Don't know if I'll ever get this Crit thing figured out. Of course if I was just stronger, smarter, better looking and more fit than everybody it would be easy. But lo and behold, that just isn't the case on any count.


The Saturday Tour de Port Critie was just as herky jerky as I've ever seen. Brakes into the turns (sometimes even in the middle of the bumpy straight), then AXE-cellarate (said in your best Phil "the pill" Liggett voice) your butt off onto every straight. This was getting tiresome, so I said the heck with it and took off around the 5th lap. Was nice hitting the turns at speed. After 1/2 lap I flew the elbow, eased up, had 2 guys in tow with a 3-4 length gap. Said lets go, no one did. Not like I coulda lasted anyway, but woulda been fun to blow up tryin'. Back to the pack, which was getting smaller as time went on. Somewhere around 3 or 4 to go (hard to say as we actually did "2 laps to go" twice - seems they forgot to flip the lap counter) someone hit it hard going into the first straight. I got caught in a bad position, had to bridge up through 3-4 others that were dropping off, and popped. Finished the last few laps with a nice young kid from BikeWorks, who, I later found out, had won one of the junior classes. WTG. FiremanJohn (FJ) rode well to a top ten even with a broken rear der cable on the last few laps.

Was very happy there were no crashes, that's always a good thing.

Took some photos of the PRO123 race. Glad this one (--->) turned out. Realized while standing around squinting into the sun just how hot it had become.

Why are finish lines always backlit?

Have to admit being a bit worried that LayTOURDayF coverage would be lacking. The broadcast of earlier races this year seemed to be missing a bit of the magic by the Verses crew.


But I have to say I've been pleasently surprised, actually quite excited, about the coverage, AND the race itself. Lots of action AND drama it the first 5 stages, and it will only get better.




Gotta love Cancellara catching the sprinters AND the break napping to take the Stage win while wearing the mellow johnny.





Also been exciting watching Barloworld sprinter Robbie Hunter mixing it up with the big boys, and almost beating Thor himself.


Even the commercials have been entertaining, although I may tire of them by the end of the race. In the non-cycling category I'd like to nominate the Miller commercials for a special award




"CLEAN UP ON AISLE COMMON SENSE"




a few memorable tag lines.









Out with the SatAM group this morning for a leg opener before the Crit this afternoon. P-T has tried to fill the shoes of injured Wild Bill by reading the rules at the beginning. He's doing an admirable job, but we still miss Bill and need him back.


A quick 1/2 loop, a small effort or 2, then it was time to wave goodbye to the group, and watch the boys climp in the Alps.




RideOn


JB




"I like to take undah-wah-ta pho-toes too, and email them to my friends........."





WHAT?

Livin' on the island known as South Side Hampton Roads leaves riding "options" that are limited by the lay of the land, or water as the case may be. Unless we want to take a tunnel under water or a bridge over it, we get locked into various loops.

Here's a Loopy Primer :




There's the Starbucks loop,









The Conte's loop,











The Blue moon loop, which can be called the 3rd loop on weekends, or just the 7:15er on weekdays. Not to be confused with the reverse Conte's loop.



The Norwiegian Lady loop, an early 6AM loop on weekdays. May be called the Blue Train loop after the old Blue Team (AV) that derailled and disbanded a year or 2 back. The ride is still there, still as strong as ever, and will deliver you to the 7:15er either very warmed up, or totally blown and over heated.

We now also have the CORE Pilates early loop, soon to be the MR. & MRS. Crazy loop once the deed is done. This will also bring you to the 7:15er, albeit a bit further down the road.

This short list doesn't even include the Final Kick loops or any of the southern Frogs loops.


You can pretty much set your clocks by these rides, and knowing when and where they are certainly influences everyone's workouts.


This Tuesday I caught the Blue Train (or I should say thay caught me) and clung on for the ride to the next loop. Usually I get out earlier for a warmup, trying to avoid these speed junkies. Jumping on a 28-30mph paceline after 800 yards of warmup usually makes me crack in a minute, this time I barely lasted till the end when KD and JDiesel pretty much blew up the group as we neared Bay Colony. They're on some good form.

The 7:15er wasn't too loaded at the Blue Moon, but it swelled as we picked up many on the way, including those from the CORE loop. By the time I could get my camera out, most were off in the distance. By the time I put it away, they all were. Hustled back up, dragged AtD (he wasn't wheezin' - YET) up through a gap that JLaw, KJ, and a few others already had on the world. Dropped some positions as Art says "Where're YOU goin?" Back with the meer mortals I say.



This AM rode a bit with the one called dbo and TK.

Some say he's MIA. I say no way.



He's missed but not missing, and definitely still in ACTION. They're both lookin' quite fit I might add.





RideOn

JB

We Miss You Wild Bill

Props to everyone that made the journey to Natz at 7Springs and rode their hearts out. BJ makes it 2 years in a row with double podiums! WOW. Truly inspirational.











Looks like we were represented well at the Commonwealth games too , with white wrapper Nilla Wafer bringing home the jangle.







Might have been the best Stage 1 in LayTourDayF history. Have to admit never real liking McEwen a lot, especially after the head check thing last year, but certainly gained mountains of respect for him today. OTB with less than 8k to go then works his way up to and through a 150 + rider field to take the sprint. And while QuickStep have the pace pinned. Amazing.












My Weekend was centered around a few long days on the MTBs.
Friday was MMM - Many Miles of Marl. Round and Round the Ravine at YRSP. Made a day of it. Realized that even though you can put enough fluid in a 100 oz bladder for 4 hours of riding, it'll be pi** warm after 3 hours at 95 degrees and hard to swallow.


One way to break my brake addiction is to let the bike fall over in the parking lot breaking the front brake lever. Laps with one brake gave rise to the fastest times ever.








I've never been a great log-hopper, but after crossing the (seemingly) 1,000's of logs at the Crankey Monkey with nary a bobble or balk my confidence had grown from none to just enough to get in trouble.


and trouble was in the form of this fallen tree. Got tired of dismounting, so gave it a go ........... which led to a big









OUCH , just when that leg was almost healed enough to shave. At least I hit the other side of the knee cap that was slammed 2 weeks ago.



When in doubt : clear a re-route. So I did.


Legs felt fine but the heat slowly drained my mojo lap by lap, so a 30 minute break and bike change was in order before round 2.




All in all a good day of heat training. 6.5 hours in, a mile for each year of my life +4 or 5.



Only bummer of the day was the 3 hours it took to drive 25 miles from YRSP to NN. No fun sitting in the car covered with a days worth of sweat and grime. I wanted to give the entire road an enema, it was seriously constipated.


Saturday AM group ride at the NN Conte's. Nice crowd. Rode with XXX for a while (til the BIG hammers dropped). He had a nice ride goin' up at the Tour de Burg. Leaving with a day left in the race to go work, he still had the KOM jersey. Of course the fast, skinny, and young JB ruled.

A few Tour de Burg reports here, and here. And if you haven't heard someone fixed this years Tour de Burg ! ! How bout dat. Read about it here.

Afternoon was more fat tire loops, this time at the Lake Maury trails.

Sunday was a day of rest and recovery .........

RideOn

JB

Heal Quick Wild Bill

Hope you had a happy Fart of July,

Props to Braden Govoni, Sprintclub, and Richmond Ciclismo for organizing the event. Nice to see a new (to many) style of racing out there.

The "Win and Out" starts with a neutral rolling lap, then's it's ON. 500 meter track,

Winner of the first lap gets 1st place,

winner of the second lap gets 2nd place,

winner of the third lap gets 3rd place, etc., etc., till the end.

Thanks to KD for the pics

Gives rise to some pretty interesting strategy. Bury yourself on a sprint, get nosed out, then you have to go around again to the next sprint which is a scant 30-35 seconds away. Fun, fast racing. Over in a flash (or in my case 1500 meters). Guaranteed to leave your lungs burning and your legs quivering. I realized when unloading my bikes that I haven't been on a road bike for 2 weeks. NICE. Nothing against road bikes .......... BUT

The C5 Crit was, just as they are, a sketch-fest, but no one went down. I was confused from the beginning and never got in the "groove". Had trouble finding a wheel, was outside (and safe) with my nose in the wind much of the race. When I wasn't, I was at the back and having full view of the carnival. Lots of sudden left to right snap moves in the middle of the turns at 25+. At one point Albe says to me "That was close". It was. Then it was again, then again. Albe gives a great desciption of the antics - "People looking for an apex that just isn't there." It's a banked oval people, hold your line like it's a straight. Yeesh. My subconscious is asking me ("What the heck are you doing here?"). I Either misjudged or miscounted laps. A bell with 3 or 4 to go threw me off too. Thought there was one more lap, but the race was over. Seemed like everyone was coasting across the line. Glad I survived another one. Didn't have the legs or the focus to get up front. Just had no game. AJ (Fat Frogs) got away with another and took the win. He's on great form.

Was WAY over geared an the fixey. Had a 52/14. Not a lot of snap in those numbers. Especially noticed it in the standing start kilo TT. First lap was a whole 10 seconds slower than the second.

Still was a great day and nice 2 day road trip. Really looking forward to the 18 hr race. Great course, great people, it's gonna be a blast. Unfortunately it's the same day as GoFast Turn Left #3.

I didn't hang out for the rest of the days events but heard TriPower was well represented. WTG Team

RideOn and RideSafe

Heal quickly Wild Bill

JB