fun times with hipsters

Anthony may have gotten a brand new Team Scalpel, but I got a 1983 Schwinn Traveler 10 speed and a brand new beard. Here are some pictures from the warehouse race. It was a good time.

warehouse racin, no hobo's

So the stars all aligned that I stumbled across a link a couple weeks ago for a warehouse race in Lexington, seemed interesting. The Ateam's new Lexington insider, Turpin, also had the 411 on this event. Curtlo was informed and the plan was set. Neither of us (me or John) knew if this was gonna be a blowout or 12 dufuses standin around all trying hard to look like they didn't care about looking cool, like a reverse Zoolander walk-off. But there was the promise of beer, a chance to see turpins new digs and eat his food, that was enough right there. So I packed up old blue (the single speed) complete with 1.5 slicks and a citron colored front rim, Curtlo with his Schwinn fixie, and we headed 60 miles due east.

It was not what I expected, it was more. We arrived while the silly race (an oxymoron of sorts here) was goin on. My favorite was a Stingray with a 12" front wheel and road drops. Lovin it. I saw Bill Crank and a couple others from Pedal Power and Pedal the Planet and asked for a little direction on what we were supposed to do. After signing in, Curtlo raced in the second heat with Turpin (who went with the spandex option, nice work). The course utlilized 2 warehouses, a couple sidewalks and various bits of parking lot ending with a stair-step runup to the finish. It was a hoot, like a cyclocross race (minus the dirt) with music pumpin, beer flowin, and people hollerin. The difference being there was hardly a bit of carbon fiber to be seen, I bet pair of Zipp wheels would prolly match the combined price of all the bikes raced that night.

My first race was the 20 feet or so I did on Jims back for the tandem race, the distance pretty much sums up how well that worked. Then I raced the third and last heat of the "competitive" races (top 2 for each went on to the finals). Good start, givin that 39x18 single speed all I could, it wasnt enough muscle to keep up with some dude on his fixie. After washin out on one of the slick corners in the second warehouse, I conceded and rode it in for second (plus the breadbowl of soup, fries, burger, green beans and coffee I ate just an hour + before were threatening an upheaval). Once that was over, I sat and coughed up a lung (hardest effort I've done since October) while the non-competive class ran their five laps.

The finals were next, I still felt pretty gross, but I had to go. I gave it a good effort for 4 laps, then let fixie dude and Bill have at it, I didn't really want to barf and I didn't have the gears to match them anyway. The crowd def kept me goin as it all turned up to 11 for that last race, people were screamin like mad. I held on for 3rd and enjoyed those last 5 laps much more without trying to race. All in all, a pretty great event. Kentucky Ale provided a few kegs of free beer (which I assume really helped with the turnout) and they even gave out some prizes after at a sleezy little bar in the hood.

I was amused the next day to read on the race's forum "I know fixes aren't the coolest bike to ride this year but they're still pretty f'n fast- pro mtb man knows this now." OK, I guess he just wants to think he's on the fringe and has turned a blind eye to the fact that every hipster duffus is sportin a fixie. I suppose word of "who I am" circulated via the Pedal Power or PtP guys as I wasn't wearing a my usual "I'm a Pro mountain biker, kiss my butt" sign or even spandex for that matter. And I will also guess that being a pro instantly marks you – it says you should win and every start line is serious business; that my goal was to come, kick ass and give it 110%, even though my bike choice would kinda prove contrary to that. He makes it sound as though I had some doubts as to the power of the fixie. I thought about posting "I'm bringing my A game next time!" but I really dont care, I'd rather go back with the same bike and goal as last time, just ride and have some fun. Although...I may throw on a 14 tooth cog just to make it a bit more interesting...ha ha hah.

Yes I did

This is now mine. That means I will suck horribly this year as the correlation of good stuff to speed is as follows;



but who cares. its 22 pounds of carbon fiber, ceramic bearing eating noodles and beans to pay for it goodness.

you know what I heard

Anthony has something new.

the lust began

I think we were about 12, maybe 11. Andy had gone up to Thornberry's Toys and Schwinn authorized dealer (now St Matthews Schwinn) to shop for a new bike. He was sailing into uncharted and strange waters, he wasn't buying a new BMX bike, he was getting a 10 speed. Either a Schwinn or some new company, Cannondale, were the two final contestants. The Cannondales were like nothing I had ever seen before. Huge aluminum tubes with wild paint jobs that were cooler than words (I also thought bandanas looked good tied around the legs and breakin was an ok movie, so taste was relative to the date). For reasons that time has lost to me, he went with the Schwinn Traveler. Its was a strange color of mintish green (Bianchi calls it celeste, for copyright purposes, Schwinn called it something far less red wine and bruschetta).

So the point of this. Up until then, bikes were ridden through the woods and jumped off plywood and cinder-block ramps. The occasional big thrill, not to mention long and dangerous journey, consisted of the 4-6 miles over to Indian Hills for some big time gravity action on 20 inch, skidded bald tires - stem pad optional. Never before was a pure speed, sex machine an option or a consideration. Not sex machine in that we were gonna meet even one lady with it, sexy in a Greg Lemond Tour de France way. Sexy in a faster than we had ever gone on two wheels way. Sexy in a breathin hard doing sprints up and down the street to see who could go fastest (though I dont think we had any way of measuring said speed other than witness' eyeballs, or maybe a second hand on a watch). It was so cool how fast those skinny tires could roll and how hard that big gear was to turn.

Some years later, I discovered mtb racing and once i had become "serious," I was told I needed to train on a roadbike to get better. Funds being what they were, a road bike wasnt an option and the mtb with slicks wasnt fast enough. Andy still had the Traveler, so I borrowed it, slapped on some generation 1 spd's (spuds) and rode. This bike wasnt really my ticket into the uber-cool roadie world with its 5 speed rear cluster and friction shifters, but striving for acceptance, especially from dorks, hasnt ever been high on my list. Besides, getting dropped by, (or not dropping), a guy on an 80's 10 speed hurts a lot more than gettin schooled by a guy on a nice ride, at least then you can tell yourself "it's partly the bike that makes him better than me."

Then the time came, my first road race. Well, TT anyway. There I was, sleeveless jersey, visored helmet (once again I refer you to styles of the day) mtb shoes and 10 pound pedals. I ended up winning my class by a good margin, even besting most, if not all, the cat 3's. How awesome. That did get me into "their" world a bit, or marked anyway. A few months later, I purchased a "real" road bike and the Traveler was once again mothballed.

The Traveler came back around a couple years ago when Andy was cleanin out the basement and saw it as unused clutter. He passed it along and I kept it around for a while figuring I would use it as a comuter, but it mainly sat. So, I ended up donating it to a tenant who didnt have a car and I think he pawned it cuz it disappeared about a week later. Since I did give it to him, I didnt figure it was any of my business what happened to it. I just hope wherever it is now, it's still making a difference. Or maybe it served it's purpose already.

Americuhr F*#k yeah

All my depression over dopers in the pro peleton has been offset a bit by my excitement for team slipstream. http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/13706.0.html I hope they're different and have some good results this year.

Also, looks like Gunn Rita Dahle-Flesja or whatever her name is, is over her stomach virus infection thing. Color me skeptical, but everytime I hear of a cyclist getting a viral infection I immediately suspect they got it from doping. I don't even know if the two share a relationship of any sort but that's just my suspesion.

p.s.

why does my yoplait always spit yogurt on me when I peel open the little foil lid?

pleasant surprise

I got in a beautiful 60 mile group ride around lexington this morning. I'm kind of surprised I could still manage 60 miles. About 30 miles into the ride we were cruising along and a squirrel came out of nowhere, plowed straight into my front tire, bounced off and then scurried on across the road. It was a little scary, if I would have ran over it then I may have taken a spill. I'm excited that there is such good routes around Lexington, no hills to speak of, but plenty of rolling horse farm country. If only I could remember where the hell we went today. The ride captain Alec, said they work it up to a century by Feb. or so. Too bad there isn't anywhere to ride a mountain bike around here.

i know ya miss me

I just watched The Flying Scotsman. I thought it was really good. If you haven't seen it check it out, I think it is even suitable for non-cycling-enthusiast viewers because its about the triumph of the human spirit.

I'm looking forward to a long road ride on Sunday around Lexington. I haven't done more that 25 miles since July. I hope I can still make it. Lately I mainly just ride my bike to school (5 miles to campus) and try to get out for a 20 miler or a bit more once a week. I get so stressed about school and find it hard to get myself away from the computer and books for 2 hours but the dumb thing is, if I wouldn't waste time taking breaks watching stupid t.v. shows (big fan of I luv New York) or trying to find nekid girls on the internet I would have plenty of time to take a 2 hour break for a bike ride.

I'm hoping to be a little less stressed about school next semester and ride a little more so that I can be back in shape by july or so to do some racing. Although July and August are probably my least favorite months to race.

On a side note, I've had this weird pain in my gut around my belly-button since monday. It feels like I have a huge fart that just won't come out. Wed. night it got so bad I was on the verge of convincing myself it was appendicitis but now that it has started to back off I'm hoping it will just go away and leave me alone. I'm one of those lucky people that don't have health insurance now that I am a full time student and only work about 12 hours a week.

Hope you're all doing well and if you missed the USGP cyclocross race in Louisville then you missed something special. It was an awesome event to watch. I'm sure I might have even gotten some goose pimples if I had been competing and there had been that may people cheering for me.

Ya'll take care (lexington living has gotten me in touch with my redneck upbringing)

USGP - the good, the bad, and its gonna get ugly

Driving out to grab some Indian buffett at Shalimar friday morning (curry=speed, really) when I saw the SRAM Volvos motoring down the hiway towards Champions Park. Thats when it all kinda hit me; we're having a fer-real national event right here. Awesome.

Friday. The course was open for pre-riding for one hour only. As I rolled into the lot, I got chills, it was an atmosphere like you find at mtb nats, and all these people gathered on our local practice course. So 3 dry laps (as dry as it gets after having 7 inches of rain mid-week) gave way to the sky lettin loose for one last little shower for 3 slimy turns around. It was good to see Treefarm again who hadnt had the privelege of beating me for a couple years, we used to do it on a monthly basis, and I missed the reminder of why I am "local pro" only.

Sat. Got to the race plenty early to watch the masters 35+ race. It was fun rollin around visiting and looking at some of the bling from SRAM, Cannondale and Mavic. But, that wasnt goal 1, I could do more of that tomorrow, I needed to get ready to race. After having to DNF the last 2 CX races due to lung issues, I had no idea how it was going to go. This was hardly the prep I was hoping for for the biggest CX race I have ever done, and being right in my backyard, I wanted to represent well.

My race was a who's who of the fastest guys in the country plus the starting field was in the 80-90 range. Shoot. Man, this was gonna be painful. I started around the 5th row, about 2/3 the way back, not too bad. The gun went off and I had a great start, seemingly just sliding up the inside taking spots by the handful. Then, once again, I got pinned right behind a crash, the first transition onto pavement took a few guys down leaving me no place to go. So I spent the next few laps chasing hard, making small goals of catching different riders and picking off as many as I could. Having someone shouting my name seemingly every 20 feet helped spur me on as well, a little hometown advantage I guess. Working up to around 35th was about as much horsepower as I could muster and rode with a group of 2-4 guys for the next few laps.

The last two laps, my back started to really hurt and legs started cramping up, given my lack of CX racing in the run-up to this race, I was givin my muscles a bit more than they were ready for. I started getting passed and just couldnt muster the energy to kill myself for a few spots up the pack-fill ladder.

Oh well, in the end I was happy to not get lapped and felt like I rode a decent race, all things considered.


Gritty, determined, focused...


and in pain, much pain

USGP Day 2

Some a-hole broke into the back gate of the 3rd street compound and stole my barely one month old Redline. I dont think I need to really say much about my feelings on this matter. Suck.

Goodbye 07

To quote The Jesus Lizard "Your body's achin,', you need a rest, your body's achin', take a rest I say" Well, OK then, I will. Right after this weekends USGP, hanging it up for 07. Man what a long crappy season it's been. Combining a record amount of illness this year and now some recent injuries, trips to the surgeon, pt and weightroom are all forthcoming.

Last weekends Bald Eagle/Race to the Canal was def the crippler. I was doin good for the first 20-22 miles tradin first and second place with some dude from Nashville, railing the downhills and havin a blast just riding, when I suddenly felt the curtain start to close. I tried to eat, but it was too late, my body is just worn out and the curtain was drawn and they were turning lights out. The next 12 or so miles took a long time to complete with several stops for food and other one long one just to enjoy the view of the lake with the wind blowing in my face. It's a pretty disappointing close to a race season that started out so good in the mountains of Georgia and hills of E-town, but all things in perspective, a bad race, or even bad season, isnt such a big deal.

So, one more big race that I really would like to do well in, (being the biggest cycling event Louisville ever has seen), but I realize theres a good chance that just aint gonna happen. But hey, one way the other, its gonna be a lot of fun and I'll hoist a pint to 08.
http://www.usgpcyclocross.com/

won't you buy me one

Will there ever be a day when I don't hear vehicles driving by randomly blasting "Freebird?" Somehow, this song does not seem to be something that the "reds" can get worn out on, sort of like me and vegetarian corn dogs.

cross and all that

so today was the harbin park cx race. it sucked. well, the race was well done and the course was nice, but it was the second race in a row i had to bow out of because i cant breathe. i had a good start, despite steve tillford crashing right in front of me dropping me back about 10 places. into lap 2 it became aparent that my lungs were not going to function right, and that was that. i spent the next couple laps jerkin around (i hope all enjoyed my nose-wheelie crash, i did it for the fans), then pulled the plug. very frustrating. so that and barry wicks is really fast pretty much sums things up.

Mexington CX

Today, I officially launch the movement to change Lexington to Mexington. If you've been there, you know. Calm down, not saying anythings wrong with it, just noting.

So me and Morgan wen to Mexington (rolls off the tongue doesnt it?) for the Masterson Station CX race. Fairly uneventfull. A big, bumpy, grassy course that was ok, not stellar, but it was what it was. So, we start hot (in every sense of the word), and I dont understand some people, this one squirrely dude (who we shelled) that seemed to think there was a first one to everything prime. Its an hour long wide open CX race buddy, settle. Anyway, 2 laps in, it was already down to three, then two. Third lap, I was leading out, go hot into a corner and hear the Bio-wheels rider behind me fold his tire and flat. Crap. Didnt really want to solo the rest of the 5.5 laps, but he seemed strong, which was bad for my winning chances, so his leaving wasnt a horrible thing, and we had already built a decent gap that I was able to keep building on it. I also gotta give props to my boys in the pit thrownin water on me and handing up some bottles, made a huge difference.

Felt good to really peg it and get the heart rate way up there. Next weekend will probably be a bit more of a barf inducing humbling race, but it was good to shake things out on the new bike in a smaller race.

Buenas noches.

I deserved that

To the guy in the big black Cadilac Escalade I saw in the park this morning, I am sorry and thank you. It was rude of me to gesture in a non-combative manner that you may want to cross back over the yellow line and drive on your side. It was not until you flipped me the bird that I realized how truely selfish I was being. Thank you. Next time, I will just keep my arms on the handle bars and, if I am lucky, give you a little smootch when I come through your windshield.

Do these jeans make me look fat?

Ah, the age old cliché question that can only be answered "No its the giant hunk of lard you stuffed into the jeans that make you look fat." I try to be sensitive.

The thing that just kills me, daily, is people bitchin about their weight, everything from "Work here long enough and you'll start to look like me" (I didnt know a workplace could make you look fat and retarded) or "Youre lucky to be so skinny." Either statement is usually made while wiping donut crust or sauce from the 20 piece chicken poppers with honey-chipolte-dogcrap-cherry-sauce from their face. Really? Its the desk job that makes you look like this? You sure? OK then. I've been working office jobs for almost 10 years now, I guess I'm gonna blow up like the kid in charlie and the chocolate factory any minute now.

Speaking of shitty food, ever notice that McDonalds, Taco Bell, KFC, etc, etc, commercials always star reasonably thin folks? How about some truth in advertising and throw in some of the normal wheezing buoyees and weeble-wobbles you see inhabiting these places? Either show me some fatties or the skinny 20 somethings hocking oreo pizza should at least have a bong sitting on the table cuz thats about the only way that food item could ever seem like a good idea.

The best is those who marvel at my "heathy diet." Guess what? I buy my food at the same Kroger/Wal-Mart/Wholefoods/Target that the general public is allowed to shop. Really, anyone is allowed to buy the same items at these retailers, I do not belong to a secret skinny healthy people club, I just make choices.

The point? Shut up and stop complaining about something youre willingly and knowingly doing to yourself. Stop blaming tv, your diet, the internet, george bush or whatever you claim is making you fat cuz I have my suspicions that none of those things are stuffing cookies down your hole.

you down with the ocp?

you know me, i love racing ocp. it has everything; rocky white-knuckle downhills, gut buster climb and just all out fast single track - a great power course. last years first lap ripped tire was a heart breaker for me so i really wanted to some retribution this year. things did not start well. during my pre-ride, my freehub body started freezing up. crap, it worked fine saturday. no time to do anything about it now as we were beginning to assemble around the start.

there was a pretty decent field on hand for the pro/ex race. the start was a grassy flat sprint with a hard right and then left into the woods. the dewy grass and horror stories of the first downhill and a new switchback allowed me to easily take the holeshot as i guess the others figured my mangled torso would make a soft landing should anything happen. the new section of the VOT trail rocks. super fast, flowy and fun which leads into the original section with an awesome downhill with some nice big rocks and a couple sweet, banked sweeping turns. i was riding and feeling great. the freehub was proving problematic though since it was causing my chain to wrap up and at times come off.

second lap, chasers were down to one and after aforementioned downhill, i was all alone. i kept the pace the same as i had first lap, feeling good. since my drivetrain was acting up, it was nice not to have somebody right on me, that way i had some breathing room in case the problem caused me so slow down or crash (i did have to stop to upwrap it from the cogset once and i came out of a few rough corners sans chain on rings - suprise, your freewheeling!).

so the VOT downhill was the star of the day since on lap 3, thats where i blew all the oil from my fork. i could hear the ti spring in there workin and i was feelin a bit nervous about some catastrophic failure that may come. well, that came one lap later when i stuffed the front wheel in a rocky section at speed and heard a "pop." i thought it was my tire burping air and also figured thats why my front end felt loose. in the end, i was 1 minute per lap slower on laps 3 &4 over laps 1 & 2 trying to ride less aggressive and keep the bike together. only after the race did i realize my frame now has a new bend in it and that "pop" was my fork actually breaking. good times.

after all the smoke cleared, i won and it felt great. this year has sucked pretty bad and to win against some decent compitition on a favourite (i forgot to be euro when i mentioned tire, er tyre, earlier so i'll make up for it with a favourite) course feels nice.

Crossin' up

I skipped the OtterCreek MTB race today to hit a Cyclocross race. I pre-rode at OC two weeks ago and had a bad day, primarily due to allergies, but I just didn't really feel it, probably because there's something about OC that I just don't care for. So when faced with the choice of riding my CX bike or MTB I went North up to England-Idlewild park in Burlington, KY and raced on skinny tires there.

Took 6th in the B's, better than I placed last year in CX racing on my Klein Hardtail, so I met my goal of finishing in the top half of the group. I know what I need to work on, so I'm gonna focus on that and see if I can improve.

Sorry to let my MTB fans down, but the CX crowd was appreciative. With the MTB season winding down and the CX heating up, I hope to see more than a couple of MTB'ers out on the CX courses this year.

Hello Darlin...

...nice to see you it's been a long time.

Now that i got you singing, well, maybe not. If you dont get the reference, you were prolly born after – I dunno – 1981, never had to hear songs like "Coal miners daughter" over and over and I hate you. Or maybe envy. Close enough to the same emotion. Lets move on to why I chose the title. I raced last weekend. First race in a month. It kinda sucked. I got beat by a guy who wasnt even born when Purple Rain was a big hit, another who wasnt born when Nirvana released their first album, and a guy with one gear (i guess if we need to make the musical analogy, he would be like a 45, or Dexys Midnight Runners). Yes albums, I am old. Why all the musicall metaphors? Why not.

The last Dino was at Town Run trails park in Indy. Know what the best part about doing anything in Indiana is? Leaving. So anyway, tight fast and flat little course. You may actually stop pedaling for, maybe, 40 seconds in the two hours. Ugh. The inch of rain on saturday made things slick for the first couple laps, just enough to take your wheels out from under you suddenly and quite unexpectedly (uh, so i heard from less skilled riders, yeah, thats it.), but by lap 4 it was packing down nicely. It actually is a fun place to ride, would be fun to do their TT race, but man, for a race course, its kinda frustrating; passing is not the best, you just start feelin dizzy after a while and start longing for a hill (up or down, somethin).

So, after all was said and done, Brad Nelson won his fiirst Dino, Ben Richardson played bridesmaid yet again, Jason Pruitt hammered the hell out of a full rigid (perfect setup for town run) with a 44x18 gear. I came blazing in lookin like I had some fire still in me (I think I fooled them) for 4th. Next weekend; retribution at OCP!

Oh man

Another sad day for enthusiasts of the sport. Stories like this scare the crap out of me and make me consider taking up other sports or just staying in the woods on a mountain bike instead of doing road rides. Here is the obituary for Sean Livesay. A link to his blog is over on the right titled "another mtber living in FL."

Bicyclist killed in Niceville was passionate racer

NICEVILLE — A bicyclist was killed Tuesday morning when he collided with a vehicle’s trailer while training.

Sean B. Livesay, 38, of Niceville, was riding his bike on Bayshore Drive when a pickup truck towing a trailer backed out of a residential driveway at 1733 Bayshore, according to Niceville police Lt. David Popwell.

The accident occurred at about 8:30 a.m., and Livesay was pronounced dead at the scene about 20 minutes later. He was wearing a helmet.

Livesay collided with the trailer, which was carrying landscaping equipment. The driver, who lives at the address, was on his way to work.

The driver will likely be charged with a traffic violation, Popwell said.

Livesay was traveling fast on his bike, but Popwell said he was going under the 30 mph speed limit.

An autopsy was scheduled for later Tuesday, mainly to “close the loop” and rule out possible medical conditions, Popwell said. The autopsy results were not available Tuesday night.

Livesay was a known cycling enthusiast who was often seen riding his bike in the area.

Livesay’s passion for racing sent him traveling across the country looking for new challenges. He documented the efforts on his blog.

“I've been doing a fair amount of training so far, and my fitness is far beyond what it was this same time last year,” Livesay wrote in one of his most recent entries April 12. “I had hoped to already have a race or two under my belt, but life kind of got in the way ... which happens sometimes.”

His performance attracted four sponsors. He started racing in 2002 and had been doing it in competitively since 2005.

Daily News Staff Writer Jill Nolin can be reached at 863-1111, Ext. 1445.

Great Day of Riding

I must say wednesday was as hot as a coon's bottom sliding down a hill. Man, crazy hot days, but you still gotta get your ride on. I did see Curtlo out there on a fixie, and to watch him ride through the WL was like watching Brian Botano ice skate. It was magical. No wonder he got the fastest lap at the 13 hours of howeveryouspellit....

Thursday was a bit cooler and a much better day for me. Tended to some bank business;), ate lunch w/ Goldberg, ran into an old friend, and then rode my usual loop at Cherokee.

I decided i was not going to hammer. The mountain bike messiah mike stevens appeared in my home earlier this week like an angel descending from the heavens, ok not really, he just kinda walked in w/o knocking. I remember the sage training advice that he gave me while riding in durango, co a few years ago. I took his advice to heart, and it seemed to work.

I rode pretty much everthing w/o getting worn out, and I don't beleive i put a foot down for nuttin. I helped a fellow mtb'er patch a tube and was reminded of the long forgotten days of working in a shop, oh wait, i never patched a tube, i always tossed em and just put a new one in. Probably another cause of global warming...sorry about that.

I am enjoying my 29er SS a lot. I can't say 100 % for sure that it is better than a 26er, but I do feel being 6'4, the frame does fit me better. I do like not having to raise my seat 20 inches out of the seat tube. I know, I know my old motto, well i got a new one, BC's skillz + 29 inch wheels = ? that's all i got, maybe you can give me a new motto!?!?!

Peace out!

And be sure to check out the hottest new forums, MTB Free. These things are blowin up and there is even some prizes!

Peace out again!