Kachess Ridge Mtb Ride

Beautiful day for a ride, high up in the alpine. No one else on the trail and 90 degrees! Still some snow, mud and creek crossings which were quite refresing.

One more thing... I've gone 99.99% gluten free. I haven't had a beer in over 3 weeks and I've cut out nearly all the other gluten in my diet. Before I was half-gluten free; only avoiding pasta, but now it is cold turkey. And I already feel better and can actually race in weather over 70 degrees. Yesterday's high during the road race was 91 degrees!

After 6 weeks of solid racing and training the legs have finally returned. After a hard 4 days at Mt Hood Stage Race last week my legs finally came around. Got 2nd in the Methow Hill Climb and 8th overall this last weekend. Phil had a nice ride to 1st in the hillclimb. The hillclimb was absolutly brutal and the most intense I have ever raced for 25+ minutes... great oportunity for some good data from the SRM! In short, I went absolutly ballistic for the first 5 minutes of the race and then tried to hold everthing togather for the remaining 20 minutes. Not sure if it was the smartest thing, but I like hitting hills hard.

The TT went well, but still no TT bike so it's hard to break top 50%. The road race was interesting since we had only 30 guys with half of them being from Hone's Lenovo team. Still had fun and some good training, and Adrian won the overall.

The Road Race:



The Hillclimb Podium:

SRM.... No need for words.

Very tasty.

Mac Nut Pancakes

Got my Cat 1 upgrade! Although I'm exited, it would be far more exiting to have a functional knee and a cat 1 license at the same time... Yes a bum knee. My left patella is out of commission. I think the cold weather and some hard hill efforts did the knee in. I've given it a week to recover and it has just started to show signs of recovery. I missed Boat Street and Volunteer Park criteriums last weekend and I'm missing Walla Walla Stage Race this next weekend. If all goes as planned my knee will be back up for Tour of Willamette (which I am really excited for, I hear the hills are steep). Actually I've ridden the Alsea Falls route with Patrick last year and loved the climb!

I leave you with a view looking up at the summit of Alsea Falls where the race climbs. It doesn't look like much, but its a climb. The climb reminds me of all the fireroad climbs I used to do on my mt bike... I miss summer.


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Ok, I'm bored. I've been playing with Google StreetView for the last hour. My goal was to find the most desolate Canadian Boarder crossing and here you have it:


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Rain, Snow, Rain

Although I don't normally complain about bad weather, I am now officially complaining. I do take pride in not owning a trainer or rollers... I can't ride inside, I'd rather deal with mother nature than train inside a seal environment. My bicycle hates the rain more than I do. Every freaking part on the bike seems to wear out in the rain.