Deserts to Weddings

Once again it is time for the bike show in Las Vegas. I’ll try to fill you in on the all the happenings of the last few days. Well, not all. It is Vegas after all (just kidding).



On Sunday before coming to Vegas I did a great mountain bike ride in Tempe, AZ. There are Great trails in South Mountain Park. It was close to a hundred degrees outside and I cooked myself pretty good. At one point during the ride I found a 2 foot by 3 foot piece of shade near a bush to rest in as I was getting kind of dizzy. I consulted the map and figured I should find a way to some pavement and back to the rental house. I still feel sick when I’m in the hot sun for too long so I must have really done myself in a bit. Fortunately I didn’t become a statistic. Because of the mini-epic ride and the fact that I took a Tylenol PM, I slept great that night. I haven’t slept properly in about 4 weeks. Getting a cold and cough and being on the road has screwed up my sleep habits.


On Monday Ben, Keith, and I drove six hours to Las Vegas. I rode the whole way in the rental car while Keith drove through the desert. I never once had to enter the truck. Monday night was some dinner with the boys and a little Vegas sightseeing.

Tuesday dawned and Keith and I saddled up to the breakfast bar at our hotel (The “new” Frontier. Not the best place but okay). Our only itinerary that day was to check out the dirt demo and a group dinner with some friends and sponsors.

Joining us for the dirt demo was Peter Reid (for you tri-geeks you know who he is). In addition I called my former boss and good friend Kenny from Placid Planet Bicycles in Lake Placid, NY, and we all checked out some cool bikes to ride on the awesome trails of Boulder City, NV. The bike industry is rather small so it was good to see some folks from the various bike companies and catch up. In case you are wondering Shane, I did ride a carbon Rush. Sweet bike. I liked a Kona King too. I might consider the King since the Rush is a bit pricey for what I need. Riding bikes with your “Bros” is a great time no matter where you are. Thanks Kenny, Keith, Ben, and Pete.

Tuesday night we had dinner plans at Betistas. This is an Italian restaurant in Vegas in which we had a great time last year so we had reservations for a bunch of us again. It has its own old school Vegas character without even trying to be kitschy. And don't forget Gordy the accordian player! How old is that guy? Gordy is hot tonight! Once again good times, good times!


Finally, Wednesday had arrived, day one of the trade show. The cast of Team Sports characters had all arrived safely and we planned our day during another high calorie breakfast buffet. The crew was Tom Schuler (boss man, jack of all trades related to relations), Jim Williams (director of Colavita/ Cooking Light), Ben Harper (Manager of Timex), Eric Jellum (Mechanic for Targetraining and now Colavita/Sutter Home), Keith Meyer (Timex Event Marketing) and me (Doug Berner, Mechanic, Technical Director, Driver, Colavita/Cooking Light and Timex yadda, yadda, yadda). At breakfast I felt like we had our work cut out for us. After our first appointment at 9:30 with Shimano, everything during the whole day just clicked. All of our sponsors for the various teams want to be on board again and some certain needs of ours were easily figured out with no problems at all. I’ve never seen this process work so smoothly. I was amazed it went so well. I’m am excited for our road teams. We (meaning everyone at Team Sports) has created great working relationships with our sponsors so coming in to the bike show it has been easy to continue those relationships and build upon them. I’m especially excited with our deal with Shimano (some new TT wheels! Yes!) and Blue bicycles (awesome bikes with custom team stuff). Man oh man! Great work to us Team Sports staff. Heck yeah!


Wednesday night was the annual party hosted by Sinclair Imports. In true Vegas style it was held at the Voo Doo Lounge, which is on top of the Rio Casino (51 stories up). Got to see some folks I know. One of my fellow mechanic pals is heading to the men’s T-mobile Team. The team has 6 mechanics. We are used to taking care of 8 bikes by ourselves so I wonder if the job will be easier or not. Besides the typical bike geeks at the party, there were a few celebrities there also. I stood in line for the men’s room with Phil Ligget. Mario Chippolini was interesting to watch since every lady in the place wanted to meet this Italian stallion. Bumped into Magnus Backsted. Literally since it was so crowded. He nodded as if to say sorry.


Earlier in the day Tom introduced me to Greg Lemond. I grew up watching him become the first American to win the Tour de France. To be introduced to Greg Lemond as “one of the best mechanics” was pretty cool. Wow!

Thursday afternoon as I left the bike show, I couldn’t find my way out of the Venetian. Everything is planned to keep a person inside in Vegas. It took a half hour to find my way to the exit I needed. At that point, I was glad to be leaving Vegas for Park City, Utah within the hour.

Park City was our destination for Keith and Brooke’s wedding. Driving into Park City was beautiful. It finally felt like autumn since the mountains are awash in golden color from the leaves changing. There was even a little snow on top of the mountain from a snowfall the week before. Friday evening was a burrito barbecue at Brooke’s Aunt’s house. Got to meet both sides of the family. Saturday was the big day. They picked a spot in Mill Creek Canyon for the ceremony and sit down lunch. It was a lovely wedding enjoyed by all. They even drove away in the TIMEX truck with the horn blaring for full effect.


[ Am I that tall? Me, Keith, and Tom]

[Yes, I'm holding Brooke's flowers. Katie is Brooke's sister and said she wanted photos for her work cubicle]



Even though I wasn’t feeling well, I decided to try a little mountain biking. A good ride but short since I felt like crap. I’m not sure, but I think the cumulative effect of my all my travels has worn me down. I got another cold while in Park City and with the altitude it feels even worse. TIRED, TIRED, TIRED! I need to take care of myself better, mostly in the nutrition department. That is my short-term goal.



Monday morning Ben and I are heading back to Milwaukee. I’m looking forward to getting back and doing some office work before we head to Hawaii. Hopefully I’ll be able to relax a bit too. I find that hard to do sometimes so send some reminders to me since I don’t listen to my own advice.

Cheers

Screw the truck

Not too much to update since I left Milwaukee on Tuesday. Driving all day is really getting to me. The route to Arizona is particularly boring too, although I can add another state to my "been there" list. TEXAS. Don't mess with it. All my ex's live in Texas. Now that we are in New Mexico the scenery should be getting better and we have about 8-9 hours until we can stop in Tempe.

Holiday Inn Express are the best places to stay. Great beds and sheets. Good breakfast with more choices than just a dry danish and crappy coffee like other "continental breakfasts." I'm thinking of becoming a spokesperson. Need to come up with a pitch and present it. Any ideas out there? Should I get an agent before I'm famous or afterwards. Actually I'd really settle for some sort of sponsorship. I wonder if I could do that? Hmmmm?

Oh no! Poodle alert in the breakfast nook.

While sitting in the truck these past two days I started thinking of things that could be worse than sitting in the Timex truck:
1. Learning to play golf. No offense. I just don't see me playing that game.
2. Antique-ing (shopping for antiques). Is that some sort of huge industry or what. Seems like there are antiques barns all over this country. Maybe if they called it "useable junk shopping" it might appeal to a different kind of person. Again, I realize we all have our thing to do. Some people really enjoy it. But if I'm ever in a relationship with someone and we are spending the weekend to drive around looking for antiques, somebody please smack me. Sorry ladies!
3. Waiting in line for a table at a mediocre restaurant. Waiting sucks. I'm outta there if the wait is over 30 minutes. I can hold out for 40 minutes if need be.
4. Having a desk job.
5. Assembling Huffy's at Walmart, K-mart, etc. (Although a friend of mine did that once and made some good money for a few weeks since they paid by the work done).
6. Giving Tune-ups on Huffy's.
7. Having a cat sneak onto my pillow during the night. Ah choo! I also don't care to hear a cat purring near my head in the morning. Again no offense.
8. Being bit by a rattle snake or other venomous creature while out in the backcountry.
9. Having to wear a tie and jacket to work. I'm okay with getting dressed up once in awhile but glad I don't have to everyday.
10. ?????????????????

Time to get the show on the road.

Cheers,
DJB

Madison

Candice was teaching me how to look "good" in a photo. Most of the attempts were ridiculous.


I got a cold after Madison. When I feel like I'm getting sick, I down a clove of garlic. It seems to work. Except for the coughing part.


People in Madison are really friendly. It's true what they say about the midwest. (The skeleton in back is the white Ben Harper)


Tom Schuler did Ironman Wisconsin with his two brothers. It was nice to see the brother thing. Good work fellas!


This was a little going away party for Dave and Candice who are opening a bike shop in Tuscon. Cool now I have a place in AZ to crash at.


Sweet bike congloberation in Madison.


They call him whiskers because he's curious like a cat!


Well, it has been about a week since I’ve returned from Madison, WI. I was in Madison for another Ironman event. Madison is a wonderful place. I think it is classified as the “fittest” or “healthiest” city in the U.S. Anyway you look at it, Madison really encourages the use of bicycles for fitness and transportation. Seems like everyone is commuting by bike. There are plenty of bike racks to lock your bike at every store. They have a great system of bike paths, wide roads with bike lanes, and miles of roads outside the city ideal for riding. The city itself has lots of shops, restaurants and places to chill. Whatever you want it’s there. (What happens in Madison stays in Madison.)

From a mechanic’s perspective, the week was pretty tame. All the athletes brought their bikes in good condition. Mainly, I just gave them a good polish, tweaked a couple of derailleurs, and changed the training wheels for race wheels. Last year Ironman Wisconsin was considered the hardest event of all the Ironman’s. It was 95 degrees with high humidity and very windy. This year’s race was equally tough with the exact opposite conditions. It was raining hard all day and in the 50’s. It was one wet day for sure. It was probably harder on the spectators.

In case you didn’t know, race day starts at 7am and goes all day until midnight. From 9pm until midnight the finish line takes on a party atmosphere. One thing that Timex contributes to this spectacle is called “the free schwag parade”. This is where we throw out hats and t-shirts to the crowd. I often don’t take part in the madness, but this time I was into it (it was a way to keep warm). It is amazing how 500 people become your friends when you have free stuff for them. It was fun to get the crowd yelling and screaming. Of course, I try to find the kids and mom’s in the crowd first. Some people are really grabby too. Practically reaching over the barriers to claw at you. Freaks!

Life at the shop has been equally busy as being on the road. We are already getting stuff rolling for next season. This is the time of year for renewing contracts or acquiring new riders. It looks as though the Colavita/Cooking Light team is finalized for next season. I’m not at liberty to talk about the roster but it looks like an awesome team talent wise and personality wise. Some great people to be around will be on the team.

Ben “Seal Man” Harper and I have been packing for Hawaii. Basically, we have to ship the expo and all the bike related stuff I’ll need for the Ironman World Championships. All the “crap” has to be loaded onto pallets and crates for the boat trip. I think we got it all done in 2 days and is expected to take 3 weeks to get there. Guess how many hats we are shipping? Something like 4,000 hats will be given away. Just for yucks, Ben weighed the pallet and it was 482 pounds. Wow, we are giving away 482 pounds worth of hats. Crazy! Fortunately we have a forklift to carry these things around. In college I had a job at Kodak that involved driving a forklift. I went to forklift school and passed with high honors. The moral of the story is to never pass up the opportunity to attend forklift school (or take typing class). My dad was big on me taking typing class in high school because he believed its something you’ll always use (who knew?). On an even more random tangent, the first thing I did by myself while working at Kodak was to carry a bottle of chemicals on a delivery. The guy who was training me said it was important to put this particular bottle in a “bomb bag” because if I happened to drop it, I wouldn’t have time to outrun the poisonous gas cloud. I always remember that day. It only got better from there on.

Here's is my intinerary for the rest of the month. Tomorrow I leave with SealMan to drive the Timex truck to Tempe, AZ for a triathlon being held there. After that we have a few days to play before driving to Vegas for the Bike Show. After a few days of wheeling and dealing at the bike show we are driving to Park City, Utah for Keith's wedding and more playime. Then it's back to Milwaukee the first week of October (then off to Hawaii, yadda, yadda, yadda).

Keep checking back. I'm sure to have some good pictures and stuff from the bike show.

Cheers,
DJB

Riding in the truck

[I forgot I wrote this last week. Not quite current but nonetheless it’s an update]



This is what part of Washington state looks like. Nothing but wheat fields.



This is a forest fire somewhere around the Canadian/US border in Washington.


This is exactly what things looked like near Big Timber, Montana. A real eerie feel to it.


I’m typing this from the cab of the Timex truck (aka Black Falcon). I must express must distain for sitting in here any longer. I left Tuesday around 11:00 am and it is currently 9:00pm on Thursday. With the time changes I don’t know how many hours that is. All I know is that I’ve been sitting in the truck for three long days now. The only time my feet hit the ground is when stopping for gas, food, and using the restroom, which is usually all in the same stop. Well, we do stop at night to sleep for about 8 hours.

Not much has happened to me the past few days. Getting across the border was fine. This year they had a new machine that passes over the truck, which I guess is like a big x-ray machine. When I asked the border patrol guy if that was some sort of x-ray machine he replied “yeah something like that.” I figured by his tone that he wasn’t about to tell me all about it and take me on a tour. National security you know. Very hush, hush,

In case you haven’t heard on the news, there are some big forest fires going on out west. On Wednesday we drove by one of the biggest right now in Big Timber, Montana. The s sky was obscured by the smoke. Apparently it got bigger and I-90 was shut down after we had gone through. Lucky us. Actually if we got stopped I wouldn’t have minded. It would have been a good reason to stay another day in the west. I always feel a little let down driving east because you know you are leaving the mountains behind you. I like the mountains.

I bought an excellent latte in Missoula, MT at a drive through coffee shack. Much better than Starbucks. Why was it good you ask? For one, the medium size had two shots of espresso in it. At most places I have to ask for an extra shot. In addition I think it was cheaper than Starbucks too. Lastly, the lady was nice. Not that people at Starbucks aren’t nice. I’ve always encountered nice people at Starbucks.

I’ve got to go now. There is about three more hours to go before Milwaukee and Ben has just informed me he is “spent.” I guess the kid needs me to bring it on home. I think this call for some trucker songs. A little Junior Brown and some Pupy Costello and His Big City Honky Tonk Band ought to do the trick

Penticton to Apex

Climbing for two hours to Apex.


A small child could fall in between these bars. I played it safe and didn't take the cattleguards at speed coming down.


Marie Danais and Dave Harju. Two of my favorite people and impressive athletes.


Race morning swim start.


Here is what our set-up looks like.


Not a bad place to work on bikes for the week! I'd say its better than Hawaii. In Hawaii I can hear the ocean but I'm not looking right onto the beach like this location.

Penticton, BC, Canada – I love this place! We are leaving this morning to head back to Wisconsin (as soon as Ben finally gets out of bed). Ironman events are always busy but you tend to miss it once its over. The week went well. I only had a total of 3 athletes competing so I had plenty of time to dial in their bikes, catch up on gluing tires (I think I finally have all the team Bontrager Discs, Aeolus 6.5 and 5.0, and Carbon Aero’s rubbered up), and help some other athletes with their bikes. Not to brag but the women’s winner, Belinda Granger, received some of my handy work. Oh yeah! Who’s the man? I was hoping she might mention me during her awards speech. Not so. I’m always hoping on behalf of all us mechanics out there that we get mentioned once in awhile. Just as the top athletes make their efforts seem easy, I get the impression that I make my work look simple, so much so that our expertise gets forgotten. I also got to help an athlete friend from back east. I really enjoy helping people like Tanya because she is so grateful knowing that her bike will work awesome come race day (and the fact that she brought me lunch a few times). That is the best example of what we mechanics in the bike world provide for our athletes. Worry free bike operation. The athletes only have to worry about performing their best.

Besides the “work” end of things, the highlights of my week stay in Penticton were the rides I went on. It is beautiful around here and cycling in my opinion is the best way to experience a place. The best ride I did was up to the Apex ski resort. I had heard it was a good ride but I did not know much more than that. It took me about 2 hours to get there with only one climb. The whole ride was uphill. Wow! Climbing for two hours when you’re not prepared makes it an epic ride. After 1 ½ hours of climbing in the heat my bottles were empty, and I began to get that up and down self-talk going. Around each switchback I would hope I’d see some kind of sign indicating a ski area. Finally in the distance I saw a ski lift so I felt like I was getting closer at last. Also along the way I had to turn around a bit and wait for a bear which was walking down the road. Eventually a car came by and he scooted off into the woods. I did a little interval effort and made some babbling noise as I went past his location and saw the brush moving around. The next 50 yards was a high level three effort to put on some distance. Phew! Recover, recover! Okay, so like I said, I got to Apex. The bar/restaurant was the only place I could find to buy something to drink so I saddled up to the bar in full riding kit, including my helmet, and asked for “two cokes please.” Ah! Two pints of cokes on ice in five minutes and I was back in the saddle. The descent back into town was awesome. Two hours up and 45 minutes down. The only thing I had to slow down for was a few switchbacks, a stop sign, and three cattle guards which looked a little dangerous if I would have hit them at speed. One of the best rides EVER!

Time to get in the truck and start driving. I think Ben might be getting up now.

He Has My Clothes On!

Here is another one of those catching up blog entries. My adventures are so numerous and widespread that I hope I remember all the key points of the past three weeks.

After the Altoona race we headed to Winston Salem, NC to stay with one of Shuler’s teammates from back in the day, Thomas Craven. The home stay was great for relaxing. Tom has a cool dog, Pielot, that was fun to play with. He was always up for a good for a game of tug the rope and chase.

Everyone really enjoyed the top of the line espresso machine too. Apparently the ladies went through $100.00 worth of coffee in the 4 days we were there. Wow! I had a few coffee’s myself but not that many. The one thing I remember was how hot the weather was. The heat index was 105 degrees. The newspaper said we were supposed to go to the mall or library, anything other than go outside. I guess no one read the same warning because we were found riding bikes with the rest of the local cyclists. The nice thing about cycling is you create your own wind so it wasn’t stifling hot until you had to stop at a red light to wait.

The whole reason we were down south was to race the Charlotte Bank of America criterium. Tina won again with great support from the rest of the team. She even got one of those oversized checks on the podium. Not every race has those. I consider it a true sign of being a pro when you get one of those (and a hefty bonus for me. Not bad for a few hours of work. That’s like making a lawyers hourly wage. Too bad it’s not like that all the time). The check ended up in the van, which meant I had to take care of it the rest of the way back to Milwaukee. It took on a little personality all its own so I made sure it experienced some of my road tripping lifestyle.


After some celebration of Tina’s victory, I headed out the next morning for a little Doug time on the way back to Team Sports (Milwaukee). I planned on some mountain biking and camping in West Virginia but the weather was quite rainy there so I ended up going to Jim Thorpe, PA. I was a little disappointed with the riding in Jim Thorpe. It was fine but I thought it would be a little better scene wise. Never saw another person riding and the local shop was not helpful at all about where to ride. The weather was good and the camping was fine too. Not a bad time. I just wouldn’t go back.




After the camping I made a quick visit to see some riding friends and do some road riding in Connecticut. Shane and Athena are great friends. We always catch up by going on long rides. This time it was a 5-hour jaunt. Nice! We did manage to get in a one and a half hour mountain bike ride and a one hour rode ride to prove we could do short rides too.




Eventually I made it back to Team Sports just in time for the Tuesday night mountain bike ride. This is one of the coolest rides in such an urban setting. The cast of characters included Eric (Targetraining mechanic), Ben Harper (the Timex Team manger, not the musician), Tom Schuler (the big cheese), and myself (the ?).

The next couple of days were spent at Team Sports getting organized for a Timex trip to British Columbia and one more race with the Colavita/Cooing Light ladies at Crit Nationals in Downers Grove, IL. Boring stuff to write about, but all-important to getting the job done. Most of what I do is inventory management. Making sure the teams have what they need for equipment and what I need to cover any repairs and what not. The actual bike work probably occupies a small percentage at certain times.

Team Sports had some craziness surrounding it one day while I was there. The short version is that Ben and I caught a guy stealing my clothes from the storage area. He was trying to change his appearance by changing clothes because the police were looking for him. Apparently he shoplifted some stuff from the Walgreen’s down the street. What makes it funny is that when I saw the “thief” walking away in my red sweat pants (The Commonwealth Games pants that Audrey gave me), Park Tool t-shirt, and my running shoes, I ran to tell Ben to call the police before confronting him. I believe my exact words to Ben were “Call the police, HE HAS MY CLOTHES ON!” It has become the catch phrase around the office now. “Call the police. He has my clothes on!” The emphasis should be placed on the “he has my clothes on” part to seem funny. After confronting the worst thief in Milwaukee, he apologized for “borrowing” my clothes and changed back into his own jeans, t-shirt, and shoes while I informed him the police were on their way. I bid him adieu with a lecture about how he “just can’t come in here and take my clothes, dude!” The police picked him up down the street and for about two hours they were poking around the neighborhood looking for the stuff he had stolen and stashed somewhere. Since the incident was the talk of the town I had to re-tell it about 10 times that day including at the barbecue to the assembled masses at Schuler’s house. Now that its on the blog I feel I’m done with the whole incident.


For you fans of cycling you probably already know what happened at Crit Nationals. Tina has won this race (and the National Champion designation) the last 4 years. A nasty crash in the last corner before the line kept her from this year’s win. But she’ll be the first to say that’s all part of racing bikes. She is a class act for sure and she’ll be back next year. Once in awhile the team fills in spots with guest riders for an event. Such was the case at Crit Nationals. I had the pleasure of meeting Kele M. and Allison Powers. It was nice to get to know some other riders other than the ones you always see. Excellent job ladies!

Immediately after the race we had a team lunch. These are the times that are fun within the team atmosphere because in effect we are not “working” and can just have some laughs. Great people are everywhere and fortunately they are on this team and we all share some goofy times together. It’s true when they say winning isn’t everything.



After the lunch I said some goodbye to the ladies (It was the probably the last event we’d all be together until next year) and I climbed into the Timex truck to start driving to Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. That’s what I’ve been doing the last three days. Driving with Ben (and typing this entry). There is not enough room in the cab to properly stretch the legs so we are both looking forward to it being over. We are almost to the Canadian border. Which is the last major hurdle because we have to declare all the stuff that’s on the truck and have the proper paperwork in order. Oh please let there be nice border guards!

See ya,
DOUG

Philosophy moment

"A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labour and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both."
-Francois Auguste Rene Chateaubrand

Altoona remembered...I think

Bike racing is all about bleeding from your eyeballs.





Audrey wanted to trade in her bike for Peggy's trike.






I was trying to design a new head cooling system. Granted it is just a prototype right now.






The first one up and the last one to floor/bed. Being a team mechanic is hardly ever having a proper place to sleep.





Real briefly, this is what I remember from the Altoona Stage Race (7 days, Altoona, Pennsylvania).

Arriving Monday morning at 11:15 am and "working" 12 to 14 hour days for the next 7 days. Or so it seemed. Immediately upon arrival I was presented with a broken fork and a request to set up a spare bike for Tina because the airline temporarily lost her bikes. Welcome Doug grab a wrench!

Hot weather and thunderous downpours.

20 second wheel change.

Not eating much. I must have ate something with a dirty hand. I just don't remember. I bought two Lipton Sweetened Iced Teas (blue label) almost everyday.

I remember the blank stare from a rider who crashed. After asking three times if she was okay to continue and eliciting no response, I didn't know what to do except pick up her bike to fix it. (Don't worry, She wasn't bleeding out any body openings or screaming in pain). Its what I do!

Several stage wins and high placings. The green points jersey.

Water bottle thrown in an open window. Good shot Meshy!

Wondering how many times TRIA is going to feed. AAAAAAGH! (inside joke, sorrry)

Tire inflation pumps. 26 wheels. 676 pumps a day. 4,732 pumps for the week. I'm here to pump...you up!

Cheers,
DOUG

Stupid Computer!

Hello all my faithful readers!

This is the second time I've written this little tag line. The first was about 2 hours ago when I first started catching up on the last three weeks of my life. During the spell check something happenned in Microsoft Word and it was taken from me. I had saved it and everything. I'm so disappointed and cannot go back and write it again. I'm going to just post a few pictures from the last few weeks. AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!


Me and my good friends Athena and Shane in Lake Placid. Great people these two. I received the best compliment ever from Athena about my writing (She is a teacher and author). Shane has upgraded to semi-pro mountain bike class. Watch out!


More good friends in Lake Placid. Christine and Jodi. Oh the stories we could tell!


Ironman Lake Placid swim start.


The guy in the helmet is Ben. He is special and runs the Timex Multisport Team.


Cheers,
DJB

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