Sugarhouse Criterium 2009

I did two races on Saturday. Did well in the Master 35s placing 4th after almost witness a horific crash on the sprint to the finish line. I was on Dave Harward's wheel at 45mph on the left going down the big hill to the finish. There's a turn at the bottom and the guys in front of him or side of him moved over. I slammed my brakes and thought it was certain death. Dave literally squeezed in a spot the size of maybe a foot and had to lean over into the curb to not hit the guys on his right. Wow....then I just journeyed back on up the right side. Dave Hardwood's superior bike skills saved us (maybe me) from serious injury. I still only got Dave and someone else by an inch at the finish line with all that action he had to deal with.
Next up was the Pro 1/2 race. It was a fun time with cash handouts. Thanks Fox. I just missed a couple. First I saw some guy at the top of the hill and I thought he was handing out bottles? Then I was like no that's Fox with cash. It made life in the back of the bus a little more fun.

Lots of drama with that and other things in the race. Can't believe that we closed the gap on the "magnificent seven" as they were being called during the race. I was pretty toast at the end. Everyone was as there were riders all over the road in the "sprint". I placed 34th after sitting up and being out of breath and cross eyed.
Bike racing is pure when looking at these pics.....these were from the last 5 laps. It made me feel better about my race after seeing the pain on people's faces. Still haven't seen the results so I'm not sure where the break riders finished but I know that Darren Lill took the victory.

ISU experiment at SLC (new Short Track track?)

The ISU is testing out a new Short Track this weekend at the oval from 1-6pm on Saturday. Skaters from around the world are here for this Test Event. I've seen Korea, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, US, Great Britain and Canada. Here's a pic of the new track that I drew out to give you an idea of what it's like. It's like the old safety track back in the day as the Ringer would tell me.
New blocks too that they are trying out. I had this design in my head after block chasing and seeing blocks stick to the ice. They are much smaller and you cannot boot out on them. Plus they are safer as Peiter Geisel was saying he was impaled on the thigh falling on a block. These are softer as well. Not everyone feels that way though? A Belgian guy said that they should go back to the old wooden blocks from 30 years ago? with the flags in them? Guess change is hard for some people.





more on this later.......

Bike handling skills/Derby video and crit racing

Wow that's the best thing i have seen on youtube in quite some time.



Was that Chris Callis riding mine that Bird? Not to rag on Callis as he was a Long Track Stud in 2000 to 2006. Just reminded me of the Callis man back in the day for anyone that knows him. He was a fast talker like the jockey there. Seems like he's doing well from his facebook updates. I never knew that he trained with Derek Parra from an early age. Derek said he was in his indoor inline team way back.

RMR a couple of weeks ago was a blast with the wind. Impressive win by David Clinger. See why he was a pro racer that night. He gunned it from the U turn into a 40mph headwind and made up some serious distance to catch the break group. He motored past Andre Gonzales I heard. Wow that was cool. I was behind strongman Dave Hahhdwood and Slevie just hanging in. Apparently there was someone between Hardwood and Clinger when he jumped i heard later. When i did put myself into the wind i couldn't make up 3 feet on those guys. I was glad to finish and get a workout in. All this was second hand info as I was staring at the wheels in front of me just hanging on for dear life most of the night.

http://utahcritseries.com/Event.aspx?id=656

Been doing lots of training races lately and weekend races. It's been hard and fun and the bike form seems to finally coming around for me.

World All Rounds Day 2

Sven Kramer and Martina Sablikova are the champs but for me the story was the crowd in Hamar.
Beginning of Bokko vs Hedrick 5k The end of Bokko vs Hedrick 5k

Hamar Day 2

I posted a bunch of pics on facebook since it's way easier than on here. The Viking Ship is the coolest rink. It has alot of "character" and history even in it's short shelf life. I had no idea that the World All Rounds have been in Hamar like 6 times. The first time was in 1895! Wow that's cool. I'm sure it wasn't inside....the oval is right on the water.



I'm laying in bed trying to figure out when to go to sleep. I've never traveled to Europe and my body likes a routine for sure. I have trouble when I travel to east coast for work and that's two hour time change not 8 hours. I should be asleep right now but just keep typing away here.

We went to a bar called the Inner Lane i think in Norwegian. It's a "skaters" bar and it's pretty cool. We walked in with Peter and every head turned in the place it seemed. He doesn't like to go there and I imagine the last thing he wants to talk is skating away from the rink. Cool seeing names on the wall and pictures everywhere.

Anyways I met and did a flyer and accel with Peter Andersen today on the ice. Also, forgot that he pulled me around for 5 minutes of laps at 35s. It wasn't as easy as normal but I'm still jet lagged. He used to skate Sprints for Norway. He hasn't really skates in months he said but you don't lose it at his level. He retired in 2006 and went 35 something in the 500. Looking at his results I see alot of All Round competitions. I thought of him as a sprinter middle distance but he logged lots of miles looking at his results.

I hope that Claudia Pechstein can pull it off this weekend for us older skaters. She is a true professional and has been doing this "forever" and has 9 Olympic Medals I believe. Peter Mueller has rejuvinated her as she beat the unbeatable Czech Sáblíková this year in Moscow.

Speaking of her. John Diemont and I were riding the shuttle back with her and a couple of dutch skaters and a coach. There's a huge horse in the center of town. John took a bunch of pictures of it when we got here. I didn't really notice it. We were going a round the roundabout when John says look at that horse. He has some "big balls" on him. And sure enough he did. I think you have to have big ones to live up here in this cold and hardy area. I love it here and wonder what my life would have been like growing up here. This Dutch coach and skater was holding his laughter and Sáblíková was behind John straight faced. I assume she doesn't understand English???


http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=2011956&id=1501490387

World All Rounds - Hamar Norway

Hello from Norway. Here are some pics from my travels. It's nice here and ran into some old friends. Easy 6:50 flight from NYC to Oslo. Still trying to adjust to the 8 hour time change.

Pete Mueller says he will be partying after Bokko wins. He has his tuxedo for the party!

Korean style

The New Edge in SLC has a new coach and mostly the same skaters as before except for one. We have a Korean coach and it's been cool to train "Korean style". We have a skater here for a month (Yun-Jae Kim). He is the World JR ST champ from 2008. It's unreal watching him skate and skating behind him. I've seen lots of great skaters but never have skated with a high level Korean. His left push is absolutely incredible. I didn't need to even see who was who in this video I could just see it in his technique. Not bad a 2 second world record on the 1000m at 1:25 with two arms on your back for 8 laps! Crazy stuff.




This morning bright and early we were doing 4 lappers. Not very fast since everyone is pretty fried from all the training. Low 9s. Yun-Jae is just chillin at that speed and he rides his left around the apex block. I've never seen such a great left leg push. It blows my mind to think that he isn't on the team. I heard he was hurt earlier this season. They have such a deep deep well of incredible ST skaters in Korea.