And that's what Boups and I had last night building out his new Yeti CX frame. What made it even more geekdified was the near LIFE size projection TV on which he had the '06 Koksijde jamming in Surround Sound. Dope. Boups had some fine Belgie Ales flowing and I dipped my toe into one but played saint.

The Yeti frame looks pretty nicely built. These are off-shored apparently but the quality looked pretty spot on.....which I'd expect for a Yeti. It looks like they are dialing in their cross game and the geometry and characteristics of the frame were clearly matured since their initial few frames FTW built (at least I think I heard FTW built the first few one-offs.)

The shouldering 'cut out' is now becoming in-vogue by frame manufacturers (see Specialized, Scott and Salsa 08's ) and Yeti's is pronounced. I shouldered Boups' and it feels pretty good but the rider may feel the pronounced bevel if you use around the head tube porting styles. It feel pretty solid though.
Boups is going to rock this bike.

Jonny, you've been sold up the river, buddy. Bobby busted you and exposed your blog to me. You should've never told anyone, man. If anyone wants to swing by and see what goes on in the life of a soigneur, have a look at my team mate Jonny's blog and see his exploits with Slipstream.

So, from piss and moan on Thursday to taking the day off Friday, I feel like a new man. Unbelievable. I have to remember to actually do that every now and again. It's like someone set the reset button to reboot me.

Today was epically gorgeous here in zee Repoobleek. Bobby and I got out for a 100% cross focused training ride this AM. We both feel air changing.

We did 20 x 20's up Poorman's today to work on maintaining porting technique while being under stress. You are climbing this slog of a dirt road suffering but the goal is to be able to maintain your composure (e.g. on/off bike technique) while suffering. In the 59th minute of a cross race, you'll be thanking me for this Bobby. You want to be able to be as smooth and efficient when the body feels like it can't. Suffering up this slog a few times a week is helpful for that late race assurance.

We moved on to Elk's and set up shop. Slow speed technique training over the PVC's. Fun. Took some pics and vids.

What did YOU do to get ready for cross today kids?!!

Mr. Boberino

The pit bike felt niiiice.

The PVC's are back from hiatus.

Wasted after the effort.

You go, Kelly:
As seen here on Velonews. Pic is from the N Boulder Crit.

We had our first race of the season today...the RM Izze Crit in lovely Lousiville CO. I swung by the event today to chip in where I could and snapped some pics where I could. The conditions were great through the Open 35's and 3's when the torrent came down and the temps dropped.

The RM crew did such a fabulous job. I was proud. Everything was humming and racers seemed stoked. I made it a point to poke about and ask folks about their race and how they liked the course and everyone seemed fairly stoked.

Some pics:

Longman, Fryda and his lady.

Mr. Bobby Rocky Mounts and Jenny K.

Dirk Friel and his adorable daughter

AC with priorities set straight

Peltier's Dovetail-sponsored Pasta Feed

The RM gals

Monday and I'm feeling slightly better. The house has turned back into the 'Hot Zone'. Again, the TTT effort essentially was like battery acid to my immune system. I clearly was not ready to go at that level of depth after being sick the way I was two weeks before. I've GOT to accept that being a young family with kids who are dragging things home and getting their little immunities sured up is just what it is. Or, I can order a boy in the bubble outfit from eBay and wear that around the house.

Anywhoo, Saturday was awesome! The Haystack TTT (they wrongly put in my team mate G Pent in the results in lieu of me...) was great as well as witnessing my wife in her first race in the SW4's. She rocked it. I was so proud.

We drilled it well and flowed very nicely Saturday. Early season rides out to Carter Lake were essentially like training grounds for the TTT. We go out essentially for 70 mile TTT's (sans all that time trail crap on the bikes) and beat the crap out of each other. On Saturday, Couch and I floored it extremely hard on the first 1/2 of the 13.6 mile course to shield our 3 ringers we needed to get to the line but Neal H was on fire the whole way. His strength and that of Boup's is crazy. They pulled fiercely the whole way. Boups will (no kidding) go from Cat 4 to 2 this year. His power output needed to be checked in order to not imbalance the rest of us. All that HP. Nuts.

Photo courtesy of JP of RM Sport and Spine

Unbelievable photo caught by Rupert Berrington. Please visit his gallery and I thank him in advance for using this photo here with his copyright info.

Why is the photo meaningful. If you know this team mate of mine, you'd be smiling. This is a microcosm of Couch in action. Selfless.

1) He organizes the races RM puts on and has dedicated himself to the ACA for years.
2) He wholly manages the RM-Izze Womans team, growing it into a group of talented ladies who embody team spirit. He'll say adios to the guys on his well earned Saturday ride as they go off on their ride so he can stay with and mentor/clinic/coach the women on skills.
3) He works for his teammates continually. And it's here in this shot that it became obvious to me...having just given the wheel off his brand new Specialized to a team mate at the Kopp.

Rock on Couch. We need to bottle you up somehow. This is the shit that should make people get up in the morning to try and emulate.

Well, we finally got this thing together and launched! Herding kittens through a door simultaneously is a pretty complex endeavor but the team managers and I got the sponsors, kits and everything else lined up and ready for last night's kickoff. We had a great turnout with the majority of the racers and lots of their wives and kids. The agenda was to lay out the ground work for next year in terms o goals which amount to supporting our devo and women's squads who'll be making a run for it and allowing teh men's categories to break up into their groups by various categories (e.g. Cat 35-4's, 4, 3, 2/1 and of course 35 Opens) to allow each to meet new riders and see friends from last year and share a couple of Dales Old Chub's to talk through what their plans are for the upcoming season. Most of us see each other regularly but this winter has put a damper on things! The sponsors play a major role as well to help us out. Lance G (above) and crew from Izze came by to talk about the company and product which is quite an amazing story of how their "Project Reach" is helping build schools where Izze harvests the fruit used in their beverages. Awesome story and proud to have them as a title sponsor.

All-in-all, I was proud to look across the room last night at the wonderful faces and review the rich history of the squadra. We're going to have aboat load of fun this year and we're stoked!

Here's to 07.

I just knew you fashion mavens could not wait, so without further delay, here' s a sneak peak at our finalized design before we send to Verge. Black is the new Black:

The skin suits are gonna look SICK!

Come get 'em at www.rockymounts.com. Nice embroidery Bobby.