life isn't fair!!

No racing, no reports of racing......it all jst doesn't seem very important right now......Its been a tough few days. Myself and 100 or so other firefighters are trying to make sense of losing a friend, coworker and most of all, a brother. There are of course countless friends and family reeling from losing someone near and dear to them as well.

I recieved a horrible phone call this past saturday evening. A friend and firefighter called to tell me that Craig had past away earlier in the day. This came from out of nowhere. Craig was a 30 year old strong athletic guy who was seemingly in great health. Other than rehabbing from a shoulder surgery over the last few months, there was nothing to make one think that craig wasn't going to live a long and healthy life.

I met craig in the late summer of 1999. we both wee enrolled in JCCC emt program. although 8 years older, we were both beginning new lives working towards becoming firefighters. Finishing EMT class we then were both enrolled in the firefighter I and II class the next semester. Hanging out with the same group of fireman to be friends I got to know a little bit about Craig. TO keep it short....Craig was one of those guys that people seemed to be drawn to. Just a super person with endless amounts of potential. Low and behold, a couple of months later we found ourselves going for and competing for the same job openings. Instead of becoming rivals, we began to workout a little together. Hell, we even carpooled to a couple of those job interviews. One being where we have both worked the last 8 some odd years. We were both hired and attended the same recruit academy together. Actually we were assigned to the same shift as well. A couple of years on the job i was reassigned to the very station Craig had been first assigned to. We were now crewmates. After a couple of years together Craig was reaasigned to another station. He had spent a year completing and going thru JCCC's paramedic program. I think people on the department were blown away by how and how easily craig had rolled thru the paramedic stuff. I wasn't. I had been around craig long enough to know how hard he worked..How much it meant to him to become a firefighter and how much he had dedicated to become a paramedic as well. Craig was laid back on the surface, but once you got to know him, you realised how important the job was to him. He was a extremly smart and motivated individual. I truly admired the qualities in him. he pushed me, just being around him those couple of early years we spent working towards our ultimate goal of being firefighters. I am just sorry it took something like this to appreciate that about Craig. He was a friend and brother, and i am truly devastated by his passing. I am not alone in those feelings, which i am not sure if this comforts me or makes me all the more sad. To see so many people hurting....that breaks my heart.

Below is a email i wrote to my fellow firefighters.....i thought i might share it.

Cycling isn't the end all, but it is an outlet to deal with lifes' curveballs.....


From: Josh Taylor Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7:19 PMTo: FiremedSubject: saying goodbye....

Accidententally sent this out before I completed it……then 2nd time around I only sent it to my self…….i am not fully functioning on all cylinders.




Brothers and sisters,

Not completely sure why I am writing this or really even what to say. I guess I felt compelled to say something. Writing seemed easier than verbally conveying my feelings I guess. I don’t think I would be able to put more than a couple of sentences together before I lost it anyway.

Like many of you I’m sure, I have gone thru a wide range of emotions over the last few days. From the initial phone call from jimmy on Saturday evening, I’ve tried to make sense of it. The initial response to Jimmy’s words were of course, disbelief. No way was something like this possible. It just seemed like a horrible joke or a bad dream. Once jimmy and I hung up on each other, I had this need to share this horrible news with somebody. I had to call somebody that I felt should know, or would want to know. After a couple of brief phone calls, I received a call from someone else repeating to me the same message I had already received and had been relaying to others. Jesus! It hit me. I had to hang up, because I didn’t want to start balling on the phone. I went upstairs to my wife and hugged her and tried to tell her that a friend and brother had died today. God that was hard. Because now I wanted to know why, and how?

I mean, don’t we all. I know in the end it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how we leave this world. At least not to the one’s that are left behind. All that matters is that person is gone. Now I find myself trying to not be angry. Angry that a life was cut short. I also am finding myself fighting back the waves of sadness. I am sad that our friend won’t get to live the life that he was making with his beautiful girlfriend.

I think most of all, I am just plain heartbroken for the people our friend has left behind. From family to friends, there are a bunch of people broken up and struggling with a big loss in the lives. A sister, mother, aunts and uncles, friends, bestfriends and most of all…………………………………………………………..craig’s girlfriend Janine. I am at loss as to how someone in her shoes begins to pick up the pieces. My heart breaks for her. Just thinking of the days and weeks she has ahead of her makes me want to cry. That about sums up to whole deal. My heart is broken for her and for the guys and girls here in Lawrence, who some how have to continue to pull their boots up and go to work. There are a lot of heavy hearts here at the Larwence Fire Department, and that makes me incredibly sad. Never could I have imagined showing up to work here and finding it difficult to say ‘hello, how ya doin’ to guys and girls I have worked with for almost eight years. That is exactly how it has been today. Briefly saying hello but not talking too long, because I am afraid I will break down in front them. Hell, just riding M4 with Armenta has been tough. we get to talking about him and I have to stop and look away to fight back tears. I thought initially that with so many of feeling the same or similar loss, it would be easier here at work today. It has been just the opposite though. Everywhere I turn, I see someone else who is hurting……………………man.

So I’ll say this. To all of those hurting, to all of those with heavy or broken hearts, to my brothers and sisters………………….what do you say? What can you say? I’ll miss Craig too, I will truly miss him………..


Goodbye Craig Yeager, my brother……………………Godspeed

Josh Taylor

Preview of host park for 2008 USA Cyclocross Championship

pics courtesy of Heather Taylor

Boss Cross #1 was held at Tiffany Springs Park in the nothland in Kansas City, MO. this is actually the site of this years Cyclocross national championships. taking the place of last years host, Wyandotte County park. i had actually checked the venue out a couple of weeks ago on the way home from the airport. lets just say my initial view of the park didn't leave me jumpimng for joy. not for any other reason other than i was dreading the course cuz i didn't think it was a course that would lend to my strengths(strength). the park, as far as i could figure, where the cx course would be set up.......looked like it was going to have a serious amount of climbing invloved. ugggh! not something that i am going to get real excited about. of well, i thought........maybe i am at the wrong part of the park???? i don't think so.....

so saturday morning rolls around. i leave work right at 7 am. actually got a good nite sleep. no late nite calls, and my legs didn't seem to have the same soreness as thursday and friday. i was really worried, cuz my wednesday interval workout really seemed to shred my legs and i didnt seem to be bouncing back like i should. some reaffirmation from mark thomas on the telephone friday evening told me everything was as it should be. my legs will still feel tired or sore on friday, but by saturday they should be good to go. so i would have thought i would have been a little more amped for saturday's race......

i think, at the time, my 'vagina' was just a little swollen. i had to go home and load up the car with bikes and gear for me and also for heather and the little one as well. a couple of relatives were staying with us as well and were coming out to watch me race so i had to pack refreshments for them so they wouldn't be to miserable watching a grown man act like a child. in hindsite, i think it was just a lot of this stuff that seemed to be taking some of my motivation to race. because that was it, i was really questioning or doubting wether i wanted to race on saturday or not. i knew i would have regretted not racing later that day. the weather was going to be perfect, and i knew i would be mentally ready to go once i was out there and warming up.

i also know.....with the addition to my family, i am goimg to have to deal with packing the car for both my child and me. really i am going to have to take the load off my wife just to keep her having fun and allowing me to continue to race by her taking care of brynn for the hour and a half i am on my bike while warming up and racing. having my cousin Audi at KU now adds a viable babysitter option when heather is unable to come out to the races due to her job.

so, with Heather, Brynn and my two cousins' Katie and Audi packed in the car, we were off to the cx race. once at the the park, we immediately pulled in while the masters race was going on. seeing my 360 teammates dominating the field really did nothing to raise my excitement level to race. the damn course seemed to be on the side of something that you would see in a picture of the 'Scottish friggin Highlands'. alright...... i am being a little melodramatic, but i was really having to force myself to 'get up' for this race. I needed some metallica or something to get me going.......

got dressed and got on the course and was able to get in a couple of practice loops before the start of the 4's race. i then proceeded to finish my warm-up on the road. opened the legs up with some 30 second and some 1 minute max efforts. legs really didn't feel that great. not bad, but not that good, either. knowing how competitive the 3' races have been this fall......i really felt like i was going to have a hard time getting into the top 8-10, hell i really didnt think i would be contending with the front group to be quite honest.

so i had somehow started to analyze how the start would be......i felt like i didnt need to make my same normal push for the 'holeshot'. i consistently put myself in the first 3 wheels at justy about every cx race. i truly feel that noone in our area that races in the 3/4's around here, starts as well and consistently as me. a may not be the fastest or the most fit, but i am consistent. consistent from week to week and at the starts. however, on saturday i began to realise that i needed to back it off a notch and not get into that 'redline' before the course starts to turn uphill. saturdays course had by far the longest starting pavement section that i have ever raced on. but once off the pavement and on to the grass, it was going to be an uphill grind for the next 3 or 4 minutes. this is where the selection would take place and i would need to be sitting in and conserving some energy before it did turn uphill.

so my strategy was set. thats the only thing i visualize or preplan, is the start of a cx race. the rest of the race is 'easy', it is just 'drilling it' and 'suffering' for as long as possible. hopefully you dont blow up and the guys near or around you dont last as long as you. every now and then you have a race that you actually get to work with and sit in with a competitor. getting to manage and control your effort thru the course of the 45-60 minutes of racing, however this is not usually the case.

with the 3/4's lined up and waiting for pre-race instructions....i had forgot about my 'swollen vagina' and my lack of motivation. i was 'ready to go', ready to get the race started. friggin' officials drive me nuts!

finally, the whistle sounded. just because i set a plan or strategy or visulize how i want the start to go......that doesn't mean it works out that way. however, saturdays start went darn near like i felt it needed to. there were a few 'pretenders' jockeying for the front at the start, the usual suspects were up near the front as well. by the time we neared the grass i had made very little effort and was about 8th wheel when the 3/4's entered the grass. we made our first hard 90 degree right and i realized i was racing. i began to realize that i needed to really pay attention to the wheels next to me and the the couple of guys up in front of me.......cuz they were already letting gaps form thru the first couple of technical high speed turns and were sure to take me down if one of them would lay it down. so as the course turned uphill i began to pass a couple of the 'pretenders' and work my way up to the next wheel. if i didnt like or respect that wheel i wouldn't stay thare for long. by the time the race turned down hill, i found myself about 6th or 7th wheel. i had passed 4 or 5 guys during the climb up and had a couple of guys pass me in the process. this is normal during the first lap or so of cx. its just the 'selection' process. as the course began to head sideways and east, a front group of 6 or 7 of us had formed. once we were to the stair section, the front group turned into 2 with 4 chasing and me in 'no mans' land. this is how it went as we hit the pavement. it was here at this point on the pavement that i made my first 'good' decision of the race. i didnt chase the group of 4 in front of me. i was maybe 20-25 meters back of them, but i felt i didnt need to waste the energy so early to get to them. i had cost myself a few seconds on that first lap in some of the 'high-speed' technical turns by riding to close behind inferior bike handlers and i had to scrub my speed. if there wern't 4 or 5 guys to pass at the time and had it been just 1 or 2, i would have made the effort to pass them thru those early turns. the reason for my decision was i felt like i would catch back on, they wern't going anywhere. i would eventually be faster than most of those guys in front of me thru the dow hill section of the course and would eventually pick them off. over the next couple of laps, the seletion process or the thinning out of the racers played out. a couple of guys would wreck, have a mechanical or just plain 'pop'. by the end of lap 3, i found myself next to garrick valverde of mesa cycles and chasing one of the epic guys. they look the same from behind. actually, both guys had passed me during the 2nd lap and gone up the road. the epic racer was actually with the front group of 3. briton kusiak of KCOI and alex edwards of mesa cycles had attacked mid first lap and got a gap of maybe 4-5 seconds on the next 4or 5 of us. the epic guy was with them briefly, i just assumed he couldn't match the pace. anyway, garrick had passed me on lap 2 and went up the road with maybe a 4-5 second gap on me. i once again didnt panic and rode my pace. i felt it was early. so by lap 3 i could see garrick was coming back to me and so was the epic guy. at some point during lap 2 one of the early leaders, jon giles of cycle city, wrecked out or burned out. i believe he blew his 'wad' by getting the 'holeshot' and going for the STUPID first lap prim. do you rally need a prim lap in cx??? when is it ever not 'balls to the wall' in cx??? so, one guy in front of me was now in my rear-view. i guess there were 2 epic racers in front of me early as well, cuz matt rolled a tire and had to pit. i noticed him bridging up to me as i was closing in on his teammate jason on lap 3 or 4. by lap 5 of 7, the battle of attrition had set in. alex and briton were battling for the win and me, and epic teammates matt and jason were together and racing behind them. by the 6th lap i realized we had actually closed down the gap of the 2 leaders. in hindsite, i wished the 3 of us behind the 2 leaders would have worked together. i think they were in reach. maybe only 20 to 25 seconds up on us. from lap 5 to 6 i think we took a big chunk out of the lead they had on us. oh well!.........we were racing for 3rd and i was realizing the fact that these 2 with me were taking turns on me. jason took a couple of digs on me with matt in between. i went around and stuck on jason's wheel only to have him attack a 3rd time. i wasnt able to respond and jason had a 10 meter gap before i had recovered enough to stop the bleeding. at the start of lap 6(2 laps to go) i soft pedaled on the pavement a took a hard dig once we hit the grass with the intent to shake matt off my wheel and not let both epic guys beat me. matt barely hung on. i took another dig when the course went uphill and made matt struggle to get back on. i figured if i could open a gap on the uphill, i could recover going downhill and still maintain the gap cuz i felt i was faster thru the technical turns coming up. i took maybe a 4 or 5 bike length gap going into the stairs and added a couple of more to it thru the 180's before the pavement. i dont know if i actually 'lit' it up on the pavement, but a did take another hard dig thru the start finish and by the time i got to the grass i had maybe a 6 second lead on matt. i really tried to hit it again on the uphill section of the course and not take any chances thru the turns. once i hit the downhill i felt matt breathing on me, but i had actually maintained if not added to the lead. i really tried to lite it up going downhill without taking any risks in the turns. i tried to remind myself that my 'conservative' was faster than his 'railing' it thru those turns. even with overcooking a hard 90 degree turn i was maintaining my gap on matt. i recovered and was able to talk myself thru the last few turns before the stairs. 2 180's before the pavement and some nervous energy and i got on top of as big a gear as possible before the pavement in case matt was charging. i think matt was cooked though, cuz he sat up realizing he wasnt gonna get me. the mechanical in the middle of the race had really put him behind the 8 ball. 'hats off' to him and great finish with having to go into the pit for a wheel change. i finished 4th and took the last 'payout' place for 20 bucks. i was about 10 seconds back from 3rd place jason knight of epic cycles who was in turn maybe 20-25 back of 1st and 2nd.

i actually feel better about my result on saturday than i do winning the Heartland Park CX race a month ago. the couple of pounds i lost over the last 2 weeks must have helped my climbing. hahaha!

a good result can show all the hard work and preparation for a racer is paying off. in my case, it has actually relieved some stress of wether i have made the right training decisions over the last couple of months as well and show me that i am on the right track for december 11th and 13th. actually want to thank (or owe)mark thomas for really coaching me and helping me to continually improve over the last couple years. thanks mark!!

U.S. Nationals is just 6 weeks away..........

'hats off' to cycle city and jeremy haynes for a super course and a great preview for next months 'nats'. we had a great turn out and some great racing in all categories. thanks joe fox and jeremy and all the others reponsible for Boss Cross 1.

see ya next race.

Round 4 of DeStad & day 2 @ Smithville Lake

So i couldn't help myself. 11 o'clock saturday nite heading for bed and i cant take it anymore........i decide at that moment i am throwin' my original plan to the wind. seeing 30+ guys in saturday's cat 3 race, watching the 360 guys and everyone else duke it out was too much. the choice of racing against 9 or 10 in the masters race or against 30+ guys in the 3's race.......well, thats easy for me. at least right now anyway. I actually felt like i could double up and still do both races. however, that thought was before i finished racing 45 minutes in the first race on sunday.

Saturday evenings recovery from a hard day of racing and chasing andy and steve consisted of a barbeque dinner at Oklahoma Joe's with friend and bike geek Dan Hansen. a perfect source of protein to help torn up muscles recover. I then proceeded home to bath dogs and bike, but not in that order. actually the epson salt bath i took before i went to bed really seemed to help, cuz i woke up feeling great. i seemed to havd no ill effects from the previous days race. the saturday/sunday racing is new to me this year. i did the back to back race days 4 times last year. but those really seemed to take a toll on me come early and mid-december once state and the nationals' races came around. i have really tried to limit my racing as much as posssible eiht the hope that it will pay dividends later and i will be able to peak better for nationals this december.

i was actually amped up to get going sunday morning and left the house about 45 minutes earlier than originally planned. this allowed me to take my time and get an early breakfast with the hopes of not racing with a full belly. once on the bike and warming up though, i really felt the effects of the previous days racing not soreness, but more fatigue is the description i would use. oh well.....most everyone else would be dealing with the dame issue.

like i previously stated in last blog, the cat 3 races in our area seem to get more nad more competitve with each year and each race. this season especially. cat 1 roadies sandbaggin' and cherry pickin' by not racing on saturday and 18 year old legs of a guy who didnt race the day before too are gonna be tough to beat. i dont mean that to be an excuse. it just a plain fact. young graham aldridge is a stud and steadily, hell drastically improving with every race. wether its on a road, mtb or a cross' bike, the kid can absolutely kill it. the other guys......well......i'll just keep my foot out of my mouth and shut up.

i got a call up cuz of pre-registration. this put me on the front row with the field size a rider or 2 shy of 30 racers staartinng in the cat 3 field. it was brian, ted, jason, joel and myself representing the 360 colors. so with the quick roll call, the wistle was blown and we were off. i didnt really have to dig at all to get a good position going into the grass 'bottle-neck'. with ben stover from gp velotek, i was 2nd wheel and racing well under the red line thru the first 1/3rd of the course before we hit the pavement. ti was ben me and mark cole of cowtown putting our noses up front with teammate brian joining up front about halfway thru the 1st lap. really once we were thru the start/finish area starting our second lap, this is where mark cole got on the front and just stuck it. noone else did any work to speak of for the next 2 laps. mark was content and so was everyone else. it was halfway thru the 3rd lap when i realized the mistake we had mad in leting mark do all of the work. obviously after 3 laps of work and noone else bothering to help out, the pace is going to slow a hair. no matter how strong a guy is, that pace is going to slow just enough. as i turned to catch a view behind what i thought was a group of maybe 4 to 5 of us, what i actually saw or counted was 11 friggin sets of wheels. including mine. this was not good. and with a complaining cat 1 roadie behind me and working to the front, i knew something was coming. and it happened. slow motion almost as we were grinding up the little hill to the gravel section. i even barked out to brian to get on the guys wheel, but on that hill, nether one us were able to get on that train. it was the train to be on, i knew it before it even formed. only graham on his singlespeed and ben stover were able to match the OKC racer and once on the gravel, those 3 had enough snap to put 4 or 5 bike lengths before we got to the grass. joe fox was next with brian actually getting on his wheel a few seconds later. i had screwed myself. i was racing too conservative and had glued myself to mark cole's wheel. the guy had just done 95 percent of the work thru the first half of the race and just didnt have the snap to get on even joes wheel. i was lacking the quick acceleration but was really pinned in by mark and and another guy to my right cuz we were almost 3 across coming up to the gravel road. so w/ 3 up the road, joe and brian in the 1st chase group, it was me and mark trying to get to those two. mark really dug deep but joe was just so powerful on the paved andwindy sections, we weren't ever able to get to him. and i, hinestly was no help to mark in this endeavor. joe i going so good at this point that he eventually popped brain off with a lap and a half to go in the race. mark and i actually began to reel in both ben from the lead group and brian with the race official ringing the bell for the last lap of the race. this actually perked me up and mark as well. we did 7 laps in the race and the last 2 laps were much better for us than laps 4 and 5. brian was not able to stay on our wheel, but ben had shut it down early enough up the road and recovered enough to join mark and i. i've raced against this 18 year old on the road and i was not happy he was sticking to us. cuz the little 'f!@#&r' can sprint. i had already told mark that i wasnt going to sprint with him. he had done all the work the last 3 laps and i wasnt in the overall series points either. but ben being there changed things. i tried to communicate this to mark on the run up right before the sprint to the finnish. he didnt here though and didnt know we had a 3rd guy in our group. so i started to wind it up on the little downhill buefore the last pavement section, cuz i knew ben was coming. i hollered out to mark that he had to go!go!go!. he turned around just in time to see ben roaring by me and gaining on him. ben actually nipped mark at the line by no more that a 'butt hair' fo 5th. mark was 6th and i was 7th. brian finnished a couple of riders back and jason and ted were a few more back. joel had been sick the previous week and pulled out after a lap cuz that chest crap just didnt allow him to get enough air to race. cant push or rush those chest colds.

the masters races were hottly contested again, with 360 racing taking 1st and 2nd in the 45+ with steve followed by andy. david white raced the masters instead of with the 1/2's and finished 2nd behind scott dunsmuir of slimenundgrossen. david hejduk was 3rd and brendan jenks was 4th. jason gaikowski 'doubled' up for the 2nd day in a row and raced like an iron man. guy is already training for the DirtyKanza. now all he needs to do is get a map.

360racer of the weekend though is Cameron Chambers. a lap or 2 in to the pro1/2 race, cam began take time out of shadd smith early lead. cam had actually jumped out of the bill marshall/mark studnicki group to rell in shadd a lap or 2 later. he then spent the last 1/2 of the race consistently putting time into an 'under the weather' shadd smith. take nothing away from cam. awsome racing, cuz a 'off day' shadd is still faster than shit. great racing , cuz a healthy studnicki and guys like bill marshall,shadd schreiner and kyle bush were left way back in camerons' wake.

a fine, fun weekend of racing. however, i missed my wife and daughter because they were out of town visiting grandma. so the weekend would have been much more enjoyable had they been here to enjoy it with.

til next time.....

DeStad Series @ Smithville day #1

360racing was highly visible this past weekend. from the cat 3, the master's 'A' to the cat pro,1/2/3 race.

these pics courtesy of Bruce Edwards from day 2 at the smithville cx festival.

The Smithville Cx festival this weekend were rounds 3 and 4 of the DeStad series put on by chris locke and the wheel bike shop.

after 3 days of rain and depressing weather(i.e. some call it fall), on saturday morning, the skies broke and the sun shone thru. all be it chillier temps than what we kc folks have raced in up till now in this young cx season.

for whatever reason, and they were many. i had decided i was going to challenge myself this weekend to racing in the Masters races. this means that i would be getting punished by my own teammates andy, steve and david and also by the fastest man in said category, scott dunsmuir. andy and steve have been trying to help david hedjuk out thru the first few races of the year. david has been battling w/ scott dunsmuir and jeff winkler. both of these guys have been flying and tough to beat. with david white and brendon jenks throwing their support in a couple of races, i felt like i needed to at least attempt to help in the 360 cause. i knew it would be tough, and really didn't think i could be of a whole lot of help except maybe in the first couple of laps. it was going to be a challenge for me to dig deep enough to stay on these guys' wheels. really noone has finished w/ dunsmuir, winkler, hejduk, lucas and songer all year. these guys have really seperated themselves to be the strongest masters' racers in our area. they are the standard, and i wanted to see where i stood.

so day one in smithville came and went. sunny and 50 by the first race of the morning on saturday and it was the cat 3's starting things off. 360 teammates, brad, brian, jason and ted got the ball rolling. brian was coming off a great previous weekend with a 3rd and a 2nd. he was a guy that was going to be in the mix. but, a early wreck, then a midrace mechanical and subsequent bike change had brian going backwards from the front 3 or 4 players to mid-pack. thats tough to overcome in a 3's race around here anymore. the competition just keeps getting better. when you've got pussy cat 1 and 2 roadies sandbagging and afraid to take their lumps with the 1/2's, well.......lets' just say it has been getting more competitve. however, these same roadies i speak of will dissappear when the temps start to fall and the weather turns to shit. i digress...... brad schrock continues to look more comfortable handling the pain of cx and jason and ted are improving and rounding into peak race shape each race weekend.

the pro/1/2 race had cameron and david white wearing the 360 colors. both seemed to get stronger the longer they were out on the course. david was chasing down a worn out bill marshall by the end of the hour of racing and cameron finished 3rd behind winner josh johnson of st. louis and local star shad smith.

the masters race on day 1 was as hard as i had expected. but, in hindsite, i had placed no expectations on me. other than challenging myself to staying on the front groups wheels, i dont think i had fully commited myself to endure the pain that would be needed to accomplish this task. therefore, i think i let myself off 'the hook' before the race had even begun. note to self in future......if u are going to challenge yourself, dont just give it lip service! really do it and pay the price to achieve it. this meant that on saturday, i needed to hurt just a few minutes longer and push just a little bit dipper to stay in contact with steve songer when he went around me to bridge up to dunsmuirs' attack towards the end of the 2nd lap. i didnt do this, and i was left to dangle in the wind and race by myself for the next 4 laps about 15 seconds behind andy. that gap increased to 30 by the end, which in hindsite, is not a bad day of racing. it just leaves me wanting more. more......more effort to dig deeper, more commitment before the start whistle goes off. so 360 finished 1 and 2 w/ songer and lucas in the 45+ race. i think there were 15-16 45+ starters. i finished 2nd behind dunsmuir in the 35+ race and 4th overall behind dunsmuir, songer and lucas respectfully. jason gaikowski raced this race which meant 2 races for saturday. he is definately the 'iron' man of the 360 team. actually matt dutcher raced twice on saturday as well. i think matt might be flying come the first mtb race next year.

more on day 2 later......

360 teammates

images courtesy of joe houston. pics are from sundays Boulevard Cup at the start of the masters race. Take note of the 360 charge. 6 or 7 360 guys up front putting everybody into the dreaded 'pain locker' from the opening seconds of the race.



i know i get caught up talking about myself too much here on this blog. so i would be remiss to not talk about my 360racing teammates and how well our team is built for cross'. i think most of us crossers on the team knew that this would happen. but our team has really had an imprressive showing thru the first few weeks of the very young cx season. with Andy Lucas and Steve Songer killing everybody in the masters' 45+ field. no one has come close to them in the first 3 races in our area. andy even has a couple of podium finishes in a 40+ masters field at the UCI weekend up in madison, wi at jonathon pages' races the last weekend of sepetember. steve and andy have traded wins the last 3 races. andy winning saturday at the capital cx and steve winning at the heartland nite race and today at the blvd cup. David Hejduk has had the tough task of going up against jeff winkler from the kccx team and scott dunsmuir in the masters' 35+ category the first 4 races of the year, finishing 2nd 3 races and 3rd in another. david white is still racing his way into shape. he had a tough summer with not a lot of training or racing due to a double hernia surgery. he has actually been taking his lumps by racing with the 1/2's for 60 minutes of hell. cameron chambers has started to show his strength again with a good showing of 4th place in the 1/2' race at the capital cup on saturday afternoon and another 4th place on sunday in a very strong 1/2 field again. brendan jenks has raced strong in both the masters and a couple 1/2's races as well. with brian williams finally feally healthy, he finished 2nd sunday and 3rd saturday afternoon in the 3's race both days. then there is doug plumer. he has raced at a super high level on the mtb bike and the road in the past. with a wife and daughters, he is probably lucky to ride a day a week at best. However, he has come out and raced the first few weekends this year and totally turns himself inside to get the 360 train going in our masters races. doug has never met a holeshot he couldn't take. our 'missing in action' teammate from the summer, tead moore, is taking the david white approach and racing his way to peak form for u.s. nationals. with a 'new' bike and a new found appreciation for racing and training, ted should be right on schedule come early december.

360 racing is well represented every weekend there is a cx race in the surrounding area. with guys like joel hammontree, jason gaikowski, mike palitto, and brad schrock toeing the start line from weekend to weekend, no other team in the kc region can stack up to 360racings' depth and quality of cyclocross racers . trust me, i hear our competitors talking about us every weekend. skc, kcoi, cycle city, and bike shack, its all good natured competition. but its cool seeing the other teams a little envious of all the 'fast guys' wearing the 360 kit. oh well, i guess they will just look forward to the 'road' season that much more, cuz we own them on the mountain bike as well!!:)

see you at smithville!

anyhow.......

3rd race of year and 2nd round of the 60series cx was held in topeka, ks at the hummer sports park. supper nice park that has a high school district football stadium a softball park and lots of room to run a cool cx course. a little elevation change w/ some decent 180's and hard 90 degree turns thru some trees and around an old abandon insane asylum. its actually a cool course and a cool venue. thats why i chose to race on saturday vs sunday.(nothing against the blvd course in wyco park tommorrow) anyway....i may like the venue and the setup but that doesn't necassarily translate to good results. last years race in the 3/4 saw me catch a pedal with 3 turns to go to the finish line and i went from fighting out for a win to 6th place in a 3 second mistake.

today however was something different. no excuses, i just need to chalk it up to not my day and prepare for racing next weekend and 2 rounds of racing. teammate brian williams just prior to the race, asked how i felt. and honestly i told him not that great. legs were heavy and even tired. in hindsight, I think i overcooked it thru the week with the rollers and trainer and the longer rides midweek. i think i didnt listen to my body this week and maybe just over did it. i did some sprints warming up for this afternoon's race and i was filling the legs up and never even getting winded. the legs were really just not responding. i was a little worried, but hey, i pushed the worry to the back of the noggen and got ready to go. a good start saw me 3rd wheel into the grass behind chris wallace and richard hu. chris was quickly gone(must've been the high altitude training he had last week at the u.s. olympic training center in colorado springs) super talented chris was gone and i had figured right....the rest of us were racing for 2nd place. it ended up being mark cole, teammate brian and myself settling in to pretend we were chasing down the youngster. we were all three on the rivet, but i was suffering more. we quickly gapped the rest of the field in the 1st lap. the writing was on the wall for me as well. i kept hoping the the pace would slow a hair for just a couple of minutes for me to get a chance to get a 2nd wind or something, but mark never let that happen. chris tilford was present again on his single speed and was with the 3 of us for a couple of laps. he would yoyo with our little group thru technical areas but by lap 3 he was finally gapping us for good. about the same time he was doing that i was going the other was. on several occasions thru the first 3 laps i had to dig hard to get back on. i really made a mistake in letting my 2 race buddies dictate my race thru some of the stuff that i would have been much better of leading thru 1st. the technical sections i was having to slow because of brian or mark, i am faster thru those areas. but honestly, i didnt have the stregnth today to get to the front in those sections. so laps 4 and 5 i was just trying to continue to put as much power into the pedals as possible. that wasnt much. by lap 5 i noticed a challenger closing in on me. jason knight from team epic was charging, but i thought i had enough of a gap at the sound of the bell for the start of the last lap. the gap was 15-18 seconds but was surely closing. with the last 1/4 of lap left, jason rolled by me and there was nothing i could do. i had no answer whatsoever. stick a fork in me, cuz i was done.

so, 5th on the day was as good as i could do. i think 20 guys lined up and started the 3/4 race. not a real impressive field size, but still better than some other areas of the country that might be considered cycling hotbeds.

i do know that if it is going to rain hard the day before a race and the course is going to be soft. i want it to be soft and muddy and just plain sloppy. cuz then i would have an advantage on some of these 'roadies', but a normal fast course turned slow with a soft power sucking soil is really going to hurt me compared ot some other guys. that is where i have to address the whole weight issue and me being at least 5 if not 10 pounds too HEAVY!

oh well.......i will recover the next few days and make sure i am well rested going into next wekkends races up in smithville, mo. rounds 3 and 4 of the DeStad series on sat and sunday. this will be my first back to back saturday/sunday race weekend of cross racing. now its being patient thru the week cuz i am chomping at the bit to get back out and race after a dissappointing saturday afternoon of racing. the weather was absolutely perfect though. low 60's by 1:00 pm with no wind and nothin' but sunshine.

2nd cx race of year in the books.

so, the 2nd cx race on the calendar here in the local kc area was put on in topeka, ks. actually the race was held at the Heartland Park Raceway. I am not a huge race car fan and had actually never been there before. when i heard a race was gonna be heldd there, i thought i could be a cool new venue. just the idea of making use of the dirt track they have out there seemed like a pretty new and cool place to put on a cross race. especially after my experience out in portland, oregon this summer with a short trak mtb race at a similar venue.

anyway......to those who missed or decided not to race or chose to do sundays race instead.......i have done the criss cross race 3 years in a row, and i will be honest. the people who missed saturday nights' affair and jeff unruh's race at heartland park, well let's just say you missed a great oppurtunity to race at kc's coolest and most unique venue. 1st off, the last 2 races were after sunset, on a very well lit course. which meant safe and non scetchy racing on top of a super fun and super and supa' fast course. thi was my first time racing after sunset, cuz i missed the Hermann race in september. i had heard from several guys who raced there and they all compalined about the lighting and the somewhat unsafeness of he course there. this however, was not the case this last saturday night for the 1st round of the Series60cx and the HPT Grand Prix. Kudos to Jeff Unruh and all who helped him put on a great race.

i wish i had some good pics of the course and the racing from saturday nights action, but heather was working and i never thought to bring the camera. i was pressed for time what with the little kid's feeding and bedtime schedule , it was show up to race, say a few hellos and get the hell on the road back home after my race was over. really din't even get to see any of the final race and the big guys duke it out.

setting goals is a common thing in athletics, and i for one spent the majority of my competitve years in golf from 12 to 24 years old having them. from junior and highschool years thru college and my oh so brief professional golf career. goals are what can help you achieve that next level in athletics or in anything a person is looking to achieve in life. i think cu i soent so many years having them and setting new ones and being so focused with the self-obsessed one track mind, i have avoided doing that with the bike. at least in not setting specific goals.....i just mainly stay focused on the whole idea of constantly improving. improving strength, endurance.........just training with the idea that wiht time constraints, i need to make every ride count. especially now, now that my time is even more limited with the amazing little girl added to my life. so i am focused on riding and racing and squeezing the most out of my limited genetic make-up. so much so that it literally to me a good 3 days to appreciate that i had a really good race on saturday night and also a pretty darn good one a couple of weeks ago at the lenexa diamond blackfan cx race.

my first thought across the finish line saturday night was.....the race officials cant calculate lap time.....cuz we race almost a good 10-15 minutes longer than we were suppose to(the last 20 minutes of the 55 minutes of racing hurt really Friggin Bad!!) and the second thought was to tell myself to not be satisfied, cuz i had one guy beat me and the field was somewhat smaller than the previous week with some missing familiar challengers to the cat 3 races. I guess it took a while for me to figure out a couple of things. at least for some things to sink in anyway. First, the guy who beat me is a genetic freak who races as a cat 1 on the road and the brother of a local cycling star who happens to be in the 'world mountain bike hall of fame'. Obviously compared to a lot of guys, kris tilford has a long and impressive racing resume here in our area. so no shame there, right josh?? i am a little dense and short sited sometimes(oh, by the way, chris was racing in the single speed category and not the 3's race). second thing that came late to was to.......accept that a win is a win, even in a 3/4 race, even if it not a 1/2/3 race an even if some of the main competition isn't racing that particular day(hopefully those guys, that i consider my competition, are a little relieved if i dont happen to be racing on another particular day). oh well...wishful thinking.

to the race recap......the start, again is to me the begining and end to having a chance to winning a cx race. at the very least, you may not be able to win a cx race with a good start, but you can certainly lose the race with a bad start. i felt this played out again in saturday evening's race. A short hundred meters of pavement at the start line took you to a soft angled left hander that curved back down a small noll back onto the pavement which set you up for a 90 degree turn that about 10-15 ft out of the apex took you on to packed but loose dirt. the 90 degree turn and the loose dirt both played a big part in the start of the race. this was 10 maybe 15 seconds into the race and already i was hearing squeeling brakes and metal on metal. I had already gotten the 'hole' shot now, once onto the dirt race car track heading north at about 29mph, i also had at least a 10-12 bike length gap on a single file group of about 8 to 10 guys. this gap seemed to increase once i got thru the loose dirt off-camber 180 that takes the racers into the infield of the race track. the infield is where all the medium speed 180's and 90 degree technical turns were at. again, riding solo and getting to pick my own line, i seemed to increase my lead some more. i had never been off the front solo of a road or cx race before. and it had been about 4 years since a couple of sport class mtb wins where i was flying solo off the front. this was new territory for me. in the past, i have always been chasing someone just a little bit faster, and every now and then maybe setting an early hard pace w/ the front group in a cx race. but always i was accompanied with at least a couple of competitors right behind or in front of me. saturday night, with an early lead, i found myself talking to myself a lot more. nervous that i would blow a big lead or blowup spectacularly by racing just a bit too hard too early. so i really raced what little technical sections there were pretty conservatively, knowing that most of my competitors would still be slower than me thru those sections. i focused on really hammering it on the straight-aways and really nailing the stair and the barrier sections. 40 minutes into the race, this really started to take a toll on my legs though. i spent 3 or 4 laps being slowly reeled in by kris tilford and also had an SKC and a GP rider that kept a constant distance back from me. but they popped first and drifted furthur back, but kris eventually overtook me w/ 3 laps to go(i think 3). It was with 4 or 5 laps to go that i noticed another rider that got my attention. Joe Fox from CycleCity was closing in on me. Joe made me really nervous. Joe is really strong when in shape and racing a lot and significantly more powerful on the straightaways than me in years past. if its road bike and time trials. he wouldve' caught me. but it wasnt....we were on cx bikes. and i think all of my AtThreshhold work the last month and a half was paying dividends. Because i kind of held joe in check the last couple of laps and was able to coast the last few hundred meters of the bell lap and cruise to my first cat 3 cx win in more than 2 years. no arms raised or celebration(i dont want anyone making fun of me celebrating too much over a cat3/4 win). just a relief that the pain was over and i could get out of the 'hurt locker'. man my legs were fried. the fast course and the abundance of power sections in cross course have not been my cup of tea in years past. i generally do better in more technical courses. so this course really forced me to 'dig deep'. so too did the guys who were chasing me and the guy in front of me.

its amazing how much the competion has increased here in our area the last 2 or 3 seasons. more and more guys are really putting in significant cx training and gearing up for cx season and the national championships that are held here again this year. just one more reason to take a little pride in winning a race.

2 more races this coming weekend. saturdays is back in topeka and sunday at Wyco park. the same park that held last years U.S. cyclocross championships, but with a different set-up. this weekend will be rounds 2 and 3 of the Series60cx races.

see ya this weekend or see ya back here for a recap.

month and a half.....

top pic is my cousin audrey with brynn at de stadd cx race #1 and below is brynn looking extremely bored. obviously she wasnt impressed with the 4th place. she doesnt consider 4th and 5th to be true podium results.

man......

life can really interfere with a persons' best laid plans. its been a month and a half since last update. at that time i believe the thing most on my mind was cyclocross season being just around the corner. i tend to get a little OCD with my 'athletic and toy' endeavors. this can tend to strain even the best of relationships. my wife and i included.

thru some long and 'loud' discussions and some heated debates......some depression like feelings......even some deep thoughts of things considered to be important. well..............its been a long few weeks.

happy to say, those heated arguments....err....discussions , turned to talks(civil) and some things were made clear, and hell we even agreed on some things.

as the clouds began to lift and the sun poked thru in my life, i think i have begun to realize i can strike a balance between what keeps me happy and sane without making my wife feel less important than my bike.

i hope she knows that her and the kid are first and foremost and the bike and all of its trappings are the glue that is me......however......the bike, racing, well its third, maybe second depending on what kind of day i had at work.

i know i can keep the bikeracing and training OCD thing from being too obtrusive on the wife and our happiness together cuz she does accept the fact that it is a part of who i am.

anyway....1st cross race de stad series race #1 DiamondBlackfan is in the books.

new venue was used. the Sar-ko-par trails park in lenexa, ks was the locale for this last weekend cross race. lets just say it was a great opening event to the cx season. Chris Locke and company put on his best event yet. a great venue for racing and spectators alike. weather was perfect if not a few degrees too warm(85ish). the races later in the day really had tough and the heat played a factor as to the atrition invloved with the guys racing.

i decided to do the 3/4's race. actually didnt give any thought to doing anything else really. no desire to race for an hour with the 1/2/3's. but guys at registration were of course asking about it. still dont consider myself that caliber, dont even think i am midpack material with the big boys. but a teammate, brendan jenks raced 1/2/3 race and did ok, and i have beat him more than he has beat me in the past......so i dont know.....should i or not??? so i just suck it up or what?? oh well, we'll see.....

so 46 guys lined up for the 3/4's at 10:30. i was at the line about 10 minutes before the start which allowed me a front row spot. the start sets the tone in cx and can make your life tougher or easier depending on how that start goes. with the whistle, we were off. 4 season into racing cx, i am no longer paranoid enough to push for the 'hole shot', but i do battle for those first 4 or 5 wheels. depending on who is up front jockeying for position. sudays start was routine, noone got tangled up and i liked who jumped up to the front to push the opening minutes tempo. alex edwards, mike palitto, chris wallace, myself and graham aldridge were the initial front selection. at least those are the guys that i noticed around me. i am totally cluless to what is going on behind me. i just want to know who is near and in front of me. this was particularly important on this coures to the technical aspect of the set-up of the course. lots of switchbzcks and high-speed tech turns. even before the first hard left i knew i neede to get in front of alex and chris. no offense to these guys, they will kill me on the road, but in cx or the mountainbike, they are just going to slow me down thru turns like we were racing on. hell, i think chris laid his bike down 4 times in the first 3 laps, but hte kid kept his cool and eventually raced past everbody but the eventual winner, graham aldridge. 17 and rubber legs, chris finished very well later in the day in the 1/2/3/ race. he is a stud!! i rode a clean, almost flawless race until the last lap. frank jachovich had been stalking me and reeling in most of the second half of the race. when he did catch me with 2 to go, i didnt panic and just kept him close. again, i felt i would be aster in the technical turns. and there were plenty of those to male a move on him on the last lap. with 2 to go, it was graham, followed by a surging chris wallace about 15 seconds back, with frank and me another 15 or so back of chris. with the ringing of the bell for the last lap, i made a point to keep frank close. i really didnt want this guy to beat me, not on this kind of course. this was my kind of course, i should have an advantage over this 'roadie'(a friggin strong SOB). a hard highspeed worn down turn was my downfall. this turn was where i had on two different occasions early in the race, railed it to pass 2 guys at once. both times 2 guys were hanging on and going wide wile i just railed it and ripped by them. however, the last time thru , i got too aggressive and caught a loose patch. i was trying to close the gap on frank to setup the next turn and carry momentum thru it for the pass on the inside. well, the thoght was good but the execution was horrible. down i go, this laying down the bike cost me all of 5 seconds but it might as well have been an hour with jachovic being the guy i was chasing. now i was concerned about the 2 guys that were charging behind me. i opnened the door for them. now they thought i was catchable and they had hope. hope can make you faster on the last lap when someone is in site of the rider in front. i told myself to remain calm, that i was faster than those guys chasing me, faster thru the technical turns. disaster struck again at about the halfway oint in the lap. with a half a lap to go, i laid it down again. this time in loose gravel. i friggin know better. why am i pushing the envelope thru gravel??? friggin dumbass!!! now, my right shifter/brake lever is broke and for some reason i have only one gear. all i can do is hop back on my bike and 'Push the Panic Button" with the hopes that that will make me faster thru the last 1/2 mile of the course. i was stuck in my 16t gear in back. (i now know i dont have big enough balls to race singlespeed) it took all of a half a mile in my 39x16 to realize i will never 'want' to race singlespeed! i somehow held off a charging mark cole and brian williams by 10-15 seconds. its amazing how much adrenaline and panic can make you ride into that red zone for just a little bit longer. i spend 35 minutes racing a really clean race and with 2 miscues i am robbing parts off of my road bike hours later to get my cx bike up and running again. oh well, just money.....so sundays race netted me a 4th place result in a field size of 46. happy, but not satisfied is how i feel that.

its good to be racing cross' again, we got a long way to go before nationals.......now do i race for an hour with the big boys??

til next time.................

oh well........hopefully i wont wait as long to write.

brynn at 9 weeks

finally took some time to post some pics of the baby girl. she is about 6 weeks older than the last time i posted a photo of her. i dragged heather and brynn along wiht my mom and her husband gary out for a 3 day weekend filled with bike racing. they were great sports indulging me. and brynn was as easygoing as could be.

i am a lucky guy!!

friday nite downtown kck crit 'strawberry hill'

alright....a little race report and some commentary to go with it.
first things first: description of friday evenings course. 3 races on friday were the first day of the 100 version of the tour of kc(ok, not 100th but alot anyway). an approximate 1 mile loop covering 4 right hand turn. the start/finish was situated on top of a hill. rolling down from the start line takes you down said hill into a 90 degree turn and back up another hill into turn 2. now back to turn 1. at the race speed of 28 to 32mph in the cat 4 race, this became a somewhat sketchy corner depending on who was next to and in front you. suffice it to say it was safest up near the front if not leading the pack into that turn. it took until the second lap for me to realize i was going about 2-4 mph's faster than everyone else thru that corner during the race. no matter who was next to me, i was putting multiple bike length gaps on anybody near me thru that corner. turn 2 was at the top of a hill that could be taken at 4 or 5 bikes wide. this led the racers into a long straight away that covered 2 city blocks. this actually heads the racers back to the east and is generally a fast part of the course. however, on this nite, the wind was out of the east by north-east. thus making this a slow section of the race, cuz everyone was sitting up do to the grinding hill we just flew up and very few cat 4's ever make it to the front of a race.(gutsless asses!). turn 3 should have been a fast 90 degree, but with the head wind it was fairly tame. thru turn 3 we turned south and with the wind at our back, this is where things seemed to pick up. a few 'lazy wheel suckers' would poke their heads to the front trying to reposition themselves in the pack. this led us to turn 4, which was a fast but 'soft' cuving turn that takes us to the base of the 200 meter 9% grade finish hill. neither of the 2 hills on the course are difficult until you add race speed and 45-50 minutes of racing. this is enough to throw nails into your wellplanned out thoughts for a good sprint finish. i know a 1/3rd of the 4's field was spit out the back in the first 15-20 minutes. and the bigger sized cat 4 racers who generally mix it up in the flatter crits were not going to have a shot at winning this race. also mix in the fast technical downhill turn 1, and you had some guys white-knuckeled and just flat out afraid to lat it hang out on this course.
I realized early on that i was faster than anyone thru the first turn, but it took 20 minutes to figure out that i was working too hard on the 2 hills to stay near the front. i finally figured out that i could save some 'bullets' by soft pedaling up the start/finish hill, lose about 10-15 bike lengths and make it all up before i was even past the apex of turn 1. some cat 4 guys really need to practice taking corners at speed. not at 25 mph but at 35. jeez, its amazing, you would have thought some of these guys had never thrown their legs over a bike before. other than jockying for position and fighting to keep it, not much excitement happened. i kept upright, which i failed to do last year on this same course(got tangled up with a white knuckeled racer on turn 1 of the race's last lap). everyone else kept upright as well. no wrecks, unfriggin'believable!! Teammates Joel and Brian stayed near the front and out of trouble as well. With joel doing a lot of work at the front, chasing down a bunch of attacks and bridging up a few times when some guys let some wheels go. Brian and myself chased down a few as well. hoping to get lucky and maybe hop on tthat train that might just head out of town. Nothing stuck in the end though. i think maybe 35 to forty of the 60 starters were together on the start of the bell lap. Of course the past reallly wound up with tyler henson from loclacycling.com launching his much anticipated bell ringing attack. this was good, because it strung it out and kept things safer going into the last few turns single-file. but of course, wel all bunched up again between turns 3 and 4. with the pace quickening prior to turn 3, i began to look for my teammates. not being able to find them, i latched onto a good alternative and a great 'wheel-out' in mark cole. i figured if i could at least stay with him until the finish i would get a really good result. mark is new to crit racing but has shown a knck for sprinting on the 'tuesday- nite' crit series. he also has a ton of power. heading into the soft turn 4 i was still on mark's wheel, but a split second of hesitation and a look down i was immediately off marks whell and back 2 bike lengths. there goes my free ride. just before the base of the hill it was 'off to the races' . launching myself into the 'pain-cave' i finished a respectable if not somewhat dissapointing 8th.
close but no cigar! with a post race recovery drink of chocolate milk, it was back to the drawing board.

OverlandPark Grand Prix race report coming soon......

cross' is coming!

tour of kc weekend

hey, real quick.....
check out the slideshow i have on the right of the blog. good pics taken by the wife from this weekends racing. 4 fields were ok. not as big as years past. 50-55 in the cat 4 field on friday nite in downtown kck. sprint finish on a 200 meter hill. kept the big guys from having a shot. i finished 8th. no racing for me on the hilly wet and muddy circuit race on the infamous cliff drive in kc missouri. came out to watch and the early races were all marred by wrecks and muddy and just yucky conditions. glad i didnt race. save my legs for sundays crit on the 8 corner flat fast overland park grand prix. with one guy up the road the last half of the race about 30 seconds, the cat 4 field was sprinting for 2nd place. just one question though. WHAT THE HELL WERE THE 8 SKC RACERS DOING NOT COMING TO THE FRONT TO HELP BRING THAT GUY BACK??
oh well. i finished a solid 7th. two top 10's on the weekend and won my entry money back.
i am now going to petition to be upgraded to a 3 on the road. i just dont think i am improving racing in the 4's. i dont race enough on the road in twelve months to garner enough upgrade points but i have accumulated enough top 10's in bigger sized fields the last couple years to upgrade that route. we will see.
i'll write a more extensive race report and post it in the next couple of days.

some good fun was had with the last road racing of the season for me...

time for CROSS'!!!!!

cross' just around the corner!

you know how i can tell cross is just around the corner........?? cuz that is all i have thought about since the last cx race of last season. the shawnee grote prijs on january 7th of 08'........thats how! tour of kc this weekend. raced the tues nite crit for the first time in a month. sat in early. followed wheels in the middle of the race and worked up to the front the last 15 minutes of the race. again, i just followed wheels come bell lap and finished 10th in the pack sprint. 4 of the usual suspects were up the road. really consciously held back tonite and raced really conservative knowing i was just get ting the crit legs ready for this weekends racing.. should be a minmum of 80 racers on friday nites race in downtown kck and close to 100 for saturadys circuit and sundays crit. i love big fields! anyway....the above are some pics to get you in the mood for cx, courtesy of heather.

more pics from portland international raceway and OBRA's monday nite mtb short track series. good dirt fun!!

more pics and check th website for results

more pics from wife and check out this website.....http://www.portlandracing.com/results.html and july 21st. kc's very own 360 racing colors were being flown in portland, oregon. the announcer found it strange that some guy from olathe, ks had shown up to race in portland and kept mentioning the teams' and my name thru about all of my times thru the start/finnish hill. first announcer that some interloper was in their top ten and then from the 3rd lap on kept talking about the dirt on my team kit, the blood on my knee, and for some reason that i seemed to be going backwards thru the pro/expert field. hmm....go figure.

is portland........????? have i died and gone to heaven?

so, the taylor clan spent 7 days in portland, oregon visiting heather's mom and step-dad. perfect excuse to take a bike with me and get some epic adventure riding in. perfect weather for the week, with mid 50's in the morning and maybe mid 70's by noon. jeez, is portland heaven?? no rain at all for the week either.
my only problem with the trip out their was 'what bike do i take?' road? did that last time in febuarary. cx bike? makes sense. some tame single trak and gravel mixed with some great pavemnt. but..............i cheked the state run race website. OBRA, and found a weekly run mtb short track race held on monday nites thru the summer. take the mountain bike ??
i started iliciting my cycling friends for their opinions as to what bike i should take. not a one said the mtb. 'take the cx bike', even when i told about the the weekly shot track racing. i thought about it, but it just did noy seem like it would be as much fun racing on that course with just a cx bike. hell, i do alot of riding on the road on the mntain bike when i amriding solo and putting in a base of training.
so i changed out my maxxis 2.1 crossmarks for some fast bontrager 1.85's. seemed like the perfect balance for the short trak race and a better tire to lo some base miles when on the road. i figured i might even scope out some urban singletrack or gravel. i decided i would not bother the in-laws for a car to use for my riding addiction. everything would be based out their garage.
needless to say, i wassuper psyched about the chance to race on the 03 & 04' u.s. cx nationals course at the portl international raceway. i have never raced in a mtb short track event. man i was pumped. the following pics are courtesy of the wife. and i'll post some more later.

but i am in the process of typing one fingered and feeding the little one.....and it about midnite and ive got to be up early to work at the firehouse...............................so, to be continued....portland is a cyclists dream, from the racing to the roads with bike lanes to the great weather and great scenery.

couple of pics and an update. brynn is wonderful. heather and i are up a couple of times a nite to fead and change. thats when i am not working the next day at the fire staion, otherwise heather is taking a big bulk of the load.

no races the last couple of weekends, i bailed on the 360 teammates yesterday for the baldwin road race. feeling kind of yuky and run down and i was scheduled to work anyway. didnt want to burn time off work for a race that i didnt have down as an 'A' race and not feeling well either. so i went to work......go figure. it was a sunday and i got paid to take a couple of naps .....also ran a nasty car wreck on I-70....took us 50 minutes to cut a guy out of an overturned car. he literally had the car folded and smashed around him and almost had his feet pinched off by the crushed car around him..
tuesday nite crits have been fast and fun the last 2 weeks. finished 4th in the field sprint 3 weeks ago which was 8th on the nite. last week the average for the nite was 27+ for the 2nd week in a row. it was unusual again in that noone got up the road. not for lack of trying but everything just got chased down. so with the real 'big' boys not up the road, the last 3 laps were friggin crazy fast. i knew this was gonna happen so i just tried to hold on for dear life to some good wheels and hope to stay in contact until the final corner. i found myself just barely holding on to the front 12-15 guys on the bell lap. coming into the last corner it was all i could do to stay uprite and not pass out. first 5-6 guys were 20-30 meters up and i was dangling on to the next half dozen racers. the final sprint saw me pass about 3 guys before the line and noone coming around my wheel. i counted 11 wheels ahead of me at the line. so 12th was the result. not what my original goal was, but a good hard nite was in the books and i think a few recovery days were in order after the last 2 killer tuesday niters and 'tt' efforts on the previous 2 thursdays as well. 360 racing was again well represented. david hedjuk was 2nd on the nite and andy lucas was a couple of wheels ahead of me as well. cameron chambers was active all nite trying to get into breaks. plenty of other teammates doing a lot at the front setting tempo or chasing down breaks.

'Cross' is still the final goal, or i should say 'main' objective, so i have got a lot of training and work to do before september 28 th rolls around.

ive also got this kid thing to deal with......holy %#$^ i am a father!

more pics and thoughts about the new 'taylor'

so.....day five of brynn madelyn taylor coming into this world has come and gone. the posted photos are of friends muggin' up for the camera with brynn. everyone seems to be quite amazed at heather and i. for heather, its the amazement of how well shee handled the pregnancy and the birth of her first child and how well she looks just a few days removed from delivery. myself is aa different story. i think its that same sense of amazement these same friends of mine had when heather agreed to move in with me, then said yes to my proposal of marriage and the final straw being the actual going thru with the wedding plans. 'what could heather be thinking?' or 'what is she doing with that guy?' and yes, the perverbial 'that shlub must have a really big c#$@, to be with a hottie like that!'

yes.......unfortunately these are just a few of my friends, cycling and non-cycling friends, along with heather posing with brynn as well. jeez, you get a baby and a camera, and everybody is a Friggin' model!

oh yeah..... on morning of day five, heather allowed me to head out to blue springs, mo for race #2 of the heartland mountain bike series. somehow, after all the rain we've had the trails at landahl park were dry enough to race on. with only a couple of hours of sleep due to it was my turn to feed and change brynns diapers the previous night, i managed to just miss out on a podium and a small cash purse. 6th place in the expert 30-39 class was all i could manage, which actually was better than my expectations at the starting line. i was about 2 and 1/2 minutes back of 5th place and some cash. still managed to put an ass whupping on some friends and rivals but still just 3 to 5 minutes back from the guys that i really would like to be 'racin' with. the studnickis and prices', guys like that.

oh well...........more pics and useless antcedotes to come.......did i spell that word right???

hey all,
just wanted to post a couple of pics. i stated in a earlier email. to some cycling 'buddies' that the wife and baby are great! in fact 25 hrs after giving birth, heather was allowed to go home. she is a tough and beautiful lady! i am truly in awe of the strength and toughness it takes to give give birth. anyway...if anyone was worried about the progress of my training for the remainder of the road and mtb seasons and leading up to the 08' 'cross' season. its 6pm and a couple of hours after the family came home to the hospital. i am throwing the 360 team kiton and going out to ride for a couple of hours and get in some tt or Lt efforts.......if anybody was interested. again, the beautiful wife of mine didn't even flinch when i talked to her about my riding plans.

god, do i love that lady. and i am truly in love with my daughter Brynn Madeline

here is a couple of pics. heather will not be happy about me posting one of her and the baby, but they are both incredibly beautiful. andi dont know how the hell the picture of my mtb bike got in there?? oh well,

thanks for all the e-mails and here is to some dry weather and a margarita for heather!!

Bout' that time??

4:30 am update.
contractions are about 7 minutes apart. last couple of hours they have gone from 10 minutes down to 7, so we or heather is getting close. i am packing up car with heathers bag preparing to head down to ku med here in a little bit.

jeezus krimany..........we are going to be parents! is that legal????????????

updates to appear randomly.

later!

ps.....i am squeeging inch or two of water out of my basement from early morning damn thunderstorm. F#@#!!!!

Request To Induce? Denied...

So my wife and i were at the doctors' office on tuesday. she is starting the weekly visits cuz she is getting close to due date. doctor does the ol' insert finger into my wife's privates to check on dialation of cervix and whatever else all 6 figures of that student loan went for. The doc actually informs the 2 of us that heather is much closer than she would have thought. basically saying a natural birth was rather eminent if not expected at anytime.

So, me being myself. I say lets get it on, lets induce now. what the hell, right? the doctor had told us the previous time in that she would only induce if heather's cervix was favorable. those were actually her words. now she is telling us that from her examination of heather today, that her cervix is favorable. i was just thinking, the earlier in the week she delivers the kid, the more likely i will get to race on the weekend. Hey, i am just being pragmatic here. I dont really want to go race and be unreachable during a race if heather still hasn't delivered yet, you know. she already has like 10 different phone numbers to try and reach me if i am at work. i am still looking into getting the national guard emergency number and the governor's hotline number.

so the doctor looks at me as if i am 'half' joking with my request and i look at her as if i am 'half' serious. meanwhile, heather begins to explain to her my predicament with the whole racing my bike thing. That i would just as soon get the kid out now so i won't miss a race on the weekend. the doctor and the med student look at each other and slowly start to laugh. truly, i think they only laughed to hide the sympathy in their faces for my wife and the poor misfortune she had to marry somebody like me. heather found it thouroughly enjoyable to show how completely 'off the rocker' her husband is. she also got a big kick out of how the doc responded to my request and her explanation of that request. seeing the doc not know if i was serious or joking about inducing my wife due to bicycle racing concerns really really struck the wife as humorous.

Really though. this is how cool heather is. we were discussing some teammates racing out of town this next weekend and another race that was in town and that it was still a possibility that i could race in town. i figured that weekend would be a wash with no racing. seems only logical that i wouldn't, wether she delivers or not. jesus! i am not the F'-up.....or maybe i am......i don't know......so anyway...... my thought was, at best, i might be able to race on sunday june 8th if she delivered earlier that week.(due date is actually june 6th)(hey andy, how long did you wait to race after your old lady had your little girl??) i was thinking that if the delivery went smooth and everybody(wife and baby) was healthy and at home, i might have a shot to sneek away for a few hours to partake in a mountainbike race. heather actually informs me that it was still possible for me to race if she didn't deliver as well. mind you, i truly wasnt fishing for any gimmees here. i wasn't feeling her out to see if it was a possiblity or any thing. i had truly not planned on doing any racing for the next few weekends, and hell, i still may not. but just to see her even mention it, not even roll her eyes at it, and even bring up the possibility of it......well, she get's it!

hell, she somehow gets me and my F'd-up brain and how it works.

hmm......poor poor heather!
she is Friggin great, though!

man, I Love my wife!

p.s. to any of those folks who thought i might get slower on the cross' bike....well, bad news for you! i.e. ted, joe, andy