When you wish upon a star....

Sunday afternoon we'll be basking in the nice warm Florida sun, soaking up some rays and probably hunting that Lemon Chill guy down for something cool and refreshing. Wait a minute, exactly how many calories is in one of those Lemon Chills? Nice try Mr. Lemon Chill guy tempting me with sweet and sour delicious, especially when hot outside, treat. I will not be swayed.

That's right, we're off to Dizz knee World! I'm pretty excited. Not for myself but for Addi. She is so excited, I can't wait to see her face light up when she sees the Castle or a Princess for the first time.

It's gonna be great!

I went ahead and put some mouse ears on Addi and I even made them match her outfit. Check back this week and I'll try to keep some pictures and updates of our trip posted.

Pain in the Head

Most of you know that about a week and a half ago I took a very short tutorial on flying. It wasn't nearly as graceful as say superman did it, it was more like dropping a water balloon off a second floor balcony and watching it bust. It hurt, a lot.

We were decending Fire Hill and at the very bottom as you take that last right hand turn a fellow riders front tire blew out. That rider then accidentally hit the rear wheel of the rider in front of him. Due to gravity, those two riders fell to the ground and began sliding across the road. I was right behind the guy whose tire blew out and other cyclist were passing me on the right. So, going to the right wasn't an option. I didn't want to go straight into the "sliding" cyclist because I didn't want to hurt our bikes or run over anyone and getting bikes tangled up is never good. So, I decided to go to the left, to the left was a curb. The curb wasn't straight up and was more like at a 45 degree angle. For a split second I actually thought I would just hop this little curb and come to a stop. That didn't happen. At approximately 25 miles an hour that short little 45 degree curb launched me into the air. I remember seeing the sky and how blue it was and then I remember seeing the ground.

I hit, forehead first. I don't really remember flipping or rolling or bouncing or whatever else I did. I do know that from my first impact to where I got up was about 20 feet and from my first impact to the curb is a good 5 feet or so. So in all I traveled about 25 feet from the curb. Like I said, I'm not sure exactly how I got there. When I opened my eyes, at first all I saw was big black spots and flashes of lights. As I lie there motionless on the ground all I can think of is something is definately going to be wrong. Something has to be broken. I slowly started moving my fingers, then my toes, then my arms, my legs, then my head. Everything was moving. I felt around my collar bone to see if that felt intact. I had a pounding headache but the thought that I just smashed my head against the ground didn't really occur to me. I was more concerned with the blood running down my leg and arm. After cleaning those places up it turns out they were just small scrapes and should of been the least of my worries.

To be honest I was more concerned with just getting back on my back and hoping that my Carbon 50mm front wheel wasn't shattered to pieces. I picked up my helmet, it had flew off at some point in the wreck, and tried to put it back on. I wouldn't fit. I didn't really look it over I just loosened it up and strapped it back on. Just as I started to get back on my bike, it was pointed out to me that I had some sort of head injury and I should get it checked out. I checked it out in the trucks side mirror and sure enough, I had some some cuts and scrapes on my head. I gave my helmet a quick glance and noticed that it was a little jacked up but I really didn't give it a thorough inspection. The next morning I looked it over and realized how lucky I was. Here's a few pics of what it looks like now.

Everywhere you see a red arrow, helmet is busted, cracked or missing a piece.

Just a closer shot of the front left side. Totally busted out. It's like that on both sides.

Another shot of front. I hit forehead first.

A friend of mine, Tyler Black, he works at Bicycle Alley and is a great guy. Was the first one to the crash scene and was the first to check on me. I never got the opportunity to thank him for helping me out, so Tyler, "Thank you very much."

Tulsa Tough

Was I Tulsa Tough? Well, if you look at the results then you would probably say "No" I wasn't Tulsa Tough. I had some okay results finishing in 21st place Friday, 21st place Saturday and 11th place on Sunday. Two days just out of the money. It's kind of funny I think, I finished two days one spot out of the top 20 and when I did break the top 20, I missed the top ten by one place. I'm not sure how many guys stayed for the whole weekend but I do know that there were over 100 guys at the line Friday night. That is easily the largest field I've ever been in and I'm actually not disappointed with my result.


I was in a great spot going into the second to last left hand turn of the race but took the turn too wide and watched as several people took the inside line and taking my placement with them. Good decision on their part, bad on mine. Friday night was filled with wrecks. I don't how many there were total but I know I was effected by four of them. My teammate Ryan was taken down in one of them but managed to get back up and take an impressive 44th place. Not bad for a guy who got taken down and ran over. Zach got stuck behind a wreck and was able to pull out a 37th place finish. Everyone was sketchy Friday night, it's a huge payout, huge field, helicopters, jumbo-trons and tons of fans. It's like the real deal and it's all in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Saturday, it was looking good, I was about 7 back on the last lap and then was almost taken out on the climb at the back side of the course. I'm not sure what happened but the guy just fell over on me as I was passing by him. I was able to somewhat support his weight by steering into him and then turned away real quick as he continued to fall to the pavement. Maybe his right foot unclipped or something. I don't know but that one cost me a lot of places and I had to nail it just to catch back on and then squeeze everything I had into a 21st place finish.

Sunday's race was a hammer fest. The field was shredded fairly early on. This course has a very challenging hill, Cry Baby Hill, and it seemed like the pace never let up. I'm not sure how many laps we did but I know it hurt, a lot, early on. It seemed like the first 10 laps felt brutal. All I could think of was how bad I wanted to quit. Then we came by the line and I saw 15 laps left and it was at about that time that I felt like my legs really started to open up. Things started getting easier and the thoughts of quiting went away. I love the feeling after I break through that wall. I was able to pull out an 11th place finish this time. I was pumped. Finally, I broke the top 20. I was feeling good on the last lap and maybe should of went for more. I could of tried to drill it on the backside through the rollers or dive bomb it through that last right hand turn. I'm not sure why I didn't but I am happy with my 11th place finish. Had I done that I might of cost myself a top 20, but then again, you have to be willing to give up everything in order to have your chance at winning everything.

Amie got to meet Floyd Landis and I even talked her into getting me his autograph which will proudly be displayed in the soon to be Bike Dungeon.

What made this trip so great was having Amie there with me and all the time we got to spend together racing, shopping and hanging with my racing buddies. I took a different approach to racing over the Tulsa Tough weekend, HAVE FUN. I drank a few beers, ate what I wanted and did things totally opposite of how I have handled just about every other pre-race routine and I had a great time doing it. It was nice to get to introduce Amie to all my friends and the people I line up with a few weekends a month. Mark took me on a tour of Soundpony and that really is a pretty happening place. We were there at like 8 p.m., I can't imagine what it'd be like a little later. Thanks to everyone who helped make my weekend great and to my beautiful wife for going with me.

Now, I have to post this thing because I've been writing a little here and there for like the last two weeks and it's getting old.