wens

10 hour drive to Atlanta. Unfortunately the high there is like 30, my project is running late so surprise vacation would probably be frowned upon, and I'm spending a lot of money on not bike racing stuff right now, so there's a compelling reason not to flee south for a week.

mattm

Upcoming Chico stage race has 138 pre-reg'd; Optum & Stan's NoTubes pro teams will be there. KHS too.

I'll be there too! Holy **** it'll be fun. And really really hard.

Check out the first stage:

Wylde06

Looks like a fun course. Race tracks are fun to race on

misterwaterfall

I've raced motorcycles on T-hill, pretty awesome course.

Edonis13

I'd be too worried about blowing up on the hill from turn 8 to turn 9. Maybe because I blew up a motorcycle engine there last year....

himespau 

@topflightpro That's a good point. I just see the knowing the snow was coming 24+ hours in advance, cancelling things 12 hours in advance of first snow, then only getting 7" over 9 daylight hours and general freaking out and think "what wimps", but if the infrastructure isn't there, the infrastructure isn't there. Daytime with no need for overtime or not, if they don't have the plows, there's not a ton they can do and maybe it takes 2 days to plow all the streets.

JohnKScott

We got the freezing rain and ice down here in Tennessee. School's been out for 2 days. Good news is I got to work from home two days in a row and slipped a workout in there this morning.

Oh, and I'm from Minnesota. This still ain't nothin' in my book

ridethecliche

Just bought a ticket to london for next month. Never been. Going to go to dublin as well for a bit.

Such excite!

furiousferret

London is awesome, I'm jealous. Dublin is okay....Temple Bar is awesome, but Ireland as a whole is beautiful.

ridethecliche

Im hoping to be in london from thurs am to monday night, then fly to dublin on monday night or tuesday morning for 2 days.

bmcphx

man, chico looks fun! Maybe I'll do that one next year.

hack

Looks like partial Airgas-Safeway team is regitsered. Possibly Horner's first race in his new kit?

carpediemracing 

A few random thoughts.

Amazon Prime was on sale for $72 (no-cost 2 day shipping, includes streaming video/music, kindle loaner program). I kept getting offers on getting the Amazon card. $10 initially. Then $30? I forget. On check out it was $70 credit, and I hadn't submitted payment yet. I read the fine print and realized the bank issuing the card issued my current cards. When I got the second card they shuffled my credit limit around. I figured they'd do the same if I added the Amazon card so I decide what the heck. Got Prime for $2 for this coming year.

So it totally changed the way I think about shopping online. I'm glad I didn't have it before, when I had money to burn. Basically there's no reason for me to buy various things at the store. I can find it, get it shipped, it's here typically overnight, 2 days if it's weird, and no dealing with packing Junior into the car etc. I only placed one order but it was a revelation.

Of course now I'm thinking of buying some race promotion supplies this way, with free shipping on particular items it really adds up. Think tents or portable stages or padding or other bulky things.

They even delivered last Sunday. I have no idea who delivered it, just that the package was there when I went to clear the driveway of snow yet again.

A tip: they give you access to partial seasons. Everyone raved about The Wire so I started watching. Only 5 episodes covered by Prime each season, you have to pay for the rest. So I'm watching 5 episodes then going to the next season. The time warp factor is a bit mind blowing but I'm managing. I'll have to actually watch the missing 8 episodes per season at some point.

Another is Junior. It's so great to have him around, it's so great that I can be around him. He gets frustrated when he can't do things to his standards, but if I'm around and I realize what's happening I can help him work through the frustration. I struggle sometimes to understand certain situations, like I know I should know but I can't remember at that moment. Then I remember and I can work through it. The day care director said "Wow, you're the most patient parent I've ever seen here" but the reality is that I can do it and therefore I do. Today we spent 2 hours playing at the day care after I technically picked him up - we literally go across the hall to a set of playrooms and hang out in there. I got him at 12:20 or so, we left at 2:30 or 2:40. It was great.

This is a new floor puzzle that appeared last week. I'm going to bring some Cars cars so he can roll them around the mat next time.


I will miss my time with him when I am working and he's in daycare full time.

Four weeks to the races. Yeah, wow. Spent $2k in the last couple days (workman's comp and race numbers), maybe another $2k before that for fees and such. Before if something happened I had the costs all covered through savings. Now it's coming out of a black hole (no job yet) so it's a bit different now. Debating trophies, medals. I think it's $500 for trophies, similar for nicer medals (different vendor). I feel a bit of loyalty to the trophy place so that's the debate.

mattm

I heard he's coming to Snelling this weekend too.. lord help us.

beatlebee 

@carpediemracing: I recently purchased Prime as well, but can see all episodes of The Wire. (?)

globecanvas

I think you're doing it wrong. The whole first season is on Prime. Maybe you got head faked by how it always asks you if you prefer to buy it rather than watch it for free?

The Wire

carpediemracing 

Farg. Talk about spoilers. I'm going to check out Episode 6, Season 1.

I got head faked for sure.

Homebrew01

I just heard a spot on the radio about Norwegian air and Icelandic air ("Wow Air" ?) offering special deals to Europe. Not sure about the "fine print".

hack

He's been up in the hills this way quite a bit lately. Bombing some steep, wet descents sans helmet of course. Appears to be quite fit, but that's relative to mortals and not the pro tour elite.

tetonrider

thanks for posting that. looks a bit hillier than i'd imagined. i'd heard that things can bunch up quite a bit on that field one one of the hills (looks like the 1st one in the video) and depending on where you are in the (big) p12 field it's almost like doing a track stand.

i'm deciding whether to race p12 or 35+. i'll be sharing a vehicle with a buddy in another race and i think the 35+ times might mesh a bit better with his races. the p12 looks like sadistic fun. you are way-hay-hay more prepared than i am. good chance i'll be completely chewed up either way. the courses all look great.

hm...still 12 spots left of the p12. horner's not registered....what if i take his spot??

mattm

take his spot please! =]

it'd be great to see you out here either way, but I hope you do the p/1/2 as well.

tetonrider

likewise.

i was just looking a bit closer a the start times. my buddy's in the 3/4 field for sure.

if i do 35+ the 1st circuit race is back-to-back with the 3/4 vs 4h later with the p12s. saturday RR starts are close (i hear that course is ~1h from chico, so that is good).

3/4s TT first @ 8am. with ~500 races could be looking at p12s TTing at 11, 1130, noon, about when his crit is going off. also, p12 crit is not going to finish up until 445 on sunday. i'm hoping to make it back as close to home as i can that night.

hm.

after getting burned at a race a week ago (canceled due to weather), i'm planning to wait until next week to register, just to be sure not crazy storm is expected to roll through. seems unlikely, but....

guessing the 12 spots in p12 might not last that long. i'll know a handful of guys in the p12 and lots in 35+.

decisions, decisions.

will be fun/brutal either way, i'm sure.

revchuck 

Apparently he's already had one too many concussions.

Wylde06

Im considering doing a race that I told myself I didn't want to do again after doing it last year. Its on a race track which is cool, but by northwest Ohio standards its pretty hilly.

I feel like I kind of know what to expect now..and my training seems to be going pretty good..so who knows..

Wesley36

Mid- February - yep, seems about time for a helmet thread