Mellow Johnnies - Rockets double podium

K-Rocket and JP both went down to Texas for the Mellow Johnnies ProXCT and they each took 3rd place. JP pulled down a solid 4th overall  for the Cat 1 men all age groups as well. JPs race recap

JP with his first podium at a ProXCT event.

K-Rocket 3rd. CA, CO, MO on the podium.

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.