Christopher Jones: Jonez World

Lance Armstrong was always talking about how he’d reconed this stage and pre rode that stage in order to prep for the Tour. So, I took a page out his book and made it better. I watched the NASCAR race at Infineon raceway, not once, but twice on TV to prepare for this past weekend’s bike race at the same race track. Did it pay off? Yes! I won two tickets to the ‘08 NASCAR race weekend at the raceway. #1 is pretty stoked as she’s always wanted to go to a race. Mark your calendars for sometime in June of next year so we can all party at the race. I know some, well maybe all, of you are going to laugh when I say this, but it really was a highlight of my racing career to be able to race on the same road circuit that stockcars and indy cars race on. All I could think about the entire time was how cool it would be to race a car around the track. I wanted to take the rental car for a hot lap or two but the security gaurd thought otherwise…
Off to Bend today.

Lot’s of bike racin‘ has been taking place, but that’s not why you stopped by. You stopped by to see something like this:

Yep, it’s a gas OR electric powered cooler! It will keep your beee…I’m mean soda cold. They claim that it will do 13 mph and has a range of 15 miles! I thought this would be a perfect feed zone machine, #1 wasn’t really too into the idea until she saw that you can get a trailer to pull your dog in:
Marriage is all about compromise, right? Well I may have to give in on the dog…but it would be worth it get the motocooler and an iphone. I’ll keep you updated on the negotiations. Did I mention that the cooler comes standard with disc brakes and aluminum rims.

My butt has spent more time planted on the seat of a car the past 5 days than it has on a bike seat… New Haven to Rochester to Providence to New Haven to Exeter to Fitchburg, phew. Lots of travel, but the team has been posting some awesome results. While hanging out and racing with the dudes is fun, I wish I was here with the #1 & The Law:

After today’s trip to the beach and TJ’s we were hungry. As many of you who have visited us know, shame on those of you who haven’t (jesse & lynn), the Haven has tons of local restaurants that serve up great food. So you’d think that in our quest for food tonight we’d just walk down the street, but some how we ended up driving to the Texas roadhouse of all places. All of that babble to set up this conversation we had on the way to dinner:

Chris: He’s a fun guy.
Cass: Oh, he’s a mushroom.
Chris: A what?
Cass: You know, a fungi!
Chris: ?
Cass: ha rofl ha snort snort ha hyperventalating ha ha cough
Chris: You stole that joke from your dad didn’t you.
Cass: (proud) Nope, made it up myself.

Now you know why I married her.

People in the ghetto haven are constantly running red lights. They need to install red light cameras like we have in Nor-Cal, but as is typical with the haven PD they’d rather assign their resources to construction sites than protect to public. I should explain this phenomenon to my west coast peeps, any time there is construction that might touch the road, like a guy replacing a bulb in a street light, one and more often two cops are assigned to ‘protect,’ more like BS with, the construction worker. In theory it was a good idea, but in reality what a complete waste of money. I’ll have to post some pics.

Anyways, this poor fella ran one too many (not sure if he’s okay). This happened at the end of our block yesterday… ouch.

Click on the picture and check out the guys’ faces behind me…

Life has been rolling along lately and I’ve now been home for 7 of a solid 14 day stretch. This two week period is the longest continuous time I’ve spent at home all season…#1 is ready for me to leave.
Here’s a short recap of the races… Mt. Hood was gorgeous and I had 1st class accommodations and support which made the racing much easier. I went in with a goal of a top 10 on GC and fell a little short. It was a weird week for results, as I was placing top 10 in field sprints, not so well on climbing days, and had one of my best TT’s…maybe I’m a field sprinter now. Philly was awesome. When Cassarole and I embarked on this cycling voyage we discussed how it would change out lives and what we wanted to get out of it. Being the goal oriented person that I am, I picked out two races that I wanted to do; The now defunct San Francisco G.P. & Philly. On June 10th I was able to live out one of my dreams with my mom, sister, #1 fan, and 499,997 other people cheering me on. As we came into the final three small laps I got the chills because the noise from the crowd was so intense. I wish all of our races had a turn out like this. The end result wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but I avoided a crash in the last turn and can’t wait for next year. After the race I felt a huge sense of relief and was so stoked; I just wanted to ride around in my kit all day enjoy the accomplishment. When we started this cycling journey 5 and went full time 1.5 years ago , we had no idea where it would take us and how much it would affect our lives but we’ve rolled with the punches and had a great time. Now it is time determine the next milestones we are aiming for in cycling. Word is that there are some pictures of the race floating around. I’ll try to find some and post them here shortly.

Oh dude, on a side note, I received my 10 year high school reunion packet in the mail…man I’m getting old.

Hey guys, #1 says ya’ll run away if I don’t post something soon. Been traveling quite a bit and having quite a bit of fun doing it. I get to see #1 on Saturday and race Philly on Sunday so it should be a pretty exciting weekend! More updates to come…

After eating beans and rice for every meal, a run in with a tarantula, a bout with the fresh water sharks, and helping some kidos with their health issues, #1 has returned to the Haven in one piece. Party! Speaking of parties, mark your calendars for Memorial Day 2008, aka. the day Cass graduates with honors!

Biking news: After a chaotic lead out from the Periwinkle Train, Adam saved the day and busted out a killer sprint to win the Hartford Crit. last weekend. The boys turned around on Monday and helped land Adam in 9th at the sprinters delight; Sommerville. I heard rumors of the P Train going head to head with the Nav’s…