Holiday cheer part 2

Our fearless leader and some schmoozing schmoe.

I finally figured out why Lenny like going to this place.

Cooop looking like, well, Cooop.

I think Danny stuck his tongue in Kyle's ear just after I took this picture. That's what too many Captain and Cokes and no wife does to Danny.

Holiday cheer

What you're missing if your not lucky enough to ride for Hayes....

Jay trying to get a little from the better half of Coooop

The money man's daughter with our fearless leader's wife.

I promise Russell, next time we're in Racine.....

B-Dog needs a little blue pill. Or three.

Slow guy and fast guy. Do you know which is which? Not too hard to tell is it?

Excuses

I finally have some validation for my crappy cross season. After weeks and weeks of feeling crummy, I broke down and went to see my doc yesterday. The last time I saw him was in September, after weeks and weeks of feeling crummy. He put his stethoscope on my back and after about two seconds says "why didn't you come to see me sooner?" My answer: "even though I like you, I don't like to see you, ya know". Next thing he asks is how have I been feeling since I saw him in September and I say well, now that you mention it, not so good.

Long story short, the bug I had in September settled in for the long haul and managed to turn into a nice case of mycoplasma pneumonia. Top that with a nasty sinus infection that won't go away and I'm just a walking bacteria farm. No fu**ing wonder my fall sucked so bad.

I walked out with a fresh scrip for the super-duper, end all, ain't no better stuff, Azithromycin. I really hope it does the trick and kills this stuff so my life can get back to normal.

Chicago cross style

Where to start? I guess with how my day started: in a word, crappy. Was supposed to be at Dave's at 6:45; woke up at 6:55. A bit hard to make it there 10 minutes before I woke up. Had to bust ass to get the Bikeracemobile loaded,gassed and going but all's well that ends well when I made it to Montrose harbor just after 9. That's plenty of time for registration and warm up by 10. Anyway, they had to put registration back together after the tornado ripped the tents down.


It was a balmy 13 degrees with some pretty stiff west winds at the start. I had warmer packs in my shoes to keep my toesies warm and on my wrists to try to keep my fingies warm. Try is the operative work but I didn't get frost bite so they must have worked okay. The course, on any other day would have been pretty lame but with two inches of icy popcorn snow and a howling wind it was definitely challenging. Most off camber and uphill areas that would have been ridable normally I just jumped off and ran (if you could call it running...).


It turned out to be seven laps total. I asked if they could please ring the bell when I came through on my first lap but they wouldn't do it. Fibs. I settled into a groove after the second lap, and stopped thinking about DNFing. Tried to tow Fast Girl around but all she wanted to do was lay down in the snow. I'll have to talk to her dad about that, that's no way to win races. I oughta know. So in the end there were a few positives to the race: I didn't DNF, I didn't get lapped, I wasn't last, and I didn't fall down. If your goals are low, it's easy to be pleased. Someone's got to make sure no one escapes off the back.


On the way out it was time for chow. Wrigleyville Dogs baby. Lips and a$$holes on a bun. They make them a bit different than traditional Chicago dogs by using gardinera instead of sport peppers but I'll forgive 'em. They were still mighty tasty.

All in all, I'm glad I went. With the crappy conditions and cold temps, the turnout was low so i get to say I was tough enough to have raced today when the rest of the boys were sitting down to pee (so sayeth Russell).

The elusive Fast Girl. Loves the paparazzi.

Big Eddie from Sram/Rock Shox. the man knows how to eat. Brats and bacon. Mmm

Does it look cold? It was. Believe it or not, this hill was hard to ride up.

Rewards.

Can you guess where this is near to?