Week's End

This work week felt particularly long to me, and so I was glad to be heading out for an easy Friday ride this morning, especially since the southerly wind had boosted the temperature up into the 60s. We had a smallish group, as usual for a Friday, and as usual Joe was already there when I arrived. Russell was also there, having been AWOL for a while due to a cold, and Scott, who had also been recently absent, was back from a ski trip. John and Rob rounded out the initial group, and somewhere along the way we picked up Taylor and Donald too. I was telling Rob about something I learned recently about chains and paint-remover. Last summer The Wife spent a few days down in the basement where all the bikes live stripping paint off of various cabinet parts using a pretty aggressive paint-remover. Well shortly thereafter I noticed that the chain on my Cervelo looked an odd color, which turned out to be rust. I scratched my head a bit, and then cleaned the chain, re-lubed it, and thought all was well. Soon, though, I noticed more rust, so I put on a new chain and all was good. Whenever I change chains I hang the old one on a little nail on the wall down in the basement, and use that to measure where to cut the new one so they're the same length. The old chain then hangs there until the next time. Well the next time was earlier this week when I replaced the chain on the Orbea, but when I went to remove that old chain that had been hanging on the wall I was shocked to find that it had welded itself into a stiff 5-foot long rod! So the moral of the story is to keep paint remover the hell away from your bikes! Anyway, the weather was pretty cloudy today and the weekend forecast seems to be fluctuating hourly, but right now it's looking fairly good for all of Saturday, but the next cold front is supposed to wander down here some time late Saturday night so Sunday morning it a bit up in the air at this point.

The guys down in Belize are still definitely in the hunt today, having taken 3rd in the team TT. The USAC development team won the TTT, in fact. In yesterday's road race the guy who won the last two years apparently flatted and instead of getting a wheel change it sounds like he convinced a friend of his on another team to swap bikes. He went on to win the stage, and then the UCI officials went on to disqualify him. USCF rules, and I'm sure UCI rules too, allow bikes and equipment to be exchanged only among riders from the same team. I guess he was expecting a small penalty, but apparently they slapped him with a DQ instead. As it turned out, that pushed one of the USA team guys onto the top step of the podium for that stage, so basically it sounds like the US teams are doing well. Bain was mentioned in the article on the news website, having been in a late-race breakaway that didn't quite stay away. It looks like a 2-man break got away, just barely, for the finish, followed by the pack with Bain placing 18th and pretty much everyone else finishing about 15 seconds later.

Meanwhile, out at the Valley of the Sun stage race in AZ, Chad reports that junior rider Diego Ortiz, who Chad'd been working with this year and who has been looking very strong lately, is psyched for his first big LAJORS race. A good result there would get him into one of the USAC Junior Development Camps.

By the way, if you've ever wanted one of those classic Brooks leather saddles, perhaps this photo from the Brooks website will tip the balance! Also, keep in mind that you don't even have to venture outside of the city to get one. There's a place on Oak Street called Wallingford Bicycle Parts that has anything you could possibly imagine, including the coveted $670 titanium-rail Swallow (if you just wondered how much it weighs, you have completely missed the point). You could just stop by on your way back from the levee!

So the season is starting out pretty early for some of the local guys, and speaking of local, the NOBC is having a season-opener club party Saturday night. Should be fun.