There's some new girls in town

Went to San Juan to pick up Jason yesterday. nothing like 5+ hrs in the car to San Juan and back. However the pain of sitting in the car was offset by getting my new bike, just in time.



Got to ride it this morning, it rocks.

Time to hit the beach.

The 00677

Puerto Rico. What’s not to like. The people are nice, the beaches kick ass, drinks are cheap, the riding is amazing and you can wear shorts and short sleeves all day and night. I’ve come here several times now and it only seems to get better.

The hospitality here is really something else. Greg and Val, our hosts, are a sweet couple from Rhode Island. Their hospitality and generosity ranges in the EXTREME range on the scale and if I was anywhere else I might take caution, as if I was being set up for a trap. However, we’re in Puerto Rico and I guess the H word just kind of rubs off on people. Greg and Val live in a beautiful home on the top of a hill, minutes from the beach. Bryan and I are living in the downstairs apartment of the house which is fully equipped so that if needed, and it might be, I could live here for months. Greg and Val have done more than the average host to make us feel comfortable. Everything from taking us out for drinks, showing us the local hot spots on the beach, cooking meals for us and even going on rides, the fun just doesn’t seem to stop. But I don’t feel guilty, everything done here is genuine without any hidden agenda.

Greg, Val and friends.


Greg.


The backyard. It sure isn't Hwy 36.


The praises don’t stop with Greg and Val either. Doel, and Paolla, are some of the greatest people out here. Doel does so much behind the scenes work that nobody ever realizes how much it takes to put on a race of this caliber all while maintaining the level of professionalism it has. The race promoters in the states could learn a lot from these guys. The truth is, the amount of good things said about this place and the people who live here can’t be said enough and those who don’t believe me should come here for themselves.

Bryan and I have spent the majority of our time either riding bikes, playing darts or on the beach. The roads here are insanely steep, so steep, that I didn’t think Bryan would believe me so I took him on some of the steepest roads around.


He did pretty good.


But having to shed a little winter weight, he had to walk a little.


After riding the course:


Bryan decided that he needed a new ride. The scalpel just wasn't shredding enough.


After riding to the highest point around, the Channel 12 news tower, twice we were pretty tired.


Yesterday Greg, Bryan and I got up early to hit up some local routes. Greg crushed us as we deaded up towards the radio tower for the third time in two days. Don't let his demeaner throw you off. On the last hill I thought I was home free to just cruise up to the house but Greg had other plans, ATTACK!


And as usual the views suck.


The rest of the gang gets here today, along with my new bike...yaaaaaa, time to shred.

Bryan also posted a mini book on his site, check it out.

Murphy's Law?

It's 4am on friday morning. Yes.... Spring Break has started. I am currently in my living room sitting in front of the TV surrounded by energy drinks, double stuff oreos, beer, trail mix, black tea, an empty bowl that used to contain cookies and cream ice cream and some glasses of milk. However, as fun as this sounds it's not as fun as it sounds.....I'll start from the beginning.

I went to sleep the other night at 12:30am only to wake this morning (yesterday morning?) at 8:30am to meet a friend for breakfast. As I scrambled to shower and catch the bus i forgot to print my paper due for my last class, oh well. I catch the bus and make it to breakfast right on time, however my friend was a no show. "phone died", "alarm didn't go off", "I'm sorry I'm sorry!" yea whatever......it was a no show. So i cruis around the hill to find some breakfast not wanting to do the awkward sit down by yourself type thing. I end up getting breakfast and hanging out with a friend till class. Great, school is out and spring break for me has officially started thanks to friday's classes being canceled. I hurry home to ride.

After being on campus for nearly 5 hrs i was ready to do bike practice. With Puerto Rico right around the corner i have been doing my first hard efforts of the season. A large group of us headed up to Sunshine canyon. Bryan and I went hard, me chasing him the whole way up to the top, good effort but I'm tired. For some reason, despite going hard up the climb, the general consensus was to go hard down as well. Today I went down Sunshine faster than I ever have, railing corners hard with minimal breaks and hitting speeds over 52mph's. We get to the bottom, everyone tired and continue with our ride. Content with the efforts just exerted we continued to cruise the local bike path. As we meandered around boulder Kiel and I were in front going a normal speed as we came around the same corner I have gone around at least 100 times. however this time the turn was booby trapped with a thin layer of sand and grit. Before i knew it i was on the pavement with my helmet cracked in two places. I immediately got up and stumbled around, severely pissed off that i had just eaten shit on the F@#*kingbike path... amateur hour! I then proceeded to notice my brand new lenses were scratched, major bummer. At this point I told the guys i just wanted to go home. They asked me if i was ok and I just nodded my head and said yes. As they left I got on my bike and proceeded down the bike path toward home. However I made it about 30 yards down the path to where there was a split in the path. At this point I didn't have a clue where I was or where home was. Completely discombobulated I called Bryan...."uh...I don't know where I am or how to get home". Within a few minutes the guys were back with me checking my status. Kiel continued to play the Remember This Word ______ Game. He gave me the word...Pencil, and I continually forgot what the word was. I also kept rediscovering that I had scratched my glasses. At this point the guys were worried about me and we rode to Boulder Community Hospital. By the time we got there I was remembering things that had happened and could answer almost every question asked. After speaking to doctors and nurses we decided the banana boat tour at the hospital wasn't worth it and I got a ride home.

Now feeling much better I am still taking the precautions for a concussion. No sleepy all night. Thank god I have good friends. Thanks for everyone who has called, come bye to say hi or has hung out with me all night watching movies and eating junk food, those people being Peter, Kiel, Kelly and a little Shep. So as you can tell, it's not a normal start to a spring break. The fact that I have a strawberry on my chin doesn't help and all the road rash (which is minimal) isn't going to feel good in the ocean. So needless to say, its been a ling day, and I haven't done an all nighter since high school. OH well Shit happens.

For your viewing pleasure.



In other news, some of us have our Xmas in december while others (shep) have theirs after the Trek team camp.


I think Shep has more cool clothes than he knows what to do with.

Thats all i got. I'm going to try to not fall asleep now. 

Bodily Evilness

Well Last weekend I went down to New Mexico for the first collegiate race of the season. It consisted of a 15K ITT, 15K TTT and a crit. The weekend started out good with the team including myself having good results in the ITT. We then won the TTT, no surprise there. However that night I began to get sick so I opted not to race the crit, so i took pictures. We crushed, again. Brad an Kiel attacked form the gun.



They got a pretty good gap but got caught by another group. Eventually Kiel another of our guys got in a break that stayed away. With that being the case, I had a feeling who was going to win and decided to get a victory shot, it paid off.


So this weekend the CU team did pretty well.

Mens A ITT: 1st,2nd,9th,14th, and chris peterson brought up the rear in 38th, however he was riding a 1 by 9 cross bike!
Mens B ITT: 2nd, 3rd,4th. yaaa (really first due to some sandbagging.)
Mens A TTT: 1st
Mens B TTT: 1st
Mens A Crit: 1st,5th,9th
Mens B Crit: 1st

So overall not too shabby.

The Ride home was brutal. Pulling the trailer in this for 9 hours, not ideal...oh yea i was sick too! SUPER LAME.


So it is now Saturday and I am still sick with something nasty. I think it's coming to an end however. I think this because the last two days my cough is actually getting stuff out of me as is my every 5 minute nose blowing. I have never had anything that has put so much crap in my head and chest before. The amount of congestion is unreal. I can't wait until it is over. I haven't ridden my bike at all in 6 days. I might go on a spin today just to keep my sanity. I can't be in the house any longer. Well that's all i got. Until next time.