Although the majority of my time is spent exercising the left half of my brain, I like to think that there is a little creativity rattling around in my head, some where. But years of dense unexpressive writing are hard to reverse, so that is all I can muster here. Sorry.
It would be nice to write like this.
And apparently Nick Waite is a bike messenger in Brooklyn. Far cry from finishing ToC in Feb, but I don’t think you can go wrong so long as you’re going on a bike.
Back to work.
This weekend was the Toronto International UCI Cyclocross Pro-Am, or some such thing. And I definitely put the “Am” in “Pro-Am”. It was ugly.
On Saturday the course was nice and tacky. And then, while I sat waiting for my last row call-up, it began to rain. Things were pretty bad right from the start, but I was having fun so I just kept rolling. It was slippery, but the bike was good. There was a little hill that I was riding no problem during warm-up. But right after J-Pow lapped me with 3 to go I saw that even he had to run it. 41st place, the very last.
After a nice relaxing family evening in TO with the fam, it was back to the park Sunday for more pain. Things were looking up because there was no rain and I was in the 2nd to last row. It was fast again, but I was racing with people which was fun. The course was awesome, it snaked up a ski hill and then back down. It would have sucked in the rain. I finished 1 lap down, 35th. Some tool from trek canada came around me for 34th. I was going to keep going because the official didn’t tell me to stop, but everyone else who got lapped quit. I’m pretty pissed I didn’t get 34th. Racing the supertouch was awesome. That bike is just solid, really stable. After the race I found that my back tire was half un-glued. That explained the funny rubbing noise.
Even though I sucked I was pretty happy to be riding my bike and getting to sleep all weekend. School has been killing me and I almost had a few anxiety attacks last week. It was especially nice having Erin and June there too, they were troopers in the cold.
Here is a pic.
Man I am so busy I should not be writing here now but my connection to the computer at school was disrupted.
A couple weeks ago I went to Rochester to race some ‘cross feeling like really tired death and still managed 3rd place. Haven’t ridden (or slept) much since then, but my legs feel less tired. If I can get my crap together I might sneak out for a race this weekend.
Tomorrow my Spooky is scheduled to arrive. It will be off the chain. Chris Fuller is an animal and he will eat you alive…
That is how the hill felt with a 42t single ring.
Oh man, politics are driving me crazy. I’ll just think about the time at the BBC race in Alabama (the town) where I had to use the bathroom in a cornfield. Since there was nothing to read I picked corn, and raced with it. It helped me win primes and go in breakaways. Luckily fotoreg.com was there and I pirated pictures from their website.
Click the pictures to see the awesome face I make at a camera.
Man, I am tired out. This finishing school business is killing me. Nonetheless I seem to be racing well, which is kind of helpful for general morale and such. Hopefully the next few weeks are smooth and I can relax a little bit afterwards.
Anyway, bike racing. Last weekend was the local ‘cross race at sprague brook. Perfect cross weather, and the course was good too. I ended up 3rd, which is good, but I wanted to win so I was bummed. Nothing you can do about shat legs, I guess. My start didn’t help, a little too fast. Next time I’ll get it right I guess.
Yesterday was the final WNYMBRO race, also at Sprague Brook. I was feeling way tired, but I won anyway. Patrick William Wallace and I were trading blows, duking it out for the first lap prime, but then I got a gap and started giv’n it, hard, and P-Dub had his mechanical issues. I kept on the gas though, because you can’t get sloppy there when it is wet. It kind of reminds me of Canaan valley but there are roots instead of rocks and less sand in the soil. The third lap sucked pretty bad. My back was killing me, and I was so wasted I couldn’t figure out where I was on the course. My mind felt numb as if it were detached from what was going on and all I could think was to pin it and get the race over with but I couldn’t remember if there were any of the little climbs coming that I needed to recover for. Weird. It ended up right on though, and Stan placed 3rd. He is fast.
Afterwards was Willis’ wedding. We went to the ceremony, Kina said it was moving. We hit DQ before the reception, and then I effing plowed the meat-fest that was dinner. It was awesome. Today I am so tired that I bailed on a cross race at UB, right outside my office. Next week I’ll race ‘cross, maybe even on a new bike. SB ‘cross pic…
Another picture-less post, sorry. Roots, Rocks, and Ridges was yesterday. All of this racing down in Ellicottville is making me regret not riding there more. It is a drag to drive 45 minutes to the trails, but the riding there is really good. Anyway, there was a pretty big field with a lot of fast guys racing. No car this week meant a lot of commuting and not-so-fresh legs. But a lot of others were in the same boat having raced somewhere Sat, etc… So it was all evened out. On the first climb I gunned it pretty good, but put myself in a hole, and was dangling in 3rd at the top. I recovered fairly quickly and caught and passed the two leaders early on. I rode the rest of the race on my own. Doug Rusho almost caught me at the end, so I had to start givin’ it again which was making me really tired. Luckily it was mostly down hill, so I held on for the win. Awesome.
ODB did an awesome job, this was such a good course. Another proper mountain bike race just like I used to go to in WV, complete with Smokin’ Toms and some kegs. Thanks man. Next up is the ‘cross race at Sprague Brook next weekend. I’m pretty psyched for that, my legs should be feeling good too.
Interestingly USAC has announced a change in the mountain bike categorization that eliminates the semi-pro class. Current semi-pro’s (aka me) can either upgrade to pro or downgrade to Cat1 (Expert). I’ve worked kind of hard for the semi-pro upgrade, so as to distinguish myself from an expert racer, so I plan to take the pro upgrade. The sink-or-swim scenario seems to work alright for me, and I think racing pro will be good motivation to train and be fast. Racing with faster people usually helps make you faster anyway. Maybe I’ll regret it in a few months when I’m bored out of my skull and numb in the ass on my rollers. Who knows.
So yeah, we went to St. Catherines for the “we need more cowbell cyclocross”. Huge thanks to Andy for letting me borrow his bike. The race was good, a really nice flat course with a lot of turns. I think a big hill run-up was removed in case of Ike, but the weather was good. After seeing Chown and Staffo roll tires I am happy to have not used my tubulars. Chown still beat me though, showoff. I ended up 4th in the 1/2 and got beat by an old guy too. The combo of a 50t big ring (36t little) and frame 1 size smaller than mine hurt. Good training though. A little more aggression at the start would have seen me in the lead group fo’ sho’. Instead I had to use lots of energy weaving my way through riff-raff and rode by myself the whole race, next time.
Stan or Andy, or whoever rocked it in for 9th place. Just barely getting nipped by Preferred Care’s GC man. Nice. Rough Buff’ had a strong contingent, it’s game on for cx this year.
This morning it was pissing rain and I flatted on my commute. I was pretty happy to be riding rather than stuck in traffic though. And, I thought 60 degrees and rain for an hour is much nicer than 40 and rain. Super geeked for my new Spooky Supertouch, I have a feeling it might be purple.
I should probably be doing work now. Lata.
So I am 100% about that job I was talking about. That’s right folks, it’s wagons east to Falmouth, MA (aka Cape Cod). For the first time in my life, I’ll have a full time job, and I’m pretty psyched. Doing terrestrial carbon cycle research mostly, I believe. So the fall is definitely going to be busy.
We have all bailed on the trip to Ithaca, which is fine, because I really shouldn’t blow the entire weekend off. Instead Stan and I are either going to ride local, or go to St. Catherines for a cx race tomorrow. Maybe I should think about getting a ‘cross bike to ride. My vittoria tubulars would be awesome for this shat weather, unless the tape fails and the tire rolls off. I should probably go check on those things…
… has been going down as of late. Last weekend was the Holimont Hammerfest MTB which was right off the skillet for sure. It was a sparse expert crowd and my legs felt like shat. But nobody wanted to come around me on the first climb so I just started to gun it. After that I flew, and 2nd and 3rd had mechanicals so I won by like 15 minutes. Stan was flying and we might have had the 1-2 but he ripped off his front der and chain. I guess that is the first real mountain bike race I have ever won, even if it was pretty small. In more important non-bike happenings, June turned 1 and she is walking a little. So it has been a good month.
And for ‘cross I am going to ride a Spooky, I am on their Pro F#&*ing Cross Team. No BS, rad bikes made in USA. And I am pretty sure, like 99%, that I got a job. So between finishing school and racing cross this fall I’m pretty sure I’ll probably spend most of December sleeping. Next weekend a bunch of dudes are going down to Ithaca to ride, so I will take some awesome pictures. In the meantime check out this vid from the Rochester finish, you can’t see the line, but you can sorta see me uncork the sprint.
Man, it has been forever since I wrote a blog and for that I am sorry.
It has been the strangest month because I went to some pretty random races and got the sweetest results of the season. At the tiny Toona crit I raced smart for once and got 4th in a field sprint. A couple weeks later was Rochester Twilight Crit, and I won the flippin’ thing. I wasn’t even planning to win, I was going to take it for the team and chase moves. It was totally berserk, there were like a million people and I was off the front with a couple dudes for like 20 laps and I knew I was going to kill the sprint. Winning feels awesome and I want to do it again. The next week we went down to WV to visit Erin’s family and I raced the Wild 100 in Slaty Fork. I totally owe Benji and Jonathan for not getting me lost, but I got 2nd place there. The most awesome part in all of this is that I used my winnings from rochester to pay for Wild 100 and then won mittens and coffee at Wild 100.
To prove I’m not bragging I’ll fill you in of Tour de Bemus this past weekend. I went to this hilly road race and lined up with about 10 other Cat 2/3’s and went with 2 successive monster attacks by this Cat 2 guy, totally blew up, got dropped, and then quit. Kind of an expensive 2 hour training ride, but I got some good hills and intervals for cross. Then Sunday I went and rode with Andy. Stupidly I rode to his house, and then we rode to Stan’s. We felt like crap, he raced Thater, I seriously thought about getting a ride home about 20 times. We added an extra hour of riding by going around all the hills and I ended up riding like 3 or 4 hours. So today I am wasted.
School started today and that is crappy and annoying. This morning there were like 50 freshmen standing by the classroom outside my office trying to figure out if they had come to attend a lab or a lecture, and why there was nobody there. For about 10 minutes I listened to them, but I needed to work so I waited a little longer and then told them their lab would start in two weeks and that they should have slept in. Tomorrow I have to teach which should be cool, I haven’t tucked in my shirt in a while so that will be exciting.
So I still haven’t found out about the job, but it is looking promising. For those of you who don’t know, I’m working on a PhD. It is not a big deal, there a lot of idiots with PhDs, it is just a huge task. Honestly you can write a super crappy dissertation and still get a PhD. But the thing about a dissertation, is that it takes a ton of time to complete. Facing the possibility of needing to complete one this fall I’m feeling a bit pressured. The other day I was making all sorts of rad plans to race a ton of cross this fall and then realized that I might have to do some work on the weekends. Luckily there are a ton of local races in the fall.
Amazingly I am psyched for cross, despite having been able to ride a ton since January. No burn out at all. I am even jacked up to do intervals on my commute. I just need get a bike now. Rob gave me a fork for my crashed bike, but I lost some pieces of the headset so that is on hold. Who knows about a replacement, I am trying to figure that out, can’t decide.
When I sat down here I planned to run some simulations, you know, for my dissertation. Tomorrow I guess.
And sorry about the lack of pictures. I really want a picture from Rochester but can’t find any. I bet it looked awesome, and I don’t think I violated the rules. Anyway here is another picture from a sweet ride I did Sunday.
