We did it.

A&F pulled out the victory at tour of ohio on saturday. It was AWESOME. Marco even won the stage.
So all in all we got 1st and 3rd on the GC, 1st in points, 1st in KOM, and won 4 out of 6 stages. Not too shabby for us. We raced as a real team with a cause which made it a ton easier to be competetitive.
I am now currently in wilmington nc hanging out at the beach for a couple days with uh. This place is awesome, I have never been here, but scott chamber would like it because all the hippies that hang out here.
I have a TON of sweet pictures from the week, which are mostly not bicycle related, just cool pics. I will put up tommorow night when I get home--I am on a public computer now and I can pretty much see all the bacteria festering on keyboard...yum.
I can't say enough about how deep those guys dug this week, it was a great experience for all and hopefully we can keep this momentum rolling.
It was a great week for all, but Jimmy Mac took a bit of a spill, check it out here. Thanks to Dave Tingler for videoing a bunch of the races and editing them and everything.
Here is the link: Jimmy Mac Video
Thanks again to Blair Fraley from TEAM ECHELON for the pictures.


I will have a full write up and a bunch of hiarious stories soon.

Stage 4

Won today thanks to a HUGE HUGE HUGE effort by the team. These pics will say it all...A&F has now won 3 out of 4 stages and holds onto ALL jerseys!!!!
It was an epic crit and everyone stepped up huge. We kept it together, made it come down to a bunch sprint, which was super hectic and now we are in yellow, green, and polka dot.
I must apologize for yelling a little bit tonight, i might have raised my voice when things were getting crazy and there is no need for that, but it is bike racing and we needed to get that time bonus tonight. Here are some great pictures from Blair Fraley who is a savage hiller and great photographer. Thanks BLAIR!!!


I LOVE IT THAT ANDY IS AT THE FRONT. I LOVE BENNETTS FACE EVEN MORE. You should have seen the short shorts that m-fer rolled in today wearing. I love this team


Yellow looks alright. I guess you weren't supposed to chug the entire bottle of champagne, but it seemed appropriate at the time.

Nato says Hi to everyone. We went out and rocked OREILYS PUB afterword, my favorite old pub, it was great. Got my grub on with a bacon cheeseburger and a whole bunch of onion rings. Even NATO ate some meat.

The Jokes On Me...not in yellow after all.

so after the race yesterday the promoter gave me the yellow jersey and told me I was the leader, apparently that was just a cruel joke as I was reading today online that dickey is in yellow. HA! I have the jersey in my car, maybe I will just show up with it on.
What happened, I am assuming, other than the world being against me, is that because dickey got a 20 second time bonus and i got a 10 and I had a 10 from earlier in the week we are actually tied on time. So that means since he won a stage and I only have 2 2nds that he is the leader per USA cycling tiebreak laws.
Oh well, I just wish they hadn't given me that jersey and I wish I hadn't told everyone that I know that I was the leader. HA!!! 2 more crits with time bonuses at the finish.

Tour Ohio Stage 3

Todays stage was really f-ing hilly, no joke, it really was hilly, and it hurt badly. Luckily we have a good team and managed to get Tim Swain in the early break and he single handidly set up the results for us.
Lot of crazy stuff happened, but the short version is that the our team is racing full on like a team and the results are showing. Tim went up the road and took over the KOM jersey. I bridged up to him halfway in order to make the other teams chase. The other teams did. Tim Swain rode his ass off so I could wait for the last few climbs. A group of 10 came up to use before the second to last climb. Tim swain rode his butt off some more. Dewey Dickey attacked on the second to last climb. I was able to stay with him over that and to the finish with one other person, chris montileone. Dewey outsprinted me, and I took second but we both got the same time. The rest of the team finished only 30 seconds back.
Tim is now the kom leader and I am in yellow and green, and we have 3 guys within 30 seconds of 1st.
Tommorow is a criterium, thank goodness. Back to what we like, no more extended climbs or feed zones, or having to pee during a race, or worrying about eating enough. Just some good old fashioned bash my head into the pavement for an hour and then its over. Nate likes that too.
After the race, I was checking my myspace account with Nate. Here is how nate and I roll. We are both entertained easily. Nate has been watching me play on the internet since I got here...weird. He is very excited now that he gets to read these posts BEFORE THEY ARE EVEN POSTED!!!!!HOW AWESOME IS THAT???!?!?!

TOUR OHIO STAGE 2

Stage two was yesterday afternoon and it was a tough one. I was an 8 mile circuit with 2 climbs and a bunch of rollers. The team raced amazingly well and we managed to get our kiwi Josh England, aka, CHUNDER, (i think chunder is kiwi slang for poo or vomit, not sure)the stage win AND the kom jersey. I would like to say that we made it easy for him, but we led him out to the bottom of the last hill and he did everything else by himself. He really salvaged it and pulled it out so kudos to that strong dude.
Today is the hard stage, 70 miles in the hocking hills with 7 real climbs. OH BOY. Wish I hadn't eaten all those cheeseburgers this winter now.
We have all three jerseys now, now all we need to do is to keep them.

austin, tour ohio stage one.

I have a lot of catching up to do, I am currently in Columbus Ohio, which feels like home, staying at NATOS, who is my old roomated when I lived here. It is so good to be back in Ohio and doing tour ohio for the 5th time.
So last friday we flew to austin to do round 4 of the USA CRIT series. Austin is a fantastic town and the race was right smack dab downtown. We stayed with $RICH$'S old teammated Phil and his girlfriend danielle. They showed us the best restaurants and took real good care of us, it was sweet. We had mexican for EVERY meal even breakfast while we where there. LOVE IT.
The race was saturday night I raced real aggresivley and ended up getting in a good move with about 35 laps to go. We stayed away until less than one lap to go. LESS THAN ONE STINKING LAP. We got caught, I managed to hang on for 8th with harper 9th and gavic 12th. So it was a good weekend. As a result I still have the lead of the Crit series, but moreover, that moves A&F into first in the team comp. Harper has moved into the top 10 as has Brandon Gavic.
Here are 2 pictures of the race courtesy of Georges Schemagin at georgess.com Thanks



So we raced sat night in austin, flew back to raleigh nc on sunday afternoon, drove back to winston sun night, woke up super early monday to pack, left at 8 am to drive to ohio and was racing the first stage at 630pm. Crazy Traveling.
Tour Ohio this year has 127 racers, that is quite a bit. I love this race and tym tyler does a sweet job putting it together.
Stage 1 was AWESOME. The course was super tight, less that 1 km in length with 8 TURNS!!!! I saw that course and smiled. I love technical crits, they are my most favorite things EVER.
We have 9 people on our team for this race and we are all crit racers, for the most part. We attacked and attacked and attacked to try to get away and keep the pace up, but people kept on chasing and chasing. I ended up winning all the intermediate sprints for the sprinters jersey while marco kept on taking 2nd in them. In the end it came down to a bunch sprint and we lined it out for marco. I had last pull and took him through the last corner and since the sprint was so short only he came around so we went 1st and 2nd.
Our team raced so hard today it was insane. Everyone raced, it was really cool to see everyone throwing down at the front.
That course was so cool. The race started with 127 people, but I think at least 1/3rd got dropped, it was lined out the entire race.
Stage 2 is this afternoon in gambier oh. it is a circuit race with 2 climbs on it. So we will see how our teams "crit" phsyiques holds up in the hills. Today isn't that bad, but wednesday has some big big climbs...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRAD FLIKKEMA!!!!

I couldn't find of picture of him swimming, but I did find a picture of a gay synchornized swim team.
29 and still rockin it! HA! Almost 30 buddy.

touch of grey

Yeah...I really need to stop listening to the grateful dead. I did some intervals yesterday, and when I was trying to go as fast as I could, all I could hear in my head was a very relaxed version of "touch of grey"...I need to start listening to the band disturbed or something like that. Enough of this laid back stuff.
Had a great dinner with a good friend of mine tonight--Jay, is one of my first friends here in winston and a new proud father and it we don't hang as much as both of us would like, but it is good to catch up when we can. I miss the long training rides this winter afforded both of us.
I fly with my bicycle for the first time in my life tommorrow. I have never flown to the race and it is cool that I finally get to do that tommorrow. I guess I am "BIG TIME" now that I get to fly. HA! We are going to Austin TX to race round 4 of the USA CRIT SERIES. I am still leading the series which is amazing to me and our whole team...hopefully we can retain that lead after this weekend.
Winston has been treating me very well as there are many bike racers living here now who like to go out and misbehave. I would encourage anyone looking for a place to move to come here....I have rooms for rent--JUST KIDDING. But this is a great time.
I fly back sunday afternoon and drive to ohio on monday for the start of tour of ohio on monday afternoon.
It is cool going to race at all these different places, but it would be nice to be home for more than 5 days in a row.
Check out Road Magazine. It hit newstands today, haven't seen it, but I hear it is a cool story.
Brad F just called me, believe it or not so I have to go.

peace

Truckin

Yes I am listening to the grateful dead while I post this. Love that band, man oh man!!!
So yeah we raced again this weekend, woke up at 5am to drive to tn, did a cool point to point road race on saturday morning that ended on an 8 mile climb, rode back to the car after the road race completely cracked, ate chicken tacos, did a TT saturday afternoon, drove back to asheville, drank 40s (yes plural) on andy's porch, drove back to tn sunday morning, raced a crit, won the crit and the omnium. It was AWESOME!!
It was a really good weekend, we had a TON of fun and got to see a bunch of familiar faces. The SE region is by far the best region to race in. The racing is hard, the people are cool, the teams are evenly stacked, and the prize lists are big.
It was just rich, andy, and myself and we raced like a true team and it worked out for us. It is fun having a small cohesive unit like that were everyone races together. It feels good.
Is that a good enough race report? I think people like the picutres more than my awful prose so here are the higlights from the weekend.
The criterium was in downtown Bristol TN and in VA these markers were down the straightaway. Half in TN half in VA. Pretty Cool

Bristol has a bunch of cool shows coming through town...mark that date on your calendar.

It was cool to see the regional guys. Here is geri showing us his hidden talents.


$RICH$ having to check the tire pressure after having a very tall cool one. Rich crashed in the road race and literally almost got run over by a dualie towing horses...NO JOKE. It was scary, but everyone was ok.

The new crit monster A2. Andy hit the deck real bad on the last lap, he will be ok. His haircut is amazing...

I love cheetos...LOVE THEM

The secret to racing fast in a criterium on sunday after racing hard twice on saturday is proper recovery. I opted for the high life, while $RICH$ is more into the king cobra. We enjoyed those on A2's new huge porch. It was sweet.

I am home for 5 days now. I fly to austin for USA CRIT race #4 friday and then go directly to TOUR OHIO on monday so lots of racing coming up. But for now it feels good to be home.

TN

I wish I still had my Arrested Development cassette tape; remember the song Tennessee? I remember because my friend brad used to sing it all the time when he was going to go to TN for a swim meet.
Anyway we are going to tn for some bikin this weekend and it should be sweet. I haven't done a road race in a long time and I don't think I have done a road race that ends on an 8 mile climb in a really long time. There is the rr tomorrow morning followed by a 5 mile tt in the afternoon and then a criterium on sunday. It should be fun as it is just $Rich$ Andy and myself going.
It is hot here in NC. Not much has been going on here, just been riding and working and sitting in AC.

yes I know

I know I know I know I haven't updated in a while. There are good reasons for that, mainly that I have f-in busy OKAY?!!!
HA people would be amazed at what I consider busy.
Things have been so amazily wonderful lately that I am scared that something tragic is about to happen..oh wait, maybe this is payback for spending 4 MONTHS in a cast this winter!!!!
Anyway bike racing is going well, I am still leading the usa crit series--pinch me I am dreaming. I have been traveling traveling traveling. I just got back from washington dc this weekend where I did my fanciest race to date--the CSC Invitational. It was sureal and super cool to be able to participate in a race like that. Amateurs are not allowed in that race, but since it was on the USA Crit circuit, they graciously allowed me and marco to be part of a combine team with 6 other amateurs. We were part of the "Arlington Sports All Stars" It was cool it worked out great because they had a bunch of people to support us and give us water in the feed zone--it was SO HOT!! Anyway it was a pretty uneventful race--I was off the front for a little bit, then tailgunned the rest of the race and ended up 13th.
So enough talk. Here are some pics that more aptly show what I have been up to.
Breakfast on the porch with Jill, Josh and UH

Complete with screwdrivers

$RICH$ trying to cure some serious swamp ass by drying his drawers out on the dash.

Look at KYLE--my personal DS. I haven't seen him in years, but traveling has brought us back together a few times in the last couple weeks. YEAH...nato you are missing out.

All star teammate Jon Hamblen showing off his new jeans...WOW!!

I dont think my jersey for CSC matches too well with my A&F Shorts. Its ok though it was so hot and if we didn't have them feeding us, there was NO way we would have finished. THANKS!!

Who wants Chocolate??? Happy birthday LIZ!!!

Travel Buddy and long lost brother for memorial day weekend PHIL taking racing and recovering seriously...

not much

Not much has been going on, just recovering by watching baseball games, drinking beer, playing fooseball, going out to dinner, playing pool, watching sunsets, drinking wine, going out, dancing, sleeping in, sitting on porches, having really deep conversations late at night with writers over wine, sleeping in some more, and finally getting sick. My off the bike habits have always impressed many.
I came down with a mild sinus infection, but it seems to be clearing up nicely.
Racing starts again tomorrow with the winston-salem world championships. It is funny, I can win athens, but the dixie classic fairground victroy this year has eluded me so far.
We have a big race weekend coming up. Friday night is the NRC Raleigh Twilight Crit, saturday is the NRC bike jam in baltimore and sunday is the Tour of Sommerville. The legs feel awesome and the confidence is high so it should be time for a reality check.
Congratulations have to go out to 2 people, Danille Musto for winning the 12 hours of tsali solo YEAH DANIELLE!!!! Andy Applegate, won the 6 hour solo race at the 12 hours of tsali also. So good job andy!!! He said he is sore from the lemans start, not the actual race. I guess they had to run 1k uphill to get their bikes. OUCH.

no rest for the weary

I am back and I am alive.
After driving 16 hours back from arkansas and being home for less than 12 hours I am on my way to work.
Arkansas was SWEET. The joe martin stage is a wonderful race and super tough.
I finished 18th overall which is my best placing yet in a nrc stage race.
The farm is once again at capacity which makes for some good stories so I am sure I will have some soon.

more later

GOING ABSOLUTELY NUTS

So my two day stay at home is over, tomorrow morning we leave for Arkansas, which evidently is quite far away.
After talking to many people about what I should do with the prize money we won, I decided to buy a motorcycle, and not just a motorcycle a HYABUSA!!!! I figured if you wanted to get a bike, you might as well get a big one. JUST KIDDING MOM.
I did buy something, I bought a piano!!! After getting laughed out of a piano store with the amount of money I wanted to spend, UH and I stopped by the salvation army, and they had 2 to choose from, so after calling in a favor from cameron and talking the checkout lady down on price, I have a new piano for the grand total of 67.35. What a deal. To bad we dropped it loading it in and dropped it taking it out of the truck...yeah it is a touch out of tune, but I love it. Now I can sit and play "NOVEMBER RAIN" til my heart is content.
Here is Cameron smashing his fingers.

They had children on sale when I got the piano, so I bought a baby also

SUCCESS!!!

I was lucky enough to have set up a surveillance camera which caught the vandals this past weekend...

Jessica and her tiara TAGGING my house.

There was a big big party monday night in winston, you can read all about it here
I probably won't have internet for the next week, but I am sure I will have some good stories when I come back.

BACK IN WINSTON-SALEM

So the USA SE CRIT series finished yesterday in decatour AL. I managed to pull out 2 top tens in the last two days to secure the overall series.
This was the coolest week of racing ever. Almost all the crits were at night, the courses were disgustingly and dangerously fast (good thing), and the crowds were absolutely HUGE. It was good old american crit racing at its finest. People may think that crit racing is not an extreme sport, but it is and it makes the x games look like it was designed for pansies. Nothing like cornering at 30+ mph elbow to elbow in a group of 100+ spandex clad dorks. GOOD STUFF.
So I am home for a few days before we go off to Arkansas for the Joe Martin Stage Race. We drove home after the race last night and didn't get in until 5am, poor rich then slept for two hours and then had to drive two more to work--AHH THE LIFE.
When we were pulling up into my driveway, I thought someone had spraypainted the entire front porch of my house, but it turned out to be a whole bunch of decorations and balloons welcoming us home and saying congratulations, it was awesome...there were even some red vines and a tiara...P.A.'s rock...
I'll post some pictures once I find my camera and clean out that nasty van.

Seriously

I love the south...we pulled up to the gas station down here and we saw this guy filling up his car and then going inside to buy some 24oz Bud Heavies!!! LOVE IT.

Here is a wonderful picture of $RICH$ recovering properly...he was jealous of the guy on the lawnmower.


We are having an awesome time this week. We are so fancy there were only 7 of us in one hotel room with one bed last night. AWESOME. We did manage to get another room after debating for a few hours whether we could make the housing work or not.
Round 5 concluded last night, these crits are off the hook and a ton of fun. The last few courses have been really fast. I snuck in there for 8th last night and I think I am still 2nd overall, we will find out later today.
We are on our way to spartanburg sc which is only 2 hours from my house and then we drive to AL for the weekend which is 9 hours. It is kind of a cruel joke, to be so close to home and then drive all the way over there for two days and then drive home for 2 days and then leave for arkansas on wednesday.
Check out marco's blog to see the best picture of the a&f team in fine form. $RICH$'s back is pretty much burnt up right now.

on the road

I am currently hunched over probably the most disgusting computer i have ever typed on, in a total dive hotel, in the wonderful south.
I don't have much time, as we are headed out to go give a high school presentation and pretend how glamorous the life of a cyclist is. I am not saying that it is not glamorous, but some of us almost did have to sleep in the van last night.
Round 3 was last night and I am still going well. My confidence is up and people seem to be giving me room in the peleton which makes for easier racing.
The course last night was absolutely insane, we went down a dark super narrow alley!!! The race didn't start until 9pm and it was super fast.
I ended up winning the mid race prime $$$$ and then taking fourth at the finish. Yeah!!! I think I may be back in the overall lead, but I will find out later.
Things are going great and the team is having a ton of fun, although my stomach feels weird--i think it might have been my rare double quarter pounder with cheese and extra large frie at 1230 from mcdonalds last night immediately followed by sleep.
Hopefully I will have pictures soon.

PIGS FLEW TODAY

HOLY CRAP...did that really just HAPPEN????

PIGS FLEW YODAY YES THEY DID AND ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH WON THE ATHENS TWILIGHT CRITERIUM. NO JOKE. I can't believe it myself.
I found myself in an early break and 8 of us lapped the field. My teammate marco aledia dragged me around for the last 15 laps, turning himself inside out for me--there is absolutely no way I could have done it without him. With 6 laps to go there were 2 enormous crashes that I managed to avoid. I ended up staying upright and taking the win.
It was INCREDIBLE...I still can't believe it.
YES I DID WIN TWILIGHT...UNBELEIVABLE!!!!!
Gotta love the crits. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN SO DON'T STOP RACING UNTIL ITS OVER.
There will be a full report and tons of pictures of all the podium girls and myself coming soon!! Check this out in the meantime masiguy
Here is the only picture that matters out of everything...

Fastest Lap--have no idea when it was, but I'll take the $$

Podium

THE A&F BOYS AND GIRL

so far so good in athens

so far so good on our huge road trip. We did the qualifying on computrainers last night. I managed to win my heat with an average wattage of 449 for 6k and went on to get 2nd in the finals. It was sweet, and as a result I get a first row call up and get to wear #2 in the race today. The finals had 8 podium girls who were very easy on the eyes. I will post pictures in a little bit, but it was AWESOME. Our team is having a great time and everything is going well. Tonight is the big race so hopefully the front row call up will make life a bit easier. $RICH$ is currently telling me how good combos are for you for pre race food and then how they help the beer afterwards.
stay tuned.
Jim Baldesare has bleach blond hair and is super pretty right now.

waiting to race

Not much going on here these days. We leave fri for the USA SE CRIT SERIES. 8 races, all at night, and all worth 10k. I can't wait. My leg is bouncing up and down as we speak. It will be a ton of fun. 7 people living out of a van for a week and half. WOW.
Happy Birthday to my brother Rich. He is 31 today...gettin old. crazyness. So i thought I would post some pictures for him. Here is chad (boss man) lubing up his legs. So sexy.

This is $RICH$ not my brother...thank goodness. $RICH$ is modeling his new rudy project "hater blockers" looking good there playa.