Road Nationals Update

The first day was the time trials. Noah eeked his way onto the podie with a 5th.










Jordan in the last mile of the TT.

Here's me trying to think of something intelligent to say to Jordan and Austin. This race got sobering real quick. On a straight but very fast downhill about 3 miles into the race, a crash happened. 30 or so riders down. We heard about it over the race radios while waiting for Royce to start in the next race. This was the official race radio reports, so it wasn't rumor, which made me queasy.

Ultimately, 8 ambulances and two Life Flight helicpoters were called in and used. Meanwhile, we waited agonizingly to hear the numbers and names of the riders down, not knowing if ours were involved.

I'm not happy anyone went down, but we were relieved that our riders made it unscathed. Unfortunately, our boys were delayed so long that they were out of it from that point. Both noblely soldiered on and finished. This is one case where I'm glad our guys did just finish, because we weren't sure they could there for awhile.

Hig your kids today, please.

3

Jr Track Nats Day #2

Quick post...

Royce crushed his old best time in the 500m TT (41.3) with a 38.9.
Austin rode a decent kilo.

Noah finished 4th in the 1K scratch. He's still sitting 3rd overall by 1 point. It all comes down to tomorrow!

This is from Noah's 1K Qualifier. He finished 2nd. 1st is already out of frame. 9 or 10 riders behind Noah.

Nationals Day #1

We made it up here to Colorado Springs without too much trouble. It helps a ton that we travelled with Rob and Royce (one of Noah's teammates) to get here. We did run through a nasty hail storm, but even at that we made it from Stella Sola to the hotel in 12hr even. Austin and Hunter showed up a little later with their folks.

Home is the DoubleTree, so it isn't like we are roughing it. We have several restaurants within walking distance, and we've made a WalMart run to take care of the times we don't want to even walk.

On Friday the boys got in a great tune up ride on the track. It is basically the same dimensions as Alkek (Houston), but it is quite a bit smoother.

Last night (Saturday), Hunter and Noah both had 500m TTs, and Austin had the 25K Points Race. Austin rode the best and strongest I've ever seen him ride, and I've seen him do some big things on the bike. I believe he was around 15th. Maybe a bit better. There were 50 or so starters. It was very late when his race was done, so we didn't hang around, as we wanted to get the younger boys to bed.

Hunter took 1.5 sec (HUGE) off of his best 500m time.

Noah finished 3rd in his age group, earning his first medal at a National Championships.

Since I'm coaching here, I didn't bring the camera, but Steve (Hunter and Austin's Dad) is taking lots of shots, and I hope to get those up here soon.


Qualifiers this morning for Hunter and Noah. Austin and Royce race tonight. Hopefully Noah and Hunter will be as well.

Go White Boy

Dr. Bruce Dickinson

First thing this morning, Reanie said, "Daddy, I have the fever."
So I told her, of course, "The only prescription is 'more cowbell.'"

graduated a year early and everything

Jordan brings in a book from outside. He shows it to me and says, "I've read this before. I didn't like it. Too many characters and no plot." Then he sat it down on the table and walked away.

went down to Austin for a bike race on Saturday

Mama and the POSS2 watching the race.











Noah and Hunter, cross the line together finishing 1-2.

TENZING IN THE HOUSE!


Noah and some hardware.

In case you were wondering

The purple of my sister, Cami's, hair and that of my love handle do not exactly match. I'll do better next time, though, I think it might be easier for her to match me. I couldn't get all of the "blonde" out.

Grumpy sound

Why does the day after the day after hurt so much more?

zigged when I should have zagged

Daddy had a good day at the office

Texas State Road Race Championships

1st Andrew Dahlehim Pro, 1,2
1st Christina Smith Women Cat 3 (Team Lone Star Works)
2nd Tammy Sporleder Women Cat 3 (Team Lone Star Works)
7th Cassandra Criswell Women Cat 3 (Team Lone Star Works)
2nd Kim Jennings Women Cat 4 (Team Lone Star Works)
6th Bibi Martinez Women Cat 4 (Team Lone Star Works)
3rd Darwin Darr Men Cat 4
4th Ken Maclean Men Cat 4
5th Mark Kuithe Men Cat 4
9th Frank Everly Men Cat 4

Oh, there's definitely gonna be a party!

Finger snap, gah-roovay

This makes me want to get back in the classroom. Good thing it is summer, so it'll wear off by the time school starts.

It's been a nice day

Kid #1 and I went on a easy ride this morning. We rode into Old Town Lewisville, which is the opposite direction of 101% of the rides around here since it goes in to towne (have to use the "e" on the end).

It was fun to hit different roads and see and hear the morning sounds of the town coming to life. It wasn't all that long ago that Lewisville was a town of 10,000 or so people that was primarly farmers, ranchers and folks who wanted to live near the lake. The mascot at Lewisville High School (where I taught for awhile) is the Fighting Farmer.

We rolled into Old Town and came upon the famer's market. I peeled off an Abe Lincoln for Kid #1 because I roll big like that and told him to go grab something like fruit that we can eat before heading back home.

There was a pastry and coffee table, several vegetable and fruit stands, a pasta (?) table, a couple crafts tables and so forth. #1 clickity clacked past all the Saturday morning folks while wearing his cycling leotard and shoes. It looks cool when he does it. It looks silly when I do it.

He asked for a couple peaches and apples, but they sold him a basket of each anyway. We ate until we were full and packed the rest for the POSS2.

While dribbling fresh peach juice down our chins we saw #1's great-gradnmother there picking out some fresh veggies. We visited a bit. It was--and I mean this sincerely--nice.

His great-grandmother has been a Lewisville/Flower Mound resident probably as long or longer than anyone alive. They lived there before there were neighborhoods and strip centers and all that. And there we were in the old town on Main St at the farmer's market eating fresh fruit and visiting a great-grandparent.

So I slipped Norman Rockwell, who was painting caricatures in a booth, another big $5 I had (because I roll like that) and made our way home.

And then I got to go on a lunch date with #2 to Sneaky Pete's (I know it is called Little Pete's now, but to me it will always be Sneaky Pete's) for lunch. We watched the people come in and out on their boats, we fed the ducks and we had pizza "because it rhymes with 'Pete'".

It was all so real and Dr Seuss at the same time

Noah, Jordan and I rolled up to the house following the Wednesday night ride. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves, and it was getting better because we could smell dinner on the grill from about 1/4 mile away.

As we hit the driveway, out from behind the dense grapevine on the front fence comes Mama on the lawn tractor. She's wearing the skirt and blouse she wore to work that day. In her lap is a naked Buddy. Also in her lap is Reanie dressed in a black ballet outfit, complete with hot pink tutu. At the end of the driveway is a big bouncy slide fully inflated.

Buddy rules II

We're the all of us, including Jordan, riding in the car to Denton for some not-Mama-made pizza. In the course of discussion, Noah explains some problem he solved that did earn a polite nod of acknowledgment from me. Buddy, with perfect timing says, "That's good thinking, Noah".

Buddy rules

Buddy and I were watching the last bit of the Giro stage today. While sitting in my lap, he pointed to the screen and asked, "Is that you, Daddy?"

"No, Buddy. But thanks."

Then he belts out, "LOOK, IT'S NOAH!" Ok, so it was Simoni, but that Buddy was certain Noah was in the race was pretty dang cool.

The thing about 4WD is...

...that you can go about 50yd further than 2WD before you get stuck.

Happy Birthday!

Catherine Elise Owens just put Troy in the #3 seat of hierarchy at his house.

stuff has been happening

so much that blogging has taken a back seat. and the camera isn't in a pleasant mood, so I can't even cheat by posting pics.

Will be catching up with a diddy about Noah racing at Ft Davis, Troy and Roxanne bringing baby Cate into this world, having Buddy with me during the day now, eggs over easy with cream cheese and honey, and other things that make me feel good.