Saturday, December 11, 2010

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I've been a very good boy this year.  I got a new MTB back a few months ago and I love it, don't know if you can beat that, unless you have a Sram 2x10 X9 I can put on it.  A new Colnago M10 would be nice with Record 11, I don't need one...but those bikes are Sexy.  My IPA is going to be ready on Christmas day so I'm good there, please just let it be good.

Since I am pretty well covered how about sending Lance some more cash to give to his lawyers.  Alberto really needs some Texas beef, seems that the beef in his homeland is tainted.  That is a shame, that he got in trouble eating meat from his own country.  I would have at least blamed it on the French.  Speaking of the French, could you bring them a ProTour team with a license?  My friends Andy and Frank really need a name for their cycling team, got any laying around?  They say they have a sponsor, but it seems the sponsor/sponsors have no name.

Floyd "the tin man" really needs a brain.  Rasmussen needs a team, well more riders...there is no "one" in Team.  It takes two to have a team, at least his "team" has a name.  Cavendish would like a green jersey, so would Tyler, Thor, Andre.  I guess you could give them one and they can fight it out.  Andy wants a yellow jersey, but he wants to earn it.

There are some things that I really want, but I'm always afraid to ask.
1.  Crazy wet, cold, windy Paris-Roubaix
2.  UCI to pull their collective head out
3.  The ProTour get their act together and tell the UCI where to go
4.  Stop Doping
5.  No more Doping Scandals
6.  VS to provide better coverage
7.  Contodor should get what he deserves

Thank you,
Glenn Duh

P.S.  I don't have milk and cookies, but I will have a tasty IPA or two next to the fireplace

Friday, December 10, 2010

Entertain us

Apparently for some reason people (that would be you, if you are reading this) actually read what I write.  I don't know why, and I really don't care.  Ok, I do care that you read, otherwise this would be a big waste of my time.  Since you read it, it is probably a big waste of your time, but hopefully you do get some value out of this endeavor.

I was told by an anonymous source that I need to write more often.  I should.  I would like to write everyday, and I try.  Believe me I try.  I just don't have the talent to put words down everyday and "have something".  It is an ego boost to have my "reader" want more.  So I say "Thank You" for reading and enjoying what I have to say or not to say.

The year of 2010 is coming to a close, and by all accounts it was a good year, or was it?  How do you say "that was a good year?"  In 30 years from now will people raise their wine glass and say "2010 that was a good year".  Well, I had a good year.  I had an injury-free cycling year, that's a first.  Most recently I did have an unexplained illness that forced me to miss out on the Copper Triangle, and then had me off the bike for about a month.  "I'm feeling better now"

Not to dwell on the past, because it is history, history that cannot be changed.  The past is for learning from ones mistakes, and hope for a better, brighter future.  I'm looking forward to a new year.  Look at it this way, in a few short days we will have the first day of Winter.  That is the shortest day of the year, well sun lite short.  What does that mean for us cyclists?  The days will be getting longer, the sun will be staying out longer and before we know it, it will be spring.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

WORK is a four letter word

What you do does not make you who you are. 
"...you're not how much money you've got in the bank. You're not your job. You're not your family, and you're not who you tell yourself.... You're not your name.... You're not your problems.... You're not your age.... You are not your hopes."  ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 18
Work is a reflection of who you are, it is not what you are.

Monday, December 6, 2010

OK State CX Champs

If you are looking for the box score or the "race report" you came to the wrong place. I went to Chandler Park yesterday to heckle my teammates and hand-up some water bottles. Oh, and watch some CX racing. I pilfered these pictures from one of Seth Likens' pages on Facebook. Have you heard of him? Well if you haven't here is some of his work. Hate to say work, it is truly art. I am a little biased, he is on our team, and he has some really good pictures of the artist formerly known as Glenn Duh. You know the camera adds 10lbs, in my case that is a good thing. Heck yeah, it makes me look pretty good, well have to say Seth makes me look good on the bike.


Enough about me. What a race yesterday. First of all -Cold, would not be a CX race without some sort of crazy weather. Daniel raced the 123's and had some HR issues and retired early, no biggie he still had the Single Speed race coming up. Marty and Kevin raced the Cat 4 race. The Doctor was in the house, and made pain look good. Dude's got more style than any single human can handle, good thing he has a PHD. Cory was the lone wolf pack of one for the ladies of Team Tom's. Brown Bear lined up with an out-gunned junior field. "can't bring a knife to a gunfight"


At the time of press...I don't know the results of my people, Marty and Kevin finished in the top 15, Cory was 3rd or 4th????? Brown Bear came home with a new jersey. A State Champion's jersey.

 

All Photos without Seth Likens permission 


Sunday, December 5, 2010

Psycho Cross

What would prompt someone to take a perfectly good road bike and pilot it off-road?  And, what would compel normal people to come out and stand by barriers, course tape, in wheel pits and freeze extremities?  Belgians, blame it on the cycling mad hordes of Belgians.

Somehow we have imported waffles, beer, cycling, and craziness from a country in Northern Europe.  It has taken us quite a while to get to where we are with CX, don't get me wrong we are no where near the stature of our drunken forefathers.  We have come a long way baby, and the road is long and paved with cobbles, mud, sand, barriers, off-camber turns, stairs, and sand.

CX is blowing up all over the country.  CX in the states has been an odd assortment of MTB racers and Roadies that had bastard children.  We are talking about a freakshow of which no one wanted to claim.  Now that CX is becoming "mainstream" (as mainstream as it can be), people (MTB & Roadies) actually claim to race CX.  We even have an American racing in the mud in Europe.  Jonathan Page.  Represent.

Today I found myself standing on the side of a CX course yelling insults, heckling, and passing up water bottles to racing teammates.  Oh yeah, did I mention that it was 35 degrees?  Why?  Because I am crazy for CX, and I love to support my teammates and this growing sport we call Cyclo-Cross.

Early Christmas

Ask my wife, I'm a child.  I'm a child with ADHD...want to go ride bikes?  I can't wait, can't wait in line, can't wait for packages to show up, can't wait for my beer to be done.  So I did it.  I opened one three days early, and the world as we know it is still here. 

I am officially or technically supposed to open it on Monday, but I had to see how my baby was doing.  I grabbed one of the three 12oz beers that I have and I reached for the bottle opener.  The cap came off and the carbonation brought the beer to life.  I took a sniff of the longneck, and it smelled... smelled like beer... good beer.  I poured said beer into my favorite glassware and the perfect head crowned the beer like frothy royalty. 

First sip was a little scary, all that time, energy, THE WAITING was over and for what?  Great beer (by my standards) and brewed by my own hands, with my ability to follow directions and a recipe (thank you Mrs. Miller 4th grade who said I would never amount to anything).

I brewed Beer