Whittle Down

With eighteen people leaving the D Street Hotel at a bit after 9am today, you would have thought it was spring (and with the warm temps, it had that vibe). Within an hour though, it was also obvious that it's January and everyone's in a different place and frame of mind. Eighteen whittled its way down to three as Sir Wilhelm, Sam and I cruised in and enjoyed various espresso refreshments while Sam and Tony place bets over who weighed more. Confident in my gold medal status, I watched a close battle for silver with vanilla latte in hand. In the end, Sam took the silver by a scant few pounds and the medal was his.

Happy Birthday, Sam.

Kanza Over Coffee

Generally, my morning's are pretty similar during the work week. Rise, triple mocha, go through some work email, see the kids off to school and head to work. Today added the simple pleasure of signing up for the Dirty Kanza. With my name already in the ring for 3 races and roughly 410 miles total, I better keep adding up the saddle time.

Anyone else sign up this morning?

Start to Finish

The Sketch

The Stencil



Black Completed

Black up close

Finished Product

The Friendly Skies

One cancelled flight, reroute to Chicago and a lost bag marked the end of my week in San Fran for Macworld. With 40s and 50s replaced by 13 degrees and a windchill of 2 this morning, the lack of riding prevailed over the colder temps. The hands could have used a little more love, but otherwise it was two-wheeled happiness again.

"Once more into the breach, dear friends."

The Streets of San Francisco

Assorted Snobbery: We Are Devo

Just returned from seeing Devo at the Warfield.  I had forgotten how much schtick they rolled with, even Boogie Boy made an appearance.  Of course, there was a certain sadness to watching middle aged fat guys rewind the tape for Office for Mac and have Boogie Boy close things out with a strange anti-computer mini rant.  Devolution indeed.

On the positive side, SF is truly full of bikes, including lines of cyclists this morning cruising their commutes, most on practical machines for the trade.  Here's hoping the iPhone shots come out well tomorrow.

Blackout

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"The Monkey on Your Back is the Latest Trend"

While I am no proponent of "resolutions," there's also no question the holidays and associated timeoff provide a refresh that was sorely needed this year. With a year long pursuit finally coming to close at the office and newly issued technical gadgets and gizmos, one more trip seems to be all that stands between consistent saddle time and a build up to what will hopefully be a nice 2008, both on the bike and off. It certainly doesn't hurt to have temps jump into the 40's and find yourself riding with friends in sunshine either.

Post title curteousy of The Moldy Peaches. Sense of irony? That would be me.

Sharpening Sticks. Polishing Stones.

Easing Back Into Traffic

The Spectrum

Perhaps the best decision I made in 2007 was the one to let go of the blog, without qualification and without plan. In fact, most of the posts since I went 'under the bridge' were actually Mrs. Snob.

Of course, that's not to say that nothing's been going on and the lowlight and highlight of the cycling year's end turned out to occur within about 45 minutes of each other. With my cross season already fully collapsed and a bad right leg still causing me issues, I decided to go superfan for CX Nationals. The single speed race came early and cold on Sunday and as the event staff prepared to call racers to the line, I milled about silently watching and trying to keep warm. As they started to call racer's up, Marko, Cam Chambers, Sir Tony and Sam were all right together doing what they could to stay warm; Marko rocking the BKB skin suit, Tony in his Trek kit and Cam rocking a damn fine argyle sweater vest. After only a handful of racers moved to the line, I heard my name get called and repeated. Fuck. Sam graciously put an end to it and let them know I wasn't racing and moved himself into the second row. I wouldn't have stood a chance in that race, but the prerace chatter would have been worth it. Despite my working to remain undercover, Cam saw through the winter layers and shot me a hello which made things better... and worse.

Once the race started though, the superfan showed up and it was game on. Tony took off in his usual bat out of hell style, Marko, T Brown and Cam fired hard and things were rolling. Sam, Carp and the Kitten Factory King pushed hard in the cold. (and boy did I get a lot of strange looks when I yelled "Kittens!!")

Of course, Marko took the race, Cam podiumed wearing a pair of these, and there were more folks from Lincoln around than one could count. Good times.

Throw in the holidays, family, good books, Lake boots and a new Wii and it's game on again for 2008.

Merry... Happy... Etc...

Christmas Come Early

Santa's already been to our house and dropped off a whole lot of sweet 6 inch cuff wool War Axe socks.

And for most of you, you haven't gotten a chance to see the War Axe Bicycles logo. Check them out for that reason alone. Supa sweet.

Are You Smart Enough to Read This Blog?

(sung to the tune of Are You Strong Enough to Be My Man)

Credit to Marc for the Blog Readability Test.

Back to Basics

The fall has always been a time of year I've marked in some subtle way, like some people take note of birthdays or the turning of a new year. I often point to the weather, which is a little like someone freshly twenty-one blaming their drunken orgy on their birthday cake. This blog and the blogging world are things I have been weary of for a while and so a change was in order. I try to have enough class not to burn bridges, but I've always been one to step off course, walk down the embankment and sit for a few hours watching driftwood catch on the pillars rising out of water. I would never wish for a perpetual autumn, but it's time to sit and let the water pass by for a while.

Assorted Snobbery: Tyler Durden Asks...

If you could fight anybody, who would you fight?

The Endurosnob Awards 2008

It's that time of year again and, apparently, some of you are ready to begin nominations judging by a few emails I have gotten. Third verse, same as the first. Nominations in the comments and we'll hold the actual voting throughout the next couple of weeks.

Fiendish reminder: Photos can simply be sent to me via the email in my profile.

As I always point out, the idea is to give people props and respect.

Category One: Endurance Cyclist of the Year.

Category Two: Single Speeder of the Year.

Category Three: Photo of the Year.

Category Four: Blogger of the Year.
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As always, I'll get the ball rolling:

Endurance Cyclist of the Year. Dick Hickey. (Myth and Legend.)

Single Speeder of the Year. Jesse LaLonde. (The Cheq victory topping an already great year.)

Blogger of the Year. BikeSnobNYC. (The meteor is burning brightly. I hope he can keep the material fresh.)

Like last year, I'll save my photo selection for the actual voting.

Bring it.

Two for the Money

I noticed today that a few of Lincoln's finest hit the VeloNews wire. Syd, Nate and Jesse P all crushed grooved. I shot the fellas an email and Jesse P. fired a couple of pictures back to me, both of which are on a shortlist of the best photos I have seen all year. Plus, the come with great stories.

Nate apparently bounced around like a kangaroo in both the SS race and the A's. At one point, he was pushing the patience of a Cat 1 roadie who asked him point blank if Nate was going to keep jumping the barriers. "Yep" was Nate's simple response.

Yes Virginia, Evil Unicorns can fly. Think you cleared it far enough, Nate?


Jesse was locked into a cat and mouse battle of his own during the A's, patiently waited until the final time through the sand to bury himself and take second place on the box.

RRRaw PowerRRR!!!

Cycleworks Trek Demo Day

It was pretty chilly out at the lake after work, but Damon, Butch and Kris hung tough out at the demo day today. I showed up late and took one shot which is worth about 1000 captions. Butch mid-story, Damon looking a bit skeptical and twilight falling across the lake.

Caption Contest Anyone? (If anyone can actually guess what was being discussed, coffee or beer is on me.)

Decompression Sessions

In an effort to restart my increasingly strange system, I took Mrs. Snob on a date to Haymarket Yoga on Saturday. Despite a great length of time since I've enjoyed a session, I quickly found the familiar flow into the various "painful but oh so enjoyable" positions to be had. Ohhmmmmm is right.

I made the mistake of feeling a bit cocky and, right on cue, we moved to the hamstrings and as the various people around me found their ankles and feet, I gently reach out to my shins. Thanksfully, the vibe had properly stolen all of the competiveness from the room and I settled in to enjoy whatever I could do.

Today, was further active recovery with a spin about town. Just chilling. I also looked further at 08 and now think that WWDC will shot down the NUE series for me. Plenty of other great stuff out there though.

Well, It's Morning...

... but I wouldn't say it's good.

I feel asleep a little after 7pm, missed a chance to ride with Sam and woke up at 2:00am. Now what am I going to do? Post, apparently.

In case you missed it, it's time.

Time to get your postcards ready for TI. Mine has an "Appetite for Destruction."

Time to check your schedule for Kanza. Saturday, May 31, 2008.

And time to decide if you want to take a stab at the NUE. (If I still lived in Indy, it would be a logistical piece of cake.)

Of mild interest is the fact that I first learned all of this from a site I had sworn off, MTBR. I guess I have now reached lurker status there again as it doesn't seem to be the land of intentionally leaked news.

I was going to end with a pithy comment about Dali's Persistence of Time, but now it seems trite. Enjoy your friday. Mine's apparently already started.