A TEAM SHINES AT GAINESVILLE HORSE FARM 100 !!!!

Sunday October 21st the A TEAM rode in yet another event on their heavy fall
cycling schedule which has included 6 GAP in Dahlonega, Ga... the Swampman in
wonderful Baker County and others to numerous to mention.....

Over 800 hundred riders enjoyed the beautiful Horse Farm country and got to
meet members of the Jacksonville A TEAM.....

Next event... the Horrible 100 in Clermont, Florida November 18th.... so come
on down and eat hot dogs after the ride with members of the World Famous
A TEAM !!!

ART GONZALEZ RETURNS JULY 7TH, 2007 !!!

Unannounced ... Art Gonzalez rode TDJ Saturday July 7th. His first ride since his mishap in early April.... All went well and Art covered 34 miles with ease....

Riders were stunned at Art's cycling ability since he had not ridden for months..

The A TEAM is whole again !!!! Welome back Art !!!

July 4th - Baldwin Trail Fireworks

56 miler NFBC ride from the trail, looks like about 30 or so showed up including the ever present A-Team riders of Marino & myself. Kendall Frederick also joined the fray since his posse was out at the Nationals tearing it up.

Under overcast skies the ride started out downwind so the pace was brisk, about 21ish up to the stop at the convenience store. It was a good thing we all had ride maps because as a group, all of us missed the left turn at MLK on the trail so improvised to doing the route in reverse order.

I think this guy named Potts was the ride leader but I never really saw him during and at the convenience store stop several took off while others, me & Marino to name a few, were still filling water bottles and re-fueling. Fragmented is what happened next, a group took off and I scrambled to get back on the bike - didn't want to be gapped.

Now I'm looking ahead at this group, I didn't see Marino or Kendall as I left the store so I'm thinking they're up ahead on that pack. I start hammering it to try & catch up hoping Mike & Kendall are in the group telling them to back it down until 4 or 5 of us latch on. I didn't realize that Mike was behind me or I would have dropped immediately.

Anyway, got lucky, the group ahead was slowed by a stop light & then caught a draft from a truck to catch up. Now, as I catch up, I am just finishing a hard effort and coasting so I come up on the left of some old guy who gives me crap for not saying something so I told him basically to shove it since he & the others left us & I just finished sprinting to catch their asses!

Back in the pace line about 10 riders back I think I'm seeing Marino's jersey until Kendall drops back to say "Where's Mike?" Uh Oh...so we drop a bit but see nobody behind us (Actually Kendall dropped quite a bit but then he's more capable than I of making up the gap) so we rejoin the lead group. Now, some fat chick ahead of us lets the lead dogs gap us and Kendal decides to have no part so he goes & I go with him...I don't know why but I did. Kendall hammers out a steady 24 mph for a couple of miles w/me hanging on his wheel, barely and we catch lead group.

Stayed with that group for about 15 miles or midway on Yellow Water then cracked and dropped. Ended up riding the last 15 solo mostly in the rain.

A great workout, some are miffed about how the ride blew apart, 56 total miles in about 2:45 is faster than I had intended.

Went home & took a 1 hr nap & felt great after, wouldn't it be great if we could always nap after a ride?

Post ride thoughts:

1. Sorry Mike, I really thought you were ahead of me at the break or I would have dropped, honest.

2. Didn't plan on the hammer fest but it turned out to be a great hard effort work out.

3. Kendall is flat out riding like a maniac, that pull he did to catch the lead group was a blast & down right impressive!

I am buying a new Bianchi!

Celeste Green. It's beautiful. Not as beautiful as the rider, though.

It's for Anne. Rode the maiden voyage this afternoon after borrowing the bike from Scott Gross at Open Road. She loved it, much more so than the Specialized Dolce we test-rode on Saturday. Needless to say, I won't be bringing it back to Open Road and will have to haggle with Scott.

Some Saturday rides may soon be very slow. And very rewarding.

New Guy Pics

Here are the belated pictures of Peter's induction into the A-Team Hall of Shame. The shots would have been posted earlier, but my camera froze up after these pictures were taken. I'm just sayin'.....
Notice that the new guy is looking at his watch wondering when all this is going to be over.
Anyway, welcome Peter. It's great to have you aboard.

Newest Icon photo

Leo got a couple of shots in the new jersey...

RAM

Fellow Icons,

Rapped out 50 big ones this morning to see how the bod would hold up...

did alright.... went to Orangedale and back...... nice turnout for RAM....

did get caught in the rain the last 10 miles.....


Peter...being a member of the A TEAM is a life changing experience .....

The A Team Jersey!!!!

Gentlemen of the A Team...Thanks for the jersey and a spot on cycling's most elite team; THE A TEAM!

I'm sure it was a difficult decision to let a shlep like me hold an A Team jersey!

Seriously, always thought you guys would keep it just the four of you as I thought it should be so, I was really surprised!

Thanks again & I will certainly try to uphold the A Team legacy as icons of cycling!

New Bike repair stand

So, I gave my old, unstable work stand to a guy in our church. He is heading to Malawai for a mission trip to, get this, repair bikes since it can be a major source of transportation.

Bought the Park stand shown, really nice, now if I just knew how to work an allen wrench...

Almost as cool as a new bike frame.

Memorial Day Weekend

Hope all had a safe cycling/rehab kind of a weekend for Memorial Day.

Leo & I spent Saturday and Sunday in Atlanta attending 2 Braves games. Losing both against the Phillies, Bobby Cox got thrown out of the Friday night game - again - and the Phillies clobbered the Braves on Sunday 13 to 6.

We took a tour of the Georgia Aquarium on Saturday...pretty nice aquarium but very crowded.

So, it's time to get back to riding next weekend, I'll probably do the Velo Brew ride Sunday & not sure what ride for Saturday.

The Disney race report is up at http://www.kingdogwood.com/

Later...

As we lounged at the first rest stop, Marino asked me how the Litespeed felt & I didn't get real animated but told him it was pretty good stuff. Well, just for the record...THE LITESPEED ROCKS BABY!
Some Observations...
-Didn't feel the road vibrations as much
-The Campy group shifting is incredibly smooth and crisp
-She's fast
-That guy at the end passed me as I was doing 27, caught him and when we stopped at the light he looked like he was ready to melt (Ok, the triathlon training may have something to do with that)
-Was able to stay with Art

I would have to rate it 5 stars out of 5...

Memory Lane sure is steep

Check out this link and remember. Some of those .05s are painful to the memory banks.

Mark your calendar

Upcoming schedule:

• April 21-22: TOSRV
• April 29: Tour de David Vanderzee's Forts
  
• May 6: Rotary A1A Ocean Shore Scenic Highway Bicycle Ride
• May 21: Jekyll Island Challenge
• July 22-29: RAGBRAI XXXVI
  
• Sept. 2: Historic Savannah Century
• Sept. 9: Watermelon Crappy Route Century
  
• Sept. 30: Six Gap Century
• Oct. 21: Horse Farm Hundred
• Nov. 18: Horrible Hundred

Please advise as to additions, subtractions, etc.

The best riding bike you own or have ever owned?

There's a thought.

Me, it's a real toss-up. Rode the Specialized on Sunday for the first time in a couple of months
and it felt really good. I guess it's whichever one I'm on at the time.

The best riding ... ever? Probably the yellow-and-red Serotta Atlanta that I had in 2001-2.

Back in the, um, groove

Month off the bike. Back yesterday with the VB group, A's and B's together.

Art is an animal. He and the rest of the A's took off from Orangedale back north and cranked it up to 27-28 mph with a tailwind (this after doing 24-25 in the headwind), leaving Grace and me (with Ed) in the rear, way back, again. At 210, Ed summarily decided we wouldn't follow. We headed straight back.

On Beauclerc Road, it suddenly occured to me that I had recently had 'roid surgery and that the adrenaline of being back in the saddle had worn off. I could no longer sit, so I stood the rest of the way — dancing on the pedals — back up SJ to OR.

Ouch.

At least I didn't crash.

Longest ride ever

This is the longest distance I've ever done on a single ride, rode a hard 110 miles Saturday on the tri bike. Two 55 mile loops starting at the Imeson trail head. Started out freezing & miserable for about 2 hours until the sun was up enough to warm things up.

Apparently, I didn't inflate the Zipps enough, on the first loop I struggled to hold 17mph. Got back to the car & inflated the tires & a vast improvement. Dealing with those valve extenders on the Zipps is a hassle, the air pump acts a little different than when it's straight on the tire valve vs the Zipps valve extenders, it's more difficult to determine tire pressure w/the extenders cause the pump doesn't hold the pressure to measure psi...another lesson learned.

Also had some gastric issues on the first loop & I think it's those damn Cliff Bars...on the 2nd loop had an Oatmeal Raisin Power Bar with me & it was more agreeable with the gastric plumbing. Another good nutrition discovery for long rides is Wheat Thins, I'll be packing those little crackers at IMAZ.

Hey ART - At breakfast did the Starbuck's double shot thingy I bought w/you Friday...hope that didn't cause the gastric stuff ,it would have been a good thing to have taken proior to hitting the 2nd loop.

So, with the under inflation among other things, it was a tough ride and on the final loop coming down 121 with the wind in the face...that hurt. Then it's back down the trail where, get this, I crashed! Lost concentration long enough to drift off the Baldwin trail & crash, I also think the wind assisted catching the Zipps, and BOOM! Not to worry, the bike is fine! I have road rash on the leg & arm, but as I said, the bike is fine.

At the end of the ride, got off the bike & felt a little dizzy so no mood to do a run, just headed home & took a 1hr nap then ended up going to bed later that night at 9:30.
Other than that...

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Tour of California

You'll notice that there is no coverage in this morning's Sports section about the TOC. (In case you missed it, it was leap-out-of-your-chair awesome at the end; Leipheimer wins the prologue by 1.4 seconds.)

I'm asking you to do a couple of things because somehow, my arguments have fallen on deaf ears. Please complain to the following people:

chet.fussman@jacksonville.com (sports editor)
mike.richey@jacksonville.com (managing editor)
wayne@ezell@jacksonville.com (reader advocate)

You can also leave a voice mail for Wayne at 359-4217. That works best.

Send this message to all the cycling people you know.

Thanks

Echo ... echo ... echo ... echo...

Is there anybody out there ... anyone at all ...

Yes it is

Had to bail at Bolles. Couldn't breathe; hacking up too much.

I do not want pneumonia on the menu.

Tomorrow, at 38 degrees, is iffy. A 9 a.m. start suddenly sounds better.

It's snot that bad

Assuming it does not rain heavily, I will be riding this weekend. I will need many nose-blow breaks, however.

Crap

I am neither sleeping nor riding later on today.

Why is it kids get rid of colds in one or two days and adults can't?

Why am I the only one who can hear the bike crying out for me from the garage?

Bike Porn - The new Litespeed

A few pics of the new bike...

Sinister plot revealed

Oops. Better return that Caisse d'Epargne jersey

The French newspaper Le Monde has reported that 2006 Tour de France runner-up Oscar Pereiro tested positive twice for the asthma drug salbutamol. The rider's urine tested positive for the drug after stage 14 and again after stage 16. Poised to take the title of Tour winner ever since Floyd Landis' positive control for testosterone, Pereiro might instead find himself banned from the race because of a dispute between the UCI and the French antidoping agency over what the agency views as excessive medical exemptions.

The UCI had apparently granted Pereiro, along with dozens of other riders, 'therapeutic use exemptions' (TUE's) for drugs that are normally banned in competition unless the athletes can show a medical need for the substance. However, the French antidoping agency AFLD was not satisfied with Pereiro's documentation for his exemption for the asthma drug, and were suspicious of the large number of riders being granted exemptions.

AHA

Testing....1..2.... testing .....tap...tap...tap...is it working ??

I was in a fog and got bogged down trying to do a blog....( great stuff)

Special thanks to A TEAMER Art...Sluggo....New Wheels ....Gonzalez....for making it possible for me to get to the blog site......MY PEOPLE have the week off .... thus I have to do it myself....

Had a nice ride yesterday with Bert from Santa Barbara California....new to Jax......joined enroute in Bishop Estates by James Cardon who was told where we were by Mike M....

Margaret rode 40 big ones again yesterday..taking advantage of the fine weather for the 3rd day in a row...........she can tell Mike M and Art and Paul but not sure about Peter....Margaret does not were her glasses while riding

Powered down to the South Mandarin Library this morning.....windy and crisp...felt good....22mph average.....

So now I know where all the conversations between A TEAMERS--Cycling ICONS in the
HUB OF THE UNIVERSE ..have been taking place.....

Have a personal appearance in 2 hours...thus must get ready.....

We are low on A TEAM 8X10s

Mike, I want the miles

Brian, Charles and I didn't think we'd make it to Hooters in time so we parked farther south (those two at S&S, me at Verizon). We did 62 miles, about 30 of them with Bob.

That's 62 closer to the coffee mug if you please, Mr. Hannigan.

Full ahead Litespeed!

A busy 3 day weekend...started with the Zipp flat-fest on Saturday. Just so you know, there are still good people out there, while waiting for Holly in front of Berkman plaza I asked a security guard if there was a cafe in Berkman to get a cup of coffee. Turns out there is but they aren't open on Saturday, she said you can't get a cup off coffee around here, the only place is the Landing. So, I say have a nice day & off she goes...abut 15 minutes later she drives up in her security guard car, gets out & brings me a cup of coffee she had bought at Burger King...good folks are out there & that coffee was as good as any Starbucks!

Build the Litespeed - Marino assembles the Litespeed over the course of about 4 hrs which includes a road trip to Kent Lofton's place where Mike proceeds to take over the mechanic's station. Thank God he did or we wouldn't have gotten the Mavic converted to Campy.

Left Mike's to go referee a youth basketball game & the coach the following...our girls got pummeled 40 to 10.

Sunday - no church for me, instead I finished installing the new attic stairs into the new ceiling I framed & finished out last weekend. Oh yeah, did a 1 hr interval run before that. Left for the Cecil pool at 3:30 & got in a 4000 yard swim then home to grill some chicken. Tried putting the pedals on the Litespeed only to mangle my thumb (the wrench slipped & my thumb impaled itself on a tooth on the front chain wheel...OUCH!!!!

Monday - Small group meeting at the church at 7am followed by 48 mile Mandarin Loop ride. Saw Hannigan's better half, Margaret but I don't think she knows who I am? I said hello...
Home to do yard work some pressure washing of the front walk & then took Hannah to her 4pm Physical therapy session. Took the Litespeed to Drew to get the pedals put on, apparently I am a loser bike mechanic & stripped the threads so after several expletives & failure to get the pedals on, Drew saves the day.

So, the Litespeed is about ready, took it for more of a real test spin tonight with the pedals. The Zipps are off the tri bike as I don't want to use them for training...this is way more than you want to know & I won't post this crap again, just had one of those weekends.

That is all...

Sunday's ride

A Team members Sluggo and Heywood take their turns, curiously (and perhaps too) often, leading the Velo Brew ride that featured a guest appearance by Scott Summe and the usual polemics by Ed. 54 miles, one brief stop at 19 miles. A unique route, but it was a nice Northside/Westside outing that was done by 11:15. Take that, NFBC.

A beautiful day.

Good and Bad

Bad - The face plate on my stem is peeling.
Good - It will be replaced at no cost under warranty.
Bad - The shop found a couple of cracks in my rear wheel by the spoke nipples
Good - The wheel will be replaced at no cost under warranty
Bad - The new rear wheel will not match the front wheel. The front wheel's style has been discontinued.
Good - Renee insisted - insisted! - that I order a new matching front wheel. Something about safety.
Bad - The front wheel won't be free.

1989 World Championships finish

Is this the greatest Worlds finish ever? What about the look on Fignon's face? And LeMond's?

"Dick" Pound on Landis

"He was 11 minutes behind or something, and all of the sudden there's this Herculean effort, where he's going up mountains like he's on a goddamn Harley," Pound, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told Michael Sokolove of the New York Times. "It's a great story. Wonderful. But if it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

"I mean, it was 11 to 1!" he continued, referring to the reported testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio in Landis' positive sample. "You'd think he'd be violating every virgin within 100 miles. How does he even get on his bicycle?"

Tevye!

Eddie Mekka? aka Carmon Ragusa

Ain't Google Images grand...Nishtkefelecht!

When the time changes, third week of March. There are no A Team rides that start at 9. Of course, I don't know why we can't have one at 7:30 and have another ride that starts at 9, either at Steakshaky or somewhere else. That's Mike H's suggestion. But of course, we can't. Because having only one Sunday ride is ... TRADITION!


Riding back solo along 13, makes me wonder if we should lengthen the Ruta and go down 210 instead of Greenbrier. Really nice road.

BTW, bonus points if you can guess who that is playing Tevye.

Paul's new bike

When's the next A-Team ride? Someone asked me about it today.

Ti spokes suck

Broke another one today. I guess 178 pounds is too much for them; that makes 2 broken ones in the last 3 rides on the wheel. I think I'll swap them all out for stainless and see if the ride is any different.

On another topic, I have a question: I understand the 60 miles on the bike, and the 3 miles running. But refereeing? Does that substitute for swimming? Good call throwing him out of the game, though. Go blue.

January 7 Ride

OK, here goes.
Like Peter, I like this format too. It's better than the original A-Team site that Mike built a year or so ago.
Sunday's ride was great. Rode to 1st Place Sports because my faithful 11 year-old Honda would not start this morning. It started when I needed to back the car out of the garage, but once it was loaded with the bike and gear, well, it decided not to crank at all.
On the way to 1st Place Sports I saw cycling icon Mike Hannigan going in the opposite direction. I took that as a good sign. I pulled in as the group was leaving.
A few guys did their pull, including cycling icon Mike M. Then Bob, Grace's BF, took the helm. He never got off the front. I was riding behind him expecting him to peel off any minute, especially after his first half hour. But he never did. Normally, I would not mind. But Bob is not built like Harmon. The guy provided no shelter from the wind. I felt like I was pulling. It was brutal.
So Bob lead us to the only rest stop on the ride: the Chevron station at 13 and 16. That's when someone mentioned that a rider had busted a spoke. When I didn't see Mike, the light bulb when on over my head.
It wasn't until I got home that I noticed that Mike M. had called and left a voice message stating that he'd busted a spoke and was going to limp back to the car. Sorry that I didn't see your mishap and missed your call Mike.
The car checked out OK at Sears. Turned out to be a loose terminal. Or so they say. If anyone gets a collect call from me in the middle of the night, guess what I'll be calling about?
Also took the bike to Bicycles Etc. for its annual check up. Paul was right; they are selling Scott bicycles now. One of the shop guys told me that Trek is planning on opening a concept store around Crown Point and San Jose. How 'bout that?
Oh yeah, I also filled out a profile for RAGBRAI. The registration is next. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I'm really pumped about the prospect. Look forward to some hard and heavy training as the months go by.
Well, so much for my first blog ever.
Wonder what's going to happen when I hit the Publish button?

I Like it!

I like the Blog much better than a website for this "kind of activity." Solves the problem of content mamagement by letting the users create it...don't know if that's good or bad with this crew :)

Did a practice triathlon Saturday; rode 60, ran 3, refereed 2 youth games. In the second game, boys 17 & under, the testosterone flared as this one kid tackles another on a fast break. It was so flagrant I ejected him & we suspended him for a couple of weeks...I say we fine him ala the NBA...

PK

The last corner of Mont Ventoux

This is why no one ever sprints to win a stage here. It's a brutal last corner. At the top, though, you get a medal.

Alpe d'Huez 2003

Damn. No shots of the 1K to go banner.

Who's riding this weekend?

Saturday, low 60s in the morning, chance of rain.

Sunday, ditto, but more of a chance of rain.

Test post. Again.

Test post.

OK, it's redesigned and ready to go for the new year. Comments appreciated.