Taylor's Falls & Milaca

This past weekend's CX races were in Taylor's Falls on Saturday and Milaca on Sunday. Both days were beautiful weather-wise and both races were fun.

TAYLOR'S FALLS

Saturday's race: Got out with the lead group at the start and then settled into 7th place. Was able to keep up the pace for 2 solid laps before I got passed by 3 riders. Roadies are way too fast on the flats but have zero bike handling skills. Ended up passing a guy that flatted and another guy that crashed in front of me. Very fast laps. The winner was a Category 1 single-speeder. I finished 8th overall. Good news was the free PBR waiting for me at the end of the race.

MILACA

Sunday's race brought out our St. Cloud friends - Mondloch, Newman, Mike & Charlie all rode with me while Mia, Ani, Mollie and Holly handed us water bottles throughout the race. It was a well-laid out course with varying terrain. Couldn't hold off the feather-weight roadies again... got 5th place. Vegetarian hot dogs were at the end (aka ketchup on a bun).

5 Months

Ani is 5 months old now - here are some recent pictures of her just enjoying life.... (except for the one of her 1st swing experience on the playground today!)

Gotta love the baby Smart Wools!

This was the 1st time I fed her rice cereal - talk about messy.

Halloween Bunny

Happy Halloween!

Moms & Babies from our childbirth prep class: Robin & Colette, Kara & Selah, Kelsey & Tate, Kelley & Shannon, Mia & Ani

Cold Snow Wind Rain

Can you say COLD SNOW RAIN WIND... I think there were other 4 letter words uttered like pain and hurt but it was an awesome course at Green Acres tubing hill in Lake Elmo. The course included a sand crossing, epic hill climb, fast descents, muddy switchbacks and a great bunch of spectators to brave the 37 degree 58 MPH winds. There were 35 men in the cat 4 race poised to push each other to their limits. The race started by sending the group to the first climb of the day. I was caught behind a group that quickly dismounted and slowed the pace. I managed to weave my way through the bunch and made my up the lung busting hill. With my heart rate maxed out I settled in to ride with the lead group. Too many over achievers in the group and 3 riders got away after the first set of barriers.

I remained on the hunt the entire race hoping my mountain bike skills would help me catch the roadies that broke away early. I had one slight mishap when a rider went down in the sand crossing directly in front of me and tested my bike handling skills. I cleared the sand section without hitting a fellow rider and keeping myself up right. The near accident gave me a rush of adrenaline that enabled me to actually stay on the bike for the next accent(I ran up the hill 2 of 5 laps).

With the help of the cowbell crew (more cow) and my mother handing off water bottles to me each lap I finished 7th overall. Mark representing the House of Pizza improved from the previous day to finish a respectable 12th place. Still no sign of Ray........ there must have been a warm pot of coffee and gooey pastries nearby.

Beard Contest

Who's beard is better? http://checkoutmybeard.blogspot.com

Afton CX

Monte raced cyclo-cross at Afton on Saturday and his parents were up for the weekend as well. It was a sunny but cold autumn day. Hagen's came out to show their support too. This climb looked pretty grueling! Monte took 10th place on his class and Mondloch took 16th. 

The Wrong Way

Monte competed in a cyclo-cross race held at the Devil's Glen Park in Bettendorf, IA on Sunday. My parents came and thoroughly enjoyed watching Monte jump over hurdles with his bike. They had never seen anything like it before. Anyway, there were maybe 20-25 participants in the race. Monte started off great, he was right up front... then all of a sudden we hear "Wrong way! You're going the wrong way!" Yep - Monte veered off-course in a poorly marked area, therefore losing his nice lead. Needless to say, this really irked him and gave him plenty of motivation and adrenaline to catch up with the leaders....

And catch up he did! Most exciting race I've seen him do so far - by the time the last lap came around, he had shortened the gap between himself and the leader, Will, by only 10 seconds. Everyone was going nuts. And in the course of that last lap, Monte passed Will on the running-up-hill-with-your-bike part and never looked back! He won - even though he lost time and went off-course at the beginning!

Will was a cool guy - he and Monte shook hands after the race and Will said he just "bonked" on that last lap. And I think he was surprised to hear that Monte was the guy who had gone off-course... and still won! (yes, I'm proud)