Snake Alley here we come!

X and i are headed up to Iowa to do the Snake Alley crit as well as crits on Sunday and Monday.

I'm pretty excited because i think i'm currently stronger on a road bike than i've ever been before. Which is nice. I'm not sure what that will translate to but i think i can be competative and have a chance at winning, duh.

I've never come close to winning a race on my road bike but i'm putting some pressure on myself for a good result this weekend.

i hope y'all have a great weekend and as my friend Ricky Skaggs would say... Peace and riding.

Salina, KS crit

I made my way out to Salina on Sunday to race a cat 3/4 crit. X and Joe fashion came along.

The best part of the trip might have been eating at the Cozy Inn. The race was pretty awesome but this Cozy Inn place was amazing. Not something you find everyday.

The race...

21 starters. 3/4 field. i'm a 4. lot's of the 3's did the open race so it was not as hard as it could have been. It was still hard.

The first 3 or 4 laps were crazy hard and crazy fun. Hard racing is fun when you are strong enough to keep up and contribute. Hard races suck when you're slow. I was keeping up just fine but after 5-10 minutes i was just waiting for the strongest of the race to break away so everyone could start riding a more realistic pace. The strongest was Spencer. He broke away. The racing got easier.

Joe fashion actually broke away with him and the two of them were off the front for a bit but Joe said Spencer was just too fast so he eventually dropped back to the pack.

I was having a great time marking any moves that attempted to bridge and really enjoying feeling like i was part of the race. that's a new development this year and an extremely welcome one. Of course i had an easy ride since teamate Spencer was off the front. I drafted the whole time. Eventually Joe recovered from his first trip off the front and got another gap on us and held it to the line for second place. Spencer won.

I decided to have a little fun and pulled the field for a quarter of the last lap. i knew there was no danger of us catching Joe or Spencer (Spencer almost lapped us) and i wanted to push myself. This effort led to me taking pretty much a last place of the field sprint.

But i didn't care.

It was fun.

X raced but there were only 3 of them. One girl was dropped after about 15 minutes so X and the other gal rode reasonably until the very end. X won, but barely (see pic below). It was a 8 corner flat crit and she attacked after corner 6. The last two corners were pretty strong head wind sections so she had to push hard. She lined up for my race 10 minutes later but got dropped after a few laps. No harm in that. i'm blaming it on spencer. the start of our race seemed wicked fast.

Now on to the Cozy Inn.

This place is awesome. It's 90 years old, has a total of 6 bar stools, and serves hamburger sliders with locally grown beef ground that day. It felt like sitting in history. If you're ever in Salina you have to stop there. The burgers were amazing and the place is totally unique.

It's nice to drive west on I70 for a change. 75 mph speed limit!

X's volvo has a bum sun roof so we used the garmin suction cup to hold it down and eliminate the noise. It was joe's idea.

Then Joe went one better and pulled out the duct tape so we could seal it from the outside. The noise was so awful and the car is so old that we didn't care about aesthetics.  Plus the roof racks hides it.

Colavita lovin, pre race.

X in action.

The fields were small but the course was waaay fun and there were payouts for pretty much every race. Plus they put the finish under this cross walk awning which gave it a legit feel. 

X's sprint finish. Looks like she one by about a wheel.

Post race, i'm the one who needs a shave.

Open race leaders.

And again.

And again, w/ salina statue.

Cozy Inn.

Opened in 1920 and i read this is the original grill.

Look how old those napkin holders are. So cool.

Speaks for itself.

Saw this guy while driving home. i'm sure he did the mountain bike race in Manhattan.  I wanted to do it but you cant be two places at once.

31 pictures from the Tour de Grove... w/ captions

Hey Gang,

It's been a while.

Last weekend X and i drove out to St Louis to race 2 of the 3 days at the Tour de Grove.

Here's way to many pictures of the weekend...

Quite brian living up to his nickname... and having trouble wearing a seat belt correctly.

Me post race on friday night. Thats the face of someone whose happy with their race.

Britton in the 2/3 race. Every time i saw him he was sitting top 10 and looking fresh. He had a great weekend.

A sign of maturity, bringing a home cooked and healthy meal to the race. Salmon, Quinoa, carrots, green beans. Some bring it, some dont.

X in the Pro 1 / 2 race. Her first crit race of the year was a shock to the system but she didn't do herself any favors by picking the Tour de Grove to start off. There were some fast women in that field.

Brad Huff wins the Pro 1 / 2 race and fellow Springfield native Xcelerator gets excited.

Bodie, he's a dog, he's cool.

It was a Cappuccino.

Day 2, awesome course, flat with lots of turns.

Stephen the mechanic. 

I love racing but i also love being done with my race and then riding around and taking photos. That's my bike in the grass.

Britton sitting towards the front again. I want that bike.

Lyles in the 2/3 race.

David bringing up the rear of the 2/3 race. 

Find a shady spot and eat some fruit.

The course offered numerous photo opp's.

see.

See the motorcycle up on the sidewalk on the right? I'm not sure what he was thinking but he had to go up there becsue he took the turn way to fast, one of the lead rides followed his line and then calmly hopped the curb, rode in the grass (right by me) and then got back in the front of the pack. He was a cool customer.

Post race, heart rate monitors are for wimps, Brian.

X helped to start a new women's team this year. Here she assists teamate Emily with some number pinning. I call this an action shot.

That's me in front of the Handlebar. It's a bar and grill in St. Louis.

Appropriate decor inside the Handlebar.

The sprint for Saturdays Pro 1 / 2 womens race. X skipped todays race.

Close up of the first 3 riders. The first gal is Laura Van Gilder. She's 47 and apparently kind of a big deal. Older people can be fast.

One of these men is an amazing sprinter and one of them is an amazing dresser, do you know which is which?

J-POW! 

Stickers.

The Grove is a pretty progressive neighborhood. 

A picture of me taken by me wearing a t-shirt of myself and posted on my blog. I'm pretty cool.

The pro 1 / 2 men.

A good picture to say goodbye with. Goodbye.

Pedaling to the Tuesday night crits... meeting spot for B race.

(i skipped the Joseph Sheehan Road Race this weekend, just so you know.)

Effective immediately... every Tuesday at 6pm sharp we will be departing via bicycle from the Black Dog Coffee House in Lenexa and pedaling to the Tuesday night crit. It's a 40 minute ride.

You should come with.

This ride is for the B race.

I actually wont be there every tuesday, but thats okay, im just trying to get the ball rolling. So show up, drink some coffee and ride your bicycle.

See you tonight!