Aram Arcadium

Hello readers (or "fans" as clara likes to call them).

The truth? I Haven't really felt like updating in the last week. So many things are going on. The world was blessed with a fresh and new 28 track double album from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. "Stadium Arcadium" (hence the super-creative and witty subject line...what is an arcadium anyhow?). The album's growing on me, 28 tracks. I'm partial to the second disc, but both are top notch, and flea's bass playing comes through real nice on a long ride with the headphones on. As if the novelty of a new chili pepps album weren't enough.....THE Edmonton Oilers are in the 3rd round. They beat the sharks...thankfully, without as much nail-biting drama as the first series (but still a shite-load)....annnnnnnnnnnd....they face one of the most unlikely of opponents........the anaheim mighty ducks. Anaheim. It's right here. Who said dreams don't come true? Game one is tomorrow. I don't have a car. I likely don't have enough money for a ticket, but i'm going. It's one of those things that if I don't do, I'll regret for the rest of eternity. So yeah. Oil. Peppers. Oh, bikes....

Hmmm. Raced last sunday. CBR 100k. Why'd I go? I dunno. I made it there with about 8 minutes to the start. Vera at registration's great. She signed me up, and pinned me...and a testament to how much I procrastinate; this is the third time she's done so. Thanks Vera...if you read this. The race? I DNFed. But it was my classiest DNF ever. I guarantee that I burned more calories than anyone else in that race. Anyhow. So 100k. Lots of laps. Tiny field, maybe 60 guys. So from the gun, literally, my first couple pedal strokes, I launched a joke-attack. Looked back, fixed my shoe straps, took a drink, and still had a gap. To my dismay, a guy bridged, and then it was head down, round and round, for maybe two laps. Back together. 3491 laps to go. I launch another attack a few laps later. I jumped hard, so no one came. One lap solo. Cool. Felt rad, so kept at it, and didn't feel like I was killing myself at all. A young pup bridged up to me, obviously beat to hell from the bridge effort. Ok. I let him sit, he took a couple pulls I guess. This break went maybe 4 laps? I took a rad simple-green bike cleaning kit prime. I'd of been upset if I did all those laps off the front without something to show for it...Anyhow. With this young guy, there was no chance of staying away, so after one of his pulls, I look back, and it's a strung out field with Hilton Clarke and Ben Brooks (Navigators) leading the chase. "Hey guys, flattered that'd you'd chase me down". No response. Ah well...it's one of those intimidation things Merckx talks about. You gotta show them you feel good. So they showed me a counter attack right there, as they made contact. I went with it. Perfect move. Me, 2 navigators, and Rudy from helens. I knew it'd be the winning break...but...I didn't have it. Hilton destroyed me after about 2 laps, and I pulled off. Embarrassing, but hey. I was off the front for maybe 6 of the first 12 laps. These things happen. So I recovered a few laps later, and just completely dedicated myself to chasing these guys down. Made lots of monster pulls, still felt friggin great, but it wasn't coming back. I dropped out as soon as they lapped the field (took them a long long while, the lap card showed about 15 to go, we started at 60) but did so without any remorse...which is usually the case after any DNF. "So how'd you do today?" "DNFed". "Out of how many?" "DNF". (That's an inside joke glitch for 'core readers of this blog). Oh, and my new favorite thing...post race....people ask people "hey, how'd you do?". "oh, you know...top twenty....but I did that 40k TT yesterday". Yeah dude, 'cause surely you would have won if you hadn't done it.