Are you guys having a killer time?

8/16/07 - i know, i know...i haven’t updated my site in a long time. i’ve been keeping busy...

7/10/06 - elite nationals were this past weekend.  great weather, great course, GREAT team effort, not so great result. but there’s a race every weekend so we’ll give it another go in a few days.  in the meantime, here are some of the race reports i wrote for the past month of racing:

Beauce (Fitchburg below):
this is a hard race. hard because it is uci with over 10 countries represented, including 4 current national champions (and another handful of former national and world champs). hard because it is 6 days of ~100 miles of rugged tarmac often strung out in single file for hours on end, before ending with 18% climbs. and hard because quebecois haven't the slightest clue how to make a good chocolate milkshake. damn. because the race is so hard, we wouldn't have lasted 2 days without the incredible support we had (thank you nordblom and mrs. timmerman).
day 0: arrivee at chateau roz in montreal. this was our first introduction to tough riding conditions, as i managed to flat on the bike path. full fiordifrutta team, all kitted up, standing on the bike path watching their teammate change a flat is not that cool. sorry team.
day 1: the so called "flat" stage was anything but flat. and for the few miles it was flat, i was flat out trying to hold the wheel in front of me that was incredibly perched on the very last inch of pavement on the left hand side of the road. our beauce tour guide, bucker, showed up to ride and finished in one of the first couple groups. gewirtz and i finished together and i think i was 80 something place, 1 spot behind canadian phenom phil cortes. dan and roz were taken down by a crash so timmerman had to ride in on a beach cruiser and roz left half of his shoulder on the road. the next morning quite a few riders woke up with a case of 'caravan arm' due to the crash.
day 2: "medium" hills stage. again bucker showed up to ride and made the move of the day (probably had good legs because of his laced topped stockings he insisted on wearing around the dorms, no joke. he said they are for stage racing but my guess is you don't see lance parading around france in those things). it wasn't until the kom's towards the end of the stage where it started to go hard. i started going better by these and made it over the summit's ~top 20 with t-bone. at this time i will note that whitey was tackling these same climbs and single file gutter riding with two bottles in his bike, two bottles in his pockets, and two bottles in his jersey. damn.
day 3: "hilly" stage. i guess it finally counts as "hilly" when the stage finishes on quebec's version of mt. washington. not to mention the 10 mile run into the final climb was flat out in the gutter with riders popping off every minute. after being at threshold for 30 minutes i didn't quite have the pop to stay with danny pate up megantic and finished in the top 25. this was the day that our team leader came down with a nice case of strept throat. lovely. (more on canadian bourne sicknesses to follow).
day 4: off day, no wait a tt. another day of going as hard as you can. this time it kind of paid off with a ride that tied for 9th place, except the two other guys with the same time were canadian so i got 11th...not sure how that works, but 11th ain't bad either.
day 4.5: but then we had the afternoon off, no wait a 60 km criterium. so we rode around in circles for a couple hours just making sure to keep the bikes upright as some of the riders' countries don't EVER have criteriums and their bike handling reflects that. otherwise fairly uneventful.
day 5: quebec city circuit race. kind of like univest circuit except the hill is steeper and longer, and the riders are faster...and it is after 4 days of racing. oh yeah, and they didn't close the streets either. after the second time up the wall, i broke a spoke and was pretty concerned that my week had ended. after a very slow wheel change i looked up to start riding and saw roz waiting to pull me on. we seriously hammered and made it back on, but unfortunately at the cost of roz's finish. it did move us up into the top 20, but we could have done without the broken spoke. also, this stage was stopped halfway through because a car came onto the course and hit mark walters. we then restarted with the course left relatively unchanged and the legs fully loaded with lactic acid.
day 6: st georges circuit race. kind of like univest circuit except the hill is 3x as long, and the riders are faster...and it is after 5 days of racing. finally a relatively calm day of racing, other than it was nearly 100 degrees so we went through a bottle about every 20-30 minutes. it is a good thing todd and laura were able to pick up all those extra bottles in the feed zone the day before otherwise we would have been hurting (more hurting than normal). after the race may have been the highlight of the week for me, as i was selected for drug testing. even though it was random testing, i still think it is cool because somewhere someone i don't know cares whether or not i'm racing clean. so that means i must be sort of good, right? probably not, but we did have one more buffet dinner at the hotel and then hit the road, with $43 canadian (to be split 8 ways) in our pockets for our efforts. jackpot.


Fitchburg (Cox below):
so we had to start this race a man down due to residual beauce trauma. gewirtz nearly had his liver removed in hungary because of the stomach infection he got in quebec and the language barrier with the hungarian doctors. josh did make it to fitchburg (with his liver) and man'ed the feed zone in the road race for fiordifrutta. i must say, that was hands down the most dependable feed i have had in a race, but mostly just glad he was there and relatively healthy. on the topic of health, timmerman had just finished up his antibiotics from beauce strept and had to pull out of fitchburg circuit race. hopefully this means we will all be healthy for elite nationals this upcoming weekend, so we can storm that race like we did at shenandoah when we were all healthy. so fithcburg went ok, with cody taking the green jersey (again) for a day and we placed one rider in the top 20 overall. not a dream come true for us, but the field was a lot deeper this year with ~70 pro's and ~50 cat 1's. (we were third placed for amateur teams)


Cox Charities:
this was pretty sweet. before driving down to providence i checked out the national weather service report to see how wet it would be. it was then i learned that they actually have "tsunami warnings" and providence was, in fact, under tsunami warning. needless to say, there weren't any tsunami's in providence that day but we did get wet from heavy rain (i think they are a little loose with the "t" word since the tragedy in southeast asia). but heavy rain is fine by me (it's not like i'm a baseball player and don't play if my tobacco gets all soaked) so we lined up for the $15,000 purse as scheduled. choosing to not take part in the "race to the start of the race" i lined up at the back. probably not the best idea as the field was fairly large and went very slowly through the corners and i was racing as hard as i could for the first 10 minutes trying to move through the field. fortunately, about 2/3 of the way i ran into perera and he towed me the rest of the way. once i got there it was going really easy so i rolled through and took a flyer lap. frank pipp (targetraining) and mark mccormack (colavita) bridged up, towing a couple others with them. frank and mark made for some serious horsepower so once they started pulling through the break was established. great only 50 more laps to go. ugh. by the time i saw 23 laps to go (1 mile laps) i was pretty bored of riding paceline was wondering if i could solo from there. after another eternity i saw 11 to go and thought i could go from there, so i attacked. after a lap, mark pulled me back and a lap later i attacked again. this time frank pulled me back, leaving us both out to dry as mccormack jumps. "damnit" i said, and started pulling hard thinking frank would help pull too. after a long pull that got mark to within 20 meters frank jumped off and left me sitting there gas'ed and with no friends. "damnit" i said again. so it turns out i did get to ride the last 5 miles solo, just on the wrong side of frank and mark.

6/30/06 - fitchburg stage 1 individual time trial.  not a dream come true, but not terrible either.

6/28/06 - fitchburg classic starts tomorrow with a 6.2 mile time trial.

6/27/06 - in addition to being a great weekend of traveling in new england with ilke, and a nice visit with my parents, and a nice visit with my grandparents, and a nice visit with kurt jenna and caden, and meeting up with mr. and mrs. S in providence, and catching up with greenfield at the back of the start line...sunday’s race was a pretty sweet payout at $1330 for 3rd place.

6/23/06 - good news for erik...they removed the catheter.  some of the best news he’s had all week.  they’ll probably move him out of i.c.u. today too. slow steady progress.

6/19/06 - beauce was hard. but had a decent tt and was even drug tested (i interpret this to mean that i’m riding well enough for it to matter).

6/6/06 - tour de beauce starts in one week.  pretty psyched for it because the parcours is difficult (830km in 6 days), and it is a uci stage race (beauce team list), and the fitness is coming around nicely in the past week (me1, me2, catmnt, gmbctt)....but mostly i’m looking forward to the poutine.

5/30/06 - with the passing of memorial day, the unofficial start of summer, brings the unofficial world championships held at none other than catamount outdoor center on wednesday nights.  riders from all over (northern vt) dust off their trusty steeds and fill up last years moldy water bottles for the chance at a week of glory. this year’s racing promises to be as fierce as ever; several past wednesday night worlds champions tested out this years course a little over a week ago at the flower power opener, including jamie “what training” driscoll who took the pre-season competition. although brett “yes, that is a cat 4 on my pro mtb license” racine was a little off the pace laid down by driscoll, racine can never be counted out for a wednesday night crown. absent from the flower power but on every riders’ mind was andy “i only race the tour de france and catamount” bishop, as he is a likely winner any time he dons lycra.  and adding to the excitement will be the return of christian “i fixed that creaky seat” parke to the comptetive arena after knee reconstruction last fall, i know everyone is pleased about that. but still, there looms many questions...will scott “i sold my bike” fleck come out of retirement to contest the crown on his cross bike? will mat “i listen to stevie wonder” katz take home his first wednesday night title as his cycling career experiences a rebirth this year?  OR.....will jay “i’m going to whip your young ass” provencher actually whip my young ass??????

5/25/06 - getting psyched for bill’s marathon on sunday. hope to see him smash his time from last year (2:49) since it was only his first one and he has been training at altitude.  stay tuned for first hand account of the action.

5/24/06 - sox v yankees at fenway

5/24/06 - ilke took a bunch of nice pictures sunday at catamount: the view from the hillside, the start, mike on the attack, driscoll biding his time, now i’m dropped, mike finishing strong, and one for the ladies.

5/22/06 - got to race at catamount yesterday, which was wicked fun like always.  although i’m still trying to figure out how i was beat by someone who took the entire winter off to ski 200 something days and only started training a few weeks ago.  anyway, here is your flower power podium.

5/19/06 - this is my teammate, larry.  he is pretty excited for all of the upcoming races and wrote the following hypothetical race report to fire up the team:

Dillion Outsmarts the pack at the Montpelier Grand Prix

Josh Dillion of the Fiordifrutta Cycling Team wound up a sprint so fierce that long time race announcer Dick Ring decided to come out of retirement! With a field that was stacked to the brim with the nations top profesisonals, 2 Canadian Provincial Champions, and Former Collegiate National Cyclocross Champion Adam Hodges Myerson, Dillon out foxed the 110 plus rider field as they were coming into the last 600 meters of the fast and furious wide opened full-throttle sprint that has made the Montpelier Grand Prix a favorite stop for North America's fastest men on two wheeled ten speeds. Dick Ring commented from his front row-just behind the officials seat "That was the barn burner to end all barn burners...this young man josh dillion is one to watch....he's quite a talented young man who has spent his younger years training as an olympic curler on the US National Team....obviously all that hard work and heavy sweeping has paid huge dividends...his display of talent tonight has made me decide to come out of retirement. Ill be at Sunnapee this weekend calling the shots.....dont worry though Allan Greenwood will be spinning for me some of his favorite beats....i just couldnt put him out of a job like that." Josh took the inside line and jumped around the Loius Garneau team's train. With the finishing line in his sights, he grit his teeth and dropped his chain into the eleven and stormed away from the field for his first new england win of the season. After the race Dillom exclaimed "Victory is always sweet...but that taste i get in my mouth when i win a New England Race, especially when my former team is here and they cant put it all together...it gives me this warm fuzzy feeling....likewhen i take a sip ot of that cliff drink mixbottle thats been hidden under the seat in our team car festering for the past 5 weeks..." Dillion will be defending all bragging rights next weekend at the tour of sommerville. Dillion wrapped things up by saying "Yeah now that i got a new england win, im think about racing next week in new jersey and then retiring...i mean once you win in new england what more is there to do?!!!!!!"

5/17/06 - joe martin recap: weather in arkansas was way nicer than new england, timmerman crashed out in stage 1 which sucked because he would have been inside the top ten for sure, i crashed at the same time but cody pulled me back on just in time before the one climb of the whole race...but then the scorer neglected to include me in the results, tt went ok, crit was pretty cool, and visiting with gram and forrest was really nice because i haven’t seen them in 3 years and they brought chocolate chip cookies.  yum.

5/9/06 - joe martin stage race should be a good race.  first, i’ve never been to arkansas. second, i’ll get to visit with my grandmother who i haven’t seen since 2003.  and third, field is full at 200 riders w/ healthnet, toyota, jelly belly, target, and AEG all sending full squads.  i just hope i make it to the start on time.

5/8/06 - jiminy was such a great race. blah.

5/5/06 - so i think i figured out what happened at redlands...actually, ilke told me flat out what happened and bill verified it for me as well.  the 3 week training block at altitude leading up to the race had me overtrained. i was in a hole, and the couple of days off in between colorado and redlands didn’t cut it.  once recovered i felt fine at marblehead, battenkill, turtle pond, and then at shenandoah last week.  moral of the story is recovery, recovery, recovery. we’ll see at joe martin next weekend in arkansas how the recovery theory stacks up against the big guns. tomorrow is jiminy peak road race, which should be a good ride of 150km. euro-pro dom rollin is pre-reg’d so clearly he’ll be the guy to watch.

5/3/06 - some favorable local news coverage (News Virginian) down at shenandoah: stage 2, stage 4

5/2/06 - back in vt.  so nice to be home.

5/2/06 - what makes dan timmerman so fast? i was able to catch some rare footage of his pre-race warmup routine: dt thrusts

5/2/06 - shenandoah recap: new team car

stage 2 - the FdF show: we took this race over.  it was pretty sweet.  we took out the intermediate points sprint, and then 1st and 3rd on the stage. most impressive being that we put our top g.c. guy on the finish line first for some valuable time bonus seconds.  also notable at the finish was buck in 3rd, yet careful not to push too hard to the line and bring back dan...that’s pro.  some great execution, which set the tone for the week for us. personally, i had the satisfaction of giving a good leadout...which feels every bit as good as a win.  it was great to be a part of it.  results and photos

stage 3 - so close: with dan as our team leader, we need to put guys up the road so dan could sit in and let the other teams work to bring back the dangerous moves. cody made the first break, and i followed the second break which sat at 1:30 behind the lead group for what felt like 10 years. finally, on the first KOM of the day i jumped from my chase group and caught onto the lead group with cody (this took 10 km and was not easy).  once in the lead group i was able to sit on while cody took pulls with some of the other guys working.  on the 2nd kom of the day, one of the priority health riders set tempo while the other priority health guy and two aerospace riders and myself sat on shedding the remenants of the two groups of the day.  so then it was 5 riders, and the attacks flew like mad in the last 20 miles. basically i waited for either a priority health to attack and then a rider from the other team to chase.  by the final 5k this lead group was down to only 3 riders left (one of each team) and in the last kilometer i hesitated on one attack that cost us the race. dang.  results and photos

stage 4 - finally, a win:  again we successfully made it into the break of the day, rozdilsky this time, which took the pressure off the rest of the team which then focused on keeping dan and i hydrated and at the front of the peloton.  the guys were dedicated to the cause. in the middle of this 108 mile day (oh yeah, we almost missed the start of the race) there was a pretty badass climb (bigger than bolton) to shake things up.  on the descent of this climb i had a rear puncture (to really shake things up) that i needed to change....only to be followed by a front puncture 10 miles later that required another change and chase back onto the new lead group. the finish of the race had two climbs followed by a descent into town. going into this sequence i made a serious blunder...as some riders were looking for advantages heading into the climbs they were jumping out of the trimmed peloton to form a small lead group and one of these was the overall leader...yes, the one guy i was supposed to chase wherever he went.  so on the penultimate climb i jumped out of the bunch and bridged up to the small lead group just before the summit.  descended to the base of hte final climb and started climbing with the 4 or 5 other riders...waiting to attack.  and with 1 kilometer to the summit i jumped, but the race leader was too strong and clawed me back in just before we started the descent into town. as he was scared of my jump he had some choice words for me (“i’m the G.C. bro”) and made me lead it out all the way to the finish...but i still took the sprint for the win. ya bro.  results and photos

stage 5 - strategy: the g.c. was coming down to two teams, Fiordifrutta vs Priority Health.  in the red corner we had myself and timmerman, while in the green corner they had hilger and bookwalter.  timmerman marked bookwalter and i marked hilger, it made the most sense given the time splits on the general classification. again the team was kick ass, with whitey making the breakaway move and perara showing me what pro is all about as he gave me his front wheel when i flatted while he waited for the support vehicles (which were way the heck back because at least 10 riders flatted on this dirt road) and then he caught back on and brought fresh bottles while he was at it.  dang. back to strategy, when bookwalter attacked timmerman was all over it. a couple other riders benefited by hopping onto the attack which gained quite a bit of time by the finish.  results and photos

stage 6 - payback: this was the individual time trial and the chance to show my teammates what all their hardwork during the week was for. since it followed 4 days of racing, the first day was 2 stages and the latter 3 being about 100 miles each, dan and i needed to dig pretty deep.  results

stage 7 - another FdF show, almost: top priority of the day was to move dan from 3rd overall to 2nd overall.  there were two opportunities for time bonus, an intermediate sprint and then time bonus at the finish.  a break got up the road so the team assembled a chased and pulled it back and led out timmerman just in time for the time bonus.  goal accomplished.  for the finish we ran out of steam from pulling back the break, but like i said the top priority was the time bonus and moving dan up in the overall so we were pretty satified with that. results and photos

stage race summary: shenandoah valley is a beautiful place to be in late april, and there are some great roads to ride bikes on there. the team was psyched about being there and making the races happen, as opposed to the really big pro races where we just follow the tactics of the big teams. i look forward to heading back there again sometime. and one last point, i need to eat my words from 4/23/06...turns out the p.r. guy is a really nice guy and took really good care of us once we made ourselves known on the first day.  my apologies.

4/25/06 - stage 1 TT results.  timmerman had a good ride, as expected. i’m feeling pretty good about the ride...wasn’t flat out, yet still finished not so bad. more to come.

4/23/06 - we got no love in cyclingnews (8th article down) about the upcoming shenandoah race.  therefore i will pick apart some of the blatent inaccuracies (or b.s.) in the article. 1) AEG-Toshiba is NOT “consistently ranked alongside the likes of HealthNet and Discovery”: this would require at least one race where a top AEG rider beat a top HealthNet or Discovery rider.  AEG is good, but not nearly that good. 2) the Trek mtb pros will not “dominate” this race: they had one rider barely in the top 5 last year so i don’t know where they drew that conclusion. 3) and lastly i’ll be suprised to see where LSV/Kelly or Rite-Aid riders end up, i don’t even know who those guys they mentioned are.  but i’m just going there for fun.

4/21/06 - keep up the good work at georgia, greenfield.  for all the non-georgia riders, the tour of shenandoah kicks off on tuesday. should be a good time.

4/20/06 - so dank

4/17/06 - weekend racing recap: highlight of the weekend was ilke doing her first road race. in typical fashion, she picked one of the hardest races around as far as terrrain goes, and the pro’s and first timers were combined into one group for the women. she did great though and hung on with the lead group over quite a few steep climbs through 30 miles of hte race. pretty awesome, but i suppose she was the only olympian in the race. some people have just got it.  earlier in the day i was edged out by the wily mike jones. dang it. also, rounded out the weekend with some spring skiing at stowe mtn resort with bob dillon.  all and all pretty good.

4/11/06 - weekend racing recap: went to a mtb race with katz in ct on saturday that was a slop fest, 37 degrees with snow, sleet, and rain. and then there was mark mccormack, that guy never ceases to amaze. i stayed with him on the first lap but was redlined and decided to back it down since i wanted to finish the race. also had a sweet ride on sunday with the green goblins, they were kind enough to let me tag along. it was an amazing day, a little cold but the sunshine more than made up for it after the day before.

4/10/06 - the only thing still for sale is the carbon easton wheels, and soon to be posted mtb bike. can’t believe they haven’t sold.

4/5/06 - this may be the lowest of shameless self-plugs yet...BIKE FOR SALE.  also, i have some sweet carbon wheels and a carbon frameset on the market, as well as a mtb bike that will be posted soon.  if you or anyone you know is interested, send them my way: joshuafdillon@hotmail.com  ...thank you.

4/4/06 - a quick word about mahhblehead. i had lovely company for the trip. also, it was an amazing day, weather-wise, so to make up for the race only being 37 miles i rode to the race from bobby and karen’s house then whitey and i rode for another 2 hrs after the race. that was sweet.  race went ok, although mccormack stilled pulled off the win despite being marked by the entire 100 rider field.  i tried to lead out my teammate but dropped him, so i need to work on smoothing that out.  still finished in the top 10 despite leading it out, so that is a plus.

3/28/06 - there was some incredible weather in redlands, and that coupled with the overwhelming hospitality of lori and carl sandstedt, is the draw to the redlands classic. i caught some sweet pics on our morning training rides: sunset dr, palm trees, and more palm trees, new team car, need to find a motor for this ride, carl’s workshop, team dinner on patio (can’t do that at the bethel spring series), whitey shedding layers despite it being march on a 50 watt ride, and one more palm tree.

3/28/06 - i’ve had a few “objections” to the rant from 3/25, but i read it again and still think it is right on the money.

3/25/06 - well, it happened again. i really got my ass kicked. i friggin sucked, and am pretty disgusted. so pissed. the deal is, i'm not good. not at all. there are some really talented people out there, and i'm not one of them. i have about as much talent as they do in their fingernail. the only way i will beat those people is working harder than them. harder than they would ever want to work, and then go harder than that. and it starts now.

3/22/06 - a few things, first is dan greenfield (you may recognize him from this photo) and his targetraining team have been invited to the tour of georgia.  that is a big time race, so congrats to him. secondly, i am back in vt which is nice. i definitely love living here...colorado springs was great to see bill and to get some quality miles in, but this is home.  lastly, the redlands classic is this weekend so it is off to california tomorrow. it will be a pretty tough first race of the year, but timmerman is flying right now so hopefully i will be able to help him out.

3/16/06 - mike at breckenridge: video1, video2.  this is a picture of the cornice from the video. it was a sweet day at breck.

3/12/06 - this is south park, colorado elementary school (it really is). unfortunately, it wasn’t recess time so kyle, stan, cartman, and kenny were at class...probably mr. garrisons.

3/12/06 - bill at abasin. sandy at abasin.

3/12/06 - caught the sunrise at garden of the gods park in colorado springs. but it was different weather over hoosier pass, bill can attest to it.

3/9/06 - if you are into babies, this one is pretty amazing. i give you caden, kurt and jenna’s boy: pic1 and pic2.

3/9/06 - today i rode up to woodland park with gewirtz.  the elevation of woodland is 8,400 ft above sea level...or just about exactly 2x the elevation of the summit of mt mansfield.

3/8/06 - ok, so it turns out the weather report could have simply been put: “Wednesday: Overcast in the morning with snow showers in the afternoon” or “Dear Josh, Tomorrow it would be best to get your ride done in the morning and then enjoy an afternoon off. You sure have earned it”, instead of the hour by hour fallacy that they did publish. lesson learned.

3/7/06 - today while riding i saw hundreds of prairie dogs, a donkey, an emu, and some mule deer.  sweet. for tomorrow there is arguably the most retarded weather forecast i’ve ever seen, quoted directly from the national weather service website: “Wednesday: A chance of snow showers before 8am, then a chance of rain showers between 8am and 11am, then a chance of snow showers between 11am and noon, then rain showers likely between noon and 1pm, then snow showers likely after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 42. East wind 10 to 15 mph becoming north. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.” My take is it will be kind of shitty for riding bikes.

3/5/06 - bill and i checked out red rocks ampitheatre yesterday. that place is wicked cool: pic1, pic2, pic3 (note grubby hippies and their grubby dogs), pic4 (denver in background). gotta see a show there sometime as it would beat the heck out of the racetrack at riverside, for any of you western mass folks.  also, here are some other pictures from the past month that i finally downloaded today: bigtime indoor training session in stowe, farnand and crew from the canadian invasion part trois, and the vt winter sky.

3/5/06 - this is the view outside bill’s front door: pikes peak.

3/3/06 - this is a link for the weather in colorado springs.  today, for example, it will be clear skies topping out in the mid 50’s w/ some wind.

3/2/06 - the base of pikes peak auto highway is about 20 miles from bill’s house, so i think for training i will just ride up it everyday for the next 3 weeks.

2/28/06 - this is bullshit.  this guy only received a 15 month ban for testing positive for EPO and now he is racing again.  it makes for one less contract or spot on a start line for a clean and honest athlete.

2/28/06 - the fiordifrutta 06 press release made cyclingnews.  i’m heading to colorado springs tomorrow to stay with bill and train for 3 weeks.  should be good.

2/24/06 - its been a little while since i’ve received a solid ass kicking at an athletic endeavor, especially one that was unexpected and a win was actually thought to be attainable through some incredibly grand ignorance.  as dan greenfield once said, the kind of beating where you get your dick shoved right in the dirt.  well, that’s what happened at bolton beer league ski racing last night. brandon dyskterhouse kindly reminded me of our years racing against each other in college...correction, he was “racing” in comparison to whatever you want to call what i was doing. but it was good to see the guy, and when i first ran into him before the race i, incredibly, had the audacity to ponder dethroning the champ. when all was said and done, i nearly fell on my face out of the start planting my pole between my legs while he put over a second into me on a 17 second course.  like i said, a serious ass kicking. so in the bar, i assumed the same congratulatory position of old times. being the gracious winner he told me he had been riding his bike a lot last summer and we should hit the trails so i can kick his butt.  i will certainly take him up on it. never in my life will i so enjoy beating up on an under-prepared opponent.

2/20/06 - we had the not-so-secret fiordifrutta team training camp this weekend in sunny newtown, ct.  for anyone who thinks that ct is for flatlanders please reference chris peck, who will show you no less than 50 climbs within 100 miles of his house. also, i had the pleasure of experiencing the ct sunday morning world campionships out of new haven.  pretty amazing turnout for a 20 degree morning in the middle of feb.  i’m going to chalk the ride up to a success personally, while i spent the majority of the time at the back with the guy wearing a tt helmet i did do the entire ride in the 39 chainring...that’s some good foot speed. i’m tired now and am going to take tomorrow off.

2/17/06 - big win at bolton valley for erik eliason last night.  while mike and brett were preoccupied giving each other handjobs in the back of the “i guarantee a victory” bus, erik steamrolled to his 3rd win of the season. it is going to be tough for either mike or brett to find the 4 tenths of a second that was the margin of victory erik enjoyed.

2/15/06 - fiordifrutta press release.  yes, they called me a “strongman”.

2/14/06 - wk 5 results at bolton valley have been posted: team, individual.  as predicted brett racine catapulted himself to the top of the heap, but only by a narrow margin over erik and michael.  overall the team put in a 3rd place performance led by dave “yes, i do have a job” howard and heidi “how do you like them apples” mcclellan. also, mike “i refuse to tune my skis” shaw paired up another solid run with guest skier, keith “you should see the size of my canadian bacon” farnand, to round out the scoring. once again the bolton valley title is coming down to a two team race between erik’s cleaning service and team gnarl.  i will be pissed if gnarl beats us out again.

2/8/06 - check this out: surgery pic

2/6/06 - it is tight at the top of the bolton race league: wk 4 results

2/3/06 - erik eliason stormed back into the lead last night at bolton valley.  eliason shrugged off pre-race trash talk from both brett “i also guarantee victory” racine and michael “i ski 80 mph all the time” staunton...and found the form that landed him the victory in the first race of the season. as we go behind the numbers, it is noteworthy that brett racine did have the fastest time on the blue course, which is arguably the more “technical” course. therefore with only 1 victory to his name on the season, racine will be the skier to watch as he tries to join the 2 win plateau michael and erik have achieved thus far.  one other side note is i think we may have thrown down last night and regained the top team position.  tbd...

2/1/06 - major big time calculation error...turns out we were 4th last week?!  not acceptable. need to step it up this week. also for the first time this year we have a repeat winner for team 6 man competition. michael staunton has clearly established himself as the man to beat after backing up the previous week’s win. erik eliason is protesting the defeat, but don’t hold your breath...the result will stand.  be on the lookout for sparks as the competition heats up and the racing gets fierce this thursday at bolton valley. wk3 team results.  wk 3 individual results.

1/28/06 - good footage of the wolfman in the hourglass.

1/27/06 - these are some sweet pics from vt’s highest peak today.  it was windy: pic1, pic2 and sunny: pic1, pic2, pic3 and good: pic1

1/27/06 - you see what happens, erik?  you see what happens when you let a dog on the couch?

1/27/06 - bolton league update: i think we were second and back in second overall.

1/25/06 - last thursday’s results from bolton were just posted, and we have taken control of the top position.

1/23/06 - for those of you keeping track, which is everybody who is anybody, team 6 man competition saw yet another change in the leader board.  michael staunton came through with his week 1 guarantee, albeit two weeks later, as erik eliason had to settle for the bridesmaid position for the second consecutive week. man, you couldn’t ask for a better story.  in a post race interview, staunton credited the considerable amount of time he has put in the halfpipe this month as the deciding factor. when asked what the halfpipe and ski racing have in common he simply stated, “i think the scoreboard speaks for itself.” erik eliason was last seen in the tuning room working on his skis to help him find that early season form.  [official results are still not posted, but i think we may have moved into first place. stay tuned for the latest developments as they develop.]

1/17/06 - damon parke recently mailed me some of his training footage from earlier this month.  looks like those fellas over at LG are trying to find an edge this season.

1/17/06 - for all you doubters and haters out there, i put the stowe town line title on the table today and took it home again...convincingly this time. this was shortly after the lower village line was contested and also won by josh “i owe it all to my parents” dillon.  stowe municipal records were checked for the last time the lower village and stowe proper town lines were held concurrently by the same person, and it was confirmed that it has been at least a couple months.

1/16/06 - results are posted from the first official week at bolton.  as suspected, we were 2nd on the week.  i think 1st place is within our grasp.  more importantly the fierce racing action for team 6 position saw a change in the leader board. brett racine was able to knock last week’s hero, erik eliason, off of the top spot.  for a post race interview brett racine (now swarmed by hoardes of women) defaulted to his spokesperson, bode miller, to give his take on performance enhancing drugs, the upcoming olympics, and partying on the world cup “...i don’t think they [performance enhancing drugs] should be illegal.  it would probably make the sport safer and it would be better for the fans...and i think the olympics are highly overrated; i still haven’t decided if i want to go this year...but man, i can’t tell you the number of times of been in the start house wasted.” there you have it folks, the words of a champion.  michael staunton was unavailable for comment.

1/13/06 - i am currently the stowe town line champion. be sure to ask brett about it.

1/13/06 - results from last week at bolton were posted, just individual results. but i did a few calculations and i think we were 3rd.  so we have a little work to do. hopefully last night’s result will be up soon, i think we were 2nd. probably more interesting than that, is the heated battle for the 6 spot on the team (aka who’s going to be the anchor). last week erik “the thing about wicker furniture” eliason established himself as the man to beat, while mike “i guarantee a victory” staunton split runs with brett “i’m too good looking to ski race” racine. stay tuned to see how this pans out.

1/8/06 - benny came to vt this weekend.

1/6/06 - erik and shaw were all smiles as the bolton race league started back up.

1/2/06 - some assorted pics from 05. ilke/me on mansfield. in chronological order: bill and i saw martha in aspen, and the grand canyon on the way out to tucson in jan.  did a lot of training there.  brett did some too.  also raced in california where i had lunch in san diego (discovered by the germans in 1803...), trained at katie/don’s in marin (mt tam, moon on taylor st), and stayed with the sandstedts at the redlands classic.  then headed east first thing after redlands. back on the east coast bill ran his first marathon, in convincing fashion. christian/krista at bobby’s wedding, themselves getting engaged in 05 (way to go christian).  mt washington skiing in june (staunton). bill moved to colorado (billapalooza) where he was well received by the locals.  two weeks later, ilke crushed her first 1/2 ironman.  over labor day weekend i had to represent at the home town event (apgap1, apgap2), with the help of a tour de france leadout and some hometown support (about 100 others not pictured, sorry). finally got up to the northeast kingdom with scooter and b.r., which was some sweet riding. the first of october saw the marriage of jason baer and lori kort, which had a strong lg representation in attendence.  and the ski season got a nice start at the end of october.  erik and i took it one step further in december, where we kindly gave some ski lessons to the utah locals.  and finally, the only family pic i have from 05 is from the day after xmas at killington with mom leading the troops into the rain and fog (not the best of conditions, but we made the best of it).

12/31/05 - ilke working hard to get the shot luge dialed in.  ilke and me with our shot luge. the finished product in action.  mike and christian getting started.  here is ross being inappropriate on video (that’s why we invite him).  and the burning of the xmas tree.  brett, it is 2:15....everybody left, stop spraying champagne all over our house.

12/27/05 - we hiked mt hunger this afternoon.  sweet view.

12/26/05 - bill’s return to eastern skiing....raining and foggy. flippin sweet. mom, bill, ilke.  and bill rocks a spectacular crash in the halfpipe (top of screen).

12/25/05 - a very nice xmas. mom/bill.  dianne/casey.  dad/grandad.  benny.

12/24/05 - back at stowe was very nice.  the danimal, paris/dewaters, and the godfather.

12/24/05 - mike, brett, and erik blew me off all week. that was cool.

12/18/05 - day 4: back at alta.  powder day, no stopping for pics...food, drink, or anything.  sorry.

12/17/05 - day 3: “i’m going to jackson”. it is 5 hrs from slc, so we had to get an early start in our suzuki firenza.  this car was a p.o.s. (you’re probably saying “no shit”) so the teton pass was an adventure, but it got us where we wanted to go: pic1, pic2.  the legendary jackson tram: incoming, onboard.  erik hikes the headwall.  erik skis the headwall.  and so does jamie.  and so does josh.  i forget where exactly, but i know this is somewhere between 10,000 and 6,000 ft above sea level: erik, jamie, josh.  here is some ugly footage (i swear this run was really steep).  and here is some high quality commentary, when erik sheds some light on the geological and historical significance of the teton valley (turn the volume up for sure).

12/16/05 - day 2: little cottonwood canyon backcountry.  erik had to fight them off with his pole after this escapade.  bird’s eye of view of high rustler.  the payoff: erik1, erik2, jamied1, jamied2, joshd1, joshd2, joshd3.

12/15/05 - day 1: alta.  we were greeted with a little sunshine.  found a good face off the backside of supreme: before/after.  but first we had to ski over to it, down rocky point: erik on the opposite face, jamied on the opposite face.

12/14/05 - late arrival to slc, but decided to do some xmas shopping at a local thrift shop.

12/10/05 - what could be better than another 6-8”...although this guy wishes he was at the beach today. not sure what his deal is, i don’t think he is from around here. anyway, there were plenty of reasons to get up and go-at it today at SMR. for example: first gondie ride of the year (pic1, pic2, not pictured are photographers brett and josh) and then there was goat, goat, and goat again.  this place rules.

12/09/05 - game on.  today featured the dave and mike show: first dh followed by mike on starr, followed by a combo on goat-it. yup.

12/08/05 - today i saw some turkeys by the side of the road, and since hunting season had a couple more days left i decided to see what all the hype was about (pic1, pic2). the turkeys narrowly avoided being tonights dinner.

12/04/05 - the skiing was still good today.

12/03/05 - it snowed last night. a lot.  and twice as much at the mountain.  and mike was killing it on L.O.   dh and the danimal take a breather on goat.   crusher and richie navigating around some hurtin dude.

11/29/05 - i gotta have more cowbell.

11/27/05 - pretty dang nice day: the chin.  erik’s new mercury (yes, he picked out baby blue). stowe legend, dave howard: pic1, pic2.  the crew for the day: dh/staunton/erik.  a fine race tune.

11/26/05 - some groomers: brett, jd.  and some not so groomed runs: erik.

11/24/05 - despite the efforts of vt dpw, there were at least 15 cars off the road on the drive down to easthampton.  it is amazing how many bad drivers there are. anyway, somehow we made it (apparently by some sort of miracle), got to check out mt. tom and some of aunt dianne’s pies. yum.

11/23/05 - OPENING DAY! foggie goggle fixer: hot cocoa.  mike sweet talking the liftie: pic.  brett was really excited about opening day too: videoclip.  and for the record, i had the first tracks of the year down upper, upper liftline (ropejump, straightline, more straightline, payoff).

11/22/05 - this is pretty darn funny: movie clip

11/21/05 - i just talked to bill....and he is doing quite well: this is bill hanging out with his wang out in co springs

11/20/05 - can’t wait to race on a cannondale next year with FdF.  they are sweeeeeeeeeet. plus andrew is kind of being a jerk and telling me i need to give my lg bike back....even though i completed the full year and scored lg a couple results.  i wonder if he is giving back his bike since he left too?

11/19/05 - pic of stowe resort en route to hike up mt belvedere.  Looks like they could have opened to me, but what do i know after 24 seasons on the slopes.  anyway, belvedere is a pretty cool hike and i conquered a tree while i was there (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4).

11/18/05 - check out mikee.  this is the maplefields in the center of stowe, known mostly for their extensive ben&jerry’s cooler.

10/29/05 - sweet skiing at stowe jose, me, br, erik.  view of mansfield from town (pic1, pic2).

10/28/05 - ilkestarr, herlihy, br, and mike.  powdah baby!

sometime during the summer - brett training video

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