By the Whey Protein Criterium – 2013

 

Saturday a few of us rolled around Fairmont Park to spin the legs. A few of us were on the fence about racing Smoketown but the chance of rain and long distance kept us staying out late and riding local. It was a good choice.

Never seen one of these push boards before…

I left the city Sunday morning with Max and the lady to race the By The Whey Protein Crit (cat4) on the Rodale course. I really wanted to make a break happen and tried a few times but couldn’t stay away. A tad too much wind with so few of us I suppose, but we had a solid group of 4 for a couple laps. The race wasn’t too sketchy but I did a fair bit of sitting outside of the pack as the crash at Lower Providence still had me a tad shook. On the last lap things slowed as usual then ramped up on the uphill round-a-bout with people searching for position. On the downhill chicane, Myles from Ciclismo went hard and had a sizable gap on the field. I know hes got legs and I knew he had a solid chance of staying away so I tried to ‘encourage’ the guy in front of me to chase right after I yelled at him for cutting me off, unfortunately he blew up. Now I was at the front of the pack waaaay too early. The train passed me hard on the right hand side (see in the video from Bryan). I jumped on the back of the train and rubbed elbows with someone (sorry about that!) and tried to finish with the leaders without actually standing up and sprinting. I felt like I was riding a bit sketchy out there for some reason. I don’t know if it was my lack on wanting to sit in or what, but I need to work on that as well as being a bit more patient, especially towards the end.

Strava

 

Results

Gas/toll money

‘Cyclst’ plate spotted on the way home

Food + Belgium Beer

Gray’s Ferry Crescent

I took a different route home the other day needing to run an errand. On the way over the Gray’s Ferry Bridge (which does have a bike lane but is filled with more debris than any other lane in the city) I stopped at the Gray’s Ferry Crescent. This trail will eventually hook into the rest of the ‘Greenway’ along the east bank of the Schuylkill River going north up to the Art Muesuem and eventually south to PHL Airport.  Anyways I wanted to check it out as I heard they started building a concrete skate park down there. Its wild that the city is finally putting in not 1, but 2 skate parks on the trail. Good for them!

New T-Town Swap items up and running.  The Marathon’s are on the All City and my pink flamingo CAMEL socks kept my wet feet wet.

 

T-Town & Broad St.

This weekend was a busy one. Friday night was first Friday and we checked out some friends work.  I really like these Tour de France prints! 

After a couple hours of sleep a crew of us went to the Trexlertown Velodrome semi-annual bicycle swap. I brought up my Spooky Supertouch cross bike to maybe sell but didn’t do well at hanging out to actually sell it.

I was able to buy a complete road bike off a teammate for a buddy. I’m always excited to get people on bikes! I was able to score a set of new 23mm Gatorskins for $20, set of new marathon tires for $45, compact cranks for $10, 2x roof rack wheel carriers $5, and a set of Ultegra road pedals for lady $15 [the prices are so I can remember when I go back to look ]. Overall it was a good day.

Sunday morning I woke up around 7am to drive the lady to the neatest Septa stop to take the subway north for the Broad Street Run. I came home, took a well needed shower and ate some food. I then decided to try and run as well. I threw a jersey and cap on and rode to the Spring Garden Station. Figured I could run with the lady since I wasn’t racing Iron Hill or the Piscitello Law crit in Malvern.

I got to the start and of course couldn’t find the lady in the ‘green’ corral. Gulp… I really don’t like running but got in the groove after 3miles. By mile 6 or so the right calf felt like murder. I hobbled the rest of the way and dipped out 0.5 miles before the final chute.

it was honestly kinda fun (cant believe im saying that) but now I’m paying for running 9.5 miles with no training. It will be a slow slow bicycle commute tomorrow morning.

Strava Run

I did see this sweet rig while waiting for everyone at the Naval Yard.

After meeting up we went to FDR park and I proceeded to chug 3 beers.

 

I took the Broad Street line back up to Spring Garden, grabbed the bike, and rode down to grab some pizza. Another solid day.

Log Jammin’

1 too many log hops last night…

Steel is Real

Ive been cruising the All City SS to worlk this week as its been on/off raining Mon-Wed. Adfter being on the roadie a bit, im thinking of swapping a longer stem on the commuter and it definitely needs new less compact bars. On the way home yesterday I took the scenic route and found a new single track route that will be fun on some fatter tires.

 

After stopping off at the grocery, I got home, ate some food, and headed north to Cast and Salvage to weld up my old commuter rig.  A long time back I had sheared the seat tube to bottom bracket connection after years of riding I guess.  I had got the frame/bike for free through my buddy way back when and it was my first ever ‘big-boy’ bike back in college.  He also eventually got me into real road cycling later down the line.  Anyways the frame had been sitting in my basement for a while and I wanted to build it up with some random parts and give it to a friend.

 

Kenzo is a wild place.  I watched the neighbors try to get their cat down out of a 2^nd story window using a piece of gutter… later they tried tapping a broom handle to said piece of gutter.

Bike Line Spring XC @ Fair Hill 2013

So this weekend was going to be my first ever MTB race down at Fair Hill (Bike Line Spring XC @ Fair Hill Mid Atlantic Super Series). Id never been down there but heard it was non-technical and flowy like White Clay. I hadn’t been on my MTB at all since my epic fall/surgery combo over 2 months ago other than the Thursday night Belmont ‘race’ I did last week. Luckily that gave me some confidence as I didn’t fall once

Saturday I had to get things together for the race. 1st up was to cut up my Thule roof rack trays in order to have them fit disc brake rotors.

While I was out there I got a little yard/alley work done.

What you do when you have too many old bike parts.  Old drop bars + zip ties = garden hose hook

Long day of yard work usually entails a nice cold brewskie.  Im pretty excited that Full Sail is now in PA.  Love me some Session!!

We had some dinner plans at 9 that night and got a bit fancy, then out to the bar.  I missed dancing as I figured I should get some sleep for Sundays race.

I met up with Mark, packed the bikes up, and headed down to South Philly to pick up Mat. We got everything together, grabbed some coffee at Ultimo and cruised down 95. All three of us were racing the Cat2 19-29 XC race. We picked up numbers, bullshitted, and got in some warm-up.

Fair Hill Strava Data

We lined up and I was able to squeeze in 2nd row on the edge. We then sat there for 10 minutes (not so fun) as my nerves were starting to get the best of me. I don’t like starts. Theyre very hectic/draining mentally and physically.

Eventually we got the whistle to go and over course the guy in front of me couldn’t clip in to save his life.  I had to make a quick move to the left and get back in the mix.  The start was fast, really fast.  My goal was to get towards the front but not burn too many matches as I had no idea what I was getting myself in for.  At the first river crossing I got dominated by the dude in front of me with a face full of water and shoes drenched.  Holy hell, Wasn’t expecting that!  By the time we hit the single track more than a mile from the start, a group was off the front (maybe 7 guys with a few off-off the front with Ryan and Mark in the group somewhere) and I was in the next group of 4.  I tried to follow their lines and do whatever they were doing in single track but could tell they were able to flow WAY better than myself.  Soon Brendan from Bicycle therapy gapped our group and I was sitting behind 2 now with a large gap behind.

After a few more sections I was able to pass the 2 riders in my group when we got out into the fields.  I tried to make the gap as large as I could in these sections as I knew they could catch me in the twisty sections.  I had a blast ‘ripping’ around not knowing what was coming next.  I almost ate it hard over the metal-grate ramp they had set up over a log… wasn’t expecting it to be that short and kick you so hard.  Front here on out the race was kinda a blur.  I got amped up going back across the start/finish with some teammates cheering me on.  I still had a good gap but wanted to put in some hard effort on the open sections again.  About halfway through the next lap I could feel a bit of pressure behind me and I could tell I was starting to fade.  My goal was to keep it upright and keep some in the tank incase I did need to sprint at the end.  I ended up cruising the last bit making sure no one was too close behind me.  I soft pedaled the last bit after being in the pain cave and ended up 9^th out of 28^th.  Goal accomplish, don’t fall/die and try for a top10 result.

Overall I had a blast.  It was like a cross race but it was warm outside.  Cant wait to build the fitness back and get some technical skill for the next couple MTB races.

I was a newb and forgot beer and food.  Thanks to Derek and Ryan for both.  Next time ill be ready!

Results

Cat2 19-29  a solid 6-10 of philly dudes

Oh i won $5 gift card to Bike Line  and a sweet bottle.

95 was a mess driving home with beach traffic… totally forgot about beach traffic.  but we did see this gem ‘Truck Norris’

Weekly Activity

Just some random photos from the week/weekend.

Always burned out cars in Fairmount.

Cruised by the Lone Wolf Cycling party and scoped their new kits/hats/and such.

my carbon ‘gravel grinder’    Hate that terminology

Little Phils action

 

Saw a motorbike crash on the commute home… Then did a quick bike swap and headed up to Belmont for the Thursday night MTB race.