(that’s me 4th in line)
…even though one of them crashed me. Just kidding (other-other John). My fall down was totally self inflicted. The other-other John, Ryan Gamm (Inferno), and I were throttling it at the front of Wednesday nights final Ault Park Criterium/Points Race - a.k.a. “the ultimate battle for world domination of Greater Cincinnati - where grown men race all out for $10. Teammates Jeff, Pete, Mario, and Tom had just finished lining out the bunch as step 1 of our game plan to launch the other-other John and myself (Gamm invited along for his potential power contribution) in our bid to lap the field and pick up mega points. I had missed the previous 2 of the 6 total races and was down a bit in the standings, but teammates Eric, Pete, and Jeff had the top 3 spots sewn up. The evening was mine. The attack went. It looked good. O-O John was ripping through the top part of the course with me on his wheel. I thought he was swinging off, so I came through on his inside while simultaneously glancing over my shoulder to assess our gap. O-O John was not pulling off as it turned out. I felt him come into me/me into him. My 129 lbs. vs. his 185 lbs. was an unfair match. I went down fairly hard and was run over by Gamm. A few other guys got tangled in it but I thing I was the only won who hit the pavement — sorry guys, my fault. Anyway, O-O John got me back around to the s/f for our free lap. When I got back in I was bleeding and FIRED UP. Especially after myself and another rider engaged in some childish smack talking re. the crash — sorry Chris C., I was being a tool. Adrenalin, fury, and the sweetest lead outs ever by my teammates combined to allow me to win the night. Not too bad. A crash then a victory!

The Other-Other John says, “Voila, the idiot who crashed himself.”

I think I am going to need a new skin suit. Notice the chainring marks where Ryan Gamm ran over me.

An impressive show of patience, strength, and timing at the end of yesterday’s stage. I also like the Gendarme jumping off the road and over the barrier at about 1k to go.

You may have already seen this, it is making the rounds. The Chicken is skewered and parodied in a commercial.

John K. and I have not forgotten about the podcast. We have just been extremely busy with racing, moving, etc… I am heading to Masters Nationals in L-ville tomorrow evening to prepare for my road race Thursday morning. Talk about grown (older) men fighting for the ultimate prize. My Criterium is on Sunday. It’s on the infield of the famed horse racing track, Churchill Downs. Hmmm… I’ve heard all sorts of things about the course. Mainly its lack of distance. My 125 rider field could be lapping itself after just a few time around.

So, back to the podcast. Our plan is to knock one out Thursday evening, sans email, then try to do another Sunday night avec les emails. As always, stay tuned…

The Two Johns have taken a break from podcasts, but one will be posted soon, we promise.

In the interim  this John has been moving into a house in Charlotte.  As we have talked about before, man caves come in many different forms, above are some photos of my new man cave.  It is true to its name, cave, it is also known as a crawl space.  While it may be on the unfinished side, it has all the accoutrements needed for a repair shop:  air compressor, proper repair stand at acceptable height and plenty of counter top space to service equipment and store tools.  I fear of when I drop something though, the floor looks like it will hide just about everything small that finds its way out of my hand and onto the floor. 

It takes a little time to get to know exactly where everything should go, I have lots of moving in to do as you see by the full plastic bins with all kind of old bits and the bikes haphazardly hung or leaning.  If you look very closely at the bike in the foreground you can see a variation on handlebar taping I tried after all the back-and-forth of handlebar taping, but more on that during the next podcast!

What a difference a day makes.  I go from this win on Saturday night at the Bloomington, Indiana Grand Prix Crit. to 35 miles of solo pain while trying to chase back on to the field at the McCormicks Creek ABR road race today in Spencer, Indiana.  11 laps of 4.5 mile course.  One stair step, big ring climb and a shorter small ringer.  On the 4th lap I dumped the chain from the large ring all the off the small ring.  It jammed in between the chainstay  and small ring.  I tried to pedal it back on but it just made it worse.  Had to stop, pull it out and get back under way at the bottom of the hill.  I lost about a minute on the group.  2 laps later I was hovering around 20 secs. back, managing my situation, and thinking that I just might catch back on.  Then the group lined out and that was it.  I spent the remainder of the race about 1 min. - 1 min. 30 back.  I’d catch people who were shelled from the group but could not encourage them to join me in my quest.  Finished, alone, in about 20th.  From hero to zero in less than 24 hours…