Some pictures

Are up on Sean's Blog.

We are currently in Xining. Tomorrow it is off to Tibet.

Merry Christmas

From western China.
We are in a city called Kashi on this map. AKA Kashgar to be exact. And believe it or not, they have plenty of Christmas carols. I heard frosty just a few minutes ago. And Santa is everywhere...

Collegiate CX

Today was finally the final day of the bike season. It has been a long season, I have been racing at least twice a month since the middle of April when I was in Germany. Whether it be biking or skiing, now it is time for a little break. In China!
The final race of the season was the collegiate national cx race. I was excited to race, and wanted to at least not get lapped. The course was very similar to yesterday with all the ruts and all, but there were a couple of sections that were nice and fast and not rutted. I really enjoyed those sections. I was feeling pretty good, but unfortunately I could not ride well in the ruts, at all.
I rode fast when I could and sucked most of the time. I made it until the last lap before getting pulled.
I had really wanted to finish, but I guess I just was not fast enough. Oh well...
Sean and I stayed around to watch the pro races. We commented on the attractiveness of the pro women, and simply watched the mens race. It was a good time. Hopefully I can find some race pictures soon. But until then...

After yesterdays race.

The waitress asked where Sean got his hair done. "My pillow," he answered. The she asked where he got it cut. Oh Kansas

LunchLinda Sone in the Elite womens race on the run up section.

Now, time for China! Who knows when I will post next, so don't hold your breath. Also have a good Holidays.

Cold and snowy

Today was the U-23 race down here in KS, for cross nationals. Yesterday Sean and I were going to ride the course, but refrained because it was a couple inches of mud deep the whole way around. So we just rode around the area in general. Last night it got down to 20 or something so everything froze, then it snowed. It created an interesting surface for racing. Lots and lots of frozen ruts, covered with snow. Bike handling skills were tested to the max. I did not do so great...
As I mentioned it was cold, at least not bike riding weather. Despite that I was still kinda excited to race. At 10 we were off onto a slushy start road. People were going down here and there and I was having trouble holding any line. The race spread out real fast, I just tried to ride my bike. Which I did a bit too slow. For a while in the middle I was riding pretty well. I was catching people and having lots of fun. Then on one of the run ups my left shoe randomly fell off. I guess it was not on tight enough, even though it felt like it was tight. Needless to say that changed my race a bit. It took me a few steps to realize what the heck had happened. When I did I stopped, dropped my bike and had to go back and put my shoe back on. That took away my rhythm and I just could not get back into it after that. Within the next 2 laps I got lapped and it was game over. Oh well...
I really enjoyed the course, even with the ruts. But unfortunately I was only allowed to enjoy it for a few laps (they were long). The I got lapped and pulled, oh well.

I even made cyclingnews.com!

Tomorrow is the collegiate race.

Read up

Save gas.

Let it begin

Finals are done.
Now I go to Kansas, then China!
Let the adventures begin.

It just keeps coming.

Finally a winter with snow...
Because of the snow, it is hard to ride a bike, and very easy to ski. So I have been doing a bit of that.
Since I am doing Nationals, I am missing finals. I finally got approval from all my professors to go early (even though I was going to pretty much no matter what). Thus I have to get everything done early. It is now crunch time, I just presented my German paper on doping (if you can read German and want to read it, let me know), and now I have to write up a Chinese skit and write another 8 page paper by the end of this weekend. Then come the tests...
After that biking then China!

At this rate

The snow will pile up high, soon riding would be like this...