Riding

Of all the times not to have the camera handy . . . We are in Steamboat now, enjoying some early wintery weather. Coming over Rabbit Ears Pass, there was a nice 1/2" layer of slush on the road with the threat of more snow in the forecast. Fortunately it sounds like Denver is supposed to be hit harder than Steamboat, but anyways.

We headed up to Saddleback Ranch this morning to go for a ride over some hills, through some woods, down some hills, hunting all the while for some elk who may or may not be bugling at the time. We only saw one, but had a good time checking out the scenery and getting a feel for our horses Johnny and Chelsea. They were about as tame as couches, but sitting on a thousand pounds of animal always makes me wonder. I got a few pictures through Johnny's ears of Sarah riding, but I will have to wait until I have the cord handy to upload them. Not having had enough, we came back to our rental place to get in a mountain bike ride before the weather gets worse. I haven't ridden a mountain bike for a few years now, with the lone exception being the cross race last year. We forgot the camera which is too bad because the scenery was pretty cool even just riding on the ski hill. We were treated to some snow near the top of the hill. It was cool to ride through, especially since it was warm enough that I had to shed my arm warmers.

Vacationing is tough, I am not sure what to do this afternoon. Do we enjoy and extended cocktail hour, looking out the window at the clouds rolling in or do we head over to the hot springs for a dip as the sun sets and the snow falls? Decisions, decisions . . .

Going Home

Traveling with Deb has some serious advantages. On our whirlwind trip home for Rosh Hashanah, she was able to swing first class tickets on Delta using her 2.2 billion frequent flier miles . . . much better than cattle car for sure. Unfortunately our flight from Denver was at 6:15 which meant leaving my house at 4:15 to pick her up and get to the airport.

We had a very delicious but nontraditional dinner on the first night of the holiday, opting for fried chicken and mashed potatoes since Catherine was around and willing to fry up some chicken for us. It has been years since I've had Catherine's fried chicken which used to be a fairly regular staple growing up. Catherine has been in our family longer than I have and it was nice to see her after so many years. Nothing too much has changed on the home front except for the scenery in Chapel Hill. The independent paper had an article about the current state of Franklin Street, lamenting the changes over the years. I am surprised it has taken so long for them to make mention of it since what was once the local, hip, unique hub of downtown Chapel Hill has become a relatively bland dump, muddied by chain banality. There are various institutions whose disappearance will mark my point of no returning to Chapel Hill.

I was able to catch up with a few friends before ditching town Sunday morning. It was nice to catch up with Jonathan and Sally who I hadn't seen in a year or so. Jonathan is trying to talk me into joining the boat trip to the BVIs, but I'm hoping to be going to New Zealand in November for Tour of Southland instead. As soon as I got home, it was time to pack again, this time to head up to Steamboat Springs for a vacation from my oh so hard, unemployed lifestyle.

Catching Up

I typed this one up on the train on the way back to Germany, but never got around to posting:

So that's the season. Today's race unfolded a bit differently than expected, the break went on the first lap and with 26 Italians in the field and a couple of them up the road, there was not a whole lot of activity in the group when it came to bringing the break back. Mike made an effort to get across, but got chased. As the pace surged and slowed heading towards Schwendt the second time, I attacked and got
clear with a couple guys and Mike bridged up at the top of the hill. Unfortunately we had an Italian in the group who stopped working pretty quickly so I let a gap open and Mike rolled up the road. The Italian and I were caught after a little bit and a few more guys bridged to Mike. At that point I sat on thinking there were only two groups up the road, the group that went clear on the first lap and
Mike's group. Evidently not per the results. On the last lap I did little to nothing, letting everybody else cover the attacks. Going into the closing 10km, I stayed patient and waited until there was a lull just before the 2km to go sign. I jumped from the back of the group and made it up the right side before the opening disappeared and didn't look back. Great move, I finally raced decently from my group, unfortunately, there were a total of 27 riders already across the line. Mike's group made it within 30 seconds of the leaders before the Italians stopped working, much like my experience last year. I stuck around for results but headed out when I found out I was well outside the prizes. I am scribbling this standing in the vestibule of the train heading to Munich. As usual it is full and there is no
where for the bike box except for close to the door. I thought about heading to Garmisch tomorrow, but I am not sure I am up for the travel, just to see another pretty mountain town. I am pretty tired at this point, nothing like the let down feeling you get at the end of a long season, with so much build up to a set of races. It has been agood season personally and for the team. We have had some good racesand some strong results. What next?

In Munich, I did a lot of wandering around, venturing from the Marienplatz to the far side of the lake in the Englisher Garten for a beer at the beer garden before wandering back through the park. I hadn't been to the top of the Frauenkirche in a bunch of years and it was clear out so I broke out the old student ID and got my discounted entry. It also worked the next day when I met Mike, Nancy, and Samantha at the zoo. Mike Olheiser and his brother were in Munich for the day prior to the flight out, so we met for some beers and fine German cuisine and one last hurrah before heading to the airport for another long day of travel.

Unfortunately I got sick on the way home and the combination of jet lag and a head cold didn't make for a comfortable homecoming. Fortunately I don't have a job anymore, so I had plenty of time to kick back and recover, spending as much time on the couch as needed. The last couple of weeks since getting back have been pretty productive with the job searching, the hanging out, the working on the backyard. I'll quit being a slacker and get back to the regular blog posting . . .

The Waiting Game

And then there was more waiting . . . I headed out for a ride with Mike Carter yesterday while the sun was shining. The forecast for Saturday was looking grim, so might as well get while the getting was good. As predicted, today is cold and wet, motivation to get out for a ride is pretty low, but we'll get out eventually just to spin the legs out a bit.

St. Johann is full right now, but after the race on Sunday, town will be absolutely dead when everybody splits. Mike and Dave are staying until Tuesday, they will have the run of the town! I just started planning my "vacation" in Munich. I am going to try to head down to Garmisch on Monday and then hit the zoo in Munich on Tuesday since I have seen a good chunk of the city already on my vast walking tours of last year. It will be a nice change of pace to see some new things.

As the trip (and the entire season for that matter) winds down, I am starting to plot and scheme for what comes next. When I get home, I will have to start on thinking about actually finishing some projects started prior to the season. I am looking forward to a couple of days where I don't even look at my bike, pretty easy to do when it is boxed up and out of sight . . .

Day After

Last night's awards ceremony took forever! We watched Mike Carter get his award for winning the Weltpokal race and then got dinner. When we got back a couple hours later, we still had a few groups in front of us. We took turns running to the main square for to go beers and finally at 10:15, we got out trophies and went back to the hotel.

Today we decided to go on a cruiser of a ride, heading north to Kossen and then down to Kufstein to take a look at the fortress overlooking the river. We also rode past the Riedel factory before riding back to town om shme busy roads. We got in about 4 hours on the day and had a lovely coffee stop on one of the lakes. I took a few moments to pack up the TT bike, it had a nice vacation. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, doing laundry and hanging out in general. We all got together for cocktail hour followed by a traditional meal at the Hotel Post. The Kasespatzle was very good and everybody else enjoyed their Wienerschnitzel. One more day of laying low before the last race day of the season.

Worlds TT

The question of "special circumstances" has come from a couple after my brief post just after the TT. I could dig up the link for the UCI rules as to what a bicycle is, but it is as clear as mud and ever changing. The long and short of it in my case (pun intended) is that there is a legal limit for the length of the extensions on aero bars. The limit is 75 cm from the center of the bottom bracket to the end of the extensions, with a morphological exemption allowing up to 80 cm. Mine were 85 cm and I made the decision after getting passed without question last year not to cut them down. They were being strict about it this year. . .

I went through the normal routine for warming up out here with a morning effort to open up, heading up towards Hochfilsen. After that, I had hours of sitting and waiting until my start time at 3:56.30. At 2:30 I headed out to the venue with Mike Carter to roll to the start area for official measurement and getting the nod that although my bars were long they didn't really care. Yeah, this year they cared and weren't letting people start for a variety of violations. I went back and forth with the French UCI official, he asked me to get on the bike and although my position wasn't to any extreme, I wouldn't be able to ride my bike unless the bars were shortened. Unfortunately, my bars are not adjustable and have to be cut (cables included) to shorten them.

I went back to the car and put on my skinsuit while pondering the options for plan B. I rolled back to where Mike was waiting and told him they weren't going to let me ride my bike. Paul Humiston is about my size and he was still hanging out after finishing 6th in his age group. Without much delay, we switched pedals and adjusted his saddle to the correct height and off I went to warm up on a 56 cm Cervelo P3 instead of my 58 cm Felt. The position was ok, but a bit cramped up top. If I brought my hands back at all, I could hit my elbows on my knees. Paul also had a 56T chainring whereas I was used to a 55T. I completed my warm up and went back to the start house. They measured Paul's bike and almost made an issue of the seat post violating the 3:1 rule, but sent me on my way.

I did what I do in TTs, tried to maintain focus, keep passing people what started in front of me, and ramp the effort to max, leaving nothing on the road. I did a little gear hunting because of the 56T but tried to stay comfortable. I went slower than last year and finished 7th. It could have been worse by far. I am not one to freak out simply because something isn't going as planned and expected. I knew there was a chance that something like this might happen because of my decision not to cut my bars. At least I got to ride something and put in a decent effort. Mike Olheiser continued his winning ways, beating last year's winner by .93s. Now we have some time to kick back, relax and get ready to race again in a few days.

Real Quick

They enforced rules, thank you to Paul Humiston for the bike and Andy Grabowski for the quick pedal change and adjustments. I rode Paul's bike to a 25:11, a little slower than last year and probably top 10. My only regret is that it wasn't a real test of my best effort, rather my best effort given the circumstances. It happens . . . more to follow.