Down Time Into The Super Unknown.

I figure its the off-season so I should post stuff up here more often having much less chamois time and all. So the day has started off very well after I remembered that the new PJ cd comes with two free concert downloads that I am enjoying the first of right now. Yes kids, its a downright bargain of musical goodness. And a brilliant coffee from the shop machine downstairs has also perked things up some. Speaking of perks I think one of the coolest things of my job environment here is the fact I work in a room with a sweet surround sound system. And as a music enthusiast of sorts this pleases me no end. I recall back to my first ever job scrubbing dishes and I was the complete music police officer of the kitchen, bringing in new cd's each shift and if needed my whole stereo at times. Yep, I was that guy. So on another note it looks like I will be facing my first winter in three years. Yes I have been one of those lucky bastards that has travelled from summer to summer in the past, but with work commitments here and other happenings in CO im excited for a little change and a new challenge. Seriously though, I think that perhaps after running the same formula for the past few years training wise, this could be a great new stimulus being in a totally different environment that it might make 2010 even bigger than 2009. Ah the excitement of the unknown, I love it. Speaking of next year and racing, there are a few potential exciting plans in the works at the moment and I think the winds of change are a blowing. Only time will tell where that will be. So down-time right now is good. I haven't really touched my bike with any intent of late, apart from the local TT series I am doing each week for a little more time in the aero position which coming from a mtb background I lack big time. Sure those hurt (like hell), but they have been a nice little personal challenge each week. One other cool option I have to play with is a little gig over here called cyclocross. By little I mean large, super large. Like 100 starters in a local category three race last weekend. Dang. To be honest I'll have a little dig sometime in a month or so and already lined up a bike I can use, but right now I am still pretty fried from a long road season.

Green And Gold With A Rainbow Swirl.

Cadel bagged the big one. Holy shite I was on the edge of my seat eating my pancakes this morning watching the live feed. When he scrapped onto the split on the last lap after Cancellara was smashing it up I wasn't so sure, but my word when he rode away from Kolobnev and Rodriguez on the climb it was magical stuff. 5 seconds blew out to 13 and then it was unreal to watch our national team jersey cross the line in the biggest one day race of the season. Awesome, awesome stuff.


With the off season in full swing here Kat and I did some hiking today upwards of Idaho Springs. Being autumn here the aspens are changing and the colours are awesome.



After almost four hours on foot we were pretty pleased to see the car again, with both of us still getting adjusted to using the whole non cycling specific muscles deal. It's amazing just how one dimensional you become when you do the same activity for months on end. Let some new adventures begin.

Monday Rambling.

It's a Monday. This should put a smile on your face for the start of the week. And maybe this too. Okay and this one is gold. Highly amusing stuff.

So the new Pearl Jam album dropped yesterday. Although it's only 37 minutes in there, on first listen it's great stuff. Yes I have a biased view after being my favorite band for 13 years, but they have evolved a great deal, and this latest album is kinda the most upbeat, optimistic feeling album yet. Maybe it has something to do with the different bloke running this country these days....

The weekend was spent working all day Saturday with a skills clinic (thanks to those who came out) and then Sunday traded the wheels for walking with a hike up in Evergreen. Awesome trail that pretty much every footstep left me wishing I had my dirt bike. As soon as this crappy weather (that blew it today) leaves us I will be up there for sure.

I heart Colorado trails!

Univest Sufferfest: The Final Race of 2009

Go East. Quite the opposite of the Pet Shop Boys tune, but last weekend was the furthest east I have travelled here in the US and A for my last race of the season. Philly to be exact, just under an hour north of the city to be even more precise. Univest GP was the last hurrah for season 2009 (and what a long one it's been) and once again I was able to don the red and black colours of Rio with a guest spot. It was also very cool to have a couple more Oceanic madmen as team-mates, with Sean Sullivan and Heath Blackgrove also guest riding. All of a sudden more of my jokes made sense and cricket wasn't a dirty word.

The race itself was a UCI ranked 2.2, meaning I had to scramble and some international licence upgrades done but in the end the postman came through and it was all happy days. We had three days of lycra pinning, the first being a TTT, the main 100mile RR Saturday and then a criterium on the Sunday to finish it off.


TTT
Arriving at the race site it was clear it was going to be a wet chamois day for sure with cold temps, hurricane winds and rain. Retreating in an underground parking lot seemed to be the logical option. Actually the morning didn't start out too bad after Collier an I went on an adventure to find a bathroom, only to charm our way into some corporate warm office building (with great facilities btw) and offered hot coffee and some refuge outta the cold. Trying not to get too comfortable it was goodbye to the credit union people and time to check out the 6km course in which we would have 2 laps. No doubt it was slick and a challenge to ride with the winds and heavy rain. Ah well, you get that on the big jobs. We drew the short straw and were first team off the block. Unfortunately for us the conditions did get better as the day progress but we still posted a solid 13th/30 teams. I have no doubt we would have been well into the top ten with drier roads.


RR
This was it. My final road race for the year and I was pretty pumped, despite the continuing crappy conditions. Okay, horrible conditions to be exact. The format was a large 100km loop then dropping back into town for 10 X 6km circuit We had a strong team on paper and we were all looking forward to getting to the loops and seeing what we could do. Rolling out of the start we had 3km of neutral to warm the bones until a massive pile up (claiming Collier and Krug - not seriously) and we waited 15mins or so for a restart. Once rolling again the race was intense. High speeds, plenty of attacking early, crappy vision and no brakes. I tried to keep it at the front as much as possible, and with Amore E Vita doing a pretty good job of keeping things intact we made it too the finish circuits where all hell broke loose. I liked the circuits, a mid lap climb, technical corners and a whole lot of sliding around. To be honest I can't really recall to many details other than just fighting the whole time to stay up the front and not get caught out in splits. When the fat lady had sung, I ended up 23rd. Happy dayz.

CT.
To be honest I was pretty darn spent coming into the final day of racing. The legs weren't too responsive in the warm up, and with a tricky little course my primary aim was just to finish and take it from there. And that was pretty much all I did, finishing in the 40's and running on empty pretty much the whole race. Cool circuit, but when you're fried, you're fried. Race season done.



The above photos are the from the super cool host family house we were staying at. Built in 1820 it was pretty amazing place full of old world charm and traditional low ceilings (folks just weren't as big in those days....)

Steamboat Springs Stage Racing!

So a prologue and two (tough) stages down things have been going okay for my second last race for the season. I say second last with the news last week that I have been confirmed to once again guest ride with Team Rio Grande at Univest Grand Prix, a three day UCI race in Philly next week! Should be a great way to round out the season....and a long season at that, now that I think back to my first race this year being on the 1st of Jan.....9mths..solid. And boy am I starting to feel it!

So SBSR has been pretty cool so far, starting off with a short 9km prologue where I managed to finish on my lucky number of 14. The first circuit race stage was pretty brutal in the heat of the day and at 67ooft. Climb. Descend. Repeat. Pretty straight foward and Ben Day of Fly V schooled us all winning by 4mins. Todays 110km road stage once again he showed he has some killer form, pretty much sitting on the front all day as we were strung out single file. I had a better day than yest, maybe sneaking into the top ten although waiting on results. 60min downtown crit tmw and we'll call it good. Two days home then fly to Univest! Time to go lie down.

Everyone Loves....

cycling!