He's all over his machine right now

I finally have my new machine put together. I have always liked when Phil Ligget says " He is all over his machine right now!" He also likes to say, " He is an excellent bike rider." Does he mean the the rider can handle his bike well, that he has a big engine to turn the pedals, or both? I hope that if he was commenting on one of my races that he would call me an "excellent bike rider". The bike has been an 8 month process since breaking my frame at Sunburst in Kewaskum. Pete at Wildside Adventure Store worked some magic to replace my Zigarut with a Superfly. I had to wait until we had our sponsors lined up before I could order all of the parts. Thanks to SRAM, Bontrager, Rock Shox, and Truvativ I was able to put together a nice ride at a reasonable price. Now the hard part will be to do the bike some justice and get it on the podium. I think I have made some good progress with my training and weight loss so far this season, but the truth will come out on race day because there is always somebody else working harder than you. The Hi-Fi is Chasity's new bike. She has been riding her Schwinn Homegrown for about 10 years, so it was time for an upgrade. She really likes it so far but I have to swap out a few parts for her. Hope to see some of you at the Circuit of Sauk this coming weekend.

The chase has begun.

Saturday was the start of the 2009 racing season for me. I signed up for the cat 5 and the Masters 4/5 races at the Gregg Bednorski Memorial Crit in Madison. It was also Bryan's first crit ever so I gave him the little bit of advice I could and we came up with a plan of staying out of trouble and keeping the rubber on the road. After we finished warming up we started a warm up lap to get familiar with the course, as we came around to the start/finish line there was one person laying in the road unconscious and EMS on the way. I stopped by my family, who were sitting by the finish line, to give them my water bottle and I could tell by the look on Monica's face that she was not only worried about the guy laying there but about her Dad going out to race next. This is the one thing I hate about road racing, the pavement must really hurt when you hit the deck at 30+ mph. Luckily I have not had that experience but as the saying goes "there are those who have crashed and those who will crash". The cat 5 race was just as sketchy as in years past, people not holding there lines and lots of weaving in the pack. Bryan and I stayed with the pack the whole race, but with two laps to go and the whole group still together I decided to go for it. I broke free of the group as we crossed the start finish line, after making it stick for half a lap my legs were failing. Just then a rider appeared on my right and gave me a small pull. I pulled through again and then we were caught with one lap to go. After the peleton passed I sat up and rode around to the finish off the back. Two guys crashed in the sprint to the finish and that was the end of race one. The Masters race was a bit more relaxed in the accelerations, it was a faster race but more even in the pace. With four laps to go I did not think I was going to stay on but I found a nice spot in the middle of the group to recover for a lap. On the penultimate lap I tried to move to the front just like everyone else and with one lap to go I was able to get to the front third and sprint my way past about ten more people at the finish, I do not know my results from either race but I had a really good time. It was nice to finally start some competition after all the winter training. Next up is the Circut of Sauk Road Race in two weeks.

Easter Mountain Biking

Yesterday was a nice ride of the Circuit of Sauk racecourse. It was a nice mix of juniors and seniors. I have ridden with Mark Meier more already this year than all of 2008. The first lap was pretty relaxed as the juniors did their first complete lap of the course, after that Ryan kept the pace pretty high. I had to try and chase him down numerous occasions, but the legs only have so many of those efforts in them. I cant believe how far Brian has come since starting riding just last year. I think his goal of beating Ryan in an Elite race will be obtainable for him. Today I got Chasity's new bike ready for her and we went to the Dells course to get in some mountain biking. After getting her shocks and seat height dialed in we went out for a couple of laps. She really liked the disc brakes, hopefully at the next race in the mud she will be able to ride her bike instead of drag it around with lots of mud stuck in the v-brakes. Next up my 20 minute test to see if this round of training has made me any faster and then the crits in Madison.

Vets Camp

This was my second year at the Sharks Vet Camp in Tennessee. We had some great riding and some really good food at Pucketts. I still have not mastered the self photo while riding. The rain on Wednesday was coming down so hard at times that it hurt. But after that we had clear skies for the rest of the week. It was nice to be able to ride outside without a jacket and tights. Nothing to exciting happened, no dogs, no crashes, and no-one yelling "why don't you yankee queers go home".