Dear America-
Thought I could catch you up on the spicy happenings that go down up here in Bellingham. Yes, all the way up here, there are 3 rad racers holding it down by all means necessary. It certainly is a spicy lifestyle. Recently I made tortilla soup, and the recipe called for 1 cup of salsa. I figured that recipes are more… suggestions… so I put in 2 cups. Or more. Of this Fred Meyer brand “hot” salsa. Wrong choice. Usually food doesn’t make me cry. But I was close. But that’s how we roll. Spicy.
The three rad racers up here are Steve Fisher, Austin Clevenger, and myself. Since this is the off season, we have been trying to come up with ideas on how to either keep our competitive drive at the same level, or even become more competitive, in order to prepare ourselves for the race season to come. Austin has taking to picking on the 20+ year olds that work at his dad’s running shoes store. I heard he leaves no mercy on those guys. Watch out in 2009 folks, Austin is coming in motivated, competitive, and strong. We’re glad he’s on the team this year.
Steve and myself have discovered great competition in Xbox games. We hit this youthful hobby like it is the Catalina Wine Mixer. ps. Watch Step Brothers… Our two most played are Madden 07 and NBA Live 2006. We are still rolling the old Xbox, we’re college students I mean c’mon. No high-rollers here. (If anyone wants to donate an Xbox 360, we sure wouldn’t complain). If you noticed that I wrote that last sentence in parentheses, it’s because I was trying to invoke a feeling of intimacy that can be hard to feel in an Internet blog. It’s kind of like I am telling you a secret. That’s intimate. So anyways, when playing these video games, Steve and mine competitive spirits come out swinging like it’s the last lap of a crit in July. So we are raring to race. If you’re wondering, Steve most of the time beats me in the sports games. Which is fine, because when we play James Bond, I righteously dominate. So I guess I am more suave, debonair, and stylish like my man James Bond. Which seems odd because Steve spent an hour trying to match his booties to his gloves yesterday. (Stylish). I just told you another secret.
But believe it or not, the three of us do more then try and gain competitive edges for the season to come. We are all taking classes and boosting our educational spirits and brain sizes. Except I think that Austin’s brain might not be getting much bigger because it seems like his school gets canceled every day. First he claims school got canceled because it was underwater, then apparently the teachers needed a day to converse, then the wind was to strong. But like I said earlier, he makes do in the school of hard knocks by taking no mercy on runningshoes.com employees. All of us have been putting some serious hours in on the bike and enjoying the cold, but sunny (most of the time. Another secret) Bellingham weather.
And a news flash for you Walter Cronkite. Steve and I were visited by, and you could possibly say gifted with the presence of someone who you may have thought to be retired, quit racing, or even worse, became a manager of Performance Bike shop. But folks, Sean Worsech is none of those. He is more motivated then I have ever seen. Watch out.
I’ll leave you with this picture. Steve has found a new strategy for making long bike rides easy. Find the biggest guy in the group, ride next to him, and disappear in his draft. Steve is the one on the right side of the picture… isn’t he?
Sincerely,
With Love,
Ian Crane