Nostalgia for bike riding

I still feel like I am new to the whole bike riding and racing thing. I have only been riding road bikes for 14 or so years at this point. I guess that is a long time, but sometimes it still seems pretty recent.

Pittsburgh is lucky to have some great riding. We can go North of the city and not see a red light for 100 miles from the city limits (If you are doubting this, 62nd st bridge to Ravine or Kittaning Pike to Hunt to Fox Chapel....).

Yesterday I did a loop that I really enjoy. It is 50 miles and has 5000 feet of climbing. It is just hard. I modify it this time of year to make it more tolerable. Anyway, I came across some new housing developments along the route. The only other time that I remember having this feeling was when I went to my childhood home, and the woods that I played in were now houses. People like new houses. I pay for everything in my life from people buying and selling houses. However, I feel as if somebody is taking something away. Not taking it away from me, but just taking away experiences from the kids who live in my childhood house, or the juniors who are going to have to ride another 20 minutes out of the city until they can ride two abreast and not feel threatened by cars.

This was once all woods. They were woods on top of old slag dumps, so I am not even sure that these houses have basements.

This is a classic hill that is a 20%+ grade. It is/was a beautiful road. The powers that be are developing the area and turning it into a more manageable 8% or so. Shame.

Cyclocross Season... Nationals Etc.

So after taking a month off racing after a decent result at the UCI race in South Carolina, I headed to Madison WI for nationals. Me and Steve K took the fit. No exterior racks. Everything inside. 34mpg for 1200 miles round trip.

Pittsburgh had some seriously awful weather which made working out outside pretty tough.I did a lot of trainer riding for two weeks. In fact I did more in the first two weeks of December than I did in the 8 years before. That sucks, but what can you do?

I figured that I would race my hardest, put no pressure on myself and have fun. Then I saw this on a popular race predicting website.

That got the nerves going.

Saturday: 30-34 Champs I had a second row start. The conditions suited me to do well. I had a killer pit crew and was ready to take 2 bikes per lap. Unfortunately the mud iced over and I didnt need to.It also turned the race into somewhat of a drag race and less of a steering contest. I dangled in the 6/7/8/9/10 spot for bunch of laps and ultimately got 10th.

Elite Race I actually felt good. I was warm. I could feel my fingers and had on gloves that allowed me to have dexterity. I started a little bit fast and eventually worked my way back to the 30's. This was fine. For my last lap and a half I couldnt get into my pedals due to ice pack. At one point I honestly thought that I had knocked my cleat off while smacking it off of my pedal. I would put my foot against my pedal and it felt like a road shoe with no cleat on it. I was so frustrated. I had a few groups ride through me while I was kicking my pedals and pedaling with one foot. So be it. 48th. Nothing to be ashamed of.
My coach, Kris Auer at Athlete Development Group told me earlier this year that my heart has always been in it, but I finally stepped it up. This season was great for me and I have no regrets. It was by far the strongest,smoothest and most confident that I have ridden. I had great equipment and was constantly surrounded by good people. With that I do have to thank everybody. I raced 26 cross races this year. That is a lot for me.

Coach Kris at ADG and twenty/20 cycling. He definitely moved me up a group as far as where I was finishing. He also ran the team and stood in the pit at every race. On Saturday at nationals he raced at 9am and then stood in the pit for the 6 hours after.

C3 teammates. I still feel like one of the new guys and a bit of an outsider due to me living in Pittsburgh, but I got to do a lot more races with everybody and am stoked to be a part of the team. Watching and helping with the Charm City weekend was the definition of team work.

Pittsburgh travel posse. Ed and Brett are my boys. We drive a lot. There is a hashtag for instagram #bikeracermarriage because we hang out more together than with our wives sometimes.

Pittsburgh bicycle racing. Past and Present. Limestone at the Kiln

During the 1980's, Pittsburgh was a powerhouse as far as cycling went. There were great racers from here; The Chew brothers, Matt Eaton, Ron Lutz... Davis Phinney lived in the Chew house off and on. Pittsburgh had good bike racers...

We have had our stars come and shine for sure. Mike Friedman and Sinead Miller both represented us proudly...

This past weekend was the final MAC cyclocross race, Limestone at the Kiln. Looking at the results, it makes me proud to be from Pittsburgh.

It looks like around 10 people drove the 4:45 each way to race a cyclocross race. Pittsburgh walked away with: Elite Men Win and 7th, B Men 1/2 and overall jersey, Elite masters 2nd... On top of this, plenty of other results to be proud of. It is really awesome how many people are traveling out east and making a showing for our city. Personally it was also very awesome to have friends from home yelling at me during my race, and hopefully vice versa. Hopefully this trend continues next year.

Here is a video Keith Hower shot of his weekend.

2012 Limestone at the Kiln Cyclocross MAC #8 from Keith Hower on Vimeo.

PA State Championship... BMX vs. CX

This past Sunday was the PA state Cyclocross championship. Mostly the Western PA state cyclocross championship, as in the "Elite field" there were only a handful of guys not from Western PA/WV.
I managed to keep my bike upright for MOST of the time,and won my first state championship in 20 years. 21 in cyclocross years. Im old.
This is my medal.

When I raced bmx, if you won something you could run it on your front plate the following year. I rocked the 1PA for two years straight as a kid. Kind of a cool idea.

I told a friend of mine who runs a a real cycling website to watch the first turn, as it kept raining and the conditions changed before our first lap. A change in conditions is not a big deal when you have the skills that I obviously do below.

Dirty Dozen Power Details.

For anybody who is from out of Pittsburgh reading this, the Dirty Dozen is a 30 year old group ride in Pittsburgh up 12 of the steepest hills. One is arguably the steepest in the world. It is a group ride with a winner, as they track the top 10 Men (5 women) up each hill. Low cadence out of the saddle steep climbs benefit me, and I have won the event 9 years running. Im old. Yes I have won a group ride. Anyway, this is not a bragging post, because all of the numbers except a few are relatively mediocre. Here are the power numbers:

Hill 1 High St 4:15 . 375 watts = 5.978 w/k (Cracked 3 mins in.)
Hill 2 Ravine 4:54 . 357 Watts = 5.69 w/k (Cracked 3.5 mins in)
Hill 3 Berry Hill 1:10 610 watts = 9.724 w/k (1st)
Hill 4 High/Seavy 2:27 . 402 watts = 6.40 w/k (1st)
Missed 5
Hill 6 Suffolk St 3:23 409 watts = 6.52 w/k (1st)
Hill 7 Sycamore ST 2:58 409 watts = 6.52 w/k (2nd)
Hill 8 Canton Ave :58 510 watts = 8.13 w/k (3rd)
Hill 9 Bousted St 1:57 446 watts = 7.11 w/k (1st)
Hill10 Welsh Way 1:47 458 watts = 7.30 w/k (2nd)
Hill 11 Berry/Holt 3:07 412 watts = 6.57 w/k (2nd?) Mathematical Lock
Hill 12 Flowers 5:17 324 watts = 5.16 w/k Open Road to final hill.Lots of attacks.

The times are taken from when my power spikes and declines. Don't compare these to Strava. If you do you are lame.

My power over 3 minutes was lower than last year.My power under 3 minutes was my highest ever. Im impressed with Berry Hill and let down with the first two. My weight was about the same at 137/138. Bike setup was the same as last year with the exception of lighter skewers.

Canton Ave filmed by Matt Dayak

Dirty Dozen Race 2011-Canton Ave from Matt Dayak on Vimeo.

It was great racing somewhere that my family could see me. My Dad showed up to watch his first bike race in about 20 years. Amy wanted to watch 1 hill but watched like five. Im thinking Matt will have another video of Canton this year.

The Niece doing recon for future years.

Its not what you have... its what you do with what you have.

So this is a story of a 320 dollar bicycle.
Amy was in the hunt for a bike in 2001. She was basically broke. We scoured ebay and found a Jamis Aurora touring bike for her. It was a funny bike. 26" front and 700C rear. Shimano Sora throughout.

She got it on her birthday March 20th. (3/20... $320)... The stars aligned.
I know a lot of people want to hate on cheap stuff. Yes it is heavy. Yes it can break, however, I have found the light stuff breaks too.

Anyway, I took her on her first bike tour, an overnight camping trip. Then we rode to DC. Then we packed up the bikes and rode around Europe for 9 weeks. She also commuted on it everyday. After 10,000 miles the sora shifters died. TEN THOUSAND MILES.

The bike got stolen, and then recovered.

Then she and her best friend rode Pittsburgh-San Francisco together. Same 320 dollar bike. At this point it has new wheels, shifters, rear derailer, chainrings and cassette.

Life is about what you have done, not what you own.

Still set up to commute and carry stuff.

Under a bridge to avoid rain somewhere in germany. Taken with an analog camera.

An agreeable sound...

So about a year ago, I posted a video of me "singing" Love is a Battlefield and Amy doing time after time. My buddy Matt who makes the movies was in California and filmed my brother in law. I think it might be my second favorite after Amy's.

An Agreeable Sound : Brian from Matt Dayak on Vimeo.

The rarest of blog updates

If you are reading this, my apologies for not updating. A few things that have prevented this:
- Space bar on my computer broke. This makes typing anything more than an email annoying. - Nonstop travel to race / work / grown up stuff

Anyway. I have to do a post about cyclocross.

Earlier this year at a mountain bike race, I was talking to East Coast cyclocross legend Ryan Leech. I told him that I was going to be super serious this year. He responded "more serious than last year?" which was a huge compliment on my natural abilities and self coaching technique. The answer was simply "yeah".

SOO... Since Mid July all cycling has been for this CX season. C3/Athletes Serving Athletes is the team again and I am getting coached by Kris Auer (ADG). We are riding specialized bikes/tires/helmets/shoes with Enve wheels. Yes, Enve Wheels.

At this point "half way" through the season, I have raced about the same amount as I did TOTAL last year. My results are better, I feel stronger and I am having a ton of fun. The team is great. The people on it are great. The people at races are awesome. I travel with Ed or Brett and they are awesome. Basically its fun and all good.

So far I have won some local races, a regional race and scored a few UCI points. I have had some good luck, some bad luck and some good days and bad days. Basically just normal bike racing. Pretty stoked to be able to do all this while still working full time.

feeling nostalgic for things that you think are modern but are like older than the kids you race every weekend

Bicycle racing and art.

Friday night Amy and I took in a lot of art. First was performance art, followed by a gallery thing. I dont know anything about art. I dont know anything about playing music or acting or interpretive dance. I know about a few things one of which is bicycling.

I sat and watched art and thought about how under appreciated cycling is. Competing at cycling, especially bikes that require talent more than natural ability (mountain, cross, etc) is really hard to do. It is similar to being in a band or making art in that there are very few rewards for most. Most people do it for something as simple as self satisfaction.

One great thing in the world is watching somebody who is naturally gifted using their gift. Its not often, but in any discipline of life, it is amazing.

Issac "groundchuck" McCrea. I grew up riding in the woods with him. A few guys we rode with went to the Extreme games and then the X games. He didnt do tech stuff, just big and smooth. I would rather watch him just ride than some super tech kid do 1000 tricks in one air. Below is an ad that ran in the 90's. Sickest 1 handed tabletops evar.

I have never been able to play guitar. I have never tried, but whatever. Watching J Mascis shred his guitar is unlike any other musical experience that I have had. It is so awesome.