Super Rookie’s World

I want to get something off of my chest. I have heard from a couple of people on separate occasions that they have run into people that have said that my site is “dumb,” “gay,” and “to Super Rookie-ish.” Well, what the hell did you think the site was going to be? I am really confused on why these people would even come to my site. I mean, what the hell did you think it was going to be? I got some help and created a website dedicated to myself. If you don’t like it don’t come here.

Plus, don’t use ‘gay’ as an insult. That is just plain stupid, wrong and shows your intolerance and ineptitude.

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I watched Cool Hand Luke the other night. It is a great movie. Why don’t movies get made like that anymore?

HereNT just helped me fix all of the bugs on the blog. He is trully one of the nicest guys around! We have him to thank for getting all of the error messages off of the website. Awesome.

Check him out here.

It is awesome having great friends.

I had a wonderful weekend. On Saturday Sarah and I went out with Yuppie and Margaret for lunch and after a brief stint at the Sushi place we decided to go down to Greektown with them again. I guess we just couldn’t get enough of them. But, they are a pretty cool couple so we really enjoy hanging out with them.

After getting home from a late bite to eat Sarah and I went to bed and I woke up just a few hours later for the 5th stage of the Tour da Chicago. Since, I had missed the last stage of the race on a cold and miserable day I had to show up on Sunday to solidify my position in the top 10. I was hoping for about 60 people to show up so I would get a consistent amount of points. We ended up having about 55 racers. The route took us around the city of Chicago to all of the “hills” in the city. These “hills” are really just large overpasses, or as they say in Milwaukee, viaducts.

The race started really fast and was all together all the way to the checkpoint on Belmont and Damen. After receiving my poker chip I was able to find myself in the lead group of 16. At this point I made an official Super-Rookie.com Midrace Count that let everyone else know how many people we had. Naturally everyone was stoked to hear me talk. At this point there was also a little attack from two riders that had about half of a block on us. I began to talk trash to Marco and the rest of Team Milwaukee so they would do some work and protect their fragile lead in the standings. So, they heeded to my advice and chased down the break. What a great bunch of guys.

So after another couple of miles and turns in the Loop we began to head down Upper Wacker Drive towards a quick right hand turn on Randolph and over a bridge to the finish line that was supposed to be located midway on the block. So I took the turn in about 10th wheel and was just beginning to initiate my sprint when I noticed that the finish line was at the start of the block. At this point I was a little bit out of room. I was able to catch 3 riders before the line. If the line was in the middle of the block I feel that I would have gotten about 3rd or 4th place. But, it wasn’t in the middle of the block, so I got 7th. James LeLonde from Team Milwaukee won the stage and Marko secured a bunch of points to approach the top step of the podium with Ansgar missing out on the 5th and 6th stage of the race.

I am currently in 4th place behind Marko, Casey and Jon Gatto. Ansgar is still in the lead, but will be missing some huge points on the last stage. Here are the top riders so far.

1st. 274 Ansgar
2nd. 261 Marko Lelonde
3rd. 257 Casey
4th. 257 Jon Gatto
5th. 254 Super-Rookie Dot Com
6th. 252 James Lelonde

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While some of you have been able to dissect my fantasy team you should all be in awe. The team may be a little weak in some areas, but I have an amazing ability of bringing out the best of all the riders on my team. For instance, Iban Mayo is going to be awesome this year. He will go crazy in the mountains and word is that Euskatel actually purchased a time trial bike for the 2006 season. Although, they only could afford one it is perfect for Mayo.

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Oh. Amling’s Bike Shop is looking for a good mechanic. Email me if you are interested. We are also opening up on Wednesdays now so come on in and see me at the shop!

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Dispencer is a funny guy and sent me these pictures of some of my riders.

This is of Christoph Moreau when he was on the “Drug Free Festina” team.

This is of Thor Hushvold towering over Robbie. But, Robbie is much more awesome.

Chicago-

After a marathon cycling draft that started over 40minutes late Epogen® team director Super Rookie was quite pleased with the overall selections of his team. With the last pick of the first round in the serpentine draft Epogen® had to wait for the first 5 picks of the draft. With Basso, Boonen, Pettachi, Ullrich and Vino off the board Epogen® had to the ability to take both a sprinter and an all-around threat with their first pick.

“I was really excited to take Robbie McEwen and Francisco Mancebo back to back like that. Robbie did a great job for us last year and I feel that Mancebo is going to be on the podium for the Vuelta and the Tour.” Super Rookie stated at the post draft news conference. He went on to add, “I was really hoping for the first pick or somewhere in the middle, but we made do. My assistant team director ‘Hell Kitty’ did a good job of scouting out some riders for me.”

After sitting through another 10 picks Epogen® continued to bolster their grand tour ranks with the selection of Levi Leipheimer and Jose Rujano. Super Rookie said, “I was hoping that a rider of Levi’s caliber would fall all the way down to me. With all of the other teams looking to bolster their classic teams I felt I had the opportunity to get another couple of great riders. Rujano was the revelation of the Giro last year and is hoping to make an impact in the Tour. I am sure that we will settle all of the contract disputes. But, Levi! He is on form and it is only February!”

With the first three rounds completed and the start of the fourth round underway the top riders were already finding their new homes. Naturally the top riders found some new teams for the upcoming season. The Grand Prix Motorcars already had Hushvold and Pettachi with Simoni bringing up the grand tours. But, with the addition of O’Grady in the sixth round it was obvious that dispencer meant business. But the surprise pick of the draft so far was the selection by the Thundercats of Gorgeous George Hincapie.

The rounds continue to drag on. The rookie teams of Better Than Ezra, mexXx, and The Superstars of Clown Porn on Ice continued to take their time with each selection. But, the veteran team director continued to pick with great class. The 5th and 6th picks for Epogen® were Cadel Evans and Michael Rasmussen respectively. “Both of the picks were real special to me. I have broken my collarbone before. I have looked at Cadel Evans as inspiration ever since. He has recovered from 4 broken collarbones. But, he has learned to stay on his bike and he is going to go for the podium in Paris! Rasmussen is another great rider. Plus, we have 4 time trial bikes that will fit him this year. So if he crashes again, we will be there with a real bike for him. Count on him and Rujano to take the polka dots in 2006.” Super Rookie stated.

At this time in the draft the experienced director realized that he still needed to get a bona fide classic threat. So after another long wait he took Kim Kirchen. This would provide for a good rider in the classics, but another steal that fell into the lap of Super Rookie was Christoph Moreau. The selection of Moreau was a difficult one to make. Super Rookie explained, “Moreau has been the subject of much trash talk over the years with the manager of the Thunder Cats. But, bygones are bygones. I feel that Moreau is going to be fantastic come July.”

With more riders going to their new teams the sleeper picks of the draft started to show their ugly head. It was around this time that directors started to take riders that some had never heard of. Some shocking picks were Frank Schleck, Gusev of Discovery and Danelle Bennti. But, Super Rookie had a few tricks up his sleeves. He selected Wim Van Huffel and Koldo Gil. Both of these riders had great 2005 seasons and this will surely be a breakout season. Van Huffel had a great Giro last year and is the next Belgian hope for the GC in the Grand Tours.

Approaching the end with only two more selections left crunch time came. Super Rookie began making phone calls to various team managers trying to get a feel for their upcoming picks. He realized that there was still a good classic rider left that would give his team a real hope for the one day races. There was also a possible podium pick for the Tour and Vuelta out there. Plus, David Millar and Tyler Hamilton were still available. After sweating out 10 picks it took about 5 seconds for Super Rookie to say, “With the last pick of the 11th round Epogen® takes Axel Merckx. I also would like to announce the last rider selection for the 2006 Epogen® Cycling Team presented by Super-Rookie.com, Iban Mayo.”

Although, there were a lot of great riders still available such as Epogen® users Tyler Hamilton and David Millar the team director decided not to go in that direction. “Epogen® came on board this team to show that their medicine provides valuable services to riders in need of life saving drugs. So there was some discussion of taking David or Tyler. But, with Tyler not being available till after the Vuelta starts and Millar is still a huge question mark. I feel that he has a lot to prove, but I think that Mayo will provide a lot more for this team in the coming year. I wish I could of added another rider. It would have been Millar. I really wanted to set some distance with the entire Heras Affair that brought shame upon this team and its former sponsors; On-Time Delivery and Edina Couriers.” Super Rookie added at the end of the press conference.

The draft ended with the quick selection of teams for the Team Time Trial stages. Super Rookie had the last pick in the round and was really hoping for the Liberty Seguros team to fall all the way to him. But, with everyone knowing that this was his favorite team it was obvious someone was going to be a big ass and take his team. Sure enough Ezra took Liberty just prior to Super Rookie’s pick. So with the final pick in the draft Super Rookie took Millar’s Saunier Duval team.

So in the end it seems that Epogen® has found a way to get a rider that has publicly admitted use of the career boosting drug and hopes to prove that Epogen® continues to works wonders in the 21st century.

The Team:

Robbie McEwen

Hopefully Freddie Rodriguez will find his lead out form come July.

Francisco Mancebo

The most painful rider to watch on the Pro Tour. Some say Super Rookie emulates his style.

Levi Leipheimer

Perfect form. I kind of want to go and buy a Mineral Wasser. What brand should I buy?

Jose Rujano

Whoops wrong guy. Here he is.

Hell Kitty is taller than this guy. Yet he is taller than the midget from Fantasy Island.

Cadel Evans

Hopefully this won’t be the scenario this season.

Michael Rasmussen

We have plenty of bikes this season for the Time Trial. But, this dude is awesome.

Christoph Moreau

That tounge definetly gets the French housewives attention!

Kim Kirchen

The teams hope for the Classics. Although his name suggests that he is a girl. It looks like he is all man to me.

Wim Van Huffel

The next hope for Belgium.

Koldo Gil

Best pick of the draft.

Axel Merckx

He rides for Phonak now. That means BMC not daddy’s bikes.

Iban Mayo

Getting up and putting the hammer down! That is my style!

Saunier Duval

Holy Crap. These guys are huge.

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Sadly not all requests could be filled for the draft this year. Perhaps next year the Minneapolis Bicycle Messenger Association’s Fantasy Cycling League will be able to expand once again.

Hey GopherJ. Next time just call me if you want to be graced with my company!

Jeremy Mayfield didn’t win today. But, he finished.

I can’t wait to get a signed picture in the new Quality Catalog at work of the Director.

Tomorrow is the draft for the fantasy cycling league. We are probably going to have about 6 teams in the league this year. Although, I got last place last year I feel that this is going to be my year. I think that my team(future team) is really going to pull off a fantastic year. My team is led by ‘racer x.’ He is a top not athlete and professional. While some may say that my team won’t get over the shame of the Heras Affair, I feel that I am a professional manager that will continue to support my athletes desire for the top of the podium race after race.

Check back here tomorrow night for the official presentation of the:

2006 EPOGEN® (Epoetin alfa) presented by Super-Rookie.com Cycling Team.

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This is what is going to happen to dispencer this season in the fantasy cycling league.

Hey look its dispencer’s messenger number.

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The USA Men’s curling team won the Bronze medal. It is the first medal in curling for the USA since it was reintroduced as an Olympic sport in 1998. Sadly, no one was able to watch the match because NBC refused to air its broadcast affiliates. Instead we had to listen to Dick Button talk about how beautiful the figure skaters were during the exhibition night at the Olympics.

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My shop just got the new Quality Catalog. I am disappointed that there are no photos of some of my favorite workers at the company. Oh well.

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Tonight, Sushi. Tomorrow, Supreme Victory.

I had a really good laugh after work on Thursday when I opened my email. Dispencer sent me a notice of an Ebay auction. I think it is the funnies auction in the history of Ebay. I love the description that this guy wrote. I kind of want to bid on the item just for the little ‘ditty’ that he wrote. Who knew people from Utah could be so funny!

Biemme Track Suit. Very Euro. No Reserve.

Check it out! It is so euro you better go and book your tickets to Turin. Seriously. If you somewhat appreciate my sense of humor you will love this link.

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At the cat4/5 night on Wednesday I found myself talking about the Nature Valley Grand Prix last year. So I feel obliged to share the picture of the t-shirts that we created in honor of the greatest bike racer EVER. Well, maybe not ever.

You can view the highlights of the Nature Valley Grand Prix over at cycling.tv. It is in the “free” section and all you have to do is register your name. It is totally worth it because you can see dispencer, Smackface!, myself and all of the Cat6 boys on the side of Chillikoot Hill in Stillwater. What I don’t get is why they don’t show the kick-ass chalk job that was all over the hill. Oh well.

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Sarah and I have started watching 6 Feet Under. It is slowly creeping its way up to the top of our list as the best series on HBO. Although the series is now over, I find myself really enjoying all of the storylines. The series was created by the guy behind American Beauty, so the humor is along the same lines.

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Fred Rodriguez got beaten in another sprint once again. But, at least this time he got 2nd place rather than 90th when he had his entire team at the front of the race. But, he was the first American to cross the line so maybe he can get a special jersey or something for that. He is after all the greatest American sprinter at finishing first among Americans after foreigners actually win the race, therefore we should all bow down at his mightiness for being so dominant! Go Fast Freddy! Do you have your own coffee brand? If you do I am going to buy some and I don’t even drink coffee.

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This is the album cover of the greatest song ever performed, recorded, created and heard. If you want to get me this album please do.

Rush alone makes me want to move to Canada. Gordon Lightfoot is just icing on the cake.

Floyd Landis just opened up everyone’s eyes for the upcoming season. At the Tour of California yesterday Floyd demolished everyone’s time including David Zabriske by over 30 seconds. Who cares if he has the ugliest time-trial position ever? Here is a photo of his ugly style:

Brian Parker thinks he looks like Graeme Obree’s Superman.

As you can see it is a bit unorthodox. But, who cares what you look like when you kick everyone’s ass?

My favorite story about Landis goes something like this. He was at the Dodge Tour de Georgia last year and when he passed Lance during warm-ups after he whooped Lance’s ass in the Time Trial he muttered something like, “Discover This.” Or so the story goes. This of course led to Lance’s famous showboating move of pointing to the clock and then back to Landis on the Brasstown Bald. But, people still like Lance.

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Last night was a great time with the xXx’ers. I think I may have recruited a few more people of the fantasy cycling league. We are hoping to get about 6 or 7 players this year to make it really interesting. We shall see what happens. I also talked up the Tour of 10k. So that meant I mentioned how cool mpls is and all of the kick-ass bars in North East. I also met a bunch of new people again. I gave Canadian Sean a Gord Fraser poster. Because he is Canadian I figured they might know each other.

But, the coolest thing of the entire night was when some lady threw some beer on a dude’s face. Stewart said he saw it coming in slow motion and was ducking for cover, but either way Jason got the brunt of the suds. When the couple finally went outside the lady smacked the dude over the head with her bag of books. Ouch.

Lots of fun was had. I came away with a Carbon-Fiber water bottle cage! It is so light. Turns out this will be why I win a race in the future. If I had a Carbon-Fiber cage last year in the Tour of 10k then I could of lasted all the way to the top of the Coulee for the victory. Oh well.

I am really looking forward to this upcoming season. I think it is going to be insanely awesome with all of the xXx’ers. Hopefully, we will always have a good amount of people at the races. I think we will so watch out Midwest. The death train is coming for you.
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Stars and Watercarriers is the greatest cycling movie ever. Go and buy it. What you should do is call up World Cycling and ask to speak to dispencer because he is the only one that works there that knows anything and tell him I sent ya. He will then laugh at you and take your order. But, also tell him about your love for Lance. He likes that kind of thing.

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I am never going to move to Appleton, Wisconsin. Seems like the coppers up there don’t like the bicyclists. Add that to the fact that El Torino is moving I ain’t got no one to protect me. But, I never thought of moving to that hell hole anyway. It’s better than Detroit I am sure.

Yesterday at the shop I followed the live updates of Stage 2 out at the Tour of California. It was awesome to read what was happening. It would have been even better to be able to watch the race on television. It seems like there was quite a crowd on the side of the road, especially on the final climb of the day. As expected the field got shattered on the climb and only 22 riders made it into the final break of the day that would prove to be important. With Gorgeous George taking the final sprint he moved into first place after receiving the 10second time bonus.

But, perhaps the coolest thing about the Tour of California right now is that Seng Chen an ex-messenger from Minneapolis and one of the founders of the MBMA is there taking some kick ass photographs that are appearing all over the web. Most of his photos can be found here at Cyclingnews.com. But, his photo George crossing the line in first was the lead in photo of the Cyclingnews.com coverage of stage 2. Here is the photo!

Seng wrote me in an email that it is rather difficult to shoot a road race because of the constant need to be on the move. I can only imagine trying to read a map, drive, watch the helicopters and prepare for the 30seconds of time to shoot the peleton. But, it seems like he is doing a great job! Find out more about Seng and his photos here at his personal website! I don’t know why he doesn’t have any photos of me on there. But, that will change shortly.

Check out the awesome photo of Marty throwing in Colby during the madison at the 2005 Worlds on the entry page!

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I have been having some problems with my website in regards to the posting of comments. I apologize to all for this. When you post a comment you will receive a blank screen with a bunch of gibberish. That doesn’t mean that your post has not gone through. All of the posts do go through. You just have to reload the site to see your comment. I am trying to get to the bottom of this with my friend HereNT.

Thanks for your patience.

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Tonight is the second xXx Racing Cat. 4/5 Night. We are trying to get some bonding between all of the new riders this year. I am really excited for tonight since the real ‘pros’ will be staying at the bar to watch the crappy coverage on ESPN2 of the Tour of Cali. This should be a good year for the team. There are about 5 of us in the 4/5s that have been 4s for more than two years so we are hoping to get up to the 3s. But, we will need all of the help to do that, so we are providing a welcoming place to all of the new riders. We are hoping to start a trend to have racers always coming through the ranks so we can have a strong team for the future!

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I have had pizza for the past four days. The best pizza was at Giordano’s. The shop employees went there the other night because we met our sales goals for January. It was a lot of fun.

Anyways. Are you tired of the speedskating beef? Margaret and Jeff are!

Smackface! it is. No more debate!

Draft Day is coming for the fantasy cycling league! Nobody better take Cunego! He was the best first round pick ever! All of my guys from last year were terrible except Heras and McEwen. Wait. Heras did drugs. Crapola.

After the folks took Sarah and I out to breakfast we decided to lay back on the couch and watch the Great American Race. To bad my boy got a little “loose” and went high into turn two and caused a puncture. It took approximately 5 laps to get back into the race, but the day was over. I was not deterred by this. I had Sarah fetch me a couple of Busch Lites and some Pork Rinds and had a grand ol’ time rooting against Jeff Gordon. I mean that is after all what NASCAR fans do right? I also have created a formula for future Saturdays and Sundays. Screw bike racing. Bring on the horsespower!

Mayfield:

+

+

Equals:

I am not this dedicated. Nor, do i have enough back space to carve a #19 into my back…..yet.

Today, I also watched the video of Greg Lemond’s fantastic victory in the 1989 Tour de France. Now I understand why the Little Guy is a big fan of Laurent Fignon. This tour is a must see for all the cycling fans out there. Although the video is a little on the short side you really get inside the race. To think that this race was only decided by 8seconds! To top it off Pedro Delgado started the race approximately 2:30 minutes down because he didn’t show up for his scheduled start time in the prologue! He only lost by about the same margin. That means it should have been three riders within just a handful of seconds.

The Main Players:

Greg LeMond. Going all “aero” and shit.

Laurent Fignon aka The Professor! The last great French rider! Little Guy’s Hero.

Pedro Delgado. What was my start time? I was too busy getting a blood transfusion!

After the race Sarah and I ordered some pizza and we watched Farenheit 9-11. It was the first time I have ever seen this movie. I thought it was relatively well done. Although I am sure that there are some discrepancies in the movie I thought it was very thought provoking. At this time I would like to deter all of the Republicans from commenting on this topic. You won the election.

So, the day was not over. We then watched “The Impossible Hour.” This movie is about Ole Ritter’s attempts on the hour record in Mexico City in 1973(?). I can’t imagine the grit and determination that it takes to even attempt this record. The part of the movie that I went “Holy Shit!” was when the narrator said that his first kilometer clocked in at 1.15.7seconds. I can’t even approach that right now, let alone attempt to ride my bike for more than an hour.

Here is Ritter. He tried for the record on three days in one week!

Next up is Stars and Watter Carriers about the 1972 Giro d’Italia! I guess that you could call this Multimedia Day.

The Cannibal:

Word.

I received a couple of angry emails from people saying that I put a picture of my kick ass NASCAR shirt on the site instead of a picture of my mask. Well, I know most of you come directly to this page because you have it at the top of your bookmark page. But, the picture of El Rookie is on my splash page. You know the actual http://www.super-rookie.com

Gosh.

Oh. Daytona is on Sunday. Go #19!

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You are never going to believe what I am about to type. The sushi place is finally opening. I know that there have been some bets placed on the actual start date of my employment there, but I start tonight after I close the bike shop. I will usually work on Saturday and Sundays to help get some cash flow for the house. I am pretty pumped up to work at the place because the owners are pretty cool and it has been almost 5 months since I was hired! Ha. The joys of opening your own business in Chicago.

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The big talk in the Minnesota cycling scene is the admission of guilt by Adam Bergman that he took EPO before the Tour de Georgia in 2004. While I applaud Bergman for coming clean I wish he would of done it sooner. But, I have never been in his situation of outside pressure to do well. So, he made a mistake and paid the price and will be able to start racing in July.

However, I do feel that the admission seems to be a little forced. Why wait till now? Why not admit it earlier? But, he did answer those questions in his letter. I hope a team will pick him up for the coming year because he is a good rider. I do have some mixed feelings though. I was on the Bergman bandwagon a few years back when he was still with GP at the Nature Valley. His success was a huge factor in me getting involved with cycling, not because I was ever going to be at his level, but because he was a local kid doing very well against the pros.

The funny thing about this entire episode is that all of the people from Grand Performance must have a foot in their mouth. I remember sitting at One on One in downtown two summers ago right after his positive test. A lady came in to the shop in full GP gear and was talking about how the test was flawed and she was a lawyer and was going to make sure his name gets cleared. How it is a crime when a flawed test hits home. I bet she feels a little stupid now.

But, welcome back Adam. You won’t be seeing me racing against you. Just because I ain’t that good!

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The 2nd Annual Minneapolis Bike Messenger Association Fantasy Cycling League is holding its draft Saturday the 25th. This year we are extending the league to include some of the spring classics. Last year the league just covered the Giro, Tour and Vuelta. Naturally, I got screwed with Heras getting caught, but this year I have got some real good sleeper picks.

The league is set up with each team having about 15 riders. You get to select a team for each of the grand tours of 8 or 9 riders. You get points based on their finish in the overall, KOM, sprints, and individual stages. With the extension to the classics we will count the finish in overall only on those days. It costs $20 to get in and all of the proceeds go to benefit Super-Rookie.com because I am going to win it all this year.

We had four teams involved last year. This year we are hoping to extend the field to either 6 or 7 teams. So if you want in make sure you email me. But, I can’t guarantee anything because Dispencer might of already recruited enough people. It is a lot of fun to have a team for the upcoming races.

Here is a little hint; Tyler Hamilton’s ban ends in September. To bad it is after the Vuelta starts.