An old gift...

A few years ago my parents got me a Mothers Clay bar cleaning kit for my car. At the time I had my RX7 and for one reason or another...never ended up using the clay bar. Perhaps it was the fact that the paint sucked so bad that it wasn't worth it. Well, the paint wasn't "that" bad...but black + no clear coat = bitch to clean.

Fast forward to '07. I still had that unopened cleaner kit. Since its been one year with Sora, I decided to crack it open and give it a try. Super simple to use, and you can "feel" the results happening. So happy I finally gave it a shot. I dedicated the whole of my Sunday to the one year super cleaning. Morning wash...late morning clay bar session...and evening waxing with NXT.

I'm really happy with the results. Sometimes its a bit difficult to see the effort in the white paint...but in the right light the pearl sparkles and reflections shine

I forgot how good they feel...

No racing this weekend...but managed to get some good training in. Saturday was a good climbing route with Kevin...including a hard tempo and reconnoissance of Sunrise Mountain. Hopefully this will aid in my bid for a good finish at Jiminy Peak next weekend. Good temps the entire day...and the rain held off till after I pulled in the driveway...sweeet.

Sunday was just a 30 mile semi-spin getting used to the Xlite Aero's and new toobies. Thanks to Jason for helping show me the non-frustrating mounting process of Tufo tape :) ...and also for recognizing that my derailleur hanger was bent! lol

New pics of the ride:

Music Matters

Faithless kicked so much ass last night!!! I was so psyched leading up to the concert and they sure didn't disappoint. Seeing Maxi Jazz come out in a black trench-coat was insane...everyone went ballistic. And the first words out of his mouth being "I only smoke weed when I neeeed to..." ...sooo awesome!

So much energy to behold...I could have stayed in Webster Hall the entire night.

Definitely check out two of their newer vids on youtube...great visuals along with the beats...

Music Matters
and
Bombs

Ode to Sora

Dude...its been one year...already! I've now had the G for one year. Time flies. Its been a great car so far. Totally reliable, quick, and stylin'! And best of all I can fit my bike INSIDE. I LOVE to see all the racer's turn in disbelief when I pull the 5900 out from the trunk...even with the back wheel attached, haha. Anyway...here's to many more enjoyable miles, burnouts, drifts, slow cruises, road trips, and slow washes on warm days. No regrets!

Warmth...finally!

Lets hope winter is finally behind us and we can jump right into summer. The weekend proved to be nice and warm...perfect for some racing.

Saturday morning was the 2007 Cherry Blossom Challenge. Similar course to that of the the early season Branchbrook series. A little brisk in the morning...but thankfully not bitter cold. Don't know the exact number...but there was about 60 guys or so in our field. And despite some sketchy riders...thanfully there were no crashes! None that I saw anyway.

The first few laps had some attacking going on...although I was just sitting comfortably in the field. Westwood Velo was really active...although IMHO wasting a bit of energy. I actually thought one of the moves went away...but they must have been swallowed up with about 3 laps to go.

Bell lap comes around and I'm about mid pack. Luckily for me Andrew and Erik helped me get to the front. Erik made a great pull to put me inside the top 10. At this point there was about, hmmmm, 500 meters to go. I was seriously considering going for it when Erik pulled off. Something inside of me said "wait"...but thinking back maybe I should have gone...

The sprint starts and I have decent positioning...but not tucked in the slipstream so much. So we all go at the line...and I end up 7th. Not too bad considering I'm not a sprinter...but I should have had better tactics leading up to that finale. I felt great the whole race...but just couldn't put the power doing in the final surge...

I'll just have to wait for the more hilly races to score better points...

Hopefully I can find some pictures from the event. After the race I put in some more training...40 miles through Gladstone and Stirling. Finally I could get some tan-lines back!!!

Progress...

Feeling good after some rides on the trainer the past few days. My legs were feeling a bit "stale" leading up to...and after the race on Saturday. Not sure what it was due to...overtraining, not the right nutrition...not sure. Anyway...some intervals on the trainer the past two nights have cleared that up. I'm starting to feel stronger again.

The weather has definitely not been cooperating lately. Rain the past two nights has forced me to the rollers. Anyway...hoping to make it to the Cherry Blossom race on Saturday...possibly Rahway on Sunday. The weather finally looks nice!

Found some pics on the web from a few weeks back. Here's the race when I went down at the end. In the royal blue...

Race Report: Mount Joy, PA

So I woke up at 5am Saturday morning to make the trip down to Lancaster County, PA for the Mount Joy road race. I was looking forward to it in that:
A) Saturday was supposed to be the warmest day in a while (53 degrees woohoo!)
B) The term Mount Joy would maybe refer to a "mountain" in the course...
C) Because of the "mountain" this would make the race better for me...

Well, after a quick 2 hour drive...I arrived to find that Mount Joy is not really a "mount". There was a little hill in town...but I soon realized this course would not have the climbing I would like...

I register and head out on the course for a warm up and to scope it out. Temps are low 40's now...but with the sun its actually not too bad. The course is nice...a short / steep climb...but I doubted that it would make too much of a natural selection in the group. I meet up with Brian for a quick spin...but then realize its 9am and they are calling the riders to the line. Shit! I still had to dump my jacket and some other stuff in my car...

Hurry hurry hurry and I line up with the 76 other riders...all the way at the back. Crap...exactly where I don't want to be. The race starts and for the first two laps I'm trying to make my way forward...slowly and surely. The double line rule is in effect so that makes it harder to move to the front of the group.

Three laps go by and little by little riders have shed off the back...I guess they couldn't hang on the climb...which, btw, we were climbing sooooo slowly. Bell lap comes around and I'm feeling great...but I'm still midpack. I was able to pass a few rider coming up the climb for the last time...and settle in for the descent before the finish.

Leading up the finish was a slight rise. Sensing I was still a bit too far back I tried a move on the inside to make my way to the front. At that time...some midget in a System6 was suffering and cracked...totally boxing me in. After losing some momentum (and quite a few places) I grabbed a wheel and swung to the outside. Finishing straight comes and I made a good dash to the line and passed quite a few riders...but alas it was too late. The rider that slowed me down really cost me a top 5 finish. Pretty sure I sneaked in the top 20...but I haven't seen the results posted yet.

Anyway, I was hoping for a better result...but they'll come. This wasn't the ideal course for me after all. I promised myself last year I would never line up at the back of a field ever again...always be punctual! But this time I misjudged it. Never again! More reports to follow...

Recap!

So lets start over again. I had all intentions of using this blog as my main cycling diary for the season...but I haven't been doing so. Mainly because I had a rough start to the season and lost motivation for blogging as I had other things to concentrate on.

To play catch up:
March 10th: Branchbrook Race. Crash! Two guys went down in front of me...no where to go. Sucks because it was 1K before the line...I was in great position. Pulled right calf muscle and sore left knee. Thankfully the next weekend racing was cancelled because of snow. I was sore for a few days though. Maybe it was good to get one crash out of the way early in the season ;-)

March 24th: Branchbrook. Felt great...had good positioning in the sprint. Started it too early and got swallowed up by a few guys at the end. 7th place.

March 27: Augusta. Finally a warm day! 70 degrees! 4th in the B race...10th overall in the handicap. This was my first time riding the course. I liked it...but as usually I was wishing for more hills.

March 31: Branchbrook. Had great positioning in the end and was careful to choose my line after the crash that took me down a few weeks prior. Grabbed a few wheels and then it was time to GO! Got third. Was hoping for 2nd...but got nipped by a Colavita rider on the line.

April 3: Augusta. Felt kind of crappy leading up. Everyone in my office was sick...so I'm sure I had a little "something" Anyway, the race went well...Got 7th in the B race. A good training race.

Got my first upgrade and now I'm determined to be a 3 by the end of the summer. Hoping to target some hillier races in May and June. Haven't really come across any pictures posted of the races...although everytime I look into the crowd there are cameras raised. I hope to post up some visuals when I find them.

More updates and thoughts to come!!!