Ride Bikes! Ride Bikes!

So this last week or so has been quite busy and I haven't had the time to sit down and write something up so here goes. A week or so ago I ordered 250 business cards from VistaPrint.comThats the business card there. I plan on giving them out to people I meet on the road if they want to learn more about affordable housing and Bike and Build. So that is really cool.

Also this weekend I had my first USCF sanctioned race. Beforehand I got a full USCF license (instead of just a collegiate one), and using my 6 mass starts at collegiate races and half a dozen more at home in Alaska I was able to upgrade to Category 4. So then early Saturday morning I went down to Sunapee, NH and raced 46 miles twice around the lake. The race went very well, I narrowly avoided one crash on the first lap and settled into a place about 2/3rds the way back of the pack, far enough forward I wouldn't get dropped but far enough back that I wasn't breaking much wind. The one downside was I wasn't in a very good position to get on breaks or finish well, but since it was my first USCF race I wasn't all that worried. The finish was all uphill which allowed me to gain about a dozen or so places because I am a pretty good climber. I was still not in the right gear and wasn't able to move up more than I could have. But a 21st place finish in a field of 80 or so, not too bad for the first time.

Looking forward to tomorrow I'll be going down to Claremont, NH for a training criterium race. It should be fun, nothing too serious, but I'll be racing the A race (there's only A and B) so I get to race against the big dogs tomorrow! The race is around a quarter mile go-cart racing track, so that will also be fun, so if I get dropped I can just catch back on the next time around.

That is about all, oh and I finally built up a singlespeed campus bike for myself. And for a closing quote:

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.
-- John F. Kennedy

peace, love, and bikes

It's a long way to the top...

if you want to Rock and Roll...

Also it's a long way to the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge from Hanover. This weekend is DOC (Dartmouth Outing Club) Spring weekend so there were tons and tons of trips (none of which I went on for some reason), but Saturday night concluded with everyone meeting up at the Lodge and having hearty dinner, dancing to some bluegrass music and then either going home or staying overnight at the Lodge. In my desperate attempt to be social Saturday afternoon I biked up to the Lodge. Two other skiers and I made the three hour trek, which was all uphill, and we had a headwind. It was one of the harder rides I've done not racing because we pushed the entire time in an effort to get to the lodge for 6pm dinner (we got there at 6:15, coincidentally dinner was at 6:30, leaving me just enough time to soak my sore calves in the cold stream). A good time was had by all, great food, dancing to bluegrass music, and general revelry celebrating the start of spring/summer.

So in other news I just bought a full on USCF (United State Cycling Federation... I think) license, and then was able to upgrade to Cat 4 with my ECCC races and races back home in Alaska. So that means that I will be able to race this Saturday with people who have actually raced before, and possibly win some prize money if I do well!

Well there is lots going on in Hanover, mostly because it is sunny and I also have a lot of school work to do... I wish I could get out and ride everyday, but that just isn't feasible, so I'll have to settle for 3 or 4 longer rides a week. Oh well. Oh yeah I finally got my physical for BNB so that's one more thing crossed of the list. Now I just need to complete my sweat equity (8 hours of work with an affordable housing group before the trip) and I'll be all set. Hopefully I will be able to complete most of that with an organization in White River Junction called COVER, they fix up homes for those who can't afford to do it themselves. Information about them can be found here. I also might do some work with the Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity working on a project in Norwich.

In biking news, Jen Stebbins '09 from Dartmouth won the US Collegiate Nationals Division 2 Crit! Yay Jen way to kick butt.

Also thanks to Chris and Mimi Beck for their donation which pushed me over the $7000 mark!

Hey it's not normal mail it's Royal Mail!

So nothing that new and exciting in my life... But it is sunny out so I can enjoy the outdoors. I finished my physics mid-term last night and am just about done with my engineering computer science program that's due tomorrow. I can't remember whether or not I wrote this on here, but my Continental GatorSkins came in the mail all the way from across the pond. I was pleasantly surprised by the quick shipping from the UK (but then again, New Hampshire is pretty close to England... at least compared to Alaska). I am going to put in a plug for Probikekit.com, shameless I know, but I'm not getting any money out of the deal... I ordered two sets of the folding Gators from them for a very good price and they came very quickly in a nice little blue Royal Mail bag.

There are still quite a few things I need to get, like another pair of Dartmouth bib shorts, if there are any left, a good compressible pillow, and some other things that I can't remember right now... But wait there's more, in the past week I've got a couple more donations. So I'd like to thank Jeff Scott, Alice and Gunnar Knapp, and Meg Kremer and Mark Sterns for their support of myself, Bike and Build, and affordable housing causes across the country.

More Quotes

It stopped raining in Hanover and I want to ride my bike, but I have things to do. To remedy this problem, here are a few cycling quotes.

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.
-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1896

It never gets easier, you just go faster.
-- Greg LeMond

l'Enfer Du Nord

Final collegiate bike races of the season... :( But it was awesome that the races were hosted at Dartmouth. The weekend started with a TTT (I wasn't going to do it, but I was needed to complete a team). It was hard, by far the most difficult TTT I had done (up the hills on Rt. 10 at River Road and Chieftain Hill for those from the Hanover area). So after that my legs were pretty shot. Later in the day we had a crit right on campus - we had frat brothers cheering for Dartmouth riders off their porches! For the weekend I moved up a category to race the harder road race course. So needless to say my mediocre crit abilities were even more mediocre in men's C. I did alright considering I was pretty tired already from the TTT and racing up a category.

Sunday was quite an epic road race. It was the longest circuit in ECCC history, going up two very formidable climbs, a total of 51 miles. I was feeling pretty good until the first hill came up, then I dropped like a rock to near the back of the pack... My legs were pretty dead from the last two races. But the following downhill was some of the most fun I had had on a bike to that point. I got in a paceline and we were able to make up a ton of time on the main pack, catching them by the bottom of the next climb. Since the receiver part of my computer broke off last weekend in my crash I didn't know how fast our paceline was going, but I heard someone say over 50 mph (sorry Mom if I'm scaring you, I wasn't in mortal danger). However, pushing hard in the downhill makes it difficult to keep with the pack in the next uphill... so I dropped off again. The great thing about bike races and my bad leg strength and good cardio strength is that I can be pushing as hard as my legs can go, but be able to hold a conversation with someone else. My trip up the final long, very long, hill was quite entertaining - I caught a few people, met some new people, had some chats, it was fun! Then the next downhill was even more fun than the first. I wasn't able to keep my place since I didn't push as hard as I should have over the top of the hill, but it was long and twisting and I was alone so I didn't feel bad using the whole road. It was sooooo much fun, it even made up for the horrible climb that preceded it. After the downhill I met up with a group of people and we pacelined really hard for the rest of the 15 or 20 miles left (again no bike computer). Sadly I saw the finish line ahead but didn't really comprehend it, so I finished last of my group... I finished exactly 8 minutes out of the lead, so pretty good, not great, but not a poor showing by any means.

After the weekend was over, with our great performances by Men's A riders, as well as everyone else, Dartmouth won the Eastern Championship!!! First time in a long time, that has happened apparently. If you'd like to look at results go to http://www.velocityresults.net/results/ and you can find finish line photos of the winners and results for all year.

And there's also Bike and Build stuff! I have fell far behind with all this racing recognizing people who have supported this wonderful cause. So here goes a long list! First there's my Mom, thanks Mom! Also a big thank you to my Uncle Bob and Aunt Karen for their generous donation. Thanks to the McMahons and the McCambridges as well as Petter and Janet Jahnsen. Jane Burri and Peter Sapin, and Gordon and Linda Wetzel also deserve thanks, and finally, last and certainly not least, Larry and Mary Lou Pratt!

phew lots of names! That means we can help more and more people! With everything that Bike and Build has received, everyone has donated $6542! That is AWESOME! So I guess I'll have to set a new goal... In the month and a half I'd like to try to get another $1000 to bring my total to $7500 before the start of the trip on June 18th! Only 50 more days!

Thanks everyone, and happy biking

Rubber side up

For the record, this is the second time I've typed this us. My computer crashed and lost the first version...

Last weekend was the UVM bike races, the last weekend before L'Enfer du Nord, the ECCC championships at Dartmouth. The first day was the TTT and road race, the second was the crit on the UVM campus. The TTT went fine, we didn't go all that hard, were very unorganized, and ended up halfway down the field. I was more excited for the road race though since it ended on a 20% climb up Mt. Philo outside of Burlington, VT. Being a smaller, 145 lbs biker with a semi-low gear, I like climbs. UVM has a bunch of wonderful race courses around Burlington, but instead of using the many scenic paved roads, they decided that it would be cool for a third of the race to be on a dusty, potholed, packed dirt road. Don't get me wrong, I like dirt roads, but not as much for long parts of races. This wasn't a short connector between two awesome pavement roads, this was a lot of dirt for no real reason...

I started the road race feeling GREAT. I could move up and down in the pack with little effort, I sat about 5 or 6 wheels back from the front of the pack (so somewhere around 15th). I probably should have been higher up in the pack, but I wanted to get some other Dartmouth riders together before moving up there. Around five and half miles into the race (on the dirt) there was a long somewhat winding downhill with more than it's fair share of potholes. Just my luck, the Harvard rider sitting two wheels up from me hit a pothole head on and started to crash. The guy slightly behind him and to the right (we were on the far left side of the pack) from Yale hit him, and then next came me. I had three choices, swerve right and take out most of the pack, go left and go head on into a tree, or just go straight through the two of them. As I really had no time to react (and my eyes were probably closed by then accepting my fate) I went head on, without really breaking, into the two riders and their bikes. After the impact I remembered a Yale rider going over me as I looked up at the sky, thinking "oh man that hurt a bit".

After that I got up and made sure everyone was fine (there were 4 crash victims), no big injuries to report, and after a minute or so, I checked out my bike, surprisingly it was ridable. After fixing the seat and picking up my water bottle I set off again, solo, with some road rash on my elbow, upper arm and knee. I was able to complete the race, but without the benefit of a pack, around 12 minutes out of the lead.

The next day my luck turned a bit, I was able to have the best Crit for me ever. I finished at the back of the lead pack, much better than last weekend's off the back, getting pulled from the race.

So for now I'm looking ahead to next weekend's races, while nursing my bruised and bloodied (well not too much blood) body.