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!

Wednesday ride report

Nicky was ready to come back on a Wednesday and his summer of racing was evident as it was a chellenge to stay on his wheel. He ripped through the groups out there training for HHH this weekend. On one turn, near the Williamson Park's cut-off, I followed him through with a lean angle that I don't think I've been so far over short of a crit corner. The Vredsteins held firm. We were joined by another new student, who already was able to drop all of us on the rapid "up" sans Mr. Boulle and Vangeli.

We have been welcoming new students and continuing a dialogue with the other local Universities regarding their cycling clubs. More on that later...

Wednesday Ride report

We we're contacted by a PMBA student today, Court Carreker, and we welcomed him on the ride, unfortunately he had to make it a short ride due to other commitments. Always good to see people with SMU affiliation come out.

On that note, the remaining cyclists met at the White Rock Boathouse after doing the Loving Hills. This one guy, Ryan Cooper, has been at the water fountain the last three or four weeks about the same time. One week he's wearing a UT jersey with Rockwall cycling shorts, next week only the shorts and a Rockwall jersey, this time no orange (which is Rockwall Cycling and UT's colors.) I have said "hi" every week, this time we struck up more of a conversation, only to discover he has a Masters from SMU and is a current Ph.D student in Engineering at SMU's newly named Lyle School. Despite our SMU kits, he never commented on his SMU affiliation till this week. He just cat upped from a 5 to a 4, so I will need to introduce him to Nicky since they have been racing the same series.

Kurt, Caryn, Kevin, Court (a bit of alliteration) and myself had a spirited ride, until my new SRAM red crank arm started to loosen a bit (haven't had the 100-200 mile re-tighten yet.) I didn't want to damage anything so I was way behind the action after the White Rock Trail hills.

Till next week and the return of our students...

SMU Jerseys ETA 9/15

Thanks to Kevin Kendrick for providing the last few dollars to pay off the supplier. We should get our new jerseys mid-September after a long gestation period with the new supplier, then we will know if the wait was worth it. Afterwards we will start to determine a winter order with jackets, arm warmers and more jerseys as we hope the club grows further, and winter apparel will be needed.

Wednesday Ride

We met at the flagpole and the benefits of being a registered club are paying off. AARO has introduced numerous students to the club, and a new recruit showed up tonight. As we made our introductions, the new student, Dallas Blagg, described how he had heard about the club,and what he had been doing (bike commuting in Switzerland to his dance gigs.) Turns out he is an incoming Meadows Division of Dance student. I asked him, "Did you loose an iPhone recently?" He was shocked but pleased it had shown up. It had taken me a moment to piece the clues together, but Debbie Barr from the Dance Division found this iPhone in a studio, and after some detective work determined it belonged to Dallas (but we did not know he was an incoming student.) It was his recent Swiss residency, not his name that finally clicked for me! I had it in my desk with his name on it, but I said he would have to buy a SMU jersey as reward!

With Dallas (named after a county in Iowa and a third generation male to be named "Dallas") we had Caryn, Michael, Kevin, Kurt and myself, meeting Tony at the lake. Kevin and Mike had last seen each other at RAGBRAI, and it was evident that Mike had used those extensive miles to the good, since he seemed pretty strong (wheelsucking smartly and embarrassing me in the sprint) and Kurt seems to be warming to group riding. Caryn had to ride her TT bike since she has had an epidemic of flats on her Bianchi (and the Trek is waiting for ceramic bearings) She is reminded how AL hurts, C comfortable. Kevin was showing off his RAGBRAI jersey, and said RAGBRAI is something everyone has to do (seems a bit freddy, but the parties can be epic)

At the watering hole we regrouped and had a enjoyable post ride conversation and we are looking foward to when the students return.

SMU Cycling at www.ponyfans.com

Join the SMU Cycling group at www.ponyfans.com

Our club President, Noah Buck set this up. Another venue for SMU Cycling!

Slow day......

While browsing the internet, I came upon this site: http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/. I think it's super neat and a bit inspiring. I'm a big geek when it comes to self-improvement so I might see if I can't incorporate some of these 'suggestions' into my own life and find my own 'happy'.

I didn't bring my camera to work to upload photos, so you'll have to wait another couple days before some vacation photos get posted. Too bad for you.

Possibly an update a later point today. Morning ride tomorrow- getting pumped for it. Speaking of, had to get a new spacer put on my cassette- my poor bike! Everything seems to be finiky lately. Such is life.

Pedal on, my friends!

Hail and angry motorist (A Texas Refrain)

Again, we were caught unaware regarding the crazy weather that hit in the afternoon.
It was so threatening that Michael even took off for home. Kurt, Caryn and I decided to ride despite the build up of clouds to the east. We were able to ride a mile away before the rain started to batter us and we found shelter under a car port at an apartment complex on University.

As we stood under it, the cacophany of the sound of rain and hail on the metal roof was shocking. The temperature dropped 20 degrees F and the hail approached marble size. As we stood there marveling at the sudden change, a pick up pulled up and aimed directly for us and appeared that it wouldn't stop. I yelled at Caryn to move and the driver then pulled in. His first words were "I live here and I pay for this spot!" Odd first words, so I asked him "What?" and he became confrontational, suggesting were were unwelcome and a nuisance. I asked if he saw us and he said, "of course" suggesting we had violated his property and were trespassing. He acted threatening, but readily appeared to be vain and self centered and I had to laugh at his suggestion of threatening behaviour, i.e "Are you scared?" but in reality he was hiding behind his pick up, a pervasive symbol of insecurity in these parts, and he was a classic example of someone trying to project alpha male masculinity but the reality was an insecurity complex hiding behind the F150. All I responded to his belligerence was that he was "inhospitable"

We had a light tempo ride that really showed how strong Kurt can be. He just needs to learn how to ride on a wheel rather than 10 feet back. I followed a GS Tensing guy up Loving and he was very secure in his fitness, for he just spun up at a very even tempo with no insecurity that I was right behind him. I didn't pass him since it would be arrogant to suggest I beat him when he was just riding tempo. I could tell by our conversation that he was fitter than me as I had to struggle to make some small talk about the weather and he was unwinded.

We rode back to the house to find our cars had been pelted by the hail and were dented. We have gone online to find hail damage repair tips. Any suggestions where to find dry ice?





H

July 3rd ride

All,

Count tomorrow as a recovery ride, holiday ride, whatever but I'll be leaving from the Starbucks on Forest that is adjacent to the WRL trail at 9:00 AM and head south to pick up our usual "horseshoe" loop around the lake and back up the trail again to Starbucks. My guess is that the distance will be approximately 30 miles.

Greg P. will be riding up from TeePee Hill starting at 8:15 AM to meet me at the Starbucks. He and his group may drop off when we get back around to TeePee Hill.

This accommodates those who want to start early and not so early and those who want to get a longish ride in or a short ride.

If you want to ride over with me I'll be leaving the house at 8:30 AM to have enough time to "lounge" at Starbucks, field calls, answer questions for the media etc. before we start down the trail. If you want to join me for yoga that starts at 7:00 AM and if that's too early for you to get up and ride (or drive) over you can sleep at my place (I can always use the extra money.)

Call me if you have any questions, feel free to send this to others, and I'll see you in the morning.

Ciao,

Michael V.
214-674-8978