Stage 3

Yep, another shitty day at the TdB '07.

KOM Todd up in Red, Reubane in the Sprint Jersey.

Ouch, sort of halfway thru this Tour, 4 stages in the books. 3 to go. But, of the four, two only total all of 45ish minutes. The final three will be 6+ hours, 8 hours & 6ish hours respectively. So, not quite over the hump yet. Stage 3 has been my nemesis, my kryptonite. I don't care where it is, or how it happens, I have a history of catastrophy on Stage 3. But this year might be different cuz I'm not really 'racing.' I'm just trying to get thru it, regulate my efforts, not walk my road bike, not DNF and hopefully not be DFL..... Very simialr to when I first started coming to the Tour 5 years ago.

Today's mtn stage is hard, the fabled Massanutten Ridge.

Home of the legendary Death Chute, this ridge has sent rockstars packing, breaking bones and bringing grown men to tears. I just need to get it done. Last year I had a serious meltdown on the final timed portion. A just get me off this fucking bike, let me sit here with my head in my hands, do I fucking look ok??? type of meltdown. Two years ago, I came apart dropping into WV off of High Knob and almost DNF'ed with a not quite broken hand due to a dab into the rocks. Stage 3 usually isn't kind to me. A newish route selection this year might help out though.

We start with a coast-off from the cars (which I lose by default), then pick up Mass Trail headed north on some incredible holler ridin' fixy flow lovin' singletrack before a stout push up to the ridge for some sweet gnarly techy love. After the refuel, a parade to an unexpectedly gnargnar KOM took the hero out of some of le peleton, but all was eventually forgiven over sandwiches in Fort Valley. Took another parade climb flyer to the neutral rollout onto the final timed ridgeline back to the cars. No meltdown this year! I tempered my output and kept it all together, for once. The old 2:1 put me nearish the front, so I had some good times grooving with buds as they rolled thru before drifting back to new faces and riding partners. Rode the rocks like I knew how before giving up even more time in a vain attempt to secure the SuperDFL title. Stage 3 was finally nice to me, good times indeed! Only lost the front brake once on the final dh and kept things together across the flowy bottom section. Unfortunately, Travisimo didn't, and he took a handlebar to the ribs, his Tour now in doubt.

Political statement.

Stage 2 + TT

Onto the skinny tires. Big climbs. Lots of gravel. Lots of steep gravel. Massanutten looms large.

Peleton rolls swiftly. I experiment with where best to slum, off the front or back?

Off the front offers a better view, so that's where I spend most of the day, trying to regulate the gap and use my mo to flow. Couple times out of sight around the bend, sit up and relax and they show themselves soon enough. Two quick out-n-back miscalculations pad the mileage up close to 80 over the 6ish hour spin. The KOMs hurt. Me in the sprint? kidding yourself. Somehow managed to work the 40:15 up the Nutt with just 6 or so steps alongside the bike, only one single dismount in some rim deep tractionless gravel between patches of tarmac on the mtn road. Turns out to be my only walkage/stoppage on the road fixy for the Tour. Rolled ahead down off the resort side and experienced from the outside the rolling party atmosphere that is le Tour as I waited for snapshots. You hear the conversations well before seeing the peleton. Like a chattering buzz of bees cruising down the road, it comes at you like a crowded social party scene in a tight room, abuzz and lively one moment, then whisking away quickly on the whir of freewheels back to country road stillness and quiet.New Market Gap was fun, watching the race unfold, giving a pull at the base with the big dogs (JB, Sam, Todd & Bryan), then seeing sweet descending skillz as I slummed down the backside at 22.3mph.

Long parade and a sprint back to town before readying up for the evening TT.

For the evening TT, the Rocktown Trails are superb. Rippin' good time over exposed ledges and shoulders and twisty tight flowing tree fun. A quick & smooth blind run on the clock netted me an official fixy course record, besting Trevhoor by a scant 3 seconds. Luigi's pizza buffet sealed the deal and the day was done.

Ping Pong was again the evening recovery activity. Fatigue begins to show.

Stage 1

Director Carpong.

Churtle le Turtle

Ahhh, time to get it on. I love the route that this stage follows. From Stokesville to the North River headwaters, off the mtn then a quick lap on Narrowback back to Stokesville. Did this ride at the Festival once with Bucky, JB and Nick Waite, will today be as much fun? Parade out is nice and shmoove, burning off last night's excess, catching up with friends and making new. Fixed treats me nice, I just roll off the front on the parade climbs then sit up and roll back into the flow as the group catches back on, this might not be too bad afterall. After about 2 hours spin we reach the trailhead, time for the gameface. Timed section from base of North River, over the top to Buck Mtn Trail for a rippin' descent down to Hearthstone. Climbed well, keeping Bucky and Travisimo honest, trying to keep Trevhoor in sight. Saw Jenkini ball it up across the fireroad ridge, ouch. Then on the pitchy Buck Mtn I realize that my front brake needs servicing. Got her a bit hot and lost all front brake. Let go to cool it off, then the lever went flat to the bar with no power. WTF? Time to run down the hill for a bit. Down off the steep pitchyness, brake has cooled and is back to normal. Roll the rest at a safe pace and time to refuel.

Next portion is Narrowback with a KOM at the top of the Dog Graveyard trail. I hear it go hot and jump the 2:1 off the front. Out of sight for a bit I 'hammer down' as best I can until Helmick and Fawley catch me before the final pitch. I roll it to 3rd spot KOM points, a token achievement. Parade it from there to the north end of the ridge, then we're hot again for a timed section back to the cars. I love Narrowback, it's so similar to riding here in Meeshow. I get a good start due to running up the opening climb and pushing the gear like I know how. Stay in the mix with the top 10er's across the ridge then drop another huge chunk of time on the descent. All in all a good day, confidence is up, about 6:20 elapsed ride time, probably 5:15ish pedaling. Sweet.

Dinner was good times, awards were high brow as usual.

prologue

On the road with Bender about noonish. To Carp's and unload and out to the venue for 5ish pm start. Good times seeing old friends, tensions builds, stomach tightens up. GO! Get caught by Carp & Tim on the climb while I'm pushin', keep 'em in sight then try to find my big mtn fixy benchcut flow on the downside. Carp introduces a 'Super D' class this year, various downhills are timed with sync'ed up watches and helpers. I set the standard for SuperDFL. Local tuffguy Trehoor is also fixed and crushes me by 25 seconds, have the 'burgians brought in a ringer to squelch my quest? Overall my time is 5ish minutes slower than last year on the Yeti, but only 1 minute off my pace from '05 when I rode it on a 32:17. Much beer drinking and bullshitting into the night commenced.

wandering

wow! yeah, ouch neato fun painful quiet sun clouds bluesky smiles friends timegaps trails rocks dirt sand gravel food water beer beer beer brownies rolling grimaces trees bruises bones sadness and love.

lots of love.

ahhhh le Tour is in the books. I'm back to reality, yesterday, huuuuge recovery of barely doing anything after a late night arrival home and then slept for something like 14hrs last night. The Tour was pretty much everything I'd hoped it would be. Survived it fixed, slummed not quite as much as expected but did find a very very empty & hollow place during the Deathstar timed section on the last day. Got to ride with sooo many good people, GC ended up with a solid 26. Cheryl took home her 4th Tour le Femininne, J. il Sparrow Bishop also claimed his fourth Tour over Sam Koeber and the Cupcake's own Reubane. Bryan Walking Texas Ranger Fawley captured both the Sprint and KOM jerseys, at one point holding three of the four jerseys at once, an unheard of accomplishment. Ryan D put in a strong DFL move on the last day, helping out an injured Andy B to keep that jersey in the JV Squadree's camp.

Other notables of those you may know, off the top of my head: H'burg heros packed up the lower half of the top 10, but there was a Fooftowner in fifth with Martino, then locals Carpong, Mumbles and Kyle. Bucky slotted into his traditional 10th spot, Pedro Salsa was in the lower teens with Jenkini where Travisimo should have been if it weren't for the unfortunate rib snapping. The Tractor does get the tough guy award for rolling the 100 miles on Tuesday with the offending bone. Mac Bo ye's rode le Tour with his unique style and was always there with an inspirational word or two, not afraid of saying what needs to be said. And Bender finished his first Grand Tour in style, being just the third person to ride all the mtn stages on a single.

Personally, I flirted uncomfortably with the DFL slot for the first few days until I had a decent 30minute plus margin. The fixed gears treated me the way I figured, suffer to go slow. Luckily, the route nazis gave me a leash on the road stages so I could roll it off the front thru the rolling terrain, using the mo and not slummin' with too slow a cadence on the ups. Lots and lots of solo time off in the wind during the parades, lots. Then more solo time off the front of the parade mtn climbs with the 2:1. Give a little extra on the parades, give a little less during the timed sections, find the balance and it all works out. Sweet benefit was seeing the early unfolding of the timed sections, pushing my gear on the opening climb and watch the big dogs play their game, front row seat was nice while it would last.

I have a handful of pics to go up on the Smug, plan to put some up here with short fuzzy memory stage recaps.....

peace out, it was fun.

viva le tour

no steps taken today. the crew is awesome, support is incredible, best biking event in da whole dayyummn world.

fun prologue looking for flow, enchanted forest love on Saturday past the headwaters, a Massanutten kick in the teeth via the road on Sun (only 6 steps taken), Massanutten {There's no place like home!} rock n roll fixy ridgline line love on Monday and finally no more dragons after today. 100ish miles into the hinterlands of WV is done. The day that scared me is in the books, 250 and then Reddish from the hunjo side is in the legs, no steps, just rollin' on along thru that quiet place for a long long, longlonglong time. Tomorrow is The Deathstar and Hone Quarry, then we party like it's 1999.

more later, lots of pics when I get home.

peace.

finally

why does this feel a bit anticlimatic?

how is it that I'm sooooo tranquilo right now?



why am I not chasing down last minute bits for the bikes, fretting over this and that and whether or not I'm ready. Is it all really turning into old hat? Or am I actually somewhat prepared this time round?

actually, I guess I am kinda anxious to get it on. The great mystery at this point is how well will I hang on the road stages? I'm confident for the mtn, figuring that I should be able to gain enough elsewhere that the time losses on the faaahhhhhhhst downhills won't be enough to drop me into DFL range. Guess we'll know for real after Boyscout at about 6pm tomorrow.

The big gnawing anxiety concerns the two road stages. Cuz I'm a fearin' the inability to hang on parade pace over rolling terrain. I' not sure if I've got enough in the tank for a bunch of downhill sprints at 30+ as everybody freewheels along. Rolling against gravity I should be fine, but over repeated or long sections where ya'll look to tuck it, those are the slummingest of slumtown times for me. And Tuesday, GOOD LORD! If I survive that fucker....holy shit. 100miles, 12k of climbing, 2pm start time. That leaves 7hours of daylight, 7.5 ridable-ish without lights.....fuck me.

But I can do this. I'm rested, I've shown good form recently without dipping too deep into the well. Recently the legs have been touch and go, but I've purposely not dug too deep at all since the BSRR. Letting the beast take a bit of a nap. Roused him a bit during last night's quick ride though, clunky at the start, then found good sensations while toying with tailwind assisted spinning. Looked at the cyclocomputer after the ride, the odo read 1800+. So looks like I'll turn over two grand towards the end of Tuesday's ride. Could be a reason to celebrate or something.

First I gotta get thru FridaySaturdaySundayMonday.

neat.

hope everybody has a good holidaze.
Good luck to those foolz going to Canada & the local scene in their endeavors.

Maybe if my legs agree and Salsa comes thru as expected, I'll see some of ya'll up in Thorpe.....

peace out.
(I hope to be out of contact until the 5th.)

addendum: Interesting that this year, I'm most excited about seeing/hanging with distant members of the clan, those friends that you, unfortunately, only really see a couple times a year....Fooftowners, Bo y' es, IF Chick, The Gun Show, NC homeys, Bulldogs from Jersey.

But, no Jake?!?! christ, he's probably shopping for aprons right now, fucking Suzy homemaker, can't even swing a single fucking stage. Talk about being even more whipped than Bender, shit, times they are a changin'. Surprised the Beemer gocart hasn't been traded for a Volvo by now, lord knows he never fucking drives it for more than 2hours at a time......what a pussy.