So I have a new Meteore hardtail frame on the way for the 2008 season.  I will probably be using it for the courses with a lot of climbing considering  that it is a sub 3 pound frame with my build up it will be around 20 pounds!  I will post some pics as soon as it gets in and  I will get the weight of it complete.  I will also be testing an all new 09 Canaan frame in the next month both  it and the Meteore are made from a new G7 tube set that is substantially lighter and stronger than the G6 on the earlier models.  In the end I will have a 20 pound hardtail and a sub 23 pound, 4 inch travel Canaan Team!  That is more than I could have ever asked for this season and I am looking forward to a great year!  I will post pics of both bikes as soon as there are complete.

Here are some pics of the new Meteore hardtail it weighed in at 21 pounds and I am going to take another pound off with tires, rotors, and a lighter saddle.  So it should be right at 20 pound for race day.

So here in Cleveland there isn't much to write about other than the weather so that is what I am gonna do.  The past week has been the worst of the entire winter and it's March, go figure our first race of the state series is in 20 days.  The week started out with an ice/shit storm as I call them, it happens when the temperatures are border line freezing and it cannot decide if it's gonna rain or snow.  I plowed for 15 hours on Tuesday night from that one, it was the heaviest snow I have ever pushed!  Then on Friday it started snowing and didn't stop till Sunday morning.  It was probably the worst storm in Ohio since the 70's I think around 20 inches in most places and more in some.

I started plowing on Friday night at 2:00 am and it was the worst conditions I have ever been in hands down.   Visibility was probably 100ft. and it did not let up ever not once until the storm ended early Sunday morning.  I drive a F-350 four wheel drive dump truck with a salt spreader full of salt and six brand new BFG all terrain tires and it was still a chore to stay on the road and out of the ditches.  Saturday morning people were blowing my mind trying to drive"WHY" there were people stuck everywhere.  The radio and T.V. were not kidding when they said stay home and off the roadways, our main highway I 71 shut down,  but people had to get somewhere I am not sure where too it was Saturday and everything was closed cause there was another 10 more inches supposed to fall and it sure did.  I pushed and pulled out around 30 cars and trucks and got stuck myself pushing an enormous pile of snow.  I sat and watched a lady try to drive her  little front wheel drive honda through 15 inches of snow,  she looks at me and says "I'm stuck"  no shit idiot!  Then proceeded to tell me I needed to due my job better!  The nerve of some people, and this trend continued until the end.  After I pushed her back in her spot I told her the roads are not any better and they weren't they were actually probably worse or the same.  She reluctantly went back in her apartment all pissed off at us cause we were making it snow ya know!!!

When it was all said and done we plowed for 30 hours with only 4 hours of sleep total, with people complaining the entire time!!  People never cease to amaze me with there unbelievable expectations and there inability to understand that this was not a normal snowfall and that we did all we could with what we had.  I think I heard thankyou maybe once or twice the entire time plowing, unbelievable.

So now we have to wait for it all to melt and then for it to dry out before we can ride offroad.   Thank God for Ray's huh. 

I haven't blogged in a while,  we had our computer die and just got a new laptop so I am back in business.  Last month was really uneventful anyway.  I didn't get to ride off road at all and hardly trained enough because of the super cold temps we had.  I know I should man up and just ride but I just got sick of being cold and cannot stand riding a trainer for hours.  It is 60 degrees today and I am gonna take full advantage of that!!

So we went down to Georgia for the final Snake and it snowed and then rained the entire trip down.  I was thinking as we got closer that we were in for a muddy race for sure but when we got to Dalton the rain let up to a light sprinkle and by the time we got out of dinner had just about stopped.  Up in the parking lot were alot of welcoming faces camping and the Yazoo boy's were in the house with great beer.  I headed for bed with clearing sky's above us. 

Saturday morning we woke to partly sunny sky's and warm temp's for so early in the morning.  I also woke to a whole bunch of super fast competition, Harlan Price and Sam Koeber along with another one of his buddy's from Canada just for starters, it was gonna be a slug fest today.  I got up to the start early to avoid having to deal with traffic and started in the first wave ahead of Thomas Turner and a bunch of fast guy's.  On the first big climb they caught me and passed in a paceline so i figured there's the money I got to go for it, I jumped on board and that was a big mistake at this race with my lack of training last month.  It hurt me real bad and it took me till past the halfway to recover from push I made to stay with the leaders. 

I was suffering and was having a real hard time just turning the pedals and Rob caught me on his single speed, he looked back and said "come on, jump on" I replied "I am hurting Rob" again he looks back at me more assertive this time "jump on Tim" so I did and Holy Shit !!  He was on a mission,  he was absolutely  flying!  I was feeding of him and he pulled me back to Dave Hall who had passed me earlier and then proceeded to disappear in the miles of rock gardens before the finish.  I was felling better and did real well through the rocks but in the end I ended up with my slowest time of the series at 3:23.  My time from Feb. of 3:11 keep me in the top ten in the pro money class and I was pretty happy with that in the wake of such formidable competition.

Rob Krantz laid down a record single speed time of 3:16:30 nice job Rob and thanks for the moral support in the race.  Lauren shaved a solid 30 minutes off hear time in Feb. and won the woman under 30 class, Tiffany Kenney won the over 30 ,34 mile class  all  in all Ohio took a large percent of the podium.
There was great weather and great single track, a bad day on the bike is better than almost anything I can think of I was just glad to be riding sweet Georgia single track in early March instead of staring at the snow!