Bad Luck Tuesday Night

Just finished up a good block of training. I attempted to race Tuesday night at the Rush Course, It was going be a nice hard one, but I didn't even make it one lap in as my Derailleur cable fixing bolt snapped right off on the climb. I didn't panic and just threw the bike on top of the car and headed over to Dryer Rd to hit the dirt. Ripped it up

Yesterday, I headed down to Naples with Casey and we pulled of the quadruple, 4 massive climbs.. We essentially did the entire mountaineer course from the Highlander. It was a long day. See pics below

Today I jumped out and hit it early in the am for a good ride.

I'm going to head up to the great white north this weekend and do the Ontario Cup in Ottawa; we'll see how that one goes as its the first true xc race of the season. I've been feeling good the past few days so I hope to do well.

Stid Hill, our first climb right off the bat



Bristol Mountain, the final climb is up over the backside and then descend the ski trails, yup we had a few snow crossings to deal with.

Gary Fisher Demo Days May 5th-6th

Demo Days at Dryer Rd. More information is available from Towpath Bikes or at Victor mountain bike club.

Unfortunately I will be out of town ;( But I am going to connect up and see if I can't get my rides over there for you boys and girls to play on.

Word on the street is there will be plenty of chicks on hand, so shave those legs and chammy up looks to be a good time.

Pictures from Bristol

I put up a video on my site, it is of the flooded road when I was in Alabama; more of these to come!

I have a few pictures that I took on my phone on 4-15, thought I would share them.



Can't figure out how to throw text between them so; In order
1. Gannett Hill from the view looking down the finish line climb on the Bristol Course
2. Canandaigua Lake > North looking at Vine Valley (between the hills on the right)
3. Canandaigua Lake > South Naples Valley
4. Bopple Hill > looking at the top of the climb
5. Bopple Hill > The top, this is where you go when you die as you hit the 24% gradient at the top

Finally Back home

I disappeared off the radar for a week as I was down in Birmingham, AL for some work. Man was it hott down there! A few days it was in the 90's, of course there were also some pretty heavy thunderstorms. I'll try to see if I can upload the video that I took while I was driving my rental car thru the flood! Pretty amazing as you watch the water come right over the hood! Good thing it was a rental.

But I'm glad to be back. I worked in that it was my rest week for training so that worked out good. I hate rest weeks. For some reason for me they only make me sluggish. I love my 3rd week of my training block, usually tired as a dog, but somehow thats always when I tend to have some good legs.

Speaking of good legs, mine were definately missing today at the GVCC Spring Classic, I got popped hard about the 5th time up Furman hill. I just had no legs at all, never found my rythmn. Usually on the climb I dig it as it suits me well. I rode around for another lap then bailed as it was cold and wet. Just another sign that if it's missing rocks and dirt, I should be somewhere else...

Hopefully my legs show up tuesday night.

How about the intense racing that went on this weekend. Tommy D diced it up with Floyd at the Tour of Georgia or How about Valverde pulling off the double! I think he could be a real contender for the tour this year.

Link Dump

I don't feel like a real entry; It's time to get off my ass and out the door for a ride and my knee is killing me from crashing at Dryer Rd yesterday. So I decided to grab a bunch of links for ya to read thru if you'r bored.

The New Gary Fisher Race Day at Sea Otter

Eurosport Feeds

Twentyniner.net

Twentynineinches

Ok to lazy to keep going time to go ride while the sun is nice..

~J

Paris-Ancaster

Sunday was my own Version of Paris-Roubaix, or more precisely Paris-Ancaster.  60k mix of road/off-road riding from Paris, ON to Ancaster, ON.  Most everybody was on cross bikes or fat tires.  Seeing as how I have 700c rims on my mtb, I put a set of cross tires on.  Perfect set-up.  1400!! racers registered.  I was in the first wave of 400, corraled up like a group of wild mustangs hungry to charge out of the gates.  They let us out onto the road and quickly we hit a dirt carriage road.  
Super narrow, it's hard to move up in a pack of 100 riders, how the hell do you do it with 400 other guys.  I got as close to the front as I could.  After about 10k we hit a 90 degree right, right onto a farmers field, total chaos, lost about 50 spots as everyone had to shoulder the bikes up the hill, and I hate running, especially with a bike.  Thru the field and onto the roads, it started to split up here.  I was giving it everything to make contact but the early pace whipped my legs and my stomach was grumbling.  After lots of mud and roads I put out a huge charge at the 30k point straight down an elevated railroad bed for about 10k, I made a huge move and gained tons of ground ala Van Petegem on the cobbles... I got into a group of 10 guys and another guy and myself were swapping pulls, I got mad  and biatch slapped em verbally to get working and we started to gain on all the groups in front of us.  

Soon a tandem came by and myself and another jumped on the wheels and we were flying away from our group and I was running out of gearing.  Ugh oh, my stomach was hurting again.  Headed down this huge mudslide where you had to run, and stomach got worse, time to emulate Bob Roll, (think switzerland, family picnic...anyone getting the picture ;)  After a 10 minute time out somewhere in the woods I lost 70 spots or so, jumped back on the bike and groveled my way to the finish hoping nothin worse would happen.  

Ended up 120th 21 minutes back on the leaders...

I made it home just in time to catch the 2nd half of Paris-Roubaix. Poor Hincapie, man does that guy have zero luck in that race. At least he has a hot wife to comfort him while he nurses his injury back.

So, seeing as how 2-4 were disqualified for crossing the tracks with the gates down, why wasn't Boonen and the 2nd chase group? There gates were down also...

~J

Saul Raisin in Coma after accident

Well, I was going to write up about the Wheelman's cup and then the 1st G-series race from Tuesday night, but then I checked the Eurosport feeds...seems kinda trivial compared to this

Credit Agricole's Raisin in coma

Today, 08:11 AM

American Credit Agricole rider Saul Raisin has slipped into a coma after crashing on the first stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe race.

Read more…

BTW Congrats to Frank and Claudia Overton on the Birth of their Second Child!!

Been online for 1 year

Hey, Happy Birthday to my website! Been online for 1 full year.
I just renewed the domain and the site, so hopefully you guys will continue to stick around.

I think I'm going to do an entire site revamp this weekend for you. Stay Tuned

I've found some pics of the new xtr, looks pretty sweet

available here

although, I've now switched to SRAM myself, it's all good stuff.

Hoping to head out here in a little bit and get a little suntanning action working. Not too often in March can you ride in just shorts and jersey, at least not here in Upstate NY. Sunshine is one of my most favorite things, can never get enough of it.

Going to skip out on the last weekend of the Giros as I'm heading to the annual Wheelmans Cup race in PA. It's a fun race, a few clubs all named 'wheelman' race in an industrial park or something for the honor of taking home the Wheelmans Cup Trophy for a year. Each year our club the Dutch Wheelman, gets thumped, but we are getting closer and closer everytime.

Don't forget to set the clocks back on Saturday night. A whole extra hour of riding!
The

Rochester G-series

also starts up on this Tuesday night, right around the corner from me.

So as I missed the Central Park mtb race it looks like next weekend is going to kick off my off-road season with

Paris-Ancaster

. Should be interesting, they get around 1000 people or so every year. The flier calls for a mtb, while some friends have raced it on cross. But I think I have the greatest advantage with my 29er. See you boys at the finish line, I'll be waiting!

Loving the forecast

Man, Absolutely psyched about this weather we are getting right now. Sunshine is an intoxicating drug. Seeing as how we usually get so little of it I'll be spending as much time as I can these next few days outside soaking it all up.

Yesterday I had a good ride, then met up with Matt K., the Fisher/Trek rep. His boss was in town and took the Geneva Bicycle Center and myself out to a nice meal. Huge thanks to them for the meal and everything else they've done.

Matt and I were talking that there needs to be a central hub for cycling in NY. Someplace online where info is gathered and distributed and a community of riders can be brought close. Sounds like a good idea, but I'm a long way from able to do that...Anybody else have ideas about it??

Better get back to work so I can sneak out for a ride later

~J

Can't even go one day without caffeine

So I was going to try giving up on caffeine for a while. Mostly so when I used it before a race, it would have a super effect. I have managed to quite drinking a 6 pack or so of diet soda a day, but I skipped the cup of coffee yesterday morning. Yah, that didn't work out as planned, It's 11am and I had to go make a pot of coffee, couldn't take it anymore.

Need a new alarm clock

It was a pretty good weekend for riding, even though I only managed to make it to the Giro and overslept for the mountain bike race. I had set 2 different alarms on my cell phone for 4 am and neither one went off. When I managed to check my phone to see what time it was the alarm started going off, only problem it was 5:35. Whoops, the dog new I should've been getting up as she woke me up around 3:30 and refused to go outside when I tried to take her. I hit the bed to grab the last 20 minutes, and the rest is history, oh well wasn't meant to be.

Giro-
Not too bad of a day, an early break got formed, but was reeled in pretty quickly. A second break took off that gained the interest of series leader Jay Josslyn so I jumped on his wheel for a ride up to the break. Our group of 8 worked together really well and we stayed away the entire time. Only problem for me is that I was suffering like a dog, I took a few turns off then jumped back in after I recovered. Last lap, Scheske attacked, I covered it too quickly as it put me in a hole and ended up getting popped off. I put in a big effort on the long hill and re-bridged. Quickly a solo attack went and the group took its time to cover it, as he was caught, Jay Delillo launched with 1k to go and looked like he was going to hold it, but Josslyn had different plans and the sprint was on. I was gassed from bridging and then just hanging on and had nothing in the tank for any sprint. But I'll take my 7th and be happy.

Sunday, Casey and I decided to punish ourselves for sleeping in with a nice epic road ride down into Naples. We headed down south into a solid headwind, picked up our buddy Henke (sp?) and rolled back into Victor, only to have the wind turn around an defy us the whole way north. We did manage to catch an awesome glimpse of the city of Rochester from afar, while at the top of one of the climbs, it was quite breathtaking. My legs were pretty crushed on Sunday, I don't know where the hell they went, maybe I spent them up on Saturday?

I'm excited about this week as it looks to be nice and warm and I have the traditional Wheelman's Cup coming up this Sunday!


~J

No Giro for Landis

Phonak have announced a change of plan for recent Paris-Nice winner Floyd Landis who will now skip the Giro d'Italia.

www_eurosport_com

Eurosport

3/26/06 2:16 PM

18

Basso wins Criterium Stage 2

Already second on Saturday, Ivan Basso won Stage 2 of the Criterium International Sunday morning, taking the reins ahead the afternoon ITT.

www_eurosport_com

Eurosport

3/26/06 6:42 AM

18

Freire repeats in Brabantse Pijl

Oscar Freire ran an impressive race Sunday to win the Brabantse Pijl for the second year in a row.

www_eurosport_com

Eurosport

3/26/06 12:23 PM

18

Cunego clinches Settimana Internazionale

Damiano Cunego sealed the overall win as Riccardo Ricco outsprinted Paolo Bettini to win the final stage of the Settimana Internazionale.

www_eurosport_com

Eurosport

3/25/06 1:46 PM

18

Racing Weekend

Is everybody bored at work on Friday's?? Funny how the hits on my site quadruple on Fridays.
Tomorrow is the 3rd GVCC Giro race in Rochacha, will only be my second as I bagged last weekend. Weather looks to be fair, but not great. Right after that I'm heading to Schenectady on Sunday for my first mtb race of the year!
Yup time to put the 29er to the test. I can't wait, I'm super psyched to see what she can do on a race course.
I'm pumped up and excited to kick off the mtb racing season so early, Usually its not for another 2 months or so that I'll make my off-road debut. Hell, the past 2 years it hasn't even been till June that I've put the knobbies to the dirt.
On a side note;

Happy Birthday OSX,

yes the greatest OS is now 5 years young. It looks like it's gonna be 5 years before

Vista is even released

. (BTW, VIsta was originally scheduled to release in 2003!!)

Premont, Killeen take golds in Commonwealth cross-country

New US Endurance Series

Six times the challenge in new US endurance series

By Steve Medcroft from

Cyclingnews.com

And they're off!
Photo ©: Jim Tullis

Five 100-mile mountain-bike race promoters announced the formation of a U.S. ultra-endurance national series this week. Comprised of the Mohican 100 (Ohio), the Lumberjack 100 (Michigan), the Breckenridge 100 (CO), the Wilderness 101 (PA), the Endurance 100 (Utah) and the Shenandoah Mountain 100 (Virginia), the National MTB Ultra Endurance Series runs from June 3rd to September 3rd of 2006 and will be awarding National Series Championships in Open Men, Open Women, Singlespeed and Masters 50-plus categories. As presenting media partner to the series,

Cyclingnews

will be providing reports and results from each race.
Formed, promoters say, to fill the void in national-level competition for ultra-endurance athletes, contenders for the series will face some of the most challenging and popular 100-mile courses in the country. "Ultra endurance needs to be represented on the national stage,” says Ryan O’Dell, promoter of the Mohican 100, the first race in the series. “And although most of the participants in these events aren't trying to win but simply to finish, there is a whole class of athletes - like Garth Prosser, Jeremiah Bishop, Chris Eatough, Tinker Juarez and Mark Hendershot among others - who have a unique talent to push themselves over greater distances. They deserve a national series as a way to recognize their talent."

Click here for full details

. or you can go here

www.ultramtb.com

for the series page

Looks like this could be a great series, wonder if it will get some real recognization or not? Maybe I'll dip my toes into one of these bad boys. The only problem with these races is that they only allow so many people to enter and it always seems like there is some sort of waiting list. Maybe with this series they will allow some more entrants?

Also up this weekend is the NMBS Marathon down in AZ. Good luck to everyone down there. I'm wishing I was basking in the sun...

~J

Neither Rain, nor snow nor sleet nor hail

Is it the motto for the USPS or the GVCC Giros? Ha, Forget that. Plus from the recap of the race it looks like the Preferred Care boys are getting a little bit frustrated at the fact the Shikluna's are taking it too them.

I slept in did some work on the mountain bike and then hit the trails out at Dryer rd. Casey, myself and the lizzy-girl (my dog) hit the trails for some good riding. We both decided to bail on the icy roads and hurricane force winds for the shelter of the woods. We spun a few laps around then decided to try to make our way over to Ganondogon via Fort Hill. Well, we actually did find our way over there only to end up losing the damn dog. Pisses me off everytime she goes off chasing after deer. Spent the next hour or two riding up and down the same trail looking for her. After Casey had to bag due to shifting problems, I finally found her. She was a bit shaken up and tired, poor lizzy-girl, she was so tired that she could barely make it back to the car :(

It ended up being a good ride and I found a nice climb that will be perfect for doing some hill repeats on, plus found a nice full dirt route right to Dryer. Adds up to be quite a nice little loop.







Ale-Jet? or Ali-Ganesh?

No GVCC Giro

Well if the Giro's are happening I'm not there. A few inches of snow this morning has swayed my decision not to race so I'm packing up my gear and taking the dog mountain biking over at Dryer Rd.
~J

Milan-San Remo

Pozzato claims Milan-Sanremo

Filippo Pozzato shocked Quick Step teammate Tom Boonen with a breakaway at the Poggio to win Milan-Sanremo in front of Alessandro Petacchi.

www_eurosport_com

Eurosport

3/18/06 11:09 AM

18

I've been playing around more with the site. Now you should have access to a list of links on the sidebar.

How was your St. Patty's Day? Was it eventful? Ours was a nice little trip into Canandaigua to Eddie O'Briens. Had some fun, drank a beer or two and none of us had eaten any real dinner of sort so we ordered up 7! different appetizers for 6 of us to eat! We mowed through those apps like a bunch of starvin ethneropians. Ah well, it was calorie loading for the giro tomorrow. So that makes all the bumming around today a nice resting period, eh?

Speaking of the Giro tomorrow, I wish we had the same weather as last weekend. It's not looking like it's gonna be nice out. I better break out all my extra layers.

I threw the Bontrager carbon goodies on my Paragon today. Had to at least drop about a full pound off the setup. Without any real weight measuring system and just by feel, it felt like the Bontrager carbon crankset was quite a bit lighter than my XTR crankset. Is it the truth? I'll have to do some research and find out.

Time for bed!
~J

This is working out nicely

Ok, so I posted about wanting more info on mt. bike races. BAM! there it is. I posted about wanting an easier way to use my endo RSS reader, BAM! there it is. I think I'm onto something here. All I want now is for decent training weather so I can put the end to indoor training season. Let's see if it works. If not 2 outta 3 ain't bad.

I just picked up a nice handful of Bontrager goodies to trick out and lighten up the Paragon.

Hondo free to race again (

From Cyclingnews.com

)

By Susan Westemeyer

Danilo Hondo announced this morning that a Swiss court has set aside his two-year doping ban, allowing him to start racing again almost immediately. In November 2005, the Swiss Cycling Union had issued the ban, citing Hondo's positive doping tests, which was

recently upheld and extended by a year

upon his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, following advice from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
"The court took our arguments seriously, and I am very happy about it," Hondo said on his Web site,

danilo-hondo.de

. "I have been training all along and am in good shape. Now I have to see what happens, so that I can start riding again as soon as possible."
According to Hondo's Web site, it was the first time ever that a civil court has overturned the decision of a sports court. He further claims that this action "could have a decided influence on the entire sport and puts to question the WADA's strict two-year ban."
Said Hondo's attorney, Michael Lehner: "We were rewarded for not giving up the fight." However, he noted "The verdict has only been set aside [not entirely dismissed - ed.]. A definitive decision by a higher civil court will come in about six months."


Makes you think what is gonna happen next with the dopers?

~J

RSS Feeds

I'm addicted to RSS feeds. Is anyone else out there? I get feeds on just about everything that I am interested in; Cycling, Apple,

Digg

,

Engadget

, News, etc. The one feed I wish the most was available was

cyclingnews.com

They update their site all the time. I hate going to actual websites to just read articles. Gimme my freaking articles delivered to me! It's all I ask.

Speaking of which I tried using Firefox and its various plug-ins for feeds, it sucked. Safari does a real nice job of updating feeds and displaying them in a nice window. I was using

NetNewsWire

. It did a really nice job, but now I am hooked on

endo

. Hopefully they add some nifty features that are missing soon, such as auto-collapsing the feeds, etc.

Oh well, gotta go read the feeds as they are starting to back up...

~J

Open Mouth Insert Foot

NORBA East/West pages now online

Colorado Springs, Colo. (March 7, 2006) –

In an effort to improve communication with members, the NORBA Regional Managers have developed  

Eastern US MTB

and

Western US MTB

sites with information specific to each of the NORBA regions.

“We needed to have an area where we can communicate to organizers, riders, and officials on a universal basis instead of just mass emails,” said NORBA Eastern Regional Manager Kelli Lusk.

These pages can be found near the top of the Mountain page at

www.usacycling.org

 or by visiting

http://www.usacycling.org/norbaeast/

 or

http://www.usacycling.org/norbawest/

.

Yup not a second after I post my entry I get this on coming across the feeds.

Could Mountain Biking in the US be on the Upswing

News coming in that US NORBA National Mountain Bike Series (NMBS) has now gained UCI status and prize money for its events. Plus, USA Cycling has thrown some money out there for the pros.

What does all this mean for mountain bike racing in the US. Can the flood of top riders who are heading to the road scene be stopped with the fingers of USA Cycling or are there just too many holes to plug? I'm not sure I think NORBA needs to step up what they offer to racers. There needs to be state organized series and championships. Each series and Championship needs to be shoved into the faces of racers. It's incredibly difficult to find races anywhere, let alone a decent NORBA race. The National Series is great, but spread it out. Add some more races, establish AMBC races as the minor league for the NMBS. State Championship info should be mailed out with racing licenses.

It's all about getting races to the racers. It's not all that hard. It's the Information Age. Can't USA Cycling hire someone to set up a decent race calendar on their website?

What are your thoughts?

~J