Art O’Connor

After the whoopin I took at T-Point I was pretty pissed off. Here I am as fit as I have ever been and I got humilitated. I don’t like to make excuses but at 6′7″ with a 30mph wind, well the Train don’t roll like that. I am really sorry I could not hang and work for Tony. He had a great ride going and I should have been there on Sunday. I really hate droping out of races but I hate letting down my team even more.

The rest of the weekend was actually pretty cool. Had a great time at The Jackalope Saturday night. On Sunday I went back to god forsaken Tooele to watch the motorcycles races at the “I am a billionaire but I can’t buy golf shirts that fit Motor Sports Park”. I think our lap times were like 11 minutes or something, these crazy bastards were running under 2 minutes. Sick. The Wookie is buds with the surly crew from SL Motorsports and got us pit passes which meant we could go track side during the race. It is hard to describe how cool it is to watch these bikes go by at 180. I wish I was going to be in town when the AMA races are here.

Today I spent the morning running around getting supplies for the trip to Texas. Not really sure how long I will be gone yet but it really does not matter. I am actually excited to see Texas (sick I know) and make some folding green. Looks like there are a lot of group rides but not many races this time of year down there. I hope I can get some rides in and not totally lose my fitness.

Ride Safe

Shit Sandwich.

Ok so the T-Point race is an omnium after all. Everyone knows how I feel about that so I don’t need to mention it. The race was in downtown Provo on a really turny technical course. Every corner had either a grate or hole or something to keep you on your toes. There were 2 crashes in the first 3 laps. I like to tailgun the first part of races like this for that very reason and tailgun I did. Hopefully everyone that went down is OK, I have not heard about any bad injuries. It was real fast from the start I had to sprint around a lot of guys to stay with the group, but was never really redlined. There were lots of attacks and small breaks would stay away for a lap or so. I managed to get up to the front with three to go and held on for 11th (in the points baby) My team mate Tony pulled a great move with half a lap to go and ended up in 2nd. Nice work man. The crowd was great, the promoters are really doing a great job getting the community involved and excited about the race. There was a band playing near the start finish and a nice festival atmoshpere. Gardie and Sandy did their usual incredible job of announcing and keeping the crowd pumped. It’s too bad they are such good riders, it would be fun to have them announce more events. Today we are racing at the new Larry Miller Motorsports complex. It will be cool doing 30mph on a track that will have Ducati’s doing 180mph on it the next day.

Ride Safe

Today is Julie’s Birthday so if you know her wish her a good one.  Last night Wolfmother was a rocking good time.  Thanks AB for turning me on to them.  That almost makes up up for the Celene Dion CD I caught him listening to.  There was actually a good turnout for a Tuesday night in SLC.  After the show I stopped by the Mistress Julie Birthday Karaoke Jam.  The girls were belting out the hits.  Sorry I missed Damsels version “Back in Black”, maybe next time.  I posted some Wolfmother pics in the concerts album and the karaoke pics are in the Julie’s B-Day album.
I just found out yesterday that I will be heading to Texas a week from Friday for 3-4 weeks.  Good news for the business, bad news for my racing.  It means I will miss the state RR, Sugarhouse crit, and High Uintas.  Bummer.  Hopefully I can find some races in Texas.

Ride Safe

On a non bike racing subject Wolfmother www.wolfmother.com is coming to town tonight. This is your chance to catch them before they OD or sell out like Metallica. Anyone who sees me at the show as result of this page will get a free beer. If you are staying home to watch American Idol then please read on:

American Idol, Die Die Die!

I can’t believe how much this show sucks. I admit I have never seen it but I don’t need to, it sucks. If you watch it you suck. How is it that a damn karaoke contest is actually news worthy. Every fucking day CNN (an alleged news source) has another story about this abortion of a show. ABC had a special about that crappy judge who can’t sing whoring around with one of the contestants. Please stop! You know what would be cool? Remember that Halloween movie? Halloween 4 I think, the one that had nothing to do with Michael Myers. Anyway it sucked pretty bad too, but the story was some company was selling these Halloween mask that had (much like AI) become a cultural phenomenom. Every dumb ass mouth breathing trend sponge had one. The twist was that on Halloween every knuckle dragger that had one of these masks was supposed to watch some TV show to get a big suprise. Well some do gooder figures out that these masks have some kind of embedded laser in them that blows the shit out of whoever is wearing one during this broadcast. I don’t remember if they stopped the evil plan or not, probably not it was a Hollywood movie after all. This is what American Idol should do! Every stupid shit that calls to vote for these no talent lounge “singers” should get some kind of death ray through the phone, blowing their pea brains all over the trailer park. That would rock. The average I.Q of the planet would go up at least 20%. They could even do the mask thing. They could get Regis as an announcer, “That’s right America, do you patriotic duty and get your Simon mask at Wal Mart, then tune in for an explosive final episode.”
I should run this country.

Ride Safe

Never let it be said that Jason Preston does not listen to the people. After a lots of crying (mostly by me) from the racing community he has changed the Cat 2 race to a stage race from an omnium. Nice work. What Jason and his crew are trying to do (and have already done) with Thanksgiving Point/Tour of Utah is really incredible. Even though I am probably the worst crit racer ever I am showing my support by racing this weekend. Well really it is because Hageman called me a wimp, the point is I will be there.

You know am not trying to hurt anyones feelings with my ramblings on this site. The fact that anyone reads it amazes me. Since people do read it I guess I should be a little more diplomatic with my critic of my cycling brothers. We really have a strong supportive cycling community here and I don’t want to play any part in dividing it. I take it as well as I can dish it out and as such I really appreciate the (more or less) civil tone of the comments. I hope we can keep it that way. If you agree with me or disagree with me post it in the comments and it will stay there unedited. Just keep it tastefull as my Mom really does read this site. We are all brothers and sisters out there on the road/trails, so to quote the movie Tommy Boy “Brothers don’t shake hands, brothers gotta hug.”

Ride Safe

I raced the Bear Lake Classic yesterday, 104 miles of wind and rollers. This was my first race with my new team FFKR/SBO and I was not sure what to expect. I new we had a lot of strength but since I have not raced with them yet I was unsure what the team dynamic would be. Our plan was to have some one in every move and when they get in a move don’t block. That is just low class. Right off the bat Norm Bryner goes up the road and K-Rad is on him. It was a great move because it did not have a PCCA or Logan Race club (the two largest teams) rider in it, meaning they would have to chase and we could sit back and wait for the counter. Actually it meant that PCCA would have to chase as LRC does not do that. So the front of the race has yellow guys riding tempo keeping the gap manageable. K-Rad and Norm eventually get caught and another attack gets clear with another FFKR rider in it (Travis I think?) We make the turn around the lake and we are doing 40mph with a sweet tailwind. This is where it gets funny. We are doing 35-40mph and guys are attacking! Good idea, I am sure you can ride 45mph and stay away. The break kind of falls apart at the feed zone and soon another is gone with K-Rad again. They get caught and then the move of the day goes, 7 guys go up the road including our Jeff Sargeant, Aaron Jordan(AJ), Todd Hageman, Mark Yap, and Todd Posselli. In other words some pretty good horse power. They dangle about a minute off the front for a long time which is strange because we are not going that hard. They must not be very organized up front. On the back side of the lake going into a head wind I make my move and take Kirk Eck from LRC with me. We were stuck in no mans land for what seemed like forever. I almost sat up since I was getting almost no help. I decided to give it one last push and Kirk agreed to help. We catch the break and I go straight to the front and drive it. I ease up and no one pulls through. WTF? Sarge tells me to save my strength as there are a lot of passengers in the break. I am thinking OK all the big teams are here so the peleton wont have a lot of chasers. We (FFKR) have 2 guys and LRC have 2 guys so at the very least there should be 4 guys ready to work. AJ tells me he is out of water and blown which I believe because he is always a huge motor in the break and has too much pride to sit on. The LRC guys? They have a strict no work policy so no luck there. I can see there are a lot of tired faces and empty water bottles so it is going to be tough. The rest of the guys would pull through when they could but it was a long hot ride with only one feed zone. In about a 3 mile stretch our gap went from 2 to 1 minute. We were almost to the turn into the crosswind section. I knew this group would not last. We make the turn into the crosswind and whoever is in the front puts it in the gutter. Does not accelerate, just puts it in the gutter. Anyway we are going ridiculously slow, so I went for it. Hageman goes with me and we trade some big pulls. Mark Yap (LRC) comes across it is game on. We make it to the tailwind section and I knew the final selection had been made. Hageman and I knew that since the only time Mark had been in the wind all day was when he bridged up to us he would have the freshest legs for the sprint. My legs were cramping so bad I had serious doubts about finishing. We attacked him a few times but he was just too fresh. This one is coming down to a sprint. Hageman leads it out and I get boxed in for just a moment. I am coming around Mark but the line is coming even faster. I threw my bike but he got me. Damn I wish I could sprint. Sarge got 4^th so we made some nice $$$ for the team. Today my team was unreal, we were in every move and all the guys rode their hearts out. Sorry I could not close the deal guys. I am really proud to ride with these guys. Being a mountain biker at heart I still have a hard time with the sit on, don’t power the break, then sprint tactic. That is just me. I want to race to win or die trying. Maybe I would win more if I did not race that way but I know if I raced that way and did not win I would feel like a chump. Is it sour grapes on my part because I did not win? Probably. But this is my blog and I can write what I want. I like every single guy on LRC, great group of guys. I congratulate Mark on the win. I think we will just have to agree to disagree on tactics. I hope my good form continues and I look forward to many more battles with you guys.

Looks like I got shined for our ride today so I am out for some easy recovery miles solo. Glad my iPod is charged.

Ride Safe

This is Sly Fox’s new crew.

They ride in Liberty Park.

Oh man last night was so awesome. The Revolting Cocks and Ministry definetly brought the rock. I have never seen RevCo before but I figured if Al Jourgensen is involved it would be great. As usual I was right. The highlight was their cover of “Da Ya think I’m Sexy”. Lets just say the girls they pulled on stage from the audience must have been very hot under those lights.

Ministry as usual was unreal. What can you saw that has not been said. The are the originals and still the best. NWO, Stigmata, So What, yes they played the “hits”. The only thing missing was “Jesus Built My Hot Rod”. Did not run into Hageman, he must have been in the VIP lounge.

Wendy Chao can now add super model to her already daunting list of accomplishments.

I wonder if the esteemed Gibbs College knows their poster girl is a Harvard doctoral candidate?

Today I did one of my favorite rides, the Morgan Loop.  I convinced Matt (Slohran Cipo, Indohran) and Edward to join me.  I arrived at the Zoo and Edward’s cleat was loose. None of us had any allen wrenches so we started asking some MTB bikers who were unloading in the parking lot.  No luck.  Edward was out.  I was a little leary of doing the ride with Matt.  When he is in shape is super strong, especially on long rides.  For the last few years he has been claiming the Indohran is back only to have his hopes and dreams crushed and left to die a slow death.  I had visions of towing him around for the next 100 miles going 15mph.  Not fun.  So we start up Emmigration, we get to the top and I give him a chance to bail.  “Nope I feel good” was the answer.  I figure Big Mountain will finish him off. Nope, he wants to go on.  We stop at the spring on the back side, this is really the last chance to turn around before we loose a few thousand feet in elevation.  We go on.  Well not only did he not go mushroom cloud on me, he actually spent a lot of time pulling.  I have to admit that after years of unconfirmed Indohran sightings he may really be back. With Sly looking less and less like the Michelin man, the Train rollin’, and a confirmed Indohran sighting, the result sheets may start looking like 1996 revisited.

Ride Safe
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