Dammit, I did it
again. I keep trying to update this, but I’m just plain awful at it.

The worst part
is that I actually have stuff to talk about…like racing bikes. No seriously,
I mean, actually racing my bike. This is fun.

So I won two weeks
ago now. That’s still pretty cool. It hasn’t gotten old yet. One of the pictures
is the background on my computer, just cuz it makes me happy to look at it.

The next day, I
missed the break, but we had it stacked and the team won – that was two in a
row. Super cool. Almost cooler than winning, but not quite: I was third in the
field sprint. Ha. That’s funny. I still don’t know how, but I almost made some
money. Instead I was 11th, and missed the 20 bucks for 10th by a tire. Shucks.

The TIME Team was
1st, 2nd, and 5th overall (5th was me!). That’s pretty cool.

After that, we
had a week off with no racing. I did a ton of practice. Rode hard, rode long,
and got really tired. That was a really good week – my biggest week of the entire
year so far. We did a fun ride in Raleigh on Sunday – 100k just pacelining the
whole time. It was tough. I was tired. I felt tough.

Then it was Monday
again, and that was my work day, but I got done by evening and threw some stuff
in my car and drove up to West Virginia for some more bikin. That was so much
fun. I love West Virginia. We rode three good days – the first one was pretty
long and some of the best roads ever. Wednesday we did 16 quality climbs. I
set some new personal records for me, myself, and I, so that was pretty much
cool as shit. My achilles started freaking out towards the end of the ride,
which really got my nervous, cuz I might constantly have a runny nose, but for
the most part I’ve avoided the real physical injuries, so that scared me. We
went to see Steve Thaxton that evening and he fixed me up nice and proper. I
still have no idea what he did to me, but yeah, I was 100% better immediately.
I need to learn a lot more about that.

Thursday was my
first ever mountain bike ride. Well, I mean, I’ve ridden mountain bikes a few
times before, but never for real, and not with my newfound, hard-earned barely
competent bike driving skillset. That was so much fun. I really like mountain
bikes. Too bad that the rear derailleur snapped off with about 5 miles to go.
I got the sweet pleasure of walking all the way back to the truck from there.
It was alright though. I’m glad Jacob was there, otherwise I’d have been carrying
the bike instead of pushing it. It never ceases to amaze me how someone who
has done his time mountain biking can pull off some crazy shit on the fly. If
that was me, I’d have looked at it, picked up my bike, and walked home. If we
had had a chain tool I could have RIDDEN my bike. I love it.

After that it was
time to come back to Winston and do some more racin this weekend. We didn’t
win both days this time, but 2nd and 3rd isn’t too awful. I was 8th both days.
In my own little way, I’m really happy about that. I missed the move both days,
but still figured out how to race my bike in the end and get in there for a
result. It’s funny, cuz 8th isn’t anything to this team. It’s basically understood
that we’ll get hopefully at least 2, maybe 3, and possibly 4 in the top 10,
and if it isn’t a win, who cares. It’s such a different attitude, but it works.
It works really well. It’s not that results are taken for granted, but there’s
only one that matters and that has really changed my own perspective…I think
for the better.

This has to be
the dullest post ever. Oh well, I had to catch up somehow.

In short: racing
is going well…I’m healthy…allergies aren’t killing me yet…it’s all good.

It’s Monday now…and
I won two days ago.

Still just thinking
about that makes me happy. I’ll just think about that whenever I get sad and
I’ll automatically feel better.

But yeah, wow,
that was cool. Now I want to do it again. I thought I was motivated before…this
has gotten me even more fired up to ride my bike hard.

I didn’t win on
Sunday, but Chris did, so we took back to back wins this weekend. We stacked
the break with three: Pat, Tiago, and Chris. The break started with 12ish, and
was eventually whittled down to 8, so we had 3 in 8, so that was good for us
for sure. Chris ended up getting away at end with a couple others and won. That’s
pretty damn cool.

In the field behind,
we were sprinting for 9th, and somehow, I really don’t know how, I got 3rd in
the field sprint. I came within a tire of 2nd. It was almost funny. I don’t
have any clue what I’m doing in a bigger sprint like that (not like I have any
idea what I’m doing in a small group sprint either) – I waited way too long
to start my sprint and just came around too late. The guy that won it won it
by probably 2 or 3 days. He stopped pedalling with a long way to go cuz he destroyed
everyone so bad. I wish I could do that.

I’m back in Winston
now, and we’ve got the second and final week of team training camp ahead of
us. Tomorrow we’ll be riding behind the scooter, Wednesday we’ll go long, Thursday
will be easy, and then Friday should be some more hard stuff. Saturday I want
to ride uphill some, and Sunday we’re going to Raleigh for a charity ride. It
should be a good week of bikin. It’s supposed to hit 80 on Wednesday. I need
to find some sunscreen.

I washed my bike
last night…it was 730 at night…and it was still light outside…oh how I
love Daylight Savings.

I think that’s
all I’ve got for the moment.

Make sure to check
out: FACTORYDEVELOPMENTTEAM
DOT COM.

We’re also doing
a diary thing with CyclingNews
now – worthwhile reading for sure.

Alright I’m out.
I really want to go ride my cross bike today…really really bad.

So I won the race
today.

I’m about as happy
as it is humanly possible to be without exploding.

I could gush some
more or say how unbelievably grateful I am to this team, and how frickin bad
ass everybody is on this team…or I could just send you over to thebikegame
dot com to see the winning sequence and that pretty much says it all – because
last year at this time I couldn’t even crack the top 20 in one of these races.
It’s not even a matter of me either – it could have been ANY one on our team
today, because everybody was there following the moves – I made the lucky one
and it stuck, and I somehow sealed the deal in the sprint.

That’s just about
the coolest thing ever.

I almost didn’t
even finish the race – my saddle came completely loose mid-race and I was about
to call it a day, but Erik told me to take his bike…so I did…and I got back
into the race…raced…and managed to make the move. I’ve been trying to do
that for so long…and with some helpful coaxing from RainMan, I followed the
move that needed following.

That’s just about
the coolest thing ever.

Pics over at THEBIKEGAME
DOT COM

And don’t forget
to head over to FACTORYDEVELOPMENTTEAM
DOT COM

Why not FETTYTRAINING
DOT COM too, cuz I’ve got more thank you’s for Jacob than I’ve got
breath.