Waves for Water Part II

Some more shots from the Waves for Water UCI Cylocross race on Sunday.

The coolest American in bike racing today - Adam Craig

Jamie Driscoll showing his characteristic head lean

Logan Owen leading the front runners

Waves For Water Cyclocross Race

Yesterday Melony and I went down to Ft. Steilacom in Tacoma to watch the Elite racers at the Waves for Water Cyclocross race.  This was a UCI (C2) race, so this was an opportunity to see how the big boys do it.  I especially went down to watch the huck fest hosted by my favorite American bicycle racer Mr. Adam Craig.  Steilacom is fairly non-technical but if anyone could find air it would be Adam.

I was happy to see Ben Berden hold on for the win.  Ben is one of the hardest working guys racing cross.

I'll trickle in a few shots at a time during the week.

Keeping it clean

Elite Men's winner Ben Berden

Howard and the Coffee Factory

What to you get when you combine Howard Schultz (Starbucks) with Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) - the new Starbucks Reserve here on Seattle's Capitol Hill.

Beans arrive at the brewing station from the roaster via copper tubes

I know it's cool to poo poo the big guys but I have to say this place is pretty awesome.  It's all copper and wood and steel, it's cool pure and simple.

In England they have these things called "follies," basically some unusual, whimsical structure built

The Dunmore Pineapple

by some rich guy as a lark.  He had the money so why not.  Well it seems to me that the Starbucks Reserve is kind of Harold's folly, and like I said it's pretty awesome.

After two bouts of sub-freezing temperatures Seattle is back to her dreary temperate self, and I took advantage of the rising mercury to roll out my bike and ride over to Capitol Hill for a cup.

Locally made chairs

The place was packed with tourists watching Seattle hipsters in the natural habitat.  I love hipster style by the way - but that can wait for another post.  I spent nearly fifteen minutes waiting for a cup of drip - wait they don't have drip so I went for the pour-over.  "Dark as ya got" I said in response to what roast I wanted.  In my opinion the best way to make coffee is to brew a full ten cup pot of drip, so right off the bat I was a little skeptical of what I would get.  A few minutes later a dude in a nice waxed cotton/leather apron brought me over a ceramic cup emblazoned with an "R" partially filled with perfect drinking temperature coffee.  Damn it was good.

I took a seat in a comfy chair, but then it was time to go - my daughter wasn't feeling well at school, time to go into nurse mode.

What I really like about the store is the fact that the furniture is all sourced locally.  The cool waxed cotton/leather aprons worn by all the employees (and there were a lot - on par with an Apple store) are also made by a Seattle company (I wish I could remember the name).  I'm happy that the big dogs are once again looking to the little dogs for craftsmanship and creativity.

How We Do It

Matt is finishing up a run of pants.  He's pretty fast on that machine:

Every Greenlite product is made in our Seattle workshop.

The Next Batch

Hard at work on the next production run of pants, knickers and shorts.  We're now using a double needle machine; I'm really happy with the results:

A Good Finsh

Last Sunday marked the end of my 2015 cyclocross season (I might race the recently

Tangled up at Marymore

announced UCI race in Stellicom but we’ll see) and I went out happy.  The previous race –the Starbucks GP and Marymore Park – was a total kerfungle.  I went down on the first lap and from that point on the wheels had totally come off the bus, I had no energy and almost DNF’d.  Had I not had the team tent to deal with I probably would have just rolled into the parking lot, threw my bike in the car and drove home.  Sunday’s race at Woodland Park proved to be a bit of a redemption.

Coming into Sunday’s race I was worried that I’d lost my mojo, so far I’d had a great season but maybe that was all I had – the tank was dry.  Somehow I’d managed to hold onto third for the series and all that I had to do to stay on the podium was finish in the top ten to hold on; I wasn’t sure it this was possible.

Chris and Doug fighting it out among the foliage

Hard rain and heavy winds had pounded the course all night and when I arrived at 7:30 the course was greasy mud covered in large maple leaves.  The MFG volunteers were hard at work raking leaves and setting tape and by the time my race came around the course was nearly devoid of leaves – but the mud remained.

Eighty one racers packed the starting line – a big turnout even by MFG standards.  Zac gave us the go ahead as a light rain began to fall.  I had a great start was sitting comfortably in third when we hit the first run-up.  Good thing I installed new fangs onto my shoes.  I tried to keep on my toes as I sprinted up the hill in hopes of preventing clogged cleats.  No just luck.  Oh well everyone else is in the same boat.

Woodland is a really good course for me, a big uphill, some flowy downhill and just enough twists and turns to keep you on your toes.  Jan passed me on the first uphill and was gone.  A mystery man was holding second, Luke third, Rob fourth and me fifth.  At the start of the second lap Rob started having problems and I moved into fourth with Dodi hot on my wheel.  Dodi eventually came around and despite my best efforts to hold on he slipped away.

Instead of being deep and grabby the mud at Woodland Park is shallow and greasy.  It also has a propensity to clog treads and pack cogs: by the second lap the dense mud had me reduced to two working gears.

The gear deficit only became a problem on the road section, but it didn’t seem to cost me any places so I really can’t complain.  I’m sure my competition had similar issues.

Near the end I was passed by an HSP guy, I held on to him fairly closely but in the end he took fifth and I settled for sixth.

I have to say that this was a super successful race.  At the start I didn’t know where I stood, but by the end I knew that I was still able to race strong and to make a good showing.  The guys who beat me were stronger on the day and that’s something that I’m totally fine with.

I ended up maintaining my third place standing for the season, something I’m super happy about.

Lil' Mule Project

I've been meaning to build up an Urban Assault Vehicle for some time now.  I'm starting with my old Trek 990 bought used for $450 back in 1989.  I had it powder-coated safety orange a few years ago. 

Phase 1 will be new tires and brakes.  Oh also need to remove those purple bar ends.