Vacation is definitely over!

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Our month in Pennsylvania was a real escape. The weather was temperate, the food was plentiful and the riding beautiful! Unfortunately...it's over. We have been back in VA for a week and I am heading to Ft. Hood in a couple of days. I will be heading to the desert soon and will definitely miss the relative cool here in VA...95 deg. The most recent forecast I have seen has most places over there at between 115 and 125 deg for the daily high. I am not real sure how my body is going to do with those temps, but I don't really have much of a choice at this point. I am praying that the AC is kickin! To anyone that I didn't get a chance to see or say "goodbye" to, please drop me a line at chad.hendrickson@us.army.mil. I will do my best to answer all emails in a timely fashion. I hope to be back in early '08, but there is no guarantee until the boots are back on the ground here. I will definitely try and post what I can while I am there. I plan to take a lot of photos and will be able to share some of them. Take care all!!

2008 Trek Madone...ME LIKEY!!!

Check out the unveiling at Trek's site: http://www2.trekbikes.com/index_us.php
Me thinks there will be one of these puppies with my name on it when I get back from the desert!

It's been forever since I posted...got a new camera!!

Here are some photos I took with my new Olympus 770SW. It's shock and water resistant(hence the "SW"). Love it so far. I look forward to taking lots of photos in Iraq.

2007 Casey Auto Group Crit...In The Books!

Well, my first race promotion is behind me, and thanks to the JRVS volunteers, it was quite a success. The pressure lifted around Wednesday before the race when the beautiful weekend weather was a lock. I was up at 5am and at the race course by 6:45. Dave Rushing(my course manager) and a few other eager beavers were already there to get er done! It was a gorgeous clear morning as more volunteers began to arrive to pitch in. Pam Zimmerman(my registration coordinator) got things rolling as the juniors began to arrive for their early 8:30 start. The first race actually started 3 minutes ahead of schedule and we carried that momentum through the rest of the day with some great racing and awesome JRVS team support. Dave Wilson brought the Bike Beat box truck by and it provided a nice back drop opposite the registration area. Nikki and the girls showed up about 9:30 and set up for a long day of sales and spectating. They sold hot dogs and other goodies to many of the racers and their families throughout the day. As you can see...there were plenty of volunteers and once the races were running, there was a lot of sitting around and socializing to be done. Overall, the racing was very safe, and except for one blown tire in turn one and a late-day Cat 5 crash, there was no blood shed. I want to thank all the volunteers from JRVS for making this year's race a success. A promoter couldn't have a more competent and eager team to make him look good!! Although I will be leaving soon, I look forward to being involved with more races next year.

A day of contrasts at the U.S. Open Cycling Championships

It was an inauspicious start from Williamsburg at about 9:15am. The riders' faces had looks ranging from disbelief to horror. My friend Pat Ellison (from Tampa, FL!) and I were two of only a few dozen brave, or crazy, souls who ventured out to see the racers off. The temp was about 34 degrees, not the 18 degrees that Al Trautwig was touting on the the NBC Sports coverage...but with the wind-chill it felt like 2 deg! We walked a few hundred meters from the roll-out to see the race come through downtown Williamsburg and were told that the race had already taken a wrong turn. A small group had rolled off the front already, and I suspect that it was simply to get warm, as it was gruppo compatto shortly there after. The race stayed together for the majority of the gently rolling route between Williamsburg and Richmond, but was just starting to get animated when Pat and I got to the "JUMBOTRON" at the finish line downtown. We watched the action for just a short while before making the trek to Libby Hill Park and the much anticipated cobblstone climb the racers would struggle up on each of their 8 circuits through Richmond. Libby Hill didn't disappoint, with bursting tires and racers scrambling all over the road, and grass, to find the smoothest line. We hung out on the slopes of the climb for about 4 laps and were later able to spot ourselves on the nationally televised NBC Sports coverage. If you happened to tape it, Pat was wearing a bright yellow raincoat and I had on my JRVS red, white and black vest. We made our way back to the jumbotron just in time to catch Svein Tuft make his decisive move on Pat McCarty the last time over Libby Hill and solo in for the victory. It was a beautiful day in Richmond for a bike race and I hope the organizers can make it happen again next year.

JRVS Member Todd Helmick Wins 2007 World Police and Fire Games Mountain Bike Gold!

Congratulations to Todd Helmick, the reigning and now two-time champion of the World Police and Fire Games mountain bike race. The games are a biennial event, and this year the race was held in Adelaide, Australia on March 25th. Todd has been training extremely hard and it paid big dividends this weekend in Australia. I, for one, am looking forward to having Todd back to tear it up on the local road racing scene for JRVS. He has been laying waste to the competition at local mountain bike races for years now, and I suspect he is planning to doing the same on the road! Awesome job Todd.

mr. Deity

If you haven't seen filmmaker Brian Dalton's hilarious series of shorts called "mr. Deity", then you have to check it out. It's a light hearted look at just how difficult it is to be the CREATOR in today's hectic world!! Click on "mr. Deity" in my links on this page.

U.S. Open Cycling Championships to be held in Virginia April 7th 2007!

The inaugural U.S. Open Cycling Championships will feature a men's point to point road race and a women's circuit race on Saturday April 7th 2007. The men's race will begin in Williamsburg and then courses through rural Virginia to Richmond, where it will finish with circuits through the capitol city. The women's circuit race will be run earlier in the day in Richmond on the same course that the men's race will finish on. There will be a cycling & fitness expo on Thursday and Friday at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. There's also a teams presentation and concert on Friday night. I can tell you from personal experience that these are beautiful roads between Williamsburg and Richmond and I will be positioned along the route to take in the race. The race will be televised live on NBC from 2:30 to 5:00pm. It's great to see a big professional race her in the central VA area! I am hoping to have some of my old cycling buddies from Tampa and Biloxi join me for some great riding and pro cycling action. There may be some Belgian beer in it for you guys...along with a little suffering dished out by yours truly!! It should be a great event. Check out the link: http://www.usopencycling.com

HairMAX lasercomb gains FDA approval for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia

Lexington International announced in February that they have gained FDA approval for their "medical laser device" to treat androgenetic alopecia (male pattern baldness). They reported their research showed that 93% of men age 30-60 had improvement in their alopecia and that the average number of terminal (thick) hairs increased by an average of 19 hairs per square centimeter.

While it is interesting that this device now has FDA approval, I have not seen any published data myself. As always...I am skeptical.

More to come as the story unfolds!

Here is the website if you would like to read more: http://www.lasercomb.net/default.aspx

Levi Leipheimer wins the 2007 Tour of California!!

Congrats to Levi Leipheimer and the Discovery Channel Cycling Team! Levi is the first rider to lead the Tour of California from start to finish. It looks like Team Discovery is going to pick up where Lance left off two years ago with stellar new additions like Levi and Ivan Basso. Be sure to catch the great cycling coverage and archived video clips on Versus (http://www.versus.com/cyclysm/)