For sweet skiing...

http://youtube.com/aspenfreeride

The Muffin Man and
Pillow Factory

Burial-zonia

The snow scene back home in Aspen, CO
Every ting is totally buried mean while I'm enjoying
warm 70 degrees in north GA

Univest

Univest was over in the first two miles, at least for anyone who was not willing to get there legs going early on, probably before the race began. That's how it was for our team. Although we can always count on Scottie Weiss to be in the early move. I know that he is strong, and that he can finish races when he attacks early.

Scottie missed the initial move but made a strong attack to get into a fast chase group. They left the peleton behind as we were just bumbling along content to smell the fresh cut grass on the side of the road. The climb that was supposed to break the field apart did just that however the officials sent us down the wrong road so everything came back together. Again we began just putzing along enjoying the end part of the season. I tried to go with a couple of Navigators but nothing was going anywhere.

As we got to the finishing circuits the lead groups had so much time on us that we were not even able to do one lap of them. Bummer! So our day ended early and we got to relax and watch the race unfold in a mix of chaos. We had no idea who had lapped who and who was going to win. In the end they got the results all messed up and I have no idea how they are going to score the rest of us.

Tomorrow we will race a hard crit and hopefully we will all be there to the very end.

Over and out...

US Pro Ends Early

The US Pro Championship is the only race that only Americans can race in. It crowns the national champ for the remainder of the season and can establish a rider overnight. Riders that spend thier seasons in Europe come home for the event filling the field with an impressive list of riders.

This year was going to be my first year in the event. I have had good form and my motivation for was high. Scottie Weiss was our go to guy. On a good day he can be there in the end with the best of them. My job on the day was to help him and if his legs where giving out then he would try and help me. But it wasn't too much a problem of my legs working that kept me from helping him. An early crash took me out of the race.

The opening laps of the race felt very comfortable to me. I was sitting easy on the first lap and was moving up on the second lap getting ready to cover some inevitable early moves that were sure to be launched. As I was moving up on the right side of the peloton I hit a pothole that came out of nowhere and slipped my handle bars down. I have hit hundreds of potholes throughout the summer, gone mtn biking on my bike, ridden dirt roads, hopped curbs and other things that I should have caused my bars to slip but a simple man hole did the job. I got on the radio and had my team car come up with a tool so that I could fix it. As I was hanging on to the car we began to go down a hill and pick up speed. We could not get the handle bar to move back and we where wrenching on it. I didn't want to loose too much time on the peloton so we kept the speed high and things began to get real crazy. The speed was too high, there were too many bumps and holes in the road and right as was all realize that we need to wait to the bottom of the hill to continue work I hit a bad hole that whipped my front wheel right under the rear wheel of the car. My bike went under and I went shooting off towards the curb slidding and tumbling. I got up to find my bike in peices about fifty feet up the road. I picked up pieces knowing that my day was over.

The fork was fractured and in two pieces, the wheel was curved like a taco. My race was over just like that. In the first twenty five minutes I was limping home angry that I couldn't even go over Paris Mountain once. My bike was trashed and my team was out there with out me. They were all brave soldiers and faught as long as they could though.

I'm awfully sore today but alive to fight another day.

Mountain Biking at Catamount

Williston, Vermont: home of the Catamount XC ski trail system and home of the best Wednesday night mountain bike group ride in New England. Also home of an amazing B&B where myself Proko, Ravster and Winston are staying. Winston keeps talking about how hungry he is and Proko continues to geek out on his computer. I think he is looking for an i-phone on Ebay but most of the phones are fake. Just like a good pair of jokeleys eye wear, there are a bunch of fake i-phones. At first glance they look great. A second glance reveals that they are pieces of crap.

On the race note: I raced in the Wednesday night Catamount worlds. It was a huge deal! Really. I was riding Adam Craig's old bike that now belongs to Jeff Davison, Lea Davison's dad. It had a broken front break lever but Jeff and I rigged it up with some zip ties and epoxy. I knew I would have to be delicate with it but that wouldn't matter, at the start it was drizzling and it made the mostly grass course very slick. Jeff's bike has good tires on it but not so good on wet grass. Keeping it upright would be my biggest worry.

At the start I saw a ton of people I knew. I underestimated the popularity of the Wednesday Worlds and knew that I would have my work cut out for me. Especially because some of the fast guys were on cyclocross bikes. There was nothing too technical about the course and was mostly on hard packed grass and dirt. These guys would be flying. Four laps of pain.

Lap one started apparently really hard. That's what everyone was saying after the race. I have nothing to judge it against because I have not started a mountain bike race since last fall. I was right with Josh Dillon and his teammate Jaime from the Fiordifrutta team. They were so smooth on the first lap while I was all over the trail. I was clearly rusty. Coming around for the second lap I slid out on an uphill corner and ended up in the tall grass. My cleat was full of grass, chain fell off, and it was just a small skid out. To make matters a little more difficult I was on road pedals that were full of grass and the cleat did not want to clip in.

I finally got up and going but they were gone. The rest of the race was chase chase chase. I never caught the two Fiordifrutta cyclo crossers again. Being able to race on fat tires again cleared my head from all of the hectic travel schedules that have been controlling my life the last two weeks.

This weekend: headed into New York City for a race in Central Park. Oh yea!

Police Buzz on 235 Pearl

Walking home from a pint with my roommate we encountered the police. I saw him from a distance with his lights flashing thinking that it was probably a routine DUI or speeding stop. We (Travis and I) kept walking and chattin like it was nothing and came upon this cop-he was sitting there alone. Okay I was thinking maybe the car drove off already and he had to do some paper work or something. No, the officer stepped out of his car and asked us to walk on the other side of the street. We said that we live at the top of that street there, whats going on? He said that there was a guy running around and they had the K9 force out looking for him. I definitely live in the ghetto. I never really thought I did until tonight. We sat around waiting for the fuzz to say it was okay and he eventually did. We began walking up our street only to notice the police were searching our back yard. Great! Just great. They had their flashlights out and dogs on leashes. We walked quietly and quickly to our front door went in, locked it and now I am hoping that they find the who ever they are looking for before they try to hide in my house. Crazy.

Roosting the Mtns

I think that riding from Helen, GA when doing a ride in the north GA mountains is the way to go. Many more combinations for rides are possible. One of which Travis Hagner, Ando and I went on. They took me on some dirt roads that were epic. These roads that sadly I cannot tell you how to get to-They blindfolded me on our way there-are the best riding I have done in, well probably since I was riding in Vermont. We rode for a solid hour straight uphill, going fast too. There was a ton more vertical than any of the paved roads in the area. We were practically mountain biking, I wish that we were, but it was fun in skinnies too. They pointed out a lot more riding that can be done too. Epics that are over tall gaps that are not paved. Can't wait to get up there again! Also this GA weather is hot as hell!

I wonder if its going to get over 100F today? Probably.