2 interesting things on my ride today

I saw 2 things of interest on todays ride.

1. A Tesla Roadster. Pretty Sweet. Saw it in Strongsville. Sure, I see ferraris, lamborghinis, astons, and bentleys out on my rides, but those aren't as unique. The tesla ties with the Ariel Atom I saw in Berea last year for 'sweet cars seen on my bike' list.

2. A 'Handicapped Child' sign in Richfield. Someone spray painted porn underneath child. As I read 'Handicapped Child Porn', my first thought was 'what jerks for ruining public property', than i thought 'that is very rude and offensive to a lot of people', than i thought 'that was pretty crafty and hilarious'. I love having the maturity of a teenager sometimes.

see you at kirtland.

thoughts from my smart brain

Thought 1: Spins course is awesome. I wish I did better, but could have done a lot worse. Thanks Spin dudes and dudettes who put on a great event.

Thought 2: My new Smartwool Heavy Ponte Jacket is probably the coolest article of clothing that I have ever used.

Thought 3: This taillight is bananas. B-A-NA-NA-S. By the makers of my beloved radbot 1000. Instead of 1 1.0 watt led, this has 2 .5 watt leds, with an insanely awesome flashing pattern, and not as ugly as the radbot.
Thought 4: I will not be racing this weekend as for some reason I am needed to work in case we get a large mob of people wanting bicycles in November.

Thought 5: I love my tarmac. It is the best bike ever. I like my other bikes, but I don't love them like I do the tarmac. Can't wait to throw on the new shoes.

Thought 6: Ordered a Chris King headset for the new bike. Hopefully a bike I will love as much if not more than the tarmac.

LOUISVILLE

It is so choice. If you have the means to make the trip, I highly suggest it.

Got a 3rd row start thanks to signing up real early. Sucks for whoever lined up beyond 100, except for flecher who if had started 3rd row probably would have won both days.

1st day- 18th
2nd day-26th after a stupid stupid crowd pleasing fall with my wheel coming out of alignment again.

My stupid costume hasn't arrived for Davis' so Im stuck with a half ass attempt at one in the wee hours leading up to it. I'll be there Saturday, but will miss Sunday as I have been requested to work by 'the man'.

C-town puts the Beat-down

cap city race domination
1-4 place in the 'B'race all TLE members. 1-6 in the 'A' race. All said 8 lake effectists went down and all came up in the money. Nice job team.

Got a good spot in the start. Proppe took off like a bat out of hell and was off the front. Weeks and PM rode me off after the 2nd or 3rd lap. Cameron, Greg, and myself were riding together for a few laps. Cameron attacked on the paved section, and put a 15 sec or so gap on us. Greg and I rode together for awhile trying to catch Cameron. We were getting within about 5 seconds according to people yelling' only 5 seconds!' at us. Last lap my back was starting to really yell at me. Greg pulled away slowly and caught Cameron. It was a sprint for 4th with Cameron taking it. I rolled in for the last money spot in 6th. Pretty happy with my result. Nice job reppin' cleveland dudes.

NEXT UP: The best weekend of the year. (Cincy)

I even got to ride with this guy for a little bit

KINGS

It was 90 degrees all weekend! What the heck. Horrible cross racing weather. The course was super dusty and dry. Why did I crash? That hurt. Cincinnati is horrible for allergies. Maybe I'm allergic to Cincinnati. It made living horrible. Also, why did I suck both days? Damn near DFL on both days. I felt anemic during the race. Next time I come down here I best be putting the whoop on some people.

On the brighter side of things, the weekend wasn't a total waste. We met a micro-nuclear scientist who had a 'chromed' out Raleigh back home in Myrtle Beach, and I tried I-HOP for the first time in my life.

Great job to both Nate Loman and John Proppe for having made much much bigger dents into the tough competition.

I will not be able to make Stark KSU because of work this weekend. Unfortunately that may put me out of the required 6 races needed to be included in the overall series points. (not that I'm in contention for the top spots) With this weekend out, a dnf at wendy, and doing USGP over the NEOCX series im already out 3.

Keep the rubber side down boys and girls.

Oh, Wendy

Why, must you be so cruel to me? I've raced you three times now and have yet to finish. 3 flats in 3 years.
2 years ago was my first cross race- I made it 500 feet and flatted.
last year I made it about 1/2 way
Today I made it about 2/3s
At the rate I'm going- and according to my calculations being double checked by the Lake Effect Laboratory; by 2013 I should be able to complete a whole race @ Wendy Park without getting a flat.

$65 the past 2 weekends and I get DNFs. I don't know what I did to piss off the cycling gods. I mean, yea I ran Bontrager wheels on my Specialized, and I haven't cut the steertube on my trek yet, but does it really warrant the pain you are causing me?

I plan on being extra nice to the gods this week. I will wash my bikes, wave to every cyclist I see, and try to commute to work almost every day. I need to redeem myself so I can do well at KINGS CX and get PAID! 15 deep.

Besides for getting a flat, the rest of the race sucked for me. I got a bad start, and knew immediately that today wasn't my day. So I guess without the flat I still would have had a bad race at Wendy. Thank God for Melt afterward.

Great Job to Matt Weeks for killing it. and John Proppe for getting some cash for 6th.
Great Job to Team Spin/RR Donnely for putting on a fun race regardless of my bad luck.
And a Get Well Soon to my teammate Robert Sroka for the nasty fall he took.

cross culture

While everyone knows that cyclocross is the most fun sporting enviroment outside of base-ketball, that game where you do the slam dunks in an arena full of trampolines, and american gladiators; I believe some people are forgetting one important aspect.

Yes, I'm sure you know that heckling is a great way to piss off/make your friends smile while their turning their lungs inside out. For example when we were heckling Szabo to death the other day. Right after my very boisterous 'quit playing in the sand- what are you david hasselhoff?' to(which I pat my self on the back for quick thought wittiness). Szabo then preceded to die. Not really, but his leg cramped up and he was in pain. We got alot of dirty looks. But it felt great, knowing that beneath the agony that he was going thru, we helped make his day.

Secondly, everyone knows about beer. It tastes good. Open up a bottle, it may smell like cyclocross. Nothing tastes better after a hard 60 minute effort than a cold beer. Like that delicious Yuengling Mr. Bill Marut was so kind to offer. Nothing has ever tasted better in my life. Know whats better than beer after the race? Beer during the race. Sometime in the history of cyclocross some genius had a great idea to hand-up beer to racers during a race. Thank You to whoever thought of that.

Lastly and most importantly is facial hair. Now, I have been seeing some lack of facial hair at the first local race. Which is understandable, seeing as it is the very beginning of the season, however I hope to see an increase in facial hair participants. I know not everyone can do it, some because of their job, some because it itches, and John Proppe because he hasn't reached puberty yet. But I ask you all to put in a valiant effort.

Get Growing!

journey

I am embarking on a bicycle journey. I need a new bike. No, I want a new bike. No, I need a new bike. As not only an employee of a local bike shop, but a person who's hobby has grown to encompass nearly all parts of his life, I should get a new bike. I had thoughts of a caad10x, then I really, really wanted a Super-X. Then the more I thought about it, I wanted something a little different. For cyclocross racing I want something fun, different, and just plain cool. I will be slowly building up what I see in my eyes as the ultimate cyclocross racing bicycle. I will be documenting the entire build process on this blog. Due date of 2011.