Golly, I don't know who keeps releasing these mysterious flyers, but looks like De Ronde is back for 2009, with even more ouch than before. 

You want to build character?  There's enough character building on this ride to get a crack whore into heaven*.

* perhaps an overstatement; my apologies to any crack whores in my reading audience.

I was sick, but I'm okay now; it took three days to get over it.

Getting sick is important.  It reminds me my health is a precious gift, and should not be taken for granted.

However, I never enjoy laying in bed, waiting for the yuck to go play somewhere else. 

Not fun, but a fair trade-off for good health most of the time.

I'm happy for what I've got.

Yet another installment of the Jack Frost Time Trial has come and gone.  We had some good weather, and a lot of participants.  Things went fairly smoothly on race day. 

It always surprises me how much time is required to generate an accurate starting list.  In theory, this would be easy.  But then I get requests such as "I've got a thing in the afternoon and can only race in the morning" that make it a little more complicated.  And since this is the first OBRA event of the year that uses an OBRA number, we have to deal with changing race numbers, even up to the last minute. 

One request I get quite often is starting position - people asking if they can start behind someone else, go last, etc.  The way I see it, the most fair way to do it is to sort the race start order in opposite order of registration time.  So the earlier you register, the later you'll start.  That's how I always do it.

Since this is a pre-season race, I was very lenient with race time adjustments.  For the OBRA Hillclimb TT, where an OBRA champion title is on the line, I think I'll have to keep all the categories racing together.  That way, everyone in a given category rides in the same wind/weather conditions, and we can do podium presentations at the finish area.

If you did the race, I hope you had a good time. 

TOC is an early season race.  Cavendish is perhaps still getting used to his new team kit. 

Lesson learned yesterday - don't point to your junk when wearing white shorts unless it's clean and dry down there.  I'm sure he'll have plenty more opportunities to hone in his victory pose.

  Photo snagged from VeloNews - click it to see more TOC shots

Here's a bike race scenario you may have experienced:

You're climbing in a pack, and the person in front of you stands up, shoving their bike back about two feet.  You hold your breath as you see the rear wheel charge towards you.  Rubbing commences, a sickening sound.  You might even smell smoke, and eat asphalt.

I heard this happened to a certain someone over the weekend.  I can't say it hasn't happened to me.  In fact, I think nearly everyone has experienced this terror at one time or another.

Here are a few thoughts on the matter, just to get it out there...

If you're the stander-upper offender:
Uh oh, you just stood up and you hear the sickening rubbing sound of tire on tire.  Most likely, you can tell what side the rubbing is coming from, so move in the opposite direction a few inches.  That will really help the other person stay up, and since you just slammed your bike into them, it's the least you could do.

If you're the stander-upper victim:
It's easier said than done, but don't freak out.  If you tense up your shoulders and arms, you're probably going down.  It is possible to stay upright when this happens.  The most effective method I've found is to lean a little towards the wheel you're rubbing, and push the bike away from you, keeping it as upright as possible.  If you're in the drops, you're chances of staying up are as good as they can be.  Hoods...not so much.  And if you're riding in the tops...in a group...have a nice fall.

Prevention:
Yeah this is preventable.  First of all, when you stand up, don't do it all loosy goosey.  Maintain your cadence (shift one harder gear if you need to), and keep your balance back towards the saddle as you stand.    Don't just lurch forward with one ugly, feeble movement.  Slowly ease your weight forward to your normal standing/climbing position.  This is good pack riding etiquette, but I guess a lot of people don't know or care.

And if you're following someone, you have to be ready for it.  Don't ride directly behind their wheel.  Ride maybe 6-12 inches to one side or the other.  If the wheel comes back, you'll be fine. 

Riding in the drops when you're in a tight pack is a great idea.  You'll be able to stay in control easier if someone bumps you, or comes across into your wheel.  The hoods and tops are great when you're on your own, but if you want to stay upright, consider racing in the drops.

So now that racing season is approaching, you'll need to transition into racing in a pack.  Contact is bound to happen as people get tired and everyone rides aggressively, but that doesn't mean you have to crash.  If things get hairy, get in the drops and be ready.  And relax!

We spend a couple days at Nedonna beach this weekend.  We were amazed with the amount of debris that's washed up on shore.  I guess it's never been this bad before.  I guess it's pretty messy, but it was a lot of fun, too.

There certainly was a lot of premium fort building material:

We had a good time walking around on all the logs:

Taylor Phinney is only 18 years old, yet he just set two American records in track racing.

Yesterday, he won the world cup pursuit (in Copenhagen) in 4:19, but qualified with an (American) record time of 4:15.  That's 4,000 meters.

Today, he also won the kilo, setting a new American record by a fraction of a second, just over 1:01.

Having raced track myself for several years, I'm shocked by this.  Pursuit guys and kilo guys are usually different animals.  This kid took the gold in both events.  And he's freakin' 18!  Unreal.

I like the movie V for Vendetta.  I like typography, too. Tastefully put together, we arrive at the following:

Mette had her first loose tooth.  It was hanging by a thread, but she just would not pull it out, and she certainly wouldn't let us do it. 

Every day, that tooth got more and more wiggly.  Finally, on Saturday, she could blow out her mouth and the tooth would literally flap in the wind.  Now that's loose!  But would she pull it out?  No, she would not.

Practice.  I decided what she needed was practice.  So I got out some raisins and some pine nuts.  I stuck a pine nut (the tooth) into a raisin (the gum) and let her pull it out:

We practiced over and over.  It was so easy.  Surely now, she'd pull that tooth out, right?  Nope.

Defeated, I decided to take a quick shower.  During that 5-10 minutes, big sister bribed her to pull it out for one dollar, and it was a done deal.  Kids these days.

Regardless, the tooth is now out, and I can once again look at my daughter without getting the willies from seeing it flap in the wind.