Christopher Jones: Jonez World

Where you been? Yeah you; where have you been? Ah on vacation, kind of like me. After a sucessful cross season all things cycling related in my life (including you mr website) have been neglected. This neglect was forced at first and has been embraced lately. With TT1’s road season not scheduled to start until almost April, I saw an opportunity to step away from the sport and lifestyle of a professional cyclist for a while. Skiing, skiing, and well more of the s word have been the order of my downtime. It had been 6 years since I shelved the sticks along with my appetite for the steep and deep. That was too long and this offseason was the binge. I toyed with planks of all sizes and enjoyed my time on all of them. On Max’s advice I have picked up skate skiing, or I should say tried to pick up, since I dug quite a few divots on the skating lanes at the Auburn Ski Club and Royal Gorge. I not sure if his goal was to humble me by being passed by 7 year old girls, or to just wear me out by telling me to go skate for 3hrs. I know what you are thinking, 3hrs isn’t that long, you ride your bike for 6. Trust me, the average heart rates from skating were much higher than riding. Still don’t believe me, come join me for a flailing session sometime.
Now it is time to get back down to business. This week kicks off the return to my training routine. We are starting a new tradition of January training trip to Maui. What better way to start off on the right foot than in a warm climate with lots of sun block?
I feel refreshed and know this season will be filled with sucess. TT1 has imported quite a few talented riders and poached some from other domestic teams. We will be a younger and hungrier team this season and I am excited about all of the young guys.

Took a short trip out to race New England Worlds and the Providence Cyclocross Festival last week and made my annual sacrifice to the food gods of the east; namely dunkies, Claire’s, and Lulu’s.  I’m not a coffee guy (insert gasps here), but it always amazes me how people have their coffee prepared at dunkin donuts; extra cream and sugar, really is the coffee that bad?  DD’s coffee already comes with cream in sugar in it, the ratio is something like 1:1:1 (coffee, cream, sugar).  Claire’s LCC is something that every person should enjoy at least once during their lifetime, if not daily.  #1 and I made sure to eat extra for some of you who will not make it out to the Haven to partake.

The racing a was decent, 3 seemed to be the number of the trip.  Three 3rds and a 6th thrown in there just to keep it real.  I’m not sure where my mud skills on the first day of Gloucester came from, but hope that they stick around for a while…  Thanks to all of the fans who came out to watch the racing and heckle me with chants of “roadie.”

Up next is some R&R this week. Collegiate MTB nats are in town this weekend, so we’ll be headed up on Friday to check out the next generation of shredders.

A little road update, the season ended on a great note both on a personal level and for the TT1. Moises (not Moses, Mr. ToM announcer) took the KoM jersey at the Tour of Missouri and the team spent a couple of days in the most aggressive rider jersey. I fought hard all week to integrate into a breakaway. I finally got my wish on stage 7 spending some time off the front with 5 pro tour pedalers. Thankfully it was a short stage!
I am happy to say that for 2010 I have signed on for a 3rd season with TT1. The boys run a great program and have an inspiring message to spread about diabetes. I will miss my man Gord though.
Now the cross season has opened up. I have been racking up the travel, 6 flights, 5 races, and 4 different states over the last 8 days. Oh and I crashed more times in my first cross race than I did during the entire road season!
I have scored a few results during this first trip, my biggest of which was my 2nd at cross vegas. This race, like vegas in general, is over the top out of control. Everyones’ sponsors are at the race and want the bragging rights that come with a win at our ‘largest cross race.’ Unfortunately, I fell just shy of the W and was the first loser. The crowd was crazy, and besides the guy who spit beer on Jamey and I, kept us motivated to do the unthinkable and hold the elite group of chasers off.
This cross season and the results that are upcoming would not be possible without all of my sponsors. Thanks to Champion System, Focus, Williams Wheels, fizik, Crank Brothers, Thomson, Smith Optics, Mavic, & Action Wipes.
Here’s a picture to help motivate you to go out and buy their products. Look at this beauty!

Up next: New England Worlds aka. Gloucester GP. I have some unfinished business at this race after flatting out of the lead on the final lap the last time I raced here.

Three, actually four summers ago I remember receiving The Call. I was on a mid summer haitus in Montana when I received a call from the boys over at TARGETRAINING. They asked if I could be in pennsylvania in 36 hours to race for them. I had no idea how I would get there, but before my brain could compute the logistics the word ‘yes’ came out of my mouth. I somehow made it to the race on time and will never forget the pride I felt when I rode in my first professional race.
Since then my career has progressed as I moved to NERAC and for the past two seasons raced for Team Type 1. Neither of these teams had added a rider mid-season until this past week when Will ‘Willow’ Duggan joined TT1 at the Tour of Utah. Immediately I remembered being his shoes, new to a team and ready to please. I also remembered that I like to exploit new guys in these situations, so I-Mac and I set out to have fun with the kid. I can’t list everything here, but Willow had a great attitude and handled the razing well. He is talented and is a good addition to TT1. Yes ladies, he is young, single, and looking…looking on websites for a Russian mail order bride that is. Kids these days…
D Lill rode well for second overall and best Utah rider while the rest of us floundered around and played back-up singers for him. If the race can iron out a few minor problems, such as keeping riders on course, it has a great future.
Up next is USPro.
I don’t have a picture of Will, so here is a picture of Cass, who is beautiful as always, holding the end of a rainbow.

Today was a good day.  Why?  My new rig showed up.  After much anticipation my first 29′er is finally here and ready to roll.  The usual suspects at Orbea, Crank Brothers, Mavic provided the hardware and the magic man CD assembled it. Getting new toys, er I mean tools for work, never gets old.

A couple of weeks ago I made the annual trip out to the New England World Championships, aka. Fitchburg.  The racing was actually quite aggressive, everyone wanted to race their bikes for once, which made for a good race.  The highlight of the trip though was my return to New Haven to see friends and conduct some business.  For all of my bashing of the hav, I do miss certain aspects of it.  One of those is definitely the Sleeping Giant Ride.  We just don’t have rides and characters like that here in nor-cal, I mean how can you top a ride that has attendees named Angry Ron, Action Figure Mike, Empire Matt, Bubble Boys?  Add in their New England sarcasm combined with trash talking while racing down open roads weaving in and out of traffic and that is the recipe for an entertaining hour of riding. The entire ride I was busting up and had a huge grin from all of the trash talking going on.  Also, you know a ride is legit when, A) they have a blog and B) El Jeffe Lance Armstrong has ridden it…

Up next are Cascade and Utah.

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.