We came. We saw. We (well I) finished 50th.

So obviously the big news of the weekend was the race. The first in team history. The start to a season of...well, I hope better things...From the gun it was GO! Our first lap of 5.5 miles rolling in at 12 minutes. That roughly 27mph. It was tough but we were hanging on. Right after the start/finish line I hear someone yell "CRASH!" Glancing through the bodies I pick out where I need to be to avoid it. As I'm passing the wreck I see the familiar blue and white of the Allied Milk uniform in the fray. It was Chad. He was standing and appeared to be ok so I kept moving, figuring he would catch up. Meanwhile a gap had formed. Those in front of the wreck had pulled away ever so slightly. Five of us went into full chase mode to try and catch the group off the front knowing that if we didn't get them now we never would due to the high head wind on the back side of the course. We rotated through pretty nicely. I was doing 1-2 minute pulls at around 28mph. Doing everything I could to get to the back of the lead group. It wasn't to be. I saw the gap growing at every corner and realized that the five of us just were not as strong as the 30 (of so I thought)ahead of us. All of us eased off knowing our race was over and the season is a long one. I rolled in with an average speed of 22mph with and hour and 18 minutes as my time. Not too bad for the first race and not wanting to peak just yet. The winner finished in 1:11 though. That just shows you how important positioning is. Chad, I later found out was finished after the first lap. See someone decided to try and win the race on the first lap. They made a stupid move, brushed against someone. That person lost control, folded his front wheel in half, fell into Chad and destroyed his rear wheel in the process. One person cost two people their race and about $2000 worth of wheels. If you click on the right photo you can clearly see where the nipple pulled straight out of the carbon rim. To Ritchey's wheelbuilders credit, the wheel still spins straight. Chad is fine so he and I will be back on the 29th at Kirkwood.

In other news, our team photos are here. I will be giving out a copy to each of our $$$ponsors. The day is was taken it was about 12 degrees (well it felt like it) but you would never know by looking at Tom, Joel, Ben, and JW in their short sleeve jerseys. So those $$$ people can be on the look out for it soon.

Sammi was adopted today. Woo Woo! She went to a family that has no kids or other pets. Just what she needed. I'm sure that her new family turns the heat up past 64 degrees too. Hopefully, their bed is as comfy for her as ours was.

Out.

Strasburg

Strasburg is just 2 days away. I've logged some good miles this week and I'm feeling pretty good. Chad will be coming down and it looks like it will be just the two of us for this early season race. The weather report looks good, 55 degrees 20% chance of rain. I like our odds. This being an early season race, our goal isn't to win it. If we do we'll take it though but honestly this one will most likely come down to a sprint, and we aren't sprinters. We have two races in mind that we will be gunning for, both of which are mid-summer. Either way though we will certainly make the most of the miles for those races.

Samantha

This is Sammi. She is a foster cat that we've been taking care of because she was afraid of being in the Humane League. Too many people I guess. Her favorite things to do are...sleep, get a rub down, sleep, more rubbin' (especially the belly), and sleep under the covers with her head on a pillow just like a little person. She is about 8 years old and came to us at a whopping 19lbs! Yes, that is hefty. We put her on a diet and she is now around 16lbs. She should probably be around 12-13lbs (she is a pretty big cat). If anyone would like to meet her contact Lori at the http://www.humaneleague.com/. Sammi is super nice and just needs a quiet place to call home.

Springin' Ahead

Strasburg is next Saturday. The first race of the season. It's also our teams first official race. If you'd like to check it out go here: http://www.redroseraces.com/index.php?option=com_races&task=listRace&id=59&Itemid=42. It's about 20 minutes from Lancaster city and since we are all in the cat 4 race we will be starting at 11:30. I'd like to get us riding in the 3/4 races by the end of the season. It's still early and we don't need to wear ourselves out yet. Hopefully our tent will be here by then too. That would make us easier to spot (with the 3'x8' banner from ARRO standing out like the North Star). It looks like the temps will be in the 50's so not too bad.

On a personal note, it looks like the bus company is going to pay me off (the damages that is). That's cool with me though. I never really wanted to go any further than that anyway. Cross our fingers and hope the check cashes...I still have to go for an MRI on my knee though. I haven't been able to run since the accident due to the pain.

I know...blah, blah, blah.

Tom Bamford Classic

With the Tom Bamford Classics exclusion from the Commerce Bank Triple Crown it is now open to us mortals. You know, the ones with 40+ hour jobs. This is a fantasic race. A super short 6 block lap criterium with four 90 degree turns. Simple right? While Lancaster is by no means a mountainous region, it's not dead flat either. This crit is no exception to this general rule. The first few laps shouldn't do much to those of us racing but by the end you will certainly see struggling faces climbing towards turn 4. They will be greeted with the begining phases of a construction project on the Lancaster Square that ARRO is designing/engineering. I was already excited for this race because it is the first year I will be able to race it and it goes past the downtown Issac's (it's actually just before the start/finish line) about 5000 times. Now we will see ARRO signs pulling us up that little incline for even more motivation.
At our team meeting everyone was on board to race this race (before we even knew about the ARRO deal) so this should peek their interest even more. I'm sending them an e-mail now. Out.

Is it spring yet?

It's been a long winter and I can prove it. Today, while cutting my pizza with the pizza cutter, I wondered how well it would work if it had ceramic bearings. I'll contact Enduro about that on Monday.

The pizza was good. I'll be heading to Philthy tonight to see the Flyers (hopefully stop losing) against the Panthers. Let's cross our fingers.

***UPDATE***
Trouble reared it's ugly head to me again...While at the game a ceiling tile fell from the sky, striking me on the head. I'm fine and the Flyers assured me I would "taken care of". I hope they don't mean in the mafia sense. Although at this point maybe someone should just put me down.

Redeeming Myself

After our team meeting at one of the best restaurants I have ever eaten at (Issac's Deli), I came home with a brand new pair of Ritchey Carbon 58mm wheels. You would think that I would be over taken by joy, but some thing was missing. I did not realize what was missing until just yesterday. It was a thing that Dan showed me at Issac's, A Van Dessel Rivet! Due to me not having one but wanting one more then ever, but not having the money, I decided to try to make myself feel better and try to redeem myself in the eyes of the beholder of the Van Dessel. What a better way but to show him my collection of bikes. Maybe 4 bikes can make up one of the Rivets? I'll let you be the judge of that. Here is a little about every bike. Red bike is my commuter/fun bike, blue is my training/race bike, blue and white is my TT rig, and save the best for last, the Green and Black is my 15lb committed climbing/kick a$$ and take names later bike. It's a snow day so I am going to go train on the rollers. Out

Chad