Notching Up Another Year.

I must admit it was kinda fun having your birthday span over two different time zones. So last week I got another year older and a lot of fun and surprises were had...oh and alongside some damn fast bicycle racing also. Firstly I gotta thank this girl....

...so the plan was for Sat night for us to go for a casual bowl and catch up with Joby and Ashley. Upon arrival at the alley I spotted Fruti and JK, and thought to myself..hmmm what are the chances..must be the local hangout. And then I spotted a whole host of others and very quickly realized I had stumbled into a surprise birthday party! Sweet! So needless to say good times followed for the rest of the night, with many antics been had. Thanks to all those who attended I had a blast.

Highlights included Joby's long run in's for 26mph ball speed, G-Train's unorthodox technique involving the ball in flight for half the bowl (yet surprisingly accurate) and Kathy's original bowling shirt. Awesome!

I also did some bicycle racing last weekend to kick off the 2009 Colorado account. Sat was a super fast and rough pancake flat course, with an originally Pro/1/2/3 field, but because of the sunshine not snowfall, had to be split up with huge entry numbers. With no expectation from still getting acclimated I was in the hurt box early. As I mentioned the course was rough and had long sweeper style corners and midway through the race my rear wheel stepped out big time and bit the tarmac again..as it can do sometimes. I suffered hard for the rest of the race and scraped home for a bunch finish, thinking in my head that the altitude change was messing with me hard. Slowing down past the finish line it all came clear as my bike turned into a bucking bronco. My rear wheel was severely taco'ed and was stopping through the brake. Damn!

So I lined up in Greely for another shot the next day, on a long and open course. We had a strong team presence there and were hungry for breakaway presence. Surprisingly I moved a lot easier than Sat and with some early breaks that didn't stick, found myself up the road with Allen from Rio. We were away for 5 laps, shared a prime and I suffered along the way. Two guys to hold off a strong field just wasn't going to cut it, and we were eventually reeled in. Ian followed the counter which stayed away and put RMCEF on the box with a third. The rest of us did a pretty good job of looking after the bunch and making sure the break didn't get brought back. Good times.

We have started seeding for out veggie garden early this year...hopefully things work out better than the one capsicum we yielded last year!