A gold star for the US

This may be old news to some of you, but yesterday one of my favorite bike racers became a world champion. Jennie Reed took the former world champion and clear race favorite Victoria Pendleton at the line. I can't think of a racer who deserves to be a world champion more that Jennie. Congratulations!

The Video

POC

I am not going to post about my race, but I will post these links to other people's race reports. I think they give a good overview of the race.

http://www.veloreview.com/obra3/2008/03/piece-of-cake-2.html/#comment-2487

http://marcroftcycles.blogspot.com/2008/03/poc.html

http://commoncyclist.blogspot.com/2008/03/piece-of-shite.html

It was not exactly a shining moment of OBRA glory.

The boss

We went and saw the Boss last night. That guy is old, but he still rocks. I had to work late and showed up an hour and a half late. But in true rockstar form, he was just taking the stage when I was walking in.

The track WC's have been interesting. The Brits have been dominating. Hoy. Won the sprints, making him the first person to be a world champ in all four sprint events. The US hasn't really show up yet. Hammer lost the gold in the Pursuit, and I say lost because is was hers to loose to a girl who only started riding bikes two years ago. Hopefully Jennie will be our bright star. She is in the semifinals for the sprints, and then she has the keiren.

I can't wait to see how many laps Cavendish (sp?) and Wiggins take in the Madison. I think they are going to be unstoppable.

Piece of Cake is tomorrow. The forcast looks like bad weather and fast racing. Should be fun. I might write about it later if I do well.
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Epic Ride

Mark, Hulick and I did the Sandy River/Bull Run loop last night. We encountered 4 hail storms and Mark rode so hard that he tore apart his bike. There is nothing like a 4 hour ride to make you feel tired at work the next morning.

Andrea's Home!!!

Andrea made it home yesterday from her vacation in Spain. I sat waiting at the airport for about an hour or so as their plane was late and they had to go through customs and all. But it is very nice to have her back and safe. She got me a huge Lindt chocolate bunny for Easter. I got her roses.

Not much to report from the Independence Valley race except that it was fun racing with Dan and 'veed.

Coming Home

I am coming home from Boston tonight, a day early. I might actually get to ride my bike this week before we go up for the Independence Valley race. It is going to be Dan and 'Veed's first Cat 1/2 race, but it should be a good course for them as they both can climb and they are both strong on the flats. Mark, Tony and Mr. Watson are coming up too, I think, so we should have a good showing. Racing in Washington is always different than the OBRA races. More people, different racers and a generally stronger field. Hopefully one of the Lovers will have the legs to do something and make it worth the trip.

Andrea is still having a good time in Spain, but apparently the fish she ordered yesterday still had a head and eyes. Needless to say, she couldn't eat it, but she did say it definitely looked fresh!

Don't complain...

It’s snowing in Boston and gas is over $4 a gallon.

A spell on you

Lucifer, the devil rabbit, now thinks that he owns our kitchen. Every time I go in there, he gives me the evil eye like I am intruding on his personal time. He is not a very nice rabbit, but he is very smart. I think that he knew he would eventually be put outside with the other two rabbits, so he did house train himself to use a little litter box. This seems to be his only redeeming trait. He is also cute, but don't let him put his cute spell on you because he has a heart as black as his beady little eyes.
I didn't do anything for St. Patty's day except stay at home to get ready to go to Boston today. I did go to the store and found out that you can buy a dozen donuts in the evening for a buck. I finally found all the e-mails that Andrea has been sending to me from Spain, they were going into my Junk mail folder. Here is a little bit:

"After walking along the beach, we came back to the hotel and sunbathed for a few hours next to the pool. The pool was beautiful but unheated so I didn´t go in, but no worries - I totally will before the end of the trip. I did a bike workout today: 3 sets of 5x30 second jumps. It was a long and brutal workout on that saddle - it is so cushy and I´m getting major inner thigh friction from it. Some little girl (German family) when I was leaving was asking her dad why my bike shorts (i was wearing the classic velo bella ones) were so colorful and cool. He said that I no doubt ´raced on a professional Italian women´s cycling team.´I´m glad I come across as a pro Italian cyclist. That works! I think it was the ´bella´ that turned him onto that. Isn´t that hilarious though?"

BB3

Another good day a racing today. It stayed dry for us even thought the roads were a bit wet at the start. Apparently this gave a few riders the great idea to attack right from the start. This quickly turned into a break of 8 riders that good a few minutes in the field. The first three laps were a lulling pace, but things heated up after that as the field became determined to bring back the break. Apparently things were heating up in the break too. We started to see riders coming back to the peloton until there were only two left off the front. Despite great efforts by CMG and others, Omer Kem and Jason Sager stayed off. The sprint was fast and furious again and in the end I placed 7th, again.

Veed placed 3rd again, but more importantly, he earned the rest of his upgrade points. So from now one the Lovers will have a team of 7 in the Cat 1/2 field. I am really excited to race with Veed and Mensher as the a both strong racers and great people.

Andrea called me from Spain today. She is doing well and having fun. Hopefully she will be sending me some pictures soon.

Alone

Andrea flew off to Spain for 10 days for her spring break trip. I only have the rabbits to keep me company now. But it is going to be a busy weekend of riding and racing. Then on Sunday night I am fly back to Boston for a week. I get back Friday, just in time for the Independence Valley race and then pick up Andrea on Sunday.

New Site, kind of

I had a little time and decided that I was kind of sick of writing my own code for this webpage. It took a long time of editing the CSS for the blogger template, but I finally got it to look almost exactly like my old site.
So, welcome to my new site that is powered by blogger!

BB2 and the Sick

I stayed home sick today. Not for me, but because Andrea spent most of the night in the bathroom with food poisoning. I have never had it and now I really never wish to have it. I hear the only good thing about it is that it passes quickly.
The Lovers were out in force at BB#2 yesterday. T-Bear and Watson came out to play with Matt and I in the 1/2 field. The Kevins joined Veed, Mesher and Greg in the 3s. Alalia and Kit took on the Sr. Woman’s field with Joanna and Laurie with the Cat 4 woman. And the results went fairly well. Jo won the her race, Veed place 3rd again in the 3s with Dan close on his heals in 6th.
The 1/2 race was a lot more aggressive this week and surprisingly was all together at the end. It was fast, furious and sketchy sprint, but everyone stayed up and Mr. Rathe came out on top a second time in 8 days. I placed 7th and Tony, who gave everything he had for me in the end, placed 14th.
Hopefully Blackwelder will kick the crap that he has and be out for the last BB next weekend. Oregon Cup points are up for grabs, so everyone will be out for blood.

BB1

It was a good weekend for the lovers. As predicted, Dan and Veed showed the Cat 3 field a thing or two about racing, placing 1st and 3rd. Joanna is on a perfect streak or 2nd place so far this year. One more and they may force an upgrade.
The Cat 1/2 race was not so great as Watson, T-bear and Markwelder were all sick/tired and did not race. Matt and I tired to give it our best, but my lack of any intensity so far this year really showed. Nether of us made the break, but I did finish 4th in the field sprint for 12th place overall. My Six Day partner, James Lingwood, made an apperance in the peloton. His new Gregg's kit looks sharp.

BBWC

The Banana Belt World Championships start tomorrow. The weather is suppose to be better than today, so everyone should be in good spirits and ready to flex their spring muscles. The Lovers are two down as Markwelder and T-Bear are staying home with the Sick that is everywhere. But Watts(on), Man Honey and I will be representing. It seems things have come a long ways for the team since last year if two riders are out and the Lovers still have enough to represent in the 1/2 race.
On the subject of representing, Veed, Dan and Greg are going to be showing the Cat 3 field how to earn upgrade points. Joanna will be racing for that same manna in Cat 4 woman’s field.
Check back to see how it goes. Hopefully it will be good news.