Last Day of 2007

I'm finally back at my house after being out on the bike for 6.5 hours and ride time just over 5. I am completely exhausted. I was in the pain cave for the last 45min of the ride. It was a wonderful day today. The temp was just around 42 and sunny. We once again had 8 riders which made the time fly by much quicker. We decided to go for the hilly route today. I imagine we climbed well over 1000 feet today when all said and done.

Started the morning off with a delicious coffee and muffin. Breakfast was soon followed by many snacks throughout the ride such as cliff bars, granola bars, peanut butter crackers etc. Todays ride was a blast but I am going to be feeling it later tonight and tomorrow.

It is time to shower and get ready for the evening. We have a long night ahead of us. Starting soon with margaritas at the local Mexican restaurant then followed my large amounts of beer and over alcoholic beverages. I really hope I survive tonight. Last year I spent the end of the evening hugging the toilet. Thats all for now I need to go roll out my legs and get a good stretch in before we head out.

Hope everyone has a Happy and Safe New Years!

Training Camp Day 1

I'm finally back down in Bloomington after a long restful winter break/time off. I got back yesterday afternoon. I enjoyed my journey down here because I got to drive me new wagon. I ended up getting a 2006 Subaru Legacy wagon. I love it!! I want to drive everywhere. Not as fast as my WRX but it gets much better gas mileage and has a ton of room. It was good to see my roomies and Chris/Kim yesterday. Its been a little while.

Woke up this morning after a uneasy sleep. I think it was due to my excitement for training camp. It has had been 2 weeks since I have been on the bike. We got to sleep in a little bit this morning and started the ride at the local coffee shop. I decided to go for the breakfast Burrito instead of the coffee this morning. We had a good size group of 8. We ventured west out of Bloomington. Tom took us on a sweet 4 hour ride. The speed was a little to fast for my liking, but I kept riding anyway. Seemed to get dropped on every climb. Weather was not to bad today, somewhere around 38 and cloudy. The ride is over and we are all relaxing around our house. I think we are going to take it easy tonight because we have a 5 hour ride ahead of us tomorrow and a night of hard boozing. Thats all for today, but check back for daily updates from our Bloomington training camp. I will leave with some pictures of the new Sram Red. Man I love that stuff. Im really impressed in how light and how well it works.

CX Nationals Pictures

Here are a few pictures from Nationals. Collegiate and U23:

Reflecting on 2007

2007 was such a awesome season for racing. I got to do a bunch of sweet races and got to travel all over the Midwest. Met new people and made good friendships even better. Season went surprisingly well for me. I started my season early in February and raced through mid December. Started the season as a 3 on the road,track, and cross. Ended the season as 1 for road/cross, only got to a 2 on the track though. ( I got a ways to go on that one). This was my first summer taking racing very seriosuly and it paid off. I do not want to bore everyone, but I really had a great time this season and would like to thanks Lou at the Pony Shop for putting up will all my stupid purchases and providing me with flexable hours during the summer,I want to thank Brian Conant for helping me with training, I want to thank my parents for supporting me through thick and thin. (SRM really helped my training), and lastly I want to thank Pam and all my friends for dealing with all my boring race stories and being there for me. I hope next season brings even more good things. I am excited to race for Alderfer Bergen (not really sure how to spell it)Pro Development team for the road and Pony Shop again for cross. Plan on doing bigger and better things next season.
I am home for Xmas break and it is very relaxing. Although I have acquired a cold while I have been at home. Been working on my bikes a bunch. Getting the cross bikes ready for storage, putting red and new wheels on my supersix, and building up my fixy for the winter. Yesterday I came across a Legacy wagon which I think I am going to purchase on Friday. I want a bigger more fuel efficient car. Thats all for now. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

Downers Grove Elite Cat 1 Race.

Hopefully new Car.

End of the Road.....

My 2007 racing season has come to a close after my last race on Sunday. Sunday went a little better for me than Saturday at Nats. It was mighty cold on Sunday morning for the collegiate race, but the sun was out which made a big difference. Isaac and I decided the only fair way to decide who gets the better call up was the old fashion rock, paper, scissors. I won paper over rock and got called up to the 3rd row. I got a good start and picked people off quick. I was riding around 4-8th place the whole race. Isaac soon passed me which was amazing because he started at the very back. We road together for awhile then he road away from me after I crashed about 20 times. I was getting very frustrated because I seemed to just wash out in every corner. I kept the pace high the whole last lap hoping the rider from Fort Lewis would not catch me. Unfortunately he put in a wicked sprint on the road and passed me. I ended up 9th in the collegiate race. I'm pretty happy with my result, knowing that there were 142 starters and this is my first real cross season. I still have 2 more years at the collegiate title.
Props to Isaac for finishing one place in front of me on Saturday and finishing in the top 5 on Sunday. Props to Ryan for winning the B's race on Thursday and killing it on Sunday in the elite race and finishing 32nd. Not bad for starting in the last row. And my last shout out is to Tim Johnson who killed it for the Elite title. Page needed to be beat by a real American cross racer. I can't wait to see what Johnson will do with his kit next year with the stars and bars.
Season is over and I am back home in Evanston. I am going to take 2 weeks off and relax. Plan to eat a ton and drink my fair share of beer. I have had a long season and my body needs some well needed rest. I got a bunch of bike work to do on my bikes which I am looking forward to. I just got RED for my supersix which I am looking forward to installing tomorrow. Thats it for now. I will post pics of the bike with the new groupo and wheels later this week.

Winter Wonderland U23 Race

We arrived yesterday in Kansas City around 4pm. We had just enough day light to walk a couple sections of the course. It looked extremely sloppy. Brian got us a really nice hotel in downtown Kansas City. Although a little out of your league. You have to pay for everything and they have garage parking, but the price is right so it works out just fine. This morning started early with a 6:45 wake up call. I had breakfast in bed it was great. Nothing like a bagel and danish for breakfast. First thing I did when I got up was look out the window and check for snow. To my satisfaction there was about 2 inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. We thought it would be better to get kitted up at the hotel because it was so cold outside. It was a very sketchy drive to the race. Most of the roads had not been plowed at 8am. I had a little fun in my car going around corners which I always love.
Race Time: Cold, Cold, Cold, man was it cold. I thought we were never going to start. Staging seemed to take forever. I was freezing my balls off. I had a great starting position in the 3rd row. Start went alright for me, even though I could not get clipped in. I was chasing hard up the right hand side of the road section and bang, hit a pot hole and flatted. However I did not figure out I had a flat until half way through my 2nd lap, because I was running such low psi. My fingers were hurting me more then anything today. They were frozen solid. I went into the first turn sitting 10th wheel which I was happy with. Everything just went down hill from there. Once I figured out my front tire was flat I yelled at Ryan to get in the pit and get my pit bike ready. For never doing a bike exchange, we killed it. I only lost a little bit of time. After my bike exchange I started falling off. I fell all the way back to 25th position. I was having so much trouble riding through the hard frozen mud. After hearing Ryan and Pam scream my ear off I got in the groove and started picking people off. I felt like I was flying. I wish I would have felt like that all race. I chased and chased all the way back up to 14th positon. Isaac was 13th and I came so close to catching him on the last lap. I just could not put in a big enough sprint on the road to get him. The race is over. I am finally starting to get warm and dry. The plan is to take a nap and spend some time wrenching on the bikes to get them ready for tomorrows Collegiete race. Cheers.

The Subaru with the cross bikes on top.

Highway shot.

Snowy Sunday Race Report

Was yesterday awesome or what? Drove up to Chi town on Saturday morning to build up my B bike at the shop. It was good to be back at the shop. Miss that place when I am down at school. I was amazed to see Lou's sick matching Colnago C-50's, with 2 sets of Mavic Ultimites. The B bike went together very well. I was so happy with it I decided to race it on Sunday. I wanted to try out racing a double. I put a 39t 46t on the bike.

As for the race on Sunday, I showed up to a snowy/raining mess. I just missed the end of the 30+ race. Props to Lou for winning the state championships and clinching the overall 30+ series. It was cold and miserable. I lined up at the line next to all the Chicago bad asses. I was pissed to find out that Tristan showed up. I knew I was racing for 2nd place. Once the gun went off I went straight to the back. I could not get clipped in, so it took a couple laps to move up. I got up to 2nd place after the 3rd lap and put a big gap on some Sram factory dude. He then caught back up after I kept messing up in every corner. That is one thing I need to work on for next year is my technical skills. I sucked it up. The Sram dude rode away from me while I dug deep to try to bring him back, but I kept making mistakes. Ended up 3rd, I am happy with my result but really wanted 2nd. The course was so awesome, one of the most fun I have had on the cross bike all year. Can't wait for next year.

Finals are this week and I am getting ready for Nationals. Isaac, Pam, and I are leaving for Kansas on Friday morning so we can ride the course Friday evening. U23 on Saturday and Collegiate on Sunday. Weather is looking good. Cold and sunny. I'm out.

Last Day of Class..........

Just finished my last class for the semester. I got 3 exams next week, then I am off to Kansas City for CX Nationals. This week has been slow, I have not been feeling my normal self. Tired and sick mostly. It seems like everyone on campus has a cold. Spent the morning on a artic easy spin with Ryan. All my ebay stuff went off today and I made a bunch of cash, which I am very happy about. Someone bought my used Metlife/Pony Shop skin suit for 50 bucks. I love ebay. Thats about it for today. I am off to get a hot cup of joe. IL State championships are this weekend. The weather forecast looks horrible, snow/freezing rain. I can't wait!!! I'm out.

Storm The Greens CX

Pam Loves the Mud!!!!

Ridin' Dirty for real

Today was one of the muddiest races I have ever done in my life. It was muddy as is when we started at 3:15 after all the races had gone on prior to ours in the rain. Half way through ours it started to down pour. Shoes, bike and skin suit are a mess. Race went alright for me today. I had a good start right behind Isaac and Kevin. We all battled it out for awhile. Ryan then caught to us and took some hard pulls to keep the pace fast. Gamm and Kevin slowly rode away from me due to me crashing in every darn corner. I could not get any traction today. I chugged along for the rest of the race and then Isaac caught me on the end of the 2nd to last lap when I crashed "again". I settled for 4th and took it easy on my last lap. It was a fun race, but I seem to still be cleaning mud out of my ears and eyes. This weekend was a blast, spent numerous hours sitting on the coach and relaxing. Went for a cross ride on the local MTB trails yesterday which was a blast with Pam, Isaac, and Ryan. This is my last week of classes then finals. Nationals are approaching sooner then I want them too. I feel like my cross form is starting to slack and I am getting burnt out. Will see how it will go in Chicago next weekend. I am hoping for snow. I will leave you guys with some pics of the apartment and pics from this weekend will come later this week.

wheel collection

MTB bikes and L5 bikes

Bike Room!!!

Jingle Cross Video

Back Home......

I'm finally back home from a long Thanksgiving break. The 2nd day of Jingle Cross did not go as well as the first. I had an even better start on the second day though. I was neck and neck with Horner up the first run up, but then it went down hill from there. My back started seizing up bad. It was absolutely killing me. Then my legs and hands started to go, after watch people pass me one after another. Still ended up 17th which made me a little bit of cash. Isaac and I then had a 7 hour drive back to Bloomington. I feel like we heard every 80's hair band on the radio at least twice on the drive home. Only got 3 more weeks of school, then Nationals in Kansas and then 2 weeks off the bike. My body is starting to get tired after racing for 9 months. 2 weeks off sounds so amazing to me. Spent the morning on the bike, it was a great day 40 and sunny. I will leave you guys with a pic of my new supersix. I can't find any good pics from Jingle Cross but when I do I will make sure to post them.

Jingle Cross Day 1

Man, where do I start? My alarm went off at 7:30 after being out drinking until 2am. Isaac picked me up soon after that. We hit the road to Iowa City. Let me tell you there is absolutely nothing between Chicago and Iowa City. My stomach was feeling the multiple Guinness’s I had last night. Decided it would be a good idea to stop and get McDonald's for lunch (didn't help my stomach). We arrived at jingle cross nice and early. We had time to put in a bunch of practice laps before we started. It was cold and sunny a great day for cross. I was lucky this time and had a great starting position in the second row right behind Horner. The beginning of the race went well for me. I got in the lead group for the first lap. Wells and Horner were pushing the pace hard. The pace was just to fast for me and I watched them ride away from me. Then more riders like Doug Swanson, Matter, and Bergman all passed me. I bonked hard on the second lap, then Isaac caught me and I rode with him for awhile. I then regained my strength and hammered away. Ended up 15th. I can't complain but I would have liked to get "a" UCI point. Maybe tomorrow. We are lucky to stay in a sweet hotel room that is cheep and has a coffee shop across the street. Time to rest the legs and get ready for pain fest # 2 tomorrow. Pic's from the weekend will come next week.

Gobble Gobble

Just a short post today. I am currently waiting for the feast. While I was surfing the web for a video for the power point I have to do for class I came across this awesome cross video. One of the best I have ever seen. It sums up Euro cross so well. Hope everyone has a great Turkey Day. Cheers

New Blog

I finally did it, my first post on my new blog. Recently I have been feeling the urge to start a blog. It seems like the cool thing to do these days so I am going to give it a shot. Props to Ryan for helping get it all started. I am at home for Turkey Day in Etown. Weather here is horrible 40 and raining. Decided it was not the best idea to do a cross ride, because I feel a cold coming on. I look forward to eating massive amounts of food tomorrow and consuming a large amount of nice beer which I picked up today with my brand spanking new ID I got from the DMV. I got my new Challenger tire glued on to my Ksyrium yesterday. Hopefully I will not roll it at Jingle Cross. That's all I got for today but I will leave with a photo of last weeks finish. I will have more on Jingle Cross next week after I get my ass kicked by Horner and Wells.