Art O’Connor

If you are not racing ‘cross tomorrow you should be at the Allan Butler Memorial ride. If you race a bike, Allan is the racer you want to be like. Miss you man….

Allan Butler Ride

Head on over to RideTrash and wish Swil a Happy Birthday.

I had a cool pic of Swil with Randy from Lamb of God but I am too brain dead right now to make any pics post right…..

Go to Ride Trash and wish Swil a Happy B-Day

We all have our own trials and tribulations to deal with, that is life I guess. I know for the most part mine are pretty trivial yet they still cause me a lot of negative energy and wasted time, yet to me they are a pain in the ass. It is a sliding scale though, my mountains are someone elses molehills.

Every time we throw a leg over a bike there is a chance we will finish that ride with less skin (or worse) than we started with. It is why we wear gloves and helmets. They give us a sense of security. The reality is they wont help much in a worst case scenario. Don’t take this as an endorsement to not wear a helmet, I would not be writing this if I had not been wearing a helmet one day in Sept ‘98. You should wear a helmet, but we live in America so it is really your choice. Anyway I am off subject here. Worst case scenario’s. They don’t come much worse than the stories of Tarra Llanes and Marty Kasteler. For those in the 801 you are probably familiar with the story of Marty getting run down on purpose by a deliver van (that is still at large). Somehow between all the doping stories online I missed the story of Tara Llanes crashing and ending up (for now) in a wheelchair. I read this story on CyclingNews.com today and it was pretty inspiring that someone in her position can have such an amazing attitude. Both of these riders are living walking examples of what HTFU (Harden The F*@K Up) means. The universe throws you shit, throw it back!

Starting today to the end of the year all profits from the sale of my HTFU shirts (the plain one or the ‘cross one) will be split evenly between the funds set up for Marty and Tara. If anyone who does any screen printing is reading this give me a shout as I only make like $1 per shirt on CafePress so if you can make me shirts cheaper I can donate more. I have never met either one, but I have been inspired by their determination and that is worth something. If you don’t want one of my dumb shirts click the links and donate directly. Seriously, just do it. Forward this to as many people and sites as you can. Lets make this thing viral and see how much $$ we can raise.

Donate directly:

http://www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com/

http://helpmarty.org/index.php

Buy a Shirt:

http://www.cafepress.com/artsshirts

This has been the year of no crits for me. I did one RMR back in March and not a single crit all year. Today the RMR paid me back for ignoring her all year.

It was raining when I rolled out of my driveway so that had me in a pretty good mood. It is always nice to be able to ride to a race as opposed to driving. The rain was short lived as the pavement was dry by the time I crossed Redwood. Oh well can’t have everything I suppose. I rolled up an hour before the start and chatted with Team Rico and Hardest of the Hard for a bit. The RMR course is one of the harder course we do all year, it has a sketchy off camber dirt section (more on that later), and a weird off camber/run in the grass. This year they also added 2 trips up the banking in the oval. I know it is not everones favorite course but I think the do an amazing job of utilizing the terrain and making it a real challenge. Besides if it was easy it would be called golf.

My start again was pretty bad. By the end of the first lap I was in 7th or so. Even with the hour ride out to the race my legs felt flat. Gotta get that figured out. Ali went out faster than Lindsey Lohan snorts a line of free coke from a toilet seat. Sometime on the 2nd or 3rd lap Mitchell blew by me and took Gallagher with him. I could only watch and make false promises to stop drinking beer until after Nationals. By about the 20 minute mark my legs had finally opened up and I started to claw my way back to Reed Wycoff. I caught him and seemed to be chipping away at Gallagher when I blew it worse than the Nobel Peace Prize committee. On the off camber dirt section I caught a pedal and went down like G Dub’s approval rating, nearly taking Reed down with me (sorry man). I jumped up pretty quick but when I grabbed my bike my left wrist (the one I broke this summer) was not having it. Thankfully it is nothing a lot of ice and Vitamin I wont fix. Kind of scared me though. Oh well that is racing. Mitchell (must be drinking his MonaVie) proved that he does not need a climb to dish out the beatings and passed Ali with 2 to go for the win. 3 races down three MonaVie W’s. I hope I can add to the tally soon.

After the race DrX hooked me up with some kick ass Washington tuna and a HTFU bracelet! Pretty ironic since I had just dropped out of a 1 hour race. Much appreciated though coming from a guy who knows a thing or two about HTFU.

Down in Moab after years of telling us he is coming back Indohran finally has made a confirmed appearance. According to the web site,5 head owner and ‘cross promoter Matt Ohran has the fastest lap for Vet men in the entire freaking race! The only thing more amazing than that is the endless smack he must be running at this point. He will get years out of this one. Bart Mang has the fastest lap in the Pro’s and both MonaVie teams look like the have it wrapped up, nice work. Ohran told me Sly went out for a lap with him and was blasting the techo, but Ohran dropped him and rode alone. No wonder. If T-Wells was riding behind me playing that shit I could probably drop him just to get away from that noise. Yaaa!

Buy my shirts!

Lots of bike racing in the 801 this weekend. Down at the 24 Hours of Moab (technically the 435) there will be enough battery power to light up Lichtenstein for a week, and Sly burning outlaw hot laps at night. If you see a really cute girl in Mona Vie gear talking and smiling the entire time that would be Rachel, say hi. For those with shorter attention spans round 3 of The Utah Cyclocross Series at the RMR. Bart is away who will play?

Another killer week of training in the bank. Tuesday was the weekly flog session with DW and the unofficial Indohran. Good hard ride the left me pretty flogged. Tuesday was nothing compared to the beating I got on Wed. Good gravy, it is not fair that guys can ride that fast. WTF?

Get over to my CafePress shop and buy some shirts. I have sold a bunch of HTFU shirts in the Bay Area and Seattle from ads on Craigslist. You wanna be cool right? You can also see the Church Of The Big Ring shirts there as well. Look for the web site soon.

Buy One Here

‘Cross race today was retarded amounts of fun. We had something we rarely see here in the 801, mud and weather! It rained/snowed on and off for the entire race, so sweet. I got a terrible start but by the end of the 1st la p I had worked my way up to 6th or 7th place. Going over the first set of barriers was the first time I have run with my bike since Nationals last December. Just like riding a bike right? Anyway the course was pancake flat and had a big mud bog on the back side. I had that pretty dialed. The turn right before the finish, I worked that corner like a 300lb hooker with a wooden leg, just sad. I found myself locked in a battle with Bryson Perry for most of the race and he passed me almost every time in that damn corner. With 2 laps to go Bryson got tied up with some lapped riders in the bog and I found myself with a pretty good gap. It was short lived though as I got held up in the hairpins by some lappers. Easy come easy go. Bryson made a sweet move on the pavement and help me off in the sprint for 5th. Not bad I guess considering how lax my training has been, maybe I have already peaked? Hopefully I will get faster from here.

Big props to Turbo for not punching me in the nose and for turning in a good performance on a damn hard course. With AJ, Harward, Team Rico and Turbo all maning up hopefully some more of the road elite will come for a turn in the dirt. Actually I think there are more roadies than Mt. Bikers racing cross. WTF? The road guys/gals really do have a long season and even though I give them endless amounts of grief there is a decent argument to be made for being tired this time of year. Where are all the Mt. Bikers? The last ICUP race was almost 2 months ago now. Come on now!

10. No dumb ass roadie teams using “tactics” as a excuse to sit on.
9. Gives you a good excuse to buy another bike.
8. No capri wearing fixie dorks (unless you are in Portland).
7. Any weather this side of Katrina is not grounds for cancellation.
6. More Cowbell!
5. Unless you are Rosie O’Donnells back waxer, your job will seem easier on Monday.
4. Bunny Hop does not mean this
3. Dick Cheney does not race ‘cross, Mistress Julie does.
2. No one has ever died racing ‘cross. You could be the first!
1. If the religious nuts that run this fine state ever find out how much fun it is, it will be banned or at least have the holy living shit taxed out of it.

Cyclocross cyclocross cyclocross!!!! I am salivating like Johan Bruyneel looking at the new Amgen catalog. The weather is supposed to perfect, rain/snow and a high in the low 40’s. Heaven on earth! I better calm down or the course won,t be the only thing that is muddy…

Looks like my big mouth has gotten me in trouble again. Turbo says he may not even take the road pedals off his cross bike. That must mean he will be hopping all the barriers while sporting the latest Black Ops stuff from Reynolds. No worries I have a whole list of mechanicals and injuries I can fake. Picked up the Mona Vie gear the other day. Damn! Talk about bringing sexy back, I might not go fast yet but I will look good posing at the coffee shop. Yaa!