Art O’Connor

Gallagher made me watch the big base the ball match this weekend. Congrats to Whoopi Goldberg and the Massachusetts Red Stockings for winning the Champions of America Base The Ball title match.

That pretty much describes my season so far. I have now crashed in 4 out of the last 4 races. I fell like someone who is pretending to race ‘cross not someone who used to be pretty good at it. Not only do I keep falling, my form is for shit. Last year at the USGP races I lined up in the back and was able to finish in the Top 10. This year I line up in the front and am quickly in the back, then I crash. Yeah, you could say I am a bit frustrated. The Michael Jackson/Lisa Marie Pressley “marriage” was more believable than my season so far. Am I pulling the plug on my season? No, anyone can quit. I probably wont line up in Heber this weekend though. I need to give my wrist a rest or it will never heal. Anyway, I know what I need to do about my form now I need to go do it. 6 weeks to Nationals, 6 weeks to work my ass off and salvage something this season.

Rachel kicked major ass over in Hawaii. She finished 5th at Xterra Worlds which is impressive on its own and down right amazing considering the amount of training she has NOT been able to do. Next year those girls are not going to know what hit them.

I crashed hard both days and generally stunk up the joint. Broke my helmet and lost a lot of skin. I am sitting the fence right now, pull the plug on the entire season or HTFU and get to work. I would also like to point out that another of my ‘cross predictions came true with Jeremy Powers taking the Pro Mens win.

Over in Hawaii Rachel kicked major ass yesterday in the Xterra Trail Run. She finished 2nd less than 30 seconds behind the current world Duathlon Champion. She has not ben able to train the way she wants and this really is an amazing result, I am super proud of her. I am following XTerra live online right now, man that looks like damn hard race.

I am in a little better mood than I was last night. Don’t get me wrong, The Depot still is a pile of crap and no one should ever go there. I am over it though. Next week I move to a swing shift so no week night shows anyway.

All kinds of geeked up to race in Kentucky this weekend. I got a kick ass massage yesterday so hopefully the legs will be good. While I am runnin’ from the revenuers in the holler, Rachel will be flying the Mona Vie colors in Hawaii at the XTerra World Championships. Post race Mai Thai’s on the beach or moonshine at a juke joint. Hmm, maybe I need to do Xterra’s? Hawaii ‘cross? I don’t know…

This should surprise no one. It will be intersting to see who the next investors voters will put in office in 08.

Don’t ever go to The Depot. Every since the Zephyr closed there has been a huge hole in the Salt Lake music scene. It is amazing to me that no club has been able to get the quality and quantity of acts to come to Salt Lake since. I had high hopes for The Depot when they opened, then I heard who owned it. The same douche bags from United Concerts, Smith Tix, and Usana Amphitheater own The Depot. That means grab your ankles folks. The same ass hats who charge you a $12 “convenience” fee to buy a ticket online are now gonna try and ruin the club music scene as well. Shit.

I have been to a couple of shows at The Depot before and with the exception of Hank III they have all sucked. $7 fucking Bud Light in a plastic cup, no parking, slow motion bar tenders… I thought Usana Amphitheater with the mile walk between the wristband assignment and the beer stand and the 2 hour traffic jams to leave was the Citizen Cane of a bad customer experience, well The Depot makes Usana look like Gigli.

I was pretty excited to see the Henry Rollins spoken word show tonight. Doors opened at 7 I arrived at 7:15. The main level was pretty much packed. There was a 15 minute line for the bar. No problem I can go to the upper level. I go up and I am greeted by a surly wench who tells me the top is “VIP” seating and I must pay an additional $38 US American dollars to sit there. Yeah right. Eat shit you fucking money grubbing fuctards. I don’t care if Jimi Hendrix rises from the grave and does a one time show at your crappy club. I will never go to another show at the fucking Depot again. I wish a thousand lifetimes of famine and locusts on the owners of that entire greedy organization. Thanks to the dude at the ticket office for giving me a refund, after explaining my experience I could see that he knew I was right and the he knew he worked for the worst type of assholes imaginable. I could see the shame in his eyes.

Rock On

While I was at work not racing yesterday I heard some very disturbing reports from Wheeler Farm. The story is that some of the front runners decided they could cheat and not run the barrier section. WTF? I really hope it is not rrue. It is one thing to ride around barriers if you are last and not taking points from another racer, but to be riding for a placing? Plain and simple you are a cheater. You are no better than all those dopers who steal contracts and prize money from the clean riders. Please do everyone a favor and quit racing ‘cross. In fact just quit racing. Go into politics, your lying and cheating ways will be rewarded handsomely.

He also wonders why I run 180’s

Forrest Gladding Photo

More weather in the 801. Yesterday was pretty much perfect for the ‘cross race at Ft. Jesse Ventura. Mud, lots of mud. I did a few hot laps as a warmup with low pressure, I was hooking up pretty well in the slime but on the rocky dirt road I tapped my rims a few times, not good since I was not even at race pace. So I pumped them up to my normal 50psi. No pinches but not as much hookup either.

I got a good start for a change and was soon locked in a battle for 3rd with John Gallagher. We spent the next 25-30 minutes testing and looking for any weakness. He was riding the chicanes in the trees well and I seemed to have a good line on the big sweeper before the road. Other than that it seemed we were pretty evenly matched.

Somewhere around the 40 minute mark I went down in the tree section, again landing hard on my bad wrist. At this point I am ashamed to say I checked out mentally. I hate that. I need to get over it. My wrist hurts when I race, deal with it. It hurts a lot more when I fall on it, don’t fall on it. Congrats to Ali G for the W yesterday. Dude goes for it everytime I wish I could be there today to race and see if Bart Mang can bounce back. Gallagher rode really smart yesterday. In conditions like that it comes down to who makes the least amount of mistakes, he rode very well. I cant wait to race in Kentucky next weekend. I always like going to new places and seeing what the ‘cross scene is like. Also I am hoping to meet someone named Cletus.