Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Hangin' with tPod, the Grand Master and the Jedi Master by Cam Kirkpatrick

So here it is, the middle of my pizza/hamburger/French fry/beer season. I haven’t had a hamburger, pizza or French fries in a few weeks. I think I had a beer last weekend. My normally healthy eating habits seem to have taken over. Does this mean that the rest of me is ready to get back into the ‘routine’? I don’t think so. Most of my cycling posse have already started on next years training programs and I’m still a couple of weeks away from even thinking about doing anything that resembles a structured plan. Physical activities have pretty much consisted of riding once or twice a week and hitting the weight room three times a week.
The down time has been nice, but it’s always a challenge trying to figure out productive ways to occupy the time that was normally spent in the saddle. So here’s what I’ve been up to for the past month or so.
The IMBCS (Iowa Mountain Biking Championship Series). I’ve been dumping a ton of time into the series this fall/winter. I’m working on some spreadsheets that will enable me to track points much more efficiently and they are almost done, woohoo! I’ve also been encouraging all of the race directors to give us their race dates for next years races as soons as possible. The goal is for Thad and I to have next years schedule put together and out for public record by the end of the year. We have a few dates set but I don’t want to disclose anything until we get all of the dates finalized. Our hope is to avoid any conflicts with some of the more important road events and also the Nebraska State Mountain Biking Series (Psycowpath). I’ve also been working with Grand Master Lou in getting a stand alone website for IORCA / IMBCS put together.
I can tell you that we will have one new cross country race this season that is being hosted by Amanda Miller at Geode State Park (about 90 minutes south of Iowa City). I’ve ridden there before, maybe four or five years ago. All that I remember of it is that it was flat, fast, I had an altercation with a tree that resulted in my grown getting slammed into my stem, and maybe there was a lake there. It kind of had a Peterson Pits feel to it. It should be a great event and I’m looking forward to it.
There is also a really good chance of there being two stage races in the 2006 edition of the IMBCS. In addition to the stage race that will be held at Seven Oaks, Andy Lueck has also decided to try a stage race down at Sockum Ridge, the same place that I saw that one-eyed farmer who told me he saw a bear or a lion in them thar woods…. Actually, I don’t remember what kind of an animal it was that he saw. I do remember that I was more afraid of him than any animal he may have seen. There are a lot of trails there that were not a part of last seasons cross country race, so it should be a pretty sweet event. We plan to score the stage race events a little differently next season. If you participate in both days of the stage event, you will earn double points for the weekend. If you choose to just do the cross country event on Sunday, then you will only score points for one event.
Eating. I’ve probably had a hamburger and French fries more times in the past couple of months than I’ve had the past five years combined. We’re not talking about the McDonalds / Burger King crap where the ‘beef’ comes from some stray dog that was found in the back alley. I’m talking about a real burger from a real cow and French fries that come from real potatoes. I’ve also probably consumed more beer and wine than I have in the past five years as well. Not to the point where my lips turn purple as Grand Master Lou is well known for after downing a few bottles of the Seven Deadly Zins. I can’t drink that much anymore, just the smell of wine or beer gets my head buzzin’. The beautiful thing about all of this debauchery is that I’ve only gained about seven pounds. Sweet.
Training… Maybe the term ‘exercising’ might be a little more appropriate. I’ve only been riding once or twice a week for the past month or so. Lately it’s been too crappy and cold out for night rides. I usually cut out of work around 11 on Fridays, so I’ll hook up with Grand Master Lou, Petey, tPod and Jedi Master Gammel and we’ll hit the Science Center for about 90 minutes. My only focus during these rides is working on bike handling skills, with no concern about effort or fitness. This is especially good when there is snow or ice on the trail. I also think it is important to spend a little time off of the bike during the off season. Being a weekend warrior helps to recharge my mental batteries. It’s been pretty easy to maintain a little fitness doing other forms of exercise such as the stair hamster, eating and thinking about bike racing.
Training plan. I've been a self coached cyclist from day one and it has definitely been a learning experience. I've been very fortunate in that I’ve made fairly substantial improvements every year. So my plan for next season is to do better than last season. I’ll do basically the same thing that I did last season with a few minor tweaks here and there. I did very little LT training last season, mainly because I chose to spend more time working on my bike handling skills. So I’ll try to incorporate a little more LT training in for next season.
I’ve also spent the past two months in the weight room. The first couple of weeks basically consisted of lifting embarrassingly light weights with high repetitions. If you’re a dude and your main objective in going to the gym is to impress female(s), I would recommend doing this phase elsewhere. I’ll spend the next month or so doing what I call muscular strength workouts. The main objective with MS workouts is gain strength in certain key muscle groups, including legs and certain upper body groups that are needed to ‘throw the bike around’. I’m also doing a lot of core exercises, which I do throughout the year.
I’ve also hooked up with a new road team with the intent on doing a few road races next season. The team is called ‘Midwest Speed Merchants’ and is run by triathlon badass JJ Bailey. My primary focus will still be on the dirt and I’ll fit in road events during the off weekends. The team consists of JJ, Ralph Henderson, myself, Tony Nichols (tPod), Kim West (the mostly reverend), Garrett Davis, Nathan Bartels and Collier Schofield (southern fried Collier). Five of us are cat 3’s and my primary responsibility will be to work my arse off for my teammates and help deliver wins. I chose to join this team because I like what JJ’s goals are, it’s a really good fit for me. JJ is launching a coaching business and he and I have very similar philosophies and ideas when it comes to training and racing. I would also like to get to the point where I can upgrade to a cat 2 by early summer, we’ll see how it goes. It’s looking like there will be quite a few early season mountain bike races so it may be difficult to squeeze in enough road events to qualify.
As I’ve mentioned in previous entries, I’ve had an incredible season. I collected 10 wins in the IMBCS and 2 wins in the Psycowpath series, I also won a couple of cat 3 races last spring. Some of my more memorable moments from last season would probably be repeating as IMBCS champion, that’s always a good thing. I think two of my biggest moments were getting my first overall win in the Nebraska series. That was a pretty huge breakthrough for me and gave me a ton of confidence for the remainder of the season. Winning my second Nebraska series race was just as big because it was also the Nebraska NORBA state championship race. I also have to mention my training camp in Colorado. The riding in Durango is absolutely incredible. I also had a great time riding with Fig Nooner in Aspen for a few days. Colorado is always one of the highlights for every season.
There a few people that played a pretty significant role in my success. Firstly, my Mom and Dad were huge. They both show an incredible amount of enthusiasm for what I do. My Mom lives in the Quad Cities and usually attends a couple of my races every year. When you consider that she has her own ambitions with running road races, marathons included, almost every weekend, it means a lot to me that she takes time from her busy schedule to come and watch. My Dad lives in Texas and would come to every race if he could. He also does a lot of riding including mountain biking. I usually have two training camps every season, one in Durango and the other in Texas. He’s there for both and provides an enormous amount of support. I also get all of his hand-me-downs, including my new hard tail race rig for next season, 2003 Specialized S-Works M5. I call him the schwag man, but he also goes by ‘Plumber’ and ‘the old man’.
Rasmussen Bike Shop. I can’t say enough about all that Greg Rasmussen, Sterling Heise and the Rassy crew do for me. I started racing back in 1999 and spent my first five years racing on a team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Just about all of my races were in Wisconsin and Rassy’s still took good care of me despite all of that. This season was my first season as an actual member of the team and it is by far the best team that I’ve ever been on. I truly wish that I would have joined sooner. There have been a number of times when they would go well out of there way to help out when I needed something. There is no way that I can possibly put into words how much I appreciate every thing that Greg and Sterling do for me. In addition to all of that, it’s simply a great place to just hang out. It’s not unusual for me to spend an hour or two there, shootin’ the breeze, playing cribbage, tinkering with my bikes or trying to provoke Terry to play his strawivari (if you don’t know what this is, ask him).
Oakley. Rob Versteegh, the local Oakley rep has given me some great deals on Oakley gear. They have the best eyewhere, hands down. I race with the Half Jacket Array glasses and have never had a problem with them.
Last spring Diamondback gave me their 2005 full suspension race frame, rear shock included, free of charge. It took me the better part of the summer to get it put together and the remainder of the summer to get used to it. I did the 24 hour race at Seven Oaks on it and my back thanked me for it. I raced mostly on my Mongoose because it is about 5 ½ pounds lighter. I could loose or gain 5 pounds on any given day depending on how much I eat and/or purge. The more that I ride the Diamondback, the more I like it. I feel very comfortable on it now and really don’t think the added weight is that much of a disadvantage.
My big goals for next season are to repeat as IMBCS champion and also to win the overall for the Psycowpath series. My bikes of choice will be the aforementioned 2003 S-Works for my hardtail. Fully assembled, she weighs in at a scant 21.0 pounds, compared to the weight of the Mongoose at 22.5 pounds. I’m not completely sure what I’m doing for a duelie yet. I plan to either lighten up the Diamondback or acquire a brand new rig by ‘other means’. I’ll let you know more about my ‘other means’ when I know more. I put together a race resume and it might pay off for me.
I’m really stoked about next season, there should be quite a few cats that will upgrade from sport to expert. So the size of the expert field will be a little larger, that’s always a good thing. I honestly hope that a few dudes can step up their game, I love close competition. Winning is fun, whether it be by 17 minutes or 1 second. Both are very satisfying, but it’s tough to beat the adrenaline rush that I get in a closely fought battle.
So that’s a brief rundown of what’s been goin’ down in my world. As I write this, I’m sitting in the back seat of my parents car and were flying down I-80 at about 92 mph on the way to Christmas with both of my sisters in Denver, CO. It’s about time to stop for some grub so I’m outta here.

Thanks for reading,

Cosmo

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Another Trip Around the Sun? Done.


So I’m sitting here thinking that I wanted to snail-mail out a Holiday Newsletter telling all my friends and family what I’ve done over the past year, maybe include a nice picture of me from some occasion I thought memorable. Then I thought to myself, “I’m way too lazy to do something like that and I can’t afford to take time away from building an award-winning, gingerbread nativity scene.” (Putting the Reeses Pieces eyes on baby Jesus takes, like, forever) So instead, I’m posting something on the blog. Yep… you can’t get more lame than an annual Wuzzzup-Blog-Posting now can you? No you can’t.

But there is an inherent problem in writing any on the WWW; there is no way to show emotion of any kind. Right now I could be loving or sarcastic, I could be joyous, I might be watching a Tim Allen movie, or I could have a fork shoved into my eye socket… you don’t know. And that is because the World Wide Web is a cold, emotionless, dispassionate, poker-faced tool of communication that can never be trusted. And I've never trusted the Web. I've always seen it as a coward's tool. Where does the Web live? How do you hold it personally responsible? Can you put a distributed network of fiber-optic cable "on notice"? And is it male or female? In other words, can I challenge it to a fight?

These troublesome questions have plagued the Internet since its inception, to say nothing of all the phreakers using their 28.8-baud modems to hack the Pentagon with their Prodigy accounts. Bah-humbug.

So, why even bother with a personalized e-newsletter? Really I’m not sure. And where is all this going? I’m even less sure. But as a constantly persecuted minority in this nation (white, male, Christian… can’t a brother get a break pa-leeez!) what I do know is that I’m a giver. I’m not the guy to talk about me-me-me at the end of every year. I’m humble. I’m modest and I promise to give 110% to this e-newsletter. I do it for the fans and no one is more prepared to write this than me. I’ve been training, watching videos and studying tactics to lead this e-newsletter writing team to victory! And there is no I in team people… unless you’re speaking Spanish; equipo! But then “I” would be “yo” and it still wouldn’t work. Darned semantics.

Anyway, what I’m trying to convey here is that I had a pretty good year. And by “good” I mean “outstanding”! Minus a couple chunks of “awesome” and sprinkle on a pinch “rockin”. Now that is one mighty fine annual-fruit-loaf. I started the year in January and decided to mix things up with a short-monthed February. March and April blew but May was totally metal. June was not what I was expecting at all and because of it I overslept through July but felt perky for the late night festivities in August. September was a drop in the bucket to all the different events titled October-fest. And November never felt so Novembery. December is what it is and that brings me to today. One more full trip around the sun, a couple of crow’s feet around the eyes, a few more grey hairs, and one step closer to having removable teeth.

Wishing you all smiles and an awesome 2006!
DQ

And be sure to hit the title link on this post. Fuh-knee!

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Happy Holidays!


This holiday season we'd like to send out our blessings and good wishes to you and your family! Stay safe in your holiday travels and we hope all your Christamas and New Year's wishes come true!

Your family at Rasmussen Bike Shop!

Greg Rasmussen
Sterling Heise
Terry Nelson
Donny Quixote
Matt Buchanan
Andy Leuck

Friday, December 16, 2005

Can You Read This?

Can you read this?

Olny srmat poelpe can.


I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rsaeerch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!


If you can raed tihs psas it on !!

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Science Center MTB RIdes

Science Center MTB rides for this weekend:

Friday - 1
Saturday - Noon
Sunday - Noon

All rides will meet at Rasmussen Bike Shop. The pace will be whatever
you want it to be. If you ride with Pete or Grand Master Lou, you will
go fast. If you ride with me, you will go slow. Anybody is welcome.

Hope to see you there,

Cam

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Science Center MTB Ride

I'm planning to ride the Science Center at 1 this Friday, snow or shine. I don't plan to make it into a hammer fest, however I can't be held accountable when Grand Master Lou and Petey Basso decide to lock horns in a battle of testosterone.I also plan to hit the Center on Saturday and Sunday at 10, hopefully before it gets warm enough to turn the snow into peanut butter.Plan to meet at Rassmussen Bike Shop for all three rides. Anybody is welcome to join in.Hope to see you there!

Cam

Monday, December 05, 2005

Pics.

Sunday mornings Rassy Crew. The Pug. truely goes anywhere.



Wild Bill cutting some after ride cookies.


Snow biking bliss.


Its all about the trees baby.


Ski Biking = BIG SMILES:)


A little cross up for ya'll. Going X Games kiddies.


Hanser tearing up the hill.


Need a lift.


Hey dude that's a cool sled you have there, can I ride it?

Peace

Squirrel

Sunday's Epic Adventures

Sunday morning at 8am Master Lou, Pistol Pete, Jacob N, Bill Fanter, Jason Alread, Sterling, Teri, and I all showed up at Targhetto for a 5 degree ride. While we were waiting for Sterling to show up Lou passed around the bottle of Bailey's Irish cream. MMMM. The trail was in normal snowy conditions with ATV tracks for us to all ride on. Once we got to the frontage rd. by the sandbar we all decided for a photo opp on top of the soon to be burnt out blazer. Totally funny, it even already had bullet holes in it. From here it was all fun to the brickyard, but the frontage rd. after the B.Y. pretty much sucked. So we all opted for the quickest route out which was up onto Lower Beaver. Once this decision was made I started to go back to tell Teri the plan, and on my way to her I cased it, right over the handlebars. I think everyone got to see this crash. Getting up to Beaver was a total ass kicking, snow plowing butt kicker, the snow had to be 7" deep. Once to Beaver it was back to the parking lot. Bill F and I were riding the sidewalks back, jumping the plowed snow, shooting through parking lots, cutting through where grass once laid green and it was here that I ate shiat again. I go over the handlebars, but this time I had some speed and pretty much adjusted my neck and back all at the same time. Master Lou on the other side of the street had a good laugh at my expence. We all get back to the parking lot and its time for all to get in our cars and head out, but not before doing many sideways donuts in the unplowed Targhetto parking lot. Whooooo hooo kiddies. Before leaving some of us decided it would be good to go and get some joe at Grounds for Masterbations (Celebrations). Upon arriving Bill has this "briliant" idea of no coffee a Guiness sounds better, its not even 10am folks. So to AK's it is. Teri,Jacob,Bill and I have some beer(s), while Master Lou throws down a couple pots of coffee. Shortly sometime after 11:30 we all head our seperate ways. Teri and I head over to Wild Bills house to check out some furniture and a bike he is willing to just give away. After hanging for awhile its off our house to load up the ski bike for is inagural flight. I head over to Hansers house sometime after 2pm to pick him up and go to South Woods Park for some downhill adventers. Upon this arrival we are getting some interesting looks at our perferred sledding device. But once we shoot down the hill a few times everyone wants to ride. Ski bike = GOOD FUN. The ski bike is a great time we just need bigger hills and some jumps, oh and more ski bikes:) I will have pics. up soon, the blog isn't letting me load them this morning.

Peace
Squirrel

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Ski bike done






Finished the ski bike this afternoon, will be testing and taking some pics. tomorrow sometime. If you want in on the test ride call me. 490-6239

Peace

Squirrel

Friday, December 02, 2005

Ski bike build (part two)

$23 bucks of material and its off to the shop to get the build going for the ski mounts.





At this particular shop its always wise to get yourself a soda pop.


Get'n my weld on, don't look directly at the light its bad for you eye's.


Cutting material......kinda like a badass sparkler:)

A work in progress.


Damn that looks good:)


Almost finished mounts, have to hit the wire brush/grinder and then paint. Next the skis need to be cut and mounted, on the next episode of I'm a bike geek. Damn that was alot of work I'm thirsty:)

Peace

Squirrel

Bike Snow Plow

Check out the sweetest snow plow. We're looking for anyone who has the time and energy to build one of these.... we'll toss 'em a dandy gift card to the shop to help with their holiday spending!

Bike Plow

DQ

Sunday morning ride

Attention all pizza and beer drinkers,
I will be going out Sunday morning at 8:00am and riding the sycamore trail out and back at a nice leisurely pace taking in all the sights (trash and burned out cars) and enjoying the snow. I would gladly accept some company for the journey so please show up at the ex Targetto and we will ride!!

Sterling

A Bitter Sweet End To The 2005 Season by Cam Kirkpatrick

The season finale for the Psycowpath series was held at Platte River State Park, located about halfway between Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. If you’ve read some of my more recent journal entries, you know that my history at Platte isn’t that great. You would also know that I thought that I was in the drivers seat for the Psycowpath series overall title. Well, it ended up being a weekend full of surprises, some good and some not so good.
I drove to Omaha the Friday before the race to meet up with a good friend of mine, Greta, who was driving all the way from Boulder, CO. I must be an OK dude if somebody that hot was willing to drive all of that way to hang out with me and watch me suffer like an animal in a bike race. Greta was a mountain bike racer back in the day and was pretty damn good at it. She used to bang bar ends with Heather Irmiger in the Winter Park series in the mid 90’s. Heather is now an accomplished pro with a few NORBA wins to her credit.
Saturday morning arrived and I packed up my race gear and headed out to the course. I arrived at the park with about two hours to spare before the start. I unloaded the bike and cruised over to the registration tent. I talked to a few cats along the way, Shimonek, Jesse Peterson and Matt Gersib. JP was looking pretty focused and looked like he was ready to rip somebody’s legs off. He built (with a lot of help from the THOR folks) all of the trails that we were about to mix it up on. This has to be one of the best race courses in the Midwest. Lot’s of killer stuff mixed with a lot of pain and suffering. What more can I guy ask for?
I got suited up in the Rassy camo kit and went out for a pre ride with Shim. He was gracious enough to show me a few lines through some of the technical stuff. As the ride progressed, the smile on my face grew bigger. This course has a lot everything, lots of high speed, banked corners that allow you to ‘g’ it out unlike any other. A killer roller coaster section, a couple of high speed descents that can provide some quality air time if the right lines are taken. My legs felt pretty decent during the ride and I felt like I would have a pretty good race. It had been a couple of weeks since I had turned a pedal in anger and wasn’t really sure what to expect this time around. I had planned to do a couple more cross races before this weekend. The last cross race that I had done was a couple of weeks prior and it resulted in a bum ankle from all of the running. I hate running, it hurts. So I figured that I better back off on the cross racing before I really screw something up.
As I was cruising around waiting for the race to start I saw Steve Tilford and Travis Brown wandering around. Cool. If you’ve never heard of these cats, Tilford is a multi world mountain bike champion in the masters category. Travis Brown has been a pro since the early 90’s and was a NORBA national champion at one time. He also took part in the 1996 olympics, though I have no idea how he did there. I knew that I didn’t have a realistic chance of beating either of those dudes, however I go to every race with the expectation of winning and I wasn’t going to let a couple of mutants tamper with my mindset.
I was talking to Shim after the pre ride and he apologized and told me that he screwed me over. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about so I asked him to enlighten me. Earlier this season I was reading through the Psycowpath rules and regs. They didn’t make any mention about dropping races. Every season prior to this season, they would allow a racer to drop their lowest score at the end of the season. So if the series had six races, your five best scores would count towards your end of season score. I called Shim and asked if they were going to allow the same deal for this season. He called me back and said yes, that it would be the same as it had always been. On one of the weekends, the Iowa series had a race that was on the same weekend as one of the Psycowpath races. So knowing that I could drop a score for Psycowpath, I skipped the Nebraska race to do the Iowa race. Well that one came back and bit me in the arse. The Psycowpath series director decided that since they forgot to put that in the rules for the 2005 season, they weren’t going to allow a drop for this season. Whatever… I almost got pissed off, but the reality of the situation quickly took over and I came to the realization that it wasn’t really that big of a deal. It is after all just bike racing and it was still a crap load of fun. The people that put the series on work their butts off to do it and I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate it. I still exceeded all expectations for this season and could still be happy with that. For the record, you didn’t screw me over Shim. I should have looked into it further rather than assuming things, it’s all my bad dude.
So the race started and Tilford took off like a freakin’ bat out of hell. He was the first to the top of the climb, with T Brown following closely behind. Schlake was the only dude from the ‘human race’ that had enough balls to try and follow them. JP was next followed by me. Within a couple of minutes, Tilford, Brown and Schlake were completely out of sight. I rode JP’s wheel for about a half of a lap and had an absolute blast doing it. He knows all of the fast lines and I was riding faster than I’d ever ridden there before. I felt really good so I passed him about midway through the first lap and was able to gap him a little. Big mistake. I really gassed myself trying to loose him and by the time I got to the rock garden, I was in that all too familiar cross-eyed, legs boiling over with lactic acid state of delirium. The rock garden is the most technical section on the course and you really need to have your act together when you get there otherwise you will screw yourself. I hit the garden and bobbled on some of the rocks because my heart was trying to jump out of my throat. JP caught back up to me and passed me shortly after we exited the garden. That was the last that would see of him until after the finish.
One of the coolest things about the Psycowpath series is the people. During all of the races, I hear people yelling my name in encouragement throughout the race, even though I’m from the center of Iowa. This race was no different. There were a ton of people hanging out in the rock garden area, it was sweet. There was one cat that was going completely nuts when somebody would ride through the garden, it was way too cool. I must have seen or heard Greta three or four different times each lap, she was everywhere. She probably got a better workout than I did with all of the running around that she was doing. She provided a lot of motivation to keep the pressure on, despite the fact that my arse was being handed to me by JP, Schlake and the mutants.












Me in the Rock Garden.



















WWJ in the rock garden.










As the race progressed, I could see that Shim was consistently about a minute behind me. During the third lap, Greta told me that Schlake had popped and was going really slow. I thought to myself that he couldn’t have been going that slow because I couldn’t see him anywhere. About three minutes later, there he was. I passed him like he was standing still. As I passed he had his tongue hanging out and he asked me if I had a gel. He was going through a major bonk. I guess all he had to eat was a small bowl of cereal before the race. I managed to keep Shim at bay and finished the ‘human race’ in second, about four minutes behind JP. Tilford won the mutant race in a sprint finish over T Brown. It was my best result and the closest I’d ever finished behind JP at Platte River. JP was about four minutes behind Tilford and Brown which put me at about eight minutes behind them. That sounds like a lot, but then when you think about the fact that they beat guys in pro races by 15 or even 20 minutes sometimes, I can feel really good about that.






The podium: Tilford on the top step, T Brown to his left and me on the far right. Shim is one the far left with JP next to him.






The series points, with all six races scored, put me in 4th for the overall. If they had allowed us to drop a race, I would have won the series overall. I’m cool with knowing that if they had done it as they always have in the past, I’d have been the man this season. It was still a lot of fun and I definitely plan to do it again next year. I just won’t screw myself over like I did this year.
So now the racing season is officially over. It’s been a very long season, longer than usual with this last race extending into pizza, hamburger, French fry, sausage and beer season. I’m looking forward to all of the rides at the Science Center with all of my greasy mountain biking bro’s. It’s a different kind of riding in that I could care less what kind of effort I’m putting in, it’s all about having a good time. I’ll still be doing periodic posts on the blog about training and whatever else I may be up to. Until then…

Thanks for reading,

Cosmo

I want to be a Ski-bike

when I grow up I want to be a super fast ski-bike.


I'm going to be so HARD KORE!


"She likes Chrome" oh so sexy:)



You know everyone will want a Pink Saddle now.



Stay tuned for Saturday's building of brackets to mount the ski's too, then attach to bike.

Peace

Squirrel

A little snow ride

The Rig.
entrance to Denmans.
Lucky ridder's tracks
first mate didn't ride Little Italy bridge
I got to make first tracks here
self explanitory
me ugly mug.


Left work yesterday and came home to go and hit up Denmans. I was hoping to be first tracks as there is just something spiritual about cutting first tracks. As I rolled up to the snowy paved trail I was let down just a little as someone else had beat me to the trail. DAMN:) The snow on the trail was perfect light and fluffy with about 4 inches of depth. After riding all of Denmans I headed to the shop for my next mission....... Pick up some BMX pegs for the BUILDING OF A SNOW BIKE. Yeah baby. I'll have some early snow bike build pics. soon. How do I get this text above the pictures?


Peace
Squirrel