Gravel Gravy

Saturday almost the entire ethos crew gathered at Kevin's house for a glorious day of cruising the country roads south east of KC.

JP, K-Rocket, Kevin, TDonn, Jamie, The Bald Chimp, Steve, Sarah and myself were suited up in ethos kits. Drew and Justin B of Elite/Maple cycling joined the crew. With a 9:30 rollout we were greeted with perfect gravel grinding weather, 40's and sunny. The wind out of the NE pushed us along for the first 30 miles. The country scenery mixed with good company and fun conversations had everyone smiling. The country dogs were numerous, with the highlight being the Irish Wolfhound farm.

The route back north had a slight head wind bringing us to Kingsville, MO home of the Conoco clown. Some Coke and Candy bars were downed and spun out on the final leg. After a total of 65 miles the group reached the Godfathers house. It was great to have an actual Ethos "groupride." Hopefully next time Sean, Mark, Andrew, Jason and Mia will be able to make it. They could have been hiding in the buffalo for all I know! I guess Garet can come also.

CX Nats

Travis, Andrew, K-Rocket and JP are headed to Madison to contend for the Stars-n-Stripes on Sat. Karen and JP are racing on Wed in the non-championship race as well. Will post up some updates here throughout the week as events unfold.

Here is JP's update for Tue: http://rocketfamilyracing.blogspot.com/2012/01/cx-nats-tue-update.html

K-Rocket 5th and JP 2nd today in Madison at the non-championship races. Double podium day for Ethos!
Day 2 update here: http://rocketfamilyracing.blogspot.com/2012/01/cx-nats-wed-update.html


KC Area racers Dean Parker (4th) and Catherine Walberg (2nd) on the podium today while Jen Harrell-Rhoades just misses with a solid 6th place.
K-Rocket races for the national title @ 10:45am tomorrow morning.
Thu update: http://rocketfamilyracing.blogspot.com/2012/01/cx-nats-thu-update.html

JP's Nats race recap: http://rocketfamilyracing.blogspot.com/2012/01/cx-nats-race-report.html

K-Rockets's recap: http://k-rocket.blogspot.com/2012/01/cyclocross-nationals.html

Ramping up to CX Nats

Trav, Andrew, K-Rocket and JP are all headed up to Madison next week to rub shoulders with the fastest guys (and gals!) from around the country. Everyone is looking great and coming into peak form at the right time.

Andrew in Hawaii

Andrew has been off getting some quality time in the sun in Hawaii, getting those warm weather miles and smiles.

I have seen a study that says warm weather (or just getting your core really hot doing training) can have as much as a 10% boost to your cold weather racing performance. Seems odd, but hey if he comes back flying faster then he already was then I might just take some vacation time next year and go somewhere warm to ride as well!

The Pain Train out front @ Boxing Day CX

Travis and JP have been setting the grass on fire putting down some fast racing on the local scene. Super cool that we are lucky to have great promoters putting together not 1, not 2, but 3 races between Christmas and New Years so the KC area peeps can fine tune those motors before heading up north.

And the weather, wow, pretty insane, 60's in Dec, yup!


K-Rocket has been mixing is up the the Men's 3/4 races and starting to really get into some hard fought battles. Some guys just don't like getting beat by a girl, but they better get faster quick because next time you are racing and think, man I just got passed by a little dude you better look a little closer because it's probably K-Rocket putting you in her rear view!

Results!

Travis 2nd, JP 3rd Mon

JP 4th and Travis 5th Wed (fast freaking race!)

Karen besting 13 3/4 Men on Wed.

Here is some first lap racing from the Boxing Day CX race.

TEAMwork...

JP and Karen cleaning mud off Travis' bike in the pits at the Missouri State Championship CX race. Travis went on to take a podium spot during the event. This is one of many aspects that makes racing for Ethos great; teamwork!

Missouri State Championship

This past weekend was the wrap up of the Boss Cross Series and the Cyclocross Missouri State Championship. The conditions were like none other, 6 inch deep mud the consistency of peanut butter. Sounds horrible right? Actually it sounds like a recipe for Ethos to come out on top! So it was no surprise that the podiums had plenty of green and black, muddy green and black that is.

Sunday the Masters races and Women's Open kicked off early. Steve showed the mature crowd how it is done with a 3rd place finish. JP took the win in the Masters 35+ and was rewarded with one of the ugliest cycling jerseys ever designed. It should be mentioned that JP took 4th in the Open race on Saturday behind Travis in 3rd. Nice work Rocket! As the old saying goes "like father, like daughter" or something like that. Karen took the win in the CAT 1/2/3 so her and her dad having matching outfits for that "ugly jersey holiday party" that the office has every year. You kill it as always K-Rocket. Sarah celebrated her birthday on Sunday by breaking her chain and running the final 1/2 lap and STILL secured 4th. It must suck to have to line up next to those two ladies (Saturday they dominated Boss Cross 4 with a Sarah, Karen 1-2 finish).

By the time Single Speed started the mud had congealed just a slight amount for added resistance and the course conditions deteriorated. I took 3rd. JDoug conformed to peer pressure and raced SS and Cat3 back to back with good finishes in both (7th in SS, 10th in CAT 3), that hurts my legs just thinking about it. For the record, the people who showed up to race this weekend meant business, there was no fluff in the categories. Sean tested his mettle and toed the line for his first cross race ever on his fixie mountain bike, pulling a Top 10. Is he hooked? Only time will tell.

And finally the Men's Open. You race last, the course is totally destroyed and you race the longest. That's what you get for being the tough guys! Well TDonn is one tough SOB. He rolled across the line in 2nd place in a VERY stacked field. Very impressive sir! A huge shout out to the "ugly jersey" pit crew of Karen and JP. They removed untold amounts of mud allowing a clean bike each lap if needed.