PMVC 10 Mile ITT

Friday - June 20

Three players ended their week with a refreshing 10 mile, full on Individual Time Trial at the Washington Blvd. 1/2 mile Oval in Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, the Ag3r Team Time Trial record for this distance was not challanged...standing firm for another day :)

Yellow Creek Triathlon

Mike and Sierra Maher (father and daughter) competed in a Team Triathlon.

Both selected the bike as their weapon of choice!

Mike and his Team took 3rd in the Coed Division, while Sierra and her Team took 4th in the Female Division.

Check their results below :)

Brookville- not much to report

I made the trip up to Brookville today for the YMCA Summer Heat ITT. I've done this race 3 other times and it is a good one. It's a small community level event but the course is fun and challenging. It involves alot of rolling hills and some bigger than that but just enough to make it really hurt. Anyway, I show up today and they make and announcement that the race is canceled due to the road workers covering the entire course in fresh tar'N'chips yesterday and it was unsafe to race on. So I headed back to Indiana and rode with Rich after he shut the shop down. Like I said, not much to report.

The Beachcomber Log - find date: June 19, 2008

Well, I've got a good one from last night. My wife and I went out for a walk around the neighborhood with the dog. Between some of the houses, in an overgrown area, I noticed something blue. I had to investigate more. A closer look revealed that the blue object was one of those bags you get at a home show or some sort of event so you can collect all the free stuff you see. To find out what was in that bag, lynx over to The BeachComber Blog @ http://jbsbikeblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/beachcomber-log-find-date-june-19-2008.html

What's in a name?

I have been given the nick-name "beachcomber." It's not that I live at the beach. It's because, while on my bike rides, I keep an eye open for any interesting curiosities that might be strewn along the roadside. Then I made the mistake of sharing that information with others who are adept at making up nick-names.I do have certain criteria for anything interesting I find and report on. It should fit in my jersy pocket or at least be easy to carry. No normal trash or dead things. As I come across other interesting finds, I'll post them too. I'd be glad to hear what others have found along the roadside. To find out what I came across yesterday, lynx over to The BeachComber Blog @ http://jbsbikeblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/whats-in-name.html Beachcomber out.

Presque Isle Time Trial - PICC Championship

Another Erie Time Trial under our belts... on a BEAUTIFUL day.

(1) Benchmark Times were set by: Dave Shaffer, Rich Seevers and Hunter Dimmick.

(2) A new Club/Team Record was set by Brian Hopkins (3) Personal Records were set by Henry Dimmick, Randy McCracken, Doug Frost, T.Lyle Ferderber, and Ray Sielski.

(4) New Club Rivalries were formed between Shaffer & Dimmick (time diff = 15 sec), Hickey & Ferderber (time diff = 7 sec) and Sielski & Allen (time diff = 3 sec).

Afterwards, Hunter, T.Lyle and I went for a swim in Lake Erie, Dave Hickey rode the loop a second time and the others hung out waiting for the awards ceremony pictured in the header photo of the Blog.

Riding On Borrowed Time.....

Time trial Bike that is...Look Familiar Brian

Well this was my second voyage on a time trial bike and I must say that I was impressed. Now the route I took wasnt the best for this type of bike, and the bike deffinately does not fit me right but i was able to make due. the ride the day before was much better and flatter but i had spent most of my time trying to get the bike dialed in for this coming wekends erie time trial.

I did 50 miles from Cambria county into Indiana count and home. the first portion was pretty hilly but others that were flatter were great fun. Speeding along in the mid to high 20's, when the wind was not in my face, seenmed effortless. even the headwind did not seem quite as bad.

The seering heat was probably the worst thing to deal with on teh day, and the limited water that i could carry made me have to stop a couple of times to refill. No real heart problems today to speek of but had a little flutter near the end. I think it is mostly due to slight dehydration and gatorade type products seem to have an effect as well. I usually use ELITE but did not have any with me.

PLT TT #1

I hate flat tires!

The day started early at 4:30AM. That's what time I had to get up to head to Chesapeake for the race. My start time was 10:20AM and I arrived at 8:30AM so I had plenty of time to get my number pinned on, everything set up, and a good warm-up before the race. It was scorching hot out, 95* at race start and 102* by the time I left. It was a flat lollipop course with a head/cross wind out and tail/cross on the return trip. I wasn't sure how I'd manage to do since I'm just getting over being sick and I'm also very sun burnt. I started out and felt good. I was riding at 26.5mph into the head wind on the way out. Then on the back side of the course I was able to cruise along at 28mph with a tail wind. Then when I was about 200 yards from my last turn before turning back onto the final straight stretch I hear that awful hissing sound that every cyclist knows and hates. I had a flat front tire. Day over! I was averaging 25.45mph at that point with only 8 miles remaining mostly with a tail wind. Oh well, better luck next time. The good news is that I know I'm finally recovered from being sick. Form is also looking good for next weekend in Erie;-)

To read more, or see additional photos, GoTo: "Blog Peeps - MIRV", on the right side tool bar.

Can you count to 10(?) Time Trial

Friday: The seasons 1st WB Time Trial demonstrated that T.Lyle and I need functioning computers and can't count to 10!!! I thought 9 laps = 10 laps... and T.Lyle thought 11 laps =10 laps! So even though we had to extrapolate the Offical's stopwatch times to get (valid?) 5 mile race times for T and I, we had a good turnout of riders with functioning computers! (5. 11:16 Henry Dimmick) 8. 12:05 Dave Hickey (10. 12:05 T. Lyle Ferderber) 11. 13:14 Ray Sielski 16. 14:14 Donnie Panizales 17. 15:30 Hunter Dimmick

Dash 4 Cash - MTB Race

Saturday:
Whoa! What a great... technical... painful... race course. From the very rocky single track to the near vertical descents, to the multiple 75+ foot wide, thigh deep river crossings, to the quarter-mile pitch black tunnel, this course was one for the ages! Making it more unique, the race was set in a time trial format, with 2 riders going off at a time every 60 seconds.
Rich Allen, Sam Morrison and I raced, then hung out for hours listening to live music, eating from a massive buffet of food and drink under a 50' tent, and waiting for the Results.
While the results are not yet posted... Sam took 3rd in Expert and I took 4th in Sport. Meanwhile, between the pictured "out-of-bounds-marker" taken from the course and a bent rear derailleur, Richy was having a bit of difficulty shifting!

This event was awesome... and HOT... and after 5 hours and darn near 100 ounces of water, I have yet to visit the little boys room!

Ahhh Silence

As much as I love riding my bike, I also love working on it. I enjoy getting the shifting to work flawlessly. I find a reward in truing a wheel. I consider wrapping handle bars correctly a small work of art.

I get frustrated when my bike is making some noise that I can't find and fix. For a while now, I have been experiencing the tick, tick, ticks ... the occasional creeeeeaaaaak ... and some ping, pings. You all know what these sounds are. They were driving me nuts and taking some of the enjoyment out of my rides.

Recently, I was able to replace some worn parts. I got a set of "new" wheels (used but better than what I had), replaced the chain and the small chain ring. Then I went out for ride... ahhhh silence. Silence here is not the absence of any sounds at all, but the sound of things working like they should. None of the extra little nuisance noises, just the music that a bike makes when things are working right.

Race for Alex - Circuit Road Race

Dave Shaffer and I raced the roads of Ohio on Sunday in Middletown, Ohio...where ever the heck THAT is! Shaffer took us via so many (way)back roads that I was totally LOST!!! Dave took 8th in Masters 30-39, while I was reported to have taken 13th in the Masters 40-49 group. We both got cycling tans :)

Mohican 100k Mountain Bike Race

For S.A.M. Morrison's race report, see Blog Peeps: "SamLikesBikes".

Dirty Mike Maher Race went as follows:
It was déjà vue all over again for me. 6 hours of monsoon the night before the race left much of the course a muddy mess. Much like my first attempt several years back. It was a hard day for me. The good news…Sam kicked some serious ASS! Not sure how many entries overall but upwards of 150 is my guess. Sam took 13th overall. Phenomenal result for his first attempt at an endurance MTB event. Yours truly 37th with a wrong turn 2 miles from the end that gave me 6 bonus miles…yeah! So if a picture is worth a thousand words than this photo tells it all. Here’s me just seconds after finishing. Notice Sam is already showered, changed, fed, and manicured!
Also for you roadies, both Sam and I beat Floyd Landis…he abandoned before the first checkpoint!

Honkytonk Bonky Bonk

Had some great rides this week. Rode Wednesday with Henk the Hammer, Rich Z, Wallwork and Monkeyboy. Did a modified version of Tanoma adding Airport road and Bar Slope. lots of Reindeer games and sign sprints. Its obvious to me that Monkeyboy has been to the School of Wallwork when it comes to riding, Lay low until you can smell Indiana then turn on the gas. Unfortunately for him the master held back a little more and dropped him like a used up banana peal on the last climb in. Fortunately for me I was there to witness the 54 year old Wallwork blow by the college boy, and i was able to rib him about it. Now i must say that Duane did make feeble effort to catch his mentor but quickly lost ground as i too went by. 37 mile of fun and games Thursdays ride was a hammer fest as well. Nicol, Shawn and Myself headed out o Marion Center at a blistering pace, which is not necessarily what i had in mind. especially after thinking back on the day food regimen, Bowl of Raisin Bran, for breakfast, sliver of broccoli quiche for lunch and a maple nut clif for a pre ride snack. BTW if you have not tried this flavor of Clif bars you are missing out. anyway about halfway through we decided to back off a little and take it ease over the next couple of miles and them hit it hard again after the last big climb. So after passing the Lacerations farm full throttle was back on til we got onto chambersville road this is about the time my daily intake dissipated, Bonktime. Now its been a long time since i have had this happen and i hope it will be a while before it happens again. So i limped home on half a granola bar and finally reached the top of Fulton run when some genius on a motorcycle decides that this would be a good time to pass me, why i dont know because we were starting downhill into a pretty sharp turn, and as you might of guessed i had to grab a handful of brake to keep plowing into this guy, only briefly though until it was clear to speed buy him. i was kind of embarrassed for him since i can only imagine his girlfriend telling his buddies about the guy in spandex that sped past him.

New Kit Arrives!

It was like Christmas when the post man showed up yesterday with a box full of Ag3r/Indianacycling.com kit. Everything fit great and seems like really nice quality stuff. It looks great. I wish someone would send me a box like this every week, Thanks Henry!

And then it was out for a ride to test all of the new stuff. The verdict is in, it passes with flying colors.

It's Good to be Green...and Red!

New Kits Arrive

Pesky Sticks - Mtn Biking is BAD :)

Good thing we are Sponsored by Butler Health System!!!

April Results Update

Excelent roller ride

Ever since I saw that video of Nick Fisher doing his tricks on the rollers, I've had the desire to get myself back on some rollers. I recently purchased a set of used rollers to give it a try again. It has been about 5 to 6 years since riding my old home-made set of rollers. While I'm not riding with one leg and juggling at the same time, I was able to put in a good hour today. I was expecting a rainy morning, so even though it was dry outside, I didn't have the clothes ready for the day's cool temps

Iroquois Sports - Presque Isle ITT

While Brian was at the Tour of Euphrata, 8 other Ag3r/IndianaCycling.com riders were in Erie, Pa. competing at the 12.5 mile Presque Isle ITT...where the weather was beautiful!!! Results: Sam Morrison took 33rd of 175 overall, winning the Men's 15-19 year old division with a time of 30:12.00 @ 24.83 mph average…On a Single Speed Fixed Gear with regular spoked wheels, mtn bars with bar ends making up a cowhorn, clip-on aero extensions using brake pads to take up clamp play, a front brake only, an unsupported big-ring that flexed with each pedal stroke, wearing a semi-teardrop TT helmet and bomber glasses, blowing a horn at everyone he passed!

Meanwhile, Henry Dimmick took 44th overall and 3rd in the Men's 45-49 year old division. Other racers attending were Randy McCracken, T.Lyle Ferderber, Mike Maher, Dave Hickey, Rich Allen & Ray Sielski. Time Trialing is good food for the soul :)

Tour de Ephrata 08

Well this race certainly didn't go as I was hoping but it was still a good time and I met alot of really cool people. Saturday started with the road race at 2:03pm just 3 minutes after the 1,2,3 field took off over the same course. I was in the 3,4 race and was doing pretty well for the first two laps and then the bad stuff happened. There was a wreck in the middle of the road and I got stuck behind it. I almost got caught up to the group but just couldn't quite latch on and I was spent. Then I spent the remainder of the race just riding tempo around the course just because to continue with racing on Sunday you had to finish on Saturday. I ended up 71 out of 85 finishers and countless DNFer's. It was sad to finish like that considering how well the race had started but I survived to race another day.

On Sunday morning more bad luck started early. My TT start time was 9:42am and it was only 42*. Here is my picture of me warming up on the trainer and gasping for air while having an asthma attack just doing an easy spin before my actual TT warm up routine.

It was a fun course, starting with 5.5 flat miles before you really started to go up. I knew I was in trouble from the start when I couldn't breathe and my speeds on the flat terrain were low. Then once I got to the mountain part of the course I really began to struggle. I still could barely breathe and now I was trying to mash away up the climb in a 42x27 gear. I put on the biggest cassette i own but didn't want to bother changing my chain rings for this one race. My time put me mid-pack, even with all that working against me. So I had to be a little happy.The crit. in the afternoon didn't start until 2:25pm so I had a while to wait. I went and got something to eat and then went to the race venue to see all of the earlier races. This whole time I was very tired from the combination of the two previous races, having to wake up early the previous two mornings (Saturday to get up and drive to the race and Sunday to get up for the TT), and lastly I was tired from the 4 1/2 drive to the race venue on Saturday. The crit. was 25 laps long or about 23 miles. I started with no snap in my legs and dangled near the back for about 5 laps at which point I decided that I wasn't moving up any and I just kept falling further behind out of corners so I decided to pull the plug on the weekend's racing a little early.
It was a good time and a wonderfully organized race. The competition at this race far superseded any at any other 3,4 race I've ever been a part of. I'm really glad I got to experience this event but only wish I could have had a better showing for Ag3r/Indianacycling.com.

Spring stinks!

I think the winter down here in VA has nicer weather than the Spring. It's been cloudy or rainy here for about 3 weeks with a few beautiful days thrown in. Yesterday started out cloudy for my ride on the parkway but there were still a ton of people out riding. I passed 2 groups of 10 or more. I met one guy on a touring bike fully loaded so I decided to slow down and talk with him on one of the climbs. He had an Australian accent and told me that he was on his third day of a 2 month journey that would take him from Williamsburg, VA to Oregon. If I only had 2 months to spare! Actually if I had 2 months to spare I'd probably just stay around here but be able to race more often.
If I could get a hold of some of this stuff, I'd probably go faster. Maybe they could sponsor us;-)

At the end of my ride yesterday i decided to do my monthly power tests. I thought after riding for 2 hours my numbers would be lower than last time but to my surprise I had my highest power for 20 minutes ever. I guess all of those intervals are working. Now I'm just taking it easy on Thursday and Friday ahead of the Tour de Ephrata this weekend.

DANGER - Road Hazards with Legs

Careful, these things can jump out in front of (you) at ANY time! Weebles, like cyclists, are supposed to Wobble, but not Fall Down. That includes YOU ... jbcj2, son of c3po ...!!! Heads-Up now, ya'all :)

Hammer Brothers Ride!

It was far worse than it sounds. I haven't been trashed like that for as long as I can remember.

It was good to see some friends and get a ride in. It was killer, hard from begging to end.

Happy as a Clam?

It is good to meet yur buds now and again to thrash each other into oblivion :)

Best Race Ever!

Yesterday was the most fun race that I've ever been a part of. It was the Harris-Roubaix just outside of Harrisonburg, VA. We started with an 8 mile parade type ride from downtown Harrisonburg to the race course. Then the actual race consisted of 3 fifteen mile circuits. Each circuit had 5 miles of paved road and 10 miles of gravel. The field was extremely varied and there was no category separation. We had a few pros, including at least one that just returned from the tour of CA, some Cat.-2s, and even some people who were even slower than I am. It was a great and jarring ride. By the end my seat had slipped and was now slanted back and my water bottle cages had been shaken loose. Then afterward everyone met and sat around a bonfire for laughs and to refuel. A great time was had by all (I think). It was a super hard day but very worthwhile and I look forward to doing it again next year.
More pics HERE

hard training and bad weather

The last week has shown worse weather than I've seen since I moved to VA. Yesterday it was cold and gray in Waynesboro when I started my ride. Then I headed onto the parkway and it was even worse, 10* colder and raining.

Today started out looking the same so I wasn't very excited about heading out on a 3.5 hour ride but I did. About 2 hours into the ride the sun came out and things started to warm up.
Hopefully more summer-like weather starts to appear soon.

The worst part of spring

The worst part of spring is when you have an 80* day one day it makes you think that all days are gonna be like that. Then you go outside for a ride the next day and it's only 50*, that can be quite a shock to the system.Today was a 2.5 hour ride at a pretty easy pace because my legs were still pretty fried from yesterday.

Normally I won't stop to take pictures but today had one exception when a bear cub that was no bigger than a beagle crossed in front of me. I thought I better stop in case mama bear was close behind. Lucky for me she wasn't. I tried to get a picture of it but I was too slow with the camera.
Unlike yesterday, today I ended up riding home into the wind. It was awful and I was already tired.
Tomorrow looks like rain and temps in the 40s so I'll probably be back inside.
I guess we should enjoy it while we can.

April Fool's Day

Beautiful day for a ride. 80* and sunny but 16mph winds from the south. I've decided (after getting killed at Mingo) that it's the time of year to start doing some intervals above threshold.

The plan for today was some 5 minute intervals at 110% of threshold with 5 minutes recovery between them. It really hurt. Maybe in the end it'll help.
Who needs Washington, D.C. for cherry blossoms? We have plenty of our own right here in Waynesboro.