front & back...

2nd flat, not mine, on wnw. 1hr into the ride & we're just past Denton, ugh...

visited w/ some of the locals, I was thinking of where to bail on this journey...
his buddies scurried, but this little guy had a few more questions...
I stuck around despite the uneventful front portion of this ride. Finally a can of gas was thrown on the campfire at Kramer corner, we were off. 7 painful miles to Sprague & then I was a passenger back to Lincoln, motorpacing up HWY 77 on the back of our group of 6. Ended my evening with twinges of cramping as I drifted off to sleep. Sweet ride after all...

Later,

TK

glga reconnoiter...

Unrelated...

DK with the early flat...
My bike waits patiently for me to get back on it...
FOB...
Unsure why we stopped...
That's what I'm talking about...
DK emerges from a MMR - 3 miler...
Serious route discussion...
old tree...
a lot going on right here...
day on gravel with some nice folks = big smile...

damn! riding bikes is fun...

100.7

Later,

TK

when world's collide...

Both the Tuesday nighter & WNW had some new/old faces show their faces this week. Yep, that's C-bread on his plus size IF road bike. Dudes already got the fast all-day genes now he's working on gettin' crit fast!

I had to blur this picture to obscure his identity. Kidding...bad camera phone pic, sorry dude. I knew TP was going to be in town for WNW, but I roll up to find Scooter there as well! Hell, once MT rolled up we had a bona fide team ride going. Me, Coach, TP, Scooter, & MT...damn.
You can see the excitement boiling over in this picture...
Warning: bike geek-out alert! 5 Gary Fisher Arc Pro's posing for the camera...

All good. Riding bikes with your friends, can't complain.

Later,

TK

white rock hundee...

Alarm went off at 3:30 am Saturday, Cornbread was collecting myself, MT, & FOB all before 5:00am for our outing that began at 9:00am three hours south in mule country. Apparently it was once the mule capitol of the world but is now the former mule capitol of the world, that must be a bitter pill to swallow. We also found ourselves deep into Chiefs country, this tailgater looked like it needed a little love to restore it to its former glory.

Host Joe Fox & family hosted this great event at their families farm getaway. Below: Joe gives his pre-ride speech...
30 something miles in there was a manned checkpoint. We refueled & grabbed new cue sheets. We were ignorant at this point to what lay ahead...
The ride started with around 30 folks?, MG also had made the trip from Lincoln, but a group of 5 formed consisting of myself, MT, C-bread, Peter Krause (no relation), & John from Topeka. The five of us rolled out of wherever we were? I'm not even sure what that town was called. What we found...white rock! Lots of it. The roads in the county to the North of Lathrop were covered with white rock, edge to edge & deep at times. I'm guess-timating we road 25 miles of the stuff, maybe more. Your focus was on keeping the tempo high as we plowed forward through the stuff. Hard to enjoy the scenery when your concentrating so hard on staying upright & maintaining your forward progress. Looking back though...it made it that much more fun, perseverance man! Below: leaving a directional marker for those behind us...
We had a great tailwind here & overshot our turn...
Token self-portrait. What a beautiful day, light winds, low humidity, & moderate temps. Mid-July? WTF!
Sorry Peter...our only mishap besides MT's flat. Peter caught a rut & flew into the shrubery, fairly soft landing. Ogle RD MMR, sweet section...
Hmmm?...

The five us rolled in together with around 107 on the computers & a 17.4 average, 6000' of climbing. A hard, fast, challenging hundee+...good day. MT was smooth as ever & C-bread strong as a...well strong as a mule all day. Good crew. Ride of the day...FOB! He hooked up with JS & rocked a super impressive ride! Below: FOB chokes down an exploding Bud thrown at him as he arrives at the finish...
The hundee's are probably winding down for this year. GLGA recon this weekend will be one of the last, if not the last, for the year. Saturday's ride was my 10th of the year, I counted DK as one even though it was a double. Only one of those was on the road.

Thanks to the Fox family & all that helped out! What a great day, I'll be back...

Later,

TK

GLGA recon ride, alternate wnw...

Cornbread & myself went our separate ways after DK, hadn't ridden together in 6 weeks! Hooked up yesterday for some gravel goodness. Hadn't discussed a GLGA recon ride but the wind direction pointed us that way & off we went. The course is going to go further north this year on some our favorite routes. Below: refuel in V-po.

'68 Apache 10? I used to have one. Mine was not nearly so shelled out. Looked like some raccoons had been living in it. Farmer said it had been around the block. He jumped in & motored away...
Surprise MMR, we thought it was going to be a dead end, nope just the kind of section we were looking for...
Beautiful evening, starting our return south to Lincoln. Great riding with you man!
Heading south this saturday for an adventure. New roads, new faces...can't wait.

Later,

TK

training weekend...

I like going into a race weekend with no expectations. A couple days of training in a group ride setting is a better way to look at it. Below: kickin' it after the Papillion Crit. Fun course through a very modest well kept neighborhood, pleasant venue. Had a good warm up, race started fast, feeling great...this was going to be a good night! 4 laps in I'm behind the only crash in the race, I'm at a dead stop at the base of a short climb. The field goes by & I'm chasing for about 45 of the 50 minute event. What happened to 60 minute Cat 3 races, seems like were racing shorter events these days? Like I said training races, right? I got my work out in for sure.

pro 1/2 start line...
Gary Fisher Arc Pro's calling it a night...
Fast forward to Elkhorn yesterday. 72 mile RR or circuit race or whatever you want to call it. Team mate Chet got away early with a another rider & got a nice gap on the field. TP & myself moved to the front of the field & dictated the pace for a couple laps, hoping that Chet's gap would stick. It did, the two stayed away & Chet held on for the win! Super-psyched for Chet, he deserves the good result. Team mate JT also got away towards the end but fell victim to an untimely flat tire. Our race was shortened due to bad weather that never came, just wind. No big deal I got multiple hard efforts in. Training, I'll take it.
Back to reality today...

Later,

TK

winding it down...

So it's not quite mid-July & I feel like my road racing season is winding down. What...?

Papillion crit tonight & RR tomorrow in Elkhorn. I may see another RR this season but unless I plan on traveling my crit season is basically already over before it even got started. I know T of KC II is coming up but I'm attending a wedding that Saturday at 11:30 in Lincoln. If the wedding was at 1:00 I might have been able to race Master's at Cliff Dr. & jam back up here. I'm probably not going to drive down to KC just to do the Friday night race. I could drive down for OP on Sunday though? We'll see. Since DK I have had no continuity in my training or race plan, life has gotten in the way. I'm still riding but the schedule is really disjointed, I'll call it choppy. I'm know there are 1000's of others having the same struggle & trying to find the balance between work & play. Doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

The good news...I feel good, physically at least. Mentally, no comment. Below: these 2 thought they might like to make the trip to Lawrence with me last Saturday. Don't fret guys...I'll be back before you know it, like in a few hours.


I guess I should be leaving for the "TT" right about now. I think I'll mow the yard instead. It's crazy humid out, I don't need to spend the day in Omaha sweating between a morning "TT" & the evening races. I don't race until 6:45.

I'll leave everyone with a couple feel good shots from last year's event...

See you up there!

Later,

TK

f-u hundee...

Yesterday sucked. The plan had to work to perfection for me to pull off the racing in Lawrence scenario (see previous post). My wife was taking the dogs up North with her to her relatives but I had to boogie right after my race on Sunday & drive to Columbus to pick the dogs up from her so she could go on a Niobrara excursion with her family. Plan fell apart because I never made it to Lawrence. So I get back to Lincoln before she heads North & I keep the dogs with me. Our dogs hate fireworks & every m-effer in our neighborhood is pulling out all the stops. Around 10:30 pm they are so tired from being stressed out they finally pass out, only waking up when the really big stuff goes off. So I'm so pissed off last night that I'm actually calm, a volcano ready to blow.

I wake up this morning still simmering & get ready to ride. At least the fireworks have stopped & I can leave the dogs for awhile. I roll out just before 7:30 on the CX bike, gravel should cure what ails me.


Wind is out of the NE, but this is an angry ride! I'm heading South, I don't want to start out into the wind & I don't care if I have to ride home into the wind, maybe it will release some of my inner turmoil.


Straight South on 38th, Beatrice bound with the wind at my back. Below: the sweet 4 mile stretch of MMR between Hackberry & Pickrell Rd.

The scenery today was amazing. You know its a beautiful day when even my camera phone pix look good.Sun, rain, & chemicals...the corn is going nuts.Stopped to visit with some of the locals...

After Beatrice I headed West into new territory. MMR everywhere. 120th & Chestnut area, 2 mile section.

110th & Cherry...

The MMR Trinity...110th & Cedar. A 3-way intersection of MMR!

To the East...

To the South, where I just came from...

To the West, where I'm headed. Freakin' gorgeous out! It was MMR for 2 miles after I made my decision to head West.

Before I left the Trinity of MMR I paused to pay homage to those who had been here before & to those who hopefully will visit this site in the future. I stopped & listened for a few minutes as I was overwhelmed by the sound of the wind moving through the corn that surrounded me. It was definitely a "moment". Angry ride? What angry ride...?

Decided to work my way over to Cortland but got side-tracked by Aspen Rd. Detoured for a bit then headed to town to refuel.

100.6


18.0 avg.


Maybe I should ride pissed off more often, that's actually the fastest hundee this year.

Does this look like an angry guy?

Later,

TK