All The Way To Roubaix

The Paris Roubaix is already over and hats off to Tom Boonen for winning, but the Idaho equivalent is taking place in two days. Here is Hincapie rocking to an Emmett (yes, it's clearly in Emmett) Roubaix victory:

The fan turn out is absolutely astounding for Idaho don't you think? It's actually an incredibly hard race since we start in Emmett and finish in Roubaix, France. Mid race we hop on paddle boats and the going gets even more intense. Here's a participant from last years race:

This guy was hot on his heels and trying really hard. Not really sure which one has the lower water resistance coefficient, any guesses?
Once back on land in France, we get back on our road bikes. Eventually, we make it to the Roubaix Velodrome. At this point, many are extremely tired!

Eventually a winner is crowned.

I've tried to win this race since 2004 and have yet to attain that goal, having finished 2nd twice and 3rd once. Many racers will bonk at least 30 times during this race. Here is one of my bigger bonks from the 2005 race:

Bonking when in the Atlantic Ocean can have severe side effects! Make sure to bring enough food and water!

Anyone Know What Does This?

What causes those huge dents and cracks? Made me think of a Joe Dirt scene:
Meteor Bert: Well, it ain't a meteor.
Joe Dirt: Yeah it is. It came out of the sky.
Meteor Bert: Well I'm sure it did but it ain't no meteor. It's a big ol frozen chunk o' shit.
Joe Dirt: What!
Meteor Bert: Oh yeah, see them airplanes they dump their toilets 36,000 feet. The stuff freezes and falls to earth. We call 'em Boeing bombs
[chomps teeth]
Joe Dirt: no that can't be. That's not what it is
Meteor Bert: oh, afraid so. See that peanut? Dead giveaway.
Joe Dirt: Uhhh, no, that's a space peanut.
Meteor Bert: No, afraid not. That just a big ol' frozen chunk of poopy.
Studio manager: Dude you were eating off it!

I found that rock on the way up to the east side of Table Rock if you're interested in seeing it for yourself.

Canadians Like Walla Walla 'Eh?

Bob's got hit by a truck, a speeding Red Truck from Canada with it's headlights set on Walla Walla. We weren't the only ones to get ran over. Hagen's Berman of Seattle brought a fully loaded squad and shot bullets at the Red Truck valiantly until every last bullet had been fired off and then they just threw the gun at 'em. Between shots from Hagen's, Bob's tried a few hand grenades, blowing up one-by-one. Turns out that the Red Truck from Canada is immune to bullets and grenades.

To start the shenanigans, a guy from Red Truck and Dan Harm of Hagen's launched mid way through lap one of two on stage one. As I thought Dan Harm was probably one of the biggest threats in the race, I was not exactly excited to watch that break roll. I chased for a minute or so and realized I was getting no help, so I let it go. It was a gamble, hoping they'd go out too hard, blow sky high from the huge effort and get reeled in late in the race. Sure enough, Dan did finally detonate, getting caught with around 5K to go. The guy is tough! Only one problem at that point, where was the other guy?! Where's the lead vehicle? Shouldn't it be in sight since the other guy has to be cracking too right? WRONG! Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' (to the tune of Rawhide) way, way out in front of 120 pro's and amateurs from all around the northwest came Rob Britton of Red Truck. 2 minutes 48 seconds later, 29 remnants of the front group came charging in.

The three remaining stages had been set for everyone on large scale teams. Goal #1: crack the Red Truck squad. An alliance had been made between Hagen's and Bob's to do anything and everything possible to put Red Truck on the ropes. The next stage was a time trial, an individual event. Everyone starts at 30 second intervals, fastest man wins. Hagen's Sam Johnson got the stage by a landslide! One problem, Mr. Red Truck Rob only lost a little of his lead, finishing in 3rd on a road bike with clip-ons! The stage went a bit better for Bob's, placing three in the top five!

Stage three, a 95 mile road race with wind and one solid climb. Usually the wind neutralizes the climb as it is typically strong enough of a headwind that drafting allows all to make it up the hill without too much difficulty, but history didn't hold true in 2008. Immediatly, Bob's and Hagen's went on the offensive. Attack after attack after attack after... Red Truck covered everything like there was nothing to it. There were groups that made it off the front, but even the most impressive groups were brought back. The field even split a few times, but came back together over and over. On the last of three laps, a break without either Bob's or Hagen's got away. A passing word from Sam J. of Hagen's explained it all, "Oops." For the next many miles, Bob's and Hagen's worked together to bring it back. The gap was coming down slowly, but not like many would expect of a Bob's/Hagen's dual chase. After blowing out the majority of both teams from chasing, one of each team attacked the field and went it alone. Justin Rose and Sam J. uncorked every last bit of effort left in them to bridge to the break. With roughly eight miles left, the two completed one tough bridge. Race leader Rob Britton was in the break and had much fresher legs from the work his team had done all day. The last time up the major climb just clarified how much fresher legs he had. Results of stage three. A few other guys rocked out on the stage at the end, especially winner Zach Garland, but they were on teams that didn't have to hang out in the wind all day. At the end of the day, all legs hurt and the general classification didn't look too good for either of the major squads minus the big Red Truck.

Stage four, the criterium, a one hour race around an L shape of a few blocks in downtown Walla Walla. By that point, the criterium was more of a formality. The general classification had been solidified more or less in stone. A few breaks formed, but never stuck it since there was never the just perfect combination of teams represented. In the end, Ian Tubbs won the sprint for the stage win.

When all was said and done, Red Truck proved to be the most formidable bunch of arse kickers. Either they've got a seriously good program going on up there or there needs to be some testing done at Walla Walla next year.

Final Individual General Classification

Final Team General Classification

Oh yeah, gotta add a picture. Just one this time. Camp Bob's in Waitsburg:

Timing Is Everything Sometimes

Timing is everything sometimes. Like being able to leave with JRose for Portland with more than enough time to get plenty of sleep for the Kings Valley road race on Saturday. Like rolling into the Multnomah Falls parking with five minutes of light to get a shot before it's completely dark.

Like missing the fish toss over and over and... come on camera, get it together!

Like getting the shot of the seagull catching the french fry.

Like being at the parking lot just in time to see a bridge lift up (really, really fast btw).

Like snapping the Space Needle at 75mph's without getting a building in the way.

The most important timing came in the Kings Valley road race though. After being away in a four man break for 55 miles or so, my legs went from being invincible all day to cramping in the last 200 meters. When does it count to have invincible legs when it comes down to a sprint? You are absolutely correct if you answered the last 200 meters. 3rd is better than nothing, but almost all day in the break, I was sure that the legs were more than ready for their first W of the year. 75 degrees in the sun in western Oregon was amazing although the legs disagreed with that statement in the last 200 meters. The warmest they've dealt with this year until Saturday was sub-60. They'll be good next time, I just didn't bring the electrolytes that I needed. In the end, Rose got 6th and Campbell 9th. Not bad for only four of us starting! Results

As for the Brad Lewis criterium in Seattle, guess what? It rained and changed the game. A fresh sun burn gained in Oregon and then racing in a wet criterium seemed like an odd combination. Either way, that last corner never would agree with me and the results showed it. All I got to do was a bit of chasing at the end that didn't turn out to be successful.

All-in-all, a great four day trip! Boise to Portland on Friday, Portland to Kings Valley to Olympia on Saturday, Olympia to Seattle on Sunday, Seattle to Boise on Monday. Thank you to all that let us stay at their places, it is very much appriciated! It's been four years since I've had the chance to get some fresh fish on the water front in Seattle and I was definitely missing that. Without a doubt, it was great to get out of the Treasure Valley to see 21 hours of highway at 75 miles an hour. The best of all, spending four days away and having a net cost of $16! It would have cost more to stay home!

The four man break, beware of mirror like effects of cyclists who haven't had access to enough sun. If you look closely, it almost seems like I'm flipping somebody the bird. Dunno, I didn't think I was too ticked about that corner we were going into.

Wet corners, kinda sketchy when the corner is off camber.

Powertapped Weekend On The Road

The Hell of the North on Saturday and Pirds of Prey on Sunday.
Here's the power numbers since I finally decided to race with the tap.

Those SLC guys sure do like to spike the power and then lay off.

Note, there is a kilometer of missing data for Birds of Prey since I flatted at a very inopportune time. Also, I was riding a completely out of true wheel that was rubbing the brakes towards the end of the race as it just kept getting worse.
Results from Salt Lake's Hell of the North: 1st Rose, 2nd Calvin, 3rd Matt. Ah yeah! That sort of makes up for all the times those SLC guys put the hurt on us at Gate City Grind. BTW, thanks for the place to stay and breakfast Andre! Results (select 2008 results, our group is pro,1,2)

This is what the majority of travel weekends look like, minus the dirt. This is the pre-race drive of the 1.7 mile dirt section that we did 10 times.

Pre-race preparation sometimes spreads out to the local parking area.

Finishing up the Birds of Prey road race on Sunday. Stupid flats with 1K to go. Oh well, the team still rocked it! Richard Feldman laid down one amazing effort in the last five miles or so! He made us work for it. Results

Derailing from the racing scene; great news, Charlene made it through a "dump loop" before they shut it down for the rest of the year and completely remove "the wall." For those that don't know, the "dump loop" is Hill Rd to Seaman's Gulch Rd (past the Boise dump) to Hidden Springs to Dry Creek/Cartwright Rd to Bogus Basin Rd. That's a pretty big accomplishment for only her second ride ever!

And here's the resume if you were looking to get me a j.o.b. The phone numbers have been removed to protect the innocent.

As one of Chang's shirts says, "I'm Digitally Active."

Charlene's First Ride

Yesterday, Charlene and I went for our first ride. Looks like a natural huh?

Let Loose From The Noose

Over and out forever Electronic Data Systems (Navy Marine Corp Intranet contract). There are many things I'd like to say about that place of employment on this blog, but I'll save you this rant. Instead, all I'll say is, THANK GOODNESS I'M OUTTA THERE! The beast of burden has been set free onto open roads. As Tom Cochran put it:

Life's like a road that you travel on when there's one day here and the next day gone. Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand, sometimes you turn your back to the wind.

To celebrate this occasion, I've been making a squeaky clean resume, riding a bike, and spending more time with an amazing woman.

Oh yeah, the first road race of the year was Sunday and it turned out to be a pretty interesting roll. Let me start with a picture to explain the ending - as Jonathan put it, we were only two shy of a full YMCA.

To get to that point, we had to work a bit... like 100 kilometers work. Justin and I's original team assignment was just to make the field work by going off from the gun. I gassed it from the word go and there weren't too many interested in taking up the chase. Within one mile, it was down to J-Rose, Shawn and I. Shawn didn't have to work in such a situation since he's on Bode. Within 15 miles, we'd built the gap to 2 and a half minutes! With a lap and a half left, we started the ol' one two punch game on Shawn and it was down to the two of us.

The last of four times by the state penitentiary, there was reason to be excited! To top it off, Stu and Calvin came in 3rd and 4th! Results here.

The weekend before, Charlene and I went up to Kendrick to get away from the Tragic Valley for a while. Just for chits and grins, the crew decided we had to toss balsa airplanes off a cliff. Next time we need BIG styrofoam planes!

Pops saving an ill fated plane, reaching out over 200ft of free fall. One little loopty doo just wasn't enough when it's soooo close.

On it's way down.

A nice sunny day atop a cliff, not a bad way to burn some time.

After that, we went to the Dworshak fish hatchery and ended up leaving with two large steelhead caught freshly in front of our eyes by a local Nez Perce tribe member.
There are probably 40 to 50 tanks just like this one with little steelhead trying to make a break for it just like this lil' feller.

And if you were still wondering, I got 3rd in the time trial. The wind was crazy enough that I couldn't even put an effort into the pedals on the way out. By then, my chances to do really well were gone, but oh well. The big mistake was using a tri-spoke on the front into a seriously strong side wind. The other groups had much more of an angled wind, but by the time the pro, 1, 2's were out there, it was a direct 30mph side wind. It nearly picked me up off the ground at least four times! Results here.

One last thing... got a job for me? Not anything like a militarized corporation mix that is the NMCI contract!

This pic is just going on here so I can put it as a background on myspace, gotta serve it somewhere. If you were wondering, it's on the hike to Loon Lake near McCall, fall of 2005.

Back In The Saddle And I'm Holdin' The Reins

The first race of the year is looming less than 14 hours from this moment and there are probably a few people who think I've got a shot at winning. I've started the year with a win for three straight years, but my money's not on me this year. Sure, there's an outside chance it could happen and I can guarantee that I'll be giving it hell to repeat, but there's a few names out there with more than a enough potential to rock those 10 miles in less time than I. Turn time back three years to 2005 early season form and I'd say there's nobody in five states that would have a shot baring a mechanical, but this is 2008 and cross-country and downhill skiing mixed in with hiking just doesn't seem to help make one point twenty-one gigawatts on a bike. So, it's time to get my act together. Luckily, the form has been coming around pretty fast. Here's the rundown of who can and very likely will beat me tomorrow:
Richard "Dick" Feldman - Sun Valley's multi-time Masters World Champion in the Time Trial
Sam 430 watts for 30 minutes Johnson - 'nuff said
Calvin Bigger Legs Than Matt's Allan - He's training a lot and goes fast!
Justin Princess (sorry, had to) Rose - Fit and keeps getting better at the timed test.
Anways, tomorrow Spondoro's timing chips will tell the truth of who goes fastest.

To get into some kind of form, I've done a bit of riding, here's a few random pics.
Rose flats and half of the original crew looks like monkeys looking for a football. Good thing I was taking the pic or you'd see me standing around looking like a monkey too. No, I didn't have the football!

Dump loops, a great way to get into shape, just ask climbin' Chris.

The title of the blog had to come from somewhere. Props to whoever can come up with the song it's from.

Be forewarned, the next pic is graphic and clearly very painful, so more spaces have been added. Buster's shattered collarbone (busted vice shattered was tempting).

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Camp Kick My Butt

For over a week now, I've been dealing with something that decided to crawl into my lungs and die. By Wednesday and Thursday, I was more or less useless and my voice was gone. Thursday, Charlene and I decide to make our way to another hot springs that had been on my list of must sees. Tough drive and easy hike later, we made it to Loftus hot springs. On the drive back, we spooked a couple elk crossing the road and got a good river fording photo.

Come Saturday, our team camp for 08 rolled around and my lungs were riding the fence of wether or not they wanted to be outside. Guess what? I gave 'em the nod and kicked 'em into ludicrous speed. For a while, they hated me. Then they disliked me. Then they had a mild distaste for me. Then I felt good for a little bit. That's about the time my roommate, Buster, decided to lock up his front wheel with Tad's rear derailleur and break his collar bone in two places! OUCH! The pin is coming soon. I'm sure his dogs don't mind the downtime, but the crew's gonna miss the bruiser for the next 6 to 8.

The next day, we did an EHB (Emmett Horseshoe Bend) loop. By the time I got a mile into the HB hill, the crew was way gone up the hill and my body hated me, screaming for mercy! So I pushed my body through the rest of the hill at a painful crawl (170 to 200 watts) and hopped in the follow Caravan - thanks Vern! They need to make something comparable to lung draino. Maybe a lung brush? Maybe even something like the snake for a toilet? Everyone on my team is flying and I gotta be on par. As one Rusty Beat-all once said about this time of year, "it's go time."

The B's of February

This is the month of B's. MayBe next month will Be C's? Did I miss the A's in January?
Boarding
Bogus
Brundage
Banner
Bonneville
Beehive
Bike
Broke

A quick run down so you don't get Bored. I learned to Board at Bogus with Charlene to start the month and was sore for a few days after. Fun, But ouch!

The following weekend, free tickets at Brundage since they left us out at Goose Lake for an hour and a half when we were cat track skiing. NoBody's Been utilizing Brundage and there is a ton of fresh snow! Really, it's stellar, again!

Weekend Before last, Charlene and I tacked on a couple more B's. Crosscountry skiing at Banner Ridge and then hiking into Bonneville hot springs - side note: ski or snowshoe it if you decide to go, it's further than I thought it would Be when snow closes the road to the campground.

Last weekend, Dad came down and we decided a hike was in order. The only place I could think of that might Be somewhat dry was the Jump Creek Canyon area. We never really went down into the canyon, we just followed the rim. Along the hike, we saw a really cool Beehive.

Other notes... Back to riding the Bike more! The temps are more than just a little tantalizing to want more time on the Bike and a few more degrees.

That last B... not much fun But new car tires and all the fun in the snow has left me Broke with a capital B. You can clearly see Below why I needed new tires. An engine and windshield are next on my list.

Here Kitty Kitty, Which Way To Goose Lake?

On the 26th day of 2008, a new experiece was to be had that just flat out rocked! Brundage offers an amazing experiece called the "cat track adventure" and it's a must for anyone who can't get enough outdoor thrills! It might be likened to the poor man's heli-skiing experience. You hop into a snow cat and take off on tracks that aren't even officially roads. They aren't maintained and if there is a downed tree in the way, ya just go over it 'cause it's under 10 feet of snow.

Once at the mountain, you get trained on how to use a beacon in the event you or your friend gets barried. Eventually, you get pointed in the direction of a sweet drop that really can't be equalled on the main hill unless, by some miracle nobody decided to show up for a month straight and all the groomed runs grew old growth trees in the middle of them. Yup, it's amazing!

Hopefully the the cat beats you to the bottom of the hill, but it never happened for us. Until the eighth run, we didn't really have to wait more than a few minutes. Run eight turned out to be our last. Our cat drivers first day was, you guessed it, the 26th day of 2008 and the weather was less than conducive to finding the right path. After an hour and a half of hanging out at the shore of a frozen over Goose Lake, we were contemplating learning the art of making a snow cave, hunting squirrels and the conversation covered the movie Alive more than once. Then the radio lit up with the news that our cat driver had been found by the other snow cat that was on the mountain that day. Warmth and a safe ride home, a good way to finish off a killer day on the hills!

Of course I had to see where we went and here it is. Yup, we crossed Goose Lake in a quarter million dollar machine. I would have guessed that the water was frozen pretty hard, but nope, there was open water half way out that we just traversed around. How cool is that?!

The way to finish off a good day of skiing? Hows about gambling, a good dinner and a few beers with family?

post script - here comes the Blue Man Group Friday night at the Idaho Center and learning to snowboard on Saturday at Bogus! Good times! Thanks pops for the weekend!

Yin, Yang And A Strange Street Sign

Winter training on the bike is a love-hate relationship. Get out on the bike and do what you rock out at or just keep hitting up the gym, trainer, or ski hill in its stead? You guessed it, the new Giant got its 2008 first ride V-card confiscated on Saturday.

Since I knew we were going to pass one of my all time favorite street signs, I had to bring the camera. I don't advise purchasing a house at the Dead End of New Hope, even the sale sign is having trouble with the concept.

The next day, I got the rare chance to prove that Buster's dogs must not have nasal sensors while performing a pretty good Yin/Yang.

Could I Get A Side Of Powder Please?

The answer Brundage had to that request was a resounding h3ll yes sir. What appeared to be the top of the world was covered in an immense new coating of powder that demanded that we weave new paths through the parts of Brundage that no other skis had laid their mark. Boundaries are meant to be crossed on days like these!


Would you let such ideal snow go to the wayside? Me neither. Seconds later, two lines were drawn into one amazing hillside.

A couple side notes:
1. my car is finally paid off!
2. I've been keeping my eyes open for a different job. If you have anything in mind, drop me a line.