First with the good news I suppose. My roomates and I dominated the local cross’ race Sunday in Bedford, MA. Pretty nice to be back on the cross’ bike and get a win at my first race of the year. It wasn’t star cross’ or Michigans UCI weekend but it was good enough for me and served as a nice
post tour of Missouri opener. Not traveling to those other events gave me a chance to relax after ToM and get my new ridleys dialed. I should mention they are friggin’ sick. Full carbon, sram red equip’d bad ass machines. They remind me of a dirt bike only with pedals! I miggghhtt make those dirt bike noises when I’m riding it….maybe. Okay I do! We also got cocky over at cross’ world and got our names on the back of our kit this year. (I had to put a picture of this!) Niel from Road Mag has been thinking he’s real slick, randomly calling me up before his race at star cross and qouting me on his blog. If you need another good laugh check out Niels blog Also. I added this program in the top right corner of my of the blog. It’s called finetune and it lets you stream all the music I enjoy, so if you’ve seen me riding around with my ipod and ever wondered what got me pumped before the race, click play and enjoy. I have to say the reason I named this post “lames” is because I’ve have a light case of the lames lately. You would ask why, I don’t really know, the normal things in life I suppose, but last Sunday topped it off when some guy at my local Massachusetts cx race yelled at me and asked me what “my crit was…” I alllmost stopped dead. I had two laps left after that and I was stunned, that someone would actually accuse me of anything un-ethical. It hampered my concentration and I told this person my next time up the courses run up to come talk with me after the race because I hoped I could help him understand the depth of what he said. I never got my chance as he didn’t show up, but it didn’t sit well with me as someone who tries very hard to make sure people see me as a regular guy who likes to ride his bike hard. Doping talk is actually lame and I promise not to ever mention it here at my blog. I’ll end with a picture of my roomates and I at the podium on Sunday. Off to Cross’ Vegas see everyone there!

I have to get ready to roll out for my Time Trail. But I had to get this up before I left. Racing here has been awesome, I really like stage racing and pretty excited to just be out here racing with everyone again, not suffering like all of last month. Jelly Belly has James Medley in the young rider jersey which is riders under 24 years old. Not 24 and under which would have given me the opportunity to give a go for that jersey. Instead I went for the KOM the first day and just missed it. We thought it was a little earlier then it was and I burnt a couple matches I probably shouldn’t have and came up a little short. Thats all for the quick update. If you haven’t heard, BMC’s Dan Schmatz got punked my an Armadillo yesteday. Sorry buddy. Get better.

Yep, a lot I should write about. First off, I signed up with cyclocrossworld.com for cross’. I’m very happy with that, tons of support, an arsenal of bikes, wheels, mechanics, tents, trainers etc. But for racing in general, it’s gonna be thick this month. Next week I’m racing in the tour of Missouri, then we have a cross world sponsor presentation that week after Missouri. Then I’m off to Vegas for the cross’ race and the crit and back here for more racing that weekend! It’s gonna be crazy. Last weekends road nationals in South Carolina was a fun race. I really enjoy that climb in the course (honest!) it’s gradual, kicks a little bit but its not steep like brasstown bald is and thats what I really enjoy about it. For Jelly Belly the goal was easy. We needed to take care of Andy until it was match time. The Baj, matched Levi going over the climb but Levi was on a totally different level then everyone else and thats just how racing is sometimes. Road Magazine came out and video’d a bunch of stuff, Niel from road did a ride with us on Friday and found out what it was like over at the JB camp. I’ll post some of the you tube vid’s he took below for viewing. While I’m thinking of videos, Evan Schmidt sent me his first video; ‘one’ it goes through mostly the north western racing scene and what good racing the north west has to offer including the great cross’ scene and it ends out in Providence with the 2005 national championships. Went out to Eastern Massachusetts this week for a couple reasons, 1) I needed to see the lady. 2) Went to see the release of Sam Smiths cyclofile. Great film, going to sell a billion copies, mainly because I’m in it, but also because Sam and his crew did a great job with this cut, pick it up, it comes out on the 17th I hear. and finally… 3) I planned a Ride with Timmy J and Jesse Anthony a couple days ago. Jesse was getting cocky with his new Jamis gear fresh out the box, white and black bikes w/ custom painted forks to match the frame. His signature stars and bars on the cuffs of the skinsuits and of course his name on the back, the whole shabangabang for that guy this year, Timmy’s Cannondales look too good. The one I saw was white/pearl with some gold lettering. I didn’t even ask if it was his ‘official’ X-TJ race bike or not, but the one I saw was sharp. I haven’t actually put my eyes on the ridley x-fires I’m riding yet, but I heard they are gonna be exclusive. I can’t wait! So after I drive out to ride with those clowns; they forgot to tell me it was Wednesday night cross’ practice, so we did do a bit of riding beforehand, then over to the practice, it sucked though because I was drooling over riding a little cx’ practice and only had my road bike. I’m going to be at interbike again in a bunch of different places, but you’ll probably most likely catch me over at Jelly Belly’s booth helping promote the sport bean. Here’s the videos, I gotta go to bed!

One more! LEARN THIS AND WIN, but you’ll pay Mike Jones!