So it all seemed so simple, when I decided I would come back to the states to race cross’ this season I was pretty sure,I wouldn’t step foot on Belgian soil again until at least September of next year. I was incorrect! I’m heading over with Geoff Proctors euro cross’ camp in December, which will be held at my alma mater in Izegem, Belgium. I’m really am looking forward to getting at least a couple rice tarts in my gullet upon arrival and then getting dirty with the Euro’s for the holidays. But before that happens, I’m getting ready for nationals in Providence and with so many of my friends and co-workers coming to town for the big weekend, it’s going to be a little crazy. To top all that off I’ve got a 10 page research paper due, 8 chapters worth of note cards to write up, two weird journal reviews that need to be finished, and of course I need to study for my finals. Greeaatt. On the racing side, I should first mention the cool NY Times article on racing cross and the pictures! What a good race Portland was for the NY Times to see a real mud cross’. Back here on the east last weekend was battle royal as usual. The 5th round of the verge new england series in Sterling, MA was on Saturday and after a couple hard laps it was Marky, Timmy and I out in the front for most of the race. Each one of us threw in some good attacks through out the race. Timmy won and Mark “The Shark” got me for second in the kick. Some good coverage and videos of the race is here on Henry’s site if you have the time, head over there and watch some. This weekend is a weekend off with no racing, just a last little training into next weekend’s races in Rhode Island and then the big boy on the 16th of December. For anyone who needs more information on the nationals in Providence, you can look here. Thanks to Chris Milliman for the pictures!

Seems like its finally getting cold out here on th east, but not last weekend in PA. Since I skipped last weeks blog update because I was running around like lunatic all week to get my crap ready for my west coast USGP assault, I didn’t have time to put in a good update, so I fiqured why bother. The races last weekend were pretty good. I took my first “W” of the year down in PA on Saturday and on Sunday I had some problems with my tire selection in the mud, but I fixed that problem on Monday morning with a call to Stu over at cyclocrossworld.com. Sucks to say I had to pull the plug and stop racing Sunday, but I saw it as better to happen in Jersey rather then this weekend at the USGP. So if nothing else it made me get my act together and get my bikes mudder proof’d and ready for the next couple weeks of cx’ season if need be. My girlfriend Emily was awesome as always but especially last weekend when she drove Driscol and I in the caprice all the way down to Lower Allen, PA and then the next day to Jamesburg, NJ and then back home, it was great. We fit 4 bikes in the trunk with 2 sets of wheels and then the rest of the wheels in the back seat with Jamey, not bad for the caprice, plently of leg room, everyone was comfy, not only all that space to store bikes, it has a 25 gallon gas tank, we filled it up 2 times for the entire trip! So with a win and a dnf off I went to the west coast to the Tacoma/Portland USGP’. It was the typical rain and crap I’ve come to hate about the northwest over the years, it never fails to rain when I go to Portland, always mud and slop. Saturday was a hard race, I lost the lead group on the “80″ meter run-up after a couple times up. I don’t even care if it was 80,78,or 178 meters, it was long as hell and my feet were bleeding and I was leaking oil all over the course during and after that run. If I head back to that venue and they have that run-up I’m going to need to train a little bit more specifically for that mountain. So after having to let the front group go on the run-up section and a bunch of other people lap after lap making their way to the finish line. Some of my favorite visitors had to be Adam Craig and Matt Shriver, they both were running about as fast as I did up the mountain so envision Craig going up the hill and stubling to get on his bike because it was steep, well he re-mounts, dismounts and re-mounts again, so I’m like “ahhhhhhh crap” I slow down because I almost ran into the back of him with my head down, so then I catch up to those two a couple corners later to over hear Shriver tell Craig “alright we dropped Powers,lets go, lets go!!” and then the look-backs. Yes, lookbacks, Lance, tour de france style, lookbacks from Shriver. Now Shriver, I know your going to think I’m pissed, but I say that with no anger, it was good. Definetly my favorite moment from that race. Sunday was a real crap fest, mud and peanut butter all over the course, thankfully I had my bikes ready for some riding in the mud and managed to get another podium finish in the mud. Finishing 3rd in the mud for me was huge. A lot of people don’t think I can race in the mud and from some previous results I’d probably agree, but, its not that I can’t race in the mud, I hate running with my bike in the mud for 4 of a 5 minute lap, that doesn’t get me excited, but kudos to the designer of the course on Sunday as it was good and had some good flow going which was fun, even though I’m still picking the grit and mud out of my eye balls. I’ve got some pictures from my friend Ryan Amirault from the USGP colorado weekend and one picture from my treo, I saw this “cat” out at stelacoom. I said, “hey man smile” and he flipped me the bird, what a nice pink panther… Seeya!

So everything here is good and since I’ve been slackin this week on my blog, its going to be short. I actually passed my tests! I got a 76 and an 80, “not bad!” After I glued about 10 vittoria tubulars on Thursday and packed my bikes up, I was on my way to Boulder,CO for the USGP races. I played ninja at the airport and used two vouchers to get both my bikes and my box o wheels on the plane! again, “not bad” and I didn’t honestly know how the races were going to go, I’ve never actually tried to fly in the night before a race at altitude and go for it. Didn’t work out badly on Saturday as I got the kick for second place in front of Wellzy and Timmy. To credit them both they were riding awesome and after Wicks snapped off his seat-post and Wells got a little gap on Timmy and I, and it wasn’t easy to close that down! Sunday wasn’t that bad, but I had a little less luck when I dropped myself at the start, not hard, I just had my rear wheel slip on some dirt and that put my chain off and then I was in the 20’s after that, put in a hard effort yada yada yada, maybe too much because I was in 4th after Ryan was having bike problems and then I put myself in the tape with 2 laps to go. My bar actually hooked to the tape and then stayed on it until the course marker where I went over my bars. So ended up 6th aparently, although some say 5th, I’m pretty sure Kabush was in front, I don’t know what happened there honestly. Anywho, this was supposed to be short, so, Thank you to Eddie Clark for these pictures! Check out this video of Saturdays race on you tube. Seeya!