Change of the seasons

This is my favorite part of the year. Just riding without a plan, no coaching, no pussatron, doing group rides, not really caring about anything...except....my favorite am fuel. SCONES, light, flakey, moist, warm blueberry scones. Nothing better to me then riding for a couple of hours this time of year in the early am when there is a bit of a thermal inversion and finding a perfect blueberry scone.

After all as Tracey says I'm a fat man in a skinny persons body.

Eric and I always laugh about this time of year when the fitness falls off..."like falling off a cliff". It takes so long to get that fitness and in just a moment, poof its gone. I felt it falling off yesterday, in fact I got off my bike on a climb. I didn't get off because I couldn't pedal, just because I didn't want to believe that I was pedaling in my smallest gear (40x26). I thought for sure it was a (40x23).

Oh well, maybe I'll be able to fake it for the next few weeks.

F-it, I'll just eat more scones.

Morgan Stanley/Specialized/24hrFitness & TeamSpine unite

Now don't that just roll off the tongue. Its a mouthful, but its making my mouth water and I'm so excited for next year!!!!!

We're going to have some fun- new bikes, new kits, some new guys to race with along with the guys I've been racing with since 2002. We just faded for a couple of years, now we will be back stronger then ever in both the 45's and 35's.

I do wish Safeway was still going to be around, but I'm sure there will be plenty of other changes in the next few weeks. I did see Pasco spending alot of time with Bosch at Timpani, makes me think they are up to something..oh well looks like changes are happening around here in the Masters.

This merger is for the better!

Birthday girl!!!

Its Tracey's Birthday today!!!!

Not sure what she's up for, but I'm ready. Gotta love it when the girl says she wants to spend the day at the track riding

We will probably be in a fog all day from the 24 hr trip back from Austria.

I hope there is a big breakfast and carrot cake somewhere along the way.

World of hurt!

Not even close, no cigar or rainbow's for me. I gave it one hell of a go..eyes were crossed after the first 10k and did the last 10K in 12 min.

That's 50k per hr. The German that won beat me by a full minute and I ended up 3rd of the 80+ starters.
I did have the fanciest bike.

Hell-Monster Man 2nd
Metcalf-6th
Bev-2nd
Gianna-2nd last I heard
Me-3rd


Thats it for now.

Stay tuned.

Ready...5--4---3---2---1-------go Time!

So far so good.

The numbers have been picked up despite a minor heart attack for both Tracey and I. The people at reg need to spend a few days of on the job training with Velo promo. Tracey checked in and they told her that she couldn't race because it started in 15 minutes (this was two days earlier then it was listed) and when I was standing next to her getting my things sorted, they said that I wasn't registered for the TT and the cutoff was a week earlier. Minor details..anyway they had our names "pre-registered" wrong.
Yesterday was great, maybe a little too great! There were hundreds of TT-ers riding the course, back and forth, back and forth. I ended up probably doing a bit more then I should have, but it was really fun. The riders from all countries riding in pacelines, motor pacing, etc.
I did meet a friend of Mick's who had a really cool name. Case Beers. I swear, the guy's name is Case Beers (my spelling sucks) I'm sure this is not how you spell it but he is a wheel building legend. My grandfather would like to meet Case, the only way his name could be any better is if it was Free Beers

When we arrived for dinner the first night, we were sat communal like with two women and two girls ages 11 and 13. At first we thought it might be a bit uncomfortable if the didn't speak english..because Tracey and I don't speak much other then...

Locals women are TT-ing today Go Bev (GBR) and Gianna!!!!!


We've been really enjoying their company at dinner and saw Carolyn start and finish her TT today. I hope she did well.
I have a start at 3:16:30 today and hope to be celebrating with the AMD crew later tonight at dinner. There are 107 riders in the field and the weather is perfect here in St Johann

Austria- arrived at last!

Ok, lost bags with the bikes for a day..car rental problems, and it all started with a bitchy lady when we checked in on the Un-Friendly skies of United.

The first day when we drove, it was the worst hail storm that I've ever witnessed. Today I'll ride the TT course with Mick & Metcalf a few times. Tracey will be riding te road course. It's beautiful here!

http://www.masterswm.org/v4/
I swear I'll figure out the linkage stuff one of these days.
Gotta go ride!

MJH

I'll be back..

Tracey and I are out of here for a short week to the gov's home country. First we fly into Munich then St Johann, we race Wed, Thurs & Friday. Then home bound. Wish we had more time, wish us luck fitting all the bike stuff in & on the car to and from the airport.
I was able to figure out how to download the maps into the GPS yesterday after about an hr with the customer service agent.

When we get back the kitchen should be totally demolished. I'm sure there will be a suprise or three with that too.

I swear she wrote that anon comment yesterday:)

Good luck racing and riding.

Blessed

So there are times when I wander around every corner looking for something, maybe hoping to find something, then I see a mirror or a reflection or maybe it was a handicapped person at the post office and I think.. thank the lucky stars that for some reason, in some way, there is someone looking out for me along this short journey called life.

My friends and family are supporters, they have been along for the ride since the beginning. Its had its ups and downs, but in the end, I feel blessed- not in a religious way, I threw that out of the window when I had the chance a bucket of years ago.

I just feel that things always work out for me the way I want them to. I also have a way of making them come around to my way of thinking. Clearly its not that I'm the smartest, or have the highest IQ, its just that I use the skills that I have.

I realized that I had certain skills along time ago. That got me thru school starting with grade K.

I'm not one of those bullshit managers who says" maintain your strengths and strengthen your weaknesses" . Thats just crap! No wonder why middle management gets the ax, they're ass kissin sissys.

I'm of my own school of thought " screw your weaknesses, exploit your strengths to the fullest and you will reach your true potential"

...its like a hybrid bicycle. It sucks on the road and sucks on the dirt.

The key to life is......do what you like best, do your best, and happiness will follow.

Mission accomplished!

Its always happy on the home front when we are winning races. Tracey racked up a ton this weekend. Her legs are tired from stepping up to the top step on the podium all weekend. Now we are getting a little more focused on the track when we talk about racing. Since she is a big shot now and got her Cat 1 upgrade, the crits are more of an annoyance.

This weekend stats:
8:00 started working on bikes and packing the car
11:00 Raced 5 minutes for 4th place (I needed to get in the top 5 to qualify)
3:00 home to prep for dinner
4:00 drive to Morgan hill to look at cork flooring...now more confused then ever.
5:45 water the neighbors garden and pick some fruit and veggies with Tracey & Nicky (cute little Pucci lookin dress)
6:00 dinner started I fall off the little red wagon and share a fav beer from Belgium with the Queen of Proman
6:01 open first bottle of vino
7:00 call Hooptie to come over for dinner w/us-he accepts
8:00 dinner time Roasted pork studded with garlic and coated with lavender, corn, tomatoe salad, asparagus and roasted potatoes.
9:00 listen to Nick's stories about friends in the past who grew the kind, Hooptie was in his element.
10pm I say good night, T Ford manages to stay up until 11pm with Nick & Hooptie (now I know why he is on BPG, I wonder if they give free pot cards to the team as part of the package????)

Sunday
4:30am alarm goes off
5:00 Departure for Esparto
7:20 Arrival in parking lot of Esparto
7:59 Mattis starts in with "is that bike legal"
8:00:30 start TT
8:10 Realize that the srm isn't working well, so is this a hole I'm going to have to dig myself out of..???
8:39:18 finish TT with a time of 38:48
9:00 Start thinking its lunchtime and dreaming of a burrito
12:00 Plug into gps in car-nearest In and Out.
1:00 Mow lawn
1:20 Fall asleep on the fancy float ass naked in the pool
3:00 Tracey home from track with like 15 gold medals (she is on to something here)
3:10 Beer time!
3:15 Another 45 min nap, this time inside with shorts on
5:00 Second beer ( Thanks to Coats droping off a couple of cool and rather large beers from Belgium) not only do they have a 8.5% kick they are supersize) yummy!
6:00 Tracey gets pretty and picks a cool place for dinner
6:15 She gets a margarita and is loaded in ten minutes
Then some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Thank god for rest days on Monday!

BAWLK, BAWLK, BAWLK

I'm guilty of being a dunce. When Hernando asked me to do a little holding hands in the Madison I jumped in with the left brain and said yes. After mucho regrets I'm pulling the plug. The problem is I'm not really chicken shit, I'm not really afraid, nothing is ever going to happen to me..RIGHT? I'm just plain dim. You know sometimes when you have a good idea and the lights go bright...its happened to me once or twice maybe...but really, in my gut I still want to do the Madison or maybe just race with OV...I think its 40/60.

on this one I just can't or maybe don't want to hear all the I told you so's.

Regretfully,

Any way all is well on the wagon ...Day 4. The headache stopped & the sleepless first night stopped but each day I walk by the wine room in the garage and say.....rather drool.... of one more week....you can make it! This training is tough..last night I almost cracked, I do sell wine for a living and a glass or three every day is no big deal. I like saying never trust a skinny chef or a wine Importer that doesn't drink his own wine...but never, never trust a skinny wine importer that cooks:)

My three favorite food groups are Pete's coffee, beer and vino..oh yhea I forgot about any potato that's fried with salt, vinegar, or BBQ artificial flavoring..

I gotta stop.. its 8:20am and I haven't even had breakfast.

Hump Day on Santa Teresa

I humped and pumped, huffed and puffed until I finished my whole athlete homework. Today was the final exam, I passed...almost passed out. I don't ask any questions, just do the work..Dario is just about the only person I listen too.

The lungs were burning as the legs were churning and I was wearing and seeing stars.

Now I want me some Rainbow Stripes

i splurged...not on a bike either.

I've been thinking of how to justify that iphone since it came out... I finally figured it out.!

My ipod is broke, my new treo is f-ed up, and I want to listen to some music this weekend when I'm riding my bike on a trainer at the track and Esparto.

This thing is so cool and looks so fancy I'm afraid to touch it.

This should solve the weekly "discussion" with Tracey about me always having my phone when I ride:)

Specialized Transition= Awsome TT bike

This is one bad ass TT rig. It was lust at first sight and I'm looking forward to the stage rehearsal this weekend at Esparto. The guys at Specialized have really been very, very supportive. Sam, Coats, Chris D-man - D creator of many cool things set me up on this proto type and Don Langster (world champ) has been hooking me up left right and center..bikes for the track, Zippy wheels, bearings, helmet, etc. Shit I wish he drank, I'm not sure what to get him for all his help over the past two weeks.(Thanks Don!) Its taken me a while to get my camara out and snap a couple of pics of this stealthy ride.

It's the first TT bike that handles like a road bike, no detail has been missed..SRM cable guide, brakes, and shifter cables are all internally guided. The rear brake is under mounted and from the back this bike seems to look like a blade of grass. Its so comfortable, I've been riding it every day and when I'm in a group I notice that when we start rolling down hill I stop pedaling, everyone else needs to pump the thighs around just to keep up. Am I worthy? I don't know but this thing is one awsome TT ride and I'm having fun.

Mergers and Acquisitions on the horizon....

We are alive mom's. Things around here have been buzzing away with the house and it seems things are starting to turn the corner and head down progress lane. I've been dealing with noisy neighbors, shopping for floors, computers, team stuff, selling liquid vino oh yhea and an occasional bike ride with my new stealth TT rig that's AWSOME!

I went and did the local weekend slugfest this past weekend to have a little extra motivation to make me go hard. I stopped by my favorite little Canadian's house for a pancake and bar tape. As a result, we missed the start of the group ride, no problemo...we caught the group in no time. I was hoping that little fire plug would of followed me so I had some company when I went off the front and got all the sprinter points, after all I'm a sprinter since I won the Masters crit. Funny actually its the only Master's crit I've won in a couple of years.

I was soooo happy not do do the Minden thing this year and stay home.


Anyway, -NEWS FLASH---Bagboys getting recycled. Bummer!
That little furry Pasco made me green with envy of the brotherhood he put together over the years.
It was pretty impressive- he was able to find both talented riders before they knew they were talented and he did pick a few cherries too..

I guess Roger Bennet is the one that first came to mind, he had a funny ponytail but man...that guy on two wheels after a couple of months of the Stahl ride could hand out some ass whoopin...and is always a nice guy, complements always flowin all sappy.

And Taz, that guy just looks like he is trying to rip off the pedals of every bike he rides. Track, road, TT...just pure power...

cherries too..
Hernando & Polson. Ok, OK, Hernando has done a lot more then any of us on and off the bike. That's why both you and I are here right???? Plus the trackies are getting a lesson in how to ride a bike, rather then just waiting for the fast twitch fibers to kick in. I've said it before, crit racing has changed around these parts for the better due to Hernando in my opinion (which is usually crap, except in this case). The sprinters like Laberge, Clark (where has he gone?), Nolan...etc who would use their teams or just wait it out, now have to be on guard and if they want the glory hole
they can't just wait until the last corner on the last lap.

Polson, crap man - pre Safeway I really don't remember him winning races every weekend. Hernando must have put somthin in his chamois or was it that silly glitter??? I want that stuff sent to a lab!
The first year the conjoined twins were together, they went to town and kicked everyone's asses.

Blah, blah, blah...

I really like most of these guys in Black and the AMD squad too..

I'm really bummed that I won't be racing more of the Cal Cup to give them a proper send off due to the track & worlds thing. Ah well I guess all good things must come to an end...or is it a new beginning????