Family Vacation

Had a nice GOBA vacation last week with the family. We got in 335 miles of horribly flat roads but at least there was no rain at all. The average speeds were high and one day we did 50 miles in 2:16. I will be looking forward to hills next year hopefully. I only managed to gain 2 lbs. last week which is normal for me during that week. That's alot of food when you think about all the miles I did.
I ate copious amounts of mexican and the photo shows the bathroom in one of the finer establishments I visited. The toilette looked even worse, especially when I was done with it. This place was a real hell hole and the beer was even warm! Very authentic I would say.

I have a litte break in my race schedule now so it will be nice just to ride tons of hours with no particular training regimen. It's kinda funny how racing actually gets in the way of my riding.








Found this little gem in Elmore.















Many thanks to John for letting Charlotte ride with Sydney this year. I think they had fun on the tandem and they held a good pace everyday.



How's that 60 miles feel? Finally speechless.

Eternal 2nd

I am starting to feel a bit like Joop Zoetemelk with another 2nd place at the Knob. Yes, Saeler showed up again in my class and of course won, but did not beat me by as much this time.
I lined up at the front again and took off hard from the gun. I found myself 2nd into the woods and figured I would see how long it would take for the younger experts to pass me. Just as we were about to finish the prologue lap Walker came by me. He must have thought I was Wilhelm because he called me Brad as he was about to pass.
After a few more young guys came around I settled into a more sustainable pace. The legs felt pretty good despite the worsening conditions from the rain. My front tire was not a good mud tire so I went a little easier on the downhills.
On the second lap I could hear a couple guys closing in on me so I cranked up the speed a notch and never saw them again. I knew I would not catch Saeler but figured I would keep the pace as high as I could sustain. The legs never once faltered, the only cramping I had was in my left forearm, but it went away with another Powergel.
Consistency has always been my strong point and I am now leading the overall series, which was my original goal.
Wes had a great race and seems to be riding well. I'm not sure what happened to John, but he sure was not at his usual level. Possibly winning Mohican took a toll on him. It sucks getting older, too much recovery time needed.

Out of the Closet!

Former Tour de France victor Fignon has cancer, undergoing chemotherapy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS – 2 hours ago

PARIS — Two-time Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon says he has advanced cancer in the digestive system and is undergoing chemotherapy.

Fignon announced his illness on Thursday. He says doctors told him the cancer probably wasn't caused by taking performance-enhancing drugs during his career.

Fignon has written a book, "We were Young and Carefree," in which he describes his use of amphetamines and cortisone. The 48-year-old Frenchman won the Tour in 1983 and 1984.


Fignon's admission of drug use doesn't bode well for Lemond either. As much as I hate to say it, he was probably juiced up as well in those days, otherwise he wouldn't have spanked Laurent so handily in several tours.
I will never look at a TDF winner, past or present, without clouded vision.
And to think, I used to have a Systeme U team kit back in the day!

You are ready now

Poor Grasshopper. Your death, though tragic and gruesome, will undoubtedly provide some sick humored blogger many future posts and commentary. Not me of course, you all know I have quoted the Grasshopper in numerous postings and have the utmost respect for his fine acting over the years. But I do think that the way he died will change the famous Kung Fu line: "You must first snatch the pebble from my hand, but you must do it while wearing a wig and fishnet stockings my son."

Fourty Sixer!

Patent Pending: The new rage in kids bikes. My daughter wanted to ride the Knob so I had to make some significant changes to her current 24" mtb. Mainly I need to drop about 10 lbs. from it by removing the P.O.S. front shock. I had an idea to install a 26" Kinesis aluminum fork and put a decent front wheel on it too. The old 24" shock had the same stack height as this non-suspension corrected 26". It was a perfect match, and when paired with some xt v-brakes it is much, much lighter. It kinda looks Frankenstienish, but it works well.









































I've been eating my fair share of cheese these days.












Just what I didn't need, one more bike in the house! Yes, I realize I have an addiction, but they say recognizing the problem is the first step to recovery. This is also the first 10 speed set up I have ever owned. Seems like only yesterday I was on 6 speed downtube shifters.
GT does a really nice job on the welds.






This is the bike that has been getting to most use recently. Doesn't it look sweet parked beside the wagon?