Week 2 TT Results

Week 2 TT Results http://bit.ly/aZLmes

Small turn out this week only 12 racers down from last weeks 19 & no women this week. I guess paying people to race isn't enough to entice them out. People complain all the time about the lack of racing in Springfield. Give them a race & they still won't race. Baffles me. Oh well the people coming out are having some good training & making some cash in the process.

West Bound & Down

Taking off work early tomorrow since I have myself a series pass for all 3 days of Tulsa Tough. Hopefully this year will be less eventful/stressful than last & won't end in an ER visit. New tires hopefully will show on the door step before I leave (supposed to have been her two days ago!)

Little leery of 3 straight days of racing. Not been recovering as fast this year & so not sure how my legs will respond from 3 days of racing. Will be cool to look at the Power Files since this is the first race I'll have multiple years to look at. Also big fields & the first crits, for me, of the season(always scary). Plus Only have 2 days of Slimen Hot weather gear to race in might have to rent myself out for the third day.

Saw Floyd's name in the start list. As the B town Reject says "He is just another fodder in the pack these days". I don't care he still won the Tour & I'd rather see him race than the Lance(real pack fodder).

I'll try & update some more. Busy as hell these days. If nothing else I'll be sure to give my review of the Giro. Pate Rulz by the way! The Great White Hype is still a douche. Claims hill records but gets dropped like a freaking hot potatoe on a Cat 2 climb...douche.

"14:06 CEST
Not to be worn out chasing all day, Rabobank placed two men in the move - Mauricio Ardila and Maarten Tjallingii. Serramenti also had two - Scarponi, our stage 6 winner, and Francesco De Bonis.

A total of 20 riders made up the breakaway.

14:09 CEST
However, Danielson and Wiggins were dropped on the first classified climb of the day, the category 2 Monte delle Cesane, making it 18 men out front."

I don't care if Wiggins is a Brit he's now a douche too. He could loose that staus with the coolest shoes on the planet though.

I guess I'd better update to keep this thing active

It's either feast or famine with this damn blog. Truth is the new job has me going from 4:30 till after 5. Makes for a long day. The proclaimed 4 day work weeks are actually 5 day weeks kinda like I knew it would be. Training took a hit this week since Mia got another ear infection which I picked up a cold from. Amber got it so bad today she went & got a shot. Me I just have a persistent dry cough. Not a lot of fun for sleeping or even riding. Needless to say I skipped racing this weekend. Hopefully I can get some consistency back & get some kilometers in before the Sylmo revenge or that is going to hurt worse than any amount of free beer can help. I look at it like this I need the training so why not get some free beer after?

Mia is with the in laws watching Disney on Ice & JQH Arena. Explain this one too me? We have an ice rink in the SPR but they have an ice show @ JQH? WTF is that about? Great use of the assets we have. Though it doesn't really surprise me all that mutch.

Watched Amstel Gold this AM. Kinda of a snooze fest. Except for Fränk Schleck and Matthew Lloyd eating pavement. Schleck was one of my picks for the win so kinda lost interest in the race after that. Cleaned house instead to help out the ailing wife. She's feeling really bad. Actually I'd better go stick a mirror under her nose she's been comatose on the couch awhile now.

This will really piss you off

As most of you know Roger Hinson got hit by a truck while riding in North Carolina recently. I got this link sent to me today. Absurd is all I can say. Long live the Good ol Boy network it'll be the death of this country yet.

I love the end where the Sheriff says:

"In Hinson’s case, Dendy said there are “two ways to look at what caused him to hit the ground so hard” — be it the truck’s collision with the bike, or the rate of speed at which the bike was traveling.

“He was injured because he fell to the ground,” said Dendy. “The car didn’t run over him ... I feel like he was very lucky to walk away from that. But just because he was on a bike doesn’t mean I should treat him any differently. Isn’t that singling out a particular group, bikers? The guy feels terrible about what happened and has been very concerned about Mr. Hinson. What would it have done for his accident for this guy to get a ticket?”

Douche baggery

I'm glad I'm not the only one out there that thinks the douche baggery has gone to an all time low.

This is nuts!

A good read that'll piss you off.

2007 USA Cycling 990 Tax Return

$13,323,525: Total annual revenue
$8,252,159: Total annual expenses
$2,960,768: Compensation, salary, and benefits to USA Cycling officers and employees
$3,990,159: End of year savings and temporary cash investment assets
$4,077,991: Short term investment assets
$100,096 : Total cash grants to organizations and individuals
$70,000: Cash grant provided to BMX Program
$16,716: Largest non-cash grant, to BMX Program for "BMX Gate"

A wee bit icy out

Last night was an adventure getting home. A drive that normally takes me 25 min from Strafford took me over an hour. Wouldn't have been too bad if it wasn't for all the morons on the road. I saw one guy heading East in front of Utility Trailer going side ways down I-44. He hit both side of the road & managed to straighten it out. Never even slowed down after he got it going East again. Moron!

This AM I figured I'd better leave earlier than normal in case the commute was another hour+, so I got up at 3:45 to be out the door at 4am. Damn that's early(I normally leave at 4:30 for work so not a huge stretch). I-44 wasn't too bad. I did hit a little traffic which I passed easily enough. I''m not sure why people think its safe to drive on icy roads 35 mph with less than a car width between them. I passed quite a few twos & threes all bumper to bumper. Morons!

Actually the worst part of my commute was the outer road at Strafford. Holy Crap it was bad. Even with the Volvo in 4WD I was sliding all over the road. Only half of the plant made it in. Most of the people who work here live out in the sticks so I can imagine how bad the country roads are.

I got to spend my first hour here shoveling ice & spreading salt. Managed to break a sweat since I was a little overdressed. I was wearing just about every piece of Carhartt I own. I look like a catalog ad but its nice to be warm when its 20F outside. I just wish Carhartt made riding clothes.

Amateur Hour

Once again Ball shows why he should be thrown out of cycling. Idiot. If I was Rahsaan Bahati I'd be one pissed off MoFO.

Come On!?! Really!?!

"Ball confirmed that Leogrande will not be on the 2009 team roster, but said the decision was performance based and not due to the doping case." Performance? WTF? He wasn't using enough EPO? Ball should be the one banned from cycling. Cycling needs more idiots like Ball.

Vicadin, Ventalin and EPO. Vicoden is a performance enhancer? I'm amazed he could stay on his bike. He wanted Testosterone patches because he was disappointed with he results he was getting with the gel he had be using. Everyone knew this asshole was dirty yet USADA let him keeping lining up week in and week out. Who's more to blame USADA or Ball?

Leogrande banned for two years.

You Bet!

Edit: Here's the comment I left on the last post in response to Shane.
Oh I admit freely he got the best of me. I'm man enough to admit that. But we (Nate & me) we're both wrong. Instead of getting pissed I should have gone & talked to Pat right then instead I walked out. In my opinion which is the one we're talking about I got shit customer service, end of story.

Its a simple concept in customer service. You Bet! Customer walks in asks for something, answer You bet! Is it in stock, well no, but wait a second & I'll track it down for you. 10 minutes making phone calls will get an ETA that is more accurate than "probably 2 weeks." Hey an accurate ETA will make the customer happy even if it really is 2 weeks. Out of stock at the distributor? Few more phone calls, maybe a little Internet & you track down said item. Maybe pull out some catalogs show the customer that you give a shit about his business by giving him some other options & backing up your knowledge of the item. Guess what 10-20 minutes just got you a customer for life. Simple concept that even helps keep on stock lower. "Special order" is just that "special" not a pain in the ass. I understand that a store can't have everything a customer wants every time they walk in. They can have a desire to help said customer instead of giving him the feeling he needs to get back to shooting the shit with his fellow employees. I will say that I got 10 minutes of face time in an otherwise empty store to get basically left to my own thoughts. Looked up & he was shooting the shit with his fellow employees, this is when I bailed.

I'll take a beating on this one. I don't care I probably deserve a beating for walking on sacred ground & voicing my opinion. I got shit service(in my opinion) & I vented. What I get in return (before I had a chance to go talk to Pat) a smart ass response (I'll say it slowly). Granted it was a good response & I apologized for being ignorant on the tire facts. But because of how it was stated A&B lost a customer because of it. I'm sure A&B doesn't care & I know my business is of little consequence to their overall financial outlook. But a customer is still a customer. One who was probably going to buy many thousands in bikes this year alone. Don't get me wrong I usually have great service from A&B but I've always dealt with the same people. I've just gotten to that point in my life where if you don't value my time then I'm not going to give you my business.

State of the LBS

I try really hard to support my LBS'. Its just they make it so damn hard for me to not go postal. Sometimes I think I would rather get kicked in the nuts than go to the LBS. I quit going to Sunshine when I heard a salesman tell a customer "you don't want a cross bike, cross is a fad." I walked out & have never been back.

Today I needed tubes & tires for my mtb so I went to A&B to use my gift certificate. They didn't have the Conti's I wanted so I grabbed a salesman to ask about the other tires they had. I first inquired about ordering the Conti's. Answer it would take 2 weeks. What the ?? I can get them in 3 days online. That was my mistake & I take credit for being stupid and asking for help. I spent the next 10 minutes trying not to laugh at the guy.

Next he tried to tell me a 2.4 tire weighed less than the exact same tire in a 2.1. I called him out on this to explain his psuedo science on that one. UH, UH they use less material. Really? Less material in a wider tire? What kind of special rubber are they using here? OK I didn't beat him up to bad over that. EDIT I guess I'm an idiot because WTB does make the 2.4 lighter than 2.1. How the hell they do that is beyond me. Sorry to the LBS.

Then he tells me that tire X is great if you have the skills to ride it & then goes on to tell me he has mad skills & they work great for him. That's pretty much where I ended the need for help & started looking on my own. I decided I wasn't going to buy a tire just because it was what they had in stock & left without even getting any tubes. I'll just patch the ones I have. If they would have cashed out my gift certificate I think I would have. Oh well I'll just go back on Saturday when Skip & Stokes are working.

It seems a simple concept. Customer service. Give people what they want not what you think they should have. I've been riding a long damn time & I know what I like. I'm not stupid enough to think my way is the best & am open to suggestions. I just want to have intelligent suggestions given to me.

Pretenders.

There are some truly stupid people on the intraweb. I stumbled upon a prediction that I will not repeat about a certain someone. The beauty of the internet is it allows people to sit in their underroos in front of a computer screen spouting off what ever crap pops into their stupid little minds. Then they hide behind a veil of anonymity to disguise their cowardliness. You see it a lot on the web people who have enough "courage" to post but not the balls to own up to their comment. Funny thing is if you caught them they'd lie about ever saying it. If you called them out on it they'd run an hide. Funny how tough you can be in the security of your den all huddled in your rabbit feet jammies. Those that can't, lash out at those who can. The web is a lot like Wikipedia a lot of useless crap spouted from the small minds of the imagineless claiming to be the truly educated.

The high price of racing

I've been following a discussion about the high price of CX Nationals on Treefarm's blog. Read the two posts about Nationals, then read the comments. He's got a point $52 for a race with no payout or field caps is pretty ridiculous. The high price of CX racing has been on my mind this whole season. It seemed last year prize money was a lot better & entry a lot lower. This year entry for races in KC averaged $30 with zero payout(except medals) in the Master's fields. Plus if you factor in the 2 races in Lawrence where you pay $30 + $6 to park in the park that's an expensive medal. None off that factors in gas either, but I won't go into a rant about the high price of gas.

Point is I know race promoters don't normally make money off putting on races but it seems to me this year CX promoting has been a profitable endeavor. Don't get me wrong I agree with the one comment that says racers are going to race regardless of the price. I payed my $30 & raced in the ice even though I knew I wasn't up to it @ State. I like to race. But eventually people aren't going to be able to afford racing unless they make 6 figures a year. It seems simple enough, no payout, a lot lower entry. People will still race just for the love of racing.

The price of racing has really made me stop & think about how much I'll race next year. I raced 25 days this year for a total of 31 races, though would have been more if not injured most of the year. More or less $800 in entry fees. Once again I won't figure in gas(I'm really scared to). I won about $400 in prize money give or take(most of that in road, only $40ish in CX). So I'm out 1/2 not too bad. I was out of pocket a ton more with AR racing. Where do I cap my entry fees @? Good question, one I'll be thinking a lot about this winter on those long cold, dark miles.