It seems like that time of year is settling in. The time when racing winds down and the other facets of your life start to kick in. Maybe it’s home repair, catalog perusing for neccesary gear like all white snow kits and helmet covers.

Or maybe you’re lucky enough that your girlfriend makes you an apple pie!

I finished a ride about and hour ago and put my feet up. Co Chilling in my new Tights. Did I mention this is also the time of year I tend to splurge on things that make riding more tolerable (only because it’s been a long season). I nabbed the new Castelli Sorpasso Bib Tights (so nice!) and neoprene Diluvio booties. Not to mention leg warmers with the Nanoflex fleece that repel water. Those kept the light drizzle of today at bay. And really, who can argue with SoPRO white waterproof booties (Pioggia 2). I’m sure it was all this comfortable gear that helped me put out my monsterous 8,713 watt sprint. Damn, I only missed 9,000 by a few hundred.

This week was full of riding in the rain or cold (23F and sunny). Today the sun was scraping with the clouds. The roads where wet, a shiny black with little rocks in the middle and on the sides. The leaves have fallen and pile up in clusters across the road. It’s cold but not too cold, around 40F, perhaps just perfect. The thing that stands out to me on most of these rides is the music.

You see, these rides come usually after a night of boredom. I cure boredom by sitting in front of the computer and researching music until I come up with something that can make me dance. Upon finding such music I dance around the living room (think hip hop dancing but without the rhythm yet lots of persistence).

One song leads to another and then I’ve spent a small fortune and wore a hole in myspace music. Ah, and usually I’ve had a beer or two or three. Last night it was spiced wine, which begs the question, “how gangster would you have to be to drink spiced wine and rap about it”? Pretty gangster I suppose.

Would it go something like this?

“drinking on some spiced wine – I let my mind unwind
bout the suckas spending to much time trying ta beat my rhyme, you’re to course best sharpen up, get fine.”

Anyway, here are some tracks that might sound good or make your ride a little more enjoyable when the weather’s not cooperating. Be sure to check out the song Jesus Piece by Mad Rad. So good!

Most of them are from Seattle or at least the NW. Guys who know how it is when the weather turns grey and the days are short. Have a good ride and enjoy some new tunes as you begin your transition from racing cyclist and teammate to family member, boyfriend, coworker, etc.

Cheers

There’s a lot of chatter out there about individual results and experiences….it’s great! But since, I have none I want to make a comment about teaching. It’s really fun.

The Portland Bicycle Studio and Upper Echelon have been hosting some cross clinics recently at Alpenrose Dairy. We start off talking about racing, and riding. We cover barriers, off camber turns, shouldering a bike, etc. etc. Every time I go the guys and I rant about how much fun it is. Honestly, it’s awesome. So many people at various levels picking up cross is not only fun to watch but fun to be part of.

Young and old(er) alike are learning together how to dismount and “OUCH” remount. How to handle tough off camber, rain soaked corners and I’m learning right along side them too.

Things you take for granted become valuable information.  The “beginners” ultimately teach you a few things too. I’ve always had a stutter step and in a 2 hour session I saw guys and gals who have never raced, let alone remounted, turn into text book remounters. Amazing.

Another thing, Tire pressure! Maybe it’s the geek in me but I love this one. I’ve always run somewhere around 45psi and considered less or more somewhat of a risky move. However throw 30 people down a hill at speed and various weights and you soon SEE the carnage of too little or too much. A few headfirst skidders down the grassy slope and you not only get a big smile and some bloody knee’s, but people who want to know why. So we try things and find out what works. No guessing or opinion. Try this. Nope. Try This. Nope. Try This. YEP! and Viola you have a custom solution for that person and a person who sees the power of little things.

The other cool thing is that most people set their bike up one way and consider it set in stone. NOT TRUE. It’s fun to help people experiment with and learn about their bikes. Lower the pressure. Adjust that saddle that’s always been bothering you. It’s ok.

I don’t know where I’m going with all this and perhaps I’m just jacked up on Gay Bounce music from New Orleans at the moment but teaching feels good. Go do it. And to all those that have attended the class so far….WOW. Keep it up. I can’t believe how good you are getting and how fearlessly you’re tackling these classes. “Attack Attack Attack!”

So what do I do instead? Well. I create PBS inspired race cars in Forza III for all the kiddies to dream about.

Here is my first of many to come. It’s our Team Brown, Blue and White paint scheme and the “RFT” is the renners feitsen totaal phrase all summed up.

Check back, I’ve got an Audi RS4 on the way…..

The good news is that I’m not totally out of biking shape, although everything outside of the draft was mighty painful and the sharp end of the race looked way off in the distance. It has been so long since I felt the ebb and flow of PIR – a school of angry, colorful tropical fish moving together and apart, fast and slow, in ways that might appear frantic and unpredictable. There are few things more important at PIR than learning to swim – weaving your way through the pack with the most economy and knowing when and where things are about to happen. I had lost some of that skill, and I found myself on the wrong side of the group a few times and having to work hard to find shelter, or behind or giving up wheels that in the past I would have never considered. But I could fake it well enough to survive and I was not there to race, to compete. I was there to participate, to say hello to the racing community, and see what the hell my left leg felt like after months of trying to re-align the left side of my body.

The bad news is that my left leg sucks. My right leg loves pedaling, spinning those circles in what feels like continuous motion and power. My left leg cries in anguish and resists – immediate fatigue, weakness, soreness and a feeling like I’m just stomping through sand from the top of the stroke to near the bottom, but my foot does not even want to complete that motion. The rest is some sort of weird pimp strut hip swing to get the leg through the back side of the stroke. At least that’s what it feels like on the inside. How did I race with this last year? How much upgrade adrenaline did it take to ignore it and to be fast in spite of it? I can’t imagine it now.

More importantly, to keep with the theme of just doing things all at once, all-in, I threw on some Rotor Rings this weekend. Didn’t try them or even adjust my front derailleur before PIR. Honestly, I’m not sure what to say. I do know that the first few pedal strokes out my driveway felt amazingly non-round, but that feeling went away immediately and then I was just cruising along (with my pimp strut). PIR was hard, but maybe these rings helped me stay in there as well as I did.

When I got home, I looked down at my right calf and saw the dreaded chainring tattoo. Ugh. Those Rotor Rings might be PRO, but they couldn’t save me from looking like a dork. Not cool with my swanky new PBS kit (which feels and fits great, by the way – very nice job, Castelli). I’d offer to give some follow-up impressions of rings and possibly kit, but I don’t think I’ll be riding again in the near future.

Maybe I can use the rings for one of those sweet “Recycled Bike Parts” clocks or other paraphernalia. Or maybe Chinese throwing stars.

Can’t say that I’m crazy about the rest of the album.  A little slow and folky for me and totally different than this track.

Tomorrow is the Silverton Road Race.  This is a hard course and there will surely be some beautiful pain doled out by myself and others.  Hoping I dole out more than I receive, definitely.  This little ditty will probably be banging around in my head as I toe the line tomorrow afternoon.

WAR

I think you’ll find that formula is nearly as accurate a predictor (not the hilariously sponsored pregnancy test team) of doping as the much lauded Biological Passport (which sounds like the kind of thing you’d need to show before admittance to Club Hedonist.)

You know Castelli… it’s the Scorpion company. The company headquartered in Italy yet present here in the US via Portland Oregon. This season PBS went with Castelli for it’s training gear and here are some of my observations after trying it on and running around the house.

The fabric is soft and has good compression. The chamois feels good, even when drinking beer and blogging on a very hard bench from Ikea. It’s not at all like a pancake smothered in syrup, although that sounds good. It conforms to my every curve (gross) and covers all the right areas (double gross). The seams are well placed and flat.

My only concern is the length. I never liked the look of 3 fingers from the knee shorts, but I find these Castelli shorts a little long in the leg. Shorten them by and inch and I won’t have to roll these bad boys. A guys gotta protect his tan lines right?

Don’t take my word though. Try them on. Go for a spin, flaunt your chest hair. The Castelli team gear might just flip your switch too.

Cheers

Dapper hat combo not included, nor cat.

A spring of setbacks have laid heavy on the man many touted to be America, or even our galaxy’s best sprinter. Plagued by tendinitis during a crucial training block, he was forced to retire to the Isle of Sauvie for a near-complete bed-rest of three weeks.

“It’s difficult, you know? Going from sprinting at 18, 19 hundred watts- to lying down for three weeks and losing all that muscle. It really puts you back, mentally. I’ve suffered some downers, really big downers- even while heavily dosing myself with uppers.”

Several other heavy blows landed early in the year: local bread maker Dave’s Killer Bread stopped producing his favourite sprouted grain loaf, Clash of the Titans was atrocious, and one of his favourite woolly socks went missing after a training camp.

“You do your best, yeah? I mean, it’s just been set-back after set-back. But you have to remember that this is just a short period in a long career. When I get back to winning 20, 30 races a year nobody’ll remember this.” He also admits the toll that fame has taken on him. “Birds, yeah? Birds and drugs, innit? All the yes-men, they change you. You start thinking you’re right about everything, and really you’re only right about most of it- yeah? But I’ve got my focus back- got my head on straight. Don’t want to let the team down- got to show their faith in me’s not mistaken. I’ll be back.”

With that, he turned away and resumed an epic God of War 3 session.

Last year I took things to the extreme – no Gatorskins or Armadillos for me, I went straight to Schwalbe Marathons. About 3 times as heavy and thick as a normal tire. The sidewalls are so stiff, you can ride them with zero pressure and it still feels like you have 40psi underneath you. Nice reflective stripes, too. As advertised, they were almost unflattable (one very long nail, most likely diamond-tipped titanium, pierced the husk on one occasion. Only a solid rubber tire might have survived – I do not hold a grudge.) Perfect for a transcontinental journey or a hybrid, but in the end it was just too much for me and they rode like total bricks. And, more importantly, they were too much for my wheel wells – my training/rain bike is set up for long reach calipers and full fenders with ample space for normal 25mm tires, but the extra thick tread on the Schwalbe tires rubbed against the fenders if there was the slightest maladjustment. And my fenders are always suffering from maladjustment from being put in or on top of the car, or from less than gentle handling in the garage.

So, the Schwalbes are sitting in a corner and I just replaced them with Continental Hardshells. I did used to run Gatorskins and had decent luck, but I figured a few ticks farther down the “durable” side of the scale could not hurt. I’ve ridden them on some longer rides now and a few times on the work commute. Short term conclusions:

#1. These are good training tires. I’ve never been excited about how Conti’s grip or how supple they feel (although I haven’t had a bowl of the Black Chili variety), but they are very predictable. I’ve already ridden over many sections of urban pave (read: mixed sharp road debris and potholes) and nary a nick in the tread. They ride ok – no death grip fear of sliding out on a nice wet downhill if you ride it just a bit on the cautious side, assuming a nice fellow doesn’t decide to pass you hot and caress your shoulder at the same time.

#2. These are heavy, non-racing training tires. The thing about Gatorskins is that you can fake it and race on them if necessary. The Duraskin sidewalls are stiff, but not atrocious, and the folding tires do not have such a big weight penalty that you’d blame your Gatorskins on your fantastic mid-climb implosion. I would blame Hardshells, though (along with my lack of training thus far and a lame left leg that you will eventually hear about). Especially the steel-beaded versions I have. I was able to experience just such a feeling on last Sunday’s ride as we pedaled up Mt. Scott. I did what I could to keep the pedals turning, but DW came by just fast enough to show me what climbing is supposed to look like and even at my regular pace those tires sucked everything out of me before the top. As I found coming down (but luckily not going down), they are not up for real race cornering and you really can feel the stiffness. If the race is a long, straight downhill, maybe a tire to consider.

Alright, the blog bank account is open. Chapeau.