cleared for flight operations

this is the perch for my multi-time busted, crushed, double plated, screw-and-glued, cadaver-bone wedged mangled excuse for a right wrist - most recently pulverized between the hardware on 12/29/09. rode today - good to go. 2.5 hrs on bumpy semi-frozen dirt. i mean, i kinda hurt but i had other things hurting worse, so that is a go.

Ti (rigid) fork & drop bars, my friends. good for what ails ya, say i.


P.S. with all the very nice shots of everybody's new rides for the season floating around with various hot nouveau-bling parts and stuff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lemme just say, for those of a non-nouveau persuation - italy is where you get bling from.

the Ventoux of the western hemisphere

here we see gretchen laughing in the face of the mighty brussels hill, in prep for L-B-L. why - if i am not mistaken - in the background there, you can nearly see the atlantic ocean. how many will die of exertion upon its fearsome slopes on apr 3rd ?? only one way to find out.

can't find a pic for this one. triied google-image searching lazy, arrogant, pompous, and geo-centric but got nuthin.

i received my special feature velo-snooze " Ride and Race" guide this week. 65 of the best cycling events in the USA !! wow !!

funnily enuf, fully 1/3 of them are in CA or CO. so, according to the lazy and utterly clueless v-snooze staff, fully 33% of the greatest cycling scenes/events take place in 4% of these great 50 states. i guess a guy knows where to start at least !!

leaving the remaining lame-ass 96% percent of the 50 states with a paltry 66% of these must-do events. uhhhhhh . . . . . . . yeah.

velonews is fast closing on bicycling for putting out an inferior product/publication with every single issue.

the depressing part of going techno

i shoulda known. last time i used a HRM was in 2002, when gretchen and i did the ironman. as most people know, there is a great portion of your brain that immediately turns off when you enter a triathlon, good taste in things bici being one them.

anyway, i am older now, and gretchen is back looking to see where she is at after a long layoff, and i once knew enuf - quite a bit in fact - about em in the pre-power meter era - and nashbar had nice simple ones for 30 buxon sale , so . . . . . . . presto.

here is the thing, tho. at my age, and vital stats, and an accurate max HR - when a person ciphers out the various zones and ranges and all that malarky like in the chart up there the answer from the equations comes back in a flashing display on the device as:

" DON'T BOTHER, YOU IDIOT. OR, IF YOU MUST, CALL YOUR LIFE INSURANCE GUY IMMEDIATELY " - and then of course the battery wore out. i hate those fooking things.

holding to the klingon family code of Honour . . . .

as russell has sagely noted, the Burden of Shame on the House monT is great, with my riding around, fat, slow, and now wearing those shoes pictured below. an atlas-scale burden for young nicky to bear, indeed. fortuitously, here we see he is more than up to task. rolling to the local skatespots on a custom painted arai-adamo helmet themed hawk GT. for those of a non-motorsickle persuation . . . . this bike, 15 years ahead of it's time when it came out, is the second coolest motorcycle to ever come out of nippon ( the RC30 beeing cooler, naturally ). but, note how the lad still is able to rock that mofo like amadeaus.

with nicky holding up his end of deal like that, i could wear pink bunny slippers when i ride and he would STILL make up for it.

"my mtn biking shoes are older than you are"

racing singlespeeds with old dudes, and young - this has been one of my most fave lines ever. but, even with the feeble efforts applied to them, my shoes do actually wear out over enuf years. adding to the gettin'-ready-fer-spring stuff, then, was a new pair of shoes.

the price on sidi's has gone nuts - those are out.

for inspiration, i recalled back to my most fave ridin' shoes of all time, my andy hampsten replica lakes - i loved those rascals:



so, after a bit of a seach, i came up with the closest modern equivalent i could find - voila !!



going back to the billy "white shoes" johnson look for 2010. nice !!

don't just watch the hardmen . . .

. . . . and the classics on versus. BE one, and DO one:

the route is not for the weak of spirit:




but the payoff includes the Ultimate townline sprint:




Luxemburg - Brussels - Luxemburg. Apr 3. stay tuned for harrowing details as they emerge.