Punk Ass: Biker, Zen Stress Monkey
Single Speed Monster Man
I've been so wrapped up in the
Tour that I've been forgetting to post...I am sooo lame :) But, like a lactose intolerant cormorant, I have bubbled to the surface. Gwwaaaaaaaaaclkkkkk!!!! Ahem......Anyway, last Saturday the Clones and I went for a hoopty good training ride around the Walden pond area. We were joined by a fellow
Biogen Idec employee of Guin and Buzz's, Rorey, who showed up beautiful Trek carbon fiber......get this..........(wait for it)...............
Single Speed. This dude kicked major amounts of ass (namely ours), but was very cool and had none of the ego problems of some hard core riders we know (...cough, cough, 2.0.......). I tell ya folks, this guy was climbing like he HAD gears! I guess this is do to the fact that he's always had single speeds so his body developed along those lines....
Also, last night, in honor of the time trial up L'Alpe d'Huez, I went out and tackled the three biggest hills I could find. All I can say is, I don't know how it is humanly possible to do what even the slowest of those guys does. I mean I'm just sitting here with a big ol' question mark over my head and panting hard.
Alert!! Alert!!! There has been a confirmed
Heraldo Yellowfoot siting in Watertown Square. Please keep your children and rugs indoors until he passes....That is all....
Hamstring Hijinks
Riddle me this Batman ....How is it that I can cycle 178 miles in 2 days or go out and do 30 miles of hills 4 days in a row and my legs feel fine. But, go out and work in the yard for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon and my hamstrings are wound as tight as the G string on my bass (no not THAT kind of G string..sheesh :) )? Go figure.......
Tires, Time & Tandems
The time finally came last night to say goodbye to my faithful Michelin Axial Carbons..sad I know, but after more than 2,500 miles, they were really starting to show their age. I'll be keeping them in a safe, warm place 'till Winter sets in then put them back on when I throw the bike up on the trainer. To replace them, I picked up a pair of Michelin Pro Race (in bright yellow to match the bike...of course). I also went back to 700x23's instead of 25's. So, after getting them on the bike last night, I took them out for a trial spin..WooooHooo! I'm diggin'em ! Going back to 23's and up to a 120psi tire made a noticeable difference.
Which brings me to my next point; since I was feeling all extra zippy, I decided to do the little 12.5 mile loop that my wife D (that's D-E-E..Dee)and I set up, but do it as a sort of time trial (yes, I HAVE been watching a lot of the tour).The route includes 2 climbs plus the infamous
Alpe D'Ass. So I beat myself like a rented mule and managed a time of 40min 38Sec and an avg. speed of 18.4 mph. Not bad for a first try. Now a have a baseline to start check my progress against.
Over the holiday weekend, D and I went to
Wheelworks to check out some tandems. We thought that it would be really fun to tool around on one and hopefully even do the Tour of the Vineyard on one next year. We haven't made up our minds 100% yet, but we were thinking about the
Cannondale Road as a definite possibility.
Words of Wisdom from D:
"Why would one want to beat a mule, rented or otherwise?"
And So It Begins...
Ahh, at last the spectacle that I've waited all winter for is upon us....
The 2004 Tour de France!! For the next 3 weeks my TV has only on channel;
OLN. There will be no Star Trek (ok maybe a few episodes), There will be no movies (well maybe a few), there will be only the ultimate sporting event known to humankind(is that melodramatic enough for you :) ?). Thank gods that we have cable in the kitchen at work so I can actually watch some of the live coverage!!
My predictions, which I will state and time stamp here: Something big to happen in stage 16, Tyler Hamilton will finish in the top three, perhaps second overall and I have one more which I'll keep to myself for now...Email me if you want to know.
