Books are back!

I have brougth the book section of my blog back, and wanted to tell you about another book I just read. The title is BLACK ICE by Matt Dickinson. This book takes place in the Antartic. Where a well know explorer comes in contact with an small research group. This is a fast paced read. The story is fiction, but alot of the information about the area and what could happen is based on truth.


Matt

Tah Dah

Yes, you are reading a new entry on my blog. First I need to let someone know that Nathan is safe in Grapevine. Ok, now to buisness. The team is about 38 days away from the first race. Which happens to be Valley of the Sun, in Phoenix. We will be staying with Sean and Stephanie Stepheson. This is the family that we have stayed with for the past two years. Which means we will get some killer lasagna.
Team camp was a little over a week ago. I have to say there is a good group of riders for this season and I look forward to racing with the guys. We have a kid named Parker who is the youngest rider on the team (15), yet I have to say caught my attention pretty quickly. Mostly because on the third day of camp we went to Oklahoma and about 5hrs into the ride, Nathan told me to give Parker a challenge so I attacked him and he responded. Then attacked me, once I got upto him he asked if he could attack me again. That attitude is great.
While on the topic of camp, I would like to thank everyone who had the riders over for dinner. We greatly appreciated meal and getting to know some of the Club members better.


Till then,


Matt

Update

Hello everyone. For those who heard my audio update I posted a while back, and are wondering why i did not post another one, when I said I would. That is because Blogger has discontinued that particular service. Yes, I know that is a bummer.

Today I wanted to tell you guys about a program down here that I am pretty psyched about. There is a group of athletes here in Corpus Christi call STARRS (South Texas Area Runner, Riders and Swimmers) that every year they donate bike and helmets to needy kids that would not otherwise get a chance to have a bike.STARRS


Matt

Many things have happened since last time I updated my blog. The picture here was taken about a week ago in Colorado Springs Colorado. when I went to visit my sisters, and watch the Air Force versus Notre Dame football game.

Cool Air

I am in Austin for the weekend. In order to get things in order for next season and visit some friends I have not seen or trained with in a while. I rode with some friends down to San Marcos and back. Another thing I have not done in a while is city limit sign sprints. Which we did today. This means that I had Todd "the buffalo" Gerlach as my leadout man. Since it has been a while since I have done this I did not remember where all the signs were.
On another note I have a new recipie for peach cobbler that I will have to give you guys. Ok I will just give it to you now.

1 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 stick of butter
1 large can of peaches with juice

melt butter then mix in flour and sugar.
Mix all the above together, then add peaches
put in the oven at 350 degrees
bake until top get caramel brown.

when done put ice cream on it then eat. When done get up and put more in your bowl or on your plate. This is not meant to be eaten as left overs.

Hello

This weeks has been different. I have not spent as much time on the bike, since the season ended for me a week or so ago. I have however been spending more time in school. The different part about that aspect of my week is that I have been playing the role of teacher, not student. for a couple of days this week I will be or have been a substitute for a first and second grade class. Also Today I was invited to speak to a class about energy. In its various forms and how it relates to my life as an athlete. I have to say that the week has been a really cool experience.

On the cycling side of my week. I had my first ride yesterday when I rode, when I rode to the shop (The Pedal) where I work when in town. I was happy to be back on my bike since the day before I was getting the itch and beginning to miss my bike.


Till Next Time

Matt Seagrave

funny stuff

I had to post what I just saw this morning. There was a guy in my neighborhood that was walking his dog. The funny part is that the man was on his bike and the dogs leash was tied to his seatpost. So when ever the dog wanted to run somewhere else he almost knocked the man off the bike.

Matt

Slow down

Click here!

Cool video

Must See (click here)

More Belgian team pics

One more update

You are probably wondering why are there so many updates on my blog lately. The answer would be that I am finally living in a house where I have internet access. Which means that my feet are firmly on Texas soil, more specifically, I am in Corpus Christi.
I want to say I am happy to be home for a while and look forward to seeing you guys on the road either training or racing. I have plenty more stories to share with everyone.


Matt "everything here is so far apart" Seagrave

More Pics.

Trying to bridge across the gap.

Europe Pics.

race photos

This pictures are some friends on the team
Just few pictures from this year. I will add more over time

The last race.

Good Day

I finished on the Podium again today. This has been a good week. I will fill in the details a little bit later. I will say this I attacked in the first 1.5km and was gone for the rest of the race. So it was a very hard race.

Cheers

Matt

Details

Ok, well the race in Baldagem was interesting. A majority of the guys caught a ride out to the race, something that is not usually an option. Myself and a few others decided to ride out that way we got a solid hour of riding before the race. Once we arrived we went to inscription then to the change room to put on the clothes that we were going to race in. On the way to the race it began to rain pretty good. The temperature was cool so the rain made it cold. So once dressed everyone was looking for newspaper to a under the jersey wind guard. I pulled out the flash Compliance Depot shoe covers. The race started in the rain and continued to rain pretty much the whole time (cant complain this is what the weather is like here). There were some spots on the course where the puddles actually caused enough drag on the bike you felt it slow down. This course had one short and steep muur at the start and finish of ever lap along with a long 1km climb which played to my advantage. The race was 13 laps.
Now with all needed info the races played out like this. On the first lap the group split and all nine of the kingsnorth riders where in the group. Later on the second lap everything came back together. We had a rider off at all times for the first few laps. On the 6th lap I was descending down the very narrow road after the star/finish and said to myself if I want something to stick I will have to attack from about 100 meters after the long hills begins to rise. I was sitting fourth or fifth wheel, while the whole group was strung out on the right side of the road and then jumped as hard as I could and did not look back until I was at the top of the hill to see if anyone was on my wheel, because there was a sharp right then left down hill series of turns at the top and did not want to cause a pile up if someone was there and pulling through. There were two guys. One former CSC professional and a rider from the Sean Kelly Cycling Team on my wheel. We now have 6.5 laps to go and need to work to get a gap that will not be brought back after 4 laps we had over three minutes on the field. So all we had to do was stay upright on the cobbles and other slick turns on the course. Coming into the start/finish there is one last prime. I grab it and then am attacked by the other two riders and the fight is on. We are all just doing everything we can to stay with each other and then weardown each other. I come across the line 3rd. Pretty happy, since before the race I really could not wrap my head around racing that day. O yes, I forgot the lead vehicle was playing music through a loud speaker the whole race so we had that as a motivating factor during the race. I had a smile on the face a couple times because they played some old Janet Jackson and some of my favorite beach boys tunes. There were some faster beats also.
The next day I lined up for another race in a small town just outside Evergem. Just sat in and played the waiting game once we got one of our guys in the front break. I was able to pull 15th out for the day. The best part of the race for me was when I got a lead out for about 2km for a prime. I got the prime I was pretty excited. The racing here has made me have to learn to sprint and move around in such scenarios.
Today is a day off from racing, and will be going again tomorrow. This race starts about 1km from the house and comes down the street where the farm is. I have done this course earlier this season and in 22 laps there are something like 300+ turn (17 per lap) on a 5.5km course.

Matthew

Race Results

I finished on the podium yestarday. I will update again in the next day or so with all the details of how it played out.

matt