Brooks Leedahl

USGP Planet Bike Cup

2009-09-28T19:01:00.009-05:00

Cyclocross season is underway.

Preparations are good and bad. Luck is bad.

The good: I'm fit as a fiddle, training is focused and recovery is quick, file tread tires.

The bad: Forgetting to preregister for elites, race cat 2/3 and starting at the back of a 90 man field, fluke mechanicals.

So here we go.

Saturday. The course was awesome; slightly wet from the previous day's rain with lots of off camber sections and tight, low speed corners. Not a lot of flat out drag sections. I settled on 34mm Fangos with 29psi front and 34psi rear. They hooked up wonderfully. My legs felt great during the warm up, and then somehow, I managed to shear off the b-screw from my derailleur, sending it into the rear wheel, bending some spokes, mangling the derailleur and hanger. So, a costly repair later, I ended up with a DNS.

Sunday. I ran Grifo XS's in the low 30's psi, started from the back of the field, passed a ton of dudes, followed Tim Pacholski around until the remount after the run-up when my chain wouldn't engage. It felt like I stripped out the freehub body, so I ran a half lap back to the pits and changed rear wheels. The same thing happened again, and I realized the chain was riding up on the chain guard, and not the chainring, so it wasn't the freehub at all. I exited the pits in last position by a long while, and used the rest of the race as good training.

At least I didn't have it as bad as Jonathan Page.

A rolled tubular on Saturday while leading the race, and two rolled tubs on Sunday while in the lead group.

The course was perfect. Everyone was raving about its authenticity and pureness. No gimiky flyovers or singletrack, just good traditional off-cambers, mostly grass with a little pavement. Nice job JPE and Renee.

The Blog Post to End All Blog Posts

2009-06-19T18:53:00.000-05:00

You might want to have some basic provisions handy. This one's going to take a while.

Some potable water, canned food, personal hygiene products. Maybe get up and walk around, stretch a little.

Ok.

It's summer in Madison. The weather is good, the bike racing is good, everything is good. Enough about that now. Here's the fun stuff:

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to visit a few world-class, local, artisan food producers. First up was Mike Gingrich of Uplands Cheese in beautiful Dodgeville WI, makers of Pleasant Ridge Reserve. If you know cheese, you know this story already. If you don't know cheese, Pleasant Ridge is probably the finest cheese made in the U.S. It's won numerous awards including Best of Show at the American Cheese Society conference twice (the only cheese to do so) and U.S. Champion at the U.S. Championship cheese contest. It's the only cheese that has won both national contests. Recently Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud selected Pleasant Ridge to compete in the Bocuse d'Or (if you don't know of those dudes, or the competition, google that shit.)

Anyway, the cows graze on lush prairie grasses and clover in rotating pastures through out the year, drying up in late fall and bulking up for calving in the spring when they start producing milk again, which is obviously more natural then grain-fed, confined, industrialized dairy cows. If, for whatever reason, the cows' diets are supplemented with grain, the cheesemaking stops and doesn't resume again until 3 days after the cows return to the pasture.

The cheese is made from the morning milking, and previous night's milking. The milk is raw, obviously, to take advantage of the subtle, delicate flavors of the milk. Mike said one vat makes about 70 wheels of cheese. Enzymes and rennet are added and the the curd is pressed and ladled into molds. The wheels of cheese are moved into one of three caves for aging where they are rubbed with salt for three days and allowed to age for 6-18 months on cedar boards, receiving regular washings of a bacteria/brine solution.

fresh wheels in the salting phase

Mike pointing to where he stands in the slow food community

wheels ready to be sent out to Neal's Yard in London

Mike is a good friend of ours at Whole Foods. Our store was the first place to start selling his cheese, and he comes in every few weeks to drop off wheels and sample out his cheese. Here are two videos about Pleasant Ridge Reserve: video 1; video 2.

Next up was Caleb and T.J. of Kickapoo Coffee in Viroqua, WI. Kickapoo is a microroaster that roasts organic and fair trade coffees. They take the social responsibility aspect of coffee as serious as other roasters, but unlike others, they take the art of roasting the best coffee possible pretty seriously too, as evidenced by being a finalist in Roast Magazine's Roaster of the Year competition, and these reviews.

The roasting works is located in an old train station, and houses a sweet Nazi German-era Probat roaster, and an innovative climate-controlled room that houses the green coffee beans.

After Kickapoo we drove the short drive to Hidden Springs Creamery where Brenda and Dean Jenson showed us around their sheep dairy. The Jensons live in the middle of Amish country, and appreciate and respect the Amish way. Their Amish neighbors built their home, and help with the twice daily milkings.The Jensons have a whole bunch of sheep - Lacunes and East Friesians - that graze on some beautiful pastures. The sheep have donkey body guards the protect them from coyotes. The milk is saved up for three days until there is enough to make a batch of cheese.

Brenda makes a fresh cheese called Drifltess, an aged, washed cheese called Ocooch Mountain, a gap filler between Driftless and Ocooch called Bad Axe, and a brand new blue cheese called Bohemia Blue. Here's a nice article and video about Hidden Springs.

Dean with the Percheron draft horses that escorted us around the farm. Usually the horses are on plow duty.

Ewes

Those are some weird looking sheep

Brenda's cheesemaking room is much smaller then Mike's. The Lunar Lander looking thing is a pasteurizer, as the fresh Driftless cheese, by law, needs to be pasteurized. All the other cheeses are raw.

Wheels of Ocooch in the cave

Brenda's sweet wood oven. The Jensons are in the process of building a bed and breakfast on their farm, a la Fountain Prairie.

Dare I say the World's best Belgian Wit comes from Japan?

This post has taken so long to compose that I have progress shots from my garden. Here it is from June 8th, the day I started writing this.

And here it is June 18th.

Various lettuces, kale, peas, beans, tomatoes, chard, and herbs.

If WADA says cocaine isn't a performance enhancer if used out of competition, why screen for it during out of competition tests, and why punish athletes for using it out of competition?

Andy and I were talking about barbecue the other day. I make a mean pulled pork.

Get yourself some bone-in pork shoulder roasts, aka Boston Butt. These are actually boneless roasts, and they worked fine, but with all the time, money and emotions invested in this, get the real deal. Dry rub them.

Set your grill up like this. Do a bunch of other shit involving wood chips and mop sauces, and lots of coffee and/or beer and several hours later you end up with this.

Lose interest in chronicling the endeavour, take the roasts off the grill, pull the pork, mix with sauce, eat.

Like Brian the week prior in the Wisconsin State Championship road race, I was second by a wheel length in the WI State Criterium Championships.

I'm not a hard liquor guy, but there's something about bourbon on a warm summer evening.

I have a pair of these compression tights. They're about the best thing ever.

WTF

2009-03-27T20:18:00.007-05:00

So the Red River is flooding again, this time putting the hurt on Fargo. Is anyone surprised? I'm not. The vast majority of the state lives along that river, and how many times in the last 50 years has the state's residents had to scramble to put up makeshift sandbag dikes to keep the river at bay?

It's inevitable. Every dozen years or so this happens.

So lets see...the state has a huge budget surplus. 2.46 billion dollars. Billion - with a B -billion.

How about spend some of that money on education? No. ok.

Health care? nope.

Wind energy? nope.

How about public infrastructure projects like a frickin flood control system?! No. They'll just sit on it for a "rainy day."

Nothing like government for the people, by the people.

Arrgg.

2009-03-22T20:22:00.002-05:00

Sorry. I'm blogging again. Maybe.

There's some musings foaming up in my noggin that I'll probably share, and the racing season is right around the corner, so the ever exciting race reports will follow.

I might start to twitter. Foodie-wise, I play with some cool ass shit at work that I might as well share with the world via blurry cell phone pictures.

That's about it. Real post tomorrow. Get excited.

Obligatory Post

2008-09-07T17:46:00.004-05:00

Andy keeps asking me to update the blog with pictures of my commuter bike, so here she is.

Nitto CT-80 stem, Velo Orange Milan handlebar, Nitto Crystal Fellow seatpost, and Brooks Swift saddle highlight the build.

Livin' It

2008-07-11T21:31:00.004-05:00

So I'm sitting here watching Le Tour with a baguette, a bottle of Bordeaux, and a local cheese made within earshot of the Trek factory.

That's all.

Tracks

2008-04-21T23:39:00.005-05:00

I got some tracks installed on the roof of the Scion so I could attach a rack that wasn't a pain in the ass to put on and take off. It turned out pretty slick. I had a local body shop do the dirty work since I couldn't muster up the courage to drill holes in the roof of my car. Here's a blog where some dude put them on a Prius.

I also raced a local crit this weekend. Pretty uneventful. I wasn't positioned very good, maybe 10th wheel in the final turn, and like clockwork, some douche had to crash. I had to slow down to get around him, and lost a bunch of places. So I missed out on the ever valuable upgrade points, but the sensations in the legs were good, and I'm optomistic for the season.

My very own Graham Watson captured the crash -thanks Mary! Zoom in on that bad boy. How does that happen?

Bush's War

2008-03-28T18:07:00.006-05:00

Mission accomplished eh?

5 years, 4000 dead American soldiers(3866 since that picture,) 3-5 trillion dollars, and 655,000 dead Iraqis, and still counting.

Watch Frontline's documentary on the run-up to war, and how it's being fought. It's truly an amazing film about a seriously f'ed up situation. Grab a beer and some popcorn, and watch it here.

Discuss in the comments. Do it.

Château Mouton Rothschild Pauillac 2000

2008-02-04T00:30:00.000-06:00

I bought some wine on the cheap to resell. Buy some from me now in time for Valentine's Day 2025.

If you don't think that's a deal, here it is at retail.

The Return

2008-01-26T20:11:00.000-06:00

Apparently people get really angry if you take a little blogging sabbatical. But fret not loyal reader for I will post with increased zeal and consistency. So here's what I've been up to the last three months.

Cyclocross season came and went. The form never really came around, and I'm pretty sure I was slower then previous years. I had some nagging back pain, but I'm more or less back to normal now. I did race Nationals for the hell of it anyways. It was a blast, and it was nice to see Lane and Skye.

November saw the death of the Sentra. She had been limping along for quite some time, and she finally gave up the ghost. I did get a nice new shiny car though. A safe and economical Scion xD, which is like a bazillion times better than my old car.

Work has been good. The specialty foods universe is vast, and I'm having fun exploring it. I'm now the coffee buyer, so if you want some good coffee, come talk to this guy.

Yesterday was our friend and coworker Richard's going away party. He's going to be running his very own specialty department in Chicago. He's been nagging me for months to put his picture on my blog. Here he is showing why he'd make an excellent specialty team leader.

Last week Mary and I went to Tampa to visit her Grandma, and hang out with her family. It was a wonderfully relaxing time, as always. I read "Kitchen Confidential" by Tony Bourdain. He's a cool dude.

When we got back from Florida we got a new addition to the family. Cubby is a one year old Newfoundland. He's pretty well behaved, and loves cuddling and being groomed. He's massive. 80 pound Sampson looks tiny next to him.

On the personal grooming front, I grew a beard. It looks awful, and it itches, but i kind of like it. It makes me feel like a lumberjack.

So that was a fairly lame recap of the last few months (there are a lot of pictures though,) but stay tuned for beard updates, my ultra-high-end wine scheme, Cubby shenanigans, and road bike roller craziness.

Klee Irwin

2007-10-19T01:38:00.001-05:00

Have you guys seen the infomercial for Dual Action Cleanse? There's a half hour of this! The best thing on tv. Hands down. It should win an Emmy.

Hole Shot?

2007-10-16T21:11:00.000-05:00

Yeah buddy. So I finished my first race since June 9th on Saturday. That felt good. I didn't do too shabby either. And as the title suggests, I got the hole shot as well. I took advantage of a weakened, lethargic field and without effort, surged to the front. 20 meters in I looked at Brian with baffled amusment and shrugged.

So I drilled it for two thirds of the first lap and then methodically got passed by 7 dudes.

I sorta forgot how to race for an entire hour.

The fitness and skills are there, I just have to pull my head out of my ass and race. The speed of the Pro/1/2 race isn't much different from the cat 3 race, it's just like 2 laps longer. If I was more focused and dedicated, I think I could have finished in top 4. There will be pics and video shortly over at Madcross.org.

Speaking of focus and dedication, I'm eating a slice of cana de cabra on mini toasts along with a bottle of tempranillo. Now that's some good shit. Next time you see a goat, hug it and tell it "thank you for making delicious cheese out of your milk." And then feed it a tin can or whatnot.

I unfortunately had to work on Sunday and couldn't race. It's too bad because it was a greasy, muddy mess. I did bottle handups for Brian and took a bunch of crappy pictures.

Monday I was off and drove to Viroqua for their Monday night cross race series. It's a pretty layed back, low key deal. It was still all slippery and muddy, which was nice. I settled in 2nd or 3rd wheel for most of the race and made my way to the front about half way through. A local guy passed me with like 3 laps to go and I didn't really contest the victory. I figured it was bad taste to beat the locals. He legitametly passed me and gapped me though, and I don't in any way want to dilute his win, but I didn't exactly give him a hard time passing me, and i didn't try to stay with him. So I got second place, $15, a pound of coffee, and all the chocolate milk I could handle. Sweet.

Now I have this to deal with.

Next race I might try some video.

Surly, 2 Ways

2007-10-07T20:25:00.000-05:00

A couple posts ago I alluded to Mary's Surly Cross-Check commuter bike. Well, it's all finished and she's been commuting for a couple weeks on it now. It turned out really nice in my opinion, and she loves it. Here are some pics.

Surly bikes are based out of the Twin Cities where, coincidentally, Surly Brewing Company is located. While on my way through after visiting my parents earlier this week, I stopped and picked some up. In the beer geek world, its sort of a big deal. I picked up some Bender, Furious, and SurlyFest. It's unique in that they come in 16oz 4-pack cans. Surly is unequivocally the best canned beer made, and Furious is one of the best IPA's I've ever had.

Do You Know What's Painful?

2007-10-03T20:44:00.000-05:00

Cyclocross. Holy moley. So the season didn't quite start out the way I wanted, but that's ok. My first race in the cat 1/2 field lasted all of about 15 minutes. I DNF'ed after 2 laps. I had a pretty crappy start, and played catch up for half a lap, then easily blew by a group of 5 on an uphill drag. Then I found myself in noman's land until we regrouped and I led the group around for a lap until I popped. Rumor has it my heart rate was 205 at one time.

So the season started like last year's.

I'm optimistic about the season. I won't ever be competing at the front of the race, but I'll have some good battles with other "also rans."

Brian put in an impressive race finishing an effortless 6th in the cat 3 race. It must be his newly implemented theory on tire psi. Or it could be the training and incredible amount racing miles he has in his legs.

So after the race I headed to Grand Forks for like 36 hours. It was nice seeing the family.

More pics and video can be found at Madcross.org.

---

I was going to do this in two seperate posts.

---

Here is the XO1 v3.0

Frame: Trek XO1
Fork: Alpha Q CX
Wheelset: Bontrager Race X lite tubular
Tires: Dugast Cotton Typhoons 32mm
Bottom Bracket: Shimano Dura Ace 7700
Cranks: Shimano Dura Ace 7700
Chain: Sram PC-991
Front Deraileur: what?
Rear Deraileur: Shimano Dura Ace 7700
Shifters/Brake Levers: Shimano Dura Ace 7700 right shifter, Shimano R-600 left brake lever
Brakes: Paul Neo-Retro
Cassette: Shimano Ultegra 6500 12-25
Headset: Chris King NoTreadSet
Handlebar: Ritchey Pro Biomax
Stem: Ritchey WCS
Pedals: Crank Bros. Candy SL's
Seatpost: Ritchey Pro
Saddle: Selle Italia SLR-modified
Extras: Bontrager gel cork handlebar tape, Swiss Stop GHP brake pads, FSA 42 tooth chainring, FSA carbon chainguides, Avid Tri Dangle cable carriers, Dura Ace cables/housing
Bike weight: 16.9lbs

Circa 1993 Avid Tri Dangles

No need for two chainrings

Why buy a $330.00 carbon SLR when you can make one out of a worn out saddle and some Krylon?

I like stickers

Dura Ace is so amazing. This deraileur has seen like 20,000 miles!

The backups

Sampson approves

I'm In...

2007-09-15T00:17:00.000-05:00

And prepared to get my ass kicked. Follow the link and click on "Elite Male" in the pull down menu.

Yep.

2007-09-10T21:24:00.000-05:00

What's up gang? Nothing too exciting going on in my neck of the woods. Work and cyclocross preparation have been all consuming. Last week I reached gastronomic nirvana by dipping a fried cheese curd into a vat of fondue. In that instance 2 positives equaled a big negative.

There's some exciting news on the bicycle front. We're in the process of building Mary a commuter/do everything bike. It's going to be super sweet. It's based on this. I'm working on the finishing touches to my cyclocross bike. I'll post some glamor shots next week when she's all made up.

I've added some new links to the sidebar. Bike Snob NYC is the best cycling related website in existence. Hilarious stuff. The guy brings his A game every post. CrossTalk is a cool site featuring high quality cyclocross videos. All the action is in the Mid-Atlantic or New England.

Speaking of cyclocross videos, add one part crappy dance remix of a wonderul 80's tune with one part overtly sexual music video, and a dash of world cup cyclocross footage and what do you get? The greatest youtube video ever.

Cheq 40 is coming up. I wonder if Brian will run into this guy?

Upgrade!

2007-08-25T00:49:00.000-05:00

I recieved an email today from USA Cycling telling me I was awarded my upgrade. Fun fun. Now I just need to get faster so I don't embarass myself. Check out this form. That's what I'm talking about.

Is it Cyclocross Season Yet?

2007-08-21T22:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I rode in a long sleeve jersey and knee warmers. The weather here has been crazy. Last week it was like 90, then it rained HARD all weekend, yesterday it was chilly. Today was back to normal with high humidity and temps in the 80's. The lawn and garden look awesome though.
It's 65 degrees with a nice breeze as I type this, and I heard the neighbor's AC turn on. That's sad.

I submitted my race resume to USA Cycling for a category upgrade request. Hopefully I get the upgrade soon, as registration for the National Championships opens September 15th at midnight. I'm also mulling over getting a UCI licence and racing some UCI races in Ohio and Iowa, although I'm not sure how you go about getting one. If I get the upgrade, I won't be able to hang with Wisconsin's best anyways, so I might as well race some bigger races, right?

On the equipment front the bike will stay largely unchanged from last year. New cables and housing, a bottom bracket, and probably some fresh brake pads is all she'll need. This week I'm gluing up some tubulars onto the wheels Brian and I built last winter.

Training is going as planned. My resting heart rate is insanely low, and LTHR is pretty high. Intervals start in earnest the beginning of September, and the barriers will be put in the yard after Labor Day. I'm sure one of these weeks Brian and I will start our little cross practices in the park. A few days ago I bought some running shoes as I'm going to incorporate running into CX training. Crazy. We'll see if it actually makes me faster.

Mary has the Chicago Triathlon this weekend along with Heathrow and Pammie. The pics are from last week's local aquathon.

This Can't be Good

2007-08-08T12:20:00.000-05:00

From Velonews.com:

Contador plans Friday announcement
By VeloNews.com
Filed: August 8, 2007

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has scheduled a press event this Friday in Spain, but says he will decline to answer reporters' questions after he reads a prepared statement.

Contador issued a release Wednesday notifying media of his plans to read a statement at the offices of Spain's national sports council - the Consejo Superior de Deportes - in Madrid.

Contador will be accompanied by Discovery Channel team director Johann Bruyneel.

Since winning the 2007 Tour de France, Contador has been the subject of heightened scrutiny regarding his possible involvement with Eufemio Fuentes, the Madrid doctor at the center of the Operación Puerto doping investigation.

While both Fuentes and Contador have denied working together, German anti-doping activist Werner Franke has reportedly provided investigators at the World Anti-Doping Agency with documents detailing the rider's work with the notorious doctor.

Contador's Wednesday news release did not state a reason for the announcement, and added that the Discovery rider "will not offer a press conference after the reading of the communiqué."

Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel

2007-08-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

On its journey across the globe the little Chouffe wondered through beautiful hopfields. The overwhelming aroma of these little hop flowers such as Tomahawk, Amarillo and Saaz mesmerized him.

Back at home in the Ardennes he crafted a new recipe combining this dizzying array of hops with the depth and body of his favorite style "Tripel." Thus, our little Chouffe's new inspiration Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel was born.
Word.

A Day in the Life

2007-08-05T18:43:00.001-05:00

No effects pedals here.

Presence of the Lord

2007-08-04T14:57:00.001-05:00

This video sums up the festival nicely. Clapton, Winwood, Trucks, and Bramhall II. Presence of the Lord indeed.

Went Down to the Crossroads

2007-08-04T12:26:00.000-05:00

Yep. Last Saturday Mary and I and her parents went to the Crossroads Guitar Festival. A week later I think I finally have my wits about me to blog about it. Needless to say, it was f'ing awsome!

Here are my highlights.

Bill Murray hosted the thing, and was hilarious introducing "Chicago's own, Eric Clapton."

Johnny Winter needed assistance walking out onto the stage, and sat slumped over in a chair, ready to die at any moment, but holy shit he could play fast. Quite the dichotomy.

John Mayer and especially Derek Trucks showed that 20 somethings can play a mean guitar.

Vince Gill. Who knew he could rock out?

Robert Cray is the man. And Jimmy Vaughan. Those guys know what they're doing. So smooth.

Jeff Beck was rip your face off loud. Crazy awesome!

When I think of Steve Winwood, I think of his organ playing, but he can play a mean guitar. He had the best guitar solo of the entire show on "Dear Mr. Fantasy."

So thats about it. It's stupid to write about a concert when you can see and hear it, so I'll post some videos. I'm pretty sure I'll never see anything remotely as wonderful as that ever again. Here's two reviews from the Chicago Tribune. Here's the main review, and the wrapup. Here's the MSN page. There's a bunch of videos there as well.

Very Nice!

2007-07-17T01:03:00.001-05:00

Snickers Commercial

2007-07-09T23:27:00.001-05:00

Here it is. My favorite commercial.

For Robb

2007-07-09T23:13:00.000-05:00

I found a website where you can view archieved commercials from days of yore. It costs 5 GBP though. Here's a link to the very commercial that Mr. Lunak mentioned. I couldn't find it on youtube, unfortunately. It was hilarious when we were 17, but probably only mildly amusing today. I'll post a video of my current favorite commercial shortly.

Tomatoes!

2007-07-09T13:48:00.000-05:00

The garden is rockin'! We've had fresh lettuce, spinach, and kale all summer, and beans and peas the last few weeks. The carrots and onions are coming along, as is the squash. My tomato plants are about 5 feet tall with a ton of fruit on them, and lots of blossoms.

Montana was really awesome. It was fun to see everyone. I ate a ton of great food including a six pack and a pound. There are TJs all over in Missoula. I drank some Bud Light for the first time since 1999. The riding was epic. I did a few hundred miles, including a good mountain pass, and a couple other 5-6 mile long climbs.

Yesterday was the greatest sporting day of the year. Wimbledon finals, Tour de France, Formula 1, and baseball. Unfortunately I had to work, and did not watch any tv.

As Brian wrote on his blog, our wives kicked ass in their triathlon yesterday. Mary was 14th out of 3919 overall, and 2nd in her age group out of 363. Heather was 21st in her age group, and 115th overall. Click here to study the results.

Independence Day

2007-07-04T14:52:00.001-05:00

Have a happy 4th everyone.

Happy Birthday Lane!

2007-06-25T13:06:00.001-05:00

Whitewater Race Days, and beyond

2007-06-24T21:24:00.000-05:00

Well, my first omnium is in the books. I don't know what to say about it. There are several conflicting emotions going on.

Friday was a 20k individual TT- the "race of truth." Truth is, I'm not very fast. I rode the wife's tri bike with all the aero accouterments, and was 4 minutes down on the first placed rider. He's a major sandbagger though, as he beat the second placed rider by over 2 minutes. Brian bettered me by 4 seconds on his standard road bike. I think I was like 7th or so. The highlight was racing in the team kits.

Dr. Dingle payed a visit Friday night on his way to the "east coast." He spent the night and drove the rest of the way to Columbus, OH on Saturday. He has a funny story about trying to leave Rochester that is definately bloggable.

Saturday was the the Criterium. I had high hopes for the crit. 40 minutes of anaerobic suffering, just like cyclocross. Foolishly, I did no intensive warm-up and blew up about 5 minutes into the race. So that was that. I threw in the towel and called it a day. Brian found himself in a nice little group and did alright, ending up 15th.

Saturday night Mary, Brian, and I went and watched roller derby. That was crazy awesome. We will definately be back.

Today was the road race. 42 miles of a 6 mile loop. After our underachieving performances in the State Championships we were feeling a little cheeky. The pack, as usual, was super sketchy the first lap with guys loosing water bottles and others riding off the road onto the gravel shoulder. I hate the first few miles of road races. I wonder if Cat 3's ride like that? My guess is that they don't. Anyway, Brian found himself in a nice little breakaway on lap 2, and had about a minute's advantage on the field. With Brian in the break, I just took it easy.

The laps ticked by and Brian was still off the front with a decent gap back to the pack. I was just chillin' and feeling fresh as a daisy when, for no apparent reason, a guy 2 bikes ahead of me decided to break all laws of physics and fall over at 25mph. The guy directly behind him, and directly ahead of me, slammed on his brakes, and managed to avoid falling. I did the same, but the guy behind me thought it would be a better idea to just plow into my rear wheel. So my race ended early with a folded in half rear wheel.

I feel lucky that I didn't fall. There are few things I hate more then road rash. I also feel lucky that, since my bike stayed upright, I didn't break any other bike parts like a handlebar, shifter, or derailleur. I feel pretty frickin' unlucky though that I have a $625 repair bill to deal with. That's part of racing on carbon wheels though, sooner or later shit happens. I just wish it were later. There were really good sensations coming from the legs, and I feel I could have made a good result, but that's bike racing, I guess.

Brian's breakaway got gobbled up on the second to last lap, and he finished mid pack somewhere. He represented the Brown Bear well.

After the race we split a six pack and a pound. I also had a taco bravo.

Tonight we played disc golf at a great course less then a mile from my house. I forgot how fun that game is. We plan on making it a semi regular outing.

Tomorrow Mary and I were supposed to fly out to Missoula for Scotty and Kayla's wedding, but our flight got cancelled because of striking airline workers? So we're leaving Tuesday instead. Whatever. I respect organized labor's need to strike for whatever reason, I just wish it didn't hamper family plans. It's not often the entire Johnson clan gets together.

Maybe I'll blog whilst in Montana.

Alive and Well

2007-06-11T23:17:00.000-05:00

Hello buoys and gulls. Long time no post. With all the projects around the house and yard, along with work, and trying to fit in bike racing and training, the ol' blog has been a little neglected. Sorry. Things are going well though. Lots of things to report.

Andy and Becca were here for the weekend a few weeks ago. We had fun, and I made Becca cry (I think from laughing) with a tasteless baby joke.

Mary's season started with strong showings in the first of many aquathons and triathlons. Her next race is an Olympic distance event this Sunday.

Last weekend Mary's parents came for a visit, which is always a good time. We ate lots of good food, and even had some greens from my garden.

Brian and I raced the State Championship road race on Saturday. Brian has a good recap over on his blog. I felt really good throughout the race, except for some cramping on the climb on the last lap. I gave 'er a go at the base of the final climb, which was fun. Normally I get shelled out the back of the pack in road races less then half way into the race, so it felt good to be competitive. Next up is the UWW time trial, crit and road race, where we'll be in full Team Brown Bear livery. Fun times indeed. The fitness is finally coming around, so I expect a decent showing especially in the time trial and crit.

My parents are coming this weekend. Baseball and triathlon spectating are in the cards, along with some good food.

Although I haven't been blogging I've still been scouring the interwebs for cool rare shit. Here's a link to a handmade French tubular tire maker. Francois Marie Boyaux makes world class tubulars, very similar to Dugasts, but 20% cheaper.

Every list I've ever seen rating the best beers in the world has Trappist Westvleteren 12 in the #1 spot. Every list. It's hard to get though, to say the least. Apparently you call the abbey, and some monk tells you what beer is available, and gives a time and date you can come pick it up. You give him the license plate number of the car picking it up. Naturally there is a one case per car limit. 30 euros gets you a case though, which is pretty reasonable for such a mythic beverage. There is an inn across the street from the abbey where you can get one or two though. These are the only legitamate ways to aquire this stuff. I figured since you can get a Cambodian baby on the black market, surely you can get a case of rare beer. Well faithfull readers, after months of searching, I found some. Belgianshop.com has them. $18 a beer and $450 a case, plus another $75 for shipping. Those are not typos.

Hell yeah.

Just for Becca

2007-04-28T23:49:00.000-05:00

Not really just for Becca, but she called me out on the string of recent weak posts, so I thought I should create a legitamate blog post. Lots of crazy stuff going on here at Casa de Leedahl. Spring is in full swing in Madison, and the cycling has taken a back seat to home improvement and yard clean-up.

On the home improvement front, we're slowly remodeling our kitchen. There is a fresh coat of turquoise paint on the walls, replacing the dingy off-white stuff, and new modern cabinet hardware replacing the 1960's era brass stuff. You read that right. I wrote turquoise. We are also upgrading all the electrical outlets to GFCI units. There is a magical journey planned next weekend to the land of cheap Scandinavian furnature for a real dining table and chairs. That means our sweet outdoor table and chairs, which now occupies that space, can fulfil its destiny and get pooped on by birds outside (which, incidently, we have some cardinals nesting in a tree in our yard--how cool is that.) No pics of the kitchen yet. It will get its own blog post when it's complete.

Outside there are some exciting goings on. In honor of earth month, I installed a composter, which will diminish our already paltry amount of trash. It's conveniently right next to Sampson's dooley hole--his mucky guck/mung producing turd pit.

I also constucted an organic vegetable garden. Hells yeah! 80 square feet of carrots, onions, peas, spinach and lettuce are already in the ground. Tomorrow there will be green beans and various squashes with tomato plants in a few weeks, when the weather is warmer.

Our neighbors got seriously a giant dump truck load of wood chips from the city. By the looks of the chips, they're old Christmas trees, but anyway, he got about 200 times the amount he needed, and offered whatever we wanted to us. So we took advantage and redid all the tree beds, and all along the house by the bushes. It looks pretty sweet.

Tonight was "An Evening of Good Taste." An event put on by the local culunary school where you eat all sorts of gormet goodness with an open bar. I'm tired, and I've got the meat sweats, so I'll end this post shortly. Heather and/or Brian will have a more detailed post of the evening.

Tomorrow is the big one. The 115th year of Liege-Bastogne-Liege. My money is on Cunego, but my heart is with Chris Horner. We'll see. Watch it sometime tomorrow on Versus. Bill Dance will be sitting out tomorrow's race on an imposed "health break" because of a too high hematocrit level.

Gent Wevelgem 2005

2007-04-10T19:06:00.001-05:00

Alright boys. Gent Wevelgem is tomorrow. Who's going to win?

I don't think the commissaires will let this happen again.

My money is on Baden Cooke.

Bitchin'!

2007-04-07T21:40:00.001-05:00

Holy crap! How awesome is this!?

Ronde van Vlaanderen

2007-04-05T12:46:00.000-05:00

The greatest week in racing is almost upon us. Tour of Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem, and Paris-Roubaix. The week where cycling's hard men come out and carbon wheels are replaced with tied and soldered wheels from the 1980's. The first race, the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders,) is this Sunday. With 18 hellingen (short, steep, cobbled climb) 259 kilometers, and cold, windy, and rainy conditions, it doesn't take long to sort out the favorties.

Boonen will be going for his 3rd straight Flanders victory, and he looks to be the favorite again this year after a strong showing in Milan-San Remo, and his crushing performances in last weeks Belgian semi-classics Dwars door Vlaanderen, and E3 Prijs. Should Boonen faulter, his Quick-Step team has 3 other contenders in Boonen clone Gert Steegmans, 2 time winner Peter Van Petegem, and World Champion Paolo Bettini. Predictor-Lotto has last year's runner up Leif Hoste, while CSC has perennial powerhouses Stuart O'Grady and Fabian Cancellara. Riders like Flecha and Freire from Rabobank, Ballan and Bennati from Lampre, Pozzato from Liquigas, Nuyens from Cofidis, and Devolder from Discovery could all be in the mix for victory.

So everyone, who will it be? Will Boonen do it again, or will some unknown Belgian all hopped up on pot Belge pull the upset?

Pot Belge

2007-03-22T23:42:00.000-05:00

Here, my fellow bloggies, is the long awaited reveal of the Brown Bear Racer in full racing regalia. 15.7lbs of goodness. What's that? A new workbench?

They're not Dugasts, but they're damn close.
Ahh, unidirectional carbon. There's boron in there.
A more detailed post with specs will follow.

Milano-Sanremo

2007-03-22T09:54:00.000-05:00

Milan-San Remo is upon us once again. The first "monument" of the cycling season, and the longest race of the year at 300 kilometers. A breakaway ususally forms on the slopes of the Passo del Turchino, which is roughly the half way point. The break is usually brought back on the Cipressa, leaving only the short Poggio left for the sprinters to muscle over.

Back in the day a breakaway would always survive, but in the modern day, a bunch sprint is inevitable. Pick the sprinter du jour, and there's a strong possibility he'll win MSR. With Boonen and Bettini not at 100%, and Zabel and Petacchi over the hill and aging fast, the next generation of sprinters like Bennati, Schumacher, and dare I say, Haedo will challenge for the win.

My money is on Stefan Schumacher with Baden Cooke as my dark horse. Watch out for a big attack on the Poggio by the likes of Ballan, Schleck, Flecha, and Cancellara. Watch it on Versus 5-7pm eastern on Sunday, right after Bill Dance Outdoors.

Jealous Guy

2007-03-11T23:11:00.001-05:00

Over on Bobby Anal's blog there is talk of bands covering other band's songs. Here I submit the greatest ever cover song. Enjoy.

The Belgian Beer Post!

2007-03-07T23:00:00.000-06:00

Hells yeah boyz, Belgian beer is where its at--rich, fruity, aromatic, malty, crazy high alcohol content, and delicious! Dubbel, triple, quadrupel, Belgian darks, all oh so good, and oh so complex. That might be because I'm home alone and buzzing slightly from an Ommegang. And the monk brewed Trappist ales are the best.

So, lets see, I've had all 3 of the Chimays, both Westmalles, and all the Trappistes Rocheforts (6, 8, and 10.) The quadrupel (10) is by far the best beer I've ever drank (ate?) And if you know this guy well enough, you know he's had his fair share of beers. Beer Advocate rates it the #7 beer in the world. The only beers with higher scores are a few IPAs, Imperial Stouts, and 2 Trappist ales from the Westvleteren Abbey. Westvleterens are rare. How rare? Think Ferrari Enzo rare, or sub 4 minute high school mile rare. That rare. Find me some and I'll be your friend.

I won't go into tasting notes on these beers--I'm too much of a novice connoisseur (does that make sense?) to fully articulate the spendor of these beers. All I can do is recommend you go out and try them. Pour them into a big red wine glass and enjoy. Fancy beers are fun because the best beers in the world only cost about $10 a bottle compared to spending 100 times that much for the world's best wines.

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza

2007-02-28T16:11:00.000-06:00

Alright guys, here's the identity theft post. It's really not that exciting. I tried to use my debit card last week for some groceries at Whole Foods, but my card kept getting declined. I immediately thought someone got a hold of my card number, and stole all my money. I checked my account online, and I had plenty of money in my account, so I thought something was wrong with my card. I tried the card again, with the same result, so I checked my account more closely, and noticed 3 fraudulent transactions totaling around $700. Visa or US Bank, or whoever saw that something not right was going on, and suspended the card number. US Bank is sending a new card and some paperwork to sign saying the charges are not mine.

Today, while getting Team Kit stuff ready for Champion Systems, I checked on my credit card, and that had been suspended also. So I called Capital One, and apparently some dude in the UK made something like 6 transactions totaling $8,000 to Westminster something or other. Capital One is also sending a new card and paper work.

I'm not sure how my card numbers got out. I started selling some stuff on Ebay the day before all this happened, and they have both my debit and credit card numbers, but I'd imagine Ebay has some pretty sweet security features, so who knows.

There it is.

Check back for a post on these.

Also, check out the Brown Bear site for ordering info!!

Just a Summary...More to Come!

2007-02-24T00:00:00.000-06:00

Hi turd burglars. Long time no post. Sorry about that. Lots of things to blog about recently...Riding outside in the 50 degree sunshine, Trappist ales, a blizzard, tubular gluing, a new project, the Tour of California, and indentity theft. Yup, I was the victim of identity theft. It's late, and I'm stressed out from being finacially raped, so I'll leave it at that. But have no fear loyal blog readers, for all is taken care of, and no additional out of pocket expenses are required of the author. I'll blog in detail about all these things later.

Business in the Front...

2007-02-09T19:33:00.000-06:00

...Party in the back!

O Canada

2007-01-31T16:58:00.000-06:00

Mary's new bike

Wha Guru Chew

2007-01-26T16:43:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting at my computer, eating one of these things with some coffee, and feeling the need to blog about them. Have you guys ever had one of these? Holy crap they're good! They're sold as energy bars, but they're straight up candy. Carmel and nut goodness. Go buy some. Cashew Almond is my fav, but there's 4 other varieties. Read about them here.

That's What I'm Talkin' Bout!

2007-01-22T14:53:00.000-06:00

Velocity Escape tubular rim, Chris King hub, DT Revolution 1.8/1.5 spokes, DT aluminum nipples, laced 3 cross with Continental Competition tubular and Zipp skewer. Bike porn of the highest order.

Thanks to Brian for the bulk of the labor.

Blatant Rip Off

2007-01-22T13:11:00.000-06:00

Here is my gratuitous picture of Sampson all tucked in for his nap. I stole the idea from Brian's recent post.

Winter Escape

2007-01-20T13:04:00.000-06:00

Well it's finally winter here in Madison. We've had snow for about a week, and temps have been low enough for it to stick around. The other day Mary and I went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens to get away from the cold for a few hours. Here are some pictures.

Weekends Fore and Aft, and a Bakke Sighting

2007-01-10T14:58:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Mary and I were in Grand Forks for the Laneman's wedding. He was a bumbling, crying lump throughout the ceremony, but pulled it together for the reception. Go over to his blog and make fun of him. Scotty and Kayla made the arduous journey from Missoula. There were some concerns that Lane and Scott would run away and elope, but it turns out Scott just wanted to celebrate with friends and family. I had a lot of fun talking with everybody (Dan, I'm still waiting for our picture to surface on your blog,) and congratulations to Lane and Skye.

This weekend we're staying around Madison because there are two kick-ass local events going on. The Capitol Square Sprints brings elite international nordic skiers to race around the capitol. It's crazy and one of the contributing reasons why we moved to Madison. We don't have any snow here, so they've been making snow all week in a parking lot and trucking it to the square. I'll have some pics up here next week of all the action. Saturday is the 16th Annual Cronometro Bike Swap. I don't need any bike parts, but it's always fun to look.

As I was writing this post Dr. and Mrs. Dingle came over. They were on their way home from residency interviews in Milwaukee. They checked out the house and were harassed by Sampson. They had to be home this evening, so it was a short visit, but fun none the less.

Tomorrow I'll post some stuff about the "surge."

2007 Predictions

2007-01-02T15:18:00.000-06:00

Ok everyone. Here are the predictions for the year. I'm not really "feeling it" like I was last year, so the predictions might be a little lame. My apologies in advance.

I will continue my streak of not shopping at Walmart.
Floyd Landis will lose his USADA trial and subsequently his CAS trial as well, and will retire immediately.
Jan Ullrich will not find a team, and he too will retire.
Ivan Basso will again win the Giro, but also the Tour.
Brian and I will go 1-2 in a road race.
Dick Cheney will be pardoned by the President for his role in war profiteering. He will remain the Vice President.
Slick Willy will handily dethrone Sampson as the fastest dog at the Sycamore Park dog park.
Barack Obama will not run for President
Roger Federer will win the French Open.
The Cubs will make the playoffs and come within a few outs of going to the World Series. Their not making it will be blamed on the curse of the Billy Goat.
I will not win a cyclocross race, but I will race the elite national championship.
Scotty Johnson will grow a pair and run regardless of his shin splints.
On the war in Iraq, the President will continue to say, "We'll stay until we're victorious," but he'll never define "victory."
Andy and Becca will end up in the Twin Cities.
Team Brown Bear will have the ugliest kit in the midwest.
Some sort of major world changing event will happen.

Thats all I got.

2006 Predictions: A Look Back

2006-12-28T18:27:00.000-06:00

In my last post in 2005 I made 27 bold predictions for 2006. Some came true, some did not. Here's the rundown:

Gasoline will be $4.00 per gallon. Nope. Gas got as high as $3.04/gallon (National Average 7/21/06)
I will buy a car that runs on diesel/vegetable oil. Nope. The Sentra is still kickin'
There will be no exit strategy for the war in Iraq. Unfortunately this is still the case.
Andy Bakke will have sexual intercourse. Yep.
News programs will have more coverage of Brad and Angelina than genocide, poverty, and AIDS in Africa, combined. Too hard to research. I'm going to say probably.
I will break a bicycle rim. I did not.
A famous cyclist will fail a drug test and deny he ever doped. Flandis!
Ivan Basso will win the Giro. He did.
Chris Horner will win a stage in the Tour. He won Stage 2 of the Tour of Romandie. Does that count?
I will win a cyclocross race. I won 2 thank you very much.
Lance will do all he can to stay in the media spotlight. NCY Marathon.
George W. Bush will still be an asshole. "Hey Webb, how's your boy?"
I will not shop at Wal-Mart. 13 months and counting.
I will have a Colorado Paramedic License. Nope.
Mary and I will buy a home. We did.
The Mets will win the World Series. Close. NLCS with 2 bum pitchers.
Federer will not win a grand slam. I was way off. Ausie Open champ. French finalist. Wimbledon champ. US Open champ.
A record number of athletes will fail drug tests during the Turino Olympics. I don't think so. I only know of some Russian biathlete chick that tested positive for carphedon.
Paris Hilton will die. Close. She got a DUI in September.
Sampson will meet Vontoux. They did. Now they are BFF.
A telemarketer from Calcutta will call and try to get me to consolidate my student loans. Hard to say if he was from Calcutta. This actually came true January 2nd.
I will drop an F-bomb on said telemarketer. I did.
A Canadian will contract bird flu. Surprisingly no.
Right-winged yahoos will dismiss global warming. David Bellamy.
Scott Johnson will spend a month on our futon, and train with me. He didn't. We did ride together once though.
I will vomit from exertion. I didn't. I threw up in my mouth once during a 2 minute zone 5c interval though.
Apple will come out with a ghetto blaster/boom box iPod. They did. It's called the iPod Hi-Fi.

16 out of 27 isn't too shabby. Coming soon is the 2007 predictions post.

Merry Christmas Everyone

2006-12-23T14:19:00.001-06:00

I'm Dreaming of a Wet and Muddy Christmas?

2006-12-21T11:25:00.000-06:00

Holy crap. I thought this was the Midwest. It's been (relatively) warm lately, and today it's raining. Not scary-to-drive-in freezing rain, just rain. There is no snow anywhere, and the grass is actually green. It feels like April.

Thankfully it's not April. I still have plenty of time to prepare myself for bike racing. There are several bike related off season projects to work on that don't involve countless hours on the trainer. The current project is removing the tufo tape from the Reynolds wheels. I'm going to glue them up right with patience and glue. The tape worked surprisingly well, but my gluing technique proved itself during cyclocross. Using actual glue will allow for easier tire changes and wheel truings since I can just peel the tire off, do my buisness, apply a fresh coat of glue, and slap the tire back on. After the holidays and Lane's wedding Brian and I are each building new wheelsets. Brian has extensive experience in wheel building, and knows what he's doing. I, on the other hand, do not. I will chronicle the adventure here on this blog.

In other cycling related news, Team Brown Bear is now accepting applications for its racing team! If you think you're worthy, and would like to be considered for one of the coveted roster spots, post a 500 word or less supplication here. Good luck everyone.

What does everyone want for Christmas? All I want for Christmas is Andy Bakke wearing bib shorts in a hotel room.

Practice

2006-12-20T14:20:00.001-06:00

We talkin' about practice.

The Nuggets should be pretty formidible. I just really wanted to post this. I don't even really like basketball, this video though is just awesome.

Nationals

2006-12-15T12:38:00.000-06:00

Alright everyone. Here is my requisite Cyclocross Nationals prediction post. The weather looks way too nice to race a national championship. 50's and sunny all weekend should make for a very fast course.

Trebon will distroy everyone in the Elite Men's race. 2nd-5th will be contested by defending champion Wells, Wicks, Johnson, and Powers. I don't what to guess what order.

In the Elite Women's race Katie Compton will pull a Trebon and slaughter everyone except one time Leedahl's Life commentator Christine Vardaros. Georga Gould will be thrid and I could care less about the other places.

Here's the web's first 2007 Cyclocross Nationals prediction. Brooks Leedahl, racing his first national championship race, will be lapped by Trebon et al. within the first 18 minutes.

Renault F1 Engine

2006-12-13T16:54:00.001-06:00

Here's a video of Renault engineers doing a bench test of an old V10. They're running the engine through a simulated lap at Monza.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2006-12-04T17:49:00.000-06:00

Hello all. I'm well in the swing of the offseason. The legs are hairy and getting creamy, as Andy would say. I'll start up training again after the holidays, which will give me about 3 months until road racing starts again in April. Mary is staying fit and will start training in earnest shortly. I think she'll be doing the 5 Star Tri Series next summer. A tri series with cash payouts. How sweet is that?

It's been pretty cold here in Madison lately. It's a nice change from the monotonous weather of Crescent City, but I'll let you know when the novelty wears off. Mary and I are taking a break from the cold though. Tomorrow we're leaving for Florida for a few days. The weather in Tampa is gorgeous right now. Mid 70's and sunny. I'm going to eat me some Cuban food. Heather, Brian, and Vontoux will be babysitting our house and Sampson while we're gone. Sampson doesn't care if it's bitterly cold or not. He just likes the sunshine.

I've added some goodies to the right. The "Blogs of Shame" section is for crappy blogs, blogs with weak posts, and blogs with infrequent posts. That means you Lane. Fear not if your blog shows up there. You can redeem your shameful blog by blogging better (pictures help.) Under the "Cycling Links" section I've added a link to The Broadband Racer. There's lots of sweet videos, and video blogs. Check it out.

Thats all for now. I'll try to keep my blog out of the Blogs of Shame.

More YouTube Fun

2006-11-27T19:17:00.001-06:00

Take your protien pills and put your helmet on.

Rolling Stones - Start Me Up

2006-11-21T15:13:00.001-06:00

The greatest music video. Ever.

WCA Cyclocross Race #8

2006-11-20T18:42:00.000-06:00

Wisconsin and Midwest Cyclocross Championships, Angell Park Speedway, Sun Prairie, WI

Yesterday was the final race in the WCA series, and also the State and Midwest Championships, so all sorts of crazy racers showed up. The field was huge, maybe twice the normal amount. As Brian said in his report, they had call-ups for the top 10 which was nice. The start was crazy. I don't know how I didn't crash. People get crazy at these "big time" races. I don't understand why guys who know they'll finish in the bottom half of the results feel the need to try and fight for 10th wheel at the start. There were elbows flying and tires rubbing all over the place. I unfortunately had a lack luster start and had to fight my way back near the front. Sachs Boy and Masterson got the holeshot, and after only a few minutes had a 5 second gap on a second group containing myself, some Turin guy, and a few others. We bridged up, and Masterson drifted away. The Turin guy and I stayed with Sachs Boy. On lap 2 I began cramping in both quads whenever I really tried to put the power down. I ended up off the back, and the rest of the race I just tried to control the bleeding. Two more guys got around me, and I ended up 5th. The lungs felt fine, the legs just didn't want to go.

Here's the stats from the HRM:
Time: 45:04
Average HR: 196
Max HR: 201
Calories: 1007

The average and max heart rate are higher then normal, so I think I was slightly dehydrated. That could explain the cramping also. Who knows. It was a tough race with lots of full throttle sections and technical off camber turns with a few hard run-ups. The best designed course with the best facilities all year. Sachs Boy ended up 2nd overall, but 1st Wisconsinite, and State Champion, so hats off to him. We left early, so I'm not sure about the series overall. I think I won. Sachs Boy and I tied for season points, but ties are broken by the most finishes at the highest placing. We shall see.

Thanks to my parents for coming down to Madison for the weekend and seeing me race. Thanks to Heathrow and Vontoux for cheering, and thanks to my wife for the pictures.

Brian and I before the start

We don't have any more power, Captain

Sachs Boy givin'er

Mom and Dad trying to stave off hypothermia

Welcome

2006-11-16T23:53:00.000-06:00

First, I'd like to start off this post to welcome all my new visitors. I've had 81 unique visitors to my blog so far today. Thats about 3 times this little blog's average. I hope everyone found my blog entertaining, and returns in the future.

Second, I'd like to explain "Sachs Boy" to Mr. David Greenblatt, as, I'd imagine, it would be quite disconcerting to stumble upon this blog. Sachs Boy is the antagonist in my race reports. I think race reports in general are boring, so to make them more interesting I play up the whole hero/villain thing. Sachs Boy is merely a character in this blog. You'll notice I never use your name in the reports as I try to keep a distiction between the character and the actual person. Anytime there were disparaging remarks I made sure your name was not mentioned, because I don't know you personally. As for why you were chosen to play the antagonist is twofold. 1. because our abilities are evenly matched and 2. your bicycle. I thought I had a nice cross bike, but holy crap. When I think of bicycle perfection, I immediately think of Bob Jackson, Richard Sachs, and Vanilla. Yours is the only Sachs I've seen in person. I don't doubt you got a deal on it used. There was a Sachs cross bike on ebay a couple months ago that went for a ridiculously low price that I would have snatched up had it been the right size. If I offended you, I'm sorry. I have no ill will or hatred or dislike for you. Sachs boy is simply a fun character in my blog. I've very much enjoyed racing against you and the two Trocadero guys. It has been a fun season and I'm looking forward to some good battles on Sunday.

Third, as for Mr./Mrs. Anonymous who somehow figured out my roadbikereview user name, well done Nancy Drew. I don't know how you did it. I would say I definately prefer my Dugasts, but you can't have a bunch of goobers rolling around on them. They would be less cool.

Dugast

2006-11-15T18:56:00.000-06:00

I talk often on this blog about my Dugast 'cross tires. You guys must think, what's the big deal? They're only tires. Here is an excerpt from an article by importer Mark Hoskin who visited Andre Dugast at his workshop in March 2000:

"50kms south of Paris on the edge of the quiet town of Bouray-Sur-Juine is to be found the master of the tubular, Andre Dugast. The world is changing around him in his own lifetime, but he appears resigned in his sixty-second year. Since starting with Dourdoigne in 1952 and branching out on his own in 1974, just three years before Dourdoigne closed their doors forever, the victim of bankruptcy, cycling has grown and changed beyond all recognition. The two manufacturers of those times now both gone, Clement existing with only the name a tenuous link to the past and Dourdoigne only living in the memories of a shrinking number of cyclists. He has seen the rise and fall of all the modern champions, and made tubulars for most of them as well. Today's manufacturers find the path to his door, having him make tubulars with his own hands for their sponsored teams, many to be disguised as clinchers, or be converted by the words of marketing departments into the use of something else that is produced halfway around the world from France and sold to the public all over the world. It's work though, and with a craftsman's pride and satisfaction apparent it appears to be no problem. He knows what he does and it seems enough.

At the height of production in 1980 Dugast employed six people. Buying tread bands from the vast ranges of Wolber and Clement which were then fixed to his own casings in silk or cotton even this is under threat. Foxonall (nee Clement) has closed, the only ray of light that someone appears to have bought the moulds for the tread bands and wants to start their own production so this supply necessary for his Cyclo Cross tubulars may restart. Wolber closed, so his track and road tubulars with their tread bands are going to be extinct when his stocks run out leaving him with only Vittoria and Hutchinson to cajole into making products that they don't even want to sell under their own names. As a result the past year may have been the last year of the Dugast Cyclo Cross tubular. Nowadays he is receiving old tubulars from riders like Daniel Pontoni and carefully removing the tread bands and attaching them to new casings. Such is the faith riders still place in his skills and hands. With Veloflex only wanting to produce the simpler and easier clincher tires he may be the last person making tubulars in Western Europe for as long as he is willing to continue and can obtain supplies. It's not easy for a single person, making one hundred tubulars a week, to have today's big companies sell him anything. Even the ultra light latex tubes he uses may not be produced for much longer, he may be willing to continue, but may be driven into retirement by forces he cannot control.

His workshop, 10m x 10m square, is a museum of how things used to be in the old days of tire production. The only somewhat distant mirror now being Veloflex in Italy who employ five persons. The fax and radio are the only really modern intrusions. Even the wheels used while the glues set are old Mavic CX-18 and Wolber rims attached to old Simplex and Mavic hubs. Custom produced cloth arrives for the casings, chafing strips and base tapes, to be skillfully combined from start to finish by Andre Dugast's hands. Endless bands of cloth are cut to the correct width, have their edges turned over and finely sewn on an old machine and then the tube is placed inside and the chafing strip sewn in place. Later the base tape is glued on, and then the tread band is glued in place to then hang on the wheel from the ceiling to cure. Some tubulars hanging currently are made specifically for Paris-Roubaix, and will afterwards be consigned to training or other lesser purposes by the team who they are being made for. He is just finishing off the French track teams tubulars for the Olympic Games, more normal production for sale under his own name will then occupy him for the summer. If he is forced into stopping for lack of supply or retires then the last painter of a dying art will vanish, living on only in the memories of those fortunate enough to have experienced the joy of riding a tubular made by Andre Dugast."

Here's another description from Echelon Imports:

"Andre Dugast has been producing the finest tubular tires in the world since 1952. He started with the Dourdoigne firm in 1952 and branched out on his own in 1974. He has seen cycling change over the years, yet has produced tires for the greatest cyclists in the world throughout his career. Rumors abound that upwards of 80% of all Olympic cycling medals since the 1980 Moscow games have been won on Dugast tubular tires. Lance Armstrong has won all six of his Tours on Hutchinson commissioned Dugast tubulars. Dugast tires are also the winningest tubulars on both the cyclocross circuit and on the velodrome.

With the majority of tubular tires being produced in Asia by machines, Dugast has continued to supply the pro peloton with hand-made silk and cotton tubular tires. Andre Dugast buys the tread bands from a variety of tire manufacturers which are then fixed to his own casings in either silk or cotton."

Andre sold his business a few years back to Richard Neuhaus (Richard Groendaal's mechanic.) Andre stayed on to train Neuhaus in the art before retiring.

WCA Cyclocross Race #7

2006-11-11T17:45:00.000-06:00

Janesville Cyclocross, Gibbs Lake Country Park, Fulton, WI

A rare Saturday only cross race. It snowed like a mother yesterday, so the race promised to be a sloppy muck fest. I planned to drive down to Janesville with Brian, but he became a eunuch, and apparently cyclocross racing is frowned upon, so he didn't go. It was nice and sunny when I left this morning, and the snow had already started to melt. It was crazy cold though. So I got to the venue and did all the normal pre race stuff that you guys don't want to hear about. I warmed up, and cooled back off before we started racing. My poor fingers and toes were ready to fall off.

The course was insanely muddy. Not clumpy, loamy mud, but thin, Hershey's Syrup mud. There were some barriers, long fast sections, slow hairpin corners, a beach/lake running section, and a LONG climb. The laps were really long, well over 15 minutes when I did my reconnaissance. The cat 4's were doing them in 12 minutes during their race. They had call-ups based on WCA points, so I had a perfect start position (they only allowed 5 riders on the front row.)

I started pretty slow and conservatively, and sat 5th or 6th wheel for the opening section of the lap. Once things calmed down and the race sorted itself out, I was in a chase group containing the same 3 other guys as last week. There was a dude dangling off the front about 5 seconds. Our little chase group was moving so slowly, that at the beginning of the second lap I put in a big acceleration and bridged up to the leader. He was wheezing and ready to die, so I just left him and drilled it the rest of lap 2. At the start of lap 3 I saw the lap counter and it said 2 to go, so I kept it pegged as long as I could. I was hurting climbing the hill on the thrid lap, but had a 10 second advantage. I tried to maintain my advantage, but a chase group of 3 clawed back 5 seconds. I was so cooked by the time I hit the hill on the last lap that I had to dismount and run the top section. It was all good though as my 5 second buffer turned to 10 seconds. Haley put in a major effort and clawed back a bunch of time, but it was too late and I soloed in for the win with Haley outsprinting 2 other dudes. Masterson dropped out and Sachs Boy came in out of the money in 5th. I also won the prime and a sweet trophy.

Here's the stats.

Time: 40:22

Average HR: 193

Max HR: 198

Calories: 991

No action shots today, as I was alone, but I took some pics of the carnage when I came home. Everything is covered in mucky guck.

What The!?

2006-11-10T17:53:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I went for a bike ride in 65 degree sunshine. Today, not so much.

Tomorrow is race 7 of 8 in the WCA cyclocross series outside of Janesville. It should be a sloppy one. I did alright at the last sloppy one. Look for a race report sometime Sunday.

Slowhand

2006-11-09T20:52:00.001-06:00

Seriously, how awesome is Clapton?

Vote!

2006-11-06T13:40:00.000-06:00

Do it. Do it.

WCA Cyclocorss Race #6

2006-11-05T19:31:00.000-06:00

Milwaukee Cyclocross, Estabrook Park, Milwaukee, WI

It was nice and sunny today with temps in the 50's for the race. The course was fast and dry with lots of pavement and fast grass sections. There was some nice slow chicanes and some tricky singletrack thrown in for good measure. There was 2 sets of barriers, and a short, steep run-up. The laps were fairly short, about 5 minutes long.

Brian and I both had front row starts that neither of us took advantage of. We didn't anticipate the start and we were slow getting off the line. When we finally got going, we were sqweezed into each other and rubbed shoulders. No harm, no foul. I made my way to the front group with brian right behind. I put in a little acceleration and made my way to the front before we entered the singletrack. I was riding a nice hard tempo, but was well within my comfort zone. No one wanted to work, and it was "groupo compacto" for the first 4 laps or so with the top 8 or so guys in points. I stayed at the front and dictated pace. About 20 minutes in, attacks started which whittled the group down to the top 4 riders in the series. The pace was pretty high at this point, but no one wanted to really go for it. We stayed together until the last lap. There were attacks and counter attacks, but no one got away. I made my move after the last set of barriers leading into a section of slow speed chicanes. I went for it here because I was much faster through the slow stuff than the others, and only had a straight-away after the chicanes. I came up on the corner too hot, and lost the front wheel in the loose dirt and went down. Hard. There was a massive pile up which Sach's Boy was able to avoid for the win. I came in third, humiliated, with a bent brake lever and bloody shin. Oops.

I was cursed at, and yelled at, and called bad names, but that's racing. It was a good move, I just lost it on some loose dirt. Victory would have been mine had I executed the corner properly. I don't think I could have won had it come down to a sprint, since I've never been in one. The legs felt great though. I apologized after the race, but I'm still the guy that caused the wreck. I don't want to be that guy. Brian had a good race, coming home in 7th.

Back down to second place in the series, Sach's Boy 5 points in front, with 3rd only 9 points behind me. The next 2 races should be quite interesting.

Here's some estimated stats from the HRM (I'm too lazy to go get the monitor. They're always roughly the same anyway.)
Time: 39 minutes
Average HR: low 190's
Max HR: high 190's
Calories: 800ish

Thanks to Heather for the cheerleading. Heather made the announcement before today's race that she started her off season yesterday. Mary couldn't make the trip today, so no pictures. Brian should have some in his race report, also check out Madcross.org for pictures and video highlights.

Superdog

2006-11-04T16:42:00.000-06:00

Here is a picture of Sampson from Halloween. Vontoux came over and the dog boys enjoyed trick-or-treating together.

Tomorrow is the 6th WCA cyclocross race. It's agian in Milwaukee. The forecast for today is rain, but it hasn't rained yet, and it doesn't look like its going to. If the course is dry and fast I'll probably get my ass kicked again. I hope I can hold on to my series lead. I'll be rockin' the white handlebar tape like a bad ass mofo.

Cyclocross Perversion

2006-11-02T13:00:00.000-06:00

Here's a link if you don't know what I'm talking about. Nice tires, by the way, Radomir.

WCA Cyclocross Race #5

2006-10-29T20:49:00.000-06:00

VeloTrocadero Halloween Classic, Washington Park, Milwaukee, WI

Are you guys ready for another race report? Probably not, but you're getting one anyway. It was a beautiful day today, sunny and about 50 degrees without a cloud in the sky. Apparently nobody told Sampson about the time change, so instead of waking me up at 7, he woke me at 6. Thats cool though, I ate breakfast and took my time before venturing to Milwaukee. The race was at an awesome city park. The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed New York's Central Park.

The course was, in my opinion, exactly what a 'cross course should be, mostly mowed grass with some pavement. There was a large, open start area that led into a sharp right-hander up a steep hill and back down, lots of fast, sweeping corners, a section of high-speed barriers, some off-camber turns, a run-up with barriers, and a fast paved road section. It wasn't really a course that suits my strengths, as there was lots of fast, power sections, and I'm not very powerful. There were some sections where I was really able to get in a nice rhythm though.

Brian and I lingered around the start line and watched Heather finish her race. She raced really well, and had a nice photo-finish sprint with another girl. The start line was nice and wide, so there was really no bad starting spots. Brian had a really good start and was second wheel. My start wasn't so good, but I passed a bunch of guys on the steep hill, and was 5th wheel for the first half of lap 1. I moved up and passed Brian, but the leader was already gone. He had a 12 second lead after the first lap that grew to 40 seconds after lap 3. After that people didn't even give me time splits I was getting my ass kicked that much. There was a big gap (10 seconds) back to 3rd place, so I just tried to keep everyone else behind me, which I did. So second place points for me. Brian dropped a group of 4 he was in right before the finish.

Stats from the Polar S520:
Time: 38:18
Average HR: 191
Max HR: 197
Calories: 793

The wifey had to work today, so no pictures. Sorry. Here's one of Sven Nys though. He's faster than I am anyway.

Nice tires Sven.

New Glarus Limited/Seasonal Beers: Part 1

2006-10-27T19:03:00.000-05:00

This post series is mostly for the readers that actually drink good beer and have access to New Glarus beer. Which is pretty much only my In-laws. The rest of you people can read on and be envious. Here's the review.

New Glarus Brewing Co. Unplugged: Enigma

Here is what New Glarus says about the Unplugged series:

"A few times a year, we will cut Dan loose to brew whatever he chooses, uncensored, uncut, unplugged. Always handcrafted, the bottle you hold is brewed for the adventurous soul. This is a very limited edition and we make no promises to ever brew this style again."

I'm an adventurous soul, and I also very much like beer, so I was intrugued. Here is what New Glarus says about Enigma:

"A Complex and intriguing original. The mystery began with wild yeast spontaneously fermenting a rich treasure of malted barley and whole cherries. Unlined oak casks breathe deep vanilla hues and chords of smoke into this sour brown ale. Our Master Brewer has forged a smooth garnet tapestry that defies
description. Wander off the beathen path."

The first thing I noticed when I opened the bottle was the intense yeasty smell. It almost smells like the beer isn't ready to be bottled, like it is still fermenting. The smell is glorious. My novice palate smelled apple cider with cinnamon and nutmeg, but it must be the cherry. The color is a nice medium brown. It's very cloudy, like an unfiltered wheat beer, but much darker in color. The beer tastes sweet with a quite sour finish, and makes a very good seasonal beer in the fall, as it's flavor is reminiscent of apple cider, so much so, that it might actually taste good hot. Its a much more complex flavor though, then your run-of-the-mill hard cider. Enigma lingers in the mouth long after swallowing, and as the name suggests, it wants you to decipher its complex layers of flavor.

It's pretty tasty. I give it a thumbs up. You wouldn't be able to have too many of them though, as they're pretty intense.

Look for Part 2: "Copper Kettle Weiss" next week sometime.

In The Works

2006-10-25T22:27:00.000-05:00

Check it out. I'm in second place in the WCA standings, only 5 points behind Sachs Boy. Maybe I'll overtake him on Sunday.

Also, stop by the Team Brown Bear site the next few days as there is some interesting projects we're working on.

This picture is during the race in Whitewater last Saturday. I look pleasant.

Stolen from Madcross.org

Not Suck

2006-10-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

Alright gang, here's the race reports from this weekend's races.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #3
Whitewater Trash Dash, Whitewater WI

I'm sure some of my faithful readers saw the quick recap of Saturday's fiasco already. It rained Friday night, so mud was expected, and desired. What wasn't expected was the race venue. Lets just say that for various reasons, capped landfills don't like lots of rain or bike racers. Brian and I were walking around when we first got there, and it felt like walking on a waterbed. The weather was perfect, around 45, overcast, and no rain.

Brian and I had front row starts, and entered the race course around 5th or 6th place. I moved up nicely the first lap and was second wheel after lap 1. I stayed more or less in the front group for the second lap, but just kept moving back after that. I couldn't find a good line through the mud, and could never get in a rhythm. I had only one gear as all the others were so packed with mud that the deraileur couldn't move. So that was that. After the race I noticed that if I tried to spin my front wheel with my hand, it would immediately come to a stop from all the mud and grass. I ended up in 9th position, which wasn't quite as bad as I thought, but still not good for series points. Brian had a rough go of it, and wisely dropped out after the first few laps.

Here's some stats from the HRM:
Excercise Time: 42:04
Average Heart Rate: 192
Max Heart Rate: 197

After the race, Brian and I went to the car wash and blasted all the decomposing diapers off our bikes. That worked really well. I recomend it if you bike ever triples in weight from mud.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #4
Cam-Rock Cyclocross, Cambridge, WI

It snowed Saturday evening, and not just melt-instantly-on-the-ground-snow, but still-on-the-ground-in-the-shade-24-hours-later-snow. So again it was going to be muddy, but unlike the landfill, Cam-Rock Park has had 4.5 billion years to figure out drainage. Sunday's weather was sunny, but bitterly cold. The course was mostly singletrack with tacky mud, or 1-2 inch greasy peanut butter mud.

Brian and I got to the start about 2 seconds too late, and ended up in the back. Shitty. I think I was in last place entering the singletrack. When you got offline the course was so greasy it made passing difficult. Anyway, I slipped and slid my way to the front group of 4 about half way through the first lap. I stayed at the back of the group for a quarter of a lap, and moved to the front. Being at the front is much easier as you can see the entire trail, and pick and choose the lines that are best, instead of just following the guy in front of you. I upped the pace at the front, and Sachs Boy (who, I imagine, will be blogged about in the future, as he is a major a-hole) was the only one that could hang. He pimped me at the start/finish line on lap 1 for the beer prime, but I attacked early on lap 2 and dropped him easily. I rode off the front with a very comfortable lead the rest of the race for my first win. Yay!

There was actually a bike wash at this race, so instead of cooling off and putting on warm clothes, I went and hosed off my bike. Then I noticed they had free beer, so I drank some ice cold beer, so needless to say, the 40 minute sweat fest+the water hose+the cold liquid in my gut+the vasodilation from the alcohol made me mildly hypothermic. Heathrow was getting a kick out of watching me shiver violently causing me to spill my beer. After the beer I went and sat by the fire and drank hot apple cider and eventually became normothermic.

HRM stats:

Excercise Time: 41:04

Average Heart Rate: 191

Max Heart Rate: 196

Calories Burned: 858

Another big thanks to my wifey for being my water girl/photographer.

Suck

2006-10-21T15:10:00.000-05:00

Quick results:

Brian: DNF
Brooks: ~15ish

To say it was muddy would be a gross understatement.

Bloggy Blog Blog

2006-10-20T20:11:00.000-05:00

Hi gang. I just came across this and thought I'd share it here.

WCA cyclocross races 3 and 4 this weekend. I'll probably have results and a brief report Saturday night, and a full rundown of the weekend's racing Sunday sometime.

Chicks Dig 'Em

2006-10-19T13:28:00.000-05:00

You know you want one.

Boonen got the prototype

Peektors

2006-10-16T14:25:00.000-05:00

Here are some pics from yesterday's race.

Heather before the suffering. Next time she won't have that smile on her face.

Heather on the hairpin. This corner was cool. You came into it flying down a hill, had to brake hard for the corner, and accelerate like Fernando Alonso out of it. It was one of the few cyclocross elements in the course.

Brian on the same corner. He looks like he knows what he's doing.

The author on the corner. I hardly needed brakes with the Dugasts. They are truly amazing.

There are more photos at Madcross.org. Check them out.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #2

2006-10-15T23:48:00.000-05:00

Moe's Burrito Cross, Lapham Peak State Park, Delafield, WI

Preface: Lapham Peak State Park is a really cool park with tons of mountain bike, and cross country ski trails, rolling hills and forests. They have a snow making machine for xc skiing and a nice little hut to keep skiers warm. They have (weekly?) ski races in the winter, and its only about 50 minutes from home. For all this nice stuff, they charge you $7 to enter the park, and another $4 for a trail pass. This is on top of the $20 entry fee for racing. There is only one toilet in the only men's bathroom, and no toilet paper, just paper towels. Spectating was crappy as there was a half mile walk from the parking lot, across a major highway, to the start/finish line. It was hard to see multiple sections of the course from one vantage point due to the course being on single/double track mountain bike trails. Cyclocross races are not supposed to be run on mountain bike trails. That is why they have mountain bike races. So the venue is awesome, just not for cyclocross races. Enough whining, now on with the race report.

Like I said, the start line was like a half mile from the car, so if you used the car as your "base," you never really knew what was going on with the racing. Are they running on time, or are they behind schedule? Are racers lining up for the start? Who knew. Brian and I managed to get one practice lap in before watching the start of Heather's bike racing debut.

The lap was basically long, flat power sections with some very slow speed chicanes thrown in to break things up. Not technical at all, with one very long run-up, and another double barrier section. Surfaces ranged from tacky, loamy dirt to gravel and a little grass. No pavement, sand, or mud, no off-camber techy stuff. The laps were long, almost 8 minutes. A poorly designed cyclocross course, in my opinion.

Brian and I got our spare wheels in the pits, and went to warm up on the trainers. With start position being critical, and the cars so far from the start line, we were worried we'd warm up too long, and miss the line up. So with absolutely no warm up at all, not one pedal stroke on the trainers, we made our way to the start line. It was a good call since there was already all sorts of dudes waiting for the perfect start position, which Brian and I got, by the way.

So we start, and I have the reluctant hole shot without any effort at all. Brain got screwed over at the start by some Polish dude. I used the first lap as my warm up and never really gave it 100% the first lap. The second placed rider said we had a gap, and I looked back and we already had 10 seconds or so on the chase group which contained Brian and some other dudes, one dude being a dip shit on a Richard Sachs Signature team bike. The cycling gods smited this unfortunate soul when he crashed hard whilst cutting the course. Brian later said he could have ran over his bicycle, and ruin his essentially priceless bike. So the second placed rider never pulled through, and I lead the first lap and a half until he made his move and attacked in a power section before the run-up. I stayed with him for a while, but I was unable to match his pace and he gapped me. I rode around by myself for a half lap until another rider bridged up to me. He immediately pulled through, and we rode a nice tempo for the next few laps, with the first placed rider dangling about 10 seconds up the course. We were never able to reel him in, however. I had a little day dream moment and drifted off the back of our little two man group. With about one lap to go the second placed rider hovering about 5 seconds ahead of me, I wasn't able to close the gap, and had to settle for third. Not too bad placing wise, but its annoying knowing I was definately strong enough for second place if I hadn't lost focus. The dude that won was really strong, he was 3rd at the first race. It will be hard to win if he's around.

Effort wise, it wasn't near as anaerobic as a cross race should be. More steady-state type efforts, and this is reflected in the stats from the HRM:
Excercise Time: 38:32
Average Heart Rate: 191
Max Heart Rate: 198
Calories Burned: 810

A big thanks again to my wifey for water hand-ups. Blogger is being retarded, so pictures will come later.

I Got Nothin'

2006-10-11T19:17:00.000-05:00

Alright turd burglars. I haven't blogged about anything interesting for a while, so why change now. This ones gonna be pretty boring.

Monday Brian and I had a productive (hard) cross practice. Doing hard intervals wrecks me for the next 24 hours. Every muscle in my body is fatigued, but I can never sleep, and when I do finally fall asleep its low-quality-wake-in-the-middle-of-the-night-soaking-wet-with-sweat-sleep. I usually feel pretty good the next day though. And I know it makes me faster. So what did I do today? More intervals. Slightly less intense, and inside on the trainer.

Its been pretty cold here lately, it even "snowed" here a little today. I haven't experienced temps in the 30's for a few years. I'm really excited about cross-country skiing. I've decided I'm going to race this winter. I know absolutely nothing about xc skis, let alone ski racing, so it should be pretty interesting.

Speaking of racing, Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! High flying monster truck action comes to Lapham Peak State Park! Witness robosaurus breathe fire and eat cars! You'll pay for the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge! No, silly, the next cross race is there. Its sponsored by some burrito place, so I better at least win a frickin' burrito.

Team Brown Bear

2006-10-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

Check out the Team Brown Bear website. I designed a t-shirt!

Post 101 (seriously)

2006-10-04T18:35:00.000-05:00

One hundred and one posts on Leedahl's Life. Thats a lot. Not too much new over here. Today I went old school and bought an antenna so we can watch tv. We've just been watching movies, but I hate 99% of movies, and would rather watch fuzzy PBS. I'm intimidated by this archaic contraption, so I haven't yet installed it. The antenna box said it was good for HDTV. Who in the hell would own an HDTV and use an antenna?

Sampson is finally understanding his invisible fence. I cranked the "static correction" way up, and now he doesn't even think about getting close to the boundry. He runs laps around the yard while I practice my cyclocross skills. I built some cyclocross barriers a while back and have them set up in the back yard (have I blogged about them before?) They're pretty sweet. I'm not sure what the neighbors think of some dude cruising around his yard in lycra jumping over hunks of plywood though. I don't care, they're all very old.

I've added some new links. Race.cx is about cyclocross racing and culture. There are some sweet videos and interviews and whatnot. Intelligensia Coffee is the best coffee I've ever had. You can order it from their website. Lastly, there is an infant cycling team in Wisconsin with an equally infant website. Team Brown Bear might be the laughing stock of the WCA with their sweet brown jerseys. Check often for race recaps, bike features, and your very own chance to own some offical Team Brown Bear goodies.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #1

2006-10-02T13:13:00.000-05:00

Badger Cross, Badger Pairie County Park, Verona, WI

As the title implies, yesterday was the first Wisconsin cross race of the year. Brian and I stuffed the car full of wheels, Gatorade, and trainers for the arduous, 20 minute journey to Verona. It was a beautiful indian summer day with highs in the mid 70's. We registered and watched the start of the beginner's race. We got the bikes ready, pooped, and rode 2 laps of the course.

The course started on a long paved road with a tight right-hand turn onto grass with a set of 3 barriers and a hairpin turn around a tree, all within a couple hundred meters from the start, so start line position was cruical. The course narrowed into a double-track, gravel climb, and descended with some good tight turns to a beach volleyball court with very soft, deep sand, and a 180 degree turn directly after the sand that required a dismount and a run back through the sand. The bike did not like the sand in the drivetrain, and shifted poorly for a while. After the sand pit, the couse meandered around and came to a fairly short, not too steep run-up. This section very closely mimicked the run-up at Brian's practice course, so did not pose too big a problem. After the run-up there was a short paved road section and a fast double-track descent with a tricky, loose left-hander at the bottom. The rest of the lap consisted of short, straight, grass sections with tight corners between them. The lap ended with the long gradual uphill paved road where we started, and ended after the 90 degree right hander, before the barriers.

We warmed-up on the trainers and Heather, Mary, and the Spectating World Champion (Mary's Mom) found us. My warm-up felt a little short, but I was able to get in some good efforts none the less. Brian and I lingered around the start line and both snagged front row spots.

The start went well, and I found myself second wheel coming into the barrier section. A guy passed me around the hairpin, and Brian was right behind me in 4th. On the gravel climb, Brian drilled it and bridged up to the leaders. I was suffering pretty hard, and dangled off the back. I got into a rhythm near the end of the first lap, and started feeling (relatively) comfortable. The two leaders had again gapped us again. I pulled through, in front of Brian, through the sweepy descent to the sand pit. After the run-up I looked back and saw no one, so I just rode my own race. I never saw the 2 leaders, and found myself in a 4 man group. I was able to ride the sweepy corners much faster then my companions, but they would catch me on the road sections, or the gravel climb. I fell once in the sand pit, but somehow it was faster then everyone else in the group, so no matter. A guy riding a cannondale with an SRM and Mavic carbone pros passed me on the run up and gapped me immediately. A lap later at the bottom of a hill, I saw the same guy pulling his bike out of the tall grass, way far from the course, like he totally missed the corner. His bike was f'ed up and I'm not sure what happened to him after that. Somewhere 2 guys snuck away, and I ended up 5th. Not too shabby.

The winner was a 35+ singlespeeder, and second place was also 35+. So third place in Cat 3, 35 and under, which means I won some cash and who knows what else. I wasn't around for the awards ceremony so maybe they'll send it to me. WCA only recognizes Cat 3, and not age groups, so I got 5th place points for the series. It's too bad since 3rd place is worth 20 points, and 5th is worth 14.

A big thanks to my wife for being my water girl. My mouth was like the sahara for a while. Thanks to Karen for coming up for the weekend to spectate. The bike worked flawlessly. I used a 42 tooth ring up front, and a 12-25 cassette and was never in the 25. I was thinking I wanted a 12-27 cassette for cyclocross, but now I don't think I do. The Challenge Grifos were awesome, and I never lost traction at 40 psi.

Here are the stats from the HRM:
Excercise Time: 46:02
Average Heart Rate: 197
Max Heart Rate: 203
Calories Burned: 1048

Brian should have a recap of the race on his blog shortly.

Before the start.

Yours truly over the barriers.

Brian on the run-up.

Hey Deb, could you take a photo of me on the horse real quick?

Blood Lung

2006-09-28T15:36:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I "attempted" my first cross race of the year. I crashed hard early in the race on Saturday and landed on my back. My back didn't immediately hurt, but as the race went on, my back became progessively more sore, and would spasm whenever I really powered on the pedals. I drifted off the back of the race and called it quits after 25 minutes. The fitness felt fine, and I would have done alright. So thats that. Saturday night the back was quite sore, so I decided it was not wise to race on Sunday. Not a good start to the season. It was nice to get back home and see the parents though. This Sunday brings the first Wisconsin cyclocross race of the season, so hopefully things go better there. Brian and I practiced on his course last night, the back felt fine, and the legs and lungs felt good. I had a serious case of "blood lung" afterwards though. Do you guys know blood lung? It sucks.

Here's some pictures compliments of Rick Mangan.

Cross Practice, Tubular Headaches, Gordon Lightfoot

2006-09-20T23:30:00.000-05:00

Hello, hello my little droogies. Brian made a great cyclocross practice course in a park near his house. The course has it all: fast grass sections, tight corners, high speed corners, bridges, pavement, and a bitch of a run-up. We've been practicing on it a couple times preparing for this fall's races. Things seem to be going really well. I feel strong, and my remount technique is miles ahead of what it was last season. We'll see how everything goes this weekend.

So, I was testing out the race wheels before this weekend, to make sure everything was in order, and I was running really low pressure in the rear tire, probably somewhere around 20-25 psi. There is a small concrete lip between the ground and a foot bridge on Brian's cross course that I managed to whack pretty hard with said rear tire. The tire went flat almost instantly. Shitty. The carcass of the tire is undamaged, I just pinch-flatted the inner tube. The bad news is I have never repaired a tubular, and only vaguely know how. The good news is the glue bond was very, very strong, and I no longer have a fear of rolling a tire after trying for around an hour to pry off the tire from the rim. The better news is a shop in town, Yellow Jersey, is owned by an old-schooler who has repaired hundreds of tubulars. He was reluctant at first, but I told him the tire was a Dugast, and he was willing to do it. I won't have the tire in time for this weekend's races though. I've put Yellow Jersey in the coveted "Cycling Links" section. Check out the website, its crazy.

At least this didn't happen.

Brian and I went to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert tonight. It was awesome. Gord's band is so good, and the little stories he told between songs were delightful. He apparently had a stroke on Friday, and is now unable to use his second, third, and forth digits of his right hand. So he would just strum away on his guitar while another dude would play the actual notes. It was really cool to see him in such an intimate venue. It was like "VH1 Storytellers."

Election Results

2006-09-14T23:52:00.000-05:00

The public spoke and chose pink handlebar tape. Ah, but that was the popular vote. With the electoral college, orange was declared the winner. Pink is appealing the decision. Thanks everyone for voting.

Rock the Vote!

2006-09-12T23:51:00.000-05:00

With the big mid-term election coming up, and the thought of the Dems gaining control of congress, I'm all giddy to have a little election of my own. Here is your chance to make a real change in this world...by voting for what handlebar tape color I'll run on my steed this cyclocross season!

Here are the color options:

Black, Blue, Red, White, Yellow, Pink, Lymon, Mint, Aegean Blue, Crystal Blue, Purple, Serious Pink, Lunar Orange, Iris, Melon, Crystal Pink, Carbon, Black/White zebra, Black/Yellow marble, Black/Gray marble, Black/Red marble, Black/White marble
Your guess is as good as mine as to what those colors actually look like.

This one is "Lunar Orange"

Vote early, vote often. I'll run whatever hideous color you guys choose. Every few races there will be another opprotunity to humiliate me, unless I get laughed at too much and my fragile psyche can't handle it any longer, or it gets lame and nobody votes.

Sampson is outraged with the plain black handlebar tape, and calls for its impeachment.

Good Luck to all the candidates. We will not be using Diebolds -just cast your vote in the comments section. In case of a tie, we'll let Florida and Ohio decide. I'll post pictures of the democratically elected handlebar tape in full race action.

Jan?

2006-09-11T17:40:00.000-05:00

Oh no! Not you too, Jan!

Familiar Weather, Familiar Music, Familiar Family

2006-09-10T19:13:00.000-05:00

Hello once again everyone. It feels like I'm back in Crescent City today. Its been rainy and dreary all day. Brian and I did get in a good quality bike ride this afternoon, however.

Last night was the big Journey/Def Leppard concert. I'm a huge Journey fan as most of you know, but I was a bit disappointed. Steve Perry is long gone, but the replacement vocalist sounds exactly like him on the powerful songs like "Anyway You Want It," but is unable to hit the really high tenor notes on songs like "Faithfully." Those songs are sung by the drummer, who has a very good range, but does not sound very much like Steve Perry. It was still pretty cool though. Def Leppard on the other hand kicked ASS! I was blown away as I'm not a big Def Leppard fan. Holy moly they were awesome!

Mary's Dad, Mom, Grandmom, and Sister Pammie were here the last couple days. They're driving Pam out to School at Oregon State in Corvallis. It was nice seeing them again, and nice seeing Mary's Grandma since I don't think I've seen her since Mary and I's wedding. (Is "I's" correct? That sentence seems not right.) They will be back through Sept. 22nd, but I'll be in North Dakota racing my bike. Yes thats right. I'll be racing the Red River Cyclocross Challenge on Saturday Sept. 23 in Moorehead, and The Pork Chop Challenge in St. Cloud the following day. I have my cyclocross schedule pretty much figured out. There are a couple races that fall on a Saturday followed by a much more important race on Sunday, so those races might be scraped.

What the hell is this! Oh Tom. Thats some serious dabbling.

Blogger in Beta is a bit quirky. Don't change over to it until they get all the kinks ironed out.

New Look

2006-09-08T02:17:00.000-05:00

Do you guys notice anything different? Let me know what you think.

I'm Back

2006-09-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

Greetings faithful readers. I have returned. We now have internet hooked up at our house, so you can expect consistent blog posts. Here's whats been on my mind the last month and a half.

1. Having a house is wonderful
2. Pork tastes good
3. My wife is a really fast triathlete
4. Living in a normal town is great
5. Sampson does not like his invisible fence
6. Being "retired" isn't all its cracked up to be
7. I wish I could watch Twins games
8. Cyclocross intervals are nauseating
9. Journey/Def Leopard/Gordon Lightfoot/Bob Dylan
10. Burritos
11. My carbon footprint
12. Gluing tubulars
13. What happened to my profile picture?
14. Handlebar tape color for my cross bike
15. Heirloom tomatoes
16. Mid-term elections
17. I haven't played disc golf in many moons, yet there is a course like 2 miles from my house

Thats all I could think of right now. I'm sure I'll update again soon. If you're lucky I might even throw in some pictures.

Its been a While

2006-07-24T17:11:00.000-05:00

I've been slacking on my blogger duties lately. Please fogive me. Mary and I are currently at my parents house in Grand Forks. We've been here for the past week, and we leave to go back to Madison tomorrow. We close on our new house on Wednesday! It's the house in the previous post. We are quite excited. There is some other good news too.

The 2006 WCA cyclocross schedule is finally posted. Can you say 2006 WI State Cyclocross Champion?

Congratulations to Heathrow Abraham on her half ironman. 18 odd miles per hour is most impressive for 56 miles.

The Honorable Revenend Josh Lanning has a blog. Read about his hatred of Del Norte Ambulance, and his love affair with a certain German liqueur here. I also gave him a coveted spot in my "Other Blogs" section. Keep it updated Josh or I'll tell Charles.

We'll be getting our stuff from storage in the next couple weeks, so the postings will be more frequent. There's all sorts of stuff going on with our lives, so I'll have plenty of material to ramble on about.

Floyd Landis is the man.

Too Much Stuff for One Posting to Handle

2006-07-09T22:21:00.000-05:00

Hello once again all. I've actually had many opprotunities to blog lately, but I've been too lazy. Here is the much abridged summary of the last month. If anyone wants a more detailed description of anything mentioned, let me know and I'll blog in detail.

Mary and I had an uneventful trip to Bismark for Andy's wedding. Scott showed us around Missoula and kicked my ass on a bike ride. Andy met us in Medora, ND for a great 37 mile ride in the badlands. The marriage of Becca and Andy was lovely. It was nice to see old friends and catch up on things. Home in Grand Forks was great. Several mornings were spent sleeping in late and watching the early rounds of Wimbledon. We spent close to a week in GF before heading to Madison, WI for the house hunt. Mary, Sampson, and I spent the 4th with Brian, Heathrow, and Ventoux at a doggy park on a lake. The poochies had fun. We were hooked up with buyer agent and she showed us 22 homes in 2 days. Mary and I decided on a beautiful 46 year old brick ranch in East Madison. We'll probably put in an offer in the next couple days. Here is a picture.
Right now we are in Valparaiso, IN at Mary's parents house. We've been here the entire weekend, and we'll probaly leave and go back to Madison for house stuff on Tuesday. I think Mary's folk's place is my favorite place on earth, and I'm not just saying that because they read my blog. It's so relaxing here. There's a beautiful porch overlooking woods with dozens of species of birds. There is always great food and great beer waiting. Mary did a sprint triathlon yesterday. She was really strong coming out of the water, and maintained second place through the bike, but faded to 4th overall during the run. She was second in her age group though. Her time was a blistering 1 hr 10 min 3 sec.

Tour, Wimbledon, World Cup, baseball. What's there to say. A mighty fine Sunday for sports.

Possibly the Last Post

2006-06-12T23:28:00.000-05:00

...for a while. We'll see. I'm at work now, but the computer might be packed away, and the cable disconnected before I get to blog again. I'll blog when I get to my parent's house, and hopefully soon after that I'll be blogging again on my own computer in my own house.

Here's the game plan for the next couple weeks. I come home from work Wednesday morning, and then it's last minute packing rusing around craziness until Friday morning when I go back into work. 72 hours later I come home to a moving truck and we get out of Dodge. Monday night will be spent in Hermiston, OR. On Tuesday we'll be driving to Missoula, MT and hanging with Scotty Johnson. Wednesday we're driving to Medora, ND and meeting the soon-to-be-married Dr. Dingle for a night (and next morning) of debauchery. Then its on to Bismarck for his wedding. Saturday we'll drive from Bismarck to Grand Forks for some serous R&R. We're not sure how long we'll stay in GF, but then it's on to Madison for job/home search.

There it is. 35 hours and about 2400 miles. I can't wait.

Less Than 2 Weeks!

2006-06-06T15:28:00.000-05:00

Hi again gang. You'd think I'd have a bunch of stuff to write about with the big move coming up, but I've got nothing. We've just slowly been packing up our stuff. The other day we picked our movers. It's some outfit from San Jose that quoted us $0.50/lb with a free month's storage. Not too shabby if you ask me.

Training has taken a back seat lately. I haven't been on the bike for over a week. It will be slim pickins until we get settled, I'm afraid. I'll have plenty of time on my hands then though. I've got a hell of a base established, so it won't be too hard to hone the fitness for cross season, so I'm not worried about it. Midwest cyclocrossers won't know what hit them.

I added a few new links. Madison.com is a local information and news site. Treehugger.com is an online magazine about environmental responsiblity and modern design and whatnot. There's some cool shit about biodiesel and plug-in hybrids and stuff. Isthmus is Madison's weekly alternative newspaper. There is info on food, concerts, art exhibits and stuff.

I'll leave you with a picture of the lighthouse that's 800 meters from our front door.

LV Home

2006-06-01T18:10:00.000-05:00

What do you guys think of this. It might actually be cheaper to go this route then to buy an existing house. I've been looking at these for years and think they're cool. Mary doesn't want neighbors, and we could throw one of these down on a nice wooded lot. There is a couple different models, a garage, and guest house. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Busy Bee

2006-05-30T19:12:00.000-05:00

Howdy ho everyone. Sorry about the lack of blog posts, but we've been quite busy with work, training, and getting all our ducks in a row for the move. There have been many trips to goodwill and the dump. Things are getting packed up and put in boxes now. Friday the local moving company is coming by to give us an estimate to move our stuff. We'll finalize the movers after they come over since there is some company from San Jose that said they could do it quite cheaply.

Basso dominated the Giro. I think he'll win the Tour also. I'm pulling for Landis though.

A big congratulations to Brain and Heather on their wedding. There's nothing newlyweds want more then to have people crashing on there couch for an unknown amount of time. Thanks guys.

Have you seen the calf-off on Skerritt's blog. Calf #3 is scary looking.

Andy becomes a man in like 3 weeks. Thats crazy.

All Work and No Play Makes Brooks a Dull Boy

2006-05-21T23:21:00.000-05:00

Well I've pretty much been a working fool lately. We're short a couple paramedics, so there is overtime galore. I actually had today off, and we made the most of it by traveling to Medford, OR in search of normal-town stuff that Crescent City lacks. We ended up getting some summer clothes and a sweet-ass Yakima rack with a bike mount and giant cargo box. All Yakima stuff was 20% off, and the cargo box was a returned item, so it was 20% with the additional 20% off on top of that. i'm going to install it tomorrow at work. I'll post some pics when its done.

Tomorrow I go back to work for 2 days, so no blogging until Wednesday. Thats all for tonight. I have to be at work by 5:30 tomorrow morning. Ouch.

Nice Try

2006-05-19T12:37:00.000-05:00

You guys couldn't be more wrong with your guesses of our big announcement. No, we are not having a baby. We are moving! Long story short we are going to be homeless and unemployed, but we are getting the hell out of here. Mary and I both put in our notices at work today. The plan is to move all our stuff into storage in Madison, WI when we leave for Becca and Andy's wedding. We're going to hang out in Grand Forks for a few days after the wedding, then head out to Wisconsin to look for jobs and houses, and crash out on Brian and Heather's couch. Should be pretty interesting for a few months. I don't know how responsible it is, but we have the blessing of our familes, so we're going with it.

Big Announcement Coming...

2006-05-17T13:34:00.000-05:00

This is my new favorite treat. I like it over ice with equal parts milk and tea. Buy some.

Nothing new to report on out here. The weather has been perfect the last couple weeks. Today it's a little overcast, but the wind is cooperating. I've actually been riding without leg warmers! Training is going well. I am getting a little bored of the same routes though. Mileage is impressive so far this year. I'm just shy of 2700 miles.

I'm getting pretty excited to go back home. I haven't been in GF for like 3 years, so it'll be interesting to see all the changes. Just a little over a month to go.

Today's a rest day for the Giro. Tomorrow is a 50K TT. Basso should put even more time into guys like Cunego, DiLuca, and Simoni. I think Savoldelli and Danielson will ride good times and move up on GC.

Check back for some big news...

TTT

2006-05-13T02:05:00.000-05:00

Someone should tell Lance it's not nice to stare at the freaks.

I Couldn't Think of a Witty Title

2006-05-12T17:42:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. Long time no blog. My life just isn't that exciting lately. It seems I'm at work every day, and the rare day I actually have off is spent lying around with a little bike riding thrown in. Today I'm working, but at home tied to an ambulance. If two calls go out during the same time, I have to cover the county. It's a pretty sweet gig, but it means riding the trainer inside, and no wine with dinner. Otherwise it's like PTO.

Mary's back from Indiana and Heather's bridal shower. She had much fun. She is really antsy to move. I've been looking at homes in the Madison area. It's amazing the difference between home prices there and here. I don't know how anyone could afford to own a home here.

The Giro is getting exciting. Yesterday was the team time trial with Basso's CSC team putting a decent amount of time on the other contenders. Today Robbie McEwen won his third stage of this years Giro in an amazing sprint finish. Tomorrow's stage should be pretty entertaining, but Sunday's stage features a mountain top finish that should shake out who the real players are. The cycling.tv video on demand thing is actually really nice. I can watch any stage whenever I want. It makes me not want cable tv. The only thing I really watch on tv is baseball and cycling, and both are available on the internet. Tennis too. I wonder if you can watch tennis on the internet?

The Collegiate Cycling Championships are going on this weekend in Lane's neck of the woods. He saw some teams practicing for today's TTT and said they were flying. He said he might wander downtown and watch the crits on Sunday.

Here is a picture totally unrelated to this post.

If you ever find yourself in a hotel room with a bike, some delicious beers, and nothing to open them with, think outide the box and ask yourself: "what would MacGyver do?"