Weavers on VS.

So the coverage on VS was underwhelming to say the least. However, I do want to join the PA cycling team The Weavers..

Great job Daniel!

ABC's of AVC's

First off don't think you can just show up after a week on the road in Denver, dealing with the UN-friendly skies, staying up late, not riding, & selling vino. But whatcha gonna do? Baby needs a new pair of shoes!!!

Then coming home, couple of world record holders with the last name being the same "Williams" already arrived at our house for the weekend and Tracey not back from Chicago yet made for being off the back before I even got to the track. 

We get to AVC and all I want to do is lay on the grass, get a massage at the massage bar and drink some Testarossa vino. After one pedal stroke I pretty much knew I was going to be off the back quick like. The pisser is when you line up at the rail, friends, hecklers, and cycling fans are only a whisper away. "Can't I just go crawl under a rock?" 

It was great to get all the congrats on the baby, I did do a couple of races scratch & missing out.

Well when D Holla said "counter" in the scratch, I had nothing. Then I had a whole lot of missing out in the missing out.

I hate seeing those crashes on the track. In my opinion that kid that went down in the Kerin never should have been allowed to race again that night. His helmet was crushed and the sound of the THWACK of his head on the track is one that I'd like to forget. We had a few unlucky ones in our scratch that stacked....phew, glad a missed that too, I did see sparks!!!

Kenny Mc Williams said that they have to have a EMT at every track event at his local track in Seattle. I know that costs $$$$ it sounded like a really good idea!

Saturday started and finished much better!!!! Get up, go for a ride, check out Testarossa for a quick tour, then big lunch, nap, and get to the track some 4 hrs early.  Once I found my bike after I miss placed it on the infield and borrowed some of Scottie ZZZZZ'zz gears ....duhhh I did the elite race. Legs were good so I was pretty much ready for the Masters points.

All I have to say was that one was fun! Best of all was I was feeling normal again. Eric from Los Gatos was flying, and well Larry Nolan... rocks.

He is in a league of his own, classy, cool calm and a great racer and long time ambassador of the track. He helped and encouraged me all weekend in between his trips back and forth to the podium.

Then we had a little after hours into the wee hours back at our house. The first 4 bottles of vino when down pretty quick and thanks to Hooptie we had some beers too.

Sunday was breakfast, some sunburn, and bed by 8:00.

Great weekend!

Halfway to Fathers day!!!!!

I've been holding this one back as long as possible. As many of you know my mouth is the only fast twitch fiber in my lanky body. It's true, so far all is perfect, Tracey and I are having a baby girl!!!!!!!!! She'll be here in November, we have been considering names. Tracey informed me that sometime after giving Roger a leadout for the win and then the following day, me riding in solo that we should think about calling her Merced... I like that better then McLane or Merco.

Hope I can be half as good as my father!

Dad- we wish you a very special fathers day! Hope to see you soon.

Shaw's bike shop-

So with track being more of the focus, it is time to get the Transition dialed in for the track. I've heard about Shaw's  for a couple of years and finally decided to make the trip. What a great shop, it reminds me of the shop I basically grew up in back east. Tracey warned me that the owner may talk your ear off, well I think I was the one who wore him out.

I sat around looking at all the vintage cycling stuff on the walls asking for help from Jerry the head wrench who has been working on bikes for a few decades. I kind felt out of place with a carbon bike and found myself ooogling over the Steel vintage bikes with Campy Super Record parts.

SaTT ley good, bad, and the ugly.

Phipps and I headed up to Truckee on Sat. He drove the Silver bullet, that thing going around corners at 70 made me nervous. It must of made someone else nervous too -- there was no chicken handle for me to hold onto...I didn't ask...

We stayed the night outside of Truckee with a Craig & Susan Z Team friends of Phipps. After a quick ride to dust off the legs from the 3 hr tour.. Susan treated us to a 4 course dinner tomato and mozz bruscetta, insalata mista with blueberries, sausage pasta and a huge berry and cake thingy that was awesome. I think they were a little concerned when I opened the third bottle of wine. Good thing I'm training. Thanks Craig and Susan! Great hosts and they have a fun pup called Wrecks.


In my opinion the conditions were perfect!

Turnout was less then perfect-I noticed it when Phipps and I were pulling into the reg. Afterwards I asked about this years reg. It was down 30%...gas?? ambition?? June burnout?? I dunno??

Gentle headwind breeze for the way out and tailwind on the way back. The cracks are bigger then ever and perfect for a
5k prostate crushing at 30mph. I must admit I was really looking forward to getting back to those cracks on the way back. That's when the entire body is pretty much screaming in pain and I don't seem to mind those cracks as much do on the first part.

Winners were
Elite
Roman's been stomping the locals with his TT's this year 49:30-crap that's fast!

U 23- holy crap!! Shawn Rosenthal is killing the TT's this year. He was a teammate a few years ago on Spine and he's having a breakout year..50: & change Great ride! Go get Nationals!!!!

Master 35-Bosch vs Innes. Bosch won 52: & change.

Master 40-you know who..pulled that one out. Only 20 seconds off my PR & watts were up 10% from last week. Got to get another 15% then I'll be riding full speed. 51:50. Foy from San Jose who has been really doing great rides this year just got back from a killer bike trip in France was 2nd and Kieran from AV was third. We should of carpooled.

Master 45-49 Bubba 53: & change!

Master 50-54 Novitsky??? I know Nolan was second.

Elite chicks
Katherine the great did a 55& change. Blazin. Loved hearing about her catching guys last week at Dunlap. Hats gotta hurt the fragile males ego.

Other bummer stuff.
Not so Specialized.

Metcalf-not so ergo stem slipped.
Roemer-figured he was gonna beat me this year, flatted for the second year in a row.
Mick had some Hellmans mayonnaise floating around in his chest and pulled the plug after 20k in the interest of health. Good call.

One last sound bite.

BAR and BAT.

I got to thinking that the BAR and BAT is more about racing 100+ races in all the categories. Why don't they make it a little easier on themselves and have a District Best all around rider and just keep track of the District TT, Crit and RR? Just a thought??

The race of truth-Truth is SRM's don't lie.

The Dunlap TT course was so great I had to do it twice!

The first time Roman came by me in his fixed gear rig after about 10k. I thought that was pretty risky but the flatness and light winds proved this risk would pay off. Roman gets the win! Nice job, I guess you have to take risks to win.

Me on the other hand...legs felt good, I just had to keep telling myself that my SRM was not reading right 290 watts avg for the first tt-- my usual 370 seems like another lifetime... Booze, food and basically not doing crap on the bike for the past two months has finally caught up to me. Now I feel like I'm cramming for an exam and have to pull some all nighters. This is a bit different style of training for me as the thing that works best is long base miles for months with periodic weeks of endurance thru the season.

Phipps had a pretty killer ride too. He finally popped his 138 lb cherry on Tracey's old Cervelo w/o a disk and finished second to Innes. Since Innes has been riding on another planet lately I figure we either kill him or just say that 2nd place is the new first place when he is racing.

And Curi/Mattis....I did flinch when I saw her scar from the recent surgery. Didn't seem to slow her down any. She smoked it! And she is so nice. The sexyist chick bike of the day was Bev Harpers Orbea. Man that thing looked stealthy.

Dawn District champ who also couldn't be Nicer. Ripped a good one and won her race by over 45 seconds and would have nailed a top to in the Women P12 race.

Lastly--Metcalf pulled a negitave split doing the impossible. He went 30 some seconds faster in his second TT of the day. If he only did 3, you would have to wonder.
Oh well-I didn't stick around for the results as I knew I would be pretty far down but it should be a good tune up for Sattley.