The crappier i feel, the more the universe wants me to be happy.

The article is actually pretty funny, but the picture is all you need to see. Everyone's favorite father:


The actual caption from the actual article:'Solomon Woras catches his breath after crossing the finish line. He said his aerodynamic facial hair helped him finish first. “That was the fastest beard I could muster,” said Woras'


DT

these things don't just happen every day

So I feel like crap, but sometimes the world reminds you that things aren't so bad after all. This was the nugget of joy that was presented to me today:

I swear I did not do this on purpose. I wouldn't know how even if I was clever enough to come up with such a thing. These love machines came straight from a bag of unfrosted Animal Crackers. Just waiting for their time to shine.
DT

Newness!

There's a new bank account-draining charge today from USAC, but I'm not pissed. That means my pro license is through the red tape. It's up to the mailman now (godspeed Ralph!). Eric is somewhere in his workshop up on the hill planning out a pro-style baddass team colored paint job for the race bike, my view of Colorado Springs is changing every time I ride my new mountain bike, and I have a fresh new throat cold to reward me for riding said mountain bike in the snow that dropped this week! The new thing I'm most amped about is the Ira Ryan custom frame that is taking shape in a basement in the St. Johns neighborhood. Ira was incredibly generous to put a custom frame ( or two, although he didn't know it at the time ) up for grabs for the winner(s) of the Rapha Goldsprints during NAHBS last year, and I was lucky enough to have my name on one of them.

Ira loves making bikes that people use every day. He sees cycling not as some opportunity to make a quick buck by importing some plastic from China, or as a way to break into some fashion sub-culture, but as an ideal and sustainable lifestyle. He likes bikes to be dirty. His bikes are not wall-hanger art. They are hand-crafted tools made by someone who knows the roots of what he's doing. Ira's bikes are classics. They're nice enough to hang on the wall, but that would be a waste.

There she blows.This thing will be the do-all. The Do-er. I've been collecting parts for it for a solid year, so it will be the best of everything I can get. The dream bike.

One of the guys at the shop thinks I have bike ADD. That I can't decide what I like or want. Not true. I know what I like. I love euro-trashy, uber-fancy, feather-light road bikes with a lot of history, like the Orbeas. I love left-field "how'd he do that" machining wizardry of uncompromising race bikes like the Groundup (as Eric says it, "a piece of wieghtlifting equipment with wheels). I also love the classics, like the a Ira Ryan single-speed utility bike I can use commute in the snow or take back 20 lbs of library books. Everything has a place in my world.
DT

worth 1000

No matter your opinion on war or policy, you cannot argue that this is a great picture.

From Chino.

Says a lot really.
DT

comics!

for more, check out Maakies.com and Qwantz.com

Hollarado

It's 2009. A new era is opening up in front of us, all that's left is to grab your pen and make your mark. As Joe Strummer would say, "Pin your ears back and Let. It. Rollll!"

After a week (maybe two weeks) of living like a normal 24(!) year old human being, it's back to life as a bike racer. And now that my paperwork has finally been sent in, life as a professional bike racer. So here we start another season. One that hopefully will look quite a bit different. Take my normal season, your normal season, or the season of any road racer, and push it back 4 months. First confirmed race is July 4th. Rumors of a kierin/sprint competition with a 20,000 dollar prize list in early june are coming out of San Jose, but I'll believe that when I see it. And if I see it, I'll be there. Also looking forward to going back to Portland to repeat and improve.
Despite all the fun US racing, the real important stuff won't start until the end of September in Barcelona. Then Nationals right after that, and 2 months from there to the World Cup in Melbourne.

And hey, my UCI ranking jumped almost 30 places from last year. Went from 133 to 107. So that's something.

Starting the new year means starting at the beginning of the training cycle. It means lost of base miles and gym time. It means stashing the track bike somewhere I can't see it for a few months while I get more than a team-sprint first lap in my legs. The beauty of doing this in Colorado is the fact that there are about a million places to ride for hours. And none of them involve the I-5 bridge or Skyline. Skyline is for sissies. We ride real mountains! This is my framebuilder, on the way to one such mountain. He loves signs.



So enough with this bike business. Let's watch someone get ill. Here in Colorado, we don't need to do the same old boring tricks. All we need is Bon Jovi, some extra skateboards and some stuff to jump off of. Watch this video to the very end. Your mind might explode.



DO IT!!

Tony Hawk eat your guts out. HOLLARADO!!

DT

more

The Gimp Pad as seen from the safety of the hammock.


From the track to the beach in 10 seconds.


Windy


Did you know that you can open a bottled beverage with nothing but a Shimano pedal? Kelyn knows.


Yeah. Word.

Holy crap.

I'll post more pictures later, but for now:
Make My Day Better
How's that for a slice of scary.
Wow.
*Dean mapquests nearest gun shop*
DT

some pictures. round one. tasMANIA.

Oncoming rain delay...


Starting a wheelrace in the corner on the 47 degree banked Silverdome is hairier than Robin WIlliams.


Some arguments simply can't be solved with words.


Crowds at the Silverdome in Launceston were even more impressive than last year.


Getting angry


For those that think riding around in circles is an assanine sport...


This was the stamp they gave me at Burnie so I wouldn't have to pay to get back in. I took this after my day of racing was over. This seemed like good advice at the time, so pass out is exactly what I did.

oops, nevermind

Burnie was cold. That is the one statement that will stick in my mind when I remember the carnivals this year. Cold. Last year we were trying to escape the oppressive heat and lack of ozone, but this year it was shivering to death on the start line, praying for everyone to get thier sh!t together so we could hurry up and go.

I managed to make it into the sprints this time (finally) and found out that our sprint rounds were four-ups. I had Scott Sunderland, Rizal Tisin and Kelyn. Sunderland's a Aussie World Cup rider, Tisin's a Malaysian World Cup winner and Kelyn's my teammate. So what to do. I sat at the back with Tisin we wound up, and with a half lap to go Tisin and I jumped at the very same moment to go flying over the top. So I'm on his wheel at the blue line, never gone so fast in my life, when he cuts downtrack, hits the front and eases off. Without ever considering my actions, I kept the gas on, cut down track with my hips overlapping his bars and sent him off the track. Sunderland and Kelyn made it around by the end but I was pretty happy nonetheless.

The lightning wheelrace was a classic example of shitluck not working out in favor of the foriegners. Every day the start lists show how many riders will get through the heats to the final. Not complicated, it's either 3 or 4, and in heats of 30 riders that's a massive task. This particular set of heats was listed as 4 go through. So I line up, gun goes, get to the front, bleeding out of my eyeballs and see that I can get 4th without wasting too much energy. Save some for the final. Kelyn makes it through his heat as well, and for the second time we have 2 riders in the final and a shot at making some scratch. Then about 10 minutes before the final the announcers says, "yeah, well actually we've decided now to take only the first 3 from the previous heats instead of the first 4." I wasn't in the mood to stir up some shit with the people who paid me to go race, but I wasn't to psyched that they decided to tell us this AFTER the race, instead of before it. WTF.

So that was the end of Burnie for me. There was a kierin in there somewhere too, but I was so exhausted by that point I don't remember what happend, except that I rode in legwarmers and a jacket.

And now I'm in Auckland. Sleeping 13 hours a night the last 2 nights in a row. Trying to get back to normal. Can't wait to get back to Colorado, into the mountains and back in my apartment. There's a new mountain bike waiting for me at the shop, calling my name.

DT