Seasonal Changes Coming

Another busy week! Even more so this week, as road season is wrapping up, and cyclocross season is doing it's usual, and completely sneaking up to surprise! Not the least bit of surprise, was the beginning of some trees changing in Four-Mile Canyon. I swear, that is always the first place I see them changing! At the same time the week seems to be moving along slowly, as there is beach-time on my horizon!

The weekend before at the BRC crit, I cracked one of my beloved Shimano wheels. But that meant I was wide open to do some testing on a new pair of wheels that Nico at Cycling Technology is checking out. They're built (by me of course) with a new design on the C4 hubs, Sapim spokes, and using a new carbon clincher rim. They're VERY affordable and weigh in at just 1,300g for the pair. Not bad at all. They're pretty good-looking to boot;

They worked quite well in the racing this weekend too! Saturday was the Raisin Hope Crit, where I did the 35+ race, and the team took the win after we got a selection to go, including Mr. Coyle, who took out the final sprint. Sunday was the Primal (HART) Crit, in a mere 100 degrees. The race was hard, and I was on the front early in the race doing a lot. With my job done, I missed the last couple laps, but had a good seat to see the Groove-Subaru train showing it's might coming into the last lap, where they did a great job setting up Lance for the win!

Jonathan Vaughters gave it some thought, and declared that he was quite impressed;

Ever notice how all pictures of JV these days seem deserving of a funny caption? I like my captions simple though. I came across this picture this week, and I don't even need to tell you, that it says a million words without even thinking about a caption.

Anyway... Didn't someone say something about cyclocross season?

Yeah, that's right, it's sneaking up on us crazy-fast! And no doubt things are moving fast as this week I accepted an offer to join up with a new cyclocross team for this fall! It's going to be a blast, and even with all the team management work I've done, I've been nothing but impressed with how things have been handled so far! Official announcements and pictures and all that coming soon, but for now, this is all you get;

Like I said, it's going to be a lot of fun, I'm even riding with some guys I've enjoyed riding with in the past, AND it's going to be a strong team, which is always a great too!

Things are moving quickly, and I've already booked tickets to head out to Interbike with the sponsors, where the team will be jumping in the Wheelers and Dealers race too! With any luck, a shiny new bike will be here when I get back from the beach, waiting to go out and get muddy! Or more like "dusty" since we live in Colorado anyway!

Anyone for barrier practice!?!?

Empty Nest

Gorgeous sunset the other night;

Unfortunately, I think it spurred Manny, Moe and Jack, to move out into the big wide world. They were starting to look pretty antsey, on the edge of their nest;

And before we knew it, they were off! At least Jack stoppped for a minute on his way out, as if to say good by (and thanks for putting the dryer vent underneath the first home he ever knew.

We missed them pretty much right away, and now as you walk up to the front door it just feels as if something is missing, with that big empty nest. Pretty wild though, Jack was sitting near the nest, on the flower planter the following morning when I was headed out the door on my way to work.

Well, there's fresh dirt on the cross bike now. Yesterday was the first day I had it out for a ride in earnest. Always feels especially wild the first day, switching to a "road bike" with a long wheelbase and squishy tires, that just wants to run really fast on dirt terrain. Just in time too, I had my latest shipment arrive of "care products" from the gang at Mad Alchemy. They seem to have something for every weather condition, or skin condition that you may run into!

I know it's not just me, and everyone would have thought math was more fun during school if we used it in such practical matters as finding "God's Number";

5,120

The number of hours I've estimated that I've spent in this dandy little office. Definitely one of the more depressing realizations I've had in a while.

Guess what? It rained again yesterday. But at least I noticed this dude on the way home. I couldn't really tell if he was indeed sexy or not; he had on a full-face helmet. I bet he makes a lot of people mad that they didn't think of that license plate though.

Since it was raining, Neo, Tayler and I were just doing more of our usual chores last night. We were out plucking thistles so the neighbors don't tattle on us, and we stumbled right onto these guys. Of course, the dogs didn't even notce, only I did. Probably a good thing I'm sure.

Then I noticed they were back this morning, a bit closer to the house this time, hanging out while I made my coffee.

Manny, Moe and Jack are bigger everytime I look. Now they notice you looking at them, and you can just sense that they have the feeling that I shouldn't be so close to them. I have a feeling they'll be out of the nest really soon.

Tomorrow is Wednesday... I wonder if it's time for cx worlds to roll yet?

Insert Title Here

Busy weekend... though we didn't have much planned at the start of it all! Friday I got home, and oddly enough, it was raining again. But I took the time to do some inside work, and finally wrapped up the bathroom remodel. The only thing left now, is returning a bit of the mural to it's "pre-construction state", which will likely take a bit more artistic paint talent than I possess.

Saturday I actually had a chance to sleep in. I was trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do for the day, being very indecisive when I got a message from Chuck looking for some company at the velodrome. Sure, why not... so I was on my way down there, and we had the track to ourselves to see if we remembered how to turn left. Chuck had some racing planned for later that night, and after I got home, I got an invite to come join the racing. Totally unplanned, but too good to pass up. I had plenty of time for Jessica and I to take the doggies to Barker Reservoir for some illegal swimming (more like wading) and doggie off-leash time. They had a blast. After a short nap I was headed back down to the track for some low-key racing. It was good times, even though I was just saying during the morning track session, that I was trying to be good and not cook the legs before the two crit races I had managed to convince myself into doing on Sunday. Oh well... scratch that after 3 hours at the velodrome.

Turned out we also added a 9:30am showing of "The Other Guys" with Jesse and Brittainy, to kick off the day! ...it was going to be a long day. The movie was pretty hysterical, not the best, but still quite funny in it's humor. Just plain good. After the movie I was off to the Bannock crits. I saw this course worker, doing some corner maintenance, with way more than her share of "Cat5 tattoos". How do you even do that, that many times!?!?

The 35+ race was up first, and we had a pretty solid team for the day. Unfortunately, we messed up the finish for the win, but we did manage to take three of the primes, and a fourth place. I about knocked myself out of the race, doing a huge (2-blocks too long) lead-out for Lance to take the one prime. Oh well, always good training.

The P/1/2 race was next, and the field was stacked. It wasn't too bad floating in the second half of the field... that was until the thunderstorms rolled in. It never really rained that hard, but the course was an out-and-out ice-skating rink. In just two laps I managed to avoid at least 5 crashes in front of me, before being forced to chase too long, and then pulling the plug. All through the race, there were still crashes happening, right up to the finish.

This morning it looked like more of the same with the showers coming in for the day;

Manny, Moe and Jack were all snuggled-in for the morning showers, but continue to be noticably bigger every single day;

And now, coming back from lunch, there is a MASSIVE cloud working it's way over the divide, and is looking ready to put the smack-down on us. No worries... we should definitely have our afternoon thunderstorms... for what must be the 100th day in a row. Ugh.

July Recap

I really need to get back on top of my blogging schedule. Work is just going to have to wait... In the meantime, let's do a full-on, fast-forward recap of July events!

July 4th was our second anniversary, and the gift for that is of course cotton. Being that, Jessica got me an awesome (and very fitting I might add!) tshirt;

A few friends came up to celebrate with us, and have a bit of a party. Good times hanging out and waiting for the fireworks. We had our doubts, since some very nasty storms and cold rain rolled in, just in time for the fireworks in Ned, but we went to town anyway. The place was nearly empty, but that's alright, it meant we nearly had the place to ourselves, and the fireworks, as always, were great! The finale;

July is also birthday month of course, and Jessica was awesome, spoiling me all along the way. It's Jesse's birthday too, and for our fun birthday activity, we decided to go to do some go kart racing! It was a blast, and just so much fun. Especially when I was totally working over two separate guys in carts that were WAY faster than my little rental, by using my superior driving skills and tactics. It was like getting to drive your car, the way you really want to, and without worrying about "abusing" it. I was pushing my cart HARD, but I just wanted the guy running the track to turn his back for a few minutes, so I could risk losing control and really find the limit of the cart.

We got a new hummingbird feeder, and it's very popular with the birds in the yard. I was obssessed for a few days, with getting some pictures of them playing around the feeder.

The battle rages on...

Nailed the pic of this one!

I got out for a nice ride on the single speed, up in Kenosha with Craig, which was a blast.

Craig coming up to the pass;

Perfect day for the ride, and I hadn't done it before... there's not many things sweeter than completely new single track! This one is looking down towards Breck - gotta come back and do the full length to town!

The parents came into town for a week, which was pretty awesome. Good to see them, and we got to do some relaxing, but also a good amount of work. Started with some bathroom remodeling;

We hit up the big Harley shop for my dad, and even made the trip to Greeley for my favorite place, Cazadores. We spent another day in Estes Park, just doing the tourist thing.

Just to make sure the house was as full as possible, we even took little nephew Ouray in, for about 12 days of doggy-camp. Neo and Tayler had a new little puppy to teach, and play with. He was a pretty good little house guest, even with his ridiculous ears;

Jessica was the maid of honor at our friend Lisa's wedding, and after dinner, someone broke out the Slip'n Slide. Not even the bridesmaids, IN their dresses were to be denied a trip down the slide!

July wasn't the busiest month of racing for me, with so much else going on (we won't even get into the "regular job" nonsense), but I did make it out for the Mike Kornfield Crit. The race went pretty well. We weren't psyched with having just Lance in the break that finally established (simply due to numbers), so we worked until we were able to launch Baker across to the group. Baker ended up with the win, and Lance took 4th. I got to do lots of hard digs at the front of the main group.

We had a new addition to the family, after one of the little birds in the yard built a nest in our wreath! I named them Manny, Moe and Jack. It's crazy how much they grow EVERY single day! I can't imagine it will be long until the fly away, and I don't think I'll be able to convince Jessica to let us domesticate them.

The rain we've gotten the past month has been insane. The one positive is that the flowers have been growing like MAD! I've never seen so many at our house, and certainly no where near this many sticking around so long, and living so late into the summer!

Well, now it's August. Let's see if I can actually update this month, and not need to do a full month recap again!