Its Time to Start

The next few weeks are the marker for the start of my season, and what a crazy start it will be.

Tomorrow I fly to Austin, TX to get the legs their last tuning before Sea Otter next week (oh, and to see Sheila as well). In Austin till Monday, then fly to Monterey, CA for SO for a week. I've got a full plate at Sea Otter, both road and mountain; however this may be one of the last mtb races for me this year. The remainder of the year is going to be focused mostly on the road trying to make that next step up the ladder.

I got an email today about a

Car Wreck

I was almost healed from the crash last weekend when fate said not so fast.

As I was driving this morning I headed through an intersection with the full right of way when a lady tried to turn left in front of me. Needless to say she didn't make it through the intersection and neither did I. I T-boned her on the passenger side and the front of my car got all jacked up. Airbags did both good and bad jobs in my car. It kept my head from hitting the steering wheel, but the knee airbag deployed right on top of my wounds that had just been unstitched two days ago. The almost healed injuries got re-opened and I am back to square one.

It won't keep me down long, I plan on being back out hard on the bike tomorrow, because the real test of an athlete is perseverance.

And as for my car, it will be a few days before they give it the thumbs up to save it, or the thumbs down to total it.

The Bike

Once again I found myself on the trainer today, the same old boring routine; watch a movie and ride a trainer program. I thought it was funny today when I got to thinking about the book that I use to prop up my front wheel as I ride the trainer....Roger's Thesaurus, at least it is getting some kind of use. It also isn't as bad as Seth who has admittingly used the Bible as a wheel prop in a hotel.

After the wonderful ride this morning I began to build the new bike, taking some old parts from the Specialized and some new parts the final result at the end of the day was a new beast just waiting to be ridin.

The old bike sat like an old building stripped of all its glory with just its framework left bare. But it will soon get a make-over into my time trial bike, when this will happen depends on how soon I can get the parts. Mostly cranks and bars are all it needs so it should be ready to roll before the first race requiring it.

I have more pics of the build today but the program to load the pics to the blog isn't working very well, so you are just going to have to enjoy looking at the finished new bike for now.

Pictureless Again

Well the idea of riding the trainer yesterday didn't work out as planned. The lack of flexibility around my right knee just wasn't going to let me get a decent workout in so I took the day off.

Seth, Randy, and I went to the IMAX yesterday afternoon to watch Wired To Win. It was interesting film on how the brain works with the rest of the body in the environment of professional bike racing. However, I was a little disappointed. The ticket cost $6 but the film was only 45minutes long, that's the most expensive movie that I've seen per minute.

Then not to just have gone all the way downtown for a short movie we went and wondered around the Cherry Creek Mall and played with all the toys in the Apple store. Seth set a computer to my blog site, we'll just have to wait and see if I get any responses from anyone who checked it out at the store.

Oh, and did I say that the weather sucks. I can't wait for spring, but that's right, today is the first day of spring and its still snowing and cold out.

No Rest for the Weary

Well, no rest at least till my day off tomorrow. Even with the stitches pulling at my skin every pedal stroke I take, coach says to keep training. So I've been riding against doctor's orders to keep form on the bike. I really don't mind, it is painful to ride, but at least it is keeping me on track and ready to keep right on hammering as soon as the stitches come out. So on that topic, I've gotta go get on the trainer for a couple of hours, the weather sucks outside, again.

Bikes Bikes Everywhere

Errand boy. That is what I was today, but I really didn't mind. I had to drive up to Longmont to pick up the custom bikes from Joe at Primus Mootry. It was an amazing thing to see behind the scenes in making a custom bike. I have to say that Joe is an artist at what he does. I had to ask him where he got the name Primus Mootry, he said that when he was in college at CU and watching news one night he thought the guy they were interviewing had a cool name...Primus Mootry. The name stuck in his mind ever since and when he started making bikes he thought it would be a cool name for a bike.
Due to him personally hand making each individual bike to fit a rider exactly, he is only able to crank out about 120 bikes a year.
And today, I had to put 12 of them in the back of my car and take them back to Denver for the rest of the team to get there's.
On the drive back to Denver I got to thinking about how much money (that wasn't mine) was in my control. I might misplace a few and they could find their way onto Ebay, but then all the other guys on the team, and Joe, would kill me.

Then there is my custom beauty, I have to say that this is the best bike I have ever had in my life so far. The cherry on the top would have to be the name on the top tube. If you don't know who I am as I fly past you, all you have to do now is look and my bike to know my name.

My Luck

So I start the day off by heading up Deer Creek and on then to High Grade, the ride was great. As soon as I was done, I headed back to the car to head home, but ended up running into Joey who invited me to join him in riding up DC to High Grade, so I figured, what the hell I wanted to get a long hard ride today.
We finished the climb and headed around the back way to DC. Then it happened, I usually wait until later in the year for the first one, but I guess fate wanted me to get it out of the way early in the year. After all the snow this last weekend the roads were covered in sand, and it just so happened that it accumulated on one corner where my front wheel decided to go another direction than I was. Brian meet asphalt, asphalt meet Brian's knee.

Joey kept saying, "It look fine, just wash it out and you'll be back on the bike tomorrow." So I decided to take is word on it for the time being as we finish our way back to my car. Then he breaks the news to me, "You need to go to the ER, I just didn't want to tell you how bad it was back there since we in the middle of nowhere". Grrrrrrrrreat.

So I spend a couple of hours in the ER as they cut out all the dead tissue that was actually still remaining in the void of what was once the skin and tissue below my knee cap. Just 21 stitches later and I am out the door with order not to ride for a week. Damn.

Still waiting to hear from coach, who probably isn't going to be happy since I was just hitting top form. Well, at least I will get some good rest time in. I have pics of the gore, but I am not going to post them to save everyone from loosing there last meal. 

Beuller......Beuller......

Its amazing, I've been here for about three months now and ride practically everyday, and I still can find new climbs and scenic rides that take you deep into the mountains and seem to be heading nowhere in particular, just to the middle of nowhere.


This is an old log shack that is halfway up Golden Gate Canyon, and curiosity got the best of me today.
It is right next to the road, but the inside makes it look like it was once someone's cabin with a little fireplace and a built in cot.
The Coors plant is just a few miles down the road from my apartment, though I haven't taken a tour of it yet, I do ride by it all the time, but today I was actually paying attention to some of the cargo sitting behind the plant, keg shells. Just think of the party you could throw with all those.

Clear, Sunny, and Cold!

Today was an uphill TT workout at low cadence and high RPE up Golden Gate Canyon, just slow enough to enjoy the scenery.
But too slow too to make for a short ride. The extended time in the sub-freezing temps numbed all the digits.

Check out this article (titled inside scoop in middle of page), it talks about how UCI is prohibiting Pros from racing the unsanctioned races hosted by Tyler Hamilton, it sound to me like the UCI just doesn't care for Tyler.

Stuff

Yes, its still snowing.



What is the only question you can never say yes too? (scroll down for the answer)










Are you asleep?


Check out this video, there is a crash near the end. It happened at the crit last weekend in Boulder, what you can't see is the chain reaction it created behind the camera man, lets just say a bunch of bike carnage.

Pictures

The weather still sucks, so it looks like it will be an indoor trainer weekend. Later next week looks promising for some beautiful days; I am already looking forward to it.

So to give everyone out there something new to look at, here are some new pics I got of the crit at Stazio last weekend (The crit is canceled this Sunday due to the weather).

The field was about 70 riders deep with some real talent in it.
This is one of the corners right after the start/finish; this was probably about half way through the race and about 20 minutes into my solo break.
Cruising through the spectator area.
Feelin good as I cross the finish about a minute ahead of the chase pack.

Boring Week

There's not much to say about this week. I've still been getting over being sick for a week and a half and it has hit hard into my training. I have spent most of the time indoors on the trainer just spinning, keeping the legs fresh but not pushing them hard until I am 100% better. Its not all bad though. The weather has been bad, they show snow through Monday, so it doesn't make me feel too down just sitting on the trainer.

If the weather permits I will be back in Boulder on Sunday to do the crit there again, but we will just have to wait and see.

Crits at Stazio

I'm tired.

Today I headed to Boulder for a crit race hosted by Tyler Hamilton. Its a good course, about 1.1 miles long with a good climb to it. So if you're not going uphill, your going downhill (mostly uphill).

We got there early and just hung out instead of doing our proper warm-ups.


Our race started out mild, the field was 70 racers deep and everyone seemed just to be cruising the first two laps. So after five minutes of the sixty minute race, I thought, what the hell, I'll attack. Woops, they let me go off the front of the pack. Well should I sit up and go back to the group. Hell no, I want to suffer for the next 55minutes. So that is what I did, I nailed it hard. Every lap I pulled father and farther off the front that before I knew it I was lapping riders. Sweet, but a chase group put there all into it, but it just wasn't enough. I soloed the rest of the race (55minutes) and won by over a minute. Pain is tough, but sweet in the end.

Then for a cool down (yeah right), we went and did an hour of climbing outside Boulder and called it a day.

Is it Time for an Oil Change Yet?

As I rode up Golden Gate for the second consecutive time today and I thumbed through the functions of the computer and noticed my first milestone while in CO was on the horizon. Then on the decent back into Golden and on home it happened. I rolled the odometer over to 2,000 miles of training in the mtns of CO. Not to bad for just two months, and those months being classified as winter training months with the mileage only to increase per month with the warmer weather.

The training has been coming along nicely, I feel stronger, but if that actually means I will be better when the gun goes of at the start and its hammer time is another question. Nothing brings out the true talent of a rider than a race.

Training is a funny thing. Many do it for a few months and call themselves race ready. But is it really ever over?

There is some starting point at which everyone begins to train, whether it be November or January. The thing is though, you train to race, then you race, but then you don't just go and ride around till the next race. You get back on the bike and keep training until the next race, then race again, then train some more. The only time that training should ever end is retirement, and that (knock on wood) won't be for a while. So until then, you will find me on the bike six days a week, training.

Sring Break 06

And for those of you who are curious, I am serious about Spring Break. Get yourself up here, you can crash at my place, and we can ride all Spring Break. If you are here on a Sunday, you can also register for the Crits @ Stazio hosted by Tyler Hamilton...www.dbcevents.com

For those who are serious about SB give me a call or email me.

On the Road To Recovery?

This was the ugliest thing I had ever seen, it was at Target last night. It even had vanity license plates...PNKVXN.
I woke up feeling a little better finally after five days of feeling like crap so I needed to get back to the grind, but he grind got to me. It felt like lead weights were tied to the bike on a mtn climb I could normally do with no problem.

This is a scary sight, the sign calls it Tiny Town, but it is in the middle of nowhere back down some small road in the mtns. It gives me the creeps; I would expect some leprechauns to step out at any moment.

Today was a lot like Christmas. I got all these new parts for my custom frame which should be complete by the end of the month. I felt like I was stealing, but the feeling soon left as I drooled over the shiny new components.