Interbike 2006

Welcome from Las Vegas and Interbike.
Its crazy here. I never would have imagined the nonstop pace of a large convention, but after two days I am beat and just want to get back to Boulder. The newest and best was displayed such as this 11 pound bike, but which was nothing as there was also a 6 pound one as well. Just to give you and idea of how light that is, the UCI minimum weight limit is almost 16 pounds.

We did the meeting thing plugging the shop and the team, but the next few weeks are when the final numbers and product decisions are made.

I am going to take the lazy way out and say that I am tired, hungry and sitting in the airport just waiting, so I am going to get something to eat and make this posting short. Later.

Cross

Cross is fun, as long as you're on the bike, I don't like the running part.

S Day

Now that the main focus is just staying in shape for next year the only really long days are Sundays. Seth made some homemade biscuits this morning with eggs, someday he will make a great wife for some lucky lady. Loaded up on good food we hit the road and headed to Grapevine just passed Idledale where we came across this sign.Seth doin it on the dirt.

This weekend were the first cross races here in Colorado so we had to make a pit stop by the race at Red Rocks. Nothing beats a cross race especially when you're a spectator; Beer, Burgers, and Bikes.

I got my cross bike all ready to go tonight so I'll give it its inaugural spin in the morning. Not sure if I'll actually do many races, mostly use it to ride the roads in bad weather and have some fun this winter on some dirt, but you never know.

You Know Its Winter When.......

I know I'm a slacker and have taken the term offseason maybe a little too literally. I've still been hitting the bike everyday but just not as hard as I use to, and its been feeling really good to just have fun for once again. The season couldn't have ended any more right on time than it did. The weather around here has turn very cold, very quickly. Some of the ski slopes are already open and Vail got 10 inches of snow last night. There is even a chance of snow here this weekend.
Today was the first day in a long time that I came back in from a ride with my face, fingers, and toes completely numb. I really don't miss that feeling, or when you get in a hot shower still numb from the cold and the warmth actually hurts your body. Oh well, tomorrow I am taking a day off completely. For those interested and want to go out tonight the spot to be is 1037 Broadway in Denver around 10pm, at least thats where I'll be.

Offseason

I have to say that yesterday was by far the best day I've had in a very long time. The first day off my offseason and it started out with a very peaceful 3 hr hike up Eldorado Canyon with Lexie.

After the hike, we got ready and headed down to Red Rocks for the John Mayer/Sheril Crow concert. For those of you who haven't been to Red Rocks it is one of the best concert venues in the world.

As the night went on it got colder and colder but the show was great, and I'm not only talking about the music, but also all the drunk/high old people all around getting down.

It may be my offseason, but the bike is a must do to keep in shape, but not nearly as difficult as the normal training.

Stick A Fork In Me

The crit today was a long, hard, windy, mundane hour and a half. I attacked a few times, broke away with a few guys once and spent some time on the front of the pack trying to pull back some TIAA CREF kids who were off the front. All in all, not a bad race.
The post race festivities were fun as always, we jacked a cooler full of beer from the HART boys, here is the ransom picture we took and sent to them, but they didn't pay up so we drank their beer.

We had our family dinner afterwards to sober us up after our two beers, we went up scale and dined at Chipotle.

Other than that, all I can say is, its done.

Parker NRC

Well its here, I've heard of this allusive beast but I have finally seen it myself; the end of the road season. This weekend is the Parker NRC race here in CO just south of Denver. The TT was on Friday, the course was fine but the wind was horrible and blew me on my disc all over the place. Whitey getting his game face on.
Warm up
Today was the last road race, and what a way to end it with a 105 mile race on constant huge rollers. We met at the shop this morning to roll down in the van. Garcia and Donald riding the cruiser around the shop.

The race was killer, the wind plus the hard course made for a brutal time. Out of the 120 starters only about 50 rolled across the finish line when it was all said and done. Not sure exactly how I ended up in the mix but up there somewhere. Results haven't been posted online and the promoters are a little slow on results so I won't know for sure until tomorrow morning.

It took up till the end of the season but they finally updated to van.

Well I'm tired and there is still a crit tomorrow. FYI its cold here now and there is snow just a few miles up the road in the mountains, looks like fall got skipped and we went straight to winter.

4 More Days And Counting

Congrats to Tom.

Not much going on in my world right now except for a lot of praying that a team decides to pick me up for the next year. We'll know for sure within the next few weeks. However, for now, all I can do is keep doing my thing and get ready for Parker this weekend.

Today was a trek up the famous Super James.

Doing my thing.......hurting.

The payoff is the view from the top of the world, well not quite but around 10,000 ft.

The ride was only around three hours going through Ward. I happened across Scott Moninger riding up Lefthand. He's looking in top form for this weekend, but when is he not in great form.

LOLA

The days in Colorado haven dreary lately. Lost of clouds, cooler weather, and rain.

I hit up the old Monday hangout once again. LOLA use to be down in Seth's neighborhood but closed down and moved back in February. However, I am happy to report that they are open again just west of downtown Denver and still have their Monday night special of $1.5 Modelo and $2 chicken tacos.

The gang.
Seth really wanted to be in a picture.

The clouds have broke today so who knows.

For anyone interested I am going to put my Primus Mootry up for sale on Ebay soon, check back for when I do and I will put a link up.

Derka Derka

The day started out as always, with coffee. Then I got my stuff together and drove down to Seth's place, while drinking more coffee. Seth, Chad, and I hit the road into Golden to grab a doughnut from Safeway. Seth thoroughly enjoyed his.

Derek met up with us and we started up Golden Gate for a day of climbing fun.

Yet the weather had other ideas. The clouds rolled in quickly and the choice to turn around came with lightning.
We drilled it as fast as we could to make it back into Golden and to the refuge of a bridge to wait the rain out. What they say about the weather in Texas holds true here as well, if you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes and it will change.

We polished off the ride by going up Lookout then headed back to Seth's to call it a day at 4.5hrs. We did the usual post race grazing at Whole Foods then grabbed some grill goods for some porch cooking. I think Seth dumped an entire bottle of lighter fluid on the charcoals.
I got my eat on.

Matt, Seth, and Joey enjoying the comfort of the porch.

All in all I would call it a great non race day, tomorrow is a crit in downtown Denver; I'll be there....only if it doesn't rain. Parker NRC is the only race on my schedule that I am doing rain or shine with the team, and that happens to be next weekend, then I'm in the clear.

Boring Rainy Days

Well winter is another step closer to being officially here. The weather has been cool and rainy the last few days making the riding a little harder. The cruiser ride last night was a let down, no one really showed due to the rain, but the gang still forged on. We hit Hapa last night with Garcia, Blake, Randy and others in tow.
I need to learn not to ride up Flagstaff in the rain, the ride up is fine, but the trip down is total sketch. I've taken the road of not going to Gore tomorrow and instead heading to D town to do a ride with Seth........maybe, depends on the weather.

Yada Yada Yada

Another beautiful day up Flagstaff.
Some people have been putting up this fence next to the bike path just down the road from our apt. It seems innocent enough until you read the signs on it.
With electricity running that close to the path where hundreds of people pass by daily I would hate to be the statistic that shows someone is eventually going to get shocked.
All that just to keep in some goats that are eating the weeds around Research Park, makes you wonder if the laboratories over there are injecting something into these goats.


Well there are two races this weekend, Gore Pass in Kremmling and Swanky's Crit in Denver, the only question that remains yet is if I am going to do them. Most of the guys are hanging up their hats for the year this week and going into hibernation mode until training starts again in November. I guess I'll be the good little boy and just do whatever my coach tells me to do, I mean thats why he's my coach.

Bike Bling

Labor Day, Just Another Day

Sunday morning came too fast. The crit wasn't until 3:30 so all we had to do was hurry up and wait. Randy, Derek, and I ordered the breakfast of champions meal.
The crit was much like the road race the day before. I attacked a few times and pulled some stuff back. About halfway through the race I attacked and Derek and I broke away for a long while. No one else came across the gap to help us out, but VC and Rio pulled us back in and I was done trying to get away and the sprinters won the race.

Today I decided to kill myself some more by hitting it hard. Four Mile Canyon twice, Poorman Rd (dirt) to Sunshine, then up Sunshine all within an hour and a half.

I forgot today was Labor day and the town is overflowing with people. As I rode the bike path through town there was a Farmers Market set up right in the middle of the path. Everyone looked at me like I was intruding on their grounds by trying to ride the path to get home. The line for kettle corn was right across the path and the average weight of the people in line was around 200lbs, and all I wanted to do was yell, get out of my way you fat lazy bastards. I was a good boy though and said excuse me and slid through, but as I tried to be nice they just sighed and took a few steps back as if it was a chore to make room for me. This is how you tell if someone in Boulder is a tourist: fat, lazy, and inconvenienced to do anything physically demanding.

Gateway Canyons Cup

It was too early in the morning to think, but I was able to grab this pic.
I was going all or nothing today, I was either walking away with the State Championship or popping from trying so hard to win. Well unfortunately I popple. In the first 27 mile climb I attacked time after time trying to get away, I even followed Nydam and Baker off a few times, but I was a very well marked man. HART and VC were the largest teams there and controlled the race very well. Seth got off and I tried to bridge on the flats, but couldn't shake the field. On the last climb about 4k from the top I popped. I gave it my all, but it wasn't meant to be. It was a hard race and its easy for me to see that my end of season form isn't that great. But is it supposed to, I would have to say no. Its been a long season, just 5 more races left this year, thank god.

The Road To GJ

Just another travel day, but I had to do the driving this time and solo. But I found out that Mullen will be here to help out in the race.

The Eisenhower Tunnel
Some of the scenery. I love this road, but the speed limit is 50, lets just say its more fun at 70.

The view from the hotel was supposed to be of the mesas; their ad forgot to mention that a new hotel going up blocks the view.

The race is early in the morning requiring a 5am wake up, so the rest of the day will be short, get some grub then hit the sack.