It's not fun.

It's just not good when you start out from a stoplight next to a nice big protective truck, only to have the truck accelerate out ahead of a mini-van blowing through a REALLY red light. I was wondering why he had just hit the gas so hard and as I looked to my left past the trucks rear bumper I saw why. The mini van was a whopping 2-3 feet away from me going about 30 mph. I remember thinking "this is going to hurt". BANG- my bike and leg hit the bumper, I roll over onto the hood and then proceed to bounce off in a diagonal direction. I fly a few feet through the air (distinctly like hitting a big jump on skis but WAY off balance). I landed on my left hip bone and slid a few feet to a stop. My bike flew a few feet further. I looked over and was looking at the mini-vans rear wheel.

As I came to a stop I remember thinking, "Wow, that wasn't that bad!" I had a bunch of road rash, my hip looked pretty nasty and my left thumb hurt like hell. It was only later that night when I was sitting in the ER did my wrist start to hurt even though I was on pain killers already. They took a TON of x-rays (I was in the room for over an hour). Everything looked pretty intact except for my right wrist and my left thumb. Both of those are in splints until I go see the orthopedic surgeon on Monday. They thumb might need some repair work.

The good new came the next morning when I discovered I could wipe my own rear end still. Beth was literally jumping for joy over that one. I'm rolling along pretty good for a guy without the use of his thumbs. I can ride the trainer but the sweat breaks down the splints, not the best thing for me to do.

My parents are coming up to help me move and put the finishing touches on the new office. Look for updates on my recovery and the new place soon!

June

June was OK. Beth and I went to visit family in Houston after Hood and I was busy getting my new office remodeled.

Racing was marginal at best. We missed the move at Hugo and despite a long and hard chase we didn't even crack the top ten. Prom park didn't go much better, Chuck and Alan got out manuvered by GS Ciao.

Dead Dog was cool with Christian on FIRE. I ended up 6th, through technicalities and then moved up to 4th through even more technicalities. Wierd race in terms of guy breaking rules.

That racing stuff was all fun and games until tuesday when BANG I got smacked by a car heading out of town.

Mt Hood Wrap Up

Considering it was almost a month ago I've decided to do wrap up on Mt. Hood. Due to many recent developments it's probably the last NRC race I will ever travel to. At Hood:

I ruined a pair of shorts, jersey and socks due to lack of a good washing machine.

The accompanying dryer literally ATE my shoe covers and another jersey.

We made a whopping $000,000.00 in prize money.

I blew around $800 on getting there, rental car, housing, entry fee and various crap.

It was ALMOST all worth it for this attack on the final climb of the last day (after flatting on the first climb):

Lookin purty out now

But it sure wasn't this morning when we were racing. Yesterday was cool except the downhill finish that strangely reminded me of last year's Tour of Utah stage that ended up almost killing a fellow racer in a 40mph finish line crash. It rained the last half lap which added to the fear factor.

Today was wet, kinda cold and a bit lame. I'm always amazed how many guys are afraid to race when a team like Health Net is riding tempo. They only have 2 guys working and if several guy hit it hard later in the race it would really spic up the race. Unfortunately, everyone seems content to see how well they can follow the top 5 guys at the finish.

I tired to spice it up a bit with one lap to go but there was a serious lack of participation from other teams so I ended up burning the matches I needed for the finish. Baker was up there so that worked out well. CC Rider was in the break until 1 lap to go and was again living up to his reputation as an early break specialist in road races. I'm really hoping it will pay off soon with a win at a mtn race like this.

Baker's whipping up a mean smelling dinner, the boy can ride AND cook. He's the real deal.

Greetings from Oregon

It's been a while but I'm back for a while.

Chuck, baker and I are in Hood River Oregon for the Mt Hood classic. This place is pretty cool and we're all looking forward to some good racing. We did the Prologue today and are currently waiting for results.

For now let's Recap:

Last day of gila= Horrible
Wheels of Thunder= Still pretty bad
Storage Wreck= Much better.
RMO= hoping I'm rested enough to race for 8 out of 9 days.

I've done a block like this before but have never done really big races in the time frame. We should know on Friday. It's a pretty long, hard day and it's supposed to rain. Tomorrow will be tense as there's a lot of guys and it seems like there's a wide variety of skill levels. Would be nice to see a race this big be pro-1 with a seperate cat 2 field.

I'm still waiting to find out how Whitey ended up with off the bike activities last weekend in Utah. Anyone?

I'd Like a Gila Wrap

Gila was definitely a roller coaster for me. I managed to make the main break in the crit the day after the inner-loop. Some more not so well planned Cref tactics had our break caught at 6 laps to go. They did luck out with their sprinter nipping the win from an already celebrating Gord Fraser. Ouch, that got to hurt.

I felt pretty bad at the start the next day and it only got worse. I found myself getting dropped by the guy who won the crit on the gila monster. It was pretty much an embarassment. Baker crashed hard on the next decent after climbing like a bad-ass and almost taking the big prize at the top of the gila monster. I stopped to get the story and then start figuring out how we were going to get home on the 20 mile death crawl to the finish. To make matter worse the group I was with took off when I got flicked from a hand hold spot on the "aussie express" tow-ya-to-the-finish-mate car. one second they were there, I don't a spot and then they were gone.

Baker ended up being ok, but not after having four emergency vomit stops on the way home. Perckocet and MacDonalds don't mix very well alone, we also decided to drive one of the most twisty roads in Nem Mexico to add to the fun. He's had a very rough few days.

Bagel Boy Donald won the last day at the race with a superb lead out from wing man Garcia. Now that Oak Glen is gone I think the Gila Monster is probably the hardest non-UCI day of stage racing in the country. There's no easy way to the finish. A big hats off to that team for a very impressive win.

Lucky Day... Almost

Made the first break yesterday which Toyota/United thought was too strong. They brought it back at the base of the climb where a Sierra Nevada guy attacked. The Toyota guys were spread across the whole road and when a hole opened up I shot through it to see if anyone would react. No one did and Dietrich waited for me. I caught him, completely redlined and we rode up the climb. I was finally able to get my legs and lungs back on the decent and we slowly built time. We knew were in luck when our gap was still over 4 minutes at the last feed zone. Toyota/United seemed content to let us take the stage and time bonuses. Things looked real good until TIAA-Cref decided they wanted to bring us back so their sprinter could try for the win. They succeeded in bringing us back, about 25 meters from the line, but it played into Moninger's benefit as he got another small time bonus on Baldwin. No Cref guys made the top ten. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Crit today, I like the course and have ridden well there before. Might be a bit cooked from yesterday though. CC is looking good and should be the man today.