2 new rides in one week & additional cool race photos
it's happened...i am in possession of both of my 2006 race bikes. they are built up and ready to rumble. in fact, the road bike already has two great rides logged. check out the Specialized website to take a look, if you dare. now they both look great in a nice marketing picture on the corporate website, but you should see them in person! take a look at the S-Works Tarmac in the F2 color and then take a look at the S-Works Transition Time Trial bike and imagine it with a Zipp 909 disc and a Hed Carbon Tri Spoke. if you can't tell, i'm in bike euphoria land. oh, imagine the Tarmac with Carbone SL's for the crits and Reynolds Mid-V's for the others. very deluxe!
by the way, my coffee intake does not resemble an addiction. it's a lifestyle. i went out for a long ride this past sunday and thought i was dressed warm enough. nice try. i saw sunshine down in happy valley and so i headed that direction. thank that cloven-hoofed gangster the devil for a fairly new starbucks in american fork. i warmed myself up about 45 minutes in and saw there was still some sunshine to chase. i pushed the pace a bit to stay somewhat warm and motored myself southbound around geneva (or what's left of it...it looks like it could take 15 years to clean up that dirty place) next to the lake. we are having the best winter for cycling...i mean, i was cold, but it has been a rare occassion that i've had to put on the fenders. heading north from the south end of geneva was not so bad due to the headwind coming from the north.
again, thank that cloven-hoofed gangster the devil for a fairly new starbucks in american fork. my only complaint is that it is on the west side of town and it took me 15 minutes longer than i wanted it to so i could get another cup of coffee. i was talking to a teammate today on a ride on my new Tarmac (see above for an imaginary visual representation of an amazing bicicleta or some lame directions to the website so you don't have to imagine except for the part about the wheels) and he said i saw you out on sunday...what were you doing? good question. at that point i was on my way home looking forward to a 30 minute hot shower. by the way, who can tell me where the reference "that cloven-hoofed gangster the devil" comes from. this is a tricky one.
alright, now on to the serious business. Christian "i'm retired from cycling, have sold my equipment, haven't been on my bike for 2 months, am planning to climb Mt. Ranier, etc, etc, etc" Johnson sent in these cool race photos. they are greatly appreciated my friend. in addition to those, i am going to call you out for a more personal submission...one of you in the pain cave. so here are some of Christian's favorites:
Christian, thanks for your submissions. i know you are a huge fan of putting the hurt on and these are photos of just that. wouldn't you love to be in that echelon...makes me hope for a ridiculous south wind out at the rmr. Miatchaslav McBeth reminded me about the countdown...he said 7.5 weeks. little does he know that i am on a daily countdown. only 45 days if Dirk will give us the last saturday in february. come one Dirko...let's do february!
thanks dhblog viewers. remember, find your personal photos of you laying down the heat as well as your favorite cycling hero doing the same and send them in to bikezilla@gmail.com and we'll get them posted. see you out on the road!
12Jan2006...under pressure from dhblog viewers Christian sent this photo of him in addition to the one following...here is Christian's message of blackmail, "But before you can use it you have to agree to post the other one attached to this email, one of my favorites." his own photo shows him driving the pace at Elite Nationals 2005 and the following is one of me on my way to the 2002 Category B District Championships in the mud. as an aside, Christian was leading the first cross practice i attended way back in September of 2002:
You can see Hageman back there giving Christian the what-for in the team radio. by the way, anyone who can influence Christian to get back racing his bike would be rewarded greatly by the bicycling demon to whom he sold his soul...
here you see one of Christian's "favorites" as your humble author descends way too fast trying to stay off the front realizing that he's going way too fast for the corner coming up and has to find the driest line in the weeds. this had to be early on in the race because i had at least 3-times the mud on my bike and me by the end of that race.