Landlord

Pearl is a bitch!

A few I haven't heard

My college roomate nicknamed "Piss" sent me these:

The opening scene of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" is loosely based on games of dodgeball Chuck Norris played in second grade.

Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.

Chuck Norris doesn't wash his clothes, he disembowels them.

Crop circles are Chuck Norris' way of telling the world that sometimes corn needs to lie down.

Chuck Norris needs a monkeywrench and a blowtorch to masturbate

Recharging

I've been trying to recharge this week after last weeks debacle. Got some recovery rides in, road Rash is mostly healed, and finally got some decent sleep. I had to work over the weekend since we were moving the hospital so wasn't able to do the Rocky MTN Omnium, which included the Hugo Road Race. I think I made a good descision considering there was a huge crash at the crit Thursday, and they neutralized the race. I was really disappointed with how the omnium was organized for the 3s, so didn't mine missing it at all. Instead I did some max efforts up Lookout MTN Sat. and Sun. to see where I'm at. More recovery the next couple of days and hopefully I'll be back to 100% for Dead Dog.

Colorado Cycling Festival - Rist Canyon Road Race

My adventures started Friday when driving to Boulder to pick up my bike. About 1/2 mile past the foothills parkway exit, my left front differential and drive shaft blew up on my car. As I'm calling roadside assistance my cell phone died. I then yelled, threw my phone, and said lot of dirty words. This was just icing on the cake for how my past week had gone. Luckily a service technician from the dealership stopped to make sure I was ok and I borrowed his phone to call my buddy Taylor to come get me so I could pick up my bike before the shop closed. Gotta have priorities. We left the car for the tow truck to pick up and headed on to Fort Collins.

After a quick spin to try to loosen the legs from not riding for two days, Taylor and I joined Owen, and Erin for dinner at Enzo's. Big thanks to Owen and Erin for allowing us to crash at their place.

The Race - I cracked....Not much more to say about the race than that. 4 crits, 2 crashes, travel, little sleep, and stress from work all within a week finally caught up with me. I had no power from the beginning and knew I was going to be in trouble. I got dropped up the climb quick then rode the rest of the race with Brian Huggins from HART. I ended up 46th/60+ starters giving up 13 min to the winner. My race turned into a training ride, and I was able to enjoy the course and views. Even though my effort sucked, the course was awesome. It had a little of everything, flats, long climb, long descent, and steep rollers. My favorite section was the downhill and and the steep rollers across Horsetooth Reservoir. Here is a pic of me on the back of a group of 4 going across the rez. My favorite road course to date. I thought the event was well run, and the BBQ after the race was great way to catch up with everyone and make excuses for how bad we did. I would highly recommend doing this race next year. After detonating, I decided to skip the race Sunday and instead had a great day with my better half. Breakfast at Crepes n' Crepes. I went with the Nutella and strawberries. Lunch and Beers at the Irish Hound. Followed by a afternoon nap and a light dinner at home watching the Soprano's finale. WTF with the ending, hated it.

Tulsa Tough

First let me say this is well run event, with cool courses and a community that is totally behind it. I represented VC for the weekend along with Jon Baker. It was also relative easy travel. Caught a flight from Denver, took the complimentary hotel shuttle to the Race Hotel, which was within a mile of all 3 courses. I would highly recommend doing this race, if you like Crits.

Friday - 7pm start, poured rain the whole race. 10+ crashes. Every time we came through the wheel pit, there were 4-5 dudes getting a free lap. I like racing in the rain and was feeling great. Sitting 10th wheel with three corners left, when the guy on my inside layed it down, sliding under me. I basically rode him across the pavement. Got up adjusted my brakes and rolled in 23rd/100. Minor scratches.

Saturday - Sitting 15th with 5 laps to go, when I heard the infamous "inside, inside" then got t-boned. The guy high sided me and I landed hard on my butt and back. Wasn't able to get up for a while, so didn't get the free lap, plus my bike was screwed. DNF/100

Sunday - crit had a steep climb. Stayed towards the front. 3 guys got away. I goofed up coming through when I saw 1 lap to go on the counter. It was actually for the break that was catching us. I hit it hard up the hill pulling away a group of 4, but then realized I didn't hear the bell, so we got caught going through the start finish again. I was able to hang towards the front the last time through and finished 14th in the field, 17th overall out of 100.

Overall I felt pretty good all weekend, without the crashes, I think I would have pulled some good results. Sunday I was quite sore, especially my lower back which started to act up the last couple of times up the climb. I ended up a lot of road rash on my right elbow and arm, and I left my right butt cheek back in Tulsa. Tailbone was bruised as well.

Other Damage - Broken handlebars, Broken seat, cracked frame, worped both my wheels, broken barrell adjuster on the front brake. I didn't find the crack in my frame until wednesday the following week, after I raced sunday and the Mead training race on Tuesday. Luckily Excel was able to warranty my frame and had me rolling again Satuday for Rist. Big props to Dan at Excel for taking care of me.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend

Cori and I had a great Memorial Day weekend. I got some good long rides in, played a couple rounds of golf, and got to spend some QT with Cori's family. Cori and I squeezed in a quick ride friday before her parents and her brother and his girlfriend arrived. Later that night we had a nice dinner at Table 6. Saturday morning I took off for a 4.5 hour ride from Cherry Creek to Evergreen and back. I had a great ride going up Deer Creek to Parmalee Gulch, Bear Creek, Kerr Gulch, then down the frontage road from Genesse to Golden and Back. It' hard to get my ass out of bed before 6am, but I sure like riding early in the morning. That afternoon, we headed up the the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch. We love that place. Totally relaxing. Cori's Dad is a golf nut, so we played a couple rounds at Red Sky Ranch. Probably the nicest 2 courses I've ever played. I didn't play to bad, considering the last time I swung a club was February. I even managed to get in a good ride Sunday morning out to Wolcott and then up to top of Cordillera and back to the Ritz. We had perfect weather and it was nice to get away for a weekend.

SOLD

2004 54cm Specialized Allez Pro frame and full carbon fork.
Frame is the exact same as the S-Works E5 frames that year, its component mix was less expensive, which is why it was branded Allez.
Fork is also the same as used in the S-Works lineup - however this one is BRAND NEW. Steerer tube is uncut and expander plug is included.
Also included is a new Specialized OS road stem. It has the flip-flop internals so you can adjust the angles in 2 degree increments from -8 to +16.
The pictured seatpost is not included in the asking price but you can make an offer if you're interested.

Geometry - Effective TT 548mm, 73.5 degree STA, 140mm HT length. see specialized.com for more details.

The frame is in Excellent condition. Cosmetically, there are very few blemishes - minimal wear to the paint on the drive-side chainstay, a 3M protector strip was always used. Some small scratches to the seattube where the front derailleur cable rubbed a bit. A small paint chip on the drive-side barrel adjuster near the headtube. The paint on the headtube was protected by the clear stickers.

Weight - 1960g including: stem, headset, bottle cage bolts, seatpost clamp, uncut steerer tube.

Post a comment if you are interested.

Panbeh

Panbeh enjoying his summer haircut. He's our minature Lion.

Cherry Creek Sneak

Here are some pics from the Cherry Creek Sneak that Cori and Blenda ran in a few weeks ago.

Coal Miner's Classic

No redemption was to be had. Legs felt crappy and I got spit after 4 laps. Another DNF. Shit! I think I'm in need of some recovery.

North Boulder Park Crit

Not much to report. Just mad at myself. Goofed around all day at the house doing laundry, running errands, then proceeded to show up late to the race. I only got in about 15 min of warm-up before the start. I knew this race would be extremely hard and fast at the start, and probably need a good 45 min warm-up. Not that it mattered, I couldn't get clicked in so I was about 30 deep going into the first turn. Ugh! A big DNF for me. first one in a long time. I wish I had some better excuses, but no one to blame by myself. I'll be looking for redemption tomorrow.

Marty had a great ride finishing 6th. Way to go Brah.

Henk

I watched Henk Vogels in the WOT crit last weekend, then remembered the last time I saw him. I took this last year during a sprint stage of the Giro into Forli. Henk had got caught behind crash in the last 1km and casually rode it in. McEwen took the win. Wow, can't believe it has already been a year. Cori and I are ready to go back. More from our trip here and here.

WOT Pictures

Check out Jared's picture blog for some pics of WOT Cat 3s

Tulsa Tough Anyone?

I made the descion to do the Tulsa Tough instead of City Park and the State TT the first weekend of June. I just wasn't that excited to do the TT, and I've done City Park before, and while it is a cool course, there is always a couple of crashes. The opportunity to do 3 crits on new courses, against new competion won me over. I'll be traveling/staying with Jon Baker, but racing solo, so if you know any other 3s from Colorado going, let me know. Maybe we could work out a game plan for the races as a Colorado Contingent.

Flights on Frontier right now are ~$222 round trip. Cheaper than what I would spend in gas if I drove. Crazy.

CCTT #6

My homie, Wind, failed to show last night. I was left by myself to battle the course alone. I felt good and the course was fairly fast. I turned a time of 24:05. I was shooting for sub 24, but just didn't get there. Maybe a 1500 dollar disc zipp would have saved me 5 seconds, but who knows. I'm still really happy with the effort. I finally broke the top 10 with 9th place. I was only ~50 seconds off the winner, which was an improvement, because I'm normally ~2 min. One TT left next week.

Wheels of Thunder

Had a large contingent of VC on hand. Brent, Marty, Jayson, Lance, and Jared. I had 2 game plans, try to win some primes, or wait for the finish sprint and hunt some upgrade points. I accomplished neither, but felt I had a great race. Instead, I got bored, and chased down several breaks, and was in a couple others. Coming into the last half a lap, I was sitting about 15th on the top part of the course, and saw Brent and Teno top 5. I knew Brent had been sitting in most of the race, so would be fresh for the sprint so I went to the front to group with them. Their was a JDS rider off the front a couple seconds, and no one wanted to chase. We were still to far out for a lead out, but were starting to get swarmed on both sides, so I decided, now or never. Put my head down with Brent and Teno on my wheel, and got us to the last corner. A guy started his sprint about 600m out (WTF) and came around me. I couldn't match the acceleration at that point, so I swung out letting Brent come through, then swung back in. Brent followed some wheels and finished 5th. I held on for 10th. Teno 16th, Marty 18th, Lance 21st. Jared got caught behind the pile-up on the last lap. I was very happy with 10th since I basically led out the whole field for the sprint, I just didn't have any pop left to sprint. I'm glad everyone finished safely.

While we did have a lot of VC guys in the field today, and several where aggressive trying to get off the front, or chasing things down, I think we could have made the race a lot harder and worked on our organization as a team. I think if we have all 6 of us again, we are strong enough as a team to break it up, but that may mean sacrificing individual results. I would take a win for the team anyday, over a top 10 for myself. Hopefully we can put something together for this weekend.

CCTT #5

I was "supper pumped" (man trip joke) about the race yesterday. It was great weather all day and little to no wind. My goal was to break 24 min. I rolled to the start ~7pm, just as this big ominous black cloud started to roll in. I thought it would hold off for at least another 25 min as it didn't seem to be moving that fast. Anyway I started, easing in to the effort for the first couple of minutes. I felt fairly good, then right before the turnaround, the wind reared it's ugly head. The brunt of it hit me past the Forrest section, with a massive 20+mph head/cross wind the last ~3 miles of the race. I hadn't left a whole lot in the tank, thinking I would have little wind the whole race, and I wanted to keep my effort steady most of the race. I went from turning over a 53x11-13 most of the race to 53x21 into the headwind, which also coincided with the small rises in the course on the way back. I also got rained on the last 4 min of the race. What a way to finish. I was pretty pissed when I got back about a situation I couldn't do anything about. Ty was waiting for me inside Tim's truck trying to stay dry, and his assessment of the race was about the same as mine.
Anyway, I turned a time of 24:42 good enough for 11th place.
Got leap frogged by several guys that had early start times. Looks like most times for the early guys were ~1 min faster, were mine was ~ 30 sec. Only thing to compare was that the rider that takes off 40 sec in front of me is also Cat 3, and we had basically the exact same conditions. He has been consistently 5th or 6th every week about a minute faster than me, but this week he only got me by 6 seconds. He probably had a bad week, but I'm gonna tell myself that I'm just getting faster.

To my friend:

Wind,

We've had a close relationship over the past month. Just when I thought you had left me, there you were today. Glad I wasn't alone for the last 4 miles of the CCTT. Thanks for showing the love. I mean it. Look forward to seeing you next week as well.

Your bud,

Casey

Rocky Mounts Crit

Rocky Mounts Crit - One of the best things about upgrading to a 3 has been the later start times. No more getting up at 6am. However, yesterday the later time, meant racing in the rain for an hour. It started coming down right before our 4:30 pm start. About midday I was searching for motivation to race as it looked like it was going to rain, then I remembered what Brent told me after Lincoln. "Dugan, from now on you like racing in the rain. It's one of your advantages." With that in mind I made the trip to louisville. Brent and Marty also joined me. I also wanted to at least finish this crit, the previous 2 times I had done it, I got dropped. This course was actually my first crit ever 3 years ago. I had moved from STL, my goal was a top 20, which I thought wouldn't be to hard considering I was finishing in the top half of sport MTB races bact in STL. I held on for about 1 lap in the 4s, and remember thinking what did I get myself into. Now I can laugh, but that was my first CO racing experience. Anyway, yesterday I just tried to stay up front and wide on the corners so I didn't have to brake. Game time descion had me swith to my training wheels from my zipps, which probably saved my hiney more that once during the race. Zipps don't brake worth a shit in the rain, even with the new zero gravity brakes. I had one guy ask me with about 15 mins left if I wanted to give it a go, to which I replied, "not really". Reason being they were chasing pretty well everything down, or so I thought. He attacked on the uphill and was quickly brought back. With three laps to go Brent, Marty, and I all moved up to the front. 2 guys went on the hill, opening up a gap, then another 2 Denver Spoke guys. I jumped on their wheel, and I think Marty was on mine. I opened up a gap from those guys, not wanting to chase that early, so Marty jumped to bridge and I opened up a gap to get them off the front. Then Collins and another guy came around to start the chase towards the finish, so I just sat on their wheels. My plan was to counter as soon as they caught Marty, but he was holding strong off the front, trying to catch the Denver Spoke guys. I was just following Collins wheel, so when he started, so did I. We caught Marty about 50m before the finish. I tried to come around Collins, I got about half way and clicked for another gear, and got nothing. I had being missing a shift the last half the race, and I guess I was in the lucky gear again. Afterwards Collins said he saw me trying to sneak past him. I'll get him next time :) I was happy with my performance, until I found out 2 guys attacked 1st lap and lapped the field. How did we all miss this? Then apparently 2 more guys got off the front and held on, So what I thought was a top 5 turned out to be 8th. Marty held on for 9th as well. Looking back I should have probably closed that gap to the Denver Spoke guys, so that when Marty attacked, they wouldn't have been off the front. I never thought they would hold it to the end. Oh well.