MO State Road Race

This is the happiest I was all day.

reinstating the obvious

In the last couple weeks I went to Tulsa, and now I'm in the car on our way back Columbia and the Rhetts Run xc mtb race.

News flash, I can't take a flat sprint and I can't ride a cross-country race.

Tulsa wasn't all bad. I made some mistakes especially on the first night when I let the winning solo move just get away and when I was in no-mans-land I just sat up and let the pack catch us because I didn't like the guys in my break. I should have attacked again to get across, I was flatter than water on saturday, but on Sunday I made some legs hurt. I pounded it up the climb every chance I got and I got some prime money out of my efforts and I rounded out the top 10.

Today I did the Expert race at Rhetts Run because I didn't think a result in the sport race was worth anything. I ate it twice in the first 400 meters, but I kind of expected that with it starting with a downhill. I had all but thrown in the towel, but when I hammered it up the climbs I could see riders from my race, so I started to pick up the pace and just as I was feeling good my wheels washed out from under me on a greasy log bunny-hop. Landed on my shoulder fairly hard and its still sore. I'll put in some efforts this week and get ready for Winghaven. The MO state road race is a possibility for me. We'll see.

Pardon my spelling I did this update in my mom's car from my Pre.

Wheels over Wildwood

I'm finally updating this thing. I came very close to deleting it, but I decided to not crush it, instead I'm restoring it...again.

I'm not going to talk about what went on in the past 4 months because I don't feel like typing it all.

However, I will recap the weekend's happenings. I decided to skip out on Quad Cities. I was not registered for the snake, I didn't want to start last row, and I needed to work on Monday leaving little-to-zero time for travel to and from Iowa. Instead I raced here in the St. Louis region. We had a 20k TT on Saturday and a crit/circuit race on Sunday, plus an omnium for both.
I had zero knowledge or experience on the TT course Saturday, and frankly I was nervous. I rode twice in the week before, but I felt strong doing some openers on Friday. Plenty of rest means good legs right?
I got in a solid warm-up out on the road, and I waited my turn in the start line. Justin pulled through and let me borrow his new 808 front, thanks again. I felt fast, I looked fast, now I just needed to go fast.The course was twisty with shade in spots and I nailed it. I cut every apex of every corner, keeping the tightest of tucks. I crossed the line knowing what Shawn had gone in and I thought he had beaten me by 40 seconds, but apparently I was quite wrong and I beat him by 10 seconds. I topped 2nd place by a mere 1.5 seconds. I know the aero front and the handling skills made that extra second. It felt good to finally get a W.

The following day was the crit and the conclusion of the omnium for the weekend. I knew I was leading and I wanted to keep it. I marked my guys and had some help in the field. Everything came back and I was fresh for the sprint...wait...oh yea that thing we didn't really do AT ALL. I totally screwed this up. We came through the final round-about on the last lap and I knew that we had gone faster the lap before, but I sat, and sat, and sat in until someone else jumped then I had to close ground. Why did I not just jump before the round-about? Good question. Hopefully, Tulsa will be as easy as that crit, but I'm not counting on it. Anyway, I got 6th, coulda-woulda-shoulda won, but I get 3 more shots this week, and I won the omnium. I'll try to update every day, but I think we all know how that goes.

For any Ricky Bobby fan

Tour of California: Stage 3 - TJ's Gloves from j. dunn on Vimeo.

I did steal this from Embrocation's blog, but only because I thought it was too funny. Especially since TJ knows he's about to start 4+ hours in the miserable rain, and he's still in great spirits. Great guy. Plus, he's sponsored by Red Bull, which I view as pretty pimp since its typically the x games types getting those contracts.
I'm just jealous he gets a sick flat bill for the podium. Maybe we could make something dope for CSU with the Specialized logo, for those money shots? ....yes I did just use as many snowboarder-esque terms as I could

there was more than one winner today...

Mark "Sprint Ace" Cavendish, wins most pro looking with suuuper low bars, kinda wide extensions, and a hypnotic disc


No surprise here, but Rock Racing gets most absurd looking in every aspect


BMC gets best TT bikes, if not for the Flat White/Black, then for the siiick DT Swiss Wheels, or for that dank crank. (yes I rhymed on purpose)


Levi's bike wins second ugliest TT bike (Rock was first). Good Cali idea, poor execution. A bit more colors would have drastically helped, less yellow please.


Another shocker, Lance was given the "Most Courageous Rider Award". Shouldn't that have gone to a guy who was coming back against the odds, and wills of every anti-doping advocate, then crashed on Thursday, but still finished within 30 seconds of the Olympic Champ? I do admire Lance, and I do recognize him as the best Tour de France racer ever, but I believe he got this award because the promoters wanted to put Lance on the podium, and that's unfair to everyone involved. I'm sure he felt that others may deserve that award over him too, for other reasons that some of us may never know.

Look out for Stybar

I may have to make a slight change in my Word's picks. Zdeneck Stybar seems to be a much larger threat than I thought, even after Diegem.
I'm only saying this after seeing the motor pacing documentation. On a dry (or frozen) day, I think he could take the bands.

well...at least its colorful

but I think there may be a bit too much going on here.

I like sram, I like Fizik, and I love Jelly Beans. Somehow when you add that all together it seems a bit much. Regular Zipp wheels would help to balance out the overload of graphics, I think.