Digital Cameras and Masochistic Torture Devices

In an eerie replay of the last Horse Country time trial, we brought out the trusty Nikon with it's irrefutable time stamp to help determine Jen Purcell's finish time. Only this time, it was to resolve her confusion over being declared the winner. Having raced a lot recently and with a good Redlands behind her, Jen was still a bit unnerved at the start, shaken at Paula Felix's unfortunate crash at the velodrome on Friday night (our thought and best wishes for recovery are with Paula.)

Jen arrived with what...5 minutes to get her shoe covers on and pump up her tires! Mina Pizzini was in the start blocks directly in front of Jen and at the finish, the marshals declared Jen the winner even though she did not think she closed the time gap on Mina. When Jen rode up to look at the results, she was confused, since her high tech cyclocomputer had her with a 30 ish minute finish rather than the 28 they posted. The Swatch analog wristwatch tells no lies! Caryn and I looked at the time stamps and my math was very hazy since I had just finished a few minutes before. Jen would not believe the time even though everyone was in awe at the "no warm up, road bike with aero bar new course record strategy"

After we got the abacus out and Caryn wrapped her uncanny "bend radius, sheet metal skilled" accuracy around the numbers, it was only obvious that it was Mina who won, and she set a new course record (first woman under 30 minutes!) Mina did not arrive to look at the results until a few minutes later so she did not have to question the officials. Mina is also wired with every bit of telemetrics you would ever want, so we scrolled through her time, which verified the sub 30 minute scorching of the course (25+MPH).

Jen showed she is a superlative sportman as she wasn't wanting to be given a result that would have taken away from Mina's remarkable effort. Jen was also close to being the first to go sub 30, but stayed out of her lactic threshold due to the problems she faced on this day, still unnerved at the previous night's events.

Now on to a more prosaic item, my ride.

I bought this specific mass of aluminum, leather, rubber and carbon fiber thinking it was a time trial bike. I was mistaken. This particular item is a torture device roughly in the shape of a bicycle. Time trial bikes are fetish items, used by masochists. The last Horse Country Time trial looked enjoyable, but my work of art, the Klimt Y-Foil is a non UCI allowed item. Now these events are not obligated to follow the rules established by the contrarians who are the UCI, but I wanted to be within the spirit of these rules. What a mistake. 5cm setback from the BB, 75 CM from the bb to the end of the extensions, your body has to be tortuously manipulated to fall within these capricious rules.

To make the effort today even more ludicrous, the bike developed a personality of it's own on the last Wednesday ride I rode it. It complained loudly, developing a horrendous squeaking, and decided to try to pitch me off of it. I think the bike has a shetland's personality. Braying and biting, wanting me to get off of it. It was one part fetish object, one part annoying little animal.

I start with David Pearson's words in my mind "I'm expecting the SMU Cycling Club founder to do the TT in under 30 minutes" Since I like to chase rabbits, and don't do a lot of these events, I ran out of carrots about 4 miles into the ride. I caught the two guys in front of me and with the wind at my back, I was feeling OK. At the turnaround, I wish I could have switched to my regular bike. The Time trial bike must have multiple personality disorder, as it became all the things I complained about previously. It now hurt to sit on it and the noise from the bottom bracket was loudly proclaiming that I sucked. I was being tortured so much that at about the 15 K mark, and then at 18k I was passed by two cyclists who had started 30 seconds and a minute behind. The bike was pleased I was so ignomiously passed.

Pro riders and TT specific bikes spend hours in the wind tunnel, investigating everything to shave a few milliseconds off the possible elapsed time. Caryn was concerned that I let an extra inch of zip tie flap into the wind. If only that was all I had to worry about. Try to avoid pedaling squares would be a more legitimate concern. Or how about avoiding the slowdown after these carrots are consumed. Or better yet, actually spend some quality time on this infernal bike and get it dialed in so my upper glutes don't hurt so much. When did I get these muscles that hurt so much tonight!

At the finish, up the hill, Caryn said I was swaying like Stevie Wonder trying to stay on the extensions. 11th out of 18 starters in the Masters Division, but I'm still waiting to see where I finished in the 50 + (31 min 45 seconds, 23+ mph)

I can't wait to hear David's post mortem (Hmm, you sucked) on this excruciating excuse of a sinister branch of the sport of cycling!

Kudos to our Mina Pizzini, she is a great time trialer, and I would bet she would beat anyone on campus. Willing to take the challenge?

The old Olympic training ground returns!

Ginny King once referred to White Rock (in a mocking tone) as the "Olympic training ground" as afternoons would see large groups dicing it up for no apparent reason, short of fleeting and dubious glory in simulated race mode. Caryn just calls it excessive testosterone on display. After weeks of rain, the storms stayed north of I-635 and large groups of cyclists came out of hiding to test their race strategies. Of course I was more guilty than most in succumbing to the urge, even chasing Nicky and his team mate Lee down whenever they would escape the not so friendly confines of the group.

We met at the flagpole with Michael Vangeli choosing to celebrate his birthday with us. Also Noah, Kevin, Caryn and Damiano (who is going to provide race reports from the Giro) joined me as we met up with Nicky at the lake.

Nicky had a "chute" on Tuesday that by all accounts was spectacular! Tuesday night crit Cat 4 race, perfectly positioned (4th wheel, and fresh) going into the final corner and he had a casing failure on his Vredstein's, which immediately went flat, rolled off the rim of his Kysiriums and caused him to have a high speed skid, 6 series aluminum on concrete. He controlled it long enough to get out of the train and dived into the grass, sliding on his back. No long term effects save for the disappointment of seeing a perfectly planned victory go awry.

Noah was resplendant in his Livestrong kit, and the miles he put in for the MS150 showed immediate results. I have never seen him this strong. Just a few weeks ago he was getting shelled on the ups, and now he was making many of those out on course crack.

Michael was continually chasing every rabbit that escaped and Caryn was spinning away in her soon to be discarded SRAM Rival compact crank. She likes to grind ala Jan Ullrich, rather than fast twitch it. Noah has discovered he is a fast twitcher and loves to spin away in the small ring. Crazy how everyone's physiognomy is so different. Michael is just a bit taller than Odessa's husband Levi, but he pushes 175cranks.

Speaking of Odessa, I am promoting two groups that are advocates of Mustang preservation. To ensure that these two groups are the proper advocates for the preservation of our true mascot, I e-mailed a well known animal rights advocate, Odessa Gunn, (who also happens to be the wife of one of the favorites for the Giro d'Italia, Levi Leipheimer.) She sent a very kind response and gave me the thumbs up for this effort.

Kevin and Greg Pulte are in favor of doing the "Horseshoe" loop as our Wednesday ride path, but when there are this many cyclists at the lake, it is way too tempting to sit in the pack.

With many leaving for the summer, we want everyone to know that we will still be riding and planning events for the fall, so keep in touch and keep riding.

By the way, Michael celebrated his 43rd with the winning sprint at the city limit sign!

Wednesday ride report

By Belgian standards (according to Rob) yesterday wasn't a big deal, yet no one showed up save for Kevin, Michael, Caryn and myself. We made it all the way to TP Hill before we decided to ride back, and it started to really rain once we entered the bubble. No chutes suffered this day! We experienced a Thermocline crossing 75 on the way out, that was dramatic, but it didn't really rain until we stopped at Kevin's house. He offered to host the SMU Cycling party in two weeks, so make plans to attend!

Chute!

Well, I finally crashed (in a non-controlled manner). Coming off the bike trail at West Lawther north of Northwest Highway. Following Greg, turning right onto Lawther, we hit a wet patch. Greg fishtailed and recovered. I had to hit the brakes or plow into the back of Greg, and as soon as I touched the brakes I was down on the deck.

Landed heavy on my right leg and elbow. I've got some stiffness and some rash (sounds like I spent a weekend of "liberty" in the Philippines and wasn't too careful).

Laying on the deck I first evaluated my condition, then eventually got up. I then road home on one leg. Boy am I glad Dallas is flat!

The bike has dinged up shifter, pedal and rear derailleur but is otherwise unscathed.

Not my worst crash, but at 47 I'd like to avoid all crashes! I was able to muster through without any painkillers, though if I had been offered any darvocets, I certainly wouldn't have refused.

My daughter keeps poking my elbow wound with a stick. She thinks my reaction is funny. Kids!

Muenster metric century

Wednesday Ride report

The new Facebook page appeared to be a hit as we had a strong contingent of students ride tonight. Let's see, it was Ryan, Mitch, Andrew, Travis, Nicky, Ian, Nick (do we have a lot of Nick's or what?) and pack filler was Damiano, Caryn, Michael, Greg, Kevin and myself (by pack filler, I mean the core group that exists to make SMU Cycling a viable, constant presence on campus!)

It was obvious seeing Andrew ride that we need to help him have a lot of fun on the bike again, as he is very skillful, and a remarkably strong rider. Travis is also strong, he is being tutored on sprint tactics. Always strong, Nicky Boulle finished second in his first cat 4 race, after the upgrade, and that was only because he was expecting different tactics. The tri guys who joined us are (mostly) relatively new to cycling but we hope they discover that the bike is the place to be. It was a rather chaotic day, as we did numerous up and backs, but the object of this ride is to get us all to the lake and work with each other or at our own pace, and then ride back "piano" which is "soft", as Ian pointed out. As a Music major at Meadows, he would know.

Karma, Or Don't Tempt Fate!

I committed every road sin imaginable on the ride tonight. I forgot everyone's name, since I was introduced to so many. I took shortcuts to avoid the wind. Even quit on the Loving Hills 'cause Nicky passed me with a 50 meters to go (and Damiano and Caryn, and was that Ryan?) who trounced me also. Rode the TT bike again since the road bike has a broken nipple and I haven't had time to take to Dallas Bike Works (shameless plug) for repair. Had something go horribly creak, creak on the bike, probably because I put it together and not Caryn.

Then to top it all off, I did not take karma seriously, as I told Vinh on Monday and probably also in a conversation with Chris Snyder, that I haven't crashed on the road bike in years. We were discussing mountain bikes and how every mountain bike ride has as an objective to get big air and probably crash. But road bikes, no! I did a precursory "knock on wood" but that might have been waht kept me off the pavement.

So Michael's city limit sign beckoned the group, and I should have known better than to chase after Mike got a good start! A TT bike has limited uses and sprinting is not one of them. I came unclipped and barely (I had thoughts of, "where should I crash?" - on the all carbon Colnago, the pavement or should I just go over the overpass into Central?) I heard it was as ugly, if not more so than Noah's similar experience, 2 weeks ago. New rule, no dangerous sprinting, small ring variety on busy roads! Michael's weekly glory will now be forbidden!

So I hope the very elegant rider on the Colnago forgives me since he might have kept me up!
Scot

Pinarello Prince

One last Cat 5 race result from Nicky

Men Cat 5A posted by LH on 4/20/2009 10:25:00 AM.

1 534 Boulle Nicholas Dallas Racing
2 518 Spears Adam Unattached
3 522 FRAZEE JASON VT BIKE STUFF
4 508 Carter David Unattached
5 527 Mills Charles Unattached
6 505 Briscoe Steven The Woodlands Cycling Club
7 521 Chung Brian Team ALS-C3
8 501 Aston Brent Unattached
9 515 Linebaugh Richard VT Bike Stuff
10 537 Thomas Jackson Frisco Cycling Club
11 550 Atkinson Robert VT Bike Stuff
12 525 Jackson Bruce Unattached
13 526 McGraw Dan Unattached
14 535 Abstein Adam Tunerus Turbo
15 551 Baker Michael Team Bicycles Inc.
16 529 Shewry Joel Unattached
17 530 Stewart David Dallas Racing
18 533 York Craig Unattached
19 524 Heun Jeffery NRC/PedalMasher
20 507 Bumpas Lee Unattached
21 513 Jantzen Shawn Matrix Cycling Club
22 532 Scaggs Nathan Unattached
23 955 Singer Andrew Unattached
24 536 Cannon Scott Unattached

Upgrade (from txbra.org)

Nicholas Boulle Dallas 5 to 4

Welcome TCU Cycling!

Our friend over at TCU, Tyler Elings, let me know that they are now an official club at TCU and they are looking forward to competing with us. Welcome aboard and with another collegiate club in the fold we can look foward to some keen competition.

Austin Adventure Race - USARA

This looks like a fun event and a good excuse to go to Austin for the weekend and they have actual prize money.  Here's their pitch:

Two Great Events at One Venue

May 9, 2009 Burnet, Texas

USARA Sprint Adventure Race National Championship

The USARA is proud to present the 2009 Sprint Adventure Race National

Championship. Teams from around the country will battle it out for bragging

rights in Burnet, Texas. Two member teams will mountain bike, trail run and

paddle their way to victory. Categories will include male, female, coed, coed

masters, male masters, Clydesdale and the all new relay category.

USARA Collegiate Adventure Race National Championship

The USARA Collegiate Adventure Race National Championship will be held in

conjunction with Sprint Nationals. Collegiate competitors will compete for the title

of Sprint Collegiate National Champions. Teams of two will mountain bike, trail

run and paddle. Categories will include coed & male.

For the second year in a row, the AIX Group will offer an amazing $3000

sponsorship to the winning collegiate coed team. This sponsorship package will

include AIX Team Racing Gear, funds for race fees and travel expenses, and

armfulls of gear!! The sponsorship includes equipment from Merrell, Suunto,

Native and Zanfel. The team will also receive free entry into the 2009 USARA 24

Hour Adventure Race National Championship, a $900 value, and will be crowned

the USARA Collegiate Sprint Adventure Race National Champions!

Visit www.usaranationals.com for more details and to get registered today.