"Why are you always broke?"

Mr. Bianchi Axis is the latest addition to my money pit of a hobby. I recently won him on eBay, and plan to build him up to be the ultimate cross bike. Right now... looking for awesome deals on a FSA Gossamer Cranks. Also stalking this relatively inexpensive FSA Energy... Maybe the price will stay low.

Next steps? 105 rear derailleur, a 105 cassette, and then a custom wheel build. For the wheel.... not sure yet but if I can't find anything already built second hand from some crossers, I will do something like a Mavic Reflex rims, DA or DT 240 hubs, and spokes are still up in the air. But the wheels won't happen till right before cross season since I don't have that kind of money right now. All the other components will be coming from my Volpe, till I can afford to upgrade them.

Well Mr. Axis is the newest addition to my family, and I hope he's happy. I can't wait till I bring my monster to life and test the man out. First the drivetrain, then wheels, and finally a beating heart.

Is Floyd Landis poisoning my water?

I'm sure anybody who watches or listens to any kind of sports commentary has heard about the issue with Floyd Landis. I've come down with some mysterious illness (sent me home from work today so you know it's serious), and I have not ruled out Floyd Landis as a cause.

Just conjecture, but he may have read my blog and caught the bit about my not-too-awful performance at the Tour of Colts Neck. While I'm still low in the categories, he assessed my threat and didn't want me to challenge his already challenged career.

Ever since then, he may (or may not have) been micro-dosing my water with some poison until he accidently slipped up. A little too strong and now I am noticeably sick. I haven't heard anything from the press but his lack of respect for fellow cyclists doesn't put this kind of behavior past him.

Certainly nobody will be donating to his "I Didn't Try to Poison Arthur" foundation this time around.

Sagan!

Really happy for Sagan. Seeing a 20 year old cyclist win 2 consecutive stages in the Tour of California is somehow both disheartening and inspiring... I'm starting to feel old. He ranks 3rd on the GC right now and I hope he wins this tour.

Giro has also had some crazy stages recently. Been waking up at 9 every morning to catch Universal Sport's live broadcast, then reading the VeloNews streaming text updates for the ToC. Healthy diet of cycling and work.

Oh, and how about me? I'm doing just fine. My condition is definitely improving without weening for races every Sunday. Hoping to have a solid NJ State Road Race in June. Seeing riders like Sagan winning stages inspires me to push a little harder when on the bike.

Bliss to devastation

I had a pretty shameful performance at Pocono Raceway this past weekend. I fell off the pack with a handful of laps to go. The wind got me and I was finished.

I guess I also felt too happy with myself after snagging 6th at Tour of Colts Neck. I didn't expect that craziness that is crit-life to pick up from the get-go. Once I saw "11 laps to go" I thought I was going to die. Shortly after, I did.

But I kept on keeping on and found a dropped rider from QCW. We made it through the snow and wind. There's the bravery I was lacking at USGP during last year's cross season.

And finally... I just recently invested in a power meter (joule 2.0 / powertap pro+) and a coach. Once the meter gets here I will start a 12 week training program with Christian (Cycles 54). Really excited to take on this new level of training.

In non-cycling news, work is still going okay. Getting the bills paid, staying on the bike, and not living at home. Can't complain.

...to better days.

So blue

One team that definitely wasn't underrepresented today was QCW (guys in blue). Not that it made a huge difference in my performance (this is a tale of defeat after all), but wow was it crazy. Two QCW guys got in a break and the rest of their about 20 people in the pack did a swell job blocking. I attacked a couple of times, but nobody was coming with and QCW killed it pretty quick.

Definitely learned some tactical lessons today, and built up a lot of confidence in maneuvering through a peloton. Actually nervous about some of the other riders around me crossing around whenever they felt and such.

Saw 3 crashes today. 2 in my race, 1 in the cat 1/2/3. They all sounded awful but didn't hear of anything too serious so hope everybody is okay.

Picture is of one of my futile attacks. If only I had Cancellara's legs...

Non-cycling news? I've been working my new job at Yell Adworks and it's pretty enjoyable. I've gotten some reputation for the weather reports I send out on the 8's (I have a window spot...). If you'd like a report of the current conditions at King of Prussia, PA let me know and I'll try to get you on the distribution list.

Godspeed.

Painful

Great two races. I was supposed to do Branchbrook today and South Jersey Training Series tomorrow, but one of my teammates wasn't able to get in the earlier race so I just did two races today instead. The first one was okay, I finish 24 of 67 starters. I could have done better but it wasn't really an issue once I was out of the running. The second race I got 8/21 starters and participated in the sprint. I learned from my last experience about going out too early and this time around I went out too late. I still had some energy to burn when the finish line happened to pop up.

Anyway, this is someone's video of the crash that happened as we started the sprint. It was the most horrifying thing I think I've ever seen. The mixture of components breaking, carbon fiber snapping, and people shouting was absolutely miserable. It got worse when you passed and picked up the smell of burnt rubber. Ambulance came and all the works. The guy looked conscious and all though.

Non-bike related... I saw this dog eating a dead squirrel in the middle of the road today. It was slightly less horrifying than the bike crash. It was a cute little fluffy haired puppy too.

Till next time. A bit less defeat than usual.

Monsters

No crashes and kept up with the main group. That's all I meant to accomplish and I did, so I'm okay with today. I did find an opportunity to sprint up the side and maybe try to sneak in the podium. I sprinted up the right and passed the group. I thought victory was possibly somewhat in my grasp. Thought I had a sizable lead. About 10 seconds later I looked behind to see how far up I was and realized the entire peloton was on my wheel. It was so discouraging with the finish line in sight. Unfortunately my legs gave all they had and back to the group I went. I suffer from a very cycling specific condition called "not being good enough." Time-wise I was all but a few seconds from the guy who won but about 19 cyclists back.

It was silly. But I did it. And I'd do it again. That Pac-man son of a bitch ain't got nothin on me.

And there is my first defeat of 2010. Branchbrook in a couple of weeks.

Murder on the streets

First road race next Sunday. Pretty sure I'll get slaughtered. Scared of just being in the whole mess of the peloton. Crashing is a great fear of mine. Will be sure to inform my reader how it goes.

T-Pain? No, Knee Pain.

Training ride in Skillman leads to a pain no autotune can fix. The knife-in-knee feeling started to present itself the last few miles of climbing. Against my better judgement, I did a team ride with Cycles 54 the day after. The first 20 miles or so definitely had the Nancy Kerrigan kind of thing going on. But then all of a sudden it disappeared. I felt great and was able to ride without any discomfort. Monday? Felt great! No knee pain. Tuesday morning I awoke to that knife-in-knee feeling I talked about earlier. Joint was locked up and took about an hour to loosen it up enough to be able to stand up.

More pathetic than that? Today morning-ish at 3:30 AM the knee stabber struck again. But this time I had to get to the bathroom. It took about 30 minutes for me to be able to fall out of bed. I had to drag the bottom half of my body by grabbing onto the floor and pulling myself to the bathroom (think The Ring meets paraplegic puppy). It was sad, and slightly creepy if anybody watched somehow.

I will take a week or so off cycling to try to heal. This is an awful way to prepare for Battenkill (probably won't make it off the wait list anyway).

All your bases are belong to us

"UPDATE YOUR BLOG MOFO

YOUR READER IS RESTLESS"

Here's to you, reader.

While my last race was the infamous mechanical at Mercer Cup, my season went on till late December. Not competitively, but I kept my mileage up until the week after Christmas. I took a few weeks recovery period (plenty of cross training and core strengthening), and now am back to building that base for the coming road season.

I recently invested in The Cyclist's Training Bible (rave reviews on this piece of training lit), and have come up with a training plan for the year. Intend to peak once during the latter end of the road season and then once more during November in 'cross. Have found the book to be incredibly helpful and have taken a much more scientific approach to training. I'm excited for this year as I think I'll be able to embarrass myself a bit less.

That's pretty much it for cycling talk. I'm planning to do the Tour of Battenkill if I can manage to get off the wait list and into an actual category. I'll post about that some other time though. I spent the past weekend in Vermont and have some okay pictures. Lots of fun riding. Was excited for the chance to do glades.

Funny story about that... glades that is. My reader may remember the epic adventure of getting lost in the blizzard (MTB hazard life). While doing some back country riding, I veered a little too far from the beaten path. Dodging trees and breaking trail is fun and all until you fall in about 4' of snow. It was difficult to regain momentum (despite the incredible steepness of my chosen route). I ended up hiking about 30 minutes (15 minutes, then a required 5 minute breather, then another 15 minutes) to get to a rock that was ridden over that allowed me to strap in, regain my momentum, and continue down the mountain. I feared, just as in the MTB disaster, that I wouldn't be able to make it to safety before sunset. Luckily I found some space that allowed me to continue and the 30 minute hike wasn't extended to a day's journey to god knows where (maybe Canada? it was only a stones throw away).

Here are some pictures. I hope, reader, you are entertained.