The picture on the right is about 5 years old.....I was a cat 3...in Jackson Hole, WY...raced like 6 time a year and couldn't start my season
until April or may and that was usually in the snow and peppered with weekly climbing and skiing trips.....the pic below is from a from a year ago.....I now live in Marin Ca, train 5 days a week... year round. I've gone from a do it all 180 lb, climbing, skiing, biking, carpenter bum. to a lean 165lb Lycra clad stick figure.........My body has been completely changed. I wear pants with a wast size of 31 instead of 33 or 34...I've added new holes to my belt....and my old tight shirts that I was notorious for wearing hang off of me......I have no face or ass..............and the thought of climbing rocks and mountains scares the shit out of me........

I feel like a different person with vivid flashbacks of a previous life when I used to run up and down mountains like this all day with nothing but a man purse,(an almost uselessly small pack that can barely hold a water bottle, sticky climbing shoes, windbreaker, and cliff bars). I sure miss it..........but can't imagine what it would be like to jump back into that life.....forward and onward for now.....the bike is where I belong in this moment. Have to save these images for my dreams.

Cherrie Pie 2010 the second time around

A new season is finally under way. New teams, same faces, different jerseys. Its interesting trying to figure out who is who....and on what team....but I'll tell you what.
The team to pay attention to seems to be Yahoo Cycling. They have some strong individuals. However, their real strength lies in two areas, shear numbers and the wisdom of X-Olympians/professionals....this will be a team that is going to be very competitive all year. I think Cal-Giant has finally been knocked off of their pedestal and has been sent hurtling backwards trying to get a grip on things..........Me, well, I'm looking forward to being the underdog......its a ton of fun.

Here's how it went down.
The Pace was brisk from the gun, and moving around was way easy. I followed Andrew Talansky and a Yahoo rider with the first move....After that was brought back...I chilled for a bit and when the next combo of cal giant and yahoo went up the road I easily latched on.....Each attempt was brought back, however, which is probably a given since we were only ten laps in.
I don't remember exactly, but about 20 min into this 60 min race I dug super deep, trying hard to sell something that looked as thought it was going to stick. Well I think I was the big fish taking the bait and I blew up pretty hard. Hard enough to miss out on the next move with included 5 yahoo riders and a member or two of every other team worth a shit. Bummer....that was the race.
The rest of the time we played a game of burn your matches and be a rabbit....While all the Fox's were up the road. Riders kept digging deep trying to make it across solo......but yahoo kept a leash on everything.

Yahoo keeping me under control....or contained ..whatever you want to call it.

I had only one teammate at this race, Eric Ficher. He's the CA U-23 state champ and this was my first time racing with him. Eric surprised me with his heads up racing and I'm excited to race with him in the future. One moment that makes me happier than anything, was seeing Eric following a cal giant rider up to my wheel after I put in a huge effort to get away and bridge up to the leaders. To me this is heads up racing...we had two teammates and no yahoo's in it. The only problem is that I have no throttle control and hit the gas a bit hard for too long, opening up a gap that required a lot of effort for Eric and cal giant to cross...by the time they made it up to me we were all pretty cooked and only stayed away for a lap and a half. My bad...for sure, I should have let up or let off as soon as I had the gap or not jumped so hard since It wasn't my intent to go it alone.. Still learning my own strengths and it can be a fine line......you don't allways have to give the biggest effort you have. Any rate it was a fun season opener and I consider this on the job training......I'm learning quick....and I'm glad to have a teammate thats keying in to an aggressive style of racing.
In the end I took a top 10 in the field sprint, and Eric finished safely in the pack.
I'm very happy with my form and felt like I could move around easily in the bunch. This makes me very excited for the later part of the season.
Especially The Gila, Elkhorn Classic, and Nationals.
Cheers.



P.S,
I LOVE MY PEGORETTI
Its by far the best bike on the planet.
and I raced it with clinchers.

Who needs Cliff bars?

Eat like a horse
A trio of beets
A bunch of carrots
Raw cheese

In chronologic order

Bang.......! Stomach Bug..... 11 days on and off, hot and cold. Nausea, head spinning like a drunken dope on PMS.....luckily no puking.. My usually voracious appetite turned into meager helpings of Kombucha and toast....I completely lost my appetite..even water would make me want to puke..... which I guess is a great way to lose 5 lbs....but shit....Now my pants don't fit.

4 days after the nausea bug...
I Crash on a training ride with some friends....launching myself across the pavement without my bike......the Lycra from my shorts melted, smoldering like fresh roadkill, drug across chip-sealed gravel and skidded upon until it became one with my skin. I ended up sliding over 25' on my left hip and elbow....Thankfully the road was cut into the side of a hill and the brutally abrasive slide was brought to a halt as I barreled into it.

Two days later my 23 year old Toyota decides to go into a coma or maybe it just left on an acid trip...wherever it is I hope it feels euphoric and comes back soon.
The outcome is pending.

I should have known some funk was up when the rain came.
The day the first drop plummeted from the sky, was the first day I felt sick.
and then the rain continued.........
.
Sick, broken, and car-less..no money either...but that's typical.

Well at the very least I can't fall behind on training, so I'm up at 6am...on my bike by 7ish...home at 11:00 and like an anorexic penguin tearing my soaking wet clothes off slumbering into the shower. This is when I do my laundry and hand wash my cycling clothing......and defrost my toes.
After the shower comes the time where I'm supposed to take a nap, eat some food, rest and recover a bit.
No! You Dink...remember I have no money.
This is were I put my Lycra back on, throw some dry clothes in a backpack, and ride to work in the rain like an Idiot.
This process more or less repeats itself for a week....
I'm Hammered after just a few days of this...If you though I was a ray of sunshine, you should see me now.
Then just around Victoria's birthday, things start to look a little on the up.
We stay the night in a secluded Bed and Breakfast in Invernes. In the morning we have an awesome breakfast....and get an amazing 4 hour weather window between storm systems. We take advantage checking out the huge waves and watch the ocean rage in the sunshine along the beach. Then pack our shit and hit it so I'm too work by 2pm...I've arranged to be in 2 hours late...
As soon as I get back to Mill Valley, I smash Victoria's borrowed car into the curb tearing a hole in the side of the one tire she bought last week. Yep, just one.....go figure....well she had a spare....but no jack...no wrench for the lug nuts...fuck!....I had to improvise and guess what?.....It started raining again within minutes of mounting the tire.....and just kept on raining...fucking rain....punch yourself in the face!

The next night while toasting some bread in our toaster oven...the damn thing caught fire and burst into flames...I opened the door and the flames lunged out at my face....so I slammed it shut..unplugged it...picked it up by the handles...and launched it outside..
Three minutes later my landlord calls......just a coincidence, turns out that he hit his head on a metal cabinet and tore a flap of skin off his head..........so I'm
over there picking through crusty blood and hair trying to assess the damage for him....He was OK...but that was not what I had in mind for desert.
Meanwhile, my house smells like a pack of Marb's...and for the next 4 days I smell like a chain smoker...Victoria gets sick and pukes her brains out.....I play frozen anorexic penguin on my bike mostly only getting in partial rides and sleeping in a hole of anxiety about my health, dieing truck, lack of training...and life as a bike racer.........UH.
Could be worse...

Well, that was a nice reality check....Love being an auto dependent consumerist American....Life is great when if revolves only around You. Jerk. Yea I'm talking about me........and the rest of us.
Well
Now it's finally quit raining and my training is back on track.....along with my motivation...hopefully my truck comes back to life and I can conginue to burn dead dino's following through with my commitment as a loyal American to speed up the global warming process...

I'd like to give a great thanks to everyone that helped me out and listened to me gripe....Thanks for the rides home from work they were a life saver, (thanks Woody)......And thanks for not firing me after coming into work late almost every day, (Chad).
And to everyone else.......get out and enjoy the SUN......every chance you get...you never know when It may start raining..
Also get a Fender.....at least you'll have a dry ass.

Road Rash

I hate when this happens...

Back on it.

Plugged back in.........Comcast has me by the balls with the typical corporate monopoly shit, I don't like to support these lamo's..........but that's my only option at my place, I'm just as bad as they are.......sweet. Should I start revolution? Nah.......I'm going riding..........I'm sure one day, as history repeats itself, the large Apes will fall under their own scandalous footing. Until then.

Happy F-ing New year.


This is Mt Albright in Jackson Hole, WY......She was a daily choice for skinning in the Tetons. Great snow, challenging terrain, and amazing views.
This is where we would go when we wanted a relatively safe alpine experience and 4000' in one shot.
For seven years I skied this peak...sometimes solo.....sometimes with good friends.
And
From Day one as a young and naive adventurist......my gracious mentors warned me of
its looming potential.
Glad to be riding my bike and not dead under the debris from the recent
avalanche activity.
Hope my friends are playing it safe. enough.

lame excuse.....

I have no internet.......No blogging for a bit.......sorry! Who reads this jargon any rate!

Soon.......promise

Bacon