Halloween FUN

Legs really didn't feel good all week. Especially on Thursday when I was doing some motor pacing. Thursday night I signed up for a massage in exchange for a dirty bike cleaning. I think it helped. Fridays main goal was to drink as much water as possible and ride my mountain bike for 30 minutes. Yes I still have a mtn bike(and I'm going to race it next weekend)! Mission must have been accomplished because I felt half way descent in the race. I made the decision to practice some bike swaps while dressed up as Rick 'Wild Thing' Vaughn. It was going pretty good until things got a little stretched out half way through the race. I had to work pretty hard to close a 10-20 second gap to Marko. I made contact with 2 to go, recovered for a lap and then made my move with 1/2 lap to go. I didn't have much left in the tank. It came down to an uphill sprint into a headwind....I was at the front. Marko jumped I responded, but not quite fast enough. Can't wait to do it again tomorrow!

Can anyone guess which pumpkin is mine??

USGP - KY

Another weekend in the books! USGP Louisville. 12th place on Saturday and 11th on Sunday. Best part of the weekend was the Packers win on the radio dricing home through Chicago! Second best part of the weekend was listening to Frattini yell across the parking lot, "TREESTON TREESTON I SORRY" Then he touched his heart! Frattini crashed after attacking Wells with a 1/4 lap to go and took Tristan out. You can check out the post race interview here....

Thanks to all the midwesterners who cheered and helped out in the pits.

UCI3 #3

Bio Wheels day 3 - First off, thanks to Mitch at Bio-Wheels who took a huge amount of time to put on 3 days of racing from 8:00 am - 5:00pm each day. If you didn't make it to this even this year, you gotta check it out next year.

Day 3 was another really solid race. I had a great start and felt really comfortable on the bike following Powers on the prologue lap. The first lap was pretty comfortable too, but starting the second lap I took a bad line through the uphill sand pit and got gapped off. I had enough to make it back to Wicks and Wells, but not enough to go back up to Kabush or Jones. The video shows it perfect. I recovered in the second group good enough to finish up 5th place. My best result ever at a C1 event.

I know I am strong enough to ride with the lead group, but I really need to figure out how to get past that 10 minute mark.

The drive home wasn't too bad. Steak'N'Shake french fries and a strawberry malt, Coke, Sour Skittles, and a Butterfinger. We arrived a little after 12:00 and was in bed by 1:00.

Didn't even have to clean the bikes today. Just a little dusty.

Thanks again to GearGrinder for the use of the team van for the weekend....it made it so much easier. Thanks to Blue and Easton, the bikes worked great all weekend.

UCI3 #2

Day two actually started with a rough end to day one. So I got some blisters on my hands.....yea it hurts but no big deal right. So its 10:00pm I'm tired from racing and waking at 4:00am. I'm ready for bed. I think how about a band aid on my blister before bed. It burns. Bad. My feet start itching. I've got to get this stuff off my hands. I go to the bathroom wash my hands, I'm hot, rinse my face with cold water and go to lay down. My heart rate quickly goes from 50 to 120 laying there. My asshole starts itching, my legs start itching, my hands and lips start swelling. I tell Tristan and Bill somethings wrong. They ask whats up and realize I'm slurring my speech and making no sense. I barely ask them to call the ambulance. I ask Tristan for a cold wash cloth for my forehead. He brings it back on two seconds later I say I'm going to piss my pants. I stand up and feel like I'm going to vomit. I crawl to the bathroom on my hands and knees and am ready to barf, but before I can I almost shit my pants. I drop the pants and everything all comes out at once. The emt's show and think we are huffing mastik tubular glue and drinking mineral spirits. They want me to get in the ambulance, but no way thats like $500 and I only won $120 for 5th place earlier in the day. Tristan and Bill drive me to the ER where we wasted 2 hours for really clear answers and a bit of benadryl. There goes $750 to the hospital. Oh well at least I didn't die, because for a while when my ear were ringing and my lips were swelling I was just waiting for my throat to start to swell.

After a late night and some good lack of sleep the motivation wasn't too high to start the race. More than anything I just wanted to be able to hold onto the handlebars. I was afraid of anything that I did the day before, drink mix? recovery drink? what caused that freak out? dinenr? who knows? Jessica from My Wife Inc came along with some "Vag Spray" to spray on my hands. I thought I better man up and race my bike. I was ready and felt halfway decent in the warm up. Then I skipped my pedal on the start line and filed of the pavement in 17th place. Ooops. It pretty much was game over from there. I slowly bridged up to Wicks with Troy 5 seconds up and the group another 5 seconds. Somewhere Troy bridged and Wicks and I didn't. I rode around with Barry for the first half of the race and then he disappeared. I finished it up solo in 8th. Hopefully a good nights sleep and good legs tomorrow.

UCI3 #1

It was a good day, a long day, but a good day. It started with a 3:45am wake-up and a long drive in the GearGrinder van from Sheboygan to Covington KY. Bill Street Player, Tristan and I shared the driving, so it wasn't so bad.

The race was exact opposite of last year. Dry, dusty, and bumpy. I had a solid start in the front row and filed into the course in about 8th place. I moved up to 6th place and was following Chris Jones for 2 laps. He was struggling a little and I gapped him on the triple barrier ride/run. I was 5th 10-15 seconds behind Kabush for the next 45 minutes. With 2 more days of racing to go I didn't really want to drill it to catch him. The last 15 minutes I started to feel the pain in my hands. With 3 laps to go I had to stop racing because the blisters were so bad. I couldn't hold the bars. My yellow bar tape had red blood stains on the tops and the drops. I faked it as good as possible and finished 5th. Pretty happy, just hoping the hands heal up quick.

Thanks to the cxfestival.com for putting on a great race. Thanks to GearGrinder fo the team van. We're riding in style! Check out www.podiuminsight.com for more great pictures.

The Domes

Ouch...it was a 3:00am wake-up call this morning. Andrea and Elicia are off to California for a friends wedding. I was the chauffeur. I'm tired, but I'm also a bachelor for a week so there will be plenty of couch time today watching football and taking naps! First I better go do a workout....or maybe a nap first...ive got all day to decide!

Yesterday was the first local cross race I have done in a few years. It was perfect timing and the guys/wives of MWICROSS put on an awesome event. The race was held at the Milwaukee Domes. There were superfans, there was rain, sand, barriers, and even cupcakes! Everything you could ask for on a saturday afternoon.
The race started with the top 4 guys overshooting the first corner. Carbon wheels don't stop fast in the rain. The next corner further down in the field it looked like a bike race on a slip and slide course. Mark quickly went to the front to stay out of trouble and I followed. Mark pulled the first 2 laps and then I took over. My legs felt similiar to the day of Cheq. Strong, but no snap and cold. I pulled for a lap and a half before Mark took over again. This time I felt really comfortable following him. A lap later I was at the fron again and went pretty good up the steep climb in the course. A gap opened, I went hard and gained 10 seconds advantage. The next 2.5 laps I maintained the gap and took home my first cross victory of the season.

Next up is the UCI3 in Cincinnati. The competition is stacked this year. The race courses are rumored to be improved, the payout is top notch and equal to men and women. Register today and I'll see you there.

Fall Fun & Home Improvement Time

Lots has been going on after the USGP last weekend. First off all we chopped down a huge, half dead, maple tree in our front yard that was hangin half over the house. It was pretty crazy watching the guy 100ft up in the air swinging around on ropes like Tarzan with the entire house shaking as piece by piece of the tree hit the ground.

After the tree was down it was up to me to stack the wood and clean up the mess. Each of the logs had to weigh close to 80 lbs and my biceps are still burning as a I type. And yes that stack of wood is 4ft deep by 6ft tall by 8ft wide w. just a few smaller logs in front.

A couple hard training rides thrown into the mix. Plus an awesome Wednesday night Trek Mountain Co-Op group ride to preview the WORS race course. The ride was awesome with about 30-35 people in attendance. The Papa Johns pizza and home made brew afterwards topped off a perfect fall bike ride. Thanks Trek.

Thursday morning I decided I needed to head out for a longer ride to get better aquanted with my new Norcross. It was the best day of the year for riding. The leaves were changing colors, the temps were perfect, and the legs felt great.

Now I'm off the Nyhoff Custom Gutter & Aluminum in Oostburg to check out new vinyl siding for the house! Gotta love it...