June is an akward time in the season with the spring classics in stone there is a strange lull in action. The heat is finaly here in the north of New York. 80 and 90 degree temps all of a sudden slap you int he face to bring in the summer season. Arm warmers are now shoved to the bottom of my travel bag and sleaveless jerseys are finaly a daily routein to catch up on that tan as it has been suffering badly this spring.
Somerville is the unofficial marker of the summer suffering and this year was awesome. The somerville weekend is composed of 3 days 1st of which is the Pro/1 Hills of somerset RR which is a solid race. 30 is the number that is seeminly stuck to your cyclocomputer screen for the 1st hour and a half of the race as it it flat and FFFAAASSST... get a flat here (like many did) and kiss you hopes of finishing with anythign but the laughing groupetto, goodbye. 40 miles in a 2k climb hits you hard as all the vertically elastic folks are still fresh and ready to pounce. Jeff unfortionaly hit the deck at 40 after the climb as we were in "o crap we better catch those climbers" mode. I promptly counter attacked the surge and made the dumbo move of the year as I was halfway cross to a break up the road I hit the 2nd much longer and steeper climb. I promptly pulled the chute got caught and got shelled as the pase was on. But with a soid chase I got back on after I suffer to the top(pros climb fasssttt). But to cut it short It all went well and after a solid leadout by master Todd himelf I solidly won the field sprint.
Ths seasons coming together great and with the summer goals coming up faster than I'd like I'm feeling good and as a whole we are all geling well as a team.
More yto follow soon
Ciao for now
RRRRRR
Friday, June 6, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Real racing begins Bloomfield style.
Bloomfield...where's that one would say... it is a no where town wedged in the hills somewhere between Rochester and Bristol, but more importantly it was the home of the opening round of the real season of racing this year. The GVCC Bloomfield classic run by the one and only Todd Scheske himself and sponsored by Rochester's premier bike shop Full moon Vista is a hilly reminder of what pain is...
It was a long time coming(2 years) my first race as a Category 2 cyclist... There is no hiding now, its time to keep it real and play with the big guns. The big gun fired early as my fellow teammate Paul Komanecky rolled off the front 5k into the race...never to be seen again. We all knew Paul was insanely powerful but we had no idea what he was fully capable of. He slowly widdled down his 2 breakaway companions and eventually was solo for the better part of the last 2 laps to take the win in a wire to wire off the front ride.
Back in the mortal group Fiordifrutta's Corey Burns was firing bullets like it was his day job while myself or one of my fellow teammates marked the known strongman knowing he would be tough if he got away. But eventually the rider in red was left without any ammo as myself Staffo(JW dundees) and fellow Preferred care rider Jake Castor droped the hammer and caused the chase move of the day. Soon we were joined by Cheyne Hoag(sakonnet) and race organizer and cat 1 fast man Todd Scheske(preferred Care) himself to help the train roll along. In the closing lap I launched several attacks to try and rid myself of my fellow breakaway companions but with about 1 mile remaining a flat tire would wreck any chances of me besting my fellow competitors. 7th place was what I was left with.
But in the end it was a good race and a good test for the legs as it confirmed I have the firness to do well, with Jiminy peak a more important race close on the horizon the suffering has only began :).
Ciao for now.
RRRRR.
It was a long time coming(2 years) my first race as a Category 2 cyclist... There is no hiding now, its time to keep it real and play with the big guns. The big gun fired early as my fellow teammate Paul Komanecky rolled off the front 5k into the race...never to be seen again. We all knew Paul was insanely powerful but we had no idea what he was fully capable of. He slowly widdled down his 2 breakaway companions and eventually was solo for the better part of the last 2 laps to take the win in a wire to wire off the front ride.
Back in the mortal group Fiordifrutta's Corey Burns was firing bullets like it was his day job while myself or one of my fellow teammates marked the known strongman knowing he would be tough if he got away. But eventually the rider in red was left without any ammo as myself Staffo(JW dundees) and fellow Preferred care rider Jake Castor droped the hammer and caused the chase move of the day. Soon we were joined by Cheyne Hoag(sakonnet) and race organizer and cat 1 fast man Todd Scheske(preferred Care) himself to help the train roll along. In the closing lap I launched several attacks to try and rid myself of my fellow breakaway companions but with about 1 mile remaining a flat tire would wreck any chances of me besting my fellow competitors. 7th place was what I was left with.
But in the end it was a good race and a good test for the legs as it confirmed I have the firness to do well, with Jiminy peak a more important race close on the horizon the suffering has only began :).
Ciao for now.
RRRRR.
The shortlist of RRRR.
Ahhhh is the sound I made last week as finaly there is spring in the air birds singing and blood sweat and gears mashing as the season is and has been here for over a month now. I havent posted in a while but due to some complants from readers(MM CR & JZ u know who u are:) I'm back and thawed out from the winter rides and left hand turns in the velodrome in the brisk london air. So lets take it from the top...
Track racing...well, is just awesome and I've come to be decent at it. The Forest city velodrome has been my weekend home from January well on through the 1st weekend of april as I've done at least 6 races up there in the north of London ontario. Racing is tight and intence with average speeds of upwards of 50kph (31mph) it is a Vo2 max slaughter fest. I managed to tag 2 victorys to my name among countless 2nds 3rds to add to my maddness and I've made some great firends as well, hey I am half Canadian in all.
Spring racing(on the road)... The traditional march spring giros went off as usual this year but the were not the usual fields. With the disbanding of the normal Buffalo race on Saturday and Rochester in Sunday we were left with 2 races in bolth days in Bufflo.
Like normal its cold sometimes snowey. But we were unfortionatly missing the Belgum like winds this year which tend to split up the field nicly. Team Handlebars had a healthy 10 man team there and managed to work my Preferred Care butt over pretty good on many occasions as I was left to chase by myself many times as 9 guys in black sit on my wheel waiting to counter attack as soon as I catch ther teammate up the road. But who cares they will all falter when the real races come to be. But through determination and even with missing 2 of these races due to velodrome racing I still managed 3rd on the points of which I could care less about...
Thats all folks check back next time...
RRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Track racing...well, is just awesome and I've come to be decent at it. The Forest city velodrome has been my weekend home from January well on through the 1st weekend of april as I've done at least 6 races up there in the north of London ontario. Racing is tight and intence with average speeds of upwards of 50kph (31mph) it is a Vo2 max slaughter fest. I managed to tag 2 victorys to my name among countless 2nds 3rds to add to my maddness and I've made some great firends as well, hey I am half Canadian in all.
Spring racing(on the road)... The traditional march spring giros went off as usual this year but the were not the usual fields. With the disbanding of the normal Buffalo race on Saturday and Rochester in Sunday we were left with 2 races in bolth days in Bufflo.
Like normal its cold sometimes snowey. But we were unfortionatly missing the Belgum like winds this year which tend to split up the field nicly. Team Handlebars had a healthy 10 man team there and managed to work my Preferred Care butt over pretty good on many occasions as I was left to chase by myself many times as 9 guys in black sit on my wheel waiting to counter attack as soon as I catch ther teammate up the road. But who cares they will all falter when the real races come to be. But through determination and even with missing 2 of these races due to velodrome racing I still managed 3rd on the points of which I could care less about...
Thats all folks check back next time...
RRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Le Huscaran...day 4
Le Huscaran was the motavation to get out of bed today as I did indeed climb the 2nd highest mountain in the western hemisphere. But by motavation I don´t mean alot of motavation as I was pretty lathargic after the 5 hour ride we did yestertday. Jake was not on his game either as he had contracted a bit of a stomac bug so he was paying for that a bit today on the climb.
The day started a bit early as Julio was here at 8:00 due to the 45 minut taxi ride to the base of the beast. The climb itself was long 11 miles long it was not as steep as some of the climbs on the correlo Negro range we acended yesterday but defenetly a beyond catagory climb by any standards.
It took us a total of 2 hours to complete the climb only to find a random group of people at the top. These people had driven their cheech and chong Toyota van up the dirt roads to the top and were making a film of sorts with their harp(which I played with a bit)their base gutar and this well dressed girl who was suposeivly a dancer of sorts. Well... Jake and I may be seen on the big screen rather soon as we were filmed danceing with this latino girl int the middle of this field infront of the rock un bikeable portion of the mountain , we were throwing down some sick party boy dancing as they filmed and took photos(yea Todd snapped some too). We were all tired from the hard climb but we didnt realise that the hard part was still to come as the decent off the huscaron was off the hook as we didnt take the same rout as we did on the way up. It was basically 10 miles of -20% grade with steps up to 2 feet in height large gravel and rocks as well as multi 1000 foot dropoffs that would scare any mortal human hugged the trail the full way down. No Jake crash today but Todd took a digger as he flew off a 2 foot stair wich led into a sharp corner.
Like clockwork our taxi driver was waiting for us when we arived at the base of the climb for the 45 minut drive back to home at the Olaza B&B in hurez. An awesome lunch/dinner(Linner) insued at a 2nd floor pizza pasta shop downtown where I consumed the best Pasta with Bolengese sause I´ve ever had.
I sit here at 5:30 typing and contomplating the 6 hour ride tomorro with over 1000 meters of climbing to the Eco Ladge up in the Correlo Blanca range where we will stay tomorro night before returning the next day. Should be awesome.
Off to bed see you in a few days
R.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Peru Day 3 test of truth # 1
Today started with groans of a half hangover were heard from Jake and myself from the nightlife of Friday. But we were up and going as we had to climb the grassy peaks east of the city today. A few 1 hour climbs were slapped in our face as I am feeling much better toady on the bike as my heart rate has stabalized as we have become more aclimated to the extreem elivation change. We were fling up the dusty roads to the peaks in the distance today our guide Julio fell behind due to out relentless tempo pace, its going to be a long 5 more days for him. Todds vendeta against the aloe vera plant continued today as he wacked another one of these angry creatures putting another thorn through his battered left hand... much poking fun insued. We were doing some insane decending at the end of the ride when again Jake bit it hard. While crossing a drainage ditch which I cleared fine with a hop Jake whom I´m a bad influence on when it comes to decending due to the fact that I´m a bit more skilled than him jumped the ditch and preceeded to plow himself into a rock wall denting his helmet but again he came out with only a few less brain cells and a little more respect for dirt.
A 5 hour ride was what we tackled today which left us all hungry out of out minds. The food here in Hurez is awesome You can find anything here and its all good a short walk away and relitivly cheap due to the dollar being at a 3 to 1 par to the sol. We have ate some awesome mexican, pizza and authentic Peruvian food since our stay began. ordering is aways a bit of an adventure as we rairly know what wee are ordering as Jake ordered the pollo especial today (chicken special) and preceeded to spead what he thought to be Guacamole which turned out to be cayanne pepper sause(ouch).
Belive it or not I saw a ford taurus today which may be the only one in Peru.
GTG Le Huscasan looms for tomorro at 5500 mteres(22,000 feet) of elivation it is going to be painful 4 hours of climbing so no partying and early to bed for all especialy Jake with his 5:00 bed time as the 1st signs of an implosion were seen today as he was much slowed from day 1 and 2.
R.
A 5 hour ride was what we tackled today which left us all hungry out of out minds. The food here in Hurez is awesome You can find anything here and its all good a short walk away and relitivly cheap due to the dollar being at a 3 to 1 par to the sol. We have ate some awesome mexican, pizza and authentic Peruvian food since our stay began. ordering is aways a bit of an adventure as we rairly know what wee are ordering as Jake ordered the pollo especial today (chicken special) and preceeded to spead what he thought to be Guacamole which turned out to be cayanne pepper sause(ouch).
Belive it or not I saw a ford taurus today which may be the only one in Peru.
GTG Le Huscasan looms for tomorro at 5500 mteres(22,000 feet) of elivation it is going to be painful 4 hours of climbing so no partying and early to bed for all especialy Jake with his 5:00 bed time as the 1st signs of an implosion were seen today as he was much slowed from day 1 and 2.
R.
Peru day 2 the suffering begins hehehe.
Tis day 2 in my new home of Hurez Peru the day began with a awesome breakfast made by the Olaza B&B staff complete with french press cofee athentic rolls and mango juce which is awesome. We oredered ate and were off at 9 when Julio arived. Today we rode from the hotel,in the mopuntains east of the city under the intence Peruvian sun. It was hot and hard as we tackled many steep climbs that took a half hour plus to complete. It was a taxing day as this is day 2 of training for the 2008 campain after a solid break from riding. Jake was feeling good and drilled it up the climbs but Todd and I predict a meltdown in the days to come if this continues. The culture here is a true thrill to experiance as everyone has so many dogs that nip at our heels and bark constantly as we pass. Even far up in the mountains there are random houses and clusters of houses with little old people just sitting around with their wrinkly faces soaking up life in the madness of the Peruvian Andies. Not many of these folks have cars and it would seem as if toyota has a monopoly on the market as every one that has a car is driving a striped down corolla. Its very common to see little kids to adults in the middle of nowhere walking up the mountain to their house. Houses here are not what houses in the USA are, they are generly one room adobe brick huts. Many have electricity though even up high in the mountains. What isnt mud and straw is red brick with no siding, paint if you are lucky. Riding was filled with treks through these villages and over trails that were formed before christ as Hurez has a rich past with the pre Incan culture.
The nightlife here is bumping on a friday night as Jake and I went out partying around town and met some truly mad folks in a small down town bar filled with sounds of Americano music and espanol being spoke. Jake is fairly fluent in this languge but I struggle with connecting words to make good sentences. We were welcolmed by Andy a mountaineer celabrating his 28th birthday. He spoke about as much english as we speak Spanish so it was all good for communication. He passed us the picture of beer and told us to have at it in which we did. We met so many awesome people in that bar all high on life and ready for adventure. Many of them were friends of Andy and also mountaineers which makes for great conversation as that ius a cool atribute of Hurez is the prevalent amount of mountain climbing that takes place here. There is a school here that costs $7000 to enrole in to become a certafied mountaineer. It is a true thrill to walk into these places and be the total minority and meet total strangers whom don´t even speak your languageand to befriend them.
After much beer consumed and the fact that it was now early morning we bid fairwell to our friends and made it back home in time to hopefully get enough sleep to manage the tough ride scheduled for the morning.
we are all having a great time and looking forward to the days to come.
Peace
R.
The nightlife here is bumping on a friday night as Jake and I went out partying around town and met some truly mad folks in a small down town bar filled with sounds of Americano music and espanol being spoke. Jake is fairly fluent in this languge but I struggle with connecting words to make good sentences. We were welcolmed by Andy a mountaineer celabrating his 28th birthday. He spoke about as much english as we speak Spanish so it was all good for communication. He passed us the picture of beer and told us to have at it in which we did. We met so many awesome people in that bar all high on life and ready for adventure. Many of them were friends of Andy and also mountaineers which makes for great conversation as that ius a cool atribute of Hurez is the prevalent amount of mountain climbing that takes place here. There is a school here that costs $7000 to enrole in to become a certafied mountaineer. It is a true thrill to walk into these places and be the total minority and meet total strangers whom don´t even speak your languageand to befriend them.
After much beer consumed and the fact that it was now early morning we bid fairwell to our friends and made it back home in time to hopefully get enough sleep to manage the tough ride scheduled for the morning.
we are all having a great time and looking forward to the days to come.
Peace
R.
Peru Travel and day 1
Yes Jake Todd and I are solidly placed in Peru after a hard long 22 hours of traveling to Hurez. It took a 2 hour flight to atlanta then a 6 hour flight to Lima Peru and A 8 yes 8 hour bus ride through what seemed to be the arrenburg forest as I tried to sleep, Domingo our driver drilled it as hard as his little toyota van (flash back to Cheech and chong) could go. I woke up at sun rise (6am) to find Domingo setting a toe curling pace up the mountain pass that lands you in the heart of the andies and Hurez, my current residence.
Riding riding riding is what were here for and it is awesome, no dought the best mtn biking I`ve ever experianced. There is no plano(flat) her in Hurez the base elavation is 9000 feet so to make matters much worse we took a car with out bikes to one of the peaks to do a little flatter downhilly 3 hour ride to start us off. The problem is that we are used to about 500 feet base elavation so throw a couple of Ameracana Gringos at 13000 feet and it looks like a group of cat 5`s for the 1st hour. The slightest bump in the trail put us into the red zone. Everyone was doing well with the tecnical trails until Jake took a good endo down a flight of pre inca built stairs with only minor scrapes as a result. Todd had a runnin with a angry wild out of control aloe vera plant that put a thorn through his finger and pissed him off massivly.
Our tour guide Julio Olaza is truly a class guy with his stuff together and not a bad mountain biker. Also our hoten Olaza Bed and Breakfast is insane, its a true 5 star place in the heart of the andies and at 20 bucks a night a true steel.
Well real suffering starts tomorro with 15000 foot peeks all around and no where to go but up it should be rough.
adios amigos
R.
Riding riding riding is what were here for and it is awesome, no dought the best mtn biking I`ve ever experianced. There is no plano(flat) her in Hurez the base elavation is 9000 feet so to make matters much worse we took a car with out bikes to one of the peaks to do a little flatter downhilly 3 hour ride to start us off. The problem is that we are used to about 500 feet base elavation so throw a couple of Ameracana Gringos at 13000 feet and it looks like a group of cat 5`s for the 1st hour. The slightest bump in the trail put us into the red zone. Everyone was doing well with the tecnical trails until Jake took a good endo down a flight of pre inca built stairs with only minor scrapes as a result. Todd had a runnin with a angry wild out of control aloe vera plant that put a thorn through his finger and pissed him off massivly.
Our tour guide Julio Olaza is truly a class guy with his stuff together and not a bad mountain biker. Also our hoten Olaza Bed and Breakfast is insane, its a true 5 star place in the heart of the andies and at 20 bucks a night a true steel.
Well real suffering starts tomorro with 15000 foot peeks all around and no where to go but up it should be rough.
adios amigos
R.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
