Tuesday, March 26, 2013

26 March 2013

Raced the Love Valley Roubaix on Sunday. Billed as 50 miles of sexy. I love how Blue Mountain Revival Productions comes up with these tag lines.
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Drove up Saturday, though, so I could spend some time at the Museum of Mountain Bike Art and Technology (MOMBAT), which rocked the house.

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Love this Scorcher. Made it easy to pick my favorite from amongst all the bling.
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After the museum I drove out to the venue just to get a look. Very unique, to say the least.
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Then after dinner and a quick walk around downtown, it was back to the motel for some quality time with the bike.
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The next morning the promised weather came through. Mid 30s and raining. Perfect day for a bike race. Needless to say I didn't take many pics. Too bundled up to reach the camera, which would have gotten as sodden as the rest of me anyhow. A highlight was coming down from the first big climb in freezing rain. That shit HURTS!. And less than 100ft of visibility up there in the clouds as well.
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The only pic I've found so far....
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The gravel was very soft. Tough conditions. About 45% of the field DNFed on the day. I finished 14th, 50 minutes off the front. The biggest gap in front of me was 8 minutes, while the next guy was 45 minutes behind me. I'll take it.
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Post-ride laundry. Washed it all twice.
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Friday, March 22, 2013

22 March 2013

Yesterday I finally passed 500 miles on the fix and can put it away for a while. Damn I love that bike. I don't really want to put it away, but its time to break out the gears and start pushing something bigger. Hopefully.

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In other news, Holle and I went for a picnic ride last weekend. Good fun! As always!

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What a babe....
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Friday, March 8, 2013

8 March 2013

Been a little bit lax this week. I finished putting together the CRAP200 permanent I've been planning that I can ride from the house. Last weekend I made sure it was all rideable. I did about 100 miles on Saturday and went out and finished it off with another 25 on Sunday to find a lunch stop. The outer part, pictured here, includes dirt road, no road, the RR trestle, several neat historic sites, a burned out church, a nuclear plant(!), and most of the climbing.

This is when I first started questioning my bike choice. I had picked the one with the 23mm tires on it.  photo IMG_7834_zpsff211696.jpg

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I'll need to give a heads up on this bridge.  photo IMG_7836_zps973d3abb.jpg

Worth it though.

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This will be an interesting section.

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Here I'm looking back.

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The grand canyon of South Carolina. A totally cool cut they've made for the RR. Deeper than it looks.

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The Old Brick Church (1788). As you might imagine I went a little nuts here.

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Control #3 near the Nuke. A nasty little spot. But there's nothing else around.

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The trestle across the Broad River. This is the half way point. About 62 miles.

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Another church (St. John's Lutheran, 1809. Lots of Lutheran churches in this area. There's a reason its called the Dutch Fork.

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Donkeys looking picturesque. They need hats for the full effect.

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Another Lutheran church. Burned out. Wow. Like Europe after WW2. It was built ca. 1940, but still a shame to see.

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And last but not least, an abandoned cemetery that I've have missed completely in the growing season

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After that I followed the already planned route back into Columbia. I've been tweaking things, and hopefully next time I do it I'll do the whole thing.