You Gotta Ask Yourself...

If Uber-Sweet Todd Wells is still out making himself throw up during intervals, am I really pushing myself hard enough? I know it's been a few months since I puked on the bike. Here's to a truck load of vomiting in the cyclocross season!

Seriously?

Lance is coming back? I keep waiting for someone to say it's a joke, like the Cyclingnews April Fools jokes. How about his choice of media outlet...Vanity Fair Magazine? A little weird, but I guess that's what happens when you hook up with some Olsen Twins, and jog on beaches shirtless with Matthew McConaughey. How do I know about these celebrity escapades? No I don't subscribe to US Weekly, I have wandering eyes when I'm in the checkout line at the grocery store. Either way, I wish him the worst.

So the other day I was coming in from a ride and I was about to eat my pack of crackers I had been saving. I went to open them and and dropped the pack. No big deal. I flipped around and there was a car coming, I sat there waiting for him to pass so I could pick them up, he sees them and steers around them. Just when I thought it was clear, some bro comes whipping around the corner and pulverizes my peanut butter crackers. I think he did it on purpose. They were so mashed that there was no chance of revival. Probably one of the greatest disappointments of my life.

How about Cavendish at ToM? I bet he wins every stage. He's from the Isle of Man, how can he not?


Tomorrow is Wednesday Worlds. I'm not sure how many of them we have left for the year, but it can't be many. Since John Meyers moved to town in the middle of the summer, they haven't been the same, like a lot harder. I guess its probably good for us though, no more half assed Worlds. Still gotta get a few more hours on the CX bike before the season opening OVCX race this weekend. Gamm, if you're reading this, take it easy on us!

The UPS Man Smells Like Cyclocross

It's officially 'cross season for more reasons than one. The new kit and toys just arrived from the boys at BikeReg.com, I'm riding the cross bike on more than the road bike, and I just busted out the first long sleve jersey ride in a few months. Jackson just dumped the cross schedule on me, and it looks pretty nice. Lots of technique practice and the hours aren't going to be too long. Today I rolled down to my usual cross practice spot on the south side of Bloomington. The park has a pretty big pool with slides and lots of fun stuff, well today it was full of dogs. They were having "Drool in the Pool." All the dog owners of Bloomington brought their K9's out for a dip and some socialization. I've really been wanting to buy a dog lately, but lets be honest, the life of a bike racer is not the life of a good pet owner. Maybe some day, like in 10 years or something.

The knee that had been bothering me is on the upswing, and if I'm smart about it, I may be able to find some decent cross form for the Michigan UCI's and Cross Vegas. Contract talk is all over the place, in the Pro Tour, and the Midwest JV leagues. Alderfer Bergen has some good stuff in the works, and the rumors are flying about which midwestern axe murderer is going to which squad for 09. I love it, can't wait to see who ends up where. Well there are tires to be Aquasealed, and since the roomates just bought a Wii, that may get put off for a while. With no pictures and a generally bad blog of late, I'm very impressed if you have made it this far into the entry.

Happenings

I've been meaning to throw down a blog post for a good while now, but life has been getting in the way. Here we are though, and I have many things on which to report. I will go in chronological order in which the events happened. First of all we went to the Bloomington Motor Speedway last Friday night... it was awesome. I was a bit scared that the euro mullet would not be welcome with all the Ameri-mullet's. We avoided confrontation though. Here's a little glimpse at what we were enjoying.

So yeah, it was intense. We were in the front few rows and dirt from the the track was hitting us. To me that means we were close enough for one of those cars to come cart-wheeling through the fence and smash all of us, the others didn't think so. The obviously haven't seen as many "world's most dangerous..." shows as I have.

After the race track we went to some bike races. The race in Warsaw was put on by out team sponsor, so we kind of needed to do something. Well some Bissell dudes showed up and were trying to steal our chedda. Mike was in a break that lapped the field... WITH 4 BISSEL DUDES, and Greg Christian. Not good odds, but with some help from the "non field lapping, field sprint winning" Aaron Hubbell, things turned out pretty well. We appreciate it bro! Mike took home the V and we proceeded to enjoy the rest of the evening. A lot.

Rum Village Crit the next day. Embarrassing. Bissell got their revenge. I don't want to talk about it.

Now for the best part about the last week of my life...

This showed up on my doorstep a few days ago


This is what was in that box


I knew I was getting some wheels, but that's a lot of stuff! I'm still waiting on another set that will come mid-sept. But I think this will hold me over until then.



Tomorrow I'll be checkin' out the IU football season opener from a box seat and taking it easy. I may venture out on the cross bike for some skills practice, but nothing too serious, I'm going to enjoy my first weekend at home in a couple months.

"I said, go up ther and get me a chicken sammich"

One thing I forgot to mention during this weeks previous blogging, was how the SRAM guys hooked me up this weekend. So there I was all faux pro'd out rolling around before the pro-am, and my bike was having some very un-pro symptoms. I took it to the SRAM boys and they turned a few wrenches and diagnosed the my front derailleur was wack. I was sitting there thinking I was gonna have to run to the car and write them a check or something. Nope, those guys busted out a brand new FORCE (an upgrade from my busted Rival)front derailleur, and slapped that baby on there "FO' FREE!" Maybe it was my SRAM sweatband, maybe they're just that nice. Whatever it was, thanks SRAM guys! Next time those dudes help you out with something make sure to actually say thanks, because I'm sure it gets pretty old dealing with a bunch of chachies all year who complain about their "slow" wheel change that cost them a race...


Nintendo 64 Kid


REMIX


The original version drags on a bit, but the remix is top notch.


These random YouTube videos brought to you by Stuff White People Like

Bro's Before Pro's

There are a few domestic pros out there that I have looked up to as guys who seem cool or maybe I've had an encounter with that made me think they were a cool bro. Alex Candelario was one of these dudes whom I though was cool, mainly because of his epic facial hair. Well he's not as cool as I thought. I know the pros all dread the pro-am at downers grove because they have to race with all of us lowly amateurs. They of course, were never amateurs, straight from training wheels to contracts... right. I am sick of these mediocre pros riding like dicks and acting like they're above everyone who isn't on a pro team. Jonny Sundt was acting equally lame in the pro-am, but it's no secret that everyone hates him. Enough bitching, those guys were just "pissin' me off a lil bit." On the other hand, Jelly Belly continues to have the coolest group of pro's around. The dudes are fun to race with, and don't take themselves too seriously. As for the racing, results were non existent.

Booked my ticket to Vegas today, got a direct flight even. It's just around the corner and I'm pretty excited to hit up Cross Vegas and check out the city, sans parents. When I was at the grocery store tonight, I saw something that made me realize how close it is to the end of road season

The Fall seasonal brews are already hitting the shelves.


And I'll leave with this little gem I spotted while driving today

I guess if they don't make the type of bumper sticker you need to express your political views, you should just print one up on your computer and tape it up crooked in the window of your Chevy Malibu. Rad.

Also, props to my hella wealthy and sophisticated teammate Chris Chartier. He and his fiance became homeowners today. Sounds classy.

Like A Fish Out of Water

Finally after a week long battle, I have found some internets. Not the puny kind like you find on a blackberry, but the real full blown, picture-packed kind dreams are made of. You see, the reason I couldn't get the internet was because last Tuesday I moved, and between the move, bike racing and working, figuring out how to get the internet to invisibly fly through the air and into my computer got bumped pretty far down the list. But here we are back in the blogosphere, and I can breath again. I wonder what Todd Wells' blog is doing right now...

Training and racing has been on the upswing and I think my form is coming around too. Last week at Elk Grove we raced ok as a team and results were decent to mediocre. I pulled off a 14th and a 17th with a 15th on the GC. Not great, but made some money for myself and the boys. Mike pulled off a nice 7th on day 2 and an 11th place overall to help add to our appropriately sized team pot. Elk Grove was a good bit harder than I remembered it being last year. By the way, Steve Scholzen in an animal.

Speaking of animals, quite a few of the beast I happen to know were out in California this week representing their respective regions well. The midwest faired pretty well pulling down 3 stars and bars jersey's for Indiana. Adam Leibowitz pulled on the jersey in the 17-18 TT. Wes Luzzader won the 17-18 Crit, and Bloomington kid Scott McClary won the 13-14 RR. My bro from my Redlands composite team, Jon Chodroff pulled off a huge W in the Elite TT. Baumann and Phil Gaimon held down very respectable 5th and 4th place results in the U23 RR and Johnny Meyers had some bad luck but still managed a very respectable 12 in the U23 TT. Whew. Congrats to all you bro's, I refreshed the screen on my Blackberry relentlessly looking for your results on Cyclingnews.

Marian crits were this weekend, and they were a bit tougher than I think most people expected. There were 100 plus starters each day, and around 30 or so finished both days. I was 12th and 19th. More mediocrity, but I aint mad about it. I've got some good training in and I'm feeling good vibes for myself and the team at Downers.


The final corner from Marain Day 2

and


The Zipps are still coming, but I picked these up for a steal.

In honor of the Olympics I used my camera phone to make it seem there is a Beijing-eske smog in my dining room.

Alright I'm off to click on some pop-ups for the fun of it.