Sand in your shoes

I took this picture this morning of a nice place to practice your sand trap skills while ruining your drive-train. It includes a fallen tree barrier at just the right height near the end. Two more days til spectra cross and I hope there isn't as low of a turn out as the pre-reg list suggests.

Weekend Update: Gentlemen's Century and other stuff

Everything always seems to happen when I actually get the leave the city, well fun things happen that is. Everyone hears I'm going to be away so they all throw a party. A few guys went for a long ride without me and Mike wrote about it but he's to intimidated by the power of the blog to post it so I'm doing it for him.

“Half One—the first fifty miles”

It was early on a fine July morning, about 7:30. At the museum was an assembly black & red clad cyclists waiting for the Gentlemen’s Century to get underway. After all confirmed riders arrived, we set off down the road—we wouldn’t return until what would later be logged at 115 or so miles.

It was an interesting ride, made much more interesting by the frayed derailleur cable that turned my 20 speed race machine into a 2 speed ride of attrition. My spirits were as frayed as that cable, having occurred in the first five miles. I almost turned back towards home. For some reason, I pressed on.

Luckily, Andy & Dan, 2 highly trained mechanics, were there to adjust my limit screw to give me a much more forgiving gear combination than 39x12 and 53x12. Again, we were on our way. I was riding my bike, still unsure if I made a rational decision to join the group for 95 additional miles or was this an act of hubris. It’s debatable.

Keeping up with racers over the twisting, undulating terrain proved difficult, having nothing more than pedal cadence to alter my speed. I could feel the effort costing extra energy. The fluctuations in cadence mirrored that of my heartbeat. Up, down, up, down. If you’ve never pedaled at 135 rpm for an extended period of time, I suggest you give it a go.

The roads of the northern suburbs are very familiar to me. I started out riding these roads, especially those of Buck County. These roads have much to offer: they are challenging, scenic, and not heavily travelled. It is easy to forget where and when you are with the mix of colonial and contemporary houses. Bottom line: this is a really beautiful area—a cycling heaven.

After roughly 50 miles, we made it to our first destination: a quiet, out-of-the-way French Bakery hidden in one of New Hope’s back alley’s. We sat in the shade of a tree and joked while eating delicious pastries and sipping coffee. This is the way all Sundays are meant to be spent. Life is good.

There are a couple of other happenings in the not-so-distant future. I just signed up for Spectra Cross at the NJ State Fair for the August 1st "B" race. I made sure to wait long enough that if the start position is based on registration, I will be stuck in the back of the grid. With run-ups over crushed cars and on a field that is shared with monster trucks, its probably a good idea to leave your new carbon wheels with dugast tires at home. There are several cross races that are having their registration opening soon , Wissahickon, Charm City, Iron Cross and a few others. I might blow my rent money if it gets me up front for all the good races.
Jack has informed us that "state championship road race will be held on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (Sept 6) and will be the same course as last year in Robeson Township".

While I was in Ithaca, NY this weekend I saw a million older folks with cue sheets and up right riding positions. I asked one woman if she was on a sportive. She told me that she wasn't but she was in fact on a ride from Cortland to somewhere else in the area and it was a two day supported ride. This made me want tell her that she was in fact on a sportive but didn't know it and it made me want to do another. These organized sportives are great, unlike at races where everyone looks more fit then you, you feel like superman surrounded by all these men and women in their 50's and 60's that fill out their club fit jerseys, and there is an enormous amount of food. Its like twelve church bake sales converged to make sure you don't bonk.
Why did I go to Ithaca in the first place, I'm sure you ask yourself? It wasn't just so we could camp through six thunderstorms, it was to unload my cat on my parents who live up north. Isn't Oden a noble cat.

Drawing with Freaking Lasers!!! Lunch Meat and Man Meat.

So I've got this thing at work that cuts and draws with light. This is what it does to anodized aluminum. Unfortunately it will not cut C-fiber, alloys or steel, the world isn't that magical yet, but it can do plastics, leather, wood and some other stuff like lunch meat and pumpkins. I may be able to cut C-fiber with the power of water soon so I might be making custom chain guards for cross. If not I'll be making cutting bash guards from sliced ham.

Now for the man meat.
Lee manage to get us all together in the same at the same time to take team pictures. Imagine our embarrassment when we all showed up wearing the same thing. The picture is a link to the rest of the gallery. Thank you Lee.

Blog Gone Public and Big Day For Team Therapy

So the whole wide world can read this now. Lee gave us his blessing this evening while we were taking some Team pictures on the top of a BBQ joint across from the bike shop. A link to the pics will be posted soon, (you can identify me by looking for the one who is most handsome).

In bigger news Team Therapy cleaned up last weekend at the races. I'll copy Jack and Mike's words since they were there.

"Hey friends:

I don't know if any of you heard yet, but Team BT claimed its second scalp of the season yesterday when Gerry won the 4/5 race at the Ronde Van Mullica in Hammonton, NJ. Big bad Brendan took second, I rolled in at 10th and Miguel Green came in at 17th. Here's how it went down:

Mikey and I woke up at the asscrack of dawn to drive to Hammonton, NJ for some NJ-style racing. For the uninitiated, NJ-style racing means no hills, a lot of elbows, a lot of yelling and not a lot of attacking. I haven't been racing in Jersey this summer and I haven't been doing Greentree on Thursday nights so I kind of forgot how tuned-up NJ racers can be...especially in a lower category race.

Brendan and Gerry were running a little late and barely made the start. We lined up and were all joking about how much alcohol we had consumed in the past 48 hours. The race was to be 4 10-mile laps through the Pine Barrens. The course was pancake-flat and only had five right hand turns. It felt like the world's longest 4-corner crit course.

Lap 1 was pretty uneventful...two guys went off the front right from the beginning and we brought them back. As we came back to the start/finish line, Gerry and I attacked, hoping to bring a couple of people with us or at least provoke a reaction. This being a 4/5 race in NJ, they just let us go. I couldn't believe it. We were off the front for a few miles and saw that nothing would come of it, so we sat up and rejoined the group. Gerry tried to get in another break, but nobody was interested in doing anything other than sitting in.

So we sat in for the remaining laps...the pace got pushed slightly in the last lap. The course ends on a 4-mile straightaway and I found myself on the front as the straightaway began. I turned to the dude next to me and said "The finish line is a lot further away than you think." I was totally in his head.

I started riding pretty slow at the front to force somebody else to move to the front to work. It happened eventually, and I made my way back into the line about 15 riders back or so. I could see Gerry and Brendan ahead of me. As we approached the finish line, the front of the group stretched out but they weren't going fast. This being New Jersey, everybody was just waiting for a bunch sprint. I had a clear lane on the left and I knew I could give Gerry a pull to about 150 meters out.

I attacked on the left side from about 15 riders back and even I was surprised at how quickly I got to the front. I was really hoping that Gerry saw me and hopped on my wheel...

I didn't look back, so I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but both Brendan and Gerry got on my wheel and then sprinted around to take 1-2. I think there was at least a bike length between them and whoever was third. It was so awesome. All week we were talking about how we were going to get Gerry to the line and we did it! Brendan taking second was icing on the cake. I still made it in 10th place so I got credit towards my upgrade.

A bunch of people congratulated our dudes but of course, this being Jersey, there was a lot of talk after the race from some other "coulda woulda shoulda" dudes about how slow the sprint was how no one wanted to work and blah blah blah, which made it all the more sweeter.

All in all, a great race for BT and I'd love for Brendan and Gerry to fill in some of the blanks in my report if they want to relive it.

Cheers,

Jack"

"Unidentified rider #17

This was my first " crit-style-race". Fighting for position and dropping
elbows seems to be the way it's done. Guy were riding like complete
jerks; making rapid accelerations and decelerations. It was hard to get
a good rhythm (status quo for crits, as I am told). One guy was diving
into the inside of each corner and totally jamming up everyone's lines.
At one point, he made direct contact with me and my handlebars. Luckily,
I could see this developing before it occurred. Otherwise, I would have
hit the deck at 25+ through a corner and spread all over the road. I was
not pleased and made him aware of my frustration. This is just from the
first lap, though, the remaining three would be something very similar.

I was in good position for the whole race until the final 4-5
miles--when everyone jammed into the front--due to the slow pace down
the final stretch. I was surprised how many guys were towed to the line.
Guys that shouldn't have been there were. I was boxed in.

Gerry's experience showed during the final stretch. We were side by side
during the last few miles. However, he managed to weave through the
tiniest places to get himself into a better position, a position that
allowed him to make a race winning dash to the line.

When the sprint started, many of those ahead couldn't match the sudden
burst of speed. I found myself having to dodge road furniture while
simultaneously sprinting for a better result. I thought for sure I was
going to crash and momentarily thought about sitting up to avoid the
pile-up I was sure was about to ensue.

Unless you cross the line first, it's hard to estimate where you placed
in the pack. I was hoping my final push to the line put me somewhere in
the first 30 riders. My goal prior to stepping in the queue before the
race was a top 20--a reasonable goal for a Cat 5 racing in a 4/5. After
the results were posted I scanned from top to bottom. There's Gerry in
first position, followed by Brendan slotted in second. I looked a bit
further down and my eyes came across the name of Jack Drummond rounding
out the top 10. I kept going down the list. 15, 20, still no me. 25 came
and went, as did 30. I went all the way down and my name was not to be
found. Huh?

I had to go over to the camera man to determine where in the group I had
placed. We went through the photo-finish photos. It was interesting to
see the developments from another, much less scary perspective. We
started from the winner and worked our way down the heavily populated
group sprint. I was tucked in behind another rider with only half of my
number visible. "That's me", I shouted with glee as he counted off the
17th place finisher. That spot on the result sheet was filled with
"unidentified rider". It was me. Woo!

Everything went according to plan; Gerry took the win with the
assistance of a well placed slip-stream provided by none other than Jack
Drummond. Brendan wanted a podium position, which he got. And I wanted
to come in with the top twenty riders...

This is my finest day in black & red.



Mikey Green"

Mount Nebo Video Again

Untitled from Juliet Shen on Vimeo.

Look what I did in half a lunch break

Limitless horizons we have before us. Shirks will tremble when they see how serious we are about talking about cycling. I've only invited The team so far as we havn't really gotten Lee's blessing as of yet and we should probably get that before we take the privacy setting off.