evolution cyclocross

finally, the cyclocross season has begun... well the season began weeks ago, but my season began this morning in leesburg at the evolution cyclocross... up at 6:50 and out of the door by 7 to head up to Ida Lee park in leesburg for the 9am C race... arrived just after 8 and drove around the park for a couple of minutes before the i saw the sweet sight of yellow course marking tape... registered and then headed out onto the course for a couple of quick warmup laps...

grass, grass, and more grass... long grass, wet grass, and soon to be muddy grass made up all of the course... the course had 4 steep climbs, 2 of which i figured were rideable (well all of them where if you were on a mountain bike), a couple of slick twisty downhills, one set of barriers and couple of sections of leg-sapping long grass, including the climb up to the finish line...

we lined up half way around the course at the top of a long downhill with a right turn at the bottom... by virtue of being out at the start early i ended up in the middle of the front line and once the whistle blew i was briefly in 2nd place... once we hit the 2nd turn i was back to 5th, and by the third turn i was back to 7th then 9th... over the next lap i traded places back and forth with a couple of riders, losing time on the downhills and dismounts and making it up on the climbs... half way around the 1st full lap i locked up back wheel on a slick downhill and somersaulted down the trail... while i picked myself and my bike up 3 or 4 riders passed me, including a couple that i'd been swapping places with earlier...

over the next lap and a half i pulled back one of the riders and slowly put time on him so that by the last lap he was out of sight... i never saw those other riders again though... i don't know if i would have held them off if i hadn't crashed... overall it was a good race, 12th of 24, my best cyclocross result ever...

richmond tommorow...

old rag

went out to hike old rag yesterday with my mom and sister, and my aunt, uncle, and two cousins that are visiting from the UK... i think it was a bit more difficult than they were expecting. everyone made it through to the end and a had a great time, surprised and elated that they were able to make it up all of the rocks... we went up the ridge trail to the summit, stopped for lunch, and then down the saddle trail and fireroad back to the cars... we actually beat the 7-hour estimate that the NPS lists on the board...

Vote

Get out the vote 2004 - Non-partisan get out the vote posters by members of AIGA... Download them, Post them...

schaeffer night ride

great night, warmer than expected... went off hard at the front of the group, flying through the trees... a bungled log twisted my saddle almost perpendicular to my frame and i dropped to near the back as i fixed it... hung out back there for th rest of the ride and stayed with the slow group when we split... spent the rest of the ride just hanging out and riding... missed a "confrontation" with a couple of riders trying to poach the trail as we were leaving... beer at food afterwards at glory days...

family/trailwork

spent a lot of the weekend up at my parents, spending time with my aunt and uncle and 2 cousins that visiting from the england... the older of the two cousins took to mountain biking like a duck to water, and we'll be trying to fit a couple more rides in before they go back... helped fix mudholes at schaeffer on saturday morning... when we went back in the afternoon to ride the work looked like it was helping dry out the trails.

Creating Their Own Reality

72% of Bush supporters STILL think that Iraq had WMDs (47%) or WMD Programs (25%) despite the CIA report that they did not... Read the whole article for more fun facts...

War on Iraq: The World According to a Bush Voter [Alternet]

getting closer to 'cross...

still no cyclocross racing for me this weekend, but i'm registered for 2 races next weekend -- evolution [register] in leesburg on saturday and the cobblestone cross [register] in richmond on sunday...

on and on...

server problems kept me at work a bit later than usual last night and then more when i got home... decided to scrap plans to run and just take the night off... i'll do a run tonight and some time on the trainer (or maybe a road ride if i can get out of here early enough).

schaeffer trailwork tommorow and we've got family in town from england starting this weekend so we'll be doing a big lunch on sunday up at my parents... when asked what he most wanted to do while he was over here one of my younger cousins replied "mountain biking" so it looks like i'll be taking him up to schaeffer at some point...

More Anti-Bush Animated Fun

http://www.monsterslash.org/

Without a Doubt

This is one key feature of the faith-based presidency: open dialogue, based on facts, is not seen as something of inherent value. It may, in fact, create doubt, which undercuts faith. It could result in a loss of confidence in the decision-maker and, just as important, by the decision-maker.

Bush and Faith vs. Facts - Without a Doubt [NY Times, Reg. Req'd] - Read it and prepare to be scared...

easy weekend

no traveling, no events, no racing, just an easy weekend... trailwork on saturday morning at wakefield... coffee and donuts in the parking lot, then a couple hours of shoveling gravel and pushing a wheelbarrow... up to schaeffer this morning, quick run then meet up with joe and ricky and break out the 'cross bike... the bike felt pretty good on trails, just took a little while to get used to the position - you're further forward on than on a normal mountain bike - and almost endoed on the first couple of log... still don't have the remount down, i'll have to go down to the park and practice this week.

another week

it's been another one of those weeks... twisted my ankle while i was out on a run on tuesday, then - in spite of the rain - drove all the way up to Gambrill on wednesday for a night ride, only to discover on the first climb that i had no back brake... i think i might have contaminated the rotor while i was working on the bike the night before. no spare pads right now - i gave my last pair away at douthat someone in the same situation - so i'll have to clean up the rotor and try baking the pads.

managed a good ride on the cross bike in the park last night and rode the hills... ran into dave vannier from the team as he was riding home from work.. trailwork at wakefield tommorow and then a 'cross ride at schaeffer on sunday... need to spend some time around the house taking care of things that have been ignored for the last couple of weeks.

seriously

Seriously [video, thanks to Joel for linking to this]

exageration?

"I truly am not that concerned about him" [video, wp article] - from a March 2003 2002 press conference...

(don't go back to) rockville

looks like the Rockville in the REM song is my former hometown: Rockville, Maryland... the origin was different from the story i'd heard most often...

revisionist blogging?

my blog just got 2 months 1 year older... i just added a ride/race report that i wrote up about ECNASSCU for the MORE newsletter back in June and a ride report from a snowshoe/slatyfork trip last summer that was originally posted to the DCAMB list...

R&R

A couple days of relative R&R... I went up to philly this weekend for good times and good friends at Steve and Alisa's wedding... managed a quick ride on saturday morning and then a nice walk around doylestown before the ceremony.

just put the october edition of the MORE newsletter together and i've just been paged that a router is down... need to have a look at this.

"rock on, indie rock dudes"

my friend dave spent some time playing keyboards and touring with maritime (with eric axelson of the now defunct dismemberment plan)... it turns out he kept a journal and - thanks to a bit of drinking at steve's wedding - gave me the URL... read it soon before he moves it.

City Bikes

Posted the updated City Bikes Mountain Bike Team website yesterday.

ran after work for a half hour yesterday, exploring the trails that lead down from my neighborhood towards rock creek park. the car is all packed up for the weekend in PA for steve's wedding. i've got a bike with me, so i'll try to slip out for a quick ride tommorow morning, since the ceremony isn't untill late afternoon.

I'm in the Paper

A couple of quotes from me in an an article in the Harrisonburg Daily News Record...

work

planned to get out on my cross bike for an hour or two after work, but a hub blew up on the network, which sent a switch into chaos and us into crisis mode... once a misbehaving hub was replaced and the effected applications were restarted it was almost 6... managed to get out for a half hour to and practice 'cross dismounts down in the park...

douthat

Media Matters

Media Matters

freewayblogger

Check it out: freewayblogger.com - thanks to gary

back from douthat

back from douthat... great people, great riding, great time... rode mountain-side to brushy hollow with tim, jason, and trevor friday afternoon... festivities around the campfire friday night then wake up saturday morning to see the total domination of mountain bikers in the park... 80+ from MORE in our campground, plus another 15 or so in cabins and a couple dozen from EVMA doing their camping trip in one of the other campgrounds... up the 7 switchbacks of stony run to tuscarora overlook on saturday, groups getting mixed up by the climb and everyone having a good time, then along middle mountain and out of the park and sprint down the road and back into the campgound as the rain was beginning...

then the miracle... instead of the deluge that was expected we get sprinkles on and off all afternoon and a new group forms up for for a quick loop on the lower trails (huffs, blue suck, locust gap) that keeps getting longer... geek out a bit and download tim's helmet cam video to my laptop, people orbiting around the back of my truck watching ricky scream down middle mountain trail... more potluck and campfire fun... round out the weekend with another trip up mountain-side to the epic brushy hollow downhill

off to douthat...