Painful training

I rode 6 hours at the knob over the last two days and the trail is perfectly dry. Unfortunately I still managed to get totally wet. In case you were wondering just how deep the Gold Fish Bowl is I have first hand knowledge. If you slip off the log and go in head first you can totally submerge your body.
Lesson of the day: Always keep your cell phone in a plastic bag.












Sorry, I couldn't take my own photo that day, but I found this one on line for those of you who have never seen the "bowl". There's something very special about the smell of stagnant swamp water.


On a brighter note, Feeman is enjoying 'new bike syndrome' with his new 29r. Apparently it's just what he needed, since he cut 25 minutes off of his previous lap time. Now I'm trying to convince him to race in May.

Rebellin with a cause?

Damn, I should've had a V-8!















ROME (AP) — The Italian Olympic Committee confirmed Wednesday that Olympic cycling silver medalist Davide Rebellin tested positive for doping at the Beijing Games.

CONI said in a statement that it has suspended the athlete, and anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri has opened an investigation following the retesting of samples taken at the Olympics. Torri also called Rebellin to a hearing on Monday.

In an interview with an Italian daily, Rebellin rejected the doping accusations, saying the result was "certainly a mistake."

The International Olympic Committee said Tuesday that a total of seven positive tests involving six athletes came back positive for CERA, an advanced version of the blood-boosting drug EPO. The IOC has not named the athletes or the sports involved.


I can't wait to see who gets named next!

No Safe Haven.

Ibelieve.org! Yeah baby! I wonder how many hits this site gets nowadays. Well if the last two years didn't suck bad enough, this has to put him over the edge.

A. Dog dies.

B. Busted for doping.

C. Wife leaves.

D. Busted for doping again!

No, really guys, I just got something in my eye.



















On a brighter note for all you single guys out there, Haven is back on the market.

Hail to the Chief!

OMBC/Vultures Knob race #1. Big turnout and nice weather made for great start to my season. The best part was having the Chief line up next to me at the start line. We haven't started a race together in 12 years! The downhill start worked well in his favor. I was sitting about 5th in line going down the fireroad and all of a sudden the Chief scorched past us like we were all standing still! He was going at least 5 mph faster than the rest of us and was first into the woods. As soon as we hit the singletrack his gears jammed up, I'm sure he was relieved though because he hasn't been riding anyways.
The rest of my race went pretty well. I did, however, go too hard the first lap in my usual fashion. I really didn't know what to expect from my legs since it's been so long since I have raced. So I tried to stay with the younger experts as long as possible then settled into a more sustainable pace.
I knew I was the first Vet-Open the first two laps so I set it on auto pilot and just tried to keep it upright. Then with about 15 minutes of racing left I saw Lorson coming up fast. I didn't have any more speed so I just watched as he cruise on by me to take the win.











This photo pretty much sums up the day. That disgruntled look on my face is not because I didn't win, rather my stomach was really upset after the race. I almost hurled later that night. I think my body just needs to get acclimated to racing again, that kind of effort is a real shock to the system. As you can see, Lorson didn't seem to be too affected his efforts.

Start your engines.

Well the first race of the year for me is tomorrow. The bike is ready and I am preparing for some muddy conditions. Yeah, it's been dry for a couple days now but after the deluge we've had recently I'm pretty sure there will be some sloppy sections. I got some new tires that should be more mud friendly than the Hutchinson Piranhas I was using. I toned down my hours the last two weeks and did some intervals so we'll see what happens when the gun goes off. Lord knows I got the endurance this year but my high end speed is still an unknown at this time.
Feeman will be my pit-man, drinking cheap beer and causing a general ruckus if all goes well.

Der Kaiser wants to add you to his friends list

Taken from Der Kaiser's Myspace page....no shit.


Jan Ullrich's Interests

General: I like to ride the bike. I enjoy crushing the weak. I enjoy driving my enemies before me and hearing the lamentations of their women. I enjoy triumph. I also like puppies. To eat.

Music: Wagner. Rammstein. German Marching Songs.

Movies: The Empire Strikes Back.

Television: I enjoy watching myself ride the bicycle on TV, crushing the souls of the weak. I do not enjoy watching the OLN on the TV, where the announcers swing from Lance Armstrong's testicles as if they were a trapeze.

Books: What is this, books? I do not read the book, I am too busy grinding the hearts of the weak people to powder with the mortar and pestle that are my massive thighs.

Heroes: Darth Vader. Eddie Merkcx. Julius Caesar. Conan the Barbarian. Martha Stewart. Jan Ullrich.



On the local front, I am anxiously awaiting next weekend for my first race of the year. I feel my form is coming on quite well and my legs felt good at this week's Wednesday Night World's club ride. I even won the sprint. I you have known me for long you will realize just how unusual that really is. I just hope the trails dry out soon, because I really don't feel like racing in the slop.

Glad that's over

Well this week was tiring. After that cheese ride on Tuesday I figured it was time to do some speed work. I showed up for my first Wednesday Night Worlds club ride with the Orrville group with the intent to further bury myself into the ground. The legs felt like bricks when I started but I figured that they would loosen up after about an hour of riding. Well that didn't exactly happen. I put in a couple hard efforts and went off the front on a climb or two with Wes(That dude is riding like a beast). But right as we turned out of the headwind I got that little twinge in the hamstring that always lets me know that my day is about over. I cramped up horribly on Moreland hill and lost the front group. The strange thing was that my legs didn't really hurt that bad, they just locked up, which tells me that I grossly underestimated my caloric needs from the day before. I felt like Landis on stage 16, but the only difference was I never made a 'too good to be true' comeback the next day.





Sunday was a nice day and we took the tandem out for a couple hours of hills. Yes, you are correct, that is Feeman that is slowly trudging up that climb of SR 94. He will tell you he dropped his chain but I don't know about that.













Here is a rare delicacy. Benotto handelbar tape. Roger had two sets left at the shop so I snagged them up post haste. German flag colors to boot! If you have never seen this stuff then you have missed out more than you will ever know.