So much 'cross!

I'm not a very good bike racer. It's fun and I'm really starting to enjoy 'cross, but it's not something I'd drive a really far distance for. None the less, there were THREE(!) 'cross races within 50 miles of my house this weekend. I opted to do Cheshire on Saturday & Hop Brook (in Middlebury, CT) on Sunday. I didn't do Easthampton, even though it was the bigger race on Sunday. I would have had to get early on Sunday and I went out Saturday night. Besides, it was good to support to try and keep it from going away.

Cheshire is my favorite race around. A lot of it is in the woods, where it's rolling and technical. This year, the hill with the "hill people" was without the log & box, so it was rideable. The race was prey brutal for me. I had a bad crash caused by someone running me off course on the first lap, but fought my way back to first (and then second/third). I was feeling really good, but had some issues on the hill and dropped my chain. I lost a few places that I could regain because it took me like a minute to get the chain back on. When running up a bumpy hill, put the bike on your shoulder. Don't push it. I finished seventh.

The next day I went to where they have that mountain bike race down near Waterbury. There weren't too many people, starting field of seven, and it was a course that didn't suit the Brendan, long straights on pavement. But, after a bunch of high pressure races, this was welcome. Also welcome was that it was the battle of the Mahoneys. Mark Mahoney, whom I've raced against a few times this year, was present and he and I battled the whole race. We traded the lead a bunch of times, but neither one of us was able to sustain a gap until the last paved straight, where he pulled ahead and I didn't have it in me to contest. And, he won.

So, two races in one weekend. That's too much racing!

Read more!

Before the snow

All weekend I was terrified about the over-hyped snow storm that showed up yesterday. Not so much because I was worried about whatever it is that makes snow storms scary and cause people to stock up on canned goods, but because it would threaten my ability to mountain bike. (Remember all those other posts about me either being self-centered or a weirdo? I wasn't lying.)

On Saturday, I only kind of wanted to go mountain biking. I could have also taken a hike. Johanna wanted to buy a cool car. At first we were going to go car hunting and then go for a hike. Johanna decided that she'd rather do some extensive research on cars instead, which paid off because she made a good offer. It subsequently was not accepted, but car dealerships are crooked anyway. So, while she did her extensive research, I hopped on the 'cross bike and went down to Rocky Hill for the reverse version of what I'd done earlier in the week. Nothing really exciting to report.

Riding back home on Fairfield, I spotted a pink purse in the road. I stopped and picked it up. There was a woman nearby in a parked car and I tapped on the window to ask if she dropped it. She shook her head and strangely reacted as if I had done the rudest possible thing. Very strange. Upon arrival in my apartment, I opened it up and found some IDs and a few bills, which I didn't count. I checked on 411.com and whitepages.com, which yielded nothing. I don't have a regular phone book, so I took the wallet with me to go the car dealership and to my parents, because they have a phone book. I found the owner, called her, and she was much relieved. She was concerned about the cash in the wallet, so I checked to see how much was left in there and it turned out to be a lot of money. She was now very, very relieved and I was glad to have found it for her. I told her my address and she came by later to pick it up.

The moral is that you should ride a bike so that you can return peoples' wallets (or shut their trunks and gas doors).

On Sunday, it was colder and snowed a tiny bit. I also had no encumbrances, so I went to the reservoir. Waiting for a colder day was a smart move on my part because judging by all the ruts (which you'll have to take my word for because there are no visible ruts in these pictures), it had been nasty the days before.

My bike is there to prove that I brought a bike with me.

Now, the snow has fallen and I'm walking everywhere because I'm deathly afraid of getting salt on my bikes.



Remember, The Eel 2 is Saturday! And fear not, it's on the road and the road won't be gross on Saturday!

This picture is scary, though.

ps. 3 posts in one day? our blog is awesome!

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!

More defeat!

Does anyone know if they still hold that 'cross race in Southington? I've decided I want to shiver and do poorly in a new kind of racing this year. The only New England races I could find are Northampton and further away. Let me know. 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!

Only ten days late! And two more things!

This is not Johanna's Masi.

At Will's behest, here's a fuzzy recap of the July 4 alley cat that went around Hartford.

Things started off optimistically. Johanna let me ride her Masi, so that I could go kind of fast. I ate breakfast and I was wearing clothes. The checkpoints were Stop & Shop, 1010 Wethersfield Ave, under the Founders Bridge, and Heaven. They weren't written in that order, but that's the order I went. The one interesting part was that you had to take a can to S&S, return it, and get the receipt. It wasn't a checkpoint with a person. Wait, no, two interesting things. TJ and a fellow, whose name I forgot, were both riding tandems (with people on the back, whose names I also forgot). At the start, their plan seemed to be to put their tandems on top of other people's bike. It was a good plan, but I thwarted them by moving my bike. Don't let it be said that I'm not crafty.

The race started and I headed to S&S from Evergreen by taking New Park and for reasons I can't understand, I was the only person besides TJ who decided to do that. I arrived at the grocery store first, only to find that all of the machines but one were full. Valdez, because he's fast at everything, showed up a little while later. Unlike me, right directly to the correct machine, while I was wandering around confused and was quickly out the door. I followed suit, left, and set off to Wethersfield Ave via Flatbush/Zion/New Britain/Webster/Benton. Things were still looking pretty good, until my left crank fell off.

I went back and got it. It's around that time that I remembered why you're supposed to ride with a tool. It's also when I remembered that two piece cranks are dumb. I pedaled with one leg for awhile and people passed me. TJ almost passed me, but then offered to pull me down Wethersfield Ave. It was very nice of him. He pulled me for about a half mile or so and we arrived at the checkpoint. I implored Lauren for a tool and offered her money. She misheard me and thought that I was trying to sell her my broken cranks. We resolved that and she lent me a hex wrench and I got the crank back on. There were still two more checkpoints and I sort of took my time. My issues weren't over, on Locust, my pedal detached from its spindle. It's easy to put back on, but it was yet another bizarre thing to fall off the bike.

No mishaps after that. I came in last for the one-man bike group. Valdez won. Then there was a party for TJ and the United States.

###

I can't remember seeing the fountain ever working this good.

Burr Mall, a high-ranking Hartford chill spot, is back in action. That elevated concrete across the street at the MDC is not far behind.

###

Should I wear capris, too?

Also, Cameron Diaz and I ride the same bike (more or less).

I'm sure it's old news, but I didn't know about it. I'm also withholding any comments about her playing bike polo.

Read more!