2009 Blogs
On Thursday I spent 5 hours in Richmond at Village Bikes. It’s the shop that The Jamey Driscoll works at. His boss, Gene helped me out BIG TIME with gluing wheels and other random stuff when I was staring blankly at my bike, wondering how to tackle the next obstacle. We got it dialed and the bike that fit me like a glove, now fits better – more like a sock. It’s kinda like when you’re making a snow angel…first you lie down in the snow and make the imprint, and as you windshield wiper your arms and legs, the angel becomes more and more you. Or maybe you become more and more angelic? To sum it up, I’m an angel on my bike.
Hehe, I like that…I wish I had a picture.
Onward ho, on the road we go. The best Dad ever is currently driving us through a rain soaked New Hampshire and the leaves have been unreal. Imagine all those ‘Fall Foliage’ books with the pictures of changing leaves. Now imagine droplets of water on the page – that’s what I’m looking at. Now imagine the rumble you feel in your stomach when riding in a sports car, the wider and low profile tires skimming along the frost-heaved pavement and dirt roads. Add some warmth in your buns and back from the heated seats. Now pick up the cup of Pumpkin Spice coffee and waft the scent and slowly devour. Now you’re basically in the backseat of our car! Except there’s no room for you because somehow we’ve crammed two bikes, 4 wheels, and all the clothing and accessories needed for a weekend of ‘cross racing on the unpredictable and ever-changing east coast…all into a ruby-red little audit tt.
Quit laughing at me…the pumpkin spice coffee is pretty good. I gotta be defensive because normally I would never get the flavored coffee. But it’s fall, and fall is cold, and for cold you need spice, and spice reminds me of apple pie and pumpkins, and pumpkins and pie remind me of punkin pie which tastes good and so does coffee, so how can you go wrong with punkin spice coffee?
Providence Cyclo-fest is this weekend at Roger Williams Park. I raced here in 2006, my inaugural season of cyclocross, when Providence hosted Nationals. It was a fun course, so I’m looking forward to recon-ing it today. I look back at that race with fondness and some embarrassment. The first day was the U23 race, which was run at the same time as the collegiate women’s race. So I was lined up beside my now-sister-in-law, Nicole. Arielle Filiberti and I duked it out throughout the race, and in the end, I took the win. My bro was in the pit for me, with his bike as mine and Nicole’s backup bike. On the final lap I had instilled a good gap on Arielle, but on the final run-up, about 600m from the finish I dropped my chain and hardly knew what to do. I remember seeing Dan in an absolute stricken panicked mayhem. But I got it back on ok, and rode to the finish for my first win! Dan was bug-eyed, and I think I recall seeing a bit of emotion. My dad was also there, and it was the first psycho-cross race he had ever seen, and from that point on he was hooked!
The following day was the elite race, where I lined up on the very last row. I remember the race starting and seeing the entire field before me pedaling away while I was still standing, shivering, waiting. And I had a mullet. But I picked my way through, and then ran smack dab into Boulderite, Cat Johnson. Crumbled like Jenga. Rookie takes down seasoned veteran. Then I also found this cool picture of me giving er’, and Jen Tilley is on my wheel, and I didn’t know her at the time because she was still in Kansas. The following year Jen, Natasha Cowie and myself were like three peas in a pod on Velo Bella. Providence was good times, good seafood.
Hehe, I like that…I wish I had a picture.
Onward ho, on the road we go. The best Dad ever is currently driving us through a rain soaked New Hampshire and the leaves have been unreal. Imagine all those ‘Fall Foliage’ books with the pictures of changing leaves. Now imagine droplets of water on the page – that’s what I’m looking at. Now imagine the rumble you feel in your stomach when riding in a sports car, the wider and low profile tires skimming along the frost-heaved pavement and dirt roads. Add some warmth in your buns and back from the heated seats. Now pick up the cup of Pumpkin Spice coffee and waft the scent and slowly devour. Now you’re basically in the backseat of our car! Except there’s no room for you because somehow we’ve crammed two bikes, 4 wheels, and all the clothing and accessories needed for a weekend of ‘cross racing on the unpredictable and ever-changing east coast…all into a ruby-red little audit tt.
Quit laughing at me…the pumpkin spice coffee is pretty good. I gotta be defensive because normally I would never get the flavored coffee. But it’s fall, and fall is cold, and for cold you need spice, and spice reminds me of apple pie and pumpkins, and pumpkins and pie remind me of punkin pie which tastes good and so does coffee, so how can you go wrong with punkin spice coffee?
Providence Cyclo-fest is this weekend at Roger Williams Park. I raced here in 2006, my inaugural season of cyclocross, when Providence hosted Nationals. It was a fun course, so I’m looking forward to recon-ing it today. I look back at that race with fondness and some embarrassment. The first day was the U23 race, which was run at the same time as the collegiate women’s race. So I was lined up beside my now-sister-in-law, Nicole. Arielle Filiberti and I duked it out throughout the race, and in the end, I took the win. My bro was in the pit for me, with his bike as mine and Nicole’s backup bike. On the final lap I had instilled a good gap on Arielle, but on the final run-up, about 600m from the finish I dropped my chain and hardly knew what to do. I remember seeing Dan in an absolute stricken panicked mayhem. But I got it back on ok, and rode to the finish for my first win! Dan was bug-eyed, and I think I recall seeing a bit of emotion. My dad was also there, and it was the first psycho-cross race he had ever seen, and from that point on he was hooked!
The following day was the elite race, where I lined up on the very last row. I remember the race starting and seeing the entire field before me pedaling away while I was still standing, shivering, waiting. And I had a mullet. But I picked my way through, and then ran smack dab into Boulderite, Cat Johnson. Crumbled like Jenga. Rookie takes down seasoned veteran. Then I also found this cool picture of me giving er’, and Jen Tilley is on my wheel, and I didn’t know her at the time because she was still in Kansas. The following year Jen, Natasha Cowie and myself were like three peas in a pod on Velo Bella. Providence was good times, good seafood.