Tuesday, May 27, 2008


As promised long awaited photos of my new race rig. Took her out to castlewood and was having a pretty good ride till this happened. I had an X-7 that I put on so that I would have a bike to ride. The chain is a little short now but whatever. I went for a urban mountain bike ride with Dr. Wesley McClaren from Team Seagal and everything worked well we kept a 15+mph average for about an hour and twenty min. Other then that no news so go ride. First watch this sweet vid.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Beautiful Day

U2 had it right. That is if Bono was singing about last Saturday which would be impossible since that song was release a few years prior so I guess they got it wrong. Regardless, the 17th was one of those days you just want to spend outside riding bikes. So the bat signal was flashed and the DrJ's headed to the ranch (Well Chris John Matthews and myself). Things where setting up for a good ride: great weather, great trails, and a bike that hadn't had a mechanical in three weeks. Then I got on the bike. I think it was a culmination of still getting used to the new bike, My lack of nutrition, lack of sleep, lack of training and mostly lack of drive to correct any and all of the above. Anyway you want to slice this lemon it was sour. I was pushing through it trying to kept the pace when I clipped a tree with my handle bars and decided my knee and stem needed to become married in painful matrimony. It was the basic "that hurts! is there blood? crap no scar." thought pattern and I kept riding only to bobble a little while later and do the same thing. This time the pain was lingering. On every up stroke I was feeling pain in my knee. I am no doctor abut I do know continuous pain means that things are not working properly. I was able to finish the 13mile lap but the plan to do two laps had to be scrapped. The knee does feel better but still hurts. I am giving it one more day but I cant pass on time off so I'll be at the wood tomorrow.

Super fast Nice guy Dave Breslin took a Top Five slot in the WORZ race up in Wisconsin on the 18th. Nice finish man!

Thursday, May 15, 2008


This was parked next to my car the other day while I was slaving for the man. It is very unsettling to walk out of work and see that the car next to yours looks like it could be a crime scene. I did notice that the driver was courteous enough to double park his vehicle as to no scratch mine when he threw open the door to snatch up his latest victim. I am sure if I had waited around any longer I would have been offered some candy or a ride to back to where my parents were. Keep your eye on America's Most Wanted. Keep in mind it was also repainted by hand.

PS-Trails where muddy today

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Home Field Advantage

This really does not exist at Castlewood because everyone all ride/trains there. However, this was DRJ sponsored race so our logo would have been painted in the center of the field and the fans would be waving big blue and yellow foam fingers, if such things existed for mountain bike races.

The conditions were the standard for this race season: WET. Coming down Lone Wolf I completely drifted a corner. No brakes, both wheels spinning, cranks turning, and the bike moved sideways around the bend. Pretty sick and I felt like a BA till I realized I was still in 9th. I caught and passed Mr. 8 and almost caught Bob who was holding up the 7th spot. I came up on him on the last lap as we climbed Love. Determined to not let the fat kid beat him he stomped on the gas and dropped me until the last down hill where I gained enough ground back to finish only a few seconds behind him. A very sarcastic thanks to whoever yelled "Robert is right there" as I snuck up on him at the finish. Congrats to Chris on again taking 1st for not realy being stoked to race he sure cleans house well!


I used this Race to Officaly unvail my new race rig; A Niner Air 9. I got a deal that I couln't pass up from Craig Basler an up and coming cyclist on the STL scene. I managed to get my hands on a Fox F29 with 80mm of travel to keep the front soft and set it up with an X9 drive train. The wheels have some sweet green King hub that were part of the deal as well as King headset and Easton EC70 seatpost. I switched over all of the other goodies: XT cranks, Thompson stem, Ritchey WCS Carbon bar, and selle XLR seat. the weight is just over 27lb but that cool cause I am no Davey B.

when i locate my Camera and she is clean I throw some actual pics up.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

50 miles

I haven't been training or watching my diet so 50 mile on a road bike sounds painful. 5o miles on a mountain bike seems like suicide. I am a masochist. I couldn't wait to get my new bike (I'll post more later still looking for the camera to take some pics) out and spend some quality time in the saddle. To give you an idea of what I was in for the 15mile pre-ride hurt. I had two flats and watched Chris disappear more times then I can count. Prepping the bike Friday night had me a little uneasy the rear hub wasn't staying tight and I was now low on tubes. I packed everything up and settled in for the night.

Saturday morning was a little chilly but the Burritos chef Scott cooked up where hot and I felt ready too race after my morning glory. Dwayne was more excited then I have ever scene which got me amped and the Gino from Team Seagal hooked me up with an extra tube and I was stoked. I lined up next to Little Buddy ready to just ride.

We were off and the first hill was a killer 9/10 of a mile at an 11% grade. No idea where I was going into the woods and I really did not care. Rocketing along on 29s with some music pounding my ear drums and just flowing through some rocky technical single track. Life was good. Then I flatted right around the 5 mile mark. I checked the hub and it was already loose. I changed the flat and got the hub as tight as possible. I hoped it would last as I started moving through the long line of riders that had passed me as I worked on my bike. No dice. The hub kept coming loose and i had to stop several time to hand tighten it. I was moving along again and broke the master link in my chain. I had packed an extra one and was rolling again after a gu and some mechanical finesse. The trail was amazing it never let up. Rock gardens upon rock gardens followed by technical descents and leg busting-need-a-rope-and harness climbs. In short I was loving it. I got to the last downhill (the same climb we started on), congratulated the guy I came out of the woods with then dropped him as I scorched the gravel at 30mph. I was getting and giving metal fingers and thumbs up from everyone i saw as i came through the start/finish. Keeven, who had destroyed everyone on his Superior Single Speed flash a million dollar grin at me as I passed him. I was toasted and stoked. I was doing what i loved and have missed: riding my mountain bike. 7hr 18min for 50mile and 103 overall.

I rolled up to a table of buzzed DRJ's who were feasting on burgers and dogs. To find out Dwayne and Chris had both had trouble with flats Little Buddy hadn't finished yet and Scott had bee about 40 min ahead of me. I was bummed for My teammate because i knew Both of them had a change for the overall but Chris was still fast enough to win his division so the we had reason to gorge ourselves on Mexican food later. All in all a good weekend of riding with some awesome riders sights are now set on CW race hopefully the legs come back. see you all out there.