"I made the Grade"

Recently my girlfriend and I took a trip out to the Napa and Sonoma valley in CA to do some biking there. The scenery was amazing and the biking was excellent. Well rolled through field after field of grape vines for about 7 miles before we climbed out of the valley and made out way into the mountain rage that runs between Napa and Sonoma. The climbing was fairly tame except for one section that the locals call the Oakville Grade. The grade was average 13-15% for just over a mile. Not terrible but since I have not been training (more on this later) it was fairly challenging. The local tour company that we rented the bikes from offers a T-Shirt to anyone who climbs the Oakville grade that has the phrase "I made the Grade" printed on the front. The image is of me doing the climb. For anyone traveling to California I highly recommend taking the time to bike in and around Napa. And if you are a glutton for punishment go over and try and ride the grade.

Congratulations to Carlos Sastre and CSC!

Congratulaations to Carlos Sastre and CSC for riding a perfect Tour De France! After an unbeliavable individual time trail Sastre defended his yellow jersey and rode into Paris as the winner of the tour. What a show!

Slam Bam Thank You Mam

Pavement is hard. I found that out (again) about a week ago on a group ride with a group of riders that I had little experience riding with and should have know better. After about an hour of peddle drills working on efficiency and turning perfect cirlces I decided that I was tired of riding alone and maybe it would be fun to hook up with a group for a change. I generally avoid riding in club rides or groups since I find the riders unpredictable and a little dangerous. There is a local store that has a fairly large group that leaves every Sunday at 9 a.m. and since I was in the neighborhood and it was only 8:30 a.m. I decided to head on over. I got to the store a few minutes early and said a few pleasant hello's to some of the riders lined up to go and we all rolled out at about 9.

It was a pretty mixed group with respect to skills but it seemed, for the most part, everyone could hold their line and did not cross the wheel in front of them so I relaxed. The pace picked up after about 15 miles (mercifully) and there were two riders that I noticed were pretty good wheels to get onto so I eased my way up to tuck in behind those guys. I knew the area pretty well but not the exact route they were following so I did not really take any turns on the front, "besides," I thought to myself "I am always riding alone so let someone else work for a change". Somewhere around 20 miles everyone in the front started to get a little jumpy looking around and I could sense a line sprint coming. Sure enough, in a few moments the riders infront of me darted out and I reacted a little late but managed to get on the wheel of the second rider. I saw the line coming up but since I was on a compact cranket I was pretty sure I would not get it. I went for it anyway and got second on the line.

We sat up and waited for the group to catch us and rolled along sitting ont he front until we made a right turn on a major highway followed by a quick left and I drifted back a few places in the group and waited for the straggelers to catchup. I was thinking that this is why I used to hate club rides. Surge then wait, surge then wait. No solid pace lines and no one really works together. Then as if to contradict me, we all came together into a double pace line and it was immediately a steady pace.

I was just about to be impressed when two dogs shot out of nowhere on the right side of the road and started for the guy infront of me. I was reaching for my water bottle to squirt the dogs (which works really well) when the guy in front of me suilled like a little girl and vered hard left crossing the backwheel in front of him and was down instantly. Right in front of me. At 22 mph. I had time to say "fuck." And that was about it. I tried to bunny hop over the crumpled bike + rider on the groud in front of me but I guess I got caught on his peddles because my brand new Cervelo carbon bike was ripped from under me and I landed on my left should and skidded on the pavement to vicious halt on my back. The only thought was that I bet I am going to get run over by the other riders now so I rolled over on my stomach and on my hands and knees avoided the oncoming bikes that were madly swirving to avoid the wreck in front of them. I stood up and started the check-shoulders...not broken...hands...pretty cut up but not broken...legs....not a scratch???...torso...so but no broken ribs...maybe a torn ligament in my back but otherwise very lucky. I grabbed my bike...rims fine...frame fine...shifters...pop them back into place. Apart from some blood and road rash everything seemed fine. Except I am really angry.

I look for the bonehead who made us crash. He is under our bikes, not moving. People are starting rush over to us. "I am fine" I say and fight of some girl who is trying to take my jersey off. They get the guy up but he seems to be in a lot of pain. He cannot stand or move his left shoulder at all (broken coller bone and shoulder I would find out later) but there are a lot of people there and I already hear someone saying into their phone "we need an ambulence out on ...." so I grab my water bottles, what was left of my sunglasses and in a fit of anger I am off.

I have found that when I crash, if I am not hurt badly, that it is better to just get back on the bike. Don't ask me to explain it but it makes the pain go completely away. Adrenilin maybe. My hands are pretty shredded I start to notice. I did not wear gloves this particular day since I left them inside and my girlfriend was sleeping so I did not go back in to get them for fear of waking her. It is hard to hold the handle bars but I manage to make it back to my house before the temperature reached 96 degress. Talk about miserable. I am hot and covered in sweat and blood. I have a lot of trouble getting the jersey off. I can move th shoulder but the longer I am off the bike the worse the pain is getting. I look in the mirror and I was startled to see the extent of the road rash on my back. I cannot even feel it. I touch the area and notice that it is really bruised. I have a roadrash gumbo that is basically equal parts polysporin and cortisone that tends to work really well. So I spread this over my back and elbows as best I can. I try and rest but there is really no comfortable position. I take about 1 gram of Ibuprofin and park it on the couch. If the pain does not subside y tomorrow I will get an xray. To be continued...

Viva La Tour

If you have have not been watching the tour this year then you have missed one hell of a race! This has been one of the most exciting and interesting tours that I can remember. Even if you are jaded about the doping allegations in this year's tour it is hard to not enjoy the event for what it is...the greatest bike race in the world. The race is so close at this point it is difficult for anyone to predict who is going to be the clear winner. (For the record my money is on Cadel Evans)and that is the key factor in why the race is so exciting every time I tune in. Who knows what today's stage is going to bring?

If you have been watching the tour over several years then you might have noticed some marked changes in the way the race is being ridden. In the Armstrong years the field seemed much less matched. The Peleton would often breakup, especially in the mountain stages, and there were always a two to three really strong riders (Armstrong, Ulrich, and Basso for example) who would completely dominate. But this year a quick look at the time gaps shows that there are a lot of riders in contention for the overall GC and it will be interesting to look at the final average speed of the Tour and compare that number to previous years. I am going to go out on a limb here and predict that it will be less.

If you take these factors into consideration then it points to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the doping control is starting to become effective. Maybe we are seeing more contenders in the Peleton because it is becoming more of a level playing field since fewer riders are doping. Could this be the case? I hope so. Not taking anything away from the specialists in the race like sprinters or climbers but for the most part all of the pro riders are excellent athletes in top physical form and it seems to me that at this level there should be less time separating more riders than having on a few select "heads of state" dominating in the overall GC. Even the slowest rider in this most elite of the cycling events is several orders of magnitude stronger than the average club rider or Cat 4-5 racer. They all train in very similar manners and each team is run pretty much the same way so it does not really make sense that only a few riders would dominate the event (excluding the amazing Eddie Merxckx-who openly admits to taking amphetamines by the way) This is a very encouraging observation for the sport of cycling and might be the first indicator that things are finally moving in the right direction.

Horrific Crash in Mexico

It seems like this blog has become about little more than the dangers of cycling and I have been trying to limit these posts but I had to show this. This is an image from a recent crash in Mexico in which a drunk driver crossed the median and collided head on into a local bike race about 15 minutes into the race. The only word I can find to describe this picture is "horrific."

Rider Down

I just read an email stating that a local rider, Danny Thomas, was on a weekend training ride in the mountains and had a pretty bad crash. He was descending Sourtownn near Piolet Mtn when he ran off the road, cracked three of his ribs, punctured his lung, and was lucky to be alive by the time he was admitted to the hospital in the afternoon.

Two weeks ago a rider in our club, Cliff Swanson was out on a Sunday ride with his wife, Wendy when an elderly woman ran them down on Carpenter Pond Road grazing Cliff and putting his wife in a coma for several days. Wendy is awake now and in recovery but she will never really be the same.

Before that an elderly rider was killed on his way home in North Raleigh and it has not been a year yet since Andy Stewart's wife Emily was hit by a car and killed on her way to work during her daily commute.

My girlfriend Carol hit a pot hole and went down hard on Carpenter Pond road about two years ago, cutting her head and injuring her shoulder. She ended up with stitches in her scalp and her shoulder still bothers to this day.

Our sport is dangerous, no doubt about it. I worry when I am out. When is my number up? When is it my turn. Or worse, when is it Carol's? I ride my bike to work every dawn in heavy traffic into RTP with bad roads and hardly any bike lanes. For the most part the drivers are courteous. But it is always in the back of my mind. Carol and I went out this past Sunday and rode from Patterson to Stem via Butner. The traffic was pretty light but I was scared for her the whole time. She was drafting and I kept looking back to see what was coming and where she was. I did not dare ride away from her at anytime for fear of making it harder to pass us and then some idiot would nail one of us trying to avoid oncoming traffic.

It is getting to the point that it is hard to enjoy riding. Almost every week I hear about another crash or another accident with a car. I live in fear. With a kind of macabre certainty. I still ride. I still go to the mtns to train. I still descend at 50 mph and I still ride my bike to work everyday. I have been riding avidly for more than 5 years now. I have not been involved in a single crash or incident with a car. I would like to think that I am a skilled bike handler and this has contributed to my continued avoidance of accidents. But the reality is that I have just been lucky. I saw Dave Zabriskey go down the other day in the Giro. He is a pro with hundreds of thousands of miles experience and he still crashed out of the Giro. It is not skill. It is luck. And now I wonder all the time when my luck is going to run out.

St. Patricks Day Ride

The 2008 St Patty's Day ride from the Trek store in North Raleigh was a good day for me. The pace was pretty fast from the start so my initial impression was that I would be struggling to hang on all day. It was a 100 km ride so I knew that it would only be about three hours of suffering. So my strategy was just to hung on for the first hour and hope that things would mellow. Then I would just sit on for the last two hours and try to survive the run up Six Forks and Durant roads. The route was sort of standard Gyro fare including such favorites as Mt Vernon Church, Olive Chapel, Kemp, and the last climb up Durant. After the first 15 minutes I was feeling pretty good. I decided to go for it and took the first sprint point on Olive Chapel. It was only me and another Gyro and I am not sure how hard he was trying. We skipped the first few rest stops and the pace was a nice steady 19.9 mph for the first hour. The group thinned out a bit and by the last 10 miles or so. We had about 20 people left. We headed back to the Trek Store via Olive Chapel and I started to feel the burn a bit. I was woking on being as efficient as possible. I got near the front on Leesville Rd and it looked like I was going to have to take a pull but we made a left turn and the group reorged putting back in the middle somewhere. We got to Mt. Vernon and I was really dreading the climb up but there was a rest stop at the top and I knew the main group was planning to stop since it was the last one. I made it up the climb saving as much energy as possible and to my dismay there was no reststop there. We pressed on and the group got a little smaller. We made a right on six forks and there were two fairly steep climbs and I managed to stay in contact with the main group which was down to about 12 people by then. I started to move forward on the last climb up Durant and the last section before the store was flat and suited me fine given my weight and height. I got on the front but everyone was glued right to my wheel so I dropped back a bit to save some energy. With about 1 mile to go the speed really kicked up and we were streched out. The run up to the store was coming fast and at about the last 100 meter I kicked up to about 14 on the back and sprinted with everything I had. No one was near me when I cossed the line first. All in all it was a good day and I look forward to doing some more rides with the Gyro's up in North Raleigh.