Dan Action

Doing it Again October 23, 2009

   The door that opens up to cyclocross season has been swung wide again. I find myself just now biting into the thick of it. As I nibbled around the edge looking for a softer way to the center I left this blog untouched. But now that’s over. I always find myself envious of the folks that can post daily of even bi-weekly their thoughts and travails. I’d love to make it a goal and bring this blog from simply being, more or less, a race journal and actually put up more varied subject matter.

Anyway. Let me just say that I still love racing. Last weeekend’s races of Granogue and Wissahickon left me wanting more and more chances to validate myself on the bike. Saturday was essentially sledding with your bike down mudslides of hilarious proportions. I watched race after race of strings of riders cascading down step, off camber hills fighting to stay on their bikes.

Is it unfair to my present place in time to be so wistfully looking forward to next year? So much is already on deck in my mind. Here in Philly there is the series of rides known as the Spring Classics. Set up twenty or so years ago, the three rides that comprise the series make up the distance of La Primavera; Milan San Remo.  There is talk of making a well-timed trip to Gainesville, Fl for a February race.  Then there’s the highlight of each year that for the past two years has proven to be one of the best things that I have gotten myself involved with; the 2010 schedule of rides to do with my compatriots in the Rapha Continental.

But I am ahead of myself. It’s not like I am wont for things to do here in time and in the soon to come future.  Next weekend I embark on a trip to a couple of New England cross race: Canton Mass and Putney Vermont. Neither are UCI races, but both are staples in the schedules of many who enjoy racing. I will be taking the trip with some stellar company which I’m pretty sure will rival the fun of the races themselves.

I’ll post more often, I promise.

Anyway, let’s look at some photos.

Junkyard Race and a Big Merger December 22, 2008

Yesterday I went up further north in the city than I have ever previously ridden. Accompanied by Nathalie and a good friend from Boston, Mr. David Wilcox, I traversed the city in it’s miserable state of rain and it’s icy streets. On a typical day such as this, I would hardly dare to venture out of my house let alone my block. But this was no typical day; the day was the blockbuster event of Bilenky Cycle Works’ Urban Cyclocross Race held in an adjacent junkyard.  A wondrous, if chemically poisoned time was had and the course was super fun. Spotted with deep mud and puddles filled with anyone’s guess of toxic levels the course meandered through the junk piles weaving in and out of wrecked cars, railroad ties and tracks, and the hulls of other seemingly ancient and unrecognizable machinery. Fifty or more folks made their way out of doors on such an awful day to “compete” and even more to spectate, drink, or heckle. Most folks actually struck up an easy balance between all aforementioned activities.  No one got too hurt and I’d say most everyone came out of Bilenky with a pretty complete smile on their face.

I made third place in my race which was one of two heats, but declined to race the playoffs. I handed my number over to Lenore who seemed reluctant but eager to get on the course again. It was all so hilarious and everything I wore pretty much got thrown in a plastic bag while I am trying to decide whether to wash it all, or incinerate it all.

In other news, I guess the NY Times must not have gotten my press release, but here in Philly a merger of fantastical proportions was reached. All of the apparel made by myself or Nathalie will be sold under the Camp Cupboard name. To prove it to you, you can see for yourself at: Campcupboard.bigcartel.com. Check it out. It’s our online store. Thanks to Brian at Circle A who helped me out with finding a decent host for the store. You can check out the Circle A Cycles store HERE.

What else? Oh Yeah! Check out the write up and all the Photos from the last two rides Rapha Continental did on the east coast. They both were in Maine. The photos are gorgeous enough to make folks weep. To check those out, Click Here.

Photos, etc. December 17, 2008

  Well, I am getting pretty used to my new schedule now that things have calmed down a bit. I ended up super sick as a toll of last weekend’s intensity. I was bed ridden for two days. I wanted to get a few photos up here from the last race.

Also getting ready for some fun times traveling. Nathalie and I are heading for points south around the turn of the new year. We’ll be hitting up ever-familiar Gainesville for a few days. I hope to get a chance to do some quality riding down there, hopefully with the likes of a Mr. Mike Arena. I’m having a hard time deciding which bike to bring down though. It will probably come down to my Rapha Igleheart since that’s the bike I’ll be needing for my next trip. A few days after returning from Fl./Ga. I am flying out to Portland OR and heading out with the Rapha folks to basically do a pre-ride of the Tour of California. This is going to be pretty rad as well as super hard. Don’t have all the details yet, but as soon as I do I’ll pass the fun ones along here.

D2R2 is up on the Rapha Continental site now, with the Maine rides hopefully appearing soon. Chris Milliman shot D2R2, and man are those photos incredible! He seriously is at the top of the food chain. I truly love his work.

Embrocation 2.5 is being released tonight at a bar in Cambridge (our fair city), if you’re in the area, check it out. If not, Pick an issue up, you’ll be pretty psyched you did.

As far as making apparel, I am, as previously mentioned, getting used to a new routine. I plan on having a bunch of stuff ready to order soon. Mostly the wool baselayers, because that’s what I would want most at this time of year. I will also get some photos of the stuff up in a day or so. It did feel good to send out that first order though.

 

   

What a Week!!! December 13, 2008

Last Friday, pretty early in the morning, I found my way downtown to the Chinatown bus to New York. I stopped in the city for a bit to have some coffee and chat it up with a certain pair or team mates, Kansas W. and Filthy Rich Bravo. We just hung out at the Cadence cafe and yukked it up for a bit before I departed for another bus to Boston.

I was heading up to New England for the last two races of my season (if you can call what I had a definitive season). The NBX UCI weekend in Rhode Island.  I love these two races and have made it a point to make it to them every year. It’s kind of like racing in front of the hometown crowd. Now, before you might get the idea that I was going up there with my game face on, let me assure you that in the weeks leading up to this I have barely gotten any riding in, let alone actual training. Also, the trip was kind of set up to me multi-purpose as I wanted to get to spend some time with Jeremy and talk about Embrocation Cycling Journal with regards of finding my way into a role in it’s production, and one of the best friends I’ve been lucky to have known close to ten years, whom I lived my duration of time in Providence with, Mike Taylor was to have a going away party as he is departing for points much further south. So let’s just go right ahead and admit that this was to be a pretty social weekend with a little racing thrown in just to keep the teeth white.

Traveling by bus to a race is a pretty great thing. It simplifies schedules by the nature of actually having a schedule and it allows me to travel by myself easily. Since I am with without a license to drive, solo travel becomes difficult. The one drawback is that carrying a surplus of equipment becomes impossible. So there I was with the cross bike, a set of carbon boobular wheels on it, a can of Pit-Stop or two, and that was about it. My backpack was so overstuffed with clothing and the like to prepare for a myriad of weather conditions that I couldn’t fit any more even if I wanted to.  So that pretty much left me gallavanting about around New York, Boston, and Providence praying for clean streets and no flats. Surprisingly, I made it through.

I got to Boston and rode over to Cambridge Bike to meet Jeremy, we promptly got to a bar for dinner and drinks, a few excellent folks came to meet up there and laughs were had. Somehow both Jeremy and I thought it might be a good, or at least fun idea to go to a college party where we knew no one but everyone else knew each other. People kept asking us in drunken slurring drawls “Who here do you know? Do I know you”. Good times, not awkward at all. We were definitely the old heads there. It was pretty funny. We got back to Jeremy’s place in Somerville at a stunning 4 a.m. only to rise in a couple hours to depart for the race. Hoo boy. I tried to shake all the crappy-ness from my body, but even at the best I felt, there was nothing in the legs. My race was awful. The start was ok, but after a lap or two I started cramping pretty bad. I bridged a couple of good gaps on the road sections, bringing my teammates with me, but soon the cramps were holding both sides of my abdomen hostage and the ransom was to slow down. I don’t deal with terrorists, so I held out. Then the throwing up started. Swwweeeet. I didn’t get last place, but I sure felt it. In contrast the team mates, known here as the three-Pete, had great races.

That night was not designed to be a recovery night either. Dinner led to a bike shop party, then to Mike T’s departing soiree’.  This was a weekend highlight. One, because it was a classic party. Two, because it had been a long time since spending a night with a number of folks it feels like I used to spend pretty much every night with. And Three, because Some of my other friends: Jeremy, Pete B., Craig, and others were there and having a good time, seemingly comfortable and revelling. It is such a nice thing for me to see newer friends or two different groups of friends (in this case my “bike world” friends and my “hometown” friends) get together and hit it off. It only goes to show that I have good taste in the people I choose to associate with. I am just attracted to good people, plain and simple.

This night ended with a visit to the classic Olneyville System, where I was able to introduce Jeremy and Peter to Hot Weiners, a food only legal to sell in Rhode Island and one other state. Which one it is escapes me. We got to my friend Yvette’s house at the decent hour of 3:30 a.m. and promptly hit the deck.

Sunday morning was a bit easier on the body that Saturday was. Yvette and Michael made us some killer oatmeal and way intense smoothies that made all right with the body, or at least as much as can be right with the strain I was putting on it throughout the weekend. We got to the race to find a snowy, twistier course. Much more to my liking than the day before, and I set out to get a decent warm up. God knows I needed it; it was so cold. Jeremy, Cary, and Dave Wilcox put it an excellent race. J taking 3rd and 3rd in the overall series, with Both Cary and Dave W. making it into the top ten.

I felt a lot better in my race, at least in the fact that I wasn’t throwing up. My result dosen’t do much to prove my better condition,  but I was plenty happy. When endevoring in a weekend such as this, one has to choose between enjoying spectacular friendships and celebrating them, or racing up to my full potential. I feel I’ve done plenty of brushing aside some quality time with folks I treasure to be all serious and duly prepared. Given this abbreviated season of mine, this is no nail in the coffin. If anything, I will come out next year with something to prove. I had a great time, made enough money in the payout to cover one day of racing, and re-solidified some important relationships.  What more can one want in a four day trip? All that and no flats.

This Machine Does Not Work December 3, 2008

   I am in the elated throes of a newfound Funemployment. Huzzah!!

I decided that as amazing as Cadence is, it’s a bit more of a commitment that I’m able to make at the moment. I’d like to take a moment here and express my gratitude towards them for having me there. I can’t say this is the definitive end of my face darkening their doorway, but taking an extended break from work does very much rule.

it’s been a while. You may think that by constantly shifting residencies up and down the East Coast (unicoastal) that would leave ample time for unemployment. Not so! The financial drain of moving twice in one year tends to tap out any meager savings I might have accrued in the former place of my nesting. The first order of business in a move is to secure some work. Luckily, since I have been moving between two pretty familiar places, finding the work has not been too much of an issue. The only drawback that it dosen’t leave much time to stretch out the way one does with the onset of a good spell of ot working.

What will I do with all that time, you may ask. Well, as in any other spell of abundant free time on my hands since I was 23 or so, I will be riding my bikes a whole bunch more. No less than any others, I will spend some quality time on my newest ride, a sweet 5 inch full suspension mountain bike that came down the pipeline from Mr. “tight jam” Stevens. I figure wrestling a 30lbs. bike for three hours at a time will get me faster when I get on the light bikes. I will also be doing some traveling. First up will be a trip up to my two favorite cross races: NBX Grand Prix and Steadman’s in Rhode Island. Not to mention, It’s a good chance to get some hang out time in Providence.  After that, I will be packing up the dogs and bikes with Nathalie and we’ll be heading south for the coming of the New Year.

let’s talk a moment about some machines that DO work. By this I mean my sewing machines. They work phenomenally. In fact, they work so well as to make some excellent hats and base layers when teamed up with my patterns. I will be trying to sell some of my wares this weekend and beyond. This latest batch of hats have been made with alternating panels of Pro-cool, a Malden Mills fabric not unlike DuPont’s Coolmax, and a wool blend, reminiscent of Sportwool. These hats will be $20. Fully constructed of wool, they will be a bit more, as material costs go up. Base layers are different weights of Pro-cool, short sleeve. $20 as well. I also have a lot of Merino wool in stock currently. Merino baselayers will be $40. Pictures up soon.  See you at the races!!!

Beaten at Beacon November 12, 2008

Well, let me start with saying that I am glad to have the first, or any, sloppy race under the belt and over with.

That said, I got a lousy start being over geared and not having a ton of traction on the wet, uphill, paved climb. But whatever, as long as the group can stay together, it’s not too big of a deal. Going into the soft, deep sand, my front wheel dug in good. Others did as well and I got a bit tangled with some other riders. I  got out of the sand and the bike felt really heavy and hard to pedal for some reason or another. I let it go and chalked it up to being sandy and muddy and what not until the top of a dirt climb where never mind it being hard to pedal, I couldn’t even coast. Here I took my mind off of where I was in the race and put a little attention on the bike. My front wheel was pressed against the fork and brake. That would definitely keep the speed down. It was here that I pulled off and dismounted to take care of the mechanical issue. It was here that I saw myself going back in the places to last. Dead last.

With the problem fixed, I decided that to give up was lame. I set off to catch whoever I could and use the race to make myself ride the course better. I can always use a muddy and wet race course to work on bringing my riding skills up a notch. And while working on cornering better, running faster, and dropping the gears whenever the course would allow a nice speed surge, I found myself catching rider after rider and eventually moving myself back to 17th place. Sure I was still a bit disappointed, but I was satisfied that I rode the course well.  And let me tell you the course was worth riding. It was so fun and well laid out.  My sense of direction was completely boggled the entire race what with all the twists and turns. Kudos to the promoters and designers. I can easily see why this is a race that atracts so many folks to travel.

Fair Hill, Fair Effort November 5, 2008

   Raced at Fair Hill in Maryland on Saturday. Went early in the a.m. with super coach Colin in the  big Cadence van taking all the BMC demo bikes, tents, trainers, and all the other things a sponsor of the MAC series should bring. That is, except a decent tool kit. Oh well.

The day was awesome. The course, just spectactular. It was deftly laid out across the grounds of horse stables and fields. The overall atmosphere was strikingly positive, and the temperature bordered  on being hot.It was great to watch all of the races and ride the course a lot between each of them. It was rad watching Lenore in her first pretty big time elite field. I lent her some wheels that would be excellently suited for the course. She raced well, and found out how limiting it can be to follow the wheels less apt than your own. Good lesson.

It was only a year ago that I was finding the same things out.  I keep kicking myself for not being faster or racing smarter. I think I should occasionally take into consideration that this current season is my third racing ‘cross. Only one of those, the first, was spent in the “B” field. Not to mention, this is only my fourth year racing bikes at all, really. I spent some years just riding the fast group rides in Gainesville, trying to hang on to all the incredibly strong folks there. It wasn’t till maybe 2003 that a friend of mine, Dan P., convinced me to do a mountain bike race with him after I going with him to a couple of his. I did a few, and did well but kind of put it up for a while, till I realized late in the summer of ‘03(?) that I found out about the training races nearby in Lincoln Rhode Island. Living in Providence, it was a six mile ride from the shop I worked at. I did that race every week in the B division and got my upgrade to cat 4 by October. I think I only did those training crits and one real race that was on the same course as the crit for my ten races. I started ‘04 out as a cat 4 and raced the season and ended it with my 3 upgrade. That was with the first inception of the Circle A team, which I look back on fondly. The next season was ended in june for me with a separated shoulder. I took a long tour of New England with M.C. in late July to get my form back. We packed up our bikes and went out for ten days or more travelling over 100 miles each day up the shore and across the mountains. I tried my first cross race that same year on the same bike I toured on. An old lotus from the eighties that Circle A brazed some canti bosses onto. I had an old Mavic Cosmic wheel on the back, some crappy wheel on the front, road cranks, and bar end shifters. I raced at Plymouth. I got 15th in the B’s. I remember Steve Morse blowing past me on the last or second to last lap. I knew he was super strong and raced cross a fair amount, so I didn’t feel too discouraged to be beat by him. That year was the one that I finally met Molly C., and worked the pits at Gloucester for her. That was the year of the freakish snow storm. I remember working the pit and freezing with pretty much everyone else since no one else came prepared for such absurd weather. That was a big eye opener for me. I found the whole scene warm and positive, where the road racing scene was anything but. The next year all I wanted to do was race cross. That’s pretty much where this blog starts from.

Anyway, Fair hill. There were a couple of crashes directly after the prologue that set some gaps out. I tried to chase and chase, and worked with a man named Buckles, who I just couldn’t ride away from and we caught one guy. Then we got caught by Michael Gallegher (sp?) and when he attacked, Buckles went and since I had led the past lap and a half, I was pretty blown to answer the attack. I stayed just a few seconds off Buckles’ wheel, but that was all I could do and ended up tenth. Not horrible, but I guess I really need to start training right to minimize my losses. I really want to stay in the money for all the races from here out, but more than that I think I can better my standings in the Series. Got to hit some goals.

Light Fuse and Get Away October 20, 2008

Fireworks had always held a touch of mischievous intrigue for me. Not a bit lessened by the moment of anxious waiting between when a fuse catches and the gunpowder takes effect. It happens so fast, but not too fast, so you’re waiting in one of those slow and charged moments. And then there’s the charge itself, though not as destructive as you really want it to be given the tension you feel by lighting one.
A similar parable could be found in this past weekend’s cross race: Wissahickon Cross. The area’s premiere UCI racing double header. Many folks from Boston came down and in that group were a number of my teammates. It was great to catch up and even host some good friends at my house, complete with a nice night out on the town.
But to continue my metaphor, I will get right down to the ever so short details of my race, the entire reason to show my face at some vacant horse trainng facility in somewhere Pennsylvania.
I can tell you this: one lap, two crashes, no more race.
I got a shitty start since I was left at the alter waiting for a call-up. Apparently MAC points don’t neccessitate any kind of decent stasting position here in the country. I waited, perhaps vainly, to hear my name be called and probably mangled as most people tend to either trip their way over a semi-french pronounciation or garble something out in “plain English” that bears no resemblance to the phonetic sound of my name. As I waited, everyone else must’ve gotten over themseves and lined up, leaving me to inch in to a smal nook in the back. HHmph. The start was dusty and pretty scetchy, but I tried to gain some ground. It was hard to see exactly where the course was going through the dust. I took a good run through a bottle-necked section and made up some places, sat behind someone through a few turns, then decided it was time to move up. I tried t do so on a sweeping turn, but the rider I was to pass was non-plussed about my move and wanted to move me over. I was in a pretty decent veer and the effort to try to still get around my blocking colleague saw me tumbling to the ground at a rapid speed. Dismayed, I rose and hit various parts of my bike to a semblance of straight, and proceeded to hit the gas again. Hit it I did, up the barriers, and back on the bike pedaling like crazy. I felt a mixture of over confidence and who-the-fuck-cares going into a certain section it would be wise to take caution on and went into it way too hot. Down I went. Pretty hard too, My elbow dug into my ribs as I landed, winding me, and my neck stiffened up as I tried to take stock of the situation. I decided to pick up the bike and try to get on even with my brain sounding sort of an alarm not to do so, but alas, a section of my tire unseated in the crash, there would be no riding on it. And feeling the pain start to give me a decent nausea, there was not to be any running to the pit. Game Over.
In all that tension wound in that first 2/3 lap, I feel a bit robbed to not have let it out in the race, instead I feel diminished. I guess that’s what is going to get me out to the next race, and put me on form.

I’ve Been To The Races Too. October 6, 2008

I will tell more of these stories starting from a fresh keyboard which is destined to be under my fingertips tomorrow morning, but for now I will let all who are interested know that I still do race cyclocross and still, I enjoy it like I enjoy nothing else.

Charm City is another name for Baltimore. The act of charming people is probably devious the way that I think of it, which is sort of like hypnotizing someone, or maybe like one would charm a snake. Either way, I call it dubious. If I seemed entranced at this race of the same title, it was because I was at it from way too early to probably way too late. Lenore can attest to it as well. The race went ok for me, being the first race and all. I had a good start and went onto the course in the top ten or so. I found the right lines and quickly gained ground. You can probably read a decent re-cap on the results page from the race, or wherever else you see something about Charm City cx race posted. I got a good mentioning in the write up. Though, not mentioned was the reason I fell from the fight for 3rd. Like a dumb dumb, I put my head to to wallow in pain for a second, or to make sure my shoes were still on, which ever you prefer, and set my front wheel in a big hole. That shook me up and in the couple of seconds it took for me to make the mental check to be sure I wasn’t going down or I didn’t hurt my beautiful new bike, Steve and Andy attacked. All I could counter with was holding the gap where it was and riding parallel. Too bad. But fifth is not too awful, I enjoyed the podium low point just fine and still walked off with some change it the ol’ pocket.

Hillbilly Hustle. I got an awful start due to my slowish reaction time to the start whistle. The official made no attempt at a countdown and as soon as “on my whistle” was said, it blew, then I bewilderdly tried to reach my pedals. I went into the woods 12 wheel or so on a course that bottlenecked fast and got all single-file like. I made some dicey moves and some less risky to get up as many wheels as I could see, which found me riding with Rickey from the Exodus team, then followed by 15 yr. old phenom., Jeff B. The two of the were eager to attack and since there was no one to be seen ahead or behind I let them get in front of me. I mean, there was six laps to go still, so I just trailed them and I knew they weren’t riding a ot of the course that well, waited for them to make mistakes and attack then, when I knew I could gap them good. My chances came when Rickey got wrapped up in the tape in the slow and soft “S” turn, and then one more time when Jeff clipped a barrier and went down. I got around no problem and then all the voices in my head were ATTACk!!!! So I did, and held the two of them off to take third for the day. The race was well done and the course was killer. Lost of fast turning without hitting the brakes. The file tread Challenge tubulars loved the course. On the way home Nathalie and I hit up an orchard stand and picked up a huge jug of cider and a big bag of Empire apples. The past few nights I’ve been making baked apples. It makes our house seem all seasonal and warm.

Photo form Democats.com

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.