Art O’Connor

First the spicy fish taco’s at Rubio, now everything at Maui Taco.  Today is a rest day for me training wise. On my rest days I like to ride to one of my fav dining places and eat a nice lunch.  I mounted The Hulking War Machine and headed for Sugarhouse with the promise of the BBQ Pork Burrito providing the motivation.  Oh the horror, the place is shut down, out of business and i was only 2 burritos away from filling my punch card.  All was not, lost I ate at Bajio instead.  If that place goes down then I probably will have to be put on some powerful anti depressants.

The cyclocross season is coming closer every day.  Thanks to the Wookie I will be flying the Kona colors this year riding a sweet Major Jake.  What is it with kona and tall cross guys anyway?  I am super excited for the season.  Looks like I will be hitting the West coast USGP races, the local series, before trying to move up a step at nationals.

You know you are an asshole if the thought of being in the same building as you during a metal show is so horrifying that I am forced to leave.  Fucking A, I never thought that was possible.  It’s all good though, you need to have the occasional cloud to remind you to appreciate the sunshine.

From the “tell us something we don’t know” file.  Frankie Andreau admits he was a doper.  Eat shit Frankie, why speak up now that you are retired?  If he had any integrity he would have said something while he was still a rider.  This helps no one and changes nothing.  He said he came clean to help the young riders to realize they don’t have to dope to have a good career.  “Yeah kids don’t be like me and have a profitable and succesful career”.  Douche.  If you are going to come clean do it while you are at the top of your game and have something to lose like Jerome Chiotti. I really don’t care that he or anyone else dopes.  I don’t blame the athletes.  The pressure to perform at the highest level is incredible and I understand the temptation.  The problem lies with the governing bodies of sport and the sponsors. WADA, UCI, IOC, they are all soft on doping.  The penalties are a joke.  They should give riders amnesty who admit to doping, those who get caught get a life time ban and have to repay every pro contract they ever had to a fund to use to pay for future testing and research.

This week is gonna be a week of Metal.  Tomorrow night I am going to see Unearth and on Friday the Gigantour.  I saw Unearth a few years back and yeah they bring the rock.  Friday I am super stoked for.  I get to see Lamb of God again and you all know how much they rule. Right?  Arch Enemy is on the bill as well, if they show up it will be a first for me.  They have been the opener for at least 3 shows in the past that I have been to and have yet to show up.  Mistress Nikki (Hail!) is seeing the tour in Vegas tonight.  I can’t wait to hear the report.

In addition to my steady diet of metal I have been downloading a lot of Dub from emusic.  I am pretty green to the genre so I have been sticking with the standards like Lee “Scratch” Perry and King Tubby.  It is pretty cool stuff, but I am open to suggestions for others.  Praise Jah.

It has been a while since I have mentioned my Mom.  This has been her hardest battle yet.  The chemo is much more aggressive then anything she has had in her other 2 bouts with cancer and she is feeling it.  If anyone thinks I am tough I get it from my Mom. Compared to her I am a wimp.  Hearing the pain in her voice I know that whatever they are giving to her is hard core.  Her status now is they have succesfully harvested her stem cells.  She has one more round (the hardest one) of chemo before the bone marrow transplant.  I will be there in Oct. after the transplant to help with her care. I wish I was there now.

You know like everyone I have had my set backs, disappointments, and pitty parties. I always discounted it when my friends would say “you have your health”.  Now I know just how powerful that is.  Everytime I throw my leg over my bike is a gift, every second I spent with my friends is a gift, waking up every morning to a day of endless possibility is a gift. Don’t take it for granted.  Your health and the company you keep are all that matters, everything else is static.  Most people (including me) spend to much time and energy focused on the static.  It is life robbing.  Take care of yourself and the people you love and everything else will fall in place. 

Last night I went to a good old fashion kegger at Louder’s pad.  I could not remember what his address was so I drove around his hood until I saw a bunch of cars.  I went in to a house that had a bunch of people in it drinking and such but they definitely were not bike racers.  Crap.  I went home, Sly called me back from the Pampered Chef party he was at and told me where Jeffs place was.  Eventually I got the rally going and went.  I am glad I did. It is funny to watch what happens when a bunch of endurance athletes who live most of the year like monks get together for some end of season fun.  The combination of all that pent up energy and single digit body fat makes for a pretty cheap drunk and endless entertainment.  Jeff and Burke used a fishing trip to Wyoming as a good excuse to pick up a keg of PBR.  It was game on.  I walk in and see the Humberts and T-Mac, Laurie slaps a refreshing cup of PBR(it is so sweet when it hits your lips) in my hand and starts busting my balls about her pool prowess (so far she is undefeated in our matches, damn it).  So much for my early night.  She introduces me to her friend Abbie who despite a Redi Whip addiction is an Olympic Nordic skier.  Now I know I am in trouble.  When I was in college the best parties were the Norwegian parties.  I used to think it was because they were Norwegian, but now I think it is because they were all nordic skiers.  Must be something about having a VO2 in the 80’s.  For an hour I never even moved form the kitchen. Mudslides, PBR and Redi Whip abuse kept me quite entertained.  Eventually I made it outside and here is what happened.  Explained the finer points of teddy bear abuse to Burke.   Sandy is no longer a hair farmer and looks like he is ready for his mission.  When was the last time you did a keg stand?  For me it was last night, before that I probably had a mullet and was listening to the new Whitesnake cassette.  Good times. 

I took a couple of pictures which can be found here.

Today is the annual suffer fest known as LOTOJA, 200 miles of fun and validation.  I have never done the race and probably never will.  If figure if I can’t sleep for 8+ hours then why should I ride my bike that long?  Anyway big ups to the people that do it.  There is a lot to be said for following through.

Dr. Cross had his ticker worked on yesterday, sounds like everything went well which is good.  Last year was my first trip to Cyclocross Nationals without the good Dr. and it just was not the same.  I hope he comes back better than ever.  As for my season I am still trying to figure things out.  I had hoped to do the entire USGP Series as well as El Gato’s race at the end of the month but that is kind of up in the air at the moment.  Never say die.

I have never done the Royal Street hillclimb before today.  It is a cool race but it is hard to justify driving to PC for a sub 15 minute race.  Well today I knew I would be up there in the afternoon so I packed my bike.  I stopped by Gardies bad ass gym to see if he was racing and of course he was.  I have been feeling pretty good lately so I had high hopes of beating Francesco in a TT for once.  Not today. He ended up taking close to 30 seconds out of me by the finish.  That is why he has stood on the TT podium at Nationals and I have not.  Tonight was the last “official” race but after some slick politicing from Gardie  Galagher agreed to have one more two weeks from today.  Be there.

Here are the .OEX pivots for tomorrow.

So as some of you know I have been watching Rockstar:Supernova for the last few weeks.  I have to admit it has become a lot less compelling recently.  In my mind the best performers have been the women and my fav Patrice got the boot.  I say this not because they are hot (which they are) but because they are good and really would bring an interesting sound to the band and maybe it is just me but all they guys are interchangeable (except Lucas who suprise is on the bubble tonight).  Sadly since this is made for TV corporate rock it seems obvious that a guy is going to win.  The sponsors are not going to take a chance on a band that might be a little different, after all the feeble minded public that votes on this show has not been told what to think about an original sounding band.  Tonight they announced that Dave Navarro’s new crap fest The Panic Channel will be joining Supernova on the big tour. Yeah didn’t see that coming.  Which brings up the question, what the hell ever happened to Dave Navarro’s talent?  The stuff he did with Janes Addiction is undeniable genius.  Since then, not so much.  It could be argued that The Red Hot Chili Peppers were already headed down the luke warm, demigraphically correct “rock” road before Dave joined but man did they suck when he did.  The Panic Channel wow do they suck. Seriously Dave, go back on the smack, come out of the closet, or retire whatever you are doing now is not working. 

What a difference a day makes.  After yesterdays downer of a post I am in much better spirits today.  Yeah I am going through some shit, but nothing that I can’t handle.  When the shit hits the fan is when you really find out who your friends are.  I have always known who my real friends are and who the bad energy, life sucking vortex’s in my life are.  I don’t need to name names but you all know who you are I am fortunate that the good side is a lot larger than the bad side and really the bad side is of no concern to me. Everyone starts out on the good side with me.  I have been wrong about people on both sides before and will be wrong again.  Those on the good side I love you and would do anything for you, those on the bad the same but for now it just isn’t working for me and I need some distance.  I never write anyone off.  Maybe I am a fool but I want to believe that people are good. 

Did you know that Kawasaki is making a road bike now?  Check it out here.

Here are your .OEX pivots

PP           R1     R2      S1      S2
602.27 603.9 606.6 599.57 597.94

Rock On

I wish I could take a mulligan on today.  The bad news continues on the business.  Something has to give here.  I wish i ran a business where I made so much money that when someone comes along and shows how to save well over 50% on a major operation cost I could say “No I am already making enough profit.”  Maybe in another life.  I will keep fighting since going back to work for “The Man” full time is about as appealing to me as scrap booking.

Back east they were not able to harvesy my Mom’s stem cells today as her body is not making any.  All I know is that is not good. Fucking cancer.  I wish I were able to do someting, anything to help.  Probably the best thing I could do would be to be happy and succesful so she would not have to worry about me. 

All day I looking forward to $1 Fish Taco night at Rubio’s.  Until recently I really did not like the fish taco’s there but this summer they started serving a spicy fish taco.  Suprisingly they were good and i got hooked.  So I jump on The Hulking War Machine and pedal over for mt weekly fix.  Nope not gonna hapen.  Turns out the spicy fish taco is a promotional item that has ended. Perfect.  So I am walking back to my bike and this lady decides she needs to open her car door right into my shin, hard.  Within 10 seconds I have a golf ball size lump on my shin and I am hopping around like an angry pirate.  Where is my mulligan?

For you day traders here are the pivot points for the S&P 100:

PP           R1        R2     S1        S2
605.77 607.22 608.38 604.61 603.16

A little more about US Pro.  In addition to Burkes kick ass ride in the RR it was easy to notice how top heavy the results sheet was with Utah riders.  Levi used to dish out the beatings here as a member of Team Einsteins.  I remember when Zabriskie was skinnier than his frame and crushed the Cat 4 field at St. George only to win as a Cat 1 the following year.  Burke has been winning races around here since we was like 9 years old.  I remember when Louder announced he was dropping out of college and going to Europe so he could be “the man” and now he is.  The point is all of these guys have gone on to do great things on the bike and nothing was given to them. Watching them race they make it look easy but trust me when I say they have all paid their dues.  In a world of spoiled pampered athletes there are very few hero’s left but they are there. You can see them every day busting their guts up a canyon, at the weekly “World Cups”, and local races living their dreams.  Some of them make it to the big time.  Just ask the field at US Pro.

In the world of tennis Agassi did not get the story book ending that everyone was hoping for at the US Open.  He got beat yesterday in the 3rd round by Benjamin Becker.  Still he leaves the game as perhaps the best loved male player ever.  I like him because he tries to make a difference off the court.  Yeah he makes tons of cash and I am sure has a lifestyle that is hard to imagine, but with his Foundation he is trying to make the world a better place.  That is what will carry on long after he walks off the court.  I wonder if he gets a gold Seiko watch.