JV is my hero

Here's why

1st @ Dakota tonight-4/5's

Ended up being a sprint between me, Chris Fisher, Mark Byrnes, and a Looner. It was kinda funny on the last lap. We were 4 abreast smiling at each other wondering who was going to make the move. Good times!

Ride Sat. AM?

Anyone riding early Saturday morning that I tag along with?

I ain't got no friends...

TdF, a race for 3rd place

Looks like the race is locked up for the Dane. He may have skipped some drug tests, but the 14 he's had in the Tour have been clean. That said leave the guy alone. Based on the current system he's not violating any rule.

Now the rest of the Tour will be a battle between Discovery and Predictor Lotto. With about a minute between Cadel and Levi, it's the race to watch!

No TGC for me :(

Thanks to some idiot during my commute home last night my Jetta's all busted up. Stopped on 94 on my way back to Woodbury and this dumb ass lady rear ends me. She smacked me hard enough to shove me into the car in front, Jeep w/ a receiver hitch, which smashed my front end. It started smoking so I had it towed. Needless to say I was pretty pist (note the colorful language today). My back is a little sore and since I was getting over a cold I picked up after Dakota, I decided to bag my dreams of getting any upgrade points. Thanks Bizatch!

Hope you all did well and come back in one piece.

Please hit me up with some race reports so I can get my fix racing vicariously though y'all.

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BTW

I had a pretty good feeling that it was going to come done to Vino (sans injury), Cadel and Levi after today's TT. Those were my top 3 for the Tour this year. Some don't think that Levi has is to be a Tour contender i.e. Super Rookie, I think you're all wrong. Now he will show you how wrong you are. Wait for it...

That said, my money is on Cadel.

Dehydrated = No Recovery

Hollywood circuit race last night was hot. And apparently I wasn't ready for the heat. Took off on the last lap to breakaway and soon realized something wasn't right. I just couldn't go. Sorry team. :(

Otherwise Silver had a great showing last night in the Masters 4/5 with Wally taking 3rd and all the other moves. It was awesome racing with so many teammates. I had a blast even though I stunk it up. We'll get LSC next time.

Who's going to the Tour of Granite Country? I'm planning on doing the RR 4/5's non Masters. See ya up there! :)

Skater vids

Fin and I were just surfin' the Net for skater vids. We thought this one was pretty cool.

Bring Down the Rain Part II- Hopkins Crit

First let me start by thanking Ted and Ben. It's always helpful to have teammates out there.

I was pretty excited for this one after my performance at Northfield. I guess I'm on form right now so I'll milk it for all it's worth. The race started out same old same old. Some attacks that didn't really get away. Then with about 12 laps to go Ben jumps and gets a pretty good gap on the field. I was hanging out in the back reserving myself for later. Once I noticed Ben up the road I tried to make my way to the front to block for him. Thing about Hopkins and it being square, it's hard to advance on the field. So after he was out there for a few laps I decided to be a little more aggressive to get up front. So after the group made it's way through the start/finish and around the first turn I decided to sprint up the inside to get to the front. This turned out to be too successful. As I approached the second turn I was concerned about cutting people off so I went real hard into the turn. Upon exiting I had created a little gap on the field and only soft pedaled for a little bit when some dude jumped on my wheel. Indistinctly I pedaled a little more until I realized that I was and idiot and sat up. I didn't want to help this guy bridge up to Ben sucked onto his wheel. He wasn't slowing down so I let him go. I figured that if he wanted to chase Ben down he'd have to do it himself.

Even though I let him go my actions created enough excitement to stir up the group and unfortunately bring up the pace. That wasn't good, my bad. Eventually the group brought Ben back. Sorry Ben. My intentions were good. It was my experience that sucked.

Note to self: Next time in that situation be more stealthy!

At this point I was up at the front and everyone was getting rev'd for the finish. With a few to go Ben asked how much I had left to set me up for a lead out. Just as he started to set it up I got blocked and had to go around the opposite side to link back up with him. No dice!. :( I wasn't able to get back on his wheel 'til the next lap. Which worked out just fine. With one to go I launched off his wheel and jumped off the front right after the first turn. After making it through the back straight my legs started to feel it but I decided that I wasn't going to blow this for anything. As I made it around the last turn I looked over my shoulder to see how hard they were coming. Looked back up the road to the finish and buried the needle. I've never had so much fun racing in my long 17 year career of racing bikes.

This sport rocks!

Thanks:

Ben

Ted

Mike

The Fam

Everyone else who cheered (it makes a difference)!

My family

*Thanks skinnyski and Bro for the pics

Northfield Crit- Bring down the rain!

This is how the day started.

Drove down to Northfield with my neighbor who runs the J&B DC here in the cities. AS we roll out we both say something to the affect that we should bag the race and spend the day with our families--being the 4th and all.

Well we decide to go anyway.

His race is at 9:40 and mine at 11:30. I've got plenty of time to get ready, maybe too much. Anyway Bill gets ready and rolls up to the line. He's been away from racing for 6 years and doesn't have the chain on the big ring for the start. He can't spin it up onto the big ring so he heads over to the neutral support to fix it. Just as he get it in the stand they start the race. Not cool cause by my watch it's 9:38. He finally gets it set and tries to catch up with the group. Not happening. He tries for a lap or two and throws in the towel.

At about the same time Todd Heiser rolls up to me to ask if they already started the race. I had to break the bad news.

This was not a good start to the day...

So Todd and Bill are left with nothing to do but watch the race that got away. :(
Too bad cause it was a good race. Scott Flanders took a flier with several laps to go and held it to the end (foreshadowing). That guy is hardcore.

Normally when I arrive way early for a race I get really nervous. Today was no different.

After a good time warming up I got to the line with my "A" game. I was feeling pretty good and grabbed a spot in the 2nd row. All I could think about was the Gatorade that Bill promised me if I podium'd and that I better do something good here today if I'm going to be away from the fam on the 4th.

I'll get to it.

Before we started I noticed that Sam and Eric Oftedahl and Chris Fisher were on hand and thought that my day was over before it started. Damn!

So were racing and the tempo is pretty good. The attacks didn't seem too threatening so I hung out at the back. Since I didn't really know Eric or Sam, the only other H-WooD riders, there wasn't any plan to work with each other. From what I could see Eric, Sam and Chris were hammering the pace and going for all the primes. Being that these guys are semi-pro mtb'ers, and kick my ass on the dirt, I was just hoping to hang in to the end.

I think it was a little over half way through the race when I realized I was at the back of the field of about 16 or so riders (started with 47). The rest got shelled off. I decided that I had reserved myself enough and wanted to move to the front to show Sam and Eric that I had enough in my legs to do something. At the time I had no idea what that something was. I was thinking that they may try to launch Sam at some point and figured that was cool with me and that I'd help my much faster teammate out. So I move up to the front just as some guy goes off the front. So I decide to kick it up a notch and chase him down. By now we have just over 8 laps to go. As I get up to this guy he just sits up. I coast past him and look back at the group. No response. So I decide to dig a little and see if I can't put some time on them. As I make my way around this technical course I hear someone yell out "you have about 20 seconds on the group". As I'm doing this I can hear Lalla "What are you thinking"? As I continue on my own I hear the time gap drop to 15 seconds then to 10 seconds. OK time to rethink the strategy here. So I sit up and wait for the group hoping that I can drop back into the front with these guys.

I make my way back to the front of the group and realize that I'm recovering quite quickly. NICE! Now all I'm thinking about is positioning for the sprint. With one lap to go I'm in great position and feeling even better. Can't remember what happened on the back side of the course. But as we made our way around the final turn I had a little ground to cover. It think I was in 6th or so position. That's when I went ape. I felt so strong and just went for it. Just then I get boxed in by two dying riders. I could see that Chris was in front with two guys chasing. Once a lane opened between these two I was on the gas again and gaining fast on the third place guy. I knew that I was held up too much to contend for 1st or 2nd but that I had a shot for 3rd. just a couple meters from the line the 3rd place guy popped and I had to throw the bike at the line to get it. I probably got him by half a wheel. man did that feel good. I was so excited to have race so well. I did wonder a little what it would have been like if I hadn't got boxed in. I know I had the legs to make a run at first. But then again, that's racing. In all fairness though, Chris and the brothers Oftedahl were using this as a training workout and if they hadn't been pushing the pace the whole time or going after primes, they would have worked together and probably gotten 1,2,3 on the day. Either way it felt pretty darn cool to be able to race with that caliber of riders.