but it started out sunny!

i'm dead center in the photo, head down, white jersey and blue shoes. think we got wet? photo courtesy of stlbiking.com.


although i wasn't feeling so peachy for today's crit, it was sunny and quite a bit warmer than yesterday, so i was in great spirits. the field was a bit bigger today, with 50+ guys.

the forest park crit doesn't give me a chance to showcase any of my strengths. ok, rephrase. it works on my weaknesses. namely, horsepower. the long, flat, wide straights just work against me. the race was fast and furious from the gun. attack after attack. then, a couple of guys got away. and the attacks kept coming. riders kept dropping off the pack, sometimes leaving a gap to fill, which was a real bear if it happened down the front straight where the headwind was strong.

the sun was still shining at about the 30 minute mark, yet we were feeling raindrops. in another couple of laps, the sun was gone, the drops became real rain and the last corner was giving me trouble. very SLICK!!

i hadn't realized that we swallowed the break during the heavy rain. i was content to stay midpack while it was raining so hard. at the 45 minute mark, the announcer said the race would be shortened to 65 minutes, and just then the lightning strike and thunder changed everyone's mind. the very next lap, the announcer said "ONE TO GO!" normally, i would get psyched to hit it, but the course was too dangerous. thinking that there were still riders off the front, i figured i'd just coast in. lucky for me, because there was a big crash in the last corner. i think if i knew the race was still wide open, i would've been more in the mix. oh well. better to ride again blah, blah, blah. i'm looking forward to the coming off-road races!

dogs and eminent domain

dogs have a way of taking ownership of things that they can lay on. blankets and couches and chairs, that sort of thing. over the last couple of weeks, rudy has taken ownership of the mini-gym playpen thing that was formerly elijah's. he doesn't seem interested in the dangling playthings, only the soft bottom.

birthday party

we had the whole fam damily over today for tyson's birthday party. friends, family, kids, parents, dogs. we had hotdogs and chips and cool-aid. woo hoo, we sure do know how to throw a party!

these

are people that don't care if i win or lose, only that i play the game

a million reasons why i'm a better mountain biker

i don't know if there are actually a million. but there are a lot. actually, every pedal i take during a crit or road race is another good reason for me to stick to the dirt.

but, for some strange reason, i still like the road thing. maybe it's a challenge, one that i can't ever seem to meet. i don't know why i would ever expect to win anything bigger than a tuesday night training race, but i still do. every time i line up, i still line up to win. this year i have been able to ride more and things have been looking up. but, like i said, i'm better at mountain biking than, well, just about anything.

take today for instance, the carondolet crit that's part one of the tour of st. louis. lots of fast guys , quite a few from out of town. i worked hard. chased down promising breaks. bridged some gaps. ...and still got lapped by the super fast guys. aaaarrrrghh. it didn't matter though, because i kept trying. i wasn't going to get out of the red zone until i crossed the finish line. it may not matter to anyone else but me, but i'm not racing unless i'm RACING. in my defense, it was a hard and fast race. the wind was a huge factor, as crosswinds made any type of smooth racing impossible. there were large tree limbs blown into the course the entire duration, and one huge section of tree fell into the back straight with 2 to go. yikes. lots of guys dropped out over the 75+5 race, so it wasn't a cake walk.

....there is always tomorrow.

maiden voyage

of the scott was today. even though it wasn't totally sorted out, it was a blast. i had almost forgotten how fun a really nice hardtail is. actually, i have never had one quite this nice.

the lightest mountain bike i've ever had, this bad boy tipped the scales at 21lbs, 11oz...coincidentally the same weight as kaiser's full suspension ride. oh well, it's still light to me. i didn't even go through with some of the lightweight craziness i had originally planned. middleburn cranks? too flexy, i fed them to the weight weenie cannibals. xtr's work just fine.

it zooms uphill. it accelerates like a rocket. no wasted energy. wow. and it doesn't even ride rough. it's no full suspension rig, mind you, but...wow. this thing rocks.

hello? hello? it's my birthday

and i'm 5!

very intense intense

the kaiser stopped by the shop tonight to show us all his very intense full suspension bike. it's an intense spider. no, it's no ordianry spider.

first off, kaiser is the sort of weight weenie that weight weenies can look up to. he does his homework (unlike yours truely) when figuring out how to make a light bike lighter...and keep it safe.

this particular spider has been awol for a couple of months. it seems that an anodizing adventure had gone awry, and i guess he's lucky to have it back. the frame used to be orange/red powdercoat, now it's a cool silver/gray anodized that is supposed to be impervious to scratches.

on our scale at work, this puppy weighed in at 21lbs, 11oz. wow. i think my carbon hardtail will be hard pressed to get close to that! the key to the weight is, well, everything. egg beater triple ti peds, extralight seatpost and crankset, some crazy brakes and levers (along with jagwire ROAD pads!), a carbon seat that would make you flinch, xo rear der, 8-speed twisters (!), and titanium bits here and there. and it even rides nice! a cool touch is the push industries modifed fox shock. very cool, indeed.

my maiden voyage aboard the scott scale should be tomorrow, barring any calamities. i'm going to be quite excited to be riding a rig that light. not as light as kaiser's intense, though. i'm don't rank that high in the weight weenie world.

it's saturday! my yard is dirt and sticks!

elijah and sporty spice

i had put off yard work as long as i possibly could. alas, it was time today to make things right in the world. yesterday i spent my morning off doing the yard at mom's house. not too hard, just a lot of raking to get rid of the winters leftover leaves. but, it really didn't make me too excited to do my own yard this morning.

i have 3 enormous trees in my back yard and one small one. this made me start in my front yard, which only has one enormous tree. calling it grass cutting is sort of a stretch, because the front yard is mostly dirt mixed in with pine needles and the occasional blade of grass. after dusting the neighborhood with my lawn dirt, i tackled the "stick field".

the beautiful mrs. k and hanna picked up 4 bags of sticks while i bullied the mower through the thicket. rocks, sticks, baseballs, metal fragments and assorted dirt clods flew from my mower. i felt like i was mowing chubb trail. finally, after 7 full lawn bags, the yard is in decent shape. i'm hoping subsequent sessions with the mower will be less dramatic.

Pffffft

well, my luck had to run out. not only have i not had a flat on my mountian bike in 6 months or so, but i haven't had a flat in a race in years. luckily for me, it was only a castlewood training race.

training race or not, i'm always out to win. there were tons of guys that showed up tonight...i think there were at least 20 people in the A race. i rolled out hard, seeing if i could stay ahead of ploch. that didn't happen. he pulled ahead, and i lost about 20 seconds in the first lap. i had at least 30 seconds on the 3/4th place guys. as i came across the start finish area, i noticed that the rear tire was squishy. great. but, it had about 5lbs in it, enough to keep the rim off the ground. what the heck? i kept going. i climbed lone wolf and saw ploch ahead. i wouldn't be able to go any faster, but i wanted to see how long i could stay ahead of the guys behind. i made it to the bottom of lone wolf, having to pick my way down slowly before i got caught. then, i kept them right in front of me as we climbed love trail. it was getting hard, though. finally, i had to let go. but it was another couple of minutes before more guys caught me. i threw in the towel and took reis road back down to my car.

i hate mechanicals of any kind. if i'm going to lose a race, i want to lose it because i'm not good enough, not because of equipment. i did, however, get to see where i am at fitness wise off-road, and i am not disappointed.

WWF at home

the little guy was giving me trouble, so i had to put him in a sleeper hold!

(actually he just balled himself up and went to sleep on my chest...it was so cute!)

another good tnw

the tuesday night worlds were again mildly successful for me last night. the weather was great and so was the crowd.

the first few minutes of the race were hectic, with attacks going straight away. mr. hill was flying, and took mr. merli with him. i was a few meters in front of the field at the time, so i joined. so did mr. carter, mr. martel, mr. lanyon, and pirtles james and ryan(of ace and gary fame). woo! we had a solid, powerful break going!

solid, yes. powerful, certainly. staying with this group was the hardest thing i have done on a bike this year. at the 15 minute mark, i was thinking about calling it quits. some laps, all i could do was concentrate on the wheel in front of me. when mr. hill was driving, it was a lap of destruction! i was very glad to have teammates in there. but, as the race went on, gary was jettisoned.

when the lap cards started counting down, i breathed a sigh of relief. i knew i could stick it, and i even felt like i could sprint. i got together with johnny and told him to stick close. with the areas best sprinters in the break, this was no time to go it alone. in the final lap, mr. hill jumped hard, as he did last week. seeing an opportunity, i followed. warp speeds for half a lap, this was perfect if johnny had gotten my wheel. he didn't. joe petered out at about the climb on the backstraight...i went around, only to be passed myself by carter and lanyon, and a few seconds later by the younger pirtle. as i stood to "sprint" the last straight, johnny went by, too. i guess he got the memo late.

fifth place wasn't bad, especially after looking at my speedo and realizing that our average speed was 26.37mph...a full mph above last weeks race! this was also elijah's first race. he was in attendence with mom and tyson. i don't think he understood what was going on yet, as he seemed to be sleeping most of the time, and watching dad in a killer break like this was no time to be sleeping! he needs to be taught the rules by the rest of my super fans, i guess.

not bad for an old guy, i think.....

streeeeeeeetch!

what we did on our easter vacation, by tim

you don't see this every day. at least not here. maybe in compton.
sorry if i'm showing too much skin. we were trying to sleep.
this guy knows how to get comfy. we could all take a lesson in relaxation from rosco.

SATURDAY

hanna did not come to visit this weekend, it seems she had lots of easter festivities to enjoy in her hometown, and she's been spending a lot of time with us lately. i'm still sad about it, but you have to take the good with the bad when there are multiple family arrangements, i guess.

we started the weekend on saturday morning, EARLY. elijah still likes to have his breakfast served as early as possible, usually around 6-ish a.m. that's after several middle-of-the-night snacks. i'm thinking about sending him to taco bell next time he wants to eat at 1 a.m....

i went for a leasurely 30 mile ride. i was still pretty tired from the last week, so i pedaled out to mason and manchester, and came back via barrett stattion and big bend. i saw so many cyclists out!!! the road was crawling with them. it sprinkled once or twice on me, but no rain.

i took the wife on her first outing since having the baby. we all piled into the escape and went to home depot. i know, i really know how to treat a girl, don't i? i picked up a new porch railing for mom's house (the old one rusted out), big trash cans and yard waste bags. woo, hoo, i'm a wild man! it gets better...we got hot dogs at quik trip, too!

after the stellar lunch, i went to mom's house to work some more. of course, it was raining while i was working on the railing. the upright post had rusted solid into it's mount on the concrete porch. luckily, i had the foresight to buy new mounts and hardware along with the post. it stopped raining, naturally, as soon as i tightened the hardware down. i then wanted to finish painting the bedroom and bathroom closets. i don't know what came over me, maybe fatigue, maybe a full moon, but i never got more paint on myself in my life. every time i moved, i smeared myself with just that much more paint. ug. on a happy note, my brother had cleared the building debris from the garage by the time i had arrived. it was so much more pleasant without all the boards and pipes and junk lying around.

we did a nice little lap around our neighborhood with the baby in the stroller. such a nice night!

SUNDAY

easter sunday started pretty much the same way as saturday, early. i had a date to ride with the dirk man at 10a.m. i first had to make a trip to walgreens to get my asthma prescription refilled. 30 minutes and lots of bad service later, i had my otis spunkmeyer bannana nut muffins and pepsi in hand, as well as my inhaler. i was hoping mrs. k would get some sleep with the baby while i was gone.

the dirk man and i rode down in jefferson county. we tried to get more to join us, but struck out. i had done every road on the route before, as i used to live in fenton, but it has been a long time. i really like riding down there...lots of hills and two lane bliss. i ended the day with 50 miles on the odo.

easter festivities commenced at grandma's house with food, eggs, desert, and screaming kids. food was great!

i finally put the couch out to pasture. well, the couch is out on the curb waiting for bulk trash pickup tomorrow. i feel so ghetto having a couch on my lawn. hmmm, i don't know. maybe i could just go out there and sit with friends, like hank hill, and drink some beer. naaa, i don't really like beer. maybe a dr. pepper and little debbies??

exhausted

i suppose my week has taken it's toll. i'm really tired today. i got a good nights sleep, but it wasn't enough to make up for the hectic 6 days previous. this weekend should be less hectic, but easter does have it's way of tiring a person out, searching for those colored eggs and all....

i had a treat this morning. kmox radio has this fitness/exercise show (Metro Imaging Health and Fitness Show) on sunday afternoons with monica adams, and this weeks focus was on cycling. mw and i met up down at the kmox headquarters next to the arch. ok, we didn't meet up, i was on time, mike was naturally late, naturally. so, monica started with me and asked a few questions about cycling and racing and all that cool stuff. mike did make it for most of the broadcast.

it was really neat to sit in a broadcast studio. i didn't get any cool headphones, but the mic was sure cool. i was really nervous, as i was sure i was going to say something really, really dumb. we'll have to wait for the broadcast on sunday to hear if i did. it airs sunday at 1:10pm.