Of all the eBay questions I've gotten recently, this one takes the cake:

Dear 71eight,

Sorry but what's the difference between 10 speed and 9 speed?

- westport287

Are you serious?

Shredded. That's how my legs feel. I rode at the track yesterday a.m. with Mike Mc and Wyatt behind Pete's Honda @ 55kph for a couple of high cadence team pursuit sessions in a 90 inch gear. Ouch. Funny how it feels at one speed and then Pete will roll the throttle for just a touch more and my form goes out the window- hips curl, the fronts of my legs start to shred and I'm trying desperately to keep up with my cranks. 9 laps of that and I was breathing out my bunger.
Of course I decided to go back to the track last night for some long lap points racing. I put an 88 inch gear on for kicks and it was funny that I was able to hold off guys rolling 880 fronts and disc rears for points. Truth be told, it only happened a couple of times and the gear felt small, but lesson learned... I'll be back with a 90 or maybe a 91 and see how that goes.

Then I rode up West Alpine Road @ 350 watts today and cracked myself, came home and ate pretzels and slammed a couple of Cokes. Shredded. Stupid. I'm hitting the ice bath later.

The velodrome is so much fun and I've missed it. I was really happy that Yeah Yeah lent me his Orbea last year so I could go down and hit the banking again. It's where I started, on the Kissena velorome, won rider of the year, then moved up to a Cat 1 and started hitting Friday nights @ T-Town, where the locals come out in the hundreds and cheer you on and jazz you for getting dropped.

Then I moved to Boulder, Colorado and one day the rent was way overdue and I sold all my gear, my Bianchi (a made in Italy SP tubed Bianchi, not the Tiwaneese junk frames of today), my Serotta pursuit bike, my discs, my bladed Campy wheels, my Superbe Pro rings and cogs, my rubber skinsuit, everything had to go. There was no money in track, so I thought, 'why bother, too much hassle'.
I look back now and realize it was the stupidest thing I've ever done.

Finally finished Alison's painting. 64" x 32", oil on canvas, title: "The dive". Took a while and stumbled along the way, but learned a lot and completed it. I went over to hang it and she was generous enough to fill my gut with some pizza. Bonus!

All around rider prize

TT podium

Kevin having a dig

Crit podium

Craigger having a dig in the 40-45 RR

The only podium pic I don't have is the RR, where I finished second.... again.
Pretty standard really and my 3rd silver medal at Nationals in my lifetime. Annoying.

It was cool to win the all around rider though, if a consolation prize.

Now, I'm off to eat cookies and drink massive amounts of beer.