I guess I’m going up to Iowa City and race the Jingle Cross this weekend. I’ve been going there since 2005, and have only missed the race once, a couple years ago, when I was roofing the building. It’s a Friday night race, then two afternoon cross races. All UCI races.

The courses at Jingle Cross are great. Recently it has been pretty wet, thus pretty difficult cyclo-x conditions. The forecast is for precipitation this weekend too. There is a pretty good climb, Mt. Krumpet, on the course and the course goes to the top of it each day, changing directions, but still hard. The descent can be treacherous. The crowds at Jingle Cross are super knowledgeable. Probably because many of the spectators of the Elite event have already raced during the day.

I wrote, I guess above, because I’m having a hard time working up any type of motivation for the weekend. Since the UCI has made the bullshit rule that competitors of the Master’s Worlds can’t have any UCI points, the best I can finish in the C2 races is 11th and 16th in the C1. As of last night, there were 17 guys entered in the Elite race. So, on Sunday, I’m going to have to finish nearly last to “keep my eligiblity” to race a Master’s race. Seems like the eligibility would be age, but I must be missing some vital information.

I’d had a lot of fun over the years at Jingle Cross. The first year I went, it was held at the University of Iowa cross country running course. Super wide open, flat, with a couple deviations into the woods. Jason McCartney, Radio Shack, but from Discovery back then, was the local superstar. Jason is from Coralville, virtually connected to Iowa City. I’ve known Jason since he started racing. I asked Jason if he needed/wanted to win the race and he said no, we should just race. He was riding red Tufos with 80 psi pressure. I got him to let some air out of his tires, but I’d guess he still had 50 psi at the start. Jason wasn’t too good at cross, so I won pretty handily. It was $1000 back then to win. Pretty incredible for a cross race. John Meehan has always been a riders promoter, probably because he races bikes at a high level himself.

Since Jason, Chris Horner came the next few years. Along with Todd Wells, Bjorn Selander, Doug Swanson and lots of the other midwest superstars. It is so good having the midwest guys hold their own with the national level riders.

I was looking for photos of the Jingle Cross’ of past and realized that lots of my favorite photos of the sport occur at cross races. Cyclo-X is a super photogenic sport. The riders come by often and the conditions sometime make for some really interesting shots.

As I write this, I’m starting to get a little more excited about going. There are lots of things that are going to be fun to do at this race. We usually stay right in downtown Iowa City, connected to the University. The downtown has a ton of energy, like most college towns. Plus, there is a race party on Saturday night that is great.

I’ve had this tooth problem for the past week and it has gotten a lot worse. I tried to get to the dentist today, but I haven’t had any luck getting past the receptionist. If I could just talk to my dentist, I’d be in instantly, the problem is getting past the front desk. I have an appointment for Wednesday morning, but am probably going to camp out there for the rest of the day today. It is cold and raining, plus I really haven’t slept much the last 3 nights.

Anyway, if you don’t have any plans for the weekend and you’re anywhere near the midwest, you should try to make your way over/up to Iowa City. Even if you just want to watch some good bike racing. The Elite field isn’t deep, but it is stacked.

This video of Jingle Cross from a couple years ago has almost 1,500,000 views, I have no idea why. I’d separated my shoulder the day before, so I had to push my bike and not carry it. Not a good day for that predicament.

This is one of my favorite cyclo-x photos taken at one of the Jingle Cross races.

Todd Wells leading up the short runup . I'm in 2nd with Chris Horner behind me.

Doug Swanson, Chris Horner, John Meehan (promoter) and me.

The start of the first Jingle Cross I did, back in 2005, I think. Jason McCartney riding for Discovery on his red Tufos.

It wasn’t quite 5 hours, but close. I finally went to the dentist and camped out in the reception office. I had an appointment for today at 10am, but since I had hardly slept an hour the night before, they was no better use of my time. I sat in the reception for 20 minutes or so and when they took me back, they were totally prepared to do a root canal.

Actually it was 3 root canals on one tooth. I didn’t understand teeth as well as I thought I did. I didn’t know that teeth can bleed. They can. I’ll spare you the gory details of the whole day, but it took a while.

I’m pretty good at the dentist. I have the best dentist in the world. That is the truth. I’ve been to a lot of different dentists in my life and my guy, Dr. Greg Johnson, is so much better than any of the others, it isn’t even fair to compare. I’m not sure you realize you have such a good dentist unless you experience it. The small things are so important. And obviously the big things too. I’ve been going to him for over 20 years and am so lucky to have him around.

That being said, I find it interesting how draining the experience is. Like I said above, I’m okay with the dentist. But, I still found it interesting that I’d be in the chair and notice that my hands were clenched. I had to make a conscious effort to relax my arms and hands. I don’t think I did such a good job with the rest of my body though. I went out for a 1 1/2 ride late in the afternoon and was waxed. Same thing this morning. I feel like I got hit by a truck.

I’m hoping that the tooth problem was the cause of me feeling badly the last 3 weeks. I’ve been bad since being in California, sore throat, etc. I felt remarkably better yesterday, but am zonked today. I’ll probably need a few days.

Seems like a lot of people are off this afternoon, so were meeting up at 1 to ride. It is supposed to be in the lower 60’s, so that should be nice. But when it is that warm now, it is also super windy, upper 20’s-30. It’s good for training hard, but bad for me. I’d like to ride 3-4 hours easy, sitting on. But, that isn’t going to happen. After daylight savings time ends, the fitness level of our group tends to drop a level, which is very understandable.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday. No glitz or advertising, just getting together with friends and eating good food and talking. It going to be warm again tomorrow, so I’m sure we’ll do an organized ride too. Then Jingle Cross.

Everything was laid out waiting when I got to the back.

This photo is hanging in the bathroom in the office. I found it funny because even though they just did a complete remodel of the office and everything is state of the art, dental offices in general just look archaic and primitive.

Spy photo of Dr. Johnson working on me.