kirk obee

your a loser and you suck, once positive now dismissed for a doping violation, your an idiot and an oxygen thief

2009 tour of elk grove

just finished the opening time trial of elk grove, 4.5 miles, was pretty good. i found it hard to get motivated as i was running my road bike, no disk or anything, no aero helmet, so the main aim for today was to just get through, open up the legs and make the time cut, all objectives achieved and happy, finished an outstanding second to last hahahaha so was quite funny, keeping the guy moral high on the team thats for sure!!!
tomorrow we have a 150km road race, with 8 laps round a city circuit, i think there is something ridiculous like 35 turns per lap, so could need a new set of brake pads by the end of the race i think!
it will be pretty sweet though, ill be the only one tomorrow on my time trial bike, so it will be a massive advantage hahaha

hayden and josh take a trip together

in an effort to locate a bank the other day, good old Garmin directed us to the ghetto. it was a bloody dodgy neighbourhood and we wanted to make the trip as quick as possible and get into the bank and get out.
so Garmin told us the bank was on our right and we popped out of the car and Josh and Hayden ran into what they thought was the bank, and were confronted by a big que and alot of people, which confused the crap out of them. i had quickly glanced at a sign on the way in but kept my mouth shut, they waited in there for a little bit before a man explained that it wasnt a bank and it was round back. i finally couldnt keep my mouth shut and explained in the hast to find a bank they had walked into the community HIV clinic, looking like quite the gay couple.
ah its kept me amused for quite a few days now, need things like that on a long trip, brilliance.

only in america, what a bloody psyco

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=130828212811&h=uOmAr&u=I2HOD&ref=nf

chicago crit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YjxyP_MtLI


heres a video of the chicago crit, that we did yesterday.
it was the dodgiest race i have ever done in my life, so many muppets out on display it was amazing, and four massive crashes in the last lap confirmed it. 190 guys on the line and going down to Cat 2 was just a bit silly, as all the cat 2's thought they were mark cavendish and could knock it up from anywhere in the bunch and could fit 10 wide through all the corners, was a frustrating day.

flips and stunts

had a very interesting race on Friday night in Kenosha, for two reasons.
the first was that after we unpacked all our gear and put our bikes together, we rode down to the start to sign on for regisration.
Normally this is not a problem, unless your name is Josh, and you forget to put on your front wheel properly and try to do a wheelie, only to find your front wheel rolls out from underneath your bike and you end up putting your forks directly into the ground and doing a front flip over your handlebars, which was AMAZING.
Secondly i was on the start line next to Karl Menzies, when a red neck with a super mullet leaned over the rails and started to pray for us, which was quite an experience. He prayed for about 2 min solid, for us, etc etc, while me and Karl didnt really know what to do, then other people around him joined in and prayed for us as well. after it was all over he shook our hands, and Karl looked at me, and said "well, if i win today i might have to give this jesus caper some thought" which made me chuckle.
the race went smoothly but Karl didnt win, although i do call him Reverend Menzies now

few photos from racing lately

here's the madison from San Jose where Hash is trying to catch me for an exchange but i wont let him, no seriously its the keiran. but i should have done it to him in the madison

sprints in Alpenose

Kilo in Alpenrose, which was pretty much the most horrible kilo ive ever done in my life

superweek

After ripping around the track in portland the last weekend Im now here at superweek catching the last few races with Josh and Hayden.
So far so good really!
My superweek started off with the Lake Front road race, 150km, 22 lap around a nice little circuit with a couple of climbs. My legs were pretty knackered from the track still so it was a cruisey day for me really, i just rode around in the bunch and rode all the crap out of my legs, Josh made the break which was magic, and got pipped on the line by Hans Dekkers from Garmin for 5th place, when Josh decided to stop sprinting before the line, so im pretty sure he wont make that mistake again.

The next night Hayden and Josh took off, while I went to the race with Mike Friedman (Garmin), Brad Huff (jelly belly) and Mikes brother. It was a magic trip, laughed the whole way up there pretty much, knocked out a 100km crit (which Brad won) and drove home. My legs were slowly coming back which was awesome, I just got jammed against a barrier near the finish which kinda killed all my speed, and i was just happy to leave with all my skin still on my body!

Last night was the last of the races we will do here, with Hayden and Josh back we really wanted to get on the podium to finish with a bit of a high before a big money race down in Chicago tomorrow.
Hayden made the break and lapped the field, so it was up to me and Josh to control what we could to keep the field intact for Hayden to sprint. I ended up having to chase a pretty big break back with Karl Menzies and Jonny Clark to bring back a dangerous group of about 15 guys, which was pretty much all my candles burnt right there, Josh took over looking after Hayden at the end, and Hash ended up getting on the podium for 2nd, behing Hilton Clark, so all in all, a very good night!!! I keep forgetting how long 100km crits are!!! they seem to drag on forever, especially when you look up to see 87 laps of a 1km circuit left hahaha.

All us Subway boys are off to chicago tomorrow, so heres hoping we get on the podium again!

Alpenrose challenge

heres a photo of me on the line for the sprints against one of americas quickest, Dean Tracey, i just asked him if he had up to date health insurance thats why he's got that stupid look on his face

Well the alpenrose challenge up in Portland has been and gone for another year, and I was once again reminded that it is THE bumpiest track I have ever ridden on, hahah, nothing has changed up there.
The track is set in by the Alpenrose milk factory who donated the land in a pretty nice wee area, the track is kinda sunk into the ground so at the top of the banking there is huge grass areas where everyone sets up BBQ’s and tents for the weekend so the setting was pretty sweet.
My form for the whole weekend was really good, races absolutely everything I could, from pursuits,kilo,sprints,keiran,points,madison,scratch and finally the last event was the miss and out, where I was absolutely on my knees but managed to pick up second in that behind a flying Jame Carney. I was on the podium quite a bit which helped out the old bank account a lot, and finished up 2nd in the overall award behind Jame, which was actually sweet as I didn’t realise there was an overall omnium until Saturday night so got a nice little bonus with that.

Jame was really on fire so it was definitely good to see where my form was that and im pretty happy with it, with the track being so bumpy it was quite hard to stay with him in the banking as being bigger I was getting a bit of a rougher ride with my center of gravity being quite a bit higher than his hahah, but it was good, caught up with a lot of people I havnt seen in quite a few years, and managed to hang out with one of my best mates Marina Duvnjak on the last night I was there as well which was awesome, she just finished kicking ass up in Canada and was driving the next day down to support mike at Cascade before flying home.
Had one of the best flying experiences flying on Jetblue airlines up there and back, direct TV in all the seats which runs non stop, so as soon as you sit on the plane the TV is already going with bout 40 channels to choose from, and with it being July and the Tour de France on they waived their excess baggage bike fee’s for the month so that was awesome!!!!
It came back to bite me this morning though, im flying out to Milwaukee on Continental, and got told at 5am that my bike bag “didn’t conform to normal baggage requirements” and that would be an extra 115 bucks for the privilidge of flying my bike out there, so not the best start to the morning, mind you though, I could see the writing on the wall when the shuttle company decided to ring me at 3am this morning “just to make sure I knew the shuttle was coming to pick me up at 4.30am”
3am, yep, just to see. Not entirely impressed with that, so all in all with all the early flying ive had buggar all sleep for the last couple of nights, so a big catch up needed tonight for sure!!!
The tour has been finally getting interesting, from Roly going off the front and drilling it, to Hincapie not getting the yellow jersey, and then having a cry about it afterwards, to me, that’s just bike racing. He didn’t get it, that’s life. Im pretty sure you didn’t see Oscar Pereiro crying(in public anyways, I heard he was fuming as you would expect) when George sat on him that whole stage in the mountains that one year, told him he wasn’t going to sprint then rolled him at the top of the climb for the win, sometimes karma just gets ya really, It may take years, but cyclists etc tend to have very long memorys that’s for sure!
Ive now heard there’s thunderstorms forecast for Milwaukee, which will no doubt mean delays in flying, might just be one of those days I think hahah, hopefully I can grab some kit on this next flight and catch up a little. Hash and Josh are supposed to be picking me up from the airport and driving straight to a 100km crit, Josh has got good form he finished 4th last night, I think I might sit tonight out get ready for the Lake front road race tomorrow morning, which is pretty much my favourite course out of the whole of superweek, be good to just get in some good hard road stages and gear up for Elk Grove in a couple of weeks!