Lizzy is gonna be alright!

So a few weeks ago Lizzy hit a car. Yes, she hit the car not the other way around. I was prepping my bike and getting set up to head out for a race the next day and ended up taking her to the vet. Well after a bit, she started hurting pretty good and I took her back a week or so later for x-rays. Come to find out she broke her pelvis in a few places. Today I had to take her to the vet surgeon for pre-op review. The surgeon thought that she really wouldn't need surgery and would be ok in the long run!! Woohoo! Needless to say, her and I are pretty happy!

Lizzy chillin at the vet

Tonight will be some prep work. I plan on heading down to the Liberty Mtn. Classic in Northern PA. Have not ever been to this race, so I figured I would throw down and see if I still have anything after SM 100.

Sunday is the Humbler!! Gonna be a bright and early morning, then 100 miles of awesome trail riding in Naples!! I'll bring the camera for sure. Hopefully the rain holds off this year and we get a good day and a good number of riders. Hope to see you there!

Poor Lizzy

I was all prepped up Friday afternoon and ready to head to the God's Country Marathon at Ski Denton in PA. I was dialing in the Superfly, ready to put the pedal back on and all would be good. Then disaster struck, literally. My dog, Lizzy, who was sitting next to me took off suddenly. Darting for the end of the driveway at full speed. Mind you, she's a hound mix and in that short distance she'll top out at 30mph. As soon as Lizzy took off, my spidey sense went crazy and I took off after her. I was a bit late as she entered the road she plowed into the side of a vehicle. Yelping and barking, I managed to get her to calm down. An overnight stay at the vet with some major painkillers and she was back home on saturday am, limping and sore. She's still yet to put weight on her right hind leg, but all seems ok from what could have been a major disaster. Guess she is gonna be laid up for a bit and that means no more riding for her for the rest of the summer :(

On a good note though, I did manage to get out saturday after I made sure she was home and settled ok. I headed down to Honeoye Lake where this weekends NYSERS finale, the Suicide Six will be held and put some laps in the newly modified course.




The course is completely changed for the 2008 race. I'm not in agreement with the changes as I thought the course was one of the best ever the original way it was run. The infamous "rattler" 800ft super technical descent has been completely removed and the course is run backwards. This essentially makes it an entirely new course as the trail is hardly ever ridden backwards as the 8 mile loop is almost always run in the original course direction.



I can't complain though, it's going to be an awesome event and after putting in a few laps I was able to get the flow of the course.





Naturally though as I was onsite, I had to take a run down the "rattler" for old times sake.

Sunday, I pulled out the road bike and headed for the hills. I don't think I've pulled of a road century this season? So it was a good time to put in a nice hard one with ginormous amounts of climbing. Having saturdays efforts in my legs left me a little tired and weary, but I managed to drill it for the majority of the day. I headed south to some of my favorite hills into Penn Yan then over Naples for even more climbing.

It ended up being a great day (no pics as rain was forecasted) and by the end of the ride the legs finally loosened up. I was quite a bit tired post-ride, but damn excited as my newborn nephew was in town and I got to hold him for the first time!

Here's hoping the legs are good and the rain holds off for tomorrow nights Farmall XC!!

Missed out on the 6HOP

So I missed out on this year's 6 Hours of Power. Dang, love that race and that course. Wasn't much I could do about it though.

It appears I did some major damage to the Superfly! Ouch. I'm not sure when I did it. Most likely during the Super D at Mount Snow, but very well could have happened sometime prior.

I've got the Supercaliber up and running, but I'm looking to sell it, so I don't really want to put wear and tear on the parts. Guess I'll be piecing the Paragon back together for a short bit or spending time on the Singlespeed when I hit the dirt.

I've been putting time in on the road bike and probably will look to keep continuing that for a short bit. It's nice to just jump on and go for a ride. No loading up the bike and/or driving and doing all the prep work that's behind it. Funny thing is, I pretty much didn't spend all that much time on the road yet this season, so It's all kinda fresh for me right now. Although the terrain around here sucks, I may have to figure out how to scoot out and get some good climbing rides in asap.

Picture captures deadly bike crash in Matamoros, Mexico | The Daily Telegraph

Picture captures deadly bike crash in Matamoros, Mexico | The Daily Telegraph: "THIS horrifying picture shows the moment a US man apparently drunk and asleep ploughed into cyclists on a bike race - killing one and injuring at least 10 others."

Wow, this is just insane!

(Via Daily Telegraph.)

Car trumps bike...everytime

For the first time ever, I was hit by a car on my bike. Luckily nothing major, no bike problems, no injuries and nothing really to report other than a little soreness of my right knuckles.



This past Saturday, weather was decent (mid 30's and windy) and it was time to get out for a nice long ride. I headed out of town via my usual route of down Main St and then head South via 444. It has some nice gradual climbs that are perfect for getting warmed up on. I was in the left hand turning lane behind the 3rd vehicle. I made sure to sit far enough out that the driver could see me via her side mirror and rearview mirror. I could hardly be missed as I was wearing a bright yellow jacket. As the driver rounded the turn I stayed about 10 yards back in the same position, just off the right quarter panel of the minivan. I was accelerating standing up at an even pace with the vehicle. The driver slammed on her brakes and makes a quick right hand turn into the very first driveway on the right. Well as I'm on the right hand side of the road and had just finished accelerating, that puts me in a little bit of a bind! I had my hands on the hoods and was just staring at a big ol side of a vehicle in my path. I slid back on the seat, squeezed the brakes turned to the right a little bit, and BAM! smacked right into the rear quarter panel with my left hand. Luckily, I didn't even go down! No pavement action for me. I had shielded the front wheel perfectly and absorbed the impact with my right hand and a little bit of the right shoulder. I had vision of a tire crushing me and my bike, but never went down like that.



After some calm exchanges of words and apologies, the driver admitted she had seen me and it was her fault. No damage done to either party and we parted ways. I continued on my ride and managed to get some good mileage in for the day (~ a little over 4 hours or so) before I the wind took over and I had to take shelter inside.



After that I was a little more cautious than usual in giving vehicles space...



Saturday night was a blowout at Mark and Suzanne's. I had a short lived but good time...(note to self, don't eat so many damn brownies!). There was some good chatter about doing a double highlander, which amounts to about 200 miles and 22,000ft of climbing! We'll see how that one shakes out..



Sunday was recovery from the party, the crash and the end of a recovery week for myself.



Hopefully this week is the last of the deep freeze and can get out to the Giro's and some xtra time!