killthedarkness

hillbilly in a handbasket.

i finally got a chance to race at levis again after about four years. wi ss champs had us doing two twelve plus mile laps. i donned the "power kit" which proved to be quite the opposite. of course, that could have had something to do with staying out late, drinking beer at a wedding reception as well as celebrating our engagement. from the le mans start i felt a little off. jesse kicked it into gear on the opening flat as i dangled. about halfway through lap one i popped. that makes for a long twenty miles more. after the urge to vomit subsided i managed to throw in a couple of surges. it made no difference as jesse was over five minutes up and tj was about four back, but it was a good workout nonetheless. regardless, still the best course in wisconsin, and probably the midwest.

wi ss champs today. i had a worthless race. felt terrible but at least i looked stunning. jesse put a solid five minutes into me w/ tj a bit behind me. more later. my real news for the weekend is that meghan and i are now engaged. my whole goal was a surprise and i managed to pull it off.

the ramble.

the ramble started off pretty amateur for myself, whiffing the pedal off the line not once but twice. i quickly found myself buried twenty deep. with some sketchy maneuvers in the first quarter mile i worked up through the pack before finally getting onto the train that jesse was pulling. after a couple of miles mikey took over and before ya know it the seven of us had a gap. mikey blew a tyre off on lap two, jesse did the courteous thing by not attacking. we had a small gap riding the same pace but the group quickly latched back on. it was apparent that tj and chris didnt want either jesse or i to get off the front as most of my turns at the front were quickly shut down. on the last lap i went to the front on the second section of singletrack. jesse must have been studying the play book. he came up right to block and said go. i hammered to the small opening as tj tried to squeeze in between. jesse boxed it out and i tried my best to weave the magic trail through the forest. as we hit the ski trail jesse came around and it was all out. tj was right there as i yelled at him to get on. my next look back we had a gap. jesse kept the gas on the rest of the way. neither of us realized how far out we had went. we kept the gap and it came down to the final stretch. as we came up on a sport rider i cut left and jesse cut right. i failed to realize the finish beared right, putting me on the outside. the sprint was on and my legs gave out a second from the finish. jesse with the win again, myself second. not bad for a road race. the superfly was rolling, couldnt have been a better course for it. the shades kept me seein clear, at least until the rain. argyle is the style. and it never hurts to have the most p-r-o water handups in the biz. photo cred.

fully loaded.

  with two days off, meghan and i took full advantage. sparta to onalaska via the lacrosse river trail, onalaska to perrot state park via the great river state trail. camp. same thing backwards the next day. panniers and the bob did the trick. pics.

mt morris

too legit to quit. foto cred.

art pedaler.

art pedaler on friday, fueled by beer and good company. followed by beer and good company. a few more fotos on flickr. that night i rode my gf poprad. i did the same yesterday and again today. the bonty tyres guided me through knee deep water yesterday. toasty t6 woolies put the kept the feet happy enough to keep turnin over the cb pedals. i flew the flag so the bpws would know that im not the one to throw down with. the clear lenses havent gone away for days. maybe sun tomorrow? yes, tomorrow. perhaps a gravel ride w/ the 16t on the rear. a day off then it's back to work. do you know what this week is?

bushwacker.

little cog classic.

the most stacked field of the year had me in full on serious guy mode. after a quick start and barely avoiding a pileup i was back to chill/ride/normal mode. the jitters were gone as eight of us separated ourselves from the rest of the field. several faux moves went and the the group stayed together. nearing the end of lap one jesse and eppen were separating. as i was making the move to latch on i heard a bang. turned around to see mikey going down, tyre off the rim. that seemed to set the tone for the day. a solid five to seven guys who would normally be top ten all flatted out. somehow i managed to stay inflated the whole race. jesse took the pacer duties w/ eppen and myself in toe. into lap three brian seemed to be struggling on an uphill. i did the asshole thing and kicked it down, dragging jesse with. we spent the next two laps trading pulls. jesse put the gap down w/ a mile to go. i made a last ditch effort for the win and came up a half second short. all in a days work i guess. foto cred: mg.

wazoo

second again. report later.

steve's fund.

info on a fund established for steve is up on meghan's site. thanks to skip and susan as well as bear w/ corp for chipping in some more swag. it sounds like steve is super pumped to get back on the bike. thanks for the support everyone.