Wednesday Ride

Despite the threat of rain, Bill, Caryn, Court, Damiano, Frank, Greg, Michael, Nicky and myself chose to ride. A few of us even brought out the arm warmers, which I thought turned out to be a good choice. Bryan and Noah had school obligations, but they both signed for the mandatory organizational meeting on Tuesday, so we are in good standing for another year.

Since the Dallas and Fort Worth crits are over, we saw a lot of Metro VW, GS Tensing and RBM folks out at the lake (Ginny King sighting). We chose to do a few intervals, which were fun, except that Nicky still is the fittest of us and Frank is improving rapidly, with a new road bike to play with. They take off, we struggle to stick with then.We heard some stories about the TX Tough from Mike, and Nicky and Frank discussed their Cotton Patch war stories (The omnium was Nicky 1 in the Cat 3's, Frank 7th in the 5's.) We really want to get Jeff back on the bike, so that we can send a solid team to future events.

The jerseys are finally jetting to Dallas by FedEx Air, so we should distribute them tomorrow.

Dallas Cycling Infrastructure

On October 8th, at 7:30PM, Council Member Angela Hunt will host the evening and discuss infrastructure developments and initiatives noted from recent trips to Portland, Vancouver, and Copenhagen at the historic Texas Theatre. Afterward, the documentary Contested Streets, will be featured, which profiles New York’s streetscape history, and its efforts to become more pedestrian friendly. Large cities around the world are showcased along with some of the most renowned urban planners.
If you come at 7PM, the North Texas Chapter of the Congress for New Urbanism will be holding a discussion in the lobby of the theatre. This is where Lee Oswald wass arrested while watching 'War is Hell'! Should be fun! Tickets are $8.
Get Tickets today at Brownpapertickets.com

First Cat 3 result for Nick Boulle is....

Nicky finished in first place in the Omnium @ Cotton Patch
3rd Place in 70 mile road race, 1st place in 9 mile TT (18mins09sec for 9mile), 5th or 6th in criterium)

Texas Tough at Victory Viewing Thursday

The Texas Tough Crit, which is a P1/2 race downtown will have a roving Michael Vangeli doing press for us. The rest of us should wear our SMU colors to watch the race and cheer on a strong domestic field.

Austin Pickle Crit, Nicky Boulle Omnium winner

Nicky Boulle posted a video on his Facebook of his easy victory in his last Cat 4 race, the Austin Pickle Crit, He also finished 2nd in the Banda Road Race and 3rd in another to take the omnium title. There was a collegiate category, but he raced with his trade team since the field was kind of thin in the college ranks. We still need to work on that with our fellow schools.

Also nice to see Jenn Purcell continue her winning ways, even if she is a Mustang with mixed up letters (MSU, not SMU)

Wednesday Ride

Nick Boulle, Noah Buck, Court Carreker, Bryan Crabbe, Frank Cusimano and Jeff Klein were the students who started the ride, unfortunately Jeff discovered a problem with his chain and had to leave to get it fixed. That left Caryn, Michael, Kevin and myself and for once, happily, we were outnumbered by the students.

Nicky brought his Trek TT bike to mix it up with Frank, but I have to say that I thought Nicky was faster on his road bike last week as we shamelessly drafted behind. He needs to get comfortable on the TT bike again, so different than the regular road bike. I still need to adjust the bottom bracket on my TT bike, haven't touched it since the mid pack finish at the Horse Country Time Trial.

I do like my repainted Trek 5200 frame with the SRAM Red. Biggest difference between my usual Campy set up (other than the unusually powerful rear brake with SRAM vs my beautiful but 90's era Athena Monoplaner brakes that I use more for their looks on the Y-Foil) is the really intuitive Double Tap shifters. Also, ceramic bearings are great!

Bryan's dad, a former local racer and current Master's rider, bought him a new bike at RBM (he doesn't yet know we are sponsored by Dallas Bike Works!) and I think that this is our first, a new first year student getting a bike so he can ride with the club. A very functional Specialized Allez, great bike for the price.

Make plans to attend the party at Kevin's on the 30th, and we are meeting at the Texas Tough Race to watch the P1/2's race on a very nice circuit at the AA center and Victory Plaza. See you at both!

Nicky now a Cat 3

After winning his last B race again on the September 1st, Nicky had his 1st P/1/2/3 race yesterday and was happy with the sensations so we look forward to some good results soon.

Quoted in Wall Street Journal Online

see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125234166475590463.html

They probably stopped us since we were wearing our SMU jerseys. Katarina had the best quote even though they did not use it, Isabella was shocked I talked to her teacher on Facebook!

"Where Did Our Sprint Go"

Sung to Holland/Dozier/Holland's Supremes hit, we realized that without Nicky pushing us this summer, our sprints left something to be desired. We were left in his wake all night. Frank and I were usually the last to pop off his wheel during the intervals. I guess we've become used to sprinting from mid the 20 mph's to lower 30 mph's, but we were setting up toward the finish at 28, 29 and the rest of us were unprepared to start the sprint at that speed, even after sitting on Nicky's wheel. He usually dropped all but the most accomplished wheel suckers. Since he has won a lot of the Tuesday crits this summer, Nicky can be expected to be stronger, but you should be able to do absolutely no work in front, then come around at the line. Didn't work. Finally I just tried to go around at 400 meters and do lead out like Renshaw does for Cavendish. Behind, Frank was on his TT bike, so he was a bit hesitant to work a sprint in due to it's squirrily nature, but judging by the last two weeks, he should do fine once he is on a road bike.

Fortunately, Nicky, Frank and Noah did Loving a bit later (water break) so Caryn, Michael, and I chased Kurt up. Being relatively new to the sport, Kurt lacks some of the finer ascending and descending skills, so I caught him on a downhill turn, but I was giving it full gas to catch back on. Quite impressive uphill sprint he has.

I was finally able to get hooked up with 43 by way of one of our faculty, so we are planning on getting W a SMU jersey, even if he plans to wear it on a mountain bike!