Super Rookie's World

Today I raced the Florida State Road Race Championships in Ocala. The course was a 5mile loop with a few climbs and a nice long finishing stretch that was made for the sprinters. My goal for the race was to finish with the pack and not have to pick myself up off the asphalt.

(I wore this shirt to the race today. DEWEY LIVES!)

The climbs were short and were comparable to the rollers on the front side of the Durand Road Race course in Western Wisconsin. I finished with the pack in 50th place out of 67entrants and was happy with my performance. My comrades from 352 Racing p/b Bikes and More finished in the pack and made the day fun as they were willing to try different things off the front, but due to the yellow line rule it was fairly difficult to move up to do anything on the small country roads of Florida horse country.

I had a ton of fun at the race, but it made me miss the quality of officials and promoters in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Prior to the race as we were staged the promoter was informing us that the race would not start until a volunteer corner marshal was found, yet this is a for-profit promotion company. The officials were unwilling to disqualify riders for blatant yellow-line violations. I remember fondly when the officials in Minnesota would stop a race in the middle of a straight and pull us over to inform us that DQs were starting. These are just a few of the differences I noticed between the two states.

Allowed yellow-line violations and folded numbers are not the reason for my 50th place finish, but they are a reason I found the race a little lacking.

Other than that I had a ton of fun out there today and I am happy that my road season is over for 2010. But, the 2011 season starts in February

The past few days have been extremely hot in Florida. It has been 90degrees for three days straight and numerous records have been broken. Today, the weather changed, for the better, and we had a nice 78degree day. I hear that this is going to be normal. However, it is strange thinking that it is October 30th.

The State Road Race Championships are tomorrow. It is weird racing my bicycle on the road this late in the year. I do not know much about the course, but I have heard a lot of complaining about the promotion and set-up. I will give a review of my first few experiences with Florida racing after the race, but I am excited to get to race.

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Manny Pacquiao is fighting the guy that put plaster on his hands.

It should be a good fight, but I don’t think I will be around to watch it…or will I?

Turns out the dude that was killed while riding in the poorly marked and designed bicycle lanes on First Avenue in Downtown Minneapolis the other day was riding on a bike he had just stolen a few hours prior to the incident. While I hate cars driving erratically and not checking their mirrors before running over a cyclist, I hate bike thieves even more. So, I do think we can chalk this one up to ‘carma.’

See what I did there? I changed the spelling of Karma to have a C so it would be Carma.

Read more here: Man On Stolen Bike While Killed By Truck

*It should be pointed out that I don’t think stealing a bike is punishable by death, I just really wanted to make a really bad pun.

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Want to see what we have been up to while in Florida and don’t want to read what I have written?

Read it over on Sarah’s blog: Hotpinkevil!

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The planning for Swamp Cross the biggest cyclocross race in Gainesville’s history is going well.

In fact, we may be partnering with a larger organization to make it even better.

Stay tuned.

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It is 90degrees here right now.

Ahhhhhh.

Savannah was a blast. We arrived late Friday morning and got up nice and early to get to the city. We bought tickets for a trolley tour and saw all of the important landmarks. We even got to see where a lot of movies have been filmed: Forrest Gump, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Glory and Three Faces of Eve.

Walking around Savannah reminded me a lot of my birthplace, Newport, Rhode Island. The architecture was fairly similar with the tiny house crammed next to each other on brick lined streets.Newport lacks the symmetrical grid layout full of beautiful park like squares that makes Savannah quaint. While I was impressed with the city of Savannah, I would probably find it pretty annoying to live there with all of the damn tourists!

It was a ton of fun and Sarah and I can’t wait to go back there sometime this winter to do even more walking around.

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I did my first cyclocross race of the season this weekend. I didn’t get last place and my back is killing me. Yet, I will be able to play another day. Could be worse.

The course was fun and included a fly-over.

We are getting all packed up to go to Savannah. I have always wanted to go to this town ever since seeing the Kevin Spacey classic, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” in high school. I do not know if we will be attending any drag shows as we are busy with the bike races, but we are definitely going to be scouting out the town for some future visits of multiple days. I have heard nothing but great things about this city.

The race I am attending seems to be of a decent size, but it is no where as big as the USGP of Cyclocross in Louisville, which is being held on the same course that the Masters World Championships (2012,2013) and the Elite World Championships (2013) will be held on. Oh, yes, I have already blocked off my calendar to be in Louisville the next two years to be able to take in these events! I had a ton of fun when I went to the Track World Championships in Los Angeles in 2005, so why not have even more fun?

I am thinking we should rent an RV.

I am going to miss VeloCX for the first time this year. The team will have to promote the event without me and I have the feeling that they are going to step it up a notch.

After seeing these:

I have full faith in my squad!

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People may wonder how Behind-Bars/LGR is able to put on a great event, give away pint glasses, raise money for the Velodrome AND not depend on chip timing for results.

Well, it really only takes hard work, cooperation, organization and planning. Some races have failed to to grasp the idea that you may need to work a little bit harder to get it right, but the truth is that clubs don’t need to fork over $500 to get chip timed (which gets passed on to the rider via higher race fees) when you provide ample resources for officials and racers.

VeloCX may not get the most racers (we had the third most-behind States and Theo-last year which isn’t bad considering the race is 30min outside of the city), but it is one hell of a great time.

Next weekend is the start of my 2010 Cyclocross season. Sarah and I are going to be driving up to Savannah, Georgia for a two day race. The press release for the event sounded amazing and it immediately got me hooked:

The main events under the lights!!! Yep, once again racers will give it a go on a modified version of the main course that still includes the Two Fingers Flyover! Plus, the OSP Pub will be open to provide your adult beverages and make it a real party! So, get ready for nighttime FUN!!…DJ Josh Barrett (DJB) is set to return and spin tunes for your listening pleasure…and plan to stop by the Belgian Waffle Stand

I do not know what the “two fingered flyover” is, but it sounds awesome. Plus, with beer on-site, Sarah will have no excuse to heckle me throughout the 45minutes!

Since I haven’t raced cross in over a year I figured I should head up to Georgia to get some racing under my belt before the Florida season doesn’t start until the first week of November. This is quite the change from what I am used to as the season in Minnesota starts in late September and extends to the second week of November with the Shimano Minnesota State Cyclocross Championships.

Sarah and I have wanted to visit Savannah for sometime. I got the buzz after seeing “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” with Kevin Spacey while in high school. I think Sarah got the buzz after watching this season’s Project Runway. Either way, we are stoked to scout it out and figure out if all the buzz is worth it.

I predict it being a city with an amazingly cool and historic downtown, but due to this it will be overpriced for the services rendered. So, we will have fun looking at all the great architecture and walking around the center city without the need of a car, but when we pick up the bill at the restaurants we will be a little sticker-shocked. Oh, the price of historic preservation!

I am going to dial in my bike now.

Today I went on the best bicycle ride I have ever been on.

Almost 100miles of roads like this (mostly paved, but almost 80% fully canopied with trees!):

If you would have told me before we moved to Florida that I would be able to go on some rides and not see a car for a couple of hours while riding on some beautifully paved and smooth dirt roads I would have laughed. Yet, I have found a pretty darn cool shop to ride out of and met quite a few folks that share my passion for cycling. I can’t over-emphasize how awesome the ride was today. I can’t wait to share some of the roads down here with others that come on down to visit.

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I knew Bikes and More was an amazing shop when I saw these posters above the register!

Tonight, Sarah and I are heading down to the O-Dome to take in Robert Zimmerman.

Did I ever tell you that I used to caddy for his mom?

She wasn’t very good, but she was a nice lady.

I hope he plays “Masters of War.”

My favorite song.

The most important news in the history of the entire world is the return of the world-famous Bike Throw Dot Com podcast. It has been over a year since the last edition of the old Bike Throw podcast, but the new podcast contains an extra “dot com” so things are different.

The new podcast has a strict 11min time limit and is 100% more disappointing than ever before. Head on over and listen to Minnesota cycling gossip with a touch of Florida thrown in.

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I raced this past weekend in Nocatee. It is a failing development outside of Jacksonville, Florida. While I didn’t win the entire thing, nor did I ever place in the top 10, I was able to put together three quality starts and finish with the pack every time I toed the line.

The best part about the weekend was getting to race with the boys of 352 Racing and being able to help out my future teammate, Keith Richards, with a win in the circuit race on Sunday. While I was minimally helpful, it was cool to be all secretive about our alliance while wearing a different jersey.

This is a good thing as I start to get my confidence back on the bicycle.

This is an awesome thing because it gives me a reason to bring back the podcast with (dis)pencer.

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I just want to tell everyone that Kenny Powers is the greatest television character ever. You should watch every episode of East Bound and Down three times and then some.