Happy Birthday Tatum!!!!

My little girl turns 6 on Sept. 30th. She decided to have a sleepover for her party, so we had six 5yr olds spend the night at our house! Not my idea, but things went well and all the girls had a good time.

She is a great kid and deserved everthing she got.

I love her so much.

Cheers

It must have been the bibs!!!

Pope County, IL (Of course you know where that is?) native, Casey Dugan (Cat 3), took third place in a close sprint this past weekend in the Tour de Ste. Genevieve road race. As you can tell it must have been the super sleek Assos bibs he was wearing. I am afraid his Vitamin Cottage Team bibs would have held him back. Good job dude! See you sometime down in Kentuck!

He's the skinny guy riding the red Cervelo.

Cheers

That Crazy Uncle Todd!!!!!!!!!

Tour of Missouri, Stage 5, Schluersburg Hill somewhere near Augusta, Mo.

What a day this was! Todd and I got to the hill at 10:30 and staked out our spot. We had the cue pit, washers and a cooler full of adult beverages to keep us warm. The temp was an amazing 65 degrees at gametime. We had a blast talking and partying with all the other mad cyclists from the Show Me State.

As you can see from the photos, Todd had a little more fun than most.

How often does one have a chance to run side by side to the reigning Tour de France winner and 2nd loser? Everyone was yelling at Todd to get out of the way, but he just kept on trucking, swinging his shirt and showing off his manly man body.

Then 15 second later they were gone!

While this does not even come close to being at the Tour de France, it was great that I only had to drive an hour to experience the best cycling in the world.

Cheers

Gotta love Grandma Rapp and Aunt Doris!

This is from the Giro Della Montagna on the Hill over the Gateway Cup Weekend. It meant a lot to have them come watch. I think they are hooked!!!

Cheers

Le Tour de Ste. Genevieve

My buddy Todd Parker decided a few months back that he wanted to do another road race this cycling season. He is a great cyclist and road races really seem to suit his style of racing. He is good at climbing, so naturally a good climbing course is what he was looking for. Well, I had a great course in mind, down in Ste. Genevieve, Mo where my Mom, Juanita hails from.

After spending days and days developing the course, Todd took the idea and ran with it. While I tried to convince him not to do the race after much discourse from the local town idiots, he still plugged on spending a lot of his hard earned money to make this thing happen.

Well it did happen and what a great response he has gotten. The race lost money, he didn't even get to race because he was calling all the shots the entire day. The race was a success with the racers and locals having a great time all due to the extreme dedication of Todd and various family and friends.

I, along with many of the racers in the Lou area hope this race is given one more shot. Perhaps this time around the Criterium will happen as well. (I like criteriums as they are suited more to my style of racing) ie fat guys!

Cheers

Laffayette Square, Labor Day 2007

This was my best finish of the year. You can see how ripped I am!!

The season is over!

My first year as a Cat 4 was a respectible one. While I consistently placed in the top ten as a Cat 5, my best finish as a 4 was 12th. That was at the Gateway Cup - Laffayette Square with 91 registered racers. I can see the improvement over last year and hope to get some high places and move up to the Cat 3s by next seasons end.

Cheers