It has been snowing in Colorado for over a day now.  Up in the mountains, it is dumping.  Now down in Denver it doesn’t seem that bad, but the guys at the airport must have gotten behind.  All the flights are way delayed.  Southwest sent me a text saying my flight was 4 hours delayed and I could change it for no extra charge.

So, I am flying tomorrow.  I was supposed to fly to Chicago today and then drive back towards Kansas tomorrow.  Now I’m off a day.  It’s fine I guess.

Have you seen some of the video footage from Cyclocross Nationals in Hartford?  That is crazy.  I’m not sure why each year cyclocross nationals get super unlucky with weather?  And I’m not sure why the guys running the race can’t make course adjustments to allow the riders to compete fairly.  I saw a post on Facebook from Mark McCormick that said something like you shouldn’t have to know how to sled (slide on your ass) to race cyclocross.  That isn’t really even close to what he said, but it gets across the general topic matter.

The course looks way too severe, like  up and down, plus too slick, to race.  Especially for these early week events that the riders aren’t so adapted to these conditions.  Maybe no one would be good at these conditions.  I’m not there, so I can’t really tell how horrible it is.   But, from some of the videos that people are posting, it looks terrible.  You can click here to see some of the “fun” the past couple days there.

Okay, I’m going to go shovel snow for a bit.  That is my exercise of choice today.  Not really my choice, but I do like it sometimes.

Vincent’s back porch this morning.

Nic being an exhibitionist/bed hog last night.

This is a photo from two days ago when there was still some grass for traction. It is much worse now.

I was looking around the internet last night and saw this interview, by Neal Rogers, at Cyclingtips, with John Tomac.    I guess Neal did the interview last year at Ned and Todd’s Gran Fondo in Durango.  I went there and rode and talked to Johnny T. a little.  I hadn’t seen him in a long time and he hadn’t really changed at all, which is great.

The interview is pretty good.  John was always modest and talked more with his legs than his mouth.  And, in my opinion, he did that better than any rider I had the pleasure to race with. Sure there are some other guys who might compare with John, but when you throw both cross country racing and downhill together, he’s my pick.

I raced with John pretty much throughout his career.  I rarely beat him ever.  I beat him in a few Specialized Cactus Cup Fatboy races, but that was riding a tight criterium on mountain bikes. Off-road, he would kick my ass.  Especially if it had a technical downhill on the course.

I thought I was going to beat him at the Olympic Trials in Atlanta, in 1996, gaining a minute on him the on the first part of the last lap, but then it got to a big technical rock section and he rode away, leaving me to finish 2nd.

Anyway, John was, by far the best downhill rider of that time period.  By far.  If they wouldn’t have let any rider pre-ride a course and everyone just went down it once, first time, John would have won all the races.  Plus, John was racing the cross country races before the downhill usually.

At the World’s in Italy, Johnny T. had the first XTR setup I’d ever seen.  And I was riding for Shimano too.  I might be wrong, but I think it went from a 28 big cog in the back to 32.  Those 4 teeth allowed him to ride the steep walking section.  I remember seeing the race on TV afterward and at the start, there was a huge pack of 150 guys climbing, with Johnny T. already a 100 meters ahead by himself.  He won the World Championships handily that year.

Last year, in Durango, I was at the start of the ride and lined up next to John.  He looked over at my bike, which was an Eriksen.  It was 9 speed XTR, hardtail.  John looked over and saw my barends and said, “Barends, I need to get me some of those”.    He nearly always rode what he thought made sense and made him faster.

Anyway, if you have some time and want to learn a little about him, click the link above.   It is a good interview.

Photo, by my friend, Tom Moran.  The photographer of the first era of modern day MTB racing.