But it...

Looks so easy on paper. Maybe this year, since I'm not on call again on Saturday night, I'll get my ass out of bed to race the mere four laps with the 45+, starting in the morning rather than the heat of the day. I'm going to brave the Concord crit the day before this year too.

To prepare, this past Saturday I rode the TT bike for almost two hours. WTF? Well, it was similar to a crit, as I ended up riding fairly hard. I'm not sure how fast, as I don't have a speed sensor. I could have put one on though, as I swapped it out to normal spoked wheels. Even though the tri-spokes are clinchers, I realized I had no way to inflate them in the event of a flat. My CO2 inflator won't fit in there, and neither will my frame pump. So, before heading out, I cranked up the AC and finally got around to converting a box of hubs, spokes, and rims up in the bike room into a pair of rear wheels. Nothing fancy, 6600 hubs with Mavic Reflex clinchers, DT 14/15 all around. I had one 28 hole and one 32. Got them both done in a reasonable amount of time, but I could not find the spoke prep (until, of course, I was done) so I tried plain old blue locktite this time. We'll see how it works out. The 6600 hubs seem OK, 10 speed version, and I got the non-drive side spokes reasonably tight using 298/299 for the 28s and 294/295 for the 32s. Still not as tight as I'd like, but maybe offset rims are the only way to accomplish that and still have the rim centered with all these cogs on the back.

The bike is still fast even without the trispokes. I tilted the bars up a bit and did not like it at first but later on it seemed ok. I'm too lazy and impatient to fuss with it. Sunday, switching back to the road bike, I headed north and tried this route. Actually that is not the whole thing, as runstoppable got tired before I could map my way back home. Ended up being exactly 4 hours, 115k. I was toast. I'm glad to see the total climbing was more than Bow will be. It was hot too, and I was roasted. Had some exciting moments on twisty downhills at speeds approaching 80 kph, then hitting driveway stones with both wheels. Did not pinch... All in all a fun and productive weekend. Thanks for reading.

Cool for Cats

Since the Tour is almost over, I guess it's ok to talk about it, sort of. I've stayed away from the subject because I figure that since I get my information about it from the same places as everyone else, I'd just be vocalizing what like minds are already thinking anyway. Some people do a better job of this than others, and there have been a few blog entries that showed me some unique perspective or ideas. Like I've said before, some of you obviously give this stuff a lot more thought than I do. Then there's the chorus of reactive BS that flows from some every time a media story about the latest scandal breaks. These stories are very sad, but a mob mentality and a rush to judgment is never a good idea. Bike racers are just people. Really. The Pro Tour riders have just made it a little further than the D2 Pro Continental riders, who in turn have just made it a little further than the D3 riders we all know (I mean really know, not "know" like we know the Pro Tour riders) and love. And the D3 guys have just made it a little further than the rest of us. They may be the ones truly affected the most by doping in cycling. Yes, I'm sure there are a few D3 guys who have dabbled in dope and still never made it to the big leagues, but I don't care about them. It's the clean D3 guys that I care about. The general public doesn't give a shit about them and has no idea who they are. During Lance-0-Mania, lots of the faithful had no idea who the other riders on the Postal tour team were, never mind the guys on the squad who didn't get picked for the tour, or the hundreds of outstanding athletes who just never made it to the big stage.

It's really easy for a couch riding spectator to look at the Pros and say "hey, I don't care if they dope or not, it's entertainment to me." Tell that to a clean D3 rider who is busting his or her ass to get noticed and maybe move up. These are real people, real athletes. The public who only knows Lance and Levi and figures everyone else must just be a meaningless shitbum have no idea what they are thinking about. What goes on inside elite and pro cycling? Do you really think you know? I know I don't. But I'm sure most of it doesn't ever get us through the media.

It's hard to understand why someone like the Cofidis guy would dope, but think for a second that there were about 25 guys on Cofidis who did NOT get picked to ride the tour. This guy had to "earn" his spot, and then prove to them they made the right choice. Anyone who thinks this is a few bad apples is living in a world of naive and blind faith. After what happened to Riis, do you really think anyone is going to get in front of the cameras and tell the truth?

Hopefully this culture will slowly die out and a willingness to dope will no longer be a prerequisite for moving into a D2 or D1 team. Of course some riders are so talented, maybe they never had to. I believe that. They could be the best in the world. But go down a notch and find a few thousand riders all competing for a few hundred spots on the top teams. A willingness to "do whatever it takes" has been a big part of the equation from what I can see. The smartest ones have probably opted out. If your kid, or your kid brother, was an extremely promising 19 year old, would you encourage them to skip college and go for it in Europe? Would you be faithful that they knew enough to go into a world of dope and still keep themselves clean? Or would you recommend they just drop that dream of being a pro bike racer? Ultimately I see this as the biggest threat to the sport. What if the whole thing just starts scaring people off?

This wasn't where I was going with this, but here we are. The politicos are going to make this entertaining, so at least we have that going for us. Hopefully they will eliminate each other one by one and this entire situation will bring out a better leadership and the whole thing will be positive. It all had to happen.

So here is what I started to write. Rode Big Blue several times last night. It sucked. There were other riders there, but I was going like shit. Anyway, I looked back over the Tour stage profiles and found this categorized climb:

Côte de Baleix: 1.4 km climb @ 8 % grade / 3rd Cat (Thursday stage)

Just a tad less steep then Big Blue's 8.9% average grade, and the same length. This would be the "major climb" in just about any road race I've ever done. So when you read about these "flat stages" that have only Cat 3 and Cat 4 climbs, think about that one.

That's a wrap. Won't it be cool if they clean the Pro Tour all up and then they come to the Tour of California next year and all these mega-dollar superstars get their asses kicked by the D3's? It could happen... Thanks for reading.

Twenty Days

Without commenting on the Tour, at least not on this blog.

I haven't felt much like riding this week. No energy. I know this feeling. Although I'm not in dire need of a rest week, I guess I'm a little burnt. So I took a few days off. Today I've got the itch to ride. I wish I did not have to go to work. The bike has gone in the car, so let's see if I still feel this way when 6 pm rolls around. I'm tempted to go down to the Rehoboth TT, but I don't think I can get out of work early enough for it to be worthwhile. Instead, I might be looking at riding around Blue Hills and doing some repeats on the access road. Anyone up for that?

Thanks for reading.

Mid Summer Regroup

Or maybe it will be a retreat. Let's start with a quick recap since the last post. The final stage of the WMSR, the points race, had to be canceled due to torrential rain and flooding at Star Speedway on Thursday night. This was really a bummer, as for me so far the race had gone almost exactly like last year. I was sitting in 8th on GC and with a pretty decent track record at the points race in previous years, felt I had a good chance to move up into the money. It would have been an interesting race with three CCB and two Sunapee riders in the top spots. Next year.

On to the Attleboro criterium on Saturday. Here I had decent legs and fitness but produced nothing, and neither did anyone else on the team. The 45+ race featured lots of choppy riding and attacks that went nowhere. With three to go I was planning on moving up front and starting a really fast train for the last two laps, in order to setup Duano for a sprint. Then a CT Velo rider jumped away solo and approaching two to go he was at least 250 meters up and on this short course did not have far to go. It looked dangerous so I took the front a little early and hit it hard. Coming across the finish line I discovered that nobody had filled in behind me and I had a gap. Not what I wanted but I did not see any point in waiting around. I continued and caught the other guy at one to go, but he was toast and the pack was close. I got caught between the last two corners and it was a wasted effort, and Duano did not get up in the sprint either.

I skipped the 35+ race that most of the others entered. I hung out with The Automaton while waiting for the 30+ race to start. There was a big delay because Tommy Mannion (CCB) crashed hard in the 35+ and had to be taken out via ambulance. I talked to his son, newly crowned Junior 15-16 National Criterium champion Gavin, and he thought he would be OK, but likely had a broken clavicle and had been unconscious for a bit and thus needed observation. Welcome to Attleboro.

My thoughts that the 30+ race would be an easier field than the 35+ were dashed when I met up with Jon Bold waiting for the start. Markie Mark and Skip Foley were also entered, but at least they'd done a few races already. The 30+ started out slow and I tried to initiate a move, but nobody came up to me. Then I retreated to the pack and a serious six man move went away. I tried to bridge but they were flying and since everyone who was left either had a team mate up there, or was just toast, nobody wanted to work. The pack then shut down completely and within 15 laps the break came around from behind and lapped us. I guess one guy had fallen off, but nobody knew that; at any rate five of the seven paying places were already taken.

Since we'd been going so slow, at four to go I took off to at least try to get my money's worth with a long solo move. They spotted me ten seconds or so at one point, but at two to go it did not look great and at one to go I looked doomed. I kept it going but Markie roared past in the final turn. They were strung out so I jumped on the back of the train and rolled in 14th. All that work for nothing.

Sunday I just rode the TT bike for an hour and then played some golf with my bro. I have some thinking to do about the rest of the season. If I'm going to partake in D2R2 this year, I had best take the next weekend, which is open, to do a very long ride, maybe even John Hirsch's LAMB Ride (ok, it's not his, but that is where I heard about it). I'm concerned that my knee would not be up for this though. D2R2 may not be such a good idea this year. I think I may take the next few (rainy) days off the bike to think about it. After that, I have Concord/Bow, then the Mt A TT. On August 18th, Dieter Drake and company are putting on a 40K TT near Battenkill and since I have not done a legit 40k on a decent course, with decent fitness, and a decent TT bike in over 10 years, I want to focus on this one.

GMSR is not going to happen for me this year, but in September we have the Haverhill Crit and the Bob Beal Stage Race to finish off the road season. Somewhere in there I need to start running again and get ready for duathlon season. That's it for a Monday morning. Thanks for reading.

WMSR - Stage 2 - Getting there is half the fun

Last night, poor GeWilli got a gag-reflexing taste of where the hate in the love/hate relationship south of Boston riders have with theWorkingman's Stage Race comes from. For me, this is not just a race, but a ritual, so sitting on the LZ and Tobin bridges for most of the afternoon was just an expected part of the experience. For the 60 mile trip to the race by car, I averaged just over 27 mph, a shade faster than the Master 35+ pack would maintain in the 43 mile circuit race Wednesday evening. Knowing what to expect, my only worry was the constant rain, but alas the sun always shines over Amesbury in July, or at least the roads were dry... until the last lap that is.

So I guess Ge got to thoroughly stress out while worrying about making the start, which he did. We'll have to wait for his race report. As for me, we went into the race trying to do our best to protect the leader's jersey of BOB mate Wayne Santos, but Wayne is more the TT specialist than the rough and tumble sprinter type this race favors. Anyhow, there were a lot of attacks that gained 10-60 seconds, but it was not until the 4th of 5 laps that things got serious, which was also right about the time the heavy clouds rolled in and it got dark as a mofo, and eventually wet. Taking the two to go cards a group of six were off the front and Tyler Munroe (CCB-Volkswagen) put his guys on the front to bring it back. Sunapee also had a guy up there. We motored to within 15 seconds of the break and Tyler jumped across. I was right there but the break did not look great to me so I waited and took up the pacemaking until we were very close, at which point the Cronoman jumped across the gap. This break then died out, but a new one formed and at first it looked disorganized, but by the time we got to the KOM we were told they had 33 seconds. I was not sure who was up there but CCB and Sunapee each had guys in the move and BOB did not. I thought Tyler had slipped in there and after talking to Wayne we decided to put the whole team on the front. Well, as a team we generally do way too much sitting in and not nearly enough organized work, and it took us about two miles to assemble anything close to resembling an organized chase. At this point we passed the Menkenator who had finished the women's race and was cooling down, and she yelled out that the break had a full minute. Fuck. Did I mention we're on the last lap now?

We kept it going pretty well but approaching the final time up the hill the break was still out of sight (well it was so fucking dark that they could have been right there and I wouldn't have seen them). Coming through South Hampton the right side opened up, and since it was now pouring, I dive bombed the turn into the downhill and took off. I wanted to be on the front for the tight left hander going into the KOM hill. On the KOM hill I got absorbed, but I fought to stay in the front. It lulled a bit but things had strung out so I did not get totally swarmed. We bombed down the final descent at close to 70 kph. Now we had just one bumpy 90 degree corners with several rain slickened painted crosswalk lines separating the pack from the final sprint. The line is only about 250 meters after the last turn, so positioning was critical. The three man break was safely away for the win, but of course top 15 gets points for GC, so we had a lot to race for.

I followed Duano up the right gutter, but then he switched out to get the faster outside line through the turn. Not me. Anticipating somebody sliding out in the turn, I stuck with the slower, but safer inside. I was marking John Meerse because he was just ahead of me on GC points and I wanted to beat him. Well, what happens next I could not have predicted. Leo Devellian was leading the CCB leadout train, with GC contender Donnie Mills and Duano tucked in there too. Going into the turn, I guess he felt there was no way he could make it and he clipped out at about 50 kph and put his foot down BMX style! Mills followed suit, and Leo did keep the bike up halfway through the turn before cartwheeling off onto the opposing sidewalk. Duano, Mills, and some others on the outside got impeded by all this, but I squeaked through on the inside. I was in too big of a gear, but I wound it up for all I was worth, trying unsuccessfully to come around Meerse. We had open road and a clean sprint, but I just don't have the speed and I was frantically clicking the STI searching for another gear that just was not there. I went across in 11th (at least on the prelim results last night) so I got a few points. Sprinter John Grenier flew in the BOB colors a few spots ahead of me.

Not sure exactly how GC shook out, will need to wait a few hours for the posting. I think I'm in 8th on GC points. Heavy rain predicted for tonight, so I'm not sure how they will handle that. A shower is always nice as it washes the oil off the quarter mile bullring car track venue, but I'm not sure if we've ever held the race when the rain was pouring down. They might call it, especially if there is lightning. We'll see. Time for some "W" of the WMSR. Thanks for reading.

PS - Huge thanks to CTodd for volunteering his time to drive the pace car for the womens' race. You rock CTodd! If you are reading this and you have not gone over to CTodd's blog to buy a "Bike Racer" T shirt yet, PLEASE do so now! This effort supports the MSPCA and if you do not buy one of these shirts, you are a wiener. These are high quality, incredibly stylish, and there are womens and children's fashions fashions available too. Buy several! You can do without another pair of carbon whatevers, but you must buy a shirt. Do it now! Thanks!

Till the Pain is so big you feel nothing at all.

The Workingman's Stage Race Time Trial race report.

7th place. The three guys who beat me last year all did it again, as did my teammate, race winner Wayne Santos. John Meerse (Fastsplits) and Ron Bourgoin (Arc-en-Ciel) also bettered my time of 14:07:66. The course was indeed shortened. I had cadence, altitude, and HR data, but did not have speed or distance because I did not have time to rig up a sensor on the trispoke. Reportedly, the new course layout measured 10.025 k in length, which if true means my average speed was slightly better than last years.

11.826 m/s, 42.58 kph, 26.4 mph

I know my average cadence was 93, and my average HR 167. I may have started too fast, as after the first four minutes on the fast opening stretch, I was bearing down on my 30 second man, Troy Federson (Boston Scientific). I had to pass a car that had stopped in the road, but that did not cost me too much, just a second or two off the aerobars. Going into the tight "Belgian" section of the course, I ceased to gain ground on Troy, and I bogged down in a few spots. I just didn't feel speedy. Entering the big hill, it was apparent he was pulling back away. I passed my minute man on the steep part, standing in a 53x19 at 60 rpm. This pushed my HR right up to 173, very near the max. But the end was near too. I stayed in this gear on the long false flat and got it up to 100 rpm (35 kph) before going up through the gears when the road tilted downward. Along the downhill and the long fast flat afterwards, my aerobars slipped down on a big bump, a bit disconcerting at 65 kph, but it didn't make too much difference. My concentration wained a bit as my HR fell all the way to the turn, which I forgot to downshift for. I lugged the 53x12 out of the 90 degree corner and into the final half kilometer, just getting it up to 90 rpm by the finish line. A decent overall effort, but not what I'd hoped for. The first three guys beat me by 22, 19, and 17 seconds respectively, but the next three were 9 seconds or less ahead. Troy ended up 8th, just 9 seconds behind me, so surely he pulled back time with a strong finish while I faded.

Got to hang out with Gewilli, sporting a nice new haircut I might add, before the start. Lots of fun with the team. Santos came up huge with the stage win. He's not too fond of the points race on the track Thursday, so we'll have to rally around him. Ruane was second and he will be super tough to beat, especially with his strong Sunapee team behind him. Mills of course is practically still a pro, and Tyler Monroe has won this race several times and knows just what to do. The other guys don't have teams with them, so I don't know what to expect. It's pretty wide open, but Ruane is still the guy to beat. We'll see. Thanks for reading, sorry for the dry post, but you know, just the facts. It's the WMSR, and I have to work...

Special pre-WMSR Nodcast!

Stuie may be out of the Tour, but fear not, the proper bike racing haircut lives on at the Workingman's Stage Race.

Fluid Dynamics

OK, Saturday was build day. I've got some handlebar issues to work out, but the new bike is ridable. I'm not thrilled with the shifters on the aerobars setup. I prefer my old school Rominger style bar ends on the cowhorns. Yesterday I found myself constantly reaching to the wrong location. With the shifters on the cowhorns, I don't need to sit down to shift when climbing or accelerating out of a corner. I capitulated to current fashion and tried this setup, and now I don't think I have time to switch it all around, so I'll go with it at WMSR and see how it works out. The position needs a little work, but I think I'll get it right. The new helmet feels great, no wind noise issues like my old Giro Aerohead. I don't have a 9 speed disc, so I guess we'll be going with the tri-spokes front and rear. I think I could do a lot worse than that. Here are a few more shots. Thanks for reading.

Teardrops

The Workingman's Stage Race, promoted by my club, BOB Cycling, is next week. Stage 1 is the most important time trial of the year for me, and probably the most important race for that matter. Last year, I finished a disappointing 8th, 37 seconds off the lead. Although I have yet to do a TT this year, which is not good, otherwise I feel I'm on track for a decent showing. In 2006 my equipment was not exactly up to par with the guys who beat me either. Look what came in the mail yesterday. Thanks for reading.

Visuals

Not feeling too literary this morning, so it's all pretty pictures. In case you can't figure it out, this is the Hartford Crit. I have one little comment though, with a touch of irony: If you're trying to sell me something, don't have a Flash only website. Nothing against all you friendly Flash developers, but just give me the friggin' information, OK? A flash only site is the web equivalent of an obnoxious car salesman in a polka-dotted suit. Thanks for reading, enjoy the images.



The womens' pack in turn four.



The statehouse backdrop on the homestretch.



Aggression at the front.



An out of focus Meg laughing at the poor people. Cruella DeVille sported this same smile when she thought of making dalmation puppies into fur coats.



The Veteran's Memorial Arch.

Here is a short silent movie of an attack near the end that did not get anywhere, but did manage to shed a rider or two who perhaps would have been wiser to let this one go...



What beer is supposed to look like.

Road I Land

Stole that one from Ge. So we get on to 118, which is pretty quiet. Crossed over 44 and kept going. At this point, I still know exactly where I am, and I know that if we stay on 118 we'll come out at Bikeworks, which is on a very congested and crappy (for riding) section of US 6. I also know that in order to reach the ocean, we'll have to cross both 6 and I-195. Once we do that, we're in uncharted territory, but since the ocean is pretty big, I'm confident we'll be able to find it.

Somewhere in Rehoboth, 118 takes a turn left, and we decide to go right. Good choice. Rehoboth has miles and miles of old farm roads with little traffic, but unlike some places, none of these ever seem to dead end (or turn to dirt like in NH). We follow this a few miles and low and behold, it crosses 195, but the overpass has no on or off ramps, so it's serene and safe. This takes us out to Old Fall River Road. Even I can figure out the Route 6 is the new Fall River road, and sure enough before long we come out to it, and again the gods smile at us because it's a pretty quiet section and we easily cross over onto another country road. This doesn't last too long though, and we come to what turns out to be Route 136, and after a mile or two KL does the surprise jump and outsprints me for the entering Rhode Island sign. Not only that, it's Warren, which my memory tells me is the home of The Market at Cutler Mills which I think (can never tell for sure with Ge's ramblings) is part-owned by Ge's brother. And we're almost out of water! The only problem is, I don't know where it is, and I don't know that it's called that either, I just know it's here somewhere. So we ride along, the area is commercial but the shoulder is wide, and we come to a fork that says "Warren Historic District" this way, and we go. Next thing I know, we are crossing Ge's infamous bike path. I know the store must be around here somewhere, but it's a busy little square with lots of shops and pedestrians, and I can only look around so much and still make sure we don't get doored.

We don't find the store, but the road rides out of town and becomes a tree-lined boulevard with a wide shoulder. And we can now smell the sea. A few miles down we come to Colt Park, which I think Murat has written about. We turn in there, and before long it's a beach on the bay, cool breezes blowing. Very nice park. We rode around the whole thing and then out the back way out along some harbor on a road that did dead end at a gated community out on the point. Oh well. We turned around an found our way back out, then cut across and ended up back on 136 heading north. It led back to Warren but by then we were totally parched and out of supplies so I went in to the local Apu-Mart. KL uncharacteristically had $6 and I had $5, but somehow I made some poor choices, and combined with ripoff pricing managed to spend all but six cents. That's all well and good but we're only three hours into a planned six hour ride and it's 95 degrees out and I just drank half the Gatorade I bought. And it wasn't even real Gatorade, it was the X-Factor or Fierce crap which is all the convenience stores seem to carry anymore. Now even regular Gatorade has been sweetened to the taste of the new generation over the years, but this X and Fierce crap is like melted popsicles. Way too sweet. Of course now they've come out with Endurance Formula Gatorade, which I think is just the same thing as the original salty Gatorade from thirty years ago, but no stores stock it.

So yeah, in Warren RI, $10.94 only buys you three quarts of Gatorade, a small bottle of water, a pack of peanut butter crackers, a granola bar, and of course some Hostess powdered donuts. At least we've got a tailwind. We retraced our steps until we got back across 195 and then took a different road through Rehoboth. Found a deserted golf course I'd like to try someday. We go back through the hometown of Curley (Paul, not the coach) and on to Norton, and now it's over four hours into it and it's not 100 degrees yet so I suggest we do our first effort. Up Route 140 we go, 12 minutes in zone four, just 37 kph average but it's pretty good. We're still 25k from home so we scrounge around Wheaton College and the local little league field looking for a fountain, but there is nothing. I empty the seatbag and I've got $1.38 in change. That might buy a gallon of water. We backtrack to the convenient store, and a jug of Monadnock Springs is $1.49. DOhhh!. Check the little penny tray on the counter, nope, only two lonely pennies in there. OK bro, how about letting a brother in need slide for eleven little ones? Sure dude, get the eff out of here. Thank you sir! Filled the bottles, rolled out, did one more nice effort, this one just six minutes, but 41kph and uphill at that. Ended the day at 148k, five hours and change, short of plan, but at least now I know how to go get to the beach in RI to ride with the East Bay mafiosos. Thanks for reading, pictures later in the week.

Tour of Southern New England

Lots of stuff to write about, so I'm taking a head start tonight. For sure some of this will spill into another post because I've got some pictures but they were offloaded onto a different computer and I don't feel like booting it up right now.

Having lived here my entire life, and for many reasons having traveled the area's backroads by bike, car, and truck for decades, there aren't too many places in New England that I'm totally unfamiliar with. This weekend, however, I visited two. First up was Hartford, CT. Yeah, sure, I've passed through it dozens of times on the highway, but other than the ghetto stretch of US 44 that used to head to some cross races up near Canton, I'd never been off the interstate. Saturday we went to race at the Hartford Criterium. There are lots of crits in Connecticut, but I've always chosen to skip them. This time, I needed a race (Wompatuck having been down for two weeks due to Exeter and the holiday), and Harford fit the bill. The venue was roads around a very nice park adjacent to the state house. The state house itself is quite an impressive piece of architecture, and the grounds around it were adorned with tons of ornate sculpture. The city also seemed to be quite a bit bigger than I expected. I'm thinking it may even be bigger than Providence, which would make it the second biggest city in New England. Maybe not. Anyhow, this was my first trip there, and I thought it was nice. So there is something positive.

The race, well, it was OK. Their course was fine, pretty flat, with the finish on one small rise. The promoting club chose to go sans announcer, and sans pace car, and sans marshalls for that matter. This gave the event a dead feel like a training race, and you really had to pay attention because there were people wandering out into the course all day long. It's a miracle there were no incidents (that I saw anyway).

The turnout was light. Nationals are going on for the masters, and with New Britain the next day, I guess many riders weren't interested. We had only 27 line up for the 40+. Me and the Cronoman (who the Canadians from Terry call "disk wheel dude") represented BOB. I think Bethel had two or three riders, the host team NERAC had three, and the Celtic and Hammer Gel teams had a few each. The 25 lap race started S-L-0-0-W. I hadn't warmed up much, so after two laps I took a flyer to get the legs going. The lethargic field spotted me a huge gap right away. I had no intention of trying to solo the whole way, so I slowed down a bit, and just warmed up. After a few laps someone turned up the juice and my 300 meters evaporated in an instant. After a little shadow boxing and a few semi-serious aggresssions, some guy took off and rolled away looking good. We never saw him again, despite a few nice pulls by myself, the Cronoman, and others. The dude was from Florida, not sure who he was, but obviously he had some stick. It became apparent that we were racing for second. Nearing the end, with nothing else able to get anywhere, I conferenced with the Cronoman. He said he wanted to attack at two laps to go. I told him I had shitty legs and that was fine with me.

I sat at the back a bit, but then coming up on four two go, I'm moving up on the backstretch and the field suddenly slows and bunches to the right. My instincts took over and I dove inside and cranked it up hard into the last turn, and kept the power on all the way past the finish line. When I rounded the turn and headed onto the slightly downhill long straightaway, I found a good rhythm. I knew I could go for two laps at this pace, and after that the Cronoman would be perfectly setup to launch a counter. This idea was working well, except that my gap grew pretty large after a lap. After two laps, the margin was still sizable, but Matt Domnarski (Benidorm) was bridging across and pretty close behind. Hagen was encouraging me from the sidelines, as was Kerry. I kept my head down and pedaled. Matt got really close, and I even thought about waiting for him, but I could not tell how far back the field was, so I figured make him work for it. Bell lap. Hagen is still sounding like he thinks I can make it. Man was I in the hurt box. Stayed low, in the 14, dieing a thousand deaths. Last turn, still clear, go to the 13, here they come, but I'm close enough to home and I sprint across in second, just a bit ahead of Norton, who outsprints the group for third. I guess they swarmed by Matt on the last lap. The Cronoman did a fine job policing the chase and came across in 10th. It was a small field but I'll take it, and I get to update the sidebar.

I had five minutes to get my number switched and start the 30+ race. This one had a bigger field, maybe over 40 riders. KL also opted to enter this one to get a workout and warmup for the womens' race. Well, in contrast to the 40+, this race started like most races end. The field immediately went single file, 30 mph right from the gun. I was not recovered and just did the old "put your head down and wait for it to stop" routine. Well, after two laps, it did, and things bunched up. Sadly, not for long. The hostilities returned a half a lap later and I was gone, popped off, done like dinner. I rolled off the course and went over to the paymaster to collect my winnings from the 40+. The Cronoman and KL hung in for the entire race, although eventually the field split into four groups, and neither made the front pack. I hung out and took some pictures, both artsy stuff of the architecture, and of the womens' race. I even got one of MegA on her foray to the front, but autofocus on my low-end camera let me down. I know Meg, I should have got a better one... I'll post them later in the week when I've got no time to write.

On to Sunday. My knee is so so. I got some glucosamine stuff from Rite-Aid and I'm trying that. KL wanted to do a long ride, and I could use the miles, but it was really hot on Sunday. We rolled out thinking of maybe doing six hours or so, but we went slow. I took us on a southerly track, and eventually started thinking we might be able to escape the heat if we rode down to the ocean. The only problem was, I really didn't have a route or a beach in mind that I knew to be friendly and accessible by bike. We were in Rehoboth down by the TT course by this point, so a decision was made to forge on to the land of Gewilli and his intrepid East Bay compatriot Il Bruce.

To be continued... Thanks for reading.

More Positives For Ge

Yes, that's right, just when it seems the only things positive in cycling are doping tests, leave it to solobreak (aka the Ray of Sunshine) to bring you more good news. Remember back in the spring when everyone (you know who you are) was bitching about the weather? Well what about the past seven or eight weeks? Doesn't get much better than this. June was about as perfect a weather month as we are ever going to get in New England. No excuses for missed training there.

OK, so that's a singular positive. Now a question: glucosamine/msm - useful supplement or just expensive snake oil? Saw my friendly LMT last night and she said she was skeptical but had been hearing more positive things about it lately, from credible sources. I think I'm willing to give it a try. I'm also looking for someone local who does ultrasound and e-stim type PT for my knee. I'm all ears (really all nose, but you get the idea).

I did not ride to work today. My knee has not felt great since Wednesday's 80 miler, and right now I'm of the mind that if I have to cut back on riding, then it's the junk that is going out. If I'm riding, then it will be real training or racing. I'm doing the alternating ice/heat therapy, as well as stretching of course. I also got new shoes. Not cycling shoes, regular Bostonian Clarks to wear at work. I noticed my old pair had pretty rounded heels, and I'm wondering if even this is working against my knee. A few stray brain cells collided and I remembered I'd bought a new pair a few years back during a sale, and sure enough they were right there in the closet, still in the box. Woo-hoo, new stuff without spending money.

Enjoy the weekend. I might race at Hartford tomorrow. Good luck to Duano at Nationals. Thanks for reading.

This might be a good time...

To take a vacation from the blog. After all, with the Tour starting up in a day or two, you'll have plenty of workday diversion already, with live feeds, play-by-play, blog commentary, etc. That should be more engaging than anything I'd write, that is, unless, like me, you could really give a shit who wins the tour this year. Spectating and being a "fan" is totally lame anyway. Get out there and do it yourself. That's why I got into this stupid sport.

Yeah, I know, I'm being a pisshead. Truth be told, I've been sucked into fandom before too. Personally I believe what makes any sport exciting to watch is caring who wins. This past weekend I went to Fitchburg to do a bit of soigneur duty for Team Terry, and also to watch the crit on Sunday. Now, if you've seen one crit, believe me, you've seen them all. Cycling on TV with motos and cameras in the rider's faces is mildly interesting from a technical perspective, but if you're standing on the sidewalk in the broiling summer sun, you'd better have an interest in who succeeds or fails in a race. Luckily for me, I did care, at least during the womens' race. After that, when the pro men hit the course, the Fitchburg locals were far more entertaining. I wish I'd had the balls to video tape some of it. Twenty minutes of hanging out at the team car was better than twenty seasons highlight footage from "Cops." Yeah, Fitchburg is a hurtin' town.

At the road race on Saturday, I was focused on getting bottles delivered to the six women on Terry. They were great, calmly coming into the feed zone, separated just enough so that I could make a smooth handoff to each one in rapid succession. It helped that the race was smaller this year, and the zone wasn't too crowded. When the pro men and the Cat 2 fields came through, things were pretty busy, as these fields were each doing nine or ten 11 mile laps before climbing Mt Wachusett. Obviously, feeding was important for them, but these guys are all good and handled it nicely for the most part. Then the Cat 4 field came through... Now, these youngs studs had to complete all of four laps before calling it a day. The day's temp were a spectacular 75 degrees and not humid, so it isn't like anyone was in an inferno or something. With two bottles on the frame, a 44 mile race shouldn't really even require a feed. Well, you know how this goes. The rolling kindergarten stormed into the feedzone, transforming sleepy Princeton into something more like East LA after the King verdict was announced. Bottles flying everywhere, screaming, yelling, begging, swearing, and panting like they'd just climbed the Tourmalet. Hilarious. Most of them were just dumping the water on their heads, as like I said, in a two hour race you have enough on the bike anyway. Funny part is, most of it was so violently thrown up that it soared over and onto anything but the rider. Calm people, calm. Drama is a waste of energy; there is no place for it in endurance sports. For the record, I'm not talking about CTodd here. I don't think he took a feed, although he did take his eyes off the road to turn and look when I heckled him (free NegaCoaching here). Bad call dude. Amongst those highly skilled racers, you'd best keep your eyes open. Glad you made it home alive.

Oh yeah, back to the Tour. Why my apathy? This doesn't really have anything to do with the recent doping news. I just don't have a favorite this year. The doping, well, I'm not an insider, so I can't know what goes on. The media game is sickening. Cyclingnews has gone down hill. They'll print anything, and the sad part is some people will believe it. I am not interested in McQuaid's drunken ramblings of the day. And where has Pound been? A few months ago we got at least five gems a week from there. The Unibet deal is another story. I know the ASO and other race organizers needed to break the union (aka the ProTour). I'm with them there. You don't spend decades building something up just to let a bunch of greedy thugs take it away from you. I also don't believe all the bullshit we hear about actions being motivated by nationalism. Sorry flag wavers, get over it, this is not a conspiracy against the USA. Recently though, the Tour leaders appear to be trying to out bozo the UCI buttheads. I'm not sure what is going on, but for the most part it seems like everyone is just trying to avoid accountability for allowing doping to be a pervasive part of cycling culture for all these years. Fuck them, time to ride. Thanks for reading.

Blog-Less

Sorry, no blog yet this week. Covering for the missing on the work front, so time is more precious than usual. Thanks for not reading.