Today I ate a year old Lara bar...

Flying in to Tucson late last night, the first order of the day was to build the bike I sent FedEx last week...
Piece of cake (Thanks to the expert packing of Mike at Dark Horse cycles)
It's only 11:30 and I'm ready to go. Notice the full Camelback and the two bottles...
Fantasy Island was on tap today, super fast with tons of corners. Took the long way there to get some road miles in before the fun. Riding like a man on a mission, I passed a couple of roadies wearing Canadian national jerseys on Old Spanish Trail, pleasantries were exchanged, then I'm on my way. No time to waste, I've got business to attend to...




Oh! the Lara bar. It was left in my pack from when Jocelyn was here last March. At first I was confused, forgetting she was here later then me last year. I almost felt violated, like some stranger had worn my Camelback since I was here last. then I remembered, and proceeded to chow down on her "food of choice".
A year old Lara bar tastes just like you would expect....Like cardboard.

68' today...

Swan Song

Meaning
A final gesture or performance, given before dying or retirement.

Origin
This term derived from the legend that, while they are mute during the rest of their lives, swans sing beautifully and mournfully just before they die. This isn't actually the case - swans, even the inaccurately named Mute Swans, have a variety of vocal sounds and they don't sing before they die. The legend was known to be false as early as the days of ancient Rome, when Pliny the Elder refuted it in Natural History, AD 77:

If people ever did believe in the 'singing before death' story, few would now claim to do so. 'Swan-song' is now used figuratively and most commonly to refer to celebrated performers embarking on 'farewell tours' or 'final performances'. Those ironic quote marks were never more appropriate than in the case of Nellie Melba, whose swan song consisted of an eight year long string of 'final concerts' between 1920 and 1928. This led to the popular Australian phrase - 'more farewells than Nellie Melba'.

Lets go out with guns blazing...

T-Minus 7 weeks...

Seven weeks till race season for me. Sounds crazy, Right? It's only January I know, but I've been doing my prep work and things seem to be going well. Very well I must say. Without saying too much....
Right now it looks like I'll be leaving frosty New Jersey for the Grand Canyon state around the 24th of February. On the 26th I'll be opening the season at White Tanks mountain park in Waddell, Arizona (near Phoenix). The next weekend off gives me plenty of time to prep in the sun for the U.S. Cup race #1 at Bonelli park in San Dimas, California. I hope to be doing the whole triple crown thing with the XC on Saturday and the Short Track and Super D on Sunday. This being a UCI class 2 event I'm sure all the big boys will be there. Flying back from LAX should be an adventure with the U.S. cup site specifically stating that "LAX is 1 hour 15 minutes WITHOUT traffic". Did you notice the capital letters? If you know me and my love of driving at all you would guess right that I'm sure to have muttered "I could have driven to Jersey by now" sometime during this trip at least once. Getting back to Jersey will be a shock with the freezing cold still hanging around. But not to worry, Two weeks later I'll be at Michaux.....