of my heroes. His dandy voice makes even the most anti-choice Granny's panties moist.