Get your tires glued and your skinsuit donned! It's time for 'cross! Get fast this season with the help of Brandon Dwight (Boulder Cycle Sport), Frank Overton (FasCat Coaching) and John Verheul (JBV Coaching) for a 2 and 1/2 day 'cross camp here in Boulder.

See the flyer below but all important details can be seen here. This is a ‘real deal’ camp with experts applying their decades of experience to making you fast and have more fun this season. The camp includes:

• Skills instruction
• Cross bike fitting
• Physiology testing
• Complete 12 week ‘cross plan
• Workshops
• More!

HUP HUP! Looking forward to seeing you!

It is time.

Since their birth, literally as newborns being held by their mom standing by the tape at races in Podunk CA to Nowhere CO, these kids have been raised with the sound of cowbells, freewheels and power-washers as the audible back drop to their weekends.

By intent, I’ve never pushed these little guys into biking. In fact, quite the opposite. I wanted them (still want them!) to continue tying everything: soccer, rock climbing, swimming, hockey. You name it.

But ever so subtly over the last year, my oldest started the inquisition: “Daddy, how old do you have to be to race?”. “Daddy, is there a Ridley I can fit on?” “Daddy, am I going to break my collar bone?” (I swear this was said…d’oh!”). He is 8 and he says he’s ready.

And so methodically mom and I started to get him prepared over the last few weeks. Racing license, bike, Boulder Cycle Sport jersey…and now most importantly how to go fast and have fun while staying safe. I want him, and his little brother when ready, to feel the joy I feel when I pin a number on. I’m not suggesting that I can ‘make him’ feel the same emotions fire in his brain as I do. Everyone is unique in that way, but I want him to feel that community spirit and maybe, just maybe, have him feel what his daddy feels and has devoted a major part of his life to.

Hup, hup. little buttercup. I’m proud of you and the little man you've become.

A few weeks ago I was asked to do an interview with Competitor Network Magzine…e.g., the same folks who bring you VeloNews.com. They asked about the blog, the state of cross and why it’s such an awesome sport for the working set. The article is available in their freely distributed magazine but I’ve inserted it below for a quick read.

Photo by non other than Mr. Rob O'Dea!

I am not sure what age I am anymore. I do not know of old, or young. I only know of weak or strong. Every day I push. The pain searing through my clavicle and the fear I have that it will never be strong again pales in comparison to the drive I have to ensure that the life savings I am burning through every day to create our new business is successful.

Weak or strong.

Bring it. Just bring it all. Given all these challenges in my life (and I say that with the absolute realization that these challenges are mostly self inflicted...I am inspired by those with REAL challenges. But alas, these are mine...), I see so clearly why we 'cross. It's simply the hardest possible set of challenges you can put yourself through on any given Sunday. It's an interesting thing in that there is no respite from the chaos of life when you suit up, pin a number on, dial in tire pressure and line up with your friends...all of whom have the same challenges Monday through Friday. I don't golf for this very reason. I do flog myself for this very reason, however.

I'm not the fastest.

I am not the skinniest.

I am not the strongest.

But if you find yourself in front of me, you better not make any mistakes. I will stalk you. I will overtake you. I will not let you out of my clenched teeth. I will get up when I've fallen. I will not stop.

I will heal. I will continue to push on my business. I will continue to balance my life and ensure all sides get all of me. I will push myself back up now that I am face down in the mud.

Bring it.

Amazing photo by our Portland frineds at PDXCross.com

I had a really great time talking 'cross and all the new rule changes occurring recently due to UCI changes allowing disc brakes, limiting tire size, allowing hand-ups, etc. Sean Mellor was kind enough to have me back and we talked for 15 minutes. I chopped my section of the pod cast for you to listen to below, or hear the entire 70 minute podcast here (launch the June 22nd 2010 file).

Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

NEW MEMBER INFORMATIONAL MEETING and Q & A SESSION!

WHEN: June 28th at 7:15pm
WHERE: our North Boulder location at 4580 Broadway

BEGINNERS, FIRST TIMERS AND NEWBIES READ THIS! We will teach you everything you need to know about cyclocross and how to survive your first race. Our goal is to grow the sport of cyclocross and teach first timers how much fun and exciting cyclocross can be. DO NOT BE INDIMIATED! WE WILL TEACH YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW.

C/mon! You know this is going to bw YOUR season to try 'cross! see more info here but we'll plan on seeing you on the 28th at BCS!

Day 6 and a beautiful bronze rainbow is beginning to appear up and down my shoulder. I see the main doc tomorrow to understand where this thing is at. To decide if I need some hardware in there to make these two pieces stay straight or if nature is going to put them back together "good enough for government work".

Sleeping has been tough. I will go for a block of an hour or so, then wake with shooting pain. I re-adjust myself and I'm back to Zzzz's. The toughest part is staying on my back all night as I am a serial 'stomach-sleeper'. Waking up in the AM, the clavicle has 'bonded' a bit you can tell because within a few moves to get out of bed, you can feel it tear a little bit and feel the "chicken bones' start to rattle and rub.

But beyond all this day to day stuff, I've noticed something cool. It's obvious and probably the most "painful" yet. Each day I leave the house through my garage and I instinctively go past my bikes. The Ridley I crashed on that morning hangs, its chain still off the rings. But I walk over and spin the wheel and hear the pawls catch. Click click click click. The obvious thing I notice is how much I miss riding. The delirium tremens of my withdrawls are certainly present. It's hard for me to hear "oh, this will probably be a great 'rest' for you." Please. We all know that life is better when you feel yourself ripping singletrack and flowing. Not the lack of it.

I'll continue to heal and will not be doing anything stupid to rush out and get back on a bike and fall off again only to re-implode this clavicle. I'm just stating for the record how beautiful riding is and how I miss it so. I highly suggest that if you read this and you are about to go on a 'training' ride to try this: Just leave the SRM on your work bench, clip in, and just ride. Go hard if you want or go slow and just spin. Leave your plan alone for the day and just ride and attempt to look around and smile.

I never want this sport to leave me. I never want to leave this sport.

OK, Day 3. Next week I get to understand if the Chief of Orthopedic Surgery wants to put some hardware in to help me heal. We'll see. Hip bone has a wee little piece floating around too. But it'll re-bind itself.

Honestly, I'm ready to push forward. I refuse to let this thing stop me...yet not with an idiotic eye towards getting on my bike sooner. I want to heal and get some sense of control back. I want to be able to raise both my hands above my head on Investor Day on August 5th...the culmination of TechStars which my partner and I have been working so hard for these past few months building our biz.

Funny days, these. Never to be forgotten. The Universe is prescribing my focus for me and I am indebted.

I put my t-shirt on all by myself today.

Progress.

And so, I guess it had to be my time. So many years of bike racing...and crashes...I'll admit I've been pretty lucky.

Today, not so much.

Front tire wash out and no time to even put a hand out. just my head and shoulder impacting with terra firma so quickly, it was incredible. Simply put: I crashed, when I impacted I heard it snap and that was that.

More importantly were my friends who helped my get to the hospital, with Joe's incredibly gracious wife waking up their kids on an early Wednesday morning (they were closest) to bring me to my wife and then on to the hospital. THANK YOU.

So. now what? Well, just move on. It is what it is, it hurts and that's that. I've got work to do and business to build and a family that needs a fun daddy. So, I'll heal. 'Cross? She'll be there for me too. I know it. Yet another reason for her pull as my anchor.

Don't count me out.

It's coming. The sport that keeps me alive and motivated is coming and I'm not prepared...not even prepared to 'get' prepared. Too much floating around in life these days. Too much of everything....and yet I day dream of it. Arms up, flowing fast, smooth, free. I'm fit and flying in these day dreams. Age means nothing. I just accept the pain and I am driving.

Each year I hurl the anchor forward. I can feel its weight as I wind up and throw it in front of me. Allowing it to land and settle into the dirt. The anchor marks a point in the calendar year and gives me something to use all my strength to pull against and drag myself, and my often waning motivation, towards it.

Cross is the point of the year that keeps me moving forward. It is what I think about when I am knee deep in problem solving for work, stressed to the core, or when I need to find solace in my health. I know that 'just being there' at a race, with any training in my legs or not, that I've made it...again. It helped me stay alive through the year and gives me focus when it seems everything is blowing up around me.

This is season 14. Amazing. Each year after my first year I hurled the anchor forward in anticipation of the leaves changing and the temperatures dropping. I did this before my wife and I met. Before my children were born. Before I had any 'real' responsibilities and yet the exercise of dropping anchor on a place in the calendar continues to pulls me through year after year.

3 months.

 (photo by Joe Sales)