Dan Action

Overtime!!!! September 3, 2008

Wow, it’s the first time I have gotten to sit down to write in a while. So much isgoing on, as usual.

Listening to Herbie Hancock’s “Hang Up Your Hang Ups” right now. Getting me psyched for the rest of this day which includes finishing a pair of bib shorts I started the other evening, and going to the first CX training race tonight. Oh man, I can feel it coming.

Last week I went up to a little dirt crit/ oval track training ride with my co-worker Woody. Not knowing what exactly to expect, we were pleasantly surprised to find a maybe 1/8 mile track beat into the grass of a park with a bunch of folks, both A and B groups tearing around it to the tune of Track events. I got into a miss and out race and a scratch race. It was totally fun. Equally as entertaining was sitting in the park til way after dark having a few beers with some of the folks and shooting the shit.  The evening left me and Woody cruising the bike path towards home drinking one for the road. Nice.

So I am perfecting a pattern I made for bib short uppers, while truly getting a handle of  the shorts themselves. This pair features Eco-wool inner panels which has 40% or so 4 way stretch. and Pro cool side panels, rear end and uppers. Now that I personally have 3 machines, bringing me and Nathalie’s collection up to six (two sergers, two regular machines, one coverstitch, and one embroidery/ sewing machine), I have the luxury of leaving one or two machines set up for certain functions. Makes everything faster and pro.   I’ll get some pictures tonight and post them. I think you’ll be decently impressed.

Whenever I get to sewing, I invariably remember my mother. Imean, I think of her all the time, but sewing was her passion, and that has tranferred to me in an enlightening way. I find it the best way to sort of meditate on her, still finding so much appreciation in her breadth of knowledge and her gift of teaching all that she knew in such a patient and easy manner.

Nathalie and I went and spent a weekend in western Mass for the ride known as D2R2, or the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee’.  It was a 115 mile, 15,000 feet of climbing ride that took place on 70% dirt roads that rambled from western Mass up into Vermont then back down. This was the only organized group ride that the Rapha squad was doing this year, and one I looked so forward to.  So many unexpected familiar faces were there. Matt R., D. Wilcox, A, J.B., P & N Gengler, and more. The ride was the most gorgeous ride I have ever done. Matt had said the promoter had take 10 years or so to string it all together, and I believe it. Cars and other traffic were a rare sight, as was pavement in general, and the roads, if you can call some of them that, went from nice hardpack to washout central to straight up jeep tracks over rock and rut.

It was the kind of ride where you are climbing so much you forget that you are climbing. So many times kicking the pedals over trudging uphill for so long and over and over, mostly seated mind you, that your brain forgets that the terrain is steep and malleable.  The first half we rode, a lot of the time, together. I dropped a bottle on the first good dirt descent, and rather than litter up the place, Brendan Dee’s voice going off in my head, I went back up the climb to retrieve it.  Happily riding back I found Nathalie and Aaron Suko riding along after making a rough wrong turn, and rode with them for a bit til I passed a couple of throngs of people on a climb, looking for my Rapha-mates. Pierre waited up a bit for me and we rode, a bit awestruck, together til the first check point. I was feeling good, but afraid to push it and crack myself. More and even more climbing later, we headed into the lunch spot. Not wanting to let the legs sit too long, I left with Matt & Dave W. and what I thought was the rest of the crew, but not. The three of us soft pedaled in hopes that they’d be coming up right behind us, but they were not. The three of us, along with various others who we caught up with rode together well. It was nice catching up with the two of them. In the relative quiet of those back roads, we could actually talk to each other, even ride three abreast. Rad. Everyone’s demeanor was wonderful, as if the challenge inherent in the ride was a great neutralizer, and the peace of the surroundings let people smile more and chat. One guy, a pretty fantastic chap, John Bayley, was nice enough to talk to me all the way up the last climb; a 25% grade monster that went from paved to dirt to absolute shit. I was gasping and this guy was cruising along chatting me up all the way. I was pretty impressed. Did I mention I did this ride in the Rapha bike? 53-39 gearing with an 11-26 on the back and 25mm tires? I did. The old Igleheart wanted more climbing and dirty descending. It ate it up.

Towards the end I couldn’t believe I still felt all right. Down a paticularly heads up descent, trying to follow David’s wheel as best as I could (He can ride.), we hit the last few miles of pavement and I could do nothing less than drill it straight for the finish.

My ride time was 7hr, 45 min with all the back tracking I did, and elapsed time was a bit over 8hrs I’m guessing. I  can’t wait for next year. This ride is going to be a perennial one for me. Keep up the great work!!!

In other news, I have a new CX frame on the way from the nothing short of amazing friends at Circle A. I am merging the Men’s Elite Circle A team, comprised of: myself, onto the Embrocation team. This will be super rad, taking a lot of the autonomous aspects of the rapha team into the idea for a cross team. Look out for us. I am so glad Circle A is a willing participant in the team, but ever more gracious for them being such an incredible support for my racing and riding in general, and my life. Not only do they make some of the finest frames in the world, they are also unsurpassed sweethearts and scholars.  Time to go ride mine now. Thanks for being patient.