Catchin' back up - blogs, racers and Cheq 40

Funny how with the best of intentions you might start a regular online blog/journal only to see so much time elapse between postings. Some of the first blogs I'd go when I got into cycling were of the Twin Cities "Swanson's" -- Doug S. & Dan S. -- they always had interesting stories to share, great race recaps and generally just some well written stuff. (There are certainly good blogs and bad ones and these guys always had posts that were worth reading. Not only talented bike racers but eloquent and enjoyable in their writings. Whether they gave it a lot of thought or not they were/are great ambassadors to the sport without a doubt.) Doug been short on the number of posts more recently which to his admirers, friends and fellow racers is a bummer but a guy's got alot of other things to do in life than post on a blog.... but Doug we miss you man! Dan really gravited to the road biking scene from what I recall him doing in the past but still makes a good share of timely posts.
More recently the likes of Charlie Farrow, Sara KJ, Eric Oftedahl and Tristan Schouten offer some real regular updates and great reading year round but you'll also get good WORS race recaps from Brian Matter and the cool but alittle out of the ordinary Lalonde Bros. Jesse & Marko. Speaking of which, I heard things about how fast these guys could run track & CC back years ago from guys I used to go to high school with (Lalonde's went to a school in the same conference) and now to see them years later and getting to see first hand how good they are is pretty cool.
I only listed a few of the blogs I might surf through at some point in the week. There are other ones I'll be sure add as links fairly soon. The great thing about the blogs is the community it makes among the people with common interests. In the bike racing scene I think it keeps up everyone motivation throughout the season more than it might otherwise be -- just check out the blogs right now and how buzzed everyone is for this little bike race coming up... the Cheq-a-something 40? Just kidding, it for any number of reasons it garners alot of attention of the hard core racers to the one-time-a-year bike riders. For an ultra-enthusiast like myself it's great to see so much attention that it gets. I can only hope it always builds. I love the fact that so many different top level racers that don't always match up during the regular season will be pitted against in this one. Jeff Hall vs. the Lalondes (huge naturally talent and gifted athletes), Brendan Moore & his Rochester crew, along with the Oftedahls racing against Matter, Schouten, Mike Phillips(gifted but very hardworking racers). I think only TJ Woodruff (maybe the least natural talent of those mentioned but probably the one of the hardest training racers) has raced head to head agains everyone in the Midwest region this year. And lastly with Doug Swanson, Tilford and some MI guys it will be great to see how it all goes down.
Tonight we had our regular Weds evening MTB ride on the Farm Road trails at the house with a good crew show up - Kelly, Paul, Matt, Sara and Scott N. and afterwards a big spaghetti dinner. Very nice hanging out and visiting with everyone. Kelly kept trying to pin me on who I thought would win the Cheq 40 -- he thinks it'll be Swanson, which how could I go wrong when Kelly got such a strong belief in me and my ability as a bike racer! Thanks Kelly! But I'm guessing he probably meant D. Swanson and not A. Swanson. Oh well if between 50 and 70 other lead guys somehow have mechanicals and flat tires there stands to be an outside chance. :)
Obviously I'm going to be rooting for Doug and some of the other guys, but if anyone is going to give him a full run (and it's not a bigger pack finish like in '05) it should be Si-mon-ater from MI or Si-monster as he's known. The boy can pound nails from what I've seen -- so there you have it Kelly the 1,2 finish. It'll be interesting how Jesse & Marko Lalonde do with such an open course I can't handicap any predictions on what SingleSpeeds will do for their outcome. But who knows? I think their natural physcial talent ranks up their with Jeff Hall & Doug.
My wishes for the big race is that my friends and racing buds all have stellar days for what they are capable of and trained for. I've got a few goals myself which I'll be aiming for -- the training and prep put forth this season and in the past should deliver me to the door with any luck. There's more than a few names I've marked for years to finally put further down the results list so I'll looking forward to see what good fortune and preparation can cook up. Hmmm....Greg LeMond is supposed to show up so wondering if beating a former Tour de France champ (granted 17yrs+ removed) holds any possibility? Makes for a good story for the grandkids in 40 yrs...
Best wishes to all!!!