Finally! A way to get my upgrade

I shouldn't be advertising this and just keep it a secret for myself, but I've finally found a way to dramatically increase my CX standings:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330193492270

I've got to hurry though, the auction ends Dec-04-07 11:47:29 PST. It looks like a sure thing too, as the seller does a good job of responding to any questions!


UPDATE:

It looks like I'm not the first one to the party after all. But if I can get my hands on these points, I might be inclined to share them with others in need, or to resell them to the highest bidder!

2007-11-24 BA CX#3 Broadview Hts

Dirty Bikes!,
originally uploaded by gburkhol.

This Saturday's CX race was true to tradition for the Fields. Snow started in the evening on Thanksgiving and by Friday morning there were a couple of inches on the ground. Sadie and I wanted to pre-ride the course on Friday; but first a trip to Bike Authority was in order to pick up a new CX bike. Sadie's RedLine track bike wouldn't have the tire clearance to handle the snow, ice, and mud buildup. The last of the '07 bikes are priced to move at BA. Shawn got Sadie setup with a shorter stem and took off the extra brake levers. He also said that Rudy and team were down setting up the course, which would be run in reverse from last week.


Come Saturday, some of the snow had melted, but this had just made more MUD to bog down in. Luckily, reversing the course meant that we would be riding down the sled hill which had been a tough run up last week. The other big difference was the gravel descent which led to a small bridge and up a steady gravel climb on the other side.

The Start/Finish was near the top parking lot and the course lead quickly into the single track at this point. I didn't get a good position at the line, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway as I chose too high of a gear and spun/got bogged down in the mud. Once I got moving, I was able to build good momentum and move from near last place to the top 15 by the first turn. I was able to pick off a couple more people before we got to the single track, but at this point passing wasn't really possible.

I did manage to pick up a place or 2 in the woods and then caught another rider on the gravel climb. Surprisingly, I caught Cameron Jackson right before going between the two baseball fields and down the hill. The rest of the race was jostling back and forth for position between me, Jack Turner, and a rider from Team Awesome. Tony Marut had flatted so we ended up catching him with 2 laps to go, but he wasted no time coming back and overtaking the 3 of us.

The loop from the parking lot around the soccer field and back to the lot was really bogging me down and taking it's toll. When a attack came here leading into the last lap, I didn't respond in time and got gapped. I maintained position from here to the finish and grabbed another 9th place finish.

Pics of the 'A' Race are posted here.

What coulda been...

Pics from both the Broadview races in 2005. Right now, it looks like the weather will be good for this Saturday's race.

Hopefully Copley's will be good too.

(Although I'm certain it won't be in the 60's like it was last year)

2007-11-18 BA CX#3 Broadview Hts

Sunday's Bike Authority CX race was one of the best course designs I'd ridden on and the best I'd ever finished (9th) at The Fields in Broadview Heights. The weather was perfect for CX; far and above the snow and slop we raced thru in 2005. The innovative Cannondale "C" on the descent provided a great challenge and good amusement for those watching from the far hill.

Having made the mistake of not typing something up right after I raced, I don't remember much. But several other racers have posted their accounts (leave a comment if you have a blog you'd like me to link to):

Rick, John, Ray, Brett, Ernesto, Robert, Bill, Shawn, Julie, and Drew (who has an AWESOME video of the start of the 'B' race)

I on the other hand will give a photographic account of the 'A' race on Flickr.

John before the finish with the Cannondale "C" in the distance.

Getting some miles in

I was able to take Monday off and get 53 quality miles in with Sadie on the towpath. The weather looked a little iffy at first and throughout the day. We got started in the early afternoon, and missed the brief down pour just before unloading the bikes in the parking lot. There were a couple of other quick showers, one of which we stopped for under a bridge, but we pretty much stayed dry all the way to Akron.

The towpath had been extended about 1/4 mile further south and you could see where they are currently working on extending it further (within view of the First Energy building). Turning around, we had a slight tail wind and the towpath is downhill going north. Right before we got back to the car, there was a steady light rain for the last mile or so. Just enough for us to know we were pretty lucky to stay dry as long as we did.

Rick was bummed that we didn't drag him out (he's not a fan of the towpath). But he had his revenge yesterday; see the following link:

http://web.mac.com/blwmiller/iWeb/Brooke%20Miller%27s%20Official%20Cycling%20Site/Blog/CAC0904B-FAFE-4AF8-AF14-EA979F98F1A8.html

SPIN CX results are up:

Click here for the results of the Spin CX race:

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dt95m24_51gzv6zm&pli=1

SPIN - Cross your Heart and hope to DIE

John E. and Dave S.,
originally uploaded by gburkhol.

Today's cyclocross race was put on by Spin in Willoughby, OH. I got conned by Mehul into doing the A race since only 2 other people had signed up at the time and they were paying out 10 deep. The final field ended up being about 20 guys. Had I raced the B race, I probably would have had a pretty good chance at placing, since there were only about 5 guys who weren't racing masters.

The race turned out to be a bust for me, since I flatted less than 1/4 mile into the 2nd lap of the 1.8 mile course. The spot where I flatted also claimed Paul Martin on the first lap and Brett Davis around the 4th or 5th lap. It was a dip perpendicular to the course which had gotten muddy and rutted up as the day went on. I had run the spot on the first lap, but tried riding it on lap 2. When my wheel went into the mud, I felt a solid bump and heard hissing. I thought I had pinch flatted at first. I was running a Tufo Elite LPS tubular clincher on the front at about 38 psi. I really didn't think I had hit hard enough to pinch flat, and it turned out that I hadn't. Upon checking the tire there was a 1/2 inch long cut which was at about a 45* angle to the tread. Chalk up another $60 tire tragedy this year.

There were 2 bright sides to flatting though: I avoided the utter PAIN of doing what turned out to be about an hour and 15 minute race for some people, and I was able to take some decent pics of the A race. Pics are posted HERE Needless to say, when Rick saw that I wasn't racing he wasn't too pleased. I had talked him into doing the A race...

I'll give a short description of the course, but I'm thinking John, Ray, or Rick will go into more detail. The start was on pavement, continued up a wide sidewalk, through the parking lot, and to the spot where I flatted. After the dip, there was a run-up with 4 switch backs taking you up and down the side of a hill. The turns were off camber and the climbs didn't have much traction, so several people were running this part.

Then after shooting down you hit a short steep pop over a roadway and around a off camber turn where you had to avoid going into the reeds. Ride out on the grass and switch back along the edge of a gravel parking lot. A well banked turn and a few more turns snaked you through the parking lots down a paved path and back onto the grass. There was a few tight turns and switch backs along the river and a 3 foot high log dismount, which one guy on a MTB was able to bunny. A uphill switchback and then some more turns taking you into a straight stretch with a double barrier leading to the pit area.

After the pit was a few wrapping turns back and forth around some trees. There was a turn around a ball field and a quick switch back and another hard right turn. At this point you could finally open up in the grass for a few hundred feet. Making a couple of sweeping turns brought you up to a point where you rode a little ways up the hill and then had a really off camber switchback across and then down the hill.

Ride out and turn around a light pole and then ride back to the hill. This time you get to go all the way straight up the hill for about 100 feet. There was a barrier 20 feet up the hill to force you to dismount, not like riding this hill was even possible. There was barely enough traction to run up it, and it was STEEP. At the top, you turned right and then right again to remount and plummet down the hill going at least 20mph. 40-50 feet after the bottom there was a switch back on the edge of a ball diamond which was muddy, rutted, and slick. You had to practically lock your brakes up to be able to slow enough from the descent to make the turn.

After the turn, there was a stretch of grass and then a quick jog up a rise, where the traction was a little sketchy. Ride along the top, cut around a pine tree, go down around the fence, to get to another 'S' turn leading onto another muddy ball diamond. Cross behind home plate and keep your momentum from carrying you into the fence while you turned right. You then got to circle to the left past the fence and ride through a picnic shelter where some cool tunes where playin. At this point you were on the pavement which took you past the wheel pit again and through the start/finish.

I hope I painted a nice visual of the pain that this course dealt to those who got to do a complete race on it today. The pics over at Flickr will show you what I mean. Snakebite had a really good showing today with all of our racers doing the A race and with John E claiming 10th place for the final money spot. Awards took place afterwards at the Willoughby brewing company in true CX fashion. Kudos to Greg and the guys from Spin on putting on a great race!

.

New and Improved BIKEAUTHORITY.COM

Be sure to browse over to the new Bike Authority website at http://www.bikeauthority.com The graphics and layout are great and much better than other sites that I've seen. There are also some awesome deals on '07 bikes from C'dale and Cervelo HERE



Also, this is the LAST DAY that you can vote for Bike Authority on Cleveland's Best Businesses Fox 8 Hot List:

http://myfoxcleveland.cityvoter.com/details.aspx?business=24464

You can view all the rave reviews here

UPDATE: The Current Standings are now secret for the final days of voting.

Will Supermice mean Supermen?

Check out this article on some of the latest resarch from Case Western Reserve University:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=220&objectid=10473819&ref=rss

Excerpts from the article where CWRU professor of biochemistry, Richard Hanson, describes the "supermouse":

"They are metabolically similar to Lance Armstrong biking up the Pyrenees. They utilise mainly fatty acids for energy and produce very little lactic acid. They are not eating or drinking and yet they can run for four or five hours. They are 10 times more active than ordinary mice in their home cage. They also live longer - up to three years - and are reproductively active for almost three years. In short, they are remarkable animals.

"On the downside, they eat twice as much as control mice, but they are half the weight, and are very aggressive. Why this is the case, we are not really sure."

"We humans have exactly the same gene. But this is not something that you'd do to a human. It's completely wrong. We do not think that this mouse model is an appropriate model for human gene therapy. It is not possible to introduce genes into the skeletal muscles of humans and it would not be ethical to even try."

Hanson acknowledged it would be possible that athletes could abuse any future drug developed using these findings.

Looks like Dr. EPO has some professional competition.

;)

Wish me luck...

Tracking Number: 109xxx
Request Date: 11-07-07
Status: Open and Pending Approval
Member: Gary B.
Request Type: Cat Chg-
Assigned To: Jeff Aufdencamp
Description: xxxxxx - 2007-11-07 19:11
Member: Gary B.
License: Road Racer
Request to change category from Cat 4 to Cat 3

Member Explanation/Resume:
Date - Event - Location - Type - Category - Results - Field - size - Permit#

9/25/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "A" Race field approx 30
9/18/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "A" Race field approx 30
9/11/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "A" Race field approx 30
9/9/2007 Freewheeler Fall Challenge Peninsula, OH USCF RR Cat 4/5 11th place approx 20 2007-1823
8/28/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "A" Race field approx 40
8/21/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "A" Race field approx 40
8/14/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "A" Race field approx 40
7/21/2007 Troy Classic on the Square Troy, OH USCF Crit Cat 4 DNF approx 35 2007-1692
7/7/2007 Ohio State RR Championships Danville, OH USCF RR Cat 4 4th place field 26 2007-283
7/3/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "A" Race 4th place approx 20
7/4/2007 Twin Sizzler Medina, OH RR Elite 34 under field approx 45
6/26/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "A" Race DNF approx 40
6/12/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "A" Race field approx 30
5/29/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "B" Race 4th place approx 25
5/20/2007 Chippewa Creek RR Brecksville, OH ABR RR Cat 4 13th place field 29
5/12/2007 RATL Series #4 Munroe Falls, OH USCF Crit Cat 4 1st place approx 30 2007-440
5/8/2007 2007 Westlake Race Series Westlake, OH Training Crit "B" Race 5th place approx 25
5/5/2007 RATL Series #3 Munroe Falls, OH USCF Crit Cat 4 field approx 30 2007-440
4/29/2007 Team Akron Spring Race Series Akron, OH USCF RR Cat 4/5 3rd place approx 30 2007-885
4/22/2007 Team Akron Spring Race Series Akron, OH USCF RR Cat 4/5 field approx 30 2007-885
4/21/2007 RATL Series #1 Munroe Falls, OH USCF Crit Cat 4 field approx 30 2007-440

Final hours of the Fox 8 Hot list

Time is running out to vote for Bike Authority on Cleveland's Best Businesses Fox 8 Hot List:

http://myfoxcleveland.cityvoter.com/details.aspx?business=24464

You can view all the rave reviews here

UPDATE: The Current Standings are now secret for the final days of voting. Ahhh the SUSPENSE...



On a different note, I'm almost fully recovered from Liz's hardcore Spin class at the Omni in Middleburg Hts. I did several of her classes last winter along with ones taught by Tom Keller at Progressive Ins. Lets just say that I will need to take 2 x 28oz water bottles to her class, since I sweated what felt like at least 3lbs when picking up my wet clothes. Classes are Mondays and Wednesdays at 6:30pm. SPD cleats will work on many of the bikes. And remember 'more turn' = 'more burn'.

Halloween Costumes for Cyclists

Michelle one of SBR's multi-sport powerhouses passed on the following email to me today. I know Donny will get a kick out of the Doping Cyclist costume.

It's pretty sad if this is indeed the case, but I think that a filter on the Yahoo newsgroup or a different email system replaced word 'cocked' below with '****ed'.

"Wear a bike helmet backwards and ****ed
to one side."



-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Holloway dickholloway (at) gmail.com
To: TeamUSA@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 12:54 pm
Subject: [TeamUSA] Late, but still funny.

Halloween Costumes for Cyclists Not sure what to wear for Halloween?
This article, passed along by a good roadie friend, will solve your dilemma.
There's even a helpful tip specifically for triathletes.

8 Halloween costumes for cyclists

As a cyclist, you are much, much better equipped for Halloween than the
average person. Why? Because you already wear outrageous costumes on a
daily basis.

Think about it. Even though you are a (presumably) sane adult, you wear
a shirt that would look much more at home on a superhero. You wear
shorts that are much, much too tight, as if you were on your way to lead
a jazzercize class. You wear a hat that belongs on an alien.
And, to top the whole look off, you wear what sound and look like
tap-dancing shoes.

It's no wonder, then, that cyclists tend to be pretty lazy about
dressing up for Halloween parties. Instead of putting time and money
into it, you just show up in the outfit you rode to the party in. Hey,
why not? A little sweat completes the effect, right?

What you don't realize, though, is that all your friends, family and
co-workers are rolling their eyes at your lack of imagination. "There
goes Tim," they say, "pretending again that his cycling outfit is a
Halloween costume."

It doesn't have to be that way, my friend.
By spending just a few extra minutes, you can alter your cycling outfit
for the evening, making it so you're not just "a cyclist" at the party,
but a very particular sort of cyclist. Simply follow these easy
instructions.

Doping Cyclist Dress up in full pro kit. Use a marker to draw needle
tracks up and down one arm. Tie a length of surgical tubing above one
elbow and leave a syringe sticking out of your vein. Wheel around an IV
tower for the duration of the party. Stuff your jersey pockets with
bottles of drugs. When anyone asks what / who you are, respond that you
are a professional cyclist. When they ask what all the needles and drugs
are for, say you have no idea what they're talking about. No matter
what, do not admit you have any drug-related items on hand.

Mountain Biker (If You're normally a Roadie): Prepare for the party by
gaining 10Kg and getting 20-30 tattoos. Wear baggy pants -- baggy enough
that they keep falling down. Arrive drunk at the party and continue to
drink once you get there. Insist you have mad skillz.

Roadie (If You're normally a Mountain Biker): Prepare for the party by
putting a stick in your butt. Wear uncomfortably tight cycling clothes
for the party, drink nothing put thrice-filtered water and tell everyone
exactly how many calories and fat everything they're eating contains.

Triathlete: Don't come to the party, because you've only done four
workouts today and still need to get in one more and you don't want to
break training, no matter what.

Recumbent Rider: Tape your glasses together, somehow manage to affix a
pocket protector to your jersey, and loudly and insistently explain to
all and sundry that recumbents are really much more comfortable and
practical than "wedge" bikes. Talk a lot about prostates.

Recreational Cyclist: Wear street clothes with your right pant leg cuff
completely greasy and shredded. Wear a bike helmet backwards and ****ed
to one side. Tell people that you're starting to bike again to get back
in shape.

Commuter: Wear street clothes, but carry a backpack or messenger bag
full of what are clearly stinky bike clothes the entire evening. Make
your helmet hair extremely obvious. Keep looking for opportunities to
casually introduce the fact that you are a bike commuter into every
single conversation in which you participate.

Fixie / Track Cyclist: Dress the same as a road cyclist, but you must
always either keep walking or -- if you must stay in one place -- you
must trackstand by moving a couple inches forward, then back, then
forward and back again.

Dick Holloway




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Bummer - DST

I just realized last night that the time change is going to mean sunset is coming an hour earlier. For some reason I thought that we were going to gain almost an hour of riding time after the DST change this Sunday. Bummer. Time to charge up my LightInMotion. I also might see what kind of deal Solo Goat would give me on some of his used lighting equipment here.


On a different racing front, there's good news in Formula 1. They're going Green:

http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/news/2007/11/formula_one