What’s new? Not much. In one week we’ve had 3 newsworthy stories near our place: A fire on Morton Peak (a few houses burned down), a police stand-off around the corner & a dead body popped up in a field off of Sunset & Ford. You’d think I lived in the L.A. area with news like that. The good news is that the pool gets its virgin swim tonight. More bad news is that Denise has gone back to school, but the silver lining in that deal is that Ryder gets to spend his days with Cousin Alex. More good news is next Tuesday I’m doing a photo shoot with Mountain Bike Action. The bad news is they’ll probably make me wear some gay baggy Fox clothing instead of our team kit.
As far as racing goes, Brian Head went pretty well. I nearly made the main split on the opening 4-mile climb to Brian Head Peak. Actually, I was within inches of making the split, but then Barry Wicks blew by me, I jumped on his wheel & that acceleration was just enough to make me blow. Regardless, I finally found myself in fairly good company for much of the race. Some pretty stout dudes, like Wicks & Steve Larsen popped off on the opening climb before I did. Again, at least I was in good company. A weekend later, I did a stage race at Rim Nordic, in which the Hill Climb & Dirt Crit went well, but the actual XC race was a disaster. It was one of the great breakdowns of my lifetime.
Now the plan is to put in a serious CX effort. I’m dropping grams off my cross bike & McKovich has me in the gym building muscle for dismounts & barriers. My real motivation for racing cross is so I can see Ryder ring his new cowbell lap after agonizing lap. Ryder has a fever & the only cure is cowbell. He loves ringing it & I can’t get enough of him, so it’s a perfect situation. And I get to race my bike too.
That’s it. Here’s some photos.
Fact: 4 bike cases, gear bags, backpacks & passengers will not fit in a minivan or a Dodge Durango. You must upgrade to a Suburban.
Could they really mean, Phonak Staff Entrance?
I can check going to a Pogues show on my list of life-long goals. After nearly a decade of not playing in the U.S., with Shane on vocals, the boys from county hell finally buried the hatchet & sobered up long enough to make it to the west coast in October. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Shane's liver holds up until then. 
Someone else out there has the same Suffer tattoo as I do. What the hell?
I've been doing more of this kind of suffering these days.
