winning is fun. much better than getting second, which is my usual placing.

jon and i are up in breckenridge at schillings house. we decided to spend the night here instead of going all the way home.

more bloggin' tomorrow. sparky has an update.

jon and i are staying at this great host housing at the base of mt. princeton. it has some insane views.

tiffany (one of his b/f from college) talks to jon about lawyer stuff. he's very into it.

renee wanted to race in this outfit today, but i talked her out of it. you know, aero helmet on backwards with really big oakleys is always a funny picture.

today's road race was really hard. it was an 11 mile circuit with 1400 ft of climbing per lap. ouch. i did okay with 4th and sparky came in 6th. tomorrow is the criterium. (it is technical and i love that)

stage 1 of salida omnium: (jon and i talking 1 mile from the house)

jon: did you remember the aero helmet for the time trial?
beth: oh shoot, nope. should i turn around?
jon: no, it only matters if you lose by a second.

later that day...
i lost the time trial by 1 second.

jon looking a little tense as the technician puts a saw to his arms. he got his left cast off yesterday and is getting a fresh cast today for the right one.

today i met up with vin, margell and the newest addition hyden (i think that is how you spell her name) for a burley/townie ride. vin is ready to go, and holding on for dear life cause his mom is a fast bike racer.

i got to carry hyden in the burley. it is strange tugging along an extra body. your bike handles completely differently. this was excellent warm up for my time trial in salida that starts at 7 p.m. tonight.

hyden is so excited to go on a bike ride!

NOOOOOO, Floyd say it isn't true.

The Phonak Cycling Team was notified yesterday by the UCI of an unusual level of Testosteron/Epitestosteron ratio in the test made on Floyd Landis after stage 17 of the Tour de France. The Team Management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result.

that would explain all of the evil, angry looks he gave on stage 17, and throwing his waterbottle at the end of the time trial.

you know, it may even explain the backwards hat and his poor choice in sunglasses as well.

jon has a new office right behind vecchio's on pearl street. here he is showing off his new digs. it is a really great office and location. we are done remodeling it, now we just need to get the walls decorated.

GROVE CITY, Ohio (AP) -- A kitten born with two faces is missing from its home in central Ohio.

The rare male kitten with two sets of eyes, two noses and two mouths was born in Grove City last week and had an appointment to see the vet Saturday afternoon. But Rick Hickman says his family couldn't find the cat Saturday morning. He says it's as if the animal "magically disappeared."

my take is that with two sets of eyes and two mouths the cat magically talked himself into running away from his owner to join the circus. there's good money in the circus.

does anyone have a cheap-o printer they want to sell me. i think mine just DONE BROKE.

i was thinking that an adult burley would be a great idea to get jon to and from his office on pearl street since he can't drive. the best thing i could find was this classic pedicab. i could really get in some quality power training. too bad i don't have any room in the garage for another bike.

yesterday was the mt. evans hill climb bike race. mara abbott won with an impressive 2 hours and 11 min.

some of the views towards the east i took while riding.

me taking a picture of sparky.

sparky taking a picture of me.

i saved all i had for the last five miles of the 28 mile race. then i started chasing down the opponents, i was breathing really hard, and feeling a lot of fatigue in the legs since i was nearing 14,000 feet. here i am about to overtake carla. i had to document the moment. (notice the sheer cliff to the left, it was a real real big drop)

when you get to the top there is a parking lot. you pretty much plop over, very dazed, almost drugged from altitude, and start putting on your winter riding gear. the race started and it was about 85 degrees, but at the top it is about 45. my hands were freezing on the way down.

the best ham, iceburge lettuce, and mustard sandwich. pretty much anything looks yummy after the mt. evans hill climb. it could have been pickled pigs feet and i would have eaten it.

odd things i saw on my bike ride with meeeegan.

the mushroom house

three people commuting on one bike.

the re-grand opening of the safeway by our house opened today, and i think all of boulder was there. i hit it at 4 p.m. right when the free samples started, and i believe that is when the bus unloaded the old folks home. it was packed with old folks. i may have been the youngest shopper there.

people trying to get out of the parking lot and back to the old folks home.

tomorrow i am doing the mount evans hill climb. i am not taking if very seriously, and i will have my camera to document my race.

here are some details: You can view the entire Front Range and the Continental Divide from Mt. Evans' 14,264-foot summit. (7500 feet of climbing on a bike) You'll also experience the same flora and fauna life zones you would find in the Arctic Circle. In addition, you might spot herds of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, Colorado's state animal. Mountain and road bikers often traverse the Byway to enjoy the scenic magnificence as well.

an important service announcement from leah. (click)

two words: wow

jon and i had a nice dinner at masa grille and then headed over to cu research park to check out the men's short track race. it was a nice night, no mosquitoes and not too hot.
perfect weather. only thing that would have made it more perfect was if we were racing and not just watching.

the racing begins...

jon and i saw this kid over on the sidelines doing jumps. he couldn't have been older than 4 and he rode better than some of the pro men.

our new hope for usa cycling right here in boulder. move over landis.

jon's mom sent me this yesterday and it is pretty cool. try it.

MATH PROBLEM

1. Grab a calculator. (you won't be able to do this one in your head)
2. Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the area code)
3. Multiply by 80
4. Add 1
5. Multiply by 250
6. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number
7. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again.
8. Subtract 250
9. Divide number by 2

Do you recognize the answer?

i need some votes, where is the coolest place you have vacationed in mexico or another beachy place? (no votes for hawaii, and no to halfway around the world)

anyone been to belize?

today was 105 degrees. not hot enought to cook an egg though, because we tried.

sara, anne, jon and i went to a real hot bike race. here is a pic of jon and his sister sara as she applies sunscreen. what a good sister.

a bit too much in the ear sara.

we saw this sweet ride at the race with a lambskin seat. sara went to pet it.

anne, sharon and me at the festival in the park criterium in ft. morgan, co. ft. morgan is a stones through away from kansas, and real good country folk live there.

me 3rd

anne 4th

the eventual winner, sharon the hammer.

anne goes saddle bronc on the playground equiptment. 8 seconds is all you need.

lettuce wrap time... last night jon and i had dinner at pf changs with the corboy fam, brandon and bridget. all good friends from when i moved here 6 years ago. the corboys have two adorable kids, when i lived next door to them in louisville they were 2 and 4, now they are all grown up at 7 and 9.

allie corboy, felt really sorry for jon and drew him a picture to make him feel better. it is weird old ladies and little girls simply LOVE jon.

here is the rest of the gang. my camera takes the crappiest pictures at night, and it is so annoying.

griffin and my mom went to the museum yesterday. griffin has an amazing eye for fashion. check out his silk "binky baby" scarf, race car slippers and "zoolander" gaze.

boogerd: my vote for biggest, whitest teeth in the tour. also my vote for last name closest to the spelling of the word boogers. (just one letter off on the keyboard)

putting the hammer down and showing me why we don't just call her by her first name sharon, but her full name, sharon the hammer.

we had a great ride today pre-riding the mike horgan hill climb from boulder to nederland. the race is on sunday, and i hope i am recovered enough from our ride today. that is a hard 18 miles of climbing.

i went to the doctor today and had some x rays done on my sore rib. turns out it is cracked. he said i can keep training and racing as long as it doesn't hurt too bad. considering i have raced with it three times, i think i'll be fine.

sunday's race was much like saturday's race: cold and rainy. very unusual weather for the front range. i heard a guy that had raced before us say "yesterday in boulder was fun, today is just miserable." the difference was the biting wind that was hitting us on the uphill portion of the course. regardless, sharon the hammer was there, i was there, and we were going to be really aggressive.

me attacking the pack.

sharon had a nice counter attack that strung out the field and she was off the front for three laps, that let me rest, and then i countered again. sharon ended up winning, and i came in third.

waving to jon during the race. it got a little slow at the end when we all knew we needed to rest up for the uphill sprint.

jac attack on her motorized cart, and the winner sharon the hammer. jaq has one fake hip and the other hip is waiting for a replacement. the jaq attack used to be a professional body builder and i believe that is what killed her hips. now she is a little old lady on a motorized cart... (can anyone name the movie quote i just used?)

sharon, me, jon and michael after the race.

jon getting in his exercise thanks to jds sportcoaching. Unfortunately he has to use electrodes to get his muscles working. (click her for more info)

it hasn't stopped raining for two days. shot from the pearl street camera.