knew a girl named Nikki I guess you could say she was a ...

So, while waiting for my 'rents to arrive via I-80, my buddy the Newby sends me these 2 pics from Vegas, just plain mean I tell ya.




























Last night was an hour of Tannr Park CX action, Tomorrow night the Oly Park CX race, bring it on.

Ligthen Up Francis

So, Saturday was a 3 pm meet up at Mueller, Lyna and I headed up expecting masses of orage clad Revolution Riders for the pre BBQ ride. Well BZ and I had Orange, Climb-Um and Sue had Raleigh Red/Yellow and Blew and Lyna had her incognito black. SO it was The Pro's and Lyna and I.

BZ, Climb-Um and I headed up to the ROck, hung out, Sue wasright behind, then Lyn. BZ bailed as the trail was a bit damp, The rest of us headed up to the top, the trail got snowier and the air colder, by the time we got to Rudy's flat I was chilly. We decided to go down North Canyon, hoping for less liquid, wrong. It was wet and freezing. Climb-um went down hard on a root, maybe cracked a rib, Lyna and I got to the car, drove up to BZ's showered and then had the team BBQ. Good time, small turn out, but still fun.

Sunday, Kracht picked me up at 7:30 and we headed to Pocatello for the Poki Cross. Hoping for a nice hard effort. We both decided to race A's, the B's had some Utah riders as well as a bounch of local first timers. Well the comp was fierce. Bartman showed, Richard Feldman showed, Ali G and others. Well I for sure was gonna suffer.

I had a good start, top 10, good 30 minutes for that matter, then it just stopped, i went backwards very quickly, barely hung onto to finish, like 18th out of 20 maybe. My HR graph shows the implosion quite well,









it hurt, the course was slow, all grass, lots of hills, the first 30 minutes were fun though.

The CX season may be shorter for me than I thought.

Billy Ray Valentine, Capricorn.

Lyna and I had plans to wake up early Saturday and head to Park City for the 26th annual Tour Des Suds, end of summer race/party. A fun 7 mile hill climb starting at the City Park. The wetaher was supposed to clear up for it, so i was excited, having missed it the last couple of years. Woke up Saturday a.m. to clouds and cold in Salt Lake. Lyna bowed out, choosing to hit the shoreline for 3 hours in the afternoon, so I headed up solo. I-80 up Parleys was nasty, like a pond covered in ice, once I got to the summit i got better, but the snow on the Mountains looked a bit troubling. I decided to go on and see if the race was on. I got to the city park and saw that people had number plates, so i went and registered. I wanted an hour warm up at least, but chose to sit in the heated car instead, just like everyone else. The turn out was low, due to the snowy weather, the costumes were not as exciting as years past, but at 10am about 70 of us headed up the mountain.

Wanting to warm up quick, I took a flyer up the road, turned left towards Main Street and about halfway up looked back to see a sizable gap, i was not maxed but let off a little. Some unknown came by e first, then Sager, then Kenny Jones. Shannon made it up to me by Daly's then dropped his chain. Sager, kenny and Unknown took a bit of a wrong turn so I caught back on right before we crossed the Gyuardsmans road heading towards the Mid Mtn trail. The unknown guy dropped off the pace at this point.

At this point the Cyclocross workout began. Most of the trail was ridable, even though it had upwards of 6 inches of snow on it, however some of the switchbacks were too tight and you would just slide out, so dismount, jog, remount. After a few of these my cleats just had blocks of ice on them, expended energy trying to get back in the pedals, then gave up. We popped out onto the Guardmans road, which was covered in slush and ice, I was in 4th at this point, while stopped trying to de-ice my cleats, Shannon cme by me, i gave up again and remounted, on the last straight away I went hard and passed shannon for 4th place. Ouch.

The worse part of the day was the cold, wet ride back to the car.

Sunday am had a nice early CX workout at Wheeler Farm.

It is what it is

That has been the statement for the month. Work has been full of ups and lots of downs, but climbing out of it again, we will see how it all works out. For the good of all, I hope.

Tuesday night easy spin out to the Racers Make Rasberries, ran into to Rich, hung out for a while took a few pics on the way home. Nice to spin the legs out. Have been hitting dirt a lot lately so the ease of a road ride was welcomed.














Wednesday hit up Glenwild and Drop Out. Nice ride.

Cross starts on a Friday night and it looks like they have changed up the categories, no more A and A+ but they will likely have a 35+ cat every race. Single speed as well for the sick bastards. The first race is at the olympic park. The cross bike is in disrepair, i have had trouble finding good tires and the first course has a rough DH and a nice grinder climb, so looks like the hardtail will be working it.

Oh joy, at least i didn't sit on a bike for 11 hours last saturday. May as well beat your self in the narns with a ball peen hammer.

Weekend Fun

Friday, Lyna and I headed to the Greek festival with Peter Pan and the lost boys.

Saturday, bought a new range, installed a new facuet, fixed the toilet. Ate Este pizza, well that was it.

Sunday, slept in, then rode Up Spiro to almost the Crest, down around Jupiter Bowl, Down Apex, then shortcutted down Eagle and Spiro. Fun ride, fo sho.

Recovering

So 9 days since injury, 4 bike rides, 1 race and one overnight backpacking trip. I am ready to start riding regular again. Today I did a nice Spiro to Mid mountain and down Rob's Trail loop. Just under 25 miles, nice easy cruiser day. Ran into Cyndi Schwandt somewhere around Red Pine lodge, Other than that saw like 2 or 3 other bikes the whole time. Yesterday I did the Emmigration up and down. Saturday and Sunday Lyna, Meg, Ty, Chad and I did an over night in Grandaddy Basin in the Uintahs, Anna went with us, she did great for a short legged dog, she was a bit freaked out by the campfire and in the tent.

3 weeks till the 1st cross race, mmmm goody, also, mom and dad will be here that weekend, it should be fun.

Back to work tomorrow, 4 day weekends are great.