Kross Kickoff Report

We held our first cross race of the season this past Saturday and it was great to see the racers enjoying the festive atmosphere with Oktoberfest building momentum as the day went on.

KrossKickoff Masters from Dave Byers on Vimeo.

The Master's 35+/45+ race from my helmet cam (sorry for the poor camera angle)

Random Post-Race Thoughts:
- Cross racing hurts...A lot...especially with zero warmup
- Oktoberfest and cyclocross go together quite well
- How can a race so short hurt so badly?
- As a result of my consistent Monday Run-Days, at least my running muscles aren't sore

I literally jumped into the Master's race with no warmup due to my organizer duties and pinned it from gun. Ouch. I knew it would hurt and I also expected to suck badly, and I did. At least I have a lot of room for improvement. It was fun battling with Dave Connor (in the video) for a while until he rode away and left me to die a slow death in no-man's land.

For more Kross Kickoff pics, check out VictorVelo.com

Top Ten Reasons Utah Cyclocross Racers Should Come to Moose Cross

As one of the organizers of Moose Cross, I would love to see our participation grow and the Victor Bike Park benefit from that growth. Cyclocross promoters from Boise and Montana were kind enough to not schedule races on top of Moose Cross.


The Utah Cyclocross Series opens the same day as Moose Cross and I realize that it is always easier to race in your backyard. However, I thought I would give you my personal:

Top Ten Reasons Utah Cyclocross Racers should come to Moose Cross on Oct 2-3, 2010

1) Even if you skip the UTCX opener, you still have 10 races to accumulate points towards the series.

2) You can stop mid-race and quench your thirst. That’s right; our 2010 course runs through the Grand Teton Brewing property. We think beer and cross go together quite well.

3) We pay you to race. Each racer who travels 100 miles or more will be handed $5 on Saturday at registration. Thanks for coming to Victor!

4) All proceeds of Moose Cross benefit the Victor Bike Park…it’s for the kids.

5) Pro barriers: Regulation height, regulation spaced, and freshly painted.

6) The best cyclocross racers in the region will here. Come test yourself against the best.

7) I may be biased, but our course rocks! Triple barrier section, double barrier-to-run up, chicanes, the infamous “Narrows”, and some power-sucking, off-camber grass. Yeah baby!

8) Kids & Juniors race FREE!

9) Video footage of Saturday’s race will be shown Saturday night at the awards party. Here is the 2009 Video we showed at the awards.

10) We WILL NOT ask you to buy a number plate

Thanks in advance for considering a road trip.

First Ride On The Tallboy

There is a new bike in the stable and I took it out for the first time this past Saturday. The Santa Cruz Tallboy has been taunting me for a year now and when a local shop had a large frame sitting there I couldn't resist. The Phillips Ridge Trail made for the perfect full-suspension test-track with lots of embedded rock and flowing downhill sections.

Ridge Trail 9-18-10 from Dave Byers on Vimeo.

I have a lot to learn with the video camera and I apologize for the annoying shaking at times.

Quick stats & initial thoughts
- Large Tallboy frame & shock weighed 5.11 lbs
- Complete bike as I would race it weighs 24.3 lbs
- It doesn't ride like a fragile flower
- This frame is 1.5 lbs lighter than my 2008 Turner Sultan
- Do we really need tapered head tubes on 4" travel XC bikes?
- Thanks for not making it BB30. Seriously.
- I think this bike will see a lot of racing action in 2011

I wanted to build this bike now and dial in the fit before the weather here goes to crap. It will be 100% ready to rock at the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo in February...Solo baby.

My first video effort

I thought I would take a whole bunch of new-to-me things, mix 'em up, throw it at the wall, and see what sticks. Riding a DH bike on the Teton Pass downhill trails, using a helmet cam, and editing video were all new to me a couple of days ago.

Teton Pass 9-13-2010 from Dave Byers on Vimeo.

My old Mac Mini isn't exactly a video editing powerhouse but it has iMovie installed so I went with it for my first try. Can you say slooooow?

If you have some experience with video I would love a few tips. What software do you like for editing? Mac or PC? How do you get your data from your SD card (or similar) to your computer? I gotta believe that the USB cable from the camera to the computer is the slowest option.

The helmet cam is fun stuff and I am looking forward to playing with it more in the coming weeks.

Park City Point 2 Point Video

Here is a great video created by Dave Harris during the PCPP.

PCP2P 2010 from Dave Harris on Vimeo.

Michelle and Kenai are famous!

The Park City Point to Point from the sidelines

The crud that took over my body Friday before the race, and is still hanging on, prevented me from racing but I did manage to shuffle around Park City to the various aid stations and offer a little support to Michelle. It was not the level of cowbell-ringing enthusiasm that I would have normally dished out but at least I was able to hand up a pre-filled Camelbak, a few GUs, and send her on her way.


Picture taken by from Lyna Saffell

Michelle's Race
The PCPP was Michelle's biggest race goal of the season after a flat tire caused her to miss the cuttoff time in last year's PCPP by minutes. She was on a mission to finish this beast and to see her execute her race plan was awesome. She was focused, wasted no time at the aid stations, and always kept moving forward. For this year's race, Michelle rode her Niner Air9 hardtail (Kermit) with 2.25 Racing Ralph tires w/SnakeSkin sidewalls for a little extra protection. The weight penalty of the heavier tires was worth the added insurance on this rocky course. One other key ingredient was Michelle's plan to race with Camelbaks containing Carbo Rocket so that she could keep both hands on the bars and still take in calories. The Park City trails are relentless and using bottles to fuel there is tricky business. I noticed that the 1st and 2nd place Open Men also used Camelbaks.

Michelle diligently followed LW Coaching's "100-Mile Finisher" training plan to prepare for the PCPP. Even though the PCPP is 75 miles and not 100, the overall difficulty is on par with most 100-milers so this plan made the most sense. LW Coaching's $99 12-week plans are perfect for someone who has a specific race goal and wants to be sure that they are doing everything possible to achieve that goal.

Michelle crushed it this year and finished in 11:03:00, placing third in the Women's 35+ Category.

A Great Event
Being sidelined gave me a unique view of the PCPP this year and I was equally impressed with the race. These guys know how to promote and execute a great mountain bike race. It was also obvious that they learned from last year and made a few tweaks to improve an already great race this year.

Random things I noticed and liked
- PCPP branded Smartwool beanies instead of the normal race t-shirt
- A well marked course. The importance of this cannot be overstated
- GPS files of the course provided way in advance
- Starting the huge field in waves to avoid congestion
- Chip Timing
- Carbo Rocket & Gu products at the Aid Stations instead of Hammer stuff
- Great aid station volunteers
- Cool finish line scene in the pavilion at The Canyons
- Live Music post-race
- Food for racers post-race
- Racer raffle + Public raffle to raise money for Mountain Trails (great idea)
- Equal cash payout to Men & Women

The PCPP Non-Race Report

We are still in Park City where Team Byers had planned to unleash our individual furies on the 78 miles & 14,000' of climbing that is the Park City Point to Point.

We arrived late Thursday, had an early dinner, and organized some pre-race gear so that Friday could be as mellow as possible before the big day.

I woke up Friday to an angry tummy and repeated "red alert" trips to the bathroom. Ruh Roh. Food didn't sound good at all but I did a short pre-ride at Round Valley anyway and immediately afterwards I knew something was not right. By 2pm, I had body aches and chills and was lying on the couch. Dammit. By 4pm I was a worthless pile of mush and knew that I could not race the next day.

To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. I had this race circled on my calendar for a year and I wanted to take a serious shot at breaking 9 hours.

More on race day and Michelle's awesome race later...