Scratching That Itch

The Amateur Men

Spectacular french countryside. The view from a low flying helicopter. Two hundred of the best riders in the world giving everything they have for over 100 miles each day. I can almost feel the burn in my legs during those blistering finishes. Yes the Tour is a great 3 weeks, but sitting on the couch watching it on a television leaves me ungratified.

Women's Start

Sunday's Iron Hill Criterium in West Chester on the other hand had all the drama. Being right there on the rail, feeling the breeze as the riders blow by. Jumping back as two riders crash at full speed into the wrought iron fence in front of me. An emotional dispute in the pit. The crowd cheering as a local rider from Shirk's Cycling Team pulls ahead and wins the men's class. I am really not much of a roadie, but I have to say the criterium is a awesome way to see a bike race as a spectator.

But alas, I was still a spectator. I still have the itch. Must get out and ride in the dirt today. That is the only real way to scratch the itch.

"Put some fun between your legs"
     -- unknown

LeMond May be a Roadie, But He Got It Right

We tore up Fair Hill today.

I mean like, we TORE IT UP.

We opened by ripping the Fox Pen and then decided to try Crackhead Bob backward (CHBob would be proud). The start was rough - long uphill grind for a group that was already gassed - but soon we were rewarded with the most awesome twisty never-ending punch-the-gas-and-rail-the-turn single track I have ever had the pleasure of riding (and that's saying something after last Thursday's White Clay adventure). Finally we wrapped with the root infested trail adjacent to CHB and then the long grind back out of the park.

Sorry the only picture is of four sweat soaked riders in parking lot after the ride, but this ride was all speed with no time pull out the camera. I'll do better next time.

Ride telemetry credit goes to Andy. It is hard to believe we only burned 3 Big Macs worth of calories on that ride (frankly I don't believe it).

Chris

"It never gets easier, you just go faster."

– Greg LeMond

Thursday Burn at White Clay

Oh my God what an awesome ride we had at White Clay last night! We elected to start early since night riding is prohibited there (and apparently enforced) and we mountain bikers are all about "peace and love."

We ended our 2hr ride with a totally awesome 15-minute non-stop high-speed in-the-groove zen-like bob-and-weave descent on the sweetest stretch of single track I have ever had the pleasure of rolling on. We ended at dusk, drenched in sweat, high-5-ing in the parking lot.

THAT is the way to burn a Thursday evening.

The REAL Elite Riders

We got a big dose of elite cycling today, and the 25th Annual TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship wasn't bad either. Team Columbia Highroad won the men's race and Floyd Landis successfully tested out

his new hip and his clean living (actually I choose to believe he is an innocent victim of an event that ran off the tracks but I have no useful facts either way). Anyway the REAL elite performers were our kids - Sara, Becca, and Luke - who rode their mountain bikes 15 miles to Manayunk to watch the first few laps of this year's race (that's 30 miles round trip). And if that's not enough, we had to drag them out of bed, early on a Sunday morning, to pull this off (ever trying waking up a 12year old at 5:45am on a Sunday to go biking?)

Highlights:

• Riding with the kids up the infamous Manayunk Wall before the race. That's a 17 degree grade, very wall-like.
• Riding with the kids back down the wall, brakes fading, realizing that if your kid relaxes on the brakes they will accelerate from 5mph to about 60mph in like 2 seconds.
• Men's breakaway. We were situated midway through the 1st lap at the turn into "the wall" and for the first lap were treated to a solo breakaway who had a solid 3 minute lead. Based on TV coverage this evening he subsequently blew up, but he looked damn good streaking thru Manayunk on lap #1.
• The women spotted the men 10 minutes at the start and then passed them midway through the men's race. Granted they only had to do 50mi vs the men's 150, but 10 minutes? Good lesson for Sara and Becca, and for Luke too.

On the way home there was some talk of trying some "real" road riding (i.e., with a road bike). We'll see. Five years ago I told myself I had bought my last mountain bike, and 3 bikes later I am having difficulty justifying "just one more" but the Marshman Triathlon is this fall and...

Chris

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a bicycle, must be in want of another one."

-- anonymous

Shorts Weather in February

Curfew Saturday night because we have an opportunity for an early ride at French Creek with Andy Sokol as our tour guide. We've talking about this for some time, now is your opportunity and with the snow melt and warm temps, FC is probably the only place that will be ridable this weekend.  Also Andy swears that with him leading the charge it is not all uphills as some might suspect. 

We will be jumping onto an existing ride scheduled to hit the trails at 7AM sharp which means departing the neighborhood by 6:15AM (hence the curfew).  The low for Saturday night is 31F and its forecasted to be in the 40s by the end of the ride so this may be an opportunity to break out the shorts and show off those pasty white legs.  Andy tells me that he has ridden only once this winter (our 5F ride) and that the pace will be an "easy B with plenty of BS sessions at the tops of hills, hammer heads need not apply" (I added the hammer head part).

Let me know if interested and we'll sort out the logistics.  At least one vehicle heading up with room for 3 bikes and passengers.  Click on the embedded map for directions to our launch point (40 13.064N    75 48.059W).

Chris

Pace Rating

A=Rob/Bob pushing it out

B=Our typical ride

C=Ride with wife and kids

Fair Hill Report

Roadie report - our Saturday trip to Fair Hill was well, awesome - even sweeter because it was the first time to Fair Hill for 3 of our riders.  Those of you who have ridden there know that it is an windy-twisty-rolling-singletrack wonderland interspersed with some spectacular scenery.  Trails were in tip top condition - frozen and firm - due to the subfreezing morning temps.  Probably 80% of the trails had been carefully manicured (blown/raked) by local trail hands so snow, ice, and leaves were not a factor at all (except when crossing slick frozen bridges).  $2 parking per carload seems almost criminal!  Check out this cool animated GPS track of the ride that Andy Doble captured during the ride.

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week.  It's probably a good idea to jam  in some rides to help work up an appetite for the big feast.  I will probably ride Tuesday night assuming it's cold enough to avoid a mudfest.  I am out of town Wed-Mon so will leave it to others to crack the whip in my absence.

Chris

"There is nothing, absolutely nothing, quite so worthwhile as simply messing about on bicycles"

     --Tom Kunich

Spring City Recon

It's been a great run with 5 rides in as many days.  On Sunday a couple of us went to Spring City to check out the trails along French Creek.  Not a lot of miles, but great trails, lots of twisty single track, and some spectacular scenery along French Creek.  

On our way to Spring City we  stumbled upon a cyclocross race at Ludwig's corner.  Quite a spectacle with a few hundred vehicles including large RVs, food and beer concessions, about a mile long serpentine track with lots of short steep climbs and descents, some tight technical turns, obstacles that force the rider to dismount and carry their bike, and varied surfaces including lots of grass, loose sand, pavement, and a live announcer calling out the race.  Mostly people were riding cyclocross bikes which resemble road bikes but seem to have fatter knobbier tires (at least that's my assessment).  I would also say there was more brightly colored spandex than necessary but hey, it's their gig not mine...

The weather looks dry for as far as Accuweather can see, so we should be able to get in plenty of riding this week which is a good thing because it's like, the best time of the year to ride.  For this week we'll stick with our opportunistic protocol - chime in with time preference and we'll sort it out via email by 5:00pm or earlier if appropriate...  

Chris

Burt's Bees Conquers Wicked Wissahickon

Sunday's ride in, on, and around the gorge at Wissahickon left our tanks bone dry and our wives (at least mine) relieved that there were no major mishaps. The trails were dry and dusty, littered with bowling ball size rocks, and always seemed to be going straight up or straight down, so needless to say after riding both sides of the gorge we were toasted.

Karen Campayo's brother Ricky joined for his second ride with us. Thanks to Sebastian for the loaner of Orange and Kudos to Rickey for banging out that ride on a hard tail with elastomer fork. Actually Ricky's only stumble was during the ride down when he diverted us to Wawa to pickup...some...err...lip gloss. Needless to say he took some verbal abuse for this but at least didn't try to cover it up as a coffee or gatorade purchase, and hopefully Mike can forward this to Ricky so we can't be accused of further abusing him behind his back.

Tubby joined us as well and absolutely crushed some of those mother hills that had the rest of us stymied (we walked more than one).

The three hour ride did include a pathetic attempt at fixing a pinch flat. Three tubes, two patches, and about 45 minutes later we were back on the bikes having weathered a fair amount of abuse from passing bikers and hikers including a generous offer of a "tuneup" (we can elaborate on the "tuneup" comment later, but not in this email).

In summary a great physical ride with loads of laughs as always.

With kids returning back to school, I wanted to poll the group to see if we should adjust the weekeday ride schedule. I know the current ride times don't work for some but I am pretty flexible so let me know what adjustments might work better for you. We'll try to keep at least one morning ride until temperatures and daylight become an issue. This week will still be the standard summer schedule:

• Tuesday morning 6:30am
• Thursday evening 7:30pm

Chris

"RIDE HARD, live easy"
Relive our (mis)adventures at mo7s.blogspot.com

Crash Bang Boom

Sunday's roadie to White Clay was one to remember. We covered the bulk of the park in a little over 2 hours (riding time) which, according to our resident White Clay expert, was a record fast pace. Unfortunately for me it was little too fast - as I applied some bad judgement on a downhill section and did my best (and last) JackAss imitation. I'd like to say my helmet took the worst of it (it is now showing some wear) but actually I took a pretty good licking. I will leave it to others who were there to provide the "color" as my memory is a little sketchy. Aside from that buzz-kill move on my part, the ride was awesome and I think White Clay is back at or near the top of the list for all 6 riders.

That's all for now, I am heading back to the couch to lick my wounds.

Saturday Morning Beat Down

After a Friday late night bike repair (yes, alcohol was involved) we rallied for early Saturday Morning Beat Down at Fair Hill. We hit all the highlights including the Fox Pen and the crowd favorite Crackhead Bob. Our two newest riders turned in an inspiring performance, notably the one who showed up on a 20 year old Trek all rigid complete with school book carrier and bungee attached water bottles. For those who were interested, I checked the blog and estimate the ride was around 15 miles which does not sound like much - if you were on this ride you now know why measuring mountain bike rides in miles is a pretty useless measure of level of difficulty or fun factor.

Hoping we see those smiling sweaty NooB faces on future rides. Speaking of future rides -- we discussed the merits of moving ride times up to help beat the heat and leave more of the day intact for family related activities...so we're going to try the following modified schedule:

• Tuesday morning 6:00am
  
• Thursday evening 8:30pm (no change)
  
• Sunday morning 8:00 am

Departures are from Upper Lyndenwood.

Chris

"I find that climbing singlespeed is like eating really spicy food -- it's OK until you stop, and then it starts to burn and you feel like you're going to puke"
-- Anonymous single speeder and spicy food eater

Fair Hill Report

Fair Hill roadie was a blast. Parking lot was jammed with riders (50 or more) when we arrived (7 of us) - bikers were pre-riding the course for the BikeLine race in a few weeks. Somehow we managed to dodge the crowds on the trails (let's say because we were outrunning them). Before the GPS battery fritzed near then end, it read 15 miles but I think it was off due to slow sample rate "cutting" many of the turns - anyway we agreed it felt like a lot more than 15 (satellite imagery attached). After completely draining our tanks on the ride, we drained a few beers in the lot, and then headed to Downingtown - Chelsy's to pickup some 40s (man is that place depressing on a Sunday afternoon), and then Los Compadres to refuel with some cheap Mexican fare.

Key events for April:

• Roadie April 13th (2nd Sunday of each month)
• Hibernia April 20th
• Chelsy's April 24th (last Thursday of each month)
  

Standard schedule this week:

• Tuesday 8:30pm Lower
• Thursday 8:30pm Upper - I am traveling on Thursday, will make the ride if I get an early flight home otherwise not.

Chris

"Go Big or Go Home"

– anonymous mountain biker

Do Something Stupid

The monthly Chelsy's ride is rarely a disappointment and last night was no exception. To kick things off, Bob turned out wearing a sweet polyester sport coat - the kind you might see on used car salesmen. Chelsy's has some interesting patrons for sure, but this was probably their first one in spandex and sport coat. Our intrepid group of six grew when we encountered another rider on the sole trail (Bob's friend Bill / our guide last time at Fair Hill). A (very) little arm twisting and we were seven riders on othe monthly pilgrimage. Chelsy's was quiet for a Thursday night - the band cancelled - but this meant we got our customary corner by the bar (good to be home). We were wrapping up after 2 too many pitchers with a couple of rounds of sluts when The Cougar arrived to much fanfare and promptly paid us a personal visit that did not disappoint, leaving a couple of bikers wide eyed and nearly speechless. The ride home was punctuated with the typical jocularity, occasional sprint race, and a crash or two. All in all a decent Thursday night.

Damp today but bone dry on Saturday so riding conditions should be great for this Sunday's roadie to Fair Hill. We have 7 confirmed riders (Chris, JimA, Sebastian, MikeR, DaveM, BobG, Sean). Sebastian is driving solo due to other commitments, so that leaves 6 for a car pool in Riley's Yukon. Details for Sunday:

• 8:00am departure gets us back home by 2:00pm (1hr drive + 3hr ride + 1hr drive + 1hr whatever).
  
• Departure means bikes loaded and Yukon rolling from 119 Kaiser, so plan accordingly
  
• Please bring $5 for your driver (gas and general aggravation tax)
• We'll park at the lot on Appleton Road (39°42'51.26"N 75°49'19.77"W for you GPS weanies)
  
• My cell (484) 888-3367 in case any last minute additions or changes
• Stock up on power bars and Gatorade so we can rack up some miles
  

Fair Hill is a great "introductory" roadie (not a ball buster like Wissahickon or Blue Marsh) so if you are fence sitting, this is a great time to jump in - it's NEVER TOO LATE. Let me know or simply show up at 119 Kaiser (Mike Riley's house) Sunday morning with your car and bike loaded and we'll make it a convoy (10-4).

Going forward we're implementing a standing roadie date so your wife has no excuse for scheduling a conflicting trip to the mall or the ballet. Roadies will be the 2nd Sunday of each month (i.e., next one is April 13) - so let her know and then setup the recurring appointment in Outlook so YOU don't forget. Oh and if you're Irish like Riley or McLaughlin, add the Saturday before the last Sunday as an early curfew.

See you tonight or Sunday or whenever.

Chris

"You do something stupid, you gotta act like it didn't hurt"

– my Dad

White Clay Upgrade

Turnout was light for Sunday's roadie, so we ad-libbed and took it over to White Clay to work on the land speed record. If it's possible, the trails seemed even sweeter than our first trip last year. It seemed like we rode downhill the entire day - a physical impossibility but a tribute to Andy's knowledge of the park.

For those of you who remember the skills course from last year, it has been upgraded with a couple of see-saws, a suspension bridge, and an insane vertical drop midway through. Our trip through was punctuated with frequent shouts ("oh shit no!") and occasional moral support ("you need to grow a pair"), and ended with an overdose of adrenaline and ear to ear grins.

The only (and I mean ONLY) downer was on the way home when a fellow cycler misinterpreted a complementary gesture from our group, and graphically communicated what we perceived to be a negative response (for more on this you need to join a weekday ride).

Charge your batteries and eat your wheaties for this week:
* Tuesday night depart upper at 830pm
* Thursday morning depart lower at 630am

Chris

Fair Hill First Timers

A proper recap of yesterday's ride has to include footnotes from the night before, both involving Irishmen:

Spontaneous beer drop due to failure of the opposing digit to grasp a beer. Accompanying slurred speech and balance issues suggest that keg beer may have been a contributing factor.

Last man standing entertaining the ladies into the wee hours of Sunday (they we duly impressed). Included late night departure and then unexpected return on the lawn tractor, to continue hydration and entertainment for the ladies benefit.

Both individuals overcame long odds and showed up for the early morning departure on Sunday, a little green around the gills but still game for a ride. True Irishmen!

Sunday departure went better than expected - only 12 minutes of "dorking around" - which is a record for a group of this size (10). For the one hour drive we ignored GPS and were treated to another "Sebastian back road special" which got us to Fair Hill in a little over an hour. Unfortunately the back roads also got one rider carsick, and he spent 5 minutes in the WaWa bathroom getting himself straightened out before the ride.

The ride commenced with a jaunt over to the orange trail to see what the trail guide meant by "rolling terrain with ocasional steep climbs." It was apparently a typo and should have read the opposite. We got a nice view of the practice track (made us tired just looking at it - it's huge) and eventually worked our way over to the east side of the park on some really sweet single track which included a pretty hairy and rocky descent (so much fun that we did it again later in the day). We had lunch by the river and were treated to the arrival of about 20 horseback riders complete with rider in chaps and another alledgedly displaying signs of a long day in the saddle (or excess saddle soap, still unresolved).

We experienced the normal course of mechanical failures and crashes. Notables:

• Crash resulting in turf being embedded into the sidewall of a tire. We are still puzzling over the physics of that one.
• Family jewels embedded into toptube of a bike. The physics of that one are readily understood by anyone with jewels.
• Jim wins the pink polka dots for this ride. For those of you familiar with the Tour de France, the pink polka dot jersey goes to the best hill climber in the mountains. Jim had no equal on the hills yesterday.

Overall a great day in the saddle even with all the navigational challenges (resulted in some dead ends and open field crossings). See the attached satelite image to view our track.

I think that covers the highlights.

Weekday ride schedule:

• Tuesday night (8:30pm) UL
• Thursday morning (6:30am) LL

Chris

Two NOOBs and a Curfew

Add Andy Sokol and Steve McLaughlin to the Sunday roadie to Fair Hill! This brings us to 9 which is capacity for our 2 vehicles. Calvaresi is possible which would put us in 3 vehicles - this would be good because we'd have Dave along for log hop/somersault type of stuff and also would not have to shoe-horn 5 guys into Riley's truck. Also not too late for others guys on the chain to jump in on this. Kirk can you be on driver standby in case we go to 3 vehicles?

Andy don't forget we need to load bikes on Saturday. We have a neighborhood block party Saturday at 3pm so if possible can you drop your bike off at Mike Riley's (119 Kaiser) sometime Saturday morning? Mike runs a (drunken) bike shop out of his garage so is used to bikes being dropped off.

Kirk there are no Starbucks on the way to this place but if you (or anybody on the ride) needs a jolt I will be brewing fresh espresso shots/coffee between 6:30am and 7:00am so stop by.

Passengers - Fair Hill may have a nominal trail use fee (per vehicle) so bring a couple of Washingtons in addition to the Lincoln you are brining for the driver. Also walkie talkies so we don't have to send a search party for ...someone... like we did at Blue Marsh.

Everyone - remember the 48 hour curfew before roadies. No funny business and steer clear of Jim at the block party. Chris

White Clay

Fantastic day yesterday at White Clay for 9 riders! A couple of collisions (with the ground and a tree or two), one broken chain, a white-knuckle ride through the skills course, and some navigational challenges rounded out the day. Attached is GPS map of the ride. Mike I believe you may have some interesting photos from the ride - care to share? Thanks Rob for the tip on White Clay.

I am pleased to welcome 2 more guys to the email chain - Andy and Dave. Hope to see you guys out on the trail soon.

Room for Improvement

More interesting analysis from yesterday’s ride…

“Moving time” was less than 3.5 hours (not bad) but elapsed time was 5.5 hours suggesting 2 idle hours (if you count puking up your lungs as “idle” time). The good news is that an analysis of the idle time suggests opportunity for big improvements with relatively little effort:

• 
  
• Three tire changes (estimate total of 1 hour since the first tire change involved expedition back to the car in search of 15mm wrench).


• Ahern search party (estimate 15min)


• Unplanned detour to Palisades Road (added about 5 miles and let’s say 30min to the trek, I take responsibility for this navigational breakdown)


• About a dozen 5min rest stops at the top of the alleged “rolling hills”

So with quick release on Matt’s ride (or a 15mm wrench in his xmas stocking) and a compass for Jim (and I) we would be at less than 4 hours elapsed! More conditioning and less time at the buffet table could yield even more improvement.

The 3.5 hour moving time became interesting to me yesterday evening when, speaking with Rob, he mentioned Blue Marsh as a roughly 3 hour ride (I didn’t ask if he meant the 20mi or 30mi loop because I was afraid he would say the 30mi loop). Now whether a bunch of long-in-the-tooth-weekend-warriors could cut yesterday’s elapsed time in half is debatable, but I thought the analysis might be encouraging.

Rob also mentioned another destination in Delaware (“White Clay” I believe) that he said was less of a ball buster than Blue Marsh. Rob, anything you could share on that area would be greatly appreciated.

Steve, Steve, Tim, and Mike – hope you were good this year so Santa will bring you a ride and you can experience this insanity first hand! So far it is looking like a year round sport although we are still testing the sub-30 degree arena to determine if practical to ride without losing toes to frostbite. Ask Santa to include some wool socks.

Chris