Pleasure and Relaxation

If all goes as planned, 4 of us - Chris, Paul, SamO and I - will be riding the rough stuff for 295 miles while climbing 56,500 feet (combined) between 5 pm Friday and 5pm Saturday....

Zen and the Art of Passing

Sunday was a pretty packed day for the family...play date, race, and flight.
Jen and Tegan headed out to a play date early and took the day "off" of racing. Tegan still managed to skirt a nap...grr.
I headed over to the WORS race in River Falls to do battle with the great group of guys over there. It was a nice hard start that sorted things out, which saw a group of 6 of us off the front. Soon after, Nathan Guerrera had a flat leaving 5 of us: Mark, Jesse, Mike, TJ, and myself. We rode together for most of the rest of the race. The MO was to hammer in any of the labeled "passing sections" and then take it easy in the singletrack. We all had each other marked and the one small climb on the course was taken seriously each time. Laps 3 and 4 were passing fests... for the most part, people were great about it, but it is no fun for us or them when 5 of us have to sneak by. On the final lap, I thought I was holding the right cards. To that point, I had been under very little pressure, but TJ put in a ferocious attack...it was pretty sweet except for the fact that I just barely couldn't hang on. Mark was the only one to match him, with Jesse popping and Mike holding my wheel. I knew that if TJ and Mark got lapped riders between us it would be almost impossible to real them in....with a 5-10 second gap in that first field, it happened. After an a comp racer endod in front of us on one of the bridges and a few other rough passes, I told Mike that they were gone. We went fast from then on but didn't have the advantage of yelling "race leaders" coming, which garners a little more respect. I didn't know what to yell..."chasers" ?? =) Mike put in a nice little move about a minute from the finish line that put 5 seconds on me..he claims that Matter did it to him the year prior. I am getting someone with that next year! The finishing shoot was a dangerous S-bend so I don't think a sprint would have been a good idea anyway.
The race was what I expected and I had fun. My constructive criticism would be to run the experts and comps at different times with fields that large and laps that short (maybe elites on Sat afternoon)...or be sure that the laps are longer. With 4 or better yet 3 longer laps, the passing is much more reasonable.
I couldn't stay for awards, as I had to hurry home, catch a shower, and head to MSP for a flight out to Longmont CO. If I was a "real" pro, I would be coming out here to ride, but I am out here on business deploying a new metrology for hard drives. I would tell you what the metrology does but then I would have to ....make sure you don't tell Western Digital=)

Thanks to the WORS organizers and volunteers for inviting us over. You guys and girls do a bang up job. Maybe we can return the favor next year at Afton=)

Ankle socks and khaki sorts

I had the night open (Jen & Tegan at her parents) so I headed up to an area the world knows as a golf mecca....while I like golf, it is really a mtbking hot spot, the elusive Mammoth trail. Geez, I forgot how raw and challenging the singletrack is there, or maybe I am just out of "mammoth shape."
The Goodyear blimp seemed to be following me the whole time. Hopefully they didn't get any shots of me dabbing=)

Its all about performance...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn29DvMITu4

Intensity

Busy week.....
First, Ben (my bro) and Jake (Richards) hit up the National at Mt.Snow on Saturday (I was a little jealous). Ben scored a 35th place after a back row call up...awesome! Jake won his age group and took 6th overall in Juniors...awesomer!

It was busy for me too, as I did a 3 short but intense races: TT at Murphy Hanrehan on Wed, Buck Hill Thurs Series, and Buck Bump on Sunday. Whew! It felt good to lay on the couch and watch James Bond last night.
The TT went well and I bested my time from last year by over a minute.
Buck Thurs was fantastic...not my racing, but the fact that 230+ racers showed up for a mid-week race. There were probably 50-70 kid racers on top of that. Tegan wrapped up his season with a strong performance .. he only cut the course once (trying to follow me inside the cones) and got 2 piece of candy for his effort (vs. the typical 1). =)
Buck Bump, MNSCS #7, was to be a laps 71-76 for me out at Buck Hill this summer by my calculations. Needless to say, I have seen enough of that course for a while. I knew it would be a short race even though it was six laps. Several of the "usual suspects" weren't there due to Ore to Shore, a National, and Leadville preparation. I decide the best plan would be to get in front and punch it from the start so things could sort out before the lapped traffic began. I ended up putting time into the chasing duo of Jesse and Eric T each lap and finished with the win in a little over 1:10. Charly Tri, one of Velo Rochester's endurance specialists, had a really strong performance posting 4th...he will be one to watch for 24 of Afton in the solo division.
Next up is another TT Wednesday and a WORS race this weekend. Maybe next year we will do the combo WORS/MNSCS race on a MN style course like Afton=)

Absurd Commuting

While an R3 SL w/ Aeolus 6.5s is not a necessary piece of equipment for commuting, it is definitely entertaining:

Note: The wheels are a borrowed item from Penn... Tyson told me to give em a whirl, which I plan to on our lunch ride today. I know my co-workers are excited.