This week I took Monday off and just rode my bike. I rode into Provo, met up with Chris at the mouth of the canyon and then we rode to the top of the Alpine Loop and back down. He went back to work and I rode home. It was great. The trees are still pretty vibrant down in the valley.

Mapleton still has a lot of color.

Tuesday made ten days since Chris got stitches, so I took them out for him. It was more difficult to do than I remembered. This time there was a lot of scabbing to work around. I was pretty nervous about hurting him. They are out now.

Chris' arm

Today we had our Mad Dog Team Party. Paul hosted it and held a "handicap" race. This was Paul's brain child where he took times, primarily, from 24 Hours of Moab, and ranked each of us. Then we left to ride a loop based on our individual start times. Technically, we should have finished together based on everyone's handicap. Each person was trying to catch the people in front of them and try not to get caught. Kind of like a time trial, but there was not a set period of time between each of us. It was cool even though I did not finish so well.
Through out the last week or so I was trying to decide if I wanted to do the "handicap" race or the cyclocross race today. I decided to take a logical approach--I prefer mountain biking over cyclocross, this was free--and decided this race made more sense. I do hope to get some more cyclocross in though.
After the race, we met back at Paul's for a barbeque and hung out. It was fun. The biggest draw back though was Brad's absence. He was really excited for this race because he loves the trails it was on. His knee has been bugging him and it was pretty bad so he stayed home. That stinks! Hopefully he can get it fixed and be back soon. Thanks to the whole team, especially Keith for the great season. I can't wait until next year!