Another One Bites the Dust

Well another year of bike racing is in the books. This year was better than the last and I hope next year will be even better. As I was looking back over my results from this year, I counted a total of 74 races this year. That's including cross, road, collegiate and even 1 mountain bike race. That is over double the number of races I did last year. I hope I can even do a few more in 08, but try to plan a little bit better so I can get the most out of every season. I've also been thinking a lot during my time off about some goals for next year. It isn't really that easy to set appropriate goals for yourself, so I am still undecided on what my official goals for 08 will be as far as road stuff goes, but I kinow one thing that I am going to concentrate a bit more on next year is CX. Hopefully I'll end the road season early enough to get a bit of rest and gear back up for the pursuit of UCI points on the cross bike. I know it's a long way off, but I know that's something I really want to go after full steam next year.

Since my last update I've been able to actually think biking and get some bike work done over the past few days. My personal mechanic Andy Messer hooked me up with a sweet Campy shifter rebuild to \ get all of that nasty cross gunk out that had accumulated this season, and I spent the last few days stripping my Campy Record/ Mavic Reflex Tubular cx wheels of glue, and glued up some gum walled vittoria tubies to actually do some training on. Yep, thats right, tubies for training. I don't know why I'm doing it but it might be cool, or I might just flat every day and want to kill myself. Either way, those wheels look very Spring Classic-ish right now.

Also during this time off from the bike I have been really keeping up on the cross dudes who are over in Belgium throwin down. Cyclingnews has had some good features on the Euro Cross Camp, as well as frequent blog updates from Tristan Schouten, Jeremy Powers, and Molly Cameron. So far as a whole the Euros are beating us down pretty good, but it's just nice to see some dues over there mixin it up with the big boys. J-Pow was had a few good finishes, but everone else have yet to put it together.

I'll be heading over to start the official road season training on Sunday. I got the new plan from Jackson, and I like the way he's got it set up. I couldn't be more motivated, and I'm ready to crush some skulls.


P.S. I bought a pair of Limited Edition Neon Green Oakley Radars like Vino and Millar were wearing in The Tour this year... I can't wait for them to arrive, I'm going to look like a clown! So if you're wondering why I have those pics in this blog entry, now you know.