BH Ride Report

Great ride. Lots of people showed up. We had close to 30 or so. I thought it would be bigger, but a lot of the guys who usually meet up with us out by the golf course weren't there.

As we were climbing in one section early and heard the unmistakable sound of cleats hitting the pavement. I yelled "RIDER DOWN!" The group sat up for a second....then laid into it.

It was Ara. He got boxed in or something and hit the deck. I floated back to see who it was and saw him rocketing back up to the group. many of the team members floated back to help but he didn't need it. In the end it just left a bunchof guys off the back at a bad time for them. Ara even told them "don't wait for me (save yourselves)."

Speed wise is was slow to wind up. I was planning on leading all of the 4/5's that wanted to ride slower by taking all of the short cuts. I was 1/2 way through the first turn where I was supposed to go straight for the shortcut and missed it. That's when it started to get a little faster.

I was hanging pretty good, but found myself in the wind swinging around in a weird middle section trying to hold on. I held for a while but then my mind just said, "save it" so I sat up and coasted back.

That was when the group hit McDonald Rd and they were GONE. We ended up with a group of stragglers. Alien3 from the penny rd ride was with us. He told me CyLoew had gotten a flat and was out a long ways back (oops....). He said he felt bad for not stopping, but we all know what kind of ride it was. I still felt bad I didn't stop even though I didn't even know until many miles later.

Colorchange, RR, myself, alien3, and some tri guys made up this group. I was feeling good and was looking to take some hard pulls. We started kind of rotating well. I was pulling at 400-500 watts when on the front. We were hauling butt around 30mph all the way down McDonald. We took a shortcut and ended up in front of the main group for a majority of the ride.

Some of the tri guys weren't pulling through and when they did they weren't really pouring it on. That ended up with myself and RR and Colorchange doing a ton of pulls. We ended up really tired by the time we got back into the wind. We started a constant rotating 2 line paceline. Even that died after a few miles.

The group caught us and we motored on in the big pack. Nice. Hit Townhall in the group. It was like a gun went off. Those guys attacked it like date on prom night.

The rest of the ride found alien3 and myself limping back. We made it back into the group when we got back into town. Nice ride. Fast, but it has been faster. Fun. 40+ miles. Even with the soft pedaling in town I averaged over 20mph for the whole ride. Haven't looked at the power data but I am sure it is brutal.

CyLowe and MJH2 came rolling in together. Nice move by MJH2. He's always been good like that.

Now...trail ride with little P this morning. Hit the shop in the afternoon...racing in Madison tomorrow and hopefully Sunday as well. Here's to a good and safe weekend for everyone!
....oh yeah....and check out my site. Click on some of the advertisers links if they interest you...hopefully you know why. Custom wheel build quotes, etc.

7 Cylinders

I'm firing on 7-cylinders. More than the 6 banger from last year, but not yet full power.

Did the Penny Rd Pub ride tonight. Barrington area ride I did all last year. Wind sucked. Dan, colorchange and myself headed out. Dan put the hurt on quick.

I popped a couple of times - feeling the overeating from the holiday at my parents. I kept crawling back though and found I was recovering quick. Pop, climb back, lay on a pull. It was nice.

CC hurt. Dan hurt towards the end. Epic. Mid summer speed in full winter gear in April. We finished close to 21 with only 3 guys in the wind and cold.

7-cylinders. ....can't wait to see 8.

A little behind in my work

I have been trying to focus a little more on work, family, and of course...riding lately. As a result I have thoughts of tons of nice things to blog about but haven't gotten around to actually blogging.

First things first....Montrose wrap-up:

It was cold. this is what it looked like when we left that morning.

I did tear up my tights in on fo the wrecks I had. Didn't notice until later. I finally washed the cross bike yesterday. The season is now over for me. Poo.

In more exciting news we had a holiday BFNIC party that Colochange put on. He was nice enough to invite a bunch of us less desirables over to his house and feed up beer. I took him up on the offer...

Above L to R: Cycling Jester (thanks for the ride DD), Recursive trying to remember why he came, Cyclpsycho/Alien, Colorchange our host, Alien2, CyLowe97.

Recursive - that's how he rolls...

iab - the premise of the party was that you brough your bike and got your picture taken with it. Nice idea. Colochange got to work another one of his hobbies in. Check out the vintage steel that iab is spoting. I can pretty much assure that it is older than anyone actually reading this.

Alien - What Woulf Jens Do. I love this shirt. For those that don't get it google "Jens Voight". Throw a lot of German/Australian accented f bombs around and you might get close.

Above L to R: Voldemort, Recursive, Alien2, Scummer, SmokinMiles, iab and Alien

Good party and lots of fun. I remember doing a shot or two at one point. I also remember getting up on his TT bike in full party mode and riding it a bit....I think. His puny bike bent under my awesomeness (read "weight") and the tire rubbed a bit on the table....

The next morning we went to see The Laurie Berkner Band at the Rosemont Theatre....Complete with hang-over we got to be crammed into a huge theatre with a slew of 2-8 yr olds....jumping and singing. Awesome.

3rd Annual Psimet Invitational Ride Report

OK...I guess I should finally write this....

I was actually running a bit late this year and by the time I got to the preserve there were already many cars there. I proceeded to drive in with the annoying Flobots "handlebars" song playing. I also got straight out of the car and....

...I dropped the hammer. Well hammers really. I figured it would help set a tone for the ride. Oh and in BF talk that's "drope the hamer" (Droh-puh thuh hahm-ur).

The usual suspects were there:

Colorchange talking to MJH2 - convincing him that we should take it easy...like only 300W until after 2 loops then we can dial it to 500W.... "Seriously guys I think we can do a 4:30 century. I even brought my helmet to do it. Anyone??? Anyone?? Bueller?"
shider - wondering why he still decides to go slumming with the BF'ers
CyLowe97 - busy thinking about Wisconsin, how much he'd rather be living there, and cheese.

Murderer's row - L to R: New daddy nietsmas, shider in Great Lakes BF kit, aham23 in SoCal BF Kit, Colorchange in Rock Racing kit

MJH2 on Right and New Guy on Left. New Guy had a blast. MJH2 is feeling a distrubance in the force.
The first loop group L to R: New Guy, RJBTrek's Friend, Footballer, Voldemort, RJBTrek, CyLowe97, nietsmas, MJH2, iab, shider, aham23, colorchange, JT1.


iab with footballer in the background.

So we got the group together and decided to roll out on the first loop. As usual I led things off out of the parking lot. This is my way of making sure the group stays together to at least the first turn....about 50 ft down the road.

After the first turn I back up down the line and watched the greyhounds take off after the invisible rabbit. This year I didn't feel as back knowing that we were going to blow people off the back. I think more were well aware of what was coming.

We were rolling well. By well I mean fast. Everything was meshing well. People were talking, we were running a double paceline, the mood was good, etc. We were on Brier Hill rd which I had driven in my car the day before. I remembered there were some nasty holes and was about to announce to the group to be on the lookout when I heard yelling and saw some movement in the line.

Yup...shider had ridden around the hole without mentioning it, general mayhem ensued. I swore I heard CyLowe do one of his patented, "you think you'd point out..." quips. There was jumping, swerving, swearing, etc. I made it by with no issues. Everything was good until I heard:

"THUNK, THUNK...SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS"

There is no mistaking the sound of lead-assing a hole or the subsequent flat that erupts thereafter. Classic pinch flat. I yelled, "FLAT!!!!" as is customary in these situations. I also pulled to the side to help out...it was MJH2 - can't leave a teamate behind right?

A few other guys stopped as well (Nothingman, New Guy). I'm trying to do the 2 minute tube swap I know lives inside of me (think cycling version of the tire changing in Christmas Story), but MJH2 never put baby powder on his tubes before mounting them...they had basically vulcanized themselves to the tire casing.

At this point the "B" group we had so flippantly thrown off the back came rolling by....with smiles. Soon enough we were back on and rolling. I figured the A group had left us, but it turns out they were just on the otherside of the next roller....nietsmas had flatted as well.

So we start rolling...with real rabbits to catch. Then there was another flat....seriously. MJH2 had a slower leak from the rear that none of us caught the first time. We were under 10 miles and already digging into the reserves of tubes and CO2.

As we begun rolling again I was with aham23 who looked at me and said, "man I love this interval stuff we're doing". Seriously....it was tough...hot/cold/hot/cold. Did not bode well for a day of hard riding.

The rabbit chase was on. I was holding my own about mid-pack. Feeling great. With my Garmin on the fritz I had to keep pulling the map from the back to check it out. I keep forgetting that I could just put it up the leg of my shorts for easy access. Well, I went to grab the map and was getting my bearings around a turn on to Harmony. When checking the map you keep you distance to the wheel in front of you. Well...the wheel in front of me left a gap. By the time I looked up the front end of the line had a pretty serious gap on us.

I was still half torn between riding hard to get up to the front or hanging with the "A-" group. *editor's note - I at this point while writing this because we had a tool explode at work. i am now returning to finish after 5 hours...*

I wanted to stay in the front group I decided. At this point my decision was coming kind of late. They had a huge gap on me (1/8 - 1/4 mile at least). I solo TT'd and was able to hold the gap where it was....then whenever I backed off a tad I would lose ground. I had my computer in my back pocket, but I know I was going hard (23-ish - maybe even more). I kept sitting up going, "I'm not going to catch them...just wait." Then I would change my mind and hammer even after losing more ground.

I finally gave up when I had my saddle tilt back on me. If you've never had your saddle tilt back on you let me try to explain what it feels like. Take a few fingers, stick them up your butt and try to pull your cell phone out of your front pocket with them. So I stopped and adjusted the saddle and waited.

We had a decent "A-" group. We stopped quite a few times for me to adjust my saddle, to wait up, etc. We made it up to the KOR section (King of the Rollers). This is kinid of my version of the Tour's King of the Mountains, but more specific to the flat lands that are Illinois. First one over is King of the Rollers. There were already 2 groups through (B's and A+'s) so there was no chance of any of us being first over.....

....but I also have a "Queen of the Rollers" competition as well. While always a runner-up I have never taken that prize which goes to the girlish sap that is last over the hill. I actually went over first in the A- group. Felt good.

After that we blew throught the stop figuring that the other groups had skipped it. We were soon stopped while I was fixing my saddle again when CyLowe called asking us where we were. They had decided to stop and wait for us. Ooops. So we waited for them to catch up to where we were. As shider came into sight I told everyone, "you might as well start rolling because shider isn't going to stop as he comes through here." He didn't. From there it was a race back to the start.

I found myself 2nd group again. nietsmas and I started running a decent paceline with footballer. We started a rotation. He knew what the deal was. He got in front and started to do the popcorn dance. You know...where you're all over the machine digging deep for the speed while looking over your shoulder every 5 seconds to make sure you're not being overtaken and/or leaving everyone behind? That dance. I was about to say, "ride within yourself. Don't make yourself pop. You're no good to us off the back." when he flicked and pulled to the side.

I held pace and looked back in about a minute to see him off the back. "DAMNIT!" I looked at nietsmas, "Should we wait up for him or keep going?" "Might as well [keep going]. We finally have a good rythum going." Sorry footballer...:(

In short order nietsmas popped as well. He's a new dad and really hasn't been on the bike a lot lately. He was pretty sure he was going to pop and called it out beforehand, but still sucks to see him blow. He's like a diesel engine that just cranks along and then when he pops he pops. No real chance for recovery.

We came in from the first loop and he packed it in for the day - (I'll add picture later).

Footballer had a clipless fall down in the parking lot that I was able to catch with my camera:

MJH2 received the first boobie prize as well....flattie. It's a tire patch kit along with an extra tube.


Stats loop 1: 37.88 miles, 1:57:09 time, Avg speed of 19.4mph with approx 1,500 ft of climbing. Spicy, but not leg killer by any means.

Loop 2 is where my camera died. Recursive showed up. He's a Cat 3 cheese headed racer that graces us with his presence quite often. We all like seeing him and he's always pretty good at humoring our slow asses. smokinmiles showed up to lay the energizer bunny routine on all of us (she never stops at stops...seriously). timmyquest showed as well too. You might remember him from the "I don't have any shoes" saga from either last year or the year before.

I hate the route on loop 2. It just sucks. It's a West-East out and back for the most part. It's on extremely flat roads with really nothing to look at. The killer is if there is a wind. It will almost always be a headwind on this leg. Luckily there was no wind. We all kept together too. Some of the riders in the rear would open a gap up in front of them as we came floating back to allow us back in front of them in the rotation. It kept the stronger riders riding hard at the front and allowed the ones working harder enough of a break to hold the group together. Worked great...

Ran across a road that had fresh gravel spread on it - waiting for oil. While everyone pondered what we were to do I yelled, "keep going straight" and kept riding. I was taking it easy until I heard colorchange yell, "it's a breakaway. GET HIM!" He joined me. We looked back and no one was really going hard after us....so we hit the gas. Recursive was with us at this point and went to the front....and turned it up. I held for what I could. We were going fast. Really fast. Ludicrous speed in fact. I popped soon after I heard colorchange yell, "go hard, but not frickin 30+ mph!"

We rolled into the stop in Genoa and made all the locals think that some weird mix of superheros had taken over their town. On the way out of town the next King of the Rollers section was to be had. CyLowe went with the main group challenging it and then popped. Self-admittedly his day was done from that point on.

Right after that we got into some gravel roads. Seems the county didn't check with me regarding my century route before deciding to spread the gravel. There was no turning back to we did our own Paris-Roubaix. If you don't know what Parix Roubaix is then Google it....good shiz.

Everything was going fine until we hit a 90 degree turn. I can corner fairly well so I feathered the brakes and made it around only partially sliding. Everyone else made it through OK as well....everyone except Voldemort. He overcooked it and ended up in the corn field with some nasty souvineirs. So - for those of you keeping score that's - 3 flats, clipless fall, 2 gravel roads, and a rider hitting the turf.

We made it back to end the loop with the following: 29.34 miles, 1:27:34 time, 20.1mph avg with 837ft of climbing.

At this point aham and cylowe ditched out. Only a few of us were left to do the whole deal: Voldemort, JT1, colorchange, shider and myself. I think I missed someone... Shiders family (son and wife) joined up for the last leg. We rolled out fast. No pretense at all.

The route was fast, but then I bonked. Bad. If you look at my speed file you can see it just drifting down. Same bonk that I got during the RAIN ride so I could recognize it coming on. I forced gels and prayed I'd get to the stop where I could get water. I gassed up at the stop and was ready to roll....with only 6 miles left :(.

I rolled the last bit with Shider's son. Good rider. Seemed a little uncomfortable with riding in a group, but recursive and I rode right in front and behind him all the way in to keep an eye on him. It's moments like that which make the rides fun. He'll be tearing legs off in short order. Nice natural talent.

Leg 3 stats: 32.39 miles, 1:42:41 Time, 18.9mph avg speed :(, with 951 ft of climbing for a grand total of...

Time: 5:07:24 <---Sooo close to a 5 hr century without trying. This could have been a sub 5 easy.

Mileage: 99.51 <- lost some ground with the first detour.

Avg Speed: 19.4 mph. - meh.

Great turnout. Everyone had fun. We drank a bit in the parking lot on our return and swapped stories. I handed out the rest of the boobie prizes:

Smokinmiles - latern rouge (last place, she rode in with shider's wife keeping her company. It was a reward for that move) - she received a red blinkie. A USED red blinkie.

JT1 - Chatty cathy - self explanatory

Colorchange - hammertime - gift hammer for dropping the hammer most often adn with much fury.

Postponing

I have been postponing my Psimet Invitational ride report. Don't know why. Just tired I guess. It seems like a monumental task. I know it doesn't have to be, but just doesn't seem right if I don't do it up right.

So...it's coming...

Right now just trying to enjoy the winding down of the road season. Last night's group ride was fun. Colorchange attacked on a downhill before the big climbing sections. I followed mainly because any advantage I can get for climbing will help me stay even. The attack was on a long slight downhill so it didn't cost me anything energy wise to go there. I usually spend my time on and off the brakes through there anyway.

I hit the first climb behind colorchange, but he slowed at the top kind of waiting for the group. I yelled I was on him and we went. We traded on the other climbs and really pushed it for a bit once we realized we were gone. Worked it a bit like a race. Felt like it. Was fun and a nice preview for this weekend.

We ended up passing alien2 who had come out later and was riding the course backwards to find us. We slowed up for a while to let him swing around and catch up. Then we started shooting the crap about the race he did this last weekend. It's on the same course as my race on Saturday. We slowed enough that it was definitely the end of the break by the time we turned South off of the hilly leg.

I felt good. I am not in as good of form as I was a few weeks back. Little P has been sidelined with a massive fever/ear infection. Others around me have been really sick as well. I had a small fever for a little bit before the ride. I just hope I don't go into full sick mode before during or after the races this weekend. A 4 stage race split over 2 consecutive weekends at the beginning of fall gives you tons of risk for getting sick.

In general I would be really happy with a top 10 overall for the series. That will most assuredly require a top 10 for the road race - which is double points. I don't know if I can do it, but what can I do but try. The TT and the crits don't bother me.

The TT is 10 miles. It will take at least a 25mph TT to take the top spot I am guessing. I don't have that in me, but I have done some near 23 mph ones...I might be able to do a 24 mph one if the wind cooperates and if I can borrow some Zipps (last TT I did a borderline 23 in the pouring rain with regular box section wheels on. Sat up in every turn and slowed to a crawl to stay upright....and it was 24-ish miles long).

The crits are like 8 miles long unless they make a last minute change. It will take like 15-20 minutes. I can ride at killer speeds for that amount of time. MJH2 has already decided to try to make it fun, and I am with him...especially if I screw the road race the day before.

I won't win anything (especially if I think this way). I might have a chance if it comes down to a sprint and I am in position, but the odds of that are pretty slim. I also think it there won't be a ton of riders doing all 4 events so that may give me a slight advantage.

Like I said....I would be extremely happy with a top 10.

...then it's on to learning how to cross race. This would be the equivalent of a runner trying to learn how to swin in order to do "try"-athlons. Knobbies and mud....ewww. So NOT me, but they are still mostly road bikes and the bikes look HAWT.

Besides...Carpentersville will have beer this year.....

Hardware

I scored some hardware at today's epic TT. I didn't ride as well as I could have, but I did a good job I believe. I came in 3rd out of 4 in the 30+ category. 1:04:48 seconds for 23.75 miles - about 22mph average.

I say epic because it was a downpour for the whole route. I couldn't see anything through my glasses so I rode looking over them. If I had my head up the rain was so heavy it would sting my eyes.

Standing there getting drenched while in the start house I looked around at a few of the other guys and just had to say it, "you know...we're some pretty messed up guys for coming out here in the rain to put ourselves through the torture that is a TT. We could all be in bed or eating a nice breakfast. We're idiots." I got the obligatory laugh or two, but everyone was thinking, "you wussy. I do it so that I can kick bike weenie ass. Get in line for your ass kickin you weenie."

"30 seconds"

I noticed that my heart rate goes from 50-60 just standing around to in the mid 90s when I get into the start house. Crazy. You want to pee, crap yourself, throw-up, fall over into a fetal position, etc. You know the pain that is coming and you know the little guy with the clipboard isn't going to save you or make the pain stop. He's going to enjoy every minute of it.

"Rider ready. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!"

I don't care how much you warm up, if you are not feeling like you just got hit by a Mack truck within the first 30 seconds to a minut of a TT then you're doing it wrong.

Pain is like crack. Beating someone is like heroin.

I wasn't expecting much and did nothing to prepare for this other than switch my bike over. I think I did OK. This is the first piece of hardware I have ever received from a competitive cycling event. Sure it's no big deal and doesn't mean anything with such a small field on such a crappy day, but it's a medal. I will take it.

Colorchange pulled a 1:00:03<--missed the hour by 3 seconds. Awesome job. He pulled first place in Cat 5. Alien2 was there to finish the series. He placed 2nd overall in the series as well as second today. This is in Cat 3. He's a fast dude. It shows on Tuesday nights. He did the route in something like 56 or 58 minutes. Hella-fast.

Fall fling is coming and I am hoping I can do good things there. The TT is half the distance so I will need to really hammer it out in order to be able to do anything.

Harmon Hundred

From my post on BF:
"Great century. I love this one. It is "hilly" - meaning beautifully rolling. I recovered really well from the day before. Colorchange and I both trew some sandbags around in the parking lot:

"I'm pretty beat."
"I don't think I want to ride that hard."
"I'll probably pop pretty early on."
"Don't know if I can make the century...."

You get the picture.

About 3-4 miles out of the parking lot someone lit the rocket. Took me a while to warm up, but then I got rolling smooth. My Garmin shuts off over bumps anymore so I just ride with it in my back pocket. That meant I had no idea what numbers we were doing. I ended up going to the front and ramping it up without realizing it quite a bit.

We did loop B first out of the main stop. Really challenging loop and very "scenic". By the time we had gotten back to the main stop with roughly 50 miles in I was starting to feel some dead legs. Colorchange was looking to get back for his obligation.

New dad nietsmas revealed he hadn't been on the bike in 2 weeks and was staring deep into the pit of emptyness that was now his legs. JT1 and our recent pick ups of "bells" and "Big Spinner" were definitely going the extra loop for the full century.

I debated it greatly. I figured I could go back and hammer and be done at 75, or get a full century in...I mean what else did I have to do right? Well....I had to flip a gel to decide. It landed front side up - I was in for the century.

Started second guessing myself right out of the stop...and then everything clicked.

I felt awesome. Every hill we hit I found myself mid-hill doing my whole "I don't know if I can do this" then something would make me snap out of it and actually upshift and accelerate. it was awesome. Best climbing I have ever done.I also replaced my 27 cog/cassette with a 25 a few weeks back. Makes climbing a whole lot faster when you can't bailout.

I honestly kept getting stronger as we went. With the computer in the back pocket I had no idea how far was left or anything. Ended up in the parking lot before I knew it. I feel like going out and doing it again today.

Good stuff. Hope I can keep cranking this up at my current rate of improvement through the Fall Fling.

Great seeing nietsmas, JT1, colorchange, wireless. See you all again at my century!

Brief stats...
100.0 miles (rode the parking lot to round it out).
5:24:34 ride time
5,032 ft of climbing
18.5 avg speed.
4-5 gels consumed
many hammers dropped.

Spicy

That was one spicy ride this morning. It took a while to get over the facts that I didn't get to bed until 1:30-2:00am ...because I was working on the long overdue wheels de aham. 5:00 came awful quick.

It was a ride with colorchange's club. He was there as well as aham (really just there to pick up wheels, but decided to ride...since he was already there and all) and about 7-ish other Spin Doctors riders.

I was wearing arm warmers, knee warmers (which on someone my height with my short legs really qualifies them as full leg warmers or something out of flashdance), vest, and was contemplating toe covers. It was COLD! Too freeking cold for this early in September. When I got home my trainer said...."see....you'll love me again someday soon. You'll see." *shiver*

The ride was 'brisk'. They usually start slow (so I was told), but I think aham and I helped push it a bit. There was no wind. Freeky fog, etc. By the time we got to the point where they normally take a natural (that's biker talk for peeing in a field - I do it while rolling) they were all saying it was the fastest they had ridden that route...ever.

I was just rolling along. The route is my kind of flat on roads I have ridden a ton so I knew where the features were, etc. I took short token pulls up front mainly due to not knowing the route and not knowing how high they were going to dial it up to later. Aham was riding well too.

Up Allen rd near Hampshire one of their guys started to do some attacking. That hurt. Later a lot of us admitted we were either getting light headed, dizzy or seeing spots there. "On the rivet" so to speak. From there it was "attack, bridge, repeat" for most of the rest of the ride. By the time we got back they all made it official...fastest ride on that loop...ever for most of them.

There was climbing, but only like 1,500 over 50 miles so needless to say I was there and hanging well for 99.9% of the ride. Knowing more of what to expect I could go back and do more work. So where does this ride rank for me?

Hardest

• Bicycle Heaven (Cat 1,2,3 sharks in chummed water - total class of their own)
• Racing
• Penny Rd (Cat 3,4,5 Fast and climby)
• Spin Doctors (Cat 3,4,5 Faster but flat with attacking)
• Century riding
• Village Pedaler (Saturday ride with some friends)
• Trail ride solo
• Trail ride with the family

Easiest

Tomorrow is the Harmon Hundred. Looks like we might get wet. I am on form and liking it. I have not been there all year. I hope to push it into overdrive for Fall Fling.

Scale said 172 last night.

Tour of Oakbrook Road Race

Well...I did pretty much what I expected. Really wasn't planning on doing this race and coming out of a really bad virus at the same time. MJH2, myself, and another teamate (RR) just kind of went out to see what was up.

I got there first thing - 6:33 when registration was set to open at 6:45. Figured I signed up late and wanted to make sure I got a timing chip. You know you are in the rich part of town when they have you parking....PARKING...on the local polo fields. Srsly folks. We had some ferrari as a pace car. Also a Hummer as well.


Turns out I was first in line for registration. Also turns out it was a major cluster. They didn't register me until about 7:30. I was in line at 6:40. By the time I was registered there were about 100-200 people in line waiting behind me. Oh....and I preregistered.

Needless to say they ran late. Major late. They pushed back races, cut laps off of them (no complaints here about that), ran people with the same numbers in the same fields, did 1/2 manual and 1/2 chip timing, had a course official whose motorcycle had broken down....but apart from that it was an awesome race.

By the time we got rolling it was 45 minutes PAST our original start time. I was starving before we even took one pedal stroke. We lined up early to get a front row start. We had decided to be in front for the first turn onto Spring Hill. It worked.

photo evidence: L to R - MJH2, RR, Me...in front. Kit looks good from here.

Colorchange is in the SD jersey behind MJH2's shoulder

I was out front right off the line. MJH2 rode right next to me down York into the "headwind". A couple of times I told him I was blowing up by doing it, but we both held it. We paced the group up the first climbs and our teammate (RR) came around on the top of the big one.

We blocked like a bunch of xXx'rs (local team known for development in the lower cats, great guys that play heavy team tactics in the lower ranks) but RR was looking for someone else to go with.

So we tried something, it worked, but none of us had the juice to make anything stick (which we pretty much knew going in). After that I just floated back. Started to fall off the back in the home straight on the second lap when RJBTrek (another BF'er on Village Cyclesport) yelled at me to grab a wheel and I did. Got me back into the pack - thanks!

Third lap I blew up on Spring. The hills popped me like an over-ripe cherry. I knew it was coming, but hoped I had an extra lap or two. Legs were fine, but the ticker was losing rythm. Looking at stats afterwards my avg HR was something like 180. My max was right when I popped at 193. Seriously folks. You can't make this crap up.

Down the straight I worked up to Scummer and we just shot the crap to the line. We could have caught the pack, but I think both of us wanted our races to be over. It was hot and the long wait and delays before the race had me hurting food wise.

After that I just watched everyone else. MJH2 made it another 2 laps - same as our other teamate. Colorchange did well...like he was always able to. Came in off the back of the pack at the end - loose saddle/seatpost. That's that cheap Cervelo crap for you.Turns out Alien 2 came in 2nd overall and depending on the age of the guy in front he may have won the 40+ group. He's racing 3's over at ABR so.....

Podium for Master 40+ 4/5 - Alien2 on right side in second place. I try to hold his wheel every Tuesday night and he punishes me severely just for trying. BTW - I would have to drop 30 lbs just to match his weight.

As always I am in crap shape, but at least I am in stellar shape compared to last year. I can only hope I can see this much of an improvement again over the next year. Looking forward to more racing.

Just dumped some SERIOUS money on a getaway weekend for the wife for her b-day. Mine is in December. If she understands the depths I went to then I feel a powertap coming on in December.......between that and some weight loss..........I could be dangerous in the spring.