Oh Niels...

The cute one on your right was the favorite for the U23 race. The fat, pimply kid in the middle? Got lucky. Two years in a row lucky I guess. hehheh.

I'm off to the gym with Cary and Brian in a second. More crunchs than you can handle.

Pete, Brian and I rode rollers and then all fell asleep on the floor while watching the 2005 Giro. My aspiration for tonight is getting back on the rollers and doing a solid hour watching Salvodelli hang on for the win.

Cary just set up his blinging KONA cross bike with a set of Dura Ace cranks. One of the 2 pair I attempted to mount onto my Vanilla cross bikes this fall with no luck. The superior tyre/mud clearance of the Vanilla chain stays proved too much for ANY combination of Dura Ace+XTR-Dura-outboard bearing sets. Looks like I am going to have to find something that WILL fit on there. Those Gucci Stronglight's I have on my Vanilla Road bike? Maybe. Maybe.

Listening to Sunny Day Real Estate (the first album, of course.) Best album ever.

I'm putting my hands on my Chris King, Vanilla team issue tubulars, adjusting them and getting them ready for a road racing season. I got really excited again about Chris King hubs. Going to buy myself a pair of disc hubs to put onto whatever I end up racing (if you can call it that) this XC season.

I have NOT been riding much. Had a tumultous last couple weeks.

Ok, bad post, I'll give you more dirt later tonight.

Ouch.

Moving on. I kinda beat myself up mountain biking yesterday. Matt Hall, Matt Slaven, Steven Hunter and I went out to Sincline (in Washington) near Hood River. I had never been before, it was sweet. The ride started out with too much climbing on Sea Otter-esque single track on wide open sweeping plains. The big descent was super fun, fast, rocky single track. Slaven was killing it on his singlespeed. Matt H, Steven and I were just dying! I have never had a "granny gear" on my bike until the last month and I was in it for most of the climbing. The climb was what, like an hour or something? Well, it was awesome. Good mountain bike rides really get me motivated to ride bikes again. I took a couple good spills but actually impressed myself with my riding over the super rocky and technical stuff. After the last good crash I was babying myself, I did not get clipped into my pedals and went careening down a rock face and got tossed off and into some boulders. hehheh.

After a couple hours, both Matts and I were riding fast together and putting the hurt on Steven. He rode so tough! He just bought this dual suspension Rocky Mountain bike and I think this was his first real long ride on it. We were all dying on the last couple loops, I was getting tired and making silly errors.

All in all, an epic few hours on the bike.

The Saturday before, Adam K. was back from an extended sickness and helped out in the Veloshop, putting up more wheel hooks and just hanging out. "Just hanging out" means, keeping the shop looking hott and just standing around looking hott in general. That is the dress code in Veloshop. Hott.

Ahem.

It was busy as hell today, everyone has started riding thier bikes again with a little break in the rain. Did I mention Brian Ellin got hit by a car on Saturday night? He's fine but, his Surly appears to be a total loss. Now, I am exhausted, staying after hours at the shop, I just finished re arranging the track case. Got a lot of new stuff in today.

I read Tonkin's journal entry. So rad. He is a great writer. Actually makes bike racing interesting to read about.

Peter Drake came into the shop today, he is putting in the miles and counting down the days till the Alpenrose 6day. Hey Peter, you left your water bottle here...

Que mas? I want to pass out I am so tired. Got Thai food waiting at home and a crappy movie date with Brian and Cary.

Ok, I'm out.