It's already Wednesday, it seems like the week is going fast. There was a lot going on around here the last few days and it made the days go by quick. Yesterday was a huge election in the state and after over a year of hearing about, hopefully it's behind us and WI can stop the temper tantrum for a while and accept the fact that a majority of the people voted for someone who did what he said, and then with a resounding "yes we did" voted to keep him in office the rest of his term. Good job WI. Lots of different views on Walker, but I'm glad the people stuck with their original votes and didn't back down.

Yesterday afternoon was also the transit of Venus across the sun. I was at work and listening about it on the radio so I picked up the welding helmet and checked it out. The helmet worked great, it's probably the first time I stared at the sun and could actually see it, it was pretty amazing. The moon has been huge the last few nights also but looking at Venus in front of the sun really put the size of the sun in perspective considering how far away it is.

Sunday was a big day too. It was the first mtn bike race of the season for me up in Wausau. I was feeling good by the end of last week on the bike after Memorial weekend so I was hoping to do ok, but Wausau is a tough course and I haven't raced mtn bikes yet. I was excited to race my new Giant Anthem and Rolf Prima wheels, they both felt great riding but racing is different and I was really happy how they both performed out on the course. After the first lap there was maybe a group of 10 of us so I went hard through the technical singletrack and got a gap which I held almost until the end of the lap when Nathan and Brian came up to me. That was fine with me since I was already getting some small cramps and it was another two laps of the race to go. Nathan went hard the 3rd lap and the cramps were getting worse, but they kind of came and went and I was able to get through them. 4th lap Brian attacked and at the same time I think Nathan was flatting. I bridged across to Brian and I think we were both hurting pretty bad at that point with cramping. It was strange because I was within myself the whole race and never really felt I was suffering but I was fighting lots of cramps in my hamstrings and had to do some standing pedaling to keep them at bay. I had decided long before that I was going to just ride to the finish and sprint rather than go hard and suffer through cramps longer than I needed and I think Brian was thinking the same. We lined it up like last year, Brian took the leadout, and we both sprinted the last 300 yards like last year. I think this year we were going about 5mph slower but this year I got Brian by a wheel.

It was a fun race and good to get out and put the new equipment to the test. Thanks to all my sponsors for their support, I'm lucky to have such good equipment because it makes a difference on a course like Wausau.