just recently I was forwarded all of the media and news links that i have been in for video in the last year here they are

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f31YwsDpdmQ



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxFwf10-AJM



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viD3QeTTBuc



http://fora.tv/fora/showthread.php?t=809



http://www.mercurynewsphoto.com/2007/06/05/an-injured-soldier-finds-new-purpose/

the weather was awsome and the course was sick. super fast great corners and big jumps. I blew out on a grassy corner when I cam in too hot and overshot the top of the berm but oh well. it was a great race and good to hang out with the bros.

well the otter was ssoupy mess. saturdays was the worst rain and mud I had seen and it just so happened to be my race day. I changed my tires to intense spike fro's and put on the tear offs and hoped i could stay up. i guess i did. all I cared about was qualifying for nationals and now I am .

here I come vermont.

this weekend ended great with a awsome race and a great bunch of people at the CCCX downhill series. you can check it out here www.cccx.org

The parctice runs were really rough and the hardest part of the whole race was the push to the start line wich was about 30-45 minutes up a hill wich you couldnt pedal on a downhill bike. I managed to get 6 practice runs in on friday and had some time to hang out in monterey a little before loading up on carbs and hitting the sack. I showed up at 8 am on race day and did 3 practice runs and had to change line choices quite a bit due to the amount of riders changing the lines.

So I took about an hour to put my bike on the stand and eat some food while working on the bike getting all the last minute checks in. I got to the start line really early but they werent too concerned with the order so I went. The first part of the course was really wide, loose and fast. alot of the corners and drops you rode up to were blind so alot of riders tended to brake if they were on smaller bikes. I was able to fly over the top of the ruts and not even glance at the terrain. I ws pedaled out by the first 10 seconds of the course.

coming up to the first set of turns it was a little different. It droppped from a quasi two track to a sandy, loose single track with very tight turns and a few off camber grass turns. by race time the grass turns had a pretty good rut to rail on. towards the bottom of the course there was a paved road section that you had to pedal in order to stay in podium times and then ducked back off the road through a dry creekbed corssing. during practice I had watched alot of poeple eat dirt on this section. when you came into the section it was very fast and the creek rocks snuck up on you if you didnt have you line chosen before hand. then coming out of the rocks you had a root to hop and a good 2 foot bank to get up and over on the other side. immediately after the root bank there was a tree directly right infront of you. if you werent paying attention most riders smacked right into it.

then it has a nice flat single track sprint to the finish. pretty good course over all, the only thing missing was a BBQ and music perhaps.

I finished with a 7th place after sliding out on some loose sand on top of a hardpack spot. I was 7 seconds off the podium and 25 seconds off of first. had I not been sick or crashed I think 1st would have been more than reasonable. but it makes me train just that much harder for the next time.

its all good.

here is the link for my appearance at the common wealth club

http://commonwealthclub.org/featured/index.php#soldiersfromiraq

well I was sitting around doing my normal physical therapy stuff when in walked a huge group of official looking people and headed straight for me. as I was heading out the door I was summoned by name to be introduced to my valentine for the day.

I had no clue this was being set up and really didnt want to be a part of it but it turned out to be a pretty cool day. we took some photos and sat and talked, she met with the rest of the guys in the room and everybody left and she just kinda hung out.

after talking for a bit she is very talented, she can sing, so well in fact she won the talent competition in the miss america pagent. she was pretty stoked about my riding and pretty intersted to the point where she wanted to come and check out the races in her neck of the woods. she wanted to see what it was like and cheer me on.

ok i guess.

quite the politician those girls are, very cunning and bi partisan. we will see if she shows up.

just did pacifica last weekend and the day was perfect. the photographer was humping around all day and having a blast and we were killing the runs. it was a little sloppy and slimy at the bottom but managable.

good times

this friday, the second I will be interviewed by the stanford medical journal. the story will be about my combat injuries, procedures I have undergone, my physical therapy and the race season that lies ahead. I will be sure and post a copy online with a link for you guys to check out.

Im out......

I was asked to speak at the common wealth club about Iraq, my injuries, my recvoery and the race season ahead of me. it should be pretty interesting and will be on several local radio and tv stations as well as comcast cable, XM radio and C-Span.

I will be posting the actual air dates when it come closer. should be pretty interesting.

Major props to phil and the gang at www.RIDESFO.com for their hand in my race season.