Busy times

A lot has been going on lately, and bike racing has not made the long list of things to do. I took Memorial Day weekend off for the first time since I began the sport, which was a bit odd to say the least. My cousin and former bike racing phenom Jason got married over the weekend in St. Louis; K and I went up early to check out some homes. So, after we got done looking at the set from the Boyz N Da Hood, Don't Be A Menace To South Central, and any other ghetto gangster movie out there, K and I finally got down to business...on our own. Hopefully in the next few weeks, I will have good news regarding our new living arrangements.

Back on the bike this week in full swing has been tiring. Next week, I have the opportunity to participate in a study by one of my mentors, Dr. Pamela Hinton on the long term effect of non-load bearing exercise on bone density. I am excited to get a DEXA scan, to check out not only my bone density, but my tubbiness, and to see if I have any strutural discrepencies...more on that later.

I should have more soon, so stay tuned.

JMSR Wrap UP

To say the race down in Fayetteville was tough would be quite an understatement. 230+ riders began Joe Martin on Friday afternoon and by the end of the weekend, approximately 30 had survived the entire weekend (those thirty finished in the front group of the crit)! I unfortunately was not one of the 30, but my team mate Brian was...in fact, here are some other numbers that are important to Brian; 2--this is the number indicating he was the second-placed amateur overall; 10--this Brian's GC placing; 8:53--that's how long it took Brian to climb a 6.8% grade over 2.5 miles. Needless to say, Java is breaking out! Congrats!

The weekend was a tough one for me. The races have a bunch of climbing, and when surrounded by such a stellar field, I am not much of a climber. I finished about 40 minutes down on Friday eve, just barely inside the time cut, and pulled out of Saturday's stage after getting dropped 50 miles in.

Friday went a little something like this. A group of 5, one of which was Luke, rolled off the front from the whistle. The pace was pretty chill, and there wasn't much climbing in the beginning. A few hills and several crashes later, the race had heated up a bit, and the race was on. Coming into a small town just before the big climb of the day (Mt. Gaylor, 10 miles of climbing, 80 miles into a 110 mile road race), a huge crash had me on the brakes, and nearly on the ground. I was able to avoid the crash, at the cost of chasing back onto the field up a somewhat steep climb. I made my way back on, but as the climb kicked up, accelerations had me dangling off the back once again. I chased all the way into Mountainburg, which is the host town of Gaylor. I had just meandered my way through the caravan as Gaylor began to take it's toll on my legs. I was able to make up some ground, but I could never fully catch back on to the group (as other racers were falling off the pace left and right). I got to the top, grabbed a banana, my first water of the day, and another gatorade (I now despise gatorade) and began my long solo TT back to the finish. Coming into town, I had lost steam and motivation; at first, it hurt to go slow, so I kept going hard...then, everything began to hurt. I was hungry, out of water, couldn't stomach anymore sugar, and nearly defeated. A group of guys (two of which were my team mates) rolled up behind and gave me a whistle to hop on the train...a free ride home. Thank the lord. Later that evening, about an hour .5 after the finish, I saw my arch nemesis (orange gatorade) again, flying out of my mouth from the deep crypts of my empty belly. I couldn't eat for hours. Finally, my body came around, I inhaled a burrito, a sandwich, some fruit and cereal; I was satisfied. Good news for the day...team mate Chad took 7th!--Round one survived

The next morning came early (5:30 am to eat) for our 8 am start. The race was hard for me from the get-go, and my hamstrings were so tight, you would think I had a come-along attached to my pelvis (for those of you non-rednecks, a come-along is a portable winch-like object that is used when constructing barbed-wire fences...how many hyphenated words do you think I can use in one sentence). So, a long story short, I made it up the big climb two out of three times with the group, and didn't have a 40 mile chase left in my legs. I was fried. I came back to the fee zone with my tail tucked between my legs in defeat--Round 2 KO for JMSR

Round three brought me to Rolla, for my first Mother's day appearance in longer than I am willing to admit. Mom, thanks for being so supportive of my cycling, it was great to get to spend time with you one the one day our country cares to recognize the person who has probably sacrificed the most for each and every one of us. I met up with K, then we spent time with each family throughout the rest of the weekend.

Today, I spun around with Tyrone in the morning and worked of course. This week is recover and recoup for Tri Peaks...More thrills, spills, and hills to come.

The week before the weeks before

This week marks the true kick off of the season. It is full throttle from here on out. We travel to Arkansas for the next two weeks for Joe Martin and Tri Peaks respectively. Then, there is Memorial Day weekend, which I will not be attending due to a wedding. I may acutally be able to sneak up for the last two days. The next weekend is the Tulsa Tough Crit series, followed by our State RR, then off to Minnesota for the Nature Valley Grand Prix. That is just the next month. So, that means I have the potential to race my bike 23 times before the 17th of June!
This pic of me from last year's race is depictive of where I spent most of my time.

This year, expect to see me here...only, in front of the guy in the funny yellow and blue kit. Ok, that probably won't happen; but as a team, we hope to pick up a stage win!

The weather has been doing funny things around here. They say it is going to rain, but instead it is sunny, 75, and hardly any wind. Missouri truly is predictably unpredictable.

Bike riding this week has been good. I missed Tight Pants Tuesday this week, due to the weekend; it actually worked out better that way anyway, because I didn't get away from Walt's in time to roll out there. Every day this week is pretty chill. I may get behind the car later today or tomorrow, but things will be on the creep.

I haven't yet decided if I should leave Thursday after work, and get as far as my eyes will allow me (traveling down to Arkansas), or wake up at the butt-crack and roll down Friday morn. The Friday stage takes off at 1:45pm...anyone from BoCoMO need a travel partner?

As of tomorrow, K and I will have been married for 11 months. Kind of crazy how time flies when you are having fun. We are looking around for a place to stay and celebrate while we are up in Minnesota. Micah was kind enough to toss us a few suggestions. Today is pretty much the deadline for that decision, so more on that later.

On another note, Java took 28th at the Tour de Gila. He also took 27th on the hardest stage, the Gila Monster, as one of the top amateurs. Way to go B!

A tribute to Tucson

Well, Jason had to bring it up, so here are a few pics from our trip to the SW last winter.

This is me, eccentric as can be. This was the first thing I interacted with in Oklahoma...or was it New Mexico??? Who knows, but I tried my hardest to come up with a scheme to lift this ape out of the back of the truck, and into our trailer.

Our sleeping arrangements were not the best, as you can tell, wall-to-wall with beds is something prisioners don't even have to deal with (they just keep thoughts like this in their heads for the lonely days). Jason had his Nintendo 64 Super Sonic Game Cube Spy Bot X-Playstation 7 Gigga-what with him to keep him occupied and avoid...


Situations like this one. 11 dudes under one roof, with three total rooms (that includes the living/kitchen area!) is never a grand idea; but it was cheap. I am not sure that there is anything appropriate on the TV, but with the way TJ is bouncing around on that ball, I highly doubt the program is rated "G".


This was the only means of a bathroom Tucson had to offer. You can see our model Jason here performing the number 1 in a most outstanding way. Notice the excited catcti in the background?


Most evenings were spent in the living area, chilling out amoungst all the testosterone. Actually, a few of the guys managed to escape some of the drama. Ben would frequent StarF#*!$ to read and relax. I spent a lot of time sitting out by the pool, and wondering around, and Matt would just dissapear for hours on in ever so often.


This one time, we rolled down to Tombstone to ride from the OK Corral to Nogales Mexico. It took us through the town of Bisbee, which also hosts quite a stage race (Vuelta de Bisbee) later on in the year.

After crossing the border, and making it back into the states in one piece, we ran into these buckaroos and had ourselves a good old fashioned show-down...yeah, those are real cowboys alright.

This picture is just wierd...I will let your imagination take over from here.....


Ok, back to reality.

So, sorry about the recap, but I just found all of my pics from down there. Expect more to come. I rode this morning; hard. Hard enough to make me want to puke up my coffee...but I kept it down. I am not racing this weekend, due to all of the travels in the coming weeks. I am looking forward to being at the house, with K, the kitty, and Parker. More soon-

1st edition Tight Pants 2006

So, I went out to tight pants this evening...man, I have really missed it. Riding by myself has gotten a little brutal as of late, and having a group of guys and gal sweating all over each other, and attacking the crap out of the group is quite welcoming. The weather was excellent, and the group seemed a bit more pleasant than I remember last year. Anyway, the first tight-pants of the year was good for me...the group has been rolling around for the past month, however, this was my first, and definitely not last visit this season.


Tour of STL was last weekend: weather looked less-than promising for the weekend, however, our Saturday race at Carondolet was actually pretty nice: that is, if you consider 30+ mph wind gusts a good time. Greeker, Chad and Mat made it up for the race and it was on from the gun. The fun thing about STL racing (compared to all of the racing I have done down south this season) is all of the attacking...Seriously, if someone isn't already drilling it, then there is at least 5 others waiting to drill it as soon as the first person comes back. We got Chad up in the winning move, then put Ankney up the road in the second move. Cagle's group ended up lapping the field, and Ankney's group got brought back...good news is, that Mat won the field sprint, and Chad got 4th out of the break.

Sunday was beautiful again...that is, until 30 minutes in. The field wouldn't let anything go up the road at Forrest Park, so it was just attack, after attack. Around the half way point, it began sprinkling, then dumping, then just raining. The corners were super slick, and the race was split up a bit...you had the wusses (like myself), skirting the corners,while all of the big hard men were rocking them. Needless to say, it created an interesting race dynamic. Joe Hill crashed with 2 or 3 laps to go (*the race got called early, at about the 60 minute mark) and then turned around and won. Jensen slid further than any man should, and Mat took 4th.

K and I looked at a house up in the north city...unfourtunatly, I think we are going to have to balk at it. The neighborhood is great, but it isn't exaclty located in the most friendly part of town. More on houses soon. We will take the camera up next time...sucks thought, becasue this house rocked!

But, it was the first one we looked at, and we were excited, and there is probably one as cool as this one out there for us...just not for the price. Oh well, maybe not all is lost.

I tried to post all the pics, but the links will have to do. Sorry