Tree hugging of a different kind...

So, I must admit. I may have committed a roadie sin: I bought a mountain bike. After much saving and scrimping, I ended up with my GT Zaskar, complete with SLX's and brakes that I have no idea how to maintain. Yesterday, I took it for a 'break-in' ride (which is why there is no mention of me in Scot's entry). After a total count of 4 trees hit, 6 spills, and some blood drawn, I called it a day after traversing the entire trail at Erwin Park (McKinney). Steve (shout out to the bike shop, Performance @ 75 & Walnut Hill) taught me how to go over log piles which I surprisingly found easier than I thought it would be.

After a little bit of thought, I don't think I'll leave the road. Really, I think the skills I'm learning to keep away from the trees will help me become a better road rider: keep a better line, be able to aptly ride out of a skid, etc. The off-road experience is definitely something I think everyone should try -- just watch out for the trees!

Note: Picture added by moderator.

"Would you like your spanking with Tzatziki?"

In front of the Asian Student Association celebration that was held at the flagpole, we had a strong group show up, Nicky (fresh off a victory in the Tuesday night crits), Travis, Noah, Michael, and Caryn joined me for our weekly thrashing.

Travis was so enthused about Nicky's victory that he decided to get his license and race next week! The weather was making everyone feel excited to be on the bike as you could not ask for a better evening. We arrived at the lake, and Michael had this notion of setting up situations for the three students to simulate racing situations.

We discussed these scenarios, but confused, we started. Noah, Travis and Nicky waited while Michael, Caryn and I took off. We were to get ahead, have them catch, and then go again, with the guys working to set up Travis in the sprint. I don't think we had enough horsepower though since they caught quickly enough, then Michael makes a strong move to get away (actually, I don't think I have ever seen him go quite as powerfully as that before) then we all chased and Travis made his move from 600 meters out! If Caryn and myself could have worked better together we might have caught him but he surprized us with a move so long out. Bad move at the crits but not so bad tonight.

The next sequence, for Michael, Caryn and myself was to get away and try to stay away, Noah was the designated sprinter from the "kids". So Caryn and I started talking and Michael was gone. I put my head down and try to chase him, and chase, and chase and finally pull him back (about the same spot Travis took off from last lap) I pass him and launch Caryn to the sprint line. All this time we are expecting the team to charge past, but they never did. Noah appears soon enough, I guess he had been chasing. Turns out Nicky met one of his trade club team mates and they talked just long enough to let us have an insurmountable lead! Plus Travis had a pedal issue on his Colnago and tried to straighten that out.

Next lap was to be tempo all the way around the lake, but Travis and Nicky show the rest of us what tempo really is. As we tried to follow their pace we got to the little rise that gets us next to the lake and I can see Caryn shutting it down, manifold pressure off, oil pressure up, time to put out a few less watts. She was already working on her 50 miles for the day (her mileage by the time we returned to SMU) the rest of us were hoping for 30+. At this time, all she could think of was a line from a computer game of Othello. When the computer Greek god would beat you, he would say "Would you like your spanking with Tzatziki?" That was an endless loop playing in her head. I played domestique and pulled her as the rest disappear quickly. Michael commented that it was a thing of beauty to see Travis and Nicky alternate pulls so effortlessly.

The rest of the way around the lake was tempo (19-21 mph) and we rode together well.
The city limit sprint? My one moment of glory on the day!

Nicky Boulle, two races, two victories

I guess it is time for Nicky to cat up, since he has his victory in the tuesday night crits, 1st place in the cat 5's. He also was first in his age group, 6th overall at the Duathlon this past weekend. Chapeau!

Wednesday ride report

We were joined by Beth Newman and her protege, Maggie Smith, a 2007 SMU grad. She does most of her riding with Team in Training, you know the group, they have 90's era Mardi Gras colors, but are supporters of a good cause (the Leukemia Foundation).

Travis joined us again along with the usual stalwarts Noah, Caryn and ride captain Michael Vangeli. We met Nicky out at White Rock. It is fortunate for us that he has some crit skins on the wall and doesn't need to thrash us since he had a good race on Tuesday. Noah has his license now and will be battling the other "crash fives" for a while.

The weather was again brutally windy at the lake, so it created some splits in the group (and some chasing)

We did up and backs, even though I would like to do a Sunnyvale tempo ride once in a while. We will need to get a bit more light. It does require a consensus from those attending.

After the ride, we had a meeting at TP Hill to discuss our Bishop crit, and Noah has some good ideas to get the event staged during an SMU weekend (where we will have a lot of visitors.) Till next week...

Nicky Boulle, 3rd place in Cat 5 Tuesday Crit

Using the "cause pain" strategy to burn away a lot of the field, Nicky broke away mid race for 5 or 6 laps, causing only the strongest to join him. In the sprint Nicky finished 3rd, so the results keep coming.

Live Stream of E3!

http://www.sporza.be/cm/lmc/wielrennen/voorjaar/Comp_E3-prijs

Live Stream of Milan San Remo

mms://cyclingtv-live-200.wm.llnwd.net/cyclingtv_200_LIVE_2?MSWMExt=.asf

Wednesday Ride Report

Nicky Boulle joined us this week, a 2nd year student who rides with the Park Place team, and soon will be representing us at collegiate races. He did the Tuesday night crits the night before, and his first outing was 7th out of the 50 or so in his cat 5 race. He should cat-up pretty soon. Even though he made a lot of people hurt out on the course, it takes some time to learn that the hurt needs to be dosed out in a timely fashion. Soon he will be on the podium.

After last weeks torrential rains, today was the perfect day to ride. Chase, Nicky, Clyde, Jackie, Damiano, Don, Caryn, Greg, Rob and myself had a nice jaunt to White Rock, where we did up and backs on this day. After last year's alteration of the ride due to extensive work done to the paths at White Rock, I thought staying at the lake would be a good choice. The traffic was prohibitive to any nice tempo/sprint ups (that would be TP Hill to M-Bird) so it is hard to say who had the good legs with the desire to use them. I wish we could do the Sunnyvale ride on Wednesdays, but the traffic on US80/I30 for those few miles would be disconcerting to some of us.

Caryn had a flat commuting from her work, so she went home to get a replacement wheel only to find more issues there (missing valve stem, a forte tube that was too small for a 650 wheel, and met us at the lake. Rob and Caryn noticed some new bottom bracket issues (a weakness of FSA) but these problems were nothing like what happened just in front of Don.

On such a pretty day, there is an obvious desire to ride, but if your bike hasn't been looked at for the entire winter, please do a serious check on it to make sure nothing has loosened up. A women and two friends just got on to Lawther from TP Hill and within the first minutes, she noticed that her steering bolts were loose. She then tries to repair by shaking her front wheel (while she was still riding!) She does an ugly face planting endo.

A large group stop to check on her, and a RBM guy ask if any of us know first aid. Hmm, what to do. She is conscious and laying down but complaining that "her neck and spine hurts" Chase said that he is a lifeguard, knows CPR, but what we needed was an ambulance and a neck brace. Nicky was on the phone to the authorities, but was asked not to call. Her friend kept telling us "No ambulance" and then tries to lift her so she can stand up. We all thought that is a bad idea. She lays back down. Her friend went to get their car, and another friend was saying, "if you didn't want to ride, you should have said so" Hopefully they went to see a doctor. She might have needed a stitch in her lip also. Her bike has a buckled top tube and down tube so I left them with a "look for a replacement frame on e-bay"

Our group made it back in two groups as there was a sprint to see who was in front of us wearing the SMU jersey. The rest just rode in at our leisure.

Our ride captain, Michael Vangeli should be back next week, and we can discuss the shape of future rides.

Nicky ready to start TT, Nathan running away

Horse Country Time Trial

A very strong and much larger field showed up for this event than in years past. From our community, we had David Pearson (CAT 4/5) Caryn Montague (Women's open) Mina Pizzini (women's open) and Nicky Boulle (CAT 4/5).

I will let David and Nicky describe their event, it was the women's event that has caused some controversy. Mina was riding in her Mellow Johnny kit and rode like Lance, catching the half dozen or so women in front of her, winning the event and easily showing her class.

I took digital pictures at the start and finish of Mina, David, Caryn and former MSU Mustang (Midwestern State) Jennifer Purcell. We used to ride with her before she went to MSU. When the results were posted on TXBRA, she was placed in 10th, which appeared to me to be an error. Caryn finished in 18th, but her time posted was at least 30 seconds more than her computer showed. Since the camera has a time stamp, we looked at the camera and determined that David's posted time was correct, but Jen and Caryn's were inaccurate. Jen's were so far off (4+ minutes) that we think she should move from 10th to 2nd. Caryn wasn't in the money, but she should move from 18th to 16th, but who knows how accurate the other competitor's times are.

I am not indicting the organisers of the event, but it shows how difficult the logistics are for these events and the technology that could solve these problems is expensive.

Cedar Hill with a White Rhino for good measure

Two of the last three weeks we have chosen to do hill work towards Cedar Hill. Michael, Caryn and myself made it out for a chilly tide two weeks ago, where Mr. Vangeli seemed to win all the city limit signs, joyfully pointing them out as we pass them. Caryn threw down the gauntlet at the hill that leads up to the Cedar Ridge Nature Center, and easily dropping us. After we did Summit Ln. (out little Flandrian climb of 18%) Caryn and Mike missed the turn into Cedar Hill's downtown (yes, it is that small) they went a bit further and discovered a coffee shop, The White Rhino. A perfect place to reconnect when we have larger group rides down south.

Saturday was on again for a hill ride to Cedar Hill, only this time it wasn't chilly, it was quite cold. Layered with thick jerseys, jackets, neck gaitors, gloved tights and knee warmers, we were joined by Tony Tillman this week. I heard a lot of complaining as to why we were still going to do the ride, since it was sunny, 34 degrees and a north wind that was a steady 25 mph. We met on an exposed parking lot(Gospel Lighthouse Church at Illinois and Walton Walker, Loop 12.) The wind was ferocious, but when we finally started, the wind was at our back.

Michael did all the pulling, while we let the wind drive us toward Cedar Hill. A couple of hills and my aching knee was still quiet, but after the previous week's torture (where I had to really suck it up on the last couple of hills, getting way dropped by Caryn and Mike) I decided to avoid the Robin Ln/Summit Mur de Grammont. Victory one week, DNS the next. Now if I had known that Michael brought his camera and was going to download to Facebook immediately, I might have reconsidered. We did have some local wildlife attack us. This little dog actually chewed on my bootie for a second!

Michael and I waited for what seemed like a long time for Caryn and Tony. Tony had never done this climb, and we were so focused on warning him about the climb, we forgot to tell him that the brief descent was frightening the first time down. Curvy, steep, off camber...you can get to 40mph in just seconds...with a stop sign at the bottom. After both climbed it, Caryn went back up to find Tony walking down (never having done any downhill skiing, he thought better of just going down the fall line) I forgot that the first time we did it, it was 15 seconds of terror.

Two good pictures of Caryn and Tony climbing out of this crater, we then went to the White Rhino for coffee. Just like a day on the slopes, sometimes the most enjoyment is found at the lodge. We delaminated ourselves (peeled like onions...undressed) and had some really tasty coffee, courtesy of Tony. I took an out of focus picture with Mike's camera, which was on his Facebook before we finished coffee, thanks to his Blackberry.

We rode into the wind back, where Caryn heard Tony say "what are they doing?" and she said, 'City Limit signs" and he offered a parental like "Oh, right"