Vacation week

Well, as most of you know, I'm not working this week so my posts will be a bit more spread out.

I'm able to ride during the day when it's warmer, so I probably won't be out at the Progress Park this week. I realize that I am unable to compete for the ironman award against a guy tlike Jayson who doesn't have any other responsibilities other than working and riding.

I have done a couple of good rides this week already and I'm getting ready to go out fro some intervals right now. I just wanted to throw up a post to say hey. I hope you all had a great Christmas and I look forward to seeing you out on the road soon.

by the way...
...what's this about the Tues/Thurs ride last night that had something to do with "Girls Gone Wild?". Please fill us in.

Seasons Greetings

Seasons Greetings to all of the 5count readers around the world!

Last night's ride...

It was another cold one out at the "Arctic ellipse". There was a good showing with over ten cyclists who came out for some winter training. Though multiple layers were imperative, the usual banter carried us through two hours of riding without too much discomfort.

The speeds are beginning to increase as the upcoming season fast approaches. We worked in a few intervals last night which broke the group up a bit, but that's the beauty of riding in a circle, eventually everyone joins back up. I'm sure there will be a faster pace for the remaining rides...especially if Scott and Danny have anything to say about it.

It was great to see Joe Brew out last night. He's home from college for the winter break and we look forward to him torturing us until January 15th when he'll return to school. There was a report of another Joe Brew sighting early this morning on the North side of Gainesville. He was spotted at 7am running...what he was running from has yet to be revealed...stay tuned to 5count for more details as they become available.

I think I coined a new phrase last night. In light of the cold weather and the increase in speed on our rides, I referred to our intervals as "Wintervals". There may be the possibility that that term has already been discovered, but until it left my mouth last night, I'd never heard it before. I was quite impressed with my witty terminology, however, I don't think that my riding partners were as smitten with my new buzz-word. I'm sure that it'll grow on them as I plan to use it repeatedly over the coming weeks.

I also attempted to provide a little background training music last night. I recently received small, portable external speakers for my ipod and I brought them with me to the ride. Unfortunately, the volume of the speakers couldn't compete with the volume of the wind whipping past my ears. I was never able to hear a single song as the "sound system" was stored in my rear jersey pockets. Only the cyclist directly behind me was able to enjoy my musical selections although it was reported that the sound quality wasn't even at an acceptable level. Hey, I tried...

Jayson O'Mahoney claimed his PowerGel prize last night as he was the winner of the "Quote of the Day" trivia. Stay tuned to 5count for more such trivia in the future. Jayson has also informed us that his new "time-machine" is fully operational and ready for a crack at the cemetery TT in January. Unfortunately for him (and me) we'll be riding a different type of bike that day, one with fat tires and a triple-chainring...and instead of riding on smoothly paved roads, we'll be riding over rocks, roots, sand and dirt...instead of going as fast as you can for 15-20 minutes, we'll be slogging through the San Felasco State Preserve for 5-6 hours.
(*Editors note: Although Jayson wears a Health Net skin suit and has a Team Health Net TT bike, he has no actual affiliation with the Health Net organization)

And now for trivia...
The winner of this edition of Trivia will receive a recent issue of Bicycling Magazine, packed full of training, diet, mechanical and raceing tips!

Q: What is the title of this blog, 5count, derived from?


...and now I'll Leave you with...The Quote of the Post
"...take yesterday for example. We were out at the olive garden for dinner, which was lovely. I happened to look over, at a certain point during the meal, to see a waitress taking an order, and I found myself wondering what color her underpants might be, her panties. Odds are they were basic white cotton underpants, but I started thinking maybe they are silk panties, maybe it's a thong, maybe it's something really cool I don't even know about..."
-what movie is this from, anybody know???

Bonus???

There may be a bonus feature on the ride tonight at the "Mobius Strip" ...come out and see what it is.

I guess it rained?

I returned from Ft. Lauderdale last night, my weekend abruptly at an end and I began to notice signs of a deluge. Judging by my flooded out front yard, it would appear that Gainesville may have had a bit of rain while I was gone. I wondered to myself, "did all that rain impede the GCC, or the Team Florida rides this weekend?"

Let me know what happened, if you guys rode, if you stayed inside with your noses pushed up against the front window while rain drops fell, puddles formed and your dreams of 4-hour training rides were dashed right before your eyes.

I feel strangely better knowing that I may not have been the only one not riding this weekend. If my rental car had been a little more accommodating, I would've brought my bike and enjoyed the 75+ degree sunshine...'c'est la vie'!

Aside from the weather...
There had been some emails going around pertaining to doing some rides this holiday season. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'll be off of work and in town the entire week in between Christmas and New Years. I plan on riding everyday, so anybody interested in some training, let me know. Hopefully, we'll all have some new cycling-related Christmas gifts to try out.

Something for Jayson to aspire to...
Austrailia has just announced a new development cycling team. Although Jayson is probably too old, maybe he can just find the team jersy for sale somewhere?

• if yer interested in the story, cycling news.com covered it here
and the team website is found here

check out this link
This link was sent out by big Phil from Team Florida. It's a flash movie that portrays cycling lingo verbatim. You'll understand once you watch it here

quote of the day
"Hey Ron, I'm riding a furry tractor"
***tell me what movie that is from and win a PowerGel from 5count!

Missing the rides

I'm currently posting from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. My weekend of riding is being replaced by two 5-hour stints driving in the car. Jen and I currently have a rental car while our car is getting prettied up after incurring some damage from Hurricane Wilma. Unfortuately, our insurance company only paid for the base model rental, thus leaving me with a KIA something or other (I'm not sure, but I believe that K-I-A stands for Killed in Action?). I'm also unhappy to report that the KIA doesn't have a big enough trunk for me to put my bike into it. see last post

I'm going to be filling my cardio quota by wrestling with my over-active dog, vigorously changing the channel between ESPN and ESPN2 and doing some intese blogarobics.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend rides...I'll be back at the Progress Park tuesday night, rested and ready to ride.

It's COLD!

As far as I'm concerned, tuesday evening was the coldest ride yet. Maybe I wasn't dressed warm enough, but I thought 3 layers would've been enough. Here's a picture of how cold the Progress Park was on tuesday, click here.

Scott was unable to attend the ride last night due to some very understandable family commitments, however, his absence moves Jayson into sole posesstion of the "Ironman Award". The standing are now as follows:

1st - Jayson O'Mahoney
(T) 2nd - Paul Messal
(T) 2nd - Scott Pfaff (pictured on left)
3rd through last - Everybody else

What else...
• Race season is just around the corner for us Floridians. The tenative race schedule has already been posted and it looks like there will be races to do in January! There's also the Tour de Felasco coming up in January as well...where did the time go?

• Dan Larson's new VMG team met here in Gainesville recently to take care of some testing, training as well as some personell stuff. Check out the report on Cycling News to get the low down as see some pics. Although it isn't ready as of now, the team's website will soon be full on team info.

• I had previously posted a link to Graham Watson's website where he was displaying a photo tribute to Lance. He now has put the remainder of the "tour years" images up. Check em out here.

• Football news: You may have already heard, but Tim Tebow has committed to the University of Florida. For those of you who don't know, Tebow is one of, if not the, most highly touted QB's coming out of high school this year.
His commitment has led to the transfer of Portis, the QB who followed Urban Meyer here from Utah. It looks like the QB position at the University of Florida will be in good shape for the coming years!







Quote of the Day...
"I hope you got a big trunk, cause I'm puttin my bike in it"


from the Movie, 40 year old Virgin
(if you haven't seen it, I would classify it as a must see!)

Here's yer "Can 'O Whoop A$$"

Call him what you want...just don't call him late to the start line.

This and That...

first off...
I love all the "banter" that goes on in this blog. The responses to posts and the responses to responses, all make writing and reading this blog fun! I hope that people who may be new to reading the 5count blog understand that 95% of the "trash-talk" that goes on is completely harmless and understood to be in fun. Most of the readers who take part are guys who know each other and know the temperament with which certain comments are made. I encourage EVERYONE to respond in whatever way they would like to...We all enjoy having stuff, that is relevant to ourselves or our interests, to read.

With that being said...
Whoever called my bike a coke can, make thyself be known!

Weekend in riding...
Saturday's GCC ride was well attended and the weather was gorgeous as well! In short, we ended up with 17 cyclists in the "A-group" after the rest stop and we motored back home quickly. The "race-tactics" disrupted the flow from time to time, but we all managed to get our heart rates up in the process. Jayson gets the most aggressive rider award for the day due to his multiple attacks and counter-attacks...and counter-counter-attacks, well done.

I didn't attend any group ride on sunday. My services were spent putting up a Christmas tree, decorating said tree and just getting into the all-around Christmas spirit with my Wife, Jen. I know that many of you were planning on doing the 4-4.5 hour ride with Team Florida, and others probably were loyal to the GCC south ride. Maybe our readers can chime in with reports of those rides.

Check this out...
I read an interview with Lance Armstrong this morning on Velonews. It's a two parter so link to part one first. Lance is pretty open with the journalist in the interview, he talks about everything from the early days to Johan to drugs to retirement.

In part 2 of the interview, Lance talks about cycling fans and what types of fans there are (in America and in Europe). He talks about what type of fans he thinks we need here in the U.S.. I'll let you read it and get a better idea of what I'm talking about here...but it got me thinking about what type of cycling fan I am.

In terms of what I like reading about in a cycling magazine...If I had a choice between reading about who has been recently accused of using EPO...OR...reading a bio of a pro cyclist, I'd take the bio every time! I don't know about you guys, but I'm sick of hearing about who's doping, who's not, who's battling accusations in court and who's being banned for two years. I want to know what was said on the team bus before the start of big race; I want to know about team tactics and how they played out; I want to know what was going through the pro's head while he was burying himself trying to get across a gap to the leaders.

My recent issue of Bicycling magazine is chocked-full of info, but that magazine has too much info about everything BUT racing. I'm not putting Bicycling magazine down, I still feel that they fill a need; but as far as my interests go, "How to Make Home-Made Powerbars that will get you to the Top Faster" isn't what I'm going to spend my limited free-time reading.

This is just MY commentary of the type of fan I am...how about you?...

Then there were Two???

I have been informed that the race for the "Ironman Award" has been whittled down to just 2 guys, and I am not one of those two.

For those of you who don't know, there has been an informal competition amongst the cyclists who frequent the Tues/Thurs night rides out at the Progress Park. The "Ironman Award" will go to the rider who doesn't miss any rides or he who misses the least amount of rides. Until thursday, there had been a 3-way tie between Jayson O'Mahoney, Scott Pfaff and Myself. Due to inclimate weather, visiting parents and what I thought was a joint agreement to NOT ride if things were wet, I abstained from driving out to the ride. Unfortunatly for me, my other two competitors reniged on thier original plan and rode anyway thus dropping me into sole possesion of 3rd place in the "Ironman" race.

Even though the above mentioned Jayson called me just one hour prior to ride time and assured me that he was not going to participate in the ride either...I still find myself out of contention (unless of course the other two miss a ride in the future). As for Scott...all I can say is that it must be nice to work just 60 seconds away from Progress Park. If I had to pass by Progress Park on my way home from work every day and I had my bike in the back of my truck everyday, I bet I'd be a lot more likely to "pop in for a ride". For those of us who travel great distances to get out to Alachua just to get some miles in...I think that we are all truly "Ironmen"!

In other news...
Team Health Net has discontinued it's use of Giant bicycles. So all the Team Health Net bikes that Jayson has recently bought, are now officially outdated!
Health Net has now joined up with Cannondale and will be riding six13's this coming season. This means that Rodrigo can now fully outfit himself with Health Net gear. Lampre has now switched over to riding Willier bikes and will no longer ride Cannondale...this means that all the Lampre stuff that Rodrigo has been collecting is also now outdated.

...In related news...I'm still riding the Ridley!

I'm sure that this post will ilicit some rebuttles, so let's hear 'em.
***note: editorial staff maintains the right to erase, delete, or edit any and all responses posted on the 5count Blog. Any objections to this clause can be voiced to our customer service department.

Ben's Story

For those of you who didn't know, Ben Brew (son of Chris and brother of Joe) was diagnosed with T-cell Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia on September 8, 2005.

Link to Ben's site to get the full story. While you're there, write a little note in the guestbook and let the Brew family know that they are in the hearts and prayers of the Gainesville cycling community.

If Ben is anything like his older brother, I feel sorry for that cancer...cause it's bout to be smoked!

in a side note...
Chris Brew tells me that lil Joe will be back in town on the 15th and will probably be looking to do a ride or two out at the Progress Park, he also says that he's in great shape... so you've been warned!

Riding in WET circles...

This post won't be long...

I just wanted to acknowledge some Gainesville area cyclist who have gone above and beyond the basic dedication to "off-season" training. Danny M., Scott P., Rodrigo S., Jayson O., Myself and Carl all braved the winds and the rain Tuesday night out at Progress Park.

The battle for the Progress Park "Ironman Award" is still being waged as Jayson, Scott and Myself have all been out to EVERY tues/thurs ride at Progress Park since they started in October following the end of Daylight Savings time.

Come on out on thursday when it will be a lot less wet, but probably a bit colder so bring your mittens, scarf and wonder woman underoos!

Wow, what a game!

I took a break from the bike this past weekend in order to submerge myself in the encompassing fanfare that is the UF v. FSU weekend.

Friends came into Gainesville friday and we partied downtown in celebration of what we expected to be a Gator victory. The Big Sky concert at Abbey Road (formerly Brick City Music Hall) would provide the location for our first 8-10 drinks. The victories had already started rolling as the UF mens basketball team defeated the seminoles 74-66 after overcoming a 17 point deficit!

We tailgated all day and Saturday, went to one of the loudest games I've been to in a long time and finished up with more tailgating after the game! I had completely lost my voice during our trouncing of the noles...and I loved every minute of it!

A great weekend, great football game, great friends, great weather...and oh yeah, thanksgiving was good too.

I saw a funny shirt at the game on saturday that I thought you all might get a kick out of. The first time a saw the shirt I only saw the front of it which read, "Gators drink Gatorade", and I thought that that was kind of a stupid saying to put on a game day shirt...until a few hours later when I ran across what was printed on the back of the shirt..."Seminoles drink seminal fluid". I really like that shirt (christmas gift idea, hint, hint).

Here are a few images from saturday...enjoy.

Where's everyone at?

There has been some discussion as to what happens to all of the GCC A-riders come this time of year. It seems like once Team Florida starts thier off-season training rides, the numbers at the GCC rides dwindle.

Perhaps the colder weather keeps the unadventurous inside, or maybe everyone is content to do thier own rides on the weekends. It has been suggested that the co-eds on the Team Florida rides draw some GCC cyclists in, as if in a booty trance. Another response was that the faster A-riders on the GCC rides push the pace too much for this time of year when we should be doing longer, slower "base-miles".

I think a healthy discussion about the lack of attendance on the weekends for the GCC'ers should take place...and what better venue for said discussion than right here on the good 'ole 5count blog.

In a related story
Many of us did partake in the Team Florida "Ride-a-Thon" this past sunday. It's always good to be in a 50+ person group, but the diversity in ability created an unobtainable "optimal speed". Nonetheless, for those of us who opted for the shorter 60 mile route...it was good miles and somewhat of a break from the norm.

Trash-talkin' a-plenty!

On our most recent jaunt around the corporate park (thursday night), the group carried on it's tradition of throwing around the obligatory smack-talk. I'm very pleased to see that we've become comfortable enough with each other that we can now tell mouthy Australians what they can do with their vegemite sandwiches...Or, inform the Mexican cycling contingent how we feel about their choice of cycling shorts etc., etc., etc..

Speaking of the thursday night ride...We had a group of 9 guys out there as well as a couple of other cyclists riding at their own speed. The temperature had dropped quite considerably from just two night before where no one was even wearing arm warmers. Thursday, the group was fully decked out with leg or knee warmers, long-sleeve jerseys and jackets, full fingered gloves and Scott even donned his Wonder-Woman underoos!



We did have a close call with a speeding driver who was driving without his lights on, both literally and figuratively. All are safe and disaster was averted, but for anybody planning on coming out to the Progress Park rides who is in possession of a blinking yellow hazard light, please bring it out with you.

In regards to...
Danny Muehlschlegel replied to a recent post here on 5count with a list of songs for a cyclist to have on his/her ipod while training. Although that response was more or less for fun...I'm going to take it a step further and share some of my favorites:

Black Betty-by Ram Jam
This is just a good ole southern rock song that you all have heard before even though the name probably isn't recognizable.

Crazy Game of Poker-by O.A.R
This is the live version of the song. O.A.R has got to be one of the best live bands out there, who coincidently are going to be playing at the O'Connell center on November 29th, 2005!

Eye of the Tiger-by Survivor
You all know this one! If you need to get pumped up...this one and the next one are classics!

Danger Zone-by Kenny Loggins
...like I said, a classic!

Gold Digger-by Kanye West
I know it's corny, but I couldn't get this out of my head.

Pass that Dutch-by Missy Elliott
For all of you HipHop fans (Doug) here's one with a great beat.

Ring of Fire-by Johnny Cash
This really is for Doug. It's been sung a couple of times on the "ride of circles", so I thought it would only be appropriate to include it in this list.

Rough & Ready-by Trace Adkins
To show you that I am a connoisseur of all music, here is country song that has some attitude.

Son's Gonna Rise-by Citizen Cope
One of my recent favorites...if you didn't know, now you know.

United States of Whatever-by Liam Lynch
A song unlike anything you've ever heard...whatever!

Your Love-by The Outfield
Quite possibly the greatest 80's hit!

...there's eleven of um for you. A pretty diverse list so there should be something in there for everyone. I'll probably do this again sometime soon.

How 'bout this weather huh?

Wow, we have been truly graced with an abundance of great weather here in North Central Florida. Hopefully, you took advantage of it and got outside.

I did 5 days of riding this past week, and logged about 240 miles. The tue/thurs rides have been a great way to put in a nice 80 miles during the week and I (as well as others) had this past friday off due to Veterans Day. Danny, Scott, Jayson, Myself and Brett Miller put in about 50 miles friday morning and then met Doug F. for lunch at "dinner" in the Thornbrook Plaza.

Saturday, Jayson and I met out at San Felasco for a little mountain biking. I only crashed once and it was pretty harmless. I've realized that my mountain bike is in need of some good ole TLC, unless the gears are supposed to shift all on their own. I told Jayson that maybe it would have been better had we not done any mountain bike riding before we tackle the 52 mile Tour de Felaso in January...that way we would go into it not really knowing how bad it was going to suck. But now, we have over two months of knowing exactly what we're getting ourselves into.

I rode with the GCC on sunday morning. I guess the Team Florida rides have been attracting a lot of the GCC members, cause there were only like 10 of us on the ride...and that included both the A-riders as well as the Gliders. We made the best of it as another gorgeous day accompanied us. We took a nice easy ride all the way north on 241 to Providence (not Rhode Island),
then east over to LaCross (pronounced "Lay-Cross" if you're Scott), then headed back towards home. Naked Ed instigated an increase in speed as we got about 10-12 miles from the Chevron. After a series of attacks and counter-attacks, everyone was dropped except Ed, Bryan (from Zimbabwe) and myself. The three of us faught the headwinds all the way home and I was able to come around Ed for the sprint finish.

Here's a question...
How many of you out there pronounce the word "derailleur" -de-rayl-yur
and how many pronounce it - de-rayl-er
???

Lance fans, check this out.

For those of you who frequent the paceline.com, you've probably already seen these.
For those of you who aren't in the know however, check out Grahm Watson's site. He has some Lance Armstrong images in the form of a 3-part tribute series of his career. Only Parts 1 and 2 are currently available, but part 3 will be up soon.

The first part seems the most interesting to me. They are pictures of Lance in his early, pre-cancer days. Part 2 deals with his comback (1997-1998) and I assume that part 3 will be the Tour de France victories...which we've all seen a thousand times.

See ya'll tonight at Progress Park!

A Good Ride!

Tuesday night saw the largest number of "night-time riders" out at Progress park yet this winter season. In addition to those of us who have been coming out regularly, Carl and Huan joined us as well. Scott's family was even on hand to get some fun miles in thier legs...and let me just tell you, Scott's 9-year old son, Justin, was out there holding 19 mph for the first part of the ride. So those of you who are taking it easy this winter season, are going to be surpassed by Junior sensation!

We did another 2 hours through the brisk night air with patches of low-lying fog that made for a very theatrical ride. We didn't encounter any deer this time, but the ride went quickly due to some great conversation with a good portion of "trash-talk" sprinkled in.

We encourage all skill levels to come out and ride the course with us, or at your own pace. The more the merrier!

In other news...
• The Gators are taking on the Cocks this weekend up in South Cacalaka. The Ol' Ball Coach will be leading his cocks against his former team. The Gators are struggling with some injury issues right now and will hopefully be able to overcome them in time to put a whoppin on what will surely be a highly motivated S. Carolina team.

• I'll be forgoing the GCC ride on the south end of town this saturday. Instead, I'll be out at San Felasco doing some cross-training in order to acclimate myself to the fat tire bike in preparation for the Tour de Felaso in January. Anybody wishing to join me, feel free.

A Good Week

One hundred and ninety miles on the bike this week! Not bad considering it's dark by 6:00pm these days.

As covered in the previous post, the tues and thurs rides have provided good miles in the dark. I capped the week off with a pair of beautiful days and great rides.

Saturday's GCC ride started off in the north at 9:00am. A Glider/A-rider combined ride created a large group of 20+. With the absence of Danny M. and Tony A., the pace was kept civil enough for everybody. There were a few fun sprints for city limit signs, but none of them led to splits in the group. The remaining cyclists (some people split off as we neared home) picked the pace up on 43rd. Huan led me out for a great finish to a great 68 mile ride.

Sunday, I opted to meet at "The Rock" at Turlington plaza on campus for the team Florida ride. Another beautiful day carried us through two and a half hours of northwest Gainesville cycling. The pace was a comfortable (and welcomed) 20mph for the duration.

I'll be out at the Progress Park again this tues (11-8) for some riding in circles...join me.

Tues/Thur Rides Live On!

Those of you who benefitted from the tues/thurs rides this year will be happy to know that though it may be dark out at 6:00pm, we're still ridin'!

Our ride location has changed to Progress Park off of Hwy 441 in Alachua. We meet at about 6:00pm and ride the 1.16 mile loop around the picturesque corporate park. If you can't make it until 6:15 or 6:30...so what?...all we're doin is going around in a circle so just catch us on our next loop.



With the first week of Progress Park riding behind us, we've managed to put in more miles than we were during day light savings time. Tuesday the group logged 37 miles and we put in just over 40 miles on Thursday.

I know that going around in a circle for 2 hours sounds repetetive and boring, but the social conversation makes the time fly. We've been keeping the pace at a brisk, but comfortable 20 mph.

The more people we have come out, the more enjoyable it will be for everyone. The park is relatively traffic free but bring some basic lights so the random car or truck is alerted to our presence. As the above map illustrates, we meet in the parking lot of the big glass building right out in front (the 441 side). We've been riding the loop in a clockwise direction, but we may get crazy later in the winter and do the loop backwards!

Thus far, Scott P., Doug F., Leslie F., Jayson O., Paul M., and Rodrigo S. have been the only motivated cyclists to take advantage of the training. All levels are welcome cause..."Yer never more than .508 miles behind (or ahead) of the group"

In other news:
• Aussy cyclist, Matt White, formerly of the French Cofidis team, has been signed to a 12 month contract with the Discovery Channel cycling team...Jayson will be happy about that.

• The Tour de Felasco is coming up in January and has already met the rider limit of 400. I'm registered and looking forward to doing 50+ miles of fat-tire cross-training. Let me know if you're planning on riding it at a fun, easy-going pace and we can meet up at the start. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to some yummy vegitarian chili at the lunch stop, mmm, mmm, mmm!

• There is going to be another pro stage race in the U.S.. The Tour of California will be held in February consisting of 9 stages.

Our season's end is drawing near.

With hundreds and thousands of miles in our legs and under our tires this year, we say so long to the sunshine that lasts long enough to get in a nice evening ride.

Now we usher in the days of trying to squeeze in miles in the mornings or sneaking out of work early to have enough daylight to make putting on the entire cycling kit worth while.

Soon enough we'll have to allow ourselves an extra 10 min of "gettin-dressed" time to account for the extra layers of leg warmers, arm warmers, ear warmers, under shirts, full-fingered gloves and jackets. Some of us may even hang the bike up all together (shame on you).

It was a good season with great rides. We can remember the triumphant attacks up Millhopper Road, the courageous bridges up to the leaders, the super-human pulls at the front of a fast group, the tireless ascents up the I-75 overpass or the victorious sprints to the "Devil's Millhopper" sign just before returning to the Chevron. Let's bury our memories of getting dropped on Chestnut hill, or cramping up just before the big sprint finish, don't concern yourself with the time you couldn' t hold the wheel of the fast-attacking "German" and were forced to sit up and wait for the remainder of the group...cause remember, there's always next season.


In a side note...
The Tues/Thur rides will still go on. However, they are going to be moved to the Progress Center off of 441 in Alachua. We'll get our "base-miles" in, all while enjoying the safety of a lighted loop around the business park. Easier rides with less attacks will probably be the order of business, but if a "fast-attacking German" decides to lift things to a pace that isn't acceptable to you, you're never more than a mile behind (or in front, depending on how you look at it).

We'll be meeting at 6:00pm starting this tuesday (11-1-05) out in front of the big glass biulding. See ya there!

This Thursday's Ride (10-13)

We are going to be departing the Chevron Station at 5:30pm instead of 6:00pm

In order to have enough daylight to get our ride in we're upping the departure one half of an hour.
Pass it on.

Some photos for ya...

While I was temporarily absent from my blogging duties, I took part in a few Gator tailgates. These are a few images from the UF vs. Tenn weekend. This was one of the most crowded tailgating situations I've been to ever...I loved it.




This is Mike, Tiny, Myself and John halfway through a very long Tailgate


Jen and I got to the tailgate spot at 9:00 am to set up for the 8:00pm game!


Thomas, Myself, Corby and Brent enjoying the"festivities"


Moments after the Gators sealed the victory over the Vols


Lt. Sleepyhead (Josh) couldn't hold on anymore after 16 hours of tailgating and football.

funy

Another movie that looks like it has potential to be funny!

Just Friends

Rodrigo's Magazine cover

I can't take credit for this one...Rodrigo's talented wife, Gabby put this cover together for him.

I'm not dead!

Thank you to all the concerned viewers of 5count who have emailed me personally to inquire about my well-being.

I have been battleing one of the worst colds ever for the past few weeks. The cold had also been accompanied by an overwhelmingly large amount of work at the "nine-to-five" that has kept me at the office past 6 on many nights. And to top everything off, I've had more out-of-town guests in the past 3 weeks than I've had all year.

I plan on getting back to the bike this week (work and weather permitting) and I hope to fit my blog back into my schedule as well.

Thanks for all the concern!
Editorial Staff

LATE BREAKING NEWS:

Lance Armstrong Busted for Banned Substances
PARIS, France --

Lance Armstrong's record setting seventh Tour de
France victory, along with his entire Tour de France
legacy, may be tarnished by what could turn out to be
one of the greatest sports scandals of all time.
Armstrong is being quizzed by French police after
three banned substances were found in his South France
hotel room while on vacation after winning the 2005
Tour de France.

The three substances found were toothpaste, deodorant,
and soap which have been banned by French authorities
for over 75 years.

Armstrong's girlfriend, American rocker Sheryl Crowe,
is quoted as saying "We use them every day in America,
so we naturally thought they'd be ok throughout
Europe."

Along with these three banned substances, French
authorities also physically searched Armstrong and
found several other interesting items that they had
never seen before, including a backbone and a testicle.


***pretty funny, I just had to pass that along

Introducing...

On the ride sunday morning, a certain member of the GCC expressed his disbelief that I am truley married. Aparently, the many refrences I've made about my wife throughout all the rides over the year(s) have created what some feel to be a myth. With no visual confirmation of my wife, a "certain member" has generated the theory that I don't actually have a wife, and I only make refrences to one in order to conceal some sort of "alternate lifestyle". (not there is anything wrong with that)

So, I am now going to confront this issue and put an end to all the conjecture.
I do in fact have a wife, her name is Jennifer and we have been married over four years. She occasionally writes comments on this blog and has even met certain other members of the GCC in person (see Scott P., Joe B.or Doug F.). She is more a fan of cycling than she is a participant. Since there is no faith in the fact that I DO have a wife ( Faith- n. Belief that does not rely on material evidence) For the much needed visual confirmation I now send you to a link of my wife.
***editorial note: linked image may ruin appetite...view with caution.


Are you ready for some FOOTBALL!!!


Well college football season is once again upon us. Tailgates, bar-b-ques, roudy fans, orange and blue everywhere, the gator chomp and exciting games! With the arrival of Urban Meyer to Gainesville, there is a buzz in this town that hasn't been seen since the Spurrier reign came to an end.

I've been to some of the team's open practices, I've been to luncheons that featured presentaions by Urban Meyer and I've watched, read and heard just about everything our new coach has had to say. Am I convinced you ask, HELL YES I AM! This coach has approached his new position with the confidence, dicipline and attitude that will return our football program to the national spotlight. We may not be playing for a national title this year, but my guess is that we will sometime before Meyer's 7-yr contract is up.

Bottom line is, I hope you all are as excited as I am about our first game this saturday at the SWAMP. I'll have my tailgate set up, orange and blue on my back and a beer in my hand ready to lose my voice for the Gators.


no, really...
I was just kidding about that hideous image that I linked you to earlier. This is the REAL Jennifer:



Here we are on the ski lift in Breckenridge, CO. Now you can clearly see her...
... just kidding again, yes that's her, but she is a bit obscurred by the goggles and ski jacket.
Here she is for real:



and here she is again,



this was in NYC last october.
Here she is again,



...this was taken on Brasstown Bald during this year's Tour de Georgia (that's the cycling fan part)



Finally, this is Jen and I in Colorado last december.
So I hope this puts and end to any curiosity any of you have concerning my "mythological" wife. Maybe if yer lucky enough, one day you'll have the absolute pleasure of meeting her.

Editorial note: Jen's work bio can be viewed here

I didn't ride, so now what?

I heard that there was lightning is Ft. Lauderdale, so I thought it'd be best if I didn't ride thursday. (ha)

I'll tell ya what...

The thursday night ride aside, there have been some news stories that I'll comment on. There have been a lot of comments on the previous post, some of them have dealt with the Armstrong-EPO acusations.

First off, let me just say that I'm SICK of all the doping talk! Not just cycling but baseball, football, olympics, whatever. I just don't care anymore...sure I'd like to be able to know that every athlete in the world in playing fairly, but that's just not the case. It's gotten to the point that doping allegations are the #1 sports stories. Case in point:

Once the Armstrong allegations came out earlier this week, that became top story. Sure, it should be mentioned...but I don't think it should take precedence over news stories such as Levi Leipheimer winning the Tour of Germany. Sports Center never even mentioned it! Even on cycling related web sites, the doping issues are the lead story and you have to search to find out that Levi just popped a cap in the ass of the ToG!

I hate the fact that the media is consumed with the negatives of sport so much. I hate that every sports channel that I watch is talking about EPO, steroids, doping, perormance enhancement. I just want to hear who won last nights baseball game, or how many yards Leftwich threw for last night.

Thank god for the Little League World Series. A bunch of kids out playing a game they love. No cheating, no doping contraversy, just throwing, catching and hitting....the basics!

...and by the way, I still tink Armstrong is a bad ass cyclist!


Now that I got that off of my chest...
Here is an Ulrich propaganda chart that was sent to me pertaining to the past 7 TdF's. If your not interested in being subjected to more anti-Armstrong rhetoric...DON'T click here.
By the way...I know it's in German so I'll translate for you... it says, "Ulrich just placed second to ANOTHER American"..."and this time it was on his home turf"
***the editorial staff would like to point out that this is not a direct translation

Ask Dr. Mike
I know that some of the viewers aren't privy to the Team Florida (UF's cycling team) listserv. Recently there were a few emails that went back and forth about cycling and how it relates to overweight folks. It was a lot more involved than how I just explained it, but that was the jist of things. Anyway, I wanted to copy the banter between two of the "post-ers" so you could read it for yourself. One of the "post-ers" is Mike Robinson, who frequents the GCC rides...I found it entertaining how Mike was just trying to make a basic statement about burning calories and another Dr. responded with a very academic and long-winded rebuttle. Then Mike countered with his own academic response. Arguing Doctors are funny!

by the way, the emails start at the bottom chronologically...so in order for them to make sense, read the bottom email first.
I've made this available in PDF format. Since this is new to 5count, I hope you have Acrobat reader...if you don't, get with it, it's 2005.
Get the PDF

Better Safe than Dead

Tuesday (8-23)

My tuesday ride was cut short due to inclement weather. There was lightning all over, but the final straw was the strike that cracked just above our heads (i looked at my computer and instead of average speed is just read "TURN AROUND") I know many of you are going to want to give me s**t for turning around and heading home shortly after the ride started. To those of you let me just respond like this:

To those of you who were on the ride... you should hve a little more value for your own lives. If you were smart, you would've turned around and followed me to safety. Bottom line: yer all CRAZY!

To those of you not on the ride...you weren't even out there at all so shhhhhhh.

Anthony, Mike and myself rode home and called it a day. Anyway, I had a dozen things I could be doing instead of being electricuted.


In other news...

� Levi Leipheimer held on to his lead in the Tour of Germany to take the final yellow jersey. Jan Ulrich once again placed 2nd to an American, but he did win the penultimate stage (TT) convincingly.



� The Discovery Channel team has announced its roster for the Vuelta a Espana which starts Saturday, August 27 in Grenada and finishes Sunday, September 18 in Madrid. The team, which has won both grand tours this year, will field Jose Azevedo, Michael Barry, Manuel Beltran, Tom Danielson, Stijn Devolder, Leif Hoste, Benoit Joachim, Benjamin Noval, and Max van Heeswisjk.

I'm jealous that Anthony will be in Spain for a portion of the race, but I hope he has a good time and gets some great pics.

� Tyler Farrar has achieved his goal of securing a ProTour contract for 2006 with the news that he will line out it the colours of the Cofidis squad next season. Farrar is seen as one of the most promising young US riders, with a stage win in last year's Tour de L'Avenir to his credit, as well as national under 23 titles in the 2004 criterium and time trial championships. Tyler has also just won the US Pro Criterium championships last weekend in Chicago.

The Attack in the Hills...

Sunday (8-21)
I'm afraid that I may have missed my window to acurately depict the happenings of sunday's GCC ride (8-21). But I'll go ahead and throw something up here so that those of you who love to comment will have something to comment on.

• About 22 people on the A ride
• About 70 miles in length
• A civil ride all the way to the rest stop with no attacks (other than a couple of sprints to the city limit signs)
• As soon as we saw the first hint of elevation change...all hell broke loose!
• Strong men on the day were by far Jim and Tony.
• At one point they were the only two pulling at the front. The rest of us were sucking wheel, hoping for the pace to slow so that we could get our heart rates down below 400.
• The group was wittled down to The Elite Eleven by the time we came out of Alachua.
•• If memory serves me correctly the 11 were:
Jim
Tony
Anthony
Lambert
Me (Paul)
Mike
Scott P.
Scott ?.
Jayson
Huan
Ed

• At one point, I noticed that we were ascending a pretty substatial hill on 241 at 28 mph...we crested the hill and only descended at 25 mph. The point is, we went up the hills very very fast!
• In the closing miles Jayson made not 1, not 2, but 3 huge attempts to get away. Each time he was brought back, but kudos for the efforts!
• Anthony was in good position at the end to do a nice lead out for the eventual winner, Jim.
• Jim left sunday evening to return to his home in Chi-town...and we are all going to miss the suffering he put us through...NOT!
• Tony took a hard faught 2nd to the unstoppable Jim.


My mountain bike ride on Saturday
My wife and I didn't even get a mile into the ride and my saddle came off. Confronted with the dilema of calling it a day or persevering with a dilapidated seat, I chose the latter and forged ahead. Going back to the truck would have been futile as I didn't have the appropriate tools to mend my defunct perch.

Long story short: I stood up the entire ride and my calves paid the price. (mental note...bring tool box when going out to San Felasco for mountain biking)

A potpourri of things...

In regards to Levi's wife

There were a few comments about Levi Leipheimer's wife, Odessa, in yesterdays post. Yeah she's a good looking girl, and yes that's a great catch for a short, skinny, bald man...But she isn't even half as hot as Ivan Basso's sister. And the way she totes her two little "rat-like" dogs around all dressed up leads me to think she's one of those wacky high-maintenance chicks, like Paris Hilton without as much money. I'm not that intrigued with Odessa, and what kind of name is Odessa anyway?








Here's something odd

Check out the link below. It's a homepage for the 2008 presidential campaign of Christopher Walken. Most of you will remember Walken from his roles in movies such as; Pulp Fiction, Joe Dirt, Catch Me if you Can, The Rundown, Kangaroo Jack, Gigli, Wayne's World 2 and Biloxi Blues, just to name a few of the 96 major motion pictures he has apperared in since 1953. None of you probably know him due to his staunch political stand on issues such as; stem cell research, abortion, finance reform or war. None-the-less, this web site appears to have a serious tone to it. I spent a little time perusing the site, always anticipating a punch-line...but no punch-line ever came. Is it a hoax, or can Christopher Walken actually be serious about running for president???

http://www.walken2008.com/index.html


Thursday night's ride

We varied from our normal route last night in order to avoid some inclimate weather. The alternate route took us home on a flat 121 as opposed to the hilly 241 option.

All in all, a nice ride...we had planned on sprinting to the intersection just before the light at 441, but the intersection had traffic and a red light. Safety prevailed and the sprint never came to fruition, however, the lead out was sick with Danny and then Anthony pulling at 32 mph for the last mile or so. Anthony did mention how good he was feeling and had hoped for our normal route so he could attack on every climb. This makes me happy in our decision to avoid the rain and come home fast and flat.

The route was slightly shorter, but with Danny flatting...things worked out perfectly. I would like to thank myself for proposing the alternate route idea...I'm a genious!

• The funniest thing on the ride...was when Scott made an attempt at comedy with a reference to some old movie (the actual reference escapes me at the moment, that's how unfunny it was), but then Ira made the Saturday Night Live reference about Chris Farley as his "El Nino" character:
"I am El Nino! All other tropical storms must bow before El Nino! Yo soy El Nino! For those of you who don't "habla Espanol", El Nino is Spanish for... THE Nino!


Here's one more quote that I think is very funny...do you know what movie this is from...?
"Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."

here's a hint

Levi news

Leipheimer wins mountain stage of Tour of Germany

Americans are winning in Danny and Susan's homeland. Levi took the stage today as well as the overall jersey and the polka dots. He now stands 15 seconds over his teamate Georg Totschnig and 50 seconds over the race favorite Jan Ullrich. Link to the full story on cyclingnews.com by clicking on this posts title.

See I told you that the American cycling future was in good hands.



In other news...

Levi has been dealing with premature baldness for the last decade. He has undergone massive hair-replacement therapy in the weeks following the tour de France. Below is a file photo of Levi before his therapy taken at the beginning of the year.



Click on the image of Levi to see the progress made due to his massive hair-replacement therapy...


...amazing huh?

Tuesday (8-16)

Well, it's definitely getting darker quicker these days...by the time I got home tonight, it was pretty much sunless. Our rides are going to either have to start earlier, or go a bit shorter here within the next week or two. Like Lambert pointed out tonight, we can still make it in time...but if someone were to have a flat, we'd be cutting things too close.

There was some new blood out on the ride this evening. Rachel Hallum, of the Orlando Road Club had just recently relocated to G-ville to work on her Masters degeree, and Travis (last name unknown) who is an eager 17 year old looking to seriously get into road cycling. Rachel had been racing for a while and plans to do some collegiate racing this coming year with Team Florida. Travis is new to riding in groups, but obviously has a good base of fitness...we just need to educate him on the finer points of the pack dynamics.

As far as the ride went...I'll keep it simple. There were about 15 of us at the start, which is one of the larger size groups that we've had. Shortly after turning north on 239, Lambert attacked hard which opened a flood gate of attacks by Ed, Scott, Danny and Mike R.. That was all it took for us to drop half of the group. Realizing that our first-time participants were dropped, Lambert, Ed and Danny stopped to wait while Myself, Mike R., Scott and Ira slowed to 13 mph so that the group could reform.

Once back together, we headed south on 241 as a civil group...UNTIL, the young Travis "attacked" on the Moby Dick hill while Danny was on the front. Aparently, Danny wasn't havin any of that and launched an incredible pace all the way up the most brutal climb of our tues/thur ride. That was to be the final selection as Danny, Ed, Lambert, Ira, Scott, Mike and Myself would ride it out to the end.

On the way up Millhopper tonight, Bambi strutted out into the middle of the street and stood perfectly still as she stared at us while we approached. We slowed in order to avoid hitting her and she darted off into the woods.

We Quickly ascended the I-75 overpass and without much of a chance to recover, Danny had us sprinting up the last hill of the ride. That accelaration knocked a couple of guys off the back (don't ask me who, I was close to throwing up at that point). We rolled towards the sprint sign as Mike burst into a 30+ mph lead out, followed by Ed who left me with too much road for my sprint. Danny was on my wheel and I let him start the sprint. I was able to hold his wheel as he went around me, but that was it...I was cooked.

Second aint bad considering the early hammering. But Danny has proven to be the man to beat when the going gets tough.









Following the ride I wasn't feeling "tip-top" if you know what I mean. A headache, dizzy and overall not good...I guess I shouldn't try to join in on the hammer-fest on the days that I skip lunch. Let me just nip the inevitable trash-talk in the bud...
Yes, I did call my wife to see if she would pick me up at the gas station and save me from my hellish 3 mile ride home.
No, she wasn't home and I peddaled my weak a** home all by myself.
so I don't want to hear any crap about getting a ride home

Funny T-shirts

Saw these and thought they were funny...hope you get a kick out of 'em.

Ouch!

Picture of the Day...
Ouch! this is no way to finish a race! A 45+ cyclist face plants while racing in the 44th Manhattan Beach Grand Prix in California over the weekend. for full race story, click this post's title






Saturday's ride
A nice day, if you like riding your bike in hell. By that I mean it was HOT, HOT, HOT. But I guess we've all become accustom to hot days in the saddle...or at least we've come to accept the hot days in the saddle.

Our ride was graced by Rebecca Larson, who is back from a busy season of racing professionally with the Colavita/Cooking Light cycling team. Rebecca recently placed 6th against the best in America at the 2005 U.S. Elite National Road Race Championships.


Another odd ride as there were attacks prior to the rest stop. I'm not sure what the catalyst was, but never-the-less, we were tearing down 441 in High Springs at 28-30 mph for the final eight miles before we stopped to refuel. At one point there was an effort to slow things down, but Lambert attacked again bringing the speed back up to 30 mph. With about three or four miles before the break, I got gapped when someone about 4 places in front of me sat up. When nobody tried to close the gap I sprinted back up to the end of the remaining cyclists at 35 mph. Needless to say, I was happy to get to the gas station and attempt to cool down.

There was talk of keeping the ride civil on the way home due to the frenetic pace up to that point...and for the first 3 miles it was. But just as I was rotating back to the rear, there was an acceleration at the front. I was now looking at having to chase up to the group AGAIN. I upped my pace and still wasn't closing on them, so after looking behind me and seeing that nobody was coming with I jumped out of the saddle and sprinted again up to the lead group. A few more did eventually bridge the gap as well, but that settled the lead group for the remainder of the ride.

I was unfortunately at the front of the group as we began to climb Chestnut Hill. I tried to a set a pace high-enough so as to deter the masochistic hammerheads from sprinting up to the top. Half-way up, I ran out of gas and watched as half of the group floated past me. Knowing that this was going to be THE move, I wrecked myself to maintain contact with them as we crested the hill and began the descent. I thought the lactic acid in my legs was going to burn through my shorts...but I held on.

At this point there were just 8 of us: Rebecca L., Danny M., Brett M., Jayson O., Mike R., Ira T., Naked Ed and Myself. Ed pulled off for a nature break just as we turned onto Millhopper, I guess when you gotta go, you gotta GO! I was thankful that nobody attacked over the I-75 overpass, cause I would have surely burst into flames right there on the side of the road. However, shortly after all the climbing was behind us, Jayson smartly attacked and caught our tired group off gaurd. Rebecca and Mike R. were the only ones to chase him down and the rest of us half-heartedly tried to maintain a high pace with the dream that they would come back to us.

We kept the 3 leaders within a hundred yards, but that was as close as they would get. Brett came to the front and put in a good chase at 28 mph but when he pulled off none of us could maintain it...thus ending our ride for the day. Apparently Mike didn't contest the sprint, and Rebecca was unsure of the sprint sign, but even with Jayson's great attack in the closing miles, my bet is that Rebecca was still the best on the day.

RESULTS:
1) Jayson O'Mahoney........
2) Rebecca Larson............ s.t.
3) Mike Robinson............. s.t.
4) Brett Miller................... 00:37
5) Danny Muehlschlegel... s.t.
6) Paul Messal.................. s.t.
7) Ira Thorpe.................... s.t.

***final results are based on hearsay and post-ride BS. They are in NO way "official". Readers should not attempt to refute these results as the editorial staff had basically made them up. Thank-you for reading.

As far as sunday goes...
I 86'd the GCC ride and took my wife, Jen, out to San Felaso for some leisurely mountain biking. This was my first time out on the fat tires in quite a while and the first time my wife had been on any kind of bike in even longer.

The heat and gradual climbs on the unshaded single-track sections quickly got the best of Jen and we cut the ride short and headed back for the parking lot. I still managed to wipe out while trying to be Billy-bad-a** on the power-line trail descent. A couple of scratches, some sore muscles and a bruised shin (and ego), but nothing major. I think we'll try it again next saturday, hopefully with better results.

Thursday's Ride (8-11)

The word is spreading! This "grass roots" blog is bieng talked about, it's being read, it's being scrutinized, it's being enjoyed and it's even being envied (Jayson). Hats off to those of you who faithfuly read and comment...you are the ones that make this blog worth writing; cause if it weren't for my faithful viewers, I'd just be puttin words on screen for myself to read...and if I'm the only one readin, I could be talking about my true love....musicals! (did I type that out loud?)

I got a call from a GCC member earlier tonight requesting the URL address of the blog he has been hearing about. I realize that some of you are shy and don't like to be put in the spotlight (no, I'm not talking about you Huan) so I won't tell you it was Tony (refer to the post titled "Hot, Hilly, Hard and HOT!" from july 18th). But this just shows that people like to hear about what's going on in the local cycling community.

Anyway...

In this evenings ride, there were only 6 of us at the start: Ira, Carl, Ed, Mike R., Scott and myself. We picked up Huan in Alachua and lost Carl somewhere before we hit Chestnut Hill.

We maintained an easier pace and opted for a route without all the climbs that 241 offers. Still averaging a respectable 22-23 mph we came to the bottom of Chestnut and Huan jumped. I went after him and noticed my speedometer was reading 22mph on the way up the catagory 1 climb (that's the G-ville catagorization). Unfortunatly I popped like a balloon once I passed Huan. Everyone regrouped on the decent and we headed for home, all except for Huan who headed back to Alachua where his car was parked.

We linked up with Anthony just before the left turn onto Millhopper, so he was lookin to do a good lead out. Just as we started going up the I-75 overpass on Millhopper, Scott had a very timely flat. Even though we were within 6 miles of the finish, nobody had a problem escorting him over the climb at 10mph into the San Felasco trail parking lot to fix the flat.

Carl caught up to us as we finished the repairs and we were off again. Anthony went to the front and got us back up to speed quickly. At the end, Anthony was on the front pulling hard, Mike jumped from 5th wheel. I was sitting right behind him and saw the attack soon enough to respond and stayed with him as he ramped it up over 30 mph. We were still a ways out so I didn't figure on him taking it all the way in, but he did pull me to within about 150 yards of the sign when I jumped. Ira was on my wheel so I lowered my head and burried it all the way.

Good ride for all of us. It seemed to be a bit darker at the end of the ride tonight. We probably have only a couple more weeks of 40 mile routs, then we'll have to cut it a little shorter in order to get home before the street lights come on.

Thanks for reading...

Pro news:

• Bobby Julich wins another tour! Not the Tour de France (duh) but the Tour of Benelux. This is the innaugural year for the the TdBenelux as it is a merging of two tours that are no longer held individually, the Tour of Belgium and the Tour of the Netherlands. For the full story, link to VeloNews by clicking on this post's title.



• The Discovery Channel team was also at the TdBenelux and managed a 3rd place finish in the overall with the Belgian (is that the correct way to say that Lambert?) rider, Leif Hoste...not too shabby.

• The Disco team had been making some rider aquisitions as have many of the Pro Tour teams. Egoi Martínez and Angel Gómez Marchante, two Spanish climbers, are expected to finalize the deal within the coming week. Does this mean that Johan is bulking on the climbing power in order to support Popo in the mountains in the 2K6 tour?

• Just out of curiosity, who does everyone think will be standing on the top step of the podium in Paris next year? Just comment on this post and tell us who your ON Evote is.

In Closing
...I'll leave you with the thought of the day:

You're like a slinky-
you are completely worthless...
but it's always amusing when
you're pushed down the stairs.

No more Joe (8-9)

Our first ride withour Joe...
• I was recovering from my cold
• Danny was taking it easy also due to a cold and actually went short today
• overall average speed went down about 1.5 mph
• Huan won the sprint
• I never got out of the saddle in the sprint because I skipped so many pulls
• Those present: Huan, Myself, Lambert, Scott, Ira, Susan, Naked Ed
• Speaking of Naked Ed...it was good to have him back in the mix today

The Tues/Thur group of cyclists decided that Joe Brew had earned the "white jersey" for being such an outstanding young rider. Even though it didn't come in on time, we got him an actual white jersey to commemorate his abilities. This jersey also may keep Joe from wearing old, thin cotton t-shirts. (see Joe magazine cover from previous post).

The jersey finally came in (big thanks to Danny for ordering and overseeing that whole process) and it was brought to today's ride. We all took a picture with it and will send it along to Joe in Tenn..



Finally...to commemorate Huan's win today, and his ability to replenish his blood supply, I give you his magazine cover!



***click on image to enlarge***

GCC weekend (8-6 to 8-7)...

• Well this past weekend was full of great riding.

• Even though saturday morning was overcast and foggy, there was a great turn-out for the ride on the south end of town. I like to think that the number of cyclists in attendance was a direct result of this blog and my email to the GCC list serve. We wanted a good number of folks out for Joe Brew's last ride of the season with us...and we got it!

Saturday started off nice and easy, apparently too easy for Danny who started the attacks only 15 miles into the ride. Of all the rides I've done with GCC, I think that was the first time that I saw attacks go before the rest stop.

All in all it turned out to be a great ride and Huan or Danny won the sprint on Williston Road (depending on which sign we were sprinting to, there was some confussion???).

Joe's ride turned out great and we all wished him well up at school.

• Sunday morning brought georgous weather and it also brought me a cold. With my throat feeling quite swollen, I opted to sit out the ride. I pretty much laid on the couch for the better part of the morning and only got up to go and get some lunch.

I hear from some of the other guys that sunday was about a 75 miler with about 25-30 on the ride. Ryan Sailor, who wasn't riding his single speed, pretty much beat the tar out of everyone in the closing miles. I wish I could've been there.

• Some other notes:
- Jayson O'Mahoney was giving me crap about this blog on saturday...Jason, if your reading this now, then you're obviosly jealous. And by the way, I heard you got dropped on sunday's ride.
- Danny sent me over some pictures from rides gone by, so I'll be posting some of those when they're appropriate.

My Tour de Georgia story

I previously mentioned on this blog that I was going to have a story published in a local "outdoor" magazine. You may have heard of it, it's called Adventure Healthy Living Magazine

You can click on this post's title to link to the online version of the magazine and read my article. It has to do with my wife and I going up to Georgia to watch the last couple of stages of the Tour de Georgia. I'm told that the printed version will be in all local Publix's this weekend and then other places to follow soon after. I've seen them at The Bike Route and at Gator Cycle...and they're free!

Aurvoir Joe Brew

Over the past few months, Joe Brew had diligently attended our little tue/thur gathering. He has proven himself to the entire field of A-group GCC riders week in and week out. He has pulled harder, climbed faster and led-out better than most of us on a regular basis. He's always willing to chase and never fails to attack. He brings all of that with him to every ride along with an infectious positive attitude.

Saturday will be Joe's last GCC ride before he heads back up to college at Sewanee, The University of the South in Tennessee. I've only had the privlege of knowing Joe for the past few months, but I; as most people who know Joe, have been very impressed with his drive and motivation. In talking to his dad, Chris, who rides with us often, I've found out that not only is Joe attending college on an academic scholarship, but he is also a distance runner on the school's track team...that's not all...Joe also finds time to compete on the schools ping-pong team (I know, wierd huh) and had one or two part-time jobs. This summer Joe had not only fit in about 200 miles a week on the bike with the club, but he runs like a million miles a week as well...or maybe like 60-80 miles a week. Joe also spent his summer working a landscaping job cause I guess he likes the heat? If I was that motivated when I was 19, maybe I'd be able to put the hurt on him instead.

I know that all of this sounds like a lot of ego stroking, but that's just it...there is no ego. If I wasn't singing the praises of Joe Brew, you wouldn't have any idea of how many things this kid has got going on (and I'm sure there is more than I've heard about). He's a stellar kid...and with that being said, you should all make sure to come out to saturday's GCC ride (8-6) to wish him well and ride along side of him...if you can hold his wheel that is.

I found this magazine at the newstand the other day and thought it was appropriate for Joe's departure. What a coincidence that Joe made the cover of Cycling Today the same week that he leaves for school.



***click on image to enlarge***

Joe has truly earned the Maillot Blanc (white jersey), as well as the respect of all who have ridden with him this summer!

Good Luck this semester Joe, we'll see ya soon!

Thursday's Ride (8-4)

Well, I felt better on today's ride than I have on any ride in the past few weeks!

There are probably a couple of things that factored into that. The first thing is that I just had a brand new Ultegera 10-speed groupo put on my bike. The guys over at The Bike Route did a great job, they stripped the entire bike down to nothing, cleaned it up, put a coat of wax on it, installed all the new stuff (the groupo plus Dura-Ace cables for both the shifters and the brakes...and an upgraded Dura-Ace front derailer) and now it's like a brand new bike. The second thing was that the pace was a bit more civil in the early parts of the ride (by civil, I mean an average of 22 instead of 24 or 25). That left me with some more gusto in the later parts of the ride.

Anyway, we did the same ole 40-miler, there were about 9 of us at the start and we pretty much stayed together for the bulk of the route. The final big hill coming out of Alachua put the hurt on a couple of guys, who were content to finish the ride at their own pace. The weather threatened the whole time, but never dropped more than a few sprinkles on us (thank goodness, cause I didn't want my shiney bike to get gritty).

Huan seemed to be riding strong, always raising the pace when his pull came around. I finally felt like I was able to contribute on my pulls and usually had enough in the tank for a slight increase in speed down twords the end. Six of us came to the bottom of Millhopper together; Joe, Mike R., Susan, Anthony, Huan and myself. We rode hard but stayed together, even over the final two climbs. Mike R. dropped somewhere after the last climb-so we were down to five.

I was feeling good, my bike was smooth and I was looking forward to the sprint. I was hoping that Joe would set me up with another killer lead-out as this was to be his last tue/thur ride before going back up to Tenn. for school. Susan, who is riding as strong as any of us, pulled through and I hit the front with about a mile or two left. I kicked the pace up slightly and then pulled off. While Huan was pulling on the front, Joe moved around me so we would be in line for the sprint. We were still about 2 km from the line and I knew that Joe had a lot of leading out to do. Since I was feeling pretty strong, I decided to jump way earlier than I normally would so Joe wouldn't have to kill himself. I had a good pop of speed and cranked it up to 33-34 mph. At first glance I didn't see a wheel behind me until about 50 meters to the line. I thought it was Huan trying to come around, but as it turned out...Anthony had caught my wheel and got me at the line.

Even though I felt stronger than I have in a while, I still only got 2nd. I should have probably let Joe lead it out a little longer before I jumped (Joe said afterwards that he still had some juice left). But non-the-less, "mad-props" to Anthony on a killer sprint...he deserved that one!

Tuesday Ride (8-2)

Real Quick:
• About a dozen of us at the start
• We did the 40-mile route up 239 and back down 241.
• Huan met up with us on 241 in Alachua
• I got ANOTHER flat about 10-12 miles out, everyone waited...thanks!
• group wittled down to about 8 as we came up Millhopper. (Ira, Scott, Danny, Joe, Huan, Lambert, Mike R. and myself)
• I was dying as we crested the last climb.
• with about 1.5 km to go, my left foot started to cramp so I sat up.
• Huan took the sprint and made sure to point out that I had remarked earlier on this blog that "I had never seen him beat Danny in a sprint". Huan must have replenished his blood supply.

Saturday (7-30)

Saturday's GCC ride met on the north side of town and saw a great turnout. About two dozen cyclists started the A-ride on the beautiful saturday morning.

A photographer from the Alachua County Tourist Development Council had drivin out ahead of us to get some shots for an upcoming poster promoting the outdoor activities in Alachua county. I timed things just right to make sure I was on the front of the group as we rode past the "paparazzi". The photographer followed us and got a few more shots before turning around.

The ride ended up being about 70 miles. The first half of the ride was a comfortable pace that allowed for a lot social chit-chat amongst the group and the temperatures weren't as hot as they have been either. We stopped to re-fuel in Waldo (I think?) and then headed back for G-ville.

After tackling the hills of Alachua every tues/thurs, this ride suited me just fine. The long miles weren't hard because they were nice and flat. That left a lot of people with juice in thier legs at the end of the ride. My rear tire started to go mushy with about 10 miles to go. I was going to just let it go and hopfully make it back to the Chevron, but it practically rolled off the rim when we turned a corner. I didn't think the group would stop that close to the end of the ride, but everyone did (thanks to all of you who waited, I do appreciate it!). With the help of Lambert, it was a quick change and we were back on the road.

A few small attacks went, but nothing serious. The pace was high as we turned onto 441 and contined to be quick all the way down 43rd. Ryan Sailor, who was riding his single speed (with 42x15 gearing), knew that a group sprint wouldn't suit him; seeing as how he was turning about 500 rpm's. He snuck off the front with about a mile to go and got a gap. Nobody was chasing him back and the sprint sign kept getting closer. When I saw Joe Brew jump out of the saddle and start to ride away I figured that he was my last chance to catch Ryan.

Joe's chase turned into a 32 mph lead out...and just before we made contact with the fast spinning Sailor, I jumped around Joe and took the sprint. There would have been no chance in hell if Ryan was on his Madone, but I'll take 'em when I can get 'em.

All in all a great ride...cool(er)...long...not hilly...and a good finish for me. I treated Joe to a cool drink at the Chevron as thanks for the killer lead out.

Thursday (7-28)

I'm going to play a little catch up with my ride reviews:

Last thursday saw only 4 of us show up for the ride. Everyone must have forseen the impending rain. Ira, Scott, Joe and myself took advantage of the lack of attendance and headed of on a different route. We headed to the beautiful town of Newberry.
As the rain got closer, the winds got stronger. Scott took a long pull into the wind as we got to Newberry and it began to rain. It didn't really pour, but it was just enough to get us all lightly dusted with road grit.
Ira broke off in order to get home a bit quicker due to the weather and the remaining three of us continued on at our friendly 20 mph average.
The pace stayed amicable until we got about 3 miles from the sprint sign, then Joe ramped up the pace. Once the sign was in sight, Joe, who was sitting 3rd wheel, swung out wide and tried to gap us. Scott didn't respond as I gave it all I had just to catch the wheel of the sprinting 19 year old. Once I was in the draft it wasn't a problem getting around Joe as he had been holding 30+ mph for a while.

Talkin about funny...

Just another random post I thought I'd share with you all.

Dane Cook is a comedian, some of you may have seen him on Comedy Central or even here in G-ville at last year's Gator Growl. His comedic styleings are sometimes on the more, should I say "adult" side of things....Anyway, he is one of the minor actors in the upcoming Movie Waiting that I told you about in a previous post.



Go to his site as sample his humor, It'll make you want to go see that movie even more (unless you dislike "adult" humor)

***Click the title of this post to link to Dane Cook's website***