This is where Tristan Cowie, aka Captain America, aka Pink Booties, aka Special T, aka the Canadian Two Stroke,
aka Trash Can dumps his thoughts and mountain bike race reports on the world.
So I lied. I was going to write another post sooner than now. What are you going to do? Hmmm? Just stop reading? That's cool with me.
What have I been doing the meantime? Oh not a whole lot, just rediscovering the loves of my life. Yes, I said loves with an "s". What could these be? No not friends from Winston or new shoes, St Marie. Hockey and Formula One. Well, more car racing in general, instead of F1 but I really, really want to fly up to Montreal in June. Seems like a much more manlier ways to spend my time, instead of shopping for some more skin tight road cycle shorts.
In other words, I'm happily enjoying my retirement and making the most of it.
I've been sitting on this stuff for a while so have at it.
Well, I'm a bit late in my latest blog but thanks to the wonders of the internet I can post as if it were yesterday. Literally. I'm posting this on the 31st of October. Whoops, I guess I shouldn't be telling you that.
Anyways,I was going to do this post because I had too many movie stocked up from the past few weeks so I had to get rid of them. Most are pretty sweet and I think you'll enjoy.
Also I never did a proper shout out after nationals so here goes.Shout outs: CB!-slalom track, Herndon- teaching me skills, Wes D-everything, Dan, Justin, Tina for listening to me complain and trying to keep me inline, the Bennetts for taking pictures, my parents for doing the things that they do to keep me around, the sister for buying me clothes, Thad for driving us to races and putting up with all of us for hours on end. And probably a ton more people that I'm forgetting. I'm writing this in like five seconds because I need to post these movies.
Lata, TCR
Oh yeah, expect another wayyy cooler post coming very soon with some big news.
Well, that was pretty much how the week went. We flew over to Cali, wrapped up a championship, and flew back. Not a bad way to spend your fall break. It's been pretty busy getting back into the swing of things. I had internet at my house for like a day and then it peaced out on me.
Nationals went pretty good. I grabbed a few podiums, pulled off the individual omnium, and helped the team win another national championship. Pretty sweet way to wrap up my collegiate mountain bike career.
Anyways, I just wanted to do a quick update and give some shout outs. I just saw that the GA Cross series had a stacked C field. It's been like 40 riders at ever single race just in that class. Pretty freaking awesome.
I'm working on a full nationals report that should be coming soon, of course it's a whole lot easier to say that than to actually do it.
I leave you with a quick link to a shout out about me. Big thanks goes out to one of the Kasiers of Brevard.
The leaves are falling and my time is running down at Brevard. Or at least that's what I'm trying to think. I still have another semester to go and I'm just barely half way done with this one.
I only have a few minutes before class so this will be short. About to pack up and head out to Cali again for the national champs. I'm pretty stoked about going but I'm not really looking forward to racing. Everybody has been asking about if I'm going to go for the win or not. Truth is, I don't really care. Win or lose I'll be spending my fall break in Cali. Pretty awesome.
Anyways, I don't have internet at my house so it's making writting blogs a little more difficult but I should be able to update once I'm out there.
It's been awhile as usual, pretty much slammed since school started. Classes are good, but it's hard to concentrate with only a year left. But I know you never post up before the finish so I should be good for a little bit longer.
Racing is going good, the team is getting along pretty well. We have about 50/50 new and old members and out of the new guys it's almost 50/50 transfer and freshmen. A interesting combo. Seems like everything is going good. The first race at ETSU was obviously the first big test for the gang. Everything went well, everybody got some good solid results, just what we want from the first race. I managed to pull off the "W" in the cross country and a fourth in the short track. Don't know how but I'll take it.
The collegiate season is pretty short this year, with just four local races and nationals. So we had a off weekend after ETSU. I squeezed in some hangout time with several different people and it turned out to be a good weekend. Not much ridding but at least I still have some teeth, right KB?
This past weekend was the Lee's McRae race. Probably my all time fav track. If I was to build a T Cowie signature course, LMC would be it. Leading up to the race was pretty busy and stressful but I just have fun on my bike so I was grinning from ear to ear on that descent. Pulled off a second in the XC and a second in the short track. But our two relativity new riders Morgan and Nate Dog posted up in both events. Puts me to shame haha. Big props to them.
Plans for the up coming weeks? Right now, it's the Pisgah Mountain Bike Stage Race in Brevard. The collegiate team is busy marking the course and working rest stops the whole week, it's hard work and it's cool to see the other side of racing. The Sycamore Cycles boys are holding it down in first overall with three days to go. Pretty sweet to pull it off in your hometown.
Anyways, I'll be glad when this week is over. Next weekend is the Clemson collegiate race, not my favorite race but it's close and they have a pretty sick short track course. Then it's straight to Conyers for the conference championships. A weekend to chillax and it's off to the West Coast again.
Pretty soon it will be all over and I can just hang the bike up for a long time.
It's been a long day already and a long week for me so I'm needing a laugh and I'm assuming you do to. Enjoy.
So yeah, this one is a pretty short since I'm off to old college life again. This will be the last time I'm off, pretty weird, it really goes by too fast. Pretty soon I'll have to break down and find a real job, bummer.
Anyway, here's a link for my facebook album of the rest of the pictures of the vacation. Also, some footage of number 7 rearranging some berms, even more clips of my all time favorite race the Air Downhill, and a "sic" rider giving some lessons in scrubs.
Well, I was poking around looking for more blog material the other day and I stumbled across this picture. He looks SO upset I just had to include it. Must have been those big shoes......
Hahaha, nah it was good times. It all started with a small hiccup at the airport where I missed my flight. Not my fault mind you, my ticket was printed wrong and it took too long to sort it out. The next flight was booked so after hanging out at the ATL airport for the better part of my Saturday I drove home, slept for a few hours, drove back and hopped on a plane.
Got into Seattle around lunch and the sis and dad and I drove up to some gnarly pass where the water went in between some rocks. Pretty cool, hadn't unpacked my camera so no pics. Got into B-ham that night and ate at a really good Mexican restaurant. They had some amazing salsa. Tuesday we hit some Galbraith, it was some pretty sick ridding. A ton of drop offs and jumps everywhere. I finally found a pretty long downhill run following a ridge line which was pretty rad. It was so good to just get out and hold it wide open for a while.
After we got back and got changed up, Tash and I went shopping and I picked up some fresh Nikes. You'll just have to see them, hahaha. For b-fast we picked up a bacon doughnut. It was amazing needless to say.
Now for the bummer, in the interest of time and the fact that we could only watch the kids meal instead of the Big Macs we decided to skip Whistler and Crankworks. Just eh...FYI, it takes a long time to drive across the country and didn't want to be pressed for time. Instead we drove up to check out Mount Baker. Pretty freaking sick dude. Definitely impressed.
The trail leading to the top. Those of you who know how much I like walking can understand why we didn't take it.
Here is a picture of the mountain but it was acting a little shy and never came out from the cloud cover.
Coming off the mountain we swung off the road to check out some massive trees and a waterfall. Once again I was pretty impressed, you know how the saying goes....here ya go.
The time in Bellingham was too short but me and the old man had crafted a route back that would hit some of the primer riding spots in the country. First stop was Deer Valley in Park City. Been a few years (four) since I was there last and it didn't work out so well for me. Broke my chain twice, crashed and DNF'd and picked up my first set of stitches. The trails were still pretty good and I think I found the place where I ate it, rode it this time. Dad was having a blast but we had to pack it up after a lap and roll on. Here's a picture from the highest point on the XC course.
Then it was like a ton of hours of driving. Dunno, just sat down the entire day. Finally made it to Moab, Utah. Once again, not my favorite riding place, but I couldn't get rid of the smile on my face. Tons of fun and focusing.
Making sure to stay hydrated during these long road rides was super important, luckily I had some Dr. P.
The super interesting scenery on the way to Moab, don't fall asleep.
After a easy two hours of play time we hit the road again, well not literally but you know...Couple few hours later we found ourselves in Vail, Colorado. Quick side note, the base (like where the cars are parked) is at 8,500 feet. I think the highest we climbed was around 9,000 or 9,500. Ouch. The trails were pretty fun and more technical than I thought they were going to be. The maps weren't the best and we were getting hungry so we pinned it down the mountain.
Everything else was pretty boring from Denver on so no more pics. And mom broke my car so we had to cut off riding at Bump and Anniston, and some stuff in Arkansas. Oh well, still a pretty swell trip. I had to get a picture with Colorado in it to prove that I was there so here it is.
So that's it. I'm working on uploading the rest of the pictures to the book and adding a link. But in the meantime take a look at some of the stuff we missed. And it looks like we missed a lot. And I even added a theme song too.
Well I wasn't going to write another before I left but I needed something to do so I added some more. The last week of camp is over and I'm pretty happy about it, it's a bummer because it was a good time in between all the bad times and crazy kids
I've still got a few more hours before I leave for the ATL and the plane that is waiting there. I still haven't finished packing yet. Probably should get on that.
I'm fumbling with stuff to write about, but I'll have something soon. There's a double meaning to that one, but you won't be able to figure it out.
Anyways, before I start making more of a fool than I already am I'm signing off. But I'm leaving you with some amazing movies. The first one is the definition of super pumped. The second is so incredibly exciting I just had to go out and buy a leaf blower. Thank you buddy, it was all you.
Hahahahaha. I'm having fun. Just thinking about life. I've got some good ideas going, we'll see how they plan out though.
I'm so mellowed out right now, it was a good day. I worked on some projects around the house and built some more jumps. In case I forget to write a blog before this weekend (which I probably will) I was typing one out tonight. I was going to save it for a surprise but I can't wait.
Saturday night I'm flying out to Washington state to hang with the sister for a few days. I'm meeting up with Dad and we're driving up to Crankworks for a few days too. Then it's a long drive back with plenty of riding along the way. Yes, I said Crankworks. Did I mention that I'm awesome?
So yeah, just wanted to throw that out there. Haha, have fun on the east coast suckers!!
I'm going to be tac'ed out for the next few weeks. Keep it real 'merica!
Oh yeah, I added some picture from my accident. They were taken three for four days after it happened, once I was able to walk around a bit. I'm healing up just fine, I haven't really ridden since but don't worry I still got it, haha!
So it's been pretty slow and stready down in the south. I wanted to point out how lazy I've been by not even thinking of a better title for this post. What have I been doing since the last post? Working at camp, working at home, and lots of hanging out.
I did actually go shopping with Mom the other day. You will probably make fun of me for saying this but I don't really know what to do if I'm not riding my bike every single day. This is the first summer where I haven't been traveling every weekend to races. Strange. Anyways it was fun spending some time goofing off in Atlanta.
I guess before I go futher, I should give ya an update on my face and everything. Face is healing up good, some scaring but nothing too bad. I finally look some what normal and another week or so I'll be back to normal-ish. The elbow is pretty good too, I can't really open any spagetti jars but I can live with that. The problem with crashing on your face (well, one of the problems) is it takes a little while to actually feel good enough to go out and ride, i. e. rest and recover. My great idea of crashing just before the most important races of the season kind of screwed up my plans. I took almost a week and a half off the bike and with the time I missed from work and some other issues dictated my plans for the rest of the season.
I'm pretty much taking the rest of the season off. Skipping nationals and just doing some local races. It's a bit of a bummer but you've got to play with the cards you have instead of seaking some under the table (not like I ever do that, hehehe).
In other news, I'd ask somebody to come down here and race me on my downhill track but I know everybody in Brevard is just too scared. I put some more dirt on a few of the jumps and smoothed out some other places. Looks good. It's not 100% finished, but when is anything?
So since this was a semi-depressing post and my attention span drifted to motocross videos on youtube I'll cut out. But I left you with some good vids. First one you probably won't be able to find anywhere else but it's two riders ripping it up on some Stumpjumpers and the second is another good rider hitting some lines at Schaldaming, one of my favortie DH tracks. Enjoy.
I might have used that title before...hmmm. Don't know. Oh well what does it matter. It's turning out to be one of those days. Last week has been pretty slow. I've mostly been chilaxing at the house waiting for my injuries to heal up. It's been pretty slow going but I finally got the stitches out of my face yesterday. It feels SO much better you have no idea. Hopefully within a few days I'll be able to eat normally and do other normal things people do with their mouths, like talk. And smile.
Anyway, back to Saturday. I mean Sunday. Getting my days mixed up. It's the summer time isn't that supposed to happen? Looks like I'm going shopping with the parents since I can't really ride yet. My computer is sort of dying too so I'm typing this whole thing out on my touch which is a real pain by the way. But heavens no! I can't let my loyal three people who occiationly read my blog down. I miss my computers spell check and I'm sure you guys do too by this point.
There was something else I was going to say but I can't remember what it was. Well I'll have to end it there I guess. Just doing work and finding projects around the house to work on. Nothing special just regular here. I would add some movies or something at this point but I can't really do that without my computer so I'll just tell ya to go check out the Yeti cycles page. There's a feature about a trip the guys took to California and my boy Gwin is litterally completely sideways on an xc bike. Wow.
Well, I might as well give everyone an updated on my weekend. It was planned out to be a low key, chilaxing weekend with a whole lot of nothing going on. Saturday fit the bill. A long roadie ride in the morning followed by some hanging out at Northstar Bikes. Then I came home and finished painting my room. Some productivity, let me tell you.
Sunday was shaping up to be more of the same. I tried to go for another roadie ride but I ended up ripping out two of my valves from the tubes. Pretty pissed about driving all the way out to the gaps and not being able to ride I drove back home and picked up the mountain bike to go hit some lines at Bull Mountain.
Ride started good but near the end of the trail I hit a section with some root ledges. Ummm....yeah, I can't really remember what happened but I think I tried to drop the ledges and got my front wheel stuck in a hole. Next thing I know I was back at my car with blood everywhere. Put the bike on the roof and drove to the ER. Yay!
I landed on my face again, but only got 9 stitches in it this time. There's a bad cut on my left elbow that got 14 stitches and some smaller stuff here and there. I also got another CT scan and some X-rays but they turned out good. I think the final total of stitches was around 28. Ow. I feel like I got run over by a truck. Still no broken bones.
Anyway, enough of the details. I feel pretty good about the wreck if I can. I'm pretty beat up but I don't think it will put me down for too long. And I'm totally going back and hitting that section again.
So yeah, just figured I should let everybody know that my face is a little messed up again so you can make fun of me. Hahaha. Later 'merica.
Monday after racing is always fun. Sometimes you feel good, sometimes bad. Today was one of the not so great. The race at Bump and Grind went pretty good, I was able to squeak in a third which I'm pretty happy about. Although Thomas and Woodall dropped me hardcore on the climb and I was suffering for the rest of the race. Good times though. The reason I'm not having such a great Monday is that near the end of the first lap I decided to take a bridge crossing a little too fast. Came off it and managed to get away with a bum shoulder and a wicked cramp in my calf.
But enough complaining, I'm happy to hang the bike up for a weekend and chilax with some friends. I'm pretty happy about not being on the road for another week. Maybe I can finally finish painting my room or something. Highly unlikely though, I'm having wayyy too much fun enjoying my summer vacation.
Well, uh yeah. I finally went downstairs and grabbed my camera so enjoy. Keep it TAC'ed everybody. Enjoy the summa.
The gang hanging at the 24 Hours of Burn.
Spied this guy at the Offenburg race in Germany. He was part of the Japanese national team and he was wearing a Cample's Soup T-shirt! Euro fashion at its finest. Awesome! If someone can tell me were I can get one I'll throw a sick T. Cowie prize pack together for ya.
T-Nasty showing off his super sick rock pile and he's infamous dance moves at Bump and Grind.
Almost forgot! Huge props to Dan the P. Ennis for nabbing his first pro win, Grubby learned some tips from the man from Florida. Like a super sick scrub over the last double at Ft Bill. Never mind me explaining it, watch it.
Well, I'm back. You could figure that out from the title. I've been home for a day and a half and I'm already back to being busy. First day of work went good, pulling the same job as last summer with a day camp in Gainesville. Pretty fun and real easy work. Relatively.
Anyway, quick recap from the last post. I raced Offenburg and got lapped three laps in. A bit of a bummer since I raced for an hour total. I guess you'll have that when your racing the very best in the world.
Slowly made my way from Releigh to Winston to Brevard where I hung out with a really old friend for a few days. Had some great rides hanging out with our "guns" out. I don't think I ever stopped smiling for the whole ride. The one and only KOP talked me into doing the 24 Hours of Burn that weekend too. Probably not the best rest week I could have had but it was good to show off the local sponsors and throw down with some other good teams. Even though we didn't win, I taught the team of roadies a lesson. It will be a while before they forget the cocky guy who passed them with full baggies and goggles.
I took some pictures, but I can't manage to expend that many watts to go down stairs and get my camera so they'll have to wait for another blog.
The next course? Probably Bump and Grinding some parts this weekend in Alabama and then it's a weekend off before Massanutten in Virginia. Then I'm off to Wisconsin to hit a national race and see if any of the training I'm doing is paying off. Dan P. knows what type of training I'm doing haha. Not really, I'll tell you who does though. A little bit of "pinning it with some flordia sprinkles". Good times trying to figure out what I'm saying with that one.
I might even have to offer up another prize. Let me know in the props section.
Quick shout out to the five people that read my blog and who get bummed out that I haven't included them in my "bros" section. You put me up on yours and I'll return the favor. Tit for tat brosuf.
Anyway, it's getting close to the parents bedtime which means it's mine too. There's really nothing to do after the 'rents go to bed.
More chillage. Got up pretty early this morning and headed ova to Offenburg for our last race over here. It's World Cup number three. Wow, I'm so cracked right now. One more day and I'm heading home. It's been awesome but I need a break.
But on to the more interesting stuff. The course is alright, I was hoping it was a little faster but the downhills are steep and you pretty much have to crawl down them but the climbs are not that bad just short and moderately steep. Everything was covered in a slimy coating of mud which made things just a little sketchy. Just like home though haha.
I'm starting in the back again, yay. I guess moving up a hundred spots in Houffalize didn't make a difference because I'm four spots back in my call up, 226. Just put the head down and do work I guess. Simple enough.
After the race, we're packing up and rolling back to Oberrie and packing up the bikes and all our stuff. Some people are taking the train to Frankfurt Sunday night but me and T-Money are leaving Monday morning. I can't wait for that $200 charge on my bike. Ow. I hate airports, they stress me out. At least Frankfurt international has some very attractive attendants, so while my wallet is being lightened I'll have some eye candy. Makes everything ok right? Haha.
So yeah, I had nothing to do so I just killed like 15 minutes typing out this post that like five people might read and that really doesn't say anything. But hey I'm happy because that means I'm 15 minutes closer to dinna. Which is in 45 minutes now. Sorry, but it's a really, really big event of the day.
So if you not doing anything tomorrow and want to watch the Offenburg World Cup tune into freecaster and watch it all go down. But your probably not going to see us because we'll be at the back and they only show the winners. Haha; "if you ain't first, you're last".
Here's an alright movie of the race. Shows the start loop and the last climb and part of "dual speed" and the "snake pit". Also makes things look wayyy easier than they are. Those climbs and descents are much steeper than they look.
So I'm out America. Probably be back after the race though. Keep it pinned, I'll be back soon.
Sorry, sorry. I'm taking forever. But hey give me a break. I was pretty busy this past week. I mean I just hangout and ride my bike. Busy life eh?
Nah, actually it's been pretty pinned. I had a birthday, I raced, and I came with a Euro bug. Thursday I woke up and was feeling pretty crappy so I ended up sleeping most of the day and most of Friday too. But I was feeling much better Saturday when we drove up to Heubach for a race. I raced "Bike the Rock" last year and it was pretty rad. Basic design, climb for about 10 minutes roll on top for 2 or 3 and then a rough, rutted out descent back to the finish. It was also just a U23 race so it was a little smaller field than usual, but not any slower because I think the guy who won would have got top 5 in Pro. I got a decent call up but was too timid at the start and got shuffled back. That was cool with me since I was just trying to finish the race and not drop out.
Slowly started moving up since I was still feel good. I was having so much fun on the descent. I love course with a big climb followed by a sick downhill. I can totally get my head around the idea of "the faster I climb, the faster I can get to the descent". Anything else is kind of lame.
Anyway, I moved up a few places and almost caught the group that T-Money was in. Couldn't do it though so I rolled in for 40th or something. I finished and I was still on the lead lap so I was stoked about that. My last lap was my second fastest lap so it's always good when that happens.
What next? Well we're half way through our last week here. Just more chillage at the house for a few more days and then it's off to Offenburg on Saturday for some pre-riding at Offenburg, the last race. This is another World Cup so check out freecaster and watch it live. I might be able to post the link.
Yeah, not much happening here. Although I'm so stoked to be over here, I'm going to be happy to be heading home. We're flying out on Monday so I'll be back in the US of A that night. A few days hanging out here and there and it's back home to start working and get in some good training and some other secret projects.
I added a movie from the first downhill/4X World Cup. The opening bit is pretty cool. There's a reason cool people have cool nicknames and you'll find out why Mick Hannah is know as "Sick Mick". Pretty rad.
Adding some pictures from my ride too. Taken on my ride today to the roof of Germany, the Feilburg.
Heyyyy ya’ll. Never said that before. I never use ya’ll. Well, now I did. Europe is starting to do strange things to me. I’m starting to think about flat bars and carbon bits littering my bike. Ahhh!!!! Not good, I need to be back in the south.
Another weekend down, another race in the books. Saturday was a Swiss Power Cup, or a Swiss national race. In other words, just as fast as a World Cup but with less people. Sweet! For those of you in the know, Julien Absalon, Nino Schuter, Christophe Sauser, and Florien Vogel were some of the guys in attendance. My legs started hurting just looking at the names.
To make it that much better, about 70% of the race is on pavement. Pavement=pinned. Got an alright start but made a big mistake and ended up on the wrong side of the barriers and had to slow down and duck under the tape. Got back going without a problem but I lost contact with the group I was in. I tried to bridge on the climb and couldn’t do it but some guys caught up on the next pavement section. They were going a little too slow, so I tried to bridge again and spent the rest of the race stuck in the middle of nowhere between groups.
I almost got lapped by Absalon but I totally out sprinted him at the finish and made it out for the last lap. I ended up catching some more riders on that last lap but screwed up the sprint finish and had to settle for second out of three. Pretty good race, you have to have most things go your way at these Euro races and it just hasn’t clicked yet, but I can feel it coming (I hope that is).
Sunday was another race we did last year. It was small and local last year but like 40 people showed up this year. They changed the course and took out the longest descent and put in a little girl downhill with some super, super lame logs you had to jump over. It was raining but that didn’t really help out much. Not trying to sound like a broken record but the legs were gassed and I just couldn’t get on to the lead group again so I settled for a top 20. I was top 5 last year ha-ha. Ow.
Looks like a good week coming up. We’re planning on going to Freiburg or someplace else either today or tomorrow to break up the routine. Then on Saturday we’re driving up to Heubach to do a German national race. Fun course with a sustained downhill full of ruts and berms just what T. Cowie ordered. Plus we’re racing the U23 class instead of the elite class. That just means there will be less people not that it will be any easier. The top U23 guys are getting top 5s in the elite races, so yeah really not that much slower.
Things are going good, looks like another day of rain and cold weather. I’m used to it though, thank you east coast. Makes everybody unhappy but not me. Just hang it out a little more and get loose. It’s slowly starting to wear on me, just being wayyy far away from home but before I know it I’ll be back and keeping that throttle pinned on some Pisgah trails. I can’t wait.
Please don’t float away Amurica, I don’t know if the planes can make it. T
P. S. I’ll post presse from the race as it comes in. And yes “press” is meant to be spelled European. Thank you St. Marie.
P. S. S. For those of you who are interested in the ‘stache. It’s coming along quite nicely, not as sketchy as the old one. Pictures to come eventually.
I was doing a lot of that. That’s fo sho. Where am I? Oh yeah Germany. I guess I’ll start with the race. I’m still trying to catch up a little bit. We finally made it to Germany and our new home for the next three weeks. Pretty rad place we’ve got here. Big props to USAC. Anyway to the race. We rolled out at 2:30 on Sunday. Headed down to the course about 1 with T-Money. As soon as we got there the sky opened up and started spilling some water out on the track. It had been raining off and on for the past day or so getting the track pretty slick. Not really muddy and not really wet it was a tossup for tires. Most of the US guys settled for some aggressive tires but not full on spikes. I ran my trusted Sauserwinds. Hooked up good and made for some interesting passes haha. Since it was raining before the start I hung out at the tent and warmed up pretty close to the start of the race. Tad made an interesting point. It takes the UCI 15 minutes to call up 250 riders and it takes the races in the US twice that time to call up 60 riders.
So yeah the race starts up a short but steep climb that was used in LBL. Still had Andy and Franks names painted all over the road. After you finished puking your brains out at the top of the climb there was a rolling descent that fell into a steep, steep Euro drop. I was going to show up Nino and boot a root off a tree but there was about 10,000 riders running down the hill in front of me. When we hit the road I literally had to stand and wait for a good 2 or 3 minutes waiting for people to run down the next Euro drop. The rest of the course was some short down hills sprinkled with punchy climbs. Umm…yeah like no flat so it was pretty much full gas, crawl down following some terrible Euro dude and then full gas on the next open part to try and get around them. Felt like I was starting to move up until the 3 or fourth lap when things finally started to sort out and there was less people on course. Hung with Travis for a bit before we both got pulled at the end of the fourth lap.
Felt pretty good during the race but I kept on making small amateur mistakes that kept adding up. Felt like I was doing my first mountain bike race in years. Oh well, I’ve got a few more before I leave.
Anyway I need to post some pictures for you. I’ve got a bit of an easy day tomorrow so I was going to snap some images of the new place we’re staying at. Pretty sick rig. We live on a farm in a really nice hostel/bed and breakfast/hotel type thing. The best part is they have a spout for gassy water (the only water they drink over here). It’s on the back wall, you just roll up and out comes gassy. Awesome!!!
Wow there’s a bunch of stuff I’m leaving out. I need to write another blog since I’m struggling on this one. The people call me…
Don't have a ton of time to write but he race went alrigh got pulled with two to go. Pretty muddy action made for some interesting t. Cowie moves but nothing too special. Some uci photo guy took some pictures of me so be on the look out for that.
Anyway I gotta run peace. Next time I'll update will probably be back in Germany. Late.
Finally on euro time. I think. Woke up at six instead of two so I guess that's good. Rained off and on all morning. We've got some time before the race so were just hanging out and chilling. Had a good lunch and got pumped on some good old Uhmerican country music. Can't wait to lay down the law with some Euro dudes.
You can tell when there's slow moments because I write blogs. Haha. Anyways I'll probably write another one after. Watch it on freecaster. I think it comes on at like eight thirty or something. Keep it pinned.
Yeah that's out of 250. Meaning that I'll getbto race for like half an hour. I'm not even taking extra bottles. If the image link is still not working it's 222.
Got in the belgium today. Pretty good place a little hillier than Germany. We have a pretty cool set up outside of town it's about 20 minutes into houffalize and about 40 back since it's all uphill on the way out. No Internet at the place were staying at so I'm writing this on Wednesday At least I think it's Wednesday I'm definetly still on American time.
Rode the course today. Good world cup course I guess. All up or down with like zero flat. Some little fun spots on the downhill but nothing too special.
So yeah racing in few days so just hanging out and some short rides on the plan. Hopefully head back into town soon so I can post this one too. Took some pictures but can't really upload them yet so you'll have to wait I'm sure you guys are pretty bummed out about that.
Hope everything is going swell back in the us of a. Going to see if I can get the throttle suck wide on Sunday. Sorry Rimmer the start is on pavement so I can't pull a trademark if you know what I mean.
So I'm in Washington, but when you read this i'll probably be some place else. Don't really know where though. I'm wayyy to cheap to payb for the over priced Internet at the airport so I'm writng this while waiting for the flight.
Typing on my touch kind of sucks so if I have some errors forgive me. Or not as like half of the three people who read my blog love to do. Quick recap on the trip. Left school yesterday afternoon And drove to Winston Salem to hit it up with T-Money and a night of madness. Haha not really just some good times packing bikes and catching up on gossip.
Went for a quick ride this morning around town. Saw some pretty rad houses some people winston are high rolling. Packed up the bikes and headed over to RDU for a quick puddle skip over to Washington. We fly out at ten and get into Germany at around lunch tomorrow.
Then it's straight to Belgium for the first race where I'm hoping to find some Internet and post this one. It's also really hard to find a dang outlet for my phone on airports too. FYI. Dude they'd better have some food for me as soon as I sit down because I'm starving.
Oh well America, I gonna miss you guys, keep it pinned all the way so it's TAC'd out.
So last night I had a really bad dream. I was in Europe and I found out that I had forgotten all of my tires/clothes/equipment back home. Not good. Then I woke up. Hahaha. Good times eh?
How are things going for ya 'merica? Looks to be a pretty nice day out at least for a little while longer. Oh well, if it rains that just means that no body will be out on the trails except me that is.
One last weekend in the states means a fully wide open weekend. I just took a final yesterday and I have another one tomorrow night with the rest on Monday. Yay! And people wonder why I'm not racing this weekend. The nice thing is I don't have class on Monday. I'm done dude. I'm out. But fitting in my weekly hang out time is going to be tough.
It just started to rain in B-town so that's my cue to go ride. As Chinese Dinna Man shows us, you can go just as fast in the wet as in the dry.
Pretty lame post but I'll add some pictures that have been sitting around on my computer.
Today is good not great but good. Woke up wayyy too early today still means I'm worrying about stuff haha. Oh well that's life as they say.
I didn't write much about Tsali at all really namely because I'm trying to forget about it. The way the weekend went for me, was like this: I woke up, I had a good breakfast, I drove to the Tsali race. Then there's this big blank spot where I don't remember anything and the next thing I know I was back home. Crazy huh?
What really happened? I went out a little too hard and blew up hard core. Good times.
A week off and full of hanging out and working on home work. Yay! Not. Then it was back to road racing for the conference finals at Mars Hill. Road race went pretty good, it was a very selective course and guys started popping off early. Made the "front group" of about ten and we tired to pull back the four minute lead the break got. Didn't work and I got popped off the group on the last climb and rolled in for seventh. Not too shabby. The crit went a little better. We tired to set up Killer for the win but I screwed up and miss read lap cards and was at the back of the bunch for the final sprint. He still ended up using his wild animal powers to get fourth so big props to him.
So one more week of hanging out and doing work before I ship out across the pond. Hopefully no volcanoes explode while I'm flying over them. That would be awesome. Also check out the KFC south park some people might learn some life lessons from that...
And if Dungey can stay upright he'll take it but Stewarts still got the title.
Well, you know sometimes nothing ever goes right. Yeah that happened to me last week. It sucked let me tell you. But I shouldn't complain I guess, although that's kind of what blogs are for.
I'll skip to the more exciting stuff. I started racing, finally it seemed like forever since I've been training since ********* (sorry can't tell you that bit). First race was a collegiate road race down in my home state. This time it didn't rain however. I felt good all weekend but it was one of those things where you're like: "Oh, this pace isn't bad I should open it up a little." And then as soon as you start going hard it's like: "Oops shouldn't have done that." Good times. I finished somewhere in the top 20 the first day and managed to get in the lead break the second day. Mr. My Shoes Are Too Big split the group and spit me out the back. Still finished somewhere in the top 15.
Nice weekend off in between collegiate races. Hung out with a CTS camp in Brevard and got in some good training miles. Colin you still owe me a burrito...
Last weekend was another race in Furman. Hard course on Saturday with some steep rollers and a bunch of wind. Got in a small break with another dude about an hour in dropped him 45 minutes later and spent about an hour off the front in a solo break. So yeah, you could say that my legs hurt after that. The crit the next day went alright. The course was flat and technical but not really to my liking. I started to give 'er in a few corners but started to get a little sideways so I backed off and acted like a little girl for the rest of the race. Made the break again and finished in the top 10?
Now it's a few hard days of training before the SERC race at Tsali. The first big test of the season. Can't wait. The throttle is sticking a little bit but hopefully it will get completely stuck this Sunday. We'll see.
This year is not starting out good. I've had two defeats and the season hasn't even started yet. First I lost to Mrs. Squirrel for not getting a post up and then I lost my title of Plank Champion last night to some burley mountain man from Minnesota. Congrats to the Elk Killer.
I don't like getting beat, so I guess I just need to go more work. Simple eh? Speaking of simple, how bout that Northern Country teaching some people how they do the Olympics. Never won a Gold medal at a home games and then taking home the most golds? Yeah that's right, turn down the funk and turn up the good.
It's been snow, snow, and more snow here in North Kack. We got like 5 and a half inches yesterday. It sucked. The trails are still covered and will be for another two weeks or so. Looks like I'm going home this weekend for spring break. My trails at the house need some loving, but I don't think I'll be able to get out since I'm getting some tooths pulled on Saturday. Yay. Not.
I like having extra teeth, they help me eat all my candy.
First race is two weeks away and I can't wait. It's funny to think that my race season always start pretty much half way through March but it always seems so far away. In the mean time I've been trying to get my throttle stuck WFO. I think it worked. Not sure yet, we'll have to see at that first race.
In other news, I've had thoughts on changing my blog title for something that describes me a little better than "How do you spell America?" Something more...er....fitting. Share your thoughts.
Even though BMXers are still little tight pants wearing girls, Mike Day can make a days work of a BMX track. Check out that manual at the end. That's pretty cereal.
Well, I had my first race this year. It's not what you think though. I was racing the female Squirrel to be the first to post a new blog. I lost, by a pretty good bit actually.
Oh well, first thing's first. Except that I don't know what the first thing is. How about I do a movie since I already have that. Minnaar knows how to ride some moto. Maybe that's why he's one of the best in the World? You tell me.
Let me start out by doing some sponsor stuff. Last time I told you that I was about to announce some new sponsors but I kind of forgot to post a blog in time. So here you go. I'm proud to announce....no never mind that's wayyy too corny. Twin Six has jumped on the wagon, or bike rather for another year. For a while I was skeptical about representing them again since it's it doesn't really fit my "image" but they are coming out some some super sick stuff this time around and I'm stoked to run it again. Clothes that fit, feel good, and good rad are what Twin Six delivers. So yeah, I'm pretty happy about them coming back.
To go with some new clothes and accessories, I need some extra items to complete my "look". Just so happens that Smith Optics decided to help me out. I've always been a fan of their sunglasses and goggles and now I can finally run them. Because in the words of Smith Sponsored athlete, Aaron Gwin, "you gotta look good". I'll been running their clothes, race glasses, and goggles at select events. Pretty happy about that one too.
The last one is a current sponsor, but I wanted to give a shout out because they have really stepped it up this year. Thanks Industry Nine for all your support. And to all my other sponsors thanks again. I'll be doing a post just for my support crew very soon so watch out! Haha. It might jump out at ya.
The last part of my post is about some racing. I've spent the past week or so trying ot finalize my racing for the rest of the year. And the biggest news is that I'm taking off in April to race some World Cups in Europe.
So finally, here is my complete 2010 racing calendar. Enjoy.
2010 Races March GA Tech-March 13-14 Hobby Park-March 21 Furman-March 27-28
April SERC Tsali-April 11 Conference Championships-April 17-18
May World Cup #2 Houffalise-May 1-2 Swiss Racer Bikes Cup, Solothurn, Switzerland-May 8-9 Bundesliga Race-May 15-16 World Cup #3-Offenburg-May 22-23 Mellow Johnny's (Texas)-May 29
June Bump and Grind-June 6 Subaru Cup Wisconsin-June 26
July World Cup Champrey Switzerland July 24-25 World Cup Val di Sol Italy July 31-August 1
August SERC Fontana August 7-8 World Cup Windham-August 28-29
September World Champs Mont St. Anne-August 31-September 5 (U23 race-on Sept 3?)
October Collegiate Nationals Truckee, CA-October 16-17
Later nerds, I have to try and get my proffs to excuse me for two weeks from school. T
Art History: Sounds like a great class right? Wrong!
I'm actually writing this out by hand while I'm in class. I'm so bored I took out some paper and started hand writing a blog. The best part is that it actually looks like I'm being studious and taking notes when really I'm not on task. Hehe. Sneaky, sneaky.
So what's been up with me? A ton of stuff actually. I've got a bunch of funny stories that I won't tell to protect the innocent. A word of advice to those of you out there. Say you're a baker and and you bake some cookies and some brownies and you can only fit one of them at a time into the oven. But you try and fit both of them in there and things get a little crammed and things can go up in flames. So, do what Baker Bill says and decide which one you want to bake before you put them in there. Bad things will happen.
To make a long story short, I was baking brownies and then decided to cook some cookies and the brownies burned. But I've still got some awesome cookies. Yay!
Now for something completely different, I've gotten a little closer to nailing down all my sponsors for 2010. It's kind of amusing that everyone else will have new bikes and equipment before I even have all of my sponsors on board. I had a random sponsor email me today and it looks like I'll probably hook it up again. They are returning from last year but they've stepped it up a bit and I'll see if I can do the same on my side. I'll announce them and another one before too long.
So yeah, can't really say much stuff about it yet but I should have a full list of sponsors and 2010 races by my next blog post. Basically I'll be hitting some off-dirt racing with the collegiate team for a few races for March, April and May with a mix of MTB racing thrown in. Then it could be a big trip "someplace" right before school gets out and then some closer, local stuff for the first part of the summer. I'll be going back home for the summer since its relatively cheap to live with the parents. A mid-season break in June-ish/July-ish and then a ramp up for another big "trip" in August and hopefully qualify for Worlds at Mont St. Anne, Quebec.
I was hoping I'd found some good movies to put in at the end of this post but apparently I didn't so I'll leave you with a parody on the popular FML website. If you haven't heard of either you should definitely check both of them out.
Well, I've got a ******** tonight in *********. So you should totally come hangout. HAHA. Later 'merica.
I'm talking about A1 as in Anaheim One. Or the official start to the 2010 supercross season. Where have you guys been? Living under a rock. Probably. At least you don't live in the middle of nowhere like my parents. I finally rode out to service yesterday and had my phone ringing for like ten minutes. So yeah, sorry about that.
Well the primary purpose of this post was to post some movies, for you people into motos, so you could get ready for the big night on Saturday. Not a lot of stuff has been happening other than me just searching for moto movies on youtube.
Ummm..Chaput came over yesterday and we did downhill runs for like an hour. It was pretty sweet scoping out some new lines and ideas for my course. Good times had; hanging out and riding as always.
I had a pretty good time here at home over break. The parents didn't get too annoying although I still have a few more days with them and I got in a ton of riding. Oh wait shouldn't have said that. Umm... never mind, no not really any riding at all. Hehe. I almost finished painting my room, made some amazing coffee (found a new fav in Sumatran), hung out with some people in town, and went to bed at 10:30 on New Years. So yeah, successful break from school and the normal routine.
I don't want to keep you from your precious working time or relaxing time too much longer so I'm signing off Amurica. Remember that it all goes down at 10 on ESPN. Enjoy.
Somebody's been doing a little bit of work. Check those triple, triples.
Born: Dahlonega, GA
Resides: Brevard, NC (828 baby!)
Years Old: 21
Years in the saddle: 12
Nicknames: Trash Can, TA, Captain America, Special T, Pink Booties, T Cowie, Candian Two Stroke
Favorite Food: Any type of candy
Favorite Drink: Dr. Pepper
What's in the stable?: WTF? I ride bikes not horses.
Trail of choice: Sycamore Cove or my house
Playing on my ipod:Rage, Swollen Members, Young Buck, T. I., Too $hort, Zion I, Fort Minor, Destiny's Child, Rihanna, Linkin Park, Cam'Ron, Jay-Z, don't judge me
Spinning in my DVD: Moto, The Entree, Follow Me, Fight Club
Favorite read:Any of my coffee books
