Sunday, May 30, 2010

Status update: Long weekend... going well

Hey Everybody,

I gotta say that so far this has been a great weekend. Hanging out with friends, telling stories, drinking. I got in some quality coffee shop time (increasingly rare these days) and today we even played a round of folf. The down under at Rosedale is awesome, just be sure to keep an eye out for the Predator.

Now i'm going for a bike ride and i think it's gonna be a wet one. It should be nice.

Music

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Happy Friday!

Hey Gang,

So yesterday was friday. We ate ice cream and did critical mass. Ice cream goes great with casual bike riding. Sorbet's are best. Preferably raspberry. It's manly.

Music


Thursday, May 27, 2010

Somethingclassicin...Tennessee (plus some bike race pic's)

Hey Gang,

i got a lot to talk about... but talk is cheap so we're going the picture route instead.

Music

Love ya, bye


Missouri State Championship Road Race...



Driving from St. Genevieve, MO to The Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN. A lot of it was a fun drive thru small town America...



Vacationing in and around Smithville, TN...



Vacationing in and around Smithville, TN. Day two...



Vacation is nice but it's also nice to come back home, KC in the house...


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Race Recap... Missouri State Championships

Hey Gang,

I'm still on vacation but it turns out they have the internet in Tennessee so i decided to do a post. So here it is, my race recap for the Missouri State Champ's Road Race.

Race Recap: So the race starts and it's hot. Probably 80 to 85 degrees. i'm one of about 75 in the cat 5 race. It was not a good race for me.

In the first ten minutes i managed to do drop a water bottle, whoops, plus it was the one with the drink mix, leaving me with one small bottle containing water only. i waved goodbye to the bottle (literally) and soldiered on. As the race progressed things were going pretty well, i was having no trouble riding at the front and was in the top three at the top of the first hill (i counted 3 'hills' total but the whole course was rolling... very fun, too)

It was at the top of the second hill that things went pear shaped. At this point we're probably 20 miles into the 35 mile race. This hill was longer than the first but i was still riding well, spinning quickly in the little ring and sitting in the top ten. As we neared the top i shifted up to the big ring and the chain got stuck. F*ck! This happened before in another race and it's a bitch to get back on. For some reason you cant fix it by just down shifting and up shifting again, i tried anyway but it was hopeless, so i had to get off the bike. For about 15 seconds i just stood there defeated as rider after rider passed me. Then i quit my pouting and reached down to put the chain on. It went on surprisingly easy and i felt stupid for throwing my little pity party instead of fixing the problem immediately. By the time i was back on the bike the 'broom wagon' was right on my ass, meaning i was now in dead last.

So now i'm in the drop's and hammering it, well, hammering it as much as a cat 5 who likes to party can hammer. But i felt good, passing people left and right and hoping i'd catch the group. Then i hit the last hill, it was the biggest. About halfway up i had to dial it down before i blew up. i hit the top and still had the juice to ramp up the speed. i hooked up with another guy who was still looking for action and the two of us ping ponged it for about 5 miles. By this point the group was long gone but i still wanted to go hard all the way to the end. After all, it is a race.

Unfortunately the plan of going hard to the end hit a snag when we missed a turn, then 'the end' became father away than it was supposed to be. Given everything that had already happened... dropped bottle, dropped chain, missed turn, i soft pedaled into the finish. i was upset but not totally pissed. At least i felt good physically and i think i could have done well... i just need to get the rest of my s*it together.

So that was it. i think i finished in 49 place.

Besides myself the team had a good crew show up and they rode pretty well. This sport is becoming more and more fun.

Okay, back to vacation for me.

Adios,

Saturday, May 22, 2010

This is an ancient technique... it's called power stance.

Hey Gang,

Last night we had KC Sprints at Volker Velowerx. Bike to work week is great even if you don't bike to work because there are still events happening all over the place, a la last night. The KC Sprints guys are cool and they do a great job. It's some intense racing. i highly recommend checking it out next time it's happening. As far as the racing, Somethingclassic held his own but some of those dude's are fast.

So now i'm headed off to St. Genevieve, MO for some more bike racing, although this won't be the stationary type. It's the Missouri State Championship Road Race, stay tuned for a full report... from the slow race.

After that i'm going on vacation so i'll be gone for a couple days.

SomethingclassicinTennessee!

Stay Tuned.

Music (Bonus points if you can identify the guy on keyboards, the one who looks like Jeremiah Johnson, not the one who looks like a cross between Adrian Brody and Steve buscemi.)
Ciao


Thursday, May 20, 2010

1st Annual... Coca-Cola Classic Bicycle Race

Hey Gang,

How are you doing? Me, i'm doing great. Tonight we had the first annual Coca-Cola Classic bike race. In a nutshell, we raced to a grocery store, bought something, and raced back, it was a hard. In order to get from downtown (where the race started) to westport (the location of the grocery store) your forced to go up a giant hill, of course the flip side of that coin is that you get to go down it on the way back. If you bought a two liter of Coke you got a 5 min time bonus, i was already in about last so i bought a payday candy bar. it was delicious.

A good crew showed up and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

The plan is to do these races on the 3rd Thursday of every month with the start / finish always being Volker Velowerx at 18th and Wyandotte. Be there or be square, daddy-o.

Music


Adios


Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Announcement: Alley Cat Race this Thursday

Hey Gang,

That's right, there will be an Alley Cat Starting and ending at the new Volker Bike Shop down at 18th and Wyandotte, in the Cross Roads part of town. i don't know any more details other then it will be simple and fun. Perhaps Mr. Volker himself can leave a comment with more details?

See everyone Thursday!

Besides that... you know it's a good day when you can take you're shoes off at work. Plus tonight was the Tuesday night crits. eventually I'm going to get 20 people riding down those switch backs.

We all have stories.

Music
Live long and prosper


Monday, May 17, 2010

One Water Bottle to Rule Them All

Hey Gang,

Sometimes i think that if i had enough time i could make this the best blog ever, i also think the same about cycling. If i had enough time i could be amazingly fast. The former is likely much closer to being possible then the latter, although there are some very entertaining blog's out there... so i guess i'll just take what i can get. And it's not like i have the time anyway, so why worry about it. When you don't have time it's time to roll with the punches.

Enjoy the photos!

Music
Ciao


Wednesday, May 12, 2010

11 photos and some text (bike heavy)

Hey Everybody,

I've been itching to get my camera back so i could unload these wonderful kodak moments and share them with you fine people.

But first...

Music

The first batch of photos is from friday, it was also first friday which means the art galleries were open, it was also the grand opening of the new Volker Bike Shop, actually i think it's going to be called Volker Velowerx. Head down to 18th and Wyandotte and check it out. Very cool.


Saturday was the Robidoux Roundup Mountain Bike race in St. Joe, Missouri.
  • Race Recap: It's hard to be motivated when your riding in the woods all by yourself, for over two hours. Despite that, it's always nice to ride some great trails in what was perfect weather. I did the 3 hr race and for most of it there wasn't another racer in site. It was kind of eerie. The race / trails were at Krug Park, check it out.


Last night was Tuesday night crits. We all have stories.

Ciao