Bike | Biking To Live

Ride 25: New beginnings on the bicycle

Posted by Bryan on Aug 18, 2008 in Blog, My Rides | 3 comments

After my open letter yesterday, today started my new beginning – I was going to start riding again today. It’s been about a month and a half since my crash back on Ride 23 and the effects of that debacle are long gone. I didn’t have high expectations today and just wanted to get the ride/mileage in. That said, I went to bed at 10…and didn’t fall to sleep until 12. Go figure.

The alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I hit the snooze. A couple minutes later I rolled out of bed and got ready. I was worried about it raining this morning because we had had a light rain most of the night. When I opened the garage door it wasn’t raining but it was overcast. The roads were wet and looked slick. All of this, combined with my recollection of the crash, didn’t give me a warm fuzzy but I was determined to ride. Throughout the ride I did get sprinkled on here and there but nothing major. I took all the turns slowly in fear of my bike coming out from under me. I wasn’t going to let the fact that I had new tires on get the best of me.

I got out of my neighborhood and onto my main straightaway without any problems. I could tell pretty quickly that I hadn’t ridden in 6 weeks. My hands, legs, and rear-end became uncomfortable way too fast. It was from non-use and I was paying for my laziness. Do you remember that great golf movie Tin Cup? Remember that scene where Tin Cup and Romeo are on the driving range at the U.S. Open and Tin Cup says, “My swing feels like an unfolded lawn chair!” Well, that’s I felt on the bike this morning. Not to mention I felt like I was sitting on top of a 2×4. I was paying for not riding and I knew it. All I wanted to do was get the mileage in to start creating a new baseline in my fitness. I’m hoping it won’t take me long to get back into the swing of things. Pardon the pun.

I saw a few folks this morning; a couple of runners and one cyclist who was out in front of me. All I could see was the flashing red tail light and I eventually lost that. He either dusted me completely or pulled off ahead of me. I’d like to think it was the later.

I think the one thing that bothered me the most was having to get through the intersection at the end of my ride. Up to this point I avoided this intersection by taking the sidewalk and using the cross walk but the crash back on Ride 23 has convinced me to stay off the sidewalk. I shouldn’t be there anyway. I pulled up to the intersection and it wasn’t too busy. There was one car ahead of me in the turn lane. The light turns green and the guy just sits there. I give him a second or two and he doesn’t budge. I start to go around him, he’s looking down at something, looks up, I slow down, and he takes off. I follow around behind him in the outside lane of a dual turn lane. I make it through just fine. What I don’t like about the intersection isn’t necessarily the traffic. It’s not being able to quickly clip-in to get going. I can’t do it every single time without fail and it slows me down and increases the amount of time I’m in the intersection as a target of opportunity. I guess it’ll come with time but if anybody knows some surefire strategies for clipping in easier/faster I’m all ears. Two minutes later I’m back home and have completed my ride. 13 miles in 50 minutes. Not spectacular but I was just trying to get the mileage in.

Fay Projected Path (courtesy of weather.com

I’m not sure how much more riding I’m going to get in this week. If you been watching the weather you’ve probably heard of Tropical Storm Fay that’s headed towards Florida. It’s expected to become a hurricane soon and run up the west side of Florida and move over Jacksonville (where I live) mid-week. Lots of rain expected. You can see the expected track in the pic to the right.

In light of the rain, numbness, and lack of fitness, it was good to be riding again.

New word: Road Slag – similar to welding slag, this is the asphalt droppings left on the side of the road (the exact place we ride) that forms a ridge, or mountain, of asphalt waiting to catch the inattentive bicyclist unaware and either throws them to the ground in a heap of flesh and metal or scaring them half-to-death by bouncing and jerking the handlebars around until you almost lose grip.

An Open Letter to Biking To Live Readers (both of you)

Posted by Bryan on Aug 16, 2008 in Blog, Uncategorized | 11 comments

To My Readers,

I owe you an apology. Back on April 12, 2008, I made this post. It explained why I was overweight, what I was going go do about it, and why I chose to blog about it. I realized (with some help from a couple of readers (Pete and Arlyn), as of yesterday, that I had unequivocally failed to do what I had set out to do in that post.

Why you ask? Well, there are several reasons. Sure, I burned my hand here and I crashed pretty bad back on Ride 23 but I’m over those injuries and should be riding again. The only reason that matters, though, is that I have become lazy and lost focus of what this blog, and my mission, was about. Over the last week, instead of tending to my own health and fitness by riding, I tried to turn my blog into something it isn’t – a news site for bicycling. I’m sorry.

So, where does this leave me? I’m returning to what I started this blog about. Me and my fight to improve my health through riding a bike. I’ll return to posting about my rides but I don’t want the blog to turn into a boring training diary. I’ll post on other cycling subjects from time-to-time as well as my life as it relates to cycling (i.e. bike shop visits, local cycling events, opinions, etc.). I’ll also try and post some informative articles in weight loss and fitness. I think if I return to these core areas I can not only revive Biking To Live but also revive my riding, and in turn, my health. Hopefully my two readers (I say that in jest; I may have upwards of ten!) will appreciate this and I can reach out to those in similar situations to help them.

For those of you who have visited, commented, and encouraged me to date I sincerely appreciate it.

If you have an comments, or recommendations to improve this blog, I’m all ears.

Thanks.

Bryan

Blake Caldwell of Garmin-Chipotle Wins Stage 2 of the Tour of Utah

Posted by Bryan on Aug 14, 2008 in Blog, News | 0 comments

What is it with this team? Jason Donald takes Stage 1 and Blake Caldwell, also of Garmin-Chipotle, comes back today to take Stage 2 of the 2008 Tour of Utah. With the stage win, Blake takes the GC lead.

Tour of Utah Stage 2 Profile

Stage 2 of the Tour of Utah found the peleton starting in Ogden, UT and traveling 85 miles to Salt Lake City. Sounds easy right? Wrong! Between the start and finish were three climbs totaling 10,585 feet. The last climb occurred at mile 68 with the remainder down hill to the finish.

All the information I’ve read says the action was fast and furious on the entire stage with breaks starting early, getting caught, and more attacks after that. 60 mph descents were commonplace with several crashes forcing riders out of the race. There were 12 riders who did not finish. Unfortunately, it looks like Scott Nydam (BMC Pro Cycling) was one of the casualties when he went down hard and breaking a collar bone.

Caldwell and Lill made it over the last climb first with a 20-second advantage over an eleven man chase group. With only a 15-mile descent to Salt Lake City and the finish line you would think the group of eleven riders would have no problem catching the two leaders. That wasn’t the case though. There seemed to be a lot of confusion in the chase group nobody willing to pull them together to work as a cohesive unit until it was too late. That cost them and enabled Caldwell and Lill to open the gap back up to one minute. At the finish line it was Blake Caldwell beating Darren Lill by four seconds.

The current top ten in the GC are:

1. Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle) 07:37:40
2. Darren Lill (BMC Pro Cycling) 00:00:04
3. Jason Donald (Garmin/Chipotle) 00:00:18
4. Jeffry Louder (BMC Pro Cycling) 00:00:24
5. Brent Brookwalter (BMC Pro Cycling)
6. Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1)
7. Phil Zajicek (Team Health Net)
8. Cesar Grajales (Rock Racing)
9. Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing)
10. Oscar Rivera (Rock Racing) 00:00:28

The team standings are:

1. BMC Pro Cycling Team 22:54:06
2. Garmin/Chipotle 22:54:06
3. Rock Racing 22:54:24
4. Toyota?United 22:57:02
5. Team Type 1 22:57:02
6. Team Health Net 22:57:02
7. Bissell Pro Cycling Team 23:00:52
8. The Fan Sports Network 23:01:51
9. Jittery Joe’s Pro Cycling Team 23:02:11
10. Successful Living.com 23:05:04

Tomorrow’s twilight criterium should be a little easier on the riders but stage 4 with it’s 14,000 feet of climbing and mountain top finish at Snowbird are looming.

For a very detailed stage 2 race report, see this article by Neal Rogers at VeloNews.

Tour of Utah – Stage 1 Won by Jason Donald of Garmin-Chipotle

Posted by Bryan on Aug 13, 2008 in Blog, News | 3 comments

Click to Enlarge

The Tour of Utah kicked off today with Stage 1 that started and finished in Nelphi City Park. This opening stage was 102 miles in length and contained 4,800 feet of climbing. There were four intermediate sprints at miles 40, 72, and 87. With only one climb counting towards the King of the Mountains competition, riders will have had to work hard to collect maximum points as I expected these early KOM points to be hotly contested.

The early report is that Jason Donald of Garmin-Chipotle is the winner of Stage 1 of the Tour of Utah. He apparently found his way into an early breakaway group and managed to take the stage victory by distancing himself with 400 meters to go. Along with the early GC lead, Jason has also taken the lead in the King of the Mountains race.

The final results of Stage 1 are out. Here’s the top ten:

1. Jason Donald (Garmin-Chipotle) 4:07:09.04
2. Sheldon Denny (The Fan Sports Network) + 0:00:00.7
3. Bradley White (Team SuccessfulLiving.com) + 0:00:01.8
4. Ricardo Escuela (Team SuccessfulLiving.com) +0:00:19.7
5. Jonnie Clarke (Toyota-United) +0:00:20.0
6. Frank Pipp (Team Health Net) +0:00:20.1
7. Ryan Anderson (Land Rover-Orbea) +0:00:20.1
8. Alessandro Bazzana (Team SuccessfulLiving.com) +0:00:20.2
9. Bryson Perry (American R.A.D.D.) +0:00:20.2
10. Michael Grabinger (Team SuccessfulLiving.com) +0:00:20.3

Other Notables:

14. Fred Rodriguez (Rock Racing) +00:00:20.4
25. Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) +00:00:21.4
61. Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing) +00:00:22.0
112. Danny Pate (Garmin-Chipotle) +00:00:22.9

Two riders did not finish. They are:

Logan Hunn (Land Rover-Orbea)
Kevin Rowe (Team Bobs-Bicycles.com)

The full Stage 1 results can be found over on the Tour of Utah site.

Those are some seriously small time gaps in the top ten. I hope there’s some video that surfaces that shows the final sprint. Looking at the overall time gaps, it looks like most of the field finished together no more than 25 seconds behind the stage winner.

How about the showing of the SuccessfulLiving.com riders in the top ten. That’s a great showing for them and has got to leave them feeling confident after this opening stage.

As soon as pics and video are available, I’ll get it posted.