Too Tall

Xterra

2010-05-11T08:34:00.001-07:00

Today marked my first foray into the world of off road triathlon at the Xterra Del Valle outside Livermore California. The idea of doing an Xterra began forming in my head during the cold winter months in Chicago as I ran and swam my way into some form of fitness while the blizzards raged outside. I have limited experiance in triathlons, competing in a few road sprint triathlons in high school, and also a decsent swimming background as I was the district champion in the 200 meter freestyle race my senior year. Even with this I had no idea of what to really expect going into this event. Dusty had dialed in my Hei Hei 29 during Seaotter so I pulled it out of the quiver and headed for California. Doing a race solo without support reminded me of the early days of my mtb career but nostalgia aside I definatly appreciate having someone around at events to help out.

I arrived mid day on Friday and set about assembling my bike and getting things ready for a preride. I did a nice loop on the multilap mtb course and after a quick snack headed out on the bike to check out the run course. It was totally fucked up! I had been doing some cross training leading up to the event and was confidant in my swim, but not so much for the run. After seeing what was in store for me during this final leg of the race I really began to worry. I'm not sure if you know this or not, but Illinois is totally flat. Flat like the only hill is in a parking garage or highway overpass. This run was not flat. I was worried after the first km, but then things got really nasty. We made a right hand turn off a trail next to a river a basically ran straight up the side if a mountain. Not sweet. I decided that instead of doing a short run to get my legs moving I needed to go straight to the hotel and go to bed.

I awoke early the next morning to the fog lifting off the surrounding hillsides, revealing massive wind farm projects on the hill sides all around me. I arrived early to the race, got all my gear positioned in the transition zone, took 3 shits, about 15 piss stops and then struggled into my wet-suit.

Xterras are mast start, and I suggest looking one up on youtube so you can witness for yourself the mad chaos involved with 150 crazed triathlete all gunning for the same bouy floating 250 yards away. Luckily I had checked those videos out beforehand, so I lined up at the front and prepared to pinned it. I kept with the front runners for the first third of the race, but then backed it off a tiny bit so my head wouldn't explode. I came out if the water in 7th position, with the first few guys exiting the transition area as I entered it. I strapped on my helmet, shoes and gloves and was off like a prom dress.

My race plan was to get as much of a lead as possible on the bike, so that when the run came I could struggle through and have a nice cushion for a massive failure. I quickly brought back the guys who had been better fish than me and proceeded to put my head down and go for it. At the end of lap one I was 8 min clear of second place. I kept it rolling, but at a critical junture a combination of bad planning on my part and bad marshalling and the marshals part send me out on a 7 mile detour that I didn't have to do. I did not realize that I had made an error until I was in the transition zone and saw a couple of other guys in there as well. Shit! I soldered on though, having no idea where I was in placings but determined to at least put in a solid run effort. My legs felt surprisingly good, and I quickly pulled away from the guys I had started the run with. I even managed to get up the retardedly steep hill without passing out, but made the error of trying to free-wheel the ensuing massive descent in order to make up some time, but my right hamstring was having none of it and cramped badly about half way down. I pulled over to stretch it and two or three guys got past me while took a piss and tried to get rolling again. Luckily I did and was able to regain one of those lost spots and had the others in sight by the finish.

I ended up placing 6th overall just over 4 minutes off the winning time. After riding 7 miles further than the winner and still be so lose I am fairly certain had I not gone wrong on the race course my margin if victory would have been substantial.

So, a successful and fun go at Xterra racing,and definatly some thing to think about for the future. The Xterra World Championships are in October in Hawaii, and the winner gets $25,000... I might have to think about that pretty hard!

Until next time, thanks to everyone who supports me in these endevors and next up, a MTB race at Lance's ranch. Hope he shows up so we can show how real mountain bikes do it!

Nasty

Shes a long one...

2010-04-27T10:48:00.001-07:00

Three weeks on the road may not sound like a lot, but for those left at home it came become an eternity. My latest journey started out with an early morning flight out to Santa Barbara, California. This was a special trip because Sarah and Eva got to travel with me. Eva does a pretty good job of hanging out under the seat in front of me a sleeping the whole trip, which is more than can be said for a lot of the babies that I usually share flights with.

In Santa Barbara we spent time on the beach, ate awesome food, visited friends, and I rode my bike up and down some gigantic hills in the sunshine. That was pretty nice. Sarah and Eva had to head back to Chicago early Monday, so I met up with Ryan for a few more days of training and then we loaded up the truck and headed for Sea Otter.

Sea Otter used to be one of the first big races of the year, and I have always had a bit of a love hate relationship with the race. Early on in my racing career making the journey down to Monterey from Oregon was the first sunshine we had seen in months, and it was a pleasure just be to be there, riding in the sun and enjoying the circus like atmosphere. After a few years of missing the race while pursuing the World Cup circuit, I was excited to return this year and ride the epic XC race I remembered and feared from the past.

Unfortunatly the UCI had other plans. Now, I can understand wanting to create a spectator friendly format for big MTB races, but there in lies the problem. It is supposed to be a Mountain Bike race first and formost, but this was lost somewhere in the translation this year at Sea Otter. Our XC circuit resembled more of a road circuit race than a MTB course, with over 3 km of pavement in a 7 km circuit, some of it even downhill. That is just totally unfortunate. When the rigid structure of UCI sanctioning completely obliterates the entire purpose of the event, what is left? Well, we found out at this race. We rode around in packs on the pavement and there was a sprint finish. Granted, we were on MTB bikes and racing, so technically this was a MTB race, but I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone in the race that thought what we did was a good idea, especially the amature-elite level racers who spent a bunch of their own money to travel all the way down to Sea Otter and were presented with the above format. In Europe the sport may be spectator driven, but in my experiance, the US MTB race circuit is completely racer driven, and if we continue to race events that are no fun, expensive and uninspiring, the racers are not going to show up.

I'm not saying that UCI santioned events and spectators do not play a massive role in the growth of MTB events, but I would propose that everyone involved would be better off if, instead of imposing arbitrary guidleines as to what form a race course may take, we leave it up to the promoter of each individual event to determine what will bring the best mix of spectator acess, racer success and actual MTB racing to the event. The Promoter knows the area, knows the tralis and it is in their and everyones best interest to put on an event that both racers and spectators will enjoy. Limiting things by setting out finitly defined race course specifications, in my opinion, ruins it for everyone.

Anyways, enough of that rant. On to things that are more fun!

After Sea Otter I headed up to Oregon to do some community projects in Portland that Erik Tonkin was involved in. We visited a middle school during career day and talked to the kids about what being professional athletes was like and the paths we took to get to where we were today. We also went to the launch party of the North West Trail Alliance, a group dedicated to creating easily accessible, legal, fun trails in and around the Portland metro area and finally headed out in to The Dalles to do some road bike racing.

The Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic is in its second year and is quickly becoming the early season stage race Northwest rides target. Good weather, great organization and killer race courses make this event a real treat. It all started friday with a rolling 75 mile circuit race to get the legs warmed up. Saturday brought on the decisive stage of the weekend, with a super tough hilly and windy circuit that included a 3km dirt climb each lap. There was no hiding on this course, and each lap the pack was cut in half on the big climb until a select group of ten entered the final lap and battled it out for victory. I was one of the lucky few to make this last group, but my battle for victory was not as good as the others. The final day of this event consisted of an 8km TT and a Criterium in down town The Dalles.

Luckily for a guy like me, there was a concurrent Oregon MTB race happening on Sunday, and rather than try and ride fast in a stright line, followed by trying to ride fast in a square, I bolted for the flanks of Mt Hood and jumped into the frey at the Bear Spring Trap MTB event. This race is notoriously tough and totally awesome. I did the first iteration of it back when I was 17, and on that day, after coming through the start/finish at the end of lap one 2 hrs into the race, we knew we were in for a long day. I was only a few seconds out of the lead at that point, so I charged right through onto lap two in hot pursuit. I eventually bonked super hard, but as everyone else was in the same boat as me, and I somehow managed to crawl in for second overall after four and a half hours on the bike.

With this experience in mind, and two days of hard road racing in my legs, I made sure to pack extra food and water as I dialed my Hei Hei 29 in before the race. The gun went off and the next two hours were spent ripping rediculously awesome motorcycle and MTB trails with all my Oregon pals and having the time of my life. What a difference from Sea otter a week ago! In the end I was able to pull victory from the claws of defeat with a perfectly timed attack in the closing minutes of the race to beat out local super hero Sean Babcock of the famed Team S+M Young Guns crew after chasing him around all day.

After that super solid block of training, I am back in Chicago, getting my inner geek on as I prepare to race the Xterra Del Valle in Livermore in a few weeks. I figured I should try and put all the swimming and running I have been doing all winter to use at some sort of event, so, Xterra, here I come! Wish me luck, and I promise not to turn into a triathlete... Unless of course I win!

Nasty

Santa Barbara California

2010-04-14T08:51:00.001-07:00

We have been hanging out in Santa Barbara with our friends Rich and Claudia this week, getting in some beach time, acquiring nice sun burns and letting Eva and Axel, Rich and Claudias kid, entertain each other. It is pretty much a match made in heaven. Eva think so anyways...

The weather was pretty good for the first few days, then it started raining quite a bit, predictably, on the days when I was scheduled to do big bike rides. I did get to ride up some gigantic hills, which was nice, but it was so socked in above 4000 ft and windy that I could hardly tell I was up in the mountains. It was still awesome though, and now that I am throwing a wicked taper in it has become nice and sunny.

Ryan is down here as well, so we have been riding together and letting our dogs wrestle all day and tire each other out.

Headed up to Sea Otter Thursday, I hope it stays nice!

Nasty

Life in Chicago

2010-04-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

We have been having a bit of this going on around here recently. Sarah caught some hail the other night that was about 30mm across. Thats Big!

Here is a link to a mix tape of have been enjoying recently via VICE Magazine.

All sorts of entertaining inglorious content over there to waste time with.

Headed to Santa Barbara next week to Hang with some friends and do some riding in the mountains before Sea Otter, then headed up to Oregon to see my family, ride with the old school crew, and do a little local MTB racing on the side.

I hope it doesn't hail today while I am about riding.

Nasty

Here is a video of my dog playing in the sand box

2010-03-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

Thats what I'm talking about

Racing

2010-03-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

Had a pretty good time down in Fontana. I have a hard time believing we have raced there 5 times now, but I guess we have. I guess its true when what they say about time flying when you are having fun.

Another impressive stat down in Fontana was the number of Canadians in attendance. there were like three rows of them lined up at the front of the race, then the rest of us. I guess it pays to have all your races be UCI ranked, because those guys sure had a lot of points.

I am back in Illinois for the next few weeks preparing for Sea otter, then am planning on heading up to Oregon to do a little local MTB action and some other exciting stuff.

for all your cycle race coverage needs, check out cyclingdirt. Colt does a good job,a nd even lets us play with the cameras some times if we are lucky.

Thats all i got right now. Time to go ride in the sunshine. I hope it doesn't snow tomorrow.

Nasty

Hmmmm....

2010-03-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to head back to California for the next MTB race of the season. It seems like the races are always a long way off, then suddenly there are upon me and passed before I realize it. Thats actually pretty nice.

The puppy got a hair cut yesterday. Now she looks like Falcor from "The Never Ending Story"

Ok, maybe not exactly, but pretty close.

I can harldy wait to escape the on again, off again snow storms of Illinois and go play in the Inland Empire with Mr. Labarr, Sneddon and Trebon.

Nap time!

Nasty

I had a dream

2010-03-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

Ryan was like, hey dude, you want some ice cream? and I was like, heck yes! and he was all, what kind do you want, and I was like vanilla or chocolate, and he was like, yeah chocolate! and then he looked in the freezer and was like, uhh, dude we don't have any ice cream, and I was all, Crap! but then he was like, I think maybe there are some cookies in the pantry, and I was like, thats sounds OK, what kind is in there?, and he was like, well I think there are some of those sandwichy peanut butter type ones and maybe some thin mint girl scout ones, and I was like, yes! i love those ones (but really I like the samoa ones better because of the coconut) and then he was like, oh yeah, I just remembered I ate all the cookies yesterday after I got back from riding and I was like, Crap! again but really I just wanted some ice cream anyways.

I'm on Twitter

2010-03-13T10:48:00.000-08:00

Check me out on Twitter now for whats up on the race circuit.

California

2010-03-09T21:03:00.001-08:00

Check out my Flickr for photographic updates from my current trip to California. Twitter has nothing on Flickr!

Snow has started snowing once again

2010-02-23T14:44:00.000-08:00

The weather here in Illinois is kind of unpredictable. Unpredictable in the sense that whatever one predicts the weather will be, it is mostly likely going to be something totally different. That is why I have established my own weather prediction software for Illinois and so far it has been fool proof. The weather for the next two weeks will be a temperature range between 15 and 34 degrees f, some sunshine, some clouds and some snow. There will definatly be days when riding is a good idea, and other days when it is not, and other days when the amount of time it takes to bundle up to cross the street and go to the gym takes as much planning as the actual workout.

Luckily for me, the Wright Brother developed a means by which to transport ones self through space and time to another place, most likely California.

Having spent a large amount of my time in Illinois riding up and down elevators, I am formulating a new type of elevator that will not only transport you between differing layers of a building, but to far away and exotic locals as well. As soon as I have the elevator at my disposal, I will use it all the time and keep it to myself so as to not have its massive power corrupted by others.

I have recently acquired a new camera, and although many who would lay eyes on it would dub it ordinary or not possessing much coolness, I see it in a different light totally, and hope to make use of it to capture secret things and later reveal them to anyone who wishes to see them. All for free!

Here is the first secret:

Actually it is just a poorly framed, blurry photo of my dog, her frog shaped squeaky chew toy and her food bowls.

Another new development for me is that I have taken to drinking water out of wine bottles. They hold pretty much the perfect amount of water to quench my nearly unquenchable thirst, and are reusable.

Here is a video of Ben Popper riding on a snow covered bike path.

It was pretty funny.

California awaits. Are you ready?

waiting for summer

2010-02-13T19:41:00.001-08:00

A little bit of this, a lot of that

2010-02-13T19:14:00.001-08:00

This

is hard to get into, after 5 days of this:
But such is life. Headed back to the sunshine in another few weeks, but for now the XC skis, cross bike and charging the snow are the order of the day.

Sunshine burns off the clouds by 11am as cleats click into pedals and begin to turn magical circles. I love my bike

2010-02-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

JRA

2010-01-31T15:22:00.001-08:00

So I thought I found this sweet new bike path to ride on today, but then this happened:

That one stung a little bit but I will survive.

Off to California tomorrow for 5 days of 60 degree rain.

I cant wait.

Nasty

Training in Hawaii....

2010-01-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

is for "woosies"

Riding Again

2010-01-25T09:02:00.000-08:00

So I rode my bike a couple of times in the last few days. It feels nice to pedal, even if it is 30 degrees outside. I get bonky pretty fast since my body is not used to riding very much anymore, but it has been good fun. I am getting pretty tough. It is amazing how fast I went from "shit, it is flippin freezing here!" to "well, its pretty nice out today since it is 35 and not snowing". I guess it is all relative. At least it isn't raining on me right now like it is in Santa Cruz.

Saturday Sarah proposed a ride up to the Illinois State Beach park. It looked pretty straight forward on the map so I hopped on the bike and headed out. It was smooth sailing until I got to North Chicago, where the nice plowed bike path I had been rolling along ended abruptly in a 20 foot high ice/snow bank. Apparently that was as far as they decided to plow. I took to the side roads, got chased by a pit bull, road on 4 lane divided highways, tried multiple detours and finally made it to the park. Sarah was already there walking Eva around in the ice so I did a quick clothing change and we headed back south to grab some Deep Dish Pizza.

Everyone says that in Chicago deep dish is the way to go, and we weren't disappointed. The thing weighed about 7 lbs and smelled awesome. We hightailed it home and dug in. About 20 minutes later I was in a massive food coma on the couch where I remained until Sunday afternoon when we joined all the young families at Ikea looking for functional home furnishings at reasonable prices.

Finding none of these, we went back home, made an apple pie and played with the puppy.

I am going to spend one more week here in Evanston, then i am taking a quick training trip to Santa Rosa to try and whip my self into some shape.

I hope it doesn't rain on me to much.

Big time:

Gratuitous shot of the ladies:

Over and Out.

Nasty

Mancation

2010-01-20T07:20:00.000-08:00

So my buddy John is about to have a kid, and we decided to take one last big Mancation with him before diapers and 2am wake up calls became the order of the day. Johns friend Dale lives in Minturn so we packed up the bags, hopped a plane and headed up to 10,000ft for bottomless powder and blue skies.

We got the blue skies, but due to a combination of factors, mostly related to atmospheric conditions and global warming, there was no bottomless powder. In fact, there was barely any snow at all, and if Vail didn't maintain golf course like standards on their runs during the summer months we could not have even skied. Luckily they do, so we were able to burn close to 35 runs over the weekend on high speed groomers. Fun times.

Copious amounts of bacon, beer, pizza and fire were involved, and in the end we all made it out alive.

Here are some photos from the trip.

Here John and Jesse hang out in the snow cat after we hiked to a place we weren't supposed to be.

This is the best way to start a day on the slopes, I think.

And this is the best way to end one.
And then we lit a fire. This is only the beginning...

This is the view from the top of Vail. Not too shabby

Aussie red-head Dale and I get Rad with our Giro gear.Not a lot of snow out there.

I went for a bike ride the other day in Evanston, I think I should have been rolling the CX bike.
Now that the interweb is up and running in my apartment, I will attempt to keep up with the blogging. The Puppy Eva is doing well, and basically runs around the house following me everywhere, peeing on everything.

I am an excellent clean up technician.

Nasty

Thanks: http://m.flickr.com/photos/35852712@N08/4271892547/

2010-01-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

Eva can be seen here http://m.flickr.com/photos/35852712@N08/4267296273/sizes/m/

2010-01-11T19:17:00.001-08:00

Tiny white shaggy dog is napping near my foot, does she think I am a giant?

2010-01-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

There is a dog in my near future. Outside my window is the emergency alert siren for the whole town. It sucks

2010-01-08T20:47:00.000-08:00

Illinois

2010-01-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

So I finally have actual internet and can do some real updates.

We made the drive from Portland to Evanston in two and a half days.

Some of the drive looked like this.

Other parts looked like this.

A lot of it looked like this.

Evanston looks like this.

Our new apartment is pretty sweet, big, warm and close to everything. Actually it is too warm and we have to leave the windows open even when it is 11 out so that we dont suffer heat exhaustion.

Thats about it.

Sarah is working hard, getting stuff done. I have been doing the fitness path walk everyday and working on my push ups and pull ups. I might even start swimming soon.

Winter is tough.

Nasty

So now I am in champaign and the weather god says tonight it will snow and we will be stuck here for days. Oh joy. My arms hurt from doing pushups

2010-01-05T16:12:00.000-08:00

11 degrees today in Evanston. I may get Internet this week and do a real post. My iPhone doesn't like blogger very much. I did 8 pull ups today.

2010-01-03T17:48:00.000-08:00

Journal

2009-12-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

I just posted another journal entry over at Velonews

I am leaving to start the drive to Chicago in exactly 7 days. i cant wait to go to ikea and buy a new bed.

This is what I have been up to since Nationals
I hope I can get it back up and running today.

I hope it doesn't snow too much in Wyoming next week.

Nasty

They Said There Would be Snow

2009-12-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

So I did some of this.

I also went and hung out with Mike at Cyclotopia and took his picture.

So far this week I have done 3 Newspaper Interviews and one Photo Shoot. Sure is exciting having Nationals in your home state. If you dont have your tickets yet for The Cyclocross Meeting, get crackin. They are almost gone.

I am driving to Bend tomorrow. I bet my new snow tires are going to be awesome.

I got an iphone.

Life is good.

Nasty

Some Pictures of Things I have Recently Eaten, And of My Hugging Cats

2009-11-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

Only 5 more days until the next big show down. I wonder what else I will eat before then?

Nasty

No Longeing Horses in Arena

2009-11-16T19:46:00.001-08:00

I think Sarah told me what this means, but I cant remember. But I made sure not to do it in any case, lest I be in violation of the posted signage.

John and I did some exploring, and he showed me how to hide from the pot growers in the river side bushes when the need arises.
What else has happened to me?
It has been a busy few weeks, but a good few weeks. I decided to skip the NACT races in Boulder and stay home for a weekend of rest, recovery and good times on the Oregon coast. I even slipped a couple of fun Crosscrusade races in there for good measure, and had a killer costume designed by the Rev. Dr. Sarah Robinson that had all the ladies "of a certain age" in a bit of a tizzy.

After all that excitement, Sarah headed off to Mexico for 12 days to get into a fight with Hurricane Ida and work on her star fish patterns in the sand. She made it back just in time to walk off one flight and on to another to accompany me to New Jersey for my birthday. She also got to work the pits for Dusty while we rode around in heaving mud for the 5th and 6th stops of the USGP series. Two days on the job and she is already for the big time, if I do say so myself, handling flying hand offs with ease and keeping the Luna Chicks head master in check and focused on the task at hand.

I was able to pull of some not terrible rides, grabbing lucky number seven on Saturday and then going one better Sunday as to avoid the soul crushing string of seventh place finishes that haunted me last year. Even Ryan was relieved to hear I didn't finish seventh on Sunday. Like usual he ripped everyones meat from the bones Saturday, and then almost pulled off the massive come from behind victory Sneddon would have been proud of to post 2nd on Sunday.

As Sunday was my 28th birthday, Sarah baked me a cake and after a rousing edition of "Happy Birthday" from Carl Decker I got my birthday candle wish and didn't have to eat all the frosting. Ryan took care of that part for me.

Kabush had on his limited edition "Wicknasty" T shirt in honor of my birthday and so we went out to dinner with him and then got up extra early to fly back to Oregon so I could play with my new toy.
Dusty and Ryan have disowned me because I bought a scooter, but that thing is awesome. And I don't have to shift.

Just four more weeks left and my 2009 season will be in the books. I can hardly wait for next year.

Over and out.

Nasty

Hot Damn

2009-11-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

Click the poster to view the trailer and get your tickets

Also, I uploaded some new photos on Flickr. Enjoy

Here is my latest piece from Velonews

Kona Factory Modeling Agency

2009-11-02T19:15:00.001-08:00

Corvallis

2009-10-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

This is how we do fall time early evening cycocross rides in Corvallis.I am back in town following a solid 3 week excursion to Ohio, Delaware and Kentucky. Some races went well, others went not as well, but good times abounded.
The next few weeks will be spent at home, racing the Oregon series and getting things together for the final push of the CX season. The GP races in New Jersey Portland and finally Nationals in Bend are the next big targets, and I hope I can be faster by then. The beauty is in the striving I suppose, so I will just go out there and giver.

Now its time for some home cooked meals and more of what you see in that photo.

Dig It!

Velo Snews

2009-10-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

Here is a new piece I worked up for Velonews

Off to the races in Cinci tomorrow. Three in a row and I can hardly wait.

I almost puked doing VO2 intervals yesterday. Yeehaw!

Nasty

Back to the OG

2009-10-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

Today I am traveling back in time to the local of my first ever cyclocross race. Alpenrose dairy in Portland Oregon has defined what cyclocross is to me, and I am pumped to be headed back there to race once more. Especially now the the Crosscrusade has become such an institution.
As is self evident, I made the final journey from Santa Cruz back up to the homeland. In the process, Sarah earned her Phd, so that is Dr. Sarah to you, I hauled a lot of stuff to the dump, and I became an expert at driving a trailer behind a giant truck, which was a new experiance for me.
Once we reached Myrtle Point, we quickly got down to business integrating our selves with the locals:
Yeah, the Myrtle Point Bobcats took on the Bandon Tigers, a veritable feline frenzy, and counter to nature, the Bobcats came out victorious.
Last night I drove up to Corvallis to see my mom and was treated to this wonderous sceen in route:
Yes, that is a complete double full arc rainbow, so now I should have enough lucky charms to get me through the season unscathed. Now it is time to load up the rain gear and head north for my battle with destiny and history at Alpenrose Dairy.

Nasty

Cyclocross

2009-09-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

It has begun. I have been traveling like a manic as of recent. First off it was up to Seattle, which looked like this.
Who new Seattle had a sandy beach and sunshine? Well, this guy did.Spencer was gracious enough to pick me up from the airport, go back to the office, catch a call from the boss, then take me out on Spencers Super Secret Seattle bike ride and dinner tour. The next day we went shopping in Fremont at the Vintage Mall and I picked up a few choice items for the CX season.After a beautiful day in Seattle, we headed out to Redmond for Starrcross. It started raining, just to give us a taste of what CX is really like, and so I proceeded to crash my brains out for an hour and finish well back in the group. Sunday was much better weather, but we had to contend with the "Knapp Time" run up, and that sucked.
Now I am hanging out in Las Vegas, signing autographs, getting a tan and slowly having my soul sucked out. After that, it will be off to Wisconsin for the GP's then rocking back to Santa Cruz for Sarahs thesis defense, then packing the house and moving back to Oregon. That is a busy week!
Now it is time to put the legs up, take off my pants and watch TV.
Later.

Nasty

Sweet Nectar

2009-09-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

Just got a fresh batch of black gold from De La Paz. Gotta love that. This is what it looks like after I have my way with it:

As you may have noticed, I have made a few changes to the old Blog. All credit can to to Mr. Vernor. He can use a computer real pretty, and I almost remember everything he showed me.
I have also been working on my new mix tape, which will be ready and distributed in Vegas. Powers better watch himself. This one is off the heazy for sheazy, or whatever he would say.

I have also been working quite a bit at the winery, doing the punch down and stirring the pot. Oh yeah. That looks like this:
Yummy! We have been fermenting in old barrels to add a bit of flavor flave to the reds, and it has been going well. Except when I have to pull the heads off the old barrels to do it. That is hard.

That's all I have got right now, but blogging is easy with photos and links, so check back soon to see what else I have in store for you!

Nasty out

Pontificating?

2009-09-11T12:35:00.001-07:00

TIRES

For Realz

2009-09-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

I went and popped my proverbial cherry at the DFL race last night up in Golden Gate Park. My race number was "Sven Nys Suck My Balls". Although that is not an actual number, it did allow the race "officials" to pick me out of the crowd when I went through the start finish. I think I only ran over 5 or 6 dog walkers out there, so it was a success. Those DFL fools are hilarious. I think all races should have promoters insulting their entrants at every possable point. That way no one takes it too seriously and we can all just get on with it. It did get a bit confusing by the end of the night when I was all tired from peddaling so hard and stuff and I couldnt determine if that hot chick I just passed wearing a pink tu tu was actually a chick or just a really good looking dude. Most likley it was the latter. I watched one guy crash into a fire hydrant, which was scary and saw lots of sweet short cuts that I maybe took later on in the race. We ran like 1/2 a mile to our bikes, of which mine was misteriously missplaced from where I thought I had left it and then I had to ride fast in the dust to catch back up and then to top it all off I won the stupid thing. It was probably the coolest time ever. If you are in SFO and want to do a DFL race, good luck finding one. I had to kidnap a local and torture him with PB&J sanwiches to find out where it was.
Also, today I saw a dude out riding sans helmet. That shit is messed up. You have to either be high or retared to be rolling that style. No, you dont look "euro", and yes, your brain will soon be smashed. Douche Bag.

Nasty

Hunting Party

2009-09-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was a part of the party. We road CX bikes over hill and dale, got lots of flats, watched Vernor Break his thumb, wore spandex and a t-shirt and got sweaty. It was awesome. Doing CX ralleys is probably one of my favorite new things to do. I also went to a cook out at an off the grid house up in the SC mountains. We watched the sunset over one porch, then walked over to the other and watched the moon rise. Full moon at that. Then we had a candle light dinner and then a Micheal Jackson dance party. The we felt our way back out into civilazation in the dark and went to bed. I am working on selling many things out of my house, and hope to slowly end up with emptyness, so that when it is time to move I can just get in my car and drive away with lots (or maybe no) cash in my pocket and no more gnarly college couches or ssaggy beds in my life. Also a whole lot fewer pairs of shoes.I have a very boring life at the moment, so that is all I have to share with the world. I have been working on my next mix tape, and that is about all.
Nasty

2009-09-01T20:03:00.001-07:00

Hello and welcome to September.
CX Season officially unofficially gets underway this weekend with the very exclusive top secret Hunting Party CX Rally in the SC mountains. There will be mountain lions, cougars, cats, fire, smoke, ice, bikinis and stop watches.
The CX season officially gets under way the 19th with Starrcross and the Rad Racing GP in Seattle, closely followed by Cross Vegas and the first round of the GP series in Wisconsin.
Then Sarah officially finishes with her exit seminar Monday the 28th at 10 am.
Moving Season officially starts on Sept. 29th
Oregon redux V2.0 then commences, and will last until Jan 1, when we turn into Whole Foods shopping, apartment living, small dog owning yuppies in Evanston, IL as Sarah starts work at Northwestern University.
Powertap training will also commence at an undisclosed point in the near future.
Did you ever in your childhood embark on an ill-conceived adventure led by a optimistic authority figure?
The two families I saw on Mackenzie River Trail this weekend did.
When we first saw the group of moms, dads and 12-15 year old children we were nearing the top of the trail. It struck me as odd that such a group would attempt to ride the 26 mile route, even if just going the easy way.
After eating cheese burgers at the lodge and being lazy for an hour, we headed back down. We caught up to the family group at about the midway point on the way down. They asked where the trail went. We told them. They said "good, that's where we are headed." It took us about an hour to get back to the trail head, going at a rather brisk pace. Then we packed up and went home. They had been out for about 6 hours, were half way done, riding crappers and assuredly bonked. They still had another 6 hours to go. I bet those kids hate riding bikes now, or got eaten by a cougar when it got dark and they were still 10 miles from home free.
Kind of reminds me of the time the Penningtons went on a week long canoe trip in Alaska, and forgot the bag that had all their food in it. They had to catch fish and only got 5 Ritz crackers and a slice of cheese for lunch. All while paddling 15-20 miles a day. They were all under 10.
No wonder they are so legendary.

Onward

Todays thoughts

2009-08-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

Today I heard the high pitched roar of a diesel motor winding up directly behind me and thought that would be an annoying thing to hear right before dying.

The beach smelled like campfires and sun block today. I wonder if fire fighters get tired of the smell of burning wood, or if they are connoisseurs of the subtle hints specific wood gives of as it smolders away. I think it would get annoying smelling like smoke all the time. When I go camping and wake up after a night spent by the camp fire the smell in my sleeping bag reminds me of a butcher shop and beef jerky, only made from humans. Then I run to the shower.

I wonder if all construction crews have a truck that has an orange water cooler with a red top strapped to the side of it.

I seem to attract solicitations from environmental and social activists stationed outside stores more than my fare share of the time. Maybe they can see deep into my soul and know I am a kindred spirit, or maybe I just look like a sucker.

Hopping

2009-08-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

I have been on 2 planes so far and about 2/3 of the way home. The standby list has 53 names on it, and there were only 4 seats available, so I took the route less traveled, on small planes with multiple stops, and so far am making progress. I was supposed to be at home in my hammock about 4 and a half hours ago, but instead I am eating a Cheddar Bacon Burger in Salt Lake City, which it turn out, according to the BBC, has the lowest (10%) trace amounts of cocaine found on its currency. Washington DC has the highest(95%), in case you were wondering. The internet is full of useful information.I hope I get to sleep in my own bed tonight.

Delayed

2009-08-17T04:50:00.000-07:00

Woke up to the sound of my phone at 2:30 am telling me my flight out was delayed. That means missing all my connections and instead of making it home by lunch time, wondering if I will make it home at all today. Sometimes travel is easy, but never when you want it to be. I slept on the floor at the Albany airport for a while, had a few cups of joe and now sit in contemplation with my fellow stranded bike racers. Everyone has a place to go, a place to be, but right now we are stuck in the transition state, just waiting. Dustys computer has a program on it that runs Global weather prediction models and SETI searches while he is not using it. To bad there is nothing for all these idle minds and bodies to do while we wait. We might get a lot accomplished. Instead we just sit here on our computers, plugged into the world wide nothingness, thinking and dreaming and wondering, but not full of wonder. Time for another cup of coffee, another slow stroll though the airport looking at the same glazed over faces and peering into the invisible travel bubbles people wrap around themselves escape from reality. This is humanity at its most naked, if onlywe take the time to look.

New Journal Entry

2009-08-10T11:12:00.001-07:00

http://singletrack.competitor.com/features/a-racers-journal-home-is-where-the-secret-ride-awaits/

French Canadians talk pretty

2009-07-30T11:10:00.001-07:00

I have been soaking wet for the last 6 days regardless of weather or not the sun has been shinning, and it is annoying. The humidity is high, the temperature is high and it rains every 47 minutes, on schedule. I have also heard rumors of fine dining opportunities, but so far all I have seen is Poutine, which consists of soggy french fries covered with salty white gravy and squeaky cheese curds. Fine dining at its height I am sure! The bike racing has been good, aside from all of the air particles simultaneously escaping from a hole in my tire on the first lap of the race, I was able to pedal well enough to finish in 58th position after turning lap times that were in the high 20's. I then proceeded to set the fastest lap time at the indoor go cart track we stopped at on the way south to Bromont and thought I had won rights to the king size bed in our VIP suite, but was mistaken. The naked lady painted on the mirror liked Joe Smith, the young Brit with a penchant for going down hill, a bit better than Kris or I and allowed him to win a daring game of skill and chance that was used to determine the final bed allocations. From here on in, time will be spent on my bed with my pants off, the TV on and the AC cranked, awaiting the cataclism of weather that is sure to break onto our heads at any moments and turn the next race in to a flowery box of pain.

Nasty Out

Velonews Journal

2009-07-14T13:03:00.001-07:00

http://www.velonews.com/article/95114/barry-wicks-journal-an-addiction-to-sweet-singletrack

BCBR

2009-07-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

Made it back home following a super hard and exciting BCBR. This year Kris and I had a real challenge on our hands and for the first 5 days defended our title well, staying with in a minute of the Canadian Elders Shepard and Mcgrath, until it all went sideways on day 6 and we lost 6 minutes. Doh! Day 7 want much better, but we still managed 2nd over all with not to much trouble. This year BCBR was focused on delivering the true single track experiance and they delivered. Less total ride time, but about double the single track from last year and awesome fun. Battling the Canadian mafia was rad, and Sneddon took it to them in his home town trails a few days in a row earning us some stage wins and a few seconds, but in the end the battles took thier toll. In the next 5 weeks I will be doing US Nationals, two rounds of the World Cup in Quebec, then the next 2 US Cup MTB races in New York and Vermont. Then it will be time to load up the van and move east and then before we know it, it will be Cross season. If anyone has a sweet house near the U of I campus in Urbana for us to rent, hit me up.

Nasty

Some more of this

2009-06-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.velonews.com/article/93700/barry-wicks-journal-dodging-rapid-roadies

Mt Hood

2009-06-16T17:15:00.001-07:00

Last week I went and raced road bikes in Oregon. It was fun and hard and hopefully made me faster. This weekend I am going back to Oregon to make a guest appearance on my old S+M squad and race the 50 mile Test of Endurance. It should be good training for BCBR which starts next Sunday. Sarah has been busy writing her thesis, attending the graduation ceremony at UCSC and reading Harry Potter books. She caught the bug and burned through the last 3 books after we watched the first 5 movies. Now she cant make fun of my Harry Potter obsession any more and we can have lively debates about what certain clues mean. It gets exciting at our house around dinner time, let me tell you! Other than the usual bike riding and napping I have been looking for places to live in Urbana when we get out there. House hunting is not exactly highly stimulating. Kabush has been trash talking my new mix tape as of late, so I eagerly await his comeback mix. I am in the process of sending a few more copies out to my peeps before I release it online, but stay calm, it will be available here soon!

Posted some new photos on fliker too.

Nasty

Linkage

2009-05-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

If you scan the links to the right, you will see a new one, which is a link to Vernors newest film project trailer, his ride across Africa. Also some new photos have been added to my flikr site from my trip to Africa last month. Check em out.

Untitled

2009-05-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

Surprising the cat through the window did not require a strong intellect or even an intent to surprise. All it took was a pause from the task at hand, the peeling and slicing of a juicy orange mango, and a small, squeaked “meow kiss kiss” and a face suddenly thrust forward through the cobweb framed opening. Cats are not often surprised, and to pull of such a coup with so little effort was delightful. I didn’t even know I liked to surprise cats, but it turns out I do.

Back Home

2009-05-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

I really like sleeping in my own bed. That was a pretty long trip i had going there, and it is nice to be back home. Pretty much all I have been doing in the last few weeks is Sleeping, eating, cooking and riding the shit out of my bike. I decided after getting killed in Europe it was time to come home and get in shape, so that has been what I have been attempting to do. I think i can pedal faster now, but we will see for sure in a week or so when I get out to Alabama for the Bump and Grind round of the US cup. After that, I am headed up to Hood Rivver to do Mt Hood Classic and then Back to CSprings to do another US cup race. This past weekend I did the SoNoMas 100, kinda. After about 30 miles we all got lost and rode around for a while before heading to the lake for a swim. I cant say I missed doing those last 30 miles in 100 degree heat... Thanks to Ramjet for letting us sleep in his castle and play in his pool. Sarah is almost done with shcool now, and things are getting exciting! Almost time to think about moving and all that. Time sure does fly.

Nasty

Waiting

2009-05-03T00:58:00.000-07:00

Tried to sleep in today because our race is not until 2:30 but was still up and at 'em by 9am. Now Kris and I are sitting around the hotel staring at each other and trying to make time go by faster. It is like a huge hurry up and wait. After the race will be chaos because Dusty has to pack the van and drive to Geneva asap for his 6am flight tomorrow and Kris and I will pack all our stuff up and then get a ride to Frankfurt with Luna. I am excited to get the race underway though and then excited to get to go back to California and eat a burrito. Thats about all i have going o nthis morning. I have been working on a new mix tape that should "drop" in the next few weeks, so get excited for that.

Nasty

Belgium

2009-05-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

It is pretty crazy here. Tonight we were driving back to our hotel and there were people out night riding on the course. You know you are in Belgium when they have a bike race and the entire country shows up to watch. We got in Wednesday and it was pouring rain. Now though, it is sunny and nice and is supposed to stay that way for the weekend. I am a bit bummed, because the course here is fairly technical/intimidating if you are form Europe and dont know how to do anything besides pedal your bike really hard but not steer or go down hills with roots and or rocks on them, and a good solid drenching would leave all those guys who I passed today on the course standing at every tech section looking scared SOL and available for easy passing. Anyways, it is a fun track and relativley long for a WC so I am hopeful that I can pass many more guys and not get pulled as soon this weekend. 300 people is alot to stuff into a 7km loop though so we will see what transpires. Other than that, we have been living it up, eating dinner at the Luna house and Maxxis house the last three nights has been awesome and now only one more day to anihilate before we go race our brains out, then get to go back home! I can hardly wait.

Nasty

Porsche Museum

2009-04-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

Today Dusty dragged us over to Stuttgart to see the freshly built Porsche museum. it was totally awesome. There were cars from every era of Porsches history, race cars, prototypes and the progression from 356 Speedsters all the way through the 911 Carerra road cars and everything in between. The one that I really wanted though was the 1976 914/8 of which only two were made and is just a regular 914 (which is basically like a super awesome beetle) but with a 300hp V8 in it. Kick Ass! Anyways, after all that madness we drove back through traffic to our hotel and went for a bike ride. Tomorrow we depart for Belgium for the next world cup and then finally head back home for some training before the next rounds of the US Cup.

If anyone has any spare Porsches laying around, let me know and I will be glad to take them off your hands.

Nasty

Offenburg WC

2009-04-27T01:32:00.000-07:00

At least my legs felt good yesterday. Starting a World Cup MTB race with good sensations in the legs is awesome. Starting said race in 112th place is not. My plan for the day was to get on the gas early and try to get past at least 50 people and get my self up in to the top 60, thus slowly easing my way up the start grid to a more respectable and manageable staring position, Things seemed to be going well. After the first lab chaos things settled down and every time the course opened up I would hit the gas and go rocketing past about 10 people. I counted off the people went by and by the end of the third lab had gotten around about 30 dudes. Then I made the fatal mistake of looking at the timing board coming across the line staring my 4th lab and saw I was still in 120th! I guess that bad start really did kill me in the end. By the time I rode the next two laps I had moved up to 108th, but was then pulled as the leaders were rapidly closing in from behind. In the end I has passed my quota of riders, but some how at the start enough had slipped passed my that by the end of lap one I had fallen back to 152nd. That makes for as pretty tall task when trying to get into the top 60. I guess I can take away the positives of having good form at a World Cup even though it was imposable to know from my result that that was the case. I can hardly wait for next week in Houffalize, Belgium. There will be 300 of my best friends lined up at that one and I bet I can pass a lot of them over the course of the race. Lets just hope I don’t get gang raped at the start like I did this week.

Nasty

Hitting the fan

2009-04-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

That's what is about to start happening in approx 24 hrs. We went out to the course again today and it was jam packed with Euros riding by in the big ring trying to look like they weren't trying hard and stacks of people lined up at the three infamous "drops" on the course that take all of 3 seconds to navigate so finding the perfect line on them is obviously way more crucial than just skidding down the the fuckers in some semblance of control and then mashing the gas for the next 10 minutes up the climb so you dont get passed by the 130 people that started behind you, or the 50 or so guys you hopfully passed in the first lap to make your way into 60th place. Then after all that we went and ate some pastries and drank another cappuccinno and came home for a nap, some PB and J sandwiches and bike maintenence. Life is good.

Lets hope it stays that way tomorrow.

Nasty

still here

2009-04-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

Today we headed over to the race course near Offenburg to check out the conditions. It is very dry, fast and marbley out there. I think the laps will be extremely fast, so it will be important to get as far up as possible as soon as possible. Dusty is feeling much better now, and even got out of the hotel for almost the entire day. he usual suspects are beginning to show up now too. Saw the Specilized crew out riding the course today, and even got a tiny "hello" from Souaser as he rode by. This is pretty big soming form a euro. Most of these dudes wont even acknowlege your presance. Saw teh Maxxis boys as well. My friend Bassman form Japan is working for them this year and it was good to see him. he even brought me my fovorite energy drink from Japan, Pocari Sweat! It sounds aweful but is delicious. Other than that we have just been riding bikes, laying around lazily and being internet fiends. i found a photo lab to process some of my film from South Africa so maybe next week I will have some new photos up to peruse.

On the car vs moto front, The cars are forging an unreachable lead, so I am going to go ahead and call this one for the cars, although I think rocket propelled roller skates sound exciting, if maybe not much faster.

Nasty

Maybe

2009-04-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

I think I might be about to open up a can of worms with this one, but the dinner debate tonight went something like this. Dusty contends that a motorcycle is the faster vehicle all around when compared to a car, and I am of the opposite opinion. So, here is the question. If a road going car (insert your favorite one here), and a road going moto (ditto) were to race up a circuitous mountain pass, which one would get to the top first. Obviously the operators of said vehicles would come into account, so say they are being piloted by equivilent drivers. What say you oh wise world of the blogosphere?

Other than that sort of simulating debate things are pretty routine here. Spending lots of time reading and internetting and basically wondering how much more euro hotel time I can take before I go completly crazy. Yesterday Kris and I went on what was supposed to be a nice 4 hr training ride, but at some point deep in the forest we ran out of signage, go lost, madde many wrong turns, and eventuall found our way back to the hotel after 7 hrs on the bike. It was awesome.

Dusty has been stomach sick all week and we think it is because he drank water out of a tap that was stuck into the side of the mountain on a dirt road. Went to the doctor this morning and he said that they dont have bad water in Germany and that Dusty just needed to drink pepermint tea. We will see how that one works out.

6 more days untill the next big race. I hope I can go fatser than the last one...

Nasty

Germania

2009-04-17T00:57:00.000-07:00

We are hanging out here in Lockburg Germany, amongst damp dark black forest people and surrounded by some of the best riding imaginable. Yesterday we left the hotel, crossed the road and entered into an infinite maze of fire roads and single track, all signed and arrowed pointing the way through the wilderness. We set our sights on following the red route, which was marked with red trangle at all intersections and promissed food in 35km in Mummelsbach, but failed to mention we would be climbing 3000m over and over to reach that point. After 3 hours of riding through snow patches, muddy, rocky awesome single trail and rolling fireroad, we were chased off the mountain by rapidly approaching dark stormclouds. Rocketing down all that elevatiojn we had gained on a fire road was a bit dissapointing, until we blazed 12 km of river side single track back down into town for coffees and crepes. Dusty, being a mechanic and not prone to long pedaling stints, hightailed it back to home base, while Kris and I set off to conquer one more massive fire road ascent in hopes of spotting the parasiling launch point. Instead we discovered that the German loggers, much like their counterparts in the US and Canada, prefer Stihl chainsaws to Huskys. Apparently this has somthing to do with thier weight and ergonomics, but I stop paying attention to Kris after about 5 minutes of chainsaw tech talk so I cannot be fully sure. When we finally coasted back into town the rain drops had just begun falling, and now we are trapped indoors by the storm of the century. Luckily we bought a coffee maker yesterday at the Mini Mart so we can hole up for many days with out needing more supplies. Kris just set out on a 40 minute run, and despite his best efforts, I am still indoors drinking coffee. Dusty is feeling a bit under the weather after we beat him up so badly yesterday, and is still in bed. I hope I ride my bike today.

Nasty

Africa and Hotels in Germany

2009-04-14T00:05:00.000-07:00

Made it down to SA and then back to Germany in the last 5 days. We stayed in the Golden Horse Casino Hotel lldown there, and it was like being in Vegas and Churchill downs at the same time. They had a Casino in the Lobby and we ate breakfast out onj the patio overlooking the horse racing track. We even had armed guards at the front gate, but they never seemed to notice that we were there. The race was pretty cool, really fun, non technical single track with a fair amount of climbing and fun descending per lap, but as such, also not so much passing oppertunity. That combined with a 76th starting position had me rolling the whole race in the 67-76 rage, which is about where I ended up. Doh! Gotta go for broke in Offenburg in 2 weeks to try and get that coveted top 60 WC finish so I dont get gang raped by a bunch of Crazy Euros come Houffalize. Kris and I are hanging out at the Sheraton hotel in the Frankfurt airport now, watintg for Dusty to fly to Geniva, get our Kona van and then come back and pick us up. We have seen some bikes chained up down in the parking garage so we think there might be a way to leave the airport via bicycle, so that may be our next objective after we have a nap and some more food. Those Lufthanse flights are pretty crap compared to the South African Air flight we took down. Full of sweaty germans and pretty much 2 inches of room between the rows. Suffice to say, I didnt get a lot of sleep on the way back up here. I did also see a Spa down in the loby so I might try to wrangle up a massage here if things go right.

After that it is off to the black forest for a week and a half to prepare for the next WC.

Oh yeah, I went on a Safari in SA and saw Zebras, wildabeast, Giraffe, wart hogs, gecko, and rhinos. Pretty amazing and we almost g0ot charged by the buffalo but i talked it down.

Nasty

Dropping some mad science on yous

2009-04-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

Big news on the Wicknasty front is that we are moving to Illinois in September! Sarah got an amazing position at UI Urbana, so that is our next stop in this great adventure. Before you all go hating on it, the riding actually isnt all that bad. I will probably turn into a mad TT specialist that cant go around corners, but should be putting out like 1000 watts every second after riding through corn fields endlessly. The best part is, if you want to go somewhere, there are about 17 roads that go there, so you will never get bored! Also, I posted links to my Mix Tape since everyone (ok 5 people) have been clamoring for it, and also a link to Kabush's mix tape. Grab them and let me know what you think. I also posted some new photos on Flikr so check those too if you like. Now its time to go get my new MTB dialed in and get ready for Africa!!

Barry

Urbana

2009-03-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

What type of school has an "Illini" as its mascot? I am not even really sure what and Illini is, but there are a lot of them here in Urbana. Approx 35,000 to be exact. We flew in here last night and havent seen much yet, but I am about to venture out on my bicycle and explore the "beutiful corn and soy fields" I keep hearing so much about. And then maybe at lunch go by a house for $65,000. Crazy! Anyone who knows the sweet road loops around here, hit me back and I will send you my sweet mix tape in gratitude. The University looks good at least...

Nasty

Link

2009-02-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

I just successfully edited my first HTML code, unaided, by trial and error. I am a Genius! Since I am not enough of a genius to post photos directly on the blog, I created a flickr page and posted a link to it in the side bar. More photos will be added as time progresses. Anyways, there are a few to get you started.

Nasty

Mix Tape

2009-02-19T17:27:00.000-08:00

Would Lance Armstrong like it if I made him a mix tape? I doubt it, but I made him one anyways. It almost didn't get delivered because I am afraid of crowds, and wherever Lance goes, one is bound to rapidly assemble. I tried to get it to him in Santa Cruz, but I wussed out, then felt bad about it. So I drove to San Jose the next day and finagled my way into an introduction to his assistant Mark and made the drop. Wasn't sure Lance would actually get it due to the look on Marks face as he checked out my hand drawn CD cover, but I guess he passed it along and Lance Twittered about it. I am not exactly on Twitter, but all my hommies are and peeped me out on it. Sweet. Now I should try and get one to Phelps. That would be a real challenge! I pretty much peep out all the rad athletes with sweet tunes these days. Word

Nasty

Giver eh

2009-02-09T19:28:00.000-08:00

I have been back at the old training thing pretty hard as of recent. Mostly logging the hours on the road bike, but did the county line jamboree on Saturday and ended up riding with legends of the sport Don Myrah and Justin Robinson. It was awesome. The beach section was easy this year, nice and hard packed, plus there were tons of babes in bikinis and it was a beautiful day. Rode to the start with Vernor and Justin, then rolled it home after the finish for a solid 7 hours on the SS 29er MTB. Awesome. Now it is back at it, training for another month and a half before starting up with the 2009 WC in South Africa. Sarah is about to finish up her Phd so I have been spending some time as a lab slave helping her get things done. Good times and I even wear my safety glasses most of the time. Racing for 24 hrs next weekend is my next big adventure... I can hardly wait.

Nasty

Airport

2009-01-25T10:40:00.000-08:00

Hanging out at the San Jose airport again. This time at least I am not going to a bike race. We are headed down to San Diego for a Post Doc interview postition at UCSD for Sarah. She is about to finish up her Phd and has to figure out where to go next. Anyways, thats about all that has been going on. I have been back on my bike riding in spandex and everything, getting ready for the up coming season. The weather has been pretty sweet, and even though it rained this week a little I am not complaining. Tonkin is headed down here next weekend for a little training camp, so that should be pretty sweet, and Sneddon is back in Cali riding bikes and having fun. Thas all I got.

nasty

Bike Ban Lifted

2009-01-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

But I am still keeping the spandex ban in effect. It was too nice today to not go out and ride my bike. Hit up all the sweet trails near my house on the MTB today, but rocked the baggys and wool jersey so it didnt really count as a "real" ride. It has been rediculously nice here in Cali for the last 2 weeks. That just mean that as soon as I start training again it is going to start raining and be awful. I guess that is just how it goes. I will take the sun while we have it though. I just spent the last hour putting together my race Schedule for this year. It is going to be action packed. Pretty much hitting all the worlds cups, the BCBR and then World Champs will take up the whole summer. June is pretty open though, so that is nice. I have been efficient at killing time recently. Yesterday Sarah and I loaded up the townies and headed to SF for a day of cruising around town, visiting the California Academy of Science, which was rad, but we missed out on the Planetarium show, so that sucked, and then heading downtown to buy some new pants. Today is a lab work day for Sarah so after my ride I stopped in there to get digital and hang out for a bit. Anyways, looks liek the spandex ban will be lifted on wednesday or thursday, but that all depends on what the weather does.

Nasty

65 and Sunny

2009-01-04T12:02:00.000-08:00

Man I love Santa Cruz. Just got back last night from a road trip up to Oregon for Christmas and New Years. Went Skiing, saw all the family and drove around is nasty cold slushy snow for hours on end. It was awesome. Now I am enjoying my last few weeks of off the bike time before I have to try and get back into shape for the MTB season. I am going to be doing the full MTB World Cup this year, starting in South Africa in April, so that will be rad. It will be nice to go to races where there are actually people watching and I feel legitimate. It was getting a bit dreary racing at deserted Ski resorts in the summer all over the US, so I am excited for this new experience, even if I get my ass kicked a little bit. Our new mechanic Dusty will be along for the ride, as well and good old boy Sneddon. We are going to do BCBR again this year and try and defend our title. I think Matson is going to try and do it this year to, and maybe he wont puke on every stage like he did this year. Thats about all I have for you right at the moment. I think I am going to start up with the Velonews journal again when the MTB season hits, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Until next time, keep on givn'er!

Nasty

Another

2008-12-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.velonews.com/article/85809/barry-wicks--journal

Japan

2008-11-26T16:13:00.001-08:00

http://www.velonews.com/article/85398/barry-wicks--journal-head-speed-concept

one for the super fans

2008-11-12T14:45:00.002-08:00

http://www.cafepress.com/konacrosssquad

velonews again

2008-11-12T14:45:00.001-08:00

http://www.velonews.com/article/85036/barry-wicks--journal-on-racing-cyclocross-in-belgium

Velo Journal number 3

2008-10-30T17:12:00.001-07:00

http://www.velonews.com/article/84750/kona-cyclocrosser-barry-wicks--latest-journal-entry

Another One

2008-10-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.velonews.com/article/84322

Check it

2008-10-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.velonews.com/article/83924/a-new-column-by-cyclocross-star-barry-wicks

WC Finals

2008-09-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

I am in the Chicago airport right now waiting to board my plane to Munich. From there we will drive the three hours over into Schladming, Austria for the final race in the World Cup MTB series. The last month and a half have been fairly busy. After returning form the east coast I headed up to Oregon to visit my family, spent time in Santa Cruz and raced in the Single Speed world championships, resplendent in my golden speedo and cape. The it was off to the NMBS Finals in Brian Head, Utah, ending the domestic MTB season with an overall win in the short track series and a 3rd place in the XC series. After I get back form Austria on Monday the CX season begins in earnest, with the Starrcross and Rad Racing GP in Seattle, and then Crossvegas the following week. No rest for the weary I guess. It is going too be a nice week in between MTB and Cross this year. Crazy! Now it is time to go track down another snack before sitting on the plane for 9 hours. Check you later!

Nasty

BCBR and the aftermath

2008-07-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

Kris and I killed it up in BC. It is pretty sweet to go to a rcae with very little expectation and then win it. Sneddon was killing it out there and riding into his home town on Canada day put us into the Jersey, which we held on to for the remainder of the race. I have been pretty cracked since then though. 30 hrs of trail riding in 7 days takes it out of you! The last 2 weekends have been back to the grind, first in Windham NY at the NMBS and then US Nationals this weekend. I was suffering like a champ in both races but somehow managed to put together an OK ride for STXC nats and almost got the V. Second place is the first looser though. Now i am chillin in upsate NY until thursday and then headed up to Quebec for 2 weeks to hit the World Cups. Nothing like a month long stint on the muggy east coast. Thats about it. I think I am going to go hit up the swimming hole and procrastinate my bike ride some more. Later!

Nasty

Worlds

2008-06-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

Made it to Italy and back unscathed in 72 hours. I even had time to fit a MTB race in there somewhere... Arrived friday evening and then preroad saturday. The course was basically a succession of steep climbs followed by non technical descents that you could get your self into trouble on by being to brave. I, luckily, was not to brave and didnt even crash once. Had a back row call up and started moving up well, into the 40's by the 3rd and 4th lap and rolling through groups pretty good, but then maybe did get a little to brave on the decent and flatted. I was close to the pit so i just rolled it in, but the minute I spent there was enough to get my legs nice and locked up and I couldn't get it rolling again in the next 2 laps before getting pulled. I am thinking I could have been at least up with AC in 45th had things gone a bit differently, but, so it goes. Now I am home for 2 days before heading up to do BCBR. There are some pretty good teams going this year, but I think Kris and I are going to turn some heads. Should be a sweet time regardless. Anyways, thats about it. Sarah is going to come up at the end of the race and we are going to spend 2 days in Whistler relaxing and shredding the gnar. Sick!

Nasty

Weekend in Italy

2008-06-18T15:49:00.001-07:00

I leave tomorrow a.m. for my big trip over to worlds. I decided to do it old school and run the late arrival plan so my body doesnt know what hit it with the time change and all. I always seem to do the best in the first races I hit after a big travel, so it should work out well for me. Got some good training last weekend at the Pescadero road race and have been resting up this week getting ready to go tear some legs of at worlds I hope. Then back monday and up to BC for the BC bike race. That is going to be sweet! I can hardly wait. Wish me luck on my whirl wind worlds tour.

Nasty

Magic!

2008-06-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

Looks like USA cycling realized they were messing up and decided to put me on the team after all. yeah! Now I hope I can ride fast and make it all worth while. Until then, back at it!

Nasty

Smack!

2008-06-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

Just found out that USA Cycling dissed me on the MTB worlds team. WTF? I guess they are only taking the guys who are on the Olympic long team, and even though I beat 3-4 out of the 6 riders, maybe even 5, at all the races we have competed in this year, I am deemed "not good enough" for a top 10 placing, and apparently the other guys are. No disrespect to the other riders though. They are all great riders and deserve to go, but I dont feel like it was necessary for USA Cyling to name only 6 riders to the team when there are 7 spots at worlds for the elite men. Its not like I am taking anything away from anyone else. i just want a chance. Apparently that is too much to ask for. Now all the training and building up I have been doing for worlds is a bust. I guess all I can do now is roll my frustrations into a ball and throw it as hard as I can at Nationals and the Candian world cup rounds. I am bummed.

Nasty

Sex and The City

2008-05-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

Not! I got stuck with dog sitting duty tonight while Sarah and her girls go watch chick flicks. This dog is rad. It is a german shepard named Honey and it goes crazy for treats. I have been just chillin in the Cruz these last few weeks getting ready for Worlds and then BC Bike race. I can wait to go up there and shred all the rad Canadian Gnar! Might even get a few days at the Whisler Bike Park after if things go as planned. I am bummed to not be at the WC rounds these next few weeks in Andorra and Ft Bill. Looks like the course in Andorra is dope! Actual MTB trails and stuff like that. Oh well, I just gotta rip it up at the Candian rounds so I can get a descent start position next year, then it is game on! I might even do my first road race of the year next weekend. Crazy. New coolest hip hop act is The Cool Kids check out the track Blag Mags PK Ripper! Word

Nasty

Slacking

2008-05-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

OK, here is a long awaited summary of Europe. After a good run in Belgium I was looking forward to another crack at it in Germany. Then reality hit me and I realized what a missive advantage it would have ben for me to finish 60th as opposed to 61st in Houffalize. Those extra 55 guys in front of me at the start really get in the way when a course is compsed of 85% single track. I was able to move up into the 60's again, but then had a crash. lost some ime and ended up 81st. Whoopty doo. Then simultaniously crapping my pants and vomiting into the toilet the day before the race in Madrid pretty much eliminated any chance I had of salvaging a good ride and I pack it in and returned to North American with my tail between my legs and some fresh perspective on what it takes in Europe. Simmilarly to cross, one must go to europe with all the advantages stacked in your favor. I think I am figuring out how to do that better, and hopefully by the time the oppertunity rolls around again I wont bung it up. Now back in Cali after a mothers day weekend in Oregon and getting ready for the next NMBS event on Santa Ynez, then a big training block to prepare for the BC bike race and the Next round of east coast MTB races. Thats about it. Our Tomatoe garden is killing it this year, and we have basil, cilatro and sweet onions going as well. Sarah has been weeding like crazy while I am off traveling the globe, so she deserves the credit for the good condition of th platns. Untill the next one. Later on.

Nasty

Belgium

2008-04-21T00:48:00.001-07:00

Back in Belgium again. This time it is for MTB and not cross. I can hardly believe I am in Belgium though since there are atual hills and tress here. Quite a bit different fro west Flanders and the cross thing. The crowds are no different though. I think there were close to 30,000 people at the race yesterday. Had sweet call up in 118th and got to stand in line waiting for people to walk down the descents in front of me on the first lap while the front of the race rode away. i lost about 10 minutes n the first 2.5 laps, and only about 3 in thee last 3, sso I guess I was riding ok. I finished up in 61st, which is a total heart breaker, because points go 60 deep, and if I was top 60 I would have had a way better start position next week in Offenberg. And of all people to be right in front of be, it was JHK. Doh! I guess I have my work cut out for me again next weekend. It has been a pretty mellow trip so far. Kris ad I are hanging withe Maxxis crew and it has been pretty good. We have a cool house in La Roche and are staying here through wednesday when we will head down to Germany. I think the Nurumburgring is enroute so we may stop in and get some hot laps in our Ford Mondeo if things go right. Today I am planning on relaxing and eating lots of rice tarts. Later. Nasty

New Zeland

2008-03-27T12:49:00.001-07:00

I have been home form NZ for about 2 weeks now. The trip was really good. I did a marathon on the first weekend I was there and ended up winning that. The I spent 3 days doing awesome MTB rides around the north Island with my buddy Clinton. Then I headed down Nelson on the south Island for the Oceania Championships. I wasn't eligible for the titles or UCI points, but I got to Hang with all the UCI commissars since we were int he same host housing, and the races were sweet! The Aussies came over hunting for UCI pints for the Olympics and they were killing it! I almost pulled of the V, but then had a puncture with a lap to go and ended up 4th. i took it to em the next day in the short track though. During the race all the DH'ers were on lunch and came over to watch. They were heckling like mad, and throwing water from the creek crossing all over this one turn so it got super greasy. God times. Now I am back in SC hanging out and getting new parts put on my bike so it will work for a few more weeks until we get our new ones. Headed down to Fontana tomorrow for the first NMBS of the season. Should be sweet! Later

Nasty

Training Camp

2008-02-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

I am in Ventura this week, hanging out on the beach and riding my bike in the sunshine. Today I found this massive climb up out of Ojai. It reminded me of riding in the Alps outside of Nice. Huge mountains with not much more than scrub brush and rocks. Pretty cool though. I think I saw about 4 cars the whole time as I climbed for 1.5 hours. At the top I didnt know where to go so I flipped it and came back down through the valley. Tomorrow I am going to find a good loop. The out and back rides arent that sweet. Now I think i might go across the street and grab some In and Out for dinner. Cheese burgers! Delicious. Thats about it for now. later

Nasty

Old Pueblo

2008-02-19T18:27:00.000-08:00

Just did the first race of the year for me. The 24 hrs in the Old Pueblo in Tucson. It was pretty sweet. Kona was the title sponsor of the event and wanted us to win pretty badly so Kris and I went down along with Matt Slavin from the Bike Gallery and Luke from Rad racing. We had to pull out some fast laps towards the end of the race because this local hammer team was just killing it, and we only ended up winning by about 14 minutes! Close one! It was a super rad scene though, relaxed and fun and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I am pretty tired from getting up at 3 am to do some more laps though, plus I did the last 2 laps in a row so that was extra hard. Kris set the precedent a few laps earlier when he went out for a second when the next guy didn't show up immediately so I figured I had to do two in a row also or I would look like a sissy! Now I am just hanging in the Cruz recovering and getting ready to head down to Ventura next week with Sarah for one of her Chemistry Conferences. It will be cool to check out some new riding territory and hopefully see some more sun! Tomorrow I am going to ride over to San Jose and watch Doug win the group sprint in the ToC. Dont let me down Snuggles! Word.

Nasty

Not much to Report

2008-02-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

Things are coming together for my assult on the Euro World Cup scene. I am going to be traveling with my old mate, K-Bomb and his Quebexican counterpart Matteau! That should be pretty fun. All the kids from up north have been venturing down here and sleeping in my living room as they try to escape from the various horrendous conditions in Oregon, Colorado and Canada. Last night we finally had the house to ourselves and it was nice!Tonkin, Rhonda and the Gus man where down this weekend as well, so that was fun. I have been putting in some serious hours on the MTB recently and that has been pretty refreshing. It always seems easier to do a 6 hr MTB ride than the equivalent road ride. Maybe it is all the trees and sick jumps that keep me from going crazy. The season is just about to get really cranking pretty soon, so I am going to enjoy these next few weeks sleeping in my own bed and and walking down to the News Stand to get a hot dog and coffee after my rides. Time to make dinner!

Nasty

Logging

2008-01-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

Not trees, but miles. Ever since Tonkin the master of flash descended upon us for the day last weekend I haven't been able to get enough of the bike! It started with a near 6 hour epic road ride that had T declaring it the "best road ride ever" and culminated with 30 hours logged last week. I guess I had to take advantage of the sunshine while it shone, because the apocalypse hit just as I was getting back into town from my ride today. Hail hurts the nose! Now I have to install fenders on my new Kona training rig and hope it all goes away soon. Last weekend Sarah and I built our selves a new bed frame, and got a little carried away. It has an integrated bench at one end, a platform at the head to hold various things and is so far off the ground I nearly killed my self getting out of it to take a pee the first night. Feels pretty kingly to be so high off the ground when I am sleeping though. That is about it around here. I have been making a sticky bun and coffee stop just about everyday at a bakery I found the other day, and that is what gives me the extra motivation for that last hour in the saddle. Word! Next up is the 24 hours in Old Peublo next month. I can hardly wait.

Nasty

happy christmas

2007-12-24T14:26:00.000-08:00

so since the highlight of my career, unofficially winning the single speed world championships, i have been continued my chronic traveling disease. new jersey usgp was pretty rad, pretty cold and the second day i continued my streak of crashing myself out. then there was thanksgiving and we went up to myrtle point to frame in a shed at sarah's parent's farm which is rad. there turkeys woke us up each morning and from there we went to the portland usgp. that was also pretty awesome with huge winds and terrifically terrible weather as expected. then there was a break and a wonderful weather race in california, unfortunately the only one this year which we hope won't be the case next year, and then to the snowy strip mall cabellas wonderland of kansas city. i love bonner springs. period. perhaps this is the best example of how a wonderful winter wonderland can blossom into an all out shopping, bull riding extravaganza. speaking of bull riding, if anyone would like lessons from the coach, sarah, please let me know. after being in this wonderland it was clear that i was going to all but miss the next couple months of belgium bliss. there is really no other way to describe it. so now it's almost christmas and we're again in myrtle point painting and hanging out at the farm before heading to aurora, portland, black butte and then back to the cruz. i feel for the guys in belgium right now, but i am sure at this point they are still in the honeymoon stage. in about 8 more days they will be starting to feel it, then at about the 3 week mark it will really start getting fun. send those guys some love if you get a chance. later on.

nasty

So you say you want to be SSCXWC?

2007-11-28T18:00:00.000-08:00

Look for an announcement here and else where in the next few days to find out how.

SSCXWC

2007-11-12T14:54:00.001-08:00

Won that shit. I kinda had to too make sure AC didnt get 2 SSWC Titles in one year. That would be lame. Now I am going to have a tattoo on my body forever. Man I hate that guy. Now back in the Cruz prepping for the next round of the GP out in New Jersey. I have to fly out to the east coast on my birthday! That sucks. At least I won a dope Vanilla Speedwagon though. I made liberal use of the Tequila short cut, amounst others to ensure I could get to the front of the race. Good times all around and I think this SSCXWC thing might just take off. The Portland Crew knows what bike racing should be. I have never seen more people at a race then were out this weekend. In the 2 years I have been gone the Crusade has exploded! Pretty rad. Anyways, I am off to buy a new camera. Later suckers!

Nasty

Farm Time

2007-10-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

I have been having a pretty sweet time hanging out in central Maryland on the Gould family farm this weekend. The races could have gone a whole lot better, but some times that is just how it is. Now I have the goats and chickens and dogs to entertain me during the day and interesting roads to go explore on my bike rides. I have been turned on to Andy Goldsworth's art by Georgias mom and now I cant walk though a pile of dead leaves or old branches without seeing it in a whole new light. I even made a pile of leaves on the porch this afternoon, but it quickly blew away. The cabin I am saying in is rad, and I am even connected to the web so I can do stuff like update my blog and relax instead of flying across the country twice a week. It has been giving me very strange dreams though. Headed down to Kentucky on thursday. It is actually called Kentucy so I dont have to add the "ucky" on to the end to make it sound like a backwoods place, like Fontucky, because it just already is. I dont really know what it means to be an "ucky" as I have never actually been to the real Kentucky, but after this trip I will have a better idea of what all the "ucky" terminology is all about and may be better able to aptly utilize the "ucky"ization of words. Time for some more crazy dreams.

Nasty

Travel

2007-10-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

I am currently sitting in DIA, on my way to the east coast for the 3rd time this month. The race schedule has been pretty busy. Beating up on the world champ in New York, Chilling in Ohio and Now back east for the Granouge/Wissahickon weekend, then staying out for the first round of the USGP. I am really racking up the frequent flyer miles right now! So far the season has treated me well, I won 3 races and have been in the mix at all of them. It will be fun to get back into a more stacked field this weekend, and the GP should be Crazy. Trebon is killing it in Belgium right now so he should be fast, and I think we will do some more of the old Too Tall Tag Team Tactics next weekend. That is about all that is new. I am staying with the Gould Family this week in Maryland on their farm, so I will get to hang out with the goats and chickens all week. I hear there is some descent trail riding near there too. I also got a new car. The Bettle just wasn't cutting it lugging all my shit to the airport every 4 days so we upgraded to a Passat Wagon. Heated leather seats and all that. Pretty dope. I think I am about to miss my flight, so I am out!

Nasty

Holes

2007-09-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

In my leg and in the ground. Collided with a large hole on the second lap and impaled my leg on my bars, creating a XTR shift lever shaped hole in my thigh. I could even see my muscle sliding around in there. Sweet tits. Went from the 40's back to 81st whilst spewing blood all over the scottish country side, then got some sweet staples in the installed. Back home now and starting to glue up wheels for cross. I can hardly wait for Starcrossed. I gotta try and win that stupid race one of there days..

Nasty

Tomorrow is the Day

2007-09-07T07:19:00.000-07:00

Went and hit the course for a few laps today. It is still is great shape even after all the junir and U23 kids went out and skidded up and down it or the last 2 days. Got a hot lap in and felt pretty ok. The descent is pretty hariy at speed. Those BMX style berms get slippery at the top. Had a pretty ear;y ride and lunch, so now just killing the day at the coffee shop and drinking lots of tea. It is pretty foggy and drizzley today, and who knows what tomorrow will be like. Doesnt much matter for the race I suppose as the course will stay the same no matter what. My bag finally showed up today. It only took 5 days. Good work US Airways! I think I am going to go shop for some stuff to bring home to my peeps now. Giver Eh!

Nasty

Kinda Like Oregon

2007-09-06T03:22:00.000-07:00

The weather at least. Is is in the 50s to 60s and drizzle all day here. Today it is a little bit clear but still not as nice as the Cruz. My bag still hasnt showed up, and no one knows any info about it still. I guess US airways is even worse at finding bags than United, which is pretty impressive. I am learning how few things I really need to get by though. Luckily I have access to Laundry so I can get away with wearing the same kit everyday and wash my clothes every 2 days as well. The course is staying perect, even though it has been raining so much, and yesterday Carl and I went and Poached some golf. We stopped in on our way back from training yesterday and the guy said they were open all day. When we went back it was all closed down, but we found some Clubs in the basement of the Hotel we are at so we just went out and played 9 holes. It was rad. I havent golfed since highschool, but we had fun wacking the balls into the heather around the course and 5 putting our way to triple boogies. I think carl won by 2 at the end. Wells is going to be so Jelous when he hears about it. Anways, that is about it. I am going to try and ride to Loch Ness today and see a monster.

Nasty

Scotland

2007-09-04T02:39:00.000-07:00

Made it to Ft William with not to much trouble. So did my bike. Not my bag full of clothes and Shoes and Helmet though. Plus no one knows where it might be. I do though and am in super slueth mode tracking it down. It is nice here at least. Got out on the course in borrowed gear last night and it is super fun. Really fast and Tons of fun. Kindda the Whistler of xc. Thats about it cuase my time is about to expire on the interweb, but more later.

Nasty

Forever

2007-08-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

I guess it has been a while. I have done a few races, finished ok, but nothing really exciting. Big road trip to the east coast. Did a spin class with the Winfields in Virginia. Everyone I know is pregnant. My sister got married. I am going to Scotland to eat Blood Sausage and Haggis. I like Sausages. I dont think I will wear a kilt. I dont like racing at altitude. I feel fast when I get home though. I am at Sarahs lab right now and it is 10 pm. I want to go home and go to bed. Cross starts soon. I like Cross. I dont like Vegas. But I am going there anyways. Today I rode up a lot of hills. It felt nice. I also rode along the coast. I had a tail wind. Tomorrow I am going Kayaking, after riding my bike to the Kayak place. It is kind of like a triathalon, only with Kayaks. I hope I see some seals. Jeremy Powers got in a fight with a motorist and had to take his shoes off and everything. So I hear. I finished Harry Potter. Matson gets to go home now. He hasent seen his girl friend in about 4 momths. Rytan got an armpit infection from North Carolina. Kris stil like AC/DC. Tonkin is still my Hero. Never buy a Dodge Durango. Or a Jeep Liberty. Or a Caravan. Go for the Grand Caravan. Then your seats will fold up into the floor. I took lots of pictures. Most of them suck. One is pretty cool. I have Tombstone on Net flicks right now. I am basically the Wyatt Earp of MTBing. Time for bed.

Nasty