Super Rookie's World

Tonight Sarah and I are heading up to the National Sports Center to take in a Minnesota Thunder game. We are going to the game with Roughkat and the other Sarah, Marthaler is going to meet us up there! Soccer is a beautiful game and I hope that the weather stays nice for the duration of the match.

The Whitecaps lost at home to the Thunder a few weeks back. It was the first time the Thunder had beaten the Whitecaps at home since the Bronze Age. If the Thunder win tonight they will be tied for second place in the league with a few games in hand. The game should be a ton of fun and hopefully the team will play Dale Weiler. You may remember that Dale was the player that wrote us a postcard from training camp. Therefore, he is my favorite player.

Sarah is more partial to Freddy Moojen.

When I get to the top of a hill on my 20lb BMX Cruiser and coast all the way down the backside I tend to have wonderful ideas. Some of my best ideas occur to me during that time period. Naturally, I forget almost all of them by the time I get to go home and share them with the rest of the world. Oh well.

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I got my tire glued the other day at Flanders Bros. They did a good job and since I left the wheel in my car overnight I now get high when driving. It reminds me of when I used to make Este Rockets with my brother. Those things were so cool, and dorky. In fact, I bet many of my friends were big time model rocket builders. Yep, I am sure the Little Guy made a ton of them in the farm fields of Maple Grove, and Dis probably found a way to put explosives in them and shoot them at children from Edina.

Good times.

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An okay idea came to my attention today on the MCF message board. It was about an Omnium competition at the track in Blaine. The basic premise of an Omnium competition is to combine a bunch of events into one days worth of racing to determine the best all around rider. I have always thought that this would be a fantastic event, and the fact that it is being run like Taylor Olson’s Wednesday Night Sprint Carnival is a major plus. There isn’t always a need to have things run within USCF rules and it keeps costs low.

However, the organizer has put the kabosh on Carbon Wheels. I think that is just silly. In fact, I support the idea of gear restrictions, but limiting the racing to non-carbon wheels is cutting out half of the potential riders for such an event. Yet, since it is last minute I don’t have to do it! How awesome is that? In fact, I think I might just promote my own Omnium event allowing carbon wheels! I love the free market.

It wasn’t that long ago that Chris Ferris and Ben Richter were the kings of the velodrome. It wasn’t that long ago that Doug Beck and some other racers were openly aghast to the fact that both Richter and Ferris rode disc wheels to racing on Thursday nights. I thought Beck and the others were stupid and acting childish. Oh well. I know that this is a different matter all together, but I just think it is plain silly.

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Category 6 has posted some information about their Criterium series. I am sure it is going to be awesome, I also suspect that some individuals will ride on the course for warm-ups and park where they are not supposed to. I am also running a top secret money pool on who those riders are going to be. If you want to join in let me know!

The bicycle races at the Velodrome were canceled last night. I was okay with that. Want to know why? Well, I don’t like driving up to Blaine only to get already to race my bike, only to get rained out while getting my spandex suit on. So, I like it when it gets canceled well in advance.

I was looking forward to last nights schedule of races which included 2 scratch races. Naturally, I was going to win both of those last night, and now I am no longer going to be “peaking” for the Velodrome season. Oh well.

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I start Grad School next week.

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I used to be a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs. In fact, in 1989 I watched over 100 games on WGN while I was in 2nd grade. I still remember the entire lineup. Just off the top of my head and not checking on the interwebs:

1. Jerome Walton (CF)–went on to win Rookie of the Year
2. Ryne Sandberg (2B)
3. Mark Grace (1B)
4. Andre Dawson (RF)–The Hawk
5. Dwight Smith (LF)–went on to get second in Rookie of the Year
6. Vance Law (3B)
7. Shawon Dunston (SS)
8. Damon Berryhill (C)
9. Gregg Maddox, Rich Sutcliff and some other crappy pitchers…

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I had heard stories about Mike Hatch, former candidate for Governor and Attorney General , being a major ass. Well it turns out that Eric Black has written two great articles for MinnPost about the recent troubles within the Laurie Swanson AG’s office. I highly recommend that you read the stories here and here. The best part about the article is Mike Hatch’s letter to the highly regarded Eric Black and about the last minute cancellation by Hatch of an interview with Black. Here is my favorite excerpt:

I had misinterpreted my secretary’s message, and thought that you were with the Rochester Post. I checked around about you and your blog last night. While I am sure that your blog will not publish the report of Dean Mengler, his report raises significant issues not only about Ms. Lawler but also, based on my review of your blog last evening, your own objectivity. At any rate, it is my policy not to interview with bloggers. While I should stop right here, I feel chagrined in having agreed to a telephone interview with the Rochester Post, finding out that in fact you represent a blog called the Minnesota Post, and having raised your expectations of an interview.

Yep, Mike Hatch is afraid of “bloggers” especially bloggers that are as highly regarded as MinnPost amongst the journalism community and the Minnesota public as a whole. I find this really amusing, especially the fact that Hatch is trying to downgrade MinnPost to the equivalent of my own website. Ha. I should as Hatch for an interview.

Here is the new uniform of my soon to be favorite soccer team:

Seattle Sounders FC

Sarah and I are going to Seattle for our honeymoon. Should be a good time. I hear it is really hilly, worse that Duluth.

Ouch.

My teammates won their respective categories at the Duluth Classic Stage Race.

Here is Jake and Matt after the first stage time trial:

Here they are celebrating after a quick stop to the corner store for some champagne (Cook’s, of course):

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I am happy for both of them. They earned it over the weekend.

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I came in 2nd to last. I am not mad about it since I burned every single one of my matches to help keep that damn jersey. I don’t know if I helped at all, but it sure feels great having a teammate take the whole thing.

Last year I stuck in every race, but without the timed stages it was more of a crapshoot and I was content finishing with the pack during the Cloquet criterium. Since we held a very slim lead of just 28 seconds going into today and time bonuses of up to 30seconds I decided to put everything out on the line for the first set of time bonuses. Four laps into the race I decided to move up and made a little detour over a curb, through a lawn and down a driveway before emerging near the middle of the pack.

As we came across the line, they rang the bell and it was go time. Spencer brought me to the front and with 3 guys already off of the front I played it safe and marked the riders close on GC. As we got to the final corner and one of the 3 rider up the road started to slow, so his teammate could sprint for some of the much needed extra time, I jumped and got clear of the field and about 15m from the line I turned around and saw that the field wasn’t going to catch the 3 riders up the road and I shut it down. Sure, it was 4th place, but it was my meal-ticket out of the race

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I then proceeded to get lapped 3 times, but I could care less since the rest of the team kept the jersey!

The worst part about the crit was that the officials wouldn’t pull me! Despite pleading with them, they made me suffer like a dog, and they even gave me the bell with one to go…despite the sprint happening right behind me!

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The old Tour of 10k was fun. The Duluth Classic has filled the void and is a must race event.

Stage Three of the Duluth Classic was the Lakeview Road Race. Here are some items to note:

1. Coolest road race course I have ever done.
2. We more than likely kept that Category 3 leaders jersey.
3. David Schueller (Gopher Wheelman) is a beast. Despite losing time to a cracked wheel yesterday he went on the attack and at one point had 3 minutes on the group. I heard that they finally caught him at the bottom of the last climb.
4. I like to think that I did a fair amount of work for the team today, but all credit is due to Big Matt to put the hammer down for when it counted. Before today I was happy with the team, after today I am damn proud of everyone of the guys out there.
5. Canada has some really strong riders (Team Manitoba) and they are inching ever closer. Perhaps they should have switched out the finishing order yesterday and the resulting 20second time bonus to make it even closer in the GC.
6. Did I mention that this race is going extremely well for such a small group of volunteers? All credit is due to Tone Coughlin, Jill and their families for putting on an extremely fun and exciting race. I hope more people will come up next year, todays course was worth it.
7. Jake may have been able to keep the jersey overnight, but it is going to be real close. Despite being the only member of the team in the Category 4s he has come out flying and is doing extremely well. We are very excited to have him on the team. He is also very fashionable.
8. Tonight we will look at the official standings and get a run down of what kind of time bonus are in the fold. We will then execute the plan. So far, so good.

9. It rained really hard when I was finishing. Oh well! At least I am not Andy Frye and have to race the second wave Big ups to Frye for winning yesterdays race in the Masters. Before the weekend he sent an email to me and Darrin Homme and called his shot, “I am going to a stage win this weekend.” He delivered.
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Personally today was a difficult day. I successfully got myself worked up on the climb and when I saw it I was a little bit more excited. It was long and hard, but I was able to make it up the first 3 times with out any problems. It was before the second time up the Beast, that Schueller got away with Taylor George. After I crested the hill I went to the front and worked with the Little Guy to keep it manageable. We repeated this for another 17 miles. Hard work at the front, but for the most part we did well.
The 4th ascent was a bit more strenuous and I had to work with Alec Kloss (Flanders) and Taylor George (Birchwood) to get back to the group. All credit to these guys for getting back on. When we got there the Brones riders were convinced it was time to chase (their rider is only 37sec down) as did Birchwood. Byrnes went to the front and delivered a monster pull with Spencer and Little Guy. At the base I bid adeiu and from the smiles I saw from the rest of the squad when I was finishing a few minutes back they were able to catch Schueller.

After two stages we have:

The Category 3 leaders jersey.

The Category 4 leaders jersey.

Today was an okay day. A group of 5 slipped away, but the we worked well as a team and are getting ready for the big day tomorrow. Things are well for the team, spirits are high and we did some good team work.

After the first stage we had the top place in the Cat3s and Cat4s. We also had 5 of the bottom 8 spots in the Category 3s. The plan today was to mark those close and let a beneficial break go up the road. When the group of 5 slipped away with a GC threat in the move we tried to bring it back, but they were only 9seconds clear of the group at the end.

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Big ups to DEWEY DICKEY at Snake Alley.

(thanks to Dis for the photo)

I heard he won 2 times.

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Eric Carter won the cat3s for the Hoigaards boys.

In 2005 I went to the World Track Championships.

I was the 14th person to purchase tickets, that meant front row (before this escapade).

I just finished paying off the credit card bill from that trip. Sitting to my left is The Klemp, next to him is Russ Denny. In the back row are Barry Forde’s parents who made the trip from The Barbados. The guy to my right used to be on the New Zealand pursuit team for the 2003 championships. Directly behind me to the left are the operators of the Alpenrose Velodrome. The woman behind me is having a baby, no word on how the child is doing.

Good times.

Skibby requested that I don’t say how much he paid for this photograph of the Meares sisters.

*My friends in Chicago have informed me that Phil Ligget announced the opening night of racing at the “track” in Northbrook. I am not jealous at all, this is because I race on a Velodrome and have Bob Williams announcing. The Courteous Fellow passed along the analogy of, “Phil Ligget at Northbrook is like Haray Carray at a Little League game.”

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The track was fun tonight. Good size crowd and a large cat1/2 field of 17. Big ups to Joe, Fil and Little Guy in the Category 3s and Lindzilla in the womens field. All of them had good races. Hagerty and I were able to fend for ourselves in the Category 1/2s.

Joe is really strong, despite doing a 50 lap scratch immediately before the points race final he still managed a 3rd place finish. All other Cat 1/2s have been put on notice.

My own points race went well. Was active and did all I could to keep Joe in contact with the pack to ensure his 3rd place.

Duluth is next.

Whoo.

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I predict finishing the TT with the Little Guy exactly 9 minutes behind the winner.

In a classic game for the ages Manchester United beat Chelsea on Penaltys after 120 minutes of 1-1 football. The game was an awesome one to watch with lots of action, cards and posts being hit. Kudos to Chelsea and a giant middle finger to Man U.

For a much better recap read Jon’s at TNABACG.

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Racing at the Velodrome starts tonight. I am rather excited. I will be there for sure and will probably take to the rail for the races, unless they need an extra official. In 2004 when I first started racing I did Th-T of racing over Memorial Day Weekend (Track, 10k Lakes, Opus) I don’t want to do that again.

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My friend Red has a report from the West side of St. Paul where it seems that the city has taken down a pretty big landmark. I remember climbing the steps once on a date in high school. Needless to say, we weren’t a perfect match–the date, not the steps. I believe that the steps contained 16 individual flights that went from the bottom of Plato Blvd. to the top of the bluff.

Read about them here.

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Snide is angry again, and again.