Look Closely

So, I found a great side shot of Dan riding his time trial bike. I posted pictures of his TT bike a week or two ago to show how much drop he has. This is a great picture of a very strong time trial rider mid-flight.....oh, but look closely.

Reading glasses and brown argyle socks? Dan was punished by the cycling fashion gods half-way through this time trial in the form of a flat tire.

On a technical note - Dan's been using the ISM Adamo saddle for the better part of this past year on his TT bike and it really seems like a good product. There is a rule as to how far forward your saddle can be (5cm behind your bottom bracket) and many riders have their hip angle closed off by sitting to far back on their TT bike (which reduces power). This saddle seems like a really good option because you can sit really far forward on it and won't need to worry about the 5cm rule. Dan even got CCB masters rider Dimitri Buben to switch over to the saddle. Dimitri is a former Masters World TT podium finisher.

A Good Bowl of Soup

This is the time of the year when I really enjoy a good bowl of soup. What I will do often for lunch is go over to one of the restaurants that does a good soup and get a bowl of soup and a small dark roast coffee.

Now here's where it gets tricky.

Generally, you get a nice big piece of bread with your soup, and sometimes some butter for that bread. Butter that piece of bread up and break it in half.

Here's why.

Because when you can go over to where they have the milk and sugar for your coffee, there is usually some honey there as well. Put honey all over one of your chunks of bread. Now you've got desert too! And the honey will be all soaked in by the time you're ready to eat it. All for under $5. And you have your other piece of bread and butter to mop up some of whatever delicious soup you have selected.

Now, here is a little guide to some of the soup genres:
Bisque - The king of the soups.
Chowders - A close, and jealous 2nd to the bisque.
Stew - Arguably something different altogether - but really just an rowdy soup.
Miso - Salt! Salt! Need the Salt! Where's the Salt? Its salty good.
Cream - A lazy cousin of the Bisque. Only to be eaten in dire circumstance.
Minestrone - Jack of all trades, master of none.
Noodle - For when chewing your noodles is just too much.

Good skiing today

And here's who was heading out when I was heading out. (I was skate skiing at Bolton)

A couple of the CVU boys had already gotten some skate skiing in and were switching boots and heading out for some classic. I think these guys are going to have a great season. They've got focus.Dan and Erin. Classic. Erin was using some Karhu Novas I had sold her the day before.Eric and Sarah. They were rocking out today on Karhu Escapes. I need to get a pair of those.Lee Mallory. Legend in his own right. All Smiles.

Thanksgiving Food and Phone

My sister and I made the trans-New England voyage from Burlington, VT over to North Hampton, NH to spend Thanksgiving with our mother's side of our family. Our aunt and uncle Cathy and Pat live there and their son Ryan was there as well. Our grandparents came as well along with another aunt and uncle, Trice and Denis, and their kids Callie and Meg. It was a great to spend Thanksgiving with everybody. Liz and I went for a 50 minute run down to the ocean and back in the morning which was good to get the appetite warmed up. Over the years I have thrown down pretty hard on Thanksgiving, so I have a bit of a reputation to live up to. A couple years ago I ate with the intent of finding out exactly how much I was capable of eating. Boy, did that hurt! This year I did two plates of food and two plates of pie. Pretty modest, considering. And one beer and the Lions/Packers game too.

Another nice thing was when my parents called. My dad called my sisters cell phone and my mom called the land line at my aunt and uncle's house. The phones were passed around and everybody got to talk to them. It was really nice hearing them. My father and I talked a bit about my upcoming trip to visit them in Egypt with Helen. Ciaro here we come.

Food - I must say the gravy was especially great.Pie - one big slice of apple and one tasty slice of pecan. and then another of each.Here's the whole table. Good stories, lots of food, and big candles.Liz and I talking to our parents.Our parents, in Cairo, talking to us.Showing my grandmother and my cousin Ryan my blog. She liked the Catamount Cyclocross pictures. She watched my sister and I run cross-country races there in high school.

And One More Thing

A note about Amos (Brumble - teammate and captain), he really showed me an important lesson in my first year with CCB that you really can race with anybody and kick some major ass without doing drugs. That's an important lesson to learn as a cyclist just starting to do the "big-time" races for the first time and wondering how you're ever going to be able to compete. He's really showed me how much you can improve yourself with these things:

-Bike handling skills
-Attentive/aggressive racing
-Proper nutrition
-Good recovery
-A thought out, well balanced training plan
-Proper bike fit and equipment selection
-Just straight up guts.

In this picture he is chasing down a doper (Heredia) with another doper (Tardaguila) right behind him - all while riding right away from guys like Dominique Perras, Karl Menzies, Frank Pipp, and Anthony Colby. This was the Univest GP in 2005...still to date the most exciting sporting event I have ever watched.

A couple Shout-Outs

-Happy Birthday Pat Walsh.
-Congrats Dan Vaillancourt on figuring out 2008
and
-Thanks for dying turkey so that I could eat you tomorrow

I really meant to win a bike race this past year. I didn't. I had this whole "Academy Award type speech" planned out where I thanked everybody who's helped me out. I've gotten some big time help from people and wanted to acknowledge it publicly...

....oh but wait...

...I have a blog now!

So here goes:
Thanks Mom and Dad (creators and omnipotent beings)
Thanks Liz (sister)
Thanks Helen (girlfriend)
Thanks Scott Oliver (friend, mentor)
Thanks Steve Pucci (team manager, mentor)
Thanks Skirack (flexible, friendly employer)
Thanks Dan, Will, Amos, Matt, Jeff, Sasha, Shawn, Ciaran, and Yahor (incredible teammates)
And Everybody else.

You all (Ya'll?) are so nice and give me so much help and god knows I need it. I always deeply appreciate it!

Jared Bunde Doping - Weird.

So, a racer I raced against a fair amount this year - Jared Bunde, of the GS Mengoni team - has just accepted a 2 year ban for doping. He got busted from a test while out at Superweek, a race series that happens out in the Midwest in July. These are the same races that Alvaro Tardaguila got busted at. Tardagulia was a Uraguain rider racing for the team Mike Fraysee runs that was sponsored by the University of Pittsburg Medical Center. He got busted for EPO and Steroid use. Of the times I interacted with him, he seemed friendly.

Jared is also a nice guy and got busted for using Clomiphene. Not sure what that is exactly, but it gets you two years. If you dope and you're reading this Blog - STOP! And remember, not all the bad people are dopers and not all the nice people aren't. Its weird that way. There are some people who are real jerks who are really intense about not doping. There are some people who are really friendly and genuine who stick needles in their butt and pop pills.

Its pretty annoying that people do this. I'm interested in racing as a professional and there are people out there who are using drugs to ride better than they can actually ride. Its absolutely not ok.

I do want to give a shout-out to Eugene Boronow, of the GS Mengoni team, who is a great guy. I've ridden with him a lot in races - both off the front and off the back. He's told me a little bit about how the NYC cycling scene has a weird doping culture. All I can say to any and everyone is - Just Stop - NOW!

Le Doper de Jour