La Vuelta de Bisbee

I'm on location in Bisbee Arizona at the oldest and most prestigious cycling stage race in AZ. The town here is beautiful and the weather has been great. Perfect conditions for a bike race and a tan. I'm with my Rideclean team racing with 4 team mates (Brian Forbes, Mark Assmunstad, Dan Vasichek, Kyle Colavito, and myself) in the Pro 1-2 race. The race is 4 stages over 3 days. Here's a quick recap.
-Pro 1-2 field size - 85

-Stage 1 - 3 Mile Uphill prologue - Let me first say that I am not a time trialist. In the prologue I ended up 31st...not great...but not bad. My time wasn't too far off the leader. Mark got 10th and Kyle 12th so we will work for them. I rode all out, but maybe started off a little too easy. It definitely wasn't easy at the top though because on the way down I had to stop and puke...must have been a good effort. I coughed for a about 5 hours after. Ouch.

-Stage 2 - 80 mile Road Race - Pretty much the race is us and some other American teams against a team from Mexico named Tecos. They have 4 guys in the top ten and are pretty much controlling the race. We tried a couple time to send guys up the road but each time Tecos would pull it back. It pretty much stayed together till the last series of climbs when it started to shatter. I hung in there and finished with the main group scoring a 25th spot, moving me up to 24th over all. All the Rideclean guys finished up at the front which was cool. So Mark and Kyle moved up a bit.

- Stage 3 - 8 mile Time Trial - The time trial had a pretty wicked cross wind. Did I mention I wasn't a time trialist. I took 25th. I guess I pretty much must be the 25th best rider because that seems to be my spot these days. Mark took 4th and Brian 5th so that's rad. They will both move up the overall.

- Stage 4 - 90 mile Road Race - The road race is tomorrow, so we'll see what will happen. Hopefully it will all stay together and then I'm sure Tecos will be firing all sorts of amigos up the road on the final climbs. The race is cool. We start in Bisbee and cruise out to Tombstone and around and bit then back over the pass and finish on a tough climb right outside of down town.
There is over 6,000 ft of climbing, so It's pretty much like racing to Payson maybe a little longer in mileage.

So check it out. The team is staying at the coolest hotel. It's called the School House Inn. http://www.schoolhouseinnbb.com/
It was a school house built in 1917 that has been converted into a bed and breakfast. It feels like we're staying at grandma's house with all the decorations and smell.

Each room is a different subject. Todd and I are staying in the History room.

The History room is filled with history books and antiques from the 30's and 40's. None of the rooms have TVs or phones. It's been awesome. We race our bikes and come back and read. Then we race our bikes some more and come back and lounge and read again. The arithmetic room has a chaulk board with simple math questions.

Some of the stuff in the room. These pics don't do it justice.

If your lucky you could stay in the Principal's Office. Mark and some other dudes are in there.

The hallway is filled with old homey type stuff. Not your typical impersonal, everything nailed down hotel room.

The Tecos guys are staying at the School House Inn too. They have the full set-up. They have mechanics, massages, team cars and vans. They're legit. Hopefully we can put the hammer to them tomorrow and make 'em suffer.

Peace.

Another W for Four Unity Racing

Four Unity Racing comes out on top again.
After the good results at the national race in Fountain Hills last weekend we knew we would be going good this weekend in Prescott at the AZ State Mountain Bike Series race #6. We went out fast and hard moving into the top 6 positions on the first climb. Once Scott from Sampa racing moved off the front I threw down and Lance and I were able to open a gap on the rest of the field. Kyle (Fav Five) and Ben the Pest kept the pace going high and didn't let anyone get away while Lance Romance and I settled in and were flying around the course. The legs were feeling good, I had my flow on and I was stoked to be with my buddy heading for a 1 -2 finish in the Pro class....well things changed rather quickly for me when a stick flew up and lodged itself in my derailleur and broke it straight in half...WTF.
Well Lance kept the pace going and took the Win, so I was stoked for him and Kyle and Ben kept it going for a 4th and 5th place finish. Three out of five podium spots in a Pro cross country race isn't too shabby. I somehow rigged my ride into a single speed and finished with cashed legs and a good new tan. So I'd have to say it wasn't all bad.

Ben pre-race ready to rip.


Four Unity on the podium. Lance Romance a.k.a. Free Range #1, Ben the Pest #4, Kyle Fave Five keeping the top 5 streak going.

I've got to shout out to all the Four Unity sponsors who make our racing justifiable to our wives:

Allenscleaning.com, Titus, Decor Unique, Mi Amigos, OSPT Physical Therapy, Kori's Home Management, Treehouse Group, Adventure Bicycle Company, Freedom Boardshop, Vans, Smith Optics, Maxm Components, and Magura Brakes.

Good people and local businesses we hope you will support.
Peace.

CRU

Okay here is the little dude.

This is a classic. We have one just like it of Leif and they look a lot alike. We haven't gotten to many smiles out of Cru yet, but the few we have show a couple cheek dimples like Leif.

He is such a cute, cool, little man with Summer's dark brown eyes and his skin is a little darker than Leif and Tre's.

Here's Cru thrilled to be in his pimpin car seat. It makes his cheek's look all chubby...but their not. Hopefully soon though.


I just had to throw in this pic of Tre scratchin'. He likes to listen to my ipod when I get home from work so I think the jungle rhythm's are getting to him.


Tre's home all day so he is getting the pics lately. I'll do a separate post for the Leif so we even it out. Tre digs his little bro...especially because that makes him the big bro now.

What else???

Prescott "PUNISHER" is this weekend. The team should be riding strong. Lance and I rode yesterday on the mountain for a few hours. Rare to get a few hours out at Hawes but somehow we managed. Saw Scoot dog out there tearing it up, so that was cool. He's still keeping it real in the board shorts and skate helmet. We just look gay in the skinneys, but once you go skinney's you never go back.

Lance always keeps the conversation going. He was telling me about a story he heard on the environmental impact of eating meat...specifically beef. It was crazy, but you know if you can't convince people that a vegetarian diet is a wise health decision...you can always jump on the green band wagon and their ears perk up. Take a listen <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89676010>

That's enough. Peace.

Rock Racing

I'm going to get some pics of Cru up here as soon as I get my ghetto laptop or rather lapbottom working. Time for a Macbook? We think so.

In the mean time...Ever heard of Rock and Republic? I know the girls like the denim. I'm sure now they'll love the lycra.


They just got the invite to the Tour of Georgia. They crushed it at Redlands...I'm sure they'll do just fine in Georgia.

Virgin Blogger

OK, I'm going to try this blogging thing...we'll see how consistent I can be with it. This site will contain all things Reedy. So family stuff, friends stuff, cycling stuff, and everything else that may be going on.

We'll start with this past weekend.

Friday
- Finding Nemo on Ice, the kids had a blast thanks to Evan (our awesome ticket friend)


Saturday -Leif killed his soccer game. He had a good goal shot, played hard and the team won.
That night we had Aaron's birthday party at the house. Summed up best by Kim (see link to Adams), but here are a few other pics. Happy B-day Devon.

Kyle took 3rd in the Cat. 3 race at the State Championship Crit race on Saturday with an awesome lead out by our man Free Range (a.k.a. Lance). Kyle is now known as Fav Five...If you need a top 5 finish he's your man.

Me... just sucked wheel and made a last ditch dig in the Pro 1/2 to pull back a one man break then fell off the pace...weak. At least I didn't hit the deck like some poor fools. My man Ham Fist took 5th.

Sunday...Hell of the North...Tommeke, Tommeke, Tommeke.