Greatest Honor of My Life

I've had a lot of good things happen to me in my life. Some of them I've worked for, some of them I've just gotten lucky, and some of them I've worked really really hard for. However, the highest honor I have ever received in my life came in an unlikely form this week.

Check it out here:

I wasn't sure how to respond. At first I was just going to make a witty comment about how the only way to beat Ted was to hire a cute girl to shmooze on him and cut his hair while he was passed out after one of his epic rides (yes that was a bible reference), or putting ex-lax in his Carbo Rocket (which after dealing with the GI issues I've dealt with probably wouldn't even slow me down that much) or something along those lines.

But then I realized I was whole heartedly honored by that blog post. I've never been so flattered in my life. Not even receiving the ever so prestigious Rogers High School class of 2000 "Sports Person of the Year" award can compare to this. To have someone I respect and look up to go through the time and energy to put a circle with a cross through it on a picture of me as motivation is about as flattering as it gets.

I think its finally a sign that I've made it in the cycling world. I can retire for real now.

And so, Rick, with the rest of the season ahead of us, its on. Maybe Kenny and Dan Z. will even start showing up to dance.

Just watch out for Ted Ferguson on his Sir9. You might think he's fast. But "yeah, well that's your opinion"

Winter/Spring Update

Well, its that time again. Its been a month or two, so it must be time to update the blog. Especially after getting called out by The KC Holley for not updating it.

First off, the retirement thing didn't last too long. I figured that between trying to get into a PhD program and dating a girl I wouldn't have time to train or race. So I retired. Well I didn't get into any grad schools and the girl turned out to be crazy (yes, she dumped me). So here I am. Right back where I started. Right where I've been the last 3 years of my life. In school. No direction. In love with riding bikes.

Apparently the 2 months off the bike didn't hurt too much. I came off last winter with well over 200 hours of base mileage ride time, but don't feel a whole lot slower this spring with a whopping total of 85 miles over the entire month of January. We'll see how this plays out once the later season endurance races start. I had relented to the fact that I would more than likely only be able to ride the Breck 68 this year, foregoing the more manly and much more expensive Breck 100 option. However, after becoming single and not getting into grad school this time around I found some extra time. And thanks to TurboTax for optimizing my return, I found some extra cash.

So back in the saddle it is.

I've been digging on the single speed lately. Mostly because my geared bike started crapping out on me, and I didn't feel like dishing out the monster cash to replace all my XX parts. So I went back to my roots and started riding the SIR9. Not a bad bike. Not bad at all. Granted even with a rigid fork it weighs as much as my front suspensioned Air9...but hey, weight isn't everything. And the best part is that single speed races are only an hour long. So nothing really even matters anyway. I mean if B. Tolbert can ride a full suspension single speed anything goes, right?


Well, back to "working on the thesis". I'll post some race updates soon enough.