A little late...

Yeah...I usually post first thing Monday morning. Sorry...I was sleeping, then finishing my...er...#1's school project.
When did 5th grade get so labor intensive?
I have more hours in this thing than it takes to build a pro bike...

Nice ride Saturday with Statler and Waldorf. Easy peasy 70km. One little effort at the end. Seems there MIGHT be some form lurking underneath.
Of course, as it usually happens, I come back from injury/surgery...and I work...alone...to get some fitness back in my old body, I get a cold.
Thankfully, it's just a head cold, and seems to be on it's way out of town. The Neti Pot, though being a close cousin to waterboarding, works to get the bad stuff out of one's skull.
It IS a bit irritating though, as the weather has been PERFECT over the last few days. Sunday was sublime, and The Heathens looked like they had a good ride.
I thought about riding tomorrow, but as I didn't sleep A WINK Saturday night, I'm gonna drop The Duke at school, and come back to the house and see if I can sleep the morning away.

Be back at it Thursday. Rumor has it that I jumped on the 11v bandwagon too...

Liege was last weekend. The weather was abysmal. They even shortened the race!
Watching the whole thing, or even the last 10km would be a test...
Here's Cosmo's take...


Style.

 Don't know these guys? Shhhhhhhh....

Bike racers dream setup? I posed the question to JBrstl. He may have gotten light-headed from the rush of blood to his groin area...
Speaking of rushes of blood to the doo-dads...

 Change nothing...take my money...

 Class move by Chevrolet...
Brilliant ad...

Ok...I need to go waterboard myself, and hit the Tempurpedic...
P&PWG

Rest in purple

Prince died yesterday. He was 57. This is believed to be one of the last photos of him. He liked to ride his bike. 

I know this is a stupid, little, ranty, bicycle page, but his passing affects me, and probably a lot of you.
The TV news people keep saying that he 'crossed genres'.
I respectfully disagree.
Prince's music is a purple thread, woven into the very fabric of who we are. It did not cross genre. It is it's OWN genre.





When asked what it was like to be the best guitar player alive, Eric Clapton responded, "I don't know...ask Prince..."

Rest In Purple, Prince Nelson Rogers.
And thank you...

Monday Quickie

No futbol Saturday, so sleeping late was the correct call. Well, when one considers sleeping late equates to 7:30 instead of 6:30, it means little.
Got up, watched a little BPL, kitted up, and headed out.
CX bike.
2 hours. Felt good. Big sunshine.

The PowerStation was still a bit damp in a few spots. The far end of Old State is rideable, but barely. If you lack skill in the sand, turn around at the K-Rail.
Wildlife spotted : Barred Owl, redtail hawk, and a good sized black snake who was enjoying the sun.
The rest of the day was spent pursuing educational interests with Junior Management.


Woke up Sunday and met The Professor for a lazy spin thru LexCo. If you can call 85km a "spin".
Twas breezy yesterday too.
Again though, Big sun, so it's all good.
3 hours fell away pretty easily.
Figured out one fit issue on the Ridley. Still chasing the last one.
If you think a surgery on a knee doesn't affect fit, you're deluded.
Strong shoe/sock game too...

Came home, fully expecting to get a solid nap, but NOOOOOOO!
The Boss was supposed to take #3 to a birthday party, but "twisted her ankle". Yeah...nothing says 'quiet Sunday afternoon' like making small talk with people you don't know/like, and twenty 5 year olds running around.
I was happy...

Amstel Gold was Sunday. Sort of a yawner...


Cosmo did a HTRWW, but to be honest, it's a waste of 5 minutes.

Remember the little moto I posted? Good to just buzz around town on?
Well, this Triumph is the opposite.
It looks like it's ready to punch someone in the neck.

Speaking of neck punches...

Let the Big Dog eat...

And with that...

Hidey ho

As the mornings are relatively free around here, that's when I ride...at least until school is out.
Tuesday was a rainy, gray, wet mess. yeah...I rode.
The Salsa got the call, and I did a modified PowerStation loop. 65 and light rain. Perfect.

2 hours later, I was wet, dirty, and back at Service Course.
Here's where the story gets amusing...
I don't know how YOU do it, but after a rain ride, I go in the back door of the house, which leads directly into the mud room. The laundry is there.
I was soaked and filthy, so I stripped down, and just tossed everything in the washing machine.
Ahhhh...hot shower, here I come.
Nope...
DENIED!
The door that leads into the house was locked.
FUUUUUUU....
There I stood...
Not putting the kit back on, so I wrapped myself in a Star Wars sheet (shut up...I have kids!), I walked around to the front of house.
Hello neighbors!
Thankfully, no one saw me, and I got into the front door with no drama.
At least I didn't need to go through a window. It's happened before.

So this morning, before rolling out, the back doors were both unlocked...just in case.
90 minutes on the Ridley. It was windy. You guys have fun in that shit tonight. The words "Headwind home" should tell you what you need to know.
Also put the new Schwalbes on the carbon wheels, and rode them today.
Holy stiff bike. I'd forgotten. The Salsa with worn out wheels and 33c Clements @ 60psi is considerably less so.
And special thanks to the frat douche from NJ in his dad's Suburban for making an illegal move across Gervais, and almost hitting me. He yelled and screamed, as a NJ frat boy is wont to do. I invited him to pull over and chat.
He didn't...go figure.
I'm seriously considering riding w/the camera on EVERY ride, and investing in a Cycliq rear blinky/camera.
Drivers aren't getting any better. At least we'll get downtown/campus back in 6 weeks, when the college kids go home.

The "lesser" races are going on in Europe right now. I say "lesser" in quotations b/c the racing is anything but...

Brabantse Pijls


That last kicker at the finish is just insult piled on injury...

GP Denain

How about the sprint? WTF?
"Excuse me...pardon me...pardon me...excuse me...(victory salute)

 Don't mean to toot my own horn here, but the shoe/sock game was STRONG this morning.
I could tell you where I got them, but considering how people in town bite my style...

Let's just say there are more that will make appearances soon...

Two wheels good...

Just about perfect to bang around town on...

Okay...enough for today...

Roubaix

Roubaix Sunday is a day, traditionally, that I either don't ride, or wait until the race is over.
After yesterday's race, a ride was NEEDED!
Dog Almighty! It was nuts.





And thinking MAYBE the UCI needs to do something about the motos in the races....



Poor Viviani. Fortunately, he's not hurt too badly.

After Roubaix ended, I threw a leg over the Salsa, and headed out. It was quite nice @ 11. About 55 degrees, but still windy. And the wind didn't seem to have any sort of plan. There was NO tailwind...ever. Head/cross for two hours...
No matter. I still got out and got 2 hours. Felt okay too.
The PowerStation is in decent shape, except for the giant waterhole that is, once again, hike a bike.

Pretty Pictures:

 When Fabi crashed, Sagan rode up, and over, his bike. How he pulled THAT out will be discussed for a while...

 Nice. Thanks Fabi!

And Jered Gruber was up to his tricks again. The guy takes brilliant photos...

 I'm no genius, but I know that putting the Di2 junction box on the BB is a bad idea. ANYWHERE else on the bike is better placement.

Yes please...

And with that, I bid you happy Monday.

It's a bit breezy...

The wind started Sunday...and hasn't abated...
Even in the woods on Wednesday, the wind was HOWLING. Headwind out? Sure. Tailwind home? Nope.
Same thing this morning. Crosswind. Headwind. Crosswind.
At NO point on the ride was the wind at my back.
Positive note? I think I'm pretty close to having the cleat position on my right shoe correct. Felt better today than it has since I got back on the road bike.
Anywho, two good rides this week. Being outside in the mornings is pretty nice...

 So yeah...as it always happens, companies are creating things that just aren't needed. A leafspring fork, on a CX/gravel bike?
Yeah, because when you're racing, or riding a dirt road out in the middle of BFE, you want something that's MORE complicated.
Stupids...

Sagan's bike for Roubaix.
"Yes, I'll take 'Slammed 150mm Stems' for $1000 please Alex..."
NBCSN will be showing the entire race LIVE on their web app. It's called "Extra Time", and works very well.
If you don't want to listen to Phil/Paul/Bobke, I'm sure people will be streaming it live. Check YouTube first. Search for "Paris Roubaix 2016. It'll be on there...likely in HD, so you can stream it on your TV...if you know how to do such things.

Scheldeprijs was mid-week...
Seems a blind squirrel CAN find a nut. EQS got their leadout right for Kittel...


Then again, he HAS won the the race 4 freaking times. He knows how to get to the line...

No ridey tomorrow...AFAIK...
We have futbol @ noon. Maybe I'll try to sneak out @ 9 for 90 minutes or so. Sleeping in around here in a fool's errand. Might as well get up and ride...

Enjoy your weekend...

RVV

Men


Women


Huh...both winners are the current WC. Tell me more about the 'Rainbow Curse'...

And let's talk about Sagan's podium shoes...

Looks like a good time was had on the Tinkoff team bus...

Versus the Etixx-Quickstep bus...
Again, they screw the pooch. Probably could have heard an ant fart on their bus. Lefevre got out of the car b/c of the stress. EQS's performances lately are gonna kill the guy.

An smaller group of Heathens met yesterday for a ride in the sunshine...and wind.
Of course, we headed out with the tailwind. We paid full retail for that easy ride out to Swansea.
Oddly, I felt like crap on the way out, but better on the way back in.
Of course, I've ridden the Ridley exactly 4x in the past month. The bike felt weird. My pedal stroke felt weird. The shoes felt weird.
Things leveled out after a couple of hours though.
It was fairly terrible out there too...

And yesterday was EASILY the longest ride I've done in about 5 months. I had 107kms when I hit the 'hood, so I spun around until 110 showed on the GPS. (Even numbers are easier to add.)
I was a bit knackered when I hit Service Course. Those rides are needed though. Gotta get some fitness and strength back...

It's nice today. Go do SOMETHING outside!

Needed rest

So after Tuesday night, I decided that a little rest was in order.
Since I went back outside on the bike, in the last week of February, I've knocked down more hours, and kms, than a guy with a freshly repaired knee probably should.
I was tired.
My knee was stiff.
My taint was angry.
I took the week off.
Junior Management is on Spring Break this week, so it lined up.
No ridey tomorrow, as we have futbol at noon...and I want to sleep in...

Riding Sunday though. Need to get back on the road bike, and start knocking down some long rides.

 Dean sent his Dean back to Dean. Hopefully, they'll tack one of these bad boys on the headtube.

 Two wheels good. I'd take this to buzz around town. Simple and fun.

 And the Ronde is this weekend. Gotta love Tchmil...and those Diadoras. I had a pair. Best shoes ever.

Here's the last 60km of last year's race :


And highlights of 2010, when Fabi dropped the hammer on the Muur...


Have a productive weekend, whatever you choose to do...