Your favorite cycling sweetheart is back!

Yep. She's back for a retrial on her perjury conviction. But wait, it gets better. For all you single guys out there I just wanted to let you know that Tammy is still looking for that special someone to fill a gap in her life. Or, depending on your preferences, she just might fill in your gap.



As you all remember Thomas was convicted on a 'close shave'. A dope tester noted that Thomas appeared to have shaving cream on her face when she was surprised at an out-of-competition testing visit.

The Crucible

Nothing beats the real deal. Nothing beats a cheese ride. The day started with a tentative 4 hour plan, which eventually morphed into 5 1/2 hours of cheese eating, hill climbing, dirt road riding fun. I told Feeman that I don't mind waiting on the climbs, but I refused to wait for him on the downhills. His decending skills matured alot today. It was either that, or get hopelessly lost far from home with circling buzzards overhead.











Belmont, you will remember this section from a few years ago. Who needs fat tires anyways?
















Cheese in Charm, and lots of it. It didn't eat for 2 1/2 hours after sharing this .72 lb block. We climbed that sweet hill right after eating this too.
















No, that's not a beer in his hand, for some reason, Charm is a dry town. He had to settle for iced tea, probably all the better.














So much cheese, so little time. Give me the big one Greta!












A few more shots to add to my 'Photos taken while waiting to Feeman to crest the hill' albumn. What do the Amish do with these things anyways? Nevermind, I don't want to know.

















Me at the summit of one of the numerous climbs.













If you look real hard you will see him coming up the hill.













Grasshopper, you may now snatch the pebble from my hand. We will have to see whether you are willing to do it again. Very few people on this earth have ever come back for a 2nd cheese ride. Next time I will make you climb Punisher hill.

Happy as a lark, my favorite animal.

Stylin' with the new kit for some uber-posed photos.




















The real importance of any new kit is to make sure your cheap canned beer of choice matches.








Mmmmmmmmm,Mmmmmmmmmm! Warm, foamy beer after four Knob laps. Never better.


















Perfect match!

Play time

Ready for the maiden voyage. Too bad it was 26 degrees this morning, I know it's only March but this freeze/thaw stuff is hard on the trails. The Knob was greasy when I started but got pretty nice a few laps into it. Another 4+ hour ride in the bank and maybe another one tomorrow.

















Today I decided to ride the new toys at the Knob. Not too tough, but it's way faster to take the longer loop around.








Now the scoop on the Zaskar: As with any new bike it takes some hours to get used to. After a couple of laps it was feeling like a well worn glove. The carbon absorbs shock so much better than aluminum, and the rear end stayed planted to the ground very well indeed. The BB area is plenty stiff and the geometry is race tuned. It's plenty light, although I have not weighed it yet I would guess it at around 22lbs. with the Fulcrum wheels on it. It came with Mavic wheels but I haven't had time to set them up as tubeless yet. I went all last year without a flat and vowed never to run tubes again. Thanks to Wes for giving me hell about tubes last year when I flated in 11 degree temps and made everyone freeze at Loudonville.

The wait is over

The Zaskar is here and it is finally ready to go, tomorrow it will get it's first taste of dirt. Speaking of firsts, I have never really laid hands upon a Fox fork before and I now know what I was missing. It has no play in the stantion/slider interface that I can feel at all. This was something every one of my Rockshox and Manitou products always had and I figured it was just par for the course. Unforntunately I haven't a clue how to dial the thing in yet.

























The bike built up pretty easily and the parts package is very nice. Hopefully I can do it justice this season. I will be riding some long days yet this week and plan to add some speed work soon as I prepare for the first race in April.

Spring fling

Two days off road in March is always a treat. The Knob was pretty tacky on Monday, but today it was not bad at all. Still, it's not fast yet as many areas are soft, but not muddy. The kind of softness that just robs power and kinda feels like a false flat all the time. Never the less I managed to get 5 laps in today since I drove over there. Yesterday I rode over and did two laps. Both days were four hours each so I won't be riding for a day or two I think. Still. the legs feel pretty good, they are getting used to the long hours by now. I know its still early in the season, but as Van Petegem once said,"Flanders is won in December."









If you look closely here you can see Feeman trying to motorpace my van across town. Time to clean the windows.















The old Norco is getting a proper beat down while I wait for the Zaskar to arrive.












They have added some new trails at the Knob with a new finishing section also. Not only new trails but new toys. I spied Tim Long and Dustin adding two new teeters totters as well as a host of other fun stuff we can all get hurt on this year. Tim claims its still faster to ride them than go around....we'll see about that.














All these wooden posts give me an uneasy feeling. Some sort of sacrifice alter?

Where's Wango?

Well it's Sunday and the weather is perfect for riding, but I will be eating instead. This last week was hard and I need a day off to recover. Tomorrow however, will be another long day like so many recent rides. I plan on riding to Vultures Knob and doing three laps, then riding home. Should be about 4-4 1/2 hours total. Finally off road, I can taste it now!







I'm pretty sure I was riding here the day they took this satelite photo. So if you can find me you win the special prize. TBA.

No sunburns here

Well the GT tent arrived today, it's pretty feakin' big. This should be perfect for Feeman to relax under and drink beer while I'm racing.

One man's trash.

Today was brutal. Four hours with steady 24 mph winds, and better yet the temps kept dropping the whole ride. I found myself in a quandry with freezing toes hours away from home. I kept watching the muddy ditches for a nice walmart bag but every one I saw was buried in mud. Then this little bag came blowing my way.
















Once I placed the plastic over my toes and under my oversocks things got alot better. These solitary death march rides hopefully will pay off come race time. I don't have a computer on any of my single bikes but I swear I was only going about 10 mph at times into that wind. Once I turned around it was 53x12 for miles! Now I think I will just curl up in the fetal posistion till I recover.

Wang is back!

This should be a banner year for me in many ways. I have been training hard this winter and have secured a new sponsor this year, thanks to GT bikes. I was selected to be a member of the GT Dirt Coalition Team and am looking forward to racing on the 2009 GT Zaskar Carbon Pro. I intend to compete in the Vultures Knob and NEO power series races this year.
I have seen my fair share of road miles recently, but the singletrack is calling me home. The Zaskar should be here soon and it will get a proper break-in at the toughest course around, The Knob.

No pebble snatching yet.

With the warmer temps coming the road bike has been dusted off and got some use. It had not been ridden since October probably. Of course, the wind has been horrible but I did get to ride with just shorts one day so I'll take it however it comes.
Southwest winds mean only one thing in my book....cheese rides. A proper cheese ride will include the following elements:Amish country terrain, gravel roads(at least 20%), horse crap, long, steep climbs, scary descents, getting lost, and usually a cheese purchase at the midway point. The ride is normally 4-5 hours and best done in the summer heat.
With Feeman in tow we did what I call a 'low fat cheese' ride. Just about three hours and much suffering on his part. It will be a good while before he is ready for the real thing, but it is fun to watch him die on every climb.







Sorry grasshopper, you're not ready yet...now go sweep the damn floor again!











In the meantime, I will be starting a new photo albumn titled:Things I photograph while waiting for Feeman to crest the hill. Here is a sampling of my work.










What you looking at Willis?

Show me your war face!

Winter is really starting to suck, and I just couldn't bring myself to ride outside today. So in keeping my promise not to ride the trainer at all this year I pulled out the stepper. I have had this thing for 15 years and it can still dish out the most agonizing indoor workout I have ever experienced. It feels like a mix of hill climbing, intervals, and leg press all at once.




















About 10 miniutes into it.














Half way, can you feel it? By this point I have left all my testosterone dripping from the stepper, and no, I did not take my pants off to do that.












Post workout, with a nice closeup of my favorite shirt.












Hopefully the weather will break soon and I can get back to the Knob. In the meantime I can only dream of flowing ribbons of singletrack, and maybe the GT cheerleaders.

Battle of One. Click here and crank it up!

Well I am on dayshift now, which means commuting to work at 4:30am. This is pretty much what it looked like this morning. Cold is one thing, dark is another, and early sucks. Combine all three together with a sweet crosswind and you got a party that the Belgians wouldn't even attend. After work I went for a ride and the wind had picked up considerably. Today is the first time all year that I nearly threw up on a ride.




















Now this is pretty darn good; Swiss cheese with jelly on whole wheat. And yes, I realize that I have an unhealthy obsession with food photos, I get it honest from a crazy aunt on my mother's side.