Boats, Beer and Music

Tuesday evening brought the bands: Collective Soul, Blues Traveler, and Live to Duluth for an outdoor show down at Bayfront. The great thing about that venue is that it is outside. Not only does it make for a pretty area, but also gives the possibility of watching and listening free if you so desire. There are some things that I really like about Duluth, and being able to sit on the water and listen to good music is just one of them.

A couple of people from Ski Hut, and one of my friends made a nice little flotilla.

We were not the only ones floating (stage is the metal roof on the right side).
The Coast Guard was on patrol, luckily we did not get boarded like these people...

Gateway to open water.

In biking news, I broke my Madone's fork at some point. I have no idea when or how it happened. Yay for warranty...

The new ride is ready to go. It rides wonderfully. Incredibly stiff but not harsh, I am very pleased. Now I just have to get it adjusted right. With the same wheels as I had on my Trek (powertap included) this weighs 2 pounds less. Out of the box it was 15.4.

Shortly a break.

This bike season has been a long one. For the most part good, but very long. It is nearly time for a break. After the State Crit next weekend I will have my chance. Finally...
The week started off with the Doughboy coming up for a few days of bike practice. We found some hills and ice cream.
As the week progressed I was really looking forward to racing, but I sold the Madone bought a new bike on Friday instead. And with the high entry fee I was unable to afford riding in circles. Oh well. At the Northfield crit a few weeks back I felt great, the week following I went hard and long, and ever since then I have been tired, sore legs are not good for racing. However the strange thing is that even with my legs feeling totally shot, I can still pedal. Yesterday I rode my cross bike on single track for 3 hours. Then today I went out to hit up 40th Ave. West in Duluth and crushed my previous record by 57 seconds. I don't get it.
On the note of legs hurting, the results are in from the biopsy. I'll put something up when I know what they mean.

I also finally made it to the Lake, as did Tess and Hazel.

Into the Abyss?

On some other notes, I have had some very strong urges to go sailing and golfing. Maybe I'll get around to that during my break.

Northfield

The race went smoothly, results can be found here.
My actual race went for the most part well too. Right from the start I felt great, much better then I have the last few races. Somewhere near the middle of the race, something happened up front and a rider went down right in front of me. There was nothing I could do besides go straight into him. After getting my head back together and getting the bike ready to go again thanks to On Support, I was back in the race. Besides my body hurting from the crash I still felt great, and had my bike not been ghost shifting I think I could have had a good sprint. Oh well, I still had fun.

Sean and his new bike.

Karin caught this kid in the act of ripping up the Masters field.

Sean raced again

Downtown

This weekend is some more racing, I think I am ready. I still feel good, but I am training hard because of it. We will just have to wait and see what happens!