goatspeak

monster crossing

2011-11-22T17:57:00.001-05:00

Monster cross 2.0. Get excited!

tnr 10/25

2011-10-26T05:50:00.001-05:00

Late October and 10 riders, seven students. Awesome.

Anyway, as Woltemade said, it was a Fall day to bottle up and uncork in January. Such a nice day...

cross is boss

2011-10-17T16:26:00.001-05:00

How can you not love this stuff?

I'll tell you how. When you drive 2.5 hours to a race and the officials stop it a half lap in, later to cancel your field altogether. Yup, that's how.

I mean, some dudes were hurt pretty bad in a pileup almost right as we started, at least one had to be airlifted out, and you get all sort of weird feeling when someone gets hurt that bad, but, you know, you still walk away feeling empty and gyped (yup, i used _that_ word) for not getting to race and the promoter not being willing to put you in another race or refund...anything.

So, yeah, that's when I don't totally love this stuff...

two morning complaints

2011-10-12T07:46:00.002-05:00

first morning complaint:

Listening to the sound bites from what I guess was a Republican presidential debate last night (I didn't watch the debate, obviously) I'm struck again with how completely stupid these people sound. And I'm not, believe it or not, referring to the substance of their comments. I'm talking about the persona, the image, the caricature of a candidate that they are all trying so hard to sculpt and project. Because what are they projecting? Stupidity.

A couple of examples. Romney is responding to a Perry critique of the MA health care plan. Forget the substantive particulars for a moment and consider Romney's response. He says that in MA only one percent of children are uninsured. Sounds great. But then he tells us 1,000,000 children in TX are uninsured. He pauses for effect. The effect of a comparison between a little number like one and a big number like one million. But of course the comparison is absurd. It may be that TX has an unimaginably high rate of uninsured children, but I certainly don't know off the top of my head what the total population of children in either MA or TX is, so I'm completely unable to make a reasoned comparison.

Then Bachman... Apparently having nothing substantial to say at all, she criticizes Cane's 999 plan by saying something like, "If you just turn those numbers over...well, the devil's in the details..." Really? That's all you've got?

Seriously, it's like you get dumber just listening to these people.

But this is the thing, they're only giving us what we want...and by "we" I mean what polls well, or what they know will be rewarded or at least not punished. In other words, there's a clear incentive to act like a moron. If there weren't, we'd get intelligence.

second morning complaint:

Why doesn't Shippensburg University (the university where I work) hire students to fill it's unskilled labor positions? I'm talking about things like janitorial work, food service, and grounds keeping. I've nothing against the people who are currently in those jobs, but we've so many students either looking for work or having to travel long distances (which consumes so much time and such a large portion of their paycheck) to work, and usually working jobs no better than those on campus, if those jobs on campus were available to students.

So make all the jobs on campus part-time and accommodating towards students' schedules. The students won't have to travel to work, and whatever value is lost in having to spend more time managing odd schedules and in the training costs associated with a high turnover workforce will be more than balanced by the cost savings of having, well, a high turnover, part-time workforce.

iphone 4S pre-order complete

2011-10-07T05:40:00.003-05:00

Check!

(I didn't get white.)

I can't help myself...I'm very excited!!

sticky-fingered lunchtime typing...

2011-09-27T08:07:00.003-05:00

There's something especially distasteful (and perhaps degrading) to me about eating meals at my desk. It's just so...grubby.

There are of course several advantages to bringing food to work versus going out. It's cheaper. It's usually healthier. I usually eat less. I save time.

But it just feels so...uncivilized. Perhaps the word I'm looking for is uncouth. (I write between bites of my "Simply Asia Sweet & Sour Chow Mein." Yes, it's not 9:15 am and I'm eating lunch...)

I really miss my office at Vandy. Not only did we have a very nice break room, complete with patio table on deck for nice weather, but there were also so many and varied eating options within very close walking distance, both on and off campus.

Sometimes I really miss that place...

stationary trainers: the anti-awesome

2011-09-22T14:00:00.005-05:00

Really?

You've got to be kidding me.

No amount of movie magic is ever going to make a trainer--or riding a trainer--awesome. And the people who made this video know that, and they know people watching this video know that, yet they still made it.

And then they had to punch themselves repeatedly.

(Though, watching this, I'm reminded of desperately wishing the other day that I lived my life to a soundtrack. I mean, really, wouldn't that be awesome?)

a test run with the GoPro

2011-09-17T10:56:00.001-05:00

It's not all that awesome, but we're in business, which is awesome. (FB'ers, click here to see vid.)

I recorded A's cross country meet this morning, but it needs some editing (and some inspirational music) before it's ready for public consumption. So, stay tuned...

interbike 2011

2011-09-15T10:03:00.003-05:00

Well, I've been terrible at blogging Interbike. I thought I was going to be awesome--posting pictures and witty, insightful comments--but I've been super busy running to and fro and, when not busy, way too tired to blog. So tired that I fell asleep in a couch that was part of the Hammer Nutrition booth, only to be woke up by some Hammer dude who sat down heavily next to me and, when I looked up, said, "Comfortable couches, aren't they?" I was so pissed I sat for another five or six minutes before leaving.

But I've had a great time.

I missed the first day of outdoor demo because my flight was cancelled (due to weather), but I rode 10 bikes the second day and have pictures of six of them.

Wednesday morning was spent setting up the WickWerks tent in the rain at the CrossVegas venue, the day was spent wandering the Expo hall looking at all kinds of cool stuff and quite a bit of lame stuff too. And the late afternoon and evening was spent back at CrossVegas watching the races and selling chain rings. (I bought a GoPro camera at special Interbike pricing yesterday--if anyone wants one while I'm here, let me know quick--and shot a bunch of video at CrossVegas. I haven't looked at it yet, but I'm hoping I've something cool to post when I get home and have time to sort out everything.)

One of the coolest things I saw yesterday was suction cup bike carriers.

It's pretty cool. Clearly, to sell these guys you've got to get over a major mental hurtle, but after seeing the demonstration and watching their videos, I'm convinced. And I want some. What a great, great way to carry your bikes (you can do it on the roof, or the back of your car like the picture above, which I think is really the way to go).

And CrossVegas was awesome. I don't think I've ever seen such an exciting cross race. Out of an elite group of 10 there came attack after attack, but nothing held for more than a couple of laps and the race ended pretty much in a nine-up sprint. The finish was too close to call...between _three_ riders! Good stuff.

there are hard men, and then there's Gilbert

2011-09-14T08:08:00.003-05:00

"I'm tougher than the tarmac."

--Gilbert, to his teammates upon their expressing concern at the state of his hand after a crash.

Even when Gilbert doesn't win, he still plays the part of the hero in the last kilometer. Watch.

shipping on two tomato cages from ID to PA = $$$

2011-09-07T07:52:00.005-05:00

This picture probably hasn't gotten enough attention:

Taken a few weeks ago, at a campground somewhere between Leadville and Buena Vista, Colorado. (A campground, btw, that was next to impossible to find at night. We drove past seven times before we found it.) Three bikes. Two indestructible tomato cages. Hauled from Idaho Falls all the way to Shippensburg. Via Ontario.

A map, you ask?

Ok. :-)

View Larger Map

Something like that.

Interestingly (to me), getting into Canada with my car thus loaded was no big deal. Getting out (even with two US passports and a PA license plate) was more difficult. Not difficult, per se, but the US border patrol agent had that sort of bad-ass cop attitude that we've all come to resent.

US border patrol agent: "Where are you coming from."

Me: "Idaho. Via Niagara Falls."

US border patrol dude: "You'll need to adjust that rack when you get out of here. A state patrolman will pull you over."

Me: "Oh, you mean like they haven't done in Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan...nor in Canada?"

Ok, I didn't really say that. I was all "Yes-sir, no-sir." Cops make me nervous. They have guns. And (yup, I'm going to say it) I don't trust anyone carrying a gun.

I will admit to enjoying a good ride in the rain (sometimes)...

2011-09-06T16:06:00.004-05:00

Yup. I admit it. I do enjoy riding in the rain. Quite a bit, actually.

An archive photo. SoYoCo 2011.

What I don't enjoy is the aftermath. I don't enjoy how dirty everything gets, and when I say "everything," what I really mean is my bike. Which is not to say that I don't mind a dirty bike, it's that I mind the performance issues associated with a dirty bike that doesn't ever quite get clean afterward, even when you think it is.

I feel like I need to take things apart (pull the crank, pop the seatpost, take off the wheels and pedals) and let everything dry and wipe everything off. In the nooks and crannies. The bottom bracket bearing races, etc. And brakes, chain, derailleurs, etc.

And it seems to me that riding in the rain significantly decreases the useable life of cable housing, especially brake cable housing. I hate when brakes and derailleurs don't crisply spring back (when releasing tension) due to the crap that gets in there from who knows what. (I probably ought to look into that Gore sealed cable stuff, especially since I actually enjoy riding in the rain, but it seems expensive and complicated.) Seriously, though, riding in the rain leaves grit everywhere...

I also don't like wet shoes. Wet shoes dry quicker in the winter when the heat is on (and you put them next to the vent), but in this weather (and eastern humidity) it seems to take forever. Even with newspaper stuffed in them.

Anyway, I rode today. In the rain. For two hours and ten minutes. It was lovely.

But once home I had to drop everything in a hurry, shower, and get back to campus for a meeting. To which I was 10 minutes late. So I didn't get to take anything apart, and I didn't get to do any cleaning. So, now, when I do get to it, the whole thing will be worse. Which is a pain. But it's probably still worth it. Sometimes.

slumming in Tripoli

2011-09-02T21:06:00.002-05:00

You can't make this stuff up...

From The National:

Chris Jeon, 21, a student at at University of California - Los Angeles, decided to travel to Libya to join the rebels for the last six weeks of his summer vacation. Here he is surrounded by rebels who are amassing about 130km from Colonel Muammar Qaddafi's hometown and stronghold.

Wow. What did you do with the last six weeks of your summer vacation?

crank brothers comes through

2011-08-30T13:37:00.002-05:00

Last fall I bought a new pair of Eggbeater 3s. By early summer the bearings in one pedal had completely seized, to the point of not being able to turn the pedal with my hand, and only barely with a foot clipped in.

So about a month ago I sent them back to Crank Brothers with a description of the problem. Just now I opened a package to discover my pedals, rebuilt and as good as new. All I had to pay was shipping to one way.

Good on Crank Brothers.

...

So I've been pretty weak with the blog lately. Most readers won't care, but every now and then someone comments on it, lamenting my inactivity. That feels good, at least.

Anyway, I hope to pick things up again. I've a new camera on the to-buy list, and that might give me more to blog. And then last night I booked my trip to Interbike, so I'm hoping to blog a bit of that while I'm there. At least a post a day. So there's that. To look forward to. If you're the type that looks forward to such things.

I am.

And I'm excited!

a gorilla attack

2011-07-12T17:45:00.006-05:00

I'm happy for the Gorilla.

Really, I've been a Greipel fan since at least this, and I think it's great he gets to beat Cav in a mano-a-mano shootout. It's good for everybody.

But look at this picture... Look at the size difference between these two! And what I love about the story of stage 10 is that it was Omega Pharma-Lotto's strategy to try to dump as many HTC riders (including, hopefully, Cavendish) on the Cat 4 climb leading up to the finish...assuming that Greipel, the dude nicknamed after the largest and surely the least adept at climbing of the hairy primates, would have a better chance making it through the difficult lead-up to the finish than teeny-tiny Cav.

Crazy.

I wonder how much more power Greipel had to put out over Cav to get over that last climb. I mean, compared to Cav...that dude looks huge!.

2011 mid-year race wrap-up

2011-07-11T11:43:00.003-05:00

With the Tour de 'Toona this past weekend my road racing for the year is pretty much done. I may jump into something in late August or September (and hopefully at least one more mountain bike race), but my mind and focus is pretty much on cross from this point forward. Two weeks off, then a comfortable build-up for the mud-slinging good times of the cx circuit. (And the blessed cooler weather of the fall months.)

So, a review of what's gone down in 2011 thus far.

March 19. Philly Phlyer (3/4). 18 of 50+
March 20. Prospect Park CR (3/4). Somewhere in the middle of a pretty big crew.
April 2. Marysville MTB team relay. (Does this race even have results?)
April 9. Fulton RR (3/4). 1 of 50+.
April 16. SoYoCo CR (3/4). 3 of 30+?
April 17. Carlisle 40km TT. 2 of ? (57:02)
May 1. Michaux Maximus (20 mi). 2 of 26 (age group); 4 of 84 (overall)
May 7. Turkey Hill RR (3/4). 37 of 100.
May 14. Poolsville RR (35+). 13 of 75.
May 28. Killington SR, Stage 1, CR (3). 62 of 88.
May 29. Killington SR, Stage 2, TT (3). 18 of 88.
May 30. Killington SR, Stage 3, RR (3). 38 of 85.
-- Killington SR, GC (3). 25th.
June 11. PA Elite State Championship 40km TT (3). 3 of 13. (56:04)
June 17. TOWC Kick-Off Classic Criterium (3/4). 45 of ?
June 17. TOWC Kick-Off Classic Criterium (1/2/3). dnf.
June 18. Guy's Neshaminy Classic (Expert 19-39). dnf.
July 9. Tour de 'Toona SR, Stage 1, RR (3). 21 of 42.
July 10. Tour de 'Toona SR, Stage 2, Crit (3). 23 of 48.

That, friends, is a resume of mediocrity.

I told Valerie after Fulton (easily my biggest result in the past five years) that I should just hang it up for the year...I wasn't going to beat that result (it was a kind of Johann Van Summeren right-place-right-time, just-strong-enough thing). The comment proved prophetic.

But I feel good about my result at SoYoCo. Out of how many ever started (a good portion of the pre-registered riders didn't even bother to show up), only about a dozen finished. Conditions were terrible--heavy rain, wind, running water on the roads...and probably my favorite race of the year. Not only do I love that course, but those conditions were just awesome. That was bike racing. (That those who didn't even bother to show up can call themselves bike racers is a travesty.)

The second place at the Michaux Maximus was pretty good too, but I'm sure all the fast guys were doing the 40-miler...

A near miss at Poolsville... I finished 13th...but what that doesn't say is that I finished the day near the back of a select group that saw attack after attack over the last five miles with no one getting anywhere for long. I was in several breaks, the last of which formed on the dirt section of the final lap. There were five or six of us, then another six or seven bridged up within a mile or two after the dirt. Anyway, I felt great, rode a super aggressive race, and among a really stellar field finished right there among the leaders. Thirteenth place overall, fifth cat 3.

But besides feeling good about the bronze medal in the PA Time Trial State Championships (finishing four minutes under an hour in a 40km ITT feels pretty decent), the rest of the season has been mediocre at best. That's not to say I haven't had fun at the races (note the last post), because I have, but I also like to do well, and I finish poorly more often than not. But that seems to be bike racing, when you find your level of incompetence rising through the USAC category system, as apparently I have.

Hurrah for cross season! (Hope springs eternal for the rider...)

'toona

2011-07-11T11:17:00.003-05:00

The elevation profile of Saturday's stage...

...except that the race was really more like 70 miles long...apparently our race started some eight miles in from where this profile begins. Anyway...

The first climb was much longer and much steeper in places than I was expecting. It was a haul. But the ride down was great fun. I've become much better at descending. On the steep descents, if I was leading I would invariably look back to see that I'd distanced my riding mates by some considerable margin, or if I started behind others, I was quickly shooting past them...

Perhaps it speaks to my poor finish* (21st of 42) that the most exciting thing about the race for me was the descending, but it really was fun. For me, anyway, there are few chances to really race down long, steep descents. And I found it exhilarating.

The ride that offered this exhilaration: sub-15 lb '08 S-Works SL2 w/ Zipp 404s glued to Vittoria Corsa Evo CX tubulars. It's such a lovely ride. Others have nice bikes too, really nice bikes, but I can't remember looking at anyone else's rig this year and thinking I'd rather have their ride.

*I hate the "what-if" and "could have/should have" post race whine ritual, but I can't help it... Two weeks ago I was just getting over a week-long bout of stomach flu that obviously kept me off the bike, but also fevered, bed-ridden, dehydrated, and running to the toilet...usually making it on time. The week afterward, when back on the bike, I was completely gassed. This last week I felt pretty ok, but on Saturday... Well, I really should have (yup, I said it) been doing better up those climbs. I mean, at Killington, when I was destroyed on the last climb, well I was just destroyed. I felt like I was going pretty good, but there were just a lot of folks going a lot better than me. But Saturday, well, I was capable of much better...

sport

2011-07-10T15:13:00.004-05:00

Are there harder men than cyclists?

And this dude (Johnny Hoogerland) not only got on his bike and rode the 24 miles (presumably with a new pair of shorts) left to the finish, he's going to be back on tomorrow to race another 100+ miles. Well, not really tomorrow, as Monday is a rest day, but he'll be back on again Tuesday, and if Monday wasn't a rest day he'd be riding.

Behold, a hard man.

Here's a video (in Flemish) showing what caused the wreck. Someone lost their job today.

But it wasn't all bad for Johnny. Due to his work earlier in the stage, he finished the race with a lead in the climbing competition.

Nice work, man.

stage four

2011-07-05T10:52:00.004-05:00

I wonder if Contador is aware that his handlebars offer a more aerodynamic sprinting position. Who knows, he might have won...

Congrats to Evans for a great show in today's final. I got my money's worth.

And how about that Thor Hushovd? I mean, did you see the list of dudes he finished with? Totally out of place in that crowd...and yet maintains his lead in the GC. Crazy impressive.

I'd like to have been inside Evans' head when he turned around at the finish and realized Hushovd was in his group. Nuts. Though, the truth of the matter is that if he (Evans) had attacked at the bottom of the hill and really went for it, regardless of what other riders were doing, he would have lost the stage, but pulled on the yellow. Hard to say which outcome would be preferable. But at least this way he gets to wear polka-dots tomorrow. If he later gets yellow, he'll have been able to spend at least one day in each jersey, as Gilbert already has. That's pretty cool.

I wonder how often that happens... It's probably happened a few times the way Gilbert did it--winning the first road stage. It probably happens a lot less the way Evans may do it--not winning a stage until later (in this case, day four), and wearing yellow the last of the three. My guess is that if that's been done, it's only been once or twice before.

patience

2011-06-25T15:25:00.004-05:00

I would guess that by the time I was 25 I had done more door-to-door sales/solicitation/proselytizing/etc. than 99 percent of the people I will ever know.

Ironic, then, that I have zero patience for the odd front door sales call I get now. And while I have sympathy for the poor shleps forced into such endeavors, I'm not going to listen to five seconds of sales pitch.

I am the last person I would want to come across while doing the jobs I did for so many years.

fisticuffs at the giro

2011-05-20T08:53:00.002-05:00

I bet Robbie regrets this today. :-)

Also, I'm pretty sure the only reason Cav won yesterday is because he's riding the most awesome bike in the world:

2011 michaux maximus

2011-05-02T15:12:00.003-05:00

Did a little racing in Michaux over the weekend. The 20-miler. It was about all this mountain bike wimp could handle.

As I finished, pulling into the appropriate finishing chute and watching the scorers wipe the mud from my tag and post it on the board, someone asked me something...one of those comments that seems inane at face value but, in the appropriate context and bolstered by integrity*, holds value enough--something like, "How was your race?" or "How do you feel?" In response, I shrugged my shoulders and muttered, "It's what we do."

Bike racing: It's what we do.

Why do we race our bicycles? I don't know, it's just what we do. Why do we endure torrential rain in 40 degree weather (as at SoYoCo a couple of weeks ago)? I don't know, it's just what I do. Why the long winter rides in sub-freezing weather? Why the delayed yard work on Saturdays? Why the hours tinkering over drive trains? Why the money spent on all manner of gear, travel, registration? Why the strain on relationships and other commitments? Why all of it?

I don't know, it's just what we do... (And it feels really, really good when we do it.)

Riders understand. So did the dude who asked me the question.

Ok, enough poetry...

...

The Maximus 20-miler looked like this (the Garmin plot of someone who apparently finished just a few minutes behind me). I wish I had a picture of what my bike and I looked like after the 20-miler. You'll have to imagine... April had record-breaking precipitation. Much of the trail became run-off stream. Sometimes the trail was a stream. I didn't spend all of my time balanced on two wheels. There, that should give you an adequate picture.

Anyway, no great insights from the experience. Which is to say that I learned what I already knew--I'm a stronger rider than most, but I am easily out mountain biked by those that know what they're doing. In other words, I'm a pansy. Or a poser. But I still finished second in my age group (of 26) and fourth overall (of 84). And, as always, for reasons that continue to allude me, it feels downright awesome to ride faster than a lot of other good riders and a few really good ones...

Of course, the real talent was likely attracted to the 40-mile option (or Granogue). Another way to say that is if the 40-milers were racing the 20-miler, well, I wouldn't have fared so well. But I think the 40-mile option may have just done me in. It's not the five hours of riding, of course, it's rather what I'd be riding for five hours. Hats off to you off-road wizards. I'm ever in awe of your mad mtb skills...

...

The sorest part of my body today? Triceps.

* When I say "integrity," I mean to use the word in the sense David James Duncan uses it here, but with the volume turned down a bit, as it were:

Language has vertical limits. Not just any speaker can pack up his speech and tote it at will to a higher elevation. Where there is a will, there is as often a major embarrassment as there is a way. Like a gymnast on parallel bars, the speaker or writer who successfully conveys exaltation must possess sufficient mental muscle to hoist himself above the level of everyday verbiage without appearing to strain. Again, like the gymnast, he must be able to lift himself, all by himself. It is not speech coaches and writers, height of pulpit, number of advanced degrees, thickness of thesaurus, histrionic techniques, or any such contrivance that truly lifts language: it is personal integrity. It’s the ability to imbue one’s words with the physical momentum, intellectual clarity, and psychic depth that only the actual deeds of a life can provide. If Martin Luther King Jr. in his Lincoln Memorial Speech of 1963 had said, “In my heart I know I’m right,” and if President Nixon, in his resignation speech a decade later, had said, “I have a dream,” the world would have remembered King’s heart and forgotten Nixon’s dream. It is not just the words that make words memorable.

monster x 1.0

2011-04-27T10:53:00.006-05:00

Introducing my newest rig, Monster X 1.0:

(Bad iPhone 3G photo.)

After my Gary Fisher Paragon died in December, I had to quickly buy a replacement mtb (because who can be without a mtb for more than a week or two, especially during the winter?), which I did, but when the warranty replacement came what was I to do but find a creative use for it?

So I built the monster cross--which, in this case, is essentially a fully rigid mountain bike with drop bars and road shifters.

I finally finished the build last week* and I'm happy to report that I really, really like it. It's heavy, which is a bummer, but it's a lot of fun on the fire roads and bits and pieces of mild single track that make up the majority of my forays into the woods. For that purpose, it's perfect.

There are still a few kinks to work out, however. First, the X-9 rear derailleur that I'm using does not play well with the Rival shifter it's paired with. Though the derailleur was obviously designed for nine-speed use, I didn't figure it would be a problem using it with the road shifter and a ten-speed cassette. But it is--the derailleur won't hold the furthermost inward position no matter what I try. I'm not sure if that's a problem with the derailleur design or perhaps a problem with this particular derailleur, which may be bent from abuse from previous mtb applications.

Second, I've got to make a decision as to whether to run a single-ring setup or a double--a matter on which I waffle daily--and then complete the build, either with an appropriate derailleur or chain guards, depending.

Third, I'm dissatisfied with the fork. It's a nice steel 29er fork, as far as that goes, but besides being heavy (it is), the crown doesn't fit well with the 1 1/2" lower headset bearing. The headset has an adapter to fit the 1 1/8" steerer, but the crown of the fork is so skinny that it doesn't rest nicely up against the bearings and I'm worried about the long-term reliability of the patch. So I have one of those beautiful new Niner carbon forks on order (it's now been two months) and am super excited to see it installed on this rig. Presently, I'm salivating over my mental picture of its awesomeness.

Finally, I've got to find a better solution to the stem situation. I knew I would need a super short stem to replicate my road position on this bike, so I grabbed a 50 or 60 mm downhill number from one of Merv's bins and it works nicely, but probably weighs close to a pound on its own. Finding a nice lightweight stem that's as short as it needs to be on this bike has not been easy. Really, this is a low priority problem--what I have on there works fine, it just distracts from the overall aesthetic of what I've got going on. In time...

Anyway, I've been out three times on this little beauty and I'm really taking a hankering to it. I'm much more comfortable in a road position than on mtb bars (when not truly mountain biking) and a suspension fork is superfluous for a good deal of my adventures off-road. Once the shifting issues are resolved, I'm excited to plot some nice long backwoods routes and really put it to the test.

And of course the bike offers tremendous flexibility too, depending on tire choice, which is one of the reasons I was so excited about this build. I have a nice pair of 700c X 28mm road tires on order that will work nicely for long rides from Ship to the fire roads of the Tuscarora State Forest and back again...or for exploration further south in Michaux and into the Maryland mountains. Knobbies are great and all, but they are not fast...

* Getting this thing together has been way more of a hassle than it should have been. Here's a list of some of the difficulties I've encountered, other than what I already discussed:

(1) The derailleur hanger wouldn't fit on the frame until the frame was modified by file. Personally, I was unconvinced the hanger I had was the appropriate hanger for the frame (as I imagine most people would assume when it doesn't immediately fit), until assured by a Trek dealer that it was correct. I let them do the filing.

(2) The new Trek BB90 or BB91 or whatever the heck it is was a tremendous hassle. In all internet-dom I could find only one supplier that seemed to know what he was talking about and could sell me the appropriate Shimano BB. Even then there was some confusion between the road and mtb versions of this BB, with Trek customer support telling me one thing and the Trek dealer something else entirely. I'm happy to say, however, that the first BB I eventually did buy fit perfectly.

(3) Lack of careful measurement (and an overabundance of wishful thinking) on my part led me to believe I'd be able to use a Dura-Ace 7800 crankset with the frame. But that was foolish--it didn't work at all. So that left me scrambling to find a new crank that would fit the frame. (I ended up cannibalizing the XT crank on my Superfly and buying a new crank for it, but even that was fraught with complication--when one is considering the purchase of a new crank, one wonders if an entire drive train upgrade wouldn't be in order, in this case to a two-ring setup. In the end, I decided against it, primarily with financial considerations in mind.)

(4) It wasn't until I installed derailleur cable and chain that I realized my setup afforded no means of adjusting derailleur cable tension--no barrel adjusters on the derailleur (they're on the levers on mountain bikes) and no barrel adjusters on the levers (they're on the derailleur on road bikes), and of course mtb frames don't have a place for frame-mounted barrel adjusters on the down tubes like many road frames. Anyway, I ordered an inline barrel adjuster and the problem was easily solved, but it's just another one of those things...

(5) SRAM Rival front derailleurs don't have enough reach to get a chain on the outer chainring of a three-chainring mtb crankset.

it's rodeo time!

2011-04-26T08:20:00.002-05:00

For Immediate Release:

Shippensburg University Cycling Announces Youth Bike Rodeo

Shippensburg, Pennsylvania – April 26, 2010 – On Friday, April 29, 2010, Shippensburg University Cycling will host the Fifth Semi-Annual Spring/Fall Youth Bike Rodeo. Intended for children in Kindergarten through fifth grades, the event will include activities such as helmet fitting, minor bicycle maintenance, bicycle fitting, safety tips, and a skills-testing obstacle course. The event begins at 4:00 pm and will continue until 5:30 pm.

The rodeo will be held on the Shippensburg University campus, in the Queen St. commuter parking lot at the corner of Queen St. and Richard Ave. While there will be no adult specific activities, parents are encouraged to stay and participate. All participants should bring a bicycle and wear a helmet.

This event builds off the success of previous SU Cycling Team sponsored youth bike rodeos. Thirty to forty children participated in each event.

About Shippensburg University Cycling: Shippensburg University Cycling is organized as a university club sport. The mission of Shippensburg University Cycling is to promote cycling socially as well as to prepare athletes for collegiate competition.

Ship Cycling competes in road and mountain bike events in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference (collegiatecycling.org/eccc) under the auspices of USA Cycling (usacycling.org). The team is funded by the University Student Senate as well as the generous support of area businesses including Sunrise Computers and Electronics (www.digitalsunrise.com), The Carlisle Group (tcgrecruit.com), Mountainside Ski & Sport (www.mountainsideski-sports.com) and Wertner Signs (www.wertnersigns.com/).

The team holds regular training rides, open to all area cyclists, in the rural farmland and mountainous terrain of Cumberland and Franklin Counties.

For more information on the Shippensburg University Cycling Team, please contact Nathan Goates, faculty advisor (nwgoates@ship.edu), Matt Conroy, club president (mc3923@ship.edu), or visit our blog at shipcycling.blogspot.com.

CONTACT:
Dr. Nathan Goates
Shippensburg University
717-477-1214
nwgoates@ship.edu
http://webspace.ship.edu/cycling/

# # #

a taste of SoYoCo 2011 goodness

2011-04-20T09:12:00.001-05:00

More photos here.

roubaix in super-slow-mo

2011-04-19T08:38:00.001-05:00

(FB'ers, click here for video.)

louco com poder

2011-04-18T10:21:00.004-05:00

According to CyclingNews, McQuaid and JV have been trading email.

In an email seen by Cyclingnews, McQuaid wrote to Vaughters:

"I have had enough of this High Moral Ground from you and I am refraining myself from writing exactly what I am thinking.

"Enough to inform you that when I have finished with the teams today you will have plenty to "reflect" on and communication will be the furthest thing from your mind!!”

I really wish we had the text of the whole correspondence.

All the same, a preponderance of the evidence over the past few years is that McQuaid is straight loco. And, you know, I'm inclined to agree with him on the radio thing, but it's clear a majority of the riders don't. And the teams sure don't. And given that reality, how can you expect to "lead" when your constituency* so adamantly opposes your policy?

Time to look in the mirror, McQuaid, and make a change...

*It's tricky to pinpoint who McQuaid's "constituency" actually is. I suppose an appropriate parallel might be to say that McQuaid is like a public school board (all of it) and the riders are like the students. It's a shaky metaphor (for a number of reasons), but the point is that McQuaid is NOT directly accountable to the students, but it's still his job to lead them. If he does not have their trust and respect (which it seems clear he does not), then he's failed.

winner, winner, chicken dinner!

2011-04-11T20:10:00.003-05:00

Saturday, I won a race. I'm not going to lie: it was awesome.

And now I have to document, because that's what we do.

Fulton Road Race. Fifty-eight starters. Five laps around a 10 mile course for a total of 50 miles. A fair amount of climbing--about 750 ft per lap, most of that over two steeper climbs, the rest over a long false flat / 1-2 percent grade and a few rollers.

Short story: First place after an 18-mile solo break.

(Through the start/finish after lap four--ten miles to go...)

Long story: Things started out chill enough, but then you hit those hills and everybody races, races, races up. After the first time over the climbs you got the sense about 35 percent of the group had fallen behind...but they probably caught back on again...then fell back once more the second time through...

And so it continued until the beginning of lap four. People seemed to realize that the race was now between the folks left riding together and things slowed significantly. There couldn't have been more than 30 riders left in the field. No one up the road, no one pushing the pace.

So about two miles into lap four six to eight of us sat around at the front. Chatting. Playing around. Then Jon came up and took a bit of a pull--sort of stretching his legs--and as we came down and then up from the little valley between a couple rollers I accelerated and rode right away. (I say "accelerated," but it was a real effort.) No one chased. And I can only assume they all just kept dinking around like they were before.

My effort was half-hearted at first. I figured I'd be off the front for a few miles and they'd get motivated and catch me so I didn't want to burn too many matches. But after getting to the top of the first climb and seeing I still had a significant gap I started to push it 100 percent. I was hoping that a couple of guys might bridge up to me, using one of the climbs as a catalyst for their attack--and they appeared to try to do just that--but no one ever got that close.

On the second climb, fourth lap, I could see the advancing hoard maybe 20 seconds behind me and thought they'd easily catch on by the start/finish, but I poured on the gas anyway and after the climb they must have just shut it down (no one wanting to be the one chasing) because going through the start/finish I had 1:30 on the field.

And that's where you begin to think you might just have it--when you get out-of-sight. Out-of-sight, out-of-mind in these sorts of races.

I turned myself inside-out on the last lap. Again, I thought they'd get me just after the second climb--I could see a chasing group of two--but while they seemed to get awfully close on the accent, once the road leveled out I couldn't see them behind me anymore. Later, I found out the two weren't really cooperating and were content merely to stay away from the field and sprint for second. Their loss. :-)

At the 200m mark I knew I had it and sort of just rolled in across the line. Second and third came in maybe 15 seconds behind me...and the field maybe 10 seconds after that.

On the last major climb, which tops out some two miles from the finish, I'm sure Jon could have bridged up to the two chasers. He's good at that sort of thing--plus he said he wanted to. But had he done so he likely would have pulled up others, which may have sped the chase considerably, which then may have caught me. So many thanks to Jon for the smart team racing.

Notes:

* The motorcycle official would occasionally come up to me, get a time split, tell the chasing pack the split, but not me. How lame is that?

* It's funny, Jon and I were trying to talk ourselves into not going on Thursday. I had completely forgotten that I had done this course before, two years ago (Ryan and I finished 11th & 12th), and that it is easily my favorite Lancaster Co. course. I figured this out on the drive there, and then I got all excited about the race. Even if I hadn't done well, it would have been a shame not to have been there--if I'd figured out later what course this actually was I'd been sad to have missed it.

* Rich (Ruoff) puts on an organized race and all, but they really are kind of boring. No announcer (and they had a megaphone there, they could have at least done a little announcing). No podium. No leader's jersey for the series (which I would be wearing; which would be awesome). No real hullabaloo at all. To me, it's that sort of stuff that makes the difference. It's a very inexpensive way of making the race more interesting and endearing for participants. It's how you make just a boring race into an event...into something. Anyway, promoters could be a little (a lot) more creative.

* I don't know how (some) pros have the energy to throw out those exuberant displays of excitement at the finish. I could barely get my hands off the bars for an understated (but heartfelt, believe me) fist pump.

* This is my first non-TT road win since August of 2006. It feels good to win. It's been a long time.

mavic gets a win...

2011-04-11T17:47:00.008-05:00

...on it's first go with this wheel. Lucky ducks.

(Facebookers, you'll have to visit the blog to watch the video.)

(Photo from cyclingtips.)

Though, I've got to say, while the video is cool (and who can't help but have a bit of a man-crush on Thor), it doesn't make me any more likely to buy a pair of Mavic hoops.

Ok, carry on...

clever, clever

2011-04-08T09:04:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I was off riding the new Wildcat reroute (the cat's meow) with Aaron. We were bouncing along ok (well, you might say I was stumbling heavily through the gnarly rock gardens as Aaron floated magically over them) when I flatted from a substantial sidewall tear.

As I was grumbling with the prospect of having to put a tube in a tire full of gross sealant while fumbling with a make-shift energy-bar boot, I realized I hadn't brought tire levers. Aaron hadn't either.

So while I'm prepping mentally for the walk out and call to rescue-lady Valerie, Aaron suggests that I use his quick-release lever.

Wow. Major light bulb moment. A quick-release lever doubling as a tire lever! Who knew?

After that moment of realization, I figured my quick release lever was just as good as Aaron's, and so I tried it...BAM: worked perfectly.

How is that I've been riding bikes (w/ quick release levers), getting flats, and fixing flats for nearly two and a half decades and I'm just now learning this trick? It's brilliant! And while I'm tempted to say 'life-changing,' and realizing that might be a bit hyperbolic, I've got to say it's a pretty revolutionary insight. I mean, really, this is right up there...

...

Incidentally, I quickly learned that while a quick-release lever makes a great tire lever, one has to take care to keep track of the nut on the other end through the process or it will no longer serve its primary function--securing a wheel to a bicycle. Because, yes, I lost mine sometime mid-tire-removal/install. In the woods. Among last year's fallen leaves. And a fresh pile of deer poo.

But after an eternity of panicked searching (five minutes), Aaron and I found one spring and one nut...which was enough. So, with energy-bar-wrapper-tire-boot in place, air in tire, and skewer once more secured, we headed home.

2011-04-07T06:24:00.003-05:00

Trying to stay warm between laps at the MASS relay on Saturday.

the hard men of spring

2011-03-18T08:52:00.002-05:00

There's been some tremendous racing during the past two weeks.

My favorite winners: Gilbert, Evan, and Vockler, in that order.

I mean, Gilbert is just unreal. Did you see this from Stage 5 of the Tirreno-Adriatico?

Or from the Montepasche Strade Bianche a couple of weeks ago?

I love this guy. I mean, Gilbert's becoming more of an odds-on favorite in some of these races than a high-seeded team in the NCAAs!

Then of course there was Evans pulling out a tremendous win in the race leader's jersey in Stage 6 of the Tirreno-Adriatico on his way to the overall:

Awesome.

Interesting (to me) to note that Gilbert seemed to get the better of Ballan in the Montepasche by taking the inside line in the final corner before the finish, whereas Evans gains the advantage over Visconti and Nibali by carrying his momentum through the outside line of two of the final turns.

Finally, Vockler impressed in Paris-Nice by pulling out stellar victories in both Stage 4 and Stage 8.

What a great year of racing so far!

forget the radios, let's ban the tyrants

2011-03-18T08:48:00.001-05:00

Generally speaking, I'm in favor of the radio ban in professional cycling. Notably, however, I express that opinion as a fan and an amateur cyclist, which is to say that I don't have any real idea what it's like to live and work in professional cycling.

That said, Pat McQuaid (the president and face of the UCI), is handling the conflict that has arisen from the ban in typical fashion: horribly.

"...the system does not have to adequately represent the interest of the teams and their employees (interests which, by the way, conflict among these two at many times) - or of any other particular stakeholder..."

Really?

Legally, of course McQuaid is right. Practically, however, it's hard to imagine a less enlightened leadership strategy.

2011-02-27T19:23:00.003-05:00

I honestly don't know what to think of this (Alexi Grewal's comeback):

His fame is, believe it or not, a little before my time, but from what I remember he worked pretty hard to be known as the biggest jerk in the peloton. Incredible talent; incredible donkey. (Wasn't the "Cannibal" character in American Flyers loosely based on this dude, at least temperament-wise?)

Anyway, my interest is piqued. (And based on this picture alone, scared to death.) Here's to the big 5-o!

what it means to be a competent bicycle racer

2011-02-18T10:43:00.001-05:00

Wade of cyclingtipsblog.com made a nice little post the other day linking Maslow's stages of learning with general racing competence. I liked it enough that I thought I'd quote it here.

Unconscious Incompetence
The individual neither understands nor knows how to do something, and does not recognizes the deficit. An example of this might be someone giving racing a crack for the first time. He might be fit but still does not understand how to bike race. The best place to introduce someone to the race environment would be in D-grade.
Conscious Incompetence
Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, he or she does recognize the deficit, without yet addressing it. This would be after a few races getting comfortable in D-grade and then racing in C-grade. This is a pack of cyclists who have a good fitness base but still learning the major details of how to bike race and the skills required. Things are still being learned such as how to roll turns properly, how to corner, where to position yourself.
Conscious Competence
The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires a great deal of consciousness or concentration. Now we’re getting into the B-grade level of racing. Everyone who is good enough to be out there is committed to racing. Many people’s ambition is to make it into A grade but there is still lots experience required to put what has been learned into practice.
Unconscious Competence
The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it becomes “second nature” and can be performed easily (often without concentrating too deeply). He or she may or may not be able to teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned. This should be the skill level of an A-grade cyclist. An A-grade cyclists should know how the game is played, the tactics involved, and not have to second-guess details such as cornering, positioning, attacking, counter-attacking, the direction of the wind, echeloning, holding your line, etc.

The "grades" Wade is referring to are how amateur bike racing is organized in Australia. From what I gather, it's more of a self-policing category system, unlike the more institutional USA Cycling category system here.

I like Wade's application of Maslow's model to cycling. However, I believe a distinction should be made between what I'll call race survival skills and race winning skills. Race survival skills are more or less technical in nature, easier to achieve competence in, and you don't necessarily need to race that much to get there. These include skills such as drafting, pace-lining, echeloning, cornering, holding a wheel when you think you have nothing left to give, how to close a gap, knowing how to eat and drink in the peloton, knowing when to eat and drink to survive the race, and countless other things you just learn by doing a lot of riding with others. Race winning skills are less technical and more nuanced in their application, and are thus harder to learn. These include skills such as positioning, attacking, counter-attacking, when to burn matches and when to save matches, how to race with teammates, how to race without teammates, etc.

[The rest of this post was written with novice to intermediate collegiate cyclists in mind as audience (it gets kind of lecturey), and is posted on the Ship Cycling blog without this explanatory note, in case you were wondering.]

The distinction between these two types of skills is important, I think, because the four levels of bicycle racing competence that Wade describes seem, at first, to map nicely onto the D-A category system in US collegiate racing, where D fields are comprised of novice, USAC Cat 5 riders, and A fields are comprised of elite, USAC Cat 1-3 riders. However, upon reflection, I think the comparison is a more appropriate typology only for race survival skills. Race winning skills, well, that's another matter. While every pro cyclist is likely fully competent in race survival skills, there surely is a great deal of variance in race winning skills (one reason I suspect directors are so adamantly opposed to the elimination of race radios--they want control over in-race tactical decisions because they don't trust their riders' judgment). And I think an argument can be made that some riders are natural racers, which is to say that they seem to have an innate gift for reading a race, attacking at opportune moments, conserving when attacking would bear no fruit, etc. These riders can't really explain how they do it and may be only vaguely aware of the difference between themselves and others in the first place. However, like any skill, no matter the rider's disposition, education and practice can make him or her better, whether that person is the equivalent of a tactical moron or race-reading genius.

Education and practice. With emphasis on the later. Unless you are orders of magnitude more fit than your competitors, wins will not just fall in your lap (and if they do, you're racing below your category). In bicycle racing, to win you have to try to win.

And, in my opinion, that speaks to one of the great ironies of bicycle racing--that those trying hardest to win the race often finish amongst the last in the standings. You see, once a cyclist reaches some standard of competence in race survival skills (and requisite fitness), it's not really that hard to hang on for a top 25 percent placing in any race. Race conservatively, and with minimal effort you'll find that's easy. But to win, you have to be willing to risk colossal defeat. So it would seem that the limiters to winning (if you're counting) include being willing to risk personal pride. And it may be useful, at least from the racer's perspective, to think of a race as having one winner and n-1 losers. No second place. No top 10s. There is just a winner and a lot of unhappy losers.

So that comfortable (and respectable) top 25 percent placing? Screw it. Exhaust your matches winning or lose big trying.

allez Gilbert!

2011-02-16T12:52:00.002-05:00

I love how this dude races.

Philippe Gilbert is easily on my top five list of favorite riders. I love how his cycling spidey sense allows him to continually pull victory out of seemingly suicide late-game moves.

Case in point:

Today, stage one of the Volta ao Algarve. According to CyclingNews.com, "Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) won the opening stage of the Volta ao Algarve with a perfectly-timed attack in the final kilometre."

The results tell it all:

1	Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto	4:36:36
2	Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Quickstep Cycling Team	0:00:05
3	André Greipel (Ger) Omega Pharma-Lotto
4	Tyler Farrar (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo
5	Michael Matthews (Aus) Rabobank Cycling Team
6	Baden Cooke (Aus) Saxo Bank Sungard
7	John Degenkolb (Ger) HTC-Highroad
8	Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack
9	Tony Gallopin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne
10	Wout Poels (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team

Look who finished second, third, fourth, and sixth. All of those dudes are BA sprinters...and Gilbert steals a victory out from under their noses.

That's how I want to win races, man. That's how I want to win races...

Ist das ein Wetterchen!

2011-02-14T11:46:00.003-05:00

Weather.com says its 52 degrees right now. It's outstanding.

On my walk to work this morning it was warm enough that I had to take my jacket off. Wunderbar!

...

Also on my walk to work... As there was a strong headwind, and my hair was still wet, I got to thinking about high school, when my hair was fairly long, and that my preferred way of drying it was to put my head out the window of my little maroon truck on my way to wherever I was going. Like a dog. And about that enthusiastic about life too.

Oh to be young. You have everything of any value in life...except money and brains.

It's the smell of spring that brings about these sentimentalities. Someone shut me up before I'm forced to punch myself.

2011 tree and farm race

2011-02-11T11:53:00.001-05:00

Announcing...

SHIP CYCLING'S SECOND ANNUAL TREE AND FARM RACE

FEBRUARY 19, 9:00 AM

Location: Meet at Southhampton Township Park near Shippensburg.

Description: Forty-nine miles gallivanting around southwestern Cumberland County.

(Click here for an interactive map w/ elevation profile.)

This "race" (we'll probably only end up really racing over the last 5-10 miles or so) is our annual unofficial kickoff to the collegiate season. The ECCC starts its season on the first weekend of March, but since the ACCC generally runs a race on the previous weekend, The Tree and Farm Race goes off on the third weekend of February.

Usually cold, usually windy, sometimes snowy, completing this course is no Sunday stroll. The route offers a survey of wonderful riding southeastern Cumberland County has to offer, with a survey of Mennonite farm lands, Pennsylvania game lands, and the edge of two Pennsylvania state forests.

Unless you plan on never leaving the wheel of someone who knows the course well, you'll want a cue sheet (provided at start) tied to your top tube. The course meanders along all manner of rural farm road, peppered with two sections of loose cinder rail-trail and about a half mile of double-track (if the snow is clear, otherwise we'll take an all-paved detour around these sections), though nothing is too intense for standard 23mm road tires at typical pressure. What with the weather and the terrain, it's our way of giving nod to the spring races across the pond.

And if you're not game for the whole thing, don't worry, the course offers plenty of opportunities to bail and head for the comfort of home or car. (However, packing your own map is recommended.)

The "race" starts at Southampton Township Park. It finishes at the top of Strohm road (the high point of the TNR course) at the "M & M Roofing" sign.

A view of the finish from the rider's perspective. The finish is at the white elbow sign which reads "M & M Roofing."

PAST WINNERS

2010: Jon Marshall (1st), Dr. Goatesauce (2nd), Tim Cusick (3rd) ... limp chicken award (last-placed finisher): Rider Big E.

***IMPORTANT***

We call this a "race," but it's really just a bunch of guys and gals out looking for a good time on a cold Saturday morning. We race, yes, and there's usually a little something fun for the first finishers, but there are no entry fees, no waivers, and therefore no whining if something bad happens to you while on this ride (like you crash and break your carbon frame or someone insults your girlfriend). If you're the kind of person that doesn't play well with others, please don't come. This non-event event is for non-fun-haters only.

For more about Ship Cycling, please visit us on the web.

the price of a little sun...

2011-02-09T13:13:00.002-05:00

The price of a little sun is apparently frigid cold. But it's a price I'll gladly pay. Hello sunshine!

Rode this morning for a couple of hours. Had to tackle the sub-20 degree temps with both balaclava and ski goggles. My face still got a little cold on the rapid descent from Big Flat, but otherwise I was fine.

And there was sunshine. Lots of it. But now, as I look out my window, I see it's all clouded up again. Winter in pee-aay stinks.

better

2011-01-13T09:13:00.003-05:00

Better than both the 2010 Radio Shack jersey (which was an insult to the eyes) and the new Leopord-Trek jersey by far.

Though I'll admit at first that I thought I was looking at a new design for Rutgers...

lame

2011-01-06T16:37:00.000-05:00

caught!

2010-12-23T08:35:00.003-05:00

My neighbor caught me playing outside last Sunday. He took the pictures through his front window, all sneaky like, then sent them to me as evidence of my adolescence.

going up

2010-12-22T12:09:00.004-05:00

I learned to ride up stairs last night.

Well, "learn" might be too strong a word. I decided I wasn't too chicken to try, thus discovering I could do it.

(My playground. Also the front of the building in which I work.)

...

Two Fridays ago I broke my Paragon. A crack half way around the seat tube just above the top tube weld (and when I say crack I mean a crevice wide enough to see seat post through). That's right where everyone told me the frame would break.

Frustrated (and emotionally blinded), I went right to the internet and pulled the trigger on a 2010 Superfly. It looks like this:

The frame had been built up, but not ridden. I love eBay.

Anyway, the new ride is (the frame is the only difference) is 470 grams leaner and probably orders of magnitude faster. I mean, GF did a fine job on that paint. And you know black, red, white is going to be way faster than the light blue of the '08 Paragons. I mean, you just know it.

The setup you see here plus a saddle bag with tube and multi-tool weighed in at 25.5 lbs on Merv's digital scale.

This bike makes me very happy.

...

Warrantied the Paragon at Gettysburg Bicycle. We'll see what Trek sends me.

cold weather lovely

2010-12-15T11:35:00.003-05:00

(As I'm writing this I'm nibbling on almonds and sipping from a 12 ounce can of Dr. Pepper that had been sitting in my car all night, at around 20 degrees. This makes me exceptionally happy.)

I rode this morning for a couple of hours. When I left the house my thermometer read 21 degrees. Weather.com reported a wind chill of nine degrees. I don't know anything about that, but it was windy. Gusty, really. So if wind chill is a function of wind velocity (it is), then in reality wind chill varied varied considerably during my two hours on the bike, perhaps averaging to around nine degrees.

Anyway, it was cold.

But I wasn't.

Each winter it takes me a few rides to get the particulars ironed out, but when I do, I can be downright comfortable on the bike, even for two hours or longer.

Yesterday I rode and didn't get it right. I came home with cold hands, frozen feet, and my body was wet with sweat. But today my hands stayed toasty, my feet were just beginning to get cool, and my base layer was only a bit damp in the usual sweat-prone areas.

I think I've mentioned all this before, but here's a short list of some of my favorite cold-weather riding gear:

ski goggles -- After riding with them, going out in sub-30 degree weather without seems pure torture. If you haven't tried goggles on the bike, do yourself a favor and give it a shot. You'll be amazed. Completely helmet compatible (helmet on first, strap around the back of your helmet--like you would do if snowmobiling or riding motocross).

the mysterious balaclava -- Amazing the effect a thin, almost inconsequential layer of fabric wrapped around your head has on one's overall riding experience. Especially when coupled with the goggles. If the wind is really intense, pull it up over your nose and under your goggles. Now not a bit of your skin is exposed.

Craft Windstopper base layer -- A couple of years ago I picked up this amazing short-sleeved, mock turtleneck base layer thing that has become an invaluable piece of my winter arsenal. The secret is the panel of Windstopper fabric sewn only on the front of the garment. Perfect.

winter riding shoes -- For me, the Shimano MW80s. When it's as cold as it is today, the shoe alone doesn't do it, but stretch a pair of neoprene booties over the top (in my case, neon green numbers from Performance I bought in 1990) and my feet stay cozy warm.

Another tip:

A perennial problem of cold-weather riding is how to keep your water bottles from freezing. For those that haven't experienced it, let me just tell you they freeze mighty quick on a bike in 20 degree weather. Yesterday, for instance, mine was frozen enough after 50 minutes as to be completely useless.

One option is to exchange bottles for a Camelbak (be sure to run the hose under your armpit rather than over your shoulder or the water will freeze in your tube), but then you have to deal with the consequences of a sweaty back...plus Camelbaks are kind of mountain bike ghetto, and who wants that...

And so a better option (and I'm ashamed it took me so long to think of it, when the solution seems painfully simple now) is to simply slip a bottle in the back pocket of your winter riding jacket or jersey. I tried it today and it worked perfectly. Not even a little bit of freezing around the mouthpiece.

So there you have it. Trainer be gone! The only riding worth doing is outside. (Mother Nature is a woman with few suitors...)

rangel: really?

2010-12-09T15:04:00.004-05:00

So I don't know how the phone Microsoft is peddling is going to solve any of the problems their ad agency does, frankly, a brilliant job of highlighting in this delightful commercial you've all no doubt seen already countless times...

...but I bring it up because, well, Rep. Rangel... Really?

(FBers, click here for video.)

This morning, while dropping Marian off at school, I caught a Morning Edition interview of Rep. Charlie Rangel.

After an effective enough folksy start, Rangel stumbles on the following question:

Morning Edition: There is an outside group that has been critical of you in the past. It is now criticizing you for the way that you paid for your legal defense, that you had money removed from a political action committee, that political donations were used to pay your lawyer fees. Is that accurate:

Charlie Rangel: No, it's not accurate, but anyone can make an accusation.

M.E.: I don't want to dwell on this, but I thought your office's position had been that your political action committee did help to pay your legal fees, but that you thought that was a legitimate use of those funds. Is that correct?

C.R.: I don't want to dwell long on anything, but all I know is that my lawyers have told me we haven't done a darn thing that deviates from the law.

Really? I mean, if it's true you haven't done anything "that deviates from the law," why lie about it?

What a douche bag.

I'm reminded of a RadioLab episode on deception. In it, there's a segment on pathological lairs...folks that can't seem to help but lie. Rangel seems to be that flavor of douche bag.

Harlem, surely you can do better.

...

In the spirit of bipartisanship bagging of douches, I'm floored by the conversation surrounding Don't Ask, Don't Tell as of late. All the top military folks seem very enthusiastic (urgent, even) about changing the law to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military. Well, good. I'm all for changes that correct the irrational with the rational.

But then there's Sen. John McCain, who inexplicably seems to know better than everyone else and therefore opposes any change to the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. What seems particularly odd about his present opposition is that he has long said that he would follow the counsel of military leaders on the issue. Well, the military is speaking, and suddenly McCain knows better.

Unbelievable douchbaggery. Arizona, what's wrong with you? (America, how wise of you to have chosen better.)

...

A note on the video: my favorite parts are the raised eyebrows at 0:41 and the husband-wife scene at 0:19 and 0:44. Really more the later. Too true. I laugh out loud every time.

(I just realized I wrote--which is to say I did not abbreviate--laugh out loud. That's funny.)

(I don't think I've ever written LOL. Ever. Except now.)

the new ship cycling

2010-11-30T14:23:00.002-05:00

If you haven't seen it, mosey on over to the new Ship Cycling website.

(It's what I do to procrastinate what I should be doing.)

If you want to link to the site from your blog, website, or whatever, use the following url:

http://webspace.ship.edu/cycling/

I used "Google Sites," Google's new website creation and hosting tool, to make it all. For free. And Google hosts all the files. Super awesome for html dummies like me who want just a super simple site.

An unexpected major advantage? Super easy to do team collaboration.

Actually, it took me a while to get the hang of it (much early frustration), but now that I'm done I sort of like it. The templates and options within the templates are limiting, but that's mostly ok for my needs, and I know just enough html to make it do things that the interface doesn't provide quick and easy tools for doing.

And like I said, easy-breezy for team collaboration. And free. :-)

more support of disclosure (and wikileaks)

2010-11-30T14:10:00.002-05:00

An op-ed published yesterday on NYTimes.com discussing an unrelated topic (trolling) offers additional support (I think) for WikiLeaks and the cause of full disclosure:

"Plato touched upon the subject of anonymity and morality in his parable of the ring of Gyges.

"That mythical ring gave its owner the power of invisibility, and Plato observed that even a habitually just man who possessed such a ring would become a thief, knowing that he couldn’t be caught. Morality, Plato argues, comes from full disclosure; without accountability for our actions we would all behave unjustly."

A hard truth. Who has ears to hear?

wikileaks: I'm on their side

2010-11-29T09:42:00.004-05:00

So WikiLeaks is headlining the day's news. Again. The New York Times reports a quarter million diplomatic cables have been released to various news organizations. The talking heads on the various TV news outlets are up in arms. "Down with WikiLeaks," they cry. "It's espionage. A threat to national security."

I don't buy it.

Clearly, I've the unfathomable advantage of not having a stake in any of it. Which is to say that no secrets revealed are going to embarrass me. But it also seems clear that those clamoring the loudest against the leaks are those with the most to lose; those with a personal stake it.

Consider this from The White House:

"By releasing stolen and classified documents, Wikileaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights but also the lives and work of these individuals. We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information."

Maybe. But maybe it's just desserts for those who traffic in shadowy deception and manipulation. Need our government officials employs nakedly Machiavellian tactics to promote the interests of its citizens? I doubt it. It's the easy way, of course. A seductive means of control for the power elite. But a police state would be an easier way to govern, and I'm not keen on that either.

Also, I'm reminded of the frantic prophetic ravings of my beloved white-haired poets.

"I will bring forth out of darkness unto light all their secret works and their abominations...and I will bring to light all their secrets and abominations, unto every nation..."

The implication is that stuff done secretly is bad, and that those who persist in secretive interactions, well, they'll get theirs. Generally, I'd say that's a pretty good rule of thumb. To the extend that there is a morality to method, openness = good, deception = bad.

Yup.

In the struggle between the powerful and the powerless, I rarely find myself empathizing with the powerful.

Go WikiLeaks. Free Pfc. Manning.

...

On a completely different note, when reading about all this on nytimes.com this morning I found myself hopelessly distracted by this advertisement:

I can't figure out why this women, excitedly peddling Harry Winston's gaudy blood diamonds, is eating a sandwich. If it wasn't so obvious that the image has been digitally distorted, Dove evolution style (the neck is the give-away), I would think she took the advertisement's tag line, "Live the Moment," to heart, the poor woman having starved herself for months prior to the shoot in order to fit into that dress.

Seriously, though, is she really holding a sandwich?!

...

If you haven't, I recommend a visit to the WikiLeaks site, just to see what all the hubbub is about. As of now, there's nothing on the site regarding this latest bit. What's more, the site appears all but unusable. Perhaps that's due to heavy internet traffic, or perhaps there's something more nefarious afoot. I'm interested to see where this all goes in the coming weeks, months, and years...

magic

2010-11-24T08:36:00.001-05:00

(FB'ers, you'll have to visit the blog to watch the video.)

summer dreaming

2010-11-23T07:16:00.002-05:00

From sometime last June. A crit in Hagerstown.

It was a fun little course that had riders careening through a neighborhood in north Hagerstown, and sometimes careening over curbs and whatnot as well. What looked like a simple four-corner crit had enough curves in the straightaways to keep the field pretty strung out. The race was fast. I felt flat. But I had enough to pull out a nice little move to win a prime.

Yah for races with primes. Go AVC.

what I do to stay warm in the winter

2010-11-16T11:47:00.004-05:00

It hasn't really gotten cold yet in south-central pee-aay, but it's a 'coming...and so are the questions on how to stay warm.

Yesterday, I got a note from a friend asking how I keep my package warm when it gets cold--bibs and tights, just tights, two pairs of tights? I figured I'd share my response, along with some other cold-weather riding tips and just what-I-do sorts of things.

Everyone has to figure out what works for them, which is to say there won't be a universal right way to stay warm, but I think it's helpful to learn what those who have ridden through more than a few winters have learned.

...

On keeping male genitalia warm when cold-weather riding...

To start, I don’t have any padded tights. I always wear bib shorts under everything. When it’s cold enough to warrant, I pull on a pair of tights over them. Except that I cut all my tights off mid-shin, so I guess that makes them knickers.

I have two pair of knickers—one that’s not that warm, which I wear when it’s about 35-45 degrees out, and another that I wear when it’s colder. If it’s REALLY cold, like less than 25 degrees, I wear a modified pair of hiking pants over whatever else.

When it gets to freezing or below, I don’t leave home without my anatomically trimmed patch of fleece. I cut it from some old fabric I had lying around and, when it’s cold, I just stuff it down my shorts, wrapping my package in the warm, soft, comfy texture of 200 weight fleece.

It’s really the best solution I’ve found. My genitals never get cold when I have that thing in place.

There are other possible solutions. Craft makes a brief with a WindStopper patch on the front that you supposedly wear under everything. I think that would work ok, but I don’t like wearing underwear under my shorts in the winter not so much because of discomfort (though that's a concern), but because the extra fabric makes my butt all sweaty. And sweat, when it’s cold, should be avoided when possible. So if the fleece patch doesn’t appeal to you, I’d consider taking a look at the Craft brief. (Craft makes super stellar winter wear. IMO, Craft, Icebreaker, and maybe Patagonia are THE top-of-the-line in respect to cold-weather athletic wear.)

On keeping legs warm when cold-weather riding...

I'm a dedicated knee-warmer fan. Such a great piece of cold weather gear. If it's under 65 and cloudy, I've probably got my knee-warmers on. If it's under 60, they're on. When it’s cold enough to put my knickers on, it’s over the knee warmers. And I have several pair—those that are just lycra, and others that are fleece-lined.

As I said above, I always wear a pair of bib shorts under everything. When it gets down to about 45, I pull my lightweight knickers on over my bibs and thin knee warmers. When it gets cold enough that I want my shins covered (35 degrees or so), I wear tall socks.

My leg-covering strategy by approximate temperature ranges:

55-65: bibs + thin knee-warmers

48-55: bibs + fleece-lined knee-warmers

38-48: bibs + thin knee-warmers + thin knickers

20-35: bibs + thin knee-warmers (sometimes fleece-lined warmers) + warm knickers + tall socks

under 32: everything else + fleece genital cozy

under 20: everything else + specially modified hiking pants

On keeping feet warm when cold-weather riding...

Shoe covers are of course critical when the temperature drops down into the 40s. Sometimes they also make sense even when it's a bit warmer. Nice neoprene numbers are the best because they're waterproof.

However, the single best cold-weather gear purchase I’ve made in the past five years are my winter riding shoes. I have the Shimano MW80s. Such. A. Good. Idea.

I got mtb (as opposed to road) winter shoes because they’re much more versatile. They work well when mountain biking, obviously, but if I want to wear them on my road bike I just move my pedals over. Mine are a size bigger than my usual riding shoe size so I can wear a thicker sock and still have a little room in there. A too-tight shoe makes for blood circulation problems which accentuates cold-weather feet-warming issues.

If it’s really cold (less than 25 degrees), and I’m going to be out for more than two hours, I’ll put shoe covers over them. But really, I’ve found the problem with keeping feet warm on a bike in the really cold is the negative heat transfer from your cold metal crank and pedal to the sole of your shoe. Shoe covers do nothing to solve that issue. So if my feet get cold in 20 degree weather I find I just need to get off and walk a few minutes and they’ll warm right back up. This is of course easier in mtb shoes than in road shoes.

On keeping the torso warm when cold-weather riding...

Keeping your torso warm is a good deal about managing sweat and wind. I've found that when heading out for a long winter ride I'm going to sweat a lot more in the first, say, 60-90 minutes than I am the rest of the ride. So I like to bring along a spare base layer. After 90 minutes or so I strip off my sweaty wet one and put on the fresh dry one. Or just take the sweaty base layer off and then put everything else back on. Makes all the difference in the world.

Bulking up with extra layers is less important than making sure you've got a good wind shield in the front. So a good wind vest with rear ventilation is critical.

I've found that with our new (last year) Shippensburg jackets that it's so warm I don't want to put it on until the temperature drops well below 40 degrees, and then with just a base layer under. But I always bring along a vest, and if I get cold later, I either swap out base layers (for a dry one) or put on my vest under the jacket, or both. I can go a long way in 30 degree weather using this strategy.

On keeping your head warm during cold-weather riding...

When it gets down to 50 or so I like to throw on a thin hat or ear-covering thing (actually, I used to do the ear-covering thing, but now I only do hats). I have low tolerance for cold ears, so I keep them covered.

When it gets below freezing, you might benefit from wearing a balaclava. I find, however, that keeping a nice full beard does the job and balaclavas often leave me over-heated.

When it’s under 30 degrees I usually wear ski goggles right over my helmet. This works surprisingly well. I've found goggles make an amazing difference in keeping your entire face/head warm. A skullcap + goggles keeps my head much more comfortable than a balaclava + sunglasses, but I generally pack along an extra balaclava when it's cold just in case. Goggles + balaclava makes your head virtually impenetrable to cold, which I've found advantageous when it's cold, the wind is blowing, and, if that wasn't enough, it starts to snow.

On keeping your hands warm during cold-weather riding...

This one is easy: wear gloves.

Really, it's that easy. If your hands are cold your gloves aren't thick enough. Ski gloves work best.

I've also found leather work gloves to work really, really well until about 32 degrees. And leather work gloves are an awful lot more economical than fancy full-fingered winter cycling gloves.

Now, if your hands do get cold when you're out riding, it helps to windmill your arms several times really fast to push the blood out to your finger tips. When people first see this trick they're generally skeptical, but then they try it and they believe. Trust me, it works.

...

Well, I think that about covers it. Have your own cold-weather riding tip? Post away if you're not afraid...

a walk in the woods

2010-11-12T10:17:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, hiked ~23 miles along the AT and various other trails/fire roads. (Total walking time, 10 hours w/ breaks.)

Today, little muscles on the outside of my legs--about six inches up from my ankles--hurt so bad I'm left hobbling around. Everything else: fine. Weird.

...

Ten years ago the idea of hiking the entirety of the Appalachian Trail. Not so much anymore. During my walk yesterday I kept thinking how much I'd rather be on a bike. Load me down with gear and set me off to do 100+ miles a day on a bike and I'd be all enthusiastic about it. I think on the trail, doing ~20 miles a day, I could go about a week and I'd be done. Just. Not. Interesting.

I might, though, feel different about hiking the high mountains in the West-Is-The-Best. More challenge. More diversity of terrain and scenery. Potentially more danger. These eastern mountains, I love them, but oh my how they are monotonous...

'10 worlds

2010-10-05T09:18:00.011-05:00

Wow.

What a great race. I was on pins and needles. And the camera

work didn't help... I mean, had I known that the Cadel chase group was just about to be swallowed by the peloton (maybe they didn't know either) then maybe I wouldn't have gotten all worked up about it, but I seriously thought Gilbert was going to take it. And I didn't know until I was watching that chase, but I was totally cheering for a Cuddles repeat. How awesome would have that been?

But how awesome was it?! I mean, this dude IS a champion!!

Anyway... So glad I was awake at 1:00 am Sunday morning and found a video feed so that I could watch the last lap or so of the race. Action-packed and super exciting.

Gilbert's a stud. He deserved the win. I hope he gets one eventually. But Cuddles put in a tremendous effort as well. I wish everyone raced as hard as he does. I mean, do you remember this?

(A hint: 2010 Giro, Stage 7.)

Let's hope Hushovd brings as much honor to the rainbow stripes with standout performances on the cobbles come April.

2010 has been a good year to be a pro cycling fan. Long live the hard men and the races that make them.

(As always, the best race photos are on cyclingtips. I don't know how that dude gets his pics, but they're amazing. Thanks, dude.)

the tenth inning

2010-09-30T09:17:00.006-05:00

I'm entranced by Ken Burn's The Tenth Inning.

And I'm not afraid to admit that I teared up at several points when watching the last two nights. I am a sports fan. Long live sport.

...

My favorite bit last night was the Ichiro spotlight. And my favorite part of that segment the quote from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in response to his amazing throw from right field, catching the A's Terrance Long trying to take third (watch here, at 0:51):

"That throw needs to be framed and hung on the wall at the Louve, next to the Mona Lisa."

An awkward expression of the poignant beauty of sporting excellence. Yessir. I concur.

...

Speaking of sporting excellence and poignant beauty, how about The Big Swiss Time Machine...

Yessir.

(If FC joins that Luxembourger team and ends up on a Trek next year I'm going to puke. Anything, please... Anything but a Trek.)

the good

2010-09-18T17:59:00.001-05:00

It felt good to be a bike racer today. Results not terrific, but I felt good. Empowered. And that feeling--I'm pretty sure that's why I race bikes in the first place.

(And I haven't raced in over two months, so there's that.)

the summer's massive adventure

2010-09-01T09:13:00.002-05:00

I've spent much too little effort chronically the events of our massive summer road trip as it was happening. There was so much goodness. But here's a little taste. At least it's a little taste of the riding, but even a banquet of riding stories would be just an appetizer of the grander Goatish fun of the trip. (What'd ya think of that last sentence? A little too much?)

The Goatmobile (our new swagger wagon) prepped for the trip. The two small wheels at the front of that heap atop the roof are the back wheels of our jogger stroller. The box is loaded with camping gear. The back is loaded with all the crap a family of five needs for a six-week road trip. And seats will soon be loaded with the five of us: N (36), V (36), A (12), M (8), and R (1).

Our first night was spent in a mosqueto-infested swamp on the shore of Lake Michigan, the second with dear friends in Rochchester, MN. Then the Badlands (a pre-dawn ride through Badlands NP remains a trip highlight), and the next day at Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills. An early morning ride through Custer State Park was interrupted by a full-on buffalo orgy spilling out over the highway. I counted 65 buffs, but there could have easily been double that number.

After spending nine or ten days in Idaho Falls, which included a wonderfully adventurous 72-mile road ride (30 some miles of which was over unpaved USFS road), and an mtb misadventure where I fell (sort of head/shoulders first) down an eight-foot embankment into essentially a trough of cow dung, we made it to Boise. At dawn the next day I rode across town and up the gravel road to Table Rock, a table-like bluff situated prominently in the foothills just east of the city.

A favorite ride for Boise folk is the 16-mile jaunt from the city to the base of Bogus Basin Ski Resort, a climb of about 3500'. As I climbed the road I got to wondering if there was an all-dirt way to get to the ski station; not just the lower lodge, where we ride our road bikes, but all the way to the 7,500' peak of Shaffer Butte. A few days later I found it. An estimated 4800' net elevation gain in a more or less steady climb. On the day, probably more like 6000' gross elevation. It was a dee-light-full ride. (Punctuated with the obligatory shot of my ride atop the summit.)

After a week in Boise, we were back in Idaho Falls, then to Utah for a week in and around the Wasatch Front. A friend took me on a lovely five-hour mtb ride; a true loop, we never rode the same trail twice. I wish I knew the names of all the trails. We started high in Millcreek Canyon, crossed the ridge into the Canyons Resort, meandered south near the 8000' line into Park City Resort, then climbed back up the ridge at Guardsman's Pass (Big Cottonwood Canyon), rode north along a section of the Great Western Trail, and then eventually descended back to the upper Millcreek trail head. Those Wasatch trails are such a pleasure. I'm very, very jealous.

There was other great mountain biking in Utah--the Draper foothill trails, Strawberry Reservoir, the Snow Basin area above Ogden--but I had to pull the road bike from the quiver once more in Utah Co., my sense of nostalgia for the dense aspen forests of the Alpine Loop being too strong to resist. (Also, last time I mountain biked in American Fork Canyon--three years ago--I broke my collarbone. So I chose the road this time...)

On the way home we made stops in both Grand Junction and Colorado Springs, Co. (two Colorado towns whose names those in-the-know shorten with casual non-proper noun type appellations--"The Junction" and "The Springs"...and now you know). In The Springs, after a morning mtb jaunt through Palmer Park, a friend took me up "The Incline." Fifteen years of visiting Colorado Springs and I had no idea this existed. But it's awesome. Two thousand feet of elevation over an average grade of 41% (max grade 68%). There used to be rails, apparently, and a cable car-style car that took people to some kind of lookout/resort atop the hill. But that closed in 1990, and now people (including me) illegally access and climb the old rail line. Apparently the Incline is a favorite winter training playground for Olympic athletes, presumably when there's no snow.

I enjoyed my walk up. I even ran the last 50 feet or so. But I took the trail down.

But school's started and the summer is over.

And its September.

But September means cross.

And cross is boss.

So get excited! (My excitement has led to extravagantly placing an order for a new Specialized Crux S-Works. I'm excited! But not brave enough to tell my wife. Yet.)

sense prevails

2010-08-04T17:51:00.002-05:00

California's "Proposition 8" has been overturned. You can read about it lots of places, this is one of them.

The article I linked above reports the judge to have written in his decision:

"...Proposition 8 fails to possess even a rational basis... Plaintiffs do not seek recognition of a new right. To characterize plaintiffs' objective as 'the right to same-sex marriage' would suggest that plaintiffs seek something different from what opposite-sex couples across the state enjoy--namely, marriage. Rather, plaintiffs ask California to recognize their relationships for what they are: marriages."

Yup.

I sincerely hope the opposition will finally stand down. It's just so much wasted energy. Wasted negative energy. Bad for the soul. Bad karma.

But you know, I'm pretty sure that in the years to come those who presently are given to hating will look back and realize it wasn't such a big deal after all. Well, most of them anyway. (I'm an optimist.)

Folks, I promise, the world will not come to an end because boys are marrying boys and girls are marrying girls. So just get over it.

Live and let live...

bogus basin...by fat tire

2010-08-04T13:31:00.003-05:00

After returning to a favorite climb of yesteryear last Saturday--Bogus Basin Rd--and extending the usual lower parking lot finishing area to the upper lodge, and then up the cat track / double-track below Superior Chair on the road bike, I was inspired to find an all dirt path from Boise to Shafer Butte today.

I started at Camel's Back Park, at an elevation of approximately 2,800', proceeded up Hull's Gulch, Corral's Trail (I think), then Scott's Trail (though I mistakenly thought I was on Hard Guy's trail, for those that know what I'm talking about) until getting to the USFS road that 8th Street becomes. Then I just climbed, climbed, climbed. A slow grind up the road, past areas of pending development and majestic views to the left of the foothills, valley, and Bogus Basin Rd, and breathtaking views to the right of mountain ridge after mountain ridge into the Great Beyond. I passed two bear cubs scurrying up trees on my route. I didn't wait to see if their mother was around.

Finally, the road dumps out at the top of Chair #1. Pinesomethingorother Chair. From there I followed the cat tracks to skier's right around the ridge and up to Superior Chair, Deercreek Chair, and finally to the Shafer Butte summit, 7,600' above sea level.

That's a net elevation gain of 4,800', but with all the ups and downs along the way, surely closer to 5,500'. With the bit of climbing still to do in descending the mountain (because of time constraints, on the paved road, unfortunately) I grossed I'm sure well over 6,000' for the day.

Anyway, the climb to the summit took just under three hours...and was absolutely fabulous. A lovely, lovely three hours. So much fun I'd love to jump right back in the saddle and do it again. Today. Right now. My soul is capable of so much more saddle time than either my poor body or lifestyle can sustain, but what time I get to ride (which, relatively speaking, is quite a lot, I'm aware) is a blessed treasure.

do bears bark?

2010-07-02T10:27:00.002-05:00

Baby bears do. At least, that's what I heard.

I encountered my first Michaux State Forest black bears yesterday. Three. Mama bear and two cubs.

Riding up a heavily wooded ravine I noticed a little movement up the trail. In that moment prior to recognition, prior to anything that can appropriately be described as thinking, I thought it was another rider. Movement. (Click-whirr.) Human. No, dog. No...bear!

I stopped immediately. She only glanced at me. Dismissively. But then her cubs saw me and they went flying into the woods, barking. Not sharp and distinct like a dog's bark, but sort of a sore throat, muffled bark. I didn't see them until they started moving. When I left them they were both 15 feet up trees.

I would have loved to have stayed and watched them, but it was one of those moments you're reminded of your own puniness before lady nature. I headed out. Quickly.

do the deaf dance?

2010-06-24T19:27:00.003-05:00

This has me fascinated. And jealous.

I love that her signing is a kind of dance. Awesome.

...

In other news, I've been playing a little tennis lately, which has prompted me to buy a racquet. It came today: Wilson BLX Surge.

As it turns out, the racquet led me to YouTube...because, you know, racquet = guitar...and I needed something inspiring to play.

the practical non-relative nature of time

2010-06-22T21:02:00.001-05:00

The longest day of the year and the sun set by 8:30. Something I can't quite get used to about living on the East Coast.

four reasons why soccer is dumb (and I like soccer)

2010-06-21T10:43:00.003-05:00

Yup, I like soccer. A lot. But it's a sport that, for whatever reason (and I don't know the history), has rules seemingly intended to make it as dumb as possible.

So, four reasons why soccer is dumb, listed in increasing level of importance:

(4) There are no clock stoppages. I mean, really... It's the 21st century. Surely FIFA can manage to put a competent thumb on a stopwatch and, when the ball goes out or play stops for whatever other reason, the clock stops too. How novel. Then both the players and fans will know when the game is over.

(3) Only one referee. Or official. Or whatever he's called. This is crazy dumb. You don't want so many officials running around that they're getting in the way, but surely there's room for more. Compare soccer to basketball. In basketball, there are ten players on a tiny little court and, at the professional level, three officials. They still miss stuff. They still get calls wrong. Ya just need more than one pair of eyes. Letting the side judges call and weigh in on fouls would be a nice start, but really they need another couple dudes out there too. At least.

(2) Only three substitutions per game. At least, I think that's the rule. And it's dumb. Why not unlimited substitutions? Why not let players come out and go back in? It would keep the players fresher, which would speed up play, which would make the match more exciting and likely result in more goals.

(1) The offsides rule. So dumb. I can't even imagine the absurd logic that resulted in this rule. People say the offsides rule prevents cherry-picking. I say, what's wrong with cherry-picking? (If it's a concern, throw a defender back there on the would-be fruit-lover.) People say there's elegance to offensive strategy because of the offsides rule. No doubt. And discarding the rule would call for new strategies, but would they be less elegant? Can you imagine basketball with an offsides rule?

So there you have it, FIFA, MLA, whoever wants them. Make these changes and your sport will be so much better. So much. Fix #4 and there's room for TV breaks. Maybe you don't think that's such a good thing, but if television were able to peddle advertising slots in the traditional (American) way, it's likely there would be more television coverage, which would increase fan interest. Win-win. Fix #3 and the conspiracy element associated with officiating would be much reduced. Perceptions of fairness would increase dramatically. Fix #2 and #1 and you'll have a game with more scoring, which is of course more exciting, but will likely also significantly reduce the chances of a draw, which is the lay person's most voiced complaint about soccer.

However, even for that I have a recommendation. After 90 minutes, if the score is tied, the teams enter a series of 10-minute sudden-death overtime periods where in each consecutive period teams must give up one player, starting with the keeper. Goals will be scored.

You're welcome very much.

elna baker

2010-06-11T08:33:00.004-05:00

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir

I can't remember when I first heard of it, but I decided to read the book after it created a small uproar in a Nashville book club among friends.

I just finished.

If you're a Moth or TAL listener you've likely heard Elna's voice and a couple of her stories before. They're funny. I liked her when I heard her. Elna's an actress-turned-comedienne, and I think she's a good performer. At least on radio; I've never seen her perform in person.

Anyway, I'm not going to give a synopsis of the book or anything, just share a few thoughts. Though, I should start by saying that I understood the book to be about Mormon single life in the Big City. Pop sociology dressed up as a memoir. That's not really what the book turned out to be (though that's a book I'd like to read).

At the beginning, I found Elna to be a sympathetic character. I found myself cheering for her. I liked her. She was funny. I laughed a lot. I liked her more with each chapter.

Midway through the book, I started to rethink Elna a bit. She’d make me cringe a little. For one, I can’t believe she’d actually share all that with the whole world... At times, just too much information. I was relieved she wasn't my sister, because wow--embarrassing. And I felt for her family. I kept wondering how much of this she cleared with them and what their reaction was to having it published. (I also wondered if she was really telling the truth.) I especially felt bad for her mom.

I also started to think Elna may not be as smart and clever as I thought she was. She began to reveal herself as being insecure in a way that to say she’s very insecure doesn’t quite cover it. And she turns out to be kind of a snot. Superficial, with not as much texture as I had expected.

(Hmm... Maybe that's too harsh.)

By the end, I was mad at Elna. I didn’t like her very much anymore. She kind of game me the willies. I would be empathetic about her feelings towards Mormonism if she wasn’t so dumb about it. And the end of the book wasn’t nearly as funny as the beginning.

Now that I've finished, I struggle to put my finger on what the book was actually about. Sometimes, Elna seemed to be making making a point about the difficulty of trying to live two lives. I liked that. I think it's a universally important topic. Something a lot of readers, not just Mormon readers, can relate to. But in the end she doesn’t seem to do anything with it, which I found disappointing. Sometimes, the book is about change. Personal change. But for the book to really be about that, she would need to address why the change. If left to draw my own conclusions from inference, I'm back to the conclusion of superficiality. I don't really want to be there--it seems so uncharitable--but that's all she's given me.

So...maybe it was intentional, but I felt like the book just ended and I wasn’t left with anything. And its not that I demand a resolution or whatever, but maybe a well formulated question. A...something. Even from a comedienne. Because if someone asked me what the book was about I wouldn’t know what to say. It’s not about being Mormon and single in New York. It’s not really a coming-of-age story. It's not about looking for love (not really). It’s not about weight loss. It’s not about sex. It’s not about religion. It’s not even really about identity.

I guess it’s just about Elna. And Elna, it seems, is a me-monster.

2010 killington stage race

2010-06-09T08:53:00.006-05:00

I've been meaning to post a report on Killington, but, well, whatever... I mean to do a lot of things.

The whole thing ended up a bit of a disappointment, and when I think too much about it I get all riled up and it takes me a while to calm down...so I guess maybe I've just been trying not to think about it.

Anyway, Killington... Three days, three stages.

Since everyone that I was counting on going bailed on me, I offered myself up as a teammate to John Landino, the only other person whose name I recognized on the pre-reg list. He thought that idea was pretty cool, which makes him pretty cool, so I found myself "guest riding" for DeathRow Velo for the weekend. In the end, I didn't prove myself very useful as a teammate, but it was cool to have a compatriot in the field anyway.

Stage One. Four laps around an 18 mile circuit. (I wish some of the circuit races around here ran on 18-mile circuits.) A fun course. I didn't like the downhill finish much, but all-in-all a nice course.

I rode a decent race. I was active on the climb every lap but the first, trying to get into breaks and that sort of thing, but nothing came of much and I finished with the lead group of 50-60 riders, luckily dodging a spill within the last kilometer of that crazy downhill finish.

I considered going for some KOM points, but it didn't really work out. Looking back, I wish I'd tried a bit harder.

Stage Two. A brutal 11-mile time trial. All uphill, but not enough uphill to be called a hill-climb or anything. Just a long slog against false-flats and shortish climbs with no downhill recovery sections. And, as it turned out, fighting a fairly stiff wind.

Day two is where the race turned crappy. For me.

Audrey and I headed out early to the race hotel to find my TT start time. I wasn't listed. We went through the sheet three or four times. No 326. No Goatesauce.

Then I saw a little hand-written note on the GC sheet. "#326 disqualified." What?!

There was no one around the race hotel, so back in the car for a 15-mile drive to the start of the TT. I found an official, who pointed me to another official, who told me I'd have to wait for yet another official, who was out on her motorcycle. Finally, I'm told I was disqualified for removing my helmet during the race.

That's true. I did take off my helmet.

It was raining at the beginning of Saturday's race so I threw on a cycling cap under my helmet. But then the sun came out, dried up all the rain, leaving me with an uncomfortable wet cap sliding down over my eyes. I drifted to the back of the field, gave myself a cushion of a few bicycle lengths, then quickly took my helmet off, stuffed cap in pocket, and then replaced my helmet. Apparently that's enough to get you disqualified from a race.

According to the chief referee (to whom I have no kind feelings), what I should have done was gone back to the commissaire's car (I didn't know we were being followed by a commissaire), told them of my issue, and then they would have instructed me to stop aside the road, remove my cap, and then proceed. And I'll just zip right back up to the group like nothing. Yeah, right.

It took about a half hour, but I got back in the race. The kicker? I was relegated to the position of the last-placed finisher, 33 MINUTES DOWN! And I have to pay a $20 fine.

So stupid.

Oh well, so now I'm racing again, I have a start time, and I finish a respectable-but-personally-disappointing 11th, 1:12 off the pace of the winner, but 47 seconds off the pace of second place.

I had said if I didn't finish in the top 10 I'd be disappointed. I was aiming for top five. I needed to go 34 seconds faster for fifth place.

It was one of those races where I was never able to really get in the groove. There was only one section, for about two miles after the sky bridge, where I really felt on. The rest of the course I was just struggling to turn the pedals. It's too bad. I so wanted to do well in that TT.

Stage Three. A monster 61-mile loop with two big climbs and lots of broken tarmac. One sprint line. Three (I think) KOM lines.

Since I had nothing to lose, John suggested that I start the stage attacking from the gun. So I did.

About 1/2 mile in I rode off the front and was soon joined by a few others. Disorganization. Nothing came of it. Along Route 100 I tried to get away a couple more times. No dice. But then around mile 17 or so we caught a two-man break that had been away since the first climb. I launched a perfectly-timed attack and rode right away from the field. The problem was that no one came with me.

Whatever. I just kept at it. It's one of those things that you know is crazy. There's no way I'd be able to stay away. Still so much riding. A lot of climbing. A few folks pretty keen on picking up KOM points. But I went for it anyway. It felt good. And I was able to avoid all the potholes that I'd be blindly smashing into were I tucked in the pack.

I'd get time checks from the moto official. First, 20 seconds. Then 25. Up to 30.

So I kept it up. I held off a chase group of four or five motivated by the sprint line at about mile 23 or so. Max sprint points for me. A small victory. (I wish there'd been a prime to with them.)

When the sprinters caught me they didn't want to work to stay away, so I left them behind and soldiered on by myself. But when I hit the lower slopes of the climb, at mile 25 or 26, the field was bearing down on me heavily. I wasn't a half-mile into the climb before I was swallowed up. Another half-mile and I was off the back.

I figured my day was done, but some 10 miles later or so a group of about 20 came from behind with a well-organized chase. I jumped in, and by mile 47 or so we'd caught the leaders. I let them tow me to the finishing climb, and then just Sunday-strolled it to the finish, crossing the line in 48th place, nearly nine minutes behind the winner.

And that's it.

It's hard to say what could have been... I'd been in 11th place on GC after the TT without the relegation. And had I been in 11th place on GC, I would have sat in through the third stage. I wouldn't have burned my matches on the solo break. I wouldn't have been dropped on the first climb. But it's hard to know how I would have fared at the finish. That was a tough climb, and much steeper in places than what I usually do well on. A top 20 would have been great, but I doubt I'd been able to finish in the money. Just too tough a climb for this fat man.

But I'm still burning a little over that DQ.

A euro-style good luck charm, felted by Mrs. Goatesauce on the drive. (It's a dragonfly.)

the edgar soto

2010-06-09T08:28:00.004-05:00

I've been thinking a lot lately--since Killington, I suppose--about the short-lived Edgar Soto. Man, that race was a lot of fun. The inaugural event, in 2006, when I was still living in Nashville racing as a Cat 4 (2006 was my first year really back into racing since, oh, 1992), is I think still my very favorite experience racing a bicycle. A four-day, four-stage stage race. We had a strong, close-knit team. We won the sprint competition. We won the team competition. We felt like "real" bike racers. And I think three of us finished in the money.

Anyhoo, I chanced upon some photos from stage three of the 2007 Edgar Soto and thought I'd post 'em.

Tangentially, the bike I'm riding there, though broken later that year, has just been fixed. E found a guy in Shippensburg that doesn't know you're not supposed to be able to repair by weld heat-treated aluminum bicycle frames. So he patched up the broken chain stay. I haven't ridden it since the repair, but E had one of his bikes repaired too, and its already been ridden long and hard with no problems.

If I could find a (very) cheap but functional 8, 9, or 10 speed gruppo and a pair of hoops, I know just who I'd put on this rig.

my racist lawnmower

2010-05-27T15:47:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, my racist lawnmower stopped mid-way through the job. It was done. Wouldn't work.

After walking away for a couple of hours (things like this are prone to throw me into fits of rage which, later, are embarassing), I confronted the lawnmower with a fist full of tools. And this is the important part:

I took it apart, diagnosed the problem, fixed the problem, and put it back together. It started on the second pull.

This pencil-necked PhD may make a living at the chalk and key boards, but I can also fix a lawnmower.

Yes. Yes, I can. (Even a racist one.)

landipalusooza

2010-05-21T07:03:00.008-05:00

Everyone's talking about it, and so must I...

So my favorite take on all the hullabaloo thus far has been from Adam Myerson. Which is interesting, to me, because after Transitions (if you've seen the trailer, and liked it, don't spoil the good feeling by watching the whole film), I walked away thinking this guy was a complete douche--wouldn't even want to have dinner with the dude.

But his take on this mess I find utterly refreshing. I hate to put too fine a point on it, but, really, this is about as deep and insightful as you're going to get in the world of pro bicycle racing commentary. (Which, personally, is of course a little troubling because it's forcing me to rethink my opinion of Myerson.)

For your reading pleasure, I've reprinted most of his post here:

Pretty Boy Floyd

So by now, I'm sure you've heard about Floyd's confession. The Wall Street Journal broke the story, apparently, and there's an excellent follow up on ESPN.com. I'll let you get caught up rather than recap it here, because I want to get at what I think is the heart of the matter. Before I could even write it myself, Floyd said it to ESPN:

"I don't feel guilty at all about having doped. I did what I did because that's what we [cyclists] did and it was a choice I had to make after 10 years or 12 years of hard work to get there, and that was a decision I had to make to make the next step. My choices were, do it and see if I can win, or don't do it and I tell people I just don't want to do that, and I decided to do it."

I've actually had a blog entry about Floyd percolating for a while. I've been racing with him a lot over the past two seasons since he came back. And much like Tyler, Floyd was (is) always really nice to me. Says hi, smiles, is friendly. He doesn't ride around with an attitude, he doesn't yell at guys in the races, and when he has legs, he works hard. There was definitely a lot of "parade riding" in his first year back where he seemed to just be showing up, going to the bar at night, and not putting a lot of effort into the races. But when his form came back around, he was always willing to work for his teammates.

And so just as I did with Tyler, I struggled when Floyd was nice to me. He was not the same guy I raced with back in the day, when he was a mountain biker dabbling in the road races, or on Mercury after that. I wanted to spit on him. If he was near me in the pack, I made a point of not giving him room. If he was coming back from an attack or I was passing him in a turn, maybe I turned a little wider than I needed to. You can't make room for someone you consider invisible, or a pariah, right?

Well, that kind of negativity eats at you, too. It doesn't feel good to go out of your way to fuck with someone, and it takes something away from you. Eventually I got over it, and tried to just treat Floyd as a human who deserved a certain amount of consideration and respect. All we really want to do is race our bikes. I needed to let Floyd do that, too.

Late last season, I started to turn the corner even further on Floyd. Maybe it was the collection of Sunday nights at the bar, watching him buy people drinks after races and just generally being a funny, friendly, approachable guy. Maybe it was him saying hi in the elevators at race hotels, shyly, but with that mischievous smirk on his face. Maybe it was just watching how he kept his head down in the races, was just happy to be racing his bike - I dunno, but at some point I decided I liked Floyd Landis. And I didn't really know what to do with that.

At the same time, at no point did I think Landis was innocent, or that he hadn't been doping. But every time I'd see him talk about it, I felt like he was always winking while he did it. My understanding of Floyd's position went something like this: "Oh fuck yes I doped. I doped just like everyone else did. I did not invent doping, and I understood that at the level I was at, it was part of my job description, like Lance, like George. So why should I be the only one who goes down for it?" I saw Landis fighting the charges not because he hadn't doped, because like all his peers, he had. I saw him fighting it because he thought the system was fucked up, and I mean the whole system. The team he was on that encouraged him to dope, the labs that didn't follow their own rules, the UCI that had its own interests to protect. Why would any of us expect Floyd to "do the right thing" here, and in his mind, take the fall or be the scapegoat for a system he participated in by choice, but that he sure didn't invent?

And honestly, why should Landis have confessed at that point? Why shouldn't he fight the charges, if the mindset of the guys at the top level is that doping is part of the job? To understand this, you have to think about doping as the equivalent of slashing or crosschecking in hockey, or traveling in basketball - essentially any kind of play that's subject to a penalty. When someone gets called for crosschecking, you don't think of them as a cheater, do you? But of course, they're breaking the rules. They are absolutely cheating. But it's part of the game, and absolutely mandatory to be successful at the game, to hook or slash or crosscheck as much as you can, while still getting away with it. The point is not to NOT slash or hook. The point is to not get caught. In the previous generations of pro cycling at the highest level, this was the mindset. It's not about morals or fair play. It's just a game. It's not real life, and this is how the game was played.

On another hand, you have to also consider doping in the mindset of rider health. It may sound backward, when we're told that doping has long lasting, negative health effects. But when you train and race at that level, you literally make yourself sick with training. Hematocrit is suppressed, hormone levels drop, and the doctor comes in to bring you back up to normal health. The biggest risks appear to come when you go over the top, and try to turn your mule into a race horse. But for those guys, they have mechanics to tune the bikes, so why not doctors to monitor their health? In their insular, narrow world, it doesn't even appear to be an unethical choice. Ethics aren't even on the table. You're just in, or out.

You see the difference after guys come back, and you presume they're racing clean. Tyler and Floyd, when they were racing in the US were good, top level. They were both obviously, always talented. But it was always strange to be racing crits and being competitive with guys who won Olympic gold medals and the Tour. I found it ironic that after all they'd been through, they were right back riding in circles in America with me, like we were ten years earlier. Of course there were plenty of guys who DID say no. Danny Pate, Mike Creed, Tim Johnson - for me those are the glaring examples of guys who had a chance to be pros in Europe (Pate and Creed on Saeco, Tim on Saunier Duval) at a time when doping was still de rigueur, but unlike Floyd and Tyler, just said no and came home. And now, in a cleaner era, you see them competing at the highest level of the sport. I believe in those guys, and I think they're representative of the other path that was available to Tyler and Floyd.

Landis' defense wasn't about whether he was guilty or not. Of course he was guilty of doping. He knew it, and he knew you knew it. His defense was against being the scapegoat, being the one who took the fall. His defense was an attack on the hypocrisy of the system. So why finally come out with it now, during the TOC and Giro? Why the fuck not now? If you're Landis, and you know that despite serving your suspension and being free to race, you'll never be allowed back in at the top level, why not burn the whole fucking thing down? Why should Lance get to be an international star and hero to the world, when he's guilty of all the same crimes as Landis? Landis clearly loves bike racing and just wants to race his bike. If he can't play, then who can blame him for calling bullshit on the whole thing?

So burn down Babylon. Burn pro cycling down. There will still be racing, there will still be races. Burn it down, so we can build it up again new. I condemn Landis' original decision to participate in a corrupt, immoral system. But I'll stand in front of the flames with him and watch it burn.

I'll shake his smokey hand the next time I see him.

Anyway....

I don't think there's any question that Landis is a little bit crazy. Maybe even a lot bit crazy. And maybe even a snake. But he's also painfully simple. There's nothing sophisticated or cosmopolitan about that dude. He'd probably score around 450 on the SAT (well, that may not be fair...he uses a reference to scarlet letters appropriately in an interview, and that's saying something). He just likes to ride his bike. Drink. Watch stupid movies. And hang out with other dudes that do the same sort of thing.

But I'm just as confident that Lance is every bit the charlatan that his critics make him out to be. He's just really, really good at the deceit. And he has money. And he's terribly charismatic. That the media, in reporting Landis' comments, doesn't even mention past evidence against Armstrong (a bunch of it, now six years old(!), is summarized neatly here, and that doesn't even include Franie Andreu or Greg LeMond's testimony, of which the former is especially damning), speaks to the power Armstrong wields. But the cards will come tumbling down eventually. I'm sure of it.

I mean, listen to this (and watch the body language). He so clearly does have something to hide. A lot of something. Clearly.

UPDATE: Something else worth reading on the matter (in case you missed it):

Kimmage: Landis allegations will decide the sport’s future

Interesting.

...

Now, for a complete change of subject:

Specialized give California an American Flyers feel.

Are you kidding me?! I'm practically dying of awesomeness! You have no idea how I want one of those red SL3s... And the t-shirt... And the stupid cowboy hat... And the red van...

And watching stupid Andy Schleck get to have all the fun is almost too much. I mean, what could a Luxenburger know of the coolness of the layers of American irony that are wrapped up in that whole thing?

Oh, the awesomeness actually hurts...

ebaying...

2010-05-17T10:21:00.003-05:00

I've three (really cool) items on eBay right now. In case I've any readers are interested...

A crazy awesome long-sleeved black and white (plain--no custom logos or anything) Cervelo skinsuit. Turned out it was too big for me.

A super-sleek 3T Funda Pro fork. Red. The kind Cervelo puts on all its bikes.

And a 2008 Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL2, 58 cm. Sick naked carbon finish. The same bike that's featured in the little picture on the top right-hand corner of this blog, actually. (That picture is now going to have to be updated, come to think of it.)

...

I think my eBay item descriptions are pretty great, and I don't mind saying so. And I don't mind saying either that 95 percent of eBay item descriptions are an abomination.

People, there's no excuse for not at least trying to write well, regardless of the medium.

the bike bike bike

2010-05-14T10:35:00.001-05:00

five summits

2010-05-13T13:56:00.009-05:00

Rather than post pictures of routes and elevation profiles (that's so yesterday), I'm going to try something new and spiffy (facebookers, y'all are probably gonna have to visit the blog to see the something-new-and-spiffy).

(Click here for a much bigger map that's easier to follow.)

Anyway... This is a variation on my favorite training ride. And I think I like this variation better than the original, so I guess that makes this my new favorite training ride.

Forty-six miles. Forty-six hundred feet of climbing. (Bikely said 4200 ft. So who knows. But I like the sound of 4600, because I like the symmetry of averaging 100 ft elevation gain per mile.)

When I come back from a ride like this it's hard to imagine a better way of spending two and a half hours. Beautiful terrain. A wonderfully performing bicycle. Pleasant weather. It's good to be a cyclist.

unreal

2010-05-11T16:35:00.001-05:00

(Facebookers, go here for the video.)

the cultural artifacts of rural pee-aay

2010-05-10T15:09:00.002-05:00

When you see "HOOK UP OR SHUT UP" hand painted on the tailgate of a 25 year-old Chevy pickup belching smoke from modified, upright exhaust pipes and the stars-and-bars where a front license plate would be, what does it mean?

the alure of what is "classic"

2010-05-07T10:30:00.004-05:00

Of the several loose frames I have lying around in the basement there are:

(1) 1990 Specialized Allez Epic (58 cm)

(2) 2008 Specialized Tarmac SL2 (58 cm)

The second I'm trying to sell. The first I never will.

For those not in the know, the first, that Allez Epic, was a pretty hot frame in its day. Companies like Kestrel and Trek (do you remember the Trek 5000?--link is to a picture...and, tangentially, a case study in how to make a pretty bike truly grotesque through douchbaggery--the strap-on pump? the saddlebag the size of a doghouse? the stem angle and patchwork handlebar tape? and is that a spare tire behind the seatpost? ugh...) were blazing virgin territory with their monocoque carbon fiber frame designs, but those frames were crazy expensive. And in the case of the Trek, not very reliable. But others (Trek included), like Calfee and Specialized, were making bicycle frames out of carbon fiber in the traditional way that bicycles are made--eight tubes bonded together at their various junctions in some manner. The Epic was one of these frames. In 1990, it was one of the hottest things around. And I had one.

The second bike--I'm just going to say it--was the hottest thing around two years ago. (Since then, Specialized has introduced the SL3, and that makes the SL2 merely the second hottest thing around. Yup, still cooler than all those poser Cervelos, Madones, SystemSixes, etc. There might be a Ridley that's on par, but until Cervelo updates its S2s and S3s, that's as far as I'm willing to go.)

Anyway...

A fun little game I've been playing lately is to invite people to my basement and put in each of their hands one of these frames. The state-of-the-art 20 years ago. The state-of-the-art today. The difference is astonishing, even to those that are expecting it.

...

So now that I have my dream build...*

(Apologies for the weird in-and-out-of-focus photo. Blame it on the iPhone. I wish I could blame forgetting to put the chain on the big ring on my phone as well. Yikes. It's kind of like forgetting to comb your hair on picture day. Notice the snazzy WickWerks rings.)

(Sometimes I like to think of what my 16 year-old self would of thought of this bike...I might have short-circuited something if I knew that one day I'd get to ride this thing. Any time I want.)

(But Oh! how I'm materialistic. I probably deserve a public slapping for liking a thing so much. But then I remind myself, as a way of putting perspective on it and/or as naked rationalization, that there are people who shamelessly own and drive Hummers and Cadillac SUVs and think nothing of it. They deserve to be slapped three times, then tried for crimes against humanity. I just like to ride bicycles.)

...I can't help but look to the past. To dream bikes, if you will, from yesteryear.

There are two bikes in which I'm particularly interested. As showpieces. Art. I want to hang them in my living room (Val will give me space for one...at a time).

The first, a Vitus 979 (or possibly a 992) from the late 80s. Something like these:

(Interestingly, I recognize the rims in this picture as being the same as I laced up in my first wheel build project last summer.)

The second, an early generation Kestrel 4000. A really early one, with an aluminum fork:

(Once in my possession, I would take decent photographs of them and post them on the internets in such a way that people looking for a picture of one through the pipes could find them easily.)

If I built them up, I would do it with period-correct Dura-Ace (on one) and C-Record complete with Delta brakes (on the other). If I could find it, SunTour Superbe Pro. Or I might leave them as frames only. Either way, they would be beautiful, and I might charge admission for people to look at them. But probably not. Because beauty should be shared. Freely.

*To me, a "dream build" is one where you can't really imagine doing anything else to it; no desire to upgrade a single piece or component, even if money wasn't an issue. This one is pretty much there (especially after I replaced the setback S-Works seatpost with a zero-setback Easton EC90). However, I'm far from my "dream build" in the tt, mtb, and cross categories. And my wheel quiver feels far too light. So there's plenty of work yet to do. And, of course, there's this.

turkey hill 2010

2010-05-03T14:05:00.005-05:00

I've ran this race three times, which is as much as I've run any single weekend course in my odd little cycling career (I'm thinking the only other course I've raced that many times is the one I did in Ontario, Oregon every spring when I was in high school), and every time it's kicked my butt.

Turkey Hill: my Pennsylvania cycling bugaboo.

In 2007, Carney (a teammate) was off the front alone for about half the race. We caught him on the rollers leading into the finish and I remember (1) how mad he was at all of us (teammates) for not attacking immediately after he was caught and (2) how completely toasted I was at that point and how completely impossible it would have been to attack.

In 2009, I felt great all the way through, and was poised to have a nice finish, but rather than choose the smart tactic and take my good feelings on the attack in the last couple of miles, I tried to find a good position for the sprint and ended up getting pushed off the road and crashing at 30+ mph with about 1K to go.

And in 2010... The big mistake was hydration. Or lack of it. I'm usually peeing clear and with great volume right before a race. Saturday, nothing. It was already over 80 degrees an hour before start time, and I was harried with registration, getting the kids settled, putting up their sun shelter and folding chairs, making sure Audrey had backup coverage in watching Reuben, and then trying to get in a hurried warm-up. What a ridiculous way to get prepped for a race.

But a few laps in and I was feeling fine. I initiated a nice little attack just before the finish line for props from the announcer and to show off for Mrs. Goatesauce (who was officiating--awesome). And I felt good enough to attack again in the same place with two laps to go, an effort which resulted in a half-lap solo bridge effort (there were a couple up the road at this point). When I was caught the second time, I was just 1/4 the way into my second bottle of the day. At that point we'd been riding for about two hours. I had drank, up until then, just one and one quarter bottles. Such foolishness...

So I chilled at the back of the field for the next bit. Picked up a fresh bottle in the feedzone to start the final lap, and then, after that last turn, trying to bring Jon up to the front on those finishing rollers, it all just sort of fell apart. I got out of the saddle and my thighs cramped like I've never felt them cramp before. I sat down, downshifted, tried to pedal hard, but I was just completely out of gas. Such a shame...

Such an embarrassment, really. The results show I finished 45th of 48 (finishers). What they don't show is that 52 people were either pulled or dropped out. It was a tough, hot day. And given the weather we've had lately I think that caught a lot of people off guard. But it's still embarrassing.

And the thing is, while Turkey Hill is a well-run event with fun start/finish area stuff going on during the race, the course is really quite dull. It's just a dumb little circuit with a bunch of unremarkable rollers, and yet it beats me up every year. So silly...

So, I'll see you next year, Turkey Hill... I'll see you next year...

facebook is weird

2010-04-23T12:29:00.006-05:00

Or, I suppose, Facebook makes me weird.

I spent too long today Facebook-stalking. Mostly high school classmates.

I'm really weirded out thinking about folks from high school. Though this isn't quite true, it seems now that there wasn't much difference between us then. Less still for those kids I knew from elementary school on. And now, as I peer into their family rooms through the window they left open on Facebook, they just seem so, so different from me. In a way I find excruciatingly painful. (And the fact that it bothers me so, well, that bothers me even more.)

The part that troubles me most, oddly, is that I don't think I would very much care for most of them. They strike me as exceptionally boring people. Formulaic. Caricatures of one sort of middle-aged, middle-class life or another. Suburbanites. People who drive mini-vans, shuttle their kids to dance, watch TV in the evenings, and pour over the pages of IKEA catalogs. And yet, I do all those same things. That is my life, but somehow my life seems worlds away from theirs. Is it? And so I'm left wondering if I'm just as boring. (Though at least I'm not the sort of knee-jerk political conservative an alarming number of these people appear to have become. I mean, in ninth or tenth grade I though the Rush Limbaugh crowd and their politics--if you can call them that--were just terrific. I really did. Then I grew up. What happened to everyone else?)

Even while so many strike me as mind-numbingly uninteresting, you look at these pictures, especially those with families, and they usually look so happy. Their kids look great. Beautiful. Bright. Eager. And so I can't help being happy for them. The kids... Those stinking smiling kids never fail to melt my heart. And if those beautiful, bright, eager children think their parents are the greatest ever, who am I to opine otherwise?

But of course it would be naive to believe they're all happy. Tragedy comes in its various guises. Its experience is ubiquitous, as I often say. "All happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," a passage which I've always taken to be Tolstoy's way of debunking of the myth of happiness (the rest of the novel seems to support that conclusion).

Tolstoy was an interesting person. I think I would have liked to pass some time with that dude.

So I want to talk to these people. People who I don't really know; I only knew the person these people were 18 years ago, and then not well. I want to talk to them either to confirm my hunch (I think) or, joyfully, discover that I'm quite wrong. And why them? Something to do with common experience, I think. They're family, in a sense. So they should understand without explanation. If not really.

On the other hand, I'm too shy, awkward, and judgmental to do it. And of course it just feels ridiculous.

So, because I choose not to act, I'm left only with my thoughts. My fears. And wondering when I'll next get to sit down to the chocolate mousse of a stimulating conversation with engaging people that understand me. Like years ago. When Val and I would sit on the floor, way too late at night, with friends, engrossed in the art of...talking. With no thought of "What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" The world was beautiful in those moments. Even in its tragedy it was breathtakingly beautiful. God was in it. In the words. In the connection between us. In the being overwhelmed with the frightening grandness of it all.

All this, from stupid Facebook. Ai ai ai...

(thought continued...sort of)

2010-04-14T17:51:00.004-05:00

Wow.

And now, six and a half hours later, I'm reassessing the value of taking risks in the classroom. Try to do cool stuff and you're guaranteed to piss a few people off. A lot. One has to ask: Would it be wiser (I know it would be easier) to be boring? Lecture. Test. Lecture. Test. It's not less than students expect. You'll get called boring. You won't get great reviews. But you're not going to get yelled at either. And you're probably a lot less likely to get shot.

Arrgh. In this business I'm not sure fortune favors the bold...

rules for radicals

2010-04-14T12:23:00.003-05:00

I was just rereading the first chapter of "Rules for Radicals," which I assigned on Monday in conjunction with an exercise we did in class. Today, we'll debrief the exercise and discuss the reading.

I've read this chapter probably a dozen times over the past decade, but today it seems particularly profound.

Presently I'm struck by the fuzzy truthfulness (fuzzy, because all good truth is fuzzy) of Alinsky's disdain for dogma. (You can almost here him muttering--ok, it's me muttering an imaginary, utterly fabricated Alinsky--an imitation of the Prince of Cats: "Dogma? Dogma. I hate the word. As I hate hell, all Montagues.") From page four:

"Dogma is the enemy of human freedom. Dogma must be watched for and apprehended at every turn and twist of the revolutionary movement. The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are right, while those who believe with complete certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice."

Alinsky follows this up with a quote (context unknown) from Justice Learned Hand.

"[T]he mark of a free man is that ever-gnawing inner uncertainty as to whether or not he is right."

I feel good about that sentiment, whether the context is political ideology, religious conviction, or an opinion about program planning in an university academic department. It sits right with me perhaps because I have learned to be suspicious of certainty. Deep professions of "I know" immediately turn me off. Why not I believe, I feel, or I think?

(I think) we would be a healthier and more civil society if we were quicker to acknowledge our doubts. But to be uncertain is so uncomfortable...

I'm also struck by Alinksy's observation that our collective reverence for revolutions of the past contradicts our enacted passion for the status quo. (An apt description of the uninspiring rhetoric that seems to guide the modern Republican party. Full disclosure: I'm no Democrat, but it's hard to imagine ever voting for a Republican.) That contradiction is perhaps nowhere more powerfully exemplified than a university campus. Universities are full of young, energetic, potentially interesting people with potentially interesting ideas. So much passion and optimism. At the same time universities are bastions of traditionalism. They are the archetype of institutionalism.

And now it's time to go to class. So, mid-thought, it's over...

shell shock

2010-04-14T07:34:00.003-05:00

Click on the photo to get a closer look at that eye...and the expression, which telegraphs...what? Resignation? Yes, I think something like that.

And how about that number plate, eh?

my weekend's trophy (the michaux mash)

2010-04-13T09:31:00.004-05:00

I've written about it elsewhere (and other elsewheres), but in order to archive the (now over-told) story I'm posting it here as well.

If you read all three blogs...well, I guess you're just that awesome.

...

A snapshot view of the trophy I took home this weekend:

This picture was taken after I got all cleaned up, obviously. Immediately after the injury it was much more exciting. My eye socket was completely filled with blood, I had sweet blood streaks down my cheek, and I've still dark red splatter spots sprinkled on my top and down tubes. My DNA is everywhere.

The story: Went to play on Saturday in Zach's Michaux Mash--a four-hour mountain bike race on a nine-mile loop of Michaux's worst (that's not true--there is much, much worse). For those that don't know, endurance mountain bike events are often timed. Riders try to run as many laps as possible within the time limit. The rider with the most laps wins. Or the rider that finishes the most laps in the least amount of time wins.

My accident occurred after I went over the bars in a particularly rough section of trail just 30 minutes in. Scraped up helmet, broken sunglasses, slightly dented top tube, and a cut on the forehead. I immediately began bleeding everywhere. I had to take a few minutes to stop the bleeding and assess how bad I was hurt. After five or six minutes the cut stopped bleeding, I felt ok--if maybe just a little deflated--so I figured I'd soldier on. I rode another 3 1/2 hours and finished (I think) 10th in the under 40.

The gash above my eye was cool and all, but through the course of the ride I also rubbed the tip off my left nipple. (Sorry, no photo.) Frankly, that hurt a lot more. Couldn't hardly shower afterward, the pain of water spraying on my chest just a little more than I could bear.

I love bike racing.

what a day...

2010-04-07T11:57:00.002-05:00

...in terms of the weather. Wow.

If I were a student, I'd spend the entire day outside playing volleyball, guzzling ice-cold Cokes, and napping under trees. Repeat. Repeat again.

One of the biggest disappointments about growing up is that my peers just don't like to play as much as they used to. When you're ten, the kid who doesn't want to come over for a game of backyard football is the odd ball. When you're 35, the guy who does want to is the odd ball.

Growing old sucks...if only because you have to spend so much time with other old people. Stay young, my friends. There's devilry in maturity.

from an interview with neo-pro Peter Stetina

2010-03-31T09:56:00.002-05:00

VN: Everything is ahead of your now – what’s been the biggest surprise so far?

PS: The descents. The other day in training, I was just surfing this descent, leaning into the curves, just cruising along. Christian (Vande Velde) just comes blowing by me like a cannonball. I hopped on his wheel and I was half-chattering my wheel around some corners and was gritting my teeth to get down it.

At the bottom, I said, “dude, you flew down that thing!”

He said, “no man, I am not a good descender. I am one of the bad ones in the Tour.”

I said, whoa, I am screwed! It’s the downhills. I just have to get so good in the climbing that I don’t have to worry about the downhills (laughs). I thought I was pretty good on the descents. I hear stories, that Cancellara is unbelievable. Hopefully, I will get to witness that. You have to put that fear out of your mind, get on their wheel and maybe you will learn something.

From VeloNews. Read the whole interview here.

For me, I let my mind wander to the what-ifs. What if I break a spoke? What if I puncture? What if my tire comes unglued? What if a car, coming up, is passing around a corner?

"You have to put that fear out of your mind..." Yup.

a comment or two on health care (I can't resist)

2010-03-26T13:27:00.005-05:00

Perhaps you, like me, have been hearing for the past several weeks (months?) the loudest Republican talking-point--American's don't want Obamacare; how can Democrats pass a law that the majority of Americans don't want--and wondering what data there is to support that claim.

There are a lot of polls--a lot of polls--but I came across some data from certainly one of the most respected polling outlets, and thought I'd share.

Here's the numbers. First, prior to last weekend's vote:

Ok, certainly more would advise their congressman to vote against the bill. However, one notices two things, (1) it's not a majority and (2) amongst those that would advise against there are no doubt a good many that didn't think what was on the table (something like what was signed into law a few days ago) didn't go far enough, they want something more comprehensive, perhaps something more like universal health care, or a system that doesn't rely on the private sector to control the means of providing health insurance to all but those who qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. Those folks would also advise their congressman to vote against the bill. Without that teased out, it's impossible to know how many actually oppose a progressive health care reform bill, but it's safe to say, based on this poll, that it's something below 48 percent of Americans. Probably way below.

So, it would seem, the Republican claim that most Americans don't want Obamacare seems to have been just plain wrong, at least prior to the vote.

But how do Americans feel about change now that a bill has been passed?

Perhaps a more telling story.

Split by party affiliation, for sure, but among the totality of adults, the 49 percent thinking it's a good thing is an awful lot more than the 40 percent thinking its a bad thing.

And then there's this...

...which is, I think, a little more difficult to interpret. Forty percent of adults are "enthusiastic" or "pleased" with the bill. Forty-two percent "disappointed" or "angry."

At first blush it would appear that American's aren't overwhelmingly excited about the bill. And that's a reasonable conclusion. However, it's harder to conclude why they aren't excited.

For instance, I'm pleased that something finally made it through, and I think where we will be once everything shakes out is better than where we are right now, but I can't help but be disappointed too. Disappointed that a large majority of Americans don't think universal health care, or something close to it, a just and obvious good. That's exceptionally disappointing. I'm also disappointed it took so long. And I'm disappointed that it's caused such anger and partisan division. Frankly, I can hardly believe it's such a hot-button issue. I'm also disappointed with the limitations of the bill. As with Dennis Kucinich and others, I don't think the current bill goes near far enough. It may be that the current bill will serve as a stepping stone to more sweeping, more paradigmatic change in the American health care system sometime in the future, but it may also be that the initiative is lost, inertia towards change evaporated. Time will tell, of course, but I fear the later. So, in that sense I'm also disappointed.

...

Broke a chain today. On the mtb. Riding up the steep stuff. Snap! I wasn't even shifting.

It actually broke in two places, which is weird. Oh well...

tomorrow's ride

2010-03-26T08:28:00.003-05:00

The ride tomorrow:

Looks like a group of four committed so far. Everyone is welcome.

Around 70 miles. Four significant climbs. Meet at the goat farm at 9:00 am, Saturday. (Email me if you need directions.)

rain

2010-03-23T07:34:00.002-05:00

I rode in the rain yesterday. I hadn't done that for a while.

When I woke up, and noticed the soggy weather, I wasn't going to. But later, thinking things had cleared up, I headed out on the TT bike for a quick hour's workout. It started raining. Hard.

But there's a special pleasure to riding in the rain that I'm only reminded of when I'm actually doing it. Like most cyclists, I think, I'll go well out of my way to avoid it. But why? You put on an extra layer, just deal with being wet, and it's really not that big a thing. (So long as it's not too cold...and you're not out too long.)

I think it worthwhile to re-post this passage from The Rider*:

In 1919, Brussels-Amiens was won by a rider who rode the last forty kilometers with a flat tire. Talk about suffering! He arrived at 11:30 at night, with a ninety-minute lead on the only other two riders who finished the race. That day had been like night, trees had whipped back and forth, farmers were blown back into their barns, there were hailstones, bomb craters from the war, crossroads where the gendarmes had run away and riders had to climb onto one another's shoulders to wipe clean the muddied road signs.

Oh, to have been a rider then. Because after the finish all the suffering turns to memories of pleasure, and the greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is Nature's payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses: people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. 'Good for you.' Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few suitors these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms she rewards passionately.

That's why there are riders.

Suffering you need: literature is baloney.

Woolly mice indeed!

Speaking of suffering, there hasn't been near enough in my riding lately. Probably Iron Cross is the last of something approaching anything worthy of that moniker. I've been considering the six-hour at French Creek, though. Saturday, May 8. If it turns out anything like the last six-hour I did, that should cure me of the want for suffering for a while. Plus Audrey turns 12 the day before. I'll need a good long hard ride to come to terms with that reality. Hopefully it rains.

* I read this a little over a year ago and still think about it all the time. A short book. Brilliantly written. I can't believe it took me so long to discover it. I can't believe no one told me about. Every cyclist should read it. It should come with your first bicycle, or when you buy your first racing license. It's prose should be quoted naturally and without effort on every weekend group ride the world over. It's that important. And besides The Yellow Jersey, the only meaningful cycling-related fiction of which I'm aware.

...

I listed two items on eBay last week. I think of myself as a veteran eBayer, but this is the first time I've listed anything for sale. The first auction ended last night. I got more than I hoped (for a lightly used SRAM Force front derailleur). The second ends tomorrow (for a lightly used SRAM Red PowerDome cassette, 11-23). Let's hope I get the same result.

I've lots of other stuff to list:

-- A pair of SRAM Force brake calipers.
-- A set of SRAM TT bar-end shifters.
-- A set of TT brake levers. (Though I can't decide if I want to keep the old, scared, perfectly functional aluminum numbers I'm currently using, or the fancy-pants SRAM carbon numbers I picked up together with a bundle of other stuff I bought a while ago. I clearly don't need both.)
-- A new, completely unused Specialized S-Works crankset, 170mm crankarms, compact gearing (50-34T) with BB30 bearing cups. (I don't even want to explain how I came to own this.)
-- A one year-old, red, 3T Funda fork (this is the fork that comes on all the Cervelos) with its steerer tube cut short--it would fit a 48 or 51 cm Cervelo, or any other smaller frame that takes a 1 1/8" steerer. (This is a nice fork. Strong, light, super aero. They retail for almost $400.)
-- And then I have a really nice frame to sell too. But I don't want to advertise that just yet.

Wow. Written out like that it seems like a lot of shmiz. I've become a regular broker. How did that happen?

...

Raced on Saturday. The Philly Phlyer. As I wrote last year, I love that course. Well suited for my strengths. Great weather (70s) and a really large field (maybe 70-80 riders).

This year, at the end of the third lap, there was a small group (2-3?) off the front and a small, three-rider chase group ten seconds or so in front of the pack. On the lap-finishing hill I bridged to the chase group, tried to motivate them, but by the time we made it back to River Drive we were altogether again, except for the two or three riders still off the front.

Fast forward to the end of the fourth and final lap. I dumped out all that I had on the incline prior to the round-a-bout and finishing straight, but four riders pulled around me just before the turn, and another few made it around me in the sprint. I finished ninth.

I knew my chances at a top five finish were dependent on making it to the round-a-bout first. I just didn't have quite enough.

1983

2010-03-19T10:01:00.002-05:00

A TV commercial. I can't even remember the product. A phone, maybe? Anyway...there's a TV anchorman sitting at his table, with an open phone. He says something like this...

This just in on Twitter and Facebook. A local bachelor, aged forty-one, has just enrolled in karate.

...or something like that.

So funny. Because, one, Twitter is lame. Two, knowing that Twitter is lame I still have an account. (Don't we all?) Three, the sort of narcissistic self-focused non-messages that dominate Twitter are no different than the narcissistic self-focused non-updates on Facebook and, for that matter, this and a bazillion other personal blogs.

So it's making fun of the thing it's advertising--the means of publishing and reading inane, unimportant, personal goings-on. It's sort of how I feel about professional football. Can't find anything worthy, moral, uplifting, or otherwise praiseworthy in it. At all. Yet I can't stop watching it.

And so in that spirit I offer the following:

I was just at my favorite Shippensburg eatery enjoying a Belgian waffle and homefries. On the radio, an 80s set which included Styx's "Mr. Robato" and Bananarama's "Cruel Summer."

I'll admit, I did a little swaying in my seat to "Cruel Summer."

It was a delightful meal.

nyc

2010-03-10T21:51:00.004-05:00

Back from a long conference weekend in NYC. A few thoughts from my fourth trip trekking around the city.

(1) Why are all the advertisements with stock art on the subways of white men and women of northern European descent when only a small percentage of the folks riding the subway are white men and women of northern European descent?

(2) To walk around in south Central Park you need either (a) a baby in a stroller, (b) a dog, on or off a leash, preferably with some cutesy collar or something or other (you can tell the schleps are just waiting for you to stop and complement their canine--dumb), or (c) to be holding someone's hand. To hang out in north Central Park you have to be running. And if you're running around the reservoir, watch out--it's like a stock car track for folks with runners on.

(3) Midtown smells bad and I don't like it there. Times Square is just creepy. The Upper East Side, however, is a place I could live.

(4) Finally, I'm struck by the contrast of the mega-diversity of the city with the utter lack of diversity just an hour west on I-78. Why don't all the folks melting in the pot of Gotham ooze out into the surrounding...wherever?

...

Having to spend the weekend in NYC allowed for another shot at the Central Park early morning race. I love it. The city is just barely coming to life and we're throwing punches on the six-mile loop round the park. And the view is just fabulous. I love looking up over the trees and seeing the varied and excellent architecture of all the (I'm sure) high rent residences surrounding the park. Fun, fun.

The last time I raced the park (which was also the first time) was three years ago. On that day I pulled off a lap-long solo-break (chase) to finish fourth, a couple of minutes behind a three-man break and just seconds in front of the closing horde.

This time I wasn't so fortunate. Us non-sprinters have the race-long burden of trying to get something going. It takes a lot of energy. So the day was full of initiating and bridging to ill-fated breakaways. The best shot came with about two miles to go. A lone wolf blasted off the front. I bridged. He gave up. I stayed off the front until about 0.75 miles to go. But then I got swarmed. And then it was over.

But it was a good time.

I love racing bicycles.

ok go

2010-03-04T21:14:00.004-05:00

So, am I the last to encounter this bit of awesomeness?

(Facebookers, yer gonna have to visit the blog to see the vid.)

And then there's this too (embedding disabled, for reasons that are not clear).

Wow.

Ok Go is cool.

...

This might sound all elitist or hateful, but I promise that's not my intention. It's just that when your belly sags to your top tube, all your bragging about the "hard-core ripping" you do on your mountain bike just doesn't really work. I mean, I love that you love to ride. Nothing makes my heart sing like seeing people who most need a little exercise doing it, but come on, who do you think you're fooling? You're not beating my 11 year-old daughter to the end of the block, much less "ripping" the singletrack around here. Except down. (I'll give the benefit of the doubt when you're traveling the same direction as gravity's pulling.)

...

Spring break training camp next week. Shippensburg style. I've four days of 3-5 hour rides planned. Who's in?

dissonance

2010-02-24T12:04:00.004-05:00

Quite unexpectedly, I've found I have mixed feelings about the warming weather. On the one hand, warmer weather means a beginning of oh-so-much-goodness. On the other hand, warmer weather means that the sodas I put on my office window sill just don't get quite as cool as I'd like them.

Oh yeah, and we ran out of heating oil yesterday. I suppose that's an on-the-one-hand reason to rejoice in the changing weather.

...

As a side note, no heating oil (the truck won't come for a couple of days) means heating the house with solar (unshaded windows), fireplace (that keeps one room warm, at least), and space heater. And I'm wearing a sweater today. I think it's kind of fun, frankly. (For a little while.)

a tangential thought

2010-02-20T07:21:00.003-05:00

In response to my last post, Micah asks if intelligence doesn't come at the cost of happiness.

It's probably a worthwhile question, but I think maybe a distracting one.

One way of answering is to say that I believe the most human of activities is to create. That is, when engaging in creative activity I believe we are most living up to our human potential, fulfilling our "transcendent destiny," as Emerson might say. I don't think there's any question that with increased intelligence comes increased capacity for creative thought and, therefore, creative action. So I guess I'm saying that the more intelligent (can, not necessarily do) experience humanity more deeply. (I hope that's not a controversial thought. I don't think it should be.)

With more intelligence also comes more ability to understand the consequences of our choices. And, I think, with greater intelligence comes (though perhaps not naturally) the capacity for a greater understanding of others' lives, and therefore their difficulties, pain, and sorrow. With both comes increased capacity for frustration, disappointment, pain, etc.

So I think it's a bit of a red herring to focus on happiness. Is a dog happy? Maybe. But a dog's ability to create, make choices, and express empathy (though sometimes they are magically wonderful at the latter) is limited.

I guess what I'm saying here (skipping a few steps of the argument for brevity's sake) is that I think with greater intelligence comes the capacity for greater, more fulfilling, and especially more textured happiness, but also greater sorrow. And it's been my experience that you really can't know one without the other.

in defense of youth

2010-02-19T15:50:00.003-05:00

Is there anything more tiresome and trite than the old decrying the young? Is there? Nothing presently comes to mind.

Get the Old Folks (I'm painting with a broad brush here, so if you're reading you probably just got wet) a'talking about the Young Folks and it won't be long before the tell tale sign of a sigh, a slight shake of the head, and then something like, "The young people of today, they just don't ____." It's always a negative comment. Things were always better. That previous generation, it was always more moral, mature, hard-working, attentive, courteous, respectful, or whatever other would-be positive trait comes to mind.

Guess what, Old Folks, when you were Young Folks, your Old Folks said the same of you, so damn your hypocritical egocentricism. Even Aristotle (I can't remember the passage, so I won't even try), in his day, decried what he saw as a slow generational decay.

The temptation to engage in generational bitchery is strong. I suffer from it myself. Exhibit One are the neighbor kids. Three of them. High school students. From two different families. The only time I see the one outside is when I hang at the bus stop with my daughter. The only time I've seen the other two, who apparently drive to school, is when they were harangued by their mother to help with the snow shoveling. They don't play outside. No throwing the rock around on the street. No garage/driveway fiddling with...whatever. They don't even *gasp* ride their bikes. (They may not even have bikes!)

In the face of that, the temptation to compare their behavior to mine at their age, and unfavorably, is strong. Very strong. But to do so would be foolish. Asinine. I'm not an old man, but I can already see that the world is theirs, not mine, despite the difference in our values. Hopefully I can remain just relevant enough for them to allow me a productive place.

It's the time I spend with the energetic young that's taught me the irrelevance of age, which is not to say that age is irrelevant, but that one grows irrelevant with age. And then there are the facts. James Flynn has shown, as have others, the increase in average general intelligence (g) over time. In fact, it appears that if we were to denormalize (unnormalize?) the results from decades of IQ testing that the Old Folks in the 1930s would score around 20 points lower than the Young Folks of today on an equivalent IQ test. That means that half our parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents (the Young Folks of the 1930s) were borderline mentally retarded by today's standards. Wow.

The Flynn Effect is well documented and, for that matter, not really hot-off-the-presses news either. But it points to the deep absurdity (and, as it turns out, irony) of the Old Folks belittling the Young Folks and their ways. We are growing smarter. Why? Well, there are many possible explanations, but the most convincing to me is that the world is becoming an ever more complex place. There are more demands on our time, our professions are more intellectually demanding, and our senses are subject to farm more sophisticated stimuli through our varied and modern forms of A/V media and what have you. As such, we've had to become more proficient in abstract thought (as opposed to concrete thought), and that is the stuff of which intellegence is made (or at least what we measure when we measure intelligence).

An example from the Wikipedia entry. A kid today, when asked what a dog and a rabbit have in common, might answer that they are both mammals, an abstract representation of their relationship. A kid one hundred years ago might have answered that rabbits are caught with dogs, a concrete representation of their relationship.

So there's nothing biological, per se, or even evolutionary, in the sense of natural selection, to explain the difference. The Old Folks started with more or less the same raw gray matter as did the Young Folks, with a few allowances for advances in nutrition and general medical health. The difference, it would seem, is the world in which we live. Simply put, the Young Folks live in a world that makes smarter human beings than did the Old Folks. And that means it's a world they are uniquely equipped to navigate. Old Folks, you're on the Autobahn with a horse and buggy. Pray you don't get hit.

So eat it, gramps. The damn rascals loitering around the Sheets with the funny colored hair, the low-slung pants, who play video games all day and all night, and seem to have every damn piece of available flesh pierced...they are your superior in ways they aren't even aware. It is their world. They need you only to the extent to which you control resources they desire. Money. Power. Prestige.

And, as it turns out, those have been Old Folks' only weapons against the tide of modernity for millennia. Used, history shows us, with more or less effectiveness from one era to another.

mercy

2010-02-18T18:30:00.004-05:00

Behold. A hard man:

the story

I mean, really. Is there a more hard-core sport than cycling? Misery, misery, misery, and then TRIUMPH! Oh... The glory of this sport. But it is not for the pansy-arsed faint of heart.

It's as Jon and I were discussing on our four hours riding through the occasionally snow-covered roads of rural Cumberland County in temperatures that never rose above the 20s, the only two to complete the long-publicized tree and farm race: Cycling requires physical toughness, sure. But it's the mental fortitude, the disposition to sacrifice and suffer that makes a dude (a gender neutral term) on a bike a cyclist.

What a sweet picture. Greipel, you're my new hero. Best of luck to you in the classics.

...

And then there's the poor dude who just didn't quite have enough gas:

For Footon - Servetto's David Vitoria, however, the finish came 200m too late. The exhausted Swiss rider was swept up by the peloton at the foot of the steep finishing pitch after spending 195 kilometres off the front.

"It’s a pity, because the stage was extremely hard due to the weather, and I bonked in the last three or four kilometres," said Vitoria. "I knew that the final slope was really steep, but [I] got on it with no energy.

"I did what I could, and that's how cycling works: sometimes it makes you happy with less effort, and today, when I did so much work, I was given no prize.

Yup. I hear ya, dude. I hear ya.

snow day, cont.

2010-02-09T08:28:00.008-05:00

To me, the photo in the last post was interesting--artsy and aesthetically poignant--and stood alone on its merits. But y'all apparently didn't like it. (Ok, only two people said something, but both comments were negative--Stephanie said it made her eyes hurt, Eric accused me of deception. Pshaw.) So, for those of you that prefer a crisp and pancake ugly view of reality, I provide the following (first series courtesy of Valerie, the later set courtesy of iPhone):

(Since I know someone will wonder, the girl in the first photo is not one of my kids, but I'd take her, if she were available. Speaking of my kids, however, I love that this sort of thing--packing up skis on back for a bike ride on roads of questionable condition--doesn't phase my girls in the least. Audrey saw me with my bike and asked me if I was going for a ride. I said yes. Marian saw me with skis and asked me if I was going skiing. I said yes. It wasn't until I had it all together that they figured it out. They looked on in polite interest. They found what I was doing unusual, but not in an unexpected way. In their world, this is what men do. If in nothing else, in this I have succeeded as a father.)

I was hopeful that I might locate a slope suitable for making a few turns, but I didn't. Well, I skinned up a few likely suspects, but the woods debris (e.g. stumps, fallen logs, underbrush) was too often just under the surface...I figured it'd be like winning the lottery if I came away without a broken leg, and I didn't want to press my luck. Especially skiing alone. So I didn't really get to make any turns at all.

All the same, it was a delightful afternoon. There is a magic serenity to the snow-covered woods that is unduplicated in all of nature--it gives me such saudades of the West. And when making fresh tracks, there's the undeniable reality that you are all alone. Very, very alone. Which, if you allow it, can be an immensely satisfying spiritual experience.

But then again, I wasn't really alone. There were critters about. I saw deer tracks, bunny tracks, and the furrowed tracks of two other animals that could have been fox (or bobcat) and coyote, but might have been something else about that size. So I wasn't really alone after all.

I look forward to another excursion after this next snowfall. I could live on a pair of skis.

snow day

2010-02-08T07:46:00.005-05:00

the january blues

2010-01-30T08:13:00.003-05:00

It's kind of complicated, how I got there, but the other day it hit me like a glass bottle over the head (or the tinkle of a goblet): I am decidedly less inclined towards subversiveness and rebellion than I was, say, 20 or even five years ago. I'm probably also much less angry and fractious too.

This realization is not welcome. It seems a move from vibrancy to dullness, action to inaction, the violent love of live to the passive acceptance of death.

Because the opposite of the subversive spirit is to be docile, obedient, compliant, etc. It is to read the newspaper and find myself more ambivalent than agitated, more disinterested than disturbed. I feel medicated. House-broken. Like a cow pushed to the edge of a field by the wind. Like a fish that doesn't bother to swim against the current.

It's not a nice feeling. For me, anyway. It leaves me feeling almost desperate to piss someone off--through active not passive aggression, that much is clear--and that in doing so I'll recapture something lost--mojo, I guess. Or the reminder that I'm alive.

Except that everything I written doesn't quite explain how I'm feeling. It's only accurate, sort of. It's not fully true.

But it could be true. If I were a writer I might describe a character that way, and when interviewed I would feel truthful in either denying or acknowledging that I was writing autobiographically.

And so that's where I am.

Swimming. In circles. Sort of.

...

It's cold today. Twenty degrees. Skiing later with Audrey. Perhaps a little time on the bike this morning. And I'm going to build a fire. While Valerie's making waffles. I'll have mine with lots of syrup. I need the sugar.

riding & (aack) running

2010-01-22T10:04:00.002-05:00

I've been trying to run a little more this off season. I know. I can hardly believe it either.

But, since time, weather, and other constraints keep me from being able to ride everyday (but oh how I would love to if I could--I don't think it's so much about fitness or training, it's just that I love riding bicycles...it's just that awesome), I've been trying to run on the off days.

Since there are so many reasons not to run (I mean, come on, no matter how you dress it up, running just sucks), I have to keep reminding myself of the reasons to run. Here are some:

(1) It's faster. You can get more of a workout in less time running than riding (though you certainly can't cover as much ground, it's certianly not faster in that regard). I'm not sure exactly what I mean by that, but probably I mean that I get tired faster. My legs do, anyway. The rest of my body is usually disappointed at just a 45-minute workout. Maybe what I really mean is that at equivilant heart rates, your muscles are working less hard running than they would be running. In other words, to maintain something like 140 bpm I feel more muscle fatigue on the bike than I would running. I think. Whatever.

But mostly by "it's faster" I mean it takes less time to get prepped (dressed, etc.) and de-prepped for and from a run than a ride, it's much easier to do in the dark, and I get tired faster so I'm actually exercising for less time.

(2) It's social. Which is to say I get to run with different people than I ride with. I like that.

(3) I like to be in "running shape." While it's not a key focus, I like to be in good enough shape that if I do run hard I don't pull both calves and generally hurt for a couple of days.

(4) I lose weight faster. This is big. For whatever reason I lose weight way faster running regularly--say, three hours a week--than I do riding regularly--say, ten hours a week.

(5) I like to run the occasional race/fun run thing. Whenever circumstances allow, I love to run a turkey trot 5K on Thanksgiving. (This year I did it in about 18:20, but the course may have been short.) If it works out, I've been mulling over the Chambersburg half marathon in March. I last did a half marathon in college, some 13-15 years ago. On minimal training, I finished in 1:31:30. It's always sort of pissed me off that I couldn't at least get under 1:30 for a half marathon.

(I think I like making lists.)

Anyway, so I've been running, sort of, the past several months. Most weeks I do well to run twice a week. Some weeks I don't run at all. But this is the thing, my body just doesn't like to run as it did when I was a kid. I don't feel good when I'm doing it. It beats me up. Sometimes my knees hold a faint ache the rest of the day.

I could ride 2-3 hours everyday, some days hard, some days not, probably forever and just love, love, love it. I'd feel good all-around. But running... If I don't run for a week and then get out for 40 minutes or so, it feels pretty good. But when I run two days in a row, or even with a day in between running days, I invariably feel crappy on that second day. And I'm not trying to run hard--probably seven to eight minute miles, usually.

It's weird. But more evidence of the foolishness of running.

My sense is, painting with a broad brush here, that running is something the contemporary (evolutionarily speaking) human body can do, and do quite well if trained for it, but indeed something the body would just rather not do. Or at least not do that much of it. As I tell people all the time, the only future in running is bad knees, broken ankles, hip trouble, and probably a few surgeries.

Ride a bike. Run sparingly. Running...it's for the dogs.

...

On a completely different note, I think this is awesome. And it reminds me of this bit of awesomeness from a while ago.

Quick summary: This south Australian riding club picked a rider at random and became fans. Well, someone at random given a few constraints: someone doing their first pro race at the Tour Down Under and someone who doesn't speak English. Then everyone became a hard-core fan and promoted the dude relentlessly. They printed t-shirts. They painted the road with his name. They went all Facebook crazy. The dude is a nobody and he has more fans than anyone else there.

Awesome.

the january thaw

2010-01-20T07:57:00.002-05:00

We've had some dee-lite-ful weather in south-central lately (when it's 40 degrees and partly sunny and you're calling it good weather, you know it's been pretty miserable) and its put me in a good mood. I'll ride when it's 20 or 25 degrees, but I enjoy it much, much more in the 35-45 degree range.

...

The thaw made skiing last Friday really nice. Even at night it stayed warm enough to keep the snow soft and moving nicely under my boards with each turn. And the squats are paying off... Each year it seems to take a little longer to get my ski legs back. (Not that you need much of a leg for our hills around here, but, still, a tele turn is a tele turn, and even after just 500 feet of vertical you can feel the burn.)

...

Locals, mark your calendars for Saturday, February 13 and Saturday, February 20. There are special events planned.

2/13: la course de l'arbre et cultive

2/20: the tour of south mountain

Cue sheets will be provided. Awards for the fastest and slowest finishers.

Ah yeah! Let the bike games begin.

attack!

2010-01-07T09:09:00.004-05:00

Tuesday, I was mauled by a ferocious beast.

The beast:

The mauling:

(Photo was taken about 20 hours after the incident.)

Note from the first photo that the perpetrator's interests include walking through the kitchen with dirty paws and snuffling through garbage cans. Sure signs of incorrigible delinquency. Anti-social bastard.*

...

So I guess I'm obligated to tell the story.

I was riding along the rail-trail, minding my own business, but that business was pretty slow going. My fat tires only roll so fast through the crunchy snow and I was spinning along at 7 mph max. The dog came at me first from the right, then swung around to my left for the attack. But it really surprised me that it acted so aggressively. Usually dogs are cowards. Growl at them, show your teeth, say something angry and they back right off. But this dog reacted just the opposite. When I got aggressive it went crazy. And of course I was going so slow. And so it got me. But, really, when it was yapping along beside me I thought the worst it would do was take a shot at my heel, and as I was wearing my winter riding boots I wasn't too concerned. Then the bite. In the calf. I was too shocked to be mad. More amused, really. That is, at first. The anger came later. About five seconds later. And as my veins filled with adrenaline I wanted blood. But the dog was long gone. A coward after all.

...

Twenty-three years ago was the last time I was bitten by a dog. For years afterward I would have dreams of being attacked, then launching a counter-attack. Slowly, systematically, I would wrestle the dogs to the ground, take them around the neck, and brutally snuff the life right out of them.

All that reappeared in an instant. This was a small dog. I was a big human. I had no doubt I could have killed it.

...

Yesterday, the dog warden paid a visit to its people. It's had shots. All current, she says. So no rabies for me. Probably.

And the adrenaline rush is gone. So the dog lives. Probably.

(Facebook users: to see the video, check the blog.)

* The state of his parentage has been assumed, not verified. But I feel, given the dog's otherwise questionable character, somewhat justified in maligning his ancestry.

2009: the year in review

2010-01-04T08:10:00.008-05:00

Is it 2010 already? Yikes. And I meant to do this a week ago...

The year 2010 was not a good record-keeping year for me. I'm something of an obsessive cycling statistics record-keeper, but my spreadsheet for 2010 ended up too complicated. Opening the thing took minutes, and with every change Excel took about 20 seconds to run through all the calculations and whatnot. It made the spreadsheet unusable, and instead of simply simplifying it, I became disheartened and just gave it up.

(For those interested, I think--but am not sure--that it's the conditionals, especially conditional formatting, that Excel stumbles on. My spreadsheet had lots of conditionals, both computational and formatting. The nature of the data I was trying to keep track of called for a database program, but I'm too lazy/distracted to teach myself Access or some other such program. So for 2010 I've simplified.)

Anyway, a record must be made, even if incomplete. I've no hour/mileage/ride-type/workout-type totals (the kind of stuff I would have if I'd kept my running record), but I remember the races. So here goes:

ROAD RACING

03/28 -- Philly Phlyer (7th of ~55; report)
04/18 -- SOYOCO (3rd of ?; report)
05/02 -- Turkey Hill (crashed out with 200m to go; note)
05/30 -- Fulton RR (12th of 50+; musing)
06/06 -- Race Ave Crit (38th of 50+; not-a-report)
06/27 -- Poolesville RR (12th of 75; report)
07/11 -- Tour of Mt. Nebo (really bad of a lot of fast riders; report)

The Philly Phlyer may have been my favorite race of the bunch, but the Tour of Mt. Nebo was clearly my least favorite. I liked Poolesville and Fulton a lot too, but Fulton had those nasty turns at the bottom of the hills atop slick fallen leaves which still give me nightmares and Poolesville, well, MABRA races are always run on too narrow of roads and kept to a single lane of traffic, which drives me crazy. At Poolesville, the dirt section offered enough selection, and no one pushed the pace just after, so it allowed things to shake out to the strongest riders by the last lap, who had enough room to pass, but those narrow roads and policed passing still drive me a little crazy.

TIME TRIALS

09/19 -- Masters State Championship TT (1 of ?; no report...I'm the reigning men's 30-39 individual time trial state champion and I didn't even bother to blog about it)

(Ironmasters TTs: No dates, just a post.)

Given that I generally do well time trialing you'd think I'd do more of it. But it's painful, emotionally, so I keep it to a minimum. But I do need to do more stage racing (multiple race races that include a time trial).

MOUNTAIN BIKE RACING

04/04 -- Marysville Relay (I had one decent lap of four; photo one, two)

It's hard to believe I only did one mountain bike race in 2009. This needs to be corrected.

CYCLOCROSS

09/26 -- Whirlybird 'Cross (9th of 73; report, more, pics)
10/03 -- BCA (Hagerstown) Cross Masters 3/4 (6th of 56; report)
10/03 -- BCA (Hagerstown) Cross Masters 1/2/3 (20th of 34)
10/10 -- Iron Cross Lite (3rd of 17; musings)
10/11 -- Iron Cross VII (16th of 275)
10/24 -- Murrysville Cyclocross (3rd of 35; musings, aftermath)
11/07-- Wyane Scott Memorial @ Fair Hill (4th of 44; report)
11/14 -- Mercer Cup (out w/ mechanical; report & pics, more pics)
11/21 -- Howard County Double Cross - Schooley Mill (2nd of 67; report)
11/28 -- PA State Cyclocross Championship (9th of 32; report)

Only seven road races and one mtb race. And I call myself a bike racer...

But one finish in the money and a state championship medal in the ITT. That's better than last year.

A more successful cyclocross campaign. It was nice to end the year like that, even if the very end (a disappointing 9th in the PA State Championships and being too sick to ride the next week, the last race of the year, in Marysville). Also, second place in the PA 3/4 series, three visits to the podium, and a category two upgrade. Next year will be harder.

...

My early season fitness was really pretty phenomenal this year. I remember in early April telling a friend that I was probably in the best cycling shape I'd ever been in my life. There were two reasons for this. First, my collarbone break in early October 2008 left me antsy to get on the bike in November...and I rode right through to the new year. And, second, getting my boys in shape at the Tuesday Night Races in January, February, and March (the collegiate season runs from the last weekend of February through the first weekend of May) had its impact on me as well.

But come July I was fried. And in August I took quite a bit of time off, not racing at all (except the SU Cycling Starlight Criterium Series, which was tons of fun). And I guess the time off paid off, because in September, October, and November I felt good again.

Goals for 2010

Now that stupid cancer is behind us--at least I sure as hell hope it is--maybe I'll be able to pull off a bit more bike racing during the bike racing season. Last year I only got eight road race and mtb race days in through August. This year I hope to double that.

goal #1: Fifteen race days through August.

This year a major goal is do significantly more mountain bike racing. This also means I need to improve my mountain biking skill level a good deal too. That means more mountain bike riding, and more mountain bike riding with dudes a lot better than me. Which may mean showing up to the Michaux group rides more often. And then more experimentation with tires and air pressure. With handlebar width and height. And, hopefully, with a shiny new 29er come spring.

goal #2: Of those 15 race days through August, five on the mountain bike.

I'm only planning 10 race days on the road (excluding time trials) in 2010, but I still want to do well. Or at least race aggressively. I don't mind losing a road race, badly, if I raced to give myself a chance to win. In '07 and '08 I usually raced too passively/defensively, but that's a super bad strategy for winning bike races. And it turns out that the races of which I have the fondest memories I raced aggressively, attacking, counter-attacking, and generally trying to mix things up. I've learned my lesson, and in 2009, I generally raced aggressively, occasionally to reward. In 2010, more aggressive racing. If I finish with a pack it had better be with tongue dragging on the asphalt for having attacked and counterattacked and attacked again and again throughout the race. Win or lose, I want to be buggered by the end of each race. But I also want to do well.

In 2009, I finished in single digits in two of seven races. In two more I finished hard 12ths. I'd like to improve upon that.

goal #3: Single-digit finishes in at least half of my starts.

Last year I didn't race a single stage race. In the prior three years I raced several, and at least one four-day stage race each year. I want to do more stage racing. It plays to my strengths. So...Fitchburg again. Or, if I'm in good shape at the end of the season, Green Mountain. Washington County. And/or perhaps some other race of which I'm unaware (Memorial Day weekend?).

goal #4: Start at least two stages/ominium races, one a marquee four-day race.

(I'll count stage races as just one race in the previous goal regarding 15 race days.)

Related to the above goal, I pledge to do more time trial specific training...which includes simply riding the time trial bike more, tweaking position, etc.

goal #5: At least one training ride on the time trial bike every other week.

That's probably enough.

Ok, one more:

goal #6: At least ten cyclocross race days.

Ship Cycling 2009 Overview

In 2009, we had three major successes:

(1) Eight students raced at least once on the road or mtb. I didn't keep track of total student race days, but I'm sure it was well over 20. Plus several students raced over the summer. Given where we've been, that's a huge accomplishment, and I'm proud of it.

(2) Ship Cycling organized not one, but two bike rodeos. Great successes, both of them, on a variety of levels. I feel super good about that.

(3) The Tuesday Night Races (and other non-sanctioned not-really-a-race "races"). I'm committed to the principle that you can't get race-fast without doing a lot of racing...and if you can't always be racing, ya gotta simulate it. Fast weekday training races are an essential componet to an amateur cyclist's race development. Low cost environment for experimentation with tactics. The chance to see and experience a lot of stuff, tactically and physiologically. Practicing group riding skills. All of that. Consistently (at least through August) there was at least a small group out to ride fast, and occasionally a rather larger group. Varied participation from folks all up and down the valley. I hope we can do even better this coming year, but 2009 was still a success.

As for 2010 goals, there are so many things, but I've only time, energy, and sanity for some. So I've got to give it a good think and prioritize before I commit.

For a later post...

who decides what a friend is?

2009-12-23T18:26:00.002-05:00

This cracks me up:

It's from this blog I read on occasion. I'm not sure whether I'd say we're blog friends, but we're friends.

And I sleep with her.

...

I don't think dudes develop blog friendships quite like the ladies. My wife has all sorts of blog friendships--folks that monitor and comment on her blog regularly that she's never met, and she brings up intel from blogs at the dinner table like it's something she learned from a conversation earlier in the day. But I guess it was a conversation. Just a different sort of conversation.

Well, that's the extent of my profundity for today.

I'll end with this:

Bike racing is awesome.

cooling my hands on the steel

2009-12-17T16:43:00.002-05:00

There's something oddly wonderful about coming back from a long, cold ride and wrapping my bare hands around the cold aluminum tubing of my bike. It's odd, but I really like how that feels.

Similarly, I really like the patterns of ice that form on my top tube from dripped sweat. There wasn't any of that today (it was a pretty chill ride), but that happens a lot mountain biking in the winter. I like it a lot.