I like my Vegas slogan better. I hate that place with a passion. What an armpit! The bike show was pretty sweet though and I haven’t been since I was a teenager, that was like a decade ago, shit I am getting old.

Louis Garneau had a sweet booth. Next years stuff looks awesome and I can’t wait to ride it again next season. They made some really sweet banners of some of their sponsored riders. It was fun mingling with the people and seeing friends from back home who helped me get started in the whole sport. It made me feel good to be there and a part of a team like Jittery Joe’s, and I got to show off the huge banner. Pretty sweet! There are some more photos from Vegas on my Flickr page. I especially like the one of Hopkins passed out on the bed with the remote in his hand.

Cross Vegas was a great event. The course was pretty good with some long laps and challenging turns. i think I was the only one to dump it in the run up over the barriers. Stacked it up with one half of a lap to go. Went from battling for 11th to 13th in a couple seconds. My start was terrible and needs some work. I was third row and by the time we came back around the finish line I was in about 50th. I forget how fast you have to start. I moved up quickly though and then went for it on the 3rd lap and was only about 10 meters from being on the leaders group when Trebone attacked, Kapow! I went right back to the group I was in. I was happy though and Garneau was very stoked to see us out there on the cross scene. All the empolyees were screaming for us all over the course. Thanks for all of the support.

The crit on Thursday, let’s just say that part can stay in Vegas. The course was pretty lame but had some good sections. The crowd was good and the money was great. The crash after clipping in and going 100 yard, not so cool. I didn’t even get to the first corner before having to go to the pits. Did some more laps, more crashes, over it and out. Lame!

I am in Gallup New Mexico now at the Squash Blossom Classic. I did the time trial this morning and got 3rd. Ben Kneller won , no surprize, JR Grabinger from Successful Living was 2nd. I felt pretty crappy after all the travel, but it wasn’t to bad and I did o.k.

Next up is the crit in about 3 hours, Giddy up! Winds are 40+ MPH right now. but there is a good hill and a smoking turn at the bottom and the finish is only 50 meters from the corner. So my sprint will start at the top of the climb. Wis me luck!

Yesterday was the annual Squawker classic collegiate race. The Short Track kicked it off and instead of racing, I worked the registration to help out a little. Being a racer, usually I am the one registering and complaining about how long it takes to get through all the hoops of registration. After doing a few hours of dealing with whiny college mountain bikers, I have a new found respect for the people volunteering to put up with your shit.

I got some sweet photos and put some up on flicker. Should have some videos up soon as well of Noah Singer taking the win. Some good racing and teamwork from Joey Thompson stuffing the CU rider in the last couple turns. It was an exciting race. The picture above is Chad Wells, dumping it in the corner. Not a bad picture for my amateur photography skills.

I got my cross bike last Friday. I have two rides down and so far two flats! I actually did a pretty epic ride on the cross bike yesterday and rode up the Colorado Trail and down Hoffeins and out Dry Fork. I have never ridden a cross bike up that high. It was pretty sweet and a good thing as my cross skills are lacking right now. The first race is in three days in Las Vegas. I am pretty excited to get to go to the bike show and race too. It will be a great time and I am looking foreword to the scene.

Not much else going on, lame update, just nothing exciting to talk about. Have a goooood one!

This is Rob from Bread. He is the owner and operator of the local bakery here in Durango (the best coffee and baked goods in all the land). He came out on the Boure bike fest ride today and instead of rocking a helmet, he wor his turban. I think he is part of the axis of evil with his cookies and pastries. Another weapon of mass destruction. I threw up a few more photos that are on flickr, check them out.

Wow, sorry for the lack of updates. It has been over a week now. Well allot of things happened last week. Big things for me and I am very excited.

First, I re-signed with Jittery Joe’s for next season. I will be back again for another year of racing with the flaming coffee cups and mini coopers. I am very excited about this. Jittery Joe’s is a great program with a bunch of good riders and great guys. The management is great and the support from everyone in Georgia is awesome. I think next season is going to be a good year for cycling and hopefully a good year for me on the racing front.

Another new development in my life is that I have signed on with Colorado Premier Training. In the recent past I have done some coaching as an intern for college and also on my own to help some of the aspiring local cyclists. It has gone really well to say the least. I will be working with CPT as a coach. I am hoping to get lots of information out of the new wind tunnel that they just opened in Colorado Springs and have already began the process of trying to get some time in it. I need all the help I can get to make my time trial better. Tune up the engine and the position and hopefully I can have a go next season.

My off week was great! I ate, ate some more, ate some more, and then after that I drank a few beers, and ate some more. It was a good break and much needed. I have been back in the saddle for the last week now and actually felt pretty strong for not riding in a week on the last hard ride I did. I am just trying to be fast enough in Vegas not to be an embarassment. The cross season is just long enough that if you come out swinging to soon, you will be down for the count before making all the rounds.

That’s about it. I will try to keep the updates more frequent now. Thanks for stopping by the site.

I woke up this morning still feeling a bit under the weather. I am in the last two days of my offy before ramping it back up for the cyclocross season. Instead of a mountain bike ride up the Colorado Trail which I have done endless times, I decided to climb up Engineer Mountain. It is really just a hike with some technical exposed bouldering sections.

I managed to talk my roomate Jay Rush into tagging along. It was an awesome day and I am so glad I did it. Finally, after 7 years living in Durango I went out and tackled that thing. We knocked it out in under 3 hours from the trailhead. We were going pretty quick. On the way down my legs were getting so tired. I used to climb a long time ago and when you are tired your legs start to shake up and down like a sewing machine (AKA Elvis Leg).

We made it no problems and the day was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky. It was a little chilly at the top since you are just under 13,000 feet! There was a bit of smoke from the forest fires to pollute our viewing. I have to say that I had a blast and will be doing some more of that soon, maybe even tomorrow as it is the last day of my offy before cross. Check out the rest of the photos by clicking on the image and looking at the Engineer Expedition file. Quick update more later……