I'm not doing my homework.

I should be doing about a million things other than this, but Dave Towle made me feel guilty for my infrequent updates.




The races this weekend hopefully weren't the highpoint of my season. Saturday was just awful. The course was muck, and evidently I don't know how to ride in it. Better figure that out before December. On top of that I just couldn't get myself to go. I pulled the plug, which I hate to do, but I didn't break the derailleur off my bike, like half the people there, but I did end up with a DNF instead of a LAST.

Sunday was better, but not by a lot. I felt better on the bike, even got into that suffering zone where it feels OK to suffer for a while. The last 20 minutes of the race I kinda let things slip away from me. The course was awesome though, pretty tough, but awesome. I wish I could've had a little better race there, especially with it being the last race before the UCI race at the reservoir (which I think I just got registered for).

I've decided to make a few adjustments to my training, so hopefully we'll see the results start to move in the right direction before Providence. After all that mud, I know that running is something that I should've been working on for quite some time.

Well, I'll leave you with a few things I've learned lately.

#1 You can always find something that you HAVE to do RIGHT NOW, when you have a history book to read.

#2 Race announcers really do make or break a race (do I still have to pay you if I compliment you on here?)

#3 Think twice about buying the dimpled ZIPP wheels if you're running a compact crank with a 27t cassette.

#4 There is a reason you can't find instructions to rebuild a shimano STI shifter.

#5 You can't watch just one episode of The Office.

#6 I can mess up my apartment faster than I can clean it.

#7 That's all for now, maybe more tomorrow?

#8 I had to say goodbye to Miss January, she had ahold of my mind for so long now.

Summit County Cross.

This weekend's races went well. I finished both somewhere towards the middle of the field, which is better than I can say about the past couple weeks. I felt strong through the finish, and even attacked a couple times to lose the guys I was with, so that was good.

Saturday's race was at the Breckinridge Nordic Center, right at the base of the mountain. It rain/snowed for a couple hours before my race, but cleared up a little bit while we rode. There was enough moisture to make a lot of the course a wet, slippery, mess, but I managed to keep the bike upright. I had a decent start, but flatted toward the end of the first lap. After a less than sweet wheel change, I was back on course, and I think I ended up getting back to about where I was. It was frustrating, but such is life, right?

Saturday's run-up.

Muddy.

After the finish with Ambretto.


Saturday night we crashed at Matt Koch's place in Edwards. Thanks Matt. We ate a a cool little brew pub and laid around his condo exhausted while Ambrette divided her time between styling Scott's hair and taking water shots with Matt.

The Ace Ventura.

This picture is actually a real girl, but she looks a lot like Scott, yeah?

Sunday morning came all too soon, and I really wasn't feeling the racing bug on the start line. There was a hellish run-up on Sunday's course which didn't help matters at all. After the first lap I decided I really liked the course, and ended up feeling better than I have all year. I went back and forth with one Einstein's Bagels rider, and ended up losing him in the last few laps, but I did manage to pick off a Harshman's/Primus Mootry rider in the chase which felt awesome.

Sunday's run-up. It sucked.

This little double barrier was right before the pit, about halfway through the lap.

Running through those barriers.

This single barrier was right at the bottom of a little run-up, and directly after a 90 degree left hand corner. I never quite got the line figured out, but I did pass a couple people through the run-up.
Today I'm off to work-class-work. I hope all is well with you, and thanks for checking in.

eBay.

I put some stuff on eBay just now. Check it out and buy it. Pay a lot of money for it too.

I already did this once, and lost it all.

So,

Friday night, my lovely lady friend and I went to First Friday in Denver (a bunch of art openings), and in the process of finding a parking spot near the Sante Fe district, I managed to pull off the greatest parking job of all times. Ever.

Here is the rear bumper.

The front.

The curbside.

And me. I'm pumped, are you pumped? I'm pumped. (Keep in mind I never touched another vehicle or the curb in this process.)

That night we stayed at my friend Zach's house in Denver. That's right, I had a friend in high school, not many, but at least one.

Saturday morning we cruised up to Gunnison for the cross races.

This is me and my new bike. Thanks to Scott for lending me the rear wheel, and Greg Harris for lending me the front. (Long story.)

Here is Saturday's run-up.

And the top of the run-up.

So, the only thing more embarassing than lining up on a start line next to 4 other guys is standing on a podium with 4 spectators.

Sunday's race was a little colder. I think at this point I was trying not to lose my spicy sausage from the night before, oh wait, that was the whole race.

This was a cool, but really hard down-up-down-up-down section from Sunday's course.

Here I am attacking through that section on the last lap. Don't worry, I slid out through the corner to lose my lead, then sprinted like an absolute moron so I ended 4th that day.

Thanks for checking in. I think I have some coookies to eat.

I'm still around.

Hey, I'm still alive and kicking here in Greeley. I've started up my cross season but the fireworks have yet to go off. If all goes to plan it will only continue to get better as the season goes on. I've got some pictures from this weekend in Gunnison, and I plan to have them up shortly. Hope everyone out there is doing well, but I refuse to apologize for my lack of updates, I've been busy.

This weekend, Brecktober Cross on Saturday and then a race in Dillion on Sunday. Wish me luck or get out there, get rowdy and ring your cowbells. I've never watched myself race cross, but judging by all the pictures I've seen, I would say it's got to be pretty fun to watch my the token puke face roll by lap after lap. I'll check back soon with the pictures.

I raced my bike again!

Sunday I did the Bannock Street Criterium in Denver. The course was pretty cool, wide open and fast with 8 corners and one small rise. I felt like I rode pretty well almost the entire race and only found myself too far back twice and had to waste a ton of energy to get back up to where I wanted/needed to be. I put in one small half lap effort to try and get across to a decent sized break, but somehow I couldn't shake Greg Henderson (Health Net/Maxxis) from my wheel, and the rest of the peloton decided to come with. With 2 to go, I was moving up really well, and just about where I wanted to be coming into the sprint for 5th, since Hendy and a few others had gotten a move to stick and were at least 45 seconds if not more up the road. Then coming into a left hand turn, the group moved left, pushed the guy next to me into the curb, he came back and touched me, apparently freaked out, and laid down on top of me. I tumbled a little, and luckily no one else went down, but by the time I was up and riding, I just coasted in for last place.

I'm very happy with how I felt during the race, and that gives me a load of confidence for the next time I pin on a number, but it's always disappointing to suffer for 70 minutes only to get last place. Oh well, there is always another race. I'm not sure what I'll do next, but hopefully I can find a few more crits to start the buildup for cross.

I saw a horrible car accident happen directly beside me on my way home from the race and I got pretty shook up so I drove back roads the rest of the way home. I hope you all take care, drive carefully, and be safe. Thanks for checking in, sorry once again for the rather dull update.

Boring.

So,

I haven't been doing much aside from working and a little riding. The riding has been pretty low key lately, but I've been having a lot of fun on the bike. I think it's about time to get serious with it again, but we'll see how the week unfolds. I got my mountain bike up and running, and thus far I love the SRAM stuff.

Other than that, I don't have much to report, last night was Rich Murphy's 50th birthday party. I showed up late with a few other guys and evidently the party had been raging earlier, because everyone was in fine spirits by the time we got there. I didn't stay long, but I think I laughed more in the time I was there, than I would normally in a day.

That's all for now I guess. I'm going to go ride in the mountains this afternoon, but I'm waiting on a little laundry before I go. On top of that, I think I should probably check up on what my girlfriend's ex-boyfriends are doing. Insecurity is sexy right? Hope you're all doing well, thanks for checking in.

Hey, I'm still alive.

So, sorry about the lack up updating. I've had a busy couple of weeks. Last week my friend Robbie from YKT came down, we painted Greeley red a few times, then drove to SoDak the next day. I had a great 10 days at home with my friends and family, even came away from the week with 7 stitches, but now I'm back in lovely Greeley. I had an awesome mountain bike ride today, I did the Backbone-Blue Sky-Coyote loop twice, once alone and one with Feighny and Travis. It was a good time, and now I'm beat. I'll write more later, I was just getting sick of the "why don't you update" comments. You people should focus your energy on Wenzel, he needs more help than I do. Thanks for checking in.

Making Bad Decisions.

Sure we made a couple BAD decisions, but I know that I for one, had a boatload of fun. So we decided to ride this new "Blue Sky" trail that loops together the Devil's Backbone and Coyote Ridge, but we didn't take into account how long it would take our group to ride it.

The ride started out great. Some of us had to walk some climbs, myself included because I rode my single speed cross bike. This here is Colin, you'll see him later.

Austion and Ray walked a little too.

All the climbing made Evan hot.

I think it's safe to say Colin didn't like the climbs.

Of course Feighny flew up it all.

We all hung out at the first summit, but Colin didn't talk, he was PISSED.

Ray rode like a champ.

Evan blew some people away with his new fitness too.

The sunset was beautiful, but it should have been a warning sign. Feighny is barely visible in the bottom of this shot.

Here is Mike on one of the new sections of trail, cool view.

Colin's mood lightened once we started going downhill.

Then it started to get dark, real quick.

We stood here waiting for the group and all we could hear was coyotes, howling from every direction.

Soon it was real dark.

By the time we made it to the car, we had ridden at least an hour in the pitch black. Evan was beat.

I was happy to be alive, Jenn met us at the trailhead so we wouldn't all have to ride on the highway in the dark.

Austin showed off his battle wounds. I guess he found the fastest way down a 15 meter steep drop. He even beat his bike down, but not by much.

Mike thanked Jenn in advance for following us back to their house in the van with caution lights and headlights.


I definitely need to ride this trail again. I liked it a lot, and we had a ton of fun. At one point I was riding next to Colin on a gravel road stretch when he just skyrocketed into the air. I guess he hit something, but it's still hard to say what it was. Mike was sure to mention how nice his pair of Light and Motion's would have been, but they were on his workbench. Evan is an Eagle Scout, but sure didn't come prepared, I'm a little disappointed in him. I think he made up for it when he snapped at Ray on the highway riding in to Mike's house. Whew, what a ride. Thanks for checking in.

I'm back.

Most of you probably didn't even realize I was gone, but I headed home to YKT for the weekend and had a very nice, relaxing couple of days. My parents were the socialites of the century and had 3 different groups of company through my house in 4 days, but I still managed to spend some good time with them, and see some old friends. I had grand ideas of riding everyday, but only managed one ride in the 3 days I was there. Oh well. It was a very nice ride in the rain, which I don't have the chance to do often. My iPod died about 30 minutes into it, but it was fun to just ride and listen to the rain. I was surprised at how much fun I had exploring new roads through Nebraska and even getting downright lost for a while. I wish I would have had a camera because even though it was Nebraska, it felt like a foreign country with green rolling hills. I'm back now, ready to switch jobs and get back into a little more disciplined training groove. We'll see what the week brings. The picture is Simon (my brother from another mother) and I on Saturday night. We had a good time BBQing and sitting on a boat for a while. That's all for now. Stop by the IBizzle tomorrow and say hey if you're bored. Thanks for checking in.

Morning Update.

Check out Brian at the CSU Oval. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

I had a good ride in the mountains yesterday, ended up being around 4.5 hours. I didn't go too hard, just a lot of fun. I ended up running into Matt Koch up by the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, and rode with him for an hour or so. I didn't get home until late, but still managed to swing by Evan and Jason's for an officers meeting. I work today at noon which reminds me, I turned in my two weeks yesterday. Soon I'll be a Roubaix employee again. That's about all that's going on in my world.

I thought of a million things to write about on my ride yesterday, but I think I've forgotten them all. Oh yeah, the people up in the mountains are so nice. I filled my bottles up at 3 different places, and each time the people asked if they could put ice in my bottles. I stood around and drank a coke and talked to the owner of the Glen Haven General Store for a while. He was a super nice guy and was all fired up that I asked if he cared if I wore my speedplay cleats in his store. He said no one had ever asked before, in fact, some guy pulled his bike in the store that morning and when he told the guy he didn't need his bike in the store, the cyclist got all kinds of pissed and told the guy he didn't need anything from his store. It's people like him that make all of us cyclists look like jerks, so I apologized on behalf of the cycling community for the "bad apple."

Speaking of the Glen Haven General Store, many of you know about my little gas station cream cheese muffin fetish, well I stepped it up yesterday and now I'll have trouble going back. They had fresh, homemade, peaches and cream cheese muffins by the register, and it just might have been the best muffin I've tasted in my life. It tasted like a gas station muffin, only better, (same moisture content though) but in the middle was some peach pie filling and cream cheese. You could actually taste the creamy deliciousness of the cream cheese mixed into the pie filling. Ok, I need to stop. I kinda want to ride up and get one tomorrow. Maybe I will.

I also had a cup of coffee at the Estes Perk which is located just a half mile from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. The coffee was great, and the view from their deck was even better. Actually, it was while I was sitting there that I saw Matt ride by.

Moral of the story, I enjoyed my ride a lot yesterday and I look forward to getting into the mountains a lot more in the near future. The best part is that you can actually ride in the afternoon up there because it isn't 1,000 degrees. I need to shower and get my MTB prepped for a ride tonight. Thanks for checking in.

New Belgium Crit.

Today was another bust. I felt pretty good until I flatted 35 minutes into the 90 minute race. Unfortunately I broke a spoke on my pit wheel yesterday, and since there were no neutral wheels at the race, I was just out of luck. I liked the course a lot though, and was riding alright. Who knows what would have happened in the last hour of the race.

Makin' the big money.

So yesterday after my miserable showing in the State TT, I decided to head to Roma's and have a beer with Evan and Dana. I was riding by my mail box, and happened to look inside, only to find a check from the Iron Horse for 125 bucks. We figured out that between Rocky Mounts and UNC paying for entry fees, I've started 24 races this year, and I'm up 95 bucks from prize money! After today it'll only be 65, and next weekend should wipe it out, but it feels kinda cool to know that technically, I've raced for free all year. Anyway, I'm done floating my own boat. Time to go get worked over again in FTC. Rumor has it, 90 minutes on a 1km lap! Fun fun!

State Time Trial.

State TT is over. I sucked. I mean I really sucked.

RM - I Crit Pictures

If a picture could sum up a day, I'm pretty sure the look on my face in any of these shots could show you how I felt that entire race.



Thanks to the guys at Peloton Photo for letting me steal these. They can be purchased at www.pelotonphoto.com. I'm sure their sales will triple after this update.

Thanks for checking in.

Can't Sleep.

So,

There will be no point to this update, I promise. You should probably save yourself the time and stop reading right now. Today pretty much sucked. I got woken up at 8:30 to the guy at Greeley Auto Tech calling and telling me it'll be 375 bucks to get my car running. That's right, it crapped out again. I think it's gonna be a yearly thing now. So, after that I sat around waiting to go into work, only to get to work and have an awful day. It was 93? degrees outside today, and we decided we didn't need A/C at the shop until late afternoon. Colin (a co-worker of mine) got a new Surly today, so I helped him build it up, but in the meantime all hell broke loose, and the rest of the day was miserable. I've just been in a crappy mood all day, and now I'm ready to go to bed, but I can't sleep.

Tomorrow looks to be a better day. I have a massage in the morning, then some TT efforts in preparation for the state TT's this weekend. I'm not a fan of time trials, so I guess it's a good thing I'm doing this race. I need to do more of them so I can get a better feel for them. The problem is, the only feeling I ever get from TT's is intense pain, everywhere. Oh well, that's good prep for cross racing I guess, which hopefully will go well this year. I already can't wait for it to start. I'm starting to look at new cross frames. Right now it's a toss up between a Kona or Cannondale. I think the Kona is a way cooler frame, but the Cannondale comes with a carbon fork? Decisions decisions. Oh well, I have time.

Let's see, that's all I guess. I hope no one read this far. Ha ha. if you did. Thanks for checking in.

Rocky Mounts - Izze Crit.

I just got home from Louisville where I received the beating of my life. I guess it wasn't that bad, I just rode like an idiot. Hopefully I'll be a little smarter next time I pin on a number which may or may not be tomorrow. The break went today off the line and just kept getting fed by riders bridging across. I rode like a dork, and managed to work just hard enough that everytime I would look over my shoulder to see who was going to pull through, someone would attack, and I couldn't hold their wheel. I finished in the group, but the lead break lapped us with 15 or 20 minutes to go. There was one more group up the road I guess, however, I had no idea of the race situation until it was all over. It was a bit of a mess for a while. I attacked on the climb with 2.5 laps to go, and got swarmed with 200m to go. If I could have held it I guess I would have been top 20 or so, but I don't even know my placing right now.

On a brighter note, I was treated to a little shout out on Dave Towle's website. Check it out if you'd like. It's awesome that he gets to do so many big races this summer, but it's a little bittersweet since that means we don't get to see him around the front range so much. Oh well, hopefully he'll be back in town by cross season?

That's it for now, thanks for checking in. There might be some pictures from today's race on Peloton Photos.com, check it out.

IHBC Crit Photos.

Here are a few choice photos from the Iron Horse Crit thanks to my mom.

The finish.

Yeah, I got a little carried away. If you look closely you can see I'm freaking out, screaming and stuff.

The podium.

Me and my mom. She looks good in the RM kit yeah?

Dave Towle and I.

Rick Crawford and myself.

Thanks a lot to everyone for their words of congratulations and support. I appreciate it a lot.

Here is what the rest of the month looks like so far.

6.3.06 Rocky Mounts Crit - Boulder
6.4.06 City Park Crit - Denver
6.10.06 State TT - DIA
6.11.06 New Belgium Crit - Fort Collins
6.17.06 Hugo Road Race - Hugo
6.24-25.06 Dead Dog Classic - Laramie, WY

Hopefully I'll see some of you at one or all of these. Thanks for checking in.