After Friday mornings mishap I was without a road bike on Saturday.  I made a quick phone call Friday night and hopped on the Palos bandwagon with Mike and Jason.  It is great to be able to easily plan a 4 hour day with some great riders.  Mike and I decided to start our ride again with the new section of trail we learned about last week.  It was just as challenging as last week, but with a little familiarity, it was faster, smother and more stylish.  We did stop a couple times to let Jason try a section or two a couple times.  After that Mike and I raced down the street to the bullfrog parking lot.  The Trek and SRAM people were out doing a demo, so we stopped to chat a little and hooked Greg onto our train at the same time.  We rolled down some fire road, through some trail, across 104th, along the canal, up Willow Springs Road, back into the woods, crushed limestone, through the black out and back and one lap of the meltdown race before coming back into the parking lot.  Somewhere in there I bunny hopped a log pile and came down into the soft dirt a little crooked and wrapped myself up in my bike pretty good.  I also bent my rear derailer hanger.  That made two in two days!  Back in the parking lot though, the Trek guys hooked me up.  Bent some steel, made the proper adjustments and applied necessary lubrication.  The night before I had looked at the trail map and noticed that there is some trail Mike and I have not ridden before.  Greg had and we rolled back out of the parking lot to take a look.  Down the yellow trail and across 95th Street to the purple and Cemetery Hill.  From now on this will be the first trail I ride when we go out to Palos.  Like a run down BMX course, there are some bump jumps and hard corners.  Super fun.  All and all we put in probably 25 miles of trail, most of it only being ridden once.  It isn't Kettle, but with all this new trail, it is starting to be just as good.  A solid 3 1/2 hours.

Sunday, Julie had her wedding shower, which I was not allowed at, up in the western burbs of Milwaukee.  So I made the tough call and decided to meet, Mike, Dan, Tim, Holly, Tom and Kevin up at Kettle instead of riding my road bike.  In between, Sam at Rapid Transit bent my derailer hanger back, Marcus sold me a replacement rim and nipples and I relaced the wheel.  I led as Mike and I went out and rode a blue loop before everyone else showed up.  Then I led the train of Kevin, Mike and John from Hayes for another blue loop.  It was nice to ride with these guys.  We did not have a specific workout and were not trying to rip each others legs off, but we were all still riding strong and it made for a fast ride.  I took the right turn off of the blue loop onto the new green trail cutting the lap a little short.  Back in the parking lot after battling the mosquitoes during a flat change we decided on one full blue loop and maybe some connector.  Again I led the train and again it was a super fun ride.  Skipped the green and rode the entire blue.  At the Emma split, everyone went out on the connector as I headed back towards the car to pick up the girls from the party.  Put in more than three hours bringing myself to about seven hours of trail riding on the weekend.  I love my mountain bike, it was some quality time in the saddle.

I have fallen one too many times this spring, and three of these times have been the slow motion, "oh shit, I am really going to get messed up on this one" moments.  I have been doing everything I can to try to be safe on the bike, but I guess sometimes the bad moments just find you.  I was having problems on the path in the afternoon, so I started riding early in the morning.  Typically I am leaving the building at 5 AM and hitting the path nine minutes later at 5:09.  It has been pretty good.  Low traffic, pleasant weather.  Today was supposed to be an easy day with a few short efforts thrown in for good measure.  As I finished the first sprint I was feeling strong, so I kept the gas on.  Watching my speed more than the power it felt good to put on the cruise control and be at ~25 MPH.  Every ten minutes I figured I throw in the sprint and I would finish an hour later.  The further along I got the faster I was going and holding the power numbers up.  It hurt, but it was not painful. 

Hit 55th and the turn off to go around promontory point.  This early there isn't anyone out there and the views are pretty nice so I made the left hook.  I got out to the furthest Eastern point before making the easy turn South and looked down at the computer, not for long, just the glance you take every 1/2 minute.  When I looked up there was a Chicago Squad car in the middle of the path coming straight at me.

And there it is, the instant slow motion.  "Oh Shit!" Lock up the rear brake, jam on the front.  Keep the back end down.  "I am totally going to slam into the car!" Lean forward, steer left.  "Why the hell is my back wheel all the way perpendicular at my right side?"  Sliding out, correct the turn.  Rear wheel whips around to the left side.  Unclip.  High side eject button.  Hit the ground.  Stopped. 2, maybe 3, seconds max.

Look behind me and the cops are getting out of the car.  They ask if I am alright and I give myself a once over.  They ask if I need an ambulance.  No, I was fine.  I struggled to get the chain back on the bike, more difficult than usual.  Well, it is because the wheel won't turn as it is rubbing against both of my chain stays.  The cops meanwhile are just standing there.  "I bet that was the biggest show you have seen out here in a while."  Again they ask me if I am alright, I say I just need to call for a ride.  They leave, I walk through the grass out to the path and get eaten by mosquitoes.  Good thing about wrecking at 5:30 AM is that you can run across Lake Shore Drive at random places since the traffic is still really light.

Julie came to my rescue and I walked to find coffee in the meantime.  The Starbucks happened to be three doors west of the diner cops go to in the morning and I saw my new friends getting out of their car.  They saw me carrying my bike.  "Is your crank screwed up?" "No, the wheel is trashed.  The path isn't such a good place to be driving a car." Silence.  On the bright side, the registers were not working at the coffee shop so I got my espresso for free.

I guess one of the reasons I am having more "problems" this year than last is that I am on my bike about 100 times more trying to be a good cyclist.  So, feeling strong and riding the bike is good.  I am again just wishing I was not doing this in Chicago. 

You would think summer would prompt more frequent postings.  Well, half the problem is that I do not carry my camera with me every step of the way.  The other half of the problem is that in efforts to be a good cyclist I am slowly turning into an old person.  I go to sleep really early, I wake up even earlier, all my joints are making funny noises and my diet has become rather, safe.  Now, on the other hand, I have done a few pretty cool things.  Saturday I woke up early so that Mike and I could get some trail time in.  We went to Palos and I was, shall we say, a little unprepared.  We struck out into the woods and I was lacking, sun glasses, water bottles and a flat kit.  Thirty minutes later, I was pointing Mike in the right direction and making a running workout back to the car.  Hike-a-bike is not any fun, especially in mountain shoes.  Cyclocross practice!  Saturday afternoon was spent at the Tour Da Fat, which was spectacular!  I am so happy they came to the Midwest. We drank them dry and helped raise a ton of money for West Town Bikes.  I had two beers and was drunk (see old man reference above).  Julie and I made our way home and after making dinner I promptly went to sleep at 6 PM (again, see old person comment above).  Thankfully I feel asleep after I talked to Mike again and was persuaded to ride trail the next day instead of the road. 

Trail on Sunday was amazing.  A solid 4 hours.  I had been told by a few folks to go and check out some trail that I did not know existed.  What we stumbled into was the reason downhill bikes are being sold around Chicago.  It was pretty amazing and some of the ladders and drops are pretty big.  Neither Mike nor I attempted any of it, but we did walk around for a while in amazement.  I will take some pictures next time we go out there.  There will be a next time because as we followed the ATV trail further into the woods we found another singletrack trail.  This short trail is close to the best technical trail I have ridden in the Midwest.  The trail itself is tight and twisty, but that is not to say it does not lack any flow.  The rock gardens and short climbs take a significant amount of skill and effort.  The trail is a challenge and warranted stopping a few times to try the sections over and over again.  And did I mention it was in perfect condition.  Someone has been taking very good care of it this spring (it had been racked) and I thank them very much for the effort they have put into it.  I promise to treat it well.

Sunday night Julie and I relaxed in front of the TV, I watched Transitions 2 because cross is on the brain.  Julie donated some frequent flier miles and we got a ticket to Philly for the New Jersey round of the USGP.  I wanted to wait for some pictures, but I got an email from Paul that simply says, "...I finished your frames today..."  He needs to send them to the heat treater, which I think means Sycip for powder coat, and then they will be on their way to me.  I can't wait!

This weeks training has been encouraging.  Remember the workout that made me want to puke?  One 5 minute all out effort, four 1 minute max efforts, five 30 second max efforts and three 2 minute max efforts.  Well, it seems that gets worked into my schedule about every week and after five or six times, it has gotten easy.  No more puking and wattage that is through the roof.  I wish I could just maintain it for 30 to 40 minutes, that has always been my weakness in terms of things.  I walked in this morning and was telling Julie I should totally refocus my cycling and try for the flying 200m world title.  Well, not really, but my sprints feel strong.  Then I read in Velonews what Mark Cavendish is doing in the final sprints of some long stage days and I don't feel so fast anymore.  Got to appreciate a cyclist who knows he can throw down though, "In terms of the sprinters' hierarchy I reckon I'm among the best."

Holy hell, thank you youtube, here is Steve Peat's downhill run from this years Mountain Bike World Championships.  The commentator is amazing!  Some great videos in there.  And here is the World Championship run.

1. Julie and I got my first plane ticket for the cross season last night, O'hare to Portland, OR for the week before nationals in December.  That weekend will the the wrap up of the USGP of Cyclocross.  It will be a fun weekend for sure, one of the few times I am going to get to race with a big group of the team, not to mention the best guys in the country.

2. Got a place to stay the weekend of the New Jersey USGP in Philly thanks to DanAction!  A huge thank you to him.

2a. If you look at my schedule and see a race that is located near where you live and have a place for Julie and I to sleep I would greatly appreciate a hide-a-bed to crash on for the weekend.  I still could use help in Portland, Louisville, Iowa and Michigan (potentially Madison, Vegas and Kansas City).

3. I changed the schedule a little bit.  Instead of going East to Gloucester, I am going to make the drive south to the Cincinnati region for three days of UCI racing in the OVCX series.  What an amazing series.  They hold three days of UCI racing, one of the stages of the USGP in Louisville and one of only a few C1 level cross events!

4. Rumor has it that the Chicago Cross Cup will have 12 race days this fall!  That could potentially be every weekend from September through nationals!

5. Non-Cross related.  Half Acre Cycling's new website is running and it is sweet!  I am trying to convince the team and their sponsor that they should brew a Belgian triple this fall in honor of their cross racers.  We can only hope.  So there, I guess I made that cross related too.