Mike: Oh yeah I love watching Dirty Jobs, the host is such a smart ass. By the way did you know you qualified for the mountain bike national championships?
Me: (Jaw drops and nothing comes out)....What, wait, huh? How the hell did I do that?
Mike: You placed well at Alterra Classic.
Me: Huh?
This goes on for a couple minutes till it actually sinks in that I get to ride in USAC's National Championships in Mt. Snow Vermont!! I placed 7th in my age group at a race this past season that is apparantly a qualifier, who knew. Frankly ever since Mike told me this I've been bouncing off the walls and looking for any excuse to start training again. Up till Saturday night I was simply going to race in order to have fun and win a couple races, now I have a goal and something to work my ass off towards. Upon reading this I'm sure Zach will be jumping at the chance to wreck me on some interval rides.
In other cycling news, the Tour of California started today and I heard a terrible piece of news
during the intro. From what I gather Team Astana is being banned from riding the Tour De France, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Nice and Paris-Tours. If this was the same team from last year I wouldn't even have raised an eyebrow considering their scandal. The thing is the whole team is new including managers, only thing that is the same is their financial backers. The worst part is that the team leader is Levi Leipheimer, who came in 3rd at last years TDF and is one of the best riders out there right now. Basically the Grand Tour promoters want to make an example of Astana not because of who they are but who they were! In that case why is Festina still a huge sponsor of the TDF?! If they are crucifying Levi for his sponsor then we should remember the Festina scandal and drop them as sponsors, tit for tat. Hopefully it'll work out for Levi but I doubt it. So please sign the petition and help a great American rider out!
Ah yes, and no more crappy Iphone photos! I got the camera and its amazing. Granted I don't understand 80% of its functions or manual settings. Time to start reading up on photography. Naz, Ben, I'm looking right at you!
Me: (Jaw drops and nothing comes out)....What, wait, huh? How the hell did I do that?
Mike: You placed well at Alterra Classic.
Me: Huh?
This goes on for a couple minutes till it actually sinks in that I get to ride in USAC's National Championships in Mt. Snow Vermont!! I placed 7th in my age group at a race this past season that is apparantly a qualifier, who knew. Frankly ever since Mike told me this I've been bouncing off the walls and looking for any excuse to start training again. Up till Saturday night I was simply going to race in order to have fun and win a couple races, now I have a goal and something to work my ass off towards. Upon reading this I'm sure Zach will be jumping at the chance to wreck me on some interval rides.
In other cycling news, the Tour of California started today and I heard a terrible piece of news
during the intro. From what I gather Team Astana is being banned from riding the Tour De France, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Nice and Paris-Tours. If this was the same team from last year I wouldn't even have raised an eyebrow considering their scandal. The thing is the whole team is new including managers, only thing that is the same is their financial backers. The worst part is that the team leader is Levi Leipheimer, who came in 3rd at last years TDF and is one of the best riders out there right now. Basically the Grand Tour promoters want to make an example of Astana not because of who they are but who they were! In that case why is Festina still a huge sponsor of the TDF?! If they are crucifying Levi for his sponsor then we should remember the Festina scandal and drop them as sponsors, tit for tat. Hopefully it'll work out for Levi but I doubt it. So please sign the petition and help a great American rider out!Ah yes, and no more crappy Iphone photos! I got the camera and its amazing. Granted I don't understand 80% of its functions or manual settings. Time to start reading up on photography. Naz, Ben, I'm looking right at you!
5 comments:
Congrats on the new camera! One needs a Ph D to understand the "directions." And of course we are excited that you will race in Mt. Snow - way to go Helge !
Keep warm...need I tell you the temp here?
It's time to rip it up. By mid-May, we ought to be putting-in about 25 hours a week on the bikes. Of course, that would also mean that we'd have to quit our jobs, but that's a small sacrifice for the amateur cycling glory.
i’m disappointed for levi too, but i don’t think it’s un-just. he may have had his reasons to stay put, but look @ astana’s track record (& i don’t mean on the velodrome) levi’s on a tear for sure, and I think he could have won TDF so it sucks. i like him more than hincapie, but george may have had a little more foresight than leipheimer …
Congratulations on qualifying, Mt. Snow will be awesome. now if only we could get some warm weather and that pesky snow off the trails. Until then we can cause some trouble on the road.
Congratulations Helge!
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