see if you can hear the hammer drill i'm dealing with...

Yeah...

Ulrich is said to be back in Germany already.

All he has to do is take a walk and be back in Germany...

"oooh he's back in germany"

sorry Pez/Edmond Hood... but that's a stupid comment... maybe not stupid, somewhat too vague? I dunno - its just funny that they are starting in the most german of all French Cities, right across the border from Germany and they are pointing out that Jan is back home maybe he needed to take a nap in his altitude tent...

Geo, correctly brought up the Track and Field /cycling stigma as druggies, but compared to NFL, MLB, where everyone's juiced its sad... who cares if the whole Yankee team is juiced if they win... imagine the fallout if the baseball teams had to drop players who were implicated like they do in cycling...

San Fran Giants anyone?

kinda enough to make ya queasy...

Patrick O'Grady has weighed in on the subject... almost as eloquent as Geo

Here's this quote:

Rolf Aldag, former Ullrich colleague: "Of course this is very hard, but then maybe it is a chance for cycling to really clean itself up. When you earn five million a year, then maybe you are more willing to take a risk with your health. I think that cycling will learn a bigger lesson from this affair than it did from the 1998 Tour scandal."

I like Rolf... hopefully his words are prophetic...

Oh and am i Clairvoyant for having stated that Ullirch will not win the tour this year? I didn't think he'd not win this way, but... its the same no? he doesn't win a tour. I might have even blabbed as much to say that he will never win the Tour... hell i might even be right on that account as well... surely his career it toast if this comes to be true...

TT all around, Zoo, KL, SB, and me...

On the ride back Zoe told me to stop beating up on myself, which, i had mentally told myself later that night, "I've gotta be positive, work on it!"

Focus not on the fact that i was slow as hell, but on the fact that i rode a PR, on my first time out. I could say i was marginally prepared for the event for any number of reasons, and SB's correct, i am full of excuses. But i'm going to see about making it through without them.

First. I had no idea why i got seeded back as far as i did, other than #1 i had no idea of my time, #2 Bob saw some dude over a foot taller than him and put me in the middle... The warm up out there was fine for Chris B, Graham Garber (the graham SB mentioned)-Mercury Web Solutions/North Atlantic Velo... and Zoe... and as usually i found myself out in front most of the way and sitting right at the LT for a good part of the 10 mile ride in. So i was definately warmed up by the time i was ready to roll off.

I did indeed get a 19:30, my personal fastest TT ever. Well honestly i don't have a clue what i rode TT number wise in college and i didn't do many any in michigan. I do feel pretty comfortable about doing better next time... I went out a bit too hard... But Still pulling a 24.6mph average for 19.5 minutes ain't terrible... for me at least...

The big bug that's climbed in my head lately is the 'I NEED A TT BIKE' as in my trusty Paramount... i've got the old school looking TT bars, i've probably got a smaller lower stem in a drawer somewhere, i don't have aero bars but C-Burke said he had a set of clipons that i could borrow... and rather than disk wheel i could go with a fabric cover thing... i'm not patient enough to do this project but... then there was this link...

and that pointed me over to this source for cheap disk-like wheel covers...

Why look at those? Well seems the man Graham Garber is sporting them... all so he can keep the PowerTap hub.

Just a few thoughts... maybe for next year... i'm still working on tuning the engine, no point slapping on a new rear wing when the cylinders aren't firing perfectly...

And yeah... i was red-lining it for a good part of the way back trying to hang with Zoe and Brad from the 1k2go team... but they did get me home in time to eat a whole quart of Tofu lomein... yeah Tofu... mmmm No Suds just cause i eat Tofu doesn't mean i'm a hippie. I just don't like beef that tastes like liver, chicken with chunks that ya can't chew and pork that is somewhere inbetween those two, from that particular restaurant. But they make wicked good lo mein noodles...

I didn't know Zoe was a Redlands Lipton Team member... but i stayed in contact for the 10 miles back, managed even to keep chatting for all but the one down hill where brad lit it up and i sat in behind Zoe...

And i'm not slow, i'm just not at peak fitness. Wait till next year.

Oh and i'm actually thinking maybe its time to peep another race on Sunday... maybe pop in at the Crit up at the Fitch? Me and my golf... its only 65 miles... head up for the Pro woman and watch a bit of the men... just a thought...

And man yes that TT did me some mental good. I feel markedly better today, and last night.

big turn around mentally... bike racing does a body good.
Peace out... and heck even if you are one place better than DFL... ya still finished! And that's something to be proud of

Its freaking (who said it) 1998 all over again? Except its happening BEFORE the start of the tour...

Damn... i have to go back and create a new fantasy team...

If this list doesn't just kinda make ya say... HolySHIT:

The list so far (31 riders)

Astaná-Würth: Michele Scarponi, Marcos Serrano, David Etxebarria, Joseba Beloki, Angel Vicioso, Isidro Nozal, Unai Osa, Jörg Jaksche

CSC: Ivan Basso

Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears: Constantino Zaballa

Saunier Duval: Carlos Zarate

AG2R: Francisco Mancebo

T-Mobile: Jan Ullrich, Oscar Sevilla

Phonak: Jose Enrique Gutierrez, Jose Ignacio Gutierrez

Comunidad Valenciana: Vicente Ballester, David Bernabeu, David Blanco Rodriguez, Jose Adrian Bonillla, Juan Gomis Lopez, Eladio Jimenez, David Latasa, Javier Pascual, Ruben Plaza, J.Luis M. Jimenez

Unibet.Com: Carlos Garcia Quesada

Retired/suspended riders: Roberto Heras, Angel Casero, Santiago Perez, Tyler Hamilton

man that's farking ROUGH, how the hell is anyone supposed to be excited about the tour...

Jan, well looks like jan's gonna be #2 forever... in both meanings LOL

that list is insane

Lloyd Flandis is HOSED - the Gutierrez boys are both out... hopefully Phonak can come up with some equal riders to support him...

Basso... fuckin slime ball...

Hell the whole peleton could be doped up...

VIVE-LA-DOPERS SUCK

And since when is an altitude tent "clean" it ain't clean... i've never been one to think it is... Jan's been second so many years its not suprising to hear that he's among the dopers... and just like tyler he's protesting innocence... yeah right.

I'll get to last night in a bit...

Oh and did i mention that Suds called me a hippie? I'm NOT a hippie... but if he keeps running and starts doing the composting stuff... maybe we can start labeling that crazy canuk a hippie... LOL... j/k i don't think there's any chance of getting Suds to be a hippie... even if he starts composting AND making Biodiesel... although both are rather hippie-ish.

And it isn't that i have anything against hippies... i'm just not a hippie... ask any hippie - i'm not one of them. Which i guess has always been my sub-concious issue, i don't fit in so well with any 'group' or many groups... anyway - i should correct myself - i feel rather comfortable hanging and talking cars and stuff... TDI specifically... Microscopes... same thing, although turn social and i'm at a loss.. but i'll talk shop for hours... but - bottom line... i'm not a hippie... not even sure why i'm all worked up about it - although i'm actually not worked up about it... sigh

Found this post sitting in the 'drafts' DOH...

not that it's a big loss - but i dunna wanna just delete it... besides it gives me a chance to post this extra link: how NOT to wear a helment
AND Brad Pitt as an idiotic celebrity
(thanks to http://commutebybike.com/ for the linkage)

on with the old shit:

One size fits all up to 24 inch quads.

Fer crying out loud... wtf am i supposed to do?

Is that up to and *including* 24" quads?

Fortunately the Wool Kneekers don't have that restriction... but then on the DeFeet site they just say 'one size fits all'

like those stupid hats they give out for free at races... a small craniumed individual might be fine... but them farking hats don't stay on my head... that liberty one they gave out at nationals? barely barely stays on... and even then its gotta be tight enough that i can't wear it very long and it just doesn't sit down far enough...

got a bit full of myself earlier - not in the good way.

One of these day's i'll get it figured out... Gotta be happy, things really aren't that bad, are they?

Could be worse? Right?

So i busted out the Velogames team... no mini-league hook up yet but i figured Graham Garber's pushing it... I used to run a season long fantasy cycling league based on UCI points that started in January and ended at the Worlds... picking one rider from the top ten and one from the next ten... on down too the 90-100 ranked riders. Which ever 'team' wound up with more points at the end of the year won. I liked that cause it forced ya to know what the riders won the year before, and the way UCI points worked (maybe they've changed now) you'd carry points from the year before and if ya didn't get those UCI points you dropped. Like say your top rider won the Giro the year before and placed in the top three overall in the Tour... but he didn't finish the giro or the tour... that a boat load of points you could loose... so its a much more challenging selection process. But it also allows those who just wanna pick random names to not thing and just pick.

The Velogames setup is cool. I have a team... they'll suck. I picked who i wanted to not exactly who i thought would dominate... So all yall - go grab a team and we can see who's the best at picking the tour.... at least in the small world of folks around here...

And maybe i should have given a bit more warning about the Pez cycling link... and well... sorry if that's not what you were expecting...

And i'm wondering where's the race report. the blog entry. for Rebecca Wellons? eh? ya'd think maybe she'd treat her rabid bloggin reading fans to an update of the WONDERFUL cox crit experience? no? She's prolly busy recovering and preparing for Fitchburg... no time to write... that girl put a full plate on... NRC crit out there in NY, and then Cox, now Fitch... damn that's some dedicated kickassness i tell ya... commitment to the sport, No? Hmmm now i don't remeber where i saw the results from the Rochester race... i 'thought' she was listed...

no matter... no matter...

Matt brought up the pigs in the road... lately i've been dealing with animals alot... squirels, freshly squished ones at that. For some reason i've seen a half dozen this week freshly flattened fuzzy-tailed rodents... and it's been a chore to avoid running my wheels or the trailer's wheels through the mess...

but... no pigs... no pigs... (pig farm? yeah, no pigs in the road)

Okay - this tall pig headed sack of anxiety and stress riddled retard is gonna eat something...

I need some stress relief... and the bikes about the only thing i've got going right now...

Workin my ass off so i can get things squared to take off the evenin to go race the clock...

Nothing like doing the dishes, cooking dinner, doing a couple loads of laundry and then trying to decifer a pile of loan documents... TT just seems a bit far removed...

now i have a dear friend telling me to let some of the cycling go... re-align priorities...

I dunno - maybe i'll come up with some witty inspiration while giving the tour to a group of highschoolers...

this is a bit brighter...
(this being the Pez shot Il Brucie and I grabbed... linkage removed due to overwhelming google image search hits 4-4-07)

Cox Pictures... *snicker* (that's for sailorman - don't want him to think i've matured)

Kinda funny - the subject of these Cox pictures are the woman brave enough to take on Anna Milkowski, the course, the rain, AND the lamest of lame purse for the Open woman's race.

Anna Milkowski
Random female riding in the expo grounds
Thanks to SB this is Hannah Sarnow riding over to the Registration Tent

(edited based on SB's comments - lemme know if i get it right)

The Infamous Duano

Ranger Rick Rusnak

some poser who quit the team last year and shouldn't be wearing the kit

Image 4

Tim-eeeeee a super nice guy who's had the bad luck to be mates with Conoman and Solobreak since the beginning of time

so well... its a damn slow day on one side... and wicked busy... on the other...

I listened to the Frankie bit over at NPR adn then the bit about youTube... NPR is cooooool...

And that story just flushed the last bit of respect i had for Lance. He's an attention whoring freak and man - too farking bad he won all those damn tours... farking shame...

Oh and well ride report - made it in dry. Might make it out dry... last night, got home suited up... took off got to the circle at 5:29... no one there... no on... WTF? where the hell is everyone... stuck around till 5:40... then thought ah hell maybe i'll just soloTT it to the course... and so i did...kept the intensity up just below the LT for the ride out, then figured if everyone was doing the normal warm up lap i'll catch up to them by riding it backwards... so i did... up the long down hill. Damn its a long hill... about 2/3 through three of the triathalon team guys went zooming past... all tucked in and all riding together... i sit up and wave and say hey... not even a flick of a finger in hey... it annoyed the hell outa me... not till i got back did i think, well maybe they are actually just doing the course, no warm up. Oh well still even then they didn't even wave... So i pushed it back around and then wanted to jump in with the old slow suckers over at the BLVD. And yeah... they are mostly old... makes me and brucie look like kids... hell half of em could be SB's father... got a decent lap or two in, chatted with Kipp Bradford, listened to Graham bitch about breaking a chain and how there were crashes on every freaking corner... i think he was in the 3/4 race... as a 3, but i dunno what team he's racing on? he's cruising on a raleigh his name is graham garber - looks to be mercury web solutions but since he didnt' finish (chain broke, bike swap, DNF) i dunno which club that's registered under... (found it he's a north atlantic velo club memeber) but i thought he was racing in the 3s... maybe it was the 1/2 race... dunno... dunna matter i guess... marshalling the two races back to back was a bit distracting

so i got a decent ride in - 1.5 hours most at a good moderate intensity, nice cool down... dropped 4 pounds on the ride... drank most of one bottle on the ride... but drank a massive quantity before heading out...

its like a torture chamber in here... constant constant hammer drill... in the walls... fuck its driving me NUTS...

oh and i may have a potty mouth but i've got a damn strong filter, kids around and i'm uber sensitive about it... but then when i let loose - watch out...

couple teaser pics... more to come

Andreus were "unaware, shocked and disappointed when their confidential depositions were made public after being provided assurances by both parties that their testimonies were provided for the limited purpose of the arbitration matter and sealed pursuant to an order of the Texas Arbitration Panel."

that fucking blows... Oh well... i feel for Frankie. I've met the guy a few times, and genuinely kinda like him.

Look at the Working Man's stage race.

But then if you get past the title it shouldn't suprise you that the first placed woman doesn't even get her start money back... but in the Cat 4 guys even the 3 place dude gets start money +$10 back... Sure add the QOM and there's some cash but damn the cat 4 men clean up comparatively... now sure... if ya have a smaller field then ya can't pay out as much...

BUT if ya don't pay out enough... your field will be smaller...

its BOB's race so they can do what they want...

but after the comments about the bitching shitty payout for the woman in the Cox crit... its all on the promoters... if ya want bigger women fields and more woman racers - start offering bigger purses...

sure maybe there aren't quite enough women around... but then like the Pro/1/2 races - put in $15,000 of prises and suddenly guys from outa town are showing up...

too bad we can't go euro and pay people to race... that's be fucking sweet...

Dave pushed the button... Which one?

*sneeze* this soap box is dusty *sneeze*

The BioDiesel propaganda button...

So? Well i am getting in the low 40s (miles per gallon) drivin like a bat outa hell, generally well over 15-20 mph (going with the flow) above the speed limit. Burning a renewable resource. Gasoline, is NOT a renewable resource. And even burning at a miserly incredibly positive rate of 73.5 mpg... the energy balance, and the carbon cycle is still on the side of the BioDiesel powered VW TDI. And even with 4 bikes on the roof, i still manage in the 40s.


my friend Mike Brigg's stuff at UNH

Take a vehicle getting 73.5 mpg on gasoline (yes i know it is so much better than the average that its incredible... but bear with me here)

The energy cost to make one gallon is 19.5% more than you'll get out of it. Specifically it takes
BTU/Gallon of Gas is roughly 114500
BTU/BioDiesel 130000-138000
BTU/Diesel 140000-147000

So basically you need 137,000 btus to get one gallon of gasline containing only 114,500 btus of energy.

And btus do the work.

Yes BioD is slightly below regular Diesel in BTU content.

BUT

BioDiesel's BTU balance is (drum roll please):
220%... in the positive... you get 220% MORE energy per gallon than you put into making that gallon. Here's the link: http://www.mda.state.mn.us/ethanol/balance.html

yes... in essence its free energy. Sort of. Its chemically stored solar power. That can be burned in any diesel vehicle. That can be distributed in existing pipelines, in existing tankers, in existing fuel stations. Meaning the infrastructer is 100% in place. And yeah i hear it all the time "But you can't get diesel everywhere" no but you can get diesel at about 50% of existing fuel stations.

In simpler math terms - for every 1 btu you put into making Gasoline you get 0.805 out of it... and for every 1 btu you put into making biodiesel you get 3.2 btus...

Now... that's calculated based on using virgin stock from soybeans. #1 soybeans aren't the best oil seed crop, #2 you don't have to use virgin (un-used) veggie oil.
Say you use Waste Veggie oil... (you can run a diesel on unconverted oil but it don't work so well and ain't great for modern diesels). So now, you are converting a waste product into Energy.

How freaking geeky sweet is that? The energy balance for using Waste oil is out of this world. Because the farming/production cost for the original oil has been paid for by the first user! And if that first user PAYS you to haul off the "Waste" you are MAKING money by burning fuel. It generally costs about $0.50 or so per gallon to make the fuel... and well... It doesn't become hard to imagine why the TDI market for used cars is outrageous.

Imaging paying 20 grand for a car that is 3 years old, when new was only 20,000? Well that's what's happening...

BioDiesel is where its at... and algal crops could more than completely (even sustainably in environmentally friend.

Now say ya going to a bike race... I can put 5 adults comfortably (assuming i'm the only one my size and i move my seat up a tick or two) or 4 with room + the bikes (on the roof)... with assumption that everyone has one reg size duffle... and still get in the low 40s... now even 4 people is dramatic savings on a per person basis. But IIRC SB has pointed out that if they load up some rattly death trap of a mini-van with the team they get better per person fuel economy than Kerry driving herself.

BUT... as long as its gasoline... its still sucking (think VW add #2)... 100% ethanol is a bit positive but if ya blend it down to E85 it just might be neutral...

Whats it all mean? Buy Diesel. And better yet... buy a diesel hybrid!

Nothing like a smash mouth song to pop into the head as i'm about to write:

There's so much to say, so much to cover...

but so little freakin time!

Top it off Kerry throws me a freaking curve ball... of COURSE on the day i've got craziness hap'nin and starting early there's a double... i'm afraid to go down the tabs.... But i'll say this - 73mpg gas or not... that's freakin sweet!

So is commenting on other web logs sort of counter productive? or is it appropriate?

Its definately telling when someone checks what others are writing before checking news or what not... although isn't that what a 'community' does? even if i'm like the shy peeping tom... at least in person... But give me a whistle and a purpose and i'll fucking keep those waddling fat ass WWE RAW fans from crossing in front of the GD bike race...

There was something else from the race i think i wanted to mention... but alas right now - fried city.... brain that is.

Gonna see about hitting the TT tonight... rain's maybe suposed to be possible thursday so if i get this one in and it rains... i've at least got one in, if it is clear... i'll get two in... TTs that is... long intervals that are tough to do on your own... the mental difference between going out and doing your own 10k interval vs doing, even a club self timed one, a TT with others is significant...

I'm spacing on the rest of the stuff... but i'll have the pictures from the race posted a bit later on so everyone can see just how wet it was...

Sure, its just the media, as mentioned so clearly by the elder statesman D Foley, don't believe the media,
BUT:

According to El Pais, the documents seized by the Spanish civil guard during Operacion Puerto show that Hamilton was not as innocent as he claimed. It's alleged that he not only received blood transfusions, but also a full doping program involving EPO, anabolics, growth hormone and IGF-1.

the big key word there in bold (my empahsis)... sort of unhinges it... but, read the rest of the Hamilton stuff.

Details like that are just too freaking key to make up. I know i'm not on a jury, and not a judge but like i've said all along... that kid is fucking guilty as sin... maybe the rest of the peleton is as well... but in light of that two faced assbag 'professing' his innocence, and maintianing it and having the whole Hamilton Foundation ignorantly parroting "He's INNOCENT, there's NO way our DEAR Tyler could EVER have taken ANY illegal performance enhancing measures"

And then add the whole lack of a spanish national champ race this year... that's crazy... but this invesigation is rather significant and serious, so the riders rather than be implicated with concrete evidence resulting in the stripping of the National title... they all skip it, "in protest" of an investigation diggin up some seriously bad juju...

From Big Jonny:

I like to joke that I'm knee deep in the bike game. But I'm not. I'm just some shitbag with a website in Flagstaff, Arizona. But I do get out now and again. And I like to drink beer and bullshit with people. And people tell me things. Sometimes I hear things.

I know guys that have raced as amateurs in Spain and all their teammates were doped. I know guys that have raced in Belgium as amateurs and took dope. I know guys that race here in the States on pro teams and some of their team mates take EPO. I know guys that have raced here in the States and took steroids and whatever else.

I won't mention any names, as it is their story to tell if they wish to. I'm just a shitbag in Flagstaff with a website. But believe me, doping is everywhere. When someone posts in the Velonews forum and says, so-and-so would never take drugs when they've never even met so-and-so… Well, take that as you will.

I have no reason to believe anyone is clean.

And from DC's forum: this gem of a link:
arab(?) doing donuts on a bicycle


And Damn if megA's code isn't hauntingly taunting me... click - oh here's The famous IF hot ass... again... no? i thought i clicked on the new one... nope... there's the IF Hotty again... strange...

SB's beating on me again... but i deserve it after that self pity sack of crap post i rambled on saturday...

and ahh the good old days of Rec.bikes... I trolled, posted and debated in that arena back in college... i think i first tapped into in sophomore or junior year 91-92 or 92-93

Denis Leary just has afunny delivery, but yeah he hasn't changed, but there's something about that wanna be NY Irish asshole that makes it all work. He does have a family and those kids are his priority. He's got far damn more heart that most fuckers out there, and maybe its the dichotomous nature of his personality that i can identify with.

Yeah and telling stories over and over. yeah... it gets old-

But i've mentioned cleat position before no? Well my Mt shoes and my Road shoes both have the cleat reasonably forward relative to the 'muter shoes... last nigth is aid fuckit - i'm gonna fucking adjust these once and for all... maybe... well i 'think' i've got all three cleats bang on exactly the same place... more or less. "But GeWilli, all three have the same cleats?" Yeah... i'm running old school Mt style SPD cleats. And running Dura-ace SPDs (not SPDr) on the Klein, Ultergra SPD (not SPDr) on the P-mount and i've got a 747s every where else (cross, and mt bikes). Yeah mt bikes, two of em, and they haven't hit the dirt in 2+ years... how fucking sad is that?

Oh and whats up with the langugauge(sic)? Omage to the washington post

Oh and a "You know its time to get new gloves" moment...

taking them off this morning... they smelled like i threw up in them... and i thought damn i wonder if my hands will smell like that... (just checked) still do - 2.5 hours later... i can still smell it... Time for new gloves... *thinking aloud* I wonder if there is a Motocross shop around i can get another pair of MotoX gloves, in Michigan you couldn't go too far without finding one... but this ain't michigan.

Now - despite the whole house & moving stuff... i'm gonna try and still get out at least 2x a week beyond the commute for a hard TT or long ride... might have to make due with two mid-week TT rides as the weekends will most likely be sucked into a vacuum of cleaning, sorting, and packing...

okay I must now do the obligatory thank you for the few readers i have... thank you for giving me a purpose for these odd seconds i would waste away anyway (searching online for random stuff or playing radom games or other just general waste of time activites when ya have highspeed net)...

G

Do what i did!

Wake up early Saturday morning and sort of go to work. Then come home, talk on the phone to a loan officer for an hour. Take a billion pounds off the shoulders.

Load up the girls and the cameras and head to drop one off at a party, drive down have lunch at a deli with bro's family, head to donor's house to pick up books for the museum.

THEN head to the inspection. Walk around following the guy for two hours, taking notes.

Head home, completely space about what happened between then and sleeping.

Wake up to a downpour and head to a race and help set up. Then head home, quick change, head back, watch the woman race... catch the moment Anna M took control of the race and blew it open completely... continue around the course until she's blown everyone apart... then grab the marshalling stuff and voice loudly that i want the prime marshalling spot - just before the finish line. So if you were at the race, the tall wet rat with the glasses in the hair, the messenger bag hiding under the back of the white poncho standing there blowing the stupid whistle and asking the dozens and dozens of WWE fans who were trying to see some wrestler chick to wait for the bikes to go by before crossing... dat was me...

Oh and since i rode to the course in the morning and coming back through 1' deep puddles i changed out of my commuting shoes and into my Sidi Mt bike shoes... nice blue D2s... DOH - talk about blue feet...

Got a bunch of pics. But like an idiot i left the cameras at home. So the shots of the BOB gang at the start of the Masters race and the few of the Pvelo team and a couple shots of the woman racing and the line waiting to see that wrestling chick. Oh it was funny, two fat dorky looking older teenagers were walking across the street and one was saying "I've got her m y s p a c e bookmarked." while carrying three or four autographed photostuff...

Chatted with Il-Bruce for a bit, and talked with two kids while the Pro 1/2 race was winding down...

Lots of suggestions for the production folks:
#1 more money for the woman, it was a commonly overheard theme even at the race
#2 start riders by number... ie seeded starts cause was a total clusterfuck... not to mention among the juniors who had been standing to file in for 20 minutes - three were back at my gate w/in two or three laps joking about "haha i should have warmed up... what? you didn't warm up either? nope me three... haha" So kids all that jockeying to get a good starting spot was worth sitting around in the rain in lycra?
#3 provide a marshalling area for the riders other than the middle of the street blocking traffic. its enough of a problem that we've got with traffice being re-routed to add to 20 races stacking up in the only travel lane past the biggest mall in the area.

Oh and there were some serious genuine thank you's from a bunch of different racers... it was nice. And when saying congrats to the pros and the woman, they were very gracious. It was cool... Watching Mahk the Shahk win decidedly (well at least that's how i picked it from my pov) it was cool. (ooh i'm right - who needs a photofinish... and don't ya like the Baking soda as the line?)
bikereg.com Cox-Charities-Cycling-Classic

Oh and why the hell would you ride a disk wheel in a crit? with a little hill? A disk is great for a TT where the weight ain't gonna kill ya from the constant change in speed... but on a Crit? with a wicked corner?

That downhill corner was pretty safe, it was the turn heading back up towards the finish that collected a bunch of 3/4 riders just after they shut down the free lap.

Wishin i had the cameras here - i'm an idiot. Oh well. No shock there. Just reaffirming that i'm a Tall Guy, not a smart guy ;) :-) oh add shy to the list as well... i was too damn shy to ask around to see if the speedy bloggin chicks were at the race... and i didn't recognize any faces, although i might have one or two... I can pick out the speedy anna now... no doubts when she's zooming around the course alone...

So stay tuned for pictures - if i get adventurous i may swing home to get them over lunch... we'll see what the day brings.

peace out - till later,
G

Yeah - its a song title - Magical Strings. The specific cut is off the Beneath the Moon CD that i have playing now. The youngest is back to the weekend of feeling not so good. I don't get it. She was fine more or less all week and the weekend shows and she's feeling funky, like ground hog day... but on a weekly basis.

In grabbing the last bits of documentation that i didn't bring home with me last night, i thought i might pop on here. Esp since she (L woke up at 5am, my wife got her and then brought her in bed with us until 6am when L got antzy - so the two of them got out of bed, let me sleep for a few more minutes before getting up and letting my wife head back to sleep while we came to work), Esp since she (yeah repeated on purpose) is sleeping and we have some time. And we meaning me an the cup of coffee while my daughter is sleeping.

I'm somewhat compelled to come up with an intense post. Like sailorman's prone to do. But last night riding home (as megA said, thoughts flow best on the bike) i may have hit the issue. Influence. I don't typically read the list of intensely cerebral blogs that sailor does. I read the cycling ones, and really not much beyond that. The most intensely cerebral of those is KL's. I reach out more for stuff that will entertain, make me smile, laugh or be inspired. at least right now. Maybe once these added stresses mature into a pleasant feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment i can return to a less slapstick existence. Part of it may be the flat out depressing nature of some people's opinions and the massive battle against human collective stupidity. Its frustrating and i don't have the energy to combat the brain dead, much in the way my very good friend sailorman is doing. I admire his drive and his clarity in posting. And his current lawyer explanation is fantastic.

Now here's the other side. I don't really have any clear cut major issues to expound on in a ranting raving entry right now. Its a turntable mix by 8 DJs spinning 6 styles with out feedback from each other. Total cacophony of sound. its what it feels like inside a bit. No fantastic Dennis Leary inspired ranting that the LoneFrontRanger was so adept at, as many are.

Is it just me or are cyclists more prone to talking about the same thing again and again? Like gear choices, coming up with different ideas, but still winding up at the same conclusion. Or the same ideas but patiently re-addressed, even with the same passion.

Oh and reading through some team (P-Velo) stuff that Chris B sent to me to get on the team blog thing... i found this nugget... and those who read this entry may get a chuckle. Keep in mind though, they only have offered a 'bro/pro deal' not free frames.

Thousands of spectators have seen the now familiar red, black and white jersey colors flying through on Cannondale bikes, later talking with spectators and other racers showing renewed excitement about "“why Cannondale?"”, training tips, and the experience of racing.

The scariest bit for me right now (that's mentally occupied me for a few minutes) is the financing of the new home. Thoughts like "Am i getting the best rate" "can we really afford this" "how the hell do we survive" "is this really the right house" "i've already started and got pre-approval from onmortgagege broker but now maybe we want to use a different company" "is our agent really going to help us get through this mess" "did we offer too high"

I've never had the luxury of a kickass high paying job, but i've always had the fortune to work in a job i love with pressure that isn't constant buvarieses from little to do one day to being spread unbelievably thin the next with utmost demands on my knowledge and training. Its part of the sacrifice of life. One that i'm 99% confident i've made the right choice. Its just these 1% days when the burdens like now take over and cloud the vision with deep seated dread.

Well on that suprisingly depressing (for me) note, and the suprising inability to rationalize that it will all be okay i must close. Force myself to publish and move on. That's enough introspection for the whole weekend. I look forward to the potential of a chance encounter with some other new england bloggers on Sunday, but won't actively be hounding the famous ones like a paparazzi...

peace and safe riding
G

Oh horrors of Horrors...

I've been demoted... kicked to the curb... put in my place (rightfully so probably)...

Although i can still claim some measure of fame as being in the Ring of Kerry, no not the one in Ireland, although that's be sweet to be in... i'm refering to THE ring of kerry... sitting squarely 7 up and 7 down - and demoted from 'smart guy, rides a bike' to 'tall guy, rides a bike' hurts... but then its true - i felt it a month or so ago... the downward spiral into the depths of sophomoroic weblog whoring... maybe its time for a break eh? step away... or set some personal rules... BUT

that would go counter to the point... the point of this web log... i'm still the same dumbass i was last year... and the last solstice... and... and... well... getting a label is better than no label eh?

Whats my point? I noticed... dats all... and its a friday - and well... weekend's upon us... here we come... here we come... (Salt and Pepa - YEAH)

G the smart Tall guy, rides a bike

Fingers crossed we get NASTY weather for the home inspection...

I wanna see how well this house does in the rain, more importantly i want the home inspector to document the stuff, make it easier to negotiate a few grand out of the seller...

but ala Dave Zoo-ski here's the Providence weather...

Clouds for the race...mmmm i like that - me and sun don't agree...

So there ya go - weather here should be nice for a race on sunday... Yall come down, and ifn ya do - gimme a ring (email if ya need a # ta call) if ya can't find me on the course... Come down to cheer on the woman racing and make the promotional company see that there's a demand for some equality in Woman's racing.... ie Purse and Pro 1/2 and 3/4 race division or 1/2/3 and then a separate 4... or something...

Feltslave... Yall better have bioD in the delivery trucks... Oh and for those that thing CNG is a good thing - ya should talk to a few friends who've done cost analysis based on emissions, maintenance, longevity... looks really bad for CNG... not to mention delivery and fueling infrastructure isn't as availible as Diesel (which can support biodiesel with little to no modification in most cases).

I like hearing about stuff like this:

Dear Biodiesel Supporters,

You know that renewable resources and environmentally-friendly fuel options are the way of the future. CaseStack, an integrated logistics company, is now hoping to bring that future to the transportation industry by launching the Green Rebate Program. Beginning July 1, 2006, CaseStack will pay truck drivers who are transporting CaseStack loads 10 cents per gallon up to $50 for filling up with biodiesel.

Many consumers do not realize that they can now make an active choice to buy and support products that use biodiesel when they are delivered to stores. So we would love your help to spread the word about the program and let others know that they can do more. Forward this email to members of your community, your local press, and local environmental organizations. We will soon be publishing a list of companies that prefer to ship with biodiesel. However, this list can grow only if companies realize consumers care about this cause.

By encouraging the use of biodiesel, CaseStacks hopes to take the first step to promote this fuel that drastically reduces pollution, provides sustainability to businesses, and helps to revitalize our farming economy.

Please feel free to direct further questions or inquiries to CaseStack by emailing biodiesel@casestack.

Sincerely,

CaseStack Communications Team



June 23, 2006

CaseStack Kicks Off the Green Rebate Program
Logistics Leader Supports the Environment and Economy by
Launching Biodiesel-fuel Rebate Program

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — CaseStack, Inc. announces today the beginning of a two month Green Rebate Program designed to promote the use of biodiesel fuel. This environmentally-friendly program works by offering a rebate to truck drivers who fill up with biodiesel fuel while carrying a CaseStack load.

The Green Rebate Program, which begins July 1st and ends September 1st 2006, offers a rebate of 10 cents per gallon, up to $50.00 for the truck drivers. Beginning June 23rd, complete detailed information can be obtained through CaseStack’s website (www.casestack.com/biodiesel.asp), by calling toll free 1-866-567-6644 or by texting the word ‘green’ to 30364.

Biodiesel is the fuel of the future, a clean burning alternative fuel, made from mixing vegetable oils and diesel fuel in a simple and inexpensive transformation process. Biodiesel is biodegradable and non-flammable. There is no mechanical conversion needed; the fuel works in any diesel engine and can be used in existing engines as well as in fuel injection equipment.

The positive effects of biodiesel are limitless. Not only does it emit fewer harmful pollutants into our atmosphere as compared to conventional diesel but it also reduces tailpipe emissions and visible smoke. Biodiesel supports the welfare of Americans by being less hazardous to truck drivers and promoting the revival of American farmers through soy consumption.

Companies can also participate by taking part in the Green Consolidation Program where they can contribute seamlessly to the environment without making drastic changes to their operations. CaseStack will identify all participating companies as Green Partners and include them in all recognition marketing such as national and regional targeted advertising campaigns, PR announcements and viral marketing. The Green Consolidation Program is the first of many goodwill programs CaseStack plans on implementing over the years.

“Sustainability is good business” said Dan Sanker, president and CEO of CaseStack. “CaseStack’s work in encouraging the use biodiesel with its many positive benefits including the reduction of air pollution, greenhouse gasses and cancer risk to truckers will help preserve the environment for generations to come.”

CaseStack, Inc., a California-based logistics outsourcing company, provides a unique offering of web-based logistics technology, national warehousing network, and industry leading transportation consolidation programs. CaseStack has a fast-growing, broad client base in the consumer packaged goods industry. Their large industry presence will benefit the implementation of this environmentally friendly program.

The CaseStack Green Consolidation Program and the Green Rebate Program is endorsed by the National Biodiesel Board.

A brief post...

Ullrich to wed

Jan Ullrich has announced that he will marry his girlfriend, Sara Steinhauser, this fall. "I am so happy, that she accepted my proposal and that we will marry," he told the German BILD magazine. "She is the best woman in the world. I am head over heels in love. I want to bring the rest of my life with her." The bride-to-be, sister of Ullrich's former teammate, Tobias Steinhauser, said, "I enjoy every minute that I can spend with him."

First read makes that sound like Ulrich is marrying a girl so he can "be" with her brother...

Those german's have some strange fetish stuff... and i don't want to go into it cause i KNOW it would generate some google hits i do NOT want to have associated here... if ya know what i mean... if ya been around internet porn (click to get an mp3 of que Davinci's notebook song)

Those guys are freaking hysterical...

and that Washington Post mp3 DL site has some decent stuff...
I'm diging the Deep Dish Remix they've got up... check it

http://www.youtube.com/-drunk friend alarm clock

Its only 37 seconds but 37 seconds of hillarity... sure its not funny to laugh at freaked out drunks and stupid sophomoric stunts but damn its funny....

Okay - that shown I had to revisit the whole VW unpimp your ride commercials... I, II and III

II completely wins hands down... between "it sucks in air" and 'vat? What?' i die laughin each time...

and yeah... i'm easily amused... but damn its funny - nothing like a good dose of humor to get one's attitude on track (that and good steady flow of work in the morning)

That's the headlines... She's got it big time, but we can all still give her a hard time for low content. But ya gotta admit, that content that's there is damn fine stuff...

I'm noticing no update there from SB, i wonder if he managed a go at the local boys (and girls) over in Rohoboth.

I think though i know what i did to myself... i took a long ride in the heat... got wicked worked up about buying a freaking expensive house... had way too many beverages with my bro... and then proceeded to not get a decent night sleep for a few nights cause of the heat (and the first night cause i was so lit up)... that with a lingering bug floating around no wonder my system got nailed...

And the waves of sweat this morning aren't really helping much... chalk it up to anxiety... Ain't this shit just the most fun in the world? that and it sucks knowing that what ever deal i get from who ever i get the loan from, there's probably a better deal somewhere else and THAT is killin me. Just completely killing me. On the other hand its just money right? Just money. And Daycare is more expensive than private school so... well we just need to make it 4 years till the youngest is in school... Sorry - this is nothing to do with bikes... its life... its my pitiful life and i'm just trying to work through this shit in one of the more effective ways i can. Cause the other way to work through it (going for a nice hard ride) ain't exactly physically what i'm up to. That and i know its not caffine induced cause i ain't been drinkin as much as normal... ran out of the bean at home and have been just getting to work and having some there...

what else, what witty and snide remarks can i make? Cox? Kinda funny reading mbutterfly's comments (yeah i know who mbutterfly, but its a damn good opera and i'll use that reference when appropriate) " Fuck no..that course is a deathtrap...the chances of crashing are very high." suck language for a junior... i wonder if the officials should check her gearing at the start of the race... the local boys here LOVE that course... but then everyone here calls that cable company CoxSuckers cause they flat out suck in service sometimes, that and they rape ya for costs... Anyway i'll be setting up some barriers for it on sunday... And how can a race with only 26 riders in it be a crash fest? Ya'd think maybe a certain gal could make a nice sub team with the speedy chicks, drop the squirels in a couple laps and settle into a decent race... pay the announcer some cash for a nice call up and go girls go... awe am i being too cerebral about the race? I'm all cross and cross-country thinking too much... go, go hard, ride at your limit with skills for 45 minutes to an hour... so maybe i am just one of those folks destined for better results in the race of truth... ifn that happens i should get a bike for the race of truth....

peace out

or not lame...

the music sucks and Chris and Bob need a few more rehersals to make the script sound less forced.

judge for yourself: (sign up here) i saw it over at Pez... am listening now... the prologue workout is what they are offering as a teaser, then supposedly a new one on different stages... supposedly its geared towards trainer workouts... for the off seasons... maybe for the rainy season... maybe for those cyclists stuck out on a carrier for the summer.

Ooh the music changed... definately Bob's influence i guess. Some good metal guitar. Why is it that there's nothing like a hard rock guitar lead to get the cadence and HR pumping... like a Metalica or something... damn sunofbitches started talking... ooh the music is coming back in...

Bob's smoother now but still sounds too scripted... and i can imaging him doing the whole hand gesture stuff... its all about cadence... i need a cadence 'puter i guess...

That and i can't fucking wait - i'll have a place to dump the rollers and a massive nice fan to exhaust the room... assuming we get the house... and assuming we don't get a nice hurricane this summer - cause that ain't so good for this low lying state...

ya know, as annoying as these two baffoons (chris and bob) can be - into the workout it seems not so bad... stupid mellow recovery music...

no i'm not gonna do this for the next 25 minutes left on the pod-cast... (or am i)...

woops - got busy - left the audio running... its sokay... i would re-mix with different music though... anyway yall have a better day...

and thanks for the link back Zoo/Dave what ever they all call ya - but for the record there's no hyphen in GeWilli... not that it matters - for a guy with a name spelled like mine at this point in the journey on this earth there isn't anything anyone can do new to screw the name up....

(a bit i've been working on - putting it in action now)

Out in the open.

In C-dale's own words they started in 1971 making bike trailers and bike accessories. Not till 1983 did they introduce a bicycle. A touring bike. in '84 they introduced a racing model and a mt bike.

I love this bit: "Cannondale's reputation encouraged both bike dealers and customers to give the bicycles a try, and widespread industry skepticism quickly gave way to a host of imitators."

Um... but they were the ORIGINAL imitators of Gary Klein's work.

If ya pop over to Wiki on C-dale, ya see there isn't much more.

Now flip over to Klein. but before we do that.

There is a huge geographic bias. Gary might have started off at MIT (up the road in Boston for those not in the know or with a deliberate ignorance of Ivy Schools), but established the company in the middle of some of the most amazing roads and trails in the country, smack dab between Seattle and Portland, at the foot of Mt Rainer (West Coast for those geographically challenged). Cannondale is/was/has been (until the synapse crap being build in china) an East Coast institution. CT and PA specifically.

Now you see if you head to the Klein page at Wiki, its empty, sort of, with this one tid-bit:

Inventor Gary Klein can be considered the innovator of the oversized tube aluminum bicycle, which is now a feature of the cycling market. He first developed the concept in 1973 as part of the Independent Activities Period aluminum bicycle project at MIT, where he was an engineering student and bicycle racer, then took the concept commercial after graduation.

Developed the concept in 1973. Two years after Cannondale started making trailers and bags. And a full 10 years before they came out with their first Touring model.

10 years... who's on first? No doubt.

Popping over to the Klein Bikes web site History, it is a timeline.

Now here's the details. Klein's concept was flushed out in 1975 with some prototypes. 1976 batch sizes grew and partners bought out...
By 1980 custom frames were being built.

Mt bikes rolled out in '83

My QPro's roots were here:

1994

* Quantum Pro Criterium introduced, with Gradient 9320 frame tubing, Aeros composite fork. Weighing in at 3.9 pounds.
* Klein also introduced Micro dropouts, Mission Control 2 bar/stem combo, upgraded fork (no longer fitted to frame), and gradient chain stays.

So hows it all shake down?

Well design and construction. Stack the two up (c-dale and klein, based on the catagories listed in the Klein construction page)

Then ride them... stick with road bikes for the moment, cause Mt bikes, once you add suspension and big fat tires the geometry and build is less of an issue, less noticable.

I've ridden both... maybe not the best of C-dales, but at the time i rode the top frames back to back. And wow. talk about a freaking amazingly HUGE difference.

That New C-Dale fork? COME ON... that's MC2. MC2 was 12 years ago. Before MC2, there was Mission Control, with the same funamentals.

Am i a bit too passionate about it all? maybe. do i have a favorite? Absolutely.

But its based on experience.

Is Klein now a division of Trek? Yeah, that big 'evil' monster from Wisconsin bought up the company. And that maybe wasn't the worst thing for the brand. The bikes changed a little. But some of the changes were for the better.

Word on the street was that the Gerolsteiner boys didn't want to give up the Kleins because they bikes rode so much better than anything they had been on. The mechanics bitched up a storm for a few months while trying to figure out the micro-dropouts. But I'm sure Trek decided that its not financially smart to sponsor two road teams with bikes. Which is too bad.

Diggin through the Cyclingnews archives you see this: "world's best" Of course that was in 2002, but things haven't changed that much.

Cannondale certainly had much success with sponsoring a rather charismatic Italian Pro's Team, but the bikes never have had the same ride feel, or sophistication that Klein's stuff has.

Heck back in the CAAD3 days, my 1986 SL/SP paramount was one hell of a lot stiffer sprinting and riding than the C-dale. And yeah no fair. Comparing the Caad3 to a Klein... well, ya gotta have some basis, and unless they start throwing me frames to ride and test as a comparison (they being cannondale) i'm not likely to start changing my tune. So if anyone wants to pettition C-Dale to send me a Cross frame and a Six13 with 61 cm top tubes I would be more than happy to test out and compare head to head (with same parts back to back) and publish it as a freelance bit in one of the mags or just here online....

Klein is better than Cannondale... no question -at least in my opinion, and with my basis for evaluation.

Branden came down with a bit of something from gathering bits out of emails, Dave seemed to recently get nailed... and then there was my daughter running a fever and stuff for a few days. Maybe i just was worn down too much to keep fighting it off.

nothing like a mid summer bug to set ya back...

its a busy morning, and i'm not feeling like saying much... more than this...

maybe later when i'm not sweating like a pig and falling asleep and stressing about the training session... scratch that - my throat is feeling like crap, no sense stressin it. might as well get some work done up here let my voice rest. Oh and i forgot - the mad frenchman was on the ride on saturday, just having barely recovered from laryngitis... a whole host of folks going under... I shouldn't dwell on this stuff.

I should mention how much anquish my departure with an empty trailer this morning caused the youngest. She wanted ME to take her to daycare in the trailer. Since the oldest has started camp our whole routine has been thrown off and changed. Totally messed up. Nothing's as it was and i'm reasonably habitual, so maybe this whole change is causing some added stress. Ain't it all just a freaking tone of fun?

Here's some positive BioDiesel news: Seattle's Imperium Renewables plans to rule biodiesel

looking over at kerry's new 'venture' i gotta say 'not another forum' there's DC, Bike Mag, TDIclub, echofans, insight, TSP, and on and on and on and on and on and on and on... although i will say... Forums are damn fine stuff. But they are only as strong or verbose as the member list. TDI club with stats like this:

Threads: 141,601, Posts: 1,356,697, Members: 46,060, Active Members: 13,750

stack those numbers up and they are pretty respectable for a brand specific diesel vehicle discussion forum...

good luck, oh and the Eurohalter and the stretch mini probably aren't exactly my style...

crusin through the reading - Gary Fisher's a strange dude, and i'm not wild about any of his bikes, ever - they were always half assed and build by someone else... take that Bottom bracket of his... Sort of Klein style but totally fucked up in execution. (if you don't know what bottom bracket i'm talking about you are probably under 30-35 or not a techy Mt biker/mechanic or both)

fishing - mmm fishing sounds good right now... the fresh air's gotta be better than the construction odors drifting in...

And damn i'm not a clydesdale anymore - how freaking depressing... i worked like a dog in michigan to get to the magic 200 pound number when i was racing mt bikes... standing at the start line with guys as tall and as heavy(usually heavier) as you is much different than standing with a bunch of 5'8" 130 pound sticks in sport class...

Damn again, SB's got two new posts today... (and not that there is a link by my guts aren't feeling really settled right now... ) And freaking double damn... with me feeling like this even riding out to the course would knock me flat... not to mention the UmassD tech center is like freaking only 15 miuntes away... Clarification - Tiverton is way the fuck away from Riverside - at least as the Rhode Islander's view things.

And the gauntlet has been thrown down on the bikes... i could give it a run -seein as i cancelled my morning session cause i ain't go no voice/energy... Its like there's some big freaking cosmic wise guy saying 'You THOUGHT you were going to ride that Rohoboth TT -- BWAHAHAHAH yeah right.' So far its either been a meeting, weather or damn what was the other excuse... sick this week... maybe next week (not holding my breath at all). I will be at the Cox setting up and marshalling... so look for some tall skinny freak with loads of blonde hair and a red goatee...

will have to think about the bikes - the first one was a Yellow Columbia, Coast to Coast hardware i believe was the source. 20" w/ bananna seat.

the whole Fraz strip this week raggin on riding mowers! Freaking priceless.

Well one of these days sometime in the fall i'm wagering the new crib will be open for party biznez... me hosting big throwdown around Cross Nats... And its alittle less than 10 miles to the race site, 1/2 of which is bike path... that and with two showers and three toilets we should be set for multiple guests eh? not that the hot water would last but hey cold and clean is better than cold and dirty eh?

Damn Feltslave's got some damn freakin stories to tell eh? On one side the dude offed 43 of 44 drug lords... and well that's about the end of the good stuff eh? not that the 43 who were offed won't be replaced... ah well... gimme more expensive Cali berries - MTC

okay - i'm fried/cooked/fading. Gonna try and get back to being productive... but i may just go home and sleep...

peace out

first day of summer and my guts ain't plumbed right... feeling a bit hazy/fuzzy... downing water like its going out of style...

maybe it was Tito's on monday night, i'm wagering its gastrointestinal infection based on some rather obvious data. not to mention the totally clear airways...

but the lingering sore throat could be from the influx of concrete dust yesterday morning... who knows, but i'm bitching about it cause i GD feel like it...

that and there was nuttin anywhere to photo, no gwadz type photo montage

man this post sucks... and my brain is hurting from talking to loan officers and friends about this whole thing...

totally freaking blows man... anyone have a crystal ball to tell me what interest rates will be in 7 or 8 years?

Oh and i signed up to help set up the COX course and marshall i the afternoon. No racing for me... but feel free to come hang out at my corner in the afternoon...

And i'm starting to think like Kerry. Too much damn global warming. WTF is up with the heat? at least it cooled down last night.

2) Your road bike is equipped with an 11-21 cassette and 42t/55t chainrings (this rule does not apply if your last name is McCormack)

is a 12-25 any different? or is it a 12-23 i never remember...

but lately i've actually felt i needed one there in the middle of the top in the back... prolly means i have a 12-25 and i wanna be in a 55-18 instead of a 55-17 or 19. Which makes sense as the 55-17 is 87.4" and the 55-19 is 78.2" that's a big jump... i suppose i could always get the 13-23 cassette. i dunna need the 11 or 12... i just have to spin faster in the 13 ;-)

I'm feeling the dreaded summer scourge creaping on... glands a bit swollen, tired... although the tiredness could just be the lack of coffee. Running out of coffee at home isn't such a bad thing eh? Can't make/get any till i get to the office and fire up the pot, cruise through the troubleshooting panic help me emails... prep for the transition to the other facility and... what i'm not looking forward to, talkin about the rates and options with the loan agent... just freaking insane... discount points, ARM, 80/20... one thing it re-inforces, we don't have much cash on hand. And looking back at the returns from the last few years... no wonder. They paid me peanuts not to mention is was driving 40,000 miles a year on my own coin. Sure it was me doing the work, and getting 48-50 mpg, but still that's a huge freaking chunck of coin ontop of a house that sucked ever last ounce of equity plus and extra 10-15 grand or so...

sorry - don't mean to get all into that, but i'm wagering part of this crud that is getting hold is from a weakened immue system... stress is a fucking nightmare... turns out i would deal with it as a kid by puking. Anytime i would get super nervous or anxious i'd puke... fun stuff eh? Just found that out from my mother.

well - i hope i can kick this bit and be able to show at the TT on thursday, but something lately has managed to find its way to keep me off that course. First the weather. Then, i forgot what it was last week and then they are also calling for a team meeting on Thursday night.

gonna grab some more coffee - yall be chillin - and oh, Saloirboy's birthday dinner sounds freaking kickass... i wonder if he used a feltslave product or my current favorite. Which i had with some bananas, rasins and grapennuts... on top of a nice big bowl of whole milk Hawthorne Valley Yogurt...

That and reading another yogurt container (it was on sale at the store and flavored so we got some) i noticed there is one heck of a lot of potasium in there.

That's a damn good thing. Yogurt kicks ass. Esp Organic whole mile stuff. I still like the taste and flavor of the Hawthorne Valley stuff, and its a step beyond organic. Its BioDynamic. Give that page a look over.

Yeah yeah cosmic forces. Think about one cosmic force that is visible. Tides. Yeah that's a freakign cosmic force. It ain't all voodoo crap, much of it can't be explained, yet. But results, emperical data is pretty impressive.

Okay - (feltslave has worn off a bit - remind me not to read more than three or four entries from someone's blog in the future) - Organic is great, but Biodynamic is better. The next level.

Oh and now that the impending departure from our building/apartment/3 unit house, is tangible, the folks above and below are getting annoying... how nice will it be to be on the second floor with no one but the stars above, nothing below moving around... the luxury of privacy, and owning your own shit...

practice Peace - but not at the expense of humor :p

Not really - what able bodied male won't want to talk about sex at great lenght? Ya don't even have to be straight.

So after a constant barage of Feltslave this, Feltslave that... i clicked over, read some stuff and well damn i've got one more addition to the open tabs... may have to dump a few inactive blogs off the list... but this feltslave dude is readable...

although i prefer the HVF yogurt by a rather insanely large margin the 'big boy' yogurt stuff ain't so bad....

so - add one more - and no - i ain't linkin shit in this post... if ya wanna click over there for now go to sb's page and then to fs's stuff...

peace out

-i'm gonna ride over and get my daughter now... yes - another tick in the 'ride the bike' column of the sex vs riding

I read this earlier but the significance didn't sink in till i was closing down the open tabs browser (FireFox Rox btw).... and well... for absolute plagiarism i have to quote (but it isn't as i'm linking/citing source and saying i didn't write it)... anyway:

Have you had sex as many times as you've ridden your bike?

This is an important question for cyclists to ponder. I'm unsure where the value judgment lies. Wouldn't it be better to have had more sex than bike rides? Or is it the other way round? Either way, I think that no one will like the numbers.

Fuzuck... Esp not lately. Hell i'm riding the bike 2-4 times a day... almost everyday... even with the multiple years off the bike more or less can't make up the numbers...

Thanks Francine.... but then, porn stars do generally have the ugliest, knarliest(sic) looking flabby legs (men and woman collectively)... gimme a relatively low sexed cyclist over an over sexed two wheel noobie... while ya do feel rather pooped after a 3 hour sex fest, a 3 hour bike ride is defiantly more common... even dropping the event to an hour...

m u s t s t o p w i t h c y c l i n g a n d s e x r e l a t e d n e s s

and here i am, listening to meg's podcast intro... i will refrain from my tradditional critique role that i fall more naturally into...

and lemme tell ya - i just about pooped my pants when i realized i had made it till after lunch before posting anything... and by about pooped my pants it was literally - in that i needed to get out of the office for a minute. And while i may work in some ivory towered institution, i do not get lunch servered to me on silver service, and i do not have a private bath in my office.

so many chords to strike, that one sort of leads to KL's comments about the institution. Dare i go into my perspective? I've been fortunate to have direct involvement in four rather (understatement) different Institutions of Higher Learning. Starting with my stint at Conn College (not U Conn), a small 1600 student liberal Arts school with very strong sciences and art (all i cared about). It was selective, and the students were a rather strange mix of Ivy league rejects and those who really wanted that setting (the 600 acre Arbo really sold me). Most all were pretty intelligent and motivation was over the map... no football team, and little focus on major sports. In direct contrast to the next place. Michigan State University. Man what a difference. Going from a tiny school to one of the largest in the country with over 45,000 students enrolled. Small NE to Big 10. Sports ruled. The Faculty were much more interested in publishing and churning out grants and getting more money than teaching. Sure most faculty are always working on grants and funding but there, for the most part with notable exceptions of course, the instructional side of things was massively lacking. I got lucky in my involvement in a few of the good teaching faculty as mentors. From there up to Central. I shouldn't say anything mean about it but the average students were not the brightest in the bunch. It was mid size 24,000 or so enrolled. As i liked to say CMU is where the girls are hot and the guys are stupid, with the quiet aside being (the girls are stupid too but because they are hot we overlook that). Although, i have never been ever able to ever get over not so brightness. wrap up the best looking most physically attractive package, if that brain ain't working - forget it. That or if the brain ain't clicking with me - no matter. One former GF was smokin, by everyone's standards, great in most aspects, but... but i tell ya she drove me bonkers... having high and unobtainable standards is a great way to ensure fidelity... couple that with a shy anti-social persona and well hard core lock down.... Too personal? maybe - but hey - no one reads it anyway right? So where was i? Oh... finally here. at this ancient university (Brown) with Ivy walls. Is it different than MSU? CMU? Conn? Damn straight. Will you get a better education here? Its harder not to, but on the other hand college is what you make it. Like grad school, its about the connection you make with the faculty, and your self motivation. You can sail through anywhere, and like at CMU, there are bright stars and even the dimmer ones can work hard enough to really get something positive out of it. Now, if you want to talk about Collegiate Cycling teams. Hook up with the Ivy. Sunsobitches seem to be doing better than most, with large riderships. Conn in my days was Geo, and a few handful of others. MSU didn't have anything and i helped get the team off on their feet, but Midwest travel on the collegiate circuit makes the ECCC look super tiny. CMU? nuttin. Although GVSU had a great team and it was on par with the CMU level. All about the experience and the students there driving the stuff.

a couple scribble items... inflation linked. I may have covered it but a recent prompt from someone looking for a $100 commuter bike had me thinking - damn $100 won't get ya far in gas money now days... why not step up to the plate and figure how much gas you'd save by riding a few months instead of driving and step to the plate for a decent bike. On the other hand $100 is still $100... Although from my FIL's POV, a $25 steak is only 1/3 of a tank, and a bottle of some fancy scotch is one tank... And someone was suggesting that inflation isn't linked to the price of gasoline...

I keep forgetting to mention the yamika wearing dude. So its hot out, this guy wearing skimpy running trunks, a full coat of fur (he was a bit hairy) and running shoes, and a yamika. The whole no shirt thing had me thinking, what the hell's the point of covering 3-4" diameter of the back of your scalp if you are going to uncover the rest of what he gave ya. Hell all the thoughts are in the front part and the fabric covers the back part. No, i am not jewish, but i'm puzzled baffled at the juxtopisition(sic) of the nearly nekkid dude with a yamika on. That's freaking insane.

not to mention its gonna be fun working out the logistics now to get both girls into to where they need to go and to keep me still on the bike... once/if the move happens.

Oh and can't let the pick of the IF "hot ass" (meg's words not mine) sitting on the Klein go un commented... mmmm Klein goodness....

Gonna see about tryin to make the TT tonight, and maybe if SB heads down, i'll try and hit the Bikeworks TT as well on thursday. Although, here's the wrinkle... my wife hasn't had a chance to get out running in a couple weeks... she's a bit understanding of my bike time, and as if anyone's keeping score, i ain't exactly lighting up the mileage numbers, but it may be a tough juggle to get out for thurs... so... i may toss in the towel on tonights TT and shoot for Thursday. There'll probably be a hoard riding out from Downtown Providence around 5pm or so... like they did last week... its a decent warm up riding out... but i should know by tomorrow.

I've been trying to read the PEZ hydration article today. But it ain't working. Too many distractions (work). Last week i felt like an extra water bottle would have been very helpful... we'll see if i can get it all put together today - or thursday, what ever day i actually make it out.

so congrats on getting this far... and to those inspirational folks out there... thanks...

(BTW - after publishing i finally read the PEZ article - damn boring stuff... that and i realized i didn't link it above... there ya go... so it says to hydrate... um... yeah *thumbs up* got it drink fluid)

WTF? Is this just not 100% Klein Mission Control? Where does the copy-catting stop?

aH WELL - Klein's been doing that for what... 25 years?

Cannondale’s fork tapers from 1.5 inches to 1.125 inches. Cannondale has done it’s design homework to seamlessly integrate the system’s fork, stem and headset.

Saturday's ride in the heat had me thinking... mostly cause i went to the front and just rode... rode a bit too fast for the ride 'leader' but on the other hand it was techically the BTH ride and by definition ya go as hard as ya want... cept we deviated through dighton and taunton... That Tremont road TT is wicked fast, and much flatter than the P Velo TT, at least based on the terrain.

But this thinking thing - and the power thing... i'm grasping again, but i'm still fuddling around with bigger gears (mentally) and specifically more teeth front and back... in that sure the force applied at the pedal is going to translate to the wheel and that's pretty much a straight force with the gearing and speed determining the duration of the force. But. When you increase the number of teeth you increase the surface contact with the chain, which should decrease the acting forces at each tooth, and while without question reducing wear (less force = less metal disturbed) the benefits i would think should some how tangible transfer to more efficiency and more of the power headed to the wheel.

Gotta be something to it... that and i do recall coming across certain discussions about it in the past, but my engineering/math sucks too much to try and put values to paper/bits...

Oh and that prompted this recall: ProLink. I gotta try it. Why? Well cause Mr Zinn swears by it. And the method/application is very consistent with my tune... velonews.com/tech pop over to the entry there - worth reading i think...

Biggest problem with people's bikes i notice is lack of chain lube. I'll say it again, and again. If you can hear it... that's bad. Or more importantly if someone riding next to you who is listening for it can hear it... in almost all cases those loud noisy chains look dry. They may look clean, but they are dry and that's baaaaaad... esp bad if ya using compact gearing... but that's me, the mechanic thinkin...

tryin to wrap my head around the financing options is tough... man they don't make it terribly simple do they... i guess its not much of a debate - but switching from one lender who i've been working with to another that i just started talkin to is a bit weird for me... although, $$ wise the new one kicks ass over the other one, which really wasn't that bad... oh and ya know... gettin the house means interent at home... i think i'm almost as excited about that as i am about having all the bikes under one roof!! not to mention the spare parts, workstand and the tool box (for the bikes)...

No Shit? For REAL? Monday?

Hey how is this for a father's day present:
"lets spend a quarter of a million dollars"

DOH!

Well. It looks as if my commuting miles will be bolstered a bit. no more two mile silly crap that i have been making into 4 miles or so... we might be moving on in a block or two away from the East Bay Bike path, with central air (yeah i'm a wuss). Not that the air was the selling point, but the location is key, the house is absolutely livable (in contrast to the rest of the houses in the areas we've been looking at in the same range). So, well... time to sign away my future... time to give up the cross bike cash for the fall... time to start working on making extra coin so i can afford this cycling thing cause it looks like all my pennies will be going towards a house.

It was great reading SB's brief race reports. Cox is coming up and i've got this sneaking suspicion that over the next month i'm gonna be rather, um, busy. Esp since i think 30 days to close starts today... I hate moving, i hate packing... I hate unpacking... BUT... its finally a chance to get all the bikes out, and to put the GeWilli bike shop in order. I think the TDI mechanic shop will stay in the barn (no space to work on the cars, but that's okay - gives me an excuse to head over to the farm (where there seems to always be an extra vehicle to borrow if something goes wrong).

Oh and for the record... i got hammered yesterday... not sure what drove me to it, but i'm pretty sure i did a number on my liver... and it was freaking hot in the apartment. no breeze and man it sucked... that central air thing is sounding awefully freaking awesome. not to mention 2.5 baths... yeah baby yeah, no more one hole houses... and no more walking through bedrooms to get to the shitter in the middle of the night for guests.

That wraps up my 10 minutes of fame for the morning. peace out and ciao!
G

So, curiosity has me wondering what’s going on out in weirdo land (internet)…
Thursday night i got out for a nice 30 minutes with my oldest on her bike… I just sort of putzed around and she got some seat time. Still with training wheels, but I don’t wanna push it, when she’s ready she’ll let me know. It was fun though. Funny too, we say probably 20 different passats. Very few other cars were on the roads around the neighbor hood. From old ladies driving blind to post college guys piling out to hang with friends.

The drive up with my sister was mellow, cars were freaking slow… I kept blowing past WRX scoobies…. Man are they doggy up hills… maybe I should expect every car to blast up the hills accelerating to 90 without thinking from 70 in the space of a blink…

Torque kicks ass, and having torque on demand, not relying on a charge or what not is nice… Filled up with B20 on the way out. 3.079, and the gal that runs the show asked if we lived in the Providence/Cranston area, yup I said, well turns out they are starting to distribute 5% biofuel in the fuel oil. Ain’t that sweet. I asked about higher % and also asked if they make it to the east bay side… she said not yet… not yet.

Still pretty cool. Turns out my little sis’s Taurus that got creamed by some cell phone talking Suburban driving distracted wife of the chair of the republican party in Durango CO, was a FFV car. Coool. ‘Cept she looked and well the only E85 pump when she had the car was down in San Diego. How retarded is that? Clean air morons. Hopefully they have more pumps out there now. Dunno…. Driving back was more mellow. Rather than push the limit of speed, I settled in and stuck with the cruise control as much as possible, managing a mellow 70 or so for most of the haul back to 146…. Definitely was more relaxed. We listened to the Seal Maiden story on CD for the billionth time, followed by Peter and the Wolf. Both great stories, but like the nutcracker when my sister was this age, they are wearing thin… I still have a hard time sitting through the nutcracker. She (my sister) danced to it daily for about 2.5 years. And I’m not stretching it in the least, maybe it was even like 3 years.

Gonna see about maybe taking a wild leap and assume the 9am ride is headed out tomorrow. ‘Course this prolly won’t get posted till Monday it looks like, unless I just manage to swing through somewhere with connection and get it up.

Pretty funny how as soon as I got the P velo Blog up, the mad Frenchman gets the Brown one up and running…. Still crackin me up.

I might not have the speed, or the hard ass drive, but I don’t have the time or the freedom that being single affords. It’s a trade off. My life is still not settled from the move out east. The second phase of settling down is beginning and that’s a bit stressful. My wife is great but seen as we share stuff around here one of us being gone throws it all out of balance, so working in solid training, not to mention races is tough. And not that I expect unmarried types to get it, or married but sans-children (dogs cats and pets don’t count)… but I’m saving up for cross season… there’s only so many passes I can get, don’t wanna waste em on some thing other than cross unless it works out well. But then I’m sure ol SB’ll read that as an excuse….
I’m less bothered by the comments today but only by a little… again not sure why. That and its hotter than hell inside here – and outside. Damn I’d be nice to have either a basement or central Air….or even a window box… or a place that doesn’t get so GD hot.

See there I go again… bitching up a storm.

I have an update that was written yesterday, but its not here. It'll be up maybe tomorrow or Monday.

Oh did i mention its hot?

I'm taking my second indulgence today. Sitting here printing out some lender correspondance, in the air conditioned office. Second indulgence in that the first was a nice 58 or so mile ride. Rode with the brown gang, and no they didn't leave at 9, they wanted to sleep in till10.... so i punched out just after the girls went to get the paper and go for a walk, grabbed a small iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, sucked that down and went out... unfortunatly it was supposed to be a mellow 16-18. Which suited me fine, except i seemed to have a mental break down as to the locations of the Town Lines and wound up having pulled most of the mile leading up and then well... no excuses right? I didn't win a town line. I won the one KOM sprint... I felt very good and wound up leading most of the time (came back to haunt me though at the end). It was hot. And i even put sunscreen on. Topped off the bottles at the bikeworks shop and well... decided to head out for the longer ride... rather than make it an easy 40 i thought hey whats an extra few... Total time on the bike computer was 3:15 or so... at 1pm Radu and i left everyone and put the head down and motored... until i blew... Hint from gewilli - it IS possible to put too much gatorade mix in the bottle... i was getting cooked from the heat, and i don't like how sunscreen blocks up the pores... Anyway.... we made it back. And my legs are sore, no way in hell i'd have been able to survive two hoos laps... although, i spent probably 80% of the day in the front towing everyone alone, then slowing down and waiting for the stragglers, then towing along... then waiting... so the average speed wasn't terribly indicative of the effort.

At anyrate, things are good, on the bike front. I'm chuggin some sugars to push the glycogen, although the high fructose corn syrup in Coke aint' ideal... i did suck down a large bowl of pasta with some sausage in it a bit ago.

I ain't going into much more than a ride report.... its 83 degrees and feels more like 90, and we had a head wind all the way back in from Dighton MA.... how fun was that... and not much shade on the road...

Big thanks to Radu - he was key to gettin me back, he endured my good natured ribbing and my suggestion that the pink C-dale at the shop would go well with his girly sleeveless jersey.

Pop's day tomorrow- to all my mid thirty's friends with Kids - Happy Pop's day! Suds, SailorBoy, Joeseppi (i don't think he reads it), two of my bro's and to my dad's, and my wife's dad... i have two dads cause of divorce, not because i came from a progressive trendsetting family, if ya know what i mean.

Peace out, good luck in the Hoooose to all those riding it!
G

I did have a few minutes after lunch, the wonders of a kid's need to go to the bathroom to speed things up.

not to mention, why is it they seemingly can be as slow as possible in the face of needing to be fast (like when late tryin to get to the bus) but other times, like at lunch, when they "HAVE TO GO" things move in quick time....

So if ya check my profile ya'll find a link to a basic Providence Velo web log hosted like this at Blogger... and by some strange coincidence the mad frenchman must have had the same idea cause within seconds of sending out some invites out came an email with the Brown Team's blog.

Anyway...

i'm gonna "Take the Long Way Home" (supertramp - i think they sang the song that's bouncing in my head)....

not to mention getting put in my place to hear that Adam (helment-less Caster's kid) put in a 14:34... brendan put in a 16:38... Adam was on TT bike with all but his aero helment... brendan did it cannibal. For the record and for SB's peace of mind... i'm a fat slow dude suffering from a bad case of pleonasm...

Maybe its the whole house hunting crap that's bugging me...

oh and while my 339 might be some dead guy's number - its still the only one i've had...

I'm an excuse laden whiney sack of shit working in an ivory tower that affords me brief seconds of 'down time' that are sometimes filled by writing a sentence or a paragraph...

I ponder possibilities too often... and it can be sometimes taken as not following through...

I don't expect anyone to care... and i don't expect anyone to read this crap...

And i find myself searching for a reason i'm so testy and grumpy lately... still looking.

One thing for sure: I'm slow. I'm not likely to do many races this summer. I'd send out an Invite to those headed to the Hoose to get a decent Diamond Hill area ride in on Saturday, but seein as i'm so full of excuses and completely offline until maybe Monday it probably won't happen. if it might work out try me on a telephone number that resembles this: four zero one six three three five four six eight...

Heck - i was actually gonna spring board off on a few ideas about leg speed work andwhat not... specifically raising doubt about the time it takes to get it back (less time in my opinion than more time)...

Wouldn't It Be Loverly? From My Fair Lady... yeah some musical's song was what i was riding with this morning. Seriously... musta been my cadence and something else... But "All I want, is a room some where" and on and on was heading through my brain.

The power/cadence is a bit different with the big kid in the trailer, that and i wanted to take the less busy streets and so i popped down the BLVD like i do when dropping off the youngest at daycare. The Hill up Lloyd was a bit of fun, adding 45 pounds to the trailer with about 10 psi in those tires on it certainly made for an extra power requirement...

I checked with Chris about the distance of the TT course. His mapping software has it at 6.61 miles, but it measures out usually to 6.8. a wopping 23 mph average... that seems so damn slow though. According to the map screen shot it has 3.22 miles of climbing... so definately not flat... And after reading kerry's diary for the day starting with a hill to open a TT sort of isn't exactly ideal... at least for me the second go around i went harder, and a bit too hard to start off the effort... although, its the up hill part... and the incline is supposed to be where ya can gain time... that wind resistance down hill is intense at 38 mph... hell poppin in and out of the Spinachi bars at 35 mph is a bit sketchy...

Got help here today, (duh idiot ya alluded to that already with the extra load in the Trailer). Okay so i started and finished reading the rest of the stuff. My daughter is playing a music 'mix tape' kinda game. over at PBSkidsgo.com in the Arthur games section called crank it up.

rather a bit insane...

but at least its creative and there's some feed back and active participation.

Shoot it wasn't obvious? SB's excuses for being slow at the Tuc wasn't appearant? Maybe my veiled ribbing was a bit to much ribbing and not enough spelling it out so he can understand...

HOLY CRAP... are those license numbers for real? My three little digits on card sure look strange... lined up to the 6 digit cards... insane man... insane

Oh and shoot - i was gonna get a web log set up for the P-velo guys... well add that to the insurmountable list today... maybe we'll have a brief lunch and there'll be some time somewhere to get it started.

Alright - And yeah... i wound up getting roses... and here's how coincidental i got...

My daughter wanted to pick the flowers, and she picked a dozen rainbow roses (12 different colors). Okay cool. She was pretty adamant about those. None of the other flower arrangements were gonna get past her. Well what she didn't realize was that yeah, its been 12 years (one rose per year)... each one different... anyway... i think it was nice. That and we wound up meeting my bro, his wife and their two kids 2.5 and 5 months old, my sister (staying with them now) my family over at Chili's for a freaking insane dinner. my youngest was having NONE of the sitting at a table, and got into a good game of rubber baby... try hanging on to 25 pounds of squirming jello...

And lastly... the hockey game. I desperately wanted the Oilers to win, but i feel alseep twice in the first period... and by the first intermission i was out like a light. Woke up to find it went to OT and that i can watch at least part of one more game. So maybe with luck the Oilers can ride the wave and down grade the Hurricanes for the summer. Winning the next two games in a row will be tough but if they can play like they did in the 1st period for the next six periods (assuming no overtime periods) they should have the cup. I've got respect for ol' brindamore but don't like him dat much... That and it'd be great to have the Cup hang out away from Hurricane Alley for the summer.

and with that... i'm gonna get take a nap (i wish)