At The Races

I went to the races last night and helped out my friends Mike and Reid. Mike is racing again this year after a year off and last night was Reid's first night out for the year with a brand new car that he built from the ground up. Mike's car is Reid's car from last year. Mike does all of his own lettering and also letters probably 10-15 other race cars.
Mike has always used the colors Silver and Red on all of his past cars so, no change in colors for 2008 but, it does look very nice though.
Reid's car looks new because it is. Last night was race #1 for this car.
On the track during a heat race. Mike ended up having rough luck in feature. He was racing his way up to a top 5 finish when he was spun out in one of the corners. He got going again and then drove the car too hard into one of the corners and someone got into him. Unfortunately, Mike's night was done. When he pulled in we noticed that the front stub was bent so, he was going to have to have the frame straightened. It should get done today and then they're off to Mason City to race tonight. I may ride along. Good Times!
Reid Started in the back of the feature and through attrition he ended up getting 7th. First night out and all, Reid didn't drive quite as aggressive as he usually does. I don't think he wanted to trash the car on the first night out. I'm sure within the next couple of nights out he'll be up there racing for the win.

We all hung out in the pits til nearly midnight. There's usually a crowd of 20-30 people that make there way to Reid and Mike's pit area following the races at Webster. Last night was no different as people came down out of the stands to visit. Good Times.

I kinda miss this stuff. With me racing bikes over the past years I haven't been able to go out and help these guys. I have been going to the races since I was in Kindergarten. I still enjoy it very much and hopefully, since I'm not racing bikes much, I can get out and hit the road with these guys and help them out. They race in Fort Dodge on Fridays, Webster on Saturday, and Mike goes to Mason City on Sundays.

Well, I'm out. Have a great Sunday and God Bless.

Random;
The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. Nahum 1:7

A little Post

That's right, a little post on the blog for your reading enjoyment. Thought I'd share a few photo's I snapped while taking a leisurely ride through the river trail on Thursday evening. I'm really enjoying this beautiful weather.



It looks as though Hansen has been riding this trail too. I found evidence.
Thought I'd get a bit nerdy and take some flower shots for Mom. I'm sure she gets tired of looking at pictures of bicycles all the time. ;-)

Crazy times we live in folks, crazy times. I've been reflecting a bit on all the news headlines of the past week/s and it's just crazy. All the bad weather incidents around the world, some in our back yards (Missouri, Arkansas, etc.). Stupid laws and policies that our nation and states are facing (gay marriage, labor bargaining rights, etc.). And those that we know struggling with health issues, and the day to day stresses of life (loss of jobs, etc.) I could ramble on and on and go into much more detail but, I won't. I was just thinking about a lot of these things this morning and just wanted to ask you all to really do some serious praying about a lot of this stuff because, it appears to me, that we all need to seek a higher power in these troubled times.

On to other stuff, I rode my bike a few times this week. It was pretty nice weather for it. I may get out today but, not sure yet. Apparently, some folks feel that I need to ride my bike more and get more involved with bike racing in Iowa (save this for another post).

I have been playin the drums quite a bit lately. In fact I have skipped a few training rides to play. I am getting the chops back and it feels really good. I should have never quit when I did, who knows where I could be today. But, it's not to late to try to get it back. Even though I won't have the same opportunities that I did back then, I'm sure I can find some other folks and make music.

In other news, I pulled a brilliant last weekend and put Ariel's cell phone through the washing machine. Looks like I'll be checking pockets a bit more now. hahaha! Good thing for cell phone insurance. It safeguards phones from ding dongs like me.

I'm off on a three day weekend this weekend. Production is going down so much that now we're cancelling shifts. I do not work on Monday. The Laundry Center line didn't work on Friday and I think the Washer line is off on Monday. Our dept. was cancelled for 2nd shift on Friday and day shift is working with a skeleton crew on Friday and Monday. Hopefully things will turn around. Get out and buy a top load washer! Thanks for your support!

Well, off to enjoy the day. I think I'm heading to the race track tonight to help out the guys. My friends Reid and Mike are both racing this year so, I guess I better get out and do what I can to get in the way and help out. Speaking of racing, there's a couple of big races coming up at Knoxville and we're going for sure. I haven't been to K'ville in a couple of years and I dearly want to get back down there. Sprint car racing is the coolest thing ever. Those guys that drive them things have more balls (pardon my french) than any other sport anywhere, hands down. Maybe I'll get some pics tonight to share.

Last note: A little update on Steve. He is home. He is defying what doctors told him. They said he shouldn't have made it. He did. They said he'd be paralysed. He's not. They said he'd be in the hospital for months. He's home. They said he'd not be able to walk on his own for quite some time. He is! Amazing! Praise the Lord! He's making a miraculous recovery. He still has a way's to go but, it looks very promising.

God Bless. Enjoy this wonderful weather. BE safe.

Random:

I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:1-2

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mom's day to my Mom! I know she reads this regularly so, Happy Mothers Day Mom! I love you! Happy Mothers Day to my two wonderful Grandmothers as well. I love you all and can't began to tell everyone how special these three women are to me.

Tomorrow Dad and I are going to jump in the car and head to Waterloo to spend the day with Grandma. Should be a good time. We are having a cook out so hopefully the weather will cooperate.

I got out today and logged my third ride of the week. Too much stuff going on so I haven't been riding much. I hope to start logging some base miles to prep for the beginning of cyclocross training in June. I've also been battling lot's of little injuries this Spring that has really bothered me, so, I'm trying to work through that garbage too. I will be racing a couple of big weekends of racing which should be fun. Unfortunately, I have to keep my mind focused on having fun in these because I have no fitness right now. But, these races are very cool races and I just can't miss them. So I'll be racing Memorial Day Weekend in Burlington, Muscatine and Rock Island, IL. Then I'll be heading down to Mom's with Ariel and Dad to visit with family and race the Tulsa Tough crits.

Ariel got out with her friends today and got in some riding too. She's just like her old man. she'd rather go out in the rain and ride all day than ride when it's nice. Weird! She has a couple weeks of school left and she's really looking forward to Summer. She's doing well in most of her classes and I'm very proud of her.

In other news, there is a bunch of reorganizing going on at work again as production is going down once again. I am getting reduced off of my job which really stink. Ten years of and I'm betting bumped! The good thing is that I get to stay in my department and go to a different job on my same shift. I will be low senior though, so, any more reductions and I'll be gone.

I'm sure there's more to tell you about but, I have other things to tend to. So, have a wonderful Mothers Day everyone! If your within sight of your loved ones give them a huge hug tomorrow. And if your not within sight, do like I'm doing right now and send them a great big hug :-)

God Bless everyone and please be safe with whatever your Mothers Day activities may be.

With tomorrow being Mother's Day, I did some studying on the word Mother in the Bible. After reading several passages and studying some different books, I decided to post this scripture from Proverbs. It talks about both Mother and Father and goes on to talk about being enticed by sinners but, after meditating for a bit on these two verses, I decided that these two verses are kind of meaningful, to me anyways.

Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. Proverbs 1:8,9

No Racing!

That's right, no racing for me this weekend. I had intended to head over to Waverly and do the mountain bike race but, things change. I had an opportunity to get another weekend with Ariel so, how can I pass that up? I can't. There used to be a time when I could of but, not anymore. Now racing my bike takes a back seat to several other things which is a huge change for me and the way I've done things over the past few years.

In fact, I'm making a lot of life changes. It's actually something I should have done long ago but, better late than never.......right? I won't get into all the details now (and bore you). But, I do think that this year may be one of my last years as a serious cyclist. I think that in the coming years I'll probably be racing a lot less and focusing on cyclocross only. Not that that's not what I'm doing now but, I may scale back quite a bit as different things in my life begin to evolve. Obviously I'll always get out and do cross as it's the most fun you can have on a bike.

Well, I'm off to play some cards. Skip-Bo to be exact. To all of you heading to Waverly, good luck and travel safely. God Bless.

Random: This is a very good passage and very true. Give it some thought.
As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man. Proverbs 27:19

A trip to Iowa City to race and say goodbye.

Sunday was a road trip to one of my favorite road races. The Old Capital Criterium. This is kind of a special race because a) it's the first crit/road race I ever did, and b) it was the first crit I ever won (the day after I won the road race). A little side note from that winning weekends is that I had one team-mate each day in the Cat. 5's. In the road race Jim Robidoux and I put the smack down at the end and took first and third in a late race break of three riders. In the Crit Kurt Hantelmann was on the front on the last lap and the pace had slowed a bit as it was starting to rain lightly, so I jumped out of line half way between the two hills on the last lap and powered up the hill alone and held it to the line.

A very cool thing about this year is that I ran into a guy I went to high school with and he had raced in the cat 5 race this year. Ironically, it was his first race ever and, he told me there was another guy that I went to high school with that raced too. Very cool. Both of these guys are older than me and I think it is so cool that they're getting into cycling. I believe they both live in the Iowa City area now.

I snapped a few photo's from the pro/1/2 race. Welcome to Terrible Photography 101;

The first time down the hill. Things were still a bit unorganized as everyone jockeyed for position. I believe the first Trek Midwest rider is Peter Boyd. The other Trek rider (4th guy) is Adam Mills.
The next time around this guy thought the picture of me was the money shot I guess. I think the Trek Midwest rider was Bill Stolte. Lane Anderson is the all9yards rider in green. They 6th rider back in black on the outside is Lou Waugaman (Rassmusen Bike Shop).
The third time around everyone finally got out of my way. I think the first Trek Midwest rider is Shadd Smith. I couldn't make out the all9yards rider. I couldn't tell if it was Jared Osterloh or Dave Lippold.
One last shot. this one was taken on the hill. The first Trek Midwest rider is Shadd Smith. There were tow guys that had rolled off the front and Shadd nailed it here and bridged up to them. They sat up once he caught on. I think the second Trek rider is Bill Stolte.

As for my race. I wasn't expecting too much. Last year I started training on January 1 and came into this race almost ready to peak. I was in the top 10 all day and a last lap mishap that saw a rider hit a hole and shoot out in front of me forcing me to brake with one corner left before the sprint took me out of what I thought would be around a 5th place finish. This year I got a good start and was in 6th of the 41 riders at the bottom of the hill. Thank goodness because there was a crash mid pack that caused a split. I rode comfortably in the front the first 5 or 6 laps and then I began my fade. I finally fell so far back and just couldn't do anything on the climb. I gave the crowd a show though. They were trying, with the help of Kim West, to get people to ride wheelies on the climb. Nobody but me gave them a show. I gave them a solid bunny hop one lap and the next I gave them the worst wheelie anyone has ever seen. They cheered me like I had won the race though. The next time through the finish I was pulled. I did 10 of the 20 laps and didn't feel that bad about getting pulled. I was cooked and scored in 20th place. My legs progressively got better but my lungs got worse. It was fun and I dodged all the crashes. There were 5 crashes in our race and I was right behind one of them. They included a collegiate category with our race and many of them were not to good technically speaking. In the end 15 riders remained as everyone else was pulled. And the print finish between the 8 guys off the front ended with a big crash at the finish line. Glad I got to watch that one!

My Highlights from the day at Old Capital (in no particular order);
1. My team-mates that raced. Ryan Legg finished in the pack in the pro/1/2 and Chet Henry raced collegiate in the Cat. 3 race and finished solidly in the pack. Good job guys!
2. Bryan Moritz and his breakaway companion put a minute and 5 seconds on the pack. They were only 30 seconds from catching the group. Unfortunately Bryan lost in the tow up sprint but, he was very impressive.
3. Sidney Brown lapped all but two women in the Women's Pro/1/2/3 race. WOW!
4. Hanging out with the Pella crew. It was good to see Doug and everyone again.
5. Frankie Deirking trying an early break on lap 4 of the pro/1/2 race an then going later on in the winning group of three and killing them in the sprint.
6. Kim West on the hill in the early races. "Ride a wheelie" during the Cat. 4 race and for the women he had a "Queen of the Mountain prime" on the first lap. A one dollar prime in which some girl in the front part of the field snagged the bill and tucked it in her skinsuit without loosing any position. Nice!
7. Steve Robinson! No explanation needed!
8. Shrek's last lap tactic to shake the one rider off his wheel. he asked a tag along rider if he would let him take the spot or if he was going to race him for it. The guy responded by saying he was racing so, Shrek sat on his wheel for the first time in many laps and shot out wide around him with tow corners to go and took it to the curb. the other guy jumped out onto his wheel, hit the curb and crashed. Best tactics I've ever heard. Bruyneel aint got nothing on you Shrek.
9. Hanging out on the Hill with very cool people.
10. My bunny hopping abilities, during a race, on a hill, with many fans cheering, $30 well spent. Thanks for the encouragement folks!!!

As for the saying goodbye part; I parted ways with my Ridley Supercross on Sunday. It's going to a good home though. Doug Klahsen will be riding her from here on out. That bike has a lot of history and memories. My first cx win at State championships when I destroyed the field. Several wins and series championships. Three National Championships. It's been to Rhode Island, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and all over Iowa. She's seen mud, rocks, snow, ice, sideways snow, wind, and all kinds of crazy courses.......sometime too close. She's a bit beat up but solid. I'll definitely miss that bike. I think she may have actually started the Ridley craze in Iowa. Always showing off!

Random;

Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Proverbs 3:7-8