I'm watching the San Jose Grand Prix on the Speed Channel, in my home town
of San Jose, Ca. I wish I was there, nothing like unadulterated horsepower
to get your juices flowing. I'm recognizing all these little sections, and
they jump these train tracks (not too cool in Champ Cars) that go straight
up to my apartment. Yeah, 170 mph and I'm not there.

Finally, a lazy morning where we can sleep as long as possible, have a
leisurely breakfast, and race in the afternoon. Oh yeah, the town of
Hollidaysburg where we are staying felt it necessary to fire up the AIR RAID
SIREN not once but twice in the middle of the night, I assume for the
volunteer fire department as the bombers never showed up. And this being
Sunday, every church bell in the area was clanging at 8 am to beckon the
faithful, so I guess my morning of slumber didn't turn our as well as I had
hoped, but the extra rest is always welcome.

The queen stage yesterday was a bit of a death march, my legs were not good
on the hills and I felt like I was going to get dropped several times. As
soon as I get my heart rate down, though, the power comes back and I can go
with moves and actually finished third in the bunch kick and so got the team
a little money. At least I caould do something, I was afraid I was going to
suffer all day and then get completely waxed at the line.

Just a 30 mile crit today, but it's going to be live, a battle royal for
overall GC as well as the 6 guys in for the sprint jersey.

Sorry there's no pics this trip, my camera is in the shop as the shutter
button fell off inexplicably. Maybe by downers grove I'll have something
up.

Just got done with my second day of work until failure, my legs are needing
some recovery. Tuesday we did johnstown to altoona, I went hard up the
climb of the day, then cracked hard and went back to the second group. We
finished 26 seconds behind and I dropped out of the top ten. I was hurtin'
from that but found myself in the break today in the Hollidaysburg Circuit
race after countering off the first KOM, which I helped Glen win. I went well
for a while, but we were flying and I soon found myself at the limit and then
cracked again when the pack was within 20 seconds and so went back and
struggled over the last climb and limped in. my legs HURT!! Yeah, working
hard, but we're getting the job done.

Time for a much needed massage.

Yeah, we've started 'Toona and things went okay in the opening TT, I was 3rd
and we had three other teammates in the top 15. It looks like everyone is
in good form, and I think we can do something here.

Stage 2 was today, Johnstown circuit race, 100k in 2:15 hours equals
lightning fast given we climb a fair bit each of the three laps. There was
no way a break was going anywhere today, as Colavita and HNPBM were chasing
everything. We tried to set up Jackson, and my KG/SN teammates hit the
front with 2k to go, I thought we did some good work and Jackson ended up
4th. Glen also got the KOM jersey which is some good podium time too.

More later, I gotta get something to eat.

I did the watsonville criterium today, finished 9th place and got a good
workout. I rode to the race from san jose through the santa cruz mountains,
finishing with the cit as my 7th hour. Needless to say I was knackered but
the legs learn to go to a new level when you do such an effort. I think
this will help me prepare for 'Toona and I'm looking forward to that race.

I'm sure you have heard, but for those of you who have not, My wife Goldi is
Prego with our first child. She's doing great and we're due Sept. 20th, at
which point life takes a swerve off the road I know. Should be fun, but
it's also a bit hectic at times too. I'm getting great advice from other
recent dads (including daddy Larkin on the team and Troy Berry form Idaho)
which makes things a bit less stressful.

I've been using the ipod a lot lately and have been needing to get new music
as I've run through my database and am sick of it all. I found out about
podcasting, which seems like a good idea but there's a lot of trash out
there that people just post without a second thought, a lot of verbal blogs
which add up to worse than nothing. I did come across a cool site,
savehiphop.org, they have good mixes posted about every other week, plus
a few random tracks thrown in to make you get your groove on. Nothing like
a few hours of rhymes to get you through your rides. If you need a new mix,
check it out.

Cascade is in the bag, i finished it off well, making the break in the final crit and finishing 4th. this moved me up to 12th overall, but more importantly i rode strong all day and won some money. i guess low pressure and a different outlook on the race realy helps me relax and not stress out about all the details, and then i race better. i also think that the strategy of not killing myself on the climbing days really paid off these last two stages, i've always faced the final day here with dead legs and just hoping i can hang on for an hour. today, i was able to go with moves, go solo for a $100 prime, and then bridge 20 seconds to the break and still ride well. well, i knew my legs were good, and now i need to make them better for 'toona. i'm excited to come out of this race feeling like this, and i know i can go work hard now to really get a result. i guess having faith in your abilities starts with riding well, building confidence and then using both to win races. here's to finishing the month well!

I've been in Bend, OR for the cascade classic this past week, but it's not like other NRC stage races i've done this year as ther's no support and i'm the only guy from my team, so i'm using it as training and hard workouts. i've survived better then expected this week, i thought i'd suffer like in previous years in the altitude and dry heat of the mid oregon desert, but i've been able to breathe okay and it's been quite cool all week, it's even rained.

wed and thurs were two big road races, 200 miles between them both with lots of climbing on thursday. i rode well to a top ten the first day, and had to let go late in the race to finish by myself in the back of the top 20. i did a big bridging effort with a few other riders halfway in the race, and i think it cooked me a bit. also, cuz it's training, i didn't want to dig too deep. and i was suffering.

friday wasa double day, a hilly TT in the morning and a downtown twilight crit in the evening. the TT was okay, i was definately off a winning performance, but still took 15 seconds out of my time on the course last year. it's hard when you know what a winning ride is (having recently done one) to try another and just KNOW you don't have it today.

the crit was GNARLY. it was raining, and healthnet went straight to the front to string it out. Bend has been revamping it's downtown, and so they re did several intersections with brick crosswalks and thick paint, plus new turn lanes, centerlines, etc. i ran 85 psi and had great traction on the pavement, but whenever i'd hit paint both wheels would slide, it was like ice. everyone else too. i saw two crashes and heard a few others, but all i could do was focus on the rider in front of me and try to blink the grime out of my eyes. i finished shivering, my body was on it's way to shutdown before it had ended and i sat in the car on the ride home with the heat on full and teeth chattering. i haven't been that cold since Napa CX nationals.

today was a circuit race, no rain luckily, but lots of racing action and a hard uphill finish. i have historically sucked on this course, either cuz i've raced super hard up until this point or just through lack of form, so i was happy to get a top five and feel like i can contest the finish on such a hard course. big time gaps opened on the final hill, and i am now in 11th overall, with just a one hour crit to race tomorrow. can i crack the top ten? wouldn't that be something...

I have to be philosophical about this, it hurts when it happens but I guess
things will be what they will be. We went up against the best crit team in
the country and could not put off their upset. The whole team rode well and
we did what we could, and I guess that's all we can hope for; we went down
swinging.

Personally, I think a top five overall in an NRC stage race is great, but
it's different when you fall to fifth instead of climb up into it. If
anything this is leaving me hungry for more, and I know my form is good and
can get better. I know I can do it, I out climbed the field on Mt.
Wachussetts, and now I have a good training race at cascade.

We lost it.

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What a wild race weekend its been. I won the TT, then we rode superb Friday
to keep everything in check. I got 4th on the day to cap it off, but more
important we kept McCormick from getting bonus time.

Today was good, I lost the jersey but gave it to my teammate Dom who rode
great in the break to get second on the stage. Daddy Larkin came in third
and is now in second overall.

I did exactly what I thought I could do, namely drop the field up the final
climb and stay in the top five GC. The team rode on the front all day with
the Target Training team, who were defending for Ryan Blickem, second coming
into the day, and they all rode well. We maybe started chasing a little
late, but the race radio was MIA for two laps and so the first check we got
was 1:30 and the next was 5:00! we suddenly had a lot of work to do. Like
I said, these guys work hard and we all came through in the end.

Tomorrow we have a 2 hour crit with a good uphill drag to it, nothing steep
but certainly draining after 50 times. I think we have a good chance of
taking it home, we just need to not let our guard down and keep on keepin'
on. I'll let you know how it goes.

Well, the TT legs are back, I clocked in at Fitchburg and put in a good one.

After having a run from hell after Philly, I think things are going in the
right direction again, I can only hope things can carry through the weekend.
We have a strong team and I have faith we can get the job done.