Sonic BOOM!!!!

It appears that Lars Boom is going to have his way this weekend. After his wipping he gave everyone last weekend in Hoogerheide, he has to be the favorite.

With Sven crying his way to 12th place, he has found his worlds form all of a sudden. The guy is a machine but when end of Jan show's up, it is like he forgets how to race. Trebon is out with his back. Give the man his props though, he tried to go after a head on collision at Nat's and it is just not happening

Bart should be licking his chops for this one. Vervecken has won in Italy before. The weather in Trevisio should be nice. According to weather.com, Sunday it should be 14C (that is 57F for you Americans) and clear.

On the Womens side, if Katie can't go, it is wide open. Hanka, Maryline, Wendy Sims, Brandy are all options. Katie will be having fun one way or the other. She will be racing or sitting on the sidelines drinking wine. Can't think of a better place to drink wine than Italy.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

The last major cross race before Worlds in Sunday in Hoogerheide, Netherlands.

Katie "straight outta" Compton will be lining up for the Womens race fresh from a nice break after nationals. There was a great article in the Gazette about her this week.

A couple of weeks ago, I was over at ROL Wheels World HQ, and Sean had just finished up her new set of wheels. They are the new Edge Composite tubular 1.0 rims, 38mm. These uber light rims weighed in at 260 grams a piece. Built with Sapim spokes, ROL hubs (20f/24r) and Enduro ceramic bearing, these lightweights came flying off the scale at 1130 grams for the pair. Wrapped up with either a set of Challenge or Dugast tires, these have to be lightest set of wheels running around the cross pits. She still has her other sets of ROL Carbon wheels built up with the 2.0 rims also in 38mm.

Also lining up with the Katie, are a couple of CO riders. Both Kerry Barnholt and Amy Dombroski have made the worlds team and will toe the line. Fellow Belgium resident Christine Vardaros will also be getting back into action. After smacking her head on a beam in her house and giving herself a concussion, she is again back up and pedaling.

For the mens race, the usual suspects will be there. One name that I saw on the start list was Eric Tonkin. He is still racing for Kona but his wife was with child and decieded to skip the major races this year. Guess he got the callup to play and hopes that he makes the best of it. He has been doing some commentary over at Laatste Ronde this year.

GO USA!!!

Just want to give out a shout out to the kids that made the trip over to Mol for this weekends Master's World Championships. Greg Keller and Brandon Dwight will be flying the CO cross flag over there.

You can read all of Greg's advice, race stories and travels over at mudandcowbells.blogspot.com

The wife has given me the hall pass to go in 2010. It seems a long way off but it reality it is not. It will take at least a year of hard, hard training to get back into real race shape. Having a kid is tough on your training/racing career, if you can call it a career. More like a work on progress.

The training program has already gone off the tracks

So I am sitting around work today, trying to look busy, but not really. Yakking with Dash on IM and he is giving me grief about my IM picture. So I pull up Google and do a GIS for something cool and come across this site, http://shop.belgianshop.com/index.html

This is not good. All the food, chocolate and beer from the homeland that anyone could possibly want. They sell it all, even down to the lemon mayo you get with your frites.

But what I really need to buy is the Perfect Draft. This bad boy will have all the crossers on your team wanting to hang out at your place. Perfectly chilled beer at 3 degrees C.

Then you pick the perfect Belgium beer to draw off the tap: Hoogaarden, Stella, Jupiler, Stella and Leffe. It comes in a 6L bottle. Keep it chilled and fresh for 30 days. That thing is not lasting 4 hours at my place.

If you want a German beer, you can get Becks, Lowenbrau, Diebels. Maybe you fancy some Dutch beer, you can get Grolsch, Hertog Jan and Dommelsch.

The best part of the Belgium Shop is the extensive beer selection that you can purchase from them. You can sit down with a La Chouffe and a box of waffles and watch some cross dvd's and get ready for the next season.

The first race in CO is Sept 13th, the training program can hold off for another week or month at this point.

It is better than his blue UCI skinsuit

Gotta love a place that has a cross race on a Monday and their are thousands of fans watching, drinking, eating and having a good time.

The BK's were on Sunday and Sven once again won. This is his 5th BK in the elite category. So today there was a race in Otegem that is more for showing off someone's new jersey. Sven toe'd the line in his new kit and as usual, won. I wish that we could get that fast of turn around time for our clothing.

Couple things about this kit:

The helmet does not go well.

His mechanic has done the black saddle, white tape again. Not PRO!!

But when you win every frickin race this year...you go with you know.

Positive or Negative....you make the call

Iban Mayo tested positive for EPO back at the Tour. B sample is negative. UCI wants a positive test sends it to the great lab, Châtenay-Malabry, and WOW!!!! the B sample is positive. Gotta love that type of testing procedures.

The Spaniards have said "Vete al diablo, Francia" and put the whole thing on ice. Too bad that our buddy Dick " I know LA doped" Pound has been showen the door at this point within WADA. He was a quote machine though.

We hardly knew you Frankie!

Frankie Andreau jumped before he was pushed from Rock Racing. Guess he didn't like the idea that his team was becoming a dopers last refuge. He should have fit in just well though with his shady past. Guess he also did not like the idea that Mike was going to be making the racing decisions even though Frankie was the DS and working the race. Or maybe he just tried on a pair of Rock and Republic jeans and asked his wife "Do these jeans make my ass look big?"

Anybody up for a road trip?

Starting Jan 23rd, the Astana kids will be bringing thier doping, I mean racing program to Albuquerque for a new year training camp. They must really love the green chili and the food because it can be damn cold down there in Jan and Feb. But it is better than the CSC training camp about 6 weeks ago that was above the Arctic cirlce.

Cross vid's going out on Monday

Sorry for the delay in getting these out to everyone.

I am heading over to the post office on Saturday to drop them in the mail.

Now that the Tour de Holiday Buffet and Beers is over, I can focus back to the bike and the ongoing cross season in the homeland.

The compote is coming this weekend...Sven winning everything, the Americans taking a backseat in all races and Katie "strait out of" Compton just got a uber light weight set of wheels to take back over with her. They bad boys are all that and the bag of chips.

Until then.....Nathan has put up some new video's also, see his link on the right