24-9 well at least 12 of it

Wow what a weekend, 24-9
is a real experience that everyone should go though. Went up on Friday around 2:00pm and
sat around till about 6:00pm when we went out for a pre-ride with the whole group.
Did about 1/3 of the first lap when big Mark hit the bars with his knee and was in a little pain but decided to keep going, went althea farther, took a quick pit stop with coop as the other kept going, as coop and I start riding though the rock garden we hear a loud thud, I say "Wow someone hit hard" just as we turn a corner to see Mark flat on his face and not moving. What a scary point till he got up, but he looked like he was in lala land so we stayed with him till he got back on his bike and got to a point he could ride back to camp.
Well That put Ricks team one man down till Tim Monty stepped up to ride for Mark witch made Dr. Dave very happy as he got an extra hour between laps.
Rob and Candy Had a good set of laps also, they were the only coed team in the duo group and ended up seventh , a huge high five to Candy who finished two of her many laps in under 3 hours.
The junior team did great with a first place and had a blast doing it,I wish I had all that energy that they do.
Our team John,Mike,Jim and I made one hell of a showing again this year, with those guys making laps in some great time, then it came to me and I took it into the shitter with a 1:27 lap, wrong gear and the legs felt like crap, so when I came back we all had a talk and decided on the next round I would sit it out till the last lap(the night lap). I felt pretty good with this as I do a lot of night riding in fall and feel good on the bike at night. So I set myself up, lights(bars and helmet), Ipod in one ear(to keep my pace) and I was off to the start gate, sat and waited for Mike and the nerves started to run. Mike comes in and I'm off, a little All American Rejects in the ear and I have a good pace going, first 5 miles and I'm riding well, playing cat and mouse with riders, I see a light in front of me and the cat is off to get its mouse. Time after time I kept this up and before I know it I'm at the half way point and some guy is yelling at me and giving me a bottle, its Jim running along side and telling me the team we trying to beat is trying to make up time and coming fast so I have to go.
I get back into the woods and I feel really comfortable and my pace seems to be getting faster rather then slower, before I know it I'm back at the rode crossing and Jim is yelling "Seven Minutes", "YOU NEED TO GO LIKE HELL !!!!!!!!" . Legs felt good so I push a little harder and start to catch more and more riders, come out of the woods to the rode and put the hammer down, four more riders down and I come to the first campers, try to get the time but could not hear what they said, out to the open area next to the start and two more riders down, into the last single track and just trying to go fast as I can and not crash, out of the woods to the last straight away and I get the time 10:01 and time to go like hell, didn't think the legs could go that fast, three more riders in the bag before the shoot and the rides over. A cold beer and I was riding a wave of the best feeling ever, Jim gives me my time and what a shock 1:22, 5 mins. faster then my last lap and it was at night, what a great feeling
At the end of it we moved from forth to third and got onto the podium and got to bring home some hardware.
Thanks to the guys for picking up the slack and letting me redeem myself on the last lap.
SEE YAAA

A hot day at the ridge

Wow what a race. I really have to say I thought it was going to be alot more hot then it was, don't get me wrong it was hot but I just thought it would be worse in the woods. So I had a ok race, felt alittle tired in the legs on the first lap so I just tryed to keep keep the pace up and keep passing as many riders as I could, had much better 2nd lap as the legs started to come around but it was alittle to late as you can see in the picture, Rob flated and still caught me going up the ski hill. Well I tried to make up for it in the sprint into the finish, I had Mark in my sights but never thought I could catch him so I let Rob take the pass, well that was the right thing to do, as he went around me I got on his wheel. He pulled me right to the top and before I knew it I was back on Mark's wheel . With a little talk from Rob I gave it all I had and not only got Mark but one other guy too. Thanks Rob.
The new bike ran great, the fork felt alot better then I thought it was going to, I really thought it was going to beat the hell out of me but even on the down hill it was ok. It really was alot better climbing without the bob of the shock, I still don't know if I will be able to use it for all the races but I'm going to give it a try.
See Yaa........................................

1. 

Two new baby's in the house

No its not what you think,its not twins. We went to the doctor on wed. And got to see the baby for the first time, it was something I will never forget. I still am felling like I'm on a cloud about this thing but seeing Smooly(the baby's nickname until its born) made every thing clear and right up front. That really made our day and week.
Then I got the call the Trek shipped my bike and it was at the shop, three days, talk about service I went to the shop and put it all together and it is sweet, as you can see its not purple but that's ok it looks really good in black. I'm still waiting for the new carbon stem and new carbon seat post that broke when the frame. I want to thank "The TOOL" for building me some "KILLER" new wheels and John and Karrie for helping get me a new frame so fast, also check out the new Xlite fork. As it sits right now it weights 23.6 lbs and that's with a alum. stem and post.
I also get to go to the ear doc. tomarrow(well today), the ear feels a lot better and the ringing is all but gone, the hearing is not any better but as long as the ringing gone I can deal with it.
well got to get some sleep.
SEE YAA

Monday, Monday, Monday

It was a ok day, had to be up at 4:30am to be to work at 5:30am in Racine, go all my work done by 8:15 but had to sit around for one of the managers to let us in a locked room, he was told we would be there by 7:00 and he didn't feel like coming in till 9:45, its days like this I'm glad I get payed by the hour.
Even know I only got to do one lap at the SS champ race but I could still feel it today, that was one hell of a hard race.
I am in huge hopes that Russell will be able to get my new rims to me before the race this weekend, he's building me some kickass Sun/Ringle 29"ers for the Rig, speaking of the Rig, looks like I will be racing on of the demo Rigs for crystal ridge, I was told from the shop that Fisher is reworking the frames because they break for the big guys and if I wait they will paint it for me, I really like the purple not the black. I think I'm also going to look at some new bars for the Rig, I really like the bars Travis Brown is running right now (see pic) but they are prototypes so I guess I'll keep looking.
Well got to go.
SEE YAA

ROCK, ROCK AND THEN CRACK

Well I have to say blue mounds has to be the hardest race I have ever done, when people said there were alot of rocks I never thought it would be like that. The race was a blast, well atleast for one lap, about 3/4 ofthe way though the first I went over a big rock and heard a "snap", did't think to much about till I stood up to climb and the was just creekin so I jumped of to look at the bike. Checked the top tube and the bottom tube where they meet at the head tube and no crack so I get back on and ride alittle more, creak,crack and snap and I jump off again, low and behold a crack at the top of the seat tube so my ride was over.
The rest of the guys did pretty good over all when almost half the feild droped from flats or injuries.
We stayed around to cheer on Candy,Rick and Todd Hill in the 6 and 12 hour, it was a good rest of the day and we all had a good time. Check out the pics