New Jersey

All smiles before but.....IT hurts that much to Finish 11th at a USGP-Photo by Jan Skafa-

So we headed back to NJ to visit our friends Neal and Sharron and their children Jack and Benjamin. The weather was rather somber Friday, so we set the trainers up in the garage for a little spin.

Saturday Tasha said she felt a little feverish, and she said she was sweating a little at night.
She looked fine so we didn't pay it much attention. She started her race and then just didn't feel right, not like herself. It was a little bizarre cause she was a little confused after her race and couldn't find her bike. Like I said she looked ok, but I knew something wasn't right cause she was not nervous and super relaxed, almost too much. Same thing Sunday, just not feeling right and she decided to call it a day.

So she'll take a few days off cause her body is telling her it is trying to fight off infection and would rather get better than pedal right now.

I had an ok race Saturday in the sloppy mud. Finished off 16th, not bad. I wouldn't call that mud my specialty, but it's a t least to the point where I love riding in the mud. The cool thing is I feel like I get about 1% better every mud race, so as long as no one else is getting better I'll win one for sure. THere were about 3 sections of the course in which I just couldn't quite master and probably cost me about 15 seconds per lap. Other than that I went as hard as I could.

Sunday I was a little bit more at homeon the course as it was a little faster, got to run "regular" tires with 22 psi so that's a little more my style. I was in a good spot off the start but took myself out twice in the first lap and lost some spots, fought back hard and got to top ten but just fell short on the last lap batteling with 5 guys or so, and I was able to drill it enough to beat all but Jones. SO I was happy as 11th at a GP in which everyone is there is an awesome result for me, especially on a muddy course...ok it wasn't as muddy as the day before, but hey it wasn't bone dry. I could say I wanted a top ten...I was actually aiming for top 5 which would have been rediculously great, but a few mistakes here and there, I figure every bobble costs a few seconds so every mistake just puts you a little bit further...so even on a perfect day for me a top 5 would have been almost too good to be true. But hey I was in for top ten on course that wasn't 100% geared to my abilites and it is about 30% better than my best GP result last year, so I just keep on hacking away.

Although it was a little bit of a wash for Tash, once again she kept her head on her shoulders, she didn't pout, she talk shit, she just accepted the circumstances and acted like a professional. Anyone who knows her would know how hard it was for her this weekend, she obviously had potential to really excel, but she kept her composure the best she could. She probably could have finished the races but honestly she is not there to participate, she is there to compete and she would have just drilled bad habits into her head..so you won't hear me say it is usually a good idea to withdraw, but good call her, rest up get better and then throttle it.

WE are off to the Hamptons this weekend and I'm pretty sure I'll be "in the race" a little more as usually this is a great course for me. We're still on the fence for the next couple weeks as we need Tasha to get better, I'm still trying to convince her to let me go to Spain to do a "crit" style World cup in the sun...but there's no womens race there, so it's not really that realistic. A boy can dream though.

Thanks again to the Stoeckles again for hosting us, nice to see them and the kids are great, they always put a smile on our faces and you can't help but be happy around them.

DSJ

Cycle Smart day 1-Tasha 2nd DSJ 6th

One down, one to go. Back in MA for a little nice weather cross racing. Tash had a solid race and came 2nd today. She made one small bobble in the sand and it was the difference between first and second. It's good to see that the women's racing is taking on that kind of level. Basically when there is stiff competition you have to ride almost to perfection to get the win.

Adam (Myerson) hooked us up with a great host for the weekend, we are about 4 k away from the course, so it's perfect. Super nice family, Mike and Maria and their children Emma and Phillip and dog Dozer. We're just getting cleaned up before dinner..Maria is Italian and she is making some really nice smelling chicken and tomato sauce..mmm.

My race was ok, I finished 6th. I was a little disappointed with how I was riding a few parts of the course, I just wasn't as good as I needed to be today over some of the technical stuff. C'est la vie. It's actually kind of funny cause I slid out in the exact same section twice...exact same mistake.

At least the weather was nice and this is a great race so even though it wasn't an awesome day for me, it's still a good experience and fun to be here.

We did narrow down some possibilities for our Trip to Europe. We are leaning on a shorter trip, as we first decided to do and shut it down Jan 3rd and no WORLDS this year. Why? Well I have obligations next year on the road and my season will be focused around a few key UCI races. This means I need a break this year before getting on the gas again for a training camp and early season races. Tasha does have a few offers for the road right now and for her, she would like to do some more National team projects , some early season stuff like Redlands, Gilla and so forth, so we will race hard until Jan then shut it down and hopefully enjoy this thing called "vacation"...I hear they are quit fun. Next years push on the road will be a little bit longer I suspect so we have decided that we need to go into the year on a full tank. And who knows, taking the rest this January might lead to both better road and CROSS seasons next year. Natasha's said one of her goals was to be doing Worlds in both cross and road next year, and be in the races to podium. Doing Cross till Feb is great but it just eats into the prep time for the next season. So that's where we are at, more like 2-3 weeks in Europe. This way it allows us to to be focused in training and preparation and then we know how long we can float on the shape we have. We'd rather be focused for the races we chose to do in Europe rather than racing just because.

DSJ

Kanata

Click here for an interview we just did with Denise Kelly from the OCA...

We had a nice Sunday in Ottawa. Did the OBC race in Kanata. Great to see all the crew out there, catch up with people and throw down some good O town Cross. I like this series cause it's pretty low key, no stress, well almost none. Bob and Ian do a good job of keeping this series going, it's the kind of racing that gets people into the sport and it's cool cause I get to race against Natasha, Robbie O, the Super strong juniors K bomb, Evan, Karl and Connor. Natasha gets to race against Glen 6to1 Rendall. I think he did everything he could to beat beat Natasha cause he was looking pretty wrecked after the race...haha I love it.

I went into the race rested as we've been training full gas and I just needed a little rest so I took Friday off and felt awesome on Sunday. We've been focusing on bettering my starts and we've made some good progress. First time I have lead a race from start to finish, now I know how much fun Tasha has when she does that.

Admittedly I knew I had to go hard with Os and his young home boys ready to pounce if they had an opportunity. Evan McNeely looked like he rode his brains out to try and stay on my wheel but I just hit the throttle on second lap at 100% and it was just a little too fast for him. Watch out though this kid is a junior and he was riding like a man...I rode the 2nd lap at about 95% and I think I only put 15 seconds into him...man if that kid sticks with it...

Yah so it's a small race, but there is some pretty good guys there and it's always to fun to win. Sometimes when your traveling a lot doing high caliber races, you almost forget what it is like to win...so you have to remind yourself so when the time is right on the big day you stick it cause it just feels natural...so it just feels like your on your couch. Well on your couch with slobber on your face.

Speaking of slobber on your face, it was awesome to see Tasha race for 1hour 10 minutes. You know the womens races are usually just under 40, sometimes even 35 minutes, so that's almost a double shift for her. Man after an hour she fell apart, I was egging her on telling her to finish strong and she almost killed herself on the last barriers, she forgot to pick her bike up and just ploughed through it. She was done. Man it was kind of priceless. I think there were alot of guys that girled on Sunday! She had alot of fun to be able to do a race like this and it kind of changed it up for us.

We celebrated our return to Ottawa with some Shawarma Palace and man it was good!
We're still trying to finalize our plans for Europe..it's actually funny no ticket booked, no accommodations...but sometimes it's good to be a little flexible, that way you can focus on what you are doing at the present. I'm sure at some point we will panic but until then no worries.

DSJ