Until the Snow Ends

Let's see: 1) Cold that is lingering long enough I'm starting to think it's more than just a cold? Check. 2) Knee pain when I ride more than an hour? Check. 3) Bike that creaks like a haunted house in the wind when I stand up? Check. Alright, it must be time to mountain bike race!! So today I was back down at Winding Trails, home of the Chainbiter, to restart my mountain bike career. I had only just registered when panic time started... not only because that's my default action 60 minutes before a start, but also because I heard that some guy had won beginner class on a cross bike. A cross bike! Suddenly my dual-suspension Jamis seemed very, very heavy. (As a side note, if you're clever enough to bring a cross bike to a mountain bike race because you know the course is easy, then maybe you should try riding sport, hmmm?) Preriding the course with Linnea confirmed my fears. This thing was flat, short and fast. I'd describe it but it's pretty simple......

So I've been actually getting out on the "road" bike quite a bit this last week (road is in quote because it's actually my cross bike with road tires on it) and I've noticed a kind of sad trend -- roadies don't acknowledge each other. Or, at least, roadies don't acknowledge me. So, a little back story -- where I come from, the uninhabited woods of Maine, most of one's ride consists of being totally alone on a road wondering when the next pickup truck is going to try to run you off the road. Seeing other bikers is incredibly rare, so of course you acknowledge their presence. "Greetings fellow cyclist, it is heartening to see that you too have survived the swerving pickups and nonexistent shoulders long enough to pass by me in the opposite direction! Good day to you!" Really though, you always give the other guy a nod or a wave. He's a comrade . But now, as I dawdle around Boston, the nod is coldly ignored by every serious cyclist I p...

Hey UCI/FIS, this is how doping should be dealt with. From the IOC: You have to imagine athletes living in apartments during the Games surrounded by blood bags and syringes. All these devices...this means it is almost impossible that these athletes did not know what was happening. "If you live in a room with another athlete, or eat together, drink together, you can draw the conclusion that these athletes knew from each other what was happening and were even collaborating. "This required a severe sanction because behaving in such a way shows a kind of mentality which the commission did not deem to be acceptable for people in the Olympic Games. Basically 6 Austrian guys got caught at Torino with blood transfusion equipment and the IOC banned them from the Olympics for life. I can't say I have a problem with this... not much question that they were blood doping. What's that you say? You can't prove they all were doping? The IOC doesn't really care... apparen...

It's raining and it's tax day. Should I do my taxes or should I program stuff for fun? Hmmmm... Ok, ok, so I did the sandbagger search page on crossresults.com . I was hoping it would be enlightening, and the results were... somewhat interesting. 1) Some people are showing up on the list because they crush everyone at the highest level ( Tim Johnson , Lyne Bessette ) 2) There's a bunch of guys who are consistently at the top of B men in New England who don't want to move up ( Pete Smith , Damien Colfer , Nathaniel Ward , Hunter Pronovost , Gary Douville , Andrew Boone ) to ride As. 3) There are some A masters that are so fast they would be fine in A men ( Johnny Bold , Mike Yozell ). 4) There's "Feltslave" whose blog I read and will be moving up a category next year. 5) There are some other random folks, like Cub Juniors and fast chicks. What does it all mean?! I don't know. I for one don't really care about "sandbagging," I just ...

Not much going on right now, dealing with the transition from ski season to bike season and ultimate frisbee season. I went out to the Beanpot road race last weekend to try to heckle some people but was only moderately successful. I decided that road races are unamerican because they are not action-packed, and you have to chill by the side of the road for potentially a long while just to see basically nothing. I did see a crash in the D race and the crashed Princeton guy throw his glasses and have a biker tantrum, so it wasn't a total loss. Anyhow, in lieu of actual content, I will direct the reader to Cedric and Gerard , which might be the most consistently funny web comic I've ever seen.