wtf?

I'm all for spay/neutering animals but animal birth control? With Levi?



I guess Lance got all the good endorsements.

A Case of the Rambles

I feel the need to update but there isn't really anything earth shattering going on right now. Nothing new, just more of the same.

I put a carbon Easton EC70 stem on my cx whip. I know better, I do. It just looks so hot. I'll ride it for a day or two and then take it off. Just needed to change something.

My first cx race for keeps isn't until November 3rd. I'll be missing New England Worlds for my honeymoon 'cross the pond in Ireland. I think if I tried to bring the bike to do a race I'd get divorced. Besides, I couldn't find any races. I love you dear.



I raced in Milford. The course was cool. I road McCormic's wheel for a solid lap then made a few bobbles and took up residence off the back. I felt like shit and never came around. Everything sucked. After my sweet ride in Jersey, I put some expectations on myself and did my usual sucking of the turds. That and my legs felt hallow. Maybe too much riding? Who knows for sure.

I'm super excited about Interbike. I wasn't able to talk myself into Vegas but it's always cool to troll the interwebs looking for the new crap I'm going to lust over for the next few months.

I guess now is as good as any to annouce that yet another company has taken pity on me and it hooking a bro up with some swag.

I'll be running Industry Nine wheels this 'cross season. Now pull up your chair nice and close because I'm going to say this once: tubeless. Ok, discuss amongst yourselves. I'll give the wheels the attention they deserve when I get the anodized amazingness sometime after interbike.

It's almost beer o'clock and I'm outtie.

You gotta love the Sunday morning team meeting. Its always good for a double flush, sometimes you get a triple - thats how you know its game on.

Screw it and ride.

It's been my mantra for the last month. August I did lots and lots of miles, some hard, some easy and quick, some stupid, but all fun. No heart rate monitor, just me, my lungs n' guns and unadulterated burrrapin'.

I didn't follow any kind of training plan other than trying to make myself pop on the long rides (a few in the triple digits, riding my cross bike on mtb trails and doing lots of plyos and core workouts. Why? gotta get hard for cycle cross yo.

The plyos ended up being a little more than I thought they would be. I spent most of the week with sore legs that I couldn't quite shake off. Everyday I told myself that I'd take the day to get my legs back. When it came down to it I decided I'd rest tomorrow. I guess its good that I'm doing them because its an obvious weakness.

Resting ended up working out cuse I can't think of the last time I had a shitty ride. The 1track has been perfectly buffed out and fast. I also found a shit ton of new trails right when I thought I'd ridden all the 1track there was to be had at the fells. Plus I've slept like baby.

Anyone got any clue what these things are?

I see them on the trails all the time, and sometimes by the side of the road.

Today I'm racing some cx up in Milford NH. I'm excited to giv'er and let the flag fly. Should be a good event. To say that I'm motivated and excited about cross is a bit of an understatement.

Enjoy the ride ya'll, you'll never know what your going to find next.

Smoking is bad and all but...

If you build it, he will wreck it.

I decided that my 8 year old cousin needed a new bike. I talked Grandma into posting the funds and I found the most bad ass mountain bike a kid could have.

100 mm of travel and disk brakes.

I doubt the kid is over 80 pounds, but the downhillesk BB/Crank combo has got him covered. Oh, and he just learned how to roll his off-road golf cart.

Buuurap!

Sunday's race went well. Lots and lots of fun had by all. Maybe I'll get into roadie meets more and just try and blow myself up and make everyone else misrable. Its a lot of fun that way.

eh, but then again its still a roadie meet.

I saw this tricked out prototype Argon 18 at the shop yesterday....TRICK!

4Sale

I've got tons of tires (mountain bike, road, 'cross). Some slightly used, some new

Stems in all different lengths and clamp sizes

Spinergy Front Wheel

Shifters, brake levers, bottle cages etc...

If there is something you are looking for or want to know more about what I have, leave a comment or contact me through my profile. I want to get rid of some stuff for CX season, so I'm selling cheap yo.

Saturday Night Fever

'Cross in August? Oh yes.

Cross is just so much fun, there isn't much more to say. The race was held at the New Jersey "state" fair. In reality it wasn't much larger than any county fair I've been to, but it was still DOPE.

The course was built inside the demolition derby pit. There were burrmed out turns, whoops, a stair case run up, a dirt pile descent, barriers and of course a few sections of mud. The course was short, .75km, but pretty fast. Oh, and it was under the lights.

My internet boyfriend was there and he P'owned his class. After a slow start up, he road his way through the field to a 4th place finish. I smell an upgrade coming.
My night began shortly after his ended.

The super elimination seemed like a good idea on paper, but with a large lack of foresight from the planners, it ended up being a dud.

After leading much of my first heat, my legs ran out of some punch and I faded to 3rd, just outside moving on to the next round. I got a second chance but soon realized that I was burying myself for nothing. I could move on to the next round but that would require me to bury myself again only using more of my legs up. With a 40 min main event later in the evening, I thought it'd be better to sandbag it and let everyone else use their legs up. The fact of the matter was, I didn't have the interval work required to keep a 5-8 min all out effort. It is only Aug. after all.

The race went well. I avoided the deck at the start as a few people tangled and one guy offered a karate kick to the middle of the field. That was pretty rad. Everything went single file pretty quickly. With a short course in a small area you could see where other people were. I held position in relationship to the leaders for a while. They eventually started attacking each other and lapped me. I wasn't paying any attention to time and didn't realize how many laps to go until about 5 remained. After a while it was me just trying to catch the guy in front of me. Staying full gassed as much as I could. Shit hurts so good yo.

My remounts were kick ass. I've still got somethings to work at getting over the barriers, but this was by far the most consistently best I've gotten over them. Yea that was an awful sentence.

Considering this race was the first time I was really on and off my CX bike since 'Cross Nats last year, I think it went super well. I finished 16th, a straightaway off of a top 15 finish. I'm pretty stoked on how things went.

The race was an excellent motivator to train harder. Also a good reminder of the small changes I need to make to my technique to become that much faster. I'm all kinds of amped up for 'Cross season.

There are lots of excellent photos over at my Flickr account. All of the photos were taken by Bill Moore, who is one of Christophe's friends. I met him for the first time at the race and he's a kick ass dude, who takes amazing photos. I hope to see more of him.

I'm switching over to the dark side this weekend in an effort to get Andy a W in his hometown circuit race. Should be an easy way to get some speed into my legs...