Quad Cities Bound

Leaving in the morning for Burlington, Ia and the Snake alley crit. Should be an interesting way to start the year. Due to the early am drive I'll be racing the 30+ instead of the 50+ but with Shadd in the race it should be fun. Sunday I might race the masters race and the Pro 1-2, could be kind of interesting. More later......

TNW KC

I'm still working from a different computer so no pictures this week, sorry. Kind of a different race this week for the Mercy crew. Before the race we all had different reasons to be tired or sick, and just decided that we were all going to sit in until half way. That's pretty much how it played out until a few of the guys rolled off the front and got a gap. The race was gone and I spent a bit of time patrolling the front while we had a few guys off. The attacks continued and at one point we actually had split the field but didn't finish it off. I guess that's the advantage of having a fast finisher on the team. As for me, I could tell I was on a bad day when I was doing intervals before the race and it just didn't get much better. Helped the team as much as I could before I started to cramp with 5 laps to go. It was a bummer to watch the team line up to launch Shadd and not be there to help. No crit next week due to the holiday but we'll be back at it in 2 weeks.


Results:

1. Shadd Smith


2. Ben Stover


3. Scott Stevens


4. Mark Cole


5. Doug Plumer

Congrats to Scott! After trying to get a point for the past 2 years be finally hit the jackpot with a 3rd place.

Hopefully my other computer will be back from the shop soon and I'll have my points spreadsheet back so I can figure out the current standings.

Looks like some of the Mercy crew are heading to Texas this weekend to race. Due to some daycare issues I can't make that trip so it looks like I may hit a few days at Quad Cities instead.

Hmmmm.... I need some pictures!

Wow, it's been a week.....

Well, I was going to post the KC Crit results Wednesday, but our computer caught a bug and we had to shut it down. Thursday I woke up with the worst case of vertigo I've ever had. Bad enough that I had to hold onto walls to get downstairs. Tried to go to work but ended up at home and in bed for 2 days. Got the computer into the shop to get debugged and now I'm working with gramps old laptop. Still feeling a little strange so I'm off to bed. Maybe I'll get it together tomorrow and get caught up.

What did you do this weekend?

Let's see, lot's of rain, and it's just Curly and I in the house. Pretty much means games and movies all weekend long. No riding but it was good to get some one on one time with Curly. We did have one big school project to get done and that took up quite a bit of time but more on that later.












I did spend a bit of time this weekend keeping track of the Tour of Italy and today I watched the Tour of California. I wish I could watch the Tour of Italy as it's been nothing short of amazing every day so far. Tons of lead changes and epic stages are the norm. Today's Cali stage was incredibly boring to watch. Typical stage where 4 riders get away and the group chased them down just in time for the sprint. It did get crazy once they hit the finishing circuits but it got a bit too crazy and quite a few guys hit the deck. Tomorrow should be more interesting with more clibing on tap. Seems like more and more guys are crashing and getting hurt in the pro races these days. Like everything else it may be that the media picks up on it and we hear about every single crash, who knows.

On to the real project........

















Our project was to make a diorama of a dinosaur that Curly picked out in class. Here you have the beginnings of one of the dinosaurs. Little did I know this one is going to be attacked by his carnivore dinosaurs! Check out the art in the box.......

















Not sure when there were orange dinosaurs but I guess they kind of looked like that in the book. He did get the long white claws correct, got to have those when you attack your prey is what he told me.

So here's the finished product, yea... I know dinosaurs on the attack, but Curly said it's just the circle of life. At least he didn't pick a dinosaur that one of his classmates is studying or want to paint on a little blood. I guess I should give them some eyeballs......

Looks like the rain is ending for a while and Mathgeek and Pinky are back so I might even get back on the bike again.

Rain, Rain, go away...........

Actually this week wasn't so bad, I really only got wet once. It seems like it rained every day but between work and cutting the grass I did manage to get out and ride. Thursday I went out with these two yahoos and went motorpacing. No motor needed here, I just sat behind Phil and Bill and rolled along. Definitely two different levels of intervals going on here but it was a really good workout.

As I sit here typing it's raining out and the 9am PV Starbucks ride is meeting, wonder who will show up? Obviously I won't be there but it's not that I'm wimping out, Mathgeek is with Pinky on a Boy Scout camping trip and I'm hanging with Curly for the weekend. With the rain I think I got the better deal. I did offer to take the camping trip when we figured out that the conditions were going to suck but it seems that the Boy Scouts are really fussy about having the proper paperwork filled out. Insurance, liability, bla, bla, bla...........whatever, have to get it done for next time.

The finish hill at the Joe Martin Stage race, once again I missed it! So far this year I've only raced 1 road race 1 mtb race, what a bummer! I know that we have a bunch going on with the KCCX cross team right now but I'm ready to race now. Even though I'm not doing much to help Bill just listening to the logistics and sponsorship proposals makes my head spin. Three months isn't much time but there's plenty of racing to do before then.

TNW KC

Kind of hard to believe that we got this weeks race in between all the the rain we've had. Pretty good turn out in both races and good racing all around. I really don't have much of a story to tell. Felt pretty bad going into the race but I figured that I would do what I could to help out the team and it was all going pretty well. A break got up the road with 2 teammates and Choch and it all looked good. Shortly after that I felt my rear tire go soft and I knew my night was over. From what I hear the break stayed away and all most lapped the field.
















And the winner is.........Shadd!
















Good sized group for the B-race.

Gina was out again taking pictures and videos. Thanks Gina!

Speaking of videos, here's one of the A race field sprint.

Tue Night Crit Results:

1. Shadd Smith
2. Phil Gronniger
3. Joe Schmalz
4. Andrew Coe
5. Andy Chocha

Overall:

Shadd Smith 31
Mark Cole 14
Joe Schmalz 9
Andy Chocha 6
Bill Marshall 6
Phil Gronniger 5
Nick Coil 5
Brian Bradley 4
Matt Ankeny 4
Matt Ochs 4
Brian Jensen 3
Andrew Coe 2
Jason Knight 2
Josh Crow 2
Bill Stolte 2
Joe Houston 2
John Pahlman 1
David Hedjuk 1
Doug Obershaw 1
Steve Songer 1

That week flew by.....

Last week repairs at the shop kind of went like the one in the picture above. Yea, that's a 1/4" nut holding on this guys front wheel. He didn't see a problem with it but I went ahead and made it right. That's how it went, people attempting to kill themselves on bikes and and we end up fixing them, at the very least, to make them safe.
















Wink rode well for a 2nd overall and 1st 40+. Aaron was motoring and got the win, you can read his perspective here.

I really wanted to go to the Joe Martin Stage Race but it just didn't work out, which was really frustrating, but I decided to do a MTB race instead. Krug Park in St. Joe MO has awesome trails and they were in perfect shape. Scott and I drove up and we were ready to go, more on that later......

















Andy had a good ride, 2nd 40+ I believe.

Scott had a great ride for 3rd place !

This is what I ended up walking back to the truck. Got a pretty poor start and had to work my way back up to the front by time we got to the singletrack. Aaron was gone and there were a few guys between Wink and I not long after we entered the singletrack. I got around the guys pretty quick and closed the gap to Wink but as soon as I did I felt the back wheel bottom out on a rock. It didn't go flat right away so I thought I was ok but I guess it was leaking. I gave it a shot of CO2 but it didn't take long, it was going down again when the tire rolled in a turn and instantly went flat. The sidewall of the tire was torn and the tube wouldn't stay in the tire, my day was done in the first mile of the race. Bummer, but I did get to take a nice walk in the woods with my bike.

News from the Joe Martin Stage race: Joe, my teammate on Mercy Cycling got 2nd in the Cat1-2 race, nice result for Joe and the team!

On a more serious note, Dean Parker was injured in Saturdays road race and is still in the hospital in Fayettville tonight. I don't have any details about what happened, his injuries are serious but he should recover from what I've heard. Keep him in your thoughts, the next few weeks are going to be rough.

Time for bed.....gotta go.

Tues KC Crit

Who's this guy in the Bahati kit? Why it's KC's Phil Mann racing down at Speedweek in GA. Tonight's race was pretty fast but I bet it could of been much faster with Phil in it. Maybe he'll comes out to play next week if he's still in town.

















Tonight it was really windy from the southwest so it had a big headwind up the hill and it was blazing fast on the downhill. On the first lap Bill got off with a Colvita/Parisi rider so I went on the defensive and rode 2nd wheel while Scott and Walt put the screws to the field and eventually chased down the break. As soon as that break got reeled in Shadd got off with a group and Bill and I took turns at the front trying to keep him away. Again the break got reeled in and the attacks continued at times all most splitting the group. At the call for 5 to go the group was all together and for some reason I rolled off the front with a few other riders. We got caught on the hill with 2 to go and that was all she wrote. Overall it was another good night at the races. The A race was a little small, I'm sure due to this weekends Joe Martin Stage race, but the B race continues to grow. Now that the city finally came out and fixed the huge hole on the back side of the course there's not reason not to come out and race.

Results:

1. Shadd Smith
2. Matt Ochs
3. Mark Cole
4. Bill Marshall
5. Steve Songer

Overall Points:

Shadd Smith 26 Mark Cole 14
Joe Schmalz 6
Bill Marshall 6
Nick Coil 5
Andy Chocha 5
Brian Bradley 4
Matt Ankeny 4
Matt Ochs 4
Brian Jensen 3
Jason Knight 2
Josh Crow 2
Bill Stolte 2
Joe Houston 2
John Pahlman 1
Phil Gronniger 1
David Hedjuk 1
Doug Obershaw 1
Steve Songer 1

It was all Pinky last week

It was definitely a Pinky week last week as we had activities every night that he was involved in. Monday night it was boy scouts, Tuesday it was Soccer practice while I was off at the crit. Wednesday was the annual Band Concert for all the schools that feed into Shawnee Mission South High School. Yea baby, 2 hours of listening to the 5th grade through High School bands. I've got to admit that it was pretty cool to see the change as the kids advance through the grades.

















Thursday brought the 5th grade music program at school. It was a music theme and as usual it was pretty amusing. Pinky had a solo doing part of a song, unfortunately the song was "We got the Beat" by the Go Go's. His voice is not high enough to do Belinda Carlile, and not low enough to sound like a guy, if that's even possible. But he made it his own and did the best he could. Heck, I'm proud of him for even standing up there and doing it.

















Friday, ah Friday, The Cub Scout Pack Picnic. The annual trip to Antioch Park to gorge ourselves on hotdogs and chips, and attempt to fish in a lake that has no fish. Nothing like giving a bunch of 8 - 10 year olds fishing poles with hooks and cutting them loose. Now I took care of my boys, got them set up and all of the sudden some little kid asks me if I can put some line and a hook on his stick. What the heck, I had some tackle, I tied some line to his stick and put on a rubber worm(with out a hook) and a bobber on it. Off he goes and all of the sudden I have a bunch of kids wanting me to set them up too. Geez, who know I'd become the pied piper of rubber worms.

Saturday I did actually get in a good ride before we headed off for Pinky's soccer game. Followed that up with a trip to the shop for a surprise birthday present for Pinky.

















You know your dad's a bike racer when you have to get a beater bike so you have a bike to ride to school. Pinky really wants to start riding to school but he realized that it wasn't going to happen with his cross bike. He asked for something that was a bit less expensive, something that he wouldn't have to worry about in the bike rack and I had just the bike. It's a beater and it's heavy but he loves it and it makes the move to 26" wheels. Yea....

So today was Pinky's birthday and as tradition would have it he got to pick where we went for his birthday dinner. He chose the Red Slobster, er....I mean Red Lobster.It's been a long time since I've eaten there and hopefully it will be a while before we go back. It wasn't bad but not much for the money. As you can see in the picture Pinky was happy and that's what really matters anyway.

As for riding and racing, not much going on there. Getting healthy with the Poison Ivy going away and finally sleeping again. Doubt I'll see anything from the test results this week but I'm sure it will take another doctors visit to find out. We shall see....