When things go wrong

I’m very careful, I always pin my number on upside down if I get number 13, I always say cheers before I drink, I always touch-wood after I say something that might “jinks” me, I look out for black cats crossing the road ahead of me, and yet, for the last few days, everything has been going strangely “wrong”.

After a great Thanksgiving lunch at Greg’s, with lots of great turkey and other traditional foods, Gaga and I jumped in the car and headed back down to Luray. As we got to about 5k from the house, the car started smoking and suddenly lost all power. We pulled off the road and smoke got thicker. We quickly got all our stuff out of the car and stepped back waiting for it to burst into flames. It never did thank god, and luckily there was someone nearby who offered to give us a lift home. The next day, with some helpful advice from some friend I rode my bike down to the car and actually got it started. It looks like it has a broken hose and that is all. Though for the moment it’s leaking coolant and getting through fluids like an overweight New-Yorker in Central Africa with no AC.

As if that wasn’t enough.
Having filled the car with coolant we went to Walmart to get some essential foods yesterday evening. As we were making our way gingerly home, polluting the wide Virginia roads with leaking coolant, I suddenly see flashing blue lights in the mirror. I pull over to let the guy past, put he pulls in behind me. Fair enough. Some cop doing some sort of routine check. I show him my driver’s license, and tell him I’m from overseas, and also show him my old VA driver’s license. He chooses to take the VA one. Fine, then asks for the Registration. I ask him what that might look like, we finally fine it and he says my tags are expired. I figured the car was frankly too old to still have a price tag, so “tag” must mean something else. He goes back to his car, and leave Gaga and I talking calmly talking about some of the food we had just bought, while gently leaking coolant all over the road. He eventually comes back with a fine and court date and fine for me. Still rather unsure of what he was actually talking about, and still leaking coolant, we carried on on our merry way back to the house for beer and dinner.

These things come in 3s?
That’s all very well. The hose can be fixed as soon as the garages reopen after the weekend and fine can be “pre-paid” (whatever that means) and I’ll be back home in France before you can even say Luray Police Department, but superstition says these things come in 3s… So… what next? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the joys of international travel have in store for us next…

Battenkill Pro on Pez

Why what's this? Some idiot has written some load of gobbledygook and Pezcyclingnews.com has published it. :-)

Here's an article which came out today on the Battenkill pro race from April up in New York state which I did whist in the USA at the start of the season.

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=7699&status=True&catname=Latest

Part 2 should be out soon.

Urban Cross, USA CX race of fun

At some unearthly time in the morning, Gaelle, Chris Gould and myself piled into the car and left a very VERY misty Page country behind us as we headed to a rather misty Charlottesville for a cyclocross race called “Urban Cross”. It wasn’t actually “urban” but the park was in a town for once rather than out in the middle of nowhere as is often the case over here, so I guess that's why they called it "Urban Cross". We arrived early enough to watch Levi from the Warrenton Cycling Center do his first ever cross race, which was really cool, and I think he enjoyed it. Following Levi's race was Chris’ race. There are basically 2 ways of approaching cyclo-cross. 1) you can go all out and concentrate on the discipline, start some CX specific training in July and make CX the main aim of your year, or 2) you can take it all as a bit of fun, show up out of shape after your off season, have a blast and take it as a way of keeping active during the cold winter months. Chris and I are evidently in the latter of the 2 categories. Chris went out there, had some fun and had a pretty hard “workout” as he puts it, and that was his aim for the day. He did however find the course a little too technical for his liking...

The Course:
The organizers had actually made very good use of the space they had. Unlike last weeks "Taxidermy Cross", this course resembled more of a typical “cross” course. There were lots of corners on this “loop-di-loop” course, 3 to 4 run-ups/stairs and 1 set of barriers. The ground was sticky from the past 4 or so days of non-stop rain we’ve had, and the numerous off-camber sections and descents were treacherous to day the least. After Chris’ race we went to grab a little something to eat before my race at a more reasonable 2:30 in the afternoon. Whist scoffing a sandwitch I was watching the other category races on the day attack the course, and I can’t say I was overly looking forward to racing myself. The course looked really hard. I haven’t raced or even ridden off road for years and I don’t have the technical skills anymore for that kind of stuff. So with that in mind, as well as my month off the bike, I headed for the start line of the last race of the day, the Elite race, or A race or 1,2,3 race or whatever it is.

Turns out it was a lot of fun. After a while I kind of got into the course and had a blast. The run-ups really started to take it out of me after a while, but the constant corners and trying to get something of a “flow” on the course (and failing miserably may I add) was just really good fun. Once again I was reminded of why I wanted to do some CX racing in the US again. It really is just a lot more fun.

The whole day turned out to be a great day. The sun came out and it was actually warm for my race. I got to catch up with an old MTBing buddy from the good old days (8 or so years ago) who I hadn’t seen since I left the US back in the very early 2000s.

Mike Hosang did his race, then turned around and got on the mic for the first part of my race giving me a much appreciated “SHREWWWWS” as I past him at the end of my 1st or 2nd lap. Ahhh, the good old days. Thanks Mike, all those MTBing memories just came flooding back! The USA Cycling officials just seemed to get on with their job and weren’t “officious” as many of them seem to be for some reason. Maybe they too were feeding off the good vibes of the day’s event. Everyone out there seemed to be wearing big smiles and enjoying the day. A van was selling doughnuts and coffee all day, the sun was out, the racing was exciting, the course challenging… what more could you ask for from a cross race??? Well, except for maybe a few hundred Flems with stupid hats and bells lining the course… hmm, kind of like this guy?

The race itself saw Jared Nieters ride off to a more than commanding win over the rest of the field. Jared sadly did his “robot” once again as he crossed the line (even though I told him not to as I saw him on one of the switchbacks on the course), but aside from that minor marring of the race (sorry Jared) he was extremely impressive, and undisputably deserved to win! I rode around for a bit and finished in total anonymity as seems to be my place in cross at the moment with an 11th place on the day.

All in all, a TanFastic day.

Puzzlin' Cross Scenes

Some things I’ve seen at cross races. Some people… I don’t know.. sometimes you see stuff that just makes you frown and wonder…

Soooo… What’s with the socks? Are those compression socks… really? In a 30 or 40 min CX race? Hmmm…. I do like the look though. Gulp. Not that I can really talk with my ulgy miss-matched kit, but I don't really have a choice about that...
This is a cracker… looks like some kind of new integrated bib-seat. I like it! Might make getting on and off the bike a little hard though… so, I guess this chap just really wanted to spend the whole day in his cycling shorts… even when in normal clothes. Nice.

And then of course there’s this guy…. (Currently atop the gamjams.net website banner)

He has been popping up here and there at Cross races this year. Somebody once made a comment about him smiling.. or maybe it was about his lack of smile… well, I quite simply couldn’t resist the opportunity to post a photo of Greg in his get-up once again, just to give old Gregburt a hard time for the sake of giving him a hard time… if I keep this up he might not let me stay with him anymore and will kick me out of the house…. That’s ok, I’ll fill him with Espressos’

and bribe him with.. oh I don’t know, say THIS pic (again!) (from pezcyclingnews.com)

Sorry Greg… it’s stronger than me, I just can’t help being a jackass! And I am up at 3am for god knows what reason, I'll blame it on that!

Taxidermy Cross, Fetucini cross, Tacchino cross

A Sunday in November, and it’s actually fairly warm. In the 20s, sunny, blue skies, just a perfect day for Taxidermy cross, or was it Fettucini cross… no it was Taccini cross. The race was put on by a local, self named Italian-wanabee club called Squadra Coppi, but they are American, not Italian, hence the quasi Italian name to Sunday cool cross race. The drive up to the race had me driving on the beltway around Washington DC, it had been a few years since I’s driven on the Beltway, and it was actually quite exciting. The endless lanes of slow traffic and people hogging all lanes, was just like being in a movie. The true America, just like you see it on all those TV shows and movies about the FBI in DC.

The race course itself was a little flat. A raw power course, perfect for American crit riders. There was only 1 dismount which was a set of barriers, no run-up, and only one vague semblance of a hill which was easily rideable. Still the course was fun, the organizers had done the best with they could with the venue and there was quite a lot of twists and turns. For some reason, even on what could/should have been a dull venue, the course was once again good fun. The American’s just seem to be able to do really fun courses. There were some nice sections though the woods which reminded me of the good old MTBing days, when I had some of the best times of my life racing MTBs in the US.

The start was a little hectic with the guy in front of me struggling to get his foot in the pedal. I tried to pass him on the outside (the only place possible) and I think I scared the crap out of a photographer who ejected himself from the side of the course and threw himself into the grass. Sorry about that mate.

Frankly that was about the end of it. The start was just too fast for me, I can’t do fast starts and having been off the bike for a while the lack of fitness really showed. I ended up settling into place on the course, one guy passed me, I passed 3 or 4 later on in the race and that was about it. Joe Dombrowski won the race (as a Espoir rider!) commandingly. Levi from the Warrenton bike shop also came out to cheer me on. I think he got a bit bored after a couple laps of seeing me so far down the field.

Well, my cross season/plans are obviously out the window. The hope of carrying any end of season fitness from the road over to CX, though a good idea at the time, is clearly not working out. The fitness window has gone and I’m about as far from the sharp end of the race as is physically possible. I don’t think I have time to get any CX type fitness back before the end of the CX season over here, and although there are still a couple CX race in France in early 2010 when I get home, I don’t think it’s worth putting in the effort for just a couple races. So the plan for now is to simply keep getting my ass kicked and having fun in CX and start looking ahead onve again to the 2010 season.

I’m hoping the warm weather here will last as long as poss’. It’s was really nice out there on Sunday and this area is beautiful in the sunshine. And of course I hate the cold with a vengeance and can’t stand winter! Wednesday is Veteran’s day here in the US (well, c’est le 11 novembre en France aussi) and so we are running a ride out of Warrenton for some of the Whole Wheel Velo guys. So I’ll finally get to catch up with Scotty G once again. That should be a fun ride, be nice to see old friend and meet new people, (just so long as they ride steady and don’t attack each other all the time). Apart from that I’m also going Gaga hunting at the airport today, and have a morning “coffee ride” planned with Greg and Levi. Easy ride, followed by endless coffees…. Hmmmm, sounds a bit Australian, I love it!

Back2Ridin'

I’ve been getting back on the bike some. I’ve had a couple rides up the hill behind the house up to the top of the Appalchian mountains, with some stunning views and fantastically pleasant rides.

Over the past week I’ve had a bucket load of fun going back and forth between Warrenton and Luray riding in both areas and just slowly and pleasantly getting back into it!

So this past week, I've ridden with:

Levi in Warrenton,

Chris Gould up Skyline drive!
and John Parks in Luray...

Life is starting to take back some semblence of normality, ride, eat, sleep, drink coffee... And it isn't TOOOOO awefully cold here yet in the US of A.

Well, tomorrow is another cyclocross race, lets see if I can get past the first 100m this time. :-)

The wonders of travel

The wonders of travel, you get to see some pretty strange stuff. Half the time I don't actually have my camera with me, so a lot of the crazy stuff I see get forgotten, some of it in immortalized on my crappy phone camera however...

Well, at least this guy admits he's a redneck!

Love is a warm soft what?... Australia once again!

Get some nuts indeed!

Seen in Australia on Feb 14th. Enough said!

It really doesn't take much to amuse me!

Dim Sim?

A statement... an under-statement? Hmmm..... I could take this personally...

CX photos and some time back on the bike

I found a few photos from my cyclocross race the other day, which are pretty cool. Again, it was really great to get back out ther eon a CX bike and have some fun.

Apart form that I have actually slowly been getting back on the bike this week. With a little less caughing, I've started to feel better. I had a good time riding down the valley and up Rt211 (that's a road number) to Skyline Drive. Skyline Drive is a tourist road that follows the top of the Blue Ridge Mtn on the East coast of the US. Obviously seeing as in follows the top of the hills, it's something of a climb to get up there. Though these hills are not very high in altitude, that's actually not a bad thing for some winter SE rides. It shouldn't get TOO cold up there in winter, and the climb isn't real hard or long, which is perfect for not overdoing it in the off-season. I really enjoyed that ride (even though I felt pretty crappy by the time I got home), and there are some great views from up there.

Rt 211 is actually a 4 lane highway, so I had been a little worried about the traffic out there, but it was actually fine. With speed limits being so low here, even on a big road like that it never felt like you were really on a big road, and with that little extra space for hesitant US driver to pass, it was almost more enjoyable than riding on a small country road. Ironic.

Hopefully, I'll get out more and more and discover more of the local area. I can't wait!