Here we go...............

Nice shot of Steve on the podium at Rock Island. I'm hoping to see Steve and the rest of the TREK/HRRC battling for podium spots this weekend at the Tulsa Tough Crits. I'm going to race the 3's/Masters races so it should be a good combination of racing and and then watching the Pro's duke it out for the big bucks. I'll have the family there as well as some teammates so I should have some pictures for you when I get back.

Tuesday Crit

It's simply amazing that we manage to get this race in every week even though the weatherman calls for rain all most every week. This week we had some big motors missing in action and a few more back in town. Two time National Collegiate Crit Champ Phil Mann was back sporting the stars and stripes jersey. We also had Kelley Benjamin back in town after a 2nd place at Somerville.
As for the race, seems like the pace was quick from the beginning with attacks flying off the front left and right. Cam and I got off for a few laps but with everybody keying off Phil's jersey I decided to wait. A few laps later I punched it up the hill to string out the field and that's when the break went. 5 guys roll by into the headwind on the backside and I just can't make it on the train. So that was it. Time for some hill repeats to get a workout in before the sprint. I think I ended up 8th in the field sprint. Not too bad a day considering I thought I wouldn't even get to ride.
I've got to mention guys that rode well. Ted jumped the field before the last turn in the sprint and nearly made it stick, nice move. Then there's Dean, the oldest guy out there and still taking pulls when most of the field won't. No wonder he dust's me in the time trials. And of course there's Cam, the energizer bunny, he just keeps going off the front until the break goes away and he's in it. Nice work guys.

Tuesday KC Crit Results 5/27/08

Tuesday 5/27/08 Results

1. Phil Mann
2. David Hedjuk
3. Chris "Fuzzy" Hall
4. Cameron Chambers
5. Phil Gronniger

Overall Points as of 5/27/08

1. Shadd Smith 42
2. David Hedjuk 19
3. Joe Schmalz 17
4. Adam Mills 14
5. Cameron Chambers 13
6. Tom Price 9
7. Steve Tilford 7
8. Bill Marshall 7
9. Graham Aldrich 6
10. Jeremy Pych 5
11. Phil Mann 5
12. Phil Gronniger 4
13. Chris Hall 3
14. Brian Jensen 3
15. Jeff Schroeder 2
16. Mike Palitto 1
17. Kurt Mulebach 1
18. Bill Stolte 1

First TT of the year

Wow, the first TT of the year and boy did I suck. I felt like I was riding well during the race but I should of known better after the finish. I was breathing hard during the race but after I was done I had no pain in the lower back or legs. A sure sign that I didn't go hard enough. Oh well. I'll have to work on it before the next TT.

Man I'm tired

Yep, it's Thursday and I'm pooped. Tuesday's crit was hard as was the Wednesday Hill ride. Add in some long days at the shop and I ended up sitting on my butt tonight.
I saw on Cam's blog that he got in 6 straight days on the MTB. Looks like I'll see even less of him in the next MTB race.

With that I'm off to bed. That's want old guys need.....lot's of sleep. I need to work on that.

When 90 miles just isn't enough.......

Yep, that's my teammates. They must of figured a 90 mile ride road ride just wasn't hard enough. So they stopped off at a 6hr MTB race and did a lap of the course. Wonder how those Lemond road bikes worked?

Tuesday KC Crit

Here we go again....It's the Tuesday KC Crit. Pretty good turnout again tonight and it was looking like it was going to be a fast one. Talk before the race had many of the players complaining of sore legs from the last two weeks of racing in Arkansas. Others we getting ready for Quad Cities this coming weekend and wanted to take it easy. Hmmm...how does a guy who hasn't and isn't going to do any of those races going to play it tonight? I still have sore legs from the MTB race so I planned to sit in for a while. Seems like quite a few other guys had the same plan as the first few laps were pretty easy. Then the fireworks began with people taking flyers, getting caught, then a few others would give it a go. About 10 minutes in I look up to see Andy Chocha and Phil Gronniger off the front. That's two big motors so I jump up go up to them and find Brad Sullivan on my wheel. YaHoo...3 big motors and me off the front and increasing the gap. Bad news, Brad blows a few laps later and leaves me to try and hang on and take my pulls. A few laps later Andy is gone and it's just Phil and I.
But Phil's not giving up so I try to help out and pull as much as I can. He's killing me up the hill and it's all I can do to stay with him and then pull through over the top. Just when I think I'm toast I hear, "I'm back and I brought some help".
Sweet! It's Andy and he's go three more guys with him to take pulls. Now it's 6 guys and I can handle taking pulls much better with more rest. Soon it's 3 laps to go, Andy's gone, and the chess match begins. Phil attacks on the hill with 2 to go and it takes us to the bell to bring him back. I end up leading the group on the backside and nobody is going to come around me before the sprint. So I lead into the last corner when Joe comes blasting around me with Jeremy in tow. I can't quite match their jump and end up 3rd.

Fun night at the races when everbody has different agendas. You never know what's going to happen when people don't go with the norm.

Tuesday KC Crit Results 5/20/08

Tuesday KC Crit Results 5/20/08

1. Jeremy Pych
2. Joe Schmalz
3. Tom Price
4. Jeff Schroeder
5. Phil Gronniger

Overall points as of 5/20/08

1. Shadd Smith 42
2. Joe Schmalz 17
3. David Hedjuk 15
4. Adam Mills 14
5. Cam Chambers 11
6. Tom Price 9
7. Steve Tilford 7
8. Bill Marshall 7
9. Graham Aldrich 6
10. Jeremy Pych 5
11. Brian Jensen 3
12. Phil Gronniger 3
13. Jeff Schroeder 2
14. Mike Pallito 1
15. Kurt Mulebach 1
16. Bill Stolte 1

Weekend news / 1st MTB race in years

Thought I'd try something different this weekend and do a MTB race. It's been a few years since I did a race so I thought why not. I figured I might as well really go for it and try a full suspension bike as well.

So we loaded Sully, Scott, Liz, and myself up in the van and headed for St. Jo. We got there early to pre-ride the course and as you can see in the pic we're ready to go.
The race itself was good/bad. I rode OK for the way I felt, which was pretty bad. My throat was so messed up I couldn't tell people that I wanted to go around as we were lapping them. Not that I was going that fast anyway, in fact, I think I started looking forward to going slow waiting for a spot to pass. In the end I fought off cramps (Cam had the same problem) for 6th place overall in the Experts(3rd 40+)
Scott finished his 1st Expert race and Liz had a convincing win in the Expert women's race. Sully had the ride of the day in the Expert race. He was running 3rd on a singlespeed and crashed on a creek crossing bridge near the end of the last lap. He was closing in on Cam and did a major yard sale over the bridge and into the woods. Luckily he's ok, beaten and bloodied, but he got up and finished.
Wonder what the future Mrs. Sullivan thinks about Brad's new passion for MTB racing now? Six days before the wedding and Brad could hardly walk!
So all in all a good time was had by all. It was nice to see Joel, Michelle, Cam, Amber, and the rest of the MTB gang and hang out for a while.

Into the valley......

Not too much new to post lately so I've been a little quiet. Tried to catch the Scooters ride today with no luck. Localcycling said they left at 8:00am but when I went there at 7:55am nobody was there. Oh well.....I went out for a short ride anyway so I can try to get the legs going for tomorrows MTB race in St. Jo.
Now it's time for 4 hrs of baseball games with the kiddos.
More after tomorrows race.

Tuesday KC Crit Results 5/13/08

Tuesday 5/13/08 Results

1. Shadd Smith
2. David Hedjuk
3. Phil Gronniger
4. Bill Marshall
5. Unknown

Overall Points as of 5/13/08

1. Shadd Smith 42
2. David Hedjuk 15
3. Adam Mills 14
4. Joe Schmalz 13
5. Cam Chambers 11
6. Steve Tilford 7
7. Bill Marshall 7
8. Graham Aldrich 6
9. Tom Price 6
10. Brian Jensen 3
11. Phil Gronninger 2
12. Mike Pallito 1
13. Kurt Mulebach 1
14. Bill Stolte 1

Tuesday/Wednesday

We made it through another Tuesday KC Crit without getting wet which is somewhat weird considering how much it's been raining this spring. Not that I'm complaining. Since I have no pictures from last night I give you a photo of the Brasstown Bald climb from the Tour of Georgia to get you ready for tonight's Hill Ride. As for the Crit, low turnout probably due to the weather. Shadd still managed to win what he called a "poker game". With no teammates he had to wait to make his move to get away from the group. Even with a broken spoke, and taking a free lap he still managed to win. Again the group kept it close all night but didn't end up bringing back the break.

Weekend update

Now this is pretty cool, another American in the pink jersey 20 years after Andy Hampsten wore it. Not only is it cool because I've been following the Slipstream Team this year but I'm also a big Andy Hampsten Fan as well. Interesting that Hampsten's 7-Eleven team were huge underdogs just as the Slipstream teams is now, but also that Hampsten later quit racing when alternative methods to training made him less competitive. Now a clean Slipstream crew is back in the race and is looking for some good results. Seems like cycling is coming full circle. As for Slipstream's results, 1st in the TTT, not a bad way to start. Now the bad news is that Zabriskie is out of the Tour today with a fractured vertebra. Maybe the hospital will make him shave that mustache off.

As for me...........let's see.
Wed Hill Ride, another let's see if it's going to rain day. Nope, no rain so we rode with a significantly smaller group. That was good because I was gassed after the Tuesday crit so the slower, steadier, pace on the hills was welcome.
Thursday: A night off on the kid's practice schedule, hmmmm, I can't even remember if I rode on this day, must of been a good ride?
Friday: worked all day and then hustled home for a 6:15 Baseball game, you guessed it, no ride.
Saturday: I still can't believe that we only got rained out of one game. The first of four scheduled baseball/soccer/tee-ball games started at 10am, the last at 6:15. As we showed up for the last game of the day it started sprinkling, and by game time if was flat out raining. Yeaaaaaaaa, time to get cleaned up and head out for a little Mexican food and margarita's for Mother's Day. Oh yea, no ride again.
That brings us to today, Mothers Day. Hung out with the family, did a few projects on the honey-do list, and took Jonas to batting practice. Windy as hell out there so I opted to wait to try and get in a short ride later in the day. As I was chopping down a tree in the back yard I realized two things, the wind had really calmed down, and it was now too late to get in a ride. Oh well cross another chore off the list.

Now I think I'll go look at my Tour of Italy tape that I recorded off of Versus today. Got to get fired up to get back on the bike again.

Tuesday KC Crit Results 5/5/08

Tuesday KC Crit Results 5/5/08

1. Shadd Smith
2. Joe Schmalz
3. Adam Mills
4. Steve Tilford
5. Bill Stolte

Tuesday KC Crit Results Overall as of 5/5/08

1. Shadd Smith 37
2. Adam Mills 14
3. Joe Schnalz 13
4. Cam Chambers 11
5. David Hedjuk 11
6. Steve Tilford 7
7. Bill Marshall 6
8. Graham Aldrich 6
9. Tom Price 6
10. Brian Jensen 3
11. Mike Pallito 1
12. Kurt Mulebach 1
13. Bill Stolte 1

It's Tuesday KC Crit Time

I really thought there was no way we were going to get this race in before it rained as my day began. By race time it was in the lower 60's but dry, so here I am starting at the back. I punched it on the first lap and quickly found that I couldn't recover from the effort. No warm up will do that but I felt even worse as I saw the whole Trek Regional crew ride up the road.
A few of the 360 guys, a few others, Cam, and I took pulls and held the Trek crew to around 10 seconds the whole race but just couldn't bring them back. Makes you wonder if they were going full gas or just out for a training ride. In any case it was good training and that's why we do the race anyway.
Check out the picture of Cam in his new 360 kit. Now all he needs is a bike with better gearing.
Here's the Trek crew trucking along. It's fun to have the crew there as it adds a whole new dynamic to the race. Just the sight of Trudy and the dog before the race sends chills through some riders.

Yep, that's me. Mouth wide open looking for some way to get more oxygen to my lungs. Not much luck on that front tonight. Finished with the pack after taking pulls to the end.

What did you do this weekend Part 2

I don't know about you but my weekend was all about baseball/t-ball/soccer games.
First up was Friday with Jonas's baseball game followed by his birthday dinner. Got a picture of Jonas getting a hit in the game where his team again won big. Dinner was a late night affair for the kids but we were sticking with our traditional birthday dinner.
Saturday began fairly early with Eli's t-ball, (which conflicted with soccer so only one game for him today). Then Jonas had his soccer game followed by another baseball game. Eli's game was amusing as usual, and Jonas's soccer team played well and held the game at a 1-1 tie until the last few minutes. They lost but it was their best effort yet. Jonas won yet again in baseball.
Speaking of dinner, check out the picture of the snake. Heard some of the kids yelling at Eli's game and went over to check it out. That snake isn't that big but by time we left the snake had most of the frog in it's mouth. It was a real hit with the kids.
I had to include a pic of Jonas the rib king. The boy loves his ribs. And yes, that's a 32oz glass of Sam Adams for me. Knowing what was coming on Saturday had me priming on Friday night. I had to get my coach on.
Sunday I did actually get out and ride. Got 4 hours solo out in the sun and actually got tan lines for the first time this season. With my pasty white body I could of got tan line in the first 1/2 hour but what the heck. Cool ride south/southwest on some nice back roads. Sometimes it's just nice to go out and cruise. It seems crazy but my next race my be Tulsa tough so I better start training.