Cat 3 for Life.com

They are hoping to put out some t-shirts and assorted goods with the design in the near future. I can’t wait to see them out in the wild.

Geoff Casey (previously of Baron Bicycles) left our beautiful and sunny city for his dream job down in Santa Cruz last year. He is certainly missed by many. At the very least, I’ll always remember the smell of his coffee and bacon at our local cyclocross races.

At this last year’s Single Speed Cyclocross World Championship in San Francisco, I got a chance to meet up with Geoff again for old time’s sake.

He approached me about a design for a line of apparel and various other products. They wanted the look to be an older style union badge. It should feel like it could be stamped on the side of a wooden crate or cardboard box and not feel out of place. I think we got them there.

I’ve pushed a lot of my limits over the last couple of years, professionally and physically. I often wondered if it was out of a sense of adventure or just a sheer stubbornness and refusal to give in. It is probably a bit of both.

Bill Strickland’s latest piece sums things up pretty well.

There are always other riders who possess those qualities in greater degrees, or sometimes a rider who is all three at once. Yet, those riders don’t express any surprise when I stay with them, or force a move, or bring back a break, or even when I know a great road when we’re six counties from home. I only hear about something when I can’t do one of those things. I’ve become completely ordinary. And that’s pretty amazing.

The talented people in my life continually inspire me to ride faster, perfect technique, code cleaner and push my craft forward. I can’t thank all of the people in my life enough for this. I wouldn’t be half of what I am without you.

This cross season has been amazing. I can barely keep on top of it, but it’s dragging me right along anyways. Soft Like Kitten went from nothing to a serious stamp on Seattle’s cyclocross scene. This has been in large part due to everyone just being awesome, fun and not giving a shit.

Jane scored us some last minute sponsorship with Fremont Brewing, so we’ve had hydration covered along the way.  Dylan picked up a tent for us and Chris is in the process of getting it painted. Everyone has been really great about trading off duties to make sure we have a spot at every race. It’s a big time commitment, and I really appreciate the support.

It has brought a tear to my eye to see so much pink in almost every field.

This season I decided to move from Cat 4 to the Single Speed field. I was already racing on a single speed anyways, so it wasn’t a huge leap in logic. I’ve basically ended up in roughly the same position at the finish line as I did last season, but with a much tougher field overall. I’d like to think that if I did a Cat 4 race now, I’d do pretty well. I’ve considered doing two races on one day, but haven’t taken the plunge yet.

I came into the first couple of races with my legs already whipped from Paris Brest Paris. Distance riding had really taken it’s toll on any explosiveness I might have gained from all of the Cross Club practice. I don’t regret any of it, obviously, but I might focus a little bit more on my training for next season. I doubt I’ll get extremely serious about it, but I’d like to be mid-pack at some point in my life.

For some reason, this time last season I was a little bit glad that things were wrapping up. Racing had taken quite a toll on me mentally and physically. This year, I am really disappointed that it’s almost gone. We’ve got about 3 more weekends of racing to go, not including some of the one off ones. I’d love to get some sort of weekly races going post-season. I’m not sure what all it would take to make that happen.

What’s next? Who the heck knows. Let’s just keep on rolling.

I’m half surprised that I’ve remained committed to this blog.  It started off as a way to get art up and a reason to keep the website updated. It’s become much more personal over the years. I’m doing this for me.

After our little bicycle trip through France, we spent the next few weeks at our temporary apartment in Paris. There was a little trip to Antwerp, Iceland and a whole lot of tourist sightseeing to be done in Paris. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking. Let’s just say that it was a trip of a lifetime.

We got back into Seattle right in the middle of an Indian summer.The first official (not including Labor Day) cyclocross race of the season was held in a giant, fast, dust-bowl of a course. I flatted out midway through my second lap. I was feeling pretty good, but it didn’t really matter. It was good to be home again.

We spent 3 days at work and then got right back on a plane to Honolulu. Jane’s wonderful father had passed away while retired in the Philippines. It was wonderful to see that side of the family again. It’s been about 4 years and all of the kids are getting so big. We are committed to getting out there more often. I mean… it is Hawaii after all. The obvious downside to that is the fact that it costs so damn much to buy the plane tickets.

After the funeral service and a ridiculous amount of delicious Phillipino food, we took a red-eye flight back to Seattle. Our flight got in at 10am and I made it out to Starcrossed to race at 1:30pm. I’ve got some problems… I raced again on Sunday.

I probably need to start catching up on my sleep soon.