I love the old Pirelli ad with ace sprinter Carl Lewis. It was footage of Carl running on water and then up the Statue of Liberty, before jumping from building to building. In the end he says: – in bad French- “Sans traction, la puissance n’est rien.” [Without traction, power is nothing]

The above pic, Sea Otter Short Track, I was at the back of the start grid with all the other hacks. Caught on SD Card by Flipper, I’m looking ahead figuring out a way of getting to the front before hitting the dirt. Caveman to self: “I’ll elbow this one out the way, then sprint around those two, then dive inside through the bend and cut off about 3, and if there’s a crash up front, I’ll use them for traction!”

I went for a warm up with Todd Wells, Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser along the ocean path in Monterey.

Short Track starts at 3.15. Its a short lap of off road riding- after 25min the bell rings which signals the last lap. This race is all about raw horse power and gallons of lactic acid. Not really an endurance Caveman game. I think the last time I had gallons of battery acid in my veins was…. um, actually the Specialized lunch time ride I did last Wednesday!

Susi and Burry are 29er virgins- today will be their 1st race on the big hoops. Burry’s Specialized 29er Hard Tail is 8.6kg (18.9lbs)

Last year Specialized made a great showing- Todd Wells won the Short Track and Christoph the XC. I was 8th in the XC and hope to blow the cobwebs out for the opening of an exciting season of MTB, XTERRA and 70.3 racing…

Sea Otter Short Track. (20min lap race)

Photo by Jay Prashun

Did a ride with Jay Prashun on the new Specialized 29er and then a cool interview for triathlon.competitor.com.

Loved the Specialized 29er Epic. Andy pimped my ride between thrashings. Note my new race kit for 2009. Made by Luma.- more later.

Christoph won comfortably. Todd had a flat, I gave him my CO2 and he finished 6th- which allowed him to win the Omnium-(Short Track and XC combined) Great for Todd, Specialized and the 29er. Lene finished 2nd in the XC and won the ladies’ Omnium. A great start for the season. Burry had a head cold from the previous day and saved it for this coming weeks World Cup in Germany.

I had a close sprint finish with Jeremiah Bishop for 7th.  A lot of fun.  Quite surprised at my results. (16th in short track and 8th in XC)

I was stoked to be “randomly selected” for UCI drug testing. (Photos below) The 180bs triathlete tearing it up at XC? Of course he needs testing!

More stories shortly.

Looking forward to a good  XTERRA season.

Here are some slides: Go to flickr.com to see the pictures titles.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.