What Not to Say to a Person with an Ego Problem

 Stolen from the CBR blog:

I’m a huge fan of people fixing their own problems, especially grown f*cking men who pay taxes and vote. I don’t have time to listen to men complain and then subsequently listen to men explain. The way a racer beats another racer is the way Ryan Barrett and Jamie Paolinetti do it….ride at 34mph until the racer can’t even draft and then the racer drops their wheel. Crappy/douchebag racers hook wheels, brake check, bumps bars with lesser experienced racers, and take drafting riders into cones/barricades/curbs. The better rider just rides them off their wheel with brute strength & speed…strange concept, huh?

For every one Ryan there are three dozen non-Ryans: it sux, but that’s just the way it is these days-more negative racing than positive racing & sportsmanship is out the window. I will do what I can to keep this corner of the world clean, and for the most part, the race at Velo Allegro ran great and without a hitch.

I don’t think Chris reads the blog, but thanks for the ego pump all the same!

The Suck

So, I’m sure I am late in discovering this, but Tour of the Depot ends on Easter Sunday.  Now, if it was a crit in the afternoon, I could probably swing that, but it’s not.  It’s a 100 mile road race early in the morning.  Sorry, kids win.  Apparently, there’s a Saturday only option, which I’ll probably jump on, but it’s kinda not awesome to start a stage race knowing you can’t compete in the overall.  Aargh.  How is it that we live in a state where 80% of the races are on Saturdays and one of the few Sunday races falls on Easter?

Anyway, please don’t misinterpret.  I thank the promoters for having an event.  It just doesn’t fit well into my schedule, and apparently I didn’t push the memo about the world revolving around me hard enough.

A Dorky Training Post

Excellent day yesterday.  Took a family ride up the Provo River Trail until we hit the snowline and then stopped at a park to the let the girls play for awhile, where we saw some of our special biking friends.  Dropped off the trailer and went back out and found the steepest hills of the Provo bench on which to flog myself.  Got the SFGP style full body workout and even made this face:

Then, back home to play with the kids some more and grill up dinner.  Gotta fire up the grill (or bar-b, as some might call it) anytime it gets over 50 degrees this time of year.

In other news, I have a new TT bike.  I’d post pics, but I am lazy and you’ve all seen a P3 before, plus Dustin still has my disc, so you don’t get the full effect.  Anyway, one less excuse to suck at TT’s.  Oh yeah, and I made a trade for PowerTap hub too, so hope to get that built this week.  Now if I could just do more than one decent ride a week…

Pretty amped to start racing next week.  It’s been a long time coming.

For now, I am just watching the temp drop as the storm rolls in.

YAAHHH!!

http://cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2009/mar09/redlands09/redlands091

Apparently, chasing Fox’s motorscooter pays off.

Oh Happy Day

I really wasn’t chanelling the spirit of Fonzi with that title, just excited.

The astute reader, and probably  even the downright brain dead, may have noticed that I’ve been a bit of  a Debbie Downer recently.  The last couple weeks have been rather trying and I will leave it at that.  I was due to continue my work week today, but somehow ended up with the day off.  There’s still a possibility for me to have to go in tomorrow (egads, a Saturday), but I am just going to cross the fingers that doesn’t happen.  Strike that, I am not even going to think about it and attempt to enjoy today to the maximum.

I don’t know what the day will bring, but I do know that I slept until 7, which NEVER happens!  Yes, that is late.  Waaay late. 

Anyway, enough talk.  Time for some action!

The Highlight of My Week

I got to tear down some dry wall earlier.  I got bloody knuckles doing so, but it was well worth it.  No, I wasn’t supposed to use my fizst, but I guess I got caught up in the moment.

More later.

Best Saturday Ever…

Maybe not quite, but pretty good.

Got on my bike a touch before 9 and it was already warm.  Pointed north towards RMR in the big ring and let ‘er rip.  After point of the mountain, the wind turned on and I didn’t need anything but the 11 from there.  This resulted in my being a bit early, and then I found out the start was pushed back by half an hour, so I rode around in circles for awhile.  For my out-of-state readership, RMR is the SLC Tuesday nighter, but they run it on weekends in March before the regular racing starts in April.  I pretty much never get out there, but I gotta say it is good fun.  Pretty much went for it straight out of the gates.  Then, tried again.  Less than 10 minutes in the Hardwood and 12kdreamteam.com super hero Chase Pinkham went away and that was that.  I was surprised no team really lined it up to try and bring them back.  Instead, they were trying to launch across solo, but there was no one there strong enough to catch those two alone.  I tried to keep riding aggressively and felt surprisingly good the whole time.  The Hardwood took it to Chase for the 3rd week in a row.

Kelly and the girls came out to watch and pick me up.  Thankfully, as I might not have made it home with the way the wind was blowing.  We went over to SLC proper and ate some goodness and walked around the Gateway a bit.  Then, went home and played outside.

Oh yeah, it was 75 yesterday and is supposed to snow tonight.  Gotta love Utah spring!

San Dumass

Good luck to everyone at San Dimas.  Here’s a story from back in the day.

http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=7641

Lots of general unplesasantness at the moment that I can’t get into.  Thinking maybe this is a sign that it really is time to make a change.

Kimmage Interview

http://nyvelocity.com/content/interviews/2009/paul-kimmage

Well worth a look.

Check Out the new VeloNews

Generally speaking all the bike news you need is available right here, but VeloNews actually managed to impress me with a pretty good article on current Utah resident and Cole Sport (oh yeah, and ex US Postal, Festina, Mercury, Rock and probably a gazillion other teams) rider David Clinger, followed by a short story on Chad Gerlach.  A lot of similarities in the stories of these two big talents, their downfalls, and their path to getting life back on track.  I wish ‘em both luck.

Oh yeah, and one of my favorite tidbits of the Clinger article is where he says he is still Mormon, but doesn’t feel comfortable going to church with his face tatooed.  My feeling (which I realize is worth less than nothing on this topic) is that if you believe in the church, you should still go.  Yes, you will get some weird looks, but I’m certain that is nothing new at this point!

In other news, I have been getting my ass kicked at work.  And I finally slept mostly through the night without a major coughing fit.

Kelly’s mom sent a super fun activity for the girls for St. Patricks’s Day.  See Kelly’s blog for details, but we were blessed with super weather that let the girls run around bare foot and play the game.  Coupled with the nice long days, it’s actually light when I get home, and things are looking up.  I guess I’ll have to mow the lawn before we know it, but that’s a small price to pay.

Oh yeah, and Morga-muffin started potty training yesterday and is coming through like a champ thus far.  Not a single “accident” on day one.  Hallelujah!

Alright, I guess I better get on with it.