Finally Fall

The crisp mornings sure feel good. The leaves are slowly changing color as Fall has finally arrived. Its my favorite season and some fun rides are in store if I can find the time and get all the design work done. For some reason I'm not overly stoked about cross this year. I'm even considering selling off the cx bikes and parts. I do however get excited of the thought of having hydraulic disc brakes on a cx bike but I think that will take some time to actually make it to production. Until then I'll still be riding the OG Sola (yeah the 26er...you know those wheels still work like they always have). It'll be easy to spot me....I'll be the guy riding through the leaves smiling.   

The moon going in to hiding

The Story of Bottled Water

Bear and I use Kleen Kanteens with tap baby!

The Story of Stuff

Watch this and get inspired to make a difference for ourselves and future generations

2010 Interbike Report

No, I'm not at Interbike and even though I was planning on going, the trip won't be made. Yes, its cool to see the latest and greatest and meet the pros....but really....what is uber new?

Here are some predictions of what will be there:

1. Scantily clad shady ladies pushing the latest DH handlebars with built in MP3 capabilities
2. 90% of new bikes on the floor are made by Giant (Oh wait that's every year)
3. Booths upon endless booths of random Taiwan made bike accessories
4. Something made of Carbon (which is probably still made by Giant)
5. 29er everything including kids bikes

....and probably the most amazing thing all weekend will be:

How they keep that much grass that green in Vegas for Cross Vegas

Go Chris Jones!

Rants and Raves

Today the legs are feeling like meat sticks. The rains have quieted down the dust but energy levels, looming deadlines, and a general load of things that just haven't gotten done prevented a roll out the door today. Some last minute mishaps with equipment put a dent in the design work adding some last minute challenges and scrambling.

Maybe one of these days I'll get my act together.

Got more calls today from some good friends. Nice to catch up with my college friends that I don't get to see everyday. Miss being around all you folks. Thanks also for all the cards, stopping by, and the food and dining related gift certificates as well. You guys know what makes me tick! I'll be able to eat for at least a week without having to do dishes now....and if I do I'm going over to Tom and Brandon's to steal a slice of pizza.

Getting tired of the whole 29er vs 26er thing. Totally personal preference. Like anything you'll get used to it. Just another good excuse to have another bike in the stable if you ask me.

Congrats to Farmer for tearing up the KC cross races on his SS mtb placing 2nd the first day and then taking 1st the next! Go Visenka!

Photo Essay: B-Day Dirt Extravaganza

Started out with a haul over the hill to hit some trails. Nothing better than chasing singletrack with a good friend. Got lots of messages on the phone today from family and great friends. It's always a nice reminder who your true friends are.

Stage Three: XC

The final event finally came. We loaded up and ate some breakfast before heading to the venue. The start was delayed by over 45 minutes that had me wondering if would get hungry mid race. Before I knew we were all lining up and starting. The course was fun. It had some fast open sections of pavement and grass before heading into the dirt. Some of the dirt sections looked like they had just been lawn mowed and tied up with ribbon. The course looped around a lot and you could see racers everywhere on different parts of the course. The experts had an extra loop to do every lap which was fun but it made it confusing on lap two when the sports started getting mixed in. I got held up in the singletrack at times but everyone was really nice about passing. I'm not a fast starter and began feeling better on lap 3.

Heading into the twisties

I slowly began passing back people that worked me over on the first two laps. I saw Bear drilling it at one point and cheered for Paul and Nick when I saw them.

This section was fun and tight

On the final lap I was catching another racer in my class. I asked if I could get by and he did not budge. He said if you got it try to get around me. So I did. Not sure why he wanted to act that way but oh well, his choice, not mine.

Nick rolls in

Brandon (one of the athletes I coach) was giving us bottle hand ups and they were more than needed. Thanks for your help Brandon! Carson (a junior on our Visenka team) was there cheering us on. He raced the road crit and ciruit race and put up a wicked 4th place. Nick would finish 2nd for the day and Bear would take 1st in his class! I rolled in finishing 5th and happy with how I rode the last two laps.

Cruising the zoo trails

Post race awards took a while but finally got under way. Nick and Bear both took the overall wins after three days of racing! I ended up finishing fourth overall.

Nick finds a place to relax

We got the only shady spot

Bear takes the overall

Nick takes the overall

Double double, fries, and shake. So Good!

Yum

The kid was out

Stage Two: Short Track

Day two began with me hitting the hotel business office to get my design work done for the week. Got it done and then had a small window of time to relax before heading to the store and then the venue for the short track race. Bear's race was at 11:30, Nick's at 1PM, and mine at 2PM. We got out there at 10:30 so Bear could warm up. Nick and I headed for the shade as it was already pushing 90 degrees and there was not much shade around.

We found shelter in the high school buildings around the race course which helped. The course was the xc running course for the high school and it was fun. Some short steep pitches, tight turns, and plenty of open sections.

Bear was first to go and he slipped a pedal at the start. He dropped back a little but slowly worked his way back up to the top three. One the last lap he had a close call on one of the switchback downhill turns almost losing it. He kept it rubber side down and came across the line in 2nd place for the day. 

Bear rides 2nd wheel

A well ridden 2nd place

Nick was up next and as always he took the holeshot. He worked with Jordan and the two built a good lead on the other juniors. It was getting quite hot out and Bear handed up a bottle to Nick. The race came down to a sprint finish between Nick and Jordan with Nick taking the win.

Paul, Nick, and Jordan drill it at the front

Nick and Jordan working it

Jordan and Nick get their hardware

It was finally time for my race. It was hot and I got to the line late and received last row last place starting. As we started it was a mad dash to attempt to get closer to the front. I got caught behind some traffic and slowly worked my way forward. I was looking for others to work with to bridge up but no one seemed interested. Alone it was. The next group had some time on me and I was not able to close the gap. With two laps to go I started getting chills and goosebumps and had to back off a bit. Bear saved me with a bottle hand up. A crash occured in the group ahead of me and I was able to make up a little time but finish off the pace in 5th place.

Alone trying to keep the pedals turning over

Bear was prepared by bringing a huge cooler which we packed with ice and drinks in the morning. I headed straight to it and downed a few liters of fluids and had to sit in the shade for a while to recover. It was a good sign when I started sweated again! That meant two things: It was time to go to REI and also find some food!

Salt cravings....these were um...not that good

Double-in up at In n' Out

Well tuned burger machine

After hitting up In N' Out we headed back to swim at the hotel to cool off. Then we headed downtown to check out some pizza. The wait for a table was 40 minutes but the take out time was 30. Take out it was. We waited outside Chicago Fire for our food. Some radio station was blasting music in the parking lot and we sat around and people watched. Some crazy unicyclists showed up and made for exciting people watching. Finally our deep dish pizza was done and it was heavy. My arms began to fatigue just carrying it back to the car. It was good (Not Fat Tony's in Whistler good but really close) and the sausage on there was not tiny bits....they were like patties you get at a pancake breakfast.

So good

There were huge sausage patties (not bits) on this baby

After eating pizza and downing multiple bags of various salty snacks we turned in for the night.

Food coma and funny tv shows before turning in