Danny Chew will hit 1 million Kilometers today.

I called him last week when my taxi had 518,000 miles on it to ask if he remembered when he had just 518 thousand miles. He would have gotten the mileage this weekend, but his frame is cracked and he didnt want to risk being stuck out somewhere far, so I imagine he will complete it today at the oval or something.

Month Of Mud - Moraine State Park
Final race of the series. I had ridden this loop a few years ago with my old boss. It is twisty and rocky, there are berms made of rocks on top of rocks, which have rock gardens on them. There were a few "fitness stretches" connecting all of these rock gardens. On the first lap I seriously wanted to ask a mountain biker if they REALLY think that riding that stuff is fun? I mean they buy bikes with extra suspension so they dont feel the rocks. They buy the tubeless tires (thanks Gary) so they dont get flats on the rocks, and then they make the trails go RIGHT INTO THE ROCKS! I think rock gardens are perpetuated by the suspension industry.

Early race was me hanging onto Rob Spreng of Dirty Harry's wheel. He knew the course or something, because he was killing the dirt singletrack. My usual MO for a mountain bike race was: get away on dirt road climb, get caught on rocky descent. It happened the first lap, but I managed to stick the gap on the second lap.

When I came around on the finishing lap, I heard a collective "awwww." I guess somebody brought a fan club that was let down by me winning. whatever. I also guess that if I can win a mountian bike race on a technical course without suspension, I am no longer a total road weenie? (There should be more courses like the old Sewickley Heights course, which was like a road race on mountain bikes!)

Thanks to Gary and his sweet Niner. A nice bike makes a big difference. My first win of the year, I gave the jazz hands salute, because I still find it hard to take victory salutes seriously.


A few Jet messengers were at the race, which was rad. Larry, who I posted about last year who was hit by the car was never supposed to walk again RACED and finished! They thought it was funny I am a straight edge dude riding these grips?

Gentrify this place please.

Amy's best friend lives in San Francisco and occasionally meets Pittsburghers there.
She always says "oh I vacation in Pittsburgh!" Which any native surely laughs at.

Im sure Dr. Stubna had already read the early edition of the Times by the time I picked up on this, but I thought I would share with all the glory that is "little Somalia."

Speaking of the kids, they all just fasted for like a month and now it is "Eid ul-Fitr." This basically means that the kids didnt eat during the day for the last month, to show their faith and to gain patience. When it is all over, they party hard and EXPECT all friends and family members to give them a dollar at the end. There are like 26 of these kids running around. I saw 2 at the gas station buying cookies. I figured I would cut out the middle man and bake them a cake instead!

Lawrenceville makes the NYT travel section

Pepsi beats coke.

This is NOT an onion article.You thought the cola wars were dead!

Pepsi man punches out Coke man during delivery
Friday, October 12, 2007
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pepsi has been trying to best Coke for years in the world-wide cola war, but Pepsi seems to have landed a blow in a hinterlands skirmish recently at a Wal-Mart in Indiana County.

An employee from each company was delivering products to the Wal-Mart on Oakland Avenue in White Township on Monday morning and "apparently bickering back and forth" as they worked, state police said. It's not clear exactly what the bickering was about, but as the Coke employee left the store, the Pepsi guy called him over to the side of the Wal-Mart.

There, police said, he "punched the victim three times in the face," breaking his nose and giving him a black eye.

Police did not identify the Pepsi man except to say he is a "known suspect." Troopers didn't say if charges have been filed, although they characterized the incident as a simple assault, a misdemeanor.

The Coke man, Robert Koscho, 48, of Ebensburg, said Coke told him he wasn't allowed to talk about the case.

everybody's workin for the weekend. Im full of it.

I heard that song on the radio this week while I was standing up on a ladder installing freaking drywall all week. Yes, after two years of living in this place, we finally decided to make it livable.

Apparently standing on a ladder for a week is good training because I had two of my best races all year this weekend. Quick recaps:

Saturday, Hagerstown MABRA race... All the Studs were in new york racing some guy with rainbow stripes all over his jersey. Wow, Im SOOO bummed that I missed that.
Hebe, the ultimate combination of experienced based knowledge, and fitness (maybe tied with Fergie?) told me to take a bottle, and lent me a cage. Unfortunately we should be doing some Colin/Stubna warming up (ipods and trainers)because Hebe had a little accident while warming up.

Greg Whitwer (I will spell this differently every time until I remember how to) crashed in the turn before the first complete lap, rendering himself out of contention for the "holeshot" prime of 25 bucks. Somehow I ended up with it!!! This was after joking about going to the Jersey cross race that day and racing the C race with a 1 day to win the FREE FRAME they were giving away for the holeshot prime.

Early race was me struggling to hold Gallagher's wheel. I was really intimidated by how freaking fast he was the week before. Real fast. Middle race was no man's land, occasionally catching him and being dropped again. A few times I looked back at the chase group, and saw Hebe on the front slowing it. It was like the hoping for a flat tire feeling, like "man I wish Hebe would let those guys catch me and put me out of my misery." Another Steevo bridged up to me real fast like and we caught Gallagher again. It was sweet going around the course and hearing tons of people cheering for steevo. I felt bad for Gallagher because he probably didnt realize that there was 2x the steevo factor. S squared.
I put in a few attacks the last lap trying to get away. I attacked the hill and after the hill and into the last turn. I put my head down and sprinted (On the hoods I think? USAC downgrade?) Steevo came around me, and it wasnt until he was around that I realized that it was him and not Gallagher. Weird. He was on a borrowed bike.

I took home some cash, and have been LYING, saying that if I won money at a cross race I would buy the "fizzinator" a 56 oz insulated drinking mug. Docsnydes and I are going to both be running for Mayor of Fizz City, it will be a heated battle, but due to his newly limited caffeine intake, I feel I can take him.
However, I just couldnt commit to a 56 oz mug the size of a folgers can. Whatever.

Drive 4 hours home, watch R kelly trapped in the closet (AMAZING... PLEASE WATCH PLEASE!!!) , eat spicy food, sleep a few hours and head for the Month of Mud Brady's Run course.

Again, a few of the Studs are missing (TJ, Evan P, Krimerny?)... Last year after the race, krimerny looked at me and said "thats not a mountain bike" about my rigid 26" tank. Whatever. This year I borrowed G man's Niner Wow, what an awesome bike.
Gorski and a Dirty Harry's dude ride away from me after I dab while in 3rd. I hold on, riding with Babik for awhile, trying to hold Ruggs off before a dude came up and towed me around for awhile. He was on a dual suspension thing, so it was the "get dropped on downhills catch up on uphills thing for awhile."

I hold on for 4th overall, first single. Sweet.
If you want to win, ride a borrowed bike.

Post race:
The GPOA headman calls and offers us tickets in the bling section of the stadium. "uhh so you buy us tons of stuff and pay for our races and stuff and now you want us to have Steelers tickets???" wow. There was a freaking martini bar in our secion!!! 21 - 0 steelers. 15 minute ride home mostly on a bike trail running home from the stadium. City living rules.

Dear Johnturn, I rode your wheel flat for like a mile

Holy longest day ever. Saturday consisted of doing work around the house with Bret. Initiative has been taken to make the house "livable." The Team Kraynick's / Jet messenger construction crew has been stalwart in bringing it together.

Sunday started at 5am to drive to the Ed Sanders memorial cross race. We listened to a lot of rush, and somehow crammed 4 dudes 2 bikes (2 on the roof) and like 5 pairs of wheels into a volvo.
We convinced Soupie to do the B race, not only because we thought that he could, but also so we wouldnt have to be there at 8am. Turner and Mayhew got 3rd and 4th in the B race, and Soupie didnt fall off the back, so they were all pretty stoked.

Before our race, there was a moment of silence for Ed Sanders. From what I gathered, he was on NCVC before he was in an accident and died. What was pretty rad was that Cannondale donates a bike every year (it is the NCVC frame sponsor) for a raffle, and the proceeds go to his son for college. The tickets sold out before the race even began, and they raised 3000 dollars for the third (?) year in a row for his son's college fund. Apparently Ed worked at lili pons, and that is why they have the race there. Pretty awesome.

- The race was crazy fast.
-When I rolled past "the party zone" there were TONS of people screaming and all I could smell was beer. Slick Rick was playing at one point. Cross rules.
- Wes is a stud.
- Somehow Geronimo and I both hit the same rock that was PAINTED ORANGE. Good thing I didnt drive home because the turnpike is littered with orange barrels that would be pretty sweet to take out.
- My pit crew ruled the school with sweet bike exchanges after my flat. Darren from Haymarket bikes totally hooked us up with a front wheel for my last lap. Thanks.
-FREE CYTOMAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-If only I could have ridden Minturn's wheel WHILE wearing the dorm sandals that I "stole" from him, that would be SWEET.

Right now do these things: Revenge of the Mormen?

- Put new batteries in that smoke alarm that you know needs them.
- Make sure your homeowners insurance has good fire coverage.

This is the story about my mom's house catching on fire last night. The air conditioning unit in the window caused the fire. Its hard to know what the hell to do when this happens.

The red cross is pretty cool. I called them this morning, and they had a case worker who had already called the hospital to see how my mom was (she had slight burns, but was totally ok)... She gave vouchers to get my mom and sister contacts (when your house burns down you dont grab your glasses or contacts and none of us can see the E at the doctor). The red cross was readily available for so many other things, it was pretty awesome. Luckily we have insurance and credit cards and time and money to do all of this. Some people arent and it is really scary to think that they could feel left alone in such an awful time. The redcross helps prevent this with hotels, medication, clothes, etc. It seems like they do a pretty awesome job too.

Scan your baby pictures now too.

The land of The Wire.

Ok if you havent seen The Wire yet, freaking watch it already.

This summarizes Baltimore: Soupie and I stayed with friends, of friends, of friends. The one girl who lived at the house was waiting for the bus the morning we arrived. She was looking at the schedule posted on the wall of the bus stop. She had to look across a woman to see it.

"what the fuck are you looking at" says the woman.
The girl gives her a dirty look, and looks away.
BOOM BOOM - She is punched TWICE in the face by the woman. She retreats.
Welcome to Baltimore.

Soupie and I drove down Saturday afternoon for the Charm City cross race. We stayed with some kids in a surprisingly clean punk house. We hung with them on their back porch for a few hours. It was like 3 hours of me resisting eating a whole freshly baked dutch apple pie. I survived. Pretty awesome of people to put up strangers on the recommendation of a friend of a friend.

Baltimore - the city without businesses. No strip malls, no coffee shops, no bagel shops. KFCs, hair salons, and gas stations were separated by miles of boarded up houses and an occasional car wash. Breakfast looked bleak. I had some squagels and peanut butter with me and made a breakfast of it. Baltimore - you could starve, so bring your own food. The organizers knew this and provided free water, which was sweet, because soupie's race was literally 5 hours before mine, so I had to stay hydrated in the 85 degree heat.

The race was the best Non UCI race I have ever been to, and possibly one of the best overall. The setting was awesome, the organization was amazing and the course was good.

Soupie got 16th in the C race. Pretty sweet, despite a slight mechanical. Pitting for somebody is easy if they dont need anything!

No hand ups during our race. 85 degrees and dusty. Damn. Minturn crashes super hard in the prolouge. Damn. I think I have strep throat by lap 5 because it is so dry.

I thought of a formula to judge my effort. Its basically how many people I pass vs. how many people pass me. This is after the first 2 laps where people start getting into their grooves. Cross is a lot like chess - opening, middle game, end game. During the middle game Bobby Lea blew past me like I was standing still and clawed his way up to 4th or 5th. Impressive. Greg Witwer did the same. Also impressive. I managed to catch and pass another 2 or so that were going backwards. I guess I about broke even and paced myself pretty well.

End game: Complacent. Battle for 9th place between 3 of us. Geronimo got away and stayed for 8th. I attacked over a hill and couldnt stick it. They chased me down and passed me. I should have tried to attack 1 more time on the hill before the Tree dismount. Oh well.

11th place.

We got lost on the way home and got to see more of lovely Baltimore.

Soundtrack:
Subhumans
Danzig
deep purple
GG allin
Oxymoron
iron maiden

When I was 13.

When I was 13, I had an Agnostic Front T shirt. It was from the "one voice" album. My mom told me that she didnt approve, and I basically told her to stuff it. A few laundry cycles later, and the shirt was missing.

Fast forward 15 years. My mom just moved into a new house. This was a big deal for her, because she has MS and doesnt really move much. After moving, she was sitting in a new, messy house waiting for her kids to help her move boxes upstairs, unpack, hang stuff up, etc. No super duper serious amateur bike racer wants to carry boxes up and down stairs, so I naturally avoided her. My brother has this career thing going on (if you want to buy a house, talk to him!) and works like 90 hours a week, so he didnt want to go. My sister only opens boxes of snacks when she has the munchies from smoking tons of weed, which is all hours that she is awake. She is more serious about smoking pot than Stubna is about training (did you see him on the trainer before the Yuasa crit?!?! that guy is serious).

Knock knock. Its the freaking Mormons. Mom befriends the Mormons and puts them to work. Within a week, all of the boxes are unpacked and stuff is hung on the walls. THE MORMONS MOWED THE LAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im not advocating this at all, but it is probably one of the funniest things I have heard in awhile. Pretty clever of Sandy.

So here is the deal....

I was hanging out in "the cage" waiting to pick up a cab. I guess after 9 months of hardly working as a driver, you are in a place to tell people what is up. There was a guy there that was obviously new, something I could empathize with. I asked what he was up to, and he said it was his first day. Trial by fire. I asked if he had gotten the list yet, and he said "what list?" How much do I show this guy? I cant baby him along or he will be eaten alive later, but he seems like the type that will stand here all day.
He is a white dude in his late 30's, glasses, bald, chubby. Probably me in a decade or so. I wonder what happened that he is here now? What in his life led him to yellow taxi when he is supposed to be comfortably making a living and counting his retirement money. Whatever.
"Go ask the dude behind the bulletproof glass 'Do you have anything available?' He will then give you a list of numbers, those are the cab numbers. Go outside and see which one you want. Make sure it turns on, has 4 wheels, the lights work and the dispatch system works."
He laughed. I wasnt joking. I once pulled off the lot with a car with no computer in it. No meter, no dispatch system, no radio. I thought it looked big when I was checking the inside.
"Oh, make sure it has gas too. You can top it off and be reimbursed if its more than 3 gallons." Some guys figure out miles per gallon, and fill up that many miles before they turn in. 16 mpg x 3 gallons = anything less than 48 miles free. That is why I was waiting, somebody I know and trust was turning his cab in. I knew it ran and had a full tank, and only 270,000 miles.
The guy comes back a few minutes later and sits down with the list.
"Did you find something?"
"Yeah, only one started and its filled with garbage."
"Ok, tell the guy behind the glass that you'll take it,and give him a dollar."
New guy walks over there and does it all sans dollar.
"You must want to drive shit cabs forever... you arent ever going to get a good cab that way."
Its true. If you are argumentative or don't tip, the guys in the cage give you a list of shitty cabs, or they just give "your" cab away. I got one last week that way. It was a guy's regular cab that he put into the shop WHEN THE WHEEL FELL OFF. He got a replacement, and they gave me his. He saw me at the airport and tried playing it cool, then got argumentative. He tried scaring me into turning it in, so he could get it back. You never own a cab, you just lease it, but guys do believe they are entitled to the same piece of shit for years on end.
I wonder if the new guy made any money?

Univest.

I went for the experience, and experience I got. Univest is a UCI 1.2 race. I dont know what this means other than you need to have an "international" license to race it, and if you win you get world ranking points, oh and your bike has to be over the UCI limit.

Turner and I jetted out of town getting to Fred's around 9. This gave us enough time to fiddle with our bikes for 2 hours before going to bed. Fred was sure that the Navigators were playing with their bikes at 10:30 in a dark garage.

Saturday, the bike race. 107 miles. A few KOM's, 150 riders etc etc. The start was awesome, the city was shut down, people were everywhere. In the morning, they had a tourist bike ride and apparently 600 people showed up. This is different than showing up in the middle of Lancaster county and the people who live on the course dont even know that there is a bike race going on that day. There were 2 helicopters above the race all day.

We line up. Im in over my head. Navigators, Slipstream, world champion stripes everywhere. The announcer goes, "these are 200 of the best cyclists in the world!" HA. We head off and the attacks start and go. Minturn IS the break for a second, then some more, then more attacks and the move is gone.

Ill spare the blow by blow but give weekend highlights instead.
- LOTS of different languages spoken .. 17 countries there.
- Navigator next to me dropped his chain on a climb (To think that I was embarrassed
doing this at Mingo when I was a cat 4!!!)
- while bummed out that I go dropped, I rode in with a dude from Hungary (who looked very hungry by the way, maybe weighed like 120). Dude flew to the US just for this race. That will be a quiet trip home with the DS ("no food on plane for him!")
- Kids asked for autographs. HA!
- I got my first handoff crom a moving car. It was the Mexican team. The dude held the bottle for like 1 minute while I "grabbed it," then he slingshotted me back to the pack.
- Apparently what the P R O's do is ride through the pack saying "service" while they have like 90 bottles down their jersey. That is how those dudes get through the pack so quickly and get to the front and give their teammates drink.
- Geronimo is truly a very nice person.
- Chasing on through the caravan is totally insane on winding country roads. The caravan was like 30 cars long.
- Raceing a pro crit with your brakes rubbing is not possible and is not a "recognized mishap"
- stubna is tough. Maybe someday he will win the dirty dozen, because that is way more impressive than riding in with the group at Univest.