Cycling in Winnesota.

Git r' dun!

2007-03-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lack of updates, the last couple weeks have been very long. I rode for a solid 18 hours last week and am only on about 9 hours so far this week, which ends tomorrow. I've been chased by no less than 20 dogs and almost hit by more than a few disgruntled motorists. I luckily haven't had any flats or crashes since my last two mishaps in the beginning of march. I managed to work in my first set of intervals as well and they felt pretty good. I'll probably throw in another set next week to mix it up.

School has been pretty busy. I auditioned for Music Ed classes and did rather poorly today. I also had three tests this week all of which went really well... I think. Outside of that I've cut my food portions down a great deal to strip off the excess before I hit the intervals hard in about 2 weeks. I've probably got my body fat down to where it was at my peak this past summer but still want to dump off another couple pounds.

I recently picked up this book called Armstrong's War, on sale for $5, and started reading that. Its a really good book and I'd recommend it to anyone, cyclists and non-cyclists alike. Well... what else can I say... I've been ridin'! though probably not enough i've still managed to get out there.....

....have you?

rough beginnings

2007-03-09T17:00:00.000-08:00

I went out for a 40 mile ride with my dad today and about 20 miles outside of town I wrecked hard. I was on my old mountain bike on County road F going about 30 mph and decided to see if I could bunny hop to pressure cracks that were close together. I think I cleared it but landed with the front wheel slightly crooked. I endoed the bike and flew 25 feet hitting my head hard and skidding on my rear end across the pavement. I got up right away and everything seemed to be ok...

I definetely need a new helmet...

...and I don't know how but I injured my foot somehow and busted up some blood veins which caused this nasty blood deposit. I also got some light road rash on my behind but i'm not posting any pictures of that.

The funny thing is yesterday I went out for a ride flatted ten miles outside of town with no spare tube and rode it in on the rim (remarkably I didn't ruin anything) and thought that was bad luck. It could always be worse. Though I'm a little shaken I can't wait to get out and ride again

Slush...

2007-03-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

This is all I have to say about today's ride...

...the bike stopped shifting at about mile 30, I bonked like hell, and I loved every minute of it!

SNOW?!

2007-03-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

Wisconsin totally just got nailed with about two feet of snow! Its really too bad that the Birkie wasn't tomorrow instead of last weekend... it would have been the best its been in ten years!!! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. One thing is for sure....

I won't be using one of these for a while because all that snow.....

Has put a STOP on the cycling season for right now!!!

GET OUT AND..... HAVE A SNOWBALL FIGHT!!!

Birkie + new bike = one hell of a weekend!

2007-02-25T18:50:00.000-08:00

Though the birkie was shortened to 25 km... cause anyone who did it knows it wasn't just 23... I still managed to have a great time. Since times didn't count and it wasn't really a race I decided to ski with my dad the whole way. I raced ahead on most of the hills and waited at the top. It was a great experience to ski with the guy who got me into sports and I know under normal birkie circumstances we would never get to ski together (thus being in different waves). Even though I didn't ski as fast as I could I still managed to get a workout. Skiing is some hard stuff!

On the cycling end of things I didn't ride at all this weekend just because of the ridiculous amount of snow we recieved but official training starts soon... I can't wait!!! I've continued lifting weights and avoiding bad foods as well as hitting the occasional ride. I ordered probably the last Fisher Ziggurat left at the Trek factory and got a smokin' deal on it and that came this weekend....

Who thought a bike could be so gorgeous!!!!

RIDE ON!!!!!

gettin' out there

2007-02-16T12:48:00.000-08:00

Earlier this afternoon I busted out the salt bike...

...bundled up....

....and went out for a short but very cold ride. 14 degrees with 10+ mph winds! I'm lucky to have made it back without freezing my face off. somehow i figure if I can survive this... training should be a piece of cake this year.... right?

RIDE ON!

Just because....

2007-02-11T20:51:00.000-08:00

Today, after work, I went for a short ride around Shell Lake. It was kind of windy but not too bad and about 20 degrees. This is about the coldest temperature that is actually tolerable for riding any real distance (though i have ridden more than 15 miles at about 10 degrees). The unusual weather patterns of late have made it extremely difficult to work out regularly so i've been struggling a little bit. I started lifting weights with some friends just for something to do and to build some core strength to prevent back problems from riding. Other than that I've just been keepin' busy with school and workin' on the weekends.

I recently started working on a vintage Sekai 2500. the bike was made in '77 and is in ok shape. It had a pretty decent layer of grime on it when i got it from sitting around in a garage for WAY too long. I took all the components off the frame, roughly cleaned most of them, repacked the wheel bearings, trued the wheels, ordered some needed parts, and am preparing to repaint the frame. I'm really excited to see how the whole project comes out. I got the bike for free from a friend and shouldn't end up with very much invested in it (besides alot of hardwork) so I really can't go wrong. I'll get some pictures up for sure on the next blog!!!!

GET OUT AND RIDE!!!!!!!!

Slow rollin'.....

2007-02-01T19:49:00.000-08:00

Just last week I decided to get proactive about the poor shape my body is in right now. I've been eating high protein and low calorie foods... I went out running for the first time (its usually too cold for cycling mainly because of the wind).... I also plan to quit drinking until my 21st birthday (which i won't drink after either) THE SEASON IS NEAR... I CAN ALREADY FEEL IT!!!!!!

I went out for a short ride today. It was 14 degrees out and pretty windy. I wore just about all my cycling/skiing gear. All in all it was a nice ride though. My face hurt for about the first 20 minutes but then it went numb and felt much better. hopefully I'll be able to hit some more short rides in the near future before I start actually training for '07 season. I shouldn't have to say this but..... GET OUT AND RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BACK 2 SCHOOL

2007-01-21T20:10:00.000-08:00

After a long an unproductive winter break I just got back to River Falls and snow is everywhere.......and unfortunately that means NO CYCLING!

I skied to high point from OO yesterday. Its disconcerting to know that that will probably be my last time on skis before the Birkebeiner. I luckily made the third wave again and will be skating this year instead of striding... mainly because of lack of prep time and interest in skiing in general.

My spring semester classes start tomorrow.... spring semester.... I like the way that sounds. Spring means melting snow.... birds.... sunny days.... my birthday.... CYCLING!!!! This will be anything but a leisurely semester though. I believe I have either 17 or 18 credits worth of classes. At the end of the semester I have to pass my Upper Divisional playing exam as well.... which is a stressful enough thought in itself. All this considered I plan on riding my bike this year more than ever.... we'll see how I follow through with that.

Outside of all this life is grand. I got a chance to check out UWRF's new $20 million student center today. It is one impressive facility... but the food court there isn't quite as convenient for gathering mass quantities of carb rich Vegeterian cuisine.... which means i'll potentially lose some of this god awful winter weight. At any rate now I'm just rambling.... GET OUT THERE AND..... SKI, RUN, RIDE..... JUST GET OUT THERE..... If all else fails make snowangels in lieu of doing any actual physical excercise!

Night ridin'

2007-01-10T19:00:00.001-08:00

I just got back from my first real night ride of the new '07 season. Jerry Wright, Ron Kay, Chad Sova, and I headed out to the Spooner City Park singletrack. We rode there for about 30-45 minutes before we decided that we were all dressed way too warm. i myself had on a long underwear top, two ski jerseys, tights, windbrief, legwarmers, and a cycling jacket as well as downhill ski gloves. We then headed down the Wild River trail (if thats what its called) and rode Beaver Brook.

Overall it was a great ride. Hopefully i'll continue to ride this week and stay away from all the carb rich foods. GET OUT THERE AND RIDE EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE ARE NO EXCUSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winter Break

2007-01-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

Its been way too long since my last update so I figured I better post something. The end of last semester I was way too busy to ride my bike so I lost a lot of ground. College cafeteria food and cheap beer have taken their tole on me and I've gained no less than 10 lbs. of body fat. I've gotten back on track and have started riding a couple times a week. I also cut down on the bad foods.

What else can I say.... hmmm.... Christmas this year was great! I enjoyed spending some quality time with my family, especially my sister, as well as running into some old friends. I finally got a digital camera so hopefully future blogs will be full of pics.

I'll try to keep the updates less few and far between.... GET OUT AND RIDE EVERYONE!!!!!

Life goes on (on and off the bike)

2006-10-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been CAAAARRRRRRRAAAAAZZZZZZZYYY!!!!! With a whole slew of concerts new developments and even a little bit of riding.

I played my first jazz concert this year last weekend. It went quite well. I didn't feel as solid as i did through much of the rehearsals this year but I'm sure that I most definetely played out more (which is important when you play baritone sax) then i did all last year. I really hit the ground running in jazz this school year and have recieved several comments from friends on the matter. The next Jazz concert will be on Nov. 11th and i will have to play my first improv. solo since high school.

I've been trying to do workouts on the bike. The riding time has definetely been cut down but nonetheless i refuse to give up riding. The important thing for me now is just to try to keep somewhat sharp for IceMan Cometh, coming up the first weekend in November. I found some gorgeous country roads and have been enjoying night rides and the like. There sure are alot of cows around RF area!

Yesterday I bought a brand new horn. Its absolutely gorgeous. Its a Yamaha 875 Custom series alto sax. My own saxophone professor hand picked it from several identical horns at the Yamaha factory when he purchased it ten years ago. I bought it from a former student of his and he sold it to me for a great deal, $2,000.

The symphony band also played a concert last night, as well as one during class on Friday, at which I thought we sounded pretty good. Me and the other bari sax player Mike really locked stuff in and played the whole concert really well, besides one mishap.

Other than that i've been trying to keep decent grades, mostly Bs which are certainly nothing to brag about, and attempting to keep what little social life i now have.

NORBA North Central collegiate mtb championships

2006-10-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

What a crazy weekend. I headed back to Spooner on Friday and went to dinner with my family that night. Then on Saturday, after tuning up my mtn. bike and fixing a road wheel that definetely needed some lovin, we all headed up to Bayfield for Applefest. We only stayed for a few hours and in that period probably all consumed 2000 calories worth of apple junk food. After that me and my dad headed down to RF. We passed by my dorm and headed straight to Pizza Hut. After the 6+ hours in the car we were both feelin' a little cramped. we split a family order of breadsticks and a large veggie lovers pizza, BAD IDEA.

We got up early and headed for Red Wing. We ended up taking some backroads, because of my poor navigational skills, and I found a sweet ride route full of rolling hills hairpin corners and beautiful scenery.
We arrived at the race venue, at Bluff Park in REd Wing, the site of the dreaded MNSCS race that i just about died at earlier this season. I had to pay 10 bucks extra for a day license, which sucked cause my time ended up not counting. We lined up just before 9:00 and off the line DAve, the other RF guy, was gunning it. I stuck with the lead group for as long as I could but the pace was too much. I fell back to about 10th and finished off the first lap, which was hell. The second lap felt much faster, though it was only by 30 seconds, and i passed 3 riders. The third lap i rode almost exclusively alone. I ended up almost catching an Iowa rider on an uphill but he attacked and I couldn't match it. i finished off either 6th or 7th in the collegiate mens A (expert) race. While Dave took 2nd. What else can i say except that it was nice to get some revenge on that awful course for kickin' my ass earlier this year.

randomness... currently having nothing better to do.

2006-09-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

Though the weather in this part of Wisconsin has been less than ideal I've been riding everyday. I've ridden no less than 3 times whilst it was raining and less than 60 degrees fahrenheit. Thus explaining why I was just getting over sickness at chequamegon, no excuse intended, just about everyone was sick for fat tire. I've been doing sprint workouts perscribed by TJ where I start from about 5 mph in the biggest gear i can and try to hit 90 revs. in the least amount of time possible while seated. In combination with these I've also been doing good ol' minute on 2 minute off intervals. OTher than that what can I say..,. oh, completely random, the other day I was out on a night cruise w/ my dual beam night rider mounted to the downtube of my LeMond and I ended up losing the battery into spokes sending me crashing over the top of the bars. I knocked my front wheel way out of true and my shoulder hurts a bit but other than that I survived ok. THat would be my first road crash this season, and with the looks of the riding ahead more than likely not the last, unless I strap that light on better. Anyway hope late season is going well for everyone else. watch out for me next year suckas I'll be flyin', well hopefully anyway.

Chequamegon

2006-09-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

at 10:00 am sharp this morning I was off for another Chequamegon. The road leadout went decent, I didn't lose too much ground. When we hit Rosie's field who did I see other than Frank Lundeen. I tried to follow his wheel for about 1/2 a mile and went down hard on a slick downhill on the birkie trail. The bike came out from under me without warning and i hit the ground chest first. I smashed my right knee into a rock hard and whilst I was sliding caught a glimpse of my bike sliding alongside of me and getting run over by another rider who ended up endoing. I got up as fast as I could and brought my bike off to the side of the trail. My knees and chest hurt so bad i couldn't stand it. As I sat on the ground clutching my knee i pondered whether I would continue. The pain simply wouldn't go away and I didn't think I could walk let alone ride anywhere. I sat on the ground for atleast five minutes, watching my dad pass by and ride into the distance. After losing several hundred places I decided to finish the race. I got back on my bike and rode harder than I have in a long time until i hit double OO. It was at this point that i had worked back up to more experienced riders and was able to draft. I continued to attack and rode from group to group, stopping once on a downhill to unjam my chain from my gears, my hanger is bent from being run over. I caught John five miles from the end and we rode together trading pulls and flying along on the wide open stuff, thanks the help John sorry bout your race. on one of the last uphills in the race I attacked, seeing Ron ahead in the distance, and managed to get a gap on the group I was with. I finished in 2:35:09, so considering the crash I'm not too dissappointed. Congratulations to TJ for 6th and Chad for 10th, oh and to Jesrin for winning the short and fat. to everyone else hope you had a better race than I.

Lucky number 12

2006-09-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated for a while so I figured I'd show some love. I raced the Shell Lake Wisport race today and finished 12th and second in my age group, thats the third road race this season in which I had that same result! 12 is totally my new lucky number. Anyway other than that I'm getting ready to go back to school. I built a winter/late for class bike, its a carbon trek 2120 from the mid 90s, and am bringing that and my lemond to my dorm with me. I haven't ridden very much lately but hopefully when I get back to RF I'll start training again. So... Yeah... For all of my blog readers out there, cause I know I have so many, have an awesome first semester of school, or lack thereof, and good luck training for next season. I'll probably continue to update my blog, maybe even more often, to gloat/complain about riding in RF.

Shipwrecks, Waterfalls, and an epic race! or when is the soonest that the chiropractor can squeeze me in.

2006-08-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

On Friday August 11th me my dad and my mom all headed up to da UP for Ore to Shore. We pulled into the Marquette campground, located conveniently about 2 miles away from the race venue, setup camp and headed over to the spaghetti feed/ registration with our friends Jay Vandervoort and Eric Peterson and his family.

The next morning we headed to the start area early so I could line up in the front row of the non-preferred start. I stood all ready to go when Swiftie and lil' Sova pull in right along side of me. The gun went off and we headed out, everyone was motorin' it too. I dangled on the back of the lead pack and finally fell off about 5 minutes into the race. for most of the rest of the race I tried to stick with some familiar faces. I ended up losing a ton of places midway through because of Severe back pain and almost dropped out, but started feeling better towards the end. I came on real strong in the last 15 miles and ended up taking back some places. overall I ended up 61st just cracking the 3 hour mark and missing a podium in my age group, i was fourth, by a small margin. Next years bike is definetely going to be a fuel, the ol' hardtail's gettin' me.

the day after the race we headed west to the Porcupine Mountains for some campin' with the fam. We met with my sister and her boyfriend Mike as well as Ryan a friend of the family. During our stay I did a few road rides, lots of climbing, and a mountain ride as well. We hiked a bit and swam our fare share as well, all in all a typical Muraski camping trip.

The day after we arrived we hiked in to trap falls, an 11 mile hike round trip, and swam at the falls.

The whole crew of us, except for my mom, rode to the top of the ski hill, looks different w/ no snow.We found a ship wreck off shore in Lake Superior and swam out to it to collect treasure, well hoping to anyway. I found a 50 lb. iron bar and carried it back into shore, nearly drowning. A lady at a local shop told us that the wreck had been there for about 100 years.

All in all I'd say a pretty sweet family vacation. I came home w/ a sore back, two very beaten-up bikes, and a few counterpoint records, nothing like a little Palastrina, never know what you'll find in some old ladies attic. Anyway another chapter brought to a close.

Firehouse 50... and I made it out alive

2006-08-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend helped to really put things in perspective. I realized why I rarely race on the road. I lined up for the big firehouse race behind the 200 preferred start and second wave start riders. I managed to work my way through the madness by the first climb and with use of a little bit of bike handling skill I made it into the front of the pack. Early on I was active in chasing down a few breaks, breaks that were ultimately completely pointless. Most of the rest of the race was spent in the middle of the pack coasting along... until we hit 63. about 5 miles out I kicked it in the ass and got back on the front. I was up in the top 20 or so riders when we crested the final hill and could see grandview below, it was then that I heard it cCCCCRRRRAAAASSSSHSHHH! the riders behind me crashed to the ground.... I never looked back. THe last minute of the race was just like the intervals I've been doing all season... I ended up 12th out of 500 riders, some of them pros. Maybe road racing isn't so bad...

24 hours of nine mile madness!

2006-08-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

It all started on Friday July 27th, 2006, when me and my pops loaded up the F-250 and headed down to Wausau's famous nine mile forest for 24-9. We arrived at the Chequama Mama's 24-9 camp at about 1:30 pm, and shortly thereafter Jerry, Martin, Terry, Jeff, my dad, and I headed out for a nice easy pre-ride in the 95 degree hotness. The course for this year ended up being about 13 miles, strange that they don't call it 24-13, but it was pretty fast rolling. When we got back we all piled into the Super DUty and headed to Wausau mining company for some food and brews. AFter we were all stuffed to our gills we then proceded to wal-mart. We got lost en route and Jeff and I had to ask a hot blonde with a smokin' rack for directions. Jerry bought us all some "salty snacks" to keep the blood sodium level high and from there we headed to the steak and pub bar. AFter that it was back to mama camp where we all hung out for the rest of the night. Everyone was pretty unwound and we were all having a good time BSing, did I mention that there was a keg of Angry Minnow River Pig pale ale. So anyway it was at about midnight when a nasty storm started rolling in. We battened down the hatches and I went to wake my dad up to tell him he should sleep in the truck, my tent isn't the most weather proof.

I awoke the next morning with numerous aches and pains, guess that's what happens when you sleep in the front seat of a pickup all night, and less than 4 hours worth of legitimate sleep. Nonetheless I was still ready to go. I was the first guy to go for my team so I geared up and at 10:00 am I was at the start line raring to go. THe race started off with a 350-400 yard run, which completely killed me. I ended up way towards the back and had to fight my way through all of the slow people when I got on the bike. I ended up catching Billy, whilst he was putting his transponder back on, and he dropped me just a few minutes later, and then shortly before the trade off I caught him again. Paul was next on the bike for my team, and after him Kurt, Mike and then me again. I rested my legs well and when it was time for me to go again I was ready. Billy and me were both supposed to head out within a few minutes of each other and we were both gunning for sub-hour lap times. I ended up finishing my lap in 1:01:39.7, BIlly's about the same, which ended up being my fastest lap and the fastest overall lap in sport categorie. My next lap wasn't quite as fast. I had a slow transition because I took my light battery off realizing that I didn't need it. I got held up by some chick in the singletrack who wouldn't let me pass too. My lap ended up at a 1:02 which is ok considering. I headed back to mama camp mildly disappointed and slightly tired. I hung what was my second pair of shorts out to dry, which was pointless because the humidity was so high that nothing ever dried out, and cleared a spot in the bed of the ol' super duty to lay down and stretch my back. Kurt and Mike were alternating back to back night laps so I had a few hours to rest.

I awoke from my semi-conscious state just in time to head out for my first night lap. Everything was going dec until the I got passed by the first and only person the entire race in the singletrack and crashed to the ground. I couldn't get my foot out of my pedal. I forcefully removed myself from the 520s and jumped back on the bike, only to find I couldn't get back into the pedal. after about a mile of frustrated angry riding, and a few shin bashes later, I hopped off the bike took out my multi tool and loosened the remaining cleat bolt just enough to move the angled cleat back to center. I knew that once in I would no longer be able to release myself from the pedal. I rode the rest of the lap in anger and finished with a time of 1:11. The next lap started off much better. I went out at about 4:30 am it was chilly in the woods and there were less people to pass out there for some reason. about half way into the lap I started feeling weak, and I realized that I had no fuel w/ me. I knew I had forgotten something, but I just kept pushing through hoping to catch a second wind. In an open section of fire lane about half way through the course I felt the temperature drop 10 degrees in a matter of seconds and saw lightning off in the distance. I knew then that a storm was rolling in. It was that and nothing else that motivated me to pick up the pace. It ended up pouring for the rest of my lap. We're talking complete downpour, the trail looked like a freakin' river, but I made it in ok. You haven't lived until you've raced your bike at 5:00 am in a complete downpour with only a handlebar mount headlamp. When I arrived in the transition everyone was waiting cause the officials wouldn't let us out on the course. I just managed to squeek past the remaing aid stations before they started pulling riders off the course.

Back at camp I rested up and dried off, knowing that I would end up doing a sixth lap. Some dude drove by our camp and said that the race was cancelled shortly thereafter I discovered that the race was infact still on. Kurt geared up to take the next lap after paul's return. Before he got in from his lap they decided to call the race and revert times back to the 5:30 am point. meaning that paul's, kurt's, nor my final laps would count.

We ended up with a podium finish in sport class, thus meaning that I have only competed in one race this summer in which I didn't go home with some sort of award. I slept all the way home from Wausau and as soon as the truck was unloaded I slept through until the next morning, not including the calorie load that happened at about 9:30pm.

Wors #... whos counting anyway?

2006-07-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend me and my dad loaded up the Super Duty and headed to Philips for the Dirtfighter classic. I managed to get in a decent warm-up with Chadly, Chase, and John and made sure to ingest plenty of fluids pre-race. I lined up to the start next to chase and we were both totally pumped. I ended up sitting back about 10 riders for the start of the mile or so of road leadout. When we hit the dirt I got on the front until we hit the first singletrack. I got knocked down by another rider and had to run up the hill. I ended up tagging a rock with my foot, not my pedal, and my big toe on my left foot is all black. The rest of the race panned out to be pretty normal. I fell back a ways on the first two laps. I passed chase walking his bike alongside the trail. I saw John hanging out trailside in his chamois cheering all of us on. The third lap I sped things up a bit realizing that I was riding way to slowly, and the fourth lap I picked it up quit a bit more. I ended up with another age class award and a little piece of mind. It feels good to finally come out of the awful rut that I've been experiencing lately, though my results this weekend were far form spectacular.

THis upcoming weekend I'll be heading down to do 24-9 with Paul, Curt, and Mike. I just bought everything I could possibly need from the shop and am pretty much ready to roll. I'm sure it won't be as exciting when I have to wake up at 3:00am to go ride my bike, but thats just how it goes. Anyway good luck to all the other racers!

Ridin' Dirty

2006-07-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one hell of a crazy day. Chase took in a customers bike at the shop and as payment he brought Chase and I a six pack of pabst blue ribbon. Not to mention a drunk came in and I fixed his tire for him, no charge, had to get him outta there cause I was getting drunk just from the smell. After a long day at work Chad and Chase worked on Mark's bike while I sipped away at a PBR. Mark ended up with no front brake and a friction shifter in the front.

When I got home from work I was totally pumped to ride. I listened to ridin' dirty no less than 10 times. I threw my light on my bike, tuned up my dads bike and took off for the park. We had a pretty good turn out. Some Rice Lake boys showed up, Gerry Wright, Russ Trip, Sovas, Ron, my dad, and Mark. We were all ready to ride. We took off through the park at about 9:30, Ron showed up late, just givin' you shit Ron. We ended up doing the time trial course. I lead the train, making periodical stops so that everyone could catch up. When we got to the pit we all turned off our lights and hid. CHad jumped out of the bushes and tried, unsuccessfully, to scare Russ. CHase rode ahead and waited behind a tree. He yelled at me and jumped out into the trail and I screamed like a little girl. It was pretty funny. CHase led through the last section of singletrack, which is good cause I would have missed that same turn I missed in the TT. when we hit the fence line the RL boys took off. CHase and I decided to chase them down and it ended up as a sprint to the end.

AFter the ride was over we played bike games. They were alot of fun, we probably spent more time screwing around then riding. We finished the ride off with the fastest five, which was totally sweet at night!

I ended up tagging my eggbeaters on a rock and totally bent the shit out of the drive side one.

Gangrene

2006-07-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

No more than a few days ago I had a wort removed from my ankle. A few hours after it was frozen it blistered into a semispherical water blister about the diameter of a nickel. I carefully, and painlessly, removed the surrounding skin and was that ever a mistake. It is now a black void above my left ankle, and the kicker is it hurts more to walk than to ride my bike.

I did intervals tonight. A full set of 5 minute on 2 minutes off intervals, and then I quit 2 into the second set. THe last interval was INSANE! I couldn't possibly in my wildest dreams push the pedals over harder, and after I finished I got a sideache, I know your probably thinking wtf, so bad that I almost started to cry. the ankle didn't slow me down at all.

Anyway in closing I'll leave you with this. Hincapie is going to rock the shit out of tomorrow's TT, and Watch out for the Boonenman in stage 8! McEWen has gotta get frickin' tired someday here.

Wors #5

2006-07-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

The race started out on a dusty fireroad leadout. I sat 3rd wheel behind John Beck and Mitch Gantz up until the singletrack they started gapping me and a rider pulled around and I followed his wheel as we closed the gap. I was winding through the trees of the singletrack when all of a sudden I got slammed to the ground. i got back up and was passed by a whole crew of riders, out of lack of caring I didn't cut any of them off to get back in, after that I just couldn't get back into it. I ended up quitting the race, with a nasty cut on my hand as a lame excuse. Truth is it was just not my day, but I still wish I wouldn't have quit. When I claimed that it was just too hot out there i think that Ron said it best when he said, "join the club." Everybody had a hard day out there, for most a harder day than mine. Congratulations to Johnny Beck for an awesome ride! Thanks to Chad, Chase, TJ, Mark, and John for letting me hang with you dudes this weekend. I should've just sucked it up like that dude from "Hills Have EYEs." He totally hucked all over those inbreds.

Night Ride at the park

2006-07-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

Just to let all of the people that read my blog, which probably isn't many, know I'm hosting a night ride on Monday July 10th at Spooner city park. We will be meeting in the parking lot of the elementary school, same spot as the time trials, at 9:00 pm sharp. Everyone that has a light should bring one. We will do 1-2 laps through the time trial course and do the fastest five through town afterward, so bring taillights. Anyway hope to see everyone there!

WORS #4 Kewaunee

2006-06-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

This Saturday Chase, Jesrin and I left after I got off of work at good ol' Riverbrook to head down to Kewaunee for XC #4. We picked up Chadley and John Beck in Eau CLaire and managed to cram 4 bikes, CHad's bike being escorted to the race by Ron, on the back of the Trailblazer. We stayed over night at a Super 8 and crammed 5 guys, 4 bikes, and our gear into one hotel room. We ended up going to bed at about 1:00 am after shootin' the shit for a while.

The next morning we awoke to a light rainstorm. We loaded our bikes onto the car, checked out of the hotel, and headed on over to Denny's. The line at Denny's was long so when I put our name in I said I had no preference whether to sit in smoking or non smoking, Boy was I ever wrong! After about five minutes we could stand it no long so we demanded to sit in the non smoking section. AFter our hearty breakfast we headed to the race. We got to the race just in time to see the sport riders coming in all caked with mud. It was an ugly sight. I was worried cause the only tires I had with were my pythons and they would have sucked had it not dried up.

I ended up lining up in the second row and was smart enough this race to get to the front immediately. I sat about 5th wheel just 2 positions behind Johnny for 3/4 of the first lap. Everything was going great until my seat clamp slipped and my seat angled upward about 2 inches. AFter that it was all downhill. I missed the turn for the second lap and lost about 20 seconds. I had already given up but just wanted to finish at this point. On the second lap I crashed on a downhill and took down 2 other riders. I had so much hay in my cassette from the crash that I was skipping in my high gears. I just kind of cruised through the last two laps and ended up finishing 15th overall, another 4th in my age group. CHad had a good race in the ELite finishing 3rd overall, Jesrin finished 4th, AWESOME JOB JES, and CHase finished his first Elite race, you'll be killing em' in the future man.

Frederic Road Race

2006-06-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

When me and my dad pulled into the parking lot of the Frederic high school I was in schock from all of the bling bling that I saw. There were no less than 4 Cervelo p3 carbon time trial bikes rolling around the start area. I was certainly glad not to be doing the time trial. Anyway It was 46 degrees out when the race started so I was all bundled up in arm warmers and knee warmers. My backside was still a little sore from riding all this week but other than that I was ready to go. I lined up towards the front and the pace started off realy easy. after less than a mile the attacks started to come though. Two guys from Grand Performance broke before the ten mile mark and no one dared chase them down. There were many other attempts but none were successful. I was active in chasing down just about every break and ended up towing the pack quite a few times, a new experience for me. I got sandwiched inbetween two riders at about mile 20 and almost went down. I was blown out of my pedal but amazingly recovered. Apparently a few riders went down at about mile 30 and were taken away in an ambulance. I was out of harms way toward the front of the pack when it happened. A grand performance rider on a $6,000 Orbea with zipp wheels broke off solo at about mile 25 and I chased him down. He told me to pull through but I barely had any legs left so the pack caught us before we really had a chance. I stayed toward the front of the pack for the rest of the race. One of the last climbs left me a little short of breath and I lost about 10 positions. Before I knew it I could see the finish and was unable to break through the pakc. I managed to pull off of the side and sprint in for a 12th place overall and a second in my age category. If I had payed better attention I could have dusted most of those punks, but thats road racing I guess. I learned something today, it ain't the cost of your bike that determines how fast you are its how big your motor is. Just because you have the equipment doesn't mean that you have the engine!

Superior to Point 6-7 to 6-8-06

2006-06-09T17:13:00.001-07:00

As some people may already know I recently rode my bike from Superior to Stevens Point for a Special Olympics benefit. I started out in Superior at about 6:20 in the am with a slight tailwind on a chilly 50 degree morning. Me and my pops averaged 20.4 up until trego, we rode along the interstate with a squad car behind us, where we picked up some other riders. From Trego to Spooner we averaged about 8 miles an hour with the non-bikers and after fueling up our bodies at Kwik Tripp headed off for the remaing 80 some miles of our trip. The expansion cracks in the road on the way to Rice Lake were enough to drive us mad. We made a few pit stops along the way but it was a pretty uneventful day. I put a gash in the face of my front tire about 20 miles outside of Eau Claire and changed it in under 2 min. by hand including pumping it up. When we got into EC after about 8 hours of ride time we were tanked. The worse thing was the sunburn. We both felt fine until about twenty minutes after we were off the bikes when we started to turn into lobsters. Atleast our skin color matched our paint jobs well. 8 hours in the saddle couldn't have gone smooother.

After a good nights rest in Elmers campground me my dad and a straggler we managed to meet up with that morning, Jeff Lorenze, took off at about 6:20 for point. I had a hard time getting back into a groove on the bike and it took me an honest 2 hours to feel better. We took backroads the whole way and along the route about 25 miles out we stopped at Grunewald's general store and my dad begged a cup of coffee, made in his own kitchen, off of old Grunewald. We bought a box of oatmeal squares that probably had sat there for a whole year for a dollar and ate all six of them in one sitting. After that we were off again until we stopped for lunch in Amish country at a kwik tripp in greenwood with no less than three hitching posts, each with its own horse and buggy. We didn't see any Amish riding bikes though incase chad and chase are wondering. The tempo was really easy for the whole rest of the ride and we continually slowed down, Jeff hadyet to pop his century cherry. I even sprinted a few times out of boredom. My butt hurt worse than anything and my sunburn had only worsened. My left leg had swelled up where it burned to about an extra 1/2 inch in diameter and it hurt like a mother!