Our first trip to Austin, Texas has been a great one overall.  I feel like we have been down here for an eternity but its only been four days.  Four really good days of riding, relaxing, eating well, and working on the tan.  Oh yeah, and we did a mtb race at Lance Armstrong's ranch.  This was a national but it felt like a local race and it just so happened to be in Lance's backyard.  He lives in a pretty modest house, a very very nice modest house with an insane property surrounding it.  I mean he owns everything as far as you can see.  I'm sure he just escapes there after travelling and is the perfect place for getting away from it all.  Unfortunately he is in Europe racing so I didn't get to meet him but did meet alot of his associates and everyone was really cool.  Going to his bike shop in Austin is an experience in itself with pretty much everything you can think of in a bike shop which is also a shrine to Lance and his race history.  I was able to get my shimano shoes heat molded which was something I have been wanting to do.  Such a difference.
    So for the racing.  First though,  what is something that everyone loves but would never want to own?  A rental car.  I love rental cars and we always get corollas.  Corollas cannot be killed no matter what you do and they get great mileage.  So we drove to the race in the corolla and got there with plenty of time for aleksandra to get warmed up.  And warm it was.  It must of been close to 95 degrees when the women went off.  She had a front row call up which really made me proud to see her up there with all the top girls.  The women's race pretty much stayed the same with Aleksandra finishing in Magic 7th place. She always said it would be cool to get 7th here.  Lance would of been proud.  She did awesome considering the heat is not her friend and Texas is a bit different then the racing we are used to.  If you want to check out Aleksandra's post race interview on Cyclingdirt click here.
 After cheering her on and finding out she had a great result, part of the pressure was off of me.  I had to get myseld organized which seems impossible without Aleksandra's help but I did it and made it to the starting line for a beating.  I pay money for punishing myself, something I could never figure out.  The gun went off and I had it in my head that I just want to finish.  I've had a poor couple of past weeks and what I needed was a solid national finish no matter what place.  One thing led to another and at the start of the 4th lap I was in 16th place, holy crap.  I then went on and passed 2 guys and then another that had a flat.  Wow I was in 13th place and I felt great considering the heat.  I made it to the second feed zone and as I was getting a feed from Dusty (thank you by the way) my rear hub blew apart.  I mean blew apart so it was unusable.  I was walking and walking for 3.5 mikes.  Pretty frustrating because this result would of been my best yet but my american classic hub was wanting none of that.  Oh well I try not to worry about these minor setbacks because I had a great weekend and there are bigger things in the world to worry about like what I'm going to do to that rental car on the way to the airport tomorrow morning.  I have an goofy interview as well click here .
   see you on the new SMBA trail
    mike and aleksandra

  So after my big DNF at Tre Blant I made Matt drive 100 miles an hour to get me home so I could salvage the race weekend with at least a finish somewhere.    We chose Winsted because Root 66 is for sure our home race series even though Tymor Park was the same same day and that race rocks.  But anyway, after no sleep and poor nutrition I was able to muster a 3rd place behind Seamus and Adam Snyder.  My brother Matt also snagged a 3rd in the expert class which was good for his head as well with a similar DNF the day before in Canada.  Aleksandra chose not to race because she was pretty worked from the Canada Cup.   It was a really tough race with alot of roots and rocks with one technical climb.  All in all the weekend was great and Mabel was able to go to her real parents, Rachel and Jamie's for another weekend of townies and livin large.  Thank you guys.
  
 See you on the trail
  mike and aleksandra

      Here we go again. We are hanging out at the Albany Airport hoping to take off today. We are flying to Texas for the Mellow's Johnny's National Race. I'm very excited but every trip starts the same way: DELAY! Ohhh, we already missed our connecting flight in Chicago but I hope we will take off today because we got so lucky not having to pay extra for bike boxes today:) Good luck , bad luck- I guess it's up to us how we look at the situations. Perfect time to update our blog:) 

   While I'm sitting here I can update you on our great trip to Canada last weekend. I'm convienced that Canada is my favorite place to race so far. There are plenty of spectators and the courses are technical and interesting. I loved it! We left on Friday and the race was on Saturday. Mike had to work so we left pretty late and got stuck in terrible  traffic,  so our trip up there took us 7 hours instead of 5. It wasn't too much fun getting ready to pre-ride the course at 7.30 pm but after one lap on the course my excitement came back.  The course had a lot of single track with few alomost scary rocky sections similar to the week prior. I wish I could of pre-rode the course a little bit more because I was riding very cautiously on the downhill sections during the race. I got my full speed on the last lap ...oh well, better than nothing. I felt really good towards the end and I attacked Mical Dick pretty close to the finish line on the pretty tight pavement section (you can see the video of the highlights of the race) and we hooked handlebars and went down at a pretty high speed...ouch! I blamed myslelf for that crash and I jumped towards Mical to check if she was all right. My adrenaline hasn't been that high  in the longest time and I even forgot the race was still on. Finally she jumped on her bike and I realized that my handlebars and chain were totally messed up. We were so close to the finish line so I just jumped on my tough Bedford and ended up 3rd in the race. I'm not too proud of the big crash but overall I'm very happy with the race. There is the podium video here. 

    Unfortunately Mike didin't have luck this time again.  He is pretty bummed out about it becasause he loved the course but he had a mechanical problem again. He was desperate after last weeks problems with his single chainring so he put XX crank with a front derailur that wouldn't stay tight on his bare Ti frame.  It kept sliding down after a another run in with a rider.  I can only say he is my Full Time mechanic and I guess he spends too much time working on my bikes which are always perfect.   Oh and Matt had bad luck also with a DNF but he made record time getting back to NY driving us back. He was also a great sport at the feed zone. Thanks Matt for yelling at me:)
   
    See you on the trails,
       Happy riding, 
  Aleksandra and Mike

     All the good luck went to me this weekend. Unfortunately Mike had a mechanical problem and he wasn't able to finish the race.   Pro women and pro men + junior fields were racing at the same time on the course which caused more crashes than usual.   I guess it was more exciting for spectators to watch but also more difficult to race because there were a lots of riders on the pretty short lap course (5km). Mike had a little "battle" with one girl who didn't want to be passed by him and it end up that he flew over the handlebars and bent his front chainring. He was doing really well and felt good so it's little frustrating,  but that's racing...

    I had a great race, placed 2nd. I didn't have the best call up and I was happy that I was able to move up to the top 5 girls on the first lap and be able to battle with them. I'm very impressed with Canadian riders who present great technical skills. On the second lap, leader Mikaela Kofman attacked and I also went off. All race I kept her in my site and tried to save myself for the last lap but unfortunately the  Pro men were coming up in the second part of the last lap when I attacked and caught up to her and I was forced to get off my bike... I tried my best to get back to my chase but I got little discouraged. I'm still very happy with the whole race. It was so much fun. 

   I wish we would have at least one US National Race similar to the technical Canadian course. I believe it would make racing more exciting and it would bring much more spectators to the race scene. I loved all the spectators who even not knowing me were cheering and calling my name.  It was giving me super extra power and I really appreciate all the enthusiasm. So far I've never raced on a better course.   It was a lot of technical single track with rocks and roots and also it was spectator friendly because you could see the riders few a times per lap just hanging out in the same spot. 

   My biggest heros of the weekend were Seamus Powell's parents who were the greatest support for all of us. There were a bunch of us from the East Coast and they were doing an outstanding job feeding about 10 riders and cheering everyone. I love them and they are BIG part of our racing. Thanks again! 


Happy riding,
Aleksandra
   

    This is my first time in Canada and I love it. Feels like a mix of the US and Europe.  It really reminds me both of my homes: place where I grew up (Poland) and place where I live (US). I guess what I miss the most is the homey atmosphere where you stop in the small shop and most of the products are homemade by a single person or family. We stopped at a small bakery today and had some delicious cookies. This trip is definitely a “cookie” trip. We were driving here for a 8 h. Bryna Blanchard (who is the best travel partner), Mike and I were constantly eating the whole way up here. HaHa. 

     We explored some beautiful country in Quebec with spectacular views. We stopped in the Mont-Saint-Anne ski area and walked around on some local hiking trails. Its hard to imagine how busy the town will get at the World Championships this year. It was great to be there.

   We pre-rode the course today three times.  It is outstanding!  I’m so exciting to race tomorrow. There is tons of singletrack with roots and lots of rocks. Rocks and roots are my best friendsJ  I can’t believe how great the race is organized and how everybody is so friendly. Thumbs up.

   Bryna took some picture of us in our new kits in the front of our hotel. I absolutely LOVE them and maybe that’s why I feel so good at this race. We will see tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed!

 Happy Riding,

   Aleksandra & Mike

 

     Yes thats right our kits have come in and they are sweet.  The nice people over at Verge made us the nicest cycling apparel I have ever worn.  When we approached them for sponsorship last fall I was thinking a couple kits with maybe a pair of socks or two.  When I got home from riding yesterday and Aleksandra says "Mike you need to see this"  I couldn't believe it.  Its like they got us mixed up with Saxo Bank.  They hooked us up bigtime.  I'll try and post some pics this weekend of the design.   I want to thank everyone over at Vergesport USA and Poland.  Please everyone  BUY VERGE PRODUCTS they are the best.  Even if your not the best you will look and feel like the best wearing Verge products.
        ride on
        mike

 
    Sorry about the lack of updates lately.  Our main financial donor for 2010, Chet Bearclaw called and threatened to take the team Escalades away if I don't start posting more often.  So I will try at least once a week, maybe twice.
     The weekend went pretty well with a nice little grassroots race on the campus in Amherst.  Getting there was no problem with a proper warmup and a rather odd registration with nothing to fill out or sign.  The race was really alot of fun with alot of power climbing and turns.   I took second behind James Harmon, who seems incredibly fast this year, and Aleksandra took the big W.  Alot of locals from our area came out so it was nice to see some familiar faces.  No doubt we will be back next year.  Off to the first Canada Cup this weekend for a UCI showdown. 

mike