Milk Jug #1

Strike 1...too much water on the west side of the state.  May 14 is #2, so until then keep riding.

Pontiac Lake

Meet the new Stumpjumper Comp 29'er.  I have never ridden a bike that is more fun to ride than this!  Big wheels are apparently the way to go...

Meet the flat friends.  Jeff had issues too today, but still managed to turn out some fast laps.

No such luck for me.  After a first lap that left a little in the tank for later, I flatted on one of the rock gardens.  One simple problem, I only had one 26" tube and a CO2 cartridge.  That didn't work out so well, as after about 2 min of riding on the newly stretched tube, it felt like I was running on another flat.  Fortunately the road crossing people from CycleTherapy had a pump and I inflated the rear to about 70 psi to see if it would keep air.  With the tube seeming to hole air, I decided to jump back into the race.  It was nice to finish but not nice to finish last.  What team am I on again?

Fun day today!  Milkjug #1 is on Thursday...I guess I should get a tube.

Watch around 30 seconds...day 2 from last year's USGP in NJ.

PR

A few from today...

Curt Potocki

Chris Gehrs

Jeff "Titanium Lil' Pony" Weinert

John Osgood

From left to right, Chris, me, Jeff, Curt, Brian, John, Scott?, and two I don't remember...

Attempting a break...my legs were worthless

Tons of riders in the B's today with only one crash.  I did manage to get to ride in the grass once but didn't find any barriers.

Brian

Osgood showing who's boss.

Fun rides today but I'm disappointed with my legs.  Guess that is what happens when you don't put the time in that you need.  Hoped to feel better but the new 29'er absolutely rocked on its first trail day.  PLRA was in great shape and a bunch of people were out there.  We had a nice group and it was good to FINALLY get to ride with people!

Good luck to BRENT who will be amongst the greats at Roubaix!

Devolder alone in the last 200 m...quite a way to win Flanders

Will we see these on 'cx bikes in the near future?  Electronic shifters in combo with Shimano's 7900 drivetrain that parallel the standard STI setup.  Probably more useful on TT bikes but who knows...

Looking forward...

Short and sweet, I'm looking forward to racing!  My Allez with Sram Rival is awesome.  I was a bit hesitant to make the leap but I would highly recommend it to anyone.  Shimano recently came out with a new Ultegra group, which of course I'd like to try out, but for the price, I can't say enough about Sram.  My only issue is with the "openglide" cassettes in combo with muddy, grassy 'cx racing.  They seem to want to shift constantly (which gets annoying).  So I guess I'll keep running Shimano cassettes for 'cx.  The shifters, when placed correctly, fit my hands much better than the "old" 10 speed Shimano shifters did since they made the handle more skinny from the 9 speed versions.  

On the MTB front, not much can be said when I upgraded from a 10-year old bike with a Shimano 2x8 drivetrain to a sweet 29'er with new components and disc brakes.  My first MTB race should be at Pontiac Lake, but it would be nice to get out there sometime between now and

 then.  I'm a HUGE fan of the Milkjug racing though for April and May.  Those are exactly what MTB racing should be...laid back, fun, and you get tons of swag for your cheapo entry fee.  If you haven't tried one yet, get out and do one this spring!

That's all for now folks...see ya when I see ya.