Headin South!

Heading down to Nash-vegas for some good weather and great miles! I will have some reports to follow!

March 29, 2009

really?????

Angry Chicken

Today was gonna be a good day on paper. I had planned to ride in, ride out, and do the Chicken. I have been looking to get a long day in and figured this would do the trick.
Great start with a nice tailwind push heading into the city. I turned the corner onto Randolph to go up the hill and BLAM - shifter totally took a dump leaving me in the 12.
i cleaned up at the cycle center and rode my new 2 speed to work.
Put a call in to Bos and he told me to bring it in.
I scooted to HQ on lunch and the Ace Mechanic Pete was on the case.
He hooked me up with a fresh rebuild and some tweaks to keep the rig rolling.
I was unable to make the group for the ride out, so i enjoyed the trip out to the Chicken Coop in the SRAM Volvo with Pete. He had to pick me up, and the city crew needed a ride home, so Pete drove to his place and handed me the Volvo to scoot over to the Coop for the ride. Id have to say, its pretty pimp rolling the SRAM-copter. AND i did get to dodge the nasty headwind on the way out.
The ride was full of HorsePower, and we were in the big ring into a stout headwind on the way out to the theaters. I could just about hear Tawse complaining about something we were or were not doing on the way out - i hope he is enjoying Hawaii.
We flipped it around on the way back in, and the tailwind had us cooking. A small group of 3 were up the road and not looking eager on coming back to us, so the pace lifted. To over 30. MPH. I was sitting 3rd wheel of the bridging group when Ritzler swung off, and the guy behind him has about 2 good pedal strokes. Crap. I dug in and posted 500w for as long as i could look at it cross eyed, and got to about 30-40m from the back and imploded.
I rolled in with the groupetto, but it was all good as Andy was in from Germany and i had not seen him in a while.

All in all, not too shabby. I'm pretty trashed right now, it was a pretty angry ride. Definitely not all roses and chit chat. And I'm pretty sure the view was not as good as it could have been.

From the editor - i managed to reset a bunch of max's for the year last night....
5 sec - 760
10 sec - 740
30 sec - 537
1 min - 449
3 min - 347
5 min - 299

2009 Chickenride

Has officially began for me. I was unable to make last weeks edition, and it sounded like there was some out of the ordinary excitement.
It was great to see the crew again, check out new parts and pieces that everyone is sporting as well.
We had a very nice roll out, and ended up going to the theater after some debate. King took a lion share pull on the way out - like 90% of the way out. We were all ok with that considering the headwind. Once we turned back, the tailwind lent itself to some pacemaking, and it was evident that the leisure part of the ride was ending quickly. We started rotating on 91st and continued up wolf rd, although half the group quit working, me included as we approached joliet rd and the climb.
The 10+ lbs i have lost over the winter was showing thru as i was able to stay on up the hill, and even lend some gas to Bos in an effort to chase down the escape that Pete had lodged. Now mind you the only reason i was able to lend some effort is that i had sat off the last few minutes.
The group had almost caught Pete at the light at Plainfield rd, but he rolled the red and the group could not proceed with the right turn. DQ for Mr Howland. I came back on and made one last kick to line it out for the sprint with King in tow, he launched at about 250m,and i was too cross-eyed to know for sure but i think it was a Feltz V??

a good time was had by all.
Perhaps next week i will remember the camera

Omloop het Prairie Path

I set out for the prairie path knowing the rains of last weekend would have it soft in places, but i didnt expect this. This picture was on of the few that i could snap, as there was not much time to have my hands off the bars. This, as nasty as it may look was one of the better sections.

The weapons - cross rig, SKS race fenders, iPod with Hate playlist ( NIN, Nitzer Ebb, Bizkit, Ministry, etc)

Once i realized i was in for a slopfest, i relished it. I let the challenge work with me instead of against me. I knew it would be war and i welcomed it with open arms. It the kind of workout that leaves your legs feeling like you did 10,000 squats the day before. I wanted the pain, i needed it. I kept thinking about how it would be in Belgium, trying to ride that fine line on the edge of the road, part grass, part slop. Thinking about the days spent in windswept Muncie, playing Boss of the Bergs and getting it handed to me on a regular basis.

I finished spent, tired, and proud. I hosed off the rig and set it in the sun to dry.

2 hours, 51km, 1465kj.

CVV!!!!

HUGE shout out to original homeboy Christian Vande Velde.
No question he continues to prove his merit in the PRO peloton.
A true class act, i was privileged to race with and against Christian 20 years ago as juniors.
He makes it a point to come by on occasion and ride with us, and could not be a nicer guy to hang around with.