I've made some poor (greedy) decisions before... I wish Uncle Sam would go ahead and buy me out, in order to fix my mistakes, and make sure that I can continue living the life that I have grown accustomed to... I mean, after a trillion dollars (is that even a REAL number!?) already, this year alone, what's my meager debt matter?
Speaking of markets, how about this picture that I came across on an unnamed bicycle companies website? Who the hell came up with this!? I mean, this is the MAIN picture that you come to, at the companies home page. THIS is what they cam up with for your first impression of their company? "Hey, buy our bikes, think how cool you could be! Owning one of our bikes is like being an unattractive chick (or maybe it's a dude with a ponytail), sitting on a rock, overlooking a lake in Italy, on a rather cloudy day, contemplating the beauty of both life and your photoshopped bike." I mean, come on! How would you even ride a photo shopped bike up to that overlook? Especially when the extent of your cycling gear is apparently a belt-mounted camera case? Sheesh... I saw this picture and didn't even want to find out why I should buy their Taiwan made carbon bikes were over everyone else's Taiwan made carbon bikes.
Sometimes, well, a lot of the time, dogs resemble their owners. And sometimes, it takes longer than it should to get through the line at registration. And sometimes, though much less often, those two facts are related; But all the time, those damned Goombas won't leave the beautiful Princess Peaches Toadstool alone!
With nothing but forecasts of a beautiful, sunny day, I was a little perplexed to wake up yesterday, to find it at 38 degrees, raining, and foggy enough to not see more than 40 meters! Ugh... sure, that's more traditional "cyclocross" weather, but I definitely prefert the "beautiful, sunny" forecast instead. But I wasn't about to just stay in bed! After packing up the car it was time to head off to Breckenridge for some cross racin'!
I figured it would clear up, but it rained all the way to Evergreen where I was scheduled to meet Walker for the car-pooling action. Not good... but then all of a sudden just after Idaho Springs, the sky opened almost instantly, and suddenly it was warmer and crystal clear! Going into Breck was as scenic as always! The plan was to jump into cross season with both feet, and open up with two races, and take advantage of the excitement of the first weekend. Doubling-up is always a challenge, especially at the Breck course which can be rough on the body, and is of course at 10k feet up in the sky!
I rolled just one recon lap on the new single speed, to check out the course. I was thinking of possibly rolling that bike in both races, but it looked like it was going to make for a tough ride, and I didn't want to blow up for the second race. So I grabbed the bike with all those complicated gears, and rolled to the start line. The race was going to be my warm-up. Not a horrible idea, but it sure felt like it for the first two laps when I suddenly forced the body to go that hard! A couple laps in, and I decided to pour it on a bit, started moving up in the field, but also kept it as an exercise in hitting all the right lines, being efficient, and metering out the wattage. I finished up 10th.
Back to the car for some nutrition, pin on a new number, take another leisurely recon lap to make sure things were good on the bike, and back to the start line. Maybe they started us a minute after the Cat 3s rolled off, but it sure didn't seem like it. Plus someone jumped hard, so I was off in pursuit. In less than a third of a lap, we were into the back of the Cat 3s, which really complicates things. First, you're trying to keep track of the other single speeders, and dodge around the slower riders, and try to hit lines that let you keep your momentum for the ugly parts of the course. After a couple laps, things opened up some, and I was able to turn the screws. I wasn't 100% sure from the confusion of the early laps, if I was second or first, so I just rolled it at that lovely threshold. There were two sections after my pre-ride, that I was a little worried about on this course, with the single speed. The first definitely required some power each lap, but really wasn't that bad. The second was the hill that just plain got steeper every lap, but was definitely manageable throughout the race. It's all about planning your sectors... and turning consistent laps, hitting your lines, and just being as efficient as possible. Not to mention the joy of attacking those around you, when you know it's time to try and put a gap on them. It's at least a thousand times more fun than riding around in an office-park crit, following the wheel in front of you, and doing as little work as possible to get to the end in a good position. All those little techniques are also never more important than when you are on a single speed, and I think that's why I love racing that bike so much! I think I was very close to as fast on this course with the single speed as I was with the geared bike. The new bike is so light, and it was just perfectly happy to get flicked back and forth through the wooded sections of the course. It made me WISH there was a long section that required throwing it up on the shoulder! In the end, I won, and had passed all but the top 11 guys in the Cat 3s. The day was a good start to the season.
And just as good was seeing all the other friends that were quite possibly even more excited than me to put the knobbies in the dirt, and start turning some hot-laps with those like-minded individuals. Special thanks to Larry for the pictures, and to his crew for yelling and ringing the cowbell throughout the race! I might have to retire the new bike now, so that it retains it's "perfect record".
Don't worry, it's not all about the bike;
You know... I gave up on Saturday Night Live a long time ago... I mean, it just plain fucking SUCKS these days. And by "these days" I mean for the last 12 years. But every once in a great really-long-while, they throw out an honestly hysterical skit. This weekend they managed to show just how scary Democracy really can be;
I think The Notorious B.I.L. just might be right... ...it's too pretty to ride. After a day of deep-breathing and the help of a bottom bracket facing tool, I cleaned the bike up a bit more and by Friday night I had it all built. Finally! I snuck out for a ride this morning, after a proper hippie-muffin of course, and I love it! The geometry is pretty much just like my Felt, and happily, once the bike was a reality, it rides very much like the Felt. Just lighter, and easy to flick around on the trail! Of course, I spend the first hour trying to shift. And then another half-hour, worrying if my gearing wasn't going to be a bit too high for tomorrow's course in Breckenridge.
Speaking of racing, it's time for bed... gotta get up early to go race. The "arsenal" is resting up and should be ready to go. With any luck, the legs will be ready to go as well! The only bad thing with having an arsenal, that I thought of this evening... driving home in a monsoon... is that it means I'll need to clean two cross bikes. Bummer.
Well sweet! Yesterday my new Cyclocross Single Speed frame showed up at my work! So it's now in my hot little hands! I've taken 10 pictures of just the frame, and it's pretty much impossible to capture the full impact of the color! I'm not kidding, it's full-on fluorescent green. You'll see me coming... A little bit of a bummer, the decals were supposed to be white, and indeed they were, but the powdercoat bled into them a bit making them look yellowish. I don't mind it too much, they almost seem fluorescent themselves, and they are subtle, but the plan was to have them match some other other components on the bike. Well, if it's a proper cross bike, they should be covered in mud anyway...
Sadly, no complete bike pictures yet. The build ran into a few snags that I am going to resolve this evening, and everything I touched, seem to become way more complicated than it should be. I hate those days - especially when they involve a bike build. And even more, when it's a bike you are hoping to race in 2 days time! So you'll have to wait till tomorrow for those pictures - and on a ride report. I can tell you though, that I'm definitely happy with the weight! It should definitely be a screamer. It figures, after I break down and finally build a custom single speed, Felt goes and releases a SS cross bike for 2009! It looks pretty cool, but of course because of stock parts, it could be a lot lighter. Mine will of course be a lot more original as well. Though I like the look of the dropouts on the Felt. Interesting thinking, putting a wrench on the seattube bottle mount, for removing your bolt on wheel though. At least the wrench has a bottle opener as well!
To power up for the bike build, Jessica helped me assemble a (more than ordinary) ambitions dinner last night; Cilantro-Pesto Sweet Potato Gnocchi with gorgonzola and spinach, and pan seared pork medallions. It came out quite delicious. Was a bit more work (mostly messy) than I wanted, but it was well worth it when it was time to shovel fork-fulls into the mouth. Very tasty. Made a great lunch of leftovers today also. Mostly made me want to explore more options with homemade gnocchi!
T-minus 2 days until the start of cyclocross season!
Jessica made me get up nice and early on Sunday, so that we could go to the Neder-Nederland running race. As much as I would have liked to sleep in, I was nearly as excited to "work support" for her first event involving a race number. Plus I mean, it's gotta be the least I could do, considering how she supports me during my 50+ race numbers per year! She and Alex had decided just the week before, that the Neder-Nederland sounded like a good way to start the morning. Randy also showed up, deciding at the last minute, to pin on a number, and run the 10k; Being Ned, you of course had the usual interesting characters; It was a perfect day in Nederland for running, and the hardest part for me, was to ignore my competitive instincts and jump right into the race, even though I had been planning to just do support. So Neo and I were ready at the start, cowbell in hand, and set to yell/bark at the runners. I missed Randy at the start, but the girls were looking good, with smiles all around; It was a pretty cool, though simple course, with the closest thing to a flat road in Nederland, averaging about 8500 feet of elevation for the course. One mile left, and Jessica and Alex were both looking pretty good! The girls finished strong, and I was so proud of that wifey of mine! She did her first 5k with basically no preparation, and even finished better than she thought - 8th in her age group! I was so tired after the race, I had to go home and take a nap!
Damnit... no bike frame yet. But that's alright, there's some time. Good things come to those who wait... at least that's what I keep telling myself. It should still be here this week, so I will still have time to get it set for Brecktobercross.
It gave me some extra time to build up the wheels anyway. Cyrus decided to help me with the build; How many gears do the new wheels have? One fucking gear; Speaking of cyclocross... the one thing I picked up from Greece for myself, was a proper, traditional cowbell. I tried out every one they had, searching for the perfect tone. Tomorrow, Jessica is running her first 5k! In a complete role reversal, I'll be the one sitting in the camp-chair, eating a hippie muffin, and ringing my cowbell to cheer her on! :)
36 degrees this morning when I finally climbed out of bed. It must be time for cyclocross season! Personally, I prefer summer, but at least cross racing helps dull the pain of the changing seasons, and shortened days. And speaking of cyclocross... the bike is at the painter, and my first color choice was available! You won't be able to miss this bike, and it won't need any reflectors, that's for sure!
It was a nice 3-day weekend for Labor Day, but again, another sign that summer is wrapping up. Good ol' Labor Day... one free day off work, to celebrate the other 355 days a year that we work. I think I'm getting short-changed... No real big plans for the weekend, so I figured it would be a good chance to get out for some mountain biking to change things up, get lost on the local trails, and work on those handling skills. I try not to complain, when I have treasures like this in the "back yard"; I got about 2.5 hours of single track in on Saturday, out riding by myself. 2 and a half hours, and the only people I passed on the entire ride, was a small group at the parking lot for one of the trail-heads I rolled through. No complaints there. That evening I did the responsible thing, and refueled in the proper manor; Several weeks back, Randy hooked me up with a fine choice from the Avery Brewery. It's been a couple days, so I don't remember much detail, but I do remember that it was a delicious, and very drinkable Belgian Style Ale. Not overly complex, but very enjoyable - the glass was empty well before I was ready for it to be. Sunday Craig came up, and it was just the two of us, off for some more mountain biking. The view along the ridge... ...on our way to Eldora; The rain showers stayed just far enough away, and we took in a solid 24 miles of trail riding. And managed to run into only about 6 riders total. By the end of the day, I was finally starting to feel that nice mountain bike rhythm coming back to the mind and body.
Monday Jessica and I went into "civilization" for a bit. For some reason the college kids were in full-force. Maybe because their parents were in town to take advantage of combining a visit with the CU/CSU football game this weekend. One of the high lights had to be this pair of hipsters that I managed to catch out in the wild. No doubt they have read some sort of CU orientation packet on how to be the best hipster you can be. I especially like the "tight enough to sterilize, culottes" that they are sporting. But now that I think of it... maybe some sterilization is a good thing... And as for a Clarence update... that crazy cat is feeling right at home in his new house. He's the typical kitten, insanely curious, and wants to play pretty much non-stop. Well, except for when he stops to relax in the window, and keep an eye on any new visitors that may want to stop by and pet him.
