This driver seemed like a complete maniac back when I first heard about this case. This testimony only proves it.
http://www.velonews.com/article/99513
I don’t generally ride in groups for a very good reason, and that is because of the way people (riders) usually behave when they are riding in a pack on the street. There is a general sense of entitlement, riding 3 or more wide, running lights and so forth. Now for anyone that happens to be reading this, this behavior does not help the image of cyclists, and only makes riding more dangerous for the rest of us. You have a lot of whackjobs out there that don’t like dudes in lycra going in. After all we are apparently all homosexual, and whackjobs won’t stand for this. When you fail to “SHARE THE ROAD” you only further piss them off. Pissed off whackjob = increased danger to all of us when riding. I hate to be cliché, but share the friggin road. You never know when some maniac is going to try to “teach you a lesson”.
It’s not often that I see something that I must have, but this may be it. Nothing says Northern Classics like these wheels and tires. Plus, they’d look sweet on the Torelli.
We’ll I hadn’t raced anything in over a year and a half, and was excited to jump back in this ‘cross season and see how things went. Considering my long hiatus, the fact that I was pretty bad before that break and that I was coming off injuries cause by getting hit by a car, I figured I would start things off in the category 4 race last weekend at Bonelli Park in San Dimas. This race was part of the SoCal Prestige Series in Southern California, and the course was very cool. It was a little over 3k, which seemed long to me, and had a nice mix of terrain. My practice laps went well, although I was breathing a little heavier than I had hoped for.
As it turns out the cat 4 race was the largest group, I assumed there was some major sandbagging going on. But that is expected, especially in the first race of the year. Again this was my first race back, so I was really looking to test things out, and see where I stood. As a result I was comfortable starting in the back 3rd of the group. As expected, the first lap was chaotic with riders crashing, almost crashing and generally not holding any sort of line. But I was having a great time with all of the chaos that is the 1st lap of a CAT 4 cyclocross race. It wasn’t long before I started hearing a ringing that sounded like my chainring hitting something, but all appeared well, so I kept going. The ringing didn’t stop, and midway through the second lap my chain dropped. This seemed odd because I wasn’t shifting at the time. I stopped to put my chain back on the ring, only to discover that my chainrings were hanging on by two loose bolts. What the hell just happened? How did I lose three bolts on my crankset? I ended up carrying/rolling my bike through the second lap, calling it quits at the finish. My first DNF, pretty cool. Actually it’s not.
What I learned:
Cyclocross is still awesome
My bike handling skills are pretty good, but my fitness needs major improvement
I am a moron (Upon further reflection I realized that I “borrowed” bolts from my ‘cross bike in the Spring, and was an idiot by not replacing/checking them. Does it get worse than that?)
I need to either carry my bike less, or get some padding for the shoulder
I know about Zabriskie not wanting to go, but there are a couple of other names that I am surprised not to see.
U.S. men’s team for world championships
Tom Danielson (Garmin-Slipstream) – Road Race and Time Trial
Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) – Road Race
Brent Bookwalter (BMC) – Road Race
Jeff Louder (BMC) – Road Race
Craig Lewis (Columbia-High Road) – Road Race
Andrew Bajadali (Kelly Benefit Strategies) – Road Race
Jason McCartney (Saxo Bank) – Road Race
Tim Duggan (Garmin-Slipstream) – Road Race
Tom Peterson (Garmnin-Slipstream) – Road Race
Tom Zirbel (Bissell) – Time Trial
I just received my Hutchinson Bulldog tires for the cross bike, and am very excited to get things set up. The issue is the Stan’s No Tubes kit. I am running Open Pro wheels with Chris King hubs, which seems pretty straightforward. However from everything I have read, the Open Pro is one of the rims that there seems to be an issue with when setting it up for ‘cross. I have read that the channel is too deep, making it necessary to run 1-3 rim strips along with the tape and the ‘cross specific strips. Having read several different postings, I figured that I’d go directly to the source, to try to avoid wasting more time than necessary. I emailed Stan’s and here’s the response:
“It depends on the rim. Some people need to add some extra tape on top of the open pro to make the tires fit tight with our cyclocross rubber strip.”
It depends on the rim? Aren’t all, if not most Mavic Open Pro rims the same? I guess I have to just experiment, which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place.
Well as everybody knows George Hincapie won his 3rd national title this week in Greenville, and now it looks like he will be moving to Team BMC next season. BMC is known for developing young riders, and George would definitely be a great mentor to younger riders trying to learn the ins and outs of the pro peloton. In addition to George, BMC has also signed world champion Alessandro Ballan, Marcus Burghardt and Karsten Kroon among others. BMC could have a pretty nice Classics Team shaping up. The question is who would lead? I have to imagine Hincapie would only have signed the deal if he was going to get support in April.
I just got back from vacation with my family, something that I unfortunately do not get to do very often. Getting some time away from work is always nice, especially when business is crashing and burning as it currently is in Hollywood. Hopefully that will change sooner than later, as we have a lot of folks out of work.
Going to Oregon during July was supposed to provide us with a break from the Southern California heat. Instead we met with record highs throughout the state. 106 in Portland is pretty extreme for that part of the world. However when you’re on a roadie with the family, the heat isn’t such a big deal.
Vacation did give me some time to decompress and try to start fresh upon my arrival home. Some things I am going to try to do to begin this process:
Smile and wave when I get buzzed by a car (the other way hasn’t been working)
Realize that traffic is simply a reality, and is not going to change. Additionally people will drive like morons, that too will not change. Neither of these things have any real effect on my life, so let it go.
My family is the most important thing to me, little else matters. Therefore I need to ensure that I spend as much time as possible with them, because you never know when you will no longer be able to.
Continue to make time to play catch with my son, because HE won’t want to before too long.
Ensure that I have Dad/Daughter days, because SHE won’t want to hang with me much longer.
Mountain bike more, it’s fun.
Be optimistic and try to find the silver lining instead of getting pissed.
In the big picture, I have a pretty great life. Remembering that is the key. Now I need to get ready for cyclocross!
How the hell does a 20 year-old who had two prior DUI convictions and multiple arrests, still have the opportunity to drive? He’s 20, with 2 DUI priors? Really?!! Why wasn’t his truck impounded? Why wasn’t he in jail. Two convictions and 3 arrests in two years, for God’s sake, what is going on? Joe Novotny recently moved from cycling’s mecca (Belgium), only to be killed by some low life dirtbag in Santa Clarita. It’s just not right. Please read this article:
