Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Sunday, August 26, 2007

mostly moved

still a little scattered though...

bullet points:

- Just discovered a third National Team qualifier in mid-December. This is good. 3 weeks of weddings and moving equal 3 weeks of not training very much.

- This means I'm waiting till November/December to do the big pre-TT training camp. Looks like I'll be here for September after all.

-Downtown crit was Friday. I rode for a few minutes and learned that Mt. Dew is not so good for the brakes. Dried sticky goo on the brake pads makes your wheels lock up as soon as you touch them. Locking up the rear wheel in mid kamikaze corner dive with riders on all four sides is exciting, but tough to recover. After about 3 consecutive laps of "how'd i do that?" and "how'd I survive that?" I took the hint, realized my nine lives were up and rode back to the van.

-Tuckerman rode like a man at the Twilight, but got punted by lady luck when someone went down pretty spectacularly in front of him with 2 to go. That place was crash-central, so no big surprise there.

-I found out about the Nationals Qualifier about 12 hours before they started. Apparently Norrene assumes that I'm aware of my own schedule. Showed her.

- Muchas Gracias is too close. Cheap burritos on the way to everything. Dangerous.

- Word on the street is that a prominent velodrome architect is arriving in portland in early September to check out a couple of proposed sites for a new indoor board track.

- The Little League World Series has been all over ESPN the last couple of days. So no one will show Track Worlds, Road Worlds or anything other than the Tour, but we should watch a bunch of pre-pubescent winers play wiffle-ball? wtf?

DT

DT

Friday, August 17, 2007

hurricane me


So there's a Hurricane Dean hurling itself around the gulf of Mexico these days. It' not every day you get your own hurricane. The last reports placed me at about 115mph steady winds. Apparently I may be headed for the Mexican mainland and an upgrade to around 130mph.
Here's a bitchin video of me picking up speed.

Back in my other corner of the world, Jenny and I are moving to the Couve this week, so not much time to waste on writing stupid blog posts. Will let you know when my tears are dry and the boxes are gone...

DT

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Oregon State Flipping Off Hummers World Championships

Can be won by submitting a photo here.

Sprint Champs were last night. It was cold. Actually it was only the last half of the rounds, as we had already completed more that half our rides a few weeks ago before the rain started. So I had one ride vs. Abers and if I survived that, one vs. the winner of a Battle of the Stephens (mclaghrey vs. beardsley). So the whistle blows and I roll out behind Brian. Now first off, I have a hard time looking menacing while I'm sprinting. Something about being skinnier that most other guys and looking generally a little odd keep me from being "scary" during the first couple of laps. I compensate by talking alot, smiling like an idiot and cracking jokes while the other guy is trying to concentrate. It's like the Mike Creed aproach, but fewer "your mom" comments. Anyway, I'm doing all this while trying to be somewhere that Brian is not looking, picking up speed and Abers goes for the old-school "im gonna do a trackstand" thing. Fine. I roll underneath, pin him on the rail and before you know it we're getting the bell. Coming into the first corner I give brian a little flick, which I guess turned out to be not so little, because when I looked up he was off the ground nearly horizontal trying to stick the landing. Which of course is a wonderful time to go, so I went. Into the finals. I knew it was a good hook when he was still laughing about it after two cooldown laps.

McMuscles rode Beardsley pretty perfectly and drew second in our ride. The ride everyone is used to seeing from me is the one where I take it easy, wind up slow, steal the lane somehow with a lap to go, lead it out and go from there. It's tried and true. It works. But people expect it now, so I tried something different. Sneak attack with 2 and a half to go, let up, drift Stephen uptrack a bit coming into the bell and hit it from there. It worked. Rolling around on the apron afterwards, McMuscles rides up and says "well, that was different."

You know what else is different? Seeing Jimmy Lingwood in all his tall-socked glory in a Keirin final. The final in question was legendarily messy and I screwed up big time. When I won last year, I pretty much had my eyes closed the entire time and the thottle full open, hoping I would make it to the finish line in one peice. This year I should have done the same, but suddenly the next couple of months flashed before me and I got careful (read: sissy) for half a second and that was all it took. Ended up second, with Jimmy Tallsocks making a huge charge to come around me on the line. Didn't quite make it, but he only needed another couple of meters and I would have had to tackle him off his bike. He's got Kerin-Fu in his blood... Come to the dark side Jimmy. Do it.

DT

Thursday, August 09, 2007

commence with bloodflow rejuvenation for glorious nation of khazakstan

Yet another khazaki pro-tour guy got positived (i hereby declare 'positived' a new transitive verb) the other day. Caught in the big out of competition rounds like a dolphin in a tuna net. A really skinny dolphin. From Khazakstan. Funny thing is, they got him for the exact same thing as his Astana buddy and countryman the venerable hero alexander VINOkourov. Homo-logus blood transfusion. Don't they know that stuff was so 2004? Just ask tiny Tyler Hamilton, he'll tell ya. I have visions of strapping young square-jawed, blonde-haired cyclists lined up at the "now leaving Khazakstan" sign recieving SuperSoakers full of blood to help them on thier journey...

You know what reeely sucks? I'm going to miss the state crit champs this year. Yeah, I know. It sucks. Especially after last year, which with 3 to go looked to be a pretty sweet Dean Vs. Skerrit Vs everybody else field sprint, then the big Tim Coffey Spill happend. Shannon ended up on his head, I ended up dodging flying bodyparts but trackstanding in the middle of the road anyway, and Father Bosson rode away with it. Can't get the day off work though. I've tried everything aside from "We're renewing our vows. From last week." If Shannon wins I'm probably going to off myself.

Been having fun hearing about how everyone had a great time at our wedding. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. "short and sweet ceremony, good food, killer party." Mission accomplished. Also been having a great time referring to Jenny as "the wife" and "the old ball and chain." Seriously though, don't tell her I said that last one...

I need to get myself out to the track, old blood and all. Only 8 weeks to Nationals. Only one week to Jimmy's bachelor party though. hmm. I'm gonna be on poor form for that one as I'm off the sauce again, but I'll soldier on. And try to stay upright this time...

I'll leave you today with this soothing video. If someone could get this played before every theater movie, the world would be a better place.




p.s. that guys black shirt says DOPERS SUCK. Funny stuff.

DT

Monday, August 06, 2007

sooo....

i got married this weekend. It was quite the party. Pictures forthcoming. My mom won the 'coolest person of the wedding' by dancing everybody into the ground. I'm back to work snap quick. Going to have to start training again. Never an easy feat to jump back in after a couple weeks of wedding stuff.

Good stuff from US Rep Patrick McHenry (R-NC) in response to pro-bicycle legislation:



“A major component of the Democrats’ energy legislation and the Democrats’ answer to our energy crisis is, hold on, wait one minute, wait one minute, it is promoting the use of the bicycle.

Oh, I cannot make this stuff up. Yes, the American people have heard this. Their answer to our fuel crisis, the crisis at the pumps, is: Ride a bike.

Democrats believe that using taxpayer funds in this bill to the tune of $1 million a year should be devoted to the principle of: “Save energy, ride a bike.”

Some might argue that depending on bicycles to solve our energy crisis is naive, perhaps ridiculous. Some might even say Congress should use this energy legislation to create new energy, bring new nuclear power plants on line, use clean coal technology, energy exploration, but no, no.

They want to tell the American people, stop driving, ride a bike. This is absolutely amazing.

Apparently, the Democrats believe that the miracle on two wheels that we know as a bicycle will end our dependence on foreign oil. I cannot make this stuff up. It is absolutely amazing.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the Democrats, promoting 19th century solutions to 21st century problems. If you don’t like it, ride a bike. If you don’t like the price at the pumps, ride a bike.

Stay tuned for the next big idea for the Democrats: Improving energy efficiency by the horse and buggy.”


Seriously. Not making that one up. See for yourself. Just click on "Congressman McHenry Slams Democrats' Antiquated Energy Plan"

Brilliant!

DT

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

tuckerman's really letting himself go



Good to see that he's getting some excercise though...

DT