racin with the fam...

it as a BBBBBBeautiful day for a bike race.
Its hard to resist a race thats 15 minutes from home
Sarah was oncall, but the course was like 5 min from the hospital, so we figured we had a green light on that one. The Lombard Crit for the fall fling is essentially an oval in an industrial park. It was windy, so i used my best common sense and stayed the hell out of the wind! Needless to say i was doing a lot of inside to outside, back to inside moves, all on the up and up. It was a 1/2/3 field, with some decent horsepower, but i would have to say, for a 1/2/3 race with NO turns, it was sketchy at times. I hung out, a few times gritted my teeth for dear life, but survived and was especially happy to see the break finally get clear. Took the bell and decided that was as good as a finish, with 4 guys up the road and 4 between the field, there was no reason to ride the sprint ( especially because i was gassed!) so i swung off on the backside and rolled in to hear Carter cheer for daddy. It was a sunny day with temps in the low 80's, not too shabby for the day before October!

Chimmie Changa

It was a few weeks back, but i wanted to do a quick write up about Chequamegon Fat Tire festival this year, over the weekend of September 14, 15, and 16. Its an end of the year favorite, and definitely one that Lenny was always up for. I certainly missed him on the golf course friday afternoon and on the trail saturday. That being said the 1st annual Lenny Parisi Northwoods Open was held with a small turnout of 4 in 40 degre temps. It even sleeted on us for a while, thanx Leonard! The ride was much less stressful for me, i started dead last and rode my own pace to a casual 3:44 and change for the 40miles of off road fun. Thanx to Ron Ritzler and the SRAM crew for getting me in literally 3 minutes before the number pickup cutoff at 10pm. Thanx to Gatto for providing the presidential travel vehicle - the plush suburban. Seeing that i am less than graceful on an of road machine, i was very pleased to have the use of the Haro full suspension rig. For me its about not going too hard too soon, an pacing myself until about the halfway mark, and then ya gotta make it at least 5 more miles before you can start making deals with yourself. Fortunately i had Lenny's spirit with me and i made it through it all, and even had enough energy to stand up in the shower this year!

here are a few pics from the event - Brendan George of Alberto's and of course the Chaba was there too. the website hasn't posted any pictures of me, i was probably too far behind!

Sweeeeeeeet!

so this post has nothing to do with cycling, but everything to do with speed.
Sarah and i went out to see Wicked over the weekend ( i highly recommend it if its playing near you) for our 5 year anniversary. I must have picked the right parking garage, because after the show.. just on the other side from where we were parked were these beauties. There was a bently, rolls, lambo, and ferrari. not a bad selection for the valets in the area.
Just thought i would share it with you all. And yes, i was thinking Gone in 60 seconds style, wondering if i could pull a ferris bueller and joyride the ferrari around chi town.

rage and serenity

B-Rad would be proud of me. friday night rolling home from work i had a discussion with a driver on the road. i say discussion not argument because we had the same point, and i had not grabbed for my beat stick in the backpack. this douchebag (my new alternative to the F bomb) blows past me in the access lane on ogden doing at least 60. i know this as i had a nice tailwind and was doing in the neighborhood of 50kph when this guy inches away blows past me faster than Michael Vick's hommies rolled over on him to cop a plea. for those that do not know ogden - there are 3 lanes that rol on the main road, and about a lane and a half on the inside of a median for whatever reason. now there are separate stoplights for the main road and the access road. this douchbag blows right past me, and thru the red light. it was red for a sold 30 seconds more before i got there to have it green. he finally gets stopped at the next one because there is a green for cross traffic. I roll up to him and simply say hey, you may wanna leave more room when you are blasting past people on bikes. He says the road is for cars and not bikes. At this point i simply agree and say yes - cars should be on the road - AND obey the sped limit within reason AND not blow red lights. He claims to be going with traffic and the light was green. whatever. see - no arguement. the light dropped green and i parked myself smack in the center of the lane rolling still at appx 30mph. he finally blew past me on the mainroad flipping me something calling me something else. i could tell by the faux designer glasses and backwards hat in his late 90's 5 series german sedan that he was clearly a nut smooch, probably on his way to get a hundred dollar handjob off cicero somewhere. so i let it go. the rest of my ride home was fine, and i even saw the above pack of deer just outside the forest preserve to remind me there is a hideout from all metal morons in the world.

fat kid - OUT

chicken....

its a lousy picture, but there was a train of green king keyser jerseys. a small group rolled out and with darkness creeping in we choose an abridged route. lyle, lisa, king, tawse, and i enjoyed a good ride and post ride chatter. cheers!