January Trainig Race

Well with such great weather we knew the first official race of the TX calendar would be fast and hopefully safe. We showed up with Leo F., Edgar I., Henry S., Mike B., Scott K., and Steen R. We know this is still January and still early, so we just wanted to get a feeling of where our training was compared to the rest of the guys. There was a great showing in the Pro 1, 2, 3-field. Everyone showed up and they were ready to show what they had been doing in the off-season. Scott Kaisin went off with a break of about 7 riders and with 83 miles to go, we knew it would come back or so we thought. Henry and Mike Brown were riding strong and at the front of the peloton for the 1st lap of 2. We made the famous right turn into the crosswinds where if you were in the wrong place the guys at the front would make you pay for it and drop you from the field. Brett Crosby from the Specialized factory team was the first casualty of the big guns in that section. With about 2 miles left of that tough crosswind section we knew it would be a tough second lap. Leo was able to punch it at 31mph and hurt the rest of the wounded riders. The field was finally left with about 30 riders trying to catch a field of 10 up the road; they had about 1min on the chase. Edgar looked at Leo and said, “You should have gone earlier and made it to that break!!” As Leo looked at Edgar he simply replied, “I don’t have the snap yet but I do have the punch and will punch it to take you up the break.” He looked with disbelief and continued to ride in the chase. The group began to slow down and that was all Leo needed to hit them at the right time. Leo punched it at 41mph and only Dewald from Snow Valley presented by Seal On, Barry Lee from THSJ, and Zach Fiocca from Brain and Spine were able to grab his wheel. At the base of the first climb Dewald took a pull and Barry Lee was satisfied with sitting on. The plan to rattle the chase group just enough but hurt them at the same time worked, and we were able to get Edgar and Henry to the break where Kasin was. With 3k to go Edgar made a suicide attempt for the win but it back-fired since Henry was still on the break. Henry was able to hit them just right on the sprint to come up with a 4th place and Edgar with 8th, Kaisin ?, Mike Brown and Leo Frayre finished in the same chase group.
Not bad for the first “training” race. We look ready for the first TX Cup race. Only two guys where not able to show up: Chris Powers and Sam Childs.

CX Race

Here I stand before you thinking "who needs to train for cx racing?, don't you just get on and race like any other race? This should be a load of FUN!!



...and we are off!, my plan was to stay with my buddy Chris as long as possible.
The group was small but loaded with talent. Will Black decided to show up and give us a lesson on "how to" race cx.


Here I'm drilling just to try to pace my man Chris after a crash early (1st lap) of the race.


I was feeling great, and having loads of fun for the first 5min, then I realized how bad this hurt.
I was in so much pain I even looked at my watch just to see how much longer we had in the race, it read 27min, SUCK, 30min to go. This was no longer fun at all. I was not doing it to place but according to Brice, I was doing the race for "a hard effort" training day, HARD was to say the least. I don't know how these guys do it, they are like, to quote Chris, "deers on wheelz" I placed 6th and Chris placed 5th, one place out of the money. I thought I did great by just finishing the race! Next time I will have to train for it.

Recovery Ride

Well, today I went for a recovery ride and let me just say I felt great, well that is ofcourse mostly because I was riding on an average of 14mph. Ha! After yesterday's "hard" training I did, I needed to go easy. I went to the RBM south grand prix and that it was. Crozzman showed up and ofcourse the ride would not be complete without the "trash-talkin-TINman". Unfortunately for the TINman (Randall Tinney) he blew up like popcorn on a hot skillet. He decided not to meet us back at the lake and ended up riding home to crawl under his sheets as Crozzman would say. I ended up getting just over 4.30hrs in. I forgot to mention that I'm finally done with my paramedic schooling. I took the National Registry on Dec 9 and just found out that I "passed" baby. Will have to celebrate later, off to sleep like a cat.

Station 11

This is the famous Station 11










I'm actually riding on the truck today. Leftside ofcourse, short ladder and pike pole man.







This is when we got a box in Downtown "D" Dallas







Ofcourse we could not make it without having a hardy breakfast!






I ofcourse was also pumping Iron. They do say you have to be able to pump your own weight on the bench press, so ofcourse I started getting after it.