Greetings from St. Pete…

It is absolutely beautiful here tonight and the front porch of the Pier Hotel is about as relaxing an office as you can imagine :)

Most of the Iron buttz are still lingering in the recovery mode but for the seriously poor planners (err…me) - the race season presses on.

St. Anthony’s Triathlon is this weekend in St. Petersburg and this is a GREAT venue.

There are a LOT of athletes racing (someone said 4800?) and almost 45 from Jacksonville.

In attendance are the who’s who of the pro ranks including Greg Bennett, Macca, Craig Alexander, Matt Reed, Brian Fleischmann, Faris Al Sultan, and Andy Potts – it is a tri-geek fantasy race.

I am pulling for Fleisch, of course, but I think it is Bennett’s race to lose – the dude nuts it up when the cash is big.

The VMS crew is really strong with Eric Loveless, Billy Hart, Susan Wallis and a cast of characters ready to go on Sunday – good luck and be safe.


Also this weekend…

The patchouli crew is at Yargo this weekend for xTerra.

Predictions – Crichton takes top 5 in the overall and backs it up with a MTB race on Sunday – fitness wins…


The cyclists are not to be left out and all of these above events together are not even close to the drama that is The Athens Twilight Criterium and the Lindner boys are in the big dance Saturday.

If you have not heard of the Athens crit – imagine a HUGE crowd of college students drinking all day and the main event is held at night.




80KM – 80 Laps.

The field is one of the best in the US.

This is known as “THE” crit in the US. It is a big deal.

Is it hard? Is the competition tough?

I tried to think of how to explain this and I could only come up with one image.

Imagine a dark room and you’re alone in the middle.

A single light shines down from the ceiling only on you.

A single piano taps out A# G# F# over and over again.

Now - imagine you are surrounded by 40 Ninja’s lurking in the shadows…waiting to attack.

Imagine you.....are……………Jackie Chan :)

The gun goes off and the Ninja’s start to attack and you fend off one, then two, then they all rush you at once and do a flying back summersault out of the center of the room as they collapse around your shadow.

You land on your feet only to realize they have turned and are attacking again…and again…and again…that is lap one – only 79 more to go :)



That is the Athens crit.

You are getting you a$$ kicked by the best riders in the country and you might wonder does it hurt?

Maybe you have never seen the end of Jackie’s films – hell yeah – it hurts.

This isn’t any “snatch the pebble from my hand Grasshopper” BS…

This isn’t any “wax on – wax off” BS…

No “it’s ok Danial-san” in this race….


The boys are going to be on the bubble from the gun to the finish and if they make it around – just to finish – HUGE DEAL!!!

Anything more is what cyclists dreams are made of…

But these guys are ready – they are on great form and they have done the work – they will prevail.

Keizoku wa chikara nari.

Dominate the DoJo – Kia Kaha

Sushi got wheels :)