Cold is a four letter word!

First, I will say that compared to most of the rest of the country, we have it pretty nice here in the south. Not much snow or ice, never seen a hurricane, rarely a tornado, and we have four honest to God seasons. Having said that, winter has just about worn out it's welcome. I am sooo damned tired of cold that I could scream. I will stop there otherwise this will turn into nothing more than a rant about weather.

I have been fairly busy for the last few weeks and training has gotten stuck in wherever it would fit. Lots of trainer miles and core work and a good bit of kettlebell stuff. All of that is no substitute for good old miles. The outside kind on trails and roads. I know it's January and there will be plenty of time to get fit(ter), I am just getting a bit of

You know.........................................

I have been looking ahead to when racing starts an I'm starting to get some stuff trickle in from the UPS guy. Cool stuff like new race wheels courtesy of George at Bike 29.

They are Chris King hubs laced to Stan's ZTR Arch rims with DT Supercompe spokes. Not a lot of bling (okay, some bling) but the really cool and very important thing for me is the super fast engagement of the CK hubs and if I bust one, I can fix it immediately. Most chi chi wheels need special crap and I just ain't got time.

The most exciting thing I have right now is the first 2009 production Vassago Fisticuff (the very first was a prototype that went to teamate Ben last year) that arrived at the world headquarters of Duckman Racing Enterprises yesterday. I am building it up and will hit the trails with it this weekend for a shakedown run before taking it to rounds 3 and 4 of Knoxiecross next week in Knoxville. It's a nice bike and is clearly from the same bloodline as the Jabberwocky and the Bandersnatch. Designed as a multi-purpose bike, it will do quite a bit. Singlespeed, gears, cantilevers, discs, roads, trails, touring, racing. Just whatever you think of.

I will be using it strictly for cyclocross but it's good to know that if I decide to take off on a trek across Africa by bike, my Fisticuff will be waiting. Expect plenty of pics and a review in a few days but for now a few teaser pics from the build up.