PARKOUR

ARGH, cold+rain+cycling=NOT COOL!

I'm somewhere between Philly and NYC, but it feels like Belgium.

The magical 30

It's been a long time since I got in a 30hr week, but I've skipped a few classes and started rides earlier to bump up the mileage. The weather has been relatively cooperative, so life is good! Yesterday I even ran into my friend Shawn from Penn State and then we had a great group ride with Shawn's former coach and even had Boulderite Carter Jones in town for Thanksgiving.

I had a great time this weekend at my aunt and uncle's place in Short Hills, NJ, an hour north of Princeton. I've made it an annual routine to come up with my great aunt and great uncle (Class of 1948!) and it's always fun to see them, eat good food, escape The Princeton Bubble, and get a change of scenery.

My Princeton Cycling teammate Gavin Daly came up for the holiday as well. He's a first year grad student in Civil Engineering, and he's from Ireland and doesn't have any family over here, so we were happy to take him up. Gavin's one of the most hilarious guys I've met in quite a while, and we had some excellent "discussions" (read: heated debates) with my conservative Uncle Mike!

I was just catching up on VeloNews and noticed Rock Racing is having a clothing "sale" (i.e. their short/jersey kit is ONLY $450 now) so I killed some time perusing their site . . . while I was checking out the USPRO RR pics ("Tyler's Redemption") I spotted myself in a couple!

This was after a CRAZY first small lap through Greenville--no one had any clue what the course was like, and there were some very technical, sketchy corners. I was happy to be alive at this point.

This is cool! Apparently Freddy can get a nice draft off of The Frey-Train.

ROLLERS = BOREDOM

Crappy weather has put a cramp in my style this week . . . I'm planning a bike block of training to take advantage of no classes and post-rest-week freshness. Things are going well, and I'm excited to be almost done with the semester!

Check out the BORING SRM file below, as well as the graphical depiction of my training since starting my training for 2009 about a month ago.

SICK new team ride!

Yours truly and all the boys on Team Legacy Energy are going to be riding the BMC Pro Machine SLC01 for the 2009 season! This has to be the sweetest, most unique bike in the peloton today. Just check out the review from Cyclingnews. These are the same bikes that the BMC team have used in 2008 with much success.

We're getting the hookup from The Cycologist, the best bike shop in Ft. Collins, probably even in Colorado. That's definitely saying a lot. If you're ever in the area, make SURE to stop in to the shop--even if you don't plan on buying anything, it's a sweet place to chill and you might walk away with one of their cool pairs of socks or a Legacy Energy jersey!

Drool over some more pics below.

Change

TOO COOL!

Welcome to my blog! Mercer Cup pics below . . .

So I'd like to welcome all new readers (as well as current readers, since it's been a while since I last posted!) to my blog. I share race reports and pictures as well as what I'm doing for training. I have also begun to include whatever I think is interesting--stuff I'd normally forward to my close friends.

The other thing I plan to talk about a lot is my business, Sol Cycles. I'm still a senior at Princeton (mechanical engineering--I AM a masochist), but I graduate in LESS THAN SEVEN MONTHS and I'm moving out to the one-and-only Boulder, Colorado to race with Team Legacy Energy and build my business.

What is Sol Cycles??? Check it out here. Sol Cycles are bamboo bicycles. They are unique and beautiful, but the best part: they ride better than any other material on the market today. I've been on every type of bike imaginable, from my Dad's old Al Raleigh from the early 90s all the way to a $10k+ TIME VXRS Ulteam. Bamboo naturally dampens high-frequency vibrations (similar to the new Museeuw bike!) and thus it can be very stiff and light but also the most comfortable ride imaginable. This keeps you fresh after a long day in the saddle! I've raced on a prototype and done thousands of training miles--the difference is just incredible.

The only recent news in my life, aside from my single share of Apple plummeting $25 in the past two weeks, and the amazing landslide victory of an intelligent, articulate, reasoned black man in the presidential race, is the MERCER CUP! It's only six miles from my dorm, so I hopped on to my silver Vespa (parked in the bike rack outside my room!) and went to see some terribly pained racers slog through sticky mud at around five miles per hour. I also grabbed some great Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA!

My friend and former teammate, Adam Myerson, quite possibly the most experienced cross racer at the whole event (ok, maybe Tilford has been around a bit longer), was there fighting it out.

Toby (a.k.a. Bruce Willis) doing his thing

Jesse Anthony ripping it up in the USGP Leader's Jersey

Toby Stanton, my old team director from Hottubes back when I was a junior, was there manning the pits for Tim Johnson. I also yelled at Jesse Anthony, a former Hottubes racer just two years my senior. I'm sure he appreciated some dork in an argyle sweater drinking beer and yelling encouragement! I had a great time, and I have the racing itch BAD! If I weren't still in school I'd probably be taking a winter trip down to South America for one of their killer 7-14 day stage races!

Thanks for reading, and now that I'm on GamJams, I'm going to be posting much more frequently! However, QUALITY over QUANTITY will still apply.

And remember . . . just get on your bike and ride.

IQ and voting patterns . . . a correlation?

MY MAN!

From Cyclingnews.com:

Recently, German rider Linus Gerdemann said that Armstrong's return may not be in the best interest for the sport's credibility. "He's right, I am older. I raced with Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Miguel Indurain and Greg Lemond of all people. I have been around a long time and I don't know who the hell Linus Gerdemann is, but I know that when I rolled up in 1992, I started winning races. And when I roll up in 2009, I am gonna be winning races. He better hope he doesn't get in a breakaway with me because I can still ride hard," said the Texan.

Goosbumps