What Happens in Oxvegas, Stays in Oxvegas.

After some questionable decision making last night, we managed to peel ourselves off the floor and couches around Chris and Kim's apartment for a tour of the Oxford back roads, courtesy of Mr. Ryan Gamm. Despite the fact most of us would have rather been napping, the ride was pretty awesome. They have some cool narrow farm roads and they're pretty car-free to boot. I was pleasantly surprised at how sweet the riding was in that area. JP was manning my camera, so here are a few of the shots from the day.








Also, the girls team I coach just got back from their spring break training trip, and had a box of cookies waiting for me in my apt. when I got home. Score! They know I'm really a fat kit trapped in this skinny body! I'm surprised they don't hate me considering one of the days workouts made them puke (that was my only real goal for the trip).

that is all.

Are You Serious?

So we made the 30 minute or so ride out to the race course today, and Gamm came bombing out of his apartment complex to join us for for the roll out. The field wasn't very big, and we had 4 guys, so we were pretty much running the show as a team... for a while. The attacks were flying for the first few minutes and we put someone in every one of them. Soon Chris got away with one other guy and got a gap of a minute or so. Me, Mike and Isaac were covering the moves back in the pack, and soon everyone was gone but a group of 7 of us, and we had 3 of the 7. Good numbers you would think. We rode a good race as a team and we had it under control.

After 3 of 5 laps, Isaac flatted. Now we were down to 2, plus 1 in the break. Still good shape. End of lap 3, I get bitten by the flat snake. So now it's just Mike in the chase group, and Chris up the road. Back at the car Isaac and I discuss our disappointment, and not long after Chris comes back with a rear flat. Unbelievable! 75% of the squad has now flatted out. Chris and his compatriot had 2.5 min on the pack. The guy he was with solo'd in for the win. The field sprinted for 2nd, and Mike took 3rd on the day. Pretty disappointing considering what we were looking at an hour before.

I got a grand total of 1/2 of a ride out of my new tubulars. That is seriously lame.

P.S. You guys notice this is post number 2 for the day? EPIC!

Tirreno-Adriatico

Did you guys see the 3rd stage of Tirreno-Adriatico? Holy balls! The pain faces on cyclingnews are wicked. I guess that's what a 20% grade will do to you.


If I could just make some faces like that, I bet I'd be radder.

Timmy Duggan with the bike carry. How often do you see that in a real race?



Not so fast now, huh boys?


Petacchi looks like a 50 year old woman pushing her bike in the Hilly Hundred.


Sorry for stealing all of your pictures Cyclingnews.

Back to the real world.

We chillin' at Chris' house in Oxvegas (thanks Gamm), and waiting to roll out to the race. It's not lookin so hot outside, hella fog, and rain in the forecast. Hopefully I can make some Cancellara-esqe pain faces today.

It's Official

Our composite team got into Redlands, yeah that Redlands. I'm pretty pumped to get the opportunity to throw it down in such a cool race. The list of the past winners in pretty ridiculous, but it's going to be awesome experience. The composite team looks something like this:

Me
Ryan Baumann
Alex Sharon
Jon Chodroff
Sheldon Deeny
Phil Gaimon

There are some pretty heavy hitters on that list, it should be pretty rad. Only a few more weeks to get some hella good form.

Speaking of form... it appears I'm starting to get some of that, or so says the powermeter. Today I did a 20 minute treshhold test and it went pretty decent, a lot better than I though it would go. I don't want to throw around the actuall numbers, because I'm not going to be that guy. They were the best I've ever thrown down, by far.

So on top of finding out that we got in to Redlands, and crushing my 20 min test, it was the nicest day of the year so far. I got to bust out my pastey white legs and the Johnson and Johnson's, and get the 08 tan lines started.

Tomorrow we're off to Oxford, OH to do some racing and a little catching up the some homies. Too bad it's the start of their spring break, because I've heard Miami of OH isn't hurting in the Hot Sorority Girl category.

Slight Improvement

So we got the new kits today and they are pretty sick. I mean, I like the ones from last year that looked like a 7th grade girl made them in Home Ec. class, but I feel like Champion Systems did it a bit better. The white leg warmers are a bit over the top, so dont plan on seeing those babies out too much, but the rest of the kits seem pretty tolerable.


Well I though we were about to turn the corner to some better weather, but then today we started getting a lot more snow. So it's back to the trainer for me. It's cool, I love it.

I also have some pretty cool racing stuff going on right now. There are a couple big stage races that it looks like I'll be heading out to Cali to do to towards the end of March/ start of April. I should have some more details once it's all O-fficial.

One of my new sets of Reynolds KOM's came in today too, so I took em' down to the shop to see how much they weighed in at...

1030g Pretty Gnar-Gnar

I was supposed to be going to do some RR tomorrow, but it got cancelled. Now I'm race-less and all the teammates are out of town doing the collegiate races. Looks like i'll be rockin' it solo this weekend.

Arnold Cycling Challenge

So my only real goal for this weekend was to get a sweet pic with The Govenator, and I failed miserably. I was hoping Arnold would be there shaking hands and kissing babies, but he was all business, or so I hear. I was warming up on the trainer pretty close to the Start/Finish and stage area, keeping my eyes peeled for Arnold, but I had to take care of my pre-race business. By the time I came back out, Arnold had already come and gone. I guess he rolled up with massive entourage, with 5 cars. Somehow I managed to miss the whole deal, teary-eyed I took the start-line.

The race had another good turnout, lots of teams were well represented. Roadhouse ran the show again, Kirk Albers went off the front early and some other dudes joined him. Fast Forward an hour and there were 5 guys scattered off the front, and I was trying to find a good wheel for the sprint. I pulled some slippery moves with 2 corners to go and got to a good spot, but the pace wasn't quite high enough, so some guys came up the side and I ended up coming in 6th in the field sprint and 11th on the day. Lameness. The knee felt good all weekend, it was just nice to be out mixin' it up again.

32 hole Wheels- Since It Is Classic's Time


First Exposure to Nutella

Your Mom Goes to College

Traveled to the first race weekend of the year today, the car was gettin mad MPG's... like 30+ for the drive. That's pretty crucial considering I filled up @ 3.50 a gallon! Now I'm posted up at Chris' parents house in Westchester, OH. His mom made brownies and cookies and they have the official team recovery drink in the fridge, Bud Heavy. Free housing, free food, good bike racin', 50 degree weather. Life is good.

As for the race, I didn't know what to expect, but the field was like 70 dudes or so. I was a little jumpy since it was my first race of the year, so I was pretty active for the first half of the race. A break went with 2 laps to go, we did some work but the gap wasn't coming down much. Texas Roadhouse has a ton of dudes there and pretty much ran the show. Coming to the last corner, the break was about 50 meters up the road and I was sitting on the end of the Roadhouse leadout, on Josh Carters wheel. Not a bad spot but the sprint blew up and someone said I ended up 5th or 6th in the field sprint. Whatever, kept it upright and felt pretty good. I was pretty pleased at the way the rest of the boys rode today too. Big money crit tomorrow. We'll see how that one goes...

The roommates were at Depauw today for the collegiate rr. Word is that the whole pack got relegated for breaking the yellow line rule, so no one scored any points. Ohh collegiate racing...