NATZ!

So every local roadie over the age of 30 is justifying the large lot of time and money they spend away from their families by trying to win races against other accountants, dentists, doctors and lawyers within a 5 year age span (oh the drama!). While I am happy an event of this caliber is taking place in my fair city, it ranks up their with the 2010 Equestrian games as far as my level of enthusiasm is concerned.

However...

Not one to miss an opportunity to get a set of stars and stripes by beating 5 other guys in a race, (I have come to understand, in the local cycling community, the more "National Championships" you win, the bigger jerkoff youre allowed to be. The rewards come quick too, I can beat up children after only 3 titles. I can't wait.), we are entering the Tandem Unicycle road race. Word on the street there are a couple circus bears that are hungry (so to speak) for the win and are heavy favorites. They sleep at altitude for 6 months of the year, so they will be, uh hem, animals. The bears seem to be our only real competition so far. Scouting reports have come back with this shot of the only other team that will be lining up.



I think we can take em. We also might line the course with salmon related snacks that will hopefully distract the bears long enough for us to build a big gap and give them a little stitch in their sides. If the race goes well, the downtown hotspot "The Connection" will be sponsoring us in this event in the future. Wish us luck.

Get my motor runnin

So the Suzuki has been legal for almost a week now and man, it's awesome. Taking a bit of time to get used to; being an old bike, it's quirky and my motorcycling skills are on par with Rowbear's mountain bike skills. Also, I have to keep a stick mounted on it to beat the ladies back, now I know how the Beatles and Elvis felt. Yup, cruzin around, I'm feelin about like this...



But in reality, I know it's more like this...




And you know how you go to an event and have to park like 10 miles away just to see some jerkstore on a motorcycle pull up and make up some choice spot right at ground zero? Lets just say...



It's OK, you can get me back when you see me caught in that pop-up thunderstorm.

You've got it all wrong

It's not that I am too proud to ask for directions, it's that i feel someone who's career path has taken them to the heights of gas station cashier are dubiously qualified to dispense travel routes. Yes they work at a place that is a keystone for the traveler, but just because you provide the fuel for motorists doesn't mean, well lets just say, would you ask the cashier at McDonalds how long to cook a roast? Take your next 3 rights, I'll see ya there.

England Idlewild; hot, tight and damp

The title pretty much sums it up, but I love talking about things that involve me and you love reading it, so here's more.

Luckily the heat had let up a bit from previous days because despite only being in the low 80's, it felt like a broiler. Had it been warmer, it would have been a death-march. Laps were not super fast, about 40-ish minutes each and I felt each minute.

Weird little set of trails they got up there in Northern KY; tight single, northshore stunts and lots o roots. It was hard to get into rhythm with all the wash-out and roots. After sliding out in a corner, Ben ditched me and I was more than happy to just ride in second, I was feelin tired and just tried to roll a steady pace. Feeling a bit better by the last lap, Ben was sufferin and I caught him in the last few miles, just before he flatted. I didn't realize he had a mechanical so I kept pounding and rolled in for the win.

Anyway, the folks put on a great race; lots of food, great prizes and it's always good to see my Cinti peeps. Lookin forward to racing Cherokee this weekend. 8 or 9 years ago, who woulda thought that could ever happen.

I'm tired now, nothin else to say.

right place at the right time

fate smiled on me last night on the Tuesday night world ride in lex-town

we were doing a two lap race with an intermediate sprint. Coming around for the first lap everyone started making an echelon that started on the left side of the road, I was on the right so I was totally open. I went and I guess it was early cause only one guy went with me, he came around right at the line so he probably got me but it was close. Anyway, that wasn't the fortunate thing, about a mile later I was still up front with a few seconds all of a sudden I hear someone yell "slowing" and then I hear mass braking, scraping and thuds, I looked over my shoulder to see the pile up about 20 yrds behind me.

Something like 10 people involved, most got away okay except for Greg, he broke his collar-bone. I was lucky to be up front at the time, the rest of the ride I had been sitting on in the middle somewhere. I'm not sure what caused it since we were on a straight stretch of road, someone said it was this one dudes fault because he started braking for no reason, the guy he was talking about is the same dude that I saw sitting on the side of the road last week because he wadded it while riding with two other people, the guy seems pretty mouthy on the group rides. I'm definitely going to try to stay away from his back wheel in the future.

It sure is a good idea to stay up front, especially if you're just out for a work-out (like me) and not actually trying to win the race, unless there is an easy opportunity for it. I'd rather get in a good break than sprinting for 50 yards

Best pictures ever

An unusual break from the pics where I am either riding through a rather uninteresting grassy field or my mouth is just hanging open with some spittle dangling off my chin and i look a bit special needs...from Brown County...

Decisions decisions

So, the new (old bike is here. We were both made in 1973, so I am glad we could come together like this.



Now, I need to decide which helmet to get. I have it narrowed down to 2...



OR



Oh, and Brown County was hot and fast. I hit a tree, John Luc got a gap and then the win.

Brown Co. Beatdown

Me, Anthony, and Dulin headed up to Brown Co. for the 2nd D.IN.O. race of the season and more importantly the KYANA championship race. It was my first D.IN.O race in the expert class, I've never been able to win a Sport class race up there cause there are so many fast sport guys that have been racing sport class for years so they may be considered sandbaggers by some. Anyway, race started out with a pretty long road section that had a few steep ups then it was right into the woods for some blazing fast singletrack. Scary fast at times, a lot of the trail is like that so locals can kill it cause they know how much brake they can get away with. I started off slow and took the first two laps at about 3/4 throttle for fear of blowing up. By the last lap I still had some energy so I had a pretty good lap but was only able to catch two expert riders, one of them cheering me on saying, that's the way you finish a race. Unfortunately, the tactic of saving it all for the last lap never works. I was happy to have a strong finish with the added distance that expert class requires so I'll chalk it up as a positive day and some good training. I think what I need to be doing though is to ride hard enough to blow up about half-way through the last lap and then limp in for the finish cause it seems like that would be the best for shocking some fitness into me. Ky lost the title but we had some good results namely from Anthony, Josh Gerlach, and Keith Lucas who all finished in the top 10.

It all comes out in the wash

Just like leaving pieces of paper in your pocket and putting the pants in the washing machine, you end up with a big ol mess.

What am I talking about you ask? Well, misrepresentation is what. Why would you purposely misrepresent something? Take for instance, oh just off the top of my head, a motorcycle on ebay. It was delivered today and, man that picture must have been the Kawasaki's Glamour shot cuz in person, she wasn't pretty. A big dent in the tank, no working electric, speedo held on with zip ties, oil everywhere, cut seat, not the ready-to-ride machine advertised. Did he think I would see it, swoon and want it anyway? "Oh Kawasaki, I luvs you just the way you are." He did explain that big ass dents just happen when you trail ride em. Ok, fair enough. I guess front ends of cars can get smashed from driving on the street as well, but if I'm selling a smashed car, I'm gonna mention it's been smashed. Or I could just take a picture of the non-smashed side, list it and never say a word about it. Either or. I mean a big ass dent in the tank – with rust – it's worth noting even if it's, uh hem, "normal wear an tear." Sheesh.

This is the second one in a week too. Turpin and I went and looked at a Honda last week that "all it needed was points set to get runnin." Funny how that list grew by about 20 items by the time we arrived. Be honest and stop wating everyones time people. If youre not upfront about the obvious problems, I am not gonna buy whatever youre selling because I will assume there are 10 more things wrong that are not apparent that I wont find until next week, or next month, broken down in BFE.

So Kawasaki man did what any red-blooded 'merican would do in his circumstance and blammed his Dad who listed it for him. I would be more than willing to hang Grandpa out to dry too, but, I spoke to the guy 3 times on the phone after the aution ended and he never said "before I bring it over, ya might wanna know..." When we took it down off the truck, he did come clean that it prolly wasn't properly represented in the auction description. I think the other 46 bidders would agree.

Which brings me to my next question, which is how the bike came to arrive in its craptacular condition in the first place; why do so many people take Enduro and Dual Sport bikes, strip the electric to make em trail bikes? They make bikes that are already stripped down, that cost less and perform better, just for trail riding. It would be like me putting big knobbies on the Subaru and cutting the top off and calling it a truck when I could have just, oh I don't know, bought a truck. But hey, then I wouldn't have a heavy, underperforming retard-o-car worth 1/2 of what it once was.

So he's gonna take it and get it fixed to reflect how it was listed and I may or may not still buy it. In the meantime, the search continues. Oh, by the way, I have a Klein road frame for sale. I'll take a picture from it's good side later.

Hello?

I got a call the other day, here is the transcript.

me "Hello?"

caller "Hi, you know who it is."

m "H.G. Prices? Is that you?"

hgp "Yeah"

m "So you know what i just did, dont you?"

hgp "Yeah, thats why I have a friend on the line, it's a conference call."

G. Reaper "You may have beat H.G. Prices, but in doing so, you've brought us closer together."

m "Whatever Grim. You just wish you'd be scorin all the ladies on a green Kawasaki like me."



I really don't care about the gas, I'm just tryin to keep up with Turpin. Now i just need a wife and dog, you can't make me move to Lexington though...

Despite appearances...

...I am not making fun of Joe's fanny pack. Though had I noticed it, it would have been my moral obligation to do so.

Stump Jump 08

First off, what is it with oddball conventions and mtb races happening in the same towns? There has been the Ladies of the Southern Baptists, Quilters, Organic farming and rabbits, and most recently RC modelers (of course it just couldnt be a underwear modelers). So anywho, It was almost a whole new ballgame this year; new course and (gasp) no rain, but the constant being my outcome of suck.

The new course was a blast to ride. As Rusty said, a perfect mtn bikers course. Windy and warm, everything was good, well, almost everything. I didn't really warm up very well and even though I easily took the holeshot at the begining, I had to drop back to about 8th to recover from the effort. As the lap wore on, I started to feel better and bring back a few spots. I forgot my GU2O and borrowed some HEED from Nick which should be called HEAVE since it seems to induce many tiny barfs. So after getting used to this happening, going into lap 2, I grabbed another spot to move up to 3rd and was feeling pretty good. Then, at the end of the lap, my pedal snapped off. I went back to the car to replace it, but in doing so was going to be relegated to last by the official. I blasted out one more lap and decided suffering through a 4th lap was pointless so I hung it up. Nuts.

Some money and a result would have been nice, but we had fun and I at least got some riding/training in before disaster hit. Oh well, plenty more races to come in the season. Which reminds me, where is the "Smokin hot chicks and Micro-brew convention" this year?

Colon Blow

Just incase you ever wanted a squeaky clean colon, a big bowl of these for breakfast will do the trick.



I can't decide if something that cleans you out this mightily is good for you or not, but at least you can make your co-workers suffer. And at the end of the day, thats all that matters.

Speaking of smelly crap, Hilary is only 2 blocks from me right now. I bet she likes Oat Squares because I like Oat Squares.

Same thing, only different

So I was hoping my week off would make my legs feel all bouncy and ready to rock, but it was more of, "meh, we'll go if ya want." With that can maybe sorta do attitude I took off for my TT.

I had the advantage of already knowing the time to beat, although I only looked at my watch once as I tend to go faster concentrating on the trail rather than my bike. I got a huge stick jammed in my wheel at the bottom of a small up that killed my momentum, but it got me a bit mad and helped get me going, I think. I got to the top of the last long decent knowing it was about 4 minutes at a good clip to the line and I had a shot at it (the one glance at the watch). I passed Nikki on the 3rd switchback (worked out well for us both as it was a big wide one) and continued to try to hammer it home. It seems that keeping my concentration and goin fast is my biggest problem this year. My mind tends to wander and I just kind find myself riding along...doot doot da doo...oh crap, we're racing here, c'mon. So I cross the line with the best time, 13 seconds better than Schworm. I thought I was a genius cuz he wouldn't have enough time to do another run and the short track. Well, I was wrong, he did, he got me by 15 seconds and i didn't have time to do a second run. D'oh.

The old Slowinski Strategy Machine® worked a bit better on the STXC. Just 4 of us, but 4 strong guys still makes for a hard race. It was basic pacelining for much of the first 15 minutes with me and Schworm both putting in little "lets see what happens" attacks. I decided I was gonna attack on the back stretch on the 2nd to last lap and just keep it up enough to keep anyone from sprinting around. It worked great, I caught them at the right moment and just had to maintain my gap for the last lap and take the win.

Legs a bit tired Sunday. Garth and I took a slow warm up on the road and I just wasn't wanting to kill it today. I took The holeshot and but just couldn't generate much power goin up the hill. I stayed out front until the long climb about 1/2 way through when Schworm attacked and got a small gap. Not a minute or so later, I see him pickin his bike up off the ground right as I came to one of my favorite sections of Youngers. So I pushed the pace up a short climb and tried to keep it high, making Brian have to work to get back on. Then all sudden, I was on the ground. Somethin just reached out of the woods and pulled me down hard. I lost my glasses and lenses and took enough of a shot I had to take stock for a second as to what was happening. Brian whizzes past, now it was his turn. I got myself together and started to chase. I was able to bridge back up by the top of the long climb on lap 2 where I just sat on until about 1/2 way through.

I figured I needed to be in control and make him have to react, especially if I was gonna be slower on that second climb. So I attacked and he reacted. I was able to open a small gap on a long downhill and then started the long climb where he attacked on lap one. This was perfect. I suspected his legs were also getting tired and I might be able to hold my gap, until I passed Morgans daughter, Edie. She got too close to the edge of the trail and took a tumble. She landed upside down and started crying. I normally get my jollies beating up on children, the elderly and homeless, but it was Morgans kid, so I jumped off my bike and ran down to help. Brian also stopped and she said she was OK, just scared. Whew. So the good news of not being inderectly responsible for the maiming of a friends child was offset by the fact the gap I worked hard to create was now gone. And Brian is a competitor. There was no way he was goin down easy being right there.

I was only able to drink about one time that last 8 miles cuz I couldnt risk taking my hands off and giving him an opening for a milisecond and was starting to feel the bonk comin on. I tried to keep the pace high in the tight stuff and just accelerate any place he might have room to pass. I saw the fuzzy sign (well, the sign wasnt fuzzy, just the eyes I was peepin at it with) for 1 mile to go. Sweetness. I new I could take the downhill faster, as long as I could keep my focus. Well, Brian had a slight mishap on turn one and that was all I needed. That was the hardest I have worked for an entire race in a long time. It was great.

So the weekend turned out pretty well. Had some good hang time post race with some fine folks and made a little money. Lets just hope the good fortune of Youngers this year doesnt bring the curse it did last year (5 weeks of Bronchitis).

Younger's creek stxc and tt

Bout what I expected, I was slower than most but not too too far back. I did the tt first. Started out through a field, crossed a creek, then the road, then started up some switchbacks that were slick in some spots. Of the 6 or 7 I think I only successfully got up one or two so I was hoping off my bike and back on a lot, and not too quickly at that, my cleats were getting mudded up and I don't think I did a hard enough effort warming up to get myself ready for the pain so I kept just wanting to chill and asking myself, "why do I do this?" That was 3 minutes into the trail, haha. Well anyway, after I nearly slid down the side of the hill and stood in one place for a bit cause I couldn't get my footing I finally made it to the very top were things were in good shape. Rolled around for a while just doing my thing trying to figure out if I should over gear myself or do high rpms because of all the sharp turns. I think I ended up trying both. With about a mile to go I started thinking about how I hadn't clipped a pedal on anything and was pretty pleased with myself, so then I made a sharp right and clipped my pedal on a root which caused me to bust my peanuts on the nose of my saddle a bit. The rest was uneventful.

For the stxc there were only 5 of us. I got on rusty's wheel, he was on blaine's wheel who was on josh's wheel, who was on annajean/niki's wheel and someone was on my wheel for a minute, an older guy, we rolled that way for 3 or 4 laps and I was feeling okay but wondering if I could keep that up for 20 minutes then rusty started to pop a bit and I considered coming around him but then told myself I would definitely pop if I did that, so he and I chased for a while then after another few laps of taking turns he wanted to accelerate a little and I told him to go on, eventually we were both lapped by the other three. That field was choppy and unfast I would have hate to have done it on a hardtail. Josh ended up winning. I never caught rusty and now I think I should have tried to jump around him and got on blaine's wheel, then rusty might have gotten discouraged and slowed way down before I popped. Doesn't matter, I just needed to get a tune-up in, I'm done with school tuesday and should be able to start riding more than once a week at that point.

white and wet lightning

it just wouldnt be a trip down to western ky without some rain. not that rain has been a uncommon commodity lately, but without fail, like a trip to columbia, sc for stump jump, a trip to western ky for some mtb racin could always be a drought breaker. but like its SC counterpart, rain isnt a big deal for the sandy canal loop. the course had some bad spots, but was pretty good, def much better than staying in town for the road races.

the rainy cool saturday gave way to a sunny and perfect sunday. the race was fairly unremarkable; dustin and i were the only pro/semi to show and i was able to pull one out and actually raced a full race, which is always nice. i never felt great, but considering i had 100 degree+ fever 9 days ago and i'm still on antibiotics, i felt pretty good. so with a non-mechanical (apart from rolling my tire off the rim once) and non-bonking race under my belt, i got the fingers crossed that the rain will hold off this weekend for the switchback attack. thats about all.

Greenriver and the infection part 2

Greenriver sucked and I have Acute bacterial prostatitis. Lets hear it for antibiotics.

The Infection

Somewhere between Monday afternoon and Monday late afternoon, an otherwise uneventful stop to the men's room turned into what felt like trying to pass Frank's Hot Sauce through my urethra. Tuesday mornin I woke up sweating with the same wonderful burning sensation still downstairs. In constant denile, I took some Ibuprofen and rode my bike to work. By noon, I was in some kinda hurt with a full on fever settin in with a vengeance.

After realizing I was not feeling any better (despite endlessly trying to convince myself otherwise) Tuesday, I hit the emergency care center. Kidney and bladder infection. The good news being the antibiotics seem to have helped loads and it's not clamidia from one of the girls at the Dizzy Wizz. But the process of taking in (and therefore excreting) a lot of liquid over the last 48 hours seems like telling someone with a broken leg to do some extra jogging. Ouch.

Off to the doctor tomorrow where he will hopefully NOT want to put a scope anyplace that is normally reserved for exit purposes only and we can figure out how I may have got into this mess and therefore avoid another run-in.

So what? So if I race Saturday, I have my excuse for suckin published here ahead of time. Always thinkin ahead.

Tsali Tspankin

Man, that was tough. After days of radar watching and some last minute bailouts had me trying to decide if I should head south, a pleasant surprise call from Matt Batton Saturday morning got me off the fence and rolling down to Tsali North Carolina to get hammered. Anna Jean (Nikki) Dallaire joined for the fun and off we rolled into the rain and mountains.

We were the last wave to start, the sky was turning blue and the trails were shaping up pretty good. I had a decent start jumping in the woods about 7th. I had to take some aggressive lines right at the top of the fire road since I got pinned behind a guy for much of the opening climb that was making it hard to advance, and then made my way into 5th pretty quickly. From there we seperated ourselves and rolled along pretty well. Then, just because I cannot seem to get my stuff together, my camelback hose came loose. I ket yo-yoing on the back as I tried to fix it on the fly then finally had to stop 2 times to get it secured, losing many spots in the process. I mounted a good effort at the start of lap 2 to catch a few of the guys and get back in the top 5, but perhaps tried to do too much too fast and burned all my matches. The fire went out.

The last 5 miles were a death march. I would like to think if I hadn't had the problems and could have just stayed in with the lead group riding at a steady tempo and not been fallin off then chasing repeatedly, I woulda been able to maintain and finish better, but who knows. I still managed 10th and the season is young – there is much time to improve. Matt finished 14th and Anna Jean won her first Pro race in convincing style (congrats to her). We took the scenic route home through the Smokeys and Gatlinburg which always provides many a good spectacle. Next stop; Green River next weekend to kick off the KY series - Yee-Haw.

Chickasaw 2008

I came
I saw (mud)
I drank beer

In my own little way, I won.

why I could never have a six pack

Here is a picture of the awesome carrot cake my wife made for my mother's birthday and a picture of her trying to get me to try a bite of it with a potato chip on top. She said it was heavenly but I held strong.




and



Here are some more pictures of my motorcycle, I have it in lexington now so expect to hear stories of me getting in a accident and becoming paralyzed soon. Geez, I hope not.

The Colorado Express

So I made quick trip to Boulder Co last weekend. A brief recount with a couple words and some pics


If I was a tornado, I would try to kill Kansas too.



Could it be? YES! MOUNTAINS!



A neon sign beaconing me home. Are you a bachelor on the lam? The Silver Saddle is the place for you my friend.



Hello!? Is that a velvet painting of flowers? Why yes. Yes it is. I hope it gets better, if that's possible.



Another room? Well, maybe there's a treat in there...



Jackpot!



The view out the window paled in comparison to what the decorator had done but decent try anyway, nature.





The trails were up to par.



Saw at least 4 of our nations top xc pro's out riding that day. Not as awesome as riding with a buncha up-tight regional roadies that take themselves way too seriously, but it will do.



Mother nature did her best to keep me in Colorado, snow (it was tame, and hard to see, in this picture), 5 hours of rain that, well, if it had been like this in the Old Testament, the earth coulda been covered in 20 days with evenings off, and a complete ice-wash on the hiway with zero visibility in Missouri. By the time I hit Indiana I had to use WD-40 to unlock my hands from the wheel (I used my feet to pick up the can and spray if you must know). It was almost like someone was, (well, prolly many someones are), saying "Kentucky doesn't want you back." Odd thing too, the Subaru ran better and had it's best mpg's ever up there, I think it realized it was in Subaru Mecca since at least 99.9% of all vehicles seemed to be Subaru's up there. All in all, a kinda strange little place that loves beer and their bikes—a lot. I prolly I need to go back soon.

who's a good doggie?

Awww, she's a perfect little angel.

lexington news stories

if you watch the lexington news you might have seen a story about my mother's new husband. He had to make an emergency landing in his plane at the Lexington airport today. His landing gear wouldn't come down so he had to skid it on the belly. My wife, dog and I flew with him on Thursday. Luckily, everything worked that day and luckily everything turned out fine today. He bent the propellers but otherwise the plane is fine, didn't even scrape paint off the bottom.

they don't interview him but they do interview the passengers, here is the story

http://www.wtvq.com/midatlantic/tvq/news.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2008-03-16-0001.html

oh man

how awesome would it be to ride in this race?

that was a great ride baby

that's what she said anyway. Hey-OOOO! Naw, but seriously, I had a good ride yesterday. Mitchell and Phil took me out to Ft. Boonesboro and finally I got to see where the hills are. They weren't too bad, but good enough. One took 4 or 5 minutes to get up. I could definitely tell I hadn't climbed anything in a long time. My chain came off on one hill and I wrecked, that was pretty awesome. If you want to know details about the Ft. Boonesboro crit I can give them cause we road the course for a few hot laps. Awesome thing about that place is that the bathroom is heated and has showers.

Plus, on Wednesday afternoon I got to have a phone conversation with Rahsaan Bahati of team Rock Racing. He is a super nice guy, especially to take time out of his day to let me ask him some questions about cycling and race. I was a little nervous talking to him though. Just like how I get nervous when I talk to Mike Stevens. You can check out Rahsaan's site www.bahatiracing.com he has a couple race clips, one of him drilling a metal barricade, looks painful.

Not Cool II - an Ateam style watch

Mohawks and mustaches - old and tired.

Egg drapes and neck beards - new and hot.

Trust me, everyone is goin clean on the top of the head and face and lettin the sides, back and neck go wild.

Not cool

You ever notice how certain people wearing/owning otherwise fashionable or nice things doesn't actaully make them look better, just makes that thing look less cool? Thats all.

Snake Creek Gap III and the Organic Rabbits

So there was an Organic Farming and rabbit convention suckin up all the hotels in Dalton Friday night. Nothing like paying $70 for the Econo-Lodge that looked like a low budget horror film set. I mean, why mount electric devices on the wall when you can just dangle em from the wires? And who sent the not to Pakistan - "Move to America, buy a hotel, it's a goldmine!" Not to be racially insensitive, just that wow, there are a lot of Hindu's runnin hotels these days.

So anyway, the race sucked. I never felt very together Saturday, definitely out of sorts. The laundry list of issues; oversleept didnt get properly caffinated prior to racetime, Camelback leaked on me until it just leaked dry 1/2 way into the race (nothing like the feeling of being wet and sticky) leaving me high and very dry, brake pad was stuck to the rotor (I didnt feel like I was working hard enough, needed the extra resistance), double flat on the front, dropped my 5mm tool in the leaves, went over the bars onto a rock. Seems like I am leaving somethin out, but that pretty much sums up the suck. I still finished around 3:12, which was bittersweet since without issues, I could have broke 3 hours.

Oh well. There is long season ahead, many more flawless rides and catastrophes await.

yee haw

anyone that wants to do some motopacing, come to lexington cause I bought a motorcycle today. Now I just need to learn how to ride it and get a permit. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Lexington is putting me in touch with my inner Crab Orchard redneck side. Oh yeah, motopacing will be $1/mile regardless of the fact that the motorcycle gets 50mpg. It's a 1979 hondamatic cm400a with 7,400 original miles, it's been in the same family since it came off the showroom floor in '79.

waiting on the UPS man

It was a beautiful afternoon for a bike ride but I had to wait around for the UPS man. We had already missed him twice so this was the last chance and the note said he would be here between 2-4 or later. As soon as I titled this blog the doorbell rang, too bad it is 5:08 now and the sun is going down, it's getting cooler out there. Dang! Least I got my new phone (emergency only) I'm canceling my cingular plan and going to pre-pay wireless since I only use around 50 minutes per month. Now I got a t-mobile with the strength of Jan Ulrich. Also got a used Ipod from the ups man. Guess it was worth the wait, not like anyone wants me to go ride anyway cause then I'll just go too fast in the KYMBA series this year.

I'm glad Nick Barbieri isn't my ups man, he would have wrecked before he made it here.

Very special Valentine part II

Hash browns and bacon strips
I like the way that you lick your lips

Lemmy, youre so romantic, nobody could have said it better.

A very special Valentines Day note

So the big day is coming up, and let me be the first to say, I love love. From candy hearts to flying naked babies with weapons, what more can a person ask for? So on this most special of days were we celebrate our love for one another...

take hold of the one you love, look deep into their eyes and...

tell them you love them...

cherish them...

would be an empty shell of a person without them (you prolly still are, but work with me)...

and they will be getting nothing on this day created by the corporations to move product at a slow time of year. This should free up plenty of time to go ride. You're welcome.

What a weekend

What not to do the week before a race; most everything I did last week. Not so much on purpose, it's just the way things went. But, you can't sweat what you can't change and just gotta roll with it. So I did and what a great weekend, from top to bottom, it turned out to be.

The day was turing out perfect; 60's and sunny. Despite all the rain a few days prior, the trail was still in great shape. I rode smarter this time, took it easy at the start and kept my heart rate out of the red zone the entire ride. About 45 minutes into the race (most of that first section is climbing), I realized that I had been in the big ring the whole time and I just felt like I could push forever.

I caught the last rider to start before me just before the 1/2 way point, I didn't expect to reel him in. I didn't expect anything out of this ride except a marginal improvement over last race and here I was already catching someone who put 10 minutes on me last month. Once i crossed the 17 mile mark and started climbing, I checked my time and couldn't believe I was about 15 minutes better than my last TT and just felt like I was cruising. I started to come apart a bit toward the end and had to really focus my brains to forget my leg's pain and my body's completely depleted fuel supply. I came in at just a hair over 3 hours (by just 37 hairs to be exact), 9 minutes better than last March; 26 minutes better than last month. I hated that I was so close to a sub 3 hour time and not have made it, but still, couldn't be happier with my ride. I probably need another 5 minutes off my time next race to keep 2nd place for the series as I don't think I can equal Turners 2:50 from January. But hey, I never woulda thought I could roll a 3 this weekend either, so who knows. John wouldn't have thought he would pull 40 minutes off his time, but he did. Congrats man, thats awesome - 40 freakin minutes.

We got in another great ride at Raccoon Mtn on Sunday as the rain started to fall right as we pulled out of the parking lot. Perfect ending to a great weekend.

I had a wreck

In my bathroom last night. It was around 4 in the morning and I was taking a pee. I bent over to lean against the wall or sink or something and when I straightened back out the room started closing in, I thought about sitting down real quick but it was too late. I fell forward banging the right side of my forehead on a cabinet door handle and then went down to the floor nailing my adam's apple/throat on the toilet. Freaked the wife out pretty bad and today I can barely swallow plus I have a big knot/red mark on my forehead. I guess it could've been worse, I could've knocked my teeth out or something. My wife always tells me "the bathroom is the most dangerous room in the house." I believe her now.

Some good news though. Today I got a response email from a professional cyclist on the Rock Racing team. I want to interview him as a potential/likely source to use on my paper for my History 700 class this semester which may also go toward my thesis and dissertation work on cycling in the U.S. Anyway, he sent me his phone number and told me when I should call him. I think that is pretty awesome of him to make himself so available.

Thought you all might want something to look at. Here are two photos of me from my first mtb race ever at Capitol View park in 2003. It was muddy, I raced beginner and got 3rd in my age group.

SCG II - the reckoning

Snake Creek Gap, the second. And one thing is for certain, 3 men will go, only 2 shall return. John Hughson will die on that mountain. Well, that sounds more dramatic and makes you much more likely to come back for the recap, but I guess it would be sad if the little guy didn't make it. Especially if he had the keys.

So, goal for the second edition is just to shave 10 minutes or so off last months stroll through North Georgia. And the weather is looking like it's gonna be pah-reeeeem-ohh. This should be just what the Dr. ordered.

I've got a question

I've been thinking about this lately and can't quite figure it out. Winter = base miles right and also strength training. So this is the time of year that some people are doing squats and maybe even pushing a little bigger gear than normal at slower rpms. This makes me wonder why one of the guys I've done some road rides with, who has a powertap, is pretty strict about not pushing too much wattage. Why isn't it okay to push extra watts this time of year if it's okay to squat and push big gears? I can understand not wanting to get your heart rate or too high or too much intensity but I don't understand why this guy doesn't want to go over 350 watts or whatever. I've personally dumbed everything down this winter. I'm not wearing a heart rate monitor, no power tap, no logging of miles, nothing, I'm just riding my bike those one or two days a week when I get a chance. This is a big difference from last year. If i was on my bike then my hr monitor was on and I was writing in my journal afterward. I think I might have overthought things.

sincerely,

clueless about power

My wife and I have a big announcement

We adopted a doggie.

What a difference a week makes

Last week at this time I was a single man with two cats living downtown, now I am single man with two cats living downtown and I think I have insomnia. Maybe I need that giant demon butterfly from the commercials to come crap on my head or whatever it does to make you sleep.

Criminy I am getting old. I used to wonder "how can you not just sleep???" (I wondered this passionately, hence the 3 ?), I still wonder, but have no answers, well, I have ideas as to the cause I guess. I think it could be overtraining. I am becoming too awesome too fast and my brain is trying to keep up with my rapidly developing awesome powers, it just cant comprehend it and needs extra time to take it all in.

But really, it is amazing, at times, from one week to another how much things shift. Lets hope momentum continues for the positive.

I didn't die but I sure do hurt

Did three hours at cave run with schworm today. It hurt. First time I've ridden my mountain bike since July. I officially ride a mountain bike like a roadie now, like worse than Mandrola. The ground was kind of messed up on a lot of the trail from stupid horses. It was like trying to ride on freezer burnt ice cream. I walked a lot. there was one section of trail that was pretty good, I think it might have been buckskin. With over 3 hours of riding we only got about 20 miles in. That's how slow I was rolling.

I really love Steely Dan

Who else has written a song about Kings Richard and John?

Thats all, I have to go hop back in the custom van and listen to my other 8-tracks now.

ironic facial hair strikes again

I may not know how to be tuff but I sure know how to look tuff

An open letter to the roadies

Dear Roadies,

We mountain bikers have noticed something. Lets start here; maybe it is because many of us mtbers have accepted the fact that we are setting aside great amounts of time to play, er, exercise (as we tell parents, sig others and anyone else we blow off to spin some cranks for hours each day). We do this because it is fun, a release. When we see one another on the trail, we usually greet each other and have even been known to, gasp, stop to chat. I know, this is crazy stuff. Its funny, I guess because we are engaged in the same activity we feel a kinship, even if we dont know each other.

So anyway, many of us do also ride the road, which brings me to my point. When you see another person (solo or in pack formation) lift his/her hand and move it back and forth or up and down (some motion of that sort), it is a greeting known as a "wave". This may also be followed with a verbal from of greeting such as "nice day" or "howdy".

I have found natural instinct for the roadie is to stare, mouth agape, like a hick in the big city for the first time. Rather than stare like a yokel, try waving back. Really, you're just riding a bike and truth be told, you're not that special, not that being special is any reason for not being civil (I know your mom would not agree with the latter, but she would also probably be upset to know you're not being nice while your out playing on your toy). I realize this "waving" could waste precious calories, and maybe even disrupt airflow, so if this is a concern, try the "head nod." Quick, easy and you dont even have to remove hands from bars - you're craning your neck anyway, might as well return a greeting.

With every other car trying to flatten us, a little civility within our own group just seems, well, civil. Try it, it just might make you feel good.

Love,

Your Knobby Little Buddies
(that probably drop your sorry butts anyway)
Oops, sorry.

dust off the old record book

I got in a 5 hour ride today counting the two stops we made. 76 miles in total. It's the first time I've ever broken 70 miles. Awesome. Luckily I had a couple tug boats to get me through it, Alec Sim and Royden Kern. I guess I need to get the riding in now before the semester starts to get super busy.

Snake Creek Gap TT

Well, that wasn't so bad. Pretty good actually. After being off the bike 5 weeks in November, 2 of those post-surgery doing nothing at all, and not exactly killing myself in December, I'm pleased.

The conditions were far better than last years slop, when Garth and I first tried this little devil of a trail, with partly sunny 50+ degrees and perfectly tacky soil. Also having raced the course before, it was much easier knowing what I was in for this time.

Not really feeling the long-winded writing bug right now, I'll say it was a great weekend; Good beer supplied by Yazoo, Snake Creek Saturday and we hit some reallly nice trail a top Chattanooga on Sunday (Racoon mtn). I'm glad John Curtlo Jonnycakes Birthdayboy Hughson got to join us. Lookin forward to Feb., I hope we are as lucky with the weather then as we were this past weekend.

Hawk vs Duck

Hawk wins.

As I came around the golf course trail this morning, I disturbed a hawk havin some breakfast. The large bird took off clutching another large bird, a nice juicy mallard. I dunno, somethin seems wrong about pickin on a duck, especially by another bird. They seem like the chubby kid in school who tells jokes, kinda fun to have around, pretty harmless, cute in his own way. But, never the less, impressive to see the hawk flying around with a meal about as big as he.

I'm sure the duck would not agree, but it was a great morning and a kick-butt ride. I still feel super slow and this weekend's race should prove that out. But man that scalpel, well lets just say it's only limiting factor is its engine. The ground was frozen perfectly, like summer hard-pack minus the dust. Traces of white dotting the trail and woods, tires makin that "crunch-crunch" sound in the softer areas, all made me forget from time to time that it was all of 15-20 degrees. As much as I love a perfect 70 degree day, there is something to be said for that slap in the face feeling of a winter morning ride. Lets hope I feel the same at 5 am tomorrow morning.

fun times with hipsters

Anthony may have gotten a brand new Team Scalpel, but I got a 1983 Schwinn Traveler 10 speed and a brand new beard. Here are some pictures from the warehouse race. It was a good time.

warehouse racin, no hobo's

So the stars all aligned that I stumbled across a link a couple weeks ago for a warehouse race in Lexington, seemed interesting. The Ateam's new Lexington insider, Turpin, also had the 411 on this event. Curtlo was informed and the plan was set. Neither of us (me or John) knew if this was gonna be a blowout or 12 dufuses standin around all trying hard to look like they didn't care about looking cool, like a reverse Zoolander walk-off. But there was the promise of beer, a chance to see turpins new digs and eat his food, that was enough right there. So I packed up old blue (the single speed) complete with 1.5 slicks and a citron colored front rim, Curtlo with his Schwinn fixie, and we headed 60 miles due east.

It was not what I expected, it was more. We arrived while the silly race (an oxymoron of sorts here) was goin on. My favorite was a Stingray with a 12" front wheel and road drops. Lovin it. I saw Bill Crank and a couple others from Pedal Power and Pedal the Planet and asked for a little direction on what we were supposed to do. After signing in, Curtlo raced in the second heat with Turpin (who went with the spandex option, nice work). The course utlilized 2 warehouses, a couple sidewalks and various bits of parking lot ending with a stair-step runup to the finish. It was a hoot, like a cyclocross race (minus the dirt) with music pumpin, beer flowin, and people hollerin. The difference being there was hardly a bit of carbon fiber to be seen, I bet pair of Zipp wheels would prolly match the combined price of all the bikes raced that night.

My first race was the 20 feet or so I did on Jims back for the tandem race, the distance pretty much sums up how well that worked. Then I raced the third and last heat of the "competitive" races (top 2 for each went on to the finals). Good start, givin that 39x18 single speed all I could, it wasnt enough muscle to keep up with some dude on his fixie. After washin out on one of the slick corners in the second warehouse, I conceded and rode it in for second (plus the breadbowl of soup, fries, burger, green beans and coffee I ate just an hour + before were threatening an upheaval). Once that was over, I sat and coughed up a lung (hardest effort I've done since October) while the non-competive class ran their five laps.

The finals were next, I still felt pretty gross, but I had to go. I gave it a good effort for 4 laps, then let fixie dude and Bill have at it, I didn't really want to barf and I didn't have the gears to match them anyway. The crowd def kept me goin as it all turned up to 11 for that last race, people were screamin like mad. I held on for 3rd and enjoyed those last 5 laps much more without trying to race. All in all, a pretty great event. Kentucky Ale provided a few kegs of free beer (which I assume really helped with the turnout) and they even gave out some prizes after at a sleezy little bar in the hood.

I was amused the next day to read on the race's forum "I know fixes aren't the coolest bike to ride this year but they're still pretty f'n fast- pro mtb man knows this now." OK, I guess he just wants to think he's on the fringe and has turned a blind eye to the fact that every hipster duffus is sportin a fixie. I suppose word of "who I am" circulated via the Pedal Power or PtP guys as I wasn't wearing a my usual "I'm a Pro mountain biker, kiss my butt" sign or even spandex for that matter. And I will also guess that being a pro instantly marks you – it says you should win and every start line is serious business; that my goal was to come, kick ass and give it 110%, even though my bike choice would kinda prove contrary to that. He makes it sound as though I had some doubts as to the power of the fixie. I thought about posting "I'm bringing my A game next time!" but I really dont care, I'd rather go back with the same bike and goal as last time, just ride and have some fun. Although...I may throw on a 14 tooth cog just to make it a bit more interesting...ha ha hah.

Yes I did

This is now mine. That means I will suck horribly this year as the correlation of good stuff to speed is as follows;



but who cares. its 22 pounds of carbon fiber, ceramic bearing eating noodles and beans to pay for it goodness.

you know what I heard

Anthony has something new.

the lust began

I think we were about 12, maybe 11. Andy had gone up to Thornberry's Toys and Schwinn authorized dealer (now St Matthews Schwinn) to shop for a new bike. He was sailing into uncharted and strange waters, he wasn't buying a new BMX bike, he was getting a 10 speed. Either a Schwinn or some new company, Cannondale, were the two final contestants. The Cannondales were like nothing I had ever seen before. Huge aluminum tubes with wild paint jobs that were cooler than words (I also thought bandanas looked good tied around the legs and breakin was an ok movie, so taste was relative to the date). For reasons that time has lost to me, he went with the Schwinn Traveler. Its was a strange color of mintish green (Bianchi calls it celeste, for copyright purposes, Schwinn called it something far less red wine and bruschetta).

So the point of this. Up until then, bikes were ridden through the woods and jumped off plywood and cinder-block ramps. The occasional big thrill, not to mention long and dangerous journey, consisted of the 4-6 miles over to Indian Hills for some big time gravity action on 20 inch, skidded bald tires - stem pad optional. Never before was a pure speed, sex machine an option or a consideration. Not sex machine in that we were gonna meet even one lady with it, sexy in a Greg Lemond Tour de France way. Sexy in a faster than we had ever gone on two wheels way. Sexy in a breathin hard doing sprints up and down the street to see who could go fastest (though I dont think we had any way of measuring said speed other than witness' eyeballs, or maybe a second hand on a watch). It was so cool how fast those skinny tires could roll and how hard that big gear was to turn.

Some years later, I discovered mtb racing and once i had become "serious," I was told I needed to train on a roadbike to get better. Funds being what they were, a road bike wasnt an option and the mtb with slicks wasnt fast enough. Andy still had the Traveler, so I borrowed it, slapped on some generation 1 spd's (spuds) and rode. This bike wasnt really my ticket into the uber-cool roadie world with its 5 speed rear cluster and friction shifters, but striving for acceptance, especially from dorks, hasnt ever been high on my list. Besides, getting dropped by, (or not dropping), a guy on an 80's 10 speed hurts a lot more than gettin schooled by a guy on a nice ride, at least then you can tell yourself "it's partly the bike that makes him better than me."

Then the time came, my first road race. Well, TT anyway. There I was, sleeveless jersey, visored helmet (once again I refer you to styles of the day) mtb shoes and 10 pound pedals. I ended up winning my class by a good margin, even besting most, if not all, the cat 3's. How awesome. That did get me into "their" world a bit, or marked anyway. A few months later, I purchased a "real" road bike and the Traveler was once again mothballed.

The Traveler came back around a couple years ago when Andy was cleanin out the basement and saw it as unused clutter. He passed it along and I kept it around for a while figuring I would use it as a comuter, but it mainly sat. So, I ended up donating it to a tenant who didnt have a car and I think he pawned it cuz it disappeared about a week later. Since I did give it to him, I didnt figure it was any of my business what happened to it. I just hope wherever it is now, it's still making a difference. Or maybe it served it's purpose already.

Americuhr F*#k yeah

All my depression over dopers in the pro peleton has been offset a bit by my excitement for team slipstream. http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/13706.0.html I hope they're different and have some good results this year.

Also, looks like Gunn Rita Dahle-Flesja or whatever her name is, is over her stomach virus infection thing. Color me skeptical, but everytime I hear of a cyclist getting a viral infection I immediately suspect they got it from doping. I don't even know if the two share a relationship of any sort but that's just my suspesion.

p.s.

why does my yoplait always spit yogurt on me when I peel open the little foil lid?

pleasant surprise

I got in a beautiful 60 mile group ride around lexington this morning. I'm kind of surprised I could still manage 60 miles. About 30 miles into the ride we were cruising along and a squirrel came out of nowhere, plowed straight into my front tire, bounced off and then scurried on across the road. It was a little scary, if I would have ran over it then I may have taken a spill. I'm excited that there is such good routes around Lexington, no hills to speak of, but plenty of rolling horse farm country. If only I could remember where the hell we went today. The ride captain Alec, said they work it up to a century by Feb. or so. Too bad there isn't anywhere to ride a mountain bike around here.

i know ya miss me

I just watched The Flying Scotsman. I thought it was really good. If you haven't seen it check it out, I think it is even suitable for non-cycling-enthusiast viewers because its about the triumph of the human spirit.

I'm looking forward to a long road ride on Sunday around Lexington. I haven't done more that 25 miles since July. I hope I can still make it. Lately I mainly just ride my bike to school (5 miles to campus) and try to get out for a 20 miler or a bit more once a week. I get so stressed about school and find it hard to get myself away from the computer and books for 2 hours but the dumb thing is, if I wouldn't waste time taking breaks watching stupid t.v. shows (big fan of I luv New York) or trying to find nekid girls on the internet I would have plenty of time to take a 2 hour break for a bike ride.

I'm hoping to be a little less stressed about school next semester and ride a little more so that I can be back in shape by july or so to do some racing. Although July and August are probably my least favorite months to race.

On a side note, I've had this weird pain in my gut around my belly-button since monday. It feels like I have a huge fart that just won't come out. Wed. night it got so bad I was on the verge of convincing myself it was appendicitis but now that it has started to back off I'm hoping it will just go away and leave me alone. I'm one of those lucky people that don't have health insurance now that I am a full time student and only work about 12 hours a week.

Hope you're all doing well and if you missed the USGP cyclocross race in Louisville then you missed something special. It was an awesome event to watch. I'm sure I might have even gotten some goose pimples if I had been competing and there had been that may people cheering for me.

Ya'll take care (lexington living has gotten me in touch with my redneck upbringing)

USGP - the good, the bad, and its gonna get ugly

Driving out to grab some Indian buffett at Shalimar friday morning (curry=speed, really) when I saw the SRAM Volvos motoring down the hiway towards Champions Park. Thats when it all kinda hit me; we're having a fer-real national event right here. Awesome.

Friday. The course was open for pre-riding for one hour only. As I rolled into the lot, I got chills, it was an atmosphere like you find at mtb nats, and all these people gathered on our local practice course. So 3 dry laps (as dry as it gets after having 7 inches of rain mid-week) gave way to the sky lettin loose for one last little shower for 3 slimy turns around. It was good to see Treefarm again who hadnt had the privelege of beating me for a couple years, we used to do it on a monthly basis, and I missed the reminder of why I am "local pro" only.

Sat. Got to the race plenty early to watch the masters 35+ race. It was fun rollin around visiting and looking at some of the bling from SRAM, Cannondale and Mavic. But, that wasnt goal 1, I could do more of that tomorrow, I needed to get ready to race. After having to DNF the last 2 CX races due to lung issues, I had no idea how it was going to go. This was hardly the prep I was hoping for for the biggest CX race I have ever done, and being right in my backyard, I wanted to represent well.

My race was a who's who of the fastest guys in the country plus the starting field was in the 80-90 range. Shoot. Man, this was gonna be painful. I started around the 5th row, about 2/3 the way back, not too bad. The gun went off and I had a great start, seemingly just sliding up the inside taking spots by the handful. Then, once again, I got pinned right behind a crash, the first transition onto pavement took a few guys down leaving me no place to go. So I spent the next few laps chasing hard, making small goals of catching different riders and picking off as many as I could. Having someone shouting my name seemingly every 20 feet helped spur me on as well, a little hometown advantage I guess. Working up to around 35th was about as much horsepower as I could muster and rode with a group of 2-4 guys for the next few laps.

The last two laps, my back started to really hurt and legs started cramping up, given my lack of CX racing in the run-up to this race, I was givin my muscles a bit more than they were ready for. I started getting passed and just couldnt muster the energy to kill myself for a few spots up the pack-fill ladder.

Oh well, in the end I was happy to not get lapped and felt like I rode a decent race, all things considered.


Gritty, determined, focused...


and in pain, much pain

USGP Day 2

Some a-hole broke into the back gate of the 3rd street compound and stole my barely one month old Redline. I dont think I need to really say much about my feelings on this matter. Suck.

Goodbye 07

To quote The Jesus Lizard "Your body's achin,', you need a rest, your body's achin', take a rest I say" Well, OK then, I will. Right after this weekends USGP, hanging it up for 07. Man what a long crappy season it's been. Combining a record amount of illness this year and now some recent injuries, trips to the surgeon, pt and weightroom are all forthcoming.

Last weekends Bald Eagle/Race to the Canal was def the crippler. I was doin good for the first 20-22 miles tradin first and second place with some dude from Nashville, railing the downhills and havin a blast just riding, when I suddenly felt the curtain start to close. I tried to eat, but it was too late, my body is just worn out and the curtain was drawn and they were turning lights out. The next 12 or so miles took a long time to complete with several stops for food and other one long one just to enjoy the view of the lake with the wind blowing in my face. It's a pretty disappointing close to a race season that started out so good in the mountains of Georgia and hills of E-town, but all things in perspective, a bad race, or even bad season, isnt such a big deal.

So, one more big race that I really would like to do well in, (being the biggest cycling event Louisville ever has seen), but I realize theres a good chance that just aint gonna happen. But hey, one way the other, its gonna be a lot of fun and I'll hoist a pint to 08.
http://www.usgpcyclocross.com/

won't you buy me one

Will there ever be a day when I don't hear vehicles driving by randomly blasting "Freebird?" Somehow, this song does not seem to be something that the "reds" can get worn out on, sort of like me and vegetarian corn dogs.

cross and all that

so today was the harbin park cx race. it sucked. well, the race was well done and the course was nice, but it was the second race in a row i had to bow out of because i cant breathe. i had a good start, despite steve tillford crashing right in front of me dropping me back about 10 places. into lap 2 it became aparent that my lungs were not going to function right, and that was that. i spent the next couple laps jerkin around (i hope all enjoyed my nose-wheelie crash, i did it for the fans), then pulled the plug. very frustrating. so that and barry wicks is really fast pretty much sums things up.

Mexington CX

Today, I officially launch the movement to change Lexington to Mexington. If you've been there, you know. Calm down, not saying anythings wrong with it, just noting.

So me and Morgan wen to Mexington (rolls off the tongue doesnt it?) for the Masterson Station CX race. Fairly uneventfull. A big, bumpy, grassy course that was ok, not stellar, but it was what it was. So, we start hot (in every sense of the word), and I dont understand some people, this one squirrely dude (who we shelled) that seemed to think there was a first one to everything prime. Its an hour long wide open CX race buddy, settle. Anyway, 2 laps in, it was already down to three, then two. Third lap, I was leading out, go hot into a corner and hear the Bio-wheels rider behind me fold his tire and flat. Crap. Didnt really want to solo the rest of the 5.5 laps, but he seemed strong, which was bad for my winning chances, so his leaving wasnt a horrible thing, and we had already built a decent gap that I was able to keep building on it. I also gotta give props to my boys in the pit thrownin water on me and handing up some bottles, made a huge difference.

Felt good to really peg it and get the heart rate way up there. Next weekend will probably be a bit more of a barf inducing humbling race, but it was good to shake things out on the new bike in a smaller race.

Buenas noches.

I deserved that

To the guy in the big black Cadilac Escalade I saw in the park this morning, I am sorry and thank you. It was rude of me to gesture in a non-combative manner that you may want to cross back over the yellow line and drive on your side. It was not until you flipped me the bird that I realized how truely selfish I was being. Thank you. Next time, I will just keep my arms on the handle bars and, if I am lucky, give you a little smootch when I come through your windshield.

Do these jeans make me look fat?

Ah, the age old cliché question that can only be answered "No its the giant hunk of lard you stuffed into the jeans that make you look fat." I try to be sensitive.

The thing that just kills me, daily, is people bitchin about their weight, everything from "Work here long enough and you'll start to look like me" (I didnt know a workplace could make you look fat and retarded) or "Youre lucky to be so skinny." Either statement is usually made while wiping donut crust or sauce from the 20 piece chicken poppers with honey-chipolte-dogcrap-cherry-sauce from their face. Really? Its the desk job that makes you look like this? You sure? OK then. I've been working office jobs for almost 10 years now, I guess I'm gonna blow up like the kid in charlie and the chocolate factory any minute now.

Speaking of shitty food, ever notice that McDonalds, Taco Bell, KFC, etc, etc, commercials always star reasonably thin folks? How about some truth in advertising and throw in some of the normal wheezing buoyees and weeble-wobbles you see inhabiting these places? Either show me some fatties or the skinny 20 somethings hocking oreo pizza should at least have a bong sitting on the table cuz thats about the only way that food item could ever seem like a good idea.

The best is those who marvel at my "heathy diet." Guess what? I buy my food at the same Kroger/Wal-Mart/Wholefoods/Target that the general public is allowed to shop. Really, anyone is allowed to buy the same items at these retailers, I do not belong to a secret skinny healthy people club, I just make choices.

The point? Shut up and stop complaining about something youre willingly and knowingly doing to yourself. Stop blaming tv, your diet, the internet, george bush or whatever you claim is making you fat cuz I have my suspicions that none of those things are stuffing cookies down your hole.

you down with the ocp?

you know me, i love racing ocp. it has everything; rocky white-knuckle downhills, gut buster climb and just all out fast single track - a great power course. last years first lap ripped tire was a heart breaker for me so i really wanted to some retribution this year. things did not start well. during my pre-ride, my freehub body started freezing up. crap, it worked fine saturday. no time to do anything about it now as we were beginning to assemble around the start.

there was a pretty decent field on hand for the pro/ex race. the start was a grassy flat sprint with a hard right and then left into the woods. the dewy grass and horror stories of the first downhill and a new switchback allowed me to easily take the holeshot as i guess the others figured my mangled torso would make a soft landing should anything happen. the new section of the VOT trail rocks. super fast, flowy and fun which leads into the original section with an awesome downhill with some nice big rocks and a couple sweet, banked sweeping turns. i was riding and feeling great. the freehub was proving problematic though since it was causing my chain to wrap up and at times come off.

second lap, chasers were down to one and after aforementioned downhill, i was all alone. i kept the pace the same as i had first lap, feeling good. since my drivetrain was acting up, it was nice not to have somebody right on me, that way i had some breathing room in case the problem caused me so slow down or crash (i did have to stop to upwrap it from the cogset once and i came out of a few rough corners sans chain on rings - suprise, your freewheeling!).

so the VOT downhill was the star of the day since on lap 3, thats where i blew all the oil from my fork. i could hear the ti spring in there workin and i was feelin a bit nervous about some catastrophic failure that may come. well, that came one lap later when i stuffed the front wheel in a rocky section at speed and heard a "pop." i thought it was my tire burping air and also figured thats why my front end felt loose. in the end, i was 1 minute per lap slower on laps 3 &4 over laps 1 & 2 trying to ride less aggressive and keep the bike together. only after the race did i realize my frame now has a new bend in it and that "pop" was my fork actually breaking. good times.

after all the smoke cleared, i won and it felt great. this year has sucked pretty bad and to win against some decent compitition on a favourite (i forgot to be euro when i mentioned tire, er tyre, earlier so i'll make up for it with a favourite) course feels nice.

Crossin' up

I skipped the OtterCreek MTB race today to hit a Cyclocross race. I pre-rode at OC two weeks ago and had a bad day, primarily due to allergies, but I just didn't really feel it, probably because there's something about OC that I just don't care for. So when faced with the choice of riding my CX bike or MTB I went North up to England-Idlewild park in Burlington, KY and raced on skinny tires there.

Took 6th in the B's, better than I placed last year in CX racing on my Klein Hardtail, so I met my goal of finishing in the top half of the group. I know what I need to work on, so I'm gonna focus on that and see if I can improve.

Sorry to let my MTB fans down, but the CX crowd was appreciative. With the MTB season winding down and the CX heating up, I hope to see more than a couple of MTB'ers out on the CX courses this year.

Hello Darlin...

...nice to see you it's been a long time.

Now that i got you singing, well, maybe not. If you dont get the reference, you were prolly born after – I dunno – 1981, never had to hear songs like "Coal miners daughter" over and over and I hate you. Or maybe envy. Close enough to the same emotion. Lets move on to why I chose the title. I raced last weekend. First race in a month. It kinda sucked. I got beat by a guy who wasnt even born when Purple Rain was a big hit, another who wasnt born when Nirvana released their first album, and a guy with one gear (i guess if we need to make the musical analogy, he would be like a 45, or Dexys Midnight Runners). Yes albums, I am old. Why all the musicall metaphors? Why not.

The last Dino was at Town Run trails park in Indy. Know what the best part about doing anything in Indiana is? Leaving. So anyway, tight fast and flat little course. You may actually stop pedaling for, maybe, 40 seconds in the two hours. Ugh. The inch of rain on saturday made things slick for the first couple laps, just enough to take your wheels out from under you suddenly and quite unexpectedly (uh, so i heard from less skilled riders, yeah, thats it.), but by lap 4 it was packing down nicely. It actually is a fun place to ride, would be fun to do their TT race, but man, for a race course, its kinda frustrating; passing is not the best, you just start feelin dizzy after a while and start longing for a hill (up or down, somethin).

So, after all was said and done, Brad Nelson won his fiirst Dino, Ben Richardson played bridesmaid yet again, Jason Pruitt hammered the hell out of a full rigid (perfect setup for town run) with a 44x18 gear. I came blazing in lookin like I had some fire still in me (I think I fooled them) for 4th. Next weekend; retribution at OCP!

Oh man

Another sad day for enthusiasts of the sport. Stories like this scare the crap out of me and make me consider taking up other sports or just staying in the woods on a mountain bike instead of doing road rides. Here is the obituary for Sean Livesay. A link to his blog is over on the right titled "another mtber living in FL."

Bicyclist killed in Niceville was passionate racer

NICEVILLE — A bicyclist was killed Tuesday morning when he collided with a vehicle’s trailer while training.

Sean B. Livesay, 38, of Niceville, was riding his bike on Bayshore Drive when a pickup truck towing a trailer backed out of a residential driveway at 1733 Bayshore, according to Niceville police Lt. David Popwell.

The accident occurred at about 8:30 a.m., and Livesay was pronounced dead at the scene about 20 minutes later. He was wearing a helmet.

Livesay collided with the trailer, which was carrying landscaping equipment. The driver, who lives at the address, was on his way to work.

The driver will likely be charged with a traffic violation, Popwell said.

Livesay was traveling fast on his bike, but Popwell said he was going under the 30 mph speed limit.

An autopsy was scheduled for later Tuesday, mainly to “close the loop” and rule out possible medical conditions, Popwell said. The autopsy results were not available Tuesday night.

Livesay was a known cycling enthusiast who was often seen riding his bike in the area.

Livesay’s passion for racing sent him traveling across the country looking for new challenges. He documented the efforts on his blog.

“I've been doing a fair amount of training so far, and my fitness is far beyond what it was this same time last year,” Livesay wrote in one of his most recent entries April 12. “I had hoped to already have a race or two under my belt, but life kind of got in the way ... which happens sometimes.”

His performance attracted four sponsors. He started racing in 2002 and had been doing it in competitively since 2005.

Daily News Staff Writer Jill Nolin can be reached at 863-1111, Ext. 1445.