New Colors

Well this year I decided to make a change, I will not be riding for Cycle City but instead I will be riding for "Team Hammer Nutrition". I have nothing but great things to say about Joe Fox and Cycle City and I appreciate the opportunity to ride for that team, and I will continue to shop in his stores. I did decide that since I am a person that talks up Hammer products so much then I figure I should put my money where my mouth is, and that is why I have decided to ride for Hammer this year. Last year when I started riding for Cycle City I was concerned that I wasn't good enough to race for a team, I didn't want to wear their team kit and not represent them well. I have to say that I am feeling those same feeling again, but I guess I will just get over it again.

I am pretty excited because my team kit should be here on Wednesday, I feel like a kid in a candy store....or for that matter, me in a carbohydrate store!!! Just to throw this out there too, if you have never ordered from Hammer Nutrition you can save 15% on your first order by using me as a referral. You can do this a couple of ways, the simplest is just by clicking on the Hammer link on the sidebar of this blog, that will take you to the Hammer website and gives you my referral number. Or you can call Hammer at 1-800-336-1977 and give them my referral number when placing the order "107465". I know that some have already done this in the past and saved some money.



Yesterday was the start of preregistration for the Dirty Kanza 200, I jumped online and registered right at 5:00 a.m. It was fun to sit there and hit the refresh button every few seconds and watch the "Registered Riders" list grow. Last year the rider limit was 150 but there ended up being 157 starters because the promoters allowed some of the Salsa staff to enter as well, I thought that was really cool. This year the limit went to 300 for the race and 25 two person teams for the non competitive portion (still no small task). My last check there was 313 total entries and 18 of these were 9 two person teams so there is only 5 spots left in the race, it is amazing how fast this race is filling up. I think I have probably forgot more about the DK from last year than I actually remember, it is funny how fast your mind forgets just how painful it can really be. My goal this year will be to finish, I had some amazing results last year and it's our nature to want to better our outcome every year. I would love to do better than last year and I will try but this race is so long with so many variables that I am going to just go out and ride my own ride. As far as variables, the weather alone can make this a day of pure hell with heat and wind. You just never know what you are going to encounter out there and there is plenty of opportunity for WIND!!! My back and butt were in some serious hurt last year because obviously 200 miles is a long way to ride, not to mention the toll that the heat had taken on my body. When I got to the last checkpoint and sat down inside that gas station my hands were shaking so bad I couldn't hardly drink my water, I think more got on me than in my mouth. That's enough of about that because I am going to do the best I can.

I did notice some very talented riders on the confirmed riders list, I am really excited to see how Stoney does this year in the single speed class. Stoney took second place last year and wasn't too far from first place. Also I am so excited that Tim and Mark are teaming up for the two person relay, these guys are no strangers to gravel. Also Coach is signed up as well, I am sure we will see great things from him at the race.