The Aram Chronic

ECMSR

2011-10-04T17:23:00.006+02:00

In February 2009, I had that unpleasant encounter with the vehicle. That moment would be significant in a lot of ways. Physically, the most significant injury i've ever sustained, first time i've been knocked unconscious, and first time I've been hospitalized. Emotionally: plenty of drainage. I got back on the bike and raced, but never with the same zeal or pleasure and with a newfound “awareness” of vehicles. The incident closed a chapter of my life. And regrettably, as a result of this incident, I received a crash course in how the legal system handles matters like this. Which in part is why I'm starting it off with this dull paragraph/disclaimer. And yeah, i'm not stoked about how the ongoing legal situation makes me apprehensive about writing this or anything like it in the first place.

ECMSR. The big bad East Coast Messenger Stage Race, put on by NYC messenger Austin Horse. It was one of those things that was proposed to us [Wolfpack Hustle] a few months ago, and when something is proposed that far in advance, you don't really nitpick, even if a stage race across the east coast can and will be a fierce logistical challenge, at best. So of course we said yes, work gave me the okay, and Jetblue kindly offered to fly us out there (in light of the #flightvsbike PR buzz I assume).

Fast forward to two days before what I thought was the departure date. Made some calls, dug through some emails, and nope, the following morning is in fact the departure date. I'm pretty good with travel procrastination (I write this while on my flight back to LA which I made with 1 minute left before the gate closed), so packed super-light, boxed the bike, and got to the airport in time.

Stage 1, Boston, MA to New Haven, CT [150 Miles]

"How many racers would show up?" There wasn't an "official" purse, it was a 5 day commitment, and it was not widely promoted. I really had no idea, 50? 500? Messengers? We made our way to the start, a bike shop in South Boston. Riders and racers trickled in. Swell! I hadn't done a stage race since France. Very excite. Numbers were provided, which added to the "unsanctioned, but yes, we're racing" feeling. The number of racers was capped at 30, I assume because of how difficult it would be to sort out housing for a larger group of racers. The peleton amassed on a small traffic island for a couple photos, and bam, we were off.

A couple details before I continue: this race was strictly grassroots old-skool racing. No road closures, no official course. Race from a location in city A to a location in city B. When you get to the second location there is no finish line, only a code written on a posterboard which needed to be texted to the race organizers to determine the finishing time. You follow that? So there is NO sprint...there is "git out your phone asap, and with calm fingers, text the code, verbatim, to end the stage." Fun stuff.

And the boston stage was underway. The team spent plenty of time planning the route (chapeau to Jon and Alex for this), and it was basically a massive drag on a couple major roads for the entire 150 miles of stage 1. Surprisingly, only a few of the other racers followed us, and it was pretty simple to drop the hangers-on after a few miles. It became a team time trial, which I'm a big fan of. A million rollers later, we got to New Haven 1-2-3, and we decided to have Fabian, our fresh 19 year old, text in the answer first for the win. I thought I was second, but i guess ATT lagged a bit, and I wound up 3rd. Great stuff, 1st overall team and individual for the Wolfpack A squad. We put more than an hour on 4th place. ;]

Stage 2, New Haven, CT to Brooklyn, NY [90 Miles]

The queen stage, in my opinion. NY is kinda a big deal on the east coast. We Awoke to pouring rain. Massage style. Before I make it sound emphatically miserable, I will say that it wasn't cold at all, which made it much more bearable. From the gun, people were much more aware that we were the team to follow. And so they followed, and so we attacked every hill from the gun. I intended for tactics to be basic...attack, and let the others chase and chase until they broke. Being the roadie snob that I am, I assumed my teammates knew the basic "attack, and sit in while other riders chase down your teammate", but I had to give a crash course in race strategy while out on the course. They picked it up eventually I think. With one of our riders up the road in the rain, and the peleton down to 6-7 people, I asked my other teammate to drift back so that I can have a chat about how we're going to isolate ourselves and get that TTT into brookyln...then I made the cat 5 move of getting on the shoulder while talking to him, and picking up a nice piece of glass on the front tire. Fabian of course stopped, had a really quick change, and we were back up, head down, full chase. We had a teammate up the road, which in most cases is perfect, because he can inhibit the chase, but i'm not sure that he understood that.

Fabian and I eventually bridged back to two guys (JT and Chris from NYC) who said that Jon was still up the road. We were riding along route 1, south, and at some point, john took a wrong turn, and we followed. A couple miles later, with Jon out of sight, Chris announced "hey, we're heading in the completely wrong direction." We went from adversaries to allies pretty quickly, Fabian sent Jon a text saying "hey, turn around!", flipped a U turn, and eventually were back on track. No games though, this time. We rode together and everyone pulled through. Given the 6 mile detour, a couple other riders caught us from behind as well. We got to brooklyn in ridiculous heavy rainforest-style rain, hub deep through rivers in the Bronx at times, madness. This really isn't my game, or my city. I literally hung on for dear life. Made it as far as 2nd Ave, which was completely packed with cars. I suspect that the NYC guys knew this, and took us this way because (A) we had to follow and (B) there was no way in hell we'd be faster than them through 2nd Ave at rush hour. They dropped us, and I caught on with a 3rd guy, Corey, who we used to get us over the williamsburg bridge, and home to Times Up! , the bike co-op where the stage finished. Me and fabian finished together, and we let Corey take the final podium spot in light of his assistance through the city. If it was just me and Fab, I don't know if we would have ever found this place. Our teammate Jon got to the spot about 30 minutes after we did. Everyone was completely soaked and spent. Fab let me have the first text, so I snuck into the leader's jersey for the time being. That chase effort after the flat was a really tough one for me.

Stage 3, Brooklyn, NY to Philadelphia, PA [100 Miles]

This was a bit of a transition stage. Certainly not the most exciting, and North Philly is an odd place with a great deal of unhappy motorists and road hazards throughout this land. One of the riders, Corey, was from Philly, and another one lived in the city, so we followed them, assuming they knew the route. Funny part about "making your own route", if you don't know the route well, you can't really ride aggressively, because there's a good chance you'll end up just riding in the wrong direction, so kept it conservative, while I tried to recover from the chase effort the previous day. It worked allright, and was able to go with the aggressive riding by the other towards the end. When we got to the finish, there was a massive scramble and sprint to the imaginary finish line. I didn't sprint at all. I casually rolled to the finish area, saw the code from about 5 meters away, and calmly sent the message. Victory! Nice pair of Oakley sunglasses as a prize, too.

Stage 4, Philadelphia, PA to Baltimore, MD [100 Miles?]

Again, pretty straightforward stage, but with much more scenic countryside, and relentless rolling hills. JT from NYC was along for the ride this time, and pulled through at the front and would be very difficult to drop, so we were allright with it. After some really beautiful country roads, we crossed the state line into Maryland, and were soon entering the city of Baltimore. 4 of us. 3 wolfpacks, 1 JT. We had to drop him, otherwise it'd be another chaotic text message battle at the end, which is too unpredictable. I decided on taking a sharp right turn as a team while on JT's wheel through the city. With that turn coming up, he actually attacked hard the wrong way, and Fabian went with him. That left me and Jon to get to the finish. Plenty of iphone help later, we hauled ass to the finish, but there was no banner in sight...hmmm...rode around and around, made some calls, checked maps, nothing. JT eventually rode in as well, without Fabian. After some more exploring, we saw a big industrial building across the river, which apparently used the address from the same street we were looking for. Jon started to sprint, and I said "hey! get your phone ready!", which is the ECMSR equivalent of a leadout I guess. I then sat up, hoping to get him our 3rd stage win. And yep, he got it. I finished third, and fabian rolled in about 5 minutes later, in 4th. I maintained the GC, and yep, geared up to win this thing, and it seemed like a formality with a 5 minute lead and only a 50 mile stage coming up.

Stage 5, Baltimore, MD to Washington, DC [45 Miles]

The District. Love this place. After a very short and fast 40 miles, we got to the outskirts of the city. Surprised to find so many hills here, and it split up the group considerably. Fabian, my teammate and only GC threat, skitched (sp?) his way up the road very late in the stage, but he was in sight, and don't think the 5 minutes was in jeopardy. After finidng myself alone, and with Fabian in sight, I put the head down and started closing the gap. Awesome hills on that north end of town. I eventually lost sight of him when I assume he made a wrong turn somewhere. I got to the address specified, and was there ahead of anyone else...trouble is, no posterboard, no people, nothing. A very very frustrating moment. I tried to be rational, made some calls and calmly stated my situation, and was bummed but relieved when JT rolled up yet again in the same position we were in earlier. Eventually, we cut across a park, and sure enough, we'd all been guided 2 blocks in the wrong direction. We got to the finish, I saw fabian there, alone, and thought for sure I had lost. I was upset, anyone who wouldn' t be isn't a bike racer. Skitching is a bit of a grey-area in the messenger game, and it's an instant DQ in any sanctioned race, and to lose in that way was a bummer. [To Fab's credit, plenty of guys were doing it on this day. He was not the first.] Text sent, I was resigned, meh......and I made it with 1:30 to spare! Fffffahhh. I was still angry heat of the moment style, but the donated keg and finish atmosphere eventually mended the situation. 1st team classification, and 1st team GC.

Bam, good times, and I hope that i'm in a situation to do this race again sometime.

Dominguez Hills Crit, 600th Time This Year

2010-06-24T05:44:00.002+02:00

Ciao!

Time to update. Not the best day for it, as I banged my right knee pretty badly earlier today while lugging a barely carry-able coffee table through los feliz (table made it ok!). This report's a bit late, forgive me, but as I'm always quick to rationalize -better late than never...meh.

More preface....i've hardly been training this year, and same on the racing front. I don't even have a USCF license yet! It's June! I wasn't planning on racing at all this year, but the crew at Predator Bikes were kind enough to provide some support and motivation to get out and pin a number on once in a while. So I did...CBR. Been helping out at races, and it's been nothing but swell times. Happy (and sad, from a comedic point of view) to say that Chris Lotts is a lot kinder to the lower-cat dudes pinning up for the first time. The "speech" as we know it is pretty gentle now.

Ok...so I raced the DH course for about the 6th time (i think) this year. ZERO results thus far, even after lapping the field a month or so ago, but some really solid racing, and each race has developed differently. For this race, I was on my brand-new Predator team bike, with HD cameras mounted front and rear...so might have some video to show off when those come through. So pinned up, got rolling. Cameras on my bike? Front and rear? Of course i'm gonna attack the shite out of the race. Somehow, the fitness (at least for breakaways) is still there, so I rolled with it. First attack stayed off for a lap or two with another guy, but I was really just testing the waters (and the new bike...top marks...will do a proper review in another post). Came back, still fresh, ready to go with another move. Nate Deibler was off solo, chuggin along, and they called a $20 prime. $20 is a big-money prime in the CBR world. I attack hard at the start finish, and got a gap. Former team director (from Sixtufit PAA) Armin Rahm sneaked onto my wheel. Pull him along turns 1, 2, 3....I started to fade, and Nate was still a good 10 meters ahead. I put my hand back for a sling to get Armin the jump (and guaranteed $20)....but he didn't take it, and we both kinda sat up, exhausted, while Nate took the prime and kept going. Shortly thereafter, former Bearclaw superstar Mike Tettleton (kinda like the cigarettes in Idiocracy) bridged up and nudged me on. I said to go on and that I had nothing...which was true, except all the prime drama gave us a pretty nice gap on the field. Put the head down, and got up there....

Couple laps later, we had a nice little break. Two lagranges (jason bausch & armin), me, mike, that guy from the Time team that won the Long Beach GP, the guy with the massive hair that keeps winning the kom sprint at the end of mullholland from me on the Nichols ride, and a couple others. We rolled around, happy to say "guy with the hair" was popped, and so were a couple others, and we were down to 5 riders....or so I thought. After a good 30 minutes of suffering,a nd getting the gap up to nearly a minute, I pulled off and noticed that there was a 6th rider the whole time. FF. Rookie mistake by me to have let that go for that long, and was surprised no one else in the break cared. I said to the guy (Jas Bausch, LaGrange) "hey, I'm not towing you to the finish, guy." And he said "i'm not taking the Time guy to the finish...bad odds." So I gapped him off the back of the break, and said "fine, you're out of the break then", and i fully expected him to pull through once I did that, but nope. We just sat up, got a 1 minute rest, and were both reabsorbed by the field. He was thinking that his team (which had numbers, but not so much HP) would be able to bring the break back, and get a "better odds" break up the rode.

Never happened. Jason apologized for making the wrong call a bit later in the race, and that's it. game over. Shoulda had a top 5 at least, but ah well. Great to see Mike finish 2nd though. Kid's got alligator blood (i mean that figuratively....as far as I know, Bike Religion isn't yet equipped to handle alligator blood transfusions...).

Fun low-pressure racing. Hopefully I can pull a result at one of those super-late season races that no one cares about... Ciao!

Safety

2010-04-10T05:45:00.010+02:00

While at the tail end of a 2 hour ride, me and a friend were cruising down a clear 4 lane road. A kind gentleman on a loud Harley/Chopper/Compensator came up from behind, released his throttle as he rode up so we wouldn't hear him, and hit it at full throttle inches from my left calf. He of course proceeded to race it to a red light 200 meters away.

As is frequently the case, we coasted to the red light a few seconds later right alongside our new friend. Had a nice look at the guy at this point, too. Shaved head, handlebar moustache. A tribal tattoo on his right forearm left over from the 90s. A real gen-U-ine tough-guy!

"Hey, any reason why you buzzed me full throttle back there?"

"Maybe you should get the fuck out of my way. Did you flip me off?"

"It's an empty two lane road, we're going above the speed limit, and you're on a motorcycle with plenty of room to pass."

[what's that? rational thought? he's not a fan, nope] "You want to fucking go? Lets go."

Funny how these things happen right as the light turns green. He emphatically headed off to wherever tough-guys go presumably to never be seen by us again. It bummed me out, really. Only yesterday, one of the nicest racers in town, Jorge Alvarado, was killed by a reckless high school kid drag racing his cronies on the streets. Even before this incident, I was overcome with grief, but also with anger, and all of it with an underlying sense of grave concern and awareness that it really could have been any of us out there, getting smashed up by one of these cancers of society. I don't intend for this to be a memorial for Jorge, may he rest peacefully. Nor do I intend for him to be a martyr for road rage awareness. I mention him here because regrettably the story continues...

We rode another mile down the road. Lo and behold, the same shiny compensator is parked in some car garage, and our man is chatting it up with his tough-guy associates. I'm a stubborn guy, and on reflex I approached our aggressor. This time with a compassionate request for sympathy because of what transpired the day before.

"A friend of ours died yesterday, man, because of a similar road-rage incident. I don't even want an apology, i'm just asking you to sympathize and understand where we're coming from. A guy died, yesterday, man."

"Do you want to die today?"

"What, are you gonna kill me?"

"Yeah, OK."

I'm not a tough guy. Certainly not whilst wearing cleats and spandex after a two hour ride. The most frightening thing about his delivery was that it wasn't sadistic or deranged in any way. He simply matter-of-factly stated, with a straight face, that he was ready to kill, and seamlessly turned his back to presumably get his weapon of choice. Did a good little sprint to get out of there, and my friend and I instinctively split up. He wound up at a fire station, and called the cops. I hauled ass out to an alley, and hid in between two walls, and hoped for the best. Fucking terrible feeling, not being able to "run for your life" but to sit and "wait for your life". I could hear his motorcycle putting around Montrose, and it made at least a couple passes before it was gone. Phone rang, and I went to the firestation to wait for the police officers.

ONE HOUR LATER...and still no one showed up. I set off to find my own cop, and sure enough I did. At the coffee shop. Officer Zakarian. Friendly, helpful, and sympathetic. Top marks. He chatted us up on what the options were, what to expect, etc. About 20 minutes later, and 80 minutes after the initial call, the original cops showed up. Four cars. What stellar efficiency! Regrettably, Officer Zakarian had to leave, and in his place we got officer dumb and dumberer, and WAY dumber than a box of rocks. I'm not kidding you, one of them, Officer Postajian, had a good 3 ounces of chewing tobacco spewing out from his lower lip. Glendale's finest, no doubt. This is the same guy that later came with "i don't tell you how to do your job. don't tell me how to do mine." Who said anything about a job? They tagged teamed us with some devil's advocate bullshit, and Postajian even said that WE could end up in jail, and that if we didn't drop this issue, we'd risk "ruining our weekend" with a jail sentence. These quotes are all verbatim, I swear it. This lasted a good hour, and the high point for me was when the least-dumb cop of the three (his name escapes me) asked me if it was wise to approach a guy who aggressively confronted me earlier. I paused, and emphatically came back at him with "Actually, YES. In hindsight it was wise. In the interest of NOT having this happen to someone in the future, it was ABSOLUTELY the correct decision." They continued with the apathetic spiel until we basically got sick of it and called it a day. Shortly before we were done, however, our man strut into the scene, happy as a clam, trying to engage me in a staring contest. Fun. He also flipped me off with the cops right there, which is ironic because the cops said that us flipping him off (which never happened) was how he rationalized his actions.

I've had weapons pulled on me, I've had glass bottles get thrown at me, i've been hit, and I have my life threatened about once an hour while riding in LA. Like I said, dime a dozen, and this certainly won't be the last. The difference with this one is that it's here, documented, and real. It's not in some bureaucrat's desk, decomposing away. I reached a boiling point ages ago. I'm beyond it, and I'm livid, and I want to take action. This is the action. If this is me being christened as a bicycle-rights activist, so be it. I can't kick these guys' asses or pull strings in Glendale City Hall to get something done, but I can write, I can inform, we can work our cycling and social networks and, cliche as it sounds, "raise awareness"...for something that actually needs to be brought to people's attention.

-

Now, let's take a less morose tone...

Despite the redundant and illogical questioning from GDPD's finest, I knew of course that nothing would come of this whole ordeal, but I had an itch to at least come away with something. Luckily, the guy paraded next to us after the "case was closed", and right in front of the GDPD, I snapped some photos of our friend. He might look familiar to some of you, as he's well known in that little nook in montrose. He's affectionately known as "Mighty Whitey" and "Hollywood" by neighboring businesses. He also has a cute vanity license plate on his moto that reads (i'll have it here shortly...). Here's a shot of his shop/domecile/hangout:

[via google street view]

And here are the ones I took of him off the moto, celebrating his tough-guyness.

Blasting Bowie...

2010-02-11T20:11:00.007+01:00

...and blogging. Good combo.

Mr. Bowie is on because it follows "Daryl Hall and John Oates" on my itunes library...and they're the band of the week, but this ain't about Hall & Oates. What is it about? Nothing in particular....but....I raced my bike a few weeks ago! Woo! CBR #1 Race Report:

I really had no intention of pinning on a number that morning. I hadn't shaved my legs in months, skipped out on "formal" base training for the first time in 5 years, and though I'd been riding, the form was a big question mark. But I had an underlying motivation: unclaimed prize money from last season. I finished 8th overall in the CBR "best all around rider" classification which paid 10-deep. If you'll recall, I only did 3-4 of these, but the time I finished 4th was double points, and I picked up a bunch of points primes as well. In any case, I never got that money, so I figured I might be able to race and buy a license with the cash from '09. Woke up, shaved my legs, threw on the tattered race wheels with the tread-separating but still-awesome veloflexes, and rode out to the race. It was my first ride in days, because it'd been raining all week. The hour and a half warmup was perfect. Lined up, Vera at registration was really kind and let the cash go toward a new license + entry. So great to see all the familiar faces on an unusually warm and sunny season opening race.

Pinned the number, lined up, with the prime objective being finishing out the 90 minutes. We roll. Same as always. The first couple laps were nervous because of the aforementioned tire issues, but they were fine. Been through that turn 2 at the dominguez hills course a billion times before, and it felt great to lean into it a couple more times. Also, after a couple laps, I was surprised that I felt fine. No lactic acids, no pain caves, nothing. Right on. Rather than maintain, I sought out the pains and acids, and put out an attack on the hill between 2 and 3. Really more of a joke than an attack, but I got a gap, and to my surprise/dismay, my old claw teammate Mike T bridged up. Cool. Couple other guys bridged up, and we spun around for a few laps, and I picked up the first prime of the season -"free race entry". A couple laps later we were brought back. More circles ensued, and I really felt fine. I hadn't even given it full gas in the breaks. Then they announced the BIG-money prime of the day. I attacked in the same place, this time taking my more-recent former teammate, Weylon with me along with a la grange guy that isn't a sprinter. Waylon was on, we had a gap. 3 or 4 times I yelled, "hey hey, we split? we split?" but never really got confirmation. I gave him a perfect leadout, and we got back to the bunch. Bam! $10 in the pocket, 'cause he did hear me apparently.

More of this, no one really cared to get off the front completely, and there were no really massive team tactics going on. 5 to go, and a big break of 10 got off. Fine by me, 5 to go means i'm going to finish. 4-3-2 -the jostling begins. :) I attacked again, same place, right before the bell. The break was at 15 seconds. The attack was more to try to steal the meaningless field sprint for 11th, than it was to catch the break. ding-ding-ding, bell sounds, I have a gap, and one guy came with me. We were well clear through turns 1 and 2. Then the guy pulled through.....and we lost 5mph....gah....I pulled through as soon as I realized it, and the guy exploded on my wheel. I still had a gap through the last corner, and the break was RIGHT there, but I realized i'd be caught at 200m to go. So I just pulled it way inside and got out of the way.

And that's the report. Hehe...definitely the most detailed report you'll ever find for a hapless local crit, but hey, it's my hapless local crit smashfest. I should probably continue by talking about the team situation for this season. I'm riding for Predator Cycling. It's a small team, three of us in fact, and one other p/1/2 guy besides me. I don't think we're going to take over the world, but it's a fun atmosphere. Regrettably, there is no sponsorship outside of kits and really good shop support, so coupled with my current unemployment, it means the scope of my races might only be the CBR stuff. It's rough, and I don't know if any of the local teams (westside exempted) can provide entries. I'm open to support offers, however! Would happily crank out the power in a support role in exchange for entries/sandwiches/pats on the back, whatever.

And let's see what photos I can scavenge from the race...

1,000,000,000th time in this corner

The Failed Bell Lap Move

A good look at the new kit and the camo

glasses and cracked helmet and haggard shoes

There it is. My theory is that because I haven't trained as much, I put out less power, but......my thighs are smaller, so the lower drag coefficient balances out the power loss! Nice! Found the training loophole. There's another CBR in a couple weeks. Sigh. Wish I could do more, but...that's how it goes for now. And speaking of $ annoyance. It's the one year anniversary of that fateful day. I'm mostly healed up. The wrist still feels strange after a couple hours out. Might need to start using padded gloves. The shoulder is fine. I still have a massive ugly scar on my right shin that's as bright as the day it happened somehow. Lawyers are working on the case, and zero monies have come back to me. Again, I really don't recommend getting rear ended by 90 year old drivers in brand new SUVs. I especially don't recommend having opposing witness who say I somehow front-ended him. Lame.

and before we part, check out this photo shoot featuring my track bike!

and the mountain bike is going uber-v transformation....I need a 7.5" rear shock and a dremmel...and then I get 6" of travel in back + a disc mount!

ciao!

Roundin' it out...

2010-01-01T01:24:00.005+01:00

Happy New Year's Eve 2009

Promised myself i'd get another entry in before the new year. Gahhhhhhh. The blog feels so distant, but not detached. Plenty o' words coming out the fingertips. In riding news, I haven't done much of it. Well. It all starts with the Angeles Crest/San Gabriels Burning up. Tragic. The crest highway, where 80% of my training takes place burned to bits. More on that later. A bunch of guys switched to the mountain bike to get their dose of climbing in, in and around the Verdugo Mountain Range. I felt left out...then by craigslist miracle...this bad boy popped up, as you see it...

$440. Great deal, in any condition. The guy lived in palmdale, but worked in El Segundo. Took the train down to El Segundo, met the guy, tried to play down my shock at home clean the thing was, and took it home. The frame is an XL, and not an L as was listed, but eh. It's still shorter than my road bike, so it worked. My "serious" riding began on the MTB, so back to the roots in some ways. The Magic Motorcycle/CODA 900M crank are vintage early 90s nostalgia in huge doses, as is the 80mm rear wheel travel, and 50mm up front. What do I know? Lots has changed on the bike since, and though it weighed 27lbs when I bought it, it's now up to nearly 30. Here's what it looks like now:

Without getting too technical...the bike now has a cable-disc front brake and a more modern fork (another craigslist special). The tires are beasts. Twice as heavy and 3 times slower than the originals...but lots of fun coming down. The bike has 8 speed sram/XTR, and the final upgrade is to find a swingarm that I can mount a rear disc to. The most difficult part of the MTB game for me is the arm-fatigue during a long descent...and the front disc is terrific. So there it is. About 25% of my riding has been on that bike. There's a great loop that I can do from home that's almost all dirt road. The highlight of which is this little loop. Followed by the La Tuna Singletrack. Neither video is me, but gives you an idea. The crashing is the biggest downside to this game, but eh. Had a bad wrist sprain (opposite wrist from my accident), and finally cracked my caseless iphone after a low speed tumble. I've held up nicely otherwise.

Ok, done with the mountain bike bit. Actually, let me just close this entry down without getting too introspective on your asses. I've got a cute little team for 2010, possibly a new custom built bike, and a really loud new kit as well. I haven't shaved my legs in weeks. I'm sick, not super-motivated, unemployed, but i'm training and still sane. Will try to make it out to the New Year's Ride tomorrow morning. First crit of the year is on January 25th. Dios mio. Suerte.

2009

2009-08-17T05:19:00.012+02:00

Has been a dud.

At least as far as bike racing is concerned, and by association, this blog. Also the advent of twitters and facebooks and all kinds of other distractions really make it a bummer that I haven't written in this space for that long. It actually feels very foreign and strange to be typing up something this freely in this space. Weird, but enjoyable.

Usually after a lapse in writing I try to fill in the gap to make the racing stories more seamless. Well, the last race I did was.......[been a long while]......it was the CBR race in long beach. Might have been the first week of July, which would be my first July in Los Angeles since 2004. The story I've been telling people is this: I had good form going after a nice base and build period in the winter. February rolled around and I was flying. Finished 4th in that crit on February 8th. Then, two days later, that car smashed me up, off the bike for 6 weeks. Unlucky. Somehow though, I rode back into killer form and finished 17th ($450) at the Dana Point NRC. Swell. After that things got awry, at least in hindsight. I didn't know it at the time. The day before San Luis Rey was the Bario Logan Crit. I attacked and attacked, missed the break, tried and tried to bridge to the break, but failed. Money was 20 deep, and 8 were up the road. I was confident in getting 9th out of the group. Followed Chris Demarchi all through the final lap, and he gave me a picture-perfect leadout to easily get first out of the group. I finished 19th. In 200 meters, 10 people passed me. That's never happened to me in a sprint, in any category, in any race. No matter how spent I was. I chalked it up as an anomaly.

Next day was the San Luis Rey RR. Finished 13th I think. Felt swell. Wheel was broken, no sweat. After that it wasn't the same. Sprint legs were absent, even in group rides. Lost the will to ride. External factors contributed as well, but it felt like it was a physical thing. I skipped rose bowls, and morning group rides. Bleh. Raced though. Got my clock cleaned at long beach. Managed to get into one break with Ivan Dominguez and got dropped....out of the breakaway (never happened either)...and was pack fodder at the end. Ouch. Did another LB crit two weeks later, and same thing. Took a week off the bike. No motivation to return.

So that's the story. I really don't know what to pin it on. Too old? No motivation? Amazing girlfriend that I happily spend lots of time with? Did I try to regain form too quickly after the accident? There's really no way to know. For now, though, I'm enjoying the bike and have some semblance of form and might do that final CBR on the first week of September. I'll try to bring the A-game to that one. I did a 180k ride yesterday, felt like mush at the end, but I was happy to get out there. Also, I think I've lost weight since I've let off the training for a bit. Odd. Appetite has gone down considerably.

Ok, I realize this isn't much of an entry, but it'll hopefully get the ball rolling. To anyone who's still reading, thanks for checking up....and some blog-exclusive photos:

Glued up a dreamy Veloflex Criterium Tub. Dream Dream Dream. I won't race it, however.

Accidental Shot

Lots and Lots of Koi Babies

Health: I has it.

Fargo Street

Beach day with beee!

Throwback to the Ardeche. Note the fig tree. :]

Hi O

2009-05-26T19:20:00.004+02:00

I've done four races since I last wrote. Four races, two weekends. Took a few races off. One was Ontario. I don't do Ontario, and the other reason I haven't been racing/training much lately is that I've finally undergone the pond construction/expansion. Quite a lot of work, and still plenty of work left ahead.

What compelled me to finally write? A really odd sequence of racing. Two days, two really bizarre and unnecessary last lap crashes in the P/1/2. Saturday we had the classic Barry Woolfe Grand Prix. Never done well at this course, never liked it, but it's local, so I'll always line up for it. Anyhow...nice field of 100 or on the start line. Felt okay. Got into one or two promising breaks, but with Tony Cruz and Bahati still in the field and without representation in the breaks, I knew we'd go nowhere...so never really went full gas. Still picked up a preem, though. Oh, and this race was a P/1/2/3....which I think changes the dynamic quite a bit. LaGrange fielded a billion riders, per usual. Anyhow, fast forward to the last lap. Field is together, I'm about 10th wheel coming through the bell. Bahati is just ahead. We rounded the first (of 4) corner cleanly, and about 20 meters later, I was ducking to avoid a rear wheel 10 feet in the air heading straight for my head. The epicenter of the crash was a good 5 meters to my left, but kept getting closer, faster, domino-style. Crashes happen...but at the front of a race? That's irregular. Can't even remember the last race in which that happened. I kept it upright, and put in a sprint. Saw Bahati was also in the wind just ahead of me. He had a bit of help, and managed to get back up to the unscathed portion of the peleton, about 10 guys. I put my head down, and assumed the race was over. Looked back and saw a second peleton sprinting like mad to catch...at this point I put the hammer down, and brought it in for 12th. $ went 15 deep, so a nice consolation, I guess. That's 5 $-placings in a row. Still without a nice result, however.

So with that irregularity out of the way, I lined up for the CBR Long Beach Crit. I actually love the course. Love that you can see the entire course, and gauge gaps just by sight. The pavement is not smooth, but is predictable, and the wind makes it interesting for sure. The 100k races we used to have here were classic, and definitely more up to my abilities. The shorter distance is still fun, however, and less frustrating if/when you miss the break. Same guys as yesterday, but instead of Bahati, we had Freddy Rodriguez. Giro Stage Winner. I'm not a fan of his (is anyone?), but it was a pretty nice field. Big thank you to CBR for comping my entry fee. Totally unexpected, but they were just getting me back for helping a bit at a race earlier this season. Thanks! So we lined up, nothing going. Calm first lap. Then....free...for....all. Attack after relentless attack. I'd put out 600w jumps out for a minute, and see people chasing and getting the peleton back up to me. Sergio Hernandez put out lots more attacks, and eventually (after 80 minutes of attacking) got clear with Tony Cruz, game over. They would go 1-2 with Sergio getting a well deserved win. LaGrange, the classy bunch that they are, didn't put a SINGLE rider on the front to chase the break down. They had ten guys line up. Really fcking annoying. To compound that annoyance, some of my attacks would be brought back by bum racers who don't even have teammates instead of forcing LaGrange to chase. So annoying when people don't know how to race.

Well, thanks to LaGrange's failure, we were racing for 3rd. Last lap comes, and just like the previous day, i'm in decent position. perhaps 8th wheel. Turn 1, solid. Turn 2, okay. The pace was nice and high, and the jostling wasn't too bad. Turn three was a bit slower than I liked. Teammate Armin came to me after turn three and said, "GET ON, outside, GO." Instinctively, I said no. I had a good line on the inside, and a good wheel (Rudy from Liquid) to follow. Right after I turned him down, there was a bit of a swarm. I got out of it on the inside, and got a great entrance into the final turn. $#@%#%#$#. Bikes, bodies, brakes, and cuss words in large doses. I kept it upright, but had plenty of contact. I bunny hopped Rudy Napolitano, and ran over his bike. Thought i'd eat it for sure, but kept it upright. First time out of the top 20 all year. Annoying. An SC Velo rider who was unnecessarily fighting me for Sterling Magnell's wheel (who was wearing a Major Motion kit on the day) earlier, and had words ("it's my teammate", was on the ground and bloodied. I'm a total asshole, but at that instance I felt no pity. Karma comes 'round, I thought. I feel badly now, and hope the guy is doing well. But let's avoid stupidity in the future. I really hope some photog (there were plenty at both races) caught the crash sequence. I'd love to see it.

That's all I got. Will look for photos. Apologies for the tone, but it's really annoying to have races end this way. So much better to finish off the front...gah.

Here's a power file of the CBR Monday race. Flat four corner course. Check out the power (green line) variance!

Ouch.

Mark It, Dude

2009-05-01T07:48:00.005+02:00

Hey Hey.

Took a little road trip down to south county this weekend. OC county. On the way down, I said "if there are no catastrophic crashes or mechanical mishaps, I should finish in the top 20." 20, you see, is the magic number for non-pro local scenesters like myself in NRC criteriums. Finishing inside 20th place gets you a piece of that NRC-mandated massive prize list. Finish outside it, and you've wasted a $50 entry for nothing...and on that note, I can't believe the time I broke my frame with 200m to go and still finished 17th at Manhattan Beach '05.

Check me out! Blue links and everything. This blog is going places, looks like. So. Dana Point. I did it last year and had a blast. It was the first race where I found some good legs and got the bike dialed in. This year's been very different. Every time I've pinned a number, the legs have been great. I didn't feel too well in the first race of the year, but squeezed out a top 20 just following wheels. Then the car smashed me up, and I think I actually lost weight during that 3 week vaccance. Got destroyed and demotivated by Lance that one day out, and now the good legs are back. Fun stuff.

Dana Point:

Big Purse, Big Field. And not the typical "2nd race for $10 extra" masters pack fill big field, either. Kelly Benefits came out. Bahati had a couple teammates. Floyd Landis and a couple of his guys (who aren't really crit riders), and the Colavita guys in force as well. The "team from the west side with a bottomless budget" fielded a ton of guys, perhaps 10? I was happy to find out that Waylon from my team is a cat 1. Swelllll. Cat 1 and pro-class mtb downhiller. Quite the combo. I sneaked up to the second line behind the call ups. It was a pretty quick start. No anthems, no sponsor speeches. Nice and concise. "Riders start at the whistle..."

go.

A dull race, really. My only objective was to get in that top 20. No fireworks, no rosebowl-style attacks up the back side, no prime slanging, nothing. Just sit in the vacuum for 90 minutes, and take the good legs to the leadout trains once 5 to go sounds, and then follow the really fast and narrow vacuum to a $ spot. That's what happened. I finished 17th. Woo. Not really that stoked on it, but it obviously could have been much worse. The jockeying started before lap cards were even out! Madness. Lots of people were clipping the barrier, clipping out after going into a turn too hot, skidding, chopping, everything. Crit racing at its finest. I love this course for it. Floyd Landis actually opened up the sketch riding proceedings on about the 3rd lap when he took turn 2 too hot. Fun stuff. Anyhow, 5 to go, I took a long swig of what was left of my bottle, and started to strategize. Found that Paul Che was doing the same thing, and just rode near him 'till we were near Bahati and co. A futile break was off. Got caught with 3 to go. Into the bell lap, a Bissel rider smashed into the barrier with me on his wheel. He didn't go down, but...full brakes, followed by full gas (and a couple matches...[nice pun!]), and I was back in position. Tony Cruz chopped me pretty good into turn 5. "Ok, tony, go." No thanks was given, of course. Then I sprinted hard between 5 and 6 to try to get a nice spot into the final sprint. Got the nice spot, but there was no sprint. I sprinted around only a couple guys with dead legs for the finish. Maybe it's a good thing I don't have an SRM right now? Woulda been some hideous sprint data...but I am $400 closer now.

:]

Salut!

No photos of the race, but here's one of Wilson from yesterday's ride.

Post #216

2009-04-24T21:57:00.004+02:00

I feel like I should have done a "200th post special" but that ship sailed several months ago, looks like. This blog's been around for a while now, and I keep writing in it, but the frequency is starting to dip. I guess it's a product of less racing, more distractions, and too many different communications channels (twitter, facebook, gmail). Ah well! Here's another entry.

This seasons results so far:

16th-CBR Crit #1 Long Beach
18th-Poor College Kids RR
4th-CBR Crit #2 Dominguez
13th-CBR Crit #5 Dominguez
14th-Devil's Punchbowl RR
7th-Chuck Pontius Crit

Not stellar, but definitely not bad. It's come to a point in crit racing where, regardless of form, I can put myself into the mix. It's almost May, and I've only done 6 races. I think I have to go back to cat 5 days to have that low a frequency, but yeah...getting rear ended does weird things. Anyhow, a few races to report on.

The 13th place at CBR #5 was pretty nice. I think it's times like these where all the base training pays off. 3 weeks off the bike, 3 weeks of suffering on the bike, and just like that: good form is back. The race was swell, put myself into a couple good moves. A huge break snuck off the front with 4 to go, and I took 2nd in the bunch (behind Demarchi) for 13th. Nice! If there was no break, top-5 was certainly a possibility.

Next we've got Devil's Punchbowl. The reason I found motivation for this one was my new (used) bike. No, I didn't get a cent from insurance yet, so I've been wheeling and dealing old bike stuff to try to get a new frame. I had the BB30 Cannondale cranks as a foundation, some Sram stuff, and most importantly, a sweet set of reynolds carbon tubulars waiting to go on a shimano/sram equipped bike. As luck would have it, I found a local guy selling an older Six13 in my size for an incredible deal. Fire-saled some stuff, scrounged up some cash, and picked it up.

In a word......DREAMY....and if you factor in the cost and condition and fit, well...there aren't any words. I've always been a light-bike junkie, but am well aware that dropping 50g off your bike isn't going to lead to any performance gain. However...going from 20lbs to 14 and change? That's a huge huge difference. Happy to say I destroyed the 40+ crew fromt the Barry Ride on it's maiden voyage on a Thursday morning a few weeks ago. I'm a jerk, I know. Still hurts not to have a powermeter. I still look down instinctively from time to time. I wish wish wish I could do a 20 minute test one of these days. Gah.

So. 6lbs off the bike and pretty decent form led me to take the start at Devil's Punchbowl. I think I DNF'd here my last two starts, and only really cracked the top 20 once in the lower cats. Tough course, espcially when it's cold and C-Walk sets pace on the first lap. It looked like it'd be more of the same this time, but with a twist. Most of the local only-come-out-to-hilly-road-races scenesters were out in force, but so was Monsieur Floyd Landis!!! Pretty cool to race with the guy, and even cooler because with a guy like that there, everyone waits for him to make a move...and he didn't. At least not at first. Walker attacked, and we sat. Conversation pace the whole way up the climb. Floyd drilled it the second time up, and I barely clung to the back of the peleton over the top of the climb. Hard stuff. 3rd time up I got shelled early, but had some pretty good company in Thurlow Rogers and Brandon Gritters. We caught up to the group right as the descent ended. 4th time was a breeze, with the break gone out of sight. Landis dropped out on this lap. 5th lap, I was shelled. In short, I was annoyed that our peleton/groupetto was moving slowly, yet the guy up front still put us all in the gutter at 8mph on the climb. Mixed some words, and set pace myself, only to pop off quickly and roll in for 14th. Saw Josh Webster get road rashed pretty good on the final corner. Unlucky. He was riding well up until that point. This was also the first race I ever used a compact gear. 34/50 up front, 11-21 in back. Perfect! But i'll never need that much gear (on the low end) for any race this year. I'm back on 53/39 again.

And...........the crit the next day. Chuck Pontius. The finest of the office park criteriums. Shady, a couple small rises, slight wind. Good stuff. I felt springy. Attacked off the gun, and surprise, I was actually marked. Let off a bit, then attacked again from turn 2 right into the gutter. I looked back and there was a solid gap. Put the head down, came through the start finish to the nice sound of a preme bell. Head down, I rolled through for the preme, and sat up. Lots of attacks, and two more premes later, I was back in the bunch. I broke a spoke on my front wheel at some point, and with the caliper QR, was able to roll it without much rub (pretty good considering it's a 16 spoke wheel). A serious break with some fast guys got up the road. I thought they'd be gone, but these guys in green jerseys were pretty motivated to bridge up. So after some driving...I looked back and it was about 10 of us with a solid gap, and the break in sight. We got to the break, 5 to go sounded, and we were already coming up on the back of the field. Weird. There were no games in the break, just solid pace setting. Last lap...saw a window to attack on the inside just before turn 3. Didn't. A guy did, and won. I kept it pretty timid with the broken spoke up front, and rolled in for 7th. Can't complain. But I've got a feeling a W ain't too far off.

Dana Point GP NRC sunday! $15,000! I'll see uz der.

Hi

2009-03-09T07:23:00.008+01:00

Let's finish off that last entry, huh? One month old race report....which happily isn't my last. From February 10th, last month:

Small field. CBR. I'd say 95% of the 50 or so riders there were masters racers who had raced at least one other race that day. I was fresh. So, from the gun, click click click, and gone. And gone we stayed the entire 90 minutes. I was solo on the first lap, joined by two others after that, who I wasn't too thrilled to have. And then, almost like clockwork, Sergio Hernandez (rock) bridged up. Woo. A nice quartet. And funny, I think we were the only U30 riders in the race to begin with. I assumed the role of the "jerk who makes sure the breakaway is riding properly". Worked swell. From what I remember, I had only one bottle, and did the lion's share to keep the break going. Dumb of me, but the legs were up to it. I think the gap stayed at 45 ticks the whole time just about. Ah well. Sergio faked some "cramps" during the last 20 minutes or so, and took weaker and shorter pulls. He read the race correctly, and was better hydrated. He was kind enough to tell me when/where he'd attack but I couldn't go with it, and he won easily. I cramped a bit on the last lap, and coasted in for 4th on the day. Right o...GREAT legs, but i'd crash two days later and have to rebuild. Oh, tip of the hat to my two teammates (Waylon + Fritz) who shut things down in the pack pretty nicely.

ME.

I am well. Big, big thank you to the scene and all who've wished me well in my recovery. Everything is healing up. I go to therapy 3 times a week, and am in the process of hopefully getting some expedited reimbursement for the bike. I really do hope to get it all sorted soon. I've been doing some long (5+) rides to get the fitness going again. Best place for long ones? The coast. Went out saturday with Ben, James, and Stoney. Usual suspects. After an hour or so, we were cruising down San Vincente to get to PCH when Mike Ward (semi-scenester guitar wiz mustache bike rider guy) rode by. "Hey hey, how you goin Mike?" He was with a couple acquaintances of his and, though the group was bigger than I liked, we all decided to head down the coast for some climbing together. Oddly, one guy on a Trek just hogged up the front on PCH and wasn't going fast at all, ah well. Don't know him too well so just went with it. I chatted him a bit from time to time when I got reshuffled to the front. This was my view for most of that segment...

After a gentle cruise on PCH, we turned right onto Latigo. The guy held his own pretty well. I'd been off the bike for a couple weeks, so couldn't blast off and TT off the front. You know how it is with people you're not sure about...particularly in season...you test each other. He crushed all. On his "easy day". He was kind enough to stop up top for a regroup. Wouldn't get off his phone for a chat though...busy guy.

Okok. I guess my little game is over 'cause I really don't know what else to write. I rode with Lance Armstrong for 4 hours or so. My favorite part was being glued to his wheel going down Rock Store. He's smooth, but he certainly wasn't going balls out by any means. We passed a moto together as well. I'm not "Lance fan #1" but I won't forget it. I chatted him up more than the other mortals, but not to the point of annoyance, as far as I know:

Me: What's your weight like these days?
LA: Right now, 165. If i'm 160 by the time the Giro starts i'll be stoked.

Me: Carbon bars? I thought you were a Deda alu-guy?
LA: [looks at bars] Oh yeah, these? Guess so. Bontrager something. Trek owns me.

Me: Milan San Remo!
LA: Hahh...yeah. I hope I make it through alive. That place, that course, the fans - insane.

Me: What's with the shoes? I like 'em.
LA: Me too! Best $100,000 shoes you can buy!

That's as far as the verbatim quotes I can give here. There were other tidbits. He told me his french is terrible and that he doesn't care to improve it anymore. I told him that there's a finish stage in Aubenas in this year's tour. Told him it's the absolute finest village he'll ever see. "Huh?". Good stuff. No one outside of Aubenas shares that opinion or even knows the place exists.

My impression of the guy? Of his non-public chamois/helmet/bike persona? He's a bike racer. He sprints for city limit signs, goes tempo on climbs (which for most is threshold +++), cracks jokes, and checks out babes walking on the roadside when cruising around. Just like we all do. The guy's ridden bikes with presidents, won the biggest bike race in the world in front of billions of onlookers, and is perhaps the most well known athlete in the world. I wasn't expecting my words to blow his mind in any way or offer him even slight mental stimulation - i'm just another bike racer. That said, each time I had a chat with him, it was clear that he wasn't too interested in what I was saying. I may as well have been a reporter or some guy that won a contest to hang out with him for 2 seconds. He knows how to handle it, and he's quite efficient about it. And honest, that's absolutely fine. Wouldn't expect anything else, and if I had his palmares, I'd be the same way. That said, it was a great ride. Having a 12-23 is a terrible terrible gear choice for climbing Latigo and F#@$%#$^ Piuma. I hadn't hurt that bad in a while. The agony of that gear selection will forever accompany my memory of this ride. :]

Back to racing soon! Thanks again for the kind words and support. They've really helped.

Impromptu Off-Season

2009-02-12T07:36:00.012+01:00

On monday night I was pretty tired. One of those nights where you're sitting in bed about to sleep, but just as you're about to slip into dreamland, you remember you had something to do. Merde. The sleep sensation can never be the same if I got up. I had to shower still. I decided not to. Procrastinated it away 'till after the next morning's recovery ride.

It's now wednesday night. I still haven't showered. I can't yet. My hair is at this terminal level of oiliness so I don't really mind it anymore. I have a couple stitches, a massive bruise on my left shoulder, several contusions, a never-ending headache, and..........that bike. What the hell happened? To be honest, I still don't know exactly, but am slowly putting the pieces together...

Tuesday and Thursday is the Barry ride. 8:30 start in and around la crescenta, and it starts right in Griffith Park. It gets me up in the morning, and is usually a gateway to other rides like the Pomona loop I do or an interval session up Big T or as happened this tuesday, a mellow social ride up the crest to talk about sunday's race. The four of us didn't turn right on Chevy Chase to continue with the Barry group. Instead we went straight to head up the crest. Like we've done millions of tuesdays before. We reached the intersection of Foothill and Verdugo, where we turned right, again, just as we'd done countless times prior. My memory stops there.

I vaguely remember regaining consciousness because of the sudden pull of the stretcher as I was put up into the ambulance. "Yo, Keith? We didn't even run a red light, man. How'd this happen??" I allegedly repeated 3 or 4 variants of that statement...maybe with a couple expletives (which generally isn't my style at all). Then the memory got hazy again. What was a 15 minute ride in the ambulance only registered as 30 seconds. I remember asking the medics lots of questions. "Is this a good sign?" "How long had I been out?" "Have you seen anyone with my ailments before?" This is what I think I asked, anyway. It was probably indecipherable, because I mumble even when i'm healthy and sober.

We got to the hospital. Lots of waiting. It's really funny trying to recreate it now. I thought I was all there, but it's all pretty hazy to me still. I had lots of x-rays. An IV was put in at some point. "When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?" "huh?" Boom...tetanus shot is in. Pains, but not really. It was just my head that ached then. The hospital seemed busy. Everything had a long wait, and there were babies and adults crying and moaning. I reached in and saw that I had my iphone still! Woo. Snapped up some phots...

My upper body was pretty well (and i think unnecessarily) restrained the whole time prior to X-Rays. So leaned over and snapped a couple. That head brace came off immediately after the X-Rays. That second picture...ahhh...my current pride and joy. You could stick a dime in there, piggy-bank style, and not see it again. They gave me these "custom" super-wide stiches over there because of the risk of infection if they closed it. I really don't know what pierced me there...a sprocket? Pedal? Hmm.

So with that, the formalities of the hospital scene played out. A Sherrif from the scene came to get my statement. "Yeah man, the guy that hit you? He was born in 1920. He has insurance. AAA." "89 years old?!" "88". Geezus! I chatted him a bit. I told him that I had no idea what happened. The last thing I remembered was turning right onto Foothill Blvd. He gave me a card which I lost (where am I supposed to put it, really?) My mom came in, tear explosion. Told her I was fine, and I was. I don't know if they gave me pain killers or if it was adrenaline, but I had no issues then. Just wanted to get out. After 6 hours in that place, I signed a bunch of stuff and got out.

The pieces so far: an 88 year old guy in a brand new Lexus SUV just barely buzzed the 3 guys who were riding 10-15 meters behind me. At this point it just seemed like a guy trying to intimidate cyclists and flex some idiot muscle, you know the type, dime a dozen in LA. Also at this point, I was slowing down to stop at a red left turn light to begin climbing the crest. The guy didn't screetch the tires, didn't swerve, didn't even brake. Just smashed his front-right quarter into me, I flew to the right, landed on (and shattered) my helmet, and the guy, still oblivious, ran over the bike (square over my srm, too), and finally stopped. He was understandably flustered by everything and couldn't be questioned properly as I understand it. Gah. I think that's about all i've got for now. In a mountain of legal and medical headache now, and got some doctors to see tomorrow.

No broken bones!

I can walk!

I live!

Wear your helmets please!

(sunday's race report when my wrist heals a bit more)

Bowie

2009-02-06T06:41:00.009+01:00

Class guy, David. He's been in my head for days. Perhaps it's the rain. I'll hear a chord or two from other songs and think, "hey, there's a bowie song that has that..." Every song has that. But Bowie's been flowing out my brain. No complaints here. Put your raygun to this blog entry yeah. First off, head over to brentbookwalter.blogspot.com . Brent is just a kid from the Big Mitt who's down racing the Tour of Qatar. Better blog entries i've never come across.

I've been a bum this week. I tried to do a threshold test on wednesday. Lasted 8 minutes (of 20), turned home, and felt like shite the rest of the day, and today. Unlucky...so i'm just taking it easy for a bit. The rain definitely helps with the laziness. I'm not racing Boulevard, nor the crit the next day. Going CBR. Slump breaker I hope. And finally, your hasty SUPER late race report:

Poor College Kids RR

Vintage! But I look exactly the same in both, somehow. Even in the same position relative to the race (first -or almost first- in the second group). Tip of the hat to the photographer (Goodman Graphic) of the second one for bringing out the "former soviet bloc crusher" look in me. The race! It was a positive one, even though the legs and the composition of the field made it seem like it wouldn't be so. To start, PLENTY of Team Type 1 guys, and a smattering of ProTour guys (allright, just 3), and most all the local scenesters. Nice field. $25 entry, $250 purse. Beautiful course (reminded me of the theme to Huel Howser's Show)...and the kicker? 80 degrees, no wind. Perfect.

We lined up. Right on time, 11am start. A small group got off, and got a gap. We were going 6mph, so no big deal. I vaguely remembered the course from the time I did it years ago (the above photo...I think I was a cat 4?). One hill, out and back course, so that same hill, twice. Things got shuffled on the first ascent (which is more mellow than the return trip), and a group containing a ton of Team Type 1 guys was gone. Plenty of favorites still in the peleton, though, and I felt fine. So on the return, I was right up front. I knew something would go. Sergio Hernandez hit it hard, with C-Walk in tow. The race was happening right in front of me, but I didn't change my rythm. Should have...but I was already red lined, and didn't want to risk complete collapse. Dumb strategy, ah well.

So of course, the race was done. 17 or so up the road. 10 of them from the same team. Slightly hurt peleton behind. Last climb of the day, I went up to my old teammate John McKeen. "It'll go at the climb, a little group will get away. My legs are shite, but if you got it, get to the front and go to town." He uttered a "yeah right" after I'd said I don't have the legs. And......yeah. I made the little front group along with John. I HATE those guys. The guys that lay out the verbal "safety nets" before and during races. Really, i'm not one of them usually, so John, i'm sorry for being a tool. So...about 8 of us crested the top. I knew I could outsprint everyone in this group, though Rudy (formerly of Rock) might have been even money against me. Minor placings, but hey, it's a sprint. After a couple kilometers of what was probably the worst paceline ever, the 1k to go sounded. I was last wheel in the break, focusing on Rudy....and the yellow line that meant instant DQ. Two guys jumped with something like 800 meters to go. Blah. I reacted slowly, and brought them back. Rudy was to my left...At 200 I started the sprint, basically on the yellow line, so he had to pass around and to the right to get it. I took that side of the sprint, but totally lost sight of another guy with legs to my right, and he took it. Ironically, Rudy was DQ'd for yellow line violation...gah. 18th on the day. That's the dull late race report.

And on a final note, i'd like to say that though 18th ain't that swell, i'm secretly very happy to have finished in front of every rider on that "team from the west side with the french-sounding name". I wasn't mal-treated in any way, and am friends with most of the riders on the team, but....you know how it is. I plan on doing this in every race. Just a touch of motivation...

Smashed Up

2009-01-27T02:31:00.013+01:00

Hey Hey.

The season started already, look at that. Race numbers and wattage are recession proof, at least. Let me fire off a race report then go to the meaningless pulps. The first one of the year was the CBR Long Beach Race. AKA: CBR BAR #1. Happy to see the purse was at $1000. Still a swell time. To give the readers outside of the SoCal scene an idea of what a "hapless local way-early-season crit" is like in socal, here's a quick sample of the 100+ starters....

R Bahatski-Current US Crit Champ
Justin Williams-Current U23 Crit Champ
Brad Huff-Former US Elite/Pro Crit Champ, Nutter
Tony Cruz-Former US Crit Champ

There were others, but hey: 4 super crit riders. Was surprised with Huff showing up (he's from the midwest). Turns out Jelly Belly has a training camp nearby. Nice. I'm really begining to love our scene, though. Everyone knows each other, everyone's gotten into a fight/argument/crack with someone at somepoint, and it's cool. Under the bridge, always. I can trust the wheels i'm around, and have a swell time while I'm out there with that in mind.

On that note...I think the peleton is a bit more civil now in contrast to the pre-internet decades. This occured to me as I scolded an older guy (40+) for for aggressively trying to grab a wheel while caught out of the echelon in the gutter on the back side with 60 minutes of racing still to go. I say "scolded" but was polite in every regard. I got a sarcastic "THANKS COACH" in response, which, given the lack of f-bombs, confirms that I was in fact polite in my approach. Fact is, with 60 minutes left, if a guy wants the wheel in front of me, just ask or signal or at the very least, gently and predictably slide into place. This guy wasn't having it. He swung out, then in a "either i'm crashing everyone or getting that wheel" kind of move swung back into the paceline and got the wheel, setting off a chain reaction of braking and swearing behind. More annoying than dangerous, but i'd rather neither. None of the aforementioned guys do this stuff. If they did, EVERYONE would know. People blog. People facebook. There are photographers, videos, text messages. Point is, as racers and people, we're infinitely more networked now than before, and nothing but good comes out as a result. Reps spread REAL quick. A lot less of the "traditional" elbowing and chopping and diving (and whatever inane stuff that old-schoolers think is part of crit racing) very much still is, but not with 60 minutes to go. Not ever. Not in any race. Save it for the bell lap, dudes. Or I call you out. Let's make crit racing classy.

Hmm...sorry for that paragraph. I guess the pulp made it to the middle instead of the end. The race. Lots of fast dudes, but it's January. Also...I should mention...I've got a new sponsor, at least for the time being. I'm riding for Armin Rahm's team: Sixtumed Cycling. Big thanks to him for helping out. The kit you saw me race in was last year's. New kit coming, I think. Anyhow, we lined up. Everyone's there save for the SoCalCycling team. I think there's some kind of rift between the higher ups, but eh. These things happen. Like i'd mentioned a few entries ago, teams look smaller, more color in the peleton, and really tough to pick a winner from the bunch. Now, this would be my first race of the season, yes? Since the vast majority of the 1/2 peleton is 30+, it was the 2nd or even 3rd race of the season (and of the day) for lots of those guys. So a bit less "special" for them than for me, but eh...these things happen, too.

The race was hard. The cross wind on the backside hurt, closing gaps in the gutter hurt, being caught out of position between turns 2 and 3 hurt. Regretably, I wasn't close enough to the front to write about all the happs in the race. I kept it mellow in the middle. The legs have no snap yet, so I'm limited with what I can go with. Brad Huff had plenty of snap though. He jumped at every lull and countered or bridged up to what seemed like any break that formed. At some point, a break got a steady gap of 15 seconds. I jumped in pursuit. This is what a jump in pursuit looks like...

(3% smoothing)

...when you fail. Power goes up, speed goes up. Gap is established....thennnnn after a few minutes you realize it isn't gonna happen. A guy bridged up to me and was motoring nicely, but we were shut down. Funny though, it took me quite a while to recover from what looks like a pretty meager effort on paper (screen). That effort was at the midpoint. The pace slowed after I got back to the peleton, and the break's gap grew. Then it shrunk. Then 5 to go sounded and it was still clear. 3 to go I was in pretty good company with Cruz, Paul Che, and a couple rock dudes alongside...so thought we were sprinting for 9th. I'm still not sure what we were sprinting for as I didn't check the results. Bell lap, Che jumped right before the last corner. I responded with what little snap the legs had. He was gone, but while behind him, we passed a blob of riders in the middle of turn 4. No idea who/what. I think bahati was among them? Odd. Rolled in with one of the waves of a real tattered sprint. Tough one. Will update when I find out how I did. Outside the top 20 I think. Tip of the hat to Sergio Hernandez for winning it.

Na-Na-Notorious

2009-01-07T21:50:00.010+01:00

He is! He is!

A little B.I.G tribute up there. The film comes out next week I think. Expectations are high...hopefully the emotional investment pans out. ME. Hi. Base training has wrapped up. Socal folk know how shite the weather was a couple weeks ago, so I didn't get in the full 25/28/30 hour weeks in for the second phase...more like 18/20/26. It'll have to do. Physiologically, it isn't gonna hurt me...my "base" is there from playing the bike game for so many years, but I'll be missing that "pat myself on the back" feeling from doing those massive weeks. Tant pis! Photos...we need some...

Ahh...the koi enjoying the rain from a few weeks back. Remember when I said I was going to make the pond bigger during my time off the bike? Nope. Didn't happen. Crafty combination of laziness and work got in the way. However, a friend of mine said, "hey, I got fish and need to get rid of them," so ironically, the population doubled while the pond (which was too small for my original fish) stayed the same. I've upped the filtration (there are three filters and two pumps), so they'll be fine 'till mid-spring. Gonna have to give away at least half...any blog readers with koi ponds?

Ahhh...here's another...

The story? A small group of us were riding down PCH a few weeks back. I ran into even-bigger-than-me bike racer Anthony Galvan. "Hey man, how's it goin?" and then I turned to acknowledge the other two guys he was with, just to be polite. Hot damn. I wasn't shy at all "is that Danilo DiLuca?" Yup. It was. Although it was a base ride in the middle of one of my bigger weeks, all bets were off as we turned right to go up Topanga. He was pretty mellow. He spoke spanish (or understood it), so we chatted a bit. Talked about his Amstel Gold win, talked about the Giro he won. Cunego, Simoni, his '09 season. Good stuff. Good guy. Then we got to Fernwood. Ouch. Suddenly I was on 400W for 5 minutes. Hadn't even hit 300 in months. I was the first to crack (sprinting to the front of the group to take photos like these didn't help the situation:

So I got shelled after about 10 minutes. To my surprise, he waited up top for everyone to catch up. Piss break. More chats. More photos. Class guy that di-luke. Would have loved to descend with him, but they were dropping back down to PCH...so said goodbye, and that was that. Also, DiLuca does not ride with a spare tube or food in his pockets...only huge doses of style. Of all the people i've met in my life, he speaks the least english. Rural french hillbillies included. It has it's charm...

Hmmm...what else. This entry has been in draft format for weeks. Time to drive it to a close and publish it. I did my first ~~thurlow~~ simi ride yesterday. Brutal, but nice. The wind makes those rolling rides better for me. Wouldn't it be funny if some out-of-town guy did the ride one of these days and didn't know who Thurlow was? It'd be surreal. "Who IS this old guy that keeps rippin?" "or am I going really poorly?". He's crushing. I think the group was down to 15 or so by the time 7-minute came by. Also, a guy in front of me crashed on mullholland. Classy.

The new [old] bike...mannnnnnnnn it fits nice. I don't know if it's because i'm on tubulars or if the 58 'dale fits better than the 57 it replaced, but i've been bombing descents and corners like a riot. So much fun. Finally flatted my rear tubular on a ride a couple weeks ago (Seal Beach Bike Path). Total repair time: 5 minutes! That includes the time to pump with my tiny mini pump. I replaced the $40 Conti Gatorskin Tub (which barely got 1500 miles) with a $12 Vittoria Rally. TWELVE dollars. Are there clinchers for that cheap? The tire looks class:

And so far, after 500k, it's help up pretty nice. It's round and true. Easy to mount (compared to Conti) and holds pressure well. Did simi at 120psi. Rough at some points, but $12. I've got the training tire thing down for life. I used to ride the Michelin Karbon ($30/each), and they'd go forever, but yeah. The wheels have held up well, except, ironically, the hubs. Had to get the rear serviced. The kitty? I was looking after her this week. Alice. She gives me mean stares when I don't leave to train early enough...so she's nice to have around. And we leave with this:

One of MANY noodle/pasta dishes incinerated over the last couple months...

Unlucky...

2008-12-18T07:41:00.004+01:00

The CAAD7 is dead.

Not sure how it happened, really. This is actually the 3rd Caad7 Si frame i've cracked. Not necessarily 'cause they're prone to cracking, but each of the frames had in excess of 30,000 miles before letting go. The worst was when the dropout broke on one at the end of manhattan beach in '06. Oddly, not one of them broke as a [direct] result of a crash. One was broken in the chainstay, the aforementioned dropout, and this one a quarter of the way down the downtube. Weird. The first two I was able to warranty, but seeing how I'm not the original owner of this one, nor do I know who is, it looks unlikely. It was a good one. The 7s are special. The last to have a horizontal top tube. Dreamy. Back to this one...

Also dead, my training.....this week. The forecast has been nutso. I don't have a trainer, so I've just been doing my 6 mile commute (3 x 3) in the wet icy cold to work and back. I was supposed to get 25 hours in this week, not gonna happen. So...just going to "reboot" base and switch it to a 12 week programme. Going back to 15 hours, then 18, 22, 10, etc...Hopefully the weather will cooperate. I'm not unmotivated, but certainly not motivated enough to ride a trainer (which I don't have....it's socal, man!) for hours like that or get in icy rain. Sucks.

Vintage Junking

2008-12-04T08:00:00.005+01:00

These are the gems i've been training on:

I'm most aware of the bike when i'm training. There's not a whole lot else. I hear the annoying intermittent "clicks" and can feel if the tires are too bouncy or if the seat height is off. When the number's pinned on, none of that crosses my mind. Only everything else. There's the prelude. These wheels...the lust started back in France. The team shop's owner (Bruno at Velo7) trained on these amaaaaazing looking Mavic Classics Pro Ceramic Tubulars. I'd only ever remembered seeing them in mid-90s editions of Procycling. The pro guys would ride them, but they were never for sale anywhere. Saw a few sets....but SO few were ceramic + tubular. I'd incessantly bother Bruno to sell me the wheels, and I think I could've snatched them if I had a bit more time to hassle him. Anyhow...fast forward to now. Months ago i'd told their previous owner "hey, if you're gonna sell those, please....ME." Sure enough, a couple months later, I picked them up at a solid price. Mounted up some new tires. Glued them up with Conti glue. 100psi front, 105 rear.....

Dreamy.

I can't run pressure that low with the clinchers (you can, but just doesn't feel safe). From the first ride, I railed these guys everywhere. I think the only hill in SoCal where I need brakes is the descent from Wilson to Redbox...and the braking....too good! I'm actually on the lookout for another set of rims like these one. GEMS. So if anyone sees a set dusting in the corner of a shop somewhere...Hi.

Specs:

Rims: Mavic Reflex Tubular Ceramic 32
Hubs: Chris King (with the buzzzzz rear hub)
Spokes: Heavy Duty Wheelsmith 14g 3-crossed
Tires: Continental Sprinter Gatorskin 22
Weight: Lots

Hard Man Weather Predictions

2008-11-25T23:47:00.006+01:00

I layered up real nice today. I've found that if your socks are long enough, you can eliminate that small gap between the knee warmer and top of the sock. I save this combo (as I only have 2 pairs that are long enough to do the job) for the really cold days. I'm set to do 18 hours this week, and the forecast for days has been "rain from hell, tuesday through thursday." I layer up, get outside, and in spite of the disillusionment of being blinded by really bright sunlight you don't expect, I was happy to find it was cold, at least. Mid 50s, perhaps? 8am. Dry and sunny as can be, however. Rode out to the start of the Barry Ride, putt around town, and went to clear creek and back. 3:04 ride time. 201W average. 2207 KJs.

Yeah. Yet again, for the 3rd year in a row, I've started the base training exodus without having a team to ride for in '09. I came close, and almost had something set up through "that big team on the westside", but alas, no go. Upsetting, sure...but I think this year, more than any other, will be a boon year to ride unattached in our SoCal scene. Think about it. No Toyota, no more Five Star to shut things down. They killed me last year during my 2 month unattached stint. And who's left? LaGrange? SDBC? Is there anyone else that'll field more than a couple? No. I predict some classic amateur free-for-all racing. Should be fun, and i'm motivated for it.

Also, I've got to pay hommage to my new tubular training wheels. Chris King hubs laced to Mavic Reflex Ceramic built by Colorado Cyclist. SO great. The feel! The handling! The braking! Ah! In the next couple days...perhaps when that rain actually comes (it's getting belgium-like outside as i type...).

Salut!

Hermineh Galstian, you are a daughter. Go for a run.

2008-11-13T08:22:00.004+01:00

From:

To:

To:

I'm back on it.

What a slice...

2008-11-07T23:43:00.003+01:00

of shite:

Ivan Stevic

I raced him at Olympic Qualifiers last year and at the occasional socal soiree. I wish him a long, miserable, and excruciating existence in the eastern european hole from whence he came.

Ho Ho Ho....What's This?

2008-10-08T07:41:00.013+02:00

A new blog entry??

Sorta. First a story from the weekend. Hung out with a friend in Long Beach Friday night, and upon waking up, got an invite to play some flag football with some friends in Huntington. Hopped on the bike, rode south for an hour, and got there. I was pretty late, so had to wait for another guy to show up so we'd have even teams. 15 minutes later another dude came out.

Nice.

This is pretty much the only time of the year where I can do these stuffs. First play...almost intercepted a pass on defense. Merde! So close. Good times. I can actually run pretty fast if i'm into it. I played soccer in the decade before cycling, so some residual fitness resides. Football, however, I hadn't played since '85 at least. 2nd and 3rd plays were uneventful. 4th play...some odd tightness in my back came about. Like a spasm. Was okay to continue. 6th play....I actually heard an audible "snip".......hamstring....gone. DNF.

I'd say 7 of the 12 guys there I didn't know...and imagine...some dude rides his bike out there, half hour late, plays for 2 seconds, and done, injured. What a puss. Woke up the next morning with intense pain through the mid-back area, and very limited use of my left leg. 1600 watttttts! Nope. Not today.

Hi.

That said, my offseason is going remarkably well. I love that kind of stuff. The bike? I've been riding here and there, but nothing structured, just to and from the metro, to work, etc etc. All aboard what is quickly becoming my favorite bike of all time, this guy:

In this photo it has the wuss road tires, but generally i've got old school ksyriums (first-gen) with 42 wide cross tires and sorta theft-proof bolt on skewers. It eats up hollywood roads like nothing else, and often when I lock it up somewhere, I come out to an adoring gang of hipsters checking it out. "Uhh, yeah. That's mine. thanks, thanks." Full Rival 10 with 9 speed D/A cranks. Matching water bottle cage, and the perrier bottle from the photo looks pretty good here as well.

So yes: offseason. In spite of the world around us crumbling apart, my little piece of it is intact and swell. I haven't really taken any forced time off the bike this year. I can't. I need the bike to get to work, to get to the metros, to buy groceries. I don't really drive. That said, this is the first offseason during which I haven't had that weird moody depression that hits right around this time. It's good not to have that. Also, not coincidentally...I don't think i've put on a single pound since that last race. Good stuff. Gonna really tone it down this month (this pulled hamstring may have been a sign) and hit it hard during base....my first base with a powermeter! Really looking forward to doing 20,000 KJ weeks. That's a ways off. 'Till then...I'm focused on work and tripling the gallonage of the pond at my parent's place...

Currently sits at 600 gallons. Aiming for 2000g with better aesthetics...gonna be a daisy. You bet your ass i'm posting photos here.

Ivan Dominguez's Slipstream

2008-08-18T18:11:00.002+02:00

And how I had it.....but didn't.

Brentwood GP:

First, massive thanks to the string-pullers who managed to put a race on in one of my favorite parts of our city. Right in the middle of the busiest part of the westside...and no parking lot, either! Right there on San Vincente, and a full 2 mile circuit for us to do circles on. The races were short (80minute p/1/2), but hey. Awesome vibe throughout, and Superweek-quality (rather, quantity) crowds. Field....not so much. Most all of our usual contingent of crit superstars (Bahati, etc...) were out in the midwest, winning crit nationals.

But ho ho ho....who's this? Ivan Dominguez signs up. Justin Williams was here from track nats. Saw Dave McCook. Veggie Oils. Zack Morris. Yeah. Not a stellar field, but who cares? I wanted to do well. The sprint? Parfaitttttttt pour moi. Big long fast and straight, witha little uphill kick to the line to sort things out. The legs were good, the field not so good, just an Ivan Dominguez and Justin Williams to contend with come those last few meters. Yep, just those two. Sprints. Speed. Got it.

Fast forward. The race? Nothing happened. I hope it was exciting for the crowds assembled, cause it sure was dull for the racers. Ivan Dominguez attacked, and most had the same idea...let him hang for as long as possible. And he did, 3-4 laps perhaps? Things come back together, and the bell lap sounds. Swellllllllllllll. 100 fresh guys throwing elbows, chopping wheels, trying to get to the front. Madness. Annoying. It just makes getting up there more of a hassle. Down the first straight, nothing happened. It was kinda slow. I rounded the final corner (which is a good mile from the line still...nothing final about it) in 10th wheel or so, and found myself on the left side, on a 5 star guy's wheel. All bad. We inched forward, the speed was slow, the swarm came. I was probably 50th wheel at this point. Terrible! But with great legs, and patience. I actually "signaled" right to get out of that box. Slowly, surely, I got free and moved up. Speed picked up. Maybe 500 to go, I was in another box, but much further up, perhaps 20 back? I saw Ivan only a few wheels up, so I was in good position. No Justin. It was a messy slow-developing sprint. 250 to go, I'm 10 back, with Dominguez 2 wheels ahead. I saw an opening on the right, and blasted through it. Simultaneously, Dominguez made his move to the outside as well. Perfect!!! I was coming up on Ivan's slipstream! Madness.....this is second place, at a minimum, guaranteed. 200 to go. Green blur to my left...coming towards me fast. Who was that other guy I'd mentioned? Yep. What follows gets filed under "that's racing", but if we had an overhead helicopter view of it, there'd be certain DQ for going that lateral in a sprint with no regard for whatever wheel you might be smashing. My wheel was raped while justin made his move for Ivan's wheel. Since we were going 40+ at this point, the momentum helped me keep it up right, but my left pedal clipped out. I thank my lucky stars (and the predictability of the so-great Time RXS) that I found the pedal again on my next pedal stroke and managed to limp in for 12th.

Not upset at all. If it were anyone else (Bahati included), i'd be livid, but I know there wasn't any malicious intent here. Just another guy trying for Ivan's wheel. I didn't think i'd say this, but I'm sad to see the season end. Of course it'd be sad when you end it on good form. I have this crit game dialed, man! But hey, "all good things..." right?

Thanks for following. I don't know what else I'd blog about, so the blog frequency should drop. Maybe only french entries indefinitely. hahaa.

Salut!

Wednesday

2008-08-14T21:03:00.007+02:00

Wednesday was an interesting one.

7:45am:

Left Hollywood to go ride up to Mt. Wilson with the wednesday morning crew. Nice. The descent from Wilson to Redbox never ever gets old. I'm a fan. Turned down, had a coffee/croissant for lunch, and got to work at the crack of noon. Nothing emphatic to report at work. Got off at 5pm to head to a downtown happy hour that I hadn't been to since I got back from Wisconsin...and with the season nearly over, why not? 3 drinks. 3/4 of a pizza. Home at 7:30.

You following this schedule? Days for me are normally over after that. But...Johnny comes with this email:

Free money. Bikes. Hmm...that link leads to this page:

MANO E MANO SPRINTS. I'm a sprinter right? I especially like the ambiguity of the purse/$ situation. Not too different from some of the more "civil" uscf/cbr crits we do out here. Still, I had no plans to attend. 8:45 I was still home. Bored, slightly buzzed, and curious.....I put on a t-shirt and cargo shorts. Sprinted down to the metro and the train came right as I got there -a good omen. They're usually once every 20 that time of night. Got to the bike path pictured above....the turnout was as expected. Fixed gear scenesters from the valley. A couple guys on geared bikes. One guy with a proper full-record torelli carbon bike. And one poser-looking guy with an SRM on a carbon specialized with Sram. This guy was also the only one with a helmet. Who does that?

So we line up. Geared category, and fixed categories. GREAT stretch of bike path on which to battle. Wide, smooth, flat....and lit. It was 10pm by the time it started. The money situation: I had a $20. Other people had less. I put it in, another guy put $20, some guy put some quarters. Really random stuff. I'm pretty sure that at no point did anyone suspect that I was a cat-anything racer. Just a guy with a pretty cool bike. Two distances on the day. One was no more than 100 meters, the other was closer to 300. We started with the 100. Of course, I matched up with the guy on the only other proper bike. Lined it up. 8 seconds later, it was over. I lost. Overgeared, by the time I got up to a proper cadence, it was over...

Weird. We did a second run, I clipped out my pedal. I've never clipped out a pedal. The bike and everything connected to it just gets totally wrecked and maxxxed out in something this short and violent. Both biceps and the left side of my chest were sore immediately afterward. Got me thinking about my sprint mechanics. The srm was hooked up. Max read "1.60". Mon dieu. Can't be right. I set the zero, and did the next run (which I was lucky to even get, given the pedal mishap...it's 2 out of 3, and I wouldve been eliminated!). Second run I got a good jump, and kept accelerating to the line...not smooth at all, mind you, but there was definitely some juice going to the pedals. He got the jump, but I turned the rockets on in time and won by a wheel. Here's the stat sheet:

Yeah. New max. I bet the chain breaks at 1.70...anyhow. All the guys wanted to do a "winner take all" meaning I'd go up against the winner of the fixed gear group. Eh. I was pretty beat. Fixed winner had at least 5 beers on me. Tired all around, but hey. The crowd (of 11.4) wanted it. We raced, got an easy jump, soft-pedal, he comes up, hit the switch....and done...all his hopes and dreams? Plooop. Lets just say the guy wasn't the classiest loser...and leave it at that. Total purse: $53.75.

woooo!

Butane in my Veins

2008-08-12T05:39:00.007+02:00

The good clean natural kind.

Yes.

Yesterday: The Elite US Road National Championship.

Before the report...a little background. My racing leans more toward the "quantity" than "quality" part of the performance spectrum. I race often. I don't play that "peak" game. I aim to get some form, and keep it going for a good long while, and my results often reflect that. I have "peaks" but it's never for a single event. I plateau. That's it. Yesterday's Elite US Road Race happened to fall into a bloc of that good form. I've been on it for a good while now, and any opportunity to exploit it I'm going to take. This is why I decided to race this thing...didn't hurt that it was a 40 minute drive from home, either.

After paying the procrastinator's special $ ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY $ at the registration tent, I got my numbers on. This would be my third national championship race. The previous two being: '04 Collegiate Nats RR (12th) and '05 Collegiate TTT (1st). I usually nail these things. I've never had a coach, but in the buildup to races like these, there's something inside that makes everything click a certain way so as to send the legs and energy levels soaring.

-Butane in my veins-

So. The lineup. Cal-Giant Strawberries had the biggest team out there. All their guys are either old or ex pros or both. So they know how to race. Karl Bordine and the vegetables lined up. Full complement. Lots of assorted locals whom I had no idea were cat 1s...and of course the guys that actually flew out to do this thing. Bummer for them. The course.....ahhh the course....if they said "Aram, we want to make a Road course tailor made to fit your riding style" this would have been it. Perfect stuff. Six 31km laps for 186 total K's. Some complications at the start: if any break gained 3 or more minutes, the remaining riders would be pulled. Whoa! So no TdF style 20 minute TV-time breakaways on this day. I'm sure the sponsors were upset with that one.

Well....this report can get unnecessarily long. I'm gonna blast through it as efficiently/quickly as possible. First lap, my first around this course, I just felt everything out. So did the peleton. No break got more than 100 meters. It was definitely tense out there. People with some serious game faces and all that. There are 2 U turns on the course. At the first one, there were two girls, clothed, cheering like mad on both ends of this turn. Hey, good on them. See you in 31 kilometers. We passed through the start finish. Got my feed nice and smooth. We came up on the aforementioned U: same two girls, alot less clothing, even more cheering! HEY. Yes! Loosened the peleton up a bit for a change. DEFINITELY see you on the next lap. [really, there is nothing else noteworthy here...sagged climbed the climbs, no attacks, pack together mostly, eh.] So the only logical progression here is even MORE cheering and, well...can't really undress further I think. So we get there. The place is completely barren. I can only assume they were arressted. And I never did get a gooood look, but they were undoubtedly the grandest daughters of the land on that day. GRAND. So, serious time started again. It was around this point that a break got up the road. A break too big to take seriously, and we could see them up the road the whole time. No cohesion...they weren't even single file. I was unalarmed, but it was here that I saw the front for the first time -a couple times. They remained as they were...not too threatening. Bordine was there...a couple Cal-Giants, of course, with teammates shutting things down in the peleton...

[picture here if i get one]

On the next lap, with 90k still to go, I foudn myself next to Thurlow Rogers. "Thurlow, how are the legs today?" "Eh, they're good, but the race is riding away from us." I mentioned that they were just a few hundred meters up the road...and shortly after this moment, I never saw Thurlow again. He attacked. I saw the attack, but.....

The next few laps were frustrating. I told myself, "hey, whatev, you'll be in the next move and every other move thereafter. legs are swell and good. no sweat." There was no next move. Those guys just stayed a steady minute ahead. The strawberry team shut it down, the elastic broke, and we went into the last lap barely inside the 3 minute DNF window. I didn't think I'd sprint. I was tired and upset. More upset, however. I had exxxxxxxxxcellent feedzone support, and for the first time ever, was adequetely hydrated throughout a RR. I put away a good 1500 calories on the bike in addition to a gallon and a half of water. For this, my stomach is completely out of whack at the moment...but anyhow...The elastic was broke. 3 minutes turned to 6 real fast. There were 15 up the road. 13 in the break, 2 snuck off on the last climb and no one cared, so a sprint for 16th. I guess a top 20 in a National RR is good resume filler (not that I still care for those things), and 16th paid the same as 1st. We're all suckers. Pardon the cynicism...so the good legs come around, even if the mind wasn't too stoked on it. Once the peleton [pretty large still @ 50-60] starts jockeying, the legs just take over. Reflexively. You know this. Allright...Ken Hanson was the guy to mark. Random Trivia: He won the Cat 2 san dimas RR the year before I did. And I can't forget him completely coming off his line to take a measley $20 prime at superweek '06. That was when I learned that "hey, officials don't care about sprint rules during primes. anything goes." There's a pearl for the aspiring crit-monsters out there. Anyhow, the guy can ride...and had 44 fresh Stawberry teammates who also cared enough for that minor placing that they started an early leadout. I took his wheel with 4k to go. In a little bunch up, I lost it to an older fellow, and kindly, simply, said "guy, you can't even sprint." I'm a jerk, I know. It's probably better if blog readers stayed ignorant of this facet, but hey...he can't. I've seen this guy. Whatev, at the end of 186km, one rider between me and another isn't gonna make a difference, and I gave up the wheel. In a kind karmic twist, he gave it back to me with about 500m to go. Tip of the hat, big-wheel. It was an easy, though unfulfilling sprint. Hanson timed it perfectly and took it by a bike or two, I jumped at 300 and came around a little blob of riders and had a bike or two on the guys behind me. 17th. A total waste of great legs...but not entirely disappointing.

Superweek Redux + More

2008-08-04T07:06:00.006+02:00

Superweek's done. The break from blogging is done. It was a hell of a trip...for reasons beyond the results. I can't say it was the most fun one, but definitely the most productive and organized. Really, a huge huge shout out and thank you to the LaGrange guys who made the logistical puzzle much much easier for this bike bum. They even brought my bike back...HUGE...since it enabled me to take the metro to the chicago airport, and then the metro from Long Beach (LGB) to hollywood.

Top guys.

The final day...whitefish bay. Don't remember a whole lot. It was one of the smallest fields of the series. Interestingly, Superweek organizers said "if you don't show up and race the last day, you don't get paid." Lots of guys were absent, because of the $ chicago criterium the same day, BUT.....the guys behind the GC riders that didn't show didn't move up a spot. Where does that cash go? Being the last day, It was a free-pass to bury the legs, go for primes, get in moves, etc etc...that it was a smaller and slightly weaker (slower) field was just a bonus. Legs=must be on drugs. So great that they can go this well after EIGHT consecutive days of critting. Anyhow, highlights: About 4-5 laps in, I was riding behind one of the Columbians and said "Ay guey, vamos para isquierda...juntos." Something along the lines of "guy, i'm gonna attack on the left, lets go." So I attack....sure enough, brought only one guy with me. And.........it's the yellow jersey. Everyone was pretty surprised by this, me especially, but he drilled it as well, and we were away for a couple. Other highlights......saw my single highest wattage figure of the series -while losing a $100 prime to Carlos Alzate (COL). 1400 W's for nothing. That's it for highlights. A break of 7 lapped, then a group of 6 slipped off, and I finished 3rd in the bunch for 15th on the day.

Superweek Results:
Stage 1-15th
Stage 2-5th
Stage 3-21st
Stage 4-16th
Stage 5-DNS
Stage 6-10th
Stage 7-23rd
Stage 8-24th
Stage 9-DNS
Stage 10-18th
Stage 11-21st
Stage 12-19th
Stage 13-13th
Stage 14-19th
Stage 15-8th
Stage 16-11th
Stage 17-15th

Amateur Overall-5th
Pro Overall-14th

15 races. 15 placings. Zero crashes. Money: lots.

Swell.

Came back to LA where the races are slower, easier, and I don't do nearly as well. CBR final crit was this afternoon. Impressed with the turnout (60), despite a lack of a purse on the day. Entries were cheap at least. Almost a full bearclaw-reunion as well. Side story...so on the grass before the race, a guy (Tony Cruz's soigneur?) asked the group I was with (myself included) if we were gonna watch the race 'till the end. Um...yeah...i'm in it. The guys said "ah...so you're gonna watch it hanging on the back, eh?" Hmm...even if I am not fast...my legs MOST certainly look it...so I jokingly took offense..."yeah...hanging on the back after I lap the field. hah." Then, matter-of-factly, the guy says "Actually, you're not. There are 2 riders from the Italian National Track Team here," and he left. I was a bit annoyed, but eh. I ride for Bearclaw, damnit. We're kinda a big deal around here. I think. Sure enough, there were a pair of Italian super guys. Small, but with massive doses of Italian style and just plain fast-looking. They even had their own scenesters/translators/soigneurs to cheer them on. I'd later learn that they were madison guys. But anyhow...

Race started, and I didn't attack. I respected the field for this one...and my fitness. Not gonna lie, felt horribly. Rudy N from rock was out. "guy, how are your legs....." "noodles." At least I wasn't the only one. They came around though...I followed the Italian guys pretty close...smooth. Didn't really flex their muscle, but eh. Nothing was allowed more than a few ticks. People shutting everything down...so I didn't bother with attacks...only followed wheels when a teammate was up the road. At the halfway point, there was a points prime...I went for it, got the points and a pretty big gap. As I was coasting and recovering, Tony Cruz found his way up to me, solo. We picked up the guy that tried to sprint me for the points, and started rolling. Nice. Had a full straightaway pretty soon. The SDBC guy with us popped, and Tony and I exchanged some pulls. He clearly wasn't giving it the gas, so I didn't either, but it was steady. A group of 5 came up to us, including an Italian and a vegetable man...and that killed the move. Ah well. It was 20 mins to go at this point, so I just recovered a bit. The pace was really slow. Sub 40, easy. We entered the bell lap going....no joke....33 k's an hour. No attacks, no lifting of the pace. I was near the front here. "Guys, it's the last lap." Nothing. Found teammate Mike, and I told him to follow me with about 1/2 lap to go. Finally, a Vegetable guy attacked. I put my head down and slowly brought it back...no one came around. I went around the last turn in second...with the Veg guy blown up just ahead.

#$@^$#%@#$%$@#.......beautiful crash symphony behind me. It's always beautiful when it's coming from behind. Except...a quick glance...and yeah...it was my teammate who was 2 seconds away from the easiest win of his life. I shifted focus, and smashed on the pedals. Caught the guy who'd attacked, and thought I had the W......but.......the Italian dude blasted through and won cleanly. 2nd. Funny out-of-scale cell phone shot courtesy of Johnny:

Clean set of Italian wheels up ahead. Not pictured: massive carnage behind. And a decent one of Ton and me up the road. Don't the BMC kits looks bush leauge with the cell phone camera?

2008-07-30T04:54:00.000+02:00

Downer [Stage 16]

2008-07-27T19:10:00.007+02:00

Hello.

That bicycle is wasted. Hanging by a thread, I think. Or by a chain-link. It isn't shifting well anymore, the neutral support laughed upon measuring the chain for wear, it has energy drink residue all over it, tires nearing the 2000k mark this month alone, and the symphony of noises has new intrumentation joining it daily. One more day, guy. Hang in there.

Stage 16: The Great Downer Avenue Bike Race

Downer would be the 7th consecutive day of racing for me. A new record. Also my 14th start of the series. A record in madness. But like I touched on in the last entry, none of that matters anymore. Everyone else is in the same boat, and they're just 100k motor pace sessions with a little kick at the end.

Downer. To me, it isn't any different from the other races. The crowds are massive, yes, it's in a swell Milwaukee suburb, and there is the silly super-prime (which I would lobby to spread out...$200 laps...the whole time!)...but...same purse...same points. That's what it comes down to. The race: The composition of this one is different because of the combination of cash and crowds in large doses. Staging was completely ridiculous. Zero enforcement of any kind, and people staging as far wide as the inside of the neutral support area. Madness. There's got to be a photo out there. Photos of me at this race will prove elusive. I didn't do a damn thing the entire race. Felt fine, and took nearly half the race before I settled in comfortably behind the jerseys. Turn 2 was always interesting. Really...not alot to report. 10 to go, the jockeying began. Legs were fine, so I jockeyed, too. Kelly Benefit lined it up for another one of their leadouts. 5 to go, I'm good. It was very stressful each time the field bunched up before turn 3...total madness, accident waiting to happen. Bell lap................I'm ~10 back. Turn one, check. Turn two I blasted into, full-gas, followed by full wheel-skid brakes, followed by another full-gas thrust. Legs were ok. Relative to everyone else, anyway. Then...the slight bunch up before turn 3....and Wyoming's Finest, Adrian Geritts (La Grange) hit the deck hard. I was 2 wheels back, on the inside, and luckily he fell to the outside. I saw sparks, and jussst missed his rear wheel. Had legs, but lost the nerve to make the jump, and followed wheels to finish 11th. The 14th money placing in a row, and the 6th consecutive points placing.

One more day. As it stands, i'm 12th overall with 88 points, tied with another guy. In the amateur, I sit in 5th. Ironically, all the main contenders were in the break with me at Kenosha, so no ground was made there. It pays only 5 deep, and pays well...so I am motivated to hopefully overtake the guy ahead of me and keep the other one behind me. Also...it's great that "Best US Amateur" is being won by a Colombian former-pro, and also ahead of me is amateur Jonathan Page. Annoying, really.

A top 10 in the pro would be a dream...

14 + 15

2008-07-26T15:26:00.013+02:00

Will it ever end?

Stage 14: Racine 100k

Before Superweek started, this was supposed to be my off day. Like I mentioned last entry, an off day isn't happening. Racine is little town down in Southern Wisconsin. Not much of a drive from Milwauk. Did a couple warm up laps on the course. What a course! Every turn had cracks and lips and sealer and grass, even. This course definitely led the way for fluorescent-orange chalk usage. Ah well. 85 laps. Plenty of times to figure it out.

We roll. Everyone's out again, surprisingly, and leading the way...not surprisingly...were the fresh guys that just arrived at Superweek a few days ago. 5 guys lapped the field early, and the formality of the rest of the race played out. Shortly after, a break of 6 snuck off, and came pretty close to lapping and just ran out of race. So, 5 had lapped, 6 gone, leaving the rest of us to sprint for 12th. 5 to go, Kelly-Benefit lined it up pretty good, though they weren't yet drilling it, so it was them up front, with a massive blob of riders behind. I stayed near the yellow (now Cantwell), and had it up until the last lap. Turn 1, we're through. Turn 2, I see an opening on the inside, and chop or not, dove into it. Normal stuff. BUT! The big former jersey wearer went even further inside and I had to slam the brakes or take us both down. Dicey, at best. Lost several spots, and had to let off a match or two to get back in the mix. Finished 19th, eventually. Happy to have kept it upright.

Stage 15: Kenosha 100k

A Superweek classic. Fun little course. 100 laps. Nice festival vibe at this one, and great crowds. Massive field. Conspicuously absent again: Bahati. The finales are certainly different without him. Anyhow, I thought I got a nice spot during staging, but once we were underway, It felt like I was a million riders back. The course is a really fast one, with the exception of a bottleneck at turn 2, so it's a long line of riders that stay strung out because of that bottleneck...sometimes regardless of how fast the peleton is moving. What does all this mean? It means it's a good course for a breakaway.

So, after spending the first 20 laps feeling the race and letting the GC people futily attack one another, I made my way to the front. Not one lap later, Cameron Meyer blasts off the right side. Side note...Meyer is from the same Australian city (Perth) as my former teammate Michael Fitzgerald. So I kinda knew about him. He also won the Los Angeles World Cup Points race at which I was present (watching, of course). I had a chat with Cameron when we were called up at Shorewood. He's prepping for the Olympics, and I told him he's a nutter for racing Superweek just prior...but it is good training. Ok, side story done. I bridged the slight gap to Cameron, and we had about a quarter lap to get to the break. We exchanged pulls, and 2 laps later (and after Eddie's maaaaaaaasive seranade of words each time Cameron passed), we were in. The break? Geezus. Here's the roll call:

-Cameron Meyer (AUS) Going to the Olympics
-Juan Pablo Forero Carreno (COL) Going to the Olympics
-Carlos Alzate Escobar (COL) Going to the Olympics
-Jonathan Page (USA) 2nd Place World Cross Champs
-Paul Martin (USA) Elite National Champ
-Pete Dawson (AUS) Multiple World Team Pursuit Champ
-Richard England (AUS) '08 Tour of Georgia Stage 5 Winner
-Alex Boyd (USA) '08 Superweek pipped Aram Dellalian for $200 Prime
-Markus Walters (CAN) Canada's Finest?
-Greg Christian
-Russel Langley
-Me

To make things even more interesting, Pete Dawson did zero work in the break. Which is really interesting because I have no idea how cyclingnews got this photo:

I guess it's time to lay down some excuses. Gah. I'm just reporting it as it is. So, Dawson sitting on. The Colombians had 2 in the break. Jonathan Page had a teammate. And. What the results sheet won't show is that not-a-one of the other breakaway guys has been at this madness since day 1. Anyhow. The break lapped. Of course. It's all the right guys, it's big enough to sap plenty of points, and we took off very early, so sprint points would still be up for grabs. Jittery Joe's timed it perfectly, and we lapped with 2 laps to go 'till the first sprint. I recovered for a bit, and then did some basic calculations. Dawson sat on. Everyone else worked. I'll follow him for the finale. Well...long story short, he didn't do much, and took the final corner pretty timidly, and it was game over. I rolled in probably with a top 10 in the field sprint, but too many breakaway mates were in the mix as well, and ended up 8th on the day. 48 km/h average speed. Most probably the fastest crit I've ever done/seen. Not necessarily the hardest.

Interestingly, Jonathan Page was livid at the end of the race. He said "The Colombians rode like real men, unlike Rock Racing." -Looooooooooong Pause- "So Felicidades to them." I wasn't sure what the drama was about, but apararently Sterling is forgetting that the free-pass that comes with the Yellow Jersey no longer belongs to him. Hmmmmmmm.

2 more.

Stage 13 and Associated Crit Madness

2008-07-24T21:05:00.002+02:00

First: I'm racing this thing every day to the end. Today was supposed to be an off day, but I got myself in a masochistic daze and am pre-reg'd friday-sunday. Really though, it isn't hard anymore. Particularly when you're in the GC mix. You need to watch the riders around you, and they're likely doing the same thing, and in the same state of semi-delierium watching lap cards slowly count down 'till the recovery period before the next race begins. The people who don't fall into the aforementioned group are either (a) Colombian or (b) just arrived at superweek and don't care if a failed attack would sap their legs in the sprint. So you see...it isn't bad at all. At least that's what I'm trying to convince myself of...

Stage 13-Whitnal Park Road Race 100k

Again...not a road race. It was definitely Whitnal Park, and the SRM read 90k by the time we were through. Swell. 27 laps around a 3.5k circuit. Obstacles here included, in order, the sun in your face on the first little rise, followed by a pothole-orgy of sorts cast in dark shadows about a mile from the finish, and to my delight, a 180 turn followed by a little hill 500 meters from the line to a downhill finish.

We start. Same scenesters. Final day for double points. Kelly Benefits was conspicuously absent. I somehow staged first row. Just like that. We were off, and after a really smooth clip-in to forward thrust sequence, nearly plowed into the yellow jersey who didn't clip in so smoothly at the start. We laughed. Millionth time this has happened this tour...everyone's a bit less edgy. This was the first time in the last 4-5 days in which I didn't immediately concede that the money streak would finally end on this day. The legs were spry. I kept them in check, however. The 27 laps passed quickly. I nailed that climb seated and with minimal wattage (~500) each time. Power meter.....a real daisy for energy conservation junkies. A serious move got up the road. About 10 guys. Merde. Bahati was the last to get up there, and there was at least 1 Colombian. All bad. I put in a couple pulls up front, but eventually, all chase efforts were dropped, and it felt like it was done. But....it came back. The break exploded itself, and the pack grew more motivated as the gap came down. 4 laps to go. Group is all together. Legs are good. Slowly moved up, and kept it near the jersey for the final few laps. He's a good draft, and you know he's obligated to be at the finish mix, so it works out well. 2 to go, a Colombian gets a gap, solo. Olympic pursuiter nearing top form off the front solo for a 3k effort....righhhhhhhhhhht. Game over. But 2nd place is a solid position to sprint for. Somehow, no one crashed...got to that final U turn in fine shape, and sliced through without the brakes. Tip. Crested the hill...let the legs loose at this point, and found a nice line on the outside to pass some fools and finish up 13th. It works.

Le Douzieme Etape

2008-07-24T05:08:00.004+02:00

En Francais! Pour quoi pas?

Premierement, je suis desole parce que je ne peux pas explique toutes ici maintenant. C'est ne pas necessaire...si vous voullez plus, dit moi. Je veux ecrire seulement de les courses d'aujourd'hui et hier. Sur, j'ai trop de histoires pour ecrire, mais ne pas maintenant, ne pas ici. A plus tard, peut etre?

Le Douzieme Etape: Cedarburg 100 kilometres

Cette etape est en une petite ville Wisconsinois (c'est correct? trop amusant pour moi....) a cote de une grande est jolie river. Cedarburg est le nom. C'est un nom Alemand. Je pense que il ya beaucoups de gents Alemand en cette region de Etats Uni. Alors, comme toutes les autre etapes, aujourd'hui, nous avons 100 kilometres. Ce ne pas beaucoups, je sais, mais pour une criterium tres vite, c'est suffisant. Normalement, sur le courses plat, nous somme fini avec le cent kilometres en 2 hours...pour une velocite moyenne de 50km! C'est fou!

Aujourd'hui nous avons 130 courers, approximative. Le meme comme les autres jours. Le course est 90% plat, une peut monte, mais tres petit. Le course a 6 tours (turns? c'est correct?), et a 2 kilometres. Nous tourne 70 fois. Nous commence a 18:00. Toutes est normal. Les jambes est forte, mais ma tete est bien fatigue. Je deja participe en 10 courses! Alors, apres de rien de courer avance pour long temps, avec 10 tours avant de arrive, un petit group de quatre courers gagne une minute sur le peleton. C'est fini pour les autre courers, mais nous avons points pour 5-20eme courers. Je ne sais pas pour quoi, mais mon ordinateur de velo dit 115 kilometres cette soir...hmm. Alors...le derniere tour est FOU. Le temps est 20:30, est le soleil ne pas existe a cette heure bien sur! J'ai bonne position, mais est dangereux, parce que je regarde rien de les rues! Je ne sais pas comment, mais je ne pas automne, et j'arrive seulement 19eme. C'est pas mal...2 points tres important, est je gagne $70 aussi. Je suis 11eme sur le classement. 5 jours plus....cinq.........jours.........plus...........

Merci si tu lu ces mots!

Stages Days Bike Races 10 + 11 Yes

2008-07-22T16:11:00.010+02:00

Superweek is a long one.

It's going well. The good legs are good still, but the mind is starting to slip. It's getting more and more difficult to psyche myself out to take that start line for the Nth time for yet another 100k of corner after corner of people swearing at each other and guys crashing right around you for seemingly no reason. Ahh, man. Sunday was evanston, and yesterday was a 2.5 hour road race. The road race ended at around 4pm, so I get a full 24 hours to recover before tonight's race. Nothing to do but blog a bit and recharge the glycogen.

Stage 10: Evanston Grand Prix

Back south of the border where i've gone allright so far. Nice to see the hosts from north and south chicag come out. Even if one of the south hosts sent me this blogging motivational poster. Thanks! Ok. So I graciously accepted a ride down south with the LaGrange guys that have been MVPs whenever their car had room for one more...although I'm instantly blamed anytime a break of theirs doesn't stick and am immediately threatened with having to walk home. Hah. Good guys, though.

Evanston. Great course. Technical, but faaast technical, and a really long finishing sprint. Barriers throughout the whole course. LOVE that. After some charming speeches from local community leaders, Eddie got us off. Pretty standard start. Legs were swell after resting the day prior. I was scolded for cornering knee-out Moto GP style through one of the corners in the early going. Not sure if it was in jest though. After hitting a couple sewer holes, something on my bike was rattling. I had a suspicion that it was the rear wheel/cassette. The course had some rough spots, and with each passing lap, the noise got louder and more annoying. It's really difficult to try to diagnose a problem like this while racing. Try it sometime. Anyhow, the problem diagnosed itself. The seat came completely loose. With the A-hole SoCal officials (yes, i said it) it would 1000% result in a DNF. Not so here. The officials of this region are the sweetest classest and most personable around. TIP of the hat to them...and of course to the neutral support fellas. They took care of it, and I got back in. Gah...seat was too far back, but hey. No more rattle.

Sram Support: Tip!
Thanks

Shortly after I rejoined, a guy near the back of the pack crashed in turn 4. Word on the street is that a tubular was rolled. Ah well. Race stopped. I took advantage and went to the pits, got the seat sorted, grabbed some water, bathroom break, all that. All the guys hanging on for dear life were stoked with this stoppage...the guys at the front, not so much. The hang-on for dear life guys of course made their way to the very front of the field during the second round of staging...annoying. About 20 minutes later, we were off. I was near last-wheel during the restart, and had to sift through a sea of riders before seeing the front again. Got there, stayed there. 10 to go sounded. Big primes, big money, crowds are going nuts. I was about 15th wheel, comfortable behind Sterling who was behind Rassan. 6 to go...a guy right near the front crashes. Roll through the start finish, and yes...the race is stopped again. All the guys up front were livid. Seriously? And it reallllllllllly irked me when once again, people from the pack, pushed forward to stage up front. Total mess. The officials eventually agreed to add a few laps to the race to make it 10 laps to go. Eh. Sprinted out of the restart as hard as I could to get back to where I was. Got there before turn 1. The pace was brisk, but not as hard as it should be to make things nice and strung out. 5 to go...surprise surprise...a break of 3 got off with 2 Olympic-class pursuit riders. They got a gap, and the field starting moving nicely in pursuit. 4-3-2...i'm in great position, legs are getting that "feel better and better 'till the bell" feeling again. Bell lap comes, it's dark (it was past 8:30). Awesome crowd vibe. We got on the backside, and I was 3 or 4th wheel. Too easily. Midway between turns 4 and 5 there was a bit of a lull in the pace...and...I attacked. Hard. Went into turn 5 almost too fast, but had a gap! Rounded the final turn first. Just me, 1000's of people, and massive noise from all angles. I didn't dare look back. What a feeling. I didn't know at the time, but the 3 up the road were gone. I thought I was going for the win. That's a long lonnnnng finishing straight. Everything was going so slow even though the speedo says 60km/h. 25 meters to go.....swarmed. The guys around me were going a good 10k/h faster than I was. Still, maintained enough position to finish 18th. Dicey to be going that slow there, but still...one of my most interesting rides this tour. Though I wouldn't have attacked if I knew that the break was gone, and would've likely secured a top-10. Tant pis!

Rounding Turn 5

Stage 11: Holy Hill RR

This stage was neither a road race, nor hilly, and probably not holy. The start was delayed about an hour, and the RR was shortened to 108k. Exactly 2 kilometers shorter than yesterdays extended criterium. The legs and mind didn't want to start this one. We spent the night in Chicago, and thus left at 6am to head back to Milwauk. Didn't get a chance to come back to my host housing, so little chance for proper rest. Massive field. All the teams came, double points on offer here. I have great memories of this road race in previous superweeks, but it was 160+ kms back then. Not 100. Huge difference. The race started off about as smooth as you'd expect a field of 100+ to ride with the yellow-line rule enforced. Gah. A nice group was up the road, and sick of the lameness of the peleton, I tried to bridge...and failed. Again, for the millionth time this superweek, I conceded that the money streak will end today.

Into the bell lap, the legs woke up a bit. A break dangled off the front, and stayed up there somehow. 10 guys. Surprisingly, it stayed up there, and we would be sprinting for 11th. About 30-40 left in the group at this point. The finish was unknown to most of the racers...and different from previous years. I had no idea how long it was, but eh. I rounded the final turn in 2nd wheel. Got pinched on the right side, and lots of swearing with australian accents were thrust at the rider responsible for the pinch. I saw the finish at the top of a small hill, and was 3rd wheel behind 2 kelly-benefits riders. Perfect....but not. They never opened it up. I got a bit boxed in, and finished.....21st.

So two races, two points finishes. Not a boatload of points, but hey.

Stage 9

2008-07-20T17:00:00.010+02:00

Starting to lose track of where we are. I took yesterday off and it feels like I haven't raced in weeks...so a few words about stage eight, The Ripon Criterium. The paper said "1.6 miles with a climb on one of the straights". Fantastic. Just my style. Long enough, not too technical, and with a climb to make things selective. The weather forecast was promising, and the legs were ready to smash it up after the flat messed things up a bit at Shorewood.

Pretty clear where I'm setting up to go with this entry, isn't it? Good course, good weather, good legs. After scrambling with the phone to find a ride, I hooked up with a guy from Colorado (actually, the guy I stole the $200 prime from on day 1! Funny how you get acquainted sometimes...) and made the 2+ hour trip out to Ripon, Wisconsin. North-most point of the tour. I hadn't eaten, so instead of checking out the course and laying out, I went out to find a bite to eat. Slim pickings in Ripon. Most serviceable option at the first grocery were Snickers bars. Hmm...went to a pharmacy, and way out in a dusty corner I uncovered a single energy-bar. Also put away 3 packs of these:

High sodium. Not too much sugar. Plenty of carbohydrates. Not the finest option, but honest it was far and away the best choice. After loading up, I registered, hassled the neutral for a rear wheel, and lined up. No callup today, I'd slipped to 11th. First thing that caught my eye: 100 laps. Huh? 1.6 mile course? I guess they'd shortened the course (doubt we were doing a 160 mile race that starts at 6pm). We lined up. First time this tour I didn't get clipped right in, and it proved a near-fatal mistake.

The course is impossible. 4 corners. You descend into turn 1, hang a left, and go up a power climb for 100 meters. As you crest, it's downhill immediately into turn 2, and another left for the back straight. Off-camber left turn at turn 3 into another equally difficult power climb, then yep....right back down again to turn 4 where you turn left and go up another slight rise to the finish. 1k! 2 good climbs. 1 little climb. 3 climbs x 100 laps=300 ascents! Gaps in large doses at every part of the course. I found this shot which is probably from the first 5-6 laps where way too many gaps were thrown up over the course.

Thank you Clint

That's the finishing straight. Anyhow, the peleton filtered out at a rate of 3-4 riders per lap. Looked back and saw that I was last wheel on more than one occasion. All bad. Difficult to move up on this course without completely bombing the two downhill corners after the hills. A break of 4 (with the yellow jersey up there) got up, and they were set to cruise. The jersey crashed and had to DNF. Unlucky. The best thing about triple-digit lap cards is how quickly the laps fly by. 50 to go, and there were less than 50 riders left in the peleton. I was fine. Then....the rain came. I look up and see nothing but sun and some distant clouds, so it was confusing, so I figured it wouldn't be long...but...laps from 40 to go up 'till 10 were in the wet. Riders crashing in every direction at ridiculously slow speeds. Unlucky. Some riders just stopped and pulled out. I felt fine, surprisingly, as wet weather ain't my thing at all. I was mid-pack in a rapidly shrinking peleton. A guy opened a huge gap on the approach to every corner, then sprinted like made to close it. After a lap of this I pulled up, had words, and passed. "Guy, if you can't ride at the pace, pull off. You're killing the riders behind you for no reason. Cmon." "What? You crazy? I'm doing that so that I can ride around when people crash." Needless to say, but he was gone a couple laps later. So I was allright...until...the rain stopped. I have a difficult time re-adjusting and trusting the slowly-drying course. I lost mid-pack position, and eventually was last wheel. 1 to go I came off, and had two fellow stragglers on my wheel. I let them through, then attacked into the final corner at way too fast a pace. The guy just shrugged and let me by with no response. I counted the riders ahead, and was pretty sure a $ spot is still in the works.

24th! Skin of the teeth! Not stellar, no points, but on a course like this, I can't complain. I really thought the money streak would end here, but it continues...can't wait for today. I want to throw myselft into a couple of moves. I've given up on the sprint points in favor of the GC. Top ten would be a dream. Stat junkies: Ripon Criterium: 2363KJ in 2:21. New record. I hit the 1000 watt mark way too many times. I must be on drugs.....ohh...bad joke maybe. Anyhow, the graph tells the story pretty well. The erratic start, the settling, where the rain starts, and how the speed picked up as the course dried.

Salut!

Danny pate! 1k to go! Live! Allllllllllllez mon petit Americain! vite Vite VITE!

6+7

2008-07-18T18:22:00.009+02:00

Hi. Superweek is still going. Not without some difficulties, but hey. Hmm...what stage do I have to report on? I think the 2 per entry is working out well. So that leaves us at stage 6. I took 5 off: No ride out there, but more importantly...the saddle scene can get out of hand after 100k crits day after day on spotty pavement. So on with it...

Stage 6: Bensonville Criterium Day 2

This race was in the western suburbs of Chicago, just south of the O'hare airport. I took the metro. Nice chance to check out another metro system and not have to beg for rides. Got on the metro blue line. 20 stops. It'd be a long way. The station was completely empty when I got there...so took a nice shot of photo studio-like conditions.

The train came soon enough, and I was off to the end of the line 20 stops away, Ohare Airport. Except......the last two stops were under construction. Merde. Iphone out, sorted the directions, and figured it would only be 30 minutes or so until we got to the course. Iphone is great, but it doesn't say anything about pavement shittiness, unfortunately. Perhaps 2.0 has that feature. It was miserable...and my rear tire was already a bit suspect. After a miserable hour of riding, I got to the place: Bensonville.

"Ray Basso International Bike Race" read the banners and flags all over the mostly parking lot course. I don't understand the need to promote the international-ness of this series, (take the name of the event, for instance...why not "Superweek"?), but if it gets sponsor cash, then go for it. The course was an odd one, but didn't worry me too much. When the legs are good, minor things like course type, pavement, hills, etc are just interchangeable variables that don't mean much in crit racing. Same scene as always, but with 5-10 new riders coming each day. The Columbian Olympic team was out in full force, ripping. I'd slipped to 16th overall, so didn't get a call up today, but no sweat. Started off. Not a smooth course. Really strange turn 2, but we managed it, though the backside was strung out and difficult almost every time. The first 50k were difficult. I didn't do much. Oh, I did a little cyclocrossing...I was warned officially not to ride on the grass on the chicane 200 meters before the finish. Anyhow, lots of circles later, and half the field was gone. It was rough going for the first 50k. Rear tire felt a little soft, so I changed it. Eventually we got to 5 to go. On that lap, while jockeying near that chicane before the finish, I was forced into the grass, nearly running over the USCF official's foot in the process. Prrrretty sure he saw that one. Merde! Thinking I'd most probably be DQ'ed, I went for the next prime. $100, and after some lobbying with Eddy Van Guise (who was going to wrongly award it to a dropped breakaway rider), got it. I had a big gap, so by the time the peleton came back, I was sufficiently recovered, and slipped back into the top 20. 3-2-1 to go. It's almost matrix like. Everyone slows down, and I can move up as I please burning too many matches. As a total contrast to the first couple of days, this time I found that Rasaan was on my wheel heading to turn 2. Flattered, and happy to repay my wheelsuck debt. He went around and I tried to stay there, but eventually rolled in for 9th in the field sprint. 1 Columbian was up the road and won solo, so 10th overall, and back in the omnium game.

Stage 7: Shorewood

Ahh. Fond memories of this one. Crowds are always great, and at the superweek races, there's nothing cooler than the start finish area once you hit 5 to go. It's dark, there are tons of people on the barriers cheering loudly, and there is total madness in the peleton jockeying in the dark for position. This day was no different. A break of 3 slipped up the road which is realllllllly hard to do on this course. We averaged 45k/h! Tip of the hat to those guys. About midway through, they announce "$100 for first, $50 for second". 2 places, good odds. I was in front, so went with the first little group that attacked, and we got the gap we needed. I attacked the little group on the back straight, and got the gap I needed (it's much less taxing to take primes this way). Coming around the final turn, I had a good 100 meters over a single chaser, put in one more hard effort, and though for sure the guy would give it up. That finish straight......gahhh. It's long, and this kid (#222) cleanly took me at the line. TWO place prime though, so I'd get $50, no? Nope. They shut me down after the race and didn't have an envelope for me despite even #222 confirming that it was 2 places. Total bummer.

So, Shorewood. Not much to report. It was fast. There was one dicey crash between the poorly-paved section between turns 1 and 2 that claimed both jerseys, and lots of others. I sneaked through unscathed. The position battle for this race started early. Perhaps with 7 to go. And what? That rear tire? Yeah...after slipping a bit in one of the many corners here, I knew it couldn't have had more than 50psi. I was still outside the 5 laps to go mark, so could have pitted, but......I also had optimum position up front and felt good. Plus, you never know where you're going to rejoin after leaving the wheelpit. Peletons go fast at 5 to go...this one flying. So I stayed in. Warned a couple friends *not* to get on my wheel in the finale or any corner because I was losing spots. I went for it. I'm usually pretty timid with this stuff, but felt like I had nothing to lose. I tried to shift most of the weight to the front wheel in the corners, but it was terrible. The straightaway was particularly difficult...probably more mental than physical, But I was able to make ground on the back straight and the terrible section (which is realll smooth with 50psi) between 1 and 2. Bell lap, I was in it. When you're 10 wheels deep, it's fine and smooth and strung out. When you're 10-30 wheels in, it's complete and total chaos. I was in the latter group here. The tire was begging to come unglued. All bad. I just kept making a deal with it to last 'till the final corner...and it did. Big blobs of riders sprinting 100 wide. I think the bike throw at the end got me 5 places. 23rd! Still with cash! Wooooooooo! But having to glue up a tire in the middle of super week: bummer.

The Money Streak Ends

2008-07-16T16:10:00.002+02:00

With a day off....

Stages 3 + 4

2008-07-15T19:27:00.004+02:00

Chicago. I'm here, and really having a nice time on and off the bike. The legs and mind are starting to settle in for the long haul of this crit madness. Following the same algorithm everyday, eating the same foods, settling. It's nice. I feel like I could race everyday. I'm going to keep this one short...

Stage 3: Olympia Fields, IL

Every stage so far has been further south than the one that preceded. This was way south, about 45 minutes south of south chicag. These things happen. The course was obviously put on to promote what looked like an in-progress housing development. There were plenty of nice-looking empty houses around. A little lake, and new pavement that wasn't quite finished yet. Which is where we were slated to race. I got there a bit late, and while in the parking lot a guy came and mentioned that there'd be a "rider-only meeting". Hmm. In short, the officials deemed the course unsafe for racing, and were polling the riders to see if they wanted to cancel. I was indifferent. It was a nice course...turn 3 was a bit of an odd one, but nothing we hadn't done 2049 times before. We raced a shortened 60k race. Points and all that were normal, as was the purse. I don't like shortening these things. Longer races=more fatigue=safer finales. Anyhow, we raced, I felt swell. Put in a couple moves but nothing stuck. Since that really hapless attack that stuck on day 1 i've been reluctant to give it full gas in one of them. I didn't get up the road, but a pretty serious move got 1/2 a lap at one point. I chased, a few others chased. The gap stabilized, and started to come down....

Then a guy 3 wheels up from me crashed badly in the aforementioned corner....caution flags, red lights, race stoppage....the whole bit. In short, the crash gave the break a huge boost, and by the time they "officially" neutralized the race, they were 3/4 of a lap up. Gah. Dumb. In 30 minutes, we were off again. They gave the break 3/4 of a lap, of course...and with the big rest interval they had it was pretty much game over. Then without warning (my fault, probably), I hear the bell..."one to go!". Gahhh. I was mid-pack recovering from a little move earlier. It really hadn't even been 10 mins since the restart! I blasted through every corner throwing elbows moving up in droves, and brought it in for 21st on the stage. Well in the money....but zero omnium points (those are 20 deep). An odd day, all around.

Stage 4: Richton Park, IL

The furthest south the tour goes. Interesting little town with wayyyyy too many mosquitos. Good field again, cool course. 4 corners, but not really. The straightaways all had bends in them, and the pavement looked cool. We start. Again, legs felt allright. They've been super. My limiting factor, however, has been the ffffin saddle area....it's getting rough, not gonna lie. Might have to take a day off just to recover down there. Lots of chamois cream today, but still hard to sit properly. The course....ahhh...easily the hardest day so far. I don't know why, but it wasn't smooth at all. No dynamic, no rhythm, and more brakes on this day than on all the other days combined. Annoying. The first 50k were rough for me. Then I slowly started to settle in, and the endurance bit took over. Had no idea how many were up the road, who was up the road, whether they had lapped...zero. No one really knew exactly. Some said 10, some said 20. If it was 20, we'd only be sprinting for 5 $ spots and zero points. So I wasn't too motivated for the sprint. Still, the legs came around, I threw myself in whatever holes opened up, and finished up 15th on the day. The official figure for the break was 10 riders. Major props to perennial "sit in and sprint" guy Justin Williams (R&R) for getting up the road and lapping the field. Never seen him attack, let alone lap the field. Bravo, guy.

***If anyone has links to any photos, send some links my way. There isn't much out there.

Hi

2008-07-13T05:50:00.008+02:00

I'm at Superweek. Stage 2 just wrapped up, and the mind is still a bit too juiced to sleep. So perhaps some therapeutic writing will settle it down a bit...So on tuesday, 24 hours before my departure, all I had was a plane ticket. No housing arrangements. No ride from the airport. Rien. Wouldn't have it any other way. I was planning on putting my faith in public transport and going from there. Worst case, there'd be a story to tell, right? Chicago-friend Faris totally bailed me out of the bumming. Thanks guy. There is a story, however...this picture will detail it pretty nicely:

Awesome huh? Unlimited storage space with the top off. The bike case wouldn't fit otherwise. Great...except as soon as we loaded it up, it began to pour violently. Total madness. Plus we hit terrible traffic. Trains and rail crossings. Wrong turns. Stress. Rain? The whole bit. We made it though...I wish I had photos of the two of us holding umbrellas up at stoplights. Classic. Thank you Faris.

Day 1: Beverly Hills Classic.

I was staying in Evanston, Illinois and rode the 60k down to Beverly for the (100k) race. Too much. But I ate and drank like a machine...swell. The legs were OK with it. Thing about this first race...it's way to the south of the city. The further south you go, the more impoverished it gets....then you get to Beverly, and within a span of a few blocks, it's big giant houses and amazing lawns and lush greenness and $$$$$. I've never seen such a quick change up of that nature. This Subway was two blocks from the course:

The photo is a bit blurry...apologies. That's a 4" thick pane of glass. At a subway. I asked the clerk..."this glass is pretty serious. are you guys open 24hrs?" She laughed, and said they were not...but said it's a pretty serious neighborhood. Wow. I wonder what the banks are like? Two blocks later, I made it out to the race. Nostalgia in large doses. 3 years ago at the same place I lined up for my 1st Superweek race. The course is great. Crowds are massive. Big field, quality field. 100k. Everything....in its right place....

After lots of callups, they called up the rest of the field, and after the anthem, we were off. Legs=Tip. That hill felt great all 62 times we went up it. I consciously toned down any aggression given that I already had 60k in my legs with a massive 100k to go. It worked. Made it to about the 50k mark. Rationed my bottles perfectly. Finished the one on my downtube (thank you Prolong!) and would soon start on the one on my seat-tube. Nope. It flew out. In the feed zone, ironically. A giant full bottle. The only time i've ever launched a bottle with these cages. And what shite timing! Panic mode set in. The legs wanted to quit given the grim outlook. No water, 110k in the legs, 50k of racing to go. A break of 4 was up the road...6 in between. Then the shrinking peleton with me in it. What to do? I noticed a guy I knew in the feed zone who'd dropped out and was handing feeds to his teammates still in the race. I got to the front of the peleton, threw my empty bottle at him, and begged for anything. Next lap, ahhhh....what a guy. Full tall-bottle of water. MVP. Not sure if I should give out his name...so just gonna play it safe here and not mention it. The race...getting that bottle juiced up the legs even before I drank from it. I saw that the break had half a lap...hmmm...put in what was honestly a really half-ass attack on the backside. Tucked up, and settled in. One guy bridged. Then Bahati. Then Cantwell.,Candelario, and a few others. Hmmm...weird how we were allowed to stay up. at the meager pace we were keeping. At 15 laps to go, we were clear. Not gonna lap, but probably not gonna get caught. My theory is that the teams that lapped the field didn't want Rasaan back in the peleton helping his teammate in the finale. Theory. Soon afterward, there was GIGANTIC prime $ being thrown around. $200 each! To our little group...which happened to contain 3 of the best sprinters around. Gah. I'm not gonna take them to the line. So I attacked for the primes on the hill. I got clear. Right before the last turn, Cantwell got to my wheel alone. Gah. I told him "just go...it's yours" and was honest about it. It'd be stupid to attempt to sprint him there...waste of juice. He pulled through, and must have looked back 500 times in 100 meters to make sure I wasn't kidding him. Haha. The next $200, I attacked again, same spot, and got clear alone. Swell, put a bit more juice into it, and this time a guy who wasn't a top NRC sprinter found my wheel, alone. I got this. I led it out...he came around too early, and I made my move...thinking about the $200 and how great it was to get it. He made a nice late surge, and I had to throw the bike to seal up the $. Threw it.....NO! My shorts totally got caught in my saddle. The midwest humidity.....gahhh. The saddle is really supple because of too much sweat/humidity, and the increased friction caught my shorts on the sharp-edged SLR saddle. So bummed. The announcer said "we're gonna have to check the cameras on that one, too close to call!" That left me with a glimmer of hope...but nothing more. So with 8 to go, we continued. It was such a gentle pace, really a miracle that we had a gap. The leaders lapped the field, and the lead vehicle moved in front of us. 5, 4, 3, 2 to go...the bell lap came. BahatiBahatiBahati. Stay near him, and we're good. Did that, but got dicey in the finale and I finished 5th in the field sprint for 15th on the day. Swell. Happy that break stuck, and it honestly wasn't too taxing at all. Getting that feed was huge.

Rolled around, and saw a couple I met (hi) while staging. I told them about how bummed I was not to win that $200 prime...and they said "Guy, you won it. They called out your name and everything!" Ahhhhhhh man. Tooooo stoked. Made my night. That's 1/2 of what the Manhattan Beach purse would have been. Swell indeed. So nearly $300 on the day after stage money.

Day 2: Blue Island 100k

Merde, that's a long report for day one. This one will be shorter. Same Superweek scenesters. Drastically different course. Flaaat. Terrible pavement on the backside. Nice crowd, not like yesterday though. It didn't look like a good course for a breakaway. I decided to hang in the field, and go for the Sprint-Jersey Points. 50, 40, 30, 20 to go. 7-5-3-2-1. Didn't go too well, but I placed in 3 of them. Rock ran the show here, followed by the Jittery Joes guys, then me. I think I was 3rd, 4th-4th. Still though, sprinting those things helps you get a feel for the course, the sprint, and the corners. Anyhow, after a blazing pace throughout, 5 to go sounded. I was well. Really...the form is super. 3 to go, turn 1...things were a bit messy. The wheel I was following went into the corner way too hot and really jammmed the brakes. Two choices: 1-plow into him and crash, 2-do something else and don't crash. Of course, 2 just came instinctively. Everything that followed was done purely on reflex...but at the same time I was cognizant of the fact that a part of my brain I have no control over is controlling my movements for that split second. My left foot clipped out, clean. The rear wheel went into a controlled slide for a bit to the left and one pedal stroke later I clipped right back in and lost no position. Amazing save. Pat on the back, reflex systems. 2 to go. Great position. Bahati was right alongside me, with yellow jersey Sterling Magnell (bang up ride by this guy leading out Rasaan to the sprint primes each time...he's on good form) leading him. We were 10 wheels back, with Kelly-Benefits stringing it out a few wheels ahead. A group tried to swarm wide left after turn 2, but Kelly had the pace lined up pretty nice. Swell. Then, I found myself on Rasaan's wheel. Unchallenged. Really odd. People get shot in SoCal trying to get that spot. Two smooth corners later, we started sprinting. Rasaan's on it. He sprinted around the blob of people like they were standing still, and won it. I didn't sprint around as many and finished 5th...

Hot Damn. Hurt to miss the podium by 2 spots, but far and away my finest result out here. I'll get there.

Wisconsin Crit School

2008-07-10T02:55:00.007+02:00

No, not yet. First a report from this weekend's crit. The race was a 1/2/3. Massive field. Lots of Bearclaws. Spanning all the allowable categories.

It was a swell time. The race was basically the same field as Manhattan Beach the week prior, minus the $20,000 purse, and minus the pressure. It was a nice chance to pin up a number and mix it up with these guys for round two. I like this course. I've done nearly a billion laps on it over the years, but the direction and start/finish placement was recently changed. They switched it back to the old-school on this day, and I was happy for it. Love the little uphill sprint. We lined up...lots of guys:

Took my requisite first lap flyer. I've been doing this lots lately. I think it's basically because I KNOW at some point someones gonna go and string out the bunch. I figure if it's me, at least I know when it's coming. It's worked out pretty nice usually. Never worked though, of course. Jorge from LaGrange caught me, and we did a couple laps together. They rang the prime bell. I let him have it, so long as we can split whatever it was. It was a bottle of facial conditioner. Not much to split...

The race isn't really too interesting from that point. Rode near the front. Watched breaks come and go. The team worked great to shut down threatening moves here and there. Fast forward to just before the bell lap. All our sprinters (3 of us) were right near the front. The vegetable crew was doing their thing, followed by Rock Racing, followed by the Claw kids. I felt spry. Plenty of madness ensued, and I maintained good position into the final corner. I followed Tony Cruz through it. A guy clipped out of his pedal with 200m to go, and that caused a bit of a ripple in the bunch, i went wide right...too wide, and just missed coming around Cruz and a health net for the minor placings. I finished 7th. Teammate Mike got the 2nd-last money spot at 19th.

Yeah, a guy threw his arms up early and lost...and Rasaan let him know about it. Ok, that's that. Wisconsin. I leave really really early tomorrow morning for Chicago. I return on the 30th. Beyond that not much is certain. The first week is going to be the most challenging logistically. That's always the main challenge...it's not the races, it's getting to them. Chicago is gigantic. And there are races in opposite sections of the enormous city. I'm hoping I can ride to as many races as possible. In milwaukee it isn't difficult. We'll see. Legs are good, motivation is good, and it's going to be an interesting bike bum lifestyle excersize. I've amassed so much knowledge in this area over the years, but after UCA's glorious support last year I may have grown a bit soft. It'll come back.

Lunch

2008-07-02T23:56:00.002+02:00

San Diego + Manhattan Beach + Wisconsin

2008-07-01T20:17:00.005+02:00

Salut

Been a busy couple weeks of riding....and so i'm quite behind in the blog scheme of things. I'll start with what's painfully freshest in my mind. Manhattan Beach. I love this race. It's really short. There's lots of money. And the entire race just comes down to where you are come the final corner. This race has usually been the end of season soiree for me, but this year it was in late june...so still lots of form to come...hopefully.

I carpooled to the race with the Bearclaw cat 2 superstars. Those guys have come a long way since I first joined up. They raced it perfectly. But one guy put in an impossibly fast sprint to come around and narrowly take the win. The Claw in second.

Full write up for the race done with proper Oxford status diction can be found here. Adjective city. Ok, my race. First thing, it was a blast. The NRCs are always so much fun...and in truth, they're usually easier than the local stuff because the speeds are faster (more moving air, more vacuum), the fields are bigger (more vacuum to hide in), and you drop less speed in the corners. But above all, in the local races, the onus is on me to do something. Here you just watch and not crash, and get to that corner in good shape. It's such a fine time. That said, the race was the usual well-attended beach party style scene. After 1/10th of the field got callups, we got to the line. I got a good start spot -critical. Rolled off. Nothing fancy. But shortly after the rollout is when I find out if the legs are ready to fire. They were. Mixed it up half-ass twice, and with the exception of a brief recovery from those moves, kept it in fine position throughout. "Five To Go!" said that man who's race announcing i'm a big fan of. Awesome. I was top 20. 20th place got almost $400. 21st place gets a bit less. $400 less...and 22nd place says "hey, at least i wasn't 21st."

Do I even write the rest of this report? I finished 22nd. Embarassing. The legs were swelllllll and I let em down. It was the usual chaotic madness in the last couple laps. Wheels chopping, expletives flying, no team controlling the front. The most interesting of the chaoticness was some dude who's wheel I was on just had his bike slowly come undone with 1.5 to go. I hit 1000+ watts at 4 different points inside the last 3 laps. Not cause of attacks, but just from trying to sprint away and around the ensuing carnage. I love that scene though. The $400 would have been really swell to have. I need to get over it, but it's tough. Anyhow, into the bell, after sprinting away from the guy's bike explosion, I was in swell shape. Jittery Joe's shot up the left side on the hill and I was on them. Got to turn one in fansatic shape, aced the turn, and was a bit trapped on the outside once through. It's okay. Couple hundred meters later, I brushed against Rasaan's rear wheel. Perfect. I'm where I'm supposed to be. Hadn't jammed brakes or hit anything in a good 20 seconds. A new record. Then I'm not sure where things went awry. First wheel through the final turn crashed. No bueno. I escaped the bodies and bikes, but was off the wheel I'd been following...and in the center line...not the inside like I should have been. Two riders passed on the inside. Two riders, four-hundred monies. Poof. We all went to the beach afterward.

Hmm...a bit short on time....so no proper saturday race report. Small field, lots of Waste Green Vegetable guys. They won easily. I was in a decent move givining it lots of juice for the last 5-6 laps, but we were caught with 2 to go. I won a Rudy Project watch. Who wants it?

Lastly..................WISCONSIN. I'm heading out there. It was one of those things where if I really sat down and analyzed it financially I probably wouldn't end up going, but I saw that I had enough to buy the plane ticket and bought it. The rest will hopefully fall into place. If they don't.....i'll have stories to tell. Win-win situation, no?

Glendale GP

2008-06-17T21:44:00.003+02:00

Every year, the world's worst city for cyclists hosts a bike race -for cyclists. Odd. It's actually in the outskirts of town, but borders another town terrible for bikes: Burbank, so no love lost. I can blog for miles about my experiences in these two cities, but it's nothing you haven't heard before. Just be really careful when riding through these areas...

The crit. Yet another really short 75 minute crit-smash. I folded up my numbers, and got caught. Eh. Didn't throw a fit. All you have to do when you get caught is tell the rider next to you to pretend that he's "fixing" your number, then start. The USCF officiating algorithm is pretty easy to circumvent...just keep it subtle.

KennyBZ.com

We start. Meager field again. High gas prices + $35 entries + small purse= the fields we've been having. I blast off after turn one with one other guy. Felt swell, and wanted to hurt the guys who had already done 2-3 races. Maybe it worked...we stayed up for 3 laps or so, then it came back. Legs felt fine, wanted to really dig off the front, but nothing stuck. Teammates, however, were stellar. Found myself controlling the front more than being off the front of it. Swell job, fellas. Eventually it was altogether, and not before too long (as is the case with these really short ones), 5 to go sounded. Thurlow + 1 got a nice gap. I was envious. 4, 3, 2 to go. I was 5th or 6th wheel, ideal position for the ensuing bunch gallop. Bell lap, i'm good. Did a quick rundown of my legs, and for some reason, my mind wanted to go for it. 1/2 lap to go, I attacked on the outside as the pack slowed a tiny bit...attacked hard...1300 for 10 seconds....and SDBC was right there....gah. Hubris, in large doses. In hindsight, I should have attacked inside...or attacked harder. But, I became the guy keeping the group safely strung out 'till the sprint. Teammate was in the mix, however, and finished 6th. Better result than saturday, we'll take it.

I'm going to win one of these really soon...

Double Crit Weekend

2008-06-15T21:00:00.005+02:00

And here's one from right in the middle...

This is the easiest race weekend of the year, because both races are 20 minute bike rides from my house. I'm actually planning on watching the 35+ once i'm done here...my race isn't 'till 3:50pm! Geez.

Yesterday: San Fernando Grand Prix

Old school race, right next to my old high school (Alemany). I remember it being the very first P/1/2/3 race i'd ever done way back when. Same course. Little has changed. Only, there were way fewer people out watching. Maybe the heat? Still, nice scene. Love the bilingual announcing. Small field of 50-60 racers. No big-time guys at all...but a good number of 5-Star guys pretty much sealed the outcome before we even started. Teammates were nice and active from the go, and I countered one of their moves with the first chance I had. Ok. Got a prime, and got lonely out there for a couple laps. It was miserably hot, and the peleton was happy to let me bake a bit. Eventually, I saw C-Walk bridge with one SDBC guy tagging along. Swell! Got into the rotation, and we had a great couple laps 'till the SDBC guy slowed. Walker was irate. He's pretty big on quantifying how many MPH the guy at fault is slowing down the break.

Bordineski and his teammate bridged, and I figured it was game over for the peleton. C-Walk, Bordine, Me...but it got brought back. I wouldn't have chased us if I was in the peleton. So...long story short. The race blew to a million bits. I thought I was mid pack at one point, and looked back and saw nothing. That psyched me out. Drilled it with the little group I was in, and in this madness, a group of 7 formed up the road. Bordine, C-Walk, and not me. Gahh. Head down, let's chase. When I flicked my elbow, there wasn't anyone left behind. OK. Head down again. I can close gaps like this in my sleep. They were maybe 100 meters up the road. And.....no. Didn't close. Did lots of this:

But...stayed in between the peleton and break 'till the end somehow. Good work, legs. I didn't win, but burned more calories than anyone else, i'm pretty sure. Ended up 8th with a prime. A teammate finished in the last $ spot. That's always good. I'm happy with the race. One side-story. After my first move was brought back, I drifted back a bit to recover. Ok. Found myself last wheel eventually, and come the 180 turn, a guy 2 wheels up from me took it real wide and opened up a slight gap. The guy who's wheel I was on, Raul Frias, whom I know pretty well, looked back...saw that it was me behind him, and sat up. The gap grew from 3 meters to 30 very quick.

Me: "Hey, what? You don't want to race?"
Him: "You remember rosebowl?"

Wow. He was referring to a time at the bowl where I sat on his wheel and didn't chase when a teammate was in the break. We were OFF THE FRONT. Amazing. I put my head down, and closed it, but wow. I'm certain that this was an isolated incident and that Raul never does anything to annoy anyone else in the peleton. Never. Especially not all the time.

Glendale today...should be a daisy.

Charity Rides

2008-06-12T01:28:00.004+02:00

There are millions of these. Everyone's seen the flyers in the bike shops and the occasional message that finds its way into your inbox asking you to "Help fight Disease X by riding 100 miles!". Ok. I get it. But I don't. If you want to support a cause, then write a check to whatever charity associates itself with it. Why complicate things by pinning numbers? Why dilute the support for the cause by adding the expenses associated with permits and staff and port-a-johns and and and. It just isn't efficient.

This is Getting Old...

2008-06-02T06:57:00.005+02:00

In case you haven't noticed...i'm in the middle of one of my worst seasons ever. Not sure what it is exactly. No, scratch that. It's quite obvious, and I guess there isn't a better way to come to terms with myself than with....myself. Here.

France. I'm not there. I race around office parks every weekend. It's really detracted from my [current] enjoyment of the sport a bit. By "it" I mean the exposure I had last year to that swell EU lifestyle. It was just so complementary to my style...but it's done. I continuously have to remind myself that there are CERTAINLY worse places to be than Los Angeles.

So there it is. I've come out with that. I rode the Dana Point GP today and the legs were magic. Incredible course, but the head was shite. Enough. I know I can ride circles around most of these dudes. Just gotta lose that limiter...and think less. I'm ready to start turning it up. COMO MOTOS.

Ontario....Why?

2008-05-20T08:06:00.005+02:00

May's becoming another forgettable month for me...what's the count now, 5 in a row? Anyhow, went down for the 90 minute criterium. Thank you to teammate John for the ride out there. Got there, and incredibly there were more than 20 riders. Something like 80, with a full five-star fish ensemble to seal up the results.

45C (100F) at the start line.

From the gun, I was upset that a gap had formed behind me, and just went for it. No attack, just slight-gap turned into a break. Oddly, I hung out there for 5 laps. Weird. Pity no one worthwhile bridged up. Eventual winner of the race bridged, but it was game over by that point. Mixed it up in breaks a few more times, but my number never came up. It's tough when you're a big chunky sprinter-looking guy trying to get up the road. Only the C-Walk-types are given the long leash.

So 3 lapped. I didn't. Somewhere between 10-20 in the field sprint.

Bearclaw Scenesters

I have a pretty lax gameface

Failed break #435

Little Crit

2008-05-05T18:05:00.007+02:00

Hi.

On The Way To The Metro

After getting humbled by last weekend's racing and last week's work schedule, I kept it light this week and went to the CBR 100k Dominguez hills crit. There was a road race option further south. We would....but we're not. Three bearclaws lined up. And about 40 other racers. Tiny field for this low-pro crit. Small fields change the dynamic of crits. Fewer places to hide. Less room to recover after a hard effort, less horsepower in the field if a break gets clear, etc etc. I don't like it. It's harder in many respects, and also a bit more dull. Also, they shortened the race from 100k to 90 minutes (which is about 30 minutes off anyway, not a huge deal...though i'd rather go long). Anyhow, plan was to have one rider hang out, and the other two to be aggressive. I'm not good at the hanging out bit, so opted to be the aggressor hrrrrr. Made a couple of "fake digs" that got the field going. Didn't feel stellar, but the feeling was getting better with each passing lap. Took a prime. That was good. Recovered real quick. Nice. Shortly afterward the race was in pieces. 4 actually. And I was in #4. Hmmm. Before things got out of hand, I bridged to #3 alone. While here, a couple SDBC guys (to whom I gifted a win a couple months ago) had their heads down trying to close the gap. At this point 2 and 3 merged, with all of the strong guys pulling away in #1...but still in sight. As soon as the sdbc guy pulled off, I attacked, alone, and got across. The first reassuring thing that's happened to me in racing for quite some time.

So the break was established. 10 guys. Had teammates shutting down behind, and the gap grew and grew. Of the 10, I know I could out-sprint 8 (on a bad day). We lapped the field. I wanted to go again, but no one else did. The complications of sprinting when you're a lap up. Eh. Best avoided and sooooooo much classier to win when you attack again. I tried, but nope. Last lap comes, I told my teammate to sweep my wheel. My other teammate helped me get to the front as we started the last lap. Things were going well...

I finished 10th out of the break.

My seatpost broke in turn 4.

C'est la vie...

Before it flows out of my mind...

2008-04-23T06:16:00.004+02:00

A crit report:

Torrance Sunday

Any of you ever race this course? As nascar as it gets. .5 mile course with 4 big-wide no-brakes corners. Average speed was 44k/h. In addition to the classic dizziness-inducing course, the composition of the field was pretty good as well. No huge teams, just a ton of mostly amateurs going for it. I had Alejandro racing alongside. Not a huge field, perhaps 60? I made the mistake of casually starting in the back. It took a while to see the front...course like that the only place to move is in the corners, and you don't move much. Anyhow, finally saw the front after 10 minutes (or 10 laps), and went with a move. Nope. Went nowhere. I think the largest break of the day had 10 meters on the field. It was that kind of race. I read it as such, and just kinda hung out in the field. 5 laps to go...which is really only 3 or so minutes. I had great position...perhaps 10 back? Pace was deceptively slow, and the inevitable swarm came and did away with that good position in .2 seconds. 4 to go. La Grange skids off in turn 3. 3 to go. More booms and broken bike parts. 2 to go was the worst...crash near the front in turn 4, but I gave it a ton of gas here with the idea that the race would be in fragments behind. Had a great line with half a lap to go, but the guy right in front of me, with an even better line than me completely sat up! Annoying. Scrambled for a wheel, nothing came, and I was pipped for the last $ spot by super-master Mark Noble. Unlucky. 11th.

Oxford Comma

2008-04-20T18:20:00.009+02:00

Comment va, blog?

Long time since we were last acquainted. Pleased to see you. Why has it been a while, hmm...I used to get on people for not updating as often as I thought they should. Now I realize that sometimes, there's just nothing particularly interesting to write about. It may be interesting to read, but it's agonizing to write about having poor form, or having to work lots, or something dumb like that.

Allright, i'm done with that paragraph. Something interesting: Today. It's so jam packed with stuff to do, that i'm also putting in a couple paragraphs here. 420 bro! brobro. Got a crit in torrence at 1:30. Will regrettably be missing most of the laker game (but it's Denver. Pushovers). Then at 4 there's a sound check for a show at 7 at which I'll be playing bass at. It's an Armenian Genocide event, and I'm up with Element. I played with them sometime in the late 80s...so it isn't completely foreign or random. Looking forward to this one, and hopefully I don't mangle myself at the 1:30 show. The torrance show. I've never done this race. All the core guys are out in the bay area racing sea otter. It should go well. Will write a little something about the race...'Till then, some in/around LA iphone photos taken in recent weeks:

Funny Story

2008-04-10T07:25:00.004+02:00

Tuesday morning, I'm up to ride. Have a coffee, some oatmeal. Same algorithm as always. Throw a leg over the bike (which is the red one again since the srm is back in Colorado) and let out a little belch......that same instant, my back shattered itself. As if all skeletal connectivity was somehow linked to that tiny trapped pocket of air. So I collapsed, and couldn't get up for a few minutes. Equal parts funny and scary, really. I'm pretty sure the heavy lifting at work the previous day contributed...but a day (and a full sleep) later? Odd. Off the bike at the moment, but am registered for the Ojai Pro Smashfest.

Hmmm.

Metro Chronic

2008-03-28T06:32:00.005+01:00

Every now and then, the bike goes onto the metro. Saturday night after riding to Huntington Beach, was one of those times. 10:30pm. I buy the ticket, and get on. Typical saturday night crowd on the blue line: Teenagers getting ready for a night out, the requisite guy slangin candy bars that no one buys, the occasional bum, and me, standing apprehensively next to a $6000 bicycle. Not typical metro fodder [the bike...not me]. Almost as soon the doors close...

"Hey man, niiiiice Cannondale. Didn't Lance ride one?", from a guy sitting a couple rows back. "Actually, I think Lance rode on Treks. Not sure though." Immediately, and to my dismay, all eyes on the car are on me and my bike. Regrettably, I know exactly where the conversation is heading. "Man, a bike like that must have set you back lots. How much would it cost to put one like that together?" The guy chatting it up was actually really polite and innocent looking. But with half the car listening/looking in, I cannot honestly answer that question. Sorry, guy. "Ah, well.....I put it together slowly with parts I found. It ended up being about $4-500." The guy is blown away by the figure. "Oh man, didn't think they made them that expensive!" I wish he hadn't uttered that last word..."Well, it's pretty old, from 2003, and has a couple dings and scratches." I say that with emphasis on OLD. ..and i think it did it. Had a couple nervous moments when a few large groups moved in and out, but got through it.

It's mad to think how shattered everything can be if the bike was thieved...be careful out there.

Another Week Another....

2008-03-24T20:46:00.004+01:00

No! Not another crit...

The algorithm is thwarted, and I have my first "off" weekend from racing. The team unanimously decided that paying $40 to race in a glorious Ontario business park for a $1000 purse just might have been too good to be true. It's a real shame that we didn't go down and try to win back our entry fees. A race win would have yielded TRIPLE the entry. Swellllllllllll. I know what a lot of you are saying "Oh, Aram, we don't race for the money" Yeah, well I don't race to line the pockets of greedy race promoting jerks. Purse to Entry fee ratios like that discredit the sport and rape the budgets of P/1/2 squads that try to help their racers out.

QUIT DOING THIS RACE YOU'RE KILLING THE SCENE.

Instead, I had a great solo ride on saturday down the san gabriel bike path to Huntington beach, then a sunday rendezvous at GMR with some teammates who are doing SDSR next week. On that note, if anyone is traveling anywhere to do any race next week (other than SDSR), please let me know, I'm looking to ride.

Vamos Como Motos

2008-03-19T18:57:00.012+01:00

Better Late [and with pictures] than never....

Photo: Alejandro?

A full three days ago was.........no not a crit, but an action packed circuit race. The course? 60 miles on a big long straight with a 180 on each end. When I got to the race, the wind was blasting perpendicular to the course, so I thought it might get interesting (aka: difficult), but it somehow shifted 45 degrees as we started, and it was just full-headwind up one straight, and full tailwind on the other. Pretty star-studded field. Toyota heavy-dutiest crit-guys all in one race: Clarke, Rollin, Dominguez with Chepe and Manion to help. The R*ck racing A team with Hamilton lining up, and...the best part on the day: The "new" 5 Star Fish Vegetable Oil squad kitted out with new green kits and matching green Colnags and Zack Morris. Dope!

Photo: Stefan Mayer

Hmm...I didn't properly allude to it in the earlier paragraph, but the "action packed" bit was an attempt at sarcasm...as is most of this blog. It's worth noting that all but ONE race this year has had a full field. That's 125+ guys in each one. This is a first. SoCal brings out big fields, but full every single time? Madness...but a swell time. On to the report: Bearclaw had the whole squad out. 5 of us. I wrongly assumed it would be hard as hell given the wind conditions, but like I said, it changed, and ended up being 125 REALLY fresh guys rounding a 180 for the sprint. Dumb-move of the day goes to me: I rode to the race, and needed a bottle. After bothering teammates for some sugary energy drink powder, I got some. Put the powder in the bottle with the intention of filling it with water near the start line....Nope. One bottle of juice, one of congealed powder grossness.

The race was dull. Breaks didn't get more than 20 seconds because it was just impossible with the headwind followed by the push that tailwind gave the peleton. It was 40mph everytime through there. One interesting tidbit: On the second lap there was a crash on the fast tailwind section. Almost instantly, one of the crashed riders (Rock) got up, and started doing what appeared to be jumping jacks right in the middle of a 40mph peleton. Yup. A couple more crashes and failed attack attempts later, the last lap came, and like I said, EVERYONE wanted it...and was fresh enough to make a go. I was really hoping Rock would string it out...Rock, with it's 20 riders in the field, had every one of their riders up front with half a lap to go (each lap is 6 miles?). Pace was really slow though, and they weren't drilling it at all....just looking at each other with blank faces. I was behind the toyota guys at this point, trying to mark Rollin (who I incessantly bother with my not-perfect Francais). Of course, I lost them in the final 180, but wound up about 10 wheels back on the wheel of my teammate. I told him I'm on, but before he could uncork a sprint, madness ensued, brakes were hit. Ahhh, well. I hit the brakes LOTS in that last 2 K's....that's what happens when it's 20-wide with 2 k to go. Finished somewhere between 20-30th. The most reassuring thing, however, is that every one of my teammates was there at the finish. A bit of communication and coordination and the Claw will get something going....I can't wait 'till it's a more breakaway-friendly course to have 4 guys shutting things down in back. Power file from the race:

Results

2008-03-15T04:49:00.006+01:00

Blog People,

It's been a while. And of course, I sit down to write one of these time-constrained and rushed instead of jumping in the shower and getting out...in time, in time. I'm just going to get right to it. I'm no longer unattached. I'm Team Bearclaw. Like the donut:

I was a bit apprehensive at first, but things are settling quite nicely already, and I've only done one race for the guys. I'm sure i'll have plenty to reflect on as the season gets rolling, and plenty of blog-worthy shenanigans from the looks of things. I've got to confess, I stole that above image from google, and mannnnnnnn it looks good. A menacing calorie explosion. I've always held firmly that on the road, donuts have the best $ to Calorie ratio, and the bearclaw donut probably wins the overall. Right. Don't have too many words right now, but another picture:

The red bike is officially retired. This one's complete. Big thank you to the bearclaw folk for helping me finish it up. Sadly [but not...sorta] , it might now be around too much longer. Anyhow, it has Sram, Shimano, and Campagnolo stuff...but it all blends real nice I think. And..........the SRM works! Crazy concept, I know. After playing SRM tag for 53 rounds with the people in colorado, they sent me a new one and it worked. At last. Class unit. Don't really know too much yet, but I've just been trying to get to 1500 watts......still haven't hit it. How about a power file from the murietta crit? Okay. THREE photos. So much better than words, no?

It was a crummy race for me. Not sure if it was bad legs or a bad fit (it was the first ride on the above bike...switched a couple things since), but I somehow missed a break of 25 on sunday, and nearly crashed on saturday (in addition to not feeling stellar). The above power/HR/a million other things file is my first ones. Pretty neat, huh? Green: power, blue: Cadence, red: HR, and some i'm not sure about.

Mon dieu, c'est deja neuf heure. Je besoin prepare pour une petite soiree cette soir et j'espere que je ne pas dormir trop tard parce que je fait a velo demain matin.

...and that's my french for the past two weeks....i think writing weekly blurbs might be a bit much...but who knows.

$0

2008-03-03T07:55:00.002+01:00

Today's race was so incredibly dull for me that even if I had writing juice for the ages flowing through me I could not possibly write an entry with even a shred of interesting content. The legs are good and i'm no longer sick and daylight savvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvings is comin.

A+

Shake The Disease

2008-02-29T17:18:00.004+01:00

It was (is) a really cool Depeche Mode song back in the day. I haven't listened to it in a long long while, but I always remember the title anytime I come down with something -which isn't often. My biggest strength in this bike-game is not sprinting or time trialing or looking faster than I am -it's my tip top ability to not ever get sick. Honest, those of you who know me: am i ever? No.

With all the shite weather we've had lately, I've done enough "rest weeks" to last 'till I'm 45. I'm not annoyed at all, actually. It just means the season will stretch longer, and I'll have the good legs at a different time of year than I'm used to. Anyhow, we finally got some sun in this week (actually, the sun came 16 seconds after the finish of the Tour of California), and I got some riding in. Tuesday was a spirited Barry Ride with some crest thrown in. Then wednesday I rode out to ride the crest with a couple guys, and nearly fell off my bike. My ears hurt and it felt like my head was gonna burst (sinus pressure, I think it's called?). Weird...particularly for someone who isn't sick too often.

And so, yesterday was off (work + bike), and I already feel better. Heard some horror stories about other locals with the same symptoms being off the bike for weeks. I'm pretty sure i'll be nearly 100% come next week. My parents tell me I used to drink rainwater out of puddles in the back yard when I was young. Did they stop me? No, they took pictures. THAT'S hard man training right there. Headcold? Cakewalk.

Bourj Hammoud

J'ai Oubliee Trop............(Une)

2008-02-26T05:43:00.004+01:00

Salut Tous,

Je veux ecrire quelque chose en Francais une fois pour semaine. Mon dieu....maintenant est mon premier temps pour utilise Francais en trop long temps. C'est comme m*rde, non? Apres je decouvre que je ne peux pas retourne a France, ma tete aretter le meme instantanee. C'est une petite peu bizarre, parce que c'est ne pas sur de mon control. C'est triste, non? Maintenant, et toutes le jour France me manques beaucoups. Je pense que ca ne arretter pas pour tout mon vie. Si vous etes Francais (de la France), vous comprends bien que je veux dire bien sur!

Alors, le saison commencer ici. J'ai bonne forme maintenant....mais est tres tot. C'est seulement Fevrier! Je suis desole....toutes les mots ici sont le velo.....je comprends bien cette mots, et rien que autre! Je pense que je besoin etude une peu pour ecrire autre sujets! Prochaine fois, peut etre? Et je espere que la prochaine est plus interesante.

a +

We Just Want To Emote Till We're Dead

2008-02-19T06:14:00.008+01:00

Let's not start this one off with the bike. That album? It's been on non-stop repeat since early summer, and I've been listening to it even more in the last month or so. One really neat property the album has that's unique to me is that whenever it's playing on the ipod (iphone!) on a ride I instantly get these vivid recollections of France. Every little detail and sense is there. Tingly on so many levels. It's a good way (the only way?) to deal with the intermittent nostalgia I can't help but feel. Also, on that note, I'm going to try to commit to writing a weekly ditty in french here just to keep the language somewhat spry. I've stopped studying, and that part of my brain kinda shut itself off once that door closed. Gotta intervene! Allright.......

Another sunday, another crit....but first: I raced the track on saturday night. I skipped Valley of the Sun partly because the purse to entry/gas/lodging ratio wasn't too favorable, and also because there were a couple local options that were both metro/riding distance from my house. I really really love NOT having to drive to a race. One of the perks of the socal scene. So yes, the track. Not much to report. Honest, it's not even worth breaking down. Would like to note though, that track racing suddenly got more expensive, almost prohibitively so: they've found a way to throw in pre-registration and late fees (in addition to track usage fees) to the mix. That said, it was a great workout and the legs got nice and open for the next day's criterium.

The Crit.................

The results sheet will read "7th........Aram Dellalian.......Unattached", but f, that results sheet came together in the strangest fashion. It was your standard flat 100k crit. 75 guys? Christian Valenzuela was at the start, as were other perennial breakaway masters: Thurlow, C-Walk, etc. Again, not a stellar field, but enough to make it interesting. The course is cool because you can see the entire race from a single vantage point. Don't think I've done any others that are like this one. Really cool for spectators, and for racers trying to gauge where they are. Prior to the race I told a bunch of people "i'm riding for a break. be there."

Lo and behold, I miss the first major move. But so did the thurls and c-walks of the peleton, so I wasn't alarmed. Valenzuela was up there, however, driving the break along. Not surprising, because that's what he does, he motors. They quickly had half a lap before the main group started to move. Eventually, Walker, Rigo Meza, me, and a couple other guys worked to bring it back. Wasn't too hard. Once we brought them back, I caught up to Christian, and jokingly said "otra vez, con mio! [one more time, with me]". A couple corners later I attacked through the start finish. Not super hard, but hard enough to get some separation and maybe have one or two tag along. Sure enough: Christian Valenzuela on my wheel. I let him sit (the guy had to be tired off the front for 40k) for a while as we bridged to Randall Coxworth (SDBC). Not sure how/when Randall got up there. In any case, It was a promising move. SDBC had a big team shutting things down, and I was sure Christian had more in his legs after a bit of rest. It worked, we got 30 ticks real quick...though we still had too much race to go.

I think after 7-8 laps out there, they announced "29 laps to go". Gah. SDBC wouldn't work. It's cool, at least this way I could "adopt" his teammates and help stretch the gap a bit. Christian (who had 1 teammate) seemed okay with it, and him and I exchanged equal pulls...'till of course his wheels came off (figuratively). So now two people are sitting on. Really, it was a funny situation...but the legs were up for it. Somehow, we still gained on the field. Got to within 20 seconds of the back...but lapping the field would present its own problems....the problem of teammates....my current dilemma. I could get Christian in a 3-up sprint...Randall...perhaps...but the guy did lots of resting. If we lap, he wins easily 'cause he's got 500 teammates. Can't attack, because then those 500 guys shut me down. It's a catch-22, and this is why the unattached game is annoying...but also interesting.

Hate to drag this on, but eventually the gap started coming down. 10 to go sounded. Really, I was doing full lap pulls here. I'm not stupid. I had a little chat with the breakaway guys, set some terms, and vowed to keep the gap going. And did. 5 to go, Christian was getting gapped on the corners. We still had 30 ticks. 3 to go, Christian was gone, and Randall pulled through with a bit more regularity. Into the bell we must have had 20 seconds. I pulled the first half lap. Believe me, I looked back plenty. Randall took over with a half lap to go. He was motoring, and I was comfortably in tow. I looked back for the final time here. We well were clear. A good 10 seconds. We rounded turn 4 for the millionth and last time. Randall didn't mess around -no games, and I'm thankful for that. He set it up for me perfectly...

but i screwed it up. I foolishly (delusions of grandeur-ly) pulled wide right into the wind while he stayed his line wide left. We were even with about 25 meters to go, and when I realized that I wasn't gaining ground, my legs conceded...2nd place......no! What? The pack! 5 others passed, and all that's left is this blog entry and

that.

While The Rest of the Country Sleeps...

2008-02-12T07:12:00.001+01:00

The SoCal scene fields 130 guys in 80 degree February heat. Mon Dieu.

Sunday was the Roger Milikan Criterium. The funnest crit course around. The speeds are ridiculous because there is a slight rise before the finish. The group blasts down the descent, then guys attack the hill even faster and the speed just stays high. Really superweek-like....they were even selling brats near registration! A nice vibe throughout -the good weather makes everything swell and nice. Side note: My chain was dry, so in the pre-race rush I asked the neutral support guy from Jax Bike Shop if he could lube it up...he did...then offered to give me the full bottle. Top move, guy. I didn't take/need it, but it's worth noting a small act of kindness. Anyhow. I rode to the race with a couple guys from pasadena. It was a long and eventful ride over (2 hrs, broken spoke, crash...), but we finally got there. The unique part of this race's algorithm is the neopolitan shake I had from In-n-Out 20 mins before the race. Went down perfect. And with that, we start:

Field limit 120, announced field of 125. Lots, but realize that the number is misleading. I won't get into details, but it should suffice to say that "not all 125 riding had a realistic chance of winning/placing"... It was nice seeing lots of people I hadn't seen in more than a year. Again, good vibe throughout. Toyota United sent a small squad, as did Health Net (1), Jelly Belly, and scores of SoCal scene fluff (me included). The race started and ended at the same speed: fast. But not necessarily difficult. With that many guys racing that quick, it's like riding on the back of a big-rig at just the right speed for however long you want. I kept it conservative and saw the wind only a few times. Hmm. Anyhow, being mid-pack in this 30mph vortex means I don't have much to report. 5 laps to go, a break of 5 was off. R*ck was the only team with a full complement of riders, and they chased. The chase was weak, but the break started to play games and totally fell apart on the last lap. They got caught with 2 corners to go, and Rahsaan won it from Paul Che. I had great legs, but didn't have the motivation to mess with the leadouts going on, and followed wheels to finish 12th -the last $ spot. Rode the 35 miles back home, and here we are.

Also...the "unattached" game might be coming to an end soon. Will give word if anything transpires.

RedBox ReCap

2008-02-08T18:27:00.001+01:00

Vittima, Mario Cipollini!

2008-02-07T07:48:00.000+01:00

BFE California

2008-02-05T07:44:00.000+01:00

Salut.

Every year, there's a road race in middle-of-nowhere, CA. All the SoCal scenesters buzz about this race from the end of the previous season and either (a) swear to never do it again or (b) make it a goal to rip legs off in this way-early season "classic". This is the Boulevard Road Race. In the 1/2 field, it's become an unofficial NRC race of sorts where all the big teams converge and bring their team cars and vans and bikes and riders and staff to middle of nowhere, CA and commence in battle. I always wonder why? Perhaps the timing of it...even still...it's weird.

My race: 11:50 start time. High of the day would be 46 degrees. Ugha. If you detect a tinge (or more) of bitterness in my writing today it's because of the unseasonably freezing temps we've had here lately. The big buzz of the day was that R*CK R*ACING would line up and destroy everyone and anything in their path. I was actually looking forward to maybe racing alongside Tyler Hamilton. I don't know how I would react (i'm not a fan of his...even before the shite went down), but I think the legs would've responded positively (hahh...pun!). Anyhow, he didn't start, but they had a good chunk of riders. Toyota had a couple. Ivan was a good sport and lined up. Kelly Benefits (who surprisingly got a ToC invite), Jelly Belly, etc etc. Conspicuously absent were Health Net and Slipstream. Not quite as deep a field as last year, but still with lots of smashfest potential.

This race intimidates me. Always has. I first did it as a 3. Got dropped. Then twice before as a 1/2, dropped. Sometimes later than other times, but I always ride this thing very conservatively -as if not attacking is going to give me energy to sprint for something. I only now just became cognizant of the uselessness of my approach. This year was no different...

Lap 1: Mellow at worst. I didn't see the front, but saw a small group sneak off. Eh. The climb came...legs were a bit alarmed, but sagged through ok. I missed my feed, and in looking for my feed-person, got dropped right before the end of the climb (if I had a dollar for every time i've done that.....i'd have at least $30!). Eh, burned a match, but got back on with a little group. Lap 2...Toyota was aggressive up front....and in back. Dominguez and a couple of his cronies were basking in the 40 degree ice. Gahh. So lame, this weather. Second time up the climb I made the selection. But. The peleton crawwwwwwwwwwled to a really slow pace on the flat, and a giant group caught from behind. 3rd lap.....I don't remember the third lap. It was cold, and I managed to drop a FULL cliff bar while trying to open it up with numb hands. I got dropped on the final climb, but got back on to what was left of the peleton on the 4th lap. Then dropped again to finish up 43rd on the day. Hmm.

Woke up the next morning to the sound of intense rain rattling the world. I wasn't pre-regged for the crit, so nope. I really don't have the motivation or will to race a p/1/2 crit in the rain IN FEBRUARY. All in all, a decent weekend....except all the driving, the $45 race fee, the lack of a result, the shite weather, and the shite weather.

Also. It pains me to write this, but I got word about my team situation. The situation is simply that there isn't one. I received a long-awaited letter from the UCA crew, and they simply, coldly, stated that I could not return the following year. I can't fault these people or be angry. I got huge amounts of love from them and have nothing but amazing memories of my time there. I'm simply bummed out at the moment, and when you factor in the weather we've had lately, i've been really unmotivated. Perhaps it's time? Riding that first crit with me against 56 lagrangers really made me think of the reality of racing locally for '08 and how fruitless it might be. Being a 25 year old unattached cat 1 in SoCal is rough. There are lots of teams for lower cats, and lots of teams for masters, and what is there in between?

Time to get into my favorite part of this bike game....hustling to find a team! Or....

H-Class Diamond Shinin'

2008-01-27T00:42:00.000+01:00

Finally rode my bike today...and so I finally got to cook/eat a decent meal:

Whole Grain Spaghetti Pad Thai w/Avocat and Tofu

There's a crit tomorrow...and it's likely going to be the rainiest windiest day LA has ever had. The masochist in me says DO IT. The broke bike bum in me says, "guy, you might make some cash, but if you break your back up bike, you're pretty screwed." Then this other voice says "do that track race at ADT, it's indoors and dry...dust off the Bianch."

And so, the first proper race report of the year....

2008-01-23T06:16:00.000+01:00

.......is a dud

La Grange Training Ride
kennybz.com

It was a crummy race, but I guess I'm still obligated to write about it. The race in question: MLK Day Criterium. It was a nice vibe throughout the event. Weather was good, start time wasn't 8am, prize list, legs. Everything checked out. Some variables are beyond my control, however. For one, the field was pretty small. 40 tops. It's okay. Hilton Clarke, Ton Cruz, and former teammate C-walk. Ok. Hilton can ride, Ton is a good guy, and c-walk will make the break stick. Easy enough.

I lined up. Somehow....the LaGrange team fielded nearly 20 [t w e n t y] riders in the tiny field. Mon dieu! Not a huge worry, but a bit disheartening. I braced for disappointment & frustration, and toed the line. We start. I quickly realize that corners are both more frequent and faster than in the EU...and so, the first couple laps were dodgey for me. Things settled in, and as expected, a couple LG riders got a bit of a gap....not very difficult when you have half the field working in your favor. Still, C-Walk's first move was unmarked, and pretty much led to the success of the break. I tried and tried to get up there. I countered anything Cruz or Clarke did...I even countered my own moves out of frustration -only to have a different LG guy sitting there. Clarke and a few others (who i'm sure did equal pulls!) eventually got up there, and it was game over. I still attacked the shite out of the remaining field, and made the LG guys work a bit for what will end up being a $6 share of the prize money. It was a nice workout, and I liked the way the body recovered between moves. I buried myself pretty bad though, and didn't contest the field sprint for the last money spot and rolled in for 21st. Clarke won, and LaGrange placed 2nd-20th. Bravo, tip of the hat!

10 Year Old Bike + License Procrastination

2008-01-15T03:32:00.000+01:00

= an undeserved win in the mens 18-30 category TT on sunday. But first...what wild sports action this weekend. THICK. I love playoffs. Any sport except maybe baseball. People bet, HUGE egos have to give press conferences after shocking losses, speculators speculate. Love it. I didn't actually watch any of what went down over the weekend, but it's pretty much impossible to have not heard about it. The Lakes won, the Oils won (season high 4th straight W), Indy didn't win...and ruined what could have been the coolest playoff game this decade. Instead we'll have to watch a lame New England massacre against a reallllly lame chargers team. I hope NE annihilates them. All i got is beef wit.

Me? Still recovering from the terrible first week to start the year. Cleared a bunch of stuff on that fancy auction site that everyone uses, and am slowly putting together some funds to piece together something. The derailleurs smashing up the way they did...it just makes me want to start over. It's akin to buying a house where someone's been murdered...strong metaphor, but you get the idea. Perhaps i'm just looking for an excuse to build up some Sram Red. It'd be a daisy. Everything about having to buy your own bike/parts is fun except the buying part. In other news, my SRM still doesn't work. The never ending %$#&ing saga. I just gotta grow some balls and get pissed and sound threatening on the phone. Sadly, that's usually the most effective solution to these types of issues.

Everything's not all glum, however: My current bike!

Record 9 speed. It's great to have a chain that doesn't wear out in 4 rides (Sram). Given the current state of the other bike (and the dumb/elusive 35mm front D clamp size), this guy is probably gonna see some serious action. Which brings us to the sorta race report.

I did that Tom's Farm TT on sunday. The flyer said "licensed and unlicensed racers-$20". For me, that meant I could put off buying my license for another week. I didn't realize that'd mean I have to race the Men's 18-30 instead of the p/1/2/3. In any case, I took the old bike out there. Classic. Pretty much TT bikes all around, pointy helmets, aero-bottles....and then the hot SAECO machine rolls through. Aero gear was as follows: Carnac Oversocks, removal of bottles/cages, 12-21 cassette, and a fresh shave from the night before. I wore the vintage LMC long sleeve skinsuit, sport-mullet, and big gaudy (but lovely) Rudys to finish the get up. I'd never done this course. Conditions were perfect. A bit of a head wind. Nice homely vibe all around. Doc USCF guy has a pretty sweet 'stache goin. I'm a fan. Figured it'd be around a 20 minute effort. Did the warmup routine as instructed by ol' Monsieur Gregnac. Cool. Legs were good, and it was the first TT in which the beginning didn't hurt too much. Finished up, and awaited the results.....yep...19:48. I'd cheated some poor guy out of his glory by winning the 18-30. I would have been 4th in the 1/2/3, 50" from the winner. I'm pretty stoked with that considering the aforementioned equipment choices.

C'est tout.

-Salut-

If I Were King...

2008-01-09T18:52:00.000+01:00

...this lube would be banished from the land. DO NOT buy/use/suggest/look at. Terrible terrible stuff. Vile stuff. C'est trop sale!

2008-01-04T07:08:00.001+01:00

Today is the first time this year that I rode my bike and the freehub body didn't seize and destroy both derailleurs, my chain, and my morale.

Yep, it's true.

Forgive the lack of substance in this blog lately. Nothing glorious about what's going on in the aram universe. Lots of miles, lots of hours. It's the hardest part of the year. Not because of the volume, but because you do all this "work" on the bike, and there is nothing to show for it. No name in the results sheet, no cash envelopes, no prime bells, nothing. The legs/body have been stellar, that's been the saving grace, but that freehub blowing up in the middle of my biggest week annoyed me. Then there's the saga of me and SRM that has reached unimaginable levels of annoyingness. Ah well. The highest highs and lowest lows. I've been closer to the latter this week, but you can't have one without the other. The fun starts soon.

Happy New Year, Aram

2008-01-02T00:40:00.000+01:00

I MUST Be Doped Up

2007-12-21T08:47:00.000+01:00

'Cause no one can recover as fast as i have after these XL base rides. Really. Sometimes the algorithm is exactly right. Caloric balance is good. Calories are quality. Rest is adequate. It's a swell feeling...but it's so hard to replicate. At least for me. I really only know if i'm properly recovered after those first 5-6 pedal strokes...it's a great feeling when they go smoothly, and total shite if you know you didn't recharge proper -there is no middle ground here. And that's what this whole "Base Training" game is all about. Studying the body, noting what it likes, what makes it go. Still, I've two ridiculous weeks coming up and doubt i'll be as spry when i'm midway through a 30 hour bloc. One day at a time, chico.

So yes: In spite of the ongoing Writers' Strike, the hardworking crew here at The Aram Chronic has managed to resume production. The quality might suffer a bit with the replacements, but our esteemed editor will work out the kinks...but it's late now, and he must sleep. Please enjoy these vintage pre-strike photos in the meantime:

Who Ordered Real Weather?

2007-12-06T02:49:00.001+01:00

I've been back for two months now, and it's rained once. And [I think] under 60 once. So in comes this wild week. These things happen...

...and so do these. In other news: I've grown a 'stache in honor of the Oilers' current win streak of which I attended 2 of the games (mustache-equipped, of course). I'm not shaving it off, just gonna wait for the beard to make it look less molester-like. Anyhow, it's always a special time when the Oil are in town, and this blog has really lacked in terms of Oilers content in the past year. It's time to bring it back. Went to sunday's game in Anaheim for a 4-0 drubbing of the lowly ducks, and then to Staples via Metro to see them beat the kings in a shootout. Great game (though the outcome was never in doubt). Everyone should experience pro-sports from the "road team perspective" one day. It's amazing. Especially when your guys win.

Base training? It's going. Bonked for the first time (as expected) yesterday while going up to Mt. Wilson (6000' elevation...and it was 70 degrees up there). Put some extra calories in there, did it again today, and the legs were good. I know how these legs go...and they're going better every day. Rest week coming next week! I'll cherish it. Adios!

Finalement...Un Petit Quelque Chose Pour Mes Ami Francais

2007-11-29T07:21:00.000+01:00

Salut a tous,

Long temps, non? Ahh...mais c'est pas grave. Je ne pas oublie tout le gents du ma famile Ardechois (et Parisien aussi? je ne sais pas). Premierment, je voudrais dit desole. Pour quoi? Par ce que mon Francais est trop tropppp super maintenant, et je pense que c'est trop avance pour les gents Ardechois.

Ahhh...Je plaisante, bien sur! La vie est normal ici maintenant. Pas beacoups de excite, mais pas mal aussi. C'est le temp pour entrenmar. En angalis est "Base Training". Maintenant, c'est pas trop dificile, mais apres de 2 ou 3 semaines, je vais beacoups de kilometres et beaucoups de temps sur le velo. Et pour quoi? C'est la vie de un cylist boheme, non? hehe. Je recherche pour une equippe Americain, mais c'est trop dificile ici maintenant. Le problem commence avec les grand c*nards chaudiers, le mal economie des Etats Uni, et plus problems....et le fin resultat? Pas beaucoups occasion pour courers professionale Americain. Je ne sais pas. J'espere que je retourne a France un jour pour une encore saison du velo. Dede? C'est d'accord?? Haha...je envoye une message pour lui a plus tard.

D'accord. C'est trop long, non? Long et avec trop de mots pas correct, je pense. Je suis desole! Je ne pas pratique mon Francais beaucoups! Et un petit faveur pour moi: Sil vous plea, dit une petit bonjour a tous dans moi: Dede, La Yvette, Le Grand Chaudier Bruno + Delphine, Etienne, Professor Juju + Loic, Le Famile Bressot (volgar aussi), SEBastien, le pain de Boulangerie Marie, Jacques (2), Herve (2), toutes le fille du les marches LeClerc et Champion, Jean-Pierre, George, FRANCIS (et les sangliers...haha), ahhh...beaucoups noms! c'est tout pour maintenant...je suis sur que j'ai plus...

Bonne Courage Ardeche! Vous habite sur le Meilleur Pays du France! Vous me manques beacoups...

It's About Time...

2007-11-17T06:02:00.001+01:00

...I got back on a bike. I'll be getting on this one:

It looks great, no? I am stoked. I hope it rides well. I'll find out tomorrow morning. The wheels on it are not mine (neither is the XXL 13-29 cassette)...if anyone local has a set of shimano/sram compatible trainer wheels to sell, let me know!

How Was France?

2007-11-03T02:12:00.001+01:00

"France was good. Yeah. It's a swell place."

That's about what the response to the above question has evolved into. Tonight I might see a few more people I haven't seen since I returned, and there's a definite possibility that the brevity and substancelessness (new word) of the response will reach new heights. I wish I'd recorded my response to that question the first dozen or so times it was asked. I'm certain it was something very well orchestrated, genuine, sincere, and heartfelt. The responses have since eroded into what we have above. I just can't do it. Even if it's a good friend, I shrug. Or I might be honest and tell them what this paragraph tells you. Someone suggested referring people who ask the question to the blog. Sure. But that's quite a bit of reading, particularly if the person isn't an adept cycling-snob who can read through [numerous] unnecessary words, parentheses and other related jargon.

Lookit me! Complaining about people's interest in my story. Hmm. I don't know how to respond to that, but i'm not a fan of talking about myself too often, for too long (the verbal kind of talking....the writing bit I don't mind at all, obviously). It doesn't sit well with my subconscious, but this time the conflict lies in my current inability to give a "proper" response to such a broad question. Blog readers are great...you know how the France adventure was, really, it's all here, and I really enjoy talking about the specific aspects: cheese, the team, more detail regarding a certain blog entry, the quirks, EU produce, even south africa....but "How was France?".......i'll think of ways of entertaining both myself and the inevitable asker(s) of the question tonight.

I haven't written in a month. Forgive me. I've been living a very "normal" life lately: Working, eating lots, riding little, sleeping late. I haven't found anything worth writing about, and I've been lazy. Part of the offseason for me, in new-school bike game terms, is taking a break from the electronic aspect of it all as well, and not blogging is a part of that. I'm currently on a two-week hiatus from the mainstream cyclingnews websites as well (per Mr. HH). Base training will start a bit later this year, in anticipation of the European season. Flying in February didn't help me too much last year, and I need to push it forward a bit. Also, I've started dieting a bit, but nothing severe. I'm not weighing foods, or limiting myself too much, but little things....2:30am Halloween night, a bunch of us inevitably ended up in a diner somewhere.....among the chili-cheese-fries, ice creams, and fried-fried mystery foods was an order of plain oatmeal with raisins. My order of plain oatmeal with raisins. Got some funny looks, but gave myself a figurative pat on the back. I haven't weighed myself in ages...and don't plan to. But soon. The dieting should get more severe as base nears. And, of course, i'm off the bike. Taking a two week zero-bike break. It'll be one week on sunday. It's going well, although it's real difficult to lose weight when there is zero training volume...but not gaining any is a plus as well, and not too difficult.

That's all I got. Blog entries should flow nicely from now 'till whenever. I have 50000 Paris photos, and definitely have to blog (what's left in my mind) about the Velib scene. Gahh, I miss it so much when it's put to words like that. Also, my french is surprisingly still there, and hungry. If anyone out there speaks french, s'il tu plea!!!....let's ride and speak french and zone out to the EU sometime. Lastly, like every other cyclist in the country, I'm looking for a team. I hope everyone's off-season's going well. Have a swell weekend. Looking forward to reconnecting with the cycling community in person in a few weeks.

Back on the bike on the 13th. Cmmmmmmmmon weather! stay good!

Hemingway Said Something-

2007-10-07T02:44:00.000+02:00

-About Paris.

I forget what it is, but he basically said that anyone given a chance to live in this city might never be the same. something shifts. clicks. changes. I don't know that anything quite so dramatic happened to me, as i've only "lived" here for 3 weeks, out of a suitcase, but i've had [frequent] moments in this town where i've wished I could find some purpose (excuse) and relocate here permanently. The city breathes and works and responds. Not unlike LA, actually. I shot the place down in my last blog entry, citing the "dull and pointless and well-obsolete architecture." My thoughts on the buildings remain unchanged, but the city itself phased me, and I'm left with an admiration that rivals my love for Los Angeles.

Two more days left. I'm dredging having to leave. There's still so much more to uncover here. So much more to experience. I've still got time. Here's to hoping I can keep it together when it's time to leave...it's gonna be rough...

no doubt.

A Tres Bientot, Aubenas, See Ya

2007-09-17T11:19:00.000+02:00

The New(ish) Air Album

2007-09-13T22:07:00.000+02:00

She's a daisy. "Pocket Symphony" is what it's called...it's the perfect "last night alone in a big giant house in France" music. Coincidentally, that's exactly where i'm at right now. It's my last night alone. Gonna be going to dinner with a couple of friends tomorrow night. Then I think they need me to be out of here by saturday, though I'm going to ask if I can stay 'till monday. I have my reasons.

One thing that i've been constantly thinking about, as it is the time of year to do so....Next Year. I have the green light to come back to France. For that, I'm stoked. If you read the blog, you know what type of racer I am. Average (at best) climber, but with little effort I can sprint with anyone anywhere if the motivation is right. In an interview a few days ago I mentioned (in my crude french) that in the US, 90% of races are great for sprinters. In France, the inverse is true. 10%, which is about the number of races I did allright in. So, this has left me on the fence regarding whether to return to France or not. If I do return, it'll be with the same team, doing the same races in the same places. I dunno. I miss the success of criterium racing...and narcissistic as this may sound...I look down at my legs sometimes and think that "cmmon...you're too friggin huge for this game." So that's where I'm at.

Another thing. I'm not sending out resumes to teams this year. Why? It's a degrading and annoying process with a .0001% probability of success and about a 50% probability of frustration. Just going to get the word out that i'm looking for a team, and see where that goes. Season starts and i'm unattached? No worries. I know i'll be coming around lots of wheels when the season starts...and that's my preferred method over the ridiculous process of blindly emailing resumes to random places in hopes of an unlikely job. A bit of bitterness here, I apologize, but that's how it goes. To anyone delving in this dreadful game this year, good luck, brace yourself, and don't be phased by whatever or whoever you might run into. Remember who they are, and definitely remember to click it into the 11 and pass them at the line with 10 bike lengths. That kind of motivation is unparalleled, and ironically, some type of ill-treatment is the only way to get it...maybe I should send some out? heh...

So yes. I'm looking for a team. I didn't want to post it on the blog, but why not? It's a networking tool. Again, I can't commit to anything this early, but want to see what options are out there and hope to decide whether I'm going across the pond next year by the end of October. Still, I'd love to see what opportunities are available in the 'states. Please email me at: AramDellalian@gmail.com if an opportunity for '08 comes up.

Sailing the South of France

2007-09-09T22:35:00.000+02:00

Today is the first day of the new NFL season. This, for me, has been the ceremonial end to the cycling season. I had a late dinner, a couple glasses of wine, and got to watch my Broncos win a nerve-wrecking ridiculously nail biting wild game in the closing seconds. Thank you internet-streaming! Suffice to say, what follows will [thankfully] have a more festive tone to it. It's a pretty big one-man party in my room right now. A swell time, all around, and I've just realized that this is my last Sunday night in this glorious place. Gonna miss it so much.

I rode my bike last week. Lots. The South of France. Like I mentioned, there wasn't a set itinerary. Only one thing: head south. It was really just a big bike ride, shooting the shite with France, with the bike, with myself. The whole cyclo-tourism thing, it's great. There's eco-tourism, that's supposed to minimize the effect of the tourist on the environment, but that doesn't hold a candle to a guy on a bike with lots of time and no itinerary. I was cognizant of this. I was also aware of how cool it is to use "bike-racer form" for purposes other than bike racing. Really, think about that. All of you that race bikes real fast, you need to try this late season cleanse session. I even used my tubulars for this trip, and it was a smooth trip at 105psi throughout the land. You actually have a chance to see why it is that good wheels are good. and so comfy. I was particularly amazed on the final day, where chamois-time ended up being more than 8 hours. I didn't go hard, mind you, but if I wanted, I had a couple of big efforts still in the legs. Such a rad feeling, and I didn't care that there wasn't a finish line or anything in which to gauge my efforts. So, let me just summarize where I went, for anyone who cares about the non-racing pulp...

I care!

Day 1: Aubenas-Ales-Nimes-Uzes-Avignon

This was a good one. Had my espresso and was out the door at around 1pm. I've ridden to Ales already a couple times. In fact, one of the first rides I ever did in France were to this place, and I distinctly remember stopping at a little market without a clue as to how to communicate with the clerk. I've come a long way...hehh. The market is pictured in photo #4. It was a nice ride, and had a bit of a crosswind the whole way. Wasn't hammering, just sustaining a nice endurance pace. Ales is a neat little town, a bit bigger than Aubenas, and with the cool downtown area that's a mainstay of all southern cities. After Ales, I actually rode on a highway for the next 40k with a good tailwind. Blasted through it, and ended up in Nimes. Cruised around Nimes (pronounced NEEM) for a while, and it was pretty neat. A giant roman Colosseum was the main attraction. That, and the tailwind that brought me there. After Nimes, I got lost (which is very much a part of this game), and ended up in a Military test zone with funky lookin military vehicles blasting by and a headwind that I'd rather not remember. I figured I was well west of Avignon, so I just started heading east, and Avignon came up! Beat the sunset. Barely.

Day 2: Avignon-Arles-Saintes Maries de la Mer-Avignon

This ride. Geez. The trouble began on the way South. On the way down, I was spinning out my 53x11 on the flats...and...in spite of this speed....ZERO wind was touching my face. Scary, but who among you stops while sailing on a nice tailwind section of an out and back ride and says "hmm...but what about the way back? when i'm against the wind?". I was aware of it, but didn't care. Drunk on tailwind. The way back. I don't want to write too much about it. It was hard. Lots of time was spent in the 39x23 cranking 40rpm. I'm serious. Ipod was off. I didn't want to associate any of my music with such drastic and forgettable weather. I cursed the wind on numerous occasions, and laughed at how feeble the whole thing was...and also at the birds who were sharing my plight -but still trying! Eventually, I just took it a kilometer at a time, and got through it. The legs were fantastic. The mind was the limiting factor here.

The cities? Arles: Awesome. I really dug the town's style. Unlike the other towns i'd visited, this one was largely empty. Totally desolate and without any sort of commotion. Tourist season is over, and you realize just how huge the tourism industry is in this place...without it, there's nothing. Shortly after Arles, I entered the Camargue region. Whoa. What happened? No cars, no people, no open shops. "Empty" is an understatement. Weirded me out, but after reading about the region, I really came to appreciate the thing's I'd seen...despite the destructive winds. Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer was the town I visited to check out the Mediterranean. Had a great lunch there (pizza, baugette, coke) on a bench overlooking the ocean. A swell time.

Day 3: Avignon, Carpentras, Orange, Nyons, Montellimar, Aubenas.

Ok, I'm fading here, and need to get this out before I sleep. Day 3 was my favorite. The wind persisted, but I really enjoyed myself in it. Learned a great deal about different positions for the wind, and the deep-wheels really shine in cross-wind situations. I always thought that was their primary weakness. Anyhow. Nyons was my favorite, and i'll never forget the fig tree that came up out of nowhere to help stave off a bonk. I got home at 9:30, an hour after the sun set. Cutting it close! I was particularly amazed with energy levels, as I mentioned up above. That's gonna do it......have tons of photos, check them out:

An Unemphatikistical End

2007-09-03T10:07:00.001+02:00

The season's over. Not officially, however: there remains a possibility of a race next weekend, but the [race] mind checked out sometime last week when I was told that we'd done our last race. It's a welcome end, and yeah, I'm a bit bummed that I won't be toeing the start line anytime soon knowing it's the last race of the season. Perhaps it's better this way. The body's just shred, man. I don't feel it, but i'm certain if we zoomed in and analyzed the intricacies of my cells and blood and mind, we'd find a bunch of tired guys who've been gunning since mid f-in January.

I still have another month in this country. That's a long time, and I've set an obligation on myself to make the most of it. I'll still have the bike 'till the 15th, and while I love sitting home and cooking and spending far too much time on the 'net, I'm going to switch it up. I am now officially Aram Dellalian-Super Cyclo Touriste. The only twist is that the cyclo-tourisme has to be done on the cheap. I pray that i'll get paid once more before I leave, but I can't bank on that. I've saved up a bunch of crap junk food in a drawer just for this occasion. Instead of throwin it out, it's going to fuel my tour Tour de France. The tour starts tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to ride from here to Ales (80k), have a little lunch and set off for Nimes (40k), followed by Avignon, where I'm very thankful to have a place to hang out for the night.

After that it's pretty much up in the air. I have distant relatives in Marseilles that i'm keen on seeing, and with that i'd also [finally] see the Mediterranean. Also, Ventoux is on the preliminary list of places to go. I want to do it in better weather at least once, and want to descend it as well! There's lots to still explore in Avignon and Orange as well. Total tourist stuff, except the really broke version. After the 15th, i'll be packed up here and ready to head to Paris, where i'll spend the rest of my days in France. Gonna give that city another chance. More out of necessity, really, but yeah, the last trip was pretty short...besides, I'll no longer have the lingering cloud of bike racing on me, so it'll be a bit more relaxed. Possibly fewer tourists as well! I really want to get on the Velibre bikes too. I didn't do that last time. So there we have it. The season ended pretty quietly, but that doesn't mean my time in France will in the same manner....

:]

Got My Mind Blown

2007-08-31T20:14:00.000+02:00

First: shortly after writing that last blog, the team pres rolled up, unannounced. "Dude. You gotta move out by the 15th." Also, I might have just one more race left, or none at all! Just like that. Weird, but I'm relieved...and the body's tired. None of this is the mind blowing part...

Today was an off day (and with gale force crazy winds and 60 degs outside, I wasn't too tempted to break out of it), and I figured I'd stay active in ways that don't include the legs. Lets try some pushups. Hadn't done one since i'd started bike racing. Not a one. So I get set, go down...one...yeah allright, down...two...ok, down...uhhh -no. The third one was an impossibility. I figured maybe there was a fluke problem and that I should be able to do 15, easy. Tried again a few minutes later....FOUR. All sprawled out on the floor, I burst out laughing. What is this?? Frankly, I'm embarrassed, but perhaps i've uncovered something that could use some tweaking? Out of curiousity...how many pushups can you do? Particularly interested in the cyclists' responses. Also, any thoughts on "pushup ability" with regards to the bike? Pushups work the chest, i'm assuming, and there isn't a whole lot of muscle-action over there while riding...but four?!

Je Suis Seul

2007-08-31T10:47:00.000+02:00

One of my favorite places in all of Aubenas...my kitchen. Worth noting, is that the kitchen was not cleaned solely for the purpose of the photo. It looks exactly like that exactly all the time now. Why? I'm alone. Je suis seul. No roommates combined with my manic drive of having a spotless kitchen make for what you see above. It's like that before, after, and sometimes during every meal. Simon left Aubenas about two weeks ago. He was a top roommate, never a dull moment, particularly with his sweet sweet [and incessant] singing. Still, i'm more the solitary type, and am relishing the opportunity to live entirely alone 'till I leave (or when they kick me out? hehhh). In the mean time, I hope to get a bit more creative with the blogging. If anyone's got any ideas, comment away. Maybe a particular supermarket aisle? More in depth marche scene coverage? An attempt at trapping the wild boars that visit me almost nightly now? Cmmon now, mutual boredom and a bit of creativity can do wonders for all involved...get with it.

Do I even race tomorrow? I really don't know. It's September.

Fake Plastic Figs

2007-08-28T21:53:00.000+02:00

I guess after an entry like the last one i'm obligated to reply promptly, and I haven't. Desole! But yeah...in short, no minds were blown, and no, there won't be an offseason full of regret either. The legs are okay, but they won't be ripping any crank arms off any time soon. I like to ride crits aggressively, and for that I need those two guys to hurt a bit more than they did.

It was a swell course, really. I got all nostalgic when we first drove up and I saw orange traffic cones for the first time since my last race in the states. The course was 2k in length. The shortest circuit I've raced on here -by far. It had 5 corners, and a roundabout, which we went all the way around. with the finish line about 150 meters from the final turn. Really rough section between turns 2 and 4, and that roundabout! We did it 40 times, and I clipped my pedal 15 times at least! Thing with roundabouts...it'll be easier if I put it this way: You know how velodromes are banked so that the centrifugal force works to keep you grounded exponentially as speed increases? Well, roundabouts are the opposite. Like a mini inverted velodrome -every one! This one was no exception, and 40 times around it. I never did figure it out, and really killed rhythm with people sprinting out of it each time.

So the race. The scene's slowly dying out. Again, we had 70-80 starters max...just like socal races this time of year. Bunch of new teams i'd never seen showed up. UCA fielded just two. So after getting to a cafe to use this friggin thing (please, click, educate yourselves...port a pots? no), we lined up...blasted off. I was beaming the first couple laps. It'd been so long. Attacks all over the place! Sprrrrrrrint to get out of the corners, lulls in the big wide flat section. Then fast again. Basic crit stuff, but yeah, I was taking it all in. The racing was agressive the entire time. There was no relapse, and I put in a number of digs to either close gaps or try to get something going off the front. Eventually, a break of 7 got established, and pegged it at exactly 30 seconds for a long while. Another chase group of 10 (?), and then another group with me, and then even more groups further back. Just totally blown to bits, and difficult to gauge where you were exactly. My group had about 10 dudes, one of which was doing a spot on C-Walk impression: Skinny guy, tan, calmly churning his 53x12, but doing it well and smooth and fast. He was a good wheel to be on come the roundabout. Anyhow, a short while after taking a 50km/h feed (got to be my fastest ever?), 5 to go sounded. Couple guys schneaked off of our group, and again, third race in a row, I attacked the chase group to take the minor placings. I attacked on the most shite dirty bumpy annoying section of the course, 350m before the finish. One guy caught me at 100 to go, I got in his draft, but couldn't come around. I finished 20th.

September Comin'

2007-08-24T08:25:00.000+02:00

Already...wow. I haven't updated my race resume since early march, and perhaps it's better to not know exactly how many races i've done this season? One thing's for sure, i've done a shite load of road races this season. Billions! The last crit I did was part of that Murietta omnium way back when. I miss the speed, I miss the corners, and I miss the zen that comes with knowing your bike and the corners so well and so fast as the last couple of laps near, and I miss f#%@%$ sprinting my bike!! The little fast-twitch guys inside the quads have been on vacation since '94, and you know? In fact, I think some of them have left for good: my legs are noticeably smaller than they were when I left the 'states. They'll be back though, I know it.

Tomorrow. 40 laps around a 2k course. A criterium. This race...I'm gonna kill it. Total destruction. It's time. The legs are going well, the race is good for me, and I'm motivated (ravaging). The team president is taking on DS duties for this one, and he's going to get his mind blown. The season is nearly over (September 15th, here), and I'm not going to spend the offseason replaying missed opportunities in my head (Like I still do with Downer Avenue in '06). So yes, tomorrow...

2007-08-21T16:59:00.000+02:00

Honest, that's the first rainbow i've seen since '88. It was only up there for a few minutes...I managed to take a shot and now the innocent arch will be whored out for everyone to enjoy. It glowed and beamed. Rainbows aside, the weather continues to be uncooperative. Still managed a nice session today. Got soaked, but it's still better than wind. Another thing that makes riding in the wet stuff more bearable: It's fig season! Almost as highly-anticipated as bike racing season. So from now 'till I leave (October 7th), all my training routes have a fig tree [or six] on them. I've got an unexplainable affinity for these fruits [they're actually not fruits, but inverted flowers]. My dad claims he was born under a fig tree, and in 50s era Lebanon, it's quite probable. So perhaps I subconsciously feel indebted to this super-food for indirectly contributing to my own birth? Or maybe this is getting unnecessarily introspective? Back to earth. To figs. They're awesome. The Aubenas scenesters keep telling me to be careful with the fig intake because of their strong laxative effect, but hey, no problems whatsoever. Just free natural nourishment. Though I regrettably don't have a photo, I bought a fig at the farmer's market on sunday that was larger than most grapefruits! It didn't taste too good, but more than made up for it with volume and novelty factor. Could go on blogging, but not now. Why dilute the beauty and simplicity of figs and rainbows?

The Attack Chronic

2007-08-16T09:35:00.000+02:00

Cmmon now, no one noticed the change in the blog's title?? The Aram Chronic. Shorter, sweeter, faster. Though the blog title no longer bears a resemblance to a really good Creedence album, the new title is more fitting in every way. I was never too fond of "Chronicles". Not so much the cliche-ness of it, but it was just kind of lame/soft. I'm a big fan of proper titles, subject lines, headings, etc...and so we have this one.

Take this entry's title...The Attack Chronic. The words that follow a provocative subject line like that need to have some substance, or it won't work at all. Same with the blog title. So without further pulp ramblings, I'll get into it. This weekend there was a big omnium type of race soiree in and around the Avignon area. The south! First time the team's ever raced down there this season. I really wasn't sure how the form was, but judging from the decent sensations that flowed at last week's TT, I was tinged with a bit optimism for the first time in a long while. The omnium: 5 races in 5 days. The team was slated to do 3 of the first four races: Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Doing them all would have been a bit much, as we race a French Cup race on Saturday.

The first race was on Sunday, in the little city of Roquemaure, slightly northeast of Avignon. We showed up, spirits were high...though for the wrong reasons. Last week's TT was a success, yes. But it was against a paltry field of locals, man. I was cognizant of this, and subtle in my expressed optimism. Others...not so much. So, it was time to check out the course. This is always an apprehensive time for a racer, particularly when you're unsure about your form. We rode away from the parking lot, and toward the course. Immediately, it was a slight uphill with the numbers "400" painted on it. Ha! This is the climb?? Hah...c'est trop facile! Though steep, it was only 400 meters long, bringing us to the finish line, which I assumed doubled as the GPM. We cross the finish line and start the recon lap. A couple hundred uphill meters after the start/finish, I bummed out..."GPM 1km". The cycling spirits must have heard me laugh at their previous hill which I assumed would be the only threat on the day. Gah. Cruised up the hill. One of those annoying hills that get progressively steeper except this one had the added bonus of having progressively worsening pavement as you got to the top. The last 200m were particularly terrible. Terminal steepness and poor pavementness! It doesn't sound bad, but look at it his way: 5k circuit. 20 laps. 100k. ~1.5k of hill every lap. 30k of climbing over the full distance! And that dreaded 200m section. Gah man.

Francis! One of My Favorite DS-es!

Still legs were okay. Small field today, of 70 or so riders, and a surprise starter was current World and Olympic MTB champion Julien Absalon. Also, in the lead car was Tour de France superstar Joop Zoetemelk. Genial! The start was mid-way up the hill. Ouch. Blazing. The descent was nervous and shite-pavement filled, and it was strung out for all of the first laps. No relapse, no recovery, and I approached the foot of the climb near-blown each time. Riders were shed each lap, and I was too smashed to cling onto the Absalon led peleton on lap 5. Bummer, but not a shock...this is how most of July had gone. I rode the 110k home. Good chance to cleanse the mind, try to figure out what the deal is, and not sulk in the downtrodden atmosphere that was the team after that race. Besides, weather was awesome when I left the Roquemaure. However, as I entered the Aubenas county limits, the cycling spirits unleashed the full fury of their punishment with crazy doses of wind, rain, cold, and hail...all at once and all in August. Hail, dudes. Seriously.

The Jovial Pre-Race Scene

The next morning as I set off on a recovery ride, I kicked up the seat height half a cm. Just to mix things up. It felt good. The race the next day was in the town of Bagnols, again, near Avignon. 21k circuit with 2 gpms, 5 laps for ~105k. The apprehensive pre-race recon with the car proved damning. The entire first 11k was mostly uphill, culminating with a decent 4k climb which led to a flat couple K, then a second shorter climb, 2k, followed by a twisty descent and a long flat and wide tailwind section to bring it home. The start finish was at the end of a 500 meter climb as well. We sighed as we saw the course. A rough one...but...the wind was picking up. Hills become a non-issue in the wind for me.

So we start. hmm...the seat-height. Parfait! It really felt much better, and I felt particularly powerful coming out of the saddle. Like I had an extra gear whenever I wanted it. I took a different algorithm with regards to climbing on this day. Instead of busting my ass in the wind to get to the front of the peleton before the climb, I just hung out in the middle. If a spot was given to me for free, I took it...otherwise, I was just hanging out, calm, riding my bike. That "make sure you get to the front of the peleton at the start of the climb or else!" stuff doesn't really work with my climbing style. So, new algorithm in hand, the climb came. As expected, the wind tamed the peleton a bit, and I made it over. A big relief, yes, but I felt really swell. It's a great feeling to be able to climb while not being so-blown that you can't think rationally.

A Big Thanks to Johnny Boy For the Phots and Vids!

The feed zone situation was awesome. I took a bottle on all laps but the last. It's good to finally make use of the terrific support the team has on race days. The rest of the race went well. Like all french races, things settled down once a break got established and the peleton diminished in size. We had about 20-25 riders left come the 4th lap, but several were up the road...I never took count. On the awesome downhill section, I noticed that me and this other "big boy" were getting a gap each time. I really pushed it the 4th time, got a gap with the big boy, and held it for a few K on the flat downhill, but were caught. Shortly afterward, I attacked again and only 6 came with me. We worked pretty well, established a gap, and got over the hill good. The last hill came, and this one dude just drilled it. I was on-edge, as the legs hadn't done an effort like that since the first two laps, but made it over. Didn't push it on the descent -no need. Only 7 of us, and things were pretty tight. At 1.5k to go, I put in an "everything" attack. From the back of the group, big jump, followed by forearms on the bars, 53x12 go. Didn't look back 'till I was well into the final straight, when I realized I had the gap, I nearly fell, but coasted in to get 17th on the day. My best result since the 80s! Francis was stoked, and I'm happy he was there to see it after he witness Sunday's piss-poorness. Here's the finish...smashed and all...

That final look back was a big relief. It's nice to see moves like that work, even if it's just for the field sprint. The following day would be our last round of the omnium. Villeneuve lez Avignon. Right next to Avignon. 12.5k circuit, 8 laps. 2k climb, and the rest of it was a beautiful swooping course with rough road sections, speed bumps, headwind sections, etc. I liked it, and went in with a bit of confidence. I'll spare the details on this one. I'm getting worn out...and I need to ride still. The race went well. I finished 18th. Again, it feels good to be a fcking bike racer again. I hung out in the continually diminishing peleton all day. Spent all of the 7th lap off the front solo, confirming my firm belief that I have the most aero tuck in the world. THE WORLD...and the deep mavics accent it so well. I'll write an entry about the tuck some other time...but yeah. Solo off the front for the 7th lap, caught before the climb, but hung on. Then attacked at 3k to go (1k before the base of the hill) because I knew I'd have no chance at that uphill 2k sprint finish. One rider came with me and dropped me with 400m to go. One guy from the peleton caught and passed, but he was the only one. Nice! It's rare for me to have good legs so late in the season, but they're here. Whoo yeah!

She's a big loaf, boy!!!!!

Jackets and Leg Warmers? In August???

2007-08-09T20:42:00.001+02:00

I'm the guy that rides in triple digit weather with a huge smile on his face. So when we have filthy-belgian 55 degree no-sun weather with rain and strong wind blasts in the beginning of August, it's a downer. Today was one of those days. I waited all day, with hopes of the weather clearing up, but it only got worse. After searching all over for the leg warmers i'd put away so long ago, I hopped on and went for a ride at 6:30pm. I pray that upon returning to California in October, we'll have one of those XXL summers that last 'till December. I remain optimistic...

Ah...there's a shot from last week's uphill TT in Burzet. The weather that day was terrific -though still a little brisk by summer standards. As I mentioned, small, local-style TT with a monster 1500 euro purse! 95% of which consisted of wine, pate, sausage, awesome t-shirts, goats, gift certificates for more sausage, and cheese. It was really fun, and of the 100 or so entrants, I think 95 people walked home with some combination of the aforementioned stuff. I got a t-shirt that says "Ardeche..." something on it. It's euro XL but fits me like a US small, and it's bright turquoise! I wear it all the time 'cause it helps me pose as a local better. I guess a photo would help...

There we are...lookin all tough and mean for the 'net. And: the first instance of photoshop usage on the blog. This is becoming a real milestone entry, in many respects. So...the Burzet TT. Lots of swag. Good TT, fun times. Everyone went home happy. It was a bizarre day in many respects (culminating with the wild boar session that same evening), and after the TT a teammate said, "Gee, Aram, I wonder how you're going to blog about this one...". He said this because it was a pretty irregular day, even by Ardeche standards. For instance, there were podium girls. 20 of them. All dressed in matching outfits. All tall, blonde, amazing-looking, and from the Czech Republic. Huh? I don't know, blog people. They were just there. They did not dance, but looked as though they were about to. They had an accompanying band. The whole entourage arrived in a giant bus, marched to the podium area in neat formation, and the band played a little ditty each time a name was announced.

There we go, pictures to prove. But really, it was much stranger than it looks. No shots of my time up there, but it was a nice time, all around. Simon and I hauled ass after the podium ceremony to make it back in time to see Lewis Hamilton dominate the Hungarian Grand Prix (Formula One). A few words about the TT itself: The first picture up above is the beginning. That's the steepest section. The rest of the 7k is pretty mellow, and I even had some big-ring time in the middle and the end. My time was 17:40, and the winner's time was in the low 16's. I was 10 ticks from 5th place, and KNOW I could have gone harder, but hey. It's an uphill TT, and relative performance was up to standard. Here are a few shots of the scene along the TT course. Note the clock tower...and the time. It's correct. ALL clock towers in France function properly, perfectly. I've never actually seen one that works in the US...anyhow, some fots:

23:45 Last Night

2007-08-06T09:37:00.000+02:00

Simon rushes into my room late last night. "Dude, you gotta come hear this." The shutters for his window were shut, but the window was open...so you can usually here cats playing about, crickets, some distant dog....etc. Last night, after my roommate woke me, we went to his window. I heard it, too. I figured, "yeah dude, it's probably just some cats walking about on the roof." That's exactly what it sounded like -and so near! Just to be cautious, we turned on the light. I put in a good knock on the shutters before opening it...the noise kept on. Then, light-open, I slammed open the shutters, and right there...20 meters in front, well-lit by a nearby street lamp, a pack of wild european boars. Seriously? yeah dude, seriously. 20 meters in front of the window. A group of 8-10 scurried off at first, and a couple minutes later a HUGE one (200lbs?!) nonchalantly trotted off in the nearby woods. Got the HR going for a minute there.....so that's the story.

That's that. I'll write a blurb about the uphill TT later. Super-Climber Aram finished 8th...you can deduce field quality based on that alone! The team got 4 in the top-10. I did take home a bunch of swag though, even for 8th. 2 wine bottles, sausages, Pâté, t-shirts, a lil' trophy even. You'd think I sandbagged a cat IV race and won all the primes and finale. Lots of photos, too.

Un Tranquille Apres Midi

2007-08-04T17:20:00.000+02:00

"A Calm Afternoon"

It's been a swell week. Tomorrow, we've got a tiny race: a 7k uphill time-trial right here in the Ardeche, about 20 k's from Aubenas. Not exactly my scene, but it's a modest 4-5%, and most importantly -close to home! I'm definitely relieved at not having to spend 6+ hours in a car in transit. Those car rides, particularly the agonizing drive home...they're rough. Especially now that the auto-route (tollway/highway) is jam-packed with all of Europe coming to the South of France.

So this week. First week in a long time that I was able to focus entirely on the bike. In other words: there wasn't anything else to do or people to bother, so I rode. lots. It's Saturday now, and a quick count shows 23 hours since Sunday. Definitely my longest week in some time. It's mostly been tempo/almost-tempo riding. No intervals. No drama. Actually, some drama: a couple weeks ago, while loading up the cars before a race, either a clueless director (likely) or teammate (unlikely) slammed the rear hatch onto my SRM head unit, smashing the mounting bracket up without saying a word to me!!! I tried to repair it, but it's beyond it, and now i'm left with a $850 paperweight. Email-tag is always a challenge with the SRM dudes, so it'll wait at least until I get state side again.

Just bums me out and angers me a bit that no one stepped forward to claim responsibility...gah. C'est la vie, non? So no more HR, no more speedo, no more wires, no more data. It isn't too bad, though. Just me and the ipod now. I hope that come November and the start of base i'll have it all working smooth and clean. And the moral? Be careful with bikes when loading and unloading, particularly if it isn't your own stuff! 90% of wear & tear on the bike (with me, anyway) occurs during this time -not while actually being raced, ironically. And f-in claim responsibility if you do fffffkk something up!

A bit of an abrupt end to an entry, but I need to sleep!

Hi

2007-07-31T08:38:00.000+02:00

This will be the third time in the last week that i've sat down and started writing an entry. Each time, something went down, and I couldn't finish it. They were pulp anyway. As this will be, but I hope to get to the finish this time out. And what a perfect gateway that last sentence makes for my race exploits for the month! "I hope to get to the finish" I'm still cruising on that woeful run of poor form. I've had a couple races so far, and have strung together more DNFs in the last month (3) than I have in the previous 3 years combined. All in stride, of course. They've been courses on which I'd have difficulty with even on great form. The mind is well. I fully realize that with the highest highs come the lowest lows. Not quite that dramatic, but yes: you can't have peak form without some kind of relapse in form. It's how it goes. And now, a photo. I've got a nice stash from the past month...

Pretty nice, huh? The contrast between the jagged permanentness of the mountain and the fleeting clouds...and smooth tarmac flowing through it all. It's a really swell road, one of the longer climbs around here at 15k in length. Really reallly fun to come down it, too. As the season winds down, I feel like I'm noticing more things of this nature. I'm enjoying being on a bike, listening to good music, and taking in the surroundings. As for the bike...I've unpacked and packed the thing 500 times in the last month. Each time a bike is unpacked and repacked, things on it change. Measure to your heart's content, but something will feel different. Since I unpacked it (for hopefully the last #$%#%$ time), it changed. It feels amazing. Particularly when going downhill. I finally feel really connected to the bike and take it to its limit and back without worry. And yes, another photo from the vault...

I'll miss that guy when I leave...but you can bet it'll be ridden to the ground for the next couple months. Another important note. Former roommate and teammate Mike Fitzgerald has gone home. He had a battle with a truck, and lost. Inredibly, he is almost completely unscathed. Only broke his arm in a few spots, but he'll be allright, and will be ready to start his 13 month Australian-European season in a few weeks. That's how those guys roll. Pictured below is the only photo I have of Mike. Like most professional hockey players, Mike is a firm believer of the "don't EVER smile in photos" ideology. He told me it gives him an extra 20 watts of power and forces all opposition into submission. If only the truck-guy had a look...AT THIS:

Take it easy, guy. See you around. Allright then, as I mentioned, I went to Paris for a week earlier this month. Before getting into that, a quick word on the big beautiful train systems all over France. Aww...they're so fast, smooth, convenient, yah! But! They're friggggggggin expensive! No one ever mentions that part. So, nearly another month's worth of stipend went to that little trip...and another month will be spent in total struggle mode as I wait and hope that the pattern of continually delaying payment will be a bit more lax this month. Paris!

Okay, look: As cyclists, we share a few common interests, among which are the love of really expensive and cutting-edge bike parts. We love them because they represent the most recent evolution of an already insanely efficient machine. Road bikes represent the most refined type of this machine. We love advancements in road bike technology because they [conceivably] serve to make that machine even faster, even more efficient. This is their purpose and the reason for our fascination. Let's go to the otherside now....what else to cyclists universally enjoy? Scroll up, that first photo in this entry. That's what I'm talking about. We enjoy that. Totally non-cutting edge natural and undisturbed formations and a way in which to access them (the road). The gadget-lust and the setting in which to enjoy them. We love that. The fusion of the two.

Paris is none of these things. It is an old city. Nothing is cutting edge. Old buildings with gold trim on random street corners and statues....statues EVERYWHERE. I don't care for any of these things. There, I said it. Big obsolete buildings with a solitary purpose of bringing in as many tourists as possible...and that's what hurts most...you check out the city, notice these things, and find that there are a billion others swooning over it all. Eh, to each his own. I think in the back of my mind this is what I expected. But in any case, the primary reason for my visit was to hang out with family that lived there.

And that was the best part! The baby-head to the left is Levon. Levon (2) is a fun baby. He speaks Armenian, English, and French equally well. He's a big fan of the Thomas Train series. BIG fan, and occasionally makes them smash into each other and cites "accident" as the reason. Atom (7) is an anomaly. An amazingly interesting anomaly. Some kids (me) like Dinosaurs, sharks, naps, painting....you know, that kind of thing. Atom's [current] singular interest and pursuit in life is Paris' public transport system. He enjoys being tested on the subject matter..."Atom, how can I get from Arc d'Triomphe to Gare de Lyon by bus....while only using Buses with odd numbers." After a second or so explaining what "odd numbers" are, he'll come out with a timely response with a tone of disappointment, because that question was not challenging enough. Really, they're both super kids. Can't wait for them to grow up, but definitely want to visit them again before they do! Here's Atom hard at work...

Though I wasn't a fan of the cardinal aspects that define the city, there was lots about Paris that I liked. First, the metro system. There's a metro stop every 500 meters or so, in any direction! Most amazing, is that during daylight hours, the trains come every 4 minutes or faster. No one runs to make trains, as there is no point -another will come shortly. Let's not forget, however, that the city itself isn't that big...perhaps 20k in diameter? So you can get from A-B on a bike much faster and cheaper than the Met with some crafty riding. Still, a cool metro system. Here's a photo:

Le Tour Eiffel. A daisy in every way. For one, it's very easy to find. Just ride around for a bit 'till you see it in the distance, then ride toward it. I used it as a landmark to be able to find my way home. I read up on it on wiki, and turns out it was supposed to be just a temporary thing, to be torn down later. Fascinating that something so massive and expensive could ever be considered "temporary". The entire structure really separates itself from the rest of the city. Massive, undecorated (except for the lights in the evening), a paltry brownish color, and visible from anywhere. A bit of a cycling parallel....the "hollow" frame gives it less surface area so that the wind won't destroy it. At the base of each leg there's some kind of tourist shop or restaurant. Kinda cool. And of course, being the easiest spot in town to find, it has billions of tourists. At all times. And that's cool, but not so much with the bike. C'est ici:

The Arc de Triomphe pretty much sums up what I didn't like about Paris. Ornaments on top of ornaments. Even my $.02 photo shows it. It's overdone beyond belief. BUT! The roundabout that encircles the Arc. Fkkkkkkking amazing. It's hell on earth. Entirely of cobbles. No lanes. No markers. No rules. A little piece of total anarchy in an otherwise [overly] law-abiding country. I made sure to include it at least once in each of my daily rides while out there. Big wide smile on my face the whole time. Made me nostalgic. It's like riding in downtown LA, or anywhere in LA at rush hour. Not nostalgic because of how great it is...it's not. But it's something that's familiar to me, and I just had to beam. The cobbles, man...that's the kicker. The big mean cobbles...One of my favorite parts of Paris.

It's not a great city for riding bikes. One of the worst i've ever been to, actually, but I don't know the city well enough to really judge it properly. Most French riders agree, however. Let me rephrase: Great city for bike riding...with a max of 20 km/h. I think on my first ride out I managed almost 30k in 2 hours of riding!! The day before I got to Paris, the city introduced this program called "Velibre", in which 100s of bike-rental stations are put up all over the city, and you can rent them. Great for putting around town, easy to find parking. I didn't rent one, but it's amazing how quickly they started to get used. After only a couple days people all over town were using them.

I won't lie, after the week, I got a bit attached to the bikes -despite not actually riding one. I like their style, color, and bulletproofness. In Paris, everyone rides, ["regular" riding...not the dork tights and goofy glasses kind] and I'm a huge fan of girls riding bikes. It's always worth a couple extra points in my eyes, and Paris has no shortage of amaaaaaaaazing looking girls riding these bikes, shifting gears, stopping at traffic lights, mashing the pedals. Maybe the drabness of the city makes them look that much better in my eyes? Regrettably, I have no photos of the aforementioned girls on bikes...but the Ditties won't disappoint.

Other enjoyable aspects of the city: The downtown area ("La Defense") was pretty neat. I got lost during one of my rides and ended up there (among other places). The place is deserted compared to the inner part of the city. Zero tourists. Smooth roads, one-way streets, and lots of fast food. Again, eerily similar to downtown LA. Here, I stopped and had a chat with a guy about Le Tour. Here's a quick photo of the Grande Arche...

For me, it's on par in coolness with le Tour Eiffel, and wins outright because it isn't drowning in a sea of tourists. It's made to be in line with the Arche de Triomphe, though locals say it's slightly off. Eh. So this is the most eccentric of the downtown buildings. There are a couple others, too. A nice refuge from the city's madness. I wonder how the night scene is? What else? I found that Parisian bakeries are generally better than their Ardeche/Aubenas counterparts. I think this is because of the general demand for bread in Paris is so high that the turnover rate of baguettes in Paris is very high -meaning they're always fresh. For me, the most important and only criteria for french bread and other baked goods is freshness. Paris has that down pretty good. Only a select few in l'Ardeche adhere to my tastes. Produce in Paris is expensive. Everything is more expensive. I think I saw figs (one of my favorite foods) for 16 euro/kilo! But the selection is prime and colorful.

Finalement!! Done at last. Anytime there's a big gap between entries, it's hard to follow it up properly, but I've done it. More updates coming this week, for sure. And what? The new interpol album came out? AND my apple matches my shirt? Far out!

ps: apologies for lack of any Tour rhetoric....this entry is long enough, I think. I feel the same way big Maggie does.

Quick Report

2007-07-16T08:12:00.001+02:00

Today, I leave for Paris. First time! I have a bunch of cousins there that I haven't seen since the 80s, and yep. More travel. It's only a couple hours each way so I'll be allright. I am taking the bike though...and we all know how FUN it is to travel with the bike. Can't wait to pack it up and wander aimlessly through the full train in search of a place to put it. However, before I leave for Paris, I need to ride, clean up the house, and write this blog entry. If I don't write it now, I never will, so let's have at it...

Saturday. Quatorze Julliet (Bastille Day)!!! The French have no shortage of holidays, and saturday was the biggest one of all (though 7-7-7 was pretty grand as well), and a town right next to the Lyon Airport (St. Exupery) was having a bike race party and we were invited. Right-O. All week, team dudes that are in the know said, "Aram, c'est une belle course pour toi...c'est trop plat!! Gagnez!" [Aram...it's a great race for you...very flat! win!] This time I felt like they were actually serious. Hmm. The prior week, I was in total recharge mode. I got back from Cape Town on Wednesday, the 4th, and didn't ride again until the following wednesday. It was swell to have that week off. The body is thankful. Anyhow, after a couple decent rides wednesday-friday...it was game time. Wasn't sure how the legs would be, but who knows?

The course: One of my favorites. 8km circuit, 17 laps. 135k 95% flat. One 100 meter climb (and that was just so we could have a feed zone), and that's it. Now, how to describe the course in words? Hmmm...I thought of this metaphor: you know how when you're a kid, and you go to an amusement park for the first time with a bunch of your peers? You're finally tall enough to participate, and all these crazy coasters and rides await -but who will be the first to give it a go? Me? You? "If you do it, I'll do it" is usually thrown out there. And so, the course...i'll try to recreate the first lap: first K was pretty standard...fast. 160 (XL!!!) of us. I couldn't see the front or the back...just a never ending stream of riders, then down a descent into a roundabout. 20 of the 160 bunny hop onto the median before the roundabout, bunny hop onto the island, then back into the peleton. Smooth, too. Then the 3rd-5th kilometer....medians all over, but both sides were open to us. At one junction, half the peleton went left, the other, right. The road at the end of the left side had a gate on it! So allllllll those guys bunny hop the median, and swing into our group. All this is happening at 50+ km/hr!! I'm just laughing, and thinking "I wanna do that, too." After that section, there's yet another roundabout on a really fast downhill tailwind section...but these are prettier to look at from a helicopter's perspective than a riders'...so yes. It was an insane time. Curbs were used, millions of bunny hops, blazing pace for the first 4-5 laps, and....the kicker......just one crash (on a straightaway)...good times, I was happy to be there.

Oh...a result? I did it, finally....I missed the break. Not because I was unlucky, but the legs weren't ready for that kind of thing. Once I realized it was game over for the peleton, I just putted around, enjoying the [obstacle] course. Unfortunately, the whole team missed the break, missed the chase group, and yeah...bummer. I sincerely hope the french cycling gods will throw a course like this at me again...I promise i'll bring the good legs! And lastly....sorry I've been a bum with the camera lately...I didn't even take it to the race, and the blog suffers. But i'll get back on it, for sure.

Here we go, Vel07...the top bike shop in France!

Vindicated......at Long Last

2007-07-11T11:45:00.000+02:00

photo: cyclingnews.com

My first bike race was on January 19, 2002, 8am. Cold. It was the first running of the (now annual) MLK Day Race. Unsanctioned, and with only one category: "Open". Not a big field (8am in January!)...perhaps 50 people...but huge for me! The club I'd started with prepped me well for this day, but looking back, I can't recall any instruction with regards to sprinting. I'd ridden a mountain bike prior to getting on the road, so I felt more comfortable in the tops/hoods area. As I understood it at the time, the drops were for descending, so that you can brake more efficiently.

The race was an odd one. My teammates and I had been talking for weeks about this race, and about what to expect, what to do, etc....but the race found a way to surprise me despite the ample discourse and preparation. I don't remember much else. However, one memory that'll cling to me for a good long while is this: I attacked a couple times, and when I realized it was go time, I put in a sprint -both while in the hoods. "...in the hoods?!! Are you INSANE?" is the first thing one of my teammates told me after the race. I was confused, and a bit irritated when my nickname (nick-phrase) amongst the team for the rest of the season became "the guy who sprints in the hoods." Swell. Still, I didn't understand what was wrong with it. It felt comfortable to me, and at the time, it was faster as well.

Fast forward to yesterday: Le Tour. Big sprint. Look at the above photo. One guy stands out: Fabian Cancellara. Crushing every sprint superstar out there, in the hoods. Thank you Fabian for freeing me of my supposed wrongdoing.

I do, however, sprint in the drops now...