Qualified for Nationals!

Mike and I qualified for the nationals road race which is next Friday in Wisconsin. I guess Mike isn't going to make it due to shrinking lungs but I have decided to make the trek instead of walking on graduation. It's a sweet excuse to miss graduation.

Who's pumped for the meeting tomorrow night! and the bike rodeo Friday... SHIP

I remember the results!

I remember the results from the last twilight crit!

Winner: ME (JON M)

I still have the yellow jersey which Dr. Goates needs since he is the current leader. Unless he has a new one because I have it framed in my room with my other leader jerseys. Well it could be in the living room or kitchen, I just have so many framed I can't remember where they all are. It might even be in the bathroom or basement or...

starlight circle race #1 (apr 21)

Shippensburg nighttime racing is back and oh how fun it is. Moonlight. Cool air. Freaky shadows. So much fun.

A few laps in a Mike Maret that had hitherto been uncharacteristically grumpy (even for Mike) rolled up beside me and said something about loving to race at night. I agree.

...

Six riders came out for the inaugural race in the 2010 Starlight Circle Race Series, Kelly and Dillon riding the loop for the first time.

We kept it tight for the first several laps, warming up, working on our paceline skillz, until 2M got antsy and shot off the front with an over-the-shoulder look that just dared us to try to keep up.

Things quickly exploded after that. Mike and I traded punches at the front (mostly me attacking every other lap or so and Mike easily keeping on my wheel). Conroy and Dillon worked well together just behind. Jimmy kindly rode clean up (sacrificing himself to clear any stray water bottles or power bars that might have been dislodged in the heat of battle). Meanwhile, Kelly dominated the women's field.

With about five laps to go, Mike caught me napping and got a little gap. I let him keep it, for a lap or so, then charged around him with what I hoped was enough speed that he wouldn't be able to hold my wheel. It worked. I was lucky. (I'm sure he won't let me do it again.) And despite Mike recruiting the help of a lapped Conroy, I held on through the last three laps for the W.

Don't let this old man run away with the thing. That isn't the story you want to tell your kids.

Combined Gender Standings After Round #1:

(1) dr goatesauce, 25 pts
(2) 2m, 20 pts
(3) conroy, 16 pts
(4) d grace, 13 pts
(5) jimmy, 11 pts
(6) kelly flantastic, 10 pts

Women's Standings After Round #1

(1) kelly flantastic, 25 pts

...

Note the new scoring scheme. Rather than the Fibonacci sequence deal we used in September, I've elected to use a more traditional points scale which awards points to the top 15 riders (it seems unlikely we'll ever have more than 15 riders) like this: 25, 20, 16, 13, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

...

By my count there are five riders who wanted to be there who weren't for some reason. If we can get a few non-students there, we could easily be running fields of 12-15.

...

I was looking at the standings from the 2009 September Starlight Criterium Series (same course, four rounds) and I'm not sure who came out on top. After three rounds the points looked like this:

(1) Mike Maret, 16.5 pts
(2) goatesauce, 16 pts
(3) Jon Marshall, 13.5 pts
(4) Matt C. (Chop), 11 pts
(5) Matt Conroy, 3 pts
(6) Cody Wertz, 3 pts
(7) Alex Krayo, 1 pt
(8) Kevin Melnick, 1 pt

Does anyone remember how it ended?

...

Round #2 of the Starlight Circle Race Series is scheduled for Wednesday, May 5, 9:30 pm. Cinco de Mayo, baby.

That said, if there's interest--especially from the folks who will be leaving us over the summer--to throw in one more round next week, Wednesday, April 28, I'm game.

New TT Shoes...

So we budgeted for these next year... right?

Dr. Goates invades South Park

Referring back to Jon's post:
http://shipcycling.blogspot.com/2009/12/dr-goates-twin-or-acting-career.html

I think I have spotted Dr. Goates in the latest South Park episode, what do you think?

Let's examine the picture:

• Dr. Goates' body type
• Chest hair (hard to see in the photo)
• 5 o'clock shadow
• Definitely the same hair!
• Eyebrows...

Despite being a little too tan... I think we can successfully say Dr. Goates has been in a Gamefly commercial and has worked his way into a South Park episode. This is a fun game... "Find the Goates!"

too quiet

Things seem to have quieted down on the blog just a little too much. Everyone's racing, there's drama all around with crashes and ovalized bottom brackets and a result here and there...where's the chatter?

In an effort to spice things up a bit, I'll give y'all a snapshot view of the trophy I took home this weekend:


This picture was taken after I got all cleaned up, obviously. Immediately after the injury it was much more exciting. My eye socket was completely filled with blood, I had sweet blood streaks down my cheek, and I've still dark red splatter spots sprinkled on my top and down tubes. My DNA is everywhere.

The story: Went to play on Saturday in Zach's Michaux Mash--a four-hour mountain bike race on a nine-mile loop of Michaux's worst (that's not true--there is much, much worse). For those that don't know, endurance mountain bike events are often timed. Riders try to run as many laps as possible within the time limit. The rider with the most laps wins. Or the rider that finishes the most laps in the least amount of time wins.

My accident occurred after I went over the bars in a particularly rough section of trail just 30 minutes in. Scraped up helmet, broken sun glasses, slightly dented top tube, and a cut on the forehead. I immediately began bleeding everywhere. I had to take a few minutes to stop the bleeding and assess how bad I was hurt. After five or six minutes the cut stopped bleeding, I felt ok--if maybe a little deflated--so I figured I'd soldier on. I rode another 3 1/2 hours and finished (I think) 10th in the under 40.

The gash above my eye was cool and all, but through the course of the ride I also rubbed the tip off my left nipple. (Sorry, no photo.) Frankly, that hurt a lot more. Couldn't hardly shower afterward, the pain of water spraying on my chest just a little more than I could bear.

I love bike racing.

Princeton/Stevens pictures

Heres a link to Greg W's photo album from the Princeton Crit on Saturday

Racing C's

Okay, so now it is pretty much official. I just signed up for the Men's C road race at Bucknell. Nothing like going from a longest race of the season at 17.6 miles to 36 miles. I am sure it will be good times had by all. Anyone else from D's want to join me?

Racing

Racing has been great so far. Mostly because it is fun, I have finished every race I entered, and I have seen improvement each weekend. It has been nice to finally be in the mix the last two weeks and be able to score points. I am looking forward to a great road race this weekend and the predicted nice weather. It will be a treat after starting the road race Sunday at Princeton in in 30 degree temps. All of you guys and girls out there who have not been out to the races yet are missing out on all the fun. We would love to see a few more of you out racing in the D's with Matt, Brad, and myself.

Princeton/Stevens Results

Results from the Princeton/Stevens can be found here.
Overall I can state that the weekend was a success, we all did fairly well and came back unscathed. The weather was a bit colder (30 degrees at the start on Sunday for mens D) than Philly.

Criterium
A's- 50 minutes, 52 starters

• Mike Maret- 25th
  
• Jon Marshal- 22nd
  

D's- 25 minutes, 41 starters

• Matt Conroy- 8th, 2 points
  
• Brad Quinnan-15th
  
• Pete LoBianco- 18th, 3 prime points

Road race
A's- 35 miles, 47 starters

• Mike Maret-30th
• Jon Marshal-44th

D's- 18 miles, 47 starters

• Brad Quinnan-12th
• Pete LoBianco- 14th
• Matt Conroy- 23rd

Bucknell next weekend, weather's predicted to be in the 70's!

saturday's ride

Click here.

If you don't want to do all of that...maybe just ride the first, flat 15-20 miles with us and then turn back. Whatever. It's all good.

fast

Care to estimate their finishing cadence?

grant's tomb's women

A fun little write-up in the Times about the first-timers who braved the rain last weekend at Grant's Tomb.

Spring Break Training Camp Day No. 2

A jaunt to the north...

Just 2M and I this time.

About sixty miles in about 3:20. A head wind t h e w h o l e w a y. Really. Some time during our trip up and over and back over the mountain the wind changed directions and we fought it both out and back. Why doesn't it ever seem to work out the other way (a tailwind both directions)? (I know the answer.)

But we shouldn't dwell on the negative. What we should dwell on was how awesome the weather was. Low 60s. Sun-shinny the whole ride. Spring is...springing. Super awesome.

And it was a great workout. Which is a good thing because Spring Break Training Camp Days Nos. 2 and 3 may turn out to be a bust, given the massive storm that is apparently headed our way. But I have fenders, so we'll see.

...

Good luck to Jonny M., 2M, Petey, and Chris T. at the bike games in NYC this weekend!

Spring Break Training Camp Day No. 1

A tour of South Mountain:


Seventy-seven miles in 4:15. On board with moi were Tim Cusick and 2M. It was a nice ride.

Tomorrow, the ride leaves my house at 11:30 (weather permitting). 2M is in. Tim, maybe. Me, of course. Headed up Doubling Gap. Maybe down the other side, then back...some way. Shooting for about three hours.

If others want to join, but don't want to ride the full distance, just come along and turn back whenever.

Get it in now. The weekend looks to be wet.

Race number two under the belt.

What a great weekend for racing. I managed to be in the races this weekend rather than watching the racing happen from behind the pack. The Crit went much better this week as I was able to stay in the race for almost the entire race. The front runners didn't pull away until about 1.5 laps to go which resulted in a 22nd place finish out of 63 starters. Unfortunately I was dumb enough to take a pull toward the end of the race so I wasn't able to respond to the finishing surge as well as I would have liked. Lesson learned for the next race.

Onto the circuit race on Sunday where I managed to be in the field sprint at the end resulting in a 14th place finish out of 60 starters. This race was a lot of fun and I was fortunate enough to avoid the crazy wreck on the last lap. Check out the pick where the Bucknell riders is eating pavement, the guy in the background is freaking out, and the bike is flying in the air. Hopefully everyone was okay and it looked worse than it was. I know that there are riders who have wrecked and those that are going to wreck, I just hope that when I do go down I don't eat pavement as bad as some of these guys did. This wrecked happened on a downhill surge at give or take 25-30 mph.

Hoping for another good race weekend in NY.

Navy Photos

Sorry about the delay, I've been wicked busy. My favorite pic is the one of Mike standing up through the cemetary. I think it looks awesome!

First race and Sunday long ride

Well now that I have done my first race and gained valuable experience, I am looking forward to the rest of the season. The first half of the race went well as I was fighting in the pack for position and sprinting out of the turns with the best of them. As the race went on and the lack of oxygen in my muscles began to affect my stellar first half performance, I fell back on the long start finigh straight. Once I had lost the pack, the head wind, and of course the debilitating lactate acid in my quads, allowed the pack to pull away bit by bit over the last few laps. I magaged to keep pushing as hard as I could and managed to pass two riders who fell off the main pack later in the race. I am looking forward to improving my performances as the season continues.

Now on to today's ride. A nice three hour ride where it snowed and sleeted for at least half of the ride, and I returned home looking like I had just finished mountain biking. Half of the salt and cinders used to defrost the PA roads for the last month were sprayed all over my bike and body. On a cool note I managed to ride for an hour with a group of Cat 2 riders I saw on the ride and asked if I could ride with them for awhile.

Upgraded from D to A tonight

I finally applied for my A upgrade tonight and got it within five min. of submitting it, pleasent. I'm a little nervous but excited to see if my winter training has paid off at NAVY this weekend. Should be fun...

Great Saturday Ride / Random Snow Pictures