California Rain

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.
~Albert Einstein

This past week I have been taking it super easy and enjoyed a few days off. On friday though, it was time to get back on the bike. It was the start of a 3 day weekend and I was definitely excited to relax a little from school and enjoy the road. Well Friday was actually one of those half misty days, and I could not wait to get on the bike. Believe it or not I love riding in the rain, at least california rain.

Well I went out and hopped on the TT bike (I don't know I just have felt like riding it lately) and went flying out towards Paradise loop. Just as I went out it started to rain harder. I was pumped. I barrelled through the rain soaked streets in my aero position as the rain pounded down upon. A smile did not leave my face the entire ride.

It goes on

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on.
~Robert Frost

A few good quotes

"A team is not about a bunch of kids out to win.
A team is something you belong to,
something you feel,
something you have to earn."


"I feel my fate in what I can not fear."
~ Roethke


"The unexamined life is not worth living."
~ Socrates


"I try to live my life without regrets. Besides, I think there are probably patterns and designs to our lives. Mostly, of course, it's fuck-ups, but there are designs, too."
~ Norman Maclean

Bicycle Spring

Windy, sunny, and Sunday,
the afternoon of your father's promise,
you will learn to ride your bike:

your father breathing hard
pushes, runs at your side,
one handon the handlebars,
the other firm on the seat,

launching you like a glider
to soar long seconds
before wobbling to crash
in the soft green field

until you know how to ride
suddenly except for the brakes
and your father suddenly
is a speck waving way behind.

as you pedal toward strange sights
in blocks where he
has forbidden you to walk.

by Keven FitzPatrick

The Lion of Fairfax

All alone for the win..

Staying on Bjorns tail....

Bjorn and I taking off on the first lap..

Juniors 1st Place

There was a cyclocross race just a few blocks from my house, so I decided to give it a go. I was not sure how it would go on my mountain bike and all, but it was actually a sweet course, and might have even been better on my mountain bike. My race was around 12:30 so I went for a little 2 hour ride before to loosen up the legs. I was pretty unsure of how my legs would be, especially since I had played basketball for about 3 hours the day before. Well they did not feel very good on the ride, but they loosened up.

I was able to do one lap pre-ride of the course and then I had to get ready to go. There were a few solid riders out there. They had cross bikes and were not even carrying water bottles so I was a bit confused on how this was going to go. Then we were starting with the women, well they started about 30 seconds before us, so that proved to be the biggest obstacle of the course for me. Well the whistle was blown and we were off. I got a great start and was in the lead breaking the group into pieces, then we got to the first barrier. I actually made a good dismount and hopped back on with no problems. Then Bjorn Fox took over the lead from me and him and I rode away from the group. He was fighting pretty hard to stay in the front so I decided to sit and wait for him to make a mistake. Well this proved to cause me some problems as he continued to dismount in front of me on short singletrack climbs and such. We weaved through the women and stuck together for most of the race. And jeze cross definitely hurts, but it is fun. I think that the most painful part is trying to get riding again after jumping over the barrier. Once you get back on and such your legs just feel beaten up from that few hard steps.

With 2 laps to go I passed Bjorn on the steep uphill climb that we had to run up. I could tell that he was laboring and I just gassed it and opened a decent gap. I continued to charge through the final lap and I enjoyed my first race and first win at a cyclocross event.