SECCA CX

Another round of SECCA cross racing last night






And another implement of masochism for myself.

Bandit's Roost Camping Trip

Last night amidst a pretty heavy downpour and lightning storm, Lisa and I packed up camp and came home to a comfortable bed. Our original plans were to stay Friday and Saturday night, but having looked at the forecast for rain the entire night, and itno the morning, we decided otherwise. Saturday was an eventful day, mountain biking in the morning on the OVT, a side trip to Moravian Falls, and hiking at Dark Mountain in the afternoon netted us hungry bellies and an exhausted dog.

Love the smell of OVT in the morning



Moravian Falls, just before the haggard old lady stared us down for taking photos of "her" pristine wilderness...complete with 18million no tresspassing signs.



Tired dog and tired bike

SECCA CX#2

SECCA Cross race last night put on by Mock Orange. This was my first time at the venue, and I chose to spectate (for this week). Chancey, Sirena, Brad, Cameron, and Rip were all racing in the B race when I got there. Everyone was riding strong, looking like they were in pain, but still rocking it. Hecklejack and Alex Ry Ry were both racing in the A race. Mark was on his singlespeed making all sorts of ruckus by the third lap. He hopped off course, retensioned the chain and adjusted the wheel then was back on course. Cool venue, hopefully next week I'll be racin instead of spectatin.





This was terrifying. I kept thinking it was going to come to life, shove the flowers down my throat and kill me.

Shawtayee

Short ride with Erich today, great weather here in the Piedmont!

HodgePodge Loop

After my failed attempts to get anyone to go do a mountain bike ride with me over on the CLM blog, I caved and opted for a skinny-tired ride. I talked with Mitch, and decided to meet him at Pacilini and ride with the Cycletherapy crew. After just a few miles with the crew, we decided to strike out on our own and hit some of the Pfafftown Pyrennes.


Mitch had made mention at one point of an apple festival going on in Bethabara, and we were now close...so obviously we had no choice but to ride over there...


We each got a piece of apple pie from a vendor there that is based in Hendersonville, NC. The farm was a family owned deal called Creasman's. The pie was spectacular!

After we consumed the manna from heaven, we continued on the ride feeling slightly slower...I wonder why? We ended up riding through Wake Forest, then onto the city loop and into downtown. Rock the Block is going on today, so we checked it out, then hit up Old Salem and back the remainder of the city loop. Mitch declared today, "one of the funnest days on the bike in a while." Love that I can be a part of that every once in a while, good days.

Gravelicious!

Slightly gravelly training ride had tonight. Coach had a plan for me to ride 35-40 miles (with some gravel) at 19.5mph solo, and to add some pain, some intervals thrown in. I didn't quite get the average that she had hoped, but got some good intervals and rode for just under two hours. Pandemocardium was had tonight as my average heart rate was 176. I only got one photo in as I was too busy gasping for breath.

Old Salem Crit/ Road Ride

Sirena and I met up this morning at the old Paceline shoppe to hit up an extended city loop. We overextended the extended the city loop even further by adding a lap of salem lake before heading over to watch Mitch race.


The EuroClassica Car Show only made my unhealthy desire for a BMW even more problematic

Battenkill Valley Day 2

So, before loading up the campsite and heading towards the Mason-Dixon, Erich and I wanted to get in another road ride in the beautiful countryside that is the Upstate. When scouting out the map, we noticed that with a short jaunt we would be in the neighborhood of Vermont. Who would come this far and not make a point to tag another state? Not us. So off we rode from the campground..



We tagged Vermont...


Now, I make the general assumption that the entire state looks much like this, and thus am now in love.




I was so smitten that when we rode back into New York, apparently I subliminally decided to ride with eyes closed. (either that or it was a poorly timed self-portrait)





We headed back over to some of the Battenkill course and repeated some of the gravel sections. We also had to hit one of the famous photo-op location: the Eagleville Bridge.






After our ride, we headed back to the campsite to grab a quick shower, load up and head south. I declared the showers to have been invaded by gorillas. The night before they were clean, that afternoon they were covered in mud/grass and the shower curtains were torn. Craziness!

2011 Tour of the Battenkill Preride!

This entry will be more of a photo essay of the ride because I didn't get to ride last year's course. Andrew, one of our Cat 2 guides, and journalist extroadinaire has a much more descriptive write up over on his blog, and Erich will have a write up soon on his blog. I've chosen some of the more indicative photos of the course in order to give a better idea of the conditions.

Loaded up the bikes in Manhattan a mere 14 hours after getting into town:

Chilling on the front porch of the Cambridge Hotel waiting for Dieter and Andrew

Rte 313 just outside of Cambridge

Juniper Swamp before the horrendous climb

Rich Road

Crusing up Carney-Cassidy one of the new sections that cuts out some of paved rte. 29.


Mountain Road just before Erich's few seconds of sheer panic and genital pandemonium. Said pandemonium ensued when Erich rode full kilter over some seriously malevolent stutter bumps. Judgind by the sound, I thought, without a doubt, that I would look over and see a cloud of dust that once resembled Erich's bike, but alas, he stayed upright. Thankfully.

Dieter with flat number two of the day on Meeting House Road

The mindsuck that is Meeting House Road. What an awesome road to come upon 50 miles into a race!

Cruising back into town on Turnpike?


After the ride, Dieter took us to lunch at the coolest inn in town, and we crashed out at our campsite:


Tomorrow: Part Three: post ride-ride and rocketing 14 hours south.

to NYC!

Big plans for the weekend started out as essentially a joke. Erich and I were riding and discussing the Battenkill. The Tour of the Battenkill is a brutal race in the nature and fashion of a spring classic. 100k's of backcountry roads, gravel, and generally less than ideal weather. A great race put on by an excellent promoter. In any case, Erich and I were discussing plans for Labor Day weekend a couple weeks back, and in an off kilter moment I suggested (mostly in a jovial manner) that we should rocket up the east coast to ride the Battenkill. We both laughed, then had one of those shared, "man, that's feasible" moments. Plans fell into place, a message was sent through facebook and all of the sudden E is talking with Dieter Drake (the promoter) and we have a guide for the course. Unbelieveable. The cycling industry/cultural scene has always amazed me for the approachable nature of most involved. A shared love for something so simple establishes bonds in such an organic way. Anyways, onto the trip...

So, E and I both took Friday off so as to get a head start on the weekend and get up to NYC. Yet another piece of the puzzle fell into place when his sister-in-law (who lives in Manhattan) was going to be out of town. Free place to stay in Murray Hill? yet another piece falling into place. Next, a place to stay in the Battenkill valley...campsite: booked. Bags packed, hit the road. In Manhattan by about 4 just in time to catch E's sister-in-law for a few minutes, hit Sid's bike shop, and get some dinner. Lombardi's pizza


After dinner, we wandered around town to enjoy some of the typical sites and ended up in Central Park. Our mission to find this bakery not too far from Sarah's apartment took us about 45 minutes of walking...had it been 41 minutes, we would have been there before they closed, but alas, we went back to the apartment with sweettooth intact.



Part two tomorrow, pre-ride of the 2011 Tour of the Battenkill course!!!!!