Writing from Damian Schmidt's house here in Bend, Oregon. Michelle, Jess and I drove out Friday night after work to race the High Desert Omnium (TT, crit, road race). We did'nt hit much traffic though we did catch the start of "Hood to coast" while driving over Mt. Hood, lots of runners, running in the dark. Damian is a sweetheart, letting us crash on his couches, his housemate is one of the race promoters, and back to the point, we woke up and raced a time trial and criterium, got a road race tomorrow.

Jess got 3rd in the cat 4 TT, damn impressive. While I was warming up, Nathan heckles me about NOT having aerobars or a disc wheel. He started a minute in front of me and I told him if I caught him he would have to pull his aerobars off and throw them away. Well, (not to add insult to injury, Nate.) when I passed him, he said, "fuck." and I rode on to win the TT (first time trial in years!). Michelle rode one her first TTs and finished exahusted. That's good. You should be wasted after a time trial.

We wandered into Bend and had sandwiches, stopped by Hutchs bike shop and I totally scored one of those World champion striped Arione saddles. You can't find those anymore! (on a side note, Fizik is sending me a couple of saddle for my cross season! Thanks, thanks, thanks. It all f'ing helps alot.) So I slapped it on my bike before the crit and...

...a few hours later I got to watch Mike Hildebrandt win the cat 4 criterium, powering away on the last lap and just sticking it to the line. Michelle rode tough like usual she keeps getting lumped in with the 1/2 women and having to duke it out with far superior riders. I rode smart and got 2nd place by half a wheel. Shout out to the local Bend junior Rand. Strong mountain biker, strong road racer. 17 years old? Don't burn out!

Enough about racing, we killed some vegan pizza and are now watching "Old School" at Damian's. I keep cracking up between typing. Holy shit, the blow job scene. Wow.

No drama, no making out, I'm going to bed. Gotta protect my overall tommorow.

Raced the Oregon state points race championship at the velodrome last Sunday. Mikkel Bossen, Walker Starr and I lapped the field right off the bat. Walker is a damn good sprinter. I got beat fair and square. 150 laps, pretty long, pretty hot. Got a rubdown from Molly Carlson afterwards.

After the points race we went up to Patrick's fancy ass condo in the Pearl district. Had a little team planning meeting about our first cross race. It went really, really well. There is lots of new talent coming into the team this year and the first Veloshop race EVER is going to go flawlessly. Patrick has been amazing, he is super enthusiastic, and responsible. Doing a killer job of handling the race prep.

I tricked a lady friend into meeting me later, we wandered around and had a serious conversation in the grocery store. I'm pretty pissed off about some stuff. She was a really good listener and had some eloquent insight. Mmmmm. No more drama, lots more racing.

What am I listening to? Gary Numan. '79-81. Did I mention I spent 12 hours in the shop on Saturday? Yep, rebuilding Ethan's Francisco Moser. It is so, so sweet. A pleasure to work on.

Well, I am going to get our Veloshop uniform order together and, meet with a sponsor tomorrow morning after a few hours on the bike. Wish me luck.