Mafia Racing Blog

But toot toot! I work at QBP where we have a pretty fun commuter competition and ranking. We earn points for commuting in with the max being 10 points per commute. Basically for every ride in I get myself 10 points. On Thursday the commuting league guy sent out this e-mail….

“Congratulations riders on this coldest day of 2010.  It’s been a long time since there was anyone not named “Burton” up at the top.”

I’ll be honest, I had a pretty big smile on my face. Burton who I now refer to is #2 has been #1 for the last 2 years. 2010 has brought a new leader… me Burton is one our our designers and is pretty competitive so since I work closely with him in our small dept. I have made sure to post a copy of this e-mail pretty much every place he would go, just a friendly reminder. 2010 is off to a great start… I am apart of Mafia Racing and now the top commuter. If you live in the Midwest or have visited here in the winter months you know what we have to deal with. Thursday was a brutal day… -10 deg. at the start of my ride with a 24 mph. headwind, it basically sucked. I took off my goggles to defog and my right eye froze shut.

I know you are all jealous that you can’t ride in these amazing conditions… Hey if you find yourself in the area give me a call and I will take you out for a ride.

Cleveland, Ohio is home to the sweetest indoor mountain bike park I’ve ever seen. Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park covers the whole spectrum of riding styles and abilities. I had an absolute blast at my second Tri-Flo XCTT event at Ray’s. The event provided an opportunity for 5 pro women and 5 pro men to race against each other, vying for generous race winnings ($1500 for first, $800 for second, down to $200 for fifth) AND fabulous “leg trophies”. What is a leg trophy you ask?  All I’ll say is that airport security barely let my leg trophy on the plane, but thankfully they let it slide. See below for the podium shot! Read the rest of this entry »

It’s easy to hate on Boulder sometimes for being elitist, having a dearth of obsessive riders with too much money and not enough talent or just being kinda annoying sometimes, but let’s face it, the cycling community rocks. We have our ups and downs, and I won’t lie, I do my fair share of hating sometimes (usually kept to myself for the sake of politesse). However, pretty often, we’ll get together for a ride or a race and I’ll remember how awesomely fun and cohesive our riding community is. The best recent example was a huge New Years Day ‘cross ride. We did a huge loop around town on snowy roads and trails, made sure no one got dropped and had some awesome beers afterwards at the home of cyclocross maestro, Greg Keller. The only downside is that my 2010 started inauspiciously with a crash on some icy road. I was fine, but I couldn’t help but look back to the last time I was astride my F15X, a different ride that had similar results. After experiencing my traumatic crash, described in my previous post, I wished with all my heart that someone had at least witnessed the carnage, let alone captured it on video. Sure enough, the footage is out there. I’ve captured some highlights. Feel free to scroll really fast for old-tymey stop-action video effect.

Don’t worry, folks. I’m a professional.

“This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper.” -T.S. Elliot

Okay, I’m getting a bit melodramatic here. ‘Cross states were lots of cold, snowy, muddy, wet fun, but it did feel like a bit of a letdown. I’m sure a big part of that was due to my absence from the race scene for the last month — sickness, travel, bla bla bla. Plus, Boulder Cup is such a huge event here in town that everything afterward seems to pale in comparison.

Nonetheless, I geared up and went for it, and what can I say? I did pretty well, all things considered. Truthfully, my biggest regret is not seeing a photo of my spectacular crash early on in the race. If anyone finds it, I’ll pay money, but let me do my best to rewind my mental stream of consciousness: “La-de-da, I’m descending this gradual hill. Oh, hey! Here comes that slick, steep right-hander. Hmm. That inside line is intriguing. Oh what the hell, let’s try it… oh wait, I just unclipped my right foot. And now I’m highsiding myself. Aha! I can pull it off if I unclip my other foot! Oh shit, now I don’t either foot on the pedals. Dear Lord, I’m now tenuously balanced by my crotch on the top tube and my chest on the stem. OH GOODDD it’s bumpy and I hope I don’t die. Ow. I’m stuck in the course tape.”

 But let’s be honest, folks. I think pretty much everyone had moments like this in that sloppy, slippery mess that was being referred to as a racecourse. That’s why it’s ‘cross, right? All in good fun. Onward to ski season. Good luck to Jake Wells as he takes on the big boys at National Championships in Bend, OR this weekend!

Mafia Racing’s Jake Wells (Avon, CO) was on a tear at the North Carolina Grand Prix cyclocross weekend. After seeing his podium hopes dashed by a rolled tubular tire on day one, he made good on his determination and scored a third place result in Sunday’s Elite Men’s event.

After Saturday’s mishap, a disappointed Wells admitted, “I was the one who glued my tubulars, so it was a bummer to lose out on a podium, especially in the last lap of racing.” Wells settled for 6^th place after running his bike through the final meters of the course. Nevertheless, the Coloradoan rallied to overcome muddy conditions on Sunday. “It was super-greasy,” Wells explains, “and I thought I had the gap for second, but I made a few tactical errors.”

As the days dwindle before Cyclocross Nationals in Bend, OR, top results in UCI-level events become a sought-after commodity that guarantees a good start position when the nation’s best ‘cross specialists gather in Oregon, Dec. 9-13. Next up, Wells will be chasing points at Jinglecross, a three-day event in Iowa City, IA, Nov. 27-29.

Gettin’ sloppy. Photo: www.jeffzimmermanphotography.com

for what you will be seeing shortly, i apologize. this may be not safe for work, or even your home computer.single speeders are, by definition, a group of velociped wranglers so rife with abhorrent behavior, a gathering of them can only result in something as absolutely  absurd as SSCXWC 2009.

mud. oh the mud, mud mud mud! after a fews days of rain and thousands of riders trampling the course for hours before the silly speeders were released upon it, the course was THE muddiest, slipperiest, wettest thing you could shake a PBR tall boy at. hub high puddles? check. grassy clods that stopped you in motion?  indeed, kind sir. off camber hills made of what appears to be brown, lukewarm, buttery clay? fo’ shizzle. 

 clothing choice is very important in a race like this. wait, hold up…this was not a race. this was a festival of speed. a celebration of the absurd. a regular party of clucks. clothing choice, was, regardless, vital. some went for the “mo’ clothing, mo’ warm” motif. while this is acceptable, many of these mobsters were simple hiding their face from the massive amount of spectators who were more than willing to slap a passing rumpus without a second thought. some of the extremely not-fun people wore team kits. this was not ok. people who wear formal team kits at a silly speed cyclocross race are also the people who yell “tracking!” and “ON YOUR LEFT, MOVE!” during said events. they are simply angry that someone slipped icy-hot in place of their chamois cream. understandable? i guess. 

ryan trebon is an exception here, mainly because he spent the first two laps pulling my underwear over the rear of my saddle. this action makes it extremely hard to dismount a bicycle in muddy conditions. however, ryan alerted me to the presence of a bacon handoff at his team tent. for this fact i will grant tree farm a slight pardon, a temporary kiss of life for touching my man parts with his mucky hand.

my clothing choice? i went for a minimalist design, as for maximum heat transfer and minimum mud weight addition. prior to the race, i purchased a medium (womens size) pair of american apparel undies. if ever there was a race fit garment, this is it. i was tighter packaged than the last helicopter to leave the american embassy in saigon. sometimes, things have to be done for the greater good. 

the race started like a scene from the movie 300- except with fewer chiseled abs, or elephants ridden by the guy who works under our office in a tattoo parlor called “blood and gory” picture a lemans start-with two armies advancing towards a line in the sand, made of bicycles. ridiculousness, and casualties, ensued.

 the rest of the race was a blur- a slow motion, dirty, wet, messy blur, with beer, bacon, and love from random onlookers galore…a usual sunday night.please see these pictures. they may help your relationship, but keep them out of reach of children.thank you.

love ya’ll.   

One of the best programs for showing people how incredibly fun bike racing can be is collegiate cycling. It’s how I got into riding bikes, and I know many other riders (including some super-talented pro racers!) who have their roots in collegiate cycling. Most college cyclists have the right kind of attitude for attracting people to the sport. It’s not about how much your gear costs or who your coach is; it’s about having fun, bonding with your teammates, and racing your heart out.

Unfortunately my academic days have ended, but I still try to support collegiate cycling events when I can. They are usually organized by a small group of Red-Bull-fueled kids on a shoestring budget, who are simultaneously studying for their organic chemistry finals and working a part-time job washing dishes in the cafeteria. This makes it even more impressive when college teams pull off great events, like Western State’s cyclocross race in Gunnison this past weekend.

The course in Gunnison was one of the best I’ve raced all season. It had a sweet flow with lots of grassy, off-camber turns that you could just carve. Despite the small fields, the racing was a blast. I got to battle with local Gunnison powerhouse Jenny Smith. I barely held her off for the win—if we had another 15 minutes, she probably would have caught me.

The race day ended with a killer afterparty at the Gunnison Brewery. There were tons of prizes and a keg just for the racers. I came home with more than my fair share of prize money and a bunch of yummy ride food. Like I said, college kids know how to get it done! Be sure to support your local collegiate team by racing their races, even if they seem dinky. You might be surprised at what they can pull off!

On one hand, racing two days in a row is rough. If I get it right the first time, it’s pretty hard to motivate the next morning. However, when it came to the Boulder Cup weekend, our region’s biggest ‘cross event of the season, I certainly needed a second chance on Sunday. As I stood on the side of Saturday’s muddy course with a broken derailleur hangar, I felt like misfortune had been working just as hard to “peak” for these big events as I had. Let’s see… Nagging head cold? Check. Restless night of sleep on Friday? Check. Fumbled start? Check. And finally, a big fat DNF, thanks to some very sticky mud.

I won’t say  I was thrilled to line up for another race after Saturday’s bungle, but I recognized the opportunity to take one more stab at a solid race, and thankfully, I pulled it off. It wasn’t without some difficulty though — I think I crashed about 4-5 times, sometimes because I was riding sketchy and other times for no apparent reason at all! Either way, I hung in there, didn’t get lapped and even went home with some modest prize money. It wasn’t perfect, and it definitely wasn’t pretty, but I got my shot at redemption, and it felt pretty good.

Upsy-daisy!

Even Jake crashes sometimes too!

The North American Cyclocross Trophy (NACT) series will bring its fourth race weekend of the season to Mafia Racing’s backyard, Boulder CO. The venues were recently hammered by an early-season snowstorm that dropped over 12 inches of snow on the foothills, transforming the normally dry and dusty courses into snowy and slippery bogs.

Based out of Boulder, CO, Mafia Racing is fielding one of its strongest pro teams ever for the UCI elite events. No stranger to snow and cold, Jake Wells (Avon, CO) will be one of the top Mafia riders to watch in the men’s events. Wells, whose hometown is only miles away from Vail, CO, has already won several regional cyclocross events in Colorado and netted an impressive top-15 result at CrossVegas. For the women’s event, Kate Scheider, currently top-10 in the Colorado cyclocross rankings, will face off against the strongest riders in the country.

In addition to these riders, Mafia Racing will field a full squad of pro men, along with numerous amateur and masters riders. Throughout the weekend — rain, snow or shine — the Mafia compound will be the best place for spectators and racers alike to enjoy cold Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, check out the latest Felt F15X ‘cross bikes and hop into a game of foursquare or cornhole.

Game on!