Getting the ball rolling...

My riding over the past 8 weeks has been almost non-existent. 4 to 6 hours a week. We are now approaching August and cx starts just 40 days later. I'm in boarder line panic mode from a fitness stand point. Not sure what my deal is but I have had a shit ton of stuff going on this summer.

Florida vacation. Sisters wedding. Lots of birthday parties. And a ton of bad or hot weather, both of which make for not much riding. I am fairly certain all the bad weather is now behind us. I do know for a fact that all my out of cycling events are. And that's good because I can start to focus on CX.

I have done a hand full of races though. Mostly crits, some clean some dirty. The Babler circuit race was fun too. I guess I feel like I should be out killing myself on my bike every night but I think I am in a perfect situation for cx. I had great form early in the year. Then the past 8 weeks have been very easy. Now its time to ramp up to be strong (and fresh) for the entire cross season.

Since I hate riding when its super hot out I actually spent 2 hours on my rollers Saturday. That's a record for me. The ipad helped a ton and watching cooking on channel 9 did too. Doing a little yoga and some running has also been good. Keeps the core tight. The plan is now in motion for my best cx season yet. It is now time to start getting big hours leading up to the first race.

Anyway. My bikes are almost ready to roll. My tires are here and are stretching on the wheels. Since I had a flat rear on my Shimano c-35 carbon tubular wheel I took the opportunity to throw the cross tire on there to get a visual.

I will be running the Dugast Typhoon's on my c-35 wheels and Dugast Ryno's on my c-50's.


Full Tilt with full Dura-Ace 7900.


Gin & Trombones with full Dura-Ace 7800.


Giant Beer mug boot for a groomsman gift. Pretty fucking rad.


"Epic Man Shit". It will almost hold a six pack.

Crits this past week.

I once again had a unexpected 7 straight days off the bike coming into this week. I raced last Tuesday(7-5)... and didn't ride again until the following Tuesday(7-12). Its no surprise my fitness is gone with the way the summer has been going for me.

Anyway, At the Tuesday crit this week I felt like complete shit. I was winded just pre-riding and talking to people. The A race started out with lightning and thunder. Thought for sure they were going to call it. It was super windy too.

The lightning and thunder left us but the rain started coming down pretty hard. After 15 or so minutes of racing in the rain the decided to call the race for some reason. I was kind of confused by this. We were already soaking wet. So that was that for the A race. Christopher(708) and myself kept riding laps in the rain.

30 minutes later the B race lined up with clearing skies. There were only 7 or 8 riders as most(almost all) the other people had left for the day. It was strange being in the race. I only did it because I was there, soaking wet, and needed the time in so why not. Once we were moving it was clearly just going to be a tempo ride. The two big shark riders were trying to start a break but none of the guys from SLU were willing to take a pull so it came back every time. I never followed the attacks. I just sat in the rotation for the pedal time and would pull when it was my turn. With half a lap to go I put in a good effort and came across the line first with a decent gap on second and third. That was it for Tuesday.

I took Wednesday off to cut grass and not be totally blown apart for the dirt crit.

I started the dirt crit really slow this week. I didn't want to be red lined the first two laps so starting at the back was my plan. I guess it worked. After the race got going I held the same pace the entire time and rode forward the entire time as well. I only finished in 21st, but only 60 seconds separated me from 10th place. Hopefully when I get a solid week of riding I will be up there. 11 guys in a 60 second spread is pretty competitive but I should be able to make that up.

The weather is again being ridiculous. The super hot temps are making it hard to decide what to do. I am thinking babler tomorrow. Maybe. The mountain bike race tomorrow would be fun but I cannot handle this kind of heat for that type of racing.

I need a training plan... Sitting on the couch has not been working out like I thought it would.

UGLY!!

What is the worst thing a driver in the tour caravan can do? Take the riders out.





Johnny Hoogerland went into the fence got the worst of it...

Beer Contest Winner is....

..TJ Newport from Kalamazoo, MI.

Apparently none of you keep a change jar. The amount in the jar, although looks like not much, was in fact $337.14. Not a typo. Three Hundred thirty seven and change.

The last time I emptied it the change was almost to the guitar neck and almost worth 1K.

Save your pocket change. It adds up.

Finding my legs and drunk driving

Now that I have had a week of riding since returning from Florida my legs seem to be slowly coming back. Tonight in the A race at the Tuesday worlds, I found that I was able to go to the front and attack, and chase attacks with out too much stress. But, I am still not recovering from those efforts very quickly. I will give it another couple weeks before I am back in good form.

Anyway. After getting in a couple breaks that didn't do much I just sat in the last few minutes to not blow my self apart. I wanted to do the B race too to get the hours. So I figured that was a good plan.

In the B race I sat in the first half the race just to ride it. Then about half way through I decided to go the front go hard up the hill one lap to see what would happen. I pulled one rider with me. Ben from Momentum. We had a gap so we kept it rolling. My legs were hurting pretty bad after a few laps of the front. I started to pull the plug until Buddy showed us 3 to go. We kept it rolling pretty good. On the final lap Jim Vandeveen and Sam Moore just about bridged up to us. I still had enough to out kick everyone for the prestigious B race win. Sweet right? Nothing better than Sandbagging. A win is always good, but that shit just felt wrong. Oh well.

I was out riding on July 4th. Mistake. I wasn't really thinking when I rolled out for the ride. I don't usually ride on the road on Holiday weekends as to avoid all the dumb asses. I almost paid for it this time...

It was actually the end of my ride. I was cooling down just a couple streets from my house. I always ride a couple laps around the block after each ride. So, I'm rolling down the street probably going about 15 or so, and of course all the way to the right. I hear a car coming up behind me, then skidding in the gravel on the shoulder of the road. I look over my shoulder and didn't recognize the car that was only about 5 feet from my rear tire. I did a double take to see if I knew the person. Nope. All this took place in about 3 seconds.

The car was just sitting at this point with some chick just starring blankly out the windshield. I turned around to see what the hell her deal was and why she almost ran me over. Before I could even say anything she pulled back on the road and started to take off. She drove about 40 feet and pulled in a driveway. I sat there and waited for her to get out of the car. I had some questions to ask her.

She gets out..

ME: Are you drunk?
her: Fusuck you. Get ju fuck out of my ard.
ME: im not in your yard. Im in the street.
her: what ju fuck is er problem?
Me: well you almost just ran me over right over there.
her:(she is now stumbling her way to the house)im done with yu fuck ju.
Me: do you even realize you almost ran over me?
her: Fusuck you. Get ju fuck out of my ard.
ME: im not in your yard. Im in the street.
her: wut.. do yuo unt me to call the cops er somethin..?
ME: sure, why dont you do that and get them here.
her: im done with yu fuck ju.


At this point, she started to walk towards me pretty aggressively so I bolted. I was super pissed at first. But as the day went on it really started to bug me that I almost got hit by some dumb ass drunk bitch. Kind of scared me I guess. I mean, in all honesty I don't think she was going fast but, cars vs bikes is never a good situation to be in. I thought about calling the police but I don't know that they could have done anything. Now that I have had a day to think about it, I should have called them.



There are now 4 people in the beer contest(is that ironic for this post?) 3 more days until some lucky person gets a 6 pack on me.

Dirt Crit One

Hot. Fast. Soft legs. Creek felt great. Rode near the front the first couple laps. Faded. Then went forward again. Then faded again. Too hard of riding coming off vacation. Finsihed 27th. Hope to be in the teens next week.

Officially, no one is winning the free beer contest yet because no one has guessed(is my dirty foot bothering people?). The stats are in, I now know how much the change jar guitar was holding. Post comment for what you think was in there and win beer. 7 more days.