Bike Review #3

Alright folks, it's time for my review of my new Cannondale Caad 8 road bike. I've only ridden this thing a few times, but thus far I have no complaints. It's definitely stiffer than what I'm used to which is a good and bad thing. This is an all aluminum frame, with a carbon fork that has a carbon steerer. It came stock with an FSA integrated headset.

I'm running all my old components on this bike right now. I've got my old old Ultegra crank and bottom bracket, although I'm hoping to have a new Dura-Ace 10 crank before race season. I'm running a Dura-Ace 9sp rear derailleur that I got from Scott after he crashed and "ruined" it, Ultegra 9sp front derailleur with the controversial clamp, a Sram PC-99 hollowpin chain, Ultegra 11-23 cassette, and Speedplay X1 pedals. I got the pedals second hand for 80 bucks, so I think there must be something special about them since they aren't worth a penny over 50 bucks.

The wheelset is a pair of Ultegra hubs laced to Mavic Open Pros with Wheelsmith double butted spokes. I bought this wheelset this fall after I built a new one for Scott, and he no longer needed these. The rear rim was toast, but luckily Scott (being the good friend that he is) threw in an extra hoop that came off of his Power-Tap wheel. I laced it onto this hub and it's been rockin' ever since. I run Specialized Armadillo tires because nothing can beat them in these Greeley goatheads. I think I've gotten one flat on these tires because of a thorn, and they've lasted a couple thousand miles so far.

I've got a Selle Italia SLR saddle on top of a Cannondale Wind seatpost. I'm actually the first owner of the saddle, although the seatpost is secondhand from Scott. Evidently it wasn't long enough when he bought his Giant? In the bottom of this picture you can also see my Ultegra rear brake.

This last shot shows my Dura-Ace 9sp shifters (which I hear they quit making, so get your hands on a pair now if you can), my Ritchey Pro 44cm handlebar, my borrowed Felt 110mm stem, and Ultegra front brake. This shot also does a fine job of the red cables that I've grown to love. Don't worry, I actually put new housing on this bike when I built it up.

Like I said, I've only ridden this bike a few times, but I enjoyed every minute of the 2 and a half hours I spent on it today. Scott and I rode a bunch of dirt, and I could definitely tell I didn't have my flexy old Trek underneath me, but I think I really like it overall. I'm still trying to figure out if I like the lengh, or if I should go another 10mm longer. Only time will tell I guess. On our dirt adventures today, we found something you don't see everyday along the road.

I also tried to re-create moment from years past. It didn't work out as well, but it never will.

Here is a parting shot from the road. This is what it looks like in action, we'll have to wait a couple months to see if I have the motor to make it go fast.

Getting lazy.

I realize I haven't updated in a while. Kind've a busy week, but I got sick on top of it which made the motivation for this kind of stuff drop. The dinner party on Monday night was a hit. The food turned out good, and everyone else brought awesome stuff, and I think we all ended up having a good time. I know I did, probably enough for everyone. The rest of the week was kinda same old same old, school and work, although I did get my bike put together so I've finally made my maiden voyages on my new Cannondale CAAD 8. I'll try to get a bike review together by the end of this week? This weekend has been crazy so far. More cross-country skiing class. After a 6am wake up this morning and 4 solid hours of skate skiing, I'm worked, but I'd better rest up to do it all again tomorrow. I'd never skated before today, but I think I kinda got the hang of it. We had a lesson in the morning and had this bloke named Peter teach us the ropes. I call him a bloke because he was from the U.K. and used almost every awesome "English" term I can think of. I tried to ski with my new friend Rochelle in the afternoon, I'd skiied with her last weekend and managed to keep up, but today I got the crap kicked out of me. I could hang on the flats, she wouldn't use her poles and I'd be giving it all I had, but then on all the climbs it was as if I was going backwards. Finally we split and I took the easy route back to the lodge. I managed not to have to drive Little Timmy this weekend. Not sure if I'd mentioned him earlier, but he's quite the guy. I think it's time to hit up a little Tylenol Cold PM and hit the sack early. Maybe I'll wake up feeling like a million bucks? That would be quite the contrast to this morning. This week brings more class, and hopefully some steady riding. I'll try to maybe get some pictures from a ride since it has been a while, and I need to show off the new bike. Hope you're all having awesome weekends.

Helluva weekend.

Whew, I'm glad the weekend is over, I need a break. This reminds me of cross season when you sit around on Sunday night, totally worked, wondering when you're going to get that break you were waiting for the weekend for. Anyway, last semester I would have just taken Monday off, but not with this current attendance streak.

Saturday morning I was up at 6 to go cross country skiing for my PE class. I thought it was going to be a joke, we'd stand around all morning, then ski in a few circles in the afternoon. No way, I got into the lesson group with other kids that knew how to ski, including a couple ex-racers (well only one of the could actually ski like she had raced). We took off with our crazy old lady instructor who was actually really cool and very nice, but she tore my legs off for two and a half hours straight. At about the hour 45 mark, she goes, oh boy, we're going to need to make tracks if we want to finish this "tour" in 45 minutes. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and after an extended lunch break, I headed back out with the ex-racer girl for a relaxing 1 hour loop. We had a lot of fun and a nice conversation as we slowly made our way around the Eldora Nordic Center. The down side to the trip was the drive there and back with "Little Timmy."

I knew it would be a long drive when Little Timmy couldn't get the seat belt around his belly. Rochelle, the skier, and I were treated to some amazing tales of Timmy's 65mph bike rides, 2.5 million ducks in a flock, and how he knocked out a psych degree in a year.

Saturday night we watched Cinderella Man at Kari's house with her, Scott, and her roomate Aimee. The movie was really good, good enough to keep me awake after a 6am wake up, and the hardest workout I'd had year-to-date.

Sunday morning came too soon once again, but 3 hours later than Saturday. I got up at 9 to "get my stuff ready" for a Century with a few fellow crazy's. It turns out I had 2 flats, zero tubes, and no way to get my pump onto my bike. I ended up patching and using a cross TR tube in the front wheel, taping the pump on, and driving to Scott's with my finger's crossed that someone had a tube for me. Luckily Nick did, and I think he owed me one maybe? Anyway, the way I felt after skiing the day before, and after scoping out the company, I was hoping to get 50 miles instead of 100. Scott, Nick, Mikeal, Nicky, and her teammate Aimee Vasse (two time Mt. Washington hill climb champ).





I had a lot of fun riding with everyone, sitting in was awesome, but at about mile 60, the inevitable happened. I cracked harder than Humpity Dumpity on our way back in on 10th street. Luckily everyone started to flat and Scott rescued me with some peanut butter cups and a coke from a gas station right there. I hung it up after 63 miles and headed over to Kari's for the end of the Bronco's game. I'm a HUGE football fan, so you can imagine my disapointment when they lost. The night turned out to be a lot of fun, but I'm hurting this morning. I found a couple new muscles cross country skiing, and the bike ride didn't help them out at all, so I'm feeling a little sore and grumpy this morning. Hopefully an easy spin with Scott before class will help things a little.

Tonight is my pheasant dinner party. Cross your fingers I can figure out how to make it. Right now I'm feeling a little grilled peanut butter sandwiches, I've got that recipe down.

The attendance streak lives on.

9 days now, would have been 10, but Martin Luther King stole a day of learning from me. Last night I went out way too big again to celebrate the two week mark. Luckily class didn't start till 2:30 this afternoon. I've been living the typical college kid life the past couple weeks, and not to say it isn't fun and all, but I think it's time to turn things around. This Sunday I got roped into a century which could get really ugly. If there is an upside to it, I know I won't be blown from a hard week of training. I just hope I can survive, I'm seriously considering a double chamois. It looks like I'll be riding my mountain bike again since my road bike is still sans front derailleur clamp. I was gonna try and pull off a fixed gear with my Surly frame, but I just realized I need to tape the bars on it, and I'll have no way of getting any bar tape before Sunday as I will be cross country skiing all day tomorrow. Maybe I'll ride my blue fixed gear? Anyway, if you couldn't tell, I'm a pretty boring guy, deciding what bike to ride will be the highlight of my week. You knew that you wouldn't find any excitement here though, it does say "Boring" right in the title. A few of you loyal readers may not have noticed that I've been supplying you with infrequent boring updates for an entire year now. I hope you've all enjoyed the past year, it's had it's ups and downs, but I'm glad you all got to come along for the ride with me.

It's time to go clean out my car since I get to drive 3 strangers around tomorrow. I don't think they'll appreciate the trainer, Tufo tires, or electric skillet in the back seat. I don't even know what's in the trunk, I'd better get on that and get to bed early. Thanks for stopping by, and if any of you have any questions about "instinct," I've recently learned that Scott Wenzel is an expert on the subject.

Who knows what they were doing a year ago today? I do, I was sliding down 28th Ave. on my left ass cheek pretending that my iPod was a PDA.

Perfect attendance.

7 days strong, and that's saying a lot considering what I've been putting up with. Scott mentioned my oceanography homework, and thought he'd make fun of me a little, well, he doesn't have to teach that sits next to me in lab what contour lines on a map are, what they mean, how to read them, how to interpret them, and how to make a cross section using them. Although parts of the ocean floor are indeed flatter than a billiards table, there are a lot of freaking bumps between Cape Cod, and Cap Blanc, and she needed to know "what I got" for every single contour line the entire way across the Atlantic. Overall Oceanography is alright, but right now it's just a lot of confusing, dull, data, that I have to try to make sense of. If anyone want's to relate the Bathymetry, Regions, Heat Emissions, and Gravity Anomalies, across the ocean, please, fill me in. Anyway, here is some bathymetric data for you. Feel free to make a cross section if you wish.


P.S. Sorry this is so boring, I was told to update and this is what I'm up to.

P.P.S. Sorry for being so negative, I'm just already feeling the annoying kids in my classes migrating towards me. I have a cross country ski trip on Saturday, and some LARGE, sweatpants wearing, sweaty, non-traditional student will be riding with me. He wasn't happy with our meeting point because, "he couldn't park his truck there, his tools will get stolen." First off, why am I driving him if he has a truck? Second, is he really going to argue with me about this when I'm driving him? Third, he argued with the teacher about what route we should take, so I'm sure he'll want to tell me how to get to Eldora once we're on the road. Just how I want to start my Saturday at 7am. Wow, lot's of negativity.

More Old Cyclocross Photos.

Here is a Kodak Gallery album of the cyclocross season. It was supposed to end at the state championships, that's why it's called, "The road to Xilinx," but as you may or may not know, I crapped out a week early and didn't race states. Here are the pictures though.

Old Cyclocross Photos

Scott showed me a site with a TON of awesome CX pictures. Here are a few of the highlights. I guess the site sponsors Rocky Mounts, so they take a lot of pics of us? Anyway, they have a ton of awesome pictures, check them out here.

Bike Review #2

Tonight I've decided to do a little write up on my mountain bike. Although this isn't the way it's set up to race on, it's the way I've been riding it lately. See for yourself. Note the flat front tire from yesterday's goathead battle. The goatheads won, they always do.

The frame is a Giant hybrid with an aluminum front triangle and carbon seat and chain stays. Giant has discontinued this frame, but I can't figure out for the life of me why they would have. It was very affordable, and rides as nicely as anything I've touched. I couldn't believe the difference the carbon stays made after the first time I rode it, but I absolutely love the way it feels and the handling couldn't be better. Currently it's set up with 700c road wheels, which makes training on it this time of the year possible. I'm not sure that I could get in long consistent hours on the trail, but this way I can just ride it around Greeley and get more and more used to the way it rides, and get my body used to riding on it.

I once had a full XTR drivetrain, but when I got this frame I had to get a new front derailleur and I decided to go with an XT (mostly because I had a race the next day and that's all that was available, but also because I didn't want to throw down 75 bucks for a part I might use once or twice in a race. For those of you who know how I ride, I usually climb in my big ring, and spin it out on the flats and decents.) Right now for winter training I've also fitted the bike with an FSA compact road crankset. This allows me to push a little bigger gear since I'm mostly riding it on pavement and flat gravel. I'm running a Sram PC-69 chain on this bike. I run Sram chains and cassettes on all my geared bikes. This cassette happens to be an 11-32. You can also see the recycled bar tape on the chain stay. I took this off Scott's bike last spring, and I think the blue looks alright, although it shows grease from the chain really bad.

Up front I'm rollin' with a 2003 Rock Shox SID World Cup in the "Rollin' Green" color. The fork has a carbon crown and steerer as well as a remote lock out. I'm not the biggest Rock Shox fan in the world, but as long as you keep it well maintained it works great and weighs in at just under 2.6 lbs. The problem is you have to constantly rebuild it to keep it maintained. It's in need of an overhaul right now after a rough summer and short racing season this fall. This picture also shows the Avid BB5 mechanical disc brakes. I went with the mechanical brakes because I couldn't afford new XTR shifter levers, although to all of you out there, if you want disc brakes, you want hydraulic, trust me. These things are a pain to keep running right, and require constant adjustment. Oh well, the price was better than I could believe, and they allow me to run the 700c wheels since the rim no longer has to line up with a brake. I'm running Kenda Kaliente tires on this bike, which I've heard great things about, but had bad luck with yesterday. I don't think I can blame that on the tire too much though, I'm quite certain I would have flatted a steel belted radial with as many goatheads as I had sticking out of my tire.

Here is a picture of the cockpit. I've got the XTR dual control shifter/levers, which I like quite a bit, although I still think hydraulic would've been the way to go. You can also see my remote lock-out (locked out in the particular shot), my cut off bar-ends, and the Deda bar-tape that I use in place of grips. I like the bar-tape #1 because I love bar tape, #2 because I like the grips to be thinner than a regular rubber grip, and #3 because the tape doesn't slide around the way grips do. This shot also shows my old Schwinn Homegrown top cap that I decided I'd keep with me so I never forget Pumpkin.

Under my rear lies a San Marco Aspide saddle and Thomson Elite seatpost. No complaints with either, although I'd rather have an SLR saddle. Unfortunately I've broken two SLR's riding them off road, and after riding two laps of a cyclocross race on the seat rails of one, I decided they just aren't tough enough. The Aspide has held up well, but just doesn't feel as nice on my sitting bones.

The crank is a 34-50, but was custom drilled so I could throw a 22t little ring on it if I felt compelled to do so. Getting this thing on was kind've a challenge, and I'm not so sure it's really too Kosher the way it is. I ended up using a Dura-Ace triple bottom bracket, but had to put a spacer on the drive side so the chainrings would clear the chainstay. It works and hasn't loosened itself yet so I guess I'll just run it?

As you can tell, this thing is a speed machine the way it's set up. Here it is in action. Full Donkey Tuck down 4th street. The Donkey Tuck is twice as good on the MTB since the top tube is so much lower than my road bike. I must warn you though, I hit a manhole about 2 seconds after this shot was taken, and the top tube isn't what you want to be sitting on when hitting hard bumps, especially if the fork is locked out.

I think that concludes my write up. If I've left any questions un-answered, feel free to ask. Right now there is some movie on about the candyman and I can feel myself getting dumber as I listen to it. I'd better go find something better to waste the rest of my night on. Hope you all have a great Martin Luther King Day. I'm part way through Alex Haley's "Malcolm X," maybe I'll read a little more of it tomorrow just to show my spirit of the day.

Quite the day.

Today was supposed to be a shock to the system. We were gonna ride as long as we could, shooting for 4 hours, with the goal of getting me back into shape in a day. That's not quite the way it turned out, but it did turn out to be an adventure and a half. I left my house at noon and didn't be back until after 5pm. I don't think I got much over 2 hours ride time though. First I waited for Nick to get dressed, then we had espresso shots at Scott's. Once we finally got riding, the action began. It all started with an amazing, blind, track standing, behind the back bottle toss from me to Scott. Read more about on Scott's site.. We continued on, only to watch an old man smash his Buick into a speed bump directly next to me, then Nick flatted at a stop light not 20 minutes after bragging about how he NEVER gets flat tires. We picked up Mark for a wild, drugged out ride, then continued onto some dirt. I found one of my favorites. A Greeley style irrigation canal road.

This was awesome until it turned into flat fest 2006.

We headed back into IBike to get more tubes with full intentions of heading back out for more riding. But... the BreadBoard was giving away day olds, so... we ended up eating a ton, then heading back to Kari's for more eating.

I did manage to get my bike stuck in the sand after a short bathroom break. I have a movie of me pulling it out. It's pretty good. Let me know if you'd like to see it.


Tonight Scott, Kari, and I went to a UNC hockey game with a couple of Kari's roomates and sorority sisters. UNC won, and Scott and I managed to make ourselves look like idiots. I did manage to score Scott a job at the Rio before the game but after no less than 2 Rio margs. Today wasn't really a shock to the system, but it was a lot of fun. No bike review this update, but I'm feeling a review of my mountain bike coming on very soon. Yeah, time for you all to get excited about it.

Bike Review #1

So... The OC is on. Everybody always tells me I need to watch it, but I think it's pretty stupid so far. It's just like Laguna Beach, except not nearly as REAL. Anyway, I read a bike review the other day and thought, "I can do better than that." The only problem is, I didn't know which bike to review. The upside to this dilema is that I've decided to review every bike I own, that means almost a full work week's worth of daily updates. No promises on how soon I'll get to them all, but we'll start here with my fixed gear. I can't say I have a favorite bike, but I do like this one a lot.

This bike is based off an old Fuji frame I dug out of the trash at the Roubaix Bicycle Company. The frame isn't straight, it's actually off by almost 5mm, but I straightened it a little, and also ground all the braze-ons off before getting it painted. I'd recently gotten my car repaired and talked the auto body shop into painting the frame and fork for me for free. The baby blue and white color was inspired by a guitar that my then co-worker Eric had just purchased. I had been thinking gloss black with white lugs, but I have yet to regret my decision with blue.

The drivetrain is almost all Shimano with the 600 cranks and a Dura-Ace cog mounted to a Suzue hub with a Surly lockring. I salvaged the bottom bracket from the junked bike, and it actually says Fuji right on it. I chose a Wipperman BMX chain simply because it was all chromed out, and I like Wipperman stuff a lot. The pedals are Koykuto Top-Run's which I aquired through a trade with an artist named Thad, although now that I think about it, he never really owned them so I kinda got hosed. I'm not sure what the cages are, but they have a cool square and circle logo on them. The black nylon straps were supposed to be temporary until I located some white leather ones, but I have yet to find any.

The front hub is an old Campagnolo High Flange quick release hub. I know what you're thinking, "how can he sleep at night with mismatched hubs?" I can assure you however, it was no accident. I would have run the Suzue hubset, and would have actually preferred a bolt-on hub for the front of this bike, although the Suzue front hub has a 3/8" axle, and for those of you who are "in the know" that would have been simply unacceptable. I like this Campy hub though and it's got a cool old retro looking skewer.

The headset is a no named steel "open-ball" headset, although it took considerable work to fit it to the frame. After reaming and facing the frame, we learned it was built using "JIS" Japanese International Standard I believe. This uses a smaller diameter headtube, but larger diameter crown race. Since we'd reamed the head tube, the original headset would no longer press in, but the crown race was too small to use a standard 1" headset. We first solved this problem with a little liquid metal around the crown race, but this solution soon proved too ghetto too last. After some consultation from nationally renowned frame builder, Rich Murphy, I peened the crown race using a hammer and punch and "PEEN" problem solved. This picture also shows the original Fuji insignia on the fork crown.

Here is a fuzzy shot of my Nitto moustache bars wrapped in nothing other than white cotton tape. I had some bitchin' world champion striped bar plugs, but they didn't fit the 25.4mm bar very well to begin with, and I lost one in an unfortunate inebriated tumble. I replaced them with some cool steel plugs that I found at IBike, and they do just fine. The stem is just a standard 3TTT 1" quill, which I believe is 120mm long with a 26.0mm clamp that also took a little persuading to fit the 25.4mm bar.

This final shot shows my beautiful Ideale leather saddle that my good buddy Justin got for me one year at Yankton's city-wide clean up. It also shows the seatpost that came with the bike out of the junk pile. After a lot of Mothers metal polish, some steel wool, even a wire wheel, and a little black model paint, it's looking brand new. I especially like the black fluted look, although sometimes I think it would have been better white?

The wheels are both 36 spoke, built up triple cross on a Mavic MA3 in the rear and a Torelli Master in the front. Once again, I know it's mismatched, but they were all we had in the shop at the time. I do have an MA3 that I could lace onto the front now, but I'm not sure if I will. The whole thing rolls on Vredestein Ricorso tires which I have yet to flat. I like the tires enough that I think I'll put them on my training wheels once I wear through my current training tires and then put something a little wider on this beast. Maybe some Ruffy Tuffy's or 27c Gatorskins.

That's it for my first review. Thanks to everyone who helped me get this bike up and running, the list is long, but goes something like this. Steven Opp (including but not limited to, frame, fork, headset, bottom bracket, seatpost, hubs, rims, spokes, hours of help and heaps of knowledge, Profide, clips and straps, crankset, etc), Mike Morris (paint at Auto Collision Specialists), Eric "ERod" Boyce (color choice), Thad (pedals), Justin (saddle), Feighny (Mothers and a dremel), Luis (help with a grinder and frame straightening tool), and Mark Cooper (for telling me how cool it looks).

Up next I think we'll be reviewing my hand-me-down single speed cross bike/race cross bike. Look forward to it.

Once again it's been a while.

I'm still alive and kicking. Sorry for the lack of updates. Christmas was good to me as always. This elephant was definitely the coolest present I got, although I also got a bundle of cool things from my family, and my apartment continues to change shape and the sunflowers continually get more and more obnoxious with every new item I've gotten. I'm just kidding, I love each and ever sunflower I've received, especially, but not limited to the hand sewn dishtowel my grandma made fore me. She also made me a bitchin' dishtowel with a UNC Bear riding a red bicycle.

My break was nice, I wish it could have been a month longer, but that's how every break goes I guess. The break started off with a lot of hunting, which I really enjoyed since I haven't really done any since high school. I think watching Mattie evolve before my eyes into a better and better hunting dog was one of the highlights of the whole break. I got to see most all of my family for Christmas, then enjoyed a relaxing few weeks in Yankton. I played so much Scrabble that I even beat my mom by the end of break. For those of you who know her, you know what a feat that is. On top of that I watched more movies that I can count, perfected my sharpshooting skills with a .22, hiked almost daily with my little sister, spent some time with some close friends, and hopefully took one more step toward figuring out just exactly who Corey Carlson is, and what I'm supposed to be doing here. I can't say I'm overjoyed to be back in Greeley, but it's something that I need to do, and I plan to make the most of it.

I'm in school once again, back in the Education program. I'm currently enrolled in 9 credits with 4 more still hopefully on the way. Green carding into classes has always been good to me, so let's cross our fingers that my luck hasn't changed and I'll be able to finish out my coursework here at UNC this semester. Then it's just a couple of semesters of student teaching and I'm done. Yeah, count 'em up, that's 5 full years, but what can ya do?

Tonight Scott and I went to BONK, a live gameshow thing here at UNC. I didn't get picked to play, but that's alright with me, I don't do well in front of groups of people. Kari helped put it on, and although attendance was slim, I think it was a success for her and UPC. I got a T-Shirt out of the deal, but they were handing out iPod shuffles like no one's business, I guess I would've had a better chance at winning one if I'd have been louder.

Well, I think bedtime is rolling around pretty soong, I've gotta be up and ready to rock for a full day by 9:30 tomorrow. Class, then off to the International Bike for what is looking like a stimulating 7 hours of working alone. Nothing like jumping right back into things where I left off. I just hope I still know how to run the register. That's all for now. Anyway, I hope I haven't lost all my loyal following. Thanks for checking in.

Day 3 of perfect attendance is in the books.

Full Day.

Well, today started earlier than I'd prefer any day to start, but I woke of feeling fresh and ready to go. I was pretty excited to get out for my first real pheasant hunt in a couple years. I went out a couple years ago, but didn't hit a thing. Today we hunted with a nice sized group, six people, and got into some great cover that has been protecting birds from the blizzards SoDak has been experiencing.

While the Wells brothers were out tearing legs off in Rhode Island, we were busy knocking birds out of the sky. I hit my first pheasant in at least 4 years. I think I only hit the one, and missed some pretty easy shots, but oh well. It was a gorgous day and I just enjoyed being out with the pup, my dad, and some friends.

Mattie was amazing all day. I can't believe how good she is already this being her first year. If she has one downfall it's that she's not overly energetic yet, and likes to hang back and follow behind people that are plowing their way through the thick stuff. I feel like I rode about 3 hours today after pushing through all the thick snow covered reeds. At one point I thought I might have to crawl out, of a little draw because the snow was so deep. I was walking along next to Mattie and fell through the snow up to my thigh/waist. I tried just pushing through it, but it was way too deep, so I climbed back up on top of the top hard crust, took 3 more steps, and fell through again. This went on for about 50 yards until I could get across to where I wanted to be.

My parents had a little dinner party tonight, so as soon as we got home, my dad and I had to start helping out. I cleaned the birds, he got to vacuum and stuff. Then after we ate, my parents and the guests ran off to the symphony. I was left with piles and piles of crap to put away, clean up, and dishes to wash. I think I got it all done, and it gave me something to do, so now I'm just gonna crash in the chair and watch Clueless.

Tomorrow morning Mattie and I take off to head up to my uncle Ralph's for an extended weekend of hunting. Hopefully she's got it in her. By the looks of things today really took it out of her. She acted like she wanted to play a minute ago, but fell asleep after nibbling at my hand for about 2 minutes. I suppose I should hit the sack, since tomorrow promises to be another full day with a 3 hour drive and some more hunting.

How bout Todd and Troy Wells both winning National Championships today? That's pretty awesome, I'm jealous that I'm not at a level where I could compete with guys like that. Maybe next year I should get a fake ID that says I'm 16. This year I still would've gotten smoked by Alex Coehlo so I guess it would have been pointless. Alright, I'm out for now. Hope you all had a grand weekend.

Now this is an offseason.

For those of you who don't know, I'm back in SoDak. I took a little premature exit from school this semester, but who wants to talk about that, I know I certainly don't. It's true winter around the world now by the looks of things, I hear it's even storming in Antarctica! This afternoon was actually gorgous, the temps barely got out of the single digits, but Mattie and I loaded into the truck and headed out to find a few pheasants.
We saw plenty, but most of them were in farmyards, or near livestock, trying to stay somewhat protected from the elements, and hunters I'm sure. Some of the places we hunted had tons of signs that birds were in the area, like this marking here in the snow where I rooster had landed under a tree.
I managed to get a shot at one bird, but he ran before he got up, and then was on the other side of a plum thicket as was a good 40-50 yards out by the time I had a shot. I took a poke at him anyway, just to feel like I was actually hunting, but the distance couple with me being a poor shot resulted in him flying away, and Mattie getting really excited for a while.
The snow was deep enough that gaitors and snowshoes were saviors. It make trudging through the knee deep stuff almost fun.
At the end of the day, we were still empty handed, but I think I can speak for both of us in saying we enjoyed the day. I sure is a departure from riding the bike, but I enjoyed it.

The report said 55 degrees at ride time.

Word must have gotten out of that little toy I have stashed away, now everybody wants on the train.

Health Net to ride Cannondale for three years

The most successful team on the NRC circuit in 2005, Health Net presented by Maxxis, will ride Cannondale bikes for the next three seasons, the deal announced at Helen’s Bikes in Santa Monica, CA. The Cannondale Bicycle Corporation announced the three-year sponsorship agreement with Momentum Sports Group, owner and operator of the Health Net squad with team riders Gord Fraser, Mike Sayers, Scott Moninger, Nathan O’Neill and Kirk O’Bee all present at the event.

The new sponsorship came about in part through a long-standing relationship between directeur sportif Jeff Corbett and Cannondale, which was the bike sponsor for Corbett’s 7Up-Maxxis teams of the late 1990's and early 2000's. “I’m really excited to be back in the Cannondale family. They have always been responsive to team input and I’m confident our rides are going to be more dialed than ever for ‘06,” said Corbett.

“This team is going to play a major role in helping us launch several key products in 2006,” said Cannondale CEO Matt Mannelly. Cannondale will use the partnership to help test and refine new product, both in training and race conditions. “Starting in January we’re getting these guys out to our factory and into a wind tunnel. We’re going to do everything we can to keep them on top,” he added. In addition to Six13 frames and forks, Cannondale will provide CAAD 8 Optimo frames and forks, as well as new time trial frames and forks. The agreement also calls for Cannondale and sister company Diadora to provide kit, shoes and casual apparel for the team.

First Wenzel thought he needed to hop on the bandwagon, next Health Net, next thing you know Lance will come out of retirement rocking a raw six13.



Squeak Squeak Baby Squeak Squeak

2 Olympians, 2 Days.

I raced Saturday afternoon in Longmont at Xilinx business park. The venue was really cool and the course was one of the best this year. The registration and bathrooms were inside this big office building, but right inside the door was a big stainless steel locker room type thing off to one side with hooks lining all the walls for employees to hang their bikes on. That is why I like Boulder, not that I could ever handle working in a large office building, but it would be cool to have an indoor place to hang your bike at work. Anyway, the course had a nice little road climb into some singletrack, over a set of uphill barriers, into some off camber stuff and another parking lot false flat which led to a smoking fast winding descent. At the end of the descent you hit a large field that the course snaked around in. There were two different log barrier sections, and one little ditch that you could bunny hop over. I had a great start and at the top of the road climb second lap, I was sitting comfortably in the top ten. I threw my chain again and lost a few places which I was working on getting back when the chain came off again on about lap 5. I had a decent rythym through the course and kept going back and forth with a few Vitamin Cottage guys. I thought I finally had them dropped when I jumped the little ditch and got all sideways and squirrely in the air. I came down and instantly stacked it up into the barriers. I got up, got my chain back on and finished out the last three laps. Overall I felt great physically until those last 15 minutes when my legs just started going slower and slower, but I feel like I finished stronger than last week. I ended with 13th on the day I believe which is alright, but I wish I could have gone without the chain problems and held onto that top ten a little longer. JHK showed up to stretch his legs out a little I guess and absolutely tore everyone apart. Rumor has it there may be a US Gran Prix race at this venue next year, which would be absolutely awesome. Of course this is only a rumor.

Saturday night, Scott, Ray, and I went to the Feighny residence in Loveland for a slideshow of Mike and Dick's trip to France this summer. The pictures were pretty cool, but not nearly as cool as the array of appetizers and desserts that were set out in their kitchen. I think I ate about enough for 3 days. Scott met up with his old buddy KC and they had a ball. It's good to see Scotty in such fine spirits. I'm pretty sure Scott recruited another client at the party, Ray most likely sold 2 motorcycles, and all I did was eat. Oh well, the food was awesome.

Today's race didn't go so well. The day started off great with a stellar 8th place performance by our very own Scott "BOO YAH" Wenzel in the Cat. 4 race. He had a little wheel trouble on the second to last lap, but luckily he has a grade "A" pit crew and he got a rear wheel change in about 15 seconds and didn't even lose a place, plus he still got his feed on the backside of the loop. My race started great just like yesterday. At the end of the first lap I was sitting right where I wanted to be, and even moving up a little, but I rolled my rear tire on a remount, got pissed, and pulled the plug. I feel stupid about not finishing, but I guess there is nothing I can do about it now. Colby Pearce showed up and I'm pretty sure he finished the race. I need to figure a few things out. #1 I need to get my chain problem fixed. I'm going to get a Third Eye chainwatcher and set it really close to my chainring and I think that will do it. Maybe I'll put a new chain on too, mine right now is pretty stretched. Problem #2, I need to figure this tire thing out. After ever race there will be a little part of the bead coming off from my Tufo tires. I was under the impression that these things were supposed to work great at low PSI, and I hear people saying they are running like 30-35 pounds and don't have problems. I figure I weigh a little more then the average pro cross racer so I keep them closer to 45 PSI and they are still constantly coming off. The most obvious solution is to simply lose the weight and get about 10 times smoother on the bike, that's not gonna happen overnight though. Another solution might be a different wheelset, maybe the bead on a Mavic would hold it better? The only other solution I can think of is gluing them on. Maybe just a little tubular glue along the beads? If anyone has any ideas let me know. I'm always open to suggestion. I just want to finish a race without thinking, "I wonder what would have happened if _______ hadn't broken."

I think that pretty much sums up my weekend. Thanks again to Mike and Jen for having us. I'm sure those 3 or 4 pieces of pumpking cheesecake helped that tire roll just a little easier. Although the weekend didn't quite go as planned, I still had a lot of fun. I don't think I'll ever get used to lining up on a start line with people that I read about in magazines, and look up to so much. I would be like taking batting practice with Kirby Puckett when I was in grade school, only these guys don't beat their wives or sexually assault ladies as far as I know.

Foothills Photo

I found a picture from that race I won in Littleton last weekend. That's me with the red helmet, and puke face. Today Scott and I went and did a little cross practice at Aims Community College here in Greeley. The course there is covered in goatheads, and since Scotty Boy doesn't have very much flat protection, we moved all the barriers out into the soccer field and made a little grass course out there. Man, that grass sucks the energy out of your legs. I don't think we did more than 5 or 6 laps total. It was fun though and Scott showed me how to bunny hop. I'm not very good at it, I think I could probably get over an 8 or 10 inch barrier, but I have a ways to go before I'm getting over any 16 inchers. Scott on the other hand can fly! After cross practice we headed into the Breadboard for some pizza and coffee to warm up since it couldn't have been over 40 degrees. The pizza there is amazing and is slowly getting to be a staple of my diet. They also had some day old pumpkin cheesecake bars which are so good I don't even have words for them.

My grandma had surgery on her knee this week in Sioux Falls. It sounds like she's doing better and I'm glad she could have it in S.F. so my parents could help her out and my grandpa has a place to stay. Anyway, keep her in your thoughts and prayers as I know this is a stressful time.

Lastly, I don't have too much to share, but I have learned a few things so far this week:

#1 Pros ride really fast.

#2 It's hard to make a bike go fast when the chain won't stay on.

#3 Just when I thought it had finally died, the facebook is back, and with a vengeance the way it seems.

#4 The people at the post office can be some of the dumbest people around.

#5 Ray and Caiti are having another one!

#6 I love Justin Williamson.

#7 Racing isn't the same without Dave Towle giving you shout outs.

#8 If I see Danny on race day, I'll win, 100% of the time.

#9 Checking your inbox more often doesn't mean you'll get emails more often.

#10 525,600 minutes? How do you measure a year in the life? How about love?

That's all for today folks. Thanks for checking in. Measure in love, seasons of love.

100th post!

I really don't have anything to say, but I noticed that I'd done 99 posts previous to this. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all my loyal readers. If it wasn't for you fine people reading this website, I'd be writing to myself. That's all I've got for you tonight. Thanks for checking in.

P.S. Anchorman is on TV tonight, there has been an endless string of awesome movies on lately.

It's a long way to the top, if you wanna rock and roll.

Well, today wasn't as successful as yesterday. Yesterday I was in the mix the whole race. Today I lasted almost a full minute before I was totally out of contention. The start was a little more what I'm used, more like the start of a mountain bike race. We went out hard, up a paved road, onto gravel and into a 90 degree double barrier corner. I made it through the corner about midway through the pack, feeling pretty good about my start. We headed down a gravely parking lot type field, into a couple rough corners and over a little barrier run-up. It was at this point that my chain bounced off and fell down on the inside between my chainring and 3rd eye chainkeeper. I had to get off the bike and wrestle the chain back onto the chainring which dropped me back to dead last. I picked off a few people as the race went on, but never felt too great. My legs felt flat, and my head wasn't really in it. I never felt comfortable on the course, there were a lot of really wierd dismounts and run up type obstacles that I just couldn't see to get down. I stumbled and fell over some railroad tracks, missed pedals on my remounts, couldn't get off my bike before barriers, plus I messed up everything else that I could. I dropped my chain a few more times, and ended up breaking my 3rd eye trying to get my chain out, and I think the true goo in my tires is drying out because I was losing pressure the whole race. I think I finished with about 30 psi max in each tire. On top of that my legs felt pretty flat all day. I think yesterday's effort and Friday night's lack of sleep caught up with me.

Overall I'm not really excited or disapointed with today. It was my first pro race and I went into it with no expectations. Since I didn't set any goals except to finish the race, it was pretty easy to accomplish all I set out to do. I would have gotten throttled whether I dropped the chain or not, but I wish I could have at least ridden with the fast guys for a few laps before getting dropped like 3rd period French. According to the ACA results I finished 20th out of the 25 finishers. I know a few more people started that didn't finish, but they would have beat me if they'd stayed in. I know I could have been a couple places higher without the mechanical trouble and who knows what would have happened if I would have felt like yesterday. Who knows, next weekend will be interesting. It's a Boulder race which means probably 80 starters instead of 30, I'm sure it will be another great learning experience.

On a very important side note, our very own little Scotty Boy Wenzel moved right up into the top ten in only his third cyclocross race. Everyday he rides it he looks faster and faster on a cross bike. I'm scared to see what happens when he can actually get in and out of his pedals. You'll all have to check out his site in the near future as I'm sure there will be some great pictures from his mom.

Thanks for checking in.

P.S. An hour is much longer than 45 minutes.

Win number 2 in the books.

I won again today. The course was long and windy, but I managed to bridge up to Clayton Barrows, the leader, with a lap and a half to go, just as he flatted, and I rode past him and away from him. I opened up a 15-20 second gap within a half a lap and held it to the finish. It felt good to win a Cat. 3 race, now it's time to race the big boys I guess. Tomorrow I'll be lining up in my first pro race of my life. I'm a little nervous, but I think I'm too tired to be too nervous right now.

I'd like to thank Danny Boy Snyder for showing up and cheering me on today. It was awesome to get to hang out for a little while, and fun to be at a race with him. Danny is pretty much responsible for getting me into racing so I owe a lot to him. Thanks again Danny.

Hopefully tomorrow will go alright, I'll try and check in to let you all know how it goes. I might update later if I find some pictures from today's race, it's not looking too promising right now though. Old School is on right now so I think I'm gonna go crash on the couch for a while longer before I got try and fall asleep. "I'm gonna be in the neighborhood later, just wondering if you wanted to get together for some frozen yogurt or maybe a whole meal of food if that would be agreeable." That's all for now.

Few more things I've learned in the past few hours.

#1 You have no idea what a pain it is to ship a box to Australia.

#2 If someone bets you that you can't eat an entire pie, don't take him up on it.

#3 Obesity is listed under "adventure" in a thesaurus.

#4 Postal workers take their frustrations out on their customers, even if they are frustrated because they don't know how to do their job.

#5 There is such a thing as too much candy.

#6 Whisker River BBQ burgers are detoxifying.

#7 My life be like Ooh Aah.

That's all for now. I feel sick. I'm going to bed.

What I've learned in the past few weeks.

#1 People will pay INSANE amounts for things that say Lance Armstrong or U.S. Postal on them.

#2 The name "Leonard" is best said with a gravely old woman voice, and even better when followed by, "dinner's ready."

#3 A knife can be hours and hours of fun.

#4 Expect to get wierd looks if you try on a camo hat and start yelling like a drill sergeant in a clothing store.

#5 "Then" and "Than" are two different words used in totally different situations.

#6 When thrown in the air, a shoe can be caught on the end of a knife, therefore creating a "Shoeshkabob"

#7 There is a way to anatomically alter your finger to more efficiently use a remote.

#8 It costs a lot to ship a frame to Australia.

#9 Mixed signals are hard to read, because they are unclear.

#10 Jason never deserved L.C.

#11 Cat. is short for Category.

#12 Even so called "broke" people find ways to buy new bikes.

#13 The men selling cell phones in malls don't want to be my friend, no matter how friendly they may seem.

#14 Even Cottage's made of Wattage can burn down on occaision.

#15 When you ask if you can see a particular shoe in a particular size, don't be startled if the clerk at a shoestore says "maybe" and walks away.

#16 If you see some free juice, but don't want to drink it because it's green and opaque, like the color of grass, trust your intuition.

#17 Never trust a man that's 6'3", has lots of tattoos, yet gets so giddy he jumps up and down if he gets a new sticker.

#18 My mountain bike looks awesome with 700c wheels.

#19 The future is made of virtual insanity.

#20 Occaision is spelled "occasion."

Louisville Sluggin'

Saturday's race was cancelled/postponed due to rain and snow which seems pretty lame to me, but I guess they didn't ask for my opinion. They did however call me on my cell phone to tell me it was cancelled. I wasn't registered or anything. I guess when you tear stuff up like I did last time I raced the Schwab Boss of Cross series, you're automatically upgraded to "pretty big deal" status. Anyway, I don't need to float my own boat anymore (I've been doing plenty of that lately). Instead of racing on Saturday my former teamate Mikeal Olson came up to ride some bikes around Greeley with Scott and I. We ended up wasting away the entire day riding and working on bikes, but at 6:30 we were leaving the bike shop and Scott happened to hop on the shop manager, Mark Cooper's cyclocross bike. For some reason unknown to me, Scott's eyes lit up and for the first time since I've known him, Scott decided he wanted to be a cross racer. Mark told him to go for it, so we all stood around and watched him do some dismounts and mounts in the parking lot in sandals. Scott, Mikeal, and I had a sleepover at my apartment, then picked Mark up in the morning and took him to Louisville with us.

The course was pretty cool, but also really hard. There was a steep technical decent with a bunch of ruts and stuff toward teh bottom, a wierd dismount over a stream into a steep run-up, a fast crushed rock loop, two very steep off camber corners, another rough decent into a 180 degree turn and single barrier run-up, a fast road section before a rough singletrack section into an incredibly steep climb with two barriers just after the top, back downhill, into a road climb around a tight 180 into a sand volleyball court and road to the finish. I was pretty nervous warming up on the course, but I watched Scott and he was doing fine so I knew I had little to worry about. Scotty Boy pulled off a great race for his first cross experience, not to mention the first time he's attempted a dismount or remount in the past 2 years, and the first race effort he's done since July. He finished midpack in a Cat 4 field of 76, so make sure and pat him on the back if you see him this week.

I ended up with a decent start, about 12th or 15th, and just concentrated on staying calm, and moving up slowly. I really didn't have to work to get around anyone, because I would pass them all over the barriers, or the technical climb. I ran the sandpit every lap except for one, but I guess Scott was riding it like a pro the whole race. With about four laps to go, I found myself in 4th with a big gap up to third. I just rode a steady tempo and tried not to blow my wad closing the gap or I'd have nothing to get around him when that time came. I caught the guy with two laps to go and just rode his wheel for a lap and a half noting where he was fast and slow on the course. I decided to try and get in front of him before the steep climb with barriers at the top because I knew I could ride that section faster than him. I attacked him on the road section just after the single barrier and I think the gap just kept growing. After I got up the climb I knew I had him beat, but it was still a super hard quarter or half mile to the finish. I crossed the line 3rd in my second Cat. 3 race so I was pretty pumped, but man it hurt, for quite some time. Since both Scott and I were racing we left Mikeal up to taking pictures and movies. He got some pretty cool moives, but unfortunately no pictures for the website. I found a couple online, but none of Scott, so if you want to see proof that he actually did race a cross bike, you'll have to ask him to see a video, or check the ACA website for results. I hurt today, my neck and back are killing me, I think I might ride an hour or so just to loosen up a bit. That's all for now. If anyone knows where else to get pictures, let me know, I always see cameras out on the course, but I don't know who they are or where to contact them.

Congrats to me.

My frame sold last night. I couldn't believe it. I woke up hoping to get at least 300 dollars for it. As the day went on the bid hit 300 and kept on rolling. The auction ended around 8 pm, and at 7 the bid was 369. I was super pumped that there was a chance it would hit 400. Within the last 15 minutes I just kept hitting the refresh button and the bid just kept growing. There was a heated bidding war going on between at least 3 people. When the auction ended and the dust settled, some guy from Tasmania, Australia was the proud new owner of this fine Trek OCLV 120 frame for the bargain price of $512.21. I couldn't believe it. It got better when the guy told me he wanted my old Cane Creek S2 for an additional $15. I guess my new bike is almost paid off. It's pretty cool to be able to trade a 3 year old frame for a brand new one. My Chris King headset went for $82 which is about what I expected it to be. I'm off to work now, I'm going in a little early to get my new frame all squared away and clean up my cross bike for this weekends activitys. I'll be sure and get some pics up after tomorrow's race. Wish me luck.

Here is a picture of my soigneur in action. You can see him in the mock turtleneck right behind the FDNY lady.

I hurt myself this weekend, to see if I still feel.

Once again the week is here and I've got nothing for you. I did however find a website with some pictures from the cross races thus far. I can't believe how different my racing experiences have become after just a month of this hellish 45 minutes of pain that they call cyclocross. Looking back at the pictures of me at the Boulder Reservoir the pained look on my face looks very similar to some of the pictures from this weekend, but two things are very different. Number one, I'm actually moving in the pictures from this weekend, where as there were a couple points during the Reservoir race when my momentum completely died. The second difference is the way that pain on my face felt on the inside. During my first races, it hurt. When I say it hurt, I mean it hurt in a bad way. Sharp pain, everywhere. It hurt to take a full breath, it hurt to stand up or sit down. It just didn't feel good in any way. It hurt bad enough I had no appetite for an hour or so (for those of you who know me well, you realize how astounding that is) After my two races this weekend I realized that I'm digging just as deep, and working just as hard, but it's more of the dull pain, the good pain that us endurance athletes savor. The kind of pain where your whole body feels hot, and fuzzy. The sort of pain where even though you are hurting, you can dig in that extra 2% to go just a little harder and somehow the hurt gets more intense, yet feels better. The sort of pain where a grimace just feels right, you clench your jaw as hard as you can, you realize what a horrible look is on your face, but you can't wipe it away.

This is the feeling that makes me want to race my bike. I'm much prouder of my race on Sunday even though I messed up, lost some positions, and got straight up beaten by a lot of the other racers. On Saturday I rode away from everyone without ever hitting that total 110% exertion level. I held a steady pace riding at about 90% through most of the race and only trying to dig deep the last couple laps. Even then I never totally went all out. I was very pleased with the way I rode on Saturday, but in the back of my mind I knew I hadn't ridden my hardest, and that I just won a race on less exertion than I put into my previous couple races. I got into my car after the race on Sunday totally content with how I had ridden. I knew that I left everything out there. I gave it everything I had, every lap, and in the end I couldn't have put any more effort into the race. I had some technical errors, but I can only expect that as every race I do is usually the first course of that type I've raced, and usually the conditions are like nothing I've ever raced cross in. The technical side of the racing will come around eventually, but my form is well on it's way. I may not be in the best shape of my life, but it's starting to hurt in that good way so I know I'm on my way.