Trying out this new fangled windows live writer blog program

Hello there folks, its almost Tucson time so that also means free time with tired legs (FTTL) is near. I recently got a new netbook with all this cool software on it, and I am trying to learn to use it.  Today’s lesson: Windows Live Writer. 

BEEF

For those of you who dont know, or dont remember, this happened:

Make some noise

Beware, of the silent urban comedian:

2010 Season in Review

Hello! I just finished writing the following book (this blog post), its my year in review so take your time, come back, read the parts you want, whatever you want to do! I realize that its just a bunch of pictures of me biking, but that is kind of the theme. I promise more silly postings after this, as i really dont want to type about biking again for a loooong time. Enjoy!

Lets see here, I believe the last time we chatted was after Philly, that seems like a forever ago now at the end of a season that held some great things for yours truly. So lets talk about it eh?

Tour of America's Dairyland: Aggressiveness pays off.

Hey look what i found! A pretty jersey!

Yes sir (and maam)! How did that happen? Lets find out. ToAD is put on by my close friend Jack Hirt, and he has done such a good job with the series that I am lucky to put my name on its "past winners" list because I expect this series to have some prestigious names in the future. Then everyone can be like "whos that stemper guy?" 10 years from now (when i will probably just finish up the last bites of that delicious cheese wheel, rosemary and olive oil asiago? yes please).

We started with the Shorewood crit. The plan, having Marco there and Hartley for the overall, was to be aggressive but to line up for the likely field sprint with Marco and Hartley. It was a long time ago, but I still remember going backwards on the last lap because I was so unpracticed with the ardgy-bardgy in the pack, not so great, but Hartley finished well so we were off to another ToAD for Hartley looking good to repeat. The next day was a new course in Theinsville where the rain came to watch too. Rob spent the day in a 3 man break that got caught with 6 to go, we took control of the front and a small miscommunication ("go" sounds a lot like "no") and I found myself off the front with 4 to go in a 4 man group, so i attacked them with 1 to go (with the ultimate pain face to boot):

annnnnd got 4th... not good, my goal of attacking the winning break of a race remained just a goal, and the guys were disappointed with the result, for good reason. Hartley still ran a good spot in the sprint with Marco, and took the Yellow, so the day was not lost. The next day was Grafton, which is without a doubt one of my favorite crits, but sometimes life takes over and good friends get married! So i sidelined myself and celebrated with some friends a great occasion (congrats Mark and Alicia!) and Hartley held the jersey.

Added bonus: Annie was a bridesmaid and she needed a date, i am glad to say that i was the frontrunner in her decision process of who to take.

Appleton: Got it.

Finally, a breakaway, and a victory. It was flat and fast, and we were trying to be super aggressive and conserve Hartely for the likely bunch sprint. I got out solo for about 8 laps and thought to myself "man, i feel really good" so when i got caught, i recollected myself, and went again with 2 other guys. We kept a 20 to 30 second gap on the field for the second half of the race, I picked up a $500 prime, and won the bike race. Check out that picture, if you look behind me in the crowd you see my dad in the red, on fathers day, pretty excited. You can see where i get my celebratory salute from. So, a black and white jersey for the team as well as the yellow! Not shabby.

Elkhart Lake RR: Ugh, this is a tough race. Still focused on Hartley, we needed the double points day to go well for him. Jonny got away in a group of 8 i believe, and just after that Hartley all kinds of broke his bike, bad enough that Rob had to give him his bike and drop out of the race. I waited, and by the time we got back going we were 2 minutes down. It took 1.5 laps to get him back where I then rewarded myself with one of those awesome mini cokes. I think we actually high fived. Later on, with only Hartley and I left to cover the moves, he was looking good but missed one move that i jumped for late, and it ended up not coming back. I ran a spot in the race and Hartley was stuck in the field with 2 groups up the road, losing yellow. Not the best of days but Jonny did podium! SO hey, thats bike racing. More days left to race.

Sheboygan: We were out of yellow but now both Hartley and I were in striking distance, so if I could get a break and take yellow, it would take some pressure off Hartley because it would be another guy for the contenders to watch. Sounded good to me, but we got into the race and i felt horrible from the hard day before. I decided to change my plan of a breakaway and pick up some money, sprinted hard for a small $50 prime, got it, turned around and "damnit, how did this happen?!"

We had a pretty good gap, and everyone was working, so i took a gel or 4 and went to work. I remember Frankie was on the sideline giving me the sign to attack the group with 3 to go and i gave him this look that i hoped said this to him "the only person thats going to get rid of is me" so I took my chances in the sprint, came out of the last corner first and held on to second:

I would have liked the win, but it was a consolation to be in Yellow after the race (although the plan was still for Hartley which made the jersey feel a little lighter on my back). Next up, Waterloo, which is another really great course for a hard bike race. My first day in yellow in any race ever was pretty stressful even knowing I had Hartley sitting back waiting to take it from me, but i guess even if your a decoy the nerves are still present. I tried my best to defend the jersey with a late attack with the Frenchman:It looked very good, but Land Rover organized and chased us back with 1 to go. I tried my best to hang in the sprint, but Bahati's leadout man got in front of me in the last corner and sat up, Bahati won, i got 10th, and my time in yellow was over. I also crashed in the race when someone hit a cone and flew into the field, which hurt the ribs but mainly hurt the ego. I really just wanted Greenbush RR to start, which it did the next day! What a concept! Double points, hilly, and very windy. After a few laps passed, i went to the front in the hard crosswind section and just started to ride in anger because of the day before and because nothing had worked up until that point. Then what do you know!? A big group of 9 or 10 got away and gained 3 minutes in a lap. With Bahati in the feed zone and Hartley in the field, I realized the opportunity at hand, and that if the break stayed away I would be in yellow by a good margin. This was the first time I thought that maybe I could win the overall. Day done, jersey back.

Fon Du Lac followed a good day in the Greenbush state park. I felt terrible and had to just hang on for dear life for the sprint. We got lucky when Passeron and Bergeman got up the road, not a factor in the overall, and Orbea had to chase. Happily I sat on the back of the train which kept me from having to do a lot of accelerations and save it for the sprint, where i got 5th behind Hartley and it was just 2 days to go to victory. We were now racing for me. Downer is of course everyones favorite day, but its been a while since i have been rested for that race, and it requires rested legs to get away at downer with $5000 super primes on the line. United Health Care obliged keeping the pack together and took the prime, I got caught way back on the last lap and had to come from about 30th to finish in the points. One day to go. Waukesha is probably the most nervous i have been before a race i won the year before. Or maybe before any race period. A break went early with Rob in it, a bit later Hilton Clarke attacked up the hill and I followed, eventually we got across to the break and soon lapped the field. With 8 a lap up, and me one of them, it was over. On the last lap i sat up and crossed the line last, posting up the overall victory of ToAD, already thinking about the cheese wheel.

The ToAD win was pretty sweet. But I was physically and emotionally exhausted, which can only mean one thing:

Delicious.

Marion Classic: Lessons learned.

Rested and in full on mid-season good form, getting off the front of the technical course seemed not to be a problem, I think I got a bit cocky thinking i could ride 3/4 of the race off the front with just one other guy but do most of the work, which was going great and according to plan until a fresh guy came across to us and our gap went from about 20 seconds to a minute. I was confident in my chances with the person I was with, but this changed the race and I knew I was in trouble. I let it go to a sprint and straight up got smoked. Learned a good lesson in ego management, because we (as a team) should have won that race without a doubt, so it was completely my fault that we finished second. It was a pretty insignificant race for me and the season in general, but it was a significant lesson. Noone cares if you can hang off the front for the majority of a bike race, if someone beats you, your just being dumb and narcissistic and deserve second. On to superweek! Idiot.

Superweek: Aggressive is good, but dont forget rest, because being tired is bad... how many days are left?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!

With ToAD behind me, it was time for the series that can make or break the end of your season. Using superweek to get ready for Elk Grove, Charlotte, and Pro Crit is a great idea, as long as you do it properly. The key is to not get caught up in a bad performance and race the next day just to make up for it, because you may be on a fast track to dead legs instead of great legs (which, mind you, is the whole point of going to superweek). Alright, lets do this.

The Beverly Hills Crit is probably in the top 3 coolest superweek races, which is saying a lot because there are 17 of them. Fly V was back to defend, and as usual the team to watch, so when Bernie and Thompson went up the road, it was probably a good idea to tear yourself apart to get on that one. Which it was, we lapped up pretty easily (the theme for the first 10 days of superweek this year), maybe too easily. The thing about lapping the field at superweek is when you do, you are not necessarily going to get a break from the action, because now theres about an hour left to race and your really just back to covering attacks from 7 other guys, not to mention that if another move goes it could potentially lap the field, making it really seemingly pointless to even lap the field if 20 guys are going to do it. So we lapped. Then we attacked the hell out of each other until Birdman was away with Bernie and I was away with Thompson, where he proceeded to flog the living crap out of me until i just said "FINE, YOU GET THRID" and finished 4th. Thats a lot of work for first off the podium steps. How many days are left? Balls. We drove to Michigan for an early break from Superweek and did the NRC Meijer Grand Cycling Classic which was windy everywhere, cobblestones, and i really cant even remember what happened. We made a lot of money, and we were on our way back to superweek's hot sweaty uncomfortable embrace for the Homewood Crit. New, technical, and rainy!!! For some reason I decided it would be good training to do the red jersey sprints since i was in good standing after Beverly (even knowing i missed the second day). So I went for the first sprint, won it, and ended up away with Loeberg and Passeron (who won). Bush came across with Hilton Clarke and Bernie. Bush got 3rd after Passeron dropped me with 1 to go and went on to win. I got 5th, secured my first red jersey, and was disappointed i couldnt have gotten passeron back because Bush was feeling great. Next, Richton Park Crit in the red sprint jersey. I think i hate having a leaders jersey because i raced like crap, felt like crap, and decided with Bush (who i found at the back feeling very similar) to just drop out and save the energy because lets face it, its richton park. Ended up being a great decision because the next day at the Willow Springs RR I got away in a good group that probably averaged over 30mph for the entire road race. I tried to stay with Passeron on the last climb but he was too good, I ended up in a group of 3 behind the 2 leaders and attacked on the last rise.... thought i had them.... nope. My sprint is a weak point and something i will be working on in the offseason.

Ok, now to get brief except for schlitz.

I think everyone took at least one lap at the Lake Geneva Crit, super awesome venue, i hope they return. Cudahy Crit the lights were already starting to darken with my fitness from just racing too aggressively, and I missed my first break of superweek (aside from dumb richton park). I got angry at myself and attacked after a late prime and stayed away with 3 guys, took 10th i believe. Needed a day off. Skipped Brookfield Crit to rest for Schlitz Park. Good call.

Schlitz Park: I dont really know what my plan was from the start, I just know that the course is so hard that going as hard as I can will actually do some damage. So thats what i did, when guys stopped being so happy to attack up the hill, i went all in and got a big gap on the hill. Eventually it was a 5 man group that slowly began to lap the field. When we got to the back of the group I honestly thought it was over for me, the smoothness of the break was gone and the choppy field was taking it out of me. Matty Rice nearly stayed off the front but lucky for me there were still a few guys left to try and get across to him, although he was a lap up already. With him back in the fold and only 2 to go, Rob and Chad went to the front and I did everything i could just to stay on Hartley's wheel. Rob got us to the base of the hill with less than one to go, and Hartley took me all the way up the hill, down the back side, and to the last corner... where the lights went on for me. When you can see the finish line and your teammates do that much work just for you, your legs stop hurting and all that matters is crossing that line first. Which I did and got the best W of my career.

That was a highlight. The rest of superweek can be described as very tired. I began to worry a lot about how tired my legs were and the possibility that I would be tired for Elk Grove and Charlotte. I did half of the Evanston Crit before I decided that I was not competitive and pulled out. The Hales Corners RR did not feel good at all, but I worked my way into the break and finished the race top ten. I wanted badly to do well in the next two road races because i began to think about the overall, but 2 bike changes in the South Milwaukee RR put me on the sidelines before the race was over and I decided to skip the Lake Front RR despite getting 3rd there last year. I also skipped Racine Crit to hopefully rest enough for a strong finish and top off the fitness for the rest of the season. I missed the break in Kenosha but I was trying to conserve for downer, only to get crashed off 5th wheel with 3 corners to go by an untimely "chop" from someone who then hit his face on the curb after taking out 4th wheel and everyone behind it. The crash hurt pretty bad and not suprisingly i was tired and sore for Downer Ave where i pulled out with 10 to go with fears of a crash 50 guys back where I was. Whitefish Bay would have been worse to race than to not race. I finished up 5th overall and began the rest a day early with a poor last week of superweek. Regrouped. And started looking to the rest of the season.

Elk Grove: Stick to what your good at.

After some interesting bike fitting with Mantel, I was ready to roll the TT with anger. I rolled, just slower than i hoped, 37 seconds back and 38th overall. A major dissappointment for me. I felt like my inexperiance on the bike led to a bit of that lost time, but also just a reality check that it will be a few years before i can compete with the best in the NRC on the TT. I avenged that dissapointment the next dayin the road race by sticking to my guns, being agressive early, and getting away with Jay Thompson and Kyle Wamsley early on the first lap of 10. Wamsley was happy to sit on because Bissel was in yellow, so it was Jay and I for most the day, building up to a 5 min advantage. The move was big for me because it was a chance to prove my toughness and ability to ride all day, so i was motivated. 2 Kelly riders came across with 2 to go, and drove the break until we got caught with just 8 miles to the finish. That 8 miles was probably the hardest 8 miles of the year just keeping contact to the pack. I was completly destroyed after the effort and upset that we went that far to just be caught. I would do it again.

That night I ate a few dinners to get ready for the crit. I think about 35 guys came to the line of the crit on the last day thanks to a break with Jake in it that nearly lapped the field and crumbled the plans of all the big teams. Horner ended up finishing off the chase... hes good. With 2 to go we had 5 guys, and I tried to take the front with everyone but it didnt last long, its hard for us to go up against the likes of Horner and Fly V, but it dosnt mean we cant try. Maybe it didnt work out for us then, but its a work in progress.

Charlotte: Try hard. Good things happen. Attrition is a big deal. Also, check your skewer after a crash....

I think it was the 3rd lap of charlotte when someone hit the barriers and took out the entire back 2/3 of the field. My bike was in pretty bad shape (which i would realize even more later) and I think i hit my head pretty hard. I got to the pit, the front brake was completly broken, saddle broken and twisted all over the place. So i bent my saddle back into some kind of place, detached my front brake, realigned my bars, and got back in the race. Literally on the next lap i followed Menzies and there was the beginnings of a good group but it just barely got caught and I attacked as hard as i could. I turned around and saw everyone sitting up, a half lap later a group of 7 came up to be joined shortly after by a group of 3 making it 11. Fly V was clearly trying to kill the break not rotating through but sitting 3rd wheel causing splits twice a lap. So there was not that smooth feel and we had to sprint a lot more than I like. Then a $1000 prime got announced and the break reduced to 7 which was much more managable. I picked up a $500 prime in the meantime and it looked like we might be it. Then the craziest thing i have had happen to me in a bike race became apparent: my front skewer was very loose and making loud noise through the corners. I was horrified. Nothing I can take a lap for. Why did i not check that at the crash time?! It must have rattled loose and was now doing nothing for me since my lawyer tabs are filed off. SO, i carefully reach down to the non lever side and tighten the nut on the downhill until its tight to my touch. I had to do that 3 times during the race. It was the scariest (and dumbest) thing i have done on a bike without a doubt. But i earned that break and i was not pulling out of it, because it might go to the line and i want it so badly. Unfortunatly with the race coming to a close the break balooned to 18 with the field 25 seconds back and i was destroyed compared to the fresh guys. I was happy to be in my second important break in 2 straight weekends in the NRC, but again disappointed that I didnt get to the line with my group. We made good money but need to work on finishing as a team.

Pro Crit: The luck and the legs have left the building.

That course is awesome. It suits my agressive style. I even made a good looking move early with all teams represented, but about 5 laps later it was back together and i was going backwards. Nothing left in the legs, I felt like i couldnt even try harder than 75% as i was dropping anchor through the field in the wrong direction, and the race was over only half way through. Dissappointment. Exhaustion. Anger. I drove home in a pretty bad place and needed to do something not cycling to take my mind off the day, luckily my friends Peter and Erin had gotten married at about 2pm, and there was a reception that I was invited to, I tossed on the pretty clothes and didnt talk about biking all night. Just sang "youve lost that lovin feeling" at the top of my lungs and ended up getting a ride home from my gracious and tired brother. Im going to be careful to not be tired for that race next year. Its got good potential for me.

Gateway Cup: Once a tired biker, most likely a tired biker for more than a week.

I tried to scrape together a few rides and get my head back on right with a visit to Jackson to enjoy Annie's company for a week. Hiked and biked and really just enjoyed my time for a bit away from racing. I came back in time to hit up gateway cup where the story was not me, but Rob Bush who racked up 2nd overall and just did nothing but impress all weekend. We had some great hospitality from Kevin Vincent and his family and girlfriend as they took in this bunch of ruffians for a great dinner and ping-pong tournaments. My state of fitness and mind is one of a tired tired american. My best spot was a 5th but it was great to do everytihng i can to help out our great young Rob Bush. He has good things in his future for sure.

The last race of the season is next week's Texas Tough crit. Its good for me to be nearing the end of racing because my legs are protesting anything that has to do with circles at this point.

Looking Back: I had a great year. I trained hard and it paid off more than I could have imagined in febuary when i was racing Valley of the Sun, a measly 7 months ago. The best part of the year was realizing my potential and that I can compete in the NRC. I am excited for some time off in Wyoming where my girlfriend is and has been so patient while i bike my little head off. I am already planning my offseason to make sure that next year exceeds my expectations in a way this year did. I am determined to win an NRC race out of a breakaway, and I want to improve on my TT abilities so that in a few years I am one of the most dominant stage race riders in the country. Kenda has been great and offered me a good contract for 2011, we have also done good work making sure 2011 is better than 2010.

Thanks to all of you that have so greatly supported me in the past and present. I have so many friends who come to my races and a great family that never ceases to amaze me with their support. I cant wait to get training for 2011 and have good reason to write another 40 page blog post about my season.

Check out the flickr account on your right, i will be posting a ton of pictures there soon from the season, and i promise they wont all be of me riding my bike like this post...

Cheers all!

2010 Results (Kenda Pro Cycling p/b GEARGRINDER)
1st Overall Tour of America’s Dairyland
1st Schlitz Park Crit (Stage 9 Superweek)
1st Appleton Crit (Stage 4 Tour of America’s Dairyland)
2nd Marion Cycling Classic Crit
2nd Sheboygan Crit (Stage 6 Tour of America’s Dairyland)
3rd Concord NC Crit (Crossroads Cycling Series)
4th Beverly Hills Cycling Classic Crit (Stage 1 Superweek)
4th Fiddleheads Coffee Crit (Stage 2 Tour of America’s Dairyland)
5th Overall Superweek
5th Homewood Cycling Classic Crit (Stage 2 Superweek)
5th Willow Springs Road Race (Stage 5 Superweek)
7th Valley of the Sun Road Race
8th Greenbush Road Race (Stage 8 Tour of America’s Dairyland)
8th Fond du Lac Crit (Stage 9 Tour of America’s Dairyland)
8th Carl Zach Waukesha Crit (Stage 11 Tour of America’s Dairyland)
9th Overall Valley of the Sun
9th Whitnall Park Road Race (Stage 11 Superweek)
10th Joe Martin Stage 2 Road Race
10th South Shore Cycling Classic (Stage 7 Superweek)
10th Valley of the Sun Crit
11th Lake Geneva Crit (Stage 6 Superweek)
11th Trek Waterloo Classic (Stage 7 Tour of America’s Dairyland)
12th Elkhart Lake Road Race (Stage 5 Tour of America’s Dairyland)
13th Valley of the Sun TT
14th Downer Classic Crit (Stage 10 Tour of America’s Dairyland)
15th Joe Martin Stage 3 Road Race16th Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium

Blogger struggles to blog, breather struggles to breath?

No, these are not the same thing by any means, but i do consider myself both a breather and a blogger, but in order to be a breather i do indeed have to breathe... to be a blogger... you get the idea. Ok, the last post, a miserable March 21st breifing on what i had been up to during the time i was also sucking at blogging previous to that post. If i breathed like i blogged, i would be a lot like my blog activity: dead.

Well, contrary to blog evidence, i am not dead. I took the long way home from tucson, stopped off in jackson hole (which is a lot like driving to where you are going, but just a lot longer) and visited annie which was totally worth it. Upon arrival home I was greeted with Milwaukee weather and a full season of racing ahead of me.

First off, Sunny King and some random RR the day after. Sunny king went pretty well for the team, Birdman picked up 4th after lapping the field with what can be only described as pretty much the entire field (14 guys?!) and monty picked up just about all the prizes in the second half of the race. I remember nearly crashing myself out on a hard corner thinking "man, i should really get used to this bigger bike" while my rear wheel skips through the 3rd corner at the bottom of the hill. The next day was another half field breakaway that ended like this "why are we all of a sudden going fas... whats that tent doi.... oh shoot thats the finish line isnt it, and there it goes. balls. how do we get back to the start line?" Ok, not a bad start, that is if you ignore near self-inflicted injury and missing all the signs telling you where the finish was. So i was a bit rusty. Lets see, whats another good warm up race....

Dear SRAM Tour of the Gila,

You have got to be kidding me.

Sincerely,
Jim "hello gutter! goodbye field!" Stemper

So my first tour of the gila experiance was eye opening. The first stage was interesting, the break just rode away, and noone seemed to care, it was simply a matter of 10 guys going kind of fast, and 160 or so guys not doing anything about it. I guess this is when i started to realize the difference between the terms "selection" and "the move" as they both have similar resulting looks, but occur in 2 totally different ways. We all missed the move, and frankie was more than somewhat peeved having told us "do not, under any circumstance, miss a move with 10 guys in it" the night before. So my first stage of my first Gila also became the first time i got to chase as a pro. Heres the dialogue for the remainder of the race as i hear it:

Phil: "jim, frankie wants you to chase"
Jim: "shut up, haha, very funny"
Phil: "I shit you not."
Jim: "well..... got another bottle?"

....60 miles later...

Lance Armstrong: "Good job guys, in a mile we are going to ride"
Jim's thoughts: "What does that mean? I wonder if lance makes jokes"

....1 mile later....

Jim's thoughts: "yikes."
(Apparently 'ride' means every single devlopment kid on garmin and livestrong takes a turn doing 900 watts on the front for 30 seconds, shattering the group....oh shoot im the last guy, hope they stop riding soon)

...8 minutes of 9 million watts later....

Jim's thoughts: " "

I got back to the front after lance's minions were done riding and were going back to what i previously thought was riding, but my definition of that will forever be changed, i guess they went back to sleeping in the biking position. We caught the group just at the base of the mountian top finish, where i preceded to climb so slow i considered faking a flat and asking the SRAM support car for a bigger cassette.

Day 1, 9:30 back from leader, woah.

The rest of the race is not worth as much detail. Day 2 was 50 mph winds and i want to talk about it as much as you want to read about it. Got dropped in the cross wind, chased back on the climb, with 2 miles to go i forgot the lesson i learned earlier in the race, and got dropped in the crosswind again. I litterally watched 102 guys pass me on the right, not one of them kind enough to let me into the draft. Day 3 was the TT, a 20-year-old won? Day 4 was the crit and i told the guys i was going to attack until i dropped out of the race, made the first break which got caught and countered by jake who was in the main break of the day, which was also caught, a 20-year-old won? Christ. Day 5 a guy crashed into me 5 miles into the race, rolled the front tubular off my wheel, took out half my team, and ended gila for me and the guys a bit early.

All in all I learned alot, mainly i learned that theres a lot more to racing than going hard and crossing your fingers that it works out for you. I liked getting to chase, and i like getting to work on a team, so the year had some real positive things to come in my view despite a pretty rough gila.

Flew home and flew to Joe Martin a day later. Did not feel very good at all in the TT which was really dissappointing because i really thought it was a good oppertunity for me to show how hard i worked in the offseason. Kept the spirits high and came out swinging in the second stage. I found good legs and followed moves for the first 40 miles but nothing was getting very far. The field hit the feedzone hill and i couldnt believe it, but i was passing people on the climb! I got across to the front group that seperated over the climb, which eventually attacked itself into a 15 man breakaway with 40 miles to go. With about 30 to go i started to cramp up and nick waite smartly told me to sit on, I hung on for dear life to the finish and finished 10th. I wish i would have had legs to help nick who was left to fend for himself and got 8th, i think if he had me to help we would have done better, hydration is therefore important, your teammates depend on it. The third stage was another eye opener: Luca Damani is damn good. I was supposed to keep him in good position but the holes and spots he shoots through kept me doing everything i could just to stay on his wheel. He sneaked himself onto the 4th wheel with 1k to go and i watched in amazement as i couldnt seem to find any space to get to him. He finished 4th on his own and i just sat there open mouthed and totally pumped to have that guy on our team. Quote of the year:

Jim: "dude luca, you gotta teach me that."
Luca: "Sometimes, you just have to close your eyes."
Jim: (aussie accent) "f-en hell"

The last stage of joe martin will go down as one of the most dangerous races i have ever done. I was pretty tired after all the racing and couldnt get good position, so i ended up behind 5 or so crashes that left me chasing, eventually i just couldnt get my legs convinced to go harder and i had to call it quits and watch yet another race finish without me in it. Let me tell you what. There is nothing, in my mind, worse than watching a race that you were in finish and you know you were no help. Its my biggest motivation to train hard when i think about those finishes i was stuck watching as a spectator.

Some time off lended itself to some good money making oppertunities. I went down to quad cities over memorial day and (i will just sum this one up): Burlington RR: chased, didnt get them all. Dissappointed in that. Also a world record number of jersey numbers:



Snake Alley: Made it to the front group but went into the snake with a foot down, never saw the lead group again. Very cool race, i will be back to avenge this thing.



Melon city: great team effort with birdman taking 2nd
Quad Cities: another great team effort with marco taking the sprints, chad just missing the win, rob smashing it as usual, and me having my best legs of the year. I can tell you what, i am going to try more often to gamble off the front at the end of the race because i really think i can do it. OH, and this happened (laundry is sometimes optional on bike weekends, at least if your super-pro like bird):

Chad on skinsuit stench patrol.

Philly...

Philly is going to really be in my head for a while. Coolest, biggest, craziest, longest bike race i have ever been a part of. Our team was so good and so excited to ride in such a cool race. Right from the gun we had 3 guys in every move, and we only had 5 guys covering moves. Nick Waite smashed it, unbelievable ride. He coverd moves, attacked, pulled, bridged gaps, and finished the race on his way to a 4th on the KOM competition. Rides like that really get the rest of the guys inspired. Personally, i would have to say my day was good, but left a very sour taste in my mouth wanting the race back in a big way. I cant wait for next year already. After the first time up the wall i bridged across to the 30 man break with 5 other guys by the top of strawberry hill. Kenda had Waite, Bush (19 years old), Monty (20 years old), and myself in that move and it looked good, but HTC missed it. They chased into the bottom of the wall on lap 2 and got a few across to it including Luca and Jake, but the move didnt last much longer and eventually the field creeped back to a lazy front group as 10 rolled off the front. Waite, after admitting over the radio he needed a break, crossed the gap over the top of the wall on the 3rd lap and we had representation and that was the move. Half way through the race i ran a crashing rider over on the fall from the wall, and broke my rear seat stay in half. I got a spare but the chain was out of whack, so after chasing back on i got another bike change (complements of good old chad thompson, who it turns out, is not as tall or long-legged as me). After i got back the second time I got to do my first on the bike rolling bike adjustment, got the saddle close, and it was back to racing. 3 laps later i think my decision to ride the bike despite it not really fitting caught up to me and it was lights out on the wall. 115 miles in and my philly was over. Nick finished it out like a champ even after attacking his lights out, jake finished a solid 26th, luca felt it and lost contact with only 800 to go and im sure had we all been able to stick it out a bit longer he would have made it, hes damn good and ive never seen someone so dissappointed, still rode great. Phil and Bush finished it as well making an impressive showing for our team. I was proud to be a part of kenda for sure this weekend and i cant wait to hit that wall again in 360ish days from today.

Well.... that just about covers it. I hope to keep you updated on dairyland coming up in just over a week now. If you made it this far tell me you did and i will buy you a coffee next time i see you for being such a good reader.

Lets catch up, shall we?

Well, its been a while, aside for of course the post I just published about the season not getting here soon enough. I actually wrote that when i got back from Jackson Hole where I was lucky to visit Annie for 4 excellent days. I figured that I would post a picture-heavy blog that goes from the day i got back from Jackson to today! Annnd go.

So, camp was great but did not really put an emphasis on "hard training" and I did zero riding in Jackson (although we did climb, walk, cross-country ski for the first time in my life, and avoided skiing down hills mainly because im a fancy-pants afraid of injury). The word "injury" is actually a great transition to what I did find waiting for me back in AZ: trying to get the new shoes and pedals on the same terms as the old shoes and pedals:

If you think that looks like a mess, you are correct. I rode my left knee into a place of darkness that i hope to never revisit. Key lesson here is to ease into training after off time, especially if you replace every piece of equipment there is to have in biking. 2 hard long rides is all it took to put me out for 2 days bored as hell and forced to do things like this:

Crepe day!!! Theres not much to do here if your not biking, or tired from biking, so i channeled that energy into something somewhat awesome: peanut butter, jelly, cinnamon, and brown sugar crepes. I liked to keep mine modest, brian on the other hand....

Were just going to let you all make up your own comments and jokes for that picture. Moving on, my boredom seemed to infect Sal and Brian which led to the thought "i wonder if you can eat a cactus" well, heres a cactus paddle we found outside:

And here is what the three of us, some salt, olive oil, and 10 slivers later, came up with:

Not so impressive considering where we started, but by the time we came up with that small peice, the taste of it was not good enough to warrant another bout with the prickers of yet another cactus paddle. But, it was good! Thing is, you could put olive oil and salt on a rock and id probably consider eating it.

Lets see, what else happened? Ahhh St. Patricks day Tucson Style:

Dad send his son (me) a nice card and some money to get some beers on St. Pats day, and thats what we did. Tucson aint such a bad place to drink on a porch at night. With St. Pats day over and my knee healing up with max levels of ibuprofen and iceing, I got back to it with really one mindset: smash myself to the best of my abilities. I dont have much time left here so i figured take this time and weather to make it almost a good idea to sit in a car for 2 days with the bike banished to the roof. While thats going on, a few old great friends came to visit me in Tucson, so I found a way to thrash myself AND help them enjoy Mt. Lemmon: Meet me at the cookie cabin.

Pure joy. After the cookie cabin it was on to the hiking portion of the day, having already ridden to the top of a mountain i was looking forward less to this part of the day than the cookie cabin part of the day. Alas, jim earned a gold star for fitness, and also got some great pictures for the effort. Looking down on Mt. Lemmon Hwy (about mile 8 to 9):

Once the tourism portion of the hiking was over, it was time for the "where do you think that trail goes" portion of the day. This trail goes up, no sh%#

There was quite a bit of PA-ing taking place on this trip, since catherine and heidi are both here for a PA conference (who knows what thats going to be like). Needless to say, pulses were checked, and PA's were in action:

While showing people around this mountain that I have spent so much time with this year, I started to get a little nostalgic about leaving this place that has been such a part of my life the past 3 months. So this picture has maybe more meaning to me, as it is Mt. Lemmon Hwy going up, and then again at the top of the picture you can see it way up.
We celebrated a full day of Lemmon with trader joes snacks and pizza, and 2 buck chuck... not really going to say today was full of good feelings in the morning, but i did punish myself during the ride so i am feeling a bit better.

I leave here in 5 days, going to stop off in Jackson since its "on the way" home. Then I will be back home for the summer, getting ready for The Gila and Joe Martin from the comforts of my parents own home :) I cant wait to race, as you can see from the previous post. I will miss it here but there are some great things to come, for example, the Kenda boys ended up with a 2nd overall at Tour of Taiwan this week, great work. I think its a symbol of things to come this year, so im looking forward to it.

The season better get its butt here already

ALRIGHT, THATS ENOUGH ALREADY SEASON, YOUVE HAD YOUR REST, LETS DO THIS. I think needless to say, I am just about ready for some racing. I remember after the TT at valley of the sun, we were each able to somehow talk about the individual 30 minute effort that was the TT for about, mmmmm, 6 hours. As if living it in person was bad enough, theres only so many ways you can say "it hurt, i could have gone harder tho" and "remember that slight rise? did not expect that" and especially "that 1-k to go sign had to be wrong." This would be the effect of a long off-season, you actually look forward to something that looks similar to this:

I mean seriously season, this is getting ridiculous, i keep calling you, trying to make you feel guilty, and what to i get back?! NOTHING. HArumph. Bah humbug. Guu. Silly noises aside, probably the main reason I feel this way right now can be described here:

Are you getting this, season? Are you picking up what im putting down? If you dont understand, let me put it simply for you. If i cant be with my girlfriend in jackson hole, then there better be a race that i am going to so i can take out said frustrations on a big group of skinny shaved legged bike enthusiasts. Simple enough, i feel. Salright?

Next blog post.

Some was had.

I'm sitting in my hotel room here in Salt Lake City after a day of travel attempting to remember all those things I wanted to remember for my blog. I am currently unwilling to turn off the TV so i can hear myself, so this is tough. Eh, here it goes.

We got to try and kill each other! I remember that. We had a 5 hour ride, the last long ride of camp, and there was quite a bit of half wheeling taking place on the front (more than normal, at least more obvious this time) and quite a few fellas "marking their territory" or at least trying to via riding a bike at annoying pace. SO, after much playful conversation covering up the thought "whens this guy going to knock it off, this is annoying," the captains called an 8 mile throw down. Not rapper style, bike racer style (that's an 8-mile reference, its a movie, about rapping.... eminem?). So we stopped, at too many sandwiches, and got after it. No one knew where the finish line was, so it turned into a "who can attack more" competition that actually kind of turned into an alright team TT. I think jonny won the attack battle, but our ride leader (knowing where the finish line actually was) calmly rolled across the line on the front and won the day. Nice work christian.

Lets see, other stories... well before i forget theres this: Cycling News Article on team camp. Great write up. Have a look.

What else... picture time? Go:

Nemesis. Thats a picture of the jerk (dryer) that, knowing FULL WELL that it was busted, watched me silently as i put the majority of my laundry that would spend the next week in a box. When i threw the load into the dryer, and paid it for its services, AND pushed the button which started the dryer, i knew not that 45 minutes later i would return to a cold, wet, pile of laundry. Fool me once....

Naturally, I placed another dollar in the machine, pressed the button, came back 45 minutes later..... idiot. To keep the theme of dumb and dumber quotes from the week, "and you TOTALLY REDEEMED YOURSELF!" Behold, the hotel-sized dryer I found in frustration:

Boom. It was free too. This, among a few other key things, prevented me from making it to USPS to ship my bike and clothes back to Tucson. Let me tell you this. UPS Ground = more of a thief than that stupid dryer pictured above. Ew. OH well, times like this call for bottles like the following:
Apparently the oldest living brewery in America? Tastes good, test of time is normally pretty good at judging.

Camp was busy, so I am way behind on pretty much everything that isnt bike camp oriented. Our team is incredible. I cannot wait to race this year, we really are going to surprise people, and I cant wait to see what these guys are capable of with Frankie's leadership and Chad T's constant passion for this team. Its infectious and set a great air around camp all week. I am going to slack a bit here and call this edition off here, but no worries, there will be tons of updates and pictures all year. Its really going to be exciting to follow this team, and I will help you do it.

Thank you too all our sponsors that brought this team together!

ps, some was definitely got.

Dude, bike camp is awesome.

So its Monday of Kenda p/b Geargrinder bike camp, and its sweet. I don't really know how long I've been in Macon, which is a good sign considering I normally only count down days for two things; 1: when something takes a long time and normally can be described as having a lot of "suck" *cough* superweek *cough*, ahem, excuse me. and 2: days till i actually get to see my girlfriend or family (which is 5 days at this point, so at least i know how much longer i will be in Macon). So, since bike camp is neither a bunch of suck, my girlfriend, or my family, it must be something else... awesome comes to mind. Here's why:

1. The guys that I have met this week so far are awesome. We not only have had a great time but also seem to already be comfortable enough with each other to have a royal rumble in the McDonald's bathroom.... i tell you what, i give the guy in the stall credit for actually coming out of there in the midst of it, if it were me, i would have checked to make sure the door was locked, sat down, and picked up my feet so they wouldn't know i was in there. shows guts, charecter, and an extreme craving for a big mac.

2. We have new bikes, and got them fit, and carbon training wheels, and new kits, and a ton of incredible stuff to go along with the pretty new bikes that makes me happy.

3. (And currently causing my type speech to slur every other letter, this is taking forever to type) Post-ride leg rub-down by Janis. Today, after 6 hours on the bikes, I got my first ever pro-bike massage and it made the last 5 years of working hard TOTALLY WORTH IT. Unbelievable. I am pretty relaxed right now. I blame all grammatical and spelling errors on this, thats right Gaimon.

4. The area we are in has every imaginable fast-food joint on the face of the planet, including Five Guys and Firehouse Subs.... and starbucks *pulls collar while saying ehhhh*

5. The trip to Lifetime Fitness, where if your not careful, you might think your in a resort of some kind. The lockers were all wood and the benches were granite, and i am pretty sure it was the nicest shower i have ever seen. It all almost made this worth it:
That would be the torture device used to measure VO2 levels at threshold and at max effort. The guy said that of the 5 of us that were tested, our average VO2 max was 11 points higher than the average of Amore Vita's last year.... take that! Too bad there isn't prize money for lab tests, because i think we finished 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. not too shabby. (Rob bush smoked us all, 79? I though my 75.5 was good, but that's just ridiculous, now he has no excuses). Oh hi rob! Hey, whats your secret?!

That's a pretty incredible secret. Too bad i just foiled it.

6. We got to go on a 6 hour ride today that included a pretty stiff pace line, that turned into a very stiff pace line, that turned into an all out lead out up a hill for some reason. Clearly the highlight of my week so far was watching everyone go really fast. Funny thing is, you only have the camera out when the ride looks like this:

7. Without getting myself into an endless pit of shout-outs that i just don't have the focus to write correctly, we have great management, great sponsors, and a great group of guys. We have everything we need to win races, so we have confidence. Therefore, if you cannot already tell, we have some serious excitement for the year to come. None of us can wait to get to a race.

One thing that does NOT make my list is the fact that the average plate at olive garden is now $16, which is an obscenity equaled only by kicking puppies. Needless to say, I'm upset and disappointed in the Olive Garden.

We have 5 days left here to really solidify as a team, get all our little "oh poor baby" type requests made fun of and sorted out, destroy our hotel room (which will be tough because the housekeeping crew here is incredible), and try and tear each others legs off. Its going to be, like i said, awesome. With all that said, here's some links to follow all the twitter/facebook/whatever you want for pictures and probably videos from camp:

Team Website

Team Facebook

Team Twitter

And remember that I post all my pictures on my flickr account up there on the sidebar (that's the thing on the right side).

Camp Day: Negative 2

That's right, were here two days early, well Hartley, myself, and a few other lucky few. Three days of travel sure takes it out of you, and so does packing this sucker:

That's taken at some point where i was clearly not helping fill the trailer all the way to the back, probably drinking coffee, most likely watching Chad T do most of the work, probably handing out help-less input and opinions, definitely sitting down complaining about how cold it is in Ohio. Volunteering to roll the huge trailer down to Macon, GA does come with its perks, like right now, im watching the Olympics on a pretty awesome tv in a warm room writing to you! That's a perk. I figured while i was at it, I would take a picture of our room here on day one of camp, before all of our bags puke all over the place and you cant see the beds:

I will be sure to take an "After" picture at the room's worst. While i am at it, taking pictures of stuff that is, I may as well show you around. Well above you have my bedroom, chad's bedroom, the living room with the nice flat screen, the garbage room, the office, the kitchen table, the foyer, and the art room. Here, follow me to the pantry:
Spacious. Delicious. And maple trim!! Lovely.

Well camp does not really start for another two days, hence the title of the blog post, but it has not stopped us from loading and unloading the trailer, moving the trailer to 6 different parking spaces talking about the pros and cons of each individual space, moving in to our room, setting up our bike building center and fit area for some WN fits, and learning how to cook brown rice in a microwave. OH hey, here's a cool tid-bit of information i got today, apparently i should be riding a 58cm frame, not the 56 frames i have ridden for 5 years... good thing we accidentally ordered 2 extra 58cm frames, apparently.

So, bike camp. Im bigger than i thought. And microwave rice is still really good. All i need now is a way to open the can of tuna. I will keep good updates going, don't forget to check out the flickr photostream (also in the sidebar on the right) that I keep for more pictures from camp that I post this week.

VOS Stage 2

90 mile road race today, Stage 2 Valley of the Sun. We focused on the stage as a primary goal and the overall as an afterthought today as I was the highest on GC, 2:18 back from the lead. With small time bonuses and only 2 days remaining that seemed like a better plan. We had a lot of plans for the race, and a lot of thoughts on what would happen, but no one thought that 5 miles in, a break of 12 would put 3 minutes into the group in one lap, and continue to an eventual 9 minute lead on the pack. Well, that... just... happened.

Chad took some advantage of a clean run and got a group of about 6 up the road almost immediately into the race. Up the climb the first time chads group came back and 5 countered, Marcotte and Ariman bridged right past me, and I jumped as hard as i could to cover those two, knowing what marcotte has been up too (not loosing any races this year? yea hes alright), before we reached the top of the hill, another group with Chodroff showed up and that made it 12, and 5 miles in it was the race. Johnny and Stefano were in a chase group that sat 15 seconds back from my group but no one was missing a pull up front and it was all but over 85 miles from the finish.

Getting away from a group working that well together and with no wind or really any parts of the course to put anyone into difficulty was tough. A few attempts on the time bonus laps showed that any effort was going nowhere fast. I picked up a 1 second time bonus but that ended up not mattering. Coming up the hill the last time i found Marcotte's wheel but when he went, by the time i got on it, i was already learning how much better sprinter marcotte is that me. I ended up 7th finishing same time, and moved into 9th overall.

Chad rolled in a bit later with a 4 man group, he won the bunch and moved into 13th on GC. All in all, we would have liked another guy up in the break but when its that good a group, theres not much coming across.

The parrish family has shown me and the guys nothing but the best race weekend imaginable, and tonight their BBQ was nothing less. They deserve a ton of credit for taking us in and making sure we have been happy as clams all weekend. I love a good burger.

Tomorrow is the last day, a 70 minute crit and our last chance for what we came for: stage win. The GC is all but sorted out, so tomorrow will be about finding a way to beat marcotte and put the new red pin-stripes on top of the podium. One last note: Congrats to Aly Dudek!! She qualified 2nd in the 500m short track sprint tonight and is moving on to the finals on Wednesday. She still skates the 3000m relay tonight at 10 so wish her luck as she represents the USA. Its incredible, she did it!

Talk to you folks tomorrow.

Quick VOS Update

Time trial today. It gave us all a chance to see where our fitness is at here in Feb, and get some really great TT race scenario practice in. I concentrated on feeling good and enjoying the fact that I finally get to race my bike, had a great warm up, and consequently a pretty good ride in the TT. It was a little bit slower than I had hoped, but then again, when isnt it? I came in 13th with a time of 30:53, while chad, stefano, and johnny were all close behind. Chad gets honorable mention for the day, rocking a single-speed track bike for the TT, which required a combined mathematical effort this morning to pick a gear. I think he was happy.

We discussed the next two days over dinner and we all seem pretty excited to finally race a bike. Tomorrow is the road race which starts at 11:30am, I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

Also, a fellow Wisconsinite and family friend is competing in the Olympics in short track speed skating (the 500m individual, and 3000m relay) tomorrow, be sure to root for Kenda p/b GearGrinder AND Alyson Dudek tomorrow!!

New Kits and Valley of the Sun!!

The new kits are in and ready to go for Valley of the Sun this weekend! Chad, Johnny, Stefano, and myself sat in Johnny's living room busting open all our bags of new stuff, and of course within 5 minutes all of us were standing in the living room in our skin suits. The kits are awesome and we are all super pleased with how they turned out. As you will see below, a pretty good look at the kits stationary and in action!

Me and my continuing battle with "mirror pictures" attempting to give you all a good idea of what were dealing with here:


Once outside, we attempted to take some pictures before setting out, i got into a track stand that looks under control, but almost immediatly unraveled into a near first ruined kit of the year moments after this was taken:

Chad showing his new feelings of awesomeness that a day of new kits (and full zip jerseys!! 2 handed high five!!!):
Very confident chad, very cool. Way to be.

Tomorrow is the Valley of the Sun TT and I am super pumped to get out on the road and unleash all the pent up racing energy that builds in the offseason. Cant wait to get that new skin-suit some miles on it.

I will keep you updated on how the racing is going. So until tomorrow, enjoy the kits and wish us all good luck!

My miles program

Hello, you've reached the miles department, all of our personal miles coordinators are currently helping other customers find out that their miles are about as good as a plane without any gas, Mr Rodgers' sweater collection without Mr Rodgers, or trying to cry your way out of a drunk in public ticket. Dave Matthews without his band? McDonald's without corn? MILK WITHOUT COOKIES?!?!

RRRAH. Im not even going to bore you with the story. Not worth your time.

Oh, hey guys, how do you do?!

Saw some horses, took a bunch of ride-by pictures, they were being all shy and stuff but couldn't help looking to see what the heck was going by, so they tried to hide behind the fence. Fail. Its tough when your a giant animal to be inconspicuous.

So there was the second race of the year yesterday in McDowell Park up in who knows what part of phoenix. "Hey Jim how did it go?" Well.... I can show you how it felt...

Not really a bad thing this early in the year and the day after the shootout, but not fun. It was like dealing with airline miles, you may feel like your working really hard, but you seem to get literally nowhere, and maybe in this guys case, sometimes backwards.

Got to watch the Superbowl, but only the second half. By far my favorite ad was the one with all the old stuffed animals jumping the kia. I don't think i saw anything as good as the 1-second commercial for miller last year, "HIGH LIFE!" and nothing beats terry tate.



Unbeatable.

Whelp, i just enjoyed a nice hour long exploration on the bike at 4 miles an hour. Time for a shower, but, admittedly, its really just to get the sunscreen off. Enjoy your weeks!

Race Picture!

Well, the season hasn't really officially started until you can find one of these on the Internet:

So that's me. And behind me is Evan, who I have found to be a great guy to ride with down here in Tucson, riding for the Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling Team this year (also a new guy to the pro ranks).


As for answering the question "What have you been up too?" i guess i could do a list:


1. Lost my camera, then found my camera


2. Switched my car insurance to save about 200 bucks next year thanks to being a member of USA Cycling. This also made me feel like a man.


3. Computer started to make funny noises, i have done nothing but squeeze it where the noise comes from until it stops, seems to be working quite well.


4. Finished Omnivore's Dilemma. Currently wanting to have real sit-down dinners for the rest of my life. Current books: Harry Potter 6, American Pastoral, and Racing Weight. I like to keep good variety.


5. Started doing LT efforts, and therefore started doing Yoga to make my legs feel better.

6. Listening to radio milwaukee live stream


So that's a good quick list of the things I have been up to. I've been reading a bit about achieving my racing weight, and despite it being my lest favorite part of training, knowing how to control your body composition can be a powerful training tool in peaking for your target races. I had a short bout with what can happen when you lose too much weight too quickly and get dehydrated, and your body does some interesting things in response to not getting what it wants. When you think about it, your body is pretty temperamental sometimes (then again, nowhere near as temperamental as cyclists). You have to do alot of experimenting to find out the kinds of things that make you happy and the things that get you a night on the couch, figuratively speaking.

Today it rained, it winded, and it cold-ed. So that happened. I dont really want to talk about it, but the pool being cranked to full heat was a welcome homecoming after a long slog.

Theres a race this weekend in phoenix, i think were going to give it a go. We will see, i will talk to you all then most likely.

First race jitters: Offically Out

So its January, and you all know what that means, thats right, a crit. Wait, no no no, thats wrong, January is for smashing your old heart rate records on the trainer or riding long enough to stop for lunch and actually pay for it. That does, of course, depend on where you live. I have gotten a bit of both worlds this past week, but I will save talking about the weather and my training habits for the end of the conversation, when we have run out of other things to talk about.

So Parrish and I drove out to the race in Avondale, AZ (I drove from Tucson, then John, his wife, and I made the 40 minute journey from phoenix to, you guessed it, phoenix) to find a nice sweeping turn course without bumps and in some places, without curbs, or even a distinguishable finish line (if your colorblind especially). I watched the 3's race and felt sick to my stomach as they went through the first turn thinking "oh man, they are going to crash, sheesh thats fast, we really do this?!" So my strategy from that point on was to spend as much time off the front as humanly possible as to reduce the amount of time anyone else had a chance of crashing in front of me. Many of you who know me are saying "well thats no different than your strategy in every race" and your pretty much right, but today i felt like i had method to the madness: dont die.

This is not a way to go into a race, so i just shut that all out and concentrated on what actually matters: 1) Win the race. 2)Win primes 3)Get a great training ride in. These three things should be taking up your mind power, not "oh my God oh my God oh my God"

So, sack up, sally, and attack the field.

It was one of those days where there wernt any technical corners to slow up the field, no hills to tire the field, no wind to string out the field, and 15 guys on the same team wanting to "show off" their new digs and big numbers. Not letting any of this hinder any pointless breakaway attempt, i tried and tried and tried again, always justifying everything under the excuse of "its good training" which is another way of saying "you didnt go hard enough". I looked down at one point and figured we had gone over the time scheduled, and we had only gone 30 minutes... "oh, drag."

At one point evan rolls up next to me and goes "i think i got an idea! its brilliant! we both attack together!" It was a good idea. it did not work. so 85 minutes of failed attacking later, there were 5 to go and we were taking less than a minute to do a lap. I got a bit swamped but a bit of early season fitness allowed me to make up for that mistake and get position for the sprint. Marcotte made me and the other guy i was sprinting (unsuccessfully) for the win look stupid as he ripped by us before the line as if we wernt riding bikes. I ended up third which i was satisfied with despite the fruitless breakaways, my sprint is getting a bit better.

There are some seriously strong guys out here, thats for sure, and they deserve credit where its do in saying that race was underestimated by me and parrish and everyone else i talked to, turns out the arizona crowd can get going in a crit just like back in the midwest. Felt at home, plus about 50 degrees.

In other recent news, i attended a Jon Chodroff "spin" class during the armegeddon weather week for some good old trainer wars on thursday. I did not expect the following 1 hour of my life to look like this:

Good One!! Yesh.

So, the other big news this past week was the weather. The weather decided the following: nothing. It was cold, sunny, windy, rain, hurricane, snow, pressure washer, el nino, the nino, 4 feet of snow. BUT, when I finally did get to ride outside, i tried to capture some of the beauty that is Tucson doing its best Boulder CO impression:

Yet, when all was said and done, the weather returned to consistency and another sunset became part of my life in a really good way: