Corey's Rambling

From all of us here on Armer Ave...

2009-12-21T23:58:00.003-07:00

Happy Holidays!

Thanks for checking in.

Whats Up.

2009-11-28T22:43:00.005-07:00

"No Shave November" is coming along swimmingly.

Check out this sweet new site for more info on today's ride.

I went to Thanksgiving at the Hamity's house here in Boulder. They were wonderfully gracious hosts, and our feast was delicious. As this isn't my first Thanksgiving away from home, or at an unfamiliar house, I'm starting to get the hang of it. You see, for me Thanksgiving is all about one thing.

Jellied Cranberry Sauce.

Now... back to where my expertise comes into play. I've slowly learned that most of the outside world doesn't actually serve this Thanksgiving staple on their tables. Usually they'll opt for the classier "chunky cranberries" or even the homemade "cranberry relish" concoction. I don't get into these so much, so for my first Thanksgiving with a friends family I thought I would solve the jellied cranberry issue by being a gracious guest. I arrived at dinner on time, bearing a bottle of wine, and a can of "Ocean Spray" jellied cranberry sauce. I had even splurged in an effort to impress the hosts by buying the name brand stuff! The impression I had hoped for was not achieved.

This year I solved my dilemma in a different way. I woke up on Thanksgiving morning, made a cup of coffee, sat down to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and ate an entire can of cranberry sauce. I don't get that into the parade, but for a minute it really felt like Thanksgiving.

Thanks again to the Hamity's and the Wenzel's from the story above. It's awesome having "family" away from my family.

On a final note, I'm unloading some bike stuff on eBay, so check back over the next couple days while I get it all posted.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I broke my cross bike. During a practice a while ago I noticed it was handling really weird. Upon further inspection I found a crack on the downtube that had almost separated the downtube from the headtube. Joe D at Primus Mootry was awesome about it though and within 3 weeks I had a brand new, Scandium this time, cross frame in white! I'll take pics later.

It felt good to write on here again, maybe I'll start doing it more often? Maybe not? Thanks for checking in.

Pics

2009-06-24T21:21:00.003-06:00

Gila.

Mt. Hood

McDonald's Ice Cream at Mt. Hood.

Tour of America's Dairyland - Stage 3 - Grafton, WI

Jami's birthday present.

2009-05-15T21:48:00.002-06:00

In only 10 short hours, this...

... can turn into this.

I'll put it up on the woodworking blog soon.
Thanks for checking in.

Gila is a wrap.

2009-05-13T23:23:00.005-06:00

Done with Tour of the Gila for one more year. It went better than last year, but still not as good as I'd hoped.

Up next is North Boulder Park, a little camping trip to Moab, Coal Miners, Koppenberg, some more local racing, then off to Hood River for another edition of Mt Hood Cycling Classic. Hopefully it goes better than last year too.

Yesterday I did the coolest ride ever here in Colo Spgs. I got up pretty high, even saw some snow. I rode up Gold Camp road, past Cheyenne Canyon, through the closed part for 8 miles of loose gravel and down Old Stage Rd back into the Springs. It was fun, felt like a mix of MTB and Cross, all on the road bike. Not everyday do you get to rail some singletrack, and a rocky creek crossing on the road bike.

Here is the view from the top, please excuse the camera phone quality pictures.

Also, I've been planting and building in the back yard. Here are my tomatoes, with there custom built tomato supporter things. Also, you can see my radishes coming up in the foreground, the broccoli is harder to see on the right. We've got 3 kinds of lettuce coming up already as well, along with a bunch of wildflowers and some basil.

And finally, Jami planted a bunch of herbs in pots, so rather than leave them scattered around the deck, I decided to build a little plant stand for them.

3 Minutes slower than 2 years ago.

2009-05-01T21:42:00.001-06:00

Yup, and it shows.

Thanks for checking in.

Only in Silver City.

2009-04-30T20:40:00.003-06:00

Do you find yourself on the front page of the Sports section next to Lance Armstrong.

Thanks for checking in.

Only in America.

2009-04-29T21:07:00.004-06:00

Do you find yourself in a race with Lance Armstrong as well as a guy wearing a camelback.

On a further note... I dropped my chain, had to get off, chase back on, get dropped, ride 12 miles alone, crawl up the finish, suck really bad, and lose 30 min to the leaders.

Also, Team Rio Grande was fined heavily for drafting in the cars. Whoops.

Thanks for checking in.

Tour of the Gila T-minus 1 Day plus GOSSIP COLUMN.

2009-04-28T10:45:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow The 2009 SRAM Tour of the Gila officially begins. I got down to The Sity of Cilver yesterday afternoon after a long drive from Salt Lake City where the RMCCC championships was held. Good showing for DU in general, with all categories finishing off the year with some of their best results and all of our A men looking super fit for Nationals.

Here at Gila things are going to be interesting with todays UCI ruling permitting Lance Armstrong and company to race. As many of you know I've recently become a pretty big Lance fan, so you can imagine my excitement to get to meet him and race against him. It's really an opportunity that I never imagined having, so I'm extra happy that the organizer opened up 25 more spots allowing me a spot in the race. This news also calls for a special edition of the Gossip Column so I can relay a little bit of the buzz around Silver City to the rest of the world.

#1 - Frank, a Silver City local was sure he saw that Lance guy walking down aisle 12 at Wal-Mart this week.

#2 - Due to the economic downturn which has led to Rock Racing's withdrawl from STOTG (Sram Tour of the Gila), the American public's refusal to tip over 15% at restaurants, Joe Sapperstein's ability to wave his hands in the air like he just doesn't care, as well as the layoff of thousands, Team Astana cannot afford to transport Time Trial gear to the STOTG, or pay for support in the feed zones. In an effort to neutralize the potential disadvantage to the Astana boys, STOTG organizers have decided that no one will be allowed to start with aero-gear, and all feed zones will be closed to the Pro, 1 category.

#3 - Since his recent injury sustained at Spain's Castilla Y Leon, Lance has developed a paranoia of being crashed in a preparation race before the Giro D' Italia, so he will be starting stage 1 tomorrow with an 8ft diameter "hula-hoop-like" protection device attached to his newest LiveSTRONG edition Trek to keep some of us amateur riders a safe distance from him. There is however a way of opening said safety hoop to let protege' Taylor Phinney into the ring if Lance needs a refresher on the latest teenage slang.

#4 - Dan Porter received a hand-written letter from Johan Bruyneel early this morning asking him to stay in Ft. Collins, CO as his negative, and sometimes derogatory remarks regarding peoples riding styles could be potentially harmful if accidentally directed toward Armstrong at this pivotal point in the lead up to his first Grand Tour in 1274 days.

#5 - Team BMC is now allowed only 3 riders in STOTG due to the UCI ruling that allowed Armstrong to race.

#6 - Lance's initial trouble in registering for the STOTG was that there is a UCI rule prohibiting ProTour riders from competing in smaller races. It is believed by some "in the know" that the UCI was tipped off to Lance's intentions to ride the STOTG by none other than Slipstream's own Jonathan Vaughters who is also rumored to despise the Texan.

#7 - This ruling could disallow Slipstream from competing in any NRC races here in the US, as they too hold a ProTour license these days. Which asks the question, "What up now Vaughters?"

Thats all for now. More is sure to follow. Thanks for checking in.

Hell has frozen over.

2009-04-11T08:43:00.004-06:00

We're staying at a cabin near the base of Purgatory (Durango Mountain Resort) for the FLC race weekend, however the TTT has already been canceled and it's not looking so good for the crits this afternoon. It was 40˚ and raining in Durango, and it's 32˚ and dumping white stuff up here in hell.

On a brighter note, I finally finished my coffee table, the object of my affection for the past week and a half. I still have a couple touch ups on the polyurethane, but for the most part it is completed. For my first big project with my new saws, I'm happy with the way it turned out. I still have some room for improvement in the finishing department, but I think it'll do.

I guess that's all I have for now. I haven't been racing the past couple weekends, and now it's looking like I won't be doing Tour of the Gila as I wasn't registered with the team and the field is now full. Big big bummer, but I'll have to find something else to keep building up for.

Koppenberg 2009?

2009-03-28T11:49:00.002-06:00

Logan emailed these pictures out of the Koppenberg climb that we're supposed to be racing up about 24 hours from right now!

Looks like it'll be an interesting race, but it should be fun. I'm thinking MTB shoes and pedals for sure, possibly full on cross bike. I guess I'll have to make a call when we get there tomorrow.

Should be a good one to watch, so if you aren't doing anything tomorrow afternoon, happen to find yourself in the Boulder area, and have a sick desire to see people suffering miserably, you should swing by.

Thanks for checking in.

Finally caught up to my 2009 racing age.

2009-03-25T22:42:00.003-06:00

Quick run-down on the weekend.

- Turned 25 on Friday.

- Rode like crap in Grand Junction.

That's all.

This weekend is Koppenberg, usually it's a good time.

Thanks for checking in.

CU Research Park Criterium.

2009-03-14T23:51:00.002-06:00

Not sure how many races I've done at research park now, maybe 7 or so... The look on my face pretty much sums up todays effort. As always it's a fast course, but for the first time it was run as a Pro, 1 race which definitely made it safer, but I think also made it harder. At one point it was so strung out and there were so many splits that I found myself in the 4th group on the road. Managed to claw our way back to the main field, but I couldn't get into position to help anyone out in the field sprint, so with 1/2 a lap to go I let myself drift and stay out of everyone's way.

Good training, fast racing, tomorrow is another day here in Greeley. Last time I did this race I was 3rd. We'll see how tomorrow goes. As for tonight... Karma and I had a big day and we're off to sleep.

Thanks for checking in.

The gossip column. It's back, but this time... it's the TRUTH.

2009-03-11T22:18:00.006-06:00

#1 Phil Zajicek recently won the Metro State Roadrunner TT in Morrison CO with a broken wrist. Little known fact... his cast was put on in the wind tunnel to ensure it's aerodynamic qualities. The thing is actually faster in the crosswinds like a Sub 9. Aerodynamic guru Steve Hed was called in to make sure the setting was done correctly in the wind tunnel, and after Sunday's TT effort he was quoted as saying, "This thing is so fast, probably cut 1.16 second off Phil's time." Phil's time without the cast - 19:51, approximately one second slower than Corey Carlson.

#2 A certain local professional cyclist has recently gotten SRM to program an alarm into his power meter so a "beeping noise" goes off when a certain wattage is achieved. This was done to ensure he doesn't break any more bones by throwing down too hard.

#3 Another aerodynamic tidbit. Dan Porter spent a few hours in the wind tunnel this winter and found that although his larger than normal calves (cows) can produce a ton of power, and the mere sight of them can scare people off his wheel, they are in fact quite an aerodynamic obstruction. To smoothen things up, Steve Hed was once again called in, and recommended Dan mount a small instrument to his handlebars that acts like the dimples on a golf ball, creating a stream of ultra-turbulent air that allows Dan's cow to slip through the surrounding air without increasing his aerodynamic drag. The instrument is pointed out by the arrow below, the turbulent air-stream is also visible. Dan claims it's for some crazy new web-developing-business venture he's into. Likely story.

#4 Floyd Landis was innocent. I just read his book, trust me.

#5 Tyler probably was too.

#6 Now that the elderly population of women in Boulder have stopped paying attention to him, a certain Mr. Ryan Hamity has decided to start racing bikes again to see if he can catch the eyes of the over 35 population again.

That's all for now, there is sure to be more juicy TRUE gossip as the year goes on.
Thanks for checking in.

Another weekend of racing in the books.

2009-03-09T13:49:00.004-06:00

DU hosted their home race at City Park on Saturday. The collegiate races went well with some break-out performances by our Men's C riders, as well as some great performances by our women, as well as our Men's A riders.

The Open races went smoothly as well, and I got to race in the Pro, 1,2 field. We got two riders into the early break of 5, one of them came out of it, but the break looked like it was going to make it.

We rode pretty defensively in the group, which got really boring. With 15 minutes to go things got fiesty and I had the chance to sneak off with one other guy. Allen Krughblog and another guy came up to us and Krugher-blogger when right through us, so I had a lap to sit on.

We caught him with a few laps to go, worked together to stay away from the group, and sprinted out for 5th. Allen took the hot line through the last roundabout and easily took the sprint, so he was 5th, I ended up 7th, and our teammate Caley Fretz was 2nd in the actual sprint. Good day for team Rio.

Yesterday was the Metro State TT. Once again DU had some good performances, highlighted by a 3rd place in our Men's A Team Time Trial, only 15 seconds off the win.

I raced later in the afternoon, took almost a minute off my time from 2 years ago, but still managed to get beaten by over a 1.15 by Phil Z. Turns out he's fast even with a broken wrist. In the end I was happy to feel good and powerful on my TT bike, so I guess I'll have to keep riding it. Tito tells me I have to win the State TT this year to defend his win from last year. We'll see.

Racing again.

2009-03-02T23:15:00.002-07:00

This weekend marked the first races of 2009 for me and a lot of people along the front range of Colorado. Saturday was the 341st annual CSU Oval Criterium. "The Oval" is one of Colorado's classic crit courses with a half mile oval linked with 6, 90 degree, back to back to back to back to back to back corners. It's an absolutely great course by my standards, and usually a good turnout, this year being no exception. A lot of the local heavy hitters were there, including almost the entire Rio Grande team.

I thought we rode really well as a team, had a guy in the break, and a guy in a group going across when with 5 laps to go, I flatted right in the apex of a right hand corner. My bike got a little sideways, but I kept it upright after a little brush with the curb.

My teammate Dan Porter was riding with a handlebar mounted camera and happened to be right on my wheel when it happened. You can check the video on the YouTube. The drift isn't real dramatic in the video, but if you look closely you can see it get a little hairy right around 8.00 into the video.

Sunday was the Colorado College crit here in Colorado Springs. I can't tell you how nice it is to hop on your bike and ride to a course within a mile or two. The course is a stark difference from The Oval, but a great course nonetheless. A much smaller turnout, added to a course with less recovery, and a little too aggressive attitude on my part, led to an all around tough day for me. On the bright side, I felt decent, got some great efforts in, and had a little fun at different points during the race.

I guess that's all for now, thanks for checking in. Maybe I'll update this a little more often now that we're racing.

Also, I'm on twitter now, so lame. twitter.com/coreycrlsn

One more thing, a couple years ago I did a mean thing to Logan Garey and really made him hurt. Read all about it.

Running.

2008-12-11T09:11:00.005-07:00

I did the Pueblo Rock Canyon Half Marathon last weekend as an official end to my off season. I had prepared a little for it, did a 10 mile run once, and then got sick the week before, traveled and didn't run at all.

The race went alright, I had been shooting for 1:40, but ended up a few minutes slower at 1:43.03. I decided that day to throw my running shoes away and never run another stride in my life. But....
After finding this picture, that look on my face makes me miss running and I just can't wait to get back out there. False, I will not be running any time soon.

Base started this week, I'm already sick of the rollers, but had a great ride outside and it looks like there will be more of the same today. I just need to remember my iPod this time.

I got hooked on stalking people via "Twitter" on Tuesday as a means of postponing trainer time. I almost started my own account, but then realized, no one really cares what I'm doing every few minutes, otherwise they might read this pile of garbage. To add to that, I don't have a smartphone anymore, so how lame would that be? Anyway, I'm just glad that I can check up on my good buddy Lance and see his every move.

I think that's all, thanks for checking in.

Dog Photos.

2008-10-24T14:42:00.004-06:00

I did a cross race last weekend. The course had 3 sets of barriers, two doubles and a triple. I could hop both the doubles, so it made for a fairly fun course aside from the loooongg bumpy flat parts. I ended up with a huge blister on my thumb because the course was sooo rough. Anyway, I'm doing another one on Sunday in Boulder.

If you're not doing anything Saturday you should head out to Red Rocks for the Red Bull Soap Box Race. As I'm sure many of you know, my friend Justin heads up the defending team "The Good, The Bad, and The Nerdy. The race should be a lot of fun, hopefully the nerds will pull it off again. Make sure to cheer for the #2 Pencil.

Now, for the good part.

Karma's new favorite ale.

We heard a loud noise in the bathroom and this is what later emerged.

I found Karma taking a nap the other day in the backyard.

Thanks for checking in, hope to see you at the races this weekend.

Hey Everyone.

2008-10-15T16:52:00.004-06:00

I'm back, at least for now. I tried to update a while ago, but it didn't work, I lost interest, and that's that.

I won't piece together my past year for any of you, but I'll catch you up quickly. I raced this summer and I sucked. I moved to Colorado Springs, which doesn't suck nearly as bad as I thought it would. I got a new job at a different mexican restaurant.

Also Jami and I got a dog. Her name is Karma and she's totally awesome.

I haven't gotten to do a cross race yet this year, but I plan on changing all that on Sunday in Fort Collins. I'm pretty excited to get out and do the race, although I'm positive I'm going to get throttled. Oh well.

On a final note, I think I'll be racing with The Rio Grande team again next year. There were doubts about what was happening with the team, but it looks like we'll be around next year, probably on just a local level though.

I still suck, but maybe not for long.

2008-07-02T14:23:00.004-06:00

Any of you who have been following my racing or results from this year know that so far this season I've pretty much sucked. I've been battling some crappy form, which makes my lack of motivation even worse, but the last couple weeks I've felt things finally coming around a little. I've gotten in a couple of really good training rides, and actually felt OK in a race or two.

I've been planning all year on going to The Cascade Cycling Classic this coming week, but over the last month it's become clear that I wouldn't be making the 6 man team that Rio Grande is sending. I considered going and paying my own way, but that would have meant buying a return ticket to get home as the team is going on to BC Superweek and I don't have a passport and didn't realize I needed one to go to Canada until it was too late. Since traveling isn't happening, I'll be sticking around Colorado to represent the team at some local crits, then heading home to SoDak for a week or so to see some family and get some stuff for my new house.

Back to the original focus of this, I'm starting to feel a little bit more like myself on the bike lately. Last week at Dead Dog I was able to ride at the front in the crit, be a little aggressive, and contribute (in my opinion) to the team absolutely dominating the race. As a team, we won 4 of the 5 primes, I got one, as well as winning the race with an outstanding effort by Logan Garey and putting 4 riders in the top 7.

Hopefully this weekend will be more of the same for me, although I'll have to get back to my roots of riding crits without teammates and being a little smarter and more tactical than I have been in the past few races. Wish me luck, or come out to Niwot and make some noise on Sunday.

Thanks for checking in.

More Pictures.

2008-06-23T20:05:00.003-06:00

Here are some camera phone pictures of the last couple weekends. I need to start carrying my camera with me more often I guess.

Here is Dan Porters calf (cow) implant.

Sunday after the Rist Canyone Hill Climb, the team and some others continued riding up to Glen Haven. Here is Dan, the proud owner of those calves.

An unfortunate incident with some sharp rocks and poor communication occurred and ended with a couple flat tires.

Joe decided he needed his race number taken off immediately. The flat changing had to be put on hold until he was officially no longer a racer. Joe would go on to flat again, crack at least three separate times, then bonk, I supposebly he finished the ride with a full chamois.

Tito Taylor took time out of his busy pointing and laughing schedule to change a tire. He won up the switchbacks where we discovered the crew from Cycle America. They were probably some of the coolest people in the world at that point as the generously offered us free water, Gatorade, and all the brownies we could eat.

It was a good day, thanks for checking in.

Stolen Photo.

2008-06-21T23:25:00.003-06:00

I snaked this photo from another blog.

That's me on the front, followed by some people, most notably, my teammates. The first Rio rider behind me is, Allen "I don't understand Television," "Labrador Recreeper," "Squinty eyed, messed up hair that looks like I don't care" Krughoff. Behind him is Logan "poops in his hand" Garry, then Dan "My cows rub on my seat tube" Porter.

The photo is from the Rist Canyon Road Race where I was active early, then sucked horribly. I think the team made it's presence known, as the photo shows.

Thanks for checking in.

New House.

2008-06-17T10:53:00.005-06:00

We don't move in until July 15th, but here are a few pictures of the outside.

That's our house on the left, just across the street from it is Boulder Park.

That's Memorial Medical Center on the right hand side of the picture. Jami will be able to walk a half a block to work.

Mt. Hood is over... For me.

2008-05-18T11:02:00.002-06:00

Since I last updated, we did a circuit race around about a 20 mile loop, half uphill, then half downhill. We did 4.5 laps, which meant 5 climbs and 4 descents. It started off pretty aggro, but the break went about 3/4 of the way up the first time, so we got to chill out over the top and the next couple laps as Bissell just rode the front setting tempo. The 4th time up I noticed I was slipping dangerously close to the back, and then it kicked up a little bit about 10k from the top and the next thing I knew I was in the caravan. I put on a little chase, and watched the Bob's guy in front of me hang on to a bottle from his car and get dragged away from me up the road. I rode an easy tempo for a while then picked it up to make sure I didn't get time cut.

The Time Trial the next day was by far the coolest TT course I've ever done. I didn't pre-ride it, and since a smoking fast TT would have kept me in last place GC, I decided to take it easy and still maintain my last place.

Yesterday was the Wy,East Road Race. It was 100 miles with like 39,000,000 ft of climbing. It started out so fast. For those of you who haven't been following the racing out here, Rory Sutherland from Health Net took the leaders jersey after the TT, so it was there responsibility to ride the front. I was hoping a break would go early and we could just chill out for a while but instead, groups of like 30-40 kept going away, and Health Net would string it out single file to bring the break back, but since they were so big it seemed like it took forever for them to come back, then another huge move would go and we'd get strung out again.

Meanwhile it's 90 degrees and we're going over roller after roller. I just kept telling myself to hang on over one more roller and then it would slow up, but it never did. Even through the feed zone it stayed single file, so of course I got caught out in the 3rd group on the road. I helped chase back to the 2nd group, but they were still chasing the first group and I came off just as the caught the 1st group. I chased as hard as I could through the caravan because I knew there was no riding the next 60 miles alone. I made it up to like the #2 car in the caravan, but then I blew up for real, and limped it for a few more miles in a little grupetto before I hopped in a car.

Now the race is over for me, the other guys get to do a 75 minute crit in downtown Hood River this afternoon. It's on a .4 mile course with a 180 degree corner, so it sounds interesting. I'll just be hanging out, getting ready to put my driving shoes on since I'm sure I'll be the one who gets to drive first.

That's all I've got right now, Hood River has been awesome, the courses have been really cool, but I can't say I've enjoyed racing on them that much! Hopefully I'll come out of this week with a little bit of form that I can use later this summer. Thanks for checking in.

I kinda finished again today.

2008-05-14T22:59:00.002-06:00

Today was the Mt. Tabor Criterium in Portland. The race was run on an extinct volcano just outside of downtown Portland. The course basically went up one side of the volcano, then wound around the other and back up. Not a flat meter of road, with a 90 degree turn that the group slowed and stopped in every lap, followed by a fast narrow descent, and 135 feet of elevation gain per lap.

I of course started in the back and tried to move up until we came to a dead stop in the corner at the top of the climb. The group strung out right out of the corner, so it was 53x11 the whole way down, with a tiny break at the bottom before the climb through the finish started. Then we repeated that again and again. Sometimes there was more of a break at the bottom, and other times it stayed single file up the climb.

In order to not get time cut you had to last at least 30 of the 90 minutes of the race. I lasted 60 before the kid in front of me let a gap open up and I couldn't close it, and that ended my race. As soon as you were off the back the group rode away sooooo fast it wasn't funny.

I'm not happy with the result, but I get to race again tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes. 80 some miles on what looks to be a horrific circuit.

That's it for tonight. No new gossip. Thanks for checking in.

I finally finshed a race.

2008-05-13T23:28:00.003-06:00

It's been a while since I've finished a race, but I did it tonight.

I'm currently in Hood River, OR, here for the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic. Tonight was the 1.7 mile prologue in downtown Portland. It was an out and back on a basically straight road right along the Columbia River. I finished in 3.06, good enough for a hundred and somethingth place. The winning time was 2.45, so I was a good ways off, but on a brighter note, the winning women's time was 3.08, so I would have dominated that race.

Tomorrow is a 90 minute crit in Portland, then a couple climbing road races as well as a long hilly time trial and another crit on Sunday to end the week.

I haven't updated in a while because racing has sucked. I crashed out of Gila on the first day, so I did support the rest of the week. Last weekend was collegiate nationals, highlighted by the guys getting third in the Team Time Trial, and Katie Ronsse's 9th and 7th in the Road Race and Crit. My personal highlight for the weekend happened Friday afternoon after the TTT. Taylor Shelden and I were running our bikes over to Jose Supersteinez's house so the van could take them out here to Hood River. Someone turned out a few cars in front of Taylor who was driving Amy Secor's car in front of me. Taylor stopped, I stopped, but the genius behind me didn't. He rear-ended me, and pushed my car into Taylor in front of me.

My car got a little crunched on both ends, rear bumper, trunk lid, front bumper, grill, front right fender, and hood. Amy's car just got the rear bumper messed up. I've talked to a few insurance people already, so hopefully it'll all get cleared up soon.

I think that's all the news I have for right now. We have awesome host housing which is a huge relief since "Crazy Jack" in Silver City was interesting to say the least. I'll try to keep this updated with results while we're out here, but we'll see how the week goes on.

In other news, if any of you read the comments on this, you may have heard some more gossip, for those of you who don't...

- Supposebly, Contador crashed out Zabriskie at the Giro because he was upset about Slipstreams inclusion at the Tour de France.

- Colin Don has nightmares about waking up, looking in the mirror, and finding a that he has an unfashionable haircut.

- Team Jelly Belly is planning to bring up a new rider from their "farm team" (Waste Management), as soon as they are allowed to adjust their roster. There are rumblings around the rumor mill that the new rider may be none other than Boulder's own Keil Reijnen. But the question is, who will be replaced? Perhaps a rider who needs time for their skeleton to catch up to their musculature.

- Team Tecos, which recently won The Vuelta de Bisbee, and The Tour of the Gila is said to only show up at races stateside when they know that USADA will not be there. According to secret sources, USADA made a surprise appearance in Pinos Altos after the final stage of Gila. Keep your ears peeled for any news on that front.

- Ryan Hamity had a life-changing experience as a young child at the zoo. He witnessed a gorilla vomiting into it's own hand, and later devouring it's vomit completely. Ryan immediately got a bunch of piercings and is now only attracted to women over the age of 35.

I think I'm out of gossip, please leave any good juicy info in the comments section, or feel free to shoot me and email. If it's good, I'll definitely add it to the list.

Also, I started reading Under the Banner of Heaven. It's really good, pretty disturbing, but interesting. I kind of want to read The Book of Mormon now because it sounds hilarious.

That's all for now. Thanks for checking in.

The gossip column.

2008-04-18T10:55:00.003-06:00

I was in the car yesterday and I was told that to liven things up around the web log, I could just start posting gossip, mostly lies, but possibly some truth.

- I won't name any names, but a close friend of mine, knows a guy that can honestly say some un-named pros took drugs to get faster.

- Saunier-Duvall was probably paid to not start TDG because it was easier than battling Rock Racing in court.

- There are certain riders in this sport that don't stand a chance of getting a decent result, or finishing a race this year.

- A certain pro team got in trouble for painting some of their old team Orbea's so they looked like the new team GT's, I guess Wal-mart race bikes aren't appreciated by that race organization. Although I would like to add that there are certain riders on that team who are probably too fast to be racing in the states. I actually heard that one guys skeleton was giving up because his muscles are just so damn strong.

- Ryan Hamity had hair transplanted from the top of his head to his joules in order to look more like Alex Candelario and Joe Saperstein (always wearing a hat????) all at the same time.

- This just in from a Euro Correspondent, Kazakhstan is threatening to cut off France's oil and energy supplies following Astana's exclusion from the TDF.

- A certain U23 world champion apparently borrowed and wrecked his team director's car without permission one night, but won the rainbow jersey the next day before he could get in trouble for the car.

- Allen Krughblog.photodump@yourcycling.com/edu-org apparently got dumped this week because he ate his date's entire meal while she was in the bathroom. Sorry Allen.

That's all for now, hopefully I'll get some more juicy stuff later. Feel free to leave more interesting "facts" in the comments.

I suck at blogging.

2008-04-09T11:08:00.002-06:00

And I'm ok with that.

I keep getting pushed and prodded by people telling me that I need to update this web log. Well I haven't. I haven't written on here because I haven't felt compelled to share anything happening in my own weird little world. I'm tired of reading about what people ate for breakfast, what they wore on their ride, etc... there is a lot of boring stuff posted everyday on the interweb and I happen to live a pretty mundane life myself. I figured I'd just do my part to offset the boredom being written on the Double You Double You Double You.com by keeping my boring life to myself.

Moving on.

Training been going, not great, not bad, just going. I've been riding my new (old) singlespeed mountain bike at least once a week, and that has been awesome. I've missed mountain biking a lot the past couple years, so I'm making a concerted effort to ride it at least once a week. Anyone up for tuesday mountain bike rides? I am.

A couple weeks ago I did a road race in Grand Junction. I got second. There were four starters. I got 2nd place, finished in the top half, and was last placed finisher. Hopefully that's the only time in my career that I finish a race with stats like that.

This past weekend there were collegiate races in Golden. Colorado School of Mines hosted an individual time trial up Lookout Mountain, then a circuit/crit on Sunday. The DU team rode well, then we went for pancakes at Ben Quinn's house. After a full belly of pancakes I went and did my first power test of the year up the Lookout course. My numbers were right where I wanted them to be, but I'm still a little chunky so my time wasn't too blazing fast.

Sunday's circuit played out the way most collegiate crits have this year. Small break with no organization behind it. Steve Forbes of the DU team took the chase upon his own shoulders and drove the chase group averaging 300 watts for the hour long effort. Not bad for a little 140 pounder.

After the race I cruised to Boulder for the Koppenberg Circuit Race. The race went well, I got into a little chase group just toward the end of the third lap, and ended up 7th.

This weekend I'm headed to Utah for more collegiate stuff, not sure if I'll get any racing in, but hopefully I can figure something out at least one of the days. Thanks for checking in, sorry for the lack of interesting content.

Are there any pictures of Koppenberg out there?

DU Crit, March 9th @ City Park

2008-02-27T09:51:00.003-07:00

Be There.

Download the color version here.

In other unexciting news.

2008-02-26T07:36:00.002-07:00

The next person to visit this site will be our 20,000th guest and will receive nothing as a prize. 20,000 hits seems like a lot, but it's been pretty spread out, and I'm almost sure that Scott Wenzel has accounted for at least 12,593 of them.

Thanks for checking in, time to go ride back down to my car in The Springs. Good thing it snowed last night.

It's 10 and I'm not out of bed.

2008-02-25T09:57:00.002-07:00

The last three days I would have had at least an hour ride time by now. Last week was a huge training week, so like usual, my life gets pretty dull when I'm riding a lot. I went out and had a beer last night though! One beer and I was wrecked, came home and went to bed.

So, I usually don't update when I don't have anything close to worthwhile to say, but I've been getting pressure to tell people things they want to hear. Last week my milage on the bike would have circumnavigated the globe 8 times. My kilojoule expenditure would have powered New York City for a full week.

Not true.

The riding has been great though, everyday I kick myself for not bringing a camera, but at the same time, I don't think I would have gotten home before dark if I'd taken every picture I wanted to yesterday. The weather here in Colorado has been amazing, and I've been exploring new roads every day. I only hope the weather holds out one more day because my car is in Colorado Springs and I'm riding down to get it tomorrow.

I spent the weekend down there, (The Springs, Colorado Springs, The Land of Christians and Medians) and on Saturday I had the best tour guide ever show me around town. After one day of riding with Daniel Matheny, I feel like I now know the town. Sunday Daniel, and some others Scotty and Brad, led me out of town on an all day death march back to Denver. Instead of scooting up the front range, I went deep into the mountains and actually had one of the best rides I've ever had. I'll definitely have to go back sometime and get some pictures of this one creek I rode along for about 5 miles. All in all it was a great day, I got hot, I got cold, I cracked a little, I got a little caffeine buzz, I met some laid back country folk that were more than eager to give directions, and in true Team Rio Grande fashion, I finished the ride off with a chicken burrito on my way back across downtown.

Today I'm resting, but I work tonight, then back at it for another big week before the first weekend of Collegiate racing in NM. Thanks for checking in, I'd say I'm sorry for being so lame, but I'm not.

P.S. Don't ever eat at the downtown Rio in spandex... lots of weird looks.

Strange Days.

2008-02-13T18:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday this page turned into a chat room I guess. Kinda funny, kinda weird.

On another note, I decided to do VOS at the last minute today only to find it was full. Oh well, at least I want to race, that's a good feeling. Things in general have been strange lately and I haven't been feeling myself. Hopefully some good training in the next weeks and then race season will pull me around.

Thanks for checking in.

I don't know why I'm not asleep right now.

2008-02-04T00:05:00.001-07:00

I got a short ride in today, but it was way colder than I expected. I did a little laundry, filed my tax returns, and updated my links on here tonight. I heard there was a football game on TV or something? Anyway, sorry I'm lame, I'm excited for race season to start so I have a little excitement back in my life. I was thinking about racing on my ride today (that happens a lot) and I just got this overwhelming excitement/anxiety/drive that I haven't felt in a long time.

This is going to be a good year. One more month of hard work and then I'll be ready to dust off my racing legs and see how they want to go.

Thanks for checking in, and for those of you who came to the Collegiate Tour Baby, thanks, and I'm sorry?

Oh yeah, my Cannondale is back up on eBay, buy it PLEASE! Item # 290203316678

The Collegiate Tour Baby

2008-01-27T16:48:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Hope you enjoyed the NICE weather this weekend out on the bike! This is a reminder about the sweet movie we are going to be showing this Friday, Feb. 1 at 6:00pm in Davis Auditorium of Sturm Hall at DU. This film goes deep inside the 2005 Tour de France capturing behind the scenes footage of Lance's final Tour victory.

In Denver, Friday, Feb 1st
http://www.collegiatetourbaby.com/denver.html

Buy your ticket now!
General admission and VIP (reserved preferred seating, DVD and more!) tickets can be purchased online in advance through the event website at: http://www.collegiatetourbaby.com/tickets.html

Tell your friends and other teammates!
Please forward this email to anyone and everyone you know at school, work, on your other teams!

Need convincing?
Check out the Testrider.com interview at http://www.testrider.com/fly.aspx?layout=player&video=20 or see a teaser of the film at www.thetourbaby.com

Donate to the silent auctions
Even if you can’t make it to the event, you can help out by donating to evening’s silent auction. To donate, please contact Grant Goerzen, 719-331-5640, ggoerzen@du.edu

Thanks a lot and we hope to see you all there on Friday. We will be sending out another email about volunteering in the next couple days.

Thanks,

DU Club Cycling

Sick.

2008-01-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

So I was just getting back into a great schedule of training full time, when the weather turned crappy and brought with it a nasty head cold for me. After about a week I'm starting to feel like myself again, but I haven't quite gotten back to training full speed yet.

I'm in Colorado Springs right now, after opting out of the DU group ride this morning. I feel bad that I haven't ridden with them in a very long time, but I wanted to give myself one more day of feeling human before heading outside. I think there is a little trainer time in store for this afternoon, but you can about imagine the rush that I'm in to get started with that.

On an unrelated note, my bike is still for sale, as well as all those parts, so come on people, I could use the cash and the space in my bedroom. I've upped the ante a little on the frame, $400 bucks, I'll ship, or.... if you live in the front range, I'll hand deliver the frame and or build up the frame with your old or new components. I don't think you'll find an offer like that on ebay.

Items for sale. UPDATED

2008-01-17T15:06:00.001-07:00

Everyone does this, I just thought I'd see if it works.

Currently for sale, I have....

56cm 2006 Cannondale CAAD 8 frame, fork, and fsa headset. The frame is made of aluminum, weighing in at under 2lbs, yet still super stiff. It's colored "raw aluminum" basically clear-coated raw metal, so scratches don't show up at all. There are some minor scuffs and scrapes, but nothing structural and nothing that even gets through the paint. The fork is full carbon, (blades, crown, and steerer), the steerer tube is cut for a zero-stack with a Ritchey stem, and the tabs are filed off of the dropouts. Headset is in great shape, with brand new grease inside.

120mm Ritchey WCS stem. 1 1/8" steerer, with 26.0mm clamp. Great shape, some scrapes and scuffs but nothing bad.

1 pair Ultegra 6500 Brake Calipers (front and rear) the real "Ultegra" marking has been worn off the rear caliper, but both brakes function perfectly. Pads are worn, but only slightly.

2 red (faded to orange) Ciussi Gel water bottle cages.

1 broken, but taped back together Selle San Marco Aspide saddle. Black.

Lots of punctured tubes, road and cross.

2 Maxxis Mimo CX worn out tires.

1 roll dirty white Deda Bar Tape.

$400 for the frame, fork, and headset, I'll pay for shipping.

Make me an offer on the other stuff. Good luck and act fast because with prices like this, my inventory won't last long.

High Rollin.

2008-01-14T18:35:00.001-07:00

While at training camp I got a new saddle. It's a whole story in and of itself.

I decided that rather than waste a good SLR (parts of mine were still OK) I'd refurbish it and breathe some new life into it.

Step #1.
I stripped the saddle down to it's shell.

Step #2.
I haggled with a street vender and picked up this faux Louis Vuitton purse for $20.

Step #3.
I delicately un-made the purse leaving a side panel intact.

Step #4.
Using spray on adhesive I attached the "leather" to the shell of the saddle.

Step #5.
I cut around the shell, and epoxied the new "leather" to saddle all the way around the shell.

Now all that's left is to find a rap video that I can feature it in.

Ladies Ladies Ladies.

2007-12-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

Corey's Rambling is moving. We'll see how it works out, but it looks good for right now.

The new and improved Corey's Rambling version 2.0

or

http://coreycrlsn.wordpress.com

Click on over and check it out yo.

Thanksgiving.

2007-11-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Quick update.

I haven't been writing on here much, mostly because I haven't been racing much. The Boulder UCI races were fun, I felt great, but that was good enough for placing in the 40's and getting lapped EARLY. Oh well, what can you do when Trebon is lapping into the top 20?

My big news is that next year I will be riding with the Rio Grande - Jose Cuervo team. It should be a great fit as I know most of the guys, work for the sponsor and have the same goals as the rest of the team. More to come on this later.

I've never felt personally touched by a blog...

2007-11-05T23:40:00.000-07:00

But for some reason, Brad Huff struck a nerve.

On a separate note, I sucked this weekend.

Rest Weeks.

2007-10-31T13:52:00.001-06:00

I guess I took a couple weeks off from updating here. There just wasn't that much excitement happening around here to write about though.

My parents were here a couple weeks ago and saw me race at Interlocken in Boulder and in Evergreen the next day. I didn't have great races either day, and Sunday was snowing and freezing cold.

Last weekend I did a ride with my DU kids on Saturday morning, then rode in their homecoming parade in the afternoon. Sunday was the race at the Boulder Reservoir which is always one of my favorites. It went alright, with me finishing 12th and making 45 bucks hopping barriers. Barrier hopping has become quite lucrative for me lately, hopefully there is an opportunity at the UCI races this weekend.

That's about all. I opted out of the Wednesday Worlds ride in Boulder this morning and stayed warm in my bed. That drive is starting to get to me. I'm off for a run right now to make up for missing a good workout. I wish there was a good ride like that in Denver. Oh well, thanks for checking in, enjoy your days.

Oh yeah, if anyone has pictures from this past weekend at the Res, I would love to see them. There were a few photographers around the course, but I have no idea who they were.

A big congratulations!

2007-10-15T19:24:00.000-06:00

Goes out to The Good, The Bad, and The Nerdy for bringing home the gold at the Red Bull Soap Box Derby in Providence, RI this weekend. I was hoping to be able to make the trips with the nerds, but was unable to, and it looks like I was the one who really missed out. All the hard work, lack of dates, and overabundance of pimples has finally paid off.

On a side note, I went 5th and 4th on Saturday and Sunday respectively in Gunnison this weekend. Awesome courses, great weather (for my races) and small fields led to some good racing for me. Hopefully I'll be finishing this high up next weekend on the Front Range.

That's all for now, thanks for checking in.

Karma.

2007-10-12T01:09:00.000-06:00

It's a bitch.

So I used to pull this mean prank on UNC group rides. Whenever I was on the front and saw any roadkill (which was plentiful in Weld County) I would slow up, allowing the person behind me to get real close, head straight for the squirrel or whatever was dead on the road, and hop over the dead animal at the last second. This would cause whoever was behind me, usually Brian, to run right through the dead creature. This was always funny, I'd laugh, we'd carry on with our ride.

So. As I mentioned earlier, the barrier hopping paid off on Saturday, but Sunday was a different story. I started strong, too strong. I won the holeshot, lead for a little bit, settled in back a few spots and then continued to drop back as the race went on. The legs that were there the day before decided not to show up, and I kept losing spots as the race went on. With 3 to go, I was told I would get a 2 second bonus for ever successful bunny hop, so I decided to try my luck at the 4 pack of logs next to the pits. On that lap I made it over, just barely, got cocky and hit it with more speed the next lap.

This time, instead of making it through the barrier section, I hopped the first one, plowed into the second, flipped straight over my bars, and landed face and shoulder first on top of the third. It rang my chimes pretty good, but I got up and finished without losing any places, although I did run the barrier section on the final lap, then quickly left with my tail between my legs.

Back to the Karma. Sometimes the bunny hop pays off, literally and figuratively, but other times it bites you in the ass. Hopefully I was simply paying off my debt to anyone who has had a run in with roadkill, and it will be smooth sailing from here on out. We'll see how this weekend plays out.

I'm off to Gunnison for another pair of BCR Cross races so wish me luck.

Thanks for checking in.

Yesterday.

2007-10-07T09:59:00.001-06:00

DU group ride at 9:00. I only went an hour so I could get up to Frisco for the first of two cross races up there this weekend. The course was good, nice mix of road and dirt with a little grass. I could have used a little more grass, but what can ya do, this is Colorado and I guess we don't really race on grass anymore.

There were a few barrier sections, two of which utilized logs from the front of parking spots, they were sitting on top of other short logs that supported each end, like Lincoln Logs I guess. Anyway, the first barrier was a real wooden one, on an uphill in woodchips. I hopped it in warm-ups, but after climbing up to it in the race I had visions of crashing like I did in Littleton, so I opted to get off and run. Then we climbed more on pavement, pavement descent (wierd) and then some loose twisty stuff, down to a tight LOOSE turn around some bleachers (which I almost ate a few times), then 4 log barriers really close together. I couldn't get my timing right through these until the last few laps, then a little more tight twisty stuff, a little grass, then a 90 degree left hander into a log barrier at the bottom of a small rise. This is where the excitement of my race happened.

I started top ten, moved up over the first couple laps, into 3rd by the end of lap 2. I was hopping that single log barrier, and it was right in front of Dave and there was a little crowd gathered around it. The crowd started getting into me hopping the log, so I think I got bigger cheers than the leaders. The crowd started handing out money, so I started grabbing it. In the end I walked away 6th or 7th after fading on the climbs, but 55 dollars richer. Boo Ya.

I'm off for round two. Thanks for the pics Greg.

Quick list of excitement in my life.

2007-10-03T15:47:00.001-06:00

-Went to a Guster concert at The Fillmore a couple weeks ago. It was awesome.

-Went to Boise for a week with Jami to visit her sister and brother-in-law. Her parents also flew in from Seattle for the weekend. We all had a lot of fun.

-I did a local cross race out there on Saturday. It was right up there in the top 5 best courses I've ever raced. I had so much fun that I almost forgot about the way my stomach and head felt after the late night we had the night before. I still managed a 2nd place, results are here under schedules. There were a couple barriers I could hop which always makes the racing that much more fun.

-Watched the Rockies finish off the regular season in the best possible fashion they could have. We were at a bar just down the street and the whole place was on their feet, screaming the entire 13th inning. I'm just starting to get my voice back.

-I'm now working a lot this week, hopefully I'll make a ton of cash, we'll just have to see.

-This weekend is a set of races in Frisco, CO. I think I had a decent race there last year, hopefully luck will be on my side this weekend as well.

-I'm going to go ride right now with Eric Moore, the cyclocross phenomenon from the University of Denver.

Cross Races 2 and 3.

2007-09-23T18:38:00.001-06:00

I sucked this weekend.

Two flats on Saturday in Colorado Springs.

Sunday, (today) was in Littleton, and I just sucked. No power, stacked it up 3 times trying to hop stuff I shouldn't have. On the bright side, I should have some Grade A pictures on the way from Joe over at PelotonPhoto.

Thanks for checking in.

P.S. Whoops..

Cross Race #1 in the books.

2007-09-17T09:26:00.000-06:00

Sunday marked the infamous first cross race of the year. I was really dreading this effort, and expecting a pretty bad race, but things ended up going much better than I'd anticipated. The race was at the Breckinridge Nordic Center, so I expected the altitude to play a pretty big role, but I didn't feel it that much during the race.

Things started well with me taking 3rd wheel through the first corner. By the time people were done taking stupid risks and plowing into the barricades as well as each other, I had drifted to 8th or so. I picked off a couple guys, got passed by one, and picked up another place or two due to mechanicals in front of me. I ended 6th, which isn't winning, but I feel like it's a solid start to the season. Last year in the first race I SUCKED and was lapped with like 3 laps to go. Felt good to be lapping people this year.

The course had a couple cool parts, one really short steep run up, a single barrier followed directly by a large hump that you went up and over with a little left turn. I was able to bunny hop the barrier and hold a ton of speed over the top and down the back side, almost too much speed. I passed a guy who had dismounted, and passed him on the outside over the hump, I almost didn't make the corner and came close to testing out the large pad that was strapped to a tree trunk on the side of the course. It was sweet to hear the little crowd standing around the barrier react. There was also an uphill double barrier that I sucked on pretty bad. I think I had 3 bad remounts on it in 11 laps. I definitely know what I need to work on.

If passing the dude as I hopped the barrier and bumped shoulders with him was the "highlight" of my race, then kicking the second barrier in the double set and landing face first in front of a crowd of people was definitely the "lowlight."

Overall I'm happy, not content, but happy. There is still room to improve, but some specific training and the next two months of racing will hopefully fill in those holes. Now it's time to get to work. Thanks for checking in.

It's Ready.

2007-08-29T09:58:00.001-06:00

It's actually been ready for almost a week now. I've been riding it more and more and I love it. It feels so good to be on a bike that fits the way I want it to. There are just a couple more things I need to completely dial it in, a new bar and stem, as well as about 18 inches of black SIS housing. I didn't have enough so I had to use a little red. Oh yeah, I'll put my FSA crank from my road bike onto it before the racing begins as well.

Other than that there hasn't been a lot going on. I've been a little lazy recently, but things are starting to turn around this week. I'm headed to Steamboat for a wedding this weekend, so there probably won't be much riding, but I'm planning on doing some running up there since cross is now knocking at the door.

My schedule is still up in the air. I'd like to do Cross Vegas, but it's not looking very realistic right now. I'd love to do some of the Gran Prix's, but with their exclusion of Colorado this year, I don't believe my pockets are deep enough to get there. I will however, be doing the three UCI races here in Colorado, as well as Nationals in Kansas this winter.

I suppose it's about time to dial in my schedule as it looks to be a busy fall of travel and racing. I will be headed to the Red Bull Soap Box Derby in Providence, RI in the middle of October. This does fall right in the middle of the season, but I made the commitment to support The Good, The Bad, and The Nerdy a long time ago.

Right now I think it's time to go get on that new cross bike and do some hard efforts. I was going to do the cross ride in Boulder this morning, but I still don't have mountain shoes, and clipping in with my road shoes and mountain cleats has proven to be harder than I thought it would be. If anyone would like to donate some cash for a new pair of shoes, let me know, I'd be glad to put your sticker all over my bike!

Speaking of stickers, my friend Scotty Boy, Scooter Louis, Wenzel finally made it home from a five and a half month stint in Belgium. He's got a lot of great euro-racing stories, as well as some sweet stickers that he shared with me. Those of you who know me well, know what a sticker feign I am.

Great, I just spilled coffee on my shirt.

I just realized I haven't updated since I officially moved to Denver. I know this is web log is supposed to be about bike racing, but it's mine so I'll write what I want.

I got back from Superweek and settled in a little bit. Things have been going great so far. My new roomate Kari (that's Kari above) and I have been having a lot of fun, and I'm really enjoying living in the city. I'll never be one to talk down about Greeley, I had a lot of fun there, and made some long lasting friendships, but this is just a nice change. I love that I can walk or ride my bike basically everywhere I have to go, and it's usually faster and easier to do than it would be to drive. Work is still just 10 minutes away by bike, and riding in traffic has gotten to be more fun than scary, which makes the commute that much better.

My girlfriend Jami (that's Jami above, I look a little... tired) graduated from nursing school and her parents and siblings came out for a week to celebrate. We went to the ceremony then had a little party in Greeley, then spent another crazy night in Denver, then I got to go spend another night with them, a little more low-key this time at a condo in Vail. The next weekend we headed east back to my old stomping grounds of Yankton, South Dakota, for the nationally observed Riverboat Days holiday weekend. Most of my friends from home were there, so Jami got to see the environment that I'm a product of, and why I am the way that I am.

Now that the crazy weekends have hopefully come to a close, I'm getting pretty excited for cross. I'm not planning on coming out with any huge bang, but like the past couple years, I hope to continue getting stronger through state championships and hopefully I can pull of a decent ride at nationals.

On one last note, I'd like to wish Mr. Evan "E-Strong" "The Sandman" "The Sandstorm" Sandstrom a happy 21st birthday. It was a long time coming (21 years), but now that it's here you better enjoy it, just not too much. I think we might have the next Cat. 4 Colorado State Cyclocross Champion in our midst. I hear great things come from people who start off racing The Squirrely Surly.

That's all I've got folks, thanks for checking in.

P.S. My friend Eric got a Wii and Tiger Woods 2008. It's probably the funnest video game I've ever played and I SMOKED Eric in Match Play and Stroke Play last night. Three under baby, whoop whoop!

What did you do to get ready for cross today?
cyclocross, cyclo-cross, veldrijden

Bling Blam.

2007-08-22T21:24:00.001-06:00

More later.

I'm driving home.

2007-07-31T14:00:00.000-06:00

Finally on my way back to Colorado after being gone for about a month.

The racing ended well, with a 33rd at the Downers Ave race. I skipped sunday, and spent yesterday with my parents. It was good to spend a little more time with them, my mom and I made it out for a ride on their tandem in the morning. She just sits on the back and chats, but keeps pushing harder and harder until I tell her we're going to coast. There are some big hills on the way home from the bike path, and I just thought we'd drop it into the granny gear and take our time. I ended up having to upshift at least two or three times because she would spin the gear out, and I would find myself doing no work at all. Here she is pushing me up the hills, but won't do the ride alone because she doesn't want to cross 57th street? Doesn't make much sense.

In the afternoon my dad and I played 9 holes of golf at the course right by our house. We alternated shots, which was a lot of fun, even if it seemed like we were trying to make it as hard on each other as possible. (I tried to chip onto a green, ended up hitting the ball at about a 90 degree angle to where I was aiming. Hit it right into a sand trap. My dads shot out of the sand cleared the green, so I got another chance to chip on and actually did that time.)

Now I'm on my way back to Colorado. Unfortunately Nebraska hasn't gotten any more interesting in the past month. My mom packed me a lunch, as well as sent a ton of cookies and special k bars with me. I was born over 23 years ago, and she was the first person I met. I've been very close to her ever since, she probably knows me better than anyone, yet still she sends boxes of really good junk food with me and actually expects me to share it with my roomate and girlfriend when I get home. Does she really expect me to sit next to this box of cookies for 9 hours and not touch it? Sometimes I feel like she doesn't know me at all.

Well, I should get back to driving, I wouldn't want to miss something exciting. Thanks for checking in.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The End Is In Sight.

2007-07-28T12:11:00.000-06:00

The last couple nights races have been a bit of a let down. Thursday night in Sheboygan, the race started out alright, I won a $25 prime in the beginning of the race, but about 20 laps in, it started to rain.

The rain lasted 15-20 laps, and then it started to dry up. The relief was only momentary as the skies soon opened up, and it started to rain with some fury. I made it 3 more laps, but realized quickly that the braking performance of my carbon wheels and cork pads was getting worse by the second. There was a downhill corner and I was grabbing 2 fistfuls of brake coming into it and picking up speed all the way through. After the 3rd time through, feeling the 2 wheels drift as I slid through the corner, I decided enough was enough.

Last night in Kenosha was a boring race. 100 laps around a 1km, rectangular, 4 corner course. The course was pancake flat, with a headwind along one of the longer stretches, and therefore a tailwind on the other long section. The race would bunch up into the headwind, curb to curb, string out through the two following corners, stay strung out down the tailwind section and through the next corners, and then bunch up through the headwind section again. Somehow a group snuck away and quickly put a lap into the field. I unfortunately was in the middle of the pack trying to figure out how to move up without just jamming my bike into small holes in the field like everyone else was doing. I seriously spent about 70 laps trying to figure out the best place to move up, and finally just went up alongside the group on the tailwind section. It felt like a really big waste of energy, but it was the only place I could gain positions.

The last 10 laps were just carnage with people taking dumb risks and stacking it up all the way around the course. I stayed out of the wreckage, but only managed a 51st place. WHOO HOO!

Tonight is the "Great Downer Avenue Bike Race" and I guess it's a pretty big deal. 12,000 spectators, rumors of a $4,000 prime, 200 riders. Should be fun. I thought people were taking stupid lines, and unnecessary risks last night, it frightens me to think about what tonight has in store. I'd love to try and get off the front, we'll see what happens. There are probably 199 other people thinking the same thing right now.

Thanks for checking.

Oh yeah, if you work in any sort of retail industry where you deal with customers on a regular basis, remember, most people don't like it when you talk to your fellow employees like the customers aren't even there. They must have the "B team" on a Panera today. A kid that was on break just sat in my regular seat and talked to the kids behind the counter and bragged about how long he was on break for the past 30 minutes. He complained about how his feet hurt, he didn't like his job, he was annoyed with how slow it was, etc. and the people behind the counter just talked right back like it was no big deal. Meanwhile, customers continued to line up waiting to get their orders taken. Good work guys, good work.

Superweek blah blah.

2007-07-25T16:01:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure what day it is anymore, I know it's Wednesday because that's what my phone tells me.

Last night was a crit in Cedarburg, the closest race so far to my host house. Good 4 corner course with a slight rise between corners 1 and 2, with a small sharp kick right before the corner, then long false flat decent into corner 3, more downhill into corner 4, and a long false flat uphill finish.

I was aggressive as I could be the first 20 minutes. I must have covered 3 attacks and instigated 2 in the course of 5 laps. I was really hoping I could get into the break for once, but it wasn't to be. The break did go while I was being active at the front, but I missed it and got shut down trying to go across. I decided then to rest for a minute and see if I could try again later, but as soon as I began to sit up, my legs got heavier and heavier. It seems I dug myself a pretty deep hole, and I was hurting just trying to sit in.

I realized halfway through last night's race that I was telling myself I was hurting a lot more than I really was, and I was losing the mental battle a lot worse than I was losing the physical race. I decided I'd keep resting, but I wasn't out of it for the finish. I felt better and better, and made a couple split second, smart moves, that got me to the front with 10 laps to go. I guess I was pretty lucky to do that as things got awfully dicey and aggressive with about 8 or 9 laps to go, and I was right up in the thick of it. I managed to stay toward the front even with all the swarming and shifts that were happening at the front end of the race. With 2 laps to go things really heated up, elbows getting thrown all over, people touching wheels and chopping each other in almost every corner.

Coming into the last corner I saw more aggressive riding than I think I've ever witnessed first hand, and as scared as I was I just kept focused on the wheel in front of me, and trying to hold my own line the best I could. I got around a couple people in the sprint, but also had a person or two come around me. With a small break up the road, and the big sprint just in front of me I finished up in 20th place. Good enough to get in the money for once.

It's funny to feel so excited about a 20th place, but I think I'm more excited that for once I held my own and overcame my own negativity that's been holding me back in these longer races. I'm really motivated now for the 4 more nights of racing out here, and especially for some local races when I get home. Bannock Street Criterium is my new "home" race, and I guess Rocky Mounts always throws an awesome barbeque party for the Niwot Criterium so hopefully I can pull off some good results for these end of the season races. After that it looks like a pair of crits up in the mountains, (Dillion and Copper Mountain I believe) and then it's time for cyclocross. Maybe it's just the 5 cups of coffee I've had today, or the extra energy from knowing I'm not racing tonight, but I feel like I'm catching a second or even third wind for the end of the season, I sure hope it continues to blow through cross nats.

Thanks for checking in, I need to go find a place to publish this from, it seems like my hour has expired at this cafe.

Okay, back to my Panera Bread hotspot. On one last note, everybody has opinions about all the recent doping busts at the tour. Guilty or not, (they probably are) the only thing I know is that for me, I'd rather be finishing 20th place in a little known race in WI and doing it clean, rather than standing atop a podium knowing that I broke every rule to get there, and I couldn't have done what I did without artificial help. I suppose you get the mentality that everyone is doing it, so you have to do it to beat them, but really you aren't beating anyone, you're just joining them in their tainted race.

Superweek Day 11?

2007-07-23T08:54:00.000-06:00

Last night went pretty good. I felt good, able to ride at the front, and even managed to attack a time or two. I still can't seem to buy a lap off the front, but hopefully my time will come.

Today is the Tour of Holy Hill Road Race. Hopefully it goes better than the last road race we did. Right now I've got a full french press, and "Throw some D's" so loud my car is shaking, so the day is at least starting off right.

I used to think about immature things, you know like, do you love me? Do you want me? Are you gonna call me like you said you would? Is this really your real phone number? WAIT A MINUTE ............!

Thanks for checking in.

Superweek Day Off.

2007-07-21T17:52:00.000-06:00

No racing today. I went to the Milwaukee Art Museum and walked around most of the afternoon. The building itself is really cool, you can see how the sun shield goes up and down on the left.

It's really a cool building in an awesome location. It opens out toward Lake Michigan, so the views out of the building are almost as cool as some of the sights inside. Unfortunately it was about 55 degrees inside and I didn't think to bring a snowsuit to Wisconsin in the summer, so I froze.

This has always been one of my favorite paintings and I had no idea it was there until I walked around a corner and there it was. A very nice surprise I guess.

Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect by Claude Monet

Now I'm killing time at a new coffee shop near downtown. I just had a Sid Delicious sandwich, (most of the food is named after musicians). Tomorrow is another 100k crit. It'll be better than last night because I can't feel much worse. I wasn't into racing last night. My legs didn't feel like racing, my head didn't feel like racing, so I didn't race very long. Instead I caught the end of a little league game that was next to where we parked. I think it was more enjoyable at the moment than the race would have been.

Time to start acting and thinking like a bike racer again though. Too much negativity for me the past couple days. I always thought people were just whiners when they go to Europe and can't perform because of the setting they live in. Only now am I starting to get an idea what it's like to be somewhere less than ideal and still try to perform your best. It's not been working for me, so it's time for some changes.

That's all for now, if you're in Milwaukee, check out Roast Coffee Company on Locust and Maryland. Cool place, free internet. Boo ya. Thanks for checking in.

Driving to Green Lake.

2007-07-20T14:25:00.000-06:00

We're on our way to today's race, and just passed County Rd. PP. There was a guy posing like he was peeing on the sign and his wife was taking a picture. Get it? PP - Pee Pee? Funny stuff.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Superweek Day 8.

2007-07-20T10:59:00.001-06:00

Last night was better, still not good, but better. I was actually able to ride at the front, but drifted back of course just as the break went. The rest of the race was spent trying to get in position for a prime, but I couldn't even do that.

I moved from last to first in the chase in a couple laps between 4 to go and 2 to go, but was overtaken by the inevitable swarm, and finished the day off in 37th, probably 25th? in the field sprint, not that you can really call 25 "in" the sprint.

Tonight is another 100k crit. It's a longer drive, so I thought about taking it off, but I think I'll do this one, skip Saturday, race Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, skip Green Bay on Wednesday, and try to knock out the final 4 days of racing on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That's the plan anyway we'll see how it plays out.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, tomorrow I'll go exploring on my day off, there are bound to be some pictures from that. That's really all I've got for now, thanks for checking in.

Superweek Day... I have no idea.

2007-07-19T11:42:00.000-06:00

Racing the past few days has sucked.

Tuesday night it was my fault. I didn't eat in the afternoon, ate a ton just before the race, factor in heat and humidity, I got to find out what stomach cramps feel like during a race. I was fine at the back, but every time I wanted to move up, my stomach would turn to knots and I would start burping stuff up.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I don't even want to talk about. They made a huge deal about centerline rule, which I'm happy to follow. Some people will look to see where the ref is, then attack across the line if they are out of sight of the ref, I don't. I try to follow the rules as much as possible, and if I ever find myself on the wrong side of the line, I'm definitely not advancing my position, and I get back as soon as possible.

I got disqualified for crossing the centerline on a road that didn't even have the centerline marked. I was following the wheel in front of me, as well as half the field, but the ref rode up and said "263, 148, you're out of the race." Was 148, Richard England of Priority Health was 263. After we had a few choice words with the moto ref, he threatened to DQ us from more than just yesterday's race, so following the advice of Karl Menzies who was also DQ'd we drifted to the back and followed the neutral support for a lap. I'd had enough so I went home. Menzies followed the back of the race the entire 160k I believe, taunting them for going so slow the entire time.

Enough about racing, tonight will be a different story. Look to Menzies and England to ride aggressively all night.

The real reason of this post is to let me newest, currently biggest, pet peeve out of the bag.

Now I'm quite guilty of not shaving for a few days and letting myself get a little scruffy, but in my defense, I only have 8-10 whiskers on my face, so letting it grow isn't a big deal. Now the kid that just ordered a cinnamon roll at the panera bread I'm sitting at has a full face of "scruff," but it's neatly manicured around the edges and sculpted just perfectly.

That really bothers me. There is a guy racing out here that I've noticed is the worst case. The scruff never gets longer, always that "I haven't shaved in 5 days because I don't care how I look" length, and the edges are always razor sharp. This leads me to believe he's shaving his neck, and sculpting his sideburns daily to keep things perfect, and apparently trimming the "trendy scruff" to keep if from getting bushy. ugghh. Really gets me angry. I should just get over it, but I don't want to so I won't.

Thanks for checking in.

P.S. Guy at the counter turned around and his 6 inch rat tail is even less stylish than his trimmed facial hair.

Superweek Day 5.

2007-07-17T12:14:00.000-06:00

These numbers are getting confusing, today is day five, but nothing has happened yet, so I'll write about day 4, which was yesterday, my rest day.

After I left my coffee shop here in Brown Deer, I drove into Milwaukee. I just drove around a little, as I'd left my bike at my host house, and couldn't explore as I had in Chicago. I was trying to find a bike shop, had the address, was on the street, and must have driven it 5 times when I decided to park and walk. I found the address, but it was in the middle of a park. I called the phone number I had and the kid said they were located 100 blocks north, and about 10 miles west of where I was. I decided I'd go to a different bike shop that could list their address correctly in the yellow pages.

I found the shop, Crank Daddy's, probably the dumbest name I've heard, and their employees lived up to the name. The first girl didn't know what a tubular tire was, then the boy that helped me, told me straight away that they didn't have Tufo Tubular Tape. Luckily the manager overheard this and cleared things up. They did have the tape, it was about 2 feet from the kid, so I left with everything I needed.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that I flatted about 20 laps into the race the first night in Beverly Hills? Anyway, I did. I was shocked as well to find out that all it takes is a little drywall screw to puncture a tubular.

I really lucked out in that it came out the sidewall about a millimeter from the carbon rim. The was it is, I had to replace the tire, where I could have been replacing a carbon rim. Thanks again Scott. You now have 2 new tires.

Back to shopping yesterday. I spent the next hour trying to find a hardware store to get some acetone. Finally found a Lowes and got my acetone.

I ended up walking around Lowes for probably 45 minutes. I've always known I was pretty simple minded, but only recently have I realized the walking through a home improvement store and test driving drills and hammers is about the best therapy I can find when I get tense.

It's only been a few days since I left Sioux Falls, but I get tired of never knowing where stuff is, then I get frustrated and it just a downward spiral from there. If you ever need anything at a Walgreens or a Family Dollar, you should come to Milwaukee. I drove by at least 3 of each last night, and 5 of those stores were on the same street.

Anyway, enough crabbing. I got to make myself some Lavazza coffee this morning and I finally found a comfy place to hang out with free WiFi. Thanks to Andy Couch for the Panera Bread tip. It turns out I have the couches all to myself, although a friendly Lutheran Pastor sat down with me and traded life stories for about an hour. He was a nice old man, and gave me his card so we can keep in touch.

Tonight is 90k on a 2.3 mile lap. Someone really needs to inform these race promoters about units of measure. They measure all of our race distances in kilometers, which is great, I'm used to riding in kilometers, but then they measure all the courses in miles, talk about average speed in mph, and just make it confusing all around. Sunday night, we raced a 0.9 mile loop. We were supposed to do a 100k crit. They had us do 75 laps. Bear with me here. 0.9 mile loop x 75 laps = 67.5 miles. 67.5 miles x 1km/.62miles = 108.87km. Something doesn't make sense, and I blame their refusal to standardize units of measure. As Uncle Al's brother's bumper sticker was going to say "Honk 10 times if you love the metric system!"

Alright, I'm going to go get ready to race. Thanks for checking in.

Superweek Day 3 and 4.

2007-07-16T10:39:00.000-06:00

Where to start? I'll start at the beginning. I woke up and left my palace from the last few days and set off for the city.

I drove by my Ferrari/Maserati dealership for the last time. My Maserati does 185, but the Ferrari, that's the fast one.

As soon as I got downtown I ditched the most inefficient and cumbersome means of exploring a new city...

...and I traded it out for the best way to experience a place you've never been.

I headed straight to the lake, rode down the bike path to the museums and headed out toward the observatory for a good view of the lake...

...and a decent view of the city.

From there, I rode north along the lake, bouncing back and forth between the bike path and Lakeshore Dr. until I hit the locks at the mouth of the Chicago River.

I turned and headed up the "Riverwalk" bike path that led back into downtown. Beautiful.

It turns out I wasn't the only person that decided to explore by bike. I couldn't believe the number of people I saw on bikes, especially the new Electra Amsterdams. Then I noticed this place and realized where a lot of them were coming from. They also had these two and four person bike-car things for rent. I saw lots of families riding them, they looked like fun.

Wilco anyone?

I picture Mark Chase living in a place like this someday. Note the boat parking underneath.

After exploring I decided to eat and get on my way to my race in Bensonville. I really wanted some thick crust Chicago Style pizza, so I rode around for a while and thought I had a place picked out, when a little corner pub/restaurant appeared called Bosses. It had murals of Al Capone all over, a garage door that opened to a cool little patio on the sidewalk, and looked like the perfect place.

I sat down and ordered a coke and pizza and 15 minutes later was treated to a Totinos Party Pizza served directly on the cardboard it came on. Not even a plate. I laughed it off, ate it, and went on my way.

The course last night was a 0.9 mile, 6 corner lap that we did 75 times. That's 450 corners according to my math. The race started off pretty fast, and I tried to be aggressive but it wasn't to be. About halfway through I found myself surfing the back just as I hate to do. I tried to stay up toward the front, but the races don't stay fast enough through the corners, so everyone swarms and dives into the corners 10 wide. I usually end up losing about 15 positions every time this happens.

I guess I just need to keep working on acclimatizing to this style of racing. The last 20 laps or so, I found the wheel and followed it a lot. Perfect, big draft, no big accelerations, and I know he won't go down in a corner, everyone else could, but I think he'd clear his own path.

A break went sometime when I was at the back. I was going to try and jump with 4 or 5 to go, but the field basically split with 7 to go, and I was in the back. We just rolled in together, but not before at least one more big wreck in the last corner. Nothing like stacking it up racing for 50th place. Good work.

After the race I drove up to Milwaukee where I am now. I found the wheel to follow on I-94, and made it here about half an hour faster than I should have. I'm taking today off hoping that three hard days followed by some rest will help the form start to come around.

Man, that was long. Thanks for checking in.

Superweek Day 2.

2007-07-14T21:41:00.001-06:00

This is me narrowly avoiding the pavement when Jonathon Clarke blew and tire and tumbled with about 20 miles to go last night. That's right, I made Cyclingnews!

Highlights from last night.
Here are a couple of the houses that lined last night's course.

You like the V.I.P. seating in the front lawn? I did.

Another day, another 100k crit. Tonight went a lot better than last night. The course was basically pancake flat, with four corners and fairly wide roads. I felt a lot more like myself today and finished towards the front half of the main group. I tested my legs a little, and went for a points sprint and and $100 dollar prime. I took third in the points sprint and second in the prime, which basically equates to me getting nothing for my efforts, but 5 sprint points and a little more confidence in my fitness.

The last five laps were FAST and SKETCHY. If there is one thing I really need to work on, it's being more aggressive and fighting harder for corners, and I realize that there is no better place to work on that than out here.

Man, I just had to walk up and get the cord for my computer. My legs are less than fresh right now, but the three flights of stairs I had to trek up didn't help at all either. I'd like to give a huge thanks to the Sigfusson's here in Hinsdale, IL. Andy Sig goes to DU and trains with the cycling team a little as he's a varsity swimmer and an outstanding triathlete. I sent an email to the DU team to see if anyone knew of a place I could stay in Chicago for a couple nights. Andy wrote back within maybe an hour offering me his parents house. I talked to his mom who told me that they would be out of town, but the house was mine. It's a beautiful, very large, house in a very nice neighborhood and it's all mine for the weekend. I finally found the basement today as well as the 60in. TV that I'll be watching the tour on tonight.

Well, I think I'm getting tired because I totally lost my next thought. On a final note, the lady in line in front of me at Subway asked her husband what BMT stood for. He didn't know, thought it had something to do with a subway. I felt like a genius when I get to step in and explain what it meant. I'll leave you with this, why is the Subway employee considered the sandwich artist when I am the one who designs the masterpiece, they simply assemble it for me? Thanks for checking in.

Superweek Day 1 v2.0

2007-07-13T22:48:00.000-06:00

So, today's race is over.

I felt decent warming up and the course was great for me. I didn't expect the race to start with a bang, but I wasn't surprised when it happened. Maybe it's my lack of form right now, but the race seemed every bit as aggressive and fast as a 90 minute "Boulder" crit.

A big break went early, 16 guys I think. They put a lap into us within the first 30 miles, and then the race got really hard. I was doing a decent job of riding toward the front, but when the break came back around, the speed went up and everyone wanted a top 20 spot. I hung on as well as I could, but came off with 2.5 laps to go.

I didn't feel great, but I guess I felt as good as I expected I would, a little self-fulfilling prophecy? Maybe. On the bright side, I do expect to feel better everyday, so hopefully that psychology lesson will work to my advantage even if I did let it work against me today.

The best part of the race today was the crowds. Families and their friends lined almost the entire course. They all had parties in their yards, and most of them yelled really loud. After the race one family even pulled me aside and fed me, offered me beer and wine, congratulated me, and just sat and shot the breeze for a while. I hope all the races will be like that. There was even a big beer garden and stuff with a band on one side of the course.

I made it to my host house without any problems, but that's a whole story in and of itself. Hopefully I can unwind a little and get to sleep, these late starts mess with my sleep a little.

Also, I'd like to personally thank Dave Towle for having the decency and the brains never to tell the Lance Armstrong cancer story for 15 laps in the middle of a race. I'm not sure what the announcer was thinking, or what got him started, but we got the WHOLE story. It's hard to race when you get all choked up like that.

Thanks for checking in. I'm going to watch Boonen win a stage and then hit the sack.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Superweek Day 1

2007-07-13T14:10:00.000-06:00

I made it to Chicago after a stop in Cedar Rapids IA last night. My mom's high school friend lives there so I had a free place to crash, which was awesome. Thanks again Paul and Cheryl.

I didn't have anything to keep me in IA this morning, so I set off fairly early, leaving myself PLENTY of time to get here.

I did a little exploring along the way, but still made it to the race course with 4 hours to spare.

I have my computer with me, so I was going to do an update with some pictures from my drive, and the neighborhood we're going to be racing in tonight, but internet at Starbucks is 10 bucks a day, so I figured pictures can wait.

This neighborhood is awesome, and the course looks to be perfectly suited to me if I've got good form. Unfortunately, I'm just coming off a solid block or R&R, so I might not be too sharp tonight. If anything could coax me into riding better than I should, I think this venue might do it. There is a huge expo area set up with like V.I.P. Seating along the road with cocktail tables with white table clothes, as well as a big announcers booth, etc. Basically it looks like a real race venue, (unlike Coal Miners Classic, I still feel sorry for you Dave).

There is a significant rise on the back of the course, a few hundred meters long, that'll get old on the later laps I'm sure, and the decent seems narrow and fast with a sharp 90• corner at the bottom. It'll be interesting, but that goes without saying. I'll try to get an update out tonight or tomorrow in the a.m. filling everyone in on how this plays out.

Thanks for checking in and wish me luck, I'll need it.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

It's good to be home.

2007-07-10T11:05:00.000-06:00

I rolled into town on July 2nd, and was surprised to see all the local businesses greeting me on their signs and billboards. I only got a couple pictures, but I can assure you there were a lot more. Unfortunately most of the other signs said Sgt. before my name, then had the wrong last name after Corey. Anyway, it was a warm welcome nonetheless.

I spent a few quality days in Yankton over the 4th, and survived this year without any stiches. We did all the great Yankton summer activities, boating, wakeboarding, sandboarding, camping on the island, partying at a storage shed (that was a new one for me) as well as running through large water spouts.

I always love coming back home, but I don't think I could survive a full week of it anymore. It's hard to believe that we used to do that for a full summer. I'm in Sioux Falls now with my parents relaxing and getting a couple of good days of training in before I head out to Superweek.

Mark running through the water. (It was really late)

I may or may not have pushed Kristin through the "fountain" with me.

Fireworks from the island.

Sand couch surrounding out fire.

Our fire got really big after a wood gathering contest.

The timeless wakeboarding/sunset picture.

Last night didn't go so hot.

2007-06-18T15:47:00.000-06:00

I felt flat from the gun.

I started toward the back and had trouble moving up. It took at least a few laps to get the the front, and once there I had trouble holding position. I went with a couple moves and then tried to initiate something, but my legs said no. Soon I was back to the rear of the race, and spent quite a while there. Stupid. I managed to move back up a little in the final laps and snuck inside the top 15, but all around it was a less than sub-par performance all around.

I did get to test drive the pool at my new apartment. It's going to be really nice. It was a little chilly last night, which felt great, but I have a feeling that on a hot afternoon it'll be perfect. I need to be careful or I might lose these tan lines.

Thanks for checking in. Here is a picture from City Park a few weeks ago.

ACA rocks.

2007-06-17T14:37:00.000-06:00

It's done, I'm a cat 1 with the ACA as well.

I'm just getting to Denver and it's 101 degrees. This could be a hot race, even at 5:30.

Just passed a sign for KS107.5. It said, "Beyonce lives here... So does Snoop Dogg.". I wonder how Jay Z feels about that?
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Curtis Park Crit.

2007-06-17T13:21:00.000-06:00

I'm off to Denver to do the Curtis Park Crit, the last stage of the Rocky Mountain Omnium. I didn't do the TT or the Road Race because I went to Steve and Emily Forbes' wedding yesterday afternoon at DU. Steve is one of our fast guys on the DU team. They had a very nice wedding outside on the DU campus and then a reception in some banquet hall afterward. It was fun and a few kids from the team were back in town, so it was good to see them and Jami got to meet a couple of the team members so it was a good day all around.

I haven't done this race before, but it looks to be fast and aggressive, 50 minutes on a 1k lap with 6 corners I think. I'm going to try and hit up the pool at my new apartment in Denver afterwards so that should be fun. It's been HOT lately, so the pool could be just the ticket.

I need to start moving soon, but I'm dreading it more and more with every passing day. I'm super excited to get to Denver, but moving is going to be miserable. I have a lot of junk, and worst of all, I think I'm going to have to throw away most of the stuff from my "fun drawer." If anyone wants two years worth of glasses lenses, old keys, happy meal toys, string, wrestling headgear, darts, and other cool stuff, let me know. It'll be free to a good home.

Alright, I'm gonna get. Thanks for checking in.

P.S. USA Cycling approved my Cat. 1 upgrade this week. I just sent off an email to the ACA, so I'll hopefully have that soon too.

5th at Fort Collins Crit.

2007-06-11T15:01:00.001-06:00

Yesterday went pretty well. I was active in the early breaks, winning two primes, one for a case of beer, and one for a dvd player. After a while it became apparent that the break wasn't going early, and I was feeling less than olympic, so I sat back and tried to get my legs back under me. With 15 minutes to go or so, I made the split, which turned into the winning break. With two corners to go I was in perfect position, but got too hesitant when Alan McCormack (Vitamin Cottage) and Allen Krughoff (Rio Grande) both dove hard into the corner, one on the inside and one on the outside. I touched my brakes, just for a split second, but it was all over. I held onto 5th, so I at least made my entry back. Overall it was a great race and a great course. Maybe I'll start putting pictures on here again soon. Thanks for checking in.

I suck.

2007-06-09T16:30:00.000-06:00

Apparently at updating this as well as racing my bike. Last weekend went alright, I rode alone on Saturday, one final Estes loop from Greeley before I move. I felt good, and worked hard, and cranked it out a half hour faster than I ever have.

Sunday was the City Park Crit. I decided that since I would try to be aggressive early rather than waiting for the race to happen around me. That planned turned into a few laps alone off the front, then when some people finally joined me, they started attacking each other and I was too gassed to go with. The race winning move of Dirk Friel and Colby Pierce went then, and I went back to the group. The two of them ended up lapping the field, and I ended up 15th in the sprint with a little group of 4 or 5 up up the road, but behind the break, that was leading out the main group. It always gets confusing when you get lapped. Hopefully it doesn't happen again too soon.

I did the Tuesday night training races in Golden, which turned out to be a blast. I went out to get a hard effort in, and I think I got one. I once again tried to be as aggressive as I could, joining a little break after the first of many primes, and then sprinting for a few primes as well as attacking through the prime sprints. In the end it came down to a bunch kick, so I went for it. I felt much better in the sprint than I ever have, and managed to pull of a second place after Jonathon Garcia just rode away from me.

Today was the Rist Canyon Road Race in Ft. Collins. It sucked, I sucked, it's over, I don't really want to talk about it.

What I do want to talk about however is drafting behind a wheel car in an ACA race. To my knowledge it's not allowed, so I stayed off the bumper. A couple guys I was dropped with apparently didn't agree, so they took the ride, trying to pace back onto the field. WE WERE GOING UP RIST CANYON, are you guys idiots? Really, is it worth cheating to get a draft when you're grinding your way up a 12 mile climb almost grannied out? I rode with them for a minute, but once I realized they were blatantly sitting on this bumper I just dropped off and rode alone. I ended up beating at least one of the guys, who apparently never did get back on. Anyway, I suppose it's not a big deal, but it doesn't take much to irritate me on a climb like that. Dang, they hit that climb soooo hard. I heard the lead group crested it in under 40 minutes. That's fast.

On to shorter and better things. New Belgium Crit is tomorrow. I like this course, but had bad luck there with a flat and no wheels last year. I won't make the same mistake again. Wish me luck, it should be a fun race. One more thing, I put a new chain and cassette on my bike last night! Holy crap, it feels like a brand new bike. It's funny how you forget how nice it is to have a bike that shifts when you want it to. Alright, that's all, thanks for checking in.

Oh Yeah.

2007-06-01T09:51:00.000-06:00

Iron Horse was good and bad.

I picked my parents up at DIA Friday morning, and we had a very nice drive down to Durango. My dad had the flu, so I suppose the drive wasn't super nice for him, but we made it by late afternoon.

I had time for a little ride, and then headed to registration. Now I hadn't gotten preregistered in time, but I was hoping I could transfer this guy's registration who couldn't make it, but the promoter said absolutely not. I was pretty pissed, but tried everything I could think of, but no one would budge. I was still registered for the crit on Sunday though, just not the actual "Iron Horse Road Race."

Instead of racing Saturday, we drove up to Silverton and hung out for a while. My dad got to meet the one and only Dave Towle, as well as watch Phil Zajicek win the race in a dominating fashion, as well as watch Ned finish his 100th Iron Horse, still a solid 3rd place. I sure hope I'm doing that when I'm 52.

Sunday morning we went out to eat with some of the DU kids, watched some kids races, cruiser races, and the earlier categories before my 5:15 start. It feels weird starting that late, I never know what to do with myself all day.

The race went alright, I felt like I could do some real work the first half, covering a couple moves and trying to initiate some stuff, but NOTHING was getting away from this field. with 20 minutes to go Chris Wherry launched a real attack. Not that I could have covered it if I was completely fresh and rested, but I had just helped pull back a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory rider and had nothing when Wherry hit out. He opened it up to about 20 seconds and we managed to keep it right there the rest of the race.

I tried to help pull him back, but there comes a point when you're riding alone in a race and a USPRO champ is off the front, and you just have to realize it's not coming back, and I'm not trying to get it back for anyone else, so setting tempo is basically pointless. I wish at times like those that I had the option of trying to go across to him, but that form isn't here yet.

I pulled an idiot move and on the last lap I didn't jump on the back stretch when Anthony Colby attacked and I let a little gap open up. With two fast corners and a downhill finish, there was no closing the gap once it opened, but I managed to hold on to 5th ahead of the rest of the field.

I'll get some pictures up soon, that's the best part about having parents at the race. Right now I need to get to work. Thanks for checking in.

I forgot.

2007-05-22T14:43:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone. Sorry, I kinda forgot I had this website for a while there. I took a week off after Gila, went to nationals with the DU team, came home, trained hard for a week and did a pair of crits last weekend.

North Boulder Park Crit was an excellent crit course with 6 90 degree corners stuffed into a .7 mile lap with narrow roads and tight technical sections. I made the front group and finished 19th out of 21 finishers. Not so hot, but considering there were over 80 starters, I was please with myself. I did manage to crash myself, but luckily didn't take anyone else with me. I took a little flyer with a lap and a half to go, thinking they might let a nobody dangle for just long enough to sneak away since the race winning break of 2 was already gone, but no dice. The pack rolled right on by and I had nothing in the sprint.

Here I am picking my bike up off the pavement after my little mishap.

Saturday night was a ton of fun celebrating a successful season with the DU team, although it put a kink in my plans for a strong finish at the Coal Miners Classic Crit in Louisville. 50 minutes into the race I decided I was done. I never like DNF's but they happen sometimes I guess.

This coming weekend is Iron Horse in Durango. My parents are coming out to watch and hang out which will be awesome. I love the courses down there so it should be a fun weekend. I'm afraid there are going to be like 10 guys in the Pro 1,2 road race since pre-registration sold out. We'll see when we get there I guess. I luckily landed a spot through a guy that I coach, otherwise it would have been a long trip for a crit. It's time to start getting ready for work this afternoon. Thanks for checking in.

Home finally.

2007-05-08T12:17:00.000-06:00

I made it home last night, just after 8:00. I'm only home until Thursday morning, but my own shower and bed felt amazing last night.

The Gila was a success I suppose. I was struggling a little with confidence going into it, but it's nice to find out that I'm ahead of where I was last year, and that I can at least hang with the folks in my category. I found one picture from the week, hopefully more will come through with time.

This is of Stage 4, the crit in downtown Silver City. In the front is Allen Krughoff from Rio Grande, next is Brad White (Einstein's) who went on to have an absolutely amazing ride on Sunday, taking close to four minutes out of the field, and finishing the tour same time on G.C. as Taylor Phinney. After 5 hard days of racing, it didn't even come down to seconds, they had to resort to stage placings and Brad's winning the crit and final stage put him in pink. He looked pretty happy riding back to Silver City with a new pink jersey on.

I'm off the bike this week, which I think will be good. I went for a run this morning, but somehow forgot that unlike riding, you can't slam a cup of espresso, and eat a breakfast right before you head out the door to run. I almost made a mess of myself, but made it home just in time.

Thursday morning I head out to go to Collegiate Nationals in Lawrence, Kansas. I think it'll be a fun trip, and the way some of the guys rode this weekend, I think we have a good chance of some good rides there. That's all for now, thanks for checking in, and I'll post more pictures as I find them. If you know where any are, please let me know as I'm quite vain.

Gila wrap up.

2007-05-07T11:19:00.001-06:00

13th in the final stage. 8th overall in GC.
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Gila is done.

2007-05-06T14:12:00.001-06:00

I survived, quite well actually. Top 15 maybe on the day, should have held on or moved up in GC. More updates later.
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Silver City Weather.

2007-05-06T06:55:00.000-06:00

Currently 44 degrees, feels like 31. Chances of rain all morning, with chances of isolated thunderstorms this afternoon.

Yeah, that is rain I can hear on my tent right now. This could be a long 102 miles.

Big news in the Dakotas.

2007-05-05T21:31:00.000-06:00

Tornadoes in Yankton, 1/2 mile from our house.

Looks like the news was even there.

Sounds like our house is fine, but some of the neighbors lost roofs, sheds, and trees.

All that work for 31 seconds.

2007-05-05T21:14:00.000-06:00

I must have spent like 10 minutes pinning numbers on this morning, and I only ended up gaining 31 seconds over the group. The worst part about it, is that I didn't realize TWO of the guys in the break were actually ahead of me in GC, so I gained 31 seconds on the guys farther up, but not the ones I really have a chance of beating. Oh well, 6 seconds off of 9th place now, and it all really means nothing going into tomorrows road race. I love the crit course here, and the wind today made it spectacularly hard. 4th is actually the worst finish I've had here, after taking 2nd in the Cat 4 race in 2004, and 2nd in the Cat 3 race in 2006. The climbs are steep and punchy, just how I like, and the descent is fast, with a super fast, but wide 90 degree corner at the bottom, so you can really lay into it.

Tomorrow's road race won't be so fun for me. LOTS of up and down on the profile, and the thought of 102 miles gets my anxiety flowing. Should be a fun stage though, it'll be interesting to see how the legs hold up after 4 hard days. Hopefully mine will be better than everyone else's.

It looks like I'll be hanging around Silver City for another night after the race tomorrow. I guess it makes more sense than packing up, driving somewhere and setting up camp all over again, and there is no way I'm driving home in one shot. It was fun last year, (McSurf and Turf Deluxes) but I don't think I'd enjoy it as much alone, and with a much later departure time. Thanks for checking in, I'll let you know how tomorrow goes.

Crit

2007-05-05T13:42:00.000-06:00

No rest in the crit. Turned my brain off with 19 laps to go and jumped across to a 4 man break. One guy got dropped out of the break, and I took 4th in the finish. Put some good time into some gc guys though, probaby close to a minute. Taylor Phinney almost bridged alone in the last 4 laps, but ended 20 or 30 seconds behind me/us. Check back later for results.
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Inner Loop Road Race update #2

2007-05-04T19:54:00.000-06:00

3 posts, 1 stage. Beat that Brian.

Results are up, I was 6th, which I knew, lost a minute some to the guys who won today, but still managed to catapult myself up the GC to 10th overall. I think I'm 5:31 back on the lead. I know I won't win this race, but I'd love to hang onto top ten, or better that. We'll see how it plays out. If you're in Silver City tomorrow, look for me at the back of the crit trying to rest.

Inner Loop Road Race update

2007-05-04T15:19:00.000-06:00

Race went well today. I saw two Rio Grande guys attack at the first sprint, and decided it was the move to go with. I jumped across, as well as a few other people, and we rolled together from there. I felt like crap all day, my legs were just tired, but I tried to help as much as I could, and only skipped a few pulls all day. I got popped out of the group around Hanover on the profile, about 5 miles from the finish. I should have shot way up in the GC, I'll update as soon as I see results.

Inner Loop Road Race

2007-05-04T07:20:00.000-06:00

Here we go, wish me luck. I forgot to mention yesterday that I finished 9 minutes off the lead, so now it's time to focus on stage wins, and possibly moving up a little in G.C. Today will either be really good or really bad. Thanks for checking in.

Mogollon Road Race.

2007-05-03T20:50:00.000-06:00

Today's stage was tough on me. The break rolled away really early, and the group just decided to let it roll. They gained time on us quick, a minute every five miles, then all of the sudden it jumped to 6 minutes, then I even heard 11:30 at the last feed zone. I hear it came down to around 7 minute at the base of the climb but still, race is over. Especially since Taylor Phinney was in the break, and he had an amazing TT yesterday.

I rode the final climb a lot smarter than last year, still lost a few minutes to the guys I went into it with. I stuck to my plan though, stayed with the group over the first pitch, doing anything I had to to stay with, spun across the flats before the final ascent, and once we hit that grade, I just put my head down, and focused on riding my own tempo. I finished the climb a spot or two ahead of where I went into it, so I guess my plan worked, just wish I was 10 pounds lighter when the pitch hits 19%.

On a sad note, I went to Subway the first day I was in town and must say, that place has gone way downhill since we were here last year. I stood in line for a good 15-20 minutes, only to find out they were out of EVERYTHING. No honey oat bread, no lettuce, no spinach, no cucumbers, no onions, no banana peppers, and the dude making my sandwich gave me like 2 slices of tomato on a foot long. Seriously, if I can't get anything but tomato and green peppers, you'd think he would at least load it up. Moral of the story, I haven't been back. I've actually been cooking all my own food here at camp. It's a lot easier than loading up and going somewhere, although it makes for less fun stories of Silver City.

Man, I just read through my archives from when I was here last year, and I think I had a lot more to say then. Oh well, I'm alright with being boring. I'm just hoping for good legs and then maybe I'll have some stories to tell after the race.

Maybe I'll get a picture of the tourists from the Netherlands that are camped in our area. The dude always wears short shorts, and a spandex shirt. I guess my description is horrible, but it makes me laugh to look at him. Ha ha. Thanks for checking in, sorry if you read all this... It sucked.

Time Trial

2007-05-02T21:14:00.000-06:00

The weather cleared up, although I believe it was a little windier than last year. My start wasn't until 2:35.30, so I got to kick it around the camp site all morning, drink a full french press, and relax. It started raining again just as I showed up at the TT course, but blew over before I started. Ian Burnett was my 30 second man, just as last year, and since he won it last year, I figured he would be a good rabbit to chase. I held his pace about halfway up the first climb and he then started to creep away. I kept him in my sights, but just focused on getting into my own groove and riding my own race. I felt pretty good I guess, it's a TT so I always feel like I'm about to die. I felt solid the whole way out, although struggled through the roller section by the turn around, but was able to set a nice tempo on the steep climb on the way back, and gave everything I had left on the four mile descent to the finish.

39.25, good enough for 18th place, but 2.56 down on the leader. He won by over a minute, and Taylor Phinney got second even running Junior gears I heard. I didn't know they made them do that even in TT's. Lame. I spun my 55x11 on the way back, I couldn't imagine what would happen with a 52x13 or whatever those kids have to ride. That's all for now, I'm gonna pin my numbers on and hit the sack. Thanks for checking in.

Rain rain, go away.

2007-05-02T08:25:00.000-06:00

There is an awful picture for you. I woke up to rain this morning, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, I love riding in the rain, TT's are even more fun when the weather is miserable. On the other hand, I'm living in a tent right now and I'm totally relying on nature to dry things out for me, as well as give me a place to eat and hang out all day. This tent could get pretty small by 1:00pm when I have to leave for me TT. So far it's pretty off and on, so I'm hoping whatever it is, it'll just blow over.

Curb Appeal.

2007-05-01T21:34:00.000-06:00

So, for those of you who don't know, I'm living in a tent at the Silver City RV Park this week. I know I could have gotten host housing if I'd gotten on it early enough, and I also know that there are hotels in town, but I kind of like my set up here. As long as the weather is alright it's perfect. Today we even had a little rain blow through and it was still a great place to be. To start off, here is my little corner of the yard.

This here is my kitchen, it's where I eat, hang out, read, "surf the net" that's right, wireless internet here at my RV park.

This is the front door of my tent. It is where I enter and exit. It also works as a mudroom. I keep my shoes out here.

The backdoor is a messy area, although it works out well. I use this area as a clothes closet as well as a pantry. This way I can access all my clothes, and food, from both inside or outside the tent and it's all out of the rain.

All in all, it's a pretty nice set-up.

I got in another lap of the TT course this afternoon. I ran into the Einstein's Bagels team out on course and it sounds like they're staying in a repo'd meth house or something that smells like cat urine. I think I'll take my RV park.

Good News.

2007-05-01T08:58:00.000-06:00

I found my camera cord, so if you check back this afternoon, I should have some pictures up. So far I've found that I've forgotten: an extension cord, can opener, rags, sharp knife, cutting board or plate, and most importantly, my headlamp. Oh well, I've made it a day, I'm sure I'll make it a few more.

Yesterday I rode the TT course, it's the same as last year. My legs were definitely feeling the long drive, but I'm hoping they'll feel better today. Today I'm going to pick up my race stuff around noon, then ride the TT course again around the same time as my start for tomorrow. I'm hoping that'll give me some sort of indicator as to what the wind will be doing for the race.

Other people are getting here now too. Ethan and Dawn from Crested Butte are here again, so it's nice to see them. There is another guy with them this year, his name is R.B., and once again we're blessed with a race volunteer. Last year there was a kid that rode on the back of the support moto, this year the new guy will be driving the Cat. 4,5 follow car. Why is it that people who drive across the country to volunteer at a race always seem to be strange?

That's all for now, thanks for checking in. Pictures coming soon.

The City of Silver.

2007-04-30T13:12:00.000-06:00

I just got to Silver City an hour ago, and got my camp all set up. Believe it or not, it's even more plush than last year. I borrowed an air-mattress from Eric on the DU team, and it fills my tent. Plus I have my typical amenities, including but not limited to, sleeping bag, comforter from my bed, pillow, body pillow, electricity, wireless internet, showers, washer and dryer... I guess I almost really screwed up though. The "tent lot" was booked solid for the week of the race, but the nice man at the front desk squeezed an extra spot in for me. I'll try to get some pictures up later, but I'm having trouble locating my cords. Thanks for checking in.

Anyone notice anything funny?

2007-04-26T10:56:00.000-06:00

The infamous pump, the second time around.

Look different?

Different again?

Now I know it was blatantly my fault, but why would everyone use different colors and set ups? Diesel on right, left, or middle?

I propose a change for people like me.

They should all look like this.

When you're an idiot, you're an idiot.

2007-04-21T13:07:00.000-06:00

So I pulled the DF move of a lifetime. Yesterday afternoon, after carrying on about needed diesel fuel, not gas like everyone else's, I drove to a Sinclair station and sure enough, I filled er up with unleaded. Turns out that's a really bad thing to do. After a AAA call and tow a couple hours at the VW place, and a whole bunch of humiliation, I ended up back in Greeley, not in Durango as I should have been.

Many thanks to my lady friend Jami for picking me up in Littleton, and also to Kari for giving me a ride back down this morning.

I hear my car should be done in 15-20 minutes so I will be able to make it to Durango before tomorrow's road race, although I missed watching the DU guys do the TTT and crit tonight. Hopefully this is my last diesel/gasoline mix-up.

Sorry for the lame posts lately and the lack of pictures. I brought my camera along this trip, so if I do ever get on the road, I should be able to get some photos for ya'll.

On a brighter note, I went to Meet The Robinsons last night and it was really good. That's all for now. Thanks for checking in.
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This one is for Colin Don.

2007-04-12T20:05:00.000-06:00

I would've called but you never gave me your number. I'm sitting outside Bruegger's Bagels disgusted. I went to redeem my first free cup of coffee, and guess what... They were out. Out of coffe at 8pm on a Thursday! I went nextdoor to Starbucks just to spite them.

Maybe I should go back in and get the employee's phone number, order a couple pizzas for him.
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Just another not-so-manic Monday.

2007-04-09T13:51:00.001-06:00

No racing for me this weekend. Boulder Roubaix was postponed due to weather which is sort of ironic but it is what it is. Today I'm working a double at the Rio then maybe clean a little at my apartment I had my friends Kodi, Eric, and Lindsey over for pizza yesterday the we went and watched Blades of Glory. It was pretty funny, probably funnier than any of his older movies. Alright I guess that's all I've got. Hopefully this nice weather holds out for a day or two so I can actually go ride in it. Thanks for checking in.
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Mobile blogging?

2007-04-08T14:54:00.000-06:00

Maybe this will be easier.
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so it does work

2007-04-05T12:37:00.000-06:00

I got a blackberry yesterday after it became apparent that my phone wasn't going to make it. The screen hasn't been working for a couple of months now, an recently it quit ringing when people would call. I finally laid it to rest, but not before a heartfelt goodbye and one last toss across my living room.

Right now I'm on lunch break from a CPR / First Aid class in Ft. Collins. I was suppposed to take this class last week, as well as the week before, but it never quite worked out. Today I get to take it all in one big chunk, 8-4! We're halfway done, so the boredom should be over soon. Tonight Rocky Mounts has a team night at Boulder Cycle Sport so that'll be good, even though it's doubtful that I'll buy anything.

OK back to class. Thanks for checking in.

does this work?

2007-04-04T12:32:00.000-06:00

?????

Koppenberg and new car.

2007-04-02T14:56:00.000-06:00

So I guess I ended up 18th yesterday at the Koppenberg Circuit Race. The race went alright for me, and I stayed with the front group until the 5th time up the Koppenberg climb. The chase group never really meshed well, but we kept the gap pretty close the whole time, finishing a minute seven seconds back.

I also got a new car a couple weeks ago. Many of you already know this, but I couldn't post it on here as it was part of my mom's surprise birthday present. She got a new car yesterday, it was waiting in the garage for her when they got back from Maui, but in the process, I traded my Subaru for my dad's old (2005) Passat TDI. I'm loving the new ride, but I must say, it was hard to say goodbye to the Subaru after 5 long years behind it's wheel.

That's all for now, I was on call at the Rio this morning and didn't have to work, so I managed to get a bunch of cleaning and some laundry done. My legs are still waxed, so a little break feels nice. Hopefully there will be some Koppenberg pictures up soon. Thanks for checking in.

Busy Week.

2007-03-28T11:57:00.000-06:00

Monday I worked in the a.m. at the Rio, took a hand washing class in the afternoon, then finally got to sleep a little.

Tuesday I worked all day at the bike shop, then headed down to Denver for a Campagnolo Technical Seminar. I was thinking there would be cool stuff to play with, but I was wrong, it was a PowerPoint presentation with a room full of bike geeks, myself included.

Today/Wednesday I get to ride my bike! Then I have a CPR/First Aid course in Ft. Collins from 6-10:30

Thursday I'll ride in the a.m. then work in the afternoon at the Rio

Friday I work 8-10 a.m. at the Rio, ride in the afternoon, and get ready for the weekend.

Saturday I go to the Lookout Mountain Time Trial all morning, blast over to Boulder/Superior for the famed Koppenburg circuit race.

Sunday brings a crit in Golden, then skills clinic at Campus Cycles in Denver.

A break on Monday would be nice, but I'll be working a double at the Rio!

I'm not complaining, I like having stuff going on, it makes my life feel worthwhile, but sometimes I just want to lay on the couch for a day. Oh well, I guess keeping active is a good thing if I want to be a bike racer, right? Well, I'm going to go pedal my bike around a little. I'm glad this week is a rest week. Hope you're all doing well, yeah Mom, I know you're doing well, you can stop rubbing it in anytime. (My parents are just finishing up their second week of Hawaiian vacation. Can't wait until I turn 50 and get to sit on the beach in paradise for a few weeks.) Thanks for checking in.

Weekend Update with Corey Carlson.

2007-03-25T22:37:00.000-06:00

5th at the Oval Crit today after "racing" in a 5 man field for 29 miles through rain and 40 degree temps yesterday. Today the legs felt good, really good for the first time this year. Unfortunately I turned my head off at the start line, rode like an idiot the first 15 minutes, burning matches like it was no big deal. The latter part of the race I rode better, but ended up using ALOT of energy helping HART pull back a pretty dangerous break. Overall, I'm content with the race, happy with my legs, I'll take the result, but I know I could have done more. Oh well, that's racing. Thanks for checking in, more later hopefully.

Picture of CU Crit.

2007-03-23T11:40:00.000-06:00

This was taken a lap or two before I got blown off the back of this group.

This week so far has been great. As many of you know, it was my birthday on Tuesday. I had a spectacular ride on a spectacular day, then finished the night off celebrating with a few people I work with both at the bike shop, then at the Rio. I spent the whole day Wednesday working and wishing I hadn't celebrated quite so much. I was supposed to serve a wedding rehearsal dinner at 7:00 at the Rio, so I hung out from 5-7, got everything ready, then they didn't show up, so finally at 8 I took everything down, and hoped for a least a few tables to make my night worthwhile, but ended up getting sent home. Oh well, I watched the Avs game for 3 bucks an hour, and they got their wedding cursed with karma like that.

Yesterday I got in a solid 3 hours or more with my friend Brian. We did a lot of tempo and cadence work. It felt good to stress the legs a little, although by the end, Brian was a little upset with the loose gravel and I don't think he'll be riding with my again any time soon. I think I'm going to do openers on the mountain bike today. I've been severely neglecting that bike lately. I don't know why I don't ride it more. I have a blast every time that I get on it, and the trails should be in good shape with all the nice weather we've had lately.

I got one of my best birthday presents this year off of Jon Tarkington's blog this morning. Jon (third wheel in the photo above) is a rider that I respect as much as anyone in Colorado, so it's huge compliment to hear him say nice things about myself.

Well, it's time for me to go ride, I've been putting this off too long. Thanks for checking in.

Happy Birthday.

2007-03-20T10:23:00.000-06:00

To Me.

CU Race Weekend.

2007-03-18T21:14:00.000-06:00

I rode like an idiot yesterday, and according to my power file, apparently couldn't push my pedals that hard on top of turning my brain off.

I felt like I made up for it a little bit today with an 8th place in the road race. The break went and I didn't go with it for a change. I did however get into a good chase with Jon Baker (Vitamin Cottage) and Stefano Barberi (Toyota - United Pro). We chased hard for a lap and a half, then just kept it steady absorbing Jon Tarkington (Vitamin Cottage) and later Blake Caldwell (Slipstream) as the came out of the break. In the finish Baker attacked a few kilometers from the line, and the acceleration popped Caldwell. I tried to jump up to Baker on the climb through the feed zone, but only managed to give Tarkington a good leadout up the hill. It turned out alright I suppose, and I picked up a few more upgrade points which is good.

I'm exhausted and there is some parody show on the Discovery Channel hosted by Mike Rowe. I think I'll go watch it and fall asleep. Thanks for checking in.

Invesco Crit.

2007-03-13T21:12:00.000-06:00