K-Dubz Did What?????

The Last Week in Sunny Florida

2012-01-29T17:48:00.001-08:00

I left you as we moved into the new crib for the week. As you could tell from the pics, the lake front view made me excited to get up every morning. My alarm would go off around 7:20 and that was just as the sun would crest up over the horizon. So sick!

The week consisted of 4-5 hour rides around Clermont. The first two rides we loaded some pre mapped routes from map my ride onto Rob's Garmin but apparently they are more trouble than they are worth. About mid way through the rides you would hear a lot of swearing and then a yell telling us to stop so he could recalculate the gps and restart the route. hahaIt was actually quite funny.

The first day we took a direct route to Mt. Dora, a small town about 35 miles from us. We stopped a cool little coffee shop in town and grabbed a bite to eat then back to the house.

The second day we rode south west and found a paved rail trail where I saw my first non-zoo alligator! It was pretty wild.

Inspired by the alligators we saw we got on kayaks and started paddling across the lake. We figured it would be a thirty min round trip and it turned out to be a 2.5 hour round trip! My back was hurting and we were hating on the situation with great extremity. We figured out that we got our selves in too deep when we were past the point of no return. I definintley don't regret the trip though. We got to see a baller ass sun set and once I put my Jimmy Buffet goggles on it was smooth sailing!

The third day we did another route to Mt. Dora. This time stopping at a different coffee shop that specialized in smoothies. The wind was pretty bad the whole day and we battle a gnarly head wind most of the way home.

Friday, the last day we only had time for a 2.5 hour ride and we got rained on. It wan't really rain though it was more like mist and I wasn't complaining at all. It was still 70-75 degrees and the way I look at it is one day out of 14 isn't too bad.

We packed up and headed back to Stuart for our last day on Saturday.

Friday night we went out on the town in down town Stuart. We had dinner at Mully's, Ice cream at Kilwin's and followed it up with some fun at a couple of the local bars. We called it a night at 11! haha That is when most people start partying.

It was rough but the next morning we woke up at 6 and were on the bikes by 6:50 to catch the local group ride. I am glad we did wake up early because the group ride made the miles go by faster and we had 3 hours in by 10:30. Then we had the next 3.5 hours to clean up Rob's house, pack our bikes, eat and head to the airport.

All in all, it was a solid trip. I pulled off the biggest week of consecutive riding I have ever done. 60 hours in the last two weeks! That S*&t CRAY!

Thanks so much to Rob for letting us crash at his pad and taking us to Clermont. He made the trip smooth as could be and definitely pulled more than his weight for a 50+ man! He made me hurt more than once. Thanks to Lori too for putting up with us, she is probably just happy that we are getting Rob out of her hair as much as we do.

Can't wait until next year!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Florida2012

Rest Day

2012-01-23T05:57:00.001-08:00

Just finished the biggest week of my life! Since we flew in on Saturday and started riding on Sunday, 7 days of riding, we put in 37 hrs on the bike! That shit Cray! I am not sure exactly how smart it was but none of us ever felt that bad and the weather was super inviting. They definitely weren't all junk miles either! Needless to say we are dialing it back this upcoming week a bit otherwise we would be heading down a road towards overtraining.

This past weekend we hit two local group rides. One on Saturday and one on Sunday. Both were fun and we were able to stretch out legs out from the normal pre weekend riding.

Sunday, after we rode in the morning, we loaded up the whip and headed further north to Clermont, Fl. Manny and I went up last year to Clermont with Rob in February. The terrain is a bit different then in Florida. It is more rolling and has some small hills, Kind of comparable to Amish Country in the greatest state ever PA.

We made it up to Clermont just before dinner, unloaded and moved into this sweet crib Rob rented for the week. He knows how to make us happy! It is a super simple house but has an awesome lake front view and great location for riding. No highways or busy city traffic lights to start the ride with.

Once moved in we headed to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. One of my favorite low key restaurants to eat at because of there decent salad bar. They had a special going to promote their new shrimp fondue. The deal was that if the waitress didn't give us details about it we get it as an appetizer for free. Well she failed to mention it and when we saw this deal we were all over it. We called the waitress back over and she insisted that she told us about it but we pressured her and she cracked. She even tried to quilt trip us and say "If I put this order in you guys are going to get me in trouble." How lame!

After dinner we headed to target to shop for food for the week. I had a gift card from Christmas that needed to get used so we put that to good use. Rob bought East Bound and Down Season 1&2 at target so we came home and popped season 1 in. That Kenney Powers sure knows how to make me laugh!

Toes up and ready for a rest day! Also, first day of online classes start!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Florida2012

Floriiidaa!

2012-01-17T04:57:00.001-08:00

Flew into Florida Saturday for the annual Uncle Rob Training camp!

Here is his new whip! Riding this thing is like mechanical doping!

Saturday night we chilled out and got everything ready to go H.A.M. on Sunday. We flew in a little too late to ride saturday night.

Sunday we were up, breakfast and coffee down, and on the bikes by 9am. We started the ride in arm warmers, where Rob (the Floridian) sported knee and arm warmers and a vest! Guys getting soft!

We rode north all day into a head wind up to Vero Beach. We hit 50 mi and flipped it. On the way back we hit the usual coffee shop for some mid ride calories. I went with a pistachio muffin, so good!

We were riding with one of Rob's friends so we were pulling hard on the way back. We probably kept it above 25mph the whole way back. Feels good to let the wheels roll fast.

We got home and gobbled down calories knowing we were doing the same thing today.

We went to dinner in stuart and followed it up with some fro yo. Not the best selection of flavors in my opinion but I wasn't going to turn it down.

We came home and dialed down with a couple episodes of Workaholics. It is a super funny show.

This morning we were on the bikes by 9 am again. Same ride plan as yesterday though because the wind was coming out of the north.

We got to the coffee shop and stopped without going the extra miles past it. We were battling a cross wind the whole way up and had the same thing the whole way back so it was going to be a bit of a slower ride today.

We met some "definition" freds at the coffee shop too. Jersey tucked into baggy chamios! Bikes complete with clip on areo bars and bento box. We got to talking to them and asked where they were riding from, they replied... "we are locals, just around." hahah Manny called that!

I couldn't pass up a smoothie today at the coffee shop and you can't walk out the door without a muffin.

On the way back we came through Stuart for a few extra miles. Once we got home everyone was burnt.

Manny and Noah were planning on ridding five hours today but at about 3:45 those plans changed! Haha 4 was enough for me today. The are extremely adamant about 5 hrs tomorrow though, we'll see.

Jugged some recovery drinks and relaxed toes pointed toward the ceiling for a while.

Stayed home for dinner tonight. The menu consisted of quinoa with almonds and apples, sweetly marinated chicken, and salad. All of it was gone pretty quickly.

Putting these big days in puts my metabolism way out the roof. I eat like crazy all day!

After dinner we chilled out and watched pawn stars! haha

Toes up and ready for day three! 180 miles so far at 9 hr.

CX Nats

2012-01-09T21:54:00.001-08:00

After Milwuakee Jordan, Joe, and I went Madison bound to meet the team.

We actually met up a couple miles before the hotel, conincidentally, so it worked out well.

We got there and checked in then quickly rode the course.

The first two days we got there, Thursday and Friday, I rode the course at night, like 4-5. I got to catch some pretty good looking sunsets but thats about the only good thing that came from riding the course then. By riding it later at night it was after all the races for the day and the mud was super peanut buttery. So much so that it was extremely hard to pedal and very unenjoyable.

Thursday night we went out to eat at a Panchero's as a team. Friday night we went to a nice italian restaurant as a team thanks to the Welsh's and Mrs. Larson! Much appreciated. The parents that come and watch, the Perley's, Welsh's, and Larson's, always help out and make things so much easier. They also kept us going with Subway subs all weekend at the race venue.

Friday night was an early night for the girls because they raced Saturday morning at 11.

The Shields twins did really well and so did Erica! Emily went 3rd, Kath 5th, and Erica 6th. Cinthia and Mac pulled through too. Everyone had a strong race and we were definitely in contention for the omnium. Now it was the guys turn to do work.

The U23 race was after the girls race. Joe raced it and killed it. 4th place after not riding for a while due to some sickness.

Saturday night we ordered in to keep things a little more simple. Za's and Za like products galore! "Pizza legs are just a myth" at least that is what I told myself as I slayed a few slices.

Woke up early Sunday morning for a big day. National champs race today and a lot of cheering to be done afterwards for the Men and Women Elite!

Our race was at 9am so I got up at 6 and started eating some breakfast. Followed by an unmotivational kitting up and pinning process. It was really cold out!

The weather was countered by some new equipment though and I was ready to race! Charlie from HED hooked me up with a rear wheel deep dish tubular and I used Erica's front zip deep dish tubular! I was super stoked to be on some dope sneaks.

Over to the venue to warm up and test the tires out on the course.

The course was frozen solid and it was super fast, which I was stoked about. I really didn't want a super slow race and this was the opposite.

The gun went and Brad, two fort Lewis guys, and myself were on the front from the start.

All the striaghts were just power areas. Laying it down hard with no worries. However, as soon as you came up on a corner you had to be super careful. If it wasn't the frozen ruts early in the race it was the thawed ruts later in the race that kept your attention. The course was constantly changing which kept me on my toes!

I was able to establish a lead from about two laps in after Eric Emsky bobbled at the top of the first climb. I knew that was my opportunity to get away so I went then. I was able to stay away after attacking pretty hard. I was lucky I was abel to put some decent time in, about 20 sec, because I crashed pretty hard on the back side of the course with one to go and I was worried I was going to look back and see people charging me.

I pulled it together and regained some composure and rode the rest of the race as smooth and within myself as possible. It worked out but I was still on edge until I hit the last paved section. Then I could finally relax and bring it home.

Crossing the line and hearing the lmc squad bringing me in was really cool. Still can't get over it. All the parents and alumni, Eric and J-rad, the pit crew, the coaches, it was good to pull the win out knowing how hard everyone had worked to make the weekend smooth and stress free.

Unfortunately some of the other guys on the team, Joe and Brad, had some bad luck on course and we weren't able to pull off the omnium. Nate showed up and so did Ezra. Dylon and Davis also had solid races.

After our race we got cleaned up and put on our fan faces to go out and get rowdy for the Elite men and Women, which Emily and Katherine were racing in! (Nate's ass may or may not be showing behind Katie in this picture...)

After the elite races we headed to the library off course for awards and stood up as a team for the third place step.

After awards I came back to the room and followed through with promise to shave my mustache after the race. I was sad indeed but Culver's quickly soaked up my tears. No wonder why people put weight on.... Emotional eating.

Ice skating was the original plan for the night but after not being able to find anywhere to go we called it off and just relaxed/ packed for an early morning departure back to the B. Eazy.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/2012CxNats

Wisco Built

2012-01-04T08:29:00.001-08:00

Breakfast and coffee followed by an extremely monotonous 4hrs on the trainer. Luckily I had Joey bear and Jordan to accompany me. We also watched the "Storm Over Everest", which in hindsight probably wasn't a good idea because it is a super depressing movie.

Before breakfast, to warm up for the trainier, I took Marmut out for a jaunt around the neighborhood. Marmut is Marnies "mut", ergo marmut. This dog is absolutely huge! It is a great pyrenees, german shepard mix. It's walking stride was my jogging pace so I got a good jog in out in sub 20 degree temps.

After the trainer ride we all got cleaned up and quickly shot over to trader joes for some goodies.

We came back and cooked some dinner. Marnie joined us for dinner and then convinced us to hit Kopp's Frozen Custard for dessert. It didn't take too much convincing and we were out the door.

We me the Shields there and indulged on some Macadamia nut custard. I ordered a two scoop cone that I thought was going to be pretty small or average sized at best but it was huge!! I was very satisfied and the price was right. Now I know the meaning of the phrase "Wisco Built"

We came back to the house to catch the Virginia Tech game and kick the legs up for a bit.

Epic Day

2012-01-03T08:27:00.001-08:00

Woke up in the hotel and hopped on the trainer. Joe and I spun out about 2.5 hours while watching some weapons show on the History Channel.

Breakfast consisted of left over za!

We loaded the car and headed North through the city. A quick drive by to take in all the sites on our way to Peet's Coffee for some internet and coffee.

After Peet's our plan was to hit Trader Joe's for some grocery essentials but once we saw a Patagonia store we couldn't resist (this is where the money spending started...). I needed some rain pants so I was stoked to go in and get some.

I ended up walking out with some rain pants and a hat.

After Patagucci we cut off ties with Chi town and headed north to Milwaukee. Jen set us up with a host house friend she had and we were all about it. We also had another option for housing. We could have driven an hour south to hang out with Brian Ellison but it was out of the way, but it is still cool to know you have friends everywhere!

On our way to Milwuakee we hit a Levi's outlet, and a Gap, Bannana Republic, Sports Authority, and Vans. Haha. I got dupped into opening a Gap credit card for 15% off my purchase. haha Whoopsie!

After the outlet mall and lots of dope clothing aquired we contiued north. Then on the way we saw another outlet mall wtih North Face and Arc'tyrex. I was over shopping at this point but Joe and Jordan got all giddy when we passed it and insisted on stopping.

When we walked into Arc'tyrex they lit up like a chirstmas tree! hahaha. We hit North face and all of us walked out with new stuff!

We finally made it to MIlwaukee after hundreds of dollars spent.

We met up with Jen and Marnie, our host house dream woman! We went right out to a Mexican restaurant, which had far exceeded my expectations.

Back to Marnie's house to unload the car. We ended up having to hack saw a lock off of the bikes because they froze shut.

Marnie showed us around and we definitely hit the jack pot! Not only is the house awesome and very comfortable but Marnie is a super nice lady.

All settled in we capped the night off with a beer and let the Z's float.

UCI Chi Town day 2

2012-01-02T11:41:00.001-08:00

I drove back from the Shield's hotel around 9am and experienced some trouble with the chicago toll roads. First I did not have enough change up front so I had to scrounge around in the bag for a nickle then I got off the exit right after I paid the toll becuase I was not paying attention to the road and looking at the gps... With no change left to get back on I took city streets for about 10 miles.

I got to Jenny's place to pick up Jordan and Joe and hear about their night out on the town. Apparently it was a good one! I will spare you the juicy details. Jen Greenberg was also at Jenny's. She was hopping a ride with us to the race.

We loaded the car and said good bye and thanks to Jenny. She was a really nice lady and I was extremely happy see put up with us for two nights.

First stop was breakfast at a really cool place Jen recommended, the handle bar. It was a sick hipster restaurant and they had some gnarly good food!

Off to the race...

I made enough money yesterday to day of reg so I did that and prepared for 30+ mph winds and flurries. The mud was just as bad as yesterday which I was excited about, at least for the time being.

I watched Emily and Kathrine slay the womens race while I warmed up.

I had an awesome start! haha and that was about all I had that was awesome. With in two laps I started fading... Either from the weight of the bike or my legs (most likely my legs). With in three laps of the start I was begging to get pulled. I didn't have a pit bike and my frame was gaining an extra 5 lbs a lap from wet mud then the mud would freeze to my frame.

Luckily Ryan Trebone and Jermey Powers were booking it and I got pulled with two laps to go. I had never been more relieved to get pulled.

I changed while Jordan and Joe washed my bike off. We wanted to peace out asap. We hit a starbucks on the way home where we booked a cheap hotel for the night.

We dropped Jen off at a bus stop and checked into the hotel. We lounged for a bit then headed to Connie's restaurant for some authentic chicago deep dish za!

We had a bogo coupon from the hotel so we got too and got excited about left overs.

Back to the hotel for the night where we popped some champagne and watched a repo show, Lizard Lick towing. We couldn't change the channel for some reason... I definitely feel stupider.

UCI CX Race Saturday

2011-12-31T22:22:00.001-08:00

Slept like a rock! For some reason that drive absolutely took it out of me. We woke and and hot the road around 10. We stopped at a sick bakery first but with there lack of breakfast food we chose another place. We did vow, as a group, to come back for all natural red velvet donuts. All natural donuts do not sound real... Bit they do make me feel better :)

We ended up at Pete's Place Restaurant. A small corner diner style restaurant with some good home clocked huge omelettes! The place was sick. We were the only white people in the whole place and Jordan walks back to the juke box and plays temptation! Haha someone complimented him on it. Super funny!

From there to the race, which was like forty min away. I jumped on a trainer and started cheering for Emily and Katherine shields! They killed!

I was up next. The course was pretty fast but muddy and sloppy. My tires weren't ideal but they were the only legal ones I had... Long story short I got pulled. Ryan Trebon was freight training! J pow got dropped and matter was working it!

I got super cold after the race but warmed back up with some nifty propane heaters!

Back to chi town after some starbucks. On the way a good citizen stopped us just before the interstate to tell us I didn't strap my bike to the rack at all! It was hanging off. Whoopsie!

We showered and headed down town to chipotle and REI but REI was closed. We just missed a big garage sale!

Back home where Jordan and Joe parted ways with me. They went down town and my underage self drive over to hang out with Dylon the twins and papa Shields.

Watching the ball drop never ceases to bore me... Stoked to race again tomorrow. Maybe top ten?

Chi Town

2011-12-31T08:51:00.001-08:00

Started the trip yesterday at 9 am. Joe, Jordan, and myself driving for twelve hours from the b easy to Chicago for a uci cross race.

The drive was pretty uneventful and between Jordan, joe, and I bickering I was sure someone was going to die.

We Arrived in chicago around nine thirty and met up with Jenny Addison. She is the wonderful woman gracious enough to house us for the weekend.

She set us up with a room to sleep in and that was pretty much all she wrote for the night. We all passed out!

Last Night in CoCo Springs

2011-12-13T18:37:00.001-08:00

#sadface!

We hit the gym early this morning. Got our swole on and riduculed for doing workouts wrong by the fitness instructor. That is always good for self esteem.

After the gym we grabbed some breakfast then met Gully, Danny Pate, Mitch Hoke, and Kelly Emit for a shred fest in Palmer park. I had never ridden in Palmer park before so I was pretty stoked. From what Russell said I had high expectations.

Once everyone was there we hit some gnarly trails. We quickly went to this area that had a double drop line and I was stoked. After riding more and more I was really digging the place. It was fast on the downhills and the climbs were super hard and techy. Lots of muscle tension!! Especially for Russell who is riding a single speed.

To be honest it felt like the second workout session of the day (lots of arm pumping and body movements) so we called it at two hours.

We got to the OTC, hit the cafe, then met up with Randy Wilber who walked us through our blood test results. He gave us a general outline of all the lingo, which helped a ton because when you read it all the names look like computer coding.

I was pretty normal, except for some super low cholesterol. #effyoucardiovasculardisease!

After the meeting it was back to the room to pack. I had to pack up the couch of a bike I got and get all my things ready for a 6:45 shuttle tomorrow morning.

Dinner crept up on us but I really wasn't that hungry. That doesn't mean I didn't eat. I had to hit the soft serve machine one last time.

Not much going on at night. The early morning kind of killed any plans that we may have had.

Bye Colorado Springs. See you in March!

New MTB's and Schedule

2011-12-12T20:47:00.001-08:00

Arrived at the OTC on Saturday evening. Just in time for the cafe.

I was pumped to be done finals! Finished with a 3.842. I can live with that.

When I showed up at the OTC I checked in and they guy behind the counter informed me there were some bikes here for Jack and I. I almost forgot about them...

I quickly ran in and checked them out! Super sick! The new Speed fox SF29 and the hardtail 29er!

Russell showed up next and I helped him with some bags then we hit the cafe and hit it hard. All I had to eat all day was breakfast and a smoothie/cliff bar in the airport... Not very substantial.

Jack and Keegan showed up next. So Russell and I had to hit the cafe again... What a tough decision that was.

After filling up on some grub we called it a night. I was pretty cooked from finals the past week and everyone else from traveling etc.

Sunday morning we woke up to breakfast and hit a fun mt ride. I was super pumped to be getting out on the new whip. I had the suspension all set up and was ready to make some fine tuning adjustments on the trail.

Russell, Marc G, Danny Pate, Jack, Kalan, Keegan, and myself all headed up rampart range road for a good 1.5-2 hour climb. I was in a rough spot... A little dehydrated I think.

Before the ride I was promised a tasty downhill after all that climbing and the promise was kept. I got to let the big wheels roll. It felt like I was couch surfing!

The bike was super stiff and though pretty big it was very responsive. The fox shocks were really easy to set up and the pedal platform made climbing super easy. The tires dug in extremely well, it tracked up over almost anything. It came with 720mm bars which made it really easy to handle on the fast descents.

We put in a good 3.5 hours and barely touched the pavement. That is my kind of ride!

Back to the OTC to crush some food then a meeting with Marc about the schedule for next year. Gotta say I am pretty stoked about it!

Just before bed we headed to Fro-yo. Gotta keep the tradition alive. Then before heading home we stopped at target to get some essentials. Specifically just for men dark brown mustache and beard die...

Lets just say her I come cross nats...

Before After

This morning consisted of a blood and urine test. One of my favorite ways to wake up.

Breakfast and the gym. We met with a weight lifting coach who ran us through a easy but intense workout circuit and helped us with form along the way. I am not a big fan of the gym but hopefully the ease of this routine will make me dread it less.

Gym followed by more food then out on a ride with D Pate. It was a little chillier today than yesterday so we kept all the shredding with in the Cheyenne cannon area.

The trails were in super good shape. Kind of makes me want to stay here for a while.

Got to let the couch surf today again. I gotta say I could get use to magic carpet rides.

After the ride it was back to the OTC for some dinner round 1.

I am not going to front... I was worked after todays ride. Two days of little oxygen and coming off little sleep from last week is a recipe for hurt!

Dinner round two followed by some sleep. More gym tomorrow and hopefully the weather man is lying. I am trying to get some more trial in before leaving on wednesday morning. We also get our blood test results back and a detailed analysis from an expert here at the OTC. Not to sure what to expect.

New Season!

2011-11-26T21:59:00.001-08:00

It's tuesday night and Joe and I get a call from Farva saying he is leaving with Nate to go up to Mass tonight. Well we didn't want to have only three people in Joe's truck, gas would be way more expensive, so we decided to leave tuesday night.

Joe and I packed in an hour and a half and hit the road!

We drove all through the night slash experienced hell.

We stopped at Erica's house in pa at seven am wednesday morning for breakfast. The plan was to eat breakfast and hit the road asap but once someone sat down on a couch it was lights out in a domino effect. One by one everyone passed out. In hind sight it was probably a good idea because we were obviously all wrecked!

While at Erica's house we took a tour of her estate and went into the horses area thing. There we were feeding horses treats and Joe had his finger bitten. His thumb was throbbing and he was almost crying... Needless to say he doesn't like horses anymore.

Back on the road. We stopped in Barre, Ma to drop Erica, Nate, Hannah, Dillon, and Farva off at farva's house. Joe and I grabbed some food then we were back on the road to Boston. We pulled in at eight pm. Twenty four hours of travel!!

Joe and I passed out once settled into Ben's house only to wake up rested on Thanksgiving morning.

We lazy got up and ate breakfast followed by a trip to Attleboro, Ma to Ben's parents house. There we quickly got dressed and went on a ride so we could make it back in time for thanksgiving dinner.

Once we had a delicious dinner/dessert we headed out to meet some of Ben's friends and then out on the town. Unfortunately, not much was open. We made due and had a rad night.

We awoke the next morning a bit dehydrated and hit Back Bagel Co for breakfast.

joe, Ben, and I then went on a ride and headed back to boston that night.

We chilled out until bed. Big race Saturday morning!!

We were up and out the door by 9:15 because Ben raced early than we did. The departure wasn't before the usual last minute bike work.

Once at the venue we hung out. Ben and Dillon raced at 12:30 so we all cheered for them. Then Erica at 2.

Erica raced at Joe and I didn't race until 3:30 today, which was way too late in my opinion.

This was to be my first race after taking three weeks off the bike so I wasn't expecting much, except a lot of hurt. The race started and I quickly found out I started to hard. I pulled ahead of Joe early on but not for long. He passed me and told me to go with him. I tried but it was impossible. From then on I raced as best I could. I tried to maintain position but lost a few spots. I ended up 18th and Joe was 7th! Nate flatted and Brad rolled both front and rear tubulars:(

The course was super rad! I wanted to jump the barriers all race but couldn't bring myself to do it. Tomorrow is the day.

Back to the house after a super uncomfortable ride home. Then out to experience the rare trader joe's festival, where I spent a lot of money I had to justify to myself post buy.

Pretty excited for tomorrows race! UCI points up for grabs top ten. Pretty stoked to see Joe get some hopefully. I think my main goal is to sack up and jump barriers all day!

No pics. I forgot my cameraaaahhh!!! hashtag not cool

World Champs

2011-09-04T12:58:00.001-07:00

I have been behind on the blog updates lately. Probably because my nights haven't been spent waiting around for a race and making sure I get enough sleep. The last two nights were pretty fun. Feels good to unwind a little bit from a long season.

The race...

This race started out especially hard. Harder than a world cup. I was called up 70th and moved up maybe ten spots or so on the start loop. Russell went H.A.M. on the start and moved up to top thirty but the hard effort he put out led him to his demise.
Jack and I were yo yoing back and forth for the first couple laps as we were moving up through the field. With two to go he got taken out by a Canadian that crashed in front of him on some wet roots. I was able to get around the carnage and that was the last time Jack and I were together. It would have been nice to keep ridding with Jack because he was hauling up the climb! Mobbing, definitely pushing me.

The last two laps were especially hard. Everyone was resting at different places on course so it was hard to pace yourself and gauge how you felt based on how you were moving through the field.

I came through in 33rd with 31st just two seconds in front of me. eff...

I felt good about the race. I wanted top twenty but I can be happy with 33rd.

After the race I spun around for a few and thanks the usac staff that helped out during the race. The support was amazing.

There was a whole group of us that went up to watch four cross at nine on Friday night. That was super cool to see. The course looked pretty burl and it seemed like a lot could happen while racing.

After the four cross we went to the concert at the venue to get our dance on. It was a bit lame to be honest. Not a lot of people there and the people that were there didn't seem to into it. Plus, the group was split up and my half of the group had no idea where the others were.

We called it at the concert and grabbed a shuttle home. Right when we got to the hotel we met up with the others and started nabbing some banners!

We called it a night after that. We had to rest up for cheering tomorrow for the elite races.

Saturday morning we did a group ride with the Canadians up to the Col de Coux. The views up there were amazing and the forest road we took down was pretty rad. However, we did miss out on trail, which we could have taken down instead of the road but I'll save it for another year.

At the top was also the boarder of France and Switzerland....

After the ride grabbed lunch and packed my bike up. Then up to the venue to watch the elite men. We were going to go up to watch the women but got too comfortable watching it on a big screen in the mechanic room.

The mens race was crazy! So many people out there. I love bike events in Europe.

I took a ton of photos trying to get some cool pics but my point and shoot camera lacks the ability to make up for my lack of photographer skills.

After the race it was time for some dinner and then hanging out with the elite men and women for a night on the town. Pretty good night to wrap up an awesome trip/season!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Anticipation

2011-09-01T13:28:00.001-07:00

I hate waiting around for one race like it's the end of the world. Too much hype! It is world champs though. It is also just another race though...

Woke up and had an awesome euro breakfast. Going to be the thing I miss the most. Then Jack and I pedaled for a bit on our pedal bikes on the course. Did a warm up lap then a hot lap. Legs feel pretty good! I am excited for tomorrow. I think I am ready to crush souls, the last couple weeks have been optimal prep work. It has to pay off.

After our ride Jack and I came back and grabbed some lunch. In between lunch and dinner is always the most boring part of the day. Probably because all I do/try to do is homework. Jack livened things up today by trying to burst a water bottle with a big air. Failure ensued but it was quite funny. I then hung out with Russell and Sam S until dinner.

While we were wasting time doing nothing but stinking up Russell and Sam's room the junior men and u23 women raced.

For the junior men, Howard "how hard?" Grotts took 8th! Casey Willimas finished one lap down, Cypress Gory took 63rd (not 100%) and Keegan Swenson took an unfortunate DNF.

The ladies came in with Jill Bahlen 32nd and Kalia Hart 41st.

After dinner I had to get some tires swapped out. I went from specialized LK's to a sauserwind 2.0 up front and captain 2.0 rear. Adam Craig helped with that decision and also gave me the 411 on splicing tread (that may or may not be the right word for it). He assured me massive amounts of energy would be saved and good things would now happen. haha. I can't wait for that.

Now that my bike is set up and ready to rip, thanks to michele the awesomest mechanic, all I have to do is my part.

Got a rub from Julia and finished the night off with a DH video to lull me to sleep. Hopefully I have sweet dreams of shredding roots/mud/euro face!

Here is tonight and toms weather forecast for champery...

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=Champery%2C+Switzerland

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Team Relay

2011-08-31T13:14:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day of racing. Junior women and the team relay went today.

I did an easy spin in the morning with Russell where we found a cool single track and took some beauteous pictures of rocks/ huge mountains! These views are amazingly amazing!

After our spin I grabbed some lunch and then hung out for a bit. Homework has been reefing me. I only have a few days to get a lot more read. buhhh. I am banking on at least a week of catch up work.

I went to the store before dinner to get some snacks to hold me over for the five hours in between every meal. I found a jar of nutella, mainly for after the race, a loaf of what turned out to be really good bread, and some kiwis. I had to get the kiwis because they were a bargain.

Massage from Julia was key. She worked on my back, which was pretty sore from the Basel Swiss cup this Sunday.

Then julia, Jack, Russell, and I went up to the venue to watch the team relay and get the scoop on the junior women. It was uneasy to hear about Grace's first world champs ending in a crash, where she bumped her head pretty bad. That was after sitting sixth wheel up the first climb then flatting on the downhill. So unlucky and unfortunate. Alicia the other junior woman that raced finished fairly well with a mid pack finish at her first worlds.

The team relay consisted of Stephen, Howard "How Hard?" Grotts, Georgia Gould, and Todd Wells. We were sitting on the climb waiting for Stephen to come through, making predictions about where he would come in. Then he never came. It really sucked to hear he got caught up in start mayhem. A spectator was holding a flag over the start runway and the guy in front of Stephen swerved to miss it. This put that guys rear wheel into Stephen's front, ripping out 6 spokes and taking him down. His crash resulted in what I last hear was a broken finger, pinky... EFFF! Not sure if he is racing yet but I hope he can. It has been an awesome year for him and I know he would do well here.

We didn't finish last... We got ahead of Croatia on the last lap finishing 21st. yay u.s.

After the team relay it was team dinner time followed by lack of motivation to do much of anything especially more homework then bed.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Course Recon

2011-08-30T12:42:00.001-07:00

Woke up at 8 today but thought it was 4 in the morning because Jack had it so dark in our room. Rolled down to breakfast where, like I remember, breakfast was dope! Lots o cereal grain, yogurt, meat, cheese, eggs, coffee, milk. So good.

Filled up and hung out in the room for a bit until Russell, Jack and I cruised over to the course for a few laps.

I did three laps. Two easy laps and a faster one. Then we hit the downhill a couple times to get the lines dialed in.

The roots are still wet from the rain a couple days ago and they throw you! They are drying up though. I am planning for either a dry race or a pouring rain epic race. I could get stoked for that and make it work to my advantage!

Nailed the drop line. I did almost meet my certain death though after coming unclipped at the top and then proceeding to hit the drop. I was going to fast to bail so I figured I would just go for it. Kind of sketchy but I made it. Hermida, the current world champ, heard me say "OHH F*&K!" and said something that he laughed about as he went by. Probably making fun of the stupid american...

After course recon it was lunch. Jack and I hung out in our room until massages right before dinner.

After dinner Russell, Jack and I went for a small walk and tried to get the laundry situation figured out. I am not a big fan of doing laundry in the sink but if I have too, oh well.

Bed time crept up on me pretty fast. The days here in Champery are going by way to fast. 3 more days!

Sorry for lack of pics. I can't wait to upload some trials pics. The courses here are so sick! One goes down into a stream!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Switzerland!

2011-08-29T13:01:00.001-07:00

Woke up pretty early today to get a jump start on the clean up. I had to get breakfast first and what better than eggs and some cut up meat stick. So good!

Got everything cleaned up and we were out the door by 9:30. Three hour trip to Champery.

We made it to Champery around 2. I woke up with my head getting thrown around by the bumpy switch backs up to the town.

We got our rooms and our bags then got some lunch. The hotel here is nice. Jack and I are rooming. All the Elite and Junior men and women are staying in the same place which is cool. Only one or two is doing there own thing.

The way food works here is all the major meals, breakfast lunch and dinner are served in the restaurant connected to the hotel at specified times throughout the day. So we just show up and eat. Pretty convenient.

After lunch, Jack, Russell, Gully and myself hit the worlds course for a lap just to get our feet wet. We pedaled it super slow because we didn't want to go to hard after yesterdays race.

The course is so sick! Just like it was last year. They did take out the practically unridable shoots before the drop and replaced them with some fast rollers. There are two main climbs. One is about one min or less and the second one is around 3. The rest of the course is fairly flat and rooty. The course folds back on itself numerous times, which is super cool for spectators. There are also a lot of chop lines in some spots. Overall it is a pretty techy race with two major climbs that are going to sting a lot!

After riding the course Russell and I wanted to spin a little more so we hit the cliff trail, which I was never on but Russell and Jack rode it last year.

It was pretty cool to be riding so close to death on the edge of a cliff. There was a fence there protecting us from our impeding doom. There were also a few sections we chose to walk out of better judgement.

We got some cool pics though.

Then at the end of the trail it came out in the woods and there was a zip line park. It was pretty cool. Russell and I did some snooping around and found a ropes course. The whole thing was 20ft of the group or so. We probably shouldn't have but we did. It was fun. Not too scary.

Came back to the hotel to shower then a quick riders meeting then dinner. The day went by so fast. Only four more days until worlds. I want to stay in Switzerland though!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Swiss Cup

2011-08-28T13:53:00.001-07:00

Basel Swiss cup on the agenda today. I was super excited for it because it will be the first race effort since Missoula and I am interested to see if Co training has paid off.

Got to the race and did the normal pre race stuff. 90 starters today. I guess everyone is getting tuned in for the big one this weekend. Fun venue too!

The course was pretty rad. Super fast. Started out with two laps around a dirt track then into a paved road to four wheel trial climb, steep! Then fun descent to single track by the river bed, which was super fast and flowy. Then back into the track to do some techy loops on the in field. They had different obstacles set up which broke up the race and made it real fun. Even threw in a few booters and drops!

I started out mid pack for sure. The start was on the fast dirt track and moving up in that was practically impossible. Especially if you were trying not to get crashed out. So sketch!

Once we got off the track and hit the climb groups started to form. I was able to get in a group with Russell at the start of the second lap. It was cool to ride together but everyone in our group expected us to do all the work on the flat, and there was a lot of flat.

I sat in there for a lap then with three to go I went on the hill. I felt really good about it and even if I got caught I would have that good effort to sit back on. Russell said it was a strong move and no one really followed. Thanks for boosting my self esteem struss!

From there I tried to bridge up to the next group. Doing my best to hold them on the flats and move up on the hill.

With two to go there was one more group in view so I gave her to catch them. On the last lap I was able to move through that group on the hill and only on person came with me. I was definitely feeling the early race efforts by this point and almost held the guy that came with off. He chopped me into a stair section, up stairs..., then accelerated out of it on the finish straight. The acceleration was too much for me and he got me.

I ended up 30th. Pretty happy with that but more happy about how I felt. Russell came in 36 and Jack 47th.

After the race we came back home and waited for some dinner. We got meat sticks in our complementary bags from signing up so I put two of those down! They were like slim jims but not as processed, it was real meat. haha

Dinner out on the town tonight as the last night in Kirchzarten. Then Back to the apts to clean up and say good bye. We did get ice cream for the first and last time at our fav ice cream spot too.

We also got to make fun of the itty bitty juniors. Two of them wear underwear under their cycling shorts... WTF?!!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Dang Fast!

2011-08-27T11:16:00.001-07:00

Woke up today and leisurely sat around the apt until I decided to go out for a nice ride with some openers.

It was kind of over cast all day. It was spritsing out when I stepped out the door. I wasn't scerred though. I hit Freiburg, then some single track that goes from right in town to the top of the Roskopf. It was wet and the trails were super tacky. I wanted to shred so bad! god, this tapering thing is not ideal with such sick single track all around me.

I got to the bottom of the Rossy and headed to the worlds course for some skills park practice and to escape the rain.

I made it home and hosed off my bike, a happy mechanic is a good mechanic!

Grabbed some lunch then chilled out on the balcony and did some homework. The scenery was in high contrast and it was hard to focus on stupid words.

We watched some Vuelta followed by some running, track running. There was one thing in common we all noticed about the women 10k runners... They were all... Real skinny. Haha, and Kenyan. Top 4 were Kenyan. The U.S. is definitely good for breeding a special kind of athlete too, don't worry. If being a coach potato was a sport we would win olympic gold for sure.

Dinner was pretty good tonight. There we hung out with the little itty bitty juniors, 15-16 group that was over doing a camp. They raced the Basel Swiss cup this morning and we go the course scoop. One kid, professional park core athlete who is going to be in he X games next year, no joke, told us if we wanted to go "dang fast" we had to boost the only drop on course. The rest of the night consisted of jokes that had to do with "dang fast." haha

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Nuse bread

2011-08-27T11:03:00.001-07:00

Friday, the market over at SB was open and they were popping nuse bread out of the oven like hot cakes!

We woke up pretty late this morning due to our late night.

I was on the bike by 12:30 and headed up to HInterhaus (not sure if that is right, some hut at the top of a hill)? I got to rip some gnar single track down into Kirchzarten where I found the skills park near the old worlds course. I had fun on some teeter totters and then cruised into Freiburg on the bike path.

When I came home I was greeted by Stephen, half/ fully naked, getting a massage in my living room/ kitchen area. That was fun. I got a nice massage after Stephen and relaxed the rest of the day.

Sat outside of SB and did some homework/ got some wifi.

Dinner came a little earlier this evening and I am sure none of us minded. As usual they brought a boat load of the one thing no one was that into. I feel bad wasting food but sometimes I think the pigs wont even eat it.

I got some tires on my bike swapped out and then headed up to bed.

Another relaxing day tomorrow. Followed by the Swiss cup on Sunday. I am getting real excited to race!

My picture taking has been lacking lately. I will try to up the ante there.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Broken Chain...

2011-08-26T02:04:00.001-07:00

Woke up today and chilled out with some coffee, morning view of the country side, and a stupid psychology book. I got some breakfast and wifi then Russell, Jack, and I went into Freiberg for a Biosk trip and met the barista. He was stoked to see us. I got a late macchiato and then we spun back. Just put an hour in then came back and chilled out all afternoon.

We had a departure time for Burn, Switzerland at 4:30 for a UCI C1 mtb race in the city. No dirt. City streets. I was pretty stoked for it because I never did anything like it before. The downside was it rained a ton right when we got out of the car... We did a course pre ride with about a half hour before race time and realized it was pretty sketchy. There were a lot of wooden obstacles that when wet could cause some major carnage. Especially in a field of 60+ world cup racers.

There were some American guys there. Todd Wells, Adam Craig, and some others we knew from the PRO XCT's.

The race started and like I suspected it was pretty sketch. Euros going all out off the line on wet dark sidewalks with wet wooden structures.

I made it the first lap unscathed but right at the start of the second lap I came up over the first wooden structure, came unclipped, and broke my chain. Less then ten mins of race time for me. It was pouring rain at this point so that put the cherry on the cake.

I walked in the pouring rain over to Marc to tell him the scoop then back to the car to change and get dry. Kind of stinks because I waited around all day for that race and was looking forward to getting that effort in. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Fortunately, that happened in that race and not when it counts!

We all loaded up after everyone was done racing and brought the whole crew back home, junior men women, mechanic, Julia, and the two coaches. We stopped at a auto grill on the way home for some grub.

We got back to the apts around 12:00am... Late night. I am planning on doing some hard riding tomorrow I guess... Buhh. Self motivated efforts :(

pics tomorrow..

So sleepy!

2011-08-24T12:05:00.001-07:00

Woke up at four this morning... That was great! Not! I tried to go back to bed but I couldn't so I sat in bed for two hours. Luckily Russell got up at six with me. We pounded some breakfast down, almond butter and jelly on some german bread, then went to steiertbartlehof, correct spelling, for some internet. After internet we picked up some eggs at the market/ shed and went back to the apts for some more breakfast. I don't know how Howard or Keegan didn't wake up, they are staying in the apts with Russell and I, b/c we were being so loud!

Went out on a ride pretty early, 9:45, with Keegan and Howard. Howard had never been here before so I showed him and keegan some cool new trail.

We climbed up fire road for about an hour and then took a cool single track along a steep hillside. There were a ton of hikers on the trail too and I imagine they didn't like us on it because every time we passed a group of them they didn't say much. We even said "danka", which means thanks, but they still didn't seem stoked with our presence. Some guy even said "german german german, mountain bikes, german german." "German German...." is my interpretation of what he was saying in German. haha

We made it back in two hours and banged out some openers up to the top of the first climb. We race a night race tomorrow, doesn't start until 8pm. It is a C1 mountain bike race but is through the city and contains no dirt what so ever. There are some stairs we go down so it should be sketchy and fun. All the big names should be there too.

Back at the apts we grabbed some food and I got some h dubz, homework, done. Buhhh I am really hating religion class. The book I have to read is like taking 120 tablets of ambien!

Michele worked on our bikes today. Gotta say he is a baller mechanic. Really happy he is working with us for worlds!

Right before dinner Russell, Keegan, Howard (or how hard), and I went over to SB (steiertbartlehof) for some internet. I did some more reading and watched some German's on vacation at SB relaxing by the creek. It was cool to see people just hanging out. Last night they had a big bbq on the fire pit near the creek and when we went over for internet then they offered us some steaks and other assorted meats. Michael the owner of SB said it would make us big and strong, since we didn't want any because we just ate, he said we could take some and put it in our pockets for tomorrows ride. haha. We kindly said no.

Dinner was good and filling. After dinner there was some more internet time then bed. I am hoping to make it past 4am this morning. I think melatonin will help with that...

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Jet Lag

2011-08-23T11:50:00.001-07:00

I left off at Saturday night... So Sunday was a nice two hours easy. Russell and I did my new favorite trail route. We cruised through bear creek and headed over to Gold Camp where we climbed up high drive and hit Palmer trail to section 16 into red rocks. It was so fun. I am not a huge fan of the skree corners in Colorado and these trails were skree free or had very little. I was so happy even though my legs were shot.

After the ride we grabbed some lunch and I did some homework all day. Then later that night we went to the SRM party. It was fun. There were a ton of people there and I got to meet a bunch of cool guys, including the owner of SRM. I don't know how to spell his name but it may be something like this... Uli (sounds like oo-ll-ie).

The next morning was a rush but fortunately I woke up early enough to have time to pack and go for a run. I hate getting on a plane without riding, I always feel like a sac!

We got to the airport via Russell. Thanks! At the airport I tried out my new hockey bag. Worked like a charm. Got it through for no charge. I was so happy I missed the two hundred dollar charge. The bag has paid for itself 6.5 times over already.

Flew from Co springs to Chi town and from there to Frankfurt. Flights are flights. Nothing exciting happened just sleeping and the plane wasn't too crowded, which was awesome.

Got to Germany at 11am and made the terrible drive to Kirchzarten. It was so hot and no ac in the van. There were nine of us in there. Way too many! The traffic coming through Frieburgh wasn't necessary but we made it.

We got all settle in, not at steirtbartlhof, at the apts across the street. No internet in the apts so that could get annoying.

Dinner was catered and after that bed soon followed.

Pics tomorrow!

H.A.M.

2011-08-20T20:10:00.001-07:00

Woke up to ride the group ride this morning. The only problem we had was Russell made us a bit late because of his faulty tubes. While he was switching tubes I was making sure the group ride went by and it did. We ended up getting on the road five mins after they went by. Fortunately, Russell played domestique and pulled us back to the group, which wasn't too far up the road (we made him be domestique).

The group ride was fast. So fast! We avg. over 30 mph for about 45min. And after the final sprint spot we usually cruise the rest of the ride but today we continued to give er'.

We went super hard up to the zoo and continued to hold tempo up Cheyenne Canyon. By the end of the ride we had 3.5 hours and lots o KJ's, which meant lots o food.

After lunch I had to return Shawn Petty's bike to him at USAC, thanks so much! I got some good training on it, then picked up Phin and Leo to baby sit them for the night. Marc and Margy had an important dinner to go to and we were more than willing to help out, as well as teach the kids some life lessons. They are totally set now!

We took them to OTC dinner and then back to Marc's house to watch a movie. It is pretty funny that we were ready for bed before an 8 year old and an 11year old. We were so beat after that ride. I wouldn't have been surprised when Marc and Margy got home if they found us sleeping on the coach and the kids watching us.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

02 is 0ver!

2011-08-19T09:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had breakfast and then went on a short spin to get ready for the last supplemental 02 intervals of the camp/year.

We all met at the lab around 11 and before our intervals we got our body fat percentage measured with skin calipers. That was cool. I never have done that before and it was pretty quick. Turns out I am only 6.6% body fat. I don't mind that number. The sports performance manager helping us out, Alicia, also told us that the scales that tell you body fat aren't a good indication of body fat but rather hydration. The scale sends an electrical current through your body so the more hydrated you are the less the scale will read as your body fat and vice versa.

The intervals were hard as usual but the numbers were up from last week so that was a good motivator.

Once we finished them we all cruised over to the skate park near the garden of the gods for a post workout spin. We came back to the OTC and went to lunch.

By the time we left the cafe we only had about an hour until we had to get ready to go on the Thursday night ride with Kalan, Danny P, Doug and others. Jack took a nap in that hour and woke up too tired to ride. Russell and I cruised over to do it and we quickly realized we should have done what Jack did.

We rode with the group for awhile but we peeled off about a quarter of the way and did a loop down captain jack's then back to the otc. That put us at just over 5 hours for the day and by this point I was feeling it. Russell and I didn't even shower, just booked it to the cafe for relief.

We made it back to the room and crawled into bed. Ouch! Oh and I did end up breaking my helicopter. I don't know if I broke it or the motor just burned out. But it is now spare parts for Russell.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Motor Pacing Round 2

2011-08-18T08:42:00.001-07:00

Breakfast was followed by a ride over to Russell's house to swap out a tire he tore up. He didn't remember until the last minute that he had to switch a tire so the pace over there was pretty H.A.M. from the door.

We met up with Marc then. Jack had already gone and Russell was going next.

One our of motor pacing hurts pretty bad. The wind wasn't the best for it. There was a slight cross head wind so finding a draft was kind of challenging and made for a much more surgey ride than what was desired. Regardless it was a good effort though!

Motor pacing was followed by lunch and then some homework. School Started yesterday at LMC. I am getting dropped!

We had dinner and then went out for a drive at night. We met up with Danny Pate and Kalan for some ice cream at "Josh and Jon's." It seems like you don't pay less than for dollars for a scoop of ice cream here... I remember when I was young you could buy a Ben and Jerry's pint for 5 dollars... Oh, wait. You can do that now! I can't trust myself with a whole pint of ice cream. Not until after worlds.

Back to the OTC to fly helicopters.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

Rest day and Back in The Saddle

2011-08-16T21:35:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the completely off the bike day. Felt pretty good to let the legs relax all day. We went to a USADA meeting after breakfast just to learn about them and get told we may be in the athlete pool in the future. Not to excited for that.

After that Russell and I went to his house and ran some errands on the way. Bought some almond butter for europe, they don't have it over there and if they do it would cost an arm and a leg, then went to the Colorado Springs Airport so Russell could get his worlds ticket.

Then 1 hour massages. There were times when I wanted to cry and I actually made some noises because I didn't know if Dustin, the masseuse, knew it hurt like eff! He still proceeded to reef my I.T. bands and quads regardless of my pain. I think I was gripping the table the whole massage!

Surprisingly didn't go too H.A.M. on the food in the cafe yesterday. Then for dinner we went to Gully's to make some dinner and what not with his family and some family friends. It was cool to have a change of scenery and it was fun making dinner, GO TEAM!, Oh HA!

Today we started the morning off with a blood test. Just getting it done to check our hematocrine, hemoglobin, blood glucose, cholesterol, etc. Should have the results in the next two days.

Russell isn't the best with needles so I made it a point to try and make him feel as nervous as possible. Afterwards we grabbed some breakfast and then got ready to go on a ride with Kalan.

Climbed up Rampart Range Rd to Williams Canyon. The descent was a lot more fun today then on Sunday because I was able to ride it! I felt pretty good today. Must have been the massage.

Came back to the OTC after our ride and immediately got our heli's! Super pumped. Russell actually got a new one. It is a little bigger and meant for outside. We took it out after lunch and he got it up in the air for a second before it came down and broke. I guess we should have done it over grass instead of concrete! haha.

After playing with My heli and then waiting for it to charge we hung out for a bit. We then went to play it again sports for hockey bags. I got one that fits my bike! So stoked! They only had one but I am hoping we find one for Jack before Monday.

Came back and killed an hour and a half at dinner before going out to meet some new friends for ice cream/ gelato at Glaciers, ice cream shop, in town.

We came back to the OTC afterwards with thoughts of motor pacing on our minds for tomorrow morning... Gonna be rough. Lets hope that isn't what I dream about tonight.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds201102

OTB

2011-08-14T21:28:00.001-07:00

Started the day out pretty leisurely. Not a huge rush to get out on the bike and woke up when I felt like it. Russell and I grabbed some breakfast. Jack had already left for his ride so I didn't see much of him all day.

Russell and I headed out around 10:30 for a three hour ride. We had to do some intensity and after that it was tasty single track. We climbed up rampart range rd and did about an hour worth of climbing, which hurt! The breaking bumps on dirt wheels are not ideal, they are quite frustrating.

We climbed up to the overlook and I kind of wish it looked like this when we got up there.... This is a photo Russells friend took from the overlook two days before we got up there.

It looked like this though, which was satisfactory for me. Super cool view!

The descent down was really fun too. Waldo Canyon to Williams Canyon. Then into Manitou Springs to Imenta, not sure if that is the name, to Red Rocks for some dirt jumps. Then home. The ride was exclusively trail/ dirt road for about 35 miles out of 40.

Don't get me wrong I had a blast but I would have had much more fun if I wouldn't have spent as much time on the ground. It was just one of those days. Three times over the handle bars then two more times I ended up in the bushes on the side of the trail. I couldn't shake my nubzor mtb skills today. However, I still had fun!

Got back to the OTC riding a flat... Slow leaker decided to go about half a mile from the OTC and pouring rain. Yay! At least I got that out of the way before Worlds.

Lunch was followed by some homework and Russell and I then hit dinner not to long after for lack of better things to do. We then went to a redbox for a movie, ended up with "Battle Los Angles" which I thought was pretty good.

Jack finally came back from meeting up with a friend and then we all went to bed. Busy day tomorrow. No bike riding but lots of things to do... USADA meeting, hockey bags, whole foods for almond butter, 1 hour massage, and possibly try not to eat too much. The last one probably wont happen!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds2011

Heli Attack

2011-08-13T20:20:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a big rest day for us. We had breakfast around 9:30. We got to sleep in and we only slept in until 9:30... After breakfast Russell and I headed out on a super easy recovery ride. We planned on hitting the 45min- 60min mark but came up short and called it at forty mins. Those forty mins were probably the slowest 40mins I have ever spent on a bike. If wind would have come across us we probably would have blown over!

We hit some lunch after the recovery ride. Then I figured it would be a good idea to start on some school work. I got all my syllabi from my professors and realized I am in pretty deep! These first two weeks I miss are gonna hurt!

We went to get some massages around 3:30. Devin, my masseuse told me he needed to work my hip flexors and he said it was gonna hurt... It did! That hit the spot for sure and we capped it off with a 15 min dip in the cold tub.

The dip in the tub was followed by some dinner and we were all super stoked because they had coconut chicken curry! Lets just say the three of us went pretty H.A.M. and even brought some back to the rooms for tomorrow lunch! It was so good!

We went for an after dinner cruise in Jack's truck to Palmer park to check it out. We are making plans to do a night ride there probably Sunday.

Called it a night.

This morning we woke up pretty early to do the Saturday group ride. When we met up with the group as they rolled past the OTC we noticed there weren't a ton of people present. Danny Pate was racing the Tour of Utah and Kalan was racing Leadville 100, which he got 13th in and finished in less than 7 hours!!! Congrats to him for that!

Jack pulled out early in the ride to do a different ride so the burden of going H.A.M. was on Russell and I. I think we pulled through. I lead him out for the hill sprint and the final sprint was an almost but I wasn't positioned right in the group... My B.

We cruised up to the Zoo afterwards and Russell put the hurt on me up the climb. I was able to finish second behind him and put out a good effort. So the group ride was a success in terms of hard effort. One more good day tomorrow then a complete day off the bike with an hour massage! I am looking forward to it! We were going so fast Russell's tire started to come apart... That or it has been on his bike for two years.

After the ride we watched the National horse something or other championships happen on the OTC grounds. Then hit the cafe for some lunch and brought some left over curry! Still awesome the next day.

Lunch was followed by Russell opening his new Helicopter... http://www.amazon.com/Syma-S107-S107G-Helicopter-Yellow/dp/B004A8ZRB0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313291564&sr=8-2

We got that charged up and flew it around for a bit. It didn't take long before Jack and I were on Amazon to buy one. They will be here Tuesday!

Cruised over to Russell's crib so I could clean my bike and he could do some bike maintenance. Then to a near by creek for a creek sit. It was interrupted by us trying to catch some fish that were swimming around in the creek.

Brought it back to the OTC for some dinner. I treated myself to an immense amount of Strawberries!

Came back to the dorms to hit the hay.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds2011

Getting Fit Lately!

2011-08-11T19:46:00.001-07:00

Monday and Tuesday consisted of some extremely needed recovery rides. That big ride up to Mt. Baldy on Sunday had reefed all of us pretty well.

The recovery days were short lived though... Yesterday was a very big day in terms of intensity and time in the saddle.

We spent about an hour each behind Marc on a scooter doing some motor pacing. This was my first time motor pacing but I see now how good it is for you. Got the leg speed up!

After motor pacing we hit the cafe with empty stomachs to fill. We didn't have much time though. We had the car packed and ready to go to Boulder for a stxc with in an hour and a half of finishing the morning training session.

We got to Boulder and met up with Brady and Mitch at Brady's new crib which he just moving into the day before.

We all suited up to hit Valmont Bike Park before heading over to the stxc course. It was super fun. All the jumps and lines were safe to send and it felt like in order to hurt yourself you had to make a valiant effort.

After boosting some rooster, that means going big, we headed over to the stxc and registered and spun our legs a bit to get ready for the second pain festival of the day.

The course was pretty fun. It ran through a dirt jump park basically. There were some good corners and little booters on course which kept the whole race pretty entertaining.

Russell got in the lead group and established himself pretty early. I had a not so good start and was playing catch up. I could see that lead group pretty much the whole race but when it came down to the last two laps it was obvious my legs were blown so I just held fifth. Russell ended up second! Brady third. I guess I was fourth technically, the fourth place guy stopped on the start to fix his chain then just jumped in the lead group on the second lap. He didn't sprint or anything at the end, just wanted the workout.

After the race we were plenty ready for food. We all spun back to Brady's house for some quick showers then out to illegal pete's for burritos! So good!

Jack was pretty tired from the morning ride and didn't race the stxc but kept me happy throughout the stxc by cheering and even a water feed. Thanks dude!

We made it back to the OTC around 12:15 and hit the hay immediately.

This morning Russell and I headed out around 9:30 for a 2.5 hour spin to get the junk out of our legs for the afternoon supplemental v02 workout.

Our ride was interrupted by a sliced side wall but it was still fun. Russell even showed my next years PRO XCT course for colorado springs race in U valley Park. Gonna be a good one!

Back to the OTC for a quick, way too quick, lunch and 2 hours of recovery. Before going to the Sports Performance building to get reefed with some supplemental oxygen training. 2 sets of 3*2 intervals with sea level simulated oxygen. They hurt way too much! But it was good to do them.

After that it was to the recovery center for a dip in the cold tub then shower then early dinner.

It seems like all we have been doing is eating, sleeping, and riding but we have been so busy... Living the dream!

After dinner we lounged around and eventually hit the cafe again for lack of better things to do. Then bed. I think we all hit the sack hard, haha.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds2011

Got So High!

2011-08-07T21:53:00.001-07:00

Started today out with a huge breakfast. I was going to need every calorie I could get for the ride that followed.

Jack, Russell, and I suited up and headed out the door by 9:15 to climb up mt baldy. Climb up gold camp, dirt road, to some forest service roads, steep!, up to the top which was at 12,250 ft!!!

The ride started out ok. Not too bad in terms of difficulty but when we got on a steady section of gold camp Russell had to bust out some tempo. That was fine with me for like five min but then we hit about 7,500ft and I backed off. Still pushing the pace just not that hard. Then as we got higher Jack and Russell kept the pace high and I was just trying to stay as steady as possible. Once we got up to 10,000 ft if I went higher that 300 watts it felt like v02! I wouldn't have made it today without my sick new Osprey Hydration Pack, the Raptor 18 was key and super comfy!

We eventually made it to the top and I was so relived and stoked for some epic downhill! The view was amazing. I was never that high before, especially on my bike.

The downhill was sick and we had an hour and a half of it to soak in. The climb hurt but was so worth it. 3.5 hours of climbing was a good trade off for what we got to descend.

We brought it back to the OTC for some much needed dinner around five. Six and a half hours out today and five and a half of ride time. Big day and that meant big recovery meal.

Took a break from eating around six to watch "the green hornet" which was pretty funny. Then back to the cafe at 8 for a late dinner.

All of us were so blown and extremely ready for an early night and a rest day tomorrow.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds2011

I top it

2011-08-06T21:20:00.001-07:00

Got to the OTC on Wed night and Russell met me to bring me to the otc from the airport. The OTC cafe was closed which wasn't ideal but Chipotle suited just fine.

Thursday started with some breakfast, still as good as it was when I left it. Followed by a trip to USAC headquarters to grab a road bike to use for the day. Got out on a ride around the garden of the gods and woodmen rd. Finished at the OTC where I met Russell for lunch and a quick rest before heading out on the MTB's for a little rainy evening mtb ride with Kalan Beisel, Danny Pate, Russell, Doug Ryden, and myself. We climbed straight up bar trail, which goes all the way to the top of pikes, then turned off on Heizer trail and descended some super fun switch backs, like 100, into cascade.

Marc thought Russell and I were crazy because of the rain but it quite by an hour in and the rest of the ride was money. The rain made the trails pretty tacky, as opposed to marbly, and they were fast. The only problem was my brakes were grabbing to the bar but we didn't have time to bleed them so I was all over the place... First impressions are lasting impressions so Danny thinks I am an awesome mtber... haha, jk.

Jack made it to the OTC Thursday night after driving from Minnesota so it was good to have him here earlier than expected. Jack and I made plans to hit up some gnarly trails which Russell pointed out on Friday morning.

Jack and I followed through on Friday and did an awesome four hour mtb ride and only rode road for like 20 min total throughout the ride.

Friday night consisted of a lot eating and watching "3 minute gap" a sick downhill movie.

Today was super sick and the week was starting to take its toll on me. Hard group ride this morning with us three, Kalan, and Danny Pate. Put some solid efforts in and even lead Russell up a small climb for the hill top sprint win. He then lead me out for a flat sprint but flaked and didn't really give me a solid finish line so I popped extremely hard.

Finished the ride and brought it back to the OTC for lunch and figured out how to make iced mochas! After stuffing ourselves we went to REI to check it out and of course impulse buy. I love that store! Got some new flipy floppies. Hopping these last longer than my 5 dollar ones from old navy.

We also got a "the green hornet" movie but failed to watch it from staying out to late at the frozen yogurt shop "i top it."

The calories were much needed for a five hour ride with 3.5 hours of climbing and 1.5 of descending. Russell says the descending is worth it and I completely believe him. He hasn't lead us astray yet on trial.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Worlds2011

2011-07-28T05:41:00.000-07:00

Jack and I cruised down to the BMC tent at 9am and quickly were set up on a ride with some dealers from Florida.

After that we went back to the venue and grabbed some lift passes, our xc bikes and hiked up to the lift.

There were two lifts. One that takes you up to mid mountain and then one that takes you up higher to about 9500 feet. Jack and I wasted no time and went all the way to the top and ripped some fun trail down. We started off behind some older guy with a bigger, five plus inch, bike and quickly put pressure on him to get out of the way even though we were on 26 inch hard tail xc bikes.

Once we made it to mid mountain we descended down to the dealer camp and checked in at the venue. Jack and I rode around for a little bit more but it was soon time for lunch so we went back to the condo for some grub.

Jack was pretty throttled from not getting a ton of sleep the night before and took a nap. I however, was itching to get on a trail fox. So I did. I grabbed one from the BMC tent and started climbing, you can do a lot of that around here. I climbed up for probably an hour total then got to descend some fun loose twisty single track. I didn't want to ride too long because I had a stxc race to do later that night.

Back to the condo for a little snack and then the rain came down. Just a small storm but the temp dropped a bit which made my motivation level to warm up for stxc hit rock bottom.

Regardless of the weather, I warmed up and soon enough it was time to race. Tim Johnson, Jonathan Page, Tad Elliot, Keegan Swanson and the BMC crew showed up plus some other big hitters not to be taken lightly.

The course basically climbed a 45 second fire road straight up then across the top flat for 30m then down a tight twisty, flagged off field with sketchy grass turns that were really slippery because of the rain.

Troy Wells took off the line like a rocket and the rest of the field followed. That climb hurt worse and worse every lap and I started hurting early but then came around and was able to feel consistent for the last bit of the race. I did get pulled but not lapped by Tim Johnson. My friends Nick and Ben Bobby from LMC were there cheering me on and gave me a beer feed up the climb with three to go. They said I dropped Jonathan Page while taking the beer feed while he was getting lapped by TJ and they really liked that. haha.

After the race there was free beer and cheese and crackers and stuff. Jack and I met up with Ben and Nick and we went out to dinner with them. It was cool seeing them since I haven't seen them since forever.

After dinner it was late and I had a lot of trails to ride the next day.

Woke up around 8:30am to Jack asking if I wanted to make some huge ass pancakes and of course I was in. At first I thought he was making way too much batter but then I realized we were cooking loaves of bread not pancakes. haha. They were huge. Quarter to a half inch thick easy! I couldn't finish mine so I saved it for lunch.

Jack and I went to the BMC tents and grabbed some trail foxes and got ready to rip some trail. We grabbed the lift all the way to the top and did a cool run with a lot of wooden features that included a 7 foot drop!

Got a call from Keegan Swanson who wanted to ride so we rode down to the expo to meet him. On the way there we took a pretty rocky trail down the Mt and we both ended up flatting. I double flatted and we were out of tubes at this point so I was walking.

Met Keegan and grabbed some tubes. He was on a carbon intense, all the trail foxes were out, which had 7 inches front and rear, super burly!

We ripped with Keegan for like two hours. He showed us some really cool trails off the top of the mountain that we never hit before. Those trails finally had some booters! The trails also got Jack and I into a little trouble... Keegan was smart enough to cool it on the loaner bike.

After ripping with Keegan, Jack and I had about five hours of ridding, probably 1 hour of pedal time, and we were ready to call it quits. I had a pancake waiting for me back at the condo and I wasted no time getting to that.

Followed my pancake with some toes up time and a small nap. When I woke up it was time to go out to dinner with the BMC guys at a near by reps house.

We rolled up to his house, which was massive, and were greeted immediately. The inside was more beautiful. Kind of a log cabin feel. We all shook hands and got to know everyone. Then Rod's, the rep, wife started putting our dinner on the table. Everything was so bomb! Tender loin, lemon sauce chicken, some sort of barley fruit concoction, zucchini corn bread, baked beans and later fresh back cherry cobbler with ice cream, how could I say no to that!

Everyone talked the whole night and was having a good time. We said our good byes which was good because I had to pack a little yet and get to bed to wake up at 4.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/DealerCamp2011

Deer Valley

2011-07-25T22:34:00.001-07:00

Woke up pretty early this morning to eat some breakfast then clean up Lindsey's house before we left.

We were able to get out the door by 8:15 after saying goodbye to Lindsey and thanking her for being an awesome host!

We stopped at La Petite for some coffee on the way out of town and I got a super tasty mocha, my new favorite coffee drink! East on 93 and Utah bound. Jack then gets a call on his phone and it is Tad Elliot. His cars clutch is effed and the only authorized Volkswagen dealer in town can't look at it for two weeks and he needs to be back in Deer Valley to leave for New Zealand on Thursday. So we flipped a bitch and headed back to Rattle Snake to pick him up.

For the next ten hours or so we all talked to Tad and I got to know him a little better. He is actually a cool guy, not that I thought he was a tool or anything, and I heard a lot about the us ski scene and just some cool stories in general.

On the way we stopped for gas and pulled up to a super old school filling station... The cover fell off the pump so we could see the internals going!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/DealerCamp2011#5633526218539693330

We rolled up to Deer Valley resort around 7. We unloaded our stuff and checked into our room. We have a really sick condo! So ballin!! We fancy uh?... Yea.

Next we were going to take the BMC rig into town to wash it so it would look super shinny for the venue tomorrow. On the way out we met up with the BMC guys, marketing dudes, and they offered us to go out to dinner with them. We didn't turn them up on that offer and we hit the Deer Valley city center for some Main Street Pizza and Noodles.

After hanging with the BMC guys for a bit we hit the car wash to make the rig shine. Followed by a trip to the store and back to the condo for the night.

Super stoked to ride some gnarly trail tomorrow. I heard a lot of good stories about this place, trail wise, and I couldn't be more stoked to get out on a trail fox!!!! Yea, I had to change my pants after hearing about that opportunity.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/DealerCamp2011

Missoula XC

2011-07-24T22:10:00.001-07:00

Watched Cadel secure his yellow Jersey yesterday morning and was pumped to race with that in my head!

Jack and I then met Russell for farmers market perusing downtown. We walked around and checked everything out. I got some coffee and there were a ton of pastries that I held off on. There was all kinds of stuff there, even a lady making huge crapes!

Russell and I then spun for a bit on the bike path and then headed home to just hang out for a bit.

Russell left and the day went by so slow. From 12-4:30, when we left for the race, felt like it took forever. I am not a huge fan of starting an xc race at six!

Fueled up about three hours before and Jack and I headed out the door to spin up to the venue. We got there in about forty mins and I had Daimo go over some last minute things on my bike before getting another thirty mins of warm up in.

Spun around with Adam Craig, Mitch Hoke and Jack and did some openers to get ready for the race.

The race course was a ton of fun. You climb for the first half of the race, it was broken up with some flat sections and some small downhills that you could catch your breath on but couldn't completely rest. Once you get to the top you descend down the A line and then hit some real fun single track, one more gravel road climb, maybe 200m, then hit the final descent, which was super fast flowy, lots of switch backs, loose and fast!

When the race started I had a really good start. I was top ten climbing up the hill. I managed to hold some where around that until I got to the top and then from there had fun on the down hill. When I came through for the next lap climb I started to go backwards and this downward spiral went on for the rest of the race:(

I continued to rip the descent but the climb was killing me every lap and I was loosing spots. I ended up finishing 16th which doesn't seem to bad but I felt really crappy so I am chalking this up to a bad race.

After the race the fun started. Russell, Jack and I hung out at the venue for a while enjoying the festivities before I caught a ride with the Subaru Trek guys back to the hotel.

On our way to the down town we hit a taco truck for dinner, which we hadn't had yet. From there we went to try our luck to get into the bar where the party was. It was a no go. They were id'ing pretty strictly and we weren't getting in. After getting rejected we sat outside in the alley waiting for Schultz to come up with an idea for us to get in. Next thing you know, JHK comes out with some ID's for us to use to try and get in the adjacent bar which is connected. We studied the ID's and when we thought we knew them we went for it.

Russell went first and got in no problem, I was next and the guy was suspicious and asked me my name. I told him Randolph, the last name, and his said what is your first name? Then I blanked!!! Eff! It was Phillip!!!

I was super disappointed and didn't know what to do. Then before you know it he went looking for Russell and kicked him out. So there we were, back on the street with no fun to be had....

We hit the Frozen Yogurt place to take our pain away and figure out our next move. I was feeling bad because Phillip's ID got taken. With no other options we went back to Russell's hotel to sit around for a bit before Jack and I decided to go home.

I didn't want to walk and Jack had his bike so Jack pedaled me all the way from downtown to our host house on his handle bars (thanks bud)! We tried to straight line the round about but when we hit the curb we burped a tire and had to stop to pump it up. The whole ride home I was telling everyone on the street to go to the hob knob for breakfast at nine with Russell and I, haha.

We finally made it to the host house, and called it a night. Despite not getting into the bar where the party was we had a blast!

Woke up this morning to Cadel officially winning the tour! Ballin!!! Then bailed on Russell at the hob knob because I woke up too late, sorry bro.

Jack and I were inspired by the crape lady yesterday to make crapes so we did, and they turned out awesome!

We then got ready for our ride. Tj, Jack and I headed out for four hours on some gnarly single track. So fun! I brought some crapes for ride food too.

Came back and made plans with Tad Elliot for Dinner. Erica caught a flight out of Missoula and so did Daimo and Stephen, so it was just TJ, Chloe, Jack, Lindsey and I.

We went to mexican, the same place we got tacos off the truck from last night. So good!! Then Jack, Tad and I got some big dipper ice cream and Tad drove us home in a huge full size ford f-259 v10 lifted truck! DOPE!

The rest of the night consisted of cleaning up so we could be out the door early the next morning. Good bye Missoula. I can honestly say I will miss you and your yummy brown pow!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/MissoulaMt

Earning man points

2011-07-22T21:37:00.001-07:00

Breakfast and the tour this morning was key to getting me pumped to ride the "A" line!

Got kitted up and drove up to the venue with Daimo. I was happy to see him and Stephen because I hadn't seen them in a while, and my bike needed work, hahah jk!

Once at the venue we helped Daimo set up the trailer and then I cruised off to do a lap or two with Russell, Mitch, and JHK. I know the whole time up that mountain I wasn't the only one thinking about hitting the a line.

JHK was the first to hit it followed by Mitch then I sacked up and launched her off! It was so much easier than it looks. The menacing landing looks at you and makes you feel like death will surely follow take off but that is not the case. Russell went and then we cruised down to the bottom on the fun flowy down hill and got ready to hit it pinned up the hill, like a race, so we could hit it kind of gassed and in oxygen debt.

Two laps served enough riding for me. The course is super fun and I can't wait to race on it tomorrow. Russell and I then cruised around Mt. Jumbo for a little while when Jack finally decided to show up after sleeping and skyping all morning with a significant other:)

Daimo rebuilt my fork and hooked me up with some new brake pads, best mechanic of the year award?, and I was good to go. I left the venue with a sparkly clean bike and Daimo reiterated to Jack and I to keep them clean, I am sure we are the only ones he told that too.

Back to the house for a quick snack but we had to save room for Chloe's delicious enchiladas!

The whole time we were eating a stupid dog in the neighborhood was barking. Jack asked Lindsey if we could do anything about it and she handed us squirt guns. The dog must have seen us coming because when we got outside there was no barking to be heard.

After family dinner Erica, Jack and I cruised to the store to get some small essentials for breakfast tomorrow. I am super excited for Great Harvest pancakes!

Jack and I then cruised into town to hang out with Russell. I made plans not to eat any sweets just because I am trying to stay honest but when your around Russell its hard. I think I did well though. Only a mocha followed by a small serving of fro yo... The sign on the door of the fro yo place said it was healthy! We also saw Spencer Paxson there with a friend so we hung out with them while we ate healthy junk food.

We spun around for a bit and made plans to hit the farmers market in the morning for breakfast because we have all day until we have to do anything.

Jack and I headed home and went toes up.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/MissoulaMt

Easy Day

2011-07-21T23:08:00.001-07:00

Woke up to a very leisurely morning. Lots of coffee and relax time until our noon ride plan with Russell.

Jack and I were out the door and met Russell on Higgins Ave. From there we hit the bike path and cruised through town over to Rattlesnake Rec Area to ride the same flowy single track we started on yesterday. We liked it so much we did it twice.

On our way back home Jack impressed Russell and I beyond belief, he jumped off a fifty foot bridge into the river below. This is the same bridge Russell and I jumped off of early in the week but Jack jumped off the car pass and we jumped off the walking path. He also did it without hesitation. Russell and I just said you can jump off the bridge and Jack got up on the hand rail and did it like it was no thing at all. Jack's new name is Honey Badger Hinkens, this video will explain...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg

After Jack jumped we went to the Hob Knob for lunch. I had a tasty salmon burger with a salad and a iced mocha, so good. Jack and I cruised home after lunch but made plans with Russell to get ice cream later in the day.

Got home and did some reading followed by some eating. Then Jack, Erica and I rolled out of the house into downtown to where a concert/ kayaking thing was going on but not before meeting Russell at the big dipper for some bomb ice cream. They were hosting a competition for who could do the best tricks in the wave on the river. There was also a band there and food and beer. There were a ton of people there and it was cool to see everyone hanging out.

After hanging out at the concert for awhile we left to try and hang out at a bar/eatery/club called the Iron Horse. Russell was told the place turns into a bumping spot after nine but they start carding at nine so we went in before nine to order some food and our plan was to just stay past nine and blend in with the crowd. Unfortunately the waitress foiled our plan and we ended up not ordering anything and left the place quite unhappy.

We then stopped at the big dipper for the second round of ice cream for the night and a way to ease the pain of rejection but the line was too long. So we left for the night and headed back to the house for Harry Potter and then bed.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/MissoulaMt

Moist and Tasty Single Track

2011-07-20T22:50:00.001-07:00

Woke up at eight and started the morning off with some coffee followed by some egg burritos to fuel the ride. The original ride departure time was 9am but got pushed back a half hour as any ride departure usually does.

Jack, Chloe, Erica, Tj and myself cruised on the road for about a half hour until we made it to Rattlesnake National Recreation Area and Wilderness where we indulged on our first bit of single track for the day.

The first hour and a half, after the road, was pretty much up hill and it wasn't gradual either, fairly steep. We climbed out of Rattlesnake Gulch up to Stuart Point and from there descended some super fast wide open single track, as always the descent is never even close to as long as the climb but the speeds attained made the burly descent worth every bead of sweat!

We stopped at one point to catch our breath and I swear I heard a bear growl, which made me quite scared to lead for the rest of the trail...

We cruised back into town and hit the Great Harvest Bread Co on the way home for some free bread and I couldn't pass up the pancake mix once I laid my eyes on it.

Got home and immediately made pancakes. Too 6 inchers about a quarter inch thick with peanut butter, flax meal, honey, and greek yogurt on top, woah, good! I couldn't finish them either I had to pawn then off to others in the kitchen and I doubt it was much of a chore fore them to whack some of these cakes down.

Hung out and read a book for a while until I met Russell at the Hob Knob restaurant up the street and had one of the best mochas of my life!

Back home to leave for the wednesday night local series race on the Missoula XC course. Jack pulled us the whole way there, about 30 mins, going H.A.M. and dropped us up the climb to the ski resort.

We registered and I signed up for the two lap race but I should have done the three lap race to escape the traffic.

Either way the course is so rad, def close to the best on the pro xct circuit. It is on a ski Mt so there is about 650ft of climbing per lap, times six laps=ouch, but it is broken up and the descents are fun, slash fast, slash easy to get worked over on so you have to keep on your toes. I didn't do the A line today but it will be done before the race, guarantee it!

Rode back to the hose to start cooking some burritos for family dinner.

After and excellent dinner we popped Harry Potter part 1 in and relaxed a bit until bed.

Chloe's birthday is tomorrow!!! Wish her a happy birthday.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/MissoulaMt

TJ Truckin

2011-07-19T21:57:00.001-07:00

Jack, Russell and I set out on a quick forty min spin around 9am yesterday morning. We hit some fun flowy single track really close to town and then made plans to hit the coffee shop on the way back into town, Penelope's.

Russell had to get back to get his bike in the trailer by 10:30 and before you know it he was running late, single track will do that to ya. So he had to book it back to his crib while Jack and I cruised to the coffee shop and had some joe.

Unfortunately, I ordered a double machiatto and was blown away with how strong it was, I couldn't even drink it straight. I had to get the barista to add more cream so it wouldn't be so concentrated.

Jack and I headed back to the condo and packed up to leave. The whole BMC team, Jack, Erica, Chloe, myself and Tj loaded up the BMC rig, Daimo is staying at Stephen's house for the week and they are both driving down on Friday, and headed out the door by 12:30ish.

We had to fine a different route out of town because the service road the Garmin was telling us to take would not have been passable with only eight inches of clearance from the ground and the trailer tongue.

Once we were on route we were good to go though. We stopped about half way and had a bite to eat along the Salmon river, which we followed basically the whole way to Montana.

Once in Montana, six hours later, we went to Diablo's, which is a burrito shop kind of like chipotle but with a more local low key feel.

Once our appetite was fulfilled we went to our host house. Lindsey, is the owner of the house and she is pretty cool. A cyclist her self and a ver enthusiastic one at that. She seems stoked to have us stay here.

We called it a night shortly after getting settled in.

This morning I realized I slept better on the couch I slept on than the single bed in Idaho. Coffee and breakfast the out the door for a mtb ride with Russell and the whole Subaru Trek team. Sam Schultz, local hero, gave us the VIP tour of some fun trails here in Missoula.

We capped an awesome ride off with a bridge jump! It seems to be the theme lately to jump off of something high into water at the last couple bike races.

Came back to the house and grabbed some lunch followed by a jaunt to a local coffee shop. One of many in this town. This wasn't just a coffee shop though, bakery as well. As soon as you walk in the door they hand you some free fresh baked bread, you get to chose from a couple options. I got a hearty cinnamon swirl chunk and smothering it with butter didn't make it taste any worse! I also got a coffee.

There seems to be a lot going on here and I like the vibe a lot. It is a college town so that may be part of it but it seems to have a pretty huge cycling community and from what I have heard the locals have been stoked about this race for a while.

Back from the coffee shop to hit the grocery for dinner tonight, family dinner to be specific.

After dinner Jack and I went for a spin to get rid of our destended stomachs and clear our heads. We sat down by the river and just hung out until we felt some rain then headed back before we melted and called it a night.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/MissoulaMt

STXC

2011-07-18T08:12:00.001-07:00

Got up with intentions of sitting around all day because the stxc didn't start until 4pm. I woke up around 8:30 and hand some coffee and breakfast. Then I met Russell down at the venue for an early morning spin, we ended up finding some fun little sections of single track, that ended at a coffee shop in town.

It was called Penelope's and it wasn't cheap. I got a cafe latte and a two dollar ginger cookie that was as big as a half dollar.... Russell and I sat down to sip our coffee and watch the finish of the tour.

We departed the coffee shop and stopped at a grocery in town so Russell could get some lunch. We saw Dave McElwine and chatted with him for a bit.

Back to the condo for some lunch then down to the venue to start warming up for this stxc.

I spun with Russell and Kalan down the bike path to get ready for the race then came back and went to the start. There was already a ton of people there so I got in the back and I was hoping for a call up, I wasn't real sure how they were doing call ups but I was crossing my fingers it was off of PRO XCT stxc results.

I was lucky enough to get a pretty good call up, second row, and had a really good start. I was in the top 10 off the start line and wasn't feeling too bad for the first two laps but then... Bom Bom Bom, I exploded. I just started going backwards and I couldn't do anything about it. It wasn't that my legs were tired or anything I guess the altitude caught up with me over the last two days.

I was passed by a lot of people but I was happy I still got to finish without getting pulled, I was the last one to not get pulled, and I finished 25th. Jack grabbed 20th, Russell, 14th and Stephen 6th.

After stxc Russell, Jack, Kalan and I sat in the river, which was so cold!! Followed by a fun ride up Adam's gulch and on the forbidden fruit trail, super fun flowy jump and berm line, with Jack, Russell, Chloe, TJ and myself.

We came back to the condo to shower up then right back out the door for some Mexican food with Greg Carpenter.

The place was called La Prillana, not real sure if that is the name or not, and it was an old train car turned into a restaurant. They had pretty decent food there which was key because we were all pretty throttled from riding today.

After dinner we headed to town square where a bunch of people were, specifically Mitch Hoke and Ben Stalker, wielding 12 racks of PBR, haha. We sat in the town square by a fake fire and talked and had fun for awhile. Then everybody wanted to go to Whiskey Jacks, a local bar, for a party there tonight but no one under 21 couldn't get in. So that was about the end of the night for us.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/IdahoNationals2011

Nationals

2011-07-16T18:48:00.001-07:00

Woke up pretty early because the sun doesn't let me sleep in past 7:30-8:00.

I pressed some coffee and made some toast with some peanut butter and plopped down to watch the tour. Eventually I pressed some more coffee and was getting stoked for Thor! That was impressive and also a good image to have in my head for the nats race.

Jack and I headed down to the venue around 10:15 to get ready. We sat around for a bit and got to spinning.

I cruised down the bike path for about an hour and did the usual openers then by the time i got back it was ready to line up.

As usual there were people waiting there like a half hour before the race but luckily I had a front row call up.

Once we were lined up they told us we had fourteen mins left! That was a little nerve wracking and after they told us about the race a little bit we had to wait for a jet fly over! haha! About thirty seconds after the fly over, there was still a ton of noise from the jet, the whistle blew and it was a little confusing but once one person went we all went!

The climb on the first lap was brutal but I managed to claw my way up it in fifth or so. From then on I tried to recover on the down hill and rally the climb as hard as possible. After lap three I was established in fifth with 4 place in sight every time up the climb. Then on the last lap he flatted and got a wheel change. I was 4 seconds off of him at the beginning of the climb but he pulled away from me, he is Menso from Cal Poly, a roadie, and I couldn't bring him back. I had some slight cramping going on at the beginning of the climb but it subsided about a quarter of the way up and from then I just tried to maintain.

I was stoked with a fifth place finish considering the altitude and the huge climb, both really aren't my style but I did what I could. Jack had one of the best races I have seen him have and he was really stoked about it as well. Stephen did work and took the jersey! Super happy for him and the team. Erica got fifth!

After the race I came back to the condo and sat around. I showered and got ready for the awards ceremony.

We all went into Ketchum's town square where the usac back drop and podium was. It was a quick and painless awards ceremony, which I was thankful for. I was nice to see the podium stacked with three BMC riders! We even got lunch boxes, actually they are called man boxes made by stanley. haha. Yay!

After awards ceremony Stephen, Jack, and I went to a usac fundraiser get together. We got to talk to some cool local people about trails and give them input on our thoughts on the course. Pricilla, the host, had an amazing crib!

After that Jack and I picked Russell up and went into the town square for some ice cream. I only had one scoop!

Then we went to Kaila Harts, rides for stans no tubes, house to hang out with her and cricket, Troy Wells lady friend. We were not welcomed though and we were all scared of the lady that answered the door. We knocked around 10:30 and the lady had no idea who we were or even that we were coming and pretty much told us to leave. Then Kaila came out and told us it was ok to come in, after everyone had already gone to sleep.

It was late by this point and we called it a night but made plans for a ride tomorrow.

Today Russell, Jack, GC, Colton and I made plans to do some cool local trail riding. As usual we had a very hard time finding some trail even though Jack "knew where we were going," haha. Oh well.

On our way to the "trails" we hit a skate park in town and did some seshing. There were some little kids there on skateboards and they were actually quite good. We ended up shredding the bowl!

We ended up riding through town and hit a dirt road and we eventually got sick of it and headed back to the venue. There we picked up the lift to the top, but first we had to convince the guy at the lift, who was taking his job a little too seriously, that we were registered for super d but just forgot our lift passes. Once that worked we cruised to the top.

At the top we asked some local guys what the best way to go down was and they pointed us in the right direction for sure! We got to descend for an hour+ !! It was so fun. Russell double flatted at the top but besides that it was rad.

We made it into town and grabbed a sandwich at a pretty tasty sandwich shop called lefty's. The only downside to eating there was that the lady taking orders was a huge biotch! The food was good though so that made up for her lack of friendliness.

We came back to the venue and caught the mens race. It was cool to watch those dudes rocket up that hill twice as fast as I was going...

Jack and I attempted a river sit but failed miserably because the water was so damn cold!

Back to the condo for food and relax for the short track tomorrow!! Ice cream??

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/IdahoNationals2011

I.. Da... Ho!

2011-07-14T21:01:00.001-07:00

Started my travel day pretty late yesterday, 2 pm. It was sweet. I actually got to ride before a day of flying.

I also had a physical apt w/ a pediatrician who treated me like a twelve year old, I guess that is what I get for not upgrading to the adult doctors office. He was asking me questions like, Your in an apt this year for school, do you know how to cook for yourself? Are you getting enough exercise at college? Do they have alcohol down there? If so do you know how to control it? You know you aren't suppose to drink and drive or get in the car with other people that are, right?

haha, about half way through these questions I got annoyed and started answering him in a smart ass tone.

I flew from Phily-Cleavland-Denver-Boise. Then in Boise Ben, Jack, Erika, Ben Stalker (Cliff wrench) and myself all fit into a Kia Soul with all our luggage. It was not a pleasant two and a half hour drive to our condo! Luckily about forty five mins left in the trip we got stopped at some road work and the next car up was the BMC rig with Daimo, Chloe and Tj, so I got in there.

By the time we got to the condo I was a zombie! So tired! Eventually I got to sleep but not before Jack and I got arranged into our Steirtbartalough digs. We are use to the cramped quarters though, we have learned not to stand up to fast or you could start your day off with a concussion...

The next morning I was awoken around 6:30 am by the stupid sun beaming in through a huge window with no blind.... We fixed that!

Then breakfast and the tour, how bout Contadoper! Getting DROPPED!!

We then headed over to the venue which is like a five min walk away, pretty convenient. We got registered and then I saw Brad bob! Yay! I didn't know he was gonna be here, or at least I wasn't sure.

Jack and I then spun on the bike path for an hour and had some Idaho freds latch onto our wheels for our easy spin... They eventually got dropped haha.

The mountains out here are awesome to look at. I guess I am just gay for mountains. I love them...

Back to the house then out to get groceries at Roxies Market, which turns out is a pretty expensive place. A lot of organic food and what not so I ended up dropping some dough!

Back to the condo then out for a lap of the course, which I was stoked about until I actually rode the course.

It goes up a fire road and descends lose, dusty, off camber single track. Basically it can be described as 5*8 min intervals up a fairly steep climb, we do five laps. So you go up hard as balls then come down for the recovery, do a loop down at the venue area then back up the hill. BUH!

After riding I came back to the house and showered/ hung out. I ate some dinner at some point and then I realized I needed some coke so Jack and I headed into town. There was a fat tire crit going on in town so we spectated that for a little bit.

On our way back to the condo from town we found out that the Kia Soul has some soul on dirt roads... haha, it has a pretty sticky hand brake too.

Back at the condo we had a family movie night, Intolerably Cruel with George Clooney. It was ok. It was a good movie to get ready for bed with.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/IdahoNationals2011

Windham Write Up

2011-07-10T16:39:00.001-07:00

Friday night my parents made it up to Windham and we went out to the same place I went Thursday night. I recommended they split a pizza and they did. They were impressed with how big it was. I got some pasta primavera, which was super tasty.

They dropped me off at the condo and I tried to rest up for the race on Sat. Before they left Daimo asked them to work the top feed zone and they couldn't have been more happy. I was happy they got that opportunity so they had something to do instead of just stand around and watch me come through every 17 mins.

The next morning started early! Six am then breakfast and the beginning of the tour, wish I could have watched the whole thing... but I guess world cup racing is a bit more important. haha

After breakfast I headed down to the tent to get ready to warm up. There I met my parents and they were stoked to ride the lift to the feed zone. I finished warming up and got in my gate for call up.

I got a new rank for this race, 35, in the world cup ranking and got called up 19th. I was super happy about that.

The race went off and there was almost instantly a crash as soon as we hit dirt! Someone to my left drifted left into the barriers and took someone else with them. A tire flew up about a foot away from my handle bar and I didn't look back.

The first lap hurt bad and was probably twentieth coming through. I didn't move up much from there but battled hard with a Canadian the whole race. He was strong up the climb to the top and kept me on the gas hard then I would pass him and gap him at the bottom by about ten to fifteen seconds then he would pass me back half way up the climb. This happened the whole race and I was able to get away from him on the last lap to come through in seventeenth.

Stephen had a flat and that slowed him down and he came in sixteenth then Jack had a super strong race and I saw him on my tail for a bit, he came in twenty first.

After our race I spun for a bit then hung out with Jack and Strussellwald eating some food my dad brought and watching the start of the u23 women and pro women. Erica and Chloe both had strong races.

After watching a little bit of that we got cleaned up and my parents to us to a nearby cliff jumping spot that Russell had looked up online. It was so sick! It took a little bit to find but the ride was good. We immediately knew it was rad when we saw all the kids that were doing it.

We walked down to the place that people were jumping and walked up to the cliff and saw how huge it was!!! By far the biggest jump I ever even thought about jumping off of. Forty feet easy!

Jack jumped first of course then Russell then me. I was pretty scared the first time but it was a rush. Once you were in the air if felt like you were never going to stop falling. I forgot to clench my butt cheeks together and that hurt. haha.

After doing that twice we headed back to the condos and I packed up to spend the night with my parents in Catskill. Everyone else was going to Albany saturday night because their planes left at six am the next morning.

I said good byes and got in the car with my parents. We stopped at a cool little pizza shop in the town of Catskill then headed back to the hotel.

We called it a night and planned on heading out at around nine am this morning for the four and a half hour drive back.

Awesome weekend in my book! Racing was great, having fun with friends and my parents got to come up!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Windham02

Just Waiting....

2011-07-08T07:30:00.001-07:00

Yesterday started out w/ breakfast and watching the tour. Followed by a mtb ride w/ Daimo. He was super tired though. He got up at 3 am to test out some new cat eye lights on his run and he ran for three hours! Crazy! Then he went riding with me.

I did a lap with him and then started going after the dh. I wasn't feeling real comfortable on it until the third time down it.

After my ride I grabbed some lunch and hung out. Russell called me at two and told me he wanted to go cliff jumping around five, of course I was in.

So five came and Sam Schultz and Russell came up to our condo and picked Jack, Alicia, Erika, and myself up to go. It was a twenty min drive or so before we got there, it is the same place I saw that water fall on wednesday. After passing a dozen no parking signs we parked in a hidden drive, or so we thought, and pulled the van in as close to the woods as possible. We then walked down the trail to the cliff jumping spot.

Jack was the first one in, of course, then I followed. We swam over to the cliff and Jack was the first one to jump. It was probably 20 feet or so, it was the perfect height for jumping.

After jumping a couple times I threw a front flip off the rock and when I popped my head out of the water I saw a cop walking down towards us. Whoopsie! We couldn't say we didn't see the signs because this place was littered with no trespassing signs.

He told us we had to leave and told us horror stories of people getting paralyzed to scare us. We played dumb and acted very sorry. He realized we weren't from around the area and let us go scotch free. He was actually very cool, him and Sam got to talking about beer at one point, haha.

Russell asked if there was any place we could go swimming that was legal and he pointed us in the right direction. We left and headed back to the venue with a cool story.

Once we got back Daimo wanted to go out to eat with Julia, Moritz, Patrik, and the Euro team staff, David and the mechanic who I am spacing on his name.

We went to a pizza place and Julia and I split a pizza. It was huge though! I knew there was gonna be left over pizza for breakfast. We had fun talking and laughing and we eventually left when they were closing.

We came back and went to bed.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Windham02

And here are pics of mont sainte anne, taking by Larissa, marketing guru.

https://picasaweb.google.com/BMC.mtb.team/MTBWorldCupMontStAnneCAN

Windham

2011-07-06T18:59:00.001-07:00

Travled all day on Monday. Started early around 8:30, got to the boarder around 12 but not before stopping at a canadian souvenier shop where Daimo got his lady friend something, I got Moose Droppings (almonds covered in chocolate), Jack got some stuff and so did Stephen.

Also, at the boarder we had some crazy old man in a mini van try to battle us for a spot. He wouldn't quit! Daimo even honked the horn at him and lowered the window asking what he thought he was doing but he must have forgot his hearing aid because he didn't hear us. After we won the battle for our spot he challenged the nearest RV and actually won out, which we were dissapointed about. We kind of wanted him to wait there all day.

We got near Windham and stopped at a BBQ place along 23. Daimo and I went for the Cod Fish Fry, they were all out of pulled pork BBq, which doesn't make sense, which was huge! a slab of fish as big as a adult man foot partnered on my plate with french fies and cole slaw. UMM UMM Good!

We hit the grocery after the BBQ and then hit the BMC home fortress for the weekend.

On the way to the hotel from the grocery we passed through the town center and caught the remanence of a 4th of July parade. Then we passed all the Windhamians hanging out in the parking lot of the ski resort to watch the fireworks. Then we watched the fireworks.

Everyone was exhausted afterwards and headed to bed pretty early.

Yesterday was a harder day on the bike for me, just some maintenece stuff. It was also the morning I realized I bought french vanilla flavored coffee instead of regular coffee, eff!

After my ride the rest of the day was pretty chillax. Not much of anything got done by me except putting my feet up and eating occasionally, or frequently.

After everone settled in for dinner we all watched The Dark NIght as a big happy family, except we woke Erika up and she wasn't extremely happy, whooopsie!

Today was another relaxing day of not much happening. I went on a longer ride, part of the way with Erika, and was trying out some different stem positions, tired of having my bike look like a comfort bike.

After my ride I got some eats then dealt with some emails and ebay and financial aid, buh!!! Money Sucks!

Stephen, Daimo, and i went into town to get some small things, I kind of went for lack of better things to do. We found some cool little general store type places that actually had a good selection of food. And of course I didn't go into any store and leave empty handed. I bought some regular coffee and a sweet potato.

When I got back I set up the Wi that was here when we got here and we played some Wi play and mario kart. Then once we got board of that we played rummy and by the time we got board of that it was time for bed or at least time to get ready for bed.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/MontSainteAnne

Going Down!

2011-07-03T20:14:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was race day and my only regret is not taking the start more aggressively. My start position was great and I was able to move up the whole race but if I would have made that initial effort I would have put myself in a better position than I was in. Besides that my race went off without a hitch. There was one minor mishap, I burped my front tire the first lap. I came off of a rock step a little too nose heavy and burped it enough that if I was really rallying, like I wanted to do, I could have folded it over and then bad things would have followed.

I made it to the pit and thanks to Daimo and his mechanics skills w/ a big air I was out of the pit in ten seconds or less.

I was doing a lot of work from the back of the field and because of that I was getting held up in the single track. So note to self... Faster start at Windham! (the start btw was not as fast as a euro start...)

After the race I did some river sitting with Jack then ate lots of food. Hung out and watched the pro men race then came back and watched the 2nd episode of suits! I love that show!

Dinner time came and we hooked up with the euro pro team and some of the BMC higher ups for some dinner. We went to a casual restaurant where I tried poutine for the first time, it was super good, and I got some pizza. It was a good time, talking and what not with the other riders. Roger, the 4x domination station, was there and I got to congratulate him on his second place and ask him about the new 4x to dual slalom rumors for the coming year.

After a late night we headed back to the crib to call it, however, Julia, Daimo and myself had to check out the festivities at the venue. I was actually pretty disappointed. There weren't as many people there as I expected, probably because dh was the next day, and the DJ was lame sauce...

This morning I got up and grabbed some left over pizza for breakfast then hooked up with TJ and Strussell for what was soon to be the best day on the bike I have had in a while. Zach Valdez joined us for a bit of trail riding but then he bailed and we had an awesome idea to ride to the top of the Mt and do the trails down.

Well the first road we hit went straight up the Mt and was way to steep to continue, we were also way to worked to continue, so we asked a staff member of the event and he pointed us in the right direction.

We then found a service road, much more gradual, all the way to the top and took about 30-40 min. Once at the top we descended and from there the whole day changed. We hit a trail called La Vietnam, imagine that!, that had bunch of flowy, xc friendly, jumps, a wall ride and overall cool fast riding. So we got to the bottom and got reminded of our rainbow passes to get us on the lift. So we got those and hit the lift 4 times!

It was so fun. Sam Schultz joined us on three runs, even put his workout on hold because he couldn't resist, and it was honestly the first time I can say I bonked purely descending, which I am proud of!

We totaled 12k+ of descending and by the end of the day Russell and I had 5+ hours. Pretty descent day.

Russell and I made plans to get Poutine so Sam rallied us to the IGA in the Subaru WRX STI, wrapped team car, that thing is fun!

The poutine place was closed so we settle for bison meat and bbq'ed that up.

After dinner we called it a night, have a big day of travel ahead of us down to Windham for round two of North American World Cup Racing.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/MontSainteAnne

Ayyyy, Don't Cha Know

2011-07-01T17:31:00.001-07:00

Flew into Quebec city yesterday around 2:30 and luckily Quebec city airport had wi-fi because I had a three hour wait ahead of me until the others came in.

Previously in the day I took my first train from Philly to Newark. I had no idea either. The itinerary I got looked the same as a flight but when I got to the airport I went to check in at the kiosk and then after multiple attempts to look up my itinerary he noticed that it wasn't showing up because it was a train, not a flight.

So I hopped on a train form Philly airport to 30th street in central Philly, then grabbed the amtrak to newark. I got to go to grand central station, which I have never been to so that was cool.

We left the airport with Daimo and headed to our condo in Beaupre, Quebec, Canada. It is a pretty convenient place because it is literally a five min ride from the venue.

We hit the grocery before heading to the condo, which was clutch because I was starving, I ran out of food when I arrived at the airport.

Once we got home, we saw Subaru Trek right across the street, then Fox Yeti, Scott and Merida all in the same couldesac.

We hooked up with Russell and Jack and I went for a small jog down to the river near by, Russell rode. By the time we got down there it was too dark to go in but we did hear and faintly see some massive water falls!

Came back and called it a night.

The next morning I awoke around 8 and went up stairs to eat some breakfast. Others were already awake so I mooched some coffee off of Daimo but not before spilling the whole first cup on the floor, so I covered the stain with the couch... ahaha.

After breakfast Jack, Russell and I cruised over to the venue to pre ride a lap together. Once we were all situated we hit the trails. They were unbelievably rip-tastic!

I loved the condition and just the course in general. It starts with a gradual then steeper climb and hits the woods and gets more techy. Climbs to the top of the most techy dh on course, which has a right hander off camber, followed by a left hander, which is off camber but on rocks so even more sketch, into a straight chute of rock fest with a sketchy exit... hits flat for a second, techy climb to the top of the next dh, which is flowy as balls! the rest of the course is in the woods with one detour to the venue then back into the woods. Keep in mind that all of that was wet and had mud all over it, therefore, it was awesome to shred. Hadn't really ridden mud yet this year but I am stoked about it.

After feeling good about the course I helped daimo with some wheels and failed to clean my bike correctly so I got him a coffee too, aka brown noser.

Rode back to the condo to meet strussell to spin and finished at the condo.

Made some lunch after cleaning up a bit then grabbed a book and sat out on the deck to read it but I didn't make it long before I passed out for a nappie pie.

Awoke hungry, so I ate more. Then Jack and i walked down to the river to get a better look at the waterfalls and do a river sit.

It was so cold! But worth it. then we looked at the falls, they are huge! The biggest falls I have ever seen. Jack even jumped off the top one into the pool below at worlds last year!

Came back to the condo and ate some dinner. Jack and I conjured up some spinach pasta, boiled chicken legs, on a bed of spinach w/ red sauce. That hit the spot.

Followed dinner with a rub from Julia!!! She came over to Merica, she said she hated it from the first day when she stayed in a Holiday Inn and it smelled moldy and then experienced her first continental breakfast, to help out with the Euro BMC team and swung by to hook a bratha up with a quick rub.

Jack downloaded the second episode of Suits, the USA show that we got into at Wiso. So we ended the night with that and hung out with Strussell.

First North American World Cup tomorrow. Starting 23rd!!! So stoked about that. Huge opportunity for me to get some uci points and have a better start at the next one. Come on legs!!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/MontSainteAnne

Delay Fest....

2011-06-28T18:54:00.001-07:00

Stated the travel day out early, around six, because Stephen's flight was two hours before Erica and mine.

With all that extra time in the airport I bought a coffee, but like an idiot bought it before going through security so had to drink it before going through and I had to hurry because I kind of wanted to get through and sit at the gate.

Eventually we made it through the gate but not before they ripped apart my bag because what else do tsa agents at a small town airport have to do.

Got to the gate and with no one in sight I found a wheel chair to play with. I even coaster wheelied it all the way down the ramp into the terminal!!!

Then the delays started. Me and erica had a hour and a half delay and Erica had to get rerouted because she missed her connection. Then luckily at Cleveland, where our connections were, my next flight was delayed or I would have missed that. Then on the way home we took the wrong way on the turnpike and took a convoluted way home... I was beyond cracked at this point.

I got home and went on a half hour spin and was revived... Another twelve plus hour travel day for two one hour flights.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Wisco2011

Where Is Daimo??!!

2011-06-26T19:06:00.001-07:00

Woke up around 9 this morning and grabbed some breakfast with Derica. After breakfast I cruised for about 30 mins and by this time it was around 10:30.

I popped my head into Stephen's room, he is rooming with Daimo, to see where Daimo was. Stephen said he was out on a run and he left at 9 and said he would be back at 11. First, I would like to note that he ran 25 miles yesterday. So for him to even be even to function today is beyond me, he is preparing for the Leadville 100 mile running race!!!

We went about getting ready to leave and what not and when 11 came around Daimo was now where to be found. No big deal he probably just running a little late. Once 12 rolled around, when Stephen, Jack, and I where getting ready to leave for the venue, we got kind of worried. Enough to ask the front desk to call around to local authorities and see if they heard of any accidents or something.

We left for the race, worried, and when we got to the venue Chloe said she was going to look for him after her race in the car.

Women went at 1:15 and we went at 2. Jack and I spun on the road and Jack decided he wasn't going to race because his hip flexors hurt from yesterday. I wont make fun of him anymore because he got enough of that from everyone in the venue area.

I got all warmed up and what not and I am waiting with everyone else to get called up and someone tapped me on the leg with a water bottle... I looked up and saw Daimo! I asked what happened and he said he got lost. He said he ended up doing like 30 miles and five hours!!!

They called everyone up for stxc and I was hoping it would go better than yesterday went.

When the whistle went I managed to move up pretty well in the first two- three laps and from there I should have sat in for a lap or two but I kept attacking and I eventually faded a bit. I was able to bring it back at the end for a strong finish and I was happy with how I felt. I ended up top twenty somewhere. I am not particularly stoked with that result but the start was rough and my legs felt better than yesterday, which is what is important.

We did some spinning then Jack and I jumped into the wake park pond to cool off.

Then we helped Daimo clean up the trailer and put everything away so we could get out of there.

Made it back to the hotel to get ready to go eat.

We tried two different places, the first being the least promising. The first hint that that place probably wasn't a great choice was the pregnant biker outside smoking!!! WTF???!! I know she was pregnant and not fat because one of the waitresses came out and said have a safe ride and good luck with the baby. Not cool!

Then we went to a steakhouse type place that had minimum of twenty dollar plates and every plate had some kind of burger on it.

Then we drove through Wautoma and came back through Wautoma where we landed on the Lake Shore inn and Family Restaurant. It is actually the place I went last year when I did the race with Eric T and Kenny.

We were happy with our choice and made plans during dinner to stop at Milty Wilty's on the way back to the hotel.

Milty Wilty's is a old school drive up ice cream and burger joint. We all got some ice cream and chilled out for a while. We weren't the only cyclists there either, Brian Matter was there with some friends grabbing some yummy ice cream.

We came back to the hotel and finished up packing for the flight home tomorrow.

I also forgot to mention that the kind of town we are staying in can be best described as... Last night around 9:30-10 we saw a guy pulling out of an intersection onto the main street driving a lawn mower with headlights on, most likely to the local bar in town called the Stumble Inn. Hahah, priceless!

Another way to describe it, which I actually have a picture of... This mini van with a deer rack on the front. At the moment being used as a daughter takes her date out to the Milty Wilty's...

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Wisco2011

ouchyyyy!

2011-06-25T20:32:00.001-07:00

Started the day off with some breakfast with Jack and his friend/ coach Piotr. After that Jack and I and Stephen headed to the venue to go for a quick spin just to wake up the legs before our 3:30 start time.

After our ride we came back to the hotel for some lunch and just hang out until we were ready to head over to the venue. Jack and I watches the new show suits... I like it!

We got to the venue and warmed up for the race. The weather was beautiful and it was a good day to race. I was stoked.

The race started and I went H.A.M., which probably wasn't a good idea because explosion soon followed:( The race started up a climb and dumbed into the single track. I managed to make it top 15 or better into the single track and from there I went backwards.

I still had a blast on course. It really was an awesome race! The downhills were super dope regardless of my implosion...

After the race we came back to the hotel and showered/ cleaned up to go out to dinner. We hit a mexican place and it seems the further you go from mexico the worse the food gets. haha.

Came back to the hotel to get ready to get rocked in the stxc. The course is really hard, basically up then down. Last year it seemed to suit me so I am hoping for the same this year. Just gonna brush todays race off my shoulder... Like Jay Z says...

Sorry for lack of pics....

Pictation station.....

Wisco

2011-06-25T20:01:00.001-07:00

Travel day started early and ended late... I left for the philly airport at 7:15 to catch a 10am flight to Newark and then from there three hours lay over and a straight flight to Madison. However, my flight from Philly to Newark got delayed so long that I wouldn't make that flight so I got rerouted through Cleveland. I made it to Cleveland and then that flight got delayed an hour.

Stephen got to Madison at 2:30 and had to wait for me until 6:30. Erica also had plane delays but she got into Madison before me (she was on the Newark to Madison flight that I was suppose to be on but she flew, initially, from Newark so didn't have to make the Philly-Newark leg.

Needless to say I got to do a lot of ready of my book, Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Traubes. I am really into it even though it is pretty in depth with scientific studies and science jargon.

Made it to the hotel fine and met Daimo there who had just gotten there before us after driving all night from Colorado. Sleeping was not a problem but I was bummed I didn't get to ride at all.

Today we did the breakfast thing and headed to the venue around 10:30. We had to buy sand before going to the venue for these new weights Daimo got to hold the tents down. You would think a hickville like wautoma, wi would have sand everywhere but it was harder to find then you would think. Though no sand was in sight we did find a lifetime supply of miracle whip...

We got to the venue, after stopping at a coffee shop I remembered from last year called Damn Good Coffee because it is on a damn! So we stopped in and I ordered a latte cappuccino like an idiot. The price board said latte/cappuccino so when I went to order, my brain forgot to separate... I went with a latte but wanted a cappuccino but I felt like I made a big enough idiot of myself I better not ask what the differences were.

and helped Daimo set up and chilled for a bit because we couldn't ride or reg until 2.

Once on course I was stoked about it. It was pretty much the same as last year with one or two modifications, which actually made the course longer. That is pretty surprising considering most UCI races keep the race close to the venue. I would rather it be a longer loop and take me on cooler more gnar single track.

After a pre ride we headed back to the hotel and hung out for a bit until we all met up to go out to eat at an Italian restaurant in town.

Jack finally met us there and now BMC was together as a team.

We slayed some food, which consisted of a huge piece of bread the size of a small cereal box on each persons plate, yay carbs in merica!

Back to the hotel for some fireworks out of our room window from Jack who decided to buy some at a truck stop on the way here.... haha.

Good day, got to ride awesome trails, and I can't wait to race them tomorrow.

Last Batch

2011-06-21T12:07:00.001-07:00

This is the last batch of granola for awhile because I ran out of ingredients. With that said what a batch it is!!!

I went with even more honey this time and no water to get a super hard crunchy texture and it worked. Rolled oats, flax, sunflower, pumpkin seeds, sliced almonds, raisins, cranberries, cocoa powder, rieces pieces chips, and whit chocolate chips all mixed together with honey dumped on it. Pop it in the oven at 325 for 40 mins, pull out and allow to cool (that's what she said, hahah).

I got a bunch of bark out of this batch and all the crumbs were hard like cereal so I got about 3/4 bark and 1/4 cereal. Yummmm!

Neshaminy Weekend

2011-06-19T13:41:00.001-07:00

Woke up around 8 to get a small bite to eat then out the door with the rents by 9:30. Rallied the turnpike down to exit 351 and were basically there.

We rolled into the parking lot and I got my bike out and put it together because I had to take it apart to fit it in my moms trunk. Then I went up to reg and to my surprise Erica was there! Pretty cool, didn't plan that.

I got dressed and headed out to warm up then came back and did a lap on the course with Derika.

I like the Neshaminy course. It is really flowy, twisty turny, gotta know how to handle a bike to go fast there, especially after a damp night. It was slippy and I was having a hard time navigating some of the rooty turns.

Race time came and I was pumped to be doing a local race. I lead the race out off the line, first and last time that will happen this year, and into the woods.

I was feeling good, getting trailed by Aaron Snider, then around a corner had my crank arm down and clipped a log. I heard a load crack sound and knew it wasn't good. I picked up my bike real quick saw the crack all the way around the seat tube and hopped back on. There was money on the line and me being broke and unemployed needed it.

I ended up finishing the race, to my surprise, regardless of the sounds that seat tube was making. I got the win, which I was stoked about and I had a ton of fun on course.

Derika's isn't sure how to tighten bolts and the bolts of her cleat came loose off the start so she had to deal with that early on. She did manage fourth, which was impressive after her long time out fixing her shoe.

After the race I headed home and ten min after I walked in the door Manny called and asked if I wanted to go wake boarding at blue marsh. I was down! So I grabbed some food and headed for the water.

Manny's friend, Jerry, has a boat and is a pretty advanced wakeboarder, he was pulling front flips, I would call that advanced. He was stoked to get me to try it and I was excited because I have never done it.

My first attempt to get up failed miserably but the second try I got up and from there my early skateboard/snowboard skills to over. I got board of just riding along so I tried to move in and out of the wake. I fell once doing that but once I got the hang of it I wanted to catch air!

I had a few attempts that put me maybe a foot off the wake, which I was happy with. I did eat it once and while doing so, ate my own words... "it is just water, it wont hurt." Turns out that water felt like the ground when my head slammed through it.

I made it home to catch some shut eye only to wake up and be on the bike by 7 am to ride to manny's to ride with manny to the race ave crit.

I am glad I did because I had fun watching all my old teammates race and seeing the local scene still hoping!

Shirks put a good day in today, ended up 1, 6, and 7. Calvin, Rodney, and John. Manny was doing work all race and Noah was up there with him.

After the race Manny, Noah, and I rode for a little longer until I started bonking then headed home.

Still a solid weekend in my book!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/NeshaminyWeekend

Mtbing

2011-06-16T07:08:00.001-07:00

Went out to march creek last night with manny and noah.

Started out the ride wtih a flat from noah after showing us how elegantly sketchy he is. haha...

We rode everything there in about an hour in a half and so we decided to go to Andy Harrold's new bike shop http://local.yahoo.com/info-79349557-chester-county-bicycles-downingtown;_ylt=AvcEpGKKGp7A2eXT1TTRBAiKNcIF;_ylv=3?viewtype=map

It is a really cool place. It is inside of a renovated barn and has a really cool feel to it. It is very clean and they can offer some good services, fits, bikes, mechanic stuff, coffee, bonk breakers, and tons of other bike shop stuff.

After hangning out there for a while Scott showed us a new way to get home. We cruised over to a road close to the trails and and had to duck into some peoples driveway to find the trail head. We couldn't find it the first couple times, so while riding around in someones yard, against the tree line, some guy came out and yelled at us. Typical douche bag! "Get off my property!" haha, I told him we were working on it.

We found the trail head and headed back to the parking lot to peace out.

Granola Round Two!

2011-06-13T17:42:00.001-07:00

Great success today in the baking world at my house. My dad and I tried out second attempt at granola bars. Not that the first batch wasn't good, we were just going for the granola bar texture.

We did everything the same, same ingredients, but added twice the amount of honey. Popped it in the oven and voilà!

The cooled and I was able to cut them into bars! So excite!

Books!

2011-06-12T14:24:00.001-07:00

With my recently acquired down time I have gotten into reading, which is quite weird because I hated reading as a kid.

I just bought "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollen and "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes.

http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto-Michael/dp/B004DPLHS2/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307913603&sr=1-9

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Science/dp/1400033462/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307913646&sr=1-1

I have read Michael Pollen's "Omnivore's Dilemma" which interested me beyond belief so I figured this book would be good too.

I have aspirations of becoming a nutritionist and it is reassuring to find myself interested in scientific literature about the subject.

Also, check out Joe Welsh's blog about his work in Ghana. Makes you thankful for what we have, which is hard to do at times because most things are taken for granted.

http://jbwelsh.blogspot.com/

Lately

2011-06-10T10:41:00.001-07:00

After Europe I took about a week completely off. It was extremely necessary, my mental psychyi is thanking me.

With that said the day I start riding again it is super humid and hot as sac! Not the best conditions to train in so I have had to modify my sleeping schedule... I wake up early to beat the heat now, I hope it gets cooler.

I have a lot of time on my hands because riding only take about three hours out of the day so I ventured into making granola!

It is actually pretty easy and it tastes awesome, not to expensive either.

Epic Fail

2011-05-27T13:54:00.001-07:00

I totally spaced on pics again today so I hope a boring word blog update will suffice.

I woke up at 6:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. I decided to try my new cocoa powder out and make a caffe mocha. It was ok but I added way too much milk so it was pretty dilute and not as strong as I would have liked.

After breakfast we packed for the journey up to Offenburg to pre ride the course. We loaded up the vans and headed out soon after 9:30am.

We got there and got on the bike pretty quick. Wayne was getting swarmed by juniors and others trying to get their bikes up and ready. Everyone has a fascination with checking tire pressure with a gauge, I prefer to just push on it, which slows the process of getting on the bikes.

Adam shoferred the juniors around the course and helped them with some of the technical drops that they probably haven't seen racing in the states.

I did my own thing, did two laps on course and spun on the road for some openers afterwards. Legs felt good today so hopefully that means I am going H.A.M. tomorrow!

After everyone got back to the van we cruised back to the house and made it back around 3. Dinner wasn't for four hours so I snacked a lot until my rub and took care of some bike parts that I could pack away for the trip home.

Dinner arrived and was highly anticipated. Tortillini with meat and red sauce, then salad with carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

Dinner was followed by hanging out and a funny phone conversation through Skype with my dad because the internet kept going out. It was very frustrating but funny because he couldn't hear me and I was repeating things three thousand times.

Stephen and I talked with Wayne in our room for a bit, told some funny stories and did a lot of laughing.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011

Rest Day

2011-05-26T13:31:00.001-07:00

Woke up and chilled most of the morning. In fact, I had coffee on the deck, while reading some news and watching the world.

Jack, Chloe, Wyane, Tom and Mike bolts, and I headed out to the Biosk in Freiburg for some muslichnitte and coffee but along the way stopped at a cool dj park that we have never seen before.

The Biosk was the usual awesome fun time just hanging out and Jack and I followed it up with trying to catch fish...

We built a rock wall thing in the river to funnel the fish towards the bank as someone else walked up the river scaring the fish into our funnel. Once in the funnel, at the end of it, we had a towel that once the fish swam past we would pull up and trap them and catch them... In theory. The fish decided to take a nap after we were done building our wall and there were no fish to be caught.

After being defeated, for now, we headed back to the house to make lunch and then I dozed off pretty hard! I woke up to a small snack and the Giro, which I thought Pinotti was in the lead group the whole race but apparently wasn't.

Jack and I cruised to the grocery just before dinner and I picked up some chocolate milk, chocolate covered nussballs, hazelnut is nuss, and some cocoa powder for some cafe mochas in the morning.

Dinner was at seven and the cater came just on time. Everyone ate together and the meal was very satisfactory, egg noodles, pork, salad, and veggies.

After dinner I made some lunch for tomorrow and did a lot of interweb surfing, it was actually working really well tonight!

Pre riding Offenberg xc course tomorrow as the full u.s. national team.

No pics today, epic fail, but tomorrow for sure!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011

Trail Exploring

2011-05-25T13:28:00.001-07:00

Jack and I headed out around 11 and planned on doing some new and gnarly single track.

We started climbing up out of Oberried and took dirt roads all the way up to the rappeneck hutte (at the tops of the climbs there are huttes for nordic skiers and hikers to stop at and grab some food or drink).

From there we descended into Steinwassen then up to Ahornhof, then over to Stubenwassen, to the Feldber (the very top), and then descended into Oberried.

Phewww! It was a three hour ride with 5k in climbing and we didn't find the single track we were looking for but it was still a blast.

We finished the ride with a river sit and by the time we were done D Wade (Wyane) showed up with the Juniors and Erica!

Jack then fried us up an awesome protein packed lunch, steak, eggs, potatoes, carrots, and red peppers w/ curry sauce. And we ate that while watching the last 50k of the Giro.

After the Giro I got ready for a rub and sipped some coffee.

Dinner shortly followed the massage and we met the juniors that came in, poor Wyane... He had to play mechanic w/ too many juniors this afternoon.

It was the first night of catered dinner, which is cool and more stress free but there is something about making dinner as a group and preparing everything then eating it at as a group that makes it better.

After dinner we hung out and watched mtb videos on vitalmtb.com and ended the night w/ a small bowl of musuli.

Tomorrows ride will consist of a spin to the biosk and lots of recovering!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011

Double Day

2011-05-25T07:12:00.001-07:00

Woke up in the morning and did the coffee, news, eat thing then got ready to go on a ride w/ sir Jack Hinkens.

We cruised over to the rosskapf and did some intervals up the rossy then on the last one got to rip it to shreds!

With a good ride under our belts before 12pm the rest of the day was open so we relaxed for a few hours until later in the afternoon when we made plans to ride with Tom Bolts, a Oberried local and trail knower.

He took us, Jack, Adam C, and I, up a climb for about 1:15 then got to do some cool descending.

Our dinner was complete when Jack the grill master grilled up some home grown beef from the farm here along with some potatoes, sausages, and salad. Everyone pitched in so it was a group effort.

After dinner we all sat around and finished watching some tennis on tv.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011

Sitting in the Airport

2011-05-24T01:10:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the elite race and an epic ride w/ Jack.

We left the house at around ten, in the rain,and headed to the venue. We tried to take some back single track way to get there but the single track was hard to negotiate and didn't seem like shredable brown pow. This is Jack demonstrating the awesome rain cover that comes with our osprey packs...

We eventually made it to the venue on some fire roads and then on our way to the USA tent/ pit we found a cool skills park with a bunch of fun skinnys that me and Jack rode for a good thirty min or more, while watching the elite womans race eating sandwiches that Jack made.

We headed to the tent to grab something and then congradulated the woman because their race was over.

We then headed back to the house but first did some more exploring for trail. We had a plan to get back to the house then get a ride back to the venue to watch the pro mens race in person but single track took first priority.

We ended up riding for another two hours and found some really cool single track after almost bailing on the idea all together.

On the way out of the venue we saw Wayne and Mitchell, the other mechaninc who helped out and was extremely experienced, on their way back to the house to get the van loaded so they could head to the ferry for the trip from the UK to Belgium. They were running behind schedule so we had to bolt back to the house to get them our bikes and so some last min packing.

We met them there and grabbed some lunch and by this time realized we didn't have a ride back up to the venue to watch the race so first, we contemplated hitch hicking very seriously, then we just decided to free caster it. We also caught the end of the Giro.

After the Giro everyone came back and we made plans to head down to Scarbourgh for dinner.

Down there we asked some locals where an Indian restaurant was and they all pointed us in one place. Fun fact, England's national food use to be fish and chips but is now Curry...

The Indian place we picked was bomb and everyone was satisfied. So we headed home and started cleaning up a bit so we wouldn't have to do too much cleaning at 5:30 the next morning.

Right before bed we caught the final stage of the tour of cali and a bowl of musli.

Woke up at 5:30 to Jack's biological clock and ate some breakfast, did some last min cleaning, and left the house by 6 for the two hour drive to Manchester Airport.

I fell asleep pretty quickly and Chloe and Julia did an awesome job of getting us to the airport in one peice and on time. We did forget to get petrol before going up to the 5th floor of rental car return so had to go back into the city for that.

We made it into the airport and I bought some flap jacks, one for Chloe, Julia, and I and we proceeded to the gate.

We found Jack scoping out a good coffee shop and met him just in time for him to settle on one. Chloe, him, and I sat down and had a cup of Joe, I had a double shot caffe mocha that I really liked, and a flap jack (they are basically granola bars that are soft and really tasty),

Before we got on the plane Chloe had a roller bag and a backpack and easy jet, our airline, was going to make her check one of them because they have a one carry on only rule. So Jack, being the nice guy that he is, decided to put it under his jacket... It worked! It was super funny too!

We got on our plan and the flight went without a hitch. Found the rental car in zurich, and began the drive back. Everything was going smooth. We stopped at a rest area and I bought 500g of strawberries from a man selling them outside there. They were by far the tastiest strawberries I have ever tasted!

After the rest stop we got back on the highway and Julia missed the exit for Frieburgh after being reminded of in less then half a k earlier.

We eventually made it to Kirchzarten and stopped at the market for some dinner and breakfast food. We decided on Salmon stakes with rice and salad.

Dinner turned out extremely well and by the end of the night Jack and I were even too tired for an ice cream shop run. Tomorrow for sure!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011

Dolby Race

2011-05-21T15:56:00.001-07:00

Yesterday consisted of riding the course and resting up for today. Julia, Jack and I drove into Scarbourgh, next to the beach, and did some shopping at a bigger food store.

We came back and cooked a bomb dinner. Then went to bed.

Today started when the birds that landed on my roof woke me, up around 8:30. I ate some breakfast and got ready to go to the venue.

Julia drove Jack, Stephen and I to the venue and we got settled and started warming up.

I was pretty nervous considering this was the first U23 world cup for me and only the second of the year!

Once the race started I figured out, pretty quickly, my legs weren't happy with the start pace and I didn't get a chance to advance my start position even though the start loop was pretty wide open.

I came through the end of the first lap in the fifties/ sixties and from there I was able to feel more comfortable and put some effort out. I was passing people all race and not getting passed myself which was good but when I ended up at 31st I wasn't stoked.

I was six out of contention for UCI points and they were all within a min of me. All I had to do was have a good start.

After the race Jack, Stephen and I rode back to the house and did some hardcore recovery eating. Then shopping and made some dinner.

I got to call my mom on skype, which was cool and surprisingly cheap!

Finished the night by watching Horner and Leiphiemer smash the peleton and Shleck getting popped!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

Fish and Chips

2011-05-20T06:33:00.001-07:00

Woke up kind of early just because of the typical farm life. I made some coffee and read about the endeavors mission! Pretty stoked to see what comes of it. Then we had to pack and clean our apt up before the 9:30 am leave time. We are moving out of the apt number we are in now to another one when we get back so we had to get this one in tip top shape.

We left for the airport with Strussell, Stephen, Jack, Julia, Marc and myself. The airport was easy and we got there really early and of course there was no free wifi. To make up for lack of internet they had free chocolate samples at Duty Free! haha

We flew easy jet from Zurich to Manchester. Got a rental car in Manchester and that is where the mayhem began...

First the GPS was in french, then the lady speaking only spoke french, and to top it all off we were driving on the opposite side of the car and the opposite side of the road. Of course driving on the highway was easy but round a-bouts were super tricky and found that out by almost causing two accidents!

After being in the car longer than expected we final arrived at the cottage we are staying in for the weekend. Chole Forsman, Spencer Paxson, Wayne and Michael were already here and did some food shopping. Spencer was even starting dinner!

The place we are staying is pretty bomb.com! It is really old timey and has this funky tree out front...

Stephen and I kitted up and went for a quick spin that actually turned into a longer spin after getting lost.

We got back just in time for dinner though and Spencer and Wayne did a phenomenal job!

Dinner was followed by snacking, a quick rub, then bed.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

Amazingleaah Beautiful

2011-05-18T14:35:00.001-07:00

Started the day off with coffee and the latest news then to the wafflehaus. Stussell, Jack and I hit the wafflehaus for breakfast and tried something a little more like dessert than breakfast.

From the wafflehaus back to the house with some quiche I bought. Then sat around, ate my quiche while watching the Giro, and awaited leave time for our ride to the crit.

I did give Jack and Russell some Euro hair cuts before the ride. That way if we crushed it they could hit the podium in style.

The ride to the crit was beautiful! We went over three passes but with only a 23 in the back you had to work for the views you seen! Especially with jack pinning it at threshold right out the door. I have never gone so hard after a 2 min warm up after getting on the bike.

We eventually made it to Bad Sackingen with time to spare so we went to a bakery in town. Jack had been there last week and the owner was sooo friendly. I bought a two euro piece of cake, that 23 cog made me earn it, and Jack and Russell bought some day old pastries. They only gave her about 1 euro and then she started handing them out for free. She gave us so many pastries and we ate them all, it would have been rude if we didn't!

Then spun to the race, which wasn't that special because we were all pretty tired from the ride over. I did some efforts but I was more excited for Kabob (greek restaurant) afterwards.

The race finished up and we headed into town to grab a bit to eat before the car ride home. Same Kabob as last week, there are a ton of kabobs around!

The headed home to get ready to leave for the U.K. tomorrow!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

Double Day

2011-05-17T13:57:00.001-07:00

Woke up pretty early today to be out on the bike by 8:30. I had to get out and do a workout before Julia came to give massages.

I got two hours in and a gnarly single track descent all before 11am! I was stoked about that. Then when I got back I had time to grab a bite to eat before the massage.

I grabbed another small bite to eat after the massage and headed back out for an hour to do some steady cruising. I then came back to meet Russell to go spin with him for an hour on his easy day spin.

We met Sonke at his house and rode into Frieburgh (Sonke lives in Frieburgh, literally in the middle of the city) to a shop where Russell and I both bought espresso makers! haha.

Sonke then insisted on showing us a cool coffee shop and bought us a cappuccino. Then he insisted on showing us the most tastiest cone of ice cream I have ever eaten. A flavor called nerro, which is a rich dark chocolate type flavor. My new favorite flavor of ice cream! Ben and Jerry's needs to make pints of it!

Then we parted with Sonke. I started bonking so we hit the Biosk for a delicious granola bar and some friendly chatter with the Biosk owner, Russell and Jack got their ideas of opening a coffee shop from the Frieburgh Biosk, which I learned today stands for Bio (meaning organic) kiosk.

We spun back home and tried our new espresso makers out. Then made dinner. After dinner the night was pretty much over. We made an attempt to stay up and see the tour of cali but when 11 rolled around our eye lids started getting heavy.

Tomorrow is going to be a brunch run to the waffle shop followed by lounging then riding to the crit and racing the crit. Going to be another day of H.A.M. on the bike.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

BMC Visit

2011-05-16T14:11:00.001-07:00

Started the day off with barrister Jack whipping up some froth for his coffee. It looked pretty good. I tried some also and it even tasted good. Him and Russell are talking about opening up a coffee shop. I hope he does.

After breakfast Jack and I cruised for an hour on some dirt roads and a little bit of single track.

Then came back to the house for some quick lunch then Jack, Stephen, and I cruised up to BMC head quarters in Grenchen, Switzerland. We rolled up to the main office building.

We met Adrian and he took us on a tour of the office building. He introduced us to everyone and told us what they did. We ran into Mike the CEO and Frank Shriner a marketing guy for the company. The whole experience was awesome, meeting everyone and seeing the place where the corporate end of BMC gets taken care of, but the best part was Mike took us through the factory where the impecs are made! That was soooo sick. We saw the stargate, machine that weaves the carbon tubes, and some other robots and cool stuff. We saw Cadel Evean's bike for the tour and some other prototype impec models. It was so ballin.

After the tour we went over to the cafeteria for a little bit and we all tried out the coffee machine they have, Jack tried it out a couple times.

Then we took some pictures and talked some more with Frank and said good bye to Adrian and Mike.

Drove back to Kirchzarten and made dinner. After dinner I got extremely sick of my hair so I cut it off! I got some help from Russell with the back though.

Then bed. Gotta rest up for Massages tomorrow :)

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011

Bundesliga Saalhausen: xc

2011-05-15T14:11:00.001-07:00

Woke up to the bombest breakfast! And they even started it earlier than normal for us! It reminded me a lot of last year in Champery, which was my most favorite and memorable breakfast experiences ever!

Breakfast followed by the quick car ride to course. Then warming up.

It was cold and damp, drizzling at times but it warmed up and got sunny throughout the day. The course benefited from the rain for sure. It was dusty on Sat and the rain helped pack it in a bit.

We got our call up and I was extremely happy with it! I got called 22nd, Jack 20th, Strussel 11, and Stephen 13th out of 77 finishers.

At a min to go I looked back and saw the wave of racers and thanked sweet baby jesus I wasn't back there!

The race started and went out normaly fast. The first climb separated some groups. Mostly the lead group then two bigger chasing groups. Someone unclipped in front of me at a balled up section and when they swung their foot over their bike they kicked my srm unit off the mount and I had to pick it up and put it in my pocket. Turns out they broke the mount apparatus :(

By the end of the second lap a big group of ten plus was established with myself and Jack. Jack went down on the first lap near the end of the lap on some slippy roots and I was right behind him. I almost ran him over but he fought back hard and came back to the group.

Mid race until two to go stayed pretty much the same. A few people would drop off each lap and I was coming through in a group of 6 fighting for 11th.

On the last lap, I knew I was feeling good based on how everyone handled the last lap so after the feed at the base of the first climb I dropped the hammer and went for it. I had three climbs to get up in the first half of the course before the rest of the course was pretty much flat and downhill. They were pretty steep but I felt good and put some time into the group. Jack was also in the group and did some damage himeself!

I ended up missing 10th by a second because I washed my front wheel out on the last descent, like a tool, and didn't work hard enough to get around him by the finish.

Jack came in 18th, Stephen was 9, and Russell had some mechanicals but felt good!

After the race Jack and I showered in the girls bathroom and then saddled up for the 5.5 hour drive back. It felt so much longer driving back then going there.

We made it back to Kirchzarten and immediately made dinner. Followed by a whole pack of gummy bears for dessert. A good night cap if you ask me!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

Bundesliga Saalhausen

2011-05-15T13:51:00.001-07:00

Woke up pretty early, about when the cows did. And we were out of Stiertbartalhof (the name of the house) by 7:30.

On the road for five hours. We saw some really cool country side and some quaint villages on our way to Salhausen for the short race.

We got to the race and found a parking spot then started unloading. We had plenty of time before the race to get ready so there was no rush. Russell, Jack, and I kitted up and did two laps of the xc, or at least what we thought was the xc course. It was marked weird because of the marathon so we were pretty confused.

We all congregated back to the van to get ready before the race.

The short race goes like this. They split our field up into two groups, probably 25 each, and each group does a 6 lap race on a stxc course. the top 15 move on to the final heat which is also 6 laps.

Russell and I raced together because we had odd numbers, then Stephen and Jack had even numbers.

The race was a clusterF*&k like a stxc normally is and it was pinned the whole time because it was only 10 min race.

It was extremely hard to move up on the straight because everyone was doing mach 10 and moving up meant you had to go mach 15!

I advanced and Russell just missed the cut. Then Stephen advanced and Jack missed it.

The final was ten times faster than the previous heats! The cool thing about the races though was that they went through a pump track/ bmx type thing with some jumps and huge berms!

Stephen ended up 15th or so and I was about 6-7 back... and my legs were pretty blown after that effort!

We all congregated back at the van then went out on another easy lap except doing an easy lap isn't that easy because there are two pitches on course that reef the crap out of you. The one is definitely over twenty, close to twenty five, smooth and straight up and the other one was near twenty with a ton of roots and a big pitch at the top. Should be just dandy during the race.

After the corse pre ride we cruised to the hotel for showers then to a cool german italian restaurant near the hotel for some delicious pasta! And the German lady there was super friendly, which is always nice when dealing with a language barrier, plus we had Julia to help, which was huge, especially in reading the menu!

After dinner we came back to the hotel for some light rubs and then bed.

Race day tomorrow!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

Rest Day for Champs

2011-05-13T14:19:00.001-07:00

Woke up at eight thirty and made coffee. Caught up on some news and science misc stuff and ate a small bowl of musuli to hold myself over for the days eating festivities.

We hung out until we finally decided to start our day by getting kitted up then heading to Kirchzarten to get some cash, stop by the electronic store for some dvd's, then to the Wafflehaus in Oberried!

We got there and we were stoked they were opened! We went inside and met the owner/ cook and she greeted us very excitedly and spoke really good english.

We quickly sat down with menus that boggled our minds! Too many choices of amazing waffles. I settled on nutella and strawberry and a cappucino. Jack and Russell ordered and we waited with anticipation.

The plates came out and they looked like 20 dollar waffles! So good and tasty! They were so rich, I can't get over it. We are going back, count on it!

After our awesome experience at the wafflehaus we headed to Frieburgh to eat at the Biosk.

We were there last year and surprisingly the Biosk guy remembered us! He had a Mellow Johnny's shirt on so I asked about it and he told us he remembered us from last year.

He spoke really good english so we ordered some more yumm.

I got a chocolate croissant, Russell got a late machioto and a chocolate muffin, and Jack got a cappuccino.

We sat down and enjoyed our treats then on our way out Russell and I split a homemade granola bar.

With stomachs full we went back to the crib and bought a nusszopf (loaf of bread full of hazzlenut spread and other nuts). Smashed that one down then bought another one!

That lasted us until dinner and for dinner we had some wild rice, chicken, salad, lentiles, lots of veggies, and some boiled potatoes. Very good spread that everyone pitched in for.

After dinner we did some more sporatic eating and lots of computing. Russell and I are trying to boot camp our macs with windows 7 professional but it is turning out to be a more daunting task than expected.

We made some car food for the long drive to Salhausen (spelling?), 4 hours, and then hit the hay. 7am leaving time!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

New MTB Trails!

2011-05-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

Today

Woke up to down pour and cows moo, as usual.

Made some breakfast and coffee. Did some emailing and then went for some milk (milch in German). There is a huge vat in the barn here and it is straight form the tit! So good and fatty!

Sonke was taking Russell, Jack, and I on a ride. New trails were on tap. Russell had some tempo to do and I joined him for a little but quickly realized my legs were tired from yesterday.

We climbed up to St. Peter and from there up to Kandelhof. Once up at Kandelhof we had about 1.5 of climbing under our belt and the only thing I could think of was how long and rad the dh was gonna be!

The trail was super techy and mostly unridable at the top because the rocks were super slick from the rain. Further down it got fast and flowy, still a little sketch because of the wet roots but that makes it even funner!

I could feel the arm pump by the bottom and I was super stoked with the dh. Very fun. We descended into a very cool town which I don't remember the name of. Then climbed up the Rossy (Roskaph) a little and descended it.

We parted with Sonke who was late for a meeting, ahah, mtbing will do that to ya.

We were extremely blown by this point. For the last half an hour we were pretty blown. So we asked Sonke for directions to the nearest bakery and booked it straight there.

I ordered a tasty sugary pastry and a coke with sugar (zugar) no HFCS!

Back to the house for some more food and then dinner was made.

Then to the ice cream shop for more nourishment and recovery yumms.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

Super Hard day!

2011-05-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday

Woke up for an early morning interval session. A little bit of threshold was on tap and the awesome thing, the only motivator, was the fact that I got to shred some dh after each interval.

I set it up on a hill so I would climb 20 min or so then descend single track to the bottom. It was perfect!

Then after the last interval I finished at the top and climbed up more to the top of the descent Marc, Stephen, Jack and I did... (This pic)

And on the way down I found Russell. I climbed back up the top with him and we descended down and did some spinning on the bike path and ended at the crib for a time of about three hours. Got back up to the room and ate and got ready to leave for the crit in Bad Sackeogen. Jack and Wayne left about an hour before we left to ride to the crit.

Gully, Russell, Stephen and I loaded road bikes in the car and hit the road. It took us 1.5 hours to drive there and we didn't see Jack or Wayne along the way so we figured they were there.

We got the race course, which was a flat four corner crit that you could pedal through every corner. Super safe! (I love explaining crit courses, so easy compared to mtb course)

We found Jack and Wayne while we were getting the bikes set up. They told us it was a 50k race and each lap was 1k. So a little over an hour. And it was a points race. So every lap was worth 2 points (1st got 2 and 2nd got 1) then every five laps was worth 4 points (1st got 4, 2nd -3, 3rd-2, 4th- 1).

I wasn't to stoked about the race because of the days earlier workout but I went for it. From the line I quickly moved up and was launching off the front like crazy until Russell told me to sit and and try and get a break going. So I went to the back for a couple laps and came back up just in time to latch onto Stephen's wheel as he threw a flyer and another bridged up and then two more and a group of 5 stuck!

We got away for about 20-25 laps until Russell pulled us back. Haha, which was totally cool because it was just a work out thing. Once he pulled us back it was pretty hard in the group.

Then the last two laps Stephen and I were at the front and heard a crash in a corner so he jumped on the gas and I followed so we wouldn't be part of some wreck. He pulled all the way to the finish straight on the next lap and I came around and went for the winning sprint. I ended up fifth and as it turned out 2nd overall, which I was pretty surprised about because I didn't think I was going for that many sprints before. Got twenty euro! Getting Paper!

Stopped for some grub in town, where Jack didn't bring any clothes so he was stuck in his chamois, and then headed back to house. We got back and hit the sack. We were all super tired!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

Wafflehaus

2011-05-10T13:33:00.001-07:00

I woke up around 9am or so and ate breakfast/ did laundry until about 11:30. Then Russell, Jack, and I headed off on a cool mtb, easy/steady, exploration ride. Not really exploration because we have ridden it before but never without a tour guide, so we were winging it to some extent.

On the way there Jack and Russell thought it would be cool to have Jack hide in a cave then Russell go and and try and get me to come in then Jack scare the hell out of me... It worked really well. They put a lot of time and thought into it so it should have worked!

We climbed a thirty min climb, and found a cool hunting stand, to the top of the mt were we were on Friday as a group (Jack, Stephen, Marc, and I). Then descended a parrellel but different single track.

It started with a mob turkey field, doing at least thirty, then dropped into some single track. Jack took a tumbler on one section and dented his helmet pretty good! It was actually quite scary but he is alright.

We descended into Kirchzarten and Jack headed back to the crib because his neck was sore but Russell and I cruised down the bike path for a while.

We got back from riding and grabbed a quick snack before heading out to the Wafflehaus in Oberried. Unfortunately we got there and they were closed, at three in the afternoon. Who closes an eatery at that time??!

We settle for the local bakery in town and I am glad we did because they had some amazing pastries! No carbs, sugar, or fat of course! Gotta stay cut and swole!

Back to our crib for a quick nap then helped Jack prepare dinner by making dressing, he did everything else. haha.

Dinner with the whole crew. Then hanging out and more eating eventually throughout the night. It is so hard not to eat when you bring delicious pastries back from a bakery and put them on the counter. They stare at you! It is intimidating, so you eat them!

Then bed!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011

Rest Day

2011-05-09T14:02:00.001-07:00

Woke up at eight thirty and then put ear plugs in my hears and slept until 12. It seems every morning I wake up to the cows or birds or farm machinery. Then if I put ear plugs in I swear I can sleep until 12 or later!

Woke up for good this time and ate some breakfast then waited for my massage. Everyone took about an hour or so of work. I don't know how Julia (Saunier) managed to do about 5 hours of massage all in a row. Her arms and fingers had to be worked!

During the massage I received my first acupuncture treatment. She stuck some needles into the knots to loosen them up and it works but if feels different for sure.

After the massages we got some usac road bikes in so we got those ready for future rides followed by a real easy recovery ride to a coffee shop in Frieburgh.

Jack, Russell, and I rode into Frieburgh and grabbed chcocinos and cappuccinos at Uni-Cafe. Then spun easy back to the house. We all eventually ended up bonking! haha

Jack has been on a coffee kick ever since he tried his first cup at Sea Otter and today he got Russell hooked. He had 5 cups today!

The day flew by and when we got back from our ride we made dinner. It was super good! Salad with beats, green beans, yellow and red peppers, kidney beans, and peas. Then chicken fried in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic cloves, and gnocchi with tomato pesto on the side.

Dinner was followed by digestion and computer geeking out. Then we rode into town and got ice cream. The price went up 10 cents from last year, 70 to 80. Still can't beat that though!

Then to the grocery where we picked up some chocolate. Russell and I just about ate the whole bar and when we got home read the back as 2300 kJ's per bar and we were kind of freaking out! Then Stephen told us that a kJ is about 4 times a cal.

The confusion was in the fact that we burn kJ's on the bike but those kJ's are only one fourth of the kJ on the back of a food wrapper because you are only about 25% efficient on the bike. That was a relief.

After that fiasco it was more computing then bed.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

Tailor Cup

2011-05-08T15:03:00.001-07:00

Woke up late again today. Didn't have to do anything but sleep and rest until about 12:30 when Sonke, Russell's friend came to show us how to ride to the race venue, which was in Witnau, Germany, only about 45min ride.

The ride over went pretty smooth, we rode over with Sonke's team mate also.

We met Marc and Wayne there and got registered and rode the course. The course was pretty cool, only about 2.5k. It started right up a 20+ % grade climb and then descended some fire road, up some fire road, then down a super fast double track which was super blown out and sketchy at the bottom. Then onto some more gravel road flat. A little dirt booter to a man made tech gravel road descent (man made by a log thrown here and turns put it in by tape). Then a field flat to feed zone climb. Back onto pavement to the start/finish.

Then chilled until we got ready to race and did some openers and what not.

When the race started I just about got crashed out by some crazy euros so was thrown towards the back probably 30's? Then the rest of the race consisted of catching jack, so we could work together, to catch Russell, so we could work together, then finishing the race with whatever I had left.

I climbed up to 5th by the 8th and final lap. But was being chased hard up the feed zone climb and into the finish. Russell soon followed in 9th then Jack in 19th. Stephen took the win and won a pony keg of Rothaus beer and some sheckies. I got some sheckies too, and Russell.

The race was rad and was awesome for the efforts! The locals at the race were fun ad it was cool to see how supported the race was in the small town of Witnau. The US needs to step it up. Also, the entry fee was only 10 euro, compared to 60+ dollars for a mountain states cup! What!??

After the race we rode up to Rosskaph. Where Wyane, who rode home with us, flatted twice. with Sonke and then headed home.

It was a long day of training/racing, four hours!

Riding was followed by a river sit, then bbq, German style with local beef, potatoes, salad, and for the adults, Stephen's beer.... :(

Dinner followed by computer time and bed.

Massges tomorrow morning and a rest day coffee shop ride! Stoked!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

Solothurn

2011-05-08T14:44:00.001-07:00

First, the reason it has taken so long to do a post is because I have been looking for some good software similar to windows live writer, for my mac, and it has taken a bit of time. I have found the key to blog posting success for macs... Marsedit!

Solothurn...

Woke up whenever basically because we didn't leave until 11.

We then woke up and made breakfast and made our way down to wayne who was working on our bikes, he doesn't like to be called weezy...

We then made the trek to Solothurn, Switzerland. It took about an 1:45 and I slept the whole time because I was tired as heck from the travel.

We got there and unloaded the bikes and did a quick warm up lap before the women started.

Julia, Wyane, and Marc helped out so much making it super easy for us to just relax and race!

We were all stoked on the course. There was a good bit of climbing with one steep techy hill at the beginning. Then long gravel road climbs separated by a 10m dh more dirt road climbing followed by a wicked fast fairly non-tech dh. It was super fast and wicked flow! Then at the bottom were two shoots that weren't bad at all just steep! Then on to some dirt roads and back onto pavement to bring it back into the town center. Oh, leaving the town center (the start) went down some stairs into an under road crossing! Urban assault, which was actually quite sketchy at the start of the race. I am very surprised no one ate a d trying to ride down it.

Jack and I got called up around 70's... So our start was shit! Especially since the start shoot was only three people wide. So from front to back it probably stretched 20-30m.

The start was the normal chaotic euro start. I got to settle into some groups by the end of the first lap after all the climbing. Then from there tried to move up as much as possible. I caught jack about 3 laps in and we worked together for a good portion of the race.

I did a lot of my work on the climb and rested on the road and it seemed to work out. I made my way up to 33 and jack was with me on the last lap then faded and finished only five behind me.

I would say it was a good race for the both of us but the finish placements don't show that. Russell had an awesome start but is trying to get out of funk and faded towards mid race. Stephen did very well, finished 12th overall and 2nd U23. Second to last years 2nd place U23 finisher at worlds, Thomas Lickter (Name?).

I got super lucky also! On the last lap I managed to pick a huge nail up in my rear wheel and luckily the stans sealed it. I had no idea it had happened until I came across the line and someone told me about it. Thanks STANS!!

After the race and cool down we hopped in the car and headed back to Kirchzarten to grab some food, I slept the whole car trip again, super tired!

Julia joined us for German-mexican food and then peaced out.

It was a really good day and a super fun and learned a lot from racing with the euros, as always.

Thanks to Wyane for not having to see him during the race, even though it was hard to miss him because he was cheering so loud every time you passed. Julia for spot on bottle feeds and Marc for organizational/ bottle feeding, etc! Thanks guys.

Sorry for the lack of pics. I brought my camera but it died!

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/Germany2011#

Crazy Week... Now relax!

2011-05-07T01:38:00.000-07:00

This past week was absolutely brutal. I had finals Mon, Tues, and Wed so sleep wasn't something that happened a lot. In the end all the studying paid off. I ended the semester with all A's, 4.0!

Wednesday After finals I had to do a bunch of packing/ moving out of my room. I had to move all the stuff out of my room for the next month and I put it all in a storage unit.

I finished my last final at 9 and packed from then until about 5... I ran up and down the three sets of stairs to the fourth floor of tate enough times to equivalate a four hour rides with intervals (that is how it felt)!

I packed my bike and bags for Europe and then I should've went ot bed but had to go out with some friends one last time.

I left Nc at 6:30 am and drove to the airport where I got had by united airlines... 200 bucks for a bike and it wasn't overwieght. Apprently that is what the normal charge is to europe.

I flew form CLT to Chicago, then Chicago to Frankfurt. I took some melatonin as soon as the wheels left the ground and I passed out. I slept pretty much the whole flight which was my intentions. I woke up just in time for food then fell asleep again.

I got off the plane and got my bags. Then had to buy a train ticket from Frankfurt to Freiburg. I had a train change in Mannhiem and then arrived in Frieburg at 9am.

Marc was waiting for me and we left the train station and headed to the host house (the same place we stayed last year).

I got to the house and Russell and Jack were still sleeping. I had a little breakfast and waited for everyone to wake up. I met the mechanic Wayne who is a very cool dude.

After breakfast Jack woke up and Russell ended up sleeping for fifteen hours and didn't wake up until 1pm! Impressive!

Jack, Stephen, Marc, and I got suited up and went out on a ride. We planned to do a 2.5 hour loop with the first hour basically up a paved road climbs so we could do some openers. Once that was over, which I felt like a huge pile of dump for, we shredded some pristine single track, which over looked some gnarly views. I hit what is probably my new mtb land speed record... 42 mph on a trail!!

We descended back into Kircharten and chilled. Jack and I did a river sit (first one of the year!) and then got ready for dinner.

We teamed up and made a big spread of fish tacos. Rice, peppers, sauted onion, cabbage, avocado, tomatom, lime, and some beats.

After a solid dinner, due to tradition, we rode into town with Wayne, and grabbed a scoop of ice cream. Just like old times! haha

Then back to the crib for some much needed R&R.

Race tomorrow. Solothurn Swiss Cup.

Race Day

2011-04-30T21:35:00.001-07:00

Race day started out waking up to Jack pumping up his tires… Then breakfast while watching the weather channel and getting updated on my twitter tweets.

Jack came back and the girls had already left with Daimo for the venue so we just hung out and watched the disco channel for a while until we got ready to go with Stephen at 10 ish.

We got to the venue and hung out, got some bottles and ice socks made for the race, suited up and did some warming up. Jack brought up to me that I should ride the twenty niner so I did. BMC gave us an aluminum twenty niner to try out. Since it had some UST Race Kings on it I figured there was no way to flat those so I gave her. I was stoked to ride it once I rode it on the start loop. It cornered well once I found the right pressure and the geometry felt really good. The only thing I looked over for the race was that it was a little on the heavy side, which I didn’t realize warming up on it.

The race started at 1:15 and it seemed like the sun had just come out and was beating down on us like we were standing 2 feet from it. I had a descent start but had to move up a little. I really didn’t feel too hot off the gun but tried to find a rhythm. I was fighting the my body the first three laps to go faster but I just felt like I was at a limit I couldn’t get past. I think it was the heat but then the last two laps I guess I warmed up to it… Ironic uhhh?! I felt better and started moving up a little more. I passed two guys I was playing yo yo with for the first three laps and finished 15th. I got one UCI point!!! haha and apparently pay out that I didn’t know about. I thought it only went ten deep.

After the race we all hung out until we got tired of being dirty and hot then headed home.

We got to the hotel and Daimo went on a run for some reason, I don’t know if he knew it was 90+ degrees out?

Then we all went out to eat with Hoke, Troy Wells, cricket, Troy's girl friend to Magnolia grill. It was a Mexican ish place but I got an omelet.

Then we went to the first ever whole foods store and looked at all the expensive food and interesting characters in that place including some dude with a toga, one guy dressed like z z top, and some chick who thought she was still in the sixties.

After whole foods it was back to the crib to pack and get ready for the travel home tomorrow.

mellow j sac

Dust Day

2011-04-30T07:42:00.001-07:00

We got to sleep in yesterday. Everyone just chilled out and rolled out of bed whenever, got breakfast then headed to the course around 11.

It is an hour drive from our hotel to the course but it isn’t too bad. Jack and I picked the right car to go in because daimo’s car had to go wash the trailer before heading to the venue!

We beat them there so we talked to G-Fisher Subaru for awhile. and walked around. It was super windy up on the top of the knoll we were on and dusty also. 20mph winds or so, which failed to cease all day.

We got on our bikes and did some riding on the course. It is a pretty fun course, it’s real mtbing for once, a very nice change from sea donkey. It is pretty twisty turny and due to the soil, which is pretty dusty and sandy, those turns are pretty loose. A beef cake tire up front is necessary. There isn’t too much climbing, just pretty rolling and the downhill's aren’t too technical rock wise, just have to be careful not to rally turns too hard and lay it over.

Ice socks are going to be life savers for the race, panty hose with a wad of ice in it. Keeping the core temp low is going to be an issue and those things will help a good bit.

After riding the course and getting reg taken care of we headed back to the hotel and stopped at a grocery store on the way. They had a huge free sample isle, not really it is one of those granola and nut isle with the huge containers of stuff, haha. They also had an almond butter press which I couldn’t help but take advantage of. They also had real free samples of kim’s magic pops, which are homemade race cakes. No sugar, no fat, and 15 calories per cake!!! What!!

kimtastic!

Then we left the store and got home to shower and make some breakfast. Erica, Jack, and Daimo went to the Mellow Johnny’s kick off party. I stayed back and did some chem studying… Final on Monday, Anatomy Tuesday, and physics on Wednesday. Then Europe on Thursday!!! Hell yea! We also made some dinner, Salad con tomato, tuna, spinach, nuts, and avocado, and rice, and veggies and eggs!

Jack got some new tires on his whip so he was playing dj jacky fresh trying to get them to stop leaking air.

picsss

Mellow Johnny’s

2011-04-30T06:38:00.001-07:00

So I started out the weekend by forgetting my phone on the top of my car in long term parking… I realized this at my gate and sped back to the parking lot. I had fifty mins the first time I left the gate but I forgot my keys and had to come back to the gate and then I went back out to my car. I made it with plenty of time but I was still worried about missing the flight and didn’t take my time looking for it. I looked in the drivers seat and that was it, I didn’t even realize it was on the roof right in front of me.

Then on the flight from clt to atl I realized it was on the roof and called long term at that gate. They said they would look for it and just before we took off for Austin they called back and said they found it! That was a relief.

Once Erica and I got to Austin we waited for everyone at the airport. We met Mitch Hoke first then Jack, then Chloe, then Stephen and we packed all of us and luggage into a Nissan Altima.

My leg feel asleep with in 10 min of the drive and luckily the hotel was only 15 min away!

We got checked into the hotel and then Daimo showed up who drove through the night to get here. Sorry Daimo!

We got our new Giro shoes… Road and MTB and some sweet soft shell jackets. We helped Daimo unload the trailer then went for a quick spin. It seemed like everyone laid the bike over at least once. I think it was because we were all super stoked to be riding some trails near the hotel and got a little carried away. Haha.

We got back from the ride, showered and went to Torchy’s Trailer Park and Eatery. It was cool! Mitch told us we had to go there and I am glad we did, it was rad! The food was awesome, I had a dirty Sanchez, which was scrambled eggs, guacamole, carrots, cheese, and pablano peppers with ranch. They had Mexican coke, coke with sugar, not HFCS, and it was a sweet environment.

After Torchy’s we came back to the room and I pulled the trigger on a mac book pro. I am getting sick of lugging this huge computer around and I figured I should do it now while I can still get some money on e bay for this computer instead of waiting until it dies then get a new comp… I will also be sick to have the mac book in euro land. It will be much more convenient.

Another thing I forgot was my camera… I brought the charger for it but no camera. Where was my head yesterday?

Mellow J's

Boone Roubaix

2011-04-23T20:35:00.001-07:00

Woke up today and had an awesome egg sandwich my dad made me, perfect fuel for the hell of the high country. Then I did some packing and met with my parents, who came down yesterday, to go to the boone roubaix.

I was stoked they were here and they were excited to see me race. We got to the venue, registered, and walked around a little bit. Mom and Dad went into the store at reg and found this pig laying on the floor in the store. Well my Dad saw it was alive but my mom had no idea. So she walked up to touch it and it moved and she flipped out and pedaled backwards almost falling over, super comical!

Then I got kitted up and warmed up with J rad. We got back and waited on the start line for like 20-30 mins, apparently the race was running a bit late. While standing around everyone noticed this dude with the hugest arms ever, super veiny and triumphant! It’s the guy in the Micky D’s kit….

The race eventually started and we had a neutral start for the first 20 mins or so because of a sketchy bridge that the promoter didn’t want people dying on. After that the race was go. Nothing major happened until we hit the first dirt climb and Brain Sheedy blew the field apart. Andy Baker was on his wheel and they rode away from the field easily. I was about mid field when he throttled it and had to do some serious word to catch up to him and Andy Backer, I brought Travis Liverman with me too. Once us four got together we started working really well and pulled a min gap on the field by the last lap.

The mid race was nothing exciting. Just us four in the break taking turns at the front and hurting up the climbs.

By the time the last lap rolled around, some how I got stuck in that awkward pull with about 1.5k to go when no one wants to pull…. Probably my lack of road race skills. So as Brain came through I asked if he wanted it and he said yes. So I got on the front and picked up the pace. I brought it to about 200m to go and stood up to give it a final sprint but Andy and Brain blew by me and Travis did too. Brain took it followed by Liverman then Baker. Yay tactics!

After the race I did some spinning then ice cream eating at the General Store in Todd, the town the race was held.

After ice cream mom, dad, and I headed back to b.e. to load some stuff up in the car, eat some of the food my dad brought me (mini easter dinner, which was amazing), and call it a night.

Boone Rooo- bix

Last day at sea otter

2011-04-17T10:27:00.001-07:00

Woke up later this morning which was nice. I did have a bit of a hard time sleeping because of yesterdays effort but I felt pretty rested when I woke. I had a small breakfast followed by a bigger breakfast and some coffee.

Stephen and I went on an early morning spin around 9:30. We road up the road about twenty mins to see a cool view, unfortunately is was a little foggy.

Chloe and Erica left the house around 9 for their 11 o clock race and Jack left at around 11. Stephen and I stayed back at the house until about quarter to 12 just relaxing/ doing homework.

We headed down to the venue and Stephen stopped at the bottom of the steepest climb in the county, which lead into the speedway, to use the bathroom so I ventured up it on my own. I quickly grew tired of it and put my thumb up. The first car passed but then the cliff bar guys picked me up in their truck. Thank you! Got a ride to the venue then hung out until warming up with Brad and Nate
B for the race.

Chloe had some tire problems and ended up cracking top ten, and Erica had an awesome race. First U23 and was 14.

Our race started with over 100 starters it seemed like and of course after the gun all the guys in the back thought they should be in the front so there were three crashes on the speedway before we even hit the dirt.

I didn’t have the best start but I can’t complain, I was around top twenty and moved up the first two laps into the second group, which was about top 15 or so. Throughout the race there was a lot of strategory going on, since this was a road race. No one wanted to pull and luckily when Barry Wicks pulled I stuck to his wheel like glue! Throughout the race our group thinned out and by the last lap it was only 4-5 of us fighting for 8th. Adam Morka and a giant rider attacked early in the lap and I stuck with it. I picked a bad line behind Adam in a slower section and when he stopped in front of me I almost ran into him and dropped my chain. I had to run for about 10m out of that section until I could get back on and start pedaling. I got my chain back on and tried to chase up to Adam and the giant rider but when I got close, half way up the last climb, they dropped the hammer and that was good bye. I could see them on the finish stretch. I finished about 5 sec behind them which is a bummer because I would have liked to go for the sprint.

I was stoked with a top ten finish! Then I saw Stephen waiting after the finish after getting seventh. Could have sprinted for 5 but had a small mishap on the last lap, however, he still qualified for worlds! Jack then came in at 21 after winning his group sprint which he was super excited about.

After the race we headed back to the trailer to change and get ready to leave the venue. On the way out Jack and I talked to some sponsors. We stopped at esi, osprey, giro, continental, and BMC. They were all real cool guys and excited about the weekend results. The BMC Euro corporate guys were here as well as some u.s. guys and they are super excited about the team! Which is awesome news!

After we climbed the 99 mile hill to the house we ate, showered, and ate some more. We hung out after dinner and packed a little bit for our early departure tomorrow morning.

Thanks again to Kathy and Paul for opening their house up to us (our host housing). It was super convenient and a good non stressful experience. It was very easy to feel at home which felt really good. Thanks again guys!

monkey tron of the sea photos

Sea Sponky

2011-04-16T09:43:00.001-07:00

First here is the house…. and people/ dogs inside it.

I woke up at 6 due to the stupid time change! then laid in bed and caught up on twitter posts for an hour. Then I woke up at seven and went for some breakfast.

We left the house at 9:30 and road down to the venue. Then hung out with Daimo until we got ready to ride. We also had to pin four numbers, two back and both arms, for a twenty min race and today for xc we only have to pin one… wtf! Anyway that took a good bit of time.

We met some of the European Corporate guys and shook some hands. They were some cool dudes, Jonas (the engineer) is even gonna race ds! They were also really stoked about the team.

After meeting some of the BMC guys it was off to spin for the stxc. I met up with Brad bob-sac and Nate byrum and we spun a lap of the xc course, which only took about 5 min… They cut out so much dirt from last year, which means that the majority of the course is now on the raceway, which means it is paved, which means it is not dirt, which means it is a road race on nobby tires. Stupid! But this is a business meeting after all…

The short track had a ton of guys in it and I was super grateful to get a call up. Once the gun went off I pretty much maintained my spot in the start field until we hit the first jam up on the course and I was lucky enough to find a sick line that put me in the top ten. From that point on all I had to do was ride. I maintained position the whole race and on the last lap had an opportunity to pass JB. It came down to the last corner into the finish straight and I went for the chop but he was just 2 feet too far ahead of me and I couldn’t nail it. I ended up grabbing rear brake and just about taking him out anyway. Apparently after I did that he turned to me and literally waved his finger at me, gesturing “nope.” I am now out to rip sacs off"!

After the stxc I swung by giro to get fitted for shoes. They are so comfy and come with three different arch inserts! Then I had to fight my fiending mind and not do an expert loop on a new carbon trail fox with easton carbon wheels and gravity dropper post. I am riding one today!

Jack and I cruised back to the house where we then went shopping and on the way I established jhorts are back in, officially!

We came back, made dinner followed by stupid homework, followed by righteous sleep!

Sea monkey sac!

Sea Otter

2011-04-15T08:43:00.001-07:00

Flew in Yesterday and landed in cali around five. The bags came in on time and our ride was waiting for us.

It was about an hour thirty drive back because of traffic! Stupid Cali traffic.

Once we got here Erica and I met our host house hosts, Kathy and laurel. They are super nice people and I felt right at home pretty quickly.

Erica and I went out and spun for about 50 min then came back and dinner was ready. Everyone was already eating so we joined in.

After dinner it was shower then bed.

Pretty stoked to race with Brad Per-sac (perley). I am also gonna get my hands on a trail fox today, mark my words!

Sabado y Domingo

2011-04-05T00:19:00.001-07:00

So Saturday started with another great. Than a group ride to the venue at 12. We got our bikes dial, and rode the course.

I did two laps. I found out that it was easier climbing the hills, which were pretty technical and steep, hard. That meant going pretty hard though,I liked the descent more and more each time I went down it. Finding new lines every run.

After riding the course twice a couple of us met back up at the team tent and we headed back to the hotel accompanied by a moto. It was nice having a policia hombre escorting us on the highway but I thought the area felt much safer than it was talked about.

Russell, Troy, and I cruised past the hotel into a distant town for an extra twenty min spin. We stopped at a cool little shop on the way back and got a croissant. There was a bakery that sat next to a meat shop that I walked into and the people there greeted me like I was the president. They had so many different kinds of meats, many I had never seen.

We got back to the crib and grabbed some lunch.

After lunch we didn’t do much at all. Sat around in our room and made fun of Jack for talking to girls (we were just jealous).

Dinner came out and it was really good. Pasta, chicken, marinara sauce, potatoes, and salad.

After dinner there was some hot chocolate to be drank. Then just hung out and called it a night. We did find out that the tv’s in our room didn’t have one channel that was in English.

Sunday Jack, Russell, and I woke up around 8:30, ate breakfast and watched the last 30k of the tour of flanders. One thing came from that…. I want to change my name to Fabian… The guy is a Mack Truck!

We then got dressed and headed to the venue to get warmed up and race ready.

Race time came before you know it and just as everyone had told me they went out super fast!!! I held back and rode towards a more conservative approach. I was at the OTC to get ready for the altitude for 3 weeks but this was 2g higher than the OTC and I could feel it a little.

I was sitting just outside of the top twenty by the first lap around and I got a little worried after the second lap when I was only top twenty. Then the Colombians started fading, people flatted, and I stayed steady. I managed to crawl my way into 14th (two spots out of uci contention) and on the last lap I got someone at the top of the climb then another at the bottom of the descent.

I am happy with a 12th. First time at Pan ams, and just a little effected by altitude. After the race I had race gut for the next 8 hours that was no fun.

Stephen got 3rd and Jack 7th, awesome ride for both of them! Russell, stricken with a separated shoulder just four weeks before this race, had to tee his season off with this race, which was an extremely tough race to start the season on. He finished top 25.

The pro and U23 women went earlier in the morning. Erica got top twenty, Mary M and Heather Irmiger got on the podium for 2 and 3. The pro men went after us. Todd Wells went third and Jeremiah Bishop went 2nd after starting just inside the top 30.

It was a good weekend for the U.S. for sure. In between the pro race Russell, Jack, and I traded some Colombian's for their jersey’s. I am stoked to train in it. They were so excited to trade us. Jack broke his as you can see, it wasn’t his eight pack that broke the zipper either.

We also did some walking around and walked to the food part of the venue where we met some cooks who let us behind the grill and let us sample some food!

We ended up getting caught up in the rain on the ride home, which sucked cause it was cold but we used the opportunity to clean our bikes a bit.

Showered and packed bikes then waited around until dinner. After dinner we sat around and talked and tried to get into town for some ice cream then tried to get the policia hombre to run into town on their bikes and grab us some fruit, neither happened.

Russell, Jack, and I fooled around in our room like putting jack on top of the dresser or talking about his future wife who he met today at the venue. The girls down here are into Jack. So he soaked it up before we headed back to the U.S.

Friday en Columbia

2011-04-02T13:02:00.001-07:00

We woke up around 9:30 and had an awesome breakfast. The eggs here are so much richer than American eggs. There was also cereal, yogurt, hot milk, coffee, and mango juice.

After a great breakfast we built our bikes up and then Russell and I walked around our estate and took some pics of the scenery…

Everyone decided to head out around 12. We rode from the hotel into town and then to the venue, all the while being escorted by police men on mot cykes.

After only a few near death experiences with traffic we eventually made it to the race venue. Right in the middle of the venue was race head quarters which turned out to be a super old stone castle that a drug lord use to live in. Originally owned by the city then taken over by a drug lord then taken back by the city. To be honest it looked like it didn’t belong because the surrounding architecture looked nothing like a castle.

We rode around until the course opened up then did a quick lap. Jack and I headed out and right off the start there is a pretty big climb up cobbles that is gonna hurt, then basically 2-3k climb to the top with some small breaks (like a flat or a quick shoot). The downhill is anything but flowy. It feels like you are fighting the bike the whole ride and it just doesn’t feel right… However, I am determined to find some flow.

After riding the course Jack, Stephen and I rode behind Adam Craig to see the hot downhill line, except he kind of dropped us and we were quickly left on our own.

Then we rode back to the hotel for lunch which was extremely good. Then chilled a little bit until Russell, Jack, Sam Shultz, and I went into town to explore.

We found a cool little store with cookies in it so we stopped and I bought some. We also met an english speaking woman who gave us directions to the town center.

We rode down to the town center and met some riot policia who were watching a protest.

We stopped and talked to them. It was cool to listen and understand some stuff, for instance, they were telling Jack to hit on these girls… So Jack did. He scored there facebooks and twitters! ahaha. They were only sixteen, but I doubt that matters here.

We went to the fruit market next which was a cornucopia of fresh produce and tons of fruit I have never hear of. Russell bought some while Sam watched bikes then Sam went in to do some recon. We all came out with some different fruits and they didn’t last long once we got back to the hotel. Jack got separated and we all just figured he went home with the sixteen year olds we saw earlier.

Russell and I hit the fruit hard when we got home we had pitalla, granadilla, and chontaduro. Everything was good except chontduro, it tasted like wet chalk. Once we knew it tasted horrible we got a ton of people to try them, telling them it tasted great. The best was Jeremiah Bishop. We told him it was a mini mango and a little sweeter than a normal mango. He wasted no time and took a huge bite. Then made a face of disgust similar to everyone else's. Very comical.

This is the granadilla….

After fruit tasting We had some dinner and called it a night.

pics

Last Two Days

2011-04-01T09:13:00.001-07:00

Wednesday consisted of some gnarly mtbing with Mitch. We climbed up rampart range and descended Williams Cannyon which was super techy and a lot of fun. I hadn’t ridden on that loose technical rock in a while and it showed. Then we cruised over to Bear creek (bottom of Gold Camp) and did section 16 trail which was faster and more similar to Jacks but there was also some techy stuff there too.

I was following Mitch at one point and got off his line and when I tried to get back in there was a small drop, no problem, but I hit a root before it and almost ate it hard. There was a lady hiking who saw it go down and told us we were going to kill ourselves. haha.

After section 16 we parted with Mitch and went back to the OTC. We had a lot of packing to do. It was a relief finally leaving after being bored for so long but now that we had our mtb’s it didn’t seem too bad.

We grabbed last dinner, and packed up. Jack and I didn’t pack our bikes because we hit Palmer park at like 7 am to do some trail riding before the trip to Colombia.

It was debatable if that was a good idea because we had to rush around all morning after in order to make the shuttle to co springs airport.

We showed up two mins late and she actually left without us. She just circled around the complex and when we got on she got on our case, saying “do you guys know what 9:30 means?”

At the airport we held everything up pretty good. Then we got to watch TSA pack Jack’s bike box up after inspection…

We flew from co springs to Huston then from Huston to Colombia. We met all the pros and mechanics in Huston and all boarded the same plane. There were quite a few Canadians on our flight too.

Russell Finsty talked to this girl during the flight who told him about her cousin getting kid napped down here. She said People just walked up to him and opened there hand, like they were blowing a kiss, and blew some sort of powder in his face. After that he had no idea what was going on and they took him to an ATM and emptied his bank account… Yikes! Note to self… Watch out for pixie dust blowers.

The flight went smooth and the bag retrieval the same, everyone got there bags, and we eventually got a ride to the hotel. We were escorted by two police men the whole way and they even stayed outside our hotel to watch the perimeter.

Dinner was also waiting for us here. It was midnight when we got in so some didn’t eat but I wasn’t into the airline chicken burritos so I hadn’t eaten a solid meal since breakfast (last otc breakfast was very sad). Here is our crib, it’s Jack, Russell, and myself…

We all hit the hay around 12:30-1.

Columbia!!

OTC

2011-03-30T08:25:00.001-07:00

It snowed last night… But it all melted by 12:30

I went out on a ride this morning around 11 with the happy thought in my head that we were finally getting our home mtb bikes today!!!

I got back from my ride and grabbed some lunch. They had loks for breakfast and lunch now so I knew it was going to be a good day. Then as I am eating I get a call from Jack telling me our bikes are here!

I was like a kid at Christmas and I was even more excited because now we would get to ride these awesome trails we could only picture.

Jack, Stephen, and I set out to meet Mitch. We met up with mitch and quickly hit some trail. We cruised up to the top of gold camp then kept climbing until we found the trail head for Jack’s! I was super stoked to ride this because I hear it was so sweet. Everyone that told me that was right! The trial was flowy and techy and a loose. I am probably being over dramatic but you must understand I have been on a road bike for the past three weeks and I was finally able to get out on some dirt.

We descended back into the springs where we parted with Mitch then headed back to the OTC for the night.

I did some homework and we all realized how much of a fest packing for Colombia is going to be tomorrow. SAC!

Oh, and I just found out tonight that the laundry detergent I bought back in the beginning of March is actually fabric softener… Sweet.

Check this sick idea out. We need more creative ideas like this everywhere. So rad!

http://translogic.aolautos.com/2011/03/24/b/

pics

Fontucky stxc

2011-03-28T13:57:00.001-07:00

Woke up around 8 this morning to get out to the venue by 9ish. Once there Jack and I set out on a quest to find our mtb chi on these new twenty sixer hardtails.

We cruised around on the xc course until we got yelled at by a course marshal so then we did some exploring! We climbed up an ungodly steep hill and at the top we found a ridge line trail that took us out about two or three miles to a telephone tower. We were having a blast ripping this super loose rocky trail when…. psssss! I sliced the side wall of my front tire. I put a tube in, then…. psssss! Jack sliced his front tires side wall. We didn't’ t have anymore tubes so jack had to ride it back on the flat after we got off the ridge. The sand fire road back inflicted little damage on his rim.

After our ride we went back to the hotel and ate, then got ready to roll back over to the venue for the stxc. There we also found this young ripper, he was about 10-12 and killing the dirt jumps on an xc bike. ahaha

The girls went first and Chloe killed it! First place. She attacked on the last lap on a small climb towards the middle of the lap and no one could come around her on the finish straight. Erica got her first top ten finish as well!

Then we went off. After the race separated out there was a lead group of about 11 and I was dangling off the back of that with a Kelly Benefits rider. I attacked on a climb trying to bridge the gap but could quite get there, so close but epic fail. I was then dangling in no mans land where I finished the race as well. I ended up 12th. Stephen was in the lead group and ended up 3rd, awesome finish, and Jack came in at top twenty after working like crazy all race.

Yay BMC!!!

After stxc I spun around a little bit then went to the podium to watch the BMC team rep it.

Chloe and Erica pitched in to get me a some cake for my b day! I was super grateful for that because I needed to indulge on yummy chocolateness. Thanks a ton guys!

We then left the venue where we went back to the hotel until later that night when we went out as a team to an Indian restaurant, Chloe wasn’t there because she drove up to Fontucky and had a 5 hour drive ahead of her after the 3 pm start stxc, sac lunch!

Before we went to the restaurant we went to the local fed ex to ship some packages. NASCAR was also shipping some stuff and there was a big pile behind the desk. So while Jack was shipping a box with wheels out we convinced the clerk that Jack was a race car driver, number 45, named The Kid! haha, it was hilarious. Jack even added some NASCAR accent into his voice.

We got to watch cricket at the restaurant and our waiter was kind enough to lend some helping knowledge and explain the goals and rules involved with cricket.

After a tasty dinner it was back to the hotel to sleep. Followed by a 5:30 am wake up time and out of cali by 7:30.

Then landed in the Springs and back to the OTC for lunch then a quick spin with Russell Finsty.

Tonight will consist of studying. I am super behind!! haha.

Last of Fontucky pics

Fontucky

2011-03-27T19:52:00.001-07:00

Well our trip started with a pretty outrageous chain of unfortunate events.

We woke up and started traveling to the race on Friday Morning. Ben Turner, el director, was late picking us up because the traffic in Denver was pretty thick. Since we were pressed for time to make our flight we were moving up the highway pretty fast in Ben’s 275,000 mile truck. We get just a little before half way there and the truck dash starts raddling. The next thing you know a loud clank under the truck wakes us up and the truck starts making some weird noises. Something had definitely fallen out from under the truck and when I looked in the side mirror my suspicion was confirmed when I saw the drive shaft bouncing down the highway!

We immediately pulled over and everyone but me was on the phone with someone, Stephen with AAA, Ben with the airline, and Jack trying to get us a ride, trying to get things figured out.

Eventually we got on a different flight, after Ben said some choice words to the customer service trying to explain this was bad luck, which was scheduled for later that night, at nine.

We got on the phone with Russell Finsty, our savior, and he gave us his mom’s number, our second savior, who after calling came and picked Jack, Stephen, and I up to bring us back to the OTC until a second departure to the airport later that night. Ben went with the tow truck driver to boulder where his house is and he would meet us at the airport later that night.

Russell's mom dropped us off at the OTC and we went on a ride and did the normal pre race stuff, except on road bikes . Then came back and ate a lot of food until Russell came to pick us up at six thirty. At the end of the ride I followed Jack into a stair line at the OTC and ended up on my face!!

We headed up to DIA no problem until we got out of the car and Jack is certain he left his wallet back at the OTC. After checking every pocket in his backpack, or so he thought, he was ready to give up. Then he looks one more time through the front pocket and what do you know there it is smiling at him. haha.

We get in to the airport and go to check bags. Stephen had one bag to check and then we had to check three frame boxes full of parts and what not for Daimo, el wrench. They wanted to charge us one hundred per box. Anything over 62 linear inches is one hundred. After much refusal we eventual caved. Then not until after paying did we realize we could have tapped all three together and would have been under the max one fifteen linear inches rule and would have only had to pay one hundred for all three. Sac attack!

This is Daimo, el wrench…

After this the flight went smoothly and we got to the extended stay america smoothly. Myself and I am sure the other weary travelers were about to doze off when the fire alarm sounded! FML! We all made our way down to the lobby where we waited for them to tell us it was a false alarm. Jack was the last to arrive and the only one with luggage in hand ready to book it out of the hotel in case there was a fire. haha, he was determined to race!

After all the festivities of the day sleep was much needed. But not much was gotten because we got up early the next morning to race bikes and pre ride the course.

We woke up at seven and left the hotel by eight because the girls had to be at the course early to get ready to race at ten thirty.

Jack, Stephen, and I got to get on course for the first time and really enjoyed the course. It was a lot of fun. Twisty tight stuff on the back side then a, kick you in the sac, super steep hill on the front side to separate things.

After pre riding we went back to the hotel for an hour to eat then came back to the venue to get ready to race.

The race started and once I got settled in I was sitting to twentyish the first two and ninetenths laps. Then on that final tenth I flatted!!!! FML X2! I was close to the pit so I ran it in. Then I get there and there is only a rear wheel in there, of course I need a front. Ben couldn’t figure out the quick release, new dt swiss thingamabobs, and by the time I put a tube in and got on my bike I was way way back. I never put my front wheel back in straight so I had to stop once more to try and straighten it out. I ended up being the first rider pulled… Kind of stinks.

After the race we sat around and ate some cliff bars until super D. Then without a pre ride rode super D. Ended up eating it because of course confusion. It may be on the internet somewhere because it happened in front of some guys taking pics. They were proly looking for pics of Brain Lopes who raced it and kicked everyone's sac in.

After Super D Jack and I came back to the hotel to get ready and go out with some of Jack’s friends, Ben and Bryson, Ben is from Miny-soda.

While waiting for our names to be called we patrolled the mall and found a strength tester machine which we all tried, literally all of us tried it together to get the highest score. Then Jack and I experienced the Twister simulator…

We went out to a Boston Broilers and I had some really good Sushi, a super tasty salad, and Alaskan Salmon. Then they found out it is my birthday tomorrow so they got the waitress to bring me a piece of cheese cake, that I did not regret eating one bit, and they sang for me pretty loud in the middle of the restaurant. haha. Thanks guys for the awesome birthday fun!

fontucky pics

OTC

2011-03-25T07:42:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I headed out on the bike around 10:30. It was still pretty chilly, around 35 degrees. I expected it to warm up on my ride so I didn’t wear booties and I wore light gloves. About forty five min into my ride I realized that was a mistake because the weather said that by eleven it was only going to 38…

My hands weren’t too bad, a little cold, but my feet were like ice cubes. The good thing about the ride was the awesome views I got to check out.

I headed up gold camp to the top of Cheyenne canyon, snapping pictures along the way.

I then cruised back into town and back to the OTC. I grabbed some lunch around two and then tried to take a nap. My phone had other plans because it kept blowing up. Around five I woke up and waited for Russell to get here so we could go out.

Russell showed us a cool pizza place on Tejon that I forget the name of. I ordered a calzone, it was huge!

After dinner Russell took us up Rampart Range road rally car style to show us some mtb trails. Then we went to bear creek and he showed us the ghost of Colorado Springs. hahah.

We got back to the OTC around nine and I just did some homework and went to bed. I had to rest up for the flight out to Fontucky tomorrow. NASCAR and bike racing this weekend! YEEEWHOOOO!!!

Pics

OTC OH NO

2011-03-23T22:25:00.001-07:00

I woke up around seven thirty and grabbed some breakfast, came back to the room then decided to go on a ride with Stephen to woodland park. I talked to Russell and he said it was a cool ride in the range of 3-4 hours which is what we were looking for.

So we headed out around eleven and went through Manitou Springs up twenty four all the way to Woodland Park.

It was a pretty cool place with an awesome view of Pikes Peak as a back drop. We got on a cool bike path that winded us through some trees. The area kind of reminded me of Truckee, California.

We cruised back, which was pretty much all down hill the whole way back to Manitou Springs, then grabbed some lunch at the OTC.

After lunch I grabbed some caffeine, double shot of espresso from the otc, to pound out some much needed work on homework.

That lasted until around five when I talked to my mom and told her I still was congested. She insisted I had a sinus infection and get it looked at….

Stephen offered to call his mom, who is a Dr., so I could talk to her and avoid a unnecessary copay. Thank you Jill!

I told her about the last couple days and she said it wasn’t a sinus infection and my congestion was just a residual of a cold. So she gave me some info on some over the counter medication to help me, no weed, haha, so I went to Walgreen's for the second time today to get some medicine and a humidifier that my mom insisted I buy (the air is super dry here which isn’t helping me become decongested).

I got back from medicine shopping and grabbed some dinner. Swordfish!!! I was stoked about that. Then we came back and watched we are marshal in the lounge room.

Then just before going to bed I did some research that Stephen suggest I do on the medicine I have been taking. Thank god he told me and I did… Pseudoephedrine is on the band substance list! It is ok for out of competition use but in competition is a no go. So if I would get tested on Saturday after the race and I had it in my system I would be efffed!!!

http://www.globaldro.com/us-en/search/BrandStatus.aspx?brandid=33304&countryid=3&sportid=32&exact=1&searchid=342592&userid=1&show=All&search=pseudoephedrine&newSearch=false

Then I went to bed happily knowing I prevented the chance of me being outlawed as a mediocre doper, haha.

new pics

OTC with a new camera…

2011-03-22T19:23:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I did a cool ride up the bike path to the U.S. Air Force academy and tried my first bit of tempo. It felt ok but I could tell I was still a little tired.

So after that I cruised back the bike path, which is cool because it is all dirt, where I saw Russell hammering towards me in the middle of an interval. I cruised through town and climbed up lower gold camp road and headed back to the OTC. I ended up with like 3:20 and was stoked because of how I felt.

I got back and ate some lunch then took a nap. After my nap I stripped the bolt on the bottom of my mtb shoe that holds my cleat in. So I cruised to a local ACE Hardware for some tools. I got some drill bits specific for getting stripped bolts out.

Then around five we went to Marc’s house for dinner. There is where I was going to use a drill and try these drill bits out but Marc had a hack saw so I just sawed a straight line through the top of the bolt and made a flat head out of it and I got the bolt out with a screw driver. Unfortunately I threw the receipt for the drill bits out like an idiot and now I have them for future occasions when a hack saw isn’t an option but a drill is…

Marc and Margee made us an awesome meal. Grilled salmon, with salad, bread, sautéed mushrooms, spinach, and tomatoes, and watermelon for dessert. It is so nice to get away from the OTC every now and then for a change of scenery so I was super grateful.

Then today was a big day for something new. We had an apt with the OTC to do some supplemental oxygen training. Basically you wear a mask that administers you oxygen so it is like you are training at sea level.

We did some higher intensity efforts and it was pretty amazing how much better you feel with pure oxygen flowing into your lungs. You are able to put out some big numbers.

After that Stephen and I cruised around a little bit, through the garden and back, then I grabbed some lunch. On my way to lunch though I grabbed my birthday present from my parents and Grandparents, THANKS!. A sick new camera that is water proof and shock resistant. An olympus stylus tough 6020. 14 mega pixles shock proof up to 5ft, waterproof up to 16ft and super sleek looking.

Jack and I tested it out being tourists on the OTC facilities and getting some pictures of some of the surrounding art stuff/ architecture.

This was our entertainment…

Then Jack, Stephen, and myself got pretty swole in the weight room, followed by getting swoler in the café with dinner.

Then we watched we are Marshall and called it a night.

Be on the look out for more pics as I am stoked to use this new camera!

new camera that takes awesome pics

OTC

2011-03-20T20:13:00.001-07:00

The previous days were pretty boring. Not riding more than in hour really sucks. It makes the day so long and I run out of things to do!

Friday Stephen and I rode together for a little over an hour, which I probably shouldn’t have.

Saturday I rode for an hour and decided any longer would be a bad idea. Got back to the OTC and took a nap followed by some homework and lunch. I have been reading a lot which is good. I am super into “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” which I am almost done with so I gotta find another good book.

Later that night Russell came over and we rented Due Date, which is an amazingly funny movie. I strongly suggest watching it at least five times.

Today was good. I woke up feeling better than I have been so I made plans to go ride an easy two hours with Russell. We cruised up the bike path in town and back. Then I cruised through the Garden and back to the OTC. It feels really good to be on the upward slope to being healthy again.

The rest of the day consisted of a nap, then some homework then a lot of dilly daddling around on the inter web.

That took me to dinner and after dinner I watched the Charlie Sheen special on TLC.

P.S. Check this bike out!!!!

http://www.zerode.co.nz/index.php

https://picasaweb.google.com/kerryw24000/OTC2011#

OTC continued

2011-03-18T19:30:00.001-07:00

So Yesterday consisted of a lot of nothing! I actually got sick overnight. I guess the hard ride Jack and I did pushed me over the edge and I woke up with a bit of a cold. Runny nose, congestion, you know…

I went to Walgreens and bought some emergency, Advil cold and sinus, and pedialyte, for hydration.

The most exciting thing I did all day was watched a movie that night, Social Network, with Jack and Stephen. It sucked not to ride or doing anything all day but I know doing anything more than laying in bad would make this worse.

Today I woke up around seven, after a night of tossing and turning, feeling a little better physically but my nose was still a little runny and I was still congested a bit. Jack and I went to Yoga around nine. Margee, Marc’s wife teaches a class in town and she wanted us to try it out and we thought it would be a cool idea. It was my first class and it wasn’t that bad. There is definitely a disadvantage to doing it early in the morning, my muscles were supe stiff!

After class we came back to the otc and grabbed some lunch. Then Stephen and I headed out on a ride, super easy. I ended up flatting, then the tire’s bead was messed up and it kept popping out over the rim, so that is how I rode it for about an hour, kind of sketch.

Got back to the otc and didn’t have much of anything to do so I tried to read a book but passed out. Then Nate Larson called me and told me about the gnarly LMC Grand Prix that I am extremely jealous I missed! Back to sleep followed by some dinner and then nothing… It gets pretty boring here at night.

Sorry no pics not much to pictate when sick.

OTC continued

2011-03-16T20:40:00.001-07:00

So I haven’t been posting everyday because there isn’t much that happens here on a day to day basis. We usually ride in the morning or early afternoon followed by resting, eating, the occasional getting swole, and more eating.

Today Jack and I set out around 9 and where planning on doing a pretty hard ride. We did some efforts up Cheyenne Mountain and descended Gold camp which was cool. It was a dirt road at the top and turned paved as we got about half way down. At the top of Cheyenne it was about 7500 feet so the view was sweet!

Jack and I got back from the ride, did the usual eat then rest. I worked on homework a little bit…. Then we went back out for an hour. The break in between just splits up the day, not much more than that.

We hit up some dirt jumps which was cool. Yea we were on road bikes but we are at a mountain bike camp so it cancels…

After the ride we grabbed a smoothie from the café, pretty tasty, then met up with Stephen and headed out to eat over at Marc’s house. We had an awesome meal and it was nice to shake things up a bit rather than the same OTC schedule.

We had tea and dessert and discussed rides then came back to the OTC where we all kind of crashed. I know I was worked from the last two days of riding and I think Stephen and Jack were pretty tired too.

some mo picsss

Boneli Day two

2011-03-13T23:34:00.001-07:00

Today started at 10 o clock. I was surprised waking up that late because I thought I was gaining an hour of sleep but I was actually loosing an hour. So I woke up at ten and had to be at the van by eleven with all my stuff packed for a photo shoot and the day.

We got to the Park and met the photographer, Dave, and set the truck and trailer up to get some glamour shots. We did head shots, group shots, riding shots, individual riding shots, basically two hours worth of shots.

When we were done I was pretty hungry and I realized I forgot to pack some food from the hotel when we left that morning. So I used my resources and filled up on cliff bar products smothered in peanut butter, then got a baja fresh burrito. Solid pre race meal if you ask me.

I did about an hour and a half of spinning around being board…

and trying to get ready for twenty mins of pain.

Erica and Chloe started. Chloe lead basically the whole first lap, which was pretty rad. Erica had an unfortunate crash about two laps in and tried to finish out strong.

We started at four o clock… And I was probably the sketchiest person in the field. about 100 k off the line I went to lay some power down and I must have been in between gears because my chain was clunking and bucking me around like crazy. I ended up riding top tube for a little. Then in the first corner I connected bar end with Troy Wells hip which sent me wobbling in the middle of the fast moving group. After that I was pretty good but it seemed like some others caught my sketchyness…

I managed to work my way up to the top ten, which was basically the lead group except for two off the front. Then on the dusty loose down hill JHK was running a slightly flatted rear tire and got loose causing me to get loose and lay the bike down. I would have been fine but then the person behind me ran into me and we both went tumbling through a thick cloud of dust.

When I got back on the bike I was in between the lead and second group so I sat up and latched onto that. Eventually that group split up with two to go thanks to Adam craig hammering away and two other guys and myself grabbed his wheel. I ended up in fifteenth which I am pretty happy about.

Stephen got sixth and jack was top twenty five so we had a pretty good first weekend as a team.

After the races Tj and Chloe headed home, then Erica to California until Fontana, then we went out to dinner (Jack, Stephen, Ben, Daimo, and I).

Jack and I watched Axe Men when we got back then went toes up.

Back to the Springs tomorrow…

pication mcstatoin (sponsored by mcdonalds)