Are You Living It?

Every year I have a weekend of racing cyclocross where I rethink my whole cyclocross agenda.  Sometimes I have a hard time getting motivated when it is 40 degrees out and pouring rain.  I am in Toronto right now for some UCI C1 races and the weather has been a bit off.  It was gorgeous all day until about 2:45.  Our race started at 3:00. Thanks mother nature.  It was cold, and the UCI officials were measuring our cross bikes? What for? They do that for time trials, but cross races? Anyone have some insight here.  I think ALL cross bikes are going to be over the weight limit, if not, the bike would snap like a twig.  It was a bit strange.

So much has been happeningin the past month.  I have been completely missing in action from posting updates. Taking a little bit of a break before jumping back into it full on.  Right now I am juggling my Cyclocross season, trying to get on a road team for next season, and then the thought of actually hanging it up.

Matts the one you see quite a bit of in the first minute of action.  Hes in the white shorts and jersey with the royal blue trim.  Great job Matt!!!! Your bigtime!!!

I have not missed a day off the mountain bike for the last 2 weeks. Most of my rides have been super easy and fun. I did do the local short track and got throttled. Those are flippin hard! My lungs were bleeding and I had an Asthma attack.
Heading into the high country tomorrow.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I am in Aspen, Colorado at the moment were the Fall colors are already blazing. The temperatures are much cooler with rain and even some snow last night on the top of the mountains.

Maybe a visit back to the Tetons this fall is in order for a recharge

The last couple races have not been much to write about.  No excuses, just creeping right now.  That is what happens when you try to hold good form for too long. At some point, you have to hit the reset button and do some serious rest, followed by some good training.  I have been resting after races and training, but no real good blocks of rest followed with a hard long block.

Here we are once again in Greenville readying for one of the last races of the season.  The racing season has flown by again.  It feels like we were just here racing our brains out to get Neil on the podium.  Just a few more weeks of racing left in the road season before making the transition to Cyclocross for some of us and the rest will do their off season thing.

The Tour of Utah will begin next week on Wednesday, the 13th.  It is going to be a very difficult race with the higher altitude and the hot dry heat.  It has been reaching the mid to upper 90’s each day for the past month.  Growing up in the West, I can say that I am used to this kind of heat, but haven’t raced in it much lately.  This race is going to favor the riders that are good climber’s at altitude on long climbs.  The second stage has over 10,000 feet of climbing in it and will be the first real shake up in the overall.  Then the last two stages, stage 4 and 5 will surely decide the winner.  Stage 4 has nearly 15,000 feet of climbing.  Follow that with a flat windy time trial the next day and it should be an good exciting race.

Out here in Chicago area at the Tour of Elk Grove.  I went down in the road race doing about 50kph. Somehow I didn’t even get a scratch on me.  A few bumps and bruises along with some stiff muscles, that’s it.  Lucky!  I landed on top of the Inferno guy that overlapped wheels with Ivan Dominguez. As I was watching it happen I knew it was going to be close.  At first I thought I could shut it down and avoid him, instead I landed on top of his bike and I think that is what saved me. My bike was tangled in his and fine, just a bent deralier hanger and the wheels were a little wobbly. No worries, just pace back up right? Wrong! They left us for dead.  The race was going so fast that by the time we got everything changed and going the official just left us.  My Inferno friend and I were moving up quickly, then the official told the car to go up ahead and that he would bring us up.  What? There was no way we were goin to make it as the course was flat and the race was going flat out still.  I yelled at the official and he said he would go up to the car and tell it to come back and bring us up.  Never saw it again!