So I was reading a baseball blog and got depressed. I used to love baseball. I could recite the starting line-up of most teams, I knew who the stars were, who the hot rookies were, who could hit for average, how hit for power, what year someone’s rookie card was, etc. Now the baseball news leads with derogatory slurs, HGH, and ‘roids and players now all hit for power and average. And the best slugger in baseball hardly even gets to swing his bat. The only redeeming qualities of baseball are the history of the sport and going to new ball parks or Miller Park in person. There is a lot more too it but this is not a baseball blog. One final point Bud Selig is the second worst person in sports and the first if you exclude a certain commissioner of a certain league whose finals just ended.

In other things that suck news we won all three games by forfeit in volleyball last night. The other team just didn’t feel like showing up.

Finally to finish off the suckiness trifecta this weekend is Russ’ bachelor party. Why does this suck? It doesn’t suck per say, just the person it’s being thrown for has been known to suck. Russ and I were best of friends but for the past 6 months I’ve seen him twice while he was moving and heard from him maybe one other time. Basically he is whipped. Everyone is whipped to an extent and I am guilty too but some people need to learn balance, especially after a year, and Russ is by far the worst one. For example, when he moved to Ohio we through him a nice going away party. Well he spent over an hour on two separate phone calls with his wife-to-be and texted her the rest of the evening, we barely held his attention at any point. We’ve gotten two pieces of mail from him, neither had as little as a hi or a thanks on it, they just contained what it needed. He hasn’t e-mailed or read my blog at all (he used to e-mail me all the time.) I understand having a fiancée and being busy but it doesn’t take long to check in and show you care a little especially with some of the big life changes I’ve had in the new year. I tried for a couple months on my end but after awhile you feel almost unwanted you know? I love you Russ, you’re my boy, but I’d love to see a little more love this way, you know?

Holy crap, a whole post having nothing to do about bikes…you knew I was going to blow it though. A week from today Brent the Tank’s Annual Tour De France picks will be posted on his blog. I believe this will be his 20th anniversary year so he’ll pull out all of his A material. This is guaranteed to be the must-read of the year! Excerpts from last year:
“1. Jan Ulrich- T-Mobile. There I said it, Jan will win, and he is by far the most complete cyclist out there racing today. But if my boy Jan fails to win I will not pick him next year. There, I said that too.”
“Which team will be the most decimated by the end of the race and have the fewest finishers:
Domina Vacanze. Not as funny to say as RAGT Semences, last year’s rag-tag pick but they sure have ugly jerseys.”
“Who will be the Lantern Rouge?
Matthieu Sprick- Bouygues Telecom. If the French can’t win their own race since Hinault beat LeMond in 1985 well then at least they can finish last. This was my one saving grace pick last year because the guy I picked finished 3rd from last. And like last year I have no idea who this guy is.”

And he had an even better quote in 2004 about a dog and Mario Cipollini and an ex-girlfriend…but that is for him to share! Here’s to 2006, I’ll also try to add my predictions to my blog and if you have predictions I’ll post them as well, we’ll see who does the best. And if you have questions for Brent the Tour Expert I will relay them to him, he’ll answer (almost) all!

I am officially sick! Guh! At least I should be healthy for Eau Claire and hopefully I'll be reasonably healthy this weekend (hopefully my new meds kick in!) Turns out it appears I had an asthma attack. We pinpointed it to the date of, May 23rd, stupid bad-ass kid! I had it somewhat controlled but not fixed until last night when my asthma really kicked my ass (it attacked my already infected lungs.) So it looks like I'll be laying low this weekend (as low as I can with a bachelor party going on) and hopefully I can ride again on Monday easy. He said my lungs sound like crap, my inhalation was ok but I could hardly exhale at all. Not really sure what all this means other than hopefully I won't be sick for much longer!

I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck!

Last night I got home from the practice crit and I really couldn’t eat much (I tried to eat some waffles but they weren’t treating me very well!) After that I just felt particularly crappy and got worse. I had a hard time sleeping and had the shivers all night. Looks like an 8am call to the doctor this morning!

So Baraboo was out for last night so I decided 72 hours of rest was enough and I was going to go to the practice crit. It probably wasn’t enough but such is life. I signed up and Brent noticed I had a lose crank! Guh! He tightened it up for me. I tried to warm up but I wasn’t feeling it. So the race (B’s) was off. The best I could do in the first half of the race was to just sit in towards the back. People kept attacking but no one was strong enough to get off by themselves and no one was organized to get off in a group. So I just sat in. By the second half of the race I was feeling a bit better and wasn’t worried about getting dropped. Finally we get to the last lap. I gained a few spots on each straightaway (pretty easy, everyone was giving up the wind side) and I settled into a wheel that I knew would sprint (about 3rd or 4th wheel around the last corner.) I waited very patiently for a short finishing kick and it turns out the people ahead of me gave me an easy lead-out and I took the win. It took my lungs forever to recover so I just lined up for the A race.

The A race went out slow, we did the practice lap and then the first lap didn’t get any faster. On lap 2 though the attacks kept rotating through but no one could get anything. But then on lap 3 there was a split in talent. About 10 guys just rode off and they were probably the best 10 in the race. They just got farther every lap. After that we just made laps for like 40 minutes. After about 10 minutes I felt strong and sat in the top 5 wheels most of the race. My plan (not sure what to do so I devised this all my self) was to sit in but not let anyone get away and hopefully Rybarik (teammate) could lap the field so Matt (easily the best rider left in our field) could try to lead him out. I kept looking back and not seeing anyone, the group must’ve not been working very well together. We were about to take the 1 to go when some guy goes flying by our group, race over we got lapped 100m from the end which for me was good because when I was setting myself up and chased back on after I dropped a chain off my front rings with two to go (which ended up being one to go) and almost took everyone down. I think I may have bent my big ring so I was afraid to spring anyways. I was pretty excited to hang in the A field. Actually my heart rates for both races was the same (173bpm avg) so the A race must’ve been slow, I am guessing Matt didn't even get a workout.

Looks like I am skipping the Blackhawk TT tonight, I am in rough shape and feel like crap (so I welcome all the rain!) Hopefully my doctor can help me out today so I’ll be ready for Eau Claire next week. Time to lay low for a bit.

So again it must be Tuesday because the forecast is for rain! I am planning on doing the crit tonight so hopefully the rain will just stay away and we can get a nice, big field! I’ll have 72 hours of rest since the HHH so that’ll be good and if it rains tonight though my rest may get over 100 hours. Anyways I’ve been trying to figure out my motivations for the rest of the season as I’ve already accomplished and exceeded all of the goals I have set forth for the season (only goal left is the Ironman.)

Saw Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift yesterday. I was entertained. Like most action movies there were some parts that were a little too out there and they had some guy my age playing a high-schooler but the movie had some awesome action and a decent story line. I saw a movie on In Demand on Sunday called the Underclassmen and it was decent as well. Is there any movie that Cheech isn’t in? Anyways it is #56 on the worst 100 movies of all time! I’ve actually seen a handful of the bottom 100 but this is the second worst (Garbage Pail Kids the Movie is the worst, at least until I see Larry The Cable Guy Health Inspector.)

HHH in photos! Well, at least the last 5 miles. Jess found me with about 5 miles to go.

One last downhill and then up...And up... Lots of the 100k riders are walking at this point, but there was no way I wasn't riding...

Finally the finish, right before my finishing salute...

Besides a couple of bananas with peanut butter this is how I sustained...And this is how the post race fueling went down...

Jess and I pose for a photo at the top... Garett finished too so I chat with him to see how much his ride sucked!

The winner (from what I can tell) was actually a Cat 4. I heard him though before the race talking about how he was peaking to do well at this event (he is a former Ironman who is now a road racer) and it was implied that he was fully supported so he didn't have to stop. His wife was there taking photos as well and I think she runs a photo service. I remember racing him in the first practice crit of the season and he beat me in the sprint to take the win (I settled for second) and he was able to do the whole A race after that.

For once in my life I was (somewhat) glad I missed WORS. Sounds like it was a mud-fest and I even heard a rumor that the Experts had to run the non-technical Citizen lap. Not sure what happened to Kelson (NR) and it looks like Jerry didn't have his best race (judging by a couple of people beat him) but I haven't heard how it went down so who knows. Hertz didn't show but I hope his crit went well on Saturday. New Guy Ryan won his age group so I am guessing he is pretty pumped! Shiroma raced a week after his wedding for 2nd place, 1 place ahead of Joel who finished 3rd. Jen Jones also won the women's overall, seems to be her season! I hope I didn't miss anyone else. Oh yeah, Ryan from the Baraboo ride did awesome as well and Gabe (Chris) won the sport clydes overall so I am sure he is pumped as well and I am glad a real clyde took it! I am guessing my position would've been 6th at WORS (if I was a predictor.) I am not a mudder and the Top 5 all did well but then there was like a 9 minute gap to 6th place. Only 2-3 people will have results that will affect my overall. But right now I am not concerned overly with the overall, I probably won't do that well in the overall anyways so I am just shooting for some podiums.

Update- Greg Lemond wasn't listed in the results. Neither was Brent Dakin or Dan Nagle. The results are a little weird now, my position was adjusted to 29th but there are 3 positions that don't have anyone (1st, and like 13th & 24th or something have no one listed) so I don't know what the deal is. I am sure they are still cleaning them up. Regardless I am excited about my finish! Aquathon results are up as well. I was 45th out of 70 (30th out of 50 the first race)

Swim: 18:26, Transition: 2:05, 5k: 24:41, Total: 45:12. I'm 13th in points and after the last race I will fall alot more, probably to about 28th place as they take your best 4 (out of 5) and there are like 20 people behind me who've only done 1 of the 2 races so if most of them do the rest then I will fall! :)