on my ride home today, i saw 3 middle-aged men, dressed in business casual attire, shooting a crossbow at a target in an alleyway. i would have taken a picture but it's usually not a good idea to take a picture of people doing something which may be partially illegal, especially when that partially illegal thing is shooting something that may be less exciting than shooting at you.
the bull city is the city of danger.
looks like collegiate athletic violations aren't just for Memphis and UNC anymore. not long after our beloved smAli shows up at Princeton, this news drops. Okay, so it's about tennis and not fixed-gear political science, but I suspect something's up.
Meanwhile in NC, it good to see that the anti-doping efforts in the barely-pro world of domestic cycling are paying off with bringing down an Asheville dude. Okay, so its for THC and not EPO, which I don't even counts as "recreational" in places like Asheville, but rules are rules. However, since they do offer therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for certain banned substances, it seems reasonable that they could offer a LUE (lifestyle use exemption) allowing residents of certain areas to enjoy common chemicals that aren't likely to actually enhance performance. Boulder residents are exempted for drug tests for weed (every resident of California already has a TUE in the form of a "prescription" from a quacky doctor), Portland residents have no maximum limit on caffeine levels, New Jersey residents are allowed to test positive for nicotine and Drakkar Noir and are actually required to test positive for Valtrex before entering an event. Durhamites might would of course be exempted from off-the-charts cholesterol levels and alcohol, but there don't appear to be any restrictions in the UCI rulebook about these. The Swiss rulemasters don't seem to care about our intake of hogfat and Krispy Kremes and are only concerned about drinking in certain events:
Registration is open. $750 early bird discount if you register before October 4th. Which is 4 days before my birthday....so who is buying me an entry for my birthday?
Come on we can't let Team Dicky have all the fun!
Who else wants in? Also on a unrelated but related not......I'm hearing rumblings of a few of my Colorado Contention heading down to 24 hours of Old Pueblo in AZ. Pirate can fill in details about the race, since he did it a few years back. Mid winter/post cyclocross desert fest of mountain biking? Anyone?
French cycling legend, Laurent Fignon, the true professor of the peloton, has passed away.
with the road racing season winding down, it's time to start thinking about other types of cycling. mountain bike racing? cyclocross? how about fancifully-morbid bmx-based video games?
state championships road racing! i don't think there is really a cat-4 state champion (i do think they should make them wear a special jersey for the next year), but the promoters took my $30 nonetheless.
let it first be said, much props to the promoters: elliot and the fsc-racing crew. races started on-time. course was clean and well-marshalled. bathrooms had toilet paper. hell yeah.
my only problem was the racing. the course/racing wasn't tough enough to split things up (presumably, i would have been "tough enough" to be in the front group). i threw down a number of futile attacks, hoping to catch people napping. a few other people were interested in animating the field, but the rest of the folks really wanted to keep our little group a tight-knit community. like cult-members, anyone was free to leave whenever they wished, but you really could never escape the sinewy bonds of the peloton. other guys probably think i'm a total jackass for my repeated, go-nowhere attacks. but nuts to them. who really wants to contest a 30 person sprint? not me. i sat up and rolled across the finish in not-quite-last place.
post-race activities were more fun. chatted with jay and korps before their race. lots of duke folks around as well. chatted with scott from bitter dose about hosting a wintertime DURHAM CYCLOCROSS RACE.
also, dave from the dose cheered me up with the awesome power of the double rainbow on evie's iphone:
what does it mean?!?
sunday
6:00 am
alarm goes off
time to wake up for a 9:00 race
nice and early
snooze
6:30 am
okay, now it's time to get up for the race
plenty of time to eat, drink espresso, drive to race, register, get dressed, get motivated to race
motivation...ugh
snooze
8:30 am
okay
now i'm ready to get up
all of the folks from BCC seem to be traveling to Denver, so i decided to check it out. and while other folks feel the need to ride bikes there to fully experience the mile-high city, i figured i could adequately assess it from the airport. flying in from the Salt Lake City, i somehow only saw vast, brown flatness through my tiny window. but after a quick turn, i did see the majesty of the Rockies off in the distance. and yes, while Denver is right at the foot of some big mountains, it still looks like a long way up to the peaks.
i was out west for a little backpacking trip in Wyoming, which was a lot of fun. it still boggles the mind that you can take horses through national wilderness areas, which rip up the trail and drop shit everywhere, but the idea of riding a bike is totally off limits. these notions didn't bug me too long--it was plenty hard walking up the trails, pushing a bike would have been pointless. i was curious to see if stomping around at 9,000 feet with heavy boots, a tent, and a portable espresso maker would give me mad power. sadly i don't think it did.
tried my hand at the Apex (that's a suburb of Cary (which is itself a suburb of Raleigh), for our non-NC readers) road race. with over 50 starters packed to the right-hand side of the yellow line, i figured the pack was no place for a sane individual. attacked early, attacked often, but not often enough or strong enough to get away. no one else was interested in going on a little adventure with me and around 23 cooler heads trounced me in a bunch sprint. Corey was also out, enjoying the action in what i believe was his first official non-criterium road race, and he fought admirably.
but the other thing happening with my cycling has been a renewed excitement about mountain biking. and what can be more exciting than the lure of new trails. Linus heard from Brian II that there were some fancy new TORC-constructed trails in the Briar Chapel community (a pseudo-suburb of Chapel Hill). we first got semi-lost on a dirt road which was apparently only intended for construction crew access. we then passed Endor Drive, which of course is named after the home planet of the Ewoks, so i was getting ready for a fast and nerdy land speeder-esque ride (possibly sabotaged by rebel forces
long story short: we found some heavy mulch walking trail, eventually found some decent mountain bike trails which turned into fun mountain bike trails which turned into boring fire-roads and lots of dead ends. there's about one or two miles of well-built trails out there, another couple of miles of decent trails, but weak connectivity, no signage, and no legible maps. plus, riding on that super rough mulch was slow. until it gets a lot more broken-down, i may need to find some terrain-specific tires. perhaps the Michelin Mulch II. if anyone has any tips on riding these trails, please let us know.
furthermore, it was hot. we both ended up sweating a lot and Linus, who had apologized earlier about the smelliness of his shoes now found said shoes were drenched with sweat. when i returned home, i inexplicably (or, easily explicably) i found that my shoes now had a terrible shoey smell to them. i'm not sure how i caught Linus foot-funk, but needless to say, i'm a little sad. sad shoes.
okay, that's all i got for now. cyclocross "practices" have started (Wednesdays at 6:30pm and Saturdays at 9:30am at Forest Hills Park) and i think i'll drag the mountain bike to the Race at the Reactor this weekend, just in case there's a meltdown and radioactive pollution gives me mad power. fingers crossed...
Where have all the bloggers gone?
Are we on reruns? When does the new season start?
I know it is summer and all.....so where are the ORRAM reports? Who is going to steal the Fool's Gold? Why has there not been a BCC BBQ ride this summer yet? Where is the Bicycle Chain moving too? How is the Professor preping for cross season?
What is new fellas?
Info from the race website.
"In the lore of cycling, one of the most difficult and demanding of all races is the Paris-Roubaix, an arduous 160-mile journey from Paris, France north to Roubaix. The course features twenty-eight fearsome sections of cobblestoned pathways, the bane of many a professional cyclist. An awesome sporting spectacle, the “Hell of The North” is the one day outside the Tour de France that the whole world watches cycling.
On September 11, 2010, Wheat Ridge Cyclery presents an altogether Colorado version of this legendary event: The Colorado Crooked Roubaix. Beginning and ending in Winter Park, the 90-mile route promises riders a truly challenging tour through some of the most majestic scenery in the state. Featuring massive stands of aspen that will likely be autumn-tinged, rushing streams, mountain lakes, alpine vistas and 10,000-feet elevations, all enjoyed from a challenging and technically demanding course, this mostly dirt road route is sure to produce smiles.
Road bikes on dirt? Yes! For a century, the grand tours of Europe have been raced on sections of dirt roads. Many of the famed passes in the Tour de France weren’t paved until well after World War II, and this year’s edition of the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy) featured dirt roads.
Wheat Ridge Cyclery’s President, Ron Kiefel, raced Paris-Roubaix three times in addition to his seven Tour de France appearances. He has logged many thousands of miles with skinny tires on dirt roads, and is regarded as one cycling’s greatest bike handlers. “During my many years of training, our 7-Eleven team would venture onto the dirt roads above Boulder for the adventure of it. It was fun to be off the beaten path and improve our bicycle handling skills along the way.”
Technical Director of the Colorado Crooked Roubaix is Paul Balaguer who brings his 22 years of experience in planning Ride the Rockies to designing a unique route that promises riders a mix of 65 percent unpaved surface and 35 percent paved county roads.
“This is going to be a great ride,” said Balaguer. “There’s really something for everyone – great climbs and descents, as well as stunning scenery. I have a hunch that a lot of our riders will be seeing most of this terrain for the first time.”
Colorado Crooked Roubaix sponsors include Winter Park & Fraser Valley Chamber of Commerce, Specialized Bicycles and Winter Park Resort.
“Winter Park and the Fraser Valley welcomes this unique opportunity for cyclists to experience our valley and all of Grand County,” said Catherine Ross, executive director of the Winter Park-Fraser Valley Chamber of Commerce. “The Crooked Roubaix is a perfect challenge to showcase the various terrain in the area. Our community plans to make this an unforgettable experience for all.”
Specialized, whose Roubaix model of bicycle was designed specifically for racing on the cobbles of northern France, will provide a limited number of 2011 Roubaix model bicycles for selected riders to ride in this event."
Crooked Roubaix 2010
linus called me last night and convinced me it'd be a good idea to meet for a 7am mountain bike ride in umstead. riding that early typically isn't my style, but it sounded like a good idea because (1) it was supposed to reach 101 degrees today and (2) bryan had to work later in the day.
after a somewhat late start, linus caught a flat within about 5 minutes. about 5 minutes after that, i washed out my front wheel, got back up to remount my bike and found that my front wheel looked like a taco. maybe not a totally folded-over crunchy taco, but at least a wobbly and unridable soft-taco. in either case, when you start comparing your bicycle components to food items, you've got problems. fortunately, we had 3 of the durham mechanics with us. linus redeemed himself from his earlier flat by de-tacoing my wheel with two precision bashes against the ground (not recommended for real tacos). a little spoke re-tentioning and it was totally ridable--although i worried that the fix was only temporary and the wheel would turn into some other foodstuff at any given moment.
back up and rolling again, linus gets a second flat. to avoid a schleck-mechanical-controversy, we clearly indicated that brian should roll ahead so he can get back to work. after that, things went much more smoothly. however, we did run into calvin in the parking area who said that he cracked his frame after the last ride and had just received a replacement. that's fast turnaround, which is a helpful reminder of why it's nice to buy a bike from a company with a good warranty (specialized, in this case) and a good warranty department, as well as from a local shop who can help expedite the situation (the raleigh bicycle chain, in this case).
ride well and don't break shit.
