Texas is a big Republican state with Austin a Democratic island. I heard it time and time again on the radio last week about the 9 inches of snow in Dallas. About “so much for global warming”. Now it snowed today in Austin. Just fuel to the flames. I had to go over to the Apple store to get my phone looked at once again and all the employees there were outside taking photos. I guess it was pretty unusual for here. The normal high is 66 now, so it’s pretty much colder than usual. At dinner, they closed the cafe 2 hours early because of the weather. The concrete was barely wet, let alone slick. It is strange what people get used to and what they consider extreme.

I needed a day off anyway. We rode 3 hours yesterday and it wasn’t that warm. But it was pretty windy so it wasn’t much of a rest day. Laying around today isn’t too bad. We went to Avatar at the IMAX Theater in downtown last tonight. It was awesome.

Better cancel school.

Normal sit down, candlelight dinner in the dining room.

Photo of a crosswalk sign from Oman that Trudi sent.

Pace Bend wasn’t the easy roll around race that it has been in the past, mainly because it was breeze/windy. And pretty hot for February. I’m not sure how fast the wind was blowing or from what direction, but it was windy enough to make the race hard. The Pace Bend race is 13 laps of a 6.25 mile course. There are two medium hills (big ring) and the rest just rolls. The start isn’t at the start line and a few guys, including Kristian House, missed the start. That was a drag for him. And, for the field. It’s amazing what the difference of one strong rider can make at an early season difficult race. I think it changed the outcome of the race a lot.

The race started pretty fast right from the start. I wasn’t feeling that stellar, but that was to be expected. Small groups of guys got away and there was a lot of jumping. The gutter riding wasn’t too bad, but it did chip away at whatever energy you thought you had. Finally after about 1/2 the race a pretty big group of 8 or so guys got away. At that point I was thinking, “shit, we’ve only gone halfway and I feel like this”. The respite was that THSJ went to the front for the next 3 laps and set a nice tempo. For 20 miles. Then there were only 20 miles to race left. A bunch of guys were watching by this point. The field seemed pretty small, but there were still 40 or so riders left, I think. With 2 laps to go it was all back together and on the backside hill it split again and I missed it. That was from not thinking, not from not being able to. I thought it was all over. I made a feeble attempt of riding at the front, but it was fruitless. Somehow, our group managed to go fast enough and the front group screwed around enough that just one lap later, 1/2 lap to go, it all came back together at the bottom of the same hill.

The break drilled it up the hill and I was way out of position once more. I’m not sure what that was all about, but I wasn’t about to miss the move again just 4 miles from the finish. I rode up the hill pretty steady and at the top put it in my 11 and sprinted for a km or so. Guys were blowing to pieces and going very slowly. I caught on the back of the the 10 rider groupjust before the last 90 degree right downhill just a couple miles from the finish line.

This is where I kind of blew it. I never had a good game plan going. Heath Blackgrove and Patrick McCarty were doing nearly all the work at the front for their guys. I was still sitting towards the back. I was trying to recover from my effort and it wasn’t working that great. I was trying to figure a way to win and nothing occurred to me. So I decided I should start the sprint on Josh again because I would be assured of 2nd if that were the case. I got a little screwed up because it is very curvy going around the lake and most of the corners look alike. The last curve came up one before I expected, but it wasn’t like yesterday. It was an uphill sprint that was much harder. Josh was 4 guys ahead of me and when I moved out into the wind to get to him, he jumped. Way earlier than I expected. I didn’t even try. He had JT on his wheel and there was already a few bike lengths between those two and us. So, I waited and started sprinting a 100 meters later. I was in the right gear at the time, but it turned into the wrong gear pretty quickly. It is amazing how fast you can go from good to bad early season. So, I got up to 3rd with 30 meters to go, but got passed before the line by a charging Kris French. He was riding pretty good, so he deserved the result.

I woke up this morning feeling like I’d raced a pretty brutal MTB race. I hadn’t raced in over 4 months. I hadn’t done an effort over 4 months. I wasn’t going to win either of those races if I was with Josh at the end. And that was nearly a given. So, it is mildly irrelevant if I finished 2nd both days or 6th and 4th. It’s all early season fitness. It was very nice getting some longer, fast miles in. Racing out of shape is very painful. Hopefully this will help not having to suffer like this too much longer.

It is not stellar weather in Austin this week. It is predicted to snow here on Tuesday, so us Kansans are going to ride all day today. I’m usually okay on Monday and beat on Tuesday anyway, so it will probably work out for the best.

Mr. Richardson Bike Mart, Jimmy Hoyt, down in the trenches, pumping the tires up for his riders. I've know Jimmy forever, back to the Schwinn days. It was nice to catch up some.

Shirtless in February and worried before the race that it's too hot. It's such a hard life.

Maureen making killer bars for post race consumption. She thought we might need MORE calories, so she added an extra bag of butterscotch chips.

Getting smeared in the sprint.

Pro – 1 on 2/21/2010

1 Josh Carter — Team Hotel San Jose
2 JT Cody — Matrix/RBM
3 Kris French — Panther Cycling
4 Steve Tilford — Trade Wind Energy
5 Chad Haga — Super Squadra
6 Jason Waddell — Park Place Dealerships
7 Lawson Craddock — Hot Tubes Development Cycling Team
8 Matt Gordon — Team Lifesize
9 Patrick McCarty — Matrix/RBM
10 Heath Blackgrove — Team Hotel San Jose
11 Ronnie Strange — Team Hotel San Jose
12 Chad Cagle — Park Place Dallas
13 Carlos Vargas — Team Hotel San Jose
14 Chris Carlson — Matrix/RBM
15 David Wenger — Super Squadra
16 Bill Stolte — Trade Wind Energy
17 Brandon Cowart — Bike Barn (Texas)
18 John Korioth — Team Lifesize
19 Chris Lowry — Velossimo Racing p/b Jack and A
20 Bryan Fawley — Hudz – Subaru

Today was the Walburg Road Race. I’ve done it a bunch before. Normally the race is always windy. It’s 3 laps of 24 plus miles. A few small hills. It finishes on a small hill. Today was different. Not different start time though. 5:30am wake-up. Got there pretty early and got in at least 2 miles of warm-up. I’m not sure what the deal with the officials here. There was a pre-race meeting right before the start and it was just a bunch of yelling and the word disqualification must of been screamed 10 times at least. I thought we all were working together to make bicycle racing fun and safe. That detracted from the fun factor for sure. Especially so early in the morning.

There wasn’t the past wind. It never got over 15mph. But, after about a half a lap it started drizzling and that continued throughout the day. I don’t have enough miles or intensity to do too much. I noticed that my jump was lacking all of the first lap. Team Hotel San Jose had a bunch of guys in the race. Maybe 10 out of 60. They didn’t seem to have much interest in racing aggressively. I didn’t really care. It got into the gutter a bit the first couple laps, but nothing serious.

Anyway, it was all together 1/2 through the last lap. I started getting my race legs somewhere around the same time. It kind of surprised me. I followed Heath Blackgrove a couple times and then Carlos Vargas. I didn’t have much desire to ride off the front. Plus, it was never going to work, so why put any energy into something with no chance to succeed.

With 8 miles or so to go, THSJ (Team Hotel San Jose) put all their riders at the front and started rotating. I got on the end of the train, which was Josh Carter’s wheel. He was riding far enough to the gutter that it wasn’t easy staying out of the wind. It didn’t seem like they were going very fast, but they were shelling guys right and left. I never looked back and didn’t realize that so many guys had been dropped. Kristian House made a solo move for a mile or so, but 8 guys rotating behind was not conducive for a solo move.

A couple miles out, Josh coasted for a second to stretch or something and I was nearly in the gravel to his right. I eased up a little and someone behind me was riding to my right. That was very surprising because I thought I was truely in the gutter. Anyway, I don’t know who it was, but he ran into my rear derailleur with his front wheel and bent it pretty good. We got hooked up for a second, but he didn’t fall. Pretty good bike handling on his part I’d think. Two guys went by me during this altercation. Only a 1km downhill and up 1 km to the finish. I was in the wind the whole time and knew I needed to start on Josh for the sprint.

When the hill started the last km, I made a move to move back up and my gears skipped pretty badly and shifted down a gear. In retrospect, I should of shifted by up, but obviously wasn’t thinking that great. With 500 meters to go I was done. I shifted up and was wondering why no one was going by. I looked over my shoulder and no one was there. There were only 6 of us left. Sean Sullivan peeled off and sat up, but I didn’t have much desire to go hard the last 100 meters for one place. I ended up 6th. Which was last in the group. If everything went perfect, I might of had a shot at 2nd, but I was never going to win this race in that scenario.
Josh won by miles. I had no expectations, which I never do this time of the year. So, 6th is okay. I’ve won these races and rode pretty pitiful at them. You just never know.

The race was good for me. Not super hard, but harder than anything I’d done for months. There was a ton of mud on the course from farm equipment, so there is a ton of cleaning equipment and clothing to be done. Not the easy, sunny Texas racing I was hoping for. We’re racing 80 miles tomorrow at Pace Bend Park. I was 3rd there last year and have won it before. Should be interesting. Probably a little more aggressive racing tomorrow I’d guess. We’ll see.

Men P/1 posted by Walburg Classic Results on 2/20/2010
1 Carter Joshua
2 Craddock G Lawson
3 Walker Russ
4 Short Jason
5 Suillivan Sean
6 Tilford Steve
7 Blackgrove Heath
8 McCarty Patrick
9 Davis Mathew
10 Vargas Carlos

Christian House in an unflattering pose walking his bike through the goatheads wearing his British National Championship jersey.

Fashion statement? I don't know.

Way too early. The race start is 8am. I don’t know what that is all about. I have the luxury to not have to wake up to an alarm clock but for a few times during the year. This is not one of those days. 4 more Kansans made the journey down here, so we’ll be well represented. The race tomorrow is the Walburg Classic. They divided the field to Pro-1 only then 2’s, so there aren’t going to be even 60 guys in our race. That is a problem because historically it has been very windy. No where to hide. We’ll see. A bunch of New Zealand guys are here straight from their summer. Heath Blackgrove and company, plus Kristian House (British National Road Champion) from Austin is also around. Should be interesting. I hope I have enough form to at least enjoy the fireworks.

Kristian House winning the 2009 British Nationals.

A plane crashed into a building 4 miles from where I was in Austin and I had to learn about it from a Skype call from Oman. Modern communication is unreal.

Nice view of the 360 bridge from 2222.

Nothing much new has happened since yesterday. I was trying to get ready for this weekend. I changed the cables on my bike, checked my wheels/tires and changed the cleats on my shoes. I still feel pretty energyless off the bike, but don’t feel that bad riding. I’ve been watching as much Olympics as I can. Why not? I think it is strange that many of the snowboarders put on music before they do their runs. And how many of the women half pipe participates can’t make it down without falling. It’s pretty cool that the Danish Curling women speak better English than I do. Their coach is Canadian and obviously doesn’t speak Danish as well as her players. I took Maureen’s car for a spin to check her tire pressure. And, I nearly got picked up at Starbucks by two women on the patio. It is a very nice car. Gonna rest tomorrow and suffer like crazy this weekend.

I was going down this hill yesterday at 60 something mph, but by the time I could get my phone out and ready to take the photo, I was down to 53mph.

I kind of fell apart at the end of the ride yesterday and then-The note says something like, please eat these chocolate covered strawberries and cookies. Why can't every ride end like this?

The cables on the new Madones are kind of hard to thread through the frame.

But, the end result looks super clean.

BMW hardtop....

Transforming to....

A BMW convertible. Super fun.

I always put new cleats on at the start of the season. Remember to grease the bolts.

Austin is a great “town”. It’s not really a town because it has grown like crazy, but it has a town feeling. There are a ton of good things about Austin. And, a few bad. One of the best is the selection of food. There are hundreds of great restaurants. And coffee shops. And good music. And great scenery. And weather. The bad-traffic. And size. But, traffic is the biggest negative. It is super athletic. Runners and cyclists everywhere. Maybe the most dog friendly place I’ve ever been. There are water bowls outside every store. Treats. Loaner dogs to walk down by the river. It is just plain weird. In a good weird way. The riding is good if you’re on your own or riding with just one or two other guys. Group riding kind of sucks until you get pretty far out of town. I’ve got a fair amount of miles in recently. I’m starting to kind of run out of energy. You know how that feeling is after the first two weeks of training, you wake up one morning and feel like you’ve been run over by a truck. And can’t seem to wake up even after you’ve been awake for a couple hours. That is how I am currently. But, riding seems to be going okay. Yesterday, I started out and felt like shit. I rode South and met up with a friend, George from Topeka. We rode for a few hours. I stopped at a coffee shop on the way back. After that I was flying. I was riding against a pretty stiff (20mph or so) headwind and it was not a problem keeping my speed over 20mph. But, when I tried to ride at 25mph, that was a problem. I have no top end. But, why would I? I wouldn’t. It is still kind of depressing. But, that is what early season racing is all about in my view. Okay, one more long day before resting for a couple before the weekend races. Some photos below.

I saw this carpet ad in the flight magazine coming back from Phoenix. I though it was great. Dogs, wine, white carpet. Nice.

One of the many boat houses along the Town Lake.

Kayak polo below the bridge. I've never seen that game played before anywhere.

Another low water bridge crossing. It's kind of fun.

The craziest house I've seen here. It's 4 separate huge structures connected all together by a common front hallway.

The balcony of the Oasis that overlooks Lake Travis.

George at the Veloway. It's a closed circuit only for bikes. I'm not sure how long the loop is, maybe 4 km.

The dam for Lake Travis.

Click on arrow on bottom right to update.

I saw this in the New York Times. When it rains, it pours, huh?

Arrest Warrant Issued for Cyclist Floyd Landis
By REUTERS
Published: February 14, 2010
Filed at 12:19 p.m. ET
PARIS (Reuters) – A French judge has issued an international arrest warrant against American rider Floyd Landis for suspected hacking into an anti-doping laboratory computer, French anti-doping agency head Pierre Bordry told Reuters on Monday.
In an interview, Bordy said the judge Thomas Cassuto believed Landis, whose 2006 Tour de France title was stripped after he failed a dope test, wanted to prove the laboratory where his samples were tested was wrong.
“French judge Cassuto from the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Nanterre informed us that he had issued an international arrest warrant on January 28 against Floyd Landis, who tested positive for banned testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France, after our laboratory computer system was hacked,” Bordry said.
“He was summoned by the judge, he didn’t come so he’s now under an international arrest warrant.”
The French anti-doping agency launched legal action against unnamed persons after they found their laboratory computer system had been hacked into in September 2006.
Landis, the first rider to be stripped of a Tour victory, has continually denied any wrongdoing but the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected his assertion that his positive test was due to procedural mistakes by the laboratory.
Landis, 34, said last year after his two-year ban ended that he was trying to decide whether to follow fellow-American Lance Armstrong’s example and ride again in the Tour de France.
“It seems that (Landis) made all he could to enter into our computer system to try to prove the laboratory was wrong. He showed many documents he got by hacking to numerous sporting instances,” Bordry said. “The judge traced a network of hackers back to the ringleader.”

2010. Nice number. I’m not sure why. I like Valentines Day. Probably 2nd to Thanksgiving. I went over to watch the Austin Marathon at mile 12 at 7:30 am this morning. I rode over to the course with Bromont and got there a little early, so decided to grocery shop for breakfast first. The checkout lady wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. I thought that was kind of strange, but wished her the same.

I’d never seen a huge marathon. Something like 13,000 people run the race or some portion of it. I was surprised how spread out the first 20 runners were. Then the masses. So, I watched awhile, went back and slept abit and then went out for a 3 hour ride. Hilly ride. A cold front came in and the wind switched to the North and got strong the last hour. It was pretty hard. Maureen went to Florida to visit family at Disney World. She came back looking cute as bunny except she looked like Minnie Mouse. It’s amazing what that place can do to a grown woman. I need a rest day. Too much action for Steve recently. Early season training is humbling.

Marueen decked out in her new outfit.

Everything Valentine's Day should be. I didn't contribute the flowers, they arrived on their own.

As a cyclist, I was almost more interested in the cyclists riding along with the runners, more than the runners. Many of them seemed so serious, much like they were in a competition themselves. Strange.

Valentine photo from Oman.

I am flying back to Austin later this afternoon. Kind of an in and out trip. It is amazing how quickly someone can improve at something that they were once very good at. Yesterday I was 100X better riding my MTB bike than the day before. I was riding ledges and sketchy shit that I didn’t even come close to riding the day before. I think explaining technics to someone helps refresh it for you. Plus, I was riding less than 30psi, which made my tires hookup a ton better. It is nice to have some kind of form (although pitiful as it is) to ride to areas that the “average guy” can’t get to. It is rewarding looking off the edge of a mountain that you climbed on your bike, especially if you climbed it off-road. It seems more of you, nature and the bike, that way.

I saw these guys riding over to the mountain. If you ever see me doing this, you have my permission to shoot me.

Example of what was unridable, then ridable.

Another example of why we ride.

No matter how good I thought I was-I didn't do those stripes on the socks justice.

The oatmeal (instant) at Starbucks isn't that bad after you dump all the condiments on it.