A little seaching around You Tube tonight came up with a long lost video of me trying out for district band…..check it out…

ok, that really wasn’t me, but that was pretty fricken impressive. Even if you don’t like drumming or get all giddy about it, I do and this kid can drum…pretty sweet.

I have been taking the last couple of days off to let things recover a bit. Sure, I should be doing a recovery ride and such, but I didn’t…cause bikes are broken.  For being as good of a mechanic as I am, I am WAY too lazy to keep all the bikes in working order.  Because of that, I took the Pugsley out to commute this morning to work.  Felt fine on the ride to and from work twice, I come home for lunch.  So when I got home, I decided, “what the hell, I guess I will take the dog out for a run”.  Bad move.  Things were ok, for the most part, but the legs definitely were still a bit tired.  I think tomorrow I might dig out the road bike and see about a nice easy spin.

Other than that, Kelly has her eye on a race this weekend in Maine and she is interested in giving it a go.  Her race is 1 lap, 5 miles and mine would be another 15 on the single speed.  Guess I need to get the legs in good shape by then..

So I did it.  I got my sorry ass up at 5am and drove for 2 to ride my bike around in a circle for 4 hours.  And even though I was tired as hell for the entire time, it was a good time with some great racing…

Saturday night, I packed up all of my stuff and set it next to the door.  That way, when I was late for leaving, I would just grab everything, throw it in the car and head out.  I was up before the alarm clock went off and got ready.  Kelly decided 10 minutes before I wanted to leave that she was going.  So I loaded up the car with clothing, tools, bike, Kelly and Campy and off we went.  I have to say even though the weather was supposed to be nice, it was raining pretty hard when we left and got worse as we got into the notches.  Luckily it was nice and dry when we got there.

2.5 hour later, we showed up at the site, registered and begun a little pre-race nonsense, which meant getting dressed and warming up a little.  At 10 am, the single speeders were set to go and off the 9 or so of us went.  Lap 1 was pretty insignificant.  I rode with the top 3 of the SS’ers and all was well, kinda.  I stopped at the feed zone and said to Kelly “look at that seat post, its bent isn’t it?” and sure enough, it was.  So I had to baby it a little, not letting my fat ass flop down on it too much.

On lap 2, the other SS’ers put some time on me, but I was ok with that.  After all, this was my first solo race and I was doing it on an SS with no idea of what the course was like.  I was fine with my positioning.

Lap 3, more of the same.  Just pedaling the bike around in a big circle.  I took a nice little digger on a bridge that ripped my leg open a little.  Nothing serious, but blood ALWAYS needs to be involved for it to be a good ride.  I also started noticing the seatpost was REALLY started to be bent, pretty badly.  I contemplated pulling out because of “equipment failure” but I was almost done.  No way I was getting a DNF unless that sucker broke and stabbed me in the thigh.

Lap 4 certainly was the most difficult, mostly because I stood 99% of the time because I wanted to complete the race.  Sure, I was on a single speed and we stand most of the times anyway, but there were those little fire roads that sitting down would have been most enjoyable.  But crappy seat posts wouldn’t let me.  Finally, I came to the last section of the fire road, right before the finish and was able to sit down.  Thank goodness the post didn’t break on me.

Overall, pretty sweet race, and it was only the first time they raced there.  Good venue, good organization, and some sweet trails.  I ended up 5th out of 9ish (maybe more, maybe less, I really don’t remember) with a time of roughly 4 hours 35 minutes.  Did I want to win, yes.  Did I want a spot on the podium?  Yes.  Could I have done anything differently during the race to do that?  No.  I did everything in my power to race as hard as I could.  I definitely left it all on the course.  The other riders were simply stronger.  I feel that it was a solid effort and great finish for my first single speed race, especially for it being a 35 miler.  If nothing else, it was a great learning experience, and that really, was one of the main goals of being there.

Hopefully some pictures will follow tomorrow after I get them downloaded off the camera.   Now it is time for a little recovery, calling Easton to get a warranty the seat post and taking it easy for a day or so.

Tomorrow there is a race in Barre, VT.  I would like to do said race.  However, the race starts at 10 (not to bad) but registration is at 8am.  That means I have to be up my 5 and our the door by 6 at the very latest.  So the question of the night is will I go or not?   Right now, it is absolutely pouring outside, but I got all of my gear ready to go and sitting by the door.  The plan is to get up at 5, brush my teeth, grab some food and head right out the door, that is if I actually wake up at 5 when the alarm goes off and I don’t hit the snooze button 50 times.

Why would I drive 2 hours in pouring rain to race my single speed, in the pouring rain, for 35 miles??  Going to be honest, not really sure.  I think a lot of it has to do with my desire to get a sponsor.  My goal in the next few years is to become a sponsored rider.  Sure, I know I won’t be having a team built around me, or have a “team truck” or my own special mechanic, I’m not stupid.  What I do want is to wear the jersey of a company knowing that I earned it, whether it is a bike shop or bike company.  Either way, I need to build up my resume, and this race seems like the killer opportunity.  That and there is only 1 other single speeder registered right now, which means I gots me a spot on the podium and I might come home with some cash.  Sweet….

Wish me luck, not only in the race, but actually getting up in time to make it to the race….

I have been busy. Very busy in fact, which is why I haven’t been able to post a lot. There are some big time changes going on around here.

First and most important, I got myself a new job. After the end of this month I will no longer be with Michelin Bicycle Tires and will be with Downeast Bicycle Specialists. What does that mean? Simple, I will now work for the largest bike parts distributor in the North East. I will be their new parts purchaser. I will sit around all day buying bike parts. If you ever saw my basement, you will know I am good with buying bike parts and I can’t wait. Will I be moving? Nope, that is the genius part of this plan, I will be staying in my same house. However, my commute is a bit longer, from 1.5 miles now up to 17 miles each way. Hopefully I can get together a commuter bike so I don’t have to drive at all. Seems like a great plan now, but talk to me in January when there is 2 feet of snow on the ground and it is -5 degrees….

The other “cool” thing is that I got myself a new blackberry. Pretty cool little device. Hopefully, with this upgrade, I will be able to add more pictures to the post and also post more, as I will have internet at the touch of my fingers 24/7.

The other big thing is I am going to try and hit a few more races yet this summer. There is a 35 miler this weekend in Vermont, and only 1 single speeder has signed up. That puts me in a money position just for showing up. There is one on the 20^th that is a 12 hour race and I am going to try and sneak myself into the Vermont 50 on the 28^th. We will see how that all goes. With no longer having to work on weekends, I can commit to a FULL RACE SCHEDULE…..and I can’t wait. Time to start planning for next year.

The other big this is that I am no longer going to Las Vegas this year for Interbike. Bummer. Neither the Michelin or Downeast will need me there for that. So I have 2 options. First is to just take the week off for “me” and do whatever I want. I am sure a shit ton of riding will be involved. I am thinking that 1 or 3 trips up to Burke, VT to the Kingdom trails will be involved. The second option is still heading out to Vegas. Michelin already fronted the bill for a plane ticket to and from Vegas for me. If I don’t use it, they will just eat the cost and the ticket will go un-used. I am thinking about heading out and just hanging out in Vegas and taking in Interbike as a consumer. All I need to do is pay for a place to stay….Any takers on either riding a ton or heading out to Vegas????