long week

There's something about sitting in a car for 7 hours after a stage race that really isn't condusive to recovery. I don't think my legs have ever been this tight. It's like having walnuts in the calves and hamstrings. Horrible.

Work has been less than ideal but I still managed to squeeze in a couple of quality rides. Monday was pure recovery, Tuesday was the crit. I felt surprisingly strong despite the tired legs - maybe that's a good thing. This morning I pounded the coffee early and hit the road on the TT bike for a good 90 minutes - something I've desperately needed to do. Getting some power back in the TT position is going to be important. I started off by re-setting my saddle to match my road bikes, as a starting point, then fiddling a little bit from there to try and put my torso in a similar angle to my hips and when I ride the drops on the road. As a result, I ended up with the aero extensions a bit further back, the saddle up higher, and the nose up a bit too. I managed to get rid of the IT band tighteness I felt at Elkhorn and got the quads back up and firing again in that position, and felt a solid bit more comfortable putting out the power by the end. Now I need to ride it and stop fiddling. I'm calling that dialed for the rest of the season.

State championship this weekend. I've never done the Senior race before, but since I missed my 3 race earlier due to a wedding, this is the chance. If I can hang in longer than most of the local 1/2's, that'll be a good start.

elkhorn, stg 4, the finale

A 12 man break went at mile 10. Those bastards. It guaranteed that there was no time for a pee break the entire stage. And peeing off the bike wasn't an option either, and we were either going uphill, or hammering downhill. The speed kept up enough that I didn't dare risk drifting too far off the back.

Sucks.

I think 84 guys started this race. We had about 40 left at the bottom of the last climb, a 12-13km haul up a steady 5% grade with switchbacks. The break had a 2min lead when we hit the hill. There were attacks and accelerations, with people starting to go backwards right away and when I saw the leader's jersey jump ahead I hit the gas and dug in to bridge a gap to that group. Pretty soon it was about 12-15 of us stringing out on the climb. I moved up as well as I could until about 4th wheel, and guys started coming off the group. By halfway up it was down to 4. We started catching reminants of the break. The climbing pace itself never felt too difficult, but one of the guys in my group kept putting in wicked accelerations trying to drop the race leader, which were getting seriously hard to follow. I came off at 1k to go, put it in the big ring and powered to the finish the best I could. 12th across the line, moved me up to 6th on GC.

Not bad for riding solo. The weekend really came down to 2 hard efforts: the TT, and the last climb. There were a few bursts here and there the rest of the time to get in a sheltered spot, but that's about it. Despite trying to conserve, the sheer distance and saddle time builds up enough fatigue that by the end, I was getting tired.

Hopefully I gained some good fitness from this race. Senior men's RR is Sunday, we'll see how long I can stay on. If Aaron Olson and Doug Ollerenshaw show up... it'll be interesting.

elkhorn stg 2, 3

10th in the TT. The three guys ahead of me were all 2" or less away. ah.

Still, a couple of those ahead had been dropped yesterday, so i moved into 7th. 36" back.

The crit was a cruise. Some Joker leaned into someone in a corner, freaked, swung out the other way and took out about 5 or 6 guys. Some Idiot threw a half full water bottle away (like the 1/2lb is going to make a difference in a flat crit) and it rolled back into the field. Other than that, easy. I spent most of the race feeling like I could hold a conversation. I don't think I could have conserved any more energy.

So far, I've gone hard in the TT and short sections of the first stage. Remains to be seen how hard I can go tomorrow when it counts - conserving or no, there's probably 130 miles in my legs this weekend so far if I include the longish warmups. And there's three climbs before the finish climb - an 8 mile 5% beggar to cap off a 100 mile day.

Should be fun.

elkhorn, stg 1

85F, 82 miles supposedly (really 77 miles including several miles neutral rollout).

The first half was pretty much straight downhill into a headwind. Then, in the tiny town of Richland, we went around both city blocks and headed back the way we came.

Not exactly a scenery rich stage.

It was, however, windy. Tail turing to cross winds on the exposed sections. One five mile climb didnt destroy the field, tho it was reduced to about 30. I managed to sit mostly sheltered from the raging cross winds, and so my hardest 10 minutes on that hill averaged about 280W. Anyone caught in the wind was probably doing half again as much. I had a few short jumps to move up or get better shelter, thats about it. Mellow day. Hot. Tiring, but not stressful. I finished with the pack.

Stage highlights include:

- spotting a nice buck alongside the course duing the 40 mile coast to Richland
- people litterally stopping in the feedzone, dropping bottles everywhere
- some dude flipping his bike, in the feedzone, at about 15mph (i think he hit a bottle)
- poor fred meyer kid a rock half the size of my head, right in the middle of the field, endo'ed into broken shale and rock of the shoulder (hes ok and so is his bike)

other than that, really a pretty tame day.

oops.

I tried to wheel surf. I really did. But I somehow ended up off the front for 7 laps early in the race, with a Paul's, then several laps later bridged to another break and attacked them when they were getting reeled back in with about 25 to go, and after a lap with my head down and powermeter running out of digits I saw I had 3 more dudes on my wheel and we had a healthy gap. That was all she wrote. We drilled it, held off a hard-chasing pack, the fat lady started hollerin' with 10 to go and I bluffed it home. Pulled the last two laps to keep it moving so we wouldn't get caught while playing games, and sat up at about 200 with an empty tank. I went a little deeper and a little longer than planned, but that's how these things go. I get bored, I attack, I end up riding my tail off. Every time.

Two days super easy with some openers tomorrow, then it's go-time.

good times.

Crit tonight. A last tune-up for Elkhorn. I need the intensity but not a full balls-out hour-long crit's worth. So I think I'll have fun surfing the Hutch's train as they attack and chase each other, and try not to be too spend too much time off the front.

I don't usually do the whole link dump thing, but whatever:

real reason for helmets
UCI finally looses all sanity
rednecks should be shot
google car
google this
maybe they can DQ the whole relgious right

pain.

Amen.

So let's say you just got busted for a DUI and thanks to lawyer's fees and the rising price of PBR you're a little strapped for cash and need a new ride. So you buy a $79 full suspension Magna from your favorite retailer - WalMart. It was put together by some pimple-ridden Goon who raved about the advantages of 21 gears over 18... and how this bike don't need no air in the tires so you won't get flats. It's heaven on wheels.

Even this piece of shit Magna comes with an owner's manual. In English. But you toss that (real Men don't read the instructions). There's some silly warning tag hanging off those quick release thingies on the wheels. It's got some instructions on it, too. Toss that, it's an eyesore. Don't read it, again, 'cause you're a real man. And when you lock your bike up in front of the courthouse on Tuesday morning, you make sure to take the wheel off and lock it up next to the frame like the cool kids. When your parole sentence comes down and you get to wobble off home going against traffic in the bike lane, you slap that front wheel in and spin the lever thing good 'n snug. Not too snug, 'cause the wheel's got to come off again at 7-eleven in a mile or so.

And when that wheel falls off as your retarded ass eventually drops the bike off a curb and miraculously whack the wheel out of the lawyer tabs, and you crash, hurting no-one but yourself, because you were too dumb to read two or three different warning labels, signs, manuals, or spend two seconds computing the function of an elemental, two piece cam mechanism, well, that's just natural selection at work. That's why there's a big hard top tube between your legs - do it enough times and you won't be allowed to breed.

Unless, of course, you live in New Jersey. They believe in keeping people like you in the gene pool.

british invasion

You might happen to be riding around Eugene one of these evenings. You might run into some fast rides. You just might run into a fit looking, very freindly dude on a Bike Friday, who says things like "bloke" and "mate" and "smashing". His name is Rob, and quite appropriately, his last name is English. Ride the wheel.

I got in a break with a hutch's and Rob on the TR nighter and the Bloke pretty much tore our legs off. He would take 30mph pulls for a solid minute, let us fools do a through-and-off, and pull again. We did this for something like 12 miles.

But he was so damn nice about it... and he threw his hands in the air at the line as I detonated in 2nd, and laughed with joy as he did. Good on him. Anyone who thinks otherwise can lodge a protest with Sal along with a $15 deposit and get him DQed. He's the strongest guy in, around, or near town, bar none.

Now I hurt.

extreme.

Whoa. Not cool. I'm not a fan of the nasty, but come on, what's truly wrong with people blowing off a little steam?

Remind me never to move to Iran.

I wonder if they would have shot paris hilton.

I wonder if we should have shot paris hilton.

Nah. That wouldn't make for as much good news.

I hope she makes another tape, and that it gets bootlegged and distrubuted in corner markets all over Iran. That would be amusing. Paris Hilton: the next Salaman Rushdie.

paris no longer dumb?

bogus! If that was an act, she could have had a real career in showbiz. But it wasn't. Once a dumb, spoiled blonde, always a dumb, spoiled blonde. Even after reality smacks you upside the head.

anyhow, this is pretty much my definition of beautiful:

watch it here

serious issue for making self examination

No joke - a line from a vendor communication the other day:

"But, we’re really pleasure that you point out the serious issue for us making self-examination."

Yes, self-examination is a serious issue. I hear it's goverment recommended in China. You know, in line with the whole one-child policy. Just don't be caught doing too much examination at work.

paris back in!

yeah, late news. whatever. im still grinning.

why do i care or follow some sick overblown media hyped bull? i dont know. but somehow, its sick and fascinating, all at once.

no state RR for me this weekend. bummer. it's a perfect course for me. but, i got to watch my 22yr old cousing marry a 29yr old hottie in the lovely moutains of colorado. bastard. he's blind, too, and pretty much knocked that one out of the park. amazing.

paris loose!

They let her out! damn. no showers with hardened criminals for her.

"The Post said she was seen crying as she cracked “under the pressure of prison,”"... I thought that was the whole point of prison? Can someone explain what exactly is wrong with having someone crack under the pressure of prison?

It makes a travesty of a mockery of a sham of the American justice system. And I had such high hopes.

weekend recap

saturday: three big climbs of wolf creek, from crow down to siuslaw river, and back again.
sunday: hwy 242 from the ranger station into sisters for lunch, and back.

weekend total: 7:30hrs, 223km (135mi), 3362m (11,000ft) climbing.