Last day of vacation

Today is my last day of vacation. I know, I know some people in my family probably think I'm on a constant vacation. it just so happens that I travel and work on bikes for my job. I do work you know. I happen to be lucky that I get to have a cool job such as this.



Anyways, as I said, I'm considering today my last day of vacation. I've had a about a week of down time since I left Pennsylvania. First I stopped in Rochester, NY to visit with my family. Did a few bike rides there. I took my camera with me but there was nothing notable to take pictures of except my nephew playing soccer. Soccer is a great game. I played as a kid and was never far from having a ball bouncing around my feet.



Since Thursday I've been hanging out in Lake Placid until I meet up with the Timex team for Ironman Lake Placid. On the drive from Rochester to Lake placid I decided to take the scenic route through the mountains instead of the most direct route mainly because I had the time. I took the wrong road and ended up having to drive on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere that probably added about 1 1/2 hours to the drive. Oops! Sorry old van!



Until about a year ago (1992-2005), I called Lake Placid my home so I have plenty of friends to visit and catch up with. The first night in town I joined the traditional Thursday night training ride. I was a little nervous about my conditioning as the warm up lap got my heart rate up. Luckily the race was pretty sane and my attempt to bridge on the "golf course hill" shattered the main field and I was able to sprint like a man in slow motion for third. My pal Eric G. was on the ride whom I haven't seen in a year or two since he lives in Boston. The rest of my "vacation" has revolved around riding my bike and visiting with friends and watching the tour. On Sunday I rode my bike from 10 am until 7:09 pm in 94 degree temps. That was a lot of bike riding.



There is nothing better than riding all day with great friends. Shane and Athena are visiting from Connecticut and we often catch up by going on epic bike rides. None of us had bike computers but let's just say we did 100 miles. Doing stuff like that with those two are some of my fondest memories because you can always look back on those times and reminisce. One time we did a ride in Vermont that ended up being about 150 miles. At the base of the last climb to get back to where we were staying we were so hungry that we stopped at this country store and ate an insane amount of junk food just to survive the rest of the way. Ah yeah good times, good times! A tally of yesterday's ride looks like a junk bonanza too. No worries since the riding burned it off in 20 minutes. (bagel, gatorade meal shake, 2 diet cokes, 6 bottles of Gatorade, 3 bottles of plain water, 1 Stewarts hamburger with bacon, 1 Lipton iced tea, 1 Lipton Mango iced tea, 1 ham sandwich, 3 GU's, and 1 Payday) Umm delicious!


Joe is a good friend of mine who makes really cool carbon fiber canoes. I've been staying at his house and trying to get a feel on how to build carbon canoes. Pretty neat shop he has.


Kelsey is my best friend and we got to catch up on this trip. A really creative and soulful person and I'm grateful to have her as a friend.


A bonking moment for me. Good thing I have a bottle of diet coke to finish off.


I have never seen a sign like this except in Lake Placid.

I'm heading out for a ride. See ya!

Tales from the feed zone

A moment with Maddie!


Maddie and Heather - A mother and daughter moment.


Hey everyone,

[This was composed several days ago but only got to some wireless today]

I’m coming at you from the feed zone at the national championship road race in Seven Springs, PA. Usually I’m not in such a position but there is no caravan, so I’m observing the race from the world of the feed zone and handing up bottles to the riders.

Much of the season I don’t see the feed zone atmosphere. The soigneurs all know each other and have their ways of passing the time just as the mechanics have their day’s stories and ways of passing time. In today’s zone there have been friendly bets going around such as guessing the first lap time (I missed it by two minutes, shucks!), the rider composition of the early break, the final top three, and my favorite was affectionately called “the runner.” Proper etiquette when feeding is to remain in one spot and not run along side of the rider. Unfortunately, sometimes an inexperienced person is involved in the feeding process and performs the no-no of running. So before the pack arrives the teams gather to whisper about who just might be “the runner.” Because everyone who is feeding is lined up on the side of the road, there is basically no room for someone to run backwards while concentrating on a rider. Either this person gets in everyone’s way or in the worst case they take them self out by tripping and end up with their butt on the ground. Ah, good stuff, good stuff! Just to let you know, there was a runner!

I guess it was just last week I was in Massachusetts for the Fitchburg Stage Race. I don’t remember much about it other than we actually won the overall. After awhile all the racing blurs together and you can’t remember the details. It’s like remembering what you had for dinner the night before. You know you ate but it takes awhile to remember exactly what.

Spent the 4th of July in Vernon, NJ on the way to Pennsylvania with the Lebances (Heather, Bill, and Maddie). I went on some good rides. The road to her house is the steepest hill I think I’ve ever ridden. It must be 25%. The first couple of pedal strokes I kept popping the front wheel off the ground. Now I can say I’ve done it once!

Pennsylvania hasn’t been too stressful. I only have 4 riders and only a time trial and road race to deal with. With time for myself to ride my bike and no time constraints the bike work has been enjoyable in the evenings. It’s satisfying to dial in a nice clean bike. A good bike just has a certain feeling and sound that mechanics recognize the minute it gets taken off the work stand.

In the evenings I’ve become a Ruby Tuesday regular for the past three nights since they have the Tour de France coverage on their TV (our hotel doesn’t have the channel its on).
There has been a little group doing the same. None of the waitresses understand the fascination with the sport and its useless to try and explain to a non-cyclist so we just stare at the television and order some food.

After the race today we are headed to Pittsburgh for the airport runs in the early morning and then I’m getting a little break until I need to rendezvous in Lake Placid for the Iron man. Most likely I’ll be spending my break in Lake Placid and riding my bike and watching the TOUR! I may even take my watch off!

See ya,
DJB