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5-4-3-2-1-0 - Racing Begins!
TUE, 30 JAN 2007

5 Star Fish / Collins Motorsports Team takes
4 of the top ten spots in the
30+ 1/2/3 CBR "Ride It Like You Stole It" Criterium, the first race of 2007, with a
2nd and
1st place finish. HOWEVER, we came up with a big
0 in the race that really mattered, the Pro/1/2 100k.

2007's season of racing begins.

30+ 1/2/3 - 60 minutes
I had butterflies in my stomach like it was the first day of high school or something. They went away when we started racing. Orders from the chief were to play it cool for 30 minutes to let the race settle in, then work our magic. Karl Bordine goes up the road, then Peter Anderson, then Chris DeMarchi and Dan Vinson. We plant four guys in a break of nine. The break includes Chris Walker, Thurlow Rodgers, Gary Scott (Velocity), and two other dudes. Our boys turn the screws, taking turns attacking and attacking while me and the rest of the gang hang back and block. The pack gets anxious with 5 to go but our blocking keeps them from threatening while up ahead the tactics are working. Into the last turn I see my work is done and decide to sit up, not that I had much energy to challenge for 10th anyway. Karl leads out Chris and Chris comes around for the win with Karl taking second. Dan and Peter get 5th and 8th. Nice way to start the season. Click on the cool photo of Chris winning to see it in full glory: to the left of him is his wife, clapping, and to the far right is Karl giving Chris prop's.

Pro/1/2 - 100k
Lots of fresh legs were at the line for this one and it was a full 125 field. Word was Toyota-United was supposed to be in town and show up but they never graced us with their presence. Most of the local teams had lots of guys (SDBC, AFP, and Schroeder Iron, to name a few) but the only full pro squad was SuccessfulLiving. There were several good one-off riders like Aaron Olson (T-Mobile) and Neil Shirley (Jittery Joe's). The Polish national team was there, too, though we learned from last year to not be near them in the turns.

I'll start from the end of the race to say we came up with nothing in the top ten. We tried to get a train going but it was bump and grind the last 9 laps and while we got close, we couldn't string more than three guys together at a time. Not only was it challenging to fight for position and wheels with so many dudes, but most of us were pretty darn tired after the first race effort. I was on fumes for the last few laps and it turns out mostly everyone else was, too. No breaks got away in this one but the pace was somewhere between 27-28 MPH for the entire 60-some miles.

And so, we debut with a bang and a whimper but it's only race #1 and we honestly were looking at it as mostly training. My legs know it was a lot of training.

-adm
Tell Me Your Thoughts

end

Riding? Yes. Poetry Writing? No.
WED, 24 JAN 2007

I've been off the grid for nearly three days as I rearranged my office and computers to somehow work-in Jule's office stuff and computer and desk. The room formerly her office is now empty and, with the help of many kind friends and family, we have succeeded in stripping the old paint and wallpaper and are now getting ready to sand in preparation to paint.

While cleaning up my office I came across this sheet of paper with a poem I wrote for a BICYCLING magazine contest back in early 2002. I believe the contest was to write a short story or poem appealing for a new bike. I had just crashed out at El Do, suffered some serious road rash and bruising, and broke my original Trek 5200 frame. I figured I'd take a chance on the contest, so I came up with what you see in the picture:

BIG CRASH
ROAD RASH
Bike thrashed -
Renew.

I thought it was clever. It definitely was a true story, just succinct. I was so sure I was gonna win, I was already imagining how I'd enjoy the Trek Project One 5500, and had visions of custom paint jobs dancing in my head.

I never did hear from BICYCLING. Apparently, they thought I was better off buying my own new bike and sticking to riding instead of writing poetry.

-adm
Tell Me Your Thoughts

end

Happy New Year! New Team!
THU, 04 JAN 2007

Happy New Year!

Oh my, a month since I blogged! Excuses include being busy shopping, visiting, and otherwise celebrating the holidays, a good amount of riding (but never enough), some cleaning and organizing around the house, and for the past five days, being sick.

I haven't been on my bike this year since I caught a cold that started keeping me down on New Year's Eve. It wasn't bad that day, but a long ride out to Como and back probably pushed it over the edge, so I was feeling yucky Monday and especially on Tuesday and am on the last day or two of it now. It probably would have been worse if I had tried to ride any of this week, so I didn't. And it rained tonight but I wasn't going to ride Hughes Park world championships anyway. Maybe I'll try a little spin tomorrow.

I've gotta tell you about the ride I was on with Julio and Brad last week Wednesday (12/27). We got to put our noses into some serious wind and got sandblasted, too. There was a southeast wind blowing real good that gave us a nice push down PCH, sand included. We averaged 30 MPH pretty steadily on the way down, and then something like 15 MPH on the way back up. We went down to where PCH meets the Santa Ana river trail and then headed up. Luckily, we planned a break at the Starbucks on Main St. in HB. I got home and checked the weather online to read the wind was 45 MPH sustained with gusts up to 75 MPH. We know.

New Team!
It's official: I am now a member of Team 5 Star Fish for the 2007 season! We've got an awesome roster, director, bikes, and all sorts of other goodies, but I'll tell more later. For now, check out the press:

-adm
Tell Me Your Thoughts

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