CrossVegas and Interbike, two ways to get completely overwhelmed.

Welcome to ‘cross season 2009. Sorta like ‘cross season 2008, with a few important changes:
- Ben and I sorta know what we’re doing now. Sorta.
- I have a cute new rain hat.
- Gore cables should rescue us from the weekly cable nightmares.
- I’m really, really not invested in this.

OK, so I’m a little invested, but I’m so burned out from my own darn adventures in the last few weeks that it’s hard to get excited. I’m sort of schlepping myself from place to place, short on sleep and missing our dog. This doesn’t have the anticipation of 2008. It just… is.

So, I basically woke up from the week of family and trail in Northern Wisconsin and BAM! On the flight to Vegas.

Interbike is what it is. It’s not for people like me- dorky consumers- it’s really just to convince retailers to sell the 2010 wares and get to know them better. I used to really get into the minutia- who’s selling what, the hot new item, the little tech gadget- but not much really interested me this year. I have bikes. They go forward (usually) and serve their purposes well. I don’t know that getting the 2010 version, or the new upgrade, or the hot new anodized color is going to help anyone at all. I’m just not a very good bike consumer anymore. So visiting the show is sort of numbing. I wish it was all simpler.

Cross Vegas is the biggest cx race in the USA, but from a pit perspective, pretty dang boring. The chances of a mechanical are super slim. You can’t drink in the pit, and you can’t see much of the race, either. Sure, there are lots of fancy pants fast people with their big support crews but whatever, they rarely talk with me anyway. When Brian Matter asked me to take his bike down to the pit, I jumped on the opportunity to have my good friend Spud work for him and be my pit buddy.

So, really, my Cross Vegas story is more of a spectator’s tale. When the guys started, I stood there counting and waiting for Ben to come by. And counting, and counting. I didn’t see him. Either I’d missed him, or he missed the start. Damn new kits. It was really hard to pick him out of the pack in that black and white.

Next time I picked him out in 40 or so. Then 38, then 35. He was moving up well. The crowd at the barriers was loud n’ rowdy, and when I heard the plastic crunchy sound of someone hitting the barriers, they all shouted an “ooooooo.” Next time around, I looked for Ben in his group. He wasn’t there. I counted 11 riders back and he finally came by, pointed at his head, and asked me “Am I bleeding?”

“No.”

He didn’t even pause, just kept riding. That’s when I figured out the crash was him. It cost him 11 places and he was dangling somewhere near 50. Bike held up though, and there was no work for me, but thankfully Spud was there and we had a mighty fine time of it anyway. Some of the Mavic neutral guys I knew from the USAC clinic, so we giggled a little. But that's about it.

After the race, Powers was supposed to be DJ'ing at a party hosted by Rapha, so we piled into cabs and rolled over to what has to be the awesomest little space in Vegas. The party was pretty chill, and by the time Powers showed up they only let him spin a few songs before the hotel decided it was getting too loud. Bummer. I got to gab with him for a spell though and made a complete fool of my 4-drinks-in self, but got some useful advice and learned he's one hell of a nice guy.

This season's going to be hard, though. It's clear that there are 2-3 separate groups in the UCI fields, just as there were last year, and as much as Ben was hoping to move up one group, these pros just don't make it very possible for a 9 to 5'er.