Super Rookie’s World

Wow.

218 of my closest friends showed up on a beautiful fall day at the National Sports Center velodrome for the 3rd annual VeloCX presented by Behind-Bars Bicycle Shop. The weather definitely helped get the record number to the event, but I still believe we would have been close to 200 racers on a colder day. Of the 218 racers we had 18 take out one-day licenses and we had almost 20 kids toe the line in the kids race as they scrambled to take on the barriers and smile for the HUGE crowd that had just got done watching Marko Lalonde destroy the field in the inaugural Midwest Singlespeed Cyclocross Championships.

The expo area proved to be a highlight as many of sponsors showed up to hand out and keep the buzz alive. Behind-Bars was there serving up some tasty and  free Rush River beer. We had some Hebrew National hot dogs on the grill along with some Vegan dogs for the rabbit food eaters. Tom Hagerty was there serving up some massages for racers and spectators alike. The ladies of the velodrome sold a ton of baked goods for their development fund. Kurt Kinetic had some trainers on display and Owater kicked down a ton of free water for all the spectators and racers.

We also had this thing that proved to be the most popular among the parents and kids:

(Photo Jeremy Norton)

The reason most people showed up (besides just for the expo, free food and beer, bouncy thing and the awesome weather) was to race their bike. The fields were all of good size and the multiple fields allowed for a manageable group on the technical circuit. The National Sports Center really helped us out by allowing us to add to the course increasing the size from 1.76 km to 2.36km. This meant the lap times were dramatically increased and the number of folks getting lapped was minimal.

The big race on the docket was the inaugural Midwest Singlespeed Cyclocross Championships. We had quite the field showing up for the race today with Marko and James Lalonde traveling from Madison and Brian Eppen making an appearance from Iowa. Marko eventually would win the race by a minute over Eppen as the younger Lalonde had a mechanical on the first lap. Over 30 racers toed the line in the singlespeed event and an impressive 3rd place finish by Dan Casper rounded out the top steps of the podium. Casper would then go on to get 3rd in the Cat1/2 race finishing just behind Dave Hackworthy and Dewey Dickey.

It was a great day to race and an even better day to be associated with my team. Yet, most importantly, thanks to Sarah for putting up with the madness in our small apartment over the past few weeks as I have been trying to get all the ducks in a row with my teammates. In the end, it was a huge success and we even added a few LGR touches to the podium presentations complete with a 50lb bag of sand for the winner of the Cat4 race!

This is Dan Strese. He just started racing this year in cyclocross and quickly becoming one of the fastest out there. He is a great sport and he happily took home his Kurt Kinetic power computer and a nice sandbag!

There is a great slide show of the festivities here.

Here is one of my favorite photos of the day during the kids race!

Thanks to Justin Coyne for the photographs and the amazing custom trophies for the winners of the Singlespeed Championships!