Friday - The Fast Friday ride, like Crit training. A bit more structured than the old days around Tuskawilla, but still edge of your saddle fun. That is until TurboTodd went down. A skilled landing saved a bunch of skin.


It's a dangerous game we play out there people, respect it - your riding partners will thank you.


Saturday - the 42 mile Lakemont Road Race. Time didn't permit me to go with the longer group. Have to do it next time. Florida Road is still a drag race, and the speed didn't end there.




Sunday - Planned on broadening my horizons by heading up to Lake Mary for the Seminole Cyclists ride. Printed up some maps. Left in the dark. That Blackburn Quadrant headlight looks a bit like an old Flash Gordon ray gun, but works nice. 4 LEDS, and you can set it to have 2 blinking and 2 on steady.





Somehow got the info wrong as to the start location. Was at Lake Mary Cycles, but no one else was. Oh well.




Went on to ride the loop anyway, then saw the correct start locale at the Coffee Shop. I'll know for next time. The loop is around a big Lake, so no place to shortcut and catch anyone, but I tried anyway. Real loop in blue, my wanderings in red.

Saw some orange road hickies that seemed to keep me on track.

Wrong way? or WAY wrong? Either way, better turn around.






Beautiful day to ride, and a real nice loop - long wide open roads with big shoulders.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

• Making it out of Cat 5 with all of my skin intact
• A great team with which to share the trials, tribulations, agony, and ecstasy of cycling.
• My family and friends
• A nice group of folks with which to ride while I'm down here at my home away from home.

goooooooooooooood




Hope you made some room for lots of turkey by getting a nice



RideOn



JB

Once again the overall feel and vibe of the race was incredible. Huge props to CEd, Jodi, and the whole Cobblestone crew for keeping a good thing going, and making it better and better every year. If you enjoy MTBing, and haven't done this event, you're really missing out.





The conditions were dark and cold at the 6PM start. Ed led us around the prologue on the sweet 69er he'd just built and we were off. All endurance MTBraces should take a cue from this race and eliminate the dreaded LeMans start. Sure there were minor log jams here and there, but it gets the fastest cyclists (not the fastest runners) into the single track first.






Shawn Tevendale (Trek/VW) led the solo division for much of the race with Charles Clarkson (Ellsworth) close behind. Clarkson took the lead in the wee hours of the morning only to succomb to numb fingers and toes and a brief bout of blurred vision. The temps just before dawn were in the VERY low 30's.









While Clarkson (-->) was resting and recovering he was passed by Kevin Cox (Natures Path/3Sports) who held on for second place.







Clarkson went back out to solidify his 3rd place while Eric Alger (EVMA) (<--) finished 12 laps just before the cut off time for 4th place solo.


Check Dave Swager's site for some nice photos



Jared Nieters was there with a strong Haymarket Bike (-->) team to win the 4 man Expert/Pro division, but not without a strong fight by local favorites Yoda/Lama (<--) ....














Team Arsenal did what they do, and set a strong consistant pace that wasn't to be matched in the Dou Expert division. Fernando and Robert (NCVC) (--->) were close enough to keep them looking back and took second.





Of course these results are what I saw and totally unofficial!...

As far as my race - It can be summed up by this and this. More details later.

RideOn

JB

OK, I'll be the first to admit that Monday night's Velocity training session kicked my butttttttox. ed. - been lookin' at that picture since I had it up - Does AtD have 2 big handfulls of brake or WHAT? Heck, without that brake action he'd of come in better than the 3rd he got.

but today's group rides weren't one of them,

I don't think ...............

Temps in the 40's, 10-20 mph north wind,
oh yeah, and RAIN.

Sally and MkMc fix a gashed tire w/cold hard cash.












Austin and I circle back to find the group,












K-Dog pulls a "I'll attack at the regroup" break, and fuels up w/ a moonpie.












Dag tries to direct traffic at the "longest redlight ever"












While a smiling crowd ignores the ominous clouds behind them.











Then the rain came, again, and hard. Couldn't see squadoush. Thanks to Crazy for being sure I got (more than) enough time at the front. Wheel-suckin' took on a whole new meaning. Road spray for hydration.

And to all those that stayed out to finish the loop(s) - I applaude you, but my momma taught me to get in out of the rain ........ The weather probably got better, 'cause it couldn't of gotten much worse.

Even a week long growth of hair couldn't keep the legs warm today.

At least, after a nice hot shower, I can almost feel my toes now.



RideOn

JB





and happy B-Day to JLaw, hope you got your hundy in.

MTB weekend.

Last weekend - A few cross races, then some spectating/photoging at the TidewaterMTBChallenge. It made for a fun, busy weekend.



The second sweat session at Velocity on Monday night made the group ride on Tuesday (9 hours later) even more of a struggle to get up for. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do. The ride was the first ride of the year started in ~50 degree temps. And it didn't even seem to warm up much as the sun rose. That'll wake ya up in the marning boy!


The Velocity session was fun(ny), hard, and interesting. I mean, it had to be funny watching an old man (me) trying to learn to jump rope. Glad there's no video on that. I'm learnin' and and am looking forward to doing it again next week. Not quite ready to buy my own rope yet. (Do they come in carbon fiber?) Then some Burpy (sp?) intervals. Another new trick. Not really any post workout soreness to speak of, especially compared to last week. But definitely no snap on the ride Tuesday.





TideWater Mountain Bike Challenge

The TMBC is, imho, one of the premier MB events around. The whole vibe is as laid back as it gets. Lots of spectators on lawn chairs with coolers. Nice tent set up by the Casey folks with a loud cheering section including fans doing the wave. It was the first real MTB race I ever did 3 years ago. I won't miss it next year. I mean cross is fun, but not quite like this. Sure the pros are serious, it's what they do. But the vast majority of folks are out there to have a good time, get some big air, then yell and scream for everyone else. KUDOS to Steve Nevins and crew for keepin' the dream alive.

Some highlights :

The incredible HULK.











Big Daddy - lookin' good and, in his own words, "feelin' pretty". 4Sure







His wife - in her first TMBC - lookin' good AND pretty. Have to say I told ya so ........










The TriPower crew.











Also props to the only guy I saw that did the double - Bryan Park Cross AND the TMBC.



More cross reports later, tater

RideOn

JB