More socks

Your intrepid and wool-clad Cat 3 racer went back into the woods last weekend at Winding Trails in Farmington and came out with not just socks, but also a cool multitool. The 15th Annual Fat Tire Classic was last Sunday and I had a great time. By a hair's breadth, I got second place in the 19-29 Cat 3. I started in third, but got in second after the first mile or so of the first lap and I had the leader about 100 yards off for until the end of the first lap, when he finally pulled away from me. The man who came in second, Kyle, started creeping up on me and was soon riding my wheel. This went on for the middle third of the second lap (of two), he'd get really close on climbs and then I'd beat him back into the single track. Suddenly, he was gone and after the race he told me that he slid out in some sand. I thought I was sitting pretty and started taking it easy. As I approached the finish, I saw him maybe 50 yards behind me, but thought I was cool. I was not. If it wasn't for the spectators telling me to "watch out! he's right behind you!" I would have been behind him by half a bike instead of in front by half a bike. I was fourth fastest overall, but the fastest in Cat 3 was a woman who just decimated everyone.

Soon, if I move up to Cat 2, I'll write great race reports about puking and coming in last. Read more!

Wednseday

I am house/baby sitting this week for my parents, so I'm riding from Avon to Hartford. 10 miles is a nice length.

Also, your favorite Cat 3 (it's not called beginner anymore, which i think is great) racer won some socks last weekend at Hopbrook Dam. Check out the hot action and my tights:



I also finally met Mark, from cyclesnack. He was doing some damage with his singlespeed. I needed my gears. Read more!

How it all went down

On Saturday, we had The Eel 2. I don't know why it has taken me this long to post the results. Turnout was slim, but those who didn't race missed the awesomest weather/day of the year to race this year. Honest!

1) Orion - he got the money
2) Ken - he got the wine
3) Alex - he got a firm handshake
4) Chris - he got some bald eagle eggs
5) Russ & Scott - they got respect

Ken, Chris, Russ, and Scott also got the secret bonus check point that was figuring out my license plate number.

Special thanks to Johanna, Joel, Josh, and Rich for (wo)manning the checkpoints.


Brendan wants to get drunken noodles. Read more!

The Eel 2

Cool picture of a double rainbow, huh?

I said at some point that I was going to do a sequeel to the eel. However, we've been getting a lot of snow and the wooded environs are all unrideable. Judging by the weather so far this winter, they won't be clearing up any time soon.

So, I propose a new race for either Feb 21 or 28. It'll be a point to point road race, similar to the eel, but not a loop. You'll choose you're own route to some extent, but it'll be more structured than an alley cat.

What do you all think of this? Good idea? Bad idea? Anybody wanna race? What should it be called?

Ideas for names so far:
the hart
the crow
the squirrel
the least shrew
the Puritan Tiger Beetle (or just the beetle)
the northern harrier
the lynx Read more!

Mud and cowbells! Mud and cowries!

Photo credit to *Denise* on Flickr.

I resurrected the old Stumpjumper for a ride at the Reservoir last night. The surprisingly warm mid-December temperatures definitely invited it. Even the drizzle/mist for the first half of the ride wasn't too bad (though it made my pants kind of heavy (I don't know why I decided to wear pants)), and, unlike usual humid rides, the top of mountain wasn't in a cloud. The falling mist and the unfrozen ground made for a greasy ride, but no crashes. Someday, I hope someone joins me on one of these. It's like that ride we took on Saturday, but triply exciting.

Photo credit to Johanna, who's the best girlfriend in the world for accompanying me to Dayville for this race and taking pictures of me.
There are some other reasons, too.

I think the Danielson Adventure Sports' Beer Cross thing was great. I did two of the three races. Since I'm not very fast, I never did that well, but had a great time. They're very low key, but have a nice course and everyone is friendly. They also don't have horrible music blasting the entire time like most races.

At this last race, I think I did ok. I started slightly better than usual and was just off the leaders. However, since they're the leaders and are fast, I never saw them again except off in the distance when the course opened up. Like in most races, I found myself in no man's land. Significantly behind the leaders, but also significantly ahead of some other group. At point, some really fast guy caught up to me and passed me at a great rate of speed. It was impressive. Later, with two laps to go, this other guy caught up to me after I had made silly mistakes. It was pretty exciting, we exchanged positions a few times. I finally passed him with about a half lap to go and was holding him off pretty well. My brakes weren't going to have any of that success though, and with about 500 yards left, they quit at the bottom of a hill and I crashed into a bunch trees. The guy, who's actually pictured above, passed me and I never caught back up.

Also, pictured up there is the horrible labyrinth they decided the course needed. Over all it was a quick course and then all of a sudden there was this terrible and muddy thing that I could never get through with any amount of speed. Ugh! It was totally unnecessary.

Now that the 'cross season is over, I must say, it's way more fun than mountain bike racing. Maybe it's the bigger field, maybe it's the more laps, maybe it's the barriers; but I feel like there's a lot more happening. However, riding a 'cross bike is a lot less fun than mountain biking. Maybe I should Read more!

Cheshire

My cold went away, so I raced today.

Since I'm not very good, I didn't do that great. I didn't get lapped (no one was being pulled, so that wasn't a fear). It was a pretty tough course as it was 60% woodsy single track with some rocks and roots, but I think that's fun because it takes my mind off going slow.

Two things I must do: stop starting in the back of the pack and get some better brakes. I actually raced pretty well with my cohort. I passed a few people and held off the guy who was gaining on me despite almost dropping my chain (I caught it like three links before falling off, but lost time messing with it). However, I was so far behind every in front of me that I had no hope of ever catching up. It's the opposite of how I mountain bike. My last race this season, I had the hole shot for like a mile and a half and then let people pass me. With cyclocross, I start at the back and then move from 25th to 21th. It'd be better to go from 12th to 17th or something like that. Regarding brakes, the ones I've got right now have no stopping power. It's kind of scary. Read more!

Brendan's new losing pursuit

Looks like fun, huh? I don't have any pictures of the run up.

I bought a used Raleigh cyclocross bike off of ebay a few months ago to help the economy of the Pennsylvania. It's one of those 1x8 dealies with an older dura ace rear dérailleur, STIs, and older dura ace cranks. I stole Johanna's Maxxis Steve Larsen tires for some traction. It came with really terrible tires. Well, don't get me started with what I was presented with from UPS.

Since none of our local parks have cyclocross courses in them, I've gone off to the eastern part of the state for some racing. I went to Mansfield Hollow two weeks ago for my first race and Dayville last weekend. Obviously, I didn't finish anywhere near first, because I'm not very fast. I'm not too depressed with the results, though - more or less midpack results in both. Well, I was futher back in the first one, but moved up in the second. I have the same problem I do with mountain biking, in that I start pretty strong but let people pass me in the middle laps and do adequately catch up. Although, with the field being bigger. There's a lot more actual racing taking place. The Mansfield Hollow race had 50 or so and Dayville had 30 something. Midpack is nothing to complain about. Besides, riding with one of the cheapest bikes out there is definitely worth some bonus places. Read more!

Spoooooky goings on in the Beat!

Alright...so we messed up in joining the Hooker Day Parade on Sunday. We had a plan, we had a theme idea. I was in Vegas, Joel found himself in Wethersfield, El Prez in New Haven, Karma was most likely working, Chillwill is in Cali, Ken was confused, and I think I heard that Brendan was ready to go. Oops. Well, it sounds like the parade was a lot of fun, and it got people in Hartford excited, so that's always a good thing.

But what's on tap now that fall has fallen, you ask? Good question! Here's some things for your calendars for the next 1.5 weeks:


Friday, Oct. 31st.

Bike to Work??
Old State House, 7am - 9am
last Friday of the month
Hmmmm...this event appears on the BBB calendar over there on the right. It does not appear on the CCBA Bike Everywhere calendar. There it says that they ended in September. I know last year, they had "Icebike to work" things for the colder months. I'll look into this in the next day and report on the status, and I'm sure future scheduling will occur after the next Bike Everywhere meeting in a couple of weeks.

Critical Mass, Halloween Edition!!!
Meet at 5:30pm, Bushnell Park Carousel.
It’s the last Friday of the month! Celebrate with riders around the world for this global, grassroots celebration. Join a hundred of your newest friends on a ride around the city at a chill pace for about an hour and a half. Check old posts to see past rides. The summer’s rides were wonderful, and now we can REALLY freak out!!! It's October 31st! All Hallows' Eve! Helloween! The last ride in Daylight Savings Time! Dress up yer bike! Dress up yerself! Bring some candy! Get some candy! By the time we push off, it'll be dusk, the leaves will be flying, and it'll be extra spoooky! Seriously, feel free to ride in costume. Creativity encouraged. Anything can happen!
http://critical-mass.info/


Tuesday, Nov. 4th.

Progressive Happy Hour (PHH), Election Night Edition.
Kenny's (Red Rock), whenever to whenever.
Holy Shit. HOLY SHIT!!! Really??! The election?! We've only been exposed to this election cycle since about 1971. That's what it feels like. You know...Canadians held a national election in October. Guess how long that took from the time they announced it to the time it was over. No seriously, guess. 30 days. By law. Anyway...hell, here it is in the US of A. Obama. McCain. Nader. Barr. And the rest, with Palin & Biden popping in to provide comic relief. Polls in CT close at 7 pm, so I'm thinking of getting there early to start drinking the pain away while we watch the pundits on the teevee make big asses of themselves. I'll probably be making up the drinking game as the night goes on and others are welcome to join in. Early rules I've thought of are 1) sports metaphors, 2) calling a state before 20% of precincts have reported, 3) unnecessary and excessive use of expensive touch-screen zoomy maps, and 4) any appearance of a dry-erase whiteboard. I'm also going to bring presidential games and activities. Points to those who show up with trivia about our lesser-known presidents like Millard Filmore. Anyway...show up. And for cripes sake: VOTE. Or exercise your right not to vote. Freedom, baby.

Wednesday, Nov. 5th

BBB English/Irish Pub Bike-Crawl
7 pm - 11 pm
After the success of Beat Biketoberfest, it was suggested that we try some sort of irregularly scheduled bike-based pub crawls around the Beat. Well, my first thought was to try to do them on some sort of occasion. November 5th is known in the British empire as "Guy Fawkes Night" (aka "Bonfire Night") in commemoration of some catholic extremist dude with an unfortunate name who tried to blow up Parliament with gunpowder on that date in 1605, but was a complete douche and failed miserably. So the Brits, with no 4th of July celebration because they lost that whole silly affair in the colonies, put this as their holiday to blow shit up. Well, we aren't going to blow shit up, so I'm leading a tour of popular English/Irish drinking establishments in the area to mark the date. I think the order will probably go: Vaughan's, McKinnon's, Half Door, & ending at the Corner Pug, unless someone can come up with another viable stop. Yeah, yeah...it's a school night, so it won't be a big blow out all-night affair, but a classy traipsing affair as our first public pub bike-crawl. We'll start at 7 pm at Vaughan's on Pratt Street in downtown Hartford. All are welcome. "Remember, remember the 5th of November!"
(someone want to add this to the blog calendar, please?)

Saturday, Nov. 8th

THE EEL
Charter Oak Landing, 3 pm
A gentleman's race along the river that is both on the road and off. This is so going to rock. Any further updates and promotion will be provided by Brendan.

Read more!

What you need to be doing on Nov. 8

Don't confuse this with November 4, that's when you need to be voting.

The Eel! November 8! 3pm!

It's gonna be awesome!

Maybe prizes beyond the cash sort!

Come race!



Also, they opened that South Branch Greenway last week. Read more!

Sandpit Con't

You know, if you do a google image search of "sand pit of death", the first picture is of a cyclocross race.

On my way to work this morning I noticed that our feared sand pit behind the Armory was creeping back as of late. But lo! I saw a man with a broom this morning stem the tied of silicon danger. Praise be to those who work at the Armory.

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Also, you may have noticed "THE EEL" on the right hand column. I've never thrown a race before, so please help me by racing in it. I think it's just going to be cash prizes, because sponsorship seems like too much work and I'm bad at begging. None the less, I think it'll promise to be awesome. We don't have races around here that leave the road very often, so this will bring variety. I'm going to work on a flyer today.

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Oh, and gay marriage is now legal in Connecticut. :)

Read more!

Bring Your Rubbers alleycat roundup

Holy Shit that 1st band was loud! The hood was scared!

The alleycat popped off very well indeed. The police only came twice and the fire department once...not too shabby. We had three super loud bands and a super unloud stereo for the afterparty as well as a keg and other libations. Many thanks to Krash, El Presidente de China, all the bands (Fruit Punch, Dirty South Revolution and Own Life), the peeps who held down the checkpoints and all the racers. And the sponsors! Manhattan Portage, for the 1st prize messenger bag, Play in Traffic Productions, for the Monster Track DVDs, 5-Boro Generals, for the t-shirts, and CCBA for the stainless steel, non-carcinogenic water bottles and Brendan for the whiskey.


TJ proudly wearing his medal of fastness. He shoulda paid attention and worn some rubbers as he found himself thigh deep in the flooded Connecticut River carrying his bike to the bonus checkpoint. That’s core dude!


manifests and maps

Here’s the list full of misspellings:
1 TJ (dreads)
2 Shanesaw
3 Valdez
4 Sean
5 Aaron
6 Jeremy
7 Tony C
8 Mourad
9 TJ (no dreads)
10 Steve
11 Rich's eyeglass case
12 Robin
11, 12 or 12,11. Who knows!?!?
Opton missed a checkpoint and got a flat, but won a 40 for the breakdown
Rick and AmyZ never left my checkpoint!
Two others?…Orion and Matt didn’t finish? Got swept away? Traded to the Mets?

the checkpoints:
pope park pond, keney park pond, elizabeth park pond, lincoln's horse EH riverfront, park river @ asylum and woodland, constitution plaza fountain, chillwill's backyard, and prove you went to wendy's on airport road. bonus spot: hock river ped bridge in EH


The band, the crowd, the keg, a MP lanyard...i dunno, its freakin dark!

there's prolly another dozen photos after the jump.
click on "read more" fool!


pay up!


robin and jeremy enjoying the park


lauren and that dude whose name i got wrong at the park...help!?


15 minutes til "GO!"


Tony C, an army of one.


where's that sculpture of Lincoln's Horse!?!


that's right suckas, you gotta climb two sets of sketchy fire escape stairs to get yer shit signed.


jeremy and aaron navigating the Stairs of Death


this dude was flying down Cap Ave


steve trying not to eat metal steps


once they pulled out the buds...there was no leaving!


dirty south revolutionaries


steve, bianca, ozzy and more manhattan portage schwag


own life


tony makin' all the right moves


krash, chris, and that dude from the dirty dirty. he was mad cool.


i am not sure i improved much from the 40 i had the night before


ken demands the 'stache is back


bicycles, bicycles, bicycles, bicycles, bicycles, bicycles


el prez lookin' el serious


eva chulita and meeeyoo! i don't sleep anymore cuz of these chicas, but its all good. (be nice when you tell me how to spell yo name)


watching the van back out and in and out and in to get out was funny. i have a cargo van and feel thier pain in that parking lot.


wow! the pope park checkpoint and friends. eva, wizzzzzzy, laura, meeeyooo and leslie who also won the pullup competition!



rich is proud of his DFL prize, an acryllic block with a CT quarter that says, "you belong in connecticut."



el prez on his Xootr just seconds before bailing on going to the diner at 3am






Read more!

Busy Bicycle Calendar!

I missed the CCBA general meeting last night due to a work shift, but there is much going on the next few days...the next week actually! Check out these events:

Tonight! Thursday, July, 17th:
Bike Everywhere! to Happy Hour!
Prospect Café, Corner of Park & Prospect
Eat, Drink and be Merry! socialize,
talk bikes, talk beer, its all good!
this will also be a Bike Everywhere monthly meeting.

perhaps a jaunt to RAW for CCH afterwards?

Friday, July 18th. 7pm FREE
Bicycle Movie Night @ Eastern Mountain Sports in West Hartford
We’re Not Blocking Traffic, We Are Traffic, a Critical Mass Documentary and a 2ed undecided movie, we'll vote on it! Action packed mountain biking? another film on bicycles around the world? we'll vote!
free waterbottles to all who arrive on bicycle!

Saturday, july 19th. 10AM
Summer Cycling Celebration
East Rock Park, New Haven!
Time Trial Hill Climb, events
bring yer fast bike, sweet bike,
old bike, first bike, just go!!
http://www.thedevilsgear.com/calendar/summercyclingceleb/

next week? REI bicycle commuter clinic, bike to work, critical mass and an alleycat race! Read more!

Gross!

A nasty thing has happened on the past two days on the way to work. Yesterday, I watched a woman vomit while crossing Marshall Street and today I watched a different woman vomit on to the grass in front of the Hartford Children's Theater.

Is there a plague ravaging Asylum Hill?

Be careful, Joel.

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Also, I came in third in the race on Sunday and received a giant container of HEED as a prize. It's funny, according to that website selling HEED, that jar I got costs $45. I have not had any HEED yet and I'm actually sort of frightened of it. Second place got $5 cash and first got $10. I'm unsure who made out the best in this deal.

Read more!

thursday & sunday

There isn't very much photographic evidence of the ride we took on Thursday except for Joel's gigantic steak sandwich. Joel was extremely proud of this sandwich. Joel also had a 30 pack of Miller Lite. At one point, he put the sandwich on top of the case of beer. Johanna really liked that, in that it spoke to some kind of completion or wholeness in the world, or at least marriage of two of the greatest things. I agree and I don't even eat steak.



On Sunday, I participated in a mountain bike race. Since I was much less drunk than I was on Friday, I didn't do as poorly as I did in foot down, slow racing, or track standing. It's surprising how important balance is to riding a bicycle.

Look at me ride on this dirt road! I'm awesome!



It doesn't even count as a fire road, it's just a dirt road. Mountain biking in photos in so boring unless people are flying off of cliffs. Read more!