My friend the wind

Armand says I looked like an Ibex Johnny Cash

The wind is your friend. Sure it can be downright dangerous for riding in some places, but here is not usually one of them. There's nothing like a long solo ride in the cold wind, on unsheltered roads. This is how you learn to love riding. It's also the best way to develop good pedaling technique. You love the wind too, right?

Saturday I rode with my mates up in NH. It was not too windy, but it was cold. Normally I always wear my team kit to team rides. Then I get annoyed because somebody else either wore an outdated kit, or some Fred jacket they bought from Performance. If you're going to hog the road on a big group ride, the least you can do is look professional about it, and wear matching kits. A small percentage of the motoring public will afford you more respect if you do this. However, this weekend, I figured rather than get frustrated, I'd just wear my choice of clothing, which was my woolly kit. The temperature was predicted to start cold and then get warm, and wool is perfect for such conditions. I have Ibex leg warmers, arm warmers, knickers, and jersey. Underneath I had a wool base layer from weebike.com. Wool socks from Darn Tough (best ever). I had black booties, black hat, and black gloves. And I was on my black bike. With my black Fred Armisen glasses. Unfortunately I have not picked up a black helmet yet.

So of course on this day almost everyone else wore their matching team kits. Except Billy, a chronic fashion offender, who wore some generic red jacket, looking like a refugee from a century ride. But I was comfy. Too bad it was not that windy. Sunday though, I was in luck. Back down here in Mass the wind was nice and steady, the sky was overcast, it was still a little chilly, very fitting on Ghent-Wevelgem day. Since wool doesn't stink, and it was cold enough on Saturday that I didn't sweat anyway, my leggings and jersey were fine for re-use. I swapped into a clean pair of wool bibs and out the door I went to battle for 100k across the windswept bogs, all big ring, all the time. Johnny Cash playing in my head, no Ipod required. Thanks for reading.

My blog can beat up your blog

Thanks for reading. Why save it for last? There was a post to go with this, but I couldn't capture the vibe I was looking for, so fuck it. It's Friday, party on. Send some love to Willi and maybe scroll down to the bottom of my sidebar and re-visit Nodcast #3. We've been having Emo-Willi blog fun for so long now, the years seem like days... Thanks again for reading.

Mailing it in

So my 2010 bike racing season is underway. Saturday I headed out to the teeming metropolis of Coxsackie (pronounced cook-sakee, so stop giggling) to again do the Trooper David Brinkerhoff Memorial Johnny Cake Lane training series. Yes, one of the roads that makes up the course is named Johnny Cake Lane. I don't even know what that means, but the Hudson River Valley is steeped in Revolutionary War history, and I vaguely remember something possibly related to this from grade school. Anyhow the Johnny Cake series has a lot going for it. The races are 90-100k, depending on which layout is used. The "A" race, which unlike most crappy masters races, is not only Cat 4 free (a VERY good thing at the first race of the year) but sports an 11:00 am start time as well. No ass-crack of dawn departure time for this one, even though it's a three hour drive. And the weather Saturday was, as everyone knows, perfect.

The drive was painless, as the pike is relatively quiet at this time of year. The host school has a spacious parking lot, and the locker rooms and showers are open. The NY officials are all professional and courteous. The course is bumpy in spots, but rural and flat. The racers tend to be aggressive, and good in the wind (I find this to be the case whenever I go to upstate NY). The race is well supported and marshaled by uniformed police. I don't drive out there for nothing you know, this is a quality experience.

We had 91 starters in the A race, which is Pro/1/2/3. The field limit was 85 but I think they graciously let everyone on the waitlist in. This was not a problem because the riding was all excellent. Right off the bat we're going 50kph, and I'm in the gutter. This went on for two laps of the 10k circuit. This was especially nerve wracking because everyone was getting used to where the sections of dug up pavement were. I was pegged, but luckily nobody was letting gaps open, and the crosswinds were much less severe than what is typical here. After a few laps things settled down, but only got slow once or twice. We had to ride through significant carnage from the "B" race, but our field was all safe.

I never went near the front. My goal here was to suffer a bit, get some race miles in, and in general just get used to racing after the winter layoff. All the while I was guarded about expending energy, because after the first two laps I was expecting all hell to break loose at any moment. And I am wise enough to respect the abilities of elite riders half my age. I'd met up with Greg Zysk (Svelte Cycles) before the race and he was expecting the same thing. It really did not happen, and breaks formed but did not get far against the 44 kph average pace of the main field. I counted down the laps one by one and made it to the final. Then with half a lap to go things hotted up, and with about 3k to go it went single file and someone ahead of me let a gap open, and I did not notice until it was a bit late. With about 1.5k to go I buried myself to try to close it with two guys on my wheel, but barely made any progress, remaining twenty bike lengths off the train at 1k to go, where I sat up. And this is where my only problem with the race organization is. On the flyer, its says "Results guaranteed for top FIVE finishers only! This is old school -- no video highlights to show your friends!" I thought I'd be safe from scrutiny just sitting up and rolling in, no "bikereg factor" for this one. Then today, to my surprise, THIS! WTF? Full results? This is their idea of old school? What happened to good old-fashioned "in the field" obscurity? Pink hats dammit.

After a cooldown with Greg, I did another lap to make it a 120k day before packing up. But not to head home. Just like last year, I instead made the short drive up toward Battenkill. On the way I got another history lesson when I noticed a sign declaring Hoosic Falls the home of Grandma Moses. Again, no fucking idea who Grandma Moses is, but I've heard the term. I stayed in the Bennington Best Western this time, which was full of skiers. I'd have rather supported someplace in Washington County, but there ain't much going on there anymore. Even the good breakfast place is gone, and all the lodging there is either rustic and overpriced or just plain rustic.

Sunday was the Battenkill pre-ride. I'm not doing the race this year, but with 208 riders pre-registered, the pre-ride sounded like a value-leader by comparison. For 1/6 the entry field of the real race, I got to go on a 250 rider group grope around the course, without any officials honking about yellow line violations. There is hardly any car traffic up there, and with a group this size it's mob rule anyway. The weather was not quite as warm as Saturday, but the dirt roads were in unbelievably perfect condition. No potholes, no washboard, no loose gravel, hardly any mud.

The giant pack stayed together all the way over the Eagleville Covered Bridge, across the first section of dirt, and up the paved climb that leads to the descent onto Juniper Swamp Road. The "wall" on Juniper Swamp was perfectly tacky tamped clay, and climbing it out of the saddle presented no traction problems this year. We crested out and on the descent I counted about 35 riders who'd made the front split. Few, if any, would rejoin. The pace was civilized, maybe 3-5kph below typical race pace, but this was a decent group for sure. In Salem I realized my seat bag was falling off, and annoyed by the strap, I stopped to refasten it. With gloves on this did not go smoothly, and my subsequent chase back was not easy. Luckily there was a water stop right at the base of the Joe Bean climb, and a few of the group elected to stop, slowing the rest for a few seconds, and I got back on. But of course I was pretty gassed, and here we were at the base of the biggest climb on the course.

I did ok and stayed in the middle of the group, but on the descent and flats of Ferguson, which was not so bumpy, I took it a little too easy and found myself gapped off again. The end of Fergie goes up a bit, and here there was mud, the kind G-Ride describes as like "riding on velcro." This was the hardest dig of the ride for me, as the group, now down to 25 riders, was not letting up. Back on the pavement they eased for a second before the turn on to the state highway toward Greenwich, and I managed to regain contact. Phew. We went civil but single file for a while, with me comfortably out of the work zone. In Greenwich there was another food stop, which only me and six others decided to skip and keep going. Honestly, I was afraid of seizing up if I stopped. It was on the dirt false flat climb out of town where I got dropped in last year's race, so I was glad to have a head start. Me and the others actually formed a tight echelon up this road, the name of which I can't remember. But it leads to the infamous Becker. Even here the road conditions were about 1000 times better than last year.

Meetinghouse was good too, and I made it to the end with this group, where we started working it across the penultimate paved stretch that leads to Stage Road, the final dirt climb. Along here we started picking up riders. I had never seen anyone go off the front, so I'm not sure it these guys started early, took a shortcut, or just snuck away someplace. Doesn't matter though. On Stage I climbed pretty well, near the front of the group. This was the only sector with gravel on it, very small stones recently added by the county road crews. You could stand in some places, but it was iffy in others. I'd expect it to be good by race day though, and none of the roads need to be graded between now and then. I went back and forth with a Cadence guy on this climb, but I think he was just fucking around with me. Then at the top, who comes flying by but Greg! He'd stopped back in Greenwich, and must have motored up the climb. He flew by into the descent toward town, as there were a few of the mystery riders up ahead. I just rode it in, and a group of about eight caught me and another guy about 2k from the end. Back at the start it was 101k in 3:08, so right around 32kph (20 mph).

The weather was still decent so I got more water and a jacket and headed back out to the Eagleville bridge and back to add another 23k to the day, riding easy to bring it up to 124k and just over four hours. Two very solid days back to back, but not death rides by any means. Shit, I think it took just as long to write this crap as it did to drive home. I really enjoy the riding out there though, and hope to go back again soon. Thanks for reading.

A Favorite

This post on core exercises by Alex. Although I would like to see a video of someone doing #5. Preferably Dougie or even better Rooter, but any of you clowns would do. If someone sends one in then I pledge to try the 100 pushups in 5 minutes thing again, even though I haven't been training for it. Thanks for reading.

RFC

Oh fuck it's Monday, six days since solobreak last posted. This is what happens when nobody comments. As they say on Pandora, we don't like playing to an empty room. I realize the comment moderation kills the instant gratification aspect of it, sorry. I bring this up because I guess I've got a lot of lurkers who never comment. On Saturday, with the tropical deluge getting off to an early start here in the swamps of SE Mass, I headed up to the drier north lands for a ride. Most of the team was in hiding, but mate Billy "Jens" Casazza hosted me on a loop around his home territory. "Jens" says he couldn't be bothered reading my (or anyone elses) blog, but one of his dozen or so brothers reportedly does, and drops Billy a line every time I shit talk him here. There's no way I can keep track of all the Flying Casazza brothers, even though some of them have appeared on my team rosters both past and present. I can't even keep track of all Billy's kids, who often come to the races. I have nicknames for all of them, but couldn't tell you their real names. Anyway, famed New England race announcer Dick Ring used to say the Casazza family came over from Italy to race, failed to win enough prize money for the trip home, and stayed. Maybe that's true, but for all the trash talk, "Jens" (aka Billy Bad Balls, or Billy "No ass in" Casazza) is actually one of the better athletes on Team BOB.

"Jens" as we're calling him today is not normally a man to stick his nose out into the crosswinds and take strong turns at the front, hence the ribbing. He's probably the smallest guy on our team (since we got rid of zencycle anyway) by 10 kg. His bodyfat is FAR lower than the typical BOB rider as well, despite a diet consisting almost exclusively of fine Italian sausage, homemade cookies, and good beer. This must be because he trains. But primarily we consider him a climber, not a rouleur. I'd gone up there to ride with him because I plan on starting my race season next week, and felt I needed to be put under pressure. It was windy on Saturday, and completely overcast, looking almost like it would snow, but the temps were close to 40 and there was no rain in Salem NH. Our route took us north of there into what for me was uncharted territory.

It turned out the terrain was the type that I hate. What I'll call "heavy" hills. Rolling, varying pitch, too long to stand up on the entire way, but with pitches too steep to keep tempo on in the saddle. You build speed in the dips, and then fight to stay on a gear. Lots of turns so you could never be sure if a climb was going to crest out or keep on going. Constant pitch changes. We even ended up on the Derry Boston Prep course, going up Warner Hill. This is the stuff where Billy excels, able to accelerate his tiny 63 kg mass up and down. I'm the opposite. I can sit and ride tempo up shallow rises. And for some reason I have good out of the saddle power for the short pitches. But this kind of ever-changing shit sucks for me.

Luckily there were a few open, windy stretches. These I can handle. I've spent most of my life (actually it will be exactly half in a few months) powering my way across windy cranberry bogs down in this corner of Massachusetts. Hills are few, but most roads are unsheltered and at this time of year it's not unusual to go 10k at a stretch with a vicious wind from one side, or in your face. No wonder I like time trials. The surprise on Saturday though was that Billy, er, "Jens" took to the front on some of the windiest stretches. Our clockwise loop had us battling the headwinds on the way home, and it was really picking up as the storm rolled in. We had to keep moving in order to get back in the barn before getting soaked. We made it, in part thanks to Jens' newfound rouleurism.

We rode less than three hours, but no rain, and it turned out to be my hardest effort of the year in terms of average watts (and I will not bore you with numbers). Billy says he hates it when I patronize him, and is more comfortable with the usual shit talk, so I'll just say he is clearly on track for a good season. He had me on the ropes at one point but did not make the kill. Don't worry, next time if the roles are reversed, I won't be so kind. If you read and have never commented, how letting me know who you are so that maybe I can shit talk you? Thanks for reading.

Nega-Coach Race Day Apparel

At long last, we're finally gearing up to bring Nega-Coach schwag to market. As a pre-opening treat, we're starting off with the classic Belgian style Supporter Dave Loszewski shirts pictured above. The great Zoo doesn't seem to be blogging anymore, but he got me started in this mess, and he still holds the distinction of being the most problematic client Nega-Coach ever had. The Zoo-man is down for the count right now with a probable torn ACL, which means hundreds or $$$ in spring classics pre-reg fees are on the line to go down. One American Dollar of every shirt sale goes straight to Zoo, so your purchase demonstrates that you not only possess an impeccable sense of style, but a sense of humor and touch of humanity as well.

Support Zoo! Thanks for reading.

The Trainer Challenge

Where is Solo, the Wonder Years Edition - - Here is a hint: apparently as far back as 1964, I was already sportin' a bad haircut and feelin' miserable when around children. Some things never change. Go HERE for the answer.


OK, at least Gewilli was following along. In case you missed it, the goal was to ride the trainer every day in February, at least 15 minutes. I didn't start until Feb 2 for some reason, but I kept it up all the way until the final sprint, where I blew it by missing the 27th. I did ride outdoors that day though, but even on all the other days I rode outside I still did a trainer session as well. Since I missed two days, I kept it up until yesterday. And on the 29th day, solobreak rested.

Disappointing feedback on the "all the blogs that died" post too. I'd have thought there would be more mention of blogs gone missing. I thought of a few more, but I already forgot them. Undeterred, I'm going ahead and issuing another challenge for March. In honor of our orange-suited friend, I'm making this one easy for him. The King of Style has previously extolled the virtues of the "two a day," and he's about as PRO as PRO can get, pulling down a taxable income from racing his bike at the highest level and all, so we're rolling with that. As many two-a-days as you can get this month. Anything counts, so long as there is a decent break between sessions, let's say five hours. Riding to the donut shop, hanging out for a bear claw, and riding home doesn't count. Sorry Ted. Commuting of course counts.

To make this more interesting, I'm adding some twists: Rides with Rooter count for quintuple (Must send in pic, preferably holding a dated newspaper, hostage-style, for verification. Bad photoshopping not only accepted, but encouraged), unless of course you ARE Rooter, in which case they only count for double . Sound complicated? Of course it is, anything involving scoring and Rooter just has to be, that's the way it is. To take this two steps further, and because I know that those of you from out of state who don't know Rooter are crying foul, any ride taking place on March 1 or 2 counts as double too, since the challenge wasn't announced yet, and any wanker sending in a picture of themselves riding with a boner-fide (huh-huh) PRO or with two Cat 1 women at the same time (because I make the rules) will also get quintuple points. If Rooter sends in pictures of himself with the flock of hot racer chicks he normally is seen with, we'll probably just declare him the winner. Decision of the judges is final and the contest is not valid in Wyoming, Montana, Guam, or Nashua/Tijuana. Thanks for reading.