Simple Simon was a pie-man.

At this time I'd like to raise a glass to my friend and teammate, Simon Vickers. He and I have had some times on the road this year, and the season's not done yet. We've both gotten our asses kicked in some fairly exotic locales like New York, Massachusets and Colorado- not to mention here in California.

I've personally had more races than I care to admit that have ended in some rather dark and unhappy moods. Simon has suffered in a similar fashion, and I think sharing that misery has been helpful for the both of us. In these situations, we've managed to make fun of one another until we both got a good laugh at the others expense and opened beers 'till we no longer cared.

Simon's currently got me beat as far as reasons to feel bad about one's self- he took a pretty savage crash-up in CO and is still off the bike. Word is that he won't be racing at this weekend's Velo Bella race and is not planning on attending the USGP races in the northwest. I'm hopeful that he'll be back on his bike soon and that he can find some good condition for nationals!