It may snow in Belgium, horray!

As you, my faithful readers may remember, our friend Justin Lindine is racing cyclocross in Belgium as part of the Euro Cross Camp. The Fin "suggested" that I set up a blog for him so that we could just link to him; but after a lot of delays on my part I finally got it set up. However, the Flemmish internet provider automatically translated everything into Dutch. Awkward. So, without further delay, here is the latest from Justin:


So it’s been a few days since the last update. I’d say a lot transpired, but in reality a good bit of it has been down time. Which is good because everyone, myself included, were beginning to look a little ragged around the edges with racing and travel. So after Loenhout we had theoretically two days until the next race in Baal. This meant that Wednesday was pretty much spent as a rest day. An opportunity to get the bikes running smoothly again, do some laundry and some grocery shopping and shop around for some choice Belgian gifts for our families. And then, the highlight of the day, a trip to the bowling alley for an inter-team competition.

So let me be the first to say that cyclists should pretty much stick to cycling. There is a reason that we are good at what we do and it does not, as a general rule of thumb (at least in my experience) relate very well to other sports, games or hobbies. The only thing that caries over is the intensity and competitive drive, no matter how misguided. So let me paint this picture for you: seventeen skinny dorks drinking a smattering of cokes (and some waters) in the midst of a relatively small town bowling alley surrounded by a mix of Belgian club team bowlers and families with little kids. Most of who by the way are bowling better then us; and I mean the little kids, not the club guys. In any case, despite out ineptitude and the fact that the highest score of our group was a 140, we had a pretty good time and managed to liven up an otherwise sedated Wednesday evening at the bowling alley. Go team USA!

Thursday was a transition day if you will. For the guys that were planning on racing the next day in Baal it was openers and rest. For those that weren’t it was a longer training day. For me it was decision-making morning. I had initially intended to race the last three days of camp in a row doing Baal, St. Niklass, and then one other that I don’t know how to spell right this second and don’t have the name in front of me. Suffice it to say it’s in Holland somewhere. Anyway, the case was raised that this plan was slightly ambitious. And that Baal would probably be the muddiest, most power intensive course in the camp. So I was left with a debate going on in my head. One side of me was sore, tired and of the mindset that I would benefit from one more day of training. On the other hand, I came here to race and there was a race to go to, and wouldn’t I be letting myself down if I didn’t race?

Sigh…Such are the debates cyclists are always having with themselves. A never-ending series of inner debates ranging from what or what not to eat to racing schedule. After several cups of coffee I finally decided that it might be in my best interest and in the interest of results to take the one more day and then race the last two days of camp instead. After finally making the call on this front, I had the relief of having made a decision and the anxiety of now wondering what to do with my training for the day.

Luckily, this one didn’t take long. We set off for a foreign country. Four American conquistadors on a pilgrimage to cycling Mecca. We were going to Roubaix. Like all great quests, this one was fraught with problems from the beginning. First off we didn’t, between the four of us, speak either of the languages we would be encountering on this ride. Second, we didn’t really know where we were going. And last, but not least, it was raining and intermittently sleeting with a roar of a head wind and dark gray clouds moving quickly over the uninterrupted fields of Belgium.

No problem. The folded map went in my pocket, the rain capes came out, and away we went each of us (or at least myself) narrating in my head the story of how we were emulating out heroic hardmen of the cobbled classics unconcerned with things as trivial as the elements in our quest for glory on the velodrome of Robaix. So it was cold. And wet. But we soldiered on and after some fumbled direction getting from a French speaking Belgian that required the use of a lot of hand symbols and head nodding, and only one altercation with a motorist despite riding on some busy suburban streets (and after the car cut us off and we yelled our newly learned “hofferdoma!” or what the hell in Flemish, and the people on the sidewalk agreed and also yelled at the car), we rolled up to the hallowed gates of cycledom. Making the right hand turn into the sports complex that houses the Roubaix velodrome was akin to a spiritual moment.

I may be biased, and a self admitted bike geek, but as a racer it’s not easy to avoid the goose bumps that creep up the back of your neck and arms thinking of all the greats who have made this same turn to the roar of a stadium of waiting fans. The track may have been closed, and the bleacher empty when we got there, but all of us stood at the gates taking the obligatory pictures and not having to strain our imaginations very hard to hear the cheers and smell the beer and wish for nothing more then to hoist a giant cobble over our heads in victory. For nothing more then the best.

After another rest day/openers Saturday, today, was St. Niklaas. After two days of more frigid temperatures the mud that had racked our racing and especially Baal (which, by the way, I’m really kind of glad I didn’t do) had frozen pretty solid and the course in Baal was fast. As the day warmed slightly under a hazy sun the top layer of frozen mud loosened up a bit and the turns became increasingly greasy and would even more so as the race progressed. I had a pretty good call up-third row- and was on my way to having a good start when the cluster f began. Three turns into the course someone goes down. I dive to the right inside of the turn to avoid the bodies along with some oversized (read tall) euro. When we bump shoulders, he decides that the thing to do is punch me and nock me off the bike. Only then the asshole (excuse the French) has to put a foot down anyway to avoid the crash. And then he takes that opportunity to look directly at me and then use his heel to taco my front wheel.

That’s right…you read that right. The SOB deliberately put his foot through my front wheel. WTF! Anyhow after a little exchange where I was less then polite I remounted luckily able to get the wheel to spin cleanly and make my way to the pit. The good news is I didn’t lose more then a few spots. The bad news, because it was the first lap and no one thought I would be pitting yet, my bike was not out in the pit lane. Commence the standing and waiting while the whole field passes by. Ok…this is not a problem. I rally. I chase so, so hard. I catch groups and blow by them without pausing. I am actually, for once having a really good race. I catch no less then 25 people. Unfortunately when your coming from the 60’s an hour is just not long enough. I end up 31st.

And despite the drama, and the bad luck, I am happy with my race. Without the whole wheel debacle I am confident I would have been inside the top 25. I felt really good on the bike. The course was a perfect mix of twisty slightly sloppy fast rolling fun. There was minimal running and even some single track. Pretty sweet. Oh, and one bit of European trivia…barriers are way less cool over here. Out of all the races I’ve done so far I’ve only encountered one set of double barriers. I love it. Muddy run ups, tricky off cambers and stairs are a way cooler way to integrate the dismounting into cyclocross. I don’t know why everyone feels like we have to have to have barriers all the time, but clearly it’s not necessary, and I for one wouldn’t miss them all that much. But enough of my diatribe against barriers. I am just short legged and probably biased.

Tomorrow is another day, another race, and the conditions might just be epic. There is a forecast of snow and 6 below Celsius. Awesome. Out on a bang. I’ll let you all know how it goes. Wish me luck. Justin

Aggression versus aggressive

Happy new year to everyone. My faithful readers will know that we have been putting up some notes from Justin in Belgium. I had the pleasure of talking to him yesterday on Skype.

First, let me digress by saying that this Skype is the coolest thing ever. We talked to each other over the internet for free using our mics and headsets. I am not allowed to use a webcam anymore, or go near a Chuck E Cheese, but that is a completely other blog!

Anyhow, one of the things that Justin and I discussed was how aggressive and hard core the racing is over there. With head banging and arm grabbing at every corner, the competition is fierce at all times. He said the battle for 40th was as intense as the fight for the lead! You see, cycling is a big deal over there. These guys are heros; there are kids who know more about racing than the racers themselves. They charge admission of 10e to get into a cyclocross race. When was the last time there were spectators at a 'cross race that were not either related to the athletes or had already raced themselves that same day? Intense.

But, the question comes to my mind about what if racing was intense on this side of the pond? You see, over here we all almost know each other by our first names. In particular in the masters races, we have been together for 20 years or more. So, when in the fields or courses, we say "excuse me" or "hey Matt, let me by!"; as opposed to just pushing our way around.

Cyclocross might not be that big of a deal. The ground is a soft, and speeds slow enough that a touch of wheels that creates a fall might not do any damage. But we all have a friend (you know who you are) that gets accused of racing too hard. What? Are you crazy? He is trying to win! And usually does! My answer to those guys are that they shouldn't have been in his way in the first place, OR, go faster and dont let him by you!

So, what about on the road? Sure, here the courses sometimes select themselves and with a longer time to move about the pack, you are seldomn left out of place. But have you ever watched the europeans race? How about the 20k leading up to Troisville in Paris-Roubaix? Yikes, those guys are serious. And they are also professional; so they are not going to do anything that will get them or their teammates hurt, but at the same time, they have a job to do.

Now, I am not condoning a more physical race. Heck, we simply can't race "gutter to gutter" here in the States because of that pesky yellow line rule thing. But at the same time, you have to "be in it to win it". Unfortunately, my good friend Aki was hurt last summer by a guy with a bad reputation for aggressive sprinting. This is not what I meant. Don't be so crazy that you or worse, someone else who we all respect gets hurt.

I mean: when you are coming to that steep hill at the Capital Region Road Race, you had better be at the front, or it is game over. You might have to eat some wind, but hey, either that or turn around.

I mean: if you have to sprint up the left and dig deep for 400m towards the end of criterium in order to be ready for the finale, then prepare for that.

I mean: when I describe my workouts to clients as if you were Tyler Durden "I want you to hit me as hard as you can..." then you better go hard and be aggressive when you train so that it translates cleanly on race day.

I don't mean: be a jerk and knock people down. Train right, don't resort to aggression.

I also don't mean: follow the famous guy around all day or the other guy that won last year. That is just a waste of an entry fee. Use the aggressive tactic and go for the score.

This is a subject that I know we will discuss a lot this year. I like to try to win races off the front or at least at the pointy end of the stick. Not only is it easier to predict the results, but it is easier for the girls to pick you out in the crowd!

Always train like you race. I am super excited for the upcoming season, and I am sure you are too!

And the hits just keep coming: more updates from Justin in Belgium

Our friend Justin Lindine is still in Belgium as part of the Euro Cross Camp. Until I get around to setting up his own blog, we are copying a few of his emails over for all of you to see.


It was a nightmare stop and go roller coaster before we even got to the race. I couldn’t tell if the surges in traffic were making me more or less nauseous then the radio “Donna” mix of incredibly bad American pop with Belgian techno-esque noise. In either case those of us in the back seat were rapidly reaching terminal sick state accompanied by the desperate need to pee. Great.

Step one after arriving at the venue was to miss the access to our parking zone. Step two was to use the facilities between a team sprinter van and some nice Belgian persons shrubbery. Ahh… After that desperate evacuation of fluid and some much needed fresh air there was the question of this whole race thing we were supposed to be getting ready for. The weather was pretty atrocious…I mean, nice typical Belgian weather. In other words it was 2 degrees Celsius and raining. It doesn’t take a degree in soil science to guess that rain, plus bike racers plus a farmer’s field equals all sort of pasty, peanut-buttery mud. Sweet! Because really, my bike has not had enough beat into it over the last couple of days. Sigh.

Morale in Camp USA was not what you would call “high” upon arrival. There were shivering U23 riders milling around, waiting for their ride home. Unfortunately their race was still being called in the distance. Me and my two other “profs” (Troy and Brian) sat in the warming van after riding our one course recon lap pondering the deeper questions of motivation and purpose in addition to line choice, dismount or ride, and some just general complaining about how hard it was going to suck to slog through a tractor pull of mud for an hour. Our musings did nothing to change the weather or the course however, and soon it was time to ride the trainers and do something of a warm up.

The course at Loenhout is nothing if not a really good example of an inventive use of open featureless space. When I say that a lot of it is just a farm field, I’m not kidding. But through the magic of design and a lot of sponsorship dollars, out of this field rise multiple flyovers, and a pump-track like whoop section (if you think this sounds like fun, go to your local BMX track, put 20lbs of air in the tires of your cross bike and try it out: it’s terrifying at high speed, and I like pump tracks). Once again I was amazed at the crowds at these races. I mean, who wants to come out on a day like this: sane animals are hibernating or migrating right about now. But despite this there were thousands upon thousands of Belgians making their way into the rainy wetness of some random field to watch us accomplish what a tractor and a plow would in about half the time. As I made my way around the course trying not to look like a flailing idiot too much of the time, I rode through clouds of cigar and cigarette smoke so thick I could almost taste it. This is racing. This is awesome. I’m riding well. I’m being lapped by Sven Nys. Sigh.

It took forever to figure out how to get back to the car. I was cold, dejected and not wanting to stare into the faces of a public so excited by this sport. “How many fences are there in this place?” “Where the hell am I?” But in reality the people were polite and eventually, after me looking dazed and confused for long enough, gave me directions back to town and the parking lot. It’s amazing how you can ride so many laps around a labyrinthine course without having any understanding of where it actually goes. So now we were back in the van, piling wet muddy clothes into bags to deal with later. Another day in the books and still not much of a result to speak of. Troy managed a pretty solid result riding in with a group containing mountain biking icon Jose Hermidia for 30th. Not too shabby.

The rest of us, or at least myself, spent the van ride back thankfully a little less motion sick albeit a little more reflective. As I sit staring out the window at the Belgian countryside passing by I’m already thinking about the next race, and the bike maintenance I have to try and get done in the next couple of days, and what I’ve learned here that I can take with me into next season and beyond. It’s been a humbling day for a lot of us to be sure, but I know that at least for myself, I’m trying to soak in as much experience as the Belgian mud soaks in the rain….tomorrow is another day.

Update from Justin Lindine in Belgium

As some of you may remember, our friend Justin Lindine is in Belgium at the Euro Cross Camp. We will be putting up some of his updates until we get him set as a writer. Thank you for all of your support to help get him there!


Today was the first race day of the camp. It was a relatively small race in the town of Middelkerke which is on the northern coast of Belgium. From what I was told it is a race normally decided by strong coastal winds and sand. Today however was a little bit of a different story. It was very cold, as it has been for the past week or so here, and the snow that the area received was still in place on the course. By the time we raced it was a treacherous mix of snow and one "good" muddy line through it all. That being said the course could have been fun, with some wide open sections, a nasty run-up and some fast 180's, along with a good amount of spectators for a smaller race.

However, this is where my personal story goes awry. It was race day and my bikes still weren't here. To say I'm a little stressed out may be understatement. Fortunately, I was able to borrow the loaner bike that the camp has to race on. Unfortunately, the bike is a good four sizes too big, the rear shifter sort of sometimes works, and I had to use some borrowed pedals because as you might guess, they are in my bike case as well. Now, I don't like to make trivial excuses for bad rides, and a good rider can make a bad bike work. But, it definitely didn't add to a day where I might not have felt that good anyway. So as I sprinted off the start line with my sweet second row call up (right behind f'ing Sven Nys!) I struggled to make my shifter go through the gears, and sat more or less on the top tube (with the bars higher then my now slammed seat).

Long story short, it wasn't the best race I've ever had, and I wound up getting lapped which is not great. Hopefully it was at least worth the effort and a blowing out of the legs will do me good come the world cup in Zolder this weekend. Hopefully as well, my bikes will make it here tomorrow and I can get out a bit and check out the countryside. I'll keep you all posted....with what I am expecting to be improving news.

Justin Lindine

Nationals in Bend, OR by Roger

Nationals

Like I said I would write what happened in Bend on the way home, well I did, but never finished the story due to a red eye flight.
We got to Bend on Wednesday night and got settled at the La Quinta hotel, which was a very nice place to stay for a bike racer. Big rooms, tasty waffles for breakfast and a friendly maintenance guy who let as work on our bike in the “ boiler room”. The only problem was the 9-degree weather!
It was a long day and we need to eat, so Ralf and me took Matt Spinks advice to look for a restaurant call Pastini. It was very weird, a year ago we did the Nationals in Kansas City and we ate at a little fancy shopping center that looked identical to this one where Pastini was. The food was pretty good, so yes we ate there the next 3 nights; I guess that is pretty weird too according to Kyle, perfectly fine with me!
Kyle and Justin made it there that night as well after driving from RI with all the bikes. It sounded like they went thru hell getting there with a little pressure time wise, since we all were supposed to start riding the course on Thursday and Richard Sachs had his race on the first day. With the 3-hour time difference from home, now it was really late, but at the same time I did not want adjust to it either. My race is 9.30 am on Sat, so actually at 12.30 our time which would workout well since we are used to race at that time back home all the time.

Thursday morning, cold as hell! We get the bikes ready and head Wal-Mart to get some toe and hand warmers. Felt like we were going ice fishing or something, got a thermos and some socks as well! Then to the venue, it was squeezed into a small some sort of a warehouse parking lot. What else would you expect for the Nationals? The course is covered in ice and snow, super short and narrow and twisty with a million turns. It also has a set of stairs with 22 or 23 steps, very Euro! The hour that was available for pre-riding was like a balancing act, there was about 2000 people on it and only a few new how to ride on the snow ice, so we definitely got a good look at the course going 2 mph around it a few times. There were a million different races going on all day, every day, categories I never heard of. What is a B-race under 29 years?? Time goes quick we rode back to the hotel on roads covered with slush, sand and ice. Thursday and Friday was identical; wake up, waffles, Wal-Mart, ride the rush hour or gridlock on the course which they extended every day, clean the bikes, Pastini and then to bed @ 9.00 pm.

The real excitement on Friday was the 45-49 age group race with one of our clients, Ralf Warmuth starting on the front row with a good chance of finishing on the podium. Ralf has trained almost specifically for this event all year; he more or less put all the eggs in one basket to put his goals in perspective. Our good friend Jon Bold was in that race as well and between these two guys they probably made this race the most exciting to watch all weekend. Jon battled for the win after moving up from 45th spot at one point to the lead with James Coats. An epic battle all the way to the end, just like we race in New England every weekend and think that was to Jon’s advantage. JB wins and Ralf is in 3rd place one lap to go, gets stuck behind a lapped rider (that was supposed to get pulled???) and Noble slips by, a little bobble on the barriers and it costs Ralf his 3rd spot. 3rd or 4th is still a phenomenal performance by the German and I was really excited for both of them and a good start to the weekend. In addition to these guys an other East Coaster, Paul Curly had won the day before in he 55-59 category.

Race day; I felt good! We got to the course nice and early and I started to ride the course to test out some tires, did 4 laps on 4 different tires, file thread it is! The funny thing is that I had about 6 sets of different wheels with me, but Jon Bold offered me his Dugast file threads on a nice light Reynolds wheel, a very special tire, so that was no brainier at all. A very nice gesture from our new National Champion to offer that to a fears competitor all year, I would have done the same for that matter though.

Kevin Hines was up first (8.30 am start). Tillford was there, but did not line up, so I already new who was going to be the first FinKraft client to win the Nationals before the gun went off. Kevin races with me and Jon all year and I do not know any other 50 plus guys that are actually beating us occasionally, so as long as he stays up right and does not break anything on the ice he will have the stars and stripes at the end of the day. Kevin got a good start and just rode his own race and there was nobody even near him. He crashes a few times, but it did not matter this was probably the most dominant win all weekend. Great job, it has been such a pleasure to work with Kevin and Ralf and for them to have such good results is just outstanding.
Then it was my turn, I got a good warm up on the course testing out all those tires and then on the trainer while Kevin raced, so I was ready .It is great to get the first call up, but standing there for about 15-20 min waiting for the rest of the 190 guys to get lined up is not. It was not too cold so, not bad.

I manage to pull off the dream start ( hole shoot), I knew the start was critical and getting to the 180 turn would be important and then have less guys to deal with on the ice. The first lap went well, I think I was second up the stairs, but then for some reason I started to get passed on the really slick parts by a few guys, no attacks they just kind of rolled by. I had a small crash in the turn before the stairs, but nothing critical. Now am in like 10th spot and there are a group of slower riders in front of me, but not being able to pass at too many places my race was over, almost lost the fire to race and it felt like I was just riding around without really pushing myself. A very mediocre race for me, disappointing, but on the other hand this as one race out of 20 something cross races and a ton of road racing this year. I had a great season and not many disappointments at all which is unusual in bike racing. I went back to the hotel, took a shower and packed up, I was actually relieved it was over, I was tired and did not want think about a bicycle for a little while. Ralf and I went back to he venue and watched the U-23 race and then the 35-39 age group right after. Kyle and Justin had already pretty much packed up the bikes for the guys who were done racing and the million wheels we had, I have to say if it was not for Kyle and Justin, this trip would have been a lot more painful, thanks guys!
The drive back to Portland was interesting; a little snowstorm going over Mt Hood made the roads pretty traitorous. We made it and after returning the rental car, we were back at the airport. I change my flight to the red eye one , no breaks by the Continental people , they charge me a nice $ 150 and gave me some attitude to go with it. It was either that or stay another night in a hotel and pay for a baby sitter back home. Now we had some time to kill, so a couple of beers (Belgian) and a greasy burger were perfect after not eaten much all day. I think this might have been one of the best moments of the trip. Red eye flight back home, not much sleep, but glad to be back home!

A long story, I hope you are not bored to death reading it , the weather is crappy now , so there are nothing else to do anyway. Read blogs and watch YouTube , before you know it is back to racing !

Thanks

Roger

Summing it all up by Roger

I am on a plane to Portland, OR sitting next to the German. (Ralf) The bikes are in Wyoming by now if not even further by now. Hell of a trip for everybody with bad weather and lot of stuff to move across the country for a 45 min race. A normal beer dinking and cigarette smoking Joe would say this is insanity! I agree, what was even more insane was the New England Verge series consisting of 14 races all over the place.
I could have driven back and forth to Bend, OR three times with the amount of miles I racked up going to all those races chasing the over all series win.

I never even unpacked a lot of times; it was just wash what was covered with mud, clean the bikes and make a trip to the bike store and rebuild the headsets and bottom brackets. I did my best to keeping thing organized and still do my job coaching and riding with clients in addition to try to do some training and recovering myself.

The New England series or the “Masters World cup” like I call it. The competition makes this CX series the best in the country. Everybody has their ups and downs in a stretch of 14 races for sure and if you are not ON one weekend you better hope you finish in the top 10 and still get some points. The coverage on the various web sites all tells how it goes down each weekend , so you all know the stories by now. Some courses and weather conditions suit some riders better and from Sep to Dec Mother Nature will throw everything possible at you guaranteed. Every venue has double race weekends and that also affects the results sometimes, it is extremely hard to have 2 perfect races back to back. I think I was the only one who won both races one weekend (Vermont).

Well it went right down to the wire; I was leading by 10 points going into the last 2 races in Warwick, RI. I always feel like I am on the enemy’s territory in New England, even though we are all friends and I even coach a few guys there. I am the guy to beat, no matter if I am winning or just fighting for a placing. Well it is no different to me either, I am there to beat them any chance I get, it does not matter if it is on the road or in cross.
I drove up the night before with the trailer in tow, since everybody who were going to the Nationals were going to be at this race and Kyle was going to take of for Bend, OR right after the Sunday race.
We raced hard again, Jon Bold was in control and I was hanging on for dear life to preserve my lead. I was close on Sat 5 sec off the whole race, but I did not feel like the same guy I was in Vermont 3 months ago. Sunday was even worse, lower back tightens up 1 lap to go and then it was game over, oh well! I won 5 races and Jon won 6, that was all it took to loose the series by 10 points. It is really hard to get to the top, but once you get there it does not become any easier, that is when the struggle starts to stay there. The last 2-3 weeks was a tuff period of time trying to stay motivated, recover and do the right kind of training for the fitness to stay at least the same or keep rising to yet another level.
I was winning races in March and had super form all throughout the summer with some really hard road races at the Pro 1 2 level, so when I am not beating the master’s field in cross by a mile, something is going on ! Maybe tired????

Great season though, won a USGP race and 3 Mac races as well plus a lot of 2nd places (first looser) so no complaints. My wife has been super supportive, it is not easy with baby sitters and me being on the road every weekend. She works hard at her real job as a nurse and then works for FinKraft (as hard if not even harder) on her days off besides being a mom. To be a girlfriend or wife to a cyclist or any other elite athlete for that matter takes a lot. I grew up doing this stuff, but for some one to jump into a life like this with no racing life background it is probably the hardest thing to adapt for someone and really puts a relationship to the test. A topic I will write more about another time in the off-season, a very important part of racing that every single athlete experiences.

The bikes (Ridley) were fantastic and all the tires (Challenge and Dugast) and wheels (mostly Zipp and Mavic) never let me down either. The super flashy National Champ Kit by Verge stood out and drew a lot of attention for sure. All the other things that Mark @ Westwood Cycle supplied me with like gloves for example (a whole bag full) and the service and the 12 tires( did not roll one) Allan glued this fall for me is irreplaceable in racing at this level. Sports Balm, Uvex and Country Choice Organic products is what gave me that extra boost each week to do better and win. This is something we all should think about, if someone gives you something for free or even a discount on a product that helps you in any way doing what you love (racing). When the gun goes off, race a little extra hard and show that the support means a lot to you. This is sometimes the only way of giving back besides saying thank you!

The plane landed (finally), we are in Portland and it is 25 degrees! A 3 hour drive over Mt Hood and we should be in Bend, 14 hours later since leaving my house in NJ. I will write what happens in Bend (if anything) on the way back , I hope Kyle and Justin are getting close as well , we will need the bikes to race !

Thanks for reading,

Roger

Now they call you Prince Charming...

I cannot even imagine what the inside of my car must smell like to "outsiders". I have to be used to it by now.

First, to say that I am over-caffinated would be a slight to moderate understatement. So there is some gurgling there.

Then, all of the "elite" bikes were put away without being washed, so there is that 4 day old mud thing starting to build up.

I am pretty sure that Justin left some of his Grandmothers swiss cheese in the passenger door pocket back in Boise.

I am also pretty sure that Boldy did NOT wash his national championship winning skinsuit before he put it in his bag and then stacked that bag directly behind me in the back seat.

I cannot remember the last time I did laundry. Or even bothered to change clothes into clean laundry, for that matter. Hey, out of site, out of mind.

Last but not least, there is a teeny tiny bit of flop sweat left over from that fog thing in Utah.

So, for all of you, my faithful readers, scratch the computer screen and sniff. Yikes.

A few passing thoughts: Cleveland does not rock. Why do some trucks have fancy lights and others none at all? JB: thanks for the messages Champ.

Training tip: wash your kits in cold with a little oxy-clean.