John forgot to turn off the Ipod

36.5 mile hike with 7200 feet of climbing

2012-01-30T08:45:00.006-05:00

So the last few years, while not riding my bike, I went for a few hikes. They have been fun. This year I wanted to do another. I think that with cycling, it is pretty hard to get in over my head anymore. I would have to do a 24 solo I think to get the feelings that riding a double century used to get me. Who knows. So I wanted to d0o something fun and get in a bit over my head. Mission accomplished.

The Rachel Carson Trail is a long hiking trail that skirts around pittsburgh. It is pretty brutal, traverses tons of power lines, and climbs 7200 feet over 37 miles. Sounded pretty ideal. Many were supposed to start, however it ended up just being me and super endurance athlete jared babik.

Summary: Started in the dark. Finished in the dark. Walked a freaking ton. I should have trained more (I trained by doing yoga 4 times and walking 1.5 miles to work 1 time).

Garmin File. Temp is wrong, it was in my pocket.

Healthy.

Water crossings in the dark. We had to take our boots off twice in the first 5 miles.

We made a few bridges. The water was usually just deep enough that it would suck to walk through in 31 degree temps. Glad I brought ski poles or whatever.

Powerline climb.

This was a 500 foot climb. If you look closely on the left above the low trees you can see a dot of blue, that is a guy on a dirt bike.

The actual Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale PA.

The only time I remember New Kensington looking nice.

One of those things you will watch and be like "wtf?"

2012-01-26T08:00:00.001-05:00

An Agreeable Sound: Steevo from Matt Dayak on Vimeo.

I guess this is what people do when they have tons of energy and dont race bikes.

On racing Nationals and Worlds.

2012-01-15T11:43:00.002-05:00

Obligatory "cycling season is officially over" post. People act like it is a job or something.

Nationals: So I have not raced a national championship since I was 13. It was in Louisville KY on a BMX bike and the results were lackluster. Mr Brett, Amy my wife, and I rolled up to Wisconsin for my first cyclocross nationals. It was Amy's first real cross experience. Up until this point she had only officiated local races.

30-34 National Champs. 2nd row start. 3rd wheel for a distance. First technical turn I dismount to run as a lot of others are doing. I fall flat on my face.
Cycling Dirt Video at 20 seconds in or whatever I just totally slip. Whoops.
The rest of the day was spent getting dropped back to 12th. Rough day.

Elite Nationals. Start too hard as usual. Blow up a bit, work my way back. I started feeling a bit better but got pulled. 43rd. Not really too much else to say about it other than it was a great experience and I wish I was able to race into it.

30-34 WORLDS. Ha. UCI says that anybody with UCI points cant do age group worlds. I am generally the 2nd or 3rd person after the UCI points run out at MAC races, so I figured that I could have a shot at doing well. Again, I wish that I could have raced more leading up to it. Random draw start = me last. Warming up an hour before the race, I crashed and bent my hanger and tweaked my finger. I sucked in the start and struggled to get up to the leaders. I burnt a few matches to do so and they were attacking each other. I went back and forth with some guys. It was all frozen ice ruts, so half of the race was just about not crashing. That was hard. Ended up 5th. In my heart I know that I could have done better, but oh well.

This is all ice. It was post holes. I was worried I would break my ankles running up it.

Dec 31, jan 1

2012-01-02T10:05:00.001-05:00

Pittsburgh is amazing.

Seriously one of the best cyclists ever. Most dont know him...

2011-12-19T11:12:00.004-05:00

John Gadret.

Yesterday's world cup cyclocross race, Gadret is up there the whole time. This is a guy who half a year ago, I was cheering for during the Giro. He finished 10th.

Even the Universal guys dont know who he is. Very very well timed attack on a stage tailored to his climbing style.

And this is from one of the best days of bicycle racing during my lifetime...

@3:43 Vino looks like he might die.
@5:03 Chase group: Cuenego, Pinotti, Garzell... look who is dangling without mention.
@6:25 Hi we are the best bike racers on earth on the hardest day of bike racing EVAR... look who is in that group!
@10:30 Hey John, you have been standing for the whole 30 minute climb! You rule.

Part 4/5
Best Finish ever.

I remembered Bobke Strut always writing about Gadret, and I just clicked this and realized that my whole post is a summary of his.... but it deserves the attention...

coming of age. being an adult.

2011-12-12T08:55:00.002-05:00

I think the last time that I had a major life adjustment was when I was done with college and started bumming around full time. It involved lots of travel, bike touring, adventures, and romantic notions of the world should be. I got into the bike racing thing for the second time in my life and went full throttle.

Now, I have complete my first year of real adulthood. A bit over a year ago, I knew I was making the leap and bought a brand new car and and Iphone. Since then, I have worked a real job, in an office. I have ironed my clothes (sometimes). I have gone by "Stephen." I am set to make in 2011 about the same as I did the previous 4 years combined. It is still not much money.

Its weird. I remember talking to an old Kraynicks teammate about growing up. He said he remembers going to a restaurant after getting a real job, and for once not ordering the cheapest thing on the menu. I can relate now. I have always been good with money, never overspent, and always had some in the bank. However sometimes this lead to things that needed fixing to be neglected. For instance, I dropped about 1200 dollars on dental work this year. It was actually probably more, I just didnt want to count.

As much as things change, they stay the same. Last night was Sunday night. Brett and I were driving home from a killer Mid Atlantic Cyclocross weekend. We drove a good 700 miles. We were raging to Aus-Rotten, when my finance manager called me. I turned it down and talked FHA vs Conventional loans and Seller Assist for about 6 minutes before hanging up and turning the music back up.

Having money doesnt change you as a person. Having a job does not take away fun. Life is what you make of it.

I was at the release show for this LP in 1995 or so. It really helped shape who I became as an adult.

Pittsburgh hates pedestrians...

2011-11-21T08:30:00.004-05:00

Pittsburgh has a problem as far as respect for walkers and cyclists goes. Im not going to rant about being on my bike, because that has been done a million times. However, I am going to share photos that I have been collecting. These are signs that go in crosswalks between the double yellow lines. They are put there to slow traffic down.
All of these are super fucked up, have been hit by a million cars, and are out of place and not able to be seen from the road. It is my understanding that the city police are literally not able to enforce the speed limit within the city for some reason.
I have been posting these photos and some other funny photos at my tumblr. Im so hip.

The last one is my favorite. It is 100 feet from the elementary school where my main man Ramazani goes!

Bands that I did not see. AKA my first bike tour.

2011-11-03T09:25:00.003-04:00

In the 90's a band named Fifteen was playing in Philadelphia with a band named Propaghandi. They were set to play some dump in philly that is now defunct, but was a legendary show space named the Stalag 13.

Anyway,Jason Angst (who is now like one of the best tattoo guys ever or something, click the link..) and I loaded up our overloaded road bikes with not enough stuff, no rain gear, backpacks, and a Delorme atlas. The plan was to ride to the Poconos so I could make out with a girl for a few days, then head down to Philly. Total of about 450 miles or so. Easy enough.

The first day was 70 miles in cold pouring rain. I think this was pretty defeating. We slept on the side of the road in the tent and froze. I just had a small blanket and we were in the Appalachian mountains. No ground pad. No sleeping bag. I remember just laying on the ground waiting for daybreak to pack up and try to warm up.

We rode the next few days, one of which was my first 100 mile day. It was exciting. We got to where we were going, and within a day my body shut down. I had some sort of fever, cold, exhaustion. Jason went down to philly without me. My romantic teenage plans of making out with a girl nonstop were turned into her making me soup and tea.

I missed the show and the band doesnt play anymore. I still love them. I am glad that my first bike touring experience didnt scare me away from doing all the subsequent tours, cause they have been some of the best times of my life.

This is a good guy...

2011-10-26T17:43:00.004-04:00

This is a picture of Marty. He is an old dude that takes time to sweep the track that we race on every week. Today I was riding around in circles at the track and he was there with his push blower, clearing the fall debris off of the track. We are done racing there, but he knows that some people are down there working out, riding, or with their families enjoying traffic free cycling. Such a good guy.

He is a retired laborer, so I guess he has some free time. Last year when I went to Kraynicks to clean up some bikes for the "give poor kids bikes" program, he was there. We talked a bunch. He apparently was in the shop most days fixing bikes for kids.

Little known fact: Marty was the 1974 ACA club champion. When I started racing at the oval in 2003, he was still in pretty good shape, and could whip up a decent sprint for a 60 something year old guy. The world needs more people like Marty.

More free time than me

2011-10-25T18:45:00.002-04:00

Google searches that bring people here

2011-10-12T09:43:00.004-04:00

So I have a tracker thing for this blog. I sometimes check it to see what brings people
here or who links to me. Its neat to see. Anyway, this is the best I have gotten yet.

Going to "ask.com" to ask "Who uses ask.com?"

An awesome story that I can now tell..

2011-10-04T14:44:00.003-04:00

So our team was driving down to the Tour of Washington County awhile ago. I was checking my email en route cause I am a high ballin' real estate agent. I found this:

Steve,

Please reply to this email to confirm that I have your address right. If so, I will send out an electronic draft of an agreement for your review.

Thanks, xxxx
……………………
xxxxxxxx Ph.D.
xxxxx
+1.xxxxxxxxx34
……………………
Continuum Sports LLC | BMC Racing Team
1825 Ferdinand Ct., Unit B
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
USA
| www.bmcracingteam.com

Ok, so somebody wants me to race for BMC? Oh no wait, he meant to contact the real bike racing Stephen Cummings. He is the younger, more bald, faster bike racer. So I respond with:

Hey I bet you didn't know that there is a crappy cat 1 in Pennsylvania also named steve Cummings. If you need somebody to fill a spot let me know.
This email is amazing.

Dude is probably not stoked, this is like super top secret info that I now have.

Stephen,

I'm very sorry for the mistaken email address. I have the correct email now. If you wouldn't mind simply deleting my mistaken email to you and not distributing it anywhere, it would be much appreciated.

Best regards and thanks, xxxxx

Not that easy BRO!

xxxx,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
I understand the situation and will keep it quiet.
However I did get third in the Ohio state road championship last weekend and was once ranked 358th in the world at cyclocross. I will delete the email but keep your contact info in case I pull out a sick result at the local stagerace this weekend.
Seriously though you don't have to worry about me leaking this. Can I get a pair of socks or something?
Thanks

Holding out for the contract still... but I got the socks

Cummings signs for BMC

Interbike expedition

2011-09-23T20:22:00.006-04:00

I made the pilgrimage to Vegas for interbike. I am still able to go because I have written articles for Urban Velo. Sweet.

Here is a picture of an elite athlete who stayed up for 40 hours straight and drank for 38 of them.

The dirt demo was fun. I rode a moots YBB. I would buy one if I had cash and needed a new mountain bike. We went way out into the desert. You can see Stubna pushing his bike cause he snapped his through axle.

My coach had me riding like 90 minutes each day. I rode a bit more than that, and then rode the pump track for seriously 3 hours. I wish I had a bigger yard.

Ernie called me and was like "dude you are on the cover of the interbike magazine"... they seriously photoshopped my arms.

Then I ran into a GIANT Bill Elliston.

I as a cheap vegetarian went to an expensive steak house. Like 200 dollar steaks. I had a beet salad. It was actually delicious.

7 dudes and I didnt really eat anything.

Certain establishments will pick you up in a limo in las vegas. This was at like 3 am Vegas time after getting lapped 65 times at cross vegas.

Chicago from my window seat.

Bands I have seen that were amazing take 1

2011-09-19T18:47:00.003-04:00

I was reading VELO on the way home from interbike. There was a "what are you listening to" section. I quickly realized that bike racers (mostly) like really crappy music. I am glad that I spent a lot of time in the 90's going to shows and buying records.

Here is Leatherface. I saw them in 1999 maybe in Pittsburgh. I think that Hot Water Music opened for them or something. They are probably one of the longest playing bands that you have not heard of. They are also super good at playing music.

Whatever... since I mentioned them... Here is Hot Water Music. They were probably the tightest band I ever saw, each time that I saw them (10? or so times)... They closed with "turnstile" a lot. They always had a TON of energy.

One of the times I got escorted out of a bank...

2011-08-17T14:40:00.002-04:00

I was recently reminded of this, and it makes for a funny story. I think that I have been kicked out of 3 banks in my life. All similar stories.

This probably took place in the year 2001. I was buying stuff for my cross country bicycle adventure. I had to get like 400 dollars cash to the bike shop in order to pick up a bunch of stuff. My friend had a car for the day and was willing to drive me. This all was going to work out great. I think this is when ATM cards were just for ATM's and were not actually debit cards.

I rode my bicycle up to my bank. It was Mellon at the time, but I think they changed their name to Citizens. Anyway, it was a Saturday. I knew that they were open because they had a banner and signs everywhere that said "OPEN SATURDAY." So I ride my bike up, and go inside. The doors are open, but the women inside say that only the drive through is open for banking. This is when you could not get more than like 200 or 300 dollars out of an ATM in a 24 hour period. I needed to talk to a teller.

So I go outside, get on my bike and ride up to the window in the drive through. The woman (that I just saw inside) was there. She said that she could not help me, that the drive through was for cars only. I ride on and go back inside to the woman. Now this is the THIRD time that I have seen her at this point. She asks if she can help me, as if she does not know who I am. She is on a twisty seat, and is literally the same person operating the drive through.
"I need to make a withdrawal"
"You can only do that in the drive through"
"But you are the same person doing that. Why is this even open?"
"I can only do transactions in the drive through. We are open for people opening new accounts."
"But you are right there, you could just do it... You have a giant sign that says OPEN SATURDAY"
"If you need to go INTO a bank, the Squirrel Hill branch is open for another 20 minutes... its a 10 minute drive to get there..."
"IF I HAD A FUCKING CAR I WOULD GO THROUGH YOUR DRIVE THROUGH......"

At this point the security guard was standing very close to me. He asked me if the police needed to be called and asked me to leave.

This was one of the many times in my life I honestly felt like I was taking crazy pills. Why couldnt the woman just help me out?

ugh.

Hipster Redux. AKA bikesnobpgh. AKA dude wearing TT helmet in town.

2011-08-15T12:41:00.003-04:00

So Amy and I were in the car yesterday and she was like "is that dude wearing a time trial helmet?" So like an old couple in a national park that had just spotted a deer, we pulled over. Sure enough this dude was rolling down Friendship Ave rocking a TT helmet with built windscreen. Lucky for us, he had to take a phone call (have you ever seen somebody in a TT helmet talk on a cell phone? NOW YOU HAVE)...

Amy said that I was not allowed to post it to FB/Twitter/Blog. She is maybe the nicest person alive and would feel bad if somebody was made fun of in public. However, I am going to post it, and tell the dude to own it. There is a guy who rides around with a bike helmet that he turned into a Devo helmet, which I freaking love. So if this dude wants to be known as the dude with the LAS aero helmet with tinted visor, I am simply helping his cause without passing judgement.

Cyclocross

2011-08-12T10:31:00.003-04:00

I like cyclocross. This morning was the first morning that I could see the steam coming off of my coffee in my kitchen. Its like fall.

Team this year is C3 - Athletes Serving Athletes. They are a rad group of dudes (dude is a non gendered term). I think that I will fit in well there. I know that I will, since I am buddies with them already. I am excited to race with them. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Bikes this year, I am going to race on a Blue Norcross again. This is rad, cause I got one last year and it is a rad bike. Stoked. This year I will have two. We are going to be running Specialized shoes and helmets, which rules because it is what I have already chosen to ride.

I am getting coached by Chris Mayhew at JBV coaching. He has has been a source of advice and ghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifuidance since I was a Cat V, but this year I have a plan. Last year he advised me a lot, but instead of ramping into cross, I did a 1000 mile bike trip with Stubna during August. It is going to be a REALLY long year, and I hope to have a lot left for nationals, so I think a third party strategy is going to be key.

The MAC has rerouted their schedule, putting the Killer B race right after the A race. I will finally have the chance to pay back Brody and Mayhew by actually pitting for them. THE PIT THE PIT THE PIT THE PIT (ill see you) IN THE PIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

50 kids. 100 miles. Lots of rain.

2011-08-09T12:08:00.004-04:00

So Amy does some work with her old full time employer, the MGR foundation. They are into doing good stuff for kids or whatever. Pittsburgh public schools got stimulus money to put on summer programs the past two years. Anyway, I got roped into helping again this year. The trip was WAY longer and had WAY more kids.

The plan: Take 50 inner city kids on a 50 mile bike ride Saturday. Camp out. Ride home 50 miles Sunday. Kids are all 11-14 years old from what I could tell. A lot of the kids live in a housing project that is literally surrounded by barbed wire fencing and has a gate to enter/exit.

Day 1: Roll out of Pittsburgh. It is drizzling from the start, but the kids are stoked. They all are on comfort bikes with 21 or so gears, huge saddles, grip shifting and V brakes. As we approached our lunch stop (30 miles), the drizzling turned into torrential down pouring. I could not see out of my glasses. Morale was low. Like real low. I think maybe 6 kids did not finish Day 1. Most of those 6 made it 30 miles.

The last 20 miles were a muddy (crushed lime stone mud) 1.5% uphill grade. We started riding at 8am, and I think the last finishers got to camp around 5 or 6pm. This includes some stops.

Luckily, the later afternoon was great. After spending up to 8 hours to finish the 50 miles, the kids could swim in a pool, in the river, catch cray fish, shower, snack, etc. The rain let up and it was hot. The kids had fun. Dinner was catered pasta, followed by Smores and hotdogs on the fire.

4am. FLOODING rain. I heard kids talking, and I went to speak to them about keeping it down. As I approached their tent, I realized that the whole area was a puddle. I heard a kid say:
"I think the river came up to us," talking about the river 100 yards from the camp site. They were totally submerged. It kept raining.

Woke up at 6:15 to more rain. A lot of "I aint riding." We did breakfast / motivational speech under a pavilion. There was 2-3" of standing water in the pavilion. THE RAIN LET UP! The kids shredded their way home. I think all but 2 or 3 finished the 50 miles the second day.

So: Like 40 kids did all 100 miles. Like 45 did at least 80 miles. Sick.

Awesome quotes:
Some random 12 year old girl that I told could not shower Sunday AM cause she took too long to pack up her sleeping bag:

"That half bald guy is always grumpy."

My man Moleek after I told him that he could not have coffee cause it could stunt his growth (he is in 7th grade and was like 5'11 and like 180 lbs)

"Is that why you stopped growing?"

Observations:

Kids this age can eat anything. Like if you put a buffet in front of them, it will be gone. Its just a matter of how long.

Some college kids look like middle school kids.

Some middle school kids look like college kids.

If you are reading this, you probably ride. Imagine doing an 8 hour ride on a 30lb hybrid in the pouring rain on a dirt trail. Imagine putting in back to back 8 hour days wearing jean shorts (they were told to wear gym clothes but I dont think some had them).

My girl Lakin would sprint at 15 mph for 20 seconds then coast for 45... she did this for about 100 miles.

My man Moleek on the far right. Dude was huge.

Kids eat nonstop.

This is not a professional bike fit.

These are the people in charge of the city in which I live

2011-08-05T20:38:00.003-04:00

This has nothing to do with bike racing or is even political. Its just insane that these people are in charge of a city that is pretty big and kind of successful.

This is Darlene Harris swearing into something or another. She pretty much embodies Pittsburgh. Kind of old. Kind of overweight. I see like a million people like her daily sitting in their cars, with their windows rolled up, smoking cigarettes, and just being miserable.
I dont know her personally. I DO know that she didnt approve funding for a public school band to get lunches bought for them when they played in front of the president like a decade ago. She thought that was a waste of money, make them pack lunches right? HOWEVER she did buy herself an air purifier so she could smoke in her office with city money. Good for you Dar!

This is the Mayor of Pittsburgh. His name is Luke Ravenstahl. He is younger than me. He first became Mayor when a freshly elected one suddenly passed away. He won an election because the city is crazy divided. When the Steelers went to the superbowl a few years ago, he changed his name to "Steelerstahl" because the local team was playing against the Baltimore Ravens. This essentially translates to "steelersteel."

Here is a picture of Luke with his buddy Ben. This is a huge parade downtown after the Super Bowl. Ben won it. Luke happened to be the mayor of the city in which the team plays that happened to pay Ben. In Luke's mind, this makes him one of the cool kids and he gets to ride along and celebrate.
Remember when Ben like raped a couple of women?
I am not sure if you can tell from this photo, but Luke is a fucking douchebag.

Wilderness 101....

2011-08-01T17:01:00.003-04:00

I would not have thought about doing the 101 this year if a bunch of fun, cool guys were not up to it. Eddy Krall, Says, and Geronimo all had a room and Eddy gave me a ride up, so what the heck.

Short:
Rode hard, its hot, no bad luck, best finish ever.

Long:
Registered on Thursday, got my stuff together Friday.

The usual prerace craziness / nervousness was all around. Somehow I ended up being the experienced guy in the room. That was kind of nuts to me. Geronimo has been racing forever, but has somehow never done a hundred mile mtb race. His second is going to be Leadville. Haha.

-Up at 5am. Walk to the gas station for hot water for my french press. Cant stomach any food.

-Nerves.

-Race starts. Good pace on the first climb.

-First descent, some dude elbows me off the road. I make it back on. Dude is a dickhead. I facebook stalked the dude when I got home. He is a conservative christian and is into christian rap and christian contemporary rock. Yet he had no issues bumping me off a wheel at 35+ mph. I guess it is kind of ironic being that I would never do that in a million years and I have listened to little other than Venom for the week leading into the race. I seriously hate bike racers sometimes.

-Stay with front group until the third climb. There was a bottleneck that I was last out of and I never saw them again.

-Rode with freaking Mark McCormack for 20 miles. He was pulling like a freight train. We slowly dropped the companions of our group. I had to announce to the whole group that he is the only dude who has won USPRO and Cross nats. Duh. He had a frame pump! A FRAME PUMP! I told him about how my friend beat his brother for a preme in a crit where mark led his bro out. "impressive." was all he said. It ruled.

-Had to say goodbye to mark on the big climb. From this point on, I was on my own. I manged to catch 2 or 3 more dudes and just go through them. I figured that I was in 12 place or so. I based this on the fact that I am usually around 12th place.

I rolled in, cleaned up, swam, ate, drank and signed up for a massage before I checked to learn that I got 6th. I was stoked.

I must say that the 101 was one of the best put on races that I have ever done. At one point I simply rode up to an aid station, people put bottles in my cages, and food in my pockets. Seriously the best volunteers ever. I highly recommend this event to anybody looking for a sick adventure or a rad race.

Garmin File (I think the GPS has trouble in the trees)

Maybe I should listen to some christian rock if I wanted to turn into some sort of homicidal asshole.

Our day in court

2011-07-24T14:10:00.006-04:00

Suburban Court

Forgive me. I am typing this from my iPhone while sitting at an open house.

So Amy and I got married. That post was a few months ago. There is a picture on that post of how we had the north park lodge set up. We had rope lighting and doilies hanging to give it a cool vibe. We rented it out Friday to set up for the wedding Saturday. At one point the grounds keeper for north park stopped past and told us that it looked beautiful.

Anyway the lodge is a big wooden building with wooden beams and walls. Each beam has about 2000 staples and 50 nails in it from 90 years of birthday and graduation parties. We continued this and used a staple gun to put up decorations.

Friday night, after 12 hours of setting up, before leaving for a snack/drink thing for friends and family, we got a call from our friend who was running the kitchen. She said that the police were there to lock up and freaked out because of the staples. He told her that he was maybe going to pull our permit for the next day because of the damage that we did to the property.

So we went to bed hoping that we would have a wedding the next day. I woke up early and the kitchen help called me shortly thereafter. She said the police were back and were taking photos. They would not speak to her. I sat on the phone with her while they walked around the lodge and inspected it. Well there goes our wedding and most of my money. Awesome.

The cops finally come out and are willing to speak to me, as I held the permit. He asked how I was doing. I told him that I was scared. He said that they would not pull the permit but he was going to cite me for destruction. This was good news.

The whole wedding when I told people the story, they literally didn't believe me. I had to sternly say " I am NOT joking". This is because the lodge basically looks like a shooting target for staples.

Anyway we get the citation a few weeks later. 375 dollars. In the grand scheme it was just another wedding cost. However I was kind of upset that this was so blown out of proportion. I plead innocent and waited for the court date.

Going into court I figured that it would be pretty obvious that we had no ill intentions, that we followed the norm that had been set by users before us, and that nowhere were we told that staples were unacceptable. Also hedged bets on the cop maybe not showing up.

I took photos of the thousands of staples in place. I took a photo of the giant sign telling users that confetti is forbidden. I brought a lawyer friend. I was ready to go. Amy and I both took the day off of work. I figured that we could go and it would be a non issue to a non partial judge.

We didn't get to see a judge. We went to a magistrate. This is basically an elected person who takes a three month class and can put people in jail. The office was in a strip mall behind a kfc in suburban hell. We got there and the cop was hanging out with the nonjudge in his chambers.
It basically went like this: they have the burden of proof. We did what everybody else did. The photos didn't show our actual staples and we did reuse some hooks and nails already in place. We were not told not to use staples.

The cop was a moron. It was unreal that somebody so dumb has the power that he has. He literally said at one point "there aren't any signs saying that you can't use a jackhammer bun you didn't do that," and the winning statement "there are not any signs that you can't launch a missile". Wow.

Anyway the judge berated us and told us that we have no common sense. I can't image how shitty he would have been if we didnt have a lawyer with us.

Before he gave his ruling or judgement or whatever I said " no matter how this ends up, I would really like to see the people in the park office tell people not to use staples, so this situation can be avoided in the future."

At the point the non judge yells at me again saying that I have no common sense and I should not have to be told not to (do something thousands of others have done?!??!) At this point I just gave up and realized that us being there had nothing to do with preserving the lodge, as the cop stated, but was just about power and authority.

The non judge then said "I am going to knock 200 dollars off of your fine in hopes that you go away. I am SURE (shitty smarmy voice) your lawyer will tell you that you can appeal this."

Fuck you strip mall judge.

Add in: "you can die at their hands, but not at your own"

6 hours of power. 6hop.

2011-07-18T06:47:00.005-04:00

So I couldnt sleep cause I could not get comfortable cause my body hurts. Apparently people are awake and all walk dogs at 6:30 am. What a world.

Six hours of power: Ride around an 8 mile mountain bike loop as many times as you can in six hours. If you get in before 6:00, you go out again.

We prerode Friday. We took it easy on the first (and longest) climb. This made the rest of the course seem REALLY easy. However, when racing up the first climb, the rest of the course is hard.

I went solo. I was just hoping for no mechanicals and I figured I had a chance. Ernie from Ohio was there. I had read his blog last week and he hinted at an upcoming enduro. He is good at the long stuff and I figured it would be between us, unless some ringer showed up.

I dont know who invented the "le mans" style start, but it is horrible. This is in mountain bike racing all the racers run for a bit before getting to their bikes. I seriously think that I am super sore from the run and not the racing.

Lap 1: World cup start up the climb. Like crazy fast. There are solo's and team racers all mixed in together. By mid lap I was on my own, with Ernie a few seconds down.

Lap 2: Suffer fest to build a gap. I was out of sight. I was trying to kill the climbs and rail the the parts where I thought he would put time on me on his fancy soft tail bike.

Lap 3: Felt like quitting

Lap 4: Told myself that if I did not quit I would not have to do the 101 in two weeks.

Lap 5: Realized I would have to do 8 laps.

Lap 6: Finally got an accurate time split and had a good gap. Every other time, it was "5 or 6 minutes."

Lap 7: cruise control. Dont flat, dont crash.

Lap 8: I was not sure if Ernie made the cut off (if you do 7 laps in 6 hours you go out for an 8th), so I still had to race. Cramps. Pain. Etc.

This was my first enduro that was not a 100 mile race. The 100 milers generally have a lot more dirt roads. This was probably 90% singletrack.
This was the first mountain bike race that I won since like 2007, which was on Gary's bike. Garmin file.

Thanks to Bret and Nicol for handing me bottles every lap, despite the fact that they were also racing their duo category. Thanks to Bret and Probikes for sealing up my tires tubeless with Stans. They are sick.

Great story. Free socks. Race rut.

2011-07-05T14:10:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago I got an amazing email. I have sworn not to share any parts of it for awhile. I got a pair of sweet socks though. I cant wait to tell!!!

Race Rut: I realized that I have been racing for awhile now. Like I can remember doing the same races over and over and over. This is kind of monotonous. I enjoyed the Hilly Billy as something new. This weekend I tried racing mountain bikes to shake it up a bit. I made it 40 minutes until my tires would not hold air. Then I hiked through freaking vietnam to get out of the woods. It was 95 degrees and humid as hell. Then I swam naked in the river. I drove 5 hours to race 40 minutes and swim in a river. Hell.

In my ideal life, I would just race mountain bikes a ton. The races are hilly, there is no wheel sucking, and its not just power to weight that determines who wins. I like that. So every year I buy a mountain bike that is light and fancy. This year Probikes found me a carbon specialized 29'er. Its fast and light and awesome. However, every year I freaking break stuff and then hate mountain biking. I think it was last year a rotor ripped off of my hub. This weekend I flatted twice. I honestly dont think that I have ever finished a WVMBA mountain bike race (without a mechanical)? That sucks.

This is a song from the 90's. They were a great band. I saw them like 20 times over 4 or 5 years. One of my best memories is watching my best friend watch them. He was barely able to stand cause he was so drunk. It was a month or so after getting stabbed a bunch of times to save my life. My memory is pretty crappy, but that has stuck with me.

73 miles of new "roads". AKA hilly billy.

2011-06-26T21:28:00.006-04:00

Short:
73 mile Dirt Road race. West Virginia. 7000' of climbing. 4th overall.

Long:
So I had no idea what to expect. All roads are supposedly West Virginia "state roads."

I got my bike cleaned up at the bike shop, new cables, new hanger, new rear derailer.
I figured it was an early jump on the cross season... right?

Then somebody was like "yeah until it is wrecked again at the end of the day." I didnt believe that it would be super gnarly.

The race basically unfolded like a horror movie. There were like 8 of us, then the course grabbed a few and killed them. Some dude stacked it crazy hard through the mud, and Gunnar flatted. Then we kept running. Then Pflug cracked his rim on a gnarly hole, and flatted. We kept running. My shifting broke and they kept running. Gorski flatted and the two leaders (Mihalik and Ruggs) rode away. I hope they have some sort of survivor's guilt.

The race was super well done. Of all endurance events I have done, I believe it was the best marked (coming from a dude who gets lost a fair amount). The Iron Cross is a close second, but I remember there being a panic moment during that race where I was convinced that I was lost.

Everybody should check the event out, its pretty rad.

Garmin File / Map

My bike before. Muddy and needing lots of work.

My bike after. Muddy and needing lots of work.

Bike racing ruins everything

2011-06-22T16:01:00.002-04:00

So we got this washer when we bought the house. There is just two of us, and I have been a dirtball until I got a real job this year, so the washer gets minimal use.

However, between cyclocross, mountain bike racing other bike related stuff, I think it is getting pretty beat up. Here is a photo of everything I found at the bottom of the washer after doing a load from this weekend's Tour of Washington County stage race. How the eff did I not use that hammer flask during the race? How was it still in my pocket? It seemed good to go, so I will just reuse it this weekend. I hope that doesnt cause me to die or anything.

I dont know where the other wrappers come from. I freaking check every pocket and sure enough with each load there are more clif shots and hammer packets than I remember eating during the race.

My mind is playing tricks on me.

probably the best day of my life...

2011-05-23T15:23:00.004-04:00

So I got married on Saturday. The day started with an awesome 17 person group ride. My bro went on his group first ride, which was awesome. I would say he is a strong cat 4. He didnt fall off until the pace got upped hard like 30 miles into it.

Amy has been busy planning our wedding for the past six months or so. When asked about it, I often responded rudely with "its a formality at this point..." due to the fact that we have been together for 10 years. The big day came and is now gone.

Amy has been stockpiling string lights and antique dishes for the past six months. The wedding turned out exactly as she planned. About 200 people showed up to be with us. I wish I could have invited more, but the lodge only held so many.

We rented out a large barn in the county park 10 miles north of the city. It came with nothing. We got the beer from East End brewing, a local microbrewery. We got the wine from a Trader Joes in Ohio (cant get it in PA) and from the state store (where you buy booze in PA).

Our friends and families helped set everything up on Friday. A dozen people or so put in a 12 hour day getting everything ready. A great friend made a photo booth, and we had a room in which to put it. A friend made Amy's dress. So many people did so much for us in the weeks leading into the event that I will probably feel indebted for the rest of my life.

Our friends and families made the food, the cakes and the cookies. We had pierogies, sleek, seitan, grilled veggies, pasta, asian vinegar slaw. Everything was vegetarian, and all but the pasta and the cheese pierogies were vegan.

It has rained like everyday for the past two months. Saturday was the sunniest nicest day that I can remember in so long. We set up a small stage under a tree. We had an isle lined with mason jars filled with flowers. Amy's best friends played the live music walked down the isle to, which was "stand by me." Jenne has a beautiful voice. I started crying as soon as she started singing and didnt stop until the end.

This was kind of awkward because we were doing a self uniting ceremony, which is legal in Pennsylvania. So Amy read her vows first, because we thought she would be crying too hard if I went first. Wrong. She read hers, which just made me cry more. I babbled through my vows, wishing that I had brought a handkerchief the entire time. I regret not looking at Amy more because she looked so beautiful, but every time I would look at her, I would just start crying more.

We did the photo thing and the mingling. I saw people that I had not seen in 10 years. Some people that I have had some of the best memories of my life with were there. Everybody there helped make my new best memory possible. It was so freaking amazing. I never thought that it would be so great, and so emotional.

We ate. We danced. Little Somalia showed up. We had like 30 cakes on a cake table that our friends and families all helped make. I wish I could have eaten some of each of them.

We had to pack up the entire shindig by 1am. So many friends and family helped. I seriously did not think that it was going to happen. I pictured the county police fining me tons of money for going past the permit time. About 30 people stayed until after 1am helping pack our Uhaul with all the wedding stuff, which is now back in our dining room (does anybody need china and wine glasses?) ... That was one of the most amazing things, having so many people work at the end of a long day.

It felt so nice to be so loved.

Other Highlights:

- I was in charge of the introduction when we got on the stage. I said "thank you for coming, this is a self uniting ceremony, we are going to wed ourselves." .. which basically everybody thought I said that "we are going to wet ourselves."

- Dude wearing an Iron Maiden T shirt at my wedding. Amazing.

- One of maybe five days in Pittsburgh where the majority of people are wearing sunglasses. So rare to have that much sun. So awesome.

- Wearing old school vans (gorilla biscuits limited run) shoes at my wedding.

Hippies, Crust Punks, Hipsters, Old people.

Photo booth photo.

A friend owns a screen printing place and made us mugs that say "you are totally awesome" on them. They all had little flags that said guests names on one side and table number on the ohter.

Eddy Krall's flag.

The inside of the lodge all made up. A friend hand sewed all of the doilies to string to hang.

Grand Torino....

2011-05-09T16:23:00.003-04:00

I saw this movie a few years ago. It was ok.

Yesterday I was getting out of the car to hang up a "sold" sign outside of a house that my brother and I have listed. The neighbor immediately said hello. He was an older guy, he thought that I was Justin... I introduced myself and shook his hand.
"So its sold?"
"yes"
"What color are they? ... We have a problem with that around here..."

This guy doesn't know me from anybody. Crazy.
I wanted to say "purple."

Its 2011.

Turkey Hill bicycle race.

2011-05-08T17:09:00.005-04:00

Turkey Hill cycling classic. 10 times up "the wall" this year.
I drove Ed down. Road Results.com had Eddy taking the win, so the pressure was on for him.

We drove the Fit.

I told ed that since his Hummer only gets 14 mph, he should just pay all the gas, since its the same amount he would have paid if he had driven. Right?

For any cyclists looking for nutrition strategy, our waitress at the Kountry Kitchen in Manheim asked how long the race was, and said that my oatmeal, eggs and toast would probably be enough. Solid.

Some guy fell down in front of me going like 34 mph. I had to skid a bunch. This is what a good tire looks like with a bad spot.

Best thing about Turkey Hill: Cupon for free scream and a free t shirt. Oh yes.

Somolia was raging today.

2011-04-18T20:43:00.003-04:00

Little Somalia was out and about today. They have no school due to spring break. For those not in the know, there are like 40 or so people within a block of me that are Somali refugees. They rule.

Anyway. I was playing ball with my little buddies for about a minute before I was like "dude what stinks like fish?"
Ramazani, my little 7 year old buddy was like "fish."
And I am like "yeah fish."
At which point Ramadude was like "fish!" and points to their weird sidelot that is
cement surrounded by chainlink fence.

Sure enough there was fish sitting on the fence. Like a ton of it. At which point Wawu (matriarch of the fam) pops her head out the window and is like "sharkfish... you like... its good."

It was drying on a fence. Ive seen them eat intestine for breakfast. For reals, with bananas

4-17-03 Journal. The longest day of the trip.

2011-04-18T08:12:00.003-04:00

This is a long time ago now. This is from when my girlfriend at the time, now futurewife and I
hopped on a plane and rode our bicycles around Europe for 9 weeks. I knew she was the one for me on this trip. Time flies. Live life. Have fun, etc...

4-17-03 Leaving a campground in Rural Luxembourg just over the border from Belgium
30 degrees C and warm and sunny.

We left our little town and campground (town was about 12 buildings on a giant hill in a provincial park) early. We rode down the valleys that we had seen painted on the over sized park maps at the campground. Finishing yesterday with a long climb meant descending at the start today. We planned on riding 10 miles or so and finding a grocery store to eat. We rode and rode. Luxembourg is beautiful. We dropped into a town, looked around, and climbed back out after seeing no signs of food...

At the top of the climb, we split our last breakfast bar. We flew down a two mile descent into the river valley on brand new fast roads. We rode across a spectacular tdam and desscended some more before coming across old castle ruins. We made hte turns towards a signed for "steep hill." We climbed and climbed. There was an old church halfway up the climb that was empty, it must have been hundreds of years old. According to the maps it was 2 miles at 10%. Amy rode at her own pace, and at the top she looked pretty defeated. I felt helpless seeing her trying so hard. We were starving. We descended into the next town looking for food. Nothing. It was some sort of weird new construction Luxembourgian suburban sprawl. Just a bunch of new houses.

We came into another town, after riding for hours and hours. We found a Lotto store. It sold paper and magazines, but no food. Not even coke. Nothing. We sat outside and scraped peanut butter from the jar. Everything is closed in Luxembourg on a Sunday. Also, when cycling on the road less traveled, there is little help. We asked in the lotto store where to find food, and were told that on a Sunday its 25KM out of the way to another town...

We rode on in the direction we were headed. We came across some tourist place. There were castle ruins and a GIFT SHOP! We bought pastries and chocolate and coffees and cokes...

Leaving town I almost got killed by the crosswinds. Two trucks passed each other and coupled with my panniers and the wind, it almost knocked me off my bike. Amy had the same experience. We stopped at small places for croissants and cokes. It seemed to be all we could find available since no stores were open.

We descended down a long hill into Luxembourg (city). We were supposed to see a campground. Nothing. We rode around aimlessly in rush hour looking for it. Nothing. This was the first big city that we were in since Amsterdam, and rush hour was really crazy and dangerous. We said screw it and decided to go into the city center to find the youth hostel.

It turns out that it was not ordinary traffic, and that the city was shut down for some sort of "demonstration." I think it was a union protest or something. The streets were corralled with barb wire fences,there was tons of glass everywhere, bus stations were all smashed. There was tons of new graffiti everywhere, and every plant holder was somehow in the middle of the street and smashed to pieces. I found a bolt the size of my bicycle helmet that appeared to have been thrown through a bus stop window.

We rode along, looking at the riot police, trying to find our way to the hostel. We found it. Of course it was on top of a hill. Of course we had to carry our panniers and bikes up 3 stories to where we got a room. Of course the person working did not know where to get ANY food.

Then we met another bike touring couple. They were also looking for food. We walked for an hour in search of anything. Amy was crumbling. I was exhausted. The dude from the couple spoke several languages and every person that he asked had a different answer. After over an hour of walking, we came to a gas station. We bought SO MUCH FOOD at the gas station, before walking back, eating and passing out.

We had ridden over 8 hours. Walked over an hour, and didnt have much of anything to eat all day. In rural Luxembourg on a Sunday, plan in advance.

yes this is a race report.

2011-04-04T19:28:00.002-04:00

2011 race season has began.

This is personal and boring, sorry. Unlike my young teammate's recount of the race, this will include zero power data or training methodology.

Going into the race I was really hesitant. The fire was not burning. I was not stoked on racing. I have a brand new bike, new kit, new shoes. Ready to roll. I was just not stoked. I have worked more in the past four months than in the five years preceding. I had lots of reservations.

Anyway, there was snow on the ground 20 minutes before the start.

Five minutes into the race I was so stoked. The ice cold water puddling on the ground was getting sprayed into my face and chest. At one point I thought about the last time I did a post race ear cleaning where there was so much grime and grit in my ears that I was disgusted.

I was stoked. At this point I was pretty sure that I was getting dropped. I didnt care.

We went up hills and down hills. I did eventually get dropped. I didnt really care.

Afterward my race recap to my teammates was simply "I love racing bikes."

stoked.

But you never did that before...

2011-03-21T08:51:00.002-04:00

Time. The value of time. Not having time. These are all new concepts to me.

While riding Friday, my rear derailer fell apart. Sram Red. Apparently it is common for the springs inside of them to just break. I have $20 shimano derailers that have 10k miles on them with working springs.

Anyway I had to get up, I had to put a new derailer on. Put a new cable in. Show houses, and be ready to ride at 11am. It was close, but not having a new precut cable slowed things down.

Anyway, we rode like super hard for 4 hours, home at 320. I had an appointment at 4 to show more houses. Little Somalia was raging, because it is finally close to spring. They surrounded me in a spider web of little kids. One managed to get up on the porch between me and the door, blocking my escape. The following conversation happened:

"ok guys I have to get going, I have to go to work." -me

"but you never worked before" - Ramazani (age 7)

Busted.

Ugh... Cars... Man.. Why???

2011-03-04T08:22:00.002-05:00

In case you haven't seen Portlandia yet, this is a skit from it. The show is good satire. I think it might be like Chris Rock's comedy stand-up. Everybody laughs, but if you are not a part of the group at the butt of the joke, that group will probably get sensitive if you repeat it.
Watch:

Anyway, this was on NPR yesterday:
Interview with William Clay Ford Jr. It is worth listening to. He is trying to sell hybrids to their target audience (basically npr listeners). Electric hybrids are becoming the rage, and we need to change infrastructure to accommodate them.
Solution: electric plug ins at home and work and shopping centers. This involves radical infrastructure change and changing the whole grid.

Also the problem with too many cars:
- 800,000,000 cars on the road today. 3-4 BILLION (3 - 4 thousand million) in our lifetime.
Solution: cars talking to eachother to avoid traffic. Cars knowing where to park in advance. He says, "the majority of fuel spent is looking for parking places." (Is this remotely possible? Does reverse take like thirty times as much gas?)

Seriously are people nuts? Electric power is so gnarly. Short of nuclear plants becoming mainstream, this is going to require so much more power. "Yeah man, I just plug it in and the wind turbines on the Turnpike by Somerset charge it." No, wrong dude. There is some kid in some valley somewhere in a crappy house stuck between a coal plant and all the power lines going to the mall so people can charge their cars while they buy a bunch of shit that they dont need. Super crazy nutso idea: Live close enough to shopping and work so you can walk or bicycle there.

Also, to solve the problem of "too many cars" with "smarter cars" is fairly nuts. Ideally, cars are going to communicate to avoid slow downs. They are going to move in a uniform line at a uniform speed in uniform direction. Parking will not be an issue. Wait... This sounds like A FUCKING TRAIN. Yeah, lets spend a cajillion dollars redoing all infrastructure so people can basically be on trains, but having it cost like 10,000 times more than actually just building trains. Great.

Is the unabomber's cabin still on ebay?

Full disclosure: I own a Honda Fit and drive it probably 5/7 days per week.

This will probably be the best thing that you see all day.

2011-02-18T07:59:00.001-05:00

This dude eats guys like Danny Mckwhatever for breakfast.

Pittsburgh .

2011-02-02T11:37:00.002-05:00

In case anybody missed it, Rick Sebak did a show on the Dirty Dozen. If you dont know who he is, you probably did not grow up in Pittsburgh, or you did and had cable. Anyway, he is like a celebrity, documentary maker, food critic, symbol of the area.

I have spent a few days with him, and they have been fun. He knows crazy trivia about the region.

Anyway, here is a link to the show if you have 28 minutes to watch dudes in spandex ride up hills. There are some hilarious parts.

http://www.wqed.org/tv/watch/series/its-pittsburgh/2011-01-26/

Also, if you did not read the Floyd Landis interview, the only thing to really take away from it is this quote: "and the winters in Pennsylvania are probably the worst place for cycling" - Floyd Landis

Somali holidays a month late.

2011-01-25T11:14:00.005-05:00

This happened in late December.
For anybody who does not know, Amy and I have a lot of refugee neighbors. The adults and older teenagers went through a lot. We got all of the kids some clothes that they needed and a toy. We also gave each family gift cards to the grocery store. There were about 20 kids there. I think this is the third or fourth year that we have had the party. Thanks to everybody donated anything to help this kids out. They are awesome. It makes me feel old that a lot of them don't remember a time that they did not know me.

Working full time has put keeping up with this thing on the back burner. I have been working a lot and learning a lot. It is pretty cool to have something else to put my energy into. Winter is creeping though, so its cool that I have something to do a lot of the time.

The Three Amigos as it relates to cycling.

2010-12-29T12:17:00.003-05:00

This basically summarizes cycling and drugs. One side is people saying that the impossible is impossible and the unbelievable is unbelievable. The other side saying that what appears to be true is indeed truth. One man spent his life trying to obtain something, and upon failing, believes that it is unobtainable.

From the Three Amigos

German: "I know who this man is."

Random: "You do?"

German: "Yes, it is Ned Nederlander."

Random: "Who?"

German: "You are my favorite star of the silver screen."

Ned: "Really?"

German: "In Germany, the cinema is very popular. I've seen all of your films... including when you were known as 'Little Neddy Knickers.'

Ned: "Well, that was a long time ago."

German: "It was this man who inspired me to learn the art of the quick draw."
"I looked up to this man."
"I studied his every move."
"It was my dream to be as fast as Ned Nederlander."
"I practiced every day for hours and hours."
"He was a god to me."

Ned: "A god? Well, I don't know about that."
"But it is nice to meet a fan."
"You know, often I think..."

German (enraged): "Then I found out about movie tricks."
"Trick photography."
"I was crushed."

Ned (insulted):"I never used trick photography."

German: "That is impossible. No one can be as fast as you appear to be."

Ned: "I am that fast"

German: "We shall see."

Ned: "Happy to."
"Does anybody have a watch?"
"Preferably one with a second hand."

Random: "I got a stopwatch."

German: "No stopwatch. As you Americans say,"
'We will play for keeps.'

99.9% of the people who have seen Ned's movies don't give a shit either way, its just entertainment.

Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail winter hike. Success

2010-12-20T11:54:00.005-05:00

Young Bob and myself had planned a winter hike on the Laurel Highlands Trail. Leading into it, as we all know, it has been snowing a lot. We went for it anyway, and I got redemption from my previous attempt. The mountains had a good foot of snow, and more in some places. The drifts were up to our waistlines.

Friday: Park and walk for about 6 hours straight. The longest break was 4 minutes or so to eat. Got to the shelter, put up the tarps, made the fire. We both crashed out at about 8pm. 8.5 miles or so covered.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 1

Rolling out of the lot.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 1

Broke a lot of trail. More snow than anticipated.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 1

Bob is good at sleeping and not super good at carrying wood.

Saturday: We managed to keep the fire going all night, which made for an awesome morning. 12 miles or so of hiking. The hardest few miles were all uphill, with knee to waist deep snow. No snowshoes. Brutal. 8 hours. 12 miles of walking. All of the streams were frozen, so we both made the day on a quart or so of water each. Not awesome. Thankfully somebody had snowshoed the final two miles. Bob was incapable of carrying firewood to the shelter. I carried maybe 40 logs 300 meters or so. Sucked.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 2

Kept the fire going all night, stayed warm all morning.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 2

Left some dry wood for the next people. That is going to make somebody's day.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 2

We walked through the rocks just to get snow all over us.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 2

Bob would have given anything for snow shoes here. Hardest mile of the trip.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 2

We walked along this ridge the entire long mile. I got tired of seeing this same thing for over an hour.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 2

Not yet winter.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 2

For the last two miles, somebody awesome broke the trail with snowshoes already!!!

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 2

No water all day, I went right ahead and ate some icicles.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 2

Bobby found a way to not get covered in snow.

Sunday: The low Saturday night was about 3 degrees. This made it cold, even with the fire going all night. Not intolerably cold, but cold enough that when I woke up I really didnt want to get out of my bag. I will admit to taking pictures with my iphone and looking at them in my bag rather than sticking my head out. We had our best average speed of 2+ mph. The snow was less heavy, and more airy. We cruised all day with less effort. 14 or so miles.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 3

Stoked that this stream was running... or trickling.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 3

Heading out from our shelter for the night. Low was 3 degrees or so.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 3

Bob took a photo of me.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 3

I am against natural gas drilling, but this thing was so warm. It gave us a place to sit and we could warm our hands.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 3

The trail.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 3

View down to the river, and Johnstown. We descended like 1400 feet in less than 2.5 miles after this.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 3

Me and Bobby at the Norther trail head.

From Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail 2011 day 3

Our ride home. The Chew Man! showed up in perfect time.

On the last day we found a set of car keys. I couldnt imagine hiking all day, and then getting back to the car and realizing that the keys are missing. That would be the worst. So I took them, and called the gym where the keys owner has a membership. I asked to have the owner call me. Anyway, I talk to the dude for a few minutes. Apparently he was hunting BOBCATS. No seriously. And coyote? And he lost his keys. He didnt realize until he got home, as his friend drove. Lucky him. I told him that I would mail them to him and start to take down his name. Turns out I graduated with him. We played baseball on the same team when we were six years old. What a small world...

The filthy chew

2010-12-13T09:06:00.004-05:00

So after the Dirty Dozen this year, young Bob and I discussed doing a second lap. It would be like 120 miles and 12,000 feet of climbing. We told Chew, and he had already done it in 1991 in preparation for the Thrift Drug Classic. It took two entire days to think that we should just do three.

I threw the idea at chew and he accepted. He compared it to our "historic" winter time double century (only 3 people have done them in Pittsburgh... this is all Chew talking). 12 hours out from game time, the fourth person involved, Danny's longtime friend said that we would more than likely be out on busy roads at dusky / dark, and instead suggested to do each hill 4 times in one single loop.

This eliminated what we called the triple dirty dozen, but created what Chew called "the filthy Chew."

I love this time of year when doing stupid (fun) stuff does not have me worried about it ruining the stupid bike racing.

Filthy Chew Stats:
4 starters
3 finishers (sorry young Bob)
148 avg power
1 hill impassable due to snow
2 bonus climbs up final hill to make up for lost hill's elevation
210 normalized power
17,000 feet of elevation gain (188/mile)
4567 KJ
490 TSS
10 mph avg speed
9 hours riding
90 miles
1 new road I showed the Chew man

OH YES. Bob and I are possibly headed for a hike but it looks snowy!

Anybody want to buy or sell a house? That is my new line.

what is miserable?

2010-12-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

I have been hanging out with the Chew Man a bit lately and he has me stoked. I got him to retell the story about being brutalized by the weather in the late 90's.

I feel like I have written both of these stories on my blog before. Apologies to both of you readers for that.

The story goes: He was leaving northern Columbus Ohio to ride the 200 plus miles back to Pittsburgh. It was late spring, and he thought that he would be fine in shorts and a jersey. About 50 miles in, it starts raining, then pouring, then the temperature dropped to the mid 40's. Chew said he considered stopping to buy gloves, and also considered getting a motel room. Instead, he just pedaled home.

He claims that this is what gave him the mental toughness to win his second Race Across America. Danny said that after he got home, he couldnt feel his fingertips for two weeks. I think that is kind of crazy, but it is a good example of somebody just being able to push hard.

Now I will share a story about one of the worst rides of my life.

Matt and I were a few weeks into our Great Divide Mountain Bike Route trip. It was late September at elevation. We were in central Wyoming and had just eaten breakfast in some town. A dude talked to us about our trip, and when we went to pay, he had already covered it. Awesome.

We stocked up and rolled out. We had about 200 miles with only a small "provisions" store in between. 150 of those miles had no water or food. This is all on dirt roads/paths.

Anyway, after rolling out of Rawlins, it started raining. It was like 45 degrees, we were literally traversing the contintal divide at like 7000', which made the weather nuts. There were lightening strikes and thunder all around us. The roads turned to peanut butter mud, and our temperatures dropped. Unlike Chew, I got really scared. I put on every piece of clothing that I had, I had lost all dexterity in my fingers and hands, making braking hard and would have made changing a flat impossible. Matt and I basically ended up under a rock ledge and under a tarp huddled together trying to stay warm.

I remember Matt being calmer than me. I had borderline hypothermia. My lips were so cold that I couldnt talk right. Matt loves being miserable. Matt has been vegan for a few decades AND does triathlons. Those are two of the most miserable things ever. I guess that since Matt wasnt eating some fake cheese or swimming and running, he was able to calm me down to ride the twenty miles or so to the paved road. We rode into the dark, where we finally hit pavement, and found a form of shelter to sleep under.

The next two days were spent riding through the great divide basin. The weather was sunny and nice, and ironically we were in need of water, as there was none for two days straight. All of the steams were dry. We nursed the gallons of water that we had.

The maps said that there was a potential water source after like 140 miles of none. It was a reservoir of some type. We saw it from a distance and had to climb up to it, no knowing if it was dry. Finally I saw some green grass and knew we were in luck. Sweet. We rode hard after this to the next town, and literally big ringed the continental divide along the way.

Ups and downs.

1985 USPRO championships.

2010-12-07T12:31:00.003-05:00

Just a reminder of how badass Pittsburgh was:

http://www.cyclingrevealed.com/special_features/Philly_History/Philly1985.html

Talks about the all day breakaway that included Matt Eaton.

Top 10

1. Eric Heiden (USA) 7-Eleven 6h29’39” (39.04 km/h)

2. Jesper Worre (Den) Sammontana

3. Jens Veggerby (Den) Fanini-Wuhner

4. Tom Broznowski (USA) Schwinn

5. Tom Schuler (USA) 7-Eleven +14"

6. Ron Kiefel (USA) 7-Eleven +1'40"

7. Davis Phinney (USA) 7-Eleven +1'48"

8. Andy Hampsten (USA) Levi’s-Raleigh

9. Jeff Rutter (USA) Alfa-Romeo

10. Thomas Prehn (USA) Schwinn

NOT MENTIONED

11. Chris Carmichael

12. Danny Chew

Both finishing in the same time as Hampsten.

Apparently thrift drug classic torrent HERE.

I am not going to shadyside to get zen

2010-12-02T21:33:00.003-05:00

So a yoga place in Shadyside has a "all you can do for 20 dollars" deal going on. I am taking a few weeks off the bike, and I need something to do, so I signed up. For those not in the know, Shadyside is a fancy area of the city. Sephora, mac store, coach, gap, etc.

So anyway, I am riding my bike to the studio and I come up on the super aggro bike commuter. We all know this dude, right? He is on a decent hybrid bike, pushing like a 48x13 the entire time. He keeps looking back to see if he is putting time into me between red lights. He didnt say hi when I said hello. Just some super aggro dude. We come up on an intersection where I KNOW the car in the left lane that is supposed to turn left will probably actually go straight. Of course it happens. I watch the dude FREAK OUT on the driver, even though he was like 30 feet away from getting hit. It was not even close.

Anyway, I just keep riding behind aggro commuter dude. I turn and ride up the backstreet to the yoga place. Of course the dude pops out and IS ALSO GOING TO YOGA. Great. I avoid him while doing the sign in / change routine. I put my mat down, and go out to get water. Of course, despite most of the place being empty, and despite most of the other people (except me) in the place being young attractive females, THE DUDE PUTS HIS MAT RIGHT NEXT TO ME.

Anyway, my reason for going to yoga for the winter is so I can get more aerodynamic and be faster while putting out the same watts. I am not even going to front. However this dude, and the rest of the people in the glass are all "ohm ing" and "namastse ing" and all that stuff.

Then I looked around and thought about a story Amy told me. She and her two girlfriends were riding up Smallman St last week. There are 3 parallel outbound streets and it is the least busy, and the recommended bike route. A woman with a "buy organic buy local" bumper sticker on one side of her bumper and an "Obama 08" sticker on the other side passes them while blowing the horn and GIVING THEM THE FINGER. I could be crazy, but I think Amy said that it was a Prius.

Anyway, all this crap is not related. Not at all. It is just funny that people will pay 15 dollars to pretend to be zen, and then flip off their neighbors while buying organic produce. Or I guess the point is: you can take shitty people and have them do cool things, and they maintain their shitty persona.

Maybe someday I will be able to write a story that is concise and makes sense.

Hopefully done being poor. I have a job.

2010-11-15T13:03:00.000-05:00

I have been "poor by choice" for a long time. I use the term "bohemian." It is nice to live cheaply, reuse things, not buy new stuff, etc. However it gets old sometimes. Jake jokes that I have a trustfund. Not so much. I have been getting by on a about 1,000 a month or so for the past 5 years. It has allowed me a lot of really awesome experiences, however the romanticism is almost gone.

Anyway. I have a job now. I am writing this from my office at Howard Hanna Real Estate. I am a licensed real estate agent. I am working with my brother. If you are looking to buy or sell a house in Pittsburgh, contact us. Awesome.

How being poor sucks:
- Pulling out a rear brake or derailer cable, cutting the end off and then putting that aside to use as a front later.

- taking said housing end and pulling the cap off of it to reuse. seriously.

- keeping the heat at 56 or so during the winter.

- having glasses that are approaching a decade old.

- not having been to a doctor for non emergencies in 12 years.

- ordering contacts from canada with a 10 year old prescription.

- only wearing those contacts for races so they last forever.

- having eating out be a luxury, and not spending more than $10 to do so.

- only running the dryer at night so it heats up the house.

- Having an allen key with a rubber thimble around it, plug the bath spigot in my bathroom for over 5 years cause someday I will remodel it.

- buying 3 pairs of non cycling shoes since 2002. A dress pair at goodwill, a pair of new balances on ebay used for 15 bucks and a pair of 100 dollar northface winter boots. 2002.

- Eggs, bread, bagels, milk and peanutbutter. Lots and lots.

Just a photo.

2010-11-05T12:53:00.003-04:00

Been cleaning out my closet. I have a lot of cycling stuff. Who would have thought.
Apparently I have over 10 pairs of booties.
This makes sense cause I have 13 pairs of shoes, and one of them are winter shoes, so
they obviously dont need booties.

The rapid trend of Cyclocross being little league... Elbows. Products.

2010-10-18T11:29:00.003-04:00

They started creeping up a few weeks ago in Cincinnati. There were a dozen or so kids under the age of 12 on carbon fancy tubular wheels. Whatever.

This weekend we parked near a junior. He had two matching 4000 dollar bikes (at least). His dad had a stopwatch and was telling him exactly how long his intervals had to be during his warm up (while riding said carbon tubulars on the trainer). His dad also dropped a few F bombs at his kid while "prepping" him for his race.

I dont want to dog on one person that I was near just cause I heard certain things, but honestly some people just bum me out. I give this kid a few years until he fights his dad. This is the same dad who a few weeks ago told me how to ride a section of a course, but I dont think he actually has ever ridden a bike.

Elbows:
So I am riding in a pack of four dudes yesterday. All of them were faster than me. I am third wheel. Into each turn for an entire lap, fourth wheel dude leaned on me and threw hard elbows at me. He sat on (just like I did) on the pavement while Bad Andy towed us around, but then for some reason wanted to just lean on me. I just kept asking him WTF dude? He informed me that it is a bike race and that I am a pussy and that I am pack fodder. Cool man. I saw him post race and realized that he was one of 2 or 3 dudes in the race that I could maybe beat up (It would be a toss up between me and this dude, mcgrath and bad andy). Anyway, if you want to pass me, just do it where it require skill or fitness and I will for sure let anybody around, but to try to force somebody over is just not cool. Keep that shit out of cross.

Whatever.... On to happy things! I had BOTH people who read my blog tell me so this weekend. Thanks guys! I wont embarrass you guys by saying your names. Then you cheered for me! Awesome!

Products:
I recently got aFancy Carbon Blue Norcross SL. I could be all like "this bike is sooooo much better than my last bike," but that is obvious cause my last bike was a 300 dollar aluminum redline. I will say that I also got the standard Norcross for a pitbike. It is aluminum, and it is nicer than the redline. The carbon one is sick light and real fast and accelerates super super quickly. Needless to say, I am super stoked on the Blue bikes.

Coaching. No seriously I have a coach. So for a few months I have been using a coach. I havent really talked about it yet to many people cause I didnt want to be like "yo I got a coach" then get double lapped or whatever. But I have been happy with my results, and I feel like I am going pretty good. Cross is so freaking hard to measure. I try to measure myself against guys around me, and I wanted to start finishing 1 group in front of where I used to finish, but I think the dudes from that group also got faster. I could talk about my power numbers and stuff, but then I think that in the past I said that if I blog about my power numbers you can kick my ass. So where doe that leave me?
Friday going into race day, I am sure that I am ready. There is not hesitation. I think all bike racers get it. When I walk upstairs the night before a race, I try to feel out how my legs feel, then I wonder if I am too fatigued or whatever. It is nice to go into a race knowing that you are prepped, not too fatigued, and ready to race. The workouts are not TOO far off of what I have done in the past, but it is when they are done, and how much addition riding happens. So all in all, I am really happy. And as lame as it sounds, it is nice to have somebody else to own up to. Last Wednesday, it was 45 and raining and I still went out and did intervals. I am sure that would not have happened if I did not have to send the files to somebody.

CyclocrAwesome

2010-10-05T09:35:00.005-04:00

Sat - up at 5am drive to and race charm city
Sun - race day 2 charm city drive home. 11pm arrival.
Mon - box bike up. fly to vegas
Fri - fly home at 7am
sat - amy's bro's wedding

Vegas.

Fly in Monday. Crash out at like 9pm their time.

Tues:
We are all sitting wide awake in a dark room at 5am.
We get on the shuttle to the dirt demo, running into friends along the way.
Get on a carbon hardtail 2x10 29" orbea. We all rode a ton. Stubna rode a 10 grand specialized for like 5 hours. Super fun morning.

I tried staying up late Tuesday night to get my body ready for crossvegas the next night. It starts at 9pm, which is midnight east coast time, and the time we all fell asleep the night before.

Wednesday.
Walked around a bit in the morning. Ran into famous people in the Campy booth.
Rode to the race venue from the strip. The Race Across America truck passed us and told us to motorpace off of them. Honestly a really good warm up for a race. The wheelers and dealers race looked fast. Rode some laps. Had my yuppie bike in full force (carbon tubulars and white tires!). Rode an OK race that I was happy with. We rode back to the venue, changed and went out for the night. No dinner and I watched the sun come up. Good times. Babik couldnt hang and called it a night at like 4:30.

I dont drink, so all I can really do in vegas is people watch. I found my way into a dance club and watched a bunch of 40 year old white people dancing with each other. This is "what happens in vegas..." Sublime was playing, they were all sloppy drunk trying to sort through who is left to go home with. It was pretty boring stuff. This is freaking VEGAS.... I wanted to see real debauchery. Nothing. I have seen more excitement on the southside at 3am in the middle of January. Lamers.

Anyway, I dont really get star struck. However, this was awesome...
Smile Eddy.

and on Chodroff...

2010-09-17T09:25:00.004-04:00

I am sure that you saw Jon Chodroff got caught and fessed up to cheating. I know that he used to read this blog, and I hope he is not looking at any cycling stuff right now, because nothing good is being said about him.

Jon Chodroff and I raced "together" at the Tour of Ohio and for a bit after. I remember when John (forgot to off the ipod) Minturn was like "wait until you see this dude." Dude was Jon. He flew instead of driving, and we met up with him there. He walked up wearing SUPER short workout shorts. Not in a hipster type of way, but in a richard simmons type of way. That coupled with a 2XL T shirt and super crazy messy hair. The dude traveled with 2 laptops, 1 for his cyclingpeaks (wko) and one for just standard internetting. Weird.

Jon jumped into cycling a few months prior, and was trying to become pro. He was a cat 3 at this point and had been racing for a few months. The thing is, his power numbers were probably 1.5x what mine were. He was naturally talented.

The race became a battle between Dewey Dickey (lifetime ban) and Hekman. Chod was just hanging on, putting out the power of a pro, just to try and win the Cat 3 jersey.

I harbor very little resentment. He went straight from there to NRC level racing, and didnt screw over too many people close to me. In fact, when he did race local races, its not like he freaking won, unless it had a time trial.

Cynical me says:
Jon treated cycling like the kid from The Toy treated Richard Pryor's character. He wanted the black one, no matter what the price, and he got it. Being a Pro bike racer was another check on a long list of "give mes" that a privileged kid gets. There is no money in the sport, but he did steal a lot of experiences from people.
- Living in the national team house in Belgium and racing
- Tour of California
- Tour of Taiwan or whatever he crashed out of the first day

For every dude like Jon, there are a hundred bum amateurs (and probably other teammates) that would jump at the chance for any of those. Unfortunately the act of a selfish person took them all away. This selfish person is going to use his ivy league degree to go to grad or law school, get a job and keep screwing people over... he obviously has no conscience.

He is one of 25 - 80 dudes on "the list." Why are they waiting on the rest of them? They obviously have the fucking proof.

Empathetic me says:
Jon is a nice dude. He didnt screw me over directly. I cant imagine what gets into somebody's head to make them think actions like these are normal or acceptable. Maybe this will teach him a life lesson and he can find a new career helping people who are not as fortunate as he is. It is only freaking bike racing, maybe something good will come of a bad decision.

He is one of 25 or so guys who bought drugs. He is probably the only one I had contact with....

Time will tell.

I once saw this band...

2010-09-16T09:50:00.002-04:00

(sorry this is so crappy)

In like 1999 I drove to Buffalo to see this band Farside. That and to ride a cement skatepark, cause this is when skateparks were rare, before kids were totally spoiled. Anyway.. Farside.. they were a 90's melodic "hardcore" band. A newer younger popular band opened up for them named Kid Dynamite. Kid Dynamite was made up of superstars from other cool bands.

Anyway, the place was packed. Kid Dynamite played before Farside, cause Farside were on a big national tour. After their set, the singer said "stick around for Farside..." After the intermission, I could see why the singer said that. Probably 80% of the audience left.

My heart sank. I remember feeling a huge amount of pity for them. I mean, they put out a huge record in the 90's on one of the biggest labels, and now they are playing in front of a living room sized crowd, after hundreds of people left.

"Hey, we are farside.... I guess not too many people remember us... thanks for coming out.."

Again I felt bad.

Until halfway through their first song. Then I realized that it didnt matter. These dudes had been there done that. They had toured, and had kids rocking out hard to them. They were once the IT band. They seriously played as if it was 1992 and their album was all the rage. They were not there for the crowd or the kids. They were there because it is what they wanted to be doing right then. They had nothing to prove, they just wanted to have fun.

I saw this same attitude both days this weekend at the bike game. I am happy to see dudes having fun. That is what it is supposed to be about right?

Commodification of a culture (redux)

2010-09-15T13:05:00.002-04:00

From the new Betsy Johnson spring line.

Seriously?

Last days of bike trip.

2010-09-13T12:11:00.007-04:00

This is the final 3 days of our trip.
Sorry for delays. Im sure you were holding your breath.

Out of Windsor NY was a 20 mile long reservoir. Apparently it is one of a few places where New York City gets its drinking water. I have never seen DEP police until riding through here. They were like real police but it seemed they just drove around the water looking for people dumping or sabotaging it. Neat.

The rest of the day was spent just trying to get into the Catskills. We stopped in Dehi, which has a SUNY, which meant a cool coffee shop. We found the "catskill scenic trail." It was pretty rough, be we are like Cat 1 rail trail riders, so we bossed it.

We stopped in Stamford. Not too much going on there. We camped behind a school. I managed to get my bivy sack and my bike under a bridge for handicapped people in anticipation of rain. I hate packing a wet tent.

Scenic upstate NY. This farm had a "leave money take maple syrup" stand. Awesome.

"catskill scenic 'trail'"

We finally see some mountains.

Railtrail countdown.

Camping under a ramp. Nature. Wicked helmet tan.

Woke up to pouring rain. Got ripped off for breakfast. Started riding toward the Catskills. We rode for hours straight, stopping in hunter. At times there was standing water on the road because it was raining so freaking hard. It sucked. We stopped at least 2 hours in the town of hunter and sat in a cafe. This is where the Tour of the Catskills road race finished a few weeks earlier. We were a week too early for the world cup, that would have been sick. We decided to pay for a cabin, cause it was not supposed to stop raining. I am so glad that we did, cause it rained over 2 inches in 24 hours, straight through the night and into the next day.

The cabin was awesome. We had a crappy TV with a UHF dial and a kitchen. It had electric heat, so we put all of our clothing on the heaters and turned it up to 80. It was right around 60 all day, so being wet sucked. When we woke up, it was still POURING rain. We dilly dallied and told ourselves that if we made it to Port Jervis NJ, there was a chance of taking commuter trains back to Philly. (Euro or soft, you choose)... So we rode straight for 60+ miles to Port Jervis. We missed the 1pm train and sat in the little train booth for awhile trying to get warm.
LOW POINT OF TRIP: Pulling out what I thought was my rain pants, but what turned out to be a freaking backpack cover. Good job packing steevo.
We got lunch and went to the family dollar. We bought gloves and I looked for a wool cap. It was cold. I hate being cold and wet.

Then the rain stopped! 40+ hours of rain over!

It was awesome. We headed into the Delaware water gap to cycle the Old Mine Road. This is probably one of those things that is on a bunch of "must ride" lists. It is a 40 mile road in the water gap that cars can only enter, like a peninsula. This causes VERY little traffic. Like we saw 5 cars in 40 miles. It was awesome. The rain had let up and we had a great ride to an awesome camp site.

Our final day we rode from the Delaware Water Gap to Philly. 110 miles or so. There is a cool foot bridge that we were able to take that cars cannot (hence us being able to get out and cars not being able to)... it is part of the Appalachian Trail.

Google maps led us astray and we ended up going a bit out of the way. We could have taken 611, but instead ended up on 191 (Mountain Road) for a surprise 5 mile climb.

Here is a map of this whole area. SICK!

We headed south along the river. Jersey was on our left. We were going to take the D&L towpath the whole way, but IT CRACKED US. This was the like the freaking Race Across America of railtrails. It was grueling. We only made it 4 freaking miles before getting back on the road. RAILTRAILFAIL!

I actually turned around and took this while leaving, but you get the point.

Empty old mine road. Perfect shape.

Where were these when there were tons of bears?

Could not have asked for a better campsite.

No dietary restrictions at 5,000 calories a day.

We destroyed this railtrail.

Back at the Stubna estate!

24 hours of 7 springs... boring bike racing stuff...

2010-09-06T17:49:00.005-04:00

Ben Stephens took a pic of my first lap pain face up the long ski slope climb.

My first 24 hour race of any type. "The champion challege at 7 springs." I am so tired today (day after) that I am going to write a long boring blog about it.

I got the invite onto the ProBikes corporate team. This seemed like the best way to adventure into a 24 hour race, to do it with people who have done it before, will lend you lights, and own canopies.

8 people = 2 or 3 laps each. Should be fun right?

6 hours of sleep. Breakfast and a good NPR show. First lap is still 9 hours away.

Roll up to seven springs. The atmosphere was pretty cool. There were tons of people. It was like a music festival without music but a bike race instead.

I was up 3rd, so I could watch how the exchange of the leg band worked between persons 1 and 2. The first person had to run around a lake, which I had no desire to even attempt.

My first lap I had very little traffic on the course (there was only 3 teams ahead of us at this point) and I had a LOT of energy. At this point, I figure that I am only doing 2 laps and go as hard as I can. Pass the lead teams on this lap and put some time into them.

Unfortunately, after about 6 hours in, we lost our advantage due to a mechanical. We were up by 10 minutes and lost 20 or so minutes. Ouch.

I hung out until midnight for my next lap. I thought this lap was cold, at 55 degrees, but it warmed up. I had fancy lights, good luck, and lots of energy. I turned out a decent lap time. I finished my lap, spun out for 10 minutes, drank some endurox R4 and crashed out in my Bivy sack by 1:30, with the alarm set for 6am.

LOW OF THE RACE: Being in my warm cocoon, wrapped in my sleeping bag, soundly asleep and waking up to my name being called. It was like 4:30. It was PERFECT tent sleeping weather. It was like 44 degrees outside at this point, and needless to say, kind of hard to get out of the tent.
"Steevo, we need you to start a lap in about an hour.". Uh oh.

Luckily somebody set my bike up with CRAZY lights. Like 1400 lumen headlamp and a 900 lumen handlebar mount. From what I gather, this is as bright, or brighter than one of those super annoying Lexus headlights. It was insane how bright it was. During the lap, people were moving over for me to pass when I was still 100 feet or so behind them, cause they thought I was right on them because it got so bright. Insane.

The sun came up for the last 20 minutes or so of the lap. This was incredible. I literally almost crashed cause I was paying attention to how awesome it looked. There were little birds that must have been burrowing all night on the some of the trails that would jump out of the way as they heard me coming. Amazing. I put in another decent lap.

I drank some coffee and ate some breakfast at what seemed like noon but was really 8am. We were still in contention for the win, but were down. In true bike race fashion we raced until the last minute.

My fourth, and final lap was about 10:30 am. My goal was to beat my first lap time. I knew some time splits, and at the top of the big climb, I was a minute up on my first lap. Somehow this advantage disappeared over the final 20 minutes of the lap, and I came in 25 seconds slower than my first lap. Still a good time, but not what I wanted. I got sloppy in the rock garden.

We came in 2nd overall to another really strong team. Good times were had by all. No major crashes and my fancy carbon fiber mountain bike didnt disintegrate over the brutal rock gardens.

At some point while talking to somebody I tried playing the "oh I am just a roadie" card, but got yelled at and was told that I am also a mountain biker. This was cool. Time to grow my leg hair out or something. Will do it again for sure.

Lap Times:
1st: 58:50 (2010 fast lap, which was a goal, barely beating a fast Evan Perrone by 13 seconds)
2nd: 1:02:36
3rd: 1:02:31
4th: 59:15

Full Results

Coburn - Ithica - Windsor... Photos. Soundtrack...

2010-09-03T10:01:00.010-04:00

This could be a great song to listen to. "a little too easy seems seems just a little too hard today"...

Long day in the saddle.
Out of the Grand Canyon of PA, heading into New York, and up to Watkins Glen.

In the first 5 miles we saw a bear ahead. A BIG bear. We kept riding up to it, and it decided to run down between the trail and the river. I felt like we might be trapping it, which might lead to it ripping our faces off. Instead it jumped into the water. Mike was yelling "dude can you see it.... it is swimming"... But I was more concerned with THE OTHER BEAR I could hear below us. That one also decided to jump into the water. We watched both bears swim across the river. So awesome.

We cut through the Finger lakes National Forest and then over to Ithaca. We poached showers at a campground outside of town so we could be fresh to dine at the Moosewood, a famous restaurant and cookbook. I got lasagna that had polenta instead of noodles. I meant to take a picture, but I didnt. And chocolate cake. Then Dr Stubna and I rode at night like 10 miles to an observatory to camp. We were able to see a lightening storm rolling in, which was cool, despite the rain.

Bear #1 in upper left corner, bear #2 is in the water. Awesome.

Fog lifting off of the ridges around us.

The area around wellsboro, PA was like being out west. Everything was state game lands or state forests. It was empty.

We love railtrails. This one saved us from a brutal headwind.

Watkins Glen.

Drought summer left these pools wanting water.

Finger lakes national forest. Bonus miles as we took the scenic route to Ithaca.

I like this photo. Stubs riding with a lake in the foreground (the dark blue)... as we descend towards Ithaca.

BIG waterfall. Check out the people in the bottom right. It has been a dry summer for sure. Awesome bike touring destination, we didnt even get off of our bikes to see it.

Camped on a mountain outside of town.

124.8. 9:04 ride time.

We woke up and descended back into town. We rolled through Cornell. The campus was a great mix of old stone buildings and awful 70's architecture. We got bagels and watched the freshman. I guess it is a good school or something. Dr. Stubna got a phd there in dynamical systems (get my dynamical bear bag joke?)... and I have never actually heard him tell anybody this without prompting. I ate dinner last week with some chick who was bragging about some fancy pants school that she went to for music. No I didnt not mention the dirty dozen at all during dinner. Digression...
We rolled out of town and rolled fast toward the Catskills. We stopped in Owego, which was a surprisingly nice place. Stubna napped in the town park while I paced around and read historical markers. We headed on, stopping in Binghamton. We were pleasantly surprised by it. We went to a grocery store and there was a big poster for the Chris Thater memorial crit that was upcoming.
We pushed on a bit further to the town of Windsor, where we stopped and took in some culture before eating dinner and poaching a place to camp in the town park.

Every time I camp somewhere that it is illegal, I think of the above song... "See I only want to be a Free man but it's against the law to sleep on the ground in Gods land"

Nice outlook above Ithaca and the lake.

Bike only bridge in Binghamton!

Lots of bike routes at the end of the bridge.

The town of Windsor was proud to be on the NY17 bike route.

Taking in some culture. They were an old time band. They jammed. We felt real young.

Enjoy the weekend.
Cross starts in 8 days. Wow.

Coburn - Grand Canyon PA. More pictures!

2010-08-28T08:16:00.009-04:00

We rolled out of Coburn to Milheim. Milheim was a medium sized town on the Delorme map. We figured that it would have a diner. Wrong. Gas station breakfast and gas station coffee. Such a let down after a long day the day before.
We were prepared for a mountain, but there was a "narrow" that found its way between a pretty serious ridge. Sweet. We rode lots of Amish farm roads and crossed over another mountain, into a more isolated valley of more Amish farm roads. These were a few of the best roads that I have ridden. PA state routes 192 and 880. We crossed under route 80 and headed for Jersey Shore, PA.
Yes there is a town called Jersey Shore, PA. It doesnt consist of much, but is the southern terminus for the Pine Creek Gorge (aka grand canyon of PA). If this attraction was in most other places, upon entering town, a tourist would know. Not the case here. We had to seek it out, and eventually found it. We headed north on the rail trail.

At one point we were riding along and I was like "dude a bear" pointing at one of those things that people use for archery practice. It was like 30 feet away. Mike slowed and confirmed that it was actually a bear. He looked like a cartoon!

We met up with a bike tourist riding from Florida to Erie. Mike and I slowed down our pace by 5 or 6 mph to enjoy his company. He was a 60 something retired school teacher. He and Mike went to the same elementary school. Then as a teacher, he taught a bunch of hell raisers that I knew from BMX in Erie. Small world.

We stopped in the late afternoon at a rad campground. It was right on Pine Creek, had a water pump and bathroom. The creek water was super warm (compared to Penns creek the previous day it was nearly boiling). I was amazed at how alive the river was. There were Blue Heron, tons of red faced ducks (no idea what kind they are, just they had red faces), tons of fish that you could see in the water. While swimming you can see fish all around you under water. It was pretty amazing.

We were in an amish valley for a long time. Stubna had met Amish kids on a bike trip before, and they talked about how they would leave a voice message for the whole community. This is apparently where the whole valley checks their voicemail or makes emergency calls? Neat.

Check the township!

Hey look a fake bear. Oh wait.

Blue Heron.

Super old cemetery.

1791 - 1891

Big rattlesnake.

Blue Heron

Our new friend.

Bikes, cookies and Stubs taking a bath.

view upstream

view downstream

water so clear we could see schools of fish

About 30 ducks spent hours swimming upstream then flying back down. I think they were getting dinner?

Glad Dr. Stubna engineered this dynamical bear bag.

A bike trip. Part 1. With Photos!

2010-08-25T11:55:00.010-04:00

Pittsburgh PA - Coburn PA the long way.

Saturday: leave with kids on a bus to the trailhead in Boston PA. Ride 40 miles with 25 kids to a campground on a bike trail. They ALL finish. Awesome. For some it was their first time camping. For some it was their first time sleeping away from home.

"These people are so rich they dont need fences around their yards." For real quote about a mostly lower middle class area.

Sunday: Pack the kids up and put them on a bus home. Bike trip really starts and I keep heading East on Bike route S. Ride nearly 4 hours before hitting any kind of NEW ROAD! I was clear down near Maryland. Hot freaking day. Route S was cool and safe. Went like 3 hours without any services, which means low traffic, but also means I WAS THIRSTY. Randomly rode past the Cannondale factory in Bedford. It was closed, but I was rocking my 12 year old touring bike with at least 15,000 miles on it. Love that bike. Poached a campsite just outside of Breezewood. 107 miles.

Rockwood, PA's economy seems to benefit from the trail.

Oh wow, check that out.

Monday: Rode through Breezewood. Yeah, like stopped at the Sheetz that we have all stopped at like a million times before. Instead of transferring to the turnpike, I kept going up over the hill to the abandoned turnpike tunnels. They were pretty cool. The old highway is in tact and still has the paint lines on it. You can see where the lanes merged 2 --> 1 for the single lane tunnel. The first one was short. The second one was REALLY REALLY long and kind of scary. It was probably the darkest place I have ever been. I could not see either end from the middle. My headlamp was being reflected back at me by the 100% humidity inside. Kind of scary. I was scared. Bike Route S was rad through Cowans Gap State Park. It had brand new pavement and low traffic. Also a bit of nature. I pushed on to Chambersburg, where I met Dr. Stubna and we headed north. We rode a bunch of rail trails and some scenic roads that we randomly chose up to Colonel Denning state park. We were on Doubling Gap road which of course we knew of because of some time trial or something that takes place on it, but we didnt think that either of us had ever done it. We swam in the lake an camped out. 90 miles

Scenic low traffic bike route!

Path to old turnpike.

Narrow lanes of the old turnpike.

Old tunnel that was fixed up for the movie The Road.

Rain/Fog in tunnel. 100% humidity = no headlights work.

Hey Buddy!

Tuesday QUEEN STAGE!: Started with a 15 minute climb out of the state park. Stubna is a super serious bike racer so his coach had him doing "5 minute efforts" in prep for Univest. So yeah, with a loaded trailer on a bike tour, he is doing vo2 max intervals. We rolled through some small towns before crossing another ridge (route 74) in the Tuscarora State Forest. Lunch in Lewistown, then lost for 10 miles.
We head into the middle of freaking nowhere for a nice dirt climb, and what can only be described as a 3 mile rocky doubletrack climb on loaded touring bikes. (You state college dudes, it was out of Poe Paddy State Park up to Penn's view). Then we headed down to Coburn, the site of the Wilderness 101, and a town with no water for sale or free. We poached the town park and I swam naked in Penns Creek. Stubs insisted on wearing clothing. 95 miles.

Second mountain of the day in the distance.

At the top.

We hit a time warp.

4th mountain of the day was dirt.

5th mountain. Not even a road. Barely doubletrack.

Stubna with a double crank and 25cm tires.

Every outlook we got to we wondered if it was "penn's view." Then we would climb like 10 more minutes

Penns view?

Penn's view!

More to come!

Its almost september.

2010-08-10T09:31:00.004-04:00

This weekend I am hosting a group of young urban kids on the river trail for a 40 mile day trip. They are all going to camp for a single night at the end. When we rode between the 31st and 40th street bridges I was asked if we would see a bear. This is going to be like going into the jungle for some of them. Kind of awesome.
This will be worth a blog post in itself when after it happens.

Then. I am going to ride PA bike route S until I run into Dr. Stubna. Then we are going to head north to the finger lakes. Then over to the catskills. Then down to philly. 750 - 800 miles total. Bike touring is maybe one of the best things ever. I am seriously going to spend the same amount of money in 9 or 10 days as I would simply driving the turnpike to philly and back.

I am stoked for some new roads, new scenes and some other cool stuff. 9 miles of abandoned Turnpike WITH TUNNELS is going to be awesome. If you saw "the road" you saw them come out of the old tunnel. Maybe Ill camp in it.

We are then going to head north to the Grand Canyon of PA. A 62 mile rail trail waits for us there.

The mountains are just going to be awesome. On the way back to Philly we are going to hit a traffic free 40 mile road around the Delaware water gap. Stoked.

If anybody is looking to sponsor a team of elite bike racers who just want to bike tour full time please send sponsorship proposals to us. We are looking to go PRO at bike touring.

Then I get home and start racing this cyclocross thing.

It was a beautiful place before a bunch of bike racers showed up and threw their energy wrappers everywhere.

2010-07-31T15:39:00.002-04:00

Tour of the Catskills.

- Worst part of time trials is hearing the winner's time. Oh wow he beat me by 90 seconds in a 2 mile effort!
- Bike racers are seriously the biggest much of megalomaniac dickheads alive. Yes you are racing some fast dudes,
no you are not in the tour de france, so dont throw your garbage everywhere.
- In case you thought you were in the tour de france, check out when THEY finish in a group and know that they racing on time and when you do. They dont sprint for 50th place, they hold wheels and keep the pace high to limit their losses. You morons sprint for literally 50th place.
- Bob and I got the exact same time in the time trial. I think because I have an alphabetically lower last name, I took 68th and he took 69th. Battle is on tomorrow.

Highlights:
- After driving country roads through towns for literally 3 hours, we started paralleling the highway. I wondered aloud why we are not on the highway. Bob says "oh my gps might have toll roads turned off." Guess what, it did. We saved 1.60 each. Hours of redlights and towns.
- Eating dinner after the TT, we were talking about the finish time for Saturday's race.
Somebody: "Like I think 3:30 or so"
Bad Andy: "For 60 miles!?!?!"
Somebody: "Dude we do 82 miles each day"
Andy sat there talking about how he wouldnt have come if he had known that. The look on his face for like 10 minutes was like some stranger just punched him in the stomach. He seriously had no idea.

Breaking personal power records and still getting dropped. Awesome.

On time trialing...

2010-07-21T10:39:00.004-04:00

I did a stage race this weekend where there was a TT. I admit I am horrible at Time Trials. I admit I dont train at them and have little motivation to do so. I also admit that if they were all done merckx style as I would like, I would still do poorly. However at the end of my TT I knew that I was honest. I cant say the same for the dude who placed in the top 5 who was blatantly drafting somebody as we passed going opposite directions on the course.

But lets be serious, instead of actually racing the time trial bikes, why dont we just rent out parking lots and show the bikes off. Dudes can wear dimpled skinsuits, their Snork helmets and tell you how aero their 4000 dollar zipp wheelset is rather than having you guess at 32 mph. It can be like a car cruise.

Im going to wax my time trial helmet.

Growing up.

2010-07-20T10:14:00.002-04:00

Ok I got my wheels, which is good. People dont totally suck.

I turned 30 last Friday. That puts me at the age my father was when he had me. That is kind of freaky.

I have taken a job recently where I hang out with kids and fix bikes and ride bikes. According to Amy, they are "a good group." I cant imagine what "a not good group" would be. They are like 12-14 years old, most live in housing projects, and they can get rowdy. On my birthday they guessed that I was 40. Anyway, we are going to finish the summer camp by riding 40 miles and camping on the bike trail. Should be kind of nuts.

Every year at this time I think about how hard I have trained and how I am going faster than I ever have before, but it is still not fast enough. Then I think about how a nice bike tour is in order. Yep.

Test of humanity.

2010-07-19T02:31:00.001-04:00

Left a 1500 dollar wheel in the neutral wheel truck today.
Will I get it back? I woke up just now at 2:30 am and am literally losing sleep over it.

On stuff...

2010-07-08T11:00:00.003-04:00

Stuff. Im not into buying tons of needless things, especially expensive bike racing things.

However, when something is a good product, I try to stand by it.

First: Nuun. Nuun is a calorie free electrolyte replacement. It is kind of fizzy and there are a ton of different flavors. During the Tour of Ohio I was drinking literally gallons of water a day. We were racing in 97 degree heat with humidity each day. Some of the dudes from the south were saying it was like a Georgia summer. Well I didnt cramp at all, so I assume that it worked. I am a fan, and if water tastes good, I will drink more.

Second: Vittoria Pit Stop. So I flatted a tubular tire the second day of the Tour of Ohio. Annoying. I tried putting stans sealant in it. I put it up to 80 psi, and it was good. Put it up to 100 and it blew the hole out again. Stans squirted like 20 feet across my backyard. Before peeling the tire off and being cranky, I tried Vittoria Pit Stop. It is not a liquid like Stans, but more of a foam. BOOM. The tire still has a slow leak (like 3 days to go flat), but I can deal with that. Over 5 hours it only loses a single PSI. We will see if the hole grows and it becomes a faster slow leak, but so far I am impressed.

awesome

Tour of Ohio Numbers

2010-06-26T12:25:00.003-04:00

6 - days
1 - crit
5 - road races
328 - miles
14 - hours 45 minutes of racing
4 - bottles carried on me most days
97 - degrees on the hotest day
1 - stage win
1 - day in the yellow jersey
2 - days in the KOM jersey. Kept it
2 - second overall
3 - dudes riding together that weigh under 140
3 - nights we had pizza for dinner
2 - nights we had bob evans for dinner
1 - flat tubular
1 - broken shifter
1303 - tss for 6 days
4 - bottles in my jersey at the finish of one stage
7 - years since last sleeping in a dorm.

Awesome time with Bad Andy and Fouche. Must do race.

Tour of Ohio days 1 and 2

2010-06-21T19:29:00.000-04:00

@PGH racing

yardwork

2010-06-17T14:03:00.004-04:00

Skinny Euro making me look fat.

2010-06-14T14:55:00.005-04:00

Skinny Euro dude making me look fat in a very short lived break on Sunday.

Next week is the Tour of Ohio.

Win.

2010-06-11T14:59:00.003-04:00

No, I am not talking about the oval.

First 100 people into the new Performance Bike in Pittsburgh today got 20 dollar gift cards. Then they gave you $5 per FLAT TUBE you brought in (limit 3). Then Clif Bars
and Gu were buy one get one. Plus other sales and coupons.

I walked out with 50 Clif bars, 48 Gu's, and a water bottle for 12 bucks.

Goes Saturday and Sunday too.

Getting a bike fit....

2010-06-09T14:51:00.001-04:00

Redirect! BOOM!

http://pghracing.org/2010/06/09/probikes-bike-fit/

Pretty stoked on it.

Art. Mohican.

2010-06-06T18:25:00.006-04:00

Amy and I happened past the Pittsburgh Public at Arsenal art show last week. My favorite Somali buddy had some art up. STOKED.

After last year's debacle, I headed back to the Mohican 100 to try again to win the 100 kilometer race.

Rob and I rolled out Friday with our mountain and road bikes, with the intention of racing a circuit race in Ohio on Sunday. On the way we hit sun, rain, hail, wind. Things did not look good. We arrived at Mohican campground and put up our tents while watching the clouds roll in again. Don, Montana, Rob and I all had to work to hold the canopy down as the wind picked up and the driving rain pelted us. Then the town's TORNADO SIREN went off. Awesome.

The flame was not burning for the race the next day. No flame. No stoke. No burn or want. Just bleh. The only feeling I had about the race the next day was utter indifference.

Woke up at 5. The sky was gnarly, it was drizzling, there was thunder and lightning all night, and screaming kids. It was going to be messy. I put more A&D ointment on my tender spots than I thought was humanly possible (too much info?)...

I talked to Gunnar Friday night about where the town limit sign was. There is a 200 dollar preme at the town limit sign (like 4 minutes into the race, up a big hill)...

A few things I am good at:
- starting a race too hard
- going hard for 3 or 4 minutes at a time up hill

They start the race, I figured that I am too far back, as there are clearly 4 rows of people in front of me. My super mediocre road skills put me like 3rd wheel at the bottom of the hill. I got the $200, but attached is the stipulation that YOU HAVE TO FINISH THE RACE.

I rode 4th wheel for the first 10 miles or so. Jeff Schalk, Mike Simonson, and Steve Twining were in front of me and were racing like it was a short track race. It was ridiculous. I didnt "back off," I just could not keep up. One of the three was doing the 100k. At mile 9 or so I gave up on thinking that I could win. Brad Wilhelm came up on me, and I followed him for while. Got dropped. Chased back on. He was also in the 100k and would be who I raced against most of the day.

Caught Steve Twining, who was riding with the leaders, passed him. This means I went into aid #1 at mile 16 in 3rd overall, 1st 100k. Got 20 seconds past it and realized I had a flat. Mistake #1 was not putting a tube in it at the aid station. I just put air in it and kept rolling. It was flat again in less than 20 minutes. Ugh. I went Gerry Pflug on it and hid in the woods to change my tire. He does this so people dont know that they passed him. It worked.

At one point I passed the brightest orange wild mushroom on a tree. It was phenomenal. It is rare that in the middle of a bike race I notice anything, even course markings, but this mushroom was probably a foot in diameter and was the only color in the woods besides mud and green.

Got to aid #2 at mile 35 or so, and saw Brad again. It blew his mind when I was behind him! He was chasing a ghost. Attacked him a bit and got into a group of guys AND FLATTED AGAIN.
Unfortunately keeping air in your bike tires is apparently a huge part of racing bikes. Got passed by a bunch of people.

Rolled out of aid station # 3 at mile 46 (this is where the 100k and 100m separate) and I think young Robert told me that I was still in third, and only a minute off of 2nd. I caught second plac and attacked him on one of the hardest climbs.

I cracked super hard in the last 6 miles and lost like 8 minutes to Brad from what I can gather. It would have been a really good race had I not flatted. I think he would have passed me in the final single track, or would have come really close.

Oh well, second is good too.

Mad props to anybody who finished Saturday. It was really really gnarly.

Cycling News Coverage

Pic on Cyclingnews. So messy.

Levi, did you screw your teammate?

2010-05-26T10:02:00.004-04:00

(Warning: only bike racing content.)
(also: I dont like Levi. I do like Horner)
Last stage of the ATOC. Horner bridges up to the lead group. Why? Horner Leads out the sprint... why?

Results after the TT
1 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC-Columbia 29:46:06
2 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin-Transitions 0:00:09
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack 0:00:25
4 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:12
5 Rory Sutherland (Aus ) Unitedhealthcare Presented by Maxxis 0:01:26
6 Christopher Horner (USA) Team Radioshack 0:01:32

Last 10 minutes of the race.

-Horner needs 1:32. He has 45 seconds with 5.7 to go.
-Langeveld is on the front of the chase group. Im sure Rogers put some money in his pocket.
- 50 seconds at 5k
-4.4k to go POPOVICH is on the front
-3.7k to go Radioshack has 2 guys on the front!
-3.5k to go Horner is riding like a guy not interested in a stage win.
-3.3k to go Does Hincappie have a freaking pink back wheel?

They do not show the yellow jersey group from here.

@7:10 Rogers pulls off and the Radioshack train is chasing full charge.

-Horner looks back, sees nobody and drills it from 1k.

Results of the stage
1 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Transitions 3:21:56
2 George Hincapie (USA) BMC Racing Team
3 Carlos Barredo Llamazales (Spa) Quick Step
4 Christopher Horner (USA) Team Radioshack
5 Oscar Pujol Munoz (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 0:00:05
6 Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:28
7 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack

Final GC
1 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC-Columbia 33:08:30
2 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin-Transitions 0:00:09
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack 0:00:25
4 Christopher Horner (USA) Team Radioshack 0:01:04

So the question is, if Radioshack sat on Rogers could Horner have gotten the 25 seconds to take the podium form Levi? What about the 34 to take 2nd from Dave Z or even the 1:04 to WIN THE RACE OUTRIGHT?

So much for the "dark horse" strategy.

Also from a strategy point of view. If Ryder H still won, Horner would have beaten him on GC even with the bonus time. Ryder would have finished 2nd, same as Dave Z his teammate. I think Garmin hates Columbia or whatever, so maybe they would have liked to have seen them not win.

bike racing. bike racing. bike racing.

2010-05-16T20:51:00.003-04:00

Real bike racing:

If you have not been watching the Giro, you should catch up. World Cycling Channel 2 on youtube is amazing. Stages 7 and 8 had the excitement of the classics, but were in the middle of a grand tour. Amazing.

Other bike racing:
Saturday
Did the legendary Poolesville race near DC. The race is characterized by a 1.4 mile dirt road every lap, for seven laps. By dirt, they mean gravel. Note to self: when a race is "characterized" by something, whether its a hill or a certain stretch of road, it would make sense to check that bit of the course out beforehand. The first lap I was kind of amazed by the road that we were on. Pretty awesome.

Rowley looked good, and I think the course suited him. So where do you ride to avoid crashes? At the front right? There was break right in front of us, some super strong dude started drilling it, then totally stacked it. He was on the front and he crashed. Bummer. Killed the chase a good bit too.

Otherwise the race was cool. It is not fun being up against teams of super strong dudes when they all have 5-9 guys. It is almost as unfair as deep carbon wheels.
Anyway.

I dont want to talk smack on a stupid blog, but Joe Whitman rode like a total stud. He almost brought the break back on his own. I did some chasing and attacking, but Joe bossed that. There was a PRO dude who missed the break who did not see wind until 3 miles to go. I dont really care, but he yelled at me at one point to close a gap. Maybe it is a game he plays with himself to see how long he can go until actually seeing wind (even after missing the move) and I forced him to lose against himself. Whatever.

yeah we stopped at mother truckers

Sunday
Went to Ohio for an OMBC mountain bike race at The Wilds. I got second there last year and thought that I could maybe win. I would really like to win a bike race at some point. Anyway, it was for sure not my course. Tons of roots and rocks. Like afterward, dudes who are like mountain bike racers with hairy legs and stuff were saying that it was technical, which made me feel better about myself.

Anyway, rode with the front group for most of the race. Me and another dude, Ben Ortt. I dab, he rides away. He had the place dialed and was riding way smooth. I had to ride alone for like 5 miles maybe, and hit maybe 45% of the trees during that time. I was just trying to chase him back, and was trying in a way that was not smooth, and not successful. Oh well. Lost by 12 seconds or so. The dude that beat me was a good dude. At one point I took the long way where a trail split, and he took the short, he totally waited up for the 5 seconds I had to bridge up.

Cheating.

2010-05-11T10:49:00.004-04:00

Worse than doping? A denver post story about a 36 year old who raced in place of a 40 year old to sandbag the Women's 40-49 age class of the Leadville 100. Apparently the woman was injured and could not race, so she gave the entry to her friend. However, in the end, the (injured non racing) woman took the award.

What the hell is wrong with people?

Bumper Bike

2010-05-04T09:19:00.004-04:00

This is for people not from Pittsburgh.
"Bumper Bike" as he is known locally is one of the most visible cyclists in Pittsburgh.
He is really stoked on life each time I see him. He doesnt care if you are on a fixie, in spandex, or on a junk bike, he will still smile and be stoked. He even offers to hook up your bike for you.

Pics taken from the bike-pgh board.

Come and Gone by Joe Parkin

2010-05-03T09:52:00.002-04:00

Sorry to redirect, but I got to review the new book by Joe Parkin.

http://urbanvelo.org/come-gone-by-joe-parkin/

Yes, I can read.

and on to bike racing.

2010-04-30T08:49:00.002-04:00

Turkey Hill is shaping up to be a real bike race. 120 dudes in the big boys race. Serious.

This happened Wednesday:
Amy: what is that on your forehead.
Me: Seriously. damn it.
Amy: (picking it off) What is this?
Me: Tubular glue.

As cheap of a dude as I am, I might be at the point where I am going to pay somebody to glue my tubulars. I bet I could get Chew man to do it for a bunch of old 9 speed cassettes. I cleaned off the back porch yesterday and there was literally 10 empty tubes of glue and one tub. That is a lot of time/energy wasted gluing tires to rims. What a life.

So I mangaged to finsih a bike race... boring bike racing blogging.

2010-04-26T09:38:00.004-04:00

I updated the sidebars and stuff on this blog. So now it is like a live RSS feed. I like that.

Thursday I rode mountain bikes with my brother. It was my first time in the woods in 6 months or so. I said "dude I considered doing a big mountain bike race this weekend, glad I am not going ... I would have gotten shredded."

Then it was announced that the local Mingo race was canceled.

So Mayhew and I drove down to the Greenbrier (said big mountain bike race) resort with Terry following us in his truck. Terry was driving past Pittsburgh and stopped, hoping to race Mingo with us. Instead he got to drive most of the way home to DC alongside us.

Basically, my goal was to finish the race in a not embarrassing time. To quote Marge Simpson "aim low so you can never be disappointed in yourself."

This was my first real "PRO" mountain bike race I guess. Weird. I lined up toward the back. I didnt complain when a few dudes pull the "John Minturn" and rode up from the front and turned their bikes around in order to be on the front row. I just sat there and peed myself a bit.

First lap dudes go really fast.Usual douchery occurs and guys are giving me elbows and crap. There was one dude in particular who really wanted around me. Maybe he didnt know who I was and didnt trust me in front of him? Maybe he DID know who I was and didnt trust me in front of him! Either way I could write a two page blog about the amount of energy this dude wasted trying to pass me and how I would take a ratchet pedal and close his line, or box him out. First lap, new goal: beat this dude.

I count the dudes in the lead group as they ride away, to see if I am still in the money. This is something I feel that I have gotten good at in my cycling days. I can count the dudes in a mountain or cross race to try and figure if I am still in the cash or the UCI points or whatever. It is a unique skill set. I swear to god that I counted 8 in front of me, putting me right in line to either get the last cash or not get paid. Awesome.

I got rid of Mr Elbows, and I caught a fast dude on a descent (wtf?) and rode with him for a half a lap. I have raced him before and feel that we should be friends. He is "vegan rob" and has straight edge tattoos. After a half of a lap I was basically like "dude lets not attack each other, lets keep our pace in check and just hold our position. He seemed down with that. We still had like 90 more minutes of racing to go.

Then people start telling us that we are in 4th and 5th place. How on earth that happened, I have no idea. We only passed one other pro (young joe dombrowski)... which meant either they were wrong or my initial count was wrong.

Bike racing bike racing, Rob rides away from me in some rocks.

I hold on for 5th. Sweet. First good ride of the year. Stoked.

REAL BIKE RACING:
http://www.youtube.com/user/worldcyclingchannel2: This youtube channel rules. They put up races like hours after they finish. Like every big race. The last 20k of Liege are up.

Sometimes I feel like...

2010-04-23T08:48:00.002-04:00

Mayhew posted that on my facebook wall awhile ago. It is a feeling that used to be true. Amy and I are coming up on 5 years of home ownership. Last night we discussed the first time that we walked down the street, at night, to our new house. My stomach sank. It was a mix of boyz n the hood and an unsupervised recess from elementary school. It was like 10pm and there were dozens of kids out that were under 10 years old. There were dudes using their car stereos as radios as they sat on their stoops. We didnt communicate it to one another, but we were both having a bit of buyers remorse.

Anyway, last night we took a walk through the hood. I am not sure if we are acclimated to the area, or if it has actually changed. The local park was jamming. On the soccer field, it was the punx and the somalis playing a game of football (soccer) together. I knew both groups of people, and it was awesome to see them comingling and sharing a common interest. Amy and I joked that it would be badass if the Somali kids starting wearing tight clothes and stretching their ears out. The bike kids had the hockey rink corralled for a game of bike polo, there was close to 20 of them playing... Things are looking up.

If you are looking to buy a house in yuppieville, buy this house, it is my brother's listing and he will give me money if you do.

Here is apbs article about how only 3.5 out of 10,000 people are "tea party members." The disproportionate amount of coverage they are getting in the media is pointed out. Irony of the article is that it is a media article about the tea party.

Battenkill...

2010-04-21T14:31:00.002-04:00

I might as well write about Battenkill, despite how disappointing it was. I am not sure what happened. I went into it with the goal of doing something to help a teammate pull out a result (last year one teammate went 50 miles without bottles)... or to just try my hardest to finish. Neither happened.

I jumped onto the Haymarket Homevisit team for the event. It was mostly a composite team, consisting mostly of DC area dudes, plus myself and the legendary Steve Tilford.

Blow by blow descriptions of races are awful. All that I can say is that it was really really fast. I got dropped. It rained. I rolled in with 30 other dudes who were the first 30 to get dropped. Not the plan. All that I can assume is that it was hard day coupled with really bad legs. I dont want to dwell on it or I will get pretty bummed out.

The highlight of the past two weekends (pro/am and pro invitational) was the company that it was spent with. The first week we stayed with Ed's sister and her husband. They were 30 miles from the course in Vermont. The area was beautiful. There was tons of good time, good conversation and good food. I got to hang out with Pittsburgh dudes that I have to drive 9 hours to hang out with.

The second weekend the team stayed in a converted barn that housed 9 dudes. The cool thing about being on a composite was hanging out with dudes who I have never talked to before. 100% of my impression of these dudes was based on racing and the little I knew about them. Its funny that when you are racing, you can think that somebody might not be a nice person, but when it comes down to it, you have like 90% of your life in common with them.

Thanks to Haymarket Homevisit for the chance.

Corner to corner and then some...

2010-04-14T14:40:00.002-04:00

Easter: Pack car with coffee, french press, oatmeal, bagels, peanutbutter and leave San Diego. 10 hours in car. 4 hour ride up to 8000 feet with shorts and jersey on. Drive. Camp at south rim of Grand Canyon.
Monday: Watch sun rise over canyon. Hike 4 hours. 3000' elevation gain. Drive 12 hours to Texas. Camp on side of road.
Tues: Drive 16 hours. Camp on side of road at state office building in Indiana. Finally give in and buy first food of trip for 6 dollars.
Weds: Drive. Make it home in time for the oval!
Thurs: First rainy day in 5 weeks. Do laundry and pack.
Fri: Leave early am for Vermont/Battenkill. Drive. Spinout / open up
Sat: Race Batenkill. Dropped at 70 miles or so? Maybe 75? Too much wind.
Sun: Spin out. Drive 9 hours home.
Mon: Scrape paint for 6 hours for my brother.
Tues: Officiate at the oval for the first time of the year
Weds: Pack/Laundry:
Tomorrow: Get to DC to Drive up to Battenkill with Haymarket guys.
Fri: Go to a school and talk to kids about bike racing or something near Battenkill.
Sat: Team stuff get it all together. Open up.
Sun: Batenkill / drive back to DC
Mon: Come back to Pittsburgh

Obviously there are a million stories from all this. Hitchhikers, earthquakes, dust storms, snow camping at 8000 feet without a rain fly, driving, driving, driving...

I would say the craziest of it all was that I just happened to be getting gas in Yuma, AZ as the 7.2 earthquake hit, with it's epicenter 30 miles away. I had been in the car for hours beforehand and the room started shaking. I guess it was a longer than normal quake, and for a split second I thought it was on my end. I was pretty sure that I was passing out from something or another. Freaking scary. Then I looked outside and saw the street lights oscillating.

San Diego.

2010-04-02T19:01:00.003-04:00

Well the trip is winding down. I met up with Amy and we drove down to San Diego to hang with her brother and his ladylove.

I rode my first dirtbike. It was a 125cc. The dude I went with took me on some gnarly (in my first time riding a dirt bike brain) trails. However, it was super fun.

Then we went to Joshua tree for a day. We hiked up Ryan Mountain, up to about 5500 feet. We could see Mexico and the Sultan Sea from the top. We camped on BLM lands and took Jake's car offroading. We shot a bb gun a ton.

Riding has been good. Lots of sun and intervals.

My 3000 mile solo cross country drive starts in a few days. Plans include stopping at the grand canyon and riding in some mountains. I should get back to the burgh in time to leave for battenkill and add another 20 hours a of driving over the weekend.

Highlights SD:
Saw a road named "nuevo road."
Had a 1 armed man draft off of me.
Got cool guyd by tons of triathletes.
Found some mountains.
Saw avocado trees in peoples yards.
3 dollar burritos.
99 cent 20 oz cans of diet Dr. Pragers organic rootbeer.

Maybe some pictures to come.

LA story.

2010-03-25T17:58:00.003-04:00

So I got here Tuesday the 9th. I am at the point now where I can navigate LA without a map. I have ridden a lot of the good rides. I have seen the crazies, eaten good food, checked out the ACA club champion's childhood home, seen somebody famous (maebe from arrested development!).

Today was my last ride in LA.
I was here for 16 full days. I rode 16 days. I rode 990 miles. 63 hours and 30 minutes on my bike. I got a killer tan. It rained 0 days. I like riding bikes a lot. I also like riding bikes a lot. Get it?

Tomorrow I drive to San Diego. I will hang out there with the in laws for a bit over a week before driving a car home.

Observations:

-The wealth disparity in LA is unlike any I have experienced. Everyday I see tons of poor people working really hard up keeping the other end's lifestyle.

- There are lots of people on "life tours." It is something we dont have on the east coast because of the weather. I have seen about a dozen people who totally live off their bikes. I dont think they are any different than your standard homeless person, but it is rad none the less.

- Everybody in LA drives drives like a jerk. Where I am from, if somebody is riding on you, hitting their gas and their brakes at the same time while speeding uphill at a stop sign, they are jerk. LA it is totally normal. Driving is like a bike race, if there is an empty spot, it gets taken right away. People are constantly fighting for position.

San Diego = spring break 010

Internet diary. Diaries dont have photos they have pictures.

2010-03-23T01:06:00.005-04:00

march 21 2010

Today was good. I woke up and baked granola for an hour or so while drinking my coffee. I flipped through a CrimethInc book while waiting for a friend to show up, but ended up bailing. Solo flight.

I hit the road around 11:30, heading west towards Santa Monica. There is like 40 minutes of sprawl (exact same time it takes me to get to Guys run from my house) before I hit the ocean. Once I reached the ocean, I filmed a video where I pretended the ocean was speaking to Amy and said "This is the ocean speaking, I cant wait to see you... bring Ramazani."

Then I headed north. I took PCH 25 miles up to The Mulholland Highway. Despite it's name, it is not a highway at all. I rode for 45 minutes before I saw a car. The climb switched back over itself like a million times (see drawing). When I turned off of PCH I was nervous that it looked overcast in the mountains, but after a few miles I was above the clouds I had seen.

I rolled Mulholland for a long time. I stopped at a fruit stand and bought 2 oranges and what I believed to be a tangelo. There was a communication barrier between me and the fellow selling them, but I do think it was a tangelo.

Then I turned on Old Topenga Rd and climbed up to the town of Topenga. Topenga sounds like it used to be neat. Neil Young, Charles Manson, Woodie Guthrie and a few of the Beach Boys have all lived there. It used to be an artist colony. Now its just rich people who pass cyclists too closely in their cars!

Back on PCH to Santa Monica and through Brentwood (think OJ simpson). I was kind of thirsty and hungry cause I was at mile 90 and had only taken in 2 bottles and 450 calories when I saw my new best friend. She was 4 and had just set up her business selling lemon aid. The lemons were apparently fresh squeezed and it had watermelon mixed in. I talked her into filling up my bottle for a dollar. Im really not sure who won out on that deal because the cups she was selling for a quarter were kind of big.

I rode back to my residence, stopping at the bakery for a coke and a cookie.

Then I rode back and forth in the driveway for .1 miles (5 times) to get the full 100 miles in.

Then Matt and I walked to the Thai restaurant. The woman working tried to talk me out of buying the food I wanted because it had durian fruit in it, which apparently smells like battery acid and vomit mixed with diesel fuel. It tasted ok though.

Then we went to Jons, which is the poor man's Vons. Vons is like Ralphs, which is like giant eagle. Get it? Matt's neighborhood is nuts. It is where Thai town meets Little Armenia. The grocery store has so much crazy food and crazy people. There are always peppers there that I have never seen, and today they had mini eggplants. Also had a pack of trannies and one of them had a bluetooth in, which was just kind of funny. Sorry if that is insensitive.

Then I made juice in the juicer.

The state of cycling.

2010-03-22T12:51:00.002-04:00

My take on cycling in LA, and what is possibly a national trend.

Velonews had an article yesterday where they cover what can only be described as an alleycat race. "Alleycats" started out as messenger races, and have morphed into something bigger it seems. There are entire calendars of races, racers, and a race culture that has very little to do with shaved legs, USA Cycling, the UCI, etc. (Sidenote: velonews, there are other races happening, maybe you should cover some of the East Coast racing that happens every weekend?)

Sunday was the LA marathon. This means closed streets right? Why not throw a bike race on the streets of the marathon before it starts? At 4 am, close to 400 people showed up to race the marathon course. A bicycle messenger world champion (yes seriously) flew in from New York to race it. 400 people at 4am. No permits, no insurance, no permission. Just doing it.

It seems events like this are becoming more popular. Rapha is known for their gentlemen's rides. It is like a brevet but shorter and faster. Levi has been putting on a gran fondo series that draws THOUSANDS of people. You dont need a license, but it has insurance, there is a winner, it is a bike race.

There are very few people out there who are willing to bust their ass to put on insured, sanctioned races. So when promoters stop promoting, and insurance, cops, and lawyers prevent other races from happening, they will still happen. Kind of. But is it racing if it doesnt show up on bikereg or USAcycling.org?

Routines and the internet.

2010-03-19T13:29:00.004-04:00

So this past week I found myself getting up, eating a bunch of food, drinking a bunch of coffee, and then setting out for the Santa Monica Mountains. After just a few days of this, I found myself already in a routine. How do I know? Well, in a city of just under 10 million people, I ran into the same Brinks truck driver leaving the same bank two days in a row. Coincidence right? Then six miles later, I ran into the same commuter on a recumbent as the day before. Weird. If you are going to have a groundhogs day like routine, you might as well get in good rides in the mountains.

Some dudes have blogs where they just take pictures of themselves riding. I am above that, so I have hired a camera crew to document my epic riding.

Oh speaking of epic riding, I was doing some SLOW riding in Griffith park and saw a rapha condor dude. I gave him the wave, and he ignored me. Well, I was on the loop, and made a point the second time to say "HELLO" with a wave. Still denied. The dude was super pro looking. Dope kit, dope matching bike, the whole deal.

So I was enamored, and wondered why this super epic PRO dude was in LA. I know barely anything about the team, except for what I learn while watching English races on the internerd.

Anyway, I did some googling and realized that he may have been on the Rapha Condor Club Team. I hope he paid the extra 1500 pounds to have a pink striped jersey to snub me in the local park. Awesome.

earthquake. fargo st.

2010-03-16T11:12:00.003-04:00

I felt my first earthquake last night. Being jet lagged and only getting 6 or 7 hours of sleep caught up to me finally and I crashed hard. I fell asleep at like 9pm. I woke up in the dark to the house shaking. I thought it could have been a dream, but there is a drum set in the living room, and the cymbals were ringing pretty good. 4.4 magnitude. I thought it was kind of rare, but then I saw this list. Chile seems to have 5 a day.

I happened to be here, and we happened to be riding past the Fargo St hill climb. For the yinzers out there, I was pretty impressed with the hill. It was very much like Logan St out of Millvalle.

I got a patch!

Nerdage:
Week 1 was 5 days (arrived on Tuesday, so only rode weds-sun)
Ending Duration Distance TSS
3/14/2010 22:10:33 350.69 1117

The hype on California is real...

2010-03-15T02:57:00.004-04:00

So my vacation has been awesome. I headed out to visit my buddy Matt, and get some fun riding in.

Highlights so far:
-A Lamborghini with a trunk rack, and a bling BMC on the rack. Seriously
-Multiple 7 - 10 mile climbs.
-Back to back 6 hour days in the saddle.
-More Latin Americans in LAX than possibly all of the Pittsburgh region.

I realized that it has been over 5 years since I have lived in a "group living situation".. .aka a punkhouse. Matt is still holding it down pretty tight. 5 people under one roof. I forgot what it was like to always have people around. I forgot how much I used to hang out in the kitchen of all the houses (for some reason congregation always happens in the kitchen). Fun times the past few days for sure.

knucks at 4500'

Poor house guest? Or awesome one?

2010-03-11T10:44:00.005-05:00

Found this in the house where I am staying.

I fixed it.

Going out to Malibu for some 20 - 30 minute climbs today. Sweet.

Went to The Silver Lake intelligenstia coffee shop yesterday. I swear it is the exact place where David Cross was when he wrote the bit about LA being the land of the deluded.

I am the crazy one? Seriously?

2010-03-05T11:16:00.004-05:00

Google maps cannot keep up with the sprawl that is Cranberry Township.
I rode past this gem of a street, and vomited in my mouth a little. Its not even on google maps yet.

"Walden Pond Lane"

Here is the MLS listing. For non Pittsburgh people, 700k is like 4 billion dollars elsewhere.

So the house has 4.5 bathrooms, goes for a huge amount of money, replaced farmland with sprawl and is in a subdivision named "Walden Pond" on a road named "Walden Pond Ln."

Should I be offended? Or should I laugh at how ridiculous it is?

I picture some super bitter group of people who are responsible for these housing plots. They are probably trained urban planners or architect who were forced to replace their idealism with a decent paycheck. I picture them having office polls about who can come up with the most ironic, meaningless name. Maybe they have like a big presentation at the end of the year and give out awards. I hope this one wins.

For those of you like Bob, please read at least the wiki page on walden.

Also a great man, and lifelong cyclist Ken Kifer who was struck by a car while riding and died a few years ago, has great notes on Walden.

Because I just figured this out...

2010-02-26T16:53:00.002-05:00

Im sure that you know this, because you are probably smarter than me, but:
The dude that Horner gave a ride to awhile ago...

is the same dude that got a Silver Medal in the Nordic Combined.

California dreaming...

2010-02-18T08:05:00.002-05:00

Bike (or lack of) stuff:

No I actually have a plane ticket. March 9th I am gonzo to hang out with Matt! for a bit. He contends that LA has amazing riding, and that I will have people to ride with. It was 80 there the other day. I had delusions of doing Redlands and San Dimas... but not having ridden my bike in 10 days would probably make that hard. Jake said Redlands is "really really really hard"... coupling that with poor fitness is not good.

I remember like 15 years ago, I was hanging out with a BMX dude who was talking about all the traveling he has done. At the time, we would all pile 5 dudes and 5 bmx bikes into a car and drive across 4 states to ride new trails for a weekend, then drive home. He thought it was weird that he had been to so many cities, but never experienced them. Sometimes I feel that way about cycling. I have raced a lot of places that I would love to have simply just ridden. Green Mountains, Battenkill, all those mountain bike trails...

Anyway, so my plan is to go out there and ride a bunch, suck up some new roads, maybe do some sort of riding that will get me fit and come home and enjoy the 40 degree rains and probable floods.

Life stuff:
In 1998 my dad bought a Dodge colt new for less than 5,000. In 2000 he was still driving it. He was the president of his company, and by far had the shittiest car in the lot everyday. At that point, the seats were literally held together with duct tape. The car had no power steering, no power windows, NO RADIO, no AC. Guess what, when he got rid of it in 2000, he gave it to my brother who drove it for a few years. It ran until the bottom rusted out and it would no longer pass inspection. My brother then drove it through the woods, and traded it to a junkyard in exchange for the tow out.

Today NPR had a story about the "GM Sunshine," a 5000 dollar minivan available only in china. In the article, they interview the General Manager of GM (GMGM?) and he pretty much states everything that is wrong with some 'Mericans.
-they need gadgets.
-they need SIX TIMES the horsepower of this thing
-they need leather seats
-they need the ability to go 80 miles per hour from a standstill (insert super long rant about seeing the cars sit on the parkway everyday and wondering what the AVERAGE speed of the average American commuter is)...
-they need to pay six times as much

And all of the previous were fine if it is what you want,but the bottom line is what could be a 5-7 thousand dollar car, suddenly becomes a 30,000 dollar car...
Bring me the 5000 dollar car please.

Fifteen wrote: "a little too easy, is just a little too hard"...

I've been having a hard time trying to justify
The clouds arising from the cars we drive
And a little too easy seems just a little too hard today
And I'm afraid my children are going to have to watch the world waste away
Been having a hard time trying to accept the fact
That paying money for four walls leaves the slavery intact
And a little too easy seems just a little too hard today
And I'm afraid my children are going to have to watch the world slip away
I know, I know, I know, life has become slavery
Costs two dollars a minute and additional charges to pray to god today
See I've been looking for some guidance but the voice on the phone ain't got a damn thing to say
And a little too easy seems just a little too hard today
And I'm afraid my children are going to have to watch the world fade away
I was born a little too late to see the dream that they called America
See I only want to be a Free man but it's against the law to sleep on the ground in Gods land
And a little too easy seems just a little bit insane
And I'm afraid I'm going to have to run for my life one of these days
I know, I know, I know, life has become slavery
The ground is my body, it's been poisoned with lead and junk food and toxic waste
The sky is my mind it's been clouded with cigarettes and fluorocarbons and petroleum distillates
The water's my heart, it's been broken with booze and drugs and shooting up paste
The sun is my spirit, it belongs to all of us, I guess we're all one sick race
And autonomy shall reward itself with freedom
And humility shall reward itself with peace
And the dissolution of possession and the integration of humanity
Shall bring forth a sharing of our responsibility
For our lives and our earth

Sn-OMG!!!!!!!!. What bruegger's, you want to raise your prices??

2010-02-06T17:23:00.007-05:00

So today I had to get up crazy early to beat the 84 year old neighbor to her sidewalk. She came out while I was shoveling her walk and said "I dont want you to slip and fall and get hurt, or get sick." I imagine this is what her children probably told her and she was just passing it on. She is 84 and lived in the house her entire freaking life... awesome.

So I am a big fan of the "day old" bruegger's bagel basket. 6 bagels that are a day old for a cheaper price. It was $2, then $2.5, and now $3. So I have taken to try and make my own bagels, as I can easily eat a dozen per week. This was the best recipe/result yet.

Whole wheat homemade bagels

Math:
5lb (20 cups, 40 bagels worth) whole wheat flour = $3.00
5 active dry yeasts =$2.50
1.5 t salt = .05 tops
1T organic fancy sugar = .10 tops
1T veg (i used olive oil cause im a yuppie) =.10
water and oven heat = negligible

5.75 for 40 bagels
Less than 15 cents a bagel.
Day olds are now 50 cents each, the price a regular bagel was 5 years ago.

Easy directions:
Mix:
4 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 t dry yeast
1T sugar
1.5 t salt
1T oil.
2 - 2.25 cups warm (90 degreeish... too hot will kill the yeast)

Knead the dough for 10 minutes.

I squared it off to make an even cut.

I tried to evenly cut the square into 8 slices (2 cups flour per bagel), then made "bagels" out of the slices. Supposed to let these guys sit for 10 minutes to let the yeast do what it does.

Preheat your oven to 425 and lightly grease a pan.
Boil the "bagels" for 2 - 3 minutes, flipping halfway through. These did not float, but the last ones did?

Put the boiled bagels on the pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes on each side. Careful, this is where finesse comes in, dont let them in there too long or they can burn.

These are like a commercial saying "dont overpay for bagels, look how beautiful they are"

Honestly, if I can do this, anybody can.

Lack of posting. Sorry. Very emotional, equally as not thought out post.

2010-02-05T10:41:00.005-05:00

It is winter, I am in full hibernation mode. Sorry for the lack of posting, but I am not about to just write about how much I am riding, as there are enough blogs that talk about that.

I remember when I fell in love with The Smiths. It was my first month of living on my own. I was 17 and making a huge transition. I lived with 5 or 6 others. My bedroom was a closet that only fit a mattress and a small dresser. My rent was like $125 a month, so my days basically consisted of riding my BMX bike around and eating 4 dollar pizzas. One roommate had just gotten back from bumming around for a year. He traveled so much that his day consisted of cooking breakfast, and then playing black sabbath on his guitar, then watching PBS until he fell asleep. Anyway, he picked up a live bootleg somewhere in his travels, which I borrowed and listened to on repeat.

Dont get me wrong, their albums are really good, but their live sets are some of the best things ever recorded. Anyway I was listening to one recently and the lyrics really hit home.

It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes strength to be gentle and kind...

I sometimes think that one of the hardest things is to not deteriorate into a lot of the people around me. CYCLING CONTENT: I especially think that this is hard when one spends a lot of time riding bikes on the road. It is my opinion that when people enter their cars, they become some sort of evil twin of their former self. Yesterday on a rural road in the middle of nowhere, my cycling buddy and I were aggressively honked and yelled at by a woman easily pushing 75 years old.

This is everyday, several times a day. Obviously the awesomeness of riding bikes all the time does not get outweighed by the people who act as if it their job to try to ruin my day. However it begs the question of how happy the average person driving past me in their car actually is. When I really think about the anger and hatred that it takes to honk or scream obscenities at a stranger for taking up 30 seconds (which will be made up by speeding) is fairly mind blowing.

We had better watch out, or the plot of ghost busters is going to come true and all of the negative energy in the world is going to form a super monster hell bent on destroying us all.

The Smiths live Meervaart Amsterdam 4.21.84

Bike riding. It's not funny anymore.

2010-01-25T17:56:00.002-05:00

Saturday we had a real group ride. There were so many people heading out Noblestown Rd that some dude standing at a bus stop asked if buses were running on their normal schedule even with the event. What event? 8 dudes riding on a Saturday in Pittsburgh.
Awesome.

Husker Du - It's not funny anymore

You can do what you want to do
You can say what you want to say
You can think what you think you want
It doesn’t matter anyway

It’s not funny anymore

Play what you want to play
Hear what you want to hear
Don’t worry about the result
Or the effect is has on your career

Act like you want to act
Be what you want to be
Find out who you really are
And don’t pay any attention to me

If you like to download music: http://www.mediafire.com/?cwyndhong2g

2010 so far.

2010-01-19T09:16:00.006-05:00

2010.
I took up cross country skiing. I skied 13 hours in 5 days, then the snow melted and I started riding bikes again. I was lucky twice. The first day I owned skis I went to North Park and ran into two women skiing. They were actually both ski instructors. Having never even downhill skied before, I thought it was going to take me a long time to get it. However, much like cycling, there is a sharp learning curve and after only a few hours I was pretty good to go. Then I was lucky enough to go with Sharon to the big mountain where there 20+ miles of trails. She has been doing it a long time and stopped me from making any Noob moves.

Other things:
A good blog
Cycling Inquisition interviewed me about making those dumb cartoons. However, the blog is pretty awesome and worth reading.

We/I are working on 2010 sponsors and the team. We have some frames and tires lined up it looks like. ... awesome.

self fulfilling prophecy

2010-01-03T14:30:00.004-05:00

Most cyclists in the Pittsburgh area know frick park. It is a huge city park with lots of mountain bike trails. It is in the east end (where most of the hip kids live), and is generally pretty rad. It is a standard ride for me to ride there, ride most or all of the trails, then ride home and get about 2 hours in.

That was today's simple plan. That coupled with the the possibility of a Schenley Park bonus loop if my feet were not too cold. As a non engineer, non crafty person, I came up with a pretty simple idea to try and keep my feet a bit warmer. Today was like 7 degrees when I left, with an 18mph wind.
I cut some tarps up, doubled them over and screwed bolts into the holes for the toe spikes. I figured this would seal them up well enough to block some snow and wind. It would also create a non breathable layer to help my feet stay warm.

Photos of my rig job.

So anyway, I get there a bit late and pedal around looking for Mayhew, Rowley and Hoffman. I am on my crossbike and they are on their mountain bikes. I didnt know how long I would even be able to ride with them, and I was running late. I rode up to where they were parked and thought about where they would go after that trail. I ended up on the ridge trail behind the new Environmnetal Charter School.

I was riding along when I came across a typical East End guy. He was wearing North Face gear, had a dog and was exercising. As I approached he verbally tried slowing his running dog down. This is a typical thing dog walkers who are pretending to care about anybody else do. Its like when you know somebody is going to get up and grab something, but you fake starting to get up and are like "oh you got it? cool."

Anyway, his dog blows past him and runs at me. I just keep pedaling and smile at him when I realize his dog has turned around and started chasing me. As weird as this might sound to some, it is totally standard to get chased in Frick by dogs. It is a part of riding there, despite there being signs everywhere threatening fines for doing otherwise.

So I have to admit that I ride with people who bring their dogs along. My brother takes his dog to Frick all the time. The google link above has a video of a friend's now deceased dog, and a link to the DirtRag editor's photo of 2 dogs. None on leashes. I generally dont mind, as I think MOST people are reasonable and they know their dogs well enough to judge their behavior.

On the flip side, when a dog walker gives me attitude for not slowing down at a dog that charges me, or when I get chased and nipped at, I try to convey to the owners that they are breaking the law and should really put the dogs on leashes.

Mayhew and I have gotten into debates over what is cool and what is not regarding dogs. He has 2 big dogs that I have never had a problem with, and I dont think they have ever caused any problems. My points are basically that it is racist to think that white yuppies should be allowed to disobey the law and you should not fear their dogs, however if a bunch of black dudes from Homewood started walking pit bulls around Frick without leashes, I think the law would quickly be enforced. Also my little Somali buddies are forbidden by their religion to be touched by dogs, and I am sure as East End liberal yuppies, most dog walkers would want to be culturally sensitive while walking dog, before driving their Volvos the 3 blocks from Frick to the food coop

I have gotten into a few verbal matches with people that pretty much boil down to me saying "you are breaking the law, if I kill your dog because it runs in front of me while I am bombing down single track... it is going to be a double whammy when I sue you because I mess up my bike or my body while killing your dog."

Sorry, back to the story again... today I am riding along and in a great mood. It is 7 degrees, I am riding, the conditions are great, I am not cold. I look over at this dude's happy dog that is chasing me, and say "my brothers dog is so much faster than you" in the voice that you use talking to an infant or a dog. I look up and keep pedaling until I feel this giant dog bite into my thigh.

He didnt nip at it. He didnt just hit me with his nose. I have had a puncture wound before and I know what it feels like. I stop and turn around, screaming at the owner that his dog just bit me. The owner says "dude" and "sorry" like 500 times. I have about 30 seconds to decide this dog's fate. I tell the guy that I think if I call animal control the dog will be destroyed (I used the F word like 30 times and may have told him that it should have been destroyed)...

I pulled down my pants and realize that I do a pretty poor job shaving my legs in the winter, and that the dog indeed broke my skin and that I was bleeding and already bruised.

I should have taken his information and made him give me like millions of dollars cash while threatening to have his dog killed. Or at least take his fancy 600 dollar snow outfit. Instead, I rode off as he apologized a bunch more.

While riding out I passed a half dozen dog owners letting their dogs run the main trail off-leash. I actually got nervous for a second. When leaving the park, I saw Rowley and Hofman, they said that MAYHEW GOT BIT TOO!!!!!!! Different dog though.

I got home, scrubbed the cut with antibacterial soap for 10 minutes then dumped alcohol and peroxide into it.

Yes this is my thigh.

This is the maddest I have been in awhile.

In search of Burt Hoovis' house.

2009-12-29T10:17:00.001-05:00

Found it. Burt is nothing but class.

Somali xmas rager.

2009-12-24T09:42:00.006-05:00

So Amy's mom convinced her coworkers that instead of buying each other scented candles and lottery tickets, or whatever crap office workers buy one another, they should all sponsor a Somali refugee from the hood (mine and Amy's neighbors.)In years past we had just donated used toys and things, which was awesome, but this year each kid got to open a new gift. All 14 of them. Some people from outside her office gave Amy's mom money, with which she bought a shop n save gift card for the Grandma/Matriarch of Little Somalia.

They were all really stoked and it was a good time. Somehow my favorite dude didnt end up with a gift. I bought him a 7 dollar soccer ball. Best 7 dollars spent in a long time.

Photo Summary:
We had pizza. We opened gifts. We had them write and read thank you cards. Oriel, my brother in law who is black but not Somali, told stories about fishing on his Island to the kids. Santa showed up. We had cake.

Little Ibihim fell asleep so hard in the car on the way home he was snoring like an adult. I carried him to his door. He woke up and said "Where is my train..." That is nice.

Laurel Highlands Trail Fail....

2009-12-20T11:58:00.013-05:00

I generally dont like quitting things. At a certain point being safe trumps being epic. Oh well, another day.

Day 1.
Hiked in to the first shelters. Cooked some food. Some guys from Ohio showed up and invited me to their shelter to help better stay warm. I declined at first, but went over when the sun finally went down. They had a raging fire. 5 of us and a fire kept it super warm. Then at like 9pm a woman hiked in solo in the dark. Dang. 6 people in a shelter + 2 dogs = warm.

Day 2.
Long day. Started with a 3 mile climb. Scenic views. Had people leapfrogging all day. Ohio dudes went home. Checked in with Amy. Rad shelters at night on a cliff. Nice fire. Warm. NewfriendLex and I hung out and ate food.

Day 3.
Another long day. Walked forever. Through 7 springs. Ended with the forest ranger giving me and NewfriendLex a ride around the Turnpike because the bridge over the road was closed that day due to it falling down. Weird.

Day 4. Wake up with snow IN the shelter. 8 - 10 inches of snow on the ground. Camera dead due to cold. REALLY hard day breaking trail through the snow all day. Days 5 and 6 were supposed to be 12 mile days. I bailed on it. The area the trail goes through for those two days has 1 road crossing over 24 miles. The pace I held on day 4 while breaking snow would have left me hiking from 6 am to 6 pm and it was hard enough to find the blazes in the daylight with all the snow. I hiked about 44 miles total in 4 days.Good times.
Another day.

packing my bags.

2009-12-14T12:35:00.004-05:00

So the no bike riding continues this week as I head out to hike the 70 mile Laurel Highlands Trail from Ohiopyle to Johnstownish. Starting Wednesday morning.

Things that might hold me back:
- I developed a head cold in the last 24 hours
- I have never hiked in the snow
- I have never camped in the winter (have camped in 20 degree September at 10,000 feet, but technically not winter)
- I have not done a hike longer than 4 days
- I have to start with 14 lbs of food.
Things I have going for me:
- I would like to make it.

The head cold is the only thing that really concerns me at this point.

I have food packed. Gear packed, and am ready to roll. I have invested 40 dollars in this at this point, so I am going to go for it even if I am sick.

-Bag: North face bag borrowed from my bro
-Snowshoes: Yakima ebay specials for 60 dollars that are 9 years old
-boots: North Face fancy winter boots from REI outlet at 60 bucks.
-Bivy: North face Trek Bivy. Allegedly good down to like 0.
-Bag: Old campmor down bag rated to 20.
-pad: there is only room for my therma rest extra light
-stove: decided to take my MSR pocket rocket ISO stove. Shouldnt be cold enough to freeze the fuel.
-msr miniworks water prufier

It is going to be 25-33 degrees the whole time. I am only afraid of like 34 degree rain. With that fear in mind I packed a heavy parka that is waterproof and breathable, and also some Pearl Izumi Amphib gloves.

I bought an orange hat and have an orange vest to wear so when I get shot it isnt actually my fault.

-Food:
Breakfast - 6 days of oatmeal+raisins+peanutbutter+sugar
Coffee- stoked to have my titanium french press!
Lunch - 6 days of whole wheat tortillas with raisins and peanutbutter
Dinner - 6 days of couscous with prepacked lentil indian meals on top
Snacks - dried mangos, gorp, nuts, chocolate

Weather is as good as it can be.

All the dudes are already doing base and serious bike racer stuff. I am falling behind. Whatever. Adventure is good right? Hopefully I dont get too sick and can finish.

Speaking of bike racing... I really thought Wells would win nationals. Happy to see Johnson there though. He seems like a good guy, however Wells did ride our BMX trails 15 years ago.

I would rather be riding.

2009-12-11T11:26:00.002-05:00

Week off = being productive for once.
Early X-mas gift for the Amy's mom. Installing hardwood floors for a few days left: my ears ringing from the saws, my knees sore from being on them all day, and my hands all blistered and torn up. Did not lose any fingers. I am most proud of the threshold between the rooms. Next up: possible winter hike?

\ racing ...09 recap. If I didnt race bikes I would have lots of free time.

2009-12-09T10:15:00.007-05:00

Done racing bikes for the year. 1900 miles or so raced. + 21 hours of cross. 71 races started. I had a power meter this year, so it is kind of neat to look back on the data (not the power data as much as distance/time)...

High Month: Included riding down to the beach.

month | duration | distance (mi)
Aug-2009 | 91:39:30 | 1339.95

All of the other months until September hovered between 950 - 1100 miles. I stopped keeping data at the start of cross. I am guessing I will end up with somewhere around 11,000 miles for 2009.

I honestly think the highlights of the year were
- Riding in Colorado in the Spring.
- Doing Battenkill as a guest on haymarket
- Bike trip to the beach photos 1 photos 2, and photos 3

I am putting my race bag away for a few months. Trying to plan some winter adventures.

I spent my first day of the off season putting in new wood floors for the kind of in laws. 14 hours straight or something. They look awesome. Will finish tomorrow and maybe post pictures if I dont mess them up too bad. I feel like I got hit by a train from being on my hands and knees so much.

I havent touched a bike since sunday.

---road/mtb-------------
3.28.09 - malabar farms Road Race. 50 miles. 4th place
3.29.09 - Mingo 1 road 50 miles. field
4.5.09 - Philly 2 day. 35 miles. field
4.11.09 - Morgantown RR. 50 miles. 8th place
4.18.09 - Battenkill RR. 80 miles. 17th place
4.19.09 - Battenkill RR. 110 miles. DNF!!!!!!!!!
4.26.09 - Ephrata RR. 70 miles. Field
4.27.09 - Ephrata TTT. 8 miles.
4.27.09 - Ephrata crit. 35 miles. Field
5.2.09 - Turkey hill. 72 miles. 12th place
5.3.09 - Alliquipa series. 35 miles. 11th
5.10.09 - Alliquipa series. 35 miles. 4th
5.17.09 - OMBC The Wilds. 20 miles. 2nd *mountain bike race
5.24.09 - Alliquipa series. 35 miles. field
5.30.09 - Mohican 100k. 62 miles. 1st with my first DQ.*mountain bike race
6.6.09 - Tour of Tucker county. 60 miles. 10th
6.7.09 - Riverview GP. 25 miles . field
6.14.09 - Murad RR. 72 miles. field
6.21.09 - Fort Cherry RR. 56 miles. 12th
6.28.09 - Raccoon Rally NY. 50 miles. 5th
6.29.09 - Raccoon Rally NY. 25 miles. 2nd * Mountain bike race
7.4.09 - Barbour Detour WV. 50 miles. 10th
7.12.09 - Renfrew RAS. 85 miles. 3rd
7.19.09 - Mountain race in WV. Broken bike DNF
8.1.09 - Wilderness 101. 101miles. 16th *Mountain bike race
8.9.09 - Kinzua Classic. 62 miles. 3rd
8.15.09- Tour de millersburg. Stage 1. 35 miles. 24th
8.16.09- Milersburg. Stage 2. 10 miles. 42nd
8.16.09 - millersburg. stage 3. 90 miles. field

-----training races------
4.8.09 oval 17.5 miles 15th
4.15.09 oval 20 miles 14th
4.22.09 oval 20 miles 7th
4.29.09 oval 20 miles field
5.06.09 oval 22.5 miles 6th
5.13.09 oval 22.5 miles 3rd
5.20.09 oval 20 miles 10th
5.27.09 oval 22.5 miles field
6.3.09 oval 22.5 miles 2nd
6.10.09 oval 25 miles field
6.24.09 oval 25 miles field
7.1.09 oval 20 miles field
7.08.09 oval 20 miles field
7.15.09 oval 25 miles 11th
7.22.09 oval 25 miles 1st
7.29.09 oval 22.5 miles 8th
8.05.09 oval 22.5 miles 8th
8.12.09 oval 22.5 miles field
8.26.09 oval 22.5 miles field
9.2.09 oval 20 miles field
9.9.09 oval 20 miles field

---------Cyclocross-------------------

9.13.09 - Wendy Park Cross, OH. 2nd
9.20.09 - Nittany Cross. PA. 12th UCI C1
9.21.09 - Charm City. MD. 12th. UCI C1
9.24.09 - Cross Vegas. NV. 56. UCI C2
10.3.09 - BCA Cross. MD. 5th
10.4.09 - Grove City MOM. PA. 1st!
10.9.09 - Darkhorse Cross. KY. 16th UCI C2
10.10.09- Biowheels. OH 21st UCI C2
10.11.09- Java Johnny Cross.OH 15th UCI C2
10.18.09- CX my Heath. OH 4th
10.24.09- Murrysville Cross. PA. 2nd
10.25.09- Raccoon Cross. PA. 2nd
10.31.09 - Beacon Cross. NJ. 23. UCI C2
11.1.09 - Highland PARK. NJ. 20. UCI C2
11.7.09 - Wayne Scott cx. DE. 7th
11.8.09 - Taccino Cross. MD. 2nd
11.14.09- Kent State Cx. OH. 1st
11.15.09- Cap City CX. OH 2nd
11.21.09-Howard County 1. MD. 7th
11.22.09-Howard County 2. MD. 2nd
11.28.09- Dirty dozen....
12.6.09 - Capital Cross Classic. VA. 8th.

Dirty Dozen... Throwing things out of windows...

2009-12-02T11:12:00.003-05:00

The Dirty Dozen was this weekend. I didnt do the PA state cross champs to instead race up a few hills. If you are not familiar, the DD is a "gentleman's race" up the 13 steepest hills in Pittsburgh. Some of the hills are fairly mind blowing. 181 people registered, and I am sure a few more just went along without signing up (minturn). It was fun riding with people that I rarely see, but I was too blown to make much small talk.
It was created by all around madman Danny Chew and his brother.

I managed to win again this year, in what was one of my hardest fought battles. Babik compared me going into it like the Steelers going into Kansas City. Maybe a little over confident. Young Sam flew home from Boulder and made the race an all day thing, bringing it down to the last hill. Halfway through I almost resigned myself to second place.

In 5 or 6 years, Sam is going to be one of those people that I brag that I once beat. That is...if he doesnt find girls and beer in the next year or two. Seems like he has his head on pretty straight so remember this post when he is the real deal. I am already not looking forward to battling with him next year. dang.

A very old friend was on Canton filming:

Yes, you can go that slow and still win a hill.