Super Rookie’s World

I am sure that headline got one person in particular all riled up.

Anyways, back to me.

Remember a month and a half ago when I wrote that Ford was only trading at $5.35 on the exchange and you should buy it? If you need to be refreshed of this read this post. Do you know what has since happened to the companies prices? How about closing at $8.26 at the end of trading today. What is that a 503% gain? I am bad with math, but I am smart enough to tell you that if you all listened to me you could be rolling like Donimator.

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Now onto a completely unrelated topic, I am broke and will be moving into my parents basement exactly 2.5 months before I get married. At least I am a college graduate.

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Congrats to Michael Lalla for qualifying for College Bicycle Nationals. I suppose that Boyce and Noonan should get props as well.
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New bikethrow podcast is up, featuring Bill O’Reiley (the original!) It is kind of amazing that we took a few months off and the hits still keep rolling into the site. We need more contributors, especially for the woman’s side of things. It could really be a benefit to the community to have some reporting from all types of bicycle racers.

The abridged version of 9 years:

I started college in the fall of 1999, at Northern Michigan University with a declared major of Criminal Justice. At the time of my freshman year I wore JNCO jeans and listened to Anticon religiously. I got a job at the campus radio station, WUPX, and went to the hockey games before finally calling it quits and moving back to the cities after a year.

Over the course of the following summer I worked on the Ralph Nader campaign. After the campaign I moved to Florida for a year to live with my dad and step-mom. Ironically, they lived in West Palm Beach county where this was going on. While living in Florida I reinforced my vegetarian lifestyle by working at the Durango Steakhouse and playing hockey in my free time.

I then decided to move back to Minnesota where I went to school at the University for 3 years. I became an American Studies major and started working nights at UPS. The American Studies thing was cool, especially after I realized I had been living next door to one of the best authors–I bet Matt edited the last line on the Wiki page–on the subject for quite sometime. The University ended up not working out because of the foreign language requirement–of which I attempted to take 4 (French, Spanish, ASL and German).

While at the University I met Sarah and dropped out of school to become a messenger. Which led to the famous quote in the Star Tribune, “Dropping out of school to be a messenger was one of the best things I have ever done.” This quote was later regretted and it took 2 years to finally finish a degree at Metro State after a 1 year pit stop in Chicago.
So in short:

9 years in college to graduate and I am not a doctor.

If you ever find yourself really bored in the Twin Cities area you should head over to the University Grove neighborhood in St. Paul. It is just north of my old stomping grounds, St. Anthony Park. The neighborhood is a ton of fun to walk around in and see all the cool modernist houses. According to the neighborhood website, “there are 103 homes built for professors and administrators over a 60 year period, representing an architectural time capsule.” When I was a kid I used to think the neighborhood was really goofy looking. Now I enjoy going through there when I am driving home from school.

Just a taste of what you will see:

and…

and…

I think it is kind of cool knowing that there are a ton of goofy houses right down the street from where Hotpinkevil! and I are moving to in a month or so.

University Grove Website

Apparently these are the images that come up when I Google Vanity Search: “Super Rookie Graduates”

I guess I am a comic book fan.

Yikes.

I have added some links to the site. The two that have recently been added have to do with the Nature Valley Gran Prix that is coming to the Twin Cities in about a month and a half. I like watching the pros when they are here, and the rumor has it that the NVGP totally stole the LGR idea for the Lillydale time trial, say what? Hmmmm. Can’t tell you right now or I will get shot, but Event X will more than likely be happening for the pro’s in 2008.

I plan on asking the organizer for some royalties to the team for the awesome idea (we accept Granola Bars and Rock & Republic Jeans). Anyways, I really need to get back to writing my senior paper and this little 5min adventure has renewed my ability to write about American Exceptionalism and various other pastoral views of our “native” landscape.

This is the blog written by people behind the scenes, like my old coach Larry Foss of the Fix Massage. It is called the Tria Your Cycling Blog.

Here is the really awesome blog written by actual racers, directors and may even feature a podcast from a really professional trio of individuals (guess who?). It is called the Pro Cycling Minnesota blog.

Oh real quick.

My Favorite Parts of the NVGP

• Downtown Minneapolis criterium. While I haven’t been thrown into the back of a squad car at the event in about 3 years it still has a special place in my heart for a variety of reasons: 1) the aforementioned incident when Minneapolis’ finest went apeshit, and 2) the first pro race that I ever witnessed. It was so damn fast and the streets were packed with people, and 3) the weather was finely nice last year.
• The Downtown St. Paul criterium. What else is going on in Downtown St. Paul on a Wednesday night? Nothing. Seriously. St. Paul is a ghost town after the farmer’s market closes up shop on Sunday afternoon! This is by far the best thing going for St. Paul prior to my upcoming move back to the capital city.
• Mankato circuits. That hill is straight up brutal. In my opinion the Mankato course should be a 8 mile circuit that covers that hill about 12 times. That would be one hell of a 96 mile race. Watching Kristin Armstrong fly up that thing last year was amazing.
• Erik Saunders (he is coming back in 2008!)

• Stillwater Criterium.

Why is Stillwater the best of them all?  

Simple:

Yep, that is me dominating the cat2/3 field the first time up the climb. I don’t remember what happened after that, but it doesn’t matter.

What would make the NVGP better?

• Prizes to the first person up the Stillwater climb during the amateur race.
• A free get out of jail type pass for individuals riding their bikes after the men’s race finishes (retroactive for 3 years).
• More amateur races like they do at Joe Martin and Tour de Gila.
• Longer road stages at Canon Falls and Mankato.
• Free Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
• Giant inflatable Wheaties Box with my picture on it.

I have to get back to writing my paper now. One more day till I graduate.

(dis) took home 4th place and the Little Guy got 8th place for the team today. I finished in 19th place, but I am more than thrilled with how my teammates did in the 26 lap race in near epic conditions in downtown Excelsior. The highlight of the race, for me, was having the 1971 State Road Race Champion, Bob Williams, acting as the announcer of the race. It is awesome hearing Bob say your name over the PA, even though I didn’t hear him say Spencer Hayes, I did hear him say–on several occassions–”move up Super Rookie, you are on the back!”

Here is why the race was awesome:

• Bob was the announcer.
• The results were done within 5 minutes.
• The OnSupport guys let me pretend like I had a flat tire on the last lap and performed a wonderful wheel change. I felt really pro having Sean push me back into the race (to finish by myself).
• The OnSupport guys didn’t make fun of me when I learned that there was nothing wrong with my wheel, and that the reason that it felt flat was because it was running at (when I got home I checked) 70psi! Dumb mistake on my part…I really was feeling “loose” in the corners
• The Little Guy and I were referred to as the patrons of the peleton by Bob because we have been cat3s for so long. That was amusing.
• Mike “The Bomb” Bantle attacked like clock work, but this time he inserted sound effects when he went up the road for his one lap of glory.

Here is why the race was not awesome:

• The weather.
• The crash at 2 laps to go, which got me out of my game and led me to believe that I had a flat tire after I locked up the wheels to avoid the 3 riders that went down in front of me.

It is early in the year and I am stoked to be part of this team! Even Jason and Margaret came out to watch the racing and they gave us a ride home in their American station wagon (Ford Escort). It was a great ride home to cap off the day.

Super Rookie’s Tips For a Successful Criterium:

1. Get Bob Williams or Matt Anderson to do the announcing. Everyone else is terrible at it.
2. Hire OnSupport to run a wheel pit, it is money well spent and makes your race 100x better.
3. Have goody bags for the racers that contain a ton of coupons and some awesome candy!

Thanks to Verve Racing and Excel Cycles for the racing today.

I can’t get the embedded video to work, but you can click here to see the most awesome finish in the 2008 season of MLS.

THE GOAL OF THE YEAR!

After witnessing this goal by Marcelo Gallardo our very own DC United fan went crazy:

Rashaan Bahati took the big win at the Athens Twilight Criterium held in Athens Georgia:

Some are calling it the biggest win of his career, but I don’t know if I agree with that after he won last years CSC Invitational:

Not bad…

Well. I drove all the way out to the Ken Woods Road Race (in Canon Falls) this morning with Monty Byrnes. Except, while on the way to the race we got stuck about 200m behind a burning semi-truck and the entire free way came to a standstill. I am talking straight out of the disaster movie genre. There was absolutely no where we could go and while I was secretly hoping for the truck to stay in place so I wouldn’t have to “race” in the bad weather.

As it turns out a ton of other riders were stuck behind the burning semi. In fact, Mean Dawg and Dan Swanson’s friend were just in front of us. We all arrived at the same time and had a great laugh about the burning truck and how it nearly ruined our day! It was at that time that I got the awesome news that the 1/2s were combined with the 3s. Fricken awesome!

To the uneducated, that meant we had to “race” with the really, really, really fast guys.

It didn’t work out so well for myself as I only made the first 3 miles with the main group before fighting it out for one lap with a group of about 17 riders. I don’t know how many of that group finished, but I am happy I stopped.

Highlight of the race: stopping.
Lowlight of the race: starting.

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Sarah took me to Morton’s tonight. We ate like kings and then went to Kids in the Hall. They were doing a live show at the Orpheum and it was amazing. One of the greatest graduation gifts ever! They even did the awesome characters that we have all come to love. Morton’s is way better than Ruth’s Chris, but I still haven’t been to Murray’s yet.

Mmmmmmm. Steak.

I have a final tonight in PoliSci 101. It should go relatively well judging by past experiences. Subjects that you enjoy, and freshman level classes during your 9th year of college seem to be pretty easy. In the meantime I am getting closer and closer to getting done with the big paper, it wouldn’t be possible to finish such a paper without the help of Sarah.

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We bought our train and plane tickets for our honeymoon out to Seattle. We are leaving when the Republicans show up, and returning a few days after they leave–to ensure that they are all gone. I don’t think we could have planned it any better! The train will be a ton of fun going through Glacier National Park. When we are in Seattle we will be doing all types of fun stuff, but you can bet that we will be doing the Kurt Cobain walking tour and the whole throwing of fish thing–yes, it looks dorky.

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The Minnesota Thunder open their season tonight. (dis) designed the supporter scarfs which look pretty bad ass:

City Pages has run their preview.

I believe that I mentioned a few weeks back that the Thunder players sent out postcards to their season ticket holders. Our postcard featured a note from Dale Weiler. Judging by the lack of information about his soccer career I expect really big things from him this season. Much like the little know outfielder that turned into Pedro Cerrano in the Major League movies.

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I have been riding my BMX Cruiser 24inch (a Haro) the past few days. It is becoming my new commuter bike and every time I ride it I get the biggest smile on my face. It is so much damn fun to ride and it reminds me of why I do this whole racing thing. If any of you are down and out on your bike hobby go and jump on a bmx or cruiser and every kid in your neighborhood will idolize you.

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