Cold Rain.

Got caught in the rain tonight while riding. Not just any rain, but buckets of water, rivers up to the axle, soaked to the bone rain. I stopped under the overhang at an auto-parts/beauty shop/florist combo to throw out my surely ruined phone and found it actually still worked. I called my wife to come get me, waited, then listened to 20 minutes of bitching about hydroplaning cars, blindness, weather.com, too much riding, and the wonders of taking a bus in Singapore over this. Yeah, I know. Ahhh happy happy joy joy.

Anyway, I still got a good hour + of riding in before all that happened. Plus side? The Hutchinson Tubeless Road Tires on my new Dura-Ace wheels didn't slip one bit. Yay!!!

Economy Be Damned! I Want.

Belt drive on a single speed bike is a no brainer to me. I've been wanting one since I bought my belt drive Harley back in 1992. Trek finally has one. Too bad it's almost as expensive as a Harley.

Ridin into the Sunset.

Tonight I headed out into the Hunt Valley/Oregon Ridge area north of Baltimore where there are probably more horses and cows than people. Ideal for riding. With darkness coming long before 8pm now I had to ride fast. I even took the camera along to get some pics of the new bike but I was feeling too good to stop so there aren't any. From where I'm typing this I can see the trainer, yuck. I'm not looking forward to getting back on there.

Oh, a side note. Lance said he's at 168 lbs right now in an interview on cyclingnews.com. He and I are about the same height so it feels good that I'm lighter than he is at the moment. :) All of a sudden I don't feel so fat. Now if I can just work on getting some (even a little) of his speed.

Riding Withdrawal.

I sit here eating my lunch getting fat, homemade chili and a spinach salad (delicious by the way), and I haven't ridden my bike since last Tuesday. I'm gonna blame work, rain and this pathetic socialist bailout scheme being forced down our throats by partisan hacks in la-la land, but truthfully I guess it's mostly burn-out from a long season of training and racing. I haven't even commuted to work by bike in a long time.

Time to buck up and refocus!

Great Time of Year for Riding.

This time of year is about as good as it gets for riding. Cooler crisp air and sunny evenings yet warm enough to still wear summer riding gear. Tonight I took the new bike out for a 2.5 hour ride in the hills north and east of here and ran into Howard heading the other way. We stopped and chatted for awhile about the new bike and training for next year. That reminds me that I'll be needing to formulate a plan soon and what I'll have to do to improve from this year. Stay tuned. :)

Something Good outta the Vuelta.

I'm just not feelin it for the Vuelta a Espana. It's got a pretty good recipe for success, killer climbs, nice landscape, colorful bikes and jerseys. I mean, just look at poor Dore Holte here doing his best to liven up the show, yet the guys in the peloton are all poker faced.

You know what I'd love to see though? Levi tearing up the TT tomorrow and taking the lead by a few seconds over Contador. There's something about Contador that just doesn't say Champion. He's a nice enough guy I guess, but,... Yeah I know, not gonna happen, but man I wanna see that. For now though, the best thing is the sideshow with the antlers.

Took the Evening Off.

Yesterday the last major piece of the puzzle that is my new race bike for next year came in down at the bike shop so I took the night off riding to finish it up. It's been a fun couple months shopping for parts, waiting for the UPS and FedEx truck, installing, tweaking, adjusting. It took me back to the days of taking my bike completely apart between practically every race to repaint the frame. I'd show up at the starting line and the regulars would just look and shake their heads. "You have time to train doing that?"

I'll be taking her out on her maiden voyage Saturday probably and riding every day next week before her debut at our Thursday night group ride. Stay tuned for a full report on how she rides, component choice breakdown, review and pics.

Group Ride.

I did a great group ride out of the Lutherville Shop last night and had a great time. Got to meet some new guys I haven't ridden with before and did some roads I haven't been on before. Maryland really is almost ideal for training if you know where to look. That traffic isn't bad and the hills aren't long, but they are steep enough and there are enough of them to get a seriously good 2+ hour ride in. It was my second hard day in a row so today I'll take an easy ride to rest up for tomorrow night's hammerfest out of Owings Mills. I may have to start compiling a list and maps of the routes I regularly ride.

8.

Well, you've probably already heard the news. Lance Armstrong is going to try and win his 8th Tour de France. Even in his aged state, I don't see anyone out there to challenge him right now. He'll be focused and determined. I can't see Alberto Contador wanting to play Super Domestique though. There might be some big shake-ups around the pro tour coming. Click on the image above if you want a high res version. Good luck Lance!

Detours and Darkness.

Tonight's shop ride was canceled by the weather, but I went anyway and rode alone. The weather ended up being ideal so I decided to do the full loop we've done earlier in the year. Well, I didn't know there was bridge work being done on Western Run so I had to detour about 4 or 5 miles longer. That put me up against darkness and sure enough, I didn't finish the ride until after 8 in almost total darkness. Oh well. It was a good ride anyway. After today I'm going to do shorter rides leading up to Saturday's race. I'm hoping to get into the Giro di Coppi even though I'm only on the waiting list.

Tonight's Ride: 2.5 hours, 45-50 or so miles.

Determination.

Congrats to Tyler Hamilton and his U.S. Pro Road Race win. Amazing stuff. That's what .002 seconds looks like.

Today's Ride: Easy hour and a half ride in the country.