Brian Piccolo Park Velodrome

Here's another pic from Florida, after racing two criteriums on the 1/2 mile Ninigret-looking course right next to the velodrome. The locals turn out with their families and make a day of the crit racing here. Just like a picnic at Colt Park. Good energy.. Of course it's 85 degrees out so they could all be human flesh-eating pygmies for all I care. I heart Florida.
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Testing..

I must say it's nice to see the spike in traffic since I quit Facebook. This was shot while training on Florida. Bike is rented.
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NSA

Click title for a funny Craigslist ad. Good stuff.
NSA = No sissies allowed.

Year to Date Report

Well folks my Powertap wheels are gone- sold on Ebay tonight. It's not that I don't want power data anymore, it's because I don't want any unsightly wires making my new Fuji SST 1.0 look bad.. So I'm now in the hunt for a decent wireless powertap wheel with ANT+. If you know anyone selling, hit me up.

Today marks the 65th day of 2011 and I wondered how it stacks up against the same period of the previous three years. Here it is:

So what have YOU done this winter?? The above doesn't even include December btw..

I was tempted to race at the Plainville opener on Saturday but my new road bike is still en route on a slow boat from China, literally. Having sold my LOOK to a lad in Japan and all of it's parts all over the USA, I am relegated to using my Fuji cross bike- the one I picked up used for $800 about 5 years ago.. I can't wait to feel how different it is to go from a 22 pound cross bike to a 15 pound road bike. Exciting times. The other problem is that I slept-in until 12 noon on Saturday- an indication that dragging myself to a stressful race was not going to bear much fruit..

My new DMT Speedplay-specific DMT shoes fit like a glove- actually they have some room in the front so that I can wriggle my toes. Such an improvement over my previous shoes- they had become too tight and too narrow for my evolving feet.. My wind trainer is toast too- the crank no longer does anything to clamp the rear wheel and there is a gouged out section of the aluminum drum, pictured below. Doesn't all that bad ass rubber dust impress you? I tried doing the roller the other day and they are pitiful, really. I bought these McClains in 1992 and the bearing are kaput, the frame is twisted, and they scream like a banshee with no resistance. Well the good news is that my birthday is coming up and the big 4-0 will be complete.. so it's okay to splurge on a few necessities and just play the 40th birthday card every time my wife reaches for her baseball bat.. I've been eying those Lemond trainers but they obviously dont work with a Powertap and their proprietary power meter add-on hasn't been widely promoted so there is nothing there to impress me.. If only I had Quarq or SRM.. Funny- the broken Ergomo Pro bottom bracket is now on Ebay and people are bidding on the thing- for parts. Now I must find a new Powertap wheel- one that will look good on the new Fuji. And I need a new trainer. It's really my favorite way to warm-up at a crit.

Thanks for reading.

Update brewing

Hopefully I can put up some cool YTD data tomorrow. Stay tuned.

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Spring training report

Day one: two fast criteriums, 3-1/2 hours total ride time including warmup and cool down. 15th and 23rd in 40+ and Pro, respectively.
Day two: left house at 6:15 headed east on Yamato Rd to coastline road A1A, went north 1 hour and backtracked same palm-tree, yacht and mansion lined road. 3 hours.
Day three: repeat day two, but no so far up the coast. 2 hours.
Day four: same as Day two, went farther up the coast and met family for a seaside breakfast in Delray Beach. 3 hours.
Day five: Rest day. Legs were really sore and fatigued day before. Did some suntanning and swimming like previous days, but much more of it.
Day six (planned): going to head south on A1A towards Miami, then double back to Palm Beach and home. Hopefully 4 hours.
Day seven: meeting the locals (mostly Zmotion, Coco and Garneau guys, presumably) for a fast group ride at 7:30 am (should be a one hour ride each way) probably 4-5 hours total.
All the training and racing has been "by wire". That is, no computer, no gps, no powertap, no speed or mileage. Just by my five senses alone, combined with some intuition, past experience and common sense. I don't even own a wristwatch, so all I had to use for a reference is my blackberry- for the time that is. The roads are as flat as Ally MacBeal's chest. Route A1A has the Atlantic Ocean on one side, the Intercoastal waterway on the other. It's a strip of land hardly 100 yards wide. It's gorgeous- those manicured and gated Mcmansions, private drydocks, yachts, palm trees, turquoise water, sandy beaches.. There's a designated bike lane and lots of riders heading in both directions. True there aren't a lot of young people around, but it's easy to get over this. It's between 65 and 70 degrees in the early morning. On day two the wind shifted and thousands of Man-o-wars were blown onto shore. My son touched one thinking it was a harmless jellyfish- his hand burned for hours! The M-o-W is not a jellyfish, it's a composite creature built from four separate organisms working together. It floats on the surface of the water using a self inflated "sail". Quite disgusting looking. Tentacles up to 50 feet long and potentially deadly. Water is 74 degrees..
Sunday we head back to wonderful RI. It's not expected to be a joyful reunion. Kudos to my mom for moving to Florida. We'll be visiting her more often, that's for sure. Many thanks to Relentless Cycles for the bike they rented to me for short money. Hat tip to all the racers who came out to the Rosewood Series crit on Sunday. I salute the promoters for a very professionally managed race. This has been a nice trip/camp for me. I didn't lose any weight but my legs are like veined marble and I'm mentally refreshed. My only regret is remembering about my allergy to excessive sun after it's too late- I'm covered in these tiny itchy pimples wherever I'm tan, per usual. That's the least of my worries because I don't know how I'm going to ride in the cold ever again!
Thanks for reading.
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Rosewood Series Criterium 40+ and 123

Aren't you tired of the same old narration of everyone's cyclocross "adventures"? Ok we get it: you lined up, you went full gas for 45 minutes, almost fell a few times, and finished 5 minutes down on the winner. Yay! Okay we're done with that for about 9 months- good riddance!
I raced a crit down here in FL today- it was 85 degrees out! I rented a road bike to make this happen, and expect to ride it every day until we leave.
Long story short: tight technical 1/2 mile course. Laps were about 1:05 to 1:10. I did the 40+ race and with about 7 laps to go I attacked and tried to bridge to the eventual winner. This was the only difficulty of my entire race- the three lap that I held off the field. After getting caught I had about a lap to pull myself together- they rang the bell for 3 laps to go. Riding among all these total strangers on a rented bike, I took no crazy chances, but did manage to needle myself through traffic and up into 15th place. Not too shabby for a 1st race of the season, in February! I had an hour between races so I kept loose by riding around and lined up for the 123 race with good sensations. Unfortunately the fatigue of the previous race reared it's head right quick and my attacking style of the first 3 laps dissipated into a very conservative tailgunner position. This was a LOT faster with all the fresh legs (only one other 40+ racer successfully doubled up- there were 16 DNFs in this race. At any rate I successfully finished in the field (23rd) even though I was put into difficulty pretty often. My winter program seems to be going in the correct direction! A less technical course would have been preferred as well as my own bike- the rental is an Orbea Onix with shimano 105 and heavy wheels. Everyone is on carbon aero wheels. Everyone. Anyway I'm pleased with my form. All those soul crushing intervals are already paying dividends. Now for 6 straight days of long steady distance.. and suntan of course! Stay warm and thanks for reading.
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Everyone needs to vent

It's no surprise that I have taken a new interest in blogging now that 311 friends are gone from my life. Let's be honest.. 8 out of 10 FB friends have you "turned off" as a more polite way of getting rid of you.. In my case, about 1/2 of them don't get what I'm saying because English is their 2nd language. So maybe there were 30 people altogether who took a genuine interest and who understood any of what I was saying. Fuck 'em- they can all come here occasionally to see how I'm doing. Seriously though I am really considering to limit my new FB account to people who I have had an actual face to face conversation with. Mutual friend? Unless you're a hottie with a nice rack expect your friend request to be ignored.
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More Facebook fun

Well I encourage everyone to really tighten up security on their Facebook accounts. I fell into the habit of accepting friend requests from anyone whose profile showed them doing sports or who had a bunch of mutual friends. What a fucking joke Facebook has turned out to be. They have been notified 15 different ways that I have lost control of my account and that the offender has changed all my contact info, and each time I am given an assurance that facebook will send me an e-mail at least acknowlwdging that I reported a problem. So far, I have received absolutely nothing. Earlier today I sent a message to my old account saying basically "hey you stole my account give it back". I received a reply in Turkish saying "who the hell are you?". It sounds funny but it's not. This parasite has unfettered access to all my photos, pages, and friends.. And no one at Facebook has given me even the slightest indication that they give a squirt of piss about it. It will be the same for you if it ever happens, so use those new security features which they keep reminding you about every time you log in. Don't let yourself be violated like this.
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New license!

Paid my 2011 USAC dues yesterday so I can race a criterium in Ft Lauderdale on 2/6. Are the Latinos going to kick my ass or what? I hear they are fast year round.

Facebook account stolen

Apparently there are people hacking Facebook accounts and then chatting with contacts and asking them for money, pretending to be you, of course. Today I was kicked off of a bicycling forum in Turkey (DO NOT join this forum- they are a bunch of self hating wanna be a cyclist Turks- how can they possibly like YOU or refrain from insane jealousy of everything you worked your whole life to get?) for some kind of TOS violation (I posted a link to one of my Ebay auctions where I was selling a bike- oh my!) Coincidentally, My yahoo, gmail and facebook accounts were all lost to me within an hour. I recovered yahoo and gmail thanks to security questions and such, but Facebook account is still wild. I have no access and no control of it whatsoever. Whoever this parasite is, they deleted all of my yahoo and gmail emails, and I also see that they also deleted my whole contact list on ebay except for a few family members, unless they just changed the public profile settings. What a piece of shit. Expecting to receive a well deserved "I told you so" from my new teammate.. Anyway, it would help me if you went to my old profile and clicked the "REPORT" link at the bottom left and indicate that I am being impersonated. Facebook is slow to respond to my multiple requests for help. Here is the link to my hijacked profile.
And if I come crying to you via fb chat or message saying that I am stuck somewhere and penniless and need you to send me money, please don't send a penny.

WeeBIKE-Hasyun Racing on the new SST 1.0

The team was sized up for the new FUJI team bikes on Saturday at Quad Cycles. We will be racing on the 2011 FUJI SST 1.0 which weighs a whopping 15.1 pounds equipped with carbon wheels and Shimano Dura Ace grouppo.. We're very impressed by the quality of this bike and encourage you to find your nearest dealer and take one for a test ride. All cables are internally routed for a very clean and aero finish. There is an I-Beam rib (RIB-Tech) inside of the high modulus D6 carbon frameset and fork tubes. It's the top shelf bike you have been looking for, available in three different price points: 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0- the most affordable of which is light enough and stiff enough to use in an NRC criterium, all day long. If you're in the Boston area, please make a visit to Rustem at Quad Cycles in Arlington. They have the Fujis and the Hasyun merino wool base layers for you to check out and they will help you make the correct buying decision.
Hasyun merino wool base layers are now also stocked at Providence Bicycle. Please pay them a visit when you're in the Ocean State.

3 hour road ride..

..Or equivalent. Lately I am leaning more toward the benefits of riding indoors for longer durations. For one, it's just plain safer. It also takes a lot less time to get ready and dressed. Typical winter road ride includes frequent stops- to meet up, to pee, to eat, to fix flats.. It is never a contiguous 3 hours of pedaling. Since you're usually in a group, you're also not working very hard, if at all, 80-90 percent of the time. You end up doing a lot of coasting- sometimes because of downhills, sometimes because you're in the paceline and the pace is slow.
Here's a solution: get on the trainer, spin 100+ rpm for 2 hours straight, never stop pedaling. Today I pegged my heartrate in the 165-175, kept the watts in the 175-195 range and felt pretty torched at the end. A 3 hour road ride would have been more enjoyable for sure, but much less efficient. I guess I'll be mixing it up a bit this winter. Doing 3 hours solo on the road is torture, and sometimes it forces you to work too hard because you need to keep warm!
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Road bike stuff for sale

LOOK KG486 carbon frameset and headset.
Dura Ace 7800:
170mm cranks
Rear derailleur
Front derailleur
Shifters
Brake calipers
Bottom bracket (only one year old)
Easton:
EC90 all carbon seatpost
EC90 carbon stem
Tempest 2 clincher wheelset (one rear spoke is pulling through- needs re-build, and front bearings are worn, 1500 gms for the pair)
Size large clip on aero handlebars
Ergomo Pro bottom bracket (one bolt is broken off- good for parts)
Crank Brothers egg beater pedals (this is the better version)
Ultegra cranks 172.5mm (only one year old)
Mavic GP4 front tubular wheel with Campy hub
Louis Garneau Rocket Time Trial helmet (blue, small never used- in box)
Bontrager Powertap RaceXlite clincher wheelset (everything you need- wired version of Powertap)

Inquire at murat@weebike.com if interested. Make a reasonable offer or the stuff is all hitting Ebay very shortly.
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Happy New Year!

Hi there it seems that I took a month off from blogging but in reality it was just a really busy time for me with the Christmastime surge in demand for merino wool apparel. We had a pretty good year in 2010 and we're grateful to everyone who took a chance on our products. Feedback has been nothing but positive! I've been training pretty regularly for the past few weeks, keeping the weight off and actually expecting to be on the good side of 160 in a week or two. Who knows maybe I'm just two shits away from the mark, but I doubt it because my portion control has been pretty good lately and I don't feel bloated. Could this be the year that my fighting weight goes under 150? Very possible if I drop two pounds a month from now through July. A few seasons back when I re-committed myself to train and race, I was a very steady 185-190 and remember how hard it was to throw a leg over the trainer when I didn't feel like a bike racer- I felt more like an obese out-of-shape has-been with little or no hope of achieving the form that's necessary to win or even crack a top ten result. Those days of training were the hardest. Beginning again, creating momentum. I'm glad those early days are behind me and that I'm blessed enough to be able to follow through with what I've started and make my mark. Taking 10 years off the bike (1991-2001) did not put me in a good place relative to health and fitness. I dabbled with racing in 2001.. again in 2003 (I was a regular at the old Lincoln Crit) and finally committed to being as successful as I possibly could, in 2005. Five contiguous seasons of racing and 30+ pounds later, my stubborn determination has started to pay big dividends and 2011 is looking pretty awesome too, from where I'm standing. Thanks for reading.

NBX GP of Cross Day 2

It pleases me immensely to inform my readers that I am the Bronze Medalist in Sunday's Elite Masters 35-39 RI Championships (Rhode Island residents only). Never mind that I finished in last place or that I was lapped by the top 10 guys, or that they didn't even rank me as a finisher until I protested and got added onto the list.. It was a race against myself above all else because leaving the cocoon-like warmth of the carousel (we were selling our Hasyun wool apparel in there) required the resolve of 3 Buddhist monks and the strength of 5 small children. I chose to go bare legged with skinsuit, only a pair of wool base layers underneath, plus some arm warmers. Embrocation? I honestly just recently discovered what that word means and I've never used it. Long story short, your hero lined up at the back of the field and swallowed a mega dose of TTFU. Using the Fuji Cross-Pro which I bought used for $800 back in 2006 is becoming a bigger handicap than it used to be as I observe enough carbon fiber around me to build a 1/20th scale Airbus A380. My bike suuuuuucks! Before the start I was patching a hole in my tube and noticed that a spoke nipple is pulling through the rim of my trusty Easton Tempest 2 wheelset.. All my brake shoes rub. I have to over-shift and tune in order to change gears.. You get the idea. Hopefully it does not dishonor the sport to not take it too seriously, but the one part of it which I take dead seriously is always finishing what I start.. and for my determination I was rewarded with a handsome medal which designates me as an occupant of the Rhode Island Masters 35-39 Championship podium. Hat tip to G-Diddy for his silver medal. There were only three other Rhode Islanders in our race so I think one medal went unclaimed for the 40-44 class. It was a good time and the medal made an already awesome weekend even sweeter.
Many thanks to the organizers, promoter (www.nbxbikes.com), volunteers and officials for managing an excellent event.
On Saturday was impossible for me to race with the complications of being an exhibitor in the carousel, but the learning curve was behind us on Sunday making it possible for me to race. To be honest, the whipping winds of Saturday did not encourage me and it was almost a relief not to jump in.
Oddly enough Sunday's last place result awarded me a more successful point rank at http://www.cross-results.com/ than last year, where it would appear I was more successful 2009.. Cool.
If you haven't already noticed, we are trying very hard to make our 100% merino wool base layers successful. So far they are a hit, and I'd like to thank my few loyal readers with a discount code for 10% off at http://www.weebike.com/. Just enter WEESAVE10 at checkout. With the long sleeve base layers already on sale for $54, you will snag one for under $50. We ship same day and use Priority mail, so your order is never more than 2 days away. Thanks for reading and thanks for supporting a local small business.
So thanks for reading.. Sorry to let this go for so long without an update..

I'm a freaking elite bike racer..

Pack 71 Cowesett Christmas Wreath Drive

Please use this link to order and pay for a wreath ($15.44 each) or mail me a check for $15 payable to "Pack 71 Cowesett"to: 150 Cumberland Road Warwick RI 02886
My boy Reis is a Tiger Cub this year and we are trying to win a prize. Thanks!

Yellow jacket and water damage control

What started out as a simple bee infestation has turned into a full blown rehab project at our house. Where I originally believed that the nest was responsible for the rotting wood, it turns out that there has been an ongoing penetration of water into this corner of the house for probably 20+ years. Indeed the bees chewed and bored right through the joists and studs, using the next-over pocket between joists as a dumping ground for the chewed up lumber- there was 10 pounds of sawdust mysteriously piled up in there, and sort of petrified into a mound with bee saliva.. But the real damage was caused by H20. In these situations, it needs to get worse before it gets better- kind of like cutting away gangrenous limbs. I had to cut a little bit past the decay and rebuild from that point. The pictures are self-explanatory but I like explaining things.. I did a similar rehab on the east end of the house where an outdoor duplex outlet was also penetrated for years and the sheathing rotted to mush. That was a little bit easier to fix.
This little crevice was packed with thousands of honeycombs, filled with squirming larvae, meaning that their numbers were about to double or triple if we did not poison them to death.
Thank God that fist joint was not destroyed- the end is a little rough but it is otherwise solid, and I used it a base to re-build around. The fascia 2x10 had to be cut to the centerline of the next floor joist.
3/8x16 bolts hold the new material in place securely, above.. below, that sheathing is split in two pieces for a reason- if there is going to be moderate penetration and decay at a corner, only the 4" wide piece of sheathing is affected while the rest of the sheathing escapes serious damage. It almost worked in this case (orig built in 1963) and I simply repeated the design- I did not come up with it. Below you can also see that the left hand side of this set-up required a saw-toothed piece of sheathing to be custom fit in place. That was the hardest part.
Below, meet my new best friend- peel and stick flashing! This stuff was not around in 1963, but if it had been this whole mess might have been avoided. Love it. The new trim pieces you see are not real wood, but impervious-to-everything PVC. It doesnt even need painting. I love it so much I could cry..
Only two more pieces of trim, some new cedar clapboard, and one soffit panel to pop in there. Then I'll secure that little crown moulding that's pulled down, apply caulk to all the joints, prime and paint. I figure a contractor would have charge me $500-600 labor to do this work, plus materials. It is going to take me about 20 hours total, and I don't exactly hustle when I want to do a job like this correctly. I take my time.

Hey did I mention that I rode my bike today? Yeah, the 2nd time since Providence Cross Fest. Did about 45 awesome miles down to Narragansett and now I feel like a human being again!
Thanks for reading.

2010 Providence Cyclocross Festival Elite Women's Podium

Today's Elite Women's podium: Sally Annis, Andrea Smith, Amy Dombroski each autographed a Pink YBIKE donated by WeeBIKE.com and it is up for grabs tomorrow at the Providence Cyclocross Festival! Find the US Open Cycling tent and buy your raffle tickets. Proceeds will benefit breast cancer research.