Edging Closer To The Pointy End.

Once again I equaled my best placed finish on the CO race circuit with a 5th at the Hart Criterium today. Another 5th, same result as last weeks Boulder-Roubaix. Things are good. I'm either pinning it on my new haircut or the fact I got my favourite number 14 as my race number as the cause some single digit results. So ten minutes before the start the skies were looking black down south and all of a sudden a nice tornado spout was spotted. For real. It looked like it extended down to the ground for a short period of time, but after a little delay and a few extra practice laps we were on our way. Course was fun and much to my liking, a decent length climb each lap and some smooth industrial circuit roads. The first few laps I was in struggle town. The winds were up and I was a little to far near the caboose of the train. Not good. With a solid RMCEF showing the plan was to represent in any break. With the T-Man back from a little flier I saw an opening to shoot up the road with VC's Tarkinton after ex Toyota-United rider Barbari countered and was fast disappearing up the frog and toad. Next thing I knew we were away!

Break time. One lap later we were joined by some welcomed pro firepower, namely Toyota's Kiwi Heath Blackgrove and the Mayor of Boulder himself Chuck Coyle of Successful Living. So only 20mins into the race we had some work to do in order to keep this little flame alive, and as expected the nose was put to the grindstone...big time. Needless to say Heath and Chuck were driving the break with some massive pulls as expected. All of a sudden we were looking the goods. With under 10 laps to go and a solid gap on the bunch the screws were being turned each lap. The legs were starting to crack with 5 to go, and when Heath laid the smackdown over the crest of the hill the group split, leaving Coyle, Tarkinton and myself behind. The tank started to run dry with a lap to go and I was running on fumes and being stuck with a known sprinter in Coyle was not a good place to be so I gave it a little dig on the climb on the last lap to get away but I was already a cooked goose.

Needless to say the sprint was a non-event for me being seriously out gunned by around 20kg of muscle power, but at the end of the day it was another solid result on the scoreboard.

UPS did finally come through with the goods, and turned me into a green eyed monster when I built up Kat's new Salsa CX bike. Apart from the hideous bar tape it's one sweet little rig and just a little too small for me!

Spotted some trout in Bear Creek on a bike path bonanza day. No rod and reel in the jersey pocket however.

Enough said.

Thanks for reading folks....over n' out...cw

It's Been Waay To Long...

Since a list has come out....Sep 06' wasn't that long ago was it?

WHAT'S HOT

• Kat's new CX Bike. Green and mean. And still in transit. Hurry up UPS so I can ride it before she gets home from work.
• COG "Sharing Space". Loud, proud and Aussie.
• Batman: The Animated Series. Beats the hell outta most USA TV shows.
• BMX in the Olympics. I mean Yeti made a BMX bike because of it!
• Chipoltle 2mins down the street. Who's hungry?
• CO weather. Ok apart from last weekends 3 day constant rain. Brown as a berry.
• SRAM Hammerschmidt. That thing still blows my mind thinking about it. What's next?
• New KOL on the horizon. I mean any song title 'Sex on Fire' has gotta be rockin, right?
• Davis getting a gig with Quick-Step. Good news story.
• "Vantage Point" flick. Saw it the other day and was impressed. Takes a lot for a movie with out a bicycle theme to impress me.
• Gateway Cup next week....hello under lights crit racing!
• My ground turkey pasta sauce last week. Secret ingredient of part salsa saved the day when no other tomato sauce was located in the cupboard despite what one first thought.

WHAT'S NOT

• Waiting for UPS.
• The "Birdsnest" stadium in Beijing....come on...I made the same thing when I dropped the box of fettachini the other day.
• The scooter keeping on leaking oil despite my valiant attempts to fix it.
• Did I mention waiting for UPS?
• CO radio. Terrible. Occasional flashes of goodness. Mostly though, terrible. Nickleback and Staind..yeah you get the picture.
• Skype today. Can't even have a good line to Boulder, 40mins up the road.
• Coffee. Well my inability to stop being a tight-ass and buying cheap stuff and then complain about it for the next 3 weeks.
• One month left today.

Chasing Rocketships.

The 2009 Giant Range is now online. Check it out. So Westside (the new MOB) has one of the new production Giant TCR Advanced SL bikes on the floor already. One of the first to do so. Saw it yesterday and was blown away at the changes from this year to next. I know they have been in the press for a few months now and such, but when you see one on the floor of a bike shop it goes to a whole another level. Massive thick tubing, clean lines and graphics and some very nice touches including a pierced top tube for cleaner rear brake cable routing. All of a sudden the exclusiveness that Columbia had doesn't exist. Already been offered a test ride in the near future.....lators..cw

Filling The Gaps Inbetween

Training has been solid this week, and this guy has been a bit of a new afternoon buddy of mine. We upgraded last week thanks to the magic of Craigslist, the US version of the Trading Post. That thing is pretty much filling our living room. You can see the old box on the left. I don't need to wear my glasses anymore. So I'm slowly warming to watching more Olympics, hopefully we get some decent coverage of the mtb race this week. BMX is on tonight and I'm definitely up for that. Speaking of BMX check out this bad boy. Sweet as. Although my favourite TV viewing at the moment, and it's not "I Want To Work For P Diddy", seems to be the cartoons.



Batman; The Animated Series is taking high priority. Yes, I was a cartoon kid. Still am I think. Somehow the 22mins of drama in Gotham City works pretty well with the post ride fatigue. Just enough time before I fall asleep.

Today I finally took the post ride helmet hair to the next level. I call this styling the 'Bell Sweep'

More Roubaix Pics.

All photos courtesy of David Hunter.

Boulder-Roubaix.

Well what an event it was. Constant rain the day before, overnight and into the morning of the big day was fantastic for the veggie patch, but would make for a tough day's racing. Okay so at 110km and mainly dirt roads instead of cobblestones it wasn't quite the real 'Hell of the North' but with Rio and Vitamin Cottage fielding almost full squads it was going to be a war of attrition out there.

The first few laps I felt pretty crappy, and a small break of four went up the road early and at one stage had 2.30min while we seemed to be fluffing around in the bunch. Still there was plenty of racing to come and I had to keep telling myself to be patience, keep eating and just try and keep surviving the selections made over the sharp staircase hills on the backside of the course. The mud factor was high, but being one of the lucky ones who ride SRAM, the bike didn't skip a beat. These guys know how to make stuff work, (check out this for innovation) and no wonder so many top racers use it for cross, as just like their mtb components the road orientated gear was flawless in the mud. However I was dreaming of having a plush SID on the front, especially along the long straight stretch to the finish line where holes were like land mines as we all squinted and battled through the mud.

By lap five things were looking good, the bunch had been sorted from the pretenders and contenders and my legs finally came around. At the start of three laps to go we were all strung out and attacks were on the fly as the break was less than a minute up the road. This was when the most major selection was made. I hung on for grim death and closed the gap. When the mud settled we were down to around 12. Half Rio, half V.C, leaving Slipstream's Colby Pierce and myself severely out numbered. Crap. The next lap and a half was spent trying to follow moves and without team-mates I was getting right royally screwed over having to follow pretty much everything. So it pretty much went like this; a VC guy would shoot up the road forcing a Rio guy to react and then boom, I had to go with that move otherwise I'd be worked over in a non-chasing bunch. On the final lap it was one move too many, and just before the only road section a group of 4 slipped off the front. I reacted a little late and all of a sudden found myself in no-mans land. It was a tough TT to the finish but I managed to hold off the group and take 5th, a mere 39sec from the win.

Old Gold.

These bad boys were found on Craigslist the other day (the USA Trading Post)...classic stuff!

Hell Of Northern Colorado.

Checked out the Boulder-Roubaix course yesterday. Should be pretty fun, 80% dirt roads and some nasty little kicker hills. Forecast is meant to be getting crappier as the week progress so it could really be the "Hell of the North". One of those courses where the first few times it doesn't seem too bad, but then when you have 8 laps to do it going to turn into a suffer-fest.

In other news former MOB rider now Garmin/Chipolte hitter Jason Donald smashed it at the first stage of Utah yesterday taking out the big W. Another former MOB rider Brad White also took third...

On A Walk-a-bout

Went on a late afternoon hike with Kat last night up to Castle Rock on top of South Table Mtn in Golden. Nice little 25min walk to an awesome spot, which apparently used to feature a dance hall up there back in the day. The done thing was to take a mule up to the top to save the dancing legs...makes sense. Unfortuntely the hall was burned down after supposed KKK meetings were held there. Anyway, it was a nice spot to go and eat a burrito and watch the sunset before it started to shower for about 15mins.

On the way back down we took an alternate path that led to me walking inches past a rattlesnake. Damn. I think the recent rain shower kinda cooled him off and he wasn't that active, but still it was pretty full on to come across one of these bad boys. The rest of the way down the eyes were on full alert, and we managed to spot a cool little lizard, and then a huge mule-deer about 20meters away in the scrub. Not bad for an afternoon stroll...

Another Race Day Notch On The Handlebars.

Notch number 50 to be exact...yep, the Boulder Road Race yesterday marked the half-century in number of days raced this year. I must say I was pretty darn excited to sign up for a different style of bicycle race that most likely wouldn't included being chopped out of most corners and have a high risk of late race bonehead moves that cause crashes. In other words, yee-hah, a road race! A pretty basic out and back loop with a less than basic field with close to a dozen pro's on the startline. Oh and some nice sized up-hill gradients. Hello suffer-fest. Start was kinda unique with a staggered 2, 1 then pro groups at one minute intervals. Brought back some nice memories from past Oz scratch races but really delayed the inevitable of the pro-show. Slipped into an all Oceanic move which looked promising but unfortunately didn't stick. Pretty much the rest of the race was a war of attrition, hold on for as long as you can. Three laps to go after a plethora of surges my number was up. Still managed to hold on to a 12th place finish in a nice little two up sprint.



Went to 'Film on The Rocks' last Fri night and got a scarring taste of the 80's with a little film called 'Purple Rain'. The thing known as Prince basically is the lead man that parades around in a puffy shirt (most of the time open) and tight pants in cut-throat competition with the other local crooner in town who had an equally bad moustache. Still, Red Rocks is one impressive place go...maybe to see something a little more contemporary next time. Although that pearl white guitar was kinda cool.

Completely in the box today, with the couch being my best buddy, closely followed by the fridge. Over n' out....cw

From Little Things, Big Things Grow..

So my project over the last week is finally complete...the veggie garden has now gone from a jungle of weeds to a landscaped masterpiece. Sometimes it's been nice to switch the focus up from lycra and painted road lines to an afternoon chillin' out in the sun pulling up weeds. So far capsicum, corn, tomatoes, squash and broccoli has made it through all the rigorous testing and screening procedures to gain entry to this highly prized piece of soil. Hopefully they don't let me down...or the stir-fry..

Lightning Strike Causes Lakewood Fire Outbreak...

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10094646

There ya go...out on the bike today there was plenty of lightning and storm related activity (sadly not much rain tho) and then on the way home the smoke could be easily seen from the Green Mtn blaze...kinda sucks to see all that open space turn to black...lators..cw

The Frustration City Cycling Blues in E Minor.

For the second race in a row I got caught behind a crash in the final few laps....argh the frustration. Luckily I didn't kiss the tarmac from the result of some clowns inability to hold his line and keep it rubber side down, although i was mighty close to being taken out by a bouncing Orbea. But nonetheless all the position and momentum was lost and that was all she wrote. Thats bike racing sometimes and it is a full calendar of racing for the last 4 weeks of the season so hopefully things can turn around my way.

Kat made Anzac biscuits yesterday which was pretty cool. I think pasties are the next on her list so I looking forward to those big time. In other news Mob has now expanded and officially moved, taking over Westside Cycling and Fitness...onwards and upwards I say...plus it's a little closer location from home here so that's always a good thing..lators..cw