Super Rookie's World

Here is how things work at the police department on the other side Highway 280.

1. Get an informant to tell you where they bought drugs.
2. Don’t follow up on the informants information.
3. Perform high-risk SWAT raid on the house.
4. Homeowner protects family by shooting a gun in the air to scare off intruders.
5. Cops open fire.
6. Realize that the house is owned by an immigrant family with a few kids and not drug dealers.
7. Apologize to the family for acting on wrong information, opening the city up to yet another lawsuit.
8. Honoring officers in the raid with medals.

The MPD is a model of inefficiency.

In this year alone:

1. They have purchased useless $10,000 3 Wheel Segeways.
2. Agreed to pay $2 Million to 5 African-American officers that were unjustly demoted based on race.
3. Officers shot guns outside of a house party at an officers house in South Minneapolis as a form of intimidation to neighbors who had complained about loud noises.
4. Turn Critical Mass into a riot…only to have the charges thrown out when officers lie on the stand.
5. Unjustly claim that Mark Loesch was purchasing drugs and therefore wasn’t an innocent victim during his brutal murder while riding his bike on the south side.

In past years they have been found responsible for:

1. Shooting an undercover Asian-American officer on the cities South Side. Despite the officer properly identifying himself per department requirements. This resulted in largest city settlement with a private citizen (upwards of $2.5 million).
2. 2 Officers Drunk driving in Columbia Heights
3. On-Duty Officer Drinking At Downtown Strip Club
4. There are many more example of Minneapolis cops acting above the law in terms of human rights violations and unreported conduct that wouldn’t fly anywhere else in the state. The blue line is thick in Minneapolis.

The MPD is a sham. This isn’t just a case of “one bad apple.” It is a culture of disgrace.

I feel bad for the good officers within the department, as they seem to be very few and far between.
Off soap box.

The Cobra manned up and fessed to using drugs.

Watch out for him in two years when he is still attackin’ like crazy.

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Sarah and I went to go see the new Batman movie last night. It was pretty damn good and I hope so of you go and see it. Heath Ledger will get nominated (posthumously) for best supporting actor. His performance was unreal and a real joy to watch. One of the best movies of the year. Why? Because the new Eddie Murphy flick hasn’t hit theaters yet.

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The wedding is fast approaching…are there any more bicycle road races left this year?

I have a “things to learn” list that I keep on my coffee table. In the past few days my teammates have helped me cross a few of them off:

1. Why is it called Dijon Mustard?
2. Why is it called a threshhold?

If you want the answers you will have to find my teammates because we discussed them on the team message board and those conversations are private. Therefore, you are out of luck.

In the meantime I am hoping that the Park Board didn’t really turn down permit applications for Boom Island and Powderhorn. That would be a huge step in the wrong direction for the growing of our sport. If the permits were denied I hope it was for a singular reason and not a blanket denial. The worst case scenario would be to many people complaining about CX events and the events are shown the door. The best case scenario is that the rumor is wrong!

Remember, it wasn’t that long ago when the Park Board wanted to charge mountain bikers for the right to ride on the Theo Wirth Trails…trails that were built AND maintained by volunteers! The Park Board eventually righted that decision by coming to a compromise and only charging for a parking permit. I love the in the city events during the fall!

Just my $.02

The State Crit Championships were this afternoon at the State Capital. The event is a fundraiser (awesome) for various Autistic charities across the state and ranks as one of my favorite crits on the local calendar. That being said, I spent $35 to race about 10 laps before being pulled. I was kind of happy that I got pulled as I was having a miserable time during the race. I don’t know what it is. I have been riding a fair amount and doing well at the velodrome…leave it to me to find a way to get dropped in a cat3 crit.

The team did fairly well, but in the end it wasn’t meant to be. That is alright though, we got Linzilla as the State Scratch Champion, and we scored a bunch more medals at the State Old Man Track Championships. This season has been a good one for the team. We added some new members that have melded perfectly with the “program.” The team has remained classy throughout the season and I couldn’t be prouder.

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At this point I might be done racing on the road for the season. We will see how I am feeling prior to the State Road Championships. I ain’t concentratin’ on cyclocross either! I have more important things going on right now…you know like getting married! I am so damn excited for that. I also have to mow the lawn at my parents house for a discount on rent. Perhaps I should start a lawn mower category.

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I had never heard of the band Marcy Playground. In fact, they are from Minneapolis and the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood.

I bet the Little Guy enjoys their big song, “Sex and Candy.”

Andy Fryes is wrong once again.

He thinks Bernard Kohl (soon to be King of the Mountains champions at TdF) is the long lost chimera twin of Ferris.

The Little Guy pointed out to me the other day that Kohl is the new Jay-Z:

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The Thunder game was awesome.

Linzilla won the state scratch race. How awesome is that?

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Here is an interesting story from the Star Tribune about a high speed chase yesterday afternoon.

The guy ended up getting away after leading the authorities on a chase from Burnsville-Hudson-Minneapolis. The police know the identity of the driver, and they ever had his cell phone number. During the chase the police called the suspect’s phone and he answered by saying, “Dude, I can’t talk, I’m being chased by the police.”

That is hilarious.

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Skipping out at the track tonight. With money a little tight and another race this weekend (my favorite crit course) the choice was a tough one, but I am going to save some bucks and take in a Thunder game with my lady. Plus, they are playing the Sounders from Seattle!

I am sure there will be complete disappointment, but if people want to start paying my entry fee than we can talk.

I am starting to think that the Star Tribune is stalking me with all of the pictures that I am appearing in…

This was after my favorite player scored 7 minutes into the game. You can also see a little bit of Sarah in the picture.  Naturally, I bumped her out of the way to take full credit.

Oh, the cool kids now sit behind this ragtag group in a sitting section, but if you want to stand with these folks you are more than welcome. They are pretty nice, although there are some weird ones in the group (myself not included).

The Star Tribune article is here.

Some changes were made to the Cyclocross Rider of the Year series a week or so ago. Those changes were brought about through an email discussion of promoters. They seemed to be okay, but then a few started to whine about how they would never be able to race again.

A verbal deluge of crap was thrown and the whiners have gotten a 35+ 1/2/3 category.

My team was already ahead of the curve as we were going to offer this category anyways. The change isn’t that big of a deal and if it makes people happier than fine. However, I do find it funny that it was once again the 35+ crowd that was leading the way with their whining.

I hope when I am 35+ I won’t complain about every damn thing.

Who wants kids off their lawn? People older than 35.

Who is old enough to know about Skylab and want to find it? 35+ nerds.

The whole thing is stupid.

I do not hate master riders.

I just hope that I don’t act like ‘em when I get older.

On Sunday I ventured down to Red Wing to race in the Memorial Classic. Although I have done four 24 Hour races, this was only my third cross-country mountain bike race. Because of this I was a bit aloof as to what to expect. I hadn’t been on my mountain bike since Mankato a few weeks earlier and I was told that the race was a tiny bit more technical. The individuals that told me that were correct.

Skinnyski Photo Credit

I started a little way in the back of my field, but spun my 32×20 to the middle of the group heading into the single track. As a novice to these types of things I found myself a bit nervous with all of the yelling going on. I don’t know what it is, but 35+ Sport Category racers sure like to yell a lot. This confused me as I would expect the really good people to be racing in the much harder Comp category. Oh, how I was wrong. It was during this love fest that I saw Todd Nesvold on the side of the trail laughing his butt off at my misfortune and confusion as I got off my bike and let rider after rider pass me…I probably shouldn’t have done that!

A few miles into the lap I broke my seat came loose on the rails. This was rather uncomfortable and I was forced to ride the rest of the lap off the saddle. That sucked and made me really, really, really slow (at no point did my inadequate handling skills play into the length of my laps). After my first lap I made a quick adjustment in the pit and went back out. My last lap was a ton faster (10minutes faster) and I was able to ride a huge gravel hill that others had to walk.

In the end I took 81st place and I know that I can only go faster. Somehow I got a medal for finishing in 2nd place in the Single Speed category. That was cool. Considering only one other person was in the category and he was my teammate (way to go T.C.). I will be at this race again next year and all of the roadies at the race seemed to be having a good time as well.

P.S. Little Guy took 10th in the Comp. Big Matt and (dis) raced as well. Margaret was off on a fancy vacation and the freewheel gang of Jason and Jake had to do something important at work. My guess is that we are slowly becoming more of a mountain biking team!

Goldmember got his bike back in perfect working condition!

I will try to find out the details, but we are happy to hear that the Gold One can continue to get fit for the upcoming 2009 track season!

Bring back the Gold One!