2008 Vuelta Independencia (3/3)

2008 Vuelta Independencia (2/3)

2008 Vuelta Independencia (1/3)

Triplets of Belleville

The Triplets of Belleville - Theatrical Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Something I forgot about over the winter

Summer is Awesome. Al Gore, if you're reading this, I'd like to thank you for, in addition to inventing the internet, inventing global warming. Let me fill everyone in that doesn't live in New Hampshire or just stays indoors all day reading blogs: Yesterday was beautiful. Yes, Tuesday April 28th, the weather in Portsmouth, New Hampshire reached over 90 degrees. I mean, the last couple of Fridays were pretty nice weather, but nothing like this. It was the perfect day for cycling and getting the year's first sunburn.

It was the kind of halcyon day that reminded me of my hay-day, last July, when I was just cresting the peak of my fitness. When my tan lines were deep. When I was a bronzed and brazen god of cycling, an unstoppable force of power. At least that's how I felt. And it's how I felt today. The seacoast was my oyster, and it was about to get shucked--big time. I tossed on my bike shorts and Tour de Cure jersey and headed out, just me, Rohan and the open road.

I ended up in Exeter and it was such a nice day out, and I was feeling so nice, you know what I did? I went to Wheel Power and I bought a new bike. Well, I put in an order for one. More on that later. After that I started making my way east but wouldn't you know it, just a kilometer or more outside of Exeter, I get a flat. Of course I hadn't brought a tube or pump or anything. First time I left the house for anything serious without my flat kit. I'd thought about a recent post on Sprinter Della Casa's blog about why tubular tires are so awesome including the fact that you can sort of ride them flat in relative safety, or even win a Cycling World Championship on a flat:

Ummmm except I don't ride tubulars, I ride clinchers. After walking the bike like 100 meters I said to hell with it. Inspired by the flattened world champion, I rode the rest of the way to the nearest bike shop, which happened to be NorEast Cycling's sponsor, Exeter Cycles. I figured if I put as much of my weight as possible on my hands it would probably keep the rear rim from getting too damaged, and besides the roads are mostly smooth in Exeter. I show up there, and having been there perhaps twice in my life (as it is out of the way--from my house I pass three bike shops to reach it), and not wearing my NorEast team kit or anything, they set me up with a free tube anyway. I filled up my tire to the proper pressure. I've read that you should pump it up until the next pump would cause it to explode. Finding this magical PSI takes finesse. I assume clinchers blow off the rim at 120.01 PSI.

That business settled, I plotted a course for the beach. Hampton Beach. Mind you, this is the first day above 80 degrees, nevermind the 92 that it was. As you might imagine, Hampton Beach was what we refer to in the biz as a shit show. I mean, route 1A was a complete and total parking lot from Route 27 to Seabrook. Cars weren't even lined up right, they were criss-crossed all over the place, cars trying to get in, cars trying to get out. I cycled through, weaving in and out between the lanes as needed at maximum smugness (and a fair speed). If there's one thing I love, and I think most all cyclists really love, it's being smug. I chuckled smugly to myself at the fools stuck in their cages in the blazing heat as I blazed by, a smug blur fading in to the mirage of endless traffic. It was great.

When I eventually got home, I realized that I'd been out for some five hours, and had a pretty nice sunburn. Nothing too bad, just the sort of burn where you feel like you're still outside in the sun later that night. The right kind of sunburn. I feel good. Feeling good is important.

Home Workouts

I don't have any of the weight equipment in this video readily available, but here are some great workouts for folks like my brother, who has two of his own.

The African Cyclist

Website. Blog.

Training With(out) Power

You may have heard of Training with Power, but training without power is something else entirely. The northeast got hit with a pretty big ice storm on Thursday night. Icy branches fell on power lines all over the seacoast New Hampshire area, leaving only a few places with electricity. My house was out of power for a while. It's not that bad just being in the dark and quiet, but the heat and hot water require electricity to start.

Fortunately my girlfriend brought me her backup heater. Behold:

If you follow the Sprinter Della Casa cycling blog then you'll have noticed that the last two or three months have been 93% kittens and 7% bicycling. Personally I like to keep my blogs remotely on topic but cats are pretty great. So, in a synergy of felines and fitness, I give you this:

Bicycle Hero?

Bike Love: Pee-wee Herman

Pee-wee's Big Adventure was a 1985 action comedy which tells the story of Pee-wee Herman embarking on nation-wide adventure in search of his stolen bicycle. The guy loves his bike. Here's a montage:

Cyclocross

Exeter Criterium

Yesterday, Tuesday July 1, was the Exeter Criterium. I didn't race (need to upgrade to category 3) but I did go down to watch. There was plenty of excitement: PRO teams (Bissell Racing, Kelly Benefit, and more). Bad Weather. Crashes. Crazy Fans.

One thing about going to the races is the equipment. Where there's PRO teams, there's PRO gear. Bissell Racing's Pinarello Princes make my shorts tight. And then theres the guy from BOB Cycling who is now famous for no other reason than that he has a HED3 rear wheel:

A good race always draws out the crazed fans, like Borat in last year's Tour de France. Check out this guy in the speedsuit, sandals, and American flag. I assume the aerodynamic speedsuit onesie is to make up for the drag coefficient from the flowing cape:


Women's Race
The action started first with the women's race, after a delay for a thunderstorm that dumped a bit of rain on the course on the otherwise perfect day. Hub Racing from Washington, D. C. had several riders and pretty much dominated the race. NorEast had one rider in the women's field, I think it was Kristie Reynolds. The finishing sprint was pretty good; sideline videos aren't much to look at but if you're interested I found the women's race final sprint on YouTube.

Men's PRO/1/2/3 Race
The men's race started off with the announcer mentioning a few of the riders to look out for. I don't remember their names (I'm horrific with names, I'd probably forget my own if it wasn't stickered all over town).From left to right, they are the overall leader of the New England Bikeweek series, the rider for the United States Armed Forces' team, and last year's winner, now riding for a professional team. I got a minute to talk to the USAF rider after the race. The sponsors pay for their bikes and stuff, and they get flown around to whatever races they are doing. How awesome is that? It's just like Forrest Gump playing ping-pong.

The roads were still wet despite the sun having come back out from the clouds, and a tight turn in to Phillips Exeter Academy was not good, with the men's field taking a crash. Maybe five riders went down. One of the Bissell riders got pretty hurt--looked like a dislocated shoulder or broken collarbone from what I could see. Someone nearby got video:

Then, at the end, came the men's final sprint. The race was won by Shawn Milne from Team Type 1. Team Type 1 was created in 2004 to inspire people living with diabetes to take a proactive approach to managing their health and overcoming the obstacles often associated with the condition. In 2006 and 2007, the squad won the eight-rider team division of the Race Across America and finished runner-up in 2008 while consisting solely of athletes who have Type 1 diabetes.

So, there's the Exeter Criterium, hosted by NorEast Cycling. Now we're looking forward to September, the York Criterium, and the Portsmouth Criterium.

Le Tour vs. Drugs

July is coming, and that can only mean one thing: the Tour de France. Last year's tour was full of controversy, with two teams withdrawing from the tour, having had riders that failed blood-doping tests during the tour. This year, the Astana Team was not invited by the ASO, the organization that hosts the tour, even though they are a Pro Tour team. Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer, who came in first and third now ride with Astana, so they are out. Also, Tom Boonen, the dreamy Belgian sprinter and winner of last year's maillot vert, the green jersey of the points classification leader, will not be returning after testing positive for cocaine.

We can argue all month long about whether or not recreational cocaine usage should count as a disqualification. No, it's not performance-enhancing in the context of a momentary indiscretion in a hotel room. You might say it's more of a testament to Boonen's skill, that he can party that hard and still kick that much ass, winning the Paris-Roubaix and everything. You probably could make a joke that his nickname is "Tornado Tom" because he snarfs up everything in sight, like a cyclone.

However, it is my opinion that using cocaine is only for the immature. Cocaine is not PRO. It's not even cool. In my experience, I've found that it's only for people that are otherwise really quite dull, boring. It doesn't matter how you look at it though, the fact remains: Tom Boonen has been un-invited to the Tour de France. If you, like myself, are a fan of the sprinters, you will have to look elsewhere this year.

Tour de American Breakaway Flyers

Epic Bike Crashes

In light of my bike crash last week, I've been thinking about bike crashes in general. I've probably seen or participated in a million of them--my own, and my friends', from ever since I was a little kid riding bikes after school. I've seen more road rash, more skinned knees and faces, and all manner of blood-spewn scenes than I can remember.

No one crashes like the PROs do though. Here's one of Saunier Duval's Angel Gomez taking a massive header in this year's Tour of Flanders:

That one looked like it might have hurt a little. I'm wondering if anyone else has any good crash stories/videos/pictures?

Horrible Crash . . . Averted

Last night was one of the evenings I decided to go without a helmet. I went to work, and got out at about 1:30 in the morning. As I was pedaling home, I decided to go for an all-out power sprint down the strip on Congress street, past where the Portsmouth Criterium's finish line is. The wind was whipping freely through my hair as I pounded the pedals, about 30, 35 miles an hour when my chain missed a cog or something, and I stepped right through the pedal, and the full force of my 165 pounds fell straight through to the ground.

I reflexively pulled my foot up, kept a firm but relaxed grip on the handlebars, and had about 50 feet (one second) to think "Oh wow, this is going to really hurt, big time" as my bike serpentined left and right, with the top tube firmly wedged in my rear quadrant. As the bike's front wheel was figuring out where it wanted to go, I got my foot back on the pedal. From there I regained balance, got back up on the saddle, and kept going. All without touching the brake. I really wish someone had seen it, because it was amazing. It was almost exactly like this video of Alberto Contador's brilliant recovery in a 2004 race:

In all of my most horrible almost-crashes, I'd have to say that the best advice I can give is to just relax and let it happen. If you tense up, jam on the brake, try to jump off the bike, or have some other kind of panic response, you are probably going to get hurt. You'll find that your bicycle wants to keep rolling--it doesn't want to fall over. Be relaxed, trust your bike, and 90% of the time you'll be okay.

Bicycle!

Preparing the Bicycle

Today I am getting my bicycle prepared for the Tour de Cure, my 100-mile ride to raise money for Diabetes research, awareness, and services in two days. I don't really have time to post about it, but it's going a little something like this:

First Race Results

Ouch.

Under the advisement of Tom Luther, the NorEast club president, I raced the "B" race, which included some Category 3 riders--guys that have finished at least 35 races, and have finished in the top ten at least ten times. I think he thought I needed to be humbled after last week's NorEast team ride. Consider me humbled.

The course was the oval at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, NH. It also had a detour off the oval that went over a couple decently steep hills. As my group took off from the line, I slotted in perfectly near the front, but not at the front. I maintained that position for a couple laps, but I let myself end up on the front with the wind in my face, which wore me down for a little. I let myself get passed and slotted back in to the wind-protection of the middle of the pack of about 30 riders.

Eager to regain my position near the front of the pack, I got a little squirrelly and jumped around the inside of the turn going down the second hill. I took a really stupid, horrible line, and almost like killed everyone--it was pretty heinous. Everyone was okay though, and I ended up getting back on near the back of the pack, and slowly worked my way back up through the middle, the non-stupid way.

These races in Loudon are won by points, not by who finishes first. There are 15 laps around the course, and every third lap, three, two, or one points are rewarded for first, second, and third position, respectively. The ninth lap and the fifteenth lap are worth double points. The person with the most points at the end wins. The person with the most points at the end of the year wins the whole series.

After about the fifth lap, I decided I would sit in the middle-front of the pack, then go for it on lap nine. As we came down the tight-turning hill and back on to the oval, I saw a couple guys take off. I blasted off as hard as I could, and I got second place behind some guy in a speedsuit that was just hammering big time. I felt like I had a good sprint, but I know I can do better. I think I got four points on that one, but maybe there were a couple other guys that were way ahead that I didn't see, which means it was a sprint for third, and I got fourth.

That sprint was intense though; I thought I was going to puke. I mean it really took everything out of me. After that I couldn't get back on with the pack, and I got dropped. Big time. When you get dropped in this race, and you can't get back on, you have to join up with the next group (all 4 groups, A, B, C, and D are on the track at once; the slower groups have to yield when they get passed by the faster groups) I got totally dusted and had to wait for the C group to catch up with me, and then tack on with them.

I was totally spent though and I didn't have enough left as they went up the hills, and fell off the back of their group too. It was horrible. As I made my way alone around the course, Cake's "The Distance" was playing in my head. . . . The arena is empty except for one man, still driving and striving, and hugging the turns . . . My original B group passed me, and as I rolled in to the finish lines, the officials let me know that was the last lap. They didn't seem to care that I was a lap short, since it's a points race anyway, not a timed race.

I'm still waiting for the results to see if I did indeed get those four points for the ninth lap sprint. If I did, then I've accomplished something. If not, well, that's fine too. I got served a giant piping hot slice of humble pie--not the tastiest dish, but rather healthful. I'll post the results when I get them. In the meantime, here's this:

Paris-Roubaix 1989