Great Rides, Cold Air and a tumble

Though the weather has been miserably cold here since I arrived about 10 days ago. I have actually been keeping up my mileage. Although I have been doing the intensity I should have been doing. Partly due to my frame being broken and partly due to my Asthmatic lungs not coping with the cold too well. But things are still going to plan for a late May, early June fitness.

This weekend was a little bit warmer (of course that's all relative) and I got in a nice 145k on Saturday, and even better 130k on Sunday morning with some locals. We did a great loop out towards the hills. The skies were crisp and the views were great. We got in a couple of gravel roads, and I even managed a tumble on one of them tearing my brand new Pezcyclingnews shorts. But the ride was great. And although for some reason our little group in Warrenton often has difficulty sticking together as an organized group, this Sunday was just a dream ride. Proper Endurance pace, organized group, good company, and with the exception of a conversation on the new 3.0 software I understood NOTHING of, the conversation was good!

My new (and non-cracked) frame should be in Wednesday, so I can finally start riding with a little more confidence. And that'll give me 3 days to ride it before the first race of the season. The first race of the season for me this year is a little local race herein Virginia called the Jefferson Cup. I have ridden this in the past a few times. It's a circuit race of about 15-20k loops I think, for a total of about 120k. So it should be a perfect early season race to sit in the back of the field and just get accustomed to things. Though with the ludicrous cost of race entry fees over here... and the fact that you have to pay them yourself out of your own pocket, sitting in the back and getting back into the swing of things is quite a costly affair. And all that to do a race out in the middle of nowhere, with no caravan and on a circular course. Anyway, not to be negative, it'll be fun to race somewhere "different" I'm sure.



In the meantime: Here's a pic of Tim (the shop owner) Dingus and Tom boonen....

Tom is the one on the right in case you weren't sure. ;-) One of these guys won Paris-Roubaix. Can you guess which one? Think hard, you might be surprised...