vandenkombs

April

2009-04-27T20:26:00.004-04:00

A week or so ago the "season" started off with Tour of the Battenkill in Cambridge, NY. My first ever road race consisting of about 62 miles of pave and dirt mixed with a sprinkling of rain about 2/3 thirds into the race.

I don't do a lot of road riding except on my cross or mountain bike and getting ready for this race consisted of 2-3 road rides (longest one was about 5 hours out to Havard from Arlington ). I decided to use my cross bike (fitted with some 25mm road tires) to help with some of the steeper climbing sections. I did get in some long mt bike rides on weekends at Otis and near home. Longest being a six hour tour that was lead by mtb tom a couple weekends ago.

Great weather and course for Battenkill this year. I lost the 3/4 women "pack" about the time the climbing began and the rest of my 4 hrs 44 mins was solo until one of my cross teammates caught up to me and we rode together to the finish. The climbs were tough and my speed was non-existent, but I climbed everything and only stopped for a bottle exhange at the feed zone @ mile 42.

The time sort of fly by to that point, the end seemed longer than 20 miles. I did get a flat about 45-60 minutes to end. I took a gravel downhill slightly too fast,. After that, I was paranoid about getting another flat and was more careful.

The entire day, all the mens field keep passing me, so it was a bit like a super long cross race. Everyone was fairly friendly and my overall impression of this huge race was good. I think only two men finished slower than me, but I was happy arrive at finish and get this whole Battenkill thing out of the way. I was more worried than I should have been, but if I decide to do it again in 2009, I'll be better prepared and know what to expect. Maybe I'll even do more road riding in preparation !

Next big event is Mohican 100 mile mtb race in Ohio. I have done the 100k twice and hopefully this year will be traveling out there with better fitness. Might do some events before then, but am not sure yet...will decide on the fly.

Warm weather and now May is almost here.
Get out and ride !

Dreams of 2009

2008-12-27T18:50:00.008-05:00

Now's the time to set in motion the preparation for the upcoming 2009 season. Up here in New England we have already had a taste of winter, but we've passed the darkest day of the year and are headed towards more light each day.

It is a time of 3-4 months before anything BIG really starts happening, so there is great potential in the air. How does one follow through on possibility with real preparation and stay motivated each day ????

Set goals, make a plan, follow through, eat right , get enough sleep, stay motivated.. enjoy the process and have fun.

Sounds good, but can it happen ?

Wake up, the time is now.

Happy New Year 2009.

see you out there.

"The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep...."

2008 Shenandoah 100

2008-09-03T21:36:00.004-04:00

Pic stolen from Mtb Tom.

Feeding at Wincester, VA Bob Evans monday am.

Everyone is hungry after a hundie.

This year I drove down with Andy, Mike Ramponi and a little green man to SM100. I skipped the racing part this year and worked support at Aid #5 at mile 75.

It was great to hang out and help all the racers and esp my great friends I have gotten to know since my first SM100 back in 2000 when Lloyd Graves was the first and only singlespeed guy racing !!

We missed you this year LLOYD !!

Cheers to all the crazy people I got to see last weekend that make mountain biking so much fun:

CHRIS SCOTT !!

(who got to race this year)

Cathy DeSanto

his mom Judy, Lynn, Karin and family

Julie and Thomas

Tim

mtb Tom and Reenie !!

Andy !

Gwadzilla

nice to meet the legend in person !!

Athens gun show (esp Meredith, Pete and Joey B)

Gunnar (1st ss) and Betsy (3rd female)

kristin E + family

Churtle (1st female)

Tomi McM

DCCofD (Lisa, Paul, Lauri, Jeb, Buddy, Tom McD, Robert, Liz, Peaches)

Larry Camp

(10 time SM100 finisher !)

Kevin from Plum Grove

Jimbo and Frank (Harry we missed you)

SCollege crew: Matt and Richie Rich

IF teammates: Trish (2nd female), Alex, Chris and ELK !

Check out Mtb Tom's blog for some pictures and Andy's blog for a video including us eating breakfast on sunday morning at Bob Evans.

Thanks to Mr Sanidas and Mr Ramponi for being such great guys to ride ALL DAY in the car telling stories and googling all sorts of stuff while listening to some great tunes. Life is very good.

Good luck to the G'burg Cupcakes (Churtle and Tomi) out at Tahoe 100 now !!

is it possible the WVa crew went out there too ???

crazy.

Littleton Epic Adventure

2008-08-17T21:47:00.002-04:00

Reenie and I survived another Mtb Tom adventure !!

idea: Take train from Waverly Sq in Belmont out to the wilds of Littleton.

Q: How many time will it take to ride mt bikes from Littleton MBTA stop to Arlington Heights hitting all the trails in between ??

A: 8hrs 40 mins (ride + breaks) no mechanicals, but some loser solo dude almost knocked me off a ledge along Rt 3 Beddy trails coming in the other direction to my certain demise.

The"rest stops" at a couple stores along the way were needed as the even the eternally energetic, Tom, needed a huge turkey sandwich+bag of chips+cookie @ Fern's in Carlisle for fuel.

My legs were dying on the first climb up some hill in the Heights going up to the water toer on Park Ave. A quick buzz thru Belmont trails and we were down at Waverly Sq where our adventure really began.. aboard the MBTA commuter rail.

2008-08-17T21:34:00.004-04:00

Reenie, Tom and I rode out to Littleton on MBTA Fitchburg line from Waverly where Sally met us to begin the riding. The fare was $4 : only $0.45/hr riding for transportation costs !

Sally and Reenie enjoy the food stop at Ferns General Store at Carlisle rotary. We skipped Great Brook this time around, but there are some fun trails in there to include the next time.

Mtb Tom interacts with a local natives and for the most part was well received except in Burlington where we were yelled at by one super crazy old man and then made fun of by a group of 7-9 year boys on BMX bikes. After 8 hrs of riding, being threatened by some guy (who looked like he stepped out of Delieverance) who supposedly "took our pictures" and is "calling the cops" on our renegade griup of four just seemed overblown and ridiculous. We apologized and went on our way before any weapons came out of the truck !

Reenie and Tom relax for a minute before cleaning up and heading out to a party.

Not even a full day of riding can stop these two !!

Next up for these superheroes is Shenandoah 100 miler labor day weekend. giddyup.

thanks tom for leading us home !!

Hupcake Express Invades 24 Hrs of Great Glen

2008-08-12T20:00:00.002-04:00

5 racers from Hup Nation step up to the plate, drive through rain, camp in NH wilderness without cable, plumbing or their cushy beds to race the 2008 24hrs of great glen !!

READ all about it on MegA's blog:

http://newenglandcross.com//newenglandcross.com/blogit/blogit.html

I will have mostly pictures and witty banter...

Our Captain, Justin and his first mate little two month old Cadell !

Team #189 !!

Great Glen early morning on Sat

2008-08-12T19:55:00.001-04:00

pre-race and before campsite chaos

Cadel practicing his podium pose.

pre-race: Haavenfrites' DA MAN !!

Congrats on 1st mtb race ever !!

All fun in between laps.

2008-08-12T19:46:00.001-04:00

A cool and collected, Collin does some brake pad replacement

literally minutes before his LeMans start !!

An always similing, Linnea fuels up before the start.

Collin and Linnea, 50% Nuts duo (2nd place) our campmates for the weekend.

The crazy guy behind Cross Results

rocked the house with duo-mate and companion in crime, Linnea all weekend.

2008-08-12T19:38:00.001-04:00

Supermom Stacey posing with little Cadel made the camping mom thing look easy !

Chip before the LeMands start...

Hup Warrior Chip

comes in after his first lap with a spa quality mud treatment !

This group of solos were at the end of the LeMans group walking like lazy teenagers...kind sad.

Even back in 2002, they made us run all the way around that pond. I never liked the run part for the solo races I did, but I made an effort to run or jog.

Enduro Steve, what's happened to the solo fields these days???

2008-08-12T19:34:00.001-04:00

blue skys and puffy clouds

wildflowers everywhere

blue berries, but "only for seeing" !! :)

2008-08-12T19:32:00.001-04:00

Haavenfrites: "Houston, we are a go for the night laps"

Tom goes out on his first night ride ever on a double lap..

fun stuff here at the Hupcake Express

MegA preps her new camelback for the night double laps.

MegA and Chip hanging out in the Belgian living room.

2008-08-12T19:30:00.001-04:00

pretty blue cupcakes everywhere !!

Team poses for final shot in the pouring rain.

We are grateful the rains held out during the race since the mud was bad enough !

The end.

Thanks to all the Hupcakes, family and friends.

Hope you are catching up on your sleep :)

Big Ride

2008-08-12T19:13:00.003-04:00

Most of the group at the gate off Greenwood Ave

ready to take on Beverly Farms..

Lauri Webber and son Jeffrey came up to visit us on the North Shore. We planned a tasty Singletrack all you could eat MTB BUFFET !!

Breakfast: Beverly Farms

2nd Breakfast: Gordon College

Lunch: Manchester Woods -Grassy Woods

Afternoon snack: Mill Street to West Gloucester full of rocks, roots, singletrack, thunder and lightning and torrental rain !! Train track crossing, closed stores and a lot of road riding int he rain brought us back to N. Beverly !!

crew: mtb tom leads (w/ special k as "trail selection consultant" )

reenie, iglebike, lwebb, jeb, north shore andy

Former tenant under my shed agrees to relocation near the Ancient Line.

Hup invades Milwaukee 2008

2008-07-28T12:56:00.001-04:00

New Belgium loses two of its finest for a year !

Good luck to Rebecca and Zank as they head out ont he open road to Milwaukee for Mrs Z's fellowship in the great mid-west (don't worry Zank returns in Aug to finish building bikes).

Rebecca will be aceing her board exams next monday (8-4) as I start my new job in Cambridge !

We are going to miss you guys !!!!!!!!

Hopefully Wisconsin cross is ready for the invasion.

Mrs Z, Zank and Matt

(Gloucester, MA road ride July 2008)

bike questions..

2008-07-24T22:30:00.005-04:00

Sent to me by the Chunky Monkey,

so I will make an effort here to respond..

If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be?

I would select my Indy Fab 29'er from Jan-Aug and my Zanconato cross bike from Sept-Dec.
I reserve the right to have as many tires as I want since depending on conditions !!

Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not? yes, I happy with the bikes I currently own. I am working on building up a pit bike for cross which I could have used last Dec out in Kansas.

If you had to choose one - and only one - bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why ? I would make up a monster loop consisting of State College PA Stoopid 50 trails mixed with SSWC05 course. It is unlikely I could do this every day for the rest of my life and still have a job (or life since I would be out riding all the time).

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrow minded? Mountain bike and cross mostly. I am not narrow minded, it's more fun riding on wider tires.

Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent. No, there are no circumstances I can see myself riding a recumbent bike.

Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss? I have raced some duathlons (mt bike + trail run) but not a trialthon. I don't see myself wanting to do a triathon unless it is an off road one.

Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why? Ice cream

What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it.The better question would be "what would you give up your bicycle for?" I can't imagine I would ever be forced to totally give up riding bikes unless I was physically unable to, in which case I would figure out something I could take up instead.

Can you conceive cycling without racing? Races can be fun, but I also enjoy rides a lot too. Racing is great to have for goals and for some competition (like cross), but in the end it's about having some fun, pushing yourself and hanging with people you enjoy.

You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do? I usually slow down or stop let the bear run away. I haven't encountered any bears yet that were charging towards me (1 in Canada , 2-3 in PA)

NE Cross starts Aug 24th !

2008-07-22T00:56:00.002-04:00

Good news...

looks like my new big pro cross contract for fall season is ON !!!

secret hup training begins in earnest in the nether northen regions of Boston.

first race is Aug 24th (gulp !)

the hup squad will also be fine tuning themselves in the 24 hours of Great Glen..

AUG 9-10th Gorham NH

details to be revealed shortly !!!!!!!!!!!

hup.hup

Good Luck Andy !!!

2008-07-22T00:33:00.001-04:00

Good Luck to my crazy neighbor Andy , as he starts riding the entire Colorado trail with JeffW, Glen and Tim tomorrow july 22 !! Follow their progress on a site mtb tom set up for them to post updates on route here: http://cruz.media.mit.edu/ctr.nsf/ctr

Andy's Igleheart 29'er will be put to the test on 500+ miles of colorado trail riding !!

Lumberjack 100

2008-06-17T19:18:00.005-04:00

Reenie and Mtb Tom head out from road start towards the trails for a long day of singletrack riding.
Read Toms recap of race and pictures here.

Headed up the sandy hike a bike section with the crowds of lap one while gasping for air.

Harlan made some great attacks during the race and placed third.

Reenie got this nifty prize for womens ss.

It comes in handy as a weapon or if she needs to chop a tree down.

What's been going on ??

well, I went on a "blogging hiatus" to attend to some other things (exciting news to come soon..), but since then I went to Leesburg Virginia for Bakers Dozen 13 Hour relay race (super fun with Adrianne and Kristin), then out to Ohio to the Mohican for the 100k May 31st. Mohican was quite muddy with lots of singletrack. My bike totally rocked and I took advantage of the muddy conditions with great tire selection, good bike handling skills and a bottle of chainlube !

Last Thursday, Karen (a friend of Zank's) and I took off on I-90 towards Michigan through Ontario in my car. We arrived in Michigan in the afternoon and checked into our great lodgings (found by Reenie). I got a chance to see Churtle and meet Danielle and her husband, who had been were staying together with Namrita and Eddie. I also saw Debi, Harlan's mom, what a nice surprise. Enough folks to make it not feel so far away.

After pre-riding part of the 8 mile "inner loop", we went back and got ready for dinner at the Lumberjack Lodge for some local fare before some sleep. Wake at 5 for the 7 am start. I got to meet Doez and two other Hup United brothers before the start. They sent us 1-2 miles down the paved road to start so there would be some sorting out before the singletrack.

Singletrack. The whole 25 mile course was almost 100% smooth singletrack. Imagine Lodi Farms VA with more trees, Big Bear WV with no rocks, Lewistown Contingent PA with no rocks, Otis with no rocks and less sand. Green ferns everywhere, pine and leafy trees with perfect sunny breezy weather. A couple sections were flooded out from the 7-9 inches of rain that fell Thursday night and some trees were down, that even walking through one part with water up to my knees just made the race more epic.

Lap one usually feels the worse with the crowds of people. I ended my first lap in just under 3 hrs, so I was looking at 11:30-12 hr finishing time. Lap two to the last third of lap three I felt great. Then I started to get more tired and had a slight cramp on my left inner thigh during a short granny gear steep climb. I managed to work it out quickly, but had to make haste to get to finish before the 4:3o cutoff.

The last lap was not my favorite, but I made it to the middle aid station and took some ibuprofen for my lower back (which was a little achy from all the constant pedalling). I loved the course, but after 4 laps, I felt ready to end the love fest with the 100 miles of singletrack. Getting in by 12:47. They gave me a patch for finishing and I could hardly contain myself.

Reenie ended up 7th woman and only ss despite not feeling great the entire race. Tom had a much better outing than Mohican and Karen got 2nd woman.

Harlan looked great when he and Jeff S zoomed by me on the second lap to finish in third. I also got passed by IF teammate Alex, who looked like he was finishing strong. Churtle had an awesome day out there and she seemed in a good zone when she cam eby. It almost reminded me of her coming in after Elizabeths lap at Big Bear making up almost all our teams lost time, the kind of stuff that inspires.

Sorry I missed the awards party, but my later finish, eating and cleaning up required some chilling out on the couch. Congrats to everyone out there racing and thanks to all the volunteers !!

2,000 miles later I'm home and feeling ok. Mohican and Lumberjack road trips and racing in two weeks and I'm still functioning !!

HERA Bike Gear Raffle at Granogue May 24th

2008-05-13T22:30:00.004-04:00

Hey gang:

Here's your chance to raise some money for HERA Women's Cancer Foundation and possibly win some great mountain bike related stuff at the ....

Escape from Granogue Mt Bike Race MAY 24th

to honor Andrew Mein

Montchanin, Delaware

Raffle tickets are being sold in advance via BikeReg.

You do not need to be present to win.,

but come out and support Fat Marc's most excellent race if you can !!!

raffle info:

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=6529

Independent Fabrication

*custom 26" MTB Fork*

(I have one of these magical handmade forks on my ss !!)

Stoopid 50 Race #4 of MASS Endurance Series

(another excellent race !!)

*free entry*

White Industries

*ENO Freewheel*

(these freewheels rock, I have three of them !)

Gore Ride-On Bike Cables

*Sealed Low Friction Derailleur*

*Sealed Low Friction Brake Cables*

Maxxis

*Pair of Ignitor 29 X 2.1" tires*

Hoss Technical Gear

*Cycling clothing*

Ride Your Bicycle

*Clothing*

And much much more!!

The road and trail ahead

2008-04-16T20:35:00.002-04:00

Arghh please don't force me to ride this trail more than once !

This weekend I'm heading down again to Leesburg, VA for Bakers Dozen 13 hour mtb relay. I will be joining two other women, Kristen Eddy and Adrianne O'Neal on the Shenandoah Mountain Touring Bun Patrol in 3 person open.

The race is run by super rad Indy Fab dealership, Plum Grove Cyclery.

Last year I did a team with Dr Doom and Monkey and we all had a great time. The DccofD crew will be in the house with a bunch of teams.

Good luck to all the folks heading to TN for Cohutta 100 miler !!!

time to pack..

One dam thing after another

2008-04-10T21:34:00.004-04:00

What's been happening to the blog ? no posts for a while ..
Lots of being sick, working and secret training,

I submit to you,

our loyal readers of IF Chicks,

a ride of eleven mtb riders.

A mix of 26" and 29", rigid to 4-5" forks, hardtails to FS, gears and singlespeeds..9 boys and two girls...and one video camera:

video evidence for your consideration

Lead by Andy and Mtb Tom, we decided to go ride bikes from Andover to Hamilton on the Bay Circuit Trail system. This 50+mile event too place on a raw, rainy, muddy day beginning around 9:30am and would end 9 hours later at the cars in Hamilton.

The biggest challenges were flooded out sections, traversing beaver dams, slimy broken plank crossings, mud, cold raw wind, numb feet for hours and tired legs by the seventh hour of being outside. The reward was that wonderful feeling of getting back in a warm shower and meal, after a solid day of riding. Also gratitude, I made it through the day without flipping off one of those slippery boards into the dark murky water.

Thanks to everyone for an awesome day and Andy & Tom for keeping us on course !

Time in the Woods

2008-03-16T21:18:00.002-04:00

Sunday ride from home started off as a solo mission with the ipod. The trails were damp from the snow and rain we had on sat, but the proper selection of route avoided mud. All the moisture lately has really brought out the beauty of the underrated colors of the woods such as the lichens and moss.

We have a lot of rocks here in this part of Massachusetts. Its hard to imagine the people who made all the stone walls we pass on every ride, all the hard work involved.

After a couple hours on my own, I was ready to head back on the road but decided to check my voicemail. Christopher was meeting Andy and his squishy friends over on School St, so I met up with him and road over there.

The pace was rather fast over the Ancient Line, which was very slippery with wet rocks, roots and tons of leaves. We decided to part ways with the guys to let them play while we worked our way back over the other side of Ancient Line to Gordon.

Near the path around the pond at Gordon we pick up a friendly lab named Puck who would not stop following us. It turns out he ran away from home and was running around getting into the water, mud and general doggie trouble. We phone Pucks home and secure him near the trail head gate before taking off toward the road to home. We had some light snow, but never rain which made staying warm easier.

The riding was fun and company along the way always makes things interesting. My couple hour ride plan turned into a 5.5 hr adventure enjoying the woods despite the weather.

SUNSUNSUN !!

2008-03-03T21:19:00.004-05:00

Ok, enough snow. We need a break from all the ice, slush and water this winter has brought. The battle cry from Mtbtom all week was "Yo, let's head to the Cape sunday and ride on some dirt"

Dirt, sand, singletrack, sun, bikes and riders. This is the stuff that daydreams are made of. Nice flowing singletrack that you could ride for hours. This time of the year, it keeps a person honest in their delusional accessment of their fitness compared to back last season.

JRA Brian proclaimed the magic of protein shakes while riding along singing 80's tunes .

Otis is the kind of fun place that seems easy due to minimal rocks and the climbs are never too long, but it can still kick your ass. Once out on a Mtbtom loop, you better be prepared for a few hours of twisting up and down though the pines, people will wait and regroup, but riding back alone is usually a recipe for getting lost.

Would I survive my first ride down there for 2008 on my new 29'er ?

Only one way to find out !

Reenie post-ride anticpating the trip to iHop as was everyone else.

It's time for some Guiness !

Despite my lack of fitness right now, I did great with the new IF on it's first trail testing. I had made a few minor adjustments to seat height and postion set up by Dave riding around the neighborhood on sat. Never needed to readjust anything during the 22 mile journey.

The bike felt like a good fit and I loved the way the 29'er climbs esp on the slow steeper parts. It seemed to be more forgiving of my March legs lack of snap by helping me keep going up all but the most steep grades where power to weight failed . I was pysched the new bike rocks on the first ride !

The rigid fork felt awesome and will get better once I play around with tire pressure (front tire is a 29" Specialized Pro 2.3", rear is 29" Bontrager Jones XR 2.20"). The rigid IF disc fork is esp nice for twisty singletrack and short uphill standing climbs (running Avid BB7 mech brakes).

THANKS Mtbtom !!

Our fearless leader, Mtbtom, who was riding like he was ready for 22 more miles after we got back to the cars. The ride did not seem overly competitive, until the post ride feed at iHop.

Andy and Tom seemed to be one upping each other with food and drink making the waitress giggle..."I'll have a hot chocolate".."I'll have one too".. , " I want toast".."I want toast".. etc etc. Brian seemed to forget he wasn't that hungry after tasting his huge corned beef hash omelet, everyone was hungry after almost 5 hours out in the woods. Good Times.

2008-03-03T21:13:00.003-05:00

NS Andy sporting the new wool Iglehoodie (with amazing third eye),

Thankfully Andy offered to drive his car with heated seats and

Christopher let me sit in the front.. one thing the Element does not have :(

I didn't need my hand warmers after first hour of riding, so I added a layer to my feet.

The Greene Fleet.

IF Owners Appreciation at Belmont Wheelworks

2008-02-25T18:35:00.007-05:00

Independent Fabrication and Wheelworks

Invite you to IF Owner's Appreciation Night !

Sponsored by:

Independent Fabrication

Wheelworks

IF Owner's Club

Here's How It Works:

1) Drop your Independent Fabrication bicycle off at Belmont Wheelworks by Saturday, March 1st.
2) An Independent Fabrication employee will clean and detail your bike and it will be ready to pick up, looking like new, at the March 6th Appreciation Night event at Belmont Wheelworks!

There will be Refreshments; Opportunities to have your photo taken with your bike and IF employees; And a 2008 IF Product Preview presentation by Matt Bracken, President, Independent Fabrication.

Thursday, March, 6th 6:00pm - 8:30pm

Belmont Wheelworks

480 Trapelo Road

Belmont, MA 02478

directions here

Drop off your bike to Wheelworks by March 1st,

come to event March 6th and see my new 29" mountain bike !

More Snow

2008-02-23T14:08:00.008-05:00

Interesting week that was topped off my another snowstorm. Hard to believe it was 60F on monday and there was no snow from last sat's ride left. I got home from work later fri night to a good 10+ inches just waiting to be shoveled and my lower back is revolting today (sat).

Last night on the Red line three teenage boys got on at Central and put on an acrobat dance show in the car I was in. Clearing the aisle of the car and with music from a boom box they did some break dance like moves, handstands and some front flips. This was impressive with the car moving and bouncing around the tracks between Central and Park.

Thursday I went to see the movie Klunderz at Somerville Theatre. Sponsored by Wheelworks, NEMBA and Gary Fisher, who was in there in person and answered some questions. Klunderz is documentary film about the development and birth of mountain bikes and mountain bike riding out in Northern California (think: big bikes, no front brakes, no helmets and lots of pot).

Met up with Reenie, Mtbtom, Christopher and Andy for a pre-movie Redbones eating-drinking fest before walking over to the theatre. Ran into lots of fun bike folks and even a pair of Hupsters (Crispin Bakon and Cleophus Van Tittleboom) were in attendance.

Enjoyable movie, if you mountain bike you should see it sometime to hear the stories about how our bikes evolved to today's rigs. Charlie Kelly had a great line in the movie:

" ...My buddy Gary (Fisher) and I, we had this huge adventure and we didn't even realize while we were having it, what an adventure it was...".

I turned to Reenie and said something like " it seems like we are have always having huge adventures". She agreed.

After the movies, more adventures back to Rebones with Tom, Andy and Christopher. I somehow ignored the fact that I get up at 5am and we still needed to all get back to my car parked at work near Alewife. Andy, the voice of reason, lets me know it's time to take off (11:30 ?)

Tom and Christopher on fixed gears, Andy and I on foot making haste towards Alewife. Fun running and riding about on a deserted bike path full of enough side singletrack obstacles to even mess up a pro like mtbtom with one slow motion crash on his fixie.

Andy decided for a ride home instead of going back to the airport (where his car was parked) Christopher and I had convinced him that he could ride into work before the mid-day forecasted "snow". Read of his tale of commuting the next morning here.

Fun night..

Thanks to everyone for hanging out..back home by 1am. Dehydrated and sleep deprived on friday, it took until about 4:00pm to start feeling normal (hmm, whatever that is..) Sleep is good.

New Bike

2008-02-18T20:42:00.001-05:00

Yeah..
new bike is ready to roll
for 2008 !

New IF 29'er for 2008 season

2008-02-18T20:37:00.001-05:00

Picked up the finished product today from Dave at Wheelworks who also built the wheels for me(Chris King hubs and Stans ZTR Arch 29'er rims)

Frame was custom designed by Matt Bracken at IF taking into account my 26" standard 15.5" IF mountain bike measurements. (I am 5'6" with 30.5" inseam )

Paint was done by Jill Rogers . Iron Ore (metallic) with Vanilla Shake panels over Porter Pink (metallic) paint. Jill did an awesome job with hand masking of all the logos. Thanks to Matt, Jill and the entire crew at IF for the beautiful new frame and fork.

(Download the new 2008 IF catalog here)

Thanks also to supermechanic Dave Hess at Belmont Wheelworks,
who built up my first IF back in April 1999 and continues to keep my fleet of bikes going strong.

2008-02-18T19:51:00.001-05:00

Jill at IF did an excellent job of painting all the logos
(Porter Pink on Iron Ore)

Vanilla Shake panels over masked Indy Fab logo in Porter Pink

New Indy Fab downtube logos options are available in 2008 IF catalog

2008-02-18T19:41:00.001-05:00

2008-02-18T19:39:00.005-05:00

Sterling silver IF headbadge

Rigid IF 29'er disc fork !

View from the bottom.

2008-02-18T19:28:00.004-05:00

New custom 29" IF Deluxe lined up next to the 26"IF (circa 1999 15.5" Special) .The 26" IF has harlequin paint that looks either blue or purple depending on the light (repainted by Lloyd Graves in 2003)

Sat Ride

2008-02-18T18:47:00.001-05:00

The temperatures dove back down into the teens friday night, enough to freeze the snow for some studded tire riding in the woods. Sat I opted out of a ride on the cape for more technical riding on the trails. My feet seemed to stay warmer over the three hours working over the frozen and icy terrain.

This time of the year can be recharging when the sun is out, the snow is firm enough to ride on, the studded tires prevent the rider from falling on all the ice and the ipod can supply some nice soundtrack for this experience.

2008-02-18T18:18:00.002-05:00

.... The woods are lovely,

dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

All you need is love..

2008-02-14T05:31:00.001-05:00

There's nothing you can know that isn't known.

Nothing you can see that isn't shown.

Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.

It's easy. All you need is love

News from Appalachia

2008-02-12T20:58:00.000-05:00

The Athens Gun Show has officially unveiled the date
for the 5th Annual Gravel Rouser as March 20-23, 2008 !!

Meredith crosstraining with newest gun show member, Kate.

Cold

2008-02-12T15:45:00.001-05:00

I am home today sick with a cold and the furnace needed another first aid call from oil company. The serviceman has been working on the problem for ~3 hours, so the house temperature is hovering in the high forties. I might need to start a novenna to whatever saint might help...

On brighter news, as soon as this guys leaves, I'm driving to drop off hubs and rim with Dave at the shop for buildup. The rest of my parts for 29er are in, so maybe the new frame will get built up this weekend.

Nuclear Winter Days

2008-02-10T19:55:00.003-05:00

Most days this past week have been snowy, sleeting or raining. Lots of clouds, the sun poking though the clouds every once in a while. Now it's bittery cold just in case we forgot it was still winter.

What an exciting weekend. I worked late friday to get home and find my heat off. Two resets later for only a couple minutes, it was decided to call for service. The guy did what he could, but I have to get a full service cleaning (not for a couple weeks due to high volume). Hopefully the furnace last through the winter since I am don't have a bag of cash to fork over for a new one.

Crisis resolved for the evening. I watched Donnie Darko, an interesting movie about "..a troubled teenager who is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident..."

Sat I did some indoor riding and errands. Getting more bike things to sell on ebay. One more day left on the Blur frame and Fox fork, next will be some avid juciy disc brakes, 26" disc wheelset and maybe a 26" singlespeed wheel. Time to move some merchandise.

Sunday was my weather adventure ride. I finally swtiched over my studded nokians to one of the mt bikes as an option to ride with. I hate switching tires, but once it was done determined to get out and ride. Out the door, it was now raining so I added a rain layer and continued.

Sat I bought my first MP3 player, an ipd nano. Wow. I have been lugging around a cassette radio walkman (circa 2000) on rides, which kinda sucks. The ipod saved me on sunday's ride. I had downloaded enough songs for at least 3-4 hours and it keep me focused on the mission at hand.

After about 2 hours on road, I headed through some local trails . Everything is snow covered and soggy with rain, but enough lighter patches to keep me moving. Once back on road, I heard thunder and saw black clouds. Suddenly sleet, then snow started dumping down like some mini- snow squall. Most of my body was warm enough, but feet were really cold despite having shoe covers and toe heaters

There are times when riding is quite unpleasant, but home is still a couple miles away and you just gotta keep going. Perseverance is the only option. I didn't expect the mt bike ride to turn into a tale of survival.

Got home and warming up the feet was quite painful. After the pain subsided in my feet and I took a long shower, the colder parts of the ride are forgotten and I just think of how awesome the new ipod is for riding !

Where are the birds ???? :(

I have had bird seed and suet out since christmas with no takers.

Ebay stuff is up

2008-02-07T12:24:00.000-05:00

2006 Santa Cruz Blur XC size S

Fox F100RL fork

Forget flowers and candy for Valentines Day...
treat your sweetie (or you) to something that
shows how much you really care !

Don't think...

2008-02-06T20:26:00.000-05:00

..and never take your eyes off of your opponent !

2008-02-06T20:25:00.000-05:00

andy's bike on a t-shirt ?????? (under blacklight)

Building Up

2008-02-06T20:21:00.000-05:00

Some older parts recycled and some new parts starting to come in for my new Indy Fab 29er steel Deluxe. I am going with Chris King ISO disc hubs and Stans ZTR Arch 29er rims.

Any recommendations for tubeless 29er tires ??? am running a new IF rigid disc fork.

little things

2008-02-05T22:15:00.000-05:00

On your way to work, what things do you notice each day ?

When I take the train, there are people along the way that seem to be around every morning. The different condructors on the train and some of the same passengers for the 5:50am train on the platform, the guys at North Station that pass out the two free commuter papers. All these people are the backround to my journey to work each morning.

There are homeless people in the subway, but only one older guy that I used to see at Downtown Crossing station every morning. I always saw him as I was going to connect to Red Line, sitting on bench and strumming a small guitar singing about Jesus. He seemed happy enough, not sure if he was totally with it.

Last big snow storm in Janurary came and he has been absent since. I wondered if he didn't survive the snow and cold, a sad thought

This morning, he was back on his bench . It was nice to see him singing away, still among the living for another day making his own kind of music. :)

The Almighty Weekend

2008-01-31T20:50:00.000-05:00

Work is over for the week.

Time to recharge, ride and kick butt with stuff at home.

Everyone will be glued to the TV on sunday night for that Superbowl thing around Boston.

Have fun whatever you are doing !!!!!!!

Breaking Down

2008-01-30T23:26:00.000-05:00

Finally got motivated to get parts off the Blur for ebaying and order stuff for my new 29er. Ben Folds Five helped keep me going and awake. I am still not getting more than 5 hours of sleep a night this week and today started to start get off the diet coke caffeine train .. headache from about 2pm til now.

It would have made a great video to see me attempting to get off my cassette, let's just say I'm not good with opposing tools and could not remember how I did it before. It is fun to be able to amuse yourself at home with only a few simple tools while looking like an idiot. I finally got cassette off, but the bolts for the rotor don't fit the allen wrenchesI have (never needed to remove a disc rotor before). Not fastest breakdown of a bike, but it was fun to get this checked off my list and get stuff ready for ebay.

Need to stop by shop and get the rest of parts off that require tools I don't have. Anyone looking for a 2006 Blur XC frame in small ? It's obviously white and in pristine shape. I hardly ever rode it (prefer handling of my IF hardtails), but it is an awesome bike if you want FS. Would make a wonderful surprise for your wife or girlfriend, or YOU if you need a small. I will post link once it gets up on ebay, but if I know you maybe we can work out a deal. My new IF 29er needs some love (hubs+rims +tires+brakes) and that requires cash !

Cross Worlds at Treviso Elite Women

2008-01-28T22:10:00.000-05:00

Recap from Catherine Cagle on Cyclocrossworld.com
Great shot of Hanka collapsing after the uphill finish !

Treviso World Cross Elite Womens photos from Catherine Cagle

Top 10 Results
1 Hanka Kupfernagel (Germany) 45.15
2 Marianne Vos (Netherlands) 0.13
3 Laurence Leboucher (France) 0.17
4 Christel Ferrier-Bruneau (France) 0.26
5 Maryline Salvetat (France) 0.52
6 Mirja Melchers-Van Poppel (Netherlands) 0.58
7 Wendy Simms (Canada) 1.04
8 Daphny Van Den Brand (Netherlands) 1.09
9 Rachel Lloyd (United States Of America) 1.23
10 Caroline Mani (France) 1.42

Congrats to USA's Rachel Lloyd with the 9th place.
She looked strong out at KC back in mid December and this was a tough top ten field.

2008 Indy Fab Catalog is here !!!

2008-01-28T20:29:00.000-05:00

Here's the Independent Fabrication crew in Somerville, MA USA who make the magic happen !!
Download the new 2008 Indy Fab catalog here.

These guys will have print catalogs and some cool bikes

out at the North America Handbuilt Bicycle Show in Portland, Oregon Feb 8-10th

It has been a privledge to have been on IF grassroots team since 2001 traveling around the USA and Canada getting dirty while spreading the Indy Fab love along with my other teammates.

Keep living your dreams and keep us if mind if they involve a custom steel or titanium bike !

Weekend Stuff

2008-01-28T19:41:00.000-05:00

Only for seeing.... sometimes advice comes from unlikely sources

Sat morning I went out to do the Computrainer thing agin with MegA at Incline Training. We did a 30 mile TT atfer a few minutes of warming up. It's amazing how possible it is to get your butt kicked this time of the year riding inside, After about 45 minutes is when my power started to wander south. I was in last place even getting smoked by some kid (looked about 11) on the other side who thankfully got too tired or bored after about 40 minutes and stopped.

The class is full of serious cyclists, who have been going to the classes for a while, so I'm trying to just hang in and not get down on my low watts. Ms MegAwatts was rocking the course with only a few minutes of tummy distress due to some new energy potion she was testing out. After we went to co-op for lunch with a detour after to look for Arnica and other goodies.

A quick shot down I-91 to the rents down in CT after. My mom and I were going to a movie, leaving dad with the new 42" flat screen TV he is growing very fond of. I tired to convince Mom to see Juno, but she didn't want me to see it again. There wasn't a lot to choose from since I didn't want a ton of violence (Rambo), kiddie (The Pirates who don't do anything)..wasn't in the mood the see No Country for Old Men yet.

We picked "Untraceable", a movie about the FBI Internet squad with agent played by Diane Lane with a name we kept mixing up up to the ticket booth.."Un-what ?".

If you plan on seeing it stop reading this..but I would pass on this "thriller".

"Lane plays Jennifer Marsh, a Portland-based FBI agent specializing in computer crimes. Marsh is passing yet another day trolling the Web for music piracy, child pornography and credit-card scams when she comes across KillWithMe.com, which features a live video feed of a kitten stuck in a glue trap."

The poor kitty dies and the next live feed is a newspaper reporter who gets cemented and fried to death by heat lamps. The more people that log on to the site, the faster the victim dies. Next, one of Jennifer Marsh's co-workers gets trapped in a water tank where sulfuric acid is added faster as more people watch. It was gross esp since I work with that stuff in lab and it is highly corrosive, it will instantly char a paper towel (cellulose) so imagine human skin.

The victim lives long enough to Morse code a message to his boss with his eyes (since his mouth is duct-taped).The final grizzly scene involved a garden roto-tiller, but don't worry folks, the heroine in a most unlikely wrap-up kills the bad guy psycho with unbelievable computer savvy (he even took control of Diane Lanes car).

Well it was fun to go with my mom and not suffer alone. Rambo was next store and must be super loud since the explosions and such were rumbling into our theatre. If you go bring ear plugs.

When we get back to my parents, my 78 yr old dad is watching Pretty Woman, a total chick flick from 1990. My dad can't figure out the new remote yet, so he was stuck with ABC sat night movie. I was impressed he seemed to have the plot down except dad was fixated on what the Richard Gere character actually did for a job (less concerned with Julia). The funny thing is that my dad didn't realise the movie is now 17 years old !

Next day, an attempt to ride on the Cape with Mtb Tom and Reenie ended with a call from them on route. I had allotted three hrs to travel from CT to Otis, but it stated snowing like mad near the CT-MA border on I-84. Reen called and said they saw many spun out cars and one flipped over. Ok, we are hardcore and all, but not stupid. Mission aborted !

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: It is just a year since I got my most awesome mt bike car in the world, my Honda Element. It is a 2003 and had about 48,000 miles on it when I bought it. This car totally ROCKS ! I can fit so much stuff in the car, bikes camping gear, shopping, furniture, people, dogs etc.

It also handles well in snow and rain except with high winds, the Element will get blown around a little...but it makes life a bit more interesting !

PS Has anyone seen The Orphanage yet ??
reviews seem good.. "suspenseful horror without gore"
Is it worth catching it in theatre ?

Time off for heartache

2008-01-28T18:06:00.000-05:00

TOKYO (Reuters) - Lovelorn staff at a Japanese marketing company can take paid time off after a bad break-up with a partner, with more "heartache leave" on offer as they get older.

Tokyo-based Hime & Company, which also gives staff paid time off to hit the shops during sales season, says heartache leave allows staff to cry themselves out and return to work refreshed. "Not everyone needs to take maternity leave but with heartbreak, everyone needs time off, just like when you get sick," CEO Miki Hiradate, whose company of six women markets cosmetics and other goods targeted for women, told Reuters by telephone.

Staff aged 24 years or younger can take one day off per year, while those between 25 and 29 can take two days off and those older can take three days off, the company said. "Women in their 20's can find their next love quickly, but it's tougher for women in their 30s, and their break-ups tend to be more serious,"

Hiradate said. Hime & Company staff can also take two mornings off twice a year as "sales shopping leave", so they can race to stores to hunt for bargains. "Before, women could take half-days off to go to sales, but you'd have to hide your shopping bags in lockers by the train station," Hiradate said. "But with paid leave, we don't have to feel guilty about bringing our shopping bags to work, and we can enjoy the best part about sales shopping -- talking about our purchases afterwards."

Sweet. 3 days off a year if you are 30+ just for "breaking up" and two mornings off for "shopping sales" leave ... somehow I don't think it will fly in big pharma anytime soon. Back to work til President's Day.

Cross Worlds this weekend !

2008-01-26T07:06:00.000-05:00

Hup, hup...Zank and Dr Z are over in Treviso, Italy to watch all the action. opefully they take some pictures and will have a recap of their vacation once they get back.

Keep up to date with lastest results and pictures for all four races at Cyclingnews.com

Brief results for Juniors this morning have MA's Luke Keough finishing 10th !
Good luck to the rest of the US squad for remaining three races.

This week, I seemed to spend a lot of time commuting to work. We are somewhat prisoners on the MBTA system somedays. Once you get on the "ride"(subway + commuter train), you always can't just get off and walk the rest of the way (esp if you live 25+ miles away). Not much excitement to write about ... work, run to train, read-nap on train, get to subway (always some running involved), change subway from orange to red line, walk 8 min to work, work, walk to subway, subway to train, walk home.

The weekend looks good with some indoor and outdoor adventures to renew the spirit and chill for two days. enjoy.

American Gladiators

2008-01-21T22:57:00.000-05:00

I remember this tv show from the early 90's ...
Now Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali are hosting with a new cast of "gladiators"

It was a program that matched a cast of amateur athletes against each other, as well as against the show's own "gladiators", in contests of strength and agility.

I just watched it tonight for first time. Scary looking women like Hellga (5'9" 205 lbs) are ready to crush you or this pumped up guy Titan, with thighs that don't look possible without a lot of flax oil !

I was somewhat bored watching . On same level of great TV like Fear Factor or The Chair .

Tomorrow night (tues) is The Biggest Loser. It is an inspiring show to see really obese people get a shot at a healthier life. Beware, there is a lot of crying esp during the weigh-in and voting for who gets booted off of the ranch.

Happy #9

2008-01-21T21:10:00.000-05:00

My nephew Denis 2 season ago before the start of his first mt bike race.
It was early April, really cold, rainy and sleeting, and he did a great job.
His 24" wheeled Trek mt bike finally fits him and he wants to try another race this year.

This weekend was busy starting off with a trip out to Western MA to ride on computrainers with MegA and her friend Brant out in Greenfield at Incline Training. Meg goes there regularly and it seemed like a great place to get a decent workout in esp when the weather is too cold for riding on road (right now in many parts of MA, our trails have been a bit to snowy to ride).

My indoor efforts have just begun to get longer than 45 mins, but it sure is easier to have a screen to watch and other people spinning away to keep the motivation going. Afterwards, we headed over to the Greenfield Co-op for some lunch. What a great store with food and all sorts of interesting lotions, potions and soaps. Thankfully, we only ate and didn't linger to shop. The place definitely looked like somewhere I could spend a lot of money.

Next up was drive down to my folks in CT. My cool nephew Denis, would be spending the night and we were going to have a little b-day celebration for him (his 9th birthday is today, Jan 21st). My mom baked a beautiful three layer yellow cake with orange zest butter cream frosting, which totally rocked. We had fun playing a couple games of Jenga, playing with Finnegan and helping the rents set up their new 42" flat screen TV.

My mom was not sure she wanted to keep the TV because she thought it might be too big for the room. My dad was lobbying hard for the set to stay.."people nowadays all have these big TVs" and "It will be great to watch the Patriots game tomorrow on this big screen". Once I got the TV channels dialed and she saw the few HD channels on the set, she was sold. I also hooked up the DVD-VHS player and wrote out instructions on how to make everything work.

During the weekend travels, I had a chance to drop into Barnes and Noble. I love books and wandering around the store looking for new titles or topics that look interesting. I tend towards non-fiction of all types, much depends on my latest mood or curiosity. Lately some of the titles I see are getting rather disturbing:

1001 books you must read before you die, 100 places you must see before you die, 100 things you must do before you die..etc you get the point.

"..........for Dummies" and "The complete idiots guide to..............." were bad enough, but why buy a book with some checklist of places to visit and things to do before you die ????? Has everybody lost their imaginations ?

Weigh Loss thru Self Hypnosis: "Think yourself Thin" and "Listen and Lose Weight" both come with CD's. Just another new fat lose gimmick to make people buy the book. Not to mention the hundreds of different diet books..no carb, low carb, no grain, raw, 21 day cleanse, spa diets..etc etc. Master Cleanse (yuck, don't try this one..salt water in am, then lemonade all day).

"How to talk about Books you Haven't Read". Yes, this is a real book. Do we really want a society of slackers all conversing about books nobody has read ? English teachers must cringe at the thought. That's as bad as our senate and house members who vote on bills or resolutions without reading the related briefing materials.

One that looked intriguing, but I passed on was:

"The 4 hour workweek. escape the 9-5, Live anywhere and Join the New Rich" I don't care about joining the "New Rich", but the working schedule sounds great ! I think this guy made his money selling books like this. What could I possibly do for 4 hours a week that would be legal and make enough to live anywhere ?? since I didn't buy the book and it was too long to read in the store, I'll never know..

So what did I buy ??

-Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (a natural history of four meals)

-Keep Going, The Art of Perseverance by Joseph M. Marshall III (author of the Lakota Way)

-Don't Get Lucky, Get Smart by Alan Cohen (author of Dragon Doesn't live here anymore)

-The Anatomy of Stretching by Brad Walker (includes all types including AIS and PNF)

-The Big Book of Hell by Matt Groening (remember Akbar and Jeff''s various "huts")

geeky books coming in the mail that are work related:

"The Art of Drug Synthesis"by Douglas S. Johnson
"Human Drug Metabolism" by Michael Coleman
"Pharmacokinetics Made Easy" by Donald J. Birkett

Clouds

2008-01-17T21:50:00.000-05:00

Clouds this time of year are pretty amazing and renewing.

Work will be better soon. Good changes for me.

Don't let the man bring you down for too long,

tell somebody you want to change.

It kills your motivation,

if you don't ask for what you want in your life.

onward into 2008 !!!!

CCRider

2008-01-15T23:14:00.000-05:00

Here's if chicks alum CCrider
(at 6 Hours of Power 2006)
alias Carol Clemens
of Pittsburgh, PA USA !!

Keep an eye out on her BLOG this season for her many adventures,

as she sets out in 2008 pull herself further up in the US XC-Enduro womens ranks !!

I first met Carol when she and Joel showed up to join our IndyFab-Dirt Rag singlespeed team
at Burn 24 race in North Carolina back in 2003. That race was quite an adventure for all .
CCrider and I have been friends ever since.

Good Luck CCrider

with 2008 Schedule !!

12 hours of Razorback Expert Solo February 16th
Knobscorcher NC Expert XC April 5th
Greenbrier, MD Expert XC April 26th
12 hour-Dirt Sweat and Gears,TN Expert Solo May 3rd
Stupid 50, State College Expert Solo June 7th ?
Cowbell Challenge- 12 hour Expert Solo June 21stCharlotte NC
Fire Cracker 50 Expert Solo July 4th
Nationals Mt. Snow Expert XC July 19th
24 Hour Solo Nationals Expert Solo August 2nd
24 hours of Allumuchy Corporate August 21st
Dakota 50, Spearfish, SD Expert Solo September 1st

Day after

2008-01-15T22:02:00.000-05:00

Walking from T subway stop 5 min down the street in Cambridge to work ~7am.

Still beautiful and snowy after yesterdays storm

Snow was still all over the trees even after work.

A long day on Monday at work and some delays on subway had me frantically trying to catch 7:30pm train at North Station through the masses of Celtic fans trying to get into the Garden.

Due to snow storm and a building fire along my commuter rail route, the train was delayed leaving the station in Boston til 8pm. It took til 9pm to get home to shovel ~10" of mostly powder-me pack snow from driveway for next hour . Crosstraining, right ????

Train-subway commute today was much easier.

Some beautiful scenery out there esp in early morning.

Everything looks so clean.

Trainer time on tap for while,

since there is no where to walk on side of salty roads,

let alone bike !

Snow on the way

2008-01-13T20:48:00.000-05:00

Things looks snowy the next day or so. Snow or freezing rain starts in the fearly hours of monday and then snow throughout the day.

Sat I rode over to Bradley-Palmer to check on the trails. Still too many inches of soft snow to ride effectively despite the heatwave we had last week. Maybe some fun to be had in the fresh snow tomorrow..the singlepeed is ready to go.

dreaming of warmer times down in PA

pre-suckerbrook cupcake party

2008-01-13T20:26:00.000-05:00

Empty cups require more beer !!

Much drinking and food at the Zanoconatos' Pre-Suckerbrook party (the race is in Sept 2008) sat night way out in Worcester

It's been a month since the last Verge weekend in Rhode Island, so everyone is going through "cross season withdrawl". A gathering of similairly inflicted Hup United and friends seemed to be in order to make it though the long cold New England winter.

Highlights:

-Seeing everyone from NE Hup United since end of cross season
esp the Needhams (Tom and Gretchin before they have their new baby next month..good luck Haavenfrites !)

-Zank's award winning cupcakes, frosted in the Belgian national colors

-Seeing the Bilodeaus when they are happy and healthy ! We are glad JD survived the KC Natz trip getting so sick. MegA somehow magically baked some delicious green frosted vegan cupcakes without eggs or butter. She rocks it in the kitchen as well as on the bike !!!!!

-Yash bailed on Zank's blast and left me without my new Hup United 2008 team helmet , bastard. Oh yes, all the women were in ball gowns as you demanded, you missed it !

-Mike S's tales of track racing from last season . Hmmm sounds fun, but that would require getting me another bike !

-Trash talking about the upcoming mt bike season with Zank, Karen, Jeff, Ronnie and Dr Z.
We are getting Reb out there once Zank makes her a mt bike frame..watch out !

Thanks Zank and Rebecca !!
Next stop for these kids is Treviso, Italy
to see the 2008 Cross worlds and vacation.
Watch the BLOG for photos of their travels.

making it thru the week

2008-01-10T21:20:00.000-05:00

almost finished for another week...

I seem to be in some cosmic Amazing Race this last week with all sort of challenging things being thrown at me (work, flat tires, lost wallets, missing documents). What's up ??? I've been riding a wave of good vibes for a while, so maybe I am overdo for some correction

In brighter news,

I have put together a great tentative mt bike schedule beside the NUE 100 milers, the snow is almost gone, it's almost the weekend w/time to ride in daylight and the big Hup United cross party at Zank's ....

best part Yash will be bringing my new Hup 2008 team helmet from Belgium to party.

ENJOY the weekend !

BETs.. can you ID this 2006 race ????? :)

DCCoD weekend

2008-01-09T00:07:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Fat Marc and Monkey for a fun weekend at their place.
Also thanks to Cruella and iPaul for place to crash (+plan our 2008 assault on KCCX !)

DCCof D end of cross season party on sat night down in MD.

Good times seeing everybody after a great 2008 cross season filled with some fun memories.
.
Sun ride at Fair Hill led by monkey with MAC girls was a great change from battling out on a cross course (although we missed miss MegA..) Some beautiful flowing trails I have never had the time to ride during my numerous visits to Casa Vettori.

Highlight was Tom McD's new Cross Lounge on wheels parked in driveway

and him making us all Belgium waffles for all after ride !

Next weekend is the Hup United Pre-Sucker Brook Cross fiesta at Zank's !!!!!

so many parties

everyone really misses cross,

but we would burn out if it lasted much longer.

4 X 100

2008-01-07T07:28:00.000-05:00

There seem to be only 22 weekends from April through the end of August for possible mt bike races. First step in creating an interesting mt bike season schedule is deciding on the big mile races. I rely on instinct or inspiring ideas popping into my head to figure out what races I want to do.

This year more hundreds on tap. Registrations are in and payed for. Let's be optimistic and hope it's cool in GA in August.

Ifchicks 2008 100 miler world tour:

May 31 Mohican 100 Ohio
June 14 Lumberjack 100 Michigan
July 26th Wilderness 101 Pennsylvannia
Aug 16th Fool's Gold 100 Georgia

Ok that's 4 weekends booked, time work on filling the other 18 !
146 days to Mohican..
no time to waste !

come join in.

New Year

2008-01-03T21:40:00.000-05:00

2008 !

Ready or not, it's here.

365 new days to create your unique life on planet Earth.

What will you do with each of those days ?

Whatever you choose to do, make each day count.

Here is some Joseph Campbell for thought:

Follow your Bliss.

The heroic life is living the indivdual adventure.

There is no security in following the call to adventure.

Nothing is exciting

if you know

what the outcome is going to be.

To refuse the call

means stagnation.

What you don't experience positively

you will expereince negatively.

You enter the forest

at the darkest point,

where there is no path.

Where there is a way or path,

it is someone else's path.

You are not on your own path

If you follow someone else's way,

you are not going to realize

your potential.

Time to switch gears from cyclocross season back to mountain bikes.

2008 calenders are already popping up, ready for you to plan your dream season of races, festivals, rides and charity events.

We are all capable of accomplishing amazing things when we put our minds to it, esp if we have a couple crazy friends ready to come along with us !!

Good Luck.

What are you looking forward to this year ??

Happy New Year !!!!!!

PS:

Looking forward to mid-atlantic

roadtrip this weekend to visit the DCCOD !!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-23T21:15:00.000-05:00

Holiday Cheers from IF Chicks !
Hope everyone is enjoying some R&R around the holidays

OOXO
kc

Time in Woods

2007-12-23T10:40:00.000-05:00

Sat I needed to get going with my Christmas shopping. I thought that I would have time in Kansas City, since all the hotels were based around a huge shopping mall. It turns out I had almost no free time except a quick trip to the T-Rex cafe giftshop with LWebb, Jeb and Tom McD, where I found a "build your own volcano" kit for my nephew.

While out at Modell's in the early morning, Reenie calls me about going XC skiing at Great Brook in Carlisle. I have still much shopping to do, so of course I say "sure, what time ?", the malls and crowds can wait.

Great snow and very peaceful scenery. My XC skills are weak having last attempted xc skiing out in Lake Tahoe a couple years ago (quite humorous and tiring to harry who was a pro at it). Mtb Tom, Jane and Reenie were all fairly patient and I only fell a few times into the deep snow requiring some help :)

Fun to xc ski on trails that we usually ride out mt bikes on.

Reenie on one of the fire roads at Great Brook.

Well after the ski outing, I really had a lot of work ahead of me. Battling the crowds of shoppers, I managed to get a few more gifts. At the REI stop to get a bivvy sack for my brother in law, I found myself trying on stuff for ME. That place is so dangerous, I need supervision !
Hope everyone is not still shopping like me..

Snow

2007-12-22T22:36:00.000-05:00

3 storms worth in last 1.5 weeks.

Lots of shoveling on thurs nite-fri morning.

Things could be worse like having to rake the snow off your roof because your ceiling is starting to crack. How's it going over there in Hamilton ?

tgif kc mudfest

2007-12-20T19:25:00.000-05:00

Here are the three leading women from the start in the 45-49 womens race who have already created a gap with the rest of us. Ok, nobody said this cross racing stuff was going to be easy !

Bulk of the 18 starters. I am already many bike lengths and it's about 20 sec into the race :(

Our hero VDK (that would be me) near the back on her Hup blue Zanconato cross bike

Things got better once I got off that god forsaken pavement onto the mud and slush . There were a couple near collisons on the first 1/3 of lap 1 to make things exciting, but I never crashed.

2007-12-20T14:48:00.000-05:00

I got back home Tuesday nite ~ 9pm leaving KC right after the elite men's race finished up. The total mileage was ~3050 miles and I did it over 2.5 days each way getting enough sleep.

Over the past years, I have done my share of crazy scheduling of mtb race weekends and it is way easier for me to drive 1500 miles after doing a couple cross races than after a 100 mile mt bike race.

Pre-rode a couple laps thursday arriving in Kansas ~2pm. The course was cold and muddy, that thick sticky mud. I didn't have a pit bike to use so it I was going to make it work with one. I knew the conditions and "lines" would totally change, so riding the course was more about re conning the course and getting to know the terrain. It took quite a while to get the bike washed off and by then I was frozen. Staying warm and just riding well be the way to race the next day.

My masters 45-49 race was friday at 1pm. Noticeably missing was the amazing Ms Vible of Delaware, who would have been in my race. Lauri (coming off a 3rd place in the women's B race thurs) and the 40-44 women started thirty seconds ahead of us.

I watched Jeb (Lauri son) win his age group at 10 and got some great pictures. The course looked pretty frozen, but the sun was shinning and it looked like some melting was happening. My plan was to get bike ready and warm up on trainer only, save the slop for the race.

1PM.

The Hup United blog has a good recap of some of the mens experience and course at:http://hupunited.blogspot.com/2007/12/extreme-nationals.html

The first part was an uphill on a paved road to a right hand short uphill to the grass (actually mud, ice and snow with some grass thrown in). 24 women had signed up , but only 18 of us raced and I was in the second row middle not far from last years champ CW. I only knew Lauri's sister in law, Brenda from MA, so I wasn't sure who would be closer to me or way out of my league. Was a top ten possible for me ??

My start was not good. By the grass, I must have been in last place. Time to make up some spots. People were all over the place and just cutting on the inside got me a couple places. I hit the straight away near the small pond fast and got into a frozen rut..OOPS, still pretty hard. That was the only time I got a little concerned for staying upright. Me and another woman almost collide, and I settle into a little conga line around the pond. I just tried to ride smoothly for the first lap to get the course dialed in.

The most fun parts of the course were the off-camber turns. I esp enjoyed the one after the second set of stairs before the pavement. The short descent sends you right into some mud and a slick uphill that I managed to ride each lap. That area had some of the most enthusiastic crowds on the course esp if you stayed on the bike on the uphill.

The worse part was this slight uphill with sinking mud that looked rideable, but it was quicker to run or push. I tired to "run" each time, even if it didn't look like it. I was happy that my Zank bike kept working the whole race.

I passed more women and actually some in the 40-44, two of which I was battled it out with. One seemed to change bikes almost every pass thru the pits area, a huge help since the mud was piling up in the brakes, on the tires and around the cranks. Next year, I'll definitely have a workable pit bike with similar gearing.

The course and conditions suited my strengths being a good technical rider and am not really afraid of mud or falling. One exception was that sheer ice ride that Mtb Tom took me on in the Fells (last winter with studded mtb tires ?) when I was crawling around on my knees unable to stand in my sidis without crashing on the ice. There were a lot of people cheering and some good advice from some friends along the way which really helps.

I ended up finishing 8th of the 18th , which for me is a huge result. ...this was my best cross finish in last few seasons. I somehow managed to finish 10 min 24 sec behind the winner
CW this year which was the EXACT same time behind her last year in Rhode Island (10:24). I felt like I was giving 100% and riding exceptional well through the course.

If I had another lap, might have been able to come in before rider #7 (who I had caught 1/2way on last lap before she took off when she realized I was right next to her)...but maybe not, my bike was getting heavy and full of mud !! :)

A good race to end the season on a high note. 24 races for 2007 !
Next up is mt bike season that starts in early April...
Will be racing an awesome new Indy Fab 29" mt bike,
great things will be happening in 2008 !

Thanks to my Mid-Alantic friends at KC for their support and cheering, LisaLisa phone support, Zank, Reb and my team Hup United, my fellow competitors and my coach this season Chris Mayhew. It was a fun weekend and sorry for all who couldn't make it cause you missed some epic battles !

Each day brought different conditions and it was inspiring to watch all the racers giving their all out on the course.
CONGRATS TO ALL.

Lastly thanks to NS Andy for checking on my home during my absence (shoveling the walk) and one of my neighbors for snow blowing my driveway twice while I was gone.

It snowed again today and it seems like I have almost 2 feet of snow in yard since I left for Kansas !

Driving home

2007-12-17T01:19:00.000-05:00

More pictures when I get back home to Massachusetts !

(posting tonight from somewhere off I-70 in Illinois)

Hup, hup:

cross is over for 2007 :(

Get some inpsiration by checking out this

link for some excellent pictures from Acme Bicycle Co

(KC, Missouri) from entire weekend !!!

TIm Johnson wins in KC

2007-12-17T01:15:00.000-05:00

Tim on last technical section before the pavement to the finish line for big win at US national in Kansas City

2007-12-17T01:11:00.000-05:00

MAC men are back for more

2007-12-17T01:05:00.000-05:00

Mike Yozell (Fort) in men's elite

Wes "the conqueror" Schempf (C3/Sollay.com)

Men's elite early laps

2007-12-17T00:55:00.000-05:00

lap 1, surprise, it's Page and Trebon !

Reigning national champ,Trebon, would collide with another rider and be forced to drop out.

the trail of followers..

watch out for that guy on the end.

Powers closes the gap.

Tim never loses sight of the mission on hand

and busts a move to attack when the time is right to win the national title !

Betsy Shogren

2007-12-17T00:37:00.000-05:00

.... rode her single speed for

most of the women's elite race

Good job BETS !!!!

Mo Bruno-Roy gets fifth

2007-12-17T00:33:00.000-05:00

Mo had a good start and was in third for beginning of race, before falling back a few spots to finish fifth.

Women's elite start

2007-12-17T00:30:00.000-05:00

Rachel Lloyd (left) had a strong performance today capturing silver. The elite women are heading up the pavement from the start.

Katie C makes it four in a row

2007-12-17T00:26:00.000-05:00

Congrats to Katie Compton on winning the women's national cyclocross title again this year !

After a slow start, Katie pulled into first and would maintain her lead to finish. Georgia Gould would eventually finish 3rd

Sarah wins 3rd in Div 2 Collegiates !

2007-12-17T00:22:00.000-05:00

Hup United's own Anja alias Sarah Hart from Colby College in Maine, landed on the podium for 3rd (Div2 Collegiate) in her first cross nationals !!

Delayed flights from Portland brought her to town only late sat and she had some some paperwork mix-ups on sun am pre-race. This left Sarah with 30 min to dress, warmup and get all those freaking race numbers pinned on, Sarah lined up and raced in 12-15F starting temperatures. Good job handling the frozen snow covered mud and ice out on the course !

KC Natz Sat

2007-12-16T01:05:00.000-05:00

Sun trying to come out at very end of day

Betsy comtemplates going for a ride.

LWebb and Jeb working in pits for their friend Leo (zooming by in Henry's Bikes blue )

Hup, hup it's MegA and JD !!!

Sat Mud Bog

2007-12-16T00:59:00.000-05:00

MAC in action at KC

2007-12-16T00:52:00.000-05:00

Cold temps, driving wind, snow, frozen mud and slush don't stop these guys..

Yozell

Kelly

Fergie

Auer

Wes gets 3rd in 30-34 Mens

2007-12-16T00:46:00.000-05:00

Wes hammering through the frozen mud at Kansas City during sat morning's 30-34 mens race

Jeb bags a national cross title !

2007-12-15T09:54:00.000-05:00

bike after the race

Jeff Bahnson wins national cyclocross title in 15-16 junior men

2007-12-15T09:51:00.000-05:00

Wes in pits just before start of Jeff's race.

Conditions were cold with lots of frozen mud tracks, ice and mud before the race began. The only race before that were all the junior women and it was tough going for the little chicas.

Ice was still on a lot of the trees around the park.

2007-12-15T09:49:00.000-05:00

The leading group coming up the pavement from start.

Jeff is somewhere in the middle at this point and would quickly work his way up to the leader.

The leaders gap is evaporating.

This is the back end of the course near the set of double stairs and some fun off-camber S turns leading into the pavement towards start-finish. By this point Jeff's in the lead.

2007-12-15T09:47:00.000-05:00

2007-12-15T09:41:00.000-05:00

Lots of frozen mud tracks which were still not thawed out by the start of my masters race at 1pm (Jeff's group went off at 10am on friday)

Jeff lapping some riders on a sweet off chamber section.

He had lots of cheering from his own Mid-Atlantic cross family

2007-12-15T09:33:00.000-05:00

Fries coming in for the post race "interview"..

2007-12-15T09:30:00.000-05:00

Congrats to Jeb on a great race and excellent cross season !!

LWebb gets Bronze !

2007-12-14T00:34:00.000-05:00

LWebb managed to work her way up from the back for a 3rd place finish in the women's 3/4 race today at 9am !!! yeah Lauri ! See the writeup here. We'll see Lauri out there racing again tomorrow in the 40-44 masters women.

I hadn't arrived in KC in time for the race, but the course sounded like ice and mud for the first race of the long weekend. Pre-rode a couple of laps before picking up my registration and heading back to the car to thaw out my rozen wet feet. I race tomorrow at 1pm.

Arrival in KC

2007-12-14T00:25:00.000-05:00

The final miles to Kansas were filled with some beautiful sunshine and clouds that just take your breath away. I arrived around 2pm to the parking area, unloaded my bike and got out for a couple laps of a very muddy and slightly icy course.

It's going to be a challenge,

but hopefully I can enjoy the last race of 2007 and

see what that Zanconato cross bike can do !

2007-12-14T00:23:00.000-05:00

Gas in Ohio.

30 cents cheaper than Beverly, MA when I left on Tues !!

2007-12-14T00:22:00.000-05:00

Following Little Debbie and about 1,000 other trucks on my 1,500 mile roadtrip.

Ice coated scenery started to appear just after St Charles Missouri on I-70, where I stayed over wed night. I managed to drive out with only some light rain through PA on tues night and wed morning. The rest of trip was smooth sailing.

Chaos

2007-12-10T21:28:00.000-05:00

The Element has looked like this the past few cold race weekends..

clothing explosion of every combination of layers possible.

I leave for Kansas City CX nationals tomorrow at high noon after spending a 1/2 day at work finishing up my 4Q2007 report (that no one even reads) and then do some mandatory lab cleanup. People aquainted with me might think I am an organized person, well that is far from the truth. I can procasinate packing for something like a weekend bike race so easily. Everything else seems more interesting to be doing than getting ready. Why I leave things til last minute is a complete puzzle sometimes. I do tend to come up with my most brillant schemes under sleep deprivation and limited time, so it's not all bad.

I will try to take pictures of my travels and the races over the weekend.. it will be as if you too drove 1500 miles to Kansas and will be aware of all the action. I am hitting the road back to Massaschusetts right after the women's elite race, trying to be back to work by Tuesday.

Hup NE will have MegA, Josh, Sarah and me resprenting. We have some other Hup regions all coming into Kansas, that is currently under a sheet of ice !

Hup NE season finale

2007-12-09T23:56:00.000-05:00

A toast to a good 2007 season for Hup United.

We missed MegA at the last race !

CHEERS !!

The last double NE Verge weekend had two great courses down in Warwick RI. The weather was much better than I imagined when I left Beverly early sat morning. Rebecca and I were there to race the 3/4 women along with many of our other regualr women. The pack has thinned out a bunch, maybe starting cross in August has burned out many by the second week of December.

I felt good during both days. Sat found me in 17th place out of 26 starters and then 10 of 16 sunday. I might have been able to weasel my way into the top 8 if we had two more laps, but I just couldn't close the gap between me and Stacey and she with the woman ahead of her.

Sally had some kick ass races the last few weeks and unfortunately she slid out on a corner and lost many places midway in the race. Everyone is close in the early lap and any mistake can cost you even if it's just for a few seconds. It was great racing with her and hanging out with her husband Brian at the races.

Both days, I had some good starts. People start passing soon, but I have managed to avoid going down or getting into a collison throughout the season. It is easier to ride when no one is ahead of you, but the skills are really tested when you have all hell breaking lose with 25-40 women (some with marginal hadnling skills) trying to all get out in front... my vote for most scary start this season was a tie between Amesbury and NoHo.

So I feel lucky with 23 races in the bank this season and I am still feeling good. If I actually got more than 5 hrs of sleep at night, I might be able to bustmore moves next season. Next up and the season finale will be friday at 1pm at Nationals in Kansas City !

Don't mess with the good doctor...

she heals the sick, bakes a mean cupcake and crushes on the cross course !

Dr Z had a great 2007 season after working all winter to step up her game. It has been fun to race together these past three seasons and I will miss having the "Van Torchinhand" Zanconato's around New Belgium next season while they go out to Milwaukee for Reb's fellowship.

2007-12-09T23:42:00.000-05:00

Rosey's race ends early, but he is still all smiles as he survived the voyage last weekend out to Portland USGP with PVB, Zank, Myette and the rest of the HUp crew.

Ouch.

2007-12-09T23:35:00.000-05:00

I bought some Christmas Belgian Ale for after the that needed a corkscrew (which I didn't realize when I bought it since it was wrapped up..dumb). Finding no corkscrews or suitble swiss army knives in the crowd, Toby gets busy with a pocket knife and did get the bottle open without any explosions.

Santa and helpers were getting a little tipsy form the champagne and beer. Santa did an excellent job of offering up cupcakes made by Dr Z on the shubbery runup to hungry 2/3 men.

The Zancoanto beer cosy-sock modelled by Mr Myette.

ThomP rules

2007-12-09T23:29:00.000-05:00

My former Indy Fab mtb teammate, Thom P of IBC cross team, ripped it up once again this cross season in the 2/3 men on his singlespeed after returning from SSWC07 in Scotland.

Yes, he was the guy wearing the pink Flashdance legwarmers at Gloucester GP.

Check out his most excellent blog BIG BIKES !!!

Snow

2007-12-09T23:17:00.000-05:00

Hup now covered in snow...

at least the front yard where the neighbors can see is leaf free.

Yardwork

2007-12-09T23:12:00.000-05:00

My yard during last part of cross season...

HUP

I took off sunday Dec 2nd and Skipped Wrentham CX becasue snow was on the way that evening. I didn't buy enough giant paper bags for all my leaves so I decided to just rake them into piles and leave them. Life is too short to worry about the yard when it's cross season.

I raked the piles into a swervy mini bike loop

You can't really see it, but this corner even has a slight bank to it. Fun for a couple laps in the dark. It is all covered with snow and now ice, so maybe good with the Nokians on my mtb.

Cross Star in the tub !!

2007-12-03T09:33:00.001-05:00

Ladies...
Time to add beloved cross star, Fat Marc's blog to your must read and see blog list of the day. You never know what this working man's superhero might post !!

http://fatmarc.blogspot.com/2007/12/194-ef-you-ken.html

Coco update

2007-12-02T16:38:00.000-05:00

Here is Tiffany's daughter, Coco (now almost 8 months old). I got to visit them friday after work and catch up with what's been happening in Somerville. Just wait til she can walk, I see no rest in next decade for mom and dad !