We've already met, you just didn't know it was me.

I'll be on the look out for silly Cannucks rolling through.

Well Dave, looks like we are in a similar situation and based on recent conversations I had it appears that we are not alone. My goal is to get down from my current 194/195 pound weight that I have carried around for the last few years, down to a more "race worthy" 179/180 pound weight. That is still 5 to 8 pounds more than what I weight when I raced as a mountain bike pro in the very early 90s, but that wouldn't be a realistic goal. I think with my big frame, 180 pounds at 6'2" and age 44 would be fine.

So how about after the holidays we start a nice 15 pound challenge and see where we are by April 15, in time for the racing season. :-)

Indeed, Taylor rode an amazing first kilo of his career, clocking a 1:03.2 and riding the last 500m in 28.2ish seconds, faster than the last 500m split of the latest world kilo champ. He is amazing.

I had the good forture of catching up with him and his dad at Interbike where we talked about possibly doing the team pursuit. I went up to the track on Monday and Tuesday to train with him and Colby Pearce and Dan Holloway to see if I could even hold onto their 55-60kph pace. We had a few good rolling tests and a quick standing 1km exchange in practice. Tonight they put it together clocking a 4:21 and letting me join them for as long as I could contribute to win my first Elite National Championship. Amazing generousity by those three lads to take a chance on my suspect ability and risk their own race by my particiaption. We rode ahead of schedule every lap and finished 4 seconds ahead on our scheduled time, and 9 seconds from National Team's 4:12 time standard for funding. There is no question there is a great new young crop of cyclists in the USA. Taylor is 18 and Daniel is a U23 guy.

I also raced the scratch race, but missed out on the finals by one place finishing 13th in my heat behind a handful of pros. The top 12 advanced. At this point I could care less, I'll be sleeping soundly in my new stars and stripes pajamas.

-SD