SPECS Racing Van

Bob has worked a deal with a new title Sponsor Secs Eyewear out of Wichita Kansas. This is the van that we might be taking to some of the races.

check em out at www.specsrx.com.

Working on getting a race team website up and running with dreamweaver 8, and finishing up the sponsors for the 09-11 seasons. The jerseys are next on the agenda.

SunFlower State Games

More on this later, Bob and I contested the Sunflower Races in Topeka.

OKC Crit Weekend

Day 1, Undiscoved put on a nice crit at the fire hill fire station, big hill every lap, it was a hotter than a fire cracker on the 4th of july going up the hill with a tail wind and black top till the top, E. Schick and Dave Wills started it off in the 4/5's race and did well for only there second race as a 4. The crit was no joke, probably the hardest ive done this year with that flipping hill, and near 100 degrees heat index (probably 101). I did the solo and tried to hang with the group in the 3/4's. It was attack after attack up the hill, a break would get away and then the catch. Probably 3 times before a group got away and Team Fossil with a man in the break put the breaks on the pack enough to give them the gap that no one could pull back. I would say there were 5 in the break and after a few more laps 5 in the chase group with two of them being of the Fossil type, so there was no pulling them back. I ended up taking second in the case group for a grand total of 7th for the day. Not to bad out of 30 starters, and i did end up winning a prime for some cycling gloves! B Jay and Andy M raced the 1/2/3's race, andy got off the front and drove it home for the win, B Jay got 5th.
Day 2 OKCity Crit (OK State Championship) it was the first year they ran the race in this location. Very clean and fast course with a small little riser to the finish line and a lot of corners on the back side of the course. David W. did well and ended up with 17th in the 4's, he also jamed it for a prime and guess what, HE won a pair of cycling gloves. I did ok and hung in there till the end.. i kinda lost count of the laps to go and how much time was left and next thing i knew the bell was ringing. I asked the guy next to me if it was a prime lap and he said we were down to two laps to go and i was mid pack. Not a good place to be for a fast, flat crit course. I tried to move up a little and went around a few, on the last corner i hit the gas and probably past 10 guys but my position in the pack was so far back that i didn't have a chance to open it up in the front. I ended up with 10th or 11th. Jay Hawkins made it down and finished 4th (the guy knows how to ride a crit) i tried to shadow him for the crit but ended up losing his wheel near the end. He usualy maintains a top 10 position throughout the crit. Thats about it for the weekend, no rain only sunshine and some nice fields for some good crit action.
Next weekend Sunflower Games in Topeka.

Baldwin City Road Race

Baldwin is a 72 mile road race with rolling terrain and a nice long hill at the finish.

Nice result this weekend, the 3/4 race was a true team effort, wouldn't have gotten the placing without the team effort of blocking and following attacks.
I got off the front with jason fife (KCOI) and we worked for about a lap and a half until the pack caught us. A few miles later an SKC redheaded ponytail guy took off on a solo break, an unattached guy jumped a few miles later and Gary O stuck to his wheel and worked with him to catch the red ponytail skc guy. Curt Shelman from Chamos Butter Team dropped the hammer and tried to real them in with me on his wheel, after his pull i sat behind him and discouraged him from working anymore, then another Chamos Butt'r guy took off to bridge and i got his wheel, he got tired of pulling me along and just as the pack caught us another Chamos guy took off with no one covering his wheel and ended up bridging up to the lead group. With the big teams in the group SKC, Chamos, and Oz kinda noodled on the front and got the break a nice gap. Bob got tired of chill'n in the pack and started attacking the pack into the headwind section, which wasn't to hard to hang on to, then the lone mesa guy did some attacks on the cross wind section and guttered the field. I got caught at the back of the pack in the gutter with kent, Jason Fife (KCOI) an SKC guy, and a velotek guy and we popped off the group.
In the end Gary O stayed away with his break companions and finished 3rd. Great Job in the break Gary. Bob Finished 9th ish with the pack. Kent sucker punched me and faked a cramp only to blast past me on the climb for 12th and i got lucky 13.

Kansas Masters RR @ Olsburg

Bob and i made the drive up to Olsburg for the masters RR. They combined the 30-34's, 35-39's, and 40-45's into one group to give us a grand total of around 20 guys for a 72 mile RR.
This was my first master’s race, and they are a little different than reg. cat races. Instead of the first across the line winning, all you need to worry about is the guys in your age group.
A group of 8 got away (bob included) with trey h, Jeremy pike (cat2) and the rest of my age group in the back group. I tried to attack and bridge the gap to at lest make the 30's guys put in effort to chance me only to see trey dragging them back to me.. i wanted to make it to the group before the climb. trey wanted to keep us together till the climb, go figure.. so we hit the climb and trey and pike hammered it to the lead group and the 30's guys ended up doing the last lap with only a few 40+'s that were with us. I attacked a lot to wear down the 30's and after the last climbs i took off on a flyer that seemed to last forever, i think it was around 5 miles, and ended up staying away (who said those tntt's wouldn't pay off)
In the end Bob got second for kansas in the 35-39 age group, and I won the 30-34 age group (out of 3). We got a lot of miles in along the way.

YTD Summary

July 11th TSB/CTL/ATL

M, T, Wed Rides

Rode into work Monday, for once not much of a breeze out of the south (its a south to work/ north home route). I did it on the CX bike because i didn't put the chain on the road bike yet.

Tuesday it rained so i ended up just doing an hour on the spin bike.

Wednesday was WNWorlds near Park City. I felt pretty good, probably do to the few easy days and did alot of work off the front. I switched my tires to some fat 25 meats, im sure you could use them in cross if the course was not muddy, and i still managed to stay up with the lead group. I met up with an old friend Kent after the ride that is working out of wichita a few days out of the week. He's lives in Garden City and is going to be making a few of the rides while he is in town. I'll be glad to see him on his bike because last year he was in an car/bike accident and mangled his ankle. He is planning on doing a few of our Tuesday TT's and the WNWorlds.

4th o July

Went to the knob this weekend (shell knob, mo) with Erik Schick and family for some good ol hill riding. Makes me glad that i live in kansas after a weekend of climbing...decending...climbing....decending....climbing....
well u get the point.

That afternoon we drank a few beers and tried not to blow off our fingers! Erik ended up blowing a hole in his new t-shirt and i just have a few burn marks on the fingers.. now kids that's how you have fun on the 4th!

Saturday Erik and i did another 3 hour ride, he took off on the BFHill as i was fixing my derailleur that was dragging on my spokes and i spent the next few minutes trying to catch him... i ended up breaking my chain at the top of the last hill from the shear power i put in to try and catch him... that and the fact that im not much up on lubing the thing.. it had a ton of miles on it..

anyway i got the cross bike out for the next ride and did a little bit of dirt road riding the next day.. thank god for cross bikes..