I'm sleepy

Saturday got up at 5am for Waffles, Lyna and I rolled out to DV at 6:35. Ouch. There were 12 of us, only 2 other Utah racers I raced smart and pushed hard and I won by about 2 minutes.

Lap Times

38:27

39:05

39:21

I then spent the rest of the day watching the Pro Women and Men race, Lyna was taking photos for MTBRaceNews and so I just cheered people on. The Utah women all did great, Kathy had a DNF due to a broken bike, Holmes was scratching on a Podium till she had a mechanical, she ended up 14th, KC did great for her first PRO race in 15th, Jen had a carreer best 19th followed by the honor of being one of the random USADA controls, which meant I got to feed Shannon for his first time through the feed zone, cause having to pee in a cup after racing for 2+ hours in 90+ degrees takes a while.

In the pro race Alex G took an awesome 11th, BZ held on for a strong 27th, and Shannon pushed through to for 41st

I went up and watched the STXC today and Kathy and Heather had a great battle for the last podium spot, Kathy took 5th, good show, after a rough spring and rough week. Heather was in 4th about 1/3 of the way through the race and went down hard on the pavement, the fact that she pushed through to come back to 6th place is awesome and shows that she is in form.

Money To Burn

The big effin white diesel truck has been Idling across the street from me for the last 45 minutes. When I took the photo I was on the way over to ask if they would like to sponsor my bike team with that extra cash, but they pulled off before i could get off my porch. Damn.

Remember, It starts Tuesday

Some may call me an ass.....

But I came up with a jersey design

I know, I know, I am multi-talented. You cant afford me. This work was done as a tribute to old style Bob a good example is here.

all in good fun.

It is ON!!!

40

Raced Soldier Hollow tonight in the Expert A group, ended up 5th out of 7 starters. DR X, don't look at the chart below, it scares even me. Zeppelin was creeping up on my halfway through the 4 lap race and I had to throw down a skinny guy sprint at the end to hold him off. Ouch, not bad for a 40 year old.

**Late Edit: 4th out of 7 starters, 2 DNF's, time on results is off, real time more like 1:02:45.

Mill Creek

Took off for a nice road ride Tuesday evening, headed over to Mill Creek via 27th and REI circuitous route. Planned on turning around at Rattlesnake gulch, then planned on turning around at the restaurant, then at the gate, then at elbow fork then.... Well ended up riding all the way tot he top, at least through the first snow patch, which was almost the top, ran into Superfly on the way down and rode down with him.

I love this time of year, 2.5 hour ride, with a late start on a week day after work. Awesome.

No race weekend and Summer Time

It was very nice to have a race free weekend. I had only 1 day off the bike all week, and Wednesday nights race was extra painful. BK put about 4 minutes on me in a 1 hour race. Thursday and Friday were easy road spins, except Thursday I went up emi too hard, not race pace, but too hard for how my legs felt.

Saturday was the team ride up in Jeremy Ranch, 2.5 hours of fun. Nice easy pace, with regroups and giggly downhills, ran into the Porculized crew midway in. Jim and Lyna were the odd ones out, not wearing their team kits, anarchists!

That evening we headed to the Hypio's for a BBQ, it was a good time, the mtb'ers turned roadie regaled us with tails of the asphalt. TC was all giddy about her impending solo Dolomite rides.

Then everyone sang to me. Nice photo (notice the sunburn, apparently Kroger brand sunscreen is not sweat proof.) Thanks for embarrassing me.

Sunday I met up with Jen and Shannon and we headed out from their house to do a nice long dirt ride, they were planning on 5 hours, I was planning on turning around when tired, we headed up emi, left into pinecrest, right onto killyons lane the 'rode' up killyon's, well we hiked a lot. We then bombed down to Affleck park and up the trail to big mountain, I turned around there and headed home , down mormon pioneer then out on the road home. Nice 3+ hour ride. Like the elevation profile, ouch.

Then I mowed the lawn and talked to dad.

Very nice weekend.

DV

I knew the course would be fine, rain, snow whatever. A shortened race was just what I needed post week in NYC.

I started in the front, got a small gap going up little stick and really it was done from there, was picking off other category riders throughout the race. Had a verbal spar with a Aggressive SS racer who wanted me to meet him by the ballpark after school, he didn't show.

Caught up to the caveman coming through the lap, and this helped give me some motivation to keep pushing. Saw Tim on the single track climb to little stick and new i had at least a minute on him and that held to the finish. Win #2 2008.  Tim had a great day to hold onto 2nd place.

Lyna woke up and decided to race, she signed up for 35+ then moved to sport women when she found out the distance was the same. She ended up in 3rd, which is awesome. Her leg issues have kept her from the races and even training thus far, that was a good result. The top 3 in her group were all within a minute, 2nd was 8 seconds ahead, and 4 of the top 6 were Revolution/Peak Fastener Ladies. Superflys better half had a great 1st sport class race for 6th.

History

My politics are pretty right out there, on my title, but either way you look at it, this week is very historical, shut the talking heads up, the 'press' and the papers. Look at the reality. It is likely that a man who spent several years in a prison camp during a dead end war who was over looked 8 years ago because he was too moderate may go up against an African American man reared by a single mother.

Regardless of how you view it, cynical or not, this election is more about the mixed heritage/belief system that makes our nation great.

I say that with a full belly, sitting in a too expensive hotel room overlooking times square. Whoever wins, these are exciting times.

Feeling the Sundance DH

Saturday am was good, I was able to make my Chocolate Milk waffles and as Kathy has said before, I was hungry, which is good.

There were around 15 or so of us at the start line, including Kenny, who bagged the grand loop event due to snow. I took off easier than normal, almost took a wrong turn towards the top of the pavement, Kenny and Chris got around me there, some where on archies, Kenny was n the side of the trail, he got right back on, a bit later, his chain snapped, Fred was a bit behind and so was Jack, when we hit the dirt rode climb towards the top, i saw Chris motoring away and only Jack on my tail. We got to the top of the course in about 21.5 minutes and I knew it was going to be a good race for me, the changes to the course removed about a half a mile or so and some steep grades.

The DH was ripping, Jack said I dropped him hard on the first DH, around 10 minutes later I was climbing back up the road, when I went through the feed zone, I saw Chris towards the top and new i had to keep it steady and hope for the best, I kept picking off other experts and then towards the top started lapping riders, I DH'd about 30 seconds faster on lap 2 and hit the road with a good gap on the chasers, although Chris was long gone. I made good time threw much more lapped traffic, dh's consistently and came through in second.

I am sure Kenny would of killed it without the broken chain, but all those watts and no shifting probably works a chain hard.

The smile on my face shows how much I was feeling the DH. BK was absent, must of been a post endorphin hangover or some such.

Met up with Mikey Likey Bikey this afternoon for a lap of part of the DV course, it too is in good shape, some snow patches remain, lots of scary downed trees sticking out of corners and the finish singletrack is not built yet, ran into to Heinrich who showed a few of us where it would go, my legs were fried and I barely made it home with out falling asleep at the wheel.