Street Player

Base training is just around the corner. This means making new training mixes for the mp3 player. I owe B-Matter the credit for the nick name "Street Player". I'm still not sure why but it seems to have stuck. Watch the video and tell me it's not sweet! A must on your up coming training rides.

Post San Fran

Sorry for the lack of posts from California, my laptops internet capabilities kinda died. The rest of the trip was pretty sweet. Walking through Chinatown during the Chinese New Year was almost epic, getting around at least. Another trip down to Fishermans Wharf to let Brendan check out a couple more ships and what not. Driving around just about all of downtown with Ben navigating from the passenger seat. "Oh I want you to turn left here " while I'm sitting in the middle lane. Lets just say a few traffic laws were broken that night. To broaden our food horizons we ate some REAL sushi, the way it's suppose to be prepared and taste. The sushi was on little boats that floated around the sitting area and you could grab whatever you wanted off the boats. We were planning on spending our last night out on the town but Ben wasn't feeling the greatest so we called it a night. We went home and watched "Triplets of Belleville" which was a pretty cool cartoon movie about cycling. All in all it was an awesome trip to relax and clear the mind before another semester of school.

I did manage to ride my bike while I was in Cali so I didn't feel like a complete slug. The plan was to wait for Ben to get done with work and go for a ride later in the evening but he started to feel sick. I suited up knowing I would be soaked by the time I got back even with a rain jacket. It was getting dark fast to keep things interesting too. I rode down the back side of the mountain and around the little national park to come close to 2 hours. Descending in the dark with a small HID light in the rain was actually a lot of fun once I got used to it. I have a video of the road I went down that I took the next day to give an idea of how sick the road is. Climbing back to Ben's crib was a lot easier than I thought it would be; I felt really smooth in my cadence and had a low HR most of the way. Core training seems to be paying off big time. I did manage to get a little lost on my way back in town which was fine by me. Riding up the front side of the mountain was a lot steeper and had more switchbacks to top off a sick ride. It's too bad we don't have climbs like that here in Wisco!

Now it's back to the Arctic weather here in Sheboygan and another semester of school. Hopefully we get some fresh snow soon so I can get in some quality skiing for Birkie training. Here's more pics from San Fran and Cali to remind us there is sunshine and warmer weather to come eventually.

Post Office in the middle of the woods on the backside of the mountain.

San Francisco Day 1

The awesome adventures of Bill and Brendan loose in San Francisco have begun! So far the trip has been “off the hook” in Cali terms. We barely made it to the airport after having to change cars last minute. To top off having to change cars we got pulled over for speeding on the way and let off with a warning. The flight in Milwaukee was delayed a half hour due to some maintenance issues leaving us with an even shorter layover time. We literally sprinted across 3 concourses in O’Hare and boarded the plane 3 minutes before they closed the doors. Waiting at the baggage claim had us worried for a little bit but our luggage made both flights to keep the streak alive.
The first thing you should do when you get to San Francisco is enjoy a bowl of chowder down on Fisherman’s Wharf.

Brendan and I spent the next couple hours checking out the wharf and all the museums around the area. The authentic chocolate waffle cone and ice cream from Ghirardelli’s was nothing short of stellar. Treasure Island and Berkley’s campus made for some pretty sweet sightseeing. AT&T Stadium (home of the Giants) was pretty cool to walk around, especially when the sun was finally starting to break through the rain covering the Bay Area. The entire Bay Area’s topography is a cyclists dream or nightmare depending upon how you look at it. Roads go from slightly rising to 20+ % in a matter of a couple feet. My friend Ben’s house is located in the “hills” of Oakland. I can’t wait to see what they call a mountain out here if a super tight switchback covering well over 1000 vertical feet is just a hill. I think I’m going to find out what I’m really made of when I go for a ride later today with Ben around the area. The camera has been getting a work out too so I’ll leave you with some of its work.

I’ll try to post again later tonight with more pictures and stories from day.

Falling into place

The last couple of days have been busy with a little bit of everything going on . Plans for 2009 have been coming along rather nicely, almost falling into place on there own. I managed to ski 4 times in a 5 day span. This may not sound like a lot but to me it was considering it included my first time out this season and my 2nd time skiing ever. Sliding around on two pieces of wood and fiberglass is starting to grow on me. I skied Saturday at Zillmer for the first time which was a little hilly but a blast. I checked out the race and clinic in Greenbush the next day to get some help with my technique too. It's amazing how far a lesson and a few pointers will go. Too bad the weather is bitter cold here in Wisconsin for the next couple days. I guess I'll have to settle for trainer time. The good news is I won't have to ride the trainer for too long, it's suppose to warm up again by weeks end.

Monday I was talking with Brian at the shop about his being selected for cyclocross worlds at the end of the month and some possible new sponsorship deals. He has a few things in the works and I remembered our old teammate in California who has made some really good contacts out there. I gave Ben a call to catch up and see if he knew anyone who could help the team out for the 2009 campaign. There is nothing set but a few more promising things in the works for 2009! He said Cali is great and I should come out and visit. Just for kicks I looked into flights out to San Francisco and found some pretty cheap flights right now. What better way to cap off a winter break then to spend some time in Cali in warm weather riding outside again? I'm going to Cali next week for a couple days!!!! I've never really traveled west before so California sounds like a good start. The idea of riding in short sleeves and shorts has me pretty jacked up right now. I'll leave you with a few pictures from skiing over the weekend.

Picture overlooking the kettles from the trails. Emily taking a little break at the top.

Picture of the sweet old school general store in New Prospect. They had everything!

Put me in coach

Sunday was my first time back on the bike in 3 weeks. It may not sound like a long time but to some it's a lifetime. I was growing rather restless not riding on two wheels and couldn't take it anymore. 3 weeks of next to no real activity left me feeling like I was on the bench all season. 2009 cross training is in full swing, I rode the rollers for an hour and a half to start things off right.

Along with training comes eating right. I had the privilege of eating some amazing home made Thai food right after with some new friends. I could get used to eating like that all the time. The entire group of people I ate with are signed up for some form or another of the Birkie in February. With all the talk of skiing and the Birke I picked up some skate skis from the shop to give it a whirl. Brian and myself went skiing Wednesday morning for about an hour to get used to the motions again. It was a little rough for the first lap till I got my legs under me. I actually felt pretty good the second lap and managed to keep it upright for the rest of the outing. I would say pretty good for my 3rd time skiing ever. I thought wearing a HR monitor might be kinda cool to get some numbers for my first time out skiing, lets just say some of the numbers were through the roof! Skiing could prove to be a better workout than I originally thought which is fine by me. I had enough fun to go out again later that night for another hour with the Nagodes and Doc Ries. I don't know if I'm going to take Doc's words of encouragement and do the full Birke but I might get stupid enough to do the Kortelopet. To top things off I'm not in a world of pain today, in fact I am only a little sore for skiing over 2 hours my first time out this year. Who know this Kortelopet thing might actually be doable.

Happy New Year

I would like to thank all my sponsors, family and friends who helped support me in my cycling and life endeavours this year. I wouldn't have been able to accomplish the things that I have with out your help!

Here's to the off season, 2009 and a happy new year! Cheers

Cross Nationals

I forgot how much fun collegiate racing could be until last weekend in Kansas City. Although my result wasn't quite what I was hoping for I still had a blast trying. It was the perfect way to end a long season.

A couple stops for gas and lots of Iowa country side in the middle of the night makes for a pretty uneventful drive down. I rolled into Kansas City around 7am Saturday morning just in time for the sun to come up. Took a quick nap in the car before some breakfast and checking out the course. The venue looked pretty good with a little bit of mud, some technical turns to keep things interesting and a gradual climb across the back of the course leading to the run up. I watched a race or two before finally getting on the open course at noon for some warm-up laps. I managed to score (free) some sweet new Challenge Grifo tires with the help of an old teammate Patty from the Planet Bike team. I was pretty pumped and decided to run them for my race. Everything looked good and felt dialed so it was off to the hotel to relax until the big race.

You know it's windy outside when it wakes you up the next morning. The good news was it was windy but warm out side, upwards of 65 degrees that morning. I knew I packed my sandal for a reason; one last chance to wear them this year outside.

I should have known the whole sandal thing was too good to be true! Just getting back from a little spin is when the cold front took away my joy of warmth and reminded me it was cross season and mid December. In a matter of a couple minutes it went from 65 to 30 something. I wish I had a video of all the people scrambling in the parking lot diving into their bags to find knee warmers and thermal jackets. I felt bad for the collegiate women; they were standing on the start grid when the front hit so no one had a chance to change into warmer cloths.

Starting in the second row is awesome. Pissing away a second row start is not so much. I shouldn't have been surprised when just about everyone was bashing and chopping wheels on every corner for the first lap. Let's just say I wasted a stellar call up position and found myself pretty far back by the half way point of the first lap. I did my best to claw my way back up to the front but the leaders were already long gone. It took a lap or two but I got settled into a rhythm and started to pick people off one by one. The cold front was bringing the possibility of rain and snow so I let some air out of my tires in anticipation on the start grid. No bananas on the rain or snow left me riding too soft in the rear. It's rather frustrating knowing you are capable of going quite a bit faster on the entire course and rallying every corner but not being able to because you might roll a tire. I pushed my luck as much as possible on every corner and thought I was going down a couple times but I kept it up. With 4 laps to go I found myself in no mans land with no one in sight ahead or behind me. Something was wrong at this point as I felt like I was riding in a bog and everything was rather sluggish. I debated with myself every time I came close to the pits about grabbing a different rear wheel but decided not to with the fear of being caught. The lap cards slowly turned over one by one as I keep riding as fast as possible. I tried to catch the guy in front of me and came close a couple times but ended up getting gaped out of every technical corner. I ended up finishing in 38th place on the day; short of my goal of a top 25. Although I didn't make my goal I had fun trying. It wasn't until after the race that I noticed what my part of my sluggish feeling was caused by. My rear tire had about 2 inches of the bead come out of the rim and created a small bulge that my brake was rubbing against every turn. I'm not saying they were bad tires, in fact the tires were awesome and felt really good when they had the right amount of air in them. I'm sure if they were some cheap injected molded tires and not quality tires that are hand made they would have surely rolled off. This goes to show you should thoroughly test your new equipment before racing it.

Just because my race season was officially over doesn't mean everyone Else's was. I put on some warm cloths and watched the elite mens race to cap off an awesome season. I was a little disappointed in the super fan turnout, but the few that did were impressive. Running around crazy with next to nothing on in 20 degrees with biting winds is super fan worthy if you ask me.

Honestly, one of the best races I have ever watched. There was always something going on in the race and not just at the front either. I was kinda bummed I wasn't in there racing with them for a little bit after racing with most of them at some point or another this cross season. It was pretty amazing to watch some of our nations young talent duke it out with the best of the best. Mad props to Jamie Driscoll and Jesse Anthony, they'll surely be wearing the stars and stripes jersey in the years coming.

Trebon killing it.

Wells and Page duking it out

Ryan and Jamie at the finish.

FYI: Cross season isn't over yet! Don't forget about Matter who's racing in Europe for at least two more weeks.

What now? I'm thinking I'm going to try skate skiing again this winter along with hopefully learning to either snowboard or downhill ski. Anyone want to teach me? I'd be a fool not to try learning some form of winter sport with over a 18 inches of snow on the ground already and more coming this week. It'll surely be a white Christmas. Happy holidays!