Where do we go now?

As the Good Witch of the North said, it's best if you start at the beginning. I'll do just that, and see what I can work in along the way. Schloogeys? Anyone who saw the OLN tour coverage on Sunday night might have caught Bobke's sidebar on the Belgian faithful. In case you missed it, here is the link: Select video 09. OLN's producers must have been having acid flashbacks to Wide World of Sports when they hired Trautwig, but at least Bobke can be unpredictable, if not informative or engaging. I think it was Wide World of Sports where we first got to see Bobke's "intestinal distress" episode when he rode for 7-11. Funny though, they don't list "first athlete to take a dump at the roadside on national TV" in his bio. Later on, Bobke's post-competition rise to prominence was fueled by the potty stories he used to write in Velo News. Back in the bad old days before the 'net, if you wanted to read something funny about cycling, that was pretty much it. Nowadays, there are lots of us who are trying to do it, but Bobke was a pioneer.

Ironically, he who says "Tour DAY France" in an all too obvious attempt to get all the anal-retentive cycling fans (which is about 90% of you) worked up, used to have "don't call me Bob-KEY" as his tagline. The correct pronuciation is "Boob-ka," and make sure you say it like a Eurodog with nice short syllables. So now we have Trautwig calling him Bob-Key. Maybe he just got tired of trying to correct people and finally capitulated. If you see him, ask him to demo the "Boobka Strut" for you. I'll bet you'll get some schwag in the deal.

So how did I manage to watch OLN if I don't have cable, and KL doesn't even have a TV? Good question. Fortunately, her in-your-home animal care side business had us with our feet up in a stylin' mountain top villa complete with plush couch and Direct TV for Tuesday night. Sorry to say, but since my camera's woes are well-documented, you know I couldn't come up with photographic evidence of Jurassic Dog, the 100+ pound behemoth of a Malamute who was our host. Starbuck (his name) seems friendly enough, but he has that crazed/confused look in his eye, and despite getting along with nearly all four-legged animals, having this guy stare at me and howl was a bit unnerving. We will get pictures sooner or later.

Backing up to my last post takes us all the way back to Friday. I'm still not sure what to think of this whole doping thing. One way or the other, I don't think we are hearing too much of the truth. Are we supposed to believe that all these guys, bitter rivals from a half dozen different teams, all went to the same doctor, not knowing about the others? I mean, if the word was out that Fuentes was the go-to doc, wouldn't SOMEBODY have blown the whistle? Or did they, and that is how they got caught? Over the weekend, McQuaid reportedly came out and basically admitted the testing is a joke. At least that it what he wants us to believe. Either most of these accusations are bullshit, or this thing runs deep, very deep.

Training. Friday wrapped up the first six months of the year. My 3.5 hour ride wasn't as hard as I had planned, but it still brought me up to 189 hours on the bike for the year. Add to that 30 hours of running, and contrast my 220 hour YTD total with 2005's 178+11=189 and we see that my volume is up by 15%. This year I have a lot more competitions included too, and I know I have had higher quality at lower HR numbers due to increased fitness. All good news.

The weekend wrapped up my longest and biggest build of the season, with three straight weeks of around 13 hours each on the bike. Saturday morning, eager to test myself, I rushed over to Big Blue Hill on my way to Fitchburg. Pressed for time, I warmed up quickly with a few efforts on Royall Street, right in front of Reebok World Headquarters. Once I was ready, I headed to the access road. The gate was open, so I got a bit more of a rolling start than usual, and up I went. Knowing I would only make one pass today, this was all out. Using the 38T ring and the 17-19-21 and 24, I made good steady progress, hitting the "flat spot" at 1:06, and then the end of the guardrail at 3:06. The top just didn't seem as steep as usual, and I even sat most of the way over "the hump." Sprinting for the line, I stopped the clock at 4:46, breaking my all time PR by 2 seconds! BTW, the previous PR stood for over 12 years. Yes, the pavement is better now, I had a rolling start, and the new bike is about five pounds lighter than what I rode before, but fuck, I'm 45! Something is working.

I took my victory and blasted up to Nashua, picked up KL, and headed to Wachusett for the queen stage of the FSR. Working the feed zone is far more stressful than racing yourself. KL and I both knew this race was her best chance to do something big at this National Race Calendar event, and with the Pro/Elite women facing six laps of the hilly 11 mile circuit before taking on the Wachusett summit road, feeding would be crucial. Dropping her and her stuff off at the start area, I headed up to the feed zone where The Cronoman had already staked our claim to prime real estate and setup his tent. International playboy/fashion photographer Rich Bertone joined us, and later on Duano, Big Joe, several others, and even the one and only "Voice of New England Bicycle Racing" Dick Ring hung out with us while Rich wowed them with blackberry photos of his supermodel friends from the cover of the Italian edition of Vogue.

The feeding was pretty uneventful, with KL about as calm and efficient in the feedzone as a rider can be. Some photographer kneeled down behind me and tripped me as I naturally moved to my right while handing off a bottle, but his complete silence in the face of my subsequent verbal tirade quelled my urge to beat the daylights out of him on the spot. He went elsewhere to take his photos, and I retreated to the tent to cool off. Repeat, this feeding is WAY more stressful than racing. I handed up the bomb bottle of Red Bull on lap 5, and stayed in the feed zone for lap 6 just in case. KL roared through, but the main pack was still about forty riders strong as they headed to the access road up Wachusett. Lacking the vehicle credentials to follow the group, I had no choice but to just head back to the main lot and wait. After what seemed like an eternity, KL rode back down with news that she had taken an outstanding 8th on the stage, the first New England rider, just 27 seconds down to the race winner, World and Olympic champion Sarah Ulmer! We found out later this moved her into 13th on GC, in the money. Just one more day...

Sunday, the women's crit didn't start until 3 pm. This left me with a bit more training time than Saturday. I rode up to Well's Ave for the Boston Road Club Training Series. With a nice tailwind on the the twenty mile ride to Newton, my 10:20 arrival had me just missing the start of the combined A/B event. I jumped in with 34 laps (of 40) to go. I saw Michelle and said hello, then bridged to a few breaks and did several other hard efforts before pulling myself out with two laps remaining. Late arrivals aren't allowed to sprint for prizes anyway, but I just wanted to beat the line at the Shaklee tent for some free post-race recovery drink. The ride home was, of course, into the wind. Yeah, not so fast, and it was pretty warm by that time of day too, so I stopped at District Convenience in Dedham Square for some more liquids. Unlike the typical Quik-eee Mart, this place had a nice hardwood floor, and I carefully danced across so as not to scratch it up with my cleats. The exchange at checkout went something like this:

Apu (not his real name, at least I don't think...): "You have the speshull sneeekarh, for the bicycle?"

Me: "Huh?"

Apu (more clearly this time): "You have the speshull sneeekarh, for the bicycle?"

Me: "Oh yeah, these, yeah, I do."

Apu: "How much is the cost?"

Me: "Six hundred dollars" (hey, they're custom made Rocket 7's)

Apu: "Oh my."

It made my day, that's for sure. I really needed the Gatorade too, although this "X-Factor" crap is even sweeter and more candy-like that the already over-sweetened and under-electrolyted regular flavor. By the time I got home, it was after 1 pm, so it took some hustling to recover, get packed up, and in the car on the way to Fitchburg. Making every light on Route 2 except the last one, I rolled into town and got onto the course about two laps into it. The crowds were WAY down this year, but it was pretty exciting nonetheless. KL rode great and not only preserved her GC spot with a solid pack finish, she actually moved up to 10th overall, well into the prize money, and the first Cat 2. Sweet end to the race and weekend proper.

Mostly relaxation and just a recovery spin made up our Monday in the Lakes Region at the KL North Training Center. Tuesday we headed out explore some roads near Newfound Lake. We found a good one that connects over to our usual River Road training route. There were about five miles of well packed dirt road in the middle of it, but either end had a nice paved climb, as the road traverses a range of small mountains dividing Bristol from Ashland. We then tried Bridgewater Hill Road, finding a 500 meter stretch of 15% grade before it turns to dirt. We'll be taking Duano over to that one in the future for sure.

So that wraps up the wrap up. I've got almost 45 hours on the bike in the past 24 days, so today is off and the taper begins. Tommorow night I plan to head over to the Rehoboth TT again, but I'll bring the road bike and do it Cannibal to see how that works out. Saturday there is a crit right over in nearby Attleboro, a tight course, can be hairy, but I should probably take the plunge. We'll see. Thanks for reading.