So here in BC where it is a sunny 80 degrees 365!  Well according to me at least, but I am told it rains here sometimes.  After a nice off day of hanging in Yaletown in downtown BC and then hitting the beach, I was back on it today for a solid 5′er.  I rode out to Ave 0 which is pretty much the boarder between the USA and British Colexico.  On one side of the ditch is Ave 0 and on the other is Washington State Hwy 596.  It is funny to see a guy riding the other way on your right in another country, but the road is beautiful and had some amazing scenery of MT Baker.  And the weather…in a word…PERFECT.

So tomorrow is the famous Gastown crit.  Big crowds.  Big money.  Usually, we go out a bit after, but this year we race again on Thursday so I think no party part for me.  Need those multi colored Canadian backs in the wallet.

Ok now the business, I know Mike “I am not a Pro any more” Jones told everyone I was putting a team together, but he was kidding.  I am not putting a team together.  I would like to direct a team next year, but I am not making any kind of personnel decisions for any team.

Havoc

This week post brought to you by race officials who get the results wrong and won’t let guys race if their fines have not been paid.

So, I have made a trek north, first starting with a visit to the Herriott Sports Performance center in Seattle and then on to BC, Canada for BC Superweek.  My wife accompanied me to Seattle to check out Todd Herriott’s place 2.0.  Todd is my coach and his facility is pretty cool.  Seattle was about as beautiful as possible which was in sharp contrast to home where is was 110 degrees and so smokey that the state declared the city unhealthy to all groups.  While in Seattle, Todd was kind enough to include me in a fun filled evening at the Foo Fighters concert.  To sum it up, they kicked ass and they did it for a good 3 hrs.  Yea, 3 hours of rocking out.  Their drummer is sick and ridiculous.  We also went to dinner at about the best Italian place I have ever been to in West Seattle.  I had a seafood and black pasta dish that was the best I have ever tasted.  After two days sans Brody, which was a first where both me and the wife were not with him, I headed out to BC; the town of Delta to be exact.

So here I am staying with a friend that Gord introduced me to my first time up here.  His name is Jamie and he has a wonderful family and always makes me feel right at home.  I am using this trip as a racing/training trip.  After my week off I need to log some good mileage to prep for the end of the season, so I have been riding about 4 hrs in the am and racing in the pm.  The first race was the Tour of Delta and this year they changed things up a bit with a 3 km prologue.  I did not bring any aerodynamic equipment so I went Merckx style.  I needed aerodynamic equipment.  Next was the crit which was dominated by the only fully equipped team here: Symetrics.  I tried to save it for the sprint, but I kept having to crush across to breaks to keep myself in the hunt.  In the end 3 guys got away, 2 Symetrics and 1 of the Jittery guys, and I ended up 3rd in the bunch kick.  Not great, but I am alone and that is how it goes sometimes.  Finally was the road race which is on a pretty tough course with a finishing circuit that has a nice 5oo meter wall in it.  I again planned on saving it all for the finish and I did a pretty good job too…until mr. cat 2 blue guy came full tilt into the last corner.  I was perfectly placed on the Symetrics train, and I am not sure I would have won, but top 3 was well in hand.  Then mr. blue cat 3 guy came into the downhill, tight final corner way, way, way, way, way to fast for his or my good.  He was late getting there too, so as he was even with me he was already hitting eject.  I mean this guy did not have a prayer of making that turn.  No hope, but he decided to go for it anyway and I had to yank my front wheel back under me and hit the breaks just to ole him right on by.  Unfortunately, whoever was behind me ran into the back of my wheel and cleared out about 5 spokes so I was officially done.  No result.  No money.  Nothing.  Thanks mr. blue cat 4 guy.  You are a loser.  The funny part was hearing him say “Oh F***” as he went by me and then just getting my front wheel off his rear and surfing my top tube with both feet out.  I was lucky to get out of there with no broken collar bone mr. blue cat 5 guy.  You are a loser.  I am not sure the local Canadian guys understand respect, but whatever I guess.  One guy went to the front and just started drilling it to bring a break back with no Symetrics in it.  When I asked him why he did that he said that he was bored and that he was just having fun.  Go have fun in the cat 3’s and bored in not a reason in a bike race.  You are also a loser. 

So day off tomorrow.  I plan on taking my rented PT Cruiser and cruising Vancouver tomorrow.  Please, if anyone can send me some luck, do.  I really need it.  I will pay you for it when I see you.

Havoc

This week’s post brought to by pro teams that run out of money and stop paying their riders, pro teams that run out of money and stop going to races and mr. blue cat 5 woman guy.

I thought I would add some photos to the old blog:

Havoc jr’s new commuter rig.

Ok, the sign that you are getting old, is when you are surfing some results on cyclingnews and you see a bunch of guys you used to race with dominating the masters results.  I am not really sure how to feel about that whole situation.  A lot of my friends in these parts keep talking about me racing masters after retirement, but I am not sure I want or can do it.  But, nonetheless, it is crazy to see a bunch of guys who used to race the pro circuit racing the masters categories.  Those guys just better hope Gord or Scott don’t lose their minds and decided to race masters (and yes Gord is Canadian, but he has a green card so I think he is now eligible).  Things that make you go hmmmmmm. 

The US Swimming Olympic Trials have been on in a big way in my house.  My wife was a very dominate high school swimming coach in Tucson.   Her teams won states titles in both men’s and women’s for 6 straight years….pretty good.  She also ran the aquatics facility at the University of AZ so she knows a lot of the swimmers at the trials.  Some of them she had on her high school team so she has been as pumped as those of you who are tivo’ing the Tour.  I have to say that Phelps is a man-child, freak of a human and most likely the baddest dude on the planet.  And how about those track and field trials?  It is cool to see a human run faster than I can go on my bike…if only for a short time.  Still very impressive!

I bought a bike rack for the SUV.  Now I have not had a rack for a car for like 10 years, but with retirement looming and with expectations of family outings, I felt it was time.  I bought a Thelma from Saris and today I used it for the first time.  It only took me about 15 min to assemble the thing and about 30 sec to put the bike on.  Let me tell you, if you are going to buy a hitch rack, this is the one to get.  Very cool, very easy and a really nice design.

For those of you who know the name Victor Rapinski, he is back.  After a melt down of a season with Colavita, and a complete no show with Phonak, he is back racing here in Norcal.  He is still a big unit and he is still a pretty damn fast rider, but how the mighty have fallen.  To think this guy was on Phonak 2 years ago and now he is riding for a local team.  I am not sure how he is making ends meet, but he is Belorussian so I guess he is putting together.  By the way, he smoked me in the 4th of July Crit today.  My director John Legangue told me some stories about Victor when he was on Phonak, and how the guy knows how to tie his shoes is beyond me, but he is back.

That is about it.  Heading for BC in a week or so.

Havoc

This weeks post presented by the side effects shortness of breath, irregular intestinal movements, oily discharge, headaches, dizziness, four hour erections, a decrease in semen, scaly skin, liver damage, acne, decrease in sexual drive, increase in sexual drive, growth of wings, inability to control verbal outbursts, yellowing of skin, skin splotches, bleeding gums, loss of teeth, growth of teeth, growth of antlers, hair loss, excess ear hair growth and growth of extra digits.