It's The End Of The World As We Know It.....

And I feel damn skippy.

With all the people fighting over gas and the money markets going apeshit, you'd think the end was near (what do I know, maybe it is). Either way, there's not much I can do about it.

Fall has hit the dirty south and the temperatures have dropped quicker than a skirt on prom night which has put me into my pre-winter whine mode. I don't mind cold so much once I get used to it. The only problem is I don't get used to it until March. Riding in the cold sucks. Riding in the cold while wet sucks harder. Coming into spring with an ass as wide as a truck and legs that look like the Michelin Man sucks even harder still. Therefore I endure riding in the damn cold and dark.

All is not lost though, Mud, Sweat and Gears is starting next week and my plan is to race two classes this year - Masters and Singlespeed. Masters goes for 45 minutes, Singlespeed for 30 so that will give me an hour fifteen of WFO, on the edge of blowing chunks riding for six races. You just can't get that kind of training by yourself in the Winter plus Cross races are a whole lot of fun. I am looking forward to it.

I have been looking at 2009 and working on the races I will be doing, both the "official" ones that my sponsors can count on me to really throw down for and all the others that I will use for training and some just for fun. It looks like I'll have a healthy mix of XC, Endurance, 12 Hour, 24 Hour, Road Race, Crit and Cyclocross racing on the schedule and racing begins in February and goes through December 2009. I could race in January too if I wanted but I need a break sometime or the other. The highpoints on my schedule for next year (so far) will be the 12 Hours of Tsali, The Cowbell Challenge, ORAMM, the Burn 24, and the 24 Hour National Championships. There will be more obviously but off the top of my head, I want to do well at those for sure.

I am anxious to see what my sponsors have out new for 2009 and also the rumor is we are going to be picking up a few new ones that I am really excited about. More on that later. I am working on a post where I am going to talk about the cool stuff from Vassago, WTB, White Bros, Crank Bros, Carbo-Rocket and more that I got to thrash, trash and (try to) destroy this year. It's all good and I learned a lot about what these products can take. For now I'll just say that Timex hasn't cornered the market on taking a licking and keeping on ticking.