Usually when I try to embed a video, it doesn’t work.  But it did today.  Here’s a video mish mash of the women’s race, the elite men and the tandem race.

Last week, I started to write something up after Granogue, but it was whiny.  Short story of Granogue, I quit when I shouldn’t have.  Didn’t go back on Sunday because the bean doesn’t do well sleeping in hotels.

here’s a video of granogue.  men’s and women’s C race.

Today, not so whiny.  I left it all on the course today.  In that regard, this one is a lot like Hyattsville for me.  I’m not saying I have a lot to leave on the course.  My most memorable ride since Granogue was pulling the bean around in a kiddie trailer.  BUT, I went in expecting last place and was pleasantly surprised…by coming in next to last.

Whistle blew and I felt like I was keeping up with the mid-packers up the hill, it wasn’t until I hit the road that I realized that I wasn’t.  But I at least fell into a groove with 2 other riders (the lady and the gentleman) just ahead of me.  At the end of the first lap, I saw that I could maybe get one on the technical spots and the other on the hills (at least that was my best guess).  During the second lap, I pulled ahead of the lady and the gentleman as we hit the last patch of gravel before the drop that I was convinced was going to take my front teeth (it wasn’t really that bad at all, but that hasn’t stopped me from crashing in the past).  The lady then made short work of me on the slight hill and she was on my radar until the cobbles, then it was pretty much a losing proposition.  The gentleman was pretty much on my heels the whole way until we were passed on the last lap by the leader and some of the folks from the rookie race.  If he weren’t, I probably would have lamed out and soft-pedaled my way to last.  At least this way, I pushed the whole way.  He dropped back a bit and my motivation to keep pushing waned as there was no way I was going to catch the lady.  I still managed to keep it up but took it casually across the line to make sure they didn’t get confused and score me with the podium guys who were lapping me near the finish (as if I could be mistaken for a podium guy).  I think in the end, I pulled NTDFL (next to) which is infinitely better than my DNF last week.  I’m sore all over now, which is nice.  The races that bum me out, I’m only sore during the race.  The ones where I pat myself on the back for the meager achievement, I’m sore the next day too.

Tandem race was great.  I could go on, but I’m sure other people will do so in a much more entertaining manner.

Admittedly for most people, it probably felt like a bike race from the beginning.  Hyattsville was today.  On paper, the course is pretty boring:  pancake flat with lots of twists and turns and a few things to keep it interesting.  It’s not much to see for the spectators.  That said, I’ve done this race twice now and I think it’s going to be one of my “can’t miss” races.  Here’s a really short video from the B race and the Master’s A race.  For some reason it won’t embed so you have to be old school and click the link.  Music is one of my old bands, because Crosswife brought really old pictures of me playing in bands so we could laugh at me.

How did the B master’s race go for me?

First lap took a long time to string everyone out.

Second lap I was catching my bearings and realizing that catching Sol was probably out of the questions and hoping that I might catch up to the rouleur (I didn’t).

Third lap I finally figured out who I was racing.  I had to stay ahead of the mountain bike guy and catch the bike rack guy and see what happened.  Cat and mouse with the bike rack guy until I was pretty sure I had him.  Caught up to a guy on a Raleigh (Johnny?), followed him for a bit and pulled ahead.

As the leaders were lapping me, bike rack guy was right with them.  Eventually he got away and I was still fighting off the Raleigh.  He caught up to me on the last straightaway, I was pretty sure I had him then.  We both sprinted for the line and whatever the hell place that no one cared about except us.  Even after we crossed, I don’t think either of us could tell you who got it.

The thing that I like about this course, is that I feel like I can really gun it (all things being relative) because there’s no soul-crushing, fire extinguishing moment that makes me feel like catching the next guy is impossible.  As a result, It feels like I push a lot harder at this one.

Good Job Arrow guys!

Last year I stole Tom’s riding goal of hitting 3000 miles.  My foray into fatherhood put the kibosh on that pretty quickly.  I think I hit 2K but I’m not sure.  This year, I wanted to have some sort of similar goal, but knew that 3K was probably going to elude me again.  Some folks I knew set out with the goal to ride 180 days of the year and take a picture each time.  They have been doing this for a few years, and most of them end up hitting 180 sometime in August.  For me, hitting 180 is going to be a stretch.  I think at this point, I can miss like 11 days of riding for the rest of the year.  When I started out, I didn’t include the 2 mile out and back to the grocery store.  Over the Summer, I realized a goal is a goal so I should count them all.  Hopefully I’ll make it, a lot of the rides are more like “rides”.  Most of the photos are pretty bad, but there are a few gems.

new year’s day at the beach.

(more…)

A while ago, I ended up on the Baltimore Ghosts webpage.  If you’ve never checked it out, and you are interested in the city, it’s worth a look.  The part that really interested me was the section on the different paving types.  I got an idea, as I sometimes do, to organize a low-key group ride…Well, kinda low-key.

Since the beginning of June, I have been exploring.  I have put together what I think is a fairly good map of the belgian block and cobblestone streets in the city.  Next April, I will be letting people know about the 1st B’more Pave’ ride.  It will be an informal group ride over as many of the Belgian block streets as possible.  It will include streets, alleys, sidewalks, parking lots, walkways, and some other surfaces that aren’t Belgian Block, but are still a little rough on the arms.  The ride will be casual, but as bumpy as it gets.  Obviously wider tires and suspension forks can take some of the buzz out, so I would encourage people to stick to 700c wheels and rigid forks.

More details to follow, but the general plan for now is to do it on the same day as Paris-Roubaix and end with some sort of Paris-Roubaix viewing party.

Here’s where I need help.  I have mapped just over 4 miles of belgian block and cobblestones in the city.  But every time I think that there can’t be any more,  I run into something else.  So I will go ahead and put out an all call.

If you know of a Belgian Block street in the city, drop me a line, or leave a comment.  No need to mention the really obvious sections of Fell’s point.  I have those covered.