From all of us here on Armer Ave...

Happy Holidays!



Thanks for checking in.

Whats Up.

"No Shave November" is coming along swimmingly.



Check out this sweet new site for more info on today's ride.

I went to Thanksgiving at the Hamity's house here in Boulder. They were wonderfully gracious hosts, and our feast was delicious. As this isn't my first Thanksgiving away from home, or at an unfamiliar house, I'm starting to get the hang of it. You see, for me Thanksgiving is all about one thing.


Jellied Cranberry Sauce.

Now... back to where my expertise comes into play. I've slowly learned that most of the outside world doesn't actually serve this Thanksgiving staple on their tables. Usually they'll opt for the classier "chunky cranberries" or even the homemade "cranberry relish" concoction. I don't get into these so much, so for my first Thanksgiving with a friends family I thought I would solve the jellied cranberry issue by being a gracious guest. I arrived at dinner on time, bearing a bottle of wine, and a can of "Ocean Spray" jellied cranberry sauce. I had even splurged in an effort to impress the hosts by buying the name brand stuff! The impression I had hoped for was not achieved.

This year I solved my dilemma in a different way. I woke up on Thanksgiving morning, made a cup of coffee, sat down to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and ate an entire can of cranberry sauce. I don't get that into the parade, but for a minute it really felt like Thanksgiving.

Thanks again to the Hamity's and the Wenzel's from the story above. It's awesome having "family" away from my family.

On a final note, I'm unloading some bike stuff on eBay, so check back over the next couple days while I get it all posted.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I broke my cross bike. During a practice a while ago I noticed it was handling really weird. Upon further inspection I found a crack on the downtube that had almost separated the downtube from the headtube. Joe D at Primus Mootry was awesome about it though and within 3 weeks I had a brand new, Scandium this time, cross frame in white! I'll take pics later.

It felt good to write on here again, maybe I'll start doing it more often? Maybe not? Thanks for checking in.

Pics

Gila.

Mt. Hood

McDonald's Ice Cream at Mt. Hood.

Tour of America's Dairyland - Stage 3 - Grafton, WI

Jami's birthday present.

In only 10 short hours, this...



... can turn into this.


I'll put it up on the woodworking blog soon.
Thanks for checking in.

Gila is a wrap.

Done with Tour of the Gila for one more year. It went better than last year, but still not as good as I'd hoped.

Up next is North Boulder Park, a little camping trip to Moab, Coal Miners, Koppenberg, some more local racing, then off to Hood River for another edition of Mt Hood Cycling Classic. Hopefully it goes better than last year too.

Yesterday I did the coolest ride ever here in Colo Spgs. I got up pretty high, even saw some snow. I rode up Gold Camp road, past Cheyenne Canyon, through the closed part for 8 miles of loose gravel and down Old Stage Rd back into the Springs. It was fun, felt like a mix of MTB and Cross, all on the road bike. Not everyday do you get to rail some singletrack, and a rocky creek crossing on the road bike.

Here is the view from the top, please excuse the camera phone quality pictures.


Also, I've been planting and building in the back yard. Here are my tomatoes, with there custom built tomato supporter things. Also, you can see my radishes coming up in the foreground, the broccoli is harder to see on the right. We've got 3 kinds of lettuce coming up already as well, along with a bunch of wildflowers and some basil.


And finally, Jami planted a bunch of herbs in pots, so rather than leave them scattered around the deck, I decided to build a little plant stand for them.

3 Minutes slower than 2 years ago.

Yup, and it shows.

Thanks for checking in.

Only in Silver City.

Do you find yourself on the front page of the Sports section next to Lance Armstrong.


Thanks for checking in.

Only in America.

Do you find yourself in a race with Lance Armstrong as well as a guy wearing a camelback.


On a further note... I dropped my chain, had to get off, chase back on, get dropped, ride 12 miles alone, crawl up the finish, suck really bad, and lose 30 min to the leaders.

Also, Team Rio Grande was fined heavily for drafting in the cars. Whoops.

Thanks for checking in.

Tour of the Gila T-minus 1 Day plus GOSSIP COLUMN.

Tomorrow The 2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila officially begins. I got down to The Sity of Cilver yesterday afternoon after a long drive from Salt Lake City where the RMCCC championships was held. Good showing for DU in general, with all categories finishing off the year with some of their best results and all of our A men looking super fit for Nationals.

Here at Gila things are going to be interesting with todays UCI ruling permitting Lance Armstrong and company to race. As many of you know I've recently become a pretty big Lance fan, so you can imagine my excitement to get to meet him and race against him. It's really an opportunity that I never imagined having, so I'm extra happy that the organizer opened up 25 more spots allowing me a spot in the race. This news also calls for a special edition of the Gossip Column so I can relay a little bit of the buzz around Silver City to the rest of the world.

#1 - Frank, a Silver City local was sure he saw that Lance guy walking down aisle 12 at Wal-Mart this week.

#2 - Due to the economic downturn which has led to Rock Racing's withdrawl from STOTG (Sram Tour of the Gila), the American public's refusal to tip over 15% at restaurants, Joe Sapperstein's ability to wave his hands in the air like he just doesn't care, as well as the layoff of thousands, Team Astana cannot afford to transport Time Trial gear to the STOTG, or pay for support in the feed zones. In an effort to neutralize the potential disadvantage to the Astana boys, STOTG organizers have decided that no one will be allowed to start with aero-gear, and all feed zones will be closed to the Pro, 1 category.

#3 - Since his recent injury sustained at Spain's Castilla Y Leon, Lance has developed a paranoia of being crashed in a preparation race before the Giro D' Italia, so he will be starting stage 1 tomorrow with an 8ft diameter "hula-hoop-like" protection device attached to his newest LiveSTRONG edition Trek to keep some of us amateur riders a safe distance from him. There is however a way of opening said safety hoop to let protege' Taylor Phinney into the ring if Lance needs a refresher on the latest teenage slang.

#4 - Dan Porter received a hand-written letter from Johan Bruyneel early this morning asking him to stay in Ft. Collins, CO as his negative, and sometimes derogatory remarks regarding peoples riding styles could be potentially harmful if accidentally directed toward Armstrong at this pivotal point in the lead up to his first Grand Tour in 1274 days.

#5 - Team BMC is now allowed only 3 riders in STOTG due to the UCI ruling that allowed Armstrong to race.

#6 - Lance's initial trouble in registering for the STOTG was that there is a UCI rule prohibiting ProTour riders from competing in smaller races. It is believed by some "in the know" that the UCI was tipped off to Lance's intentions to ride the STOTG by none other than Slipstream's own Jonathan Vaughters who is also rumored to despise the Texan.

#7 - This ruling could disallow Slipstream from competing in any NRC races here in the US, as they too hold a ProTour license these days. Which asks the question, "What up now Vaughters?"

Thats all for now. More is sure to follow. Thanks for checking in.

Hell has frozen over.

We're staying at a cabin near the base of Purgatory (Durango Mountain Resort) for the FLC race weekend, however the TTT has already been canceled and it's not looking so good for the crits this afternoon. It was 40˚ and raining in Durango, and it's 32˚ and dumping white stuff up here in hell.

On a brighter note, I finally finished my coffee table, the object of my affection for the past week and a half. I still have a couple touch ups on the polyurethane, but for the most part it is completed. For my first big project with my new saws, I'm happy with the way it turned out. I still have some room for improvement in the finishing department, but I think it'll do.




I guess that's all I have for now. I haven't been racing the past couple weekends, and now it's looking like I won't be doing Tour of the Gila as I wasn't registered with the team and the field is now full. Big big bummer, but I'll have to find something else to keep building up for.

Koppenberg 2009?

Logan emailed these pictures out of the Koppenberg climb that we're supposed to be racing up about 24 hours from right now!

Looks like it'll be an interesting race, but it should be fun. I'm thinking MTB shoes and pedals for sure, possibly full on cross bike. I guess I'll have to make a call when we get there tomorrow.

Should be a good one to watch, so if you aren't doing anything tomorrow afternoon, happen to find yourself in the Boulder area, and have a sick desire to see people suffering miserably, you should swing by.

Thanks for checking in.

Finally caught up to my 2009 racing age.

Quick run-down on the weekend.

- Turned 25 on Friday.

- Rode like crap in Grand Junction.

That's all.

This weekend is Koppenberg, usually it's a good time.

Thanks for checking in.

CU Research Park Criterium.

Not sure how many races I've done at research park now, maybe 7 or so... The look on my face pretty much sums up todays effort. As always it's a fast course, but for the first time it was run as a Pro, 1 race which definitely made it safer, but I think also made it harder. At one point it was so strung out and there were so many splits that I found myself in the 4th group on the road. Managed to claw our way back to the main field, but I couldn't get into position to help anyone out in the field sprint, so with 1/2 a lap to go I let myself drift and stay out of everyone's way.

Good training, fast racing, tomorrow is another day here in Greeley. Last time I did this race I was 3rd. We'll see how tomorrow goes. As for tonight... Karma and I had a big day and we're off to sleep.

Thanks for checking in.

The gossip column. It's back, but this time... it's the TRUTH.

#1 Phil Zajicek recently won the Metro State Roadrunner TT in Morrison CO with a broken wrist. Little known fact... his cast was put on in the wind tunnel to ensure it's aerodynamic qualities. The thing is actually faster in the crosswinds like a Sub 9. Aerodynamic guru Steve Hed was called in to make sure the setting was done correctly in the wind tunnel, and after Sunday's TT effort he was quoted as saying, "This thing is so fast, probably cut 1.16 second off Phil's time." Phil's time without the cast - 19:51, approximately one second slower than Corey Carlson.

#2 A certain local professional cyclist has recently gotten SRM to program an alarm into his power meter so a "beeping noise" goes off when a certain wattage is achieved. This was done to ensure he doesn't break any more bones by throwing down too hard.

#3 Another aerodynamic tidbit. Dan Porter spent a few hours in the wind tunnel this winter and found that although his larger than normal calves (cows) can produce a ton of power, and the mere sight of them can scare people off his wheel, they are in fact quite an aerodynamic obstruction. To smoothen things up, Steve Hed was once again called in, and recommended Dan mount a small instrument to his handlebars that acts like the dimples on a golf ball, creating a stream of ultra-turbulent air that allows Dan's cow to slip through the surrounding air without increasing his aerodynamic drag. The instrument is pointed out by the arrow below, the turbulent air-stream is also visible. Dan claims it's for some crazy new web-developing-business venture he's into. Likely story.



#4 Floyd Landis was innocent. I just read his book, trust me.

#5 Tyler probably was too.

#6 Now that the elderly population of women in Boulder have stopped paying attention to him, a certain Mr. Ryan Hamity has decided to start racing bikes again to see if he can catch the eyes of the over 35 population again.

That's all for now, there is sure to be more juicy TRUE gossip as the year goes on.
Thanks for checking in.

Another weekend of racing in the books.

DU hosted their home race at City Park on Saturday. The collegiate races went well with some break-out performances by our Men's C riders, as well as some great performances by our women, as well as our Men's A riders.

The Open races went smoothly as well, and I got to race in the Pro, 1,2 field. We got two riders into the early break of 5, one of them came out of it, but the break looked like it was going to make it.



We rode pretty defensively in the group, which got really boring. With 15 minutes to go things got fiesty and I had the chance to sneak off with one other guy. Allen Krughblog and another guy came up to us and Krugher-blogger when right through us, so I had a lap to sit on.



We caught him with a few laps to go, worked together to stay away from the group, and sprinted out for 5th. Allen took the hot line through the last roundabout and easily took the sprint, so he was 5th, I ended up 7th, and our teammate Caley Fretz was 2nd in the actual sprint. Good day for team Rio.



Yesterday was the Metro State TT. Once again DU had some good performances, highlighted by a 3rd place in our Men's A Team Time Trial, only 15 seconds off the win.

I raced later in the afternoon, took almost a minute off my time from 2 years ago, but still managed to get beaten by over a 1.15 by Phil Z. Turns out he's fast even with a broken wrist. In the end I was happy to feel good and powerful on my TT bike, so I guess I'll have to keep riding it. Tito tells me I have to win the State TT this year to defend his win from last year. We'll see.

Racing again.

This weekend marked the first races of 2009 for me and a lot of people along the front range of Colorado. Saturday was the 341st annual CSU Oval Criterium. "The Oval" is one of Colorado's classic crit courses with a half mile oval linked with 6, 90 degree, back to back to back to back to back to back corners. It's an absolutely great course by my standards, and usually a good turnout, this year being no exception. A lot of the local heavy hitters were there, including almost the entire Rio Grande team.

I thought we rode really well as a team, had a guy in the break, and a guy in a group going across when with 5 laps to go, I flatted right in the apex of a right hand corner. My bike got a little sideways, but I kept it upright after a little brush with the curb.

My teammate Dan Porter was riding with a handlebar mounted camera and happened to be right on my wheel when it happened. You can check the video on the YouTube. The drift isn't real dramatic in the video, but if you look closely you can see it get a little hairy right around 8.00 into the video.

Sunday was the Colorado College crit here in Colorado Springs. I can't tell you how nice it is to hop on your bike and ride to a course within a mile or two. The course is a stark difference from The Oval, but a great course nonetheless. A much smaller turnout, added to a course with less recovery, and a little too aggressive attitude on my part, led to an all around tough day for me. On the bright side, I felt decent, got some great efforts in, and had a little fun at different points during the race.

I guess that's all for now, thanks for checking in. Maybe I'll update this a little more often now that we're racing.

Also, I'm on twitter now, so lame. twitter.com/coreycrlsn

One more thing, a couple years ago I did a mean thing to Logan Garey and really made him hurt. Read all about it.