Hammer of the Gods

Plenty of racers have nicknames.

Terrible: "Tornado" Tom Boonen. Okay, the guys is the current king of Roubaix, but that nickname sucks.

Bad: "Cobra" Ricardo Ricco. I hope it sounds cool in his native tongue.

Fair: "The Cricket", Paulo Bettini. It does sound really cool in italian, Il Grillo, but its still just a bug.

Good: "The Killer", Danilo DiLuca. And he always looks pissed off enough to actually murder someone.

Great: "Spartacus", Fabian Cancellara. Plus, he's got a back up nickname that's almost as cool: the Swiss Time Machine.

Out of this world: "Hammer of the Gods". I don't know anyone with this nickname. I was just listening to some Zeppelin and thought that if you earned this nickname, you were king.

Cool Pic

Here's a pic from Lexington. It's the last corner before the finish in the 35+ race, about 100 yards to go. You can see my teammates, Jason McCoy on the right, Doug McConaha's shoulder on the left. We went 1,2,3 in the field sprint for 6,7,8 overall.

This may be the coolest racing picture of me, ever.

Thanks and credit go to Mullet Ranch Photograghy. http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=3803195&g=0GOY001U02

Broken Thumbs

Bob Duncan can break your thumbs.

Bob runs Wheelie Fun Multisport in Lebanon. Last year I had him glue some tubies on for me. After breaking a rim, I had to remove the tire. It took more that 30 minutes to get that thing off last night.

My thumbs hurt.

Bob knows I race crits and have to count on my tires.

Thanks, Bob.

lexington

Saturday was my first race with the new team.

Actually, my first race with Olympus was at bull run 2 weeks ago. Buth the course was a nightmare, from a safety standpoint, and they had to cancel it after the 1st of 5 laps. If only someone had emailed them in January and told them. Wait! I did email them in January and told them about potential safety issues with the course!!! After the cancellation they said we could get our money back if we couldn't do the make up race. Now they are back pedalling on that.

On to Lexington. I was excited to do my first crit of the year, especially with 4 teammates. It went really well. In the master's race, I made the first break. It was a real struggle to get across, but I did. In the past, without teammates, I wouldn't have tried this. But I knew I had support in the field so I decided to risk it.

It didn't go too well in the break. I was on the rivet and when the field closed back in, I sat up. I swear that I thought we were caught. The rest of the guys kept going.

Some redemption, though, Doug set me up perfectly and I won the field sprint.

The 3/4 race was a free for all. I ended up fighting through to mix it up in the field sprint. 6th again.

There are now 3 Olympus guys in the top ten Ohio crit rankings.