Week/Weak

Mike Zanconato was da man! this week. In-between critical Northeast business meetings he boarded the hulking PT Barnum and negotiated the treacherous LI Sound crossing to deliver my new RAD! cross bike to me in person. THANKS MIKE!

My son and I took our bikes out for a spin that same day. I LOVE the new cross bike. Luke and I did a 3 mile circuit through the neighborhood and I had a chance to test the new cross bike a bit on some patches of sand and grass. The machine jumps to attention when you put the whip to its backside, and overall it feels very solid and right for me. One thing that's also quite noticeable is how crazy light it is (especially considering its hulking size). The new steel is real, man. I can't wait to get this bad boy out on a proper cross/mountain course and really put it to the test. Maybe I can sneak away this coming week for a go in the woods?

With my daughter away most of the week with unending sleepovers with friends, my son and I got to spend lots of quality guy time together. Bikes and fishing ruled the week.

Baitfish and predators have been playing out the dirty murder scene in our local harbor down the road, and so we took time out this week to catch the sunset massacre. Below is Luke working a lure at the sacred fishing grounds. Off in the distance is the entrance to Port Jeff Harbor. We managed to haul in a catch of four chunky bluefish this evening, and had plenty of stories to tell of the ones that got away.

Last night was another installment of the Freaky Friday Fiasco circuit race. I'd been suffering from some type of brain tumor/headache all day and so decided to sandbag down a class just to put in some miles. Pre-race I had no intention of going too hard or finishing the race, I just wanted to get the legs moving and maybe get in some speedwork. There was also a kid's race scheduled, and Luke has been itching to improve on his past results.

Here we see the big kids lined up and ready to go for the one-lap circuit. While studying the picture feel free to play the "Where's Moveitfred?" game. Hint: I'm hydrating up for the heavy responsibility of sweep.

At the gun Luke went off like his daddy just 'lectricuted his ass and led the pack through the first turn. Once the race settled down and his effort off the line was reeled in, things turned predictable with the older kids powering into the lead along the back stretch. At the end of it all the first 3 places were taken by the 9/10 year olds, with 7 year old Luke sneaking in for 4th in front of a few older kids. Atta boy.

Next up, big kids race. Many of the "players" were absent this week and away at the Empire State Games up in Westchester, so the fields were a bit smaller than usual. I was hoping to quietly sit in the pack and maybe get in a few jumps off the front, but the guys got right down to the business of pushing the pace soon after the first lap. Still, I spent a lot of time with my nose in the wind, chased down a few small breaks, and took it upon myself to jump to the front, pick up the speed, and start the pack rolling into the final lap. After I put in my max effort I swung off and into the parking lot and called it an evening.

Here is the forever blurry Moveitfred chasing down a break.




And below is the uncharacteristically small Moveitfred coming up the outside to lead the pack into the final sprint.

At the end of it all I got in some good work in the legs, but the headache still lingered. Oh well. After a big chunk of sleep last night I woke up refreshed with the brain tumor cured and put in an easy 25 miles.

And let me just close with a final thought on the TdF. It is still, without a doubt in my mind, the most beautiful sporting spectacle on the planet, but what a freakin' mess. Both Rasmussen and Vino were spectacular performers and put in epic efforts. Doping? Of course. Those cats plus the rest. You can't do what those guys do with a hearty breakfast of oatmeal pre-race and a massage from a hulking Eastern Bloc soigneur afterwards. What a shame for everyone...

Thoughts/Rain

Heavy downpours outside the office window right now. Payback, I suppose, for a great weekend. Just dropped son off at science camp. Daughter has friend coming over in an hour. TdF on downstairs. I'm about to grab a cup of joe and watch what's left of the stage. Lazy day.

Training and miles were good for me last week. I took a mid-week break of two days because of the doldrums, but managed to get in some heavy efforts over the weekend for a grand total of 160 miles for the week. This morning the eyes popped open at 6am and so I went down into the basement, popped in the TT stage from a couple of days ago, and spun out the legs for an hour on the rollers.

TdF? Still fun to watch. Yesterday on the Plateau de Beille was a kick. Seemed there was some key strategy playing out on the mountain that ultimately cracked a few dudes. Rasmuessen shows no signs of weakness. Contador is just plain fun to watch. Levi--safe as always and creeping up the GC.

An atta boy to Levi. Cali boy. Rah! I think Levi is giving his all. Maybe he's got something planned for the last mountain on Wednesday, maybe he's hoping the chicken will roast in the last TT, but whatever. The guy's sitting in 4th right now and looking good for a podium, which might be his max output. Rock it, Levi.

Good to Bad to Dammit!

Got a fantastic gift from the Mrs. this evening as she took the kids to go shopping in far-off lands leaving me alone with the opportunity to get in a long bike ride. I'd put in 20 miles earlier in the day when I had a free hour when the kids went over to a friend's house and was planning to get in 40 more late this afternoon.


It was a great afternoon and evening here on Long Island. The strong storms of the last couple of days passed through leaving cooler, dry air. My plan was to do tempo for about 30 miles and then pound out a few hill repeats. At about mile 20 I bombed through a turn and the bike just didn't feel right--kinda sketchy. Pulled off the road for a quick assessment and discovered the back tire was losing air with a slow leak. OK, tire change.

Unfortunately I pulled over next to a swamp, and soon the natives had discovered an easy meal of Moveitfred. So I started hustling to get the tire changed and, of course, began fucking things up along the way. First I busted one of those cheap-ass plastic composite tire irons and then my mini-pump started acting up and wouldn't get a good, working seal on the valve. After some futzing I got things working and got to rolling down the road.

I become a total wuss when I don't have a spare and so decided to modify the workout by heading back to the home neighborhood to do some speedwork around a challenging 1-mile circuit. After a few laps and some hard sprints up a hill I felt a strange itchiness on my back while sucking air and recovering along the backstretch. I started doing the big reach behind the head. The itch was in that spot that's just out of reach, so I gave it the ol' big stretch and was able to get to the spot with my middle finger.

Once there I felt a lump and some more movement and then...

YEEEEOWWWW!

That burning, throbbing, sharp pain of a sting.

I immediately crashed my bike off the side of the road in a patch of grass and ripped off my jersey. There I was: roadside, sweating, hyperventilating, standing there in bibs and groping at my back like a primate.

I don't know what happened to the insect responsible for the death blow, but I hope it died a horrendous death. After that I called it a day, cut my losses, and limped home. As I'm sitting here typing the burn and ache is really putting a cramp in my evening. Damn bugs that sting. Note to self: keep the jersey zipped up until October.

Surf Camp/Gilgo/Last Day

Early morning surf ghosts.



The soup cleared after an hour or so.



A little blown out, but it's better than working.

Storm

Wicked-ass storm this morning cancelled Day 3 of surf camp. My daughter and I got up early and trekked it down to Gilgo on the south shore hoping thing might hold off a bit to get in some time in the water, but no such luck. Soon after arriving at the beach all hell broke loose. Torrential rain, lightning, flooding, mass hysteria, dogs and cats living together.

Stopped off at Bunger on the way home to get a new leash for the board and discovered the entire town of Babylon was under water. We got the leash and then began what turned out to be a two hour slog-fest to get home. Serious flooding on the roads, cars completely submerged in lakes that formed under bridges, traffic lights out, hell on earth. It was one of those days when it felt great just to get home and walk through the front door. Ahhhh.

With my son away on a field trip to god-knows-where, my daughter and I got deep into a serious exchange of Clue for the afternoon. In the end I just sort of blew off the entire day--no workout whatsoever. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Just started reading Flight and I think I'll go finish it tonight.....

Party On Jens

Boy I wish I had a little bit of the Jens Voight engine. Once again the guy does most of the work and gets little of the reward. For me Voight typifies on a very big stage what most of us can expect from being involved in the sport of cycling: a lot of work and few results. Yes, Voight gets the big win once in awhile, but how many other times is he at the front with his nose in the wind or chasing down a break? There seems to be a lot of genuine spark in Voight--he looks like he's having fun out there.

Surf Camp/Gilgo/Day 2

Rest Day

Thoughts on the TdF:

I don't have anything terribly original to say that hasn't been brought up on blogs and in press and over discussion boards over the last couple of days, but what a fun Tour with these questions lingering all over the hot French asphalt roads:

Is Rasmussen that much better than everyone else in the mountains? That guy put some serious hurt into the peloton. I could see the tendons snap on those poor fucks who were trying to follow him on the last climb, couldn't you? Long Tour ahead, for sure, with lots of TT miles to come, but if that guy keeps putting minutes up on the board in the alpine stages.... Also, Rabo has the Menchov card to play which could make for some interesting strategy in the days to come.

Who's leading Disco? Contador sure looked like the guy with the spirit and the legs on Sunday. Levi made mention of the "Lance strategy" in his post-stage interview. Is that what he's playing? The conservative "hang around the top ten" ploy? And what the hell happened to his chain? Looked like it was in a knot in his rear derailleur. Must be that Shimano crap acting up again.

Who's leading T-Mobile? Fucking Mick Rogers....Damn.

Is Mayo back? That guy put in a couple of big accelerations. Now there's a dude who can both blow up the peloton and blow off the back in the same stage.

Can Moreau make a difference this year? Man, I hope so. He looks good and seems to have a fire lit under his ass and blood pulsing from his eyes.

What's CSC up to? Seems they have a few cards to play as well in Schleck and Sastre plus a little Voight to stir the pot. Haven't seen Voight go out and really fuck with people yet. Looking forward to that day.

Is Vino sitting in and recovering a bit? I hope the guy manages to heal and stay within 5 or 6 minutes going into the Pyrenees where the rage will begin to boil up from his Kazak spine and he will unleash round after round of vicious attacks spewing his rivals into bloody piles across the land.

Can Horner do something beyond serving as loyal teammate? I'd sure like to see him get a stage win.

Lots of racing to go. It's all good. Hell, even G is following along.

And me?

I've gotten in two good training weeks, but no racing. Been pushing near 200 miles a week and getting in some high quality workouts. One thing is for sure: I'm getting smarter with my workouts. What my thick head has learned is that I'm good for two, maybe three, hard days a week. I used to push that number to four and have noticed that I really can't sustain hard workouts for four days. One of the sage warnings is to avoid going too hard on your easy days and not hard enough on your hard days. I'm trying to remedy the tendency I have to fall into that trap.

Today was a full day with my daughter at surf camp. Cold, stormy conditions down at Gilgo, but the water was toasty warm. Tell you what's got me buggered, though. All is going good with the health and training, but my ears are giving me the fits. They've had that cloggy, puffy feeling ever since my bad infections in June. Too much unrelenting swimming, prolly, but when the daughter wants to surf and the waves are tasty, what can you do? Got in an hour of recovery spin on the rollers tonight for that good, warm feeling.

(thanks to Pez for letting me steal the photo)

Surf Camp/Gilgo

Perfect Day?

Perhaps it was. I got the work release from the better half this morning which allowed me to blow off kid transport duty and instead catch up with the Kreb boys for a fast training ride. No local circuit race tonight, so I figgered I'd put in a good effort in the morning.

Some of the "fast guys" showed up for the ride (and, no, I'm not one of them), so the pace picked up quite a bit over a few stretches of road. I haven't felt quite right for several weeks ever since a bad ear infection sent me through two rounds of antibiotics. That shit is a miracle drug, but it sure seemed to mess with my system this time around. Anyway, I've been ramping up the training since coming back from a short vacation to Chicago a couple of weeks ago, and today I felt pretty good for the first time in awhile.

The Kreb route includes two little sprint climbs that most hammer out pretty hard, and on both I was able to put in a good effort and stay right in with the front group.

After two hours with the Krebs I came home with time to spare before the kids would be delivered back into my clutches, so I went out for a little spin to loosen up the legs. All told, 50 miles today.

The afternoon was spent lounging at the beach as both kids were finished up open-water swim lessons. Both of those kids ripped it up in the water while dad slipped in and out of consciousness in a summer breeze on the sand. Yawn.

Tonight, family film night with a trip to see Ratatouille. This, I think, is the perfect summer day...

Wait

G posted this cool link for TdF news.

Which brings me to say a few random, useless things about the race so far. First, I'm still watching. It's cool. I'm like a baby on his back staring up at one of those dancing mobiles with the stars and the cows--my eyes are round like dinner plates and taking it all in.

Boonen ain't got it. My good friend Heywood and I both called bullshit when he claimed to be all happy for Steegmans after stage two. What we saw was a guy who couldn't get around his leadout man.

Also, what's with all the crapola talk about the peloton kicking it up a notch and not waiting for Vino? Was this just another pathetic topic of controversy to run up the flagpole by reporters? I mean, is there ever a reason to wait? OK, I can think of maybe one or two situations where easing up might be the polite thing to do, but not today. Hell, Vino's going to go on a suicide attack in the Alps and get it all back and more anyway.

Finally, anytime crash and coccyx are mentioned in the same subtitle I find that I need an extra magazine or two to take care of business that evening.

Racing?

Call me crazy, but that looked like some real racing today.

OK, it was it was an easy stroll for about 200 km (hell, I could have sat in at that pace), but what a cool ending: the break nearly holds on, lots of turns and cobbles, the sprinters all marking each other (too long), and Cancellara sticks it all out for a win. Nice!

Yep, I'm hooked.

Dope/No Dope--I don't care.

This might turn out to be a fun, tactical race.

TdF

Yeah, ok, I know...

But let me just say:

Still the Greatest Show on Earth.

Aesthetically beautiful. Levels of drama unlike any other professional sporting event. Nothing like it. Yes, I'll be watching, but not with the same investment. Today was the first time in years I did not tape the stage.

But I watched.

And seeing Cancellara bust out a huge ride through the streets of London was awesome.

The Tour is Dead.

Long Live the Tour.

More Zank

A few more shots highlighting the details of a quality, balanced build:

Zanconato Bike

Some pics of the finished product. More from Mike:

"The Purple People Eater
I'm sorry. I just couldn't resist. But this bike looks menacing. Like it will leave bodies strewn across the race course in its wake. Moveitfred's new cross bike is ready to go. Another very smart parts pick that will do the job reliably for many cross seasons to come.

This color is out of PPG's Radiance line and it really pops in the sun. PPG, House of Kolor and Dupont are really putting out some beautiful paint. With the explosion in the custom chopper and hot rod markets, these paint companies have really delivered some new ultra-vibrant paints. It is only going to get better as the pigment technology improves.

This bike was a lot of fun to build because there were some interesting challenges due to the size. It is a 66 cm frame, but I wanted to be sure it still looked "right" when it was built up. I am very pleased with the results."

Zanconato Frame

Here are some photos of my forthcoming Zanconato cyclocross frame. Mike had this to say about the build:

"The thing I love about this lugset is it makes a lugged bike with a horizontal top tube a reality for larger, more powerful riders. It uses 1.25" top tube and seat tubes and a cool down tube that starts at 1.25" at the head tube and swells to 1.375" at the down tube. It is a nice long taper and very subtle. The seat tube lug is my favorite part. Just like on my engraved "Z" seat tube lug, this lug has fastback style seat stay ports. Very sleek and speedy looking. The larger diameter tubes give the frame more rigidity, especially noticable on bikes over 62 cm."

The finished product will be thrashing around the Northeast this coming cross season....