Ahh the TT, gotta love the suffering.

Did Haystack TT Saturday. Finished a respectable 10th @31:11 but was 2 minutes behind the winner. Damn rollers on the backside kicked me in the rear. Went out Sunday for 2.5 hours on the MTB. Felt pretty good. Was feeling it toward the end of the ride so I know I was getting in some sort of workout. Deer Creek road race is next weekend. I'll see if I can last through with the leaders on the rollers that make up that course.

The dirt races are over - BR report

Yesterday was Boulder-Roubaix, the last of 2 races, held on mostly dirt roads North of Boulder. The weather was great, sunny and warm. A bad knee and neck pain had put me in the doubtful category to start but I decided to give it a go. Not much of a warm-up had me a little worried. It seems that that the guys up front are there to thin out everyone in the back. It must have worked as I heard we had dropped 30 guys on the first lap. I was riding, to my surprise, near the front most of the time and didn't notice it. On lap 2 I finally see a familiar face as Mr. Marti (racing because his son called him out) pulls alongside of me. I can only think TR and C-man can't be far behind. I'm busy keeping pace up front and don't have any time to look around for fear of crashing. There had been a break up the road that I let go and it was still there so I attack the hill before the pavement with another rider to join them but he's not working and we eventually are back in the field. I was actually enjoying myself, riding near the front able to respond to the accelerations as they were happening... right up to the time when M Carter attacked at the start of the rollers and strung the entire field out all the way up the feed zone hill where I had my motor shut down as I tried to stand and sprint up the hill. It was disheartening to watch everyone ride by as I dropped my chain to the small ring. Everyone that is except Larry. So I turned around at the top and saw him coming up. Allright, now it's a team training ride. I still felt pretty good and as Larry put it, I basically pulled him around for 3 laps. We weren't alone the entire time as we picked up Patrick from Primus-Mootry. And I didn't pull the entire way. They pulled through on the pavement and some dirt. I did want to catch the riders that were dangling in front of us and set out as we returned to the dirt on the last 1/2 lap to do just that. After the first hill Larry&Pat were off my wheel and I went into TT mode to catch the rider before the feed zone hill, dropped hime there and went after the other 2 that were riding just to finish. I finished right behind them at the line. I felt pretty good about my ride except for the lack of power when it mattered. TR keeps telling me the season is long. Yeah, we should be killing em soon as they burn out. Oh yeah, I finish 37th out of like 90. The course was nice, can't wait till next year

Top 10 in a P-1-2

Two good things actually happened on Sunday. Well make that 3 I forgot the sun came out and heated it up really nice and warm. Did the 75 minute Pro-1-2 crit at the CSU Oval. Wasn't sure if I had enough to last through this but I didn't feel like driving all the way to Boulder in the morning for Stazio. At the start there must have been 15 Rio Grande riders, a group of Mob/Einstiens, and a few Hart guys. OOh boy is this going to be fun. At least there were a few of us veterans, one guy was even asking for the "kind gesture" of a head start for us. Not happening. Typical crit start, blistering for the first 5 minutes in which a good size group got off the front. It was represented by all the strong teams mentioned above and then some. I was jsut content to sit in and follow the accelerations over the next. I was told we were dropping riders every lap so that made me feel good. It's a fast course and 30 minutes in the break was waaay up the road. That didn't stop people from trying to go off the front only to be caught and sometimes shelled out the back. I found myself riding next to Forrest Newman from Spike most of the race. He had a cheering section all around the course. I kept hearing "go Forrest" but in my mind I changed it to "ride Forrest ride" and had a good chuckle. With 15 minutes to go we had closed the break down to less than a minute and were gaining on them. They were self imploding, heard from one of the riders they dropped that they were'nt working together. For some reason I didn't try to move closer to the front on the last lap. It was probably the pace, which after easing up with 2 to go was now in full tilt. I hung in there and when it swung onto the Oval, we caught and passed the break. With no sprint in my legs I just motored in a big gear passing riders up to the line. I'll say it was 10th place but it could have been 9th as I finished right on the wheel of an AF Academy rider that finished 8th per the Officials. I think they misread my number as they had no camera and put down rider 345 in 9th and my number was 348. Seeing as they didn't show 10th I'll take it as there might have been a rider that edged me at the line. Doesn't matter though because I had a great race. On the drive home the next best thing was hearing that my Kings beat the Suns 107-100. Whoo-Hoo, playoff hopes are still alive.

1986 Paris Roubaix

I have this on tape but I found the finish on YouTube. This is probably one of the greatest sprint finishes in the history of PR. I can just watch this over and over. Just watch the man in yellow.

Boulder Beer Race

Living here in Wyoming you have to learn to deal with wind if you want to ride. Somehow, I'm not sure how they did it, but they moved a portion of Wyoming south of Boulder CO along hwy 128. It comes complete with a wind reseach center. So yesterday, I drove down to "Little Wyoming" where they closed the road down so we could race back and forth on it. The race for me and a few of my compadres lasted about 2 laps before it became a ride to finish. And finish we did, 5 minutes before they reopened the roads to traffic. Heck, I was the last official finisher... sweet.

Thursday rant

WTF? Monday its 65° and NO wind, Tuesday it's 70°, yesterday it's gale force winds but a manageable 63°, and today a freakin cold 35°. It makes you want to just sit in a easy chair with a beer watching TV, and that's just what I'm doing. Looking at the forecast it's calling for 60° Friday. I may have to drive down to Ft. Collins if I get out of work early as it'll be 65°. Looking at the forecast for Boulder they are showing wind warnings because of 20mph winds for tomorrow. Ha, that wouldn't even get an honorable mention up here in Wyo.

Done ranting, back to my beer.

3-11 Stazio Crit

Here is the post I placed on the Team page. No sense to post it twice or make myself look better here.