TAKEN!!!!!

Well the weekend was going to be an epic one. The weather was going to be phenomenal, rides with Boni, Doug, and Felix were planned. I was going to be buying a new car on Fri. I was finally going to be practical and economical. I decided to get a used Honda Accord, not only to save on gas mileage and wear and tear on the Tundra, but also to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible. I found a great used car from a retiree in Denver. Only 71k miles, and immaculate. I took it for a test drive and everything looked great. The seller was in town for the weekend for his son's wedding. He lives in CA and CO partime. The accord was his CO car. So I offered him to use the car through the weekend for his sons wedding. He refused to take the cash, so I left with the intentions of receiving the car on Monday, no biggie!! Here is where everything fell apart. I drove the 2 blocks to Doug's house to meet up with him to go ride my first ever ride at Buff Creek. I was excited!!!!!! We were taking Doug's Element to save gas on the drive up, so I loaded my belongings into his car and off we were. We'll I didn't leave the cash (6500.00) in my truck as I didn't trust it in Doug's alley (previous problems). I figured safe in Pine, CO, right??? WRONG!!!!!! We got back from our 2.5 hr ride and someone smashed Doug's window in and took everything. When I say Everything, I mean EVERYTHING!!!!! I am still painfully compiling the list, but every CoMo kit that I owned for the past 2 years is gone, EVERY bike tool I own was in my tool bag, also GONE, wallet, cell phone, car keys, Watch, Sunglasses, Yeti Hoody, etc, etc, etc. Total so far is just over $15k, that is just what I lost!!!!! So as I am pissed at the world, I realize I will make more money, I can replace ALMOST everything that was stolen except the cash. I am more pissed about the time those ASSHOLE's took out of my life. Hours in Wells Fargo on Sat, Hrs on the phone trying to straighten my life out again. Not to mention I have never had a pleasurable experience at a DMV office, Looking forward to that enlightening event tomorrow! Also, they got to have a 1600.00 shopping spree on my credit card before I could drive back to Denver and find a phone to cancel it. So someone has a nice new something for 989.00 from Best Buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least they didn't ID me at the bar last night, because I might have ripped someones head off!!!!!!! Hope everyone else had a better weekend!!!! By the way if you see some Mexicans rolling in some CoMo kits or a Yeti Hoody, whoop their ASSES for me please!!!!!!!!!!!

Killer Tomato!!!!

I was attacked!!!!!!! That's the only thing I can think of. After work on Thursday, I bucked up and dressed warm to go and preride the Teva Mtn Games course in Vail in the rain. Getting pumped for what turned out to be a pretty brutal race on Sat. They had to reroute the course because of the record snowfall this winter, but somehow maintain about the same amt. of climbing in less distance. Go Figure!!!! Anyway, getting myself mentally prepared to race on sat, I worked Fri am, then went home to cut the grass. I started getting light headed and decided to head in to eat something. Things quickly turned for the worse. I found myself in the fetal position around 3:00 Friday afternoon. Woke up about 8:30, was able to choke down some food and TONS of fluids, took some Tylenol PM, and next thing I knew it was Sat AM. Needless to say, I wasn't able to race on Sat. I would have had to have a Porta Shitter every 1/4 mile on course just to finish a lap. I had a sandwich for lunch on Thurs, from the cafeteria at Vail Valley Med. Center, and all I can think was I got a good case of the Tomato Salmonella that is going around. I was able to get a ride in on Sun, with a jersey full of TP, but felt better. Now it's Tues, and I think I am on the mend, I feel good and things are starting to solidify a bit!!! Sorry if anyone is eating lunch reading this........ Missed out on a great training race on Sat, but I will hopefully be ready for the Butte! STAY AWAY FROM TOMATO'S!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wake up Call..... Enough is Enough!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright, I can't do it anymore. I can't fake this bike racing thing. Either I need to buck up and put in the training amt that I need to to compete in the expert class, or designate myself as the official trailer hauler/keg tapper. I am sick of this shitty weather, and I cannot use that as an excuse anymore. I hurt the back last week in the gym, and that is finally starting to feel better. The new Yeti is here and built, so I really have no excuses. I have officially thrown my scale against the wall becasue it continues to lie to me........ So enough said, it's GAME TIME! Next race is Crested Butte June 20-22, so that gives me a little over a month to get as close to race shape as possible and see how it goes. Stay Tuned....... I will document this block of training if I can catch my breath enough to take a steady shot with the camera. OUT!

Afterall I could do this with my freetime on the weekends!

TCTC 2008................ A Success!

Training Camp 2008 is in the books, and I haven't been to any others, but the weather was great, the riding awesome, and the group was amazing! I think all in all we had 25 people camping in the high desert in Fruita, CO. I headed over Thurs afternoon, and people started trickling in that evening. After the 4 days, we had roughly 13hrs on the bikes, and I think we might have seen 1 cloud all weekend. Here are some pics, thanks to everyone that came and pitched in, I had a great time, and Maya and Kenzi are still sleeping!

One of the many sunsets and sunrises we enjoyed!

Sunset on the Book Cliffs and the IMBA mobile.

Got windy at night, so we moved into the camper. Let me tell ya, this was one wicked game of BULLSHIT! Doesn't Illes look like he's up to something?????????

Another thanks is due for Pudge and Autumn Schultz for hosting the team dinner at their house Sat night. Not an easy task to feed 20 hungry cyclists. Autumn pulled it off, and the lasagna was great. THANKS GUYS!!!!!

After all the great riding, joking, drinking, and hanging out, we all went home with smiles on our faces, dog tired!

SEE EVERYONE IN FRUITA!!!!! Its time for #6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks everyone!

Training Camp Update!

Well, I've got some news, not sure if its good or bad, but here goes. After an interesting drive into the mtns on early Sat morning with Juth and Boni following, the trailer is in Grand Junction, and ready for the kegs to be cracked for training camp. The roads were a little slick, but no issues. We finally rolled into GJ around noonish, grabed some lunch at Pudge's house, and off to the trails we went. We headed to Loma to ride the Koko loops, becuase we knew they were in good conditon and rideable. We were not dissapointed, we rode Mary's, Rustler, Horsethiefs, Steves, Lyons, and all the way back on Mary's. 30miles, 3000+ ft, and a little over 3 hrs of ride time. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! Trails were prime, and there wasn;t a whole lot of people. So for TC, Loma is a definate. Sunday morning we got up and made some breakfast and chilled until the mercury climbed above 30deg. Then we headed out on the Reeder Mesa road ride.
I had to jet out early, but I logged just over 2 hrs and 40 miles, and I didn;t see 1/2 of what was possible. Definately going to have to be done with the team one day. Now for the bad news. The crew headed out to Rabbit Valley last night to get another little ride in, and found it to be VERY muddy on the TT course. A lot of it wasn;t rideable still. 18rd is still muddy as well, but s hould be good by this weekend if we don;t get anymore moisture. We are still planning on camping at 18rd, stay tuned for updates as the week progresses. Suppose to be in the 50's and sun all week in GJ, so we'll definately get some good miles in. Any questions, email me, otherwise we will see everyone on Thurs or Fri. Drive Safe.

Training Camp Update

WOW, it's been a while since I have communicated to the world through the blog. I would have had this done an hour ago, but it took me that long to figure out my user name and password. Anyway, while winters death grip is slowly letting up on us in Western CO, TCTC is quickly approaching. This will be the official place for up to date info on Training Camp. Here is the latest skinny on the fat. Road riding in Grand Junction is stellar right now. Mid 50's during the day, and sunny. Roads are dry, so the miles could be endless. However, if any of you are like me, I could care less if I sit my ass on my road bike saddle for a long time to come. After all, we do race the fatter tires! So, here is my take on the Mtn scene in GJ, as told through Ryan (aka. Pudge) Schultz. Isn't it nice we have a bubba and a pudge on the same team???? Anyway, riding around Loma (Mary's) is in great shape, few muddy spots last weekend, but should be fantastic by the time we get there. 18 rd????? That's a different story. As of last weekend, 18rd wasn't even passable. You weren't even able to get to the trail head because the road was so muddy. That being said, It should be good to go by this time next week. Few showers in the forecast for this weekend, but then back sunny and 50's all next week. For those of you that are not familiar with GJ riding, it can pour there for 5 hours, and be dry and ready to ride in another hour. So as long as the ground has soaked up everything this past week, this weekends shit show shouldn't be an issue. However, just to be sure Juth, Boni, Pudge, and Myself are going to play in the rain all weekend in Fruita to do some riding. If anyone else would like to join, feel free. I can provide lodging, and the hot tub is always HOT! So there will be a full detailed report of the riding conditions on Sun night or Mon morn. Check Back. Also, I am waiting for direction from TC as to what types of rides he is planning. I will post as soon as I receive. Word to the wise, BRING BOTH BIKES (of course that is if you have 2). I got you covered Catherine! Team trailer is heading up to the mtns on Sat with me, and I will have it all set up and ready for us on Thursday. If anyone want to put anything in it before it heads up, call or email me before Sat. Yes Bubba, the beer will be cold and flowing by the time you get there, unless you show up with one of those fancy new ASR-C's!!!!!!! Oh, one more thing. About 18rd, if that doesn't open up for us, we are in search of plan B for camping. I am sure I will find something, I have some feelers out right now. Stay tuned. Hope all is well, and I sure hope everyone is getting A LOT more riding in than I am (Wouldn't take much). The end is in sight, days are getting longer, and weather is getting nicer! email me with any questions.

D-U-N!

DONE, FINISHED, OVER IT!!!!!!

That pretty much sums up how I am feeling right now. The Iceman Cometh Challenge was this past weekend in Traverse City, MI. Yah, Yah, I know why the heck am I still riding my bike, much less racing it in the middle of November in Michigan? I still try to figure that out every year as the leaves start to fall along with the temps. End of October comes, and its hard to mentally stay on your game for another 3 weeks to stay/get prepared for what could happen with Midwest weather. I think I wore out my refresh button on my computer, between trying to buy those damn Rockies World Series tickets, and trying to make the weather channel page dude give me a better forecast. I have said it over and over, I can ride in the cold! No problem, I can dress for that, but add precip and wind, and I curl up like a little baby! So the day finally arrived this past Saturday, and mother nature actually decided to let the sun come out one last time before it permanently hibernates til early May. Temps were in the 20's while warming up, but no wind and no rain/snow, so I wasn't complaining. I had one more hurdle to figure out now, the bike...... The Bike you ask..... Well, stupid me decides to buy a new bike from a buddy's shop in MI. No biggie right? Wrong!!! I wasn't able to actually even see it until the day before the race much less even ride it. So I got a 45 minute preride on Friday on it, and it was time to race it. Once again, just a stupid bike, you ride them all the time you say. Yah, well this happen to be a hardtail (which I am not used to) and a 29'er. Which means the wheels are 3in larger than a normal bike. So Geometry, Handling, etc.... are all different. Actually I can't complain anymore, the bike felt great, and it was definitely fast. My back is still tight from it, but My massage on Fri should take care of that.

26 degrees at the start!!! BRRR!! I did warm up in the down vest too!

Starting to lose some more layers...

We had a big wave. Expert Men were the first group off at 9:30am. Pudge and I got a great spot right up front for the start. There were over 120 riders behind us. Unfortunately that didn't last too long. We got past pretty quickly.

It's almost go time...... Losing more layers.

It was a good race, the fields were super stacked this year, and I think when all the Pro/Elite riders heard that the likes of Ned Overend, JHK, Ross Schnell to name a few were gonna show up, I think some people downgraded to be competitive. I was super happy with my time. I cut 11 mins off of last year. My time this year would have put me 2nd in mens expert, but the competition was fierce and I ended up 8th. Kinda disappointing, but I felt good out there and that's a good way to end the season.! Good trip back to MI. Everyone had fun. Here are some more pics to enjoy.

Williamsburg Road Crossing. 16 miles into the race, still with the 2nd pack. Sitting right where I wanted to be, about 2 mins off the lead pack.

Coming into the finish, trying to find anything left in the legs. Trust me there wasn't much if any!

I was pretty happy to see that banner. Race was obviously over, but so is the season. It has been a long one. On the bike since 2nd week of Jan, total of 18 races, many many training miles, many good times. Let it Snow!!!!!!

Pudge and I are still smiling at the finish!

Joanna's Cousins came up from Kalamazoo to see everyone too. (Joanna, Paige, & Meg)