in good company

Chicagoland had mild temps and sunny skies. I have heard rumors that Chicago warms up in the spring, but i'm pretty sure i forgot about it. We had a good group roll out from WS. It was good to have a tanned and tires Tawse back in the mix. Feltz also graced us with his presence, but Ritzler and Wassman went soft on us and bailed after riding out from the city. Nothing too eventful, we did have Apache go ripping past us on the reurn trip on frontage, only to see them crawling on Cass when we turned the corner. Guess its all gas only in tailwinds for them right now. Our rotation got rolling pretty good, and i got gapped going up Joliet hill. I had to put in a big effort to get back to Tawse, who dragged me through thr right hander on Plainfield Rd for the final. I came past him and gave him a tow past the Feltz, but there was no closing on the 2 escapees up the road. Tawse took 3rd, with me trailing for 4th. Good ride, good coffee at the Bucks, and the first road ride of RED was AWESOME!!

RED

about this time last year i posted some sweet pics of FORCE. It was a Fantastic new group and over that past year has exceeded all expectation on performance and reliability. I am completely beside myself with excitement about the latest and greatest from SRAM. Not only did i upgrade to RED across the board on parts, but i also plunged into late 2004 with a new outboard BB and new SRAM SRM! With only 2 rides on the new parts so far, i can confidently say there is another change for leaps and bounds. The shifting is crisper and the trim is much appreciated.

I will follow up on the overall feel in the next week or two as i really get used to the shifting and really appreciate the change.

cluck cluck

another day of decent temps and sunshine. we had a bit bigger group than last week roll out of WS, but relaxed about 10 min out that a few held back to wait for C-Ramo.. we all got it together after a spirited chase. The roll out was good, we flipped it at lemont road, then rolled 91st up to wolf. We had a nice rotation going after shaking out the cobwebs of a rotating line (nice save Alex W) the it really got whipped up on wolf rolling in. All enjoyed a nice chat at the 'Bucks and headed home to play another day. Good to see Brian and Francine Haas back out to grace us with their presence.

chickenride!

A great time was had by all on the Chickenride.
Great to be back on the bike after a long lousy winter in Chicagoland.
Lots of old country roads, but lots of great conversation, which is a lot more than I'm used to riding alone all winter
See more snaps of the ride at: http://chickenride.blogspot.com/

a boys dream..

being able to play with big jugs! I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post that one.

chicken recon / secret training

so it was my day off, it was sunny and above freezing. Not nearly as nice as sunday, but being able to get outside 2x in a week with the weather we have had is priceless. Not only that, but it allows me to have 2 posts in the same day.... yeah buddy, livin the dream. Could it be secret training? nah.. i wouldn't exactly say i had a banner winter. Most winters the crew expects me to log the hours indoors and do what it takes. Lets just say that this winter i fell way short of my own expectations.
I wandered out the chicken route to see the damage winter took out on the roads. The neighborhoods have a stark resemblance to Old Country / Muncie training roads. The new pavement on the frontage road is in good shape, but they must have a pretty rough drainage issue, as there is a huge glacier of ice in one section. The wind was from the west, so it was very enjoyable to tag up at the theatre and start heading back east.
An enjoyable ride, seeing that i was on the bike and not at work.
check back soon, the fat kid needs to start riding more if I'm gonna survive fat kids bike camp.

Rumors.....

There is a rumor circulating that the Enmark is back on the bike.
no new updates on the blog yet, but perhaps we will see the man re-emerge just like his hero Mario C. If i were a betting man, if the Enmark does re-appear, look for him to be dusting field sprints again by late summer.

pot holes and road spray

It was too good to pass up here today. 37 degrees at 7:30 am, almost 40 by ride time. we rolled out of WS starbucks and headed west. It was beautiful. All except for the fact that work has some computer upgrade over the weekend, and we had TO GO IN today for a few hours to make sure they didn't start speaking Taiwanese or something. Seriously? Sunday? and 11 am at that?? Couldn't we do 8 am or 4 pm or something besides the middle of the freaking day?
figures, the only day above freezing here in 3 months and i gotta freakin work. Someday Chase will be bought by a BIG bank and we will have an IT department to do that crap. oh well.
I did manage to get just over an hour and a half in, which was fantastic. I realize finally after 20 years + of riding a bike why spring rides are so tiring. true - it may be my lack of conditioning, but i have determined its more the fact that i lack the necessary attention span to not ride myself into one of the craters that have developed across Chicagoland over the winter. I use more energy paying attention that actually turning the pedals i think. Its my story and I'm telling it how i want to.
Hopefully we can get out once more beforre the Chickenride starts up shortly.

catching up

so i am now 12 days into quitting drinking pepsi cold turkey. i can say the headaches have been brutal, and im glad i was never addicted to meth or something crazy like that, because im ready to tear my head off; and all i quit was drinking pepsi.
it also seems i quit riding, between illnes throughout the family and crappy weather that requires me to clear snow instead of riding, its been fairly bleek for feb so far.

thats all for now, time to go drink some lemon water and not think about pepsi

later

RIP Sheldon Brown

Anyone who ever tinkered with a bicycle, made a living in the back room of a shop, or needed to find an answer to a unique question; knows the name Sheldon Brown. Master of problem solving and cycling’s' own 'google' for information; has passed away from a heart attack Feb. 3 2008. The world of bicycles has lost a guru, and I wish his family well.

better than a bike ride....

my friend Bill finally bought a house and moved in. Im really glad he is a bachelor, because Super Chexx hockey now takes over the room most people would use to eat dinner in. Bill rocks!

Livin Large

So i know Hilly Hundred is a LOOOONG way away - but i wanted to announce that THIS year - i was on the ball and hit the easy button EARLY. We will be staying at the Hampton Inn for Hilly 2008. That means breakfast at the hotel -AND - no paying $189 a night for super 8.

its about the same price for the Hampton, with better pillows for Trent to bite after the saturday outing.

STC indoor ride

Mountain Bike Matt showed up around 8 and we kited up for some indoor action. With the AM temp at -5, it was chilly just holding the door open for him.
We choose to do a spinervals workout, and it has been a while since i have done one, but it didn't take long to remember they are butt kickers.
2 separate 5min efforts and 2 separate sections of sprint efforts were enough to get the lung butter churning for sure.
In the end, we got 1:15 on the bike and about 30k
dork data includes 687kj, the 2 - 5min intervals were over 230w, and saw a nice 10 sec number of 737W

Mid month roll call

Ok - just got off the bike and downloaded the dork-data.
I'm not exactly on par to be ready for Amgen, but im ahead of last year
10 workouts
11 Hrs
265km
5474kj
190.0 lbs (down 1.0)

just gotta keep it rollin

2 am - 2pm

no - i wish that was significant of sitting on the couch, watching football - or our riding my bike on a marathon outing. but it IS 2 days of Am and PM rides.
The am rides are 45 minute efforts -with 2 x 10 min at or around 200-210W. I know i suck, wait - it gets better ( or worse)
the PM rides are 45min to an hour with 5 x 3min efforts between 280 and 290W - did i mention i suck?
well at least its a start, and the ones last night and today seem easier than the ones the day before.

Saturday at STC

I had to work today - so it was an early call to head down for the STC session today. Watched some sports center and know all the odds for todays games. I got in an even hour of riding with a few intervals thrown in to pass the time.
Geek Stats:
1 hr
2 x 10 min @ 220w
3 x 3 min @ 275W
604 kj

RDO

i was fortunate enough to get out and enjoy the warm temps on sunday. I was off work today, but the temperature was not as nice. I layered up and got out for a nice ride. A bit of a headwind heading out, but i got a nice push home. All things considered for Chicago in January, ill take it.

geek stuff:

2 hrs 15 min

61 km

189w ave

1307kj

Sloppy Sunday

We all agreed that usually there are about 3 good days in January in Chicago to get out on your bike. Today was one of them. It was 50 degree when i left the house at 8:30am. pretty wet from all the melting snow and drizzle, but pretty warm as well. We met up at the usual WS 'Bucks, and headed out southeast toward the theaters. It was a brisk wind from the south, so the roll out was tougher than the roll in. Tawse, Kind, Ritzler, Mountain bike Matt, Mike Herr, and i made an even 6. The SRAM boys had their fenders in place, King had an old Zefal fender for the rear, but we decided it was more of a water re-applicator and kept only a portion of him dry and no courtesy for the riders behind. I was fender-less, so i caught lots of crap when it was my turn at the front. Pretty good day to be out all things considered. Looking forward to another day soon to enjoy it.
I ended up with an even 3 hrs wheels turning and 70km for the day. NICE.

Holy January!

well - like the most of us, i turned the calendar to 2008 and like most of us - realized i am behind the ball; then again that's not too unusual in the Smott camp.
December numbers -
7.5 hrs - fooey
191.0lbs - im slipping the wrong way
0 outdoor rides - well ok, it was december anyway.

The Bad - im about 2 seasons short of having a good base coming into this year - hers a tip for you youngsters at home - don't take essentially 2 years off and think that a big january push will get you back to form.
The Good - i am in day 2 of the new lunch protocol partnered with a buddy at work. we are only allowed to go out on fridays now for lunch, and part of the friday outing is to go shopping for lean cuisines and lunch meat to make lunch. so far so good ( and the parts fund is now growing instead of my waistline - lol)

The Plan - looks to be a nice sunday for an outside pedal - WS bucks at 8am anyone?????

On the long side of Time..

Well, here in the frozen tundra of Chi-Town, we have made it past the winter Solstice, which occurred saturday the 22nd. The shortest day of the year means that we do have daylight from 11:27am till 1:52pm in the day time, or at least it seems that way. Just the other day i went to lunch and it was getting dark when we were walking back to the office. Hopefully the days of growing daylight will smile on us to get a few outdoor rides in, but with the temp in the teens, and windchills below zero - im staying on my cozy trainer for now.

Fat kid - out.

STC indoor Bike Practice

Sunday is calling for Warm, but rainy. If its dry i suggest an outdoor ride. If its wet, STC will be open and hosting Bike Practice at 8am.
Come one, come all.

Get moving

I needed a fresh face for Lenny at the top of the page.
Tomorrow will mark 4 months since we laid our friend to rest, and i have to admit, i think about him every day. Every day he makes me laugh about somethin. Today i missed getting the phone call about how T-Mobile is dropping sponsorship, and what trick new part just came out that we both need to get this off season.
I thought a lot of the hours we spent next to each other either on the road or on the trainer.
Its that time of year here that Chicago ends up being a pretty nasty place to ride your bike anywhere but the trainer; and its thanks to Lenny that we both suffered through countless sessions on the trainer together.
Tonight i drug the trainer out, locked down the road rig to it, and pedaled for 30 minutes.
Nothing special, just 30 minutes.
Not a singe pedal stroke went by that i wasn't missing him next to me joking and laughing, mostly because he left me his cyclops training block with the 3 different riser positions, and i figured i might as well use it.
Tomorrow i plan on getting another 45 minutes in before work. and the day after, and the day after.
It will be my own little honor to Leonard, to keep him fresh in our hearts and minds.

Happy Turkey

The usual suspects gathered in the woods for the Annual Turkey ride down at the willow springs woods. We did have some unusual suspects and a guest appearance by Christian Vandevelde.
It was fun to ride with CVV again, the guy is 1st class and funny as can be. He got style points for riding his new Felt cross rig - but threw away some of those points by riding road shoes and pedals, and then endo-ing into a mud puddle in front of me.
We got in 2 hours in the dirt. It was a little sloppy, but a blast.
The temp was pretty chilly, but the big snow flakes in the air made a pretty picture.

I'm typing this now, because i am one of the unlucky ones to have to work today. Blah. Isn't that what i went to college for?

Well this weekend does mark the opening of the 2008 season, and for all you youngsters at home - its time to break out the winter gear and start piling on the hours.

Fat Kid - OUT

LIQUIDATION SALE

Here at STC we are getting ready for the '08 campaign and that means we gotta make room!
Upper management says that this winter STC needs to be more organized and more streamlined...
Let our loss be your gain!

2005 Giant TCR Comp Carbon - Size Small– Dura Ace 10sp, except for cranks – DA 9 sp style. 172.5mm cranks – 39/53 rings. Deda Newton Bars and Stem – 12cm stem, 42cm bars c-c. 31.8 OS clamp size. Mavic Classics Elite wheels, 32sp. Its on Ebay for 1800, for friends 1600 complete.

2002 Schwinn Moab MTB – 17” size. This was the wifes MTB, never really rode it. Its got shimano 8 sp trigger shifters, and shimano components. Disc brakes F and R. Rock Shock front suspension. For friends - $100

2006 Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheels – 20sp Front – Radial, 24 sp Rear – 2 cross. Velox rim strip, used 1 year, MAYBE 2000 miles. Friend Price - $150

Cant remember the year, but it’s a 52cm Jake the Snake Cross bike. It’s a Mix of shimano parts. Ultegra Rear derr, 9 sp. Dura Ace 9 sp shifters, Tektro top mount in line cross brakes, Avid shorty Canti’s, Spinergy Spox wheels and Hutchinson cross Tires. This bike has always been too big for me. It fits like a 54 or 55cm road bike would. 53.3 cm top tube.

Friends - $500

I have pics if you need them, call me or email with questions

Rich

708-284-3262

rjsmott@gmail.com

ride in.. ride out...

So i couldn't pass up the opportunity to enjoy some 50 degree weather in mid November. I packed my gear this am and pedaled into work. I think its the first time in a month, since the entire family was sick for what seemed an eternity. It was nice, brisk in the am, but they were touting high 50's late afternoon. They were also calling for high winds. Well, the wind was delivered as promised, but the temps were barely around 50 when i left to head home. It was motivation to ride faster.
I love the nite rider lights, they are tons better than some of the older lighting systems i have seen. I enjoy nite riding, but im much more comfy when its on a path, or at least out of traffic. The new route home is better than Ogden ave, but still gotta be alert no matter how dressed up like a Christmas tree me and the bike are.

All good... perhaps this will be the start of a new streak..
its about that time to start the 2008 campaign.

Cluck Cluck

Hilly pictures are in, i need to get them loaded in and get a link up for all of you to enjoy.
We have some winners this year and the added plus of NO pics of Nate's pecker.

cheers!

Old Skooooool...

For anyone who has raced a bike, and for those that have recently picked up the sport, its worth your time to go through all these segments and go though time with Superweek.

Teams: Saturn, LA Sherrif, Coors Light, Shaklee, Turin
Names: Wasko, Matush, Gaggioli, Ventura, Carney, Colletta, Wust, Mionski

Old skool indeed.... this was the glory days of Superweek, but i will say i like it better now, because Otto pays prize money the day you win it, not 3 years later like the good ol days.
Check out the trispokes, oakley sub zeros, and some sweet foam helmet covers

Segment 4 has a display of jerseys that is a great throwback to the day that racing had 20 teams show up with 10 guys each!

Go here to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX1mJd4YGLo

Fall construction

This weekend marks the start of construction for the upcoming winter season at STC.
I have organized the fleet of cycles, and i am trying to put more storage together to keep stuff up of the floor. STC doubles as the play area for the boys 98% of the time, so its my new imposed goal to make STC functional for bikes and boys. I havent been able to persuade upper management for a full coffee bar, but things are in the works to see some good traffic this fall.
I will send out the blanket invite now: all are invited to participate. Bring a trainer and a towel and your rig. Times are to be determined, but im leaning toward 7 or 8 am on saturday and probably 8 am sundays as well.
I do need to upgrade a few pieces f stability control for my trainer, since im pimping out the new eco friendly monster bike as well.

Here at STC, we have big trucks, monster bikes, and well... small junk according to upper management.

Hilly...

Well another year of the Hilly Hundred has come and gone, and i can honestly say that this one will go in the top 10 Hilly's. Enmark and i were pretty critical early on, a few of the regulars we're not going to make it down, and i was especially bummed out making the trip down without Lenny. For years i had tried to convince him to come down, and it sounded like this year he was on board with the trip. The weather forecast improved every day we looked at it, ending up chilly saturday morning, and nice in the afternoon, with sunday starting out nice and ending BEAUTIFUL! We had a good sized crew, good laughs, good chats, good fun. Not as many hand slings this year, but Barker and Hill get the "who is slinging who" award. I handed out a few t-shirts as prizes - Garland was to receive the Cougar Hunter shirt, but his pro contract came in early and he made the trip out west. He called us to let us know he missed us, we told him to hurry up and get on a plane! T-Rent was the early saturday contender for the "your retarded" shirt, but Enmark posted up a late ride chop in a corner of the hotel parking lot on Spencer, and i awarded it to him. That was short lived - after a meal with some beers, a stogie, and additional drinks, and late night taco bell, Trent reclaimed the "your retarded" prize by not only missing sunday breakfast, but passing on the entire ride due to it coming out of both ends of him.
I honored Lenny not making the trip by busting out a can of silly string for the bean blossom descent out of morgan monroe. I was able to blast most of the crew, but especially got Spencer with some really awesome cling on silly string pieces. That was some funny stuff.
I won the " how did you stay on your bike" award after blasting a pothole i never saw, getting the front wheel up off the ground and turned 90 degrees with no hands on the bars. Somehow i miraculously got my hand on it and got it straight before disaster hit. Barker and Hill both crapped their pants, and i never knew what happened until they told me.
A good time was had by all, i gotta give Credit to the G man for making me bust open some $2 bills from the bank - they were a HIT!
Good news is i am working on getting rooms reserved for next year already, so we are not hosed with triple expensive rooms in a dumpy joint.

Missing the good stuff...

Its that time of the year in the midwest when it starts getting light later and later, and gets dark earlier and earlier. I gotta thank the guys that decided to push back the time change by a few weeks in spring and fall, so we get to hang on to the last few bits of daylight for a few extra weeks now. It seems that we lose like 5 minutes a day.
I have decided that it is time to quit commuting on the road bike, and dust off (literally) the cross hog and get her ready for the task. Its more comfy to roll on, and im not as worried about the glass and road crap on the bomber tires.
I kitted it up with the lights and have been on it twice this week now for the commute.
I gotta say it - i LOVE my cross bike, but i want my SRAM back!!!
The Pumpkin (the cross hog) sports some older 9 sp Dura Ace, and i gotta say, DA is NOT where its at, especially the 9 sp stuff. I miss my SRAM Force!!! that IS where its at!!!
Now we all know im loyal to my SRAMies, and i have nothing but GREAT things to say about the Force, but even if i didn't know those guys, i need to spread the word that after a season on Force, the old DA just feels crappy. And to think for years it was the mainstay in my race rigs. Now its a 3rd class citizen, it feels more like an old Shimano Sante group.. ya the ones with the bad two tone paint and biopace? remember that travesty??

I gotta call up the boys and put my order in for some Force or Rival to bring the Pumpkin up to par with the rest of my fleet.

Moral of the story - if your not on SRAM, your NOT where its at!

@%&#ing ?\$!< shoes

well. my alarm went off right on time, i got up, checked the weather to find that at 630am it was already 71 degrees, a perfect morning for a ride. especially considering its october i was happy, so i grabbed my helmet and shades, my road ID tag, pulled on some shorts, filled my bottles, loaded the truck and off i went.
got about 2 blocks from the WS starbucks and realized what any astute reader knows already... i forgot my shoes. Stooooooooopid. Called Tawse, he had shoes, but no extra pedals and cleats. the guys were riding with the tower dorks, so there was no tme to wait for me to make a roundtrip home and back with kicks.
my 'friends' were gracious enough to point out funny things like 'no room in that big truck for shoes??' funny guys.. no really they are. funny like the time a former teammate made fun of me for having such a big bag of gear when traveling to a race. when it started raining he asked if i had a spare rain cape. i told him i had 2 spares in my big bag, but i didnt feel like riding back to the car to get it; i was warm and dry in my rain cape.
note to self - - take your shoes with ya dummy.
i will be riding to group rides in the future and packing my gear the nite before from now on.

october chicken

could this be the first chickenride ever in october??
Fred, King and I set out for a late season edition of the Chicken.
We need to check with the worthy keeper of the annals, but we think this is the first chickenride ever held in october. We kitted up with lights and kept the route simple and ended up close to home in the neighborhoods by the time the lights were really needed. Since i'm not in the habit of carrying a high speed digital camera on my rides, the cameraphone will have to do. The pics are lousy, but you get the point.
Thanx King for a great route!
see ya next week

The countdown begins....

Its time for the T-Rent to rev up his of season game. For most, the season is over, or has been over for sometime. For a select few the end of season "didyaseeme" will occur at Hilly, but for us its a time to tell new stories, old stories, and even make up stories, and to end the year with the Official Slow Race of the Year. (Hilly Hundred) This is a time of chugging Mickeys at the start and watching our friends pack fried chicken into their jersey pockets at the rest stop. Hopefully T-Rent has not stopped the bike training, and has stepped up his game for his beer training. Time will tell, but the countdown is on... T minus 10 days!

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!

Cat 5!

I fell victim to the classic cat 5 marks...

Clearly it has been many days since i last was able to commute into work. Riding home last night i fell over at a stop light, hurt the pride, and got a sweet tattoo from the chain rings.

I guess every now and then ya gotta take that can't clip out tumble and ding the pride to remember we are all human. The good news is that i did get my commute streak started again - monday and today!! woo hoo!

Glencoe Grand Prix

Albertos was the sponsor of the Glencoe Grand Prix this past weekend. We had a BEAUTIFUL day in the wake of the last 2 weeks of rain and storms. There was some pretty mangled looking cars on the middle of the course, as evidence above. Jon Knouse did a great job of putting the race together and had a REAL crit course with turns and all. I jumped in the 30 plus race to get loosened up for the cat 3's. I took a 1st lap flyer through S/F to get some airplay for Albertos' and Kenny Labbe obliged nicely. All said and done it was actually kinda fun to work a race again - its been many years since i was part of a club that put on a full fledged crit. The overall response was great, and i hope we are back next year!

Downers Grove

No no - i did not race it...
it was easy to make the decision looking out the window at 7am and seeing it grow darker, not lighter. The thought of spending 30 bucks to get in 8 laps of racing was not very appealing, especially not in the rain. Don't get me wrong - had i been a favorite, i would have toed the line with 85psi in the tubulars and let it rip. Favorite I'm not. Speaking of un-favorites, why is it the Chicago Special Event Management cant figure out how to host a full weekend of racing. For the last 16 or 17 years that i can recall, Downers Grove has been an advertised 25min plus one lap event that gets cut to 20 min plus 1 lap at the line, then they shank time out of it so you get about 8 laps in. The lats time i recalled it being a quality event time wise was back in 87 or 88 when it was the old rectangle - yes, i raced it then, and i believe i have a hot pink shirt somewhere to prove it! My beef is this - for years we had to share the weekend with the rollerbladers. Not fun - the girls were pretty hot, but it made my bike race shorter. I distinctly remember one year i did the Juniors race AND the cat 3 race, and my total race time was UNDER 40 minutes... UGLY.
finally the Rollerbladers left, no more 200m sprint out to watch, but now the weekend SHOULD be open enough to host a full schedule. NOPE. The saturday events now start at 1pm.. WHAT??
there are like 5 hours of racing you missed out on. Now granted they shirk some categories, men and women must share cat 3/4, and the masters race is merely 30+ cat 4/5, or 30+ cat 1/2/3. But hey, take those five hours of racing, add a few categories, and everyone can race another 15minutes plus 5 laps.
I'm drawn to Downers because its my unicorn - the one race i have yet to crack into the podium on. I could have wrote the book before Jonas Carney won enough times to write the book on how to win, it was just a matter of never being able to pull it off. I have had my fair share of leading out some speedsters, both on my team and not on my team at the time ( Jay Keltner was the benefactor of a late race deal as we took 2 to go with none of his team near the front, and i knew he was and is just plain faster than me). so believe me, i know how to get a bike across the line first there. Its a great course, the city rallies behind it, and its just plain fun to turn your bike that many times in a lap.
Now its also my nemesis - its the Chicago Worlds...
guys show up with hairy legs and a license that haven't waived at registration all year. Guys that show up in the shape i am in this year, and they are all just pack fodder. The difference is, at only 8 laps to race, they all have 1 load to blow, and are constantly a race nemesis. Superweek - no way, they couldn't get thru the first hour. At Downers, they have a way of being exactly in the places i want to be, but barely just barely have enough gas to completely screw it up for others. YES YES, i know the good guys get into the right place, and believe me, the years i am going well i can get by, BUT, the years i need that extra gap to be closed, they only open it more. anyway - someday i will get my unicorn. That's my rant.

What i love about Downers - walking the course. I have probably walked that course for 60 laps worth over the years. I absolutely love bumping into the guys you used to ride or race with, guys in my shoes who are doing the family thing, but are drawn out to see the fireworks at DG. You get to say hi to all the guys you wish you could have found earlier that year to get a riding partner. everyone is there to enjoy the pro race and to provide their commentary about what break will not work and why, and which team needs to take control when in order to have the launch at just the right time between 6 and 7.

the included pic is great because it sums up all the beauty of DG - the final few sprinting for the jersey and cash, while the rain and course takes its toll on the unlucky ones, just as it does almost every year.

its been a wet week

with either rain falling or rain pending in the forecast - i have had little time on the Rig.
Does that mean im rested for Downers Grove????

a ride with Enmark

i was fortunate enough to be able to to ride with the Enmark today - he has been in town for training classes for his new job, and it was hard to pass up the opportunity to spend a few hours on two wheels. The boys at SRAM managed to find a spare Scott Addict with a SRAM group named after a prominate color on it. Thanx Ron Ritzler! A quick change of pedals and a spare kit from myself and we were rollin. We saw a deer in the neighborhoods of La Grange, i was too slow to get my phone out to get a good pic, but you can see he hind end behind the bushes in the picture. We rolled out the chicken ride route and had a good chat. On frontage we saw a unfortunate porta potty that was the victim of juvenile fun. Being a juvenile myself, i could not resist a picture of the shitter down. all in all it was a good day for the ride, and Enmark is now a huge fan of the SRAM gear, and we had a great 2.5 hour day.

Fat Kid - OUT

bikes!!!

So i Snapped this handy little pic the other day riding home after work. There was a mix of spandex, shorts, denim, dockers and dresses - some with and some without helmets - all pedaling to their destinations. Pretty cool assembly at the intersection. Just thought I'd share

my chickenride for Lenny....

Lenny was smiling on us today...
short version - i ended up off the front with Bos, i managed to never say die in the rollers on bluff, and Lenny was watching over the ride and gave us all green lights, all of them on the roll in. Bos did the lions share of the work, i kept wanting to rev the pace up to stay away once we determined we had a good shot at it. This was by far one of the longest escapes in recent chicken history, and Bos took me to the line, i put in a monster sprint because i wanted it that way, and i crossed the line with tears in my eyes for Lenny.

sweet shades

king showed up with a fantastic pair of maui jim glasses from the 80's.
scott looked pretty good in them, but we agreed that the ritzler looked best with his scruffy face and pseudo 'molestach' he was sporting. I could not get a pic of it - but it added humor to the day.