For those of you who are just DYING to know what Colorado racing is like. Behold the luster and grandeur of racing on the dirt....in the rain. Epic. GREAT photos of the DBC Events Cateye Road Race though by "D Moynihan":

Ah, the Koppenberg. Not the epic cobbled climb of some of the most famous Belgian one day classics....but a slab of crappy dirt road in lovely Superior CO. That's right! The one by the Target strip mall!

The Koppenberg Circuit Race , put on by Boulder Racing, is this coming weekend. The race goes something like this:

a) Line up.
b) Gun goes off
c) 90 dudes tear ass onto dirt roads after about 100 feet of perfectly good pavement.
d) 1/4 mile later you are elbowing to get into one of the top 15 positions funnelling into the Kopp Climb. Line selection up the world's crappiest 125 foot dirt road is key. Choose wrong and you're humped and hiking it with all those other dudes scrambling to get up the first lap.
e) Assuming step d) was successful, put out 1200 + watts on the climb and get heart rate up to, oh say, 185 bpm.
f) Crest the 150 foot climb with your intestines coming out of your butt and your heart coming out of your throat. Recover? Hell now. Dig infinitely deeper and get on the rivets to gun it and get the gap and get a group going.
g) Repeat steps a-f 6.5 to 8.5 times depending upon your category.

Oh and if you are not in the top 15 in step d), go for a ride around lovely Boulder. Your day is over.
This is by every definition a cyclocross sans barriers.

We should have a good showing this weekend. Not sure if I am in 3's or 35 A's. Probably 3's as we need to get Longman to the line and protect his winning streak. I should be racing so this will be fun with the boys. The training's semi-there but nothing super sharp. I know where I am though which is cool. Last year we got Corey to the line. Can't say that we all played some huge role escorting him around the course. Corey was on another level that day....his breakthrough race if there was one before upgrading to 1-2.

The rains are coming again Friday too which will make this interesting. Frankly, I'd rather ride my cross bike on this sheeit than dirty up my road bike.

GOD I sound like a wuss. I must be getting old and crotchety.

I am 6'2" and have some pretty big quads from racing for quite a few years. All back patting aside, I am a 98 pound weekling wuss next to MAGNUS (he should always capitalize his name going forward as it is the raddest name ever). Maggie Backstedt's cannons are gi-fricken-normous. Unbelievable. If donated, he could feed a populous of a small nation for at least a week. Or maybe a long weekend.

One of our RM'ers Scottie W is over in Belgium at the Cycling Center. MAGNUS is spending time there while he reccies the pave' before the classic week comes full on. Some words about the meeting from Scottie:

"By far, the coolest experience so far in Belgium was going to France with Paris Roubaix winner Magnus Backstedt. He is staying with us for about a week as his base for all of his reconnaissance rides he is doing for the Paris Roubaix race in April. Yesterday I went with him and 3 other CC riders to preview some critical cobbled sections of this year’s race, most notably the Forest of Arenberg. It is fair to say that just riding the Forest of Arenberg is a dream of any cyclist, but doing so with somebody who has won the “Hell of the North” was nothing short of amazing. The four of us were like kids in a candy store riding up and down 2 of the most famous kilometers is cycling until our hands were full of blisters and our legs wouldn’t turn anymore.

Having the opportunity to live with Magnus has taught me more than I could’ve imagined. He is without a doubt one of the most down to earth and personable professionals that I have ever met and several times I found that I have forgotten that I’m talking to the most talented cyclists in the world. It is motivating watching someone that committed to his job, down to every detail. Tomorrow, I’m cued up for my bike fit, so I’m sure to be sitting a little differently on the bike tomorrow night. Until my next rest day…"

I am an admitted geek and slave to fashion. The white is too good. Had to true-up my overwhelming Sidi collection with the 07 Dragon's for this coming CX season (can't ever be too early, girls). I rocked these last year and 'dem shitis dope, yo.' Translation: the white makes you go faster or so you can tell yourself. Bought that sheeit online from a store in Germany. where i got 'em last year. Not a bad price, either. No, you sluts. I am not telling you which store. Ha!

The weather blows but I am gonna throw fenders and a plastic cape on tomorrow and have some fun for a few hours. Lots of craziness in my life looming. Best to just put the head down and go forward in the rain. The thoughts will be there so I won't notice the cold. I can't deal with who'll be in my way. You'll just have to get run over as the spaces between my synapses are so thin, everything is firing at once these days. The sleep is bad and twitchy. F-ing Mol. How many months? Mol appears then disappears over my bow with every surge the waves coming in trying to sink me.

Whoa. White shoes to life waves trying to sink me. Transcending man. Whoa. I will now stop working aand being a total shit doink and go pop open a 1554 so I can chill the F out.

It's Friday.

My lady is on the Left Coast with her fam and I am wrangling the boys Thursday to Sunday. Let's just say that while I consider my self a great dad, my wife's job is thankless. It's akin to riding into the wind all day with rain blowing sideways, never getting a break until those guys chill out. We refuse to put them in front of the dumb box though as I don't want them retarded or salivating over McDonald's commercials.

So since I am on a 'day off', I dropped the kids off at school and head out for a quick and very low impact ride. "Ding ding ding ding ding" <-- that's the T-Mobile cell phone ring tone....you knowhati'mtalkinabout). "Mr. K, ah, your little guy has a fairly giant sized poop and we are not allowed to change it due to regulations. You need to come back" Genius. 5 minutes the kid is there and his plumbing leaks. Joy.

The non-racing weekend for me ended up being great. 3 1/2 hours on the 1 x 1 looping Hall was absolutely what the body needed. OK, maybe not needed but the grins were there while turning the 32 x 16...sort of like Chris Horner grins in a poker face sort of way no matter if he's soft pedaling or winning stages in the T d Suisse.

Sunday my wife and I rolled for 3. She is a capital 'A' animal. The gears she turns are stupid. Retarded big. "Honey, you're in the 53 14. Knock it back." Wife: "Oh, shoot, sorry."

Lunchtime ride today with my office mate down in Littleton on the paths. Brought out the new Rock Lobster and it is so dialed. When's cross. Where's Mol?

Horner pic courtesy of Roadcycling.com

Our boy did it. Got himself a contract for 2 years with Sunweb-Projob. I'm still confused by the whole Mario De Clercq relationship (friend/coach/mentor) as he is still shadowed by the same drug allegations that brought down The Lion of Flanders.

I am an armchair DS though and just happy that the boy's got some cash flow....and can get on with having their 2nd kid with some level of financial comfort. How these 'cross pros do it, I dunno. There is zero money (beyond Nijs).

Traveling all week on biz, then coming back and doing a 1x1 ride in mud yesterday (trying to 'catch up' of course...) would drain any hard man. Rolled with Dave today who wanted to roll easy. We did a little 36/left hand/Back lee hill jaunt.

Brought the camera today to screw around. Went no handed at speed to do the self portrait. Stupid. Got the new Decibel though so my brain will be in tact if I touch the tarmac.

Racing this weekend? Probably not. The fam needs me and I them so we'll do some fun stuff. Gonna ride fat tires to ensure maximum grin which is exactly what I need to bring the stress scores down down down.

Colbert and Armstrong. Sorry for the weak post but this is funny...

The weather has been great. Yesterday was epic with a capital "E". Races going off at Stazio but a core group is still slogging out some training miles. Bobby, The "WB", Longman, JFry, Maas, Boups and I did Carter at mach speed. Race simulation for sure. Constant attacks and it was all smiles. With all the attacking and climbing we did over 7o miles, I still felt fairly fresh at the end....probably as my curfew was quickly coming and my lady needed a break from the kids. Longman AGAIN you impressed. You're teh protected one mate at our first race.

Home, quick shower and change, the kids of course wanted to go ride bikes. Billions of kids crawling around. This 'hood is killer. More crappy video: