Campy Veloce Compact crank for sale

Well, its been a couple weeks now and there has been absolutely no improvement on how my legs feel with this damn Veloce crankset. It's about a centimeter wider than the old crank and it just is not agreeing with my legs. I was comfortable in my races this weekend, but just could not generate power. I noticed this last year with new the cross bike. I swiped the crankset from that bike to put on this one and the phenom followed to this bike. It's got to be the cranks. I noticed this one time before when I used Dura-Ace on my GT bike. I'd noticed the same issues and in looking at the bike closer I'd noticed that the Dura-Ace was even wider than what the Veloce I'm using now is. I had exactly the same issues. I wasn't working hard, the breathing was normal, I felt ok, I just couldn't move the legs to crank out the really hard efforts. So, I'm putting this crank up for sale and getting another one. My FSA Gossamer crankset that I'd used on my old cross bike is going on the bike today. I'd had decent results with it a couple years ago so I think I'll give it a whack. I know I didn't have the power issues I had now when using it so it might be a fit on the road bike.

Mistakes

Last weekend was a good one for me on mistakes. First, I used a new bike with only 15 miles on it for a race. Even though it felt ok, the feet positioning weren't quite right on it and it just didn't go as well as it could have. I've been racing for over 24 years now and I should know that you don't just put a bike together, ride it around for a couple miles and then go race on it if it isn't the exact same thing as the old bike. The bike does look cool and isn't that what it's all about anyway? After that poor excuse for a time trial, I spent the next couple afternoons riding the Philly course sans sleeves. Common sense says use sunscreen and pull the damn sleeves down on the shirt. Well, the sunscreen was gone after an hour of sweating and I'd forgotten to use it on Sunday. I'm currently sitting with shoulders that are seriously burnt and sore. After the skin peeling is done, the shoulders are probably going to look a bit spotty instead of a bit more tan like I was hoping. I guess I'm that example for all to look at and say 'nope, that's not going to happen to me.'

Philly

I got to stop by Philly this past weekend for the pro race this week. It was cool to see Mike Friedman there. He's one of the local 'Pittsburgh boys done good'. He's been having a pretty good year this year and it was exciting to see him all over the front matching moves, trying to get into the one that was going to stick in the last few miles of the race. Unfortunately the last time around Independence hall, he got swarmed and finished in the teens. It made for great viewing and I was yacking with him mom and stepdad as the final short circuits were starting. It would have been good to see a teammate up there helping pull some of the moves back so Mike didn't have to react to everything, but after a long hot day like that, maybe they weren't able to. In the women's race there were also a couple teams from the Baltimore and DC area there. It was cool to see some of them actually hanging in with the main group. Arley Kemmerer looked pretty good going up the hill though she wound up finishing in a group about 8 minutes down. I would imagine that alot of that time was from the 'damn, it's hot and we're dropped. Let's just ride in to the finish and be done with it'. She's one of the several crossers from the MABRA/MAC series there and it's good to see them racing in an event of this stature. On a day like yesterday, anyone who finished had to go through quite a bit to do so. The girls who were off the back in the first couple laps were getting cheered on just as much as the front runners. Their race was over, but they were still climbing and making the effort to get up the hill and keep going. You have to admire that when it would've been much easier to just bag it and go find some shade and a cool drink which is incidently what I was doing at this point. I finally got some good sun for the day though the ol' Irish skin was a bit redder than I would like. But it was a good day. I got to see some friends, enjoy a good race and even found a source for some good remedies for the physical issues I have had to deal with over the years. On top of that, I was mistaken for someone who was in their early 30s. The lady could have been someone who had just been out in the sun for a bit too long, the old 'let's massage the ego of this poor sap so he buys some stuff from us' or maybe I'm not showing the years as bad as I think. I'm not going to quibble over it though. I have to take the compliments when I can get them.

Political Commentary

Well, I think this is my first political statement here. I generally don't post political stuff online since I'd probably scare people in doing it. But the one comment about the upcoming election I will post is said all in this nifty picture from a wonderful little website I found several years ago and refer back to it many times, Despair.com. With the word "Change" being used so much in campaign speeches, this picture would be one to remember no matter who you plan on voting! Go to Despair.com and buy some stuff now! I'm on commission.

Climbing that big climb

WARNING! They don't let just anybody ride in this area.

Well, I have the 2nd round in the West Virginia road series coming up. Of course, there are some god-awful big climbs on it. The first is a 7 mile stepping climb and the race finishes on a 5 mile 'we did this because we like to see racers suffer' climb. It does finish near the windmills at the top of the ridge. I guess watching those come into view might help keep me from thinking about how much the climb hurts and how much I want to throw up. The climbs are not quite as high as the ones at the Mountain State Classic, but any climb over a mile for an old crit rider like myself is going to be tough. Last year, I cracked off most of the pack in the first major climb in the Mountain State til I followed a couple rapid accelerations near the top. I should've known to just keep myself steady since I'm not the light mountain goat I used to be. Nothing like trying to climb mountains when you are almost 20lbs over what you used to consider race weight. The next time you are snickering at some poor sap like myself, get a haversack and put 2 gallons of milk in it, then try climbing a hill. You'll see what sort of hell we have to go through. Anyhoo, enough whining and complaining about things I totally have control over. This past weekend, I finally got into the Laurel Highlands to do some training. These are the mountains that were used for Nationals the past couple years and further on up the ridges, the Tour de Toona. This is home turf for me. I do love coming up into those hills and have done rides where I've been over 4 and 5 major ridge crossings where the climbing is an average of 1200 ft per climb. It makes for a full day, especially when there are lots of little 2-400 ft pops between the climbs. The scenery on the tops is nice. Here's a few photos from Sunday's ride which took me over the ridges 3 times.

The first one was pretty tough at a 7.5% average grade. It wasn't too long, but I did have to work at it. The second one was about the same and the third while not as steep, was the hardest of all. It wasn't so much the climb was tough, but the only easy way out of the park was the way you came in. The road is broken and not taken care of and really beats the hell out of you if you're coming down the hill at over 25mph. I used to drop the cars at the top and they wouldn't see me til they were able to open it up at a couple miles to the bottom and could take it up over 50. Over the years, I'd had a few cars try to keep up with me and they'd almost wind up wrecking. It's tough to go fast on the descent now with all the potholes and bumps. If you weren't tired at the top, you certainly were at the bottom. It's almost as bad as some of the gnarly descents I've been on in a mountain bike race. There's also no catching any scenery on the way down either. Take your eyes off the road for one second and you are definitely smacking something that is going to make your day miserable. On the whole though, it was a great ride. I have to get a few more of these to get ready for the summer races. I really need about 3 weeks off from work. Any rich women out there want to take care of me so I can get some training in? I'm a pretty good cook and I can sing and dance too.

Some pics from the top above the Rolling Rock Farms (Favorite Haunt of the Mellons, Scaifes, etc. )

Microsoft SUCKS!

I'm just going off on a rant here. I'm working on a project for a client. It's not a difficult one, but it does happen to be in Microsoft Access. This used to be a nice programming system for those 'quick and dirty' applications. You could make it do quite a bit but then, they decided it should have more programming power. Then they shut off alot of the old functions that used to work so well. Then they changed the command structure again til it's little more than QuickBasic that I used to use 20+ years ago with a forms and report generator with a database backend. This is progress? This is what they want customers to blow several hundred dollars on every few years? I think Bill has been smoking something up in that high tech pushbutton command center of an office of his. The worst part is the people in the corporate world just keep going right along with the upgrade process. I have one thing to say for these people - Baaaaaaaa (how do you type out the sound a sheep makes?). When I take over the world econcomy and the corporate IT structure, we'll all be on a Windows 2000/XP pro desktop and a FreeBSD server. This is the general setup most of my clients have and you know, I just don't have the nasty problems some companies have with their computers and it's all done pretty inexpensively. Does the world need prettier pictures on the desktop? Some might, but for the rest of us, save the money and stick with what works and isn't a pain in the ass. Otherwise, just go buy a MAC. It's really FreeBSD behind the OS X window dressing. Steven Jobs, please send the check to this address.....

Up, up and into the ground hard

Just when I saw a resurgence in my form, I got shelled in 2 straight races. The first at BikeJam was totally my fault. It was the kind of course where you make no bones about getting to the front of the group as quick as you can in the first few laps and then recover and hold your position. From a back row starting position, I moved up about halfway and then started the recovery process. I just wasn't far enough up the line. In the space of 3 laps, I found myself several riders behind a split heading towards the sharp corners before the rise to the finish line. Since no one else was moving, I jumped across the gap and made it back on at the top of the hill. I made it just in time for an acceleration at the front. Damn, it was hurting now. Going through the tight turns again at the bottom, another rider almost bunged things up by shooting the inside of the corner. Some people just shouldn't do crits. It was a bit of a weird line, but if you were trying to keep the speed up through the turn, you had to delay going into sharp left hand turn so you'd then have no problem shooting through it and being up to speed with no major cost. These guys were diving into the turn, braking out when they realized they were overcooking it and then having to sprint out. I generally like to keep my efforts a bit more on the smooth side. A second effort to stay with the field made things tougher and up over the top, I just couldn't keep the speed up after the roundabout and was trying to tag onto other wheels who were having to make the same kind of efforts I was. In the end, we all lost as we got separated. One final burst got me back to the field heading into the turns at the bottom again, but I just didn't have the horsepower to stay there. I settled back into a group and a few of us started working together. Unfortunately, we were in the group of riders who were destined for that early finish. They didn't even give us a 'You suck' prime to sprint for. The second indignity of the day came a few laps later when the pace vehicle got close and we were pulled. 3 hours of driving to do a dozen miles. I gotta start getting to these things earlier. No warmup on a course like that just is not a good thing. I did get some good sun though and even was able to work on trying to overcome the cyclist tan while watching the women's and men's pro events. I also test rode a Stork bike there. This was a stupid light bike, but it certainly fit the bill as a good stiff racer. The price is a bit steep, but if you don't mind having a bike that will be lucky to survive a single fall, this is a good one. Who needs a house anyway? The race organizers did an ok job of trying to get vendors in too. It would have been nice to have more though. Maybe they need to learn from the St. Alban's crit people who incorporated a whole festival around the race. They get a decent crowd of the town's people there to see the races. And where else but in West 'by God' Virginia, would there be a 'Cornholing' Contest? That'll bring the crowds out. They sure know how to have fun down in them there hills.
http://www.grassrootsriding.com/SAGP2007.html

On Sunday, it was time to try to erase some bad memories of a mountain bike race in the WVMBA series. It was in this race I learned two things. The first was 'DO NOT TO FORGET TO DRINK EARLY AND OFTEN'. When dehydration hits in a mountain bike race, it hits hard and there's no faking it after that. The second was 'Don't heckle Betsy Shogren when you catch her'. I got my ass kicked a second time for that. I tried staying with her and after the second climb, the effort as well as the dehydration brought on that wonderful host of sparkly lights and light-headedness that just ended my day. I had gone past the point of no return and bagged it. This year would be different. Well, it was different, but the same result. Two miles in, I could feel the back bitching already. Carryover from losing a battle with an 81 Malibu at high speed has a way of coming back and haunting one. On top of that, this was the first time I'd been on the mountain bike in two weeks where I'd had a near out of body experience when my brakes went out on a very big and rocky descent. I found I had zero confidence in going down the drops and it wasn't getting any better. After a while, I ran up the white flag and rode it in with another rider who'd also done the same. Getting passed by a couple on a tandem just made things worse. On the plus side though, I didn't get dehydrated. But I definitely have to get out on the trails for some skills training to help get the ol' confidence back. With no zip on those descents, there's not a whole lot of point in me racing and that's not a feeling I like to have.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned Al Oliver last post. I could be paying for that one.