Christopher Jones: Jonez World

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. 

Cass and I are spending our first complete weekend in Auburn together!  It is weird to think that we have been here for three months and haven’t both been in town at the same time for an entire weekend…

I just saw this on TV.

Ridiculous!  But wait, there’s more!  A free book light and you can wear it to sporting events…

How can I say no?  Maybe this will be a new fad to keep spectators warm during ‘cross races.

The cross season is winding down for me and I only have three races left.  The combination of my friend, Mr. Parasite, that I brought home from Mexico wiping me out for first month of the season and the team only being able to focus on one of the main series has made this a weird cross season.  I’m stoked that I am finally getting back to full strength and am looking forward to the last races of the year.  Last weekend was a muddy one in New Jersey.  As usual Dave did a stellar job in the pit and kept my bikes running.  Apparently there weren’t enough pressure washers to go around so he used his MacGyver like skills and dunked my bike in the lake every lap to clean it!

The Jersey mud…

…made me long for more socal sun from the previous weekend.

Last week actually concluded my cyclocross training for the year and this week is a rest week.  Rest weeks are awesome.  #1 agrees and has decided to declare this a rest week for herself.  She’s much better at resting than I, and is pulling double nap days.  Apparently she dreams of bacon too…

Since her beach cruiser was stolen in the Haven, Cass has been without a bike.  So with the help of Bob at College St. Cycles and the boys at Williams Wheels, she got her first road bike last week and we took it out for some hot laps.  I have plenty of pictures, but need to get approval before I post them… ah who needs approval… I live life dangerously…sometimes… Here they are.

The old vs. new bike:

Yes it is that time of year again, #1’s birthday month. Every year this celebration seems to grow. When we first started to date, a simple happy birthday card and party on the actual day would do. Somehow I have been persuaded that an entire day, month, one month until the day, and now season are to observed and celebrated…
Here’s a photo from last year’s celebration… I hope that this year’s birthday celebration requires me to go somewhere fun like the Carribean again.

Happy Birthday month!
I’m off to Northampton. And yes mom, my schedule page has been updated.

The USGP kicked of this weekend in Louisville, KY. It was the first time our three man Sonic/Louis Garneau cross powerhouse team was all in one location. It was like my third Christmas of the year, with first being the real Christmas and the second is when road training camp starts. Both of these bicycle related christmas’ begin by me leaving the house with nothing and return with a suitcase or two full of team and sponsor gear. The look on #1’s face is always priceless upon my return. Actually it is more an eye roll than a look, maybe I’ll try to capture digitally when I return tonight. Speaking of sponsors, I have some awesome support this season. Without turning this into too much of a commercial here is my short NASCAR style sponsor shout out. The number #11 Crank bros., SRAM, FIZIK, Smith Optics, Van Dessel was awesome today. The boys brought new bikes straight from the shop but and chose to use the vintage ‘07 season kit hoping it would bring us some luck. During practice we were a little tight entering the corners and loose on the run up so we made some air pressure adjustments to the Challenge tires and added spikes to the Mavic Yellow Furys which seemed to cure the problem. Late in the race we made a tough call and on a green flag stop switched to Van Dessel #2. The others opted for track position while we took two tires. We were hoping that the combination of a green white checked and ultra deep dish Shimano carbon wheels would lead us to victory lane. It didn’t work out to be the right decision, but hey that’s racin’.
I came across this quote in the book that I am currently reading that perfectly describes one the observations that #1 and I have made since our relocation to nor-cal. “This is not California, where your car accounts for fifty percent of your personality.” After becoming accustomed to not using our car while in the Haven it is shocking how sad, but true this passage is about Californians and their cars, especially their big trucks.
Up next: The Cycle Smart International in Northampton, MA.