Life

3 sisters park

2009-05-18T06:06:00.002-06:00

Well I managed to forget my camera for our adventure yesterday. I was joined by Dad, Eric, Dana, and Skip for our afternoon ride up in Evergreen yesterday. We rode the evergreen trail loop then rode the sisters loop. The evergreen trail has a long climb up to the top of the ridge where there is nice view of Mt. Evan's at the top. The Sister's trail has a lot more technical sections where there was a good amount of hike a bike for sure.
This morning Dana, Curtis, and I are heading up to Fruita for today and tomorrow. I can't wait. Pics and a report to come. Thanks for reading.

Much needed update

2009-05-17T11:19:00.007-06:00

Hey all, have not been around on the old blog for awhile so I am back. I finished up school this past Tuesday and finally had some time on my hands for the first time in awhile. Finally was able to head up to the mountains and hit the dirt on my MTB. Last week we went up to the Deer creek trail, and I was able to get some pictures from that day.

E-weakling railing the climb, with Dad looking on.

Hike a bike

The decent

In other news I finally got some new racks for my new car. Its the new Rocky Mounts pitchfork tray. I think they look pretty sweet:

The new car

In other news, if things go well I am going to be volunteering with the Wheat Ridge Fire Department soon. I really hope everything falls into place there, then I can finally get some first hand experience. Well I'm off for another MTB ride today, looks like we are going to be riding 3 sisters today in Evergreen. Photos and a report of the ride to come later. Thanks for reading!
PS Check out the new songs on my page.

Still Alive

2009-02-17T21:07:00.004-07:00

Well it has been awhile since my last update, but I am still alive and kicking. I have finally been out on the bike a little more in the past few weeks. I'm getting a little bit of late start to the season so its hard to say when I am going to try my luck in some races. In the meantime I'm still in school going for my degree in Fire Science, and searching for a job in that field as well. There is a good chance that I could be out of state this summer on a Forest Firefighting crew, but we shall see.
In other news, I finally got a new vehicle, and the Volvo is being passed on to my little bro. Pics coming soon.

Well its official...

2008-12-19T18:01:00.002-07:00

I'm actually a certified Firefighter in the state of Colorado. It was quite a long time coming and by far the hardest thing that I have ever had to do physically. The hard part now is I need to find a job, hopefully I can test with some metro area departments in the coming months and get my name out there a little bit.

In other news I'm going to start my base training on January the 10th for the upcoming road season. I chose that date because I'm gonna be not as wrapped up with work at St. Nicks and I'll finally have some time to put in some serious chamios time. After my little hiatus from the bike this fall, I for one can't wait to get back out there. Thanks for reading.

We will try this again...The Red Green Show

2008-11-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

How to make your bike cool

RIP Redline Conquest 2005-2008

2008-11-03T12:56:00.004-07:00

Well this kind of sums up my day on Saturday. My wheel started feeling like it was wobbling around quite a bit, and I assumed that maybe I broke a spoke or had a big hop in my wheel. I spun my wheel and it was fine. I looked down near my rear derailleur, and there is my seat stay split in half. I was pretty upset to say the least but it happens I guess. I didn't even crash, which doesn't make much sense for it breaking but who knows.
Luckily Girts let me borrow his rig for Sunday's Boulder Cup race at Harlow Flats Park. I was having a decent race out of the gate, and then I blew a tire about 3 laps in. I made to the pit and got another wheel and started chasing. I caught up to my teammate Anthony Carcella, and we rode together to the finish. I think we were the last 2 not to get lapped so not all bad for such an untimely mechanical.
Anyway I stripped down the frame last night so hopefully I can get a new frame via warranty. I took a couple of pictures a couple weeks ago when I had gotten my new parts for the bike. So I will leave you with a parting shot from then. Anyway thanks for reading, I should hopefully hear back from Redline about another frame soon. There are new songs for your listening pleasure as well.

Boulder Cup Race Report

2008-11-01T20:09:00.002-06:00

My frame broke...and today is my 100th post! More pics after tomorrow's races. Luckily Girts let me borrow his rig for tomorrow...

Autumn, my favorite time of year

2008-09-23T19:19:00.003-06:00

Well fall has finally hit Colorado...kinda, (it was 80 degrees today). This is my favorite time of year and it always has been. I just can't get enough of the crisp days that you have outside. Unfortunately, the amount of time that I have to do what I really want to do in the fall has been ZERO!
School/Work, has completely zapped my schedule as far as riding, training, and racing in general. I want so badly to be on my bike as much as possible, but it just can't happen right now. Due to lack of time, and to the physical demands that school has been putting on me lately it just isn't working. It sucks that I have to rearrange my priorities so much, but I was going to have to think about my career one day I suppose. Anyway, enough venting onto news in my life.
I actually did get to race the first race of the season, 2 weekends ago in CO Springs. I didn't do very well, and suffered more than I have in a long time, but it was so good to get my hurt on in a cross race! I'm going to probably make it out to the race at interlocken this weekend, even though I lack any shred of cross fitness, maybe I will be the only one to ride the sand pit out of the Cat 4's like last year. If nothing else I am in good running shape from the workouts with school, being in shape on the bike is a different story though.
Anyway I have some new songs to check out, and hopefully I should have more posts coming. Thanks for reading.

B-days, Grand Lake, and Fire Academies

2008-08-30T18:52:00.002-06:00

Yes I have been nothing short of busy the past couple of weeks. School, Work, B-days, has made my schedule very demanding for sure. To start I started school at the Fire Academy this past week, and it has been nothing short of a physical challenge. My day starts bright and early at 6:30AM and ends at about 4PM, luckily its only on Fridays so its only one day a week of actual drill ground work. On Mondays and Wednesdays my CPAT class, which is a preparatory class for the physical tests I will have to take when I actually start testing for a fire department. So far it has been a lot of running up and down the stairs at Red Rocks Amphitheater, and lots of push-ups and sit-ups. Luckily, there aren't many tests and it is based mostly upon attendance, and if nothing else I should get in really good shape. The only problem so far is trying to fit in time on the bike. I'm worried a little bit about how I am going to recover every week from the Academy and being able to race on weekends. But we shall see how that all plays out.
Also I turned 22 on Monday, my parents got me a workstand for my garage, and it definitely beats the hell out of the old Thorn Resistant tube that I had hanging on the ceiling to work on my bikes, what an upgrade! For the weekend I went up to Grand Lake with some friends and got to throw back a few, go fishing, hiking, and just sit around the camp fire a little bit.
Not a whole lot more to report other than the cyclocross season fast approaching, and I can't wait for it. Check out my new songs as well. Thanks for reading.

What a weekend!

2008-08-10T19:41:00.002-06:00

What an amazing weekend, I managed to get this whole weekend off, so I took full advantage. So, late Friday night I get a offer to get up at 5:30 to head up to the mountains and climb two fourteeners. I have hiked others in the past but it has been nearly 5 years since I have! We set out early and started hiking by about 7:30 am. It was a great day to do it, and I even ran into my former co-worker Colin that I worked with at I-bike in Greeley. We first hiked Gray's peak, and it is a short walk to another mountain next to it called Torrey's Peak. We completed the excursion in about 5 hours or so. Pics later when I receive them.

Earlier in the week I had pre-registered for the Boulder Road Race which turned out to be better than expected. When I registered for the race, I didn't know that I would be hiking two mountains the day before. My buddy Girt's and I registered and I treked my way up to Boulder to try my luck at the road race. We decided that I would be working for Girt's and try to have him go for the win. The pace started out pretty quick, and the legs were feeling good, until we hit the first climb. I was feeling the hike from the day before for sure. I was put up to max on the first climb. I sat in and tried to recover, and finally I started coming around. The first few laps were pretty uneventful with a few small moves trying to go up the road but with no success. The plan before was to try and launch an attack near the end and try to blow some people off the back and be able to have Girt's attack at the end and hopefully go for the win. I made my on the last lap, and had a few people follow me. I stayed away for a couple minutes and was then reeled in by the field. Girt's managed to pull off a third place finish when I rolled in somewhere in the 20's or 30's I think. Anyway, made for a fun weekend, hopefully some pics were taken at the race and I can post them. Check out my new songs as well, thanks for reading.

Good News

2008-07-31T21:23:00.002-06:00

Well the death marches that I have been going on 4 times a week with Girts is paying off. I'm actually towing around about 12 less pounds than I was 3 weeks ago! Hopefully I have the motor to go a little faster now that I am losing some pounds.

In other news, I can't wait for cross season to start this year, (only a month and half!) Problem is I have to start school again soon, and since I will be in the fire academy, it is going to be nothing short of a workout every day that I do it. Hopefully it won't hurt my riding too much. Soon to come I will put some pictures up of the rig that I will be riding for cross this year, with some new and improved parts! Thanks for checking in.

Lazy on the bloggin

2008-07-28T22:41:00.002-06:00

Well my blog has been nothing short of lame for the better part of a month. There is much to talk about. Last time I blogged I had been just working and starting up my training again, and I have done that. My fellow co-worker Girts, or as I like to call him, "the latvian nightmare," has finally lit a fire under me and we have both been logging in a lot of chamois time. We have been riding a loop up to Conifer about 4 times a week before work starting at about 6:30 AM. It was rough at first but I think I'm getting used to it, and its been totally worth it. With all the climbing that is involved in the ride I am getting better all the time and its feeling great. I can't wait to pin on a number soon and try and make something happen.

In other news I had one of the best vacations in a long time, on the 4th of July weekend in Grand Lake. My parents rented a cabin on a private lake right on the borders of Rocky Mtn. National Park, and got a little R&R. I spent the majority of my time on the boat fishing and drinking beer with friends and family. We also got to watch an awesome fireworks display on the 4th when we were literally right on the lake.

Other than that I signed up for the Fire Academy at RRCC for this fall, which should be nothing short of interesting. Only a month and a half until cross! I can't wait! More later because my computer is running out of batteries.

Check out the new songs as well.

P.S.

Ebay

2008-06-16T13:19:00.001-06:00

I have Ebay stuff for sale check it out!

More soon.

Summertime and the new plan

2008-05-24T19:12:00.002-06:00

Hey all, well summer vacation is here, without the vacation part. Basically I'm working 12 hours more each week instead of going to school in the evenings. But its not all bad, things at the bike shop are going well, I seem to have people coming in a lot to visit, and hang out which always makes the days go faster. We are actually a full service store at my store now, so I can do anything and everything on peoples bikes now!
Well since this spring was the demise of my fitness due to school, and work I'm starting to ramp it up again. I made a solid start by not driving to work almost every day this week (except today.) So I've decided that I'm only going to let myself drive to work once a week. I'm also going to start doing the Tuesday night crits up in Golden. There is also that short track series in Ft. Collins on Tuesday's at the New Belgium Brewery as well. I would like to do one of those races up in Ft. Collins but we shall see.
In other news, I broke out the cross bike earlier this week, to try and get it ready for some serious commuting this summer. I was thinking about getting a new frame for the upcoming cross season this fall, but I decided to keep the old redline and put a little money into it and make it better. I'm gonna get a new fork for it, and a Chris King Headset as well. I ordered a new Ritchey WCS handlebar for it, due to my old one getting very bent in a crash at Boulder Research Park last year. I ran it all year after that, and only noticed the bars were bent when I was in the drops, but I am a little worried how strong it is going to be, so I opted for a new one.
Well thats about all I got for an update now, I'll start throwing some pictures up when I get the cross bike ready for commuting. Thanks for reading, and check out the new songs I have up on the page!

Done and Done

2008-05-15T10:19:00.002-06:00

Well I finally wrapped up school late last night, and I'm now a certified EMT! I actually did well in school this semester for a change as well, it feels good for sure. It's going to be awesome that I'm finally going to have more time to ride now that school is over. This spring was a joke as far as my racing and training goes, and its time to ramp it back up. I'll be working full-time at the bike shop this summer again, and hopefully by this fall I might be able to get a job on a private ambulance, but we will see. Other than that not a whole lot has changed. Check back soon as I finally have time to do some better updates! As always I have new songs on the page as well, check them out!

Spring is here

2008-04-19T12:35:00.002-06:00

Well Spring has officially come in Littleton, it has snowed a bunch, and been 80 degrees all in the same week! I havn't updated in awhile, but then again I havn't raced much either. The last race I did was the Boulder Koppenberg earlier in the month. The race was a lot of fun, and ended up being one of the better ones I've participated in this year. The course is mostly flat with one power climb that is over 17% but is very short. My kind of course for sure, I didn't end up getting in the action that much, and stayed in the group for most of it. I came to the front a few times near the end with a few teammates trying to bring the break back. I finished somewhere in the middle of the group and by the end I was pretty spent.
Since then I havn't raced much but have had some time on the road bike here and there. I started my new job at Littleton Cyclery and it couldn't be going better. I get a deal on parts again, and have lots of fun. A new cross bike could be in the works as well.
School is finally winding down a little, finals are in a couple of weeks! I'll get some pics up soon of the Mtn Bike trip to Fruita, Thanks for reading.

P.S. A couple new links on my page, as well as new songs to listen to.

Priorities

2008-03-23T09:25:00.002-06:00

Well it has been almost a month since my last post, but a lot has happened for sure. School is finally going great for the first time in a long time, and I'm pretty sure I found out what I want to do in life. Only problem is, I have to put a lot of things on the back-burner that I wish I didn't have to put there. The amount of time that I have had to put in has made it difficult to have any kind of "routine" riding at all. I have been doing ride-alongs with various Fire Dept's and Ambulance agencies around the Denver metro area, and usually am gone for 12 or more hours at a time. Not to mention school and work all week as well. I wish I had more time to ride, but I just don't right now.
In other news, I had my first race at City Park in Denver, hosted by DU two weeks ago. It didn't go bad for my first race, considering I knew I wasn't ready for it at all, having just come out of base a week before that. I got lapped with 3 to go, so I got pulled. Disappointing for sure, but what can you do.
Yesterday was the Promontory Park Crit put on by UNC, in Greeley. Last year the race never happened due to not getting a bid for the race and other schools taking over instead. The races all went great for the most part, and it a huge success for the team for sure. Besides the issue with a security guard everything went really well, and it didn't start snowing until after we packed up all of the barricades and cones. I raced in the Cat 4's, later in the day. I got dropped with one to go and just cruised in with a couple other chasers. Not to bad considering the lack of training I have had in the past couple weeks. We had a great turn out for all of the open categories, and had over 50 racers in the Pro 1,2,3 race! Dana Curlee and Alex Lewis did a fantastic job of making that race happen and it couldn't have gone better, awesome job guys! Koch even showed up to help out as well! Also, thanks to my little brother Eric for dealing with the parking fiasco today!
Anyway, I'm still wiped out from yesterday just laying in bed, so unfortunately I'm not going to be making it out to the race at CU research park today. But on Monday and Tuesday, my brother and I are going to Fruita, CO to hit some dirt for a few days. If anybody wants to tag along let me know! Then I will enjoy the rest of my much needed spring break. Thanks for reading and check out my new songs as well.

Rocky Mounts Group Ride

2008-02-25T12:36:00.003-07:00

I attended another another Rocky Mounts group ride this past weekend. We rode up to Carter Lake and back, and I am feeling every minute of the 4.5 hours I spent in the saddle yesterday. It was great to get to chat with some of my new teammates and I'm so excited for the season to get up and rolling. The weather was great until the last hour or so. All of the sudden the wind hit, and it seemed relentless. It was a wind that reminded me of a race I did in Wyoming a few years ago, Corey and Dana know exactly which wind I'm talking about. But I made it back to my home destination and made my way back to Littleton.
I'm sitting at school right now, procrastinating on the studying that I have to do. I just want to wish my good friend Thomas Kelly a fun and safe trip to Europe. He has said that he is going to be writing a blog, so hopefully I will have a link up soon. Until then, thanks for reading. I got some new songs as well.

2008-02-19T10:29:00.002-07:00

Well I have finally got some consistency back in my life again. I have been able juggle school, riding and work and it all seems to be going great! I'm finally enjoying everything in school which is a big change from school in the past.
On another note, riding is going great and I'm looking forward to my season this year with Rocky Mounts. I think that I have decided that my first race is going to be the DU collegiate race at City Park. Anyway thanks for checking in and check out my new songs as well.

Homework, and lots of it

2008-02-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

Well I spent this past weekend skiing up at Beaver Creek with a couple of buddies, and Koch offered up a place to stay up there as well. One of the better times I have had skiing in years, waste deep powder in spots, and making your own tracks! Only problem is driving home afterwards, 4.5 hours home is not my idea of fun at all, but that is the price that you pay I suppose.
Other than that I have gotten bombarded today with more homework then I know what to do with. Online Quiz today, paper due next Monday, and a test on Thursday. To top it all off, I have work for 2 days this week, all while trying to fit in riding. Pretty lame for sure, and not looking forward to much of it. Anyway enough bitching for me, I'm off to hit the books and try to get ahead of the game a little bit. Thanks for reading, and check out my new songs as well.

Jinx

2008-01-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

Well, my last post I was talking about how nice the weather was. Today is exactly the opposite; High of 34, with gusts up to 40 mph, wind chill 2 degrees. Seeing as today was my day off of school and work, I had a long ride planned. Looks like I'm riding inside, lame. At least we aren't in Durango though, check out Todd Well's blog, they are getting a taste of what we got in Denver last year.
On another note, how about Team Quick Step? They are killing it at the Tour of Qatar and they have already blown the race apart. Here is a pretty sweet article from VeloNews about it, pretty impressive to say the least. Well time to take the dog on a walk, and its roller time, thanks for checking in.

Busy

2008-01-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

Well things have changed since my last post. First, the weather finally took a turn for the better in the past few days. I haven't had to ride inside once this whole week! I had an awesome ride today in Boulder with my new team today, couldn't have asked for better conditions. We had easily 25 to 30 people with us off and on today. I wish that we could get a group like that here in Denver, but who knows.
On another note, I started up school this week, and I'm already enjoying class more than ever! Well I'm off to hit the books, then maybe a movie night will be in store. I managed to not bring my camera on the ride today. Next ride I will have pictures up for sure.

P.S. Congrats to Lars Boom on winning world championships today. What a ride! Check out my new songs as well, they are good.

2 posts in 24 hours. Coincidence? I think not

2008-01-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well I woke up to a fresh layer of snow today,
So far I have blown off hitting the rollers and killed a good portion of the morning drinking an entire french press, and reading the paper.
Well I have killed all of five minutes trying to avoid the rollers, but here goes nothing. Maybe I will even have three updates in 24 hours...

P.S. I threw a bunch of new links up on my page, check them out.

Taking a little break

2008-01-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the hiatus on the updates, but I have been busy. With the combination of the closing the temporary store at Park Meadows mall for St. Nicks, I put in a ridiculous amount of hours at work, all while trying to put base in there as well. After what seemed like a never ending week at work, I decided to take some time off before school starts this next wednesday. Some of my best friends from Socorro, New Mexico came up for a few days and spent some time in Colorado. We spent one day downtown and went to the Denver Art Museum, which I have never been too. One of my good friends Neil is an aspiring architect and had heard about the remodeling of the Denver Art Museum and really wanted to see the building and the artwork. Got to check out some really interesting pieces from just about every race and culture out there, highly recommend checking it out. We spent the next day skiing/snowboarding at Keystone, where we had an awesome day for sure. Back in the day I spent almost every moment of my free time up in the mountains snowboarding. Since I went to college and picked up cycling, snowboarding took a back seat and I hadn't done it more than a couple times since then. We had an awesome day on the hill and it was great to spend it with all of my good friends. The last day of their trip we made our way up to Ft. Collins to my younger brother, Andrew's house to go hang out and see the town. It was really good to see them and I hope that I can see them again soon.
After Ft. Collins I went to Greeley to see some friends and see the old stomping grounds. I caught up with Mark down at the International Bike's new location in Greeley. I then went to the Rio with Scott, and Dana. There is where I finally had my first Marg that everybody is always talking about. I'm pretty sure that it lived up to all the hype that everybody gives them. Afterwards, we went to a friend of mine in Greeley, and we had fun there until the late hours of the night. The next day Scott and I braved the cold weather and went and visited some people in town for a little while as well. All in all it was a great few days off, I saw some old friends, and made a lot of great new ones, all while getting some solid chamois time in as well. Thanks for reading, and check out my new songs as well they are awesome!

P.S. The picture on the bottom is of my friends, my brother and I. I never get any comments anymore, I hope it changes.

Getting Back to It

2008-01-01T18:56:00.001-07:00

Well I'm starting up the base today for road season, which means the party is over. I havn't ridden my bike in about 3 weeks which is never good. I'm mostly drinking beer, and eating...alot. I started my first day of base off right when I cooked a calzone this afternoon, hello delicious. Brought me back to the days in Greeley when our training food was calzones and pizza. Anyway, time to jump back on the horse and get to it again. Other than base starting up, life is as usual. With the holidays over St. Nicks won't be taking up as much of my time, which is always good. With Christmas money and some savings, I managed to order a SRAM Force Group online. I can't wait for it to get here and put it all together. Well I'm off to hit those rollers on the cross bike, thanks for reading and check out whats on the pod as well.

Not ending on a good note

2007-12-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Well my cross season ended this past sunday while I laid in my bed. It had been a goal the whole season to have a top 10 at the state championship. It really sucked having to be at home while everyone else raced in the freezing cold, I wanted to be there so bad, but it couldn't happen. There is good news from the weekend though. My little brother Eric, took 3rd at states and won the overall for BCR (Best Cyclocross Rider) in ages 15-16. I couldn't be more proud of the kid. He worked really hard and did well in races when they counted. Not to bad for somebody's first cross season!

It sucks that I had to end my season like I did, but it just makes me want to work harder in preparation for next year. I'll try to make it up on the road this year. That reminds me, I will be riding for Rocky Mounts this year. Thanks for reading

Vegas, Snow, Sickness...

2007-12-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

Well my small vacation to Vegas went off without a hitch. I think 2 nights is pretty much enough for sure. Our first night ended up being the most eventful my Uncle and Aunt met me and my buddies and we got to go a members only bar on the top of the Mandalay Bay. Lets just say we had fun.
Aside from that I came back feeling ready to go back to work and prepare for cyclocross state championships tomorrow. Only problem is I woke up this morning with a fever, cough, and overall not feeling so well. Right now our current weather in Littleton is 18 degrees and dumping snow. Tomorrow is probably gonna be a mudfest, and hopefully I will be able to race. I'm gonna rest up tonight, hopefully I feel better by morning.
P.S. I cut all my hair off on Thursday, and some new songs for you to listen to as well.

Wearing down

2007-11-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well all the racing is starting to wear on me and its starting to show a little. Which is why I havn't been updating, not a ton to write about. I had races in Co Springs, and one in Highlands Ranch as well. Those didn't go great, so I won't even talk about it. This weekend of Thanksgiving I did a race nice and close to home by Dakota Ridge High School. I took it pretty easy as far as riding during that week, and I definitely feel like that was just what I needed. Out of the gate I was sitting top 3 and feeling really good. We had been snowed on here in town and it had just started to melt. Needless to say it was pretty muddy out. I drifted out of that group and into some chase groups as well. The wind was blowing really hard going into the finish line. I was in my smallest gear the whole time up that stretch. Still managed to lose a lot of time and places. By the time I rolled into the finish I was somewhere in the top 15 I think. Overall not so bad, I felt super strong on parts of the course. On other parts I felt like crap, but thats all part of the game. Well thanks for reading, Ill try to get some pics up from my upcoming vacation to Vegas. I leave on Sunday, boy do I need a vacation.
PS. New songs for your listening pleasure too.

Bad Luck

2007-11-06T08:51:00.001-07:00

Well sorry for the hiatus on the updates, I have had a busy couple of weeks. The weekend right before Halloween we had a day off of racing due to the Velo-Swap on Saturday, and the annual Boulder Reservoir race on Sunday. I attended the Velo-Swap with my little brother and one of my buddies from the bike shop. I really wanted to score some new shoes while I was there, but couldn't really find any. My dad bought an old TIAA-CREF Javelin team frame from last year, and it had Troy Wells name plate on it too, but the price was right and I think he will be building it up soon.
Sunday was the Boulder Reservoir race in North Boulder. I had very high expectations of myself for this race, because it was one of my best all of last year. We had a field of about 80 or so and we were off. I was sitting about 5 rows back which wasn't great but I figured I could make up for it in the barriers and the run up. Out of the gun there was a crash right in front of me, and I had to come to almost a complete stop to avoid the crash. I got around it, and got on my pedals to try and catch the main group. It didn't take long to make it up to people, and I started trying to move up through the field. I hit the sand run up, and I knew that is where I could do the most damage. This same thing continued every lap, and I cruised in for about 34th. Not to bad considering how bad my start position was.
This past weekend was a UCI event, put on by the DBC events. I had worked 40+ hours early in the week, and despite Corey's advice to pre-register I never got around to it. I get to the Reservoir for the Redline cup. Cat 4's closed, at first I'm thinking, this sucks I can't race. Then the registration lady says, "Cat 3's are still open." I said, "Okay." I didn't want to miss out on racing, so what the hell. Anyway, I got staged almost in the back row, and I told myself that I was going to race my race and not let it get to me. I actually felt pretty good through the first few laps, Colin Don and I were staying together, moving up slowly. Then it happens, I pinched my rear wheel, luckily I wasn't to far from the pit. But by the time I had made it to the pit, my front had flatted as well. So I cruise into the pit, get my two pit wheels, and continue. I got passed by the leader, which means I had one to go. I finished my one lap, but not to sure where I was as far as places. Getting lapped with one to go wasn't that bad considering a double flat.
Sunday was the Boulder Cup down near Fairview High School in Boulder as well. Same venue as last years Grand Prix that came through town. Since Cat 4's were full that day as well, it was going to be another day of suffering with the 3's. I got just as bad as a starting position as the day before, and we were off, I tried to stay with a group of guys that looked strong, and successfully did, for about 3 laps. When I was going around a corner I had a guy come up on my left to try and take the same line as I was. In the process my tire rolled off of the rim, and my challenge blew up Greg Keller style. I was very close to the pit, and was able to make a quick change of my front wheel. I didn't make it back to the group I wanted too, but I did make it back up to the kid who caused me to crash. I passed him, and was trying bridge up to the next group. When he passed me he did so a little to close, and got something caught up in my front wheel. Luckily nothing broke, and when I was going through the finish I got pulled. Nothing like a little bad luck for the weekend, but at least the Elite men's races were fun to watch. Thanks for reading.
PS I got a new link check it out. Some new songs as well. I try to indent all of my paragraphs but it doesn't seem to be working.

A rough weekend on the bike

2007-10-21T19:09:00.000-06:00

Well I have had a weekend to remember this weekend. Saturday was the race at Interlocken, which was where I had my very first cross race last year. I really wanted to do well, because last year it was pretty rough to say the least. There was a very large field this year, probably about 100 or so. I made my way up with Colin and my little bro. The course was almost exactly the same as last year, with a little change. They added a small creek crossing going into a very steep, slippery grassy hill. Lets just say the river was full of disgusting mud, that resembled the smell of dead fish. In addition to that it was just a very difficult course. I felt pretty crappy out of the gate, but still found myself moving up pretty well. I was riding the sand pit almost every lap, and everytime I did so, I ended up passing somebody each time. I felt like crap the whole time, but it was better than last year so all is good. They havn't posted results yet, so I'm not sure how I ended up finishing.
Sunday was a different story, the forecast said a high of 35 with a 90% chance of snow. That was pretty much how it was. The course was up in Evergreen at a elementary school, the course would have been very difficult in nice conditions, but it was snowing, windy, and a bitter 30 degrees. I felt like I got a pretty good warm-up, and actually wasn't feeling that cold considering the conditions. The course today also had a creek crossing that was extremely muddy and deep. During warm-ups I told my teammates that I was gonna hit it right down the middle and hope for the best. That is just what I did, and it didn't end well. As soon as I hit it, I knew I was going down, and I flew over the bars into a nice pad of mud. I got up and recovered quickly and surprisingly kept my position in the group. After that my next three laps went very well. Then all of the sudden I started getting very cold, and felt like I had lost all of my power all at once. I couldn't move up anymore, I just stayed where I was. Kinda frustrating to say the least. What I did get out of today was a good workout, and experience. At least I know that I can hold my own in a race that is in really bad conditions. Big thanks to Corey, Corey's Parents and Jami for cheering me on at the races this weekend. It always helps a bunch. Thanks for reading.

Gunnison CX

2007-10-18T18:59:00.001-06:00

Well I finally got some time to update the blog, sorry for the hiatus. Good news from the weekend, I kept the bike upright, no mechanicals and I got a pretty sweet new skin suit as well. The course was on the Western State College Campus, with a lot of grass for a change, lots of turns and 3 barrier run up. Suited a power rider like myself for sure. I stayed with the main group for pretty much the entire race, I got gapped a little with 2 to go and rolled in for 10th place. Its the best result for me in a cross race, and I finally felt like I could put some power down and hold it in a race.

The Run Up
The Finish

I made the trek up there with my little brother,(who is sitting 2nd in BCR points for Juniors now) and the chester dog of course. He was bushed after all of the races on saturday, and so was Eric.

In the hotel
Chester which side of the bed do you want?

So after getting a solid night sleep we all woke up to much colder temperatures, rain and wind. Eric took second in his race after battling with a kid for 30 minutes in the horrible conditions, and finished for a super strong weekend.
My race started a few hours later, same course as the day before, only backwards with the barriers in a different place. Warm-ups were even worse conditions than earlier that morning, but as soon as my race started, the sun came out a little and it was much better. I didn't feel as good as the previous day, but still felt super strong. The course was very muddy from all of the rain, and extremely slick in every corner, which made for pretty slow going. I got gapped about half way through the race and got in a chase group with a kid from the bike source. We kept attacking each other in certain spots, and in the last lap I put on an attack that he couldn't follow and I rolled in for 11th place. Here are some of the pics from Sunday

So, all in all an awesome weekend of racing. I can't wait for Interlocken this weekend, it was my first one last year, and I plan on turning heads this weekend. Thanks for reading.
PS Check out the new songs.

A weekend in Frisco

2007-10-09T19:59:00.000-06:00

Well finally I have some good news to report in this cyclocross season. I kept it upright all weekend, and didn't lose my chain once. I know its hard to believe but it did actually happen. As most everybody knows I had probably the worst crash of my career at the Boulder Research Park. I didn't get a solid week of training due to the injury. But I was able to get out a couple of times during the week, so not a total loss. Eric Moore and I made the trek up to Frisco on saturday morning, with my race time starting at 12:25. Coach Corey came up with a new strategy during the race, using my power near the end, and not run out of gas too early. It went OK during saturday's race, but nothing very spectacular happened that day.

Here is one of the shots during the race.
Here is another, I got the game face on for this one.

So anyway, I wasn't too aggressive during the race on saturday, just tried to keep my overall position and not lose any places, It seemed to work out well, and I felt pretty strong the entire race. I finished somewhere in the bottom half, which has pretty much been the story for me all year.
Sunday's race went much better, I felt strong all around, and moved up the entire race. They changed up the course from the day before and it suited me quite a bit better than the day before. A little bit more flat, with a few of the same sections from the previous days course. With a sandy run-up that some people were riding and others were running, but if you hit it right you could ride it. Another part was super technical and kinda slow, but made it very challenging. Last but not least the 2 sets of 4 barriers right past the start/finish line. I started somewhere in the middle, didn't go for the whole shot, and went to try to pick people off and move up throughout the field. I moved up every lap, picking off people as best I could, while not exerting myself a ton. With two laps to go, I decided to start opening myself up a little. With Dave Towle's help I tried to make my move for better placing. I attacked the small group of people I was with, and only one guy followed. We took turns at the front keeping the pace high for that lap. Then about half way through our last lap, he opened it up and set a pace I couldn't match. Tried to bridge up, but settled for 23rd.
I felt awesome with how I raced today, and it is my best cyclocross finish since I started last fall. I know that my fitness isn't quite there yet, but I feel better every time that I race, and have high hopes for the next couple of weeks. Thanks for all who came out and cheered me on, it makes the racing that much more fun and makes me attempt to go that much faster! Thanks for reading.

P.S. My Boulder Cycle Sport clothing finally came in this week, I'm pumped to finally race in it. I put some new songs on my "Whats on the Pod" section, check them out.

In other news...

2007-09-29T21:17:00.000-06:00

My chain didn't fall off once, even after the big crash, got that problem solved.

Boulder Research Park

2007-09-29T20:32:00.000-06:00

Well it has been a solid day for sure, went into today's race in Boulder with a real solid week of training under my belt, and high hopes to do well. Had a fair sized field today and the course was way fun, with lots of turns, very technical, lots of fun stuff. My first lap went really well in the main group for the most part. Then when I'm making a turn onto the dirt part of the course from the asphalt and I stack it up in the dirt, pretty hard to I might add. I look down and see my left leg is mess. I almost got back on the bike and kept going but it just wasn't happening today. I found the medical tent and they patched me up as best they could. The first aid guy said I needed to go to the hospital and get stitches for the top of my leg. So I drove home to Littleton, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the ER. I don't have any pics from the accident, but I do have what I looked like when I got home from the hospital.

13 stitches later I'm good as new

It looked a lot cooler when it had all of my flesh showing, Scotty Boy can vouch for it.

The shin actually looks worse than the other cut, but its not.

Anyway its been a crappy day and I'm gonna get some sleep. I wish I could race tomorrow but I don't want to end up like this guy, who rode his bike with stitches, thanks for reading.

Foothills Cross

2007-09-24T06:53:00.001-06:00

Well I didn't get that much out of this weekend other than 2 really hard workouts. Had a bunch of mechanicals yesterday, and was playing chase the whole race. Good news is that Eric Moore took 2nd, and my good friend from Latvia, took third! Good job both of you. Next week I will have better news I hope. Thanks for reading.

Pikes Peak Supercross

2007-09-22T19:54:00.000-06:00

Made my way up to the springs today with Eric Moore for Pikes Peak Supercross. I had intentions of doing very well, had a solid week of training, and a decent race last week. Well today didn't go as planned, felt like crap and couldn't ever get any kind of rhythm going at all. I felt like my first lap was pretty good, had good position on the start, and through the first barrier I ran through the weeds and dodged some people. After that I had a hard time making any type of large effort to stay with anyone. I got lapped by the leader with 1 to go. Really disappointing day for sure, and I am hoping I have a better day tomorrow. Eric on the other hand did really well and had an awesome first race, 4th place!
As for the race tomorrow I'm ready to rip the legs off of my adversaries. Last year this race was my last of the year, and it was my worst too. I'm super pumped, and got high hopes for tomorrow. Thanks for checking in, I'm gonna get some sleep.

Brecktobercross

2007-09-19T22:04:00.000-06:00

Sorry for such a late update, I have been crazy busy! Sunday was the much anticipated first cross race of the year. Good and bad all around, had some mechanical issues during the race, but overall had a lot of fun! Corey and I left Denver and made our way up to Breckenridge. Couldn't have asked for better weather, and a better place for a really fun cross course. I went into the race really excited for the first one, but not knowing how my first real race of the year would be, and where I was physically. I felt surprisingly well in the race, but my mechanicals started early and put a damper on my overall result. We determined later that my third eye chain watcher was sitting lower than in normally would in which case it wouldn't do its job correctly. This made for probably a dozen chain drops, which was also a result of how bumpy the course was. Overall it was a good first race, and with cross mechanicals are just part of the game. I bought a double chain ring set up the other night, and that should mean no more chain drops for sure. I know my fitness isn't quite where it should be yet, but I know I will feel better every race. Last year, I was getting lapped pretty quickly, I know that the only reason I was lapped on sunday was because of mechanicals, so nothing but good things ahead hopefully. I'm off to bed, training tomorrow and a long day of work. Thanks for reading,

P.S. I never thought it would happen, but Corey managed to find a rap album that I enjoy. Kanye West's Graduation. Check out my Ipod section as well, its been updated.

Autumn is here, couldn't have come sooner.

2007-09-13T08:07:00.000-06:00

Nice crisp morning today, and had one of the better rides that I have had in awhile. Ive found my cross course that I will do my race workouts on near my old middle school not more than a few blocks from my house. I do need to build some porto-barriers to complete it, might be my saturday project.
Above are the new wheels that I finally got the other day...only problem is I can't use them! They are Dura-Ace 7800 hubs, wrapped in a black Mavic Open Pro, with wheelsmith black spokes. Turns out the Dura-Ace hubs only work with 10 speed, and 1o speed only. You can only switch out the free-hub body for one identical to it, because apparently they run an oversize axle shell which only allows that certain free-hub body. I'm trying to decide if I should send these babies back, and start from scratch? Or strip down the rear wheel and get a different hub? Sell them on Craig's List? Its a tough call and I'm not sure what to do, I would love to hear what you all think.

Above is a shot of the hub, and below is a shot of the rim.
If anyone is interested in taking these off of my hands, let me know and we can maybe work something out. Also does anybody have a similar wheelset (32 spokes) that they want to get rid of? Anywho I hope I get some feedback, thanks for reading.

P.S. I was reading Greg's site today and he found an article about the course for Sunday, looks like fun.

Weekend in Ft. Collins

2007-09-10T09:40:00.000-06:00

Well I had a weekend out of the ordinary in Ft. Collins. I drove up on Friday night to spend the night at my brothers house in Ft. Collins, so I could have a short drive to my races at Beaver Meadows this weekend. I had a awesome week of training, and was feeling in very top form. My hard workout on Wednesday on the MTB went better than ever and I felt very confident. Somewhere in between Ft. Collins and Beaver Meadows, my father's truck took a nose dive on me and I was stranded with no phone service, and a broken down vehicle. Luckily about 5 minutes after the incident a old man pulled over and helped me out. While we were figuring out what to do, a tow truck driver who was in the same vicinity stopped as well. He said that he was on his way to pick up somebody else and that he would pick me up on the way back. After waiting about an hour, he picked me up and we made our way back to Ft. Collins. I thought that AAA was going to take care of the charges but I was wrong. Apparently I am not a "plus" member of AAA so they don't take care of towing charges after 4 miles. I payed a whopping 93 bucks to get the truck pulled back, how wonderful.
Once I got back to my brothers house, I took a nap for a couple hours and then tried to figure out if I could find a way to the race the next day, or find a way back home. Since my brother was in Grand Lake I couldn't steal his car, so I tried to enlist the help of Dana. He decided to spend time with the wife and kids, instead of go to a bike race. So I basically sat on the couch and didn't do anything the whole weekend. On a brighter note I have my first cross race this weekend in Breckenridge. I'm super pumped for it, and I can't wait. I just got done with a run this morning, and I remember why I like riding my bike a lot more. It sucked and I only ran for like 20 minutes! Anyways, I took the day off of work today to get some stuff taken care of, and try to fight off this cold that I seem to be catching. Hopefully it doesn't get worse. Thanks for reading.

Labor Day Weekend

2007-09-03T15:50:00.001-06:00

Hey all, well I made the trek up to the high country this weekend for the final Mountain States Cup race. I stayed up in Edwards with Koch, Jeremy and Allez. I drove up on Friday because I had an early morning on saturday. I got up around 6ish, drove all the way to keystone only to find out that short track regestration was closed and I couldn't get in. I used the time to register for Sunday's XC race, and prerode the XC course for the next day. I found out later I rode the XC course incorrectly during warm up. Anyway later on Saturday we went to Oktoberfest at Beaver Creek drank a couple of beers and hung out. Later that night a few of Matt and Jeremy's friends came up from Nebraska, and also Dana. We went on a little pub crawl on saturday night, ended up coming back pretty late considering I had a race the next morning. I woke up about 6 or so and Dana and I made the Trek down to Keystone from Edwards. We got to the race feeling a little hung over, and morale was low for the race, but I opted to race anyways. The course was nothing short of very difficult. Lots of climbing on fire roads, single track, and very technical descents. The majority of the race was climbing and we actually end up climbing the entire ski mountain. I stayed with the main group for the first climb, and first descent. When we hit the second climb, I blew up and rode solo for the last part of the race. After the second climb, you descend down to the finish, very quickly. I finished, not sure where I did but I was pumped just to finish. After the race I drove home and me and the family went the Yonder Mountain String Band last night. Fun times for sure, check them out. Looks like I will be heading up to Ft. Collins this weekend for the Beaver Meadows MTB race. Then after that its Cross time. Thanks for checking in.

Happy B-day to me

2007-08-25T13:24:00.000-06:00

I turned 21 today, it feels good to finally drink legally...I am having my get together tonight at the Old Chicago on Broadway and Mineral tonight at 7ish, would be great if everybody came!

CX Team

2007-08-17T19:13:00.000-06:00

Well its official everybody, I am now a member of the Boulder Cycle Sport Cyclocross team. I'm pretty pumped for the season, and can't wait for it to start! Since I am taking a little time off of school, I can work save up some money, and hopefully rip the legs off of my oppenents this season. Anyway big soccer game tonight, thanks for reading, more later.
PS New songs on the the "whats on the pod" section

Looking for a team for cross this season...

2007-08-09T21:42:00.000-06:00

Well everyone, cross is almost here and I can't wait. I'm hopefully gonna be building up the steed for this coming season soon and getting some solid training in. I plan on doing a couple of the mountain states cup races in next couple of weeks one in Nederland and one in Keystone. Anyway wondering if any of my faithful readers know of a team that is looking for some riders to add to their squads. I've talked with Rocky Mounts a little bit and its kinda looking bleak. I talked with the Boulder Cycle Sport team about the team that they are putting together for cross and I havn't heard back yet. Anyway if anybody has some advice, or someone to contact, let me know. Thanks for reading

A little break

2007-08-01T23:05:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the lack of updates but I'm back for good! I got back from Santa Fe on Monday afternoon for a much needed little vacation. I got to ride quite a bit while I was there, and even had a solid day in the mountains of New Mexico. I rode from my Grandparents house to Santa Fe Ski Area and back which is a grand total of about 50 miles, give or take.

This was my way up the mountain, not that steep but it sure was long, about 14 miles up.

This is when I stopped at a campground to fill up my waterbottles

The Cockpit

Anyway my ride up the mountain got cut short by some bad weather and lightning that rolled in. I was only about a mile from the top, but bad weather made me turn around. When I rolled back through town, I was cruising through the plaza in Santa Fe, when I stopped to watch a guitarist play. It didn't take me long to realize it but it was none other than Esteban, the guy who sells guitars on infomercials. I hung out and watched for awhile and it was awesome!

Saturday night was spent at the Santa Fe opera outside of town. They did a performance of "Platee" which is a story of Greek Mythology but sung in French. It was really interesting for sure and a really nice setting.

Aside from my little vacation not much has been going on, just work, ride, sleep, repeat. My last road race of the season will be Sunday, at the Bannock St. Criterium. I would ask you to come watch but it starts at 7am. Just sleep in I'll tell you about it.

Longmont Criterium and such

2007-07-16T23:26:00.000-06:00

Well been a busy guy the past few weeks. After the Firecracker 50 I took a much needed couple of days off, went for a recovery ride 2 days later and still felt horrible. Ive never had such a hard time recovering after a race, I can only imagine what those endurance MTBikers go through. Anywho I have been still riding the mountain bike a lot, and the only time I have been riding my road bike is to work and back and stuff. Ive found the MTB training I have been doing has definately helped my endurance in races, and really giving me more solid base. I went out with a guy from work who is a semi-pro and did about 4.5 hours race pace style training in the foothills near my house. It was hard, really hard, but a good thing for sure.
I raced in the Longmont Crit on Sunday. It didn't go to well, I had a pretty bad position from the start and moving up in that field was a harder task than expected. There were lots of 90 degree turns and not much time to move up if you wanted to. There was a crash about 35 minutes in, that a lot of people were involved in. I had to unclip to avoid it, and decided to use my free lap. I did so, and the pace seemed to be even faster than before the crash. So I finished in a chase group, and that was it. I was pretty dissappointed in myself, but we have good and bad days I suppose.
I hope everybody has been watching the tour, it has been pretty exciting thus far. Its so hard to say who might pull away in this one. I thought Vino had a chance, but its gonna be hard on him for the next few weeks. My wildcard right now is Iban Mayo, he looked super strong yesterday, and he could do it! But who knows, its wide open at this point. Anywho, I'm off to get some sleep, tuesday night crit tomorrow! There are some new songs for all you folk to check out as well, take a look!

Firecracker 50

2007-07-06T18:10:00.000-06:00

I knew it was gonna hurt, and it did, really bad. With the combination of lots of climbing technical climbing and really steep elevation, it was a hard race. I had to do 2 laps of a 25 mile course. The first part of the race went really well, and I was feeling better than I ever have in a mountain bike race for sure. Then about 20 miles in I crashed, it wasn't too bad, bike came out from under me a little bit, and I just jumped back on and tried to chase back to the group I was with. I made it back to them then I managed to crash again, this time a little worse. I chased back to the group again, and I could see the lap marker up ahead, in which case we had roughly another 25 to go. Then thats when I crashed really hard, and it wasn't one that I could just get up and keep going. While I was descending on a jeep trail I took a really bad line and ended up over the bars and onto some rocks and gravel. Lets just say I had to sit there and collect myself for a few minutes then I got back on my bike went through the finish line and decided that one lap was enough. I HATE not finishing races, but I knew I needed to throw in the towel. I watched Jay Henry of Tokyo Joe's smoke everybody and finish at least 5 minutes ahead of the second place guy which was Ryan Trebon. Overall it was a fun race and I would totally do it again in a heartbeat. A much longer race probably doesn't suit a rider like myself but, it would be a good workout, and something to work towards. Thanks for checking in...check out the new songs on my pod

This is gonna hurt...

2007-07-04T06:50:00.000-06:00

I'm doing the Firecracker 50 today...its gonna hurt

Hitting the dirt

2007-06-29T21:25:00.000-06:00

Went mountain biking again this morning, it was my 4th time this week! Been hitting up the local mountain bike trails a lot and giving the mountain bike some love. Been doing really early morning rides before work with my manager John and my fellow co-worker Frye. Anywho, thought I should do the write up on my mountain bike so here she is.

The bike is a 2006 Cannondale Rush 1000 with the Siemens Mountain bike team paint job. I bought the bike barely used from Mark Cooper the current manager at the International Bike in Greeley. I hardly did any research on the bike before I bought it, and I have had no regrets whatsoever.

The wheels are Mavic Crossland UST that came stock on the bike, I currently have Maxxis Crossmark Tubless tires on it. The wheels have been awesome, completely bomb proof, everytime I tune up the bike and put the wheels in the truing stand I don't have to touch it! The tires are what came on the bike as well and have been fantastic. Just recently I have put a lot of holes in the tires so I'm not running them tubeless right now. I might be getting new tires soon, any suggestions?

This next picture is of my rear derailleur and cassette. The shifters are SRAM X-7 Shifters with a SRAM X-9 rear derailleur. The front derailleur is a shimano LX. The SRAM shifters are really nice, and all the shifting is done with your thumb.

This next shot is of my cranks and pedals. I have the FSA afterburner crank, and crank bros candies for pedals, as you can see my shoe has rubbed all of the powdercoat off of the crank (thank you answer mountain bike shoes) but I guess it makes me look hardcore...not really. The pedals I picked up on closeout nice and cheap. I was running eggbeaters for a long time, but I like the candies much better.

This next picture shows my Avid Juicy Seven Hydraulic brakes, which are awesome and I highly recommend. In the backround you can see the SRAM shifter, the pedros lock on grips.

This next shot is of my FSA K-force handlebars. These aren't the stock bars that came on the bike, this was one of the little upgrades that mark had done before he sold it to me. Carbon bars are a nice bonus.

This next shot is of my seat and seatpost. The saddle is a Fizik Aliante Sport saddle, basically a cheaper version no carbon pieces and such. If you want a LAZ Boy style saddle Aliante is the way to go. The saddle sits on none other than a Thomson Elite seatpost.

The rear shock is a Fox RP3 with Pro Pedal. The Pro Pedal really helps with climbing and gives you more options than just a lockout. Flip it to the plus side when you climbing and down to the minus with descending, it makes a difference for sure.

This last shot is of the Cannondale Lefty Fork. It looks a little goofy but, it does perform, and has taken everything that I have thrown at it. It has a lockout and a rebound knob right next to the stem, for easy access.

Whew, I hope I didn't bore everybody to tears but thats it. Anyone who is considering getting a Cannondale Rush, don't look any further because it is awesome.

One more thing, this is for Colin Don and Corey.
MILKSHAKE!!!

I was reading Matt Shrivers blog and I could hardly believe it! He is even on a BMC it makes my night.

Pictures from Ft. Collins Criterium

2007-06-17T17:50:00.000-06:00

Before the start

One of the first few laps

Accelerating on a flat stretch

Chasing the break

Chasing the field after the crash in front of me

Well after a lot of talking about putting up pictures some are finally here, thanks for checking in

So its been ahwhile...

2007-06-16T16:34:00.001-06:00

Well Hello all of my faithful readers, I finally have a picture up! I actually do have a camera now, but since I am at work I can't upload them to this computer. But the photographer was able to snap this photo at my race in Ft. Collins last weekend. I will get the other ones up soon. This race ended up going pretty well, I was in the group the whole time, sat in, worked a little bit, dodged a couple of crashes to stay in it. Then with four laps to go a 10 man pile up occurred in front of me which gapped me out of the main group and out of contention. I chased real hard for 4 laps, and finished about 20 seconds off of the main group. If you look back to last year, I stayed with the group for roughly 2 laps and needless to say I could have done better. Its good to know I can stay in the group in a Cat 4 race.
Then I did the Tuesday night crit again up at Table Mountain in Golden. Seeing as there were a lot of Thunderstorms and rain going on that day there wasn't a huge turnout. But some of my teammates from Metro State showed up and we all made the race interesting. We started with a 14 man field, and it split up right out of the gate. Some guy from Al's Barber Shop/Wild Oats attacked from the beginning. I followed along with a guy from Green Mountain Sports, and my teammate Yuki following close behind. It was obvious that we had some horsepower in the break, and had a really good chance of staying away all day. I held on for roughly 7 laps, and eventually the kid from Al's Barber Shop/Wild Oats took the win. I finished 4th overall, and 1st in the chase group sprint. Overall a pretty good day for the weather being so bad.
Aside from racing I have just been working, and riding a lot. Lots of fun, thanks for checking in...more pictures soon

City Park Crit, and Tuesday night Crit

2007-06-07T21:42:00.000-06:00

Well this past sunday I participated in the City Park Crit in downtown Denver. The race was pretty flat for the most part with a couple of round-a-bout style turns in it. I started the race with Brian and we both ended up getting gapped out and chasing the rest of the race. We were joined a couple of times by people, but after the wicked chase pace that Brian and I put on, it would have been hard for anyone to stay on. Anyway on the last lap I attacked right before the last turn, and nipped Brian in the sprint. About the wicked pace, it wasn't wicked at all, I'm sure Brian will elaborate in his blog.
The tuesday night crit was much better with me actually hanging onto the pack for the entire race. The course was up on table mountain in Golden with a false flat uphill finish. It was a 12 lap race with sprints on every other lap. I sat in for the first 20 minutes or so until one of the sprint laps. Usually somebody had attacked for one of the sprints but on this lap nobody had yet. I had good legs so I went for it and tried to mix it up a little bit. Burned quite a few matches with that effort, but was able to get back into the group and rest a little bit, and wait for the end to happen. I wasn't really sure how many laps we had left, and when we finished, I wasn't quite sure that we were done yet. But I think I finished somewhere in the top 20 or something like that. Anyway the race went good in my mind and I'm really looking forward to this weekend for the crit in Ft. Collins. Anyway I'm off to bed, big day at work tomorrow.

Coal Miners Classic

2007-05-20T21:03:00.000-06:00

Well after my few week hiatus from racing I decided that I needed to get back out there and try my luck at a few open races. The race was held out in Louisville, the course is just over a mile long, with a long uphill finish. We had a really large field with probably about 70 guys. It quickly split up and I managed to stay in the main group. It only lasted about 5 or 6 laps before I started to feel that hill more and more on each lap. Anyway, I lasted about 20 to 25 minutes in the main group which is probably the best I have ever done in an open race. If you look at my old posts the first ACA race that I was in I managed to get spit out of the back in about 5 minutes. At least I got my money's worth today I suppose. I hope to do some more open races this summer, and hopefully be able to finish in the pack eventually. Now that I am finally on a regular schedule at work, I can work in time for training. Hopefully I'll be able to scrape some pics off of the internet from the race, until then...

Summer

2007-05-09T18:18:00.000-06:00

Well I made it to the end of my sophmore year today, and it couldn't have come at a better time. I was getting pretty burned out on school and its nice that it is finally over. Got to hit the grind of work again tomorrow. Anywho, more later I'm gonna eat some dinner.

Dopers Suck

2007-05-07T22:28:00.000-06:00

Well as most of you probably know, Ivan Basso finally came clean today, and I thought that I should shed light on the subject. Gotta hand it to the guy for finally coming clean, for having a guilty concience I guess. I would probably be guilty to if I had won the Giro by cheating, but thats just me I guess. In my opinion I think that the majority of guys on the pro circuit are clean, but i know that there are some who cheat. I think that it really sucks that they have to bring down the sport of cycling like this. It gives it all a bad name, when cycling is such a great thing, and something like this only brings it down. I hope that this little incident will bring all others to just confess to what they did instead of beating around the bush. I read an article recently about a former Quick Step classics rider who recently came out and said that he doped in the final years of his career, but thats all he said and he wouldn't elaborate. People who are involved need to just do what Ivan did and just face the music. Lets make the sport fair again, I don't like Ivan for cheating, but I like Ivan for having the guts to come out and say it. Well I'm not writing my paper, thanks for checking in.

Big ride in the rain

2007-05-06T09:17:00.000-06:00

Well yesterday I got invited to go riding with a guy from work for a couple of hours. A couple of hours turned into about 4 in half hours. We went up Deer Creek Canyon, then got on the High Grade road where all of the switchbacks are. Needless to say there was a lot of climbing but can't really be anything but good for me. When we got into conifer there was a bunch of snow and rain, and it stayed that way on the descent back into Littleton. Anywho, it was a good ride and I hope to do it again soon, Well time for me to go to work hung over, thanks for checking in.

Durango Road Race and Mad Cow Classic

2007-04-30T21:59:00.000-06:00

Well I will start off with the road race in Durango. This was one race that is definately intimidating but yet one that I felt like I needed some redemption from last year. I had been trying to psych myself up for it all week, with trying to work real hard on my climbing skills and I think it actually helped that day. We had roughly a 28 mile course, over the course of 4 laps with roughly 900 feet of climbing on each lap. As you can see from previous posts, climbing isn't exactly my forte. As soon as we hit the first hill the field exploded which was to be expected. I hung with the main group part way up the climb and later got gapped a little, and couldn't quite hang on. I finished by myself but was relieved to find out that I had made the top 10 which was more than I could ask for. I actually felt like I could hang onto a strong pace climbing which has never happened before, so hopefully I can make more happen there next year.

Onto the Mad Cow Classic in Grand Junction where this years conference championships were being held. I left Denver very motivated for the weekend, and eager to try and do well. The road race was the same course as last year with a lot of small climbs, large downhills and a sprint finish. I got spit out the back on the first climb, and ended up chasing the majority of the race with a few teammates and a guy from Utah. About 3/4 of the way through the race, I saw people pulled over everywhere, I found out later that apparently a local decided to sabatoge the course. It sucks when that stuff happens, but luckily I wasn't one of those guys and I finished in the chase group for 13th place I think.

Last but not least was the Fruita Loops Criterium in downtown Fruita. This was a race that I had been looking forward to all year, with that being my best race last year. The course was flat with a few 90 degree turns and a long straitaway with a roundabout on the opposite end. As far as a course for a rider like me goes it couldn't have been better. The race started pretty fast with the CSU guys setting pace on the front and taking turns attacking. I was sitting in just trying to stay in a good position and hopefully get a leadout from my teammates. My team was doing perfectly chasing attacks, counterattacking and just making it hard for everybody else. Then with 6 laps to go a kid from Wyoming touched wheels with another rider, and ran into me trying to catch himself. My wheel was bent and my brake was engaged due to a dust cap in my shifter breaking loose, and getting caught in the wrong place. I pitted and Corey changed my front wheel and pulled the dust cap out of my shifter. The referee came up to us and said that we couldn't get anymore free laps. I think about it now and I get really mad, but it was one of those things that happens sometimes and all you can do is forget about it. It is what it is. It was a shitty way to end my collegiate season, but overall I felt I had a strong season and was at a point where I could change the outcome of some races and that was my ultimate goal. I raced later in the Cat 4's to try and redeem myself, only got lapped once and didn't get pulled, better than any open race I have been in, so overall not so bad. I hope to get involved in some open races over the summer and try to gain some more experience. Getting on another team would be really awesome as well... thanks for checking in and I will try to get ahold of some pictures from people who have cameras.

Durango TTT and Crit

2007-04-21T20:30:00.000-06:00

Quick update, took second in the TTT today with the metro team, I think if we work on it a little we could win next week in Grand Junction. Big improvement from last year yet again.
The crit went alright, 13th, riding for the teammates a more today, and didn't feel like a I had a good enough recovery between the TTT and the crit. But I'm off to bed, big Durango road race tomorrow and I need the all the rest I can get. Until tomorrow thanks for checking in.

CC and Air Force

2007-04-17T20:44:00.000-06:00

To all of my faithful readers, sorry for the hiatus, for it has been a busy couple of weeks. I spent this past weekend racing in Colorado Springs mostly hanging out with all the good people from DU. Good and Bad all around. The hill climb was cancelled due to ice on the course, so it was just a Crit and Road Race this weekend. The Crit went right through CC campus, with a 180 degree turn right near the gate, and a small hill and a small switchback power climb on the other side. Pretty fun course for sure and my result ended up turning out pretty well. Right out of the gate a break started with CSU starting and CU following with me trying to jump on as well. I was able to get onto the break, held on for about 3 laps and sort of hit a wall. I waited for a few chasers to jump on my wheel and was able to rest for a bit and recharge the batteries. One guy from CSU jumped on my wheel and we managed to make up some time on the break in front of us, but then on the climb he decided to attack?! Not sure why but he did, and I didn't chase. I waited again for more chasers, and I was joined by a kid from CC and David Leanord from UNC. We worked much better together, and ended up catching the kid from CSU who attacked me. We stayed together until the final 2 laps, then CC attacked on the climb, with CSU following. I didn't have much gas left, and cruised in for 5th place. I was pleased with my performance, ideally I would have stayed with the first break, but it didn't happen. Corey told me my tactics were very good, so more to improve on for next week.
Next day was the Road Race at Air Force. I came into it very mixed about how well I was going to do. First lap went pretty well with the pace real fast right out of the gate. A few attacks tried to go right away with no success from anyone who tried. On the first climb I got gapped out and it went downhill from there. I was joined with a kid from Wyoming who seemed to be in just as much pain as I was, so it wasn't all bad. We stayed together for most of the second lap, we both burned plenty of matches trying to catch the group. Then I blew up and had nothing left at all. So I dropped out with 1 lap to go. I hate to drop out, but I did and we all have at some point I guess. I just need to work on my endurance racing a little more. I feel I have been real strong in the majority of our crits this year so the road racing part is the one I need to work on. Especially with real tough races in Durango and Grand Junction coming up. I hope to have a good week of training trying to get ready for the big races this weekend in Durango. Until then thanks for reading...

Oredigger Classic

2007-04-01T21:23:00.000-06:00

Well funny to think that about a year ago I weighed in at about 225 and I struggled to keep my bike going up a hill. (look back at March of 2006) and rode lookout mountain somewhere near 36 minutes. This weekend I weighed about 193 pounds I rode up lookout in under 28 minutes. So it is safe to say that I have improved a lot. Lookout went real well, wind was blowing pretty hard, but i suppose it could have been worse.
The next day I had the circuit race on the School of Mines campus in Golden. Not really my style of race with a real hard climb up one side and up to the finish. I hung with the group for a couple of laps but it was all that I had and ended getting dropped off the back. I cruised in for 16th according to one of my teammates. Not to bad, but either way I got a good workout in. Got this next weekend off for racing, I think a century ride might be in order for the coming weekend...

CU/CSU

2007-03-25T22:02:00.000-06:00

CU

Sorry its been awhile for my updates, but I'm pretty busy! Well to start out, CU was last week, and had a pretty strong races all weekend. Saturday morning was the TT which was a disappointment to say the lease. It was about an 8 mile course, only problem was you had to park your car at the finish and ride 8 miles to the start, not so fun. We just won't talk about the time trial, I don't think it will hurt all my faithful readers feelings.
Later that evening there was the crit at the CU research park. The course was super flat and only about 1K in length. For once the C race didn't start at the ass crack of dawn, so it was actually warm outside. I got there early enough to watch Corey try his luck in a break with Karl Menzies, Jason Donald, Tim Johnson, and John Tarkington. That was fun to watch for sure, I was surprised how many big names showed up out in boulder. The A race was eventful, and fat ass lost in a sprint this week, that usually doesn't happen but fun to watch for sure.
Anyways, my race started after all the big races, we even had some more experienced guys give us a little criterium tutorial. On my part it was stuff I already knew, but very good for guys who never raced before. The race got underway after that, only for a crash within the first 200 feet of the race. Apparently some people neglected everything that the more experienced guys said and did stupid things in a race anyway. Luckily the crash was right behind me and I was not involved and able to keep rolling. Obviously the CU guys had a lot of racers there, and they were setting pace on the front the entire time. The course had lots of potholes and their were plently of places that were really dangerous. Some kid from FLC who was sitting on the front was all over the place the whole race and managed to take my teammate Corey Nale out of the race. In the process he wripped a Record Deraillieur off of a non replaceable deraillieur hanger on a Scott CR1 frame, ouch. Later in the race a few breaks tried to go but didn't stick and I knew that it was going to come down to a field sprint. Right before the 1 lap to go mark, dipshit from FLC dumped it and took out at least 7 guys with him. In the process I got gapped from the top 10 and had to try to play catch up to the field. It didn't quite work, and I ended up settling for 12th. Overall not a bad race, had I been closer to the front I wouldn't have been involved in that crash, but live and learn I suppose. My teammate Corey Davis took 4th place, which means that didn't have a bad day.
Next day was the road race out near Louisville. At first the race was very chill and we wern't hammering to hard out of the gate. By the middle of the first lap CU had made a strong move and I was struggling to stay with the group. I stayed with the group until the middle of lap 2 and then was dropped into a smaller chase group chasing the peloton. We had 3 guys, and were making a real good effort to get back into the main group. Then our 3rd guy flatted with half a lap to go, and it was me and a Utah kid. He set pace for a good portion of the way back. We both had it out in a sprint at the end, and I ended up beating him and rolling in for 12th place. Race could have gone better, but that was the first time that I have felt good climbing on my bike...ever. So I look at the brighter side of it. Quick note, the kid from Utah had a sticker on his bike that said, "I love mormon pussy" wasn't quite sure what to think of it.

CSU
The CSU weekend consisted of a TTT, Road Race, Criterium. I drove up to Greeley the night before, to stay with Corey and cut my driving time down a little bit. When I got there Corey helped me get ready for my weekend of racing and hooked me up with the big Dura-Ace 11-23 cassette, I felt faster already. We woke up to it raining outside, and started our drive towards Masonville where the TTT and Road Race were being held. I started the TTT with two of my new teammates from metro where we did the first TTT we have done together. All of our levels of fitness were different so it was hard to work together. But we pulled through and managed getting a 2nd place finish, which we were all very pleased with.
Later that day I did the RR with rain coming down even harder and sitting at about 40 degrees. Much fun on the bike for sure, the first lap was very low key, no big moves, just almost like a group ride. Lap 2 was a little faster, a couple moves tried to go but with no success. It was very hard to see much of anything because of all the rain and mud so that made it even more interesting. One part of the course there was a 90 degree turn at the bottom of a big downhill. One of my teammates got his wheel clipped, and dumped it pretty good. He jumped back up quick, but had a mechanical after that. At that point a break had gone away, and we were chasing to try to get on. I blew up pretty fast and started losing places. On that back stretch there was a long downhill that you could make up some time on. When I got to the top my teammate who crashed was right back with me, and said that he had legs and could lead me out. He smoked it on the front for the better part of 4 miles, caught the chase group and I burst ahead and won the field sprint to roll in for 7th place. Felt real good to have a teammate with me to help out, but that is what a team is for I suppose. My former teammate Mike Warren won the Road race, congrats to him!
Sunday morning we went to the Oval Crit in Ft. Collins. Very fun course for sure, and I wasn't sure what to expect. The weather couldn't have been better, even at 8am! The race started off pretty fast with the CSU guys setting pace up front, I got in a good position, and stayed in it for the majority of the race. Both of my teammates said that they were not feeling good from the day before, and said they were out there to race for me today. So I was the guy and I had to be smart. I felt like I did well tactically for sure. Then the bell rang with 3 laps to go and it was "on like donkey kong" as Dave Towle would say. My teammate Corey Davis jumped on the front and set a wicked pace at the end. We came out on the oval for the last lap and he had led me out the best he could. All of the sudden, I was swarmed by a bunch of CSU kids, and I couldn't get position for my sprint. Finally there was an opening and I got out, and sprinted in for 6th place. Today was probably the best I have felt all year, and I think it showed today. I wasn't where I should have been at the end, after a perfect leadout from my teammates. But felt like I had a strong sprint for the finish.

Whew maybe I should spend more time on my homework, and I hope I didn't bore anybody too much. I will try to update a little more often and make it a little more interesting. Until next time, thanks for checking in!

Metro State TT/ DU Crit

2007-03-12T09:21:00.000-06:00

Hey all, what a large weekend of racing for me. My new team was hosting their first race this weekend out at Bear Creek Lake Park here in the Littleton area. We had a real solid turnout for all of the collegiate categories as well as all the open categories. It was a real nice day out, not to cold and not to hot. I raced the collegiate race and did the course in 25:40 which I was pretty impressed with. I found out that I placed 12th, so thats a jump from the week before which I took 17th. Later I did the open category and shaved nearly 40 seconds off of my time. Seeing how I new the course now, I was able to have a good plan going into it. I stuck around all day and watched Scotty Boy and Corey do their TT's.

The next day was the DU criterium at Invesco Field at Mile High. The new time change made the sun not come up until nearly race time. The night before it rained a lot, so the course was a little damp and frozen in some spots. By the time we started racing there was fog everywhere and you couldn't see that far in front of you. I had a good warm up going into it and I was confident at the start. Right off the bat the pace was real fast with the CU guys going real hard in front. I never had great position, and I was sitting in the back of the pack most of the time which is not a fantastic place to be. Then one of the CU kids attacked and the pace quickened even more than the start. So I spent the majority of my race just trying to hang on to the back. The CU kid ended up soloing for the win and winning by nearly a minute. I finished with the chase group and took 12th. I was the only kid on my team that ended up finishing out of the 7 who started. This definately showed that I am the strongest out of all of the C riders that we have, so maybe we can have more of a plan going into next week.

Later that day I went into the Cat 4 race. Last time I did a Cat 4 race I lasted a lap or two tops and got pulled out of the race. They blew the whistle, I jumped on my pedals and off comes my chain. I kept trying to pedal and it finally came back on. I caught up with the pack after a real big effort, and stayed with it for about 20 minutes or so. But that beats how long I lasted in the other Cat 4 race I did. Afterwords I looked at my HR monitor and realized that I averaged 192 for 20 minutes. Seeing as that 182 is my threshold, I knew I gave it my all, better luck next time I guess.

All in all it was a pretty solid weekend, 4 races in 2 days, and im exhausted. This weekend tactically I raced really stupid, but I have high hopes for next week at CU. I hope that the kid who won the crit will move up to B's because he obviously is strong enough to be a B if he is beating everybody else by a minute. Well as of right now my legs feel like Jello, and I'm looking forward to a day off the bike, and to rest a little. As some of you know I got a job at a bike shop down here in Littleton, so I am back to working on bikes again. Well I am off to study for my Spanish Mid-term later today. Thanks to all who supported me this weekend, Ali, Holly, Shawn, Alli, my dad, and Corey for helping me out yet again. Thanks for checking in.

ZIPPS!

2007-03-08T23:50:00.000-07:00

So you might see Evan and his faithful giant riding on Zipp 404s this weekend...pictures later

Lobo Classic

2007-03-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a whirlwind weekend. Well the weekend went really well, I didn't really know what to expect going into it. The ITT went well for my first one, at least I didn't get last. The course was rolling hills and a larger climb to a turnaround. The hill was bigger than I expected, and I know I lost some time there for sure. Something to work on for next week for Metro's ITT. I ended up flatting about 200 meters from the finish of the ITT, luckily not in the middle of it. I ended up taking 17th which I am happy with, considering I didn't know what to expect.

Next up was the crit. The course was a real flat square basically in the middle of a soccer field. The road was a little narrow, and all the turns were 90 degrees, so there were plenty of crashes for sure. There was a kid from UNM riding like a retard, but I guess that is to be expected. There were probably about 4 crashes, everyone of them a direct result of the kid being an idiot. Anyway, I felt good the whole time worked a little, chased back a few breaks and felt strong the whole time. The last lap I wasn't feeling very good, but our good friend from UNM crashed on the final corner. Making a lot of the kids around him slow down. When I saw this I shifted down and started my sprint, I caught one kid in it, and lost 4th place by a wheel length or so, and rolled in for 5th. This is the best result in any race for me, I hope it is a sign of better things to come. If I had a camera to take pictures I would. Maybe Scotty Boy will take some for me next week...

Not long until my first race!

2007-02-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, sorry for the hiatus on my blog for the past couple of weeks. I had a long weekend in Seattle with the family for my grandmothers 70th birthday. My aunt and uncle did a suprise party that they had been planning since before Christmas. We had a lot of cousins that I had not seen since I was probably 8 or so, so it was a lot of fun for sure. We spent a day in downtown Seattle ate some really good seafood, and went to a music museum called the EMP. It is a tribute to a lot of the music that has some out of Seattle, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Jimi Hendrix. But it was a pretty cool to see a lot of the memorbilia that they had there. They had the guitar that Jimi Hendrix played at woodstock in 1969, handwritten lyrics from Kurt Cobain, pretty cool stuff for sure.
Aside from my trip to Seattle, I made it back into Colorado late monday night. Had my first day back on the bike on Tuesday. Next week I'm finally going to get to do some real hard efforts before my first race at UNM on the 3rd of March. I'm real excited to see how I do in my first race. I've been working really hard and I'm hoping that it pays off. But we shall see after my first race. I have been glued to the TV every night since the Tour of California started, and I can't help but think that the call that the referee made the other day was a bad one. Ben Jaques-Maines should have been wearing the yellow I think, and Levi is really lucky that he was able to keep his spot. I hope that mistakes like this will just make the referees better in the future. The next stage showed that Levi was in really good form looked way more comfortable on those climbs than just about anybody. Jens Voigt was really fun to watch, went on the attack and stayed away all day for the win, and won with room to spare. Anyways, I got 10 hours of base to do this week so I better get out and start it up, thanks for checking in, more updates soon.

Not letting a little snow get me down

2007-02-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well I woke up to a small dusting of snow this morning, but I refuse to spend today on the trainer. The forecast calls for it to have flurries all day today, and we are looking at a high of 23 degrees. I had a solid weekend of training, and it started out on friday with a light ride with Corey and Brian for just over an hour. On Saturday I went on about a 2 hour ride or so in Greeley, and then made my way back to Denver for a concert that night. Me and my brothers went to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Denver. It was a really good show and Bela Fleck is one of the best banjo players I have ever seen, it was very impressive for sure. On Sunday, I got out on the mountain bike for the first time since September or so. Rode on some dirt trails around the Littleton area it was kinda muddy but it was a lot of fun. Yesterday I did a light ride due to swimming about a mile in a half in swimming class. Well I have a big week on the bike ahead of me due to my small vacation to Seattle for a long weekend. Thanks for checking in.

Transition Week 1

2007-02-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

Well I started my Transition for my training this week and it has been going really well. Finally got out of base and get to hurt a little bit on the bike. Monday was a beautiful 60 degrees outside, with dry roads pretty much all around. Couldn't have asked for a better day and beats the hell out of my bedroom and riding inside. I rode around the chatfield resevoir and on some of the local trails here in the metro denver area. Tuesday was my work day, and I went on a similar route but went a little longer this time, and spent some time near Roxbouroh park near littleton. My highlight of the day was seeing a pack of 3 coyotes chasing down a deer. The passed over the road not 20 meters from me, so there was a little excitement there. I'm heading to Greeley on Friday, and I will be there most of Saturday, if anybody wants to ride give me a shout!

I might just get out of my lease!

2007-01-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

Well hello all, I recieved a very good phonecall the other day with somebody who was interested in my room! Didn't quite think it was possible at this point but I think I might get lucky. Anywho, I got a lot of good feedback from my review of my road bike the other day. To answer everybody's question about the orange tape, time for a change maybe it will come out when road season starts. I'm coming to greeley tomorrow to fix the shock on my mountain bike and have this kid come look at my house. But for right now its time for another episode of the office. As soon as the mountain bike is fixed there will be a review on it. Thanks for checking in.

PS Planning a trip to Moab on March 19th, anybody interested?

Road Bike Review

2007-01-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

So finally doing a bike review that I have been talking about for so long, so here is bike review #1.
This is my Giant OCR 1 road bike, I have had it now for just over a year and I love it.

I'll start with wheels and tires, The wheels are 700c Xero Lite XSR-3 wheels. They were the wheels that came on the bike and I have yet to replace them. So far they have worked pretty well, they are very light, but the issue that I have had with them is duribility. I plan on getting some Mavic Askiums here before the race season starts. Right now I am running Vittoria Zaffiro tires that Mark Cooper gave me for all of my training. They have been really good with the flat protection, and they are very tough, the only problem I have had is that they are a wire beaded tire so they are not easy to get on and off.

Next is my 9 Speed Ultegra Rear Derallieur(probably can't see it), this is the one that came on the bike. It is actually a long cage derallieur but it hasn't given me any problems.

My cassette is a 12-26 SRAM and my chain is a 9 speed SRAM with a quick link.

This is my Fizik Aliante Saddle that is on top of a Giant Carbon seatpost. I'm actually the second owner of the saddle, I got it from Scott for nice and cheap. I ran an Aliante on my mountain bike and for cross season, my previous saddle was my Serfas Stinger, and after a full season of mountain and cross, my ass no longer liked the stinger.

This next shot is of my Easton EA30 stem which came on the bike, along with the giant integrated headset that came stock on the bike.

This next shot shows my Ultegra 9 speed shifters, and my front brake. Not sure what kind of brake it is, but it looks identical to Tektro road brakes, so I'm going to say that they are Tektros. The handlebar is a name that I have not heard of but I like them so far and no problems with them. It says Ergo Anatomic on them? Those are wrapped up in White Cinelli cork bar tape.

Next are my Speedplay Zero Stainless pedals. These are one of the first really big upgrades I put on my bike and I can't say enough about them. I would highly reccomend them to anybody who wants a great pedal.

This last shot is of my crank that I picked up this summer. It is a FSA Energy 53-39 with a FSA bottom bracket. The glare is pretty bad but you can sort of see my Ultegra Front Derallieur in the picture.
Well I plan on doing a lot more upgrades on this bike, but this will have to do for now. I hope to have a really good race season this year and this is the rig that I am going to do it on. Hopefully I will have the motor to make it go fast.
Thanks for checking in.

Busy!

2007-01-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
Sorry about the lack of updates. Well I have had a busy couple of weeks. School started last week, and I have been having to go back and forth from Greeley because of the alcohol classes/community service. Finally got my new room set up here in Littleton. (pics up soon) Other than that I have been riding the trainer a lot and doing homework. Finally it is warming up a bit, the roads are drying up slowly, so we will see about maybe getting outside this weekend. As most of you know, I have yet to get out since the first blizzard hit us, so I'm crossing my fingers. Thanks for checking in!

Recap of 2006

2007-01-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

Well its 2007 and I am in a completely different place then I thought I would be last year. This year went really well, there were ups and downs for sure. But I made a lot of great friends through it, and I found out who my real friends were throughout the year.
School last semester started out great with me finally having a roommate that didn't smoke himself stupid all the time and eat all my food. That was a definate plus, and finally the dorm room wasn't quite so lonely. Over the Christmas break I finally got myself my first road bike. My Giant OCR 1 was definately one of my best friends of 2006.
A
As soon as I got it I started riding all the time, at first I rode solo then I started getting some groups together with Nick Morgan and a few people weather permitting and kind of just got out when I could.
My season started off with my first crit ever at our home race in Greeley. Definately and eye opener, and just pretty much struggled to hang on to the pace of everybody at the race. After my first race I knew I was hooked and that I really wanted to take it seriously. The very next day we had the race at the CSU oval. There was a large crash in the second lap that a few of my teammates were involved in, which made the race interesting, and near the end I passed Koch in the sprint. Which he wasn't too thrilled about because Dana passed him in the race the day before.
My next race was the Mines race located in Golden, with a time trial up lookout mountain, and a crit in nearby Golden. I have never been confident on hills anyway so going up lookout mountain was a humbling experience. Especially with Tommy D passing me on the switchback like I was standing still. The crit was fairly uneventful, didn't feel great all day but our team did well with Albert King taking second place for the team.
Our next race was in Durango, which I was very nervous about because of the reputation that all of the Durango kids have. The drive out was just as fun as all of the races, with Dana suffering from food poisoning, and me still being hungry after his throw up session. There was a TTT, an ITT and a road race all in 2 days. The TTT was very wet because of the rainstorm the night before. We were down a guy because Dana was not feeling well. It was our first TTT as a team, so our communication wasn't very good and we didn't know what we were doing. The ITT didn't go well for me seeing as I am so confident on the hills. The road race was very humbling with a lot of climbing, roughly 800 feet of climbing per lap of the road race. I finished somewhere near the back, I still don't know where, but it was a lot of fun. The drive home was very interesting, with having transmission problems with the van to blowing a tire all in the same day.

Next race was Grand Junction, which is where I had my best race of the year. There was a road race, a TTT, and a crit. The road race did not go well for me due to 2 mechanicals, and riding by myself the entire race. The TTT went way better with the UNC team winning the TTT. Communication was good, and we all worked together very well which was a huge step for our team. The next day was the Crit, which was very flat with lots of turns and very fast. The race went well for all and we were all in the top 12. I can't wait for that race this year. Afterwords we watched Corey tear it up and take 3rd in the A group. That weekend Corey made me love the song, "Soul Meets Body"
Last race of the year was in Wyoming which wasn't exactly fun. When we went to the road race it was 20 degrees and snowing, I ended up spending just short of 4 hours on my bike not so fun.
For my first season of collegiate road biking I felt I did pretty well, for not training a ton I improved every race and this year promises to be much better.

After school ended I moved into Corey's house for a couple of weeks, and started work at the International Bike. I loved the job right away and kept very busy with it. I got a new mountain bike, (Cannondale Rush 1000) and some new parts for my road bike. After living in Corey's bike Room for a couple weeks, I moved into my house on 11th Ave in Greeley. I really liked it at first but later not so much. The rest of my summer was spent working, riding my bike, and drinking.

School started and all of my other roommates moved in and I new that it would be a very long semester. The place started getting very dirty, and well...you get the picture.

I did a couple of collegiate mountain bike races, and had pretty good results with my highlight of the year taking 8th at the CU race. Not long after mountain biking Corey and Scott thought that I should test my legs on the cross bike. I spent the rest of the fall focused on that with Corey lending me his old Surly. Cross turned out to be more fun than I could have expected and I found myself every weekend going to races around Colorado. Never felt great in the races, but then again you probably shouldn't feel good when your on a cross bike. But we made a new tradition of the wednesday morning cross rides at a nearby park. That turned out to be a lot of fun, even if the weather was bad. I'd like to thank corey for making my cross season possible by letting me use the squirly surly!

This December I picked up Scott Wenzel as my new personal coach for all the cycling that I am doing now. I started my base training last month, and I know that this season is going to be way different than last season.

I came home for christmas to take back my seasonal job at St. Nicks selling trees and outdoor lighting to our local community here in Littleton. A big decision was made at this time though. I won't be coming back to UNC next semester. I am now going to attend Metro State College of Denver. I did this because of my wonderful living situation in Greeley, my grades, and the friends that I lost this fall living in that house.

However I did think that I made some great friends who made me realize who my real friends are.
So, As for 2007 I think it looks brighter than 2006 already and I plan to do better in school, hopefully win some bike races.

well I just did a fair bit of rambling...
thanks for checking in

Snow...I don't like it much

2006-12-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well I have spent the last two weeks of my base training on the rollers...I'm pretty sure I forgot what it was like to ride outside. What are you going to do...I'm pretty done with the snow here though for sure. It just keeps coming down and won't stop!
Well with the exception of all the snow and riding my bike, I'm officially not coming back to Greeley next semester. School didn't go great this semester, and I'm not about to live in the pit that I call my house in Greeley anymore either. Not to mention practically sharing a house with my ex. So this made me make the decision to come back home to Littleton and go to Metro in downtown Denver next spring. Its gonna be tough leaving Greeley because I had a lot of great things there, but school needs to come first, so school comes first. Thanks for checking in

Base Training and Finals

2006-12-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Hey all time for an update. Well I started my base training and I have been going for just over 2 weeks now. Its pretty tough to do, and it takes its toll on your body. I think I am getting used to it at this point, so its getting better all of the time. Aside from the bike, I managed to pull of some not so good grades this semester. I don't really understand how I did how I did in some of the classes, but live and learn I guess. This obviously means that I need to study more because Im not doing it enough. Well Im off to work hope everyone has a good holiday...thanks for checking in

I should be reading

2006-11-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well hello all, I should be reading the two books that I need to have read by next week, but I'm not so here I am. I raced what I think is my last cross race of the season on Sunday, and it couldn't have gone worse. The course was at Dakota Ridge High School in Littleton, there mostly raced on grass and washboard style trails. The first set of barriers wern't bad, but the second was at the bottom of a huge run up and was really tough. I had a pretty good position for the first lap of the race and felt ok, then I crashed once, it wasn't too bad but it definately shook me up quite a bit. I got back on my bike and tried to regain my position, then the kid in front attacked and all the kids in front of me were burying it just to try to stay with him, and it was a pace I couldn't keep up on. This led to my second crash, which wasn't bad at all I wasn't going very fast and I recovered quickly. With about 2 laps to go I was having a lot of trouble trying to get into my pedal after the barrier section, which slowed me down a lot and I continued to drop places. On the last lap I crashed really hard about 100 meters from the finish. I could have quit the race right there, and in the process one of the juniors passed me and another was coming up hard. I'm not sure what place I got and I don't really care, but it sucked getting beat by a 12 year old but not everyone has a great day on the bike.
I didn't really end my cross season on a good note, but I had a ton of fun with it all year, and it is something to work up to for next year. I want to thank corey for letting me use his bike all season and scotty for helping me out too. Well base for road season starts on monday...wish me luck!

Im tired

2006-11-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

Well I raced in Golden this weekend and it was an interesting race for sure. Lately in all the races I've done, I have felt really bad right out of the gate, and a lot better about 20 minutes in. So I tried to have a longer and harder warm up today and it made all the difference. Right from the start it pretty much split into 2 groups, just about half and half. I got into the first group and felt really good for the first 30 minutes. Our group of 15 or so turned into about 9 then the guy in front attacked so the pace was made a lot faster. The course was very flat, lots of corners and very bumpy, I thought that keeping the most momentum and speed through the turns would be to my advantage. So I came into a corner a little to hot, bike came out from under me and I crashed hard, probably harder than I ever have in a cross race. I got up and regrouped only to find that my bars were bent one way, and I was pretty scratched up. I finished the race but did not put in any significant efforts to come back. I ended up taking second to last place I think.
I'm dissappointed with how my race went but part of racing is taking risks, and sometimes it comes out in negative consequences. Anywho, I know how to warm up for other races now and I feel that I can do much better next week! I had a lot of people cheering for me including Corey's mom, my dad, grandparents, Scotty, Ambrette, Corey and I even got a shout from our good friend Dave Towle. Scotty had similar luck in his race, broke his shifter cable and got to do his race in a 40-12, doesn't sound like fun to me. Corey's race was very fun to watch, we were all rooting for him and he pulled out 3rd place good job everybody, and thanks for checking in.

Jacob Haines

2006-11-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

Well I have had a rough couple of days. I had to go to a funeral for a friend on tuesday afternoon. If you look at the picture the kid on the far right is Jake, he was just 18. Apparently, he tried to beat a train in his car on friday morning, and didn't make it. There was easily five or six hundred people at this funeral, it is amazing how many people he really did touch. I met him this August when school started because he is a friend of one of my roommates. I remember him as the kid who always made you laugh and had the biggest smile you will ever see. His parents and friends who talked at the funeral said the exact same thing about Jake. I could only imagine what his parents are going through right now, having to bury their son. I remember the last time we talked he asked what I was doing this weekend, I told him I was racing my bike in boulder. He told me, well you better win because you ride all the time! I didn't really think about what he said until today, and it really hit me hard. Jake like you always said, if you aren't living life on the edge you are just taking up space. Jake for the short time I knew you we had a blast, and I will never forget it. Someday if I ever win I bike race I am going to dedicate it to you. Rest in peace Jake

Cyclocross

2006-11-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I recently have gotten into cyclocross thanks to my good friends Corey and Scott, and Mark Cooper, for letting me use his bike. The pictures I have here are from last weekend.

This is me at the top of the run up, it was really muddy as you can tell.

This is the bottom of the run-up, Corey got Dave Towle to say my name, it may have made me go faster but im not sure.

Scotty got this pretty sweet action shot of me carrying the bike.

Well as for the race I felt kinda crappy right off the bat, and I was extremely nervous. I stayed with a group for a little while within the first 2 laps or so. On the second lap, I hit a bump and my bars decided to do a little spin on me, and I nearly hit my face on the stem. I think that it held me back the rest of the race, but live and learn I guess.

As for this past weekend it was at the Boulder Reservoir, with a lot of sand on the run up, very tough course for sure. Corey rigged up his Surly for me to race on for awhile and it worked out great. I felt really good the whole race, attacked a couple people got nice and dirty and ended up in 58th out of 90. Afterwords we watched the UCI race and cheered Corey on. Thanks again to Scott and Corey for introducing me to another type of bike racing!

Golden Gate Buff MTB

2006-10-19T00:48:00.000-06:00

Well I participated in my last collegiate mountain bike race this season. It was in Golden Gate Canyon about 15 miles from Golden. I have a grim memory from this course from the previous year. Here is a small flashback...The course consists of a very large uphill near the beginning, no switchbacks, just straight up. I got about three quarters of the way up, legs locked up on me, keeled over on my bike and puked my guts out. I laid there and collected my thoughts for a few minutes. Used a good old goo pack, finished my 1 lap and called it a day. Today I hoped to finish the race. My parents and my puppy chester came out to cheer me on and hand me a water bottle.

The start
On this particular course I had to do 3 short laps, at about 3.5 miles a piece. Right out of the gate it seperated pretty quickly, and I found myself around about 3 other people, one from CSU and another from Metro.

I was going so fast my mom couldn't keep up with the camera, she can only catch my dust

I got my game face on here, not to sure how my mom got the picture, I was going so fast I'm not sure how she got it!

Chester cheered me on of course

The Finish

I was pleased with my performance and I crossed the line in 9th place. I didn't get to race as much mountain bike that I wanted to, but my fitness has moved a ton since last year. I'm doing my first cross race this weekend wish me luck!

Its Cold

2006-10-09T21:51:00.000-06:00

Well I woke up on sunday morning/afternoon after a heavy night of drinking. Only to find it was raining and cold out but that didn't stop Scotty and I from going on the ride of a lifetime.

In other parts of my life, I have a lot on my plate right now with school and all the drama going on in my life. It is pretty much like a real world episode in my house. I won't get into details, but I want out of my house pretty bad right now. Wish I never moved in with everybody. Maybe it will get better but I kinda doubt it. This kind of thing makes me want to leave Greeley sometimes. But I have made a lot of other great friends that I would hate to leave. Ill figure it out i guess

Century

2006-09-10T20:28:00.000-06:00

It has been some time, but it was time to update the blog. A lot has happened since I last updated, I did my second century, accompanied by Dana and Corey. We decided to go to Estes Park and back which totals just over 100 miles. Here were some of the highlights of our day.
Corey picked up this large sunflower early in the ride he said he was going to add it to his kitchen, not sure it made it back.

I had a flat problem early in the day, and ended up changing 2 rear tubes.

During one of my tube changes, Dana felt the need to drink, a little...

Me going up the hill, probably really fast.

All in all the day ended with a total mileage of 104.62 miles, I had a blast and would love to do it again in the near future. Thanks to Dana and Corey for having a great day on the bike. Thanks for checking in.

School is back in session

2006-08-24T20:31:00.001-06:00

Well I should probably be apologizing to my many faithful readers yet again for my lack of updates. I have had a busy couple of weeks as far as helping out my grandfather in Santa Fe after his knee replacement surgury. I have been able to get on the road bike a little in the past few weeks to finally get some hill practice in. I have never been very confident on hills at all, so I am trying to do them as much as possible. Havn't been on my mountain bike since my little tumble and need to get back out there, so hopefully I will get some MTBing in this week. I'm hoping to do a lot better mountain biking this year. I was in no kind of shape to ride last year, and with as much as I have been riding I see it turning out pretty well. The bike pics will be up soon I promise.
On a sadder note, our house seems to be the place that cops love to show up at. I recieved a ticket for an MIP and an unlawful noise charge. The court date is September 25th, 2006 so wish me luck. thanks for checking in. School starts on monday!

PS. It is my 20th birthday on friday, so if you have any cards to send...sent them to

B-day Boy
1851 11th Ave.
Greeley, Co 80631

sorry

2006-08-01T23:00:00.000-06:00

For my many active readers (Brian) I apologize for the lack of updates. Not a whole lot been going on lately, just work and trying to stay on the bike. Mountain bike "training" is going pretty good I'm getting out quite a bit and feeling more comfortable all the time. I went out with Scott and Corey today and about 200 yards out we had a mechanical on Scott's bike. Only to find out that his hub was cracked...didn't know that was possible. So Scott rode back and Corey and I rode to the top of Coyote Ridge. When we got to the top Corey asked if I wanted to race to the car. I accepted and took my 30 second handicap that he gave me. About 30 feet down I dumped it harder than I have in a long time. It hurt for sure and was real shakey the rest of the way down. Afterwords we went to Feighny's and he gave us a glass of wine, and we all met the Feighny's new baby. We hit the Chipotle after that and indulged in some delicious food. Well I should be updating more soon, and I thought that I should do a bike review of my bikes...because it is an excuse to update...it will be coming soon

Update

2006-07-13T10:35:00.000-06:00

Well I have not made an update since around the fourth so it looks like about that time. The past few weeks I have pretty much just been busy with work and trying to stay on the bike as much as I can. I rode my road bike for the first time in about a week or so last night on the Roubaix group ride. I got new Zero stainless speedplay pedals, and it was my first real ride with them. Pretty big jump from my old pedals and MTB shoes. After the ride we went over to Roubaix to watch him put together Dana's new Orbea Onix frame. I'm really jealous it is an awesome bike. I spent most of my night there drinking beers and hanging out.
thanks for checking in. Evan

PS: If you want to see a funny video go to this sight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2d_m2OVa_g

Stage 2

2006-07-03T21:32:00.000-06:00

Well I havn't really been around a computer much lately so havn't had time to do an update. Seeing as the Tour is on right now I figured I should give my thoughts on the situation. When I found out about Jan, Basso and many other riders are not going to be in the Tour at first I was a little upset. When I talked to Scott about it he thought that it would help clean up the sport and get the people out who could be cheating. I think about it now and I couldn't agree more. I was pulling for Jan to win the Tour this year. But now it will be very interesting to see who is going to pull away.

I watched stage 2 today only to see Robbie McEwen pull off another sprint win. I like watching Robbie McEwen sprint, and you can always count on seeing him there. Thor was right on his wheel but came out of his pedal, tough break but in my opinion he is lucky to still be racing after he got cut on his arm. He is back in the yellow today and if you read the cycling news link he says that he would like to keep the yellow tomorrow too. Should be fun to watch.

Well I'm back in Littleton for a few days. Went to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Pearl Jam last night. Good show. Went mountain biking today with my dad and some people from his work up Mt. Falcon. Felt really good to be on the mountain bike, and couldn't be more happy to be MTBing again. Well I'm off too bed got an intense day of rafting tomorrow. Thanks for checking in

You havn't lived until you MTB in the pitch black

2006-06-21T22:35:00.000-06:00

Well its been awhile since my last update and its time to give one. Well the past few weeks have pretty much consisted of me working a lot and biking in my spare time. Seeing that Corey is changing shops it has given me a lot of hours which is good and bad. I started paying for my new mountain bike this week which is going to make me very broke but the bike is pretty sweet. I will do a little bike report of the new bike pretty soon.
Well Tuesday night we had our second group mountain ride of the season. Started out very good, and I'm finally feeling a little more comfortable on the bike as far as my fitness level goes. So I'm going to try to build on it. Anywho, we set out with Corey, Feighny, Colin, Austin and Ray do try a different route that looped back to Feighny's house. It was going pretty good until the sun started to set and we weren't halfway to our destination. We decided to keep pressing on, and didn't get any brighter outside. At one point when we were waiting for people to catch up Feighny, Corey, Colin and I had a little break in our conversation only to hear coyotes howling and making all kinds of noise in all directions. It was a good little laugh. Once it got really dark Austin took a little dive over the handlebars and beat his bike down the hill, the bike almost landed on him. I wish I could have seen it but it was far to dark. We made it back to Jenn waiting for us in the short bus to pick us up.
All in all it was actually a great time and I had an absolute blast. I can't wait to do the trail again. Big thanks to Jenn and Mike for letting us have pizza at their house and Jenn for rescuing us in the middle of the night! Thanks for checking in

PS I would have pictures but I have no camera

New Belgium Crit and such

2006-06-13T22:05:00.000-06:00

It has been awhile and it is time for an update. Weekend was pretty eventful worked all day saturday and went to the New Belgium Crit in Fort Collins. The course was really cool, very flat and only about 6 tenths of a mile long. I went into the race extremely nervous. I stayed with the main field for maybe 3 laps, then the motopace guy blew his whistle for me to drop out of the race. It was kind of an eye opener in how fast the Cat 4's can be, but I am still learning a lot.

This picture shows how hard I tried to stay on with the pack. It didn't work.

Today I went mountain biking at the Devils Backbone outside of Loveland with Corey, Colin, Dana, and Ray. Mark let me test out the Cannondale Rush that I am going to buy from him. The ride couldn't have gone better. I forgot how much I miss mountain biking and it felt great to go out and ride again. Corey broke his chain not far into the ride and Colin and I rode on by ourselves. Corey caught up with us pretty quickly and we had a real fun ride back. I need to start saving more money to buy Marks Rush. The bike was awesome loved the way that it felt when I climbed. I thought that a full suspension would not climb like my old hardtail but it felt great. Well I have work tomorrow. Thanks for checking in.

I had a productive day, imagine that

2006-06-08T21:12:00.000-06:00

Well Im finally starting to recover from my horrible sunburn that I got last sunday. I finally am not in pain all the time and I actually had a good night of sleep last night, imagine that. Since I havn't been outside on the bike lately (because I was worried about the burn getting worse) I burrowed Dana Curlee's trainer. I was able to probably put a solid 4 hours or so in on it this week. Gotta say that I don't really like doing the trainer that much, and seeing as my house has no air conditioning you end up sweating a little.

I woke up this morning to a phone call from Corey asking if I would work for him today, seeing as it was my first day off in awhile I said no. Sorry Corey need some time off. I went and got a haircut at campus cuts. Then went and visited Steve at Roubaix for a little while. After that I went to Noodles with my roommate Jason, friend Pat, and Pat's co-worker Kellen. We went back to Pat's for a little while and played some Xbox 360. Pretty cool but definately not worth the 600 dollar price tag. Afterwards went for a little ride by myself out to Windsor and back. Felt really good to get out on the bike again. I also had to test out my newly aquired parts for my bike. Which includes a new Ultegra front derailleur, and a new FSA hollow forged energy aluminum double chain ring. I have been lusting after a double for some time and I finally got what Scott would call a big boy double. Anyway, back to my ride. It was the first ride that I have been on without an Ipod or a friend with me. I don't mind riding alone at all and the only reason I didn't have my Ipod was that I left it at I-bike. I really enjoyed the time alone and it definatly cleared my head which I really needed.

After a week like I have had this week I have realized a few things.

1. Where sunscreen even when you don't need it.
2. Second degree burns really hurt
3. I love my job at I-Bike and I am forever in-debted to Corey Carlson for getting me a job there.
4. The mackin hoes diet is a good way to go for a diet.
5. FSA cranks are very cool.
6. When you work at a bike shop you spend all your paychecks on parts.
7. Having a room to yourself and a queen bed is really nice.
8. A ride by yourself is actually really nice.
9. You can't tell girls that you ride a bike on the first date, its probably a turn off. ( According to Scott drop the bike bomb on them on date number 2 or 3.

For the millions of people that read my blog I thank you.
-Evan

Housewarming Party

2006-06-05T21:26:00.000-06:00

Well our housewarming party couldn't have been better. We got ourselves a keg of coors light and hung out. I would like to thank everybody for coming. Obviously wouldn't have happened if you guys didn't show up! I think the highlight of the night was when Scott was trying to get this girl with me, only to find out she is married and 26 years old. Live and learn I guess. I believe the night was capped off by me eating shit in the kitchen and trying to get girls to make out with me.

The next day I went wakeboarding with Shawn, Justin, Amanda, Julia and Joe. Joe took his boat out as well that day so we had a lot of fun. The lake was packed with people so the water was extremely choppy. The day was a lot of fun. I came home extremely sunburned and finished the night with Jason watching American Flyers. Good flick, anybody who hasn't seen it should its pretty sweet. I woke up the next morning for work with my sunburn feeling terrible. I was in pain all day and felt like shit. When I got home to get in the shower I took off my shirt and noticed that I had these disgusting blisters on my shoulders. Not a good feeling but I'll get through it. Well I'm off to watch a movie, thanks for checking in.

The End of an Era

2006-06-02T19:42:00.000-06:00

Well I got my new helmet last week and I thought that we should reflect on the times of the old one...

2000-2006
First I will give a short history, I asked my father to buy me a helmet. He told me I have a brand new one sitting in the garage. I said that it was purple and I didn't want a purple helmet, then he told me that I can pay for a new one. Seeing as how this one was free I took it. I chose not to wear it for awhile, I usually stole my brothers nicer helmet when I needed one. Then collegiate road racing started and decided it was time for a new one. Never got around to buying a new one until recently. It has been called many names: The Tub, The Beast, Barney (mostly comparing my chubby ass to a purple helmet...I may have resembled barney) Well my entire collegiate cycling season was spent on this helmet, and I took crap about it from beginning to end. Ive been dropped from races on this helmet, crashed on this helmet during mountain bike season, lost my first race on this helmet. ( I wish I could say that I won a race in this helmet, but lets just face it it didn't happen.) As much crap as I took about it, it probably saved me a few times so I thought that I would dedicate this blog to it. Here is the new one and maybe someday it will have memories like the tub gave me. Thanks for checking in.

Here is the new one

My new house, become a pit stop for people with court dates.

2006-05-25T22:04:00.001-06:00

Well I had an eventful weekend of getting moved into my new house. Im real happy to finally have my own room now, and not a twin bed inside a dorm room. It feels real good, my weekend was pretty much devoted to moving with a little bit of drinking and biking here and there.

My friends Conor and Emily came up on monday night because they had court the next day because of MIP's that they recieved earlier in the year. We hung out and drank some beers that night and had a middle of the night pizza. The next morning we went to the Bread Board to get some coffee and pastries, 3 cups of coffee is a good cure for a hangover let me tell you.

The next day I had work over at I-bike all day followed by a group ride with the Roubaix Bicycle Company that evening. It was a lot of fun, actually got a very good workout in. I am going to start making that a regular thing. If anybody wants to come they are Wed. nights at 6.

I saw this picture on cycling news today. Cool picture of Marco Pantani. For those of you who don't know who he is, one of the best climbers in the world. Anywho I thought it was cool. Adios

Training Program

2006-05-17T20:46:00.000-06:00

Well I had a conversation with Corey about a training program for cycling next year. I've decided that I am going to do it. It may be tough but I could use a challenge in my life. I started my program yesterday and I went on a ride with Brian and Dana. It was pretty fun, the flat fairy was not helping Dana on this ride he had a total of 3 flats on the day. So this ride that was pretty short ended up turning into a long one. It was still fun, great to finally get out on the bike again it had been to long. Only problem with this ride for me as I had eaten just about nothing but 2 Clif Bars all day. Don't do that it sucks.

Later that night I went and hung out at T-bone Ranch Apartments to hang out with my friends Shawn, Jason, and Pat. It was pretty fun there was a little party going on and good to hang out and meet new people.

I had good intentions of getting up and going on a ride this morning but when I did wake up my legs hurt pretty bad. I should have just gone anyway but I didn't. Well I'm actually going to get up tomorrow and go on a ride so if anybody wants to join me give me a call.

Living at Corey's

2006-05-12T09:44:00.000-06:00

Well I have temporarily moved into Corey's place until the 20th of May. The weekend started out with work at I-Bike with my new job there. My job couldn't really be going better, the days seem to go fast and I love what I'm doing. On sunday I hung out with my friends Pat and Danielle and went to the Olive Garden for lunch. Man that beats the dining hall food. Monday morning Corey returned from the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico. We decided to make a pizza that morning and called Brian over to join us. We ended up indulging in some 40's and watching wedding crashers. On Tuesday I had the day off and a group interview at the Texas Roadhouse. It went pretty good because I got a call the next day for a second interview.

Unfortunataly, I have not been on the bike lately as much as I should. I think I made my decision on the bike that I am going to get. I am thinking the Cannondale Rush 800 full suspension bike might be my next mountain bike. We shall see, well I am off to work. If you have any road races you know about clue me in.

schools out for summer

2006-05-07T17:37:00.000-06:00

well school is finally out. Thank the lord for that one. I have been burned out on school pretty much since the first week back from Christmas Break. So that is definately a relief. I had a lot more work at I-Bike this past week, it was a lot of fun, I am learning more and more every day. Getting moved out of my dorm turned into an ordeal that took a lot longer then it should have. But I piled all of my shit into my friend Shawn's car and brought it over to Corey's where I will be living for a little while. Thanks again Corey for letting me live with you for awhile!

Well I was thinking about taking out a credit card to pay for the mountain bike that I plan on buying soon. That way I can have the bike during this summer and I can start preparing for mountain season. I am still debating whether I should get the hardtail or the full-suspension. Well I am off to dive into a good book. Leave me some comments about my decision on the mountain bike

UW and Finals Week

2006-05-04T09:06:00.000-06:00

Well the University of Wyoming race turned out to be quite the race. We woke up saturday morning with it pretty cold outside in Laramie. By the time we got up to where we were actually going to race we were sitting at a comfortable 25 degrees. Wasn't very pleasant to say the least. The course consisted of about 23 miles of downhill then you turn around and go back up. It took me about an hour to go downhill 23 miles. As soon as I turned around I was met with a headwind that didn't really stop until I made it back to the finish line. My ride time was 3 hours and 12 minutes and it was not that fun. Oh well those can happen.

We decided to ditch out on the TTT and just get some rest and save ourselves for the crit the next day. The crit was a lot more fun than the road race for sure. It was flat all the way around, only problem was is that it started at 7 am. We all started together and I ended up dropping out of the race about 3/4 of the way through because I was not feeling so hot. Anywho, Albert King ended up taking 5th overall in collegiate racing C's this year. Congrats to him. I was pretty pleased with how my season went, this year was a learning experience for me and with every race I felt better. My goal is to lose some weight this year and work on some climbing. Well good season.

Well this week was my favorite week of the year in college...FINALS!!! Ya they have been going pretty good I took 2 on monday, 2 on tuesday, have wednesday and thursday off, and then Bio on friday. I started at I-Bike yesterday afternoon and had a lot of fun, it will be different doing a job that I actually enjoy. I go in today again as well I have a feeling it is going to be a good summer of work.

I started moving some of my stuff over to Corey's today because I'm living with him until I can move into my house on the 20th. Thanks Corey!

4/20 and Grand Junction

2006-04-25T21:37:00.000-06:00

Well I have not made a blog in awhile so it looks like it is time. Well last week after the Durango bike race I had a fun filled week of school followed by a little bit of training. One day I went out with Nick Lebejko and did a little attack crit practice, lots of fun I felt like I learned a lot. Later in the week I went out by myself for about 2 hours and did a little bit of tempo. That is going to be a big thing for me, helped me clear my mind of a lot of bullshit. Later that night I went to Corey's for a little cycling meeting, immediatly following Corey, Brian and I all decided to drink it up a little bit. Ended up being a really funny night and Corey got on videotape me thinking there might need to be more cowbell.

On Friday, I left Greeley with Corey, Dana and Mike to head to Grand Junction for the Mad Cow Classic bike race. We had a 6am wake up call on Saturday morning because Corey's road race started at 9am. We got up to go to the road race to a very nice morning perfect for bike racing. The Men's C group left at 9:45 to start their race which amounts to nearly 30 miles. I was told that there was a fairly large hill, so I psyched myself up for it a lot because that is my downfall when it comes to bike racing. I hit the hill feeling pretty good, and when I tried to shift down my chain came off and I had to fix it. In this process, I was passed by the entire group and it took me a few minutes to fix it. As soon as I was back on my bike I was pounding it as hard as I could to try to catch up to the main group. I finally caught some kid who was riding solo and I passed him up without much effort, he then tried to catch up with me and ride on my wheel. I don't mind when people ride on my wheel as long as it goes both ways and they work too. I told him that we should work together and try to catch up with the main group. He decided to give me the silent treatment and not say a damn thing. So I saved myself for a couple of minutes and then pounded it for a few minutes only to leave him back behind me. After my effort I had reached the point in the course where you pedal up a false flat for a very long ways. I ended up finishing the race thinking that I was nearly in last place but ended up placing 26th out of 34.

Later that day we had to start the team time trial in Fruita, which is just outside of Grand Junction. I came into the race with my legs not feeling great and hoping that I was able to stick with the guys for the Team Time Trial. We started out with Albert, Eric, Dana, Mike and myself on the team and had to do 2 laps of an 8 mile course. The first lap felt very good with all of us taking our turn and with lots of teamwork and communication. After the first lap Dana told us that he wasn't feeling great and told us that he would give us everything he had on the front for a minute or two. After he was dropped off, it was my turn in line to pull on the front. The plan for the day was that we would be going a lot harder on the second lap than the first. I pulled the guys up the big hill on the course and felt absolutely cashed, and told them to keep going. We felt pretty strong about how we performed and it was great to have communication and teamwork with the guys.

Later that night I got together with a couple of guys from high school and had dinner at Qdoba. We ran into the USA cycling representative later that night and he told us that we won the TTT by a very large margin. I was really surprised and it was the first victory of my collegiate career and it felt very good. Went to sleep that night feeling very accomplished, however did not want to get up in the morning.

I woke up the next morning with my legs feeling completely locked up and not feeling to great. I was a little worried about racing in a Crit later that morning. When we got to downtown Fruita and I got out on my bike and tried to spin and hope that my legs would open up before the race started. When the race started I felt pretty good and was staying with the main group nearly the whole time. Albert King made a move with 4 laps to go, and as soon as he left the peleton sped up and I was just finished. Everyone finished in the top 20 and I finished in 18th place. Corey ended up finishing 3rd with 4 guys from Durango, way to go man you did awesome.

On Monday night we went to a club sports meeting with Corey, Dana, and Brian. Pretty freaking boring but what are you gonna do. Afterwards we went to Corey's house to make some homemade pizza, very good time we all had some laughs drank some beer and ate some good pizza.

well those have been my past few weeks, so everybody wish me luck and hope that I get a job at I-Bike, Im really hoping for it. Good Night

The Ride Home

2006-04-19T20:22:00.001-06:00

well the drive home ended up being just as eventful as the entire weekend. We pull into Del Norte Colorado to make a pit stop for everyone. We find out that the car will not go into park, so therefore we cannot turn it off. So finally we get the car to turn off, but the catch is can't turn it back on. We call two of our teammates who were ahead of us on the road and said that they were 45 minutes ahead and then hung up. What are you gonna do. AAA came and said that the car would be safe to ride home. About an hour up the road, Nick Lobejko says he has to pee, so we pull over and as we are going onto the shoulder, we hear what sounds like a tire exploding. Well we were right and we ended up having to fix a tire. We then kept driving and exchanged stories about random stuff, but mostly random funny stories about us and girls. Right when we were rolling up to Corey's place some cheesy song by Savage Garden came on, funny how all of us knew all the words. Well that was our trip, and I hope the trip to Grand Junction is better. Peace

Durango

2006-04-19T10:31:00.000-06:00

what a weekend! Well on friday afternoon I left Greeley with the UNC cycling team to make our way down to durango for a fun filled week of racing. The drive was a lot of fun for sure, unfortunatly Dana got a little sick on the way there from some leftovers he had ate. I told everyone that I threw up a lot and then I added that I was hungry too. Corey sure got a kick out of it, and probably will be a joke for awhile. We kept driving with no problem the rest of the way into Durango. On the way into Durango Corey showed us what the road race course was like. When he was showing it to us I got so scared and nervous I wasn't sure what to do. Anyway we went to sleep that night to have a 6 am wake up call because we had a TTT at 8am. We started out with Me, Albert, Eric, and Matt doing the time trial for the Men's C team. About a quarter of the way into it, Albert was not feeling very good and told us to keep going. Me, Eric, and Matt kept a very good pace throughout and I felt that we would place well, but near the end we were all pretty cashed and it sort of fell apart. I thought that we worked very well as a team for the first time doing a TTT like that. I feel that it was something to build on for next year, I feel like time trials can be my new thing.

The ITT was next and I was a little intimidated because I am not a very strong hill climber, but I believe that it will help me in the long run to compete in these invents. I ended up posting a fairly good time, and again it is something that i can build on for next year.

Next was the road race, which I could have not been more nervous about, and it was the longest race that I have ever competed in. The race consisted of lots of very large hills which amounts to about 7 or 8 hundred feet of climbing within each lap. I felt ok and stayed with the main group for one lap, but when I hit that hill the second time, I could not stick with people on the hills and that was my downfall. Anywho it was a learning experience at best and a great workout as well...i will continue later for sure

Big Week Ahead

2006-04-12T12:08:00.000-06:00

well the mines crit ended up very well for UNC, Albert King ended up taking second place. I think we worked a lot better as a team this time, I am feeling better after every race that I do and it makes me want to train that much harder. I ended up taking 22 with Dana Curlee not far behind me. On monday I had a rest day, followed by Mexican Beer night with my friend Shawn. We woke up the next morning with plans to go donate plasma, seeing as we are extremely broke. Probably the easiest 40 bucks i have ever made for sure. Afterwards I had a history class, boring as shit. Then I went out for a ride with Jason Karimy. We rode the Kersey loop and on the way there, we saw a dog that looked semi blind walking in circles in the road. We decided we should help the little guy out because there were some cars around. We called animal control, they said they would be there in 15 minutes, turned into about 45 minutes. We called Corey to come pick us up because it was getting very dark. Scott ended up picking us up and taking us back to Wiebking hall. THanks guys we both owe you one! Afterwards Jason and I went to Abos pizza to indulge in the half off calzones there. We met up with Shawn, Pat and Joe and had a beer there too. I ended the night reading my book about Vietnam and went to bed. Elections are coming up for the cycling team and I hope I have support from my teammates. The race in Durango is this weekend, i can't wait. im gonna go get on the bike and do some tempo, im out

Big Day on the Hill I'm waxed

2006-04-09T00:59:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, well the hill climb today end up being pretty good today. I rode the course in 33:02 which was good for me, when i practiced it last week i did it in about 44 minutes. I wouldn't consider myself a climber at all, but it was a good workout for sure, and i definatly learned a lot. The highlight of my day was being able to meet Tom Danielson. Me and Koch were sitting chilling out before our race, we see this guy roll up in full on discovery channel shit, and we are like who is this douche bag?! Then this guy told us it was Tom Danielson were extremely surprised. Anywho me, Dana, Nick Morgan, and Koch went and took a picture with him and watched him start the climb of lookout mountain. He did it in 16:02 shattering the old record of i believe which is 16:55. Pretty amazing to watch this guy climb hills and just be in his presence. Definatly made me want to go faster up the hill. Anyway i have a 5:30 wake up call this morning here is the picture of a few of us with Tom Danielson. Peace Out

The eve of The School of Mines Race

2006-04-07T13:27:00.000-06:00

hey everyone, ive been pretty busy so i havn't updated lately, but i have had a big week on the bike for sure! Well this past weekend i went home back to Littleton to see my family and help out with the new puppy. On friday I went for a little spin with my friend Shawn and I noticed that my total ride distance for the week had been nearly 180 miles! Thats a new milestone for me and it definatly felt really good. That night my friend Amanda and her boyfriend Justin came by to see the new puppy we hung out for awhile and Justin and I enjoyed a couple of beers. On Saturday morning I woke up to go meet my fellow teammates for a little hill climb practice of lookout mountain, and then a crit practice afterwards on the mines course. It was really good to get out there as a team and practice, and i hope that it becomes a regular thing. Lookout mountain was probably one of the first real good climbs that I have done all year. I figured out that I am not a climber and I do not enjoy climbing that much, but it was a great workout. Matt, Dana and I all went over to a little sub shop in golden and ate lunch afterwords it was really good. On Sunday Shawn and I went up to Waterton Canyon in Littleton to do a little mountain biking. This was great beautiful day, and just the road in front of us. Felt great to get out on the mountain bike again, even better because i was on my dad's 4000 dollar Yeti, that made it even better. (For those of you who don't know my mountain bike got stolen last fall) We had a great ride that day and was a lot of fun. My brother drove me back up to Greeley later that day, and we indulged in a little bit of Big City Burrito. The next morning I had class and that was my rest day finally! I realized that I have not had a rest day in over a week in a half, and my legs were absolutely cashed. On Tuesday, Jason and I finally got out together to get in a ride, a little bit windy but we just went out and spun for a little while. That night I went to a Jazz concert for my music class in some restaurant, fairly entertaining for sure, ended up having a lot of fun. I ended the night with Conor, we watched Led Zeppelin and passed out. On Wednesday, I got a call from Steve at the Roubaix Bicycle Co. my new saddle came in and i needed to go out and test it. Nick Morgan, and Mike from the team went out with me to go test it. The weather was very windy and it smelled like rain, but we were lucky, no rain. Well seeing that it was wednesday it is the night of drinking in Greeley we had to live up to tradition. Jason realized he blew off a 5 page paper, so he was history. Conor informed me that he had a little liquor and there seemed to be no parties around, so we started drinking. Then we got a call from 2 ladies that live in our neighboring dorm, and they said that they would join us. We ended up having a great time, and having a great night. Luckily i don't have class until 12:30 on Thursday, because it was hard to get up then! I went to class that day ended up just spacing out for most of it. That night we had our cycling meeting at Corey's place to decide who was going to run for officers for the 06',07' season. I am running for VP so we will see how that goes. The night ended up being very entertaining, Corey was putting new bar tape on his bike for him, Matt recieves enough crap from the whole team about his LIVESTRONG bracelet around his seat post. So corey proceded to wrap parts of Matt's bike in yellow tape, very funny we all got a laugh. After the meeting Corey help me put on a UNC cycling sticker on my frame, and we had a little talk about our lives for awhile. Crazy how our lives are the same a lot. I went home and watched the Big Six, the highlights from Lance Armstrongs Tour De France wins. Very good, i would reccomend it. Well i have my Hill Climb tomorrow, and the crit on sunday wish me luck.

Its late and im bored

2006-03-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

well hello everyone, this is my first blog on this new site here, thought it would be a good little hobby to get into. Well we will start out with how my weekend went. Well it was my first race this weekend with the UNC cycling team, right here at promontory park in greeley. It was a little bit of a wake up call being at a race pace for a long time, but it was a great experience and a learning one at that. I lost the pack pretty early and ended up finished 21st out of around 34 not to bad for my first race, and from what i hear everybody gets dropped in the first one. I spent the rest of my day watching my fellow teammates and then i rode in the men's 4, 5 race only to get dropped and then lapped, but you know it happens. Props to my fellow teammate Corey Carlson took 3rd in the mens 1, 2 corey your gonna get all the ladies. I had another 5:30 am wake up call the next day and drove to Ft. Collins to participate in the oval crit there. This race went a lot better than the others i had a better warm up, i was with the pack for the whole race. Then i sat on my fellow teammate matt koch's wheel up until the end and i sprinted only to pass about 6 guys to take 27th in the race. It was great feeling to pass a few people, even though i recieved a lot of shit from matt. Anyway today my good buddy jason and i went on his first ride on a road bike, he is gonna be real good once he trains but he had the problem of cigarettes this past year, biking will make him stop, well im gonna hit the sack leave a comment!