Bend, Oregon

I was pretty excited to see that the cyclocross nationals will be coming to Bend, OR this year. I was extremely disappointed that I was unable to race any cyclocross races this year, due to tendinitis in my knee. I thought I had a pretty good start last year in racing and was looking forward to moving up in the categories in the 'cross field. I don't think I am as diehard as Daren, but I enjoyed it non-the-less. I am very excited to hear that nationals will take place in Bend. Bend is beautiful and will be a great location for the race. The best part is that it is 2 and a half hours away. Pretty cool!

NEW TEAM SPONSOR

Betty and I attending the Twilight movie. I wasn't man enough to show face.

Here's what retired grandpa get to do!!

This is the new folage in Oregon, quite the tree.

Utah a little excited with the BYU victory. Three seconds still on the clock.

A Specialized, Utah fan.

This is the new team bike, tough times out there. 28 inch wheels should be a sweet ride.

I did the jersy check today and found out the following. They have three degrees of jackets, cool, cold, and very cold. The cost is 70, 80, or 90. They would make them with the same design just long sleeves. We would need a 10 order min. to get the price, but they don't all have to be jackets, we could get a jerseys, jacket combo. We could also get bike hats-$8, or bibs-$60. We could go all out and get, bibs, jackets, jerseys and hats or any combo we want. So all you true GC Connectors let me know what you would be interested in and we will decide what to order from that. Looking forward to our family party on the 27th and hope you all have a great Holiday season. I dumped my CX back today going out to the road for a ride, so I parked it, another spin day. Stay warm and wish you could ride safe.

Prophetic Words

While reading the lesson for elders quorum (lesson 23) the prophet Joseph Smith was quoted as saying,"A long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together." I never knew he was a bike rider. I was also wondering if GC Connnection was working on team jackets or windbreakers for next year? If so, I think that saying might be cool on one of the arms. Just an idea, because I feel that quote is so us.

To pump or not to pump - that is the question?

If I were the Style Guy from Bicycling magazine I would consider it a major faux pas, but I am happy to admit I ride with a hand pump on my bike. I am not saying co2 is the devil, but I am saying I like my good old dependable hand pump. Let me explain. I am a commuter, therefore, I ride to and from work in all conditions. What makes it worse is the fact that it is Oregon, lots and lots of rain. I read an article once about a scientific study that proved you get more flats while riding in wet conditions. It has something to do with the surface tension and materials sticking more to your tires. I know for a fact that it is true. I rarely have a flat in the summer, but have atleast one a week in the rain. In the last two weeks I have had 4 flats and two new tires. I need something dependable to fix these flats, which happen quite frequently. I used to carry co2, but found them unreliable. When it gets cold they blow, or if I didn't get it full enough I road on a partially flat tire. I have opted for the uncool hand pump. It especially looks bad having my hand pump across my curved top tube of my Specialized Tarmac. But I guess I go with being practical over looking cool.

Part 2: Thanksgiving in the NW

Here are the pictures from our second ride: Poodle Creek. It is about 50 miles of sheer beauty. It is breathtaking! I don't think you can find better rides then out here. The morning haze added a little to the beauty and we only got sprinkled on at first.

Thanksgiving in the NW

Getting ready to head out.

Doug climbing up Gimple Hill. It gets pretty steep in this section.

Jeremy finishing the climb.


Fox style shots!

Doug came out for a little visit to the NW. My knee is starting to feel better, so I took it out for a test ride with DC and Jeremy. It felt alright. I am a little rusty and the knee swells up pretty quick. DC is still recovering from his shoulder injury and can't stand up to well when climbing hills. I think he is about ready to sell his mountain bike. Jeremy, my buddy from Eugene, came along as well. He hasn't ridden his bike in 3 months (he is a runner) but can still hang (and crank it). We had a rare break in the weather and it wasn't raining. It has been pretty cold up here. We all over dressed and wanted to shed some clothes about 5 minutes into the ride. But this is Oregon so give it 5 minutes and it will start raining, so we always carry rain jackets. Fortunately, it didn't rain today.

I took them out to Bailey Hill, around and back over Gimple Hill. It is a 30 mile loop that is about as pretty as it gets. There is one spot that has my dream house. It is in the middle of no where, I love it. It was nice to have DC out for a few days and get some riding in. We are going to go ride Poodle Creek (65 miles of beauty and trees) in the morning. Maybe I will put some more pic's of that on later.


My dream house

To ipod or not to ipod?

To ipod or not to ipod? That is the question. Tonight while riding home I about hit this stupid lady. Why? Because she was rocking out to her ipod. Two bike paths met together and we were going to be meeting at about the same time. She saw some friends and turned to look at them, instead of what was meeting up with her - me! I started yelling, "Get out of the dang way!" while she swirved right in front of me. I barely was able to dodge her and pulled off into the leaves and grass. As I started yelling some choice words I knew she couldn't even hear me because her music was blaring. This is not my first encounter with the ever present headphone wearer.

Now I know I am the biggest hypocrit and listen to one myself, but let me justify my reasoning. First, I only put the headphone in on one ear, which allows me to hear traffic or people on my left side. Second, I don't crank up the music. I can still hear things going on around me. If I am riding in a group I leave the ipod at home. I love my music but am pretty frustrated by people and their lack of disregard for others. Be safe with the ipod or put it away.

Great ride

For the first time in a long time the Weber/ Davis county GC members were out on their bike together. It was great (and Kim didn't sound like he was going to blow a lung). The new legacy bike path was great (no cars) to ride and the weather wasn't to bad either (mid to high 40's with not much wind). I wish I had a few pics, but I forgot to take the camera out of the car.

In other non- bike related news- I believe the Utes will destroy the cougars (Hard call I know). Not that I'm a big fan of either team, but a majority of my neighbors and co-workers want the "Y" so I'm wishing or counting on the "U" to destroy the "Y". I myself will be cheering on the # 8 ranked Cats this Saturday. Weber State, Weber State, Great, Great, Great.

58,236 to 1

What are the odds? I was only able to ride 2 days this week, because of my knee. It is still swollen and bothering me. Still pretty frustrated. But in the meantime I was able to go to the Duck game on Saturday. My neighbor asked if I wanted tickets, so I couldn't pass it up. My friend Jeremy went with me. The Ducks got their brand new Nike uni's. You either love them or hate them, and I kinda like them. During the first quarter they choose someone from the audience to give a gift certificate to. I wasn't paying to much attention, until the guy next to me said I think I won! I still didn't pay much attention, but realized that the number was mine! 58,236 to 1. What are the odds. I won a $50 gift certificate to a department store out here. I would have been on the jumbotron if I had realized earlier if it was mine. It did a pan looking for the winner, but I didn't react until it was to late. Maybe next time?

Another funny thing during the game happened in the fourth quarter. The Ducks were up at half 45 to 17, but Arizona came back and the score was 48 to 45 in the fourth quarter. The guy behind me turned to his buddy and said, "You don't lose that many points unless you are playing Weber State!" I turned and said, "You have two Weber St. alum right in front of you." That shut him up pretty quick.

Boulder/Laramie

The kids cheering.

The bell ringing cheering section. That fuzzy face is Robby, now clean again.

Todd Wells the easy winner. Easy no.

Trebon and Johnson trying to chase down Wells.

Wells Johnson and Trebon heading into the last lap.

Todd Wells made the sand look to easy!

Chris on the barrier section.

Chris got behind the wrong guy in the sand pit.

This is how the big boys ride the sand.

Chris having fun. Pro road racer Matt Shriver leading the chase.

If sand wasn't enough there was this steep gravel climb. Chrispy looking good. Single speeder on the right, belt driven.

Race Start! The watts are flying!

Chrispy looks good on the second row with the big boys.

Front row call up, all the studs, Bishop, Powers ,Johnson ,Wicks ,Wells and Wells

Tree farms call up number one.

Xen with his highly guarded pile.

Betty and the kids trunking and treating. There were a ton a people at the church.

Xen, Clair and Hanna ready for the big night.

Some home grown pumpkin carving with Claire

Betty and I had a great time at Jill's. I talked them into a quick trip over the Boulder for the national Cyclocross race, about 130 miles away. There is a discount mall in Longmont, close to Boulder so it wasn't to hard a sell. We got there and the weather was great, 76 degrees and we found the race area just on are way into town. It was very cool to get there and walk around the team tents and get to see the race bikes up close and talk to some of the pro's. You can see from the pictures the course was a big sand pit. I don't know how they ride through it, but you can't believe how much power they put down to get it. The course was by Boulder reseviour and it was a gravelly, sandy, goat head infested impossible track. We watched the pro women and Georgia Gould was in a different race than the rest, what a power house and no strain on the face. She makes it look so easy. I got a close look at her Obrea cx bike and it is really ugly. Al. frame and a shock to all serious racers, she rides on clinchers, Maxiss, probably because they don't make a tubular. Local ladies did well, Kathy Sherwin and Chris from Kriegs was impressive. The pro men is always a treat to watch. I got to talk to the Tree, and stand by his Kona special, this is the truth, his seat tops out at my mid thorax. The seat post is about 18 inches long. I talked to Todd Wells at the GT tent and since I read his blog I said hi to Meg his wife and she looks at me like how do you know my name. Todd was great and we had a good laugh about blogging. I talked to her several times during the race and she appreciated the support of Todd. Local star Chris Petrazak (Chrispy got the call up number 14) he looked right at place with all the big time pro's. Wells, Trebon, Johnson and Powers were off and gone and I was amazed at how they powered through the sand. Trebon was really sick but he is so strong. He was covering everyone's move until the end when Todd Wells got away for good. It was a blast and Jill, Robby and the kids had a great time. The kids played in the water and had a ball. The equipment is fun to look at and so varied. Most CX bikes are not the beauties of the road but can take a beating. Probably the most impressive thing was Travis Brown riding a sad looking Trek single speed with no chain, belt driven. The guy has full beard missing teeth and is one strong dude, top twenty both days. We had a great Halloween with Jill's kids, pumpkins, trunk or treat and home party. I got to spend some time at the law school and see how my daughter lives. Hard work and alot of hours. She got home at 7 am one day after an all nighter, 2 hours of sleep and off to take a test. The kids are growing and it was fun to be with them. Hope you are all well and riding safely. I still can't ride so I'm into the serious running again. I can see another marathon in the future. I still want Boston. Doug

Should Lance ride?

After my flop with a non-bike post I decide to try something else. Today I am asking a GC Connection poll question: Should Lance Armstrong ride next year? Most people have an opinion on this, ranging from, yes, it will be good for the sport to no, he will be the next Michael Jordan trying to play for the Wizards. I will reserve my opinion for later, but would like to hear what you all think.

One-ers and Runners

I want to preface this by saying it is my first non-riding post on this blog. Hopefully, you don't find my humor to morbid or insensitive. But not being able to ride much or hard has sent me over the edge. I go to the doctor on Thursday, my self diagnosis is that it is tendinitis in my knee. It is still hurting pretty bad.

As I have been commuting to work over the past few years I have come across two types of runners - One-ers and runners. Runners are like my buddy Jeremy, who always says, "I don't jog. I run." Intense face, skinny, and flying (I ran with him once and it just about killed me, won't make that mistake again). But the one I want to rant on is the one-ers. You have all probably seen them: new pair of white shoes, big basketball shorts, little belly, and breathing pretty hard. I call them one-ers because they are one and out. One run and it about does them in We have one at work who always talks to me. He'll say he is going to start running, but had this and this, so he couldn't this week. Or he ran once two weeks ago and is going to start back up. I think it's pretty funny. I don't know why you would want to run anyway (sorry doug). This is probably how I will be in a few years of knee trouble with my riding. "Well, I need to start back up, but I can't." Hopefully, you catch the pun in my rant. Maybe I should stick to just writing about the bike, but as Lance says, "it's not about the bike."

Ogden CX

Welcome to the Ogden Weber County Fair grounds CX race. It was a great course, fast and great weather, at least for watching. Big fields, well organized with alot of energy. This is what Cross racing is about and why it is growing like crazy. Ryan and his kids came and really enjoyed the racing. Cam, Ryan's older son was excited to race and he is a good rider.

Chrispy and Bart of the future. The little dude worked his tail off to get the bike over the barrier.

Bart bunny hopping the double! It was pretty impressive. Crispy and Bart were the class off the field. Crispy is a great rider, so intense and go for it.

Daren thinking what have I got myself into!

Daren leading some serious racers!

Daren's flying over the double.

Tanner on the short side of the double log barrier. That was later ropped off so you had to go over the double.

Tanner bunny hopping the second log

It was a crappy day for CX racing as it was down right beautiful weather. The course was like a road course with a lot of speed and it was a blast to watch. I could see a lot of hurting faces and there was a lot of threshold efforts going on. I was disappointed to watch my group race and not be in there, but the hurt for there efforts made me feel not as bad. Tanner raced a great race. He was off the lead on the first lap, but drilled it to the front by the end of the second lap and put some serious hurt on the group. In the end only one guy could hang with him and he was a pro mountain biker and beat Tanner in a fine sprint. This young dude can roll and it is a blast to see Tanner progress and work the serious adult racers. Ryan came and watched with his kids and hardly recognized Tanner. He said what happened to that pudgy little kid! Daren's race was especially exciting to watch. He has really worked hard and it shows. He was so deep in the effort cave, I don't know how he did it, but it was cool to watch. I have never seen him race that well! Big props, I was a proud brother! He was in a group of all pro's and just worked hard. I kept expecting to see him drop back but no way. He drove the group a lot and he was differently the best technical rider. He would gain gaps on the technical corners and jumps. It was a great day of racing and a lot of fun to watch. I got so excited that I came home and ran 6 miles, since I still can't ride.