Don't mess with the F.O.G. / Rain again........

Around the shop he's known as FOG (or f###ing old guy, fast old guy, ect....), and as a wrench at the shop he's a bit territorial. Just don't leave your old skanky coffee cup on his bench for him to find in the morning or it will end up here.

Don't say I didn't warn ya!













Did I mention that all this rain is once again threatening a MTB race. As it stands there's a pretty good chance that Saturday's race in Nebraska will be a rain out. Hmmmmm what to do....I'm packed to go, but I don't want to make the drive and have them call it off . I see many phone calls in my future.

Tuesday KC Crit, Final Points

Due to the crash and our scorekeeper attending to Nick we did not get the last 3 places in the sprint. No points this week. This is it......the final standings.

Tuesday KC Crit Final Standings

1. Shadd Smith 100
2. David Hedjuk 46
3. Joe Schmalz 27
4. Jeremy Pych 27
5. Bill Marshall 25
6. Tom Price 25
7. Cam Chambers 17
8. Phil Gronniger 16
9. Adam Mills 14
10. Brian Jensen 8
11. Steve Tilford 7
12. Graham Aldrich 7
13. Phil Mann 5
14. Jeff Seese 5
15. Chris Hall 4
16. Jeff Winkler 3
17. Adam Lang 3
18. Nick Coil 2
19. Jeff Schroeder 2
20. John Shipman 2
21. Mike Palitto 2
22. Kurt Mulebach 1
23. Bill Stolte 1
24. Mark Cole 1
25. John Palman 1
26. Chris Wallace 1
27. Andy Lucas 1
28. Paul Fancher 1

Tuesday KC Crit, Final Night

Tonight was the final night for the KC Crit. A little bigger field showed up to race but it would prove to be a different race than usual. First of all, more than a few of the regulars were looking a bit ragged from last nights Tour of Missouri festivities. Stuff of legends I'm sure. Second, it's the end of the season and most of the crew are getting ready for cross. So the race ended up being pretty mellow. Not that it was easy, far from it. Just not the same attack after attack that we usually have. Coming into the end of the race a break that was off for a long time was getting reeled back in with 2 laps to go. Just before 1 to go a crash took down Nick Coil. That pretty much ended the race. I think there was still a sprint with Shadd and Joe taking the first two places. Chris was attending to Joe so we have no idea who got the last 3 places. So no points in the final week but that's ok, nobody was going to catch the King of the KC Crit, Shadd Smith who more than doubled the 2nd place riders points.

Shadd and his girly crown, yes, you could be the lucky guy to get these next year.




Ok.....here he is with the real deal. The King of KC Crown.

I'll post final points next and then we'll do it all over again next year!

Hmmmmmmmmm points series for cross leading into Nationals? I'm thinking 6-8 races in Oct - Nov. More on that in the next post.

Tour of MO Day 1

Today the Tour of Missouri hit KC and what a great day it was! Sure, the weather was crappy, cold and wet, but the crowd still came out to see both races. I do love seeing the races but I also have a good time just hanging out with everybody. I should of taken some pictures of Cam and Sean working the Mavic wheel pit for the women's race. But the best picture would of been when I saw Scott in the back seat of the Kelly Benefits car near the end of the race.


I did get a picture of Brooke Miller rolling through after she won the woman's race. I'm not sure where Kelly finished but it was a tough field so just finishing was a victory.


This picture doesn't do the sprint in the men's race justice. It didn't look like the leadout trains really developed so it was chaos as the sprint started. Once it did, those guys were flying to the line.

So much fun, makes me want to go to Jeff City Friday and race. I'll have to think about that one.

OK.....Now it's time for cross!

Now that the last TT is out of the way and there are just a few MTB races to do I guess it's time to think cross. I've got to take stock and see what I need to order to get the bikes in shape.

This one isn't mine but it's pretty close....and it's 16.75 lbs! How many weeks before cross starts?

Tuesda Night Crit Rained out!

Yea.....I know, what a bunch of sissies. A little rain shouldn't stop a crit but this week was a little different. Scott and I showed up a half hour before the start just as the rain really started to get heavy. Looking around and there were only two other cars with cyclists huddled in them. By 6:30 the rain had stopped and there were 6 or 7 guys hanging around waiting to see if we would race. Chris decide to call the race when there were so few racers and no, as in zero, corner marshals. Oh well, I was too tired to race anyway. So now there is only one TUESDAY NIGHT CRIT left. Be there to see the season champion crowned.












Tomorrow is the last Gardner TT so I'm planning to give it a try. Levi rode a good TT to win a stage yesterday so be like Levi and give it a try.

Gateway Cup: Day 3 -4, Excuse me, How many to go?

The title of this entry about sums up what I should of done at the end of yesterdays race.

Before I get into that I've got to post this picture of me racing yesterday on the Loop. Nancy took a nice picture so I thought I'd use it.

So let's start with Day 3, The Giro. I rode over from the hotel since we were so close and Nancy took the boys to the Science center. I usually get warmed up on a trainer so this change in routine left me a little cold at the line. Once I got warmed up during the race I went prime hunting. The 1st and 2nd tries I ended up leading out Dave Hedjuk from the 360 team. That's ok, he's a KC guy and later in the race I got it right for a $50.00 prime. Just when I was thinking Dave owed me for the lead outs he came by on the bell lap and pulled his teammate Paul and I to the front for the sprint. I think Dave was 4th, I was 6th, and Paul was 7th. Nice!

Monday, The Loop Crit: I should be happy with this race but the end result just bums me out. Once again we started with around 150 guys so staying at the front was a priority. I knew from the gun that I was tired and the legs felt bad. I thought I'd go for some early primes and then hope for the best at the end. That's pretty much how it played out as I got 3 primes for $75.00 and just got beat for a $50.00. Problem was every time I got a prime it took longer to recover I would get shuffled back even more. I got lucky a few times and got back to the front as a crash happened just behind me. So the bell rings with 5 to go......and the crashing really begins. It's bump and run at the front and it seems like I'm skirting the edges of the pile every lap.

Now here's the bummer part, with all of the crashing I lost track of how many laps there are to go. It seems like everybody in the crowd has a cowbell and it's so loud you can't hear the bell for the last lap from the crowd noise. So I'm killing myself to stay up front when the field pegs it up the back side of the course. Entering the last turn there's a hesitation in the field so I go as hard as I can thinking if I can get a good gap I can get a good finish. But I look back and DOH........nobody else is sprinting............it's one to go and I'm done. Looking back on it I should of kept going and tried to go the extra lap but I just sat up and finished the race.

So I'm feeling like a doofus for taking off a lap early and I roll up to the TREK/HRRC guys and Steve Tilford looks at me with a big smile and says"you went a lap early didn't ya". Yep, that's a hard one to admit but with everybody watching pretty hard to explain away. So I'm purging my soal and ending the road season on a good note. It was my best Gateway Cup ever and I came out without a scratch on my bike or body, can't complain about that.