Knobs

Today was hot, very, very hot and humid, after several days of nice cool weather (at least for July), the regular Ohio Valley weather came back with a vengeance, and so of course, I decided to do a long ride today.

My plan originally was to drive to New Albany and ride from there, but what with gas prices being the way they are, I just could not justify that to myself, so leaving Utica, I rode down to the Falls of the Ohio and then on to New Albany. I ran into a teammate in Clarksville and he rode with me to New Albany before he had to turn off to head to work, either that or he just wanted to leave before I got to the hills. There were several long steep hills that I had to go over before I got to my objective for the day - Blunk Knob. Blunk is one of the longer knobs around, around 1.3 miles long, and while not terribly steep, is still a very long, grinding climb. At the top of this hill, I turned left on highway 62 and headed for Farnsley Knob, which I rode down (as I would not try to climb it, it is just too steep). By this time the heat was starting to take its toll on my. Finally, I worked my way back to New Albany and then home. The first picture is not Farnsley Knob, but one of the knobs right next to it, and the second picture is a wall along an alley in New Albany.

At least I made it home in time to see Carlos Sastre ride the time trial of his life to protect the yellow jersey in the Tour, and guarantee himself a win tomorrow.

Triple Digits

They say that some like it hot, well, that is not me. Summer is again here with a vengance, as it was over 100 degrees here yesterday and it feels like the temperature is headed that way again. And, hey I am the fool out there riding in this weather.

Yesterday was the Indiana State Road Race Champioships up in Indianapolis. I had to get up really early to make it there for the 8:15. This is a race that I was going to do earlier in the summer, but it had been rained out (actually stormed out) back in June. I was racing in the 4/5 field, so I felt that I should be pretty competitive in the race. Unfortunately the course did not really favor my strengths, nor did it favor breakaways, as the field of around 75 racers stayed together for the entire length of the race (42 miles). There was one little hill on the course at around 1 mile to go to the finish, and at the top of that hill on the last lap, I tried to shift down into a harder gear and my rear derailuer did not shift, so I kept trying to shift again and again. Well, it took my a minute to figure out that my derailuer cable had snapped (at first I thought that my shifter had bit the dust, but lucky that was not the case). The problem was that this left me with only one gear for the final sprint, my hardest gear. It might seem that this is the gear that I would want to use in a sprint, and yes it is, but only for one last burst of speed, I needed my other gears to build up to speed, instead of trying to grind out the 600 yard sprint to the finish from my 53/12 gear. I still did better than I thought I was going to, and was actually moving up into the top 15 or so with 100 meters to go, but then people started to catch me and I finished the race in 34th place, so who knows what it would have been if I had been able to use all my gears. But while that was disappointing, honestly, it did not bother me all that much.

This morning, Kate was going over to her parents to work on her costume for the Anime convention, so I took the opportunity to get in a long ride. There is a club ride that leaves from Silver Creek High School up in Sellersburg on Sunday mornings that has a 50 mile l00p, so with the mileage of riding up there, the ride would be around 68 miles for me, a pretty good distance.

When I got up there, a couple of my teammates were there also, so I knew that it would be a pretty quick ride. In the end, one of my teammates split off from the ride pretty early on, so there were just two of us to finish the ride. The ride heads north from Sellersburg, up in Scott County. Most of the scenery is classic southern Indiana, meaning rolling farm land, a few small villages, old homes, and scrub forests. We hammered the first part of the ride, and then took it easier when we turned into the wind at around 25 miles. The house in the picture is a little stone house that I have passed several times on rides and I always like it. It looks like something out of the Black Forest in Germany.

We did cut the ride short as we were tired of riding into the wind, and so the ride today ended up being 101Km or around 63 miles.

Lug Bro. Segundo checking in here. My like of my family has finally overcome my dislike for computers. Sorry to have been away for so long. And the real funny thing is that this is actually a post, in part, about a ride! But first, in beer news...The top photo is of Anchor Steam Summer Beer. And let me tell you, it sure is summer here. The beer was good, light and refreshing, a little bitterer than the Yebisu that I usually drink. But it really begged to be enjoyed outside, in the warm light of the Northern Michigan summer evenings, on the front porch or in a garden. Summer beer is really garden beer. And I finally found Westmalle! And in Tsukuba, no less. They have Dubbel and Trippel. The Trippel's still in the fridge. At 9% alcohol it calls for a special occasion (and maybe a friend to share it with--anyone want to come over some time and split it with me?!)
It's been hot here, and super humid. The humidity is what really kills me. But a thunderstorm blew through today and left us with a nice evening. So I jumped on my bike and got a little ride in before the sun went down. I wasn't on the bike long, but it was enough time to enjoy the smells of summer after a rainstorm, the mosses and the trees and the veggies and the flowers in the fields. The only thing that would have made it better is a friend to share it with. I think we need a Lug Bros. reunion pretty soon.

Norton Commons Crit

Today was my second day of crits. This race was at a development called Norton Commons which is just like the town from The Truman Show - there has got to be a bubble over it. It is called a traditional town development where everybody knows your name. The race was another 1/2 hour that started fast and stayed fast the entire time. But, unlike yesterday, I got a good start and was able to stay with the main group througout the race. There was one bad crash involving the leaders on the last lap and I finished on the lead lap about 10 seconds behind the winner. Kate, her mom, and grandmother came to watch the race. They found a nice shady spot on the corner to cheer me on. The funniest part of the race was that there was a "no cussing" rule enforced. I broke that rule.

We enjoyed some gelato after the race.

ps - Kate helped me write this. See if you can guess the parts that were commentary.