I saw this video for the first time at Interbike this year. DZ's taint soothing emulsion is priced somewhere in the vicinity of Cincinnati and only Serotta owners can keep using it, but the videos are classic DZ and can be enjoyed by everyone. I specially like the way his mane never moves in this one.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
22 Oct - So I Got A Question For Ya
I went it to see the Physical Therapist yesterday. In the end, it was pretty much good news. No reason I can't be back racing in a couple weeks. During the exam, the PT poked, prodded, flexed, stretched, and otherwise completely analyzed the inner-workings of my left shoulder. It was during the poking part of the exam when the PT was testing the attachment of my clavicle into the shoulder joint when he frowned and said "Hmmmmm.... Kinda squishy." So, I got a question for ya. Is there ever a good time for a cyclist to hear the phrase "Hmmmmmm...... Kinda squishy."? As always, feel free to leave your answers in the comments.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
It is that time of the year....get your cash ready
It is time for Veloswap, or Velodump or what ever you want to call it.
It has been 2 years since I have been to veloswap. The annual meet to sell your used shorts, jersey's, downhill bikes or whatever you have laying around that you think has value. In the past, it has been more of a flea market for crap than actual useful stuff. Will be heading out Friday to help Bill setup the table. I know that we will have Mavic wheels, Save our Sole socks and other things from Adidas, Yakima and whatever else Bill rep's for these days. There will also be a bunch of DMT shoes that we are blowing out for like 30 bucks a pair. Please buy them so they dont live in Brian's garage any longer.
But the real deal's are happening in Belgium. I got this an email this week...
If you want good deals, this is much better than buying the crap that show's up at the stock show booths.......Who wants to work for me so I can run across the pond and pick up some used shorts from Tomeke?
Friday, October 17, 2008
Sum Bitch....it has been a long year
Welcome back race fans,
It has been many months since my last post and Big Brian has taken up the mantle the last couple weeks now that cross season has started back up. But with his wing in a sling, I thought and now feel it is time to bring back the words of a pack filler.
I first want to start out by saying THANKS to everyone that has helped my wife, son and myself during the worst time in our lives. There is no way to understand out pain but with everyone looking after us it has been easier. I will never forget my dear son Grant, you are always with me buddy!!!
Now wipe those tears away and get ready, because Euro cross season is up and running.
With the first SuperPrestige race in the books with a guy that we all know but with the wrong clothes on, Sven Nys powered away to win in Ruddervoorde. He made it look easy after a long mtb campaign leading up to his 9th place in the Olympics...best ever for a Belgium, but what do they know about mountain biking?
Next cross race up is the opening round of World Cup series - Kalmthout
Speaking of mountain biking, I crewed for my buddy Jon last weekend at the 24 hrs of Moab. He had made the decision early on to go the Solo route this year and I was more than willing to stay up and help out the cause.
What a hell hole Moab is. I hate that place. Let me tell you the story of 24 hrs of Moab.
We take off from Denver Friday morning and get into Moab mid afternoon. I have just built up a brand new 09 Yeti ASR and really need to do a shakedown ride and get some fun riding in. But that will not be the case. We get out to the race course and the wind is blowing at a gentle 10-15 mph's. We get the tent sent up and walk around. I want to get out but the call of Dale's Pale Ale is stronger at this point. We settle in for dinner of steak, potatoes and good conversation and call it a night around the camp fire.
At 2am, the fun starts. The wind kicks up like a mustang trying to be broken. 40 mph, then 50 mph and then gusts from 60 - 70 mph. The tent is wipping around then, sum bitch, I am practically upside down in the tent. The wind had picked up the corner of the tent and twisted it all up. This sucks. We move bags and gear to keep the whole thing from going Dorothy, from the Wizard of Oz, on us and try to ride it out. At 530am, I cant take it any longer. I try to pound the tent stakes back in but with the ground so hard, there is no hope. The dust storm that is going on is great. I have dust in every part of my body, my car, my bike and everything that was not in a zip locked baggie.
Once day break hits, I crawl out and see a recycler's dream. 10x10 tents all over the place, mangled, destroyed and useless all over the landscape. We get our tent down and put on gear on the outside to keep it from ending up in St. George and head into town to get new and improved tent stakes and a quick bit to eat. Too windy to firing up the ol' Coleman stove at this point. Jon sticks behind and grabs some food because traffic getting to the course can suck and he cant miss the riders meeting. We are back in time to get to the riders meeting and set the tent back up and we are in business of having a place to sleep.
Lap 1 is always a nightmare at Moab. LeMans start and more dust...do you see a theme here? Jon rides his first lap in 1h48m..not bad for your first solo race. Fix a quick flat tire and out he goes for Lap 2. Lap 2 is done in 2h flat. Rolling right along. Jon comes into the pit and we get him so food but he is not looking good. I notice that he has not touched his bottles and he is out with no camelbak. He sit's down and instantally get's a leg cramp. This is not good. He is looking dehydrated and mentally beat down and we are only 4 hrs into a 24 hr race. After about 30 minutes and some massage and fluids, he is back out kicking it again.
Lap 3 is done in around 3hrs. With the break at the tent, he is still riding well within himself. He comes in and again, no water gone from the bottles. This is not good. We get him some food and a bottle of Vitamin Water and he has some dinner then BAM!!! He get's all light headed and cant sit up straight. All the food he has eaten takes all the blood out of the rest of the body to help digestion and he is laying in the tent, seeing stars, light headed and not wanting to move. We have a quick discussion on strategy and what needs to be done and determine that it would be best for him to sleep and try to get himself fed and hydrated at this point. There is no race in the world worth getting yourself hurt at and having more issues down the road......so my job is done at 930pm for the 24hr race.
I put on some warmer clothes, grab some beers and head over to the main stage with lawn chair in hand and sit down next to the fire to watch The Princess Bride. One of the best movies out there. I end up sleeping in the minivan that night with my bike, which has yet to feel the singletrack even though it can be seen from the campsite.
Wake up in the morning and get some more food into Jon and we get him back out on the bike. He looks better but it is going to be a long morning. We break down camp and pack the minivan but after 3 hrs, Jon is still not back. This is not a good sign. Finally, he shows up and hands me his bike and call's it a day. He stopped for a guy that crashed and possibly broke his hip. The medic ask if he wants to have a ghost lap charged to him and he declines but he did the right thing in stopping for this guy. That is good karma. 4 laps in the books for his first solo attempt.
Jon admits that it was not his best performance. But he has never ridden a solo 24hr race before and that takes guts. He finished his ride. He finished ahead of people. He did not give up and took the adversities that we given to him and made the best of it. That is what makes you a better person.
Sometimes even the best laid plans go awry, but you can always fix them and soilder on.
So the new Yeti is still in the garage. It currently has 700 miles on it, all inside the car and 0 singletrack miles. That is going to change this weekend though.
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend....I have not been bitten by the cross bug yet, but Frites en Mayo are putting on races in a couple of weeks...so it might be a good idea to get the ol' Empella out of storage and ride on some skinny tires again
It has been many months since my last post and Big Brian has taken up the mantle the last couple weeks now that cross season has started back up. But with his wing in a sling, I thought and now feel it is time to bring back the words of a pack filler.
I first want to start out by saying THANKS to everyone that has helped my wife, son and myself during the worst time in our lives. There is no way to understand out pain but with everyone looking after us it has been easier. I will never forget my dear son Grant, you are always with me buddy!!!
Now wipe those tears away and get ready, because Euro cross season is up and running.
With the first SuperPrestige race in the books with a guy that we all know but with the wrong clothes on, Sven Nys powered away to win in Ruddervoorde. He made it look easy after a long mtb campaign leading up to his 9th place in the Olympics...best ever for a Belgium, but what do they know about mountain biking?
Next cross race up is the opening round of World Cup series - Kalmthout
Speaking of mountain biking, I crewed for my buddy Jon last weekend at the 24 hrs of Moab. He had made the decision early on to go the Solo route this year and I was more than willing to stay up and help out the cause.
What a hell hole Moab is. I hate that place. Let me tell you the story of 24 hrs of Moab.
We take off from Denver Friday morning and get into Moab mid afternoon. I have just built up a brand new 09 Yeti ASR and really need to do a shakedown ride and get some fun riding in. But that will not be the case. We get out to the race course and the wind is blowing at a gentle 10-15 mph's. We get the tent sent up and walk around. I want to get out but the call of Dale's Pale Ale is stronger at this point. We settle in for dinner of steak, potatoes and good conversation and call it a night around the camp fire.
At 2am, the fun starts. The wind kicks up like a mustang trying to be broken. 40 mph, then 50 mph and then gusts from 60 - 70 mph. The tent is wipping around then, sum bitch, I am practically upside down in the tent. The wind had picked up the corner of the tent and twisted it all up. This sucks. We move bags and gear to keep the whole thing from going Dorothy, from the Wizard of Oz, on us and try to ride it out. At 530am, I cant take it any longer. I try to pound the tent stakes back in but with the ground so hard, there is no hope. The dust storm that is going on is great. I have dust in every part of my body, my car, my bike and everything that was not in a zip locked baggie.
Once day break hits, I crawl out and see a recycler's dream. 10x10 tents all over the place, mangled, destroyed and useless all over the landscape. We get our tent down and put on gear on the outside to keep it from ending up in St. George and head into town to get new and improved tent stakes and a quick bit to eat. Too windy to firing up the ol' Coleman stove at this point. Jon sticks behind and grabs some food because traffic getting to the course can suck and he cant miss the riders meeting. We are back in time to get to the riders meeting and set the tent back up and we are in business of having a place to sleep.
Lap 1 is always a nightmare at Moab. LeMans start and more dust...do you see a theme here? Jon rides his first lap in 1h48m..not bad for your first solo race. Fix a quick flat tire and out he goes for Lap 2. Lap 2 is done in 2h flat. Rolling right along. Jon comes into the pit and we get him so food but he is not looking good. I notice that he has not touched his bottles and he is out with no camelbak. He sit's down and instantally get's a leg cramp. This is not good. He is looking dehydrated and mentally beat down and we are only 4 hrs into a 24 hr race. After about 30 minutes and some massage and fluids, he is back out kicking it again.
Lap 3 is done in around 3hrs. With the break at the tent, he is still riding well within himself. He comes in and again, no water gone from the bottles. This is not good. We get him some food and a bottle of Vitamin Water and he has some dinner then BAM!!! He get's all light headed and cant sit up straight. All the food he has eaten takes all the blood out of the rest of the body to help digestion and he is laying in the tent, seeing stars, light headed and not wanting to move. We have a quick discussion on strategy and what needs to be done and determine that it would be best for him to sleep and try to get himself fed and hydrated at this point. There is no race in the world worth getting yourself hurt at and having more issues down the road......so my job is done at 930pm for the 24hr race.
I put on some warmer clothes, grab some beers and head over to the main stage with lawn chair in hand and sit down next to the fire to watch The Princess Bride. One of the best movies out there. I end up sleeping in the minivan that night with my bike, which has yet to feel the singletrack even though it can be seen from the campsite.
Wake up in the morning and get some more food into Jon and we get him back out on the bike. He looks better but it is going to be a long morning. We break down camp and pack the minivan but after 3 hrs, Jon is still not back. This is not a good sign. Finally, he shows up and hands me his bike and call's it a day. He stopped for a guy that crashed and possibly broke his hip. The medic ask if he wants to have a ghost lap charged to him and he declines but he did the right thing in stopping for this guy. That is good karma. 4 laps in the books for his first solo attempt.
Jon admits that it was not his best performance. But he has never ridden a solo 24hr race before and that takes guts. He finished his ride. He finished ahead of people. He did not give up and took the adversities that we given to him and made the best of it. That is what makes you a better person.
Sometimes even the best laid plans go awry, but you can always fix them and soilder on.
So the new Yeti is still in the garage. It currently has 700 miles on it, all inside the car and 0 singletrack miles. That is going to change this weekend though.
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend....I have not been bitten by the cross bug yet, but Frites en Mayo are putting on races in a couple of weeks...so it might be a good idea to get the ol' Empella out of storage and ride on some skinny tires again
Monday, October 6, 2008
Gaining Ground Just to Lose it Again
The CX training has been down this year compared to last year. I really cannot complain too much. Sure, there were conflicts with travel for work, but I also made the choice to take time off to go up to Montana and drink beer with my nephews while pretending to attend a wedding. I would make the same decision again tomorrow. However, the consequences of spending the most of the month of August off the bike are quite noticeable come race day. The first race of the year was a mud-fest down in Colorado Springs. The amount of mud made for a course that required you to run about 1/3 of it. It was drying out as the day went on, but when the beer drinking dad league launched, it was still pretty wet. Major amounts of running equals major amounts of suffering for this CXer. I spent most of the time over 90% of my max heart rate. I even ran it up over 95% a couple times. Gad, did that suck! All in all, I survived and rode the course clean with no crashes.
I have chosen to take the approach that there is nothing to do but keep training and know that I will get faster over time. Due to conflicts, I was not going to race for a couple weeks anyway. Hopefully, next time I would gain some ground on the pack. I got in some good work on the bike over the next couple weeks while fitting in the annual attendance of Interbike.
Next up, Frisco CX. Nothing like going all out a 9100 ft of altitude to check for improvements in conditioning. I did a few warm-up laps and found the course to be technical but without a lot of vertical. There were over 55 in the Beer Drinking Dad League on Saturday. We took off and I soon discovered that they altered the course from the previous race. The fairly flat course had been modified to include a good sized climb on pavement. I know immediately that fat-boy here was going to have to minimize my losses on this climb and make any gains on the power portions of the course. At the end of lap one, I am mid pack. However, I am maintaining position with power in reserve. Nice! This is what I envision for racing rather that the last attempt in Colorado Springs. It is time to start pushing things and move up. Midway through lap 2 I am closing down a gap a getting ready to pass a couple guys. In my new found aggressiveness, I totally overcook a left hand turn, wash out the front wheel and body slam myself into the ground. I hop right back up, and grab the bike back upright. Michael and one other go by while I am straitening the hoods. My first thought is “Damn, I am going to have to ask Michael how that one looked after the race. He had to have had a front row seat for that catastrophe.” As I come back up to speed and try to catch back on with Michael and his homies, I notice that the Kona is not shifting cleanly. A quick scan finds that the culprit is a right hood that is not straight. I reach over with the left hand to push it into place (always a safe thing to do while barreling down a single-track…. Not). I never get my left hand all the way over to the right hood. Half way through and……. Wholy Mother of God!!!!! I see stars as pain shoots right through my left shoulder. In my book of good and bad, the sensations I am having in my shoulder are not in the good chapter. After about a half lap, I know that this race is done. Any type of hard effort on the bike puts in a request to the muscles/tendons in the left shoulder and they are sending back chamois wetting pain as a response. At the start/finish line at the end of lap 2, I stop and celebrate my first ever DNF.
Had the local ER take some pictures to make sure nothing was broken. Turns out to be a 2nd degree shoulder separation. The future now is rehab of the shoulder. Not sure when I will be back racing CX.
But…. in the meantime…. I got a question for ya (Feel free to leave answers in the comments). I was noticing what a pain in the ass it is to do anything with your left arm in a sling (and I am right handed!). It got me to thinking about the question…. If I was in one of the cultures that ate with your right hand and wiped with your left, what the hell would I do with a separated left shoulder?
I have chosen to take the approach that there is nothing to do but keep training and know that I will get faster over time. Due to conflicts, I was not going to race for a couple weeks anyway. Hopefully, next time I would gain some ground on the pack. I got in some good work on the bike over the next couple weeks while fitting in the annual attendance of Interbike.
Next up, Frisco CX. Nothing like going all out a 9100 ft of altitude to check for improvements in conditioning. I did a few warm-up laps and found the course to be technical but without a lot of vertical. There were over 55 in the Beer Drinking Dad League on Saturday. We took off and I soon discovered that they altered the course from the previous race. The fairly flat course had been modified to include a good sized climb on pavement. I know immediately that fat-boy here was going to have to minimize my losses on this climb and make any gains on the power portions of the course. At the end of lap one, I am mid pack. However, I am maintaining position with power in reserve. Nice! This is what I envision for racing rather that the last attempt in Colorado Springs. It is time to start pushing things and move up. Midway through lap 2 I am closing down a gap a getting ready to pass a couple guys. In my new found aggressiveness, I totally overcook a left hand turn, wash out the front wheel and body slam myself into the ground. I hop right back up, and grab the bike back upright. Michael and one other go by while I am straitening the hoods. My first thought is “Damn, I am going to have to ask Michael how that one looked after the race. He had to have had a front row seat for that catastrophe.” As I come back up to speed and try to catch back on with Michael and his homies, I notice that the Kona is not shifting cleanly. A quick scan finds that the culprit is a right hood that is not straight. I reach over with the left hand to push it into place (always a safe thing to do while barreling down a single-track…. Not). I never get my left hand all the way over to the right hood. Half way through and……. Wholy Mother of God!!!!! I see stars as pain shoots right through my left shoulder. In my book of good and bad, the sensations I am having in my shoulder are not in the good chapter. After about a half lap, I know that this race is done. Any type of hard effort on the bike puts in a request to the muscles/tendons in the left shoulder and they are sending back chamois wetting pain as a response. At the start/finish line at the end of lap 2, I stop and celebrate my first ever DNF.
Had the local ER take some pictures to make sure nothing was broken. Turns out to be a 2nd degree shoulder separation. The future now is rehab of the shoulder. Not sure when I will be back racing CX.
But…. in the meantime…. I got a question for ya (Feel free to leave answers in the comments). I was noticing what a pain in the ass it is to do anything with your left arm in a sling (and I am right handed!). It got me to thinking about the question…. If I was in one of the cultures that ate with your right hand and wiped with your left, what the hell would I do with a separated left shoulder?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)