Chris Thater

Well I thought I was ready to race but that was not the case. A pretty tough technical course with a hill and some tight downhill turns was not very good for my sprained wrists and sore back. Would have loved this course otherwise but my body is just not recovering from my injuries as quickly as I thought. Which is really unfortunate as my shitty race dropped me out of the top 10 overall.... Mark also lost the overall lead and we lost the lead in the team classification... wanna kick my dog while your here???? It is Friday now and I am still pretty sore as my hand is not healing very quickly. Still pretty hard to grip the bars and my back and wrists are getting sore quickly. Just been taking it easy hoping to heal up as I race in Windsor this weekend. Hoping to heal up quickly so I can be full tilt for Worlds Sept 27th. I get my stitches out next week and hopefully that will help the healing process. I'll give it another go this weekend as the course is flat 4 corner. Should be alright... we'll see.....

m@

Feeling better but more bad news....

I am feeling a ton better and should be fine for racing this weekend but my good mate and teammate Mark Hekman crashed at nationals and has cracked his heal in 2 places ending his season. He is currently leading the US Crit Series and hopefully he holds onto the lead cause it couldn't happen to a better guy. I will add my race report from nationals later.. and you can send Mark a get well message here. Get well Mark.. love ya man!!

here is a write up about his injury on Cycling News...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/aug07/aug24news
(scroll down a bit)

US Elite Criterium Nationals

Well, another year has passed with no national championship for me. Had a great chance but finished 6th. It rained like crazy, and I had a rough day... I will post a full report when I have 2 hands to type. Here's the short report. It rained, I crashed twice, with 2 corners to go, my leadout crashed, then I hit a flying bike in the last corner making me almost stop, sprinted and passed as many as I could and got 6th. The bike sliced my finger open and required 6 stitches (why I can't type real good) and sprained my wrist a bit as well. So all in all 6th was okay with the day I had. More to come...

Here's how I'm rollin now....

Criterium Nationals..

Its that time of year again as I head to Chicago tomorrow for the US Elite Criterium Championship. This date is always circled on my calendar and I am looking forward to it more than ever this year. The legs have been mint, and we are sending a full hit squad. Trying to take a more casual approach this year.. its just another race right?? And I'm looking forward to getting up there and laying it all on the line!!

Inches!!!!!!

This weekend was the richest amateur race of the year in Elk Grove just outside of Chicago. While the pro's had a 3 day stage race for big money we got a nice 60k crit with $17,000 up for grabs. This is a nice tune up before nationals as pretty much the same guys will be there... A few teams missing but pretty much everyone turned up in numbers for this one. We only entered 5 guys as the travel was a bit much with nationals in the same spot next weekend. So it was myself, R2, kiwi, Frankie D, Gammer, and Ian. My legs have been mint the past couple of weeks which made Charlotte even more frustrating but I'm over it... So I told the team they needed to look to me today... We wanted to place myself or Frankie in a break or set me up for a field sprint. The weather was ridiculously hot and humid again and the race was quick from the get go.. Frankie pretty much went with everything trying to make the move but with 7 $500 primes up for grabs nothing went anywhere. I tried my legs out a few laps in and I was going good winning a $500 prime by 5 bike lengths.... It was tough to recover in the heat and you payed for anything you did.... but another 5 laps went by and my $500 prime needed a friend.. so I opened it up again winning my 2nd $500 prime.. cha ching! I tried to relax and look after myself for the finish after I was a G up... and with 5 laps to go on the 2.3 mile circuit I parked myself in the top 5.... It was super sketchy and we could not get the team together so I was on my own to free-lance off of everyone else's trains... I just bounced around from train to train holding my position. Priority Health put in the last big dig and the sprint was crazy... The finish came a little quicker this time and I left it a hair late... but passed 5 guys in the last 200 meters and came even with one guy at the line. We both threw our bikes and it was too close to tell... but in the end I came up short losing by inches... DAMN! So all in all it was a success and the legs are going good with only a week till nationals. Guess banking $3,000 in an hour and 15 minutes wasn't bad either:-)...with no race on Sunday for once I jetted home and Tara and I are spending some much needed down time chilling by our pool and enjoying the nice weather (and possibly a few pina coladas)... next up.. Elite National Criterium Championships... lets do work!

me just chillin..

Frankie D doing his thing....

Charlotte

WOW was it miserable down south... Tim, Josh, B2D2 (now known as Dupree) Hayden and myself all jumped in the Matrix Team Car and headed down to Hekman's farm. Pretty sweet set up Mark has down there and he was nice enough to house all 100 of us for the weekend. After a little opener race on Friday the big race came upon us on Sat. I had a miserable time breathing... not sure if it was asthma or what.. but the opening laps were super slow and I felt like I was breathing through a straw thinking man this is gonna suck when we start going fast... which it did.. which turned into a shitty race for me. Pretty weird race with 2 guys just rolling off in the end and no one wanting to chase. Chalk that one up as a bad race.. oh yeah, I fell to 7th in the overall for the crit series but Hek still leads and we are still winning the team comp... A few big weeks in on the horizon with Elk Grove (big money) and Crit nationals... zoom zoom

Of course the boyz hit out after the race for a few quiet ones.. as we do... and met a new posse of friends... as we do....







Had to post this pic from Boise as well... for everyone that thinks Rich is super cool... yes, he riders mopeds and was caught not only riding one.... but riding bitch on one... love you $rich$