Got a McD QP w/Cheez & biggie-sized fry Sat nite with da main-squeeze, following Charlottesville's Wunderkammer. Scored two Pirates of the Carribean game pieces, went through the entire online registration process to only hear a digital skeleton tell me I lost, twice. Shit.

Other great stuff going on. Pulled my hamstring last night, doing nothing particular. Just some standard sprinting and jumping. Ice/heat/massage all day has been very helpful.

Went to Target today. Got a personal cheese pizza from the in-house Pizza Hut Express. Ate it at the "bar." Also, brought my laptop to the Starbucks to get some stuff done. An aside… I had been stealing Internet from my apartment neighbor for some time. He approached me the other day and effectively cajoled me into telling him that I was stealing his bits n' shit. So, now I’m SOL for free Internet. Anyway, I got a shopping cart that constantly pulled to the right, so when I was one-handing, my wrists got a good workout. That's always a bonus.

Other exciting news… I thought I lost my Colavita July paycheck. Tore apart my apartment looking for it… I even went outside to the garbage can and hand-sorted decaying egg-yolks. With no success. Alas, I finally found it at the P-Hen's apartment, where I brought it Saturday when I was returning his un-forwarded mail. I also am stealing Internet from the P-Hen now, but he did give me a key.

All in all, today sucked. Also, Toona started today, which I would have liked to do… but, better news is that I'll be racing the Tour of Utah with Zak, which will be way way cooler than Toona.

Christoph is still cracked... but he's learning masonry.

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A large hook & screw entered the restricted zone of my innertube during the Cascade crit. A crowd of specators saved me.

But it was no big deal because I got to paint with Molly after the races. I taught her it was OK to paint her face. Bev & Allen will forever appreciate that.

What are all those tools?

They are to fix cavities!!! Dr. Zimmerman fixed up my first-ever cavity, and even put the Tour on the calm-your-nerves TV. It was the most pleasant dental drilling I'd ever had.

I rode with local nice-guy John Neil Thursday. He crashed when he was taking a drink and hit a divit. Fortuntaly, his elbow took most of the blow, and we fed the vultures blood all the way home. JN bleeds with the best of 'em. He's a tough dude, and he's OK. Little pointless crashes like his remind ya of how freaking dangerous this little sportsy can be. We're so hard.

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It is apparent that I forgot to bring good fortune to this race. I also forgot my legs. Fortunately, today is the last stage.

Stage 3 was a road race with 2 big climbs. I barely made it over the first climb with the group. Todd got in a the day's break. Yay. I was hanging in the group waiting for the final climb. However, in the 2nd feed zone I got someone's musette bag stuck in my crank, and had to stop to take it out. I then chased for many miles until the base of the final climb, where I suffered, suffered, suffered.

Stage 4 was a TT. I got in the forty's. That was special. I had the Felt B2 TT machine, so that was stupendous.

Stage 5 was a downtown crit. Great course, lots of spectators. I got into the early break, but then got dropped when some other strong dudes bridged up. Well, maybe not dropped, more like chose to not kill myself to be caught by Health Net in the last lap. Saved some juice for today's killer stage. I did get my first ever crit flat. I got a huge screw in my tire in the first turn and flew into a crowd of spectators who caught me. Unscathed, I ran back to the pit, got a new wheel, and jumped in with 7 to go, and finished. It was a fun crit... no complaints. It was kinda fun to get a flat. I have a cool picture I'll download when I get home.

Today's circuit race is savage. Finishing is my main goal. Empty the tank.

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tangled line at an inopportune time. dropped a worm. fished for an hour. made time pass.

tomorrow is a new day. check back tomorrow.

if you leave a comment, please make it a funny joke.

Huffy caught a largemouth bass and a crappie yesterday. I caught 7 bluegills. This afternoon I'm racing the Cobblestone Crit.

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flat at inoppurtune time. dropped. threshold for an hour. made time cut.

tomorrow is a new day. check back tomorrow.

if you leave a comment, please make it a funny joke.

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First let me say that I am staying with the greatest and most hospitable rockstars in Bend. Bev Lucas is Felt Bicycles' sponsorship coordinator & general get r' done guru. Her husband Alan has been involved with motocross & mtn biking forever, and also doubles as a great masseur & overall helper. Couldn't ask for more. There has been much comedy already, but there was nothing funny about today's stage for me.

92 miles, mostly flattish, with one 8 minute climb about 2/3 in, and a 5 minute or so finish climb. Race started fast, as it was slightly downhill for awhile. I rolled into a few moves that seemed to be represented by good teams. Beautiful scenery. I got a bad start on the climb up to the first KOM because of a little detour (stop) I took into the feed zone, so I had to turn on the gas to get to the front group... and yet, at about mile 75 in the race, you could say I was...

Feelin' GRRRRREEEEEAATTTT!!!!

The heart rate was happy, going fast didn't hurt, and the whole world looked rosy. Seriously, I felt great.

Then, we took a little left turn into the head/crosswind. I was about 40 guys from the front. I could have had better position, but it wasn't like I was caught peeing at the back. Anway, HealthNet, Toyota, and Navigators pumped it good and hot (strung it out like woah), and merely moments after I turned on my XMW juice, this bastard came up to me and kicked me in my left quad:

There was a thermonuclear implosion in my left quadricep as a crippling cramp send me backwards. I unclipped and had to stretch. It was a couple minutes before I could make a full pedalstroke.

I have no bloody clue why I cramped so badly. It wasn't hot out, I was drinking plenty, I've been supplementing healthy quantities of electrolytes... The pace was high when I cramped, but I know that I could have fought through the riders getting dropped in the crosswind and got up near the front.

Anyway, disappointing result for stage 1. I lost a bunch of minutes and won't be racing for GC any longer. Todd fared better and finished not too far back from the leaders.

But, at least it's awesome out here and there are 4 more days coming up. Naptime.

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I burned my sunflower/sesame/flax/almond/currant/honey cookies! Booo-hooo-hooo!

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While team Rite Aid still seeks that elusive NRC win, it's not for a lack of mad skillz. Check out our secret training session in Fayetteville, Arkansas:

Brad Viera, winner of the 2006 Silver Springs Grand Prix, bustin' out some reverse spirit fingers.

Russ Langley, all-around badass. He's got to hide da gunz so he don't scare the chil'ren.

Zach Bell, Pan American Championships bronze medalist, follows through like Scotty Pips.

And where is Christoph in this b-ball game? He spelled H-O-R-S-E in his first five shots, so he had plenty of time to take action shots on the digycam.

In other news.... well... BV has something he's been waiting to tell us...

there's a bun in the oven!

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I had more fun lading here in Redmond/Bend Oregon than a whole evening at the Salem County fair! Holy turbulence, Batman!

Check out our Embraer 120 Brasilia. Packed up with hydrogenated snacks, and Pepsi products, this bad boy rushed us at MACH 0.05 to Bend.

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Tuesday's 6.5 hours in the 96 degree humidity is being felt today.

I knew today was going to be special when i put Amino Vital mix in my tea to sweeten it.

sometimes ya just need to give in to Mr. Vegetable

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Holy smokes so much has went down. The brightest highlight was the Roanoake County Fair on Saturday nite. KW and I toured the hallowed fairgrounds seeking 128 second thrills from the Tilt-o-Whirl, the Gravitron, the FreeFall, the Slide (where KW took the win), and Skee-Ball. It was fun milling around with 21 year-old ganstas, 14 year old loosies, polished-up hicks, and XXL polo shirts with dark blue jean shorts.

Raced a local crit on Sunday in Roanoake. The 95 degree heat wasn't a problem. I was relaxin' and maxin' and waxin' the Suby before the race. Yea, that's my new thing... waxing my car whenever possible. Anyway, the raced sucked. There were 14 people in it. A dude went from the line. Nobody covered it so I did. Then I tried to break. Then everyone would chase me. Then another guy would go, and no one would chase. Then I'd try to bridge, then everyone would chase me, so I'd just reel back the break. About 15 minutes into the race, I realized that I could not possibly get away, and that I was also expected to chase everything. So, that's what I did for an hour. Attempt to get away, and chase everyone that did. 4th place. Not funny.

Did the Tuesday stage of the Tour de Burg... a local mountain/road race extravaganza promoted by a local mtn bike club, headed up by Mike Carpenter. Tuesday was a big mountain climb and descent. I wanted to go whip up on the mountain bikers and get some hard training. Well, I got some hard training. Somehow I got the impression that I should ride my cross bike for the gravel in the courses, so I rolled it. I was the only dude with knobby tires at the start. Whatever, I'm strong enough to drop these wusses even with 32mm knobby 75psi tires. Not so. That climb up Reddish Knob friggin hurt. My knee also was bothering me a bit being on the different bike... but before that pain started, I was already redlined staying with the top dudes. Hard climb!

It didn't bother me, though. Well... actually, according to my calculations on analyticcycling.com... my knobby tires and decreased air pressure at our approximate climbing speed cost me about 15% more effective watts than my competitors' road bike setups. So, when I was cross-bike climbing super-threshold at 385 watts, I'd was really pushing the equivalent of 336 watts had I been on my road bike. So, by my calculations, with my road bike, I would have easily won the hillclimb against those joker mountain bikers... but seriously, it was a friggin blast and those mountain biker dudes are tough. Sheff, P-Bizza, & some dudes in the cirle like Juanderson & Hurley were out there throwin' down the hammer. H-Bomb was even there for support. Awesome. P-Biz is crushing.

This blog is gettin' long. I'll leave you with this:

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The term "Mass Wasting" may conjur images of UVA social traditions involving the hallowed union of 50-60 terrific guys, a few kegs of Natty Light, and 15-20 oh-so-coveted short skirts.

However my environmental scientist mind has a completely different picture of mass wasting:

Mass wasting is the downslope movement of material under the influence of gravity. Rain often acts as the catalyst for significant mass wasting. And we've been getting a shit-ton of rain, folks.

My garden is pissed.

My toes are wrinkly.

My hip is bleeding from a rain-soaked crash.

I just want some blue skies, smiling on me...

Last week I raced the Reston crit in Northern Virginia. It was just a small crit with the local folk, but the rain-soaked pavement made it pretty exciting. Russ and I took the Rite-Aid jereys to the front of the race immediately and within a couple laps we split away in a 7-man breakaway. It's always safer to ride in a break when the roads are sketchy. However that didn't stop me from dumping it in a slippery corner. Just a little road rash and no real injuries, so I took a free lap and got back in the race. As we approached the closing laps of the race, our break split and Russ rode away with 2 other dudes. I fell back into the peleton with the remnants of the break. On the last lap the two guys with Russ crashed, and my boy rode solo across the finish line. Back in the field, I whipped out a little sprintaroo to claim 2nd place.

The Reston crit got me thinking good form has arrived.

Now I'm at the Fitchburg stage race, and I've been riding like poo. Ooooh...Poo....Pro... Poo...is 2SkinnyPoo.com available?

In the openning time trial I went totally all-out for the 7-mile race. I turned the throttle full-on, and ramped my heart rate up to 200 beats per minute. And I went slow. Slower than several women. Awhoops. 98th place. In the circuit race I put on my sweet Real Design carbon wheels, and was excited to do a little somethin-somethin'. Instead, I got dropped. And lapped. Twice.

Now I'm feeling a little funky, and I slept for 15 hours yesterday. So it looks like something's a little wierd. Time to get off the bike, take a break, and consult with a doctor.

I'm sure it won't be long before I'm whistling Eva Cassidy again.

Blue skies Smiling on me
Nothing but blue skies Do I see
Blue birds Singing a song
Nothing but blue skies From now on.

I never saw the sun shining so bright
When you're in love, everything's right
Watching all the days Hurrying by
When you're in love, My how they fly

Holly mackerel! I'm 23 years old and I don't know how to whistle. I hear it's all in the pucker, but I just can't get it dialed in. Help!

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