Do Vitual Riders Take Electronic Dope?

Probably should have gotten outside and road today, but couldn’t manage it.  Road the Expresso.net bikes down at the rec. center.  Did the Vindicator route under the difficult rides.  Averaged 170 watts and 160 bpm.  The little electronic pace rider passed my just at the end.  I think he is doping.

The Twitterati Are Up In Arms

Lance Armstrong is taking on ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser over comments he made about bike lanes in the nation’s capitol.  Kornheiser went so far as to suggest running cyclist over.  A number of other well known cyclist have joined in.  I wish comments like these were an isolated case, but they aren’t.  After passage of Colorado’s 3 foot rule, I heard similar comments on both KRFX and KALC here in Denver.

Elephant Rock 2010

I Signed up for the 2010 edition of the Elephant Rock Cycling Festival.  I’m not really sure how many times I’ve done the Elephant Rock.  I think my first one was in ’98.  I know I haven’t done it every year since then, but I think I’ve done it most years.  I’ve committed to the century this year.  I figure if I’m expected to be doing Day 1 of the BTC two weeks later, I better be able to do the Elephant Rock century by the first weekend in June. 

Aerobics Instructors Should Not Teach Spinning

As a general rule, I believe cyclist are a quite people.  Not so much by nature, but by necessity.   When you’re riding hard, wasting your breath on needless conversation is a luxury.   One that I certainly can’t afford.  That’s why it seemed rather disconcerting to have a spinning instructor (but mainly an aerobics instructor) who ran class like an aerobics class -constant talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.  Save the conversation for the post ride beer.

Pop Throwing Hooligans of the World Unite!

I was on the light rail train yesterday going home from work, when three Metro State students took the three seats around me. I had the Foo Fighters going on my iPod, but it was still hard not to hear what they (particularly the girl across from me) were talking about. The first topic was about a speech she had given. I didn’t actually catch the topic of said speech,something about the military, but whatever it was had caused one of her listeners to throw his big gulp  pop on her. The second topic of discussion was the upcoming tattoo the she was planning on getting. A large pair of praying hands going up the right side of her back. I only bring that up because one would assume that someone wanting a large set of praying hand on her for eternity would also subscribe to some sort of philosophy that involves praying and Christian values – apparently not though. It was the three topic of discussion however that caught my attention. She matter-of-fact-ly stated she wanted to run over any cyclist she found out on the road. She thought they were too slow and should stay on the sidewalk. One of her friendstried to pointed out that cyclists were actually suppose to be on the road, but that didn’t seem to make any difference. Her statement to that was she “didn’t want to run them over, but just knock them down”. To be honest, I was speechless. I felt like saying something but did know what to say. I can only take comfort in knowing that some pop throwing hooligan had the guts to do what I so badly wanted to do at that moment.

I don’t think I made any cycling friends today…

As a cyclist, I am very conscientious of how we cyclists are viewed by other people. While I am out on the MURTs (Multi-Use Recreational Trails) I try to be a good ambassador for the sport and recognize my fellow trail users with a friendly “hello” and I always warn those users going slower than me that I am behind them and am about to go around them with the standard “on you left.” This morning I was riding down the trail and came upon a guy walking his two dogs – small dogs, not quite rats dogs, but not much bigger. I see that he really isn’t paying too much attention to what is going on around him, so I slow down. He is walking up the path and is to the far right side, which is where he should be. I’m about to shout out “on your left”, when he turns around, sees me and completely freaks out. Even though, if he felt he needed to get off the trail, he could have gotten off on the right with a single step, he instead, bolts off to the left side of the trail, running at least ten feet off the trail dragging his slightly bigger than rat dogs with him. This of course pulls said slightly larger than rat ,dogs right onto the trail in front of me. You can guess what happened next. Well, actually nothing, I had already slowed down because I could see he wasn’t paying all that much attention to his surroundings. I came to a stop and he looked at me like I had just tried to kill him and his dogs. After he had collected his slightly larger than rat dogs, I continued on my way, shaking my head as I rode off.

Thoughts To Keep Me Motivated

I remember back several summers, I was sitting at a picnic table outside Buffalo Bill Cody’s grave.  Buffalo Bill’s grave sits at the top of Lookout Mountain just west of Golden, CO.  The ride up Lookout Mountain is one of Denver’s “local” climbs. I’m sitting there all proud of myself for making it to the top, taking a break before the ride back down (they have fudge!), when along comes this older lady, and by older, I mean late sixties, if not older. She rides up on what looks to be a slightly modified commuter bike.  She sees some of the other riders sitting there, one of whom was wearing a Ride the Rockies jersey (RTR is the better known of the week long Colorado tours) and they start talking last year’s tour which she had obviously been on. After a few minutes she gets up and says, “Well I have to get going. I’m headed over Juniper Pass yet and at my age I’m not as fast as I use to be.”

Pssst. That’s no tire, that’s the sound of my ego deflating. 

BTC 2010 sans Meals

Signed up for the BTC today. 

I didn’t need to sign up for meals yet, so I didn’t.

BTC 2010

Getting ready to register for the Bicycle Tour of Colorado. Marcie isn’t going to be able to ride it this year because of her knee, so I am on my own. She and the kids may be BTC groupies and follow the tour independently.

I was looking at the meal plan and made the mistake of getting the calculator out. Don’t get me wrong, the food was good, even great by cafeteria standards, but it works out to be more than $17 a meal. I know if I went to a restaurant and paid $17 for their food, I would feel ripped off.

I know I need to take into account the other options I would have. I am going to camp and most mornings I would not have access to a microwave, much less some place to cook and clean up. For the cost, I could eat out every meal, but some of the tour stops are pretty small and I don’t like the idea of relying on there being a restaurant every day. Bonking early in the morning because I couldn’t find anything to eat would be bad.

Rites Of Passage

Finally got around to reading my latest issue of Bicycling magazine.   They have an article listing 109 rites of passage.  Things sooner or later every cyclist runs into.  Some of my favorites:

6.  Bonking so bad you don’t think you’ll be able to make it home. – I’ve done that one lot’s of times.
10.  When your bike computer registers triple digits for one ride.  – I still remember every 100+ mile ride I’ve ever done. 
20.  You get stuck in your pedels and topple over at a stoplight.  – and usually in front of someone your trying to be cool around.
28.  Getting hopelessly lost – deliberately – I don’t get the chance to just ride off often enough.
32.  When you no longer have to stop to take off your jacket.  – To be honset I’ve never done that and probably never will.
33.  Feeling confident about taking off your jacket while riding – then catching the trailing sleeve in the rear wheel – That’s more my speed.
35.  Planning a riding vacation – Who doesn’t want to spend their vacation sleeping in a tent, getting up before dawn every morning so you can go out and exercise for 6 hours?
38.  In your head, Phil Liggett narrates your ride.  – Bob Roll maybe.
85.  Out sprinting a crazed dog.  – S. Rooney Rd – 1984.  I won.
106.  Feeling super strong and then turning around for the bike ride back and realizing you had a tail wind.

And the one hitting cloest to home perhaps:
81.  Explicating your training in exquisite detail in a blog, then realizing nobody cares.