My New Ride

Well I finally decided today to get ride of the FrankenCar. Its always good to have a friend in the car business. Joey hooked me up at Stevinson Imports with this sweet Infiniti FX35.

I am starting to feel back to normal, so hopefully my long training ride tomorrow won't be so bad.

Back in Boulder

Well I'm back in Boulder in one peice, even if I still don't feel like I am. After the crit last night we left Reno at 9pm and Whitey began one of the most impressive pulls I have ever seen. He drank a very large quantity of Red Bull and drove the entire way back (15 hours), only stopping for gas and food. The ride was bad, but I slept most of the way and am very happy to be able to rest in my own bed.

Tour de Nez was an awesome experience, next year I will be ready to win it. Tahoe City was amazing.
Here is a pic of the man Carter with Wherry and Olsen.
The next few days will be spent in bed trying to kick this illness so I can start getting ready for Cascade in a few weeks.

Tour de Nez Stage 3

Like I said earlier, I didn't feel well at all this morning so I figured in the race today I would just go on a suicide mission and do what I could before I popped. So from the start I went to the front, covered a few breaks, attacked a couple of times, then Carter attacked and drove with Chris Wherry to the top of the first climb where he got some points for KOM. I got back to the front of the group at the base of the second climb and rotated on the front with a few guys and before we knew it we had created a break of 12. The break included myself, Carter, Wherry, Aaron Olson (Saunier Duval), a few Health Net guys, AC from Jelly Belly, and some misc guys. The gap started out at a minute then I went to the front and drove it for 25miles and got the gap up to 7 minutes. I attacked the break at the sprint point and got third in the sprint. I was fried and couldn't breathe very well from being sick so I fell of the group with a Health Net rider and abandoned the race a little over half way. My work at the front established the break enough to let Carter to finish off in third.

I still don't feel very well, so hopefully I can get better tonight. All that is left is another crit tomorrow night, then we will start to drive back. It suck to be at such an awesome race and not be at your full potential due to illness, but even at that I've proved myself in the road race today as a contender.

Tour de Nez Stage 2

Well last night didn't turn out that great. Out of 118 racers only 20 finished, and none of us were in that 20. In a race like yesterday's crit if your not on the front at the start you are already done for. Too many racers create gaps opening all the time and it is impossible to bridge all them.

Then to top off some bad luck, I woke up feeling like crap today. But I can't just sit on the sidelines, I am going to try and make it through the 110 mile road race, but we will see if I can stay at the front not feeling well, if not, I may be calling this race done for me early.

Tour de Nez Stage 1

Well we just finished the TT this morning and are no back in the hotel relaxing until the crit tonight in Truckee, CA. The course was fast 5.3km and the winning time looks right now to have been Baldwin at 6:04. Unfortunately the course was a little technical and I took the corners a little conservatively since I am on a disc wheel, but my time was still around 6:45. Time to get some grub.

Reno or Bust

We made it to Reno, finally. It took 14hours in the car and crossing WY, UT, and NV but we made it late last night. The drive was mostly boring, the salt flats had to be the worst though.
Thankfully the van is fully loaded to help pass the time. We all took our turn in the back sleeping and watching DVDs. We had the satellite radio tuned to the same station the entire trip and heard every song being played twice.

The sunset along the range was a beautiful sight to see.

We hit the bar last night to unwind after the long trip and had a good time, but when we tried to sleep in this morning it really didn't work. We did a short ride out to the TT course in Verdi and looked it over. The course is going to be super fast. 5.3km and the winning time last year was just over 6minutes, thats going to be tough to match since I still don't have a 55T chainring on my TT bike, thankfully the race is an omnium so it won't matter too much.

All the squads are here, Jelly Belly, Toyota United, Health Net pb Maxxis, and of course us Team Einstein's (but with only half the squad). It will be a fast fun race. Reno itself is an interesting town, you can see construction going on everywhere as they try and revive an old town, its nice, but if I was going just for fun, I would take Vegas over Reno.

What a Day

I love days like today. Roll out of bed at eight, meet up with the guys at the coffee shop at ten. Eat a scone and drink some coffee. Then hitting the road and heading straight up, and up, then up some more and peaking out at peak to peak at 10, 500ft. Hitting some dirt on the way down. The scary part of the day happened to me when I had a flat coming down Magnolia (which happens to be one of the steepest paved road in America) so I had to try and keep the bike upright while tripoding to a stop, but I survived.
After four and a half hours on the bike we took a dip in the creek. It was pretty funny we drew a large crowd around us from the other locals try to catch a glimpse of us. Needless to say that the water was cold, but it felt great after a hard ride. Joe was a little shy.

Plans seem to change all the time. It looks as if we are hitting the road tomorrow night already heading for Tour de Nez, so another long day ahead of us.

Boulder

Well I've finally made my move to Boulder, and I have to say that I've found the place that I will stay forever. The people, culture, and riding are all the best I've ever come across. Today was a race in Hugo but I chose to just spend some time here exploring the millions of climbs in my new backyard.
Only in Boulder is this not out of the norm.
Here are a few shots of the new place.

Its a Boy

The new additon to the family just arrived today, so I had to take some time out of packing and moving to go and pick him up.
Its just sitting and waiting for its first ride, maybe tonight, but probably not until tomorrow. 

Golden to Boulder

We finally found a place to live, no cardboard box for me, at least not yet. Today I started packing and tomorrow will be the actual move day. We're trying to get it all moved tomorrow, so by this time tomorrow I will be a resident of Boulder. Well I guess I better not waste any more time, back to packing, damn I have a lot of shit.

Bla Bla Bla

After a few days of heavy dosage of Glucosamine Chondroitin the knees are feeling back to normal. I backed out of the race yesterday to do some climbing. I hit Lookout twice then headed up Mt. Vernon and Genesee Park. The pic is from the top at Genesee Park close to 9,000ft.
The next two months are the downward side of the season, its hard to believe that the year has gone by so fast. In late July, I will have my ultimate test of progress. Coming from flat west Texas and calling myself a climber the Mount Evans hill climb race (28miles from 7,540 to 14,264ft) is my main target for the rest of the year, I would like to win it. I think I have it, but there is only one way to find out for sure, and thats to beat last years winner, Scott Moninger. The best part will be coming out of Cascade in early July will be the best training for it, just take a look at the course profiles and you can see pain written all over every days road races with the sharp peaks making it look like an EKG print out.

Well I am off to Boulder again today, it seems that the second a landlord sees a 22 year old with a Euro Mullet they automatically shoot us down either saying its already rented to flat out we chose someone else over you (for no damn good reason).

It Hit Me Like a Train

It has all caught up to me finally, I am starting to feel the miles on the bike and on the road traveling. The last few days have been training days and it just isn't there right now. The worst thing is that yesterday while climbing up Lookout hard, I had to stop pedaling, there has been some pain in my knees and it brought me to a stop.

I've raced a total of 7 stage/omnium races already to date along with a bunch of one day races, that along with a lot going on in my personal life the last month have hit hard this week, all I feel like doing is sleeping. I am supposed to go to Fort Collins tomorrow morning to do a crit but the way its going I will be backing out of it and just doing a ride in town with Seth (who got 4th in the State TT Championships today).

Tonight will be a night out with some of the guys from MOB Cyclery, maybe it will help get my mind off of a lot of things and get me refocused and ready for Tour de Nez.

My Next Bike Should Be A Cruiser

The last two days have been pretty laid back. Just gone on some cruisers and found some local bike paths around Golden and back in towards Denver, just hours of spinning around, now thats life.
Tomorrow is the only true training day before my next race this weekend (thankfully it is a local race), then I have to get back to Boulder and figure out housing. Its getting ridiculous that we can't find a decent place to live, if I don't find one soon I may be living out of a cardboard box in a couple of weeks.

Tulsa was HOT (in many ways)

Well I am finally back in Colorado for a while, well at least for a week and a half. The final day in Tulsa was a good one for us. The course fit us well with two steep climbs and a technical down hill all within a .8 mile loop. It started out sketchy with 126 racers, I crashed at about lap five but was able to take my free lap and get back in and went straight to the front. Donald got off the front and Garcia went as I soft pedaled around a corner to give him a good gap. He was able to bridge and with the pace setting that was going on the field shrunk to only 40 guys. I stayed toward the front the rest of the race and the break stuck with Donald in first and Garcia taking second.
All in all this last weekend was good, lets just say we walked away with a total amount that had a number then four zero's behind it. $$$$$

And in other great news I've made a cycling magizine for the first time. The June 5th issue of VeloNews, the intro photos, a two page pic from Joe Martin Stage Race, I am sitting second behind the Jelly Belly guy.

Tulsa Tough Day 2

Well yesterday was a fun day. We woke up late, played somemore pool and then we went to the mall and got my hair cut, gotta love the Euro Mullet.
The race last night was yet again fast and a crash fest, and once again we were all able to avoid them all, lets pray the same for todays race with is worse than all the others in course layout. We did have an awesome race, Jason took first and a lot of money.
We went out and celebrated last night over the win, that was a mistake without eating first we were all drunk and in I Hop by 11, and none of us feel great today.

Tulsa Tough Day 1

Well what can I say beyond we know how to have fun and pass the time between races, have I ever mentioned how much I love this job.
We spent some time on the bike yesterday morning before the race to wake the legs up some, Tulsa is a very beautiful place, I was expecting a dry sandy place.
The race last night was fast and hard. For 75 minutes we were hauling around eight corners on a mile loop in downtown Tulsa. I was all good to start, we were at the front doing some attacking and some pace making, but then in the last five laps it all went south. There were a total of five crashes in the final ten minutes and they destroyed the field. Luckly none of us went down, even though we came within inches of being another victim on the was to the hospital last night. We had some good finishes, out of 126 races we had a 14, 17, 25, 28, 30, and a 48; not as much money as we wanted but there is always tonight and tomorrow.

Just Another Day

Yesterday was a great day of relaxing. We didn't get up until 10 then played some pool, then finally the rain stopped and we headed out for a ride. We rode up and down the Arkansas River bike path and just cruised for three hours having some fun.

We came across another one of Whitey's business endeavors.

And this is just good sign placement.
We headed over last night to a local practice crit race just to do some PR and show ourselves around the local community here in Tulsa. After that stop we made some other stops that consisted of just some good entertainment from drinks and then from a certain type of club for gentlemen.

Down Time

Just a lazy Thursday morning. We got into Tulsa around eight last night and drove the courses then crashed for the night after dinner. This morning we all slept in late until ten and awoke to rain, so not much to do but enjoy yet another awesome host housing.
The races don't start until tomorrow night with a night crit so we've got some down time to just kick back and relax.