Blood Sweat & Gears

The ride was awesome! Saturday started out about 60 degrees, eventually reaching a high of 80. To start a ride with 1200 of my closest friends was surreal. Traffic was stopped, the police were directing traffic, we took the lane! Carlos and I started way in the back, making moving up through the field fun. The first 5 miles were relatively flat and the field stayed bunched up. Soon we were climbing and everyone got strung out. Feeling good, I clicked up a few gears and started climbing faster. We passed ALOT of people. The climbs were not as painful as I had hoped, the downhills were the highlight of the day!

Yes you see that right! A max of 54.4 mph! What a blast! Some of early decents were long, straight, and open. The last was very twisty and the brakes got a good work out. Got stuck behind a car on the last few miles, wich slowed me down. Still finished 45th out of 457 riders doing the 50 miler! I'll take that. Next year we do the 100!

Prepairing for Blood Sweat & Gears

Hope everyone had a good Fathers day! My dad came out and watched me place 25th in the Langley Crit. My finish did not represent how good I felt through out the race. I can stay with the pack now, no problem. I did alot more passing and moving to the front, even going up to led a lap! Thanks for coming out, hope to see you and mom soon.


This weekend is Blood Sweat and Gears! The 100 mile ride was sold out, (thank goodness) so Carlos and I are going down for the 50 miler in Boone, N.C. This will be the real mountains boys and girls! All of the 2,500 miles ridden on the road bike since its purchase a year ago have been local. Looking forward to some climbing! Having enjoyed many long climbs on the mountain bike, I hope this will be just as painfull.





Looks like half going up, and half coming down! I am interested in just how steep the climbs will be. Thanks to Rick for letting me borrow his compact crank and cassette for better climbing. I will try to take lots of pictures, and give the full report next week.

I went to a bike crash derby and a race broke out!

"Category 5" is the entry level into bike racing. Any Joe Shmoe can walk up and enter a race with little or even no prior experience. We all have to start somewhere right? Some of these guys must not even have ridden in group rides. Going into a corner 3 or 4 wide at 30 mph just inches from each other can be exhilarating! Most people want to upgrade to "Cat 4" as quick as possible to escape the inevitable carnage. 10 mass starts is the minimum to move up, then you can apply to the Virginia Cycling Association. I now have 5.
The first incident involved a real idiot purposely swerving at people. Eventually he rubbed a tire and went shooting through the grass. As the pack roared by his now all-terrain-ass, we all collectively shot him the bird. I heard him mumble something about our sexual orientation, and there was talk of finding him after. I heard he is banned from future races. Hopefully thats true.
The first real crash came when someone on the inside went too wide in the corner, and forced a couple dudes in the grass. They locked bars and went down. Inexperience played a factor in that one. The inside has to hold the line!
The worst of all came on the last lap, last corner. Everyone jumped at the same time, and I was in good position for a top 10. As the group of 20 or so starts sprinting, the guy directly in front of me skids his rear wheel and it blows! The guy beside him goes down on the asphalt, and I swerved into the grass to avoid it all. Everyone else sprinted to the finish.
Overall a good day (for me). I remained upright, for 15th place. Still improving and learning. Not content with 15th, but happy with my progress so far. The next Crit. is Tuesday night.

No Crit? No problem!

I was looking forward to the Tuesday night Crit at the Va. Bch. Sportsplex, but it was cancelled due to a Soccer game. Everyone else must have been looking forward to it too, because they all came out to the ride from the Great Bridge Cyclery. We must have pulled out onto Centerville Turnpike 50 deep! The ride started out very mellow, cruising 2 and 3 wide, 18-20 mph. Everyone was bunched up but relaxed. The pace soon picked up and a line formed. The fast guys new they wanted to be up front, but I was not sure where to be. Turned out good as the front group took off, we picked up the discarded. First a few, eventually 8 guys, and a girl, formed a pace line. We worked good together, although some pulled longer than others. I did my fair share. Feeling good, I picked up the pace on my last pull to 28 mph. That felt grrreaat! ( shouted like Tony the Tiger) We rolled in many minutes behind the first group. That's okay, those guys are Cat 2's & 3's ! I could have never done 30 mph the whole ride.

With my limited experience in large groups of strangers, like Crits and rides like this, I am still learning alot. The constant accelerations, closing gaps, getting on the last guys wheel. Definitely getting better at being aggressive. don't let the gap open, if it opens, close it up now! Looking forward to the Crit this Saturday.