Seriously, the snow needs to end!

Another 3-5 inches today, this is ridiculous. At this rate we'll be riding dirt about mid June. In my boredom of plowing I decided to snap a few photos like Sven did on his bike. I'm not actually moving at this point so no worries.





I am at one of the finest eating establishments in the valley however. Seconds trip there of the day. Any guesses? Not sure what our snow totals are for the year, it's a lot and at 4:00 it's still snowing.

I did get out on the bike on Monday, about an hour or so and I rode the new Redline I got back in Dec. First time out on it and liked it. Nikki came with me on the older Redline and she liked the single speed thing. We'll see. Off to Boston this weekend for a few days away, taking the kids to the aquarium and there's also a bike/run expo in cambridge we're gonna go check out.

A1

Christmas Morning

I was about to call DEA last night to plan our trip the Bikeman.com HQ when my phone rang. It was DEA so I saved the dime I guess. He had a work thing come up so couldn't make the pilgrimage to Bikeman. I was on my own. I got up at 6AM and after getting all red up, headed out to the car. The car thermometer told me it was a whopping 8 degrees. Not really bike weather. The drive is about 90 miles and at about 8:30AM I was getting off at my exit and was getting close.

Almost There

I pulled into the shop a bit after 9 since I needed to make a stop at Dunkin Donuts.

Bikeman HQ Sign

Part of my reason for making the trek is for goodwill and so that Big Al has a face to put with my innane emails and stories of bicycle prowess. Unfortuantely Big Al was not in when I got there, but the bonus was I got to deal with his wife Darcy, who I must say, no offense to Big Al, is much more attractive thatn he is.

Darcy started pulling my boxes of stuff out and putting them all together and I started taking them out to the car. I Could not wait til I got home to peak so I opened the parts box.

Box o Goodies

Next was the Frame. The Salsa Orange Peelz Dos Niner. Pulled it from the box but still in it's prophalactic plastic protection. Nice, can't wait to strip it and start to build it.

Dos Frame

Last box was the topper. A new wheel-set. THe new Mavic Cr29max 29er's. They look sharp.

Crossmax Wheelset

After cleaning up my drool I got back in the car and made it to work about noon. Not to bad for a little early morning field trip. Now if I we can get the snow to start to really melt I can get to ride the new addition to the family.

JJ

Another day out on the bike

No Kerkove shots, I wanted to try and take a shot while riding and picking my nose for Blue as I thought he'd get a kick out of that- but it was still pretty windy and I didn't want to explain to my wife why I had ended up on the deck and my phone was in pieces. While reader of this blog might find if funny my wife wouldn't thing this was a good explanation, "honey you see this guy that reads our blog knows this other guy whose blog we all read and he always takes pictures of himself while riding, and there are these other pictures of him picking his nose so I thought it would be funny to combine all of that into one thing but the wind took out my front wheel and now I'm broken and oh yeah I need to replace my phone- but it's a great story don't you think?"

So I just rode my loop. Did 302 to Halley town, took a left to merrel corner then a right up the hill to a right onto Old County and then back home to Mill Street. Took it easy (I'd say- it took me 1:20 to do the loop) but it felt good to get out. The section from Halley Town to Merrel Corner was a bit dicey as there still is a lot of snow and ice crowding the road so not much room, but it's a short section so all is good.

Tomorrow I might head out into Fryeburg Harbor for a spin. Could be interesting if there is still a fair amount of wind.

That's about it on this end. I'm gonna go back out and plan in the puddles in my driveway and try to see if we can get some drainage going.

later,

DEA

Christmas in March

I say that not because of the couple inches of new fallen snow like stuff on the ground this morning, but because on Monday of next week, DEA and I are making a pilgrimage to Team Bikeman.com World Headquarters to pick up our necessities. I am picking up my new Salsa Dos Niner frame. If it looks half as nice as DEA's Salsa Mamasita I'll be stoked. I also have most of the components to build the bike to pick up, but the (pardon my french) piece de resistance is the wheel-sets both DEA and I ordered. New Mavic Crossmax C29maxx 29er wheels. I've never owned a top end wheelset before so I am really looking forward to rolling these around. Might lose some of my excuses is the only problem.

Weather for this weekend looks good for maybe one of the good end of season ski weekends. Next weekend its Viva Las Vegas or Lost Wages. Not sure I'll be able to sleep until we arrive monday am in Bath, Maine.

JJ

Out for a ride

Snuck out for an hour after work yesterday, gotta love it being light later in the day! It's weird riding later in the day with such massive snowbanks- just doesn't seem right.

Here is my best Kerkove style shot- the guy should have a photo style named after him!

Here is a shot of a road sign, and this is after we've been seeing a lot of melting!


I was trying out some new gloves that I got from RSN (we gave a bunch away on Watch and Win and P-dog let me keep a pair). These are great for this time of year- a light glove with a mitten wind cover that come be flipped on or off.


That's it for now- although I did hear from JJ that our wheels are in at Team HQ, sounds like we might take a ride over there early next week- I'm so excited!


later,

DEA

Ready for "spring"

I'm ready for a more rapid melting of snow. I know I shouldn't say that being a skier, but that's what I would like to see. I really want to start seeing the trails loose snow, as I know that after the snow is gone it's still another couple of weeks before they dry out enough to ride- so we're gonna be waiting for quite some time!

My hamstrings hurt- I think I know why- here's a shot from the Spread Eagle World Championships where I survived but certainly didn't place very high, I'm not sure how to call this cross training but I will.


But no matter how much training I do, I know that Crank the Kanc will have my face twisted in pain, here's my "game face" during the 2006 race:


In other news 24 Hours of Great Glen may be looking at a small course addition, we'll have to see how that plays out. I'm sure TWAF will get up there to help with some recon work once the snow goes away.

Also found out that 24 Hours of Pats Peak is much earlier this year- hmmm, maybe the 6 hour or 12 hour again this year? Time will tell- its May 31- June 1st.

That's it from here. Hope for sun!

later,

DEA

The race season on the horizon

We signed up for Crank the Kanc as JJ mentioned. I almost didn't get in as I'm an idiot and thought that registration was on Saturday night, not 12:01 Saturday morning. But the cycling gods smiled upon me and I did get in.

Me training this weekend consisted of competing in the Spread Eagle World Championships up at Attitash, it was fun- but it's been awhile since I've gone off a big jump and I was not looking to pretty! Needless to say my knees are a bit sore from pounding them on the landings, but it was fun and I stayed upright!

Sunday I skied at Cranmore with the girls and it was good, Emma has come a long way and Lillo is on her own just checking in from time to time, kinda crazy.

I did ride in again today, so that was good. The scary part I have a 42x23 as my low gear and the North South road used all of that gear. Granted there was a headwind but in the summer that is a 53x18 section of road no problem- man I've got work to do!

K is going to race CTK this year so that should be fun, she'll have to spend some time on the trainer as she's not up for riding in crap weather and bad roads- and I don't see us having anything but that for the next 6 weeks or so (at least the bad roads- the weather is good today).

So that's my story. Waiting to see what the UCI does with all the Paris Nice riders. Should be interesting. Keep waiting to see my boy Tyler show up on a results sheet at some point. Still trying to figure out why the UCI is hell bent on support Contador despite his link to Purteo- but that is a conversation that just goes round and round.

If anyone is in the market for a 26" wheeled single speed let me know- I've got a 19" specialized S-works M2 that is set up that way and need to sell it to make cash for parts for the Mamasita. Just let me know! It'll go cheap, or if you've got a MTB crankset, 175mm that you need to get rid of we might have a trade opportunity.

later,

DEA

Crank the Kanc 2008

So I signed up for the firat event of 2008. Crank the Kanc is a 21 mile Time Trial Hillclimb. We did it as a team last year but this year we went back to the solo catagory. The race is May 17, 2008. Exactly 2 months from today. I have not ridden outside in months it seems and the spinning bike has seen sporadic action at best.

Guess it is time for me to try to get on the bike since this is an individual time trial and I won't have DEA and A1 to tow me up the climb this year. Not sure when that's going to happen though since we're supposed to be getting 2-4 inches of snow today. Skiing was nice this moringin was I was doing course maintenance for the Easter High School Regionals slalom race at Cranmore Mountain.

Team Bikeman.com from 2007 Crank the Kanc


See ya on the road, or more likely on the side of the road sucking wind or just throwing up.

JJ

Finally!

Finally got back out on the bike as a means to get to and from work. That was the longest stretch I've been off the bike in a LONG time- don't really want to do that again.

It felt great to get out on the road, and put me in a much better frame of mind (at least for a few minutes) when I got to work. It is also giving me something to look forward to for the end of the day.

So thtat is the extent of my excitement.

Now for my random questions/comments about the world.

Why is the UCI behind getting Contador into the Tour but did nothing for the Rock Racing guys? (aren't all of them somehow tied to Opperation Puerto)

We have two US skiers who look to take the overall world cup- Bode and Vonn- pretty cool, yet 99.9% of the country doesn't have a clue- oh well.

Ok gotta go back to work.


DEA

new 24HOGG site

The new 24 Hours of Great Glen site is up and live- interesting site. I'm playing the role of moderator so that should be fun.

Now I just need to get my ass out on the bike!

By the way box season is still underway- I'm tracking a box of SRAM parts coming in today and a big box from Salsa came in earlier this week. I'll get some photos up of it soon!

later,

DEA

North Country Traffic Jam

JJ