Christopher Jones: Jonez World

As endurance athletes the off-season and pre-season are spent logging many hours training for the upcoming season. These long mellow paced rides serve as a foundation for the rest of the season’s training and racing. Similar to building a road or house, we must have a solid base to support the rest of the structure. Without this foundation our season would be short lived as our bodies break down from the unaccustomed stress that racing creates.
Cyclist can talk endlessly about how to build the best base. One thing we fail to discuss is the importance of a solid base in our lives. For years my family and #1 have supported me at races and in my pursuit of professional cycling. I remember watching the San Francisco G.P. As a cat 5 telling #1 that some day I would like to become a professional. She asked what two races would I most want to do and I responded with the SF G.P. and The Phildelphia Int. Cycling Classic. She kind of smiled and said that when I make it into those races she would be there each time I raced. I thought sure you will.
Six years later I have now raced Philly three times. True to her word, #1 and my mom have made it to all three editions, joined this year by my sister and neice.
Thanks to all of my friends and family who have supported me so far in my career. I could not have made it this far without you.

Previously I had mocked Bike World News and their slogan, “ALL THE NEWS THAT  SPRINTS, WE FIT” by stating that, “maybe they don’t know that I don’t exactly sprint.”  Apparently I can sprint… well I had a 50/50 chance of winning.

Our visit to America’s 50th state was the perfect way to unwind after a busy first half of the season.  #1 and I enjoyed the S,S,S,S, & S (50 pts to the person who guesses what all of those mean).  Our travel was a little rough on the way home, but our airline took care of us and we now have free airfare for another trip.  Often people come home sunburned and broke, we came home farmer tanned but with another vacay!

I have now spent over 15 days at home in The Endurance Capital of the World, which is my longest streak since the season started.  It has been entertaining riding with all of my local boys and hearing their stories.  The local world championships, which we have three times a week not annually, have been fast and furious.  I still have 10 more days at home too!

We had a family reunion of sorts to celebrate my mom’s 50th last weekend.  It is was a rare occurrence for all 25 of us to get together in one location and made for some memories.  We had some serious dude time on the golf course Sunday.  I haven’t played 18 in years and man did it show!  I teed off on #1 and next thing I knew I was somehow putting on the 10th green.  Whoops.

#1 suprised me with tickets to the Hangtown Motocross for this weekend.  I haven’t been to watch a race since I broke my back about 10 years ago, so am stoked to see the guys rip it up.

It’s rolling round the bend… The next series of races is only 10 days away and contains two of my favorite races of the season, Philly and Tour de Beauce.  I had a couple of near misses at these races last year and plan on turning those into W’s this time around.

And I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when,

I’m stuck in Folsom prison, and time keeps draggin’ on

But that train keeps on rollin’ on down to San Antone..

I cruised past Folsom and have had this song stuck in my head all day… until that stupid Maria Carey song, Dreamlover, came on the radio a minute ago, now all I hear is her screeching.

S,S,S,S, & S = Surf, Sun, Sand, Snorkling, & Sangria

Greetings. Yes, it has been awhile since my last post, but I hope that the updates from the little blue bird have kept you entertained and informed.  This season has been an interesting one for cycling in the US.  The season started off on a high note with ToC starting in my home town.  Since then races of all sizes have been canceled on a regular basis.  Even some of the largest events on the US calendar have fallen, Tour of Georgia has disappeared and #1’s favorite races of the year, Philly, almost met its demise.  On the flip side, there is a huge resurgence of interest from fans in the sport, mostly due to The Factor unretiring.  The fans at ToC were off the hook and the people of Gila who are normally too scared of a Gila monster attack ventured out to catch a glimpse of The Factor.  What does this all mean for cycling long term… more races, more teams, more money??? Heck, I don’t know.  I am just stoked to have an awesome job, on a team with a unique life changing mission.

I am on the tail end of a three of a three week road trip.  We hit up Vuelta de Bisbee, Gila, and now Joe Martin.  The team is starting to come around and I expect to see TT1 logging some W’s soon.

For now Cassarole and I are headed to America’s 50th state for some R&R.

Yes, it has been a while since I last posted on the site and no today is not the day where I am going to crank out an update on all of the racing that I have done so far this season… maybe tomorrow though.

For now head on over to Bike World News and read my diary for The Redlands Cycling Classic.

I have been writing daily diaries for Bike World News, so hop on over there and check it out.

Pheww, the 1st Team Type 1 training camp of 2009 is over.  The first 5 days of photo and video shoots were the most grueling part and made the last 7 days of training seem easy.  The ToC guys are flying right now and Richardo notched the 1st victory of the season for the team.  My four teammates with diabetes are fit and always amaze me with their ability to manage their disease while competing professionally.

I’m now back home for a week of final tune up workouts and some quality time with my #1 fan before I start my season.  It will be sweet to kick off the season with a race that starts twenty miles from my house and happens to be one of the largest races we will compete in all year. The community of Sacremento has thrown tons of support behind the ToC and are striving to make their stage the biggest party of the race.  If you are in the area don’t miss out.

For those who are interested in doing some ToC course recon, click on over to my homeboys at Williams Cycling. If you watch carefully you might notice yours truly on the stage 4 preview.

If you are in need of more entertainment, Bike World News has printed my latest journal entry.

It is finally official, Team Type 1 will be racing in the 2009 Amgen Tour of California.  You can read the press release here.  I am also now officially stoked, that if I am selected for the ToC team, that I will be able to race in our recently adopted hometown of Sacramento.  The entire race should be a party, so don’t be a party pooper, clear your calendar and join the fiesta.  I have been nominated to write a periodic dairy during training camp for Bike World News, and will update it daily during the ToC.  The BWN website claims, “ALL THE NEW THAT  SPRINTS, WE FIT”…maybe they don’t know that I don’t exactly sprint…but on the other hand being a climber I am slight in build so maybe I “fit”?  Either way, it is a superb site and you can check out my first entry here.  Last thing, I’ll try to post a bunch of entertaining pictures of us from camp tonight or tomorrow.

Sorry for the extended absence between updates, but after cross nationals I needed a vacation.  Where did I go on vacay?  Not Hawaii, nope not Mexico, actually I didn’t go anywhere.  After a long year of travel it was a pleasant experience just to be at home with #1.  With our proximity to Tahoe area I decided to pick up some new planks for us.  Neither of us had been skiing in quite some time, but the skills have come back quickly, and skiing provided a nice mental break from riding. 

The 2009 season with TT1 is going to be rad, yes rad.  First up is a two week long party called training camp in the Solvang and Santa Barbara area.  After that a crew of us will stay in a California for a stage race in February.  I’ll keep the updates frequent and check back for the latest news at the top of the page.

Here’s a parting shot of what our team kit might look like for ‘09 according to this website.

A quick shout out to my teammate, Nick Keough for 2nd place in the U23 Cyclocross Nationals race today. At 19 years old, he still has a few more chances to upgrade from the white Louis Garneau/ Sonic/ Jittery Joes kit to the stars and stripes of a national champion. Keep your eyes out for this kid, he is the real deal and rumor has it he is even better on the road!

This past weekend, #1 and I set out to explore out new homeland; Nor-Cal.  Saturday we took the jaunt of to San Fran to hang out with some of our Yalie friends.  Geoff and Morgan were gracious and played culinary guides for us.  We started out at a hole in the wall Indian food place, that was great, then found a coffee shop to chill in, but the true highlight was Bob’s… a doughnut shop.   Apparently Geoff eats doughnuts often… We then caught the bus back to the hotel and thankfully caught the tail end of warm cookie and milk hour. 

 Sunday we started off with a healthy breakfast of crepes (yes, we do eat a lot) and then headed off to Golden Gate Park for a cross race.  GGP is huge and is similar to Central Park and was packed with people on what the warmest day I have experienced in SF.  The course  layout was true west coast style, with narrow single track sections, a mt. bike feel, and lots of beer/ cash hand outs on the run up.  Note to my east coast homies - there are some legit racers in the bay area and it would be sweet to see some UCI races held there to give the area cross scene some more exposure.

On Tuesday we went polar opposite from our visit to SF; we went redneck style and celebrated our manhood by chopping a tree down.  Cass comes from a long line of loggers, while my family prefers to pillage the black gold from the earth.  So we both have family ties to borrowing resources from mother nature, but it was our first experience felling a tree together…  let me tell you, nothing strengthens a relationship like yelling timber at the top of your lungs in harmony and feeling the earth shake under foot as a 6′ white fir hits the deck.

Click on the picture of Cass (her glasses are courtesy of the boys at Smith Optics) with the saw to see highlights of our Christmas tree expedition.