Living the Dream

2009 u23 Nationals

2009-10-08T20:48:00.007-05:00

After I finished up with Cascade, I had just 3 days before my big target for the year; the u23 nationals road race. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't get enough recovery time, but considering most of the main contenders I would be facing also did Cascade, I couldn't use that as a legitimate excuse. Lucky for me, nationals was in the same town as Cascade, so I didn't have to do any more traveling. Ashley and switched housing to stay with our coach, Christian Williams, and the GS Tenzing crew. As a Tenzing alumni, it was cool to get to hang out with the younger guys and share some insight with them as well as goof around and play ping pong.
For the most part my recovery consisted of lots of time in the coffee shop and a few easy spins. On one day, Ashley, Gonzo, Kyle and I rode up the tt course to a huge waterfall that was part of the local state park. It was a pretty cool view and well worth the 3 miles of gravel road to get to.

Before the race, I thought long and hard about what would give me the best chance for success. I figured I had some success in the past by being in the early move to limit the surges. I decided that would be my plan of attack. Luckily, my instincts paid off. As it does almost every year, regardless of the course, the early move stayed away. And I was in it. We got rolling about half through the first lap of 6. Originally, there were about 22 of us, with only a handful of amateurs. I was fortunate to have the company of 2 Kelly Benefit riders, 3 Garmin, and 3 Trek-Livestrong. I knew I was in the right move. On lap 5, Ben King of Trek- Livestrong gave a little fake attack before the first climb and it forced Alex Howes and Peter Stetina of Garmin to hit the gas and close the gap. In doing so, half the break got shelled! I was close to being one of them, but clawed back on through the feed zone. Now there were 9 of us. Still the 3 Garmin riders, 3 Trek- Livestrong, Scott Stewart of Waste Management, and Will Dugan for Team Type 1. Going into the second and steeper of the 2 climbs of the lap, another Garmin attack put me into difficulty. At the top of the climb, I put my head down and fought hard to catch back on. After a couple miles, I managed to latch on to the back on the group, but so did Kirk Carlson of Garmin, who had bridged up solo out of the chase group. Now there were 4 Garmin guys in the top 10! By the time I caught back on, the decisive move was gone, and with just a lap remaining, they weren't coming back. 4 guys snuck off the front and consisted of Alex Howes (eventual winner) and Peter Salon, both from Garmin, then Ben King and Scott Stewart. I was back in the first chase group with Peter Stetina and Kirk Carlson (Garmin), Guy East and Bjorn Sealander (Trek-Livestrong), and another guy. At this point in the race I was about cashed. The pace was pretty blistering and the course was so difficult, that only about 40 people got scored and about 25 crossed the line. I finished up 10th. Last out of the remaining guys in the original break away. Several minutes behind Alex Howes. By far the biggest dig I had at a national race in my career. At the end of the day, I was just no match. I like to think that the European program of the other guys was the difference maker, but they were just on a whole other level. Alex deserved the win and I was pretty content with my 10th. Next year.
The time trial was not exactly my strongest event, but I ended up surprising myself a little bit. My goal was to top 20, but I knew I had to put in a good effort for that. There were about 60 starters in the u23 time trial. My 30 second man was Kolt Bates, a good yet catchable rabbit. Behind me was Alex Howes and Julian Kyer, both very strong time trialists. I thought I would get passed eventually by both of them but I had to stay on the gas. About half way up the steady ascent before the turn around, I caught Kolt. I was in a good rythem and felt pretty good. Almost too good, I felt like I could go harder. But with close to 25k left I thought I should save some gas. Just before the turn around, Alex passed me as expected. With the next 10k being primarily downhill, I stayed on the gas. It wasn't long before Julian Kyer blew by my. At this point I am just angry. I start to pedal faster and catch up with Alex and pass him back. I was feeling a bit more confident now, but with the final 8k being technical and anything but flat I was half way expecting my catostrophic meltdown. I could still see Julian ahead of me, and I had passed 2 other guys along the way. I never caught Julian back and when I finished, I was sitting in 9th. I felt pretty tired but was thinking back and wondering where I could have made up time on the course. I had gave it my all, and by the time everyone was in, I finished 23rd. Exceeded my expectations, but I was bummed. I wanted top 20. Peter Stetina repeated and Julian Kyer finished in 5th. Hard to complain, but still a lot of work left to be done.

With the crit being the final event of the week, I was whooped! I had done more races in the past 2 weeks than the entire month prior! I had very high expectations for the crit. I wanted to be on the podium and improve on my 7th place from last year in California. I had a very hard time getting ready the morning of the race. I was sluggish getting dressed and had a hard time pounding my pre race coffee like I usually do. The nerves were getting to me. I knew I had a very good shot at winning and really wanted to deliver. I got a pre race call up to the line with Jake Keough and Justin Williams. I was motivated to more damage than I have ever done. Unfortunately my legs were not. I could stay toward the front of the field and float back without much difficulty. But I couldn't fight... or sprint. I was tired! 3 guys got away early, Alex Howes, Bjorn Sealander and Bobby Sweeting. The big teams dropped the ball in bringing them back. Kelly and Mt. Khakis couldn't get organized to bring the trio back. They were at a manageable distance to jump across, but it wasn't happening, not today. I wanted to bring them back by myself, but i had no one back there that could have benefitted from my work. So I sat, like I always do. I finished 16th and the break stayed away. I was disappointed to say the least. I wanted the jersey so bad I could taste it, but at the end of the day, I simply could not deliver. Next year.

Just because it's awesome!

2009-09-26T22:46:00.004-05:00

From Rouge Roubaix this year. Christian and I going 1-2.

Christian won the final Texas Premier Cup race in Denton today. Attacked going into the final lap and held a 5 second gap all the way to the line. What made his win even more impressive was that he had gone the entire week leading up to the race without riding at all, and in fact was on his feet at Interbike most of the time.
CFH!

Boise Twilight and Cascade

2009-09-17T13:59:00.003-05:00

After Superweek and a little family visit, our next stop was Boise, Idaho for the Boise twilight criterium. Along the way we decided to stop for a couple of days in Laramie, Wyoming, for a little altitude riding. It was a nice little college town with a coffee shop on every street corner. Since I have acquired a love for the taste of coffee, I was in heaven! The town is surrounded by mountains on every side but it sure is windy. It made riding in the Dallas suburbs seem easy. After a few days at 7,500 ft, we drove to Boise where it was 5,000 ft. We stayed a couple days before the race and rode some of their surrounding mountains as well. I had never been to this part of the country so I was excited to see all the new sites. Laramie, Boise, and Bend have all become one of my favorite little towns. I highly recommend visiting sometime. The day of the race, Ashley and I did an early morning spin to the Boise State football stadium to experience the famous blue turf first hand.

The race was pretty fun, with all of downtown lining the streets. I felt pretty good the whole race, but only managed 13th after losing my positioning on the last lap. Ken Hanson from Team Type 1 took the win with his teammate getting 2nd. Once again, I was able to make some much needed money! Life on the road was getting tough. Between the 3 days I was at Superweek and the Boise twilight crit, I was able to offset my expenses, so that's always nice.
Just 3 1/2 hours away was Bend, Oregon, site of the Cascade Cycling Classic and US Nationals. This race leading into nationals was at the top of my priority list. I new I wasn't going to be a contender, but since I had never done this race before I really wanted to get the experience racing a week long stage race with the best pro teams in the country. Not to mention Rock had their entire European squad racing, which included Tour de France stage winners. My main objective throughout the race was to finish, and to minimize my losses. The first day went well, a group of 20 stayed away to the finish and I was safely in the field. Not too difficult. The next day however, I had some bad luck. With 10k to go in the stage, all of which was uphill, I got taken down from behind and broke my frame and fork. I was sitting top 15 at the time, so the entire field barreled on top of me. I stayed pretty calm and got a neutral bike from Shimano. I finished the stage 7 minutes back with Stefan Rothe, who also got tangled up in the mess. Luckily the tt was the next day so I had time to get BH to overnight me a brand new Connect. Thanks guys! After a less than stellar performance in the tt I got my bike built. It ended up being a tad heavier than the G4, but overall the Connect was way better. Stiffer, stronger and more responsive. My first ride on the new beast was the Mt. Bachelor stage. The stage was pretty flat to rolling with 2 10 mile climbs that book ended the stage. I ended up 2 minutes back from the leader, but overall I was satisfied. Next was a normal 4 corner 90 minute crit. Rock controlled the race for Oscar Sevilla and I finished around 30th. The final stage was the most important part for me since it was the exact same circuit course that was going to be used for nationals. It gave me an extra chance to race the course before the throw down just a couple of days later. Right from the start I felt horrible and tired. I just wanted to salvage something. I was so happy just to finish the stage and the entire race. The course had 2 little climbs on it, one leading in to the feed zone that was a couple kilometers long and then the next one just a couple miles later. The second climb stepped up a little bit and was much steeper. On the last lap, going into the finish, I got separated from the front group and ended up back in the second group. Again, I was 2 minutes back. I finished 71st overall, which is quite awful, but when I think about the race I am not too bummed about my performance. It was a good learning experience for me and I had never done a race that hard before. I think with a little bit more hard work and a bit better luck, and I can finish in the top 20-30.
Now I just had a 2 days before the u23 nationals road race to rest and recover.

Superweek

2009-09-08T20:11:00.008-05:00

Whew, where to begin? Last I checked in, I was making a car change in Boston after the Fitchburg-Lonsjo Classic. After staying a few extra nights in the hotel in Fitchburg, we packed up and headed west. Next stop, Superweek. The plan was to stop and do a few days of Superweek before heading to the west coast for Cascade and nationals.
I have been lucky enough to travel all over to race my bike, but rarely have I been able to see any of the sights this country has to offer. Since we were gone for so long, driving was the easiest way to get around, and after coast to coast and back again, I got to see a lot. On our way to Chicago for Superweek, we stopped and rode just outside of Buffalo along Lake Erie. 4th of July had just past and people were still partying it up. Along the way I stopped at my cousins house in Indiana and got in another good ride on roads I've never been on. it was good to see some of my family again. After we rode, we ate lunch with my 2 cousins, Dana and Cassidy and their children. I don't get up north too often to visit with them and I thought I would take advantage of the opportunity. We got to Chicago the day before the first race and stayed in Lombard, the same town I often stay in for Downers Grove.

This was my 3rd time doing the Superweek races, and I was hoping for better luck than in the years past. It was cool to see Carlos and the San Jose guys tearing it up as always. My expectations weren't really too high. My primary objective was to just use it as training and maybe get some leg speed in me. ANy money I won would have just been a bonus. The morning of the first race was pouring! I opted out of an easy spin and worked on my bike instead, not sure if I were going to race or not. With races like Cascade and nationals coming up, the last thing I wanted to do was wreck, which I have done the 2 years prior. By the time the race rolled around, the weather was all cleared up. I got ready to race and before i knew it, I was in a 15 rider break away with Jonathan Cantwell,Bernard Sulzberger, Hans Dekkers, half of Team MTN among others. About half way through the race, we had lapped the field and gone straight through the field. With about 10 laps to go, we were close to lapping the field again. I ended up getting 10th out of the break.
The next day was a flat, 4 corner crit, and for the first time in my Superweek career, I was getting a call up. I was feeling pretty good and able to be active most of the day and stay out of trouble. With 1 lap to go, a break got caught to set up the field sprint. I was in pretty good position with a half a lap to go. Coming around the last turn, I was on the outside passing people. Right as I began to open my sprint I got forced to the curb and had to sit down. By the time I got up to speed again, Josh Carter was raising his hands in victory. I was pumped for him to win it against such a good pro field. I finished 11th, but moved up to 7th in the overall.
The 3rd day of Superweek, was going to be my last. I had other races on my schedule that I had to get to and wanted plenty of time to get there. The 3rd stage was the Elgin Cycling Classic. Historically, it is also a u23 race that runs with the pro race, but recieves a bonus jersey as well as $500 to the winner. Since I had some success the first 2 days, my priorities had changed for this race. It was the first road race of the series on a hilly 6 mile circuit. I wanted to finish as high up overall as possible and hope that it was good enough to win the u23 prize. Half way through the race, a break got away through the feed zone, and though I was in perfect position to cover the acceleration from Carlos, I let it go. I thought it would come back on the down hill, but it never did. The gap quickly grew to 2 minutes and with Team MTN from South Africa setting the pace of the field, the gap went up to 4 minutes. Team MTN was a contintal team using Superweek as training. At least that's what they said. They ended up winning half of the race plus the overall and points classification. Once the break got established, I began to focus more on the u23 prize. All the espoirs were still back in the field, including a rider from MTN, Fly V Australia, and about 10 others. With a couple laps to go, the field size was down to about 30. Everyone else had dropped out. Finally after a few unsuccessful bridge attempts by some riders, the field began to set up for the sprint. Team MTN was on the front for their guy and I was about 15 riders back with 1k to go. I didn't want to take my chances in the sprint, so I launched out of the field and pinned it all the way to the line. It was almost like I was leading it out, but I was able to catch a lot of guys off guard and get a gap. Only Andreas Muller, Josh Carter and a Team Kenda Pro guy came around me. I ended up in 12th overall, but more importantly, I was the top u23. Team MTN went 1-2 followed by Hans Dekkers and then Carlos. It wasn't the biggest result I've ever had or the most prestigious, but being back on the podium was nice. Plus cashing a check for $500 always feels rewarding.

Once Ashley and I wrapped up our time in Chicago we got back in the car for more driving. We stayed at my uncles house in Omaha, Nebraska for the night where I recieved some pretty bad news that my grandmother had passed away. It was a pretty sad time for everyone, but my supporting family insisted that I carried on with my plans and try not to dwell on something that was out of my control. Needless to say I had a little extra motivation for the upcoming races.
Next stop, Laramie, Wyoming and then on to Bois, Idaho for the Boise Twilight criterium and some altitude training.

Fitchburg report

2009-07-15T23:35:00.004-05:00

A couple weeks ago, Ashley and I began our month + long road trip across the U.S. Our first destination: Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
The race started with a 14k time trial. Time trialing isn't really my strong point but I gave it an all out effort. My only real goal was to pass people, and not get passed. It is usually hard for me to stay focused during the individual efforts, but I managed to do it some how this time. It still wasn't my finest performance, but I did manage to pass my 30 second guy, and no one passed me. Good day.
Stage 2 was a very difficult 75 mile circuit. The roads were all beat to hell and the final 500 meters were straight up to the finish! As if the race itself weren't hard enough, about 30 minutes into the race it began to pour down rain! Usually, I get a little nervous in the rain in anything other than a road race; however, this time was different. It was actually fun! I did a good job at staying at the front and was able to go with moves, none of which stuck. By the time we finished, a group of 7 stayed away and I found myself cruising in around 30th. Only about 65 people finished in the front group, with everyone else finishing minutes behind.
The 3rd stage road race had changed a bit from previous years due to the crappy road conditions caused by the harsh winter they had. Instead of the finish going up Mt. Wachussette, it finished on the feed zone climb we went up each lap. The course was pretty fast and relatively easy, except for the final 5k, which averaged about 9%. The race went pretty well for me overall. Going into the final and decisive lap, I had the feeling I was cracking and ended up popping out of the front group. Unfortunately for me, that feeling only lasted about 5 min. By the time I was good to go again, the race was over. I was left in the groupetto on the final lap with everyone content with rolling in 5 minutes behind. I still finished 35th but I couldn't help but think it should have been better. Next time.
Going into the crit, I was kinda tired. I didn't really have any objective for the race other than don't suck. I pretty much just followed wheels and a little before the half way mark, I found myself up the road with Mike Friedman, Tony Cruz and about 8 other guys from Kelley Benefits and Mt. Khakis. Just my luck, they weren't really interested in anything other than sprint points and primes. For the rest of the race I just sat in and tried to stay at the front. Again, a break of 7 or so stayed off the front, and I just followed wheels into the finish around 30th. Nothing great, but again it was the front group after the field split up. During the crit one of my all time favorite cyclists, Tyler Hamilton, came to spectate. I think he is from the Boston area, so it was cool to see him there. During my race, Ashley took a picture of him and just by accident got me in the picture. How cool is that right!?

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with my performance. Considering that was one of the biggest stage races I have done to date. I think more strong performances will follow. This only made me stronger and prepared me more for nationals.

Check back soon for more updates from my journey. I have a ton of photos that I plan on uploading also.

Back on the road.

2009-06-23T22:00:00.003-05:00

So last week I began my summer long voyage cross country. My first stop is in good ole' Greenville, SC. Where I am presently. I love the riding here, and the weather is hard to beat. Especially compared to the heat and humidity of home. After a couple of weeks of training in the mountains, it will be off to Boston for the Fitchburg stage race. Since I haven't raced since Tulsa, I am well rested and have some good miles in my legs. I also recently started working with a sports psychologist, Chris DuRoy, so my confidence is increasing as well.
After Fitchburg, it will be back in the car for more driving. This time, it's to the west coast. My race schedule will be Boise Twilight, Cascade and then u23 and elite road nationals. Luckily i have almost 2 weeks between Fitchburg and Cascade, so there is no big hurry to drive from coast to coast.
Before I left Dallas, I scored some Sugoi compression socks, courtesy of Bill Ball at Richardson Bike Mart. (Your one stop shop for all of your cycling needs, now offering the Retul fit. Ask for Mike or Gary.) ;-)
I already have some medical grade Jobst compression tights, but they tend to get a bit hot and sweaty. I think the socks will do just the trick in this summer time heat!

At the next few races you will also see me sporting a fresh pair of these....

JAWBONE

I am a pretty big fan of the Radars and M-Frames, but these are definitely the most comfortably pair of glasses I have ridden with. It is basically the replacement to the old Racing Jackets, that George Hincapie made famous. The main difference is the lenses in the new Jawbones can me changed. In fact, all of the Jawbones (for the exception of the transition lens models) comes with an extra set of lenses as well as a case. They are a little bit more money than the radars, at $195, but for what you get, it is way worth it. The guys at Richardson Bike Mart already have them in stock if you want to check them out.

Anyways, I am pretty excited about my summer campaign and can't wait to kick it off in Fitchburg. Ashley and I are leaving around the 30th, and all the racing starts on July 1st.

Thanks again to all the readers who patiently wait for my posts. I plan on giving race updates while I am on the road. So check back at the first of the month.

Oh yeah, Metro isn't going anywhere. Just a small speedbump.
To quote the great Corey Ray, "Metrovolkswagenfightneverdies!!"

Time is flying by...

2009-06-09T08:15:00.002-05:00

So the last time I posted on this thing, I was back in Mississippi and I had just read about Tyler Hamilton getting popped again. Sad day, whatever whatever.

Fast forward. Where have I been and what have I been doing since?

Well, racing mostly. The team went out and did the crit series in SC, followed by Joe Martin, or, as my brothers down south call it, Jose Martine. We also did the Matrix Challenge, Memorial weekend crits, and Tulsa Tough. The team overall raced well and was able to pick up a few results. I have had a sub par season of racing so far but am optimistic about things still come.I took a brief 2 week hiatus to Greenville, SC to train and stuff. It was much needed. I love the riding out there and the weather makes it hard not to enjoy a long day on the bike. Christian is now running the team full time and he is trying to rebuild the whole program for next year. He is definitely the best guy for the job. I think it will all be ok.

As of now, my plans for the summer are as follows. Leave next week for Greenville, SC and train for another week or so. Then head up to the Boston area for the Fitchburg stage race. I haven't done that race since I was a junior in '06, but it's a good one. After Fitchburg, we will head cross country to Boise, Idaho for a crit and then up to Bend for Cascade and nationals. It is a ton of travel but luckily we aren't crunched for time. This schedule I know for sure, after that I will iron out some details, but i have a good idea what will follow.

I turn 21 today. Not really sure what that means. Kind of a random number really. Just another day of training followed by the Tuesday Nighter.

Hope to see everyone out.

If I don't post for a while, send me an email and tell me to.

Cheers

Sad day in cycling!

2009-04-17T16:32:00.003-05:00

I didn't want to believe it at first. but unfortunately it is true. Tyler Hamilton got busted for doping (DHEA), and has since retired from the sport of cycling.

I personally am a huge fan of Tyler after watching solo a stage of the 2003 Tour with a broken collarbone. I just thought, doper or not, that is impressive. I was pumped when he beat the Slipstream army at USPRO last year to take the win at 37. Just like riders such as Vino, Horner, and Jens Voigt, I thought Tyler was the big badass.
Oh well, he got a second chance and that was it.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/apr09/apr17news3

Tuesday Night Crit

2009-04-08T19:35:00.003-05:00

Since I have been out of town for the past few weeks, I have missed the start of the Tuesday night crit series. For me, this is a little more than just a training crit. I grew up doing these races, and will probably continue to do these races as long as I am physically capable of riding a bike. The turn out seems to be getting better and better every year. Last night there were probably 80ish guys that started. Pretty impressive for a week night local crit.

Here is a video of the finish from last night's race. I took 1st and Austin finshed 4th.

California trip + Redlands

2009-04-06T19:05:00.003-05:00

A few days ago I got back from a 2 week trip to California. The initial reason for this trip was to race San Dimas and Redlands. One we got there, we got some bad news... we were still on the wait list and unless 6 people didn't show up, we weren't racing. Before the tt, we all waited at registration just to see if anyone was going to be a no show. Only one person didn't show, so only Christian got to race. I was especially bummed but knew there was nothing I could do about it. life goes on. So while Christian was racing, the rest of us did some training. 4 hrs with some climbing on one day, 4 hrs with 2 hrs of climbing the next. From 200 ft. to 6,500 feet. All the way up Mt. Badly. Huge thanks to Randy Williams for letting us crash at his place for the first week and getting us anything we needed. Before we headed out to Redlands, he took us surfing in Laguna. Whenever I get a free week I am going to get back out there and surf some more and ride down the famous Pacific Coast Highway.

Christian managed do a good job of hanging in the group during the race considering he was probably mentally not focused on the race.

Redlands was a bit different for us. We actually got to race for starters, that was a change. Plus for most of us, that was the biggest race we had ever done to date. All in all it was a good experience. I felt pretty okay, but could have been better. A lack of racing hurt me a little I believe. Not that I was going to win or anything, but it could have meant the difference between first or second group in the first stage. The Beaumont road race was pretty difficult with a ton of wind. Every lap, the field would break up into several groups, only to come back together in the head wind false flat toward the feed zone. The crit was a little more for me given my current fitness. I felt alright but had a difficult time moving up when it was single file. Duh, right? Christian, Benji and I did a good job of getting up in the top 20 and staying there for most of the race. The field had about 165 starters on the day so moving up and being at the front was quite a feat. With about 15 minutes left, I get caught u in a wreck with Andy Bajadali and Ben King. I almost saved it before getting blind sided by some Team Type 1 guy. Just a broken derailleur hanger, some road rash and a tweaked elbow. Not nearly as bad as Ben King's broken collarbone. As I roll into the Mavic neutral support, the dialogue with their head mechanic went as follows:

Me: I need a bike!

Mavic guy: what size?

Me: the smallest one you have.

Mavic guy: 54 it is. ( I ride a small)

Me: .....ok.

A couple laps went by as they put pedals on the bike and tried to get the seat height just right. They would have been faster if they just dropped the seat all the way. Oh well, I got an extra free lap, and I was out of water so I wasn't complaining. Once I got thrown back in, there were only 5 laps to go and moving back to the front seemed impossible. Every spot I moved up, I gave up in the next corner. Eventually, I cut my losses and cruised in, in the top third of the field right behind Christian. Benji finished 19th. Not good, but not bad.

Definitely the hardest racing I have ever done, but not necessarily the fastest. I think it was good preparation for the races yet to come. I hate to use such a big race as training, but I had no choice. I was just along for the ride. Good trip overall though. I love California.

Not 100% sure what is next on the schedule, but I think it looks something like MS Grand Prix, Matrix Challenge then the crit series. I am looking forward to being home for a couple of weeks, but can't wait to get traveling some more.

More pics soon.

Greenville, SC

2009-04-06T18:29:00.002-05:00

After Rouge, I headed over to South Carolina with Ashley for a week of training in a more mountainous region than the climbing metropolis of Dallas. Since Ashley is from there, we stayed at her place and her awesome family did everything for us! I didn't have to cook for myself, do my own laundry or even buy more than a couple of meals out. One of the best "training vacations" I have ever been on. While we were there, we did some of Ashley's favorite rides. A couple long 5-6 hr rides with sustained climbing for miles. If you are ever in the area and want to know a good route, head out to Caesar's Head state park. It is about an 8 mile climb from top to bottom with a dozen switch backs along the way. The view at the top is pretty rad and well worth the ass kicking on the way up.

Other than riding a bit different terrain everyday, I also spent a lot of time relaxing and checking out some of the sights of the area, like the Hincapie headquarters and the famous Paris Mountain. It is by far one of the coolest towns I have ever visited and am now kinda looking forward to doing the crit series at the end of the month. I am hoping to make more frequent stops at the Coffee Underground in downtown Greenville. Best coffee and food and coolest atmosphere you can expect out of a coffee shop. A bit different than Starbucks.

To be honest, I was a little bummed to come back so soon. Im sure i will spend a bit more time there in the near future though.

Pictures soon.

Rouge Roubaix

2009-03-14T18:39:00.006-05:00

Last weekend, the team headed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for Rouge Roubaix. With Nathan back in Florida with his child, Andre took over DS duties for the weekend. We drove up on Friday afternoon and pre-rode some of the course. We rode some of the final dirt road section and after seeing the decisive points, I was thinking we were going to win the race. I knew that there weren't any riders that could challenge us in the technical sections. Saturday wasn't all good though. Mid way through the dirt section, Ashley broke her bike on an uphill. That meant she would be racing on the spare bike. Not good.

Sunday morning came far too early, especially with daylight savings. After a big breakfast and a brief team meeting, the race was underway. The race for Christian and I did not start until the final 30 miles. That meant being patient. I'm usually not that good at being patient but in this case, I did alright. From the gun, Mat Stephens took off and immediately opened a gap. A few miles before the first dirt section, Bryan Fawley attacked and took several riders with him including Corey. They worked there way up to a 3 minute gap, but after the first feed zone, we had them in sight. We had 2 guys up the road and we were just sitting back and following wheels. Life was good. Going into the 2nd dirt section, we had a front group of around 25 and one major player wasn't present. We had dropped Carlos Vargas in the first dirt section and he was forced to chase. With a $100 hilltop prime in the 2nd dirt section, we sent Benji and Peter up the road. We were hoping they could stay off long enough to grab the prime and keep rolling into the final dirt section. The plan didn't work quite like that, with other people chasing hard, Christian and I took a free ride up and over the hill with Christian grabbing the money. After the second dirt section and the second feed zone, there was a small group of Christian, Peter, myself, Travis Burandt and some other guy hanging on. We had probably a minute on the chasers which included Benji. With the other 2 guys outnumbered, we were forced to rotate through to maintain a gap. After a few miles of this, we sat up and let the chase group catch us. Now it was a group of 13 which included Benji, Peter, Christian and myself. Life was still good.

Sometime before the final dirt section, Matt Davis rolled off the front and held a gap of about 30 seconds. With the numbers in our favor, people were looking at us to chase it down. We weren't too worried about it with the decisive part of the race yet to come. Just for good measure, Peter launched off the front in pursuit of the solo rider off the front. Going into the final 4 mile dirt section, Matt had a gap of 45 seconds. With this section being by far the most technical, Christian and I took over and did work! catching and dropping Matt halfway through and putting about a minute into him by the time we were done with all the dirt roads. Now all that was left was Christian and I team time trialing the final 20ish miles to the finish for a 1-2 finish. After we were off the front, I was so worried about building a bigger gap and crossing the line hand in hand, I forgot to eat more food. With about 2k to go I lost Christian's wheel. Rookie mistake. Christian waited for a bit but eventually had to keep going so we wouldn't lose it all. I pounded some food and limped in for 2nd. Still a good minute ahead of 3rd, Matt Davis. After that is the cool part. Peter and Benji were in the chase group picking up the pieces. Fawley took the sprint for 4th, but Peter and Benji took 5th and 7th. That's 4 riders in the top 10 and 3 in the top 5. It doesn't get too much better than that. The whole team rode awesome and it was an example of team work at its best. Mat, Corey and Gonzo killed themselves at the front patrolling stuff for us all day and it paid off! We also got 13th, 15th and 19th I believe.

For the guys, it was our first win of the year, and I am sure it will not be our last. We made this one count.

Also, in the girls race; Casey won her second straight race after winning Pace Bend a few weeks ago. Ashley had a good ride, taking 2nd on the spare bike. She such a BAMF, she has more fight than anyone I have ever met. I think the girls also got 4th and 5th. Overall, Metro VW dominated the weekend. To be honest, had we not dominated, it would have been a sub par day of racing. Huge thanks to Andre and Joe's friend Chris for the support during the race. Next up on the schedule is San Dimas and Redlands in California.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Challenge!

2009-03-07T19:19:00.006-06:00

While we were down in Austin, I came up with the brilliant idea to challenge Peter in an eating contest. Now those who know Peter, know he plans on being obese once he is done cycling. The boy can eat. Now I eat my fair share of cereal so I thought the only way I could beat him was to challenge him to a cereal eating dual. For some reason, Peter chose Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It sounded good at the time, but we later regretted it. Next time it will be a Chinese food buffet or something else with some variety. I might also be talked into a challenge with a more bland cereal, such as Kix.
The challenge was, 1 box of cereal each in 1 hr. First to finish their box or the person with the least amount of cereal left after the hr, won.
Peter started off at a blazing speed. He was half way done within the first 20 minutes. I think the pace he started caught up to him though because I was gaining on him. It could have also been the apple and yogurt he had mid way through. He popped hard and I was able to take the victory! 1 complete box and 2400 calories later and I was crowned the champion. I was relieved to win at my own challenge, but kind of sad it totally offset the 100+ mile ride we had done earlier in the day. It was worth it though I think. Cinnamon Toast Crunch will never be eaten by me again.

I accept any serious challenges for anyone who thinks they can hang.

Back to God's country.

2009-03-07T18:04:00.008-06:00

After Pace Bend, Benji, Christian, Gonzo and myself stayed in Austin for the week to train a little bit. Peter and Whitney were kind enough to let us crash on their couches for a few days. I think some of their room mates hated us for being "loud", but whatever. It was pretty much just Chris Collins. The week was pretty entertaining for us. It was good to be back in the town I used to call home. Man I miss it!

While we were there, I wanted to show Benji all of the girls UT had to offer. He was a little skeptical after the freshman chemistry class we sat in produced little results. We had the brilliant idea of walking down to campus to hang out for a while. Peter gave us the room number for a "chemistry in context" course. He assured us there would be dumb people in there. I immediately thought, dumb freshman blonde's... Perfect! No luck. Instead we walked around campus a bit more and tried to just look a part.

Since we were in town, and we were having a hard time finding Benji a good looking girl we decided to go hang out on 6th street for a while. We went to the Iron Cactus, where a sorority mixer was going on. It was a good time, but I think Gonzo had the most fun. He even had a dude buy him a drink. How sweet. While we were sitting outside on the balcony, a lovely young lady came up and sat next to us. She proceeded to complain about all the "bitches" in the bar and how she was "over it". In the middle of her rant, Benji interrupts her by saying, "you have a chewing gum for me?" As she is digging in her purse for gum, she looks up at Benji and says. "how foreign are you?". She deserved to be thrown off the balcony. After our night was over, we tried getting on the bus back up to campus but the friendly driver wouldn't open the door for us. So instead we walked back. From 6th street all the way to 35thish. It was quite a hike.

The stay in Austin wasn't all pleasure. It was business first. We did some pretty good rides also. One day we rode all of the fun climbs off of 360. Courtyard, Beuford, City Park and few others crammed into a 3 hr ride. Christian is faster the steeper the climb gets. The next day we rode out to Johnson City with my good friend and former team mate, Tyler Jewell. This is by far one of my favorite rides ever. Mid way through the ride, we met up with Stefan Rothe and Heath Blackgrove. Just to cap off the ride with some good tempo. We were coming back up Hamilton Pool and I notice Heath in the dog pushing about 60 rpm. He is a man child if I've ever seen one.

Sometime during the week, we decided to stay and race the first day of Lago Vista and then head home. After last year, I was a little hesitant but later convinced by the coach. I heard Kelly Benefits was supposed to be out there but later found out they were only racing the second day, so I was rather bummed I missed that. The race was pretty hard as usual. I predicted the race pretty accurately. On the 2nd lap, a small break of 10 or so formed up the road with Steve Tilford and Heath Blackgrove both in it. Since only myself, Christian and Benji started the race, we didn't want to waste much energy on scrub breaks and chasing stuff down. Since none of us were in the group I thought I would be a good one to be a part of. I was right. i jumped across to it and it immediately split down to 5. Heath, Tilford, Alex Welch, Sol Frost and myself motored away for a few laps. Eventually Sol popped off the back and Alex started sitting on to wait for a bridging Stefan. I was feeling pretty good. and was able to hold my own. I never skipped a pull but never did more work that I had to. The legs were there. With 3 to go, however, it hit me. The bonk feeling was setting in and no matter how many clif bars I pounded, I was done. Heath and Tilford dropped me on the descent back toward the finish and I was left with Welch waiting for Stefan on the second to last lap. I was able to hang with Stefan for a while but as soon as they really started chasing the leaders I was running on empty. I dropped and got caught with the main field led by Christian just off the front going into the final lap. Good day gone bad. Heath stayed away and Tilford limped in for 2nd. Even more frustrating for me was that Christian got caught and Stefan and Welch stayed off for 3rd and 4th. Benji salvaged some money for us by finishing 13th.

After the race, it was back to Dallas for another week of training before our next race, Which is where I am now. Sitting in the hotel room the night before Rouge Roubaix, just outside Baton Rouge Louisiana. We rode some of the course today and it should be a fun one. After the race tomorrow, I am going to Greenville, SC with Ashley to ride a bit and check out the town a little.

Check back for updates and results from the race.

Thanks again to all the supporters for reading.

Been a while.

2009-02-23T10:10:00.003-06:00

Since my last post, I have been fairly busy! I got my new sweet BH built. The G4 is by far the best bike I have ever ridden! I got a Retul bike fit courtesy of Gary Woolfolk at Richardson Bike Mart. It is a bit expensive and a little time consuming, but if you are having any fit issues, I highly recommend it! Source Endurance also does it now for all you Austin folks. A couple of days later, we headed out to the Phoenix area for Valley of the Sun. the race went pretty well overall. The highlight of the race was definitely Shannon winning the woman's crit. The guys rode well. We were where we needed to be at the finish of the road race and we certain to get 2-3 guys in the top 10. Within the final kilometer, the lead moto pulled up to us and said the finish would be neutral because of a wreck in the Cat 3 finish. oh well. The crit was pretty hard but it was a good test on the legs. The end result wasn't quite up to par, but I am satisfied overall with the weekend. Before we headed back home, we waited for our sweet new clothes to arrive at BH. They look pretty sweet!
Once we returned to our homeland, we had a short week to prepare ourselves for Pace Bend. The cat 2s headed down early to tackle Walburg, and most fared alright. Pace Bend was a little different. Not very hard if you were sitting in, but the finish is always a little tricky. The team rode very well. I think it is safe to say, we controlled the race. Early in the race, I found myself in a break that included Ian Dille, Mith Comardo, and Chad Cagle. Ian and Mitch were killing it in the break. Chad wasn't showing his full hand and Nathan instructed me to sit on. The break got up to 45 seconds but for the most part, just stayed around 20 seconds. We ended up getting caught with 4 laps to go. Lucky for me, by the time we got caught, I was still fresh. I was able to cover more attacks and go with stuff that looked threatening. On the last lap, Stefan was left off the front after attacking his breakaway companions, Peter and Bryan. With 3k left in the race, the pace slowed down and I saw an opportunity to attack. I jumped pretty hard and bridged up to Stefan and rolled through him. He was able to jump on my wheel, and after a couple of rotations and some miscommunication at the front of the field with the lead out. We were caught within the final kilometer. Bummer. Benji ended up 10th and overall, the team rode pretty strong. Just a few more kinks to be worked out. I am bummed we are having such a hard time sealing the deal. It will come. Probably when it matters most.
Awesome job to our woman's team again! Casey took the big win with a lot of team work back in the field by Whitney and Ashley. Shannon also wont the field sprint for 3rd. Very deserving.
It was good to see everyone again back at the race. It was a fun race and I am looking forward to Memorial Day for the next rendevous at the State Crit.
As soon as they are sent to me, I will post some pictures from Valley of the Sun and some other stuff.
Next is an off week from racing and then off to Baton Rouge for Rouge Roubaix.
Check back for updates.

Thanks.

Andrew

Living Well

2009-02-02T14:52:00.004-06:00

So last week during my off day, I had the chance to utilize one of the team's new sponsors for '09, Living Well Dallas. They are a company that specializes in healthy living of all aspects of life. They do all sorts of things, from massage to a life and organization coach. It's really quite handy. I went in for acupuncture and massage. I have had a ton of massages before but never acupuncture. I was really just trying it for the experience. Basically, acupuncture is like going to a chiropractor. However, instead of applying pressure to different trigger points to activate your muscles and cells, you insert needles in said trigger points. The needles are a couple of inches long and unlike hypodermic needles, these are completely solid. Once the needles are placed in the desired location, you just lay back for 20-30 min and let the needles do their job. It really is pretty cool, and surprisingly pain free. I am pretty excited to make another appointment at Living Well. They seem to be pretty knowledgeable about their respected field and are very helpful and supportive for athletes. For those interested in either massage, acupuncture, life coach or nutritionist; Please go to the Living Well website and make an appointment with Ty. Tell them Andrew, from the Metro VW cycling team sent you. They should be able to get you right in.

On another note. I got my BH time trial bike the other day. The thing is pretty sweet! FSA hooked us up with their Vision aero equipment and chain rings. I have never used a 54t chain ring before so I am pretty excited about that. I was able to ride it a couple of times last week. Once for 4 hrs and then again for 2 hrs. I am getting used to the larger chain rings and the position is awesome. Comfortable yet aero. Hopefully I can get good at this whole time trialing thing. The bike will definitely help! I am still waiting for my road bike to come in, but it shouldn't be too much longer. Only 2 more weeks until our first race at Valley of the Sun in Phoenix, Arizona. I will post pictures of my new bikes as soon as I get them both together.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew

What is a Pro?

2009-01-25T21:41:00.003-06:00

Every once in a while, when I'm bored, I will check out some of the bike racing forums. Usually, the likes of TXBRA for race results and things of that nature. I don't really agree with the format of their forum. People can post anonymously, saying basically whatever they want, without anyone knowing exactly who it is. Now I don't really follow the smack talk of all the haters on forums. That is, until people start to take personal shots at me. For no reason, no less. As I tell myself when faced with any adversity, it is what it is.
A few months back, I won a race and was interviewed by the local newspaper. In the interview, I was asked if I go to school, where I was from and other questions like that. I remember telling the interviewer, that I was not in school and I just raced full time. Not once did I tell him I was a professional. It was automatically assumed. When people read the paper, they started ripping into me, claiming I wasn't a "pro". Some even questioned my education background. As if it has anything to do with bike racing. Just for the record. YES, I dropped out of high school and YES, I got a GED and NO, I have no desire to go to college. Right now. As if it's any ones business. No one likes to be talked about in a negative way, why should I be any different? About once a month I have a bad day on the bike and think to myself, "is this worth it"? I am giving up my life to achieve a dream that is scrutinized by basically everyone. Then I read ignorant shit like that and I remember, it's people and comments like that, that motivate me to keep going. All this began an on going debate, what exactly is a "pro"? The topic came up again a week or so ago when results for Copperas Cove were posted. Josh Carter won the race (as if there was any doubt). Those who know Josh, knows he is one of the nicest guys around and we are lucky to have him racing in Texas (he's from Illinois). He moved to Wichita Falls when his wife started coaching the MSU cycling team. He has a whole litter of children, thus a whole lot of responsibility. However, he doesn't have an everyday full-time job. All he does is ride, yet he is on an elite amateur team. He used to ride professionally for Subway a few years back, doing every big race in the U.S. Is he still a pro? I think yes.
Regardless of what the dictionary may say for "professional", you do not have to get paid to be considered "pro". A good amount of racers on continental teams do not get paid a dime. You have to remember, that cycling is not a glamorous sport like baseball or basketball or football. The base level salary in any one of those sports is around $500k a yr. There are only a handful of cyclists that get paid that much. On the other end of the spectrum, there are quite a few racers on teams considered "elite amateur", that get paid a salary. Are they considered less of a pro because they are on a team without a license? There are several teams that could buy the continental license but choose not to. The only bonus to having the license, is the opportunity to do races such as Tour of California, and even then, there is not a 100% chance you will be invited.
Cycling is arguably the hardest sport to succeed in. Many of the issues the normal pro has to face are so stressful as well as mentally and physically taxing, riders often call it quits before they reach their prime. Unlike the sports mentioned above, salary is not guaranteed. Forcing many riders on pro teams to get a real job.
Not many kids have the dream to become a professional cyclist. I know I didn't. My dream was to become an option quarterback at the University of Nebraska, where my dad went, and then play in the NFL. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I had a good idea that my football days were numbered. Cycling was a hobby for me, and a time to bond with my dad. The more I raced, the better I got, and the more I wanted to win. Eventually, there was only one step left and I wanted to be with the best. Someone does not wake up and choose to be a professional cyclist. Cycling chooses you, and not many have the pedigree to stick it out. Riding 15-30 hrs a week and limit your spare time with friends is hard to do for a 21 yr old. True professionals have to make sacrifices. Kiss a personal life goodbye. At least until you establish yourself.
White shoe covers do not make you a pro. I retired mine with my old team. Diamond earrings do not make you pro. I keep mine on my dresser, and only put them in when I feel like standing out. Carrying only water and no food on a 5 hr training ride does not make you pro either. I do that to teach my body to run off of as little as possible. It's my theory and it works for me. You never know if you are going to miss your feed. Even then, its usually just water. You can believe as soon as I stop on a ride, I buy a coke and usually pop tarts and some sort of bar. The same as I start a race with. I eat pretty healthy but I could be better. I do what works for me. I don't count calories or follow a diet. I have guidelines. I know what is filling and what by body can handle best. I do not eat fast food unless it's my only option. I try to limit my junk food intake, but I am only human, and 20. You may think racing/ riding with no gloves and helmet is "pro", it's not. You will learn that as soon as you shred off your palm in a crit going 40mph, or have a wreck where your helmet is in pieces. Trust me on that. I learned both first hand.
In my opinion, a pro is someone who travels around to races with a team that pays for the expenses. If you are paying for registration and hotels all yourself and drive alone to these races and are out of pocket for these expenses, you are not pro. But that is just my opinion. You are a pro if you have a license that says so, i.e. road, mountain, bmx.. whatever. Bryan Fawley, myself, Tristan Uhl, and Tyler Jewell all have those, FYI. You are at least a cat 1. If your not, you can't race with the pro teams at most races anyways. If you were at some point in time, on a professional team, or have had a professional license. You are a pro in my book. Once a pro always a pro. That means you have a good idea of what it takes to make it.
Living the dream is a job, you must treat it like one. Do not judge us by the paths we have chosen, it was our decision.

Hopefully people that read this will have a little better understanding on what exactly a pro is. To any haters out there that think professional cycling is a joke. Do you really want your negativity and unnecessary comments be the reason a junior quits cycling at 17? No one wants to be "that guy".

Thanks once again, to all the supporters out there. The silent sponsors that throw money at junior programs or development teams or aspiring pro teams. It is because of you, we can ride our bikes full time and follow our aspirations.

Out.

Andrew

Training Update

2009-01-16T17:33:00.006-06:00

The past few weeks of training, following team camp, have been pretty consistant. Each week has been around 25 hrs. Give or take an hr. Lately I have been driving to Grapevine to ride with Andrew a little bit. It beats riding by my house in the city, and its fun riding with people some time. Most of the time we have ridden to Denton and back. Its about 70 miles roundtrip, so about 4 hrs. That's if we don't do a little extra around the house afterward.
Other than rides in the Grapevine/ Flowermound area, The bulk of my riding has been either laps around White Rock lake or a group ride somewhere with time tacked on at the end. Good riding in the Dallas area is very hard to come by. I have also continued my track sessions on Wednesday nights with Christian. I feel like its helping out with my leg speed and sprint. It could just be mental though. But isn't that all cycling really is anyways? Hopefully next week I will be able to go down to Austin for the week and do some rides I used to do when I lived there. I miss them. A coke and a personal pizza from the Mobil gas station in Johnson City would hit the spot right about now.
Only a couple more weeks until Valley of the Sun. This isn't really my favorite race, but I am actually pretty exciting to go and start the season. I am feeling pretty confidant about my fitness at the time and I am finally at or below my target weight of 63 Kg (138 lbs.) Perfect timing. It all seems to be coming together. I think training on a 19 lb. cyclocross bike all winter will have done me well too once we finally get our newly designed BH connect. I might actually feel fast! Maybe not though.

The other day I went to ride with Andrew at Nathan's house. After the ride, him and Shannon had to go to the grocery store and since I didn't want to drive home during rush hour traffic, I tagged along with them. While we were in the line waiting to checkout I was checking out the impulse buys and stumbled across this little gem. Whoever came up with this is clearly a genius.
After 5 hr Energy and 6 Hr Power, this blows it way out of the water.

I want to know how they came up with an 80 hr energy supplement. What a random number. According to the advertisement, it's used by bike riders. With something that lasts that long, I can train for RAAM! Has anyone ever used any of the long lasting energy shots? If so, do they actually work? I don't think I would actually try them but I'm curious. I'll stick to water and Nutella sandwiches.

Ashley is in town now. She always gives me evil looks and death threats. I'm scared for my life. I think she could be like a hit man or something, and she is smart enough to get away with it.

Out for now.
Ride, Eat, Sleep, Repeat.

Top 10 continued

2009-01-11T22:00:00.014-06:00

A few posts down, I posted my Top 5 hottest celebrities. This is the second installment of the previous countdown. This is the bike racer list. When I say bike racer, I mean bike racers that a majority of cyclists have actually heard of. There will not be an honorable mention with this list because frankly, bike racers aren't that hot.
It was hard to come up with 5, but I did it! I think everyone will be impressed. Enjoy :)

5. Katerina Nash- This beauty from the Czech Republic is probably the most accomplished on the list. Pretty boss mountain biker racing for Luna. She has been to 3 Olympic Games dating back to Sydney. It must be the dark hair and tan skin.

4. April Lawyer- To be honest, I don't think she is very well known as a cyclist. I believe she was a downhiller. Now she is running a clothing company in Oregon. She is also married to Chris Sheppard. Lucky Canadian bastard.

3. Willow Koerber- Pretty attractive. OK bike racer. She's good for a few podiums at the nationals. Does anyone really care how she does in races?

2. Lizzie Armitstead- She is the only non- mountain biker on the list. She has a few World Cup medals on the track for the UK. She is also only 20. Secretly I hope to meet her and have her fall in love with me. I don't think that will happen though.

1. Niki Gudex- If she isn't at the top of every one's list then you have no taste. She sure knows how to market herself. I'd invest in that.

Team camp wrap up

2009-01-07T15:17:00.003-06:00

Well, camp is over and done with now. It was pretty hard but nothing too difficult. We spent most of he time doing pace line and lead out work on Robson Ranch. It took us a little while but we figured it out and did a pretty good job considering we were missing 2 of our strongest riders in Christian and Benji. I can't wait for them to get back in town for the year. I think they will be here just in time for Valley of the Sun. Them being back should help all of us both racing and training. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say we will be the most talented and dominating amateur team. Bank on that.

We spent a couple of days up in Talihina riding some good "mountains" in the Ouchita forest. Of course, we weren't just riding. In fact, we hardly had any down time on the bike while we were there. We were either doing individual time trials uphill or pace lining for miles and miles. It was awesome training and it was easy to tell who was riding well. There was no faking it. Pater and Corey both have a new coach and they are riding very strong. I am starting to up my volume for January so we should all compliment each other well.

When we got back to town, we wrapped things up by having our team presentation and dinner. It was an opportunity to meet and greet all of the Metro sponsors and supporters. After all the hand shaking, we went to Main Event to hit up some laser tag and bowling. Sounds childish... but it was as much fun as a group of cyclists can have together.

While we were in our hotel, we had frequent visits from the folks at Living Well Dallas. They talked to us a bit about nutrition and setting goals and getting life straight all around. They also provided us with massages and acupuncture. it's about time I make my appointments for follow ups this month. Check them out at livingwelldallas.com

While at camp, we also got our race schedule for the first half of the year. it is going to be a whole new animal for me. Finally getting the shot to race out of Texas at some premier NRC races throughout the country. Starting with Valley of the Sun for the sponsors then hopefully staying in So Cal up until San Dimas and Redlands. Races like Cascade, Gila and Tour de Toona are also on the schedule depending on where nationals is located this year.

Look for the team's updates on our blogs as well as the monthly write up in The Racing Post.

Here are just a few pictures taken from camp.

Team Camp... so far

2008-12-27T09:35:00.003-06:00

We are all settled in to our hotel and getting to know each other a little better. At least the people that are new to the team. Today is the first day and so far we have had our ride delayed due to poor weather.

My observations so far are:

Ashley has very tiny hands.

Nathan knows wayy more than most people give him credit for. He can also punch through anything with his bare hands.

Casey is attractive.

I'm not good at using waffle irons at the hotel breakfast.

I'm sure there are more to come so stay tuned. Talahina on Tuesday for New Years. After today, the weather is supposed to be nice so I am looking forward to the rest of camp.

Pictures soon. When I take some.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T12:04:00.002-06:00

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season. I, for one, am not arguing with this weather. Finally! 60's and sunny at the end of December!? That's the Texas weather everyone loves. Hope Santa brought everyone what they asked for, and no one is eating too much and getting out of shape. The road season starts in about a month.

I have a change of plans coming up. I had originally planned on doing the state cross championships, the first of the year. However, now i will be busy with the Metro VW team camp that starts on Saturday and runs through the 4th. I was kinda bummed at first, but now I'm pretty excited to get in more good riding. It's also an opportunity to spend time with the team. There are some new riders this year, so it should be pretty ok.

Tomorrow Will, Peter, Corey, Phillip, and Andrew G. from Florida will be doing a little ride together before heading over to the hotel in Grapevine to meet up with the team. The guys are coming around nicely. Even Phillip, who desperately needs a bike fit to optimize his power output.

Oh yeah, I got a sweet new Nikon digital camera. Maybe now my blogging will go up a notch with some quality photos.

Good luck to everyone that will be racing the state cx. I am personally going to place my bet in Vegas for Captain Amazing to repeat.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Cheers

Top 5

2008-12-21T13:37:00.023-06:00

A few days ago, my buddy Phillip Snodgrass, posted something on his blog about the top 5 hottest celebs. Or something like that. He included people like Tina Fey and Eileen from Seinfeld. Not to take anything away from his list, I would like to say, I think he failed to look at ALL of the celebrities we have has of early 2009. I have compiled a top 10 list, 5 of which are bike racers, just to prove there are 5 attractive female bike racers out there. The first installment will be my top 5 celebs, plus a couple of honorable mentions.
Here is how mine would go:

5. Jennifer Aniston- Let's not forget, she's 39!

4. Jessica Alba- she has a baby now, which may make her even more attractive. But since this little addition she hasn't been in anything; meaning I can not enjoy her nearly as much as I would like.

3. Jennifer Love Hewitt- Quite possibly the most underrated beauty. I believe you can still watch her on the Ghost Whisperer. I never watch that show.

2. Giselle Bundchen- What do I need to say about her? She is the face of Victoria Secret and near flawless. Tom Brady has a good looking girlfriend. If I were him, I wouldn't care I had to sit out a season with a knee injury.

1. Megan Fox- Watch Transformers and find the issue of Maxim she graced the cover of. You will become a fan, I promise.

Honorable Mention:
Scarlet Johanson
Kate Hudson
Ashlee Simpson (with the new nose)
Mila Kunis

Farewell Texas Stadium.

2008-12-20T22:56:00.002-06:00

And see ya later 2008 season. It had its ups and downs, but it was ugly!

I would like to see Wade Phillips stay for at least 1 more year. I believe he is a good head coach. I do, however, think Jason Garrett needs to go coach little league somewhere. Just to hone his skills as an offensive coordinator. Does he not know that there are more than 6 plays on that laminated sheet he holds in his hand during games? He is not playing a video game, where running the same handful of plays over and over actually work.

Dear Cowboys defensive,

Off game? More like off 2 plays? You dominate for a good portion of the season, then during crunch time you fall asleep and you let the same run play go for 75+ yds, back to back. Ouch, that has to hurt.

Oh well, live by the boys, die by the boys. There is always next year.. Players will get healthy and studs will get drafted. Maybe.

Name change

2008-12-18T21:08:00.003-06:00

So I recently decided that since I was no longer racing for TX Tough, I don't need it as the URL for my blog.

If you check my blog often enough for this to matter, please add this link instead. I know my name is tricky. Remember, there are 2 H's in my last name. That's pronounced, Dahl- heim. It isn't hard if you break it down.

I am trying to put together a slide show of pictures. If you have any of me at a race or something and wouldn't mind donating it, that would be awesome! I will be sure to give you credit for the photo.

Thanks.

andrewdahlheim.blogspot.com

Wheatus

2008-12-18T19:46:00.000-06:00

So since the weather in D-town has been absolutely shitty! I have done a fair amount of my riding this week in-doors. I managed to bust out a 3 hr ride in the cold rain on Wednesday, but Tuesday and Thursday were trainer/roller days. I hate those days. I guess you have to knock them out if you want to make it. Someone close to me once said, "There are chores to every job that are work. Pros just get them done anyways." Today while I was doing my workout on the rollers, I had my iPod playing for some extra motivation. I usually just put it on shuffle so I get a surprise with every song change. Well today must have been my lucky day. I was fortunate enough to stumble across this little gem.

Love & Life

2008-12-15T21:01:00.000-06:00

Lately, I have been stressing out about who I will be riding for in 2009, if anyone. Well let me put all the questions to rest. After a couple of commitments with Metro and A&V- McDonalds, and a couple other sub par offers. I will be sticking with Metro VW. They are both very good, proven programs and I am lucky to be a part of either one. Europe is a place I want my cycling career to take me. I won't get into details, but sometimes things just don't work out. I am, however, looking forward to 2009 season now that all my team worries are put to rest. The team is going to be super strong this year and i fully expect strong showings in all of our races. My winter training has been going well. getting in solid rides on the 'ole Redline cross bike, equipped with SRM. It gets the job done while things are being ironed out.

The bulk of my training has looked like this: 2-3 hrs on Monday, down and around White Rock Lake. Then I follow that with the FatBoy ride that goes up northeast of Mckinney on Tuesdays with Mike Gacki and and a few other guys that don't have work. Wednesdays are designated track days after a short ride in the am. This time of year, it feels a good 5-10 degrees cooler inside the Superdrome than it actually is. Thursdays, I have been doing rides with my good friends, Stephen Crawford and Gary Glanger. It's good to mix things up a bit. Training can get old and lose its fun real fast. Sometimes we will go ride around the lake a bit and sometimes we hit the trail with the cross bikes. I think on Fridays, I am going to start doing the Gacki ride. A few guys meet up at his house in north Frisco for an extended ride up north of Celina. Best riding in the area by far (within a 20 min drive).

The past couple of weekends have been a little different than others. Last weekend I went up to Tulsa Oklahoma. Mainly to see someone, but to ride also. Tulsa is a hidden gem for riding. Surprisingly. I would not have expected such good riding in such an armpit of a state. It was a good change of pace.

This weekend was the Eggnog and Chunks crit in Denton. Put on by my coach, Christian Williams. The whole point in the race, was to raise money for the juniors he coaches to get to nationals. At first, I felt obligated to go considering I used to be one of those juniors. However, it ended up being pretty fun. Despite the 40 mph wind, it was 78 degrees and sunny. Can't complain about that. It was fun to do a crit on a cross bike with a 48 front chain ring. It had to be good leg speed. Brett Crosby came out hot. Lapping the field with one other dude and taking the win. I knew he was gone as soon as he went. I finished 4th after getting in a small chase group with a couple of guys that had no idea we were racing for 3rd and not 1st. Oh well it was a good cause. I even donated my prize money for some baked goods. Totally worth it!

If your in the area and you want to knock out some miles, give me a call. I'm always free to ride.

Out-

Andrew

Where has Andrew been?

2008-12-01T23:03:00.001-06:00

Well i know I don't blog much, but I am making up for it by blogging TWICE in one day! Lets see if I can make this a habit. It's not like I do much else with my days besides ride. Lately I have been doing a fair amount of training. The hrs are getting higher and the legs are feeling better. Last week for Thanksgiving I went up to Nebraska with Pops to see some of the family. It's almost always a dreaded trip when we think about it, but usually doesn't turn out too bad. I didn't ride much at all during my trip but it was only a couple of days that shouldn't kill me. When I got back I hit up some yoga with my good friend Crawford. I have recently decided that it is quite possibly the most underrated workout. I will never judge again. It was hard not to laugh when I started thinking of Barry Lee getting his downward dog on in the middle of a gas station parking lot on our way back from Arkansas. Good times..

There are some rumors going around about who I may or may not be riding for next year. Regardless of what cycling news may say, the final roster is due to the UCI next Monday and nothing is set quite yet. Plans are still being made and were hoping for the best. Should be good though. I will post here when everything is finalized and I know for sure where I am going. Nothing is a done deal until you dot the i's and cross the t's. Thanks again, as always to all the supporters. You know who you are.

Also, big congrats to Andrew Armstrong. After getting is dual cat 1, he was successful over in Switzerland on the track and is set to head over and race in Hong Kong, and Australia on both the track and road. Definitely an underrated rider. While I'm giving props... Alex Boyd signed with Rock racing! That's' rad and no one is more deserving.

That's enough man crushing. I just had to add substance to the post.

Out.

Since when does Stefan do cyclocross?

2008-12-01T22:46:00.000-06:00

It seems like that guy can do it all as long as it is on a bicycle. Im sure Mr. Godsey is very happy to have a rider like him on his team. A couple of weeks ago I did the cross races at White Rock lake expecting to see the same cast of characters show up. However, to my amazement, not only did Stefan Rothe show up. He won the first day and got 3rd the next. Will Ross even came out of retirement to mix it up. It was awesome. Thinking that they probably just didn't have anything else going on that weekend, I was surprised to see Stefan at the start line again the next weekend in Ft. Worth. This time, Captain Amazing graced us with his presence after recovering from an endurance race the previous weekend. The races were well run by Moritz and the depth of the field was by far the best I have seen in a Texas cross race. Bryan and I went 1-2 both days, ust in a different order and Mitch and Stefan along with Matt Davis and Chopper battled out for the 3rd place spot behind us. It's about time I beat Fawley in a cross race. Hopefully the field sizes stay this big. It makes the racing and spectating way more fun. Im going to bail on the Houston races, but you may see me in San Antonio for the state championships. Here is a good picture of Bryan and I battling it out the first day in Ft. Worth.

Interbike

2008-10-26T21:07:00.000-05:00

So for most bike racers, the end of September usually means the end of the racing season for most. That is if you aren't one of the few to try and extend your form and fitness for mountain biking and/or cyclo-cross. In years past I have been one of those few. Taking a little time off and then getting right back into racing. However, this year, the season ended with the USA Crit finals in Las Vegas. Nathan, Christian, Shannon and myself loaded up the Metro VW van and trailer after the Cotton Patch Classic in route to the cycling spectacle known as Interbike. First on the agenda was the industry group ride leaving the dirt demo in Boulder City, NV. Just a short 30 min outside of Vegas. We finished the final 2 hrs of our drive and hopped out of the van just in time to make the start. The ride was really cool, about an hour and half out and back route to Lake Mead. Definitely a good opener for the crit a couple days later. We spent much of the dirt demo at at BH trailer. Pretty much just sitting around out of the sun, but it was some house keeping stuff we had to take care of to keep all the sponsors happy. Plus it was rad getting to ride all the new bikes for 09.

Once in Vegas we checked in to our super posh suite at the Venetian, courtesy of Brad Hagsted from Metro VW of course. It was nice having the expo just across the casino in the Palazo. I think since all of us were experiencing Interbike for the first time, we were all pretty excited to check out the new bikes and equipment for next year. Thus the inner bike nerd came out. We spent a lot of time with BH and talking to other current and future sponsors. After all that stuff we were able to do a little sight seeing. More than just the expo. The hotel and casino itself was pretty unreal. With several food courts, pools and spas on every other floor and a mall fully equipped with gondola, an entire days worth of entertainment could go by without even leaving the hotel. The of course you have the casino and every other attraction on the strip that LV has to offer. I had always thought Vegas was a place you could only enjoy if you were old enough to gamble and do other adult activities. On the contrary, it was rather enjoyable from a minors perspective. I will just have to wait until next year to blow my years worth of race winnings at the black jack table.

With everything going on, it was easy to forget why we were there in the first place. To race our bikes. It is our job, so obviously that was our priority of the trip. The race itself was kinda weird. Unlike most of the crits I have done. The course was similar to the one at nationals in California. Circling around the parking lot of the Mandalay Bay, lined with barriers. Nathan raced the industry race for BH while Shannon did the woman's race and Christian and I did the men's race. Being from Texas where humidity is always high, we weren't used to the dry air, and staying hydrated was crucial. It definitely got the best of Nathan. Being forced to bail, he was coughing like he had the black lung straight through our trip to track nationals. Shannon's race race was for the laps led competition. The dry air seemed to hurt her a little bit, but she stuck it out and rode an aggressive race. In our race, there were close to 100 starters. From the gun there was a $200 prime, so it was strung out instantly. The entire course was on a polished black top parking lot, making every turn a little more difficult than a normal 90 degree turn. It was like the roads were wet except they weren't. People would take a corner as well as you could and their tires would break lose and into the barriers they would go. Christian had a rough time, being taken out in the first 200 meters and forced to make a bike change. Within the first 10 laps, the pack had dwindled down to 50ish. It was obvious that to finish high up you were going to have to take some risks. More than usual. Mid way through the race, Christian went down again, and as soon as he got thrown back in, he was attacking the field. If there were a most courageous rider award, Christian would have won it hands down. I on the other hand raced a bit more conservatively. I managed to stay upright, but before I knew it, it was the last lap and the time to make something happen had past. Christian finished 17th and I finished 12th. I couldn't help but feel dissatisfied. Other than the difficulty in breathing, I was in no discomfort and felt fresh at the end. regardless of how we all did, we were pretty happy the road season had finally come to an end. The only thing left on the agenda was a trip to CVS for tegaderm and then some last minute photos from our trip to Vegas. Oh, and a stop by the Paris so Christian could get his Eiffel Tower drink. The ultimate pain killer that he deserved for all his hard work and awesome year.

Next year will be even better, no doubt.

Been a while.

2008-10-08T12:13:00.000-05:00

So I have recently decided that my blogs are really quite boring. Just race reports with no pictures, and my posts are scarce. If anyone ever gets any good shots from races or what not please send them my way.

I have a handful of pictures on my iPhone from Vegas at Interbike and from elite track nationals. Hopefully I'll get around to putting them up soon. Right now this blog sucks. Not everyone can have an entertaining blog like Surfer. I guess blogging really is an art. I'll figure it out someday. Just work with me.

Basically since Downers Grove over a month ago, I have been to the following races:

HHH- Christian won cuz he's a bad ass, and I had a HHH personal best with 9th. Christian wrote a pretty good race report in one of the recent Racing Post issues.

Atlanta 100k- I felt pretty good after a tune up race the day before. However due to poor mechanic skills on someones part, my crank arm cam off mid race after being limited to my little ring for a few circuits. Shannon got 3rd.

Cotton Patch- I got my first win of the year in the road race while riding in support of Peter and Corey. Peter did an awesome job and finished in 2nd! They should be quick to receive their upgrades.

Interbike- Was pretty rad. We did an industry group ride at the dirt demo as soon as we go there. It was pretty much like one of those unofficial races that go on during the weekends. It was pretty revy and by no means flat. christian and I held it down for BH. In the crit, I finished 15th and didn't crash while Christian finished a little behind me with 2 crashes! One within the first 100 meters! He is a trooper and after a bike change and one more wreck he still finished in the money around 25thish. Scary race!

The season is officially over and I am in my "off time". Christian went back to Germany for the winter. I went to elite track nationals with Shannon and Nathan, just to hang out and help around. Shannon, Kim and Alison Powers won the team pursuit. Kim and Shannon got 1st and 3rd in the individual pursuit and that basically concluded the season for all. Andrew Armstrong had an impressive ride in the scratch race finishing 4th!

I am now back in Dallas. I'm going to begin my riding again next week. I have also been hitting the gym with Crawford. It has been about a year since i was last in a gym at good ole Pure Austin. I am very sore today and not sure if I will be able to play as much golf as I wanted to. We will see though.

Again, i will try my hardest to throw some pics up here, but I can make no promises.

Hopefully my next post will be much sooner.

out for now.

Downers Grove

2008-08-20T16:46:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I headed up to the Chicago area for the Pro/Elite crit nationals. Shaun and a hyper Bryan picked me up around 5 a.m. and we drove the 14 hrs north straight through, getting to Shaun's friends house around 9 in the heart of downtown. Walking distance from the Sears Tower. The first race was the Saturday night Pro/Am. At first I wasn't planning on doing this, but since I had an extra entry fee and had never done the course before, I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn the course. Figure out where to move up at and the best lines. I purposely started on the back row, just to see how long it took to get to the front. The course was super fast and technical. With the field strung out, it took me about 5 laps at a pretty hard effort to get into the top 10. Bryan and I both managed to avoid the wrecks. Although Bryan did have a close call with 2 laps left. he finished in a solid 49th. I seriously thought about pulling the plug with 5 to go, considering I was still on Jim Hoyt's bike. I figured racing is racing and i might as well stick it out. With 2 to go I found myself in the top 20 and just kept surfing wheels to maintain my position. on the last lap I was a few spots behind the Colavita lead-out train. What I thought was the place to be. Wrong. Rashaan, Kayle, and Sterling Magnel, flew by Colavita on the downhill. I ended up getting swarmed a little. While Sterling and Kayle went 1-2, I ended up cruising in , in 17th. Not bad for not really "racing".

I ended up getting to bed around 11:30 after some intense Olympic watching, and of course cheering on the love of my life, Shawn Johnson. I woke up early to watch Bryan dominate the cat 2 race in convincing fashion. Finally he gets that big win. He was due. Shaun also pulled out an awesome 6th in the 2's.

I had pretty high expectations for the national championships. Simply win. I knew exactly where to be at every point during the race. I knew all the lines and when to move up. I knew who to watch for and who I was going to have to beat. This wasn't my first song and dance, but I definitely made a huge mistake. The legs were feeling good and I was ready for the final 5 laps. I popped a gel in my mouth for a little extra energy for the finish. What I forgot to do was wash it down with enough water. The last lap I was sitting comfortably in the top 10 and moving up on the climb. I went to accelerate into the top 5 for the downhill and felt that gag reflex we all love. I never have this feeling and I all i could think was, what bad timing. Going down the final downhill I could feel it coming again. So I decided to try and puke and maintain my position and get ready to sprint. I tried to get rid of the feeling but nothing came out. I came around the last turn somewhere in the top 10 and finished in a very disappointing 9th. I felt like that was my best chance to win a national championship and I screwed it up by a rookie move. Still a pretty solid result but not exactly what i was hoping for. Just like u23 nationals though, there is always next year.

next up on the calendar is Hotter N Hell this weekend followed by 100k in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend.

u23 nationals road race

2008-08-20T16:24:00.000-05:00

After the crit and a couple days off for some quality beach time, we had a tough 120 mile road race around the Irvine subdivisions. This is kind of a touchy subject for me, and a bit of a long story, but here it goes.

The first 2 or 3 laps of 7 total were pretty tamed. After a big pack split came back together, at the end of lap 3 a break of 15 or so got away. I was fortunate enough to have Corey up in the break. This made my job easy. All I had to do was follow wheels and keep making the front selection up the 2 little climbs. After 4 laps, the break had about 3 minutes up on our chase group of around 18 riders. According to the officials, they were only allowing a 3 minute window before you got pulled. Yeah. Pulled. In a road race.. with 35 miles left in the race. Since I was just sitting on the back of the group getting my free ride, I ended up being scored at 31st. Not even knowing that was going to be our last lap. Since there was still a lot of racing left, no one in our group wanted to bail. We continued our chase for another lap. During the chase, we dropped all but 6 in our group and ended up catching and dropping about 5 guys out of the break. We picked up Corey who fell off the pace of the front break, but was able to hold on to our group. With one lap remaining, Kirk Carlsen was solo of the front still 3 minutes ahead of our group. Clearly he wasn't coming back. The rest of the break however, were only a minute and a half ahead. At this point we had ridden into the top 10 with podium spots still in contention. With a lap still left to race, it was too little too late, and all the chasing we had done was all for nothing. We had already been scored at the end of our previous lap.The worst part of the whole thing is that the race was unfolding exactly like it had last year in Seven Springs. With all but a few guys out of the break being caught. USACycling and whoever said 3 minutes was a large enough window clearly messed up, and at nationals. Good job guys. Oh well I guess, it is what it is.

Corey had the ride of the day, being scored at 13th. Not bad for his first nationals.

Huntington Beach

2008-08-09T22:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday on our first "off" day before the road race on Sunday, we decided to ride out to Huntington Beach for some swimming and body boarding. The ride from Whittier was about and hr and a half. If you go a normal pace. Since Corey had the board strapped to his back it took us a little longer than expected due to the head wind. The water was pretty nice and the waves were pretty solid. Much better than the Gulf Coast of course. Since our little adventure, I have decided that I really need to move to California. Especially right off the coast. It's so nice and the weather is perfect. Plus it the scenery isn't bad on the eyes. So that's a huge bonus.

I'm not too sure when I'm going to make this big move, but it's going to happen.

Today was the last prep day before our 115 mile road race. At first I thought the race was going to be a race of attrition that came down to a field sprint, but all of the woman and junior races today and little breaks getting away. It should be pretty tough.

After the race tomorrow, we will get showered up and loaded and head back to Dallas. 21 hr, non-stop drive. Yes, I am excited. Downers Grove next weekend and I am officially registered.

Sleep time.

Nationals crit

2008-08-08T22:54:00.000-05:00

My first of 2 events this year at nationals is over. It was also my first race with my new team, Metro VW. The course was basically the king of all parking lot crits. It was a pretty tight and sketchy course in the Angels baseball stadium parking lot. That's right, parking lot crit with barriers lining the course and a man made round a bout. Probably the sketchiest crit I have ever done. Top 5 for sure. Only because There was a wreck in almost every corner. When there wasn't a crash, there was a good close call because people can't ride their bikes and they hook bars with the rider next to them. With 3 laps to go, all I could think about was the last thing Jim Hoyt said to me before I left for Cali. "Don't "fubar" that bike while your out there." I was very afraid of fighting for positioning simply because I really want to go home after I leave here. However, I sucked it up and grew a pair and managed to avoid a crash going into the last lap that was about 20 riders back. I could hear all the carnage behind me. Riders hitting the barriers, carbon wheels hitting the ground and derailleurs going into spokes. Tristan went down but is ok. Too bad, he was riding well.

Around the round about on the last lap (about 500 meters to go), I moved from 12th or so into the top 10. With 20 meters to go, it was on! I was hesitant to jump and waited for the favorites to jump first. Not too sure why, its not like I was going to sprint around them. In hind sight I would have jumped when I should have but I'm still not sure it would have made much difference. I ended up in 7th. I am very happy with that place, all things considered. I have done nationals since 2005 and I have only been in the top 10 one other time, and that was a 10th in the tt in Seven Springs in 06. So needless to say I was satisfied. Yet left a little disappointed. The podium was within my grasps and not out of reach. Justin Williams and Jake Keough battled it out for the win. It could have gone either way, but went to Justin. Halloway finished 3rd followed by Eric whatever from Time Factory and then Alex Boyd! rounding out the podium. Boyd is the man! Alexi Martinez finished right ahead of me in 6th. It makes me feel a little better knowing that I was the 2nd amateur, but there is no jersey for that. The rest of the guys rode well. Covered stuff early on so I didn't have too. They all stayed out of trouble and didn't crash and finished with the group. Not bad considering NONE of the guys have every done nationals before. Talk about being thrown into the gauntlet. Even Thacker Reeves threw down a good ride in his first nationals with a 10th. Hes got talent.

It was nice being able to jump across to a break or cover an attack and ride at the front and not get yelled at for being "selfish". Not a bad start to nationals, but I will need a little bit of luck for the next race. 115 miles on Sunday is gonna be rough. I am confident though. Winning or making the podium will be no easy task but this isn't my first dance.

Wish me luck.

Just to clear things up.

2008-08-05T20:31:00.000-05:00

So I just want to set the record straight and let everyone know. TxTough and myself have parted ways. For people that cant draw their own conclusions, it was just a bunch of different things. Eventually something had to give. A week before nationals was not the best of timing, however it needed to be done. It was a mutual decision and no relationships were harmed. That I can see anyways. It is a disappointment, but not a surprise. I had originally just wanted to finish out the remaining part of the season unattached, but that was not very cost effective. Thanks to all the friends that gave me advice and support. I will be finishing the year with Metro VW starting with u23 nationals. My schedule is a little different than originally planned but it should still be good. After my departure in California I will head back to Dallas for a few days then straight to Chicago for crit nationals at Downers Grove. Then Hotter n Hell and 100k in Atlanta over Labor Day. I will also get to race the remaining crit series races with San Fran. and then the finals in Vegas.

I'm pretty excited to get a new start with a new team. I was pretty lucky Nathan offered me an opportunity to ride for his team.

A huge thanks to Mike Gacki, Gary Woolfolk, Woody Smith and Jim Hoyt at Richardson Bike Mart for loaning me a bike since I have been back from SuperWeek. They definitely made things a ton easier on me.

Our first race isn't until Thursday with the crit at the Anaheim Angel stadium. The tt is tomorrow. We rode the course today and its pretty tough. I wish I were doing it, but its kinda expensive to fly 2 bikes. Maybe next year.

The road race is on Sunday. Its 186k, luckily its pretty flat with some gentle climbs. It should still be pretty hard though.

Wish me luck.

Unexpected trip back to Dallas.

2008-07-28T18:49:00.001-05:00

SuperWeek is officially over, however i have now been back in Dallas since Wednesday. I only raced 11 days before returning home. While racing in Bensenville, I crashed with 4 to go and broke my bike. I was ok, not even a bit of road rash, but I managed to get a 3-4 inch crack in the center of the top tube of my bike. Awesome. SRAM support was worthless so I continued to race it for another 5 days or so. On Tuesday I woke up feeling like a pile of crap and decided not to race. I told Barry and we agreed going home would be best.
I did manage to salvage a 7th place finish in Ripon before heading back. Not bad considering I was riding in support of Carlos. I think the rain made it easier to get a good result. All you had to do was not crash and stay at the front. Carlos had maybe the best Superweek he has ever had. Even after a slow start. He finished 3rd overall, 3rd in the sprint competition, and 1st in the top amateur competition. That's pretty solid considering he did it basically all by himself. He's the man.
Nationals is next on the agenda in just a couple short weeks time in the great state of California. The following week is crit nationals in Downers Grove.
This is all assuming I get a bike to ride and an airline ticket from my team to get to Cali. For the time being, Richrdson BikeMart has been very generous in loaning me a bike for training while I am in town and until Scott can come up with another one for me. I see myself riding a Speedster in the near future. Awesome! What an upgrade.
On the upside I did win the u23 state crit championship. We can just forget that the turn out was sub par for the event. For obvious reasons. A jersey is a jersey I guess. Bryan won another one too.
Out for now.

More Superweek.

2008-07-19T12:20:00.000-05:00

Almost halfway done with Superwwek 2008. All in all its going ok. We had our first off day on Thursday, skipping the Shorewood crit, and used the day for travel from Chicago to our host housing in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Carlos is around 10th overall, 2nd amateur. He has been consistently finishing in the top 10 on every stage. On day 1 in Bensenville, he lapped the field with 7 other guys and finished in 5th on the day.
Coming into Superweek, we all knew that it was pretty dicey if you chose to be competitive, and that it wasn't a matter of IF but when you were going to crash. The team fairing well in the crash department so far. (knock on wood). Only Barry, John and myself have crashed. All on the same course. Luckily nothing too bad.
Yesterday was our first race after the rest day in Ripon, WI. The course was a kilometer long with 2 punchy climbs. Start positioning was crucial, groups were getting pulled 8 laps into the race. A group of 3 got off the front and eventually lapped the field. With 20 laps left it began to rain. For the next 12 laps there were crashes on every other corner. The race finished with myself, Carlos and Tyler all in the top 20. Today's course is in Waukesha. Last year this race had to be stopped and restarted twice due to crashes. Hopefully it goes better this year. However, rain is threatening, so it could get worse.
Before the race yesterday, I noticed a crack on my top tube a couple inches long. Still not sure if its all the way through the frame or just paint. I better find out soon though. Still a lot of racing left.
Internet is sorta hard to come by at the moment. I'll post back as soon as possible.

Thursday was also my dad's 52nd birthday. Just want to shout out to my biggest supporter and sponsor. Thank you for everything you do and the shit you have to deal with. I couldn't do it without you.

SuperWeek

2008-07-15T12:11:00.000-05:00

We are up in the Chicago area for the first few races of Superweek. After Wednesday the remaining races will be up north in Wisconsin. The first races have gone by OK. No one has crashed....yet. Carlos is sitting in the top 20 overall and showing signs of good form despite being sick the entire trip up. Yesterday he spent over half the race in a 3 man break before getting caught with 30 laps remaining. He has been finishing consistently in the top 20 everyday. The races are much faster this year then I remember. Kelly Benefits has 6 guys, Kahala La Grange has 6 guys (at least). Plus Rock Racing is sending their squad from Cascade up to join the 2 jersey wearers, Rashaan and Sterling. Tyler, myself, Tristan, and newly adopted team mate John Trujillo are trying our hardest to support Carlos. The legs are feeling better and better each day. We all knew the first week was going to be the roughest. Hopefully things just continue to get better each day. Still 13 days left including 2 road race which have double points. We are a little further back then we were hoping but there is still a ton of racing left.
Check back in for updates every other day.
Today the race is in Bensenville, IL. About 10 min from our hotel. No more sitting in traffic for 30 min to get to the race. Finally. 2 1/2 hrs and 100 kilometers of death.

Also, Thank you to the following people for continuing to donate to TX Tough in my behalf.
Nancy Donahue
Betsy Murphy
Tammy Rice
Alan & Kathy Johnson

Back to Austin.

2008-06-30T20:42:00.000-05:00

I've been back in town for a couple of weeks now. I can't believe I went so long with the lack of training in Dallas. Its not that its bad, Austin is just far better.

While I was in Dallas I managed to play a ton of golf and match my all time number of wins at the Tuesday niter with 2 in a row. I know its no 7- straight. But it will do for me.

The Matrix Challenge went alright. No wins for the team but some money made and still some solid results. I basically sucked, but rebounded nicely the following weekend to make up for it.

Carlos also won the fastest lap and in doing so scored a sweet Trek cruiser bike, or the "scraper" bike as Tristan calls it.

Last weekend was the 5th annual AT&T downtown criterium. This weekend as a whole was probably one of the coolest moments of my racing career thus far. Top 5 for sure. Thursday was the driveway as per usual, but this time with the Colavita boys, Rashaan Bahati and some out of towners. Saturday was the big show. A twilight crit in front of a few thousand drunk spectators. Always a good time. Colavita won again, with Toyota going 2-3-4. As predicted, the top 2 amateurs in the race came from our team. Carlos got 6th and won the top amateur jersey, and I finished 12th and won the best young riders jersey. Tristan and Tyler also put in solid rides. Making their presence known at the front.

We had this past weekend off from racing, and after one more "off" week, we leave for SuperWeek on the 8th. This kicks off our season. At least the part of the season we care most about. We have very high expectations as always. After Superweek we fly out to California for nationals. From there we will see how everyone is feeling. Gateway Cup and Vuelta Chihuahua are also on our schedule by seasons end.

Hopefully the ORIGINAL rat-tail will join us for some of our expeditions.

Also, thank you to everyone who has continued to donate to the txtough.org website in my behalf.

Keep the $$$ coming. :)

Andrew

Happy Birthday!

2008-06-09T09:51:00.000-05:00

Just another day. I think I'll go ride my bike today. :)

big number 20.

Thanks.

Tulsa Tough

2008-06-09T09:39:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was the Tulsa Tough. I love coming to this race. It's harder than a Txbra race but its not completely demotivating. This year was a little bigger than last year. The purse was larger, and the competition was tougher. This year there was a cat.1/2 race, followed by the Pro/1 category.

Carlos, myself, Tristan, and Barry did the Pro race. It went pretty well for us. I managed to finish in the money all the days. Not too bad considering Toyota United came with their entire Tour de France squad. I guess they were prepping for Philly. They took 1-5 of the overall and pretty much every stage looked very similar to that also. Carlos scored an 11th on the very hard 3rd stage. Thats amazing considering 10 guys got away early and were never seen again.

I finally felt like I had some fitness. Now I remember what thats like. I was able to surf around the pack and attack and cover attacks. It was nice. Hopefully it just gets better from here.

My next race will be the Matrix Challenge followed by the AT&T downtown criterium in Austin.

Thank you to everyone who has donated to the Tx Tough.org website in my behalf! Keep the donations coming, its for a good cause!

Mike Dahlheim

Jan Diliberto

Dave Diliberto

Judy Bonacci

Kathy Radford

Ken & Lydia Ferguson

Michelle Shuffield

Frederick Kelly

Farl Maxwell

Sorry for anyone I missed!

Thanks again.

Andrew

Dallas

2008-05-29T14:34:00.000-05:00

Been a while since I've updated. Lets have a quick recap. Several races have come and gone since the 1st of April.

Mineral Wells Day 1- Brett 1st, Carlos 2nd, Me 3rd

Mineral Wells Day 2- Tyler 3rd

Ft. Davis- Tristan 4th (hill climb), Tyler 2nd (road race)

Mississippi Grand Prix- Carlos 1st road race, 6th tt, 4th crit, 2nd GC

Tyler 12th tt, 3rd crit

Tristan 5th road race, 13th tt

Andrew 6th road race, 18th tt

Tx Tough 2nd team Classification

Joe Martin Stage race- Carlos 6th tt, 3rd road race 1, 1st road race 2, 3rd crit, 1st GC!!

Andrew 18th tt, 8th crit

Tristan 9th tt, 4th road race 1, 9th GC

Tyler 10th crit

Bear Creek criterium- Andrew 2nd

Carlos 6th

Houston Grand Criterium- Carlos 2nd

Tyler 3rd

Andrew 17th

Gary Glickman Memorial Criterium- Andrew 7th

Tyler 8th

Geoff 10th

Bryan 11th

GS Tenzing Criterium- Bryan 5th

Carlos 7th

State Criterium Championships- Tyler 2nd

Bryan 5th

Andrew 6th

I have been in Dallas since the conclusion of Houston Grand. All the races lately have been up in this area anyway so I thought I would take this opportunity to visit my parents and see some of my friends while they are home from school. I have also gotten in a little bit of motor pacing to prep for all the crits. We leave for Tulsa tomorrow. The Tulsa Tough is such a fun and hard weekend of racing. Im stoked for this year. Tomorrow night is our first stage, then one Saturday night, and then Sunday afternoon. Our team will be split up. Myself, Tyler, Tristan, Barry and perhaps Geoff will be doing the Pro race; and Bryan, Surfer, Brett, and Chopper will be doing the 1,2 race to grab some cash and results. I assume Im going to be staying in Dallas until AT&T crit weekend. I really want to limit my racing this month. After Tulsa I plan on hitting the 2 Matrix crits here in Dallas and then going back home for our AT&T criterium. I am opting out of the age based state championships this year. My main focus for the rest of the year is on SuperWeek, u23 and Elite nationals in California, Hotter N Hell, and of course the TX TOUGH pro criterium in Victory park on September 13th. Shameless plug i know.

My injuries are close to 100% healed up and now my fitness is coming back around. Finally! What a frustrating season thus far. i have had to make some early season sacrifices, but I believe it will pay off by the time the season is over. I have been doing a little bit of track racing also. I always forget how much fun it is when there are 20+ people racing out at the Superdrome in Frisco. Such good training too. Good Times

The txtough.org website is complete as far as I know. Please go check it out and donate in my behalf! Each of us have to raise a minimum of $500. Go make a donation for the Childrens Medical Center of Dallas.

Hopefully my next update will be soon. I'll try to check bak in after Tulsa.

Andrew

Belterra and some things.

2008-03-31T15:11:00.000-05:00

Second week back on the bike and my first "real" race back. Solid training, nothing to really write home about. I have been capping my rides at about 3 hrs and picking up the tempo a little bit. I still don't want to over do it just yet. I jumped in the Tuesday night ride out south of town, which is always fast. Since Ft. Davis is just around the corner, I have been getting out on my Scott Plasma time trial bike a couple of times a week. It feels fast, and even if I don't set a course record, at least I'll look kinda cool with our Advantage helmets thanks to Giro and our Zipp wheels flying down the road. I'm pumped. Right now I think Tristan will be the GC guy out there. He is riding super strong, and is a good pure climber to have on your team. I also did the Thursday night driveway crit last week. After watching Don, the boss, destroy his "c" race companions in his second ever USCF race. I was just thinking, I can't disappoint. When in reality, I was going to be very happy just to hang in and cover stuff. Mission accomplished. Barry and Carlos got into a break that ended up lapping the field. Every time I looked across the course to the break, Barry would be at the front turning his giant 54t chain ring in anger.

Once the break lapped our main field, I sat up and pulled out and witnessed Barry out sprint John Korioth and Stefan to keep the KOD jersey in the TX Tough family. Hopefully he wont lose it between now and Thursday in his truck or bedroom. We'll see.

The legs have been getting a lot better. Still not much fitness to be seen out of me. Just kinda "going through the motions", as Christian always tells me.

Belterra was kinda cool. Not nearly as challenging of a course that they have had in years past, but still fun. With the fast downhill toward the finish, a break staying away was going to be next to impossible. We all did a good job of covering moves and getting in all the breaks. Tristan got in a move halfway through the race with Stefan and Willis that looked threatening. However, after Willis had a mechanical issue on the hill, the 2 remaining were just cruising waiting for the group to catch them. On the last lap, Stefan launched yet another ferocious attack on the hill and no one followed him. Like I said, an end result in anything other than a field sprint was unlikely, but if anyone were going to change that, it were going to be him. Stefan is not a sprinter and will never take his chance in a field sprint. I saw him up the road, and stomped on the pedals to get across to him at the top of the climb. Keep in mind that my fitness level is rather low, so you can imagine once I latched onto his wheel, I was cashed. We soon got caught and just jumped back into the pack. A few other small attacks from people who aren't sprinters tried their chances, but nothing doing. I tried to back to the front on the downhill to help out Barry with the lead out, but again, not happening. Barry set up the train nicely with Carlos and Tyler on his wheel. Somewhere between the downhill and finish, a certain SuperSquadra rider boss hogs his way into Tyler, trying to shut down the lead out. With about 150 meters to go Tyler takes over the sprint, which 9 times out of 10 are wins for him. On this occasion, (which is also his first race back as well since his crash nearly a month ago), the SuperSquadra rider had his way with him. Pushing him over into the curb, forcing T. Jewell to stop pedaling all together. Squadra took the win, then Boyd (who is riding like a bad ass), and Rob Kane had a surprise 3rd place. I was impressed with that result out of him. He is kinda old. :)

Tyler had to settle for 4th after an arguably sheisty sprint. All you can do is learn from your mistakes though. Maybe next time he'll throw some bows and be a bit more aggressive. Carlos and Will got 5th and 6th, and I limped in with the pack feeling like a small child.

More steady training and Mineral Wells next weekend. Good race, and good preparation for Ft. Davis. Hopefully Stefan won't have his way with me again this year. Although, 2nd to him is usually not too shabby.

On another note, Bryan Fawley represented TX Tough at the NORBA National in Fontana California. You have to hear the story from him, but long story short. A disappointing cross country, nicely rebounded with a 19th in the pro short track. He'll take that all day.

Back to Training

2008-03-21T11:59:00.000-05:00

My first week back since I crashed and I have ridden on average 2 hrs everyday. With no major re-accuring pain. I have been taking the week pretty light. Wednesday, Tyler, Carlos and myself rode out to Lockhart. The wind was pretty burly coming back home. Carlos some how managed to break his chain in Creedmore. Thus ending our "quality" training for the day. Tyler and i pushed him all the back to Slaughter and 35. It doesn't sound that bad, but considering we aren't anywhere close to 100%, it was quite a hard task. We thought we would be smart and cut through the construction sight straight back to 35. Bad idea. We had totally forgot that it rained pretty hard a couple of days prior. So every mile or so we would have to cross a patch of straight mud. With no by passes. By the time we got to 35, Our shoes were pretty caked with pebbles and mud. Good thing I had to change my cleats anyways.

Yesterday was the Thursday night crit out at the driveway. The course is awesome, and will be even better once the entire thing is finished. Will took the win and brought the KOD jersey back to the family.

Tyler was given the ok to ride outside by the doctor. I think he will also race Belterra next weekend. It has been a hard couple of weeks for us missing out on all the action. We are definitely exited to get back in the swing of things and get out and mix things up a bit.

Thanks again to everyone that checked up on us and were there to support us.

We can not say thank you enough to all of our sponsors for being there for us and doing so many great things for the team. Geoff Godsey, Barry Lee, and Todd Reed have done everything in there power to make it all happen. Huge thanks to Doug Looney of Scott Bikes, as well as the nice people at Zipp and SRAM. Thanks to Liz at Hotel San Jose and our title sponsor, TX Tough. The new txtough.org website is up and running, so be sure to check that out.

Remember to donate! The first leg of TX Tough is September 13th.

2 Long Weeks.

2008-03-18T15:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the first day to be back on the bike in a little over 2 weeks since my crash. My knee is still a little sore but nothing that time won't heal. Hopefully. I still have to do a few sessions of physical therapy, but I can tell my leg is feeling better and better every day. I only rode for 1.5 hrs. but I don't want to over due it just yet. I will probably do 2 hr rides all week.

I got back to Austin on Saturday and finished unpacking my room at our team house. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done (washer, dryer, refrigerator etc.), but it will get there sometime. Now were all in the house, except for Tyler that stays there sometimes.

I got my bike fixed and the handle bars replaced. They were broken in half straight thru. No salvaging those bars. Im just happy to be back on the road, and am looking forward to Belterra in 2 weeks.

Fayetteville was last weekend. Alex Boyd made the race his bitch by soloing the first road race and getting 2nd in the tt and last road race. Tx Tough only had 4 starters. Tristan got sick and Bryan went to Waco for the mountain bike race (which he won by over 2 minutes). Carlos was our top finisher in 14th overall. then Dan and Will were right behind in the top 20 as well.

Not great, but we'll take it.

Tyler is getting better and is riding more and more. Still not sure if he will race Belterra but hopefully he can.

Maybe we will all be fast by then.

Update.

2008-03-10T18:08:00.000-05:00

Just checking in after the weekends racing. Obviously I did not join in on the dirt road racing festivities. However, Tristan, Bryan, and Carlos did an awesome job representing for TX Tough nonetheless.
Tunis Roubaix was one of my personal favorite races. Not too far from home in College Station. usually a pretty selective race and not the best road conditions. Tristan and Bryan proved why they are 2 of the best mountain bikers and all around cyclists in the state by going 1-2. Thanks to a big effort put in by Carlos and Dan Opdyke who still finished 5th and 7th respectively (I believe).
After the race, Tristan, Bryan, and Carlos hopped in the truck with Barry and drove a few hrs. east to Louisiana for Rouge Roubaix. I have never had the opportunity to do this race (usually overlapping Lago Vista), but I had heard good thing. Similar to Tunis the day prior, the course called for a few big gravel road sections. With basically the entire cash purse going to the top 3, a good result was crucial. Of course the team didn't disappoint. At the finish of the 100+ mile race, Carlos won the field sprint for 2nd with Bryan and Tristan right behind in the same front group in 6th and 10th. The winner soloed the last 25 miles. From what I hear, there were about 100 starters and the field split into several groups.
Tyler and I are getting better. I should be back on the bike in a week. Tyler is already back on the bike but he probably shouldn't be. Were trying to talk him into taking some time off since he slipped a disc in his back. Fayetteville is this weekend and once again I will not be attending. Instead, I will be going back home to the new team house on Windsor and finish unpacking. We have some guys that are on pretty good form right now, or at least fast enough to win anyways. Fayetteville always has a solid turn out and being a stage race adds some extra difficulty. I'm sure the Team will have no problem delivering the goods yet again.
I have very high expectations for the year, not only for myself but the team as a whole also. Being one of the full time guys on the team I find it my responsibility to get results for the team, or at least do my part to get someone on the Team to get results. Since I have missed the past 2 weeks of racing, and will have missed the 3 weeks of racing by the time I'm back on the bike, the rest of the guys have done an awesome job of stepping up. Primarily Bryan and Tristan. I can not really praise them enough. They have had a very strong showing in the early season races.
Good Job to everyone for getting it done.
It's going to be a good year.

I will be able to post pictures and stuff once I get back home and on my computer.
Check race reports from Tunis and Rouge Roubaix at Tristan's blogspot and Bryan's website.
Thanks

See, what had happend was..

2008-03-07T16:59:00.000-06:00

I would just like to fill people in on the recent incident Tyler and myself had with a deer this past weekend at Lago Vista. At least the people that don't already know.
Well first of all, it is true. We were taken out by a deer while on the bike. Whats even crazier is that it was on two separate occasions.
On Friday before the race, I had been moving into the new team house all day and hadn't been able to get a ride in yet. Since it was the day before a race it wasn't supposed to be a hard or long ride. Just a little spin to stay loose. After I made my last trip to the house with a load of stuff I loaded my bike and busted ass out to Lago ahead of the rest of my team to get some sort of ride in before it got dark. That was mistake number 1. When I was driving in I saw probably dozens of venison scampering across the roads. I was riding a loop of the course and half way through my ride I saw a small pack of deer. Probably 6-8 of them. The first thing that crossed my mind was, how stupid do you have to be to get hit by a deer? Apparently not very. I was descending down one of the final hills before the finish at around 35-40. I wasn't gettin it by any means but it was fast enough to feel a chilly breeze. As I'm going down the hill I see a lone deer running straight for me. Before I could react the deer was right in front of me and the only place I could go was where the deer was going to be. I hit my brakes and plowed right into the hip of the deer. According to the Moritz guys that were close behind me I slid down the hill probably 100 meters before hitting a decorative boulder on the golf course head first. Luckily I stayed concious the whole time and the ambulance was there in no time. To cut the length of this story down, I was out of Brackenridge Hospital by 11:30 with 4 stitches in my face and 2 in my knee. I also had a slight nick in my patella that kept me from walking or bending my leg. Its been 1 week off the bike so far, and according to Dr. Barber, my orthopedist in Plano, One week of physical therapy and I should be good to go. I'll be missing 3 weeks of racing (LagoVista- Fayetteville). Look for my come back at Belterra.
As for Tyler, I'm not sure of his condition. I talk to him daily and get all the updates and he seems to be in high spirits. According to him both of our bikes are in need of some work. He also has road rash in 9 different places on his body. Especially his back. He cracked his elbow and tweaked his spine a little bit. He isn't sure of the severity of his spinal injury but he still isn't able to walk comfortably. Hopefully he will be back at it soon and his injuries aren't any worse than expected. We were both pretty lucky to escape with relatively minor injuries.
If you haven't already, read Veggie's take on the incident. http://fcsvegg.blogspot.com/2008/03/news-flash-deer-extremly-attaracted-to.html

Thanks for all the thoughts and support.

The New THSJ.

2008-03-07T14:55:00.000-06:00

The beginning of the season has started and this post is a little late.
A few big races have come and gone, including Pace Bend weekend and the Primavera at Lago Vista. There are a lot of stacked teams for '08. Velossimo is bigger and faster than ever and HealthCoach has added some horsepower and could be a threat this year. Same with the always strong Mercy squad. They proved they are back and ready to race by winning both days at Lago this year. Good Job to Mat Ankney and Stefan.
As for Team Hotel San Jose; we are totally revamped for this season. Adding new sponsors and several new, strong, experienced riders. We kicked off the season shaking off the cob webs with New Braunfuls, Castroville, and Valley of the Sun. Tyler scored a win in the crit at New Braunfuls, but other than that our results have been solid yet disappointing. A few top 10s at Castroville and Walburg and some decent top 5s at Lago Vista from Bryan Fawley and our newest seasoned Vet, Brian Sheedy. We had a huge win at Valley of the Sun in the Pro,1 road race with Tristan out sprinting Dave Clinger uphill. No one was more deserving of the win than him. Willy Ross put his wirey skills to work in the crit scoring a 4th against Rock Racing.
A strong start by most teams standards still isn't quite what we were looking for to start the season. With Fayetteville 2 weeks away, the team will be missing half of the core riders. This past weekend both myself (Andrew) and T. Jewell were taken out by a deer at Lago. Our injuries aren't too bad, but we are going to have to sit a few weeks out. I Missed the entire Lago weekend and will miss Tunis, Rouge Roubaix, and Fayetteville. Hopefully making my return the weekend of Belterra. Tyler will probably be the same, maybe longer. He is still questionable.
Along with our injuries, our Fayetteville roster will be a little hindered with Sheedy back home in North Carolina and Fawley opting out to do the mountain bike race in Waco. Luckily Tristan is riding like a man child and Carlos, Geoff, and Nick are all coming into form.
Look for strong performances out of us this year. Its only just begun. Pretty soon our team will be healthy and working like the dominate team we are used to being.
Look for periodic updates from Tristan and Nick. The TxTough.org team website should be up and running soon also so be sure to check that out in the next week or so.
The 2008 Tx Tough roster:
Barry Lee
Geoff Godsey
Brian Sheedy
Carlos Vargas
Nick Keirnan
Brett Crosby
Andrew Dahlheim
Tyler Jewell
Tristan Uhl
Bryan Fawley
Will Ross
Chopper Kincaid
Dan Opdyke
Andy Wilson