Reconciliation

A few weeks ago the ASO and various teams selecting their Tour de France rosters snubbed all Iowa riders. This was a big blow for many of us dreaming to go. A number of Iowa's top riders have even stopped giving it their all on the group rides as a result. One anonymous rider was quoted saying, "what's the point? I mean, I trained all winter long and I've been doing workouts like 31 repeats on 'the wall' [on Sugar Bottom rd.] to simulate Alpe D'Huez, but now I don't even feel like riding at all." Others could not be reached for comment as they were seen turning around shortly after the start of recent College Green rides.

But other riders kept fighting. Most notably was CSC's super domestique Jason McCartney. When he found out he wasn't going to the Tour, he kept doing the rides and he kept taking his pulls. And at least someone took notice. This morning, USA Cycling announced that Jason McCartney, from Coralville, Iowa, was named to his second Olympic Road race team.

So keep taking your pulls people. They just might get you a trip to the biggest races in the world.

A Labor of Love

Robin has been producing some fine jewelry in her basement studio lately. One year ago she promised our friends Autumn and Efrain matching silver bracelets for their one year wedding anniversary.

For practice, and because she loves me, she made a silver bracelet for me. I have never been one to wear jewelry. There has been no real reason for this, other than perhaps because I did not have any. A little over a year ago, though, Robin gave me a jade stone in the shape of an infinity knot. I have not taken it off since. A little while before that, she made a silver bracelet for her brother, Jesse. Like my necklace, he does not take it off. So when Robin said she wanted to make me one, I was very excited. And I'm also excited with the outcome.

This is not the greatest photo (too much shadow and shine), but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. Plus, it is not completely finished. It needs a little more sanding and TLC. But Robin and I were too excited to wait, and on Thursday she shaped it for me. I find it quite comfortable, even for riding around town on my bike. I'm not sure if it will be a permanent fixture upon my wrist (I neglected to wear it on my ride today), but I imagine it will be there more often than not.

World Class Wheel Sucking

At least for awhile. I was only able to maintain it for about 80% of the night's College Green group ride. It was better than I expected, though. I had not done a group ride, or anything fast paced, in about a month. So I guess the easy spinning I was able to do 8 out of the 9 days over my surprise vacation was just what I needed.

Tonight I left my house just after 5. I had recently put on a new (well, practically new) Selle Italia Flite saddle on my Teesedale and I needed to make some minor adjustments. As I rolled around the neighborhoods there was a light sprinkle, but the skies looked promising for a nice and dry ride.

When I got to the park there was a small, amiable group of about 10, and that made me quite happy. But as the minutes went by we were joined by the Eppens on their tandem (ouch), Jim Cochran, Ryan Neninger, and finally, Jason McCartney, who was looking very, very tan. In the end, I think we had close to 30 people there.

The roll out south of town was nice and comfortable and I was pleased to see my former teammate Lee was back in town for the ride. We were able to ride together in the paceline for awhile and catch up on things. And then he prodded me into going for the first sprint of the ride, and for some reason I did. Of course, I'm not sure anyone else really wanted it since I got a gap fairly easily.

As I coasted into the left turn and tried to get my breathing under control the tandem train rolled through and dropped the hammer. And here is where my wheel sucking began. For the next 15 miles or so I was able to stay near the front, take the occasional pull, but mostly I just stayed in a spot that allowed me to spin as comfortably as I could.

This was actually not at all comfortable. Though it was a great vantage point to watch Jason roll between the back and front of the group, hands on top of the bars, looking around and smiling like he is on vacation. Though, I guess this is actually his vacation.

A few miles after we turned west into a semi-tough crosswind I lost it on a long climb. Lee kindly gave me a push back up to the group, but it wasn't enough. I was content, though. I made it farther than I thought I would, and I was able to catch up to a few of the other stragglers in the final miles. Maybe if I don't go for any silly sprints on Thursday I'll be able to finish the ride. Maybe.

Biking Against the Apocalypse

Sorry for the lack of updates; it is not because I have been on vacation. Though it appears that I have an unexpected vacation of sorts next week (perhaps I'll have time to get around to that Dirty Kanza report). As you all probably know by now, the rivers in Iowa are unified and rising up against, well, against everything. On Friday we all heard that the University of Iowa would be closing early and that we were not to report back to work until June 23rd. Crazy.

Although that Friday was a gorgeous day, the Iowa River was still rising quickly. So I changed into my grubby clothes and went down near the library to set up some sandbag walls. After three hours, my arms were done, so I came home and had beer.

The next morning was equally beautiful and the river had risen almost two feet in the night. So I went back down to the University to help out. It was hectic. A score of us were right on the water rapidly building a wall to prevent the Facilities Building from getting soaked. And we got it up. Hooray for us. After nearly four hours of solid work, though, my body was very tired.

I figured I had earned an easy bike ride, so I called Steve, who had also spent the last two days volunteering to save some much loved local businesses, and we decided to ride some gravel roads. Just before we left a large consolidated storm was developing north of Iowa City. No biggie, it looked like it would stay north (and the weather people said it would, too) so we went south towards the sunshine.

The storm slowly followed us, though. We would occasionally feel sprinkles, and then ride out of them. But we never really reached that elusive sunshine that was oh so close. And after 35 minutes or so of riding south we turned west and saw that the clouds were actually closer than we thought and looked downright tornado-ish.

Our thoughts were confirmed when Robin and Cody called almost simultaneously to inform us that big hail was falling from the sky and the tornado sirens were blasting. Robin urged us to go inside, and while I agreed that it was a good idea, we were kind of on the wrong side of the river to get to any sort of shelter. But since we were on bikes we decided to check out the closed bridge into the town of Hills anyways. As we rolled towards it the fields on either side of the road started to turn to water. They became veritable lakes, and we were only on a tiny stretch of pavement. It was at this time that I saw a series of puffy clouds coming down from the dark blue sky towards the ground. I asked Steve if that is how tornadoes form. He said maybe and brought up that moment in the blockbuster hit Twister when they were driving on a road similar to ours and saw some things in the air that should have been on the ground.


Lucky for us, there was no flying debris. And double lucky for us, we were able to cross the bridge into Hills. Once there we re-assessed the situation and decided to go into Iguana's for Negra Modellos and chips and salsa. It was a nice break, and the beer certainly calmed my nerves.

As the TV weather stations showed the storm moving east-southeast, we decided to ride west a bit before turning north and riding back into Iowa City. For the most part, the storm did not look quite as ominous as it had earlier. But that didn't last long. The wind seemed to be shifting, the temperature was dropping, and we were getting farther and farther away from the friendly blue skies and fluffy white clouds off in the distance. When we turned north we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would get very wet. Not a big deal, but when large bolt of lightening came down a short ways in front of us, we turned back around to re-think our plan.

None of our new plans were very good, though. And we had no idea if any of the bridges we normally ride over would even be open. Thankfully in the few minutes while we stopped to rest and discuss, the storm moved quite a ways to the east. So back north we went. As we crested a hill we saw not only a dry bridge, but also the universal sign that everything would be OK.

From this point on the roads were wet but we could see our shadows. This made us happy and we rolled into town as fast as our tired and somewhat out-of-shape legs would carry us. To aid in our momentum we rolled through a few stop signs and crossed Highway 6 before the light turned. Our luck, or good deeds, or karmah, or whatever, had run out, cuz the cops caught is on that one. Or was it? Steve took care of the smooth talking while I tried to sit and look pretty. And though the cop knew running lights was bad, she didn't really seem to understand bike laws. We decided not to push it. I got home still a little jittery from the whole event and decided another beer was in order.

I snagged these photos from the Press-Citizen and Des Moines Register websites, both of which have been doing a wonderful job of covering the flood. None of the pictures were taken near where Steve and I were, and none of them look quite as bad as the skies above us did, but they give you an idea.

The Bike

I spent much of Monday morning working on the bike I will ride in the Dirty Kanza. It was not all that fun, as I had not worked on this bike in years. But the outcome feels good.

As bikes go, it is not a very exciting bike. But since I like reading about other peoples' bikes, I figure I should post mine, too.

It is a pretty straight forward cyclocross bike. For the race changes, all I did was put on a (relatively) new 12-27 Ultegra cassette, a new chain, a new 38tooth chainring, and new 32mm Ritchey Speedmax tires. Oh, and I changed the shifter cables and added new brake pads.

For the race we are required to have taillights and headlights, the power level of these is up to us. Since my plan is to finish in the daylight, or just after the daylight ends, I am going with the minimalist approach. So on my handlebar I have a small LED Cateye and an itty bitty, but very bright, Trek light that I got for free from the Bike To Work Week ride. Hopefully that is enough.

My body is feeling good, too. The two weeks of rest and light rides have made my legs feel very refreshed. On today's ride the hills and wind were easy and I felt like I could have kept going for a long, long time without much difficulty. Hopefully I feel the same way on Saturday.

Relaxing

That has been the theme of the week. Robin's sister Meryl is in town and we have all had lots of quality hang out time. We've played lots of cards, drank lots of wine and beer, and ate some really good meals.

My legs were super tired from all the dirty centuries and group rides of late, so this week I relaxed on the bike, too. On Tuesday's group ride I turned around after an hour so I could spin home on my own. And on Wednesday I did a very slow reservoir loop and was lucky enough to run into Steve and Cody at the end. They invited me over for a beer and I could not refuse. We talked about many scary bike moments, good books, and of course, the fast approaching Dirty Kanza. I think I'm feeling ready, and I hope all of this rest will do me good. Unfortunately, the bike is not ready. But hopefully before the weekend is over it will be.

Today it was wet in the morning and dry and cool in the afternoon. I wanted to get out for another easy spin after work, but instead I took a nice long nap on the couch. But I guess that is good for recovery, too.

Tomorrow we go to Chicago to take Meryl to the airport and celebrate my Dad's birthday. So I have at least a couple more relaxing days ahead of me.

Assault and Century

On Saturday morning I woke up in the dark before my alarm went off. I felt good, despite having one too many beers once again on a Friday night. At 5:30AM I pulled on my bibs and put sunscreen on while I ate cereal and toast with peanut butter. The crunchy stuff. It was still chilly so I went with arm warmers, but no knee warmers, as I thought the day would warm quickly. Plus I also had two jerseys on. I decided to test the "six pockets, no bags" approach that I got from Steve. And I think he said he got it from Ira.

I rolled out the door a few minutes before 6. I briefly stopped by the public library to return some DVDs and then rolled east toward dirt. I got a little twisted around leaving town and ended up riding the shoulder on Rochester for a mile or so. I didn't think this was a good sign, but the sun was already shining on my face and there were no cars out, so that felt good.

I turned north and followed the same route as last weekend for awhile. Instead of looping east and over to West Branch, though, I decided to keep going north. I got near Sutliff and found myself on a bunch of gravel roads that I had never been on before. These were beautifully treed roads and they were very, very hilly. Not as hilly as the route I will encounter in Kansas, but the hills were large enough that I had to settle into a climbing rhythm on a few of them.

After tacking on a short loop up north I turned west and headed into the strengthening northwest wind. This road was much flatter and took me almost directly to Ely. Ely has a Casey's, and I have really come to rely on these for food stops. I quickly filled my bottles with water (no sugar, bad for the tummy) and downed an egg and sausage pizza before getting back to the gravel.

I continued to ride west and occasionally a little north. I skirted around the Eastern Iowa Airport, found lots of more new gravel, and finally turned south for some nice tailwind into the Amana Colonies. The Casey's in Amana was disappointing. No pizza. So I got some caffeine in the form of a sugary and fatty Starbucks drink and loaded up on cheesy crackers. When I checked out the clerk looked at me, sweaty, salty, helmeted, and holding crumpled bills in my gloved hands, and asked, in all seriousness, if I had any gas too. I was confused and could only reply with, "uh, no."

The gravel back towards Iowa City was sandy and bumpy. This is where I hit a little bit of a low point. My legs and lungs felt great, and my average speed was still going up. But I was grumpy. I just kept swearing at all the bumps and hills. I figured it was best to just keep eating, so I did, and I think that helped. I also had a big rise when I scored this sweet road prize:

I had just started riding on pavement as I finished my 80+ miles on gravel, so the pavement and beer find were definite bonuses. I'm not really a light beer kind of guy, but I sure wont turn them down.

I came in on the oh so popular IWV. Just a couple miles out of Iowa City a beige Ford Taurus buzzed me quite closely. Closer than I had been buzzed in years. His mirror was inches from my handlebar. I flipped him off after he passed to let him know that I did not appreciate his driving style. Normally I am a fan of the smile and wave approach, but this time I was tired and frustrated.

He slowed down and found a place to pull over on the next hill. I was not really in the mood for a rules of the road discussion, as I had about 96 miles and 6 hours in my legs. He stepped out of his car and came rushing at me in the middle of the lane screaming about how if I flip him off I better be able to back it up physically. This was definitely not going to be a discussion, but I proceeded anyway, telling him how buzzing me with his car is playing games with my life. In truth, I didn't really have time to get that out before he swung at my face with his right hand.

Thankfully I had taken Tae Kwon-Do as a sophmore at the University of Iowa. And even though I was tired and that class was 8 years ago, I quickly leaned back and to the right and threw my left arm up in the classic block move. My forearm pushed his punch wide and his fist barely struck my shoulder.

At this point I dropped my bike, jumped into the low ditch on the side of the road, and ran up the other side onto some poor woman's lawn. I had my cell phone out and was dialing 911. This irked the old man and he just kept screaming and then picked my bike up, raised it over his head, and threw it down into the ditch. He did not chase me anymore, but he did throw some dirt at me. He missed.

When the very friendly Sheriff showed up my assailant had already fled. I spoke with the officer and so did a very nice person in a truck who saw the whole thing and gave me his card. He is a defense attorney. I doubt anything will come of it all, but I will be sure to keep you posted if/when I hear back from the Sheriff.

After all that excitement I rolled home with a wobbly front wheel and the lovely Robin had lunch waiting for me. She is so wonderful. I was still a little shaken, but I quickly ate and showered and we were off to Chicago to see my family and pick up Robin's sister Meryl. This post is getting a bit long, so I will have to cut it short, but I will end with a map of the ride. Since many of the roads were new to me, I don't think this map is completely correct, but you get the idea.

Oh yeah, the ride was just barely over a century. 100.3something. It took me 6 hours and 20 minutes of riding and about 7 hours with the whole assault thing.